Back Issue #100 by TwoMorrows Publishing

100-Page 100th Issue featuring Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom!

r 2017

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Alan Light Remembers The Buyer’s Guide • Bob Rozakis’ DC Comicmobile Memories Robert Overstreet Interview • Behind the Scenes of 100 Issues of BI! 1

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Plus: histories of Super DC Con ’76 • The Comic Reader • FOOM Amazing World of DC Comics • Charlton Bullseye • Squa Tront Tront & more!

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“Comics Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s!” From Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated, KIRBY’s “Speak-Out Series,” EISNER’s Spirit magazine, Unpublished PAUL GULACY, MICHAEL USLAN on the Shadow magazine you didn’t see, plus B&Ws from Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Skywald, and Warren. Featuring work by NEAL ADAMS, JOHN BOLTON, ARCHIE GOODWIN, DOUG MOENCH, EARL NOREM, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by GRAY MORROW!

“Bronze Age Adaptations!” The Shadow, Korak: Son of Tarzan, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hole, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Worlds Unknown, and Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations. Plus: PAUL KUPPERBERG surveys prose adaptations of comics! With work by JACK KIRBY, DENNY O’NEIL, FRANK ROBBINS, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, FRANK THORNE, MICHAEL USLAN, and sporting an alternate Kaluta cover produced for DC’s Shadow series!

“Eighties Ladies!” MILLER & SIENKIEWICZ’s Elektra: Assassin, Dazzler, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Lady Quark, DAN MISHKIN’s Wonder Woman, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS and ADAM KUBERT’s Jezebel Jade, Somerset Holmes, and a look back at Marvel’s Dakota North! Featuring the work of BRUCE JONES, JOHN ROMITA JR., ROGER STERN, and many more, plus a previously unpublished cover by SIENKIEWICZ.

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BACK ISSUE #93

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“All-Jerks Issue!” Guy Gardner, Namor in the Bronze Age, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, DC’s Biggest Blowhards, the Heckler, Obnoxio the Clown, and Archie’s “pal” Reggie Mantle! Featuring the work of (non-jerks) RICH BUCKLER, KURT BUSIEK, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, KEITH GIFFEN, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and many more. Cover-featuring KEVIN MAGUIRE’s iconic Batman/Guy Gardner “One Punch”!

“Bronze Age Halloween!” The Swamp Thing revival of 1982, Swamp Thing in Hollywood, Phantom Stranger team-ups, KUPPERBERG & MIGNOLA’s Phantom Stranger miniseries, DC’s The Witching Hour, the Living Mummy, and an index of Marvel’s 1970s’ horror anthologies! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, ANDY MANGELS, VAL MAYERIK, MARTIN PASKO, MICHAEL USLAN, TOM YEATES, and many more. Cover by YEATES.

“All-Captains Issue!” Bronze Age histories of Shazam! (Captain Marvel) and Captain MarVell, Captain Carrot, Captain Storm and the Losers, Captain Universe, and Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Featuring C. C. BECK, PAT BRODERICK, JACK KIRBY, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, DON NEWTON, BOB OKSNER, SCOTT SHAW!, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover painting by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Indie Super-Heroes!” NEAL ADAMS Ms. Mystic interview, Continuity Comics, BILL BLACK Captain Paragon interview, Justice Machine history, STEVEN GRANT/NORM BREYFOGLE Whisper “Pro2Pro” interview, and the ’80s revivals of Mighty Crusaders and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Featuring BUCKLER, DEODATO, ELLIS, GRINDBERG, GUSTOVICH, ISABELLA, REINHOLD, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, and more. Cover by NEAL ADAMS!

“Creatures of the Night!” Moon Knight’s DOUG MOENCH and BILL SIENKIEWICZ in a Pro2Pro interview, Ghost Rider, Night Nurse, Eclipso in the Bronze Age, I…Vampire, interviews with Batman writer MIKE W. BARR and Marvel’s Nightcat, JACQUELINE TAVAREZ. Featuring work by BOB BUDIANSKY, J. M. DeMATTEIS, DAVE SIMONS, ROGER STERN, TOM SUTTON, JEAN THOMAS, and more. SIENKIEWICZ and KLAUS JANSON cover!

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. BACK ISSUE #96

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“Marvel Fanfare Issue!” Behind the scenes of the ‘80s anthology series with AL MILGROM, interviews and art by ARTHUR ADAMS, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, STEVE ENGLEHART, MICHAEL GOLDEN, ROGER McKENZIE, FRANK MILLER, DOUG MOENCH, ANN NOCENTI, GEORGE PÉREZ, MARSHALL ROGERS, PAUL SMITH, KEN STEACY, CHARLES VESS, and more! Cover by SANDY PLUNKETT and GLENN WHITMORE.

“Bird People!” Hawkman in the Bronze Age, JIM STARLIN’s Superman/Hawkgirl team-up, TIM TRUMAN’s Hawkworld, Hawk and Dove, Penguin history, Blue Falcon & Dynomutt, Condorman, and CHUCK DIXON and SCOTT McDANIEL’s Nightwing. With GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GREG GULER, RICHARD HOWELL, TONY ISABELLA, KARL KESEL, ROB LIEFELD, DENNY O’NEIL, and others! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ.

“DC in the ‘80s!” From the experimental to the fan faves: Behind-the-scenes looks at SECRET ORIGINS, ACTION COMICS WEEKLY, DC CHALLENGE, THRILLER, ELECTRIC WARRIOR, and SUN DEVILS. Featuring JIM BAIKIE, MARK EVANIER, DAN JURGENS, DOUG MOENCH, MARTIN PASKO, TREVOR VON EEDEN, and others! Featuring a mind-numbing Nightwing cover by ROMEO TANGHAL!

“BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES’ 25th ANNIVERSARY!” Looks back at the influential cartoon series. Plus: episode guide, Harley Quinn history, DC’s Batman Adventures and Animated Universe comic books, and tribute to artist MIKE PAROBECK. Featuring KEVIN ALTIERI, RICK BURCHETT, PAUL DINI, GERARD JONES, MARTIN PASKO, DAN RIBA, TY TEMPLETON, BRUCE TIMM, and others! BRUCE TIMM cover!

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Volume 1, Number 100 October 2017 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Bob Layton Robert Barrett Paul Levitz Jerry Boyd Alan Light Gary Brown Marvel Comics Bob Budiansky Luigi Novi John Clark Robert Overstreet DC Comics Bob Rozakis Jim DeLorenzo Jerry Sinkovec Sean Dulaney Doug Smith Scott Edelman Maggie Thompson Jim Engel Mike Tiefenbacher Mark Evanier J.C. Vaughn Stephan Friedt John Wells Gemstone Publishing, Inc. Jay Williams John Workman Grand Comics Database Robert Greenberger Chris Guffy Jack C. Harris P.C. Hamerlinck Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Roger Hill Tony Isabella David Anthony Kraft Paul Kupperberg

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 FLASHBACK: The Birth of the Comic-Book News-zines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 John Wells chronicles the development of The Comic Reader and other early fanzines FLASHBACK: Squa Tront . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 A look at the best of EC fanzines INTERVIEW: Robert Overstreet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Revealed: the semi-secret origins of The Comic Book Price Guide… plus a Don Newton salute OFF MY CHEST: The History of The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Fanzine pioneer Alan Light shares his experiences in publishing FLASHBACK: The FCA Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Shazam! The long-running Fawcett Collectors of America zine FLASHBACK: FOOM: Friends of Ol’ Marvel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 An overview and oral history of Mighty Marvel’s fanzine OFF MY CHEST: My DC Comicmobile Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Guest columnist Bob Rozakis drives us through his summer of hawking comics FLASHBACK: The Amazing World of DC Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Former Junior Woodchucks reunite for an issue-by-issue examination of DC’s “prozine” BACKSTAGE PASS: Super DC Con ’76: We Were There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Anecdotes and photographs of DC’s Bicentennial-year celebration of fandom and Superman FLASHBACK: The CPL Gang and Charlton Bullseye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Bob Layton fills us in on the Bronze Age’s Charlton portfolios and fanzines PRINCE STREET NEWS: Bronze Baby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 It wouldn’t be a celebration without a Karl Heitmueller, Jr. cartoon! INTERVIEW: BACK ISSUE’s editor, Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Bob Greenberger chats with your friendly neighborhood Euryman about BI and his editing and writing career BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $73 Standard US, $116 International, $31 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2017 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing except Prince Street News, TM & © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 1

richard j. fowlks by M

michael kronenberg

glenn whitmore

ichael Eury

Welcome to BACK ISSUE #100. I’m thrilled to have reached this milestone. Some magazines about comics have come and gone during the past 14 years we’ve been in print, and with reboots and cancellations, there aren’t many current comic books with triple-digit issue numbers. But BI is still going strong. Largely, that’s thanks to you, our readers. You appreciate our diverse, occasionally quirky mix of nostalgia and oral histories and our blend of articles, from the breezy look back to the in-depth examination. Some of you have been here since #1, others have joined us along the way, and others come and go depending upon an issue’s theme, but however often you join us, we’re thankful for your support. Our capable writers are also responsible for our longevity. We count DC diehards, Marvel zombies, indie experts, toy geeks, and art collectors among our talent pool. Their knowledge of and enthusiasm for comic books and comic media of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s has kept this magazine fresh. My sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who has contributed to BACK ISSUE since our November 2003 launch. Another factor in our success is the creative community. We routinely contact comics and animation writers, artists, and editors, as well as celebrities who have played or voiced comics characters, and ask them questions about work they produced decades ago. In most cases these great friends of BACK ISSUE step up and are willing to dust off their memories (and files) to participate in our features. Thank you not only for making comics history, but for helping us chronicle it. Lastly, the BI editorial team is responsible for this publication’s quality. While their efforts largely go unheralded outside of a masthead acknowledgment, I’d like to take a moment to introduce to you the fabulous folks, freelancers all, who work with ye ed (also a freelancer) in putting together this magazine. BI’s designer, Richard J. Fowlks, was bitten by a radioactive keyboard and mouse, granting him the proportionate speed and strength of a graphic designer, and giving him incredible reflexes to meet deadlines in a single bound. In his mild-mannered alter ego he is a photo retoucher, husband, and father. Check out every episode of his action-packed adventures at rjf-ImageDesign.com. Cover designer Michael Kronenberg is a graphic designer/artist whose clients include the Film Noir Foundation, Marvel Comics, TwoMorrows Publishing, and Gemstone Publishing, among others. His awardwinning designs are in magazines and books about movies, comics, music, and sports. His fine art is in numerous public and private collections. Along with Michael Eury, Kronenberg wrote the Batman historical book The Batcave Companion. Frequent cover colorist Glenn Whitmore is a 30-year veteran of the comics industry, adding his hues both manually and digitally to projects for varied publishers like DC, Archie, Dark Horse, Spongebob, Captain Action, Sitcomics, and, of course, TwoMorrows. Glenn colored every regular issue of Superman between 1988 and 1999 and has the distinction of being the colorist on The Death of Superman, The Death of Archie, The Wedding of Superman, and The Wedding of Archie. He is also the self-publisher his own project called Captain Clockwork.

rob smentek

By day, BACK ISSUE’s proofreader, Rob Smentek, is a mild-mannered editorial professional, but by night, he roams the streets as Grammar Man, removing extraneous apostrophes and fixing typos with his magical red pen. Rob’s been with the BI family since issue #46 and also works on Comic Book Creator, Alter Ego, and other TwoMorrows projects. I’d also like to give a shout-out to John Trumbull, a frequent BI contributing writer as well as a cartoonist and standup comedian, for his diligence in monitoring BI’s always-buzzing Facebook group as its co-administrator (with yours truly… although John does the heavy lifting). John’s put out more fires than Smokey the Bear and helps BI’s Facebook page maintain the positive tone of this magazine.

john trumbull

Our earlier members of the BI team—Robert Clark, David Hamilton, and Tom Ziuko—may no longer be a part of the magazine, but have contributed to our success. And lastly, a BIG thank-you to TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow for bringing me on board to edit this magazine. What a fun and rewarding job this is. Here’s to another 100 issues (at least)!

2 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

by J o h n

Wells

Fanzine Centennial The Comic Reader, and its 100th issue (Aug.–Sept. 1973). Front and back cover art by Jack Kirby, whose 100th birthday we also celebrate this year. Unless otherwise noted, images accompanying this article are courtesy of John Wells. TCR © Street Enterprises. Superman, Shazam!/Captain Marvel, and Batman TM & © DC Comics. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In a world flooded with details on forthcoming comic books and where even the mainstream press routinely spoil upcoming plot developments, it’s hard to imagine there was ever a time when such a thing wasn’t just uncommon, but nonexistent. Like so many things in fandom, the roots of the phenomenon can be traced to the legendary Jerry Bails.

#8 (Mar. 1962) and “the official newsletter of the Academy of ComicBook Fans & Collectors” (ACBFC) as of TCR #20 (Oct. 8, 1963). Truthfully, though, the publication had grown beyond the newsletter stage, now averaging nine stapled pages per issue versus the two it had started out with. Two years into its existence, issue #20 added, TCR had a circulation of 1,000: 800 subscribers and FANZINES ON THE DRAWING BOARD 200 industry professionals. An assistant professor at Detroit’s Wayne State University, By that point, TCR was reporting on all industry Bails was an enthusiastic supporter of DC editor Julius news—albeit with an emphasis on series that were part Schwartz’s revivals of his childhood heroes like the Flash of the Second Heroic Age—and Bails stressed that and Green Lantern. In February 1961, the 27-year-old the zine would refrain from editorial comment in its approached Schwartz directly to inquire about capacity as ACBFC newsletter. “It is hoped,” he wrote publishing a simple Justice League of America newsletter in issue #20, “that this policy will encourage pro-editors for like-minded fans but came away from the meeting to continue to feed their latest news releases to TCR for the earliest possible distribution to Comicdom.” with plans for a more expansive “fanzine” with fellow Bails’ own involvement with the zine was about to fan Roy Thomas. Bails printed off copies of Alter-Ego #1 on a spirit-duplication machine that March, but his cease, though. In issue #22 (Jan. 1964), he announced jerry bails thoughts about a newsletter hadn’t gone away. plans to merge TCR and his ad-oriented newsletter Included within AE #1 were two pages of news on The Comicollector into a single entity under the editorship of famed Missouri fan Biljo White. Tragically, upcoming DC superhero titles—most of them Courtesy of John Wells, via Inter-fan.org. White was forced to back out of the deal when his mother died Schwartz-edited—under the title of “On the Drawing Board.” The newsletter idea was too strong to contain, though, and Bails unexpectedly. Instead, G. B. Love took charge of the ad-zine, fusing it spun it off in October 1961 with On the Drawing Board #4 (its first three with his own fanzine as The Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector (RBCC). AE appearances included in the tally). As a point of clarification about With TCR in limbo, Love also published comics news in RBCC #29 and its subject matter, OTDB became The Comic Reader effective with issue 30 as the ACBFC decided the fate of their newsletter. Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 3

Early News-zines (top left) The Comic Reader #19 (Sept. 9, 1963), from editor Jerry Bails. (top right) TCR #34 (Feb. 1965), from editor Glen D. Johnson. Art by Russ Manning. (bottom) TCR’s first color cover, by Howard Keltner. Scans from Gary Brown’s collection. The Ray TM & © DC Comics. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises. Magnus, Robot Fighter TM & © Dynamite Entertainment.

After three issues published strictly to communicate with the Academy’s executive board, New Mexico-based member Glen D. Johnson agreed to succeed Jerry Bails effective with issue #26, and The Comic Reader was back in business. On Johnson’s watch, the zine flourished, with the news section now accompanied by columns (like the “Ego Crusher” fanzine reviews) and artwork. Fans began contributing periodic cover art with issue #29 and pro pieces by the likes of Russ Manning and Steve Ditko were also published during the Johnson era. There was a fine line between fair use and copyright infringement, though, and Johnson naively crossed it. Fan writer-artist Bill DuBay had been doing a series of comics short stories (“Picto-Origins”) that recreated the debuts of vintage superheroes and that was fine when it came to dormant characters like Blue Bolt. His piece on the Sub-Mariner in TCR #39 (July 1965) drew a quick cease-and-desist from Marvel Comics, though, and DC issued a preemptive demand that a forthcoming piece on Plastic Man not be published. The news was delivered in issue #47 by Derrill Rothermich, who succeeded Johnson with TCR #42. There was a clear line of demarcation between the two editors as the fanzine shifted from purple Ditto printing with its inconsistent quality to sharp offset reproduction. Although the improved look was a benefit, the change was ultimately motivated by the fact that Ditto masters were only good for about 250 copies and TCR’s circulation exceeded that. Even in 1965 terms, the accompanying price increase from 25¢ to 30¢ seemed modest, and Rothermich admitted that “I am going to [lose] money on almost every issue, including this one.” Like most of his brethren, he was in the fanzine game for love, not money. Rothermich was inundated with fan art—more than he could possibly use—but the surplus assured a higher quality of pieces in the zine including fine covers by Alan Hutchinson and Doug Potter. TCR #45 (Jan. 1966) even featured the first—and, for many years, only— color cover in the title’s history for Howard Keltner’s drawing of the Ray. Hero histories and articles were a regular presence, too, and the Fox—a superhero creation of fan Ronn Foss—appeared in issues #45–47. 4 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

The rationale for Hanerfeld publishing OTDB directly There was a sense on the part of the ACBFC board that the zine had lost sight of its reason for being, and from New York was driven entirely by a desire to rush the scaled-down issue #48 reemphasized its primary comic-book news to fans as quickly as possible without focus: delivering comic-book news. Reiterating that routing through the post office to St. Louis. Embodying point, the zine was renamed On the Drawing Board the newsletter concept, the zine eschewed cover art but (OTDB)—a title that had been maintained all along on did pepper each issue with spot art by pros. the news section—and renumbered as Volume Two, In an historic development for comics news-zines, Number One. In subsequent issues, the indicia would Hanerfeld used his new job as a staffer at National Periodical often reference the original TCR numbering, as well. Publications (DC Comics) to acquire black-and-white The primary responsibilities for the zine shifted to cover stats of upcoming issues. Issue #68 (July 1968) St. Louis, Missouri’s, Gateway Comic Book Fan Club and its improved on that with the debut of an actual list of all of DC’s coming comics from August through president, Robert Schoenfeld. Rothermich remained mid-September with on-sale dates! as co-editor on issues #49 and 50, but the local draft board had other plans for the young No sooner had the fanzine been man and he left for the Army in mid-1966. renamed The Comic Reader with issue News coverage never wavered during #69 (Sept. 1968), its monthly schedule the transition thanks to its New Yorkfell apart, with increasingly scattered based correspondent Dave Kaler, who’d issues thereafter. When TCR #74 recently gone pro at Charlton Comics. (Oct. 1969) returned after a fiveOTDB briefly reverted to Ditto before month hiatus, some fans were a merciful return to sharp offset with issue surely dismayed to find Alley #53 (Oct. 1966) when Gateway club Awards results but no actual news. member Ray Fisher took charge of the Hanerfeld successfully resumed a zine’s printing. Schoenfeld and Kaler monthly schedule for issues each wrote editorials for the edition, the #75–77 (Nov. 1969–Jan. 1970), mark hanerfeld but afterward The Comic Reader latter citing the recent deaths of writer/ seemed to be gone for good. editor Ed Herron and comic-strip scripter of John Wells, via Mark Evanier’s Gus Edson to illustrate the point that Courtesy newsfromme.com. fans needed to start digging into the A NEWFANGLED FANZINE medium’s history before its founding creators were all gone. Luckily, another publication was already in place to fill “Will Jerry Robinson’s contributions to the Batman strip the void. The Ohio-based husband-and-wife team of be lost forever once he’s gone?” Kaler asked. “Will Bill Don and Maggie Thompson were comics fandom royalty Finger’s long career as the writer and creator of many in the 1960s who represented two of its most literate, strips pass into oblivion with his death? […] The real scholarly members. By 1967, the Thompsons had superheroes are the artists and writers and editors and published several fanzines themselves, but their latest they won’t always be there to ask about their lives in project was modeled on newsletters in science-fiction the comics. We have to wake up today or we may find fandom that updated subscribers on the life events of the past forever lost to us! Or, worse yet, persons only fans themselves. The Thompsons envisioned Newfangles casually interested in comics may be producing the as serving the same purpose for comic-book fandom and books we should be researching and writing right now!” released its modest two-page first edition in March 1967. In its own way, On the Drawing Board was contributing to the preservation of comic history, not simply reporting coming attractions but including occasional letters from industry pros. Editor Bill Harris—a strong supporter of fandom since his days with Gold Key earlier in the 1960s— offered inside information to OTDB about the 1966 King Comics line, detailing its ill-fated distribution experiment in issue #59 (Apr. 1967) and delivering a frank assessment of the imprint’s future in issue #64 (Jan. 1968).

“A TURNING POINT”

On the Drawing Board #64 also marked what Bob Schoenfeld described as “a turning point” in the fanzine’s history. Citing health reasons, Dave Kaler resigned as both ACBFC executive secretary and OTDB’s news reporter but hand-picked New York-based fan Mark Hanerfeld to succeed him as the latter. Convinced that the Academy of Comic-Book Fans & Collectors had outlived its usefulness, Schoenfeld and Hanerfeld declared that the organization would simply be dissolved and the fanzine would no longer be affiliated with it. In an initially bewildering turn of events, Schoenfeld and Hanerfeld each published entirely different versions of the next issue. The idea was to split the zine into two publications: a classic newsletter using the On the Drawing Board name and an article/review publication that reclaimed the Comic Reader name. Adding to the confusion was the fact that each edition still called itself OTDB on the cover, with Schoenfeld’s volume alternately identified as The Comic Reader #66 inside. Even that wasn’t quite right, since—maintaining the original numbering—it should actually have been issue #65.

Mr. and Mrs. Fandom Don and Maggie Thompson with the Inkpot Awards they received for “Fandom Projects/ Service” at August 1976’s San Diego Comicon.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 5

Among its tidbits were a celebration of the birth of Australian fans John and Jan Ryan’s daughter, changes of address for Wayne DeWald, Paul Seydor, Biljo White, etc., and a plug for Jerry Bails’ new Panelologist fanzine. From the start, though, the Thompsons noted that they would print “occasional pro news, if we can get it. That’s where you come in; send news.” By the end of the year, comics news was flowing in and Newfangles became a sharply written complement to OTDB/TCR. The Thompsons generally focused less on upcoming story developments in superhero titles than on industry trends, sales reports, pricing, cancellations, and new releases. Reflecting their varied tastes, they also included frequent items on newspaper comic strips and science fiction.

maggie thompson © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Dawn of the Bronze Age (top and bottom left) Marvel’s acquisition of the Conan license and Jack Kirby’s jump to DC—two of the trigger events of the Bronze Age (the other being O’Neil and Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow)—were reported in the Thompsons’ Newfangles #29 and 33. (bottom right) In Newfangles #39, Don and Maggie reported Dick Giordano’s departure from DC editorial and the rumor of Stan Lee’s impending Marvel exodus. Scans from Gary Brown’s collection. Newfangles © Don and Maggie Thompson.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

“During that time, we were living in a Cleveland suburb, and Don was working at The Cleveland Press,” Maggie Thompson tells BACK ISSUE. “That meant that our lives involved a variety of information sources, including the many newspapers that came into Press offices and our friends who lived in the area. “That said, the US Postal Service provided the bulk of industry news and gossip; long-distance phone calls were expensive, but we received a variety of input via our mail. You can identify many of our contacts via the people we credit in individual news items. “The goal, of course, was—as we said in the first issue— to provide ‘a regularly published… comics fandom newsletter. It will concentrate on fan news.’ And we asked readers to provide news—which they did and were often credited as sources. (For example, in the May 1968 issue, we noted that Gold Key comics were selling for 15¢ in New York City and on the West Coast, ‘apparently testing customer reaction to the price increase,’ after hearing from a number of our contacts. And we reported on a fire at the home of dealer-collector-buddy Bill Thailing, who was another in-person Cleveland-area buddy.)” When reviewing news items from vintage fanzines, one must keep in mind that some of the reports are pure fiction, a consequence of second-or-third-person chatter or wishful thinking. In this, too, Newfangles strived for a higher standard. “A West Coast rumor was passed on to us,” the Thompsons declared in issue #9 (Apr. 1968). “Stan Lee has quit Marvel, joined Charlton, and is trying to lure Ditko away from DC. Actually, said the rumor, he was fired for putting all his relatives on the payroll and paying them instead of non-relatives when the budget was short. We called a New York source (fella name of Stan Lee) and reached him at Marvel (which blew the whole rumor right there).” The Thompsons weren’t immune to being stung, though. Issue #47 (May 1971) made note of a supposed forthcoming 500-page DC title called Blockbuster with a $2 retail. In fact, the item was a hoax that was prompted by DC executive Sol Harrison’s suspicion that a major artist was rifling through editors’ desks in search of news he could pass along to fanzines. Hearing the story after the fact, future editor Jack C. Harris noted in 1982’s Amazing

Heroes #16 that the pro continued to claim innocence even after taking the bait planted in one of the editorial offices. On the whole, though, Newfangles was not only a reliable source of news but one that boasted unswerving monthly frequency from issue #6 (Jan. 1968) onward. As the gap between issues of The Comic Reader widened, the Thompsons’ fanzine took on increasingly greater importance as the key source on industry events. Immediately after TCR vanished at the start of 1970, Newfangles broke the news of the retirement of Superman editor Mort Weisinger (NF #31: Feb. 1970). The seismic defection of Jack Kirby from Marvel to DC warranted an unprecedented “extra” edition (NF #33: Mar. 1970).

fold, address, and stamp. It wrecks a couple days in the doing, more in the anticipation of the job. If a hobby is no longer fun, it is no longer a hobby.” Assuring readers that they weren’t leaving fan publishing entirely, the Thompsons acknowledged Newfangles’ status as industry newsletter and challenged its audience. With a year’s advance notice, they concluded, “there was time for someone to establish a newsletter just as good as NF.”

FANDOM SEES THE LIGHT

Illinois-based fan Alan Light wasted no time in getting in touch with the couple. “He asked us if he could be our publisher,” Maggie told Lou Mougin in David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #19 (Jan. 1985). “He would UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH provide the bankroll and the circulation, and The humble one-sheet newsletter of 1967 was we would provide the editorial copy. But we now averaging ten pages per issue, its news had, flatly, had it with news magazines. complemented with a selection of oftenIt’s really a lot of work. We never wanted to do that again. We said, ‘Don’t be brutal reviews of current comic books. ridiculous—of course not.’” Its circulation, according to NF #37 Failing to strike a deal and lacking (July 1970), was “500 and rising,” but the access to the crucial sources needed for zine was losing money at its current 10¢ a news-zine, Light opted to publish the price. It doubled to 20¢ with issue #40. In issue #39, the Thompsons noted their next Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector rather increasing struggle in maintaining their than the new Comic Reader. In February monthly schedule, as well. “Besides the 1971, the first issue of Light’s historic usual suburban problems of homeowning comics advertising paper known as The and childraising, we have had vacations Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom was paul levitz released, but the next comic-book and personal triumphs and tragedies. One © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. news-zine was yet to be. of the triumphs is Don’s promotion from reporter to assistant suburbs editor of the Cleveland Press.” Just a few months past his 14th birthday, a Brooklyn The added responsibilities of Don’s new job figured high school student named Paul Levitz put his head directly into the lead article in issue #42 (Dec. 1970): together with his 15-year-old pal Paul Kupperberg and Newfangles would come to an end exactly a year later. decided that they could pick up where Don and Maggie There were “a dozen good reasons” for the cancellation, were leaving off. Unlike the mimeographed Newfangles, the Thompsons wrote, but it boiled down to the time the teenagers even resolved to publish their typewritten required to “stencil, run off and especially to collate, Etcetera in photo-offset as The Comic Reader had been.

The News That’s Fit to Print (left) Etcetera #1 (Mar. 1971), produced by Pauls Levitz and Kupperberg. (right) The first issue of the combined ETC/TCR. Technically, it should be #78 since a TCR #77 had been published previously. Likewise, this is actually the November 1971 issue (which is when it was mailed). The following issue (mailed in December) was also dated December. Etcetera © Paul Levitz. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 7

“The decision to launch Etcetera was made by Paul Kupperberg and me in my folks’ living room,” Levitz tells BACK ISSUE, “as we read that Don and Maggie Thompson’s Newfangles was going to stop publishing at the end of 1971. In an era when publishers didn’t announce in advance what they were publishing, much less who would be doing the comics, this was a tragic loss of what little info we had. PK and I scraped together $16, made a few phone calls, and actually got through to folks at DC who sent us a promotional brochure for the newsstand distributors and a drop of info. We pulled it together, hit a local offset quick-print shop, and Etcetera was in business… launching the same month as The Buyer’s Guide, which at the time had no content other than ads. Don and Maggie even gave us a plug a month or so later!” Levitz’s and Kupperberg’s DC contacts—notably E. Nelson Bridwell at the outset—assured the newcomers of a smattering of artwork in the form of cover stats for forthcoming issues. Etcetera also echoed the 1969 editions of TCR in its listing of each month’s coming DC issues but one-upped them with complementary Marvel citations, too. The teens’ proximity to the New York comic-book houses helped enormously, even allowing Levitz to score an early interview with publisher Jim Warren for Etcetera #4 (June 1971). Effective with issue #5, Levitz notes, “PK had dropped out of the project and circulation had climbed to about 250 copies.” Kupperberg was soon back in the zine with reviews, joined by other columnists like Tom Greeniones (“Radar in the Void”) and Jeffrey Wasserman (“Jãch Spake”) in issue #7 (Sept. 1971) and Tony Isabella (“The Wandering Fan”) in issue #10 (Dec. 1971). December 1971 was, of course, the transitional month when the Thompsons concluded Newfangles. Issue #54 had a final circulation of 580 readers and a cumulative page count of 376 in its four-year run. Although it had evolved into a vital industry news-zine, the publication recalled its fan-news roots with a very personal announcement: Don and Maggie were expecting their second child the following summer. (Stephen was born on August 1, 1972.) If the couple thought they were out of the comic-book news business, though, they were sadly mistaken. Nothing if not persistent, a certain Illinois publisher approached the Thompsons again in 1972. “Alan [Light] waited another month or two, and asked if we would like to do a news-andcomment column for The Buyer’s Guide,” Don Thompson recalled in Comics Interview #19. This time, Don and Maggie agreed. The first edition of their “Beautiful Balloons” column—named after a line in the Fifth Dimension song “Up, Up and Away”—appeared in TBG #19 (Aug. 15, 1972).

TCR RETURNS

Meanwhile, the publisher of the dormant Comic Reader had watched the development of Paul Levitz’s fanzine and was pleased. “Mark Hanerfeld approached me at DC where he was now an assistant editor,” Levitz recalls to BACK ISSUE. “Offering me a heavy manila envelope, he said Etcetera was now doing what he’d set out to do, and would I please incorporate TCR, and take care of his old subscribers. Inside the envelope were the coins people had sent him for subscriptions, and index cards of the subscriber names.” In November 1971, Etcetera & The Comic Reader #10 and 77 was mailed to subscribers, its numbering partly in error since there had already been a TCR #77. The mistake was corrected

ERB in ETC (top) Alan Kupperberg’s unused original cover art for ETC/TCR #82 (Feb. 1972). (bottom) Kupperberg’s original cover art for ETC/TCR #82. Scans courtesy of Paul Kupperberg. Etcetera © Paul Levitz. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises. Tarzan © ERB, Inc.

8 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

with issue #11/79 and the Etcetera numbering was dropped with issue #80. (An “extra” was released in December 1971, that edition headlining the cancellation of fan-favorite Green Lantern/Green Arrow.) Effective with issue #90 (Oct. 1972), the publication was simply The Comic Reader once more. Levitz also reinstated cover art for the first time since the preHanerfeld days, initially running a Neal Adams Superman sketch (ETC #6) before making it a consistent presence on issue #80. Contributors included fans on the cusp of turning pro (Alan Kupperberg, Al Milgrom, Don Rosa) and pro pieces from the likes of Bernie Wrightson (via a DC promo image for its Shadow revival), Howard Chaykin, Rich Buckler, and Murphy Anderson. Published as an 8.5” x 10” newsletter for its entire existence, the zine was folded over into a digest with TCR #92 (Dec. 1972), with each page shrunk to half its former size. The change was a consequence of Levitz’s success in assembling news and TV Guide-style coming comics listings. Most of TCR #91’s full-size 18 pages, for instance, had featured only that, but the half-size TCR #93 allowed room for reviews and other editorial content. In the span of two years, Levitz had transformed the fanzine into a product that was crisp, professional, and as indispensable as the aforementioned TV Guide in its release dates and capsule previews of the coming month’s titles. “We fulfilled our goals,” Levitz declares to BACK ISSUE. “Monthly publication, details on upcoming titles from the major publishers, and some info on the ones fans followed less closely, and even interesting art on the covers like one of Walt Simonson’s early Manhunter sketches. Before I wrapped up my run in 1973, circulation was over 3,500 copies, and the mag had won two consecutive Comic Art Fan Awards for Best Fanzine. In TCR #93 (Jan. 1973), Levitz announced that he’d begun working as an assistant to Joe Orlando at DC, primarily writing text and letter pages. “I have no desire to make a career for myself in this industry,” he assured readers as late as TCR #98, “so don’t worry about my ‘pro’ work hurting TCR. It’s just a way to help pay my college tuition.” Two issues later, though, the kid from Brooklyn announced his retirement from the fanzine game as the increasing demands of school and his DC work commanded his attention. Levitz made a point of going out with a bang, though. The Comic Reader #100’s wraparound color cover featured exclusive Jack Kirby drawings of Superman, Captain Marvel, Batman, and Captain America, while the double-sized interior was jammed with two months’ of coming comics listings. Carl Gafford drew a madcap centerspread that caricatured the entire TCR staff and could be cut apart as a tabletop diorama. Meanwhile, TCR was moving from the East Coast back to the Midwest, specifically Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. This was the home of Street (ST) Enterprises, the two-man operation of publisher Jerry Sinkovec and editor Mike Tiefenbacher. Friends since their first meeting in 1970, the duo had initially collaborated on Sinkovec’s Comics Commentary fanzine but made

What Price Comics? A thoughtful piece on “comic economics” by Paul Levitz. From page one of ETC/TCR #85 (May 1972). Etcetera © Paul Levitz. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises.

the leap to something far more ambitious in December 1971. The Menomonee Falls Gazette was a weekly newspaper that published a selection of newspaper adventure strips, both presentday and classic. The Gazette quickly won accolades from fans and pros alike, warranting not only an expansion but a 1973 spin-off called the Guardian that featured humor strips. Paul Levitz counted himself as one of the papers’ fans and took particular note of their frequent industry news reports alongside the comic strips. When he offered TCR to Sinkovec and Tiefenbacher, they leapt at the opportunity. What the duo hadn’t expected was how quickly the changeover would take place.

TCR HITS THE STREET

They’d anticipated a few months to prepare, but instead found themselves charged with producing TCR #101 (Nov. 1973) shortly after striking the deal. “We were caught with our guard down,” Tiefenbacher wrote in issue #102. “The work involved— transcribing the subscription list to our addressograph labeling method, assembling our TCR from scratch, and assembling the news gathered by Paul Kupperberg—took much longer than we thought.” Consequently, the first issues of Street’s TCR ran late before they got on schedule in early 1974. Meanwhile, Sinkovec flew to the East Coast in search of more news. “That was a horrible waste of money on my part,” he admits to BACK ISSUE, “but I was blinded by my fanboy brain telling me, ‘Yes, you have to fly to New York and visit the companies! Have fun!’ My short stay did have me as the guest of Tony Isabella, who had a very comfortable couch at the time. While that was fun and interesting, I could not in any way fly to New York once a month, not with all the work back in the Falls. (Two weeklies and a monthly. Quite a load.) “We could not have done it by phone, either, as back then long-distance phone calls were a lot more expensive. And I can recall many calls where I asked for somebody and they were not in their office, or too busy to speak to me. So we got a new news gatherer, and smoothed things out.” Mike Tiefenbacher details, “We then hired David Finger as our NYC reporter on someone’s recommendation. Finger got in at DC because everybody assumed he was Bill Finger’s relative—and Dave didn’t correct them, at least at the beginning. “I rewrote every sentence from every company press release which wasn’t a direct quote to try to ensure our objectivity. Remaining neutral wasn’t always possible, but I tried. (I’m certain I misinterpreted some

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 9

things in the Coming Comics listings in the process, but nobody ever pointed that out if I did.)” Getting the magazine on schedule was essential since Tiefenbacher— writing in TCR #101—envisioned it as “the TV Guide of a medium that is not too dissimilar from television in demographics.” That meant that the coming comics listings needed to be in readers’ hands before the issues went on sale and they needed to include all publishers, not merely DC, Marvel, and Warren. By the end of 1974, Charlton, Gold Key, Archie, and newcomer Atlas-Seaboard were each represented in TCR’s pages, with Harvey belatedly joining them in mid-1975. Moreover, a concise one-page Pocket Checklist was introduced in issue #108 (July 1974) that listed every title on sale that month. The effort, Tiefenbacher emphasized in issue #101, was not merely important in the short-term. “TCR retains value as a historical record of what was published, and the more complete our listings, the more accurate will be the price guides, indices, and research projects of the future.” Street’s Comic Reader was a slicker package, with a sharper typeface and a handsome official logo that was

designed and rendered by Tiefenbacher. Polished covers abounded with Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, Gil Kane, Frank Thorne, and Alex Toth, respectively, drawing just the first five Street editions. “Mike did a lot of writing, typing, logo designs, occasional artwork, and listening to Milwaukee Brewer games or rock ‘n’ roll on the radio,” Sinkovec tells BACK ISSUE. “I worked finances, proofreading, production, and mailing. We had three or four high school people (including siblings) who stuffed envelopes, addressed issues going out, and odds and ends. (And I also listened to the radio. And read comic books. I had to—it was my job! [chuckle] “When we did color on TCR, Mike did most of the color guides (other than Jim Engel and Chuck Fiala doing the guides for their strips) while I did almost every bit of the color separations for our covers and the interior strips,” Sinkovec continues. “I used Zip-a-Tone on overlays at first and wore out a lot of X-Acto knife blades. Then I figured out a way to paint overlays with gray paints for each color. Messy, but provided some nice looking results. I did a lot of pasting up of the pages.”

WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR

Alan Light’s purchase of color centerspread ads in TCR #138–142 (Dec. 1976–Apr. 1977) enabled Street to run color covers on those five issues and prompted them to remain full-color from that point forward. The move came with a price increase (75¢ from 60¢), but the effect on subscriptions was negligible. Circulation just kept climbing, now exceeding 5,000 copies per issue. The same thing didn’t hold true for the Menomonee Falls Gazette and Guardian. The sheer amount of current product and back issues in Street’s headquarters prompted their landlord to evict them while non-payment from many comic-shop owners hurt an already struggling cash flow. Tiefenbacher, who was an employee to Sinkovec’s owner, noted that “I was supposed to be making $110.00 a week, but I was being paid monthly or every time I had a car insurance payment to make.” Tiefenbacher later declared, “I’d say the fact that we put out two weeklies and a monthly for nearly three years with two people doing everything from writing, typing, paste-up, negative opaquing, and stripping, addressing, mailing, and shipping to be astounding. Just thinking about how tired I was all the time makes me glad it’s over with.” The Guardian was canceled in 1976, while the Gazette limped on as a monthly into 1978 when it, too, came to an end. Conversely, TCR was doing better than ever with

Fan-Favorites (top) Howard Chaykin and Walt Simonson provided these IronWolf and Manhunter covers for TCR #94 (Feb. 1973) and 99 (July 1973, the second color cover in TCR history). (bottom left) The new Captain Marvel artist was Bob Oksner, despite Jim Aparo’s cover art on TCR #101 (Nov. 1973). (bottom right) Cover art by Simonson and Bernie Wrightson originally meant for Metal Men #45 was used for TCR #136 (Oct. 1976). TCR often used rejected pieces like this for its own covers. Characters TM & © DC Comics. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

a circulation of 8,000 copies per issue. It also had a surplus of material, a consequence of the need to keep each issue at one ounce to qualify for speedier first-class postage. The initial solution had been to switch from two columns of text to three, with cover reproductions shrunk accordingly. Sinkovec and Tiefenbacher ultimately decided to go big with The Comic Reader #164 (Jan. 1979), abandoning the digest format for comic-book dimensions and 64 pages versus 40. The move meant a price increase to $1.00 and a move to second-class postage, but the tradeoff was far more content per issue. A percentage of it was strips like Star Hawks, Superman, and Howard the Duck meant for the Gazette (whose readers had their subscriptions transferred to TCR), but there was now more room for pro interviews and articles. An expanded “TCR Mailboat” letters column became a lively venue for fan discussions of current comics as well as pros like Roy Thomas, John Byrne, and others. Future pros like Mike Mignola, Mitch O’Connell, and Dennis Jensen were a presence, too, contributing some of their earliest published work on multiple TCR covers. One-page color cartoons by Jim Engel (“Dick Duck, Duck Dick”) and Chuck Fiala (“Bullet Crow”) became regular features in TCR #166 (Mar. 1979), but the duo’s most uproarious contribution to the magazine may have been playing themselves in “Fandom Confidential.” Debuting in issue #168, it consisted of a series of photo stills wherein Jim and Chuck delivered demented comic-

book news reports or interviewed characters like Christopher Reeve’s Superman (actually a cardboard standee) and the Big Boy (now calling himself the Big Man and played by Scott Shaw!). The last major comics addition to TCR was “Captain Kentucky,” beginning in issue #196 (Nov. 1981). Created by Don Rosa, the feature otherwise ran exclusively in his hometown Louisville Times, but much of its humor transcended local in-jokes and Cap found a receptive national audience in The Comic Reader. Possessed of a massive comic-book collection, Rosa was also eminently qualified to answer reader questions in the Information Center column that premiered two issues earlier. (The venerable feature had started out under Raymond Miller in the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector during the 1960s.) Other columns of note were Paulette Carroll’s European Comics essays (beginning in TCR #166, Mar. 1979) and Sam Kujava’s “A Comic Reader” (review/ commentary pieces starting with TCR #193, Aug. 1981). The TCR Top 100 (bowing in issue #169, June 1979) combined sales figures from comics retailers across the country to give a sense of what fans were buying. Newsy features on licensed product, newspaper strips, film and TV, animation, books, and fanzines were a constant, too, courtesy of writers such as Ron Massengill, Jacob Moraine, Jim Korkis, Mark Sabljak, Gary Ricker, and others. New York reporter David Finger left in 1980, but new correspondent John Jamilkowski filled the position from 1981 through 1983.

TCR, Behind the Scenes Table-top diorama (with identification page, at right) by Carl Gafford of the Levitz-era staff from TCR #100. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 11

BIG TROUBLES IN THE BIG ’80s

The prevailing voice in The Comic Reader was editor Mike Tiefenbacher himself. Whether in the letters column, reviews, historical articles, or even media write-ups (as “Rona Blabbit”), his scholarship and strong opinions gave the fanzine a distinct identity that endeared it to countless readers. There were lots of readers to be found, too. Despite some initial grumbling from subscribers, the 1979 shift to the thicker comic-book format ultimately proved to be a success. “TCR rose to its heights in the early ’80s,” Tiefenbacher declares, “the circulation hitting over 12,000 and my salary more than double that of the early ’70s.” Unfortunately, the comic-book retail market was volatile and unpaid bills continued to take their toll. “The biggest blow,” Tiefenbacher continues, “came when New Media Distributing, who had offered money in advance of publication in return for exclusive distribution of TCR, lost us dealers when their trucking company took weeks to deliver our magazines, and finally went belly-up, leaving us with a loss of $5,000. On a shoestring budget such as ours, this was fatal. We were forced to slow to publishing issues at six- or seven-week intervals as we waited for money to pay the printer.” There was also the matter of competition. New magazines like Comics Feature, The Comics Journal, and Amazing Heroes flourished in the late 1970s and early 1980s, incorporating TCR-style news and coming comics departments but supplementing them with extensive interviews and previews. Tiefenbacher took pride in the amount of information he delivered in TCR’s news section—drawing on multiple sources that even included comic-book text-page replies— but that didn’t matter when the magazine ran late. Timeliness became a real issue in early 1983 when Alan Light’s venerable Buyer’s Guide was sold and reborn as an actual weekly newspaper (as opposed to an advertising venue) called the Comics Buyer’s Guide… under the editorship of Don and Maggie Thompson. Amazing Heroes responded by switching to a twice-monthly frequency by mid-year. “By late 1984,” Tiefenbacher recalls, “it was painfully clear that our purpose was being fulfilled and that we weren’t going to recover. We decided to sell the magazine and produce it for someone else. Despite six separate buyout or publication offers, two of which we even accepted, TCR was dead as of issue #219 (Sept. 1984), with most of two subsequent issues never to see print.” “Financially, I was barely able to do things right,” Sinkovec observes. “When Menomonee Falls Gazette made a little profit, we would plow it back into more pages and more features. We operated on a shoestring of profits that meant that we were riding a bicycle along the edge of a cliff. There were dozens of things that I should have done differently and maybe we would have held on a little longer. But the bills started getting later and later and every crisis put us further behind, until the printer could not do it anymore. We went out of business and I spent years paying off the bills. For years I had nothing to do with comics after they had been my whole life. After a

Team TCR (top) An article with photo of Tiefenbacher and Sinkovec, circa June 1979. Courtesy of Jerry Sinkovec. (bottom) The TCR Boys in 1978: (back row) Russ Maheras, Mike Tiefenbacher, John Tiefenbacher, Chuck Fiala. (front row) Ron Massengill, Jim Engel, Don Rosa, Jerry Sinkovec. Courtesy of Jim Engel. 12 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

while I began reading collections at the public library, and seeing how the industry had totally changed.” Tiefenbacher tempers Sinkovec’s assessment: “Besides keeping us afloat for 15 years using his own savings, he was remarkably adept at production given the fact that he was making it up as we went along. I may have been responsible for a lot of the design decisions, but he came up with plenty of them himself—and he taught himself how to do color separations, first using Zip-a-Tone, but then later with grayscale paint, all without anybody telling him how to do it, which I still think is remarkable. All of this, of course, was done in the pre-computer, Internet, Photoshop, pre-font era. Amazing.” “My salary, which at one point had been up to date, eventually fell something like 15 months behind when Street ended its run,” Tiefenbacher adds. “I couldn’t file for unemployment (despite paying in for 12 years) because the date on my final check was deemed not current because Jerry dated it for the work done 15 months previous, despite the check being dated the week before. “Other than that, I loved the entire experience. In today’s terms, it was very much like having my own blog. I could ask a question about nearly any subject and be certain

Two Wild and Crazy Guys

I’d get an answer, and people knew who I was, which was nice. I’m still quite proud of the product we created, especially given the fact that there were only two of us doing virtually everything. “I can’t even imagine how we’d have handled the huge explosion of publishers and titles that occurred circa ’86–’87. I’d already become rather disenchanted by the direction comics were taking in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but the tonal shift provided by Crisis on Infinite Earths really took most of the fun out of it for me. Adding all of the difficulty of reporting on dozens of new publishers and hundreds of new titles would probably have taken its toll on us, though we’d have done our best—and I’m certain we’d have attempted to make sure we kept closer track of all of it than anybody else. But how long we’d have been able to do that had the money not run out I couldn’t even begin to imagine.”

LIFE AFTER FANZINES

Paul Levitz certainly never imagined where his teenage experiences would take him. The Comic Reader was the first fanzine that he ever read and he took pride in what he accomplished during his stewardship on the title. His post-TCR career was nothing he could have anticipated, though, taking him from an assistant editor to acclaimed stints as a writer to the ultimate post of president of DC

(right) The first “Fandom Confidential” with Jim Engel and Chuck Fiala, from TCR #168 (May 1979). The feature was conceived and written by Jim. (left) TCR #174 (Nov. 1979) cover by Bob Layton in comic response to the Bullet Crow strip’s take-off of the “Demon in a Bottle” story. Fandom Confidential © Jim Engel. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises. Iron Man © Marvel. Bullet Crow © Chuck Fiala.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 13

Amazing Also-Rans Wraparound cover for TCR #200 (Apr. 1982) by Paul Abrams, in recognition of Lou Mougin’s multi-part “Back-Seat Heroes” article. The Comic Reader © Street Enterprises. Characters © their respective copyright holders.

Comics in 2002. TCR, Levitz tells BACK ISSUE, “provided me a gateway for my career. That part was far more accidental.” As noted, Don and Maggie Thompson never quite got away from the comic-book news business, penning their “Beautiful Balloons” section for The Buyer’s Guide for a decade before becoming co-editors of the rechristened Comics Buyer’s Guide with issue #482 in early 1983. Tragically, Don suffered a fatal heart attack on May 23, 1994, but Maggie carried on in his absence. Later joined by editors John Jackson Miller and Brent Frankenhoff, she held the title of senior editor when CBG finally ended with issue #1699 in 2013. Asked if the Newfangles experience had compared to the later CBG career, Maggie responds, “Not really at all. Don was a grad of Penn State’s Department of Journalism and, by the time we began NF, he’d been working at The Cleveland Press for more than five years. We’d both been science-fiction fans for longer than that, we became comics fan publishers together not long after he started work, and we applied the norms of those two experiences to our editing and publishing for the rest of our professional work. “Obviously, we made many contacts who enriched our lives in later years,” Thompson continues. “In fact, three friends [Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, Alan Light] whose connection to Newfangles was involved with their own careers became more influential in what we were eventually able to do with CBG, but I wouldn’t say that exactly compared to or prepared us for CBG.” Newfangles, she concludes, “was something of a transitional episode in our life as comics fans: requiring us to test our abilities to maintain a schedule in order to fill the pages of a growing comics news publication on a regular basis. It widened our network of friends and kept us alert to the comics news that lurked in the wider world of popular culture. And, of course, it convinced us that it was not a schedule whose demands we intended to continue to meet. Hah!” Jerry Sinkovec has mixed feelings about his role in fanzine history. “I had guilty thoughts,” he admits. “I was the one who had killed off The Comic Reader, one of the oldest fanzines in comicdom. People had loved it. In 2011, when San Diego Comic-Con celebrated the 50th anniversary of comics fandom, I was invited to be a part, and I decided to attend and see what was going on. At the party, I saw a lot of folks from the past. I was talking to Paul Levitz and I apologized to him for

killing TCR. He could not believe I felt so bad about it. That made me feel better. The high point of the con was when I talked to Mike Mignola at his table in the showroom. He said he was so proud when we printed his art. He felt that he had made it for the first time when he saw his cover on The Comic Reader! I came to realize that TCR went 219 issues and Mike [Tiefenbacher] and I did over half of them. Not too shabby.” “I’ve tried to envision what a 2017 TCR would look like, and I can’t,” Mike Tiefenbacher remarks. “Would it still be a hardcopy magazine? Would we have our own website or a Facebook page? What would it look like? Would we still get cooperation from the publishers to the extent we had then? There is no online equivalent to provide an answer. “I’m no longer reading or collecting anything new, but I occasionally like to check to see what’s being published and who’s still working, but there is no means to try to catch up on the news or the next month’s releases all in one place. The way news is reported, not just daily, but hourly, means even the most important news is ephemeral, piling up, largely unsorted, in posts that become increasingly inaccessible, when they don’t disappear entirely. You can Google anything, but you have to know what you’re looking for before you can do that, which cuts out anything new. The company websites—besides being completely nonobjective—are uniformly unhelpful and frustrating, designed by people who have no idea what someone like me is looking for. “And, of course, comics are so expensive now that nobody can buy them all anymore, much less read everything that’s published, so the type of reporting we used to do might not even be appreciated. Unless you buy Previews or subscribe to a by-mail comics service, you may not care about what’s coming up in anything but the titles you buy regularly. I don’t envy the historians who will need to reconstruct 21st-Century comic-book history.” JOHN WELLS is a comics historian specializing in DC Comics who has served as a resource for projects ranging from Kurt Busiek’s The Power Company to Greg Weisman’s Young Justice animated series. He is the author of the TwoMorrows books American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–1964 and 1965–1969.

14 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

by J e r r y

Boyd

The Entertaining Comics (EC) company “ended” in 1956 (many say), brought down sales-wise amid never fully substantiated claims that their crime and horror lineup was adding immeasurably to the increase of juvenile delinquency in America. The overall excellence of EC, however, never went away, and the work of the creators there goes on with unabated praise and respect to this day. As time passed, most of the EC artists and writers went on to new clients and suffered the usual ups and downs of the comic-book ghettoes. Some left comics, a few moved over to the advertising markets, some went into paperback and pulp illustrating, and the remainder stuck with comics that shifted from horror into “mystery” (a muted Comics Code-approved form of horror) and tales of justice with less-violent crime sagas where the bad guys would never prevail. MAD (the comic book that morphed into a magazine to beat the Comics Code and to keep Harvey Kurtzman happy) was the company’s sole survivor, and ironically, the great Al Feldstein oversaw its success in the late 1950s and for decades afterward, after seeing his horror and crime titles put aside by the PTA groups, child psychologists, parent groups, and Congressional watchdogs of the early Ike era. Harvey Kurtzman, another one of the company’s towering talents, had shown the way and Al and Bill Gaines turned MAD into a national treasure. Publisher Bill Gaines had to be pleased. He’d weathered the storm, and by 1967 MAD was an American institution and extremely profitable. It was a cottage industry in and of itself. The old EC Comics experience, though revered and beloved by its readership, seemed light years away in the past….

EC, MEET POP ART AND MOTHER NOSTALGIA

An Entertaining Fanzine (top left) Roger Hill’s cover for Squa Tront #1 (1967). (top right) An old Al Williamson sci-fi illo got the cover treatment for ST #2 (1968). (bottom left) Reed Crandall did this impressive back cover for #2. (bottom right) Al Feldstein loved his sci-fi titles and this illustration, a favorite of Bill Gaines’, became the logo-less cover for ST #3. Images in this article are courtesy of Jerry Boyd. Art © EC Publications, Inc. Squa Tront © John Benson and the Jerry Weist estate.

The 1960s was largely a decade of forward-thinking people, though there were glimpses of nostalgia taking shape. Big-city movie art houses were sprouting up and they would showcase film festivals, retrospectives of the works of top directors and screen stars. A new phenomenon, commonly called “monster magazines,” devoted their pages to the great filmmakers of times present and past. Pop-art galleries presented paintings linked to clichéd comic-panel ideas. Fanzines persisted. Some of them would be big on the new spate of Marvel superheroes and DC legends, with the elders of the Golden Age thrown in. One of the new zines would be edited and published by one Jerry Weist. This Squa Tront concentrated on the work of the greats who toiled at… EC Comics. Mr. Weist was born in 1949, and by ’67 was the perfect age to take his love for EC Comics to a new plateau. “Roger Hill and I got together, nerved ourselves up, figured out the East Coast time vs. Kansas, and called [Bill] Gaines about 7:30 in the evening,” Jerry recounted for Filmfaxplus’ Winter 2011 edition. “And Bill picked up the phone! We told him we were young fans in Kansas, and that we were collecting EC comics. He was astonished, and he talked with us for 20 minutes. That was the beginning of a long and incredible friendship.” Jerry initially wanted to do “a Burroughs fanzine,” but friends moved him toward “something that isn’t being done…” An alien shouted, “SQUA TRONT!” at the end of an Al Feldstein-written, Al Williamson-drawn tale in Weird Fantasy #17 (Jan.–Feb. 1953), and that otherworldly pronouncement provided the fanzine’s title. (One of the alien’s pals added, “SPA FON!,” and that had its day as another fanzine title, also.) Roger Hill provided the cover art

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 15

and explains to BACK ISSUE, “Jerry got local [Edgar Rice Burroughs] collector Bob Barrett involved in the fanzine, and as we got closer to deadline for that first issue, Jerry still didn’t have anything to use on the cover. So he was over at my house one day and saw my [Wally] ‘Wood-ish’-type artwork almost finished and said, ‘This is it! We’ll use this!’ He was very excited. So then Barrett worked up the logo lettering for us and there you go.” In its heyday, EC’s genres encompassed modern-day wars and medieval—even ancient—struggles, horror, Westerns, crime, romance, science fiction, humor/satire, piracy, etc. Other companies also dabbled into these areas with success, but EC did them the best because Gaines and Feldstein sought out the best talents in the industry. Weist saw this and observed, “But what I think most separated EC from the other companies was a tremendous commitment to quality. The writing was way above other comics, and the artistic talent was exceptional.” Robert R. Barrett was in on the first issue. His regular contribution would be called “The Frazetta Collector” and it proved to be one of the big standouts for Squa Tront #1. Frank Frazetta was being noticed in the ’60s for his paperback covers, opening eyes everywhere his work was displayed—including movie posters and album jackets. If you wanted to find out more, Barrett was there to provide insight. He tells BI readers, “I had been collecting comics with Frazetta’s art since 1949. When he began painting the Edgar Rice Burroughs covers for Ace Books, being a Burroughs collector, I wanted to get in touch with him. I acquired his telephone number from a friend, who was also a friend of Frazetta, and began telephoning him on a regular basis beginning in 1963. Jerry Weist asked me to write an article on Frazetta for the first issue of Squa Tront and I agreed. I wasn’t an EC collector, although I had purchased them in the early 1950s, keeping only those issues with Frazetta work—either with Al Williamson or by himself. I decided to title the article ‘The Frazetta Collector.’ I never brought it up with Frazetta nor did he encourage me. Since the first issue of Squa Tront was a success, Jerry asked me if I would continue ‘The Frazetta Collector.’ ” Squa Tront #1 spotlighted an early look at Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon book for King Comics. Hill wrote about Graham Ingels. Jerry even got the

three Ghoul-Lunatics (horror hosts from the three EC terror titles) done up in portraits bracketed by the psychedelic effects of the late ’60s! New-wave art would have a place in this fanzine! “Pop Art, meet the Old Witch!” It may have seemed strange to the readers to begin an EC Comics fanzine with a space hero owned by King Features, but Weist was setting a template. His magazine would go boldly, from its opening pages, into projects known and little known by Gaines’ great former stable of artists. The notion worked. Barrett’s Frazetta articles moved in and out of jungles, futuristic cities, barbarian-filled battlefields, and most fittingly, ERB worlds. The next three issues would see early artwork by up-and-coming artists Bernie Wrightson, Rich Corben, Kenneth Smith, and George Metzger. And bona-fide legends Reed Crandall, Al Williamson, and George Evans let Weist publish some of their rare pieces and/or unpublished newspaper comic strips. And there was an interview with Johnny Craig in #4, and nice overviews of the Kurtzman war comics in #2, and science fiction in #3. Two, count them, two unpublished sci-fi stories originally intended for a 3-D EC comic during that national ’50s 3-D craze finally saw print in #4. War comics prelims and “Little Annie Fanny” roughs by Kurtzman added to the excitement. In New York, Gaines was loving it and so was Ray Bradbury, out in California. Jerry was doing EC proud. I asked Mr. Hill about ideas realized and unrealized. Did he know if Jerry had goals he wanted to pursue for what became his four issues at the helm? And, of course, which pieces did he feel were the “best things” they saw printed up during those happy, heady years? His response: “Since I went into the Navy for four years right after ST #1 came out, I didn’t have a chance to write much for the following issues. I mainly provided some artwork. Bob’s articles were always very good, but mine were just fanboy projects, which weren’t so good. I think all of us were so thankful that various artists contributed cool art for us to use, including Bill Gaines, who gave us those beautiful, previously unpublished 3-D stories. That was the crowning achievement for Jerry, I know. Not to mention being able to publish those incredible paintings by Feldstein, Craig, Davis, and Ingels that hung on Gaines’ office wall for many years. I mean, how many fanzines can say they published EC stories for the first time? Bill Gaines was always so generous with us. Once we proved what we could do, he gave us gratis to do just about anything.” The Ghoul-Lunatics portraits did indeed hang on the wall behind Bill’s seat. Done during the peak of EC sales and excellence, along with a Feldstein outer-space tableau (which would be the cover of ST #3), their usage had to spring thousands of smiles to those stalwarts who thought they’d never see another image of their “merchants of menacing lore” by the artists who’d made them so memorable. The good times couldn’t last. Weist lamented a lack of funds (the scourge of all small-press publishers, and though he’d managed to get in a few color inserts for #4, his only 100-page issue, and many say, his best), and things hadn’t coalesced to his satisfaction. He’d done four issues from ’67–’70, but he regretfully felt he would have to close shop. But the fanzine, like EC’s still-growing popularity, would continue.

BENSON AND EDGES

John Benson was a film critic, a writer/contributor to the outstanding film-monster mag Castle of Frankenstein, and an EC fan. He happily took over the editing chores from Weist for ST #5 (1974), which hit readers with a leering Johnny Craig-drawn Vault-Keeper on the cover. ST was back. It had the old feel… and a new one. Benson was able to obtain rarities from the Gaines’ vault, and those matched the rarities Weist had in his fourth issue. In Benson’s debut issue, there was some of Kurtzman’s animated work, rarely seen photos of Craig being made up by Al Feldstein as that trio of all-knowing and all-telling “terror tattle-tellers” (for the old EC fan club), and other delights. He explained part of his history on ST to Bill Schelly (for an interview in Alter Ego #29, Oct. 2003): “Jerry had definitely stopped

Giving Voice to Fandom A Weird Fantasy story ending (from issue #17) provided the name for the EC fanzine Squa Tront. Art by Al Williamson. © EC Publications, Inc.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

Squa Tront Sampler (top left) From Squa Tront #1: The Vault-Keeper got psychedelic—hey, it was the late 1960s, so why not? (top right) Frank Frazetta’s “Tiga,” an unrealized newspaper strip, blew readers away in ST #2. (bottom) This nice sci-fi montage was illustrated by an unidentified fan and introduced the sci-fi overview in ST #3. publishing it for good. I just thought it would be fun to do. Maybe the fact that Bill Pearson, a close friend, was publishing witzend at the time influenced me to get back into publishing. I think Jerry was living in New York then, and I just asked him if I could take over and he said yes.” Benson brought “edges” to his ST. Along the way, he’d include issues devoted to one EC creator, beginning in ST #6 (1975), spotlighting Bernie Krigstein. If you loved that artist’s storytelling, this issue would be, of course, magic to you. Some longtime readers recoiled (art is subjective, right?), but the issue was outstanding in its execution. It reprinted Benson’s early-1960s interview with the legend along with rarely seen prelims from the artist’s collection and an examination of his most famous tale, “Master Race,” from Impact #1 (Mar.–Apr. 1955). This was a good beginning for a new era in EC fandom. Between Weist and Benson, third-generation fans like me were coming aboard. Nostalgia Press published Horror Comics of the 1950s in 1971, an attractive hardcover compilation of sci-fi, crime, and horror. The book was a

hit, and soon after Amicus Pictures released what became, for them, a huge hit, Tales from the Crypt (1972). The EC Comics Convention in NYC (1972) saw an assemblage of titans. In 1973, Bruce Hershenson and Ron Barlow, attendees of that con, began reprinting a number of ECs via their fledgling enterprise, East Coast Comix. The Vault of Horror hit the movie theaters in ’73. And on those shelves at the Comic Collector Shop in San Jose, California, Squa Tront awaited us. As my desire for obtaining more EC’s grew and grew (it’s called “EC fever,” by the way, and it does subside but never breaks— after a while you’re “an EC fan-addict”…), I started purchasing those Squa Tronts, old and new, circa 1974, along with original EC copies. Geez, I’m foaming at the mouth… Okay, fever’s down now… back to my overview. Benson’s issues would not include Barrett’s regular contribution. “The Frazetta Collector” ended with the fourth issue. I asked Robert about that. He explained, “I ended ‘The Frazetta Collector’ after Jerry Weist decided to pass the fanzine on to John Benson. While Jerry was in charge

Vault-Keeper © EC Publications, Inc. Tig © the Frank Frazetta estate. Squa Tront © John Benson and the Jerry Weist estate.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 17

Groovy Ghoulies (top left) This Graham Ingels Old Witch painting adorned Gaines’ office wall for years and was ST #4’s cover (with no logo). (top middle) ST #5’s blurb-less cover, featuring Johnny Craig’s Vault-Keeper. (top right) Bernard Krigstein’s panel art from an old horror story was magnified into ST #6’s cover. (bottom) Jack Davis’ rendition of the Crypt-Keeper, used as ST #8’s cover. Art © EC Publications, Inc. Squa Tront © John Benson and the Jerry Weist estate.

of the fanzine, I had full control of ‘The Frazetta Collector.’ Under John Benson, I was afraid that he would dictate what I wrote, plus I didn’t know if he would even want the column/articles to continue under him.” [Author’s note: Mr. Benson declined to give comments for this piece.] But Benson was able to keep Roger Hill. Roger notes, “Yes, John was in touch with me quite a bit on ST #5, because he needed my help art-wise on a few things, and we had long conversations about it. Later, he had me arrange the printing here in Wichita for that issue since it was much cheaper than East Coast prices. So I took care of that for him, and handled a lot of the packing and shipping to distributors after it was finished. John definitely had his own version of ST after he took it over, but I think he kept it focused and on track through all the issues he’s done.”

HAPPY DAYS, SCARY DAYS

The disco era began in ’75, but it was still the “happy days” in the pages of Squa Tront. The 1950s continued to gain interest in MAD, which had taken to reprinting their original Kurtzman-edited/ written comics as special supplements. Not surprisingly, these satirical masterpieces, drawn mostly by John Severin, Bill Elder, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis, were well received, and MAD gave the readers more in issues to come. Squa Tront did its part in keeping EC “alive.” ST #7 (1977) featured an art gallery of chilling cover roughs by Krenkel that were considered for Warren Publishing’s Creepy. Another highlight: a rarely seen Kurtzman tale that warned of contracting VD! Benson had taken to us to his fandom roots by including a look at EC fanzines of the 1950s and these looks back became an ongoing endeavor. Some of those mimeographed efforts were naturally amateurish, but their histories were necessary, just as our writings and interviews are today. Squa Tront #8 (1978) gave readers the Crypt-Keeper portrait by Jack Davis as a cover offering and transcripts

18 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

and pictures of the EC Convention from ’72. An early Feldstein teen humor story, still in pencils, rounded off the proceedings and the 1970s, for ST, ended.

GASP! CHOKE! COULD THIS BE THE END??!!

Benson took some time off after the eighth issue. But in 1983, he came back with his most ambitious issue yet. Benson said, “I got a more demanding job in 1981, and I really didn’t have the time. I knew that issue #9 would be the last for a while. Now I’m semi-retired and I have more time.” ST #9 would be a 100-pager, and have some color pages. On the front: a fantastic cover painting by Johnny Craig with all three of the Ghoul-Lunatics was done for this issue! Despite their ever-present smirks, they seemed to cheer this masterpiece of a fan magazine— interviews with Bill Elder, Kurtzman, Feldstein, and Gaines (and a few others) waited within. Rare early work by Wally Wood and office illustrations done for special occasions were on hand. EC writers got written about and had their works listed. After that, a reader could say everything had been done and done to perfection. Well, perfection is in the eye of the beholder. As great as ST had been, that was it for the 1980s. In those pre-Internet/email days, a fan could’ve written John and said, “Hey, any more zines coming out?” And maybe some did. But ST didn’t. And sadly, EC creators who could’ve been interviewed or supplied rare sketches and artwork have passed on. I asked Roger if he had any regrets about material not done/ roads not taken. “I do have regrets, especially with Reed Crandall. I knew him for a couple of years before I went into the Navy, and yet I never thought to take a tape recorder over there and talk to him for a couple of hours about his long career in comics. And neither did Jerry, who went off to college for four years. We both should have done it.

EC Fandemonium (top left) John Benson (wearing glasses) at a convention, late ’60s/early ’70s. (top center) Roger Hill and Jerry Weist holding Wally Wood MAD house ad art, circa 1968. (top right) Johnny Craig getting made up as the Vault-Keeper. (center) This 1972 picture was taken at a sci-fi panel and shows EC titans Gaines, Orlando, Wood, and Williamson. Vault-Keeper and EC creator photos © EC Publications, Inc.

“My other biggest regret is Joe Orlando. I knew Joe, and called him on several occasions, and he always told me to call him or visit him for an interview, and I never got around to it. Losing Joe was a major loss, not only to his family and friends, but also to the history books.”

NOT THE END…!!

In 2002, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing a new ST (#10) at the SDCC. What?! Gasp!! Good Lord!! Benson and Hill were back! And another excellent magazine came from their research and imagination. Hill began work on his own project—EC Fan-Addict Fanzine—in ’03. He’s done three issues so far (as of this writing) and found time to do books on Crandall, and Wood, with books to come on Johnny Craig and Graham Ingels. “I live and breathe EC just about every day of my life, and therefore feel I have to do something with that energy,” Hill tells us. Benson did a special John Severin issue some years back and is working on ST #14. Barrett has revived “The Frazetta Collector” with rare art and pictures for Hill’s magazine. As of this writing, Barrett tells us, “I’m working on one more Frazetta article for Roger about Frazetta’s newspaper strips.” Keep it coming, men! The fans of the greatest comic company ever need more and more information/artifacts/ pictures/rare art pertaining to some of the best talents in the field. Those EC cold chills and fevers just won’t go away. EC lives! Dedicated to all the EC talents and their historians, and to Jerry Weist, who passed on in 2011. JERRY BOYD would like to extend special thanks to Robert Barrett and Roger Hill for their rare photographs and comments.

EC Historians (above) Roger, Mike Britt, and Jerry at the San Diego Comic-Con EC Reunion Party, 2000. (bottom) A recent shot of Roger and his jaw-dropping Jack Davis Frankenstein art.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 19

New book by MICHAEL EURY, editor of

HERO-A-GO-GO!

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, SpiderMan), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and many more!

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C . Va u g h n

by J .

When Robert M. Overstreet first produced The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, it was in many regards the logical culmination of collecting habits and skills he had honed since childhood. It was also the start of an entirely new career. With his calm, studious approach—frequently punctuated by moments of excited smiles at some new discovery— Overstreet first released his Guide to fandom and the marketplace in 1970. Not only did its success warrant a second printing, it also meant he had to update the prices and produce a second edition, something he hadn’t contemplated when he started. Still very active with the Guide today—he continues to handle all the pricing himself—Overstreet talked with J.C. Vaughn, Gemstone Publishing’s vice-president of publishing, with whom he’s worked for about 22 years (Vaughn previously freelanced for Overstreet Publications prior to its acquisition by Steve Geppi’s Gemstone). – J.C. Vaughn

Sometimes the seeds of something big are planted very early. That was the case with Bob Overstreet. Known to literally hundreds of thousands of readers as the author of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, he not only started with comics early in life, he started with them early each day. “I read comic books in the late ’40s. One of my favorite comics was Fox and the Crow. I would have Kix cereal in the morning and I would read my Fox and the Crow comics eating Kix. My older brother Jerry had more comic books than I did. And we always had comic books around the house.” J.C. VAUGHN: You mentioned Fox and the Crow. Were funny animals your favorite? ROBERT OVERSTREET: With my brother’s comics I remember Captain Marvel, Daredevil (the ’40s Daredevil, that is). It was a mixed bag of superhero and funny animal, but I mainly remember reading the Fox

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 21

Young Bob Overstreet (top) A ’60s-era self-portrait of the man whose name would soon be synonymous with collecting comic books. Courtesy of J.C. Vaughn. (bottom) Front and back covers to Overstreet’s very first Guide, and (middle) our interview subject holding two editions of that 1970 classic. Art © Robert Overstreet. Guide © Gemstone Publishing, Inc.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

and the Crow comics. I really enjoyed those at that time, but my favorite superhero was the Gleason Daredevil [the Golden Age character from Lev Gleason Publications]. At 11 years old in 1949, I was Daredevil! I had handwalked power lines across the street, could jump my own height, and pole-vaulted across ditches. VAUGHN: What was your family background? Did your dad have a furniture business? OVERSTREET: Dad was in the furniture business. He owned his own store. He worked in the coalmines back in the 1930s in West Virginia. That’s where I was born. Then he went to work for Sterchi’s, which was a big furniture chain rooted out of Knoxville, Tennessee. They transferred him to Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1944. VAUGHN: And that’s when you moved there? OVERSTREET: Yes. And then he opened his own store after he’d been there a while. Before he opened the store, though, he left Sterchi’s and went to work for the newspaper. He became publisher of the Cleveland newspaper between 1948 and 1952. In ’52 he opened his own furniture store. He kept that for ten years and then he sold it. He didn’t do well with it. I don’t know if he ever showed a profit. Then he sold it and went back to West Virginia in the early ’60s. VAUGHN: How old were you when you hit the ECs? OVERSTREET: I was 13. VAUGHN: How did you discover them? OVERSTREET: I met Landon Chesney when I was in the eighth grade. LC was very intelligent and he collected ECs. He collected them seriously. He loved the art, and he was a great artist himself. I was always interested in art, so when I met him he introduced me to EC Comics. He was an early member of the EC Fan-Addict Club. His number was 47. And he also introduced me to the idea of collecting comic books. I never thought about collecting them before that. He was a really interesting person. He collected comics, and was interested in magic. He did a lot of artwork. He was interested in theater. He could imitate almost anybody. In high school he was in theater. He enjoyed that. I would take him to high school parties with me and he’d be the entertainment for the party because he could imitate Jimmy Stewart, or Jerry Lewis, or Peter Fontaine, or just about anybody famous. He was really good at it. He was a natural. VAUGHN: Did you guys meet other collectors at that point? OVERSTREET: We were the two comic-book collectors in the town. We had friends that had comic books, but we were the only ones who were serious about it. We were always seeking EC comics to complete our sets, and so we discovered a few EC comics from our friends, but not many. VAUGHN: Once you started getting really diligent about tracking down all the ECs, how did you start meeting other collectors? OVERSTREET: Back in the early ’50s, I also collected coins. I always bought the Red Book when it came out each year. [Editor’s note: Not to be confused with Redbook Magazine, Red Book is a long-running price guide for coin collectors.] Back in those days, you could still go through change and find a lot of rare coins in it. It wasn’t a big investment, other than time. So I went to the bank and they would give me the parking meter money, and I would go through it looking for rare coins. And then I would count the coins and roll them for the bank. VAUGHN: So you traded your services for the chance to cherry-pick coins from the bank? OVERSTREET: Right. I found a lot of rare coins. I put together complete sets of almost all the rare 20thCentury coins. I would even find Indian Head Pennies or Barber coins going back to the 1800s. [Editor’s note: Barber coins were named after their designer, created

as dimes, quarters, and half dollars by the Mint from 1892 to 1915.] Buffalo Nickels were very common and Jefferson Nickels were very easy to get, even the rare Jefferson 1950 “D” Nickel. I found at least a roll or two of them. I sold them to coin dealers for $2.50 a piece and I was paying 5¢ each. I was really into coins. We would have a Red Book party when the Red Book came out each year there in Cleveland. There was a coin dealer, and we would all get together when the Red Books arrived. We really looked forward to that. This background was pretty important, I think. At the same time, I was really into EC comics and trying to locate the back issues, other collectors, dealers, or anyone that had a source for those comics. Pretty early on we met two other collectors in Tennessee. One was Billy Hoover, who lived in Manchester, Tennessee, and he had a comic-book mail-order business. He sent out price lists of comic books and he collected EC, Disney, Westerns… VAUGHN: Was he one of the earliest dealers? OVERSTREET: He was an early one. He collected all the Westerns, some superheroes… he loved the Disneys, he loved Barks, and he loved the ECs. I think his name was on the EC Bulletin that they put out in the early ’50s. So we wrote to him, and he wasn’t that far away from us, so we started corresponding with him. He was also an artist and loved drawing comics. We met him through the mail and then drove over and actually met him in person. He was the first person I bought back-issue ECs from. He would type his lists up on tissue paper, on toilet paper, on paper bags, whatever paper he had available. It was weird. I still remember ordering a stack of ECs from him and waiting on that package. VAUGHN: Were these ones you hadn’t seen or just upgrading the copies you already had? OVERSTREET: I had never seen them. VAUGHN: You must have been really excited then. OVERSTREET: I would have dreams about what might be on the covers. We had never seen these early ECs. VAUGHN: Did they live up to your expectations? OVERSTREET: Oh, yeah, they were fantastic. They were all early ones. He packaged them in a shoebox and put it in the mail. When the box arrived it didn’t survive very well in the postal system. The comics were loose inside the box. There were gaping holes in the box. Probably the comics were damaged, but back in those days you were just happy to have a copy if it was complete, even if today it would be considered VG or whatever. VAUGHN: How long before you started wanting really good copies? OVERSTREET: It was long after that. In Tennessee, old comic books were very hard to find. We went to Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and it seemed like nobody had old comic books. There were very few collectors we knew of in the South. We also met Harry Thomas, another collector, from Sweetwater, Tennessee. He collected superhero comics. We collected the ECs almost exclusively. So Harry introduced us to the superheroes and to the fact that a lot of people around the country collected them. We had a lot of arguments about which were the best. [laughter] We would always argue that ECs were aimed at an older audience and they were better than the superheroes, which were aimed at a younger audience. I remember when we first met Harry, he had a few Golden Age comics. And we had never seen any Golden Age comics—there were no used bookstores with them for sale, no one we traded with had them, you just didn’t see them in Tennessee. So he brought down a little stack of Golden Age comics. I bought from him an All-Star and a Green Lantern #18, the Christmas cover, and he kind of introduced me to the other types

of comics outside of EC. I was desperately trying to put an EC collection together, but funds were limited and that’s all I could afford. In the mid-1960s, while working for Hiwassee Land Company, the forestry division to Bowater Southern Paper Corp., an ad auctioning Golden Age comic books appeared in one of the fanzines. It was placed by an antique dealer in Spring City, Tennessee, which is where our company had a branch office. In the next couple of weeks, I was there with a Bowater accountant on a business trip. I couldn’t remember the name of the antique dealer, but soon got their address. It was unbelievable! The dealer took us down to the basement where there was a chest of drawers packed full of comic books and a full-size bed with stacks of comic books. The auction did well with many of the books sold. One of the famous early fans, Jerry Bails, had bid on the All Star #3, among others. I asked the dealer if she had any of the EC comics. She pulled out the top drawer and said, “You mean like these?” There was Weird Science #12/1 and several other early ECs. I was literally blown away. I asked the accountant with me if he had some money? He said, “Yes, I’ve got you covered.” (Thinking you should be able to buy comics for a few cents each). I asked her, “How much?” She said, “I want $1.00 each.” The dealer told me that one of the bidders didn’t come through, which was a nice stack of early Golden Age books such as Batman #9, Captain Marvel #2, Green Hornet #1, Superman #6, and others. We didn’t have enough money to pay for them then, so I had to come back that night with the money. VAUGHN: At what point did you figure out what you thought you wanted to do for a career? OVERSTREET: At that time, I was very interested in astronomy. I was grinding telescope lenses, making telescopes. I had friends in the community, older friends, and one guy owned a machine shop. He was very interested in science and geology. He had has own laboratory in his home. I’d go over and visit him every week. He made me a telescope mount and made my rack and pinion gear at his machine shop. I bought the kit for the mirror and ground my own mirror. It took me two years to grind that mirror. I was learning about how to do that. That was another hobby of mine. I thought that when I grew up I wanted to be an astronomer. I never thought of anything else. I was

Rising Star on All Stars, Ducking for Cover (left) Then-newcomer Don Newton (see sidebar) illo’ed this amazing Justice Society cover for The Comic Book Price Guide #4 (1974). (right) Disney Duck artist extraordinaire Carl Barks’ gorgeous interpretation of Looney Tunes’ Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny graced the cover of Guide #7 (1977), shown here in its hardcover form. © Gemstone Publishing, Inc. JSA characters TM & © DC Comics. Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig TM & © Warner Bros.

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always out late at night with the telescope. Later, I got a camera and learned how to take pictures through the telescope. Some of these pictures were actually published in an astronomy magazine back in the ’60s. I didn’t know the pictures had been published. A local person called me and asked me if I was the Bob Overstreet that took the pictures he had seen in this book he bought. That was the first I had heard of it, so I ran to the bookstore, found the book, and there were my pictures. VAUGHN: How did they get the photos? OVERSTREET: After I built my own, I bought a good quality telescope. I sent the pictures to the telescope company. They had them published. VAUGHN: What were you doing for a job at that point? OVERSTREET: Working for my dad at the furniture store. I was the credit manager and the bookkeeper. VAUGHN: So you did that until he sold the business? OVERSTREET: Yes. Then I was put out on the street. [laughter] I moved around from one job to another. My training was bookkeeping. I got a selling job, which I hated. I was never a salesman. Then I got a bookkeeping job and then a credit job. Then finally I got a really good job at Bowater Paper Company, one of the largest employers in our area and one of the biggest paper plants in the country. They were close by, and they ran an ad for a statistician. I applied and got it. I launched the Price Guide while I was there. VAUGHN: So you were gaining knowledge of printing at that point. Did that help with the Price Guide? OVERSTREET: Well, while my dad was publisher of the newspaper they also did job printing. I guess I had ink in my blood. He was really strong in advertising and he convinced me that I needed to sell ads for my first Price Guide, so that’s what I did. VAUGHN: And your book was the first price guide to carry advertising in it? OVERSTREET: Certainly in this hobby, but I had never seen another one with ads in it, even in other fields. VAUGHN: Before you started actually putting the Price Guide together, was there one exact moment when you knew you had to do it, or was there a series of events that lead you to consider it? OVERSTREET: I think it was several years of slowly discovering other collectors in the area and then around the country. We discovered science-fiction fandom in the early ’50s. VAUGHN: And they were much more organized than comics were at that point? OVERSTREET: They were organized, and they were putting out newsletters. There was one guy in Dalton, Georgia, 30 miles away, who was in sciencefiction fandom. The guy who was the president of that group was in Birmingham, Alabama. And Chesney went down to see him, and his name was Alfred McCoy Andrews. From science-fiction fandom we got names of people who had comic books. So we joined that group so we could locate other collectors, who shared our interest. When Chesney and I were high school, we spent a lot of our time writing and drawing comic books. VAUGHN: You did an extensive article in CBPG #30 about that. OVERSTREET: Right. So we drew some stories and published some of them. Among them was this one story that I republished in that article. At the end of that story we wrote in Alfred McCoy Andrews’ name on a newspaper as a tribute to him. But we also met another collector down in Georgia, down below Atlanta, and he collected horror. He had almost every horror comic. And we went down and met him. He had ECs and everything else, and he also had some superhero comics. I remember trading him a duplicate EC I had for a Superman #2. And we thought, “Who knows? This may be worth something someday.” I was a little reluctant to give up an EC for a superhero comic, but I picked that book up and thought it was kind of neat. We went down to see this guy a couple of times. He had walls of paperbacks. He had all the comic books on bookshelves, stood up on end, and he had gone through and taped the spines on all of his comics with Scotch tape. VAUGHN: Ouch.

Women in Comics Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), artist Bill Ward’s cover preliminary for Price Guide #8 (1978). Note Ward’s comment, “I have room for another gal if you like,” opened the door for Sheena, seen in the final, published version. © Gemstone Publishing, Inc. Characters © their respective copyright holders.

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OVERSTREET: So his whole collection was ruined. So we met a lot of people and found new sources. This went on all through the ’50s and ’60s. VAUGHN: As you had this network of people, is there one point where you think, “There’s just got to be a price guide...?” OVERSTREET: All through the ’60s I was hoping that someone would put out a price guide on comic books because one was needed. VAUGHN: Did you recognize that because of your experience in coins? OVERSTREET: Yes. I wanted to see a Red Book in comics. I didn’t know if it would ever happen. I didn’t know if comics would ever become a legitimate collectible field like coins. I was hoping it would. I was hoping that someone would someday put out a guide on comics. I just didn’t know it was going to be me. VAUGHN: What brought you to the point of deciding it was going to be you? OVERSTREET: The comic market was really taking off in the ’60s. Prices were escalating rapidly. Almost any 10¢ comic was worth money. You had the Rocket’s Blast– Comicollector (RBCC) coming out and going to all the comic people, and I subscribed to that. I had all the RBCCs and I also had all the price lists from the early dealers like Claude Held and Howard Rogofsky. I could see the market was growing. Like I said, prices were escalating. There were a lot of details that were basically unknown and there was still a lot to be discovered about comics, and there was no single source of information to go to in those days. I was buying everything off the stands in the ’60s beginning with [Amazing] Spider-Man #1, so I had all this stuff. I had a great inventory of Silver Age books. I bought duplicates, so I set up Sonny Johnson to be a dealer. I gave him an inventory to get him started. He ran and ad and the comics sold just like that. I couldn’t believe how fast they went. Then I decided I better stop selling the books. They were still going up in value. He sold my two copies of Spider-Man #1, so I didn’t get them back. I also had a relic collection because I hunted arrowheads all through the ’50s. The relic market was flat during the ’60s while the comic market was taking off. So I sold most of my relics to raise money to buy comics. In the mid-’60s I actually started working on an arrowhead price guide. I was going to draw each arrowhead. Instead of using photography, I was going to illustrate each point because that’s how all the books down in that market were done. Many of them still are today, in fact. I started doing the research on the types, doing the drawings and so on. I was actually getting into the book. But the comic market was getting so hot… Then there was a big collection that turned up in 1967. Sonny found this big collection of Golden Age comics in Pennsylvania. He was paying $2.50 a piece for them. The guy who had them was sending him a list every week, and he was picking out the best ones. He didn’t buy them all. He bought the #1s and the more valuable ones for $2.50. So he had a box of comics coming in every week. This was all stuff none of us had ever seen. And this was all the Action, More Fun, Superman, Adventure, Detective, All-Star, All-American, Daredevil, reprint comics from the ’30s and ’40s. One weekend he got Superman #1, All-Star Comics #3, and Detective Comics #27, all at the same time. I was sitting there with not a lot of money, so I was selling everything I could to buy these books. At that time I had a stack of EC Annuals. There was a guy in Florida who put out an EC fanzine.

He stopped through Cleveland back in the ’50s and he gave me a stack of EC Annuals. So I sold and traded some of the Annuals for those comics. Sonny became a national dealer almost overnight because of that Golden Age collection. He sold to other dealers and collectors all over the country. VAUGHN: In of all this, you realized that there’s not only a need for a guide, it was going to take someone to get it started? OVERSTREET: I began putting together the page format of what the book would look like, and what would go in the book. I was showing it to Harry, LC, Sonny, and Bob Jennings in Nashville, who put out the fanzine Comic World. I was trying to get somebody interested in putting out a price guide because we needed one. I kept working on it. I kept typing up information, putting it in price-guide form and showing it around to people. Nobody wanted to do a price guide. It was too much work. They kept on kicking it back to me. “Why don’t you do it?” they said. “We’ll help you.” [laughter] So finally I ended up doing it. VAUGHN: Aside from the guys you just mentioned, did anyone else have an input into how it looked or what went into it? OVERSTREET: Jerry Bails, of course, was another one that I kept sending information to. He was the one I wanted to do it.

MAD About the Price Guide Original cover painting by MAD magazine’s Norman Mingo for 1982’s Price Guide #12. That’s dapper Bob himself serving as super-valet to Alfred E. Neuman. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © Gemstone Publishing, Inc. MAD TM & © EC Publications, Inc.

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DON NEWTON: FAN TO PRO Having an older friend and mentor from whom a person may draw encouragement and inspiration while young in life is a condition that some are fortunate to experience. I am happy to have had that experience between the ages of 15 and 21, and for me, my friend was Don Newton. Don was born November 12, 1934 in St. Charles, Virginia, and was 34 when I first met him, through an ad for back-issue comic books which I had placed in G. B. Love’s The Rocket’s Blast – Comicollector, the most widely circulated fanzine/adzine of the period. He was already an accomplished artist, trained in classical oil painting, and was working as an art teacher for Washington Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona, where we both lived. Don had discovered fandom a couple of years before and used the Rocket’s Blast as his main vehicle to increase his collection of Golden Age comics, Captain Marvel Adventures in particular. He also became a regular contributor of covers to the fanzine, which also published a comic strip he had tried to syndicate, The Savage Earth, in serialized form from 1968 to 1970. Even though Don earned his living as an art teacher and even though he was a highly talented oil painter, his true love was comic books and his greatest aspiration was to become a full-time comic-book illustrator. He regularly submitted samples to the major comic-book publishers of the day, and his determination finally paid off in 1974 when Charlton editor Nicola Cuti (better known today as

Newton’s original cover art and the hand-colored bluelines (inset) to the cover of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #13 (1983). Courtesy of Heritage. Comic Book Price Guide © Gemstone Publishing, Inc. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman TM & © DC Comics.

by John Clark

the co-creator of E-Man) saw his samples and was impressed by Newton’s layout skills and his mastery of human anatomy. Cuti gave Newton a trial story which passed muster and was published in Ghost Manor #18. Don then became a regular in the Charlton horror line, placing stories in a majority of issues through the next year until he took on the duties of regular feature artist for Charlton’s The Phantom, beginning with #67 in 1975. Don had a good relationship with Cuti, Joe Gill, George Wildman, and others at Charlton and he enjoyed his work, but their rates were low and he always aspired to work at Marvel or DC. While still working for Charlton he managed to pick up some incidental work on single issues of several Marvel titles, including Ghost Rider (inking Don Heck), several pages for Giant-Size Defenders, and a painted cover for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Annual. His big break came when he was offered a gig drawing Aquaman for DC, through the influence of his friend Dan Adkins, who would be his regular inker for a three-year run on Aquaman and a concurrent run on [Return of] The New Gods. Don’s childhood ambition came to light in 1978 when he took over penciling chores on one of his two all-time favorite characters, Batman, beginning with Batman #305. That same year he fulfilled his longtime wish to pencil his other favorite superhero, Captain Marvel, in that character’s final issue of Shazam!—#35. Most of Don’s career was at DC, with a couple of short forays into the Marvel Bullpen, first in 1979, penciling an Avengers Annual, and again in 1981, to again work on The Avengers. Paul Levitz soon convinced Newton to return to DC, however, where he remained for the rest of his career, working as one of the regular artists on Batman and Detective. During his tenure at DC, Don worked with many of the legends of the industry, including Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, Elliot S! Maggin, Roy Thomas, Dan Adkins, Joe Rubinstein, Terry Austin, and many others. He also had a hand in the creation and design of three prominent DC supporting characters: Ch’p of the Green Lantern Corps, as well as Killer Croc and Jason Todd from the Batman series. Don worked for DC steadily through 1984 when he succumbed to a heart attack due to complications arising from a throat infection, which he’d been fighting for several months. Even through his ailment, Don soldiered on, forcing himself to work and to produce the required allotment of penciled pages each day for the books he worked on. He died in a Mesa hospital on August 19, 1984 at the age of 49 and was survived by his mother, Hazel Milton (now deceased), and his son, Tony Newton. Don was to have taken over Roy Thomas’ Infinity Inc. with #12. He had penciled a framing sequence for #11 and a “shelf story” to be used in case of emergency. Sadly, he was only able to pencil three pages of #12 before his death. The emergency story was subsequently inked by Joe Rubinstein and became Newton’s last published work, Infinity Inc. #13 (Apr. 1985). Despite the discrepancy of our ages, Don came to be my best friend and I deeply felt his loss, as did millions of comic-book fans who were impressed and inspired by his dynamic art style. One of those “fans” was Robert Overstreet, whom Don met at a Houston comic convention in 1970, shortly after the publication of the first edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Don had several small paintings of various superheroes for sale at that convention, and Overstreet was so impressed by them that he purchased all that Don had remaining. They became fast friends after that and when, in 1974, the Guide started featuring original covers, Overstreet commissioned Newton to paint the first one, a tribute to the Justice Society of America. Don was again commissioned in 1983 to paint an infinity cover of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman for the 13th edition of the Guide. [Editor’s note: BACK ISSUE #19 presented the cover feature “The Art and Life of Don Newton.”] JOHN CLARK, a veteran comic-book creator, is the former editor-in-chief of Gladstone and of Gemstone Publishing’s Disney line.

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VAUGHN: Were they all supportive of what you showed them? OVERSTREET: Yes. VAUGHN: As long as you were the one doing the work? OVERSTREET: Right. [laughter] Bails said he would help me. He had other interests. He was more interested in continuing his research. He didn’t want to do a price guide. VAUGHN: Once you began, did they still help? OVERSTREET: They all faded out once the work started. I was typing up complete pages and sending them to Jerry. He would lay onionskin paper over my pages and make notations as to what he thought the prices would be. That got to be too much work and he only did a few pages, then he quit. But I had his good wishes to go ahead and do it myself. [laughter] VAUGHN: Over the years since the first Guide, you’ve developed an extensive network of advisors, but what did you base the original prices on? OVERSTREET: I went through every piece of information that I had accumulated up to that time, which was quite a few years’ worth of material. I had a lot of price lists, all the back issues of RBCC, Bill Thailing’s catalogs, fanzines, and every other bit of information I had. One price list I got from the beginning was from Bob’s Book Barn. They sold everything. That’s where I got a lot of initial information as to what existed because they would list titles, issue numbers, and very importantly dates, which a lot of people didn’t list. That was good information. I began setting up an index-card file for every title I could find. I would put the information on them. VAUGHN: Did you start seeing the first indications of the regionalism in the market then? OVERSTREET: No, that was something that we didn’t really see until the market became more national. That wasn’t even something we thought about in the early stages. VAUGHN: Who were some of the others you had lists from? OVERSTREET: There were a lot of people who advertised in RBCC. I had a lot of individual price lists of collectors. I still have a lot of correspondence from when I was seeking back-issue ECs. I corresponded with a lot of collectors. I actually wrote to everybody listed on the EC Bulletins, every one of those people. I found one guy who still had his set of ECs out of all those names. I began buying his back issue ECs. He said he paid through the nose for them, so they were going to be expensive. He was going to have to have a dollar a piece for them. I bought all the rare ones and the early ones, then I got him down to 50¢ on the next batch. Then I tried to get him down to a quarter, and that’s when I lost him. VAUGHN: What was the print run on the original Guide? OVERSTREET: The print run on the first book was 1,000, and on the second edition it was 800. VAUGHN: How did you come up with the retail price of the book? OVERSTREET: I just felt that $5 was a fair price. I sold a lot of copies at a pre-publication price, which was less. I can’t remember what that was. VAUGHN: How did you gauge your success?

Barging In The Marvel Family and Sivana starred on the cover of Price Guide #15 (1985). Original C. C. Beck art courtesy of Heritage. Shazam! and related characters TM & © DC Comics.

OVERSTREET: RBCC was going to about 2,000 people at the time, so I thought my audience was 2,000 people. If I could sell 2,000 copies I would have hit a home run. I did sell about 1,800 copies. VAUGHN: How was it printed? OVERSTREET: It was a very small printer who was doing the book. He would run off the pages and then bring them over to my house, and then I had to fold them, collate them, and staple them. I had to do that myself. All he did was the actual printing. VAUGHN: Why did the second printing have a blue cover? OVERSTREET: I went to a blue cover because the printing was so bad. The black ink was washed out on a lot of the copies. I thought if I put a color in the background that would minimize the washed-out black. That’s why I went to blue.

VAUGHN: How did the book sell initially? OVERSTREET: It came out in the fall. It took me through 1971 to sell out the first two printings, then I started coming out in spring with the second edition and the Guide has been there ever since. VAUGHN: Did you make corrections between the first and second printings of the first Guide? OVERSTREET: Yes. I can’t remember what they were specifically, but there were mistakes in the first edition and we corrected the most glaring ones. I retyped those pages on the reprint. I was getting feedback immediately when I was shipping books out. VAUGHN: What were the reactions to the book from collectors and dealers? OVERSTREET: That’s the first time anyone had put comic-book retail values in a book and published it. There was a lot of criticism about the prices being too high, and there was a lot about them being too low. But everybody bought the book. That was the main result; the book was accepted. I remember Phil Seuling, who was throwing the New York conventions, didn’t support the Price Guide until I had put out four editions. Then he was interested in buying it. He started distributing it after that. It took several years before some of the other powerful people in the market began accepting it. When you put out a price guide, most people don’t respond directly to you at all. They’ll talk about the book to someone else, and that other person might call you and tell you about it if you’re lucky. Bruce Hamilton was one person who got involved after the first Guide. He came to see me right after it came out. He drove to Tennessee. It really got him. He became one of my early advisors, and he stayed with me to his death in 2005. He was very important in the early development of the Price Guide. He helped a lot in pricing theory, among other things.

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Flash and GL of Two Worlds Original color art for the cover of Guide #23 (1993), penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Murphy Anderson. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. Flash and Green Lantern TM & © DC Comics.

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Titans Together! Original George Pérez art for the cover of the bookstore edition of the 35th edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, recreating his 1980 cover of New Teen Titans #1. Courtesy of Heritage. Teen Titans TM & © DC Comics.

VAUGHN: Who were your earliest advertisers? OVERSTREET: Howard Rogofsky, Robert Bell, Bruce Hamilton, F. L. Buza, Jerry Bails, Richard Burgess, Clint’s Bookstore, Buddy Saunders. Passaic Book Center, Grand Book, Inc., Sonny Johnson, to name a few. VAUGHN: Once the Guide started getting established, did you any of the early naysayers start advertising or begin supporting it? OVERSTREET: It took a few years of exposure, attending some of the early conventions to meet many collectors and dealers. Phil Seuling resisted support at first, but by the fourth edition came on board and presented me with an Ed April award at the 1974 convention for publishing the Price Guide. VAUGHN: What made you decide to start having original art on the cover of the Guide? OVERSTREET: After running comic-book covers on #2 and 3, it was a natural transition to have original covers for future guides done by the master comic-book artists. My first professional cover was done by Don Newton, a friend of Bruce Hamilton’s, who recommended him to me. His cover of the Justice Society of America was a beautiful piece of art which itself inspired top artists like Joe Kubert (Tarzan), Will Eisner (the Spirit), and Carl Barks to do the next covers in line. After that, it was easy to solicit covers. VAUGHN: There’s a great story—one Ed Catto documented in a ComicMix column—about the Spirit cover by Will Eisner on CBPG #6. What can you tell us about it? OVERSTREET: In the fall of 1975, DC Comics recommended that I contact Crown Publishers in New York about bookstore distribution

for the Guide. I called them and they pre-ordered 10,000 copies of my next book, which was The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #6. I contacted Will Eisner to do a 1776 theme, since it was our country’s 200th anniversary in 1976. He finished the art right away and upon receiving it, I sent Crown a copy of my new cover. They called me on Christmas Eve 1975 and told me that Eisner could not have his name on the cover because his illustrated cookbook series had sold awfully. I had to call Eisner on Christmas Eve to ask him if it would be okay to drop his name off the cover art. This was very hard for me and something I did not want to do. I got him on the phone and surprisingly he agreed for me to delete his name from the cover art. However, I just couldn’t do it. I left his name on the cover, much to Crown’s chagrin. Incidentally, it ended up selling very well. This was so important because this was my very first book for bookstore distribution worldwide. VAUGHN: What are your personal favorite Guide covers? OVERSTREET: How can you not like all the early covers? I loved them all! VAUGHN: You’re probably sick of me saying it at this point, but with Kubert, Eisner, and Barks, followed by Ward, Wood, and Schomburg, you really threw down the gauntlet to those of us who have had to pick covers for the Guide. Which recent ones do you think are our best for keeping up your grand tradition? OVERSTREET: I think all the recent covers are excellent and am very happy with the way you have kept the standard high with them. VAUGHN: When you look back on it, did you ever still expect to be doing it today?

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 29

Spider-Woman and Her Amazing Friends From Heritage’s archives, Mark Sparacio’s original art for the New Avengers cover created as one of multiple covers for Price Guide #37 (2007). (opposite page) An amazing array of covers from The Comic Book Price Guide. © Gemstone Publishing, Inc. Characters © their respective copyright holders.

OVERSTREET: When I did the first book, I didn’t think I’d have to do another one. [laughter] The first book was a lot of work. I didn’t know… I hadn’t thought that much about the future. I hadn’t thought about having to do this book every year. But as the decades roll by, the book has actually become my life. My love for comics from the start has prevailed now for more than 64 years and will continue as far as I can see. VAUGHN: Were you hoping that professional publisher would come along, take over, and do it like the Red Book? OVERSTREET: Oh, yeah. There was a point after a few years that I sent copies to major publishers and tried to get them to take it. They all turned me down and said the market didn’t need a book like that. Because the first one was such a success, though, there had to be a second. And the second one was twice as successful as the first one, and that meant there had to be a third one. The circulation of the Guide was increasing every year. I really had the proverbial tiger by the tail. I was stuck with it, making enough money to keep it going. I couldn’t drop it. The most amusing thing to me when I put out the first Guide was that every day when I went to the mailbox, there was a check. I couldn’t believe that it was so easy. You just run an ad… and all these people send money in.

That’s what made it great because it eventually gave me the freedom to do this full time. VAUGHN: One of the biggest changes in the market since I’ve been working with you clearly has to be the arrival of third-party, independent grading and certification. What do you think first CGC and now CBCS have brought to the market? OVERSTREET: I’ve always thought that the comic market needed professional grading to survive into the future. The coin market went through this transition successfully, so why not comics? Value is based on an acceptable certified grade, which opened up our market to many auction houses or anyone that had a certified comic for sale and has propelled our market to the top along with coins, art, antique cars, antiques, etc. VAUGHN: The Guide is now just three years shy of five decades. What other significant market changes would you note from that time? OVERSTREET: Certification has made our market acceptable to all levels of society and has to be as important an event as the publication of the Guide itself. With certification, now anyone can acquire books with confidence that the grade will be accurate and that the book is as advertised. VAUGHN: For The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #40, you were a guest of Comic-Con International: San Diego. As I recall, that was the first time you ever let a convention pay your way. Why was that? OVERSTREET: Through all the early years, attending conventions was important for me in research pricing with dealers and collectors where I controlled my time. When you attend a convention at their expense, your time is controlled by them and you are obligated to at least do some of the things they have lined up. VAUGHN: After you made your appearance at that show, it was clear that from our sales and the level of participation from some of the Overstreet advisors and retailers that people were very happy to see you were still so involved with the Guide. What sort of reactions did you experience? OVERSTREET: I enjoyed very much seeing everyone and meeting some of the new advisors. VAUGHN: The Hero Initiative hosted a private luncheon at that show for five winners who bid on lunch with you as a fundraiser. What was that like? OVERSTREET: It was thoroughly enjoyable and interesting to meet fans in this way. You don’t realize how you have touched the lives of people over the years which this luncheon brings out. VAUGHN: For the rest of us on the staff, it was very similar when you and Carol were at San Diego for the Guide’s 45th anniversary. You were greeted like a rock star, like a long-lost friend. How did it seem to you? OVERSTREET: I was immensely flattered and beginning to realize how long the Guide has been around, when now the grandkids of collectors/ dealers I knew back in the 1960s are collecting and buying the Guide now. A shorter version of this article appeared in Gemstone’s Scoop email newsletter with the release of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #33. It was expanded, updated, and revised by Overstreet and Vaughn in December 2016. J.C. VAUGHN is vice president of publishing of Gemstone Publishing, Inc.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 31

As a 15-year-old kid in 1968, I would help out my dad and uncle on weekend mornings by cleaning their neighborhood tavern in small-town Rapids City, Illinois. I would also sort empty smelly beer bottles that had been sent down a chute to the basement the night before. I worked three hours every Saturday and Sunday morning, and Dad paid me $12.00. I used the money to buy comic books. I bought most of them at Ben Franklin five-and-dime store in East Moline, Illinois. At the time, comics cost 12¢. Once in a while, the store would have a shopping cart piled high with all sorts of comics that had the titles mysteriously sliced off—and those were just a nickel! (I didn’t know then that what the store was doing was illegal, tearing off and returning the top third of a cover to get a full refund on unsold copies from the distributor and then selling the comics, which were supposed to have been destroyed.) One day in September of 1968, I spent the full 12¢ for the latest issue of Adventure Comics, #374. Inside was an article headlined “The Wonderful World of Comics” that told about something called comics fandom and explained that “fanzines” were amateur fan magazines about comics. The article recommended a fanzine by the name of Comic Crusader, for 25¢. When it arrived in the mail I was hooked, and my life took a dramatic change. I still have that issue of Adventure Comics #374 and that issue of Comic Crusader #3, in a single musty old box of souvenirs from my 15 years in comics fandom. alan light Soon after learning that fanzines existed, it occurred to me, “I could do that!” I wanted to join in. My first attempts, Comic Cavalier and then All Dynamic (“All” came from my initials, Alan Lloyd Light), are laughably crude when looked at now. But they were necessary steps that led to a publication that endured a very long time, indeed—Comics Buyer’s Guide. After losing about $100, which was a lot of money to a kid working hard to earn $12 a week, I decided to try going for a wider audience and maybe even the chance to break even or make a profit. A profit on a fanzine was unheard of in those days and was in fact considered anti-fan. It was very much frowned on. The idea I had at the still-a-kid age of 18 was to publish a tabloid-format newspaper for comic-book fans. It might have a little advertising, but it would be mainly news. In what would turn out later to be an interesting coincidence, the people I contacted back in 1970 to help me with my new idea were Don and Maggie Thompson. Why the Thompsons? They were celebrities in comic-book fandom. They both went way back to the earliest days. They were “connected.” They knew everyone who was important in comics. Don and Maggie had been publishing a mimeographed fanzine called Newfangles,

Uncle Sam Wants You… …to identify these star-spangled stalwarts from the Golden Age on the cover of The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom #1 (Mar. 1971). Cover by fan artist John G. Fantucchio. In the inset photo, the young publisher holds the original cover art for the issue. Characters © their respective copyright holders.

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Light

which contained the latest news about comics gathered straight from their comics-famous friends. Don and Maggie had just announced their decision to stop publishing Newfangles. They were ceasing publication because the effort and expense of publishing had become too great. Contacting them made perfect sense. Here I was with the idea of a fandom newspaper, but no way to collect news for it. Here they were, knowing all the latest news, but no longer wanting the drudge work and expense of maintaining a subscription list, printing issues, and mailing them out. It seemed like a good match to me at the time. So I wrote the Thompsons a letter, something like, “I will take over all of the work if you will gather the news for me.” A win-win situation, I thought. What could go wrong? Well, the big-name fans took the time to politely write back to this guy who had written to them out of the blue to say that they couldn’t help gather any news. They were exhausted and wanted a break. Oh. Without their help—without their news-gathering ability—I couldn’t proceed with my original idea, so I modified it. It would still be newspaper-sized but contain all advertisements instead. The idea, which I called The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom (named after a local free shopper that came in the mail all the time called The Big River Buyer’s Guide), would still be a tabloid 11” x 17” newspaper, but would now be entirely devoted to advertising—the heck with needing someone to collect news—and best of all, the advertisers would design the content themselves! I would send the issues out for free—just like that local shopper I got in the mail all the time. To get addresses of comic-book collectors I combed the pages of existing fanzines and comic books. In those days it was common for comics to publish letters to the editor along with the full mailing addresses of the writers. I also placed ads offering free subscriptions in the major fanzines of the day, including the biggest one of all, the RBCC [Rocket’s

Blast-Comicollector], an adzine published by Gordon B. Love of Miami, Florida. “G. B.,” as he was known, was the most famous fan publisher at the time, and he published RBCC despite the added hardship of having cerebral palsy, which required him to type one letter at a time using a pencil in his fist. (He passed away January 17, 2001, at age 61). My ad in RBCC offered every reader a free subscription to The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom. I remember holding my breath to see if G. B. would publish my ad, since I was an obvious competitor. The ad was critical to my success. If he had rejected it, TBG would likely never succeeded. But he printed it (a mistake, I vowed, I would never make myself), enabling me to obtain virtually his entire subscription list. I called my new company DynaPubs (short for Dynamic Publications). One of the most famous fan artists of the day, John G. Fantucchio, designed the company logo and also drew the first issue’s cover. At the top, he had written, of his own volition, “Daring – Original – Inevitable First Issue.” So there I was in 1971, in my living room, with my mom and dad and grandmother and sister, surrounded by a mountain of copies of the first issue of TBG, using a wet sponge to stick labels onto about 3,000 copies. Not in our wildest dreams would we have believed the publication would last 42 years. TBG went from bimonthly, to monthly, to twice-monthly, to weekly in very short order. By issue #77 (Mar. 1, 1975), the issue was 100 pages with over 7,000 subscribers. By issue #87 (July 18, 1975), the issues were so big that I decided to make the publication weekly, and even so the first issue was 72 tabloid-sized 11” x 17” pages. By issue #200 (Sept. 16, 1977), circulation topped 10,000 subscribers and a normal weekly issue was 80 pages or more. It was not uncommon for a weekly issue to have over 100 tabloid-sized pages.

DynaPubs HQ (top left) DynaPubs’ original headquarters, Alan Light’s home, on the Mississippi River; it’s since been demolished and replaced by condos. (bottom left) Addressing an issue of TBG, March 1974. (top right) The DynaPubs office, 1976. All photos in this article are courtesy of Alan Light. (bottom right) Dan Adkins provided cover art for these early issues of TBG, #3 and 6. © Krause Publications.

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The DynaPubs Duo (top left) Alan Light and Murray Bishoff, August 1972, at the New York Comic Convention. (top middle) Bishoff at the DynaPubs table at the 1975 San Diego Comic-Con. (top right) The back cover of a record album, produced by DynaPubs, of the 1975 Comic-Con’s panels and activities. Only 500 copies were made. (middle) Subscription ad for The Buyer’s Guide. (bottom left) Alan Light receiving an Inkpot Award at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con. (Yes, that’s Gil Kane seated at the table, in the white suit.) (bottom right) This photo taken of Alan was taken in 1977 for local newspaper story. © record album Alan L. Light. The Buyer’s Guide © Krause Publications.

In 1973, my news columnist, Murray Bishoff, and I started going to comic-book conventions. TBG provided a venue for photojournalism and ran photo spreads and summaries of panel discussions from different shows. This push into covering real news, and being able to get it into the hands of readers quickly, made TBG into a real newspaper. We could put the reader right where we had been, and once TBG went weekly, no other publication compared to what we could do. During my 12 years as publisher, I was relentless in promoting the circulation of TBG everywhere I could, especially in the comic books themselves, which greatly expanded the size of comics fandom, and quickly. I sometimes wonder, for example, how much of an impact my efforts affected. Would Comic-Con International in San Diego be the size it is today (for better or worse!) without my aggressive efforts? What other things would have been impeded, or not exist at all today, without my successful efforts to supercharge comics fandom in its important formative stage? There’s no way to know. In 1983, I bowed out after 12 years and 481 issues, when Chet Krause, founder of Krause Publications, approached me to purchase the paper. He felt it would 34 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

Press Check

be a good fit with his other hobby publications. Chet had begun his magazine publishing empire much as I had, starting out by working at his kitchen table. When I told Chet I wasn’t interested in continuing to work on the paper he asked me who I would recommend. I said Don and Maggie Thompson, those big-name fans who had long ago published Newfangles. They went back to the earliest days of comics fandom. Don had been out of work for quite a few months after being laid off at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and he and Maggie were the obvious choice. I have good memories of my dozen years as publisher. My good friend and schoolmate, Murray Bishoff, who is now editor of the Monett Times in Monett, Missouri, was a big help in the early days. He would address all copies of the paper and lug 70-pound mailbags to the post office—a backbreaking job that the printer finally took over with #87 in July 1975. Murray was also a big help by writing the main news column, “Now What?,” for many years. Murray was instrumental in getting Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster a settlement and pension from DC Comics. I’m proud of him for that and proud that he used his column in my paper to do it. Later, Murray was helpful in suggesting Catherine Yronwode to succeed him with her news column, “Fit to Print.” The biggest continuing asset to the paper was my mother, Lavon. She was there all day answering the phone, taking care of the mailing list, and even was an excellent detective in cases of suspected mail fraud. She loved her job and I can say flatly that without her and Dad, the publication would not have lasted. Neither of them questioned my sanity when I told them I wanted to quit college and publish a paper about comic books (of all things!). Dad passed away in 1997, and Mom in 2000. I recall other things, some fond and some not, about my 12 years as publisher… great cartoons by Fred Hembeck, great covers by Terry Beatty and Alan Jim Hanley, columns by Joel Thingvall, Shel Dorf, and the Thompsons, sharing a pizza with Frank Frazetta, going to movie matinees with Max Allan Collins, whose name is now in the movies as screenwriter. It wasn’t always good. There were silly fan feuds, not helped in some cases by my teenage insecurity and immaturity. I remember the time Alan Jim Hanley, creator of Goodguy, visited me and I took him out to a nice restaurant for dinner and convinced him to order his first lobster. A year later I received the awful news that he had been killed in a car accident. And after I sold the paper in 1983 the printer I had used for 12 years went under from the loss of my account. But all in all, I still feel proud about what I started as an 18-year-old so long ago. It was a great, long, successful run of 42 years and 1699 print issues (481 of them mine).

(top left) Publisher Alan Light, “Fit to Print” columnist Catherine Yronwode, and Eclipse Comics publisher Dean Mullaney inspect the printing of an issue of TBG, circa 1982. (top right) In the fall of 1982, Alan Light (right) sold The Buyer’s Guide to Krause Publications’ Chet Krause (left). (middle top) Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha. com), original cover art by Terry Beatty for TBG #472 (Dec. 3, 1972). Note the cameos by early-’80s characters from independents, including E-Man, Jon Sable, the Rocketeer, and Ms. Tree. (middle bottom) Don and Maggie Thompson with their first issue. (bottom) Alan Light says, “I surprised Don and Maggie by appearing at their booth unannounced [at San Diego ComicCon 1990]. I sidled up when they weren’t looking and said, ‘How can I subscribe to this thing?,’ and you should have seen their startled reaction. Comics Buyer’s Guide © Krause Publications.

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It was a wistful, sentimental longing of a certain red-suited hero from his youth that drove Bernie McCarty, a Chicago-area newspaper sportswriter, college football enthusiast, jazz records connoisseur, and someone who appreciated sipping a good martini, to selfproduce and publish a ’70s fanzine about his bestremembered comic books that left such a lasting impression on him as a child. But our story really begins in the mid-’60s, where Illinois comic-book collector Joe Sarno began organizing meetings down in his basement of his house once a month with other Chicago-area comics fans. McCarty, still a fan of the comics he grew up reading during the Golden Age, learned of Sarno’s basement bashes and, at his first meeting, made friends with two other avid collectors, Ken Pierce and Frank Craft, who also resided in Bernie’s suburban hometown of Park Forest South, Illinois. Attending that first meeting was the first step towards McCarty becoming a fanzine publisher. By the late-’60s, Sarno’s basement get-togethers became so overcrowded that the gatherings were moved inside a northside Chicago bank! Eventually, these once-a-month Sunday meetings outgrew to yet another venue before Sarno and friends organized their first comic convention in 1970. At the time, in the pre-Price Guide era, collector trading and selling were still wide open and based on wants, not on monetary value. Two years later, McCarty, with Pierce, Craft, and newcomer Chuck Agner, organized the Old Time Comic Book Club of Illinois (complete with membership cards), which held mini-conventions in a large ballroom at the downtown Chicago YMCA Hotel. Pierce (who had just become a book publisher), and later Craft, were in charge of the conventions. (Both Craft and Sarno would eventually open up their own comic-book shops in Chicagoland.) In early 1972, while still an active member of the Old Time Comic Book Club, Bernie met popular fanzine artist Alan “Jim” Hanley—a fan of the original Captain Marvel who had created many of his own comic books, with characters based on old Fawcett and Golden Age heroes. One Sunday afternoon, Bernie met up with Hanley at the artist’s studio apartment in Chicago. There, at Hanley’s drawing board, the two came up with concepts to revive the old Captain Marvel Club, which both men had been members of during their comic-book-reading childhoods. Their optimistic notions quickly faded, but it was Hanley’s enthusiasm that afternoon that stuck with Bernie, and which inspired him to launch a newsletter-style fanzine entitled Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) in March 1973—its release date unintentionally closely coinciding with DC’s Captain Marvel revival in Shazam! just a couple of months earlier. The fanzine was just four pages of want-sell-trade lists for comic collectors to peruse. By issue #2 (June 1973) the zine

The Big Red Cheese’s Big Green Zine Fawcett Collectors of America #1 (Mar. 1973). Note editor Bernie McCarty’s inset photo. All images in this article are courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck. Characters TM & © DC Comics.

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b y P.

C. Hamerlinck

had expanded to eight pages, and subsequent issues stayed that way. McCarty originally assumed that Fawcett collectors simply wanted to buy and swap old comics, and perhaps communicate or correspond with other like-minded fans— many who were now middle-aged, respectable citizens and parents (whom Dr. Frederic Wertham and other comics critics assured us would grow up into perverts and criminals) who loved the same comics that others did when they were kids—thereby McCarty devoted the early issues to that end. The title of the fanzine itself was a step toward that unification. But FCA subscribers were opened up to a whole new world when fervent fans such as Matt Lage and Dan Fabrizio surfaced and began contributing articles to the zine, including informative interviews with writers, artists, and editors, and profiling various old Fawcett titles. Other fans could now learn more about those who were at the helm producing their favorite comics. Names such as C. C. Beck, Otto Binder, Kurt Schaffenberger, and others soon became, as McCarty once put it, “real human beings, not mysterious gods of my childhood.” Only a couple of seminal works—including Alter Ego, All In Color for a Dime, and Steranko’s History of Comics vol. 2—had previously shed light to those hungry to know more about Fawcett. FCA was infrequently published, to put it delicately. Basically, a new issue would only be published when McCarty had accumulated enough extra cash to do so. Due to FCA’s first incarnation being given away essentially for free (although donations and selfaddressed stamped envelopes were cheerfully accepted), the circulation quickly climbed to over 500 copies per issue. However, after issue #11, FCA experienced a longer than usual hiatus. The lapse continued for over a year: “In limbo,” McCarty explained, “due to rising production costs.” And then, lightning struck again. Captain Marvel co-creator and chief artist C. C. Beck, who had previously just been contributing letters of comments to the zine, stepped forward and decided it c. c. beck might be fun to get involved. Beck took over as editor, renaming the zine FCA/SOB (Some Opinionated Bastards) #1—yet still also retaining McCarty’s original numbering. FCA/SOB went to a regular bimonthly schedule for the first time ever, and paid subscriptions of a paltry fee were solicited. Delightful cartoons by Beck were highlighted throughout the publication, in contrast with his conservative viewpoints and often dogmatic editorializing and assertive essays on comics and art. Beck was determined to illicit strong reactions from readers, even if that meant getting them riled up a bit. While Beck had strong convictions on what constituted true comic art, and astute opinions to match them, he also realized that if he was going to take on being an editor (ironically, he always loathed editors, except for his Fawcett editors), he was bent on brewing up some mischievous fun with the role. By contrast, in person, Beck was elf-like in appearance—kind-hearted, soft-spoken, often chuckling —quite unlike his exaggerated published alter-ego persona which often painted him as a raging old, out-of-touch, unreasonable cranky curmudgeon. FCA’s potent new direction as “SOB” Say (Big Red) Cheese! was perhaps predestined, from early reports in McCarty’s FCA (top) Under editor C. C. Beck, the zine became FCA/SOB. of Beck’s involvement, disdain, and ensuing complications with DC Comics. Beck treatises, such as “The Destruction Beck also provided the main cover art for this issue, FCA/SOB #3 of Creativity,” “We Were Considered a Bunch of Idiots,” (Aug. 1980), also issue #14 of FCA. (bottom) C. C. Beck and and “What Really Killed the Golden Age,” set the stage for the publication’s direction. While Beck’s openness with Bernie McCarty, as cartooned by Beck in 1980. his opinions was outrageous to many readers during his Shazam!/Captain Marvel TM & © DC Comics. Captain Klutz TM & © Don Martin. Art © C. C. Beck estate. vivacious tenure as editor, FCA/SOB’s biggest reader reaction Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 37

was actually garnered from a survey conducted by McCarty requesting subscriber’s “top-ten lists” of their favorite comics. Beck’s “New vs. Old Captain Marvel Debate” from FCA/SOB #14 (Aug. 1980) also generated high reader controversy, with Beck raking Don Newton’s version of the World’s Mightiest Mortal (then-currently being published in World’s Finest Comics) over the coals. Beck considered modern comics “garbled nonsense” and stated that the new creators of the Captain Marvel stories had missed the point of the humor and absurdities in the old books, and eventually summarized that there was “really no point in trying to compare the new Captain Marvel with the old one; they’re like apples and oranges… which, by the way, is in the same family as the lemon.” Newton, a longtime fan of Captain Marvel and admirer of Beck’s work, was given equal time to state his case on why characters had to change over time or they eventually become outdated. “When DC offered me the chance to draw Captain Marvel, I was delighted to hear [editor] Jack Harris say that he should be drawn in a more realistic, contemporary style.” After receiving the issue in the mail, Newton was so put off by its contentious nature that he wrote to publisher Bernie McCarty, requesting that his name never be mentioned again in FCA/SOB. There had also been several letters from subscribers who complained that Beck’s “nuts and bolts” style of editing was too high-handed when it came to their stripped-down published letters and articles. Beck stood by his old belief: “Have something to say, then say it.” Beck paid the majority of FCA/SOB’s costs out of his own pocket. At the time he was living on Social Security, and making some cash on the side by creating paintings for fans. Beck produced FCA/SOB from his Florida residence. It was one of the very few fanzines edited by a veteran professional artist and designer, thus it retained a sleek, high-quality appearance—while still retaining the folksy feel of a fanzine. The Beck/McCarty collaboration lasted 19 issues, ending with #30 (May–June 1983). Beck suffered a minor stroke, impairing his vision and forcing him to step down as editor. A year later, Bill and Teresa Harper from South Carolina would take over the zine, re-naming it FCA & ME, Too! Even though Bill Harper had caught the tail end of the Golden Age, those years of comic-book reading also had a profound effect on him. Bill’s wife, Teresa, had been an avid reader of more-recent comics such as Conan the Barbarian and Vampirella. The couple worked in the graphic-design field as art directors and, as an avocation, were researching the work of Carl Pfeufer, artist of the Sub-Mariner and Tom Mix Western— the latter of which had led them in the direction of FCA.

McCarty attempted to discourage the Harpers’ intentions to take on FCA, sharing with them all of the headaches involved in producing a fanzine. Nevertheless, the determined Harper team assumed editorial duties with issue #31 (1984), and the phasing out of the “SOB” content, and McCarty’s involvement, had begun. The Harper’s inclusion of “ME” into the title represented Vin Sullivan’s Magazine Enterprises company from the ’50s, in which Bill Harper was an expert of one of their characters, Straight Arrow. The Harpers’ coverage mostly encompassed Western comics by both ME and Fawcett. Yet, as time went on, the frequency of the publication once again became nearly non-existent, and the embodiment of the zine had seemingly died a quiet death. The Harpers’ unannounced final issue made reference in an editorial of the increasing difficulties of obtaining interesting material and the “shrinking world of fanzines.” Flashback to the ’70s: Beck adored his fans and treated them as equals. I had begun an 11-year friendship with Captain Marvel’s co-creator and chief artist, C. C. Beck… years of phone calls and letters (some via audiocassette)… interviews, collaborations… communicating back and forth about comic art and a variety of other topics. We eventually met in person on one amazing Saturday in 1980. After Beck passed away in November of 1989, my interest in comics took a hit and I dropped them out of my life for the next several years. Still, the Marvel Family, Fawcett, Shazam!, Beck, and others were always in the back of my mind. I couldn’t shake it. The emotional impact was too strong. I now understood how moments in the past strongly affect us all, and stay with us because they are a part of who we are. So, with that, and not buying into the Harpers’ thinking that interesting material was difficult to find, I make a call to my friend Bernie McCarty. He believes I’m the one who can bring FCA back to life. (Well, at least he doesn’t try to talk me out of it, like he did with the Harpers.) I then call the Harper household, and they are delighted to make the transition of their dormant fanzine happen right away. Thus, in the middle of a miserable below-zero Minnesota winter day in 1995, the rebirth of FCA was under way. Before I began the often self-punishing, self-publishing pursuit, other than Beck’s writings that I was put in charge of by his daughter, I felt I needed another firsthand account from someone who had been involved with the Marvel Family’s original run. I flew to New Jersey for a small comic-book convention in the city of Woodbridge. I met several Silver and Bronze Age superstars that weekend, including Murphy Anderson, Rich Buckler, and Joe Staton, but my sole

Men of Stone (left) FCA/SOB #11–FCA #22 (Dec. 1981–Jan. 1982). Cover by Beck. (right) Under the editorship of Bill and Teresa Harper, the zine was known as FCA & Me, Too! Cover to issue #10– FCA #46 (Fall 1989) by Alex Toth. Shazam!/Captain Marvel, Superman, and Batman TM & © DC Comics.

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Earning His Stripes Captain Marvel fan/scholar P.C. Hamerlinck was thrilled to revitalize the venerated Shazam-zine. A Marvelized Tawky Tawny hogs the limelight on the cover of issue #58 (1997), by Peter Krause, then the artist of DC’s The Power of Shazam! monthly series. Shazam! TM & © DC Comics.

mission there was to meet another one of my artistic heroes, Kurt Schaffenberger, and to pitch my idea of him writing his memoirs about his years working in comics during the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages in a regular column for my new FCA. Kurt, being the gentleman that he was, graciously declined: “Paul, it was a part of my life, but it was just a job, and nothing more.” Upon returning home, I contacted my second choice for a veteran artist to be a regular part of the zine. I figured it was a long shot. He was not that widely familiar in the comic-book circles, and hadn’t been involved in comics since a brief stint at Charlton during the ’50s before he left the industry for good. Nevertheless, after I had presented the idea to Marc Swayze during that initial phone conversation, I knew without a doubt that it was time for this unsung hero of the comics to leave the land of obscurity and stand proudly in the spotlight. Swayze’s column, “We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age!,” became our lead-in and most anticipated feature. Marc’s memoirs in FCA endured for over a decade and a half, lasting longer than his actual career in comics! It was unprecedented for any Golden Age comics professional to write their memoirs in a regularly published forum for that length of time. Marc had originally referred to himself as “the most forgotten of the unknowns, or the most unknown of the forgottens.” I hope that is no longer the case.

My days as a self-publisher came to a close when Roy Thomas (an FCA subscriber and contributor) invited the fanzine to become a part of volume 3 of his legendary Alter Ego magazine. The TwoMorrows “merger” now brought Fawcett/Captain Marvel history to a wider audience, while allowing me to collaborate each issue with one of my favorite comic-book writers of the Silver and Bronze Ages. And we’re still going at it, six times a year. How can one explain the continued interest and staying power of those Fawcett books and the original Captain Marvel? “The magic word was FUN!” as DC’s E. Nelson Bridwell once said. And maybe it’s as simple as that. Captain Marvel historian P.C. HAMERLINCK is the editor of Fawcett Collectors of America, appearing in the pages of our sister publication, Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine.

Lightning Still Strikes Editor Hamerlinck continues to keep Shazam lore alive in FCA in its current home within TwoMorrows’ Alter Ego magazine. Main cover art to FCA #169 (June 2012) by Mark Lewis. Shazam! and Secret Origins TM & © DC Comics. The Phantom Eagle © the respective copyright holders.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 39

In 1972–1973, Marvel Comics was in full swing in popularity, and DC was close behind. Fans were enamored with the art of Bernie Wrightson and Barry [Windsor-]Smith… the writings of Roy Thomas, Denny O’Neil, and Len Wein… and comics like Conan the Barbarian, Swamp Thing, and Green Lantern/ Green Arrow… Comic fandom was running full speed with fanproduced periodicals like The Comic Reader and The Menomonee Falls Gazette. The Buyer’s Guide to Comic Fandom, a weekly advertising/article fanzine, had two years under its belt. Some of us had been members of the M.M.M.S.— Merry Marvel Marching Society (1964–1969)— and Marvelmania International (1969–1971). We read every letters column and devoured “Stan’s Soapbox” column every month… When we saw the ads and blurbs for a new Marvelcentric fan group called F.O.O.M. (herewith FOOM)— or Friends Of Ol’ Marvel—in the comics, we sent away our $3.00 for a four-issue subscription, or $4.00 for the subscription and a membership kit. I went for everything, kit and all! I wasn’t disappointed. The influence of each FOOM editor creates a natural grouping of the issues published, so I’ll approach the history with that in mind.

THE JIM STERANKO ISSUES: #1–4

Just about anybody who has read comics from the 1960s to the current day has heard of Jim Steranko… or just “Steranko.” Jim is a professional illusionist (magician), a musician, and a recognized comic-book artist starting with his work for Harvey Comics’ “Harvey Thrillers” series in the 1960s and later for his work on an influential run on Marvel’s Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America, and other series and covers. His iconic covers for the paperback series of The Shadow pulp-story reprints and for Leigh Brackett’s John Starr series are well known. His role as a comics historian and accomplished publisher add to the résumé—his History of Comics volumes and Mediascene magazine are well remembered. And with FOOM… he started it all. Issue #1 (Spring 1973) When the first issue arrived, there was Smilin’ Stan’s face on the cover and a typical Stan’s Soapbox speech that included: “Here, clutched within your frantic fingers, is the first of many such magnificent magazines which you will receive—an endless bounty of all that is best, all that is noblest, all that most truly symbolizes the soul and spirit of we who follow Foom!” Jim Steranko wrote about the origin of the magazine with his editorial in the first issue: “I dropped in at the Marvel [B]ullpen to rap with Stan about the current comic scene when the subject came up. Stan mentioned that he was thinking

Make Room… for FOOM! Stan the Man hogs the cover of the Jim Steranko-edited-and-designed FOOM #1 (Spring 1973). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by S t e p h a n

Friedt

seriously about initiating a new Marvel Comics club. It had occurred to him, he revealed, at one of his college lecture engagements. “‘FOOM.’ he told them, ‘is the name the new organization.’ “‘FOOM?’ I asked! “‘Friends of Ol’ Marvel,’ he explained. “…Suddenly at a lightning pace, we began exchanging ideas about the new club: it would be Marvel-based, not leased out like the previous one. Projects would be developed exclusively for the Marvel fan—colorful, exciting, and informative projects like none that had ever come before. In the heat of enthusiasm, I volunteered my services as designer, writer, and comic historian to the cause. We shook hands on it.” The first issue was devoted to the Fantastic Four. It included an article about the series by Ed Noonchester and a checklist to FF issues #1–132. Editor Steranko produced several new illustrations for this issue. Biographies (with photos) of Stan Lee, John Buscema, Roy Thomas, Joe Sinnott, and Gerry Conway were included, along with games, puzzles, previews of upcoming Marvel issues, and merchandise ads. Issue #2 (Summer 1973) The second issue highlighted the Hulk, with a spectacular Steranko cover illustration. It included a short Hulk article by Martin Greim and checklist for the six issues of the original Hulk series, Hulk’s run in Tales to Astonish #60–101, and Incredible Hulk #102–165. FOOM #2 also included a forward by Stan Lee, behind-the-scenes photos of the Marvel Bullpen in action, an interview of Roy Thomas by Dwight R. Decker concerning the new phenomenon of Conan, fan-art contest pages including submissions by future stars Steve Rude and Trevor Von Eeden, and the usual fun, games, previews, and advertisements for Marvel merchandise. The back cover was a stunning Mike Ploog illustration of Frankenstein. Issue #3 (Fall 1973) Issue #3 featured Spider-Man, with a Steranko infinity cover. Contents: a Spider-Man article by Bob Cosgrove and Martin Greim, a checklist covering Amazing Spider-Man #1–125, ASM Annuals #1–9, and Marvel Team-Up #1–13; short bios of Spider-artists John Romita, Sr., Gil Kane, and Frank Giacoia; and fan-art pages submissions by future pros Grant Miehm and Tom Lyle. It also featured the winner of the fan-art superhero contest with Michael Barreiro’s winning entry “Humus Sapiens,” plus the usual games, previews, and house ads. Sal Buscema provided an Avengers back cover.

Calling All Friends Of Ol’ Marvel! (top left) This FOOM membership ad appeared in 1973 Marvel comics. (top right) Here’s what your FOOM membership packet contained, including that scrumptiously super Steranko poster. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom) Covers to FOOM #2–4, edited by Jim Steranko. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #4 (Winter 1973) The fourth issue, Steranko’s last, featured Dr. Doom with a Jack Kirby front cover, a Dr. Doom article by Gabriel Coco, Ph.D., and a centerfold featuring a board game designed by Steranko featuring Dr. Doom and other Marvel villains. This issue featured several new Steranko illustrations, a Steranko bio, and a one-page text mystery story by Steranko. There was a one-page report by Bruce Cardozo about a planned, independently produced Spider-Man movie, a Marie Severin Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 41

The Isabella Issues (bottom) One of the last illos by Rich Buckler (who died 5-19-17), commissioned by Jim McCaffrey and drawn in January 2017, recreating the artist’s cover to (inset) FOOM #5. (top) Issues #6 and 7. (right) Mailing label allocation, as seen on #1’s back cover. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

self-portrait, a lettercol including a missive from future Marvel writer/editor Ralph Macchio, more fan art, and the usual games, previews of Marvel comics, and house ads. Jack Kirby provided the art for the back cover. Up to this point, Steranko had been doing practically everything editorially (with the assistance of Ken Bruzenak), and it got to the point of being too much time for too little money. His comic work as an artist was worth more of his time, and his work as a paperback cover illustrator was even more lucrative. So Jim left FOOM and Marvel took the project in-house.

THE TONY ISABELLA ISSUES: #5–7

Tony Isabella was the next to hold the editorial reins. Tony had come up through fandom to be picked by Roy Thomas to be an assistant editor at Marvel. That quickly led to Tony’s position overseeing the Marvel UK line and as an editor of the black-and-white magazine line. Tony wrote for many of Marvel’s titles, from Ghost Rider to Luke Cage, and from Hero for Hire to Captain America. Tony created Black Goliath for Marvel and Black Lightning for DC, and co-created the character Misty Knight and the team The Champions. I talked to Tony Isabella about the FOOM transition: STEPHAN FRIEDT: How did you get picked for the job? Did Steranko recommend you… hence your “Thank you” in your first editorial? TONY ISABELLA: I was picked to be the new editor because I was the obvious choice. Besides having very recent roots in comics fandom, I was working in Sol Brodsky’s department and this magazine fell into his bailiwick. As for my thanking Jim, I confess that was a secret sarcastic dig. Jim and I were having disagreements back then, though we patched things up long ago. He had nothing to do with my getting the job. FRIEDT: Tell me what was it like working with FOOM contributors Mark Evanier, Marie Severin, Rich Buckler, Doug Moench, and the rest of your beginning crew? ISABELLA: I didn’t actually have a “crew” for FOOM. I would beg and coerce and sometimes actually pay people to do stuff for the mag. Mark Evanier was one of my oldest and therefore most forgiving friends, and I was somewhat close to Rich Buckler. Marie Severin was the darling of anyone with the sense to recognize she was more capable than 99% of the Marvel Bullpen. Doug Moench wrote a lot of stuff for me on the black-and-whites, so we had a good working relationship. Honestly, I was doing so many things for Marvel— supervising the British weeklies, editing some of the black-and-whites, helping out with the color comics, writing some comic books, and doing special projects 42 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

for Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky—that FOOM has mostly slipped from my memory. An amusing sidebar: The normally unflappable Jim Warren (publisher of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and other fine magazines) tried to hire me away from Marvel in the middle of all this. I liked Jim, so I sat down with him in his office. He actually gulped when I rattled off everything I was doing at Marvel… and he wanted to pay me just as much to edit just one or two magazines for him. It was a terrific offer, but I loved Marvel too much. Issue #5 (Spring 1974) Ben Grimm (the Thing of the Fantastic Four) was featured in this “Thing of the Year” issue with a Rich Buckler/Joe Sinnott front cover. Included was an uncredited article about the Thing, bios of Rich Buckler and Steve Gerber, a Deathlok article by Doug Moench, fan art by Ken Steacy and John Byrne, and a “Recommended Reading” column by Chris Claremont. Byrne and Duffy Vohland provided the Mantis back cover. FRIEDT: Your “Thing of the Year” issue… what prompted you to use that theme? ISABELLA: I was always looking for interesting articles/ ideas/themes. My best guess—since I don’t actually remember my reasoning at the time—was that I had that great piece of art and wanted to figure out something different to do with it for the cover. After that, it was a no-brainer to have a Thing article inside the issue. Here’s a question for the fans and pros out there. Who wrote that Thing article? It’s not signed. It could’ve been me, though, if I did write it, I’m sure I’d have signed it. It could have been someone else. I can’t remember. FRIEDT: This issue had the first “Irving Forbush Awards.” What was the seed behind them, and what kind of response did you get? ISABELLA: Memory fails me. It might have been in the works before I became editor. The part where it says the character who wins one of the polls would get a featured role in Avengers is not something I would have printed if it hadn’t been approved by [editor-in-chief] Roy Thomas. As for response, I don’t remember seeing it.

Not the Kind of Girl… …you take home to Mother. (top) Satana, that is, as played by Angelique Trouvere, with FOOM editor Tony Isabella. (bottom) Original art to the back cover of FOOM #5 (Spring 1974), featuring Mantis as illo’ed by John Byrne and Duffy Vohland. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #6 (Summer 1974) The Avengers issue, part one of two. This issue included illustrations by Dave Cockrum, Rick Hoberg, and Billy Graham (un-inked pencils from Jungle Action #12); part one of a two-part “interview” with Jarvis, the Avengers mansion butler; a cartoon page by Stan Lee and Marie Severin; and Roy Thomas talking about the upcoming “Man-Gods from Beyond the Stars.” FRIEDT: The Jarvis issue. What were your thoughts behind that as a subject? ISABELLA: I wanted something different and came up with the idea of an extended Jarvis interview, à la the interviews in Playboy. I hired Roger Stern to write it, with some Marie Severin headshots and a bunch of Dave Cockrum illustrations. I thought and still think it was the best thing I ever did in FOOM. Issue #7 (Fall 1974) The Avengers issue, part two of two. This issue featured illustrations by Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, and Mike Ploog; part two of the “interview” with Avengers butler Jarvis; one page of headshots of Bullpen members at the 1974 Comic Art Convention; and five pages of photos from a softball game featuring Marvel staffers and guests, collectively providing photos of Cockrum, Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, Jim Steranko, Tony Isabella, Len Wein, Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman, Jack Abel, Vince Colletta, Glynis Wein, Roy Thomas, Al Milgrom, Michael Kaluta, and Roger Slifer. Also included was a page of cartoons by Stan Lee and Marie Severin. Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 43

FRIEDT: The continuation of Jarvis interview and the Marvel softball team photos… any memories there? ISABELLA: I don’t remember how much I had to do with issue #7 beyond the continuation of the Jarvis interview. However, just based on my editing sensibilities, I may have initiated the softball photos. As a reader, I always liked these slices of Marvel life when they ran in the Bullpen Bulletins. I tried to continue that connection with the readers in the magazines I edited. FRIEDT: Any anecdotes or fun stories you’d like to share? ISABELLA: Sometimes it seems like my time at Marvel was a blur. I was always doing so much work while trying to enjoy the Big Apple as any young man of my generation would have. So much work and so much play was not a healthy combination, mentally or physically. But I cherish getting to work closely with Stan, Roy, Sol, and many others. My only real regrets are that I often made decisions based more on what was good for the company than what was good for me and that I was spread so thin I couldn’t do my best work on the titles entrusted to me. Makes me wonder what I could have produced if I’d accept Jim Warren’s offer and concentrated on just two magazines. I did enjoy putting those magazines together, even when they didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. Maybe one of these years I will try editing a magazine again. FRIEDT: And then you were gone. What can you reveal about the changeover? ISABELLA: Precious little. I was leaving my staff job to concentrate on my writing and to avoid the somewhat-volatile office politics in the wake of Roy Thomas stepping down as editor-in-chief. I recall spending a portion of my last few weeks going through the slush pile of stories submitted to the black-and-white magazines. I bought maybe two scripts from that huge pile. Beyond that, I would have done what I could to have the magazines in good shape for my replacements. Material I started would show up in the magazines almost to the end of their respective runs. For a time, at the insistence of Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky, I had a desk in some mostly empty office space. They wanted me close so I could do special jobs for them. But, even that became uncomfortable for Roy’s replacements and for me. Disenchanted with New York City in general, I moved back to Cleveland.

The Edelman Issues Covers to FOOM #8–10, the first three issues edited by Scott Edelman. And Romita, Starlin, and Cockrum as cover artists…? Wow! TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE SCOTT EDELMAN ISSUES: #8–11

Scott Edelman was the next editor to take control of FOOM. Scott had been writing horror stories for both Marvel and DC. At Marvel he created the Scarecrow and wrote stories for Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Omega the Unknown. Scott is also a published fiction author, has written for Hanna-Barbera and Tales From the Darkside for TV, and was the only editor for the science-fiction magazine Science Fiction Age. Add to that his work with the professional wrestling magazine Rampage and his unauthorized wrestling biography comics. Top it off with his editorship of Syfy Channel’s print magazine and their online magazine and you’ll agree, Scott’s been around! FRIEDT: Tell me about your time on FOOM. SCOTT EDELMAN: I’m sure I remember every single moment of it from 43 years ago. [laughs] It’s good to be interviewed about something every few years just so you can tell a completely different story each time and see what you’ve forgotten or misremembered! I do this with a caveat or proviso that if someone else remembers this differently, I am more than willing to yield to whatever it is they believed actually happened back then. Some of this is from back when I was 19 and 20… I remember saving my nickels in a green Peppermint Pattie can to send in for my membership to the Merry Marvel Marching Society… I still have my membership card! So to go from one side of being a member of the fan club to the other side and asked to edit the magazine for Stan Lee was a wonderful thing! I never could have predicted that as a kid growing up in Brooklyn. I don’t recall the exact moment or circumstance that brought about my taking over, but like several other instances where I ended up following Tony Isabella’s footsteps… I was in the right place and available when he left the British Marvel magazine line and ended up taking his place, and had been helping him on FOOM, like so many others had been, and when he left, I was chosen. Mirthful Marie Severin documented the relationship with her illustration in the first issue I was credited with editing. Seems like when we were in our 20s, it was more common to have interpersonal joshing and to joke and laugh at our physical differences, Tony’s stature, my height, and Jim Shooter’s size… more so then we do when we mature and get older. When I think back on what kind of responsibility they gave a mere 20-year-old back then—I’ve discussed this with my wife [Irene Vartanoff, former Marvel production wizard and currently a romance author]… “Really? They let a 20-year-old run the magazine?”—there was a kind of anarchy back then that I don’t feel exists anymore. Things we were allowed to do and decide just don’t happen with the newcomers of today. Back then, editors like Tony Isabella, Marv Wolfman, and Len Wein didn’t care who you were as long as you could get the job done. If you were a true Marvel fan and had a little bit of talent, they gave you the rope to get your job done.

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Back then I was writing the Bullpen Bulletins Page (except for Stan’s Soapbox, which Stan Lee always wrote) and I’d have to check the corresponding dates, but it could have been that they thought, “Well, he’s already doing the Bulletins page, he can write copy… let’s give him the job.” FRIEDT: One of the pleasures of Marvel for a fan like me at that time was the accessibility that the staff portrayed to the fans… EDELMAN: Stan started it… Even though he grew up in the corporate atmosphere, he presented himself as a fan, he presented himself as “one of you.” He didn’t relate to you as the boss, he related to you as an excited fan, and that was infectious. And then when you have all these fans working on the books—it really was the lunatics taking over the asylum—it was natural for us to talk to the fans from the perspective of the fan. And because many of us went way back as fans—I think I first won a trivia contest that Tony Isabella ran in one of his columns, maybe for Comic Fandom Monthly or some other early fanzine in my very early days—and the fact that we had that in common with the readers really made it a small “family.” FRIEDT: What direction did you want to take the magazine into? EDELMAN: Well, I wanted it to be entertaining and I wanted it to be beautiful as well. There were other people doing the layouts (Lenny Grow and Barbara Altman), they would use my suggestions for composition of illustrations and such that used my eye for design. I wanted it to be beautiful and different—like the change I made in the news section… It used to be simply, “Here’s what’s coming up,” and I thought I should go interview the people doing the new books and get the personality behind them as well. Let’s not do it the same way everybody else does. Nobody else was doing that, and I used it again when I was editing Science Fiction Age. We included science articles, and I thought instead of a dry article, how about an interview with the scientists involved. So I would get two or three of them together over a lunch or dinner and we’d discuss the subject then that was transcribed to become the article. My Dinner with Andre, as it were… I still have some of the interviews I did, like one with Steve Gerber… but most of them haven’t survived the years. Some of them are available to listen to on my YouTube channel. I remember we were required to have three or four pages of Marvel merchandise advertising per issue. I tried to make them as entertaining as possible. FRIEDT: In one of them you offered to give away Don McGregor to a randomly chosen subscriber to a Marvel comic… EDELMAN: I don’t recall if anyone won that one… [laughter] FRIEDT: Were you under budget constraints? EDELMAN: I don’t remember us having any budget! Most of the work was in-house and I don’t recall it costing me anything.

The New Editor (top left) A Marie Severin cartoon from FOOM #8, signifying the editorial changeover with Tony Isabella atop the shoulder of Scott Edelman. (top right) FOOM editor Edelman on the job. Both courtesy of Scott Edelman. (bottom) From FOOM #8, David Anthony Kraft’s baby picture. TM & © Marvel.

Issue #8 (Dec. 1974) The Captain America issue. This issue started with a Captain America/ Bucky front cover by John Romita, Sr. and Mike Esposito. Included were illustrations by John Byrne, Charley Parker, and Marie Severin; an article on Cap and the Falcon by Roger Stern; a report on the 1944 Captain America movie serial; and a look at Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s creation of Cap. The news section featured Scott Edelman’s interviews, with comments from George Pérez, Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Marv Wolfman, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, and David Anthony Kraft on their current projects, as well as their baby pictures. The back cover was by John Byrne. EDELMAN: You can get wistful looking back over some of these. I asked everyone to bring me baby pictures for the issue, and Bill Mantlo brought in a picture of his current self in baby attire… We seldom knew if that kind of antics was enjoyed by the fans. In those pre-Internet days you got letters, but not in the quantity of the kind of feedback you get these days with Facebook and Twitter. FRIEDT: From this fan and subscriber’s point of view… we loved it! Issue #9 (Mar. 1975) The Silver Surfer/Captain Marvel/Warlock “Cosmic” issue. Starting with a Jim Starlin front cover, this issue was filled with illustrations by John Byrne and Don Maitz. The articles included Roger Stern-penned pieces about the Surfer, Captain Marvel, and the Watcher; a Duffy Vohlandpenned piece on Adam Warlock; and the news section, with comments by Chris Claremont, Marv Wolfman, Tony Isabella, Herb Trimpe, John Warner, Steve Gerber, Archie Goodwin, Pat Broderick, and Russ Jones on their current projects. A John Byrne illustration of the “Mistress of Kung Fu” graced the back cover. EDELMAN: I loved “theme” issues. What better theme than the cosmic heroes of Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, and the Silver Surfer?! The Michelangelo-style Captain Marvel illustration that Don Maitz did for the Roger Stern article on Captain Marvel that used both the old costume and the new was my suggestion.

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 45

Issue #10 (June 1975) The X-Men issue. Starting with a Dave Cockrum front cover and Bob Budiansky back cover, this issue was highlighted by illustrations by Jack Kirby (the original design for the Sentinels), Dave Cockrum (a Storm sketch), Don Maitz (the centerspread pinup of the original and new X-Men), Val Mayerik, and Bob Budiansky. Also in this issue were great photos of Stan Lee, Neal Adams, Herb Trimpe, Doug Moench, Marie Severin, Howard Chaykin, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, Joe Sinnott, Len Wein, and Scott Edelman at various conventions around the country. EDELMAN: The split cover with the new X-Men and the old X-Men was another of my design ideas that they used. Issue #11 (Sept. 1975) FOOM celebrated the return of Jack “King” Kirby in this issue, leading off with a John Byrne and Joe Sinnott cover that declared, “Jack’s Back!” Scott Edelman interviewed Jack Kirby (with photos); Alex Boyd looked at Kirby’s legacy and collecting the King’s comics; illustrations were by Rich Buckler/Joe Sinnott, Don Maitz, Bob Budiansky, and Don Perlin; and there was a “How to Collect Marvel Comics” article by Dave Simons. EDELMAN: There was never a question about what this issue should be about. I got Dave Simons to do the article on collecting comics. Dave was my very first friend in fandom. We met in line at my first comic-book convention in 1970 at one of Phil Seuling’s New York conventions. And I got the great Charley Parker to do a two-page comic strip on the origin of Kirby. FRIEDT: And then you were gone… EDELMAN: I don’t recall what the circumstance were that led to my leaving. I was still on staff through the next year, and I didn’t mention anything about leaving in my editorial, so I’m not sure. I talked about the next issue being the one dedicated to the Vision, which it was when Duffy Vohland took over. Unfortunately, Duffy is no longer with us to ask. I assume I was just too busy. I enjoyed it… I loved the fan aspect of it all. My very favorite was the going around the Bullpen and interviewing the staff for the news section. It was a wonderful thing, to go from doing my own mimeographed fanzines done on the school’s mimeograph machine to editing Marvel’s fanzine. That sense of zaniness, that sense of Bullpen family, is what attracted me to Marvel in the first place, and what I wanted to continue.

THE DUFFY VOHLAND ISSUE: #12

Duffy Vohland (1952–1982) was another of the Marvel staffers to come up through the ranks of fandom. (An excellent biography of Duffy can be found in Paul Kupperberg’s blog at kupps.malibulist.com/tag/duffy-vohland/.) Born in Indiana, Vohland was one of the CPL Gang [about whom you’ll read in this issue’s Charlton Bullseye article—ed.], all of whom went on to become professionals. Just like Tony Isabella and Scott Edelman, Duffy moved from the Marvel British line of magazines to FOOM. Duffy had worked on FOOM through most of its history up to this point, including inking many of the John Byrne illustrations. Duffy mentioned in his issue #12 editorial that Scott was leaving due to his workload, but little else of the transition was mentioned. The Duffy issue was very much an extension of the Scott Edelman issues.

Jack’s Back (top) House ad touting Kirby’s return to Marvel and FOOM #11. (bottom) That issue (Sept. 1975), with a Super-King Kirby caricature by John “Jack” Byrne and Joe Sinnott. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #12 (Dec. 1975) The Vision/Scarlet Witch issue, with a Vision cover by John Buscema and P. Craig Russell. It featured illustrations by John Byrne, Jack Kirby, David Wenzel, Al Milgrom, John Romita, Sr., and Tom Palmer; articles on the Vision and Scarlet Witch; and interviews with Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart.

THE CHRIS CLAREMONT ISSUES: #13–14

Chris Claremont was born in England, but his family moved to New York when he was three. He originally envisioned himself as a prose writer and actor, but he found great success in comics with his work as a writer when Roy Thomas assigned him to Iron Fist and Len Wein assigned him to the X-Men.

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The Vohland and Claremont Issues (left) Editor Duffy Vohland’s sole issue, FOOM #12 (Dec. 1975). (middle and right) X-Men scribe X-traordinare’s two FOOM issues, #13 and 14. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #13 (Mar. 1976) The Daredevil issue. Cover illustration by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. The issue featured interior Colan illustrations; a penciled page by Colan for an unpublished Daredevil story and unused covers for Daredevil #43 and 54; additional illustrations by Wally Wood, Marie Severin, Bob Hall, and Larry Mahlstedt; Claremont’s interviews with Stan Lee and Marv Wolfman; articles on Daredevil, Karen Page, the Black Widow, Heather Glenn, and the British editions of Marvel Comics; a Daredevil checklist (issues #1–134); and a Bill Mantlo interview about Woodgod. In his editorial, Chris discussed his fondness for Daredevil, understandable since his first professional assignment was Daredevil and Black Widow #102 (Aug. 1973). Issue #14 (June 1976) The Conan issue. Cover art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, with a Marie Severin King Kull back cover. The issue featured interior illustrations by John Buscema, Mike Nasser/Dick Giordano, Marshall Rogers, Frank Thorne, and John Severin; a Roy Thomas Conan interview by Ralph Macchio; articles about Robert E. Howard by Skip Kirkland, Red Sonja by Naomi Basner, and King Kull by Howard Zimmerman; a Conan Marvel checklist, and an Archie Goodwin interview by Roger Stern. This was Claremont’s final issue as FOOM editor.

THE DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT ISSUES: #15–22

In 1976, David Anthony Kraft (DAK, as he’s known) was no stranger to fans, Marvel, or even FOOM, for that matter. David has a long history as a comic-book writer, editor, and critic and is well known for his long-running magazine David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview. At this writing, DAK is scripting, editing, and doing layouts with Onrie Kompan on the independent comic series Yi Soon Shin (www.yisoonshin.com). FRIEDT: Tell me about taking over FOOM from Chris Claremont. Also, what was your budget like? DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT: I don’t remember Chris being involved, actually. I remember Duffy [Vohland], but not Chris… that’s interesting. I was good friends with Roger Slifer, who is no longer with us. We were of similar ideals in that we would quit jobs if we thought that we were being taken advantage of. We used to joke that we’d quit jobs before they even hired us. [laughter]

Anyway, I was at Marvel working on the black-and-white magazine line when Atlas/Seaboard started up. Larry Leiber, Stan Lee’s brother, was editor and offered me a position as his assistant at twice the salary I was getting at Marvel. I jumped at it. Six seconds later, it seemed, I was looking for a new job when Atlas folded. Back then, every summer Marvel would get the winter sales figures and fire people, and every winter they would get the summer sales figures and hire people back. We couldn’t understand why they didn’t just have a set staff and weather through the entire year. We could see the cycle, but the corporate office couldn’t. So there I was—out of a job and looking to come back to Marvel. I called Roger and he told me, “Don’t come back, they just fired everyone.” I also talked to another good friend, Jim Salicrup, and he said to come back anyway because of his confidence in my abilities, which was encouraging. So I went back and grabbed anything that needed doing—letters pages, whatever. Duffy Vohland asked me to write a piece on the Scarlet Witch for his issue of FOOM [#12], and that got my foot in the door. I had a good relationship with Sol Brodsky and when they needed someone Sol probably thought, “Who could produce this for $700 an issue? Get DAK!” And that tells you what we had for a budget—it was the world’s smallest. You’d have to turn the Hubble telescope around and point it at the Earth to find the budget… $700… and I could eat half of that up with cover art. Even though it was an in-house publication, I still had to pay for cover art and I had to pay people to write articles. I solved part of my dilemma with interviews— I didn’t have to pay people if I was interviewing them. Of course, that generated vast amounts of tape-age… fortunately, I had a secret weapon by the name of Donna Coe who was a legal secretary and whose superpower was transcription at the speed of light! I’d do the interviews, she’d transcribe them, and I’d edit it down to a workable interview. She was also my secret superpower when it came to the many letters pages I did for so many Marvel titles. The writers were often too time-strapped to do the letters pages, and those all fell to me. I would edit the letters, make my replies and notes, and turn it over to Donna to make it look professional. Donna, alas, is also no longer with us. And that reminds me about Chris Claremont… it was a more innocent time, meaning we were all doing a lot of different jobs. Chris was Tony Isabella’s associate editor on the black-and-white

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magazines… Don McGregor and I were Roy Thomas’ associate editors on the color comics… just think of how small the editorial world was then at Marvel. There was Roy writing all those books, and editing, and interfacing with all the freelancers… he didn’t have time to nitpick or look over your shoulder… he had to rely on you. So we were left to our own decisions on many things. I rewrote Spidey dialogue on Marvel’s flagship book on my first day! Issue #15 (Sept. 1976) The Howard the Duck issue. Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha provided the wraparound cover. The issue included illustrations by David Wenzel, John Romita, Sr., and Jack Kirby; a Steve Gerber interview; articles about Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha; and the news section, with photos of Gerry Conway, George Tuska, Sal Buscema, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, Jim Mooney, Paul Gulacy, Bill Mantlo, Keith Pollard, Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, Roy Thomas, George Pérez, Barry [Windsor-]Smith, John Warner, Len Wein, Ross Andru, and Marv Wolfman. KRAFT: Gene’s cover cost half my budget. There wasn’t any reason he should get less than he was making for comic covers. (I did the layout and still have that in my files.) But Marie Severin was on staff and all of her illustrations therefore didn’t take anything from the budget. The interview with Steve Gerber included some less-than-corporate comments. Stan later said he should have had our heads… but he approved each issue of FOOM, so he had originally approved the interview. And to be honest, I took my cue from Stan. He would always have letters and comments that were pro-company, but on occasion he would publish an opposing view to show both sides. So that’s what I did. Obviously we loved Marvel, but we found it to be more interesting to accept different views. Looking through the info-news section, it’s interesting to see all of us new guys back then when we were fresh and doing our own new stuff—things like Rocket Raccoon, which is so hot now… it was all just starting back then. Issue #16 (Dec. 1976) The Marie Severin issue, with a Severin wraparound cover depicting the Marvel Bullpen offices. The issue included illustrations by Severin (including an unused cover for Captain America #125), Jack Kirby, Tom Sutton, and George Pérez; DAK interviews with Marie (including an early photo of her), Stan Lee, John Romita, Sr., and—dressed in a Spider-Man costume— Roy Thomas; a Tom Sutton profile and a Jack Kirby photo; and Don McGregor’s “Dragonshade: The Story Behind the Story,” a two-page article about a planned-but-unproduced Deadly Hands of Kung Fu backup by McGregor and Sutton. KRAFT: Marie had taken me under her wing when I started, and we had a good relationship. This issue was one of the happiest and proudest things I did! The cover illustration of the Marvel Bullpen at 575 Madison is way more true-to-life than you would think; how it was laid out and who had which office is a snapshot in time. There’s Marie painting the issue number on the floor, sort of drawing attention to herself, and a scruffy-looking me overseeing her. There’s Duffy Vohland listening at the door to Sol Brodsky’s office. Duffy was a big gossip-monger. [Marie] caught them in character. Some are greatly exaggerated… except for Don McGregor— he really was that small in real life. There’s Jim Shooter looking over Roger Slifer’s shoulder, because Jim was new and didn’t know anything about the Marvel style… though two weeks after you taught him he was telling you how it’s done. Turning Marie loose to do this cover was one of my crowning achievements. FRIEDT: This issue notes your admiration for the rock band Blue Oyster Cult. KRAFT: Rich Buckler and I incorporated our interpretations of their song lyrics and titles into work we did on Demon Hunter at Atlas/Seaboard and brought it over with us when we came back to Marvel with a few costume and color changes as Devil-Slayer. If you look close at the picture of me and the band… Eric Bloom is standing on his tiptoes and throws his head back to try and be as tall as me. Those guys were phenomenally short. They were on the same scale as Don McGregor. But never short on talent. Issue #17 (Mar. 1977) The Stan Lee issue. Arnold Sawyer painted the front cover featuring Stan the Man as a montage of Marvel’s mightiest, and Gray Morrow graced the back cover with a KISS illustration. This issue included illustrations by Gene Colan, John Romita, Sr., John Buscema, and Jack Kirby; a DAK interview with Stan (with lots of rare photos); a preview of the Howard the Duck newspaper strip; and the news section contained photos of Jim Craig, Jim Shooter, Scott Edelman, Roger Stern, and Mike Esposito. In addition to Dave’s recollections about FOOM #17, Bob Budiansky, who was working in the Marvel Bullpen at that time, also shares a story about this issue’s cover. FRIEDT: You broke tradition with this cover—full-color and cardstock. How did that happen?

The Kraft Issues Begin Covers to FOOM #15, 17, and 18, edited by David Anthony Kraft. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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KRAFT: No false modesty… but that interview with Stan is one of the best ever done. Stan revealed all kinds of things about himself, to the point that his agent said he was giving away key points that they could use for his biography. Stan wanted to pull it, but I convinced him otherwise. And since we had the best Stan Lee interview ever… I convinced Stan that we had to have the best Stan Lee cover ever… so four colors and cardstock it was. After the next issue we were given the budget for full-color enamel-stock covers for #19 though to the end. BOB BUDIANSKY: Arnie Sawyer’s cover! 14 or 15 years later, when I became creative director of Marvel’s new line of trading cards, I had to track down Arnie to get his permission to use this for a Stan Lee trading card. Not only did I get Arnie’s permission, but by this time Arnie was running his own graphic-design studio. The result: I hired him to provide the graphic design for the next ten sets of Marvel Trading Cards! FRIEDT: This issue has the second mention of Marv Wolfman’s new Super Rabbit and Midas Mouse comics in the works. Whatever happened to them? KRAFT: The same thing that happened to many projects— the business floor, or “9th,” as we called them, would issue edicts like, “Starting on Monday there will be an Iron Fist black-and-white magazine. It will be on the schedule three months ago, and it will be coming out tomorrow.” And we would all run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to pull it together. There is a long Iron Fist story, plotted by Tony Isabella and scripted by me, that appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. That was originally going to be issue #1 of the Iron Fist black-and-white. They would tell us, “There’s going to be a Godzilla B&W… there’s going to be an Iron Fist B&W,” on Monday. We’d drop everything and run our asses off trying to pull it together to their schedule, and the following Monday, they’d cancel it! Those kinds of decisions were coming down from the 9th floor all the time. They saw the sales figures, we didn’t. They would decide something was hot or not and then issue a memo with no understanding of what it took to produce. Stan had to approve everything, but he seldom was behind those kinds of decisions. Jim Salicrup once said, “You can take the top three or four executives in the business office… lock them in a room… and they couldn’t come up with a comic if their life depended on it.” Anyway, that’s one of the many reasons why projects announced in advance in FOOM never actually appeared. Issue #18 (June 1977) The John Romita, Sr. issue, with a cover by Romita. This issue featured illustrations by Romita, Jim Starlin, Gil Kane, George Pérez, Gene Colan/ Tom Palmer, and Walt Simonson; DAK’s interview with Romita (with some rare photos); news-section photos of Klaus Janson, Jim Starlin, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin, John Romita, Jr., Gil Kane, and Simonson; and a photo of Wendy Pini (ElfQuest) dressed in a Red Sonja costume! KRAFT: You can see where my thinking was when it came to picking subjects for the theme of an issue. The Marvel stalwarts were always good. This cover shows how we had to be clever with our limited budget. We could only afford two colors for the covers, so we

Will Work for Comics Roger Slifer and FOOM editor David Anthony Kraft, hitchin’ a ride. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

made the best of it. I got the chance to interview Marvel greats—and it was good practice for later, when I launched my own Comics Interview magazine. Issue #19 (Sept. 1977) The Defenders issue, with a George Pérez/Joe Sinnott wraparound cover. This issue featured illustrations by John Romita, Jr., Jack Kirby, Keith Giffen, and Ed Hannigan; Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Steve Gerber, and David Kraft talking about writing The Defenders; and newssection photos of Gene Colan, Chris Claremont, Tom Sutton, Keith Pollard, and Frank Giacoia. FRIEDT: This issue must have been near and dear to you, since you were writing Defenders at the time. KRAFT: It was, but I was afraid people would think I had stuffed the ballot box on this one. So I farmed out the ballot counting to distance myself. Interesting story: I’ve told this elsewhere, but… there are some side-by-side shots of Defenders pages in this issue—published Michael Golden pages next to unpublished Keith Giffen pages. Keith had a beef with Marvel and I didn’t know it. I love working with creative people, and I loved working with Keith… but to flip Marvel the finger, Keith would only turn in every other page of the issue. And that’s what caused those two strange issues of Defenders [issues #53 and 54—ed.]. It definitely caused major challenges for me writing those issues, because while I did the plot, scripting Marvel-style [plot first], you have to know what the last panel of the previous page is to dialogue the first panel of the next page. So here I was trying to dialogue every other page while Mike Golden and Dave Cockrum were trying to fill in the missing pages! But we were all younger back then and didn’t always see what kind of collateral damage we caused—in this case, I’ve told Keith he still owes me a fine single malt scotch for that one. FRIEDT: You mentioned in this issue a Tarzan strip you and Big John Buscema did for Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine… tell me about it. KRAFT: Yes, that appeared in probably a half-dozen issues of Pizzazz, maybe more—I even colored many of them. I was an auteur… [chuckles] They had me do a number of things for Pizzazz, including a retelling of the origin of Thor with art by John Buscema, but I think only the first page appeared in the preview flyer for Pizzazz. If the rest of the threepage story was ever published anywhere, I’d love to know! FRIEDT: One other thing I found interesting about this issue was a little sidenote you did about having a limited number of copies of issue #15 available for sale directly through you. You want to talk about that? KRAFT: Dave Lillard, a friend of George Pérez’s, had a shop or something at the time—this was before the days of direct distribution—so he came

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to me and said he really, really wanted 300 copies because Howard the Duck was so hot at that time. Because I was an insider, I went to the 9th floor and made a special deal to buy 300 copies on his behalf and delivered them to him. He didn’t pay me up front, so I waited. Eventually he paid me for half and returned the other half! There was a life lesson learned! So I ended up hawking them on my own… I still have some if anyone wants extras.

Welcome to the Bullpen Marie Severin’s rendition of the madcap Marvel office was the cover of FOOM #16 (Dec. 1976). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #20 (Dec. 1977) The Edgar Rice Burroughs issue. Cover art by George Pérez and Joe Sinnott. This issue featured illustrations by Howard Bender/Alfredo Alcala, Gil Kane, Alex Nino, Lee Elias, and Jack Kirby; an article about Burroughs; and interviews with Marv Wolfman (about Marvel’s John Carter, Warlord of Mars) and Roy Thomas (about Marvel’s Tarzan). FRIEDT: This was one of my favorite issues of FOOM, thanks to my love of all things ERB. Tell me about it. KRAFT: That one was a pleasure and kind of roundabout relates to my entry into comics. In my teens, I was into the Burroughs books, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan, and I picked up the sciencefiction books by Otis Adelbert Kline, ERB’s rival. I corresponded with several of the old pulp writers, E. Hoffmann Price and Leigh Brackett, and got in contact with Kline’s daughter and asked her if they had an agent for her father’s

works. She said no. I said, “I’m your agent! You’ve got nothing to lose. If I don’t sell anything you are no worse off and if I do you’re better off.” So at the ripe old age of 14 I became a literary agent. It should be noted, that at that same time I applied to be an editor at The New Yorker magazine. They weren’t as open to the idea… Anyway, when Marvel originally lost the rights to do ERB material to DC [DC began publishing Tarzan and related ERB material in 1972; Marvel acquired the licenses five years later—ed.], Roy Thomas was looking for alternate material and wanted to do adapt Otis Adelbert Kline’s Swordsman of Mars, so he contacted me. Ultimately a publishing company with the hardcover rights to Kline’s works ended up killing the deal, by being greedy, but it gave me an “in” and introduction to Roy Thomas, which later led to him inviting me to come work for him at Marvel. So FOOM #20 was a delight, because ERB led me to Kline and Kline led me to Marvel. And I got to actually show my love of Burroughs when issue #12 of Marvel’s Tarzan comic ran afoul of ERB, Inc. Roy was a faithful adaptor. He would incorporate the dialogue and feel of an author when he did his adaptations. Marion Burroughs was in charge of things at ERB, Inc. at that time, and when #12 was submitted, she said it was too faithful an adaptation! They demanded a rewrite and Roy didn’t want to redo it, so he told John Verpoorten to “Get DAK!,” and it fell to me to handle that. The issue had been completely finished—written, drawn, inked, word balloons, etc. So John said if I could rewrite it and make the words fit the exact same space as everything already lettered for the issue—and do it overnight—the job of writing Tarzan was mine. I ended up substituting similar words for most of what was written! That one passed their approval. And I got to do the first original Tarzan story to appear in comics for decades as a result. Another thing I really liked about this issue was Marie Severin’s new art for each editor in the “Department of Infoomation” section. Each new header captures some aspect of the editors’ work or personality. She really nailed us! Issue #21 (Mar. 1978) The science-fiction issue, with a Star Wars wraparound cover. This issue featured illustrations by George Pérez, Howard Bender, Ron Wilson, Sal Buscema, Jack Kirby, Rich Buckler, John Romita, Jr., and John Buscema; “Department of Infoomation” reports from Doug Moench (about Seeker 3000), Chris Claremont (Star-Lord), Steve Gerber and Roger Stern (Guardians of the Galaxy), Archie Goodwin (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Jack Kirby (2001: A Space Odyssey), David Anthony Kraft (Logan’s Run), Don McGregor (Killraven), and Roy Thomas (Star Wars); Ron Wilson’s preview of American Eagle; and news-section photos of Jim Shooter, Roger Slifer, Jack Kirby, Howard Chaykin. FRIEDT: The science-fiction issue with a Star Wars cover… your thoughts? KRAFT: I’m the guy who never liked Star Wars… and I’m consistent. Roy brought George Lucas up to the Marvel offices before the movie was released to plead his case with Stan. Stan’s reply was, “Science fiction doesn’t sell!,” which was consistent with what he had experienced over the years. Fortunately for Marvel, Roy prevailed with a movie adaptation! Lucas provided the whole Bullpen with tickets to the premiere of Star Wars at the plush Ziegfeld Theater… and I remember everybody else just gushing afterwards. Meanwhile, I was the resident Scrooge… “Bah!” It was so derivative in my opinion—not

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an original idea anywhere in it. If you had read classic science fiction like I had, it was an amalgamation of everything that had already been explored… including borrowing from Dr. Doom and comics. I realized later that I knew all those things because of my exposure to classic science fiction, but the mass audiences didn’t have the frame of reference, so it was all new to them. FRIEDT: And yet something about Logan’s Run struck a chord with you? KRAFT: Ah… no! When the movie came out I was ranting about its $15 budget and obvious plot holes. As it happened, Gerry Conway came back on staff long enough to write the first-issue adaptation, then returned to freelancing. Jim Shooter and Roger Stern took some kind of delight in assigning it to me, who hated it with a passion. The upside was, I liked working with George Pérez, and loved Klaus Janson’s inks on his pencils. We had worked together on my first color comics series featuring Man-Wolf. So I decided to try to fix all of the flaws I could from the original. Years later, ace cover and comic artist Adam Hughes told me it was a formative series for him, so we must have done something right. Issue #22 (Sept. 1978) The final issue. This issue sported a Spider-Man front cover and a Fantastic Four back cover. It included George Pérez, Tom Palmer, and Klaus Janson profiles; Bill Mantlo musings about The Micronauts; “The Remaking of Ms. Marvel” by Chris Claremont; an unused Ms. Marvel cover by Dave Cockrum and Bob Layton; an article about Japanese Marvel comics; a report on the Fantastic Four cartoon (with Kirby art and photo); and a John Carter pinup by Ernie Chan. FRIEDT: This brings us to the last issue… KRAFT: Yeah… 9th had canceled FOOM, but we went ahead with the last issue. During this time I was splitting my time between home here on Screamer Mountain in the south and New York City… sleeping on Jim Salicrup’s or Ed Hannigan’s floor, taking on as much work as I could physically do, and loading myself up with more work to drag back home… which included the final FOOM. It was cobbled together as best I could. They had previously run half-page ads in the comics to promote FOOM, and at one point the 9th floor decided that was more valuable space to sell for paid advertising, so they quit promoting it, and that led to its losing sales and became the demise of FOOM. FRIEDT: You wanted to connect with the fans. Do you feel you accomplished that with FOOM? KRAFT: Absolutely. I don’t think you could have done that kind of magazine without the help and the input of the fans. When I think back on it, it was an amazing experience. I got to interview and interact with the Marvel staff, Steve Gerber, John Buscema, Marie Severin, Stan Lee, etc. It may not have paid much, but it sure was fun! I used to have a running gag in the credits with Scott Edelman’s name—it was everything but “man”: “Edelbeast”… “Edelcreature”… “Edelmonster,” etc. Good times! FRIEDT: So, what are you doing these days? KRAFT: I’ve always had an innate talent for editing, even way back in the days of fandom and working with Alan Light before he started The Buyer’s Guide to Comic Fandom. I’ve always had that superpower—which l used to publish 150 issues of Comics Interview and a line of B&W comics. That was followed by some high-pressure TV work, story editing and scripting G.I. Joe: Extreme and Street Fighter with my friend, Roger Slifer. After that, I decided to take a year off… I needed a vacation.

Turned out to be ten! I really feel that the time off gave me a new perspective—I finally “got it” in a way I never had before—and it enhanced my abilities in editing and writing. So Jim Salicrup put me in touch with Onrie Kompan and I’ve been doing the best work of my career with Onrie on the lavish color Yi Soon Shin comics. Even my “old pal” Stan Lee agrees—he wrote the foreword to the first graphic novel (available on Amazon) to share some of his spotlight with us, even though it’s not a Marvel or Stan production. So check it out! A super THANKS! to the professionals who took time to work with me or provide input on this history: Tony Isabella, Scott Edelman, David Anthony Kraft, and Bob Budiansky. I couldn’t have done it without you! STEPHAN FRIEDT spends most of his time studying the history of comic books, strips, movies, pulps, and popular fiction in the hinterlands of Oregon, a stone’s throw from the new Mecca of comics— Portland, Oregon—with annual summer commutes to Indianapolis to ride herd on the comic professional guests at IndyPopCon…

The Final Four FOOM’s last hurrah—issues #19–22—featured not only Marvel’s own Defenders and Spider-Man but also licensed properties John Carter, Warlord of Mars and Star Wars. FOOM, Defenders, and Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. John Carter © ERB, Inc. Star Wars © Lucasfilm.

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by B

ob Rozakis

Comicmobile photo © DC Comics.

About a month after I started working at DC Comics back in the summer of 1973, I arrived at the office one morning and was confronted by vice president/production Manager Sol Harrison. “What are you doing here?” he asked. Startled, I replied, “I work here.” “I know that. You’re supposed to be in New Jersey, picking up the Comicmobile.” Yes, the Comicmobile, that fabled vehicle of comics history that many have heard of but few have seen (and even fewer have actually purchased anything from). For those of you who are unfamiliar with it: It was Sol’s idea that if kids living in the suburbs couldn’t get to the old “mom and pop stores” that sold comics, we should bring the comics to them. So he leased a big blue van, had “The DC Comicmobile” painted on it, with plastered superhero stickers. Then he stocked it with leftover comics from the DC library and, at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, sent Michael Uslan (much later the executive producer of the Batman and Swamp Thing movies, among lots of other things) out on the streets of New Jersey to sell them. When it was time for Michael to leave for Indiana for his impending wedding, Sol decided that I should take the Comicmobile to Long Island. I knew I was supposed to pick it up, but Michael and I had worked it out that I would do so the following day.

Sol, however, did not agree. Midge Bregman, his secretary, handed me money for train fare, told me what little town in the Garden State I was taking the train to, and shooed me out of the office. They did give me time to make my one phone call—to tell my parents I would not be coming home from work that night! Michael met me with the Comicmobile and we spent the afternoon and evening riding around, ringing the bells and selling comics at local parks, beaches, and in front of other places potential customers were gathered. He had a “lovely assistant” named Robin Burke working with him and, frankly, I think she attracted more than one father of small children over to be persuaded into buying a few comic books. “Sol was the Philo Farnsworth of comics,” remembers Uslan. He was always looking for different ways to get comic books into the hands of kids. He made the first deal with Phil Seuling, which opened the door for the direct-market distribution of comics. He tried vending machines. He made the deal with 7-11 to put 60 different DC characters on plastic Slurpee cups, looking to create greater recognition of the characters.” And so Michael was not that surprised when Sol first told him about the Comicmobile, “except the part where he told me I was going to drive it!” I slept at Michael’s parents’ home that night. They were as surprised to have an overnight guest as I had been when I learned from Sol I was

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rporation.

going to be one. And the next morning, after going over what was in our “inventory” and how to keep track of the money, Michael was off to Indiana to get married and I was on the road back to Long Island. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the roads of the New York metropolitan area probably don’t know that commercial vehicles are not allowed on the parkways, only on expressways and turnpikes. Much of the direct route between Michael’s home and mine involved the Garden State Parkway and the Belt Parkway. The Comicmobile, decked out with all its superhero decals and such, was most assuredly a commercial vehicle. So, in those days long before anyone had ever dreamed of a GPS, armed with only a Mobil gas station map of New Jersey, I had to abandon the route I knew for other highways and byways. While driving across Manhattan, I spotted a college friend standing on a street corner, and he was quite startled to see me. Our paths have never crossed again and, to this day, I’m convinced he thought my job in the comic-book industry was delivering them to stores. And when I finally arrived home and parked the garish-looking van in front of the house, my father’s first comment was, “I sent you to college for four years so you could drive a comic-book truck?” I did become more familiar with the route from Long Island to New Jersey during my tenure. Once a week, I had to drive to a distribution warehouse in the Garden State to pick up bundles of new books. On the way through Manhattan, I would stop at the DC office and get additional titles from the DC library. One of those visits resulted in Joe Orlando trying to have me arrested. I was in the library filling a box with books when Joe walked in. He did not know who I was and immediately went to Sol and said, “Some kid is stealing books from the library. We better call security!” Sol followed him back, saw it was me, and said, “That’s not a kid—that’s Rozakis.” The hardest part about driving the Comicmobile on Long Island had to be getting a vendor’s license for each of the townships I would be working in. Each town—Hempstead, North Hempstead, Oyster Bay, and Huntington—had its own set of requirements and its own set of rules. They did have one basic rule in common, one that we had not anticipated. Once licensed, Michael had had it fairly easy in his area of New Jersey (Ocean Township, Belmar, and Bradley Beach, to be specific); he was able to drive to a local park or beach and set up shop in the parking lot. The powers-that-be on Long Island were nowhere near as liberal. I was prohibited from bringing the Comicmobile anywhere near beaches, parks, schools, and pretty much any other place kids might be. Instead, I was reduced to driving up and down individual streets, holding a set of bells out the window and ringing them vigorously. (Since DC had only leased the van, there was no way Sol was going to have the bells mounted

on it.) To be honest, there were some days when it seemed like I was the only person alive while driving up and down streets devoid of any kids. Sometimes, even when there were kids outside, they weren’t potential customers. As those of you who have lived in areas that were served by an ice cream man might guess, I was often mistaken for someone selling Popsicles and Klondike Bars. There was, in fact, one little boy who would demand a Creamsicle every Thursday when I showed up. And all he ever had to pay for it was a nickel. I don’t recall what an ice cream bar cost in those days, but it was certainly more than 5¢. There was only one occasion when I was able to bring the Comicmobile to a gathering of kids. My future wife Laurie was one of the day-camp counselors at a nearby elementary school. I wore a Superman T-shirt and she dressed in a Wonder Woman costume that had been made and borrowed from DC colorist Liz Berube, and we performed a brief skit as the two heroes. We were not, however, allowed to sell anything, so I gave away flyers and free comics and told the kids to watch for me on their home streets. (The photo recording the event, taken by Laurie’s father, continues to haunt us 40-plus years later.) Over the six weeks that I drove the Comicmobile, I did eventually develop something of a regular clientele. A few of the customers would request specific issues that I could often find among the leftovers in the DC library. For them, having the Comicmobile come by was the answer to a fanboy’s dreams. One of them in my hometown of Elmont, New York, was Bob Buethe,

Super Friends Laurie and Bob Rozakis join forces as Wonder Woman and Superman in this oft-seen but beloved Comicmobile shot. Photo by Bob’s father-in-law, W. J. Neu, who wasn’t credited with this image’s original publication in Amazing World of DC Comics. © DC Comics.

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Now, This is Direct Sales A flyer for DC’s experimental comic-shopon-wheels. All characters TM & © DC Comics, except The Shadow © Condé Nast and Tarzan © ERB, Inc.

who remembered the first time he flagged me down. “It pulled over. A young couple got out and swung the van’s doors open. The insides of the doors were lined with covers of current DC comic books. I was stunned, and asked, ‘What is this?’ They explained that it was an experiment in bringing comic books directly to the readers. “I learned that they were Bob Rozakis (a name I recognized from lettercols) and Laurie Neu (the future Dr. Laurie Rozakis). I don’t recall whether Laurie ever accompanied Bob on his route after that, but he and I got to talking each time he stopped by. Along with bringing comic books directly to my house, an astounding task by itself, Bob found some back issues of Kamandi for me, the one comic my dad liked to read. He also let me in on some secrets (Hawkman would soon be quitting the Justice League!), and gave me some souvenirs, like a 35th anniversary Superman bumper sticker (which I still have), and samples of comics that I normally would have passed by, like Swamp Thing, Weird Western Tales, and Unexpected.” One of the things that Michael Uslan and I realized quite early was that, even if we were not generating enough sales to make a fleet of Comicmobiles viable, our face-to-face encounters with fans like Bob Buethe as well as occasional readers gave us excellent feedback on what DC was publishing. Among the tidbits we learned were that giant anything (bugs, animals, people)

on a cover sold books. Dinosaurs were always a big draw. Green creatures sold better than any other-colored creatures. Having “Weird” in a title proved popular, as did having ghosts or witches. Once school started, the Comicmobile’s hours of operation were severely reduced and Sol decided it was time for me to come back and work in the office. I’m sure part of it also had to do with the fact that we were barely making enough to cover the cost of gasoline the van was guzzling… and gas was only 20¢ a gallon at the time! The Comicmobile was then shipped off to comics dealer Bruce Hamilton out in the southwestern US for continued ”testing.” The entire project, however, met an untimely end when the Comicmobile came out on the losing end of a collision with a semi.

COMICMOBILE SALES DATA

During my six-week tenure as driver of the DC Comicmobile back in the summer of 1973, I was able to gather a lot of information about what kinds of books sold and to whom. I had issues of more than 50 different DC titles plus a variety of other odds and ends. In all, I sold just under 2,000 comic books. After I finished my tour of duty, I prepared a title-bytitle report based on what I’d learned and turned it in to DC president Carmine Infantino and Sol Harrison. A few specific suggestions were considered, but, for the most part, the report was glanced at and filed away, its information never utilized. DC’s books in 1973 were quite a mixed bag, all of them priced at 20¢. There were war and Western comics, romance titles, and science-fiction and sword-and-sorcery books, along with the mainstay superhero series. It was the year of the return of the original Captain Marvel in Shazam!, The Shadow drawn by Michael Kaluta, and Joe Kubert’s rendition of Tarzan. The 100-Page Super-Spectaculars were gaining ground, priced at 50¢. And the first of the tabloid-sized Limited Collectors’ Editions appeared, costing a dollar. There was even a single digest book, featuring Tarzan. The Superman titles: The perennial favorite of many parents and kids alike, Superman, sold well at almost all times. Sales fell off only when I offered Action Comics instead. I had five different issues of Action in the Comicmobile, but no one substantially outsold the others. If Action was displayed instead of Superman, the younger kids would buy it because the Man of Steel was on the cover. There were, however, a number of regular readers who were glad to see I had a variety of issues, some of which they had been unable to get. Sales of Lois Lane picked up for awhile when I got the issue with the giant Lois and Superman on the cover. Once the kids bought that one, sales dropped off and later issues did not sell as well. Jimmy Olsen was the loser of the Superman family. Whether it was the covers, the multitude of competing magazines, or just a general dislike of the character that accounted for such lousy sales, I do not know. I even gave away a number of copies, thinking that the kids might not have heard of or read any of Jimmy’s books, but that did not do a thing for sales. I had four different issues on hand, but none of them appealed to the Superman fans. Supergirl was second most popular book among girls looking for superheroes. Each of the three issues I had sold well. The “snake-head” issue sold to some of the boys too because Green Lantern, Batman, and Hawkman were on the cover.

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Sales of Superboy starring the Legion picked up very slowly. When I first started out, there was no interest, so I gave away a few copies to see what would happen. I picked up a few readers, and then a few more. I suspected this book would build readership over a period of issues as more and more decided to try it. The Legion of SuperHeroes reprint book, on the other hand, never caught on; after a few early sales, it died. The Batman titles: Batman was the second-largest-selling magazine I had. The Batman/Joker issue sold quite well, especially to the younger kids. The Batman/Shadow book fared well also. The Batman/Spook issue sold some, but not nearly as well as the other two. The giant character looming over the Caped Crusader (the Joker on one and the Shadow on the other) caught the kids’ eyes, but the Spook did not. There were many requests for Batman and Robin, or Robin alone. Sales were fairly constant, though they would rise in some areas and fall in others. Like most of the superhero books, they were bought almost exclusively by the younger kids and ignored by the older readers. As for Brave and Bold, the Batman/Demon issue is the one I had for most of the time and it sold pretty well. Kids looking through the various Batman books would spot it and pick it from among the others. When I got the Batman/Wildcat issue, it also sold fairly well. A lot of the kids liked Wildcat because he rode a motorcycle and they seemed to go for that sort of thing. I had a few back issues and they sold out; Batman/Green Arrow and Batman/Metal Men went over the best. For a book that has Batman in it, and one that I pushed as an alternative to the Caped Crusader’s own title, sales of Detective Comics were surprisingly poor. The “Deathmasque” issue sold better than the “1,000 Fears” one. A number of kids were caught by the former’s cover, but turned it down in favor of the Batman/Shadow or Batman/Demon issues of Batman and B&B. I had only two issues of World’s Finest. The first half of the two-part story did not sell well at all. The cover with Superman and Batman standing in the giant footprint did not appeal to the kids. The following issue, with the monster holding Supes and Bats against the wall, was very popular and accounted for most of the sales. The rest of the superheroes: Flash sold fairly well for a while and then, quite suddenly, died. I did not sell a single copy for about two weeks, though it was right after I had gotten the new issue. Towards the end, sales picked up, but almost all were people looking for Green Lantern stories. I had some copies of the last Flash/GL team-up and they sold out quickly. The following issue with its three-panel cover did not appeal to the kids and sold mainly to those who wanted some comic with Flash in it. Wonder Woman was the most popular superhero book among the girls; even some of the boys bought it because they liked the covers. (One father bought an issue for his daughter and sent her out the next week for the following issue because he wanted to read the conclusion to the story.) The issues all sold well, with the WW/ Mother-tied-up cover the most popular. Shazam! was not moving well for the first few weeks and many of the kids had never heard of Captain Marvel. I decided to give away some copies to see what would happen. It worked quite well. The kids liked the book, the parents liked the book, everybody liked the book. Once they read an issue, they came back for another and sales picked up quickly. The mothers

who were buying for littler children preferred the “Talking Tiger” issue to any of the Superman or Batman books I displayed. Sales on Justice League were pretty good, despite the fact that not many of the readers had ever heard of it. Most of them bought an issue because it was what I offered when they wanted an issue of Hawkman or Atom or Green Lantern or Aquaman. Once they bought one, however, they came back for more. The Red Tornado “I killed everybody” issue sold best, followed by the first half of the JLA/JSA team-up. Most of the sales of the second team-up issue were to those who had bought the first, but its cover was the least popular among kids who saw all three issues. Sales of back issues of Teen Titans were mostly to kids who wanted something with Robin in it. A couple of them asked for the book by name, but most of them had never heard of it. The only issue of Mister Miracle of the three I had that sold was the one with Shilo and the little people on the cover. The preceding one, with Shilo and Mr. Miracle surrounded by the enemy, did not move at all and the newest one with the trick bed sold only one copy. I had all three Black Orchid issues of Adventure Comics and not one of them sold. On my first day, while sitting in a shopping center parking lot, I sold one copy. On my last day, when there was nothing left that any of my regular customers wanted to buy, I sold a second copy. The boys avoided it because it was a girl-hero book. The girls preferred Wonder Woman or Supergirl. Sales of The Demon were sporadic. When a new issue arrived, it would sell to a regular group of readers. From then on, a copy would only sell to somebody looking for a mystery-related hero book. I had one issue of Metal Men (the last of the reprints) that did not fare well, mostly because the kids who liked the Metal Men already had it. (The issue of Brave & Bold with them in it sold out.) I had some requests for a new issue and those kids were disappointed when I told them it had been discontinued. They were happy to hear, however, that there would be another Metal Men issue of B&B coming soon. Secret Origins #3 with Wonder Woman and Wildcat sold the best. The girls bought it for the Amazon Princess and the guys liked it because Wildcat rides a motorcycle. The Spectre issue sold a few copies, but the Vigilante/ Kid Eternity issue went over like a lead balloon. The kids had never heard of either hero and didn’t seem interested in finding out about them. Supervillains seemed to be a lot less popular than the superheroes. The issue of Wanted that I had (#9) sold to a few people who had all the other Superman magazines I had available. The mystery titles: A large portion of DC’s line in 1973 was made up of the mystery titles. Though far more sanitized than the EC titles of the early ’50s and nowhere near as graphic as some of today’s books, they had a substantial readership. In fact, sales of the titles listed below accounted for almost 20% of the total. I had only the first issue of Black Magic, the Simon & Kirby reprint, and it sold quite well. Most of the kids liked the giant-headed man on the cover. There was some comment later that the book wasn’t really as scary as it looked and that it was difficult to read. Dark Mansion was the poorest seller among the straight mystery books. The majority of sales were of the “skeleton under the sea” issue. The following one, with the melting man, sold only one copy.

TM & © DC Comics.

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TM & © DC Comics.

Sales were up and down on Ghosts. It appeared to be the second or third choice among fans of the mystery titles. They would buy House of Mystery or Unexpected first, then buy Ghosts on my next trip through their neighborhood. I had four different issues on display and some kids would buy more than one issue at a time. At one location, a kid pointed out that the stories were supposed to be true and that sparked a buying spree among his friends. The lighthouse issue, with the skeleton dragging down the boat, and the skiing issue sold about the same. The “rising spirit” issue sold fewer than the others. House of Mystery was the steadiest seller among the mystery titles. As each issue came in, there would be a rush to buy it and then sales would continue along well till the next issue arrived. The alligator cover was the bestseller, and the scorpion issue did well in the limited time I had it. Sales of the “tree” issue, which Michael Uslan said was a bestseller for him, were not that good for me, possibly because the issue had been on sale in the stores for awhile and some kids already had it. Abel seems forever to take a back seat to Cain, especially when it comes to sales of House of Secrets. While sales were steady, they were not as large as HOM. The “monster hands” issue was most popular, followed by the coffin issue, and the issue with the skaters (which I only had for a few days) sold well. Both issues of Sinister House that I had sold fairly well, with the giant rat issue selling better than the “shadow on the wall” one. Unexpected was the word for the sudden jump in sales on this book which, for most of August and September, seemed hopelessly mired among the poorest sellers. Suddenly, the issues started selling, with the swamp monster and attacking ants issues leading the way. Kids came back for any and all back issues I had available. The only issue that did not sell well was the lava monster one. The title outsold almost everything I had during the last three weeks of my campaign, and the only thing I can say is that the kids suddenly discovered it was there. I had two issues of Weird Mystery, and the one with the monsters behind the curtain sold best. It sold out on the last day. Witching Hour was one of the most popular mystery titles. There was a core of regular readers, supplemented by those who were attracted by a specific cover. The bridesmaid issue was most popular, followed by the birthday coffin one. The woman in the wheelchair issue was not that popular. The issue of Phantom Stranger in which the Stranger meets Frankenstein far outsold the other two issues I had. Most kids bought it because “Frankenstein” was emblazoned across the cover. The “grinning executive” issue sold minimally, but the newest issue (the monster face reflection) picked up towards the end and I sold out of the copies I had on hand. Swamp Thing sold well to the oldest of my customers and not much to anyone else. The Clockwork Horror issue was the most popular; the Batman issue lost out because most of the kids could not see the Caped Crusader on the cover. One bit of information that is interesting to note is that Swamp Thing sold to the older readers, perhaps a sign that there would eventually be an audience for the Vertigo titles. One side note about the “mystery” titles, perhaps lost on all those who have spent years looking for books to attract female readers: They were quite popular among the girls. Often, in fact, the girls were attracted by the covers that were “scarier” while the boys went for the ones which could best be described as “gross.”

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The war comics: G.I. Combat was the bestseller among the war titles, with war comic buffs preferring the Haunted Tank to Sgt. Rock and the Unknown Soldier. Sales were steady each week. The “Head for the rocks” cover was most popular, followed by the old one where the tank is coming over the cliff on top of the heroes. Sales of the “We want our tank back” issue were also good. Sgt. Rock had a regular battalion of fans who awaited each issue of Our Army at War. No issue outsold any other; these kids would buy any and all of them that they hadn’t read. If I’d had a greater variety of issues (I had five or six), sales would have been higher. Up until the last week and a half of my campaign, Our Fighting Forces starring the Losers was the secondslowest-moving title. I had sold only one copy. Sales picked up when I got the new issue for the final two days. In addition to buying that issue, they picked up the back issues they had ignored for the previous two months. The Unknown Soldier in Star Spangled War Stories did not seem to have any regular fans, though a number of kids would buy an issue when buying other war books. The issue with the planes shooting through the parachute was most popular, followed by the ones where he is scaling the wall and facing the giant Japanese wrestler. The combination of mystery and war in Weird War Tales seemed to really appeal to the kids. I had many requests for back issues and the few that I had sold out. Each issue sold well and kids who bought one came back for as many of the others as I had. The reprint book, G.I. War Tales, sold out at a time when it was my bestseller (#2, the dinosaur issue), proving that there was a market for soldiers vs. dinosaurs stories. I wonder what would have happened if I’d had more copies. Like G.I. War, Four Star Battle Tales sold quite well at the beginning because it had a dinosaur on the cover. The kids went for that sort of thing. Once everybody who wanted it had it, sales stopped completely. None of them wanted the other issues (which did not feature dinosaurs). Boy Commandos was at the bottom of the heap. Of all the 20¢ books I had, it was the poorest seller despite being a #1 issue. In fact, I sold no copies of #1 and it was a copy of #2 that someone finally purchased. The kids didn’t even look at it if they did not like war comics and even the war buffs were not enthused. The covers were not eye-catching and they preferred books with more action in them. Not surprisingly, the war books sold almost exclusively to the boys, though the girls were occasionally intrigued by an issue of Weird War Tales that they thought looked scary. The rest of the line: Like the other Kirby title, The Demon, sales of Kamandi went up with the new issue and down the rest of the time. It fared better, however, because a lot of the kids went for its Planet of the Apes motif. The talking lions (and tigers and bears, oh my) attracted a number of them into buying if they were just looking for something “interesting.” Sales of The Shadow would have been higher if I had had copies of the first issue. I had a number of requests for it that I couldn’t fill. I didn’t get #2 till mid-September, but it sold well then. Tarzan had quite a core of regular fans, supplemented by a group who would buy an issue if it looked interesting. This is evidenced by the sales of the regular title, along with the digest and dollar editions. Of the issues I had, the one with Tarzan fighting the lion was very popular, as was the one with the snake pit.

BOB ROZAKIS is DC Comics’ one-time “Answer Man” and former production director and is the co-creator of ’Mazing Man and Hero Hotline.

RANKING OF COMICMOBILE SALES BY TITLE IN ORDER (regardless of the number of different issues available)

Photo by Sammi Rozakis.

Sales of Korak, Son of Tarzan were not necessarily reflective of popularity because I was unable to get copies for most of August and September. All I had was an old issue that Michael Uslan had picked up and it sold to people who had already picked up Tarzan. When I finally got the newest issue, sales picked up. They were not spectacular, but they were steady. Strange Sports Stories sold quite well; the kids went for the combination of sports and weird ideas. One suggestion they had was that we concentrate on a single image on the cover, rather than a multi-paneled one. The kids were looking for something that would catch their eye among all the other comics, and the reduced size of the pictures (especially the dinosaur in the horse race, which was the most popular story) lost readers to books like House of Mystery with its larger, looming monsters. Champion Sports sold much better than I had expected, with the majority of the buyers being boys who were lugging around baseball bats or similar equipment. One day, I rode into the middle of a baseball game and every one of the boys bought this book and Strange Sports as well. The sales of Prez looked good because I sold a large pile of copies to a guy who was convinced that they would be collectors’ items. I tried pushing the title as an alternative to Archie books, but those kids felt that if they couldn’t get the real thing, they didn’t want anything. Sales of From Beyond the Unknown were slow, though I had three different issues on hand. I gave away some copies of the issue with the artist drawing the monster, and some of those kids bought the following issue, but for the most part, it wasn’t popular. On the other hand, science fiction was dead as far as Strange Adventures was concerned. None of the kids was interested in Adam Strange flying into the mouth of a space monster. Sword of Sorcery sold a number of copies, which surprised me because I could not remember who was buying them. The issue with the octopus caught the eye of some kids who bought it thinking it was along the lines of House of Mystery. Two kids on the same block bought the same issue of Weird Worlds (the debut of IronWolf) on the same day, accounting for my biggest sales of the title. The Edgar Rice Burroughs issue I had did not sell any copies. I kept no tally on the individual titles of the romance books, but I doubt that it really mattered. The girls who bought these books (mostly in the 10–13 age group) didn’t care about the title of the book. They cared only if the cover looked interesting or not. Also, they would buy these books in bulk, usually spending a dollar or more at one time. This made them ideal customers for the 100-Page romance Super-Spectacular. Though a couple of the girls initially balked at the idea of a 50¢ comic book, when I explained the economies of scale, they immediately bought the book. I could have sold more copies, but ran out in the last week. Sales on the various other 100-Page Super-Spectacular books were fairly good, especially to regular comic-book fans. Most of them would ask for “the new Super-Spec” without even seeing the cover. Similarly, the Tarzan, Shazam!, and House of Mystery tabloid editions sold well, despite their dollar price tag. Kids who bought the Tarzan edition were rewarded (?) with my autograph on the puzzle pages. (Though not the first freelance work I did for DC, they were the first pages to appear in print.) The Tarzan digest also sold well. Kids seemed to like the idea of getting a comic book that looked like a paperback book. And, finally, there was Plop! I have never seen anything like the way the kids went for this book. Many of them asked for MAD, and when I showed them the issue of Plop! instead, they bought it. This brought them back for the second issue, which I picked up towards the middle of my campaign. Once they had both issues, they were after me for the third. It’s hard to figure what attracted the kids to the book because they all liked something different. Most of them were caught by the covers, preferring Art Arteries to Arms Armstrong. They liked the Plops, the stories, the fact that there were no ads, everything. Also interesting is that no one seemed willing to trade Plop!. With most of the other books, the kids would buy different issues and then trade. Everybody bought his or her own issue of Plop! And I do mean everybody. I don’t think I had a single customer who did not buy at least one issue. Sales of Plop! accounted for 20% of the total copies sold during my tenure in the Comicmobile. They surpassed the number two title, Batman, by substantially more than a twoto-one margin. (I have no idea what overall newsstand sales were for those or any of the other titles were at the time.) Plop! continued through issue #24 in 1976, by the way. Batman, as you are probably aware, continues to be published.

1. Plop! 2. Batman 3. Weird War Tales 4. The Unexpected 5. Superman 6. Wonder Woman 7. House of Mystery 8. Ghosts 8. Shazam! 8. Strange Sports Stories 11. G.I. Combat 12. Black Magic 13. Tarzan 14. The Witching Hour 15. Champion Sports 15. Supergirl 17. G.I. War Tales 18. Justice League of America 19. Our Army At War 20. The Brave and the Bold 21. Action Comics 22. The Flash 23. The Shadow 24. Four Star Battle Tales 25. House of Secrets 26. Weird Mystery Tales 27. World’s Finest Comics 28. The Phantom Stranger 28. Secrets of Sinister House 30. Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth 31. Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane 32. Prez 32. Star Spangled War Stories 32. Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes 35. Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love 35. Korak, Son of Tarzan 37. Detective Comics 37. Secret Origins 39. The Demon 39. Swamp Thing 41. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen 41. Teen Titans 43. From Beyond the Unknown 43. Our Fighting Forces 43. Sword of Sorcery 46. Mister Miracle 47. Legion of Super-Heroes (reprint) 47. Wanted: The World’s Most Dangerous Villains 47. Weird Western Tales 50. Metal Men 50. Strange Adventures 50. Weird Worlds 53. Adventure Comics 54. Boy Commandos

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As a teenaged, diehard DC Comics fan in 1974, I was frenzied by the DC house ads selling the publisher’s self-produced “prozine,” The Amazing World of DC Comics (AWODCC). I willingly mutilated a comic book (>gasp!<) by clipping an order form, sending it and a check for $1.50 to a post-office box at faraway Radio City Station in the fabled city of New York. Once the magazine arrived, it was devoured, cover to cover… and why wouldn’t it be? Here, between crisp cardboard-stock covers, was a window into my favorite comics company, a tasty blend of DC news, comic-book and comic-media history, rare art and stories, and behind-the-scenes data. Truly, this was an “amazing world,” one I continued to visit throughout the next few years through a total of 17 issues (18, counting the AWODCC Special Edition), each of which became dog-eared after multiple readings. Before we revisit DC’s ultimate fanzine, let’s detour back one year to its precursor, The Amazing World of Superman, Metropolis Edition (inset), a 64page one-shot tabloid published in 1973 to inaugurate a Superman-themed amusement park in Metropolis, Illinois. (The park never made it past the drawing board, but Metropolis has remained the “home of Superman” and is the site of an annual Superman Celebration featuring a gathering of comic creators, media stars, and fans of the Big Red S.) While its format was different from the magazine-sized AWODCC that would follow the next year, The Amazing World of Superman was a prototype for the prozine through its use of its logo—the words “Amazing World of” within a globe (a logo also used decades later for the autobiography The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino)—and its inclusion of a lavishly illustrated article “How a Comic Magazine is Created,” the type of feature which would soon become a staple of AWODCC.

THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS

Young fans like me who feverishly pored over their copy of The Amazing World of DC Comics #1 (July–Aug. 1974) discovered that this 48-page black-and-white publication was produced by… young fans like (and not much older than) me. These were the “Junior Woodchucks,” comic fans who were turning pro—right before our very eyes, through the production of this publication (and other DC work). Overseeing the process was the senior advisor of the Woodchucks, DC vice president/production manager Sol Harrison, the man behind such “Solly’s Follies” as the DC Comicmobile and a Junior Bullpen Program. AWODCC all started one day when Sol rounded up those young staffers for a meeting. “I remember that Sol told me to gather up my compatriots for a discussion about a new project,” former Woodchuck Bob Rozakis recalls. “I went and found Paul Levitz, Carl Gafford, Steve Mitchell, Guy Lillian, and Allan Asherman and said, ‘Sol wants to have a meeting of the Junior Woodchucks.’ And that’s how the name was born.” But as former Woodchuck Allan Asherman tells BI, Harrison had a DC fanzine in mind before rallying together the troops for that meeting. “My earliest memory of the magazine was before we were told anything about it,” Asherman says. “Sol knew that my B.A. was in journalism, that I had been Long Island University’s delegate to the CBS Workshop program in the late 1960s, and had therefore worked in the CBS TV newsroom. Sol called me into his office one day to discuss the possibility of a magazine written and edited by the DC junior staffers, so that those of us with writing experience could encourage and work with those who hadn’t. My next memory of the magazine was being at our first staff meeting, but I do not recall any details at all about that meeting, except that it took place and I was there.”

DC Behind the Scenes The Amazing World of DC Comics #1 (July–Aug. 1974), with cover art by DC’s head honcho Carmine Infantino. TM & © DC Comics. Characters © DC, except The Shadow © Condé Nast and Tarzan © ERB, Inc.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

by M

ichael Eury

The Young Turks and The Senior Woodchuck (left) DC’s fans-turnedpro new staffers—the Junior Woodchucks— and their bios, from Amazing World #1. (top right) Woodchuck advisor Sol Harrison, photographed in 1977 by Jack Adler. Courtesy of Bob Rozakis. (bottom right) Page 1 of “Murder, Inc.!,” produced by Jack Kirby for the unpublished black-and-white magazine In the Days of the Mob #2 but presented in AWODCC #1. TM & © DC Comics.

Woodchuck Carl Gafford volunteered to serve as AWODCC #1’s managing editor, with contributing editors (and fellow Woodchucks) Asherman, Levitz, Lillian, Mitchell, and Rozakis pitching in. Gafford reveals to BACK ISSUE that Harrison originally had a different title in mind for this DC prozine. “Sol wanted to call it Fanzine, and not use the DC initials in the name at all,” he says. “We said DC’s initials were a major selling point.” Bob Rozakis adds, “I don’t recall who came up with the [AWODCC] name, but I think we came to a consensus after a discussion of possible ones.” Readers accustomed to a slick Murphy Anderson or Joe Giella inking line over the pencils of Carmine Infantino may have been taken aback by AWODCC #1’s cover, a sketchy but magnificent rendering by Infantino— then DC’s publisher—of DC characters he had illustrated over the years. Above the logo appeared headshots of DC’s most popular characters, although over time the characters shown would rotate. The issue’s contents featured Guy H. Lillian III’s interview with Joe Kubert, a sevenpage “Direct Currents” column announcing forthcoming comics and listing contents for two months’ worth of titles, Carl Gafford’s article about the recently aired pre-Lynda Carter Wonder Woman TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby, Allan Asherman’s history of television’s The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves, a “Meet the Woodchucks” page with photos and bios, a centerspread unveiling Michael Kaluta’s unused cover for DC’s The Shadow #5 (which we repurposed as the cover of BACK ISSUE #89), Asherman’s “Remembering” two-pager which presented a look back at Sol Harrison’s roots, a memorial to the recently deceased Bill Finger (the first time many readers had heard of this talented but tragic Batman co-creator), a page of DC office gag cartoons by Sergio Aragonés, Bob Rozakis’ two-page lettercol of kids’ funny letters to DC characters, E. Nelson’s Bridwell’s one-page “Yesteryear” time capsule, a ten-page crime comic story by Jack Kirby intended for the unpublished In the Days of the Mob #2, Paul Levitz’s inaugural installment of the “How a Comic is Created” instructional series, Steve Mitchell’s episode guide for the Fleischer Studios’ Superman animated shorts of

the ’40s, a DC word-search puzzle by Rozakis, and a couple of pinups. For the Bronze Age baby coming of age, AWODCC #1 presented more DC lore than one could ever dream of finding elsewhere. Could these Woodchucks keep the momentum going? A next-issue blurb promised an interview with Julius Schwartz, “the dean of comic book editors.” Looked like another winner was in store!

AS THE WORLD TURNS

AWODCC #2 (Sept.–Oct. 1974) followed, with a cheery Kurt Schaffenberger cover spotlighting young DC scribes Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, who were interviewed together inside (no, BACK ISSUE didn’t create the “Pro2Pro” concept) by Guy Lillian. What? No Julie Schwartz interview? (We’ll learn the reason in a moment…) Schaffenberger’s caricatures of Bates and Maggin were dead-on, even capturing their personalities in their reactions to the league of DC heroes gathered around them. These characters were reviewing script pages, and for fun, Kurt threw himself in, peeking around one of Superman’s broad shoulders. Stars from Cary’s and Elliot’s DC features were present—Superman, Lois Lane, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, members of the Shazam! family, and the Legion’s Karate Kid—but one unidentifiable character, whose body and most of his face is obstructed by Superman, always gave me pause. If he were taller, it might be Jim Shooter sneaking in for a cameo, but my theory, from the character’s hairstyle, is that it’s Mon-El of the Legion of Super-Heroes. “It’s Mon-El,” confirms Bob Rozakis. Rozakis was now co-editor of AWODCC, which wasn’t in the original plan for the magazine. “I didn’t give up the full editorial title; it was taken from me,” admits Carl Gafford. “There was a lot of concern that the zine might not make it past a first issue. When they gave us the green light, they assigned someone to manage the editorial portion and gave me just the production. Besides doing all the paste-ups, I did the color separations for the front and back covers.” Issue #2’s “Amazing World of Editorials,” by Rozakis, revealed the aforementioned story of the magazine’s genesis and announced the

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addition of Michael Uslan, the future Batman film producer, to the Woodchucks. Mitchell shared photos of new DC merchandise (coveted collectibles lo, these four decades later), Asherman revealed to readers the story of 1960’s The Adventures of Superboy TV pilot, Gafford penned a column on fanzines (under the “Chuckin’ It” department, a round-robin “second editorial” written by the Woodchucks) and a second column reviewing new publications including Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes, Direct Currents unveiled the latest DC news and releases (including mention of the success of the Simon & Kirby Sandman one-shot inspiring the development of a “Showcasestyle magazine,” which we’d soon come to know as First Issue Special), the centerspread featured an unpublished Bernie Wrightson House of Mystery cover (with washtones), Asherman’s “Remembering” looked at cover artist Schaffenberger’s career, the recently deceased writer Leo Dorfman was memorialized, Levitz continued his “How a Comic is Created” exploration, an unpublished Golden Age Wonder Woman tale saw print, Uslan and Rozakis told us about the DC Comicmobile, and Rozakis delivered another fun DC puzzle. The exemplary standard offered by the first issue was matched by issue #2. The previously promised Julie Schwartz interview appeared in AWODCC #3 (Nov.– Dec. 1974), behind a Joe Kubert cover depicting some of the DC stars from Julie’s editorial stable around an Easter Island-sized chiseled Schwartz head. The issue’s editorial explained that Cary Bates’ announced relocation from the New York metro area to California accelerated the production of the planned Bates/Maggin interview, bumping Julie back one issue. But it was worth the wait. Guy Lillian’s interview article, “Strange Schwartz Stories,” whisked readers through Julie’s early days in sci-fi fandom, as a literary agent, and through DC’s Golden and Silver Ages, even into the Bronze, where Schwartz stated that his favorite comic is “The next one I do” before, in his patented gruff manner, he brushed off his interviewer, who concluded the piece with Julie’s quote, “Now get out of here. I’ve got work to do!” Also in issue #3: Anthony Tollin and Sergio A. Curbelo were welcomed to the Woodchucks, a lettercol featuring responses to issue #1 (including a missive from Silver Age Superman editor Mort Weisinger), an article about Julie Schwartz’s Silver Age renovations, a sneak preview of DC’s 1975 fare (including The Sandman, Claw the Unconquered, The Joker, and sketchy details about a Denny O’Neil’s new book to be called Kung Fu, which soon become Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter), Bridwell’s article about the Shazam! TV show, a Gil Kane From Beyond the Unknown cover centerspread, Michael Uslan’s “Confessions of a Comic-Book Professor” (with illustrations by, according to Uslan, “the young and talented Dave Manak!”), the publication of a “lost” Golden Age Green Lantern story written by Julius Schwartz, more Direct Currents news and listings, and Steve Skeates cartooning a Plop! puzzle page. Rozakis’ issue #3 editorial hinted the upcoming issues’ themes, through AWODCC #9, which was promised to be a war comics issue featuring a Robert Kanigher interview (more on that later…).

THE FIRST THEME ISSUE

Amazing World of DC Comics #4 (Jan.–Feb. 1975) was a “Special Batman Issue,” and special it was, surveying the Caped Crusader’s permutations up to that time, from his Golden Age roots to his current Bronze Age adventures, under a Jerry Robinson sketch cover featuring the Golden Age Batman and Robin tangling with the Joker. The contents led off with

With This Wing I Do Thee Wed (top) Hawkman and Hawkgirl by Joe Kubert. Back cover to AWODCC #1. (middle) New titles premiering in 1975 were spotlighted in this article from issue #3. (bottom) Woodchuck Jack C. Harris’ transformation into Bat-rogue Two-Face. From the Batman issue, AWODCC #4. © DC Comics.

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DC’s First Fanboy

Anthony Tollin’s “Profile on Jerry Robinson—Creator of the Joker,” an engaging conversation that helped dispel the myth of Bob Kane’s sole creatorship of the Batman mythos and revealed to many readers that one of the inspirations for the Joker was actor Conrad Veidt’s gruesomely grinning visage in the film The Man Who Laughs. In the issue’s editorial, Bob Rozakis revealed that Guy Lillian had conducted a Bob Kane interview for the issue that had been transcribed, with illustrations selected, but a phone call from “the father of Batman” announcing his forthcoming autobiography tabled the piece. Another profile was promised for the Bat-issue, an interview with The Brave and the Bold editor Murray Boltinoff, but delays with the completion of that feature pushed it back to issue #5. Additional discoveries for many AWODCC #4 readers were that Paramount Pictures had considered a series of Batman cartoons in the ’40s, on the heels of their Superman toons, and that a Batman radio show pilot had been written; these gems were chronicled in Allan Asherman’s “The Batman That Never Was” article. Also in the Batman issue: cosplaying new Woodchuck Jack C. Harris’ transformation into Two-Face, Guy Lillian’s “Chuckin’ It” column announcing his departure from DC to pursue his Ph.D, more Direct Currents, a centerspread featuring an unused Golden Age Batman cover by Dick Sprang (which was later repurposed as the cover of Alter Ego #107), Lillian’s interview with Denny O’Neil, Batman newspaper strips from 1970 (by E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Plastino) featuring guest-star Green Arrow and the origin of Bat-villain Man-Bat, and Carl Gafford’s look at the Batman TV show of the ’60s. Jack “Two-Face” Harris reminisces with BACK ISSUE about his masquerade as Batman’s coin-flipping foe, and reveals that he wasn’t the only Harvey Dent stand-in during the Bronze Age: “I did the makeup twice, one in 1973 and again in 1974. Both times were for the costume contest at Phil Seuling’s July 4th New York Comic Book Conventions. The second time I did it, I won second prize. I figured it would be a tribute to the spirit of the character to retire him after that second appearance. However, I did return to the character about six years later when DC Comics was hosting its own New York convention. It was a ‘Batman’ convention where we were going to announce producer Mike Uslan’s acquisition of the rights to do the first Batman film. Then-publisher Jenette Kahn had asked me to do the Two-Face makeup again for the event. I asked her if it would be okay if I made up someone else as Two-Face. She agreed, but only if I could get someone notable to undergo the makeup procedure. I did her one better, I got Harlan Ellison to agree to do it. Harlan said as long as he had a microphone during the process, and that he could tell his story of the aborted Two-Face episode of the 1966 Batman TV show while being made up, he’d do it. He did and it was one of the most popular events of the convention.” Harris adds, “A couple of asides to this: In the 1973 costume contest at the Seuling Con, I was Two-Face, Tony Tollin appeared as the Golden Age Green Lantern, and Carl Gafford was dressed as Vaugh Bode’s Cheech Wizard. Less than two years later, all three of us were on the staff of DC Comics! Also, as Mike Uslan points out in his autobiographical book, The Boy Who Loved Batman, our announcement of the Batman film in 1980 was the very first time a movie was announced at a comic-book convention, long, long before the San Diego Comic-Con made it commonplace.”

(top left) Page 1 of AWODCC #6’s previously unpublished “Comic Book” McFiend comic story. (top right) Issue #7 featured this look at DC’s own not-quite-Man of Steel. (center) AWODCC #7’s original cover art remains a prized possession of Jack Harris. Photo by Dale Harris. (bottom) DC house ads like these promoted the newest issues of AWODCC and allowed readers to order back issues. TM & © DC Comics.

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Curiously absent from AWODCC #4 was an article about the two Batman movie serials of the ’40s, although they were mentioned in passing in Allan Asherman’s article. As Asherman explains, “It was generally known among film fans that Columbia had released two Batman serials. James Warren’s magazine Screen Thrills Illustrated, edited by Sam Sherman, had done articles on those serials. That’s how I had learned that those serials (unseen for years) existed. The existence of the unproduced Batman radio script was, to my knowledge, unknown outside DC, which retained a copy of it. It was therefore a ‘hotter’ story than the filmed serials. An article covering it would be an exclusive, and I was therefore eager to write about it.” Allan did regard the Batman serials as worthy subject matter for AWODCC, stating, “I do recall proposing an article on the serials at that time, probably for a future issue rather than for #4.”

CREATOR SPOTLIGHTS CONTINUE

“The Man Behind the Golden Age,” Sheldon “Shelly” Mayer, was profiled by Anthony Tollin as the cover feature of AWODCC #5 (Mar.–Apr. 1975), with Shelly’s signature (and beloved) characters Sugar and Spike commanding the back cover via an unpublished one-page strip. DC’s junior staff was two Woodchucks short (Lillian and Uslan had moved on) but still managed to produce a winner. Contents included Asherman’s look at DC comics from other countries, a creator-crammed lettercol with missives about #3’s coverfeatured Julie Schwartz piece, Direct Currents (which announced, among other things, the cancellations of Black Magic and Rima, as well as plans for a Batgirl/Robin team-up to appear in First Issue Special; that story actually saw print in Batman Family #1), a Hop Harrigan centerspread by artist John L. Blummer, Asherman and Harris’ Murray Boltinoff profile, a Sugar and Spike history, a Space Cabby article by written by Tony Isabella (AWODCC’s first article contributed by a non-Woodchuck), the concluding installments of the Batman newspaper serial that started in the previous issue, and a Rozakis-created puzzle. Joe Orlando, at the time the editor of DC’s mystery books, got the spotlight in AWODCC #6 (May–June 1975), its cover

Carmine’s Corner From the collection of Jack C. Harris, Infantino’s cover rough for AWODCC #8 (with the published version in the inset). Note that Carmine originally intended to include Black Canary and Robin in his “meeting.” TM & © DC Comics.

featuring a self-caricature by Orlando with interchangeable heads of his three biggest stars: Jonah Hex, Cain (caretaker of The House of Mystery), and Swamp Thing. Paul Levitz’s profile of his boss included looks at Orlando’s roots as a cartoonist, most notably for EC, plus his editorial and writing work, and included cartoons by Aragonés, Wally Wood, and Dave Manak. Manak was also represented in the issue through an unpublished Plop! tale starring “Comic Book” McFiend, “The Kid with One Million Comic Books,” the first of two comic stories in the issue, the other being an Orlando-drawn EC sci-fi tale, “Judgment Day!” Michael Uslan popped back in for a “Chuckin’ It” column about comic-book writing, as his Beowulf series was a new DC release, and Jack C. Harris launched a “Beginnings” column, exploring the early days of DC’s mystery titles. “How a Comic is Created” returned for a third installment, this time penned by Anthony Tollin, and previously unpublished Swamp Thing and DC mystery art peppered the issue. Issue #6’s Direct Currents touted Gerry Conway’s arrival as a DC editor (remember “Conway’s Corner”?) and printed Joe Orlando’s sketch of a new character that was about to appear in the revived All-Star Comics: Power Girl. And showing how new concepts are often in flux, #6’s Sneak Preview announced The Power of Hercules, which became Hercules Unbound, and cited Ramona Fradon as the artist of a Metal Men story scripted by Steve Gerber for Super-Team Family; that story was instead illustrated by newcomer Walter Simonson and appeared in the Metal Men’s own revived mag. The Metropolis Marvel took center stage in AWODCC #7 (July–Aug. 1975), a Superman showcase—and a veritable Fortress of Super-tude for fans of the Man of Steel. Harris took on a “coordinating editor” role for this issue, starting with his commissioning of its Superman cover from Curt Swan, an illustration that has considerable significance for the former Woodchuck to this day (keep reading…). Asherman shared photos of an unnamed actor who played Superman at the 1939 World’s Fair—presumably the first person to appear as a live-action Action Ace—and asked readers to help identify this super-stand-in (“Superman” has since been identified as Ray Middleton). DC’s office manager Dick Milgroom starred in a funny photo feature as Superman, Harris’ “Beginnings” looked at the histories of Superman family titles, the centerspread featured Curt Swan pencil art for an unpublished alternate version of Lois Lane #96), Harris took over Asherman’s “Remembering” with a Curt Swan profile while Asherman examined the 1948 Superman movie serial, Harris reviewed two books about Superman, details behind the innovative photo/ comic art cover for Superman #289 were revealed, a 1955 Superman mini-comic produced for Kellogg’s was reprinted, and different screen Supermans and Loises were shown in cinema stills. Issue #7’s text columns offered some tidbits, from Rozakis’ lettercol remark relegating Brave and Bold’s Wildcat to Earth-One (instead of “Earth B,” where’d he later be connected) to Direct Currents’ announcement of a Green Arrow/Black Canary team-up in First Issue Special (that issue never happened). Carmine Infantino was the star of AWODCC #8 (Sept.–Oct. 1975), providing its cover (as he did with #1), this time showing Carmine (with signature cigar in hand) holding an editorial conference with Batman, two Flashes, Adam Strange, and Grodd (and also showing what may be the only ashtray ever depicted on a DC Comics cover). While Rozakis and

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Harris covered Infantino’s early years and DC work in the lead article, Mike W. Barr (another non-Woodchuck) wrote the complementary feature “The Carmine Infantino Nobody Knows,” surveying both Carmine’s non-DC work and his lesserknown DC features, like Super-Chief. Also on tap: a fumetti with Superman serial photos, a reprint of the Kellogg’s Pop Tarts Batman: “The Joker’s Happy Victims!” mini-comic of 1966, an Adam Strange history and centerfold map of Rann, dossiers on the Flash’s rogues’ gallery, a Bridwell “Yesteryear” time capsule, Levitz’s attempt to explain Deadman’s confusing continuity, samples of Infantino’s attempts at newspaper strips, a letters column, and Direct Currents. A house ad also trumpeted the forthcoming Super DC Con ’76, the subject of the article following. In his lettercol, Rozakis announced a Sol Harrison/Jack Adler feature in the next issue, noting that the battle stars issue planned for #9 had been pushed back to issue #10.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

“Bet you’re wondering what happened to the Sol Harrison/Jack Adler I was here promising in last issue’s editorial,” opened Bob Rozakis in his “Amazing World of Letters” column in AWODCC #9 (Nov.–Dec. 1975). Sol and Jack were nowhere to be found, nor was Bob Kanigher or Sgt. Rock, which had earlier been slated for that issue. Instead, #9 was the most ambitious issue in AWODCC’s entire run, “The Legion Handbook,” a data-dense Legion of Super-Heroes source guide written by fan Neal Pozner, an issue in the works but accelerated when production problems delayed the aforementioned material. Paul Levitz, who went from contributing to co-managing editor status with this issue (swapping with Bob Rozakis), tells BI, “I think Neal had created it for his own publication as a fanzine, and when we saw it, we snapped it up.” Within issue #9’s pages, Pozner chronicled every iota of LSH lore imaginable: a LSH checklist, the Legion’s Clubhouses, equipment, policies, the Legion Constitution, hero histories, the Legion’s allies, villain histories, time travel, and 30th Century life. Pozner’s features included sidebar illustrations depicting many Legionnaires in a more realistic manner than usually shown in the comics, artwork presumably produced by Pozner himself. “I think they’re either his art, or his manipulation (in those pre-Photoshop days) of existing Legion panels,” Levitz says. The front cover featured fan-favorite Dave Cockrum’s Legion (specifically, Wildfire, Sun Boy, Brainiac 5, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl, and Element Lad) in combat with a scaly menace, framed by blue-toned covers of recent issues of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes. (I so loved that cover that I had it recreated for BACK ISSUE #68, our “Legion in the ’70s and ’80s Issue,” supplanting the framing images with covers reflecting our edition’s content.) By that point, however, Cockrum had moved on to Marvel as the illustrator of the newly revived X-Men book. So, how did this cover come about? “I don’t think it was created for Amazing World,” Levitz says. “It was probably a sketch Neal had gotten from Dave.” Rozakis and Pozner weren’t the issue’s sole contributors of articles. Harris provided a “How a Comic is Created” article on how the material in Superboy #212 was shortened after a page-count change was announced, publishing the missing page for AWODCC readers, and the reliable standby Direct Currents offered more news, including announcements of editor Murray Boltinoff’s new Three Musketeers title (which instead later appeared as DC Special #22–25) and news of Woodchuck Allan Asherman’s departure from DC’s staff. After the Legion issue, AWODCC’s format returned to normal with issue #10 (Jan.–Feb. 1976, listed in the indicia as Jan. 1976), although its cover was anything but normal. It was a mix of comic art and colorized photography, with real-life DC stalwarts Sol Harrison and Jack Adler supervising their crackerjack “production team” of Superman, the Flash, and Green Lantern, as illustrated by Murphy Anderson. (Ironically, this “Behind the Scenes in DC’s Production Department” cover features a production goof, with GL’s gloves being miscolored gray instead of white.) Inside, Gafford’s interview with Sol and Jack was a fascinating trip through comics and DC history, plus a primer on the production of DC’s comic books. Also on tap: Harris’ history of the tryout title Showcase, Super DC Con ’76 registration info, a centerfold of the cover art for Green Lantern #8 (with washtones by Adler), Harris’ column about cosplayers (although they weren’t called that then) at the 1975 Comic Arts Convention, a Rozakis-written “Chuckin’ It” column, Direct Currents, Gafford’s “How a Comic is Created” column on lettering, and a lettercol wherein Levitz welcomed new Woodchuck John Workman and promised the long-delayed war issue (now containing a Ric Estrada interview) for the next issue. Issue #10 also featured two comic stories: an unpublished House of Mystery tale by David V. Reed and Ramona Fradon ribbing writer Bill Finger and a two-page crime comic by John Costanza called “The Get-Away Car.” Of the former, editor Levitz tells BI, “Dave Vern (writing as David V. Reed) was an old friend of Bill’s, and it was done with affection.” And when asked if the latter was a leftover from Jack Kirby’s In the Days of the Mob inventory, Paul surmises, “Definitely looks like it from the lettering style mimicking [Kirby inker/letterer Mike] Royer’s.”

The Legion, Live (top) From AWODCC #10: Legion of Super-Heroes fans as their favorite Legionnaires. Standing, left to right: Todd Clark as Brainiac 5, Ben Pondexter as Ferro Lad, LSH scribe Jim Shooter, Ron Kienzle as Ultra Boy, Kurt Chebatoria as Chameleon Boy, and Mercy Van Vlack as Phantom Girl. Kneeling, left to right: Keith Mateson as Element Lad, Mark Gaudio as Cosmic Boy, and Charlie Hawse as Bouncing Boy. Photo by David Michelinie. (bottom) Page 1 of Reed and Fradon’s spoof of longtime DC scribe Bill Finger, from AWODCC #10. TM & © DC Comics.

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Rozakis’ “Chuckin’ It” in issue #10 was a departure for the magazine, veering from the rotating column’s normal fandom topics. “I was still working part time in the security department at a local department store and had recently given Dick Grayson a similar job in a couple of Robin stories,” Bob recalls. “I just thought it would make interesting reading about my own crimefighting adventures.” That issue’s Direct Currents mentioned a new concept coming from editor Murray Boltinoff’s desk: Ninja the Invisible, an ill-fated feature that quickly disappeared from development. While John Workman was officially welcomed in that issue, he tells BACK ISSUE, “I joined DC with the eighth issue, lettering the cover. I lettered most of the covers after that, as well as a lot of interior titles and such. Under the name of W. Argyle Nelson (a name that I always found hilarious… the real fellow was involved in the production of numerous TV series, most notably I Love Lucy), I drew a double-page Plastic Man piece of art that was inked by Bob Smith. For the Special Edition of AWODCC, I lettered the ‘Super DC Con ’76.’ ” AWODCC #10’s back cover was a re-presentation of the cover of a DC oldie, Movie Comics #5 (Aug. 1939), featuring the then-new film release, The Man in the Iron Mask. Of that back cover, Carl Gafford tells BI, “I was proudest of doing the issue #10 back cover with the cover from Movie Comics. What I had to do was paint with gray tones onto a Photostat of the cover, then a halftone stat was done and I did the color separations to it.” Next up was Amazing World of DC Comics Special Edition #1 (Feb. 1976), which was actually the convention booklet for Super DC Con ’76 (covered in the article following). A celebration of Superman’s leap year birthday, Special Edition (SE) #1 was a merger of a standard AWODCC issue and a con guide, published at a smaller size than traditional issues and utilizing a slicker cover stock. Edited by Levitz, the SE’s contents included a convention welcome, Tollin’s DC publishing history titled “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” Bridwell’s interview “with” the Earth-One and Earth-Two Supermen, a “Super-Artists” art gallery, an article by Gafford and Franklin W. Maynard about anniversaries in comics, a tribute to Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, a rare 1940s comic reprint (from Look magazine) titled “How Superman Would End the War,” Fred Schneider’s photo-illustrated article about his customization of DC superhero model kits, a con event schedule, a comic collecting article by Paul Kupperberg, a reprint of a rare Superman story titled “The Supershow of Metropolis,” which was produced for Kellogg’s Pep cereal, Harris’ “Costume Party Capers” article about DC heroes’ masquerades, a Superman photo album, a five-page anti-pollution Superman tale written by Len Wein and penciled by Neal Adams, an autograph page, and several Superman birthday salutes from DC advertisers and vendors of the day including Hostess, Mego, and World Color Press. Paul Kupperberg, not an official Junior Woodchuck but a longtime friend of Paul Levitz’s, blogged about his contribution to the AWODCC SE, joking, “My contribution (page filler!) was a fact-filled (page filler!) article containing valuable (page filler!) information for the newbie (page filler!) comic-book collector on how to start, grow, and manage (page filler!) their collection.” The war comics theme was once again MIA by the time AWODCC #11 (Mar.–Apr. 1976) was released. Instead, it was a supervillains issue with a cover by JLA artist Dick Dillin. Featured in this issue were Harris’ “Then and Now” looks at Lex Luthor, Star Sapphire, and the Joker, followed by Uslan’s “The Wrong Arm of the Law,” an exploration of heroes who started as vigilantes or villains, or who operated outside of the law in their quests for justice. Also in #11: an “interview” with Sinestro produced by Bridwell and Tollin, the scrapped original version of the story intended to be Secret Society of Super-Villains #1, neo-DC writer David Michelinie providing insights into his scripting in a “How a Comic is Created” column, Harris “Remembering” with Dick Dillin, and the origin of Solomon Grundy. The issue’s two fan columns were standouts due to the information they conveyed. In the lettercol, Levitz confessed to deadline snags connected to AWODCC: “ye editor lives and learns,” he wrote. “[T]o get this mag out on time requires having alternate choices available.” Readers were told that issue #12 would be “either a blazing battle issue or a sensation sci-fi starring the Legion.” Direct Currents announced that DC chief Carmine Infantino had “relinquished his post,” with Sol Harrison being appointed president and the newly hired Jenette Kahn coming on board as publisher.

It’s Showtime! (top) Carl Gafford remains proudest of his work on this back cover of AWODCC #10, re-presenting the cover of DC’s Movie Comics #5. (middle) Nelson Bridwell “chatted” with two Men of Steel in AWODCC Special Edition #1. (bottom) Issue #11 printed DC’s rejected original version of Secret Society of Super-Villains #1. © DC Comics. The Man in the Iron Mask © 1939 Universal Studios.

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National Comics Lampoon (top, this page and previous) Dave Manak caricatured the Amazing World crew for issue #13. (left) Title page to Michael Uslan’s “Short Circuits” spoof, from AWODCC #13, plus a look at Woodchuck Uslan. (right) Features like this one, written by Anthony Tollin for issue #13, clued in readers about film adaptations of DC characters produced for the previous generation. TM & © DC Comics.

Among the news blurbs in #11’s Direct Currents was mention of a new project called “Sextet.” More information was promised for a future issue, but none was given. What happened to Sextet? “Ahem… I have no idea…” Levitz admits. The Legion-starring “Science Fiction and the Super-Hero” won the toss as the contents of AWODCC #12 (July–Aug. 1976), not surprisingly since the Legion of Super-Heroes issue, #9, proved a wild success, selling out in three weeks! This issue featured Paul Levitz’s ascension to editor, with Carl Gafford now listed as “co-editor/production.” In his editorial Levitz promised new (non-Woodchuck) contributors to AWODCC, as evidenced by Dana L.F. Anderson, author of the lead article, “Science Fiction Aspects in Comics.” Levitz penned Chapter Two of his “Guide to Confusing Continuity” with an “Earth After Disaster” installment surveying everything from the Atomic Knights to Hercules Unbound. Other content: Gafford’s interview with fan-favorite new Legion artist Mike Grell, an unpublished Weird War Tales sci-fi story drawn by Grell, a Strange Adventures history by Harris, Direct Currents (announcing DC’s post-Infantino editorial department changes) and a lettercol, plus a new feature, “The Legion Outpost,” connecting directly with the LSH’s rabid fan base. The Legion Outpost included an “Applicants Corner,” a spotlight for fan-submitted potential new Legionnaires, illustrated by John Workman. Issue #12’s applicant came from Robert Harris and used a familiar DC name: Nightwing. John Workman recalls, “I remember Jack Harris showing me fan art of fan-created characters that he’d received that could—in some alternate world—become members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I did drawings of those characters for Jack on a freelance basis for use in Amazing World. I thought at the time that my work on those pieces was really lousy (partly because I couldn’t possibly take the characters seriously), but in looking back now, they aren’t that awful. I was heavily influenced at the time by the inks of Alfredo Alcala over John Buscema on stories in Savage Sword of Conan. The over-rendering on my drawings of the Legion wannabes is the result.”

UNPREDICTABLE CONTENT

Issue #13 (Oct.–Nov. 1976) was themed—no, not DC’s battle heroes— the “Incredible Unpredictable Issue,” a wacky assemblage of fun stuff appropriate for this “unlucky” 13th edition, packaged behind a hilarious Sergio Aragonés cover; this cover featured the last appearance of the “Line of DC Super-Stars” headshots top-lining the logo, although in this case many of the characters’ visages were humorously defaced by a crayonwielding Spike (of Sugar and Spike fame). Contents included Bridwell’s interview “with” the Earth-One Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Earth-Two Mr. Mxyztplk (with apologies to our proofreader, Rob Smentek), a “Confusing Continuity” installment about DC’s Mars and Martian Manhunter by a pre-Marvel Comics Mark Gruenwald (Mark’s the subject of a retrospective in BI #103, by the way), Harris’ history of the Bizarro World, Mark Evanier’s insightful animation article about the Fox and the Crow, an unpublished Jonah Hex spoof bumped from an intended DC humor title called Zany (which became, as explained by editor Levitz, Plop!), a humorous mystery comic short by the Steve Skeates/Steve Dikto/Wally Wood team, Tollin’s photo-illustrated “DC Super-Stars of Celluloid,” Uslan’s Direct Currents parody titled “Short Circuits,” an excerpt from Michael Fleisher’s Wonder Woman volume of The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, the Legion Outpost, the real Direct Currents (including DC’s Dollar Comics among its announcements), Rozakis’ “Inside the Amazing World” update on AWODCC’s staff, and a two-page Sugar and Spike adventure. Michael Uslan’s “Short Circuits” was one of my favorite features in AWODDC’s entire run, from its ridiculous announcements of the hiring of Milton Bradley as the Brave and Bold editor (and the promise of a Batman/Mr. Potato Head team-up) to its listing for the title Kung Fu Deli, a martial-arts team book including among its cast Richard Dragon and Ninja the Invisible (him again). Reflecting on this article, Uslan reminisces to BI, “I was not only given free reign to make fun of DC and some of the less-than-spectacular successes they may have had over the years, but was also allowed to make social commentary, usually aimed at fast food restaurants of the 1970s, TV commercials, and

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Legion of Wannabes Original art by and courtesy of John Workman, of the fan-submitted would-be Legionnaire, Thundra Girl. Thundra Girl was featured in AWODCC #15’s “Legion Outpost.” © DC Comics.

advertising, and even take a little jab at the pomposity of some Marvel writers (not any of my friends, of course!).” Issue #14 (Mar. 1977) took a few additional months to reach readers, but it was worth the wait, containing “The Justice League of America Reader” by fan Mark Gruenwald, a comprehensive look at the JLA that, as stated by editor Levitz in his editorial, “add[ed] depth … far beyond what our 9th issue Legion special possessed.” (Marvel maniacs puzzled over Mark Gruenwald’s creation of a DC handbook should realize that the pre-pro Gru was a JLA fan, and his Marvel magnum opus, Squadron Supreme, was his love letter to the Silver Age JLA.) Contents included Gruenwald’s history of the JLA, a look at the book’s creators, an issue-by-issue JLA guide, and examinations of the team’s secret identities, group organization, HQ, members, guest-stars, and villains, plus an interview with JLA editor Julie Schwartz. Non-JLA material in the issue: Mike Gold’s special report on the upcoming Superman movie, a revitalized Direct Currents (focusing only on news, since comic listings were now appearing in DC books’ Daily Planet pages), Harris’ Legion Outpost column, and a peek at Sea World’s “Salute to the DC Superheroes!” water-ski spectacular. Some months lapsed before fans received Amazing World #15 (Aug. 1977), but its content was exactly as promised by Levitz in the previous issue: a Wonder Woman issue. Levitz, now busy with other DC projects, had passed the AWODCC editorship to Cary Burkett, who introduced himself as a Texan theater buff whose earliest comic-book memory was reading JLA #1. Under a front cover with a gorgeous WW portrait by Mike Nasser (Netzer) and a back cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, both juxtaposed against a retina-stunning magenta background, issue #15’s contents featured a Wonder Woman history by Martin Pasko, Anthony Tollin’s “DC Super Stars of Television,” Wyatt Gywon’s article “Wonder Woman’s Strangest Villains” (and yes, Mouse Man and Egg Fu were listed among them), Burkett’s “Remembering” interview with longtime WW art team Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, a centerspread montage of classic WW artists, Mark Evanier’s profile of TV Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, pages of unpublished WW pencil art by the then-recently deceased John Rosenberger, Mike Gold’s “official transcript” of a House of Representatives sub-committee meeting on superheroines chaired by Rep. Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon, a few dailies from the rare Golden Age Wonder Woman newspaper strip, Direct Currents, the Legion Outpost, and a one-page lettercol featuring Bob Rozakis’ plea for letters! New AWODCC editor Cary Burkett reveals to BACK ISSUE, “When I was involved, AWODCC was done very much as a fanzine in that it was not given any production priority, like the regular monthly books. It was produced mainly as a labor of love whenever time could be scavenged from daily duties. I recall putting production requests in for different articles, and they would sit on a pile, untouched for weeks and maybe months. I learned how to do some of the production work myself (such as making stats of artwork and correcting the printed text), but I had to stay late after the production team had left to do the work. I had a small budget to pay for cover art and articles, but the nuts and bolts of putting it together were not supported well.”

Amazing Customizations (left) From issue #16, model kit customizer Fred Schneider working on a Dr. Mid-Nite model. (right) Three of Fred’s Teen Titans, as shown in the AWODCC Special Edition. © DC Comics.

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Issues #14 and 15 featured a new logo for the prozine, condensing the mag’s title into a single globe. John Workman tells BI, “I did the logo lettering on issues #14 and 15, making use of the existing words ‘Amazing World’ and creating a new ‘of DC Comics.’ ” Workman’s logo was MIA beginning with AWODCC #16 (Dec. 1978), which featured the return of the original logo, sans the drop-shadow on “DC Comics” and the headshots of DC characters. This was a Golden Age issue, featuring a gorgeous Marshall Rogers wraparound cover chock full of heroes and supporting characters from the ’30s and ’40s (including a silhouetted flying hero in the distant background comically identified on the inside front cover as “your favorite character that does not appear elsewhere on the cover”). This issue featured Skip Kirkland’s “Roots of the Golden Age” article about the pre-superhero comics world, Roger Klorese’s examination of the Quality Comics characters now known as DC’s Freedom Fighters, Thomas Tuna’s exploration of how the comic book affected the culture of the 1940s, Larry Herndon’s Plastic Man history, Levitz’s article about the aging of the Justice Society of America in contemporary stories, a Joe Staton/ Bob Layton JSA centerspread, Mike Gold’s Silver Age history, Fred Schneider’s customization of JSA models, and a “Confusing Continuity” feature on the Spectre by editor Burkett. Direct Currents was MIA but the issue included the Legion Outpost and a lettercol, plus Mike Gold’s spotlight on the winners of the Great Superman Movie Contest, Ed Finneran and Tim Hussey.

So, what led AWODCC to pull its vanishing act? Paul Levitz opines, “I think we collectively outgrew it. The original group of contributors was doing fairly significant day jobs at DC by then, and there’s only a few ‘second generation’ folks on the masthead. The purpose of the mag was training, more than anything else, and I think that was viewed as accomplished.” Bob Rozakis, who spent decades in DC’s production department, theorizes that AWODCC’s slick format might have contributed to its demise: “I think the format, particularly the heavy paper stock and cover, worked against us. In an era when fanzines were often printed on mimeo or ditto machines, I think AWODCC may have come across as an elitist project.” The Woodchucks’ world might have been amazing, but it wasn’t idyllic. “As a house zine it couldn’t take on controversy, of course, and ‘authorized history’ isn’t the same as scholarly work, but for all that, it was valuable,” Paul Levitz says. Michael Uslan adds, “The greatest weakness was that we had to operate under the constraints of DC, policy-wise. As I recall, for example, the thing that perturbed me and the boys most was with the Bill Finger obituary in the first issue. We were not allowed to just come out with what we all knew… that Bill Finger was the co-creator of Batman and Green Lantern. We had to follow house policy in terms of things we could say or not say.”

THE END OF THE (AMAZING) WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

A few months later, AWODCC #17 (Apr. 1978) arrived, its cover starring the Marvel Family as drawn by Alan Weiss in an all-Shazam! issue. Judging from Burkett’s editorial, it seemed business-as-usual inside the issue; therein he announced the demise of the mag’s Direct Currents (which was now a monthly newsletter) and the temporary elimination of the Legion Outpost due to space limitations, welcomed the addition of assistant editors/ Woodchucks Mike W. Barr and Mike Catron, and promised a science-fiction theme for issue #19, to include “a behind-the-scenes look at DC’s current galaxy-spanning feature… Star Hunters.” John Workman provided a fanciful back cover comic starring Captain Marvel titled “The Magic Word!” “I actually remember working on part of the Captain Marvel back cover in my Heavy Metal office, because I was over at HM when that issue was being put together,” Workman reveals. The issue’s Shazam! contents were an informative delight, especially to those too young to have read the Golden Age adventures of Captain Marvel and company. E. Nelson Bridwell “investigated” the wizard Shazam, Michael Uslan revealed the story behind the Superman v. Captain Marvel court cases, Mike Barr interviewed Shazam! scribe Bridwell, Thomas Tuna provided a Mary Marvel history, Barr and Jack C. Harris interviewed artist Kurt Shaffenberger, Larry Herndon and Lynn Woodley uncovered Captain Marvel, Jr.’s history, Jim Burns explored the Shazam! TV show, the late Otto Binder was eulogized, and Mike Gold explored Fawcett Comics’ non-Marvel Family heroes. Topping off the issue was a photo feature with movie Superman Kirk Alyn meeting TV Captain Marvel Jackson Bostwick (both in costume), plus Burkett’s lettercol, responding to reader queries about the apparent cancellation of the oft-pledged “battle stars” issue while announcing a special Robert Kanigher edition to follow #18’s sci-fi spotlight. But no future issue of The Amazing World of DC Comics appeared. I remember hoping for a house ad promoting the next one, but that day never came. While its editors routinely confessed of production problems, AWODCC’s quality never wavered, outside of some early-issue typos. Each issue was a treasure trove of facts and fun for the DC fan, and they have steadily increased in value in the collectors market (particularly in high grades), with issue #9 being the hardest issue to find.

Word Up! (top) John Workman’s back cover Shazam! comic page from AWODCC’s last issue, #17. (bottom) Courtesy of Jack C. Harris, a Woodchucks reunion at the 2011 New York Comic-Con. Standing, from left to right: John Workman, Bob Rozakis, Harris, Michael Uslan, and Allan Asherman. Kneeling: Paul Kupperberg. Shazam! page TM & © DC Comics.

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Jack C. Harris ruminates, “The only ‘weakness’ I see (in retrospect) was the inclusion of the current comics on sale when the issues were published. I think this dates them; without those pages, I think the issues would stand up better as timeless, historic texts.” And whatever happened to that oft-promised Bob Kanigher interview? Was it ever actually conducted? According to Rozakis, “I don’t think the interview ever happened. Kanigher was a prickly guy and didn’t want to have much to do with us ‘kids.’ I vaguely recall Marty Pasko once asking him a question and Kanigher replied, ‘What’s your name? Do you work here?’ ” Actually, as Cary Burkett discloses, there were attempts to get the Kanigher feature off the ground. “I remember the Kanigher spotlight I hoped to do very well,” Burkett says. “I interviewed Kanigher several times for the article I hoped to write. I was a very green interviewer, and Kanigher had a tendency to ramble. I couldn’t keep him on topic, and I couldn’t nail down specific answers to different questions. After several interviews (which were a lot of fun, by the way), I felt as if I had no cohesive or trustworthy narrative about his work in comics.”

WORLDVIEW

Amazing World of Covers Front covers for AWODCC issues #2–7 and 9-17. TM & © DC Comics.

Still, looking back four decades later, the one-time Woodchucks fondly recall their days within Amazing World’s orbit. Paul Levitz contends, “It was a wonderful ride, and we got a few good pieces of history done with the interviews and articles. Even salvaged a few things from the files that would have vanished, like that ‘missing’ Legion page [#9]. And a group of young people who would do a lot of interesting work in the field got to grow. Not a bad benefit.” Allan Asherman says, “What I do remember is the elation I felt at being a part of DC Comics and being asked to be on the staff of an official company magazine written for comics fans. I recall thinking it was like a dream, to be paid for working on a magazine that would be as much fun to prepare as a fanzine but would actually have more significance, being sponsored and approved by the company, which would also be giving us access to interview and schmooze with our resident legendary writers, artists, and other creators, and to examine and write about parts of the company’s history unknown outside DC Comics.” Bob Rozakis maintains, “The biggest plus was that it gave us ‘kids’ our own piece of DC history. That we had access not only to the staff and freelancers, but also to the files from years past, gave us a unique perspective that could not be duplicated by outsiders. We were pretty much left alone to decide the contents and who we wanted to interview, so it really was our magazine.” According to Jack C. Harris, “The greatest strength of Amazing World of DC Comics was the enthusiasm of the contributors. We loved what we were writing about. No one was ‘assigned’ anything; was all came forward with our own ideas about what we wanted to research and present. ‘Labor of love’ was an understatement.” Michael Uslan believes, “The greatest strength of Amazing World of DC Comics was definitely the Woodchucks. We were all great pals, went to lunch together often, socialized on weekends, and had true camaraderie built on a foundation of our love for comic books and comic-book history. We were the ones lucky enough to be working at DC Comics in the first generation of fanboys that were allowed to turn pro. We had access to the executives, to the editors, to the artists and writers, to the production people, many of whom were there at the beginning in the 1930s and 1940s. Our knowledge of the history of comics came straight from the horses’ mouths. Our love for comics and DC rears its head and every single issue of AWODCC.” We’ll give the final word on AWODCC to Paul Levitz, the Woodchuck who ascended to the company’s top post: “Who’d have thought anyone would still be thinking of it four decades later?!” An amazing world of gratitude to Woodchucks Allan Asherman, Cary Burkett, Carl Gafford, Jack C. Harris, Paul Levitz, Bob Rozakis, and Michael Uslan for taking the time to share their memories.

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Let me state right up front that I was not lucky enough to be included in the “We” in this article’s title. I was a freshman at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, when DC Comics hosted its own comic-con from February 27–29 of the Bicentennial year—New York City was too far away for this pimple-faced dorm-dweller. The notion of my favorite publisher hosting its own fan gathering was almost mind-blowing enough to tempt me to skip class for a couple of days for a road trip north… too bad as a frosh I wasn’t allowed to have a car on campus, else I might have made the trek in my ’70 Ford Maverick. by M i c h a e l E u r y But as an avid, life-long DC reader and a proud owner of the convention booklet, The Amazing World of DC Comics Special Edition #1 Celebrating the Super DC Con ’76, I’ve wondered in the 40-plus years since what it was like to have attended that momentous event. Barring the intervention of a wielder of a time machine (where’s Rip Hunter when you need him?), the closest I’ll ever get to Super DC Con ’76 is to live vicariously through the experiences of some of those who were there. I expect that most of you are like me and were not there—sheesh, some of you weren’t even born yet—so join me as we look back at Super DC Con ’76. Before we hear from the people who were there, it’s important to frame our perspective in the pop culture of the ’70s. Today, fans have one-day comic-cons to choose from almost every weekend of the year, in major metropolitan areas and smaller suburban regions. Mega-shows like San Diego Comic-Con International and New York Comic-Con earn worldwide entertainment headlines. But in the Bicentennial year of 1976, when the USA was gearing up for its sizzling fireworks shows that Fourth of July, comic-cons were still uncommon for most fans. A dozen years had passed since the first comic-book convention, the New York Comicon of 1964, an affair organized phil seuling by young fan Bernie Bubnis, abetted by fellow fans Ron Fradkin, Art Tripp, and Ethan Roberts. By ’76, a few comic-cons had trickled into existence, relatively new events consigned to a handful of major cities, discounting the flea market-like book- and comicswaps you might find around college campuses. Convention pioneer Phil Seuling, a teacher from Brooklyn who provided refreshments at Bubnis’ inaugural New York Comicon, had grown the concept into his Comic Art Conventions, explosions of fandemonium occurring in Manhattan each Independence Day weekend, dating back to 1968. Seuling had started to branch out with brand-centric shows, including a Famous Monsters (of Filmland) Convention in 1974, and Marvel Comics even launched its own short-lived annual convention in 1975 (which we’ll cover in a future issue). This growing mania made the time right for a DC convention, and so Phil Seuling joined forces with DC Comics president Sol Harrison to organize a DC con. 1976 was a leap year, and back in the Bronze Age, February 29th was also Superman’s birthday (according to DC lore-keeper E. Nelson Bridwell). And so, Super DC Con ’76 doubled as the Man of Steel’s birthday party—complete with a Super Birthday Cake (as well as a bountiful supply of Twinkies, courtesy of one of DC’s major advertisers of the day). Anyone who’s ever organized a convention will tell you it’s a tough job, and members of DC’s staff (mostly its “Junior Woodchucks” newbies) moonlighted by coordinating most of the event’s duties: Paul Levitz co-managed the con with Phil Seuling’s then-girlfriend and Gal Friday, Jonni Levas, and Jenette Kahn, fresh on the job as DC’s new publisher, managed publicity, with additional DC personnel handling other The Convention Booklet responsibilities (this was long before comics publishers had marketing This Special Edition of Amazing World of DC Comics teams dedicated to conventions). Levitz and his fellow Woodchucks produced the con booklet, the aforementioned AWODCC Special Edition (AWODCC) doubled as Super DC Con ’76’s program #1, whose contents were explored in the previous article. One can only guide. There’s an error on this cover… can you spot it? imagine how the burden of orchestrating a convention amplified the routine chaos found in DC’s helter-skelter editorial and production Keeping reading for details! environments, but no one could have anticipated the biggest event TM & © DC Comics. disruptor since the FF’s rogues’ gallery crashed Reed and Sue’s wedding… Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 69

…a strike! As the cover of the convention booklet proclaims, Super DC Con ’76 was a three-day affair scheduled for New York’s Hotel Commodore. Two days before the con, the Commodore’s staff hit the picket line, forcing the frantic DC crew to scramble. As Paul Levitz blogged on February 26, 2016, in commemoration of Super DC Con’s 40th anniversary, “Hasty arrangements were made to shift to the Americana (now the Sheraton NY Times Square), and I have a vague memory of our needing to carry over a certified check for the deposit because Warner Communications/DC Comics’ credit wasn’t enough to satisfy them in the circumstances. DC folks were on phones trying to get radio stations to announce the new location, and we ended up rolling giant mail bins full of stuff for the con down 52nd Street from the offices to the hotel.” With such little notice of the venue change, it was too late to alter the convention booklet, and as such the Hotel Commodore’s name has been erroneously etched into history as the “location” of Super DC Con ’76. That nightmare aside, judging from con program reproduced here, the event was spectacular, although as you’re about to read it was a backstage comedy of errors. The con featured a smorgasbord of vintage comics for sale, DC memorabilia displays (including George Reeves’ TV Superman costume), panel discussions with DC personnel, how-to workshops for aspiring pros, and film festivals. Many Legion of Super-Heroes fans gathered at the event, with Harry Broertjes and Mitch Itkowitz producing Helen Keller is NOT a Rock Star, a commemorative APAzine about their experiences. As Levitz blogged, Super DC Con ’76 was the last gathering of DC’s Golden Age greats, sharing the stage with creators from the Silver and Bronze Ages. Headlined by special guests Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—the creators of Superman, who had very recently come to terms with the publisher regarding a stake in their bulletproof brainchild— DC stalwarts in attendance included Jack Adler, Murray Boltinoff, Sol Harrison, Bob Kane, Joe Kubert, Shelly Mayer, Joe Orlando, Jack Schiff, Julius Schwartz, Curt Swan, the Woodchucks, and newbie Jenette Kahn in her first encounter with many of DC’s talent and fans. “Virtually everyone who was invited attended,” Levitz blogged, “with the notable exception of Bob Kanigher, who was nervous to be on the Wonder Woman panel with his old boss, Shelly Mayer.” There was video shot of some of the convention’s activities, and perhaps one day those images will become available for us to enjoy. In the meantime, we’ll leave it to three Woodchucks and one then-young comic-book fan to stroll us down the bustling aisles of… no, not the Hotel Commodore, but of the Hotel Americana, as they share their memories of the one and only Super DC Con ’76.

Spreading the Word Super DC Con ’76 was promoted in (top) house ads in DC titles, as well as in (bottom) the company’s fanzine, AWODCC, the latter even containing this registration form. TM & © DC Comics.

BOB ROZAKIS, Woodchuck STORY ONE: Twinkies! Millions of Twinkies!! You know those big canvas bins they have in the post office to move the mail around… three feet wide by five feet long by four feet deep? Two of them, filled to the top with boxes of Twinkies. On the first day, we gave everyone coming into the convention a Twinkie. This barely made a dent. At the end of the con, we gave everyone who was leaving a box of Twinkies. The vendors took as many boxes as they wanted. Staff members took plenty as well. There were still hundreds of Twinkies left, and they came back to the DC office. Lillian Mandel was the production department secretary and it was her birthday the week after the con. Instead of getting her a cake, Sol Harrison or Jack Adler decided to put candles in a row of Twinkies. Lillian was not happy about this. STORY TWO: Midge Bregman (Sol’s secretary), my wife Laurie, and I drove the rented panel truck to a bakery somewhere in the Bronx to pick up the Superman birthday cake that had been custom-made for the event. The truck had really lousy shocks and every time we hit a bump, the

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cake bounced. I kept driving slower and slower to minimize the damage. Even so, when we finally got it to the hotel, the cake looked not unlike California in the first Superman movie. We did our best to smooth out the icing and hide the fault lines. STORY THREE: My boyhood friend Fred Schneider had customized the ’60s Aurora models into various other heroes and brought them to the convention to display. When the con was over, Fred and Jack Harris were bringing the display down an escalator. Somehow, a corner of it caught on something and it crashed to the floor. Jack ended up with a big cut in his hand and Fred had a collection of model pieces. The collection was eventually repaired and expanded and they all were on display in a DC conference room for a number of years. JACK C. HARRIS, Woodchuck My memories of the Super DC Con of 1976 have, most likely, dimmed with time, but I do recall a number of incidents, both personal and overall, that might be of interest. Again, those with better memories might have to correct me, but these are things that I remember. First of all, [just] before the convention, the hotel employees of the convention hotel went on an impromptu strike. Bob Rozakis and I went over to the original hotel [in a rental van] and gathered up some of our display material (at least I think that’s why we were there) to transport to the new hotel. We had to wait for quite a while since the truckers who were going to transport it didn’t want to cross a picket line. They finally did it when we learned the strike action was not union-sanctioned. [Bob Rozakis adds: We finally got someone in management to put them in a freight elevator down to the loading dock where we had parked. But no one got on the elevator, so the door did not open for us. We waited for more than an hour, till someone else from management finally opened up the door.] I remember us redirecting many fans that were showing up to go to the new hotel (which we had secured overnight at the last minute). We were celebrating Superman’s birthday and had a big cake from which we were giving out slices to a number of underprivileged children who were guests of the convention. The cake was big, but not near enough big enough for everyone, so it was supplemented by hundreds and hundreds of Hostess Twinkies. It was a very hectic couple of days, so, at times, I missed meals and ate nothing but left over Hostess Twinkies. I have not eaten one since. We had an art room with lots of original art displayed. Since MAD Magazine was also owned by Warners, they sent over an art display of MAD covers. We took turns watching over the display. Watching over the MAD display was assistant editor Jerry DeFuccio. We spent a couple

Activities Galore, and The Real DC Super-Stars (left) From AWODCC SE #1, the Convention Program. (right) From Hake’s Auctions, the Special Edition’s autograph page, containing the John Hancocks’ of some of comicdom’s all-time greats. © DC Comics.

of hours there and became fast friends. Later on, I spent many a happy lunch hour with Jerry over at the MAD offices. A number of celebrities attended, but the only one I recall meeting was Alan Funt of Candid Camera fame. He and DC president Sol Harrison had become friends after Funt secured the rights to use Superman in a few Candid Camera stunts. He was jovial and fun to talk to. I remember seriously cutting my hand when I was helping modeler Fred Schneider carry plastic display shelves down an escalator. I slipped and many of his beautifully customized superhero models shattered as my hand slid down the sharp edge of the shelf, slicing it deeply. I felt terrible about Fred’s models and he felt terrible about my hand. My hotel room was robbed and my ex-wife’s wallet was stolen. It had contained her paycheck (she worked in the DC production department). DC president Sol Harrison made sure a new check was issued, adding the amount of cash that was taken as well. Sol was a sweetheart. For months afterwards, I kept getting bills from the hotel, since someone had mixed up my name for Sol’s. JOHN WORKMAN, Woodchuck At one time, during a short speech that I delivered in the Time/Life building before a group of DC staffers and other people caught in the maelstrom of comics creation, I referred to the 1976 Super DC Con as “unintentionally hilarious,” which it was. So many things went so very wrong at that particular event that the result—something memorable and wonderful—is truly miraculous and so amazingly right. All these years later (more than I’d have thought until I did the math), there are two things that I fondly remember… one that I could relive by way of film (if that film still exists) and another that is both heartbreaking and humorous, mostly because of its acknowledgement of the fact that people are here, and then they are gone. At some time during the convention, I found myself sitting at a table with Marty Pasko and Julie Schwartz. The reason why I was there is lost to time and faulty memory, but at some point, the three of us

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were drafted into putting on a bit of a show for some people with a formidable-looking camera and several microphones. It seems that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had sent some people down to New York for the express purpose of covering the DC Con. The three of us decided that we would demonstrate how a comic-book page is created. Marty quickly came up with a script for a page of a typical Superman story. My memory tells me that he didn’t have a typewriter handy, so he just wrote it out on a piece of paper and then handed it over to Julie. As writer and editor, Marty and Julie then presented for the camera a pretty good version of the conference wherein the script was dissected, put back together, and made better by a knowledgeable editor’s experience and taste. Then I got a bit nervous because it was my turn to grab a sheet of DC artboard that was sitting on the table… and start drawing. Knowing that most of my efforts would probably be cut from the final piece, I quickly drew a multi-paneled page that took place mostly in the Daily Planet offices and featured Lois, Clark, Perry, Jimmy, and—in the final (and largest) panel—Superman. At some point while I was moving a pencil over the page and hoping for the best, Marty leaned in and said, “Really nice layouts, John.” I could have kissed him. The CBC people moved on, and Julie, Marty, and I breathed a common sigh of relief. I’ve been a part of other TV shows, on-screen anywhere from five seconds to maybe half an hour. In the case of the CBC coverage of the DC Con, the fact that I wasn’t spending a lot of time in Canada meant that I never got to see the final version. I am hopeful, however, about the possibility that somewhere within the CBC archives, there is some pristine film showing Julie Schwartz, Marty Pasko, and me nervously demonstrating how to create comics material circa 1976. [Editor’s note: If so, please contact me at euryman@gmail.com and I will connect you with Mr. Workman.] My other memory incorporates two related reminiscences and jumps me back in time to my childhood days when my parents, my brother, and I lived in an apartment in the small town of Aberdeen, Washington. My mother didn’t seem to mind when my father put up a calendar in the kitchen. On the calendar was a photo of a delightfully healthy young bikini-clad female sitting on a blanket at a beach with ocean waves behind her. Anyone standing within a foot of the calendar would realize that the sheen that covered the entire print was actually the semi-glossy surface of a piece of acetate upon which was printed a very realistic version of a twopiece swimsuit. If that person lifted the acetate, the cute girl’s bikini was gone, leaving her demurely nude on that too-perfect beach. There were numerous times when my 12-year-old self meandered into the kitchen and lifted that piece of acetate. At some time in 1975, I was at a small one-day “swap-meet” in midtown Manhattan wherein comics and related items were being sold. In looking through a box of photos from movies and TV shows, I was happy to find a print of the girl from my dad’s calendar. I pulled it from the box, noted the $1 price,

Super-Sweets Attendees and con staff had no shortage of Twinkies at Super DC Con! On this page (presumably drawn by Vince Colletta) from the convention booklet, the Man of Steel gets a birthday salute from a special friend. Superman TM & © DC Comics. Twinkies © Hostess® ITT Continental Baking Company.

and smiled. Even though her painted bikini was missing, the beach girl of my youth had returned to me. Amazed and delighted, I looked up from my find and into the face of E. Nelson Bridwell. “Hi, Nelson,” I said. “Look what I found.” Nelson looked at the beach girl and then at me and then at the beach girl and then back at me with an odd expression on his face. As co-workers at DC, E. Nelson Bridwell and I got along very well. I often spoke with him about his Inferior Five and Secret Six issues. I admired his intellect and his incredible knowledge. He was also a genuinely nice person. I wasn’t thinking about Nelson as I walked around the DC Convention, checking out how everything was playing out in the various rooms. I supposed that he was somewhere nearby, maybe escorting Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster around the place. I walked into a large room where a costume contest event was taking place. Among the Green Lanterns, the Flashes, and the Captain Marvels, there was a young lady who was appearing as a “Frazetta girl.” Inch-by-inch, she lived up to her description. I was watching the “Frazetta girl” as she walked across the stage, astonished at her similarity to something beautiful that the man himself might have painted. Among the denizens of and visitors to Manhattan, I had encountered people who looked as if they’d been drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger or Neal Adams, or Gil Kane, but the “Frazetta girl’s” impossibly perfect attributes were an almost unbelievable reality. From behind me, a somewhat shrill female voice intoned, “Will you look at dirty old man ogling that young girl…” Perturbed, I turned around with the intent of saying, “Jeez, lady, I’m only 25!” when I discovered that the woman wasn’t talking about me. The heads of both she and the woman to whom she was speaking were looking toward… E. Nelson Bridwell. Nelson was standing in the middle of an aisle in the crowded room, looking admiringly at the “Frazetta girl.” On his face was an expression that almost certainly mirrored my own when I was reunited with my long-lost beach beauty. Both Julie Schwartz and E. Nelson Bridwell are gone, though they both possess lives that continue by way of enduring words and pictures created over decades. Assuming that it hasn’t turned to dust, a piece of film in a file somewhere in the country to the North may contribute to Julie’s immortality. I must take solace in the fact that one of the DC Convention adventures of E. Nelson Bridwell— admirer of William Shakespeare, good comic books, and a “Frazetta girl”— may now outlive me because of these words on paper, words that make up a couple of bits of comics history that are your stories now. Tell ’em well. © 2017 John Workman. JIM DeLORENZO, Fan The Super DC Con ’76 was my first experience with a comic-con or comics fandom. My father and I took the train from Trenton, New Jersey, to New York City, and from the moment I walked in, I was surrounded by comic books and Superman memorabilia, plus the chance to meet so many great artists, like Neal Adams, and I got to meet Jerry Siegel in person. I remember everyone was super-friendly, with lots of autographs from the pros. I brought home a sketch of Green Arrow done for me by Mike Grell, and a big sketch of Scribbly from Shelly Mayer. The art and displays, like the statues and especially George Reeves’ “Superman” costume, enhanced my total love of Superman and comics. Keen memories of seeing Neal Adams original art, more comics in one place than I ever saw before, and a neat Superman car hood ornament that I still regret to this day not cajoling my dad into buying for me!

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A SUPER DC CON ’76 PHOTO TOUR 1) February 29, 1976 was a big day for 14-year-old Jim DeLorenzo as he entered the Super DC Con. Note the George Reeves TV Superman costume displayed in the background. 2) Jim’s convention ticket. 3) Jim’s equally excited father, Jimmie (left), with his son at the con. 4) This Superman statue was presented earlier in the day by New York City Major Abe Beame. 5) Superman’s birthday cake was displayed in the lobby. 6) Jim meets another of Jerry Siegel’s creations, the Spectre (identity unknown).

Photos courtesy of Jim DeLorenzo.

7) The Superman panel. (left to right) Jerry Siegel (standing), Elliot S! Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Gerry Conway, Cary Bates, and editor Julius Schwartz. 8) It’s a happy moment for Jim as he gets Neal Adams’ autograph. 9) Gerry Conway signing Jim’s con booklet. 10) An autograph from Elliot Maggin! 11) Bob Rozakis (right) watches as Cary Bates signs Jim’s autograph page.

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Double Your Pleasure

by J a y

Williams

The Don Newton/ Bob Layton wraparound cover for The Charlton Portfolio/ CPL #9/10 (1974), signed by CPL Gang members Layton and Roger Stern. From the collection of Jay Williams. Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Peacemaker, Judomaster TM & © DC Comics. E-Man TM & © Nick Cuti and Joe Staton. Other characters © their respective copyright holders.

You have learned elsewhere in this issue about the rise of prozines in the 1970s. Now you will learn the story behind how Charlton Comics decided that it needed its own prozine, a publication that would be called The Charlton Bullseye. For those who are not familiar with Charlton, they were a single-source supplier of cheap comic books operating out of Derby, Connecticut. They paid artists and writers less than DC and Marvel, they printed their comics on worn-out old presses used to print cereal boxes and sheet music, they had their own their own tractor-trailer trucks, and did their own distribution. You would know that you were holding a Charlton comic by its poor print quality. That’s why Bob Layton refers to the company as “the three-legged dog of comics.”

his collection, so he had to find some way to sell those extra comics and decided to publish what was known as an “adzine,” which was nothing more than a list of his comics for sale. But he had to have a unique name for that list. According to Robert, “I was trying to come up with a name that represented what comics were about.” After much thought, he came up with Contemporary Pictorial Literature. Because that was such a mouthful, it very quickly became known as CPL. Robert purchased an ad in Alan Light’s The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom, known to most comic fans as TBG. So CPL was in business, being run out of Robert’s apartment. He even published his return address on the cover: Robert Layton, 41010 Mallway Drive, Apartment A, Indianapolis, Indiana. Yes, “Robert” is the man you know today as the famous Iron Man artist, Bob Layton. CPL #1–2 were pure adzines, mimeographed CONTEMPORARY PICTORIAL LITERATURE sheets with amateurish drawings of comic characters #1–4: AN ADZINE by young Bob Layton on the front covers. Layton tells BACK ISSUE, “I am sure someone will come up with a To understand how The Charlton Bullseye came into copy of those covers and embarrass the crap out of me being, we need to go back to 1973. In the city of once they read this article.” The first issue has a Indianapolis was a young comic-book collector by the drawing of Luke Cage, and to the best of Bob’s name of Robert. When he was four years old, he wanted recollections, maybe Doc Savage was on CPL #2. to know more about the comic books he looked at. bob layton On the back cover of CPL #3 (1973) was the cover of In Robert’s words, “My curiosity was so piqued” that © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. CPL #1 (1973) with a drawing of Luke Cage. (I was he asked his sister to teach him to read so that he could read the word balloons himself. He learned to read so early that Robert unable to verify what was on the cover of CPL #2, as that is not one of ended up skipping a grade in school, graduating high school at age 17. the issues I have in my collection.) With the exception of CPL #9/10, the format of CPL #3–12 was 8.5” x Knowing that he was not college material, Robert decided to self-educate himself in the art of writing so he could attempt to become a comic-book 5.5”, stapled in the middle. Heavier paper and later, cardstock, was used writer. At the same time he was into collecting comics, but distribution for the covers. All issues had black-and-white interiors and all the covers was so bad that the only way he knew to be guaranteed to be able to get were black and white except for the cover of #12, which was in color. the comics he collected was to approach Koch magazine and comic With CPL #3, some articles began to appear. This issue was published distributors and buy directly from them. Robert thought he had to buy in or around May 1973 since the cover had a Bob Layton drawing of ten copies of each, so he did. Robert only needed one of each comic for Killraven of “War of the Worlds” fame, who first appeared in Marvel’s 74 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

Amazing Adventures #18 (cover-dated May 1973 but going on sale in late February of that year), and also contained a review of that issue along with the top ten sellers for April 1973 in the Indianapolis area. Other features: the first installment of “The Indy Bomber” with reviews of comics and more, and a letters column which contained a letter from Stewart Lehman, who wrote, “I saw your ad in the Buyer’s Guide #33. I do not have very many fanzines because I am new to the comic world. Your ad sounded great and I hope the fanzine is as good!” Layton’s response: “I would like to make it clear to everyone that C.P.L. is NOT (my emphasis) a true fanzine. Our primary interest is to sell comics. We allow the items of interest to appear in order to make buying a comic catalog a worthy investment. We are NOT (again my emphasis) a fan magazine.” Good thing Bob isn’t a prophet, because soon that statement would not be true. Issue #3’s centerfold contained another illustration with six comic characters including Iron Man, which was probably Bob’s first published drawing of the Armored Avenger. CPL #3 and 4 were 20 pages each. CPL #3 contained nine pages of comics for sale. In CPL #4, the page count of comics for sale dropped to six pages.

By now the CPL Gang was bringing in contributions from creative people such as Tony Isabella, Don Maitz, Michael Uslan, and Steven Grant. A turning point in the lives of the CPL Gang came in early 1974 when convention pioneer Phil Seuling of Sea Gate Distributors contacted Bob Layton about making CPL a more professional publication. Phil, along with Bud Plant on the West Coast, was the connection between fan artists and professional artists. Phil and Bud agreed to pay for the CPL print runs and split the runs between them to then sell to comic shops. This allowed CPL #7 and 8 to have a slicker look. Notable in CPL #7 were three full-page John Byrne illustrations: a drawing of the Question, a Spider-Man drawing with the shadow of Batman falling over him, and a Nightshade drawing. The first and last were inked by Duffy Vohland. In 1971, George Wildman took over as the editor at Charlton Comics. His associate was Nicola “Nick” Cuti. In September 1973, Charlton changed its logo from a white capital “C” with Charlton Comics written across it to what became known as the “bullseye” logo, which was red, white, blue, and black with the words “Charlton Comics Group” written across the bullseye.

CONTEMPORARY PICTORIAL LITERATURE #5–8: THE GANG ARRIVES

Then CPL #5 arrived, and the content changed drastically due to Bob meeting Roger Stern. Sterno, as Bob calls him, worked at a local Indianapolis radio station and was a regular purchaser of TBG. Stern thought he was the only comic-book fan in Indianapolis. When he saw Bob’s phone number in the TBG ads, he called Bob and said, “We have to get together.” Roger knew other collectors from other states like Duffy Vohland and Roger Slifer. Stern then said, “I know this fan artist from Canada by the name of John Byrne.” It was Stern’s idea to create a fanzine. “I thought it was a good idea, as I was looking for somewhere to publish my art,” Layton says. “Back then there was no venue to publish comic art except in a fanzine. Duffy had contacts at Marvel and put the word out that we were converting CPL from an adzine to a fanzine.” So Layton, Stern, Vohland, and Slifer put together CPL #5, and the CPL Gang was born. While the zine retained CPL’s 20-page format, the ads were reduced to four pages, printed on pink paper and stuffed into the center. Issue #5’s cover by Neal Adams and Duffy Vohland was a quantum improvement over the covers of CPL #1–4. Page 2 contained a Blue Beetle drawing that was to be plate #1 of a Charlton poster portfolio by Byrne and Vohland. The editorial on page 4 announced: “Big changes are on their way, if you could not tell already. CPL #5 showcases the work of Canadian artist, John L. Byrne. The centerfold was done by Berni[e] Wrightson.” Scattered throughout the issue (and future issues) were little drawings Byrne cut out of his sketchbook and sent to be pasted in. The CPL Gang sent 25 copies to Marvel and 25 copies to DC to any editor they had contact with, and apparently a few copies to Charlton. CPL #6 added art from Dan Atkins, Joe Sinnott, Don Newton, and Mike Royer. Page 19 contained Captain Atom art by Byrne and Vohland. But the main thing of note, on pages 4 and 21, was the first two appearances of a robot drawn by John Byrne. Stern and Layton decided to make the robot the CPL Gang’s mascot and have him be the one who replied to fan letters. They decided the robot needed a name— Why not one more Roger?—so they named him Rog 2000 (sometimes Rog-2000 or ROG 2000). Bob then lettered “Rog 2000” across the front of the robot on page 4, and the rest is history. There has long been a debate as to how Rog 2000’s name is pronounced. Is it Rog like in “bog” or Rog like in Roger? Bob Layton says since the robot was Roger #3, it was always been pronounced as “raj” in Roger.

Raw Talent (top and center) Examples of Bob Layton’s early artwork. (bottom) Covers by Neal Adams and John Byrne, both with Duffy Vohland inks. Luke Cage, Killraven, Iron Man, Warlock © Marvel. Deadman, Swamp Thing, Demon, Blue Beetle © DC. Doc Savage © Condé Nast.

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One day, Nick Cuti called Bob Layton and told Bob that Charlton would like to publish Rog 2000 as a backup in their E-Man comic, but they wanted Joe Staton to draw the strip. Roger Stern and Bob Layton spent many phone calls and hours of talking to convince Nick and Bill Pearson, Nick Cuti’s assistant editor at Charlton and a former Wally Wood assistant, to hire John Byrne as the artist. Nick and Bill finally relented and agreed to hire Byrne to draw Rog 2000. The first Rog 2000 story appeared as an eight-page backup, written by Cuti with pencils and inks by John Byrne, in Charlton’s E-Man #6 (Jan. 1975).

THE CHARLTON PORTFOLIO/CPL #9/10: THE CPL GANG’S BIG ONE

Rescued from Inventory (top) The Ditko adventure intended for Charlton’s unpublished Blue Beetle #6 found a new home in Charlton Portfolio/ CPL #9/10. (bottom) Al Milgrom’s Captain Atom vs. the Ghost cover for 1975’s Charlton Bullseye #1, and (inset) our reuse of it, 40 years later, with Glenn Whitmore colors. Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and the Ghost © DC Comics.

In 1974, during one of Bob Layton and Roger Stern’s phone calls with Nick Cuti, Nick just happened to mention that Charlton had some complete issues of Captain Atom and Blue Beetle stories left in their inventory that were never published when Charlton canceled its “Action Hero” comics at the end of 1967. Cuti asked that since the CPL Gang were fans, would they be interested in publishing some of those stories. “I dropped the phone and then quickly picked it up and said, ‘Of course,’ ” Layton tells BI. “These were stories that were created while Dick Giordano was the editor for Charlton, when they were still publishing superhero comics in the late 1960s. When the artwork arrived, some of it was incomplete, like the Captain Atom story, but the Blue Beetle story was complete.” The CPL Gang decided to publish what Layton refers to as “a whole Charlton extravaganza.” The word began to spread around the Charlton circles that the CPL Gang, with Charlton’s blessing, was going to print some previously unpublished Charlton superhero stories. Everyone who had ever worked at Charlton asked to contribute to the issue. Bob Layton even ran into Dick Giordano, who by this time was working at DC, at a comic convention. Giordano told him that he was excited to see these printed since they were his “Action Hero babies.” And thus came The Charlton Portfolio/CPL #9/10 (1974). Previous issues of CPL were 8.5” x 5.5”, which would not do justice to the Steve Ditko artwork, so it was decided to move to 8.5” x 11” magazine format. This 48-page double issue was produced in glorious black and white with a glossy, wraparound, cardstock cover featuring all the Charlton Action Heroes, with allglossy interior pages. The cover was penciled by Don Newton and inked by Bob Layton. John Byrne had been the chief logo artist for CPL, so all the logos in CPL #9/10 were done by Byrne. The issue opened with what was to have been Blue Beetle #6 (Apr. 1969). Artist Steve Ditko left Marvel Comics after Amazing Spider-Man #38 and Strange Tales (the Dr. Strange feature) #146 (both cover-dated July 1966) and returned to Charlton. His work on Blue Beetle and Captain Atom was some of his best. This can be seen in CPL #9/10’s classic 19-page Ditko penciled-and-inked story that was written by “D. C. Glanzman” (actually Steve Skeates). The next 17 pages were filled with full-page drawings and articles about Sarge Steel, Peter Cannon–Thunderbolt, Judomaster, Yang, Captain Atom, E-Man, Nightshade, Banshee, Ghost, the Peacemaker, the Question, the Sentinels, the Prankster, Wander, Gorgo, and a few minor characters that were not sold by Charlton to DC. (Spookman now appears in Mort Todd [morttodd.com/ charlton.html] and friends’ Charlton Arrow. The Charlton Arrow prints never-before-published Charlton superhero stores, reprints classic Charlton stories, and creates new stories using the Charlton characters that DC did not purchase.) Also included was a three-page list of Charlton titles where their Action Heroes’ stories could be found. The issue closed with a one-page letter from Charlton editor George Wildman. Additional contributors to this issue were Dan Adkins, Jim Aparo, Pat Boyette, Larry Brnicky, Harry Broertjes, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Nick Cuti, Steve Ditko, Scott Edelman, Paul Gulacy, Dick Giordano, A. Machine (you have to be a true Charlton fan to recognize this famous letterer), Don Maitz, Frank Maynerd, Frank McLaughlin, Jack Monniger, Don Newton, PAM (Pete Morisi), Don Rosa, Warren Sattler, Joe Staton, Sterno (Roger Stern), and Duffy Vohland, with Bob Layton serving as editor and publisher. While The Charlton Portfolio/CPL #9/10 was hailed by many as a great work, it was a financial disaster. To cover the increased page count, printing costs, etc., the cover price was raised to $2.50. With today’s $2.99 and $3.99 cover prices for comics, $2.50 seems like a bargain. But in 1974, comics cost 25¢ and The Charlton Portfolio cost ten times more. As Bob Layton puts it, “It was just too big and too slick at a much higher price. We took a bath on it.”

THE CHARLTON BULLSEYE: THE CPL GANG GOES SEMI-PRO

As noted in George Wildman’s letter on the inside back cover of The Charlton Portfolio, Charlton had launched a new line of superhero comics with E-Man and Yang. Marvel and DC had their in-house fanzines, and Cuti and Wildman wanted one for Charlton. Cuti and Wildman were very impressed with what the CPL Gang did with The Charlton Portfolio/ CPL #9/10, so they approached the CPL Gang about creating a fanzine/prozine for Charlton. Charlton said they would advertise it in their comics and that Charlton readers could actually order the new prozine from those ads. So CPL morphed into The Charlton

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Charlton Bullseye #2 (inset) Joe Staton’s E-Man and Nova cover to Bullseye #2 (1975). (left) Charlton’s George Wildman, the company’s Popeye artist, was featured in issue #2. (right) From the centerfold of Charlton Bullseye #2, Captain Atom by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. E-Man TM & © Nick Cuti and Joe Staton. Popeye TM & © King Features. Captain Atom TM & © DC Comics.

Bullseye. The entire CPL Gang just moved over and created The Charlton Bullseye, and Contemporary Pictorial Literature’s days were over. As noted earlier, due to Charlton dropping its superhero line at the end of 1967, there were a number of completed and partially completed superhero stories that were never printed. With the exception of the Blue Beetle #5 (Nov. 1968) and Mysterious Suspense #1 (Oct, 1968), the latter of which featured the Question, Charlton did not burn off its inventory of already-written and -penciled stories. The material became available for The Charlton Bullseye. The Charlton Bullseye #1 (1975) was all black and white, including the covers. The feature story in this issue was the first ten pages of a 20-page Captain Atom story penciled by Steve Ditko and scheduled for Captain Atom #90, which was never published. According to the Grand Comics Database’s (www.comics.org) entry for Charlton Bullseye #1, this story was scripted by Roger Stern as Jon G. Michels. According to DC Comics’ Action Heroes Archives #2 (May 2007), which reprinted the story from Charlton Bullseye #1, it shows that the story was written by D. C. Glanzman and Roger Stern as Jon G. Michels. The inking and the lettering were done by John Byrne (with an assist from Barb Weaver). It was decided by the CPL Gang that rather than go with the original cover that Ditko had produced for Captain Atom #90, they would have Al Milgrom draw a new cover. It featured Captain Atom battling his main rival from the 1960s, the Ghost. [Editor’s note: We repurposed Milgrom’s cover—adding colors by Glenn Whitmore—as the cover for BACK ISSUE #79, which was devoted to the Charlton Action Heroes’ adventures in the Bronze Age.] After the Captain Atom tale, the rest of the issue was filled with an editorial from Bob Layton; a letter from George Wildman; two pages of news announcing upcoming issues including Charlton’s usual horror fare (Scary Tales, Beyond the Grave, and Things [formerly Haunted House]) and new material like The Vengeance Squad, Doomsday +1, and House of Yang; a two-page interview with Nick Cuti; an article by Roger Stern entitled “The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves” that included a great full-page pinup by Tom Sutton of all the hosts of Charlton’s horror titles; a never-

before-published seven-page story called “The Guardian Spiders,” penciled and inked by Jeff Jones; John Byrne’s one-page “Rog 2000: A Family Album”; and a three-page article on the history of the Blue Beetle including a full-page Blue Beetle pinup by Al Milgrom. Other contributors to this issue included Dave Kaler, Sanjo Kim, Frank Maynerd, Jim Starlin, Roger Stern, Howard Siegel, Tom Sutton, and Phil “Lester” Wesner. A big change came readers’ way with Charlton Bullseye #2 (1975): a full-color cover featuring E-Man and Nova, penciled and inked by Joe Staton. As this issue went to press, the CPL Gang learned that Charlton had canceled E-Man. Layton encouraged fans to write to the management at Charlton while assuring readers that they would continue to see E-Man in Bullseye. The main feature in this issue was the 11-page conclusion of the Captain Atom story, with the same creative team as part one. The backup story was five pages penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. There were three pages of Charlton covers, upcoming issues, and other announcements, including a big one—that Alex Toth would be the new artist on romance, war, and ghost stories; a beautiful two-page centerfold of Captain Atom by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom (signed “Gemini,” for “Jim and I”); a two-page interview with George Wildman, who went on to become Charlton’s definitive Popeye artist (see Michael Ambrose’s fanzine Charlton Spotlight #7 for a great article on George Wildman); a two-page article on Mr. Dedd; and a three-page article on Charlton’s first original superhero, Nature Boy, which was drawn by the great John Buscema and written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. (Historically, Charlton’s Nature Boy #3, his first appearance, went on sale over full six months before DC’s Showcase #4, which was the premiere of the Silver Age Flash, considered by most as the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics. Blue Beetle was released before Nature Boy but originally published during the Golden Age by Fox/Holyoke, which is why Nature Boy is considered Charlton’s first superhero.) Also in issue #2: a Howard Siegel-penciled/Don Newton-inked full-page Nature Boy pinup. Other contributors to this issue included Warren Sattler, Roger Stern, Paul Diepo, Brian Bauer, and Lee Ann Layton (throughout the zine’s run, she is credited alternately as Lee and Lee Ann). With Charlton Bullseye #3 (1975), the CPL Gang closed out 1975 with a “Special Kung-Fu Issue,” capitalizing on the current martial-arts craze popularized by Bruce Lee movies and the Kung Fu TV series (1972–1975) starring David Carradine. Charlton was no stranger to comics starring martial artists. In the mid-’60s, Charlton released Action

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Hero comics with a martial-arts focus, Judomaster and Peter Cannon– Thunderbolt, but by the 1970s had returned to the genre with Warren Sattler’s Yang and Sanho Kim’s House of Yang. [Editor’s note: Join us next June for BI #105, themed “Deadly Hands,” which includes Jay Williams’ article exploring Charlton’s Yang titles.] Despite the publisher’s history with martial arts, editor Layton opened Charlton Bullseye #3 with a note saying this issue was a departure from the usual superhero fare that would return in issue #4. Issue #3’s full-color cover featured Judomaster, penciled and inked by Frank McLaughlin, with Judomaster and Yang on the back cover, by McLaughlin and Warren Sattler. The main feature, written, penciled, inked, and lettered by Sanho Kim, was a 24-page story entitled “Wrong Country,” which tells of Kahng Chull as he comes from Korea to the Old West. The other eight pages included five pages upcoming Charlton releases, covers, and other information, with a big announcement that Charlton was entering the black-and-white magazine field with three TV tie-in titles overseen by Gray Morrow: Space: 1999, Emergency, and The Six Million Dollar Man, with Charlton also publishing full-color versions of all three titles. There was a two-page article by Roger Stern entitled “There Be Dragons in Derby!” supported with a full-page Yang pinup by Warren Sattler and a half-page Peter Cannon–Thunderbolt drawing by PAM (Pete Morisi). Other contributors to this issue were Mike Zeck, Nick Cuti, Brian Bauer, Lee Layton, and George Wildman. The CPL Gang returned to their bread-and-butter superhero fare with the 32-page Charlton Bullseye #4 (Mar.–Apr. 1976), with a full-color E-Man cover by Joe Staton. The inside-front cover was a full-page pinup of the Peacemaker by Walt Simonson. A ten-page E-Man comic

story was the main feature in this issue. Layton offered a sneak peek of issue #5’s lead story, “The Return of the Question” by Michael Uslan and Alex Toth. The big news in Bullseye #4 was Charlton’s cancellation of nine titles: Doomsday +1, House of Yang, Vengeance Squad, Creepy Things, Beyond the Grave, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Yang, Midnight Tales, and Time for Love. The centerfold contained a beautiful two-page spread with E-Man and Nova by Frank Thorne. The backup comic story was Part One of a two-part original Doomsday +1 tale entitled “Time-Slip” (if Doomsday +1 had not been canceled, this would have been Doomsday +1 #7). This issue also contained an interview of John Byrne “by” Rog 2000. The full-color back cover was Peter Cannon– Thunderbolt over the Charlton Comics’ bullseye logo, penciled and inked by Al Milgrom. Other contributors to this issue included Neal Adams, Nick Cuti, Paul Deipo, Dick Giordano, Pete Iro, Lee Layton, Barbara Ostrander, Bill Pearson, Phil Wesner, and George Wildman. The Charlton Bullseye #5 (July–Sept. 1976): This 36-page issue featured an explosive cover with the Question crashing through a skylight toward some gun-wielding gangsters, as illustrated by the great Alex Toth. The inside-front cover was a pinup of the Question by Carl Potts. In the editorial of this issue, Bob Layton discussed the future of The Charlton Bullseye and the upcoming CPL #13, and noted that the CPL/ Gang Publications would be publishing witzend ’76, continuing the fanzine that was the brainchild of none other than Wally Wood. The main feature of this issue was the eight-page Question story by Toth, scripted by Uslan and plotted by Roger Stern. “Michael Uslan still talks about the writing of this story as one the proudest moments of his comic-book career in that this was his first professional job and he got the privilege of having it drawn by the great Alex Toth,” Bob Layton tells BACK ISSUE. The 12-page backup comic story was the conclusion of the Doomsday +1 adventure from the previous issue. This issue included three articles: a Flash Gordon article by Dan Svengrett; a Phantom article by Curt Ramsey, accompanied by a Pat Morisi four-panel Phantom drawing; and a two-page interview with Don Newton by Howard Siegel. The Newton article included two drawings by Don Newton: a full-page Phantom pinup and a second, smaller Phantom drawing. The article also included a third Phantom illustration, this one by Dave Cockrum. This issue’s centerfold was a great Flash Gordon drawing penciled by Mike Nasser and inked by Jack Abel, and it closed with a full-color back cover featuring the main characters from Doomsday +1. Additional

Awesome Artists (top) McLaughlin’s Judomaster cover to CB #3, title page from #3’s “Wrong Country,” and #4’s Staton E-Man cover. (bottom) From #4: Milgrom’s Peter Cannon back cover and Simonson’s Peacemaker pinup. Judomaster and Peacemaker © DC. Peter Cannon © Peter A. Morisi. “Wrong Country” © the respective copyright holder.

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The Question’s Mark (left) Yes, that’s Alex Toth, on the return of the Question, in Charlton Bullseye #5 (July–Sept. 1976). (right) This ill-fated futuristic series got some exposure in Bullseye. Shown here are an interior story page (with Joe Brozowski/Terry Austin art) and (below) the back cover (by Neal Adams) from #5. The Question TM & © DC Comics, Doomsday +1 © the respective copyright holder.

contributors to this issue included Continuity Graphics Associates, Neal Adams, Terry Austin, Joe Brozowski, Paul Deipo, Bill Dubay, Dick Giordano, Lee Layton, Barb Ostrander, PAM (Pete Morisi), Bill Pearson, Curt Ramsey, Howard Siegel, and Phil Wesner. With that, The Charlton Bullseye had published its last issue. During the run of the Bullseye, the CPL Gang was able to publish vastly improved issues of CPL, #11 and #12. Material for CPL #13 was completed, but the issue was never published. Bob Layton held on to that material, but it was lost during one of his moves. eBay has had someone attempting to sell a Darkseid drawing by John Byrne that was scheduled for CPL #13. So, what happened to the CPL Gang? The driving force behind CPL Gang was Bob Layton. Bill Pearson told Layton that his former boss Wally Wood was living down the street from Charlton. Pearson had showed Layton’s work to Wood and Wood told Pearson that if Layton was ever back east, that Wood would take on Layton as an apprentice. A few days later, Layton packed up his old Ford Galaxy 500 station wagon and with only $200 in his pocket headed out for New York City. After arriving, Bob crashed on the floor of Walt Simonson and Al Milgom’s apartment in Queens. Bernie Wrightson and Howard Chaykin lived upstairs in the same apartment building. Layton went back and forth between all their apartments until he could find a place in Derby to be closer

to Wood. Layton tells BACK ISSUE, “Wood had loved our work on The Charlton Bullseye, so he decided to let the CPL Gang publish the tenth issue of witzend and Heroes Inc. #2.” After those two issues were published in 1976, Wally Wood retired and told DC Comics, for whom he was freelancing, that he was leaving his All-Star Comics (Justice Society of America) assignment and recommended that they hire Bob Layton as inker. Bob says, “That ended my fanzine days.” It should be noted that almost everyone else that was part of the CPL Gang went on to professional careers in comics. Not too shabby of a group of 20-something fans working out of Bob Layton’s apartment in Indianapolis. In four short years (1973–1976), these fanzine guys published ten regular issues of CPL plus the magazine-sized CPL #9/10, five issues of The Charlton Bullseye, and two Wally Wood publications. Although they took the comic-book world by storm in the late 1970s and 1980s, remember them well by their group name: CPL Gang! Much of the information for this article came from my interview with Bob Layton at the Great American Comic Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 3, 2016. Thank you, Bob! You can check out more of the history of Charlton in Michael Ambrose’s excellent Charlton Spotlight publication (charltonspotlight.net) or the documentary Charlton Comics: The Movie (www.charltonmovie.com). JAY WILLIAMS is a national sales manager for a healthcare software company with a great love of history (his college major) and comics. Occasionally, his day job affords him the opportunity to visit comicbook shops as he travels all of the USA, searching for interesting comics and talking to store owners and managers about the “good old days.”

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80 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 81

REED CRANDALL Illustrator of the Comics

From the 1940s to the ’70s, REED CRANDALL brought a unique and masterful style to American comic art. Using an illustrator’s approach on everything he touched, Crandall gained a reputation as the “artist’s artist” through his skillful interpretations of Golden Age super-heroes DOLL MAN, THE RAY, and BLACKHAWK (his signature character); horror and sci-fi for the legendary EC COMICS line; Warren Publishing’s CREEPY, EERIE, and BLAZING COMBAT; the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS and EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS characters; and even FLASH GORDON for King Features. Comic art historian ROGER HILL has compiled a complete and extensive history of Crandall’s life and career, from his early years and major successes, through his tragic decline and passing in 1982. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS, a wealth of RARE AND UNPUBLISHED ARTWORK, and over EIGHTY THOUSAND WORDS of insight into one of the true illustrators of the comics.

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

I can’t recall the exact moment Michael Eury entered my life, but I am a better man for it. When we lured Michael from Comico the Comic Company to DC Comics in 1989, he was a sea of calm in a manic ocean called Editorial. He brought knowledge and enthusiasm to his assignments and was a welcome voice of reason when things got stressful. He has, since then, gone on the do many wonderful things but none more important, perhaps, than editing BACK ISSUE, which has furthered our understanding of comics history for 100 issues, with many more to come. I had, at one point, pitched the idea of interviewing him for his own magazine, and when he was done blushing demurred until plans for the centennial started to take shape. We had a very lengthy phone call in the late fall of 2016 and in early 2017 we edited, tightened, and refined the conversation so it was less mutual gushing and focused more on the magazine and its legacy. – Robert Greenberger

conducted by

R o b e r t G r e e n b e r g e yr transcribed by Sean

Dulane

BOB GREENBERGER: We’re going to talk about your life, your writing, and the magazine. And we’re going to start with the magazine, because we’re celebrating the centennial issue. MICHAEL EURY: Hard to believe, isn’t it? GREENBERGER: Yeah. So, I was reading the introduction from John Morrow in #1 and he talks about how he saw a void in publishing when Comic Book Artist left TwoMorrows, and when he conceived of the project to fill that gap, he said you were the perfect guy to edit this. Why do you think he picked you? EURY: Well, we had developed a good working relationship from the first two books that I did for John, the Captain Action history followed by the Dick Giordano biography. John and I just got along well… and I met deadlines [laughter], and delivered when and what I promised. These are obviously important things, but they are things that sometimes folks can’t deliver, so between that and my passion for comics of the Bronze Age, I guess I was his go-to guy. GREENBERGER: When he pitched you the idea for the magazine, what did you see the magazine as being? michael eury EURY: John started with some great ideas. He came to me with a some of the departments such as “Greatest Stories Never Told”—which immediately jazzed me—and “Off My Chest,” “Rough Stuff,” and “Beyond Capes” [non-superhero comics]. I wanted to create some kind of thematic format right from the get-go, to help keep me interested, to help keep readers interested, and to help there be some structure. I didn’t want there to be random content each issue, because I felt that might actually make the magazine, in the long run—and maybe even in the short term—kind of boring. So the thematic structure came to mind right when I sat down to start brainstorming what could be in the magazine. And I think overall, that has been a success, because here we are, 100 issues strong. I’ve already planned up to well over a year-plus beyond that. I even know exactly what I’m going to do for issue #109… GREENBERGER: Which, by the way, you realize that scares the rest of us that you are that planned ahead. EURY: [laughs] The thing is, I don’t reveal details to our writers until I really want them to be out. I don’t have the time to spend hours working on something that won’t see print for a few years, but still I have a long-term, sometimes fluid, game plan. I’m actually looking ahead to try to do a few things that tie in to larger media events that are pertinent to readers of the Bronze Age. I will go ahead and say issue #109—which will come out in November of 2018—is a Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary issue. GREENBERGER: Gosh, that makes perfect sense. And I certainly hope Warner puts Superman back out in theaters, even for a short run, to remind us we can “Believe a Man Can Fly.” EURY: I’d love to see it on the big screen again.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby! BACK ISSUE #1, released in November 2003. Main cover art by George Pérez. Batman TM & © DC Comics. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Your Friendly Neighborhood Euryman BI editor Michael Eury at the Charlotte Comic-Con on May 1, 2016. Also shown are BI contributors Al Bigley (standing, left) and Dan Johnson (seated), plus Michael’s second cousin Vien “Deadpool” Chanthaheuang. Photo by Josh King.

GREENBERGER: Absolutely. Recently in an editorial you talked about Darwyn Cooke having something to do with motivating you to do the publication. You want to talk a little more about that? EURY: Sure. I love Darwyn’s art. He motivated me to rekindle my love of comics—which never really went away, but after I stopped editing, stopped writing, and wasn’t actively working in the business and went through some transitional years, I had some mixed emotions about the comics world. Also, as I think you’re aware, one of the factors in my life at that time [1990s–early 2000s] was my progressive hearing loss, which led to a level of depression. I might’ve been smiling on the outside but I wasn’t happy, but Darwyn Cooke’s art, when I started to discover it, brought out this great joy in me, and helped reboot my love of comics. I can say the same about Frank Cho, whose work I discovered around the same time. GREENBERGER: Since we’re talking about the Bronze Age with BACK ISSUE, the Bronze Age was also a period where the fanzines were evolving into magazines. So you had The Nostalgia Journal become The Comics Journal and you had Hal Schuster’s Comics Feature, and following on the heels of that, you had my Comic Scene and Fantagraphics’ Amazing Heroes. Did you think about what worked and what didn’t work in those publications in figuring out how to make BACK ISSUE unique? EURY: Yes, I did. And I also was watching closely what TwoMorrows was doing with its other publications, because I wanted BACK ISSUE to complement them without duplicating them… particularly the magazine BI replaced on TwoMorrows’ publishing schedule, Comic Book Artist. I didn’t want to do a new version of Comic Book Artist and just call it something different, and John [Morrow] came to me with the title BACK ISSUE. I certainly give him credit for that. But when I started to think, “How can we not be Comic Book Artist?” I really just looked at the titles of the two magazines. What Jon Cooke did in Comic Book Artist and is now doing with Comic Book Creator is, an emphasis on the creative

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individual, whereas I tried to create a magazine that lived up to its name—the “back issues,” because we mainly look at older comic books. There have been a few spotlights on individuals in BACK ISSUE, of course. You did one of our best interviews, with Jenette Kahn. GREENBERGER: Thank you. EURY: You’re welcome. That was obviously a personalitydriven profile, but then again, just because of the fact she was so influential not only at DC, but in the media for such a long time, that interview really was a time capsule of DC comic books during Jenette’s tenure. Amazing Heroes and your own Comic Scene were both dear to me because I read them avidly through the ’80s, and some of my first writing credits were at Amazing Heroes. That’s where I cut my teeth. That may be where I connected with you initially. I know it’s where I first connected with a lot of people at DC with whom I would eventually work. The Superman stuff, with the John Byrne reboot and then Marv [Wolfman] and Jerry Ordway, was fresh when I was writing for Amazing Heroes, so my Superman articles for the magazine were a gateway to DC for me. So fanzines have always been important to me. I used to pace while waiting for the delivery of The Buyer’s Guide in the mailbox back in the ’70s and ’80s. GREENBERGER: We all did. [laughter] EURY: That was one of the few resources fans had back in the day. Now, obviously, it’s changed, but I don’t think anybody turns to BACK ISSUE as a news source. Nor do we provide news. The thing we do provide is a blend of nostalgia and… intellectual curiosity about the stories that shaped our childhoods or adolescences. That’s what we try to do. GREENBERGER: Were there other elements that were uniquely your idea that you contributed to the creation of the magazine? EURY: If there’s anything I really contributed, it would be the tone. Yes, there are different writers’ voices in each issue—there have been quite a few writers to come in

The second issue has more content and there’s even more in the third issue. Recently I went back through some of the earlier issues, and I could see a lot of room for improvement. Obviously, you want to do your best with your first issue. But as you know, Bob, as a creative individual, this is a learning process and your first effort is rarely your best… although sometimes I have read a comic-book series where the first issue starts off with a bang but then momentum is quickly lost. Today, I look back at BI #1 and there are some wonderful things there, but overall, content-wise, it’s a little light. There were design elements to fill some of the white space, but the issue didn’t have quite enough content because at the time I really didn’t have a grasp on how many words I could fit in an issue. GREENBERGER: You got into your rhythm, you realized you had to put more material in there. When do you think you hit an issue where it came back from the printer and you said, “Ah! I got it now. I’ve got the right balance. It’s all coming together?” EURY: I think it was probably in our second year. Issue #7 was one where I was a little more comfortable. That was the Super-Teams issue that had the Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson Superman and Batman cover. GREENBERGER: Which was great. EURY: Thanks. It was an old Superman/Batman pencil sketch by Curt that Murphy inked for that issue’s cover. In the past five years or so, the magazine has become denser. There’s a lot more material to read. I tend to pack so much content into each issue that the building of my book map, where I allocate how many pages a feature will receive, is one of the toughest chores related to the magazine. So that’s kind of the tightrope that I’m on, and my poor designer—as we say down South, bless his heart—Rich Fowlks has the challenge of making it all fit. Unless there’s something I miscalculated on in my book map, generally, the allotment of pages per article is done by me. I do that degree of layout for the issue and provide that to Rich and then he turns that into these wonderful designs. And once in a blue moon, I’ll suggest a title graphic and let him work his wizardry. Like in issue #91, the “All Jerks” issue, there’s this great opening for the J. Jonah Jameson feature, and I found this cover from Amazing Spider-Man—I’m forgetting the issue number now [#58], but it’s Jonah in the Spider-Slayer armor—and I really wanted that. I asked Rich to do a replication of the Amazing Spider-Man logo with JJJ’s name and he did it. He’s got the Illustrator and Photoshop fluency to realize what I concoct in my brain [laughter], and he does it well. We work well together as a team. Rich was even a neighbor of mine when I lived in Oregon. I’ve been living in North Carolina now for the past nine, ten years, but Rich and I have continued our working relationship, and quite smoothly. GREENBERGER: Let’s define some of our terms for a second. Obviously, Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine is the Golden Age into the Silver Age. In your mind, where does the Bronze Age start? Where do you and Roy recognize borders? EURY: Roy considers Alter Ego’s purview to be the Golden Age through the year 1974, when he ended his stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief. I’ve heard other people say that the death of Gwen Stacy [in Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 85

and out of the magazine—and I think one of the challenges I have is, at times, when I announce a theme to the writers pool and there is a particular article that generates a great deal of enthusiasm and interest from the writers, I have to sit down and ponder over who is the best match for that particular job. But still, at the end of the day, even though there are a lot of different voices there, I still think there is an overall tone that I’ve set, and it’s a positive one. Maybe that was also in response to some of the things I was reading elsewhere, and also at the time, back in 2003 when we were developing BACK ISSUE, the Internet was really burgeoning, and also starting to rear its ugly head was the snarkiness that now has become, sadly, the dominant tone in our culture. GREENBERGER: Oh, absolutely. EURY: We fight that on the BACK ISSUE Facebook group. Not that I want to censor anyone’s free speech or opinion, but there are plenty of forums online to vent and insult, if that’s what you want to do, and I don’t want the BACK ISSUE Facebook page to be like that because that’s not reflective of the tone of the magazine. And so, I would say, an overall positive tone, one rooted in a fannish appreciation of the material but tempered by an adult appreciation of not only the stories, but the stories behind the stories, is the big thing I brought to the magazine. We’re capturing oral histories. That’s vital work. And as you know, those stories slip away. Who would have thought that 13,14 years into this process, we would have, sadly, buried so many people already from the Bronze Age? A lot of folks have died young. We’ve been able to capture some of their last, if not their very last, interviews. To me, that is a tremendous honor. GREENBERGER: So, you’ve got a positive tone, but it can’t be fawning. How critical do you let your writers and interview subjects get when you talk about a project that just went south or they got fired off the book and they’re bitter about it…? EURY: I don’t mind if people are critical. I think that’s fair. But even though a lot of comic material has bombed—and all of us in the business have had our fingers in that pie from time to time—nobody sets out to make a stinker. Sometimes things just work against you. Sometimes a person may be mismatched with a project. I encourage my writers to put themselves in the perspective of the writer and/or artist they’re writing about and interviewing. You can be critical, but be critical with compassion and professionalism. I just really don’t want someone to butcher a series if it really wasn’t a best foot forward for someone. Some of the creators we’ve interviewed have been quite forthcoming with the fact that, “This wasn’t my best work,” or “I was going through a divorce during this period.” Maybe even a couple of times, “I was drunk” [laughter]. This kind of stuff sometimes comes out of these interviews. You don’t ever know what you’ll hear sometimes, but I still want people to be treated with respect. GREENBERGER: I think the “R” word is really important in that, the respect part of it. So, back to the beginning. John offers you the assignment. You think about it. You talk to Rose [Eury’s wife] about it. She hits you over the head and says, “Of course, dummy. You should be doing this.” From that moment to putting the first issue to the printer, how long are we talking about? EURY: Oh, wow. Good question. It was probably about… six months or so of developmental time. I had no idea what I was doing with that first issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #122], in 1973, is the end of the Silver Age. I subscribe to the definition of the beginning of the Bronze Age as being 1970. ’70 was such an important year. That’s when Marvel introduced Conan the Barbarian, when Neal [Adams] and Denny [O’Neil] did Green Lantern/Green Arrow, when Kirby jumped from Marvel to DC. The ’70s were definitely the “Bronze” decade, but the end of the Bronze Age is up to interpretation. A lot of people would say that Crisis [on Infinite Earths] would be that transitional period, and up until some years ago I think that Overstreet said that 1970 to 1980 was the Bronze Age and then 1980 with The New Teen Titans began the Modern Age, but I don’t think anyone would say that 1980 is modern anything any longer. BACK ISSUE’s mandate from day one was, sort of, “the Bronze Age and Beyond,” but we haven’t gotten into the “Beyond” that much. GREENBERGER: I was going to ask about that. EURY: We’ve done a little bit of the ’90s. There will be more. Issue #99—which will be “old” by the time this interview sees print—features Batman: The Animated Series’ 25th anniversary. Issue #102 will be Mercs—as in mercenaries—and Anti-heroes, with a Rob Liefeld Deadpool vs. Cable cover, which some of my people who live, breathe, and eat Bob Haney or Mark Gruenwald will say, “Wow. That’s recent.” But Deadpool debuted in late 1990. The Vigilante and Wild Dog will be in that issue, characters that really haven’t had their say in BACK ISSUE. GREENBERGER: Not only haven’t had their say, but they’re certainly timely now, with both appearing in Arrow Season 5. EURY: Exactly. You know, it seems like the CW is actually going to bring virtually every character we can think of out of mothballs. [chuckles] Who would have thought, years ago, that the Martian Manhunter would be on a weekly television series? GREENBERGER: Nobody. You know, when we were working on Action Comics Weekly, and Mike Gold called up and said, “I’ve got Max Collins doing this new character, Wild Dog,” everyone at the offices poo-pooed it. Nobody really warmed up to Max and Terry on that stuff, and yet… there’s Wild Dog on Arrow. EURY: Well, it had to impress somebody. [laughter] But Wild Dog is the perfect type of street-level character for today’s audiences. Some of these characters may have been ahead of their time. GREENBERGER: Could be. Or tastes change, or things cycle through. Hard to say. Initially, you didn’t always do theme issues, but now that seems to be what every issue is. A different type of theme. Are you getting challenged at the types of themes you’re coming up with? EURY: Actually, we’ve always had theme issues. I have never varied from that. Every single issue. “DC versus Marvel” was #1, and #2 was a “Totally ’80s” issue—and I’m doing this from memory, which is kind of scary… GREENBERGER: Yeah. [laughs] EURY: Issue #3 was “Laughing Matters,” issue #4 was “Marvel Milestones.” “Comics in Hollywood” was issue #5. There have been a few that have been repetitive. I’ve done a couple of Halloween issues and probably a couple of years down the road I will do another one. I don’t want to make them an annual thing, because then when you start to expect it, it can get a little boring. I’d rather every three or four years trot out a Halloween issue and then cover something that hasn’t been seen yet. 86 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

GREENBERGER: You’ve even done your “100-Page Super Spectacular” celebration, your Reprint celebration. You definitely have been thorough. EURY: Thanks. Occasionally, have they been challenging? The funny thing is, you probably are expecting me to say yes, but actually, no. I think we can continue this for some time. I’ve had some themes suggested to me originally in the “Back Talk” letters column and now on Facebook. For example, issue #97—which, again, has yet to come out at this time—is “Bird People.” Brenda Rubin, one of the regulars on the BACK ISSUE Facebook page, she posted, “Have you ever done a bird heroes issue? With Hawkman, etc.?” I had wanted to do something with Hawkman. You know, Hawkman’s history has been so convoluted and got even more so during the era we cover in BACK ISSUE. And Hawk and Dove. I edited Hawk and Dove at DC and have written an article that looks at their history. There’s been some weird stuff that happened with those characters. I mean, poor Hawk. That poor guy has been through a lot of changes, the biggest one not of his making with that Monarch thing. Nonetheless, that theme was suggested by a reader. We did a “Cat People” issue [#40] some time ago that was suggested by one of our writers. The “All-Jerks” issue [#91] was suggested on Facebook. Someone posted, “You ought to do an issue on @ssholes in comics,” but I liked the idea so we sanitized it a little bit by calling it the “All-Jerks” issue. [laughs] That one was a lot of fun. GREENBERGER: Do you ever wake up one morning in a cold sweat going, “Oh, my God! I’m running out of things to cover?” EURY: No, actually. Because I think we’ve had a good balance of giving ink to the big and the small. An article’s length will reflect how long a character’s history is. And there’s still a lot left to cover. We haven’t covered the Byrne revamp of Superman. We haven’t covered the Death of Superman. We haven’t covered the breaking of Batman. And there’s still some ’70s and ’80s stories and series we’ve yet to feature. There are a number of universes that came out during the ’90s and I’ve had requests to do those, like the Ultraverse, or 20 years earlier, the Atlas/Seaboard line. And occasionally, we will still do a singlecharacter spotlight. We’ve done Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, and FF issues and a few other characters along the way, and there will probably be a few more in the future. We have an Aquaman one that will come out with the movie in 2018. GREENBERGER: I’m sure Rob Kelly is all over that. EURY: Well, yeah! There are a few of guys ready to suit up for a trip to Atlantis… GREENBERGER: You mentioned earlier that we’ve unfortunately lost some of the Bronze Age people already. Have there been people you’ve wanted to interview who, unfortunately, have left us before you could get to them? Any regrets there? EURY: One regret is extremely personal, because anyone who has read BACK ISSUE regularly knows that my favorite comic from my youth was The Brave and the Bold. As much as people have attacked writer Bob Haney’s blind eye towards continuity, I just loved those done-in-one stories that he would do, and his Batman was unlike any Batman you would read elsewhere, a blend of Mannix, Dirty Harry, James Bond—whatever Haney needed in a specific episode—and very chummy with the “Commish.” All the stuff that was contrary to what was going on in the other Batman books. It was

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such a fun book to read and it was sort of, in my EURY: I do a lot of local history here in my community childhood and youth, my introduction to the DC in North Carolina, and when you’re recording the Universe because I was lured into comics by Batman, stories of our honored senior citizens, sometimes and so I was introduced to other characters as they they pass away during the process. I’ve done a teamed up with Batman in Brave and Bold. couple of regional history books under the brand of Way back in BACK ISSUE #7, I set out to do a “Pro2Pro” interview between [B&B’s] Jim Legendary Locals; it’s an imprint Aparo and Bob Haney, and I tracked down of Arcadia Publishing, which Haney. He was living in Mexico but he had is the largest publisher of just been admitted to hospice at that time… regional history books in the United States. A few people GREENBERGER: [disappointed] Oh, gosh. I have profiled have passed, EURY: Yeah. He was rapidly on the decline. even during the production He died soon after, sadly. So I did a solo interview with Aparo… which turned out of a book, and a couple of to be his last, I believe, as he passed away these have deeply touched shortly thereafter. me because I got to know My biggest heartbreak in BACK ISSUE was them. [chuckles] The reason I’m chuckling is, somebody the death of Christopher Reeve. Back in 2004, I made an arrangement with John Morrow. said to me, “I’m scared of He was going to donate 10% of the proceeds being in one of your books from a specific issue of BACK ISSUE to the because I’m afraid I might not Christopher Reeve Foundation. I was talking make it to your publication to the Reeve Foundation and I was going to © Michael Eury. date.” [laughter] He’s still go out from Oregon, where I was living, to Reeve’s around, fortunately. residence on my own dime and interview him. I was GREENBERGER: Let’s talk about BACK ISSUE again. going to ask Alex Ross—I don’t think I’ve ever told You’ve gotten into a real rhythm now, but from the Alex this—to paint a portrait of Christopher Reeve moment you tell your writers the theme of a specific as Superman, and we would do an issue that would issue is going to be “X” and you want these kinds cover-feature my interview with Christopher Reeve— of stories and you’re open to these other kinds of my hero. And I got word finally, I think it was around stories, from that moment until you close the book, October 7th or 8th, 2004, that “We just can’t do it at what kind of timeframe are you looking at? this time.” Christopher Reeve died on October 10th of EURY: I generally give writers a six-month window, that year. I did not know until his death hit the news because (A) I want them to have ample time to do that his health was slipping, because it looked like the it, and (B) I also want to make sure that this is a interview was going to be able to happen when I made labor of love and not a burden of deadlines. In the my first contact. I was crushed, because I respected majority of cases, if anyone feels the pressure of him so tremendously, and you are probably aware the Dreaded Deadline Doom when it comes to from what I’ve written and spoken about with my writing a BACK ISSUE article, it’s probably not the own hearing-loss journey, it was Reeve and his courage editor’s fault, it’s that someone waited until the from his wheelchair to advocate for people with last minute to begin. And that happens. And there disabilities that really encouraged me to get past my have been a couple of cases where real life intervened self-pity and anger and depression about my hearing to slow somebody down, and it’s happened with loss and move forward with my life. He truly was me as well. I like giving people a wide berth. my Superman and I could not wait to interview him, Sometimes an assignment involves reading or and was just so saddened that it didn’t happen. rereading a lot of old comics. So I want to make You know, we were fortunate to run the last sure that people have plenty of time. interview with Dave Stevens. That’s another just Okay, right now, as we speak—October 4th, tragic, tragic loss. Many people were surprised by 2016—I am proofing articles for January’s issue #94, his passing. which is about 85% designed. We will be delivering GREENBERGER: Absolutely. it to TwoMorrows in mid-October, so we need to EURY: I think people close to him knew he was sick, turn it in a couple of months before the ship date but he mostly kept it to himself. And Bob, you did because we’re printed in China. that interview with Adrienne Roy, and I’m honored GREENBERGER: I didn’t know that. to have been able to publish that. She was one EURY: We are. And that’s another reason I’ve built of those individuals who shaped comics, but in a this wide production schedule, because—we don’t fashion that most readers might not have realized. ship late! Actually, issue #91 arrived to stores late but Thanks for doing that interview. that was because it was misplaced by Diamond when GREENBERGER: I was honored when you asked me the copies came arrived at their warehouse. Someone to do that. So it’s mutual. misplaced the boxes and it took them a couple of EURY: Essentially, there’s kind of a quiet dictum weeks to find it and then disperse it throughout the among my BACK ISSUE writers, that if there is anyone network. Sometimes BACK ISSUE does not make it to who was a creator during our era of coverage and you the shops on the date that it’s supposed to, but that’s have an opportunity to interview them, or perhaps a distribution issue that they’re trying to rectify. pair them off with someone else for a Pro2Pro We’re still, at the end of the day, small potatoes interview—even if it might not fit a specific theme when it comes to what’s published in comics. And I or I may not have a spot for it now—go ahead and think that distribution is prioritized thusly. But I will do it. Let’s capture these oral histories, because, again, say with great pride, in the 13 years I’ve been we do lose them. And I don’t want to have to write doing BACK ISSUE, I have not delivered an issue late. another obituary for the magazine and think, “Darn. And I’m going to keep that up. It’s easier to do now I really wish we could have gotten their story.” because I have, over time, built in this wider production GREENBERGER: Yeah. Absolutely. window. That’s something I originally learned from

Diana Schutz at Comico. I sort of lost my way with that when I was deeper in the business at other companies—as you might recall—but I’ve recaptured it. So it has kept me in the last handful of years from waking up in a sweat, like you were saying earlier, concerned about how I’m going to get this issue done. BACK ISSUE is also one of several things I do for a living, and so I’m constantly juggling projects and don’t want to be pressured by deadlines. Since I do have numerous issues of BI in production simultaneously, in different stages, that also means I’m dealing with six or more writers per issue and then a designer and a cover artist or whatever. And so, really what I learned in producing monthly comics, a lot of that carries over here—keeping the trains running on time. But I’ve learned that if you start the train earlier, it’s easier to keep it on time. GREENBERGER: Let’s talk about your writers. You’ve had a lot of regulars—John Trumbull, John Wells, Andy Mangels, Rob Kelly, me, and others. What do you think each of us brings to the magazine? Does it give the reader a consistent reading experience? Does it give you people you can count on? EURY: Yes. And yes. [mutual laughter] Yeah, it does. Fortunately, my well of talent is deep, and that’s fabulous, because different people have different areas of interest and expertise—and I think that having different voices in the magazine keeps it fresh. There are some people who I consider my “go-to” people for specific subjects. In some cases, they’ll get an assignment that might not be offered to the group at large for pitching. [Editor’s note: The normal procedure for BACK ISSUE assignments is, the editor announces a theme to the writers pool, writers submit proposals for the editor’s consideration, and then the editor makes assignments.] I’d rather not name names here for fear of inadvertently overlooking someone, but essentially I consider it to be this wonderful treasure trove of people who are thrilled about writing for BACK ISSUE and do such a wonderful job. I’m very, very fortunate in that regard. Every now and then there is something that’s just dear to my heart or something that I had a connection to that I exercise executive privilege and grab as a writing assignment, like the Hawk and Dove article I mentioned, or the occasional Brave and Bold article, or, in the case of this issue, the Amazing World of DC Comics article. GREENBERGER: Since you cover a lot of ’80s’ stuff, there was Eclipse and Pacific, Comico… whoever was publishing Justice Machine before Comico [Noble Comics], etc. You had the fly-by-night startups that lasted a month or two. Those don’t seem to get as much coverage in BACK ISSUE. Is it because they didn’t last as long, or because their impact hasn’t been as great? EURY: Well, the challenge is to give material like you mentioned an opportunity for a spotlight in BACK ISSUE, but do it as commercially as possible. This means they’re often going to be piggybacking onto a more commercially viable cover feature, or dominant feature. Issue #94, the “Indie Superheroes” issue, featured Justice Machine, but also Ms. Mystic, a Neal Adams cover, a piece on Continuity Comics, the Mighty Crusaders’ Red Circle revival, and the two reboots of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents in the ’80s. Relatively obscure stuff gathered together, but anchored by Neal Adams, who has a fan base among BACK ISSUE readers. Occasionally, sales will drop a little, but overall they’re consistent. Sometimes, if there is some88 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

thing of a larger commercial profile, orders will spike up. I’m anticipating the issue prior to the one this—#99, Batman: The Animated Series— will probably sell well since it includes Harley Quinn, Bruce Timm, and Batman, etc. But sometimes, a less-commercial theme makes orders drop—not by much, but a little—such as issue #75. It had that gorgeous Paul Chadwick Concrete cover. Concrete, Cerebus, and ElfQuest were the three main features in that issue. Each of them, in their day, were indie hits with loyal audiences. But if I had placed Batman or Spider-Man on the cover and had the same content inside, it would have sold more. [laughter] So my challenge is to find ways to package material that keeps BACK ISSUE anchored in the mainstream as much as possible, but still gets to play in other sandboxes. GREENBERGER: You’ve not done a lot with the Archie line of characters, am I right? EURY: You’re correct, just a few random articles, like Reggie Mantle in issue #91. GREENBERGER: By design? EURY: A little bit. A lot of what you’ve seen in BACK ISSUE is based upon TwoMorrows’ relationships with the respective publishers. Archie is a publisher that we really haven’t had much of a relationship with— that’s not to be perceived as a positive or a negative, just a statement of fact—until recently. And TwoMorrows has just, as of this conversation date, published the MLJ Companion, a great sourcebook on the Archie superheroes. GREENBERGER: It’s a really pretty book. Yeah, I’m looking forward to reading that. EURY: It’s a dense tome of all this wonderful stuff. So we now have a relationship with Archie. I have been wanting to do an “Archie in the Bronze Age” issue digs into all those fun ’70s bellbottoms fashions. Actually, in the late Silver Age and early years of the Bronze Age, Archie comics were very popular, to the point of duplication and rip-offs at virtually every company. Marvel transformed Millie the Model into an Archie-looking knock-off. DC transformed Binky and Scooter into Archie knock-offs. All of a sudden, these titles’ logos even started to parrot the look of Archie Comics. And then Archie was cloning itself with That Wilkin Boy, and so there’s a lot of stuff there that needs to be covered in BACK ISSUE. I want it to include the Archies and the TV cartoons, too. GREENBERGER: So is this my one chance to pitch you the Cherry Poptart article? [laughs] EURY: Well, we’ll see about that… [laughs] GREENBERGER: You talked about Roy and Alter Ego. You’ve crossed over articles that have begun in one book, either Alter Ego or BACK ISSUE, and gone back and forth. We did that with the Star Trek writers’ roundtable with Write Now! as well. Were those experiments that worked? Were they nightmares? EURY: They worked out nicely. Their editors, Roy Thomas and Danny Fingeroth, are seasoned pros, and everything moved along smoothly, on time. It was a good way for our magazines to bond and support each other’s readerships, a good way for us to maintain the purviews of our respective magazines and still have content that spans across those years. I think there’s a misconception that everyone who reads Alter Ego reads BACK ISSUE or vice versa. That’s not the case. There are some readers who read both, and Draw. And in the past, Write Now!, and now, Comic Book Creator. I’ve met people who

are Alter Ego subscribers who will only read BACK ISSUE when there is an article or a theme that is of particular interest to them. There’s another misconception that the TwoMorrows publications come from the same editorial office. The TwoMorrows office in Raleigh, North Carolina, is where publisher John Morrow and his wife Pam work, and sometimes, Eric Nolen-Weathington, but TwoMorrows’ magazine editors, as well its book authors and editors, all work from their respective studios, in different states. GREENBERGER: I know your tabloid-sized issue, #61, was quite the experiment. Did that work? Did that bring in some attention? EURY: Oh, it did! It sold out almost instantly and it is extremely hard to find in print now. The only negative I have ever heard about it, and I’ve heard this from maybe three people, is, “I can’t store this with my other issues.” GREENBERGER: [laughter] No kidding. EURY: And it’s true. You can’t. Even with my own file copies, I’ve got my issues sequentially listed, but #61 is over to the side because it just doesn’t fit. But if that’s the worst thing somebody can say about it, then I’m happy. It just had to be published in that magical format, you know? GREENBERGER: Oh, no question. EURY: I did have requests to do a digest-sized issue covering the digests of the Bronze Age, but John Morrow and I discussed it and realized we’d have the same storage issue… plus, we would literally get lost in the marketplace if we published something that small. We would not have the built-in audience that, say, an Archie digest may still get in getting racked at a grocery-store checkout. And then my joke—which was not necessarily a joke, because it’s true—was that the lion’s share of BACK ISSUE’s readers, including its editor, our vision is dimming as we age, and the last thing we need to do is shrink down the point size to make it work in a digest format [laughter]. We have covered many of the digests in BACK ISSUE, by the way, but in the regular magazine size. Our format seems to work. We have a growing digital readership, which is nice. It’s mind-blowing to me here in Year 13, 14, that every month or so, someone will tell me, “I’ve just now discovered your magazine.” Which is great. I’m glad you discovered us. Welcome. These newer readers are going back to try to find back issues, and they can’t get hard copies. They’re getting digital copies because many of the earlier issues have now sold out in print form. GREENBERGER: I just saw TwoMorrows tweet earlier today that issue #89 is about to sell out. That’s got to feel good. EURY: That is pretty cool, yeah. It’s nice to see that there is enough of a readership to sustain us. I do think our social media presence with Facebook has helped. Thanks goodness for John Trumbull, whom you mentioned earlier as a valuable resource for BACK ISSUE as a writer, but he—technically, he and I are co-admins on the Facebook page—but John does the heavy lifting. He’s there a lot more than I am and he puts out the fires, if a topic derails into name-calling. Our group has grown exponentially. We have double the Facebook group members than we have readers, and I want more of those people to discover the magazine. GREENBERGER: So, looking back over 100 issues, is there one that stands out as, “This is nearest and dearest to my heart”? EURY: There are two. I’m a DC guy at heart, so issue #61 and issue #81. The “Tabloids and Treasuries” issue and the 100-page “DC Reprints and Giants” issue. I loved DC’s 100-Page Super Spectaculars and Limited Collectors’ Editions. They were fun formats that came out when I was a kid, and I feel vested in them. I’m also really partial to issue #5—the “Comics in Hollywood” issue—with the Lynda Carter interview.

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First Impressions (top) Ye ed’s first Batman comic, Detective #350 (Apr. 1966). (bottom) From the collection of Rich Fowlks, original art to a Spider-Ham page written by Eury, with art by Alan Kupperberg, from Marvel Tales #215 (Sept. 1988). Batman TM & © DC Comics. Spider-Ham TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Essentially, if you ate a hot dog at the commissary near the Wonder Woman TV show set in the ’70s, Andy Mangels tracked you down and interviewed you for that issue [laughter]. He did an exhaustive, wonderful job. And it had those dueling Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman flip covers, by Alex Ross and Adam Hughes. How cool was that? Plus a Lou Ferrigno Hulk interview that Dan Johnson did. That was our first foray into Star Trek comics in that issue as well. GREENBERGER: Let’s talk a little bit about you. When did you find comics? When did you become a reader? EURY: I cannot remember not reading comics. My parents liked comics. They were children in the ’40s—meaning they were reading comics during their heyday. Boy, one bubble that was burst was that one time during the ’70s when my mother said, “I think we have a box of funnybooks at your grandfather’s house.” My mom’s hometown was New Bern, North Carolina, a beautiful Old South community nestled between two rivers. We went there and I looked in the attic for that box of comics, but Grandpa told me that they were destroyed in a flood from a hurricane. Ah, yes, coastal Carolina living…! But nonetheless, my parents loved comics and the newspaper funnies, and so that was passed on to me. When I was a small child in the ’60s, I had things bought for and given to me like Casper and Donald Duck—things I was watching on television. Television was my window to comic books. I might have read a Superman comic back then, but what opened the door for superheroes was the Adam West Batman show. I was barely eight years old when that started, and so my first Batman comic book was Detective Comics #350, which featured a Joe Kubert cover— it was the DC “go-go checks” era. GREENBERGER: I remember that issue. EURY: Detective #350 featured “The Monarch of Menace”—one of the lamest Batman villains ever. Batman had recently premiered on TV, and I was going out of young mind. I called my dad at work and asked, “Daddy, would you stop by the store and get me a Batman funnybook on your way home?” And he did… thanks, Dad. And he brought that one home, that was the one he saw and brought it home and so that one—as bad as the story is—will always be special to me. And so I started to read Batman and Detective, which led to Brave and Bold, World’s Finest, Justice League… and I became a regular Superman reader pretty quickly after that as well. But I really take it all back to Dad, that comic and the Batman TV show. I was reading comics before that, but I do not remember the very first comic I ever read. I just can’t remember not ever having them around. GREENBERGER: Before you took a staff job in comics, my research shows you writing some odd feature for Marvel Tales? “TV or Not TV”? EURY: That was the title of my first script for “Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham.” That was the first of several stories I wrote with that character. GREENBERGER: Where’d that come from? EURY: This was right after the end of Marvel’s Star Comics line. The Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham comic book went away, but the character still had some following and they made him a backup feature in Marvel Tales. So, Marvel Tales at that time was reprinting ’70s Spider-Man or Marvel Team-Up stories—in my day it was Marvel Team-Up stories. Then they had a six- or eight-page Spider-Ham story in the back of the book, so the corner box of Marvel Tales back then had Spider-Man and Spider-Ham standing side-by-side. The first comics editor I worked with was Jim Salicrup, and I had pitched to Marvel’s house fanzine, Marvel Age, a “Not the Marvel Attractions” feature. I wrote bogus Marvel entries. You know, an X-Men/Michael Jackson crossover, Mr. Wilson becoming Galactus’ herald in Dennis the Menace, that sort of thing. Jim published it and liked my sense of humor and asked me if I wanted to write some Spider-Ham stories. Of course, I did! Some of my Spider-Ham stories were drawn by Alan Kupperberg, rest his soul. Alan and I co-created the Punfisher.

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these pressures and I let them overwhelm me, and I ended up leaving that job at a critical time. And I’m sorry that I did that. I wish that I had the wherewithal back then to “man up” more and address my hearing loss, too. I think if I had addressed my hearing loss and had not been at such a disadvantage… I mean, I was sort of lost. Things were being said that I misheard or didn’t hear. Some people considered me aloof or out of my mind or drug-addled or whatever at the time, but I just was not processing information correctly. And when I transitioned from editorial to management and then back to editorial again… because I shifted gears, it never really let me get my groove in either capacity, so this house of cards fell down on me and I collapsed with it. I went home to North Carolina to lick my wounds for a little while before trying it again. But—here we go again—several years into my tenure at Dark Horse, my unaccepted, flatly denied hearing loss made it all happen again. I was a group editor at Dark Horse and had a degree of management responsibility and then ended up just not being able to handle it in the long run. I was also poisoned there, by the way. [chuckles] My office had a severe mold infestation that I didn’t know about until I left. I had an unexplainable body rash and got sick a lot. I thought I was succumbing to stress, but I was succumbing to mold. GREENBERGER: I had no idea. EURY: Well, I haven’t really talked about it. The mold infestation in my Dark Horse office wasn’t discovered until after I had left staff and office furniture was moved around. But at that time I cultivated a reputation as somebody who just couldn’t stick with a job. So I take pride in sliding into Year 14 of BACK ISSUE. And my hearing loss is something I’ve learned to deal with. I’m very comfortable in my own skin now, and what happened in the past… well, as they say, it is what it is. If I have a regret, I do wish I had been at DC longer, because there were a lot more characters I would love to have worked with. But when I see my creators from my day, they shower me with affection and friendship. Like, I saw Bart Sears a couple of months ago and he said, “You’re one of my favorite editors I ever had.” And that means so much to me because I kind of left him at a bad time, starting up Eclipso, and he had to go through an editorial change. Certainly not to cast aspersions on anyone that worked on my books after me, but I started a project and wasn’t there to see it through. I’m sorry for anyone I left in a lurch. But everyone survived. I survived and we’ve gone on to other things, but there’s still a lot of things I did there at DC that I’m very proud of. GREENBERGER: Do you think working at Comico, Dark Horse, and DC made you better prepared to edit BACK ISSUE? Because you were there in the trenches? EURY: Oh, absolutely. GREENBERGER: What about the nonfiction work you’ve been doing locally? Can you elaborate on that side of your life? EURY: My wife, Rose, and I started a local business a few years ago called Yesterday Forever. We help people capture their personal histories. Rose left her corporate job in textbook publishing a few years ago and has really grown in this capacity, helping local people write and publish their memoirs. Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 91

[laughs] I can’t believe we put the Punisher in a kid’s comic, but we did. Punisher was hot, and I said, “Alan, let’s do Charlie Tuna as the Punisher.” The Punfisher fired guns that shoot scallops and shrimp. It was just a lot of fun and we had a great time telling fun stories that were pun-drenched, and kid-friendly. GREENBERGER: So, you’re writing these pieces. How did that land into a staff job at Comico? EURY: I was writing that stuff, and articles and news items for Amazing Heroes. I had been in APAs [Amateur Press Alliances], in Interlac and a couple of others, and in Interlac I met Mark Waid, who was editing Amazing Heroes. I pitched something to Mark for Amazing Heroes and then I got some writing opportunities there and worked with a variety of editors at Amazing Heroes, including Kevin Dooley—curiously, I’d later be officemates with Mark and with Kevin at DC. Amazing Heroes paved the way for me at DC later on, because I made connections. I wanted a staff job at a comic-book company and applied simultaneously to DC and Comico. This was late ’87, and Diana Schutz at Comico contacted me immediately. She said, “My assistant editor is leaving. You wrote me a query letter that has no grammatical or punctuation mistakes. Would you like to come in for an interview?” [laughter] So the moral of the story is, learn how to punctuate, kids. Diana scared the crap out of me at first—and I mean that with the ultimate affection and respect—because she just made me work hard. I had to go out and get the American Heritage Dictionary and I had it by my side, and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and read that. She’s a phenomenal editor and was the best teacher I could have hoped for. I worked with Diana for a while, and then ultimately made the jump to DC. For better or for worse. DC was a mixed bag for me. I wish I had been there longer. GREENBERGER: Your time at DC, though, was really in two pieces. You had the editorial work you were doing, and then you were Dick Giordano’s assistant. Was there one role you preferred to the other? EURY: Well, there were parts I liked and disliked with both. I look back at being Dick’s assistant as an educational, wonderful, but bittersweet experience. It changed my dynamic with the rest of the editorial staff. You and I started to work together about that time—more closely in the capacity you were in at that time as editorial coordinator. But I think that some of the editors at that time held my motivations in suspect. All I really wanted to do was just—and maybe I was naive at the time to think this—but I perceived this job as being an opportunity for someone from the inside—meaning from editorial—to be involved with management. And I never really got my groove with that. There were some interpersonal dynamic issues with a couple of the junior editors with me in that regard. Maybe some of the group editors. That was really when my hearing loss was becoming a colossal factor in my life and I wasn’t always processing information properly. I’ve used this story in faith testimonies and hearing-loss-advocacy speeches, but I’ve never really talked about it in this magazine. But I had a number of pressures on me at that time, including the beginning of my father’s medical decline, a slow drop… just a bad last ten years of his life. But I was not mature enough to deal with all of

Back in the Day

(top left) Comico editor Michael Eury and artist Adam Hughes promote their new series, The Maze Agency, at Chicago Con 1988. (right) DC’s assistant to the editorial director Eury and his wife, Rose, in Los Angeles at DC Comics’ 1990 Christmas party for West Coast freelancers. (middle left) Legion of Super-Heroes editor Eury as Editor Boy, as caricatured by Legionnaires artist Chris Sprouse. (bottom left) Dark Horse Comics editor Eury reviews artists’ portfolio at HeroesCon 1994 in Charlotte, North Carolina. All of this grew out of a part-time job I had from 2008 to 2012, when I was the executive director of my county’s history nonprofit organization. We had recently moved back to North Carolina after 14 years in Oregon and I wanted to do something within my community. Then I read a newspaper article that said, “Local nonprofit seeks history director” and thought, “Well, I work with comic-book history and know publishing—I think I can do that.” I applied, and got the job. During that time, I dug through photo and ephemera archives, read tons of material, and—most importantly—spoke to a lot of senior citizens, and learned a great deal about the history of my hometown, Concord, North Carolina. Today, I even conduct guided tours of our historic downtown, and have written several books about it. GREENBERGER: What pleasures do you get from such projects? 92 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

EURY: It’s not unlike BACK ISSUE—there’s a sense of honor attached to historical preservation. Plus, I’m genuinely moved by older adults who tell me—often teary-eyed—how happy they are to see a “young” man help keep the stories of the past alive. GREENBERGER: Thanks for taking the time to trip down memory lane. EURY: You’re welcome, Bob, and thanks for your time and interest! Great to speak with you! Follow writer/editor/educator ROBERT GREENBERGER at BobGreenberger.com.

MAKING SENSE OF THE SENTINELS

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE * Concord, NC 28025

Find BACK ISSUE on

MEET YE ED AT THE FAYETTEVILLE COMIC-CON

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman will be a guest at the Fayetteville (NC) Comic-Con (www.fayettevillecomiccon.com) on Saturday, October 21st and Sunday, October 22nd. BI readers, stop by my table for a chat! Other guests include actor TV Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno; movie Flash Gordon Sam J. Jones (who’s interviewed in the next issue of BI!); Jack O’Hallaran, Phantom Zone felon Non in the first two Superman movies; Larry Hama; the Charlton Neo Gang of Paul Kupperberg, Roger McKenzie, and Mort Todd; Doom Patrol’s Richard Case; Hulk’s Steve Geiger; and Silver Sable’s Steve Butler.

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Unfortunately, I made a mistake in my Continuity Comics article [in BACK ISSUE #94]. The first quote [page 9] should have been attributed to Mark Beachum, not Michael Netzer. Can we publish a retraction in a future issue? It was totally my error; I’m sorry. – Steven Wilber

LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN(NA) SAYS

Thanks so much for sending me copies of BACK ISSUE with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents article. Very much appreciate the look back at a starting point in my career. Thanks for that. Anytime you need additional information on that or my DC or the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents work, feel free to contact me. I have a ton of stories from the old days. For example, I was the one who helped Rich Buckler get the editor’s job at Archie Comics, as well as I suggested to John Goldwater to get Steranko for the Fly covers. Things like that. Hiring John Workman as editor for the Agents books all came from me suggesting to John. Me throwing David Singer out of my house. So much went on in those days, and it was probably what caused the books to ultimately fail. – Lou Manna Thanks, Lou.

After reading Jay Williams’ article in BACK ISSUE #94 on Bill Black’s AC Comics, I want to throw this in just for the historical record: Back in the early ’80s—maybe it was ’82… I can’t remember exactly—I saw in a Charlton comic or in a fan publication that Charlton was going to have a contest where people could submit stories to Charlton, and if the stories were “good enough,” Charlton would publish the story. They wouldn’t pay you any money, but they would send you a number of copies of the printed story you submitted as payment. They called the contest Bullseye. Steve Ditko had stopped working there at Charlton and Charlton had basically stopped publishing its superhero line. For years I had hope they would start up again because those superhero books held some promise, and I liked and respected what Dick Giordano had done there. I thought there was a chance that things would change, but I really didn’t know what was going on at the company. I had always wanted to see Steve Ditko do a story or stories of his heroes there at Charlton—teaming up together and fighting for justice. Steve had created and worked on three heroes and a heroine that I had always wanted him to bring together: Captain Atom, Nightshade, Blue Beetle, and the Question. Wanting to see Steve Ditko’s heroes together, and now having a possible opportunity to see these heroes back in print at Charlton, together, started me on a quest to see such a thing in print. If Steve Ditko wasn’t going to do a book with Captain Atom, Nightshade, Blue Beetle, and the Question together… then I was!! I sharpened my pencil and began to put a possible story together in my head and on paper. For a long time I had had a name for the group. I was from a small town in southern Minnesota, and the name of the local newspaper there was named The Daily Sentinel. From about 1959 on I had wanted to name a group of superheroes… The Sentinels of Justice. I had created my own group of superheroes under this title, but I was gladly going to relinquish the name to the Ditko heroes for this “occasion.” In the late 1950s (1957–1959), I would write to DC Comics and suggest, after reading Jack Kirby’s Green Arrow strip in World’s Finest and Dick Sprang’s Superman, Batman, and Robin in that same magazine, that DC should team up Superman, Batman, Robin, Green Arrow, Speedy, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman in a DC book and call the group… The Sentinels of Justice. (I was unaware of the existence of the JSA at that time.) (J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, could join later… as could Aqualad and Wonder Girl. Fine by me.) But after seeing those pages of Green Arrow and Superman and Batman, I thought they should really be in a full-length comic-book adventure together. Remember, in those days, there could be two or even three stories between the covers. (I don’t think there were many books that had a full-length story in the comics back then. I thought I was suggesting something relatively new with a team of superheroes inhabiting one book together in a full-book-length adventure.) DC never printed my letters, nor did they answer me. But, as we know, they instead brought together the DC heroes under the title of The Justice League of America. (Probably a better name… but the nerve!! LOL!!) Anyway, because of Charlton’s offer, I was trying to work up a story that brought together the Steve Ditko heroes—and, like I said, if Ditko wasn’t going to bring those heroes together, I was. I was thinking of including Pete Morisi’s Peter Cannon–Thunderbolt, the Peacemaker, and maybe, Judomaster and Sarge Steel, Special Agent. Around this time I was having a lot of “thought-dreams” of revitalizing Charlton and bringing back those titles with a host of ideas around having a 60-page story with chapters of Thunderbolt, Peacemaker, Judomaster, and Sarge Steel… all involved in a story with the Ditko-Charlton Action Heroes. Being too large for a first story, I decided to stick with Steve Ditko’s four heroes and try to rein in that imagination. I thought Thunderbolt, Peacemaker, Judomaster and Tiger, and Sarge Steel could be worked in as members on a rotating membership over 15 or 20 issues if I could land a writing job at Charlton. I was sure that if I could get a job at Charlton, I could “save” the line. I thought, maybe later, I could guest-star the Spookman and the Fightin’ Five, all in separate adventures, after I had made the previous four (T-Bolt,

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 93

Peacemaker, Judomaster, and Sarge Steel) members of the Sentinels. (Yes, the more I thought about it, the bigger my plans became.) So, I had been working on the story when I went to a comic-con in Minneapolis on “the Strip” in Bloomington. I happened to pass a table of artists displaying their artwork when I saw Greg Guler’s art. I thought it was pretty good art, so I looked up and I asked him, “Why aren’t you published?” Greg said: “Nobody will publish me. I can’t get published.” So, without really thinking, I said: “I’ll get you published.” He responded: “You will? Great!” Upon reflection, I really didn’t know what I’d said or why I had said it. (Step one: Insert foot in mouth.) But now, I had to realize I had really stepped in it, and from then on I felt committed to help get Greg published. Then I remembered the story I Characters TM & © DC Comics. was working on, and that Charlton had this “contest” going… and Greg’s art was every bit as good as I thought it was… so I told him what I was doing. He agreed to throw in with me and work to get published in Charlton’s Bullseye offer. We went to work on the story. Greg was very committed and worked extremely hard to not only draw a great story (remember, it was our first), but suggested ways that the story could be improved. I could not have been happier. I was going to get Steve Ditko’s Charlton heroes teamed up in a story with pretty damn good art—and Greg was going to get published. It sounded like a win/win to me. Charlton was releasing issues of Charlton Bullseye and they had published an issue with the Blue Beetle and he Question teaming up and another issue with Captain Atom appearing, so I felt we were, at least, in the right ballpark. Then, a dark cloud appeared. A very dark cloud. I can’t remember if I read something in the fan press or what set off my concern, but I called Charlton—I can’t remember who I talked with—and was told that Charlton was closing its doors and going out of business in a few months, and that there was only a slim chance that they would be able to publish the story we were working on. I was told I could call back in a few weeks for an update. Brain-blasted, I called Greg and gave him the bad news. He seemed pretty crestfallen, as well he should have been. He found it hard to continue working on the story. I felt equally as bad. Everything seemed to be falling apart. I waited about a week, and when I could wait no longer, I called Charlton again and was told that the company was indeed closing its doors. My brain crashed into a very bad place… when the guy on the other end of the line said: “…but there is a guy in Florida who is taking the stuff we haven’t published, and you might call him. His name is Bill Black.” A small sliver of light broke through the darkness. Anxiously and hopefully, I did call Bill Black and told him that we had a story of the Charlton heroes that we were aiming at Bullseye and asked him if he would be interested in our story. Bill could not have been better to me. He sounded as though he was interested and all we had to do was send him the story, and if it was good enough he would publish it. No money… but he offered more

copies to the creators as payment than Charlton did. (Win!!) The lights went back on for me, and the Charlton world of superheroes was smiling again. I told Greg and asked him to please finish the story so we could send it to Bill. We sent what we had and Mr. Bill Black told us that he liked the story and would publish it. Bill seemed pleased with the stuff we were sending him—he made me the editor, so I though I was “the editor” I was sending in scripts, as page 44 of BACK ISSUE #94 attests. We got a hint of trouble when one book, Captain Paragon #4, came out only partially colored. We pushed on a finished Captain Paragon and the Sentinels of Justice #1 and were getting ready to do issue #2 when Bill stopped paying Greg for work already submitted. Greg told me that Bill had called him and told him to stop working on the book. I think Greg had just finished covers for Captain Paragon #2 and 3. I think I had a couple of scripts done, ready to go. But we stopped. Both Greg and I wanted to continue to work for Bill, but he was not paying Greg. (I was working another job, so the financial hardship wasn’t as immediate as Greg’s.) Both Greg and I called Bill and asked him to please send a paycheck to Greg for the work already submitted, but he would not or did not. So Greg was forced to find other work, but not before lining up Gordon Purcell to take over the next issue. Even though Bill wasn’t paying Greg, Greg still found someone to take over for him. In Jay Williams’ article, Bill Black made it sound like Greg just quit. And that I just quit on Bill, too. Not quite so. Had he only continued to pay Greg, we would have continued to work for Bill. Bill did take and keep my title—The Sentinels of Justice—and he took Greg’s and my title—The Sentinels of America— which he knew we wanted in case he wasn’t going to return the Sentinels of Justice title to us (he published it in 2003 under the title Fighting Yank and the Sentinels of America). So, only some of the story was told in BACK ISSUE #94. Certainly not the worst story ever told in comic-book history, but I still have pretty mixed feelings about the whole thing… – Dan St. John

A NEW BI READER!

I used to collect comic books from 1978–1986 (mainly Marvels). I mostly buy graphic novels now (Drawn and Quarterly, Fantagraphics’ non-superhero stuff). When I was looking through Previews a month ago, an easy way to see what’s up in the comic-book world, I first read about BACK ISSUE magazine and immediately ordered the current issue through my comic shop. I picked up the Neal Adams issue today and I’m in Heaven!!! It’s like it’s the mid-1980s again and I am reading Amazing Heroes or Comics Scene magazine! I love the nostalgia and insights! I am so excited about the magazine and look forward to future issues. DKIII is the only comic series I am currently buying. I much prefer to buy trades when a storyline is completed because monthly comics are so expensive and a pain to store. Plus, when I check into things it seems thin stories get stretched out over a year and it just gets too expensive. With BACK ISSUE I feel I am given reasons to re-appreciate or appreciate even more the things from the past in a way I was not

94 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom

able to as a teenager. I will probably end up seeking out some of these things in trade-paperback form! Thank you for such a well-thought-out and well-put-together magazine! I would subscribe, but I feel I have to support my local comicbook shop. Please don’t stop publishing! My last favorite magazine was the Comic Buyer’s Guide—they stopped publishing a year after I subscribed. I’m 50 years old and still a comic nerd, but today’s stuff just confounds me with the re-numberings, and high prices. I remember the days when a great story was contained in one to three issues and comic-book conventions weren’t high profile and filled with celebrities. But I digress. Thanks again for an awesome magazine! – Chris Francz Glad you found us, Chris!

AN “OLD” BI READER!

I have been reading BACK ISSUE since the beginning. I have never been disappointed. BACK ISSUE #94 and 95 resonated with me on so many levels. Brought back great memories of when I was young and buying these comics for the first time. But, I guess this is why we collect comics and read BACK ISSUE; it puts us in a certain time and place. I really enjoyed the Justice Machine article by Brian Martin. Very well done and written. I remember like it was yesterday my friends and I buying that first issue of Justice Machine off the rack at Barbarian Books in Wheaton, Maryland. Not knowing how the industry worked, our main concern was, why is John Byrne drawing for this company called NOBLE Comics? Is he leaving Marvel? Is Terry Austin Flash Gordon © 1980 Universal City Studios, Inc./King Features Syndicate. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

leaving too, we thought after seeing issue #2. But we loved the comic and the characters. For me, Challenger was my guy. He was my favorite character. I liked the characterization and his look. Especially, after seeing him on the cover of issue #2 (left), firing from the hip with both guns blazing. I liked the coloring and the look of the comic. I thought it really stood out from what was on the racks at the time. The Justice Machine always have had a special place in my heart. Thank you, Brian, for bring this team back in the proverbial spotlight. Jerry Boyd did a phenomenal article on the beloved T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. What a wonderful, albeit underrated, series. Along with their Silver Age series, their Bronze Age adventures should be in everyone’s collection. The talent that was involved with this series was and is still mind-blowing. I would have loved to have seen more of Agent Vulcan. The portfolios that came out during this time are also a musthave. The George Tuska one is just gorgeous. His Dynamo is one of the best ever! Just like our beloved Justice Machine, it seems it was hard for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to find and keep a home, publicationwise. I guess you just can’t keep a good superhero team down. After reading issue #95, I pulled out my bound volumes of Moon Knight and enjoyed the adventures once again with our beloved hero. I never ever thought Moon Knight was like Batman. Never. Moon Knight was more sophisticated in approach, storytelling, and, of course, character(s) development. Plain and simple, he was just cooler than Batman. I still like the “Out of my way, old-timer” illustration Bill did. Neal’s response was good, but that would never happen. Moon Knight was a must-read for me. Still is. I have been with Moon Knight since the beginning. I enjoyed what Doug and Bill did on every page and every issue. Thank you clearing up that Moon Knight is Marc Spector. I think people have forgotten that or don’t know. See, if he were like Batman, Steven Grant would be Moon Knight. Thank you, Christopher Larochelle, for a fantastic interview with Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz. I thought the questions were right on and not generic in approach. You brought out great points and I felt like I was right there with the conversation. Well done. – Steve Ogden Steve, you made Brian, Jerry, and Christopher happy—and me, too! Next issue: We crank up the volume to 11 for our ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMICS issue, featuring an exclusive interview with SAM J. JONES, star of the rock/sci-fi classic, Flash Gordon. Plus: Marvel’s ALICE COOPER; KISS in comics; T.Rex’s MARC BOLAN interviews STAN LEE; Sir PAUL McCARTNEY: Fearless Front-Facer; Saturday Morning Supergroups (the Chimpmunks, the Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, and more); Charlton’s Partridge Family, David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman comics; Marvel’s Steeltown Rockers, Lila Cheney, and HypnoHustler; the Monkees’ comic connections in a cartoon by AL BIGLEY; comic characters’ favorite bands by Prince Street News’ KARL HEITMUELLER, JR.; and Comic-Con’s house band, Seduction of the Innocent. Featuring NEAL ADAMS, AMY CHU, CHRIS CLAREMONT, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, KELLY SUE DeCONNICK, KISS’s PETER CRISS, LARRY HAMA, JACK KIRBY, ELAINE LEE, STEVE LEIALOHA, BILL MUMY, DAN PARENT, JOHN ROMITA, SR., ALEX SEGURA, DON SHERWOOD… and you, our rockin’ readers! Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom• BACK ISSUE • 95

THE PARTY STARTS WITH

KIRBY100

TWOMORROWS and the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate JACK KIRBY’S 100th BIRTHDAY in style with the release of KIRBY100, a full-color visual holiday for the King of comics! It features an all-star line-up of 100 COMICS PROS who critique key images from Kirby’s 50-year career, admiring his page layouts, dramatics, and storytelling skills, and lovingly reminiscing about their favorite characters and stories. Featured are BRUCE TIMM, ALEX ROSS, WALTER SIMONSON, JOHN BYRNE, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE RUDE, ADAM HUGHES, WENDY PINI, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE GIBBONS, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and dozens more of the top names in comics. Their essays serve to honor Jack’s place in comics history, and prove (as if there’s any doubt) that KIRBY IS KING! This double-length book is edited by JOHN MORROW and JON B. COOKE, with a Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER. (The Limited Hardcover Edition includes 16 bonus color pages of Kirby’s 1960s Deities concept drawings)

(224-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $34.95 ISBN: 9781605490786 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY171932 (240-page LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER with 16 bonus pages) $45.95 ISBN: 9781605490793 • Diamond Order Code: MAY171933

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ALTER EGO #150

ALTER EGO #151

ALTER EGO #152

Relive JOE PETRILAK’s All-Time Classic NY Comic Book Convention—the greatest Golden & Silver Age con ever assembled! Panels, art and photos featuring INFANTINO, KUBERT, 3 SCHWARTZES, NODELL, HASEN, GIELLA, CUIDERA, BOLTINOFF, BUSCEMA, AYERS, SINNOTT, [MARIE] SEVERIN, GOULART, THOMAS, and a host of others! Plus FCA, GILBERT, SCHELLY, and RUSS RAINBOLT’s amazing 60-foot comics mural!

Showcases GIL KANE, with an incisive and free-wheeling interview conducted in the 1990s by DANIEL HERMAN for his 2001 book Gil Kane: The Art of the Comics— plus other surprise features centered around the artistic co-creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern and The Atom! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and BILL SCHELLY! Green Lantern cover by KANE and GIELLA!

STAN LEE’s 95th birthday! Rare 1980s LEE interview by WILL MURRAY—GER APELDOORN on Stan’s non-Marvel writing in the 1950s—STAN LEE/ROY THOMAS e-mails of the 21st century—and more special features than you could shake Irving Forbush at! Also FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), BILL SCHELLY, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Colorful Marvel multi-hero cover by Big JOHN BUSCEMA!

Golden Age artist FRANK THOMAS (The Owl! The Eye! Dr. Hypno!) celebrated by Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt’s MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Plus the scintillating (and often offbeat) Golden & Silver Age super-heroes of Western Publishing’s DELL & GOLD KEY comics! Art by MANNING, DITKO, KANE, MARSH, GILL, SPIEGLE, SPRINGER, NORRIS, SANTOS, THORNE, et al.! Plus FCA, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Unsung artist/writer LARRY IVIE conceived (and named!) the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, helped develop T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, brought EC art greats to the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more! SANDY PLUNKETT chronicles his career, with art by FRAZETTA, CRANDALL, WOOD, KRENKEL, DOOLIN, and others! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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BACK ISSUE #102

BACK ISSUE #103

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #15 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #16 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #17

MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed! Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others! Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

Celebrating 30 years of artist’s artist MARK SCHULTZ, creator of the CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS franchise, with a featurelength, career-spanning interview conducted in Mark’s Pennsylvanian home, examining the early years of struggle, success with Kitchen Sink Press, and hitting it big with a Saturday morning cartoon series. Includes rarely-seen art and fascinating photos from Mark’s amazing and award-winning career.

A look at 75 years of Archie Comics’ characters and titles, from Archie and his pals ‘n gals to the mighty MLJ heroes of yesteryear and today’s “Dark Circle”! Also: Careerspanning interviews with The Fox’s DEAN HASPIEL and Kevin Keller’s cartoonist DAN PARENT, who both jam on our exclusive cover depicting a face-off between humor and heroes. Plus our usual features, including the hilarious FRED HEMBECK!

The legacy and influence of WALLACE WOOD, with a comprehensive essay about Woody’s career, extended interview with Wood assistant RALPH REESE (artist for Marvel’s horror comics, National Lampoon, and undergrounds), a long chat with cover artist HILARY BARTA (Marvel inker, Plastic Man and America’s Best artist with ALAN MOORE), plus our usual columns, features, and the humor of HEMBECK!

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BRICKJOURNAL #48

KIRBY COLLECTOR #71

KIRBY COLLECTOR #72

KIRBY COLLECTOR #73

DRAW #34

THE WORLD OF LEGO MECHA! Learn the secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecha builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

KIRBY: OMEGA! Looks at endings, deaths, and Anti-Life in the Kirbyverse, including poignant losses and passings from such series as NEW GODS, KAMANDI, FANTASTIC FOUR, LOSERS, THOR, DEMON and others! Plus: The 2016 Silicon Valley Comic-Con Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN & MIKE ROYER panel, WALTER SIMONSON interview, & unseen pencil art galleries! SIMONSON cover inks!

FIGHT CLUB! Jack’s most powerful fights and in-your-face action: Real-life WAR EXPERIENCES, Marvel’s KID COWBOYS, the Madbomb saga and all those negative 1970s Marvel fan letters, interview with SCOTT McCLOUD on his Kirby-inspired punchfest DESTROY!!, rare Kirby interview, 2017 WonderCon Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, unpublished pencil art galleries, and more! Cover inked by DEAN HASPIEL!

ONE-SHOTS! We cover Kirby’s best (and worst) short spurts on his wildest concepts: ANIMATION IDEAS, DINGBATS, JUSTICE INC., MANHUNTER, ATLAS, PRISONER, and more! Plus MARK EVANIER and our other regular panelists, rare Kirby interview, panels from the 2017 Kirby Centennial celebration, pencil art galleries, and some one-shot surprises! BIG BARDA #1 cover finishes by MIKE ROYER!

GREG HILDEBRANDT (of the Hildebrandt Brothers) reveals his working methods, BRAD WALKER (Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Birds of Prey, Legends of the Dark Knight) gives a how-to interview and demo, regular columnist JERRY ORDWAY, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, and BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY’s Comic Art Bootcamp! Mature Readers Only.

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