Back Issue #118 Preview

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD ISSUE! ry 202

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ALEX ROSS’ unrealized 82658 00387

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Fantastic Four

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Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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reboot!

DC: The Lost 1970s • FRANK THORNE’s Red Sonja prelims • LARRY HAMA’s Fury Force • MIKE GRELL’s Batman/Jon Sable • CLAREMONT & SIM’s X-Men/Cerebus • CURT SWAN’s lost pages for ED HANNIGAN’s Skull and Bones • ENGLEHART & VON EEDEN’s Batman/ Mad Hatter • AUGUSTYN & PAROBECK’s Target • the ill-fated Impact reboot by PAUL KUPPERBERG • with unpublished art by CALNAN, COCKRUM, HA, NETZER & more!

Volume 1, Number 118 February 2020 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Alex Ross COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Brian Augustyn Mike W. Barr Dewey Cassell Ed Catto Chris Claremont Comic Book Artist Steve Englehart Tim Finn Paul Fricke Mike Gold Grand Comics Database Mike Grell Larry Hama Ed Hannigan Jack C. Harris Heritage Comics Auctions Paul Kupperberg Paul Levitz Ed Lute Marvel Comics Michael Netzer Joe Norton Luigi Novi Mike Parobeck Appreciation Society

Alex Ross Jim Shooter Dave Sim Jim Simon Anthony Snyder Bryan Stroud Roy Thomas Frank Thorne J. C. Vaughn Trevor Von Eeden John Wells

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GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Alex Ross and the Fantastic Four That Wasn’t. . . . . . .2 An exclusive interview with the comics visionary about his pop art Kirby homage ART GALLERY: Marvel Goes Day-Glo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Inspired by our cover feature, a collection of posters from the House of Psychedelic Ideas GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The “Lost” DC Stories of the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 From All-Out War to Zany, DC’s line was in a state of flux throughout the decade ROUGH STUFF: Unseen Sonja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 The Red Sonja prelims of Frank Thorne GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Cancelled Crossover Cavalcade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Remember the Cerebus/X-Men and Batman/Jon Sable crossovers that weren’t?

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Larry Hama’s Fury Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 The journey from Nick Fury, Jr. to a Real American Hero GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Guest columnist Brian Augustyn recalls his unpublished project with the late, great Mike Parobeck OFF MY CHEST: Steve Englehart and the Batman Movie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 The superstar writer reveals his involvement with THE movie of 1989 in a guest editorial GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Impact Comics: The Little Imprint That Was Left Out in the Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Guest writer Paul Kupperberg’s behind-the-scenes exploration of DC’s attempts to revitalize the Archie Comics superheroes GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Lost Curt Swan Pages of Skull & Bones. . . . . . . .66 Behold, unpublished art by the Superman artist supreme for Ed Hannigan’s Cold War series GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: ‘Top Hat and Nails’: An Untold Story of the Batman . . . .73 Steve Englehart and Trevor Von Eeden’s unpublished Mad Hatter tale BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Reader reactions PLEASE NOTE: Due to ongoing international trade issues, to remain economically viable, we were forced to raise the cover price of Back Issue. Thanks for your understanding, and continued support of this magazine!

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, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $89 Economy US, $135 International, $36 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Alex Ross. Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2020 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel. Art © Alex Ross.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Greatest Stories Never Told Issue

interview by

Michael Eury

conducted by phone on April 25, 2019, and transcribed by Rose Rummel-Eury

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” For most BACK ISSUE readers, Fantastic Four was just that, one of the first Marvel superhero titles we read during our youth and one we followed loyally for years, even decades.

Yet in the mid-2010s, what was once the flagship title of the Marvel Universe fell out of favor with many readers, and after a conga line of creative teams paraded through the book and its reboots, Fantastic Four was cancelled.

Enter Alex Ross.

The superstar creator known for Marvels, Kingdom Come, Earth X, and photorealistic cover art had an idea of how to move the FF forward by looking backward, to the explosive artwork of the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine’s original artist and co-creator, Jack “King” Kirby.

Yet Alex Ross’ imaginative version of Fantastic Four was not meant to be. Why? Alex—one of BI’s most dedicated readers, we’re proud to say—sits down with ye ed to share the details behind this colorful, heartfelt “Greatest Story Never Told.”

– Michael Eury MICHAEL EURY: Where did your FF concept start?

ALEX ROSS: For me, it started in early 2017, and I had two key influences from where I was drawing alex this Fantastic Four pitch. It wasn’t called a “pitch,” because it didn’t have a storyline attached to it. If [the FF] were coming back in the near future, in what way could I represent it graphically that would be kind of a bold new take or something that would link back to this original type of comic?

So, two people have credits I’d like to give here: a friend of mine, Ron Murphy, had sent me a Fantastic Four full-color comic album, printed in England, which was made in the late ’60s. It was recolored with these bizarre Day-Glo colors and it created a whole impression in my mind of how you could sort of break up the pop iconography of the ’60s comic with this incredibly weird representation.

Then there was an artist named Aco, who was doing a pop-art retro-’60s Nick Fury series. This series, which came out in 2017, was a prototype for the way I thought you could do the FF.

I was picturing the best way to depict the FF for a modern generation was to translate Kirby’s work into a ’60s pop-art graphic, combined with my realistic rendering, thinking that it’s impossible to fully de-code Kirby, especially with my style, but you could apply abstract elements like the coloring being flat and vibrant like black-light posters with an interpretation of his faces that matches. With that, you could hopefully find the spirit of Jack’s FF in there.

EURY: I think you can. Yours is certainly an out-of-the-ordinary perspective, but it circles back to the era in which Jack and Stan co-created these characters. It certainly has that “retro” feel to it.

ROSS: The thing is, “retro” can feel like a negative unless you come up with a way to make it fresh and new to modern eyes so it’s not just about an aesthetic of clothing and retro styles. It’s about something intellectually from that ’60s era that you can identify and sort of pull out and getting to the soul of what was the ’60s, what was there, going on.

EURY: Things that come to mind that were going on in the ’60s were the Cold War and the Space Race— at least when I think of the Fantastic Four.

ROSS: Right, in terms of the topics of the stories and narratives. The key thing is, what will work for people today that will hold on to an almost subliminal aspect of the ’60s that people will be entranced with? ross That’s where I felt this artist Aco had really connected Courtesy of Alex Ross. that successfully, which, by the way, is about the Sam Jackson version of Nick Fury, not the old one we grew up with.

EURY: Let’s talk about the casting of your Fantastic Four…

ROSS: Basically, it’s one of the biggest influences on the whole idea in getting it going. The original way I did it for several years was to use the likeness of Russell Johnson from Gilligan’s Island as Reed Richards. Certainly as a child, I thought the Professor on Gilligan’s Island reminded me of Mister Fantastic. And now that I was an adult, nobody was telling me “no” when I was doing it in Marvel Comics, probably because he also wasn’t having his face plastered on covers. I got to do it within the issues of Marvels.

But, some years ago, a fellow TwoMorrows’ contributor, George Khoury, had given me a book on science-fiction television where I first saw a picture of Gary Conway, from the Land of the Giants TV series.

Color Me Spy One of Ross’ influences for his Fantastic Four palette was Marvel’s 2017 Nick Fury: Deep-Cover Capers six-issue limited series, written by James Robinson, illustrated by Aco and Hugo Petrus, and colored by Rachelle Robinson.

TM & © Marvel.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Giant-Size Reed and Sue (above and opposite) Alex was inspired

by Land of the Giants actors Gary Conway and Deanna Lund for his interpretations of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.

Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel.

Land of the Giants © Irwin Allen Properties, LLC/20th Century Fox.

EURY: …Which was one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid! When I saw your drawings, it was clear to me that your Reed Richards was based upon Gary Conway.

ROSS: Well, I think that Gary’s resemblance to Kirby’s face of Reed was a revelation. It’s the face. I had previously thought of Jack’s leading men as ciphers… and the women in many cases, too. That’s true of other artists. The male and female leads have repeated facial structures that are of a certain type.

But the thing is, it wasn’t true. As an example, the way Jack drew Ikaris from the Eternals is different from his other blond, long-haired heroes. His unaltered Superman faces didn’t look like anything he had been drawing at Marvel. Looking at Gary Conway, I felt like I understood Reed as a very specific person with distinctive, intense features, and this inspired me to think I could capture the real guy as Kirby had designed him.

EURY: You did, from what I’ve seen from these illustrations.

It’s not a generic face. It’s a face with intelligence and integrity, and Conway did have that as well.

On Land of the Giants, even though the special effects one-upped the actors, Gary Conway was the anchor of the show; he was the glue and certainly embodied the characteristics of a strong leader. I think you captured that pretty well.

ROSS: Thank you.

EURY: You’re welcome.

If you were going to cast Reed today because Gary Conway wasn’t an inspiration for whatever reason, whom would you cast?

ROSS: I’d say Anson Mount, who has been playing Captain Pike on Star Trek: Discovery. He would be perfect.

Even though he would possibly be discounted because he played Black Bolt on the Inhumans show. But that same situation didn’t prevent Chris Evans from going

4 • BACK ISSUE • Greatest Stories Never Told Issue

into playing Captain America after playing the Human Torch in separate films…

EURY: Evans was in a third comic-inspired movie, The Losers, based on the Vertigo version.

ROSS: Yes. And Josh Brolin, who’s now Cable and Thanos. He got held back because he was Jonah Hex in a movie that didn’t do well. We’ve got Affleck with Daredevil and Batman…

EURY: …And Superman, as far as Hollywoodland is concerned.

ROSS: Right! [chuckles] EURY: Essentially, he can fight himself if you combine footage from Hollywoodland and Batman v Superman for an “all-Affleck” version. I’ll let someone else spend time putting that together. [laughs] Back to FF, what were your inspirations for the other characters?

ROSS: Ironically, from even the same book and the same photo of Gary Conway, I looked at the actors next to him and thought, “That’s the facial structure of Kirby females.” Since going to back to Marvels as well, I’ve always tried to draw the Jack Kirby prototype face where it’s Sue Richard’s.

Since I saw the pictures from Land of the Giants, I’ve been using Deanna Lund as the basis for my Sue Storm.

EURY: That’s very clear to me, too. Deanna Lund… a lot of boys had crushes on her back in the day.

Have you had a chance to actually watch Land of the Giants since you discovered it in that book?

ROSS: Oh, yeah.

EURY: Did you ever see Land of the Giants reruns when you were a kid?

ROSS: No, and there are a lot of series like that and Time Tunnel that just did not get featured in syndication across the United States.

by

John Wells

Superman had to prove himself. Batman did, too.

For over three decades, DC Comics exercised caution in giving an action hero their own book. Only after Superman, Batman, and even backup characters like Congo Bill had established themselves in anthology titles were they awarded their own titles.

Although there were several humor and media tie-in first issues released during DC’s first decades, only five non-licensed adventure characters (and one group) were awarded their own books without preliminaries. The Adventures of Rex, the Wonder Dog (1952), Capt. Storm (1964), Secret Six (1968), and Brother Power, the Geek (1968) featured original characters, while Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (1954) marked the first spotlight on the Superman supporting cast member and Plastic Man (1966) revived the Golden Age Quality Comics hero.

In 1956, DC introduced Showcase, a comic book that made it possible for DC to avoid the expense of producing several issues of an ongoing title before sales figures came in. In Showcase, DC produced mock issues of new titles and, if the character or concept was a dud, the publisher had risked little. The idea worked so well that The Brave and the Bold was converted to a companion tryout title from 1959 to the early 1960s.

KIRBY IS COMING… AND SIMON, TOO

By 1968, an appearance in Showcase had become a mere formality. Characters like the Creeper and Bat Lash, whom DC had already committed to releasing in ongoing titles, first made token appearances in the tryout book. Such was the case with Jack Kirby’s New Gods in 1970. DC fully intended to release the title and its companions as ongoing series, but nonetheless began to go through the motions of preparing Showcase #94 to introduce the series.

At some point, DC came to realize that, if they weren’t going to use Showcase to gauge a title’s sales potential, they might as well not use it as all. joe simon Consequently, Kirby’s New Gods and Forever People became the first © Kendall Whitehouse. un-established superheroes in DC’s history to win titles without any kind of preview.

The downside of Showcase’s cancellation was that it had eliminated DC’s early warning system for unsuccessful concepts. The end result was a succession of short-run titles from the 1970s to the present, comic books that were often cancelled so abruptly that completed issues were left unpublished. The proliferation

This One Flew Away Uninked cover for Guardian Angel, via Joe Simon’s archives. Artist unknown. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Most art scans accompanying this article are courtesy of John Wells. © Joe Simon estate.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

That Sinking Feeling DC’s superfluous Bronze Age softhorror books like Weird Mystery Tales provided a home for cancelled work, including (top left) issue #2’s cover artist Howard Purcell and (bottom) Jack Kirby’s Spirit World #2.

TM & © DC Comics.

You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling Kirby’s unfinished cover for Soul Love #1.

(See TwoMorrows’ new book Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love for more unpublished Kirby work.)

TM & © DC Comics.

True-Life Divorce and Soul Love seemed doomed to obscurity until articles and art reproductions in issues of The Jack Kirby Collector finally brought them into fan consciousness. In 2019, the two issues were finally published

by TwoMorrows—in cooperation with DC—in the hardback Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love, which detailed the full saga of the lost magazines. Also included in the book were two complete episodes of “The Dingbats of Danger Street.” Part of a trio of stories created by Kirby in the fall of 1973, only the first adventure of the kid gang was ever published by DC in 1975’s 1st Issue Special #6.

Like the magazines, digests were also a non-starter for DC. Taking note of Gold Key’s success with the format, DC released the first and only issue of Tarzan Digest in July 1972. As seen in advertisements in Adventure Comics #423 and Weird Western Tales #14, it was supposed to have accompanied Larry Harmon’s Laurel and Hardy Digest. Like the 32-page comic book released in June, the 160-page digest would have primarily reprinted stories first published in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, DC discovered that they didn’t have the licensing rights to Laurel and Hardy and were forced to cancel both titles immediately. The art for both the digest and L&H #2 survived as part of the collection of renowned DC production man Jack Adler.

Also left unrealized was Sheldon Mayer’s proposal for a digest for his beloved baby creations Sugar and Spike or, as he dubbed it, a “pocket treasury.”

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BEYOND CAPES

The fate of DC’s other humor comic books in the early 1970s was more benign than a licensing flap: nothing more than low sales. Six years after its cancellation, Binky #82 made a surprise appearance to burn off some of its inventory in 1977. Once DC had achieved successful lift-off on a digest line in 1979, it was eventually able to use more unpublished teen humor tales meant for Date with Debbi #19 and Swing with Scooter #37.

These last stories included “It’s a Gas,” “Love That Chick,” and “Wanted” (Binky), “Oh, Doctor” (Debbi), “The Silent Type” and “Witch Ring?” (Scooter), and “On the Job” and “In the Woods” (Sonny) in The Best of DC #28 (1982), and “Hat’s All, Folks” (Debbi) and “Kenny’s Fate -- Is a Date” (Scooter) in Best of DC #45 (1983).

Along with magazines and digests, DC had also tried expanding most of its line into 48-page comic books that were a hybrid of new material and reprints from mid-1971 to mid-1972. Notable exceptions were Tarzan and Korak, Son of Tarzan, properties that DC began licensing from Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. in 1972. These two comic books were made up almost entirely of new material. In addition to its title character, each issue of Tarzan also contained a new John Carter story. Korak also contained adventures of both David Innes and Carson of Venus.

When DC reverted to the 32-page format, the Burroughs books were left with a dilemma. The problem was solved in the summer of 1972 by the creation of a new comic book called Weird Worlds. Its first issue housed the David Innes story prepared for Korak #47 and the John Carter episode intended for Tarzan #210.

Superman vs. Ollie (top) Henry Scarpelli’s cover for the unpublished Laurel and Hardy #2. (bottom) Unused mystery pages via Heritage: a Ramona Fradon tale likely slated for either House of Mystery or House of Secrets and a Gerry Conway/ Alex Toth story commissioned for The Witching Hour.

Laurel and Hardy © CCA. Other material this page TM & © DC Comics.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

TM

by

Dewey Cassell

For most of us, when it comes to our jobs, we wouldn’t think of doing the same thing twice. You might check over a spreadsheet or a report to make sure it was correct, but you wouldn’t do the same spreadsheet or report more than once, unless you lost it.

But people in creative professions often do the same thing more than once. Painters frequently do a preliminary sketch (a.k.a. “prelim”) or even a rough painted version before rendering the final painting.

Writers typically go through multiple drafts and revisions before submitting the final manuscript. The creative process is an evolutionary one.

However, the process of creating comic books doesn’t always allow for much evolution. In the early days, the production of comic books was often more like an assembly line, with less concern over quality than quantity. Deadlines are frequently the enemy of creativity. Even in the Silver Age of Comics, the only aspect of a comic book that might have required a prelim was the cover, ensuring it had sufficient eye appeal to compel the reader to pull it from the crowded rack.

Add to this the fact that comic books were typically illustrated based on a full script, which described panel by panel what the artist should draw. What creativity existed in the comic-book process lie primarily with the writer. That is, until the advent of the “Marvel Method.”

At one time, Stan Lee was writing most, if not all, of the comic books produced by Marvel. To handle the workload, Lee switched from writing full scripts to plot outlines or synopses. He was working with a stable of talented, experienced artists who were more than capable of fleshing out the details of the stories. The end result was a more collaborative effort in which the artist exercised greater creative control. For years it was the de facto method of writing Marvel comics, even after other writers joined the Bullpen.

Some artists did not enjoy working under the Marvel Method.

Why should they do the writer’s job? Other artists reveled in it, including Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Herb Trimpe, and a host of others, including Frank Thorne. But Thorne took it one step further.

In 1973, Marvel introduced Red Sonja in the pages of Conan the Barbarian #23. Created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, the character was loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino from the 1934 Robert E. Howard short story “The Shadow of the Vulture.”

After being well received, Red Sonja began headlining the comic book Marvel Feature in 1975. After seven issues, Sonja received her own title, which ran until mid-1979.

Thorne recalls how he became involved with the fiery redhead: “Archie Goodwin, newly at Marvel after years at DC, gave me Sonja in 1975. [I] loved REH’s work for years before landing Sonja. It was my first and my only series at Marvel.”

Thorne wasn’t the first artist to draw Red Sonja, nor the first to draw her in the famous scale-mail bikini armor. (That was Esteban Maroto.)

But Thorne is arguably the artist who made Red Sonja and her costume famous. His version of Sonja is considered by many fans to be the definitive one, setting the standard for all the artists who have followed.

Thorne was new to Marvel, but he certainly wasn’t new to comics, as he explains: “My youth—I was 45 years old when I took on Sonja— was the vital element. I was ready, having paid my dues with a small number of stories for DC and several other lesser publishers.”

Thorne took over drawing the adventures of Red Sonja with issue #2 of Marvel Feature, written initially by Bruce Jones and later by Roy Thomas and

A Thorne We Welcome Marvelites’ first look at Frank Thorne’s Red Sonja (albeit with a John Romita, Sr. face alteration), on the cover of Marvel Feature vol. 2 #2 (Jan. 1976). And just wait’ll you get a look at Frank’s work, unplugged, in this article!

Red Sonja © Red Sonja LLC.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

by

Ed Lute

In 1975, rival comic-book publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics did something unexpected: The Big Two got together to produce their first intercompany (or cross-company) comic book.

However, the comic they published didn’t feature any of their iconic superheroes. It was instead the treasurysized adaptation of MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz. Both companies had been working on their own adaptions of the story, with Marvel using L. Frank Baum’s first Wizard of Oz novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as the basis for their comic, and DC basing their version on the classic 1939 film. Then, Marvel publisher and editor Stan Lee and DC publisher Carmine Infantino got together and decided the two companies should collaborate on an adaption. The comic, written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by John Buscema, was a well-regarded adaption of the movie… but this initial Marvel/DC collaboration is what has made this edition a lasting comic-book legacy.

Soon, the two companies were collaborating again, using some of the most popular and beloved comics of the Bronze Age. One year later, their most popular characters faced off in Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (Jan. 1976). This “Battle of the Century” was written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Ross Andru, and inked by Dick Giordano, with some uncredited assistance from pencilers Neal Adams and John Romita, Sr. and inkers Terry Austin and Bob Wiacek [as revealed way back in BACK ISSUE #13—ed.]. While this was the first superhero intercompany crossover of the Bronze Age, it wasn’t the first intercompany crossover featuring superheroes. That distinction goes to All-American Publications’ All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940), which featured All-American Comics’ Hawkman, the dave sim Flash, the Atom, and Green Lantern alongside National Allied Publications’ the Sandman, Hour-Man (later Hourman), Doctor Fate, and the Spectre, teaming up for the first appearance of the Justice Society of America. These two companies would later merge to become DC Comics.

During the early 1980s, there were several other outstanding cross-company crossovers, such as a repeat meeting between DC’s big blue boy scout and Marvel’s web-headed superhero in Marvel Treasury Edition #28’s Superman and Spider-Man (July 1981), a Batman and Hulk crossover in DC Special Series #27 (Fall 1981), and Marvel’s

Hey, Bub! Dave Sim’s “Wolveroach” lampoon in the pages of his long-running opus Cerebus the Aardvark led to a brainstorming session about a Cerebus/X-Men crossover that went south. Original art scan of Sim’s autographed 2005 recreation of his cover for Cerebus #55 (Oct. 1983), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Cerebus © Dave Sim.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

Meet Scribbly A page of random notes by Dave Sim regarding the proposed X-Men/ Cerebus crossover.

Scan courtesy of Ed Lute. © Dave Sim.

merry mutants and DC’s teen superheroes in The Uncanny that they wouldn’t normally interact with). With the X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1 (Jan. 1982). These popularity of Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja crossovers were a comic-book fan’s dream. Not only did Turtles in the 1980s, the Heroes in a Half-Shell made they feature some of the biggest characters in superhero crossover appearances, including one with Aardvarkcomics, but they were written and illustrated by some of Vanaheim’s Cerebus the Aardvark in Teenage Mutant the top talent in the field at the time including Jim Shooter, Ninja Turtles #8 (July 1986). As the 1990s dawned, these Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, José Luis crossovers remained popular with fans. It was during this García-López, John Buscema, Walt Simonson, Terry Austin, period when one of the major publishers released another Klaus Janson, and Bob Layton. [Editor’s note: For the intercompany crossover—although it wouldn’t be with full details behind these epics, see BACK ISSUE #61.] the other major publisher. In 1991, DC Comics and While a crossover between DC’s Justice League Fleetway teamed to co-publish Batman/Judge Dredd: of America and Marvel’s Avengers and a sequel Judgment on Gotham. This comic was the first to the X-Men/Titans crossover were discussed, intercompany crossover between one of the they never saw print, although the George Big Two and an independent publisher.

It almost wasn’t the first, though… in Pérez-penciled JLA/Avengers book was fact, if fate had not intervened, it might well underway before being shelved have been preceded by two others: due to creative disagreements between the two houses [see BI #1’s inaugural Mike Grell’s proposed Batman/Jon Sable “Greatest Stories Never Told” for the crossover and Chris Claremont and Dave scoop—and for unpublished Pérez Sim’s Uncanny X-Men/Cerebus team-up. art!—ed.]. Yet the next crossover between Both of these ideas featured popular DC Comics and Marvel Comics wouldn’t characters and interesting concepts, so why take place until over a decade later, didn’t they happen? Let’s find out! when Batman and the Punisher butted heads in 1994.

UNCANNY X-MEN/CEREBUS chris claremont Independent publishers were willing THE AARDVARK © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. to pick up on the idea of intercompany Uncanny X-Men was one of Marvel crossovers (and new intercompany crossovers are still Comics’ biggest-selling titles during the 1980s. Prior to being published and remain popular because they feature 1975, though, X-Men had been a bimonthly reprint title fan-favorite characters interacting with other characters that faced cancellation. Fortunately, 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum set the world on fire, but it was writer Chris Claremont, who started writing the regular X-Men series with issue #94 (Aug. 1975), that helped guide the X-Men from its bimonthly status to a monthly one and into one of the biggest comic-book series from the Bronze and Copper Ages. Along with Claremont, a succession of talented artists such as Cockrum, John Byrne, John Romita, Jr., and Paul Smith, and many others, wove together some of the most celebrated Marvel comics.

Writer/Artist Dave Sim first brought Cerebus the Aardvark to readers in 1977 in a self-published black-andwhite comic book [see BACK ISSUE #75—ed.]. Cerebus the Aardvark #1 (Dec. 1977) was published by AardvarkVanaheim. The series was initially a parody of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian series but became a long-running title featuring social commentary. In a 2016 interview on Jamiecoville.com, Sim recounted, “The decision to do Cerebus was based on my insight that what had made Howard the Duck successful was the ‘funny animal in the world of humans’ motif, whereas everyone doing work for [the indie anthology] Quack! (my intended market) was doing all funny-animal strips. Since Howard had modern-day sown up, that, to me, left the possibility of a science-fiction ‘funny animal in the world of humans’ or a sword ’n’ sorcery ‘funny animal in the world of humans.’ Science fiction required drawing a lot of straight edges and learning how to use French curves properly, so that left only one possibility. The fact that it was successful was a very hard lesson in what happens when you do something, because you think it’s commercially viable rather than being what you want to do. I was stuck going through the checklist of sword ’n’ sorcery clichés and was quickly running out of them.”

While one comic featured a band of outcast mutant superheroes, the other had a sentient aardvark. How did a crossover between these two disparate comic-book properties come to be? On Brian Michael Bendis’ message board, Sim recalled the genesis of this project: “Chris Claremont and I both got invited to a store signing in Prince George, British Columbia, so we

36 • BACK ISSUE • Greatest Stories Never Told Issue

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In the early 1980s, then-Marvel Comics editor Larry Hama presented then-Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter with a proposal for a new series set within the Marvel Universe. Hama’s proposal dealt with a Special Forces team with each member having a codename and a specialty. The team would operate from a headquarters under the motor pool of a military base.

The proposed series, called Fury Force, would feature Nick Fury, Jr. as the leader of the Fury Force team… but the series was never to see print. However, with so many excellent ideas in the pitch, some of the concepts from the proposal would be repurposed in another comicbook series—G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Based on Hasbro’s toy line, G.I. Joe would be one of the most popular comicbook series ever. Hama would even go on to write the new series.

So, why didn’t Fury Force materialize? larry Read on as BACK ISSUE takes a look at Hama’s proposal for Fury Force, why it Alex Lozupone. didn’t see print, how some of the elements from the proposal made it into G.I. Joe, and how Hama remained a part of the toy-based comic-book series, helping it to become a fan-favorite bestseller.

FURY FORCE

Ed Lute

While Hama is now known primarily for writing comics, his first work for Marvel was as an artist. Iron Fist debuted in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974), illustrated by co-creator Gil Kane. Hama penciled the second appearance of Iron Fist, in Marvel Premiere #16 (July 1974). He also penciled Iron Fist’s next two appearances in Marvel Premiere #17 and 18.

When asked about how he came to work for Marvel in the first place, Hama tells BACK ISSUE, “This would take a hundred pages. Here’s the condensed version: Before coming to Marvel, I worked for DC. [Hama penciled the Steve Skeates-written story “Losing His Head” from DC’s Secrets of the Sinister House #10, Mar. 1973, with inks by Neal Adams.]

Shortly after that, I came over to Marvel and did Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere.”

Hama eventually became an editor hama at Marvel. “Marvel offered me an editor position. [First,] I was an editor at DC until the [DC] Implosion. I had edited Mister Miracle, Super Friends, and a few others for them.”

It was after his return to Marvel that he originally came up with the concept of Fury Force. Hama tells BI, “It was

A Prototypical American Hero Larry Hama’s Fury Force proposal for Marvel had concepts that were soon repurposed for the publisher’s licensed G.I. Joe series.

This sketch, which originally was published in BACK ISSUE #16, is courtesy of Tim Finn.

Art © Larry Hama.

Fury Force © Marvel.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

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Brian Augustyn

It’s hard to believe that after 30-some years in the comics business that there was a time in the dim mists of memory when I was merely a determined wannabe. Growing up in Chicago, a big city to be sure, the comicbook business seemed a million miles out of reach; comics professionals lived near or in New York City, where the then few publishers were located. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

But the 1980s is where the ice began to crack to allow dreamers from outside of the East Coast to glimpse their dreams coming true. At the end of the ’70s, Jack Kirby moved from Long Island way across the country to settle in Pasadena, California—this while at the top of mike parobeck his form and in demand; and thus, requiring cross-country shipping.

Thank goodness for DHL, UPS, and FedEx. Suddenly, creators could live anywhere—even Europe or South America—and (hopefully) meet deadlines. In the mid-’80s, thanks to self-publishing innovators, Dave Sim (Cerebus) and Wendy and Richard Pini (ElfQuest), the black-andwhite comics era began.

After some early attempts to enter the business— contributing to fanzines, pitching proposals to publishers (especially First Comics in Chicago, etc.)—I didn’t gain much ground, but did garner a wider range of contacts.

Still Chicago-bound, I focused my efforts on building a local creative community. First stroke of luck was meeting Paul Fricke and Scott Beaderstadt, as they were in the early stages of creating/developing what would become TrolLords, an early entry in the black-and-white independent comics boom—briskly on the heels of a little title known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Thankfully, TrolLords was a hit and it launched us closer to legit comics success.

In 1986 or so, I organized a pair of benefit comics for Literacy Volunteers of America, which went on to raise quite an impressive return for the worthy charity (sadly, I have no memory of how impressive).

Several generous creators from the B&W boom volunteered to lend their work and their characters to the cause. For one anthology slot, I turned to a young artist we had just met. A very talented 22-year-old guy, who loved and wanted to work in comics, but was laboring unhappily in the advertising biz. I had been blown away by the guy’s samples—just incredible!

In other words, enough about me, let’s talk about that brilliant young artist: Mike Parobeck. Mike was born somewhere in Ohio, went on to earn an art degree, and moved to Chicago to pursue a career in the soul-destroying business of advertising to specialize in the selling of canned tuna and sports cars—and who knows what-all. Mike was perhaps the sweetest and warmest person I ever knew—and easily the most naturally talented artist I ever knew (and I have known many). Mike was a tall, thin redhead with a million freckles and the brightest smile I have ever known.

Revived from the Golden Age The Target, as re-imagined by writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Parobeck. © 2020 Brian Augustyn.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

TM

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Steve Englehart

I don’t like blowing my own horn. I do it when I have to, but I prefer to let the work speak for itself. Under “when I have to,” I thought I’d made it clear over time that I was the backbone of the Batman movie in 1989. Whenever I’d hear some alternate attribution, I’d step right up and correct it. So BACK ISSUE #113 was like a thunderbolt for me. A whole issue about the movie that barely mentioned my comics story, let alone my movie work, and contained this quote from Sam Hamm: “I don’t think we borrowed much from it.”

So here’s a horn, which Michael Eury has generously provided. It’s gonna be loud because I’d like it to be heard. steve englehart And for the record, I stand behind steveenglehart.com. every word of it. But if you want to check, the comic run, Detective Comics #469–476, is available as a digital bootleg at steveenglehart.com, along with the second and unpublished third runs.

The movie is all over the internet.

Afterward, I hope I never have to do this again.

Okay. In 1976, Jenette Kahn brought me to a DC that was rapidly losing ground to Marvel, to write the Justice League “like the Avengers.” DC’s heroes were avatars, not people, and Jenette knew, if she was going to save the company, that she needed to make them people, and she needed some Marvel heat. I was down with all that, but I also wanted to do the Batman on his own, because he’d always been my favorite. She agreed, but the trick there, she said, was that people still thought of Batman as the campy TV show.

So I thought about the Batman—the essence of the Batman. And my thinking was as follows: (1) We need to know Bruce Wayne to really appreciate what it means to be the Batman. (2) Bruce is an adult man, and it has always bugged me that adult heroes blush and stammer when a pretty girl comes onto them. So Bruce should be recognizably adult, and that means a sex life. (3) The woman involved should be a strong woman, and a player on the Gotham scene, to be able to hang with Bruce Wayne. (In 1976, the Comics Code still forbade sex lives, so I had to be creative. The Code was the main reason no one else had thought of it before; it was deemed unthinkable.)

“The Definitive Batman” Among writer Steve Englehart’s many accomplishments as a Bat-scribe: adding more depth to Bruce Wayne’s personality and introducing love interest Silver St. Cloud.

Signed original Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin art page from Detective Comics #474 (Dec. 1977), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

In addition, (4) I resurrected the pulpy darkness that reigned during the Batman’s first year. And (5) in that darkness lived a legitimately crazy Joker.

Every single one of those was a major change from what had been going on in the strip for the previous 35 years, and certainly the TV show. Because the resulting run was immediately labeled “the definitive Batman,” every single one of those concepts is now so basic that a lot of people seem to think they’ve been around forever. They haven’t.

I was a Marvel writer, so I didn’t like writing scripts in advance, but I had to for the Detective run because I was leaving for Europe at a certain date. And I found that it helped control the pacing, to get the exact feel I wanted, so I was very happy with what I turned in on my way out the door. But I was fearful that DC had so little talent that the art would kill it. I was therefore out of the loop when [editor] Julie Schwartz handed the art to Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin, who were the absolute perfect people to hand it to. I honestly said, when a package from DC arrived in Majorca and I first saw their art, “Thank you God!” So everybody loved the Detective run. Some of the stories immediately went into The Greatest Batman Stories and The Greatest Joker Stories.

And Michael Uslan, who had produced the Swamp Thing movie, said, “I can see how to do a superhero film for adults.” Soon I heard that he’d started to do just that.

Well, fine. I knew nothing about that business. I was writing a novel by then. And then as time passed, there was no further mention of the movie. I went to work for Atari, and then back to comics, to write Green Lantern Corps for DC and three books for Marvel (one of them was Silver Surfer with Marshall). And then… …in 1986, ten years after the Detective run, I got a call from Jenette.

It seemed that several Hollywood screenwriters, and director Tim Burton, had tried adapting my stories over the decade, but “none of them could capture what you did.” She offered me $10,000 to serve as script doctor for Batman.

Okay, so this is important: that deal broke several Writers Guild of America rules. First, because the money’s not what Guild rules mandate, and second because it was made by a cut-out, instead of the production company itself. I did not find this out until 1997, when I joined the Guild to write for the Nightman TV show, and the rules also include a statute of limitations; in 1997 it was too late to do anything about it.

But I knew nothing of Hollywood in 1986. I was psyched to be able to shape a movie version of my story. I was psyched to get $10,000, which was decent money back then. I did ask Jenette if I could take a crack at writing the screenplay, and she said no. Well, that was not a deal breaker; I signed on happily.

(Now, in what follows, I have to talk about “they,” because my only point of contact was DC. I have no idea who was making decisions on the film side. I have never met Tim Burton or Sam Hamm or anyone else from the production, except for Mike Uslan.

I dealt with Jenette or her office.)

The first thing I did was read the existing scripts. The main thing there is, they all based themselves on Batman, the Joker, and Silver St. Cloud. But then they all committed the same mistake: they couldn’t resist sliding into “comic book movie” shtick—making things funny that, if you actually thought about them, were much better serious.

Easing the vibe rather than pressing it.

I said as much to Jenette, so DC sent me the then-current script to doctor. I don’t remember if Hamm was involved or not; the writers were just names to me then. I was focused on my character.

I marked up that script pretty good, so the next request was to plot out the entire Batman film as I would see it—except that in addition to Batman, the Joker, and Silver St. Cloud, it had to include the Penguin and Robin. I said that was too much to stick in one movie, but they insisted, so I wrote that treatment.

After reading it, they decided they agreed with me, and I should do another treatment with just Batman, the Joker, and Silver St. Cloud.

I did that, culminating in a finale that was drawn from my original but more of a showcase for Keaton and Nicholson.

Soon after, they sent me a script that followed my second treatment’s points, with a few embellishments. It seemed to me that a lot of the embellishments were on the beam then, so my mark-ups were much fewer. After that, DC told me that was all they needed from me. Thanks a lot, Steve.

It felt like a job well done.

Steve Englehart asks, “Kim Basinger was cast and styled to play one of these characters. Which do you think it was?”

TM & © DC Comics/Warner Bros.

Three years passed, and Batman hit the screens. DC sent me a voucher to cover the cost of one ticket, and I found out for the first time that Silver had had her name changed to Vicki Vale, and Boss Thorne had had his name changed to Boss Grissom. There was a lot more shtick than had been in the last script I saw, but still a lot less than had been in superhero movies to that point. There was no mention of me or Marshall or Terry.

There was also no request for more Batman comics to compliment Batman. In fact, reissues of the Detective run were out of print, and they stayed out of print for another ten years (till Strange Apparitions, which you’ll have to admit was not titled to make the contents obvious.)

Okay, I knew enough by this time to know that DC never likes individual creators to be associated with their characters. If you do a riff on the character, okay, but if you do the actual character, no. So I thought it was sh*tty to treat me like that, but freelancers put up with all sorts of sh*t and move on. I was writing children’s books by then, and later, I was co-creating the Malibu Ultraverse. Batman faded into the past, for me and everyone else, since each of the following Batman movies, which didn’t involve me, was worse than the one before.

Then, in 1997, I learned about the non-compliant contract, and suddenly the complete media blackout made a lot more sense. I have no idea if anyone at DC knew what it meant at the beginning, but the guys who handle the contracts and comply with Guild rules on the film side had to know from day one. At some point, they had to tell DC to keep my involvement quiet, and they had to tell them why.

So even though Marshall and Terry and I had done the “definitive Batman,” and I had driven the story that is now being credited as the first superhero summer blockbuster, the three of us together weren’t offered any more Batman work between 1977 and 2005. Marshall did the newspaper strip for a while. I did a three-parter with Dusty Abell.

I did a sweet little one-shot with Javier Pulido. I also did a two-part Mad Hatter with Trevor von Eeden that was never published (see elsewhere in this issue), and a one-shot Joker that was never published, and a Batman as Hamlet Elseworlds that was never published. That ain’t much Batman for 30 years, and you’ll have to admit, not publishing half the stories is an unusual trait for a publisher.

Now, I had plenty of other series to work on during those years, and they can speak for themselves, so the Batman thing to me was

50 • BACK ISSUE • Greatest Stories Never Told Issue

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Paul Kupperberg

Archie Heroes in Crisis In late 1992 the once-hopeful Impact! Comics imprint attempted a dramatic reinvention including this six-issue miniseries, Crucible. Cover art

by Joe Quesada and Joe Rubinstein (#1–2) and Dick Giordano (#3–6).

Unless otherwise stated, all images accompanying this article are courtesy of Paul Kupperberg.

Characters © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. DC logo and Crucible TM & © DC Comics.

[Editor’s note: Paul Kupperberg originally pitched this Impact Comics article as a two-part feature, serialized in two consecutive editions of BACK ISSUE. Once this issue’s “Greatest Stories Never Told” theme availed itself as the perfect vehicle for this feature, I opted to bundle both parts into one issue, but have maintained Paul’s two-part story structure. Enjoy this insider’s view of a relaunch that could have been.]

major commercial hit. The industry as it presently exists will not support efforts with as many negatives as [this project has].”

Posing such questions and making bold statements of defeat right off the bat aren’t usually the way to a project go-ahead. But in the case of DC Comics editor Jim Owsley’s proposal for the relaunch of the revamped Impact Comics line, he knew he was dealing with a hostile audience and couldn’t afford to be accused of “Why bother?” “wishful thinking” in his pitch for The American Shield, The Let me start by offering this Pro Tip: When you’re Mark of the Black Hood, and The Wrath of the Comet by an editor writing a proposal to pitch a new multi-title confidently predicting great, or even moderate, sales success. project to your publisher, it’s usually not a good idea The need for a relaunch after only about a year and a half of the original six Impact! titles made that to lead with “Why bother?” You should also avoid CHRISTOPHER PRIEST such information, even buried in the proposal’s sixth claim impossible. He mentions some of the reasons (JAMES OWSLEY) paragraph, that the project “…isn’t going to sell. Let me he believed the line failed, including the lack of “a consistent editorial point of view and voice” that say that again. [It] will not, even in the long term, be a Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons.

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

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Paul Kupperberg

On the face of it, it didn’t seem that complicated: revamp and relaunch DC Comics’ failed Impact! Comics imprint.

In fact, considering all the individual elements of the relaunch, it probably should have been a slam-dunk.

It was being overseen by James Owsley (who now goes by the name Christopher J. Priest), an experienced editor and talented writer in his own right, plotted and written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, and featured art by veterans Steve Carr, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, newcomer Gene Ha, and industry legend Dave Cockrum, creating what Owsley had earlier described in a project memo as “three or four titles, off in a corner somewhere, existing quietly and without hype” starring a lineup of known and beloved characters.

DC’s first attempt at the Impact! Comics line (distinguished here by the exclamation point in the name) had been exhaustively researched and methodically planned to appeal to younger, entry-level readers who would grow into readers of the more “mature” DC Comics line. Impact! launched in July of 1991, but the seven titles (The Fly, The Comet, The Legend of the Shield, Jaguar, The Web, The Black Hood, and The Crusaders) struggled to find a place in the marketplace and by the end of 1992 were on their way to cancellation, as detailed in Part 1 of this feature.

The superheroes anchoring the Impact! line were, in effect, rentals, on license from their owners, Archie Comics. In the years before the red-headed, freckle-faced teen icon took over the company’s corporate and public identity, Archie Comics had been known as MLJ Comics and, like the rest of the industry in the early 1940s, focused its publishing efforts on superheroes like the Shield (whose first appearance in Pep #1 in January 1940 pre-dated Timely’ Captain America as comics’ first star-spangled hero by almost a year), the Hangman, the Black Hood, the Comet, the Web, and others; the Fly and Jaguar debuted in the 1950s, during one of Archie’s several attempts at reviving the superhero characters.

DC still had time to left on its contract with Archie, so it was agreed that editor Owsley would relaunch a reduced line of titles following the six-issue Crucible miniseries that would reset the Impact Comics universe.

But the initial reception of Impact! Comics had somewhat soured the company’s administrative and marketing sides on the imprint, which, coupled with creative and personnel difficulties, made the entire year and a half experience an ordeal for almost everyone involved.

EARNING ITS PLACE ON THE RACKS

Direct Currents Retailer sell-sheet for Wrath of the Comet, featuring art by Michael Netzer.

Characters © Archie Comics Publications, Inc.

“I’m saddened by the overall lack of confidence exhibited from nearly every quarter of DC with regard to Impact.

It seems most everyone around here remains predisposed towards regarding Impact as substandard work and a commercial failure,” Owsley wrote in a February 9, 1993 memo outlining the troubled relaunch timeline.

“Certainly the failure of Impact has created inestimable negatives within DC, as well as in the marketplace.

My experience, however, is the market has high hopes DC will improve its entry-level line, while, within DC, Impact is typically the subject of ridicule.”

Greatest Stories Never Told Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

What happened to Ed Hannigan’s 1992 magnum opus, Skull & Bones? Why do some readers love it? Why is it only a ’90s comics trivia question for so many others?

And what if there was a sequel planned to make everything right?

The solution may lie in these mysterious Curt Swan pages accompanying this article, which have surfaced in recent years on Heritage Auctions and with art dealer Anthony Snyder. It all begins with the simple, and obvious, observation: these pages are gorgeous.

But the full story behind these enthralling pages involve a hot Bronze Age artist (fresh off two big, successful comics), a specialized format that signaled “big hit” to the industry, one of the most prolific artists to ever work in American comics, and an international thriller that a sales department left to fizzle with retailers.

But could these pages have been the spark that would have lit an explosive sequel? Might these pages have been the next adventure for a character that deserved a second chance?

We all love a mystery!

Let’s investigate these mysterious Curt Swan Skull & Bones pages.

by

Ed Catto

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICKNO THEBONES LINK TO ORDER THIS MAKE ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! ABOUT IT

Skull & Bones was a short-lived, three-issue series (coverdated May–July 1992) that still lingers in the minds of fans who were able to find it and read it.

“Ed Hannigan’s Skull & Bones was one of my favorite comic projects from that era,” explains J.C. Vaughn, Vice-President of Publishing at Gemstone Publishing.

“Although steeped in the political realities of that time, its story, storytelling, and craft are timeless. The brilliant pacing and captivating design serve the story in compelling fashion, and a healthy dose of Russian fatalism gives the right feel. It’s infused with the despair, hope, corruption, change, and tumult that surrounded the fall of the Soviet Union.”

Vaughn’s reaction is not atypical. “Rather than being dated by an era that has passed, Skull & Bones stands #118 the test ofBACK time,”ISSUE he adds.

“There are lessons still be GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD! ALEX ROSS’ unrealized learned from this miniseries.”

Fantastic Four reboot, DC: The Lost 1970s, FRANK THORNE’s unpublished Red Sonja, Fury Force, EEDEN’s Batman,with GRELL’s Surprisingly, Skull &VON Bones landed a thud. The work Batman/Jon Sable, CLAREMONT and SIM’s X-Men/Cerebus, is strong, and the excellent story is well regarded.

SWAN and HANNIGAN’s Skull and Bones, AUGUSTYN and PARHow could it have failed?

OBECK’s Target, PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Impact reboot, abandoned Swamp storylines, Holmes & more! ROSS cover.

InThing Sherlock fashion, let’s (metaphorically) trot (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 out our magnifying glass and deerstalker hat to solve this (Digital Edition) $4.95 mystery. But before we do… a bit of setting the stage. http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1517 One must really understand the forces that led to Skull & Bones, especially the successes that creator Ed Hannigan enjoyed just before it, and the tragic shuffling offstage of another beloved artist.

Superman (Artist) to the Rescue!

The unpublished Curt Swan pencil art to page 1 of Skull & Bones #3 and (inset) Ed Hannigan’s published version of same. Pencil scan courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com).

Skull & Bones © Ed Hannigan.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Greatest Stories Never Told Issue