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Flash Gordon TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Flash Gordon • Zorro • Popeye • Lone Ranger • Son of Tomahawk • Jungle Twins with JURGENS • LANSDALE • McGREGOR • TRUMAN • YEATES & other all-star talents
Volume 1, Number 138 September 2022 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury
Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!
PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Unknown (possibly George Wilson) Originally published as the cover of Gold Key Comics’ Flash Gordon #25 (Feb. 1979). Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy Joe R. Lansdale Tim Lasiuta Paul Macchia Don McGregor Ted Naifeh Jorge Pacheco Donnie Pitchford Ruben Procopio Tod Smith Tim Truman Universal Studios Glenn Whitmore Renee Witterstaetter Thomas Yeates Zorro Productions, Inc.
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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: The Lone Ranger in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Masked Man’s rough ride through the 1970s and beyond BEYOND CAPES: Son of Tomahawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 DC Comics’ short-lived attempt to reboot its ailing frontier comic FLASHBACK: Popeye in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 From Charlton Comics to Ocean Comics and beyond, blow me down! BEYOND CAPES: The Jungle Twins and the Brothers of the Spear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Venture into the veldt as we revisit these Gold Key oldies ROUGH STUFF: Hostess Unwrapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Bonus feature! Pencil art by Dan DeCarlo, Dave Cockrum, and Keith Pollard FLASHBACK: Flash Gordon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Gold Key/Whitman’s 1978–1982 adventures of the legendary space explorer PRO2PRO: Dan Jurgens and Robert Greenberger: DC Comics’ Flash Gordon . . . . . . . 49 The writer-artist and editor of the 1988 reimagining of the space hero revisit the series FLASHBACK: Zorro in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The return of the Masked Fox and the debut of Lady Rawhide BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 BACK ISSUE™ issue 138, September 2022 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 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: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Flash Gordon TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2022 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING
Classic Heroes in the Bronze Age Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1
Background art: The Masked Fox—Zorro—in a 2008 illo by Thomas Yeates. Courtesy of the artist. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc.
SPECIAL THANKS Jim Amash Michael Ambrose Mark Arnold Cary Bates Ed Catto DC Comics Bob Deveau Grand Comics Database Stephan Friedt Fred Grandinetti Robert Greenberger John M. Hartman Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions Dan Johnson Dan Jurgens King Features Syndicate, Inc.
by
Dan Johnson
Not Riding Off Into the Sunset Reruns and merchandising kept 1950s television’s Lone Ranger and Tonto, Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, in the public eye long after production ceased on the show. This 1977 print of the Western heroes was issued by Nostalgia Merchant. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). The Lone Ranger and Tonto © Universal Studios.
Saturday, August 12, 1978 is a day I will never forget. That was the day I saw the Lone Ranger in person. I was seven when I discovered comic books and began collecting them earlier that year. Along with the thrill of buying new comics every week, I also watched superheroes on television. Every weekday I would catch reruns of Adam West’s Batman and George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman.
But mixed in with the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel was another hero, the Masked Rider of the Plains, Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger. I still remember the excitement I felt when I saw an ad during the broadcast of the series on WFMY Channel 2 announcing that the Lone Ranger himself would be making a personal appearance at the Carolina Circle Mall in my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina!
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My pop took me to see Clayton Moore as the actor addressed a crowd that seemed like it numbered in the thousands. The mall had him speak from the center of the top floor, just above the mall’s ice rink. This was usually reserved for kids to meet Santa Claus at Christmas and the Easter Bunny at Easter. Mr. Moore spoke to the crowd about working on the TV series and how important the character was to him. And he also spoke about what the Lone Ranger stood for: justice, loyalty, and devotion to God and country. It was pretty powerful, and he made a heck of an impression on me. My only regret was not getting an autograph that day, but like I said, there were a lot of people at this event and Pop, God love him, was never big on crowds. The reason I am leading off this article with this story is to show how important the character of the Lone Ranger was to me in shaping my love of heroes, which in turn further fueled my love of comics. Even if the Masked Man was not appearing in his own comic book when I was growing up, he was there in the mix the whole time, and he meant a great deal to me. That being said, even if you couldn’t find the adventures of the Lone Ranger and Tonto on a spinner rack on a regular basis during the Bronze Age, they did make their presence known from time to time.
RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR
While the Lone Ranger scarcely appeared in comic books of the Bronze Age, that certainly wasn’t the case during the Golden Age and the Silver Age. Dell Comics featured The Lone Ranger in several issues of Four Color (#82, Aug. 1945; #98, Feb. 1946; #118, Sept. 1946; #125, Nov. 1946; #136, Feb. 1947; #151, June 1947; and #167, Oct. 1947) before spinning him off into a book of his own, which ran for a total of 145 issues (Jan. 1948–May 1962). Tonto was also spotlighted in an issue of Four Color Comics (#312, Jan. 1951), and then was quickly spun off into his own solo series for 32 issues (Oct. 1951–Jan. 1959). These solo adventures of Tonto offered a different and refreshing look at the character, and it just so happens that this was a favorite of one of the creators who would go on to redefine him decades later. “I didn’t follow the Lone Ranger comics,” says Tim Truman regarding the Dell issues. “I was more into Tonto, drawn by Alberto Giolitti. Those comics can be pretty interesting. Tonto is his own man in those books. When he speaks with members of other tribes, he doesn’t speak in Pidgin English. Also, Giolitti
Golden Age Favorites Dell’s Four Color title often featured the Masked Man and his allies. Covers to (top) Four Color The Lone Ranger #82 (Aug. 1945), (bottom left) Tonto #312 (Jan. 1951), and (bottom right) Silver #369 (Jan. 1952). © Universal.
4 • BACK ISSUE • Classic Heroes in the Bronze Age Issue
by
Allan Harvey
Your humble author once opined on an online message board that he didn’t particularly care for comics in the Western genre and always flipped past books such as Tomahawk when browsing through the back-issue bins in a comic shop. No sooner had that comment flown into the ether than a retort materialized proclaiming that Tomahawk was, in fact, not a Western— and couldn’t be—because it wasn’t set west of the Mississippi River. Since I am British, this kind of definition of what was considered a Western had never occurred to me: To my younger self, anything set in the America of the 18th and 19th Centuries and featuring horses, “Indians,” wide-open plains, and plenty of gunplay, had to be a Western. First appearing in Star Spangled Comics #69 (June 1947), “Tomahawk” was the nickname of Tom Hawkins, a soldier who fought with George Washington both before and during the Revolutionary War against the British (1776–1783). As a buckskin-clad, frontiersmantype character, he had anticipated the Disney Davy Crockett craze of the mid-1950s by almost a decade. Awarded his own title in 1950, which ran alongside a couple of backup strips elsewhere, he was, by 1968, one of DC’s most enduring properties—but his sales were falling. For much of the 1960s, Tomahawk’s adventures had been written by France Herron and drawn by Fred Ray. The pair produced solidly entertaining stories, but had fallen into a rut, taking the well-worn DC Silver Age route of having their hero face off against giant monsters, gorillas, and aliens. There was even a kind of “Tomahawk Family” in the form of Tomahawk’s Rangers—who had wild names such as Stovepipe, Big Anvil, and Cannonball—and Miss Liberty, an early patriotic superheroine. Such gimmicks no longer wowed the crowds, however, and change was needed. Something, dare one say, (r)evolutionary. Editor Murray Boltinoff assigned his star artist, Neal Adams, to draw the cover to Tomahawk #116 (May–June 1968), and its design was radically different to anything that had appeared on the title before. It proved so popular that future comics writer Tony Isabella sung its praises in a later letters column, and requests from fans as to how to purchase the original art saw print as well! A run of Adams-drawn covers followed, and soon the changes were rung on the interior pages too, with the art chores handed over to DC newcomer Frank Thorne starting with #119 (Nov.– Dec. 1968), and Robert Kanigher came on board as writer to provide stories with a little more grit. When this too failed to stem the loss of sales, editorial director Carmine Infantino had Tomahawk reassigned to editor Joe Kubert, who instigated an even more radical change of direction.
There’s a New Kind of Tomahawk Coming… The gunman’s POV, on this Joe Kubert–drawn cover to (Son of) Tomahawk #131 (Nov.–Dec. 1970), the first issue of an attempted revitalization of DC’s long-running frontier mag. TM & © DC Comics.
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Trailing Tomahawk (top left) Artist Fred Ray’s cover for Star Spangled Comics #100 (Jan. 1950) was the gold standard for the long-running DC Comics “Tomahawk” feature. (top right) By the mid-1960s, the series had clearly run its course (although you’ve gotta admit, a frontier Frankenstein is pretty cool). (bottom) Stunning Neal Adams covers like these 1968 examples offered Tomahawk a much-needed defibrillation. TM & © DC Comics.
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THE SON OF TOMAHAWK
A professional artist since the age of 11 in the 1930s, Kubert was by 1970 probably most known for his work on DC’s war books, featuring characters such as Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace. He chose to shake up the ailing Tomahawk by abandoning the status quo and pushing the period setting forward by some 40 years. Readers would soon discover that in the intervening decades between Tomahawk #131 (Nov.–Dec. 1970) and the previous issue, Tomahawk had quit the Rangers and moved far into the West of the country, where, he explains, “a man kin breathe without someone’s elbow pokin’ his eye out…” Along the way he met & married a Native-American woman, Moon Fawn, and together they have two sons: Hawk, who is roughly 20 years old, and his much younger brother, Young/Small/Little Eagle (the adjective changes from issue to issue, which is unfortunate). Interestingly, Hawk appears Caucasian, while Young Eagle has a more NativeAmerican skin tone (or, at least, the color combination that passed for such in the four-color comics of 1970). This aspect is played upon in several of the stories. Renamed—on the cover only—Son of Tomahawk, the title would henceforth nominally feature the adventures of Hawk, and with the Revolutionary War left far behind, the series began to present more familiar Western trappings. While the elderly Tomahawk remains a constant presence in the book and continues to wear his animal-skin outfit and coonskin hat, Hawk is quite the natty dresser in his black shirt and fancy, patterned waistcoat, every inch the gunslinging hero figure of the mythologized Wild West. To complete the look, his shock of black hair has a distinctive white/blond streak. Both Kanigher and Thorne remained in situ as the creative forces on the book, but Kubert immediately moved to save money on the weakening title by cutting the lead story from 17 pages to around 13, with reprints frequently making up the remainder of the editorial content. Under an exciting Joe Kubert–drawn cover, Tomahawk #131 opens with a young woman being pursued by a horseback-riding mob intent on lynching her. Hawk intervenes and is strung up for his trouble. Just as the hangman’s noose is about to tighten, the rope is severed by a well-thrown weapon: a tomahawk axe. The white-haired Tomahawk reveals himself, and together he and Hawk chase off the miscreants, who are after the girl’s family’s gold mine. Later, Hawk sets a trap and dispatches the villains. Old Tomahawk puffs on his pipe and reasons that his son no longer needs his help. It’s a fine, if largely forgettable, introductory story, but Kubert and company had a plan. Just as
The last time Popeye appeared in the pages of BACK ISSUE (#130), we discussed Popeye’s Career Comics from the 1970s, as published by King Comics. This time, we are going to look at Popeye’s other appearances during the Bronze Age—at Charlton, Gold Key/Whitman, Harvey, and especially the three all-new issues released by the short-lived Ocean Comics label.
TM
HE YAM WHAT HE YAM
Popeye the Sailor was a character that debuted on January 17, 1929, in a comic strip called Thimble Theatre, which was already in its tenth year. Popeye was introduced to the strip as a random sailor that was hired by Olive Oyl’s brother, Castor Oyl, to help him and Ham Gravy sail to an island. During the sailing trip, it was discovered that Olive Oyl had stowed away on the vessel, and after a quick kiss from Popeye, Olive Oyl became instantly enamored with him. Popeye promptly became the star of the strip from that point forward. The success of the comic strip with Popeye spawned tons of merchandise as well as an animated cartoon series first by Fleischer, then by Famous, then by King Features, then by Hanna-Barbera. [Editor’s note: See our sister mag, RetroFan #12, for a history of Popeye’s television cartoons.] There was also a live-action Popeye movie starring Robin Williams that was co-produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. After Popeye creator E. C. (Elzie Crisler) Segar’s untimely death in 1938, the strip was continued by Doc Winner, then Tom Sims and Bela Zaboly until 1955, Ralph Stein and Bela Zaboly through 1959, Bud Sagendorf through 1994, Bobby London from 1986–1992, and currently, by Hy Eisman since 1994. Popeye debuted in comic books as early as 1937 as a series of Feature Books, published by David McKay Publications and written and drawn by Popeye’s creator, Elzie Segar. Then, after a few Four Color issues published in the early 1940s by Dell, Popeye finally earned his own starring title in 1948, which began with #1, a rarity for comics that graduated from Four Color. After a lengthy run of Popeye comics released by Western Publishing through their imprints of Dell Comics from 1948 through 1962 and then Gold Key Comics from 1962 through 1966, King Features took over publishing their own comic books from 1966 through 1969. Amazingly, Harvey Comics was able to publish Popeye at the same time as Dell with their Family Funnies title in 1950, which became Tiny Tot Funnies and later Junior Funnies before being cancelled with issue #13 in 1952. Popeye historian Fred Grandinetti comments about these Harvey issues: “The material in the Harvey comic books were Thimble Theatre Sunday page reprints by Tom Sims and Bela Zaboly. It was not new material and probably under a different licensing agreement from King Features Syndicate.”
The Bare and the Bold The Sailor Man’s caught with his pants down on this rare Popeye giveaway comic book produced by Charlton Comics as a promotion for Bold laundry detergent. It reprinted Popeye #94 (Feb. 1969), Charlton’s first issue. Cover art by Bud Sagendorf. Popeye TM & © King Features Syndicate (KFS), Inc.
24 • BACK ISSUE • Classic Heroes in the Bronze Age Issue
by
Mark Arnold
CHARLTON COMICS
“I wound up in the hospital, flat on my back, Then, the Popeye comic book kept its numbering and looking at the ceiling, thinking, ‘What the heck am I entered the Bronze Age, being published by Charlton doing?’ I got an offer from Charlton because I had Comics. As explored in BACK ISSUE #136, Charlton done some freelance for them in the late 1950s doing had taken on the licenses of a number of King Features fillers. They made me an offer: Would I take a position as assistant editor? Syndicate comic-strip characters that had previ“As editor, I determined that Joe Gill was ously been published by Dell, Gold Key, our in-house writer. You could say, ‘We need and King, a lineup that included Popeye. six pages in an hour, Joe,’ and you had it. The Charlton Popeye series ran from #94 That’s how fast he could write, and he (Feb. 1969) through #138 (Jan. 1977), would write well, too. It wouldn’t be when the license returned back to garbage. He was amazing. Western Publishing. “When I hired [assistant editor] Somewhere along the line, Charlton Nick Cuti, Joe got worried because this published a giveaway through Bold Nick guy was also a writer. He was cool detergent, which was a reprint of #94. toward him because Nick had the same Other Charlton issues of significance deal I did. ‘You can still do freelance were #108 (June 1971), which featured writing as long as you can handle a story called “The Story of Popeye,” your job as editor.’ It all worked out covering the sailor’s life from 1929 george wildman good with Joe and Nick.” through 1971, and #116 (Sept. 1972), Before that, King published 15 iswhich contained “The Story of Eugene sues of Popeye Career Comics in 1972, the Jeep.” In an interview by Lum and Abner cartoonist Donnie concurrently with the Charlton run. As mentioned in Pitchford on September 12, 2009, artist George Wild- the BACK ISSUE #130 article, these career comics were man recalled how he got involved with Charlton: “In not issued to standard newsstands. In a 2005 interview by Jim Amash with Charlton the 1960s, prior to Charlton, I had my own art studio,” Wildman recalled. “My career was in advertising, and writer Joe Gill, Gill said this of the career comics: “When I did a lot of work with that. Things were going nicely, Wildman was editor, 1972–1973, I wrote a 15-book and then I started having problems with my health. At series for King Features for young children in the the same time I got that word, I lost my major account. early teens, on choosing an occupation. Popeye was
Sailor Man by Wildman Original cover art by George Wildman for Popeye #108 (June 1971), the issue featuring the character’s life story, and #129 (June 1974), with Sea Hag getting the upper hand on our heroes. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © KFS.
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OUR STORY, “ROYAL WARRIORS”…
by
Stephan Friedt
A plane crashes in the African jungle. A jungle chieftain, Molo, of the Wakondis, who watched the crash, heads to the site, despite it being in the lands of their fierce enemies, the Badogos. The plane is partially destroyed, but the chief can hear the cries of babies coming from the fuselage wreckage. His men are afraid to go inside, but Chief Molo goes in to rescue the crying babies— twin boys cradled and protected by the bodies of their dead parents. The chief rescues the babies and brings them home to raise them alongside his own son, Bakali. Chief Molo names the new additions to the family Tono and Kono. On their 18th birthdays, along with their foster brother, Tono and Kono set out to explore the ruins of the plane crash to learn of their roots. They retrieve documents, a pair of twin knives, and a box of royal jewels. While at the plane ruins, they are attacked by a party of Badogos. They escape and in the process come across the Badogo village, where a white anthropologist and his teen daughter are being held captive. They rescue them and bring them to the village of the Wakondis. The anthropologist translates the papers they found in the wreck and immediately identifies them as princes, the sole survivors of the royal family of the (fictitious) European country of Glockenberg. Their parents had fled the country after revolutionaries seized it. They both have the royal birthmark in the shape of two hearts on their lower backs, which is also the family crest on the box of jewels and the documents. The anthropologist describes their mountain kingdom and asks the boys if they would like to return. They decline, stating that the Wakondis and the jungle is their true home. That’s a synopsis of the scripts of the first and 18th issues of The Jungle Twins (issue #18 reprinted issue #1). The series ran for a total of 18 issues: #1–17 were cover-dated April 1972 to November 1975 under Western Publishing’s Gold Key logo, with #18 coming cover-dated May 1982 under the Whitman imprint, in what was part of Western/Gold Key/Whitman’s last gasps as a comic-book company. The other 16 original stories would be a series of generally standalone jungle adventures with titles like “Marked for Destruction,” “The Deadly Arena,” and “Survival,” as the twins battle the Badogos and various jungle creatures. In issue #6, the boys find a hidden civilization in “The Black Tower of Koor,” loosely based on H. R. R. Haggard’s She, and in issue #7 they battle against man-animal mutants in “Lair of the Monster Master” (a spin on The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells?).
THE CREATORS
The covers of the issues #1–17 were all painted covers by Western’s prolific cover artist George Wilson. George’s one and only interview can be read in the TwoMorrows magazine, Comic Book Artist #22 (Oct. 2002).
Big Korak Attack Tono and Kono are in a spot! Detail from painter George Wilson’s cover to Gold Key’s The Jungle Twins #1 (Apr. 1972). © Random House.
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The cover for the 18th issue featured line art by REPLACING THE BURROUGHS BOOKS Dan Spiegle, recreating George Wilson’s cover painting The Jungle Twins came about because of changes in from issue #1. You can read all about Dan in the 2013 Gold Key’s licensed library. The last issue of Gold Key’s TwoMorrows book, Dan Spiegle: A Life in Comic Art. Tarzan run was cover-dated February of 1972. Edgar The stories for the entire run were all by tireless Rice Burroughs, Inc. moved the license rights for author and Western Publishing’s go-to-man, Gaylord Tarzan and Korak, Son of Tarzan from Western to DC DuBois. DuBois was born in Massachusetts in 1899 Comics, and Gold Key was suddenly out of a pair of and died in Florida in 1993 at 94 years of age. popular moneymakers. He traveled and held many jobs—salesman, Gold Key didn’t sit wringing their hands minister, schoolteacher, social worker, over what amounted to another lost license. deputy sheriff—before settling on writer They took the writer-artist team that and scripter, the profession by which we had been working on the last issue of comic-book lovers know him. He wrote Tarzan, Gaylord DuBois and Paul over 3,000 comic stories, at least ten Norris, and told them to come up novels or adaptations (including the with a replacement series set in the first Lone Ranger), four Little Blue jungle. Replacing Tarzan’s bimonthly Books (a series of tiny, staple-bound schedule without a break, Jungle Twins books published from 1919 through #1 (Apr. 1972) quickly followed. 1978 by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing By June of the same year, the Company of Girard, Kansas; Louis backup feature from the Tarzan L’Amour and Harlan Ellison cited series, Brothers of the Spear, had gaylord dubois Little Blue books as sources of their its own series as well… and Gold earliest influences), several volumes Hey Kids Comics Wiki. of poetry, 30+ Big Little Books, and more. His comic writing began in 1938 and continued until 1977, with a few stories published posthumously as late as 1995. A sampling of his comic-book work includes the titles Tarzan, Lost in Space, Roy Rogers, Turok, The Lone Ranger, Uncle Wiggily, Red Ryder, Brothers of the Spear, Tom and Jerry, and Raggedy Ann. The artwork for the entire Jungle Twins series was from longtime comic artist Paul Norris (1914–2007). Born in Greenville, Ohio, he started his comic career at Prize Publications in 1940. In 1941 he, along with writer Mort Weisinger, revamped DC’s character the Sandman into a costumed hero and co-created and introduced Aquaman. Norris would then gravitate to daily newspaper strips with Vic Jordan in 1941, followed by three months of Secret Agent X-9 in 1943 before being drafted into the Army. During the war Paul worked on an original comic strip for his ship’s newspaper and was noticed and transferred to the division responsible for creating propaganda leaflets to drop on Japanese troops. When Norris returned from the war, he did a few covers for Western Publishing, and in 1948 he began drawing the Sunday edition of Jungle Jim. He would also do an occasional freelance job for DC. In 1952, Paul took over the science-fiction newspaper strip Brick Bradford and handled it for 35 years until he and the strip retired in 1987. In the 1950s, he drew several issues of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and Jungle Jim for Western. In the 1960s, Western would use him as a replacement for Russ Manning on Tarzan and Magnus Robot Fighter. For the definitive interview with Paul Norris, check out Comic Book Artist #22.
The Remarkable Mr. Manning “The Brothers of the Spear” was a longrunning backup in the pages of Gold Key’s Tarzan. Indulge this Silver Age detour as we showcase this beautiful Russ Manning– drawn page from “The Falcon,” the Brothers’ tale published in Tarzan #151 (Sept. 1965). Script by Gaylord DuBois. Original art courtesy of Heritage. © Random House.
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Hostess Twinkies, cupcakes, and fruit pies © Hostess Brands, LLC.
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TM & © Archie Publications, Inc.
ARCHIE in “Here’s Looking At You”
by DAN DeCARLO
Back Issue #130’s history of the 1975–1982 Hostess Comic Ads campaign introduced readers to the late Tony Macchia, the ad writer responsible for many of those zany comic-style one-pagers where bad guys and bad behavior were vanquished by tasty treats. Mr. Macchia’s son, Paul Macchia, recently found in his father’s archives photocopies of preliminary drawings for some of those ads. We’re happy to share a quartet of them here with BACK ISSUE readers.
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by DAN DeCARLO
JOSIE in “Josie Eats Her Words”
TM & © Archie Publications, Inc.
THE ORIGIN OF FLASH GORDON
by
Ed Lute
Philip Francis Nowlan’s novella Armageddon 2149 A.D., published in Amazing Stories (cover-dated August 1928), introduced the world to Anthony Rogers. Rogers returned the following year in Nolan’s sequel, The Airlords of Han, in the March 1929 cover-dated issue of Amazing Stories. John F. Dille, owner of the John F. Dille Co. newspaper syndicate (later known as the National Newspaper Syndicate), saw potential in the main character, and between the publication of these two stories he commissioned a newspaper strip featuring Rogers. Dille paired writer Nolan with artist Richard “Dick” Calkins to create the daily strip which debuted on Monday January 7th, 1929 as an adaption of the first novella. However, one important and lasting change was made when the hero’s name was changed from Anthony to the nickname “Buck,” with the title of the strip being Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. Roger’s first name was changed from Anthony to William for the 1979–1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The newspaper strip was very popular and successful, and the title hero started appearing in movie serials and radio programs, as well as on children’s merchandise. With the success of the Buck Rogers newspaper strip, King Features Syndicate wanted a sciencefiction comic strip of its own. Unfortunately, the company’s first try was unsuccessful, as they were unable to come to terms with Edgar Rice Burroughs for the rights to publish a strip featuring his creation John Carter of Mars. Enter Alex Raymond, a staff artist for King Features Syndicate. Raymond’s creation was space-opera adventurer Flash Gordon, who first blasted onto the pop-culture landscape via the Sunday funny pages on January 7, 1934, with artwork by Raymond, working with ghostwriter Don Moore. Raymond based his strip on the 1933 novel When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer. In the novel, an athletic hero, his girlfriend, and a scientist rocketed to a planet that is hurtling towards Earth. The first storyline in the strip closely mirrored When Worlds Collide with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden being kidnapped by the mad scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov, who rocketed towards the planet Mongo, which was headed on a collision course with Earth. The story also introduced Flash Gordon’s arch-nemesis, Ming the Merciless. Most of Flash Gordon’s iconic elements were introduced during this story arc or other early storylines. The Sunday strip proved very popular, so King Features introduced a daily strip as well. The daily strip was first published on Monday May 27, 1940. Both the Sunday and daily strips remained popular for decades. The final new Sunday strip appeared in newspapers on March 16, 2003 although reprints would continue to appear in some newspapers. Saturday July 3, 1993 saw the final new daily newspaper strip see print.
Flash Is Back! This eye-grabbing painted cover by an uncredited artist and a funky orange-and-pink ’70s font blurb trumpeted Gold Key’s reboot of Flash Gordon with issue #19 (Sept. 1978). Flash Gordon TM & © King Features Syndicate (KFS), Inc.
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No Flash in the Pan (left) A color print of Flash Gordon by his creator, the legendary Alex Raymond, produced in 1939 by Puck – The Comic Weekly. (center stack) Significant Flash Gordon comics over the decades. (right) Hand-colored Flash and Dale art by Al Williamson. Williamson originally drew this image in 1970 for a Union Carbide ad. All, courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). © KFS.
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Like Buck Rogers before him, Flash Gordon would quickly move from newspaper comic-strip hero into other multimedia outlets including radio and movie serials. It was the comic strip that introduced the world to Flash Gordon, but it was the radio and especially the movie serials that made him a household name. Universal Pictures’ 1940 movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (the third and final serial from the company) helped to cement the character in the hearts and minds of the public. Actor and Olympic Gold medalist Buster Crabb seemed born to play Flash Gordon and looked like he has just stepped out of a Raymond illustration. By this time, Flash Gordon had even surpassed Buck Rogers (the character that helped spawn him) as the most popular science-fiction hero of the time! With Flash Gordon’s popularity at an all-time high, is it any wonder that comic-book publishers came calling to put the sci-fi hero’s name on their covers?
EARLY FLASH GORDON COMICS
Flash Gordon first hit the comic books as part of Dell Publishing’s Four Color, appearing in eight issues of the anthology title: #10 (1942), 84 (Sept. 1945), 173 (Nov. 1947), 190 (June 1948), 204 (Dec. 1948), 247 (Sept. 1949), 424 (Sept. 1952), and 512 (Nov. 1953). The first two issues contained reprints of Alex Raymond and Don Moore’s Sunday strips, while the rest contained original stories. Flash Gordon vol. 1 was a short-lived bimonthly four-issue series (Oct. 1950–April 1951) from Harvey Comics. These issues contained reprints of Sunday
newspaper strips. Flash Gordon wouldn’t reappear on comic racks for over a decade, and then only as a oneshot from Gold Key comics, cover-dated June 1965. Once again readers were given reprinted material, from Four Color #173, the first original Flash Gordon comic-book story. Before long came 11 issues (Sept. 1966–Dec. 1967) of Flash Gordon vol. 2 from King Comics, a short-lived (1966–1967) comic line created by newspaper-strip distributor King Features Syndicate to publish comic books based on their own properties instead of licensing them out to other publishers. In addition to Flash Gordon, King Comics published Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Jungle Jim, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, and Popeye. Flash Gordon was also featured in backup stories in The Phantom #18–20 (Sept. 1966–Jan. 1967). The Flash Gordon title then moved to Charlton Comics, but continued with the numbering from the previous run, starting with issue #12 (Feb. 1969) and concluding with #18 (Jan. 1970). The Charlton issues are part of volume 2.
THE GOLD KEY/WHITMAN YEARS
Although always a popular genre for many people, science fiction had never been the pop-culture phenomenon that it would become after the movie Star Wars premiered in 1977. Many new sci-fi products including books, movies, television shows, and comics began appearing in the wake of the film’s success. One such comic-book title wasn’t new, but a revival of Flash Gordon.
Solid Gold (left) With graphics clearly inspired by Star Wars, Gold Key announced its new Flash Gordon title with this 1978 house ad featuring Carlos Garzon’s artwork. (right) John Warner and Carlos Garzon’s title page to their first issue, #19, set up the conflict longtime Flash fans were hoping for. Flash Gordon © KFS.
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interview conducted by
Robert Greenberger
Science fiction was something new in the 1930s, and after Buck Rogers launched to great success in 1929, King Features Syndicate wanted to get in on the action. After failing to license John Carter from Edgar Rice Burroughs, they asked staff artist Alex Raymond to create something new. He responded with one of the most beautiful and influential comic strips of all time. His Flash Gordon launched on January 7, 1934, and was an immediate hit. With ghostwriter Don Moore, Raymond introduced us to Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov as they left Earth in order to keep it and the rogue planet Mongo from colliding. Once on the alien world, they became freedom fighters, helping to topple the despot. The strip ran daily through 2003, which gave rise to all manner of merchandising, notably the three energetic serials starring former Olympian Buster Crabbe as the hero. There have been six live-action or animated television versions of the character and a short-lived radio serial. To date, there has been one feature film, the 1980 film from Dino DeLaurentis best known today for its score by Queen. In comics, the strip was reprinted in numerous titles from Dell, Harvey, and Gold Key. King Comics in the 1960s boasted original tales, some drawn by Al Williamson. He collaborated with Mark Schultz on a two-issue story for Marvel. The short-lived Ardden Entertainment tried their hand in 2009 with a few titles from Brendan Deenan, Paul Green, and Eduardo Garcia. Most recently, there was Dynamite Entertainment’s take on the characters, written by Eric Trautmann with designs from Alex Ross. However, none of the comic-book adaptations took as radical a rethinking of the Raymond premise as Dan Jurgens did in the mid-1980s for DC Comics. At the same time as the company was enjoying a creative renaissance, it was also branching out with various licenses, such as Star Trek (see BI #5, 23), V (see BI #128), the TSR role-playing game titles, and from King Features, The Phantom (see BI #47) and Flash Gordon. Fresh from his work on Sun Devils, Warlord, and Booster Gold, Jurgens wrote and penciled the nine-issue maxiseries, inked by Bruce Patterson, lettered by John Workman, and colored by Anthony Tollin. Jurgens considered his audience and adapted accordingly. DC supported this by making it a Mando Format comic, which entitled it to 24 story pages, full bleeds, and extra color tones, enriching the appearance. Released in 1987–1988, it met with middling success as comic-book readers liked it well enough, but comic-strip enthusiasts, including Tollin, had their qualms. I was able to chat with Dan about this over the summer of 2021, as we look back on the miniseries, the source material, and the time of its creation. This interview was conducted by phone and email and has been edited for clarity. – Robert Greenberger
New Format, New Version Writer-artist Dan Jurgens reimagined the classic Flash Gordon mythology for the 1980s in this DC Comics maxiseries. Flash Gordon #1 (June 1988) cover by Jurgens and Bruce Patterson. Flash Gordon TM & © King Features Syndicate (KFS), Inc. DC logo TM & © DC Comics.
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Zorro was one of the early pulp heroes, perhaps inspired by the notorious-but-well-loved outlaw, Tiburcio Vasquez. El Zorro (“The Fox,” in Spanish) originally appeared in 1919 in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly in five weekly installments. The first adventure, “The Curse of Capistrano,” would set the tone for the next century of adventures for the Masked Fox in movies, TV, books, comics, and more. By comics’ Bronze Age, Zorro’s adventuring had cooled off. In the mid-’70s, a made-for-TV Zorro movie starring Frank Langella and an Italian spaghetti Western starring Alain Delon made many fans less excited and somewhat embarrassed by the swordsman. But that would all soon change. The creativity of comic books would open new and exciting venues for Zorro. by
Ed Catto
ZORRO AT ECLIPSE COMICS
Eclipse Comics, one of the Bronze Age independent publishers, opened new vistas for Zorro in 1986 with an oversized collection of six ten-page stories that were originally published in French. They were created for Disney and published in Le Journal de Mickey. The Comics Journal had a brief news item describing the publication: Eclipse Comics brings back the classic character Zorro, created by novelist Justin McCarthy in The Curse of Capistrano. The Eclipse Zorro, in a $6.95 graphic novel format, features a Tom Yeates cover and six ten-page adventure stories written by Nadaud and illustrated by Carlo Marcello for Le Journal de Mickey. “We like Zorro,” said Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney. “We wanted to do an original, and this is a way of testing the market to see if Americans are interested in Zorro, not just for comic shops, but if we can move a good number through the regular bookstore channels. If so, there’s enough material for a second volume, and we’re looking at the possibility of doing an all-new story that we would create with an American artist and an American writer.” Indeed, Thomas Yeates, a graduate of the Kubert School and already a fan-favorite from his work on titles like Saga of the Swamp Thing, Airboy, thomas yeates and Timespirits, brought a gusto and vibrancy to the cover of this Henrik Bernd/ Lambiek.net. reprint, sometimes referred to as Zorro in Old California. “I was always a Zorro fan, and I drew pictures as a little kid because [Zorro] was a Disney show, which was so well done, and it still holds up today,” Yeates tells BACK ISSUE.
The Mark of Excellence Eclipse Comics’ 1986 Zorro, alternately known as Zorro: The Graphic Album and Zorro in Old California. Cover art by Thomas Yeates, logo by Tom Orzechowski. Zorro TM & © Zorro Productions, Inc. (ZPI).
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Master Swordsman Frontispiece from Eclipse’s Zorro graphic album. One of the secrets to Yeates’ Zorro illustration work is that he has real fencing experience, having studied it for three semesters in college. “You gotta exaggerate it,” he candidly admits to BACK ISSUE. TM & © ZPI.
“…I did a Zorro sketch for the hell of it. There weren’t any Zorro movies or comics going on—this would have been in the ’80s. I used to go to the Eclipse offices— I moved to a part of California that was just about 20 minutes from there. So [Eclipse’s editor-in-chief] cat yronwode saw [the Zorro sketch] and said, ‘You like Zorro? I like Zorro!’ She asked me to do another one for the masthead of one of her editorials.” This led to more Zorro work. “[Eclipse was] really clever about how to make money,” says Yeates. “They got the rights, real cheap, for a French Zorro Graphic Novel. It was very well drawn. Pretty solid stuff. But they wanted a new cover. They asked me to do the cover because I had drawn Zorro. So I did the cover of Zorro up in the tree.” Yeates would enjoy this project more than he expected. “I said, ‘Hey, this is really fun. Why don’t you do endpapers too?’” Eclipse agreed. “So I got to draw more Zorro. All those just flowed right out of my pencil. It was so much fun to do that.” Yeates’ art also caught the attention of Zorro’s licensors. “…When they saw my art, they went, ‘Ah! We like this guy.’ So whenever something came up where they needed an artist, they wanted me to do it.” These relationships would lead to more Zorro work down the road for Yeates. Otherwise, The Graphic Album (as it was called in the Eclipse in-house ad) was a rather pedestrian affair. The stories, written by Jean-Marie Nadaud and illustrated by Carlo Marcello, were perfectly fine, but not particularly memorable. One key element, however, was the logo by Tom Orzechowski. This dynamic logo with broad strokes, as if boldly rendered with a flat marker, would be reused and modified over the years.
In 2020, American Mythology, as of this writing the current comic publisher of Zorro, would reprint Zorro in Old California as a standard-sized comic entitled Zorro: Timeless Tales.
ALEX TOTH’S ZORRO
Two years after Eclipse published the graphic album, the company would reprint 1950s Zorro comic-book adventures illustrated by master illustrator Alex Toth. Zorro: The Complete Classic Adventures by Alex Toth vol. 1 and vol. 2 (1988), published in the same format as Zorro in Old California, reprinted in black and white Zorro issues from Dell Comics’ long-running Four Color series. Each Toth volume from Eclipse had wonderful introductions. The first volume featured Howard Chaykin’s engaging and honest (as is everything that Chaykin writes) essay. Toth himself wrote the second volume’s introduction. Toth’s words speak for themselves, but for a more modern commentary, there’s one man to turn to. Ruben Procopio is a longtime illustrator and animator who has worked for almost every pop-culture behemoth, including Disney, Warner Bros., and even DC Comics. He’s illustrated Zorro in several books, and, in fact, one of his illustrations graces the cover of a recent German reprint of these particular books. Procopio also became very friendly with Toth, who even introduced Ruben to his future wife. There’s probably no one better with whom to discuss the work of Alex Toth. “I can still get all jazzed up all over again, every time I see an Alex Toth page—it doesn’t matter how many years go by,” reveals Procopio. “I’ll look at a page and it inspires me. This is such a great collection.”
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TM & © ZPI.
THE ZORRO COMIC STRIP THAT WASN’T
Here’s a find from the vaults of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com)—original art for a proposed Zorro newspaper strip, circa 1980s, illustrated by the incredible Russ Manning of Tarzan and Magnus Robot Fighter acclaim. Our breath, like the lovely senorita’s depicted herein, is taken away!
How did Toth feel about these Zorro stories? Procopio has some insights, but they come with caveats and humility. “Some things I didn’t push with Alex, and I don’t have a very great memory,” Procopio offers. “I think other folks that were friends with Alex have a better recollection. “But I kind of think this is what happened. I do remember talking to him a little bit about it, and when he kind of goes a little like, ‘Eeehhh’… I didn’t push it too much. But in reading and seeing people’s commentary and notes and even having known Alex, I think what happened there is that he didn’t agree with the direction of the writing. He was a big fan of the 1940s Tyrone Power [movie The] Mark of Zorro. A huge fan! That was one of his favorite films. I think next to Errol Flynn and all that he did, that movie is probably his favorite swashbuckling kind of film. He was hoping to do something more like that [in these Zorro comics]. “That said, I think there was conflict with the direction of this storytelling. You can tell that Alex did his best and came through. He was probably very excited at the beginning. He would have liked to do Zorro. It’s funny because I can imagine like when we were kids, we were fans of certain things like the Batman TV show or this show or whatever, whereas older kids then, or even younger adults, kind of pooh-poohed it.” Procopio speculates that television’s Zorro (1957–1961) disappointed a fan like Alex Toth, who revered the Tyrone Power version of the character. “Perhaps when Alex saw the Guy Williams [Zorro] TV series, he thought, ‘Oh, you know, whatever.’ But I think Alex had other expectations. He kind of took a rough rock and made a diamond out of it. He took that and now it’s regarded as a collection
Deceptively Simple Design Toth’s original art to the first volume of Classic Adventures, courtesy of Heritage. TM & © ZPI.
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Rising Star (top) Covers to Zorro #11 (Oct. 1991) and 12 (Nov. 1991) by the legendary Alex Toth. (bottom) Long before his celebrated work on material including Batman: Death by Design, Judge Dredd, Prophet, and Batman: Black and White, Dave Taylor counted the latter issues of Marvel UK’s Zorro among his earliest assignments. Splash to Zorro #9 (Aug. 1991), with inks by Dave Harwood. TM & © ZPI.
sometimes aided by other inkers, as well as the cover artist for issues #7, 8, and 9. Taylor developed into an engaging artist, and for years drew a number of DC titles, including those that featured the top DC character, Batman. In fact, Taylor’s career may have come full circle (from Zorro to Zorro’s “descendant,” Batman) when he illustrated design superstar Chip Kidd’s graphic novel Batman: Death by Design (2012). For many Zorro fans, and comic fans, the highlight of the series were the three covers by the legendary Alex Toth for the final three issues, #10, 11, and 12. This trio of covers showcases the hero’s bravado and confidence in a way that seems natural, carefree and most of all—fun. The stories in this 1990s series are serviceable, but like the TV series from which it is adapted, lack the gusto, adventure, and romantic charm associated with the masked swordsman. Select issues from Marvel’s 12-issue series were reprinted by American Mythology as Zorro: New World. One issue was the publisher’s 2021 Free Comic Book Day offering.
ZORRO AT TOPPS
“Then Jim Salicrup comes along,” remembers artist Thomas Yeates. “He was editing at Marvel and had gone to Topps.” In the 1990s, Salicrup developed a line of comic books published by Topps, long known for its trading cards, and developed comics featuring many of his favorite properties, including Zorro. Salicrup reached out to Yeates with an enticing offer. “I don’t know if the Zorro people recommended me or if Jim just knew me,” Yeates says. “He had Dracula vs. Zorro because Dracula was really hot.” Topps had recently adapted the 1992 Dracula movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola and staring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins. Classic Heroes in the Bronze Age Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65
“Jim wanted to do Zorro, and he was buddies THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING with [writer] Don McGregor,” Yeates continues. ZORRO’S SCRIBE “And so he said, ‘We’ll do Zorro meets Dracula, but Don McGregor is a lifelong comic-book and comicwe’ll have to switch it because Zorro’s not popular strip fan whose professional output includes the right now and Dracula is. But it was really a Zorro groundbreaking Black Panther, Killraven/War of the book. So that’s how that came about.” The result Worlds, and Sabre series. But one of his favorite heroes was the two-issue series of late 1993, Dracula versus was always Zorro. IF YOU ENJOYED PREVIEW, Zorro, written by McGregor, penciled THIS by Yeates, “As a kid growing up in the state of Rhode Island, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THISif you and inked by Rick Magyar. ever told him that he’d have a chance to write ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! “It was a lot of work,” admits Yeates, “but I really these characters like James Bond and Zorro… to get enjoyed it. McGregor’s writing is really complex. that chance…” McGregor wistfully remembers. “Both There’s a lot going on. Really a challenge to get characters that I love dearly. There was a tremendous everything in there. Plus he has to go set half his responsibility—that I felt I had—to bring something story on this old sailing ship with all the complicated to the characters and yet try to capture what I loved rigging… [which was] so hard to draw. about them as well.” “His ideas are good, though. There’s one big McGregor is enchanted by iconic characters. “They panel that a lot of people complimented me on, a don’t seem to change—whether you do your own full-page shot of Zorro kneeling on a gargoyle at character, whether you are doing them for Marvel, or Notre Dame. Don drew that. He can’t really draw, DC characters, or characters that are owned by another but he drew that basically. And I could just totally see company, or franchised characters,” he explains. “To it. I just drew his composition. There wasn’t any need me, I loved all of them. So, as a storyteller, I was like, to change anything.” ‘What’s the best story I can tell? What do I need to look Of his inker, Rick Magyar, Yeates explains, “Salicrup at here?’ I was looking at everything that’s been done. had Rick Magyar ink me. Or maybe I was insecure And then isolating what I really, really like about it about my inking at the time. He did a great job.” While and emphasize it. And what I’m not crazy about, BACK ISSUE #138 Magyar inked Yeates’ interior pages, Yeates penciled that. You can’t be slavish to it either.” CLASSIC HEROES IN THE BRONZE AGE! The Lone Rangerdeemphasizing and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Zorro and Lady Rawhide, Son and inked the Dracula versus Zorro covers. continued on page 70 of Tomahawk, Jungle Twins, and more! Featuring the work of DAN JURGENS, JOE R. LANSDALE, DON McGREGOR, FRANK THORNE, TIM TRUMAN, GEORGE WILDMAN, THOMAS YEATES, and other creators. With a classic 1979 fully painted Gold Key cover of Flash Gordon.
Big Drac Attack Yeates’ original art to the wraparound cover of the 1994 collection of Dracula versus Zorro. “That was fun,” Yeates tells BACK ISSUE. “I was really happy with that.” Courtesy of Heritage. TM & © ZPI.
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