Back Issue #13 by TwoMorrows Publishing

SUPER SPECIAL

December 2005

No.13 $5.95

ULTIMATE

COMICS

1970s KUNG-FU COMICS!

THE

EXPERIENCE!

STATON & CUTI’S E-MAN!

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

We’re stuck in the ’70s and proud of it in our THAT ’70s ISSUE!

Volume 1, Number 13 December 2005 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

INTERVIEW: Nick Cardy: Man and Super Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 DC’s king of ’70s covers relives his days in the House that Carmine built

EDITOR Michael Eury

ART GALLERY: Nick Cardy’s Cover Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 From Aquaman to Witching Hour, a dozen dazzling DC covers

PUBLISHER John Morrow

BEYOND CAPES: The Terrible, Tragic (>Sob!<) Death of Romance (Comics) . . .16 Last Kiss’ John Lustig examines why this once-popular genre went bust

DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington COVER ARTISTS Nick Cardy and Scott Hanna COVER DESIGNER AND COLORIST Robert Clark

BEYOND CAPES BONUS: Bullpen Romances: Marvel’s ’70s Love Comics . . . . . .24 Stan Lee, John Romita, Sr., and others take a look at love FLASHBACK: Will Eisner’s A Contract with God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Behind the scenes of the birth of the graphic novel, with Denis Kitchen and Diana Schutz PRO2PRO: Nick Cuti and Joe Staton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 The writer and artist revisit E-Man, Cosmic Hero for the ’70s, with lots of Staton art ROUGH STUFF: The ’70s Greatest Hits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

SPECIAL THANKS Pencil and sketch artwork by Adams, Buckler, Cockrum, Colan, Giordano, Kane, Kubert, Michael Ambrose Brian K. Morris Miller, Newton, Romita, Severin, Swan, and Weiss Terry Austin Stuart Neft Dick Ayers Al Nickerson Spencer Beck Michelle Nolan ’70s FLASHBACK: Behind the Scenes at the BACK ISSUE Bullpen . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Rod Bleck Trina Robbins Funky photos of BI’s superbad staff Jerry Boyd John Romita, Sr. Mike Burkey Rose Rummel-Eury John Byrne FLASHBACK: Marvel Fan Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Diana Schutz Nick Cardy David Anthony Kraft and Willie Lumpkin salute the Quite ’Nuff Sayers! Joe Simon Dewey Cassell Joe Staton Scott Cates Aaron Sultan WHAT THE--?!: Up Your Nose and Out Your Ear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Roger Clark Joel Thingvall The story behind Ross Andru and Mike Esposito’s ill-fated humor magazine John Cogan Roy Thomas Gerry Conway Lance Tooks Nicola Cuti Jaume Vauquer FLASHBACK: Aurora Comic Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Eric Delos Santos Irene Vartanoff Made-for-models super-hero art by Adams, Giordano, Kane, Romita, Swan, and Trimpe Steve Englehart Jim Warden John Eury Greg Wilson Bob Frongillo BEYOND CAPES: In the Kung-Fu Grip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Ray Wong Dick Giordano From Master of Kung Fu to Karate Kid, a history of comics’ high-kickin’ fad Grand Comic-Book Database Scott Hanna BEYOND CAPES SIDEBAR: A Page of Kindness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Russ Heath Heritage Comics A Paul Gulacy-drawn Master of Kung Fu page has great meaning to one collector Richard Howell Greg Huneryager SPECIAL FEATURE: Comics on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Dan Johnson The latest DVD releases of interest to the ’70s comics fan Nick Katradis Michael Kelly Wilf King BACK TALK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 David Anthony Kraft Reader and creator feedback on issue #11 Ron Lantz Denis Kitchen Shannon Landano BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Stan Lee Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Steve Lipsky Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $30 Standard US, $48 First Class US, $60 Canada, John Lustig $66 Surface International, $90 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the Don Mangus Rome Maynard editorial office. “Romance girl” cover recreation of cover to Falling in Love #119 TM & © 2005 DC Comics. Master of Kung Bob McLeod Fu TM & © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. E-Man TM & © 2005 Joe Staton. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their Liriel McMahon respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2005 Michael Eury and Doug Moench TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. Steve Morger

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interview

Conducted July 8, 2005 and transcribed by Brian K. Morris

Interview by Spencer Beck

Welcome to Cardy City While the photostatted Black Canary logo on the original cover art of

SPENCER BECK: In the early and mid-’70s, after decades of doing interior and cover art, you were primarily known as the DC Comics cover artist. Were you specifically chosen by [then-publisher] Carmine Infantino for the cover assignments, or did this grow out of multiple editors assigning covers to you one at a time to where you just kind of, through attrition, became the cover artist? NICK CARDY: Well, Teen Titans was handed over to someone else, and I had been doing Bat Lash, but after seven issues, Bat Lash didn’t sell. I was doing maybe one or two little short stories for Plop! or something like that, four-page jobs. So Carmine had me on his hands and there was no book he could put me on, so he put me on the covers. BECK: Did you enjoy doing covers? CARDY: Yeah, I enjoyed the covers. Sometimes I’d sit with Carmine and he would lay out a little design and say, “Try this.” I tried to design those [his way, but sometimes] I said, “You know, just to get a little more action, if we moved it over this way or that way...”. He always respected me and he let me go my way, and he usually liked anything I did. But a good part of the time it was his conception, then I would tell him [what I thought should be changed,] and then we would change it. BECK: But he allowed you freedom. It wasn’t, “Do this drawing—”

1970’s The Brave and the

CARDY: Oh, yeah, because he

Bold #91 (the issue

always respected my work. He

number’s second digit

told me that he liked my work and

fallen off the original) has

he respected me. He trusted my

yellowed with age, Nick

judgment in design.

Cardy’s intoxicatingly

BECK: In the early 1970s you began

designed illustration still

your last regular continuity assignment

packs a tremendous

doing a stint on The Brave and the

punch, 35 years later.

Bold, where you did some classic

From the collection

issues. You did issue #91, which is

of Terry Austin.

Batman/Black Canary—of course,

featuring a pretty girl, which you’re

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known for drawing pretty girls. CARDY: Certainly. You know who has the original of that cover? Terry Austin. He’s got it hanging on his wall. BECK: Oh, wow. CARDY: Terry Austin told me that one time in the ’70s, he went to a comicbook store and they had a whole bunch of my art there. And they said, “Nick was here [at the store] and he put it here,” but I don’t remember ever going there—I’ve never been to a New York comic-book store, so I don’t know, it must have been stolen or whatever. So Terry bought a lot of stuff of mine, and I’m the last guy to know. Anyway, but the Brave and Bold series, was some of my best artwork.

Beginnings:

Eisner/Iger Studio (1939)

Milestones:

Lady Luck newspaper comic / misc . Fiction House series / Congo Bill / Daniel Boone / Aquaman / Teen Titans / Bat Lash / The Brave and the Bold / hundred s of 1960s–1970s DC Comics covers / The Art of Nick Cardy (Vanguard, 199 9)

Work in Progress:

[Spencer chuckles] And then I just had one guy to contend with, and the

Commissioned art through www.theartistschoice.com

characters like Black Canary . . . she just had an outfit on.

Cyberspace: www.nickcardy.com

I mean, that at least I was away from kids in long underwear, you know?

BECK: Right. CARDY: When you’re doing something heavy in mystery, you work more on shadows. With The Teen Titans, it’s . . . well, a light subject, so you left issue #94, a Batman/Teen Titans team-up], I put a lot of shadows in that.

Photo by Bob Bailey.

it light. Until, then, when they got into The Brave and Bold [Editor’s note:

NICK CARDY

In fact . . . I don’t know if you remember Denny O’Neil. BECK: Yes. CARDY: He had wild, crazy hair. BECK: Crazy hair? CARDY: And so I made a slight caricature and I put him in that [Batman/Titans] story. (laughs) I hope he doesn’t know this, but anyway— BECK: He will after he reads this interview. [laughter] CARDY: Oh, okay. Well, he was, in fact, he was one of my favorite writers. I really enjoyed working with Denny. [chuckles] And he had a beautiful head to work with—I mean, brains. BECK: Right. Well, he went on to write some of the most legendary stories and create the ultimate Batman villain, Ra’s al Ghul, who is the main villain in the Batman movie that just came out [Batman Begins, Summer 2005]. CARDY: Oh, jeez. Oh, that’s great. No, the last time I saw a picture of him, he didn’t have wild hair and he was a little on the heavier side. [chuckles]

Plopped into Limbo

BECK: Well, we all get older.

Page one of the

CARDY: Oh, yeah. [laughs] Well, I guess we do.

unpublished eight-

BECK: When you worked on Brave and the Bold, one of the

page tale “Nice Kitty,”

things in issue #91, which is with Black Canary, you used a

probably intended for

lot heavier inks, heavier blacks than you normally do, as

DC’s horror/humor

compared to issue #92 where you actually inked with a pen

comic Plop! Courtesy

rather than a brush for your foggier look. Why did you

of Wilf King

change your style for those specific issues?

(www.nickcardy.com).

CARDY: The issue I think you’re referring to is with “the Bat

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Squad.” Now, the Bat Squad story had a villain that was a takeoff of Jack the

sometimes, to make my line, I would go in between the lines to get the line. It’s just a guide. BECK: Sort of an invisible ruler or some such?

Ripper. And so to get

CARDY: When I was under pressure on The Teen Titans,

the real atmosphere of

or especially of the tail end of The Teen Titans, Neal

Jack the Ripper, you

Adams penciled The Teen Titans and I inked his; and Gil

needed a lot of fog,

Kane did one, I inked his. And George Tuska did—

and with that, I used

George Tuska was about the best to ink. He’s very good.

a lot of pen just to

Neal Adams, I didn’t do him any justice because I was in

create that fog, and a

a rush. [laughs] I was very heavy-handed on his work.

little cross-hatching.

BECK: That must have gone over well. [laughter]

When it got to the

CARDY: And Carmine did some of the pencils of Teen

interiors, I put in a lot of

Titans, and so that’s it. But The Brave and Bold, I

heavy blacks, you know.

enjoyed those.

BECK: It was quite a differ-

BECK: So, when you were the DC cover artist, how

ent look for you, that is for sure.

many covers did you actually do during that period?

CARDY: But the first part was all

CARDY: Well, I must have done about 500 covers, I

pen and one part of one cover leads

don’t know. I think it’s close to that.

Con Man

to the next part of one page. There’s a double-page

Cardy convention

spread that shows the Claw waiting, this scarlet

>phew< we’d be rich. [laughter]

sketches are sought-

character carrying the girl off. But it’s a two-page

CARDY: And the only way I have of any covers is

after by collectors; this

spread and the fog follows from one page to the other.

that John Coates, the writer of my biography, has

BECK: Right.

three thick volumes, about three inches at the bind-

CARDY: And I try to create that atmosphere of the old

ing— three of those—and he filled them with all of

Dickens-type feeling. You know, that old English thing.

the covers of my work, and he put the years down. So

BECK: Do you have a preference of doing pen or a

that’s the only reference I have to my covers, you see?

brush, or do you like using an amalgam of both?

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But, yeah, some covers I enjoyed more—the big

CARDY: Well, I use both. Mainly, it’s when I do a draw-

covers, when you have a nice splash. But when you get

ing, I have a used brush that used to be my fine brush,

a cover that has maybe three or four little panels that

but lost its point, and so I use that to slap in my blacks.

you have to fill in, that’s sort of taking away from the

BECK: So now it’s a second-string brush . . . it must

design. They have the big figures on the left side of the

feel neglected.

border, then they have the picture, then they have

CARDY: I pencil everything and I slap in the blacks,

maybe two more panels. And when I got to those, it

and then I connect the black. If I do the eyes or some-

started getting tiresome. It wasn’t creative anymore.

thing that needs a fine touch, I’ll just use the pen for

BECK: Probably your most famous cover is the

that. And then I’ll use a real fine brush to give my

introduction of the all-new red jumpsuit for Wonder

little nuances and that sort of thing, see?

Girl, Donna Troy [Teen Titans #23].

BECK: You make it sound so easy—you’re a legendary

CARDY: Oh, yeah.

creator, yet you’re just going to “slap it together.”

BECK: Now 25, 30 years later, if you were to draw that

CARDY: Well, I’ll tell you, it took me a long time to

same cover today, would you look at it and say, “I did

know how to slap it together. [laughs] Years ago, I

this wrong, I did that wrong, I’m going to fix it”? Or in

used to pencil very roughly, and then people would

looking at the cover in retrospect, do you think that it’s

try to ink it and nobody ever inked my work [well]—

the way you’d like the cover to look?

in other words, if I make a leg line, there may be three

CARDY: Well, I’ll tell you something, you’re the first—the

or four lines for a leg or so, and the guy that’s going

second person that I’m telling this to. DC had an issue of

to ink it wouldn’t know which line to follow. And

The Teen Titans where they wanted a flashback, so I did,

BECK: Wow, If I only had that art to sell today,

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I think, three or four pages on how the Teen Titans

a building, so I could see his back muscles; or some

worked. And I put Wonder Girl in that red costume, and

shots of these contestants or Schwarzenegger where

on the new costume I had a belt. On

they’re flexing their muscles, then you get

the belt was a “W,” and she didn’t

your muscles there. But now

have the magic lasso on it.

everything is so easy, every-

BECK: Didn’t she?

thing you can find, you see?

CARDY: But in those four pages I

And so as far as the costume

showed that the belt was a lot of

goes, I think that costume will

string going around her, which was

hold up, but I think I draw better

the strap, and the buckle unbuckled

women now than I did then.

Cardy’s recreation of

like one of these grapple lines, and

BECK: Well, I think your artwork

his landmark cover

she’d throw it and it was magic.

has always been beautiful, and I

to Teen Titans #23

All she did was hold the handle

think it holds up even to this day.

(1969), courtesy of

and flip the thing out, and it was

CARDY: Well, I’ll tell you—[laughs]

Spencer Beck.

magic and it came back, see?

there’s a story. I went to this conven-

And she had a necklace, it was

tion, and drew two Wonder Girls, the

like a little whistle. And the

one with long hair—that’s the second

beads holding the necklace

costume—and the one with the pony-

were different pills for different

tail. And I drew a lot of nude figures

things that she could take off, like a shock pill or smoke

with bald heads.

pill or something, but they never used it. [chuckles] I

So when someone came up and say

don’t think anybody ever knew I did that. But that was

they wanted a Wonder Girl, I’d say,

the purpose of her belt, and nobody ever found out.

“Which one? The ponytail or the

BECK: It became an accessory, not part of her actual

hair?” And I’d have two finished, one

costume.

of each, so people could see which

CARDY: Yeah, that’s it. They didn’t use the costume the

one they want. And then I’d begin to

designed way I was supposed to. Maybe they didn’t—you

dress the nudes, the mannequins, see?

know, they still haven’t used the lasso. When she uses the

BECK: Nudes??? Shame on you.

lasso, you don’t know where the hell it comes from. They

[laughs]

put it on her side, but the belt was the actual lasso, you

CARDY: There’s this guy that wrote a

see. So anyway, the costume, as far as I know, holds up

biography of George Tuska, and he

with the rest of the costumes today.

was at the convention, and he said,

BECK: Do you feel today, at your age today as compared

“Can I have that one, the one with

back then, that it’s what you would have liked to have

nothing on?” I said, [chuckles] “Hey,

drawn in retrospect? You can always look back in hind-

I’m worried about you, you little dirty

sight and say, “If I was doing this, I would have put her

old man.” He said, “No, I just want

foot over here as compared to the way it was here”.

that one,” then he paid me for it. And I didn’t charge

CARDY: When I look back at when I did Lady Luck, or

him the full price . . . so it worked out fine.

some of these early jobs for Fiction House, I wish to hell

BECK: Is there any specific story about working with

they wouldn’t show those [anymore], but everybody

Carmine that sticks out in your head as a more unusual

says, “Oh, they’re collector’s items.” But the artwork in

memory? You said that you got fired more times than

those days was awful. Well, most of the artists today, they

anybody in the history of creation, and then he would

have video, they have computers when they want to look

say, “How are we going to do this job?” and so rehire

up something. You can see body builders—they can just

you within a few minutes of firing you.

stop the thing and watch how a muscle goes. With me, I

CARDY: Well, that was only one time. But I was never

had to get some photographs that I saw of a man lifting

fired by Carmine or anyone. The story was in my

Wonder Girl Revisted

Logo-less Legion Cardy’s original— minus logo—to the cover of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #203 (1974), featuring Validus of the Fatal Five. Contributed by Greg Wilson. © 2005 DC Comics.

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Did Carmine Say, “You’re Fired!”?

biography, where Julie Schwartz, who contributed a

“You know, we’ve been trying to get rid of a lot of dead-

tribute to me, wrote an article saying what he

wood around here.” And so it wound up that I didn’t get

remembered about me and he said, “I remember the

the raise. And I got a little upset and I said, “Well, if he

time that Nick Cardy

thinks I’m deadwood, I’m going to do a bang-up job on

came into the office

the next one,” which was a Christmas story [Teen Titans

and he had a cover

#13]. I don’t know if you remember.

finished, and Carmine

BECK: Yes, I do. A very wonderful story.

looked at the cover

CARDY: And so, in fact, Neal Adams says it’s a nice

and says, ‘This isn’t

job. The first time, we took a couple of guys, gave

the layout I gave

me compliments around there. I think if you ask for

you.’” And I was sup-

compliments in any of these places, they think

king Nick Cardy (center) was fired by former DC publisher Carmine Infantino (left)—and Nick reveals the details of his “dismissal” in this interview. Photo from The Amazing World of Superman, Metropolis Edition (1973). Photo © 2005 DC Comics.

you’re going to ask for a raise. [laughs]

“No, this is better.”

BECK: Yeah, pretty much.

And Carmine says,

CARDY: Anyway, I told Carmine that after this story

“You’re fired.” I said,

I’m going to leave so he told me, “Hang on. There’s

“Okay,” and I left. So

going to be changes.” And then he became the chief

Julie Schwartz turns

editor and then president.

to him and says, “You

BECK: That’s always good, to be in with the boss when

know,

he becomes the president.

Carmine,

that’s a beautiful cover.” So Carmine says, “Okay,

CARDY: Yeah. But I still don’t remember if I ever got a

call him back.” [Spencer laughs]

raise or not. [laughter]

Julius Schwartz (right) often claimed that cover

posed to have said,

Well, what happened was at one of the conventions,

BECK: In the 1970s, how much were you getting paid?

Julie Schwartz was selling his book and Carmine was

Obviously, we’re not going to ask to reveal what you

there. And I got to talking about Carmine and I said,

get paid now, but was the payment back then enough

“You know, Carmine, Julie Schwartz wrote something in

to live on, or was it hard to get by?

the book that I don’t remember at all and it doesn’t

CARDY: Well, everything was hard. I was a stickler for

sound like you at all.” And I told him the incident like I

details and if I had to do an animal or something like

just said, and he said, “That’s crazy. You know I always

that, it had to be exact, you know? And so I couldn’t

loved your work. Gee, you were one of the best artists in

rush through some of the stories like I did, but for the

the business. The guy’s crazy.” So I said, “Okay, come

covers, I enjoyed them. I took my time, but I was

on.” We went over to Julie Schwarz’s table and we told

getting, I don’t know, between 60 and 65 dollars a cover.

him what our problem was. And Carmine and I said,

BECK: Wow.

“We don’t remember the incident.” So Julie said, “Well,

CARDY: That’s the pencil and ink.

it’s a good story, anyway.” [laughs] And that was it. He

BECK: Wow.

let it go at that. [laughs] He just made it up. BECK: Oh, jeez.

Heritage place [Editor’s note: Heritage Galleries in

CARDY: So that’s the story on that. In fact, I did one

Dallas, Texas] had an auction in San Diego and they

job, after doing Aquaman, and Teen Titans, and Daniel

had one of my covers. The one was Wonder Woman

Boone, and all these other things, where I finally asked

falling in on the city, strapped to a bomb that’s going

[then-DC editor] George Kashdan, “Is there any chance

to blow up, and they paid $9,000 for that cover.

of getting a raise in the price of a page?”—and I’d been

BECK: Wow.

there quite a while. And he says, “You haven’t gotten

CARDY: And some of the other covers—in fact, they

anything?” So we went over to [DC executive] Irwin

sold $23,000 of some of my artwork. And I looked up

Donenfeld and George said, “Well, Nick’s been here

these pieces, I figured how much I was getting. I must

quite a while. Is there a chance of getting a raise?” And

have gotten three to four hundred dollars for all those

Donenfeld had this sad look on his face, and he said,

pieces. [laughs]

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CARDY: And that was in the ’70s. In 2002, this

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BECK: You know, you have to travel back in time to get

CARDY: If you want something that’s very majestic and

to get your artwork. We’d be rich. [laughs]

ethereal, you put it in a height like a column going up to

CARDY: [laughs] Well, I’ll tell you, there were stacks of

the roof, or like the top of a mountain. But if you want

original art on my comic shelf [at DC] . . . you know,

action, you put it diago-

comics pages, but I never knew of those pages. Some

nally from the lower

day, when we’re alone, I’ll tell you about the covers I

right-hand corner to the

salvaged from DC years ago. Well, that’s a story.

upper left-hand. You

[Spencer chuckles] I didn’t steal them, but I had to

get your action line,

“appropriate my own work.” [chuckles]

you see? Then you

BECK: Well, if they’re yours, they’re not stolen.

have repose line, a

Anyhow, back at that time, when you’re drawing the

horizon line, and you

covers, you did pretty much every DC title imaginable

can put in restful peo-

from super-heroes to the mysteries to the horrors to the

ple, sitting. It’s a mix-

sci-fi to the romance. Were there any of the genres that

ture of lines and how

you found more exciting? More of a challenge? Less fun?

it’s held together, you

CARDY: I think that some of the House of Mystery, some of

know?

the witch—what is that?—Witching Hour—and some of

BECK: Yeah. . . .

these horror things, they had a lot of atmosphere. The

CARDY:

super-heroes, I did more of that, but I got more interested

takes a long time

And

in the other things where you could create something.

to do that. I did a

You see, when you do a Superman cover, or a Flash, or

lot of studying for

a Justice League, you’re dealing with a lot of characters

that. [chuckles]

that are pre-set.

BECK: During all

BECK: You don’t have much room to experiment,

the time you were doing the covers, you said you enjoyed

because they have a pre-determined look?

telling a story, did you miss doing the sequential art on

CARDY: They’re dressed a certain way, and they do

the inside of the comics? Or was it kind of a trade because

certain things. But when you have a mystery cover

you were still telling a story?

like, say, House of Mystery, you could get very creative

CARDY: Well, one I really enjoyed was Bat Lash, in a

with that sort of thing, you see what I mean? And

sense, because I had total freedom with that. And

you’re not worried about the costume, you’re doing an

when I did Bat Lash, I started out very tight with pen

illustration for a horror thing—like a kid who’s driving

and ink like I did in The Brave and the Bold. And

like mad down the street in a horse and carriage, with

toward the last chapter, my style changed completely.

some damn witch following him in the air.

After the heavy line, I simplified everything. And so I

BECK: Right. Was creativity more important to you

experimented because I was learning through my

than the actual job?

experiments. Years ago, everybody, the artists, were

CARDY: Well, I took my time. I tried to put good artwork

working to develop a style. And one time, I was

into my work. In fact, the basis of my artwork was putting

drawing and Gil Kane came in and he said, “Gee,

in roughly. In those days, they had these big racks of

Nick.” He said, “Something about the job you did was

comics that were next to each other. And when you

really nice. I knew it was your work.” I said, “How did

looked at that, you had about three seconds for a cover to

you know my work?” He said, “Oh, I know your women.

catch your eye. I tried to make my covers so simple, and

Every time you draw women, I know your women, I

effective, so that you could catch it right off the bat. Just

know.” So people knew my style before I knew it!

enough to have the impact to hold you, you see?

BECK: Right.

BECK: They have to. If the cover did not look enticing,

CARDY: Kurt Busiek, he was on the subway—he wrote it

the interior probably wasn’t . . . or at least that is the

in my book, the last page—he said he was down in the

mindset people had at the newsstand.

subway and he saw this cover that I did for . . . oh, I forgot

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what that name of it was. But he said it looked familiar.

BECK: During the mid-’70s, something happened and

There was a girl in a rocketship that was resting on top

you left DC Comics to work for Marvel. You were doing

of a school bus [chuckles] and he said, “That’s a Nick

books like Crazy and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Was

Cardy girl.” So people know my

there an event that happened at DC or did you just want

work, as far as the women go. And in

to spread your wings and try working over at Marvel?

a way, that’s nice.

CARDY: Well, what happened was I had several nibbles

BECK: Do you like being known as

to do advertising. I put out some feelers. Before I ever left

a “girly” artist, so to speak,

any place, I put out my feelers to make sure. So I had

because you’re known for drawing

some of my samples sent so when I went to Marvel, they

beautiful women?

had a full cover in color and they wanted me to do a

CARDY: Oh, yeah. I like that, I like

kung fu-type thing and I practiced with acrylics. I did

that. [Spencer chuckles] I enjoy it.

several covers with acrylics. I was experimenting. Some

One time, I was on the [convention

came and did well, some I didn’t care for, and then I had

panel] stand with Colleen Doran,

the Kung Fu that was watercolor, and I was experiment-

and Marv Wolfman, and Sergio

ing with my colors and how they reproduce, you see?

Aragonés, and the moderator,

And because different colors—if you take a watercolor

Mark Evanier, was talking about

and you reproduce that, it has a watercolor look. As soon

the way I draw girls. I said, “Well,

as you put a little opaque on that, it jumps out. Opaque

you know, on the girls, they ask me

is anything that’s had light added to it. It makes that

the same question.” Then I said,

color darker so if you have, say there’s a skin tone and

Cardy Goes Crazy

“Well, you know, I took a lot of time. I did a lot of research

there’s a blotch on it and you try to cover it up, you try

In the mid-1970s, after

on these women.” [laughs] And I got a big laugh from

to put water—but if you put a little white with the same

leaving DC Comics,

the audience. I said, “No, no. I mean that an artist, to

tone on it, it looks good in the original. But when it

Nick illustrated several

me, is like a blender, all right? An artist—he takes a

prints, you could see it’s like a little patch on the leg, you

covers for Marvel’s

blender, an imaginary blender, he likes the way that girl’s

see? So I was experimenting to see how things repro-

MAD-like Crazy maga-

hair is, the way that artist draws the hair, and he uses

duce. And after I had that, I went to different agencies

zine, including this

that.” Then he says, “I like the way this other guy draws

to do movie posters.

Halloween cover for

his women’s faces,” so he’ll put that in. And he’ll put

BECK: What made your decision to say, “I’m going to get

issue #13 (Oct. 1975).

another one, “Well, I like the way the figures and the

out of comics altogether and go work for Hollywood”?

muscles go on this one,” and you put all those ones in.

CARDY: Well, the thing was that in the comics, it got

And after a while, if you copy them like this guy [George]

to the point that it’s like “Nick Cardy’s got an artwork,

Wunder that used to copy Terry and the Pirates, that’s

but we’ve got to get him something to do,” you see?

outright copying. But when you take all these things that

And it wasn’t anything that was interesting. It was just,

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you enjoy, then it becomes you.

“Oh, here’s a little job. We’ll have Nick board that. We

BECK: It’s a tribute and it’s you, right.

have another little job here to fill in, do this, do that,”

CARDY: And it’s the same. There is no original art

and I didn’t want that. Once you lose interest, you can’t

because the Renaissance copied from the Greeks, the

catch it back. And so I did layouts for movies, I did

Greeks copied from somebody else, and everybody

movie posters . . . oh, the sizes are different sizes. So

else was influenced by someone along the line, see?

even if I made it half the size, and made a couple of

And then the only time you could get anything that’s

layouts, I’d wind up with $2,000.

really original was when they got into this crazy

BECK: That works.

Abstract stuff, you know?

CARDY: I see that I should have been in this business a

BECK: Right.

long time ago, you know? [Spencer chuckles] And they

CARDY: Then you don’t know where the hell

kept me busy at that. And when you did a movie poster,

they’ve been. [Spencer chuckles] Well, anyway, that’s

say they wanted something humorous. They’d get [Jack]

a different story.

Davis, or some of these humorous artists, and they’d put

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Versatile Viscardi me in with it and they’ll say, “We’ll pay you $5000 for a

on movies, in retrospect, that are now considered

Cardy’s 1970s-vintage

finished,” you know? And then if the producer accepts

legendary films? And what did you do for those posters?

note card, featuring,

it, they’ll give you an extra $5000.

CARDY: Well, when Superman was announced to be a

from left to right:

BECK: That’s very profitable.

movie, I worked with this agency and they had me do a

Columbo and All in

CARDY: If you don’t, what happens is you just get

lot of layouts of Marlon Brando, all the people and the

the Family illos intend-

the $5,000.

characters and Superman. I did some pencil sketches

ed for TV Guide but

BECK: That still works out to be quite profitable on an

and different layouts, and I did the same with The Pink

unpublished, art from

hourly basis.

Panther. I worked a lot of those drawings and they had

the cover of Action

CARDY: Well, it worked out because I kept doing different

some on subway posters. And I worked on some of the

#438 (1974), and the

movies. They gave you, oh, these montage pages of all

Grease movie, you know? There were a lot of them that

movie poster illo for

the film on one sheet and if you wanted a character, like

I did. There was a movie called Casey’s Shadow, with

The Street Fighter

I did the California Suite and they gave me reference on

Walter Matthau, a racehorse-type thing. So I had to put

(1974). Note the

Michael Caine, and Jane Fonda, and all these characters.

Walter Matthau in a wagon, or in a car, or in a truck it

spelling of Cardy’s last

And if I wanted some enlarged, they would enlarge it for

was, and this little kid is sitting next to him and the horse

name, which was the

me. I did caricatures, but not severe caricatures like

is in the back, and I made him comical. But they were

spelling he generally

Hirschfeld, you know.

stuck in New York. The last time they had a movie poster

used for his non-

done in New York through the agency, they had a

comics work (his real

hurricane, or big thunderstorm, or something that

name is Viscardi).

stars and just a little exaggeration, you know; and

closed up the whole city. So this time, they paid me to

Courtesy of Wilf King

would sometimes, like with Barbra Streisand, I did her

go to California to the studio, their branch out there,

(www.nickcardy.com).

face, but I did the caricature in her body, you see. And

so I worked there. [chuckles]

one time, I wanted to do Barbra Streisand so I called

And the funny thing was that they put me in the

the agent for permission. She said, “Well, she wants to

conference room. They had these sliding doors that

see all permissions.” I said, “To hell with this, this is

close and the artists working on the other side.

getting too involved. I’m just a little guy.” [chuckles] So

Anything you need, you get it here so I bought

I did the caricature. It was never printed for the movie,

some really expensive art paper because I was going to

but I still have that original, and that was acrylics so I

do the finish there. And this little kid came in. He

was experimenting on a lot of things.

opened the door, he came in, he says, “Hi,” and he

BECK: Two of the most notable movie posters you did

looked around. And I was penciling or getting some-

were ones where you did some additions on the Star

thing laid out, and he says, “Could you do a rocket for

Wars poster [the droids] and some designs for the

me?” And so I got up, I put my pencils down, and I

Superman: The Movie poster. What was it like working

opened the door, and I said, “Who’s the kid in here?” He

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BECK: Right. CARDY: I did them where you recognize the movie

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I did that movie Apocalypse Now, I put the spare tires around his ribs, I made him heavy, I made him look like St. Peter with his eyes up to Heaven. He was holding a Shakespeare sonnet book up against his chest and he had this pathetic face. But in the other hand, he had a machine gun, he had all these weapons hanging from him. [chuckles] He was a contradiction of what he was supposed to be. And I had Martin Sheen in handcuffs, down by his feet. And when they looked at that, they said, “The drawing’s good, but you made him more of a caricature. This is more of a serious picture, see?” So, that’s the way that went. Now, I have that acrylic. I still have the original here. BECK: [chuckles] Between the choice of doing, since they’re both pinup-type pieces, a cover of a comic book or a movie poster, which would you find more creatively enjoyable? CARDY: Creatively enjoyable? Well, it depends. I think when you get something that’s in color, and while I was working at DC or Marvel, all you did, everything was in black-and-white, you see? And you had to leave your chances for color on who they had to color it. Sometimes, you have a color conception that you want to do, that you want to keep it in the warm colors. And then the color would come in, and they’d put a purple color on that, and it just threw everything off. And then when you questioned them why they put the purple, they says, “Well, the color you wanted, we used the month before. We don’t want to use the same color,” see? [chuckles] Well, you had no control of it—you never knew who was going to get your cover, see? But when you’re doing an advertising thing, you control the color, you control the design. They give you a rough pencil sketch of what they want, then you design that within

Lethal Lois

said, “That’s the producer’s kid.” [chuckles] So I came back

Since the Action #438

and said, “How big do you want the rocket?” [laughs]

snippet from the “Cardi”

Well, anyway, it was a little on the brown-nosing, but I

note card no doubt has

never was insincere. [Spencer chuckles] But I had some

you dying for more,

nice experiences up there.

here’s the full cover,

BECK: Didn’t you also work on the poster for

featuring a She-Hulk-

Apocalypse Now?

sized Lois Lane. Courtesy

CARDY: Yeah, I did that. I did a poster for the people

of Heritage Comics

that had me do the robots in the Star Wars. They wanted

(www.heritagecomics.com).

me to do something for Apocalypse Now from my

experience of doing Marlon Brando in the Superman movie, when he was very fat. They had this gown on him, they disguised him. He was very, very fat. So when

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that framework and you make what color you’re going to use, what the important characters are, what the story’s about, and you create. If it’s a certain hero, and there’s a lot of characters, but the heroes are the ones that are important, you make them larger and the others are subservient to that. So you create a design to suit the mood of what they’re trying to say. BECK: Right. CARDY: So as a result, everything has got to gel. The color has to combine with the mood that that cover’s trying to portray. And the main thing is the simplicity and the likeness, the likeness of the characters, you see. BECK: Was there any cover or any other pieces that

you did that you look back specifically and say, “This is

they used photographs, and all that. But I’d learned

it. This is the defining piece that I’ve done”?

from them, the polished way they did their work. And

CARDY: You mean in movie posters?

at first, when I was very young, I copied Hal Foster

BECK: Either/or. Either/or or both.

before I got into comics. But otherwise, those were my

CARDY: Well, I tell you, let me put it this way, at DC,

inspirations and as I went along, I kept learning. I had

when I did covers, if I made a hundred, there may be

some of the masters, my design came from Degas and

two or three that I’m pleased with, that they worked

a few of these artists, the beautiful designs, you know.

out the way I wanted, and maybe pieces of another five,

And each thing went into that Mixmaster, that’s all. I

like I like the way the heads came out on that cover. The

have ruined a lot of Mixmasters. [laughs]

rest, forget it, you know? [chuckles] And pieces, out of a

BECK: Now it is time for the last question for the

hundred, I would think, maybe, about five that I

interview: Years and years and years from now, 30, 40

enjoyed. With the movie posters, then you were limited.

years from now, when people look back at your career,

Maybe you could explain this to me. In the Gulf

what would you like them to remember most specifically

Building, in New York City, they had Paramount

that defined Nick Cardy or was Nick Cardy, from every-

upstairs. And so I got two agencies that wanted me to

thing in your career from the day you first picked up a pen-

do a movie poster about a sauna tub—I forgot what the

cil?

name of it was, but I’ll think of it later. And I did one for

CARDY: Well . . . that I was a good craftsman. You see, I

one company and one for the other. And one was in oil

did some things with a brush and a pencil that I was

and one was in watercolor. And so when I took it up to

proud of. But at that time, most of the jobs I got

Paramount, the president of Paramount said, “You

weren’t super-heroes, it’s only when I got to do the

know, Nick, I love your work,” and he said, “but by

covers. I got Aquaman, but he was a second-rate char-

working with two agencies, you’re working against

acter compared to Superman, and Batman, and Green

yourself.” I couldn’t figure that out. How could I be

Lantern. A lot of artists have come up to me and tell me

working against myself when I had the monopoly on

that they learned a lot from my work, and I had some

the two companies that are doing the advertising?

nice compliments from some great people. But I’d like to

BECK: Right.

be known for my craft and known for drawing nice

CARDY: And up to this day, I can’t figure it out. But he

women, you know? Oh . . . characterization.

loved one of the covers and they sent it to Hollywood.

With an illustrator, he just does it, one illustration,

The producer loved it, everybody loved it, they said,

where with comic books, you’re telling stories like a

“This is great.” But the producer’s wife didn’t like it and

movie director and you’re having the fans participate in

so she picked an artist and all you saw was this sauna

what you’re trying to say. And if I gave them enjoyment

tub. Instead of these people sitting in the sauna tub, you

in that—and if the art is good—then I feel you got a

just saw a big splash and just the feet finishing the dive

double sense of satisfaction, you see. And I think a good

into the sauna tub, and that was it.

movie director always considers having the people

BECK: Right.

participate. If, for example, you had a guy walking down

CARDY: [chuckles] But I enjoyed the illustration because I

the hall and there’s a girl that’s making herself up with a

was always a frustrated illustrator. I never did quite make

vanity kit in her room, and you could just see the lower

it and that’s what I was learning. I was learning it while I

part of this body. He isn’t well dressed, but he’s got a

was doing my craft to be an illustrator. And most of the

dagger in his hand. And this girl’s humming away and

comic artists used to copy from other comic artists.

he’s coming toward the door. And then the next thing,

Oh, yeah. A lot of comic artists at the time, they

you come in, you hear the girl scream. You don’t see

were copying from, oh, Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond,

anything happening. You hear the girl scream, that’s

Hal Foster, et cetera, and the guy who they call the King

when your imagination comes in, and saying, “Gosh.”

of Comics. But anyway, they worked for Marvel—those

One will say, “Oh, he’s slapping her around.” Another

copying Kirby. But with me, I was copying from the

one will say, “My God, they’re ripping her to bits.”

illustrators because they had a refinement, even though

Different interpretations, you see. And that’s where they

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1 1

The Way it Wasn’t As this original from

put your speed when you build up the momentum. Other than that, just say, “Nick didn’t get paid

the collection of Terry

BECK: Yes? CARDY: Just put in that I have a wonderful agent.

much,” that’s all. [laughter]

[laughter]

drew Wonder Woman

BECK: Well, it’s a shame, because you’re definitely a

BECK: Must be a great guy.

on the cover of the

legend, and we’re all glad that you’ve been here to

CARDY: Yes, you are.

touch our lives.

BECK: Thanks . . . the feeling is mutual. Nick, again,

Spectacular #DC-14

CARDY: Well, I’m still looking forward to doing some of

thank you for your time, and for a career that has

(1973), but for publica-

my better work. I get a kick out of doing some of these

brought happiness and inspiration to lots of young

tion she was statted

fan drawings, because they’re different and I’m working

people and brought out the kid in lots of adults.

and repositioned on

with pencils, where I never worked on tight pencils

CARDY: Well, THANK YOU to all of the fans who have

the back cover, trading

before. But someday, I’d like to get back to my brush. I’d

supported me throughout my career. It has been a

like to do some painting too, you know, if I can.

pleasure growing up with you.

Austin shows, Cardy

Batman 100-Page Super

that spot with Wildcat, who was at the time enjoying a wave of popularity via Brave and

BECK: Well, we’ve gotta see some more work out of you. Your best is yet to come, as they say.

Spencer Beck is a businessman by day, original-art dealer by

CARDY: Oh, yeah. Well, I expect to live to about to

night. His company, The Artist’s Choice, represents some of the

another hundred years yet. You know, I’m thinking what

best in the biz including Mark Bagley, Nick Cardy, José Luis

Batman. Also, Batman

the hell, you might as well go for it. [chuckles]

García-López, Dick Giordano, Paul Gulacy, Kevin Maguire,

took center stage on

BECK: There you go. Well, Nick, thank you for your

and many, many more. Visit www.theartistschoice.com.

the published cover.

time. We appreciate the time that you’ve taken.

Bold team-ups with

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Girls’ Love Stories #148 (Jan. 1970).

Falling in Love #112 (Jan. 1970).

Aquaman #55 (Jan.–Feb. 1971).

The Brave and the Bold #100 (Feb.–Mar. 1972). T h a t

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Secrets of Sinister House #5 (#1) (June–July 1972).

The Unexpected #140 (Oct. 1972).

Superman #260 (Jan. 1973).

Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (Feb. 1973).

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The Witching Hour #30 (Apr. 1973).

The Witching Hour #31 (June 1973).

The Unexpected #148 (July 1973).

The Witching Hour #45 (Aug. 1974). T h a t

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Death of Romance (Comics!! ) The Terrible, Tragic (>Sob!<)

John Lustig

When I was a kid, I was only dimly aware that romance comics even existed. Generally, if a comic didn’t have a super-hero on the cover, it was invisible to me. And by the late ’70s, romance comics were apparently invisible to everyone else as well. Except for a couple of short-lived reprint titles in the early ’80s, the romance genre was dead . . . with a finality that would’ve baffled any certain-tobe resurrected super-villain. And yet, there was a time when romance comics far outnumbered super-hero comics. It was an era when romance comics were so popular that girls (and women!) were crowding out boys at the

Last Kiss

comic racks. And it was a time when the comics

John Lustig, author of

industry loved love comics with a passion that

this article, paid $400

would have made most fanboys blush.

in 1987 for all rights to

So how could a genre that popular wither

Charlton Comics’ 40-

and die?

issue romance series

Like most love affairs gone wrong, it was a lot

First Kiss (1957–1965).

of little things . . . and you have to go back to the

Using this vintage art,

beginning to understand.

John (who is also a

Young Romance appeared in ’47—the four-

Disney comics writer)

color lovechild of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. It

alters the dialogue in

was a sensation almost equal to the first

his Last Kiss weekly web comics (http://www.lastkissco

appearance of Superman. According to comics historian Michelle Nolan, “Within two years, over 125 romance titles were on the comic racks.” In her book From Girls to Grrlz, Trina Robbins states that “by 1950, more than one quarter of the comic

mics.com), as he’s done here in this heartthrobbing panel drawn

books published were romance comics. This was the same year that a graph in Newsdealer magazine showed that females ages 17 to 25 were reading more comic books than guys.”

by dashing Dick

“Before romance comics, we never acknowledged that the comics audience was in any part female,”

Giordano. If you’re not

Joe Simon told me in a 2002 interview. “And it turned out to be a huge market. We were all wrong about

yet a fan of Last Kiss—

that. It spanned all ages, too. Simon and Kirby made it clear from the beginning that Young Romance wasn’t just for kids. The first issue’s

you will be! Visit the site and sign up for the free

cover boasted that the series was “for the more adult readers of comics.” With the success of Young Romance, followed by Simon and Kirby’s spin-off series, Young Love, most comic

weekly Last Kiss e-comic! 1 6

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publishers jumped into romance with gusto. So much so that 1950 produced a glut and many publishers subsequently cut back on their love lines. But romance was still a vital and profitable genre through the ’50s and ’60s. But after that things went down hill fast. “When I left DC in the late ’60s, romance titles were among the bestsellers in the DC line-up,” notes Dick Giordano. “When I returned to a DC editorial post in 1980, they were gone. I’m not sure why they went away, but a guess that girls simply outgrew romance comics is probably correct. The harder question then becomes why?” Giordano thinks that the content of the stories in the ’70s was “too tame for the more sophisticated, sexually liberated, women’s libbers that were able to see nudity, strong sexual content, and life the way it really was in other media. “Hand holding and pining after the cute boy on the football team just didn’t do it any more, and the Comics Code wouldn’t pass anything that truly resembled real life relationships.” While the Comics Code devastated the horror and crime genres in the mid-’50s, romance seemed relatively unscathed—at first. In fact, Nolan thinks the Code initially strengthened the romance genre— at least in terms of market share “for a little while.” Compared to other genres, says Nolan, romance comics were only “censored a little bit. You couldn’t show cleavage and you couldn’t have topics that were taboo like interracial marriage. You couldn’t sensationalize topics that way. Some of Simon and

the stove, Pa! If you have to do it, spit on the floor!

Kirby’s comics had to be toned down, for example.”

It won’t splash out and burn me!”

Many romance fans feel that those Simon and

And then there’s Cal’s brother, who demands “a

Kirby stories were the best of the love comics. Certainly,

big kiss” as soon as he meets Marcia: “Cal’s brother

they were among the most interesting, experimental

was full of fun, all right! He was also full of something

and (at times) outrageous. Occasionally, they went

he had been spreading around the field outside!

beyond outrageous and were downright wacky!

When he touched me, I stuck to him!”

The sexual revolution and changing mores of the late 1960s were only hinted at in romance comics of the day. This cover to Secret Hearts #137

For instance, a Young Romance from ’49 features a

Eventually, Marcia flees. (Smart girl!) Later, she

story “Meet the Folks.” In the story, Marcia is horrified

learns not be such a snob and returns to Cal’s family

by Bill Draut, inked

when she goes home with sophisticated Cal

. . . and, presumably, saves them from another

by Dick Giordano,

Anderson and discovers that his family lives in a

generation of inbreeding.

and comes to us

(1969) was penciled

shack and is almost unbearably coarse. For instance,

Even when the Simon and Kirby stories weren’t being

Ma Anderson provides this helpful advice: ”How

(one presumes) deliberately outrageous like this, they

of Terry Austin.

many times have I told you not to spit tobacco on

were almost always colorful, unusual, and interesting.

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Two pages from the story "Masquerade," stylishly drawn by Alex

“I just didn’t want [the stories] to be boring,”

Instead of stories about generic “guys and gals,”

Toth for editor Dick

said Simon. “I’d put anything in there. If it had . . . a

Howell says the Simon-Kirby romances were about

Giordano, from Secret

spark of love and a kiss—and if I had an opening—

people who had real personalities and colorful problems.

Hearts #143 (1970).

I’d put it in. I didn’t think too much about formula.”

Certainly Simon and Kirby weren’t the only ones

Courtesy of Terry

Claypool Comics Editor Richard Howell says this

to produce interesting romance comics. But with the

Austin.

willingness to try anything is one of the things

advent of the Comics Code (in ’54) romance comics

(besides talent) that set the Simon-Kirby books apart.

finally had some restrictions, and the temptation to

“They didn’t have any boundaries, because they

stick with “formula” and be less daring increased.

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were inventing the genre as they went along. And

For the most part, pre-Code romance comics (like

they didn’t look at them as something which only

the confession magazines that inspired them) tried to

told simple stories of romance. Their stories had real

entice readers with covers and story titles that promised

environment to them. They also took pains to make

scandal and lust, but rarely delivered anything too risqué.

the characters interesting, lively, and specific.”

After the Code, the suggestive, sexy lures that romance

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“It’s not a coincidence that

As romance comics’

romance comics became popular

pulse slowed during

at the start of the Baby Boom.

the 1970s, Archie-

That’s one reason romance comics

inspired teen comics

were so popular. They were read

became a popular

mostly by women who were

home for love,

dreaming of having children or

American style.

were raising small children, and

The original cover

who were, in theory, in love with

art to Date with

their husbands.

Debbi #7 (1970) by

“The United States has never

cartoonist Henry

[since] been more domesticated.

Scarpelli is courtesy

More babies were born in the

of Heritage Comics.

’50s than any other decade.”

But with the Code in place, romance comics were not just locked into ’50s morality. They were a pale reflection of it—sanitized and guaranteed not to offend. “Post-Code romance is really pretty dull to me, too many restrictions on relationships to build a juicy obstacle to overcome in order to achieve happiness or bliss,” says romance fan Rod Bleck. By the late ’60s, the counterculture movement comics could use were considerably diminished.

was causing kids to challenge their parents’

“There’s a cover of Teenage Romances, published

mores—especially when it came to sex. And then,

in ’54, just before the Code, that shows a boy climbing

feminism in the ’70s caused girls to question almost

over a seat in a car,” says Nolan. “And the boy is

everything about their relationships with men.

telling the girl, ‘As long as we’re stuck here tonight, we might as well make the best of it.’ “It’s a highly suggestive cover. The girl looks terrified and . . . it would’ve never passed the Comics Code.

Meanwhile, romance comics—even when they added “mod” fashions and faux-hippy dialogue— were still firmly mired in the mores and attitudes of the ’50s.

If you look at romance covers after the Code, they’re

Joe Gill, who wrote most of Charlton’s

largely just one girl looking at her rival and . . . crying.

romance comics, says he always felt a responsibility

There’s nothing suggestive about them.”

to keep the stories clean and moral. “I knew what I

The first romance comics “were a product of their

was writing was being read by young, impressionable

times,” notes Nolan. “After World War II the soldiers

people . . . and I didn’t want to corrupt them. You

came home and the women largely became house-

know, virtue was its own reward . . . [laughs] and

wives. In the ’50s, domestic bliss was very much a

all that sh*t.”

theme in romance comics.

Meanwhile, other mediums were providing

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cheaper, sexier, and more realistic

outlets for romance fans. Nolan points out, “Harlequin started publishing romance novels in great numbers in the ’60s. And then other companies came along with the ‘bodice rippers’ . . . and took away all the adult readers of romance comics.” In addition, underground comics were becoming popular. Almost all featured plenty of sex. (So which would you rather read? A traditional romance comic such as First Kiss? Or an underground called Young Lust?) Virtually everyone who was interviewed for this article blamed TV (at least in part) for the decline in comics readership in general and romance comics in particular. To find romance and sex all you had to do was turn on your TV. And if you watched some of the increasingly racy soap operas . . . you’d learn more then you could get out of any romance comic. “If you took a long, hard look at the way ABC changed soap operas when One Life To Live went on the air in ’68, I think you’d find that they hit upon the

it harder for the general public to find comics, says

same female audience that originally read romance

Nolan. She believes this is another reason why

comics as teenagers,” says web comic creator Liriel

almost all genres except super-heroes died out. By

McMahon (http://badbloodcomic.com). “Really,

and large, the owners and patrons of comic shops

though, I blame TV for just about everything. Thank

were hardcore fans who were primarily interested

goodness for the Internet!”

in just one genre: super-heroes.

Gill says the only way romance comics could’ve

“In 1980 you were more likely to encounter a

been saved is if everyone turned off their TV sets.

brontosaurus than a girl in a comics shop,” says

“Television changed all the values of the (subse-

Lance Tooks, romance comic fan and creator of

quent) generations . . . enormously. They found out

the graphic novel, Narcissa.

about sex and drugs. It was pretty sordid. And these

But while love comics were dying out, romance

harmless little comics had no place in their lives.”

was sneaking into the increasingly dominant super-

There were, of course, other forces at work.

hero genre. Romance was usually at the center of the

The demise of “mom and pop grocery stores”

angst-driven subplots of early Marvel comics.

and the rise of comic-book specialty stores made

Indeed, romantic angst was one of the things that

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set Marvel apart from DC . . . and ended up making Marvel wildly successful.

Of course, many of DC’s heroes also had girl-

“Marvel integrated the romance theme as subplots.

friends and love interests,

So anyone who wanted to read romance comics

but there wasn’t much

could just read them as super-heroes.” says Howell,

smooching or passion.

whose Claypool comic, Deadbeats, has done much

“DC got a late start,” says

the same—throwing in plenty of romantic angst into

Nolan.

its tales of vampires.

were less angst-ridden

“Marvel knew that throwing in romance

“DC’s

[heroes]

and more traditional.”

themes would add to the angst, the realism, and

During the ’70s, DC

the drama,” says Nolan. “There were so many

heroes started encountering

more story possibilities when Mary Jane and

more angst—romantic and

Spider-Man were together. And most of the readers

otherwise—than

were older boys, high school or college kids, and

But over at Marvel, things

they were interested in girls.

were really heating up.

“And so, let’s say an 18- or 20-year-old would be

“Chris

before.

Claremont’s

reading Spider-Man or Daredevil. Well, throwing a girl

X-Men scripts always leaned

in there didn’t hurt it at all.”

heavy on the melodrama,” says Tooks. “Girls who liked comics and male romance

Charlton’s Career Girl

fans alike ate that series up.”

Romances #74

And why not? With Marvel superheroes, fans got a lot of the same emotional

(1973) featured a

content as traditional romance comics—

Susan Dey poster!

plus capes, tights, and slugfests!

Art by Mike Vosburg; contributed by

“Instead of looking at each other

Heritage Comics.

longingly across a typing pool, the protag-

onists did the same while trying to save the world,” notes Tooks. Ironically, the astounding sales of Marvel’s romance-soaked super-hero books helped hasten the demise of traditional romance comics (and other genres.) “The success of the Marvel super-heroes made DC change their priorities and chase Marvel super-heroes,”

comments

Giordano.

Artists Bob Oksner

“Remember that Westerns, mysteries, and

and Vinnie Colletta

crime titles all disappeared to make room for

succumbed to “pier”

the Spandex crowd.”

pressure on this Falling in Love #140 (1973)

The pressure to publish more superhero books and cut back on other genres

shared with us by

had begun.

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Even so, DC tried to keep the romance genre

A Love Story/He and She mixed-religion marriageinspired cover to Charlton’s Just Married #99 (1975), drawn by Martinez and DeZuniga and courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2005 the respective copyright holder.

alive. While a common complaint among romance fans is that most of the writers of romance were middle-aged men who were out of touch with the concerns of teenage girls in the swinging ’60s and ’70s, Giordano points out that DC did have a woman romance editor in the early ’70s. “DC hired Dorothy Woolfolk to try and present a strong feminine touch. It didn’t work. She left and the titles disappeared as they were destined to do. The audience changed and changing the material was an exercise in futility.” In ’71, DC also tried to revitalize the romance genre by launching two gothic romance series, The Sinister House of Secret Love and The Dark Mansion

Holy Oedipus,

of Forbidden Love. “They were launched to try to

Groom-Man! Cut those

take advantage of booming gothic romance novel

apron strings! Art

sales in bookstores,” explains Giordano. “They

Capello’s cover artwork

were a dollar short and a day late. Comics could

to Just Married #107

never move quickly enough to jump on many

(1975), courtesy of

short-lived entertainment trends. The fads generally

Heritage Comics.

moved off while comic publishers were still

thinking about it.” Meanwhile, traditional romance becoming

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comics

were

in the early years of romance comics “there were writers and artists that specialized in romance and

increasingly

enjoyed doing it. As an editor of two romance titles

less popular—with both

for DC during the late ’60s, I don’t recall anyone

readers and at least some

expressing the feeling that they were lowering

pros. “In my years at

themselves by drawing romance. Most, as I,

Marvel (’79–’83), I never

enjoyed the experience.”

met a cartoonist, male or

(It’s worth noting, however, that not all of the

female, who would’ve

men—and it was mostly men—who wrote

admitted to enjoying

romance comics in the ’40s and ’50s viewed them

romance comics,” says

with such enthusiasm. Joe Gill remembers that, “I

Tooks. “I imagine sales

worked for Stan Lee way back when and as comic

had begun to fade

assignments were getting rarer he offered me

throughout the ’70s,

some romance assignments—and I wouldn’t do

but the books were

them. I thought they were sissy stuff. I’d rather go

also looked at with the

work on the docks!” Later, of course, with a family

same

to feed, Gill changed his mind and while at

Harlequin books and

derision

Charlton went on to become probably the most

TV soap operas.”

prolific romance-comics writer of all time.)

In contrast, Dick

By the ’70s, though, a new generation of writers

Giordano notes that

and fans were working in the industry—most of

1976 with a pair of reprint titles—My Love and

Heroes without Love?

Our Love Story [Editor’s note: A spotlight on

Here’s a wild What if. . . ? premise: What if. . . romance comics

them (like their fans) loved super-heroes and cared little for genres that involved less action and more estrogen. Marvel closed out the last of it romance line in

Marvel’s romance titles follows this article]. DC followed suit in 1977 when its last romance comic, Young Love, was cancelled.

John Lustig

never existed? The answer? Well . . . probably not much would’ve been different— except that Marvel’s line of super-heroes might have been considerably

Charlton, easily the most prolific romance

less marvelous. In fact, without romance comics, there might not have

publisher in the ’70s, ended its love line in 1976,

even been a Marvel . . . or much of a comic-book industry left by now.

revived it in 1979 with two titles (I Love You and

Insane? Probably. But here’s my tortured logic:

Secret Romance) and then cancelled them a few

First of all, there’s at least a possibility that Atlas/Marvel as well much

months later in 1980. And then, in a last burst of

of the rest of the comics industry might not have survived the ’50s

misplaced semi-enthusiasm, Charlton launched a

without the revenue from romance comics.

couple

But let’s be optimistic and say they did.

reprint

romances in 1982 (Soap Opera

Romances

So maybe Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and

and

others would’ve still have been around

Soap Opera Love) and

to create the Marvel Universe. But

then cancelled both the

would it be a universe that any of us

following year.

recognize? If Stan and Jack hadn’t

Could anything have

pumped out ’50s romances would

saved romance?

they have ever thought to infuse their

“No,” says Giordano.

super-hero comics with the sort of

“I think the time for

romantic angst that made Marvel

romance comics was past

such a success?

and no amount of doctoring

And it wasn’t just Stan and Jack

could change that.

who perfected their romantic angst

“On the other side of

techniques through love comics.

that statement: The sales

John Buscema, Gene Colan, Vince

success of anime and manga

Colletta, Don Heck, John Romita,

in this country is largely

Sr., Wally Wood, and just about

attributable to a female

every other veteran artist at Marvel

audience. This might be the

(and DC) in the ’60s and early ’70s

time to approach the idea

spent at least part of the ’50s

of romance graphic novels

drawing romances.

for a young-adult bookstore audience.

Just

not

What would Marvel Comics have

with

been like without all those years of

my money!!!!!!!”

collective romance experience? Would we have ended up with

(>Choke!<)

a Spider-Man without a Mary Jane Watson? A

From our friends at Heritage Comics comes the

Daredevil without a Karen Page? Or a Thor without that insipid,

original cover art to Young Love #119 (1976),

annoying Jane Foster? (Oh, please!)

drawn by the amazing Bob Oksner.

Face it, Tiger. We’ll never know!

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Our Love Story #23 is one of the many reasons the

Marvel romance books were winners: a Buscema/ Giacoia cover. This one originally served as the cover for Our Love Story #3 (1970), but was reprinted later with new stats. Still later, Romita took a shot at the same scenario for the My Love

A L ook at M arvel’s ’ 70 s L ove C omics

Without the customary fanfare that had become a

mileage from its

female outsider in tearful suffering.

staple of Marvel’s in-house marketing, My Love (ML)

John Romita, Sr.’s later offering for Our Love

#1 appeared quietly on the stands in, appropriately

Story (OLS) #1 was even better. Stan “the Man”

for the genre, the springtime of 1969.

Lee handled all of the early writing for both titles,

Its cover was an elegant study in romantic

and with John Buscema, Don Heck, Gene Colan,

yearnings fulfilled and unfulfilled, with its three

and Romita on interiors, it was wonderfully apparent

characters posed under a deep, violet evening sky

that the House of Ideas didn’t separate their talent

#35 cover. The House of Ideas got plenty of

Jerry Boyd

romance stories! Copied

perfect for young lovers and drawn in Romita-vision.

pool into those who did love comics and those

for us by Jerry Boyd.

This gorgeous and underappreciated scenario would

who didn’t. It was that major difference that

be typical of later covers—a love triangle with the

made their two books so memorable and special.

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Man’s

The

dialogue,

Jazzy Johnny Romita

though he’d been happily

had already done a

married for years, was hip

ton of DC love comics

and his yarns as vibrant as

by the time he drew

his super-hero material. But

what

got

this one in 1970 for

the

their Marvel-ous

Marvelites back into doing

competitor, but he

romance when their other

outdid his earlier work

stuff was doing so well? Stan

comments,

with a new boldness

“It

indicative of the

never mattered to me

Bullpen’s achievements.

what type of mags we did

Supplied by Jerry Boyd.

type the fans wanted to read at that time.” Romita enjoyed

adds, the

“I

romance

titles as a change from the super-heroes, but we were all too ‘deadline’strapped to enjoy ourselves freely. The first cover (if memory serves) with the big teary-eyed blonde comes to mind. I had a ball doing her long hair. Stan was hoping to inject all the tricks we were employing in the personal lives of our heroes, adding a dimension the earlier romance titles never had. He also hoped to get a little more ‘adult’ storylines in them.” Deadlines and overwork notwithstanding, the collective passion of the Bullpenners showed through in their stories and Stan’s affinity for the “twist endings” (which often resulted) were very seductive. These were books worth reading and better than most in the genre. Marvel ace Dick Ayers liked the experience, also. Dick remembers, “I enjoyed inking John [Buscema] and Gene’s romance pencils very much. They seemed more interesting than the

usual romance stories I was assigned to ink. John’s pencils were ideal for my brushwork. I always liked Gene’s pencils as they were always terrific with dramatic use of blacks.” However, the company’s expanding line-up forced the original crew elsewhere and Vince Colletta’s old ’50s tales were partially redrawn to allow for the newer hairstyles and funkier clothing of the ’70s. For a while, loyal readers had to content themselves with memories of the perfection of the earlier issues, particularly Our Love Story #5—with three stories scribed by Stan, one of © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Romita’s best covers, and superb renderings by

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Buscema/Frank Giacoia, Colan/Romita, and a tour de force by Jim Steranko! At the time, Jim

(right) John Romita, Sr.’s outasite corner box art,

was seeking to put his unique imprint on as many genres as possible, and he executed the magnificent

courtesy of Mike Burkey

“My Heart Broke in Hollywood!” (with a psychedelic

(www.romitaman.com).

economy-of-line approach that may have inspired

(inset) Jazzy Johnny

Peter Max).

Romita poses for a pic

But by the 12th issues the reprints faded some-

taken in the early

what and new creators made inroads onto Marvel’s

1970s for the cover of

Lovers’ Lane. (Sadly, Kirby, co-creator of the genre,

FOOM #18.

didn’t do a yarn before he headed to DC.) New

artists (and a few veterans came in, also) included Alan Weiss, Paty, Sal Buscema, Jack Katz, George Tuska, Jack Abel, and Steve Englehart. That’s right. Steve Englehart, the artist. Steve enjoyed his layouts as well as the overwhelming inking done on his two illustrated tales by Abel and Romita. “And you can look a lot better with those guys helping you out,” he notes. (Englehart’s penciling was in Our Love Story #15, “One Fleeting Moment,” and My Love #16, “Puppet on a String.”) New writers during this period included Holli Resnicoff, Jeanie Thomas, Gary Friedrich (who wrote a tale of heartbreak at Woodstock beautifully realized by the great Gray Morrow: My Love #14, 1971), Anne Spencer, and Steve Englehart. Well, actually . . . Anne Spencer was Steve Englehart. Steve explains, “I used a pseudonym for those stories: ‘Anne Spencer,’ since my sister’s name was Anne and she married a guy from Spencer, Indiana. This writing overlapped my career as an artist, so I also took on the art jobs; it was probably they that determined the end of

A very nice Colan/Ayers sequence

said ‘career.’ But there was nothing more exotic to any of this than taking the chance to do anything in comics if I could.

from Our Love Story

“When I was a young writer at Marvel, Marvel

#21 (1970), reprinted

still had a lot of non-super-hero books, so they

from an earlier mag.

could try out young writers off the beaten path,

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The mystery is revealed! Ann Spencer didn’t write this tale of heartbreak—Steve Englehart did! This impressive splash was

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Despite the energy involved, no real ground was broken. Self-centered young lasses still got their deserved comeuppances, hardworking/lonely girls found the boy of their dreams, and manipulative ladies ended up betrayed by others of the same temperament. There were some new wrinkles, though. The Marvel lovers had to deal with the modern complexities of the women’s rights movement, estrangement due to Vietnam, class distinctions, and boyfriends with shoulder-length hair! Minority couples were present, in addition. By the time ML and OLS reached their 20s, everything was reprinted. Both books folded before reaching 40. Maybe the problem was . . . the genre itself. Unlike sword-and-sorcery, horror, and cosmic battles, there was no room to maneuver creatively. Comics Code restrictions and conventional thinking kept events fairly predictable, and sales, Romita comments, “probably were not as high as the publisher hoped they’d be, and that’s all the reasons needed [for cancellation].” Roy Thomas, who edited them for a time, says, “I liked the art, especially the Steranko story, but I hated losing the guys from the ‘important’ books and didn’t feel any real sadness when those mags went under.” Stan Lee puts it this way: “It’s easy to tell when a genre dies out—it’s when that type of book stops selling!” Still, cancellation doesn’t cancel out the memories . . . and My Love and Our Love Story

Romita/Giacoia’s original art for the cover of

and then keep them working off the path, until

still provide a lot of good ones to the fans who

judged ready for a super-hero book.”

bought and . . . loved them.

Night Nurse #2 (1973),

By late ’72, however, Romita was art director and

starring the lovelorn

he was a little disappointed in the quality of art the

Special thanks to Stan Lee, Dick Ayers, John Romita,

Florence Nightingale

fledgling illustrators exhibited. The Jazzy One observes,

Sr., Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Russ Heath,

Linda (not Lynda)

“We were unable to give the [love] project the

Michael Kelly, John Lustig, and Michael Eury for their

Carter. Courtesy of

attention it needed and couldn’t continue to impose

help in preparing this piece. And dedicated to John

Heritage Comics.

on our top artists to do double duty, and using young

Buscema, who drew pretty girls like no one else.

artists on romance work was not wise. The work on those stories required subtlety and glamour not easy to find in young artists. Just my opinion, of course.”

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the ever-lovin’

The Birth of the Modern Graphic Novel (and the Rebirth of a Legend):

Dan Johnson

By the late 1970s, Will Eisner was already a legend in the comics industry. As one of the founders of the Eisner-Iger Studio, and the creator and co-creator of such classic characters as Blackhawk, Doll Man, Uncle Sam, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Eisner had already earned a place in the annals of comic-book history. And lest we forget, there was also the Spirit. Through Denny Colt’s alter ego Eisner had obtained an iconic status in the field and a legion of fans. By 1978, Eisner had already done more in the comics industry than most of his peers from the Golden Age. By this time, many of the artists and writers who had come up with Eisner during the 1930s and the 1940s had already left the business, and of the ones who were still working in the field, no one was looking to them to revolutionize the medium. In 1978, though, that was just what Eisner did, producing A Contract with God, the first modern graphic novel. With the release of this work, Eisner reassured his place as comics’ premier artist. He also redefined himself as a storyteller, and forever redefined comics. The story of A Contract with God began in 1971. By that time Eisner had left mainstream comics and was producing educational pamphlets

“And this is what inspired Will to get back into doing comics”. . . . . .says editor Diana Schutz of Eisner’s desire to explore autobiographical material, even heartbreaking personal stories, in the graphic-novel format. © 2005 Will Eisner Estate.

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Comix intrigued Eisner, but what really caught the Golden Age artist’s attention at this show was the freedom the Underground artists had to create the kind of stories that they wanted to. “Will always told the same joke about [this particular convention],” Diana Schutz, Eisner’s Dark Horse editor, tells BACK ISSUE. “At the show he met all these guys with long hair, they all smelled a little funny, and they always laughed at the wrong times! But he was very interested in the work that they were doing. [He liked] that their comics dealt with real-life issues. The undergrounds were rife with sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but that was the life these cartoonists were dealing with at the time. It made Will realize that comics could shift into the area of literature. They were no longer dealing with simple entertainment, they were encompassing autobiographical stories. And this is what inspired Will to get back into doing comics.” A Contract with God broke the rules for comics. Eisner not only chose to tell his story, but he chose to tell it his way. Instead of breaking pages down into the usual six to eight panels, Eisner’s graphic novel sometimes devoted an entire page to one panel. Besides breaking the boundaries of how Eisner told his story, A Contract with God dealt with more adult fare than the traditional four-color adventures of costumed super-heroes and the comical antics of talking animals. “Throughout Will’s entire career, he was an innovator,” Denis Kitchen says. “As he was drawn back into the comics industry, Will didn’t want to repeat what he had done before with things like The Spirit. He

for the government. During one of Phil Seuling’s comic-book conventions at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York that year, Eisner first met Denis Kitchen, the founder and president of Kitchen Sink, the legendary underground comics company that would go on to release A Contract With God seven years later. At this show, Kitchen learned that Eisner was eager to discuss the distribution system that Kitchen had set up for his Krupp Comics Works (the forerunner of Kitchen Sink). The distribution system of various underground

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had been there and done that. What he wanted to do was material that was autobiographical and which dealt with the human condition and philosophical issues. When he did The Spirit originally, he was a much younger man. It was something he had to do to earn a living. By the time he created A Contract with God, he had made enough money already and it was an imperative to get a steady gig. With Will, it was all about the art.” In the graphic novel, divided up into four stories, Eisner explored very personal tales of the human

condition, and of human failings set in and around the tenement at 55 Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx during the Great Depression. The stories include “The Street Singer,” a tale of a drunkard who earns his living singing in back alleys and his chance encounter with a former diva; “The Super,” a story about the superintendent of the tenement who is done in by a ten-year-old girl who preys on his weakness; and “Cookalein,” a story that shows how the destinies of several characters are determined over the course of one summer.

Eisner’s opener to

At the heart of A Contract with God is the lead story, the tale of Frimme Hersh, a man of God whose faith

his tale “The Super”

is shattered when his adopted daughter dies at a young age. This story came from an incident in Eisner’s

evoked memories

own life: the death of his own daughter, who died of leukemia as a teenager. “[This tragedy in Will’s life]

of his elaborate

was the source of this particular story,” Schutz reveals. “His rage that he felt over this tragedy, he took that

splash pages from

and created this story. It was that rage which fueled A Contract with God.” Although all the emotions Eisner

The Spirit.

must have felt because of this loss are explored in this one story, the death of his child was something Eisner

kept to himself. According to Kitchen, prior to [the] introduction [for the forthcoming The Contract with God

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Trilogy from W. W. Norton], it was something he and his wife, Ann, preferred to keep private. Like all truly great storytellers, Eisner’s work came from a desire to try to understand the events that impacted his own life, and a need to express how these events affected him. “As he got older, Will felt that he only had so much time left, therefore he didn’t want to do ‘pursuit and vengeance’ [like the Spirit stories]. He didn’t want to do simple entertainment,” Schutz explains. “He wanted to do important stories, stories that made people feel things. Will’s entire focus was on the content of his work. He strongly believed that all of us who make comics need to focus more on the content of our books, that it was the content of the books that would pull us out of the stigma of being kid’s stuff, and put us into the ‘civilian’ world of literature.” A Contract with God is one of the all-time great graphic novels. It is an important piece of work that marked Eisner’s return to comics, but it is also a masterpiece inspired

that

others

has see

comics in a more mature light and as the powerful storytelling medium that it can be. “There’s no question that none of this would have happened without Will being the visionary,” says Kitchen in regard to the numerous graphic novels

Visual and emotional

that have come since A Contract with God’s initial publication. “[And then after A Contract with God],

depth earmarked

rather than sit on his own laurels, at an age when most artists would be retiring, he went on to create

Eisner’s Contract

20 more graphic novels.”

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TM & © Joe Staton.

Cosmic Hero for the ’70s

interview

by Michael Ambrose conducted May 14, 2005 and transcribed by Brian K. Morris

E-Man burst onto the comics scene in the summer of 1973 from, of all places, Charlton—that third-tier publisher

known for comics in every genre except super-heroes. Charlton had last published “action heroes” (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, the Question, et al.) in 1968. But when George Wildman took over the editing reins in 1972, Charlton expanded, adding original adventure fare to its all-genres menu. One new title was a real anomaly for both the publisher and the neighborhood spinner rack: E-Man. If ever there was a super-hero for the ’70s, E-Man was it. Literally cosmic, with near-unlimited powers, he also had a beautiful (and liberated) girlfriend. No mere alien like Superman, E-Man was a pure energy being who came to Earth, liked it, and chose human form. But most of all, E-Man was just plain, pure fun. Writer Nick Cuti and artist Joe Staton brought whimsy and lightheartedness to E-Man, qualities missing from super-hero comics of the time, and fans reacted enthusiastically. The original series ran for ten issues from 1973 to 1975, and Charlton imploded in 1976. But E-Man was too special to stay in comics limbo for long. First Comics acquired E-Man rights and did 25 issues from 1983 to 1985, plus seven issues reprinting the original Charlton run (including the Mike Mauser stories). Comico produced a one-shot in 1989 and a three-issue miniseries in 1990; Alpha Productions issued further one-shots in 1993 and 1994. Sooner or later, E-Man is bound to pop up again in

Jazzy Joe Staton’s E-Man and Nova Kane

comics pages, smiling from within a light bulb or zipping

From CPL Special Double-Issue #9 and 10 . . . Presents the Charlton Portfolio (1974), page 31. All art scans accompanying this interview are courtesy of Michael Ambrose, unless otherwise noted.

along the telephone line. Join us as we explore E-Man’s

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

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’70s origins in an exclusive visit with his co-creators, Nick Cuti and Joe Staton. —Michael Ambrose

MICHAEL AMBROSE: Charlton’s original E-Man run ended 30 years ago, and a whole generation is alive that never saw the comics when they were new. How does that strike you? there are a few around that had been unavailable for people, and there’s always the conventions. But you’re right, there’s an awful lot of people who’ve never seen or heard of E-Man because when somebody says, “Oh, what super-hero did you do?” and I say, “E-Man,” they look at me kind of odd and they say, “He-Man?” And I say, “No, E-Man,” [Joe laughs] and I have to explain the whole thing to them. Once I explain it, they’re usually pretty interested because he’s such a weird, unusual character. JOE STATON: What strikes me is that was at least a generation at doing comics, maybe two or three, actually. They used to say the readership changed every ten years, but it was like a whole different

Beginnings:

“Grub,” Creepy #28 (1969); Tom Sutton, artist

Milestones:

E-Man / Captain Cosmos, the Last Starveyer / Moonie: Moonchild the Starbabe / Michael Mauser, Priv ate Eye

Work in Progress:

Grub, sci-fi movie which I wro te and produced / Captain Cosmos Chri stmas Special (tentative title: "Sta r of Wonder") written with Kevin Glov er / Moonie: Moonchild the Star babe comic book, with background s by Henry Kujawa and figures by Sally Reynolds

world then. I mean, you shipped stuff in, the best thing you had was

Cyberspace:

Special Delivery, and there was certainly nothing done by computers,

Photo by Shannon Landano.

NICOLA CUTI: Luckily, First Comics reprinted a lot of the issues and so

there was no FedEx. CUTI: Well, for example, I wanted to title the letter page “E-Mail,”

NICOLA CUTI

and Joe pointed out that that was already a term that was being used, and I said, “I never heard of it.” STATON: That seems a long time ago for that to actually be used, but—well, I thought you were the first. CUTI: No. [laughs] Maybe. AMBROSE: It’s too bad you didn’t trademark it. AMBROSE: Marvel and DC owned the super-hero market in 1973. Did Charlton have reservations about launching E-Man? CUTI: I kept trying to talk George Wildman, our brand-new editor, into doing super-heroes because I thought that would be a good addition to the Charlton lineup. And everyone pointed out, including George, that Marvel and DC pretty much had it locked up. Then one day, he came back from a meeting with the publishers and he said, “Okay, Nick. You’ve got your super-heroes. I talked them into it so now we’ve got to come up with some super-heroes.” At the time, there was a show on television that was very popular, Kung Fu, and so Joe Gill came up with Yang, and I wanted to come up with something very different. I didn’t want your average super-hero with just a few different powers. My favorite when I was a kid was Plastic Man. I always thought that was such an unusual and bizarre super-hero, so I wanted to come up with something like Plastic Man that wasn’t

Beginnings:

Creepy stories, early 1970s / “Cu rse of the Hanging Man,” Ghost Man or #3 (1972); Joe Gill, script

Milestones:

E-Man / Michael Mauser, Private Eye / Batman / Plastic Man in Adv enture Comics / Green Lantern / Scooby-D oo / 1983 Inkpot Award / 1998 Eisner Award for Batman & Superman Adv entures: World’s Finest (Best New Graphic Album)

Work in Progress:

Scooby-Doo (currently working on my 100th issue) / Jane Fisher’s WJHC teen ager stories for Wilson Place Comics (www.wjhc.com) / Teen Titans and The Bat man (an ima ted ) licensing work / Chris Mills’ webstrip Femme N o i r

Plastic Man. As a child, I was always a great admirer of Einstein and his formula, E=MC2. It’s such simplicity, yet saying so much that I

JOE STATON

decided, well, there was my super-hero. He’s energy, but he can transform into any form of matter. So I called up Joe [Staton], and I told him about it, and he said, “Well, what about an origin?” I said,

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Photo by Scott Cates.

STATON: One of our lost opportunities.

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Header for the E-Man letters page. E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

“Oh, he’s a factory worker that gets blown up in an accident and he recreates himself as energy.” And Joe says, “No, I don’t think so,” or something to that effect. STATON: That sounds about right. As I recall that sounded too much like Captain Atom, just reassembling atoms and the like. And also the thing with the atomic origin of powers, Stan Lee kind of had the lock on that with Spider-Man, and it was a little too familiar. CUTI: Right. So Joe sent me back to the drawing board. I had to come up with a different origin. I was reading an Arthur C. Clarke book on the planets and the stars, and he talked about novas, about a star erupting and then cooling back down again. And there was, of course, a great deal of energy given off when the star novas, and I thought, “Well, there you go. He was created when a star novaed by—” STATON: Why didn’t you call the character “Nova”? CUTI: Because I always considered “Nova” a feminine name. STATON: Oh, that makes sense. CUTI: Well, he had a girlfriend, as you well know, by the name of Nova Kane. STATON: An excellent name. CUTI: Oh, thank you, thank you very much. But that’s basically how he started. He was a burst of energy that was created in the nova of a star and he went wandering through the universe in search of whatever his purpose was in the great cosmic scheme of things. He just happened to eventually get to the Earth, and liked the Earth very much, and took on human form, mostly human form. STATON: When he felt like it. CUTI: Whenever he felt like it, right. And he wanted to look nice for Nova. STATON: That’s a good motivation. I remember he was born and thought, “I think, therefore I am,” and, “What am I?” CUTI: He has no idea what he is or why he’s there or anything. He’s wandering through the universe, trying to find some sort of a purpose for himself.

B&W line repro of cover to E-Man #1 (Oct. 1973), from Cartoonist PROfiles #20 (Dec. 1973).

CUTI: Well, that’s good. At least we got something original there. [Joe and Mike

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

laugh] Anyway, I asked Joe to come up with some sort of a costume for him and

AMBROSE: He’s already thousands of years old by the time he arrives. CUTI: Exactly. He himself doesn’t even know how old he is. STATON: It’s a totally original origin. I don’t think anybody’s really done anything like that, certainly not before and I can’t think of anything since.

I said, “The only two things I want for the costume are no cape and E=MC2 on his chest.” You know, the magical formula. Besides that, I said do whatever you want. © 1973 Charlton Comics. E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

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Joe sent in a black-and-white drawing of E-Man, and I put an overlay on top of it,

were lots of photos of Roger Moore in it and I realized that was the look I was looking for, just more of an

Page 20 from E-Man #8 (May 1975), the first appearance of Nova as super-hero.

Americanized version of Roger Moore. Just charming and heroic looking, but kind of generic. He didn’t look stupid, but he looked kind of heroically in the ballpark there. AMBROSE: How did the creative process work between

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

you? Did Nick give you full scripts? STATON: It was always full scripts. When we started out—now I think this is a system that Nick picked up when he was working for Wally Wood, and it’s an old-time system—he would break the page down, just pencil three or four or five panels on a page and he would write the art directions and the copy in those boxes. So I got pencil boxes on typing paper and that was how we started out, which is a very good way to work. As we went on, we went to typed scripts, but it was still all full script. CUTI: I’ve gone back to that, as a matter of fact. I find it so much easier to just grab a piece of paper, anywhere, and and I colored it in oranges and yellows because I

just block it off. I always start

wanted, again, a new look, a character that’s never

off with an outline where if I

been seen before. I didn’t want the reds and the blues

have a 20-page story to write,

that 90 percent of the super-heroes had.

I’ll take the paper, and I’ll box

STATON: And I should have thought of some simpler

it into 20 boxes, and then just

design for E=MC2. That design got to be kind of

jot down what’s happening

hard to draw, a lot. From different angles, it gets a

on each page. And this way,

little complicated.

I never wind up with too

CUTI: I thought it was great. By now, Joe probably

much plot at the beginning

finds it easier to draw than his own signature.

and not enough at the end.

AMBROSE: Joe, what were your artistic inspirations

Or vice versa, where I have

for E-Man?

too much to say and I’m at

STATON: Around the time we were doing E-Man, the

the end of the book. By laying it out that way, I can

first Roger Moore James Bond—actually, it wound up

pace myself much better. Once I have the outline

being based on Roger Moore, but the first character I

done, I break it down page-by-page and put down

thought of was Robert Redford because [E-Man] was

what’s going on in each panel.

kind of a generic hero who kind of creates himself, and

STATON: Another good thing about working that way

Redford seemed kind of generic. I actually did a poster

is if you have something visual that you’re trying to

for Charlton based on the Redford look and decided it

communicate, you don’t have to type out 20 pages of

still had too much character, too much personality. But

description, trying to tell the artist what you want. You

the Roger Moore Bond movie—Live and Let Die, I think

just do a little sketch right in your box and there you

that was the first one—was out then, and I had bought

go. It saves a lot of guessing.

a book by Moore about making the movie, and there

CUTI: You’ve got to work according to the medium,

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Page 1 from E-Man #1 (Oct. 1973), depicting E-Man’s origin in a star nova. E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

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and what works for one medium

about the final artwork, he would look it all over and he

doesn’t necessarily work for the

would ask to change a couple of things here and there,

other. Comics is a visual medium

but very rarely. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it was,

and you’ve got to tell the

“Yeah, this is fine, guys,” and that’s it.

story through pictures, and I

AMBROSE: Nick, as assistant comics editor then, you

realize that as a writer, the

were also writing lots of other stories.

pictures are extremely important,

CUTI: Mostly in the ghost category. I love writing

and you’ve got to give the artist enough room to do

horror stories, besides science fiction. Occasionally,

Early E-Man head studies by Joe.

the drawing, as simple as that. I hope I’ve always

I’d try my hand at romance or war.

given you enough room there, Joe.

STATON: We had done a lot of the ghost stories

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

STATON: Oh, I think so. Sometimes there’s not always

before E-Man came along, so we had a track record,

enough room to get all of Nova in, but it’s close

and that’s how we knew things would work.

enough. [Nick and Mike laugh]

CUTI: I liked Joe’s style, I like Joe very much. He was

CUTI: Nova’s a big girl, that’s for sure.

a very good person to work with. So that’s why when

STATON: She needs a lot of room.

I came up with E-Man, the first person I thought of—

CUTI: Exactly, and very animated.

in fact, I would probably say I thought about working

STATON: Very animated, yes.

with Joe on a super-hero even before I came up with

AMBROSE: Nick, did you generate the stories or did

E-Man. So as soon as I did come up with a concept,

you consult with Joe issue by issue?

he was the first person I called.

CUTI: Joe, did you ever suggest a storyline? I don’t

STATON: Yeah, it was all kind of born together there. I

really recall.

had worked on Primus, but Primus had been canceled

STATON: No, I’ve always felt that’s the writer’s job.

before that. That was for Sal Gentile, who hired me. And

CUTI: I would more or less come up with an idea, or

then Sal retired to Florida, and George was promoted

maybe I called up Joe and talked the idea over with

and hired Nick. So I was just doing ghost stories.

him first before I actually sat down and scripted it. But

AMBROSE: Some of your collaborations with Nick

mostly, I came up with the ideas.

are the most memorable ones in the ghost books.

STATON: If anything, I would respond to the script and

STATON: Oh, there’s a lot of good material in those

sometimes I’d say, “Hey, Nick. Page four, this won’t

some good stories with Joe Gill.

work.” And it worked.

CUTI: Joe [Gill] is constantly being put down, but he

CUTI: Well, I like to consider myself a visual

was quite a skilled writer. A lot of the stories I read when

writer. That’s why I know things will work,

I was a kid, I didn’t realize they were Joe Gill’s stories. I

even though sometimes I’m not always able

remember sitting down and telling him some of my

to communicate exactly what’s on my mind.

favorite ghost stories from the comic books and Joe

STATON: But it works, yep.

would say, “Well, I wrote that one. [Joe and Mike laugh]

AMBROSE:

A 1973 E-Man promotional poster, with the hero’s “Robert Redford” look.

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What

input

did

George

I wrote that one.” And sure enough, he did.

Wildman have?

STATON: But the ghost stories were great if you were

CUTI: He pretty much gave us a free hand.

starting out because it’d be like, there were eight pages

George was good that way. He didn’t

and you could try one style in a story and that one was

interfere with artists, he more or less

done, and then move on to the next and, “Well, let’s

encouraged them.

try a little more pen or a little more brush, a little more

STATON: And remember, at Charlton, you were moving

shadow back and forth.” So it was like you were getting

so much material through with such a small staff that

paid to figure out what you were doing. I think the

stopping to nitpick everything would have just thrown

timing [of E-Man] worked out right. We were still new

the whole process into chaos.

enough to be willing to try things, but we had worked

CUTI: Right. Once in a while, he’d have a comment

out a lot of our problems by the time we got there.

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

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with Tom Sutton doing his ghost stuff. And I did

work, can’t work.” And he’d say, “Draw it, it’ll

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CUTI: Right. I don’t think E-Man would have ever come about if I were working for one of the bigger companies, because by then, they had house styles more or less locked in, whereas with Charlton, there really wasn’t a house style. And since nobody really read Charlton, we could pretty much do what we wanted. STATON: Nobody read the books, they hated hardly anything. CUTI: Nobody read the stuff. I mean Nova Kane is a stripper. If I had suggested Superman have a girlfriend who was a stripteaser, [Joe and Mike laugh] hmm, you could imagine what would have happened there. AMBROSE: Did the Comics Code give you any problems with Nova? CUTI: Surprisingly enough, no. They would give us lots of problems on the ghost stories. We were constantly reducing women’s bosom sizes, or increasing the size of their bikinis. But I don’t recall ever having a problem with Nova. STATON: Well, I’m right now looking at the first issue and I think somebody, either the Code, or George, must have had a little input on Nova’s costume. On page six, when she first appears, there’s a little line drawn atop her bottom part there. It disappears by the end of the page. I think somebody must have objected to just how low that little apron bit was. CUTI: In general, they pretty much gave us a free hand but they would differentiate between children’s comics and teenage comics, and I know Marvel used to get away with a lot more than we ever did. They would object to the simplest things with us, whereas Marvel would get away with Conan chopping off heads of snakes and using them as ropes, and stuff like that. We even commented about that one time and they

STATON: That is a strange angle. I don’t remember

said, “Well, that’s more or less for teenagers and

why I decided to shoot it from the angle of the bunny.

older, so we let them get away with more,” whereas

CUTI: I think that’s great, though. I like that. It’s very

they considered Charlton to be kiddie comics. With

Wally Wood-y. If I remember, Woody always had

E-Man, I think they more or less said, “Now Charlton’s

these cute little animals running away from these

getting into the super-heroes. That’s for teenagers, so

horrible monsters.

we can let them get away with a little bit more.”

STATON: Well, that’s a good influence. I’ll take that one.

STATON: And since the drawing was kind of cute and

AMBROSE: It sets a certain whimsical mood.

cartoony, it maybe wasn’t quite as offensive.

CUTI: Well, that was the whole point. E-Man never

AMBROSE: Opposite that page is a nice, cute bunny,

took himself too seriously. I was trying to get away

and a squirrel, and a dove, [Joe laughs] and just such

from the Spider-Man concept, not that there’s

a picture of serenity, except for the spaceship crashing.

anything wrong with Spider-Man. I think it was brilliant

CUTI: Yeah. [laughs]

for Stan Lee to come up with a super-hero that had all

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kind of a satire on all the super-heroes. AMBROSE: The first person E-Man meets is Nova Kane, and Nova’s quite a complex character. STATON: Actually not the first one. CUTI: In the origin in the first issue, she is the first person he meets. But we do a flashback in the last issue where we find out that Nova wasn’t the very first person he ever met. STATON: And we find out that he did briefly consider wearing a cape. AMBROSE: That was the “Dogpatch” issue, #10. CUTI: Right. Nova is a very complex character. She’s very worldly wise, but at the same time, extremely intelligent. She’s a college student, and she’s just being a stripper to work her way through college and she has no qualms about that. She’s very comfortable with being a woman and very comfortable with her body. But at the same time, she is an intellectual and so the dichotomy of that is something I play around with quite a bit. After all, E-Man is very innocent, doesn’t know about the Earth, and she becomes his guide, taking care of him and watching out for him. STATON: We had this idea long before Mork and Mindy. AMBROSE: What were Nova’s visual inspirations? STATON: I always kind of go with movie stars, and around that time there was a TV movie with Kim Novak called The Third Girl from the Left, which was not about a stripper but a chorus girl. I had that visual of Kim Novak in mind when I started working on Nova. I’m not sure just where Nova’s hair came from. But we had Kim Novak and Roger Moore, that was the pair. AMBROSE: Your supporting characters

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kinds of teenage angst, and

and villains were unusual, especially the

problems, and so forth. But

Entropy Twins in #2.

I wanted to get away from

CUTI: Again, I read a lot on physics

that. I thought, “Okay, it’s

and quantum mechanics. That’s sort

time for a super-hero that

of a hobby of mine. I came across the

just has fun,” because, as I

concept of entropy, the tendency

think it was Steve Ditko

toward disorder, and I thought, “Hmm,

pointed out, he can’t be

there must be a super-hero in there

hurt. I mean there’s no way he can be destroyed, or

somewhere.” I thought, well, there’s order and

defeated, or any of that, which was his weakness, that

disorder, so I created two super-heroes, the Twins.

he could never really be in any serious danger. So I

STATON: A very sad ending, that story.

decided, well, then let’s just have some fun. So I created

CUTI: Right, and that’s one of the things that bothered

a super-hero that was kind of tongue-in-cheek and was

me. I ended the story sadly and then I thought,

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“Gee, what a rotten thing to do,” because E-Man

that, didn’t he?

was supposed to be a lot of fun. So [in #7] I brought

STATON: Did he now? I think he probably did. [all

them back and they turned out to be not such bad

laugh] You lose your pension and you wind up in the

people after all, and E-Man sets things straight with

basement, attached to wires.

them. That was a lot of fun. In fact, that was among my favorite issues and one of my favorite covers. AMBROSE: E-Man started out bimonthly, but #3 (June 1974) appeared six months after #2 (Dec. 1973). Why was that? STATON: There was a big gap because Charlton ran out of paper. I remember getting a letter from George saying, “This is a black day. We have nothing left to print on.” I think there were like strikes up at the Canadian paper mills? CUTI: That was it, exactly. It wasn’t just that Charlton ran out, the strike affected printers all across the United States. STATON: So what happened is we actually already had #3 in, but the paper strike coincided with the big energy crisis of the ’70s, so we had a chance to move what was to be #3 later and to get an energy story in when we got back to printing, so that the story that came out as #3 was more topical than it would have been otherwise. AMBROSE: So #3 was actually a custom job? Did the original #3 appear as #4, “City in the Sand”? STATON: Yeah, and I think if you look at those, that is more the style of the first two issues, which was much more open and rounder. And in #3, the style got a good bit darker with a lot more shading and trying to go for a lot more mood. Then, of course, #5 had the more developed style. So you can see there’s a big gap, a change in the art. CUTI: Exactly. We wanted to cash in on the energy crisis. I think it was a very wise decision. I think it was George that suggested that. STATON: Oh, I didn’t know that. CUTI: I’m pretty certain he was the one. STATON: But certainly, Samuel Boar, who’s the villain in that, I think really plays well today when you think

AMBROSE: You introduce Michael Mauser in that issue.

about guys like Ken Lay and all of the manipulating

CUTI: Mike Mauser just was supposed to be a one-time

of the energy market. Samuel Boar would be right in

character, he was just going to be in this particular story.

the middle of that. Probably would still have people

I’ve always liked private-eye stories and this gave me an

locked up in the basement with wires attached to

opportunity to create a private-eye character. I decided

them, draining their energy.

to insert him in here, and I was just going to use him for

CUTI: And actually, if I’m not mistaken, Ken Lay did

this one story and then I was never going to use him

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again. Mauser was based on an old-time comedian by

did six or seven.

the name of Arnold Stang. I created a kind of down-and-

STATON: I feel like Mauser really works outside of

dirty Arnold Stang. He used to appear on The Milton

super-heroes, but I do disagree a little bit there

Berle Show a lot. He was also in a really good movie, The

because I think in #3, we got exactly the right balance,

Man with the Golden Arm, with

that Mauser moved into E-Man’s world and kind of

Frank Sinatra. I’d always

brought a little darker element. So as much as I think

loved the Broomhandle

Mauser works on his own, I think he’s kind of the

Mauser pistol, so that

linchpin that really pulled the whole E-Man concept

was what inspired his

together, so I really feel like Mauser belongs in the

name. And then I

super-hero world too.

gave it to Joe and Joe

AMBROSE: In #9, E-Man and Mauser team up.

took it from there.

CUTI: Don’t forget Colonel Dove there.

STATON: Well, Joe

STATON: Good old Colonel Dove. Who was ripped

did not have refer-

off, without even saying thank you, from a Herb

ence

Trimpe character in The Incredible Hulk. [all laugh] So

Arnold

Stang, although I

everybody comes from somewhere.

knew who he was

AMBROSE: Where does Teddy come from?

and this was long

CUTI: Again, he was just a background character. We

before the days of

had an Australian character who was a villain and he

Google, so I couldn’t

had this pet koala. I mean after all, who puts in an

find a good shot of

Australian character without a pet koala, right?

him. But again, I was

STATON: That’s another Samuel Boar story.

going

CUTI: And Joe would not let me get rid of Teddy. He

with

what

movies were around at

kept popping up in all of E-Man’s stories. [Mike and Joe

the time, and you really

laugh] I didn’t write him in, he just popped up. And so

couldn’t get away from ads

I figured, well, if I can’t get rid of him, I might as well

for Papillon, Steve McQueen and

use him and every so often, I would just write him into

Boys’ night out, with

Dustin Hoffman, and there were these shots of Hoffman

a story.

E-Man, Teddy, and Guy

looking very scruffy with really thick Coke-bottle glass-

STATON: In fact, back in #4 for “City in the Sand,”

Gardner. Sketch courtesy

es. So that’s what I gravitated to in designing Mauser.

there was a kind of proto-Teddy, a creature called

He got a little rounder as the years went on.

“Bool,” that was small, and round, and cute. He

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AMBROSE: Rounder and shorter. [Nick and Mike

was kind of the first try at Teddy, and Teddy, he

chuckle]

came along and he got smaller, and rounder, and

STATON: I think it has been pointed out that happens

cuter. [all laugh]

to my characters a lot. [all laugh] Let me alone

AMBROSE: And sentient.

with anything for very long and it’ll get rounder and

STATON: I think we were developing a theme

shorter.

there. [all laugh]

AMBROSE: Mauser transcended his E-Man origins.

AMBROSE: William Wunder in #6 is Walt Disney, right?

CUTI: I eventually started loving the character so

CUTI: Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, it was a trip to

much that I felt he was wrong for super-hero comics,

Disney World that inspired the story.

because he was a private eye, and I don’t really like

STATON: Oh?

to mix genres. So when Joe Gill came up with

CUTI: Yeah, I was on vacation in Florida. My folks

Vengeance Squad, I asked George if I could do Mike

lived in Florida and whenever I came to visit, I always

Mauser as a backup and do these little private-eye

liked to stop by Disney World. So I took a trip to

stories without any super-hero attached to it at all.

Disney World and I had such a great time that I said,

Joe [Staton] did a terrific job illustrating them and we

“Oh, I’ve got to write an E-Man story based on

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Disney World,” and I thought of it while I was still there, about a sort of Disney World gone wild. So I came up with Wunderworld. AMBROSE: And sure enough, the Brain is behind it all. CUTI: Right. I had to have something that actually controlled it all and he is one of the all-powerful characters in E-Man. The only thing that can stop him is a monkey wrench. [Joe and Mike laugh] STATON: Yeah, that’s his weakness. AMBROSE: One thing I love about #6 is the chance that it gives you to draw lots of anthropomorphic characters, and here we have another proto-Teddy when E-Man takes on the form of a big, shambling, bear-like dog, and a duck . . . STATON: That’s right. E-Man can turn into anything, even big fuzzy dogs. CUTI: That’s the fun of the character, he can be anything at all in the panel, so Nova herself, when she walks into a scene, doesn’t even know where E-Man is. Of course, Joe always sticks in a little orange and an atom symbol [Joe laughs] so that the reader will know who E-Man is. STATON: Well, no matter what shape Plastic Man turned into, he always had his belt emblems. CUTI: Right, the red suit and the yellow stripes. STATON: Yep, there’s a floor lamp cleverly hidden in this room, but it has yellow stripes. E-Man did that too. CUTI: Right, or he would appear as a beautiful girl’s tight-fitting coat. STATON: [laughs] What? CUTI: Oh, that was actually in MAD magazine’s satire on Plastic Man.

come from, Joe?

STATON: Oh, okay. Okay, I didn’t remember that.

STATON: That also comes from MAD. There were a

But I’m sure E-Man would do that, too.

bunch of paperback reprints—I guess ’60s?—of old

CUTI: By the way, Plastic Man appears in issue #8.

early MAD comics stuff, a lot of Wally Wood. They

You drew Plastic Man a couple of times, if I’m not

would throw little stupid jokes in that had nothing to

mistaken, Joe, in E-Man.

do with anything else and I think that’s where I

STATON: Oh, golly. You should have caught that.

picked that up.

AMBROSE: Oh, yeah. Right there on the first page.

CUTI: Will Elder used to do that a lot.

CUTI: Yep.

STATON: Yes, Will Elder. Actually, Will Elder is a big

STATON: Oh, my goodness. [laughs]

influence on Mauser, that scruffy sort of drawing.

CUTI: After all, I’m not hiding the fact that he was

CUTI: Oh, yeah. And didn’t he do the Mole, or

my inspiration, so why not?

something like that? Sort of like a little dirty character

STATON: It’s an homage.

that lived in a trench coat?

CUTI: Joe was constantly putting in little things like that.

STATON: Something like that. I think you’re right. This

AMBROSE: Where do all those bits of business

may have been a subliminal influence on Mauser too.

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That’s knowing the guy did it right and let’s pick up what he did and go with it. Will got it right and he was still getting it right, right to the end. AMBROSE: What compelled you to turn Nova super-heroic in #8? CUTI: The comics were not selling that well and we needed to do something to try and boost sales. I came up with the idea of having Nova be his super-partner by giving her the same powers. A lot of that had to do with the early Captain Marvel, he had a Marvel Family with Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr., and I thought, “Gee, that would be good to have, E-Man would have a partner, a complete, total partner.” And rather than just make up one, I thought, “Nova’s there, why not do it with her?” AMBROSE: So it’s an opportunity to develop her character in a completely new way. That’s a fantastic costume design on Nova. CUTI: That’s all Joe’s. STATON: Well, actually, I remember I did like five or six designs and that’s the one that Nick picked. CUTI: Uh-huh, that was the briefest. [Joe and Mike laugh] All the others just covered her up too much. STATON: Right. Actually, I’m looking through that issue right now, and talk about having to change things, on page four, Mike Mauser tells E-Man that

An E-Man convention sketch by Joe Staton, courtesy of Al Nickerson. E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

AMBROSE: Looking at your approach to page design, Joe, especially in city scenes, the comparison with Eisner and The Spirit is inevitable. STATON: I’m prone to say that anybody who draws a comic book is influenced by Will Eisner. CUTI: I consider him to be one of the finest artistwriters of all time because he told the story visually through the panel setup, through a whole bunch of different gimmicks. I think most comic-book artists have been influenced by that style. STATON: Yeah, a big influence on me. In ’66, Harvey Comics did a couple of big reprints of old Spirit material and that really made an impression on me. And certainly, I think you can see that Eisner influence very directly in E-Man #3 with those dark streets, the lighting, and that’s pretty directly from Eisner. CUTI: Another homage. STATON: No, that’s not an homage, [Joe and Nick

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laugh] that’s not even a rip-off, that’s a real influence.

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Samuel Boar escaped from prison three months ago. You can tell the lettering’s a little different on part of that sentence. And I remember I changed Nick’s script. I said that Boar had bribed the superintendent of the prison to let him out and Nick called me back and said, “You can’t do that! The Code won’t let us say that. You can’t have characters in authority being corrupt, so change it back.” So I changed it back. [Nick laughs] So just bear in mind that Boar bribed somebody to get out. AMBROSE: What was reader reaction like to Nova’s big change? CUTI: Mixed, believe it or not. We did get a couple of letters from some girls who—and I can say “girls” because they’re not women at the time if they’re reading comic books. STATON: Actually, the politically correct phrase these days is “teenage women.” CUTI: We got some letters from females. I think I’m safe there [Joe chuckles] and they liked Nova. They

thought, “Wow, it’s about time we had a role model of our own.” Boys—I think I’m politically correct there—did not like Nova, surprisingly enough. They wanted E-Man to be unique. He was the only one of his kind and they felt that Nova was infringing

that

whole concept of his uniqueness.

But

liked Nova so much as a super-hero that I said, “To heck with it. I’m just going to go with it anyway.” And

sales

were

never that good, anyway, with E-

The covers of CPL/ Gang Publications’ Charlton Bullseye #2 (1975) and 4 (1976), the latter of which illustrates “And Why the Sea is Boiling Hot.”

Man, so I figured again, the freedom of nobody reading it, I can do whatever I want.

fanzine. That must have been done for the book

AMBROSE: Did you know E-Man was close to

and was left over.

cancellation or was that a total surprise?

AMBROSE: The 10-page story “And Why the Sea is

CUTI: It wasn’t a total surprise because we knew that

Boiling Hot” in Charlton Bullseye #4?

the newsstand sales were very, very poor, but our

STATON: The Charlton Bullseye, yeah.

subscriptions were extremely high. E-Man led all our

CUTI: That was Vamfire, wasn’t it?

other comics as far as subscriptions goes, which

STATON: There was another E-Man story with

shows he did have a fan following. But the word

General Dove—

finally came down from the publishers—and they

CUTI: Oh, I remember that.

were nice about it. They said, “Look, Nick, the only

STATON: —that turned up in Charlton Bullseye. That

reason we kept this going was because you were the

was done for the comic and was left over.

one who was doing it. We would have canceled it a

CUTI: I think I really did it just for Charlton Bullseye.

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

long time ago, but we didn’t want to hurt your feelings,

STATON: Oh, okay. I’ll take your word for it.

and you’re on staff here at Charlton. And so we

CUTI: Yeah, Bob had asked me to do it, as he knew

decided what the heck, we’ll keep it going.” But

that E-Man was being canceled and he requested

finally, by #10, they just couldn’t do it anymore and

an E-Man story for Charlton Bullseye. But I think

so they canceled it. I really can’t blame them. If it

Vamfire was supposed to be for the [next] issue

sold that poorly, what are you going to do?

and it never appeared.

AMBROSE: Did you know when you were doing #10

AMBROSE: What kind of promotional support did

that it was the last issue?

Charlton give E-Man? Didn’t you appear at some

CUTI: I think I did. I think at the time that I was doing

cons during that time?

#10, I knew that that was going to be it.

STATON: Yeah, we did.

STATON: I think maybe we wound up with some

CUTI: As guests of honor, as a matter of fact,

E-Man material that was printed in Bob Layton’s

because of E-Man.

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STATON: Right, and we did a TV appearance in Buffalo. I think that was on the way up to that. CUTI: We were on a TV show in Buffalo and then right from there, we flew to Toronto. STATON: I think we were like an interview segment in Bowling for Dollars. CUTI: Class all the way. [all laugh] STATON: Yup, we went all out. CUTI: In the beginning, Charlton was very excited about E-Man, to be honest with you, and they did do a lot of advertising and sending us to comic conventions. It was just toward the end when they saw the sales were so disappointing that they lost interest in pushing E-Man. AMBROSE: Charlton was notorious for denying ownership rights to creators. How did you acquire the rights to E-Man? STATON: When I was [art director] at First, they bought the rights to E-Man and eventually, the rights were supposed to come to me. But what happened was First held onto the rights to the old material, and I had the rights to do new material, and the way it stands now is Ken Levin, who was the lawyer for First, represents both my rights and the old First rights as a package, so that there aren’t conflicting rights running around. How things came down at First is actually another story, for another time, An undated sketch of the

STATON: We appeared at the Rutland—what was it?

E-Man “family,” courtesy

Halloween Parade?

of Heritage Comics (www.heritagecomics.com). E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

CUTI: Oh, yeah. I was on my honeymoon. STATON: Right, and we were on a float with somebody dressed as Nova. CUTI: That’s right, and E-Man. There was a guy there who was dressed as E-Man, too. STATON: Oh, was there? I didn’t notice. CUTI: Yeah, I remember he had a slight pot belly, which was very funny, but he was dressed in an E-Man costume. That was in Rutland, Vermont [in 1974]. We were invited there, and my wife and I were touring New England as part of our honeymoon, and so we decided to stop there. We met up with Joe and his lovely wife, and so we hung around together. STATON: And we did some New York shows. CUTI: Yeah, and we also did one in Canada, too, didn’t we? Toronto.

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because the last time I tried to talk about it in public, somebody popped up, threatening to sue me for libel, and it was all very hysterical and unpleasant. AMBROSE: Well, we’ll try not to get hysterical here. [Joe and Nick laugh] E-Man has had quite a postCharlton career—the long First run, and then Comico, and Alpha. . . . CUTI: Yeah, for some reason, he has a great fan following, which is terrific, and that’s the only thing keeping him alive. Every so often, someone who starts a fan publication decides they’d like to do E-Man. They contact Joe, and then Joe contacts me, and voila, we do another issue of E-Man. And then we do as many as we can until that fan publication goes under, and then another one will pop up and we’ll do him again. STATON: Yeah, E-Man’s gone, but not entirely. CUTI: I would love to do either E-Man or Mauser as a continuing feature. Those are two characters I’m so crazy

about that I’d do it at the drop of a hat. If somebody

CUTI: Yeah, he looks like Elvis, right. I was just

would just say, “We’ll publish it if you write it,” I’ll do it.

dying to do a story like that and “Sleaze” was it. I

And that’s even before we negotiate prices. But the most

took all the different elements from those magazines

important thing about E-Man, I think, is the fact that

and wove them into that, and I also had the Arnold

when Joe and I first came up with the character, there

Stang character because Joe kept insisting that

was no way you could possibly make a live-action movie

Mauser was actually Dustin Hoffman. So I forced

based on the character, for a number of reasons. One,

him to do Arnold Stang.

nobody took comics seriously at that time. Any movie

STATON: I could be perfectly happy drawing

that was based on a super-hero was always campy,

Mauser forever.

tongue-in-cheek, silly. But now people are taking comic-

CUTI: And I’d be perfectly happy writing. If only we

book heroes seriously. They’re putting out some

could make a living at it. [Joe laughs]

excellent movies. And number two, special effects have

STATON: Anybody who wants to know about E-Man,

come eons, miles above what they were in the ’70s. In

Rome Maynard runs the E-Man website [see caption

the ’70s, you couldn’t make a believable character that

for URL], and he has all the characters and all the

could change his shape, and along comes Arnold

stories, pictures of us, and all the wonderful things.

Schwarzenegger with Terminator 2, and there’s a guy

We have a big thank you for Rome because he keeps

changing his shape all the time. So a character like E-Man

E-Man’s information available to everybody. I really,

could be very believably done as a live-action movie

really like what Rome does.

right now, if anyone would be interested in doing it.

CUTI: Oh, yes, he’s E-Man’s #1 fan.

E-Man and Nova in a 2004 original drawing for Rome Maynard for Rome’s E-Man website (http://alectronn.ho mestead.com/EMan .html).

STATON: That’s true. The technology is now at a

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

level where E-Man could be done pretty much at not that huge an investment. Everybody has the facilities to do morphing and it could be done. Occasionally there’s a spark of interest, but it hasn’t gone all the way yet with anybody. AMBROSE: Mauser keeps popping up in all kinds of interesting places. STATON: Vengeance Squad, and then for Apple, we did a full-length Mauser story. And for Chris Mills’ magazine Noir, we did a bunch of little Mauser stories. The last story for Noir was never printed in the magazine, which pictured Arnold Stang, of all people, called “Sleaze,” but that’s up on Chris’s website at www.supernaturalcrime.com. CUTI: As a matter of fact, that was one of my favorite Mauser stories. My favorite, though, was his origin story. Mauser started off as a juvenile delinquent and then went into the Vietnam War, and when he came out as a vet, decided he was going to go into crime fighting. But aside from that story, “Sleaze” was one of my favorites. It just seemed to almost write itself. I wanted to do a satire on all those National Enquirertype magazines that were featuring things like “The White House is Host to Men From Outer Space” and silly stuff, “I Gave Birth to Sasquatch’s Child.” AMBROSE: And he looks like Elvis.

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The ’70s Greatest Hits A Groovy Graphite Salute to Some of the Decade’s Finest Artists Michael Eury

Neal Adams was one of the 1970s’ movers and shakers, and while this unused penciled cover to Challengers of the Unknown #67 hails from 1969, it’s an Adams rarity that we couldn’t resist sharing with you. Courtesy of Heritage Comics (www.heritagecomic s.com). The published version of the cover appears in the inset.

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NEAL ADAMS

captions by

RICH BUCKLER

Rich Buckler’s energetic cover pencils for Marvel’s Tarzan #27 (1979), photocopied from the pencil art by the artist who inked the original, Bob McLeod (www. bobmcleod.com). Incidentally, BACK ISSUE will examine Buckler’s “Deathlok” series in a future issue. T h a t

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Dave Cockrum followed his astounding (new) X-Men run with a stint designing and penciling many of Marvel’s covers, like this one, the Ant-Man solo outing from Marvel Premiere #48 (1979). Courtesy of Bob McLeod. 5 0

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GENE COLAN It’s been said that Gene Colan’s art is best appreciated in pencil form. His smashing Kid Colt Outlaw #229 (1979) cover shows not only his pencil handiwork but also his impeccable design sense, the off-panel gun barrels drawing the reader’s eye to the action. Courtesy of Bob McLeod. T h a t

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Dick Giordano takes the Super Friends water skiing in this promotional piece. Also on this page, two Super Friends go solo: an Aquaman sketch by Don Newton (who will be spotlighted in a forthcoming issue), and a Batman sketch by Alan Weiss. Courtesy of Steve Lipsky. 5 2

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GIORDANO, NEWTON, & WEISS

GIL KANE The death of the Green Goblin was one of the most shocking events in 1970s comics, and Gil Kane’s astounding pencil work made the moment even more memorable. Page 18 from Amazing Spider-Man #122 (1973), courtesy of Bob McLeod. T h a t

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JOE KUBERT

Joe Kubert introduced Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan to a new generation with his celebrated Tarzan series for DC. Presented here are his roughs for pages 2 and 3 of #239’s “Drums of Death” (1975), courtesy of Steve Morger. And as a bonus, the Sgt. Rock splash from Our Army at War #290 (1976), Kubert’s layouts (from Robert Kanigher’s script) for artist Frank Redondo; courtesy of Don Mangus.

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FRANK MILLER

While Frank Miller rose to prominence in the 1980s, he started in the business as a penciler in the late 1970s. These two pages, courtesy of Bob McLeod, hail from Spectacular Spider-Man #27 (1979)—some of Miller’s earliest work—displaying his emerging talent and his pre-Daredevil take on the Man without Fear.

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JOHN ROMITA, SR.

Two undated pencil preliminaries by John Romita, Sr. from unidentified Marvel romance titles, courtesy of Heritage Comics; and Romita’s sketch for Our Love Story #26 (1973), courtesy of Mike Burkey (www.romitaman.com).

Examples of Marie Severin’s scintillating cover layouts from 1971, from Amazing Adventures #6 (with the finished Neal Adams cover) and Astonishing Tales #5 (with the published John Buscema/Frank Giacoia version); as a bonus, an alternate Ka-Zar rough from the latter cover. Courtesy of Greg Huneryager.

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CURT SWAN

An unpublished Wonder Woman pencil page by Curt Swan, from a never-printed 10-page story started in 1977 by penciler John Rosenberger (who drew the inset splash) but finished by Swan upon Rosenberger’s death. For a look at the entire story, visit contributor Joel Thingvall’s Comic Art Fans gallery (www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?Order=Date &Page=1&GSub=7710).

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Behind the Scenes at the BACK ISSUE Bullpen To date, we’ve received a total of zero letters asking us to print 1970s’ photos of the BACK ISSUE staff—but we suspect that after this, we’ll be flooded with mail demanding we never do it again!

Holy Moley! From his fateful 1977 meeting with Shazam! artist C. C. Beck (right), John Morrow’s destiny as a comics publisher was preordained.

Make no bones about it, BI editor Michael (“Mickey”) Eury was a band geek. Guess the total number of zits on his face and win a prize!

Former BI designer Robert Clark graced us with this issue’s cover design and colors, and as a thank you we won’t mock his school picture.

Writer Adam “Captain America” McGovern is joined by his kid sis as Space Giants’ Silvar and his neighbor Mark, whose mask looks a bit like Madman (wonder if Mike Allred lived in their neighborhood?).

Writer/transcriber Brian K. “Jack Black” Morris, as seen in a 1976 Danville (IL) CommercialNews article about comic collecting that had the effect of forever drying up the availability of comic books at garage sales throughout Vermilion County.

No, Bobby Brady doesn’t work for BACK ISSUE—this is a ’70s photo of BI writer Tom “beat me up after school” Stewart.

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Rich Fowlks, BI’s new designer, is getting hitched next summer, which leads us to believe the bride-to-be has never seen this embarrassing photo of “Robot Boy.”

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Marvel Fan Mail by

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Dewey Cassell

When comic books first hit the newsstands, reader reaction was gauged largely by circulation. By the

from the period of May 9th to May 22nd provides

1950s, some publishers began including a letters page

some wonderful insight into the fan mail Marvel

in their comic books, although some of the letters were

Comics was receiving at the time. The survey included

fictitious. In the 1960s, letters pages in comic books

the following introductory comments:

became commonplace as fans and editors carried on a

“Most of the general comments this time were

dialogue about the characters and the stories. Letters

from kids who wanted their favorite characters brought

pages frequently had a catchy title, like “The Spider’s

back to television, and several of these fans also wanted

Web” or “Who Speaks for the Surfer?” Marvel Comics

to know which of their favorite heroes were stronger

encouraged fans to write, branding fans who had

than others. Another fan wrote a letter that went into

succeeded in getting their letters published with the

great length speculating on the digestive abilities of

designation “Quite ’Nuff Sayer.” By the 1970s, fan mail

most of the major super-heroes at Marvel. Thirteen kids

had become an integral part of comic books. It was

sent in new character ideas, and several other kids

considered to be a critical barometer of the “prevailing

asked for autographed pictures of various super-heroes

winds” of fandom. In 1974, Marvel Comics was

. . . eleven fans wrote in specifically to protest the word

receiving over a thousand letters a month. A survey

balloons on the covers of the books. Eighteen readers

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wrote to bring the Silver Surfer and the X-Men back.” The survey goes on to analyze in detail the letters received about each of the titles in the entire Marvel line. Reflected in the letters is a surprisingly high degree of sophistication and insight, as well as a keen awareness of the creators. Regarding issue #148 of the Fantastic Four, one reader said, “[Rich] Buckler does a better imitation of Jack Kirby than Kirby does.” Fans also caught various factual errors. Regarding Daredevil #112, “Three readers mentioned that the position of the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial to the White House was incorrect.” The letters were also not without controversy. “In regard to the nudity issue (in Hulk #178), most fans were in favor of it and reminded Marvel that nude people are not vulgar.” About the Son of Satan storyline in Marvel Spotlight, one woman wrote, “I pray that you will discontinue this corruption of impressionable young minds. . .” The comic books evoked many emotions. Issue #29 of Captain Marvel reportedly “made a few fans cry.” Many of the comments received were humorous, although not always intentionally. One fan, somewhat younger, remarked that he “didn’t quite understand the words Thor used.” Some of the letters received were quite unusual. One letter was written in invisible ink. Another fan submitted his praise on a computer punch card. The comic book that received the most letters during that time period was The Amazing Spider-Man, to which one fan remarked, “I feel that Spider-Man is getting in a slump. For instance, Cap just stopped the Secret Empire from taking over the U.S. and DD just stopped the Black Spectre from taking over the U.S. What did Spidey do?

Page one of the Marvel survey.

He stopped the Tarantula from taking over a ferry boat.” The character Deathlok had just debuted in issue #25 of Astonishing Tales and received 61 letters, largely praising the “most unusual” book.

One fan stated, “Don’t cancel it or I will be forced to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate myself in protest.”

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Apparently, Marvel Comics prepared these “Fan Mail Surveys” with some regularity at that time, providing the only record of much of the correspondence with Marvel, since most of the letters never saw print. The author of the survey is not known, but it may have been Carla Joseph, who was Roy Thomas’ secretarial assistant at the time, or possibly Michele

David Anthony Kraft.

Wolfman. David Anthony Kraft, who was an assistant editor at Marvel in

Photo courtesy of DAK

1974, provides some insight regarding Marvel fan mail in this interview,

and Dewey Cassell.

conducted August 2, 2005 via telephone and copy-edited by Kraft. DEWEY CASSELL: Do you know if there was any correlation between how well a book was selling and the number of letters it would receive? DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT: Well, the books like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four and the Hulk tended to get the most mail because they obviously had the largest readership. But in my experience—and, of course, there are many exceptions to this generalization—the more intelligent letters were sometimes for the books that weren’t the top titles. I think there were less expectations, because they were not the main books, so there was maybe more room to do off-the-wall stuff and I think naturally people’s letters were more substantive. We were © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

all eager for our mail, of course, hungry for feedback. I remember Don McGregor would be reading the great letters that he got and then Marv [Wolfman] would read the great letters he got and they would go back and forth.

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CASSELL: Who was responsible for responding to

handed them out indiscriminately, so we actually

the letters?

reserved those for the really good letters.

KRAFT: Well, for a few years, I was the anonymous

CASSELL: What did you do if a given book didn’t get

voice of Marvel. Not unanimously, but I wrote a lot

much mail in a given month?

of the letters pages for the color books and the black-

KRAFT: That was tough. Write long answers.

and-white books. I continued doing that for a long time. Whoever was writing a comic book itself had first dibs on doing the letters column, but some just didn’t have the time for it. So they would read the letters first and then pass them along to me. CASSELL: So how did you pick which ones to print in the comic? KRAFT: One of the things I liked before I ever broke into comics was that Marvel’s letters pages were really informal and informative and they would print pans as well as praise. I tried to make the letters pages reflect the balance of the mail, and you saw from that survey that

Numerous fans that wrote letters later went on

sometimes you were talking about 100 or 150 letters

to become professionals, including Kurt Busiek, Len

and you had to boil them all down to one or two letters

Wein, Roy Thomas, and David Anthony Kraft himself.

pages. I probably put way too much effort into it.

Sadly, today, many publishers have abandoned the

CASSELL: Well, as a fan, I loved it. I know there was

letters page in favor of greater advertising revenue.

An exuberant Marvel fan was punch-drunk with the “new” computer age.

a point in time, early on in Marvel, when people who

Ironically, this may well have resulted in fans feeling

wrote in letters would receive something in response.

less connected with the comic books they are

KRAFT: There was a time when they were

reading, ultimately resulting in lower circulation.

acknowledged. I saw some of the printed forms around the office. But it just got impossible after a

Thanks to Aaron Sultan for the copy of the survey,

while. What there was, of course, was No-Prizes.

David Anthony Kraft for the interview, and Irene

Basically, it was at the discretion of whoever was

Vartanoff for the background. All images in this article

doing the letters page whether or not to award

were provided by the author.

How many of these hallowed ranks did you achieve, True Believer?

them. Everybody always wanted one, but we felt like there would be No-Prize inflation if we just

’nuff said!

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Daniel Best

As the 1970s rolled around, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito were well established in the comic-book industry both alone and as a team. As a duo they’d been handed some of the biggest titles at DC, and Mike was a fixture at Marvel, despite a failed attempt by Ross. However, they began to feel stifled both as artists and writers, and as a result they began to look toward the future. Realizing that in order to reach their goals—to create a MAD-style satire book and a saleable syndicate strip—the pair would have to look further than the comfort that the Big Two offered them. Into this climate entered old friend Sol Brodsky. Brodsky had recently teamed up again with odd-job publisher Israel Waldman. Instead of Brodsky merely working for Waldman, this time the pair would form a whole new company titled Skywald. Brodsky realized that he’d need dependable artists and writers at the new company and approached Ross and Mike to be art directors, with the opportunity to write and draw whatever projects that they might be assigned. As an extra carrot, Waldman promised them that, in time, he would print and publish a new satire magazine created by the pair. It didn’t take much to convince Ross and Mike, and they duly signed on. While fulfilling their duties as Skywald’s art directors,

Andru and Esposito began to map out the new magazine. First they established what the book would be: satire, a shared interest since Get Lost [the short-lived 1954 satire comic they co-published as “Mikeross Publications”]. This time instead of a comic book, they wanted a magazine format. As Skywald was publishing magazines, this was easily done.

A Ross Andru sketch of Up Your Nose’s Count Varicose. © Klevart Enterprises.

The magazine format would also allow the pair to avoid any [censorship] problems with the Comics Code, a fact that would come in very handy as work progressed. As their excitement grew, the pair talked about a name for the new book. Mike had some ideas, but Ross, as was his wont, didn’t have many ideas for a name other than he wanted the new book to have nothing to do with anything they’d produced previously. Mike’s wife Irene floated the idea of naming the book Get Lost II. Ross was against this, as he’d always felt that Get Lost was a failure (lasting only three issues), and that the name also reminded him of a past he’d have preferred to forget. More than

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once he’d told people that if given the chance to relive his youth, he’d pass. Mike Esposito recalls: “My wife was mad at me.

Ross created Count Varicose in the 1950s. As work progressed on the book, Andru and Esposito found themselves overcommitted, so they passed

She wanted to call it Get Lost, like the book we did

the baton to one of their recruits: letterer and

in 1954, and she was right. There was no reason

more-than-capable artist John Costanza.

why we couldn’t call it Get Lost, or Get Lost II: The Comeback of Get Lost. One morning Ross called and said that we were going to work on this new idea and he asked, ‘What are we gonna call it?’ and I said, ‘Let’s call it Up Your Nose And Out Your Ear,’ only because of Johnny Carson, who used to say, ‘May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.’ So Ross said, ‘Yeah, why not?’” The next issue to be resolved was the book’s contents. Although Ross had no great love for past events, he wasn’t above using art that had previously appeared in other books, or, in the case of the bulk of the contents of Up Your Nose, art that had been prepared for elsewhere but had yet to be published. Some of their characters from unrealized earlier storylines and proposals included Garlic Man, Thelma of the Apes, Greta Garish, and Count Varicose, amongst many others. Revisiting and touching up previously completed art to Thelma, Ross went all out and created a more adult strip than he’d previously done, complete with panels depicting nudity, being free of the Comics Code’s censorship. However, at the last minute Mike got cold feet and refused to ink in the racier parts of Thelma’s anatomy, such as her nipples. Garlic Man was another personal favorite. Created in the mid-1960s as a proposed syndicated

new secret government weapon: a Garlic Bomb.

job. Ross was editing the book and he went over

The result of this exposure was that each time

John’s pencils, and then John inked it himself. I

Klutz came into contact with any form of garlic,

didn’t touch it because I was involved with the

he’d hulk out. The results were as funny as anything

business end. I liked John’s stuff, and once Ross

And you thought Frank Cho’s Shanna had nothing to hide! Andru and Esposito’s she-devil, Thelma of the Apes.

on the market. Ross and Mike took their existing,

did the layouts for him it was kind of cute.”

strip, it revolved around the trials and tribulations

“John was a letterer at Marvel, but he could

of Wilford Klutz, a man who’d been exposed to a

design and draw as well, and he did a pretty good

unpublished Garlic Man strips and adapted them

Varicose featured some amazing ink wash

for the new magazine. Toward the latter part of

effects. The existing original art for the strip is more

the story they merely lifted panels from the strips

impressive than the printed product, and marks

and touched them up. Both men were happy

one of the few times, if not the only time, that John

that Garlic Man was finally seeing print in the

Costanza would ink Ross Andru.

manner that they wanted.

Greta Garish was a personal favorite of Ross’ and

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Mike’s. “I loved the Greta Garish strip,” says Mike. “The little fat guy singing was supposed to be

“Nurd was Ross’ invention. The Queen of Nurd,

Marty Allen. Marty Allen was a comedian who didn’t

she sits on her throne and there’s all sh*t all over

go too far, but did a lot of stuff, and he actually

the ground. You have to know where Ross was

looked like that. Ross created that whole story. He

coming from; he felt the world was full of it. There’s

wanted the look of 1929, with the clothes and the

a lot going on in that book than what first appears

car, and I think we got that look. The strip has a

on the surface.”

dated look, the look of that period. We were always

The photo-gag routine would carry on

able to adapt and understand a period that we

through the book. Another of Ross’ ideas was to

needed to capture. We were very versatile.”

have a running commentary, one that would link

Wanting to set Up Your Nose apart from its

the various stories and provide an interesting

competitors such as MAD, Andru and Esposito

juxtaposition to the printed art. Despite its innocent

fielded ideas from everyone, even if some of

beginnings, this idea would eventually lead to the

those ideas weren’t family

Recruiting his daughter and her friend, Mike set

Comics Code, the pair allowed

up a photo shoot. His daughter also brought in

imagination to run wild, and in

another friend, an aspiring actor who went by his

one case Ross took a disgusting

real name: Joe Snow. Mike wasn’t convinced that

habit performed by Mike’s

was his real nmae. “I looked him up and his father’s

dog and turned it into a private

name was Snow and he was so proud of what he did

running joke throughout

in that book. I paid him $25 and we had a contract

the book.

in case we did more of them. He was featured all

Mike remembers, “My

the time: Joe Snow and the Tribe. The Tribe consisted

wife, Irene, created the

of my daughter and her friend Caryn and I paid

idea of ‘Pick Your Nose.’

each of them $25 for the one shoot.”

We had all these noses and

At the photo shoot, Ross’ frustrations as a

you had to pick your nose

director came to the fore. Not one to merely sit

as a contest and the answers

back and watch the action unfold, he began to

were all in the back. We

direct both the action and the photographer,

had Barbara Streisand’s

much to the amusement of Mike.

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Jimmy

Durante’s

“I’ll never forget it, Ross drove the photographer

nose, all different people’s, and we fooled [readers]

crazy. He’d say to my daughter, ‘Lean this way,

on one of them. It looked like Mickey Mouse and it

bend your arm the same way,’ and then he’d be

turned out it was Minnie Mouse.

standing there saying ‘No, no, no, tilt your head

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downfall of Up Your Nose.

friendly. Spared from the

nose,

Quick—how many can you name?

full of it. And ‘Nurd,’ to us, was ‘turd.’

“On the inside back cover of the book there are

back, a bit more, a bit more.’ He’d jump on the set

all these photos of people and they’re all giving

and interfere with the lighting and everything, but

comments about the book. They’re all real people

that’s the way he was.” Andru and Esposito then

we knew, and Dr. Killymyoung is my father. Sol

took the photographs and drew in backgrounds. As

Brodsky’s wife is there, his son, my son is in there.

the book had no color the pair felt they had to give

Now the little dog, ‘Essence of Nurd,’ is my dog

it some texture and variety.

Mishi. The reason why we called it Essence of Nurd

Envisioning a long life to the magazine, Mike

is because the dog loved to eat sh*t. She’d crap in

came up with the idea of printing up T-shirts. The

the back yard and then eat it. She must have had a

front of the shirts featured the magazine’s logo, Up

traumatic, frightening experience as a pup, she

Your Nose, with a finger in place of the “U.” The

must have been starving or something. That’s why

back featured the rest of the title, Out Your Ear. The

we called her ‘Essence of Nurd’ because she was so

shirts were printed professionally and eventually

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sold a reasonable amount, providing a substantial

the bus line waiting for the bus to come in with a

profit (and if anyone has one of the shirts for sale,

Polish family.’ And they’re saying, ‘The Polish are

please contact me via this magazine). Mike’s son

moving in’ and another guy’d be saying, ‘Yep,

took to wearing the shirts for years to school to

there goes the neighborhood,’ And down the line.

annoy the teachers. Mike Esposito’s protégé Dave

‘Next thing you know the Italians are gonna move

Hunt also obtained a shirt,

in,’ and the next guy’d say,

which he still has to this day.

‘Yeah, and then the French

then

will move in’ and it moves

came with the last strip for

down the line until the

the first issue, Ace of

second to last guy says,

Spades. Ace of Spades had

‘And the next thing you

its origins in a conversation

know the blacks are gonna

that

remembered

move in.’ And the very last

having with a lady back in

guy says, ‘What do you

1951: “People are funny.

mean,

All we were doing was trying

gonna move in? We IS the

to show how people are.

blacks!’ It was a long panel

There’s this black town that

with all these people waiting

was getting upset because

for the bus.

The

problems

Mike

the

blacks

expose that ridiculous line

were moving in. “I got the idea because

of prejudice that people

when I was a young fellow

possess without thinking.

visiting some relatives in Boston this woman

They’re so stupid that they’re prejudiced against

came to me and said, ‘Mike, you have no idea

themselves and they don’t

how the neighborhood is changing.’ This is a little

know what they’re talking

town south of Boston. ‘The town is changing, it’s

about. I had a lot of problems

going downhill.’”

with people thinking it was

“Well, what’s the matter?”

racist when it wasn’t. We

“They’re moving in.”

were trying to show how

“‘Who?’” I was thinking, is it the blacks? Who

stupid racism is. The college

could be moving in to make her so upset?”

kids loved it because they

“The French.”

understood it, but a lot of

“I said, ‘The French???’ and I always remembered

people, like the black-power

enemies.

groups, wanted to bomb

Everybody has their own prejudices. It may not

my house. Ace of Spades

be the same as what people have in Brooklyn, or

was a little black boy on the

Manhattan, but I couldn’t believe she said the

plantations and he became

French. It was like saying the Martians are moving

super when he yelled out

Everybody

are

“We were trying to

they’d heard the Polish

that.

The cover to Up Your Nose and Out Your Ear #1 (1972).

has

their

own

in. And this was a little Irish woman who had so

‘Muhammad

much prejudice against the Italians and the

pounded his chest. He

blacks, and then said the French! I never knew a

blew up the Ku Klux Klan,

French person. I would have loved it because I

he fought them, and we were trying to show how

took up French at school.

stupid it all is and some groups didn’t understand it.

“I remembered that when I was writing the book, I said to Ross, ‘We’ll have all these black people on

Ali!’

and

The Ace of Spades utters his magic word!

They started to threaten me so I took my name and address off the indicia of the second issue.”

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Finally with the assistance of Sol Brodsky, John

industry, even though they’d cut back on all the

Costanza, writer Barbara Friedlander, and artists

comic books. This guy who was working up there

Rene Atlass and Daniel Haskett—who’d have his

fell in love with it. He said, ‘This is great! This is

own strip throughout the book named “Daniel’s

going to be another MAD magazine. We want

Den,” something which was overlooked by those

this.’ Ross and I got so excited and went to the

claiming the book was racist as Daniel was black—

elevator and he said, ‘Come back at around lunchtime.’ We went back and he said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you this and I don’t know how to say it, but the head guy here was very upset about it.’ One of the reasons why was because we had a joke about Polish characters in it, and he took offense.” Faced with the problem of not having a publisher didn’t stop Ross and Mike. They’d been amongst the first artists to break away from the mainstream comic-book industry and self-publish. In the early 1950s they’d formed MR Publications, predating Simon and Kirby’s Mainline by a good three years. They’d followed that up with 1953’s MikeRoss Publications. Ross and Mike were no strangers to the world of publishing. They brought Sol Brodsky in as a full partner, as Skywald had gone under Brodsky was out of a job. The three formed a company named Klevart Enterprises and set about printing and distributing the first issue of Up Your Nose. Issue #1 finally appeared in March 1972. The first print run had done amazingly well, shipping an incredible 400,000 copies. The book appeared to be a raging success and with issue #2 ready to go and issue #3 already in the pre-production stage, Andru, Esposito, and Brodsky looked toward a future with wealth and complete creative control. Then the hammer dropped.

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the book was ready to be published. Andru and

Mike remembers, “Our distributor first wrote a

Esposito took the finished results to Israel

telegram that Sol Brodsky and his wife were in

Waldman. Mike recalls what happened next:

tears of happiness over; it said that we were going

“When time came for the magazine to be

to be bigger than MAD. We thought because we’d

published, Waldman said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you

get so much per book that we’d all be rich. We’d

this, but I don’t think I can publish that magazine.

be making thousands and thousands of dollars a

I lost $60,000 last month and projected it’s going

month. We went out to celebrate and had a big

to be another $60,000 every month, if not more,

dinner at a fancy restaurant, Sol and his wife and

and I can’t keep doing that.’”

a couple of other people who were part of the

Feeling dejected, Ross and Mike went and

book, and Ross toasted me. He said, ‘I’d like to

shopped the magazine to all the publishers that

make a toast to Mike Esposito. If it wasn’t for Mike

were left in the business, including Fawcett

none of this would have happened. Here’s to

Publications. “Fawcett was still a big force in the

Mike.’ Three weeks later he wanted to shoot me.

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“What happened was that I got another

Mike was right, the book was dead. Sadly, it

telegram following the first saying, ‘Stop all

would vanish. Mike recalls being asked to pick up

publication.’ I called up the guy and asked what

the returned stock and not being able to face the

happened. He said, ‘Hundreds and thousands of

disappointment of seeing the book again. He left

books are being returned in boxes unopened

the boxes where they sat, and eventually they

from Hawaii, from Alaska, from all around the

became landfill. It’s a regret he has to this day, if

world.’ When they got news that something was

only because he now realizes that he could have

wrong then they didn’t want them, and they

picked them up, for nothing, and sold the

didn’t want them because they thought it was a

250,000 existing copies for $5 or more. However

drug book.”

the pain was real and it was deep for both men.

Why would people think it was a drug book? Of

“We ended up at a convention, Ross and I,

all things in the book to attack—the perceived

and we were trying to sell all the original art for

racism, the nudity, and the crudeness of some of

whatever we could get. Finally we got rid of them

the concepts—the book was brought down due to

for about $10 a page, anything we could get.”

one person: Joe Snow. “Joe Snow was why we

Mike recently remembered why Ross and he

eventually got into serious trouble. I remember

decided to do the book and put so much on the

going into one stationery store and the woman said

line, physically, financially, and emotionally. “We

to me, ‘I’m not putting this out, it’s a drug book.’ I

wanted to do the magazine

said, ‘Why?’ and she said ‘Look, it’s Joe Snow.’ But

because of what was on TV at

it was a legitimate name; that was his name.

the time, the groundbreaking

At the time the term ‘snow’ was widely used

show All in the Family.

to describe cocaine. Cocaine, in the early 1970s,

Carroll O’Connor played a

was very much in the public eye, having risen to

bigot to a T. I thought,

public prominence in the late 1960s as a party

‘This guy is teaching the

drug. Much of this attention came from the U.S.

world how bad it is to be a

Congress, who officially classified the drug as a

bigot, but they don’t get

Schedule II substance in 1970. Officially,

it.’ Then they started to

Schedule II substances have a high potential for

laugh at it and they

abuse, are currently accepted in medical use in

caught on. The manifesto

treatment in the United States with severe

of the book was a simple

restrictions, and may lead to severe psychological

one. Up Your Nose would

or physical dependence. With the drug in the

be designed for people

spotlight, and the reporting of the many names

who were sick and tired

used for it (snow, blow, coke, Charlie, nose

of the way things were

candy, Johnny, sugar, and toot, to name but a

the

world,

For more on Andru and Esposito, be sure to pick up TwoMorrows’ sister mag Alter Ego #54, on sale now.

[and

few), issuing a magazine titled Up Your Nose

would reflect] the ignorance behind racism and

where the main participant in the Greek Chorus

government policy. Most of the phoniness of the

was titled Joe Snow meant one thing and one

times became revealed in a satirical way through

thing only—drugs.

the pages of the magazine.”

“The windup is that they told us to stop and

Ross Andru and Mike Esposito went back into

cease publication. Every store owner said it’s a

mainstream comics. They enjoyed one last flood of

drug book and they wouldn’t put it out. I went

attention when they teamed up to create a critically

to different stores around where I lived, Queens

acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel,

and places like that, and checked it out and no

but sadly they would never venture into the world

one was selling the book. I thought, ‘Oh, my

of self-publishing again.

God, we’re dead.’”

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Michael Eury

American boys in the 1970s were model citizens, attentively assembling plastic model kits of cool cars, creepy creatures, and caped crusaders, with the “aroma” of glue offering an added rush to this exhilarating hands-on experience. In the mid-1970s, the Aurora Plastics Corp., one of the major model manufacturers, cleverly repackaged many of their super-hero kits from the 1960s in a new line called “Aurora Comic Scenes.” Inserted into each box was an “instructional booklet” in the four-color comic-book format; each Comic Scene comic opened with an all-new cover (reprising the box-top art, which re-created in line art the mostly painted box tops from the originals), told an original comics story starring the hero, included an illustrated diorama (usually a splash page) that served as a backdrop for the assembled model, and provided hand-drawn, step-by-step assembling instructions. Many

the

1970s’

top

comics writers and artists were hired to produce Comic Scenes material. In 2005 a collection of original

art

(and

some

Photostats) from this series was auctioned by Heritage Comics (www.heritagecomics.com)—and thanks to the good folks there, we’re happy to share some of this rare art with BACK ISSUE’s readers. Incidentally,

Aurora

had

planned to expand their Comic Scenes line. Their efforts to license

the

molds

for

King

Features’ Phantom and Flash Gordon kits from the 1960s failed, and as a result Aurora commissioned their own molds for those heroes. Dave Cockrum illustrated some Comic Scenes art for the Phantom project, but the line was cancelled before either the Phantom or Flash Gordon models could be issued. 7 0

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Hi yo, Silver! Gil Kane provided the Comic Scenes art for both The Lone Ranger and Tonto (sold separately). Take a gander at the cover art for both, plus Ranger page 7 and Tonto page 4. © 2005 Lone Ranger Television, Inc.

Neal Adams’ astonishing cover to the Tarzan Comic Scenes (written by Mark Hanerfeld), in three stages: a photocopy of his original pencils, the inked version, and the pasted-up completed version. © 2005 Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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In The Kung Fu Grip In the ’70s, Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting! by

Tom “The Comics Sava nt” Stewart

In 1973, Bruce Lee was the coolest man on the face of the earth. He had the look, the style, the ability, the genius, and the fans. Lots of fans. He became a one-man industry of posters, books, T-shirts (you could get your very own iron-on through the comics! That and a “Mickey the Rat” or “Keep On Truckin’” would make you the king of the playground), velvet posters, blacklight posters, and, of course, movies. Bruce was breaking big, with his most popular movie, Enter the Dragon, coming out in theaters that year, scoring $11 1/2 million in box office, more than any other kung-fu film. Way more. Kung fu was hot! Like any hot genre, people were looking for a way to jump on before it cooled. Besides the Bruce Lee explosion, there were the “near-Lees”: Any Chinese actor that vaguely resembled Lee and could do any sort of martial art was given a movie and a lot of hype as the “new Bruce Lee.” Sonny Chiba, Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack), and Jim Kelly briefly became sought-after stars in America. Older movies were re-titled and thrown out into the ’70s grind houses to play 24-hour shows, or sold outright to local stations to play in the wee hours of the morning. It was a fun time for movies, comics, and insomniacs.

MASTER OF KUNG FU TV didn’t have Bruce Lee (not since his stint as Kato, the most interesting element in the Green Hornet series), but it had non-Asian actor David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, ex-monk on a mission in the immensely popular series Kung Fu. Kung Fu had every grade-school kid in the country thinking they knew

Mike Frigon was kind enough to share this vintage (circa 1973) John Byrne pencil commission featuring Shang-Chi and friend saving Iron Man’s can from battling Byrne-bots (note the Armored Avenger’s ’70sera faceplate nose)! Special thanks to Mr. Byrne and Jim Warden. Art © 2005 John Byrne. Characters © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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karate, and humming Carl Douglas’ huge hit, that guilty pleasure of a song, Kung Fu Fighting (you’re humming it right now, aren’t you?). The series was popular enough to have its own comic book.

The back cover to Marvel’s one-shot magazine The Deadliest Heroes of Kung Fu #1 (1975) featured these photos of Bruce Lee and other kung-fu fighters. Scan courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

But it didn’t. Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin wanted to change that. I’ll let Steve tell you more: “I had a few friends up to my place in Connecticut for a weekend, and we were about to go out and get some dinner when Steve Harper, the artist, said he’d stick around to watch the second episode of a TV show he liked called Kung Fu. We were dubious but we put off dinner for an hour, and I totally fell in love with that show—as did Jim Starlin, who was also there. When the third episode came around, Jim and I were down in New York, and I guess Jim didn’t have a TV, so we asked Roy Thomas if we could watch it at his house. Roy was dubious, and remained so, but we remained enthralled, so without any pretense whatsoever, Jim and I created our own version of what we liked. (Then Roy, who loved old pulp [as did I], had us add Fu Manchu to the mix.)” Warners owned Kung Fu, and owned DC Comics, but DC never acted to adapt the series. Marvel, not wanting to pay a license fee (and probably thinking it couldn’t get it anyway) started its own title instead, throwing in Fu Manchu, which it did have the rights to. The series was Master of Kung Fu (the last two words of the title were the largest part of the logo, probably hoping to catch the eye of those interested in the show, and in martial-art butt-kicking in general). Its hero was Shang-Chi, a living weapon, raised

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by his dad Fu to take out the

have a couple issues that were nothing but fights,

Manchu

but also I did one that didn’t have any fights. That

enemies.

Shang-Chi

rebelled against this, escaped his father, and set out on his own

Why did Shang-Chi last as long (ten years!) as

path with Denis Nayland-Smith

he did? “Wonderful writing!” Moench laughs. “I

(also from the Rohmer novels),

knew from the letters that I had so many readers

the head of the British anti-terrorist

interested in so many different elements. The

agency as his guide and mentor.

philosophy, the love triangle, the James Bond elements,

The series took on a more

all had their fans.”

spy/intrigue angle during the post-Englehart/Starlin

A Shang-“Li, Kung Fu” Marvel Sticker from the mid-1970s, courtesy of John Eury.

was one of my favorite issues, too.”

run

Master of Kung Fu started its run with Steve on

script and Jim Starlin on art, later Doug Moench and

Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, but with plenty of

Paul Gulacy took over, Doug having a long run on the

butt kicking! Here’s Doug Moench:

title. (Don’t worry, Shang-Chi fans! A longer article on

“I tried to have at least a couple of fights in every

the series will be coming in a future issue! No letters

issue—I mean, the title was Master of Kung Fu! I did

huffing at me [about that, anyway . . . otherwise, huff

away!]) With Master of Kung Fu successfully launched, the title was franchised into a black-and-white magazine, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, which tried to be a sort of general martial-arts magazine, featuring Bruce Lee on the cover as many times as they could, also Kung Fu the TV series made it to the covers, with nice art by people like Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Howard Chaykin, Michael Golden, and Barry Windsor-Smith, and articles on Lee and the kung-fu phenomenon. Also, there were comics (of course! This was Marvel, after all), besides Shang-Chi (with scripts by Moench and art by Mike Vosburg and later by Rudy Nebres,), featuring a variety of martial-arts masters, like:

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SONS OF THE TIGER Yep, three guys got together and became the Sons of the Tiger—the Tiger in this case being an amulet in the shape of a tiger’s head, with ornamental paws. You had a street smart black man, Abe Brown; a wise Asian, Lin Sun; and a smug, pampered actor, Bob Diamond, all beholden to their aged sensei. (If this sounds like the set-up for the annual episode of Mannix where an old army buddy of Joe’s comes into town for a quiet weekend and gets offed after the first commercial break, thus having Joe swear revenge to Peggy, then you’re ahead of me.) The aged sensei was murdered by sneaky ninjas (the only kind) and the three students vowed vengeance. VENGEANCE, I say! They clasped hands and shout the Tiger oath: “When three are called as one As One they’ll fight, their will be done For each is born anew, as THE TIGER’S SON.” “Green Lantern’s Light” it isn’t, but it was fun (and sometimes really silly), larger-than-life, no-brainer kind of stuff. The three each received the powers of long dead martial-arts masters and went forth to kick butt and take names. Dick Giordano did the art, as did George Pérez. Scripts were by Gerry Conway. Here’s Gerry on writing the series: “It was a fad at the time, begun by the early Bruce Lee films, Five Fingers of Death, or some such. The [movie’s] action was extremely over-the-top, much like a comic, so it seemed like a natural fit.” In #19 the series focused on Hector Ayala, who found the amulets left by the Sons in a New York subway (!). He used them to become the White Tiger, Marvel Comics’ first Puerto Rican super-hero, taking out the bad guys in his own neighborhood. (That way, since he was a college student, he didn’t have to travel.) The character was written by Bill Mantlo, and seemed an attempt to capture the magic of the early Spider-Man (something Marvel has tried several times, sometimes in Spidey’s own title). White Tiger at least brought some focus to the Sons series, which had three heroes to deal with. The Tiger’s family was then wiped out by a gang of criminals on an anti-superhero binge, and he declared revenge. (There is a lot of revenge in comics, as in the kung-fu movies themselves. I often wonder what kind of movie featuring a hero

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with no siblings or friends to kill would be? Short, I assume.) Meanwhile, on his quest for revenge, White Tiger got shot, and then nursed back to health by Spider-Man himself, and in Spectacular Spider-Man #52 he decided to leave the hero business behind. He sunsets, never to be heard from again . . . for awhile. No one ever truly disappears or dies in comics. By the way, how do you write a comic with a bunch of martial-arts action? Steve Englehart: “I generally left the choreography up to the artist, since Jim, who began the color comic, and Al Weiss, who began the B&W, were both fans. I honestly don’t know if Paul Gulacy, who took over, was a fan, though his subsequent work with Doug Moench would argue that he was. In any event, I think it was as much fun for the artists to draw kung-fu moves as it was for me to write kung-fu thoughts.” Marvel also had another kung-fu hero with his own title:

IRON FIST Iron Fist first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15, and ran until #25, and got his own title for 15 issues. Fist was young Danny Rand, whose parents died while the family was on an expedition to Tibet, looking for the lost city of K’un-Lun. (I wonder how many heroes Tibet has turned out? They must have a factory there, going ’round the

clock to meet demand.) His parents were killed during the search, and Danny, near death, was rescued by the people of the very city he’d been looking for. He was given to martial-arts master Lei Kung (The Thunderer!) to be trained. And trained some more. Finally he was trained to mental and physical perfection (which means he should never have girl problems?), had an accelerated healing factor, and could sense things “beyond the mortal realm.” If that wasn’t enough, Danny defeated the serpent Shou-Lao, was mystically branded with a chest-covering dragon tattoo, and developed the power of the Iron Fist, concentrating all his mystic strength through his hand. A great power, but it leaves him very tired afterwards. Chris Claremont wrote the series; its best-remembered artist is Chris’ X-Men partner, John Byrne, but Fist would also be drawn by Rudy Nebres and, of course, Larry Hama, way back in Marvel Premiere #15. Iron Fist was a classic Claremont/Byrne series, well written and well drawn, and the kung-fu action must have been a nice break from the angst of the X-Men (who showed up in Iron Fist’s last issue to fight and to trash Danny’s girlfriend’s apartment. I guess he has girl problems after all!). Iron Fist also showed up to move in for a few issues (#19–24) of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, displacing Shang-Chi. Then Fist, Shang-Chi, and the Sons of the Tiger teamed up in #29–31 for a huge martial-arts fest, but the title was cancelled with #33. The kung-fu fad was winding down. . . . . .but not before DC jumped on, although very lately, with a

couple of chopping-and-kicking series of its own. Since, really,

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the mid-1960s, DC always seemed a day late and

taught the ways of martial arts. He

five bucks short. It saw a trend, starting in the

joined fellow student Ben Turner

early ’70s, and then jumped at it a year after

and went forth, to, you got it, kick

Marvel had already staked out the territory (and

butt. Turner later became the

built a few condos). DC entered the Dojo with:

kung-fu super-hero Bronze Tiger. (Okay. Really. Must all black

RICHARD DRAGON, KUNG FU FIGHTER

super-heroes have a “Black”

Richard Dragon was the first kung-fu hero of the ’70s

name? Or a headband? Sigh.)

to have crossed over from an actual novel. The book

Dragon had few fun issues, but

was Master of Kung Fu: Dragon’s Fists by Jim Dennis.

could hardly be counted as

It looked to be the start of an Executioner-type series,

prime O’Neil, mostly a pretty

but only the first book ever appeared. Okay, it’s been

weak and verrrry late arrival to

a few years, and he’s been outed before (I mean, it’s

the party. Denny later made

not like Deep Throat stepping forward), but “Jim

Dragon a player in his much

Dennis” was really DC writer and editor Denny

better Question series, but

O’Neil with partner Jim Berry. There, I said it. The

that’s another article.

issues were written by Denny (who is only credited in

Speaking of late arrivals

the first issues as editor, the story credit in the first

(and we were), here’s a

issue going to that “Jim Dennis” guy again) and nicely

strange one was one that would have seemed a

illustrated by Leopoldo Duranona (whatever happened

much more obvious choice for a series:

Batman even got into the kung-fu craze, just

to him?), then Jim Starlin, and even Jack Kirby!

for kicks! Original

Richard Dragon was a petty thief, a kid who tried to

KARATE KID

rob a monastery, who was caught in the act by the

A year after Richard Dragon made his bow in the

monks but was then accepted as their student and

four-color medium, Karate Kid suddenly became

cover art (by Jim Aparo) to The Brave and the Bold #132

disenchanted with the 30th Century and the Legion of

(1977), courtesy of

Super-Heroes and struck out on his own in the 20th.

Mike Burkey.

He found an apartment in New York City (a super-

power all its own), a girlfriend, and settled in for a 15–issue run to find himself. You’d think a hero named Karate Kid, whose whole gig was being a karate master,

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would prove an interesting karate hero without the rest of the Legion around. Well, not here, I’m afraid. The whole enterprise (yanking him out of the 30th Century, suddenly instilling him with an inferiority complex) smacked (slapped?) of sheer cashing-in. The facts that the series never seemed to pick up much steam and that artist Ric Estrada didn’t really have a real feel for the karate heroics didn’t help. Karate Kid pretty much ended DC’s attempt to catch the train after it had already left the station.

already knows: Bruce Lee didn’t live to see the fame he earned, or the extent of the fad he started. Lee died that same year Enter the Dragon was breaking box-office records. That is why there weren’t any Bruce Lee comics in the ’70s and probably

why the fad was just that, a fad. Bruce wasn’t around to feed

and sustain the kung-fu movement, and those that tried to carry it forward just didn’t have the charisma or the star power . . . aw, hell, they just weren’t cool enough to keep it going. Who knows, it probably would have petered out even if Bruce Lee had lived, but I wish he’d have had the chance to prove me wrong. You see, in 1973, Bruce Lee was the coolest man on the planet. In 1973, Lee, TV, rock ’n’ roll, and comics ruled the playground, and life was good. Last word to Steve Englehart, on why his co-creation Shang-Chi outlasted the fading of the fad. Steve? “Like almost all of my stuff, I believed in the series; it wasn’t just a fad I was riding. And in fact, as you probably know, I left the series when Marvel wanted to use it as a fad to ride. I believed in the philosophy and I believed in Shang-Chi as a character. And as you probably know, I named him ‘Shang Chi’ after prolonged contemplation of the I Ching. It means, at least roughly, ‘rising and advancing of the spirit.’ I have no idea if it would be said that way by someone who actually speaks the language, but marrying those two concepts was my statement of what the character was about. I was serious, and that’s why he’s stayed the #1 kung-fu character.” Thanks to Doug Moench, Steve Englehart, and Gerry Conway. And Bruce Lee, of course.

Gil Kane’s pencils for the Shang-Chi vs. Man-Thing cover of Master of Kung Fu #19 (1974); Tom Palmer inked the finished version. Courtesy of Jim Warden (www.doasales.com). © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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A Page of Kindness by Ray Wong What gives meaning to a piece of original comic-book art? The artist? The characters or action? The time period? Is it a cover or splash? The prestige of the title? In the art market, all of these factors can affect the value and price of a piece of art. I no longer collect original art, but there is one page I will always remember, and it had nothing to do with any of these factors. In this world of ours, there aren’t many acts of genuine kindness. I’m going to tell you about one. I sold my art collection in 1998 to help pay for my wedding. I don’t regret the sacrifice, but the hardest piece to let go of was a Paul Gulacy Master of Kung Fu from the 1970s. Page seven from issue #49 depicted Shang Chi in battle with Shaka Kharn, a wondrous example of Gulacy’s fine detail, but that wasn’t the reason I treasured this page. I started collecting art in the early ’80s. My interest in art and comics even led to an aborted attempt to run a comic store in San Diego called the Comic Alternative. To help support our shop, my partner and I sold at the San Diego Comic-Con at the old downtown San Diego Concourse before it moved to the current, much larger, convention center. I collected art, but was really more a dealer because, though I owned pages from some of my favorite artists such as Barry Windsor-Smith, Neal Adams, Frank Miller, Mike Grell, and Paul Gulacy, the art was always for sale at the right price. The only exception was the Gulacy Master of Kung Fu. It graced my portfolio along with the others, but always came attached with a “Not For Sale” sticker. The reason? Purely and simply, the way I obtained it was an act of kindness, an example of human altruism that still touches me at my core.

The Gulacy-drawn “page of kindness”: page 7 of Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu #49 (1977). From the collection of Roger Clark; scan courtesy of Ray Wong.

Back in the ’80s, a particular collector would stop by my table each year to talk art. I was usually able to buy pages by artists I admired with the exception of Paul Gulacy’s MOKF. Maybe I wanted a page because Shang-Chi was one of the few Asian characters around in that period, and I needed someone to identify with. I tried all the big art dealers, but always struck out. I lamented my situation with this collector for a few years at the San Diego Cons and, in one of my last years selling there, he offered me the Gulacy from his collection. As soon as I saw it, I couldn’t take the money out fast enough from my wallet. The piece was just stunning. The thing that touched me so much—here was this guy I had no contact with outside of those four days each summer at the San Diego Comic-Con, and he sold me a prized page from his collection because he knew how much I wanted a Gulacy MOKF. How often does that happen in this “Gotta be mint” universe of

collecting? It’s an understatement to say this meant the world to me. He made one request; if I ever wanted to sell it, give him first crack. I agreed without hesitation.

Shortly after, I stopped selling at the San Diego Comic-Con and pretty much lost touch with comics and art altogether for over a decade. In 1996, I met the woman I fell in love with and, two years later, we prepared for our wedding. The wedding costs mounted, and I had this portfolio of original art sitting in the garage, a remnant of my past, while my wedding symbolized my future. I thought of keeping the Gulacy, but I couldn’t remember the name of the man who had sold it to me. Not only did I not recall his name, I didn’t have a clue how to contact him. Better to make it a clean break, go cold turkey, and give up everything in one lot—no regrets that way. I sold to a dealer in New York and went about my life. This July, I walked the dealer’s room at the San Diego Comic-Con and ran into a friend, an art collector from the old days. He told me about a comic art web site for fans, so I went home, got on the site, and browsed Paul Gulacy. One of the pieces happened to be owned by a familiar name, but I wasn’t sure it was the guy who sold me the Gulacy. I sent an e-mail, and he confirmed my hunch. I promptly apologized for selling it, and he said he understood, but a part of me felt I had betrayed his generosity. So I contacted the art dealer in New York and asked if he had any leads on the Gulacy. He referred me to a Master of Kung Fu art collector who cherished the piece and wasn’t interested in selling it. Maybe that’s the way it was supposed to happen. I’ve heard it said that if you let something go, if it’s meant to be yours, it will come back. I don’t know if I’ll ever own that Gulacy page again, but if I don’t, I will always carry the memory of a kindness, and that’s something I will never forget as long as I live.

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Welcome back to our column reviewing and previewing DVDs featuring comic-book characters translated to film and television. For a comprehensive listing of comic-book DVDs, check out the three-part article that ran in BACK ISSUE #5, 7, and 9! In this column, I’ll take a closer look at newer releases of films, TV series,

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Fantastic Four: The Complete Animated Television Series Disney/Buena Vista (569m) Multiple Fantastic Four series have been aired on TV (with a new one on the way), but this series is one of the two most-faithful-to-thecomics. Originally aired as 26 episodes over two seasons in 1994– 1995, the show followed the FF template, introducing characters such as the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom, the Skrull, Silver Surfer and Galactus, the Inhumans, Daredevil, Black Panther, the Negative Zone . . . pretty much everything sprang from the first hundred issues of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s comics. The first season is pretty rough, but it improves by bounds in Season Two. Extras are skimpy, mainly consisting of Stan Lee giving hyperbolic comments about episodes and talking about the creation of the comic. Still, a lovely four-disc set! DVD Extras: Introductions, Stan’s Soapbox segments.

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Elektra Fox (96m)

The Incredibles Disney (115m)

Hard to believe that Frank Miller’s femme fatale is 25 this year, but it’s been a quarter-century since the red-clad sai-wielding assassin was introduced in Daredevil #168. The feature film starring Jennifer Garner was sadly trashed as part of the anti-Ben Affleck backlash, and it’s a shame. The movie looks gorgeous, has some nice moody acting by Garner, and a nice relationship between the assassin and the girl she’s supposed to kill. I forgave the plot holes, given that just about any superhero movie has them, and enjoyed the action and visuals. Go for the widescreen edition (always), and enjoy a host of extras including a deleted Daredevil flashback, a presentation from San Diego Comic-Con, and more! Also available is an extrasladen two-disc “Unrated Director’s Cut” that we didn’t get it in time for review here. . . DVD Extras: Deleted Scenes, Featurettes.

Just a quick mention here of the non-comic super-hero flick that got everyone aflutter last year. Pixar’s animated super-family is a riff on the Fantastic Four, as filtered through 1960s spy films, The Simpsons, and modern selfhelp books. I didn’t love it as much as everyone else, but it’s definitely worth the price to buy, and the two-disc set has lots of cool extras and a new short with super-baby Jack-Jack. DVD Extras: Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Bloopers, Extra Toons.

In the spring of 1981, hapless school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) is given a super-hero suit by some aliens, only to promptly lose the instruction book. Working with exasperated FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp) and girlfriend/divorce lawyer, Pam (Connie Sellecca), Ralph tries to save the world a little bit at a time, even as he struggles to learn to control his unknown powers. GAH was a creation of Stephen J. Cannell, and while some consider it pure cheese, I think it was a surprisingly funny, endearing, and enjoyable series. Okay, it’s a bit dated as well (especially Katt’s blond afro), but as the series progressed into its third season, it significantly played with its formula and storytelling. The first boxed set also includes a pilot for a Greatest American Heroine spin-off series. There are lots of comic-book nods in GAH, including a child telling Ralph how to fly based on his knowledge of Superman and Shazam. Anchor Bay did a great job restoring the picture to these boxed sets (set 1 is three discs, set 2 is six discs, and set 3 is four

discs), and includes a gaggle of cool extras including interviews and a printed replica of some “instruction book” pages. Set three (otherwise extra-less) even includes an on-pack version of Joey Scarbury’s chart-topping “Believe It Or Not” theme song you can play by pressing the front of the box! Fun for all and a more innocent look at super-heroes before darkness and Crisis ascended. . . DVD Extras: Interviews, Photo Gallery, Screenplay, Japanese language track, booklets.

and comic-related documentaries. Let’s dive right in. . .

The Greatest American Hero: Season One, Season Two, Season Three Anchor Bay (417 m, 1085 m, and 620m)

ngel dy Ma

Next time out: The latest Crow film, and hopefully some Warner discs. Meanwhile, be on the lookout for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season One Volume One, and for the holidays, A He-Man She-Ra Christmas Special, from BCI Eclipse! With exclusive art postcards from Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Ross, Phil Jimenez, and David Mack, both releases feature two new 30-minute documentaries produced/directed/scripted by me! Have a comic book-oriented DVD you want to see reviewed? Contact me care of www.andymangels.com!

$200,000 PAID FOR ORIGINAL COMIC ART! COLLECTOR PAYING TOP DOLLAR FOR “ANY AND ALL” ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK AND COMIC STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT! COVERS, PINUPS, PAGES, IT DOESN’T MATTER! 1 PAGE OR ENTIRE COLLECTIONS SOUGHT! CALL OR EMAIL ME ANYTIME!

330-296-2415 mikeburkey@aol.com OR SEND YOUR LIST TO:

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Send your comments to: Email: euryman@msn.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) No attachments, please!

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Drive • Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Before we get to reader response to our “Gods and Warriors” issue,

As a fan of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, I picked up BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #11, we must begin with a few corrections to information

with some excitement. Unfortunately, I was a mite disappointed by the

reported therein:

article written by Tom Stewart. I must admit that maybe I was expecting

Some transcription errors crept into Dan Johnson’s Sergio

TOO much. I was fairly aware of Stewart’s information from articles in

Aragonés/Mark Evanier “Pro2Pro” interview on Groo: The characters

other magazines like Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego, and even Roy

“Pal and Drumm” were mistakenly called a character named

Thomas’ recollections in various publications, so the article held no

“Palandrone,” and a reference to a Marvel executive named “Carol

new information for this committed Conan-phile. Of course, I can’t

Shaley” should have read “Carol Kalish.” BACK ISSUE regrets these

hold that against Tom. But the cover promised an in-depth look, and

errors, and apologizes to the memory of the late, great, and much-

instead I found it offered a re-warming of previously available information

missed Ms. Kalish.

on mostly the early years of the Conan comic. The production of

42, in Terry Jones’ article about Brian Bolland’s 1980s British Annuals, was, in fact, Mongul. BI would apologize to Mongul, but he scares us. The quotes from Barry Windsor-Smith that appeared in Tom Stewart’s “Conan the Long-Running” article were from previously printed sources

Savage Sword of Conan (SSOC), Conan the Savage, and most of King Conan were depths left unplumbed. Granted, you could do a whole book examining the Conan cottage industry created by Marvel (hint), but they deserved more than a

and were not commissioned specifically for this article. The caption to the

curiosity nod in the article. For

image appearing on page 53 was erroneous: This portfolio piece,

instance, Conan the King featured

obtained from Heritage Comics, was Barry Windsor-Smith’s 1974 “The

an epic war from issues #29–49

Ram and the Peacock” print, depicting a barbarian that is not Conan,

that sprawled over four years,

making it the longest-running

story in the Marvel Conan’s history.

Smith, as is the Young Miracleman pencil artwork on page 24 (in our

SSOC acted as a veritable fanzine

“Rough Stuff” feature). BACK ISSUE apologizes to Mr. Windsor-Smith

during Roy’s first tenure on the

and to our readers for the errors.

title, and many of the fan articles

Our friend Roy Thomas submitted the following letter regarding a

printed therein were fascinating

statement made in the Conan article, and it’s followed by an informative

explorations of Conan’s world.

missive from a self-professed Conan-phile:

There was no reference to Roy Thomas re-starting the adaptation of

I have to respond (albeit in friendly fashion) to the amazing revelation—

John, and Ernie’s strange or noteworthy story pairing Conan with

first time I recall hearing it—that somehow Neal’s [Adams] layouts on

Robert E. Howard (SSOC #200).

Three readers noted that the character identified as Darkseid on page

other Conan and non-Conan stories, or so much as a mention of Roy,

“Shadows in Zamboula” “disappeared” from his office. I’m fairly certain that he gave them to me so I could write the issue while he was

either errors or just poor choice of words. On page 59, Tom indicates

supposed to be finishing the art . . . and when time was getting close

“Roy and John charged up their batteries again [presumably after

(after #13 had been a reprint, the only one in over 200 issues of

launching King Conan, as referenced in his preceding paragraph] and

Savage Sword), I sent them to the Philippines. I certainly never sent

brought forth a true saga, an adaptation of Howard’s “Queen of the

anyone after them, nor did I have a “mole” in Continuity . . . and can’t

Black Coast.” That’s not accurate. A quick check of cover dates shows

imagine someone just dumped them on my doorstep.

that “Queen of the Black Coast” began in Conan #58 (cover date – Roy

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But above these slight misgivings, I have to correct Tom for what are

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January 1976) and ended with Conan #100 (cover date July 1979). The

first issue of King Conan, featuring “The Witch of the Mists,” has a cover date of March 1980. It is never mentioned in the article whether Roy, John, and Ernie worked on King Conan during the final months of

Questions? Comments? Exaltations? Send 'em to euryman@msn.com. Thanks for helping make BACK ISSUE the ultimate comics experience!

“Queen of the Black Coast.” While possible, they hardly “charged their batteries again” to bring forth a story that began four years earlier in

was it like for Mike Rockwitz, former editor of SSOC? Or how was the

1976, much less finished nearly a year before King Conan. Again,

poorly received Conan: Year One conceived? Or what really went on

maybe Tom meant to make a different point like Roy and John finished

between Christopher Priest and his art team that resulted in Priest leaving

“Queen of the Black Coast” only to charge up to do King Conan?

Conan the Barbarian? The publishing history is rich regarding this character

On page 60, Tom describes SSOC as “the magazine that was the most canceled and monkeyed with,” a description I respectfully

and it would be worthwhile to further investigate these topics. Thanks for reading and considering all of my comments. I’m sure it’s

suggest is inaccurate. I’m imagining Tom is saying Savage Tales and

a tough task to put this book together and I don’t mean to denigrate

SSOC were the same book. But it

your efforts or those of Tom Stewart. Best of wishes in the future.

seems to me that the books should

– David LoTempio

really be considered two separate Thank you, David. Your letter touches on a few topics I’d like to discuss.

Savage Tales, but it successfully

First, BACK ISSUE’s editorial goal is to appeal to the widest

avoided the threat of cancellation

audience possible, while exploring comic books of the 1970s and

for much of its long life. From what I recall, it was one of Marvel’s most profitable books, which is why it lasted as long as it did. Furthermore, the format of SSOC was only changed a handful of times (the removal of articles, the change from adaptations to

entities. Yes, SSOC grew out of

1980s. Sometimes we might not dig deep enough to satisfy the most dedicated readers, and in those cases we rely upon savvy readers like you to fill in the gaps we might omit. Second, I can’t promise a return to more Conan material in the near future, as there are many other series and characters crying for a spotlight. You are correct that there is more terrain to explore, and hopefully that will happen one day, either here or in a book devoted to Conan comics. Lastly, it is indeed a tough task to assemble a magazine like this.

original stories and then back again), while it seems accurate to say

There is no “one-stop shopping source” for comic-book history—if there

Savage Tales’ format was changed quite a bit (it featured horror, sci-fi,

were, there’d be no need for BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, or other comics-

Conan, and then Jungle adventures with Ka-Zar and Shanna).

related magazines or books. We attempt to uncover the facts, but often

The biggest correction needs to be made on page 49, where Tom

the information we share is presented through the recollections of

notes one of the distinctions of Conan #1 as being Conan’s first

individuals connected to comics series, and upon occasion, those

appearance in a comic. It is NOT the first appearance of Conan in a comic

recollections might collide with the memories of someone else involved.

book! As longtime readers of SSOC know, or recent readers of Alter Ego

Case in point: our next letter. . .

know, Conan first appeared in a Mexican comic called La Reina de la Costa Negra, aka the Queen of the Black Coast, first published in 1959. The comic

As one of the three inkers who actually worked on the project, I’m

took great liberties with Howard’s material but Belit and Conan are definitely

writing to correct a massive erroneous conclusion jumped to by your

the stars. The following website has an incomplete gallery of covers:

intrepid reporter in the BACK ISSUE #11 article about who did what on

http://www.tebeosfera.com/Libris/REH/comic/Conan/LaReina/

the DC/Marvel Superman vs. Spider-Man book.

delaCostaNegra.htm.

The subject in question concerns Josef Rubinstein’s possible

So, did I find anything to like in this issue? You bet. The article

involvement in the inking side of the production. As one unfamiliar with

on the Superman/Spider-Man comic was fabulous! It exemplified the

the process of how comic-book artwork is done, it’s not hard to see how

kind of careful research and writing that I want to read in books

your intrepid reporter could have jumped to the inaccurate conclusion

[and magazines] like BACK ISSUE. Even the bit on the aborted Wiz

that “Josef had helped ink the book,” a conclusion that I don’t even

comic was interesting. Also, I enjoyed the profile on Arthur Suydam

think Josef himself would support, from his quotations in the article.

because I was never terribly familiar with the man or his work. I’ll be

I was Dick Giordano’s sole assistant for comic-book work for a three-

sure to look for his stuff in the future, so I’m glad you brought

year period during which the Superman/Spider-Man book was done. Dick

attention to his remarkable talent.

would ink the figures then pass the pages along to me and I would ink

Despite my misgivings, I’d love to see further issues from BACK ISSUE regarding Marvel’s Conan. There is a lot of history that hasn’t seen as

the backgrounds, then erase the pages, fill in the blacks (areas outlined by Dick and myself and designated to be filled in with solid black ink by

much attention as the Thomas, Smith, Adams, and Buscema work. Alan

placing an “x” inside the outlines) with a brush (done at this stage

Zelentez was abruptly pulled from the Conan the King book (#28) and

because the erasing process would lighten the large black brushed areas

his plots weren’t resolved until Christopher Priest wrote the final story

to grey, otherwise), and finally use white paint to obliterate any of our ink

between issues #50–55. What happened? Why the departure and why

lines that protruded past the panel borders. At that point I would deliver

did Marvel derail the story along a different track for four years? Or what

the pages to Julie Schwartz at DC for eventual proofreading, coloring, etc.

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In that context, let’s

accomplishment, my old Continuity officemate, Bob Wiacek. A quick

look at Josef’s quote from

flip through the book confirms what I remember, that Bob helped me

page 29 of the article:

ink the backgrounds on the “Luthor/Doc Ock in prison” chapter,

“Terry Austin did all the backgrounds and I may have done the blacks and touch ups. Terry

’cause all those prison bars were driving me batty! So, the more accurate credit on page 32 should read, “inked by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin, with an assist by Bob Wiacek.”

certainly did the blacks on the backgrounds; I just don’t remember

As a side note, after publication, DC decided that the art on their

the figure part.” I genuinely thank Josef for his attempt at accuracy

Superman titles could use some spiffing up, and decided that having

and his desire to place credit where it is due. By his own statement

backgrounds that looked like those in Superman/Spider-Man was the way

his involvement might have been filling in the black areas in Dick’s

to go. I was hired by Carmine [Infantino] and Julie to ink backgrounds

figures at most, but he honestly doesn’t remember doing it. Your

on [pencilers] Curt Swan and García-López for [inkers] Bob Oksner and

intrepid reporter concludes that this confirms “the rumors . . . that

Tex Blaisdell and brought along good ol’ Bob Wiacek as it only seemed

Josef had helped ink the book.”

fair, given his involvement with the book. And, for the record, Bob

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that what neither Josef or I remember happening is true, that Josef indeed filled in a few blacks on Dick’s figures and maybe whited-out borders on a couple of pages. It’s well understood in the industry that these tasks wouldn’t fall under the

succeeded me as Dick’s assistant and Josef came after him, if any other proof were necessary to disprove your intrepid reporter’s claim. I’m glad for this chance to set the record straight, but I can’t help but think about the old journalistic adage about how hard it is to

title of legitimate inking on the book but more correctly would be seen

unring a bell. It’s too bad your intrepid reporter didn’t see fit to

as functions of production, preparing the pages to be printed as it

contact me on the subject so that his blunder could have been corrected

were. These are basic unskilled labor jobs, which is

before it was in print to mislead future scholars of our

why they are often relegated to the hands of the

beloved four-color medium!

inker’s non-artistic wife, girlfriend, roommate, would never presume to pencil or ink anything fill in a missing black, or white out an errant ink line in a border. I’ve even heard of inkers who were bucking a missed deadline turning in pages for DC’s in-house production department to fill in the blacks and white out the borders. Should the production department be credited with co-inking the book? Similarly, should the comic-book writer who has his wife, relative, or even a professional

Inc.

cousin, etc. I’ve seen fumble-thumbed editors who

Terry, thank you for taking the time to write. Terry’s letter was shared with Daniel Best, the author of the “Off My Chest” article on Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man,

service proofread and/or type their script have their

I’ve read with a certain amount of dismay the letter from Terry Austin in regard to my article in BACK ISSUE #11 on the Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man crossover. First up, I have to apologize to Terry for not contacting him prior to the article’s publication. I did

credit read “written by John Blonk and the Acmequik

attempt to contact Terry on more than one occasion, but I received no

Duplicating Service”? Lettering is an arduous task done usually

response. As I relied on third parties to pass on my requests then I

under the stressful deadline gun, and most letterers have their wives

don’t blame Terry at all—if anything, it’s my fault for not pushing harder—

proofread the pages before they’re out the door; if that wife knocks

and I regret that we weren’t able to communicate prior to the article

in a missing balloon tail, or whites out an ink blotch in the border, is

being published. Sorry, Terry. I’ll freely admit that my focus was mainly

she now entitled to a lettering co-credit? So, let’s assume the most likely scenario, even if neither Josef nor I remember it; Josef is passing Dick’s desk at Continuity Associates all those years ago and Dick says, “As long as you’re going down the hall, give these

on finding out and confirming that Neal Adams and John Romita, Sr. also had a hand in the penciling side of the pages, even if it was only a minor one. The inking side, well, that was different kettle of fish. In my attempts to tie down who did what on that crossover, I’ve

pages to Terry,” and Josef maybe stops off along the way in Jack Abel’s

found a plethora of information and people who have all told me that

room and, unbidden, fills in blacks on the figures on a couple of pages

they 1) worked on the book, 2) didn’t work on the book, 3) know who

before handing them to me (who would blame him? It was a pretty neat

did work on the book, or 4) are happy to tell me who didn’t work on

job after all.). Recognizing Josef to be the honest and unassuming gentle-

the book. As I’ve said to Terry himself, I’m starting to think that I’m the

man that I know him to be, would he want your intrepid reporter to state

only person left who didn’t work on the book.

unequivocally for the record all these years later that the book as “inked by

At the end of the day the credits will remain as they were published in

Dick Giordano with assists by Terry Austin and Josef Rubinstein”? I hardly

the actual book—no amount of research or discovery will ever change that.

think that my old pal Joe would want to grab credit where none was due.

In its own way, that seems more apt than anything I could have written.

Still, you might wonder why I stated in my first paragraph that I was one of the three who inked the Superman vs. Spider-Man book; it’s because of the other person who can legitimately lay claim to that

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who penned the following response:

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Cheers! – Daniel Best Adelaide, South Australia

I was taken aback, when seeing never-before-published artwork from Nestor Redondo, on his take of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When I hear creations that never get published and wind up on some shelf somewhere, it saddens me. For example, there is a script for Zorro to meet the Lone Ranger that never was published, when Topps was publishing Zorro. There was tons of Jack Kirby artwork that was never published, but thanks to The Jack Kirby Collector, that lost artwork is now getting published. Thankfully, BACK ISSUE has taken this artwork that I would have never seen and published it. The King Arthur legend will always live on, and the Discovery Channel recently did a documentary on King Arthur, showing where this legend may have come from. What was amazing about this show is that Merlin may have

ON S U B M I S SEI S GUIDELIN

been a common tribal shaman that assisted another tribe in which Arthur was a part. King Arthur will live on in movies, even on TV shows such as Charmed, in which the Charmed witches were transported into the era of Camelot, And, of course, King Arthur will live on in comics, the most recent being King Arthur vs. Dracula. – Paul Dale Roberts Jazma Online!, www.jazmaonline.com The Redondo King Arthur feature was one of my favorites to date, Paul, and whenever possible, BACK ISSUE will continue to unearth and publish pages from unrealized gems. (Creators and collectors who have this type of material in their files are encouraged to email me at euryman@msn.com.)

BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s:

Unpublished artwork and covers Original artwork and covers Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc. Original sketches and/or convention sketches

Original scripts Photos Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities

Just wanted to tell you I really enjoy reading BACK ISSUE every time I get it. You guys really know how to do your research. When I first started out collecting back in the ’80s, there weren’t any comic shops. My main resources were grocery stores, pharmacies, and the occasional trip to Waldenbooks, until the late ’80s/early ’90s when Vision Comics in Robinson, IL, opened (the shop

Creators and collectors of 1970s' /1980s' comics artwork are invited to share your goodies with other fans! Contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive complimentary copies (and the editor's gratitude).

where one of your [art] contributors, Don Corn, gets his stuff). I just wanted to say I appreciate what you do, because there was no way I really knew about the comics biz except what I read in my two favorite comics, Transformers and Spider-Ham (any chance we might see anything on the latter?). I didn’t even know that Bob Budiansky (Transformers writer) even did Ghost Rider beforehand (since you are doing GR in a few issues, will you be spotlighting him any?). I also didn’t know that he also did the biographies of all the Transformers until I read about it on a website. There are probably other things I don’t know about the other comics I grew up on, so I am very grateful that there are magazines like yours I can really rely on for these things. – Jeff Nichols Jeff, one of my guilty pleasures, Spider-Ham, isn’t planned for BI yet, but Transformers will arrive soon—more info to come next issue. . . . . .which explores the world of tomorrow—Hercules Unbound, Hex, Kamandi, “Killraven,” the Star Wars newspaper strip (yeah, I know it was “a long, long time ago,” but let’s not get picky), Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, a Bob McLeod-hosted “Rough Stuff,” and a “Pro2Pro” featuring the

Submit artwork as (listed in order of preference): Scanned images: 300dpi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (emailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers' Bible by emailing euryman@msn.com or by sending a SASE to the address below. Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers' guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Dr. Lake Oswego, OR 97034

first-ever interview between Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell on the Legion of Super-Heroes! Be here in sixty for our “Future Issue”! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor

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Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ’40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ’65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

1974 panel with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, FRANK ROBBINS, and ROY THOMAS, ROY and JOHN BUSCEMA on Avengers, 1964 STAN LEE interview, tributes to DON HECK, JOHNNY CRAIG, and GRAY MORROW, Timely alums DAVID GANTZ and DANIEL KEYES, and FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and MIKE MANLEY! Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON and JOE SIMON!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY012450

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL012309

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(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV012568

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ALTER EGO #17 Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB022730

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR022615

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY022386

ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

STAN GOLDBERG interview, secrets of ’40s Timely, art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, MANEELY, EVERETT, BURGOS, and DeCARLO, spotlight on sci-fi fanzine XERO with the LUPOFFS, OTTO BINDER, DON THOMPSON, ROY THOMAS, BILL SCHELLY, and ROGER EBERT, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD ghosting Flash Gordon! KIRBY and SWAYZE covers!

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG022420

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT022884

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV022845

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL022370

ALTER EGO #21 The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers! (108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC023029

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

X-MEN interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, ROY THOMAS, and LEN WEIN, MORT MESKIN profiled by his sons and ALEX TOTH, rare art by JERRY ROBINSON, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY on Comics Fandom! MESKIN and COCKRUM covers!

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on All-Star Squadron #1 and its ’40s roots (with art by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

JOE SINNOTT interview, IRWIN DONENFELD interview by EVANIER & SCHWARTZ, art by SHUSTER, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, and SWAN, MARK WAID analyzes the first Kryptonite story, JERRY SIEGEL and HARRY DONENFELD, JERRY IGER Shop update, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and KEN BALD! Covers by SINNOTT and WAYNE BORING!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN032492

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB032260

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ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ’60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN032614

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL032570

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG032604

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP032620

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT032843

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed, MART NODELL on his Timely years, rare art by BURGOS, EVERETT, and SHORES, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age (with art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, and more), FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

Quality Comics interviews with ALEX KOTZKY, AL GRENET, CHUCK CUIDERA, & DICK ARNOLD (son of BUSY ARNOLD), art by COLE, EISNER, FINE, WARD, DILLIN, and KANE, MICHELLE NOLAN on Blackhawk’s jump to DC, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on HARVEY KURTZMAN, & ALEX TOTH on REED CRANDALL! Covers by REED CRANDALL & CHARLES NICHOLAS!

Covers by JOHN ROMITA and AL JAFFEE! LEE, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, & THOMAS on the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, with rare art by ROMITA, AYERS, BURGOS, HEATH, EVERETT, LAWRENCE, & POWELL, AL JAFFEE on the 1940s Timely Bullpen (and MAD), FCA, ALEX TOTH on comic art, MR. MONSTER on unpublished 1950s covers, and more!

JOE SIMON on SIMON & KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, and LLOYD JACQUET, JOHN BELL on World War II Canadian heroes, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Canadian origins of MR. MONSTER, tributes to BOB DESCHAMPS, DON LAWRENCE, & GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and ELMER WEXLER interview! Covers by SIMON and GILBERT & RONN SUTTON!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032695

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC032833

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042879

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB042796

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR042972

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

WILL MURRAY on the 1940 Superman “KMetal” story & PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR (with art by SHUSTER, SWAN, ADAMS, and BORING), FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and DON NEWTON, SY BARRY interview, art by TOTH, MESKIN, INFANTINO, and ANDERSON, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN on EC and RAY BRADBURY! Covers by C.C. BECK and WAYNE BORING!

JULIE SCHWARTZ TRIBUTE with HARLAN ELLISON, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, KUBERT, GIELLA, GIORDANO, CARDY, LEVITZ, STAN LEE, WOLFMAN, EVANIER, & ROY THOMAS, never-seen interviews with Julie, FCA with BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, NEWTON, COCKRUM, OKSNER, FRADON, SWAYZE, and JACKSON BOSTWICK! Covers by INFANTINO and IRWIN HASEN!

Full-issue spotlight on JERRY ROBINSON, with an interview on being BOB KANE’s Batman “ghost”, creating the JOKER and ROBIN, working on VIGILANTE, GREEN HORNET, and ATOMAN, plus never-seen art by Jerry, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, RAY, KIRBY, SPRANG, DITKO, and PARIS! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER on AL FELDSTEIN Part 2, and more! Two JERRY ROBINSON covers!

RUSS HEATH and GIL KANE interviews (with tons of unseen art), the JULIE SCHWARTZ Memorial Service with ELLISON, MOORE, GAIMAN, HASEN, O’NEIL, and LEVITZ, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, NOVICK, DILLIN, SEKOWSKY, KUBERT, GIELLA, ARAGONÉS, FCA, MR. MONSTER and AL FELDSTEIN Part 3, and more! Covers by GIL KANE & RUSS HEATH!

Halloween issue! BERNIE WRIGHTSON on his 1970s FRANKENSTEIN, DICK BRIEFER’S monster, the campy 1960s Frankie, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, BORING, OKSNER, TUSKA, CRANDALL, and SUTTON, FCA #100, EMILIO SQUEGLIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR043055

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043050

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN042972

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL043386

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG043186

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

A celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, and AYERS, Hillman and Ziff-Davis remembered by Heap artist ERNIE SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and ALEX TOTH! Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER!

Yuletide art by WOOD, SINNOTT, CARDY, BRUNNER, TOTH, NODELL, and others, interviews with Golden Age artists TOM GILL (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, exploring 1960s Mexican comics, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Flip covers by GEORGE TUSKA and DAVE STEVENS!

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special! Interviews with KUBERT, HASEN, ANDERSON, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, THOMAS, 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, and INFANTINO, FCA, and MR. MONSTER’S “I Like Ike!” cartoons by BOB KANE, INFANTINO, OKSNER, and BIRO! Wraparound ORDWAY cover!

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ’40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s ALTER EGO! 1969 BILL EVERETT interview, art by BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, JERRY BAILS, and ROY THOMAS, LOU GLANZMAN interview, tributes to IRV NOVICK and CHRIS REEVE, MR. MONSTER, FCA, TOTH, and more! Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043043

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT043189

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043080

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC042992

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN053133

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ’40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ’40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB053220

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR053331

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR053287

ALTER EGO #50 ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #54 ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL053293

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG053328

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP053301

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ’80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN063429

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR063545

ALTER EGO #55 JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Card Art from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ’40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, and more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT053396

ALTER EGO #59 Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA and VIC CARRABOTTA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063474

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4! FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN063522

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG063690

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ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOE KUBERT, LOU SAYRE SCHWARTZ, IRWIN HASEN, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his Golden & Silver Age work (with CARDY art), plus art by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, tributes to ERNIE SCHROEDER and DAVE COCKRUM, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, SIMON & KIRBY, MARTIN GOODMAN’s Magazine Management, and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Shazam!, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, etc., FCA with MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT063800

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV063991

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC064009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN073982

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB073887

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ALTER EGO #69

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ALTER EGO #72

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom and founder of Alter Ego! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus STEVE DITKO’s notes to STAN LEE for a 1965 Dr. Strange story! And ROY reveals secrets behind Marvel’s STAR WARS comic!

PAUL NORRIS drew AQUAMAN first, in 1941—and RAMONA FRADON was the hero’s ultimate Golden Age artist. But both drew other things as well, and both are interviewed in this landmark issue—along with a pocket history of Aquaman! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus an homage to artist LILY RENÉE!

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR073852

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR074098

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073879

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FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GRAHAM INGELS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with P.C. HAMERLINCK on the many “Captains Marvel” over the years, unseen Shazam! proposal by ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK on “The Death of a Legend!”, MARC SWAYZE, interview with Golden Age artist MARV LEVY, MR. MONSTER, and more!

JOE SIMON SPECIAL! In-depth SIMON interview by JIM AMASH, with neverbefore-revealed secrets behind the creation of Captain America, Fighting American, Stuntman, Adventures of The Fly, Sick magazine and more, art by JACK KIRBY, BOB POWELL, AL WILLIAMSON, JERRY GRANDENETTI, GEORGE TUSKA, and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073947

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ALTER EGO #74 STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #78 ALTER EGO #77 ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008

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DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships June 2008

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective— DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus the NEMBO KID (Italian for “Superman”), art by BORING, SWAN, ADAMS, KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, and more! New cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships August 2008

12-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $78 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($108 First Class, $132 Canada, $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). For a 6-issue sub, cut the price in half!

COMPANION BOOKS

NEW FOR 2008

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 1

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION VOL. 1

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the NEW TEEN TITANS, this comprehensive history features interviews with and rare art by fan-favorite creators MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, LEN WEIN, and others! Also included is a indepth Silver Age section featuring interviews with NEAL ADAMS, NICK CARDY, DICK GIORDANO and more, plus CHRIS CLAREMONT and WALTER SIMONSON on the X-MEN/TEEN TITANS crossover, TOM GRUMMETT, PHIL JIMENEZ and TERRY DODSON on their ’90s Titans work, rare and unpublished artwork by CARDY, PÉREZ, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GRUMMETT, JIMENEZ, and others, a new cover by JIMENEZ, and an introduction by GEOFF JOHNS! Written by GLEN CADIGAN.

A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA written by MICHAEL EURY (co-author of THE SUPERHERO BOOK). It traces the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom through vintage and all-new interviews with the series’ creators, an issue-by-issue index of the JLA’s 1960-1972 adventures, classic and never-before-published artwork, and other fun and fascinating features. Contributors include DENNY O’NEIL, MURPHY ANDERSON, JOE GIELLA, MIKE FRIEDRICH, NEAL ADAMS, ALEX ROSS, CARMINE INFANTINO, NICK CARDY, and many, many others. Plus: An exclusive interview with STAN LEE, who answers the question, “Did the JLA really inspire the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four?” With an all-new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905504 Diamond Order Code: SEP053209

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

FLASH COMPANION Details the publication histories of the four heroes who have individually earned the right to be declared DC Comics' "Fastest Man Alive": Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen. With articles about legendary creators SHELLY MAYER, GARDNER FOX, E.E. HIBBARD, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, ROBERT KANIGHER, JOHN BROOME, ROSS ANDRU, IRV NOVICK and all-new interviews with HARRY LAMPERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, CARY BATES, ALEX SAVIUK, MIKE W. BARR, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE BARON, JACKSON GUICE, MARK WAID, and SCOTT KOLINS, among others, THE FLASH COMPANION recounts the scarlet speedster's evolution from the Golden Age to the 21st century. Also featured are "lost covers," never before published commission pieces by Flash artists throughout the decades, a ROGUES GALLERY detailing The Flash's most famous foes, a tribute to late artist MIKE WIERINGO by MARK WAID, a look at the speedster’s 1990s TV show, and "Flash facts" detailing pivotal moments in Flash history. Written by KEITH DALLAS, with a a cover by DON KRAMER. (224-page trade paperback) $26.95 • ISBN: 9781893905986 • Ships July 2008

NEW FOR 2008

KRYPTON COMPANION

BLUE BEETLE COMPANION

Picks up where Volume 1 left off, covering the return of the Teen Titans to the top of the sales charts! Featuring interviews with GEOFF JOHNS, MIKE McKONE, PETER DAVID, PHIL JIMENEZ, and others, plus an in-depth section on the top-rated Cartoon Network series! Also CHUCK DIXON, MARK WAID, KARL KESEL, and JOHN BYRNE on writing the current generation of Titans! More with MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ! NEAL ADAMS on redesigning Robin! Artwork by ADAMS, BYRNE, JIMENEZ, McKONE, PÉREZ and more, with an all-new cover by MIKE McKONE! Written by GLEN CADIGAN.

Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, RICH BUCKLER, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites! Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of SuperHeroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars. Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators (including JOHN BYRNE, JEPH LOEB, and ALEX ROSS) examining Superman’s influential past! Plus an Introduction by Bizarro No. 1 (by SEINFELD writer DAVID MANDEL), and a cover by DAVE GIBBONS!

The Blue Beetle debuted in 1939, rivaling Superman and Batman for longevity in comics, but not in popularity until his recent death and resurrection as a result of DC Comics’ hit INFINITE CRISIS. Now CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the history and uncovers the secrets of his 60+ years of evolution—from the world of FOX COMICS to an in-depth history of CHARLTON COMICS—all the way to the hall of today’s DC COMICS. Find out what really happened to infamous Golden Age publisher Victor Fox, and get an in-depth look at the Blue Beetle radio show and JACK KIRBY’s Blue Beetle comic strip. Also, presented for the first time since 1939: the character’s first appearance from Mystery Men Comics #1! Featuring interviews with WILL EISNER, JOE SIMON, JOE GILL, ROY THOMAS, GEOFF JOHNS, CULLY HAMNER, KEITH GIFFEN, LEN WEIN, and others, plus never-before-seen Blue Beetle designs by ALEX ROSS and ALAN WEISS, as well as artwork by WILL EISNER, CHARLES NICHOLAS, STEVE DITKO, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! With an introduction by TOM DeHAVEN, and a new cover by CULLY HAMNER, this is the ultimate look at one of comicdom’s longest-living heroes!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 97801893905870 Diamond Order Code: JAN083938

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

(128-page trade paperback) $16.95 ISBN: 9781893905702 Diamond Order Code: DEC063946

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 2

NEW FOR 2008

BEST OF THE LEGION OUTPOST

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 2

Originally published in 1972 as the official newsletter of the Legion Fan Club, the LEGION OUTPOST soon became the premier Legion of Super-Heroes fanzine of the 1970s, featuring contributions by fans, pros, and soon-to-be pros. Launched at a time when the future of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES was in doubt, the LEGION OUTPOST was at the center of fan-based efforts to revive the title, and was largely responsible for its rescue from obscurity, leading to it becoming a runaway best-seller! This trade paperback collects the best material from the hard-to-find fanzine, including rare interviews and articles from creators such as DAVE COCKRUM, CARY BATES, and JIM SHOOTER, plus never-before-seen artwork by COCKRUM, MIKE GRELL, JIMMY JANES and others! It also features a previously unpublished interview with KEITH GIFFEN originally intended for the never-published LEGION OUTPOST #11, plus other new material! And it sports a rarely-seen classic 1970s cover by Legion fan favorite artist DAVE COCKRUM! Edited by GLEN CADIGAN.

ROY THOMAS presents still more secrets of the Justice Society of America and ALL-STAR COMICS, from 1940 through the 1980s, featuring: A fabulous wraparound cover by CARLOS PACHECO! More amazing information and speculation on the classic ALL-STAR COMICS of 1940-1951! Never-before-seen Golden Age art by IRWIN HASEN, CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, MART NODELL, JOE KUBERT, H.G. PETER, and others! Art from an unpublished 1940s JSA story not seen in Volume 1! Rare art from the original JLA-JSA team-ups and the 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL by MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, JOE STATON, WALLY WOOD, KEITH GIFFEN, and RIC ESTRADA! Full coverage of the 1980s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and a bio of every single All-Star, plus never-seen art by JERRY ORDWAY, RICH BUCKLER, ARVELL JONES, RAFAEL KAYANAN, and special JSArelated art and features by FRANK BRUNNER, ALEX ROSS, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, MIKE MIGNOLA, and RAMONA FRADON—and more!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905368 Diamond Order Code: SEP042969

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905375 Diamond Order Code: AUG063622

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 3 In this third volume, comics legend Roy Thomas presents still more amazing secrets behind the 1940-51 ALL-STAR COMICS and the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA! Also, there’s an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA/JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALLSTARS with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by NEAL ADAMS, DICK AYERS, MICHAEL BAIR, JOHN BUSCEMA, SEAN CHEN, DICK DILLIN, RIC ESTRADA, CREIG FLESSEL, KEITH GIFFEN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, TOM GRINDBERG, TOM GRUMMETT, RON HARRIS, IRWIN HASEN, DON HECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JACK KIRBY, JOE KUBERT, BOB LAYTON, SHELDON MAYER, BOB McLEOD, SHELDON MOLDOFF, BRIAN MURRAY, JERRY ORDWAY, ARTHUR PEDDY, GEORGE PÉREZ, H.G. PETER, HOWARD PURCELL, PAUL REINMAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, HOWARD SIMPSON, JOE SINNOTT, JIM STARLIN, JOE STATON, RONN SUTTON, ALEX TOTH, JIM VALENTINO and many others! Featuring a new JLA/JSA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: SEP074020

NEW FOR 2008

SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS COMPANION

Instantly recognizable among comics fans, Hawkman is one of the most iconic heroes ever created. Inspired by tales as old as mankind and those much more recent, this four-color legend has left an indelible mark upon the comic industry. Behind a fabulous CLIFF CHIANG cover, this collection contains interviews and commentary from many who have helped Hawkman soar through the ages, including JOE KUBERT, GEOFF JOHNS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, TIMOTHY TRUMAN, JUSTIN GRAY, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, RAGS MORALES, STEPHEN SADOWSKI, DON KRAMER, BEN RAAB, TONY ISABELLA, DAN JURGENS, ROY THOMAS, STEVE LIEBER, MURPHY ANDERSON and many other top comics creators. Also included is a copious image parade, profiles on the Hawks through the ages, as well as their allies and adversaries, and a timeline of Hawkman's storied existence throughout the DC Comics Universe. With insight into the character and the creators who made him what he is, the HAWKMAN COMPANION is certain to please any Hawkfan. Written by DOUG ZAWISZA.

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-by-story reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/ editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

The definitive book on the history of such memorable characters as DYNAMO, NO-MAN, LIGHTNING, ANDOR, THE IRON MAIDEN, and all the other super-heroes and super-villains created by the late, great WALLACE WOOD and company! Included are interviews with Woody’s creative team, as well as those superb writers and artists involved in the various T-Agents resurrections over the decades, and a detailed examination of the origins and exploits of the characters themselves, including the shocking truth behind the first super-hero to ever be “killed,” MENTHOR! This exclusive book features reams of artwork, much of it rarely-seen or previous unpublished, including a rare 27-page T-Agents story drawn by PAUL GULACY, unpublished stories by GULACY, PARIS CULLINS, and others, all behind a JERRY ORDWAY cover. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

(208-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905931 Ships October 2008

(144-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905436 Diamond Order Code: MAR053228

HAWKMAN COMPANION

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments such as “Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals), “Rough Stuff” (pencil art showcases of top artists), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $40 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($54 First Class, $66 Canada, $90 Surface, $108 Airmail).

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more! HUGHES cover!

“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, details on two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP032621

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032696

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042880

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies! Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR042973

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043051

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL043389

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043044

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043081

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BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

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DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s! MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (on Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (on Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (on the Green Goblin), and more. New cover by NEAL ADAMS!

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“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, STEVE GERBER and GENE COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/ RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos!’ “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

“Comics Go Hollywood!” Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

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“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

“Men of Steel!’ BOB LAYTON and DAVID MICHELINIE on Iron Man, RICH BUCKLER on Deathlok, MIKE GRELL on Warlord, JOHN BYRNE on ROG 2000, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, Machine Man, the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip, DC’s Steel, art by KIRBY, HECK, WINDSOR-SMITH, TUSKA, LAYTON cover, and bonus “Men of Steel” art gallery! Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work; NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot; McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants; the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series; lost Angel stories; Beast’s tenure with the Avengers; the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor; the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father; a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #77

ROUGH STUFF #8

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #2

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

Celebration of STAN LEE’s 85th birthday, including rare examples of comics, TV, and movie scripts from the Stan Lee Archives, tributes by JOHN ROMITA, SR., JOE QUESADA, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JIM SALICRUP, TODD McFARLANE, LOUISE SIMONSON, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, and more!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/ interview with artist BILL REINHOLD, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages spotlights blockbuster summer movies, LEGO style! Go behind the scenes for new sets for BATMAN and INDIANA JONES, and see new models, including an SR-71 SPYPLANE and a LEGO CITY, plus MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATIONS, BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, tour the ONLINE LEGO FACTORY, and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

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KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50)

SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

BEST OF WRITE NOW!

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 3

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

Features highlights from the acclaimed magazine about writing for comics, including interviews from top talents, like: BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, WILL EISNER, JEPH LOEB, STAN LEE, J. M. STRACZYNSKI, MARK WAID, GEOFF JOHNS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, AXEL ALONSO, and others! Plus “NUTS & BOLTS” tutorials feature scripts from landmark comics and the pencil art that was drawn from them, including: CIVIL WAR #1 (MILLAR & McNIVEN), BATMAN: HUSH #1 (LOEB & LEE), ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #47 (BENDIS & BAGLEY), AMAZING SPIDERMAN #539 (STRACZYNSKI & GARNEY), SPAWN #52 (McFARLANE & CAPULO), GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1 (JOHNS & VAN SCRIVER), and more! Also: How-to articles by the best comics writers and editors around, professional secrets of top comics pros, and an introduction by STAN LEE! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

Compiles more of the best tutorials and interviews from DRAW! #5-7, including: Penciling by MIKE WIERINGO! Illustration by DAN BRERETON! Design by PAUL RIVOCHE! Drawing Hands, Lighting the Figure, and Sketching by BRET BLEVINS! Cartooning by BILL WRAY! Inking by MIKE MANLEY! Comics & Animation by STEPHEN DeSTEFANO! Digital Illustration by CELIA CALLE and ALBERTO RUIZ! Caricature by ZACH TRENHOLM, and much more! Cover by DAN BRERETON!

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 16: MIKE ALLRED

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The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Now Shipping

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

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Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Mike’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905863 Diamond Order Code: JAN083937

COMICS GO HOLLYWOOD Unveils secrets behind your FAVORITE ONSCREEN HEROES, and how a character goes from the comics page to the big screen! It includes: Storyboards from DC’s animated hit “THE NEW FRONTIER”, JEPH LOEB on writing for Marvel Comics and the Heroes TV show, details on the UNSEEN X-MEN MOVIE, a history of the JOKER from the 1940s to the upcoming Dark Knight film, and a look at Marvel Universe co-creator JACK KIRBY’s Hollywood career, with extensive Kirby art! (32-page comic) FREE! at your local comics retailer on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, May 3, 2008!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com