Back Issue #142

SUPER ISSUE starring SUPERBOY in the BRONZE AGE 023

2 4 1 . o N April 2

95

$ 10.

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Super Mario Bros. • Superfan • Super Goof • Super Richie • Super-Dagwood & more

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Interviews with TV Superboy stars GERARD CHRISTOPHER and STACY HAIDUK

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Superboy and Krypto TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

™

Volume 1, Number 142 April 2023 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Dave Cockrum (Originally produced as the cover art for the Superboy edition of Aurora Comic Scenes [1974]. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions.)

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Cookie Morris Mark Arnold Nintendo of Wayne Brooks America Inc. Dewey Cassell Luigi Novi Gerard Karla Ogle Christopher Sassy Ann Shenefield DC Comics Steven Thompson Erin Gray Walt Disney Stacy Haiduk Productions Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. John Wells Heritage Comics Auctions Denis Kitchen Krypto the Superdog Zaddick Longenbach Andy Mangels Robert Menzies Brian K. Morris

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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Superboy: The Bronze Age Boy of Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Smallville’s favorite son, without the Legion of Super-Heroes WHAT THE--?!: The Far Out Green Super Cool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Frank Thorne’s trippiest comic book was actually produced for school children FLASHBACK: Super Goof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 You’d have to be nuts not to love Disney’s Super-Goobered do-gooder ONE-HIT WONDERS: Super Soul Comix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 ‘Grass’ Green’s over-the-top Blaxploitation super-comic BEYOND CAPES: Superfan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 The MADcap hero that both comic readers and football fanatics can cheer for FLASHBACK: Super Richie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The adventures of a mighty manservant and a poor little rich boy wonder WHAT THE--?!: Super-Dagwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Blondie’s hubby with the bottomless appetite becomes a witless wonderman PRINCE STREET NEWS: More Characters Go Super . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. super-izes everyone from Dick Tracy to Millie the Model INTERVIEWS: Superboy’s Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Exclusive Q&As with the live-action series’ Superboy/Clark Kent and Lana Lang ROUGH STUFF: Superman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 We didn’t want to leave THE most super-superhero out of this “Super Issue”!

BEYOND CAPES: Super Mario Bros. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 A Valiant move to make a comics star out of a hot video-game character IN MEMORIAM: Alan Grant and Michael Ambrose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 BACK ISSUE™ issue 142, April 2023 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 4490344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-inChief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by Dave Cockrum. Superboy and Krypto TM & © DC Comics.

All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2023 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury except Prince Street News, TM & © 2023 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

All comics covers TM & © DC Comics.

by M

You can thank loyal BI reader Wayne Brooks for this issue.

A while back, in BACK ISSUE’s Facebook group, Wayne lobbied for a Superboy issue of BI. Being a fan of Superboy myself—DC Comics, a Silver Age Superboy Omnibus series is long overdue!—I was intrigued by the idea, but there was a problem: “The adventures of Superman when he was a boy/teen” was mostly a “been there, done that” subject for BI. Superboy’s futuristic super-team, the Legion of Super-Heroes—who, as Bronze Age readers know, usurped the Boy of Steel’s very title from him—have often been featured in BI’s pages, dating back to issue #14 (and including #22, 33, 61, 68, and 120). The Bronze Age Superboy reboot, The New Adventures of Superboy, was explored in issue #68. The Boy of Steel’s Brave and Bold team-up with Batman was discussed in BI #7, 87, and 134. The Superman Family, the super-sized series where you could sometimes find the Boy of Steel, was covered in BI #62 and 84. The saga of DC Double Comics, an unrealized 1980s series that would have co-featured Superboy and Supergirl, was chronicled in issue #17’s “Greatest Stories Never Told” department. We even reported on Superboy: The Comic Book, based upon the live-action Superboy TV show, in issue #128.

(Beyond the Boy of Steel, we’ve similarly devoted issues to Superman, Supergirl, and the Batman/Superman team!)

But we had yet to delve into Superboy’s last solo adventures of the early Bronze Age, before the Legion hijacked his book. After Mr. Brooks’ super suggestion, I began looking for the perfect opportunity to do so.

Once I discovered Heritage Comics Auction’s (www.ha.com) posting of Dave Cockrum’s original art for the Superboy Aurora Comic Scenes cover, I couldn’t resist using it as a cover (thanks, Heritage! And didn’t Glenn Whitmore do a super job on its colors?).

Beginning on the next page, the extraordinary John Wells (a card-carrying member of the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club) is your tour guide through the streets of Smallville and the adventures of its Teen of Steel.

But alas, one article—albeit a meaty, lavishly illustrated one—does not fill an entire 80-page issue of this magazine. With so much Superboy material previously appearing, my editorial dilemma was, What else do we put in the issue?

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ichael Eury

An article about the Superboy liveaction television series of 1988–1992 was a no-brainer as a complementary feature. Dan “The Man” Johnson (whose first job was as stock boy at the Kent General Store) brings us a pair of exclusive interviews with actors from the series: Gerard Christopher, who played Superboy and Clark Kent beginning with Season Two; and Stacy Haiduk, Superboy’s gal pal Lana Lang.

Those features were not enough to round out the entire issue, however—and ye ed is determined to keep this magazine fresh by not retreading previously explored topics. So instead of a “Superboy” issue, this became a “Super” issue, inviting examinations of all types of Bronze Age comic books with “Super” in their titles.

Next up, I ran a date-ordered search for “Super” on the valuable resource, the Grand Comic Database (comics.org), looking for era-appropriate “Super” subjects to fill out the issue. Expected material such as Super Goof, Superfan, and Super Richie popped up, and are included herein. And two mind-blowing curiosities from the swinging ’70s did, too: Frank Thorne’s Far Out Green Super Cool and Richard “Grass” Green’s Super Soul Comix! I wasn’t aware of those weird, wild comics (and I suspect most of you haven’t heard of them, either) and learned a ton from their articles’ respective authors, Dewey Cassell and Steven Thompson. Plus, there are contributions from super-know-itall (that’s a compliment!) Mark Arnold, plus another gut-busting “Prince Street News” cartoon strip from Karl Heitmueller, Jr.— all under a spiffy reuse of our Michael Kronenberg–designed telescoping Super-BACK ISSUE logo and amazing interior layouts by Rich Fowlks.

In retrospect, as much as I love me some Superboy/man/girl lore, I’m happy this issue opened up to include eclectic contents. Even if your comics path treads along the mainstream, this issue’s super-diversions offer no end of fun, scintillating comics history… and where else in 2023 are you gonna find an article about Super-Dagwood??

Thanks for being a BI reader… and a big— make that SUPER—thank-you to Superboy’s pal, Wayne Brooks, for jumpstarting this edition!

by J o

hn Wells

The Thrill Is Gone If the Smallville Sensation knew what was in store for him in the emerging Bronze Age— creative team changes, the Legion taking over his magazine, a bumpy ride back to solo stardom, and his erasure from continuity in 1986’s The Man of Steel Superman reboot— he might have been tempted to really chuck it all for good, beyond this catchy cover to Superboy #168 (Sept. 1970).

Art by Neal Adams.

Special thanks to John Wells for providing the majority of this article’s art scans.

TM & © DC Comics.

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For two decades, few comic books had commanded such consistent, stratospheric success as Superman.

Worthy competitors—most recently Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney’s Comics Stories and the TV-fueled Archie and Batman—came and went, but the Man of Steel still stood strong in 1968. Superman’s influence also ensured that his companion titles, like Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics, Action Comics, and Adventure Comics, were among the industry’s bestsellers. Nonetheless, one book rose above the rest. Superboy.

“The adventures of Superman as a boy,” as the famous tagline declared, had been conceived by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for November 1944’s More Fun Comics #101. Although largely ignored by the primary series, Superboy quickly gained a large following, moving to Adventure Comics in 1946 and acquiring a self-titled comic book in 1949. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the feature often used its unique status to reveal new facets about Superman’s past and retroactively detail his first meetings with multiple figures that figured into his adult life. According to information assembled

by John Jackson Miller at his Comichron website, Superboy was typically the second or third bestselling title in the industry between 1961 and 1969.

That pivotal period had been edited by Mort Weisinger, but the glory days were behind the longtime Superman editor. Most of the talent that drove some of Superman’s most memorable stories was gone now—some fired, some taken by death—and the limited talent pool remaining had forced the veteran editor to pad out most of his comics with reprints. Meanwhile, Weisinger was also dealing with the shakeup of the art teams on those books, a mandate from DC’s new art director Carmine Infantino that was meant to freshen the look of the comics and better compete with rival Marvel.

Among the casualties were longtime Supergirl and Superboy artists Jim Mooney and George Papp, whose styles were deemed out of date.

In a bitterly ironic touch, one of Papp’s final stories (January 1968’s Superboy #145) illustrated an Otto Binder script about an alien cinematographer whose audience scoffed at Superboy’s aged foster parents and demanded younger “actors” in his films about the Boy of Steel. Hence, the filmmaker used a serum to permanently rejuvenate them. The tale had been a reaction to recurring reader complaints that the white-haired Ma and Pa Kent looked more like grandparents than the more youthful fathers and mothers that most kids had.

Great Moments in Superboy History (top left) Although the Boy of Steel premiered in More Fun Comics #101, he didn’t earn a cover appearance until issue #104 (July–Aug. 1945)—and had to share the space with comedy characters Dover and Clover! Cover artists: Stan Kaye (Superboy) and Henry Boltinoff (Dover and Clover). (top right) The Golden Age Superboy found a happy home in Adventure Comics beginning with issue #103 (Apr. 1946). Cover by Joe Shuster and Kaye. (bottom left) DC called in the big gun—Superman—to help sell the first issue of Superboy (Mar.–Apr. 1949). Cover by Wayne Boring and Kaye. (bottom right) Toward the end of the Silver Age, foster parents Jonathan and Martha Kent got a dramatic makeover in Superboy #145 (Mar. 1968). Cover by Neal Adams. Covers courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www. ha.com). (opposite page) Speaking of DC’s most photorealistic artist, Superboy’s late–Silver Age covers by Adams were always something to look forward to. (Join us next issue for our special Neal Adams tribute edition.)

TM & © DC Comics.

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The Ballad of Lana and Clark Hollywood’s 1967 hit Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as the Depression-era bank robbers, inspired this quirky crossover in Superboy #149 (July 1968). Cover by Neal Adams; story

by Frank Robbins and Al Plastino.

TM & © DC Comics.

LIKE A BOLTINOFF FROM THE BLUE

Robbins’ opening story exploited the popularity Meanwhile, Weisinger had been tasked with devel- of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde by having oping a new toy-based comic book called Captain Clark Kent and Lana Lang not only meet the Action and seems to have concluded that something infamous 1930s bank robbers in Superboy #149 had to go. He “asked to be relieved of” Superboy, (July 1968, on sale in May), but actually impersonate Mark Hanerfeld reported in The Comic Reader #64 them. Although set in the past, the Boy of Steel’s feature typically didn’t reference its specific (Jan. 1968), so the title was handed off to time period, and the new writer and another longtime DC editor, Murray editor quickly discovered why. Readers Boltinoff. Although not officially observed that Bonnie and Clyde had credited, Weisinger’s assistant—and been killed in 1934, meaning that all-around Superman/DC expert—E. the present-day Superman would Nelson Bridwell remained available have to be nearly 50 if he had met to advise the newcomer on matters them as a teenager. An editorial related to the feature’s vast mytholcomment in issue #152 dismissed ogy. Bridwell had recently penned the complaints with the declaration a feature called “The Superboy that “comic mag chronology is Legend” for issue #146 and greatly different from that in the continued to script one- to three-page real world.” installments about the Boy of The first Boltinoff/Robbins Steel’s history in issues #153, 161– issue felt transitional, in part murray boltinoff 164, 169, 175, 178, and 182. because it was composed of a Boltinoff had the good fortune © DC Comics. new lead and a reprinted backup. of acquiring the book just as a notable new writer came through the doors. Frank Effective with Superboy #150 (Sept. 1968), the Robbins was only new to DC, though. He’d written book shifted to full-length tales. The Bonnie and and drawn the Johnny Hazard newspaper strip for Clyde story also echoed the old guard through over 20 years and was now seeking to supplement the presence of Weisinger regular Al Plastino his income with comic-book scripts. Soon enough, on art. Plastino was moving to the Batman Robbins was writing Batman and Flash stories for newspaper strip, though, and the official Julius Schwartz as well as exclusively scripting penciler of the Boltinoff Superboy came aboard with issue #150.

Superboy for Boltinoff.

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The 52-year-old Bob Brown arrived on the book with a 20-year résumé in comics that included long runs on “Space Ranger” and Challengers of the Unknown. He was a dynamic storyteller and, like many of his generation, utterly reliable in meeting his deadlines. With the exception of an isolated inventory tale, Brown drew every new Superboy story in the book from issue #150 to 197. An Air Force pilot in World War II, the artist delighted in the opportunity that the series offered to draw vintage aircraft.

As a ham radio aficionado, he also had fun with issue #155’s tale of a teenage ham operator who gained control of Superboy’s robots.

Together, Robbins and Brown brought a moodier, more suspenseful feel to the series.

Issue #150 found a bomb-laden stranger named Uncle Cipher holding the Kent family hostage in their own home, an experience being shared by other families throughout Smallville. Neal Adams’ startling cover for Superboy #151 depicted the Boy of Steel holding Lana Lang’s body as he tearfully confessed to killing her, a scenario that continued directly on the interior’s splash page. Issue #153 opened with Smallville stripped of life, pots boiling on stoves and gas pouring out of hoses that were no were no longer attended.

Superboy #153 (Jan. 1969, on sale in November 1968) also marked a great step up in the visual finesse of the series. Following two issues inked by Jack Abel and one by Mike Esposito, Bob Brown was paired with the legendary Wally Wood. The result was stunning, as the veteran EC artist added texture, mood, and slickness to Brown’s pencils.

With Wood aboard, the feature reached new heights. Wood’s presence also subtly changed the look of Superboy, gradually eliminating his trademark spit curl in favor of a solid swoop of hair on his forehead.

The father of teenagers Michael and Laurie, Robbins seems to have distilled a bit of their culture into his portrayal of young Clark Kent and paralleled the angst of Marvel’s tormented Spider-Man. Superboy #154 was an object lesson, taking a situation played out in Weisingerera adventures—the Boy of Steel was virtually blinded—and adding character nuances that invested young readers in the hero’s plight.

Along with the trademark action, Robbins included scenes of Clark’s terror that he might kill his mother after his heat vision went berserk and his destructive stress as he panicked in his classroom.

Issue #157 (June 1969) considered the prospects on superpowers in the hands of a teenager who wasn’t raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Smallville football player “Bash” Bashford, an all-around jerk with a blond crewcut, accidentally

became Superbash in a comedy of errors stemming from his ingestion of alien bananas meant for an ailing gorilla. Luckily for all concerned, the effect was temporary, and Superboy helped the school bully survive.

Bash’s return in issue #161 was a darker affair, focusing this time specifically on his bullying of a certain mild-mannered teenager.

Frustrated at constantly having to shun sports to protect his secret, Clark snapped and created a kryptonite-based brew that canceled out his powers and allowed him to play football alongside his school nemesis. After giving Bash a potentially fatal skull fracture in a freak accident, Clark was inconsolable with guilt. Successfully restoring his abilities in a callback to issue #150, the Boy of Steel was able to fly in a life-saving surgeon. The tale closed with Superboy soaring above the Kent home, giddy with relief.

wally wood © DC Comics.

‘Wood’ You Look At That?!

The amazing Wally Wood, as inker, polished Bob Brown’s pencils in late– Silver Age issues of Superboy. Original art to the splash page of Superboy #154 (Mar. 1969) courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

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IN THE DOGHOUSE

Out of Time (top) Krypto was one of the book’s supporting cast members mostly ignored in the series during writer Frank Robbins’ writing tenure.

The biggest curiosity of the cover to Superboy #154 was its depiction of contemporary (for 1968) fashions in a series set in the past! Cover art by Irv Novick, with Superboy alterations by Neal Adams. (bottom) Lex Luthor, shown here in a panel from issue #166, was another character rarely seen at this time.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Following the sequel, Bash went into limbo before ultimately being revived as a regular supporting cast member in 1977. Other than Ma and Pa Kent and Lana Lang, Robbins generally eschewed most familiar faces from the Silver Age. Krypto the Super-Dog was deemed silly as the 1970s neared and—reprints notwithstanding— made only three appearances during Robbins’ run (Superboy #154, 162, and 163) before vanishing from the entire family of Superman books. Police Chief Parker also became a rare presence, glimpsed in Superboy #149, 160, 164, 168, and 180 during Boltinoff’s tenure.

Secretly defending Clark Kent from exposure as Superboy (even Clark didn’t know that he knew his dual identity), Pete Ross had been prominent in the series between 1961 and 1963. His appearances since had been few (including a memorable turn in a 1968 Legion of Super-Heroes two-parter) and Robbins used him only once, in issue #160 (Oct. 1969).

Pete’s role in that story basically entailed his maintaining his composure as Clark and Lana each lost control of their hormones in the presence of mysterious Egyptian exchange student Cleop Amahdi. As vividly portrayed on Neal Adams’ cover, Superboy exiled himself to the moon after being convinced that he killed Cleop. Meanwhile, a jealous Lana seemed to kill her rival a second time by pushing her off a balcony. Despite an outrageous resolution involving a vengeful archaeologist and a resurrected Cleopatra, the Robbins/Brown/Wood story sold the drama of it all.

The teenage incarnation of Lex Luthor returned in Superboy #159, unmasked in its climax as the mastermind who had framed the Boy of Steel for international acts of destruction. The Phantom Zone villains returned soon after in issue #162, wherein the Boy of Steel was trapped in their other-dimensional prison as the shapeshifting Cham-El replaced him on Earth.

A footnote referenced an earlier Phantom Zone tale reprinted in 1968’s 80-page Giant Superman #212 and indicated that Robbins was using such giant reprint collections to bone up on Kryptonian lore. Superman #193’s reprint from Action Comics #223 (Dec. 1956) inspired a full-fledged sequel. The original story had detailed Jor-El’s futile attempt to convince the Science Council of Krypton’s impending destruction. Two scientists who did believe him— Khai-Zor and Val-Arn—were exposed as self-serving villains who envisioned conquering Earth rather than taking refuge there.

In Superboy #158 (July 1969, on sale in May), the Boy of Steel received a crackling message from his long-dead parents and soon found himself in space alongside a Kryptonian survivor named Dr. Krylo. Against the wishes of Jor-El and Lara, the scientist had cryogenically frozen the couple and fired them into space before Krypton’s explosion. Krylo had fled in his own rocket and was ultimately set free by yet another escapee: the evil Khai-Zor, now calling himself Xonar. Superboy found himself with twin dilemmas: He not only had to prevent the vengeful Xonar from killing him, but he needed to figure a way to free his parents’ craft from an impenetrable field of kryptonite.

With the help of his adoptive father Jonathan, Superboy succeeded in both tasks, only to receive a tragic surprise. As preparations to awaken the couple were initiated, a prerecorded message from Jor-El revealed that he and Lara’s investigation of their world’s impending doom had fatally dosed them with radiation poisoning. Fearing that Krylo might defy their wishes, Jor begged anyone hearing the message to let them rest in peace rather than subject them to a short, agonizing resurrection.

Tearfully following their wishes, the Boy of Steel returned his parents’ virtual tomb to the depths of space. “‘Superboy’s Darkest Secret’ was sensational!” future pro Mark Evanier (then 17) proclaimed in issue #161’s letters column. “Far be it for this back seat editor to use the term lightly, but it was excellent.”

Murray Boltinoff seemed stunned by the reception from fans, remarking that “never in our vast experience with comics mags has a story drawn so much laudatory mail.” For those protective of the Superman mythology, though, the idea of Jor-El and Lara continuing to survive after a fashion was too much of a departure and it was widely regarded in that circle as non-canonical.

SUPERBOY ENTERS THE BRONZE AGE

1969 had been a good year for the Boy of Steel.

Like most comics in the industry, sales had fallen over the previous year—not helped by a price increase from 12¢ to 15¢—but Superboy still sold an average of 465,462 copies per issue, surpassed only by Archie and Superman, according to John Jackson Miller’s Comichron.com.

Unfortunately for Superboy, Wally Wood left the book with issue #161. His immediate successor, inker Mike Esposito, brought his professional standards to the feature, but the atmosphere that Wood bestowed on Brown’s pencils was no longer there. (Superboy’s spit curl did return on Esposito’s watch in issue #167.) After a year of full-length adventures, Boltinoff also decided to shift the book’s format primarily to two-stories per issue as of Superboy #163 (Mar. 1970, on sale in January).

Space for the character moments that had defined much of Robbins’ run was suddenly at a premium.

The shorter stories involved Superboy with a teenage reform school escapee (#163), android replacements of Pa Kent and Lana Lang (#164), an entombed duplicate of himself in a Mayan temple (#166), and a robbery built around a circus elephant (#167). In a sequel to Superboy #84 (Oct. 1960), a false villain called the Rainbow Raider—no relation to the later Flash foe—made a comeback as a real bad guy (#164), while the young Luthor staged a return of his own in a kryptonite-coated costume (#166). Luthor came back again in Superboy #169

(Oct. 1970), the book’s first full-length story in months, one whose central hook was the seeming murder of Clark Kent during a bank robbery.

No revival was as surprising as the one that was featured on Neal Adams’ cover for Superboy #167 (July 1970, on sale in May). Superbaby—the Man of Steel as a toddler—starred in his first new story in years. Featured in the occasional story during the 1950s and 1960s, Superbaby was the sort of cute, kid-friendly character that horrified readers who took their superhero comics seriously. Nonetheless, the Tot of Steel had his fans, and Boltinoff’s first priority was to deliver cover concepts that would sell comics. He was encouraged enough to commission a second Superbaby tale, one that ran in Action Comics #399 (Apr. 1971).

Superboy #167 was also notable for introducing Bob Brown’s new inker. Murphy Anderson, a defining artist during DC’s Silver Age, was still a powerful force in the new age of Bronze, and he restored the inky weight and luster to Brown’s pencils that had been lacking since Wally Wood departed. That visual drama brought great power to issue #168’s lead story about Nazis infiltrating Smallville and attempting to mobilize townspeople against Superboy. (The issue’s backup is a curiosity, one that may have sat in inventory since Boltinoff took over the book. Scripted by Arnold Drake and drawn by Al Plastino and Mike Esposito, its menace was a negative-image version of Superboy himself.)

Bronze Age Bash-Ups Judging from startling covers such as (left) issue #164’s (Apr. 1970), Superboy took a darker turn in 1970—until (right) issue #167’s (July 1970) unexpected return of the impish Superbaby! Covers

by Adams.

TM & © DC Comics.

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All Washed Up From the Heritage archives, original Carmine Infantino/ Murphy Anderson cover art for Superboy #171 (Jan. 1971). While its environmentally relevant story “introduces” Aquaboy, longtime readers recalled Aquaboy’s earlier appearance (inset above) in late 1959 in the “Aquaman” feature in Adventure Comics #268.

TM & © DC Comics.

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THE BOY OF STEEL GETS ‘WITH IT’

#268 (Jan. 1960) had established the hero’s youthful It’s worth pausing at this time to take stock of the career as Aquaboy but the tale had been long forgotten until it was reprinted in mid-1969’s Aquaman #47. greater Superman universe. In April 1970, That seems to have planted the seed that reMort Weisinger retired, and all of his titles sulted in the Superboy/Aquaboy pairing. were portioned out to other editors.

The following issue featured a Effective with August’s issue #393, signature DC cover gimmick— Murray Boltinoff was now editor of gorillas—and a twist on DC’s old Action Comics, as well as Superboy.

Super-Monkey, who had stowed The balance of the assignments away on Kal-El’s rocket. In issue went to E. Nelson Bridwell (Lois #172, a simian with a cybernetically Lane), Jack Kirby (Jimmy Olsen), enhanced brain was revealed to Mike Sekowsky (Adventure Comics), have also been rocketed from Krypton and Julius Schwartz (Superman and to Earth. By the time Superboy met World’s Finest). The chief impact of him, the super-intelligent Yango this new era on Boltinoff was his had formed a small kingdom of fateful decision to relocate Action’s apes around himself in Africa. The murphy anderson “Legion of Super-Heroes” backup repercussions of this, if any, were to Superboy effective with issue © DC Comics. never addressed as it turned out to #172, albeit as a recurring feature be Frank Robbins’ farewell to the feature. (A final rather than a regular one.

The Legion, for those who came in late, was Robbins tale—commissioned circa issue #168—was a team of teenage heroes from the 30th Century later published in issue #181 in late 1971.) who had advanced from a one-off group in a 1958 Superboy story (Adventure Comics #247) to a cofeature with the Boy of Steel in Adventure starting in 1962. The LSH ultimately took over the whole book, albeit with Superboy as its most prominent member.

The Legion, in turn, was replaced by Supergirl in 1969 but continued to cling to life as a backup in Action until the aforementioned Boltinoff takeover.

[Editor’s note: BACK ISSUE #68 was dedicated to the Legion’s Bronze Age adventures. The Legion was also featured in BI #14, 22, 33, and 120.]

With a two-year head start on his fellow editors, Boltinoff had little else to add to the highly touted Superman makeover. But he did have something.

Virtually from day one, several readers had opined on the implications on Superman’s age by setting Superboy’s adventures in the 1930s, whether at the beginning of that decade (as with Bonnie and Clyde) or the end. Multiple world leaders of the time—Churchill, Hirohito, Hitler, Mussolini—had been referenced in issue #153; Franklin D. Roosevelt made a cameo in issue #159; and Nazis showed up in Smallville as recently as issue #168. In the latter issue, Boltinoff had printed a letter from Gary Skinner that suggested that Superman simply age normally and marry, have a son who could become the new Superboy, and on and on. Besieged with responses, the editor pondered.

The radical change suggested by Skinner would never be cleared, of course, but the time frame issue needed to be addressed. Boltinoff’s solution began with a tease in Superboy #170’s backup story. After a time-travel encounter in the 12th Century with the teenager fated to become Genghis Khan, the Boy of Steel flew back to his present: 1955!

Superboy #171 closed with a page of explanation.

“Since Superman was created full-grown in 1938, his youth had to take place earlier. But, as time went on, Superman stayed the same… 29… while Superboy remained stuck in a time slot not of his own making. So-o… we decided to rescue him.

And, from now on, he’ll tag along behind the eternally-29 Superman… and ‘stay with it’ as the years roll on.”

The later timeframe immediately opened up opportunities for more contemporary topics, as in Superboy #171’s depiction of a leaking oil tanker. The issue featured an inspired guest-star in the form of a teenage Aquaman. Adventure Comics

Time Marches On This Brown/ Anderson–drawn page from Superboy #171 announced an updating of the era of the hero’s adventures.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

SUPER-TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED

Replacing Robbins was Leo Dorfman, a veteran scripter whom Boltinoff held in high regard and used extensively on his other books including the recently acquired Action. Dorfman was so prolific that he used the pen names of “Geoff Browne” and “David George” to mask just how much of a presence he was. He’d already written extensively for Mort Weisinger’s Superman books throughout the 1960s, giving him a familiarity with the cast that was invaluable.

His relationship with his new editor was quite different, though. “Since I shared an office with the tyrannical but talented Mort Weisinger,” Boltinoff wrote in Robin Snyder’s History of the Comics vol. 2 #3 (Mar. 1991), “I was privy to his humiliation of Leo during their story conferences plotting Superman and Superboy stories.” There’d be none of that now that Mort had left the building.

Dorfman’s opening adventure in issue #173 (inked

by Dick Giordano rather than Murphy Anderson) was straight out of the Weisinger playbook, though. Exposed using his powers as Clark, the Boy of Steel pretended he got them from Ambrosia discovered by Professor Lang to protect his secret identity.

The new writer had an abiding fascination with the supernatural and the occult, something he’d tackled

The Supernatural in Smallville Creepy covers! (top left) Our hero becomes a super-phantom in Superboy #175 (June 1971) and (top center) a man-bat in issue #178 (Oct. 1971).

Both covers by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. (top right) A new logo and a lycanthropic hero in Superboy #180. (bottom) The Teen of Steel is unwelcome in Superboy #179 (Nov. 1971). Top right and bottom covers by the “Swanderson” team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

TM & © DC Comics.

12 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Ghost in the Machine Writer Leo Dorfman gave the Teen of Steel a spiritual dilemma in Superboy #175, stunningly illustrated by the Bob Brown/Murphy Anderson art team. (bottom) Similarly, the creative team pitted the Teen of Steel against monsters in issue #178. Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

A New Logo Superboy’s new logo, shown here in original art form from the cover of Superboy #181 (Jan. 1972), courtesy of Heritage. The corner Superboy figure, by the Swanderson duo, was a recent addition at that time, having been added to the covers beginning with Superboy #168.

TM & © DC Comics.

often in scripts for Gold Key, and which would ter Lena, the youngster touched an alien object culminate in his and Boltinoff’s Ghosts title in in Superboy’s possession and suddenly became mid-1971. In Superboy itself, the Boy of Steel a genius-level inventor. The powers wore off was soon facing off against a coven that merged before her father picked her up, but Kathy’s witchcraft and science (#175), Red Kryptonite– popularity with readers eventually prompted a fueled transformations into movie monsters sequel in issue #191. Reuniting with the Warrens (#178), and generations of ghostly hangings on a cruise, Clark discovered that Kathy had that the Phantom Zone criminals used to their merely faked losing her powers and was still privy to his secret identity. “Someday,” advantage (#189). she vowed, “I’ll use my intellect to In another Superbaby short (#178), help the world.” little Clark was elated to discover Dorfman revived a blood relative a superpowered playmate in the of Jonathan Kent in issue #180 form of a toddler warlock named when Clark spent a couple weeks Gary, but neither of their parents with Pa’s wealthy brother. As in believed the wild stories that his first appearance in 1965’s their kids told. Both Gary and Superboy #119 (also written by the coven seemed poised to be Dorfman), Uncle Kendall desperately recurring forces in the series but, wanted to adopt his nephew. after respective returns in issues Pretending to be corrupted by #187 and #184, Dorfman never wealth, Clark put the kibosh to used them again. his wishes.

Writer Bob Haney, in his sole todd klein The familiar bald head of Superboy script, got into the act, Lex Luthor returned three times too. In issue #180 (Dec. 1981), he had the Boy of Steel command a pack of during Dorfman’s run, initially in Superboy #173.

Lex, with the alias of Cerebron, was seen again wolves to fight the warlock Lykan.

Atop the same issue, letterer Gaspar Saladino in issue #177. The villain’s final appearance came introduced a modernized logo for Superboy. “It behind issue #179’s particularly grisly cover that replaced one of Ira Schnapp’s best logos that had showed people melting and pointing the finger been on the book from the beginning,” letterer/ of blame at Superboy. In fact, all of the victims historian Todd Klein wrote on his blog in 2021, were androids created by Luthor, programmed “and while it does fit the mandate Gaspar was to dissolve on command as a twisted test for his given by Carmine Infantino to update and Superboy android.

Superboy #179 closed with the story of a modernize the line, I don’t think this one is an downtrodden area called Hungry Hill, whose improvement over Ira’s original.”

Another new character grew out of reader Jim residents were down-on-their luck craftsmen Yanni’s suggestion in issue #168 that Superboy and women using their skills to eke out a living. have a younger sibling. Robbins played with The authorities of affluent Fairdale saw it as an the notion first in issue #170 when the Kents eyesore that was earmarked for demolition. The temporarily took in Charles (a.k.a. Crusty), the Boy of Steel stood squarely with the people of son of Jonathan’s cousin. The shady young- Hungry Hill, discovering in the process that his ster mended his ways thanks to Superboy and old friend Pete Ross was among the residents in the aftermath of his father’s bankruptcy. Using wound up joining his father in Alaska.

Dorfman’s angle presented Clark with a “sister” reverse psychology, Superboy finally allowed named Kathy Warren in Superboy #176 (on sale the demolition team and company into the area in May 1971). Her mother had been seriously only to watch their astonishment when they injured in an accident and asked her old friend saw the goods being produced. (A thematic Martha Kent to watch the child until her sequel appeared in Superboy #186–187’s rare husband returned from South America. In a two-parter about the Boy of Steel’s fight for parallel of the 1962 origin of Lex Luthor’s sis- prison reform.)

14 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

BRUCE WAYNE… EXECUTIONER

The Boy of Steel’s reunion with another former acquaintance was not as cordial. In 1960, Adventure Comics #275 had recounted how Superboy had met Bruce Wayne long before he became Batman. Superboy #182 (Feb. 1972, on sale in December 1971) purported to be its sequel, complete with a hilarious first panel in the DC offices where editors debated publishing the story at all: “This could be dynamite! I say, keep it buried.” Carmine Infantino, however, declared, “Our readers deserve the truth!”

The truth was that Clark learned of the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne via an old newspaper and rushed to Gotham City to belatedly offer condolences. He found a sober Bruce Wayne already well on his way to becoming a dark knight and determined to go it alone. Adopting the costumed alter ego of the Executioner, his investigation into his parents’ murders collapsed under the weight of fake evidence planted by a headline-grabbing reporter. Rebelling against Superboy’s help, Bruce snapped, “You’re just jealous because you can’t stand a rival crimefighter. You’ve got to be number one!”

The action moved from Gotham to the jungles of Africa in issue #183. In a tie-in to the imminent arrival of Tarzan in his own DC title, an “imaginary tale” considered what might have happened had baby Kal-El’s rocket been found on Earth by apes. According to this, he’d have become an impervious hero in a loincloth named Karkan.

A sequel in Superboy #188 (July 1972) followed Karkan to the United States, but further appearances had to wait until 1999 when Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett included him as the Boy of Steel of an alternate reality in Superboy vol. 3 #61 and 64.

By the summer of 1972, DC’s sales had fallen dramatically. Part of the blame could be placed on the publisher’s decision to expand from 15¢ to 25¢ (with more pages) for a full year. Marvel had bailed on a similar expansion after only a month and reaped the benefits of selling their comics at the lower price of 20¢. Once financials for Superboy came in at the end of 1972, it was reportedly averaging sales of 265,874 copies per issue… 200,000 less than in 1969. It was

Executing a Crimefighting Career (top) Nick Cardy’s gripping cover for Superboy #182 (Feb. 1972), gueststarring an angry young Bruce Wayne. (bottom) Inside the issue, young Bruce becomes a dark knight.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

Superboy Uncaged Original, signed Nick Cardy art for an unpublished version of the cover of Superboy #187 (June 1972).

Courtesy of Heritage. (inset) The published version. (Ye ed prefers the alternate version over the printed one.

Anyone else agree?)

TM & © DC Comics.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

hardly the only book to experience such a downturn, but was bad news, regardless.

For the moment, Boltinoff carried on. Dorfman penned stories involving a modern-day Pied Piper (#190) and Superboy’s transformation into a merman (#194). Meanwhile, Cary Bates had begun alternating on the lead feature with tales about an alien refugee (#192), the return of Pete Ross (#193), and a “Rock ’n’ Roll Riddle” that was solved by a blind student (#195).

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!

Looking back over the mail that Superboy had received over the past few years, Boltinoff observed one unmistakable fact: Readers really liked the Legion of Super-Heroes. Between issues #172 and 195, they’d appeared in only ten new stories (plus another five reprints), but the reaction overflowed in letters columns. The arrival of Dave Cockrum as the feature’s new artist in issue #184 only fueled the frenzy. Boltinoff had captured lightning in a bottle.

Legion mail far exceeded Superboy mail and demands for an LSH title of its own became a constant refrain. A short-lived Legion reprint book was launched in December 1972 [see BI #81— ed.], but that wasn’t what fans were asking for.

In issue #194, Boltinoff announced that he’d commissioned a full-length Superboy/Legion adventure by Bates and Cockrum as a test of sales,

but the letters kept coming. The editor bowed to public demand, changing the cover title to “Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes” with #197 (an issue ahead of the full-length adventure) and flipping the already completed Bates/Brown/Anderson lead story with the Boy of Steel to the back of the book.

On sale in April 1973, Superboy #196 (coverdated July 1973) was the end of an era.

Curiously, it contained three stories (all inked

by Vince Colletta) instead of the usual two, a reflection of the days when that was standard.

A supernatural tale was set in the Boy of Steel’s present, but the others looked back. A Superbaby story earned the cover spot for the third time since 1972 (following issues #183 and 192), while the opening episode revealed “Superboy’s First Mission.” Therein, a nostalgic visit to the farm where Clark spent his early years led to an adventure that proved to Ma and Pa Kent that their son was ready to go public as Superboy.

Moving into 1974, Smallville was reduced to cameos in a few Legion stories, and traditional Superboy adventures could be found only in 1960s reprints in 100-Page Super Spectaculars like Superman Family.

There was one unusual exception. When Aurora rereleased several 1960s model kits that year, it commissioned short comic books that tied into continued on page 21

Super Spinout (left) The Cardy-drawn cover of the last issue of Superboy (#196, July 1973) to solo-feature the Boy/Teen of Steel.

With #197, the Legion of Super-Heroes took permanent residence. (right) Good thing it wasn’t a coconut tree, or Lana Lang might’ve sustained a concussion!

Clark Kent chooses Legion duty over smooching in the Legion tale in issue #197. Story

by Cary Bates, art by Dave Cockrum.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

Snap to It, Superboy!

The Legion may have muscled its way into his book, but the Teen of Steel got some additional exposure in 1974 in a model and custom comic book for Aurora Comic Scenes, drawn by Dave Cockrum. The back cover shows assembly instructions for the diorama. Both, courtesy of Heritage. The built-up model kit of Superboy and Krypto is from a recent reissue produced

by Brand Moebius.

TM & © DC Comics.

18 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Take That, Ya Big Gorilla!

Look who’s back in solo action! (top and bottom left) DC Super-Stars #12 (Feb. 1977). Cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. (bottom right) Courtesy of Heritage, original art to page 3 from that issue. (top right) The Teen of Steel battles his adult self (?!) in the 100-Page Super Spectacular Superman #284 (Feb. 1975). Cover

by Nick Cardy.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

From the Smallville Vault Superboy headlined three 100-Page Super-Spectaculars in the ’70s, including (top) Superboy #185 (DC-12) (May 1972). Shown here are its back and front covers, by Nick Cardy. (bottom) Superboy was also the headliner of the reprint anthology Four-Star (also Four Star) Spectacular, which bowed in late 1975.

Sampled here are its Ernie Chan–drawn covers to #1 (Mar.–Apr. 1976) and 2.

TM & © DC Comics.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

The Adventures Resume Splash page from the first episode of Superboy’s brief Adventure run, from issue #453 (Sept.–Oct. 1977).

TM & © DC Comics.

continued from page 17

the poses of each figure, branded “Aurora Comic Scenes.” Consequently, Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum produced a Superboy/Krypto tale to match the Boy of Steel’s model. [Editor’s note: Its cover art by Cockrum has been repurposed as the cover of this edition of BACK ISSUE, with colors by regular BI cover colorist Glenn Whitmore.]

In the November 1974–released Superman #284, the adult Clark Kent, Lana Lang, and Pete Ross went back to their old hometown once more in an agreeable tale by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Bob Oksner. The Man of Steel was stunned to discover that ever since he had left his hometown for Metropolis, Smallville had been secretly protected by a rogue Superboy robot. Superman also hosted two other virtual Superboy adventures in 1975, one of them under the “World of Krypton” banner (#286) and the other in a lead story that largely flashed back to the hero’s boyhood feud with Lex Luthor (#292).

Elsewhere, the Superman Family title had been featuring new Supergirl, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen tales in a twice-a-year rotation. It was successful enough to warrant a frequency upgrade from six issues a year to eight in 1975. “Writer Elliot Maggin came in with the suggestion that we devote the two issues added to the year’s schedule to the Boy of Steel,” Paul Levitz revealed in DC Super-Stars #12 (Feb. 1977), “and rotate four characters in the Family set-up. The four-in-one scheme seemed a bit unwieldy, but the idea of doing Superboy was a sound one… and Elliot’s enthusiasm for the project sparked a lot of interest around the office.”

SUPERBOY RETURNS

The reprint title Four-Star Spectacular (FSS) premiered in December 1975. Edited by E. Nelson Bridwell, FSS spotlighted a quartet of DC heroes in each edition with Superboy and Wonder Woman as anchor characters in every issue. Bridwell confirmed in FSS #1’s letters column that providing a venue for traditional Superboy stories was one of the purposes of the new title. However, the arrival of DC’s new publisher Jenette Kahn in February 1976 put the brakes to the book, part of her directive to eliminate or scale down reprint series. “Four-Star Spectacular sold very nicely,” DC spokesman Mike Gold confirmed in Comic Media News #32 (Aug.–Sept. 1977), but the publisher was now focused on new material.

A month after FSS ended, Superboy received another chance in the spotlight in the aforementioned DC Super-Stars #12 (on sale in November 1976), courtesy of editor (and new LSH writer) Paul Levitz. With Elliot Maggin no longer available, Cary Bates was tapped for the script, with Curt Swan and

Welcome Back, Kal-El Aquaman artist Jim Aparo got a rare shot at drawing the Boy of Steel in this full-page house ad from Adventure Comics #452 announcing Superboy’s return to the title in the next issue.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

From Action Comics #393. TM & © DC Comics.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME Editor Murray Boltinoff’s development of the Superboy concept extended beyond the pages of the Boy of Steel’s comic book. When he took over Action Comics in 1970, the editor kicked off a recurring series that examined the period when a still-teenage Clark Kent was attending college in Metropolis. Scripted by Leo Dorfman (as Geoff Brown), the first installment in issue #393 served as an explicit transition with its title, “The Day Superboy Became Superman.” The premise was not unprecedented, having been used for a pair of “untold tales” in Superman #125 and 129, the latter introducing Lori Lemaris. Still, it was a largely untouched canvas.

Dorfman penned further installments for Action #403, 404, and 406, followed by two final tales by Cary Bates in issues #408 and 410.

Bob Rozakis revived the premise once more in 1981, now officially titled “Superman: The In-Between Years.” Six short stories ran in Superman #359, 362, 365, 366, 370, and 374 (1981–1982) before the writer decided to pitch a 12-issue maxiseries exploring the time frame. Jenette Kahn signed off on the proposal… but only for four issues.

Rebranded as Superman: The Secret Years, it was published in late 1984 and early 1985 with art by Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger. [Editor’s note: More details on the feature can be found in BACK ISSUE #67.]

Meanwhile, Boltinoff’s 1972 acquisition of World’s Finest Comics led to another permutation of the Boy of Steel. Unveiled in issue #215 (on sale in October 1972, the same month as Superboy #192), the Super-Sons examined the offspring of Superman and Batman. In contrast to the classic Smallville model, Superman, Jr. was rebellious and involved in the here-and-now rather than a bucolic version of the 1950s. As a point of distinction from his Kryptonian dad, Clark, Jr. sported hair swooped over his forehead rather than a spit curl.

Written by Bob Haney and primarily penciled by Dick Dillin, the feature continued in WFC #216, 221, 222, 224, 231, 233, 238, and 242 (1972–1976), with a final Denny O’Neil–scripted chapter in 1980’s #263.

[Editor’s note: The SuperSons were discussed at length in BACK ISSUE #87.]

22 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Murphy Anderson providing art. Their story was a sequel to Adventure Comics #240 (Sept. 1957), wherein a Kryptonian “robot teacher” trained the young Boy of Steel.

With Kal-El on the cusp of manhood, the teacher’s new test involved tempting his charge by kidnapping and brainwashing a teenager to become the girl of Clark Kent’s dreams. The premise, obviously, is one that would never fly today. Complaints from readers appeared in two successive Adventure Comics letters columns in 1977.

Nonetheless, sales came back strong, and changes were made in June 1977. After four years of hedging, DC formally expanded the title of Superboy to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the book’s indicia effective with issue #231. Elsewhere, Aquaman was spun off to his own title, leaving a vacancy in the Levitzedited Adventure Comics that was filled by a certain Boy of Steel in issue #453. Superboy had come home.

Bob Rozakis wrote the first installment (drawn

by John Calnan and Murphy Anderson), tying into the previous month’s Superboy #230 and including a charming surprise guest-star. Following a Juan Ortiz/ Vince Colletta–illustrated two-parter with the Kryptonite Kid and Lex Luthor, Rozakis passed the assignment on to David Michelinie. Joined by artists Joe Staton and Jack Abel, Michelinie restored Bash Bashford to the cast in Adventure #456 and penned a Phantom Zone adventure for issues #457–458.

At that point, Adventure was retooled as an expandedlength Dollar Comic and Superboy’s solo feature finally acquired a berth in Superman Family (whose rotating

Smallville Under Fire The Teen of Steel’s first three solo stories in Adventure Comics: #453 (Sept.–Oct. 1977), cover by Kurt Schaffenberger; and covers to #454 (vs. Kryptonite Kid) and 455 (vs. Luthor),

by Al Milgrom and Jack Abel.

TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

What’s the Matter with Superboy?

He’s All Right!

Superboy was welcomed into the pages of The Superman Family in issue #191 (Sept.–Oct. 1978) with this cheery title page drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger.

TM & © DC Comics.

Slugger of Steel Superboy gets in some outer-space batting practice on this splash from Superman Family #193, by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Joe Staton.

TM & © DC Comics.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

schedule had been abandoned in favor of all-new stories in late 1976). Premiering in June 1978’s Superman Family #191, the Boy of Steel got a strong vote of confidence from editor E. Nelson Bridwell, who gave Superboy the lead feature in every issue along with the front cover on several of them. Tom DeFalco and Joe Staton delivered the first four installments, most memorably reviving little warlock Gary as the teenage sorcerer Garok in Superman Family #194.

As of 1979, editor Julius Schwartz took charge of Superman Family, handing issue #195’s Superboy assignment to Martin Pasko before Cary Bates came aboard as regular scripter. The art shifted from Alex Saviuk and Joe Giella (#195), to Joe Staton and Frank Chiaramonte (#196), to Kurt Schaffenberger and Joe Giella (#197–198). The highlight was Bates’ “Shadow of Jor-El” (#196), which considered the impact that Superboy’s adulation of his genius biological dad had on his adoptive father Jonathan Kent. In a nod to their Silver Age visuals, Ma and Pa once again wore eyeglasses during this run. It was a subtle effort to make them appear a bit older without entirely undoing the 1968 rejuvenation of the couple.

Over the course of 1979, the powers-that-be at DC were recognizing that the success of the recent Superman: The Movie was having an impact. The World of Krypton miniseries from that spring had been a surprise hit and June’s Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #255 aggressively played up classic lore with Jor-El, Lara, and the Boy of Steel overwhelming its cover. A shakeup was quickly set into motion, one that would restore young Clark Kent to his own ongoing book—The New Adventures of Superboy— in October 1979. Severing its ties with Superboy, Legion of Super-Heroes lived on without him as of issue #259, on sale the same day. [Editor’s note: The story of the Boy of Steel’s “new adventures” is detailed at length in BACK ISSUE #68.]

Following the rule established in Superboy #171, the rolling timeline continued slip-sliding away. It had been 1955 in Clark’s teenage world then. By the time the Schwartz/Bates/Schaffenberger New Adventures of Superboy #1 came out, young Clark and Lana were mad about the Beatles (per Superman Family #198) and LBJ was the US president. Sales of the Teen of Steel’s comic in this faux 1960s were a mere fraction of what they’d been in the real thing, but it was reassuring to know that there was still a place on spinner racks for the adventures of Superman as a boy.

JOHN WELLS is a comics historian specializing in DC Comics. He is the author of the TwoMorrows books American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–1964 and 1965–1969, and co-author (with Keith Dallas) of the book Comic Book Implosion.

by D

ewey Cassell

No, I didn’t make that up.

I usually try to come up with a creative title for my articles, but I can’t take credit for that one.

Believe it or not, that was the name of a short-lived comic-book series in the early 1970s, and no “super” issue would be complete without it.

It was the brainchild of Frank Thorne. Yes, the same Frank Thorne who later drew Red Sonja for Marvel Comics and dressed up as a wizard, touring the country with a bevy of models in scale-mail bikinis.

But before Thorne became famous for his rendering of the “She-Devil with a Sword,” he was living in New Jersey, drawing Tomahawk for DC Comics [see BACK ISSUE #138—ed.], when he heard from a foundation that was interested in producing a promotional comic book.

The idea of a promotional comic book was not new. Marie Severin and her brother John produced The Story of Checks for the Federal Reserve Bank in the 1950s. The American Iron and Steel Institute produced a comic book drawn by Irv Novick titled Steel about how the steel industry works as well as its uses and benefits to society. Both were distributed to consumers across the country.

The Far Out Green Super Cool comic books were made for the school kids of New Jersey.

The article “Is It Curtains for Crime Foe?” by Rudy Larini, which appeared in the March 25, 1975 issue of the Central New Jersey Home News, explained, “The books are geared to children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades and are distributed primarily through schools and social agencies.”

They were produced by the Social Welfare Research Foundation (SWRF).

According to the Special Collections and University Archives at Rutgers University Libraries, “The Council for Human Services in New Jersey… was founded in 1901. Its purpose was to ‘bring together the hundreds of men and women who are dealing at firsthand with the problems of human affliction and distress,’ and to show ‘the points of contact, and the need of co-operation between private benevolent agencies and public relief officers.’ … [T]he Council founded a branch organization, the Social Welfare Research Foundation of New Jersey, in 1964. The purpose of the Foundation was to raise money to perform and disseminate research in the field of social welfare.”

As noted in the Central New Jersey Home News article, “The foundation had produced two un-illustrated pamphlets on juvenile law—one in 1967 and a second in 1970—but the format was

Far Out, Indeed Cover to Frank Thorne’s The Far Out Green Super Cool #3 (1973), introducing Super Cool Kid (who we bet you never heard of until now). Scan courtesy of Dewey Cassell. © Social Welfare Research Foundation (SWRF).

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

frank thorne

What a Ripoff!

Thorne’s freaked-out foe-fighter unplugs Ripoff the Robot in this original art page from Far Out Green Super Cool #2.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © SWRF.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

considered ‘too preachy’ by their youthful readers.”

So they decided to produce one comic book a year, beginning in 1971, with each issue focused on a different topic pertaining to juvenile law. They reached out to Frank Thorne, and The Far Out Green Super Cool was born.

The topics were selected by the foundation, but as the Central New Jersey Home News article noted, “Both Super Cool and Super Cool Kid… were conceived

by Thorne. Thorne works on the magazine over the summer in his spare time. He said it usually takes him about a month to complete an issue, over which he has total control, from the writing to the drawing and coloring. His finished product is then submitted to the SWRF’s education committee for its approval prior to being sent to the printer.”

Super Cool is a superhero, complete with a blue cape, a green complexion, and an “SC” symbol on his chest.

He can fly and he has a “laser projection ring” that allows its user to see events taking place elsewhere, such as a kid running away from home or a hearing in a courthouse. He has buttons on his gloves that allow him (and others) to turn invisible and walk through walls.

And he can project a beam from his finger that can burn drugs and melt guns. He also has a Super Cool Car that he can control remotely from a button on his belt; the car not only rides on the road, it also flies through the air.

His appearance, abilities, and gadgets are an amalgam of classic superheroes of the day, which would have been familiar to school age kids.

The first issue of The Far Out Green Super Cool opens with an example of racism, but the story topic is delinquency, essentially an overview of juvenile law.

Super Cool explains the concepts associated with delinquency in a way that a young boy (and the reader) can understand. He flies the boy across the city and uses his ring to show him what delinquency means and the potential ramifications. Along the way, he sees a jail, a courtroom, and a monster peddling drugs. Super Cool even catches a couple of teenagers breaking into his car. The boy is skeptical at first, but by the end of the story, Super Cool has persuaded him of the dangers of delinquency. The inside back cover of the first issue depicts Super Cool and a list of the terms used in the story.

In the second issue, published in 1972, the topic is larceny. In this story, Super Cool is visiting a group of kids and a police officer at a Youth Center when “Ripoff the Robot” breaks down the wall. The metal thief is overpowered and deactivated by Super Cool, who then takes everyone along in his Super Cool Car to return the robot to its owner, Dr. Watson, at his lab.

The doctor reprograms the robot to be law-abiding, and “Rip” helps apprehend a couple of muggers. The inside back cover features Super Cool and Rip along with a list of terms about larceny and their meaning.

The story in this issue has a more traditional comic plot than the first issue.

The focus of the third issue is mugging, and we are introduced to Super Cool Kid, a young boy named Fletcher who dresses up in a makeshift costume and aspires to fight crime like his hero, whom his friend describes as “a green private detective with super powers.”

Of course, Super Cool makes an appearance, taking his would-be sidekick flying and turning them both invisible before giving Fletcher his projection ring. The story in this issue is similar to the first issue in that there is no substantive plot, but it is noteworthy in that it is Super Cool Kid who provides most of the exposition regarding mugging and its consequences. Super Cool and Super Cool Kid appear on the inside back cover, along with terms and definitions related to mugging.

Crime Is a Bad Trip, Man! (top) Ripoff is rehabilitated in this panel from page 8 of Super Cool #2. (bottom) Mr. Death, not exactly the most subtle comics character of the 1970s, helps Super Cool teach kids fire safety in a PSA in issue #4. Frank Thorne original art courtesy of Heritage. © SWRF.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

You, Too, Can Stop Smoking Color guide painted

by Thorne for page 10 of The Far Out Green Super Cool #4. Courtesy of Dewey Cassell. © SWRF.

The topic for the fourth issue is arson. Super Cool Kid returns to help Super Cool tackle “The Smelly, Scorching Smoking Blob.” Together, they subdue the villain, and then Super Cool uses a button on his glove to shrink them both so they can enter the Blob’s brain through his ear and change his “main brain channel from negative to positive.” The second half of the story focuses on the Blob explaining why he turned to crime and Captain Baker of the fire department explaining the dangers of arson. In the end, the Blob vows to join the Blobovian fire department. The inside back cover depicts the angel of death presenting the terms related to arson and their definitions. Although the Blob character is comical, this is possibly the most somber story of the series.

Each story is standalone—there is no ongoing continuity other than the presence of Super Cool (and later Super Cool Kid). The first issue is 16 pages, including covers, printed in full color. Subsequent issues were only 12 pages. The back covers are blank and each is a solid color—green (of course), yellow, orange, and yellow, in publication order.

The topics covered in the comics are essentially timeless, but the language used in the Super Cool comics may seem hokey today. For example, in one story, a character says, “It was a groove, man!” But the comics were a product of the times. “Far out,” “cool,” and “groovy” were commonly used in the early 1970s and consistent with the hip vibe they were trying to convey in attempting to reach young kids. A curiosity is that “Super Cool” is sometimes written as one word and other times two words.

It is worth noting that in the second and fourth issues, the “villain” is fairly easily changed from a criminal to a law-abiding character. It seems likely this was deliberate, perhaps suggesting to kids who had already done something wrong that they could easily get back on the right path. It is also curious that there is no explanation of who Super Cool is or where he comes from, but most of the other characters in the stories already know who he is.

While this was Thorne’s only real foray into the superhero genre, his artistic style was well suited to the Super Cool comics. Like Tomahawk and Red Sonja, most of the characters in the stories were just regular people, with the exception of Super Cool and the occasional odd villain. Thorne gave the stories a gritty, grounded feel to them that undoubtedly resonated with young readers.

By 1975, the Social Welfare Research Foundation faced rising costs of storage—they had 20,000 comics from the first four years—as well as increased printing costs, but as the Central New Jersey Home News article noted, “one fee has remained constant from the start, and that is Thorne’s.” However, the foundation was unable to find a sponsor to pay for a fifth issue, so that was the end of Super Cool.

Because of their limited distribution, the Super Cool comics are rare, and collecting all four issues can be not only challenging, but pricey. They have never been reprinted, but have been scanned and posted on the Internet. The original art was sold some time ago at shows and online, but today is scarce, with only a few pages of interior art and color guides surfacing in the last couple of years.

The Far Out Green Super Cool stories were undoubtedly the most unusual things Thorne ever worked on, and that’s saying something when you consider some of the artwork Thorne did after leaving mainstream comics. But it was clearly a cause he was interested in and dedicated to. Thorne was quoted in the Central New Jersey Home News article as saying, “I just don’t think there was enough organization behind it to promote it properly.”

What can’t be measured is the impact that the Far Out Green Super Cool stories may have had on the school kids of New Jersey. The fiery redhead for whom Thorne is better known has a worldwide following, but it is just possible that Super Cool and Fletcher may have had a more meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of its readers. Not a bad legacy to leave behind.

Thanks to Zaddick Longenbach for his insight and Heritage Auctions for some of the artwork used in the article.

DEWEY CASSELL is the twice Eisner Award–nominated author/co-author of four books and over 50 magazine articles, but he is most definitely not Far Out Green Super Cool.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

© Disney.

This article contains peanuts, a.k.a. “goobe rs.”

If you have a known peanut allergy, you might wish to skip to the Super Soul Comix ar ticle elsewhere in this issu e at this time.

Making his debut way back in the 1932 cartoon Mickey’s Revue as a one-off audience character with an annoying “hyuck, hyuck” laugh, Dippy Dog became Dippy Dawg, then Goofie, and finally, the simple and descriptive… Goofy.

Goofy has always been the third wheel of the classic Disney triumvirate, outclassed by his pals Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in both cartoons and comic books—particularly in comic books. Disney comics were once the biggest-selling comic books in the United States, and yet outside of a handful of issues in Dell’s Four Color anthology series, Goofy never even had his own title until Goofy Adventures debuted in 1990.

Well… that’s not entirely true. In between the demise of Four Color and the premiere of Goofy Adventures came the one and only…

Super Goof!

by S t e v e n

Thompson

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

THE ORIGIN OF SUPER GOOF

False Starts (top) The first version of Super Goof, in The Phantom Blot #2 (Apr. 1965). (bottom) This hero’s second appearance was in this backup story that ran in Donald Duck #102 (July 1965). © Disney.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Like many a great idea, Super Goof had many fathers.

In fact, Cathy Sherman Freeman told Disney historian Jim Korkis in 2013 that her father George, head of Disney Publications in the mid-1960s, came up with the concept of Super Goof in conjunction with Disney UK merchandising rep Peter Woods, then left it to writer Del Connell to develop.

Connell was a veteran writer for Disney’s cartoon studio who had transitioned to comic books for Western Publishing in the mid-1950s. Other than Super Goof, his most notable comics creation was probably Gold Key’s venerable Space Family Robinson title.

In his initial Silver Age appearance, in The Phantom Blot #2 (Apr. 1965), Super Goof wasn’t quite yet the hero fans would come to know and love. In fact, he wasn’t even super. He only thought he had superpowers, and that boosted Goofy’s confidence to a dangerous level.

Super Goof seemed very much a one-shot character in that issue, but almost before you know it, he was back, this time in his own backup story in Donald Duck #102 (July 1965). It’s possible someone higher up told Connell, “No, no, no. You misunderstood! We didn’t want just a superhero parody. We wanted an actual superhero!” Goofy had real superpowers in his second adventure, bestowed by a super-scientific cape given to him by inventor Gyro Gearloose. The cape idea mimicked the real world, where kids would tie towels around their necks like capes and get actual confidence boosts by pretending the capes gave them superpowers. Unfortunately, there were reports of kids having accidents by letting their imaginations run away with them and thinking those capes really did provide them with powers. That may be why Goofy ended up with an entirely different power source starting with his next appearance.

Reportedly it was Western editor Chase Craig who decided to give Super Goof his own book and came up with the final explanation for Goofy’s superpowers— “Super Goobers.” Korkis said that Craig, in those days when peanut allergies were considered rare, figured a child emulating Goofy by eating peanuts wasn’t likely to ever be an issue.

Along with being an informal term for a peanut, “goober” is also defined as a funny, naïve, silly, or ignorant person: You know—Goofy! Goofy and his goobers were meant for each other. How those goobers got to be Super Goobers is a different story, and apparently unknown.

A website called The Unified Disney Comics Wiki says, “Super Goobers were created when Goofy planted a peanut plant in his garden. A meteor struck the soil nearby it, and the peanuts absorbed the power contained within the meteor. Goofy, eating one, found that they gave him superpowers, and a costume to go with them.” Korkis credited editor Chase Craig with the meteorite idea, and a dozen or more websites back it up, and yet this info is nowhere to be found in the stories themselves, something also noted by several websites.

In Super Goof #7 (June 1967), we learn that Gyro can re-create Super Goobers in his atomic hothouse, but they’re giant-sized and presumably inedible. This is borne out when the villainous Beagle Boys learn about the Super Goobers in issue #31 (Aug. 1974) and grow them to giant-size so Goofy can’t eat a whole one; Goofy learns he does need to eat a whole one to get his powers. In a continuity implant credited to writer Vic Lockman, our hero remembers that, years ago, he was eating imported Mexican peanuts (from Pancho Peanuts) when he tossed an “unusual” one into his

Go, Go, Goofy! (left) The Super Goober-gobbler has his own mag: Super Goof #1 (Oct. 1965)! (right) Goofy’s pintsized pal Gilbert gets super in issue #10 (Mar. 1968). Cover art by Paul Murry. © Disney.

garden, and that led to his super peanut patch. He returns South of the Border where he meets Super Señor, who happily supplies more Super Goobers, explaining that he’d grown them for years, and a stray one must have gotten in one of the packs of regular ones he sold. He still never explains how they came to be super in the first place, but Goofy is able to replant his garden back home, after arresting the Beagle Boys.

(Continuity never being a major point in Disney comics, it never occurs to the Beagle Boys to simply dispose of his source again in later appearances.)

So when Goofy eats a Super Goober, he not only gets powers beyond those of any mortal—well, dog—but his clothes also turn into old-fashioned red-flannel long johns, conveniently with an “SG” on them. (In Europe, the classically American red flannels are unfamiliar, and Goofy’s costume is translated roughly as “play pants.”) What looks to be a blue towel shows up, too, tied around his neck like a cape. Once Super Goof started in his own title, the hero also wears Goofy’s oversized hat, as storage space for more Super Goobers! This is important, as the unpredictable li’l goobers have a habit of wearing off at the most inopportune moments.

THE LEGION OF SUPER GOOBERS

At various times, others swallow the Super Goobers, often by accident, and find themselves with superpowers. These include Clarabelle Cow; Scrooge McDuck; Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and even the Big Bad Wolf. Chip and Dale get some in one tale, and even Scamp, the puppy offspring of Lady and the Tramp, becomes Super Scamp for one story!

Early on, our hero spends a lot of time attempting (and often failing) to do good deeds as well as fighting a succession of evil doctors—Dr. Stigma, Dr. Ruah, Dr. Syclocks, Dr. Omega, Dr. Tempo, et al. His powers tend to be whatever suited the needs of any given story. He could fly, had super-strength, various types of super-vision, super-hearing (in one issue he has to tug his ear to turn this on), invulnerability… the usual stuff. Also, for some reason, even his closest friends didn’t recognize him when he was Super Goof… even though he never started wearing glasses as a disguise!

This included Goofy’s mini-me nephew, Gilbert. The only reason Gilbert—a little genius who always wears a graduation cap—knows Super Goof’s true identity is because one of those pesky ol’ goobers wore off and Gilly’s idol changed back into his plain old uncle right before his eyes. In the time-honored tradition of superhero stories, Goofy offers his loquacious and sesquipedalian nephew a Super Goober (“Those things are unpalatable before roasting!”), and a sidekick is born. Super Gilbert, a.k.a. Super Gilly, proves quite helpful and a fun addition to the series. He later disappears from the stories without explanation, only to turn up again in the final issue of Super Goof. In some foreign Disney comics, however, Gilly sometimes even gets his own solo stories!

Although Western Publishing rarely credited personnel on its titles, and never on the licensed Disney ones, the Internet Age has revealed that even after Del Connell and Paul Murry, the list of writers and artists on Super Goof is literally a Who’s Who of the best Disney comics creators of the period. Super Goof creators include Bob Ogle, Vic Lockman, Roger Armstrong, Tony Strobl, Pete Alvarado, Kay Wright, Jack Bradbury, Jack Manning, and fan-favorite Mark Evanier.

Published on an erratic schedule for much of its run, only a dozen issues of Super Goof came out between late 1965 and early 1970, followed by 62 more in the Bronze Age, ending finally 13 years later with issue #74 (1984). That last issue brings Super Goof full circle as the antagonist in its first story is once again the Phantom Blot.

SUPER GOOF’S ROGUES’ GALLERY

If Super Goof has an archenemy, though—his own version of Superman’s Lex Luthor—it must surely be villainous scientist Emil Eagle, bald and all, called “Evil” Eagle in his first appearance in Super Goof #12 (Feb. 1970). This was perhaps a Freudian slip, as Emil Eagle had already served as a thorn in the side of several other Disney characters before that, notably Gyro Gearloose in Uncle Scrooge #63 (May 1966); Scrooge McDuck and company in Donald Duck #109 (Sept. 1966); and even Mickey Mouse and Pluto in a serial beginning in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #330 (Mar. 1968).

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

Created for the Disney comics in 1951 by legendary cartoonist Carl Barks, the Beagle Boys were a huge clan of inept, mostly lookalike dog-men crooks identifiable only by their individual prison numbers on the orange/red shirts they always wore.

With their long history as bad guys in the Disneyverse, it was inevitable they would go up against Super Goof, which they did

Repurposed Reprobate Dr. Syclocks was among our hero’s rogues’ gallery.

His appearance in (top left) Super Goof #2 (Feb. 1966) was later recycled in issue (top right) #72 (1982). Cover art by Paul Murry. (bottom left) Disney scoundrels the Beagle Boys often ran afoul of our hero. Cover to Super Goof #42 (June 1977) by Pete Alvarado and Bill Wright. (bottom right) You’ll be on Cloud Nine if you find a copy of Super Goof #62 (Nov. 1980), as it was distributed only in Whitman multi-packs. Cover

by Kay Wright. © Disney.

32 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

in more than a dozen issues of Super Goof’s title. The Beagle Boys were popular enough to have their own title, too, though, and one of the most memorable Super Goof adventures appears in The Beagle Boys #17 (July 1973).

Written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Kay Wright, the story has an early “meta” feel to it as Super Goof learns that the

latest issue of Super Goof Comics has been counterfeited by the Beagles, with an all-new story discrediting Duckburg’s hero, drawn by the narcissistic comic artist, Doodler! The children lose faith in Super Goof, and the comic publisher’s sales immediately plummet! The Boys make their umptillionth attempt at robbing Scrooge McDuck’s giant Money Bin, this time using Doodler’s plan and an elephant to break in. Super Goof arrives just as his Super Goober wears off. But where there are peanuts and an elephant…

And so, Super Goof and Super Elephant (also in a cape and red long johns) follow the Beagle Boys back to their dingy hideout, recover the stolen loot, and, of course, find out that they were the ones behind the bogus comic books.

Beloved once again, our hero later drops off a year’s supply of real Super Goof comic books for Doodler and the Beagles in their cell.

Like all Disney comics, the stories in Super Goof were intended to be fun and funny, just quick reads not needing much thought. Unlike the Marvel and DC Universes that had slowly become mired in deeper and deeper continuity matters from the 1960s on, the Disney Universe and its anthropomorphic people, places, and things never let continuity of any kind stand in the way of a good story. Super Goof was a slow-thinking hero who got his powers from Super Goobers that wore off at odd times. He fought crime and did good deeds in Duckburg and around the world, often with less-thanperfect results. Those were the only things that continued from issue to issue.

Although many of the Super Goof stories were simple and gag-oriented, at the peak of his adventures, they could get a little involved. In “Super Goof vs. Daddy Doomie and Dr. Malstrom” in issue #15 (Nov. 1970), an international crime syndicate run by bulldog Daddy Doomie brings in the conniving buzzard Dr. Malstrom, who attracts our hero by blowing a hole in a dam.

After Super Goof uses a cement mixer to plug said hole, the evil doctor plants a bugging device on the hero’s cape. Following in his helicopter, the dastardly bird finds Goofy’s house and vaporizes it with his cinder ray. Luckily, Goofy was in the underground cellar at the time.

Thinking Super Goof dead, Daddy Doomie attempts to rob the US Mint. Gilly alerts his uncle, telling him to “Go and strike stark terror into the hearts of the evil-doers!”

On finding out his intended super-victim still lives, Dr. Malstrom is enlisted to try again. This time, he discovers the secret of the Super Goobers and replaces them all with explosive duplicates geared to tear plain old Goofy apart by the atoms!

However, it’s Super Goof who eats them and survives their kick, saying, “Muh goobers taste different lately. Maybe I should have ’em examined.”

It’s when he takes them to a lab for analysis that he finds Daddy Doomie and Dr. Malstrom stealing plans for a super-ray weapon. Never having seen them before, he has no idea who they are, but as he starts to eat what he thinks is one of his Super Goobers, they panic and surrender, knowing it’s one of the super-explosives. Bags of the real power peanuts are found in the criminals’ car trunk. As a reward to Goofy, the lab scientists agree to have a new house built for him.

THE FINAL DAYS OF SUPER GOOF

Reprints began as early as the following issue, Super Goof #16 (Feb. 1970), although they did not as yet take up the whole book. That would start two years later, with issue #24 (Feb. 1973), which reprinted in its entirety issue #6 (Mar. 1967). For the remainder of Super Goof’s run, issues #28, 29, 37, 43, 45, 46, 56, 57, 58, 66, and 72 were completely reprints, usually even including the covers.

Super Goof co-creator Del Connell, quoted on Wikipedia from a 1993 interview, said, “the Western comics line was killed by distribution. Perhaps you know that by early 1980 our comics were only being distributed in bagged sets of three. The Whitman label replaced the Gold Key imprint at that time, as the comics could no longer be found on the newsstands, but in department, variety, and grocery stores.”

Thus, only the most determined fans likely even found the last few years of Super Goof issues. The title finally ended around the same time Western gave up on comic books. But you can’t keep a good goof down, especially not as long as Super Goobers were around!

During the run of his own book, Super Goof reprints also appeared at times in Gold Key’s Walt

A Blot on His Record Our hero encounters a twister and the Phantom Blot on this original art page to “The Phantom City,” from Super Goof #55 (Oct. 1979).

Pencils by Kay Wright. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © Disney.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

Super Goof Gets Around! (top) A rare non-comics appearance of Super Goof in a Disney children’s book. (bottom and inset) His adventures weren’t limited to the USA! © Disney.

Disney Comics Digest. There was a reprint one-shot, Super Goof Meets Super Thief, done in Whitman’s Dynabrite children’s book line. While new Super Goof stories were becoming rare for American readers, as early as in 1969 Disney artists and writers in the US had begun creating new Super Goof stories exclusively for international markets. The character was particularly popular in Brazil, Denmark, Italy, France, and Germany. In time, homegrown artists in those countries would be allowed to create their own Super Goof stories, leading to scores of sometimes beautifully drawn tales, few of which were ever printed anywhere in English.

In 2005, there was a 150-page collection published in Germany of these comic adventures from various countries.

One such story, “The Invisible Shield,” a 1992 tale credited to two British writers (Jack Sutter and John Antrobus) and a Spanish artist (Tello), is an intricately drawn story with almost no substance.

The dapper, smartly dressed Lorenzo and his male and female accomplices walk to a museum with the intention of stealing a priceless Egyptian necklace. Lorenzo has invented a device that creates an invisible shield around his little band of thieves. Super Goof can’t penetrate it, so he becomes depressed. He tries again, but still no luck. Finally, he goes up into space and barrels down at super-speed toward Lorenzo, who cranks his device up to its highest point and blows a circuit. Not having committed a single crime in the story, the bad guys simply exit while Super Goof’s eventual landing results in the destruction of the museum.

In a 2002 episode of Disney’s House of Mouse TV series, Super Goof made his long-awaited animated debut! Feeling rejected by Clarabelle Cow, Goofy is sitting outside on break from his job as a waiter at the titular restaurant. Absentmindedly, he is munching on peanuts when (unlike in the comics) we actually see a meteorite hit them, causing them to glow and subsequently change Goofy into Super Goof, red flannels and all. In the episode, Super Goof quickly charms and delights everyone, causing Goofy to become jealous of his other self and discard the Super Goobers. Before long, Goofy needs to find his power source again, as Professor Ludwig Von Drake detects a deadly flaming comet heading straight toward Mickey’s House of Mouse nightclub restaurant!

Sadly, the American comic-book publishers that have picked up the Disney license over the years—Gladstone, Disney Comics, Gemstone, Boom, and IDW—seemed less than enthusiastic with reviving Super Goof here in his home country. Gladstone did do an album of Super Goof reprints in the 1980s, and Disney Comics’ Goofy Adventures #6 had a great new cover by Rick Hoover touting the return of Super Goof, but the story was another reprint.

In the 2000s, though, in Italy, numerous writers and artists presented a serialized mega-crossover in which most of the Disney characters became superheroes and formed the Hero Squad in order to fight a band of supervillains (led by Emil Eagle, Black Pete, and the Beagle Boys). Thankfully, Super Goof is included and, in fact, finally given a more modern costume! The series was reprinted by Boom Kids! in the US in 2009–2010.

Goofy has always made a great sidekick, but Super Goof finally made him a comic-book star. As Jim Korkis wrote, “In whatever situation, Goofy thinks long and hard… before doing the wrong thing every time. His willingness to help 34 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

others made him a natural to take on a new role as a befuddled superhero.” If history is any indication after nearly 60 years of super-goofiness, Super Goof will someday fly again!

In the 1970s, Super Goof served as STEVEN THOMPSON’s gateway to the world of Disney Comics, which hold up today better than many comics of their era. When he’s not in Duckburg, Steven can be found in Northern Kentucky where he lives with his family, his pets, and his computer AI—Samantha—who helped proofread this article.

THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF

MATT FOX

by ROGER HILL

MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now!

Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. SHIPS FALL 2023!

(128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

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In 1972, Soul was IN! Soul music; soul food; soul brothers… Black was beautiful, baby! Shaft and Super Fly were on the big screen and Marvel’s Luke Cage made his debut. It was into this receptive environment that African-American cartoonist Richard “Grass” Green launched his most personal comic to date—Super Soul Comix!

Prior to that, Richard Green had become one of the few BNFs (Big Name Fans) of early comics fandom to actually turn pro. His nickname had

by S originally been “Grasshopper.” Roy Thomas recalls, teven Thompson “it was because he was so active, hopping around all the time like a grasshopper… and it soon got shortened to just ‘Grass.’”

Already well known in the growing circles of comics fandom for his ambitious amateur science fiction/superhero creation Xal-Kor, the Human Cat, Green’s first pro comics story appeared from Charlton in 1966. The Shape was the Plastic Man– like hero of the very first issue of Charlton Premiere, designed as an experimental anthology title. From a Roy Thomas plot, Grass wrote and drew the Shape, with Frank McLaughlin inking. From there, Grass placed a number of other MAD-style fillers in various Charlton titles such as Go-Go and Abbott and Costello over the next few years. Although cartoony and hilarious, they didn’t seem to help his career momentum.

In the early 1970s, though, Grass Green turned up in the censor-free underground comix with a story that even made publisher Denis Kitchen question what he was thinking! We can’t even describe it here! Denis tells BACK ISSUE, “In retrospect, [that story] was probably the most dangerous thing Kitchen Sink ever published.” After a similar story

by R. Crumb received obscenity charges, Denis was worried, but now says, “Grass’ equally volatile story flew under the radar, even though that issue was on shelves for probably a decade, going through, I think, seven printings.”

In the above-mentioned controversial story, the African-American cartoonist drew a supposed version of himself, only he was white. Kitchen says, “I really can’t say what motivated Grass to depict himself as white in that story. A regular theme of his was sex-crazed characters chasing white women, to the point that I strongly encouraged him to explore other veins. But, like Crumb and other underground colleagues, he had his own obsessive themes.

Grass loved the freedom in underrichard “grass” green grounds to do sexy stuff and that became his emphasis.”

After ignoring or seemingly denying Black culture in so much of his work, Super Soul Comix #1 (Oct. 1972) seems to have been Green’s attempt at putting exaggerated Blaxploitation-style stories into comics form, complete with over-the-top sex, He’s Got Super Soul… violence, and language, including liberal usage of …and he’s super-bad. Richard “Grass” Green, that is, creator of the the dreaded “N” word.

Grass had always loved Marvel-style superheroes. oddball comic, Super Soul Comix #1 (Oct. 1972).

In his early fan days, he had been rejected by Stan © Richard Green estate.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

When “Grass” Was Green (top left) Green’s fanzine hero Xal-Kor. Detail from a 1980 reprint of the artist’s earlier work. (top right) The Shape, from the 1966 tyro title Charlton Premiere #1. (bottom) Green’s issue #2 of Super Soul Comix went unpublished. Cover scan courtesy of Steven Thompson.

Xal-Kor and Super Soul Comix © Richard Green estate.

Lee, but encouraged by Jack Kirby. His underground hero Wildman was white. Here, though, we have “Soul Brother American vs. Bigots, Inc.” Marty Meathead, a black man, returns from Vietnam only to have his mother steal his money. He finds his sweetheart turning tricks, the police beat up on him, and White America won’t give him a job. Desperate, he allows a mad scientist to experiment on him, giving him superpowers and turning him into Soul Brother American, or, as the doctor thinks, “the world’s first superhero sex maniac!”

Using every Black stereotype of the day—from Stepin Fetchit to Muhammad Ali, as well as consistently inventive use of conversational dialect and the way the words themselves are displayed in the panels—Grass depicts his hero’s initial battle against organized bigotry.

After a silly three-page filler piece of domestic humor, we get to the second major story, “The Castle at the Top of the Hill,” this one starring Eric Private—Black Eye. When we meet our hero, wearing the cliché Bogart trench coat and hat, he’s chained up in a castle, having fought the bodyguard of a rich mobster’s daughter, thinking he was attacking her. Private escapes and battles his gangsters with guns blazing as he hurries to escape the castle before it blows up from munitions he’s rigged on his way out. It all ends with an explosive color back cover with lots of sound effects (including “CRUMB!”).

Drawn in a slightly different style, Grass’ trademark irreverent tongue-in-cheek attitude and snappy dialogue still persist, even though the story itself is a (slightly) more straightforward private detective adventure.

One critic referred to Super Soul Comix as “a hard-edged exposé of racism and bigotry in the United States.” In spite of its humor, perhaps it was too hard-edged for even the underground market to support.

“The first issue of Super Soul did not sell very well,” says Denis Kitchen. “It eventually sold out the then-standard 10,000-copy printing, but it took a long time. Might it have been that the comic shop and head shop market at that point was not responsive to a title presumably aimed at an AfricanAmerican audience?”

An anonymous online source claims that three issues of Super Soul were originally planned and, in fact, the artwork for the cover of a second issue—complete with Super Soul American—exists in various stages, but Denis Kitchen says he has no memory of that. Grass Green continued to show up for a while in undergrounds like Good Jive and Teenage Horizons of Shangrila, but then disappeared from the comics scene for a while.

He returned in the 1980s, back in the fan press, but also with Wildman and Xal-Kor turning up in some mainstream comics. In 1993, from Fantagraphics’ Eros Comics came Ghetto B*tch, a full-length Grass Green comic book that might be seen as a direct descendant of Super Soul Comix both in style and subject matter. Sadly, it got very little notice.

Richard “Grass” Green died in 2002, never having achieved his original goal of making it big in mainstream comics. But it’s hard to deny he made his own special impact on the field with work that will continue to be discovered by new fans for years to come.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Ok, here’s a riddle. Name a cartoon that was written by MAD’s Nick Meglin and drawn by MAD’s Jack Davis and published in paperback by MAD’s paperback publisher, Signet, but it doesn’t have anything to do with MAD. It even has a dedication to MAD’s Stan Hart and acknowledgement to MAD’s Jerry De Fuccio, Angelo Torres, Frank Jacobs… and no, it’s not MAD About Sports or More MAD About Sports or even The MAD Jock Book!

‘SUPERFAN’ KICKS OFF

The Superfan feature, written by Meglin and drawn

by Davis, first appeared in the pages of Quarterback magazine in January 1970. Quarterback was renamed Pro Quarterback by year’s end.

According to the Lambiek Comiclopedia, the Superfan comic, which ran in Pro Quarterback from 1970–1974, “tells the story of Y. A. Schmickle, a geeky boy who receives sporting powers of many great football players of the past by saying a magic spell. The comic satirizes much of early 1970s culture and society, while many well-known football players of the day have a cameo.”

By 1972, enough Superfan installments had appeared in the magazine to compile and reprint them in paperback form, from New American Library. The first paperback, Superfan, had a Foreword from none other than the legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell, at the peak of his powers at the time. He was popular thanks to his regular appearances on Monday Night Football, which debuted on ABC-TV in 1970 and became a surprise hit, lasting on the network until 2005 and continuing on to the present day on ESPN. It was quite a coup at the time for Meglin and Davis to get Cosell. In his Foreword, Cosell remarked, “I think it’s about time Superfan became a book. Superfan has fun with football and so do [fellow sportscasters] Dandy Don Meredith, Faultless Frank Gifford, and Humble Howard Cosell. Superfan laughs at the three of us, and we laugh along with him.”

Strange Sports Stories Original cover painting by MADman Jack Davis for Superfan… Again!, the 1974 followup to the 1972 Superfan paperback. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (opposite page) Original art (courtesy of Heritage) of page 2 of episode 12 of the “Superfan” feature in Pro Quarterback magazine. (Our apologies for the Charlie Chan panel, which some readers may find offensive, but is included here for the historical record.)

Superfan © the estates of Nick Meglin and Jack Davis.

38 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

by M

ark Arnold

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

‘More Powerful Than An Angry Butkus’ Meglin and Davis’ “Superfan” began as a humor feature in 1970 in Pro Quarterback (originally titled Quarterback) magazine, then spun off into (inset) this popular 1972 paperback from New American Library. (Even ye ed, no sports fan he, had and loved the Superfan PB—but then again, how could any selfrespecting comics fan not love the cartoons of Jack Davis??)

This classic trio of commentators was formed in 1971 on the Monday Night Football’s second season and lasted through 1973 when Meredith left for a short time. The trio resumed in 1977 and lasted until 1983, when Cosell left for good shortly after making a controversial statement.

This same classic trio appeared as caricatures in Chapter 19 of the first book, subtitled “Time Out for the Commercial Ventures,” and in Chapter 20, subtitled “And So It Came to Pass, Not to Mention Catch and Run.” In this portion of the book, the trio dons football uniforms and actually play and win the game. Here, they are called Frank Gifted, Dandy Don Merryface, and Hardhit Cursewell.

In 1974, New American Library published a followup paperback edition titled Superfan… Again!

Superfan © the estates of Nick Meglin and Jack Davis.

With its 1970s-based humor, how has Superfan aged?

In 2005, fellow BACK ISSUE contributor Steven Thompson reviewed the then-30-year-old Superfan books for his Booksteve’s Library blog.

Thompson commented, “Superfan, published in 1972, collected the first [21] chapters of a three-page-per-month strip done by MAD’s Nick Meglin and Jack Davis for Pro Quarterback magazine. Printed in the sideways format of the then-popular MAD paperbacks, this was undoubtedly EC Comics great Davis’ longest sustained story! Let me make one thing clear— I hate football. Okay, perhaps ‘hate’ is too strong a word. I just don’t get it. Never did.

“That said, I absolutely love this book! Lots of MAD style celebrity hazing courtesy of future MAD editor Meglin, but with a likable nebbishy hero and a traditional sports movie type plot!

Skinny, super-intelligent Y. A. Schmickle says the magic word PSCWPLB… somehow… and inherits the football skills of many great players of past and (then) present. Along the way, he meets hippies and movie stars and sports announcers and… well, you get the idea.

With an intro by the late Howard Cosell, Superfan is lots of fun even if you miss, like I did, at least half of the pure football humor!

“Conversely, Superfan Again is dull. Published two years later, it features right-side-up full-page panels that make the actual content come out to about half of the first volume.

According to Meglin’s introduction, this one was done exclusively for this format and not as a monthly strip, as both he and Davis were overextended at the time. Their heart clearly wasn’t in this one, but there’s still a little fun and Jack Davis art is a wonderful treat anytime!”

Meet the MADmen (bottom left) Superfan writer Nick Meglin. (bottom right) Superfan artist Jack Davis, selfcaricatured with a couple of EC pals on the cover of a collection of his artwork. © the estates of Nick Meglin and Jack Davis. MAD © EC Publications, Inc.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

In Nick Meglin’s 1973 book, The Art of Humorous Illustration, Jack Davis discussed working on Superfan, and his preference of a pen rather than a brush in his work, but his choice depended on the work.

Davis commented, “I associate brush work with comics. When I’m doing a job that needs a comics look, like Superfan, or a comic-like brochure for an advertising agency, a #3 or #4 Winsor & Newton red sable watercolor brush is the only thing. My brush technique is a carryover from comic-book days, and I can pencil and ink a three-page Superfan episode in an afternoon. With a pen, it might take me a whole day.”

Meglin added, “A typical page from the Superfan football feature appeared in the pages of Pro Quarterback magazine. Originally printed with comic-style flat color, the work was ‘translated’ into two tones of gray for the Superfan paperback published by New American Library.”

Meglin was born in 1935 as Nick Megliola, and spent most of his career at EC Publications and MAD, leaving for a brief time in the late 1950s for an Army stint. While at MAD, Meglin was a major behind-the-scenes contributor, submitting items such as the various mailboxes that used to adorn MAD’s letters pages featuring a lit bomb inside the box and termites chomping away at the wooden pole holding up the box.

The Lambiek Comiclopedia states, “Meglin shared his intellectualism and talent for writing outside MAD’s pages, too. He was known for his love of tennis, to the point that his business card jokingly referred to him as a ‘tennis editor.’ Naturally, he wrote about the subject too in Tennis Magazine.

Meglin additionally contributed articles to Opera News and talked about various other topics in The New York Sunday Times, American Artist Magazine, Ideas, and the monthly American football publication Pro Quarterback.”

Davis was born in 1924, and began his career drawing for various high school and college publications and other assorted projects before he made his major professional breakthrough with EC Comics in 1950. He was one of the original artists on MAD, before he left with editor Harvey Kurtzman to work on his various magazines such as Trump, Humbug, and Help! He also illustrated a number of record album covers as well as numerous movie posters. Davis worked for MAD competitors Cracked and Sick before he was lured back to MAD in 1965.

Though he never had a MAD paperback of his own, he illustrated other MAD books written by Dick DeBartolo, Frank Jacobs, and Stan Hart. Along with 12 other MAD regulars, he also drew a portion of Meglin’s MAD Stew.

After Superfan, Davis continued on illustrating for MAD regularly through 1996, with one final all-new appearance in 2003 in tribute to the late Dave Berg. He continued to do many sportsrelated pieces of art from time to time, not only for MAD but also for Time and TV Guide, and he sketched various characters and mascots for the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, Georgia.

His drawing of the Mariner, Captain Jack, was ultimately selected by the college students and staff as the official school mascot. Davis passed away in 2016, at the age of 91.

Meglin, meanwhile, continued with MAD as an assistant editor to editor Al Feldstein, and then rose to the rank of co-editor, along with John Ficarra,

Mouthing Off Popular ’70s TV sportscaster Howard Cosell (inset) appeared as “Hardhit Cursewell” in both Superfan (left) and Superfan…

Again! (right).

Original art scans courtesy of Heritage; Cosell photo courtesy of IMdB.com.

Superfan © the estates of Nick Meglin and Jack Davis.

when Feldstein retired in 1984. He wrote a series of MAD paperbacks through 1990 and also a few other non-MAD books including Drawing from Within, On-the-Spot Drawing, Rotten Rhymes and Other Crimes, and Honor the Godfather, as well as the aforementioned The Art of Humorous Illustration.

Meglin held the co-editor spot at MAD until 2004, when he retired and relinquished the role to Ficarra. In later years, he taught illustration and passed away at the age of 82 in 2018.

MARK ARNOLD is a pop-culture historian with over 15 books to his credit on subjects ranging from The Monkees, The Beatles, Underdog, Pink Panther, Cracked, Disney, Dennis the Menace, and more. His latest book is about the history of Pac-Man. He is currently at work on another on the history of MAD.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

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BRONZE AGE RARITIES & ODDITIES, spotlighting rare ‘80s European Superman comics! Plus: CURT SWAN’s Batman, JIM APARO’s Superman, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT’s Marvel custom comics, MICHAEL USLAN’s unseen Earth-Two stories, Leaf’s DC Secret Origins, Marvel’s Evel Knievel, cover variants, and more! With EDUARDO BARRETO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ALEX SAVIUK, and more. Cover by JOE KUBERT.

SILVER ISSUE, starring the Silver Surfer in the Bronze Age! Plus: JACK KIRBY’s Silver Star, SCOTT HAMPTON’s Silverheels, Silver Sable, Silver Banshee, DC’s Silver Age Classics, and more! Featuring BUSIEK, BUTLER, BYRNE, ENGLEHART, STAN LEE, LIM, MARZ, MOEBIUS, POLLARD, MARSHALL ROGERS, ALEX ROSS, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by RON FRENZ and JOE SINNOTT.

BRONZE AGE COMICS STRIPS! SpiderMan, Friday Foster, DC’s World’s Greatest Superheroes starring Superman, Howard the Duck, Richie Rich, Star Hawks, Star Trek, MIKE GRELL’s Tarzan, and more!

Plus Charlton’s comic strip tie-ins and the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. With COLAN, GOODWIN, GIL KANE, KREMER, STAN LEE, ROMITA, THOMAS, TUSKA, and more.

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by M a r k

Arnold

In a blatant attempt by Harvey Comics to add a superhero character to its comic-book line, what better way to do so than to have their starring character become a superhero? However, to quote the late Chris Barat, who used to write a regular column called “Richville Ruminations” in the long-running Harvey Comics fanzine The Harveyville Fun Times!, “Let’s get one thing out of the way up front. Title or no title, there was NEVER anything ‘Super’ about Super Richie (a.k.a. SupeRichie) and his faithful butler companion Cadbury or, as they are better known, Rippy and Crashman.”

Harvey Comics did publish superheroes before, from the athletic gymnast Black Cat in the 1940s and ’50s (no relation to the Marvel villain that debuted in 1979 in Amazing Spider-Man); to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Golden Age series Stuntman; to the last real attempt to do superhero comics, the Joe Simon–produced Harvey Thriller line from the mid-1960s that featured many Jim Steranko– created characters and concepts including Spyman and Magic Master.

By the 1970s, any pretense was gone of Harvey Comics publishing anything other than a line of children’s comic books. Beginning in 1971, Harvey’s expansion of titles starring their existing characters including Casper, Hot Stuff, Spooky, and Sad Sack was the order of the day. By 1975, these spinoff titles contracted and long-running series starring Baby Huey, Little Dot, Little Audrey, and Little Lotta were cancelled, including their original starring books.

The one exception to this rule was Richie Rich.

The “Poor Little Rich Boy” made his quiet debut in the back pages of Little Dot #1 (Sept. 1953). He also appeared in the back pages of Little Lotta when she earned her own title in 1955. Surprisingly, it was another five years, after two tryout issues in Harvey Hits, before Richie Rich finally earned his own book, in 1960.

During the remainder of the 1960s, Richie’s line expanded to include Richie Rich Millions, Richie Rich Dollars and Cents, and Richie Rich Success Stories.

This latter title featured all-new stories for most of its run, despite it being in the guise of a reprint giant like the others.

THE POOR LITTLE RICH BOY WONDER

Though the Super Richie title itself debuted with the cover date of September 1975, Super Richie stories appeared in other Richie Rich titles for the better part of the decade before.

The first appearance of the concept was in a story called “Crashman and Rippy,” in Richie Rich #56 (Apr. 1967). It’s not surprising that this tale appeared when the Adam West Batman TV series (1966–1968) was at the crest of its popularity.

You Bet Your Sweet Bippy, It’s Rippy!

After a handful of appearances, Harvey’s poor little rich “superhero” spun off into his own title with Super Richie #1 (Sept. 1975).

Cover art by Warren Kremer. © Classic Media, LLC.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

Is Richie Robbed of a Future?

Is Cadbury’s Goose Cooked?

Our heroes’ first cover appearance: Richie Rich Millions #68 (Nov. 1974).

Cover art by Kremer. © Classic Media, LLC.

Humorous and non-humorous superheroes were all the rage (with Harvey also spinning off Fruitman from the Bunny teen title for a one-shot). Also, giving Richie a chance to put on a costume other than his Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit must have seemed very appealing to the artists frustrated with doing these “bigfoot” books (a derogatory term for non-superhero children’s comic books).

Super Richie was revived during the early 1970s, possibly due to the West Batman series becoming a surprise syndication hit during that decade. In 1971, Harvey started expanding its Richie Rich line with Richie Rich Fortunes. In 1972, Harvey added Richie Rich Bank Book(s), Richie Rich Diamonds, Richie Rich Jackpots, Richie Rich Money World, and Richie Rich Riches to its roster. It was then that a second Super Richie story appeared: “It’s a Case of Derring-Doo or Don’t!!!” in Richie Rich Success Stories #44 (June 1972). In its story, Rippy and Crashman battle robot insects.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

It was made crystal clear in this and in every Super Richie story that Richie and Cadbury (Richie’s perfect butler and guardian) were only play-acting as superheroes, giving Vaudeville-style performances to children’s groups, charity parties, and anyone else who would have them. They did not seek out opportunities to engage in actual feats of “superheroing”; instead, those types of opportunities were always thrust upon them. This point was repeatedly stressed from the outset.

The writers at Harvey Comics occasionally overlooked the fact that Rippy and Crashman were merely play actors who occasionally stumbled onto serious crimes. They may have “forgotten” on purpose, but it definitely was against the original concept of the characters.

Given that Richie Rich was already a well-established adventure character by 1967, the comics’ attempts to use Rippy and Crashman as legitimate heroes was pretty redundant at best, silly and embarrassing at worst. As a result, Rippy and Crashman as portrayed by Richie and Cadbury didn’t do much more in the way of fighting and outwitting crooks than they had previously done in their civilian guises.

Besides, they had no superpowers and had to rely on their wits and ingenuity, just like the regular old Richie and Cadbury usually did.

The third Super Richie story was “Redbeard the Hunter,” in Richie Rich Money World #2 (Nov. 1972).

It was a take on the Star Trek episode “The Squire of Gothos,” with Redbeard in the role of the villain who likes to “play” and engages the characters in a series of duels and other forms of competition.

Crashman and Rippy next appeared in Richie Rich Millions #68 (Nov. 1974), which also served as the first cover appearance featuring the characters. This has led many to believe that this was their first appearance, but it was actually their fourth outing. The story, “111 Strawberry Street,” is a play on the 1974 theatrical thriller 111 Harrowhouse. The antagonist in this story isn’t really a villain, and engages Rippy and Crashman in some unwanted challenges.

Appearance #5 was “The Crooked Crudders” in Richie Rich Riches #14 (Mar. 1975). In this tale, Rippy and Crashman are probably the most like real superheroes, as they square off against a supercrook that is intent upon world domination. Once again, they battle something mechanical, this time toys.

Appearance #6 followed the next month, in Richie Rich Jackpots #16 (Apr. 1975). This time, Rippy and Crashman encounter a prankster who has created a laughing cloud. Of course, they eventually take possession of the cloud-making machine and save the day.

The seventh appearance of Super Richie was in Richie Rich Gems #6 (July 1975), Rippy and Crashman’s second cover appearance. In “Pirates!,” they encounter some phony buccaneers who are actually jewel thieves.

“Rippy and Crashman frequently make mistakes, occasionally look foolish, and otherwise do their part to point out the inherent silliness of the entire concept of a costumed superhero,” Chris Barat assessed. “When they use their own smarts and resources to tree the villains, you see the saving grace of all good superhero comics: it’s who the heroes are, rather than the names, powers, and fashion sense (or lack thereof) they possess, that makes them and their accomplishments seem admirable.”

A SUPER SERIES

The initial 1967 Super Richie appearance was reprinted in Richie Rich Bank Books #18 (Aug. 1975), and a regular series was imminent. The feature eventually culminated into a Super Richie title, from 1975 through 1979, lasting for 18 issues. With issue #5 it was retitled SupeRichie.

“During their earliest appearances and the first four issues of Super Richie, Rippy and Crashman appeared in Superman-like blue tights and red capes (with Cadbury’s pants legs giving the distinct impression of jodhpurs),” wrote Chris Barat in the Harveyville Fun Times! “Either someone at DC Comics finally filed a complaint, or Harvey finally decided to distinguish the duo once and for all from the original ‘Big Blue.’ Starting in issue #5, the ‘original costumes’ were unceremoniously destroyed ‘in action,’ and Rip and Crash donned the sleek, cape-less, vaguely space-age green-and-yellow getup that they would wear for the remainder of the title’s run. To emphasize the change, the title was officially changed to SupeRichie, ensuring future confusion for comics indexers everywhere. In a refreshing contrast to the borderline hysteria that accompanies every minute change in the fabric of a modern superhero’s life and dress, the changes were not blurbed on the cover of SupeRichie #5 and were treated as matter-of-factly as such things can be.”

Except for his debut story, all of the pre-title Super Richie stories were drawn by the incomparable Warren Kremer. The debut story and the subsequent stories in the Super Richie title were all drawn by Ernie Colón, until SupeRichie #16 (Sept.

1978), when Ben Brown took over the artist’s duties for the rest of the run. For the most part, each Super Richie issue contained two separate ten-page stories, continuing the same format as established by the previous seven installments.

An eighth installment actually appeared after Super Richie’s debut with a story called “Supermom,” in Richie Rich Millions #75 (Jan. 1976), the same month as Super Richie #3. “Supermom” has Richie’s mother, Regina, and Richie’s girlfriend, Gloria Glad, suiting up as substitute superheroes à la Rippy and Crashman. After this brief installment, all further Super Richie stories are featured in the Super Richie title.

SUPER RICHIE ROGUES

Once the Super Richie title debuted, Rippy and Crashman encountered a steady stream of a rogues’ gallery of villains including the Chameleon in Super Richie #1 (Sept. 1975); their own alter egos as crooks in #2 (Nov. 1975); Dr. Snargle and Gooko in #3 (Jan. 1976); and Mr. Jones (the owner of a robot factory; his robots have gone crazy) in #4 (Mar. 1976).

Million Dollar Makeover (left) With issue #5 (Oct. 1976), Super Richie’s title was changed to SupeRichie (go figure), and Rippy and Crashman got new threads. (right) Guys just wanna make puns—or at least Badman does!

Issue #6 (Nov. 1976) cover

by Ernie Colón. © Classic Media, LLC.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

46 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

One-shot villains continued with Mr. Klunker, an operative of the evil organization ECH (which made its debut here), in the retitled SupeRichie #5 (Oct. 1976), which was released after a gap of five months, due to the retooling of the characters and the comic book’s title.

Chris Barat wrote that “the criminal group ECH (standing variously for Earthwide Crime Happenings and Earthwide Crime Handlers) may just rival Carl Barks’ Beagle Boys as the most obsessed group of crooks known to comicdom, seemingly devoting the vast majority of its time to devising nefarious ways of doing in our heroes (at the expense of valuable crime-committing resources, yet!).”

Issue #6 (Dec. 1976) contained the first appearance of an ongoing villain, Badman. “Most noteworthy among these new opponents was Badman, a bulky bad guy with a bad hairstyle,” wrote Barat of the Super Richie rogues’ gallery.

“When Badman was at his very best—or worst— he was a devotee of over-the-top ‘badness for its own sake’ on a par with Darkwing Duck’s Negaduck and Bullwinkle’s Boris Badenov, a great foil for pseudo-heroes Rip and Crash.”

SupeRichie #7 (Jan. 1977) featured the Onion, a supervillain that actually had appeared numerous times previously as a villain in regular Richie Rich non-superhero adventures. His superpower was one of incredible halitosis after chomping on an onion, rendering his victims powerless. The ECH also made another appearance in this issue.

Issue #8 (Mar. 1977) had another appearance

by ECH and by Badman. SupeRichie #9 (May 1977) and 10 (July 1977) both featured ECH once again.

Issue #10 also had another appearance by Badman.

“The earliest ‘green and yellow’ issues are probably the title’s best, but the creative staff must have quickly grown weary of regular doses of a costumed Richie,” assessed Chris Barat. “Over the last third of SupeRichie’s 18-issue run, the storytelling did not crumble (as was the case in a number of the later issues of Richie Rich and Casper and Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers), so much as peter out into an apathetic,

vacuous nothingness. A tiny handful of repetitive concepts—in particular, ECH’s perpetually unsuccessful efforts to rub out the annoying Rip and Crash; the attempts of evil doubles to sully R&C’s reputation; and the pitting of Rip and Crash against all manner of destructive robots—were beaten to a pulp, while far stronger notions (e.g., the use of the campily evil Badman as a major opponent) were inexplicably dropped and never revived, a textbook illustration of the loss of focus that frequently precedes the ‘fall’ of a comic-book title. Far too many of the later stories were only tangentially related to the original core idea of Richie and Cadbury performing for school kids and accidentally getting involved in ‘real’ adventures.”

SupeRichie #11 (Aug. 1977) through the final issue, #18 (Jan. 1979), all had ECH appearances following this same cookie-cutter formula that Barat mentioned. To top it all off, many of these later appearances were so distinctly non-superheroic, that they could have all been retooled to be regular Richie Rich stories in almost any other Richie Rich title. Switching from Ernie Colón (who was becoming increasingly disgruntled with Harvey Comics at this time) to artist Ben Brown didn’t help matters.

Although Brown was a competent draftsman in his own right, he was not in the same league as Colón or Kremer. It was like switching Carl Barks to Tony Strobl on Uncle Scrooge or Al Wiseman or Owen Fitzgerald to Frank Hill on Dennis the Menace.

After SupeRichie was cancelled in 1979, no further Super Richie stories appeared prior to the ultimate end of the Harvey comic-book line in 1994.

Fittingly, the most recent appearance of Rippy and Crashman to date was on the seventh episode of the mostly forgotten 1996 Richie Rich animated series from Film Roman. The episode, title “Dognapped,” pitted the two heroes against the ever-reliable villain, the Onion. Curious viewers can watch the episode on YouTube.

As superheroes continue to dominate the mass media, would a revival of Crashman and Rippy be relevant for today’s reader?

Thrill$, $pill$, and Billion Dollar Bill$ (this page and opposite) A gallery of covers of comics featuring Harvey’s happy heroes. © Classic Media, LLC.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

by M a r k

Arnold

Taking a Bite Out of Crime (With apologies to MacGruff.) (left) Dagwood Bumstead becomes a superhero in Charlton Comics’ Blondie #211 (Dec. 1974). (right) Readers get a second helping in issue #212 (Feb. 1975). Cover art

by Paul Fung, Jr. © King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Super-Dagwood, a.k.a. Super-Bumstead, truly personifies and earns the title of “What The--?!” When I got assigned this article, I thought I had heard of every “super” character from Supermouse to Super-Dog to Super-Horse to Super-Monkey to Super Richie to Super Goof. Never did I realize that Dagwood Bumstead from Blondie got into the act.

A BRIEF ‘BLONDIE’ HISTORY

King Features Syndicate’s long-running Blondie comic strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, Dagwood, was created by cartoonist Chic Young and debuted on September 8, 1930. Young’s son Dean took over the strip after his father’s death, on March 14, 1973.

The success of the long-running Blondie comic strip led to many successful spinoffs in other media. Among them was a Blondie film series starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake, from 1938 through 1950. There was also a popular Blondie radio program that ran in tandem to the film series, but debuted in 1939 and had the same stars for most of its run. Later, there were two separate Blondie TV series with different casts, one in 1957 and one in 1968; both lasted only a season. There were also a couple of Blondie animated TV specials.

48 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Dean Young has stated that the origin of the strip’s signature “Dagwood Sandwich,” stuffed with enormous amounts of cold cuts, cheese, bread slices, and other ingredients, occurred in the Blondie comic strip in 1936. The sandwiches are sometimes crowned with a simple toothpick that also pierces a green pimento olive. The Dagwood Sandwich became so iconic that it is now listed in the American Heritage Dictionary. It even inspired a short-lived chain of Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes, from 2006 through 2011.

And, of course, Blondie enjoyed a lengthy run in comic books, lasting 29 years from four publishers—David McKay, Harvey Comics, King Comics, and Charlton Comics. Harvey also published Dagwood Comics (1950–1965), Blondie and Dagwood Family (1963–1965), Daisy and Her Pups (1951–1954), and 1953’s 100-page one-shot Blondie, Dagwood and Daisy.

Though the interiors usually featured Chic Young reprints or material by Paul Fung, Jr., the Harvey Blondie covers were typically drawn by Warren Kremer.

As explored in BACK ISSUE #136, in 1968 Charlton Comics picked up the license to publish comic books based upon King Features properties. Blondie began its Charlton run with issue #177 (Feb. 1969).

Got an Appetite for Team-Ups? (top) We’re big fans of Ross Pearsall’s Super-Team Family… The Lost Issues blog (https://braveandboldlost. blogspot.com), and its daily dose of fantasy mash-ups of comics and media characters.

In these two “issues,” Dagwood Bumstead as Super-Dagwood joins forces with Jughead Jones as Captain Hero! (below) Dagwood fantasizes about superpowers in Blondie #211. Art by Paul Fung, Jr. Scan courtesy of Mark Arnold.

Super-Dagwood and Wimpy © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Captain Hero/Jughead © Archie Comics Publications, Inc.

SUPER-DAGWOOD TO THE RESCUE!

The repetition of Dagwood rushing out the door, crashing into Mr. Beasley the postman, and getting to work at the last minute to the chagrin of his boss Mr. Dithers was getting a bit stale in the comic books. So were Dagwood’s familiar interactions with his golden-haired wife; their two children, Cookie and Alexander; and the brood of Daisy and her pups. Charlton Comics needed new ideas to help make Blondie fresh. What better way than to have Dagwood embrace the most prominent genre in the medium—the superhero? And so SuperBumstead was born, appearing in three issues of the Charlton Comics series.

Super-Bumstead debuted in Charlton’s Blondie #211 (Dec. 1974), and continued into issue #212 (Feb. 1975).

Paul Fung, Jr. (March 9, 1923–April 8, 2016) did the artwork for the two books. Fung was Chic Young’s assistant on the Blondie newspaper strip from 1949 to 1965 and did virtually all of the artwork on the various Blondie comic books published from 1947 through 1976.

Fung also created the “Flash Foley, News Photographer” backup feature for the book. He also drew comic-book versions of Rocky and Bullwinkle, George of the Jungle, and Hong Kong Phooey.

Issue #211’s “Heritage of a Super-Bumstead,” an eight-page story, was the first installment. After Dagwood seemingly gains temporary super-strength after eating one of his gigantic sandwiches, he sets out to recreate the exact ingredients so he can become a sandwich-powered superhero.

“Heritage of a Super-Bumstead, Part Two,” a six-page story, completed the saga in the following issue. In this episode, Daisy the dog and her pups imbibe on the super-sandwich, and the usual chaos ensues. This issue’s cover by Paul Fung, Jr. identified the hero as Super-Dagwood.

Super-Dagwood returned for a third and final time in Blondie #214 (June 1975), in a five-page story called “Tonic… With a Real Kick!”

Time was running out for the hero’s return because the final issue of Blondie was #222 (Nov. 1976), ending its 29-year run.

It is surprising that the Blondie comic book has not been revived

since 1976, since the comic strip is still going strong after 90-plus years.

And so Blondie #214 was it for Super-Bumstead. It’s a shame there wasn’t anymore Super-Dagwood. The character only appeared in those three Charlton comic books and never in the Blondie comic strip. Super-Dagwood may have been just a one-joke premise, but he was a viable character that should have returned from time to time, even with its repetitive formula. (Even Super Sarge reappeared in Beetle Bailey every so often as a dream character of Sergeant Snorkel!) It’s also surprising that the superhero angle or powers didn’t extend to Blondie and the kids. A Super-Bumstead Family title is what the world needs now, considering the comic-book industry’s ongoing obsession with all-things superhero. Herb Woodley, the Bumstead’s neighbor, could also transform into a regular supervillain.

Super-Dagwood may be gone, but he hasn’t been forgotten.

He has made at least two appearances alongside Archie Comics’ Jughead as Captain Hero and Popeye’s Wimpy in Ross Pearsall’s Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues blog. Jughead and Wimpy are well-known for their love of sandwiches and hamburgers, so the connection with Dagwood fits!

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

50 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

BRITMANIA

by MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy?

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Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the father and son producing team, were the driving force that brought Superman to the big screen in 1978 with Superman: The Movie. They were responsible for the first three Christopher Reeve Superman movies and Helen Slater’s lone Supergirl movie. After the box office and critical disappointment of Superman III, they sold the rights to the character to Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of Cannon Group, Inc. Cannon’s production, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, proved a box office and critical failure. Because of that movie and several other failed projects, by the late 1980s Cannon Group, Inc. was facing bankruptcy, and the Salkinds got the rights back to Superman.

In 1988, the Salkinds decided to visit the Superman mythos once again, but this time they aimed for the small screen… and instead of Superman, they decided to tell the adventures of Superboy.

The Adventures of Superboy show starred John Haymes Newton (in Season One) and Gerard Christopher (in Seasons Two through Four) as Superboy/Clark Kent and Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang. Superboy was a fun series and faithful to bringing many of Superman/Superboy’s foes, including Metallo, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Bizarro, to life, some for the first time in live-action form.

By the time the show ended in 1992, 100 half-hour episodes had been produced. At the time of this writing, all of them can now be streamed on Tubi, for free. And from many accounts, the show is bringing back great memories for original fans and is finding a whole new audience with their children.

BACK ISSUE was able to sit down with Christopher and Haiduk to discuss their time on the show.

– Dan Johnson Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

interview by D a n

Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: How did you get the role of Superboy? Tell our readers what the audition process was like.

GERARD CHRISTOPHER: As far as I remember, I got a call from my agent, and interestingly, I had told her a week or two earlier that I was not interested in continuing doing auditions. But she called me in May of 1989 and she said, “I’ve got this audition and its for a job like Superman.” I immediately said yes because throughout my life people always told me I looked like Superman. So I said, “You know what? Let me go for this thing.”

So I went and I read for the casting director, and then she had me read for Ilya Salkind. Unbeknownst to me, on the spot, he said to her, “[He’s] the guy!

I want him.” Obviously, he didn’t let me know that.

They don’t let you know [they want you] because then you have a bargaining position. If they told you they want you for the job, then your agent can ask for more money. So they tell you they want to bring you back in for a screen test.

So they brought me back in for the screen test two weeks later, down in Florida [where Superboy was produced]. So I am down there; and they had me read the same scenes and they had me reading against a guy that was a total shill. I wasn’t judging anybody, but he was a real thin, ultra-skinny guy, and he just didn’t look the role. But they were putting him in makeup, but I don’t know if they actually put him on camera. That’s something Ilya Salkind did to make it look like I had to work for the job. The long of the short of it though, I got the job.

JOHNSON: What were your thoughts after you knew you had the role?

CHRISTOPHER: It was great. I was super-excited.

I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to do the show at the time, but my father set me straight and told me I should do it. These jobs don’t come easily and the business is really tough. He made me understand that and that I should take it. What was the worse that could happen, right? So that was it.

Meet the Boy of Steel Promotional sheet from distributor Viacom promoting The Adventures of Superboy. Our hero is fighting Michael Callan as Metallo in the photo. Scan courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

54 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

JOHNSON: At the time the show was produced, very few actors had played this character, either as Superboy or Superman. What were you thinking about filling such big boots?

CHRISTOPHER: It was a little bit nerve-wracking because you know it has been done before, and people like Christopher Reeve had done it. George Reeves was the Superman I used to watch when I

Arms Akimbo Gerard Christopher, who became Superboy with Season Two, striking a classic Super-pose in this publicity photo. Courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

was a little kid. You know, people, depending on their generation, are really sold on the Superman of their day, and I knew there were big expectations, and I just wanted to get this right. I didn’t want to mess this up in any way and ruin anybody’s expectation of it.

I was also incredibly excited about it because I was always a Superman fan as a kid. All of this was circulating in my head. This is such an iconic character and such a symbol of America, and a symbol of American power in the world, and it was something I wanted to get right.

I was just super-excited for the opportunity to do it because I realized there are only a few people in the world who are ever going to get to do this, so this is something that goes down in history. There are lots and lots of television shows where lots of actors are hired, and they do a good job, and the show is on for a couple of years, but then it goes off the air and then it’s gone. [When it’s over,] people don’t really think about it [anymore]. But when you play a character like Superman, it goes on forever. I was very much aware of that and very respectful of that.

JOHNSON: One of the magical things about playing a character like Superman is the fact that you are going to become someone’s definition of the character. You are going to be the first actor somebody sees playing him in a movie or on television.

CHRISTOPHER: Like I said, it is mostly generational and it depends on who’s young at the time and who’s watching TV. I’m thinking of this one fan that is now in his 30s. His name is Sam and he lives in the Chicago area, and he keeps reminding me that I was the Superman of his day.

That’s a big deal because there are millions of people who watched the show. Every week we had four million households watch the show, and it influenced so many of those people. And it goes on in reruns and now it is streaming on the Internet, so you affect people for a long time and that makes it important.

JOHNSON: Did you have any concerns when you came into the show since you were taking over for the Superboy from Season One, John Haymes Newton?

CHRISTOPHER: The only fear I had was that I might do something he did. Apparently, they didn’t like his acting and what he was doing, so I just wanted to make sure that I just did my thing and did the role my way. And I did it in a way that I thought was the right thing. I never saw an episode with him. I figured if this guy has done it wrong, and he’s done it in a way that is going to get him fired, I really don’t even want that imprint in my head because I want to go in a different direction. I was familiar with Christopher Reeve and George Reeves, and I think I knew the more iconic idea they had for the role, and that’s what I stuck with.

JOHNSON: Tell us about working with you co-star, Stacy Haiduk.

CHRISTOPHER: Stacy was great. She was really easy to work with and she’s a really wonderful, natural actress.

It could have been very different if I had someone who was boring or not fun, but she was fun and she’s beautiful and talented. It was a great time [working with her]. And you know, everyone was great.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

The guy who was my hairdresser was incredibly funny, and when things would go south on the set, he helped to make it fun. It’s not just one or two people who make it [successful], it’s everybody.

JOHNSON: I did want to ask about working with Sherman Howard, the actor they brought in for Lex Luthor in Season Two. I wanted to know your thoughts on him and the iconic dynamic between Superman and Luthor as archenemies.

CHRISTOPHER: He brought a lot to the show and was really wonderful and played his character really big, and that made it easy for me to go big, too.

I think you have a lot more fun, in general, when you get to play a bad guy. There’s a lot more you can do and a lot more you can do with it. His performance allowed me to have a little bit more fun. He added a lot to show, and I think he was a great addition.

JOHNSON: They changed the tone of Lex a lot in Season Two and made him more of an actual threat. I always felt that was a part of the course correction that really helped the show after the First Season.

CHRISTOPHER: Again, I never saw the first season. That was the one rule I made for myself; I was not going to watch something that was wrong.

All I can say is that Sherman Howard, Stacy, Ilan Mitchell-Smith [Superboy supporting cast character Andy McAlister], and myself, I felt like we did a good job. We took the show in a good direction. It went from the pits, it was like #38 in syndication or even less, buried down there so low [in the ratings], but then we went up to #10, and it happened really quickly. I think people really noticed there was a really positive change on the show.

JOHNSON: The show was able to land a number of amazing guest-stars. Who were some of your favorites to work with?

CHRISTOPHER: I think my favorite was Ron Ely. Ron had been Tarzan on television, and he was just great to work with. He was this older sage on the set. He acted like my dad and he gave me advice about working as an actor in terms of where it all goes. I was really taken with him. He just really stood out as the guy that I looked up to. Stuart Whitman, [who played] Clark’s dad, was amazing, too.

JOHNSON: I did want to ask about Gilbert Gottfried, who just passed recently. What was he like to work with?

CHRISTOPHER: I remember the day he showed up, he walked into the office of the show, and he said, “Take me to Pure Platinum!” And it was in the voice that he always used. I don’t even know what Pure Platinum is. I think it’s a strip club, or something like that. Everyone was just looking at him and laughing. He was always so funny and always in character. I never saw him break character.

If he had to talk to someone on the phone, he went into his trailer so no one would ever see him out of his Gilbert Gottfried persona. I was really sad to hear he died.

He was really young and was only in his 60s.

Say, Jack! That’s a bad outfit!

This original Superboy costume worn by Gerard Christopher, along with a kryptonite prop, sold for $7,440 on December 17, 2019 in a Heritage auction. (Then the COVID lockdown followed and the new owner couldn’t show off his acquisition!)

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

56 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

JOHNSON: As I have read, Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) had an influence on Superboy. In Season Three, the tone became more serious and mature. Were you pleased with the new direction?

CHRISTOPHER: I thought that was great. I kept petitioning them [to go in that direction], and I wrote a couple of the episodes. I said, “You know what, you have to look at it this way. If there is a Superman in world, would he be getting involved with what was happening on a street corner in Metropolis or would he be involved with things that concerned the world?” That’s why I wrote an

He’s Got the Look (top) Gerard Christopher was perfectly cast as the Last Son of Krypton.

Viacom promotional still courtesy of Andy Mangels. (bottom left) Gerard Christopher discusses Superboy on a panel at the GalaxyCon in Raleigh, North Carolina, in August 2022. (bottom right) Fan Sassy Ann Shenefield and Christopher at GalaxyCon. Photos courtesy of Sassy Ann Shenefield.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

Mr. Kent Goes to ‘Washington’ With Season Three of The Adventures of Superboy, the series shifted its setting to Capitol City.

Christopher (shown here goo-goo-eyed over Lana Lang) and co-star Stacy Haiduk were joined by new cast members Robert Levine and Peter J. Fernandez. Courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

episode called “Wish for Armageddon,” where he intervenes in something that is happening between America and Russia. I put the character into a real-world context because he would get involved with things that were really weighty and important.

That’s something I was always pushing for. The problem is, for a show that had such a small budget like we did, we didn’t have the money or production values to do that.

But in general, after Tim Burton’s film came out, we all looked at the show differently. I used to tell them, “I’m not crazy about these shots you have in the bright Florida sunshine of me landing and my suit looks like it is on fire with all the light there.”

I thought it might be interesting to take that darker position.

People started writing other episodes [like mine] and the cinematography got a different look, and I think that is when people really started liking it. That is when it really broke away from the older mode of what had been done previously with Superman and we really broke new ground.

JOHNSON: After Superboy ended, you auditioned for the role of Superman on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and as I understand it you had the part until someone learned you had played Superboy. Is that correct?

CHRISTOPHER: I had the role and assume it was the head producer who looked at my résumé and saw I had played Superboy, and no one had told him prior to that.

When he found out, he blew a gasket and he said, “I want someone who’s never done this before. I want someone relatively new.” And that was that.

So they went from giving it to me to taking it from me, like nothing. That’s just the way it is. I should have opened my mouth, but I never said a word. I could have said, “You know, we have four million households watching our show. You’re gonna start 58 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

with that and that’s a nice place to start from, and we’re only going to expand from there.” But I never said anything. I think in a different situation I would have said something. Who knows?

Maybe they would have listened.

JOHNSON: I think it would have made sense. I am sure a lot of viewers would have figured this is the same version of the character from Superboy, but now he is Superman. This is his continuing adventures.

CHRISTOPHER: For people who did watch our show, our ending was me coming of age and becoming Superman in the last episode. So, that would have been the perfect way to step into [Lois & Clark], but this producer just didn’t want any connection to the show that came before. And he’s the producer, he can do whatever he wants, right?

JOHNSON: One last question. Superman is one of the great fictional characters of all time. He is also one of the best-known characters in the world, with rich mythos. What did you add that you can point to and say, “Superman is who is he today because I played him”?

CHRISTOPHER: My contribution was, I built off of what was done before by people like George Reeves and Christopher Reeve.

I kept that tradition of Superman going. I didn’t try to reinvent him, but I did try to solidify who he was.

I have heard DC Comics is going in different directions. Instead of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” it’s now “Truth, Justice, and World Peace,” or something. They are looking at him with a very “woke” view of the world, and I just thought that was all wrong. I say leave it alone. That’s just my personal opinion.

If you would like to learn about upcoming convention appearances by Gerard Christopher, as well as all the latest news concerning other cast members of the Superboy series, be sure to check out the website www.superboylegacy.com

interview by

Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: How did you come to play Lana Lang on Superboy?

STACY HAIDUK: The audition was in New York.

[I read for] Lynn Stalmaster, who was the casting director; Robert Simmonds, who was the producer at the time; and Ilya Salkind. [Ilya’s] dad never left Neulily, so he would videotape the auditions and send them to him. It was at a hotel in New York, and I remember this was just before the 1988 writer’s strike, and they were casting for Lana Lang and Superboy.

There were so many actors going up for this role.

I didn’t know at the time, but Jennifer Aniston was at this audition, and this was years before Friends.

After I read, I got a callback and was asked to wait in the hallway. I waited for a good hour and a half and I was wondering, “What’s going on? Why am I waiting?” I ended up reading with five different guys that were going up for Superboy [that day].

So I just kept reading and reading with each one and I was thinking, “Okay, now what?”

About a week after the audition, I got a call to come in and do tests with a couple of Superboys they had in mind. We were going through the tests and I was pretty nervous and excited the whole time. But then nothing happened again. I was going, “What’s going on? I don’t understand this!”

A week later, they finally found John Haymes Newton and that’s when they told me, “Oh, you had the role from the very beginning. We just had to find Superboy first before we could say you were cast!”

So that was my intro to Superboy. It was very stressful, as all auditions are, especially since this was my first big role and I really wanted it.

Smallville Sweetheart Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, from Season One of Superboy.

Viacom promotional still courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

JOHNSON: I can’t imagine landing such a huge role and not knowing the job was yours for that long a time. That must have been nerve-wracking.

HAIDUK: It was so nerve-wracking. I was not making any money in New York. I remember I was going to have to look for a new apartment at that point.

Everything was so stressful, and I was wondering, “How the heck am I going to do this?” Thank God I got that role! I just kept thinking, “I just want to get out of New York and then I can come back with some money.” But thank God it just worked out perfectly.

JOHNSON: You really looked the part. Speaking as a fan of Superman, it was like you had just walked off the pages of a Superboy comic.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

The Original Cast (left) From Season One of Superboy, (left to right) John Haymes Newton as Clark Kent, Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, and Jim Calvert as T. J. White. (right) Haiduk’s original co-star, John Haymes Newton, as the Boy of Steel.

Viacom promotional stills courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

HAIDUK: Thank you. The thing is, Lana would have been exactly the same age as me, with the same qualities: a little toughness, a little sweetness. We’re both a little of this and a little of that.

JOHNSON: When the show began, it was shot in Florida. I remember this was one of the first series shot in that state and it was a pretty big deal at the time. How did you like working there?

HAIDUK: I really enjoyed Florida. My only previous experience going to Florida was going to Disney World as a kid, when we took the station wagon from Michigan. I was very open to the warm weather because New York can get really, really cold. I was really excited about it, and Disney World had MGM there at the time, and we were the first people to use that studio. It was very exciting, because John [Haymes Newton] had this electric skateboard and we would ride it and go through the backlots at Disney World.

That was quite fun until the producers told us we couldn’t do it anymore in case we broke our arm or something.

JOHNSON: Well, I imagine they couldn’t have Superboy in a cast for several episodes! [laughter] HAIDUK: Yes, and I don’t think they enjoyed when John would put me on the skateboard with him.

Losing one of us is bad enough… they can’t lose both of us.

JOHNSON: I take it you enjoyed working with John?

You had a good working relationship?

HAIDUK: We did. We ended up dating during the

60 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

first season, and that’s probably one of the biggest mistakes ever. You never want to date your co-star, because it can wreak havoc when you don’t like each other very much.

We had a good working relationship in the end, and I had a good working relationship with Gerard as well. It’s just better to keep romance out of working relationships and just be friends.

JOHNSON: How about working with Jim Calvert, who played T. J. White for the first season?

HAIDUK: Yes! He’s fabulous. I love Jim. We’ve seen each other many times over the years. He’s worked on the show I’m currently doing [Days of Our Lives] and occasionally he will come in and do a part.

I hated to see him go. We had a blast and hung out all the time. We could be dorks together and play video games and look for good restaurants.

I really enjoyed that.

JOHNSON: After Season One there were numerous changes made to Superboy. If I am not mistaken, you were the only cast member they brought back for Season Two. HAIDUK: Yes. I was. I don’t know why exactly all the changes happened, but I was happy I got to stay.

JOHNSON: When did you find out there were going to be changes made to the show?

HAIDUK: It was a few weeks into our hiatus [after Season One ended]. We had a month hiatus at that time, and they told me they were getting a new Superboy and they were letting go of the T. J. White character.

Small Town Girl, Big City Job Haiduk as Lana Lang in a pair of promotional photos from Season Three of Superboy.

Courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

What was funny was, they brought in Ilan [Mitchell-Smith] and before that, my acting teacher at the time told me, “I really want you to work with this young actor whose doing really great, but he doesn’t have a partner to work scenes with and I think you two would work well together.” And [that student] was Ilan. We had this connection, and working with him on the show was great.

I still see Ilan when we do fan events. He is just a sweet, sweet, wonderful man. Now he’s a professor in college and he’s getting to do exactly what he wanted to do.

JOHNSON: What were your thoughts on Gerard Christopher? When did you two first meet?

HAIDUK: I was walking out of the office at Universal Studios and I saw Gerard walking around in the Superboy costume. I think it was actually [one of] Christopher Reeve’s costumes, if I am not mistaken. I thought, “Is that John? Is he back?

Did they work a deal?” But no, it was Gerard.

I walked up to him and said, “Hey! I’m Stacy, I’m playing Lana!” And that was that. He stepped in and took over the role. And he worked out great, and did a great job.

JOHNSON: They also replaced Scott James Wells with Sherman Howard as Lex Luthor. What were your thoughts on Howard stepping into the role?

HAIDUK: I’m going to tell you, that was a good change. He was awesome, and I loved working with Sherman Howard. Every time I knew he was coming onto the show, I would get so excited. I knew it was going to be fun. I’ve always enjoyed working with Sherman Howard, and he is just one of my favorites.

JOHNSON: Superboy also featured some wonderful guest-stars. Did you have any favorites you enjoyed working with?

HAIDUK: Michael J. Pollard [as Mr. Mxyzptlk], I absolutely adored. He was exactly what you saw on screen.

We were on the set of an episode with John, and we were in the middle of this scene, and Michael had his phone in his pocket and he got a call. He grabbed his phone and said, “Hold on!”

He’s talking on his cell phone and goes, “Hey, Mom! It’s me! Yep! Hey, do you want to speak to Lana?” And he hands me the phone, and I talked to his mom!

I loved that moment and I will never forget it.

He was just such a sweetheart and he loved his little huggy-hugs. He would come over and snuggle his face into my neck. He was just one of my favorite

Super-Villain Team-Up Viacom promotional still promoting the Season Four episode “Threesome,” teaming bad guys (left to right) Metallo (Michael Callan), Odessa (Justina Vail), and Lex Luthor (Sherman Howard).

Courtesy of Andy Mangels.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

characters on the show just because he was this innocent, wonderful elf. He was like Mxyzptlk [in real life]. It was perfect casting.

I did love working with Abe Vigoda. I remember being on the set and thinking, “Oh, my God! He was in The Godfather!” And he also played Fish in Barney Miller, too. I had fun working with him.

He told me a story about when The Godfather had just come out… He was out driving, and got pulled over for driving too fast. The cop comes up, looks at him and goes, “I know you.

Oh, my God! You’re a mobster! I’m going to have to call this one in!” It took a while, but the cop finally figured out he was a mobster from The Godfather. Abe said. “I can’t believe someone thought I was actually that character.”

I thought that was really cool.

There were so many actors on our show, but those are the ones I remember because they [didn’t appear in] just one show, one guest-spot. Who was your favorite?

JOHNSON: I loved Gilbert Gottfried. I always loved his humor and persona.

HAIDUK: Yes! Gilbert Gottfried! I didn’t get to work with him much, but I remember him being on the set. He was another person who he was exactly what you saw on the screen. He was always such a character. I was sad to hear he passed away.

JOHNSON: I know from his podcast, Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, he was a huge horror and science-fiction fan and he loved comics. For a previous article for BACK ISSUE [BI #128], I even pulled a quote from an episode where he talked about writing a story for the Superboy tie-in comic book. I got a sense that he enjoyed working on the show.

HAIDUK: That’s so nice.

I know there were a few people that really loved the show back in the day, like Billy Mumy. And he got to be a part of the show [appearing in an episode]. There were [celebrities] I met who really loved the show, and I was like ,“Really? You guys like this thing?” It’s just interesting.

JOHNSON: Did you get a chance to get to know Noel Neill and Jack Larson, the actors who played Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s’ Adventures of Superman, when they appeared on the show?

HAIDUK: I did not get to work with Noel very much, and that would have been such a treat.

I remember being on the set though and remember meeting her.

What Ilya always did, he had a Friday night meal with everybody. It was all the directors, all the cast, and the producers, and I look back on

Celebrity Crossover Comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who played Superboy villain Nicknack (bottom) co-wrote with Scott Lobdell his character’s origin for DC Comics’ (top) The Adventures of Superboy #20 (Oct. 1991). Original Kevin Maguire/Ty Templeton cover art courtesy of Heritage.

Superboy TM & © DC Comics.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

it now and it was super-special because nobody does that anymore. There we got to meet the guest-stars before we actually went out to work.

I was young and just didn’t know to ask them all the questions that I needed to ask them. Now, if I met all these people, I’d be like you asking questions and wanting to do interviews.

JOHNSON: When talking with Gerard, we discussed the darker tone the series took in Season Three and how he had a chance to write some stories for Superboy and take a hand in its direction. Did you ever get that chance to give any creative input into the show?

HAIDUK: I never did it with the producers so much, but I would go out to dinner with Cary Bates, and I’d talk to Mike Carlin too [who were both writers on the show]. They were always around, so we went out and would chat and talk about what I would like to do and the stories I wanted.

I wanted Lana to not always be the victim, and after the first season they started writing her much stronger. She still had to get kidnapped all the time, but she would sometimes save the day, too. So I was big on that and Cary and Mike always wrote that in.

[The writers] were a good group of people and they always asked my opinion on where I thought the character was going and the things I wanted to do.

My biggest request was, “Let Lana save Superboy one day!”

JOHNSON: Well, if you are going to be Superboy’s girlfriend, you have to be a strong character yourself. You can’t be a shrinking violet.

HAIDUK: Absolutely! You can’t be the weak, meek type. She’s gotta be strong and she’s gotta be, “I’m not going to let this person screw me over just because he kidnapped me. I’m going to fight it and do whatever I can.”

But of course, we have to remember the show is called Superboy, so he has to save the day. But I’m a feisty little chick from Michigan, so I tried to add that to Lana.

JOHNSON: With all the shows and movies based on comic books out now, and the way producers and directors like to include cameos of actors who have played iconic characters previously, has anyone associated with the current Superman movies or shows ever approached you to be in one of them because you played Lana?

HAIDUK: Never.

JOHNSON: That is a real shame.

HAIDUK: It is a shame. And I am really sad they never did. I did go up for a role on Supergirl, I was up for the part of Mon-El’s mother, the Daxamite queen, a bad super-person, which I would have been fantastic in. But they ended up going with Teri Hatcher for it, I guess because she was on ABC, and Lois & Clark was always bigger than our show.

It always disappointed me because I would make a great villain and would have had a ball [with a role like that]. I like playing villains now. They’re always so much fun.

JOHNSON: To wrap things up, I wanted to ask you a question I asked Gerard. With each new Superman show and movie that comes out, a little more gets added to the character’s history.

Having played the part of Lana on Superboy,

what do you feel is your contribution to the Superman’s mythos? What did you add that was uniquely your own?

HAIDUK: I have never even thought about that.

For me, I really hope that fans enjoyed what we did.

We all put in so much effort and energy and love into that show.

Looking back on it, I have really fond memories, and nothing has ever been “that show again.”

[Our stories] were innocent, and I hope there are people who see it and will appreciate what we were going for at that time.

Stacy Haiduk would like to invite all her fans to keep up with her and her current projects on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

BACK ISSUE would like to thank the following individuals who helped us arrange the interviews with Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk: Erin Gray with Heroes for Hire, Brian K. Morris, and Karla Ogle with the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois.

DAN JOHNSON is a comics writer and pop-culture historian. He is a co-founder, editor, and writer for Empire Comics Lab (empirecomicslab.com) and Old School Comics. Dan has written for Antarctic Press, Campfire Graphic Novels, Golden Kid Comics, InDELLible Comics, and ACP Comics, and is a writer for the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

The Metropolis Marvels Meet Smallville’s Sweetheart Brian (left) and Cookie (right) Morris, two of the finest folks you’ll ever meet and avid supporters of the annual Superman Celebration each June in Metropolis, Illinois, and Superboy actress Stacy Haiduk at Stacy’s Superman Celebration appearance as TV’s Lana Lang. Photo courtesy of Brian K. and Cookie Morris.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

SUPERMAN vs. THE FLASH

by RAMONA FRADON

64 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

What would a Super Issue be without Superman? Presented here are pencil illustrations of the Man of Steel by two of BI’s favorite artists. Art scans are courtesy of Heritage.

Superman and the Flash TM & © DC Comics.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

by SERGIO ARAGONÉS

MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE

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THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions

by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. SHIPS SUMMER 2023!

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER

In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! SHIPS SPRING 2023!

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ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

CLIFFHANGER!

CINEMATIC SUPERHEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING

Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen superheroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic superhero universe. SHIPS SUMMER 2023!

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Super Mario © Nintendo of America Inc.

by E

Comic-book publishers are always looking for ways to reach new readers. One potential conduit is to adapt other popular material into comics form. From movies and television shows to classic novels, publishers have found ways to adapt other media.

When video games became popular in the 1980s, comic publishers became interested in bringing them to the printed page.

Some would be monthly series featuring video-game characters, while others took advantage of the new medium to get comics into the hands of potential new readers. DC Comics paired with its sister company Atari to produce Atari Force minicomics that were packaged with select video games including Star Raiders, Galaxian, and Defender. The minicomics were created by such luminaries as

d Lute

writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, and artists Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Gil Kane, and Mike DeCarlo. The publisher was serious about the connection between the video games and comic books.

One of the most popular video games of all time was Super Mario Bros. (SMB) for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

This game series was ripe for translation into comic books, and publisher Valiant was up to the task with several miniseries and one-shot specials in the early 1990s.

Come along with BACK ISSUE as we jump around, collect a few coins, and save a princess from the clutches of King Koopa all while examining Mario and Luigi’s four-color adventures from Acclaim/Valiant.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

Jim Shooter and Steve Massarsky’s Voyager Communications’ Valiant Comics imprint brought popular video games to comic books beginning in 1990.

The 100-page publication Nintendo Comics System ran for two issues and featured short stories of Mario and other Nintendo properties. © Nintendo of America Inc.

THE NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM AND ‘SUPER MARIO BROS.’

Super Mario Bros. for the NES (that’s the Nintendo Entertainment System, for the uninitiated) was a game-changing video game on a game-changing video-game system.

The NES was first released in the United States in limited markets in 1985, with a wide release the following year. Although new to North America, it wasn’t a totally new gaming system, but actually a redesigned version of the Famicom (short for Family Computer) that had previously been available in Japan since 1983. The system would offer players some of the most popular video games ever including The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Duck Hunt, and PunchOut!!, and become a beloved gaming console.

For all the success that the company would have with the NES, Nintendo faced an uphill battle in bringing the console to the United States. The video game crash of 1983, still fresh on many people’s minds two years later, saw a 90% drop in sales revenue in the US. One of the

68 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

© Nintendo of America Inc.

Valiant New World

aspects that caused the crash was the plethora of poor-quality games that were released, such as the infamous 1982 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial game for the Atari 2600. For this reason, the company added the “Official Nintendo Seal of Quality” (later changed to just the “Nintendo Seal”) to assure fans that their products were of the highest excellence.

The high quality of the games, as well as the assurance that the company offered to fans, helped the system become a success, and changed the gaming industry by bringing it out of the doldrums.

One of Nintendo’s best-loved games for the NES was Super Mario Bros. As a pack-in game bundled with the system, it enjoyed immense popularity because many players were given access to this game without having to purchase it separately—and besides, it’s just a fun and engaging game to play.

Italian plumber Mario was around before the introduction of the NES, having originally appeared as the hero in the 1981 Nintendo arcade game Donkey Kong, an early platform game in which the layout of the levels changed. Prior to the introduction of platformers, the levels would remain the same, with only the difficulty increasing. Mario’s next gaming appearance was in 1983’s arcade game Mario Bros., where his brother Luigi debuted. The game had the two plumber-heroes face off against creatures coming out of the New York City sewers. Like Donkey Kong, this game was a platformer, but a wraparound was added so that players and enemies walking off the screen on one side would appear on the opposite side. By this time Mario had achieved some popularity, but it wasn’t until the 1985 release of Super Mario Bros. that he became a superstar.

Super Mario Bros., created by video-game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, took elements from the two previous games and upped the ante by not only making this game a platformer but a side-scrolling one in which the screen moves along with the player to help open up the game’s world.

It also provided players with an end game. Many early video games would just continue until you eventually died or destroyed the last alien, as in Space Invaders. Super Mario Bros. provided you with a mission: save Princess Toadstool from King Koopa (both characters would later be renamed Princess Peach and Bowser, respectively). Players would go from one castle to the next, encountering all manner of creatures until finally reaching the final castle and defeating King Koopa. The game even offered players a fun way to defeat the villains.

Players wouldn’t shoot them, but would jump on top of them or even throw a shell, knocking them away. Fans and critics ate it up.

Mario’s video-gaming success continued with the 1988 release of Super Mario Bros. 2, which became one of the top five best-sellers on the NES. Although Mario was popular, publishers didn’t immediately come knocking on Nintendo’s door to create a comic book based on the character or any of the company’s other characters. However, with release of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the horizon, Valiant Comics struck a deal with Nintendo to publish comics based on Mario and their other properties.

NINTENDO COMICS SYSTEM

Valiant Comics was the brainchild of former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and businessman Steve Massarsky. The pair formed Voyager Communications in 1989, with Valiant being an imprint of the company. Video-game publisher Acclaim purchased the company in 1994, forgoing the comic imprint’s name in favor of their own.

In a clever nod to the name of the system that put Super Mario Bros. on the map, Valiant named its Nintendo comic line the Nintendo Comics System (NCS). In addition to comics based on Mario, the NCS also featured titles Captain N: The Game Master (who first appeared in Nintendo Power magazine before making the leap to Saturday morning animated series) and Nintendo Comics System. The two-issue NCS anthology title featured several Super Mario comics as well as Captain N and The Legend of Zelda. Several of these comics would be reprinted in the Super Mario Bros. comic, including the two-pager “The Legend,” written

by George Caragonne, with illustrations by Art Nichols and P. Zorito; it told the story of how Mario and Luigi went from plumbers to heroes.

Mario even graced the cover alongside Captain N and Link from the Legend of Zelda series.

‘SUPER MARIO BROS.’: THE COMICS

With Valiant obtaining the rights to publish comics based on Nintendo properties, it was a no-brainer to do one on Super Mario Bros., especially with the

release of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES on February 12, 1990. The game was one of the most hotly anticipated games of the year, and the comic publisher wanted in on the action.

Not only did Valiant invoke the NES when it named its imprint NCS, but the cover to Super Mario Bros. #1 (Jan. 1990) emulated the front of the new video game with Mario in his Tanooki Suit. It even noted that “exclusive scenes from the hottest game ever” were included inside. The Official Nintendo Seal of Quality that graced all Nintendo games and related merchandise was also present.

Valiant got the aesthetic right, but however great or inventive a cover is, it is the contents that count.

Fortunately, the publisher got it right inside as well.

Issue #1 is a great example of the type of material that was featured in the books. Let’s take a look at the issue to see what all the fun was about.

The book starts off with a reprint of “The Legend” before showcasing Mario and friends in new stories and recurring gags including “Piranha-Round Sue,” “Dear Princess Toadstool,” “Koopa’s Believe It or Else!,” and “Cloud Nine.” The stories are humorous and pun-filled, but also expand Mario’s world, fleshing out the characters.

In “Piranha-Round Sue,” the piranha plants are revolting because they don’t want to live under King Koopa’s rule any longer. This creates an added dynamic in the Mushroom Kingdom that goes beyond what is shown in the games, as well as giving personalities to background characters from

From Hot Game to Hot Comic In 1990, new stories filled Super Mario Bros. Special Edition #1, and the title Super Mario Bros. began a sixissue run. © Nintendo of America Inc.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

In addition to the stories and features presented in the the games. Princess Toadstool’s father, King Toadstool, wasn’t in first issue, subsequent issues added new features. Parody the games, but is a reoccurring character in the series.

“Cloud Nine” has him looking for a new mattress that ads for Koopa Kola, featuring a taste test much like the Pepsi Challenge, and Koopatone, an obvious stand-in for doesn’t have “more lumps in it than a bag of oatmeal.”

Coppertone, were shown.

Along the way, the King, Mario, Princess Toadstool, Writer/artist Bill Vallely was one of the creators and Luigi encounter a salesman who is jumping up that worked on the Super Mario Bros. books for and down on a mattress. Mario remarks, “Why do Valiant. Vallely tells BACK ISSUE, “I worked as salesmen always have such bouncy personalities?” the advertising art director at Marvel Comics.

These stories and jokes are typical of what readers During that time, I amused myself by pitching could expect in the title. the worst possible ideas, in very questionable “Dear Princess Toadstool” is a letters page taste, to editors just to get thrown out of their where the Princess answers questions from Luigi offices (e.g., I suggested that the editor of and King Koopa. In the first issue, Koopa wants G.I. Joe include a Muslim member of the team: to know how to make people call him by his ‘Jihad Joe’). preferred nickname of Muffin, and Luigi complains “Back in the day, we had ‘split books’—titles that the siblings should be referred to as the that contained two short stories which featured Luigi Bros. and not the other way around. two less popular characters. I suggested we split Princess Toadstool’s answers are humorous. bill vallely a book down the middle and tell the two stories “Koopa’s Believe It or Else!” is a parody of Photo courtesy of and © Eliot R. Brown. side by side. They bought it.

Ripley’s Believe it Not! that gives readers some “Jim Shooter liked my sense of humor. When he started Valiant, supposedly true facts about the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom. The “facts” included in the first issue’s installment I was hired.”

In addition to Vallely, Zorito, and Caragonne, artists George reveal that: Wildman, Gina Going, Bill Wray, Dan Danglo, Roberta Edelman, • “In Lizard Language, ‘Koopa’ means ‘thing of beauty’”; • “In Brooklyn, stuffed mushroom caps are a great delicacy. Wanderlei Silva (credited as Wansi), and Jaqueline Roettcher, plus Strangely enough, in Mushroom Land, stuffed plumber’s caps are writer John Walker, are credited on the books.

While Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and the rest of the gang didn’t a favorite hors d’oeuvre!”; • “The King of Mushroomland has over 2,000,000 crowns in his look like their 16-bit counterparts, their stylized designs were familiar to fans. According to Vallely, “We followed the design collection... but only one pair of socks!”; and • “On April 9th last year, a plumber actually made a house call. of the character from the game’s boxes and advertising.”

These looks are almost as iconic as the pixilated ones, so (The local natives appreciated it very much.)”

Valiant made a good choice in using them for the comics because they were recognizable to fans.

While not a direct adaption of the syndicated animated series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the comics contained many similar elements. The daily show, which ran from September 4 until December 1, 1989 for a total of 52 episodes, featured former pro wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Mario and actor Danny Wells as his brother in live-action segments, as well as voicing the characters in animated ones. Like the comics that would supersede it, the cartoon contained several short stories per episode. The episodes also contained pop-culture parodies including Mario beginning each episode dictating his Plumber’s Log, a take on Star Trek’s famous Captain’s Log; and a visit to Cramelot, and a meeting with Mervin, an obvious satire of the Arthurian legend. Both entities had lasting impact on the SMB property because not only did they bring humor to the characters that would remain with them to this day, but it imbued them with personalities that couldn’t be depicted very well in video games of the time.

Many times, the IP holder has a huge say in what is published in a comic featuring their characters. “None whatsoever with the Super Mario title, however,” Vallely states. “Quite the opposite, as it happened. I understand that the owner of Nintendo loved the books and changed the direction of the games to make them more whimsical. In Mario One, the games were all gray and earth colors. After the comics came out, the software went towards pastel colors and embracing the characters’ silliness.”

Two stories especially stand out to Vallely: ‘Duh Stoopid Bomb!’ and ‘Love Flounders.’ The former was the funniest story we did, while the latter received a ton of fan mail (most of

The First Mario Bros. ‘Comic’ Before becoming Super and getting their own Valiant series, Mario and Luigi appeared in 1983 ads in comic books for their self-titled video game. © Nintendo of America Inc.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

‘Feed me, Seymour!’

Valiant launched a new volume of Super Mario Bros. in 1991, reprinting material from earlier editions. On the cover of #1 (Feb. 1991), Mario saves Toad from the snapping jaws of Piranha-Round Sue (excellent pun!), a tale from 1990’s Super Mario Bros. #1. © Nintendo of America Inc.

which were written in crayon). ‘Love Flounders’ hit a nerve because Mario didn’t simply dump Bertha.

I received fan mail about that story for decades.”

In “Duh Stoopid Bomb!,” first published in Super Mario Bros. #5 (Sept. 1990), the Mushroom Kingdom’s F.B.I. (Fungus Bureau of Investigations) finds out that King Koopa has developed a bomb that makes people stupid. Toad accidentally sets off the bomb that affects Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool, while a Shy Guy dropped one affecting the rest of the Shy Guys. Hilarity ensued.

“Love Flounders” is a great example of how deftly humor and good storytelling are intertwined in the Super Mario stories. Stanley, a talking fish who would return in “Fins and Roses,” tricks his ex-girlfriend Bertha into thinking that Mario wants to go out with her because Stanley doesn’t want to. Mario’s handling of the situation shows compassion on his part. The story also displays the humor found throughout the series. When Mario meets a fish named Smookers, he remarks, “With a name like Smookers, you gotta be good,” mimicking the classic Smucker’s slogan.

The comics were squarely aimed at kids, offering them funny, family-friendly stories and gags in a market more focused on violent anti-heroes like the Punisher and Lobo than the comics of the Silver and Bronze Ages. Even though the books were intended for a younger audience, the jokes also hit home with older readers and still do.

When asked if he was a fan of the Super Mario Bros. video game, Vallely reveals to BI, “Nope. I certainly can see the appeal. However, if I like something, I become obsessed and won’t stop talking about it. I can’t handle being a fan of a sitcom without driving everyone crazy. There is no way I could handle interactive.”

The first comic miniseries lasted for six issues (May–Oct. 1990). A second five-issue miniseries was published the following year (Feb.–June 1991); it was a reprint title but would mix and match the content instead of being direct reprints of each issue. For example, the first issue of the second miniseries contains the exact same contents as the first issue of the original miniseries with the exception of “Koopa’s Believe It or Else!” and “Cloud Nine.” Both stories are omitted and replaced by “Kitchen Kraziness,” originally from issue #6 (Oct. 1990); and “Cloud Burst,” initially from issue #5, respectively. This was par for the course with the remaining issues of the second miniseries. Issue #4 (May 1991) and 5 (June 1991) both contain Captain N reprints in addition to the Super Mario ones.

Valiant also published a third miniseries, this time called The Adventures of Super Mario Bros.

The nine-issue title (Feb.–Oct. 1991) not only reprints stories and gags from the original Super Mario Bros. miniseries, but also NCS and Captain N. However, this book also goes one step further in reprinting some of the covers as well as the contents.

Valiant also published four Super Mario Bros. one-shots, each with a different subtitle: Tatanga Invades Earth, Battle Against Bowser, Mario’s Special Powers, and Meet the Koopa Kids. And—you guessed it!—these specials contain reprinted material. As with Adventures of Super Mario Bros., these specials reprint material from more than just the original SMB title. “The Legend” was even reprinted in Super Mario Bros.: Mario’s Special Powers for those that hadn’t read it in its other appearances.

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‘SUPER MARIO BROS. ADVENTURES’ During the ’80s and ’90s, Nintendo Power was the magazine of choice for all things Nintendo, not only because it was published in-house (although that was definitely a selling point), but because it provided its readers with behind-the-scenes information and special features they couldn’t get anywhere else. One of those special features was a Super Mario Bros. Adventures comic.

Unlike the Super Mario Bros comic published by Valiant Comics, this wasn’t just a collection of short stories and gags, but a serialized adventure. The comic, featured in issues #32-43 (Jan.–Dec. 1992) of the magazine, was written by Kentaro Takekuma and illustrated by Charlie Nozawa. While it wasn’t based on any specific Super Mario game, it contained elements of the then-current newest game, Super Mario World, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which introduced the world to Yoshi, the dinosaur who could only say his own name.

Much like the storylines in most Super Mario games, Mario and his brother Luigi faced off against Bowser (no longer called King Koopa) and the Kooplings (originally depicted as Bowser’s children, but changed to his minions in later years, with only Bowser, Jr. left as his lone offspring). Along for the ride are Princess Toadstool, Toad, and Yoshi. But as formulaic as this sounds, the creators provided readers with an entertaining adventure that was a fun addition to the magazine with many readers eagerly awaiting each installment.

Like the Valiant Comics, this story was humorous. The comedy was kid-friendly, with Luigi stating that’s not what he “eggspected” when Yoshi hatched, Bowser rapping his love for Princess Toadstool, Luigi masquerading as Princess Toadstool, and Mario disguising himself as a doctor (reminding readers of his role as Doctor Mario in the game of the same name from the Nintendo Entertainment System) and diagnosing the ghost Boo as having anthrophobia (a fear of humans). The action was mild, but appropriate for a comic book aimed for an all-ages audience.

The story was serialized alongside a Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past comic. A special offer in the 50th issue of Nintendo Power (July 1993) gave readers the chance to order a collected edition of the serial. Unlike the comics from Valiant, which haven’t been reprinted in many years, Super Mario Adventures was collected by Viz in 2016. It has also been published in many countries such as a 2017 French edition by Soleil Productions.

GAME OVER

While the various Super Mario Bros. miniseries (as well as the rest of the NCS line) were fun and offered readers humorous books that stood out from the darkness that had taken over the comic market, it didn’t last very long. Vallely reveals to BI, “The series was cancelled because Nintendo wanted more money. We were already paying top dollar and couldn’t afford the increase.”

Although the Super Mario Bros. comics were reprinted many times in the early 1990s, including the hardcover collections The Best of Super Mario Bros. and The Best of the Nintendo Comics System, the comics haven’t been republished in decades.

“I loved writing for Mario,” states Vallely.

“He was a mensh who was ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray (if you know what I mean).”

Mario and his companions have remained household names and cultural icons both in the gaming industry and beyond. They regularly appear on Nintendo systems both in new games and rereleases of classics such as Super Mario Bros.

3, bridging the gaps between generations. As I 72 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

write this, one of my daughters is even playing Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for the Nintendo Switch, showing that Mario is as relevant as ever. While readers haven’t seen a new Mario comic in some time or even a reprint of the stories discussed in this article, it’s time for Mario to make an appearance in four-color format for those looking for a good laugh.

The author would like to thank Bill Vallely for his time and assistance with this article.

ED LUTE still remembers getting his NES for Christmas and spending the rest of the holiday break getting acquainted with Mario, his brother, and the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. He loved revisiting these classic tales with you for BACK ISSUE. He replayed the original Super Mario Bros. game (for review purposes of course) in preparation for this article. Now it’s about time for a visit to Hyrule for a Legend of Zelda replay.

IN MEMORIAM

Writer Alan Grant, who first garnered attention on 1980s UK comics, including Judge Dredd in 2000AD, Strontium Dog, and Robo-Hunter, died on July 20, 2022, at age 73.

In the late 1980s, Grant became a fan-favorite writer at DC once being partnered with artist Norm Breyfogle on Detective Comics (see BACK ISSUE #22).

Grant’s contributions to the Bat-mythos include Anarky and the Bat-rogues the Ventriloquist and Victor Zsasz. Grant also wrote Batman, Lobo, The Demon, The Outcasts, and Batman/Judge Dredd crossovers for DC. BACK ISSUE offers its condolences to Alan’s family and friends.

TM & © DC Comics.

Alan Grant 1949–2022

IN MEMORIAM

We are deeply saddened to report that Michael E. Ambrose, editor of the Charlton Spotlight fanzine, died on July 20, 2022, after a struggle with metastatic pancreatic cancer that lasted over two years.

An occasional writer of Charltonrelated histories for BACK ISSUE, Mike was extremely generous with his time and resources, also contributing Charlton artwork and information to articles whenever called upon— even late in his life, while undergoing treatments for his illness.

BACK ISSUE offers its condolences to Mike’s family and friends.

Popeye © King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Michael E. Ambrose Died July 20, 2022

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about Valiant which, as it turned out, became the last time I ever felt excitement about new comics.

Anyway, how about it? Where’s that coverage of a) Valiant/ Dark Horse Magnus and Solar and b) free trading cards given away with new comics?

– Pierre Comtois

Find BACK ISSUE on

MICHAEL USLAN IS BRAVE AND BOLD! Please note that the title for the comic book was lifted from this dime novel (image at left).

– Michael Uslan

© Dynamite Entertainment.

If only I had received this message before I wrote my Team-Up Companion book! Still, thank you, Michael, for this intriguing tidbit!

VIVA LA VARIANT COVERS I thought BACK ISSUE #134 was offbeat, with its rarities and oddities theme. I was especially taken aback

by Eddy Zeno’s article about the Superman rarity [the Bradman custom comic]. Not only had I never heard of such a thing, but I would have thought that paying a major publisher to create a custom comic impossible to do! The idea that for a measly $18,000 a person could order his own custom comic by classic creators… well, it boggles my mind! How profitable could it have been for DC? Was it worth it to them? And if it was, why didn’t they solicit for more jobs like that? What was the reaction in the offices when people heard of the request? And why didn’t more people do it? And could it be done today? With their far smaller unit sales, would a service like this be even more profitable for the majors, let alone smaller outfits like IDW? But the most interesting article in the ish was the one on variant covers by Robert Conte. It was fun to go back to those days of yesteryear, when I was just entering my mostly observer phase of the comics scene (when I was finding fewer and fewer titles worth reading) and standing by and watching the whole variant cover, bagged books, foil/embossed cover, trading card frenzy.

It’s the latter though that reminds me to submit to you my regular request for coverage of Valiant Comics (specifically while Jim Shooter was still in charge), or perhaps the careers of Magnus and Solar as written by Shooter at both Valiant and Dark Horse. To tie this stuff together, it was the presence of the bound-in trading cards in Valiant’s Magnus #1 that won me over to give that first ish a try, and for about a year afterward (along with its vibrant watercolors that jumped off the page, Shooter’s storytelling, and Barry Smith’s Solar origin serial, etc.), I became super-excited 74 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Pierre, whenever we’re able to enlist the cooperation of Jim Shooter in exploring the histories of Magnus and Solar, we will gladly do so. In the meantime, after this issue’s Super Mario Bros. article, BI will be taking another stab at covering a Valiant title in a mere two issues, in #144, as we look at Turok.

And instead of an article about those trading cards, they’ll be mentioned whenever they’re pertinent to an article’s subject— case in point, BI #140’s recent feature about Topps’ Jurassic Park comic book and cards.

JIM APARO FACES FRONT Re BI #134’s feature on Jim Aparo’s Superman illustrations: BACK ISSUE reader and fellow Jim Aparo fan Ilke Hincer recently shared with ye ed the cover of DC Coming Attractions #28 (Mar. 1979), which featured Aparo’s original cover art for the wraparound cover for World’s Finest Comics #257.

As noted, Superman’s face on the published version was redrawn, as the next page shows. The Coming Attractions cover below offers a glimpse at what Aparo had intended—which looks pretty darn spiffy to us! (Special thanks to John Wells for submitting a high-resolution scan of the Coming Attractions cover in question.)

Ye ed reached out to Jack C. Harris, editor of WFC #257, about this. While Jack didn’t remember the details behind the change (Who can blame him? This took place over four decades ago!), he said of Superman’s face, “It still looks like Aparo to me.” Hmmm…

Could Aparo have been directed to “toughen up” Supie’s expression? Since the others involved (the artist and managing editor Joe Orlando) have passed, this will remain a mystery.

TM & © DC Comics.

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 112 Fairmount Way • New Bern, NC 28562

CATCHING UP ON #134 AND 135 BACK ISSUE #134 and #135 were both great reads. It’s interesting: I really had no knowledge about any of the topics covered in BI #134, whereas I was very interested in the majority of the subjects in #135, and I enjoyed both. That’s why I like the magazine so much: It can be very informative at covering subjects I am unacquainted with, and it can provide new information and insights about familiar areas.

The cover to BI #134 with Joe Kubert’s previously unseen-in-the-States artwork for Superman was certainly interesting, as was the article it accompanied. Kubert was one of those rare creators who, even though mainstream comic books became more and more orientated to superheroes from the 1960s onwards, nevertheless seemingly did not have difficulty finding work within other genres. His style and approach were so very different from what I regard as typical superhero art, so on those rare occasions such as this piece when he did draw costumed crimefighters, it really stands out for being so distinctive... in a good way, of course. And considering how much DC editorial strove to have a uniform look to the Superman characters in the Silver and Bronze Ages, it’s fascinating to see such an atypical approach to the Man of Steel as Kubert’s.

Paul Kupperberg’s article on the Superman stories produced from the German market was highly informative. Seems like there’s a wealth of material for DC to collect together for an American audience that has never seen it before.

Along similar lines, it boggles the mind that DC has never published Michael Uslan’s unseen Earth-Two stories. Obviously, the characters in them are not what you might consider “A-list,” but you would think that they were written by the producer of the blockbuster Batman movie franchise would be a selling point. DC could bring in some top-shelf creators to draw the unproduced scripts and you could have a really nice collection of fun, unusual stories.

Moving on to #135, the Silver Surfer cover by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott was definitely outstanding. I feel that Frenz is a great penciler who successfully synthesizes the styles of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, and Sal Buscema into an entertaining, appealing whole. As for Joe Sinnott, he was one of the all-time greatest inkers/embellishers in American comic books.

I don’t think that Steve Englehart gets enough credit for putting the “cosmic” back in the Silver Surfer series.

In hindsight, it’s odd how long the Surfer was imprisoned on Earth. Having him escape, giving him the entire universe to explore, really opened up the possibilities of the character.

Dan Tandarich’s article on Silver Sable was probably my favorite piece in #135. I’ve always felt Sable was underrated.

I feel like some of the antipathy towards the character is because she’s a woman. If a male character was written in exactly the same way, they would probably regarded by fans as an ultra-cool bad@$$ who kicked rear end, but, because Sable is a woman, too many dismiss her as a rhymes-withwitch. I appreciated the Silver Sable series written by Gregory Wright because it really broadened and explored the character and gave her an interesting ensemble cast to play off of.

I feel Tandarich really hit on something when he focused on how Sable’s series was all about family, about how in her own imperfect way, after having lost her real family (a dead mother, an emotionally abusive father, a deceitful husband), she constructed a surrogate family with the Wild Pack and the Intruders. It’s such a shame Marvel has done hardly anything with Sable and the rest of the book’s cast in the past 25 years.

As I was reading these two issues, I suddenly realized… next year is BACK ISSUE’s 20th anniversary! It’s great that after two decades you haven’t even begun to run out of material to cover in this magazine.

Hopefully, you will be around for another 20 years… and beyond!

Speaking of anniversaries… 2022 marks 40 years since Fantagraphics began publishing Love and Rockets by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. My girlfriend and I are both huge fans of the series. © Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. I hope at some point in the near future, BI will have an article covering Jaime and Gilbert’s magnum opus.

– Ben Herman Now that 2023 is here, we are in BI’s 20th year of publication.

No one is more excited about this than ye ed.

We have two anniversary events planned: First, our old pal Shelton Drum and his awesome staff at Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find have agreed to help us celebrate the event at HeroesCon, to be held June 16–18, 2023, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

APPRECIATED THE ‘SILVER ISSUE’ The Silverheels article in BI #135 reminded me of the excitement when Pacific Comics first burst onto the scene. The price was a little steep, compared to other comics, but they were almost always worth it. I didn’t have endless cash reserves back then (still don’t!), so it was a case of picking and choosing, and Silverheels was one title I passed on. It has now become, thanks to Stephan Friedt’s article, yet another series I’ve discovered through BACK ISSUE, and I was able to purchase all three issues, fairly inexpensively, some 40 years after publication. Scott Hampton’s artwork is a delight to behold, but I confess I was less impressed with the writing.

I could be wrong, but it felt as though it was being written on the fly, with no clear destination in sight. Pacific had a bit of a reputation here in the UK for its erratic schedules, and two months or more is a long time to wait for eight pages of an ongoing story, however good they look.

I’ve always regarded the Silver Surfer as one of the most enigmatic characters in comics, so it was interesting to read Ron Marz’s assessment that he made for a better supporting character, drifting out of various titles, rather than being front and center. It’s some admission after more than a hundred issues, mind you!

Karl Heitmuller, Jr.’s “Prince Street News,” drawing parallels between comics then and now, was very evocative.

If I can add some of my own observations: Single covers!

Secret identities! Supporting characters! Non-superhero comics! Affordable prices! No endless reboots! Only two Earths! Only two solo Batman titles (imagine)! Soap opera stuff! Second-string heroes in their own (non-miniseries) comics! My youth!

I apologize if that makes me seem like a grumpy old man, because I still love the medium of comics.

Here’s to BACK ISSUE continuing to do what it does best— shining a light on the Bronze Age, whether that be its super-stars or its forgotten corners.

– Simon Bullivant 76 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

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Silver Surfer TM & © Marvel.

There will be a special BACK ISSUE 20th Anniversary Panel hosted by ye ed and featuring publisher John Morrow and many of the magazine’s contributing writers. Plus, there’ll be a BI logo cake! Yum! Convention appearances by ye ed are rare these days, and getting rarer, so I hope that you loyal BI readers can include HeroesCon in your 2023 summer vacation plans and come out and celebrate with us in person.

HeroesCon itself is one of the best conventions in the USA, bustling with comics creators both current and classic… plus uptown Charlotte offers no end of eateries and tourist destinations. I hope to see you this June at Charlotte’s Heroes Convention! (Visit www.heroesonline/heroescon for info.)

Second, BI #147 will be our official 20th Anniversary Edition and will include a couple of special features to commemorate the milestone. But the main focus of the issue will be on the work of the late, great George Pérez, particularly his Wonder Woman.

And while we missed the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets in 2022, we hope to one day feature Bros. Hernandez and their extraordinary series in our pages.

SURFER ISSUE SOARS! I just wanted to congratulate you on a very fine 135th “Silver” issue of BACK ISSUE. You promised me a great Silver Surfer spotlight, and you lived up to your word. I really appreciated the expert insights on your Bronze Age Surfer exhibits. And the run through of the series from the ’80s and ’90s was masterful.

Being the Surfer fan that I am, I wanted to share some pictures (below and next page) from my own collection that fit in the mold of your articles: 1. Nova #25 and 26, among the few original stories done about the Surfer in another country (namely France), and if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was Big John Buscema himself drawing the story and Stan the Man writing it all up; 2. The French version of the Enslavers graphic novel, which somehow looks and reads even better than the English one; 3. The original French magazine inserts for Parable, something a French bouquinier told me was just a myth; and 4. How to Draw the Silver Surfer, by none other than Paul Ryan?

Truly a well rendered book that inspired me to get one of my favorite sketches by the same artist.

But all of that was just one part of my silver-plated thanks.

You see, I am doing a post-Crisis reading of the entire Barry Allen flash run, so instead of reading the original Flash #123, I decided to read Grant Morrison’s brilliant story in Secret Origins #50, which creatively retells the meeting of Jay and Barry through the eyes of a future hero in his own right, Gar Logan. That story had me smiling the whole day I read it.

And I have you as an editor to thank for that. Next up in my post-Crisis Flash reading is to splice the Barry Allen portion of Secret Origins Annual #2 in between Flash #166 and 168.

– Wade AuCoin

TRAPPED IN A WORLD HE NEVER MADE— TENNESSEE? I really enjoyed the “Bronze Age Comics Strips Issue” of BACK ISSUE. For many of us, newspaper strips were our entry to comic books, superheroes, great art, and thought-provoking writing.

However, I’m curious about the drawing of Howard the Duck on the front cover and where it came from. He’s holding a copy of the Tennessean newspaper... shouldn’t he be holding a copy of The Plain Dealer? Or did Howard take a trip to Nashville that I missed somehow?

– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

4 Thanks for sharing those rare Silver Surfer images, Wade.

Regarding Secret Origins #50: The editor who REALLY deserves the credit is Mark Waid, who generated that story and nurtured it through most of its production. I only became involved near the end of the publication process, and it’s to my chagrin that the credits do not appropriately state that.

We all know that Mr. Waid is a monstrously talented writer and one of the most knowledgeable fans in the biz, but this is a reminder that he was one helluva editor, too.

ANOTHER SILVER THREAD Silver? I’d give BACK ISSUE #135 a gold!

Another all-killer, no-filler issue of BI! From its “Prince Street News” that took the thoughts right out of my head (Is Kurt spying on me?) to Dewey Cassell’s article on the Drake’s Silver Surfer mini-comics (which brought back so many memories and had me run to the store to get some Funny Bones) to James Heath Lantz’s profile on the Silver Banshee, this was an issue I couldn’t put down. Not to mention the great coverage of the Silver Surfer. Keep up the great work!

– Ed Lute I’M SO EXCITED… AND I JUST CAN’T HIDE IT BACK ISSUE #136 (Bronze Age Comic Strips) arrived, and I can’t wait to open it this weekend and give you my thoughts on what will be an epic revisiting of a classic era that will not be seen again! Kudos (or should I wait to read the issue? Nah, you guys do exemplary work.)

– Jeffrey Mullen I love it when a theme so excites a reader to write before he’s even read the issue! Hope the contents were to your liking, Jeffrey!

TM & © Marvel.

Silver Surfer TM & © Marvel.

Reverend Gordon, ye ed found that Howard the Duck illo (shared once again, below) in the archives of Heritage Comics Auctions, which had no information regarding its origins, even its date.

Presumably it was a promotional piece commissioned of artist Gene Colan to promote the Howard the Duck strip’s syndication in the pages of The Tennessean—but if anyone knows otherwise and has information to share, please contact me at euryman@ gmail.com and help set the record straight for our readers.

HAMPSON COMES ALIVE As a Brit who grew up in the Seventies, the first article I turned to in BI #136 was the “UnKnown Marvel” piece on Frank Hampson’s Spider-Man poster in Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes #163.

I remember the poster well and most decidedly didn’t hate it; yes, it was very much not Marvel’s house style, but so what? If you’re going to have a guest artist like Dan Dare maestro Frank Hampson, why be surprised when you get Frank Hampson? It’s okay if it wasn’t article writer Robert Menzies’ cup of tea, but be honest, most of the centerspread pinups were pretty dodgy in Marvel’s landscape books—for the benefit of US readers, they turned the usual UK comics format around, allowing for two Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

US Marvel story pages to be reprinted either side of the staple, meaning the posters were bonkers wide. Do we need an article on the poster decades later as if this was a formative moment of seismic shame? It’s an interesting footnote, that’s all.

I appreciate the work Robert put in, getting firsthand info and providing lots of context, but it all felt a little sour. Even the contents page line was a bit mean: “Frank Hampson’s not-soamazing rendition of your friendly neighborhood Wall-Crawler.”

And I was disappointed that the second Hampson poster mentioned, and praised, wasn’t shown.

Ah, well, the best to everyone at BI. – Martin Gray

THE TITANIC TRIO OF THOMPSON, ARNOLD, AND WELLS I am writing to say how much I enjoyed several articles that appeared in the 136th issue of BACK ISSUE. Re the piece on Friday Foster, “I’ve Got Friday on My Mind”

by Steven Thompson; “Charlton’s Funny Papers’ Funny Books”

by Mark Arnold; and “America’s Greatest Comic Weekly: The Rise and Fall of The Menomonee Falls Gazette” by John Wells: Superb research work by a trio of talented writers. As a comic-book historian, I rarely get to enjoy so many fine articles written and published by one source. Thank you!

– Prof. William H. Foster III

Martin, the second Hampson poster wasn’t included in issue #136 due to space limitations, but in retrospect that’s an editorial decision I regret, as it should have run with the original piece.

At least it’ll get its chance now, as it appears below.

I shared your letter with Robert Menzies, author of the “UnKnown Marvel” article in question, who responded:

FURY TAKES A RIDE ‘ON THE BUSES’ As you’ll be aware from my previous nonsensical ramblings, I’ve been a keen reader and supporter of BACK ISSUE from the very first issue, and every now and then I subject you to my unsolicited opinions.

Sometimes an issue arrives which holds no obvious interest for me, yet ends up enthralling me. The latest edition is one such example. Having lived all my life in the UK, I haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of the comic strips featured in BACK ISSUE #136. And yet, I read and thoroughly enjoyed every article.

This is a reflection on not just the subject matter, but also the writing abilities of your contributors. Kudos all around for not only enticing me to read the issue’s contents, but also for giving me such pleasure as a result. Well done to everyone concerned.

Actually, I’ve told a little white lie. There were two things in the issue that I’d come across before. The first was the advertisement for The Menomonee Falls Gazette, which I was absolutely intrigued by when it appeared in many of the 1970s mags that I bought.

I had no idea what said Gazette was, of course, so many thanks to John Wells for finally putting my curiosity to bed after almost 50 years with his engrossing article.

The other matter that I had prior knowledge of was the Frank Hampson poster featured in the excellent article by my fellow Briton (I hate the word “Brit”), Robert Menzies. Frank Hampson was indeed revered as the creator of space hero Dan Dare, but I vividly remember thinking that (a) Spidey’s costume looked rather illfitting and (b) there was no point mentioning the Hulk if we couldn’t see him anywhere. As Stateside readers will probably know by now, from this and previous features, for a while in the mid 1970s, UK Marvel published The Titans and Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes in an elongated format that condensed two US pages of action into one UK equivalent. I’ve attached a scan of a Nick Fury page from The Titans as an example. I sent a few copies of this title to our mutual friend, Pierre Comtois, a while ago. I can only imagine the expression on his face when he opened the package.

I’m not sure exactly what his first sentence would have been, but would lay good odds that it began with the words, “What the…?”

What may also be of interest as a curiosity to US readers is the reference to On the Buses, a popular (though now much

Courtesy of Robert Menzies.

From what I can gather, your objections are more about the premise of the article than its tone. As I wrote in the piece, the 1970s was an unpredictable decade to be a Marvel fan in Britain, and an excellent example of that is the experiment where Hampson drew Spidey.

As such, the poster was, surely, a perfectly legitimate object of discussion and criticism. The article was certainly not a hit job, that’s not how TwoMorrows or Michael roll. The text and images, in fact, went to great lengths to make it clear that Hampson was justifiably a legendary creator and that no one reading BACK ISSUE should judge him on one late-career poster. I myself was left with an altered, more constructive perspective after writing it, something I admitted in the bio.

I’d also like to emphasize that there was no manipulation of reader letters as I quoted every piece of correspondence I could find on the subject. I sifted through months and months of letters pages to find any contemporary positivity and I uncovered none, so if you know of any that contradict me on this, I’d welcome seeing it. In the near five decades that have passed since the original publication I have heard nothing but criticism, usually scathing, of the centerspread. As for the absence of the second poster, that was, I assume, purely down to issues of space, and it’s not as if we didn’t present some glorious examples of Hampson in his pomp. (Five of those against the one centerspread.)

Lastly, I’d like to, ironically, come to the defense of the landscape era centerspreads, both in terms of the cinemascope format and the quality of the art. While a lot of these center-page posters were, as you say, mediocre, many are worth revisiting. You only need to look at the two Silver Surfer pinups reprinted in the previous edition of BACK ISSUE (#135) to see that. Or the stunning gatefold cover to BACK ISSUE #63, which also included my personal favorite centerspread on page 25, Jeff Aclin’s wonderful illo of Spider-Man vs. two-thirds of the Sinister Six (from Super Spider-Man #186).

– Robert Menzies

78 • BACK ISSUE • Super Issue

Aparo could have drawn the strip! Mr. Aparo “reportedly” only signed one-year contracts in case a comic strip was offered to him. Say what?! DC could have gotten Jim Aparo to do the JLA? And they didn’t offer it to him??? I don’t even know what to make of that.

Be that as it may, it was a great article and a great issue.

– Wayne Brooks

derided) British comedy show of the early ’70s. This is an example of the UK editors (including future Pet Shop Boy, Neil Tennant) changing American cultural references to British ones so that UK readers wouldn’t be scratching their heads.

Now, of course, the very idea of the hard-bitten S.H.I.E.L.D. ramrod making reference to On the Buses raises a chuckle in my older, if not wiser, mind.

Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., I noted the ad for BACK ISSUE #141, and hope that I have your permission to be ridiculously excited for the next five months.

Keep up the superb work, Michael.

– Dave Barker Thank you, Dave! Hopefully you survived your waiting period of “ridiculous excitement” and enjoyed last issue’s “Spies and P.I.s” content.

Speaking of secret agents, thank you for sharing that altered-for-UK-readers Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. page (above).

JUSTICE LEAGUE APARO??

BACK ISSUE #136 was a great read. But the major draw for me was the focus on the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip.

Writer John Wells provided some great background into this short-but-sweet piece of Bronze-Age nostalgia.

But there was one major “Holy….!” moment. According to the article, Mr. Jim Batman TM & © DC Comics. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

All Rights Reserved.

A ‘DIFFERENT’ BUT ‘AWESOME’ ISSUE Issue #136 was awesome because it was different. I think comic strips often get overlooked in the history of the comicbook medium.

What I liked best about this is that I learned about two strips I didn’t know existed.

The first was Friday Foster. I can’t believe this was not a bigger hit. It was drawn very well. It was made into a movie, but it’s largely forgotten. I am also surprised the movie with Pam Grier didn’t turn into a movie series because she is drop-dead gorgeous. You can almost say perfect casting.

The second was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I am a huge Star Trek fan. I’ve met Shatner and Nimoy several times. I’m from Boston. Nimoy mistook me for a relative once, but I’m not Jewish. I saw the director’s cut in the theater just before your magazine showed up. I love this movie but I did not know the strip existed! I have the Marvel comic books, but not this. It is too bad this era of Star Trek is not written about too often.

Were these strips ever collected?

Well, that is my two cents. I enjoyed the other articles but those were my favorites.

– Patrick Moreau Patrick, your opening comment— and the enthusiastic response we received to this issue—warms ye ed’s heart. Sometimes when we stray from mainstream comic books, some of our audience strays from purchasing or enjoying those issues. But #136’s theme of comic strips seemed to press the right buttons for our readership.

The Star Trek comic strip was indeed reprinted a decade or so ago in three hardcover volumes that can be found in the secondary market.

Next issue: a tribute to the late, great NEAL ADAMS (1941–2022), celebrating his Bronze Age DC Comics contributions! In-depth Batman and Superman interviews, Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76—Fifty Years Later, Neal Adams: Under the Radar (uncredited Adams art), a “Rough Stuff” pencil art gallery, Power Records, a “Prince Street News” Adams salute, comments from Continuity Associates’ TERRY AUSTIN, BOB McLEOD, and ALAN WEISS, and more! Re-presenting Adams’ iconic cover art to Batman #227. Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief Super Issue • BACK ISSUE • 79

© CBS Studios, Inc.

TM & © Marvel.

Two Jim Aparo call-outs in one lettercol!

Wayne, since you’re aware of my far-from-hidden adoration of Aparo’s artwork—I’m with ya, man! With all due respect to George Tuska, who did a dynamite job drawing Superman and his JLA buddies for the newspapers, the concept of Jim Aparo instead being the feature’s artist is mind-blowing.

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LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s STAR TREK CARTOON, “How I Met LON CHANEY, JR.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare ELASTIC HULK toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and MR. MICROPHONE!

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With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview with LARRY STORCH, The Lone Ranger in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more! With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with ’70s’ Captain America REB BROWN, and Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE BARTLETT! Plus: Coloring Books, Fall Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, The Cyclops movie, actors behind your favorite TV commercial characters, BENNY HILL, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, 8-track tapes, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti Westerns, Saturday morning cartoon preview specials, fake presidential candidates, Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s, and more fun, fab features!

HALLOWEEN ISSUE! Interviews with DARK SHADOWS’ DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein GLENN STRANGE, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal JIMMY OLSEN, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the DRAK PAK AND THE MONSTER SQUAD, scratch model customs, and more!

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CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY— and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, and more!

Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of WhamO’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Zoo, lava lamps, and more with FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY!

Holy backstage pass! See rare, behind-thescenes photos of many of your favorite Sixties TV shows! Plus: an unpublished interview with Green Hornet VAN WILLIAMS, Bigfoot on Saturday morning television, TV’s Zoorama and the San Diego Zoo, The Saint, the lean years of Star Trek fandom, the WrestleFest video game, TV tie-in toys no kid would want, and more fun, fab features!

Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

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Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview.

Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

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Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features!

Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview!

Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited

by MICHAEL EURY.

The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY.

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Interview with Captain Kangaroo BOB KEESHAN, The ROCKFORD FILES, teen monster movies, the Kung Fu and BRUCE LEE crazes, JACK KIRBY’s comedy comics, DON DRYSDALE’s TV drop-ins, outrageous toys, Challenge of the Super Friends, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The BRITISH INVASION of the Sixties, interview with Bond Girl TRINA PARKS, The Mighty Hercules, Horror Hostess MOONA LISA, World’s Greatest Super Friends, TV Guide Fall Previews, the Frito Bandito, a Popeye Super Collector, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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BRONZE AGE SAVAGE LANDS, starring Ka-Zar in the 1970s! Plus: Turok—Dinosaur Hunter, DON GLUT’s Dagar and Tragg, Annihilus and the Negative Zone, Planet of Vampires, Pat Mills’s Flesh (from 2000AD), and WALTER SIMONSON and MIKE MIGNOLA’s Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. With CONWAY, GULACY, HAMA, NICIEZA, SEARS, THOMAS, and more! JOHN BUSCEMA cover!

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MEN WITHOUT FEAR, featuring Daredevil’s swinging ’70s adventures!

Plus: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age, JEPH LOEB interview about his Challs and DD projects with TIM SALE, Sinestro and Mr. Fear histories, superheroes with disabilities, and... Who Is Hal Jordan? Featuring CONWAY, ENGLEHART, McKENZIE, ROZAKIS, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, & more! GENE COLAN cover!

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BRICKJOURNAL #79

Canadian comic book artist, illustrator, and graphic novelist MICHAEL CHO in a career-spanning interview and art gallery, a 1974 look at JACK ADLER and the DC Comics production department’s process of reprinting Golden Age material, color newspaper tabloid THE FUNNY PAGES examined in depth by its editor RON BARRETT, plus CBC’s usual columns and features, including HEMBECK! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

VISUAL COMPARISONS! Analysis of unused vs. known Kirby covers and art, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH on his stylizations in Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, Kirby’s incorporation of real-life images in his work, WILL MURRAY’s conversations with top pros just after Jack’s passing, unused Mister Miracle cover inked

by WALTER SIMONSON, and more! Edited

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LAW & ORDER! Kirby’s lawmen from the Newsboy Legion’s Jim Harper and “Terrible” Turpin, to Western gunfighters, and even future policemen like OMAC and Captain Victory! Also: how a Marvel cop led to the creation of Funky Flashman!

Justice Traps The Guilty and Headline Comics! Plus MARK EVANIER moderating 2022’s Kirby Tribute Panel (with Sin City’s FRANK MILLER). MACHLAN cover inks.

Interview with Captain Kangaroo BOB KEESHAN, The ROCKFORD FILES, teen monster movies, the Kung Fu and BRUCE LEE crazes, JACK KIRBY’s comedy comics, DON DRYSDALE’s TV drop-ins, outrageous toys, Challenge of the Super Friends, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Create Brick Art with builders ANDREAS LELANDER and JACK ENGLAND! Learn how to build mosaics and sculptures with DEEP SHEN and some of the best Lego builders around the world! Plus: AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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ALTER EGO #182

An FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) special, behind a breathtaking JERRY ORDWAY cover! Features on Uncle Marvel and the Fawcett Family by P.C. HAMERLINCK, ACG artist KENNETH LANDAU (Commander Battle and The Atomic Sub), and writer LEE GOLDSMITH (Golden Age Green Lantern, Flash, and others). Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

PRINTED IN CHINA

ALTER EGO #181

Special NEAL ADAMS ISSUE, featuring in-depth interviews with Neal by HOWARD CHAYKIN, BRYAN STROUD, and RICHARD ARNDT. Also: a “lost” ADAMS BRAVE & THE BOLD COVER with Batman and Green Arrow, and unseen Adams art and artifacts.

Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (Plus: See BACK ISSUE #143!)