Back Issue #22 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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GRANT & BREYFOGLE’S BATMAN LEVITZ & GIFFEN’S LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES DARK HORSE’S RICHARDSON & STRADLEY EASTMAN & LAIRD’S TURTLES plus FAMOUS SUPER-HERO DUOS and a SCOTT McCLOUD ZOT! INTERVIEW

Volume 1, Number 22 June 2007 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST Norm Breyfogle COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark SPECIAL THANKS Michael Aushenker Al Nickerson Pat Bastienne Dennis O’Neil Steve Bissette John Petty Malcolm Bourne Michael Rankins Jerry Boyd Keith Richard Norm Breyfogle Mike Richardson Gene Colan Rose Rummel-Eury Jennifer M. Contino Alex Segura Ray Cuthbert Anthony Snyder Dark Horse Comics Dave Sim DC Comics Randy Stradley J. M. DeMatteis Brett Tolino Mike Dunne Anthony Tollin Kevin Eastman Mark Waid Tim Frederick Eric Wiler Mike Friedrich Will Gabri-El Keith Giffen Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Alan Grant Heritage Auction Galleries Adam Hughes Christopher Irving Geoff Johns Melissa Jones Rob Jones Dan Jurgens Michael Kronenberg Peter Laird Steven Lee Andy Mangels Marvel Comics Scott McAdam Scott McCloud James Meeley Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics Brian K. Morris Stuart Neft

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Robin’s journey through the counterculture and into self-awareness, with Mike Friedrich and Denny O’Neil FLASHBACK BONUS: The Dynamite Duo: Batgirl and Robin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 A look back at Batman Family’s super-pair, with remembrances from Bob Rozakis

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

TIMELINE: Fly, Robin, Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Robin’s wild ride from Batman’s side to the Titans’ pride PRO2PRO: Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 One of Batman’s most unforgettable creative teams reunites for a chat FLASHBACK: Red, White, Blue, Black, and Proud! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Before Power Man/Iron Fist, the biracial super-team Captain America and the Falcon made history PRO2PRO: Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen Revisit Legion of Super-Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Together again! The team that rocketed DC’s future heroes to even greater heights JEN’S TOP TEN: Top Five Signs of a Good Team-Up/Top Five Signs of a Bad Team-Up . . . . . 43 Some duos do better than others, says Jennifer Contino NORM BREYFOGLE ART GALLERY: Dynamic Duos and Terrific Trios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 A gathering of all-stars by the super-star artist BEYOND CAPES: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird: Comic-Book Creators in a Half-Shell . . . . . 51 Revisiting the 1980s independent title that launched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and an industry fad, with Eastman, Laird, Sim, Bissette, and … rare art! PRO2PRO: Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 “We did it because we love comics,” say the men who founded Dark Horse BACKSTAGE PASS: Dick Giordano Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Honoring the man who changed comics, one day at a time INTERVIEW: Scott McCloud and Zot: The One-Man Dynamic Duo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 The writer/artist/teacher discusses ’80s fave Zot! and the future of comics FLASHBACK: The Odd Couple: A Blue and Gold Retrospective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The partnership of the Justice League’s Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, with commentary by DeMatteis, Giffen, Hughes, Johns, Jurgens, and Waid COMICS ON DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Viewing reccomendations for the BI reader BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Reader feedback on issue #20 BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Norm Breyfogle. Robin TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. D y n a m i c

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Michael Eury

Let me start by thanking Mark Waid, George Pérez, and DC Comics for bringing back comics’ foremost team-up title, The Brave and the Bold. I admit it—my inner fanboy is giddy because my all-time favorite comic book is back! But B&B’s return is significant for a reason far more important than nostalgia. The Brave and the Bold’s underlying message is: Two heads are better than one. That’s an idea that’s not necessarily in vogue. Think about it: Who are the dynamic duos of 2007? Regis and Kelly aside, today’s newsmaking pairs are either duking it out—the Donald vs. Rosie, Heather vs. Sir Paul—or are a celebrity merger where two yins minus a yang blend into a homogenous Bradgelina. Where are today’s Andy and Barneys, Sayers and Piccolos, Woodward and Bernsteins, and Starsky and Hutches? (Heck, we’ll even settle for a Captain and Tenille!) Where are the dynamic duos who, despite their differences, work together as one for their mutual or for a larger good? I’m not suggesting that we’ve lost our ability to bond with others, but today’s “team-up”—in the real world as well as in comics—is more of a group dynamic, a gang mentality. There’s safety in numbers, the saying goes. It’s riskier to be part of a duo. First of all, you have to share the spotlight, not hog it. Second, your weaknesses stand a greater risk of exposure when someone else gets that close. The worst thing is, if your partner falls, you’re on your own! Yikes!! No wonder we’d rather become America’s idol than bosom buddies. Some might say this pattern of behavior is the sociological offspring of the self-absorbed Me Generation of the 1970s and 1980s (which, incidentally, is the BACK ISSUE era). Sure, back then we were indulging the inner “Me,” but we had constant reminders of the power of “We,” especially in comics: Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, and Marv Wolfman and George Pérez are just four dynamic duos that permanently imprinted the medium. A few other influential pairs join us this issue: Batman’s Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, Legion of Super-Heroes’ Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, TMNT’s Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (who are, no doubt, basking in the glow of the new Turtles movie being number one at the box office at this writing), and Dark Horse Comics’ Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley. Other dynamic-duo creative teams have been featured in earlier issues, and more will be coming in future ones. Of course, comic-book characters have often formed dynamic duos, and in this ish we spotlight Robin and Batgirl (while also exploring the Boy/Teen Wonder’s emergence from Batman’s winged shadow), Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. And there’s also an interview with Scott McCloud, who’s twice as smart as most of us, making him a one-man © 2007 DC Comics. dynamic duo! There are so many dynamic duos featured in this issue, all these “and”s will have you humming School House Rock’s “Conjunction Junction” for hours! On a different topic, convention season is about begin as this issue hits the stands (although you might argue that with cons taking place virtually every month, it’s always convention season!). To those of you I met (or were reacquainted with) at the Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle on March 31 and April 1, it was great seeing you! Lots of BI readers came by to say how much they appreciate the magazine, and a few folks who wandered by my table ended up being new readers of BACK ISSUE! One of the highlights of the show for me was my interviewing Michael Golden; the interview will appear in issue #24. I’ll be attending HeroesCon in Charlotte from Friday, June 15 through Sunday, June 17. Stop by the TwoMorrows booth there and say hello! I close this editorial with a very heartbreaking announcement that shocked the comics world during the last week of March: the death of artist Marshall Rogers. Most BI readers regard Marshall Rogers as one of the field’s top Batman artists—his late-1970s run on Detective Comics with writer Steve Englehart inspired much of the The dynamic duo of BI editor Michael 1989 Batman movie and is still in print today (in trade-paperback form). Rogers was Eury and wife Rose Rummel-Eury at slated to be interviewed in September 2007’s BACK ISSUE #24; that issue will instead include a tribute to the artist, as well as an examination of his magic-based series Dr. the Emerald City ComiCon. Strange, Scorpio Rose, and Madame Xanadu. We dedicate this edition of BACK ISSUE Photo by Rich Fowlks. to the late, great Marshall Rogers. 2

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The end of 1969 and the beginning of 1970 was a tumultuous time in America. The Vietnam War divided the nation, and America’s decision to invade Cambodia wedged that gap even further. In March 1970 the U.S. Army charged 14 soldiers with murdering hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers in the My Lai Massacre. The trial of the “Chicago Seven,” who were charged with inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention, was making a mockery of the judicial system. In May 1970 U.S. National Guardsman at Kent State University killed four students and wounded nine others during protests against the Cambodian invasion. And one month earlier, the Beatles, the symbol of the counterculture and musical change, decided to break up. Amidst this chaotic period, another famous team was dissolved. In Batman #217 (Dec. 1969), DC Comics (then officially known as National Periodical Publications) decided to break up the Dynamic Duo by sending Dick (Robin) Grayson off to college. The story in that issue, writer Frank Robbins’ “One Bullet Too Many!,” began a new chapter for the Batman and Robin continuity. Editor Julius Schwartz, with the aid of writers Robbins and Denny O’Neil, decided to update the Caped Crusader’s world. It’s something Schwartz also did in 1964 when he introduced Batman’s “new look.” This time he tore down and simplified Batman and his surroundings by trying to recapture the character’s 1939 roots. At the same time, this gave birth to Robin’s new life as both college

Michael Kronenberg

student and as a solo-operating super-hero. As he departs Wayne Manor for the airport, Dick Grayson proclaims to Bruce Wayne and Alfred: “I know it’s going to be rough on you guys—in the beginning! Guess it’s kinda hard for you to dig that only yesterday I was your ‘young Master Dick,’ Alfie, and your ‘kid who needed a big-brother-image,’ Bruce. But—I’m a man now! 'Least—that’s what my draft card says, plus my acceptance at Hudson University!” This change forces Bruce Wayne to re-examine his world. Deciding to close up the Batcave and Wayne Manor, he says to Alfred, “…streamlining the operation! By discarding the paraphernalia of the past and functioning with the clothes on our backs … the wits in our heads! By re-establishing this trademark of the ‘old’ Batman—to strike new fear into the new gangsterism sweeping the world!” (Bruce Wayne’s new “digs” is a penthouse converted from executive offices atop the Wayne Foundation.)

CAMPUS CRUSADER The exploits of Robin would now continue as solo stories in the back of both Batman and Detective Comics. “Dick Grayson’s first day at Hudson University has been an eventful one! He walked smack into a rebel-student revolt … and a policeman’s club!” That’s how “Drop Out… or Drop Dead!” (Detective Comics #395, Jan. 1970) begins. Continued from Detective Comics #394, the two-part story was written by Frank Robbins and beautifully

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illustrated by comic-book legends Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. It unfolds in a letter that Dick has written to Bruce Wayne. During a campus revolt, Dick is arrested along with some of the rebellion’s leaders. They are ushered away to an abandoned farm. Dick escapes as Robin and overhears a “dirty plot.” The police are phonies who are working with the protest leaders. They plan to fake a beating on the protestors, thus sending the students on campus into a frenzy and leading them to strike the university. Robin attempts to take down the provocateurs: “In seconds it was like the old days, Bruce—only now I was on my own! No ‘father-figure’ to lend a hand, you know … but then it was my turn and I went down … but good!” Back at the campus, protesters demand that the students shut down Hudson University because the “Fuzz” [police] have taken their fellow students away. The protest leaders decide to head back to campus to display the beating from Robin and blame it on the police. Left with an unconscious Robin at the abandoned farm, the bogus cops decide to kill him. Waking in the nick of time, Robin takes them down. Changing to Dick Grayson, he races back to campus to try to quell the strike. Arriving at Hudson, Dick crashes his car into a squad car containing more of the imposter police. The crash suddenly halts all activity as Dick attempts to calm everyone: “Cool it, fellow students—when the real police check these bogus cops’ fingerprints … they’ll find out who’s really been running this show! And don’t take off on these misled ‘leaders’—their beefs may have been legit, but their tactics weren’t! We’re all here for an education—guess it’s started already! Even though—we’re not even registered yet!” Though it may seem dated now, storytelling like this was a tremendous departure for DC, known as the older, more established, and considerably more conservative company when compared to Marvel.

Zap! Pow! Wham!... (right) …ah, you know the routine. And in 1970, Robin needed a new scene. But for the ’60s, Burt Ward as Robin charmed many a teen. Autographed photo from the collection of BI cover designer Robert Clark. Robin © 2007 DC Comics. Photo © 1966 National Periodical Publications, Greenway Productions, and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.

A TRUE TEEN TITAN The year 1970 represented a turning point for the senior comic-book publisher—Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ historic run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow would receive most of the press coverage for its stories of relevance that reflected those turbulent times, but Robin’s solo stories (and his occasional team-ups with Batman) dealt with many of the same issues. The difference was that Robin’s stories were told through the eyes of a college student. To more accurately portray these tales, Schwartz assigned young writer Mike Friedrich to write the Robin backup features. Friedrich (and occasionally Frank Robbins) would write these stories under the tight constrictions of an eight-page format. Mike Friedrich entered the comics industry after years of writing to DC letter columns in the 1960s, where he developed a mail acquaintance with Julius Schwartz.

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Said Friedrich at Julius Schwartz’s memorial service in 2004: “My letter-writing began around the time the ‘new look’ Batman was introduced, though I’d been a fan of Julie’s for two or three years before then. A couple of years later it turned into a bit of correspondence as Julie began to send short replies. “As I grew during high school, my comments began to contain suggestions for how stories could have been improved. As I neared my summer vacation in 1966, I off-handedly wrote asking if I could try writing a script. Julie quickly affirmatively replied and just as quickly rejected my first effort, an Elongated Man story. “Not long after this, by coincidence Julie and his wife were taking a vacation to San Francisco. [One-time DC ‘letterhack’] Guy Lillian and I arranged to come in from our suburban homes to see him together. Unfortunately we had a neartragic auto accident on the way and wound up at the hospital instead of his hotel. “Undeterred, I continued to submit ideas and scripts, and the following spring (May 10, 1967) he bought my first one, a Robin the Boy Wonder story that eventually saw print in Batman #202.

As I was graduating from high school the following month, I took the script payment ($10/page) and used it to go to New York for the summer before entering college. “I finally met Julie by showing up on the day that DC conducted tours (I wasn’t old enough to know about making appointments), and then once in the office introduced myself. He was as many have described, a straight-laced formal guy with a white shirt and tie. My wardrobe was T-shirts and jeans. Despite this generation gap, he was straightforward, friendly, and amazingly tolerant,” Friedrich recently added to that: “My first ‘Robin’ story was actually my first professional sale. Julie Schwartz assigned the stories after that. Since these were backup stories and I was a very new and very distant (3000 miles away) writer, they were good on-the-job training assignments.”

IDENTITY CRISIS Friedrich’s first Robin solo-story as a regular assignment was “My Place in the Sun!” (Detective Comics #402, Aug. 1970), penciled once again by Gil Kane. With this tale Friedrich establishes the tone for his Robin stories, examining the hot-button issues facing college students of the time such as the generation gap, Vietnam, race relations, and the ecology. Friedrich explains his feelings on these topics: “Dealing with contemporary social and political issues was a major part of why I enjoyed writing for Julie Schwartz and on the ‘Robin’ series in particular. I was angry about the

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state of affairs (still am!) and wanted to right these wrongs, if only in my stories.” Dick Grayson begins a struggle to find his place as Robin in the world. Friedrich’s portrayal of the “Teen Wonder” was similar to that of a certain web-slinger being published by the competition. Speaking about this correlation, Friedrich says, “There wasn’t a direct influence, but indirectly Stan Lee’s slangy, irreverent writing style was certainly an influence.” In “My Place in the Sun!,” Speedy (Roy Harper) drops Robin off at Hudson University after a Teen Titans assignment. After changing to their secret identities, Dick shows Roy around the campus and takes him to his boarding house room, complete with a Humphrey Bogart poster. Dick points out the drainpipe outside his window, which he will use to make his exits as Robin. They both go over to the campus cafeteria. That’s where Dick makes a critical mistake. A fight breaks out between several students, and Dick ducks out and switches to Robin. In his haste to break the fight up, Robin jumps the gun and attacks the wrong person. Throughout the day Dick hears the students’ negative reactions to the incident.

Paul is Dead! Beatle McCartney’s rumored death took wing during the late ’60s, inspiring the cover story in Batman #222 (June 1970). Note the similarities in the album cover held by Robin on this Neal Adams cover and the back cover to the Beatles’ legendary LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

THE DYNAMIC DUO MEET THE FAB FOUR After Dick’s departure for Hudson University, Batman and Robin’s first return to team-up status occurs in Batman #222 (June 1970), “Dead … Till Proven Alive!,” written by Frank Robbins and illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. The story plays off the Beatles’ “Paul is dead” controversy in 1970; instead of the Beatles, in Batman the group is the Oliver Twists. “Paul is dead” was an urban legend that alleged Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a double that both looked and sounded like him. Evidence for McCartney’s death consisted of “clues” found among the Beatles’ many recordings, most of which are treated as if they were deliberately placed by the Beatles or others— as if McCartney’s death was a puzzle to be deciphered by the public. They include statements allegedly heard when a song is played backwards, symbolism found in obscure lyrics, and ambiguous imagery on album covers. Many fans have claimed that the rumor was a hoax perpetrated by the Beatles, either as a joke or to stimulate record sales. This has been denied numerous times by all four band members. The cover for Batman #222, a Neal Adams classic, depicts Batman and Robin watching four members of a rock band, instruments in hand, walking away from a freshly dug grave. The band members bear a striking resemblance to those boys from Liverpool: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Batman says, “Here they come! One of them is dead—but which one?” Robin, holding a record album titled Dead Till Proven Alive (that looks very much like the back cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), replies, “The clue is on their album cover!” Dick Grayson and a group of his college friends sit in a dorm room listening to the radio as a DJ talks about the great “Oliver Twists mystery.” The DJ plays one of the Oliver Twists’ songs backwards and at a different speed. What they hear is Glennan (Lennon) singing “Sure was a ball, Saul—too bad it’s over!,”

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For the first time, Robin must look within himself and reflect: “I never realized how much I’m tied to the past! Everything I call me comes from Bruce Wayne … the Batman! My name, my costume, my training! Who’d have thought that so soon after I go away to college all this would be called into question? I’ve got to re-discover why there should be a Robin, why I wear a costume, why I even keep the name, Robin! … If I made a mistake once, I’m not gonna make it again! When I go out into that ‘adult world,’ I know that Robin is no longer a boy, but still—a wonder!” It’s a much different thought process and dialogue than the quick-to-pun and carefree Robin of the '60s. Friedrich brings a new aesthetic to the character, something that will continue until more than 20 years later when Dick Grayson finally sheds his role as Robin to become Nightwing. Friedrich reflects, “I remember [Julie Schwartz] encouraging me to use current teenage issues in the stories, which wasn’t too hard, since I was still a teenager and young adult at this time.”

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TORN FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES

Dick Grayson replies, “Hmm … who else could Glennan mean—but Saul (Paul) Cartwright?” The DJ announces that the Oliver Twists will be coming to Gotham City. In his office Bruce Wayne stares at a headline of the Gotham News that reads “ALIVE … OR DEAD? Saul Cartwright” and thinks, “As a major stockholder in Eden Records, this publicity has been boom business, but as Batman—I don’t want to be party to a hoax!” Dick calls up Bruce to see if he can use his influence to get the Oliver Twists to play at Hudson University. Instead, Bruce opens up Wayne Manor to host the rock group while they perform in Gotham City. From there the story becomes a cat-andmouse game between Batman, Robin, and the Oliver Twists. Batman uses whatever technology he can from the Batcave to determine if Saul is legitimate. A trio of thugs tries to thwart the Dynamic Duo’s efforts, adding to the mystery. Frank Robbins adds a twist ending to this story when Glennan pulls a gun on the Caped Crusaders as they confront the quartet. Instead of Saul being a phony, Saul reveals that his three friends are the ones who died in a plane crash. He developed the “Saul is dead” story as a diversion to deflect attention from the real story. Saul trained the other three to sound like the original Oliver Twists, and with a little plastic surgery they looked like them, too. Batman says to Saul, “You realize now that the world has to learn the true story, Saul! But if you face up to it and level with them, your fans will understand…” To which Robin adds, “… as we do! Besides, if these boys are as ‘real good’ as you say they are—you may have a new group and a new sound!” The group performs with a new name—Phoenix—and plays to an enthusiastic crowd at Hudson University. Frank Robbins doesn’t tackle the social climate of the times the way Mike Friedrich’s stories did, and the story is certainly not hard-hitting and edgy like those from Denny O’Neil. But Robbins still places Batman and Robin in the current world of 1970 and adds a strong touch of pop culture to boot.

Robin’s Writer

Mike Friedrich again tackles some of the hotbed issues of the times in Batman #227 (Dec. 1970) and Batman #229 (Feb. 1971), in the Robin backup features “Help Me—I Think I’m Dead!” and “Temperature Boiling … and Rising!” He also establishes that Hudson University is located in the town of New Carthage. Both parts of the story are penciled by Irv Novick and inked by Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia. In this two-part story Dick Grayson volunteers on a hotline to help counsel troubled students at Hudson University, while Robin deals with a “Green Party” candidate, Hudson’s own Prof. “Buck” Stuart, who is campaigning to clean up the polluted Gotham River. Big business in the form of the ICM (IBM?) Corporation supports the other candidate and has been getting away with dumping pollutants into the river. Through various dirty tricks ICM attempts to discredit and ruin the Hudson candidate. Friedrich adds the element of a campus radical named Hank Osher. After reading of the smear campaign against the Hudson candidate, Osher says, “The only way to get real action is in the streets!” He confronts Dick Grayson: “Last spring, when the kids were killed at Kent State, I was ready to start throwing bricks! You told me to work on the protests, to work on the election, to work through the system! Well, No more!” Friedrich grounds the character and his volatile emotions in the Kent State shootings, a topic that was still fresh, painful, and very divisive at the time this comic was written. The fact that the subject gets discussed and printed in a mainstream comic at that time speaks volumes for both Friedrich and editor Schwartz. What appears to be a fake photo has been used to discredit the Hudson candidate Stuart. The photo is published on the front page of the New Carthage

Mike Friedrich, circa 1976, a few years after his Robin stint. Photo courtesy of Mike Friedrich.

College Crisis The Kent State melee of 1970 was one of many tumultuous events that lured Robin out of the Batcave and toward Hudson University. D y n a m i c

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Tribune. Determined to clear Stuart, Robin sets out to prove the photo is a phony. Robin uses his detective skills and fists to uncover the mystery. He goes to the editor of the New Carthage Tribune with the proof. The editor tells Robin, “You sure move fast, sonny! This is what I call solid evidence! It’ll go into the next edition! Say, Sonny—how’d you like to be a free-lance reporter for us—you know, take pictures of your cases and such?” Robin replies, “If you want somebody like that, look up a guy named Peter Parker—I go my own way!” After Election Day, Prof. “Buck” Stuart is declared the winner. That night at the election party, Dick Grayson says, “This is only a start—there’s a long road ahead till this country gets straight!” Because of his work on the Robin solo stories, Friedrich got the opportunity to pen World’s Finest Comics #200 (Feb. 1971), co-starring Superman and Robin. Its story, illustrated by Dick Dillin and Joe

Giella and titled “Prisoners of the Immortal World!,” features Friedrich’s trademark exploration of relevance and youth issues. It begins with WGBS-TV reporter Clark Kent covering student unrest at Hudson University. On the air Kent reports, “Hudson University, like a number of colleges and high schools these days, is the scene of many flare-ups, as students reflect the boiling temper of a war-torn nation… However, unlike other campuses, Hudson U has the unique presence of the Batman’s former partner, Robin … and at today’s ROTC demonstration, Robin is a key figure in keeping things peaceful.” Suddenly the ROTC building is fire-bombed and the National Guard is brought in to restore order. Friedrich’s scenario is very similar to what happened at Kent State in May 1970. Clark Kent realizes that this is a formula for trouble and thinks, “Uh-oh … having the military on campus is going to further enrage many students! Time for a mild-mannered TV reporter to take some action!” Changing into Superman, he flies to the scene of an intense standoff between the students and National Guard. Superman delivers a directive from the governor to the Guardsmen: “This is an order from the governor, Colonel! He feels that the local campus police can handle this situation without inciting further trouble! You and your men are to return to base!” The colonel replies, “Yes, sir—Superman!” Here we have an example of Friedrich using Superman as a tool for peace in a volatile time when the nation is split not only along political lines, but also generational ones. As things begin to cool off on campus, Robin and Superman’s attention is drawn to a heated argument between two ideologically opposed brothers: “A free country has to have a strong army to stay free, Marty! Dad didn’t die in Vietnam for nothing!” “How can you say that, little brother? We’ve helped support Mom and Sis for seven years—you call that freedom? If we hadn’t such a big army—or any army—we wouldn’t be in the war!” Superman diffuses this volatile situation by whisking the brothers and Robin away, intending to take them to a more serene setting. Suddenly all four are hurtled into an other-dimensional world. On that planet, the brothers are forced to work together with Robin to rescue a kidnapped Superman. In the end the brothers learn to respect each other’s differing opinions.

ROBIN KEEPS HIS LEFT UP With the Robin story in Batman #230 (Mar. 1971), “Danger Comes A-Looking!,” Mike Friedrich turns his attention again to another important campus issue of the early ’70s, the “Radical Left.” Illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano, the tale continues where Batman #229 left off. After returning from his adventure with Superman,

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Robin is determined to find out who was behind the firebombing of Hudson University’s ROTC building. Clues point to an SDS/Weatherman group called the Students for Democratic Action (SDA). (In the real world, the Weathermen was a Radical Left organization consisting of splintered-off members and leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society [SDS]. The group referred to itself as a “revolutionary organization of communist women and men” whose purpose was to carry out a series of militant actions that would achieve the revolutionary overthrow of the U.S. government, and of capitalism as a whole. The Weathermen imploded shortly after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, which saw the general demise of the New Left.) On campus, Robin is overtaken and beaten up by a group of jocks wearing orange tennis shoes. Later, when he sees a group running with orange tennis shoes, he decides to follow and investigate. The jocks head toward SDA headquarters on campus, where they attack the group’s members. Robin finds himself in the middle of the conflict. “Outa our way, Robin! These militants have gone too far—and we’re stoppin’ ’em!,” yells one of the jocks. “We don’t want reactionaries like you in here, Robin—so out you go!” screams one of the SDA members. Hank Osher, introduced in #229, is one of the SDA leaders and steps in defensively: “The SDA had nothing to do with it! You are the criminals—breaking in here and assaulting us!” Robin busts up the brouhaha: “Cool it, you guys! Break it up—go home—and sleep on it!” Osher storms out, jumps in his car and grouses, “Blasted Robin! He’s like all the cops—ready to break up our movement with any measly excuse!” Just as quickly Osher’s car explodes, killing him. Evidence of explosives similar to those used at the ROTC building is found in the trunk. A disconsolate Robin reflects, “Hank caused his own destruction! Playing with violence is like playing with fire! Sometimes you get burned—permanently! If I only hadn’t focused my mind on stupid orange tennis shoes and looked at the obvious—Hank’s violent temper and his total mistrust of American society—I might have caught up to him to prevent his death!” In Batman #231 (May 1971), Robin appears in the Friedrich story “Wiped Out!” as the Teen Wonder continues to grapple with his perception on campus: “Politically, both the radical left and the reactionary right consider me an enemy—while those in the middle and those who don’t care … distrust me!” In this yarn Robin puts down ring of thieves that turns out to be a Hudson fraternity.

PATRIARCH AND PROTÉGÉ Batman #232 (June 1971) is a landmark issue for many reasons. Aside from the obvious—Ra’s al Ghul’s first appearance, the brilliance of the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams team, and the retelling of Batman and Robin’s origins—it marks the first time Denny O’Neil wrote a Batman and Robin team-up. O’Neil’s approach to the Dynamic Duo is much different than Frank Robbins’ work in Batman #222. In the ’50s and ’60s, the Batman/Robin bond was more like a partnership, played like a couple of “chums” in a secret club. Because of that, many uninformed people saw it

as a latent homosexual liaison. However, O’Neil portrays their relationship like a father and his nearly grown son—a son old enough to leave the nest, but not yet wise enough to know more than or to outthink the “old man.” This is emphasized in O’Neil’s story in Batman #237 (Dec. 1971), the classic “Night of the Reaper.” After Robin is nearly disemboweled by the scythe-wielding Reaper, he plunges headfirst into a stream and nearly drowns. Batman arrives, and after Robin is revived, he says in a paternal manner, “Easy, lad! Save your strength … I’m taking you to a doctor!” While being tended for his injuries by Dr. Gruener (who is actually the Reaper), Robin demands to follow Batman as he pursues the case. Batman snaps a fatherly reprimand: “Negative, son! You’re hurt! You need rest! Stay put … I’ll keep you posted!” At the end of the story, Batman addresses Robin’s naiveté with the remark, “Don’t be stupid, kid!,” O’Neil painting the portrait here of the patriarch and his protégé. Denny O’Neil once again examines the Batman/Robin dynamic in Batman #243 (Aug. 1972), “The Lazarus Pit!” As Batman sets off for his climactic battle with Ra’s al Ghul, the hero’s thoughts reveal a “father’s” expectations of his “son” continuing the family name and business: “If I don’t … survive … it’ll be up to Robin to carry on the tradition of the Batman! Maybe I’m overly proud … in feeling it’s a good tradition!” O’Neil admits to BACK ISSUE, “Batman was pretty paternal during that period.” When asked if Julius Schwartz gave him any direction on how he should handle Robin and how often he should use him, O’Neil replies, “I don’t recall Julie saying much about Robin. Once he trusted me, I had a pretty free hand.” D y n a m i c

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Batman #234 (Aug. 1971) begins Mike Friedrich’s most ambitious Robin story, stretching over three issues. “Vengeance for a Cop!,” drawn by Novick and Giordano, begins with a policeman on the beat who contemplates his complex role in the community: “My name’s Robert Beeker! I’m a cop! My patrol travels right here on the outskirts of Hudson University! Some folks call that the border between the U.S.A. and Woodstock Nation! To sick and fed-up students I’m nothing more than a head-butting establishment ‘pig’! To sick and fed-up townspeople I’m too permissive in combating long-haired anarchist law-breakers! That leaves me smack in the middle—right on the firing line!” Without warning Beeker is shot and wounded by a tall, long-haired young man. Robin pays the recovering policeman a visit. The cop tells Robin that his daughter Nanci has run away upstate to a commune. Vowing to find her, Robin tracks down Nanci through her letters to home and tries to get her to leave with him. Nanci refuses, showing the Teen Wonder a bullet she wears around her neck: “…a reminder of our violent, repressive society—which my father ‘defends’ with his own bullets!” Robin receives a message from Batman saying that the shooting suspect has fled to the commune that Robin’s investigating. Robin is then introduced to Nanci’s new boyfriend, Pat Whalon, who has a wounded leg and is walking with a cane. They invite Robin to join the commune’s festivities, where the Teen Wonder is challenged by the commune’s leader, Jonathan. In the tradition of Robin Hood, Jonathan and Robin duel with staffs, and Robin is bested and is tripped into a river. Because Robin maintains his humility during this rite of passage, Jonathan invites him into the commune. In Batman #235 (Sept. 1971), “The Outcast Society,” Robin voices concern over the commune’s ramshackle facilities, to which Jonathan remarks, “Get outa here! We don’t want your plastic world! We’re the outcast society!” Robin informs Nanci that her father was shot and the suspect is at the commune, deducing that her wounded boyfriend Pat Whalon is the man who shot Officer Beeker. When Robin attempts to arrest Whalon, he is stopped by Jonathan: “He’s a member of our ‘family’—and only the entire group can decide whether to let you arrest him!” With respect to this “family’s” beliefs, Robin joins their ranks, and as one of them persuades the commune to allow him to take Whalon to justice. Largely because of the Batman TV show of the ’60s, Robin had been publicly regarded as the ultimate straight-laced, square teenager, so the Teen Wonder joining a commune is a bold and broad move for Friedrich. The writer pulls this off effectively because he has completely rebuilt Dick Grayson’s character in these solo adventures. “Rain Fire” in Batman #236 (Nov. 1971) concludes the three-parter as Robin works with the commune to control a fire set by a vindictive Pat Whalon at the end of the previous episode. Robin captures Whalon and convinces the commune’s neighbors to help fight the fire and rebuild the commune’s homes, kindling a newfound goodwill between the two formerly disparate societies. Impressed by the Teen Wonder, Nanci agrees to have him escort her back home: “You’ve shaken a lot of my beliefs, Robin!” “No more than the commune shook mine!,” admits Robin; “I’ll never forget this place!”

With Justice League of America #86 (Dec. 1970), Mike Friedrich took over as the super-team book’s regular writer. It only took five issues into his run for him to incorporate our favorite Teen Wonder into a JLA adventure. Justice League of America #91 (Aug. 1971), “Earth—the Monster-Maker!,” illustrated by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella, is the start of the annual two-part JLA-JSA crossover. Friedrich presents us with the first meeting of Robin of Earth-One and Robin of Earth-Two. On Earth-Two, when Bruce Wayne retired from his role as Batman and became police commissioner of Gotham City, Richard Grayson succeeded Wayne in the Batman role. Grayson did not publicly mention that his Batman was a successor to the original, allowing most to assume that Batman merely resurfaced after an absence. Ultimately finding the role of Batman unacceptable, Grayson returned to his original guise of Robin. He modified his costume to closely resemble the Batman costume. This adult Robin joined the Justice Society of EarthTwo as a full member in Justice League of America #55 (Aug. 1967). In part one of the crossover in JLA #91, an alien child goes on a rampage in New Carthage. The Leaguers investigate and hook up with Robin, who’s still on his “Vengeance for a Cop” case. The Teen Wonder impulsively attacks the alien child, only to be brutally battered. Robin of Earth-Two is charged with taking care of Robin of Earth-One. Justice League of America #92 (Sept. 1971), “Solomon Grundy … the One and Only,” finds the Earth-One Robin recovering in the Earth-Two Batcave. As seen in the page below, the two Robins discuss how the JSA and JLA don’t respect them:

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ROBIN AND THE OUTCASTS

Robin’s Costume Crisis In the letters column for JLA #92, editor Julius Schwartz addressed the reaction to the new costume: “There was a mixed bag of letters on the old/new Robin costume; about as many in favor of a switch as for standing pat.” Schwartz printed two opposing opinions to the new costume. Here’s a sampling of the positive and negative reactions: Susan Bregman wrote, “I like it. In his old costume he looked like a twelve-year-old. (You’d think he’d have been embarrassed to put it on after he passed the age of fifteen or so.) Wake up, people. Robin is a big boy now. He’s a college (dare I say it?) MAN and should look like one. Thank you, Neal Adams, for allowing him to.” Mercy Van Vlack countered with, “I am absolutely furious! You’ve changed Robin’s

costume! After all these years of my congratulating you on finally having a seriously dressed comix character!” BACK ISSUE asked DC’s “Answer Man” Bob Rozakis his recollections of Robin’s proposed new costume: “As I recall, I asked Julie if there was any serious consideration given to changing the costume and he said that there would not be, because of licensing agreements.” When asked if Neal Adams was commissioned to redo the costume he said, “As far as I know, Neal designed the costume on his own.” Eventually, a version of the same costume would find its way into DC continuity. The Robin of Earth-Two adopted it as his permanent look starting with All-Star Comics #58 (Feb. 1976).

Working as a team, the two Robins help the JLA subdue the alien child and return him to his own people and world. As Robin goes off his own way, he thinks, “Well, back to my interrupted case … and my original uniform! Funny thing, though—I kinda like this one—I just may keep it!” Under this panel Julius Schwartz has an editor’s note that reads, “What do you think, readers? Would you like Robin to switch to this new costume? Write us—let us know!” [Editor’s note: See sidebar for readers’ reactions.] This would prove to be the only meeting of the two Robins. The Earth-Two Robin would eventually be killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (Mar. 1986). Dick Grayson’s departure for college marked a drastic change for Batman and Robin’s continuity. From that point on, Batman would be a creature of the night, striking fear into the hearts of criminals. Although Mike Friedrich’s run on the character would end in 1972, his portrayal of Robin would resonate through the ’70s and into the ’80s, as Dick Grayson would continue to search for his “place in the sun.” Eventually he found a new identity as Nightwing, leader of the Teen Titans. Batman would take on new Robin partners with Jason Todd and Tim Drake filling the role, with mixed results. But to many faithful readers there is only one, true Robin, and that is Dick Grayson. So that both characters could grow and move forward, the Batman and Robin team needed to be sacrificed— and thanks to writers like Mike Friedrich and Denny O’Neil, the journey getting there made us all the better for it.

MICHAEL KRONENBERG is an art director/designer living in Alexandria, Virginia. He edited and designed the book Spies, Vixens and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy. Currently he is designing the EC Archives books for Gemstone Publishing and TwoMorrows’ Rough Stuff magazine. He is also co-authoring, with Michael Eury, and designing TwoMorrows’ upcoming book The Batcave Companion. Batman © 2007 DC Comics. Batcave Companion © 2007 Michael Eury, Michael Kronenberg, and TwoMorrows.

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The Dynamite Duo: TM

I’ve seen a lot of team-ups of super-heroes in my 30 years of reading comics, but hardly any have entertained me as much as when Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, and their alter egos of Batgirl and Robin teamed up in the pages of Batman Family. There was just something about the Dominoed Daredoll and the Teen Wonder that made their pairing seem ideal. This was partly due to my age when reading this originally and partly due to my love of the characters through their live-action and cartoon incarnations. But it was also partly due to the great writing of their adventures in those pages. Batman Family’s Elliot S! Maggin and Bob Rozakis are fantastic writers who had a handle on the times and made their characters believable, likable, and memorable. I still remember events from those stories as if I’d just read them a few minutes ago, not several years past. Rozakis began his work with Batman Family as assistant editor to editor Julius Schwartz before getting the chance to write several solo and team adventures featuring Batgirl and Robin. He tells BACK ISSUE that he thinks it was Schwartz’s idea to team Batgirl and Robin as a new Dynamite Duo: “The original plan was to alternate teamups of Batgirl and Robin with solo tales of each issue-by-issue,” Rozakis recalls. “Being Julie’s assistant editor meant that I did a first read-through of the scripts and would make comments about plot points, etc. I would also make spelling and grammar corrections. As Julie got more comfortable with my work, he would allow me to do actual editing on the scripts. When I was the writer of the script, Nelson Bridwell usually did the first read-through. Or Julie would just edit it himself. “One interesting Julie editing tip: He would always say that a writer should set aside a script for two days after it is finished, then read it again and see if it needed more work,” Rozakis continues. “I found that this worked quite well; often I would come up with a better turn-of-phrase or line of dialogue a couple of days later.” When Batman Family began [with issue #1, Sept.–Oct. 1975], Elliot S! Maggin wrote the Batgirl stories and the first few team-ups between Batgirl and Robin. Rozakis had worked on Robin’s solo adventures in the backups from Detective Comics. He quickly moved over to keeping track of Robin’s life and times in the pages of Batman Family, as well as keeping a watchful eye on the rest of the cast. “I continued as assistant editor till I moved over to the production department in 1976,” Rozakis says. “All during that period, however, I was looking for more writing work. As Elliot got busy with other projects, I campaigned to handle all the writing in Batman Family.” Rozakis says one of the original goals of Batman Family was to mix these all-new team-ups with reprints of classic tales staring Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Alfred,

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Man-Bat, or any other extended member of the Darknight Detective’s family. “We wanted to have team-up stories in alternate issues, so we had to develop some kind of relationship between Robin and Batgirl,” Rozakis says of the pairing. “As I recall, the readers liked what we were doing. I think we were playing to an audience that appreciated our bringing back characters like Batwoman and tying to the continuity of years past. As with all the series I’ve written, I was trying to recreate the kinds of stories that made me a comics fan. I liked being able to write what I felt were entertaining, self-contained stories, but with some sub-plots that carried the characters along. Julie allowed me to bring back characters like the aforementioned Batwoman and villains like Killer Moth and the Cavalier.” Although it was nice to see the return of some classic characters, one of the best things Rozakis introduced in the pages of Batman Family was the character of Duela Dent, who had a variety of identities including Riddler’s Daughter, Catgirl, and others, including the names she was best known by during the ’70s, Joker’s Daughter and Harlequin. Although most people might remember her as a hero in the pages of Teen Titans and in a few other appearances before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Rozakis says that wasn’t the direction into which he initially planned to take the character. He wanted her © 2007 DC Comics.

(left) Batgirl plants one on her new partner at the end of their first team-up in Batman Family #1. Art by Mike Grell. (below) A fuzzy Batgirl, Robin, guest-star Kid Flash, and Batwoman’s empty costume! From “Old Super-Heroines Never Die—They Just Fade Away!,” written by Bob Rozakis, penciled by Don Heck, and inked by Bob Wiacek. From Batman Family #14 (Oct. 1977). Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

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Here’s another dynamic duo from Batman Family: Batman and Ragman, from the final issue #20 (Oct.-Nov. 1978). Consider this a teaser for our upcoming interview, in issue #24, of this amazing page’s even-more-amazing artist: Michael Golden! Golden’s pencils here were inked by Bob Smith. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

to be different from Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in every possible way. “Originally Duela was supposed to be a recurring villain for Robin,” Rozakis tells BACK ISSUE. “I don’t think we decided on the multiple ‘personalities’ until after the first story was plotted. Ultimately, we decided to make her a heroine instead. The biggest difference from Batgirl was that she was a new character with no backstory until we created one. Also, she was the same age as Dick. Babs, at the time, was a number of years older.”

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Also the same age as Dick Grayson was another romantic interest who got into the crossovers between Robin and Batgirl once or twice, Lori Elton. Rozakis says he enjoyed giving Robin so many potential romantic options. “I made more of a to-do between Lori and Babs when I had Babs show up at Hudson University and give Dick a big hug, which ticked Lori off. Dick was a college student; it seemed logical that he would have more than one girl interested in him … and that he would be attracted to more than one. (My long-term plan in Teen Titans was to add Bette Kane [Bat-Girl] to the mix as well.) But I never viewed his relationship with Babs as a serious one, given the difference in ages. I approached that more as the infatuation of a young man with an older woman. [My favorite part of working on Batman Family] was probably the confrontation between Batgirl and Robin with Duela.” That might be Rozakis’ favorite part, but what a lot of readers remember is the cover to issue #11 (May–June 1977), where Robin and Batgirl appear to be the “stars” of a shotgun wedding. Rozakis says that story was written in response to fans wanting to see the two hook up “We received some letters from readers asking if Robin and Batgirl would ever get married,” Rozakis recalls. “Since this was something that was never really going to happen, we came up with a way to have it occur. “Things were far more ‘conservative’ in comics back then, so if anything did happen between them, it would occur off-panel and only be implied,” Rozakis continues. “An older reader might catch it, but the younger readers would not. However, I don’t think there was anything I was prevented from doing with them [in the stories].” Batman Family lasted 20 issues and ran from 1975–1978. If you enjoy seeing comics from a happier time where heroes could meet, get along, and fight whatever bad guy popped up, while still being G-rated, then search those back-issue bins!

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Brave and the Bold #54 (June–July 1964): The proto-Teen Titans give Robin a taste of independence from Batman Detective Comics #359 (Jan. 1967): Robin meets his future partner in “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!”

1967

World’s Finest Comics #141 (May 1964): Robin and Jimmy Olsen form their own dynamic duo

1964 World’s Finest Comics #184 (May 1969): Robin grows up and gets a new costume in the Imaginary Story “Robin’s Revenge!”

Detective Comics #393 (Nov. 1969): College-ready Robin’s last case with Batman

1969 Batman #217 (Dec. 1969): Dick Grayson splits Gotham for Hudson U and solo adventures

World’s Finest Comics #200 (Feb. 1971): Robin’s first full-length team-up with Superman

Batman #230 (Mar. 1971): Backup featured player Robin’s name added to the Batman logo

1971 Justice League of America #91 (Aug. 1971): Team-up of the Robins of Earth-One and Earth-Two (continued in #92)

Batman Family #1 (Sept.–Oct. 1975): A Mike Grelldrawn Robin/ Batgirl team-up intended for First Issue Special launches this new title

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Teen Titans #44 (Nov. 1976): Robin and the TTs return after a nearly fouryear absence

New Teen Titans #1 (Nov. 1980): Robin leads a new incarnation of the Titans

1976 1980 Detective Comics #525 (Apr. 1983): Introduction of Jason Todd, the soon-to-be Boy Wonder II Detective Comics #526 (May 1983): Jason Todd’s first outing in the Robin costume

1983

The first appearance of Nightwing (in shadows), from this double-page teaser drawn by George Pérez and published in DC Sampler #1 (1983). Original art signed by writer Marv Wolfman. Courtesy of Brett Tolino.

New Teen Titans #39 (Feb. 1984): Dick Grayson abandons his Robin identity

Batman #368 (Feb. 1984): Dick Grayson officially turns over Robin guise to Jason Todd

1984 Tales of the Teen Titans #43 (June 1984): Dick Grayson adopts Nightwing identity

Teen Titans Spotlight #14 (Sept. 1987): First major Nightwing solo story with Nightwing cover logo

1987

Batman #416 (Feb. 1988): First meeting of Nightwing and Jason Todd/ Robin

Batman #428 (late 1988): Readers vote to kill Jason Todd in a phone call-in campaign; Robin dies at the Joker’s hands

1988

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Batman #436 (early Aug. 1989): “Batman: Year 3” tells postCrisis origin of Dick Grayson and introduces soon-to-be Robin Tim Drake

Batman #442 (Dec. 1989): First appearance of Tim Drake as Robin III

1989 Robin vol. 1 #1 (Jan. 1991): First of three miniseries starring Tim Drake as Robin

Robin vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 1993): Tim Drake/ Robin stars in his own solo, monthly series

1991 1993

Batman #512 (Nov. 1994): Dick Grayson temporarily takes over his mentor’s mantle as Batman

Robin vol. 2 #13 (Nov. 1994): Dick Grayson returns to Nightwing guise

1994

Nightwing: Alfred’s Return #1 (1995): One-shot, Nightwing’s first solo title

Nightwing vol. 1 #1 (Sept. 1995): Nightwing headlines his own four-issue miniseries

1995

Nightwing vol. 2 #1 (Oct. 1996): Nightwing begins his own long-running monthly series

1996

Old-time radio expert and comics color artist Anthony Tollin, who colored George Pérez’s original Nightwing costume design, tells BACK ISSUE, “I originally suggested the name ‘Nighthawk,’ until [New Teen Titans editor] Len Wein reminded me of the Marvel character with that name.” Tollin next offered the name “Nightwing” as a link to Superman’s Silver Age costumed alter ego (Superman and Jimmy Olsen occasionally fought crime in the Bottle City of Kandor as Nightwing and Flamebird). According to Tollin, Nightwing was the only one of 20 proposed names for the character that was acceptable to DC Comics’ legal department.

cond ucte d Nove mbe r 17, 2006

There was much change in the air for Batman in the late 1980s: The second Robin, Jason Todd, was killed at the hands of the Joker (urged through a call-in vote), and the Batman movie (starring Michael Keaton) was released and started a tidal wave of Batmania (a cultural phenomenon that rivaled the Batmania of 1966 and, perhaps, has remained unparalleled since). In the midst of all of this change and excitement, writer Alan Grant and penciler Norm Breyfogle were jazzing up Batman himself, first in the pages of Detective Comics, then in Batman, and eventually in a title created to showcase this creative dynamic duo, Batman: Shadow of the Bat. —Christopher Irving CHRISTOPHER IRVING: The first Batman comic you two did together was Detective Comics #583 (Feb. 1988), which introduced the villain the Ventriloquist. Where were you both, at that point in your careers? ALAN GRANT: I was the co-writer on Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Robo-Hunter, and several other hit stories for 2000 AD. I badly wanted to break into America, as did my partner, John Wagner, but we didn’t really have a super-hero-type sensibility. Batman, of course, not being a super-hero, fit us exactly. When Denny O’Neil [then the Batman group editor] called and asked us if we wanted to do a two-part trial story, we jumped at the chance. Denny wanted us to make it as gritty and violent as we were making Judge Dredd. I think that’s exactly what we did. I was happy with the results, and the Ventriloquist became a pretty long-lasting villain. I still get a royalty check every once in a while, even when they made the toy of him. IRVING: And where were you, Norm? NORM BREYFOGLE: I was in my second or third year of drawing comics professionally; I had just gotten off of a year and a half on Whisper for First Comics; it was a 26-page bimonthly comic book with painted covers (and I was also doing the lettering). I got a pretty swift training period there. I’d always wanted to draw comics, and I’d always wanted to draw Batman. My agent at the time, Mike Friedrich (who is no longer my agent), put the word out, and I wound up having a meeting with Dick Giordano, in Santa Barbara (he was coming back from the San Diego Comic-Con, when I was living in Santa Maria, California, at the time). I met up with him and his assistant, Pat Bastienne, and showed them some samples. It wasn’t too long after that before I started getting work from DC: First up were a couple of opportunities in New Talent Showcase, then Batman came up and I jumped at it. I always find it amusing that Alan doesn’t think of Batman as a super-hero. Would the term “ultra hero,” “big-time hero,” or “costumed hero” apply…? IRVING: “Action Hero”? GRANT: Just “hero,” actually. He’s a self-made man. BREYFOGLE: That’s true. IRVING: He doesn’t rely on any super-powers. 1 8

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Big Trouble for Batman This late-’80s Norm Breyfogle marker commission pits the Darknight Detective against a bellowing behemoth. From the collection of Scott McAdam, via Jerry Boyd. Batman © 2007 DC Comics.

GRANT: He doesn’t need to be bitten by the proverbial radioactive spider, or hit by cosmic rays, or need a vat full of chemicals to splash all over him … he turned himself from a heartbroken child into a spirit of vengeance. BREYFOGLE: I’ve always been amused by that, because you’ve written a lot of science-fiction-themed stories— even Batman has science-fiction elements with his technology … what you’re saying is, it’s not science fiction you have a problem with, and it’s not the heroes, it’s somehow combining the two into a character that has super-powers that you have a problem with. GRANT: Hmmmmm…. [laughs] I’ve written characters with super-powers, like the Hulk, who is a Jekyll and Hyde. I’ve written Superman, Supergirl, and Superboy—all their powers are “deus ex machina,” whereas Batman’s only power that he has is the power of the indomitable human spirit. BREYFOGLE: Right. IRVING: It’s interesting you guys are saying this (and I’m dating myself here), but I grew up on your Batman run, along with Jim Aparo’s before that. What I’ve always noticed about your Batman stories is that they tended to start, when you wrote them, Alan, with Batman beating some thugs up. [Alan laughs] You established who and what he was in two to three pages while he beat up some generic thug … and Norm, what I always noticed about your work on Batman was that you always seemed to draw Batman from the criminal’s perspective in those scenes. You almost turned him into something more than human. BREYFOGLE: I was actually drawing him from the fan’s point of view, and I think that it’s pretty much the same thing, because Batman (from a fan’s point of view) is at his most dynamic when he’s seen through the eyes of one of his nemeses. I can see what you’re saying. I didn’t consciously try to draw him from the criminal’s point of view, per se: I was just trying to make him look as cool as possible. IRVING: Norm, what was your impression of Alan’s Ventriloquist script? BREYFOGLE: It jumped right off the page at me. It was one of those “Eureka” moments, only it wasn’t my “Eureka,” it was Alan’s in that the scary Ventriloquist character is pretty much a mainstay, and has been depicted in other genres, specifically horror. Batman has a really horrific element, especially in his cast of villains. That was perfect, and I wondered, “How come no one has done this before?” That sort of character had been around since the ’50s. I think the first time I saw anything like that would have been in The Twilight Zone, maybe in the early ’60s. There was also a movie called Dead of Night, or something, that was about a character trapped in a circular dream (with no end) and there was a ventriloquist character in there. This kind of thing used to terribly scare me as a child. I was amazed, when I first saw it in Batman, that no one had ever done it before for Batman. It was perfect. GRANT: The ventriloquist dummy has been a mainstay in horror, and you can understand that because they seem so realistic. They can seem to take on a life of their own when they’re in the hands of their masters. John and I created the Ventriloquist and Scarface as villains for a Judge Dredd story, and finally got the Batman job from Denny and decided the Ventriloquist would make a better villain for Batman, because he’d be able to be recurring. If he were a villain for Judge Dredd, Judge Dredd would have shot him dead and it’d be over.

Beginnings: Tarzan and the Sabretooth Tiger, published in Finland circa 1979–1980 / followed by “Earn Big Money While You Sleep,” a short SF tale for a comic called Starlord, which was later merged into 2000AD

Milestones: Being asked by John Wagner to co-write Judge Dredd with him (also Strontium Dog, Robo-Hunter, and a dozen others) / being asked by Denny O’Neil to try out for Batman (I got 13 years of work out of that phone call) / Ace Lightning kids TV series (my first TV work, and hugely enjoyable) / Lobo / L.E.G.I.O.N.

Works in Progress: The graphic novel of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, with full color art by Cam Kennedy, just released as UNESCO’s “One Book, One City” campaign (www.cityofliterature.com) / 90-minute animated movie Dominator-X (www.dominatorthemovie.com; summer 2007) / new Robo-Hunter series for 2000AD / also working on a new (Scottish-set) novel, a screenplay for an established Hollywood actor, and my company Bad Press Ltd. hopes to put out a new adult humor comic in late 2007

ALAN GRANT

Beginnings: Tech Team (22-page B&W comic written, penciled, and inked by Norm; published by Michigan Technological University in 1978) / various stories in New Talent Showcase (1984) / Bob Violence (backup in American Flagg) (1985) / Deadtime Stories #1 (1987, New Comics Group) / Marvel Fanfare (various stories, 1985–1991)

Milestones: Whisper / Detective Comics / Batman / Batman: Shadow of the Bat / Batman, various graphic novels / Prime / Metaphysique (creatorowned, -written, and -illustrated, published by Malibu Comics’ Bravura imprint 1994–1995) / Anarky / Hellcat / The Spectre / Black Tide / Of Bitter Souls (Speakeasy Comics and Markosia Comics)

Works in progress: The Danger’s Dozen (First Salvo) / various illustration jobs via Debut Art (Londonbased art representative agency)

Cyberspace: www.normbreyfogle.com / www.debutart.com/Search2.asp? ARTIST_NAME=Breyfogle+Norm / www.debutart.com / www.firstsalvo.com

NORM BREYFOGLE

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BREYFOGLE: You had a Ratcatcher-type character for Judge Dredd, too, and then introduced a similar character in Batman, so it could’ve appeared in both places under different names. GRANT: I guess he could, but we pulled him from a Judge Dredd story we were working on. That’s ancient history, dare I say. [laughter] IRVING: What amazes me is how many characters you introduced in your first year, like Joe Potato and Ratcatcher. But then, with Detective #601 (June 1989) John Wagner left the scripting in your hands, Alan. Why’d he split? GRANT: I guess I might as well be honest: John and I wrote the first five issues of Detective together. Then John went off on holiday, and I did an issue on my own. The same time that John came back from holiday was the same time the royalty checks came in, and there were no royalties. [laughter] BREYFOGLE: You had a royalty statement that said zero, huh?

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GRANT: Less than zero, actually. The break-even figure for Detective Comics, the monthly, at that time was 80,000. They only sold about 75,000. Basically, DC was subsidizing Batman and Detective Comics. John didn’t have the same love for Batman that I’ve had since childhood. I’ve read Batman comics since I was three years old, with a big gap from my early twenties to when I started writing it. To John, he would much rather work on characters that he’d created, like Judge Dredd, for instance. We were also working on a story at Epic Comics for Archie Goodwin called The Last American, which was a creator-owned story where a British artist named Mike McMahon had done the art. After a particularly bad week at work, we discovered that we’d not only not made any progress, but we’d junked about seven pages that we’d written. John and I decided to scrap our partnership. He decided, arbitrarily (although I agreed to it), that he would take Judge Dredd and I’d take Batman. I was lacking in self-confidence on writing Batman [Detective Comics] on my own, so I kept John’s name on my scripts until the end of the first year. IRVING: Interesting. So, Norm, did you know that the Batman sales weren’t that great when you were given the assignment? BREYFOGLE: I don’t recall … I probably didn’t really care, I just knew I was drawing Batman and that was pretty good. I wasn’t counting on royalties to keep me going, since the page rate was pretty good to what I was used to. Just before I broke into comics, I was working as a technical illustrator at an Air Force base. It was paying the bills, but it wasn’t as good as I was getting from DC. DC paid better than First Comics, too, of course. I was happy. IRVING: A lot happened within the first two years of your working on Detective. Jason, the second Robin, was killed [in Batman #428], in the later part of 1988. Then the Batman movie came out in the summer afterwards. Alan, how did that affect the way you approached the stories and, Norm, did that affect your approach in drawing Batman? GRANT: The major effect it had on the story, in knowing that Robin was going to die, was in my creating the character of Anarky. I had hoped, without mentioning it to anyone at all (even Norman), that [Anarky] would become the next Robin. I didn’t know that at that time, Denny and Marv Wolfman had been in secret talks about the development of a new Robin [Tim Drake]. When the Batman movie came out, the sales went up, if I recall correctly, from around 75,000 to about 675,000. That didn’t really affect the storywriting at all—what affected the storywriting was that, at that time, Norm and I had met up and I’d seen the results of his artwork on my script, and it was obvious there was a synergy between us. Looking back at our work, I still believe that, because it jumps off the page. That effect was because I’d met Norman, and because there was some kind of bug between us. We hit off each other … everything, from my point of view, became more dynamic. I just loved Norm’s artwork. Anyway, I’ll let Norm answer you now….

BREYFOGLE: The main effect from the death of Robin wasn’t so much that it affected anything, except that there was a new Robin costume later. Anarky, of course, was among the best, if not the best, of the characters that Alan created. Alan really created him— along with the other characters—and I was just along for the ride and lucky to be there. [Alan laughs] GRANT: Thank you! You flatter me! BREYFOGLE: I would’ve drawn just as well for anybody else, but I really enjoyed your stories and, like you said, there was a synergy. It was because we both loved Batman. I always wanted to draw Batman, and you always wanted to write Batman. You were giving the readers and Batman fans like myself, what we wanted to see and I was overjoyed to draw this stuff.

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The only thing that bothered me a little bit was that I didn’t get to draw the classic Rogues’ Gallery [Alan laughs]. I got to draw the Joker maybe twice. Alan was creating all these new characters, and I was drawing them. But looking back on that, it was much better that Alan didn’t want to write the classic Rogues’ Gallery and wanted to create new characters. It set our place in Batman history and mythos more firmly. Back to Robin, as Alan said, the one thing that he thought of regarding Robin was Anarky, who became—even more than Batman—a more synergistic element between Alan and me. It was the fruition of our professional relationship in that we were discussing (through faxes) a lot of the philosophical issues, day by day, that Alan was putting into the Anarky storyline. Anarky was created for Batman, and was a new character that I got to design. It was probably the biggest thing that came out of the death of Robin for us, although I did do some designs for the Robin costume, none of which DC chose. DC ended up going with Neal Adams’ costume design for Robin, with only a couple of my elements included. The Batman movie mostly affected us by boosting sales a bit. It mostly affected me, maybe a year later, when word came from above (Denny related it, but I don’t think it was his decision) to make the comic books look a lot more like the movie. First of all, we started using [the Batman movie’s designer] Anton Furst’s Gotham City designs in the drawing and, shortly after that, started drawing an all-black suited Batman, as well. IRVING: Alan, you’d mentioned that Marv and Denny were talking about Tim Drake, about the time you were creating Anarky. How soon after Jason Todd’s death did they decide there’d be a successor to Robin? GRANT: I would be willing to bet that Denny had already decided before Robin was killed off, that there would be a replacement Robin after a certain period of time. He wouldn’t have to worry for a little while, but he had to know that comic companies don’t kill off characters, because that means throwing money down the toilet. When you think of the amount of merchandise that Robin sells in a year, there has to not only be a Robin, there has to be a Robin that gets frequent costume updates and a vehicle to ride around in. They make much, much more off the Batman toys then they’d make on the Batman comics. IRVING: With your Batman run (after leaving Detective), you also brought in this second batch of characters: Harold, Ace the Bat-Hound … there was even this great Killer Croc story with an underground Gotham that I remember coming home from school and reading. GRANT: I like to hear stories like yours.... One of the big things I loved about working on Detective, Batman, and Shadow of the Bat was that every issue they ran a two-page letters column that gave direct feedback from the reader. 99% of that was good, and then I guess for purposes of saving cash—but not a lot of cash, as it only costs $100 a page to produce it—they cut all the letters pages, and suddenly there’s no contact between the readers. BREYFOGLE: The only place you can get feedback now is online, which brings a whole lot more difficulties with it, not that I’ve looked into it, but I’ve read about it. For instance, even conclusions to storylines are more readily given away online. I think that’s a problem (I suppose today that it doesn’t make too much a difference since most readers have computers), but also I wonder how many comics fans today would like to have the letters columns back. Not only is it handy to have them right there in the publication, but they’re also permanently in print, and that makes a big difference. Fandom was almost dealt a blow by losing that kind of permanence. GRANT: I had to read through the first three years’ worth of Detective that Norm drew and I wrote, quite recently, for another project. I read every letters page, and what should’ve taken me four hours to do took about ten hours, because every issue had great, 2 2

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great, thoughtful letters from different people. When that happens, it really shows that you’ve got a handle on what you’re doing. Unless you’ve got something spectacular going on, or a disaster going down, people will accept what you’re giving them every month, but they’re ready to tell you that they love something. IRVING: I think there’s a sincerity to that, that you don’t really get with message boards … the whole culture is a Pandora’s box, if you ask me. [laughter] You made everything work, giving Batman and Robin a human element. For two to three years prior to today, Batman was the biggest joke. He had no social skills, even for a guy who dresses as a bat. [laughter] GRANT: There are very, very few people who have the ability that Denny O’Neil had both as a writer and (more importantly) an editor. He knew what to do with Batman and, when we were doing something wrong in any way, he knew to tell us to get us right. After Denny left—I think they kept him on as a consultant, but that kind of thing is meaningless—his expertise, sheer knowledge of, and love for Batman kept us on track for 13 years, altogether, and 12 of them were with Denny as my boss. I could find no better editor; everything I learned about Batman, I learned from him. IRVING: First Norm, then Alan: How do you view your entire run on Batman, Detective, and Shadow of the Bat, somewhere between five and seven years? You don’t see creative teams work together that long anymore. BREYFOGLE: I’ve done a number of things since Batman that, in my opinion, I’ve executed better: I’ve become

better at drawing faces than I generally was back then. If you look at all my Batman output, you can see an increase in quality. But since Batman was so visible, and since I loved drawing the character so much, and because I enjoyed Alan’s stories and the interaction between Alan and myself, I consider it the high point of my comics career to this day. I don’t know if I can say anything more praiseworthy about it than that. Other than that, it set my career in comics. As we all know, there are a lot of people trying to break into comics, and it’s pretty difficult because there’s so much competition and not enough market for all the talent. My years on Batman solidified my place in the comics industry, and it looks like I’m always going to have work somewhere, which is nice. GRANT: From my point of view, up until John Wagner and I split, almost my entire comic career I’d been an editor, which I enjoyed. I always saw myself as an D y n a m i c

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editor rather than a writer. Before Batman, almost all of my writing was done with John Wagner on his characters, which he knew inside-out. He taught me all that I know about writing. Suddenly, I had to find it in myself to write characters, without John’s assistance. I think that it was Denny’s help and Norm on the artwork, that it really, really worked. I came in to my own at that point and, like Norman says, it’s amongst my best work that I’ve ever done in any of the comics. I’ve done a whole load of stuff that I was very happy with, like L.E.G.I.O.N. ’98, like Lobo in particular, The Demon Etrigan … I enjoyed doing all of these things. I have to say that I’m continually amazed that DC hasn’t released loads and loads of the stuff that Norm and I did. I think that it’s actually quite important. I won’t say that we reinvented Batman, but we took what Bill Finger and Bob Kane saw Batman as in the late 1930s and stripped him back and gave him supporting characters that complimented him. I’m really happy with what we did, and am amazed that DC hasn’t done anything with it, like a Showcase Presents. BREYFOGLE: That’s what I’ve heard from fans, as well, numerous times. They’d like to know if DC planned on collecting Alan’s and my work in a trade paperback. I have to tell them that it’s not my decision, but that I’d be all for it, of course. IRVING: It’d be great to see it all in one big Showcase volume, and in black and white.

(left) Breyfogle takes on four villains in this 2003 commission. (right) Promo art for First Salvo’s The Danger’s Dozen. Batman characters © 2007 DC Comics. Danger’s Dozen © 2007 Thad Branco; art ©2007 Norm Breyfogle.

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BREYFOGLE: That brings up something else, too. DC recently collected Neal Adams’ Batman artwork. Neal Adams was the ultimate Batman artist for me growing up, and he’s always going to hold that place for me in a lot of ways. When I went through the Adams Batman collection, I was surprised, a little dismayed, and a little amused that Adams had gone through and done a lot of corrections. And a lot of the corrections weren’t as good as the original art. [laughter] I understand Neal’s motivation, and I brought this up because when I look at Alan’s and my Batman issues now, the parts that I could now draw better really leap out at me, and it’s tempting to want to redraw it like Adams did. But there’s something about preserving the past, even with the flaws, that’s important. GRANT: I wouldn’t want you to change any of it, Norman. I wouldn’t physically hold you down. [laughter] I told you that I read all the issues, and not only do they hold up really well now, but they’re better than almost anything that’s come out of Batman since we were off it. A lot of great bands will put out just one or two great albums that are brilliant, but we did it consistently month after month after month. I can remember the excitement when I wrote these stories, that they are important to me.

Michael Aushenker

Some things you just can’t plan. Take, for instance, the case of fan favorite Gene Colan, a Caucasian artist who, as the original penciler of the characters Blade and Brother Voodoo, found himself, by the mid-1970s, in the unlikely role of pioneering the black super-hero movement. And it all began in September 1969, when Colan drew the first African-American super-hero (as opposed to comics’ first African super-hero, the Black Panther) in the original biracial super-hero buddy saga: Captain America and the Falcon.

THE ICEBERG MAN COMETH Decades before The Truth: Red, White & Black gave us revisionist history in the form of a glorified “What If?” portraying an African-American super-soldier-serum guinea pig, Marvel Comics explored the flip side of the values represented by Captain America to comment on race in the U.S.A. … and made history in the process. The year was 1969. The vehicle was first a team, then a title, in the form of Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) and his partner-in-fighting-crime, the Falcon— the first Anglo-/African-American super-hero duo in comics … and with it came some strained race relations. Racial conflict plaguing Green Lantern and Green Arrow is one thing, souring relations between Black Lightning and Superman is another … but Captain America? Arguably more than the Last Son of Krypton, Cap embodied the American spirit—an iconic incarnation of our democratic ideals; the living, fighting U.S. flag, busting Nazi helmets and crushing evil Commies. Yet by the dawn of the 1970s, in the complex wake of the Civil Rights Movement, those ideals were reexamined, internalized, scrutinized. In a sign of the times, Marvel’s writers, led by Silver Age architect Stan Lee, sent the Sentinel of Liberty (freshly defrosted from an iceberg where he lie in suspended animation since World War II)

Long Before Power Man/Iron Fist… …Cap and Falc made history as comics’ first biracial super-duo. The cover to the Falcon’s first appearance in Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969). Art by Gene Colan and Joe Sinnott. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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into a different war, not against an external enemy but a war brewing inside America … inside Captain America himself. The war at home. The war against racism.

trusty falcon aide-de-camp of an unidentified black man trapped on the island. Cap convinces the man to go super-hero to “serve as a symbol to the natives.” The Falcon gradually found his footing as a superhero. Initially flightless, he crossed town via his grappling hook-equipped southpaw gauntlet, allowing him to “fly” from rooftop to rooftop. After fighting alongside the Super-Soldier, Falcon fell out of the spotlight for a minute when Cap’s original sidekick Bucky Barnes made his ostensible reemergence … but the high-flying fighter was destined to return in a big way….

ENTER THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN SUPER-HERO Everyone knows the Black Panther, the first black superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966. Following the introduction of this moonlighting African king, the ’60s almost ended before a second black superhero would arrive … but when he did, he really took off. In Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969), Lee once again co-created an enduring black super-hero, this time the alter ego of Sam Wilson, an African-American who day-jobbed it as a Harlem social worker. Lee, Colan, and inker Joe Sinnott introduced the Falcon via an origin as awkward as his initial green-and-orange costume (the more popular red-and-white winged version arrived by the mid-1970s). In “The Coming of the Falcon,” Cap winds up in a Red Skull-devised hell on the tropical Isle of the Exiles. He is saved by Redwing,

The original dynamic duo of Captain America and Bucky in an undated pencil commission by Jack Kirby. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

JEALOUSY: THE BLUE-EYED MONSTER

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Until #133, Captain America appeared to fly on autopilot—Red Skull, Cosmic Cube, Nazis, M.O.D.O.K. and his A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) minions. In hindsight, Lee was dropping clues all along: i.e., when an android Bucky was dispatched to mess with Cap’s mind while a sidelined Falcon, with love triangle intensity, pined to fight alongside the Star-Spangled Avenger but felt his chances dashed by the return of “Bucky.” Astonishing fact: It was a Caucasian man with a really big head who paired Cap with the Falcon. No, that’s not a swipe at Stan Lee, but an allusion to that ugly fathead super-villain less famously known as the “Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.” M.O.D.O.K. intentionally threw the two heroes together after deciding to manipulate the ghetto masses in a scheme to destroy Cap … not based on any philosophical or political differences, but on appearances! In a weird inversion of Hitler’s mentality, he was jealous of the blueeyed, blond super-hero’s perfection. M.O.D.O.K. says it all in a soliloquy: “When I think of HIM—So straight, and tall, and handsome—and then I see—MYSELF! … I remain a grotesque and pitiful freak—imprisoned in a nightmare form! And now all my hatred, all my loathing, is centered on one man—the man who is everything that I am not! The man who stands for everything I do not! Captain America! The man I must destroy!” With Bucky outed as a Nazi android replica, Falcon returned to Cap’s side. Their pairing became so popular that, in #134, the series was renamed Captain America and the Falcon (CA&F). An impressive roster of Marvel’s best pencilers—as diverse as the duo themselves— interpreted these crimebusting crusaders across CA&F’s decade-long run: Colan (1969–1971), John Romita, Sr. (1971), Sal Buscema (1973–1975), Frank Robbins (1975), and Jack Kirby (1976–1978).

UNDER THE COMMAND OF COLAN POWER

WINGING IT

With the Falcon, Gene Colan proved, as he would again, to be at the epicenter of the black super-hero movement. Colan originated Falcon a few years before he co-created Blade and Brother Voodoo (in Tomb of Dracula and Strange Tales, respectively). A few months prior to Falcon’s debut, Lee and Colan handled the poignant, racially charged Daredevil story “Brother, Take My Hand” (#47, Dec. 1968). The esteemed penciler, on his website—genecolan.com—considers it among his all-time greatest work. “Anything that had a good message at this was important to me,” says Colan. “That [issue] certainly was.” He doesn’t remember creating or designing the Falcon, although “the fans tell me I definitely did.” What he knows emphatically is that the Falcon was an immediate sensation and his frequent appearances in Captain America blossomed organically, not from a master plan to team the crimefighters. “It was a popular character,” Colan tells BACK ISSUE. “They wanted to see him around, [like] Blade.” Reality check: It won’t come as a news flash that there might have been more super-heroes of color (and sooner) had the big companies employed more black talent back in the day. One can only speculate … at the very least, more nuance and authenticity might have been embroidered to existing African-American characters. But sometimes progress rides in on training wheels, and as custodian to the early black superheroes, Colan not only drew them, he drew pride from them. [Editor’s note: For more on this subject, see BACK ISSUE #8, our “Black Super-Heroes” issue.] “I enjoy doing those characters,” says Colan, who relished collaborating with Lee. He recalls a rare instance when Lee gingerly chastised him after the artist went wild in Captain America. The culprit: a ground-breaking, San Francisco-set policier starring Steve McQueen. “I just came out of the movie theater after seeing Bullitt, Colan recalls. “I was so impressed with the photography of that car chase … I wanted to put such a scene in … took about five or six pages to do it. [Lee] called me on the carpet … he said, ‘Gene, you could’ve done it in two panels.’ I seldom read ahead on a script, I liked to be surprised myself. But if you eat up five or six pages, you get in trouble, trying to cram the rest of the story in.” It should be no surprise that the cinematic artist admits a direct Hollywood influence dating back to when, at age five, he got a jolt from Frankenstein. He evokes many analogies to film when discussing his work and, in fact, he tried to write one. “I went to see Roger Corman,” recalls the creator of the Falcon of the director of The Raven. “I had an idea for a movie called False Face. I couldn’t get past his secretary. So my wife gave me the idea to call Roger Corman and tell him Warner Bros. is calling … he came right to the phone.” Corman rejected Colan. But cinema’s loss was comics’ gain. So did Colan feel any responsibility given the paucity of black champions? “Only to make them look like heroes.”

Technically, CA&F was not about a duo but a trio with brio. Not to be overlooked was Wilson’s own sidekick, an actual falcon named Redwing. Wilson’s Argus-eyed avenging angel always came through in a pinch without losing his feathers, a credit to his species (falco sparverious). Whether leading the StarSpangled Sentinel to the Falcon, or blindsiding a baddie at a crucial moment, Falcon’s trusty bird of prey delivered. Redwing may have been Falcon’s sidekick, but the Falcon was no Tonto to Cap’s Lone Ranger. Wilson had a will of his own. He was not afraid to defy his partner, the living embodiment of the American flag, no less. Apparently, it was unavoidable for Marvel to recast Cap in 1970s Manhattan, pair him with a black character, and not acknowledge the plight of urban America. Initially, it takes some adjustment to watch the Super-Soldier, plucked from World War II’s battlefields, run around Harlem (like 007 in Live and Let Die). But soon, this fish-out-of-water takes to his environs, and the running subplot of Rogers doubling as a police officer (dealing with the querulous Kirby clone, Sgt. Brian Muldoon, accused of taking bribes) provided a logical device to keep Cap’s ear to the streets while forcing him to question his own core beliefs. As for Wilson, he constantly dealt with racism from both ends. To his hostile black militant lady friend Leila and black-power advocate Rafe Michel (whom Sam witnessed Leila cheating with in #153), Sam Wilson/Falcon could do no right. Both aliases were repeatedly accused of being a sell-out, an “Uncle Tom,” for working with “whitey.” Wilson has his own troubles, trying to keep his nephew Jody’s nose clean after he becomes a numbers-runner (#134; Jody would return in #138, mistakenly named “Toby” before appearing again as Jody in later issues).

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Philosophical differences on how to better their race constantly kept Leila at arm’s length from Sam and kept the couple quarreling. Meanwhile, Cap would say something borderline racist that would strain his friendship with Wilson and send the Falcon in a tailspin questioning whether his brethren were right. Complex super-hero ethics for complicated times. CA&F became a bumpy, compelling ride. The interstice between Rogers and Wilson was often palpably fraught with tension, their friendship fraying under the strain of racially charged drama. Writer Jerry Boyd, a contributor to various TwoMorrows publications, welcomed the stretch Lee took by ditching Cap’s “Easy Rider bit … [riding] his motorcycle … agonizing over a super-patriot’s role in the ‘New Left’ era of the Love Generation,” and giving him a dynamic new partner. As a young African-American reader, Boyd enjoyed the Falcon, albeit with reservations: “The thing that I disliked most was his early ‘I’ve gotta live up to Cap’s training and trust’ attitude … it may have been better if he’d acquired his powers/abilities independently of Steve Rogers.” The Falcon chapter of #144 (“The Falcon Fights Alone,” Dec. 1971) stands out as odd and memorable, and not only because it begins with a voyeuristic Captain America spying through a window on Sam and Leila’s turbulent relationship (“You’re some kind of man but I can’t go your route … as long as you turn your back on your people,” Leila breaks it to Sam. “Either you’re with us or you’re against us! And there’s only one way you can go … if you want to make it with me!”). A Gary Friedrich story illustrated by sci-fi/ fantasy artist Gray Morrow, the idiosyncratic imagery here feels at odds with the polished Colan/Romita work—almost primitive in comparison—but that’s not

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a pejorative. Effective, evocative, and ghetto-gritty, Morrow’s art looks pitch perfect for a gripping story that illuminates the crack in Steve and Sam’s partnership and picks up where #143 (Nov. 1971) left off, after Captain America inadvertently offends the Falcon with a brusque comment on a rooftop overlooking a Harlem spared of a race riot: “Well, all’s quiet for now … but who knows what little something it will take to make them explode again!” This ruffles Falcon’s feathers: “I don’t think I like the way you put that, partner! They … WE … got reason to blow up!” In #144’s Friedrich/Morrow collabo, Cap, following Leila’s angry departure, enters Sam’s apartment through a window and apologizes: “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded! I know it’s tough playing the hero role … and being black can’t make it any easier…” to which Wilson counters, “YOU know? You know what it’s like to be sneered at by your own people… That’s the trouble with you whites! You think you’ve got all the answers … when you don’t even ask the right questions!…” The conversation continues—Cap: “You’ve done a great deal of good here … not only as a social worker … but as the Falcon, too!” Wilson: “Yeah? Well, if that’s true … then how come I’m ashamed to show my face on the street? But I’m gonna change all of that! I’m gonna be proud, baby. Proud to be black! … As far as you and I as a team … forget it! … The Falcon fights alone!” Powerful stuff. Falcon even suffers an inferiority complex in #137 (Apr. 1971). When Spider-Man patronizes Falcon mid-battle with “I’m just waiting for you to send number one,” Falcon thinks, “Cap! Why must it always be Cap? I’ll prove I can do this on my own!” He throws punches at the wall-crawler, shouting, “Cap’s my partner—sure! But no one has to wet nurse me!” Some readers, such as Boyd, felt that Falcon’s kvetching was overkill. “Sam’s despairing over his not being on Cap’s level was not only awkwardly handled … unrealistic. Sure, you have to have the Marvel angst, but Sam overused the privilege,” opines Boyd. “It kind of galled me that he sat around his Harlem office debating whether or not he was ‘an Uncle Tom.’ Why should he have felt that way…? He’d helped save the world on at least one occasion (#140–142).” Nevertheless, notes Boyd, the intent expressed by pairing the heroes was a positive one. “Overall, I felt the black/white issues between Sam and Steve were handled well and with the type of sensitivity Marvel had long been noted for. Thankfully, [writers Gary] Friedrich and [Steve] Englehart, probably due to their youth, handled Falc fairly well.”

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE NICK FURY SCORNED Bruised feelings between Captain America and Falcon was not the only tension circulating. Cap had a memorable falling out with Nick Fury, employer of Rogers’ love interest, Sharon Carter (Agent 13). A bustling Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement-centric plotline, engineered by Englehart, culminates in #152 after Sharon is kidnapped. Hot on the heels of this dilemma, in the story’s closing panels, Col. Fury arrives to chew out the shield-toting super-hero, and Cap responds by decking him. Next issue, Fury returns with a mechanized arm to duke it out in Rogers’ apartment. They level the joint fighting (during the battle Cap misses Fury and throws his shield out the window without retrieving it—and we never actually learn how he gets his shield back). Fury’s excuse for attacking Cap is much the same as M.O.D.O.K.’s: envy:“Pal, do you know I used to be your age—before you got yourself frozen solid for 20 years,” shouts Fury as he decks Captain America. “I kept on livin’—fightin’ for my country! Through World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War— I lived those 20 years, getting’ gray for America—and then YOU pop up, all blond, blue-eyed—and young!” See, Fury mistakenly thinks that his gal pal Val has fallen for Cap, but he simmers down once the sexy (albeit a tad hysterical) S.H.I.E.L.D. agent shows up to declare her love for her commander … in the “Nick” of time.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD The Stan and Gene team proved as explosive and propulsive a duo on paper as Steve and Sam, girding Kirby-sized plots to the machinations of various Jack flak (M.O.D.O.K., A.I.M., Red Skull) and ghetto boss Stone Face (later one-upped in Englehart’s run by another Harlem crime kingpin, Morgan). Each issue of CA&F was divided into chapters, setting an exciting template reminiscent of Republic serials with multiple cliffhangers per issue. But three issues into the newly christened title, John Romita took over Colan’s gig with a crossover (his specialty: ol’ web-head) across #137–138. Some of the slickest, savviest-looking issues came courtesy of the Amazing Spider-Man artist extraordinaire. Romita-drawn highlights: the dramatic #139 (June 1971), where Rogers temporarily forfeits his Star-Spangled Sentinel persona to become a policeman; #145, which featured the novelty of Romita inking Gil Kane on Steranko-inspired wordless visual narratives as tight and clean as animation cels; and the outstanding #143 (“Power to the People”), featuring a madcap race-war plot involving Rafe and Leila, led by the hooded leader of the People’s Militia which, in a surprise twist, was revealed to be—the Red Skull. In an issue brimming with highlights, Johnny R. proved he could delineate ladies of any ethnicity: witness his version of Wilson’s confrontational love interest. Despite Lee’s pedigree, the stories only improved when Friedrich and Englehart inherited CA&F, whether writing separately or collaboratively. Under Englehart’s tenure came myriad memorable issues, solidly illustrated by Sal Buscema and embellished by John Verpoorten, Vince Colletta, and Frank Giacoia. Always dependable, John Buscema’s bro created some of his crispest art in #154–156 (Sept.–Dec. 1972), where imposter Captain A. and Bucky (both nutjobs and blatant bigots spewing trash about “coloreds”) show up to kidnap the Falcon while lovesick Steve and Sharon prance around the Bahamas (recuperating after a post-kidnapped Sharon quit S.H.I.E.L.D.). As the plot thickens, Falcon is liberated by prickly members of his own community (after much

The Cap/Falc partnership was not without its problems, as witnessed in this sequence from CA&F #144 (Dec. 1971), written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Gray Morrow.

internal debate), led by Rafe and Leila. The action leads to Mosca Cay, where both Steve Rogers duke it out, followed by an antipodal issue in which both Captains duke it out. Englehart collaborated with another Friedrich scribe, Mike Friedrich (no relation), on #171–173. The Englehart/ Friedrich team-up crackles with eccentric touches. In #171 (Mar. 1974), Moonstone lobs the following doozy to Cap straight outta left field: “The answer is as clear as Hank Williams’ guitar—for the power, for the bucks, and for the sheer joy—of seeing you destroyed, Avenger!” Drawn by Buscema, #171 proved a milestone Falcon moment in which Falc literally earns his wings when Black Panther outfits the urban hero with glider wing technology to fly (finally!). With #180 (Dec. 1974) came one of the most famous bait-and-switches in comics—when a disillusioned Rogers abandoned his famous alter ego to masquerade as Nomad, a random-looking super-hero in a blue-andyellow costume. [Editor’s note: See BI #20 for more on this storyline.] Meanwhile, an assortment of punters (including the annoying Roscoe) assumed the ShieldSlinger’s identity but could not adequately fill Rogers’ boots. The dramatic, red-herring cover of #183 (Mar. 1975) cleverly teased “Death of a Hero,” showing a thrashed Captain America. In fact, it’s Nomad who died, as Rogers—values re-evaluated, spirit rejuvenated— retired the alias and returned (in a climactic Frank Robbins splash) as Captain America, symbolizing his country’s ideals rather than its government. That wasn’t CA&F’s only bait-and-switch—there was also a sudden shift in art direction. Out went Buscema’s deadpan drawings, in rode the wild and wooly Robbins rollercoaster for a batch of unhinged issues that left some readers vocally upset. As the art got cartoonier, the letters got louder (“…The art … looks like it was drawn by a six-year-old riding on a rough train during 1938,” reacted one reader to #182. “Send him back to his Johnny Hazard strip,” opined another). But the artwork was no less thrilling, pulling out all the stops as only “Rockin’” Robbins could, choreographing the Red Skull—as well as more dubious villains Viper and Cobra of Serpent Squad, D y n a m i c

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Gamecock, and Nightshade—with hammy theatrics and a frenzied energy that clashed with Buscema’s sober stylings. The latter scantily clad femme fatale makes a flamboyant entrance in the climax of #189 (Sept. 1975), one of the most out-of-control Robbins romps ever (text by Englehart heir Tony Isabella), revolving around a crackling Cap/Falcon slugfest egged on by a raving mad, kabuki-faced Red Skull. Robbins, of course, was no stranger to delineating Captain America, having scorched through much pencil lead on another sterling '70s series starring the Super-Soldier: The Invaders. Yet before Englehart departed CA&F, #186 (June 1975; co-written by John Warner) gave Robbins the unenviable task of retelling the Falcon’s origin with some undignified revisionist history in which Falcon’s overturned backstory exposed Wilson as a reformed thug. As explained by Red Skull, Falcon was, in fact, “Snap” Wilson, a criminal gone subliminal to be manipulated by the Skull should his Cosmic Cube scheme fail. Robbins gamely illustrated scenes of Falcon’s sudden criminal past, re-casting Wilson as a pimped-out, pink-suited “Dolomite” double. In #186 and 189, Red Skull pits a hypnotized Falcon against his erstwhile partner (echoing Grey Gargoyle’s #140–141 scheme). The reprogrammed thug twist might be an unbecoming blight on an otherwise distinguished portrayal of heroism.

PARTY FOR YOUR RIGHT TO FIGHT … CRIME! Highlights abounded in CA&F. The series delivered exciting guests, from Iron Man to the Avengers to even President Nixon (#144), lectured by Fury on the mechanics of LMDs (“Life Model Decoys”) in an effort to garner government appropriations toward the S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative (One-Eyed Nick lobbying Tricky Dick, drawn by Jazzy John!). Stylishly, CA&F soldiered on in the ’70s, reverting back to Captain America by the time disco died. The

series had ushered in a wave of ethnocentric concepts to comicdom beyond Marvel’s next salt-and-pepper success, Power Man/Iron Fist. Readers still debate whether Luke Cage, clearly inspired by the box-office success of Blaxploitation films (Pam Grier even wore an identical yellow silk shirt in Foxy Brown) was more jive-talkin’ thug caricature or good, campy fun; or whether characters with uninventive aliases prefixed by the qualifier “Black” (Lightning, Goliath, etc.) were harmful stereotypes or equalizing the Caucasian crimefighting playing field. “I don’t feel that Marvel dabbled in tokenism,” surmises Boyd. “Gabe Jones was right for the Howlers and the Robertsons fit well in Spider-Man, but there were no prominent black supporting stars (outside of the Black Panther) in Fantastic Four or Thor or Iron Man … that was okay with me. Characters of any race, ethnicity, or gender should be introduced because they propel the book forward in some fashion … not simply because there hasn’t been one before.” Amid the more questionable creations, sympathetic African-American portrayals emerged in comics: the heralded Green Lantern/Green Arrow occasionally addressed race relations … Mary Jo Duffy humanized Cage in Power Man/Iron Fist … and by the 1980s, when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez explored many facets of their angst-ridden creation Cyborg in New Teen Titans, a diversity of black characters had arrived. More than a Black Goliath or a Black Lightning (and beyond insecurities about being all things to all people), the Falcon was a character comfortable in his own skin; a super-hero who happened to be black, not a super-hero defined by or limited by his ethnicity. At the end of the day, he was not “Black Falcon.” “The Falcon transcended stereotypes,” says Boyd. “Sam Wilson was a brave, levelheaded, upstanding individual.” As Englehart told Boyd in BACK ISSUE #8: “I never saw him as just an ‘inner city’ hero, and I never saw anything other than professional respect in his and Cap’s relationship. He was always defending Cap when the more radical blacks laid into him for hanging with the white guy, and his color never meant a damn thing to Cap. They were a solid team.”

“THE TRUTH,” JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Original Alan Kupperberg cover art to one of Sam Wilson’s earliest solo flights, The Falcon miniseries issue #3 (Jan. 1984).

MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist. His comic books include the El Gato, Crime Mangler series, Chipmunks & Squirrels, and Those Unstoppable Rogues. Visit his comic-book website at CARTOONFLOPHOUSE.COM.

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Photo by Marlene Aushenker.

For 90 issues, amid insane action, Nazi robots, and deadly doppelgangers, CA&F offered a running commentary on race relations that, major or minor, went through myriad paces—poverty, bigotry, hypocrisy, police corruption, civil unrest—“capping” off with Cap co-creator Kirby’s bombastic take, downplaying big issues for big sci-fi action. The dialogue launched between freedom fighter and urban defender was sometimes painful yet necessary. Even the fantasy world of superheroes could no longer ignore real world challenges. While these problems remain unresolved, the discussion— in such comics as The Truth and CA&F revivals—continues today. As in America itself.

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GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

Philip Schweier

cond ucte d Sept emb er 21, 2006 is and trans cribe d by Brian K. Morr

Every so often, a comic-book writer and artist will join forces to capture lightning in a bottle. Dynamic duos such as O’Neil and Adams, Claremont and Byrne, and Wolfman and Pérez bring a smile to many a fan, and remembrances of great and hallowed runs on titles. In the early 1980s, DC Comics’ The Legion of Super-Heroes had begun to stumble. A succession of fill-in stories illustrated by various artists had taken the bloom off the rose. But then a young writer named Paul Levitz (whatever happened to that guy?) joined with artist Keith Giffen to make Legion their own. Like many who find themselves within the gravitational pull of the Legion of Super-Heroes, they found themselves drawn to the book, both as a team and as individuals. —Philip Schweier PHILIP SCHWEIER: I know it’s Friday and you guys are anxious to start your weekend, so I figured we’d just kind of leap in and talk about The Legion of Super-Heroes. PAUL LEVITZ: I remember them. KEITH GIFFEN: Yeah. SCHWEIER: All right. Well, Paul, we’ll start with you. You came onto the book in the late ’70s, when it was still one of DC’s most popular titles. How were you tapped as the new writer for The Legion? LEVITZ: I think it was the fact that I would kill anyone else who was picked. [laughter] GIFFEN: The Legion of Super-Heroes was not something you actually volunteered for. LEVITZ: Yeah, I was a real Legion fan as a kid, and [writer Jim] Shooter dropped it right at a point in time when I was starting to be allowed to write on a serious basis at DC. Whether I was ready to or not is arguable, but at least the tide had changed in that direction. There weren’t a lot of guys lined up wanting to do it, and I probably would have killed anyone of my sort of stature who tried because I wanted it that badly—and did it that badly. SCHWEIER: Why do you say that nobody was really interested in doing it? LEVITZ: Well, if you don’t love the Legion, it’s a pain in the ass. GIFFEN: Yes, the amount of characters was so big that we’d always keep flow charts. LEVITZ: Yeah, I mean, you’d literally have to write the book with a scorecard and notes, and that’s if you knew them and loved them. If you didn’t know them and love them, it was a lot of work. GIFFEN: If you really didn’t care about these characters, it would be agony.

The Great Darkness Saga Keith Giffen, who penciled and inked this extraordinary cover to Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #293 (Nov. 1982), substituted art for the title’s logo, a gimmick expertly employed in the Silver Age on Flash and Batman covers by Carmine Infantino (who was, no doubt, inspired by Will Eisner’s use of same on Golden Age Spirit splash pages). Original art from the collection of Will Gabri-El. © 2007 DC Comics.

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SCHWEIER: I see. So accepting what some people might regard as a rather intimidating baton, what were your goals and ambitions for the book? LEVITZ: I think I was about 19 or 20 when I took it over. At that age, it’s not so much goal, it’s “Wow! I got it!” [Philip laughs] GIFFEN: You know, I don’t think it was that “Wow, I got it!” when it came to The Legion. But, Paul, back when you and I cracked this nut called “comics,” the monthly gig was the Holy Grail. LEVITZ: Yeah, that’s also true to point out. I know there were very few monthly titles and very few monthly group books. Legion had gone monthly at that point, so it was one of maybe … God, at that point, five or ten monthly group books you could write in the whole business. It was always the type of book that I had the most affinity for, both as a reader and a writer. That’s a good point, Keith. GIFFEN: It’s like, who said you had to love The Legion to get into the book and do it? But even if you didn’t have a love for The Legion, nobody in their right mind back then was going to go, “A monthly book? A regular income? Hell, no!” LEVITZ: Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. There were plenty of guys who would have taken it, purely for the cash, and it had been written for the cash a couple of times in its past. GIFFEN: And it showed. LEVITZ: Yeah. SCHWEIER: So why do you say that not many people wanted to do a monthly book at the time? LEVITZ: No, no, most people wanted to. There just weren’t many of [those books] around. GIFFEN: Yeah, and also, if you were going to do a monthly book—even the Justice League was manageable. But no, the Legion—how many members were there? SCHWEIER: About 25. LEVITZ: I mean, it’s about 18 or 20 on duty at any given time. GIFFEN: And plus, it’s not like you can go and reference things. The last time I checked, they didn’t have any photo reference on Khundia. [Paul and Philip laugh] LEVITZ: That was the wonderful thing and the awful thing about it. I really loved the fact that Legion was off in its own little corner so I didn’t have to worry about how the streets of Metropolis were organized or what villain Superman was fighting this week, or anything to match with the rest of the team. Then we could have this wonderful science-fiction time inventing stuff. GIFFEN: Yeah, and I just love visual world-building. LEVITZ: Well, and you brought an enormous amount to that, Keith, because you took the approach when you came on board several years later, of really wanting each world to have its own visual character. GIFFEN: Mm-mm, yeah. It’s part of the fun. SCHWEIER: Well, Paul, your initial run was very ambitious, what with the Khund War and Chemical King’s death and introducing Dawnstar. You were off to a pretty great start. How did you expect to follow it all up? LEVITZ: Well, you know, I’d argue the “great start.” I mean, the thing I look back on with great sadness about my first run was the number of issues I didn’t do in the run. It was a point in life where, as I said, I was just being allowed to write seriously and I was kind of grabbing assignments right and left. I haven’t done the math, but I think probably 30% of the pages in the time of my first Legion run aren’t my pages. And Gerry [Conway] would pitch in and help out with a fill-in story, or I’d get one of my friends of my generation like Paul Kupperberg to dialogue stuff with me or help me out in some fashion. So I never really built the momentum that I wanted to.

Beginnings: The Comic Reader fanzine (1970s)

Milestones: Writer: Justice Society in All-Star / Stalker / Aquaman in Adventure Comics / co-creator of Earth-Two Huntress / Legion of Super-Heroes / JSA Editor: Adventure Comics / Batman, Detective Comics, and The Brave and the Bold Executive: an unmatched climb up the DC corporate ladder in a celebrated career spanning over three decades

Work in Progress: President and Publisher of DC Comics

Beginnings: “The Sword and the Star” backup in Marvel Preview #7 (1976)

Milestones: The Defenders / Legion of Super-Heroes / Ambush Bug / Legionnaires 3 / Omega Men / Justice League / Lobo / Trencher / Mars Attacks! / Thanos / Tokyo Pop’s Battle Vixens / Annihilation / Blue Beetle / 52 …and too darn many others to list!

Works in Progress: Countdown (DC) / Starlord (Marvel)

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There’s some things I’m very proud of in the Khund War story. The Earthwar story is the longest story done in Legion to that date, and probably may in fact be the longest story DC had done to that date. It was one of the first five-parters the company ever did. I think my reach did exceed my grasp, but we were certainly trying to reach. SCHWEIER: Well, there’s a lot to be said for that. You don’t reach, you don’t achieve. LEVITZ: Yeah, it’s better to reach and achieve, yes. GIFFEN: I always find if you reach or grasp, where you’ll wind up is still better than where you would have if you hadn’t. LEVITZ: Probably true. SCHWEIER: Absolutely. LEVITZ: I mean, there were some beautiful little stories in there. SCHWEIER: Yes. Jim Sherman and Jack Abel, I think, were some of the artists that were on that run … and maybe Joe Staton. LEVITZ: Yep. Originally, Mike Grell was scheduled to do it. That’s where Dawnstar came from. Mike had created her. I just said, “What would you like to draw, Mike? Make up something.” And he came up with Dawnstar and then I built the character around that, but he wasn’t available for the book. Then Jim Sherman was the scheduled artist, but doing a monthly was really out of his reach, even if we cut some of the pages out for backups and things. He had commercial commitments. Jim is a wonderfully successful commercial illustrator and designer. He’s done eclectic things like—I believe he did the Major League Baseball logo. One is reminded of that at this time of the year, as the playoffs are going on. SCHWEIER: I never knew that. LEVITZ: And he really felt like he was sort of perfect for the Legion because he was very much a Curt Swan for his generation. He really knew how to draw faces and emotion in the way Curt did, a very realistic artist. SCHWEIER: I loved his work. LEVITZ: But there was just no way he could keep up with the book, so we had him, [and] Mike Nasser as the theoretic primary alternate for him. But as the scheduling was challenging, more and more people jumped in and eventually, Joe Staton replaced him. It was at the end of my first run. SCHWEIER: Now, Keith, you came in around issue #270? GIFFEN: I can’t help you there, man. LEVITZ: I think you came in on the backups on, like, #285 or 286. GIFFEN: Yeah, I seem to recall one of my first backups was a Dream Girl story. SCHWEIER: So how did it finally come your way?

Paul Levitz scripted the first issue of the LSH spin-off starring Keith Giffen’s least-favorite Legionnaire, Karate Kid. Original art to page 20 of Karate Kid #1 (Mar.–Apr. 1976), penciled by Ric Estrada and inked by Joe Staton. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

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GIFFEN: Okay, I was back at DC. I was on probation after having flamed out spectacularly a few years earlier. I’d been doing ghost stories and some of the DC House of Mystery stuff when Dick Giordano was the editor, just a regular editor. I was working with Bob Kanigher and I graduated to Mike Barr onto the Doctor Fate backup in The Flash. LEVITZ: Oh, that’s right, yeah. GIFFEN: But I’d always had my eye on Legion of SuperHeroes. You know, I was not a huge, huge, huge Legion fan back then, even though I’d read them all as a kid— the John Forte Legion, I was very much aware of it. But what I saw, looking at Legion of Super-Heroes, was a lot of incredible untapped potential in terms of the visual take on the book—what you can do with different cultures, how you can approach the characters, how you can really make the stories just stand out. And when they needed some backups for The Legion, Mike [Barr] put me on them. I don’t recall what happened with Pat Broderick, whether he flamed out or just decided he didn’t want to do the book anymore. LEVITZ: I think he was having some issues at that point. I don’t really remember what all of them were. I think he was having trouble producing the volume. Again, it’s a very challenging assignment to do. GIFFEN: Yeah. Yeah, you tell me. [chuckles] And when Mike approached me, it was still kind of, you know, “We’re still watching you closely, but would you want to take over the actual body of the book, pending Paul’s approval?” And I seem to recall, Paul, you actually came to me and for some reason I think you might have thought you had to sell me on taking over The Legion because you led with, “I’m going to use Darkseid.” [laughter] And if I had any doubts about it at that point, those doubts pretty much evaporated because I was a big fan of the Kirby Fourth World stuff. I was getting a chance to come onto a book that I thought had a whole bunch of potential and I thought, “It’s the monthly gig. I’ve reformed myself.” LEVITZ: [chuckles] You should remember, for perspective, that it was almost impossible to talk artists onto The Legion. There were a few of us crazy enough to love it as writers—the old days, Shooter and myself, certainly the two primary bozos—but Curt Swan, when I would try to assign him a Legion story, I had to practically promise Curt three other things of his choice. GIFFEN: I was the odd duck. I was the guy who actually wanted, and was glad, to come on board. LEVITZ: Absolutely. Remember [the instability] we’d just gone through—Staton had done a run, and Joe’s a wonderful artist, but it was not a book he ever really enjoyed, particularly. Jimmy Janes had done a run. He was spectacularly ill-cast as the artist for that series, I think. GIFFEN: He was a good meat-and-potatoes storyteller. LEVITZ: Yeah, he knows how to draw, but he knows reality better than he knows fantasy. GIFFEN: And to me, reality has always been a distraction [Paul and Philip laugh], so I was really thrilled when I picked up the Legion assignment, just for the fact that, you know, I would never have to look up what a Studebaker looked like again. [Paul and Philip laugh] And then, when Paul started feeding me the stories, there was just some kind of a connection that we made wherein he gave me a lot of leeway in terms not only of artistic input, but input into the stories, and it just became a really fun assignment. I guess the length of our run stands as testament to the fact that it was fun. LEVITZ: Mm-mm, and the reader can feel it. Joe Orlando always used to use the argument to me, as an editor, that the reader can tell sincerity.

If you thought Superboy bullying Superman was an Infinite Crisis innovation, to the back-issue bins with you! Anthony Snyder of Anthony’s Collectibles (www.anthonysnyder.com) contributed page 4 of DC Comics Presents #14 (Oct. 1979), written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Dicks Dillin and Giordano. © 2007 DC Comics.

GIFFEN: Yeah, but once you can fake that, you’re made. [laughter] SCHWEIER: Now this was at a time when Wolfman and Pérez were doing The New Teen Titans. GIFFEN: Oh, I wanted to knock them off #1 so bad back then! We were always chasing them, and I wanted to just get one month where we could just knock them off the perch. SCHWEIER: My impression, having gone back and re-read the stuff, was that the two of you, your collaboration, seemed to be similar to theirs as far as your being co-plotters sitting down and hammering out stories. GIFFEN: Mmm … not so fast, there. Paul and I would discuss certain things, and Paul was certainly always open to input from me. But when Paul sat down to write the plots, Paul wrote the plots, I got the plots. Paul’s always been very generous in giving me a little bit more credit than I was due on those early Legion stories. I might sit down and go, “Wouldn’t it be cool if—?” But I was in no way, shape, or form a co-plotter. LEVITZ: Well, I think you sell yourself a little short there, Keith. But we didn’t sit there and break down a beat sheet together, certainly. GIFFEN: To a certain point, but it was never anything I would have considered co-plotting because I would always get the plots and it would still come across as something fresh to me. And as I’d read, I’d go, “Oh, look, he used it. That’s cool.” But I think the closest we might have come to actually co-plotting anything was when we were in the midst of “The Great Darkness Saga,” where it started blending together. But for the most part, I was pretty much following your lead and just nipping around your heels with little ideas here and there. LEVITZ: Well, but I think you underestimate the effect of the little ideas on the overall, because there’s clearly a difference in the level of imagination of the stuff that came out when we were at out best harmony there for whatever it was, two or three years, and what I’ve written in most of the rest of my career. And part of that was just the reaction, back and forth. You’re a very unrestrained, creative thinker, I’m a more linear, literal one, and you’d come in with something that was at the margins of not making sense— GIFFEN: Told ya I did that a lot. LEVITZ: —but had a germ of something cool and interesting in it. And I’d say, “Okay, if we take the octopus married to the elephant and we knock off four of the legs and jam it in this damn box, maybe it’ll actually fit in this story,” [Keith laughs] but ended up having several more legs than I probably would have been able to come up with myself. GIFFEN: Well, I think it was a matter that when we were running with it, it became the right kind of collaboration and that was where down the line, when you look back on it, it’s really hard to tell what came from where. But I would have been satisfied saying it came from us.

LEVITZ: Yup, and I think the other thing is, at a certain point, it also starts coming from the characters. GIFFEN: Oh, many times, I tried to talk a character into doing something and I know it sounds really clichéd, but halfway through, I’ve had to change the character because I just thought, “You know what? She ain’t gonna do that.” LEVITZ: Yeah, they became real enough at that point that their stories were going their own way. SCHWEIER: And I wouldn’t say the stories wrote themselves, but you could tell what moments belonged and what didn’t. LEVITZ: Mm-mm. GIFFEN: Mm-mm. And when a professional pretty much says that the stories wrote themselves, that’s just professional shorthand for “I was having a ball, it was easy.” [Paul laughs] Because it’s like even the easiest story that seems to flow out of you is usually the end result of a lot of subconscious percolating and conversations, and it just happens to the forebrain at that point. D y n a m i c

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LEVITZ: Mm-mm. If a story wrote itself, it wasn’t too much work. GIFFEN: Yeah, exactly. SCHWEIER: I imagine as part of your partnership at the time, Paul, you kind of recognized, as most writers do, your artist’s strengths and wrote to them. LEVITZ: I tried to. I tried that with both Keith and then there were occasional fill-ins through the run or guest-shots for people. If I had managed to sucker Curt into doing an issue, I’d try and make that one that had a lengthy flashback with only three of the Legionnaires so he didn’t have to draw ten of them, with more headshots and more sort of quiet emotional moments that he was so good at in his sort of Norman Rockwell style. GIFFEN: Whereas all I wanted to do was move on to the next planet to see what it looked like. SCHWEIER: An explorer. LEVITZ: Mm-mm. Well, also, another facet that we’ve talked about before in interviews, but doesn’t necessarily get enough play, is that whole process of making the different worlds interesting. When you go back to the first round of the Legion, the stuff Jerry Siegel or Ed Hamilton wrote and mostly John Forte drew, the bar wasn’t set very high for differentiating planets. SCHWEIER: Right. LEVITZ: You know, the fire planet had some streaks of fire, the ice planet had some ice, the stories were very short, and the convention of the medium was you were writing for kids, so we didn’t have to figure out what it would really be like to be on a fire planet. But I was a great science-fiction buff and I always took the challenge from guys like Hal Clement—his conception of Mesklin is, I think, regarded as one of the most complex and accurate science fiction-built worlds, where he built an entire world around the premise of, basically, these little caterpillars living on a world where the gravity was different at the poles and the equators, and he made it work from a scientific standpoint and then sent them off on a mission. I don’t claim to have ever done one percent of that, but we tried to approach the planets with that kind of logic to say, “All right, if that’s going to happen— you know, if you’ve got a world with that set of conditions—what will be on it? How would a civilization have gotten built?” GIFFEN: Yeah, and sometimes, we try to do a lot of research into this stuff and go to a typical rose planet, the planet tends to have a design motif of bees; and sometimes, it was a little bit more in depth like when we would sit down and then figure out not only that Winnath was an agricultural planet, but why. SCHWEIER: Makes sense. GIFFEN: And keep in mind when you’re dealing with the Legion of SuperHeroes, you’re not exactly dealing with the hard, hard science fiction. You’re doing a thousand years in the future, and that old saying that science—it looked like it was science we didn’t understand so sometimes, it could come across almost as if it were magic. LEVITZ: And we weren’t spending, as you would in a novel, pages explaining the “why” of things. You know, periodically, I’d get a letter from one of our very learned fans. I remember Rex Joyner, who was a physics professor, writing in and ripping me to shreds very lovingly for misusing black holes. I’m not claiming we went to extraordinary lengths to get it right, but we tried to take advantage of what was there, the potential in all of that, so that essentially, the planet became a guest star when you got there. GIFFEN: And it was always ‘how could we make it that much better, how could we make it that much better?’ I always look at Legion Headquarters as proof of that. We must have tinkered with that every three issues. That poor building never looked the same. SCHWEIER: Well, it lost a lot of that late ’60s/early ’70s flavor that Mike Grell and Dave Cockrum had put into it, which frankly, by the early ’80s, was a little bit on the bland side.

(above left) Fan-favorite Legionnaire Wildfire hogs page 15 of Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #292 (Oct. 1982), from part 3 of the classic “Great Darkness Saga.” Script by Levitz, breakdowns by Giffen, and finishes by Larry Mahlstedt. From the collection of Steven Lee. (left) The Legion finds hope in a small package on the last page of Legion #292 (Oct. 1982). Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

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LEVITZ: They were doing it in a different time and a different world. And you have to bear in mind in all of that, that both Mike and Dave were doing that work in the pre-royalty era, so they were working for straight page rate. A page of The Legion could not, by any definition, pay a nickel more than a page of the most generic assignment they had. GIFFEN: Yep. LEVITZ: Both of those guys put astounding amounts of work into costume redesign and character design and modernization from what it had been before, as investments that couldn’t have any return. Keith and I were lucky enough that when we were collaborating, we were in a royalty era. The book was selling pretty well; it is certainly possible that the sales had something to do with how hard we were working. So there was a real motivation to put the extra time in, to do the extra kinds of effort. GIFFEN: Yeah, knowing there was royalty money coming, you drew up a little bit more, to spend that much more time on something that, were it just a straight page rate, you could not afford to. SCHWEIER: One of the more memorable stories that you two did was “The Great Darkness Saga,” in which it’s revealed that Validus of the Fatal Five is one of the children of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl—which, with Validus shooting lightning from his brain, becomes so obvious. But for me, as a longtime Legion fan, I never picked up on that until you presented it. Now how did this idea come about? LEVITZ: Well, the fundamental idea’s not ours. I think it came out of Interlac. [Editor’s note: Interlac is a longrunning apa (amateur press alliance) dedicated to Legion fandom. Its mailings, collections of member-produced fanzines, have traditionally been “phone book”-thick.] Was it Tom and Mary [Bierbaum] originally? GIFFEN: No, I don’t believe it was Tom and Mary. LEVITZ: It was one of the longtime Legion fans in one of the fan magazines who suggested the idea that since it isn’t natural that lightning comes from the brain, he must be their kid. GIFFEN: Legion fandom back then was very small and very vocal. And Paul and I had a very good relationship with Legion fandom. We would include them in certain aspects of the book, making them feel appreciated. That doesn’t mean we bled anything off of them, it was just that the fans were so intense and just so “out there” that, not to enjoy this, and not to make this part of the creative process in terms of just getting that instant response... This was before the Internet; you had to wait for this “phone book” to come in the mail. But you would get the response and every so often there’ll be a little nugget in there that we’d go, “You know what? Maybe we should capitalize on this,” and I think Validus was one. Remember what I called “the Good and Plenty Element Lad Uniform”? [Paul laughs] That was Tom Bierbaum’s design, back when he was a fan, and I thought it worked. The only thing I changed was the “E” on his chest. I changed it to the Interlac “E.” So yeah, there were little instances here and there, but … God, it was a fun time to be doing The Legion. SCHWEIER: With the birth of this first Legion baby, or babies, was there ever a plan to kind of maybe introduce a subsequent generation of Legionnaires—the children of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel, the children of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl? LEVITZ: It sounds like a good story, but I don’t remember thinking about it.

GIFFEN: No, no, trust me! Yeah, we wanted to add more cast members. [Paul and Philip laugh] No, we were pretty much swimming in the deep end with what we had. SCHWEIER: Gotcha. And the ’80s pretty much began a new era for the team: new members, new costumes, you hit the #300 issue mark, you had the wedding of Karate Kid and Princess Projectra… For a Legion fan, this is like one event after another—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! How did you see the book evolving? Where did you see it going? LEVITZ: The glory of writing The Legion was that you could do things that were real change. In most comics, you have the challenge that you can’t kill any of the principal characters, and you can’t marry them off. How do you evolve it? The characters in Justice League are awesome characters to write, but your set of dramatic tools all sort of have mittens over them. In Legion, you could kill somebody every couple of years, marry somebody in-between, have somebody have an affair, screw with their lives in one fashion or another. D y n a m i c

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Even one thousand years in the future, Darkseid remains one bad dude. This scan of the gripping original art (by Giffen and Mahlstedt, written by Levitz) of page 31 of Legion of SuperHeroes #294 (Dec. 1982) was contributed by Stuart Neft. © 2007 DC Comics.

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GIFFEN: Their appearances weren’t licensed up the wazoo. LEVITZ: Yeah! [Keith chuckles] So the grand plan, such as it was, was to keep upsetting the apple cart. GIFFEN: Well, we had to keep ourselves interested, too. Although I will admit when it comes to Karate Kid, I think from day one, I started campaigning for him to bite the bullet. LEVITZ: Yeah, I think that was definitely your vote. I was fond of Karate Kid, just on a nostalgic basis, but I was prepared to offer him up. GIFFEN: [laughs] I despised the character. I don’t know why that was, but Karate Kid was the one character that rubbed me the wrong way … and of course, once we killed him, I left the book. I’d been fulfilled. [laughter] LEVITZ: And was complete. GIFFEN: “Our job’s done, see ya!” And I closed the circle. Unfortunately, like most people who really get into the Legion of Super-Heroes, you can never really leave. LEVITZ: Oh, you have no idea how true that one is. GIFFEN: You can never really leave. I’ve always compared the Legion book to a siren’s song coming to me across the waves. I can only ignore it for so long. Then I go back and I just know I’m going, “Oh, God. Here we go again.” But, you know, if you really, really like the book, you can never really leave it. SCHWEIER: You also started doing spotlight stories, focusing on single Legionnaires. What went into the making of these kinds of stories beyond “just explore the character a little bit”? LEVITZ: I think there were two classes of them, if I remember, and I don’t have my issues in front of me. But one number of them were the fill-in issues so it was really, “I can talk Curt into doing this,” or Mark Bright or somebody. But, God, I can’t give them 40 characters to do. GIFFEN: Also, I believe part of it, especially the Cosmic Boy spotlights, was a deliberate attempt to focus on Cosmic Boy because he was playing a big part in whatever crossover event was happening. LEVITZ: Yeah, that’s true. We had the [Cosmic Boy] miniseries tie into—I don’t even remember which crossover event that was. SCHWEIER: Legends. GIFFEN: Yeah, a lot of stuff came out of Legends. SCHWEIER: In the early ’80s, following in the footsteps of The New Teen Titans, Legion went to the Baxter [high-grade paper, with offset printing] format, with the newsstand title being retitled Tales of the Legion. But as you said, Keith, you left soon after. How exactly did your departure from the book come about?

The Levitz/Giffen/ Mahlstedt action certainly didn’t slow down after “The Great Darkness Saga” concluded in issue #294, as seen here in page 5 of “What Do You Do on the Day After Doomsday?” from Legion #296 (Feb. 1983). Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

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GIFFEN: It was the [Legion] poster. [Paul and Philip laugh] I’ve never been shy about saying this: When DC wanted to do posters, no, I couldn’t be the guy going, “Eh, I’ll just draw the Legion” and pocket the check. No, I said, “Let me see if I can put on a poster every single character that has ever appeared in any Legion of Super-Heroes book since it started.” And by the time I was done with it, it’s like being force-fed pizza for a year. After you’re done, do you still want more pizza? You’ve heard about people burning themselves out on a book—I vapor-locked. I just could no longer handle the book. I just froze up so it wasn’t so much that I just said, “I never wanted The Legion and I hate the book,” it was that I was actually incapable of performing at that point. Rather than become one of the guys who doesn’t belong on the book and bring it down and just kind of screw up what we had going, I figured it would just be best if I bowed out gracefully. It was that poster. LEVITZ: Woo-hoo! GIFFEN: But again, I don’t think I really ever left because even though I was gone, I was still doing stuff like [the miniseries] Legionnaires 3. LEVITZ: There, you’re still always around the edges somewhere. GIFFEN: So you see, you never really leave. SCHWEIER: None of us ever do. Paul, how did Keith’s departure affect you? I mean, suddenly, you’re minus an artist. LEVITZ: Yeah, I mean, that’s a pretty good gap. I’m not only minus an artist, I’m—Keith used the word “collaboration”—I’m minus a collaborator, a coconspirator, if you will, because he had really had a major effect on the direction of the book. I got to work with some good people. Greg LaRocque is a very solid guy. Steve Lightle, I think, came probably the closest to Keith in becoming a collaborator and a contributor to the writing as well. He always had a bunch of ideas and characters. I think Tellus was his. But obviously, the stuff that is best remembered of all of what I did is the height of the run that I did with Keith. So the audience has had its verdict. GIFFEN: Yeah, it’s when you lose an artist or writer or collaborator on a book, and you’re still on the book, you knuckle under and you plug along. You know, you find what makes it work for you at that point, and how you can make it work without that collaborator and move on. I didn’t notice anything past maybe a mild speed bump when I left because he took the book where I wanted just fine when I left, thank you very much. SCHWEIER: Well, it kind of hit a big speed bump with the reboot of Superman, when John Byrne did away with the whole concept of Superboy, and that kind of left The Legion in limbo. LEVITZ: It was a serious creative problem. GIFFEN: I don’t even recall very much about that. All I remember thinking about when I heard about that was, “Oh, thank God I’m not on the book.” [laughter] SCHWEIER: Paul, when this happened, was there a plan on the part of DC editorial, or was it like, “Oh, my goodness, we’ve really screwed things up now”? LEVITZ: Well, there were a number of issues as John was doing the re-do of Superman—the relaunch, whatever you want to call it—what the ramifications of the changes he was making, wanted to make, were and we just worked each one of them out. Legion was just one on the list. It just happened to be one where I had more of a stake than some of the others.

GIFFEN: Actually, if I remember correctly, I think for a while there, the biggest change to the Legion that came out of that was that instead of them going “Superboy,” they said “Superman.” LEVITZ: Oh, it was a little bit of that and just short of that; we came up with that whole cockamamie “Pocket Universe” thing. GIFFEN: Mm-mm. Well, again, sometimes, when something like that happens, the best you can do is piece together what you can, and put it out there, and hope the audience is going to go for it. LEVITZ: Sometimes, you put a Band-Aid on the kid. GIFFEN: Yeah, exactly. SCHWEIER: It makes sense. So a few years later, Paul, you left The Legion after eight years on the book, plus what you’d done before in the late ’70s. LEVITZ: Yeah, I’d finished off a hundred consecutive issues, which was sort of an emotional target that I had for myself, because that made it one of the longest runs in DC history. GIFFEN: And one of the longest runs in comic-book history. LEVITZ: Yeah. I was just playing in the library, looking up things because one of the fanzines had asked the question and we were looking for teams that had collaborated longer. I’m not dealing in the class of the number of years that [Robert] Kanigher put in on Wonder Woman, but— GIFFEN: But it’s up there, it’s up there. LEVITZ: —it’s a very solid, honest run, particularly for that point in time when up ’til then, almost all comics had had itinerant talent. You know, up until the ’80s, there wasn’t an economic reason to stay on a book. Now, you get a successful book with royalties and sometimes, they have to pry the book out of your dead hands. GIFFEN: Legion’s always a labor of love, no matter what. LEVITZ: I’d reached the point where my first two kids were around and were young. I was making a decent living from a staff job, and I wanted some time with my kids before they didn’t want any time with me, and Legion was a moonlighting job. It was basically taking me three Sundays a month and I wanted some time to take my daughter to dance class or get my son on a soccer field. GIFFEN: So you took a long overdue bow. LEVITZ: Yeah. SCHWEIER: Well, we certainly can’t argue with your reasons. God forbid your children grow up hating the Legion because of what it did to Daddy. LEVITZ: Well, I don’t think either of the two big ones had any use for any of the comics I wrote. Their attitude was sort of, “Dad, why would we want to read anything you wrote?” [Philip laughs] So I don’t know that it worked from that standpoint. It wasn’t until the third one that he actually liked comics.

SCHWEIER: So, Keith, eventually you came back and took over the book. GIFFEN: Yeah, Paul leaves it, and who does Karen [Berger] call? Yeah. SCHWEIER: And you were co-writing with Tom and Mary Bierbaum. How did that partnership function? Was it similar to your’s and Paul’s? GIFFEN: Well, with [editor] Andy Helfer on Justice League, we’d created this rickety machine wherein I would plot a certain way and [J. M.] DeMatteis would drop the dialogue on, and it was kind of a system that worked. So when I went back to Legion, I didn’t want to be bumping heads with another writer. I didn’t want another writer who was constantly going to be secondguessing me or anything like that. I wanted people who … all right, in all honesty, who I could just put my thumb on their necks [Paul and Philip laugh] and tell them, “You’re going to do this,” because I had a very set idea of what I wanted to do with The Legion of Super-Heroes when I came back on it. And I had seen Tom and Mary’s writings before and I knew that it was definitely at a professional level. I believe they had even worked for me at Deluxe Comics, working with me on the Lightning strip in the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents book.

Post-Giffen, penciler Greg LaRocque (inked by Mahlstedt) was among the artists to be paired with Levitz on Legion. Heritage Auctions contributed this eye-opening page, a Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover featuring the menace of the Infinite Man, from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3 #18 (Jan. 1986). © 2007 DC Comics.

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So it was more of me bringing them on board to help facilitate what I wanted to do with the book. As we continued on, as we got into it, it became closer to what Paul and I had had, but I’m a little more selfish than Paul in terms of I knew where I wanted to go with the book and I was not going to be waylaid. With the “Five Years Later” [premise], which has always been a source of real controversy—“Why did you bump it five years later?”—this writer before me [Paul chuckles] had this incredible run on the book, and I knew I wanted to strip the Legion down to the point wherein you saw that they could be heroic, whether it was without powers or without the prestige or the fancy headquarters. I wanted to strip them down to the basics and show that heroism will resurface. It doesn’t go away. Just because things are hard, you don’t stop being a hero. But I didn’t want to do the actual breaking down of everything Paul had built. [Paul laughs] So what I did was bump it five years later, and I was determined to keep that spot clear so that Paul’s Legion legacy stood. The Legion the fans loved stood.

From the art archives of Heritage Auctions comes this Keith Giffen-drawn 1985 pinup of Darkseid and his minions from Apokolips, produced in conjunction with Kenner’s Super Powers action figure line. © 2007 DC Comics.

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It was like my way of saying, “I’m not going to mess with this. This is canonical,” and I sort of moved on from there. Events didn’t exactly bear me out, but— oh, God, it was done with good intentions. LEVITZ: That was a good theory. GIFFEN: I tried. SCHWEIER: I think probably, in any kind of storytelling idea, as you’re doing now with the “One Year Later” at DC, it has a lot of potential to not just ask a question of what happened during that missing gap, but if we jump ahead and to kind of throw things on its ear, as you said you wanted to do earlier, it’s got a lot of potential for a storytelling device and really opens up a lot of avenues that weren’t available before. GIFFEN: Some people thought—now, this is the fan news they we’re reacting to—that I was just arbitrarily picking on Legionnaires. But I was very carefully looking at each Legionnaire and seeing how much could they take, what could they withstand, where do I want them to go? I took away Cosmic Boy’s powers for a reason, because I really believed that of all the Legionnaires, Rokk [Krinn, Cosmic Boy’s real name] needed the powers the least to be a Legionnaire. The White Witch, with the arranged marriage to Mordru, was an attempt at dealing with some of the issues that I figure she would have had without, again, going back and saying, “You know those three issues Paul wrote? Gone!” [Paul chuckles] SCHWEIER: Right. I think that too many writers these days tend to reset things and it kind of makes you wonder, “Well, does that mean everything before this is now null and void?” GIFFEN: I’m not a huge fan of continuity. I’m sorry, I just lied. I’m not a fan of continuity at all. I think continuity strangles creativity. I’m a huge fan of consistency. SCHWEIER: Exactly, that’s exactly right. GIFFEN: And that means that I don’t care if there’s two books that come out in one month and in one, Superman is on the Moon battling monsters and in the other one, he’s in Metropolis, kicking the Trickster’s butt, as long as Superman is consistent as a character. All right, these aren’t the Legionnaires you’ve grown up with, but one thing I tried to do with the “Five Years Later” Legion was keep their characters consistent. For me, the powers are always secondary. SCHWEIER: And consistent with what happened to them in-between. GIFFEN: Yes, exactly. We did a few little flashbacks and stuff like that, but I think the most radical thing I did was make Violet and Ayla [super-heroines Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass] a couple because I thought a thousand years from now, no one’s going to care. So a lot of it was, I did kind of take advantage of the fact that it was a thousand years later and I could play around with it. LEVITZ: Let me jump in for a half-sec here. I’m much more a fan of continuity than Keith is, both as a reader and a writer. But to me, continuity and consistency both make it more complex, but that’s what the puzzle is that you’re solving as a writer. What is it that will fit all these sets of circumstances? And that sort of forces you to come up with the interesting idea for solving them. GIFFEN: But I think I still fall under the heading of consistency, consistency of character, and whatever traits and environment and whatever problem comes in there works within the framework that you’ve set up. When I say “continuity,” I mean the kind of continuity that— LEVITZ: Footnote: “See All-Star #3.” GIFFEN: Yeah, it strangles you. It’s like, well, “How could Superman have met Johnson and Kennedy and

Nixon and Carter? Well, we’ll have to work it out.” No, you don’t! [Paul laughs] You know why? Because they were good stories, leave them alone! LEVITZ: And the other solution you always have is not to look back on the bad story. One of the dumbest stories I did, in retrospect, was the one that tried to explain that the reason that the Legion had the kiddie names, was because it took so much longer to grow up in the 30th Century. Again, when you compare a thousand years ago, a 14-year-old was an adult. SCHWEIER: Yes. LEVITZ: Now, shall we think of them as these—we’ve invented this term, “adolescent,” for them and you don’t get to be a real adult until you’re 23, 25? So I hypothesized that in the 30th Century, it took you until you were 40 to grow up and maybe then you’d live to be a hundred or 120 or something exciting. It makes perfect sciencefiction sense, but it was a really bad comic-book idea. GIFFEN: We’ve all come up with those. I’ve come up with a few croppers, myself, in terms of comic-book ideas. But I really think that a majority of the bad comicbook ideas come from continuity. You know, you can do five, six Superman titles a month and I probably don’t care if they don’t interconnect as long as he’s recognizable as Superman. My problem is if Superman was to turn around and slap Lois Lane, that’s not going to work for me. I don’t care what kind of story you tell, I don’t care what kind of influence he’s under, you don’t put that out there in front of kids who know Superman a specific way. But if Superman’s in Wisconsin and Oklahoma in the same month, who’s it hurting? Let’s have fun. They’re good stories, it’s fantasy, let’s just enjoy it. SCHWEIER: Well, I remember growing up, reading Batman in Batman, Detective, Justice League, and The Brave and the Bold, and the fact that all the stories happened in the same month, to me, one story happened in between the others and one did not necessarily lead into the other. He went back to the Batcave, had some breakfast, went to work as Bruce Wayne, then put on the suit again and you’re off on another adventure. That never bothered me. But as you say, today, some writers, perhaps dwell too much on, “Well, this issue left off with this, so I have to pick up from the same story beat.” GIFFEN: You know, you’re not really going to be doing yourself any favors if you back into the future. Instead of looking into the past of characters and trying to nip-andtuck inconsistencies, I think we should be looking forward and then making sure that these characters remain vital for the next generation to come along. And that’s been something that I’ve applied to all the work all the way back to when we were all working on Legion together. SCHWEIER: Well said. GIFFEN: Leave the characters better off than they were when you stepped in, even if it’s only in your own head. SCHWEIER: [chuckles] How did you address the issues with the “Five Years Later” storyline when you came under criticism for it? Did you feel the need to respond and defend your position? GIFFEN: No, I ignored them. [Paul and Philip chuckle] I ignored them. I was set, I wanted to tell these stories. One time, Greg LaRocque and I were comparing notes and I mentioned to him that one of the odd things about a comic book is the way fans react to people who are on the book. When I first took over Legion, all the fan mail went, “He’s no Pat Broderick.” And I stayed on The Legion for a while and then Greg LaRocque came on and for a while there, he said all it was is, “He’s no Giffen! How dare you try and be Giffen?” And then when I came back after Greg, I went through, “He’s no Greg LaRocque.”

SCHWEIER: [laughs] There is no satisfying some people. GIFFEN: So when you read the criticism, you’ve got to realize that not everyone’s going to be happy with what you’re doing with a character that they care about. And as long as you can honestly tell yourself, “I’m not doing this out of any kind of malice to hurt the character. I’m doing this to tell a really good story,” you’ll be okay. You’ll come out of it okay. LEVITZ: Mm-mm, there’s a limit to how much you can pay attention to the reviews. GIFFEN: Yeah, yeah, don’t shoot yourself. SCHWEIER: It can mess with your head. LEVITZ: Yeah. GIFFEN: Yep. And sometimes, they may have a point. I mean if I read something that a fan writes and I go, “Wow, he’s right,” then I’ll usually address it down the line. SCHWEIER: [chuckles] You concluded your run with a bang: first, destroying the Moon, then the entire Earth. GIFFEN: Okay, there’s a bit of backstory there. I blew up the Moon, basically, because I wanted to do a cataclysmic event, to see if I could pull it off and really get across the scope. Circumstances on the Legion book were aligning so that I realized that the creative direction that the book was going to be taking was not one I was going to be happy with. So, basically, I threw a tantrum and blew EVERYTHING up. That’s all it was, was a tantrum. LEVITZ: It’s a good thing it wasn’t a real one, Keith. GIFFEN: Yeah. [chuckles] No, I have no defense. [laughs] I have no defense for that. It turned out to be a really good story, I think. But it was pretty much, “You’re not going to let me do it my way? Heh, heh! Take that!” It is probably the single most glaring comic-book example of cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face. [laughter] SCHWEIER: With your Legion days behind you, how do you both, together and individually, sum up your time on the book? GIFFEN: Want to take that first? LEVITZ: Well, for me, it’s a great joy that it’s the thing in my career that people remember and cherish. I may have had more effect on the business in my desk job over the decades, but I’ve had more effect on individual people from the writing. When a jazz musician shows up at the office because he’s visiting on some licensing gig and comes by and hears, “Oh, you’re Paul Levitz. I loved reading your Legion,” and starts rattling off my stories and says, “Here, can I show you? I play Miles Davis’ trumpet now. Can I take it out and show you and play for you?” That’s a guy named Wallace Roney. Or when I first meet Brad Meltzer when he started writing for us, and the first conversation we have is, he’s comparing which he thought was a better detective story, the Sensor Girl story or the Universo Concentration Camp story. Or I’m on the phone getting interviewed by a reporter for the Rolling Stone a couple of weeks ago and the guy starts geeking out and doing questions on the old Legion, that’s wonderful! I touched these people’s lives enough that they remember it 20 years later? It fills me with joy. GIFFEN: See, he gets the guy with the Miles Davis trumpet and the Rolling Stone reporter, I get the 18year old guy that meets me at the office and he goes, “You’re Keith Giffen? I didn’t think you’d be that old. I thought it would be your son.” [Paul and Philip laugh] It was actually said to me. That’s a quote. In summing up The Legion, it was fun. And if you knew me a bit better, you’d understand how important

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that is to me and that I can give no greater compliment on a job. It was fun to do and it had an unexpected bonus at the end and that means I can basically burst into the office of the publisher of DC whenever the hell I want. [laughter] SCHWEIER: It comes in handy when you need work. LEVITZ: Not much use on the giving out of art assignments these days, but it’s a good place to come and vent about what’s going on in the place. GIFFEN: I usually stop by thinking, “I haven’t seen Paul for a while. He hasn’t been annoyed,” so I go in. [laughter] You know, Legion was a book that was fun to do and we were at the right place, right time. “The Great Darkness” is still, I think, the story by which all of my subsequent work is being judged. LEVITZ: Like you said, the right place at the right time. You know, both our skill sets were at the right place, what we wanted to do was in harmony, and comics were changing. It was a moment when for the first time, there was a large enough audience in the comics shops to support trying more stuff, taking chances. GIFFEN: Paul, it was fun!

Paul Levitz (writer) and Keith Giffen (layout artist) reunited—abetted by penciler Ernie Colón and inker Bob Smith—on the Legends spin-off miniseries Cosmic Boy. Original art to the splash page of issue #1 (Dec. 1986) contributed by Heritage Auctions. © 2007 DC Comics.

LEVITZ: Yeah! GIFFEN: We had fun. We had fun doing comics and again—it sounds like such a shallow answer, but, man, it counts for so much. SCHWEIER: I’ve heard it said that that’s why people get into comics today. It’s not to get rich—contrary to popular belief, it may not pay that well. LEVITZ: It pays pretty well for creative work in this country. GIFFEN: Yeah, I’ve worked animation, I’ve worked TV, I’ve done things for movies, and if you break down the amount of time you spend and what you’re being paid, comics are still the best-paying gig in town. LEVITZ: But for many years, you went into comics because of love and passion. Now, there’s a bunch of people coming in on a mixture of “it’s a cool medium” and “I can make some money at it.” GIFFEN: Or “it’s a springboard to the medium I really want to go to.” LEVITZ: Yeah. But for our generation, you only came here because of love. GIFFEN: Yeah, we were the only kids in the third grade who knew what “invulnerable” meant. [laughter] There’s a brotherhood. SCHWEIER: Other than 52, what’s on the plate for you guys? GIFFEN: By the way, I’d like to point out that 52 was his idea! LEVITZ: Not my job, guys. I did a few issues of JSA this year. It’s my first real writing in a long time. I’ve got no “next commitment” on that front. GIFFEN: Well, I don’t know if I can talk about my commitments after 52 at this point. Let’s just say it doesn’t look like I’m going to walk away from DC any time soon. Although, the one thing about 52 that suddenly dawned on me a few days ago, that when it comes to producing weekly comics, I’ve got senior experience in terms of the fact that 52 has pretty much created a machine whereby companies would be capable of producing weekly comics and getting them out on time. And being along for the entire ride, I’ve learned a whole new set of skills. LEVITZ: Yeah, it really is a new structural paradigm for getting books done. GIFFEN: Yeah, and if it’s done, if it’s done right by people that want to do it and people who understand that there’s no window for errors. Yeah, it’s bad enough we did 52 and had to do it in real time. That was a genius idea. LEVITZ: Thank you. GIFFEN: But it’s amazing what you’re actually capable of doing with this little medium that doesn’t seem, on the surface, to have changed much since the 1940s. And yet, it is still such a flexible, creative medium, I think, more so than any other. LEVITZ: It’s a great time now. There’s so much that can be done in comics in America now. GIFFEN: Mm-mm. It’s a great time to be a comicbook fan. SCHWEIER: It certainly is, and especially a DC fan. That pretty much wraps it up, guys. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. LEVITZ: Our pleasure. PHILIP SCHWEIER is a freelance writer living in Savannah, Georgia. A lifelong comic/pop-culture fan, his work can be read at tvparty.com, inthebalcony.com, and comicbookbin.com, where he contributes on a regular basis.

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TOP FIVE SIGNS OF A GOOD TEAM-UP 5. It Sells Out Wolverine says, “You know you’ve got a good team-up on your hands if the issue sells zillions of copies and gets multiple printings!” “Especially if you get a chrome or variant cover or limited-edition special one-of-a-kind exclusive covers,” agrees Anita Blake.

4. You Get a New Costume “I had the coolest black costume once,” Spider-Man says. “We were at a magical place and you were there, and you, and you, and—” Red Tornado interrupts, “Once we teamed with the Phantom Stranger and John Stewart and I got the most wonderful costume afterwards…”

3. You Barely Break a Sweat Vanquishing the Villain Batman says, “If your partner is brave and bold, no villain is too tough to conquer.” “Teaming up with a Man of Steel never hurt anything either,” Wonder Woman concurs.

2. A Villain Turns Hero “Those are some of the best heroes,” Captain America says. “Just look at the number of Avengers who started out on the wrong side of the tracks.” Flash agrees, “Some of your best allies can be former enemies. It’s funny how things work out like that.”

1. Nobody Dies

When heroes meet, how do you know if a team-up is successful or not? It’s tough to tell sometimes, so we’ve come up with an easy list that will help you determine if the duo is good or bad, but hopefully not too ugly!

TOP FIVE SIGNS OF A BAD TEAM-UP 5. You Fight Each Other Instead of the Bad Guy “It’s tough without a scorecard sometimes,” Iron Man says. “Just because someone’s in a fancy costume doesn’t mean he or she’s a super-hero.” Thing shakes his head in agreement. “Sometimes ya gotta clobber somethin’ first to tell if it’s good or bad!”

4. You Switch Bodies with the Villain “Star Sapphire wears a THONG!” cries Zatanna. Superman shudders, “You think that’s bad?! The Wizard goes commando! Thank Rao I’m invulnerable … everywhere!”

3. A Hero Turns Traitor “It sucks, especially when you were never supposed to take on that role,” Hawk gripes. Terra laughs bitterly, “What sucks is when they bring back another ‘hero’ with your name, instead of just letting us rest in pieces.” Marvel characters © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. DC characters © 2007 DC Comics.

by J e n n i f e r M . C o n t i n o

2. The Bad Guy or Girl Escapes “We eventually end up catching them,” Hawkman says with a shrug. Robin agrees, “We change our tactics, but villains are very greedy, and always cross one of our paths again.”

1. Somebody Dies

“Verily,” Thor says solemnly. “’Tis always a boon when none of your companions makes the supreme sacrifice.”

“Oh, it’s not that horrible,” says Jean Grey. “I mean, it’s comics, for goodness sakes! It’s not like it’s forever!”

Power Man agrees, “It’s never a sweet Christmas if you lose one of your partners!”

The Golden Age Mr. Terrific shakes his head, “It’s forever for some of us, especially if you get caught up in a JLA/JSA crossover!” D y n a m i c

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A Norm Breyfogle Art Gallery

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Breyfogle’s splashy 2004 commission of Aquaman and Black Panther (battling Black Manta and Klaw) makes this unlikely DC/Marvel team-up an intriguing what if…. Aquaman and Black Manta © 2007 DC Comics. Black Panther and Klaw © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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If Norm’s wonderful 2004 Wonder Woman/Valkyrie/Isis doesn’t get your zephyr winds a’blowin’, you need life support! (Isis will be back next issue, by the way…) Wonder Woman © 2007 DC Comics. Valkyrie © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Isis © 2007 Filmation.

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Al Nickerson

Before it was a multi-million dollar franchise, before the films, before the animated series, and even before the action figures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a self-published, black-andwhite comic book created by two guys by the names of Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A SKETCH

Half-Hatched Half-Shellers A rare find, from our friends at Heritage Auctions: Kevin Eastman’s original pencil layout for the splash page to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (May 1984), drawn on 8.5" x 11.75" sketch paper. All preliminary art scans in this article are courtesy of Heritage Auctions; all published art scans come from this article’s author, Al Nickerson. © 2007 Mirage Studios.

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Legend has it that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started with a sketch by Kevin Eastman. Kevin Eastman recalls that “the whole idea of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came about with a sketch to mine, to a sketch of Peter’s, to a sketch of mine, to an inking job of Peter’s.” Peter Laird agrees: “Yes, in the sense that Kevin drew an anthropomorphic turtle standing on its hind legs with nunchakus strapped to its forelimbs … and this inspired further drawings by both of us which then led to the creation of the actual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Laird and Eastman wanted to self-publish a comic, but had little cash for printing the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. According to Kevin Eastman, “We were big fans of artists like Dave Sim, who was selfpublishing Cerebus, Wendy and Richard Pini with Elfquest, who were self-publishing, and some of our heroes that were doing underground comics years and years before. So when it came to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we had decided to scrape together all the money that we had and print as many copies as we could instead of getting rejection letters from Marvel Comics and DC Comics. We had enough money from a $500 income tax return of mine, $200 from Peter’s bank account, and we borrowed about $1300 from my Uncle Quentin. Then we had enough money to print 3000 copies of a 40page black-and-white comic.” The first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (vol. 1) premiered in May 1984. Thus began the adventures of four teeth-clenched, butt-kicking but lovable ninja Turtles named Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo, and Donatello. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) #1 had a simple, yet clever, premise—by a freak accident, four normal turtles were mutated into intelligent, walking, talking turtles. The Turtles were then trained in the martial art of

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FRANK MILLER

ninjutsu by an also-mutated, and very wise, rat sensei named Splinter. The Turtles and Splinter made their home in the sewers of New York City. Each Turtle had a distinct personality as well as a specific preference toward weaponry. Leonardo was the sword-swinging leader of the group. Raphael was the rebel who liked to use two sais (the sai became familiar in comic-book fandom with the introduction of Daredevil’s lady assassin, Elektra). The cheerful Michaelangelo liked to clobber villains with his nunchakus (a weapon popularized by Bruce Lee in the film Enter the Dragon). Donatello was the smart Turtle who preferred the use of a staff. The Turtles’ teacher and parental figure was Splinter. Splinter’s origins began in Japan. The highly intelligent rat was once the pet of a ninja by the name of Hamato Yoshi. Even before being mutated, Splinter was so clever that he was able to learn ninjutsu by observing his master. With Splinter in tow, Hamato Yoshi was forced to flee Japan after killing another ninja, Oroku Nagi. In an act of revenge, Oroku Saki, Oroku Nagi’s younger brother, tracked down Hamato Yoshi and slew Splinter’s master. Oroku Saki eventually became the Turtles’ infamous foe and leader of the ninja Foot Clan—the Shredder.

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Back in the 1980s, many comic-book fans, myself included, enjoyed Frank Miller’s Daredevil. Peter Laird was also a fan: “Back then, Miller was doing some innovative stuff we hadn’t seen before in comics, or at least not in the energetic and stylish way he was doing it. And it was cool that he was bringing in Asian martial arts elements, like the ninja from Japanese comics and movies which had obviously inspired him.” The influence of Miller’s Daredevil is apparent in the early issues of TMNT. Homages to Daredevil included a very familiar scene of Daredevil’s origin where (supposedly) the same radioactive isotope that gave Daredevil his powers also mutated the Turtles. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had the “Foot” Clan, whereas Daredevil had the “Hand” Clan. As far as senseis go, the Turtles’ teacher was named “Splinter” instead of Daredevil’s teacher, “Stick.” There were also a lot of ninjas running around in both comic books, as well.

WILL THERE BE AN ISSUE TWO? Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had killed off the Turtles’ main villain, the Shredder, in the very first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sounds like an odd idea to kill off the main villain so quickly, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not if you weren’t planning on publishing more than a first issue. As Laird recalls, “Honestly, we didn’t think of an issue #2 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles until after the first one came out and it got such a positive response.” Soon after its debut, the 3000 print run of issue #1 quickly sold out and became an instant hit among newfound fans. So, how surprised were Laird and Eastman about the instant success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? “Extremely surprised,” Peter Laird claims. “I remember in the first few years of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when we were asked that question, we would say that

we never really expected to sell all 3000 copies of the first printing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, and thought we would be burning them to keep warm that winter. That’s an obvious exaggeration, but it shows how low our expectations were. We were doing this for fun, and it just took off like crazy.”

TURTLE FRIENDS, MICRO-SERIES, SPIN-OFFS, OH, MY… In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 (Oct. 1984), the Turtles met April O’Neil, a computer programmer who worked for the deranged scientist Baxter Stockman. Stockman created his robotic Mousers under the assumption of eliminating New York City’s rat problem. However, Baxter Stockman’s real objective for his Mousers was to begin a career of crime. April O’Neil became a trusted ally to the Turtles after she helped them defeat Stockman and his murderous robots. Where did the character of April O’Neil come from? Peter Laird remembers it this way: “April was created by both [Kevin and me]—when we realized we were going to do a second issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and started working on the plot, it became clear that it would be a good idea for the Turtles to have a human friend through whom they could interact in the human world. For some reason, the idea that this friend should be female just seemed right. When we got to the point of naming the character, after thinking of a number of women’s names, Kevin mentioned that he used to have a girlfriend named April, and I liked that name—so we went with it. I think I may have suggested the ‘O’Neil’ last name … not sure why.” The name “April” was inspired by one of Kevin Eastman’s ex-girlfriends? It’s true. As Eastman points out, “Yeah, that is true. Many years ago, I had a high-school sweetheart named April. I just loved that name. When we originally designed the character, she was more ethnic. In the beginning, our drawings were so crude, that you couldn’t even tell if April was Asian or Hispanic. April, the actual person, the girl that I had dated, was black Hispanic … mulatto, I guess. When we designed the character of April, we made her a more ethnic character and used my ex-girlfriend’s name.” Then, in 1985, came the micro-series, one-shot comic books each focused on one member of the Turtle group. “With the success of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics series, we realized that there was a lot of demand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, and at that time, we actually had the time and energy to do those ‘OneIssue Micro-Series.’” Peter Laird continues, “It was also a fun way to focus on one Turtle at a time—something which we really didn’t do in the regular comic.” In Raphael #1 (1985), Raphael exchanged a few kicks and punches with the vigilante known as Casey Jones. Casey eventually aided the Turtles in their fight against the Foot Clan. Where did the rebellious but likable Casey Jones come from? Peter Laird says, “Casey Jones was originally a concept that Kevin came up with. He showed me these drawings he had done of a guy who liked to use baseball bats and golf clubs as weapons. I’m not 100% sure, but Kevin may have created Casey specifically to co-star with Raphael in Raphael #1, the first micro-series we did. I remember that one of his early drawings had Casey wearing a baseball cap—it made him look pretty goofy, and I’m glad we dropped that.” Michaelangelo #1 (Dec. 1985) is a Christmas tale where “Mike” gets a new pet, Klunk the cat. Also in this story, the Turtles end up distributing toys to a group of orphans. Kevin Eastman has “always loved Christmas. I grew up in Maine. Christmas was a big issue for my family. Peter and I had wanted to do a Turtles Christmas story because we hadn’t done one yet. It was a great way to get the Turtles out with the public because they rarely would do that. The Turtles being green and putting on little elf ears, it almost looked like they were dressed up in costume. Michaelangelo #1 was a multi-level feel-good story.” Donatello #1 (Feb. 1986) was a comic book dedicated to the legendary Jack Kirby. This story featured Donatello having a bizarre adventure with an artist by the name of “Kirby.” Kirby had a magical way of making his drawings come to life. How important was Jack Kirby to comics? Kevin Eastman explains it this way: “Jack Kirby was probably the biggest influence on me long before I discovered Richard Corben, Frank Miller, and Vaughn Bode. I was buying comics feverishly during the Kirby DC period, particularly Kamandi, the Last

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Meet the Turtles

Boy on Earth (which was my all-time favorite), Sandman, The New Gods, Mr. Miracle, and all that stuff. I followed all of Kirby’s other stuff as well. Kirby, to me, was the ultimate storyteller. His work was very simplistic. Kirby’s style was very energetic, almost impressionistic, if you will. The action stuff that he would use … Kirby seemed like he made every panel come alive. Regarding Donatello #1 (Feb. 1986), Eastman adds, “We had a character named ‘Kirby.’ We dedicated the comic to Jack Kirby. This was around the time that Jack Kirby was in a legal tussle with Marvel Comics over trying to get his artwork back. Marvel had him over a barrel and was trying to get Kirby to re-sign off all of his rights. Kirby contributed a lot more to the Marvel Universe than most people like to admit … especially Stan Lee.” Eastman continues, “Jack Kirby had this huge legal battle going on. We met Jack and [Jack’s wife] Roz Kirby over the years at the San Diego Comic-Con. So we wrote them and said, ‘Can we do this story inspired by Jack? Can we use Jack as a character? We would also like to donate the proceeds from the comic to your legal fight, to help you get your artwork back from Marvel.’ The Kirbys declined our offer for the money. They said, ‘Thank you, but, no. Please do your comic, and thanks for thinking of us.’ Jack Kirby was that kind of a person. Jack was just a genuine, sweetheart of a person. Jack was the real deal.” Leonardo #1 (Dec. 1986) was a pivotal issue in the Turtles’ canon. Across several New York City rooftops, Leonardo became engaged in a fierce battle

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with members of the Foot Clan. We also found out the stunning revelation that Shredder had returned from the dead! The great Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing, Tyrant) even worked on this issue: “Leonardo #1 is where I duoshaded a couple of pages … tops. It was the first time I went down to visit Mirage Studios, and they were jamming on this issue. I had been working with duoshade—you know, the two-tone chemical paper—for years, and years, and years. I had done a ton of work using that stuff. That’s what they were doing, duoshading pages of that book. So I sat down at a board and duoshaded two, two and a half pages. It was just a couple of hours, but it was fun. Mirage gave anybody credit that worked on their books. It was a very diplomatic and democratic studio setting at that point in time.” Fans still couldn’t get enough of the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so in May 1987, a second ongoing series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, began. Peter Laird explains, “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came about as another way to satisfy that demand for more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and to tell more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories, and also let other artists get a crack at it—in this case, Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson.” Sadly, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only lasted seven issues. Why is that? Laird answers, “I think that it was low sales—or at least what we felt was low sales at the time.”

CEREBUS THE BARBARIAN

SHREDDER RETURNS

An exciting event occurred in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 (July 1986): the Turtles teaming up with Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Mix in a wizard or two, a magical scepter, time travel, some ninja Turtles, an aardvark, plus plenty of sword fighting, and you have a classic tale featuring some of ’80s comics’ favorite black-and-white comicbook characters. How did a team-up between the Turtles and Cerebus come about? Dave Sim remembers it this way: “That was actually when I was doing a signing at Moondance Comics in Massachusetts. That was where I met Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird for the first time. I was staying at the Hotel Northampton, and we were just hanging out at the bar. Kevin asked me would I be interested in doing a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I said, ‘Sure. That sounds like a great idea.’ And, sonuvagun, Kevin had a whole outline already written up.” Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman had done the majority of the artwork on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8. Working on the issue meant that Dave would only have to pencil and ink the Cerebus figures as well as letter Cerebus’ dialogue. At the time of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8, Cerebus, in his own comic, had put his barbarian days behind him by becoming Pope. Initially, Dave Sim had doubts about returning to the days of Cerebus as a barbarian. Sim explains that he “had completely lost interest in Cerebus the Barbarian at that point because … that would have been 1984 or 1985. I was pretty close to halfway through Church and State. Maybe even past the halfway point. That was a thousand-page climb. So the last thing I was thinking of was Cerebus the Barbarian. Kevin Eastman was so enthusiastic about Cerebus the Barbarian that I could finally see the merit in [the Cerebus the Barbarian character] again just by looking at it through Kevin’s eyes. Kevin had the dialogue roughed in and I could just say, ‘Oh, no, Cerebus the Barbarian character would say it this way,’ or ‘I think this would be a funnier way to deliver the line.’” Sim continues, “Apart from,’Hey, this is fun’… it was the pages that I got were penciled and had roughed-in dialogue. Kevin was leaving it up to me. I was inking Cerebus and inking his dialogue. So whatever he was going to do was just going to get fitted in around that. And it didn’t take that long to do because it was drawing just Cerebus and just Cerebus’ dialogue. And it was not like he was on every page. You had four other Turtles and a couple of backup characters that you had to fit in as well. If you go through and count up the number of Cerebuses in there, I’d be surprised if it was more than two afternoons of work.” Sim also points out that “there’s not a lot of guys that are going to give you that kind of latitude when they’re selling, at the time, like 90,000 or a 100,000 copies [per issue] and you’re selling like 12,000 or 15,000 copies [per issue], or whatever we were selling.” Does Dave Sim still have fond memories of working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8? “Oh, yeah, it was great.”

In Leonardo #1 (Dec. 1986), Leonardo was almost beaten to death by the Foot Clan. At the end of this issue, a barely conscious Leo muttered a few stunning words to his Turtle brothers: “He’s … back … the …Shredder…!!!” Now this was a big deal, since Shredder’s return would only mean more confrontation and continued hardship with the Foot Clan. The conflict with the evil ninja clan continued in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10 (Apr. 1987). Shredder and the Foot Clan battled the Turtles, April O’Neil, and Casey Jones. The battle resulted with April’s apartment building being burned down. To heal their wounds, the heroes escaped to the safe refuge of Casey Jones’ grandmother’s farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts. Why the town of Northampton, Massachusetts? Northampton is the headquarters of Mirage Studios. Peter Laird explains the choice of Northampton this way: “Well, by the time we got to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10, the plot sort of demanded that we get the Turtles out of New York City, at least for a while. And as we thought about it, we realized that it might be fun to set the Turtle stories in an area that we were actually familiar with—as opposed to New York City, which we knew very little about. And there was something fun about using a setting that—as far as I know—had never been used in a comic like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

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We find out that the ninjas resurrected Shedder through a bizarre worm-cloning procedure. The experiment involved genetically enhanced worms that fed off of Shredder’s remains. The worms then joined back together to form a new Shredder, as told in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #21 (May 1989). Gross, huh? Apparently, the whole genetically enhanced worm-cloning concept came from Peter Laird: “I think that was my idea, inspired by a variety of science and science-fiction reading.” Now, it was payback time—Leonardo faced the cloned Shredder alone. After a bloody duel, Leonardo was able to defeat Shredder by decapitating the villain. The Turtles gave the Shredder clone a Viking’s funeral. They looked on as the clone’s corpse burned in the Hudson River in TMNT #21. Eastman makes it clear why the Turtles gave Shredder such an honorable sendoff: “Honoring your enemy is what we had learned from Japanese philosophy and the martial arts. Shredder was an incredible foe. It was a long, tough battle for the Turtles to overcome. So when they finished Shredder off, it was the honorable thing to see him off with a last rites, as opposed to the more mercenary way, like Attila the Hun, where you would behead him and chuck him in a hole somewhere.”

MEMORIES AND THE FUTURE

Better Shred Than Dead

TIME TO TUSSLE Tensions rose at the farmhouse when Raphael challenged Leornardo’s role as leader of the Turtles group in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #19 (Mar. 1989). Raphael wanted to return to New York City: “This ain’t no dude ranch, or rehab clinic for down and out ninjas. We’re hiding out here!” Leonardo didn’t believe that the group was ready to leave the isolation of the farmhouse. So Ralph and Leo duked it out. The resulting fight left Leonardo unconscious and Raphael returning to New York City. Michaelangelo has always been my favorite ninja Turtle out of the group. It’s easy for me to believe that Mike would have mopped the floor with any other of the other Turtles. However, Peter Laird might disagree with me: “No. But, Michaelangelo could have mopped the floor for them.” As previously stated, the Turtles’ main adversary, Shredder, came to a violent end in TMNT #1. However, a little thing like death couldn’t stop the Foot Clan from bringing their leader back to life.

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In the late 1980s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quickly turned into a huge mainstream success by branching off into other media including movies, cartoons, and toys. Still, I miss the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Is it possible that Eastman and Laird feel the same way? Do they miss the old, simpler days of just having to self-publish a black-and-white comic book? Kevin Eastman does: “Very much. Very, very much, actually. I miss the kind of simplistic days of selfpublishing where Peter and I were the publishers, the editors, the letterers, and the secretaries that answered the phone. Back then, we were figuring things out as we went along. We knew nothing when we were going into self-publishing. When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became a success that was, for the first time in my life, where a dream came true … where we could draw full-time and pay our rent. Man, there’s just nothing better. That was it. “I would say, without a doubt, right through the ‘Return to New York’ story which were issues Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vol. 1, #19–21, that was, for me, one of the peak years. We were drawing comics for a living. We were riding the wave that was beyond a dream come true,” adds Eastman. Peter Laird may or may not miss the old days: “Sometimes. But a big part of that is just nostalgia for an earlier, simpler time, when I was younger, weighed less, and had more hair.” Will we ever see those wonderful early issues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collected in trade paperback again? Peter Laird has some good news: “Yes, but they won’t look exactly the same as they used to. I have begun a long-term project wherein I am retoning and relettering all of those original issues, and when I do the reprints I will use these new ‘remastered’ versions.” Today, Mirage Studios is back to publishing blackand-white comics of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What does the future hold for the Turtles? Unfortunately, Peter Laird isn’t talking: “Sorry … can’t give away any secrets!”

“We Did It Because We Love Comics”: by

Michael Eury

condu cted Decem ber 27, 2006 and transc ribed by Brian K. Morris , with Micha el Eury

Richardson and Stradley Recall the Early Days of Dark Horse

MICHAEL EURY: Let’s go back to ‘86. Mike, you owned a few comic shops in the Portland area. What was the inspiration for you to start publishing comics? MIKE RICHARDSON: Well, there were a number of reasons. First of all, I loved comics because, obviously, I had grown up with them. In the ’80s, I opened a comic-book shop, and I found myself wishing that comics would live up to their potential. So initially, it was a love of comics and the desire to see them done better. And then, of course, I had several friends who shared my interest in comics: Randy and [writer] Mark Verheiden, who’d both done some comics for Marvel and DC. I also contacted Paul Chadwick, Randy Emberlin, and Chris Warner. We were all veterans of Mark’s APA-5 and all had demonstrated talent in that fan publication. EURY: So you literally put together your first comic book right there in the shop.

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Dark Horse Comics is one of the industry’s greatest success stories. Other publishers that started at roughly the same time as Dark Horse—’80s flashbacks like Pacific, Eclipse, Comico, First, and Now—are long gone, their efforts collecting dust in back-issue bins … or, in some worthy cases, receiving a second lease on life in collected editions (a few of which were published by—you guessed it!—Dark Horse). Yet through a lifelong love of comics, a dedication to producing good comics, and a little end-of-the-Oregon-trail Westward Ho spunk, the publisher’s founding fathers—its president, Mike Richardson, and his editorial/ creative second-in-command, Randy Stradley— took a single comic book assembled in a comics shop—the anthology Dark Horse Presents #1 (July 1986)—and built from its foundation a powerhouse company that has charged into the worlds of film, television, and merchandising … never forgetting its comics roots on its race to acclaim. I had the good fortune of working, on staff and later, as a freelancer, at Dark Horse during the 1990s. Two days after Christmas 2006 I returned to the company’s modest-but-cool offices in the Mayberry-esque Milwaukie, Oregon, to chat with Mike and Randy and to gallop into the company’s past. —Michael Eury

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RICHARDSON: Right on the counter. Everyone who came into the store knew what we were doing. We even had a contest to name the first issue of our comic. I had decided to call the company “Dark Horse,” but we wanted a title for the first book and I thought, “Dark Horse Presents” sounds good. Then we had second thoughts, “Let’s see if somebody’s going to come up with something better.” We created a big contest in the store, and after all the dust settled, the winner was … Dark Horse Presents. [laughter] EURY: Did you consider any names other than “Dark Horse”? RICHARDSON: For some reason, I liked “Dark Horse.” At that time, I was thinking of starting an art agency. I was working as a commercial artist and doing a number of freelance jobs. I had made quite a few contacts while I was in college and built up a nice client list by working much cheaper than the local ad agencies. By the time I moved to Bend [in central Oregon], I didn’t have time to do all of the jobs I was being offered. I was still getting

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calls from different companies wanting me to design ads and supply illustrations. Times were tight and I hated to turn down the cash, so I found some local artists needing work and split the fees with them. I was thinking of starting an actual agency and calling it “Dark Horse Graphics.” I just liked the sound of it. So when that idea went on hold and I started the comic-book company, I just used the name “Dark Horse Comics.” It seemed appropriate since we were so far from New York and the rest of the comics publishing world. It seemed to me that we were certainly a kind of dark horse. EURY: Did any of your comics shop customers hit you up for work in the early days? RICHARDSON: Oh, of course. RANDY STRADLEY: Yeah, there were a couple of people that pitched stories, and one of our customers, Jim Smith—James Dean Smith—came onto staff to do Boris the Bear. RICHARDSON: When Randy and I started working on Dark Horse Presents #1, I drove out to pick up our weekly comics shipment [for the comic shop] at Richard Finn’s Second Genesis Distribution. This was right after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had appeared and become a smash success. While I picked up our own books, I looked down the row of the week’s titles and saw that 15 to 20 of them were ripping-off of the Turtles. I told Richard, “Look, you’re adding all of this stuff to our order. We don’t need all of it.” And he said, “Yeah, I can cut them out, but don’t you want some for your customers?” So I felt obligated to take some of the titles, but I didn’t like it. Most of the books were not good. On the drive back to the store, I had a random thought, “We need one of these characters to come along and wipe out all these other characters so that his own book would have more space on the racks.” I came back and pitched Randy the idea, and he thought it was great. We started thinking, about who we could hire to illustrate the book. We originally wanted to do it with Keith Giffen—this was just after he had done Ambush Bug—and we tried to get a hold of him, but had no luck there. So then we started thinking about other names. We had a customer who used to hang around the store, Jim Smith, who had just joined APA-5. He drew these pictures of a bear [Boris the Bear] and we decided to offer the book to him, since it was just going to be a one-shot. He was a good enough artist and we never dreamed that we’d do another. We thought, “It’ll be fun, and we’ll be in and out.” We sold 80,000 copies! And “in and out” became “again and again.” [laughter] EURY: So Boris the Bear sold 80,000 copies. How did your first comic, Dark Horse Presents #1, do? RICHARDSON: We sold 50,000 copies. STRADLEY: We were thinking we’d sell 10,000 copies, and we sold fifty. Boris came in right after that, and we thought—and were hoping, again—that we’d sell 10,000, and we sold eighty. EURY: So the numbers were very surprising to you on your first few issues. RICHARDSON: All of a sudden, we had books selling better than we’d ever imagined. It looked like we might really have a comics company. We never really envisioned that—we thought of doing comics and selling them out of the stores and having a nice little thing on the side. San Diego [Comic-Con] just happened to be scheduled about the same time as our first two books were released. For some reason I couldn’t go, so Randy and Chris Warner took the first issues down to the convention. When they came back, they were really excited by the response the books received. We were all excited.

STRADLEY: It was the middle of that black-and-white boom in comics, but the bloom was starting to fade off the rose. RICHARDSON: Just before Black September. STRADLEY: Yeah, there were so many really just awful black-and-white books out there, and then we came along and we actually had good art. RICHARDSON: Yes, with Paul Chadwick and Chris Warner. STRADLEY: And people would drool over the books. They’d say, “This stuff doesn’t look like all the other stuff, this is like a for-real comic.” Chris and I were really amazed at that reaction. RICHARDSON: We broke all of the rules in our first couple of years, because people said black-and-whites didn’t sell after the black-and-white bust and Black September, and ours sold very well. They said, “You can’t do anthologies, they won’t last.” Dark Horse Presents went what, 160 issues, whatever it was. [Editor’s note: There were 163 issues of Dark Horse Presents, from July 1986 to Sept. 2000, plus Annuals and Specials.] And they said that movie comics don’t sell. That was industry wisdom at that time. You know, Godzilla was a modest success. We sold about 30,000 copies. Then we started thinking, “Wow, let’s get some other people that we like and let’s start doing this for real.” So at first we got people we knew who lived around here, like Chris Warner and Ron Randall. STRADLEY: And Randy Emberlin. RICHARDSON: And Paul Gulacy. Randy and I started creating characters, and we started going after our first licensed book almost right away. We started expanding, and the books kept making money, and we decided to get serious. I think when we moved into our first offices we felt that this was really going to work. We put a contact list together of writers and artists we wanted to work with and started going down the list, calling everyone we admired in the business. EURY: Dark Horse was the first company to really take movie comics seriously. Movie or TV comics were generally considered an afterthought by the bigger publishers. RICHARDSON: Yeah. Previous to Dark Horse, publishers didn’t take much care with who wrote and drew these books. Because they didn’t own them, they didn’t really take them seriously. We decided to go after film projects we really liked and try to create sequels in print form. We were big fans of Godzilla, and had a lot of fun with its marketing campaign. STRADLEY: Yeah, we did a lot of goofy ads, spelling out that name, one letter at a time, over the course of several weeks. RICHARDSON: You’d see a nice city landscape in the first ad; then in the second one, you’d see a building on fire. By the time you got to the end of it, the whole city was in flames and it said “Godzilla.” STRADLEY: When we started Aliens, [licensor 20th Century] Fox’s entire licensing department consisted of two people. There was no Aliens marketing going on at all. And The Simpsons was still new—

The Dark Horse crew hams it up in the early days of the company. Our spotlighted dynamic duo, Randy Stradley and Mike Richardson (seated, front row), look quite bookish, don’t they? Standing behind them (left to right): Jim Bradrick, Chris Warner, Neil Hankerson, and Chris Chalenor. Photo courtesy of Melissa Jones and Dark Horse Comics.

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EURY: Wow. The days before franchises and “branding.” STRADLEY: In a way, we kind of hurt ourselves, because we talked to movie companies about how much money they can expect to make off of their properties. RICHARDSON: For instance, back in our early days, we taught them how to sliver their licenses. Certain licenses were taken and we wanted a way to get our piece, so we’d sit down with them and they’d say, “Well, the model license is gone.” We’d say, “Really? Which model license?” And they’d say, “What do you mean?” And we’d say, “Well, we don’t want the model license. We want the cold-cast license.” And they’d say, “Oh, is that different from models?” And we’d say, “Yeah.” So they’d make two licenses. Then suddenly, everybody’s started going after cold-cast licenses. We’d say, “No, we want the cold-cast license over 50 dollars.” And they’d ask us, “Oh, can we do that?” Then there’d be three licenses and by the time we were done with the model license, Godzilla TM & © 2007 Toho.

there’d be like, 25. We’d “sliver” it—that’s what we called it, “slivering the license.” And then it was the same thing with publishing: “Well, we have the comic license.” “But do you have the graphic novel license?” And we’d go after everything. Now there’s a whole group of marketing people in Los Angeles in the film business that learned from us, and we didn’t really know [it at the time] but we were actually teaching them their business. We were just being creative, figuring out how to get the licenses. STRADLEY: How to get what we wanted. RICHARDSON: [chuckles] Yeah, that’s right. STRADLEY: So now, everything’s slivered before it even starts. EURY: What are some of the other changes that have happened since those early days? RICHARDSON: Now, you don’t dare wait until after a movie is released to go after the license. STRADLEY: Oh, no. RICHARDSON: If you don’t secure the rights before the film comes out, chances are you aren’t going to get them. So now it’s a much bigger gamble. You have no idea how the film’s going to do. We’re a lot more careful [choosing licenses] than we were then. STRADLEY: When we sold products and comics, Fox was like, “Wow,” with all the stuff there. And then it got so good that we’d come up with ideas, we’d get the license, and be charged extra fees for our own slivered ideas. RICHARDSON: We had Aliens, we had Predator, and we put the two together in one book. Then they decided, “Those are two distinct licenses.” Alien vs. Predator is a new property, so we had to sign a contract and pay them more money for our own idea despite the fact that we had the separate character licenses. And by the way, we came up with Alien vs. Predator, nobody else. STRADLEY: We did it in the Alien vs. Predator comic book. [Editor’s note: Dark Horse’s Aliens vs. Predator #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1989) sold over 400,000 copies.] EURY: When you released your first few comics, starting with Dark Horse Presents #1, did you face any challenges penetrating the distribution network, being a new, small company? RICHARDSON: No challenge. I mean, for us, it was as simple as calling Richard Finn’s Second Genesis Distribution, and Diamond Distribution, and make a deal for them to distribute our books into the comics market, and it was great. We just printed up our books and they shipped them. As we mentioned, we had that great success at San Diego, and then Harlan Ellison went public in Los Angeles about our books. STRADLEY: Yeah, he wrote that article for Playboy about the top ten comics being published at that time, and Paul Chadwick’s Concrete was his number one pick. RICHARDSON: I love to tell this story about Harlan…. He had a radio show then, and he promoted Dark Horse on it. I talked to Harlan several times on the phone and I basically told him how big a fan I was of his and his work, notably Dangerous Visions and Again,

One of Dark Horse’s first hits was creator Paul Chadwick’s celebrated Concrete. Presented here, courtesy of Heritage Auctions, is Chadwick’s original cover art to Concrete #7 (Apr. 1988). Concrete TM & © 2007 Paul Chadwick.

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Dangerous Visions. He liked what we were producing and so he promoted us heavily. I remember at one of the first conventions we attended, Randy and I were working our table and someone told us that Harlan was at the convention signing. We had talked to Harlan on the phone [but had not met him in person]. I said, “Let’s walk over and have Harlan sign something” without letting him know who we were. We got into line and heard him ask each person who handed him a book or poster, “What would you like me to write?” When it was my turn, I handed him a poster and said, “Write something brilliant.” He said “Sure” and without hesitation signed his name. We started laughing and said, “We’re Mike and Randy.” He looked up at us, “Oh! You’re the Dark Horse guys!” [laughter] EURY: Dr. Giggles was Dark Horse’s first movie, in 1992. Today, Dark Horse Entertainment produces lots of movies. How’d you make the jump into film? RICHARDSON: Well, after we started licensing material from the studios, we’d send some of our other books to Fox. Pretty soon we were being asked to send them to all of the studios. It wasn’t long before they started calling us, wanting to license some of our titles for film. The first project they wanted was Boris the Bear. The first thing we had to change was the voice of Boris. STRADLEY: Oh, that’s right. EURY: What happened? RICHARDSON: Well, unfortunately, at this time, Jim [Smith] and I didn’t see eye-to-eye. It was natural. He had his own ideas for starting his own publishing company, so we told Jim, “Go ahead, God be with you.” And he took Boris the Bear. [Editor’s note: After Dark Horse’s 12-issue run, cover dated Aug. 1986–Oct. 1987, Boris the Bear was self-published by James Dean Smith’s Nicotat Comics beginning with issue #13 (Nov. 1987).]

Dark Horse’s original office on NE Sandy Boulevard in Portland, Oregon, circa 1986.

In 1990, this building in the heart of Milwaukie, Oregon, underwent a facelift to become…

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Photos courtesy of Melissa Jones and Dark Horse Comics.

OFFICE SPACE: DARK HORSE THEN AND NOW

…the current headquarters of Dark Horse Comics! (The company maintains a second building, with marketing personnel and a warehouse, on the next block.)

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And about six months later, I got this call from a woman at Group W, which was an entertainment division of Westinghouse, I believe. She said, “We want Boris the Bear. We want to do it now. We’ve talked to Michael Jackson about supplying the voice.” This was the end of ’86 or early ’87, somewhere in there. STRADLEY: Yeah, Michael was still on the rise. RICHARDSON: Everybody loved the idea of Michael Jackson supplying the voice for Boris. Anyway, so the woman called and said, “We want Boris, we’re going to do this as a series, we want to make a deal right away.” I said, “Okay. Well, I’ll call James.” So I called James, and James said no, he’d rather just do this on his own. So we told this woman we didn’t think we could make it happen. And she said, “That’s too bad because I’m telling you, it’s a done deal.” So a month or two later, we read in the trades that Group W had picked up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead. The rest, of course, is history. The real watershed moment for Dark Horse with regard to entertainment was my meeting Larry Gordon. Larry is a legendary producer. He produced Die Hard,

(above) Dark Horse founder and president Mike Richardson, today. Photo courtesy of Melissa Jones and Dark Horse Comics.

Field of Dreams, and dozens of other blockbusters. He really is larger than life. [Editor’s note: Among the blockbusters produced by Lawrence “Larry” Gordon are Predator 2, The Rocketeer, the Lara Croft movies, and Hellboy—with 2008’s Watchmen in development at this writing.] He called me and said, “Hey, boy, I hear you want to do movies? So get on a plane, come down here, and we’ll do movies together.” One thing led to another and we ended up putting together Dr. Giggles. We shot it just about a mile from Dark Horse. The soundstage was a warehouse in an industrial park. We shot in the Eastmoreland neighborhood [of Portland] and out in a local park. We worked with Manny Coto. [Editor’s note: More recently, Dr. Giggles writer/director Manny Coto has produced episodes of television series including Enterprise and 24.] He was the hot director at the time and we worked with him on the script, and created a story right leading up to the comic book. EURY: When I interviewed with you back in '93, The Mask was being filmed. You showed me stills and were telling me about Jim Carrey and I knew who he was— “the white guy” from In Living Color. RICHARDSON: Well, originally, we sort of had a fight with New Line. They wanted Martin Short [to star in The Mask]. Nothing against Martin Short, he just wasn’t the best choice. And later Rick Moranis was interested in the project, so we had some uncomfortable moments there. Then [Mask executive producer] Michael De Luca said, “I’ve got this videotape. I want you to watch it. Do you know who Jim Carrey is?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Well, have you ever watched In Living Color? Jim Carrey is the white guy.” He sent me this tape of the show, and Jim was so funny, he was like rubber. I said, “That’s the guy. I don’t care about anyone else, that’s the guy!” A short time later we gave the female lead to a would-be actress who had been looking for a bit part. She was a print model. As soon as you saw her, you knew there was just something special about her. Her name was Cameron Diaz. EURY: The Mask made stars out of both of them. RICHARDSON: I was determined to build our presence in film and I hired an agent in ’91 or ’92. The agent asked me, “Who do you want to be in business with?” I said, “Sam Raimi, the director of Evil Dead.” So he immediately set up a meeting and a short time later, Sam and his partner, Rob Tappert, came up Portland. At one point, Sam and Rob were partnered with Bruce Campbell. The way we had it figured, Rob was going to produce with us, Sam was going to direct, and Bruce Campbell was going to star in The Mask. So we had them up here, and Randy and I were having dinner with them at some ancient restaurant on the Columbia River. At the end of the meal, Sam sat back and said, “You know, I just had this vision in my head.” He said, “Mike, you and I are going to be in business together ten years from now.” I said, “What about Randy?” He said, “Oh, he died in a car accident five years ago.” [laughter]

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our comics to be. If either one of us has questions—either one of us—I’ll go to Randy or he’ll come to me, because we can really talk to each other. We may not always agree, but we’ll always listen to each other. STRADLEY: Yeah, but in the last ten years or so, there’s become more of a division in what we do. Mike is in L.A. about once a week—he’s got the movies to deal with, and he deals with the bigger issues. And I’m more focused on the treatments. RICHARDSON: I try to give direction as to where we want to go creatively, certainly in picking properties—and lately trying to get us back to some of the success we’ve had in the past with the licensed properties. In the old days, Randy and I would sit down and plot where our series were going, and then we’d bring in a writer to work with us. We’d have a definite idea of where the series was going. Then there

STRADLEY: Figures. RICHARDSON: So when I originally went to New Line, I wanted Sam to direct and Bruce to star as the Mask. New Line would have gone with Sam, as his star was rising, but he decided he wasn’t going to do the film. I tell Bruce to this day that, but for Sam Raimi, he would have been Jim Carrey. EURY: And The Mask was number one at the box office. RICHARDSON: The Mask opened number one, was a big hit, ran its course, and faded. There was a lull in the box office and New Line decided to release it again a few months later. This time, the promotion marketed Milo [the pet dog of Stanley Ipkiss, the Mask’s alter ego], which was completely a surprise, and the film went back to number one again. EURY: Mike, I know that you’re very positive and goaloriented in your thinking, but in all honesty, did you have any inkling when you and Randy put together the first issue of Dark Horse Presents that you’d be making toys and movies and products? RICHARDSON: Well, you know, the thoughts were always in the back of my head about the possibility of where we might go, you know, if we kept operating and if we took advantage of the opportunities that kept showing up. STRADLEY: Early on, we talked about our goals two years over here, and five years over here, and in ten years when we’ll do this. And within three years, we passed some ten-year goals. RICHARDSON: Dark Horse has survived all of the downturns in our industry. In the history of the comicbook business, I don’t know how many hundreds of comics companies have died. You can count the number of comics publishers that have lasted 20 years, much less thrived, on one hand. Particularly the ’90s, when even Marvel had fallen on tough times. EURY: Virtually none of the other independents that started with you in the ’80s is still in operation today. STRADLEY: The last man standing. RICHARDSON: You see, we never did it just to make money. We did it because we love comics. That’s why we got into it. That’s why we still do it. At Dark Horse, we try to make great comics. STRADLEY: I think back to the very first distributors’ meetings … every year, they’d have a trade show or a meeting with all the publishers, and our first time, meeting all these other publishers, they’d be snotty, saying, [snidely] “So, what do you guys think you’re doing here?” And Mike would say, “To make comics.” And everybody would sit there and roll their eyes and go— RICHARDSON: “Oh, brother.” STRADLEY: Yeah. EURY: So Dark Horse’s longevity is the result of your dedication to quality and, I think, your enthusiasm for what you do. RICHARDSON: Yeah. And here it is, 20 years later, and that’s still what we’re trying to do, to make comics, and most of those guys aren’t in the business. STRADLEY: And we’re still doing it. EURY: Randy, Mike, you’ve had a partnership for over two decades. What has kept that going? STRADLEY: The fact that we don’t see each other very often. [laughter] RICHARDSON: In the early days, we used to hang out, with each other and with all the fans, at home and away. I think that in the beginning, I saw Randy more than my family, and that kind of thing creates stress. One of the things that’s worked about our relationship is that we have similar ideas about what we want

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came a period were we both got busy, and we sort of left the writers to their own devices. Not always, but there were a lot of times where the writers got away from the ideas that had made a franchise successful. In the last couple of years, we’ve actually gone back to sitting down to plot with the writers: Our editors are working with the writers in advance to work out story direction for each of our licensed titles. As a result, a number of those books are taking off again. Each editor is a sort of project manager. And after the launch, if I think that a book is going in the wrong direction, I’ll get involved. Randy, on the other hand, has definitely stepped up and interacted with the Star Wars franchise, and what he’s done has been incredible. Randy keeps on top of it, and there’s so much that’s happened. I mean, we’re official canon—our Star Wars books are official canon—and I can’t keep track of it all any more. In order to keep that franchise vital, to the Star Wars fans in particular, we have to be on top of it. We might have let it get away from us for a period of time, but Randy stepped in and put it all back on track. STRADLEY: One of the things that I think happened— but it didn’t just happen with Star Wars, it happened with all of our series—and it sounds weird to say it, but we started listening too much to the fans. I remember reading an interview with Frank Miller years ago, where he’s talking about plotting stuff, and he said if you listen to the readers, if you give them exactly what they’re asking for, they’re all going to get bored. You’ve got to give them what they don’t expect. RICHARDSON: You’ve got to surprise them. STRADLEY: And one of the things that I really felt like we were doing was listening too much to the readers of those particular properties. I think if you just did a good comic, then there’s this whole other audience out there. I’m finding out that there’s a lot of comics readers who haven’t, who didn’t, pick up Star Wars comics because … they were “Star Wars”—Star Wars really wasn’t comics. But now they’re starting to pick them up and say, “Hey, here’s a good comic.” EURY: And you’re applying that philosophy to other licensed properties as well…? STRADLEY: We’re looking at going back to some of the old things, like Aliens and Predator, and are talking about revamping those in the same way. RICHARDSON: We’re going to reintroduce Aliens by starting with a frightening and really scary storyline. We’re going to create a continuity and establish a jumping-on point, and we’re going to stay focused on it. As far as the comics go, we’re really looking to keep things interesting, to really come up with some surprises. Randy’s been too busy, but in the last year I’ve started writing comics again. I finished a graphic novel a short time ago [Cravan] and my miniseries, The Secret, is out now. Randy and I started the company so that we create our own comics and 20 years later I’m back to that idea. STRADLEY: Hey, I’m going in the other direction, working on screenplays! [Mike and Michael laugh] RICHARDSON: You know, I’ve done plenty of that. I want to get back to writing comics.

EURY: Then it’s come full circle for you? STRADLEY: Yeah, but we had to spread our wings a little bit. RICHARDSON: When I’m away, Randy’s here watching over our comics. If somebody comes up to me to ask me something [about a comics project]—if I’m not sure, I’ll say, “Go ask Randy.” Once again, I trust him. We’ve been working together a long time, and even though I might be away, Randy can take care of things here. You know, some people might question the decisions we’ve made, but we’re still here 20 years later and we’re going to stay here. A lot of times now, we’re recognized as the premiere company with regard to licensed comics. That’s great, we love that. But first and foremost, we are the premiere creator-owned comics company. We have a full line of creator-owned books and we’ve given creative freedom to some of the world’s greatest talent. We’ve worked with the best: Paul Chadwick on Concrete, Mike Mignola on Hellboy, Eric Powell on The Goon, Frank Miller on Sin City and 300. Right now we’re also searching for new talent, the young creators who will shape the industry in the future. So with all the love and attention that we focus on our licensed comics, we’re primarily a creator-owned comic company. EURY: You definitely did a lot for the entire medium with creator-owned comics. DC had one toe in the waters at the time you started publishing creatorowned books, but Dark Horse really set the pace.

Bill Morrison’s original pencil art for what eventually became the painted cover to Dark Horse’s Wolf & Red #1 (Apr. 1995), first of a three-issue miniseries featuring animator Tex Avery’s sexy Little Red and sexist Big Bad Wolf. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. Wolf & Red TM & © 2007 MGM.

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RICHARDSON: It’s not really in DC’s or Marvel’s best interests to operate that way. They own their characters. Marvel owns Spider-Man and DC owns Superman. We want to work with comic creators to find the new Spider-Man, not live with the same characters that were created 60 or 70 years ago. We want what works for this market, now in 2007, and that’s what we’re looking for. The way to do that is to find great talent and give them the freedom to do their best work. We think that a comics creator will do his best work if he has the opportunity to own his own creation. STRADLEY: If a creator is excited about his investment, then it works best for everything. I mean, that’s why our first Aliens series was such a success, because Mark Verheiden, the writer, was really excited about it, and Mark Nelson, the artist, was really excited about it, and it showed on the page! When you read the story, you get it, that the people producing the stories were pouring their hearts into it. It wasn’t just, “Oh, he’s in the office, so let’s get Joe Blow to write this.”

The Man of Steel gets a rude awakening from a human-hunting Predator in this page from the 2000 DC/Dark Horse crossover Superman vs. Predator, written by David Michelinie and illustrated by Alex Maleev. Art courtesy of Anthony Snyder. Superman TM & © 2007 DC Comics. Predator TM & © 2007 20th Century Fox.

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RICHARDSON: Just in time for the movie. EURY: With some companies, that certainly was the mindset for licensed comics. RICHARDSON: Yeah, it was with all companies. I mean, I fondly remember those Dell comics we used to read, but they weren’t very good. STRADLEY: Like that Valley of Gwangi comic where it’s … I don’t know, about 22 pages of story, but the dinosaur didn’t show up until page 20. [Michael chuckles] It’s like they started adapting the movie without knowing where it was going, and so they crammed the entire two-thirds of the movie in the last three pages of the book. EURY: Anything else you want to add about your relationship? STRADLEY: I think it’s true, if you don’t have that kind of mutual respect, whether you’re spending a year with somebody or 20 years with somebody, the only way it makes that kind of business relationship work is to respect each other. RICHARDSON: Well, over the last 20 years, I’ve seen Randy probably as much as I’ve seen my wife, if not more. So I think, looking back on it, there was a frenzy and excitement that lasted about seven or eight years from the time we started. And there was probably a time when we both got really tired of seeing each other every day. Now I think that we’ve sort of slipped into this comfortable relationship. I guess it’s like— EURY: It’s kind of like a marriage. RICHARDSON: Yeah, it is. But there’s no competition any more, there’s no worrying the things that don’t matter, because we trust each other. By the way, when you’ve had the experience that comes along with a large number of relationships, professional relationships, you meet any number of people who just aren’t trustworthy. It’s comforting when you find someone you can rely on. With Randy, I always know that I can trust him, and trust his opinion. He’s thoughtful and intelligent and excited about comics, and I’m lucky he’s here. STRADLEY: And I’m lucky that Mike called me and I was smart enough to say yes. RICHARDSON: At first, we thought maybe we could get a few comics rolling. Later, it dawned on us that we might even be successful at it. We got sort of excited about this thought, “Hey, maybe we can make a living at this.” STRADLEY: I remember early on, with Neil [Hankerson, Dark Horse’s executive vice president] asking a question about, “Well, you guys don’t think we’ll be doing this 20 years from now, do you?” And I can remember thinking, “Well … yeah!” [laughter] RICHARDSON: “What are you talking about? Of course!” EURY: As far as your relationship is concerned, think about it—how many people in comics do you know who have worked together for 20 years? RICHARDSON: Well, I think with some longtime relationships, there’s a competitiveness that comes into play, you know, “Who’s the man,” and all of that. It can lead to jealousy and resentment. I think it’s why many relationships such as ours end badly. We seem to have gotten past that, so it’s not an issue. STRADLEY: Yeah, and there was always enough for both of us to have a part of. EURY: Well, thanks for not having a fist fight and for being civilized. [laughter] That’s really nice of you. RICHARDSON: I’m glad we could help!

(left) The man of the

Saturday, February 15, 2007 was proclaimed “Dick Giordano Day” by Richard T. Crotty, mayor of Orange County, Florida. Dick’s friends at BACK ISSUE wish to congratulate the talented man who changed comics one day at a time with this special photo salute from the event. (Special thanks to Rob Jones for the photos. For more photos, visit the Harbor Comics site at harborcomics.com/DickGiordanoDay.htm.)

hour! (below left) George Pérez was among the comics pros honoring Dick at the presentation.

(above) The proclamation itself, presented to Dick Giordano at MegaCon 2007. (left) A post-award gathering of Dick Giordano (with proclamation), Arne Starr, Jim McLauchin, Dick’s assistant (and Perfect Storm co-creator) Rob Jones, and Pat Bastienne. D y n a m i c

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Malcolm Bourne

conduc ted at the San Diego Comic- Con, July 2006

Editor’s note: Inspired by Astro Boy and legendary Japanese artist Osamu Tezuka, Scott McCloud’s Zot! was a buoyant and much-loved series published by Eclipse Comics from April 1984 through July 1991. Running 36 issues (the first ten in color, and the remaining issues in black and white), the manga-like Zot!—part sci-fi and part romance, peppered with super-hero-like elements for good measure—was the first major work of writer/artist McCloud, who has since authored and illustrated three influential books about the language of comics, the most recent being Making Comics. MALCOLM BOURNE: Where did the whole idea of Zot! come from? SCOTT McCLOUD: When I created Zot! I was just out of college and working at DC Comics in Manhattan, as a production flunkie. I was having a grand time, getting to know the city, getting to know the industry. I had a lot of ideas in my sketchbook, but in a way I had come to a point in my life where I felt it was important to create something of my own and not just try to go through the mill of learning to letter, learning to ink backgrounds, and gradually go up the ladder. Instead I wanted to create something from scratch, write and draw a comic which would be entirely my own. And in a way, Zot was just the thing at the top of the sketchbook at the time. BOURNE: As a reader, I had just started at university then, and it seemed that for the first time ever, really, there was this big explosion of creator-owned comics with some genuinely different ideas. Did it look like that to you as a creator, that the marketplace was changing? McCLOUD: The marketplace was definitely changing in those days. The direct market was starting to really become a substantial force in the industry, and after Cerebus and Elfquest and a few other titles, small companies were popping up, like Eclipse and Pacific and First Comics. They were more favorable to creators, in terms of rights. I had the notion in my head that I wanted to have control and ownership of my creation, so I was very attracted to those companies. I did show the work to DC, which I considered my alma mater, as it were, since I had worked there in the production department. I showed it to Epic at Marvel, 6 8

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Beginnings: Fanzine and B&W comic work in late 1970s, including The Battle of Lexington with Kurt Busiek

Milestones: Zot! / Destroy!! / Understanding Comics (book, 1993) / Superman Adventures / The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln / Reinventing Comics (book, 2000)

Works in Progress: Zot! Online / Making Comics (book, 2006) / Making Comics 50 State Tour (through August 2007)

Cyberspace: www.scottmcloud.com

Scott McCLoud Photo courtesy of Malcolm Bourne.

something quite different, or did the book just evolve into a more serious one? McCLOUD: I think the evolution of Zot! had more to do with my own restlessness. I was interested in so many different types of comics, it was hard for me to stay on just the one for very long. It was also partially a result of the change to black and white. It was partially for economic reasons, we were unable to keep the color series going. I felt the stuff belonged in color at the beginning. The fact was that it had been inspired in large part by black-and-white comics, by Japanese comics, which I was quite obsessed with immediately prior to creating Zot! I’ve learned a lot from Japanese comics. So when with issue #11 we went to black and white, I really embraced that form and in subsequent conversation— sometimes it will come up with perspective publishers or did so with Eclipse itself back in the day— there might be the notion of reprinting the series, and having the color issues reprinted in black and white, and I would say, “No, they were designed for color.” At other times I have had offers to reprint the black-and-white issues and to colorize them, and I would say, “No, they were designed for black and white.” To me, it was extremely important that they be designed for their format. The black-and-white issues

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which was a creator-owned imprint they were working on, or at least a more creator-centred imprint. But my eye was really on the “independents,” and when Eclipse expressed interest I went with them. The market was definitely undergoing a lot of evolution. When we look back at it now we find a lot of the titles that we associate with that period were, in many ways, just improvements on the super-hero formula. They were still genre titles, they were still not all that different from what was being done in the mainstream, although they were generally more creative, unique, more distinctive, more idiosyncratic than what was being done in the mainstream. I still felt even then in the mid-’80s, that what I was looking at then was really just a harbinger of a more diversified market. I had already been weaned on Will Eisner’s Contract with God, Raw magazine, Weirdo, European comics, and Japanese comics, so I knew that the degree of evolution that we had achieved at that point was still fairly modest, compared to other markets. BOURNE: As a reader then, it seemed that a lot of it was new, so although I had just about become familiar with Eisner and Cerebus by then, and books like Zot!, Jon Sable, and Nexus felt very new and different, even if, looking back, they were very closely allied to the dominant super-hero genre. McCLOUD: In a way, they were variations on the super-hero. BOURNE: I think it does reflect how tight a boundary we often put around what we think comics can do; at the time it did seem very, very different, and looking back probably what was different was there was more creative freedom for the creators, even if they were doing more similar work. McCLOUD: Yes. Parallel to that movement, those titles, simultaneously you did have more profoundly alternative, for lack of a better word, comics, such as Love and Rockets, or Peter Bagge’s Neat Stuff, or Dan Clowes’ Lloyd Llewellyn. These were creators that were just about to break out themselves and do more interesting work. This was a time when Chris Ware, for example, was doing Floyd Farland for Eclipse, a title I am sure he would rather everyone forgot about. There was a lot of untapped potential there but at places like Fantagraphics, you could see I think a more profound kind of alternative to what was being done in the mainstream, whereas ours was a kind of middle ground, myself and my peers. BOURNE: It is interesting hearing you talk about how different things really were or weren’t, so that as you rightly say, books like Love and Rockets were exploring the real world, for want of better words, in a comicbook market in a way that hadn’t really been done much, other than through some of Will Eisner’s work. McCLOUD: I think theirs was the real vanguard in the direct market at the time. BOURNE: Everyone raved about it. Zot!, of course, at least subjectively, might only have been started as a space fantasy that was, in your terms, in genre; but by the end had metamorphosed into a story about human relationships. Those last dozen or so issues were some of the most amazing comics ever written about people— certainly in the ’80s and ’90s. McCLOUD: Collectively known as the uncollected Zot!s, at least until they get the reprint book out! BOURNE: We are waiting for that. McCLOUD: Yes, everyone is. BOURNE: How much of that was conscious? Did you mean to start with something that was much more “in genre,” if that is a reasonable description, and move to

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were a real love letter to what I felt could be done with black-and-white art and again, I learned quite a bit from that black-and-white industry of Japanese comics. BOURNE: Thinking about the Japanese influence, when Frank Miller came out with Ronin, to the very Westernized American/British audience, that was something newer than anything almost, but as soon as you look at manga, the influence is very obvious. That’s no discredit to Frank! McCLOUD: Frank was very vocal in his support of and his interest in Lone Wolf and Cub in particular. In fact, at the time I had even had the opportunity to ask him whether or not he was also interested in my favorite artist, Osama Tezuku. At the time he was more focused on things like Lone Wolf and Cub. That was when I was just a production flunkie, one of those water-cooler moments when Frank just happened to be in the office, so I tried to corner Mr. Miller and ask him about his influences!

Scott McCloud’s manga influences are clearly evident on this page from Zot! #21 (Aug. 1988), an issue featuring a letter from none other than Malcolm Bourne. Autographed original art courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 Scott McCloud.

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BOURNE: Was DC generally encouraging you to go and strike down your own path or were they really wanting to say, “Don’t be silly, you could stay with the majors”? McCLOUD: No. They were very supportive. These were my friends and co-workers and when I was able to get my own series, they were perfectly supportive. It was a wonderful work environment. I liked the people up at DC. I still do. It was a business but there were plenty of people there who had a great love for the form and I am sure that’s still true. I know a few of them. BOURNE: This question I was going to save until later, but I will ask it now—I wonder whether or not it is in the best interests of Marvel and DC in particular to promote a wider field because their success and their commercial clout and business is still very much based on the super-hero genre. McCLOUD: I think there may be some at Marvel and DC who would feel that way. I am pretty confident that there are others who feel it is in their enlightened self interest to promote a broader industry, a diversification of comics, a broader reader base. I think that there have probably been a lot of conscious forays in that direction. I think a number of business decisions probably have been made in the last 20 years that were for the greater good of the industry. I think, perhaps, it is also understood at some mainstream publishers that that change really has to come from the ground up, it’s not something that they can hand to comics on a silver platter. It requires the hard work of individuals, self-publishers, alternative publishers, even Web publishers, to create that broader environment on their own. BOURNE: Yes, there are a lot of individuals at both companies who have that creative idea about spreading things ever wider; on the other hand, one phenomenon that happens a lot now is that people who are successful doing smaller press “independent” books, are then offered work at Marvel and DC, and mostly, not surprisingly, take them, because it is steady income. McCLOUD: I know at least a couple who have turned them down. It’s not universal. Such jobs don’t last a lifetime necessarily. If somebody who is working independently has a chance to make money on the side for creating something in a “work for hire” environment and really enjoy and apply themselves and hone their craft doing it, I don’t really see that that’s a loss for anyone. I think that’s a win/win situation. BOURNE: I agree entirely, individually. One just hopes that more individual creative visions can keep going as well and work alongside. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t. McCLOUD: Once somebody has a strong vision in their head for what they can do with comics, I don’t know that it necessarily evaporates the moment they sign a contract for a miniseries at DC. I think that vision is still there and hopefully they can approach all jobs with equal enthusiasm. I certainly try to. The times that I have done the occasional work for hire, a job, Superman stories that I have written here and there, I have certainly approached that with a great deal of enthusiasm and care. It may be more an opportunity to hone my skills than it is to tell a deeply personal story because that’s more appropriate. Everything in its time, everything in its place, but nevertheless I don’t think an opportunity to hone one’s skills is anything to sneeze at, I think it’s a great chance to explore what we are capable of. BOURNE: As long as I have known you, I have to say the words “enthusiastic” and “optimistic” are two words I would always apply to you!

McCLOUD: It’s never really dimmed! BOURNE: Coming back to Zot!—you were talking before that the change from, if you like, space adventure to the Earth Stories reflected your own restlessness. McCLOUD: More like boredom! I have an addiction to the new. It’s hard for me to stay at 36 issues on anything without wanting to reinvent it every ten minutes. I am the Thomas Jefferson of comics, I guess. Please, God, don’t make that a full quote, because that’ll be misunderstood. You know, [Jefferson’s] quote about having to overthrow the government every few years, I think that’s how I am, too—every structure I create, I want to overthrow within a few years. BOURNE: In those space-adventure tales, one thing that always intrigued me was that in an early issue, in the letters column, you hinted that Zot had a doppelganger on “our Earth,” and you dropped a hint that we had seen him at some point; and I remember scouring every panel for somebody who looked like Zot. At least in the storyline, as far as I know, you never quite resolved either that question, or what it meant. Would you care to elaborate on that now? McCLOUD: Sadly, no. Even though it may be years and years and years until we ever find out, that one has to remain a secret. BOURNE: But there is something behind that … that one day you may get to in a story, as you are producing Zot! online. McCLOUD: It’s just a hint of a story, but I think that I may pursue that at some point. BOURNE: I think one of the great things Zot! achieves, like few other books (Strangers in Paradise and Concrete, I would say; Concrete I think of as Zot!’s modern-day equivalent, in that it started with something quite bizarre but is essentially a story about human beings) is to simply tell stories about people and relationships. McCLOUD: Someone once described Strangers in Paradise as “Zot! meets Love and Rockets.” BOURNE: Terry Moore seems to change almost the ethos of Strangers in Paradise, almost sometimes from issue to issue. Maybe that is a similar restlessness to your own? McCLOUD: Yeah, he may share that with me. BOURNE: The later stories I would see as a modern day romance. Do you think that’s a fair description? McCLOUD: To some extent. In the Earth Stories I played with this notion that every character in a story is the protagonist in their own mind and that if we just shift the focus and let the camera follow them, it becomes their story. I think it was partially inspired by a copy of Sherwood Anderson’s short stories that Bill Loebs had lent me at one point, where each one focused on a different character. I liked that, that kind of gallery of viewpoints. I think maybe I was attracted to the note of triangulation, that if you can show the world from a number of different vantage points, it helps you to triangulate the world we live in. I liked trying to put myself in the minds of these supporting characters. BOURNE: Dekko seemed to me to be a genuine character that clearly was mentally unstable, and even though he was an unreal character in terms of his physical makeup, you were taking somebody out of the asylum and putting them overtly into a super-hero situation. He got more mentally unstable as time went on. McCLOUD: Dekko was interesting. I felt you couldn’t really write a mad character unless you can do it in such a way that their views are internally consistent and sympathetic on some level. I think of Dekko as an entirely rational being who is simply living outside the territory of propriety and good social skills. Everything he says makes perfect sense.

Despite its cast of exotic characters (including man-turned-monkey Butch), Zot! was, at heart, the story of teenage Jenny fumbling through adolescence. Page 9 from Zot! #23 (Nov. 1988), signed by McCloud and courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 Scott McCloud.

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To him, a good villain has a coherent philosophy. A good villain can defend convincingly their reasons for doing things. That’s one of the reasons I like [serial killer barber] Sweeney Todd … it takes the time to justify Sweeney’s philosophy. You can see how he comes about his desire to embark on this bloody path. BOURNE: It’s something a little bit more than wanting to rule the word for its own sake? McCLOUD: It’s a credible, almost convincing rationale. I would like a villain’s philosophy to be convincing enough that you are almost ready to follow them, over the cliff, over the abyss, and you stop yourself, like you do at the top of a high building, and for just a moment you look down and you think I could just jump and die right now. BOURNE: Coming back to Dekko, I still remember the issue where you saw the world from his point of view, and there’s this series of black-and-white patterns. He is internally rational, but looking from the outside now it’s like he has some sort of autistic type of view of the world, really, which is very black and white. I have written comics, as you know,

Chuck Austen stepped in to finish Scott McCloud’s layouts on the two-parter “Getting to 99” from Zot! #19 and 20; both issues were simultaneously published in June 1988. This Austen page is courtesy of Malcolm Bourne. © 2007 Scott McCloud.

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clearly set in a mental health institution, and you have managed to take that into a more accessible story. McCLOUD: Accessibility is certainly one of my themes. BOURNE: There were two main strands of the Earth Stories that I thought at the time looked quite new for comics and I wonder if they still are. One was the wonderful issue about homosexuality. Even now it seems a lot is made if a mainstream character “comes out” as gay, as has recently happened at DC, I believe. McCLOUD: I am not following that one too closely. I find it strange and a little depressing that all these years later that can still be seen as remarkable, but those are the times we live in. BOURNE: The other strand was that scene with Zot and Jenny, where like any similar teenagers, they are wondering, do we kiss or do we not kiss, or how far do we go? I have the original art for the page where she comes to sit next to him on the bed; and just after that there is a scene where Zot has just entered that box-thing he “lives” in, and sees a belly-button, Jenny’s as she walks past and … it’s actually a very erotic moment in a teenage love story. McCLOUD: I always regretted that it wasn’t better drawn. One of my regrets about the Earth Stories is that toward the end, especially in that issue, I ran up against the limits of my own ability. My figure drawing has always been stiff; my expressions weren’t bad, but they could have used a lot of work; and it saddens me because I liked those scripts and I thought that script in particular deserved a better artist. While I wouldn’t have wanted to hand it to anyone else, I wish I had been that better artist. In fact, in creating Making Comics, the new book, in many ways my primary audience was myself. I was trying to teach myself to be a better cartoonist. I hope I have succeeded because I have ambitions to do much better work in the future. BOURNE: Personally, I thought the expressions your characters had worked fantastically well because they were so simplistic. It’s what Jeff Smith achieves in a different sort of way, with a very fundamental style, in terms of the number of lines on the paper. The expressions worked perfectly. McCLOUD: I thank you, but looking back I flinch a bit. I think the expressions weren’t as bad as the figures but I just wish I was better at drawing people. I have been working on that. Hopefully my next project will show that I have been working hard on that. BOURNE: How did Chuck Austen get involved with drawing two issues of Zot!? McCLOUD: I was getting married and I wanted to try and maintain our schedule, which was a losing battle from the beginning, incidentally. I had a lot of trouble meeting any kind of monthly schedule, even when life wasn’t turned upside down by something as cataclysmic as a wedding. We wanted to do it right, we wanted to be able to relax, I was already behind schedule, and I thought it would be fun to do a fill-in, provided it wasn’t just the typical fill-in. And so we cooked up this idea with Chuck Austen that I would lay out a two-issue story where both issues would come out at the same time, and that became “Getting to 99” which ran, I believe, as Zot! #19 and 20 (both June 1988). Chuck did a terrific job at capturing the flavor of the series. He had that same kind of streamlined, slightly manic, inflected, energetic style that I did, but I think the figures and faces were a little better than mine, so it looked even better. BOURNE: It was like a giant video game? McCLOUD: It was a lot like a video game, “Getting to 99.” I think at least once I’ve been approached about the idea of turning it into a video game, although that was years ago.

One of the funny comments that we got on it was, because of the format, the issues came out at the same time and the covers in fact comprised one image, which you could reveal by placing the two issues next to each other so as to show the complete cover image; and one of my correspondents had described it as a jigsaw puzzle for simpletons. BOURNE: It would be the perfect jigsaw puzzle for Dekko. McCLOUD: Yes indeed, I thought that was a perfect summation. BOURNE: If you did that now it would be a specially limited cover, a retailer bonus…. McCLOUD: Oh, they did that then. I was very allergic to that sort of thing. BOURNE: Almost none of the comic-book companies that came into existence since around 1950 still exist to this day. There are a couple of exceptions, but it seems to me that companies either last forever, with one or two exceptions like Dark Horse and Fantagraphics. But all the other companies, like First, Eclipse, and Pacific, have all flown by night effectively. Why do you think that happens? McCLOUD: Well, it is very difficult to survive in industry. We had a very specific distribution network, a fan base in the direct market which sadly remained fairly insular for a long time. Comic-book stores were, by and large, destination stores. There wasn’t a lot of walk-by traffic and when there was, such as in malls, there wasn’t a lot of effort to court the non-reader. They were hobby halls, they catered to the hardcore fan, and many of them never did a very good job at reaching out to anyone else, and so diversification was slow. These were companies that needed diversification to breathe. Many of them just suffocated. Then, of course, there were any number of other factors, each of them specific to the companies themselves, that contributed to that. In the end, progress was glacial, but at least it was progress. In the long run, it continues to this very day. I think we’ve had a pretty steady ramp of progress to this very day. BOURNE: Similarly, I have long been saying that the future of comics is the bookstores. If you want adults to read comics, that is the way to diversify, as people going into a bookstore are expecting to pay ten, twenty dollars for a single product rather than three dollars for the flimsy product that a single issue of a comic is; and, of course, now it seems almost everything is collected into a trade paperback and is in the bookstores. On the other hand, certainly in England, most bookstores now have graphic novel sections, but 95% of it is still Batman, Spider-Man, and these days, Sin City. McCLOUD: Here in the States, the majority of the graphic novel sections are manga. BOURNE: Yes, and manga probably accounts for 50% of the graphic novel sections in England, too. I suppose twenty years ago I would have hoped that there would be a lot more of diverse material in the bookstores. To the best of my knowledge, the average bookstore doesn’t have, for instance, a copy of the Collective Zot! edition. The idea of shelf life for some of this material hasn’t quite yet circulated through. McCLOUD: Something that comes along in discussions of online comics. BOURNE: How much do you see online comics in any way competing with printed-on-paper comics, or do you see them both sitting side by side very comfortably as time progresses? McCLOUD: I think for the time being, online comics and print comics are probably going to have a very comfortable parallel existence, and there is going to

be plenty of back and forth. I think in the long run, certain functions of print are going to be probably predominantly taken up by online distribution. Certainly the most efficient, direct, cheap forms of publication will probably move to the Web, eventually. We have seen in recent years greater attention to the qualities of print, the tactile qualities of print, and I think to some extent that may be because print actually has an alternative. Once it does, print becomes visible again, whereas in my day print was somewhat invisible. When I began to make comics in 1984, I chose to make comics but I didn’t choose to make them on paper. Paper was the assumption. It would be like a musician announcing that he or she wanted to play the violin and being asked, “Do you plan to do so using air and sound waves?” It was a given in those days, and so we didn’t really think about paper at all; we thought about the art, but apart from hoping that our comics would be printed on something sturdy with a minimum of show-through, the tactile qualities of print were entirely beside the point. Now they’re not; now you have beautiful productions like Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting collection, or like the work of Chris Ware, which really take advantage of the unique qualities of print. I think that’s very healthy. BOURNE: I love looking at art on paper, but that maybe I acknowledge partly because I’m used to looking at art on paper. The only way I have accessed your new material recently, of course, is online, and I’ve gotten used to that now. Then there is the problem about paying for it. You’ve managed to set up things that for the first time really, you can make a relatively small payment, which people will do. McCLOUD: I made attempts in that direction, although that side of the online “industry” is still very immature. Those are just baby steps in that direction.

Zot and Jenny’s discussion about sex leads to their first kiss in writer/artist McCloud’s “The Conversation.” Original art scan from the series’ penultimate issue, Zot! #35 (Mar. 1991), from the collection of Malcolm Bourne. © 2007 Scott McCloud.

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These guys really shouldn’t have been as popular as they became. Laurel and Hardy? Abbott and Costello? Hawkeye Pierce and B. J. Hunnicut? Those guys made sense. But Ted Kord and Michael Jon Carter? Blue Beetle and Booster Gold? Two third-tier superheroes in spandex and goggles didn’t seem to be a formula for comedic gold … and blue. But in 1987, an unlikely duo was formed by another unlikely duo—Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis— and became one of the most dynamic and memorable pairs in modern comics. By the 1980s comics had become a medium dominated by serious writers and artists telling serious stories. Underground comics had emerged as important alternatives to traditional super-hero fare, but even super-hero comics began to move toward darker tones and subject matter. This was never clearer than in the mid’80s explosion of “mature” super-hero tales such as Alan Moore’ and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. These books transformed the expectations of super-hero stories. The “grim and gritty” movement that followed lasted well into the 1990s and would pull most super-hero comics along in its wake.

Alex Boney

At DC Comics, the 1985–1986 maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths reset the DC Universe for a new heroic age. Worlds lived. Worlds died. And super-heroes met unfortunate (and sometimes fortunate) fates by the droves. DC’s longest-running team book, Justice League of America, was not unaffected by the company’s shift. The “Detroit League” was disassembled and the book was cancelled to allow for a reconstruction project in a follow-up DC event. Legends, based loosely on the biblical story of Job, put the surviving DCU heroes through dark days of doubt and public suspicion only to have them emerge much stronger in the aftermath. A new Justice League was formed as Legends drew to a close. But something was not quite right—or at least not very familiar—about this League.

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For one thing, these were not the A-list heroes that had dominated the book in the “Satellite” era of the 1970s. Martian Manhunter and Batman were on the team, but the other “big guns” were in the midst of being revamped and weren’t available to the book’s creative team. The rest of the League consisted of Black Canary, Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate, Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, and Mr. Miracle. Was this really a meaningful reset? Another oddity about the new Justice League was that the book was funny. Not a-wisecrack-here-andthere funny, but genuinely comical. The stories occasionally slipped into serious territory, but the established tone was light and loose. By the fourth issue, a new member—Booster Gold—joined the team and added even more comic relief to a comic book still finding its voice. And by the seventh issue, the combination of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold managed to drive a loud, irreverent “BWAH-HA-HA” through the heart of a genre that had begun to take itself quite seriously.

Beetlemania Before he became Booster’s bud, Blue Beetle was blended into the DC Universe as its Spider-Man substitute. John Byrne/Karl Kesel original art to (below) the unlettered page 15 of Legends #2, and (below right) page 18 of issue #4 (Feb. 1987), contributed by Mike Dunne.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS Most of the characters in Justice League had been associated with traditional comic-book heroics. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold were created to be super-heroes in mainstream comic books, but they were not “comic” characters when they began.

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Blue Beetle, first published by Fox Comics in 1939, was intended to compete with then-burgeoning superheroes like Superman and Batman. The Blue Beetle mantel was worn by Dan Garret, a policeman who became Blue Beetle in order to fight crime he couldn’t within the constraints of public law enforcement. Blue Beetle was acquired by Charlton Comics in 1964, and Dan Garret was reimagined as an archaeologist who attained extraordinary powers when he found a mystical scarab in an ancient Egyptian tomb. When Steve Ditko began working for Charlton in the mid-’60s, Blue Beetle was reimagined as inventor/scientist named Ted Kord, who had inherited the Blue Beetle identity when the original Beetle (now Dan “Garrett”) was killed during a fight on the remote Pago Island. Ted Kord created a new costume, new accessories, and a distinctive vehicle called the “Bug.” When DC acquired Blue Beetle in 1985, the company kept most of Ditko’s revisions intact. The costume and accessories remained the same, but Ted Kord was now a wealthy industrialist in charge of Kord Industries. Ted was still a scientist/inventor, but his financial stature provided the resources he needed to sustain his crimefighting identity. Beetle was given his own ongoing comic book— written by Len Wein—in the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he was also featured prominently in the Legends miniseries that began the same year (1986). True to his origins, Blue Beetle’s early DC appearances were fun but fairly straightforward super-

hero adventures. Booster Gold’s origin stands in sharp contrast to Blue Beetle’s. Writer/artist Dan Jurgens created Booster Gold as a “zeitgeist” character—a reflection of the commercial and celebrity culture that had begun to emerge in mid-1980s America. “It actually goes back to the 1984 Olympics,” recalls Jurgens. “At that time, things were really up in the air as to whether Olympic athletes could be amateurs or whether they could make a living at it like they do now. I was watching one of the broadcasts, and they were talking about a swimmer. They said, ‘We don’t know how he’s going to do today, but he’s already signed a couple of endorsement deals.’ As soon as they said that, something started to click. And within a week, I had put together the background, history, future, everything on Booster.” Booster Gold was actually Michael Jon Carter, a fallen sports hero from the 25th century who, after pilfering a number of devices from a futuristic superhero museum, traveled back to the 20th century in search of money and fame. Booster’s solo series, which began in February 1986, lasted for 25 issues. At the time, a solo series starring a brand-new creation was somewhat risky. After the infamous DC “Implosion” of the late 1970s, the company had been hesitant to take chances on new characters in their own books. “DC had gotten to the point where they really weren’t doing any more new super-hero-type books,” says Jurgens. “I think Booster was accepted because he was different from a lot of what had come before.” The book was witty—at times funny and comical, especially in the interplay between Booster and his robotic sidekick Skeets—but it also provided a sharpedged satirical critique of celebrity culture. This wasn’t the case with Blue Beetle, who, though carrying his own book during the same period of time, was more of a throwback than a novelty. The two characters didn’t seem to have much at all in common. But by the time both of their solo books ended in 1988, both characters were pulled into another book and became more dynamic and memorable as a team than they had been individually.

THE SCIENCE OF SUPER-HEROICS The membership of the Justice League in the post-Crisis era was largely a matter of who was available at the time. Editor Andy Helfer assembled a group of heroes representing both established DC history (Batman, Dr. Fate) and relatively new, unfamiliar heroes (Guy Gardner, Dr. Light) in hopes that the mix would blend well and represent the scope of the new DCU. Plotter Keith Giffen, who had been nagging Helfer for the Justice League gig for years, was finally given the project and immediately struck a new tone and direction for DC’s flagship team book. “I guess I was kind of indifferent about the membership,” says Giffen. “I knew basically what I wanted to do with the Justice League, and the characters were kind of secondary. I didn’t care who was on the team, as long as they weren’t in Detroit.” Helfer also recruited J. M. DeMatteis, who had written the last story arc of the first Justice League of America book, to script the new series. Both Giffen and Helfer trusted that DeMatteis was versatile enough to convey the new, lighter tone of the series in his dialogue. DeMatteis was less convinced. “I sort of stumbled into the project backwards,” he says. “I had written for Andy and was asked to be the writer for the last four or five issues of the previous incarnation of the Justice League. I got to kill Vibe and other exciting things. I

Welcome, Booster Gold!

was a huge Justice League fan as a kid, but of course the Detroit League was not anything like the Justice League I fell in love with as a kid. There was no Superman or Batman. When they were busy putting together the new League, Keith and Andy had cooked this thing up that would start up after Legends. Keith’s problem was that he didn’t have enough confidence to dialogue it by himself. I believe he completely had the talent to do it; he just didn’t have the confidence to do it at the time. So his lack of confidence ended up being a pivotal moment in both our careers.” The new collaboration also proved to be a pivotal moment in the lives of two relatively obscure characters. Ultimately, it didn’t matter whether the Justice League consisted of A-listers or not. The strength of Giffen and DeMatteis’ League was the depth of its humanity. “I don’t know what the decision-making process was or why the characters were chosen,” recalls DeMatteis. “But as we saw, any time you had some of the big characters, people were complaining, ‘You can’t do that with him. You can’t have him doing that.’ So to have these second-string characters—Beetle and Booster, and later Fire and Ice—you have so much more freedom. It evolved out of the chemistry between the characters. I don’t think there was any conscious decision to turn Beetle and Booster into this great team. It just sort of happened naturally.” Giffen concurs. While the League’s adventures were fun and genuinely entertaining, it was the quiet moments that resonated most. “We were more interested in what happens when they take off their masks,” says Giffen. “I was much more interested in Ted Kord and Michael Carter than I was in Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. The tone of the book grew organically. I think we realized what we had in ‘Moving Day’ (Justice League International #7, Nov. 1987). That was also when Booster and Beetle gelled for the first time, because it was really the first time they interacted. It wasn’t the sort of thing where I said, ‘Oh, Beetle and Booster. Blue and Gold. What a great team.’ You know how writers say that good stories write themselves and characters start dictating to you? I guess you could say that about Beetle and Booster.” DeMatteis had the same experience dialoguing the situations Giffen created for the Blue and Gold team. “The two of them are really easy to write,” he says. “When you get a scene with Beetle and Booster and they

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Booster Boosters! (left) An undated sketch by Adam Hughes. From the collection of Ray Cuthbert. (below left) Booster flashes a “thumbs up” in this 2004 Dan Jurgens/Joe Rubenstein commission, contributed by Michael Rankins. © 2007 DC Comics.

just start talking to each other, they would open their mouths and I’d just start following them. It’s the old cliché about characters who take on lives of their own. It’s a cliché because it’s true. The characters just come alive on the page. You’re just doing transcription. Transcription and editing. But the characters are just yakking away.” It wasn’t just the creators who picked up on those moments of clear, focused character development. The new direction of Justice League was a hit by the end of the book’s first year. Given the general tone comics were gravitating toward at the time, this success went against all conventional wisdom. Even Geoff Johns, who currently writes several of DC’s most high-profile books, remembers the impact of those early stories: “My brother and I used to buy and share comics back in the day. I remember buying Blue Beetle and then Booster Gold, and then we bought Justice League when they restarted it. That was the stuff I grew up on. Obviously, the way that relationship and that friendship developed, and the way they played off Guy Gardner and Fire and Ice and everybody else—it really felt like they were at the center of the League more than anybody else.” Beetle’s and Booster’s centrality in the League indicates just how off-kilter the team actually was at the time. This wasn’t a Justice League that just solved cosmic crises. Beetle and Booster were often the ones who orchestrated the League’s adventures. They hired themselves out as super-heroic repo men when they were financially broke. They constantly bickered and instigated arguments with other teammates. But all of this felt more accessible and believable than most “realistic” comics that emerged at the time. “The characters and situations were absurd, but they had a core of reality to them,” says DeMatteis. “We didn’t treat our characters as a parody. They were three-dimensional, real people. There was a lot of banter and kidding around, but that’s the way a lot of people—if not most people—are in their lives.” As with most friendships, it was hard to figure out exactly what made the Blue and Gold team work. “It’s really indefinable,” explains artist Adam Hughes, who penciled several of the most memorable Justice League America stories. “There’s nothing about Blue Beetle and Booster Gold as super-heroes that has anything to do with their chemistry. It’s certainly not their powers. Part of us just loves to watch these people suffer. It’s fun to watch them paint themselves into this awful, awful corner. And that was Blue Beetle’s and Booster Gold’s superpower. That was their ‘Wonder Twins power activate.’” Most of Beetle’s and Booster’s difficulties stemmed from their attempts to improve their financial situations. Probably the most memorable Blue and Gold disaster happened when they tried to turn a tropical island called Kooeykooeykooey into a gambling resort. The scheme, which unfolded in Justice League America #33–35 (Dec. 1989–Feb. 1990), predictably imploded, but the story was a pivotal Beetle/Booster moment. For DeMatteis, these kinds of stories helped explain the characters behind 7 8

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Blue and Gold’s Greatest Hits (and Misses)

the masks: “I really like the Island of Kooeykooeykooey story. It was funny and kind of goofy and really defined the two of them. We would do entire issues where essentially nothing happened. I like to say that we were Seinfeld before Seinfeld. We built episodes just around little interpersonal things, and those are the ones that Keith and I enjoyed the most. A lot of people out there really liked the stories that had a classic super-hero structure with humor laid over it, but we liked the stories where they were just sitting around doing nothing. They’re going to night school, it’s moving day, it’s just a day at the embassy and they’re just walking around bantering, it’s monitor duty. It seems like there’s nothing happening. But if you look at what’s happening, those episodes are well-constructed and there are a million things happening. It just wasn’t conventional super-hero action.” The close personal friendship between super-heroes was new in comics, but it certainly wasn’t unprecedented in media and entertainment. The “buddy tradition” can be traced back through a long line of comedy duos in stage, radio, and television performance. “All the comedy that I loved in my life—from Woody Allen to Jack Benny to Abbott and Costello to old radio shows to M*A*S*H—was in there,” DeMatteis says. “I didn’t copy it as much as absorb the influences and redirect them in contemporary ways. More than anything, with these characters, it was modeled on what it was like with my friends in Brooklyn hanging out on a Saturday night. That’s where Beetle and Booster’s friendship

Justice League #4 (Aug. 1987;“Winning Hand”): First Blue and Gold team-up. After the Royal Flush Gang breaks into the Justice League compound, newcomer Booster Gold manages to fight them off single-handedly … at least until a robotic Ace arrives. Blue Beetle helps Booster cut Ace in half with a compound force-field. A rare successful (if destructive) Blue and Gold effort. By Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Al Gordon.

Justice League America #37 (Apr. 1990; “Furballs!”): Still on embassy clean-up detail for his part in the Kooeykooeykooey fiasco, Booster gets fed up with being taken as a joke and quits the League. The beginning of the (temporary) end of the Blue and Gold team in the JLA. By Giffen, DeMatteis, Hughes, and Nichols.

Justice League International #8 (Dec. 1987; “Moving Day”): As the League sets up embassies around the globe, Booster and Beetle (as Ted and Michael) take a moment to relax at a Paris café. Booster hits on a woman who turns him down cold. When they later learn that the woman is Cat Colbert, bureau chief of the Paris embassy, Beetle lets fly the series’ first “BWAH-HA-HA!” By Giffen, DeMatteis, Maguire, and Gordon.

Justice League Quarterly #1 (Winter 1990; “Corporate Maneuvers”): Booster is recruited to anchor a new corporate super-team called the Conglomerate. Beetle is disgusted and sees Booster as a traitor. They grudgingly work together again as the Conglomerate teams up with the JLA to fight a common enemy. By Giffen, DeMatteis, Chris Sprouse, and Bruce Patterson.

Justice League International Annual #2 (1988; “Hit or Miss”): Down on their luck (and flat-out broke), Beetle and Booster hire themselves out as repo men. They botch their first job, steal a tank from a criminal syndicate, and drive it to Scott Free and Big Barda’s house in the ’burbs during a JLI barbecue. The Joker shows up, commandeers the tank, and the House of Free is demolished in the ensuing battle. By Giffen, DeMatteis, Bill Willingham, and Joe Rubinstein. Justice League International #25 (Apr. 1989; “Repossessions”): Still giving the super-repo-men profession a go, Beetle and Booster’s first “legitimate” job is to repossess a runaway vampire. The story should be outright absurd, but the situation and dialogue become serious—and actually moving— by the end. By Giffen, DeMatteis, Ty Templeton, Mike McKone, and Rubinstein. Justice League America #33–35 (Dec. 1989–Feb. 1990): The infamous Island Kooeykooeykooey disaster. Raiding the JLA’s bank account, Beetle and Booster turn a picturesque, remote tropical island into a gambling resort. Major Disaster breaks the resort’s bank, but things get worse when everyone realizes that Island Kooeykooeykooey is sentient and has decided to migrate. By Giffen, DeMatteis, Adam Hughes, and Art Nichols. D y n a m i c

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Justice League Spectacular #1 (Spring 1992, “Team Work”): After the League is disassembled in “Breakdowns,” a new League must be rebuilt. Beetle has sunk into a depression of despair and obesity. Booster returns to the League, snaps Beetle out of it, and the Blue and Gold team is reconciled. By Dan Jurgens, Rick Burchett, Gerard Jones, Ron Randall, and Randy Elliot. JLA 80-Page Giant #1 (July 1998; “Blue Beetle and Booster Gold: Mousebusters”): Flashing back to shortly after Batman knocked Guy Gardner out “with one punch” (from way back in Justice League #5), Beetle and Booster hunt for the mouse that caused Guy to knock himself out again and become a “nice Guy.” Blue and Gold naturally cause chaos when they enlarge the mouse to human size and accidentally set it loose in the JLA Embassy. By Giffen, Maguire, and Karl Story. Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 (May 2005): When Beetle discovers an intricate plot involving Kord Industries and Wayne Industries, he and Booster work together to uncover the conspiracy. After Booster is injured, Beetle continues to follow a trail that leads him straight to Maxwell Lord. The Blue and Gold team ends with a bullet from Max’s gun. By Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, and an entourage of DC’s premiere artists. I s s u e

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Justice League fought Despero only a few months after the Island Kooeykooeykooey story, the book suddenly became solemn. Despero was enraged by what the previous League had done to him, and his rampage was violent and destructive. Ordinarily, the story might have come across as just a typical Justice League bash-up. But because the rhythm of the book had been inverted, the sacrifices made by the members took on more weight and meaning. “That was the funny thing about serious stories like the Despero one,” recalls Adam Hughes, who penciled the arc. “Everybody stopped being silly and the were actually super-heroes for an issue or two. You’re going, ‘Oh, that’s right. These guys actually are effective.’ In normal super-hero books, the Earth is threatened in every issue. After a while you become sort of numb to it. But if you do six issues in a row where the only thing that’s threatened is somebody’s checking account or something ridiculous, and then in the next issue you have to have them save the world, then it means something.”

BLUE BLOOD AND HEARTS OF GOLD

Double Trouble Art collector Tim Frederick was kind enough to share these 2006 Beetle/Booster pinups drawn by two former Justice League artists: (above) George Tuska, veteran of Justice League of America and the longrunning World’s Greatest Super-Heroes newspaper strip; and (opposite page) Bart Sears, whose main claim to JLA fame was Justice League Europe. © 2007 DC Comics.

came from.” DeMatteis was clearly influenced by familiar comedic predecessors, but the lighter tone couldn’t have been sustainable if nothing consequential ever happened. “Despite all the humor in there, we would periodically spin around some serious stuff,” says DeMatteis. “In comedy, too, I’ve always liked shows that are able to spin on a dime from wild, slapstick, absurd stuff to really profoundly serious life-and-death stuff. You have to buy a core of reality with these characters, or else you can’t write them. They’re just one-dimensional cartoons.” In fact, the serious, intense stories carried more resonance primarily because they were so infrequent. Conventional wisdom says that fight scenes and fast-paced adventure stories sell books. But when the

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Conflict and tension are necessary in any good story, and plenty of that surfaced between Beetle and Booster before—and well after—Giffen and DeMatteis left the Justice League books. After the Island Kooeykooeykooey incident, Booster Gold quickly became dissatisfied with the League—not just because he was broke, but also because he wasn’t being taken seriously. He was recruited by a business rival of Maxwell Lord to spearhead a corporate super-team called the Conglomerate. Enchanted as always with the possibility of notoriety and wealth, Booster quit the League in Justice League America #37 (Apr. 1990). He returned to visit the League a few times over the next couple years, but his departure left Beetle feeling angry and betrayed. By the time Giffen and DeMatteis began their final Justice League storyline (“Breakdowns”), Beetle had sunk into depression and had gained quite a bit of weight. It might have come across as simply another super-hero spoof, but there was also a genuine seriousness in the story consistent with the tightrope the writers had been walking since the beginning of the series. As DeMatteis recalls, “One day I said to Keith, ‘You know, the rest of us normal people go through periods where we gain a little weight and lose a little weight. You never see that happen to a super-hero. And they’re wearing spandex. You’d think that if they put on an ounce, it would show, you know?’ So I started putting that in the dialogue, and then one day this plot shows up and there’s Beetle just spilling out of his costume. We’d take one little idea from one of us and be able to turn it into this massive joke. But it was serious, too, because I was a little fat kid until I hit puberty. So I was writing from my own memory and experience of what it was like being a little fat kid in elementary school. If it was just parody, then you wouldn’t have believed those characters. You had the humor and the humanity together, and I think that’s what made it work.” It wasn’t until Dan Jurgens inherited the Justice League that Booster returned. After “Breakdowns,” DC reset the Justice League again in Justice League Spectacular #1 (1992)—this time with more major players and a more serious tone. When Dan Jurgens was hired to write and draw the JL Spectacular and Justice League America (beginning with issue #61), his first decision was to pull Booster back into the League. This time, though, he tried to create a Blue and Gold team that was built more on difference than similarity.

“I know that I probably handled things a little bit differently,” recalls Jurgens. “My take on the character was this: His motivation is money. His motivation is such that he wants people to idolize him. He wants the press, he wants to bask in the limelight, he wants to be that guy. But without the powers of Superman, there’s really no way he can be. But at the same time, by the time everything’s said and done, he’s generally going to do the right thing. If you take all that and build it into the character, I don’t think you can ever interpret that as being dumb. With Beetle, I pulled back some of the elements that were there when he was created at Charlton. I wanted to make him a little creepier, a little more bug-like. I always saw him as more introverted, where he’d just as soon sit in his basement working on widgets as he would be out doing stuff. I thought I could sharpen the character differences between the two of them a little bit.” While Jurgens was making slight adjustments to the Booster/Beetle team, he still appreciated that Giffen and DeMatteis had exposed Booster Gold to a readership he’d never quite experienced in his own book and made him a key player in the DCU. A Blue and Gold spin-off book was rumored for years, but nothing ever came of it. “There were several points throughout that time when the Beetle and Booster were going to get their own book: Blue and Gold,” says Jurgens. “I don’t know if it was going to be a miniseries or an ongoing series or a special, but Keith and I were going to do it together. For one reason or another, whether it was our workload or bad timing, it just didn’t happen. Which is unfortunate. It could have been a lot of fun.” While the Blue and Gold book never saw print, Booster and Beetle were featured in several Justice League books throughout the 1990s. But the Blue and Gold team never reached the level of prominence they had experienced during the Giffen/DeMatteis run. It wasn’t until Giffen and DeMatteis returned to their version of the Justice League (a full decade after they’d left the franchise) that the characters received high-profile exposure again. Giffen and DeMatteis collaborated on a six-issue miniseries called Formerly Known as the Justice League that ran from September 2003 to February 2004. Tapping into the brand of humor and pop-culture satire that had driven their previous run, the series was a hit that sold well enough to justify a second miniseries two years later. But at the same time “I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League” was running in JLA Classified (issues #4–9), plans were underway that would fundamentally alter the direction of the Blue and Gold team. In the same month that Beetle and Booster were getting into their usual trouble in JLA Classified #5 (June 2005), Blue Beetle was solving a mystery in the DC Universe proper that would lead to the biggest DCU event since Crisis on Infinite Earths. Countdown to Infinite Crisis—written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick and illustrated by a crew of some of DC’s highest-profile artists—paved the way for the epic crossover series Infinite Crisis, which ran from Fall 2005 through Spring 2006. As Countdown begins, Beetle’s interior monologue reveals the insecurities he faces as he uncovers a conspiracy that reaches into every corner of the DCU. No one seems to be taking him seriously, but he recognizes that this is largely his own fault. As Johns explains, “When we played Blue Beetle in Countdown, we knew of his fate at the end of the issue. But we also knew his reputation, and we wanted to place that in the modern DCU and see what

it would really feel like. What would it be like for this guy who was sort of forgotten by the other heroes but was still extremely capable in his own right? His entire history played into it. We took everything into account—Steve Ditko’s original take on Ted Kord and later Len Wein and then his time in the Justice League.” The only hero Beetle could convince to follow him on his quest was the only character who ever really understood him: Booster. The writers saw an opportunity not just to revive memorable characters, but also to give them consequence in a time of major change in the DCU. “They’re two characters who, despite Blue Beetle dying at the end of the issue, are two of our favorite characters in the DC Universe,” Johns says. “They hadn’t really been used in a long time. And if Maxwell Lord was behind it, there was just something really cool about the two guys who he would least expect to really discover it being the guys who would. He underestimated them. So the idea was to have characters who really aren’t the A-listers be the ones who uncover what machinations D y n a m i c

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were happening in the DCU.” Beetle solved his mystery at the end of Countdown, but the results proved fatal. When Beetle discovered that Maxwell Lord was behind an extensive conspiracy, Max shot Beetle in the head at point-blank range. This wasn’t just a temporary breakdown; it was an end of one of the last vestiges of innocence in the DC Universe. What made the events more chilling was that Giffen’s and DeMatteis’ I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League was being published at the same time. “We were working on the second Justice League miniseries when all that other stuff happened,” recalls DeMatteis, who insists that neither he nor Giffen had any clue that Beetle was going to die as they were writing their story. “As somebody who spent so many years with those characters, I thought, ‘Oh, man, why did they do that?’ And then you spend ten minutes being upset about it, thinking they’re complete idiots for doing it. But then you think about it and say, ‘You know, it’s just comics.’ I’ve done the same things to

No Bwahha-has Here… An Ed Benes-drawn page from 2005’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis, the crossover warm-up that put a permanent end to the Blue and Gold team. Courtesy of Tim Frederick. © 2007 DC Comics.

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characters, and people were upset about it.” Giffen is even more cavalier about the effect Beetle’s death had on him as a creator: “When we did I Can’t Believe, we had no idea what they were doing in Countdown. That was a really creepy moment. But look, it’s comics. When Blue Beetle was killed, I got tons of questions like, ‘How do you feel’ and ‘How are you coping?’ And I’m thinking, ‘Marc and I walked away from the character. We were done.’ I Can’t Believe was our goodbye to these characters. That’s why it ended the way it did in the last panel: ‘And they all lived bwah-ha-happily ever after.’ When you’re done with a character, you throw them back into the communal pot, and then somebody else gets to tell whatever stories they want to tell with the characters.” Although Beetle was dead, the Blue and Gold pair hadn’t been entirely destroyed. Blue Beetle was given a new ongoing series (co-written by Giffen) starring a new character bearing the mantel. And as Infinite Crisis got underway, Booster eventually recovered from his injuries and vowed to avenge Beetle’s death. This renewed sense of purpose and direction is what led him to be included as one of the main characters in 52, DC’s weekly follow-up series to Infinite Crisis. “Booster was Ted Kord’s best friend, so he had to be there,” explains Johns, who is one of 52’s writers. “But again, we were putting him back in costume and making him competent. We knew that if Ted was going to die, then the person most affected by it would be Booster Gold. The idea was to elevate Booster Gold to one of the most important characters in the DC Universe.” Each of the main characters in 52 is a second- or third-tier character, but each also represents a specific aspect of the DC Universe. In Booster’s case, this former second-stringer represents several aspects at once. As series co-writer Mark Waid explains, “Booster very much represents the culture of the DC Universe— pop culture, corporate culture, very much the face of the media in the DCU. That was our intent. He also, through his connection with Rip Hunter, gave us an avenue to explore eras of the DC Universe other than just the 21st century.” Johns takes Booster’s significance even further: “Booster Gold represents the future— not just the ‘futuristic’ stuff, but what’s to come. How a hero evolves. The whole idea for Infinite Crisis and everything through 52 is to break down the heroes and see how they can grow and change and regain the heroism that they once had. It turns out that Booster’s actually trying to be a hero who strives to be better than he currently is. Supernova is an idealistic view of what he could have been. But he returns to his Booster identity again because he has to be true to who he is.” The rewarding thing about comic books is that characters generally have years—in some cases decades—to find out who they are. The Blue Beetle/Booster Gold team had unlikely, inexplicable, and almost accidental beginnings. But the duo’s longevity and endurance, born of a continuity that has been acknowledged by every writer and artist who came after Giffen, DeMatteis, Maguire, and Hughes, are testaments to the resonance of the Blue and Gold partnership. The significance of the Blue and Gold team—a fun, believable friendship in a genre dominated by epic battles—also reveals how effectively the past can be connected to the present and future in comics. As J. M. DeMatteis says, “We’ve done our work, and it’s still out there for people to read. Anytime you want to pick up a book and read

Welcome back to our column reviewing and previewing DVDs featuring comic-book characters translated to film and television. In this column, I’ll take a closer look at a familiar “duo” for this issue’s theme, plus a bigger team-up…

Andy

Anchor Bay (90m) What to do when you want to do a reunion movie for a campy super-hero send-up, and you can’t license many clips and most of the stars have passed on or won’t participate? Artisan Entertainment came up with an ingenious answer in Return to the Batcave, a 2003 made-for-TV movie that reunites Adam West and Burt Ward, and guest-stars Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar, reprising roles that made them infamous. “Reprising” is perhaps too strong a word, though, as the actors play the characters of “themselves,” but in a style reminiscent of the 1960s Batman television series. When the Batmobile is stolen from a charity event that both West and Ward have been lured to, the once-dynamic duo begins a road trip to track down the fiends responsible. Along the way, they reminisce about their days filming Batman, touching on

casting, costumes, stunts, forbidden kisses, divorce, censorship, philandering, the addition of Batgirl, and more. Throughout the flashbacks, West and Ward are played by Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden, dead ringers for their counterparts’ younger selves (see photo). Only two actual clips from the time period are used: Lyle Waggoner’s screentest for the role of Batman is partially shown, and some clips from the 1966 Batman feature film are used. With the rights to the Batman series torn between Fox, Warner Bros., and the [original series producer] William Dozier estate, it’s unfortunately unlikely that Batman will be released anytime in the next decade or so, making this telefilm (and documentaries) the closest readers may ever get to DVD commentary from West and Ward. Of the cast, Gorshin has also passed, leaving very few original Bat-actors left. Thankfully, Return to the Batcave is more enjoyable than expected, with some fun humor, excellent reproductions, and a few surprises along the way. Sure, there are some overly dumb moments as well, and a paltry dribble of extras, but Return to the Batcave has more POWs than WHIFFs. DVD Extras: The script in a PDF file and an 8-page booklet by Michael Felsher. DC Comics.

Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt

Have a comic book-oriented DVD you want to see reviewed? Contact me care of www.andymangels.com!

ngels

Justice League Unlimited took the air for its final two seasons, Cartoon Network had all but torpedoed the show. Between pre-emptions, changing timeslots, no reruns, and more, the fact the JLU survived to a second year was a shock, even to the producers, who wrapped up the series at the end of its first year. The second season, its final one, therefore saw a new storyline put into place that saw Grodd and Luthor forming a new Legion of Doom. This throwback to the old Challenge of the Super Friends series was no joke; in one episode, the villains took on each other, resulting in multiple deaths! Look for some fantastic episodes that show the origins of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Warlord’s version of Skartaris, Blackhawk Island, Wonder Woman’s wonder-spin, Viking Prince, Deadman, the Flash Museum, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Legion of SuperHeroes, and a final showdown with Darkseid! It would be hard to top the amount of DC history that is showcased in 13 episodes. The two-disc Justice League Unlimited DVD set features all the episodes in pristine quality, plus two featurettes. In one, actor Mark Hamill interviews producers Dwayne McDuffie, Bruce Timm, and James Tucker about the Cadmus story arc of the first season. It’s odd to feature the 23-minute “Cadmus: Exposed” on this set, as it has nothing to do with the second season, but it’s interesting nonetheless. More specific to this release is “Justice League Chronicles,” 33 minutes of Timm, Tucker, McDuffie, and story editor Matt Wayne doing on-screen commentary on favorite moments from the second season. Justice League Unlimited: Season Two gets top recommendations. It’s smart, exciting, beautifully animated, and steeped in comic-book lore. DVD Extras: Featurettes, Music Only track for one episode. DVD PLUG: Be on the lookout for Hero High: The Complete Series, out in May, with guest animated appearances by Captain Marvel, Isis, and Mary Marvel! Also look for series DVD sets for the animated Rick Springfield series Mission: Magic!, and the live-action science-fiction show Jason of Star Command, out this month as well. All three set feature documentaries and other Special Features produced and directed by me!

Justice League Unlimited: Season Two

Photo Credit: Tony Esperza/CBS

Warner Bros. (299m) The culmination of everything put in place by Warner’s Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, and The Zeta Project, the Justice League series and its sequel, Justice League Unlimited, have been probably the most true-to-comic adaptations ever animated, and some of the most adult. Although each episode was a ratings hit, by the time

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Send your comments to: Email: euryman@msn.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) No attachments, please!

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Drive • Lake Oswego, OR 97034

With sadness we announce that Deadman co-creator Arnold Drake (born March 1, 1924) passed away on March 12, 2007. Regular BACK ISSUE readers will recall that a letter from Mr. Drake about the origins of the ghostly go-getter was published in issue #20. His comments inspired the following commentary from Paul Gambaccini, one of comics fandom’s founding fathers: – M.E. Congratulations on a good magazine I enjoy. I must independently confirm Arnold Drake’s assertion in issue #20 that Deadman was far from a “throwaway” item for Carmine Infantino. I grew up in Westport, Connecticut, home of, among other DC luminaries, Jay Emmett (the nephew of J. S. Liebowitz and the head of the Licensing Corporation of America), Curt Swan, and Irwin Donenfeld. Emmett and Swan had sons I knew from school. In the summer of 1967, Emmett invited me for a cruise on Long Island Sound with Carmine Infantino in Donenfeld’s boat. As accurately related in an issue of Alter Ego, “Donny” was more interested in boats than comics, and he happily lived out his life after leaving DC running a marina in Westport. Emmett knew Carmine was familiar with me because we were once up at DC and Jay had said to Julius Schwartz, “Julie, I’d like you to meet Paul Gambaccini. Do you know him?” Julie had replied, “Know him? I named a character after him!”—referring to Paul Gambi, the tailor in The Flash in the years of Infantino’s exquisite art. There we are, floating around on a beautiful day, and Carmine starts telling me his hopes for DC’s future. And the first thing he says is, “We have a new character I think you’re going to like”—and he enthusiastically goes into a description of Deadman. It is always a joy to see a creator excited about a new project, especially one who had worked on so many characters as Infantino. This one had captured his imagination. Arnold Drake is right. Carmine Infantino really was excited about Deadman. – Paul Gambaccini

I HEARD IT THROUGH THE VINNIEVINE I just read Bob McLeod’s excellent article “Standing Up for Vince Colletta” in BACK ISSUE # 20 and I agree with his praise of Vinnie— mostly. The distinction between being a bad inker and doing bad inking is an important one. Colletta was a talented artist and certainly had the ability to be an outstanding inker. In fact, some of my favorite pieces of art were beautifully inked by Colletta. The frustrating part is knowing that there were detailed pencils lost forever in a hurried effort to make a deadline or boost a paycheck. The truth is, though, the publishers were as much to blame for that as Vinnie. They engendered an environment where quantity was rewarded more than quality. But once the page was penciled, the decision to omit details in inking should have been an editorial one. That Vinnie made the decision himself is what earned him his reputation. Thanks to Bob for standing up for Colletta, especially since he can’t speak for himself. Rest in peace, Vinnie. – Dewey Cassell 8 4

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Just finished BI #20, another enjoyable issue. I’ve always felt Englehart’s run on Captain America was one of the most successful storylines in any super-hero comic—the bold intertwining of real-life events with super-hero conventions is not something we’ve seen much of, even nowadays. I have to admit, I found some of the “Clark Kent Red, Clark Kent Blue” article uncomfortable to read—some of the answers to the questions seemed a little rude, although I know sometimes it’s tough to pick up the tone of something someone has said just by reading it. It took guts for Bob McLeod to defend longtime punching bag Vince Colletta. I have to say, I felt all the samples Bob used in the article didn’t help his point at all (to me, they made just the opposite!); but it was still admirable of him to try. – Rob Kelly

SKULL, FRACTURED

I have been an avid reader of your magazine for the past year or so and have also bought some of the earlier issues I missed. Usually I find your interviews and articles to be interesting and thought-provoking. I feel certainly that I am in the core of your target audience (47-year-old male who collected comics from the late ’60s well into the ’80s before falling off to “dabbler”). However interesting and thought-provoking aside, I felt my blood boil just a bit when Steve Englehart dissed one of his works, Skull the Slayer, as “a stupid little thing.” From the first issue of that book through its early (and mid-story) termination after issue #8, Skully was faced with obstacles both on and off the page. Over the course of the eight issues, I believe there were five different writers and three or four different artists! If ever a book and a character were being pushed toward failure it was Skull the Slayer. Each of these writers seemed hell-bent on destroying everything the guy before him had done and so, in the course of just over a year, plotlines that could have been fleshed out to cover 40 or 50 issues of comics were burned, torched, blown up … any way to undo the guy before’s work. I seem to remember reading that Marv Wolfman had originally pitched the concept for Skull for a long time before it was picked up. It took so long, in fact, that he could no longer handle writing duties after that initial issue. If memory serves (it’s been a number of years since I read the book), guys like Bill Mantlo and Len Wein, and of course Mr. Englehart, took a stab (literally as well as figuratively) at the war hero-turned-fugitive in the Bermuda Triangle. I’ve always had a great respect for Steve Englehart’s work, but now I am forced to wonder: If he considered Skull the Slayer as a “stupid little thing,” did he really put forth much effort toward the title’s success? With another war going on, that title is one that I have long hoped Marvel might consider relaunching … maybe this time with creative talent who actually give a damn about the character they’re working on. – Paul Mellette

We appreciate your loyalty to Skull and your disappointment in the series’ unrealized potential, Paul. Each of us has an affinity toward some offbeat or short-lived comics series we feel could’ve, should’ve, been a contender. But please don’t be so hard on Steve Englehart (who wrote issue #4, cover-dated Mar. 1976), or the other writers who gave Skull a shot. I’ve seen the comics business from three different perspectives—as a fan, as a staff editor, and as a freelancer—and sometimes forces unseen by the reader (editorial reassignments, writer or artist overcommitments, new assignments, scheduling delays, last-minute startups, illness, to name a few...) derail a series just as it’s getting started, or keep a new title in such a flux that it never finds its footing. Maybe your letter will inspire some writer, or Marvel, to give Skull the Slayer another chance. – M.E.

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (Lock up Euryman and throw away the key!) I enjoyed the “Tricky Dick in Comics” sidebar on page 21 of BI #20, but I’m not sure that whoever put the feature together got the first joke. The cover of MAD #60 is reprinted, with a note that the magazine “congratulated Nixon for an election he didn’t win.” But if you turn the issue over (MAD #60, not BI #20), another cover congratulates John F. Kennedy on winning the election, that subtitle reading: “We were with you all the way, Jack,” the joke being that the magazine was playing both sides against the middle. It was, I think, the first flip book I’d ever seen, and I still get a laugh out of its shameless opportunism today. – Mike W. Barr

Bob McLeod responds: “In my article on Colletta I was of course mostly just attempting to spark some discussion, but I would like to make a couple of further points. First, Vinnie wasn’t working in a vacuum. The person chiefly responsible for providing him work in the ’70s, as far as I was aware, was his friend John Verpoorten. He and the other editors knew very well what to expect when they assigned a rush job to Vinnie, so it was in effect an editorial decision. It’s not as if they expected quality work when they only gave him a few days to ink 20 pages. And they repeatedly gave him rush assignments. So who’s really to blame? “My second point (and the point of the article) is whether doing hack inking makes him deserving of the title of ‘worst inker in comics.’ I would say that incompetent inking is worse than knowledgeably rushed inking. Colletta brought a style to Kirby and Tuska and others that many fans enjoyed, and even today staunchly defend, while some other inkers simply butchered jobs through sheer ineptness. I think the main reason Colletta has drawn so much ire is not so much due to his inking ability, but rather because he inked the top pencilers on high-profile books, while others worked mainly on lesser artists and titles.”

That sidebar was my addition, Mike. I was working from an online cover scan of the Nixon cover of MAD #60 and wasn’t even aware of it being a flip cover, or of the real joke, until your bringing it to my attention. Thanks! I dug deeper and found both covers, which I’m sharing here. – M.E. Regarding the Moon Knight article, although compared to the Batman often, in fact the Moon Knight’s assortment of alternate identities more closely resembles the Shadow’s modus operandi. Also similar to the Shadow, Moon Knight’s millionaire identity was not his real name (the Shadow was not really Lamont Cranston). The Batman did not have too many regular alternate identities, except for Matches Malone. The Question’s featureless mask resembles the Dick Tracy foe the Blank (Frank Redrum) from 1937, who also predated the film Blood and Black Lace’s featureless masked slasher. – John McDonagh I was thrilled to see my brother’s and my artwork used for the article on the Question. Unfortunately, only I was credited for the art. I don’t know if you usually note mistaken credits in future issues, but if you could credit David it would be appreciated. Thanks very much. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of my pages posted anywhere and it was very sweet. – Kevin Pasquino Our apologies for omitting David Pasquino’s name, Kevin. – M.E.

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MANGELS-MANIA Just wanted to let you know how much I love BACK ISSUE! My favorite issue remains #5, due in no small part to Andy Mangels and his incredible interviews with Lynda Carter and other cast members from the Wonder Woman series. Any chance Andy will be doing more interviews on a regular basis? Suggestions for possible topics/stories: 1) Coverage of the live-action adaptations from the 1970s and ’80s, such as the Spider-Man series with Nicholas Hammond, the Legend of the Super-Heroes which aired on NBC, and Shazam! and Isis on CBS. As “bad” as they were, I’m still intrigued by how they came to fruition, especially the NBC specials. I mean, those specials had Black Canary, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and the Huntress! A great lineup, even if the end result was pretty awful. 2) More info about the Roy Thomas/Gene Colan run on Wonder Woman in the early ’80s would be awesome. It’d be great to learn how it was they ended up on Wonder Woman, how her new costume came about, whether sales went up, and why Colan isn’t that fond of his work there. There is a spectacular full-page scene by Gene in one issue that features Wonder Woman jumping out of her invisible plane and switching into Diana Prince that would be awesome to see reprinted in BACK ISSUE, to show just how dynamic his art was during his run. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to look up exactly which issue and page number it’s in, and would even be willing to mail it to or scan it for you. And Roy, during his brief run there, created or reintroduced many characters including the Silver Swan, Captain Wonder, Dr. Psycho, the Sandman, and Lyta Trevor/Fury. Not bad for such a short run! 3) How about a career-spanning, in-depth look at one of the most underrated writers of all time, Bob Rozakis? He wrote so many books in the ’70s and ’80s, including one of my all-time favorites Secret Society of Super-Villains, as well as Freedom Fighters, Teen Titans, and Batman Family, and it would be great to see him recognized. As far as I know, he created the first African-American female hero, the Bumblebee, in the pages of Teen Titans, and it’s hard to believe that there haven’t been that many other minority heroines introduced since. One other suggestion—I enjoyed the theme issues such as the recent “all green” issue, as it dealt with many different characters, but I was not as fond of the Wolverine issue. As a primarily DC reader, that was one issue I had a hard time reading. Otherwise, please keep up the great work! – Daniel Brozak

TwoMorrows.

Responding to your questions in reverse order: Obviously, we agree with your praise for the work of Bob Rozakis, as you’ve seen in our recent interviews with the Answer Man including BI #15’s ’Mazing Man Pro2Pro, my Krypton Companion book, and this issue’s Robin/Batgirl article. Bob’s always welcome in our pages, and since we’ve yet to cover a few of his series, expect him back before long. Normally I defer to Roy Thomas himself to cover the series he wrote in his fabled Alter Ego magazine. Roy, if you’ve got no plans to cover WW in AE, let us know and we’ll discuss a Thomas/Colan WW Pro2Pro. Daniel, you won’t have to wait long for another awesome Andy Mangels celebrity interview, since he exposes The Secrets of Isis in our next issue. Also, Andy is one of nine authors beaming up for a Bob Greenberger-hosted Star Trek writers’ roundtable (a twopart crossover, beginning in BI #23 and concluding in our sister pub Write Now! #16). Isis? Star Trek? You guessed it: “Comics Go Hollywood” in BACK ISSUE #23! Also included are behind-the-scenes looks at the Flash TV show; Gladstone’s Disney comics; DC’s Welcome Back, Kotter series; and an all-star roundtable of Spider-Man creators discussing the 20th wedding anniversary of cinema sweethearts Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker. Stan Lee, John Wesley Shipp, John Romita, Sr., Jim Shooter, Erik Larsen, Jim Salicrup, Joanna Pang, Mark Evanier, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Mike W. Barr, Len Wein, William Van Horn, and Don Rosa are among the luminaries who will be here. So will Adam Hughes, in an eightpage “Adam Hughes Goes Hollywood” COLOR art gallery (Adam also drew BI #23’s magnificent MJ cover). Don’t ask, just BI it! See you in sixty! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor 8 6

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S U B M IS S IO N G U ID E L IN E S BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s: Unpublished artwork and covers Original artwork and covers Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc. Original sketches and/or convention sketches Original scripts Photos Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities Creators and collectors of 1970s/1980s comics artwork are invited to share your goodies with other fans! Contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive complimentary copies (and the editor’s gratitude). Submit artwork as (listed in order of preference): Scanned images: 300dpi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (emailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by emailing euryman@msn.com or by sending a SASE to the address below. Please allow 6-8 weeks for a response to your proposals. Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Dr. Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Advertise In BACK ISSUE! FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100 Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Write Now!, Back Issue, Rough Stuff, or any combination and save: TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings) These rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as camera-ready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up. Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply. Sorry, display ads not available for the Jack Kirby Collector. Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds), Visa, or Mastercard to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

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JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION VOL. 1 A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA written by MICHAEL EURY (co-author of THE SUPERHERO BOOK). It traces the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom through vintage and all-new interviews with the series’ creators, an issue-by-issue index of the JLA’s 1960-1972 adventures, classic and never-before-published artwork, and other fun and fascinating features. Contributors include DENNY O’NEIL, MURPHY ANDERSON, JOE GIELLA, MIKE FRIEDRICH, NEAL ADAMS, ALEX ROSS, CARMINE INFANTINO, NICK CARDY, and many, many others. Plus: An exclusive interview with STAN LEE, who answers the question, “Did the JLA really inspire the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four?” With an all-new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

THE KRYPTON COMPANION Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, RICH BUCKLER, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites! Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars. Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators (including JOHN BYRNE, JEPH LOEB, and ALEX ROSS) examining Superman’s influential past! Plus an Introduction by Bizarro No. 1 (by SEINFELD writer DAVID MANDEL), and a cover by DAVE GIBBONS! (240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #1

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STAN LEE gets roasted by SCHWARTZ, CLAREMONT, DAVID, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, and SHOOTER, ORDWAY and THOMAS on INFINITY, INC., IRWIN HASEN interview, unseen H.G. PETER Wonder Woman pages, the original Captain Marvel and Human Torch teamup, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, “Mr. Monster”, plus plenty of rare and unpublished art!

Featuring a never-reprinted SPIRIT story by WILL EISNER, the genesis of the SILVER AGE ATOM (with GARDNER FOX, GIL KANE, and JULIE SCHWARTZ), interviews with LARRY LIEBER and Golden Age great JACK BURNLEY, BOB KANIGHER, a new Fawcett Collectors of America section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and more! GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

Unseen ALEX ROSS and JERRY ORDWAY Shazam! art, 1953 interview with OTTO BINDER, the SUPERMAN/CAPTAIN MARVEL LAWSUIT, GIL KANE on The Golden Age of TIMELY COMICS, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, rare art by AYERS, BERG, BURNLEY, DITKO, RICO, SCHOMBURG, MARIE SEVERIN and more! ALEX ROSS & BILL EVERETT covers!

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Interviews with KUBERT, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and HARRY LAMPERT, BOB KANIGHER, life and times of GARDNER FOX, ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, a history of Flash Comics, MOEBIUS Silver Surfer sketches, MR. MONSTER, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, and lots more! Dual color covers by JOE KUBERT!

Celebrating the JSA, with interviews with MART NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, GEORGE ROUSSOS, BILL BLACK, and GIL KANE, unpublished H.G. PETER Wonder Woman art, GARDNER FOX, an FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, WENDELL CROWLEY, and more! Wraparound cover by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

GENE COLAN interview, 1940s books on comics by STAN LEE and ROBERT KANIGHER, AYERS, SEVERIN, and ROY THOMAS on Sgt. Fury, ROY on All-Star Squadron’s Golden Age roots, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, JOE SIMON interview, a definitive look at MAC RABOY’S work, and more! Covers by COLAN and RABOY!

Companion to ALL-STAR COMPANION book, with a JULIE SCHWARTZ interview, guide to JLA-JSA TEAMUPS, origins of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON, FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK (on his 1970s DC conflicts), DAVE BERG, BOB ROGERS, more on MAC RABOY from his son, MR. MONSTER, and more! RICH BUCKLER and C.C. BECK covers!

WALLY WOOD biography, DAN ADKINS & BILL PEARSON on Wood, TOR section with 1963 JOE KUBERT interview, ROY THOMAS on creating the ALL-STAR SQUADRON and its 1940s forebears, FCA section with SWAYZE & BECK, MR. MONSTER, JERRY ORDWAY on Shazam!, JERRY DeFUCCIO on the Golden Age, CHIC STONE remembered! ADKINS and KUBERT covers!

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

JOHN ROMITA interview by ROY THOMAS (with unseen art), Roy’s PROPOSED DREAM PROJECTS that never got published (with a host of great artists), MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING’S life after Superman, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom Panel, FCA section with GEORGE TUSKA, C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, BILL MORRISON, & more! ROMITA and GIORDANO covers!

Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ’40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ’65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

1974 panel with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, FRANK ROBBINS, and ROY THOMAS, ROY and JOHN BUSCEMA on Avengers, 1964 STAN LEE interview, tributes to DON HECK, JOHNNY CRAIG, and GRAY MORROW, Timely alums DAVID GANTZ and DANIEL KEYES, and FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and MIKE MANLEY! Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON and JOE SIMON!

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ALTER EGO #17 Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

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ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

STAN GOLDBERG interview, secrets of ’40s Timely, art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, MANEELY, EVERETT, BURGOS, and DeCARLO, spotlight on sci-fi fanzine XERO with the LUPOFFS, OTTO BINDER, DON THOMPSON, ROY THOMAS, BILL SCHELLY, and ROGER EBERT, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD ghosting Flash Gordon! KIRBY and SWAYZE covers!

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG022420

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT022884

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV022845

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL022370

ALTER EGO #21 The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers! (108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC023029

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

X-MEN interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, ROY THOMAS, and LEN WEIN, MORT MESKIN profiled by his sons and ALEX TOTH, rare art by JERRY ROBINSON, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY on Comics Fandom! MESKIN and COCKRUM covers!

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on All-Star Squadron #1 and its ’40s roots (with art by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

JOE SINNOTT interview, IRWIN DONENFELD interview by EVANIER & SCHWARTZ, art by SHUSTER, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, and SWAN, MARK WAID analyzes the first Kryptonite story, JERRY SIEGEL and HARRY DONENFELD, JERRY IGER Shop update, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and KEN BALD! Covers by SINNOTT and WAYNE BORING!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN032492

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB032260

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR032534

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR032553

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY032543

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ’60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN032614

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG032604

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ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed, MART NODELL on his Timely years, rare art by BURGOS, EVERETT, and SHORES, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age (with art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, and more), FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

Quality Comics interviews with ALEX KOTZKY, AL GRENET, CHUCK CUIDERA, & DICK ARNOLD (son of BUSY ARNOLD), art by COLE, EISNER, FINE, WARD, DILLIN, and KANE, MICHELLE NOLAN on Blackhawk’s jump to DC, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on HARVEY KURTZMAN, & ALEX TOTH on REED CRANDALL! Covers by REED CRANDALL & CHARLES NICHOLAS!

Covers by JOHN ROMITA and AL JAFFEE! LEE, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, & THOMAS on the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, with rare art by ROMITA, AYERS, BURGOS, HEATH, EVERETT, LAWRENCE, & POWELL, AL JAFFEE on the 1940s Timely Bullpen (and MAD), FCA, ALEX TOTH on comic art, MR. MONSTER on unpublished 1950s covers, and more!

JOE SIMON on SIMON & KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, and LLOYD JACQUET, JOHN BELL on World War II Canadian heroes, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Canadian origins of MR. MONSTER, tributes to BOB DESCHAMPS, DON LAWRENCE, & GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and ELMER WEXLER interview! Covers by SIMON and GILBERT & RONN SUTTON!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032695

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ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

WILL MURRAY on the 1940 Superman “KMetal” story & PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR (with art by SHUSTER, SWAN, ADAMS, and BORING), FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and DON NEWTON, SY BARRY interview, art by TOTH, MESKIN, INFANTINO, and ANDERSON, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN on EC and RAY BRADBURY! Covers by C.C. BECK and WAYNE BORING!

JULIE SCHWARTZ TRIBUTE with HARLAN ELLISON, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, KUBERT, GIELLA, GIORDANO, CARDY, LEVITZ, STAN LEE, WOLFMAN, EVANIER, & ROY THOMAS, never-seen interviews with Julie, FCA with BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, NEWTON, COCKRUM, OKSNER, FRADON, SWAYZE, and JACKSON BOSTWICK! Covers by INFANTINO and IRWIN HASEN!

Full-issue spotlight on JERRY ROBINSON, with an interview on being BOB KANE’s Batman “ghost”, creating the JOKER and ROBIN, working on VIGILANTE, GREEN HORNET, and ATOMAN, plus never-seen art by Jerry, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, RAY, KIRBY, SPRANG, DITKO, and PARIS! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER on AL FELDSTEIN Part 2, and more! Two JERRY ROBINSON covers!

RUSS HEATH and GIL KANE interviews (with tons of unseen art), the JULIE SCHWARTZ Memorial Service with ELLISON, MOORE, GAIMAN, HASEN, O’NEIL, and LEVITZ, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, NOVICK, DILLIN, SEKOWSKY, KUBERT, GIELLA, ARAGONÉS, FCA, MR. MONSTER and AL FELDSTEIN Part 3, and more! Covers by GIL KANE & RUSS HEATH!

Halloween issue! BERNIE WRIGHTSON on his 1970s FRANKENSTEIN, DICK BRIEFER’S monster, the campy 1960s Frankie, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, BORING, OKSNER, TUSKA, CRANDALL, and SUTTON, FCA #100, EMILIO SQUEGLIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR043055

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043050

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ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

A celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, and AYERS, Hillman and Ziff-Davis remembered by Heap artist ERNIE SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and ALEX TOTH! Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER!

Yuletide art by WOOD, SINNOTT, CARDY, BRUNNER, TOTH, NODELL, and others, interviews with Golden Age artists TOM GILL (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, exploring 1960s Mexican comics, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Flip covers by GEORGE TUSKA and DAVE STEVENS!

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special! Interviews with KUBERT, HASEN, ANDERSON, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, THOMAS, 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, and INFANTINO, FCA, and MR. MONSTER’S “I Like Ike!” cartoons by BOB KANE, INFANTINO, OKSNER, and BIRO! Wraparound ORDWAY cover!

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ’40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s ALTER EGO! 1969 BILL EVERETT interview, art by BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, JERRY BAILS, and ROY THOMAS, LOU GLANZMAN interview, tributes to IRV NOVICK and CHRIS REEVE, MR. MONSTER, FCA, TOTH, and more! Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043043

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT043189

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043080

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ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ’40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ’40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB053220

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR053331

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR053287

ALTER EGO #50 ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #54 ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

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MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP053301

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ’80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN063429

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR063545

ALTER EGO #55 JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Card Art from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ’40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, and more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT053396

ALTER EGO #59 Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA and VIC CARRABOTTA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063474

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4! FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN063522

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ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOE KUBERT, LOU SAYRE SCHWARTZ, IRWIN HASEN, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his Golden & Silver Age work (with CARDY art), plus art by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, tributes to ERNIE SCHROEDER and DAVE COCKRUM, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, SIMON & KIRBY, MARTIN GOODMAN’s Magazine Management, and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Shazam!, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, etc., FCA with MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT063800

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ALTER EGO #72

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom and founder of Alter Ego! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus STEVE DITKO’s notes to STAN LEE for a 1965 Dr. Strange story! And ROY reveals secrets behind Marvel’s STAR WARS comic!

PAUL NORRIS drew AQUAMAN first, in 1941—and RAMONA FRADON was the hero’s ultimate Golden Age artist. But both drew other things as well, and both are interviewed in this landmark issue—along with a pocket history of Aquaman! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus an homage to artist LILY RENÉE!

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR073852

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR074098

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073879

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ALTER EGO #76

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GRAHAM INGELS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with P.C. HAMERLINCK on the many “Captains Marvel” over the years, unseen Shazam! proposal by ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK on “The Death of a Legend!”, MARC SWAYZE, interview with Golden Age artist MARV LEVY, MR. MONSTER, and more!

JOE SIMON SPECIAL! In-depth SIMON interview by JIM AMASH, with neverbefore-revealed secrets behind the creation of Captain America, Fighting American, Stuntman, Adventures of The Fly, Sick magazine and more, art by JACK KIRBY, BOB POWELL, AL WILLIAMSON, JERRY GRANDENETTI, GEORGE TUSKA, and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073947

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN084019

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG074112

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ALTER EGO #74 STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT073927

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ALTER EGO #78 ALTER EGO #77 ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008

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DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships June 2008

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective— DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus the NEMBO KID (Italian for “Superman”), art by BORING, SWAN, ADAMS, KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, and more! New cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships August 2008

12-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $78 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($108 First Class, $132 Canada, $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). For a 6-issue sub, cut the price in half!

COMPANION BOOKS

NEW FOR 2008

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 1

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION VOL. 1

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the NEW TEEN TITANS, this comprehensive history features interviews with and rare art by fan-favorite creators MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, LEN WEIN, and others! Also included is a indepth Silver Age section featuring interviews with NEAL ADAMS, NICK CARDY, DICK GIORDANO and more, plus CHRIS CLAREMONT and WALTER SIMONSON on the X-MEN/TEEN TITANS crossover, TOM GRUMMETT, PHIL JIMENEZ and TERRY DODSON on their ’90s Titans work, rare and unpublished artwork by CARDY, PÉREZ, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GRUMMETT, JIMENEZ, and others, a new cover by JIMENEZ, and an introduction by GEOFF JOHNS! Written by GLEN CADIGAN.

A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA written by MICHAEL EURY (co-author of THE SUPERHERO BOOK). It traces the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom through vintage and all-new interviews with the series’ creators, an issue-by-issue index of the JLA’s 1960-1972 adventures, classic and never-before-published artwork, and other fun and fascinating features. Contributors include DENNY O’NEIL, MURPHY ANDERSON, JOE GIELLA, MIKE FRIEDRICH, NEAL ADAMS, ALEX ROSS, CARMINE INFANTINO, NICK CARDY, and many, many others. Plus: An exclusive interview with STAN LEE, who answers the question, “Did the JLA really inspire the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four?” With an all-new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905504 Diamond Order Code: SEP053209

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

FLASH COMPANION Details the publication histories of the four heroes who have individually earned the right to be declared DC Comics' "Fastest Man Alive": Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen. With articles about legendary creators SHELLY MAYER, GARDNER FOX, E.E. HIBBARD, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, ROBERT KANIGHER, JOHN BROOME, ROSS ANDRU, IRV NOVICK and all-new interviews with HARRY LAMPERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, CARY BATES, ALEX SAVIUK, MIKE W. BARR, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE BARON, JACKSON GUICE, MARK WAID, and SCOTT KOLINS, among others, THE FLASH COMPANION recounts the scarlet speedster's evolution from the Golden Age to the 21st century. Also featured are "lost covers," never before published commission pieces by Flash artists throughout the decades, a ROGUES GALLERY detailing The Flash's most famous foes, a tribute to late artist MIKE WIERINGO by MARK WAID, a look at the speedster’s 1990s TV show, and "Flash facts" detailing pivotal moments in Flash history. Written by KEITH DALLAS, with a a cover by DON KRAMER. (224-page trade paperback) $26.95 • ISBN: 9781893905986 • Ships July 2008

NEW FOR 2008

KRYPTON COMPANION

BLUE BEETLE COMPANION

Picks up where Volume 1 left off, covering the return of the Teen Titans to the top of the sales charts! Featuring interviews with GEOFF JOHNS, MIKE McKONE, PETER DAVID, PHIL JIMENEZ, and others, plus an in-depth section on the top-rated Cartoon Network series! Also CHUCK DIXON, MARK WAID, KARL KESEL, and JOHN BYRNE on writing the current generation of Titans! More with MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ! NEAL ADAMS on redesigning Robin! Artwork by ADAMS, BYRNE, JIMENEZ, McKONE, PÉREZ and more, with an all-new cover by MIKE McKONE! Written by GLEN CADIGAN.

Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, RICH BUCKLER, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites! Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of SuperHeroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars. Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators (including JOHN BYRNE, JEPH LOEB, and ALEX ROSS) examining Superman’s influential past! Plus an Introduction by Bizarro No. 1 (by SEINFELD writer DAVID MANDEL), and a cover by DAVE GIBBONS!

The Blue Beetle debuted in 1939, rivaling Superman and Batman for longevity in comics, but not in popularity until his recent death and resurrection as a result of DC Comics’ hit INFINITE CRISIS. Now CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the history and uncovers the secrets of his 60+ years of evolution—from the world of FOX COMICS to an in-depth history of CHARLTON COMICS—all the way to the hall of today’s DC COMICS. Find out what really happened to infamous Golden Age publisher Victor Fox, and get an in-depth look at the Blue Beetle radio show and JACK KIRBY’s Blue Beetle comic strip. Also, presented for the first time since 1939: the character’s first appearance from Mystery Men Comics #1! Featuring interviews with WILL EISNER, JOE SIMON, JOE GILL, ROY THOMAS, GEOFF JOHNS, CULLY HAMNER, KEITH GIFFEN, LEN WEIN, and others, plus never-before-seen Blue Beetle designs by ALEX ROSS and ALAN WEISS, as well as artwork by WILL EISNER, CHARLES NICHOLAS, STEVE DITKO, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! With an introduction by TOM DeHAVEN, and a new cover by CULLY HAMNER, this is the ultimate look at one of comicdom’s longest-living heroes!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 97801893905870 Diamond Order Code: JAN083938

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

(128-page trade paperback) $16.95 ISBN: 9781893905702 Diamond Order Code: DEC063946

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 2

NEW FOR 2008

BEST OF THE LEGION OUTPOST

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 2

Originally published in 1972 as the official newsletter of the Legion Fan Club, the LEGION OUTPOST soon became the premier Legion of Super-Heroes fanzine of the 1970s, featuring contributions by fans, pros, and soon-to-be pros. Launched at a time when the future of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES was in doubt, the LEGION OUTPOST was at the center of fan-based efforts to revive the title, and was largely responsible for its rescue from obscurity, leading to it becoming a runaway best-seller! This trade paperback collects the best material from the hard-to-find fanzine, including rare interviews and articles from creators such as DAVE COCKRUM, CARY BATES, and JIM SHOOTER, plus never-before-seen artwork by COCKRUM, MIKE GRELL, JIMMY JANES and others! It also features a previously unpublished interview with KEITH GIFFEN originally intended for the never-published LEGION OUTPOST #11, plus other new material! And it sports a rarely-seen classic 1970s cover by Legion fan favorite artist DAVE COCKRUM! Edited by GLEN CADIGAN.

ROY THOMAS presents still more secrets of the Justice Society of America and ALL-STAR COMICS, from 1940 through the 1980s, featuring: A fabulous wraparound cover by CARLOS PACHECO! More amazing information and speculation on the classic ALL-STAR COMICS of 1940-1951! Never-before-seen Golden Age art by IRWIN HASEN, CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, MART NODELL, JOE KUBERT, H.G. PETER, and others! Art from an unpublished 1940s JSA story not seen in Volume 1! Rare art from the original JLA-JSA team-ups and the 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL by MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, JOE STATON, WALLY WOOD, KEITH GIFFEN, and RIC ESTRADA! Full coverage of the 1980s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and a bio of every single All-Star, plus never-seen art by JERRY ORDWAY, RICH BUCKLER, ARVELL JONES, RAFAEL KAYANAN, and special JSArelated art and features by FRANK BRUNNER, ALEX ROSS, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, MIKE MIGNOLA, and RAMONA FRADON—and more!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905368 Diamond Order Code: SEP042969

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905375 Diamond Order Code: AUG063622

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 3 In this third volume, comics legend Roy Thomas presents still more amazing secrets behind the 1940-51 ALL-STAR COMICS and the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA! Also, there’s an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA/JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALLSTARS with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by NEAL ADAMS, DICK AYERS, MICHAEL BAIR, JOHN BUSCEMA, SEAN CHEN, DICK DILLIN, RIC ESTRADA, CREIG FLESSEL, KEITH GIFFEN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, TOM GRINDBERG, TOM GRUMMETT, RON HARRIS, IRWIN HASEN, DON HECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JACK KIRBY, JOE KUBERT, BOB LAYTON, SHELDON MAYER, BOB McLEOD, SHELDON MOLDOFF, BRIAN MURRAY, JERRY ORDWAY, ARTHUR PEDDY, GEORGE PÉREZ, H.G. PETER, HOWARD PURCELL, PAUL REINMAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, HOWARD SIMPSON, JOE SINNOTT, JIM STARLIN, JOE STATON, RONN SUTTON, ALEX TOTH, JIM VALENTINO and many others! Featuring a new JLA/JSA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: SEP074020

NEW FOR 2008

SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS COMPANION

Instantly recognizable among comics fans, Hawkman is one of the most iconic heroes ever created. Inspired by tales as old as mankind and those much more recent, this four-color legend has left an indelible mark upon the comic industry. Behind a fabulous CLIFF CHIANG cover, this collection contains interviews and commentary from many who have helped Hawkman soar through the ages, including JOE KUBERT, GEOFF JOHNS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, TIMOTHY TRUMAN, JUSTIN GRAY, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, RAGS MORALES, STEPHEN SADOWSKI, DON KRAMER, BEN RAAB, TONY ISABELLA, DAN JURGENS, ROY THOMAS, STEVE LIEBER, MURPHY ANDERSON and many other top comics creators. Also included is a copious image parade, profiles on the Hawks through the ages, as well as their allies and adversaries, and a timeline of Hawkman's storied existence throughout the DC Comics Universe. With insight into the character and the creators who made him what he is, the HAWKMAN COMPANION is certain to please any Hawkfan. Written by DOUG ZAWISZA.

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-by-story reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/ editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

The definitive book on the history of such memorable characters as DYNAMO, NO-MAN, LIGHTNING, ANDOR, THE IRON MAIDEN, and all the other super-heroes and super-villains created by the late, great WALLACE WOOD and company! Included are interviews with Woody’s creative team, as well as those superb writers and artists involved in the various T-Agents resurrections over the decades, and a detailed examination of the origins and exploits of the characters themselves, including the shocking truth behind the first super-hero to ever be “killed,” MENTHOR! This exclusive book features reams of artwork, much of it rarely-seen or previous unpublished, including a rare 27-page T-Agents story drawn by PAUL GULACY, unpublished stories by GULACY, PARIS CULLINS, and others, all behind a JERRY ORDWAY cover. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

(208-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905931 Ships October 2008

(144-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905436 Diamond Order Code: MAR053228

HAWKMAN COMPANION

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments such as “Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals), “Rough Stuff” (pencil art showcases of top artists), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $40 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($54 First Class, $66 Canada, $90 Surface, $108 Airmail).

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more! HUGHES cover!

“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, details on two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP032621

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032696

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042880

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies! Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR042973

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043051

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL043389

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043044

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043081

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BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN053136

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR053333

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053174

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL053295

(100-page magazine) SOLD OUT (100-page Digital Edition) $2.95

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BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

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BACK ISSUE #18

DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s! MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (on Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (on Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (on the Green Goblin), and more. New cover by NEAL ADAMS!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV053296

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN063431

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR063547

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063499

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL063569

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BACK ISSUE #19

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“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, STEVE GERBER and GENE COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/ RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos!’ “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

“Comics Go Hollywood!” Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

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“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

“Men of Steel!’ BOB LAYTON and DAVID MICHELINIE on Iron Man, RICH BUCKLER on Deathlok, MIKE GRELL on Warlord, JOHN BYRNE on ROG 2000, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, Machine Man, the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip, DC’s Steel, art by KIRBY, HECK, WINDSOR-SMITH, TUSKA, LAYTON cover, and bonus “Men of Steel” art gallery! Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work; NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot; McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants; the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series; lost Angel stories; Beast’s tenure with the Avengers; the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor; the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father; a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #77

ROUGH STUFF #8

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #2

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

Celebration of STAN LEE’s 85th birthday, including rare examples of comics, TV, and movie scripts from the Stan Lee Archives, tributes by JOHN ROMITA, SR., JOE QUESADA, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JIM SALICRUP, TODD McFARLANE, LOUISE SIMONSON, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, and more!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/ interview with artist BILL REINHOLD, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages spotlights blockbuster summer movies, LEGO style! Go behind the scenes for new sets for BATMAN and INDIANA JONES, and see new models, including an SR-71 SPYPLANE and a LEGO CITY, plus MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATIONS, BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, tour the ONLINE LEGO FACTORY, and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

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KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50)

SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

BEST OF WRITE NOW!

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 3

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

Features highlights from the acclaimed magazine about writing for comics, including interviews from top talents, like: BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, WILL EISNER, JEPH LOEB, STAN LEE, J. M. STRACZYNSKI, MARK WAID, GEOFF JOHNS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, AXEL ALONSO, and others! Plus “NUTS & BOLTS” tutorials feature scripts from landmark comics and the pencil art that was drawn from them, including: CIVIL WAR #1 (MILLAR & McNIVEN), BATMAN: HUSH #1 (LOEB & LEE), ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #47 (BENDIS & BAGLEY), AMAZING SPIDERMAN #539 (STRACZYNSKI & GARNEY), SPAWN #52 (McFARLANE & CAPULO), GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1 (JOHNS & VAN SCRIVER), and more! Also: How-to articles by the best comics writers and editors around, professional secrets of top comics pros, and an introduction by STAN LEE! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

Compiles more of the best tutorials and interviews from DRAW! #5-7, including: Penciling by MIKE WIERINGO! Illustration by DAN BRERETON! Design by PAUL RIVOCHE! Drawing Hands, Lighting the Figure, and Sketching by BRET BLEVINS! Cartooning by BILL WRAY! Inking by MIKE MANLEY! Comics & Animation by STEPHEN DeSTEFANO! Digital Illustration by CELIA CALLE and ALBERTO RUIZ! Caricature by ZACH TRENHOLM, and much more! Cover by DAN BRERETON!

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 16: MIKE ALLRED

(144-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905924 Diamond Order Code: FEB084082

The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Now Shipping

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

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(256-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905917 Diamond Order Code: JAN083936

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Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Mike’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905863 Diamond Order Code: JAN083937

COMICS GO HOLLYWOOD Unveils secrets behind your FAVORITE ONSCREEN HEROES, and how a character goes from the comics page to the big screen! It includes: Storyboards from DC’s animated hit “THE NEW FRONTIER”, JEPH LOEB on writing for Marvel Comics and the Heroes TV show, details on the UNSEEN X-MEN MOVIE, a history of the JOKER from the 1940s to the upcoming Dark Knight film, and a look at Marvel Universe co-creator JACK KIRBY’s Hollywood career, with extensive Kirby art! (32-page comic) FREE! at your local comics retailer on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, May 3, 2008!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com