Back Issue #23 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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st a t r e kr a writers’ roundtable... & WRITE NOW! crossover!

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MARY JANE TM & © MARVEL. SECRETS OF ISIS TM & © 1976 ENTERTAINMENT RIGHTS PLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FLASH TM & © 2007 DC COMICS. MICKEY MOUSE TM & © DISNEY. STAR TREK TM & © PARAMOUNT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

T H IS IS S U E : C O M IC S G O H O L L Y WO O D !

Volume 1, Number 23 August 2007 Celebrating the Best Com ics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

COVER ARTIST Adam Hughes COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving Dan Johnson Bob Kline Jim Alexander Jon B. Knutson Jim Amash Arnold Kunert Mark Arnold Henry Lange, Jr. Roger Ash Erik Larsen Joanna Pang Atkins Gary Leach Michael Aushenker Stan Lee Mike W. Barr David Levine Cary Bates Ronalda Douglas Russell Bates Lompardo BCI Eclipse John Lustig Patrick Bennett Andy Mangels Danny Bilson Scott Martin Geoffrey Blum Marvel Comics Fletch Bowling Yoram Matzkin Jerry Boyd Andy McKinney Bob Burns Bob McLeod Sal Buscema Darrell McNeil John Clark David Michelinie Gerry Conway John Francis Moore Raymond A. Cuthbert Richard Morgan Brian Cutler Dean Munday Susan Daigle-Leach Paramount Pictures Peter David Martin Pasko Darren G. Davis John Romita, Sr. Fred L. deBoom Don Rosa Tom DeFalco Bob Rozakis Paul DeMeo Rose Rummel-Eury Shelton Drum Paul Ryan David Dworski Jim Salicrup Juan Epstein’s Mother Todd Sawvelle Byron Erickson Lou Scheimer Mark Evanier John Wesley Shipp Lisa Everetts Jim Shooter Danny Fingeroth Steve Skeates Michael Jan Friedman Anthony Snyder Grand Comic-Book Allison Sohn Database Steve Stanley Glenn Greenberg Tom Stewart Bob Greenberger Laurie Sutton David M. Gutierrez William Van Horn P.C. Hamerlinck J. C. Vaughn Dustin Harbin Mike Vosburg Jack C. Harris Walt Disney Productions Ray Harryhausen Heritage Auction Galleries Warner Bros. John Watson Gail Hickman Dean Webb Jim Hoff Len Wein Benjamin Holcomb Howard Weinstein Jim Hollifield Todd Wethington Adam Hughes David Whittaker Tony Isabella Marv Wolfman Daan Jippes Eddy Zeno

SPECIAL THANKS

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Twenty Years of Webbed Bliss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 An all-star assemblage of Spider-Man creators—including Stan Lee, Sal Buscema, John Romita, Sr., and Jim Shooter—discuss Peter Parker’s marriage and love life WHEN TITANS … WED?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 The super-heroes who tied the knot before Spidey and Mary Jane BACKSTAGE PASS: Lift Me Now So I Can Fly: The Secrets of Isis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Hollywood historian Andy Mangels goes behind the scenes of the ’70s Saturday morning television series FLASHBACK: The Mighty Isis in Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Comics historian/Captain Marvel authority P.C. Hamerlinck looks back at the short-lived DC comic book based on the TV show BEYOND CAPES: A Gander at Gladstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Disney comics in the 1980s, with art and quotes from Daan Jippes, Don Rosa, William Van Horn, and other creators BACKSTAGE PASS: The Flash: Racing for Ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Star John Wesley Shipp and other contributors recall the one-season Flash TV series ART GALLERY: Adam Hughes Goes Hollywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Eight jaw-dropping pinups of media stars by one of comics’ most popular artists PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Star Trek Writers’ Roundtable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 A crossover with Write Now! #16! Bob Greenberger beams up Barr, David, Friedman, Greenberg, Mangels, Pasko, Sutton, Wein, and Weinstein for Part One of a discussion FLASHBACK: The Christopher Reeve Superman Movie Adaptations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Cary Bates and Bob Rozakis remember DC’s Super-movie comics BACKSTAGE PASS: Superman vs. Cyclops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Another find from Bob Burns’ Basement: photos of the 1964 NY World’s Fair exhibit BACK IN PRINT: Ray Harryhausen Presents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 An exclusive interview with the movie stop-motion master on the new line of comics based upon his screen properties WHAT THE--?!: Welcome Back, Kotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 “Comics Savant” Tom Stewart hits the books with his report on this utterly odd “DC TV Comic” OFF MY CHEST: A Boy and His “Unca” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Animator Darrell McNeil’s recollection of his relationship with the late Alex Toth BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89 Reader feedback on issue #21 FREE PREVIEW of WRITE NOW #16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 When you pick-up the second part of our Star Trek Writers’ Roundtable, you’ll also find the complete version of this Todd McFarlane interview! 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: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Adam Hughes. Mary Jane Watson TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc. The Flash TM & © DC Comics; Flash TV images © Warner Bros. Star Trek TM & © Paramount Pictures. Mickey Mouse TM & © Disney. 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.

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Just look at those new releases: Fantastic Four, SpiderMan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 300, Ghost Rider, Smallville, and Legion of Super-Heroes. And coming soon: Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk, and Watchmen. Wait a minute—are we in the comics shop or the video store? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. My former boss Mike Richardson, president of Dark Horse Comics, is fond of saying that everyone in Hollywood wants to be in comics, and everyone in comics wants to be in Hollywood. How true! Not only are screenwriters scripting titles for comics publishers, but comic-book properties continue to be snatched up by filmmakers. This comic book/Hollywood kinship is nothing new. Back during the Golden Age, numerous comics characters were brought to life on the big screen in movie serials and animated shorts, while comic books starring movie celebrities—and later, TV series—dotted the racks. While it’s unlikely in today’s market that Larry the Cable Guy could “git-’r-done” in 124 issues of his own DC Comics title like Jerry Lewis did for 20 years, many familiar properties from TV and film, like The Simpsons and A Nightmare on Elm Street, are series now playing at a comics shop near you—and further blurring the “dividing” line between comics and Hollywood is Warner Bros.’ new line of direct-to-DVD animated adaptations of comic books. Three years ago, BACK ISSUE #5 explored the handin-hand relationship between the two media, and we’re at again this issue … and we celebrate the 20th wedding anniversary (yes, you are getting old—but you’re among aging friends!) of the blockbuster Spider-Man 3’s canoodling couple, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. A quick word about our cover by Adam Hughes: Some of you might have seen this dazzling Mary Jane illo before. Adam produced it back in 2002 for HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina (you are aware that HeroesCon is one of the best conventions around, aren’t you?). When our plans to feature a JoAnna Cameron-as-Isis cover didn’t materialize due to circumstances beyond our control, Adam’s MJ art seemed the perfect substitute. A BIG thank you to Adam, Allison Sohn, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find’s Shelton Drum, and Dustin Harbin for rallying to BACK ISSUE’s aid in providing this art—and to Robert Clark for his eye-catching cover design. Face it, tiger … you truly have hit the jackpot! And since we can’t get enough of Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man, feast your eyes on this astounding painting of the Parkers (and Venom) by John Watson (no relation to MJ). You can see this in color—as well as many of Mr. Watson’s other illustrations and cover art—on the artist’s site at www.johnwatsonart.com.

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Marriage isn’t an institution for the timid, especially in today’s world. Most husbands and wives are under terrific stress as they strive to have it all while balancing their careers and their home life. But can you imagine what it must be like to also have to deal with the likes of the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, and the Kingpin on top of everything else? No doubt about it, it’s not easy being Mr. and Mrs. Parker, but Peter and Mary Jane have been making a go of it for an incredible 20 years since tying the knot in 1987 in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. In honor of their anniversary, BACK ISSUE gathered together some of Spider-Man’s most famous creators— Stan Lee, Sal Buscema, Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Danny Fingeroth, Erik Larsen, David Michelinie, John Romita, Sr., Paul Ryan, Jim Salicrup, Jim Shooter, and Marv Wolfman—to examine:

Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: Stan, as the creator of both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, I was wondering what it was in 1987 that made you realize it was time for these two kids to finally tie the knot. STAN LEE (Spider-Man cocreator): I had always wanted the Spider-Man series to be as realistic as possible. After a few years of Peter and MJ having a romance, their marriage just seemed like the most natural event. It had to happen. JOHNSON: Jim Shooter, what were your first thoughts when you found out that Stan wanted to have Peter and Mary Jane get married? JIM SHOOTER (Marvel editor-in-chief at the time of the wedding storyline): First of all, that’s not the way it happened. It was my decision. The way that came about is this: Both Stan and I were guests at the Chicago Con the summer before the wedding, 1986 (I think). Stan was supposed to do a one-man panel Q&A, but at the last minute, he asked me if I’d come up onstage with him because he knew that most, if not all, of the questions would be about things going on in the comics, with which he was very out of touch. I was happy to help. We worked pretty well as a team in such situations, with me handling the comics questions and Stan adding color commentary, anecdotes, reminiscences; essentially doing snappy patter and being entertaining, as only he can. Starting in 1979 or 1980, Stan was based at the animation studio in L.A. I don’t remember what his title was, but his job was more or less just being Stan. He served as a creative advisor to the animation people and our face to Hollywood, trying to get film people interested in Marvel properties. Who wouldn’t take Stan’s call? He also wrote the Spider-Man strip, of course. Other than that, he wasn’t in charge of anything. I don’t think anyone reported to him except his secretary. I was EIC [editor-in-chief] and VP of Marvel then, head of creative for everything but the animation studio. I reported to the president, Jim Galton, and on some business affairs and other matters to publisher Mike Hobson, who was mainly in charge of Marvel Books, the children’s book line. As Stan used to say, I was Marvel’s “entire editor.” I used to say I had Stan’s old job. I did, actually, and I was the only one besides Stan ever to hold that lofty position. No one else, before or since, has had exactly the same job with the same authority and clout.

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Technically, even the Spider-Man strip fell under my authority because the “Special Projects” department reported to me. That said, I didn’t mess with the strip at all, ever. Sometimes, when he had a little spare time, Stan would call me up and ask for work! Talk about surreal. I recall an Erik Larsen job that he scripted on one of those occasions. This is not meant to diminish Stan in any way. It’s just that, at that point in his career, he was just not involved in the governance of the properties and uninvolved with publishing except as a writer of the strip, and occasionally a comic book. Technically, the wedding was my call, and Stan respected that, because that’s the kind of guy he is. That said, all technicalities aside, he was still Stan Lee, my mentor, the resident legend/genius, and I would have deferred to him about almost anything. So there we were on this panel and someone asked whether Spider-Man and Mary Jane were ever going to get married. Stan said that it was up to me but that he thought they should. He turned to face me and asked me, extra politely, if they could get married. The audience was screaming. Trapped! Nah. Actually, if Stan thought it was a good idea, I sure didn’t have a problem with it. TOM DeFALCO (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): I guess you could blame the whole marriage thing on Ron Frenz and me. When we were on The Amazing Spider-Man, we proposed a storyline where Peter asks Mary Jane to marry him, she accepts but eventually— in true Spider-Man fashion—leaves him at the altar. Jim Owsley was our editor and took the idea to Jim Shooter, who mentioned it to Stan … who thought the couple really should get married. Shooter agreed and went ahead with the idea after Ron and I were taken off Amazing. At the time, I thought it was a veryyyyyy bad idea. History has proven me wrong. I now think Mary Jane and Peter really work well as a couple and their relationship is one of the cornerstones of my Spider-Girl series. SHOOTER: Tom is mistaken. I never asked Stan about his proposed story. It happened exactly as I said. There were no preliminaries. JOHNSON: It’s still pretty interesting though to hear about what might have been with the Peter and Mary Jane relationship. What else can you tell us about this idea? RON FRENZ (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler): One way to look at it is the best way to write a Spider-Man story is to make a list of all the sh*ttiest things that can happen to a human being, then you eliminate all the things that other writers have already done, and what is left are some story ideas. Certainly being left at the altar is the hugely sh*ttiest thing that can happen to a human being.

First Loves No one is as dear to Peter Parker’s heart than his Aunt May; here she’s terrorized by the Green Goblin in a Ron Wilson/Mike Esposito illo for a 1975 British reprint. And Peter’s first crush, Betty Brant, tied the knot in Amazing Spider-Man #156 (May 1976); cover art by John Romita, Sr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Get Me to the Church on Time The splash page to Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987). Note the tribute to dress designer Willi Smith below the story credits. Original art scan courtesy of Richard Morgan, whose collection of Spider-Wedding art and memorabilia is simply astounding! © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Tom and I made Pete and Mary Jane best friends, and we kind of left it at that, and then a lot of the other writers started taking that into the romantic realm. We had talked about the idea that now that they were romantically involved, they would get engaged, and we would get to the point of the marriage. Spider-Man would then be off battling the Sinister Six or something like that, and be completely out of contact for several days, and Mary Jane would get the opportunity to reconcile with her sister who she was estranged from. Then Mary Jane would use that as an excuse to bug out because she’s been having second thoughts. She would try to get a hold of Pete, but he’s fighting for his life up to the last minute. [In the end,] Pete would race to his apartment, throw on his tuxedo, and web-swing to the church where Harry would be waiting for him out in front. There would be a silent sequence where they talk for a couple of minutes, Harry would hand Pete the ring and then he would walk away. Pete would be standing in front of the church, and we would pull back and the ring would drop to the ground, and there is the end of your sequence. Where this would then go is: Pete would have moved back in with Aunt May and take over the attic and turn that into an apartment. Then we would experiment with shifting their relationship a little bit as Pete would be moving back in to take care of Aunt May. We had an idea for a cool scene where occasionally the phone would ring, and Aunt May would answer it and it would be Mary Jane calling Pete. She would beg to speak to Pete, and May’s response would be, “There is no one here who wants to speak to you, young lady!” Then Peter would come down the stairs and ask who was on the phone, and Aunt May would tell him, “No one you need to concern yourself with, dear.” JOHNSON: Jim, the continuity of the comic strip and the Spider-Man comic books have always been kept fairly separate. Was there ever any thought about having Peter and Mary Jane tie the knot in the strip and not in the comic books? If there were, what finally made you decide that they would get married? SHOOTER: Regarding the wedding, for once we actually tried to coordinate the strip with the comics. But then, the PR people got involved, things started to get complicated—“too many cooks”—and we botched it up some. I was on my way out then, barely paying attention to what was going on, so I wasn’t quite the firm hand on the helm I might have been otherwise. MARV WOLFMAN (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): I never thought Spidey and MJ getting married was a good idea, but I also always thought the Spidey newspaper strip was a very different entity from the comic and had to appeal to a very different audience where that kind of soap opera was fine. I just think for the comics Peter should have stayed single and still be struggling.

FRENZ: I didn’t like it either. I had a lot of the same concerns that fandom in general seemed to have had in response to that whole everyman-being-married-to-asupermodel thing. I’m still a big proponent of comics being wish fulfillment for your adolescence, or arrested adolescence, and I don’t think marriage is a part of that. I feel comics should still be done the way Stan did them in that they are very, very palatable for adults, and written for adults, but kids should still enjoy them. Let’s put it this way: There is a 15-year-old in all of us, and I don’t think any 15-year-old’s wish fulfillment is accomplished by marriage. There was also an element of the stewardship of the character to me. I understand the illusion of change—as a storyteller we do it all the time— but I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing to have a major change like that in a character. Every decision you make about a character should be about the stories it C o m i c s

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brings to the table, and whether or not the story has legs. I don’t think that’s an idea that necessarily has legs to open up any particular character. JOHNSON: Jim, what was the general consensus at Marvel at the time this marriage was announced? Would you say most of the Spider-Man creators were for this or against it? SHOOTER: Hmm. I don’t remember any major dust-ups about it. I think people got adjusted pretty quickly. Everyone realized that it was a ground-breaking event. Pretty cool. JOHNSON: And the rest of you, what did you think when you found out that Peter was taking himself off the market? JOHN ROMITA, SR. (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler): I merely reminded everyone of Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae getting married and how soon after the strip seemed to wane. But, as usual, my business thoughts were ignored, and it was a huge PR success. GERRY CONWAY (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): This happened after I left, so I didn’t have any input. If I’d had input, I would have argued against it. I would’ve argued against Peter graduating from high school, too, and at the very least, I would’ve kept him in college. Some aspects of a character are defining, some are not. Peter Parker, single and in need of approval from the world and those he loves, is a defining aspect of the Spider-Man character. Marrying him off destroyed an essential part of his character dynamic, but that’s a mistake Stan made before when he married Reed Richards and Sue Storm. I call it the Rhoda Morgenstern effect. If you know why, you’re as old as I am. DAVID MICHELINIE (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled. Having Peter get married would change the character forever; he could never be single again. He could only be widowed or divorced, which is an awful lot of baggage to carry around. Of course, that was before the era of “reimagining,” which allows series to start over from

Save the Date! This May 17, 1987 press release announced Marvel’s promotional plans for the web-slinger’s wedding. From a Spider-Wedding press kit, courtesy of Richard Morgan. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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scratch every few years, correcting old mistakes while creating new ones. The Amazing Spider-Man was the title that got me back into comics in college, and I loved the character and the stories. So it was a little disappointing when I was finally given the chance to write Amazing, literally my dream job, only to find that I wouldn’t be able to write the same character I had been reading about for all those years. I have to admit that it was still fun, and provided a lot of interesting story opportunities, but it was definitely something I had to adjust to. DANNY FINGEROTH (former Spider-Man group editor): I thought it made sense in terms of the idea that Marvel’s characters in general behave in a relatively realistic manner. SAL BUSCEMA (former Spider-Man penciler): I liked the idea. I thought it was a very natural transition. DeFALCO: I didn’t think it had any material effect on the character of Spider-Man. Peter is still Peter. He just has a wife to think about whenever he risks his life. It’s a situation that any cop or fireman knows very well. PAUL RYAN (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler): I thought it was a good idea at the time! I identified with Peter Parker for most of my life. Spider-Man debuted when I was in grammar school. I was the second smallest boy in my class and occasionally got picked on during recess. It was pretty much the same in high school. I was not part of the “jock” set. I got a motorcycle around the same time that Peter did. My first girl friend was a brunette, the second was blonde, and I eventually married a redhead. Get the picture? I was elated to hear that Peter, the perpetual underdog, was getting the girl of his dreams. ERIK LARSEN (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler): I don’t recall what I thought. The marriage in the comics was pretty abrupt because, at the time, the two hadn’t even been dating and MJ had previously refused Peter’s proposal some years earlier. Their reconciliation and following nuptials came out of left field. In the span

of four issues they went from not even dating to being married. It seemed forced—and it was—to coincide with the wedding in the newspaper strip. JIM SALICRUP (former Spider-Man group editor): I thought it was a great idea! And let me clarify, that “the powers that be” in this case was Stan Lee. He wanted to marry Peter and MJ in the newspaper strip, and was asking what we thought on the comic-book end. When editor-in-chief Jim Shooter first mentioned the idea to me, I was at first surprised. Then I was enthused—I was looking for something like this to shake up the comicbook series and create new excitement. So I was all for it! As for the folks who didn’t like the idea, with all due respect, I found none of their reasons remotely compelling. Being told it was the kiss of death for the Li’l Abner comic strip seemed to miss all sorts of points. First, the Spider-Man strip was never about anyone chasing after Spider-Man to marry him. Second, Spider-Man is all about responsibility. What’s more responsible than being married? I could go on and on, but almost every objection I heard sounded like good material to explore in the comics themselves, which in itself was yet another reason to go ahead. The wedding was one of the few times an event was coordinated between the Spider-Man comic strip and comic book. Although the stories are different, they both wind up with Peter and MJ getting hitched, in a ceremony presided over by Judge Watson on June 14th, a date I picked, which just happens to be my brother’s birthday.

Paging Sam Raimi!!

JOHNSON: Jim Salicrup, you were editing the Spiderline at the time. Did marrying off Peter create any problems for you and the Spider-Man writers and artists? SALICRUP: What I didn’t fully understand at the time was how fast Stan wanted the wedding to happen. I was hoping we’d have at least a year or so to build up to it, but I was wrong. I should’ve known—Stan is the most impatient guy in the world, so if he was asking, it was because it was going to be his next storyline. When Jim [Shooter] told me roughly when Stan was planning for it to happen, I nearly had a heart attack! We had to pull stories we were already planning, and try to get to the wedding as fast as possible. FRENZ: At the time, none of the regular books were even running up to the wedding. It felt like something that was going on separate from the regular continuity. That was a shame, but they did the best they could with it, but it did feel like something that was forced upon us and we didn’t have time creatively to lead up to it. SALICRUP: As I said, I thought it was a great idea, but if I had it to do all over again, I would’ve liked a couple of years to create a build up to the main event. While Peter Parker was with Mary Jane in the comic strip all along, they had virtually broken up in the comics. JOHNSON: What prospects did you see in the way of storylines for Peter and Mary Jane as newlyweds? SALICRUP: For my long-term plans for the newlyweds,

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Thanks to our friends at Heritage Auctions, here’s a double-page announcement for a 1988 Spider-Man movie that never saw the light of day, with Albert Pyun slated to direct. Note Stan Lee’s signature on the “poster.” © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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I wanted to give the couple a honeymoon. Yes, there should always be conflict and drama with Peter’s never-ending problems, but in the years prior to the wedding, I think it went too far. Peter Parker was lost. He existed primarily to be someone he felt obligated to be, and supported himself by taking pictures of himself being someone he didn’t like and selling those pics to someone who also hated Spider-Man. And all this was just so he could continue this awful existence. Gone from the picture was Peter Parker science student, who had a promising future apart from Spider-Man in some science-related field. I wanted the pendulum to swing in the other direction for a while. So, after a honeymoon period, then all sorts of problems would’ve started for Mr. and Mrs. Parker. It would’ve opened up all sorts of new story opportunities. I don’t want to give the impression that I was actually plotting or writing the stories, but as editor, I had to have a solid idea of what the direction was for

Long Before Spider-Man 3… …Mary Jane met Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #299 (Apr. 1988). Script by David Michelinie, pencils by Todd McFarlane, and inks by Bob McLeod. Special thanks to Bob McLeod for the art. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The Amazing Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and Spider-Man, and any special, limited series, annuals, graphic novels, guest-appearances, etc., that were to come along. I was lucky to work with such top talents as David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Sal Buscema, Alex Saviuk, and so many others, and we all each contributed to the ongoing Spidey Saga! JOHNSON: David, as one of the Spider-writers at this time, can you recall any ideas that had to be shelved once the wedding decision was made? MICHELINIE: I had been writing Web of Spider-Man, which at the time, by editorial decree, dealt mainly with Peter following news stories that took him out of Manhattan. As a result, I didn’t handle much of the ongoing characterization, especially with the supporting cast. I think Joy Mercado was about the only secondary character I had much control over. When I was switched over to Amazing, the wedding decision had already been made and I was kind of thrown into the deep end, which made dealing with the wedding my top priority. About the only storyline I eventually brought over from Web was the creation of a new villain, which ultimately became Venom. JOHNSON: David, I was curious about how much input you had as the writer of the wedding issue. I know Jim did the plot, and he has said that he kept firm control of this project because of the deadline that was looming, so I didn’t know how much you got to contribute overall. MICHELINIE: I wrote a plot for the wedding issue, but Marvel decided to go with another approach. I had tried to do something a little different, something to make the story stand out from the usual supervillain-crashes-hero’s-nuptials thing. As the story developed I had Peter Parker discussing matters with dead people—Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, etc.—as if this was a common occurrence. It turned out that Peter had been suffering a concussion from a recent battle with a bad guy, and these conversations were all in his mind, the way he dealt with his insecurities about whether he was ready for marriage, whether he’d be a good husband, whether he’d be putting Mary Jane in danger, etc. I was told that Marvel liked my plot, but they wanted to go with a more standard format because they hoped the event would bring a lot of non-comics readers to the book, and they wanted something that would be accessible to mass audiences. I understood that, and was happy to script from Jim’s plot. JOHNSON: I think that would have been a pretty good idea for a story, and one that makes a lot of sense. Often times, before people take the big leap that is marriage, they will seek advice from their friends and loved ones. Given Peter’s heightened sense of responsibility, and the guilt he feels about having let so many people down, it makes sense that Uncle Ben and Gwen would be the people his subconscious would pick for him to hash out his doubts in his confused state of mind. No doubt he would be concerned about letting Mary Jane down, too, and Peter would feel that he would need their blessing before putting someone else he loves in the crosshairs. Now, Ron, you were approached to pencil the wedding issue, but you declined. Why was that? FRENZ: When I was handed the plot, it didn’t feel like it was working for all of us who had been working on the books. It felt like it was being shoved down our throats. That wasn’t the only reason I turned it down, but it was the main reason. Creatively, it just didn’t

feel right. That was an overwhelming feeling that even overwhelmed the fact that I could have been penciling a major turning point in Spider-Man’s life. As a fanboy, that meant a lot, but it felt like it wasn’t playing well and wasn’t being true to the characters. JOHNSON: Sal, you said you were in favor of the marriage, yet you passed up the chance to pencil the story, too. BUSCEMA: When Jim Shooter asked me to do the job he sent me a list of very specific instructions on how he wanted it done. I felt they were too confining and would not allow me to do my best work. JOHNSON: So finally it fell to you to pencil this story, Paul. What were your thoughts when you got the call to make it happen? RYAN: Sheer terror! I had been in the business for about a minute and a half. I was working on the Squadron Supreme miniseries at the time. Word around the office was that Jim was extremely difficult to work with and that he was micro-managing the wedding issue. I didn’t know him well back then. He [stepped in] and wrote [the plot] himself. The first artist he approached to pencil the issue, Ron Frenz, declined the assignment. Jim then asked Sal Buscema to illustrate the story. Sal, initially, accepted the assignment but walked away from it when he received written instructions from Jim on how to draw the issue. Jim was not happy. He let it be known that the next person to turn him down, over this script, would never work at Marvel again. I figured I was safe. I was too new and raw to be considered for this important assignment. Uh-uh! I think I was in Mike Carlin’s office at the time, talking to Mike Rockwitz, when Jim walked in, smiling, and asked if I would like to draw the Spider-Man wedding issue. I think my heart stopped beating and my mouth got really, really dry. As I mentioned, I had only just got my foot in the door at Marvel. If I turned him down I was out on the street. I said sure! The rest is history. Not my best effort but the best I could do at the time. SHOOTER: And so my legend grows. I generally didn’t get involved in the creative process on individual issues, but that one was important enough that I thought I’d better have a look at the plot. The plot submitted by the writer was pretty lame and completely inappropriate. As usual, time was a problem, so for expediency’s sake, I ended up plotting it myself. Ron Frenz was, indeed, first choice, but he was too busy. Sal Buscema was also a logical choice, and was fast enough to make up for time lost not only because of the plot rewrite, but before I stuck my nose in. I had a talk with Sal on the phone—he lived in Virginia and never came to the office—about how important and special this issue was. I told him I wanted his best job, a special effort. He was cheerfully agreeable and happy to be working on the book, since it was pretty sure to pay some good royalty money. When I sent him the plot, I included some reference. That annoyed him, I think, since he usually just made up locations, buildings, whatever. I also sent him specific examples of what I wanted for certain scenes; photocopies of panels he himself had drawn in the past. He was offended by that. I’m still not sure I understand why. Years later, after a Stan Lee Roast at the Chicago Con for which both Sal and I were on the panel, Sal apologized to me. The angry rants are always public, the apologies always private. I don’t know who told Paul that I would fire and blackball the next person to turn me down, but I

DRESSED TO THRILL When Mary Jane Watson traded nuptials with her knight in web-lined armor, she did it wearing a wedding gown created by renowned fashion designer Willi Smith. Smith, who was born on February 29, 1949, was one of the most successful AfricanAmerican fashion designers of all time. Before the SpiderWedding, Smith had already made a name for himself as the founder (along with Laurie Mallet) of WilliWear, a multimillion-dollar clothing business, and as the designer of the suits for Edwin Schlossberg and his groomsmen for Schlossberg’s wedding to Caroline Kennedy and for the clothing in Spike Lee’s film School Daze. Smith’s role in creating Mary Jane’s form-fitting white lace, satin, and tulle gown came about through the efforts of Marvel’s PR director, Pam Rutt, and it was Smith’s final project before he passed away at the age of 39 from AIDS-related medical complications on April 17, 1987. Smith’s death came just weeks before a special wedding ceremony that was held at home base at the New York Mets’ Shea Stadium on Friday, June 5, 1987. During the event, an actress playing Mary Jane wore Smith’s dress as she “married” Spider-Man. The two were joined together by none other than Stan Lee, and the event was witnessed by several other Marvel heroes, including Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, and two of Spider-Man’s most amazing friends, Iceman and Firestar. Smith’s wedding gown was also used in both The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 and the Spider-Man Sunday comic strip where Peter and Mary Jane tied the knot. Smith was even featured in several panels of the Annual and was seen designing the gown for the bride. Special thanks to Richard Morgan for the scan of the Willi Smith dress design!

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never said and never would say anything like that. It’s complete horsesh*t. It doesn’t even make sense. If I were to do anything like that, why would I wait for the “next person”? Why wouldn’t I wield my hideous strength against my first choice, Ron Frenz? I could have arranged to clear his schedule and made him available for the book. Yes, it was an important issue and I was, understandably, I think, more involved with it than usual, but all I was trying to do was find someone good, available, reasonably fast, and reliable. Somebody suggested Paul. It might have been Tom. Was it, you, Tom? Or was it Mark Gruenwald? Whatever. Good idea, I thought. I’m sorry, Paul, if you felt threatened into drawing it and I’m sorry you’re so gullible, but you seemed to be pleased and honored to be offered the project and you accepted it, I thought happily. BUSCEMA: The only thing that I’m offended by is Shooter’s complete distortion of the truth. I apologized to him for nothing because there was nothing to apologize for. What I said to him at the Chicago convention was “Hello” and nothing else. I think the man is delusional! SHOOTER: Ah. We’re in public again. JOHNSON: Via the Marvel Method of creating comics, artists are usually given a great amount of freedom in telling stories and helping to plot them. Since this was such a big event for Marvel, though, were you afforded that freedom or were there more restrictions than usual, Paul?

The invitation to the publicly staged “wedding” of Spidey and MJ, and a group photo of some of the wedding party. From the collection of Richard Morgan. Spider-Man and related characters © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. NY Mets © 2007 MLB Advanced Media, L.P.

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RYAN: It’s a little tough trying to remember the details. It was over 20 years ago! I do remember that the story was not paginated, or broken down by page. It was definitely a Marvel-method plot. Being so new to the business I had a little trouble with pacing. I remember calling Jim when I was nearing the end of the plot and asking if I could have a couple extra pages to fit everything in. He got a little cranky over that one. I managed to fit it all in after all. I should mention that it was I who was at fault due to inexperience. Jim, naturally, expected his Marvel artists to know how to pace a story. I should note that in time I developed a real friendship with Jim Shooter. SHOOTER: Cranky? Me? Nah. I had no time for mere crankiness. I was busy being the monstrous, vengeful ogre who was hell-bent to fire and blackball people over this. Whatever my people skills are or are not, sometimes it’s hard to be Mary Sunshine when the drop-dead date is looming. Especially with all the PR planned around the release of this book. 50,000 or so copies had to be delivered ON TIME to Shea Stadium where [actors dressed as] Spider-Man and Mary Jane were getting married at home plate during a Mets game. It was a pretty dense story plot. I don’t blame Paul for having difficulty with the pacing. Overall, under the circumstances and time pressures, I thought he did pretty well. JOHNSON: I was wondering how you all think the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson changed

the character of Spider-Man? LEE: It gave him a bit more maturity, but I don’t feel that it actually changed his character. It just gave us a chance to add more dimension and additional complications to the series. SHOOTER: It gave creators a whole new spectrum of ways to screw up. LARSEN: It changed him from being young to old. It aged the character. He could no longer be a kid— clearly he was an adult. FINGEROTH: It made him a grownup, and it made him someone who would now be less seen as unlucky, since he would have a supermodel wife, which is different than having a supermodel girlfriend who might ditch him at any time. ROMITA, SR.: During the months following the wedding I was not reading those issues, [since I had a] full plate with art director duties, etc. But my impression was there were lots of problems to work with down the road. But some good stories came from Peter’s travails as a husband. RYAN: I think it was a mistake! The average reader identified with the Peter Parker who struggled to do the right thing, never got the girl, and whose good intentions always blew up in his face. Suddenly he is married to a supermodel. Oh, yeah, we can all relate to that. CONWAY: It weakened him and limited him. Instead of having one Aunt May to worry about, now he had two—Aunt May and Mary Jane. WOLFMAN: In Spidey’s case I’m sort of a purist. Peter Parker is the everyman, the loser who stammers, never says the right thing, and has trouble going through life. You can’t play that all the time because he’s also brilliant, but that’s his life. Once he marries a supermodel, you can’t ever feel sorry for him again. I prefer the original concept. SHOOTER: I obviously went along with the idea, but in retrospect, I agree with Marv. MICHELINIE: From Amazing Fantasy #15 on, the key to Peter Parker’s personality has been his sense of responsibility. So getting married played into that very nicely, only amped up a few notches. He still had the responsibility for using his powers to make the world a better place, but now he also had to make sure that exercising those abilities didn’t put the woman he loved in mortal danger. Plus there was the more subtle, but equally pressing, responsibility for making a marriage successful—something most mere mortals have to work hard at even without the added pressure of fighting Dr. Octopus a couple of times a year! SALICRUP: [The marriage] didn’t change Spider-Man at all! It changed Peter Parker a bit, I suppose. But the core characteristics of Parker/Spider-Man remained the same. While overall, the wedding of Spider-Man and Mary Jane seems to have been embraced by a majority of fans, there are still those who will go on about how this ruined Spider-Man. I probably should shut up about it, but I do feel so very strongly about the “rightness” of MJ and Peter being married, that I really can’t pass up an opportunity to finally respond to some of the nay-sayers. The one objection that bugs me the most is the misguided belief that someone as beautiful as MJ would never marry someone like Peter Parker. This makes no sense to me! What a shallow, cynical thing for people to say. I suspect it’s a form of projecting one’s own self-loathing onto the Peter Parker character.

Peter has been portrayed as an intelligent, sensitive guy since day one of comic-book life, and while he suffers from insecurity just like anyone else, he has dated wonderful, smart, attractive women all along. For some fans to wear blinders and refuse to see the depths of the Peter/MJ relationship is terribly sad. Yes, I’m perfectly aware of the “problems” Peter Parker has had with women over the years, but they’ve mostly been of the “I’m gonna miss my date with Gwen ’cause I gotta stop the Rhino!” or “I can never reveal I’m Spider-Man to Betty as long as she believes Spider-Man is responsible for the death of her brother!” It’s NEVER been, “Oh, I can’t get a date because I’m a nerd!” Geez! There’s also the more understandable objection, that having Peter marry a supermodel removes him from the “every guy” character he supposedly has been all these years. Except, again this completely overlooks that Peter has been dating beautiful women, or as beautiful as Ditko could draw ’em, all along! Why would a fan no longer relate to a character who marries a supermodel, yet have no problem with a character who continually dates the smartest, most beautiful women around? Another objection is that having Peter get married ages the character, making Spider-Man more difficult for young readers to relate to Peter. Okay, I can see that, too. Marvel rather ingeniously solved that problem by creating Ultimate Spider-Man. You want a young, single Peter Parker—read Ultimate SpiderMan or the Essential Spider-Man or watch the first two Spidey motion pictures. You want the original Peter Parker, read The Amazing Spider-Man. WOLFMAN: I understand what Jim is saying, but my problem is not MJ wanting to marry Peter; I can accept that. It’s that the underlying concept of Spider-Man is invalidated. I’m supposed to feel for Peter, to watch him try to do well but have the rug pulled out from under him. Marry a supermodel who makes a fortune and also loves him and he loves her, then what worries does he actually have? What gives him the impetus to prove himself time and time again. I know, “With great power,” etc., but Peter’s life is also about proving himself against all odds. Marrying MJ eliminated all that but didn’t replace it with anything better. JOHNSON: They say that the women a man dates before he settles down help to

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shape him into the husband he will become. I would like to ask you all about the ladies in Peter Parker’s life and how they impacted him. SHOOTER: That’s a question for readers. Such matters are best assessed from beyond the fourth wall. I’ve been backstage too much. A parade of writers followed legend/genius Stan on Spider-Man. Some made contributions to the character and some did much damage. Often, the good and the bad things have had to do with how the current romantic interest was handled. I tend to ignore what the bad puppeteers did with the puppets. Readers, fans, however, seem to love to contemplate and debate everything that made the pages, weight them equally, and make everything fit. I think I know who Peter Parker/Spider-Man is. One of the highlight-reel moments of my life: I was at a lunch meeting in L.A. with Stan, some of the studio people, including studio head Margaret Loesch, and some network people. We were trying to sell a new Spider-Man animated show. The network types said, “It’s been done.” Our counter was that it hadn’t ever been done right, that the Spider-Man in the cartoons never captured the essence of the real Spider-Man. So, they asked, what is the “essence”? Stan started to explain. Stan is one of the best pitchmen ever, but, you know, he’s gotten too used to talking in media-sized sound-bites and over-simplified characterizations for the short-attention-span morons one usually has to deal with. He said the usual about Peter Parker having acne, getting a cold, being the nerd who can’t get a date, all the “heroes with problems” stuff he’d been saying in interviews for years, mostly not true, by the way. Acne? Nope, never. Can’t get a date? Wrong. It was responsibility, to his aunt, to the city, to the world, that kept getting in the way of his social life. And that sense of responsibility is the key to the character. Stan’s pitch wasn’t flying. In those days, I was young, stupidly bold, and too dumb to know better, so I politely interrupted. I actually said that Stan was doing the media sound-bite thing and then I proceeded to explain what Spider-Man, the real SpiderMan, written by Stan, had meant to my 12-year-old self nearly 20 years earlier. That flew. We sold the series, and the studio totally botched it up. But what made that moment highlight-reel was that Stan later told me he was honestly moved by what I said, that I had nailed it perfectly, understood completely and exactly what had been in his mind 20 years before. Wow. So, what kind of husband would Peter Parker be? Responsible. Forget the machinations of the bad puppeteers and whatever they might suggest. It’s important to note that the fact that Peter Parker was not with the true love of his life from Amazing Fantasy #15 on was revolutionary back in the beginning [in 1962]. Compare DC: Green Lantern/Carol Ferris, Flash/Iris West, Superman/Lois Lane, etc. The fact that Peter Parker had a number of girlfriends over time

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was one of thousands of revolutionary things Stan did. That move, 40-some years ago, is what allows debate of your question. LARSEN: With the exception of Gwen—the other girls had no impact whatsoever and that’s due largely to the nature of the book being handed from one creator to the next. I don’t think many of the current writers even know who Betty Brant and Deb Whitman are. Unfortunately, Spider-Man doesn’t read as though it’s one man’s life. Every time the baton is passed to the next guy the restart button gets pressed to some extent. In the real world—people you meet do make an impression; in comics, where

creative teams shuffle—not so much. SHOOTER: I rest my case. JOHNSON: What are your thoughts about Peter’s ’80s girlfriend, Deb Whitman? DeFALCO: Deb was a step backward for Peter. She was too much like the Peter of old and he needed something more. FINGEROTH: She and Peter never seemed to click. Hopefully, their relationship taught Peter to never try to force himself to feel something that wasn’t really there. JOHNSON: How about Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat? WOLFMAN: Well, since I created Black Cat, I can say she had the most impact on his life. SHOOTER: At the risk of sounding like a Wolfman cheerleader, I have to say that the Black Cat was one of the really good contributions to the character and series. [It was] another wonderful opportunity for conflict between Spider-Man’s super-hero side and his oh-so-human side. And yes, Marv, I know you’re being cute and kidding. DeFALCO: Felicia Hardy never really dated Peter. She was only Spider-Man’s girlfriend. She exemplified the need for balance between Peter’s costumed identity and his real life. SALICRUP: I prefer the original Harvey Comics’ Black Cat, or Marvel’s Pussycat or Hellcat to Felicia. I would have no problem at all with Felicia if the Catwoman and Batman didn’t already exist. But the idea of a woman who loved Spider-Man, not Peter Parker, was worth exploring, although I prefer Princess Python. WOLFMAN: Strangely, I never considered Catwoman. Not because I don’t know her; obviously I do, but as people know I created Black Cat originally for Spider-Woman and only brought her over to Spider-Man when I decided to leave the former for the latter. So except for the costume and the action motif, the character was already created before she entered Peter’s life. But once she did the flirty aspect it worked, since Peter had never fought anyone like her before. RYAN: The Black Cat gave Peter a taste of the wild side of his nature. FRENZ: She was the bad girl that we’ve all had a go-round with and who wasn’t good for us at all. She was also the girl that Pete needed to recover from, especially given her whole, “I love you as Spider-Man, but not as Peter Parker” thing. That was playing into every bad instinct Pete had about life in general and women in particular. I see Felicia as the woman he is always going to have some affection for, but she was bad news from day one. FINGEROTH: While it was thrilling for Spider-Man to have a girlfriend he could share super-hero adventures with, the Cat ultimately was too much into that aspect of his life and had little or no interest in Peter when he wasn’t Spider-Man. But it was probably

good for Peter to have a thing with a fellow costumed adventurer to see that, for him, anyway, a relationship with someone in the same “business” he was in wasn’t a good idea. JOHNSON: How about Betty Brant? ROMITA, SR.: I recall that Betty Brant was a key character during those “high school kid learns the ropes” years. She got him through the awkward times. RYAN: Betty was his first love. She gave Peter a sense of stability and self-worth. FRENZ: We never really get over our first love. FINGEROTH: She was the first woman to really be interested in Peter and gave him a self-confidence that even spider-powers couldn’t. SALICRUP: Betty Brant played in an important role in getting Peter to respect himself a bit more. DeFALCO: I think Betty taught Peter the need to be independent. CONWAY: Well, Betty was always out of Peter’s reach—she was a mature, older woman, an unrealistic

You Never Forget Your First Love Almost-groom Parker and his one-time crush, Betty Brant Leeds, on story page 17 of the wedding issue, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Art by Paul Ryan and Vince Colletta. Special thanks to Richard Morgan. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ideal, and a safe crush for a neurotic young man: he could admire her, want her, but never have a chance to actually possess her. JOHNSON: And now the big one: Gwen Stacy. DeFALCO: Gwen showed him that his days of being a geek were over. CONWAY: Gwen was a fantasy, the ultimate blonde dream—also unrealistic and ultimately untouchable. In my view Peter had to get past pursuing fantasy figures before he could become available for a serious relationship. SALICRUP: Gwen Stacy really mucked up Peter’s life. If Peter’s life wasn’t tragic enough, burdened with the guilt of feeling responsible for his Uncle Ben’s death, the last thing he needed was to feel responsible for her death. Despite all his efforts, and he did everything he could to save Gwen, she still died! As it turns out, there’s was a lot Peter didn’t know about ol’ Gwendy, and there’s a gazillion Gwen-worshippers who are still in denial. RYAN: Gwen was his greatest love. Her death forced him to deal with loss and adversity. Through such loss we learn to appreciate the people who are still with us. FINGEROTH: Her loss added another element of pathos to Spider-Man that was of a different kind than the one he had from the loss of Uncle Ben. You could argue that she was more important to the SpiderMan books in death than in life. WOLFMAN: Betty and Gwen, they helped give him some confidence, and then, in Gwen’s death, a reminder that one can never coast. You always have to be doing your best. FRENZ: Gwen was the girl Pete should have married. She was the soulmate. She was perfect for Pete, and I don’t doubt for a minute that if he would have told her the truth about being Spider-Man, she would have dealt with it. I think that was Stan’s problem, there was no way this relationship was not going to end in marriage. At that time, with Stan in charge, people were recognizing that marriage wouldn’t be good for the character, so they made the decision to kill her. ROMITA, SR.: Imagine the nerd being noticed by the school beauty!! They were thrown together in all sorts of situations, grew to love each other, against all odds, and he tragically lost her and actually felt he caused her death. I’d say she had an impact. I’ve got to add at this point, the impact MJ had on him at the time he lost Gwen led to one of the best moments, to me, in the whole saga of Peter’s love life.

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I’ve told Gerry Conway that the last page of The Amazing Spider-Man #122, where MJ could have just skipped off and left Peter to cope alone but changed her mind and stayed to help him, was one of the best moments in the Spider-Man run for me. When Stan and I first discussed MJ’s character as an airhead party girl, I envisioned bringing that ditsy young girl into adulthood. Gerry did that for me. She became the grownup and [Peter’s] future mate. JOHNSON: That’s a perfect lead-in to my next question, John. Having worked on these characters, what qualities did Mary Jane Watson possess that gave her the edge over the other women in Peter’s life? What did she have that made her worthy to be the bride of Spider-Man? LEE: Mainly, she had the greatest personality, the most spark, the most energy. She was the hippest, the cleverest, and the most empathetic. She was the type of gal that I myself would have wanted to choose for a wife. And did! SHOOTER: She was the woman currently “in play” because she was a favorite of many of the writers who are, after all, fans. We all are. Why her? For me, it’s because she was introduced by Stan and Steve back when Spider-Man was Spider-Man, tiger. WOLFMAN: I actually never much cared for MJ except as an occasional girlfriend type. She’s been altered to be turned into a caring person, but that wasn’t her initial character. I’m old enough to have read the originals when they came out so I have a different view on her than someone who came after her makeover. And since I still think the marriage was wrong, I don’t think she or anyone of the others were marriage material. At least not yet. Peter needed to grow up a lot more before he was ready to be married. RYAN: Remember that the Mary Jane that Peter married was not the Mary Jane as she was written in their first encounters. Mary Jane was written to be the Bad Girl. The Wild One. Gwen was the Good Girl who was supposed to, eventually, marry Peter. At least that’s what Stan told me years ago. After Stan left for California, the new, presiding editor-inchief allowed Gwen to be killed by the Green Goblin. Stan was not happy about that decision. Peter needed a Good Girl to replace Gwen in the series. Mary Jane was revamped (no pun intended) with a sympathetic backstory. She became more sensitive and supportive of Peter. We discovered that she knew, all along, that he was Spider-Man and kept this knowledge to herself. So I would say sensitivity, trust, and unqualified love made her the ideal bride for Peter. It didn’t hurt that she was a hot redheaded babe, too. MICHELINIE: This is a question I had to explore after the fact, since the relationship had been established, and the wedding decided upon, before I became involved. I think the fact that she was smart, strong, and didn’t take crap from anyone had to be the core of her attraction for Peter. Of course, the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous probably didn’t go unnoticed. She had the will power and self-confidence to stand up for Peter, to defend him as he would defend her as Spider-Man, and this, along with a mental and emotional stability, provided an anchor that Peter desperately needed in a world that constantly threw him into circumstances that were not only dangerous, but rarely within his control. SALICRUP: It’s too bad that the Spider-Man graphic

Sunday Wedding novel, Parallel Lives by Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk, is out of print, as that’s where we made the case for MJ as the woman destined to be Mrs. Peter Parker. I suspect the makers of Spider-Man 2 actually might’ve peeked at that book a bit. It told the stories of both Peter and MJ, although we carefully stuck to SpiderMan continuity unlike the movies and later comics which were free to make changes, and it featured Doc Ock as the villain. Even the movie poster was very close to our back cover, of Spidey swinging with MJ, which was a nice part of the wedding. In a nutshell, MJ, like Peter Parker, has led a dual life. She became the wild and crazy MJ to get away from her personal problems, becoming a happy, fun person despite her difficult past. She, more than

anyone else, can understand what leading a dual life can be like. This aspect of their relationship may not have been played up enough, and that’s too bad, ’cause it’s very important. But despite any objections anyone had regarding the MJ/PP wedding, I felt completely validated when Sam Raimi made his wonderful Spider-Man movie and one of the first lines is about how important MJ is—“This is a story about a girl.” CONWAY: Mary Jane was, first and foremost, Peter’s equal. She was a challenge, she demanded understanding, and she had layers. She needed him as much as he needed her—Peter grounded her, gave her a chance to mature and develop her own serious side. They were, and are, perfect for

Peter and Mary Jane hook up in the funnypapers in these two 1987 Spider-Man newspaper strips written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Flor Dery. Courtesy of Richard Morgan. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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each other. FINGEROTH: MJ and Peter both had tragedies in their early lives and both put on masks to deal with them— Peter as Spider-Man, and Mary Jane as the alwaysready-to-party girl. But underneath that surface, both are serious, intelligent, sensitive people. And she was the girl his aunt fixed him up with. May’s instincts were on the money about Peter and MJ, as they are about so many things regarding her nephew. FRENZ: The theme of Spider-Man is masks, the ones we all wear, and the things we hide from other people and what we choose to show and not to show. Tom and I started to explore who Mary Jane was and showed her as a person we could admire for all of her frailty and all of her masks. There are parallels between her and Pete. Mary Jane had had pain in her life, and she has both

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avoided responsibility and embraced responsibility. She has feet of clay, so she certainly wouldn’t judge Pete. I think she respects him because of the choices he has made, and I think the most important thing in any relationship is respect. DeFALCO: In her own way, Mary Jane is a lot like Peter. They’ve both suffered tragedies, and have both learned the importance of acting responsibly. BUSCEMA: She was beautiful, intelligent, courageous, and that pretty much sums it up. LARSEN: She was alive. Clearly MJ was Peter’s second choice and to my eyes—the bond was never as strong as the one between Peter and Gwen. Stan really sold the Peter/Gwen relationship and John Romita and Gil Kane added considerably. The problem with Gwen was that she was too nice—at least she was after Steve Ditko moved on—and too wholesome. MJ was catty and wild. MJ was the kind of girl you’d date, or want to, in college because she was a wild woman out of control and there was a good chance that you’d score. Gwen was the girl you’d hope to marry—stable, levelheaded, and gorgeous. Peter married the party girl and I think it was a mistake. Early on we could have her be just “SpiderMan’s girl,” but over time she became a drag—all of the tension and soap-opera elements got tossed out the window. It’s pretty hard to play the “Will he get the girl?” card when the girl is already married to him and any straying eyes just made readers hate her for being unfaithful. Having the two separated just made it worse because the writers’ hands were tied. They couldn’t have Peter get involved with another skirt without turning him into a creep and they couldn’t involve MJ with anybody else without turning her into an unfaithful slut. It was a no-win situation. On the other hand—readers don’t want things to stay static and it was felt that Peter needed to settle down because he’s been dating for too long and that was getting old. It worked okay in the newspaper strip where MJ was not so well-established as a party girl and Gwen didn’t exist, but not so well in the comics. In the strip, MJ was Peter’s girl and there was nobody else, so it was inevitable— like Reed and Sue or Lois and Clark. I mean, Superman never really dated anybody else and Reed and Sue were a couple from day one—when those characters got together it wasn’t as though readers couldn’t have seen that one coming. Ditto Peter and MJ in the newspaper strip—he only had eyes for her. But in the monthly comics it was another story and to this reader—it was a poor decision. They should have let the strip and comics diverge at that point and let him get married in the strip and stay single in the comics. JOHNSON: Stan, the last question is just for you. As the man who created both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, you are like their father. As the father, what would you wish most for your two kids as they continue their life together? What do you hope the future holds for them? LEE: I certainly hope that their marriage will remain a happy one and, at some time in the future, possibly when the editors feel that the series needs some sort of boost or shot in the arm, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Parker offspring enter the picture.

When Titans ...Wed?!

The Flash #119 (Mar. 1961): First their wedding is acknowledged only with a brief headline, then the honeymoon of the Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny) and his new bride, the former Sue Dearbon, gets sidetracked by a race of undersea invaders in one of the very first Flash/Elongated Man team-ups. Aquaman #18 (Nov.–Dec. 1964): Aquaman is named the new King of Atlantis. Before he can take the throne, though, he must first take a bride, the lovely Mera. Mel Brooks was right—it’s good to be king! Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965): It’s the wedding that set the standard in the Marvel Universe as Sue Storm finally lands Reed Richards, and not even Dr. Doom and a horde of supervillains will ruin the Invisible Girl’s big day. The Doom Patrol #104 (June 1966): The World’s Strangest Heroes host the world’s weirdest wedding as Elasti-Girl stretches down the aisle with the helmet-headed Mento. The Flash #165 (Nov. 1966): It’s a race to the altar for Barry (the Flash) Allen and Iris West. But who will Iris end up marrying, the Fastest Man Alive or the villain who has stolen his identity, Professor Zoom? The Avengers #60 (Jan. 1969): The wedding of Hank (Yellowjacket) Pym and Janet (the Wasp) Van Dyne is set to go off without a hitch … until the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime come to town! Sub-Mariner #37 (May 1971): Namor’s heart sinks as his new bride, the lovely Lady Dorma, is deep-sixed. Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #200 (Feb. 1974): What does the future hold for comic-book romance? One need only witness the marriage of Legionnaires Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel to find out!

Fantastic Four #150 (Sept. 1974): The mutant Quicksilver and the Inhuman Crystal are headed for the altar and not even Ultron can put a cramp on their festivities! Giant Size Avengers #4 (June 1975): It’s a double-sized comic book for a double wedding! The Vision takes the Scarlet Witch to be his lawfully wedded wife, and the Swordsman weds Mantis. But before they cut that cake, somebody will have to deal with Dormammu!

Dan Johnson

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2 (1983): The future team’s Karate Kid ends up kickin’ it with his lady, Princess Projectra. Hawkeye miniseries #4 (Dec. 1983): Cupid has nothing on Clint (Hawkeye) Barton when he shoots his own arrow of love at Bobbi (Mockingbird) Morse and makes the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent his bride. Fantastic Four Annual #18 (1984): Everything is on schedule for the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa until the Kree and the Skrulls become the ultimate wedding crashers!

Justice League of America (Aug. 1975): Out-of-town weddings usually suck, but not when they’re on the planet Rann! The entire League turns out to witness the marriage of outer-space hero Adam Strange to his lady love, Alanna. DC Super Stars #17 (Nov. 1977): Although the main attraction here is the secret origin of the Huntress, readers get to see the wedding of her parents: the Golden Age Bruce (Batman) Wayne and Selina (Catwoman) Kyle. All-New Collector’s Edition #55 (Mar. 1978): Sparks fly as the Legion of Super-Heroes gathers for the marriage of founding members Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. Justice League of America (Aug. 1978): On the eve of Ray (the Atom) Palmer’s wedding to Jean Loring, the members of the JLA are thrown into a battle of the sexes by the Siren. Action Comics #484 (Sept. 1978): After a 40-year courtship, the Golden Age Clark Kent and Lois Lane are finally pronounced Superman and wife.

Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb. 1985): Titans past and present gather to witness the union of Donna (Wonder Girl) Troy and Terry Long. Batman and the Outsiders Annual # 2 (1985): Metamorpho is ready and set to marry Sapphire Stagg. He’s got everything he needs: the church, the cake, and even his buddies, the Outsiders, as witnesses. All that is missing is the bride. The Incredible Hulk #319 (May 1986): Bruce Banner finally gets to trade I Do’s with Betty Ross. But before the honeymoon comes an objection from General Thunderbolt Ross. Fantastic Four #300 (Mar. 1987): Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) thinks he’s marrying Ben Grimm’s ex-girlfriend, Alicia Masters. In reality, the Torch is hooking up with the shapeshifting Skrull agent Lyja.

Giant Size Avengers #1 (Aug. 1974): It’s the Avengers vs. Nuklo, the Monster that Time Forgot! Blink and you might miss the nuptials of Nuklo’s parents, the Whizzer and Miss America. C o m i c s

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While we are here today to salute the anniversary of Peter and Mary Jane’s wedding, BACK ISSUE would like to take a moment to remember other super-heroes who walked down the aisle before Spider-Man:

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Lift Me Now So I Can Fly

to Hapsethsut, “Oh my Queen,” said the royal sorcerer ts are endowed by “with this amulet you and your descendan ls and the elements. the goddess Isis with the powers of anima with the speed of You will soar as the falcon soars, run sky and the earth.” gazelles, and command the elements of the teacher dug up Three thousand years later, a young science the secrets of Isis. this lost treasure and found she was heir to , Rick Mason And so, unknown to even her closest friends : Andrea Thomas, and Cindy Lee, she became a dual person ender of the weak, teacher, and Isis, dedicated foe of evil, def champion of truth and justice.

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Andy Mangels

By the 1970s, in the fever of women’s liberation, superheroines had still not made a splash on television. Batgirl was a memory in the live-action Batman reruns, and a 1974 Wonder Woman telefilm with the very blonde Cathy Lee Crosby in the title role had been critically lambasted. Although some animated heroines showed up on Saturday morning—say hello to Super Friends’ Wonder Woman—it wasn’t until September 1975 that kids and adults alike could embrace a live-action Saturday morning superheroine of their own in The Secrets of Isis. Dressed in a white sleeveless top and short tennis skirt with Egyptian-themed accoutrements, Isis flew alongside Captain Marvel into both television and superpowered history.

THE ORIGINS OF ISIS Filmation Studios had begun doing live-action television—a complement to their thriving animated side—in 1974 with Shazam!, a spin-off from the 1940s Captain Marvel character from Fawcett that G o

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We dig Andrea Thomas! JoAnna Cameron as teacher Andrea Thomas captivated girls, boys, and their dads! All photos in this article are courtesy of Andy Mangels. The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc.

was then published by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics). The series was extremely popular, and executive producers and Filmation co-founders Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott wanted to build a companion piece for it in season two. “It was easy for me to come up with wanting to do a show that involved a heroine,” says Lou Scheimer today. “I was surrounded by females at my house with my daughter, Erika, and my wife, Jay. I had thought about this for a long time. You’ve got to think about doing shows that relate to girls, too. I went to Fred Silverman at CBS and said, ‘I’d like to do a live companion show to Shazam!,’ and they put it together as The Shazam!/Isis Hour.” What Filmation needed now was a concept, which is where writer Marc Richards came in. Richards had been writing animated series for Filmation for some time, and in 1975, he created the concepts for both The Secrets of Isis and a liveaction spook-chasing series called The Ghost Busters. “I can’t talk about Isis without talking about Mark Richards,” Scheimer says. “The man was phenomenally gifted. He was the fastest writer we ever had. He was incredible. He could do a half-hour show in a day, and they would be good half-hour shows. He was doing comedy stuff all the time, and I was wondering how he could work on developing a live-action adventure show. And he came up with the concept of doing it as an archaeologist, a teacher who was on an archaeological trip, digging up an ancient Egyptian piece of jewelry that gave her all sorts of powers. I went back to CBS, showed them what we had done, as well as a bunch of drawings—almost like the stuff we used in the main title—and they bought it.” Richards, who passed away in late 2006, was apparently a fan of Egyptology, but although he worked in Andrea Thomas as a schoolteacher into the presentation for CBS, Isis was originally going to be a very different kind of super-hero series. Richards wrote the original bible for the series, but when he moved over to write the complete series of The Ghost Busters, other Filmation writers took over, including Russell Bates, who had been a co-writer of the Emmy-winning Star Trek episode for Filmation that year. “I was apprised by D. C. Fontana, who had spoken with Marc Richards and Arthur Nadel at Filmation, that I should be given my shot at the new series, Isis,” Bates says. “I was sent the bible and descriptive materials and, over the next three days, conceived three stories: ‘The Lights of Mystery Mountain,’ ‘Two Eyes, Two Serpents’ (which was rich enough to become a two-part episode complete with midway cliffhanger), and ‘Wilderness Trek.’ These went to Filmation and within two weeks, they bought all three. With those amounts in hand, I moved myself to LA and was able to go directly to the studio for any assignments.”

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The original plans for the show, Bates explains, would have been revolutionary for children’s television. “The original concept: Dr. Barnes was the head of a criminal investigatory team at MidState University that used advanced forensic techniques and was on call by law enforcement authorities to assist with otherwise baffling crimes. Barnes was an old-line investigator whose methods were the same as Sherlock Holmes, Andrea was the forensic chemist who also had minored in Egyptology and had been led by spirits to the Thutmose Pendant in the Valley of the Kings, Rick was the computer expert who analyzed all evidence from a modern standpoint, and Cindy was their student intern who almost always let her enthusiasm get her into trouble. If matters got out of control or if members of the team became threatened, Andrea would become Isis and save the day. As a sidelight, Isis had an arch-nemesis, Khufan, a long-lived Egyptian wizard who constantly lusted for the Thutmose pendant, as it would complete his power and he would become immortal. Thus, some of the crimes they investigated were Khufan’s doing, just to give him chances to steal that pendant.” But the concept that had first flown so well with CBS soon was grounded. “CBS decided to send their VP of Daytime Programming [Allen ‘Duke’ Ducovny] to speak in person concerning the series,” says Bates. “All the writers who had been assigned met on a Friday afternoon at the studio and a very loud BOOM! was lowered: The concept was being radically changed. It had been decided, with the educator panel’s concurrence, that the series concept was too advanced for children and that CBS did not feel it should be in the business of presenting a cops-androbbers show for children! “Duke said that he saw the series in a different light: the criminological team instead would be … high school teachers; Dr. Barnes was the principal, Andrea was the chemistry teacher, Rick taught mathematics, and Cindy was their student assistant. That meant no Khufan, as an ancient wizard menacing schoolteachers was ‘kind of silly.’ We all were given our story premises back and then were told that we had three weeks to re-develop them to agree with the new series concept. Many of us already had gone to script, so the sudden shift was more than upsetting.” Bates fumed in his hot apartment, trying to get a handle on how to re-conceive his already-written scripts. “And then it hit me. Isis mostly was to be shot outdoors in the manner of the very earliest TV series in the 1950s. I grew up with those and so I used those memories as a reference and a resource. By Sunday night, I had rewritten ‘Mystery Mountain,’ saved over 80% of it including Andrea using her knowledge forensically, and handed it in bright and early that Monday morning. [Story editor] Arthur Nadel was so surprised that he read it immediately. Almost instantaneously, I was sent to script, the teleplay was done in six days, and thus ‘Mystery

Mountain’ became the very first episode of Isis to go on the boards. Though parts of it were rewritten by Arthur, it still remained faithful to the original concept and to my original story enough that I still like it very much. Alas, no ‘Two Eyes,’ and though ‘Wilderness’ was penciled in for the second season, CBS decided that the story was ‘too warm, too caring, too kind, too compassionate for an action-adventure show.’ Holey Moley!” Bates is adamant in his respect for Richards’ original vision. “What The Secrets of Isis actually represented indeed was a very high concept. In no uncertain terms, Marc Richards had created an early forerunner of the highly popular and successful television series CSI. No brag, just fact. In between 1974 and 2000, the only other time the same concept surfaced was in the short-lived 1989 NBC series UNSUB with David Soul, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kent McCord as members of a highly specialized team of forensic investigators. But Isis was first; it just never came out of the gate anywhere near the same as it was entered.”

Almost CSI The season one cast (left to right): Joanna Pang as Cindy Lee, JoAnna Cameron as Andrea Thomas, and Brian Cutler as Rick Mason. The originalbut-jettisoned concept for the series had these characters as forensic investigators.

THE STARS OF ISIS With a shooting date for summer 1975 approaching, the search was soon on for stars to portray the Isis series regulars. First cast was the role of teacher Rick Mason, with handsome frequent 1970s guest-star Brian Cutler fitting the bill. “When I auditioned for Isis, I had been doing a lot of guest-star work, and it was just another audition,” Cutler says. “I did audition with Lou and Norm, the two producers. They auditioned

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you like they do in LA, they auditioned an awful lot of people for the role, and I was the first member of the cast. We did have sides, but they weren’t memorized; it was just a cold read. Fortunately, at the time, I was studying with Charles Conrad, who, in my opinion, is still the best acting coach that there ever was in LA, and Charles drilled us on cold reading, so that when you went to an audition, and picked up a script, you could just bring it to life cold, and that’s what I did. I guess they liked what they saw, and I was cast. I then got to read with a lot of different women.” Although one of the women auditioning was Veronica Hamel (who would later make it big on television in Hill Street Blues), the part of Andrea Thomas/Isis remained uncast until, as Lou Scheimer recalls, “We found a very, very beautiful, very, very talented young lady with great legs named JoAnna Cameron.” Cutler remembers that “I did read with JoAnna when she came in. She looked great, and was dressed, interestingly enough, in a short skirt and a tight top. She was dressed for the role for the audition, and did a really good job, and I think they brought her back a second time, and then we cast the rest of the show from there!”

You’ll Believe a Woman Can Fly! It was wires, not zephyr winds, which whisked the do-gooder goddess into the air, as seen in these 1975 behind-the-scenes photographs from the Isis set. The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc.

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The part of Cindy Lee went to a young dancer and television performer named Joanna Pang. “Way back in May of 1975, I got a phone call from Allen Ducovny,” Pang says today. “I didn’t really know who he was, he just said, ‘I’m involved in children’s programming at CBS, and we’re very interested in you for a new Saturday morning children’s TV show called Isis, and I would love for you to come in and meet me and hear more about the show.’ When I heard that I was going to be interviewed, I pulled out my old diary/appointment book and I have in there, ‘Mr. Ducovny, May 23rd’—I think I went—and I have ‘ICES’ and I thought it was a show about Italian ices, or ice cream; he didn’t say anything about Isis, the Egyptian goddess, so when I went there to talk to him about it, and he started talking about the Egyptian goddess, and the different characters in the show, I thought, ‘Oh! This is pretty interesting! Not about ice cream, not about Italian ices.’” Pang had already been performing in East Coast CBS children’s series, and CBS flew her out to California to audition: “I had my audition, I think on June 3rd, and I went in the morning, and I did one scene for them, and then I went out to the lobby area, and within five minutes, they came out and said I had the part! So it all happened very fast, and I came back to New York, and I sort of closed up my apartment and went back out to LA to start filming Isis.” The fourth role on the series was the occasionally appearing school principal, Dr. Barnes, played by veteran actor Albert Reed. “He was great,” remembers Pang. “He had a really nice personality, and even though he wasn’t there all the time, and he wasn’t in every episode, he was just a great guy.”

Even as the cast was being assembled, the look of Isis was being developed by artist Bob Kline, who had done backgrounds, storyboards, and concepts for Filmation under art director Don Christensen. “I was at Filmation from 1973 through 1980,” Kline says. “The first live-action show I worked on for Filmation was Shazam!, and they had a couple of effects shots they needed to do for an earlier episode. I’d been working in layout, and Don Christensen asked me to storyboard these scenes because, I guess, through our conversations he figured I knew enough about film continuity to do this properly. As they did more and more live-action shows at Filmation, they needed to come up with designs and artwork, and as much as they could do in-house without farming it out to someone else, they did. I ended up getting a lot of odd and different design jobs for the live-action shows.” Kline very clearly remembers designing Isis: “In designing Isis’ costume, we wanted to give her a short skirt, so we could see her legs, and the medallion on her head became the symbol of her character. The medallion that represents Isis is based on an actual Egyptian symbol that’s associated with the historical Isis goddess.” Building the costume was actually the job of Thalia Phillips, but Kline recalls that they got some help from an unlikely source. “We needed to design a costume for her, and one of the first things we did was obtain some costume elements from Movie Supply House,” says Kline. “When we discovered that the costumes had been used in The Ten Commandments, we found the name Henry Wilcoxon on the back of the elements, it was kind of cool. Those were something that we used to help us give her costumes an authentic look.” Another piece of the authentic Egyptian look for the series was the opening credits, which were full of hieroglyphics that told the story of ancient Queen Hapsethsut and the amulet of Isis. They looked real, but Kline was responsible for them as well. “The medallion that appears in the opening credits, the lettering I painted, so it would look as if it was carved into the medallion. And the opening credits was partially storyboarded by me. The hieroglyphics seen in the main title are a drawing I did as a layout, and that was painted in the background department. So, what looks like actual Egyptian hieroglyphics in the main title were created in the studio.” The other main elements of the development for Isis were the mystical incantations she would recite to use her powers, all of which were based on “the elements of the sky and the earth” and animal powers, as the opening credits promised. The most common element was the transformation sequence; modeled after Billy Batson’s shouting of his magic words “Shazam!” to turn into Captain Marvel, in times of need, Andrea Thomas would remove the amulet of Isis that she wore around her neck and proclaim “Oh Mighty Isis!” A few moments later, after a sudden swirl of fog and theme music, Isis would appear in Andrea’s place, the amulet now fastened on a neckpiece, and a similar one mounted on a headband. Chief among Isis’ other incantations—and heard at least once per episode—was the mantra “Oh zephyr winds which blow on high, lift me now so I can fly.” Writer David Dworski, who wrote several of the episodes with his wife Susan, recalls that “the whole business of Isis’ little mantras, or these rhyming

couplets, some of them sounding kind of Shakespearean, came about… when Susan was writing the script, and she said, ‘Isis needs to say something to get herself up in the air, or to invoke her magic,’ and she just wrote, ‘Oh zephyrs that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly.’ Then, every other time that Isis would need to say something, she would come up with a couplet that would express what Isis wanted the effect would be.”

THE MAGIC OF ISIS

THE FILMING OF ISIS With a budget significantly smaller than any nighttime series, The Secrets of Isis—like its brother series Shazam!—had limitations in its filming. “On Isis, we shot the shows in two and a half days,” says Henry Lange, Jr., who was an assistant director for both series. “What we’d do is we’d prep two shows and shoot two shows, and the elements that took place at the high school, we usually shot on Wednesday the mid-day between the two episodes, and that was actually the one day that Dick Rosenbloom, who was the producer, would give us a camera dolly. The rest of the time, we were pretty much hand-held or on sticks. And it was one day we’d get a lot of extras in, and we’d shoot that one day for both episodes. The rest of the time, it was on location, wherever it was. We used a lot of locations in the valley. Since it was a Saturday morning show, everybody was pretty excited to see us! I mean, if we came and said we were doing this show, and they knew about Shazam!, so when we said we’re part of Shazam!/Isis, they said, ‘Oh, my kids watch that! You can shoot in our backyard.’ It was really quite, quite different from where it is today, where, you know, all the areas are kind of shot out. Then we also shot some in downtown LA, and up in some of the park areas, when they’d be off on camping trips or episodes like that.” “It was really interesting to film all around Los Angeles, and in the San Fernando Valley,” Joanna Pang says. “I think the high school that we went to was in Reseda. It was a high school, actually, that was closed, because I never saw anybody at the high school other than us, and we used just the outside. So, we used all the grounds around the school, we used the parking lot, and some of the sports fields, and then we would go all over the valley. We were in different, big parks and canyons. I know one show took place at the beach, one show we were in a huge park, we were on hiking trails, and then we were also at [the] Filmation studios. They had our classroom actually set up in the studio.”

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Pang remembers the first day of shooting— July 8th, 1975, on an episode called “Fool’s Dare.” “I remember that episode really well. I had to ride a bike, and I hadn’t ridden a bike for years and years, but they say that that’s something you never forget how to do, and luckily for me, I still could ride a bike. I was on my bike with two boys—two boys that were cast to play my friends—and we had to go to this junkyard, and I had to climb this fence and jump into the junkyard, and I just kept thinking, ‘Oh, it’s good I have a dance background, because you have to be sort of athletic to do this part.’” Despite being a super-hero series, the budget meant that many of the threats to cast members were non-action-oriented threats that didn’t require expensive special effects or stuntpeople. “We all did our own stunts,” Cutler recalls. “I know that Joanna Pang had to run through smashed cars and jump over chain link fences and stuff like that. I didn’t normally have to do that. I did some running, I did some horseback riding, I powered a boat, I drove a bus, which was a lot better to drive than that darn Thing [a specific, and rather boxy, style of 1970s-era Volkswagen], because that Thing has about as much legroom in it as one of those little cars, you know, at Tinkertown, where you get in the little teeny car, and you’re all scrunched in, and your knees are up in your face. Getting in and out of that Thing, you’ll notice that there are an awful lot of times where I’m jumping in or jumping out of that jeep, and I had more bruises on my knees and on my shins from that wonderful car than I care to think about.” One exception to the lack of special effects was the fact that in every episode, JoAnna Cameron’s Isis flew. “We spent a day flying her on wires,” recalls Lange. “Now, you’d do it against green screen, but then, we had a different process, because it was the infancy of video, and being able to matte in stuff. But we flew her on wires for a day, so all those flying shots in various versions were, were her with the wind machine blowing, and her on wires. And then, when she would rise up, we would either put her on a crane or a camera dolly, and we would just raise that up in the show, and use smoke behind her for the transition, when she changed, and would zoom in on the amulet that the civilian wore, then pull back, and it would become Isis’ amulet.”

THE SECOND SEASON OF ISIS The Secrets of Isis debuted on September 6, 1975 as part of The Shazam!/Isis Hour. With the exception of press materials, the full title of the show wasn’t used (and wouldn’t be for two more years), and it was generally known just as Isis. Interestingly enough, some early press still referred to the criminology elements of the show. A Los Angeles Times article (excerpted from Newsday) noted, “Isis has a public identity as Prof. Andrea Thomas of the Department of Criminology and a secret identity as a female Superman, or Wonder Woman type with inordinate powers.”

The LA Times wasn’t the only thing that got it wrong, though: Ads that ran in DC comics that fall showed Isis in an illustration by Neal Adams, but, oddly, the Isis costume was colored strangely, as if the heroine were rainbow-powered. Still, ratings were high. “It really roared,” says Lou Scheimer. “It was an incredibly successful show.” The first season of 15 episodes of the series had already been shot by the time CBS knew they had a hit series on their hands. “We shot them all that summer,” says Lange, “and then they didn’t go on air until September, so it wasn’t until after we finished the first season that we realized, really, what a fan base there was.” “Isis was a really popular show. In fact, I heard that Isis was actually rated number one in the nation,” says Pang. “I honestly didn’t realize how popular the show was. I did get recognized sometimes, and people would yell, ‘Oh, it’s Cindy Lee!’ It was fun! Nobody was really intrusive, they would ask for autographs, and it was really nice. I just had no idea how popular it was until I started making some personal appearances.” Reviewers at the time often commented that fathers must be watching the show with their kids due to Isis’ short skirt and long legs, but whatever the reason, Isis was soon in line for a second season. But for reasons lost to time—no one including producer Scheimer recalls why the change was made—the role of Cindy Lee was replaced. “A lot of people have asked me over the years what happened during the second season, and what happened to the character of Cindy Lee, and honestly, I don’t have a really good answer for that,” Pang recalls. “I know that the first season was very well received, and from all the personal appearances, and people that I met, I know that the character of Cindy Lee was also really well received. When we finished the first season, of course we had a period of time off. It was time to get ready to go back for the second season, and I was back living in New York, and I kept waiting for a call. It was getting close to the time where we would actually be filming, and I called my agent in California, and I said, ‘What’s going on with Isis? I thought we were going into a second season.’ And he didn’t have any answers, either, and he said, ‘Let me call, let me make some inquiries, and I’ll get back to you.’ It took him a couple of days to finally get some answers, which were really not answers. It’s kind of the standard answer that you’ll always hear: ‘We’re not going to use the character of Cindy Lee this year, we’re going in a different direction.’ That’s kind of a standard phrase people use when they want to make changes, and don’t really have a great reason to make the changes. And yes, I was disappointed; of course, I had loved doing the show, but you know, being in show business, you go from job to job, and Isis was one of many really great jobs that I’ve had, and I’ve really had a wonderful career, all throughout. I started performing when I was five years old, and I’ve had wonderful jobs, and Isis was one of many.”

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Behind the Scenes From Joanna Pang’s personal scrapbook, photos from the Isis set. Courtesy of Joanna Pang Atkins. I s s u e

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THE CROSSOVERS OF ISIS

A new role was created on the series to replace Cindy Lee; this time it was Rennie Carrol, a young African-American student. Actress Ronalda Douglas, who had just finished college, landed the teenaged role: “I went in, and I auditioned, and I saw Meryl O’Loughlin, the casting director at the time. I think it was the second time that I met Lou, and Norm Prescott, and I think Arthur Nadel was in that, maybe, as well. I read for them, and eventually got the part. I was kind of shocked, because it was my first time ever on screen, I was so green and fresh out of college. I had a great time. No one made me feel uncomfortable because I was so new, and they had already been working together for a season already.” Douglas remembers the days of summer 1976 filming as being extremely hot, which presented a bit of a challenge: “I remember one location was up in Rocketdyne, and that day, it was like, 110 degrees. And I was tanning constantly, during the day. It was hysterical, because they started with one color of makeup at the beginning of the day, by the end of the day or the middle of the day, they were two shades darker, because I tanned. “The character of Rennie Carrol was pretty much close to me,” Douglas says. “I was a very, very exuberant, bubbly type of personality, so a lot of the things that I incorporated into Rennie Carrol, it was really me. And 15 wasn’t that long ago by the time I was playing this particular part, so I could definitely remember what it was like to play 15. And that’s what I used.” One aspect that Douglas liked most about working on Isis was its message about diversity in society, reflected by how it was cast. “They hired across all sorts of color lines, because Albert Reed was the principal, he was a black man; Joanna Pang, obviously she was oriental. We had an episode where one of the guest stars was Evan Kim, who was from Korea. We had a lot of different ethnic backgrounds. Lou Scheimer was really good at making sure that the shows we did represented all of the ethnicity that you will find in any area you live in. Nothing was just all white. Nothing was all black. Nothing was all anything. We were all there. Everything, everyone was represented.”

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Although Captain Marvel had made one crossover appearance in Isis’ first season, by the second season, crossovers between the two shows were a bit more common. Of the seven episodes produced for season two, two were Shazam! crossovers, while JoAnna Cameron also filmed a trio of crossover appearances for Shazam! “Back in those days, we did have Shazam and Isis come and help each other,” says Henry Lange, Jr., “sort of the way Law and Order and all those things do that now. Since we were shooting them simultaneously, and it was the same crews, it was pretty easy to do, and they got along really well. It seemed to work really well.” Cutler recalls some on-set excitement when all of Filmation’s live shows were active. “One of the fun things about working at Filmation was, there were three really fun shows shooting at the same time… The Secrets of Isis, of course, was a spin-off from the Shazam! show, and Ghost Busters that starred two of my favorite character actors, Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch. But with Forrest and Larry in their wacky costumes for their show, and then Isis running around in her short skirt, and John Davey running around with his super-hero outfit on, it was sort of a weird assortment. When we happened to be at the studio at the same time, it was rather unique and interesting and fun. “One interesting afternoon when we were all shooting, Ghost Busters was shooting on one soundstage, we were shooting on another, and Shazam! was shooting on another, somewhere in the studio there was a small fire, and the bells and alarms, of course, all went off, and fire trucks pulled up, and the firemen are running in, in all their gear and stuff, and axes and so forth. This guy runs by me, and he stops, because I’m in the middle of the set, and he says, ‘Bri?’ And I looked at him, and I said, ‘Jimmy?’ And it was a guy that I had grown up with named Jim Agee, who became a fireman in Los Angeles. We were in Vietnam together, and when he got out, he became a fireman.”

THE POPULARITY AND MORALS OF ISIS One aspect that made Isis so popular was the moral element to the series. As Cutler and Pang (and later Douglas) would learn when they made public appearances at theme parks, malls, and parades, the kids actually cared about what the show was teaching them. “Isis was the first Saturday morning heroine,” Cutler says, “and a lot of people watched TV on Saturday morning, both youngsters and oldsters. It had a great appeal because it had a message and a moral in every single episode. During the running of the show, we got tons of fan mail all the time. And over the years, as surprisingly as it may seem, I’ve received dozens and dozens and dozens of emails from people from all over the country, if not the world, commenting about the show, and how it changed their lives. It’s interesting and unique to see the impact that the show had on people, and still has on people. Everything ended on a positive note, and those were all very good, necessary things at that point in the country, and the growth of the country. And it gave people something to hang onto, I think.” “Isis has really become a part of super-hero history,” Pang says. “It’s turned out that a lot of my professional work has been children’s TV series, and I’ve worked with a lot of children now, and it’s great to have that in my background as a show that children could look up to. And Isis always had a moral at the end of the story … it was always about trying to be a better person, to do the right thing, and I think that’s a really positive influence on children. And so, it’s great to be a part of something that would still have a positive influence on everybody.” Douglas agrees. “As each episode aired, I found myself being recognized everywhere I went,” says Douglas. “People would go, ‘Oh! You’re on Isis!’ And it was adults, children, parents … I remember being in a store one day, and a little boy came up to me, and I signed an autograph for him, and as he was running away, he said, ‘Don’t hitchhike!,’ which was one of our episodes, and I said, ‘Yes, we are getting to the kids! They are learning something!’ I thought maybe it would be younger kids who would be attracted, but a lot of the fans were teenagers. So the messages were getting out there to people of all ages.”

ISIS: GODDESS OF MERCHANDISE

Although new episodes of Isis ended with its second season, the series didn’t finish yet. In 1977, the show spun off on its own, where it was finally returned to its full title of The Secrets of Isis. During its run, Isis would be immortalized by licensing as well, with the characters showing up as a Mego doll and a child’s Halloween costume, in DC comic books [see article following], and in sticker books, coloring books, puzzles, magic slates, and more. And Filmation would bring Isis back in animated form on both the short-lived Freedom Force series and Hero High, a segment of The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! (both are now available on DVD). Due to the selling and reselling of Filmation and its assets over the two decades since Isis’ final new episode, TV’s favorite miniskirted heroine hasn’t been seen on the air in the United States for quite some time. But in July 2007, BCI Eclipse released the entire The Secrets of Isis series on DVD, packed with an immense amount of Special Feature extras (all produced by the author of this article). Fans are finally able to view the super-heroine in probably the best-quality image they ever have … except for the shining image they may hold in their memories.

THE MEMORIES OF ISIS

From the mid-’70s, a sampling of Isis goodies: two puzzles, a Magic Slate, and the Isis Mego figure, carded and boxed. Thanks to Benjamin Holcomb (author of TwoMorrows’ forthcoming Mego 8” Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys!), Jim Hollifield, Todd Sawvelle, Fletch Bowling, and Todd Wethington for memorabilia photos.

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So, what final memories do the stars of The Secrets of Isis have to share? And where are they now? Brian Cutler is married and now owns and teaches acting at the Actors Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. He also is producing films with his wife, Jill. “The legacy of Isis, I would say, is the depth, the moral issues, the strength that it gave people to go on with their lives…. There are so many people over the years that have emailed me about how Isis changed their life. I get this from people… every walk of life, every ethnicity, every background. I don’t know that people have a lot of heroes to look toward anymore, and maybe [the DVD of Isis] will give people maybe a little hope, maybe a little inspiration, maybe a new message said in an old way that they hadn’t thought about before, but will allow them to look at life a little differently, and with more enlightenment.” Joanna Pang Atkins is married to Dick Atkins, has a son who just graduated college, and today teaches dance and performing arts in New Jersey. “I think the series holds up just as well now as it did then. And, hopefully, all the people who used to watch the series a long time ago will buy it for their children, and I think that their children will enjoy it just as much. The series is uplifting, and positive, and it always has a great message, and I think that’s important. I said before, I work with a lot of children now, and one of the schools I’m at now, they talk about character education all the time, and even in some of the high schools, they’re talking about character education. It’s respect, and citizenship, and just having a good character. And I think that the Isis series instills that.” Ronalda Douglas Lombardo is also married, to Michael Lombardo. These days she sings a lot more than she did in the final two Isis episodes, performing regularly at cathedrals in Southern California and singing mass for teens at a local detention center. “I was a little girl born in the swamps of Louisiana, and I never dreamed that in my life, I would do some of the things that I’ve done. And Filmation was very, very instrumental in opening doors for me. I am so thrilled that The Secrets of Isis is going to find a new audience. The stories that were told were for all times, for all generations, and I’m excited. I never dreamed this

(left to right) Brian Cutler, Joanna Pang, and Ronalda Douglas, as seen in their interviews from BCI Eclipse’s The Secrets of Isis DVD set (pictured below). The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc.

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would come back so many years later. I am very proud of the work we did, I am very proud of the fact that we reached the kids; they got it, they got the messages, they got the morals of every story.” Lou Scheimer is still married, still a father, and is enjoying the renaissance of Filmation’s work as it reappears for new generations. He’s also working on his autobiography with the author of this article, which is being planned for a mid-2008 release from TwoMorrows. “I really like to think about what [these shows] means to the fans, and what the fans mean to us, the people who produced that show, the people who were in that show, the actors who to the day remember that as a wonderful experience. And I want to thank those people, because as parents, and as adults, and with their enthusiasm, it just makes all of us who worked on them feel very, very good.” In the long run, then, the legacy of The Secrets of Isis has been shaped not only by the work of the actors and production personnel who created it, but by the fans themselves, who pretended that they, too, could one day find a magical amulet and gain super-powers … or recite the familiar poem enough times that they could rise into the sky, to fly next to Isis. Transcription for most interviews by Jon B. Knutson. Special thanks to Lou Scheimer; stars Brian Cutler, Joanna Pang Atkins, and Ronalda Douglas Lombardo; writers Russell Bates and David Dworski; designer Bob Kline; and assistant director Henry J. Lange, Jr. for interviews. You can see more of these (and other Isis creative personnel) interviews in two hours of Special Features footage on the Secrets of Isis DVD set. Gratitude also goes to David Whittaker, Andy McKinney, Jim Hoff, P.C. Hamerlinck, Patrick Bennett, and Lisa Everetts for their assistance, materials, and support. Extra Special Thanks to BCI Eclipse and David Levine for allowing use of some interview quotes and photos. ANDY MANGELS is a best-selling author, award-winning DVD Special Features producer, and past comicbook writer. He is working with Lou Scheimer on his autobiography, and on another book for TwoMorrows about comicdom’s most famous super-heroine. At the age of eight, he used to write Isis’ incantations on a big piece of butcher paper so he could recite them later. Visit him at www.andymangels.com and www.wonderwomanmuseum.com.

Photo by Darryl Ballini

The Supporting Cast Today

P. C . H a m e r l i n c k

Even with a jump-start from Captain Marvel, zephyr winds still couldn’t whisk Isis away from cancellation doom. Like the TV series it was based on, the comic book soon became a relic of ’70s pop culture.

TV TO COMICS Hoping to repeat the success of the live-action Shazam! TV show, Filmation developed a similar program that could tie in with Shazam!—but instead feature a female lead character to captivate young girls (and adolescent boys as well, just as teen idol Michael Gray had attracted adolescent girls to Shazam!). Filmation created Isis (perhaps inadvertently) as a hybrid between Captain Marvel and another magical Fawcett hero from the Golden Age of comics: Ibis the Invincible. But other than playing back-to-back with Cap on The Shazam!/Isis Hour and appearing in a few crossover episodes, her connection to the World’s Mightiest Mortal was fairly sparse. High school teacher Andrea Thomas gained her Isis powers from an amulet necklace that once belonged to the lone female Pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, and which was made by an ancient Egyptian wizard (it was only hinted that the wizard was Shazam). Isis, portrayed on TV by JoAnna Cameron, who donned a costume in what the actress herself once described to me as a “very nonEgyptian, white miniskirted tennis outfit,” had soon captured even a greater audience than Shazam! (While Cameron expressed absolutely no admiration for Filmation executives, she still “loved playing the role of a super-hero.”) Meanwhile, back at DC, the struggling Shazam! comic book had already succumbed to an all-reprint status and quarterly frequency. When Carmine

Woman of Steel Original cover art to Isis’ first DC appearance, Shazam! #25 (Sept.–Oct. 1976), signed by a terrific trio: its artist, Kurt Schaffenberger; “Isis” herself, JoAnna Cameron; and TV Captain Marvel Jackson Bostwick. From the collection of Fred L. deBoom. The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc. All Rights Reserved. Shazam! © 2007 DC Comics.

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Infantino had been replaced by the more mediasavvy Jenette Kahn as DC’s publisher, she took immediate steps to capitalize on the popularity of TV’s Shazam!/Isis Hour. Under a licensing agreement with Filmation, Kahn set forth to establish Isis as a DC hero. Denny O’Neil wrote an 11-page introductory tale, “Isis … As in Crisis!,” appearing in Shazam! #25 (Sept.–Oct. 1976), launched with a dramatic Isis/Captain Marvel front cover by the incomparable Kurt Schaffenberger and accompanied by fine story art by Dick Giordano (the latter of which only suffered from stiff C. C. Beck swipes for the Big Red Cheese’s cameo in the story). The Isis solo comic would begin the following month, and both titles (along with Super Friends and Welcome Back, Kotter comic books) fell under the new “DC TV Comic” banner. Shazam! had tucked away the reprints (for the time being) and took off in an Open Road motor home as writer E. Nelson Bridwell masterfully merged elements of the TV show into the comic-book scripts. But the marriage of media would prove tumultuous for the Egyptian goddess super-hero.

ISIS #1 (Oct.–Nov. 1976) The debut issue of Isis showed a great deal of promise, but the artwork was to be the issue’s only saving grace with another stunning Schaffenberger cover and interior art by Ric Estrada—gorgeously inked by the one and only Wally Wood. But O’Neil, known for having injected “realism” into comics, was seemingly ill-suited to write specifically for the younger crowd (as had been the case with him previously on Shazam!). Attempting to mesh components of the TV series with fantastic, super-villain storylines proved awkward, not only to faithful DC readers, but also to the (apparently) few and quickly alienated individuals who had simply picked up the comic because they happened to enjoy Isis on TV. “Scarab—The Man Who Would Destroy” merely set

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the stage for more super-hero schlock to come. Scarab, “Mightiest of Magicians,” appears from a pyramid in which he was imprisoned for 3,000 years. The power-hungry villain’s plan includes locating the U.S. President to put him under a spell: “He’ll obey me, and the people will obey him, and life will be beautiful!” In Bridwell’s text piece, “The Legend of Isis,” he playfully suggests that it was Shazam who prepared the magic talisman which gave Hatshepsut—and its heir, Andrea Thomas— the powers of Isis.

ISIS #2 (Dec. 1976.–Jan. 1977) Silver Age comic writer superstar Steve Skeates reluctantly assumed the position as the book’s new lead writer, as O’Neil assumed full-time editorial duties. Skeates’ surprisingly sophomoric, mindnumbing first entry, “The Creature from Dimension X,” had high school students, while attempting to get their science project done on time, tap into a black hole from another dimension … and, of course, their experiment results in unleashing a violent electricity-fueled creature. Even the greatest non-discerning reader must have found it asinine and inexcusable, even for a comic book with already low expectations. Estrada, now busy with Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter and Young Love, and Woody, moving over to The Secrets of Isis © 1976 bestow his greatness on All- Entertainment Rights plc. Star Comics, were sorely DC bullet © 2007 DC Comics. missed. The replacement art team of Mike Vosburg (with a penchant for drawing fine females) and Vince Colletta (fast and reliable, yet the industry’s most notorious inker in the eyes of fandom) were competent but couldn’t stir up much excitement with the flat, action-less scripts put before them. The issue’s backup story, “Lost & Found,” a Skeates morality play more akin to one of the TV adventures (embellished by secondary art team Mike Nasser and Frank Giacoia), had Isis rescue her mishapmagnet friend Cindy Lee, and issuing her a valuable “Winning isn’t everything” lesson.

ISIS #3 (Feb.–Mar. 1977) and #4 (Apr.–May 1977) More substandard sludge continued in the third issue with Skeates’ “The Wrath of Set,” where Egyptian goddess meets angry Egyptian god, while the backup tale, “Political Rally Panic,” plotted by Skeates, written by newcomer Jack C. Harris, and drawn by Jose Delbo and Colletta, cried out for action. In the fourth issue, Harris’ “Treasure of Lost Lake”

had an “Egyptian goddess meets angry Native American in disguise” plot … while riding the caboose was “Avalanche!,” Skeates’ final Isis yarn (yawn?) where Andrea takes a ski vacation to New Hampshire and has a run-in with a selfish elk hunter.

ISIS #5 (June–July 1977) The fifth issue was deemed, ironically, “A New Beginning for Isis If She Can Survive.” Harris, now the main writer of the feature, had an extreme makeover planned for the goddess, and began pinning down some much-needed direction for the book. The backup stories (which had always been as underdeveloped as the lead stories) were completely eliminated in favor for full-length tales. In “Perilous Pyramid Power,” most of the TV influence had been greatly reduced. Poor Andrea gets laid off from her teaching job and, in frustration, decides its best just to remain in her Isis form forever (of course, she changes her mind later). Irrationally, she returns to the school as Isis to teach Andrea’s final science class in front of very astonished students, then flies off to find her roots in Egypt, where she encounters the pointy-eared Egyptian god, Aten. After Andrea’s sudden disappearance, fellow teacher (and love interest) Rick Mason pledges to go in search for her.

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ISIS #6 (Aug.–Sept. 1977), #7 (Oct.–Nov. 1977), and #8 (Dec. 1977–Jan. 1978) With a title like “The Omimous Ooze” and viewing Rich Buckler’s front cover for Isis #6, you get a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. Vosburg’s renderings of Isis continue to improve with each issue, and readers were treated to a closer look into Isis’ pyramid dwelling (designed by Jenette Kahn’s friend, Gamel El Soghba). Vosburg perhaps reached his peak on the series with issue #7’s “Feel the Fangs of the Serpent King” (inked by Frank Chiaramonte), where Harris delves into the origin of the original Isis. Harris also explains that (a perplexing mystery often presenting itself on the TV show) the magic which transforms Andrea to Isis also prevents anyone from recognizing her glasses-wearing alter-ego. Isis has now taken on a “haughty” ancient Egyptian attitude, and at one point asks herself, “Who am I?” The cover depicts a chained Isis being taunted by a deranged Serpenotep (soon to take over Rick’s body), who exclaims: “I’ve been waiting, Isis … waiting 1,000 years to watch you die!” But for the readers of the Isis comic book it was to take only a mere eight issues. In the final issue, Andrea gets her old job back at the high school in Harris’ “Darkly Through the Mutant’s Eyes”—a plot that really wouldn’t seem too out of place on Smallville. Al Milgrom produced some haphazard, obviously rushed inking as the story and series abruptly came to its anti-climactic demise.

STEVE SKEATES: TRUE CONFESSIONS Steve Skeates, the first chief writer of the Isis comic, looked back at his four Isis tales (and the one he plotted for Jack C. Harris) with utter embarrassment. After successful Silver Age stints on Aquaman and other series, the talented writer found himself high and dry by 1975 and only able to find work on a comic book he felt never a chance of ever selling. “It was as though … I were being punished for something!” Skeates said in Alter Ego #28.

A lithesome Isis on a vertigo-inducing page by Mike Vosburg and Vince Colletta from issue #6. Special thanks to P.C. Hamerlinck for the comics scans used in this article. The Secrets of Isis © 1976 Entertainment Rights plc.

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Not only was Skeates embarrassed in accepting the Isis assignment, but he also felt that the heroine’s TV producers should have shared in the embarrassment: “Didn’t they know that the original Isis … fell out of favor with the Pharaohs because too many orgies were being held in the temples devoted to her worship…? Is that any sort of … goddess upon which to base a Saturday morning TV show?” Besides Skeates’ self-admitted “reckless involvement” with Isis, he also faulted Mike Vosburg’s storytelling abilities (“infused with an uncommon knack for making even the most exciting scene come off with all the color and flair of a PBS pledge drive”) and Vince Colletta’s inks (“added a flatness even my worst words had yet to attain”). Yet Skeates still took full responsibility for his own actions on the book, where he confessed he “was merely going through the paces … with neither my heart nor soul involved, writing the most hackneyed, clichéd plots possible… Could have been upon my part mere petulant disgust over this being the only work I could land.” Skeates, after having spent over ten years making a living writing comics for various publishers, believed that basic “burnout” may have been the demon which marred his creative process. “I pushed things … too far in the wrong direction,” Skeates said, “…shoved this Egyptian goddess over a certain hurdle and into the wonderful world of abject silliness.” Skeates felt that editor O’Neil, fearing Filmation would begin objecting to the comic-book treatment of their super-heroine and thereby yank publishing rights from DC, relieved the writer from any further embarrassment. Sadly, Skeates’ next move was to make bartending his new career.

MIKE VOSBURG: THE WIZARD OF VOZ Prior to Isis, DC staff artist Mike Vosburg was drawing the bimonthly Starfire series, but it wasn’t enough work to keep him busy or pay the bills. “There was a lot of competition then to keep someone ‘in house’ rather than have them go elsewhere for work,” Vosburg recalls, “so Joe Orlando had me start penciling Isis. I was familiar with the TV series because it was a big favorite of my younger sister.” Vosburg recalls in drawing Isis that DC didn’t have the rights to use the likeness of actress JoAnna Cameron, so the look of the character stayed somewhat generic. “I had a couple publicity stills of Ms. Cameron for costume reference only.” Vosburg, an artist who sprung from comic fandom’s Golden Age to that of comics pro, was ready to step in and take over Isis. “I was excited about seeing the first issue by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood, and wondering how I could meet their standards,” Vosburg says. Since it was a TV adaptation comic, Vosburg says there were a number of limitations placed on the writers and the editor to conform with the book’s apparent marketing plan, which, at least initially, was geared to appeal to young girls. “Ancient Egypt [storylines] were an afterthought. Steve Skeates took the stuff pretty seriously, but the stories were never more than average. He thought that my art was the cause of that. Jack C. Harris’ stories were a lot more fun.” Vosburg was told by Joe Orlando that he wasn’t taking the work seriously enough. “Joe told me [the stories] needed more melodrama. I had to point out to him that the story I was working on at the time was called ‘The Ominous Ooze.’ To his credit, Joe had to laugh.” Vosburg’s Isis pencils were usually inked by Vince Colletta, whom many felt butchered every penciled

page put before him. But Vosburg is quick to jump to the defense of His Inker Vinnie: “If I was running a comicbook company in those days,” Vosburg says, “the first guy I would have hired would have been Vinnie. He was dependable and he was professional. He could take a book penciled by the worst guy in the business, bring it home, and in record time produce a presentable product ready for print. It would look solid and acceptable to the average reader. The problem was that even if he took Frank Frazetta’s stuff home and brought it back it still wouldn’t look much different [from anyone else]. And since we were all convinced we were Frank Frazetta, we were always ready to blame Vinnie for the final outcome. Vinnie liked my work a lot, so consequently I didn’t get inked by many others at that time. He did a very solid job, and in looking back I can see where he usually raised the level of what I brought in. I wound up with other people inking the work and Vinnie felt rejected. It hurt me later when I went to work for Marvel and discovered that he was best friends with Jim Shooter. One of my few regrets in my professional career was that I didn’t insist on inking my own work from day one. I might have cost me jobs, but I think my work would have improved much more quickly. Inking and coloring the work helps you see the problems you are creating in the penciling process … and in my case, I didn’t see the problems until I had to deal with them myself.” Was Vosburg disappointed to see Isis cancelled? “I’m sure the book wasn’t selling well,” he says. “No one really took the time to figure out what would appeal to the young girl market, and what we were doing with the character wasn’t going to sell a lot of books to the average comic fan. I can’t say I was devastated by the book’s cancellation. My own relationship with DC (and with Vinnie) had lost its luster, but it gave me a chance to move over to Marvel and start working regularly. In retrospect, one real complaint I have about the comic industry was that you were typed as either a genius or an idiot. No one ever accused me of being a genius, but I also realized when I started working outside of the industry that I was no idiot.” True enough, that lack of idiocy has included Vosburg being the storyboard artist behind The Chronicles of Narnia feature films. “Narnia’s costume designer is a wonderful lady named Isis Mussenden. I showed her one of the Isis comics and she got a big kick showing it to her son and telling him she was a super-heroine!”

Harris gave the slowly dying book a brief (if little) glimmer of life. “I incorporated some input from Jenette Kahn’s designer friend,” Harris says, “who was very interested in the whole ‘pyramid power’ thing, which I tried to make an intricate part of the Isis storyline. If memory serves, the television producers had given us carte blanch for the comic-book storylines, so I really wanted to take off, exploring the whole double-identity problem, the Egyptian connections to the Shazam characters, Andrea Thomas’ boyfriend, etc.” Harris added more personal touches, such as naming Andrea Thomas’ mother Viola after his own mother, and placing her in Fairfax, which was the name of the development he used to live in when he went to high school in Delaware. Harris recalls that the book’s cancellation was abrupt: “There was no ‘this title might be in trouble’ talk. One day we were doing it, and the next day we weren’t. But writing Isis led to other assignments for me. There was even one brief period of time where I was writing all of DC heroines at the same time. But it was Isis who was the first.”

JACK C. HARRIS: THE PERSONAL TOUCH

ISIS: THE NEXT GENERATION

Jack C. Harris, holding an original page from DC’s issue #6. Photo courtesy of Jack C. Harris.

The ’70s incarnation of Isis may have vanished long ago, but the Egyptian goddess still lives on in comics today. A Legend of Isis one-shot was published by Image Comics in 2002. The series then had a 12-issue run with Alias, which eventually transformed into a full-on Christian comics publisher. The series now resides with newly formed BlueWater Productions (www.bluewaterprod.com/isis.htm). BlueWater president Darren Davis was not familiar with the old TV series, but after creating The Legend of Isis he had learned about it and made sure to do the opposite of what had already been done. “Filmation’s version was about a school teacher that inherited the powers of Isis,” Davis says. “My version has the actual Egyptian goddess tossed into our time stream and forced to deal with a new society and belief system.” Paramount Pictures is currently developing The Legend of Isis as a feature film, with Ali Russell writing the screenplay for Gramment productions (Kelsey Grammer’s company).

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Isis still holds a warm spot in the heart of writer Jack C. Harris. “It was the first comic book feature I wrote completely on my own,” Harris recalls. “The second or third freelance writing assignment I ever received from editor Denny O’Neil was to dialogue an Isis story, plotted by my good friend Steve Skeates (‘Political Rally Panic,’ Isis #3).” In the next issue, Harris wrote the cover story, “Treasure of Lost Lake,” adding a personal touch to the story: “The story’s locale took place on where I used to vacation up in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on Lake Winnipesaukee. The local Wolfeboro newspaper even did an article on the story, noting the town’s mention. I remember, being a neophyte writer at the time, receiving lots of help on that first full script from the letterer and Mike Vosburg.” By issue #5 Isis belonged to Harris, and he wasted no time implementing a new direction for the book. The result was a highly confident takeover, especially for a young writer. By simply humanizing the characters,

A 2007 photo of one-time Isis scribe

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The Many Faces of Isis

The tryout title Image Introduces… unveils Legend of Isis in 2002.

Entertainment Rights plc.

The Legend of ISIS TM & © Darren G. Davis.

The mystery tale “The Mirror of Isis” appeared in Avon’s Eerie #3 (Oct.–Nov. 1951). Art by Joe Kubert.

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The Legend of ISIS TM & © Darren G. Davis.

In 2002, DC Comics reintroduced its own Isis-asgoddess in Wonder Woman, where she was dressed in modern attire. More recently, DC rebooted Isis-assuper-hero in issue #12 of its 52 series, where an enslaved Egyptian woman named Adrianna Tomaz (a homage to the Andrea Thomas character from the ’70s TV series) was brought to Black Adam, who had just retrieved the magical amulet of Isis (once belonging to Queen Hatshepsut) from the tomb of his wife and children. He requested that Captain Marvel bestow its power on Adrianna, and upon holding the amulet and speaking “I am Isis,” Adrianna was transformed and instilled with the powers of the goddess … giving her powers similar to Black Adam, as well as healing abilities and control over nature. She and Adam then traveled the Middle East, freeing enslaved children and hoping to find Isis’ kidnapped brother. In week 16 of the series, Adam proposed to Isis and the two

The Legend of ISIS TM & © Darren G. Davis.

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The 2005 The Legend of Isis collected edition, gathering the Alias and Image material.

were wed by Captain Marvel, with the entire Marvel Family (even including the talking tiger Tawky Tawny) present at the wedding. Adam’s wedded bliss was short-lived: That incarnation of Isis died in 52 #44. Still, there’s an entire generation who will always remember a certain high school teacher who called upon a hero with the familiar incanation, “Oh Mighty Isis!” P.C. HAMERLINCK—seen here in a July 18, 1966 photo snapped during his fourth birthday party (“Years before I became Mr. P.C. Shazamerlinck, in ’73,” he says)—is the editor of FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), which appears in the pages of our sister publication, Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine.

Roger Ash

By 1985, Disney comics had been missing from American comic racks for six years. Their publisher, Western/Whitman, gave up the Disney license. No longer was there an inexpensive way for fans of Disney comics to read adventures of their favorite characters, such as Donald Duck stories by the legendary Duck Man, Carl Barks. Barks created Uncle Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, Flintheart Glomgold, and many others, and established the basis for the Disney Duck universe that is still in place to this day. Enter Gladstone Comics. Gladstone was the brainchild of Bruce Hamilton. “Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran’s first Disney license was for The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck, a lavish coffee-table book that featured all of Carl Barks’ Disney-themed oil paintings that had been produced up to that time (1980),” says John Clark, associate editor at Gladstone and current editorin-chief of Gemstone’s Disney comics. “Disney was so impressed with that book that Hamilton and Cochran were able to get a license to produce a series of lithographs based upon oil paintings newly commissioned from Barks.” Their company, called Another Rainbow, also published The Carl Barks Library, a set of 30 oversized hardcovers in ten slipcases that featured the complete Disney stories by Carl Barks, along with essays on Barks and the comics themselves. It was from the people at Another Rainbow that Hamilton brought together the team for Gladstone, including editorin-chief Byron Erickson and associate editors John Clark and Geoffrey Blum. “On a visit to Disney in Burbank, Bruce Hamilton found out that Western Publishing (who had licensed the rights to publish Disney comics for almost 50 years) was giving up their license—their comics weren’t profitable anymore,” relates Erickson. “Bruce figured that a small company with a low overhead could succeed where Western had failed, so he immediately started putting together

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a proposal to apply for the license, although the Disney executive in charge of Another Rainbow’s account—a nice man named Wayne Morris—didn’t think we had a chance. To make a long story short, Bruce’s eventual proposal was accepted (although that might be because none of the other comics publishers were sufficiently interested) and Another Rainbow was given a three-year license.” The name “Gladstone” was chosen as the publisher’s name because of the character Gladstone Gander’s legendary good luck. The Gladstone books reprinted classic Duck stories by Carl Barks; Donald Duck newspaper strips by Al Taliaferro; Floyd Gottfredson and Paul Murray Mickey Mouse stories; and, for the first time in America, many stories produced for the European market by artists including Daan Jippes, Freddy Milton, and Romano Scarpa. Gladstone’s titles included Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, DuckTales, Mickey and Donald, Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, and others. The job of selecting which European stories to run fell to Erickson. “I chose, at first, what was recommended by knowledgeable fans (the Dutch Jippes stories, for example),” Erickson says, “but mostly it was a matter of going through the various foreign magazines we started receiving and ordering proofs of stories that looked good (I couldn’t read them, mind you, so my orders were based just on looking at the pictures). It was always interesting to read the rudimentary

From Heritage Auctions hails this Daan Jippes-sketched prelim for the cover to Uncle Scrooge #223 (Nov. 1987). Note Jippes’ changes to Scrooge’s facial expressions in the published version. TM & © 2007 Walt Disney.

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English dialogue that eventually came with the proofs. Man! Some stories were not at all what I expected. Many stories could be used with just minor adjustments to the dialogue. Others needed to be extensively rewritten to add character or humor. And in some cases, we wrote a completely new story to go with the artwork because the original story was stupid beyond belief!” Erickson also scripted some of the European stories, as did Geoffrey Blum. According to Blum, the English dialogue they were sent wasn’t translations: “The impression I had was that the stories were written in English, that serving as a lingua franca among the various European publishers who then hired their own translators to cast the comics they selected into their particular language and idiom. At the time of Gladstone One, I was told that many of the scripts were cranked out by moonlighting BBC hacks trying to scratch up an extra shilling. Since the writers knew the stories were not going to see print in English, they took no special care to polish their dialogue.” In addition to standard comics, Gladstone also launched a popular line of albums that featured oversized reprints of classic stories. They also had a line of digests that didn’t fare so well. “When we began production of the digests, we learned from our distributor that Archie [Comics] had sewn up all of the digest pockets for comics at supermarkets and drug stores, and that we would fail with digests if we couldn’t get into those locations,” says John Clark. “Bruce struck a deal with Archie to co-distribute the first of our digests, Uncle Scrooge Goes to Disneyland and Disneyland Birthday Party (both 1985), and those were successful, but subsequent titles that Archie was not involved with did poorly. And that seems to be the case to this day. Exactly why that is, I don’t know. Perhaps because the books get ‘lost’ to consumers if they’re not right there in your face, and the direct market has never been big for digests.” If there was a “look” to the early Gladstone comics, one could argue that Daan Jippes provided it, as he did most of covers for the first two years of Gladstone’s existence. “At the time of Gladstone’s start with the Disney comics, I was employed at the Walt Disney Consumer Products Division in Burbank, at Publications, under Greg Crosby,” recalls Jippes. “I had met with Bruce Hamilton earlier on. On the occasion of one of Bruce’s visits to the Studios, he proposed I should give it a shot, doing Gladstone’s covers.” Erickson says that Jippes was a perfect choice for Gladstone’s cover artist because “he’s the world’s best Disney standard character artist.” Jippes received the cover orders from Erickson for either a gag cover or a story-specific cover, but the details were left up to him. “The gags were 99% mine. The same goes for the ideas behind the story-related covers.” Besides having a style of his own, Jippes was also adept at aping the styles of Barks, Gottfredson, and Walt Kelly: “If a given cover acquired a Barks- or Gottfredsonflavor, that was always dictated by the style of the artist of the story inside the comic,” says Jippes.

“Whenever a gag-cover got a Walt Kelly approach, that was only when I felt it ‘suitable’; what exactly supplied the ‘trigger’ for such an inspiration I can honestly say I still don’t know,” Jippes reveals. “A bout of subconscious association, perhaps?” Eventually, Jippes decided that it was time to step down as cover artist. “My submitted ideas for requested covers took the shape of small, but concise, designs that I slapped some colors on, then sent those off to Prescott, Arizona (the Another Rainbow residence), by regular mail. Within a week I would get a phone call from Byron, with Bruce’s verdict. “The last six months of my cover-artist tenure with them, it happened way too often that ideas were dismissed without proper or constructive criticism; too often just for arbitrary reasons. I could only expect financial compensation for those efforts after turning in completed, inked covers. So all these submitted small masterpieces, for prospective covers that never would see the light of day, became, as far as I was concerned, a waste of my time. “Bruce, however, disagreed with that point of view, so we parted ways.” Coincidentally, Jippes was indirectly responsible for Gladstone publishing their first original story. “I just happened to spot a Gladstone comic,” says cartoonist Don Rosa. “I didn’t know what Gladstone was, but it was a Disney comic. It had a Carl Barks cover on it that I had never seen before, which was impossible because I had full sets of all those old comics. It turned out that it was a cover by Daan Jippes. I bought it. This was a Disney comic book that had articles in it about the history and about the people who wrote and drew the comics. This was the first time, not just in America, but virtually anyplace in the world, that a Disney publisher showed any respect for the people who actually created the stories and for the history of the material. “Another few months went by to make sure I saw these were still coming out, and finally I called up the editor, Byron Erickson, and told him that I was the only American who was born to write and draw Uncle Scrooge comics. It was my manifest destiny. I’d always known that my entire life. “I’d known Bruce Hamilton at that point for maybe 15 years from comic conventions. I hadn’t met Byron, but he knew of me because of all the work I’d done writing in fanzines and illustrating my own articles. So Byron said, ‘Go ahead.’ One day, I never knew I’d ever do anything other than run my family construction company, and the next day it was my assignment to write and draw an Uncle Scrooge adventure, which was the dream of my lifetime.” That first story, “The Son of the Sun,” appeared in Uncle Scrooge #219 (July 1987) and was nominated for a Harvey Award in 1988 for Best Single Issue. Of the stories he did at this time, Rosa singles out two as ones he really enjoyed working on because they were sequels to Barks stories: “Return to Plain Awful” (Donald Duck Adventures #12, May 1989) and “The Last Sled to Dawson” (Uncle Scrooge Adventures #5, June 1988). While he would have liked doing more Barks sequels, “Gladstone editors told me not to

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do sequels because they knew that their readers were not familiar with the original stories,” Rosa says. Of the two stories, Rosa comments that “my very favorite one was ‘The Last Sled to Dawson.’ That was based on my favorite period in Scrooge’s life. It was a sequel to not necessarily my favorite story of Barks’, called ‘Back to the Klondike,’ but just my favorite element of Scrooge’s past: his love affair with Glittering Goldie and the days before he was rich and was just a hard worker with so much personal integrity and individualism. So many great old American traits. “I drew that story on Barks’ original drawing board, lent to me by Professor Don Ault,” Rosa continues. “Apparently, Barks did not have a table he drew on. He had a table top, like a big cutting board. I guess he could move it to different locations. I laid that drawing board on top of my drawing board and drew ‘The Last Sled to Dawson’ on it. That made it really special to me.” Even though Rosa was fulfilling a dream to write and draw Uncle Scrooge comics, he eventually decided to quit due to a dispute with Disney. “The Disney Corporation told Gladstone not to return my artwork any longer, which they had no right to do,” Rosa says. “Gladstone didn’t have any choice but to do what the bullies told them to do. They apologized, but they said they couldn’t send the artwork back anymore. I said I can’t work for somebody who’s going to steal my property. Even though I’d liquidated my family construction company and I had no income, I quit.” Another creator who brought new stories to Gladstone was William Van Horn. When he saw that they were buying new stories by Don Rosa, Van Horn submitted some work to Byron Erickson. His first sale was two one-page strips in 1987. “When Byron bought them, he asked me right away if I could produce two four-pagers,” says Van Horn. “About the first year, I was doing filler work. If they had eight pages here, or nine there, then that’s what I was doing. So right away I wrote a four-pager. It was a Donald story called ‘A Sound Deal’ (Mickey and Donald #2, May 1988), where he’s selling bugles door to door. It took about a half hour to write the thing. I looked at it and thought, ‘What if he doesn’t like it? I better do another one.’ The next one took about an hour and a half. I sent that and two more gags down, and Byron bought the whole works. It was off and running from there.”

The Gladstone headquarters in Prescott, Arizona, in early 1988 during one of Carl Barks’ visits to the offices. Left to right: Byron Erickson, Carl Barks, John Clark (kneeling), Bruce Hamilton, Susan Daigle, and Gary Leach. On the background bulletin board you can spy Barks’ storyboards for “Northwest Mounted,” from his late-1930s Disney studio days. Photo courtesy of Scoop, with special thanks to Gary Leach, Susan Daigle-Leach, J. C. Vaughn, and Gemstone Publishing.

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This undated Duck Family portrait by Don Rosa features all your feathered favorites, including Duckburg founder Cornelius Coot (seen here as the bust). Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. TM & © 2007 Walt Disney.

While Van Horn wrote a number of his own stories, he also worked with writer John Lustig. The two had met when Lustig submitted a couple of plot ideas for Van Horn’s creator-owned book, Nervous Rex. Lustig recalls, “When Bill started doing his stories, after a while he said, ‘Why don’t you submit something? If you want to do a one- or two-page gag, I’ll take a look at it, and if it works, I’ll send it in to Gladstone.’ So I did some stuff, and the first one-pagers he helped me out a little bit on, so we shared credit on them. “The interesting part about that is I never actually talked to my editor for quite a while,” laughs Lustig. “I didn’t have any direct contact with Byron Erickson for a while because I was submitting everything to Bill, and he would go over the script and send it on to Gladstone. It was a different route than most people would take.” While he liked running new stories, there was a problem for Erickson: “In reality, we couldn’t afford to do any new stories,” he says. “A book-length Rosa or Van Horn epic didn’t sell any more copies than an issue filled with European stories and a Barks reprint. We did new material because I wanted to, or as I pitched it to Bruce at the time, to give us credibility as more than just a reprint house.” Enter DuckTales—the popular animated TV show based on Barks’ Scrooge stories— and Gladstone’s newest title. The book featured a new story by Disney/Jamie Diaz Studios and reprints. According to Erickson, “DuckTales quickly became our best seller, which is why we got Bill Van Horn to do some new DuckTales stories as the title had the budget for it.” How Van Horn got that job is an interesting story in itself. “Towards the latter part of ’88, I wrote a ten-page Scrooge called ‘Coin of the Realm,’” Van Horn says. “It was to be Donald and the boys and Scrooge flying down to the South Pacific. Scrooge was trying to collect on some ancient debt he was owed. Byron liked it very much, but since I was still doing filler work, he didn’t know where he could use it. He said, ‘If you can change this to a DuckTales story, I can use it right away.’ I said, ‘That’s pretty easy. Instead of Donald flying the plane, it’s Launchpad.’ He said, ‘All right, if you’ll do that, then you can do the lead story each month if you can keep up with that.’ Which it turned out that we couldn’t. John wrote a number of them. I wrote a couple. The Gladstone folks didn’t like the DuckTales stories that Disney was handing them. They knew they had to use them, but they figured, ‘We’ll put

them in the back of the book.’” “Coin of the Realm” appeared in DuckTales #6 (May 1989). A particularly memorable story for Bill was “The Bedeviled Dime” (DuckTales #8, Aug. 1989). To keep the villainous Magica De Spell from stealing his number-one dime, Scrooge zaps it with an invention from Gyro Gearloose that enlarges the dime and makes it immune to magic. As with many of Gyro’s inventions, things don’t work as planned. The dime becomes unstable and is constantly changing size. “In one scene, the dime has rolled down the hill and plopped into the harbor,” Van Horn explains. “Scrooge goes rushing down after it. It has changed to a small dime and he has a hold of it. Magica changes into a raven and flies by and TM & © 2007 Walt Disney.

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grabs it. She said something like, ‘He’s got the dime and she’s giving him the bird.’ When I was growing up, the bird was like the Bronx Cheer or the raspberry. By that time, it meant flipping the finger. Somebody at Disney had Gladstone change the dialogue. I didn’t know about that until it actually came out in print. And yet that story is still my favorite just because of the craziness of that dime.” When asked about his favorite story, Lustig replies, “I don’t really know. I kinda like the first ten-pager, ‘Windfall on Mt. G’Zoontight’ (DuckTales #7, 1989). It may be ‘The Billion Bean Stampede’ (DuckTales #13, May 1990). ‘The Amazon Queen’ (Donald Duck Adventures #20, April 1990) would be up there. I guess I don’t really have a favorite when it comes down to it. Whichever one I’ve read most recently.” Things were going well for Gladstone, but they were about to have the rug pulled out from under them. “When the license was up for renewal, we prepared a detailed financial plan to present at a license renewal meeting with Disney,” relates Erickson. “That plan showed that we had been paying Disney roughly one million, five hundred thousand dollars per year in royalties, and we projected that we’d continue to pay them at least that much in the years ahead (in case you’re wondering, only Disney got rich from our comics). Imagine our surprise when at the meeting in Burbank, Disney didn’t even look at our financial plan. Instead, we were told by a (insert derogatory profanity) hot-shot young vice-

president that our small success with the Disney comics had convinced him that there was a market for Disney comics, so Disney had decided to publish the comics themselves. Why, with their resources and publishing knowledge (ha!), they’d soon be outselling Marvel! And then they’d take over the world! It is with more than a little satisfaction that I note that not only did Disney Comics not take over the world, they also lost a million and a half dollars per year not doing it. Add that to the million and a half in lost annual Gladstone royalties and that’s a tidy sum to flush down the toilet.” John Clark continues the story: “Disney was not ready to begin uninterrupted production of the comics when the license expired, so they arranged for Gladstone to continue producing books for an additional four months (16 books over four months) so there would be no perceived stop in production.” Even though Gladstone would eventually return, the first series of comics remains special to many who were involved. “Somehow we made the enterprise fresh and exciting in that first run,” says Geoffrey Blum. “New gag covers, chat columns (though I got too fey and literary with mine), background articles about the stories (there I was on more solid ground), vintage Gottfredson strips, and America’s first protracted exposure to the European-produced Disney comics (I think Whitman had trickled out a few European stories in its dying days). We were breaking ground, and everyone, fandom included, was excited.”

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The progression of Don Rosa’s cover to Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge Adventures #32 (May 1995), published after Gladstone resumed the Disney rights from the parent company. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. TM & © 2007 Walt Disney.

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On September 20, 1990, the “Fastest Man Alive” hit the airwaves, introducing millions of viewers to DC Comics’ Scarlet Speedster, the Flash. Brought to life by producers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, CBS-TV’s The Flash broke new ground in special effects and became one the earliest in a wave of series based on comic-book heroes that took its four-color roots seriously.

BURTON PAVES THE WAY In 1989, the planet shook when Batman made silverscreen history. Finally leaving behind its kitschy reputation from the Adam West Batman TV series of the ’60s, director Tim Burton’s Batman was a comic movie done right. Hollywood realized that comics were readymade franchises and greenlit a handful of shows based on comic properties. Among those was The Flash. Having adapted The Rocketeer for Disney, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo wrote an original pilot for CBS called Unlimited Powers (detailed in BACK ISSUE #19), which featured an aged Flash forced into retirement. Considered by Bilson to be the best thing he and DeMeo have ever written, it never came to be—but it did give CBS an inkling of what could be. The production pair took great care to keep The Flash close to its comic-book roots. Firstly, they wanted to keep the Flash’s alter ego and origin identical to the Silver Age version of the super-hero. At the time of production, the speedster mantle in comics was assumed by one-time Kid Flash Wally West, the third man to wear the lightning and first sidekick to take the role of his mentor. Bilson and DeMeo wanted to keep things classic and decided to use as the Flash police scientist Barry Allen, the Silver Age version of the character that premiered in Showcase #4 (Sept.–Oct. 1956). “We thought that [Golden Age Flash] Jay Garrick and his costume wouldn’t work too well on television in 1990,” explains Bilson. “The [character’s] helmet, the shirt, and exposed face would have been difficult. And we would have had to have set it in the ’40s.” According to DeMeo, “We had to use a Flash that, at least visually, was the most familiar to our current audience, whether it was Barry or Wally.” Another key characteristic of Allen’s was his police background. The series’ creators decided it was an element they could capitalize upon to open up story possibilities. Allen’s scientific know-how would play a key role in the pilot and in later episodes. The police department, Allen’s lab assistant, his parents, and his brother were all created and fleshed out by Bilson, DeMeo, and the writing staff. Iris West, Allen’s longtime girlfriend—and later, wife—made it to the pilot, albeit in a very different form. Iris’ reporting background was jettisoned in favor of an artistic one. Bilson attributes the shift to wanting to make her different from another famous reporter: “I think we wanted to get away from another Lois Lane. We didn’t need another franchise to drive crime stories.” West’s character would never move

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Meet the Fastest Man Alive Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, debuted in Showcase #4 (Sept.–Oct. 1956). Although dead in DC Comics’ continuity by the time The Flash was developed for television in 1990, Allen was “resurrected” and wonderfully portrayed by John Wesley Shipp on CBS. The Flash and Showcase TM & © 2007 DC Comics.

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(above) Part of the Central City exterior sets, on the Warner Bros. lot in Hollywood. (right) John Wesley Shipp, star of The Flash. All photos in this article are courtesy of Andy Mangels. © 2007 Warner Bros. Television.

beyond the pilot in order to keep Barry available for other possible love interests, namely another scientist. Not to be left out, some of Wally West’s Flash comicbook elements would make it into the television series— most noticeably, the main female role of Tina McGee of S.T.A.R. Labs. Linda Park, Wally West’s own reporter girlfriend and future wife, made a cameo appearance. Luckily, what set West’s early comic-book adventures apart from his forebears made it to the series: “We took his eating [large amounts of food] to regenerate his energy,” notes DeMeo. “We thought it would fun to play with that.” They also chose to include the powered-down abilities from writer Mike Baron’s Flash issues, keeping the speedster maxing out at breaking the sound barrier. DC Comics, which owns the Flash, had a very good relationship with the show. “[DC] certainly had a say in how [the Flash] looked and was protective of its property,” says DeMeo. “They wanted the same things Danny and I did, to make a reasonably faithful version of the character that wasn’t treated condescendingly like other super-hero shows had done. We came from a place of love and affection. We wanted to do this right, not some slapdash, cheap-o version.” Bilson adds, “They were very supportive all the time, very helpful, and never had any problems with anything.” The comic company never mandated any storylines. “We did our own stories. It was better that way,” remembers DeMeo. “We did our own versions of things. Certainly, [DC] had done the Rogues’ Gallery villains before, but we never took any stories [directly from the comics].” DC Comics set itself apart from other comic-book companies early on by making the cities protected by its heroes characters in their own right. The Flash show would take the same stance. Barry Allen’s home of Central City evolved into a patchwork of eras. Men in suits and hats from pre-World War II were seen alongside the colorful (and now odd) fashions of the 1990s. A reporter using an old radio microphone would

compete alongside a reporter with a video camera. Old gangsters would convene in neon bars with sci-fi-armed hitmen. Central City was one of a kind. Partly influenced by Anton Furst’s design work in Batman, the city of the Flash included avenues familiarly named Garrick, Fox, and Broome, and even a hotel named after Silver Age Flash artist Carmine Infantino.

BRINGING THE FLASH TO LIFE Cameras rolled in the summer of 1990. The Flash was made flesh by up-and-coming actor John Wesley Shipp. “I didn’t know anything about comic books and very little about super-heroes when I took the role of the Flash,” reminisces Shipp. “I just looked at it as a character. You have Barry Allen with a difficult relationship with his father—the unblessed child syndrome— who suddenly has super-human powers that he can’t tell anybody about.” Like other actors who have assumed iconic roles, Shipp described feeling “fear and trepidation” over accepting the part. He explains, “Because of [super-hero adaptations] done before—the send-ups, spoofs, the cheap productions—I was afraid of the baggage that might come along with it.” Still, Shipp was won over with the script. “I loved the whole thing about the superpowers, when it started happening, how it freaked [the Flash] out. Of course, I loved the comic elements. The fact that underneath that it’s not ‘Hugh Hollywood Hero’ who discovers he has this wonderful thing and he’s going to go about saving the world. He says, ‘I want to get rid of these

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powers.’” The reluctant hero, a staple of the Silver Age, coupled with a hero borne of tragedy, netted the actor. “It’s only after Jay [Allen, Barry’s brother] is murdered that you get the dark motivation of revenge. He’s not doing it to be a hero. He’s doing it to avenge his brother’s death. Dark motivation. I could get behind that.” Oddly enough, the Flash’s costume—something one might argue makes the character instantly recognizable— was in danger. According to Bilson and DeMeo, the executives at CBS wanted to replace the red and the lightning with a tracksuit and LED-equipped sneakers. Fortunately, the suit was spared, thanks to a slight redesign by comics legend Dave Stevens. Eventually, Stevens’ take on the costume would in turn influence the comic book. The suit was also one of the many factors that drew Shipp to the role. “Two things Danny promised me,” recounts Shipp. “One, we’d keep it dark. He used to tell me, ‘If we have it our way, PTAs across the country will be complaining to CBS about how dark it is.’ We didn’t quite achieve that. And, he promised me that I would not be running around in a red spandex suit. [He promised] that the suit would be high-tech construction and would be used as such. He kept that promise. If they had put in a red spandex suit, I wouldn’t have done [the show]. It was a major selling point that they would spend $100,000 on high-tech construction for four suits that would be menacing—because it could have so easily been a joke.” In spite of its origins, the series’ first episodes had very little to do with the comics. While dabbling in

(above) Playing opposite Shipp’s Barry Allen was Amanda Pays as scientist Tina McGee, a character carryover from the then-current Flash comic book. (above right) Shipp, wearing one of the four Flash costumes. © 2007 Warner Bros. Television.

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sci-fi elements, it remained very close to a police procedural show. The Flash himself was a fan of this approach. “I kind of liked the original concept,” admits Shipp, “It was darker. Grittier. The only super-human element was speed and the effects on [Barry]—a real sort of gritty crime drama.” Sci-fi-oriented stories were mostly due to the network’s discomfort with overdoing the super-heroics. Senior writer Gail Hickman explains his take on the matter: “Before I joined the show, Danny and Paul gave me Watchmen, which was, tonally, what they wanted to do. I always wanted to do science fiction. I think the network and Danny and Paul initially imagined was they wanted to this pulp crime show with a super-hero—but it was going to be the corrupt, decadent, Gotham City-like city ripped apart with crime. And then they were going to put this guy in the red suit who could run fast who could break it up and champion the cops and tried to clean up the city. But I kept trying to push [the show] into the direction of science fiction. I was the one who got us to do the invisible man episode, [‘Sight Unseen’]. I was the one who got us do the android episode [‘Alpha’]. “The toughest thing about doing a show like this is getting everyone on the same page. What Danny and Paul wanted to do with the show was sometimes different from what the studio wanted. I, in a way, ended up becoming the arbiter in trying to bring all these visions together with my own vision and come up with a synthesis that worked for everybody.”

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ENTER CHAYKIN AND MOORE It wasn’t until a team of writers from the world of comics made their mark on the series that the Flash’s show took a more comic-book approach. Howard Chaykin and John Francis Moore brought their expertise and brought a sense of comic-book credibility with them. Chaykin had already become a comics legend with American Flagg!, Black Kiss, The Shadow, and Blackhawk by the time he joined the show’s production. Moore was new to screenwriting, but would shortly make his mark on Marvel Comics’ X-Force, X-Factor, and X-Men 2099. “We knew the source material,” explains Moore. “But we weren’t reverent to it and we weren’t condescending to it. Our agenda on the show was to try to deliver a super-hero that was not smarmy, not campy, and not cliché. We didn’t want to see the Batman tilted angles, tinted camera lenses. We didn’t want to see goofy villains. We really tried to write it as dramatically and fun as we could without making light of the source material. We tried to address the issues in a real way—not in a heavy drama, overly dramatic way—but address the fact that it’s a guy running around in a bright red suit with lightning bolts on it. That’s maybe innately silly and innately cool that he’s able to reach those [high] speeds. But I think if you can acknowledge the questions raised by the whole super-hero genre, you can get away with a lot. I think we did the best we could, given the parameters.” Acceding to Hickman, the Chaykin and Moore writing duo helped him understand the show and its tone: “Howard and John knew the comic books. Danny and Paul knew the comic books. There were several iterations of the Flash at that point. I went back and looked at [the ’60s comics] and didn’t particularly like the stories. For whatever reason somebody keeps taking on the guise of the Flash, I just thought that was an odd idea. I didn’t go back to the comic books. I’m sure the comic fans would hate me for that. I went to the tone of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns and the serious tones of the Batman movie. Howard and John wrote this script ‘Watching the Detectives.’ That really became the model for me. Through Howard and John, I think I finally got the show. It had just enough of that eccentric humor, its style and imagination in the pulpy world—suddenly, I got it. All the pieces fell into place for me and then I had fun with the show.” It’s what Bilson describes as “comic-book sensibility” that the network feared would drive away viewers. “We wanted to do the fantastic stories from the beginning,” explains Bilson. “We had to just keep pushing and pushing to get a little more creative freedom. We would have started out that way if we had the chance.” Moore shares his thoughts on the show’s necessary suspension of disbelief: “Either you get the show and buy into the fact that he’s wearing a costume, or not. Because if you don’t, you’re never even going to get past that to get to the meat of the show.” © 2007 Warner Bros. Television.

FLASH’S ROGUES’ GALLERY When “Ghost in the Machine,” the ninth episode of the series, aired, it was clear that Flash had settled on a course. The late Jason Bernard made his debut as the Deadly Nightshade, a character that looked very similar to DC Comics’ original Sandman. Episode co-writer Moore brings to light the Deadly Nightshade’s origins: “The Nightshade was an attempt to do a Shadow-like character. The Sandman 4 6

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falls into that category of Shadow imitators.” Still, the episode marked the Flash’s first official super-hero team-up and gave him an enemy. “The Trickster” premiered three episodes later, giving comic fans the first in a trio of villains from the infamous Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery. Manically played by Mark Hamill, the Trickster became the first and only costumed villain of the series. “We were able to put him in a costume because he was insane,” says Bilson. Strangely, CBS was reluctant to have anyone in a costume outside of the title character. “What makes the Trickster episode for me,” says Moore, “was getting the idea that the Trickster is a response to the Flash. He becomes this over-the-top character as a response to the Flash’s over-the-top abilities.” Comic books have often examined the “chicken/egg” dichotomy of heroes and villains. The Flash was the first super-hero show to do so. The villains were coming out in droves. A darker, more sinister Deadly Nightshade took on the original and the Flash in “Deadly Nightshade.” Captain Cold and the Mirror Master followed shortly thereafter, in “Captain Cold” and “Done with Mirrors,” respectively. Both super-villains bore very little physical resemblance to their two-dimensional counterparts: Captain Cold was reimagined as a hitman and the Mirror Master was portrayed as black-clad thief. DeMeo defends his choice of Rogues’ Gallery villains. “They had good central gimmicks, powers, or abilities that were fun to go against,” says DeMeo.

BEATEN BY BART (SIMPSON, THAT IS) The Flash still had one enemy he couldn’t overcome: a lethal timeslot. Hickman remained positive the show would survive up until the end. “I don’t think we knew [about the show’s cancellation]. Very often, you don’t know about your pick-up until the last minute. By the time we got to ‘Trial of the Trickster,’ we didn’t know for sure but we suspected. Our ratings were okay, but they weren’t great. But we were hopeful.” “[CBS] didn’t know who their audience was going to be. The studio executives and network assumed it was going to be a kids’ show,” Moore explains. “If you look at the scheduling, which was initially Thursday nights, what they were trying to do was cross-program against The Cosby Show. The Simpsons wasn’t on Thursday night initially and that’s where we got screwed. The network put us against Cosby thinking we were going to get the audience that wasn’t watching Cosby. And then Fox had the same idea. Then CBS said, ‘There’s no way we’re gonna program against The Simpsons,’ which was a juggernaut at the time. So they decided to do something that hadn’t been done, I believe, since the ’50s.” Shipp mirrors Moore’s feelings: “It was like events conspired. CBS had the World Series. Then the Gulf War broke out. I think it was great that we had the big premiere. They grew too confident in our reviews. ‘9.5 on the Zowie-Wowie Scale,’ the Washington Post said. [The network] got too confident. They were betting too heavily on us as a new show. To spend that much money and then put us against The Cosby Show and The Simpsons at their height? What a miscalculation.

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(above left) Mark Hamill (right), here in a publicity still with Shipp’s Barry Allen, as Flash foe the Trickster. (above right) Hamill’s Trickster, and the DC version of the super-villain. © 2007 Warner Bros. Television. The Trickster © 2007 DC Comics.

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It was really disheartening because we were all working so hard.” The show closed with the “Trial of the Trickster,” written by Chaykin and Moore and directed by Bilson. In an episode that pulled out all the stops, the Flash had put the Trickster away at Arkham Asylum after being brainwashed to do the Trickster’s bidding. Hickman remembers the show fondly: “I think the triumph of The Flash is that we really did do a terrific show that stands on its own and is successful even now. It really is a tribute to Danny and Paul that they got the show on the air and they did it their way. It was a unique show that was unlike anything else that was on the air. It was their vision and they did it well. Yes, they made compromises—writing, artistic, and creative compromises—but it’s still very much their show.” Shipp has since embraced his portrayal of the iconic speedster. “People have been very kind,” says Shipp. “These [comic] conventions have been awesome. You do a role, then you move on. But at the point at which there’s a Flash movie or another Flash TV show, somebody else takes it. But the fact that for 16 years, I’ve been the only guy to play the Flash—reading what people have written about [the Flash] on the Internet, it’s been amazing to me. It’s really uplifting. I can look at it now and be very proud that I was a part of it. I’m

Keith Partridge goes bad! One-time teen heartthrob David Cassidy as the Mirror Master, looking nothing like the comics version of the Flash rogue. © 2007 Warner Bros. Television. Mirror Master © 2007 DC Comics.

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proud of it as an actor and the quality of how it’s held up. I’m really digging interacting with people who dug the show and the work and appreciated what were were trying to do.” As for what could have been, Bilson and DeMeo had planned to open season two with a two-part episode pitting the Flash against the combined forces of the Trickster, the Mirror Master, and Captain Cold. Later, other Rogues would have been showcased. “We were going to do the Weather Wizard,” recounts DeMeo. “He would have been a particularly tough one because of the special effects. He would have been next up. I remember [show producer] Don Kurt telling us we should get someone like Wallace Shawn to play him as a nerdy guy who was powerful. And Gorilla Grodd. We would have done him. We threw him out [in one episode’s dialogue] as a gag: ‘Gorilla Grodd is running numbers in Chinatown.’” Bilson and DeMeo adapted The Human Target for television for six episodes before making a return to their favorite speedster for a nine-issue arc of DC Comics’ The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. The Flash made its DVD debut in January of 2006. Sadly, no special features or additional content were included. However, a new generation of comic fans can enjoy one of the most entertaining and innovative comic-book shows of all time. Bilson and DeMeo made available a free downloadable commentary on the show’s finale on iTunes on their Petfly Podcasts.

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Gold Key boldly went nowhere any comics publisher had gone before when they debuted their comic-book adaptation of Star Trek in the summer of 1967, right after the science-fiction series completed its first season on NBC. Ever since, with varying degrees of fidelity and commercial success, Star Trek has usually been found on the racks. Star Trek has remained a viable license for Gold Key, Marvel, Malibu, DC, WildStorm, and now IDW because it has a devoted following among fans who also read comic books. When Marvel Comics acquired the license timed to the first feature film’s release in 1979, they were hampered by restrictions limiting them to only what was seen in the movie and little else. Additionally, they never had a stable creative team, making the title feel inconsistent. DC, at Marv Wolfman’s urging, took the plunge in 1983, based on the box-office success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. They published the title for many years, and that run saw the first hardcover graphic novel, Debt of Honor, and the beginning of trade collections of the best storylines. After DC lost the license, Trek moved to WildStorm, then back to Marvel for a much more successful and satisfying second round, and then it faded away. Even though there is no current television series called Star Trek on the air, interest remains high. Checker Books has been reprinting the Gold Key run while Titan Books has been repackaging the early DC Comics material. IDW, in January 2007, began new adventures and on Christmas Day 2008, a new feature film, rebooting the franchise, is expected from Paramount Pictures. To acknowledge the past and present, BACK ISSUE and WRITE NOW! decided to query a handful of the comic-book scribes who have handled the property. The roundtable discussion was conducted entirely by email between October and December 2006 and proved lively and engaging. —Robert Greenberger

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Feed me, Seymour! You’ll find nary a phaser, uniform insignia, or celebrity likeness to I.D. painter George Wilson’s otherwise fabulously rendered image as a Star Trek cover, but it is indeed just that, from Gold Key’s Star Trek #29 (Mar. 1975). The action depicts the Enterprise crew’s struggles on “The Planet of No Return” (interior story title), in a reprinting of the very first ST comic-book tale from issue #1 (July 1967). Original cover painting courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com); unless otherwise noted, all art in this article comes from Heritage. Star Trek TM & © 2007 Paramount Pictures.

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and visiting Brownsville, Texas, while a quick introduction to the dramatis personae: on a family road trip vacation

mike w. barr

Mike was a long-time DC Comics writer and short-time DC Comics editor with twin passions for Star Trek and mystery fiction. He was the debut writer for DC Comics’ run of Star Trek and has also written the Trek novel Gemini.

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peter david

The self-proclaimed writer of stuff’s credits include a wellregarded run on DC’s version of Star Trek in addition to numerous novels for Pocket Books. He also co-created the fiction-only series Star Trek: New Frontier.

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michael jan friedman

A novelist who is also a Star Trek fan, Mike sold one story to Pocket Books, which brought him to DC’s attention, and he became a successful writer for them in the 1980s and 1990s. Mike has written countless novels for Pocket Books and more recently has tackled the Wolfman, Aliens, and Predator for DH Books.

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glenn greenberg

“I am a former editor and writer for Marvel Comics, which is where I wrote the Star Trek: Untold Voyages limited series. Currently, I’m an editor and writer for Scholastic Inc. and a recurring writer for Simon and Schuster’s Star Trek: Corps of Engineers line of e-books. My first e-book has already been published, and I’m currently writing my second one.”

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andy mangels

A long-time fan, Andy turned his passion into a career as a comic-book writer, critic, historian, and novelist. He and writing partner Michael A. Martin have written for several of the Trek franchises at Pocket Books.

martin pasko

“I have more experience than I’d care to admit with branded entertainment properties in a variety of media. While still in my teens, I began a comics career working for many publishers, including a long association with DC, both freelance and on staff. I’ve also written and story-edited for TV, both live-action (Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, Roseanne) and animated (the original Batman [The Animated Series] and many other series). After a long stint at DC as an editor and Creative Services manager, I now freelance and run my own consulting business, creatively developing clients’ toy and game properties into storydriven entertainment. I’m told I’m the only one on this panel to have written both the Trek comic books and the comic strip, as well as having supervised the comics’ production as an editor.”

laurie sutton

“I’ve written DS9 for Malibu and Voyager for Marvel, and have enjoyed being an editor for both DC and Marvel. I first encountered the once-in-a-lifetime, original-run Star Trek in 1966 when I was 13 years old

(our own ‘trek’ if you will!). It was dinner time and we were all going to go down to the Holiday Inn restaurant, but this program came on the TV and that was it for me! I was fascinated, entranced, hooked! I sat like a five-year-old with my face as close to the screen as possible. Thank goodness my parents observed the obvious and let me miss dinner and watch the show. Their simple, single ‘indulgence’ set the course of my life, to a large extent. If they’d made me come to dinner, I might not have followed the Trek path with the sort of joy and freedom I have to this day.”

len wein

Len can count among his earliest comics writing assignments several issues of Gold Key’s Star Trek title. Years later, after co-creating Swamp Thing and serving as editor-in-chief at Marvel and Batman editor at DC, Len returned to the 23rd century with a multi-issue stint on the title, in time to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary.

howard weinstein

At 19, while attending the University of Connecticut, Howard sold the script to “The Pirates of Orion,” which was aired during the second season of the animated Star Trek series (now available on DVD). Additionally, he provided story help to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He subsequently wrote several novels and short stories for Pocket Books and Star Trek comics for DC, WildStorm, and Marvel.

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BOB GREENBERGER: What do you find the largest challenge in adapting Star Trek from television to comic books? LAURIE SUTTON: My first reaction is to say movement. That may sound obvious, but there’s a delicate balancing act involved. After all, what is TV but a series of still images, moving? That’s where TV and comics meet, and diverge. But that being said, I have never found the transition all that difficult. I think visually. I see pictures in my head. (I grew up reading comics; the process must be hardwired by now.) And after watching the ST programs from the very beginning of their run, they’re hard-wired in my brain, too. I can see the pacing. And I can hear the voices. But printed words on a page simply cannot convey the inflection of an actor’s voice. That’s my greatest frustration. GLENN GREENBERG: For me, there were several large challenges when I was writing Star Trek: Untold Voyages for Marvel. First was coming up with Star Trek

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stories that haven’t been done before. After five TV series and ten movies, that’s a major challenge! I think I was only partially successful in that area. Another challenge was getting the characters right through dialogue. When you’re reading a Star Trek comic, you want to “hear” the voices of Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, etc. in your head as you read the dialogue. If the dialogue doesn’t ring true, it pulls the reader right out of the story. Looking back, I think I did a pretty good job. I tried as best as I could to follow the examples set by Mike Barr and Peter David. These guys were a big influence on me, because I grew up reading their Star Trek comics, and I loved their work on those comics. HOWARD WEINSTEIN: I think the biggest challenge in comics is creating the illusion of movement using sequential still images, and avoiding pages of static, talking heads.

TV and comics are both visual media, of course, but TV images really do move and comic images obviously don’t. Well-made TV shows get visual interest from the variety of camera angles used, and how the actors play a scene—voice, mannerisms, movement. In comics, we don’t hear the characters speaking, and they don’t move, so it’s not easy to make those pages feel like they’re in motion. It took me a while to learn how to do that. For example, Star Trek has lots of fairly static bridge and briefing room scenes. How do we keep those from being visually boring? Writers need to carefully choose the words going into those speech balloons—when it comes to dialogue, less is definitely more! I also made sure my scripts prompted the artists to vary the pictures we chose to tell the story and present information. I always tried to make sure those scenes mixed wide angles, two-shots, closeups, viewscreen images, etc. It takes some extra thought and effort, but there’s really no excuse for a Star Trek comic page to be one face-shot after another. SUTTON: I totally agree with Howard. The writer must become the “director.” You’re responsible for the pacing, how quickly or how slowly the story moves, as well as the visual liveliness. Writing the stories full-script gives you that power, but also demands accountability. It’s your own fault if the story lags anywhere in any way. MARTIN PASKO: Absolutely. And I think the best way the writer can serve the reader as de facto director is in inventing stage business for the characters (like Spock and another crew member playing three-level chess), to keep the dialogue scenes from being closeup-closeupcloseup, or having the scenes play in interesting, infrequently seen locations such as private quarters. But that’s how I’ve always written comics (not TV or film; “directing on paper” is considered gauche and a sure sign of inexperience)—there’s only one writer I know of who writes more specific and detailed shot directions than I do, and that’s Alan Moore. As for the difficulty question, I was working from the original TV series and first feature only, as opposed to the later, differently structured material, so I didn’t find the assignment that challenging. That’s because of what episodic television has in common with comics: Both have to be carefully structured to accommodate finite lengths, page counts, and running times respectively; they can’t be “open-ended” like a feature film. It also seemed easy to me because I think about comics as film in jump-cuts. Just before I started work on the first Marvel Comics run of Trek, I’d begun a parallel career in writing for filmed entertainment, and almost unconsciously moved away from treating comics as a hybrid of prose and a visual dramatic form. I stopped leaning heavily on text to tell the story, either with narrative captions or worse, soliloquizing thought balloons, and developed a more cinematic style. So telling a Star Trek story in comics was easy as long as I paid careful attention to the finer points of scene structure, such as taking the latest possible point of attack; getting out of a scene as early as possible; and buttoning it with a hook or eliding dialogue, and a clever visual transition such as a match-cut, to pull the reader eagerly into the next scene. Truth be told, I found Trek even easier to write than most other comics, because the established format of the TV series had all sorts of built-in devices that helped with graceful exposition, such as the Captain’s Log and the briefings. So the “adapting” was really more a matter of “importing” Trek into comics format than having to invent ways to make Trek work in the comics medium.

Star Trek: Unpublished

MIKE W. BARR: Keeping the sense of movement and pacing consonant with filmed Trek. Of course, that’s the challenge with adapting virtually any filmed property. But Trek is especially difficult because it’s developed its own style over the years, and because filmed Trek is so dependent on musical cues, stings, camera intercutting, and other audio and motion-reliant techniques that you can’t do in comics. SUTTON: You know, Mike, the musical aspect never entered my comic-oriented head. Sound effects, now that’s altogether different. Sound effects translate into graphic elements in comics and can have the potential to become an integral part of the page design. PETER DAVID: There was the practical challenge and the creative challenge. The creative challenge is that, for much of the time, Star Trek is mostly talking heads. Yes, there are action sequences, but there are only so many ways you can have the characters display a sense of urgency on the bridge, or fire the phasers. On TV, in the movies, it’s not that much of a problem; with the silent medium of comic books, where you don’t have actors, sound effects, and music, you have to come up with ways to make the story visually compelling while not wandering too far away from the basic feel of Star Trek. In my case, the practical challenge was that there was someone who shall go nameless—Richard Arnold—set up at Paramount, shooting down stories C o m i c s

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Writer John Warner’s script page 1 for what was intended to be Gold Key’s Star Trek #62. According to the good folks at Heritage Auctions, this story was slated to have been drawn by Frank Bolle, but Gold Key axed the title with issue #61 (Mar. 1979) and “Trial by Fire” went unfinished and unpublished. © 2007 Paramount.

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a back issue you might have missed

for the most inexplicable reasons. One story had an extended Kirk fight scene that took place entirely off panel; Arnold claimed that it was “too violent” (as if Kirk’s 15-minute fight scene with Finnegan in “Shore Leave” was a walk in the park). I had Kirk involved in an extended romance with a character I’d created, R. J. Blaise, only to be informed that the story had to be aborted because “Kirk is no longer interested in women.” That kind of thing. Fortunately, Arnold is long gone and modern-day comic-book writers need only deal with the far more reasonable people at Paramount who are in charge. LEN WEIN: Keeping true to the voices and the character personalities. These are characters who are so well-defined in the common gestalt that, if you’re off-model, so to speak, everyone reading the book instantly knows. SUTTON: Len is so right. Getting the cadence of the actors’ voices right is probably one of the most difficult challenges. I was fortunate enough to have actual shooting scripts from Voyager while writing that title for Marvel. That provided an invaluable bridge between interpreting the dialogue as it was written on the page and then as it was spoken once the actors delivered their lines. PASKO: On the other hand, there can be a temptation to overuse comic-book stylistic conventions in trying to nail the speech patterns. I kept. Having to resist the … temptation … to. Use … punctuation. To simulate Shatner’s strange, halting. Delivery. I will, however, admit inventing some phonetic spellings to approximate Walter Koenig’s bogus Russian dialect, and feeling vaguely ashamed of myself. But then other writers picked up stuff like “Keptin,” so I didn’t feel so bad. ANDY MANGELS: I only half joke that actually getting the job is the toughest part. It doesn’t matter how many credits you have behind you, or what kind of fan base, you still have to get—and hold—the editor’s attention. And there are a lot of Trek fans in the writer’s world who think they can do the job better—and cheaper—than you. But in regard to specifically adapting, I have to agree with Glenn; coming up with adventures we haven’t seen before is tough. Thankfully, this “issue” is

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ameliorated somewhat by the serialized nature of both the shows themselves and the comic-book medium. Since the characters learned and grew on their respective TV series, and alluded to other adventures in dialogue, one could often come up with stories based on a comment, a memory, or a personality trait, and then expand it into something larger and more allegorical. Star Trek was all about allegory, so if you could choose something small and personal and blow it up larger, all the better for readers. DAVID: I encountered that same difficulty, developing stories that had a sense of freshness but, at the same time, were original. It’s one of the reasons that I came up with soap opera-esque storylines: so we could have continued story threads from one “episode” to the next, something that Trek series at the time simply weren’t doing. But developing plots could be problematic. I remember once I had written an overview for a multi-part time-travel story, and the story was rejected by Paramount with the following self-contradicting criticism: “This story reads like several previous Star Trek episodes strung together; it’s not remotely ‘Star Trek.’” MIKE FRIEDMAN: I was working on the ST: TNG [Star Trek: The Next Generation] comic, so the biggest challenge was hitting a moving target. It wasn’t unusual for me to come up with a plot that contradicted something in development at Paramount. When that happened, I didn’t always know what part of the plot I’d concocted was in contradiction, because the show runners didn’t want to let out what they were doing. So it was a constant guessing game. In one case, I thought I was home free. I had plotted a four-issue miniseries about Worf’s brother, and it had been approved. But partway through the writing process, my editor learned that the show people had begun developing an episode about Worf’s brother. Rather than just go ahead with the project as is, I tweaked it so as to try to make it fit with the episode. GREENBERGER: For those who have done this, what’s the difference between writing a Star Trek novel versus a comic book? Howie, what about the difference between an animated episode and a comic? And Mike Barr, compare writing for the manga and the mainstream comic. SUTTON: May I ask if it’s a matter of pacing? Sometimes an author must expand a scene to introduce character background info, etc. What’s a writer to do? Teleplays, comics, and novels all have their demands, and none of them are mutual! GREENBERG: Well, I’ve been writing Star Trek e-books lately, which are a little shorter than a standard Star Trek novel—but it’s still Star Trek in written form, so it’s basically the same as a novel. And the main difference between writing a book and writing a comic is that when I’m writing a book, I’m fully responsible for providing the “pictures” for the readers. Those pictures will exist only in the readers’ minds. So I have to be very clear and thorough and descriptive and visual-minded when describing the settings, the scenery, the actions of the characters, what the characters are wearing, what the characters look like, and so forth. I don’t have an artist to fall back on. Also, when writing a book, you have a lot more room to really delve into and flesh out the story and the characters. You can get into the characters’ heads, describe what they’re feeling—whether it’s agony or rage or love or heartbreak.

Since comics are such a visual medium, there really has to be interesting things happening on every page. You can’t—or at least you shouldn’t— just have characters standing around spouting off dialogue for page after page, no matter how witty or crisp the dialogue is. In a comic, the story has to move. Comics are a marriage of words and pictures, so the pictures should help tell the story and move the story along. In a book, you can do an extended scene on the bridge where there’s a lot of banter and interactions between the various crewmembers. In a 22-page comic book, a scene like that could take up nearly half the issue! So the pacing is very different between the two mediums. WEINSTEIN: Within reason (and contractual requirements), novels can be as long as you want them to be. But comics and TV episodes are limited in length by production requirements—I couldn’t go to an editor and say, “Gee, can we make this issue 26 pages?” if the limit is 22. My education in writing episodic TV scripts prepared me for that. You just have to learn how to make scenes short and sweet, keep dialogue trimmed, and not linger once the scene has served its purpose. Before CGI, live-action TV shows had tight budget limits on sets, makeup, special effects, and location shooting. This was especially tough on a sciencefiction show like Star Trek, with stories taking place on other worlds, in space, and involving exotic aliens. The last few Star Trek series, on the other hand, have been able to include movie-like visual effects thanks to computers. One major difference between live-action and animated Star Trek was the freedom to create any visuals you wanted in animation. So comics are more like animation in the way both invite imagination unlimited by budget. Novels and comics both allow you to get inside characters’ heads and know what they’re thinking internally, whereas TV and movies are really limited to what we can see characters do and say out loud. BARR: The greater length of a novel tempts writers to greatly expand scenes, rather than keeping them as short and punchy as possible. Oddly, the shorter length of a comic book forces writers to move the story along more quickly, more like filmed Trek. It’s easier to be more self-indulgent with prose Trek, but self-indulgence always works to the detriment of the story. But with novels it’s easier to write a convincing interior monologue for a character, simply by making him the viewpoint character of a scene. In comics this requires either thought balloons or Logs, both of which are convincing in the inverse proportion to which they are used. Regarding the difference in writing Trek between mainstream comics and manga (of course, in Japan, manga is mainstream), manga relies more on captions or dialogue to tell the story, and less on actual storytelling and visual pacing. In manga, cool pictures often trump story. DAVID: I don’t know that I’d say greater length is “self-indulgent.” In comic books, writers can rely on visuals to set the scene and convey information. Also, a talented artist can provide lots of visual prompts. You don’t have to go out of your way to describe what a character is thinking or what he looks like or what the environment is like or how he’s moving around if the artist is doing all that. In a novel, the writer is on his own in terms of setting scenes, moods, and conveying all the necessary information so that the reader can “see” the scene for himself. It may sound odd to say, but there’s

more to a story than just story. It’s how you tell it, and when it comes to the novel, it’s all on the writer. Also, aside from the obvious ease of telling a story in 80,000 words as opposed to 22 pages, again it keys to visuals. If I have an extended briefing room scene in a book, for instance, then I only need to have the dialogue interesting and it can go on for pages. In a comic, that’s not enough. An extended briefing room scene will seem static visually. I either have to find another means of portraying the discussion, or have something else going on to cover the visual. MANGELS: Mike Martin and I have written nine novels and a number of short stories for Pocket Books, and have written Trek comics for Marvel and WildStorm (I wrote a commissioned-but-unpublished story for DC years prior). One of the chief differences is in length. If we want to tell an immense story, with a “B” story and 14 character-oriented subplots, we can do it in a novel. In a comic book, you have to do an “A” story, and if you’ve got several issues, you can add a “B” story, and you try to throw in character bits along the way. But comics are very much shorthand compared to novels. On the other hand, the place where you can have economy of words in comics is in descriptions. If your artist is good, he can describe the wondrous or shocking event/alien/anomaly/Treknobabble in one or C o m i c s

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In the Mighty Marvel Manner Star Trek: The Motion Picture was adapted by the House of Ideas in the magazine-sized Marvel Comics Super Special #15 (Dec. 1979), featuring a Bob Larkin cover. The adaptation was serialized in the first three issues of Marvel’s monthly ST (starting with issue #1, coverdated Apr. 1980). © 2007 Paramount.

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two images; in a novel, it might take you pages to do it, and the readers may still come away with a different image than you imagined as the author. So to wrap it up, comics are better for showing concepts, novels are better for showing thoughts and personality and subplots. FRIEDMAN: For one thing, the pacing is different. A comic can often approximate the pacing of an episode, while a book has a much longer story to tell. And by the way, comics can be strung together to create as long or short a story as the writer likes. Another big difference is that comics provide all the visual information in panel form, while in a book the author has to paint those pictures with his words. I don’t love writing setting, so I was thrilled to have an artist to haul that part of the load. On the other hand, the novel form allows the writer to conceal things that are in plain view, while the comic is harder pressed to do that. As a book writer, I can leave lots of information out of a scene by declining to identify who’s in it, where they are, or why they’re there. In a comic, not so easy. Finally, a book allows you to get into a character’s mind—for entire pages, if you like. In a comic, you’re limited to captions or thought balloons, so you’ve got to be a lot more concise. GREENBERGER: Does one Star Trek franchise adapt easier than others? SUTTON: Personally, I think that’s a function of the writer. Who has the most affinity for which Trek team? The artists can draw anything!!! (You know, belay that last remark. I forgot about the Gold Key editions. Yeah, maybe the artists could draw anything, but sometimes it was not recognizably Trek!) GREENBERG: Aside from the ebooks, which feature a crew that’s never appeared on TV or in the movies, I’ve only written the original crew—Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. And I found, both as a reader and as a writer, that The Original Series [TOS] adapts to the comic format quite easily. Because that show moved! There was a lot of running, jumping, fighting, and space battles. And a lot of really great, big ideas. The Doomsday Machine. The giant space amoeba. The Tholian Web. Apollo and the giant hand that grabs the Enterprise. These kinds of concepts work wonderfully in a comic-book format. And in a comic book, you’re not limited by budget, so you can pretty much go as far as your imagination will take you without worrying about the special effects not coming off as well as you’d like. Now, I’ve always found the spin-off shows, particularly The Next Generation, to be very talky and far more stiff and uptight than The Original Series ever was. So when adapting TNG to the comic-book format, I’ve found, as a reader, that there have been two ways you can go: You either make it faster paced and more action-packed to work as a comic,

“Officers of the Bridge” Sci-fi illustrator Kelly Freas produced a set of seven 12.5" x 19" portraits of the Enterprise’s officers in 1976, commissioned for a custom publication for the New York Star Trek Convention. Shown here is Freas’ Lt. Uhura. © 2007 Paramount.

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which gives it a very different feel from the TV show, or you try to reproduce the feel of the TV show as much as possible and end up with a comic full of talking heads— which, for me, makes for a fairly boring comic. What does everyone else here think? Does anyone agree with me? SUTTON: Well, Glenn, I think Next Gen was by and large a very cerebral show and dealt with some genuine science-fiction concepts, hence the “talkiness” you reference. Thus it, and the comics that sprang from it, allowed for much more intellectual stories. What you call talking heads I would call thought-provoking information. WEINSTEIN: Having written at least a couple of issues in TOS, TNG, DS9 [Star Trek: Deep Space 9], and VOY [Star Trek: Voyager], I found no real difference. BARR: That depends entirely on the skill of the writer. I’ve read TOS comics that made the source material seem like the dullest thing imaginable and Voyager comics that made the source materiel seem fresh and thrilling. Both are wrong. DAVID: Well, the only other major franchise I’ve been involved with is doing some [Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off] Spike stories for IDW, and yeah, that’s easier because my dialogue sensibilities are similar to Joss Whedon’s (actually, since I’ve been doing it longer, I should probably say his are similar to mine) and the nature of those stories doesn’t have the inherent static visual nature of Star Trek. However, at least when I was working on The Original Series comic, I again ran into conflict with Paramount over tonality. The other writers have it correct: There were distinct differences between original series and ST: TNG. But when I wrote my stories to be consistent with the style of ST: TOS, we received approvals and objections specifically because the stories didn’t sound like, or feel like, ST: TNG. To some degree, this may even have stemmed from Gene Roddenberry himself. I still remember when Gene strenuously objected to many elements of The Wrath of Khan, saying that the film wasn’t his view of Star Trek. Years later, when asked for examples of what he felt was wrong, he cited the scene where Kirk blows away the bloody slug that had just crawled out of Chekov’s ear. Gene’s assertion was that Kirk wouldn’t have shot it; he would have bagged it for future study. My reaction was, with all respect, that Gene was wrong: Picard would have studied it. Hell, he would have invited it out for tea. But Kirk consistently shot first and asked questions later. So basically I frequently encountered the spillover of a fundamental paradigm shift, because I was writing what Star Trek was, and there was a desire to make it over into what Star Trek had become. It didn’t always make for a smooth fit. Again, however, I emphasize that that was then; the people in charge of approvals nowadays are far more reasonable and much easier to deal with. WEIN: Well, since when I was adapting Trek for Gold Key, and later DC, the only franchise was the original franchise, it would be hard for me to say. I’ve never had an opportunity to play in those other sandboxes. MANGELS: In comics, Mike and I wrote mostly DS9, with some TNG, and an unpublished Voyager. We actually appreciated the darkness of DS9, as the melodrama and conflicting characters allowed an almost Shakespearean stage on which to play the characters. TNG was often too talky as Glenn said, and Voyager was kind of “stuck,” as it was in production while the comics were being produced, and thus characters couldn’t really grow.

You could actually do the most new and inventive things with original characters, guest cast, or the TOS crew, since their “canon” stories were no longer being told in film or television form. FRIEDMAN: I’ve adapted every franchise except Enterprise, and it seems to me they all adapt well. Maybe DS9 adapts the best, though, because it had the most complicated storylines. GREENBERGER: Can you compare what it was like writing Star Trek for different companies? SUTTON: Please do not get us started on this subject!!!! We all had certain editors and Paramount liaisons, after all. I had my favorites. Others had their enemies. (You were a delight, Bob.) For the most part, it was usually the Paramount liaison who gummed things up during my forays into Trek comics. On the other hand, I was fortunate to write for Tim Tuohy at Marvel and Mark Paniccia at Malibu. Both were knowledgeable about Trek and that went a long way. And you know what? I think we should acknowledge our editors. They were the ones stuck between the demands of Paramount and the demands of a good Trek comic book. The footwork—and paperwork— they had to perform was often considerable. GREENBERG: I’ve written the comics for Marvel and the e-books for Simon & Schuster. Both experiences have been, by and large, extremely positive and rewarding. I give a lot of the credit for that to my editors—I worked with Tim Tuohy at Marvel and I currently work with Keith DeCandido on the e-books. Both of them—extremely supportive, offering invaluable feedback and very helpful ideas. And, of course, Paramount has to approve everything, no matter who’s publishing it. I’d heard horror stories from writers about working on the Star Trek comics and novels, but by the time I’d gotten involved, different people were in charge of the approval process at Paramount and I found them to be very reasonable. There were a few instances where they initially rejected things I wanted to do, but I was actually able to change their minds. From what I’ve heard, that would have been nearly impossible just a few years earlier. For issue #2 of Untold Voyages, Paramount urged me to come up with a totally new origin for Saavik, to establish her as a full Vulcan instead of a VulcanRomulan hybrid. But I argued that even though her Romulan heritage had never been established onscreen, it was long established, through books and comics, that she was half-Romulan and the fans accepted that and embraced it and who was I to come along and change all that? So Paramount relented and I was able to keep things consistent with what previous writers had done—and add some new ideas of my own. I even wrote a caption for the issue, acknowledging the works of those writers—Vonda N. McIntyre, Mike W. Barr, and Carolyn Clowes. But unfortunately, for some reason, Paramount insisted that the caption be removed. I still regret that. Another example: issue #3, the one about McCoy and his daughter. My story was inspired by a script called “Joanna,” written by D. C. Fontana for the third season of The Original Series. In that script, McCoy’s daughter, Joanna, comes aboard the Enterprise and has a fling with Captain Kirk. This causes a major conflict between McCoy and Kirk, and between McCoy and Joanna. But Fontana’s script was heavily rewritten. The focus shifted to Chekov, McCoy’s daughter was changed to Chekov’s ex-girlfriend, and the episode

was filmed as “The Way to Eden,” the one with the space hippies. Well, I wanted to take a crack at bringing Fontana’s original story to life. I followed her basic idea, but added a lot of stuff of my own. Marvel and Paramount liked it, but Paramount was concerned that Kirk was too old for Joanna to get romantically involved with her. Paramount suggested that Joanna get involved with another crew member, and named as a possibility—wait for it—Mr. Chekov! I wrote a lengthy memo arguing that a conflict between McCoy and Chekov just wouldn’t have the same emotional resonance as a conflict between McCoy and Kirk. And using the Official Star Trek Chronology book, I made a case that there was probably no more than a 16-year age difference between Kirk and Joanna. In my story, Kirk was about 41 years old, which meant Joanna was about 25. Nothing scandalous there! In the end, Paramount relented, and they even let me include in the opening credits, “Inspired by a concept by D. C. Fontana,” which I really appreciated. WEINSTEIN: Although I wrote Star Trek for DC, Marvel/Malibu, and WildStorm, I did most of my 60 or so issues with DC. I was most comfortable writing fullscript stories, including complete dialogue and fairly detailed guidance for the artists on how I saw each page laid out. No matter which company, none of my editors had any problem with that—and neither did any of the artists, as far as I knew. So my experience didn’t vary much from one publisher to another. PASKO: As I experienced it, the main difference between the first Marvel run, which I worked on for several issues, and the DC run, for which I did only one fill-in, manifested itself more in the art than in the writing, I think. At Marvel, my editor [Louise Jones, now Simonson] was not particularly wellversed in Trek and tended to rely heavily on her writers, with the Paramount approval process as backup, so I had to be very careful and “fact check” any bit of lore I was the slightest bit uncertain of. You were my editor for the DC job, Bob, so I could be confident that if I screwed anything up, you’d have my back. But the art difference was that, in addition to having to feed a multiple-team system, Marvel couldn’t keep the same penciler on the book for more than two jobs, because they had a hell of a time finding people who could do likenesses on deadline. Everybody they brought in ran screaming after only one issue. They eventually developed this system where Tom Palmer, who was brilliant with portraiture, inked everybody— re-penciling the faces as he did so, usually using a light box—for about a half-dozen issues. The penciler would provide the layouts and tight pencils of the figures, and Tom would find photographic swipe that matched the poses. Thus, a head that, in the pencils, looked like a generic comic-book hero would come back from Tom as William Shatner. Obviously, the better the penciler, the better this worked; there were a few issues where the pencilers were very green and not particularly gifted, and Tom’s lush rendering of the heads atop their stiff, crude figures tended to give the thing a Mr. Potato Head look. DC had much better luck with the art than Marvel did, with its regular team doing dead-on likenesses. And my one job for them had a really superb artist, the late Gray Morrow. Writing for the Star Trek syndicated strip, however— by which I was tortured for several continuities—

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A DC TV Comic… …sort of. Star Trek was picked up by DC long after the publisher abandoned that “TV Comic” imprint, but Gene Roddenberry’s creation boldly continued to go for 56 issues in its first incarnation (starting with a Feb. 1984 cover-dated premiere), followed by an 80-issue run in its second incarnation, beginning with an Oct. 1989 first issue. © 2007 Paramount.

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was another matter entirely. Though, again, the writing was less of a problem than anticipating the deficiencies in the art, because in newspaper strips, what to do with the Sunday page in relation to the other six days’ story flow is always the biggest challenge, and this strip didn’t have a Sunday page [at the time]. The LA Times Syndicate was a fledgling operation and the reputation of the features it distributed was so modest that its own flagship paper, the Times, refused to carry a single one of them! Star Trek was supposed to have been their bid for the big time, but the deal was badly negotiated: the editorial budget was so small that the license fee ate up most of it. After meeting the writer’s price, they couldn’t afford a seasoned comics artist and they ended up with some kid straight out of Cal Arts, whom I’ll insist remain nameless even though his own career trajectory took care of that all by itself. This kid could barely draw coherent images, much less get the likenesses right. And storytelling? Don’t ask. Plus, the lead time was so tight, and the space constraints of strip layout—every panel is the same height—so challenging to this kid, that he could never get backgrounds into the shots (he wouldn’t have been able to afford the time for that much pencil-mileage anyway). So you never knew where you were—bridge, transporter, holo-deck, anywhere! To this day, I can’t comprehend how this stuff ever got approved. BARR: Marvel thought they were doing Trek a favor by publishing it as a Marvel comic, and didn’t care what the stories were about as long as the covers said Star Trek on them, and someone between the covers had pointed ears. They made no attempt to keep the stories consistent with filmed Trek, and any stories that did, did so due to the efforts of the writer and/or artist. They also used lots of writers who knew nothing about Trek. As I said earlier in this magazine [“Mike W. Barr’s Star Trek Comic-Book Memories” in BACK ISSUE #5], one issue in the original run of Marvel’s Trek was originally entitled “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.” Neither office nor writer knew that had been the title of an episode of TOS until I informed them of same. DC was swell. We had a good relationship with Paramount; Harve Bennett’s office paid much more attention than they had to to our little four-color pamphlet, making us really feel like members of the team, and the DC editorial staff realized how important it was to keep the comic as faithful to filmed Trek as possible. Malibu was likewise a pleasant experience; they realized that a good DS9 comic would make lots of goodwill for them, as well as lots of profit. TokyoPop also valued Paramount’s goodwill, and took care to make the stories as consistent as possible with the filmed series. DAVID: I only wrote for DC, Including a one-shot for WildStorm, so no. WEIN: Well, at Gold Key, I think I was the first writer on the book who had ever actually been a faithful viewer of the series, so much of my time beyond the actual scripting of each issue was basically educating the folks at Gold Key about the show: i.e., no, they don’t wear backpacks when they beam down to a planet—if they need anything, they just have it beamed down; no, the Enterprise does not have flames coming from the backs of the propulsion units; stuff like that. MANGELS: My first experience writing Trek comics was for DC. The late Kim Yale was editing Trek at the time, and she offered me a two-part fill-in story on their TNG book. It was going to be a horror-oriented concept that was a sequel to “Wolf in the Fold.”

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No less than a few weeks after I started scripting, from the Paramount-approved plot, a TNG episode aired that fully invalidated the core “reveal” of my story. We decided to go back to square one to re-plot, but Kim left DC shortly thereafter, and the Trek books immigrated through various editorial hands. Eventually the story starved to death behind a file cabinet. Luckily, I was fully paid. When I was writing for a Marvel promo magazine, I asked editor Tim Tuohy if I could take a crack at a fill-in story for him. He offered me a shot at a DS9 fill-in. I brought in Michael A. Martin as my co-writer. He’s a walking Trek encyclopedia, and I knew we got along, and that he wanted to break into writing. Over a decade later, we’re still together. Our fill-in story was not only approved in an hour (the quickest turnaround ever at Paramount), but Tim was instructed to make us the full-time DS9 writers. We wrote DS9 for Marvel until the whole line was restructured. We also wrote a Star Trek Unlimited one-shot which appeared, and lots of material that didn’t appear: a Voyager fill-in spotlighting Chakotay, the first issue of a Trek “What If?” series called Realities that was fully penciled, the script for a special that would have launched a very dark look at the Federation’s secret side, and a new series called Phase Three. It was actually Section 31 before that organization had been developed on DS9! Our time at Marvel was joyous. Our work sailed through approvals, and required very little reworking. The line was selling fairly well—outselling most of Marvel’s line, in fact—but licensing fees meant that Marvel decided to kill it all. The one brief job we did for WildStorm went well, but we would have liked to have done more. The editor at the time turned down a killer proposed miniseries we had that directly tied in to our first TNG novel, Section 31: Rogue. He felt the novel wouldn’t sell, or bring readers in, even though Pocket was willing to promo the comic in the back of the book. On publication, Rogue hit the best-seller list, and turned out to be the top-selling 2001 Trek title. Oops. FRIEDMAN: I only wrote Trek for DC, and I loved doing it. Can’t say what it was like elsewhere. GREENBERGER: Marty and Glenn each wrote a Marvel Trek comic that depicted differing versions of McCoy’s daughter. How important is it for the comic book stories not to contradict novels, video games, or RPGs? SUTTON: My head would explode!!!!!!!! The (destroyed) Crystalline Entity would look better than me!!!!! Okay, I’d love to utilize some of the continuity they create, but unless the license holder (Paramount, duh) lets our little creative community have some real fun, it isn’t going to happen. [sigh] GREENBERG: Ultimately, that’s up to Paramount. And they don’t consider any of the novels or comics or video games or RPGs canonical anyway. Only what’s been seen on TV or in the movies really counts [to them]. Speaking as a writer, I have no problem sticking to continuity that’s been established in novels or other ancillary sources, but only if I really like it, or if it at least makes sense to me. Like I said, when I was doing my Saavik story, Paramount wanted me to ignore the origin from the novels and the DC comics, even though it had been maintained consistently for, like, 15 years. It was my decision not to contradict what had previously been established about her, and I had to make a case for it. I liked all that stuff, so I wanted to stick with it.

On the other hand, my Joanna McCoy story totally contradicted both a novel and another Marvel comic story from the early ’80s. I felt I could do a better Joanna story than what had been done previously, so I ignored all that stuff. Plus, I did a sequel to the TV episode “Miri” that contradicted a novel from the early ’90s. And Paramount had no problem with any of that. Case-by-case basis, I guess. But, of course, we all have to be consistent with anything that was established in a TV episode or a movie, and that’s how it should be— even if that movie is Generations! [laughs] WEINSTEIN: It might be nice if we could do that, but it’s impossible to keep track of everything. Our only realistic option was to pretty much use what the TV series and movies showed as the basis for the comic stories. Also, if a memorable TV series character got killed off in a novel, and you come up with a great idea using that character for the comics, I think there’s nothing wrong with telling that great story in a different format. The fans certainly get a better range of stories than if we all tried to be slavishly consistent between all the media telling Star Trek stories. PASKO: I must confess I don’t understand the question. Of all writing-for-hire in comics, licensed-in stuff is the “most for-hire,” if you will, because even if your immediate client, the editor, thinks you’re a genius, the licensor, as the copyright holder in the material, has final approval and can flat-out reject your manuscript if they’re having a bad hair day. (The reason they rarely do so has less to do, I think, with their satisfaction than with the fact that the contractual phrase “such approval not to be unreasonably withheld” is so subjective and open to interpretation that nobody ever wants to test it in court. Frankly, I got so damn sick and tired of hearing “Patrick doesn’t like the shape of his head,” I kept wanting to call Paramount and say, “Okay, fine, we’ll trace a frickin’ egg. Now get off our backs.”) That said, since when does the writer get to decide what is or isn’t important? Less facetiously, but only slightly less: When I hear questions like this, my head goes to the place I worked from when I was on the other side of the desk, overseeing DC’s Trek line and Creative for DC’s custom comics, where the detachment of a clientservice mentality was mandated, not fanboy “passion” (also known as obsessive-compulsive disorder). I think it’s important that the continuities “line up” if the comic book in question is part of a larger, comprehensive licensing program, the whole of which will be sharing story elements with the comic, and the client’s planning some kind of interrelation between the products. And if the licensor’s brand managers know what they’re doing, they’ll provide that information to the editor up front. So the real answer is, “It’s important if Paramount says so.” BARR: Not important at all. If you regard every merchandising effort as canon, you’ll be paralyzed. The comic has to be faithful only to the filmed series it’s being adapted from. A well-thumbed copy of The Star Trek Encyclopedia will be an invaluable aid. DAVID: Well, since Paramount has made a point of saying that what we produce is “Star Trek fiction,” it’s probably not important at all. Each exists unto itself, and as long as you don’t contradict the movies or TV, you’re golden. And considering the times that the various TV shows have contradicted themselves, I don’t think it’s fair to hold the license tie-ins to a higher standard. That said, the time that I wrote a New Frontier comic, I made damned sure that it was closely

Star Trek Annual #1

consistent with New Frontier novel continuity. Since that entire piece of the universe is mine, I figure it’s really important to stay consistent. WEIN: Frankly, I couldn’t care less. To me, the only stories that are canonical are the TV and movie stories. All other ancillary stories, including all the comics, are flexible as needed. Since Paramount doesn’t worry about being consistent with the novels and games, why should we? MANGELS: First rule is: Don’t contradict the TV shows or movies, unless Paramount tells you to. Our 2007 Enterprise novel, The Good That Men Do, reveals that the final episode of the series was historically incorrect, and that records had been tampered with. The episode unintentionally contained an escape clause to allow invalidation. Good thing, since everyone except its two writers (also the producers) hated it! Beyond that, keeping as closely adherent to novel history is important. If your comic editor or Pocket Books or Paramount doesn’t catch an error, you can be certain that fans will! The arguments about canon are legendary! C o m i c s

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As to the games—either video or RPG or even CCG— they’re almost completely irrelevant. Their basic storyline may be usable, or characters or ships can be referenced, but the outcome of a game is mutable. You can’t expect a story that deals with canon to have 300 possible outcomes depending on dice rolls or joystick moves. One element that often gets left out of the continuity question is the animated series. Over the last ten years or so, Paramount is much more clearly allowing references and characters and events from the animated series into comics and novels. Mike and I work in animated stuff to our comics and novels all the time because we love the series. Additionally, as novel authors, we’ve worked in numerous references to comic-book characters and continuity in our books. For fans who pay attention to these “Easter Eggs,” it’s great fun. Those who don’t will just think it’s another character or interesting reference. FRIEDMAN: I think it’s extremely important that continuity be seamless, books fitting in with other books. I know the editors at Pocket disagree with this, saying they don’t want to let continuity keep them from telling good stories, and I see their point. But to me, contradictions pull away the curtain to reveal Oz. It’s hard to believe in Trek or any other fictional frame of reference if you’ve constantly got to patch up the contradictions as you read.

Star Trek Graphic Novel Dave Dorman’s cover painting for the hardcover edition of the DC-published graphic novel Star Trek: Debt of Honor (penciled by this issue’s cover and gallery artist, Adam T. Hughes!). © 2007 Paramount.

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GREENBERGER: It’s been said that pacing out a 22-page Star Trek comic can equal a 60-minute episode. True or false? SUTTON: Both. I’ve submitted a few teleplays (went nowhere in Braga’s office mill). I can offer no practical comparisons. Refer back to my statement about different genre disciplines. Sometimes it’s simply apples and oranges. GREENBERG: I say false. I liken it more to an episode of the animated series. WEINSTEIN: Based on my experience writing both comics and TV scripts, a page of comic script roughly equals a page of TV/movie script. So a 22-page comic roughly equals a half-hour of screen time (a half-hour animated show, as Glenn says). By this measure, it takes two comic issues to tell the equivalent of a one-hour TV episode story (which is only about 45 minutes long without commercials). A four- to five-issue miniseries equals a movie-length story. PASKO: Absolutely true when you’re doing selfcontained stories with no multi-issue arcs, strictly modeled on the original TV formatting, since the series did not have a serial format. Within those parameters, you can do it literally mathematically. If you’re working with 22 pages, then, mimicking the structure of the shows—short teaser and four acts—it would go like this: Up to two pages for the teaser, plus five pages per act, action rising to a climax every five pages (the “act-out”). Usually, you can get the equivalent of a teaser out of a full-page splash (attacking the scene as late as possible and using the Captain’s Log to fill in the backstory). That leaves an extra page if you need it, to play out some action more dramatically, or you want an entire page to play out a tag (I’d do that sometimes if I’d thought up one of those three-way exchanges between Kirk, Spock, and Bones that ended up with a groaner or a zinger). Obviously, in 22 pages of comics, there have to be fewer scenes per act and fewer beats within scenes, but having the device of the Captain’s Log to lean on for expository “bridges,” if necessary, helps a great deal. Thanks to the Log, it’s possible even within only 22 pages to hew to the classic structure of A story/B story/runner, which was especially important to get the Trek feel, since one of the show’s trademarks was the way it played the A and B stories off each other, usually with a crisis outside Enterprise (either on the planet-ofthe-week or in deep space, like a giant amoeba or doomsday weapon), representing a ticking clock that complicates a crisis aboard the ship, or vice-versa. BARR: False. It would take two issues of a standard comic book to decently tell a 60-minute episode, I think. DAVID: I don’t know what that means. It takes ten minutes to experience a comic as opposed to a 60-minute episode. Can you tell a self-contained story in one issue? Sure. Actually, when you consider budget constraints, a comic can surpass an episode. Why? Because any episode is limited by its special effects budget. Not so in comics: You can produce stuff on the printed page that would cost a half-million dollars on TV. You’re limited only by your imagination and the artist’s talent. WEIN: Honestly, I think it depends on the story you’re telling. All of my Gold Key stories were singleissue and I tried to structure them like TV episodes, but a number of my DC issues were multi-parters and I did the same thing there. So, it’s six of one, half-dozen of the other, I suppose. MANGELS: In my opinion, it more equals about 22 minutes of an episode!

FRIEDMAN: As I noted above, true. That is, if you want it to. SUTTON: I agree with MJF. The story can be told long, or short—it’s the pacing that makes the difference. A TV script is paced at a minute a page. Comics don’t have that constraint, obviously. Perhaps we’re talking about a false sense of perceived time versus real time, as Peter suggests. Then again, who here has done a comic-book adaptation of a feature film? Did a 120-minute movie come out to 120 comic-book pages? GREENBERGER: Star Trek on the air lent itself to drama, comedy, action, thought-provoking morality tales, etc. How do those translate to comic-book stories? SUTTON: Perfectly!! A good story is a good story!! But sometimes it gets lost in the translation between the demands of each genre. How often have you read a terrific novel and it’s made into a horrific film or TV movie? Yikes! GREENBERG: Extremely well—depending on the writer, of course. Peter, for example, managed to do everything you mentioned very, very successfully. He wrote a very strong AIDS allegory and an absolutely wonderful, beautiful love story featuring Scotty. And I remember laughing out loud at some of the humorous stuff Peter did, especially in the second run of the DC series. And Mike Barr was the first to demonstrate how Star Trek could be translated successfully into a comic book. The key was not doing it as illustrated television episodes, but as actual comic books. He told big, sprawling, epic, action-packed adventures that would have required a budget of about $300 million if they were done as movies. The Mirror Universe Saga. The fourparter that kicked off the first DC run, about the Federation and the Klingons being manipulated into a war. The first and second Annuals. And it’s important to note that in the midst of these epics, Mike never lost sight of the characters, the humanity, the morality. When I did Untold Voyages, I never got the chance to do a multi-part epic, or a completely humorous issue, but I think I told some dramatic, heartfelt stories and I always looked for ways to include some humor. A funny line here and there, or an in-joke—at one point, I had Chekov complain that he’s been typecast. And I strived to have a moral in each story—whether it was to never give up on yourself, or the importance of compassion, or how you have to own up to your responsibilities and your failures. But really, I think any comic-book series, regardless of whether it’s Star Trek or a super-hero series, should lend itself to drama, comedy, action, and thoughtprovoking morality tales. The best ones do. WEINSTEIN: A good Star Trek story should work in any medium, no matter the type of story. Now, some of comedy is in how actors perform their lines. But since

virtually all readers of the Star Trek comics knew the characters and the actors who played them from the TV shows and movies, they could “hear” the actors’ voices and inflections in their heads as they’d read the comic. As long as you wrote dialogue faithful to how the characters would talk on-screen, any style of story would work. PASKO: Anything you can do in a movie or TV series (except offer actual movement and sound, of course) you can also do in comics. How successfully you do it really depends on the skill of whoever is controlling the scene structure and pacing. Certainly, episodic TV can get away with more talking heads than comics can, but in comics you can still play the kind of dramatic beats that can only be carried in dialogue (e.g., what the T. J. Hooker writers used to call “Shatner’s Mandatory Jesus Speech”), but you’ve got to limit them to one page each and keep them few and far between to hold the action-oriented readers’ attention. Which is why I think Trek comics are better done by writers working full-script who have a strong command of structure. The three-page talk scenes with four panels a page that

Beyond The Original Series Star Trek comics have often sported “floating head” covers, but few artists could illustrate them with the flair and likeness accuracy of Jerome K. Moore. Moore’s original cover artwork to Star Trek: The Next Generation #1 (Oct. 1989), which launched an 80-issue run of the title. © 2007 Paramount.

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you saw in the most recent attempts at Trek comics were, in my opinion, the creative kiss of death for them. BARR: You can do all those kinds of stories in comics— as well as any other kind—but you have to take into account that comics is a silent, static medium without the use of cues such as music stings, sound effects, and romantic music, as in the TV show. The skill of the writer and artist have to compensate for the lack of those. DAVID: The same, I’d think. WEIN: What difference does it make which medium you’re in? Good stories are good stories, period. MANGELS: Well, the drama and action are easy to do in comics, but comedy is a bit harder. The comedy has to be one of two varieties: it has to come from the characters themselves, in regard to dialogue or actions; or it has to come from the situation. The latter is particularly difficult, as “funny actions” often aren’t that funny when drawn.

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As to the thought-provoking morality tales, this goes back to Star Trek being allegorical at its core. Not all of the comic stories Mike and I wrote had allegories or “thinking” plots, but we tried to work them in. It’s harder to do that with the paucity of dialogue that comics afford, but given enough room and the right story, it can be done. FRIEDMAN: They translate well. The hardest to pull off is comedy, because timing is so important, and that’s hard to engineer on the page. GREENBERGER: Can any artist pull off Star Trek properly? If not, what sort of artist might do it best? SUTTON: Bias alert!! Leonard Kirk did the most amazing ST: DS9 work with me at Malibu Comics. He delineated the resemblances and expressions beautifully. And Terry Pallot crashed the Voyager in “Splashdown” (Marvel) that was totally awesome!!! (Bob—you bad boy, are you trying to start an argument?) Every artist has his or her own vision and style, just as a writer does. Readers respond to one or the other, both, or none of the above. The same is true (and more so) for the writers and directors of the ST programs. There have been some stinker episodes! Who “pulled off Star Trek properly” then, huh? GREENBERG: In my opinion—no, not every artist can pull off Star Trek properly. I think a Star Trek comic needs an artist who can capture the likenesses of the actors without making the artwork look like nothing more than illustrated photographs. And it shouldn’t look like the artist just traced the actors’ heads from photos and pasted them on to the characters’ bodies. That sticks out like a sore thumb. The art should look like comic-book art—there should be a lot of energy and excitement in the pages—but you should also be able to recognize who the characters are. Clearly, not every artist is capable of all that. I always wanted to see Ron Frenz take a crack at Star Trek. He’d worked on Marvel’s Star Wars comics, and the issues he did were just fantastic They were very much done as comic books, but you knew damn well who each of the characters were just by looking at them. Ron did an entry or two for DC’s Who’s Who in Star Trek series, and I said, “For crying out loud, this guy should be working on the regular comic!” And Al Williamson—man, I would have loved to see him do Star Trek. His Star Wars comics were phenomenal. Talk about capturing a live-action universe in comic-book form! I thought the first run of Marvel comics, back in the ’70s, occasionally had really good art, due mostly to Tom Palmer being the inker. On the DC comics, I thought Tom Sutton did a pretty good Kirk and McCoy— but his Spock never looked right to me, and it was often difficult to distinguish Sulu from Chekov. But the issues drawn by Gray Morrow looked terrific. And I thought Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr produced some of the best-looking Star Trek comics of all time—great likenesses, but not

to the point where they looked like slavishly traced photos. What they did was very much a Star Trek comic book. On Untold Voyages, I was lucky enough to work with Michael Collins. He did a great job. A pleasure to work with, and he really knew his stuff. WEINSTEIN: Based on the wildly varying results, apparently some artists do it better than others. A licensed property like Star Trek really requires the characters on the page to look like the actors on-screen. It really bothered me when the likenesses were way off. I’d imagine working on something like Star Trek might be frustrating for some artists, since Kirk had to look like Shatner, the bridge and the Enterprise had to look right, etc. I kept that in mind when I wrote scripts, and tried to include fun things—new alien characters, settings, and ships—to give the artists something more interesting to do beyond copying photos from the TV series and movies. PASKO: Super-hero comics’ idea of dynamism isn’t really necessary, and I would go so far as to say that with Trek, the conventional wisdoms of super-hero art probably work against the goal of simulating the atmosphere of the source material. Two of the ways you “pump up” the excitement in the Spandex genre is by liberally using movement into camera and by drawing figures that always seem tense, coiled, ready to spring into action, as well as facial expressions that “overact” just a bit to compensate for the lack of an audio track, to enhance the sense of urgency. This is not an option readily available to Trek artists because there is no photo swipe like that; actors who mug, lean into the camera, and wave their arms wildly usually don’t get much work on film, Shatner notwithstanding. And in the original series, I think most of the actors tried hard to underplay, almost vindictively, to make themselves look better by contrast with Shatner, of whom we now read reports suggesting he was a pretty disagreeable sort on the set. So The Original Series had its fair share of quiet moments, and if the comic-book artists were to try to impose super-heroic action values on such material, the result would be laughable. SUTTON (interjects): And I have personally experienced an example of that. The artist who drew my first three issues of Voyager for Marvel was known in Europe for his dynamic super-hero art style. Why he was assigned to the premiere Trek title is beyond my ken, but he drew Janeway as if she were Jean Grey. Um, and then I’m reminded of the X-Men/Star Trek crossover Marvel did…. PASKO: I think you’re better off with artists who are naturalistic enough to do a reality-based strip, but have no stumbling blocks when it comes to fantastic or futuristic visuals (which is why someone like Curt Swan should have been perfect, but his few attempts at Trek struck me as lackluster because he couldn’t get into the right frame of mind). And if you’re going to do a light episode a la “Tribbles,” then you need someone who also knows the difference between light comedy (which you play visually straight; no mugging) and a Tex Avery gag. Above all, you need artists who can do credible likenesses and who are not so lazy that they can’t be bothered to closely follow photo swipe, or who scrimp on backgrounds. The sets are important with this property—authenticlooking starship interiors are key to the fidelity to the source material that this licensed property, with its vigilantly watchful fan base, requires. When I was supervising the department that produced the last two years of DC’s Trek run, I think the

editors found a really great choice for the property—a guy named Steve Erwin, whose naturalism and gift for likenesses gave us some very nice art (too bad the scripts were generally messes in terms of structure and pacing). But, to prove my point, after DC’s Trek license was not renewed, Erwin tried to reenter the super-hero end of the business where he’d started (with Marv Wolfman on Teen Titans) and found he was no longer in as much demand because, in the post-Image environment, he was not seen as “exciting” enough. BARR: No, and any editor or company that believes this is going to rue the day it ever heard of Star Trek. An artist with a flare for the romantic and the swashbuckling. Some background in science fiction wouldn’t hurt, but characterization and mood are always more important in Trek—at least, in TOS Trek— than are props, which can be drawn from swipe. (In TNG, it’s the other way around; the props are more important than the characters.) The artist I’d most like to have seen do TOS Trek is Alex Raymond.

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DAVID: No. If you have an artist who favors big action sequences and splash pages, this is not the artist for you. You need someone who, again, can take scenes filled with talking and make them look interesting. Also, you need someone who can create convincing likenesses. Poor likenesses cripple the writer’s ability to convey the story because It will serve as a distraction to the readers. I have no trouble making Riker sound like Riker or Kirk sound like Kirk, but I’m faced with a problem that writers for the actual series never have to contend with: TV fans can and will complain about a lot, but none of them are ever going to say, “Y’know, Patrick Stewart just looked wrong this week. His head was shaped funny and his nose was too long. Just ruined the episode for me.” WEIN: Sadly, no. There’s never been a better comicbook artist than Jack Kirby, but I think he would have done a terrible Trek. The best artist for any licensed product is someone who can do likenesses of the actors and can make talking-head scenes, of which there are always too many, look interesting. MANGELS: I don’t think every artist can, or even most artists. For material based on screen characters, it has to be someone who can do likenesses.

Cosmic Crossover This double-page spread by penciler Gordon Purcell and inker Terry Pallot is from the first of the four-issue Star Trek: The Next Generation/Star Trek: Deep Space Nine miniseries of 1994. The Star Trek team-up was also a crossover between two publishers: DC then had the TNG rights and Malibu, the DS9 license. © 2007 Paramount.

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Sometimes this is even a legal question, as Patrick Stewart or Jonathan Frakes or others have likeness approval. Beyond that, the uniforms and “Trek tech” all have to look correct, from the ships to phaser blasts, to the style of Klingon ridges or Ferengi lobes. More importantly, if an artist is not a Star Trek fan to begin with, they’re going to draw crap Star Trek. You have to love the shows and know the details. FRIEDMAN: The artists who do the best Trek work suppress their egos and their styles to accommodate realism. However, it’s a mistake to slavishly reproduce photo reference. There still has to be some stylistic nuance. The conversation continues this very month in TwoMorrows’ Write Now! #16, as the authors debate the value of creating unique-to-the-comic characters, world building, serialized storytelling, and figure out which opponent is more fun to write, Klingons or Romulans. BOB GREENBERGER has worked at Starlog Press, DC Comics, Gist Communications, Marvel Comics, DC, and World Weekly News, in that order. He edited DC’s Star Trek line for eight years and segued over to writing for Pocket’s Star Trek fiction line, so he knows a thing or two about the franchise.

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DC Comics’ adaptations of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies began not with the first film, 1978’s Superman: The Movie, but with the third and fourth films. Superman and Superman II instead appeared as large-format, tabloid-sized “Collectors’ Editions,” All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-62 and DC Special Series #25. Both stated on their covers that articles would focus on the “stars, costumes, set designs, and special effects.” They appeared in 1979 and in 1981, priced at $2.50 and $2.95, respectively. Actual movie photos, along with preproduction and production sketches and paintings, were used. In both specials, comic-book artist Ric Estrada provided pen-and-ink drawings of the director and camera crew filming on-location. And to further denote the comics connection, past comic-book panels were juxtaposed next to similar movie scenes throughout. Bob Rozakis was listed as a contributor to the first movie special and by the time of the second, he’d become the production manager at DC. Rozakis doesn’t remember what his specific roles were in the movie editions, but does recall that “I had a lot to do with the second movie contest, which had readers answering a variety of questions. I got to meet Christopher Reeve when he came to the DC office to pick the winning postcards. I also was the one who ‘smuggled’ him out of the building via the freight elevator, when crowds started forming in our lobby and in the main lobby of the building.” When asked why the actual screenplays of the first two movies weren’t made into comics, Bob responds, “As far as the policy on doing the adaptations of the movies, I believe there was something in the contract with [Superman screenwriter] Mario Puzo that would have required DC making a substantial payment to him for adapting his script and they weren’t willing to do that. The deals for Superman III and IV were different.”

Superman: The Movie Comic Our fantasy cover for a DC adaptation that didn’t happen. Special thanks to artist Steve Stanley (you must check out his site at www.stanleyart.com!!) for his dead-on interpretation of Christopher Reeve as Superman, and to designer Rich Fowlks for cobbling this together. Superman TM & © 2007 DC Comics. Superman: The Movie © 1978 Warner Bros.

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SUPERMAN III A friend in London called the Superman III and IV movies “rubbish.” My brother asked why I’d write about two films that so many people hate. With less respect for scientific principles than the comic books would have dared, the suspension of disbelief in both was certainly pushed beyond its limits. Superman III (1983) was remembered for its camp and attempts to be funny; Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), for its reduced budget and bad special effects. By choice, I had not seen the films since they were first released and, though determined to find the good in them, I knew there would be some drudgery upon their re-viewing. I also knew that discussing the adaptations would be more pleasant in that, at least, both contained artwork by Curt Swan. In terms of the writing, though difficult to add anything to the adaptations that wasn’t in the films, I trusted that, upon rereading, the capable writers of both had the skill to do so. Longtime Superman and The Flash comic-book scribe Cary Bates scripted the third movie/comic tie-in and Bob Rozakis penned the fourth. One way Cary was able to improve III was by showing what Clark/Superman was thinking. Bates’ well-placed thought balloons allowed some of the scenes to make more sense. There was another way Bates made the comic book more logical and consistent. In the film, when Superman and Clark split into separate beings and were doing battle, Kent kept alternating between seeming mortal in some scenes, yet as powerful as his alter ego in others. One minute he was easily kayoed, rolling toward a metal shredder on a conveyor belt. Then, after crying out while supposedly being crushed in the junkyard where the fight took place, he suddenly appeared unscathed and fought back with super-powers. In the adaptation, Cary showed the same scene but there was no groaning with faux pain, no histrionics to milk the audience for sympathy; we knew Clark

And Da Winna Is…

wouldn’t die. Instead, the dramatic effect came from seeing the shredder implode into dust due to Clark’s invulnerability. Bates simply had two evenly matched beings super-duke it out. Cary Bates discusses how it felt to capture the essence of something from another medium compared to creating his own tales from scratch: “On balance it’s actually kind of a drag, since by definition you’re so firmly locked in to the screenplay. The main problem is usually figuring out where to cut, since a two-hour movie must be considerably compressed to fit in a 22–30 page comic book.” [Bates actually had 48 pages for the retelling of Superman III.] Cary added that his editor, the late Julius (Julie) Schwartz, “...probably felt a bit constricted creatively, too, for the reasons I’ve already mentioned.” In the Superman III comic, at times artist Curt Swan worked to capture Christopher Reeve’s and Robert Vaughn’s looks, but he didn’t appear to try for Richard Pryor’s likeness in the Gus Gorman character. When asked whether there might have been a legal reason for this, Bates doesn’t remember. He notes, however, that “considering what a gifted artist Curt was, I’m sure he would’ve drawn a more accurate likeness had he been legally permitted to do so.” Director Richard Donner was fired during the making of the second film, and many viewers felt that Richard Lester’s directorial vision in III did not live up to the quality of the first two. Thanks to two actors, there were a couple of things to like in the third film that could not translate to the comic: Annette O’Toole is a self-professed lifetime fan of the Man of Steel, which showed in the honesty of her performance as III’s Lana Lang, and it is still evident through her portrayal as young Clark’s mother in the Smallville television series. And though Chris Reeve got to play Clark as the comic buffoon a fair amount and shine in some warm scenes with Lana and her son, his Superman was under-utilized in Superman III. An exception was when Superman became malevolent due to artificial kryptonite. In the few lines he uttered during those scenes, Superman’s underlying desperation was briefly evocative of actor Jimmy Stewart’s performance in the film It’s a Wonderful Life. C o m i c s

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Christopher Reeve pulls the winning postcard for the 1978 “Great Superman Movie Contest,” observed by Bob Rozakis (left) and thenDC president Sol Harrison. Photo courtesy of Bob Rozakis.

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Cary Bates has no outstanding memories about III ’s adaptation, “but definitely on the movie. Before shooting commenced DC and Warners were unhappy with some aspects of the script, so in ’82 I was sent to England and Pinewood Studios as the ‘DC advisor’ who would convey these concerns to Richard Lester and his screenwriters, David and Leslie Newman, none of whom were ‘anxious for outside input,’ to say the least. They relinquished some small points, but my principal notes—play up more of the ‘bad Clark’ subplot and cut back on some of the slapstick stuff … make Robert Vaughn’s ‘monster computer’ a more convincing menace—were pretty much ignored. On the upside, however, it was on this trip that I first met Superman producer Ilya Salkind, for whom I later got to work on several interesting projects [including the Superboy TV series, the Christopher Columbus movie, and an aborted Superman V script]. He and I still stay in touch to this day.”

SUPERMAN IV In the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace comic book, writer Bob Rozakis had the advantage of more pages to work with than Cary Bates did in the third adaptation (64 vs. 48 pages). Both men had the challenge of condensing the screenplays and leaving out extraneous scenes; conversely, Bob had the space to include a few key events not seen in the film. His was like a “Director’s Cut.” Rozakis confirms: “I was working from a movie script. Quite a bit of what was in that script never made it into the movie. I remember when I finally did see the movie, I said, ‘Wait—where was this part … and that part?’” Extra scenes in the comic book included a sevenpage sequence in which Luthor created an initial artificial being from one of Superman’s hairs, using energy found on Earth. This “prototype” that did not appear during the movie’s original run does appear in restored footage on a 2006 DVD reissue. He was a Frankenstein-looking creature that was not as powerful and had less intelligence than the one whom the Man of Steel later inadvertently baked for Luthor in the sun’s fires. Because the second super-villain, a true Nuclear Man, had the genetic memories of the first, he knew where to return to Luthor’s hideout upon flying back from the sun. This alone gave the comic more logic than the movie. It also didn’t hurt that Rozakis had the Nuclear Man fly to Earth in the buff, having just been “born,” while in the movie he came from Sol fully costumed. Despite these improvements, Bob notes, “The thing I remember most was that the movie script ignored scientific fact. In one part, it was daytime in Metropolis, Moscow, and China at the same time— pretty much impossible! And one of the key elements relied on the sun rising on the moon—which doesn’t happen since the moon doesn’t rotate. But I do agree with you that the comic-book version made more sense than the movie.” Rozakis modestly doesn’t mention that he, with editor Jonathan Peterson, subtly and skillfully altered and added those scenes to the comic which “fixed” many of the glaring inconsistencies in director Sidney J. Furie’s 1987 film release. To credit director Furie for a job well done in one regard, his filmed battles between the Man of Steel and the Nuclear Man, while less fondly remembered than the fights between super-powered beings in Superman II and III, were less earthbound and more ambitious, despite IV’s lesser budget.

It was mentioned earlier that both the Superman III and IV adaptations contained Curt Swan artwork. However, there was a 15-page middle section in IV that was penciled by Don Heck. When asked why, Rozakis answers, “I don’t recall for sure, but I believe Curt fell ill and Don was pulled in to keep the project moving. It was, after all, something they wanted published on schedule. While I would have preferred all-Curt, I thought the book turned out pretty well.” The third movie adaptation had one inker (Sal Amendola) as opposed to four embellishers on the fourth (Frank McLaughlin, Al Vey, John Beatty, and Dick Giordano). Another difference was that Swan had the right to at least capture some of the stars’ likenesses in the Bates-scripted III adaptation, while in the Rozakis-written IV book, Bob relates that “we were not allowed to use the likenesses of the actors, which is why the ‘regular’ characters look as they always did in the comics and the movie-specific ones were more generic.” With some of the comic version’s strengths listed, what did the Superman IV movie offer that its adaptation couldn’t? Like with Superman III, at least one actor’s achievements were significant, this time Margot Kidder’s. As Lois Lane, her relationship with Clark and Superman was finally settled for her in terms of her feelings for both. She loved Clark as a friend; her appreciation, nurturing, and defense of Clark was evident. At the same time she conveyed true love for Superman, irrespective of his powers. It wasn’t her fault that he was/is the same guy; Chris Reeve played the two parts so differently that she reacted to both with an honesty reflective of her outstanding performance. One further strength of the third and fourth movies (and all Superman films since the first one starring Reeve) that the comics could never convey was John Willams’ outstanding musical score.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Likenesses Page 12 of DC’s Superman IV adaptation by Curt Swan and Dick Giordano, featuring Clark, Lois, and Mariel Hemingway’s character of Lacy Warfield. Superman TM & © 2007 DC Comics.

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THE SUPERMAN V (AND VI) THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

film to make, with its non-humanoid beings from other worlds, including a mighty warrior named Gunge. In a In my 2002 book Curt Swan: A Life in perfect world, Christopher Reeve Comics, artist/writer Jerry Ordway would have assumed the mantle once recalled that the 1988 prestige-format more. And for the fourth time in five project Superman: The Earth Stealers films, Reeve’s Man of Steel would have started out as an idea for a film: “It was fought a super-battle with his physical one of those projects that had been equal. (Thank goodness we have this sitting in a flat-file, fully penciled, for 47-page squarebound “adaptation,” awhile. They didn’t really know what written by Byrne, penciled by Swan, to do with it. Originally, it had started inked by Ordway, edited by Denny out as a John Byrne storyline for a O’Neil, and colored by Bill Wray, of a Superman movie. It was like a proposal film that never was.) that Warner Bros. paid him some big Earlier, it was mentioned that Cary bucks to write, like a treatment. It Bates also wrote an aborted Superman V would have been around the time of movie script. If Byrne’s Superman: The the fourth [Superman movie], Quest Earth Stealers had gotten made, this for Peace, that came out around the Superman TM & © 2007 DC Comics. could have been the sixth Superman fiftieth anniversary.” The Earth Stealers could have been a most interesting and challenging motion picture in the series. According to Bates, “The script started off as Superman: The New Movie and was later retitled Superman Reborn. I wrote the script with Mark Jones, who I worked with on the Superboy TV series. Brainiac was the villain (we incorporated both the ’60s green-skinned guy and the ’80s robotic version into one character). He shrunk and stole Metropolis and added it to his collection, which was obviously a setup to intro the city of Kandor, which featured heavily. For a large part of the movie Superman was back to being Kal-El again, miniaturized and living in Kandor without super-powers. The film ended with Superman revealing his Clark Kent identity to Lois and asking her to marry him. “Contrary to some rumors, it was never written as a vehicle for Gerard Christopher [the second actor to play Superboy on the series] but was planned as Christopher Reeve’s swansong in the role. Reeve had read the script and was definitely interested [as of late 1989], but before any serious negotiations could get underway the Salkinds sold all the Superman rights back to Warner Bros. [in 1993] … and that, as they say, was that.” Sounds like a dream project that would have also adapted beautifully to comics, for those who embraced Silver Age additions to the mythology such as the Bottle City of Kandor and enjoyed two decadesworth of Cary’s Superman comic-book tales. What some were calling the “unofficial” Superman V movie finally got made as, of course, Superman Returns (2006). Most are aware of its arduous path to fruition, which included several other film treatments— such as the one by moviemaker and comic-book writer Kevin Smith—being solicited and left unused. Though there was a new Superman, Brandon Routh, he was definitely working within Christopher Reeve’s template, in a film whose plot partially hearkened back to Superman: The Movie. It was of a different era, however, not only because it was made after Reeve was too old to play the part but because it will always be remembered as occurring after his devastating spinal cord injury and eventual death. The tradition of adapting screenplays to the comics continued, with former Superman scribe Martin Pasko called upon to do so in 2006 (not to mention Marv Wolfman’s prose novelization of same). In their own good time, articles will also be written about Superman Returns’ place in the historical canon of the Man of Steel.

The Adventure Continues… …in our dreams. Our version of a Superman II DC comic we wished would’ve seen print. The art is from a French movie poster for one of movies’ greatest sequels; special thanks to Heritage Auctions for the poster art. Superman TM & © 2007 DC Comics. Superman II © 1980 Warner Bros.

Collector and Superman scholar EDDY ZENO is the author of Curt Swan: A Life in Comics (Vanguard Productions, 2002).

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Those of you old enough to have been reading comics during the time of the 1964 New York World’s Fair (or who have collected comics from that era) might have been intrigued by a DC Comics house ad (at right) promoting a wax museum exhibit featuring a battle between the Man of Steel and the one-eyed myth-monster Cyclops. BACK ISSUE reader Jim Alexander had for years wondered if photos of that exhibit existed … and his curiosity led him to sci-fi historian, uber-collector, and actor Bob Burns (whose collection of memorabilia from sci-fi, horror, and fantasy films is unrivaled—and chronicled in the book It Came from Bob’s Basement, by Burns and John Michlig). Burns tells Alexander and BI, “A friend of mine saw this exhibit at the fair, and knowing that I’m a big Superman fan took three pictures for me. I wonder what ever happened to these wax figures, as Superman really looks like Kirk Alyn and is great.” Although these photos predate BACK ISSUE’s ’70s/’80s realm, they are too good a discovery not to share, and we thank both Bob Burns and Jim Alexander for providing them to us….

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If you were to poll comics professionals on their influences outside of comic books, you’d find Ray Harryhausen’s name topping many lists. If you spoke with these pros personally, you’d see their eyes twinkle as they recalled Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation in the fantasy films to which they devoted countless childhood Saturday afternoons. That twinkle might fade to awe for the artists among the lot, since Harryhausen’s meticulously crafted models (especially the monsters!) torch-lit their own attention to detail which today guides their pencil, brush, or mouse. Like those artists who drew inspiration from this stop-motion master, Harryhausen himself found a muse in Willis O’Brien, the trailblazer effects wizard behind the animated title star (among other creatures) of King Kong (1933). Harryhausen’s fingerprints—as a visual effects director, producer, and even writer—can be found on a range of inventive movies released throughout the second half of the 20th century, including Mighty Joe Young (1949), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Valley of Gwangi (1969),

Michael Eury

Ray Harryhausen Presents: Wrath of the Titans Four issues, May through Aug. 2007 Writers: Darren G. Davis and Scott Davis Penciler: Nadir Balan Colorist: Joey Campos

Ray Harryhausen Presents: 20 Million Miles More Four issues, June through Sept. 2007 Writer: Scott Davis Penciler: Alex Garcia Colorist: Joey Campos

Ray Harryhausen Presents: Sinbad: Rogue of Mars Five issues, Sept. 2007 through Jan. 2008 Writer: Greg Thompson Artist: Jeff Cruz

Ray Harryhausen and some of his creations. Photo courtesy of Arnold Kunert.

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Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and Clash of the Titans (1981). It might not be entirely accurate, however, to regard Ray Harryhausen as someone from “outside of comic books.” Upon occasion, films featuring Harryhausen’s scaly behemoths and mythological misfits have been adapted into comic-book form. Thanks to BlueWater Productions, three of Harryhausen’s landmark film properties—20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Sinbad (the star of a franchise of movies), and Clash of the Titans— are the basis for a trio of all-new miniseries, part of a line of Ray Harryhausen Presents titles which launched in May 2007. BlueWater president Darren G. Davis (with whom we spoke in this issue’s Isis in comics article) joins the mastermind himself—Ray Harryhausen—for this exclusive BACK ISSUE interview about these new movie-inspired comic books.

Interviews conducted by email between May 3rd and 8th, 2007.

MICHAEL EURY: Mr. Harryhausen, it’s wonderful to have your characters back in comics again! But why comic books as a medium to continue your film franchises? Why not animation, or computer games, or mobile or online downloads? RAY HARRYHAUSEN: Darren Davis approached me and my producer Arnold Kunert when we were in Bellingham, Washington, as part of my 2006 book tour to promote The Art of Ray Harryhausen. We liked what Darren had to say about doing comic books about the continuing adventures of some of my characters, so we agreed to collaborate. It’s possible that video games and other items may eventually be developed, but not at this time. EURY: Beyond the story conception and develop© 2006 Ray Harryhausen. ment, how involved are you with the actual production of the comic books’ writing and art? HARRYHAUSEN: Darren and his artists are developing the storylines for the comic books. I have final approval on the subject matter. Darren, Arnold, and I have a contract which stipulates that Arnold and I have final artistic control over the comic books’ content. EURY: Ray, tell me about your artwork that’s being reprinted in the comics. HARRYHAUSEN: Darren is reprinting some of my artwork which is already being sold in signed and limited-edition versions by the Every Picture Tells a Story gallery in Santa Monica, California. DARREN DAVIS: We will also be doing a couple of colorized covers by Ray based on some of his original artwork. The one for 20 Million Miles More will be for issue #3. EURY: Is it true that the Ray Harryhausen Presents concepts are also being developed for film and TV? HARRYHAUSEN: We are in the process of discussing possible Ray Harryhausen Presents projects for theatrical and television presentation, but nothing has been finalized at this time. EURY: The 1957 film 20 Million Miles to Earth involved the lizard-like Ymir, who grew to colossal size

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Back Issues You Might Have Missed

Sinbad © Ameran Films Ltd./Columbia Pictures/Morningside Movies. Titans © MGM/Titan Productions.

The Conan-spawned “sword and sorcery” craze of the 1970s gave Sinbad a welcome home at Marvel Comics: Worlds Unknown #7 and 8 (June and Aug. 1974) adapted The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Adaptation by Len Wein (writer), George Tuska (penciler), and Vince Colletta (inker). Marvel Spotlight #25 (Dec. 1975) adapted The 7th (“Seventh” in the comic) Voyage of Sinbad. Adaptation by John Warner (writer) and Sonny Trindad (artist). Six years later, in 1981, Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans was adapted into 52-page, tabloid-sized graphic-novel form in by Golden Press. Adaptation by Mary Carey (writer) and Dan Spiegle (artist).

and made a mess of Italy. It’s now 50 years later: Where does the BlueWater sequel, 20 Million Miles More, begin? DAVIS: It reimagines the classic Ray Harryhausen sci-fi epic for a new generation. It’s been 50 years since the strange being from Venus rampaged through Italy. So it has been 50 years of secrets, misinformation, and outright lying. Once the world was convinced that the Ymir was a giant hoax and the mission to Venus never happened, it was lulled back to sleep, ignorant of the truth. But no one counted on genetics. Years of secret testing and breakthroughs in many of the gray areas of science created unintended consequences that could bring the Earth to its knees … and only an 11-year-old child can save it. EURY: In the new series, there’s a government cover-up behind Ymir’s original rampage. In the real world, many of the Bush administration’s critics charge that the president and vice president feed misinformation to the masses. Is the new 20 Million Miles More series “torn from today’s headlines”? HARRYHAUSEN: I’m not a political person. If readers want to infer something from the comic books about today’s current political climate, they may do so. However, I have never, to my knowledge, included anything deliberately political in any of my films. EURY: What type of beast (or beasts) appear in the sequel, and is Rome “ground zero” again? DAVIS: The Ymir character is back but in a different context. We will actually be destroying Beverly Hills in this one! We will also see the home planet of the Ymir. EURY: Ray, your adventurous hero Sinbad the Sailor is back in Sinbad: Rogue of Mars. Didn’t you originally intend this to be a film? HARRYHAUSEN: Yes, we did some preliminary work on a Sinbad project on Mars in the late 1970s. EURY: What’s the basic plot of the Sinbad miniseries? DAVIS: Eight years have passed since the assassination of the benevolent Zhar Dadgar and the curious disappearance of his heir. Akhdar, Dadgar’s villainous nephew, has usurped the Dozhakian throne and enslaved the Azurian people, igniting a

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civil war within the once peaceful kingdom. A prophecy foretells the coming of a stranger from a distant land who will vanquish the false king and restore the rightful ruler to the throne. Could Sinbad be that stranger, or is he merely a pawn in Akhdar’s treacherous game? EURY: How does Ray Harryhausen Presents’ vision of life on Mars in Sinbad differ from the Mars we’ve seen in stories from other writers and artists? DAVIS: For starters, Mars still has water on its surface. The canals and seas are used as waterways, just like on Earth. After all, what Sinbad story would be complete without sailing? The culture and civilizations are also a bit more archaic. Not as technologically advanced as has been previously shown in stories set on Mars. EURY: One of Ray’s biggest box-office hits, 1981’s Clash of the Titans, is continued in the miniseries Wrath of the Titans. In the original film, the threats of Medusa and the Kraken were vanquished. Where do you pick up Perseus’ story? DAVIS: We pick up the story five years after the tragedy from when Andromeda was chained to the rock. For years, the land of Argos has been at peace. The legendary hero Perseus has taken the crown and guided the kingdom into a new era of prosperity and good fortune. The news that an heir has been born puts the citizens in a celebratory mood. Yet lurking in the shadows are forces of hate and discontent that threaten to wreak havoc on Argos and destroy Perseus. Wrath of the Titans revisits the magical world of Ancient Greece where gods and myth are part of life’s everyday fabric and heroes are forged by great and powerful events. EURY: Ray, everyone loves your monsters! Which leads me to ask: Who would win in a fight between the Kraken and Ymir?

HARRYHAUSEN: That’s an impossible question for me to answer! Who do you think would win? EURY: I’m guessing that they’d stalemate— then Gwangi could stomp in and mop up the landscape with them! Can you make my day by telling me you’ve got a new The Valley of Gwangi comic book in the works? HARRYHAUSEN: Nothing involving Gwangi is currently being planned. After all, Gwangi died in the original film and Dell Comics released a version of the film in comic-book form in 1969. EURY: Don’t you have a second wave of projects planned with BlueWater for publication in 2008? HARRYHAUSEN: Let’s see how the first group does before we talk about 2008. DAVIS: We are working on Jason and the Argonauts: Kingdom of Hades, part of a second wave of Ray Harryhausen Presents starting this winter. EURY: Darren, do you have any closing comments about working with Ray Harryhausen? DAVIS: Working on the Ray Harryhausen projects has been one of the highlights of my career. Watching Clash of the Titans on the big screen was a huge inspiration for my creating comics from the myths. I have really enjoyed working on these projects. From a production standpoint, these are some of the best work we have done in comics.

Special thanks to Arnold Kunert for his kind assistance with this interview..

The Best of the Harveyville Fun Times!

Edited by Mark Arnold • Fun Ideas Productions, 2006 400 black-and-white pages • $29.95 • http://thft.home.att.net The Harveyville Fun Times! (THFT!) is a long-running fanzine devoted to Harvey Comics and its characters, and its editor, Harvey expert Mark Arnold, has compiled some of the ’zine’s best material in his lively, phonebook-sized volume. Tony Isabella’s foreword features a Harvey history where Tony recounts, among other things, his former days as a Cleveland comics shop owner and the diverse clientele for Richie Rich comic books. The book is filled with reviews/ analyses of Harvey titles, model sheets, and cover roughs. Being a former editor of DC’s Who’s Who, I really appreciated THFT!’s “Meet…” series, dossiers on Harvey characters from the reader’s/collector’s perspective. Also fun is how the Harvey coverage in the 1990s expands beyond the traditional comics titles to then-new series like New Kids on the Block and material from live-action movie adaptations like Casper (featuring a very pre-Black Snake Moan Christina Ricci as Kat Harvey) and Richie Rich (starring Macaulay Culkin).

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

The Blackboard Jungle Those wacky Sweathogs gave a new meaning to “higher learning.” From page 25 of Welcome Back, Kotter #5 (July 1977). Art by Ric Estrada and Bob Oksner. Courtesy of Yoram Matzkin. © 1976 Komack Company.

UP YER NOSE… In the ’70s, DC Comics was in trouble, as was most of the industry. Carmine Infantino, a man who’d risen through the ranks from artist to editorial director to, finally, publisher of the whole line, had just been handed a cardboard box and the door and the same time. DC was in upheaval at the worst of times. Marvel had passed DC in sales, and the home of Superman and Batman was reduced to spitting out Marvel’s dust and trying to play catch-up. Mr. Infantino had been the one who’d been driving when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the boys roared by, and now Jenette Kahn (who had no real comic-book experience) was in the driver’s seat, trying to adjust it at the same time she was trying to stay on the road (that was my car metaphor quota for the year). During such times, a certain amount of

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desperation is bound to set in as a bunch of middle-age guys (and one young woman!) sit in a cramped editor’s office, look at each other, and try to figure out “what today’s kids want.” What DC came up with was, well, trying everything, and more of it. In the beginning days of Ms. Kahn’s reign as publisher of DC, and under the scrutiny of Warner Communications, DC tried new super-heroes, old super-heroes, new genres, and lots of old genres, with something of a twist. Anything that someone could make a case for working was tried. Gothic romance? Reprints? Dollar Comics? How about TV comics? Which brings us to Mr. Kotter and his lovable Sweathogs. Almost. DC had been in the character-licensing biz in the ’40s–’60s with titles like Bob Hope, Alan Ladd, Jerry

Lewis, Fox and Crow, and Dobie Gillis, but they had petered out in the ’70s, with an attempt at a Laurel and Hardy title and brief talk of a M*A*S*H adaptation (feel free to write to BACK ISSUE editor Michael Eury suggesting titles I missed). One-time TV comics champ Gold Key was slowly dying the death of poor distribution, as was runner-up Charlton (well, a pervading cheapness had something to do with the gasping of Charlton, but that’s for the “Big All-Charlton Issue”), so why not try TV comics again? Why not. So DC Comics (with the possible help/shove of new corporate parent Warner Communications) went back into the TV comics business. But only so far and for so long.

…WITH A RUBBER HOSE In the 1975–1976 TV season, the classroom-set comedy Welcome Back, Kotter was the big hit for ABC and the show’s producer, the Komack Company. Based on the comedy of Gabe Kaplan (who based it on his own life), Welcome Back, Kotter launched the career of John Travolta, whose face (and those of the rest of the cast) was to be plastered over lunchboxes, notebooks, puzzles, dolls (okay, sorry, Mego’s were action figures, not dolls), and records (remember Travolta’s hit “Let Her In”? Yeah, me neither, just testing). Comics seemed a suitable vehicle for yet more Kotter spin-offs. The very busy Joe Orlando got the editorship, and he assigned the first issue to writer Elliot S! Maggin, with Jack Sparling and Bob Oksner on art. Welcome Back, Kotter #1 carried a Nov. 1976 cover-date. The sales were slow. Orlando thought maybe the second issue could use a lift. He called on Black Lightning creator, Tony Isabella. Tony? “While on staff, Joe Orlando asked me to punch up the second issue of the series,” Isabella says. “He liked what I did and asked me to write the next issue. He loved what I did on my solo issue [issue #3, Mar. 1977,

which also featured Ric Estrada replacing Sparling as penciler] and wanted me to write the book regularly. The problem was … for me to write Kotter and write it well, I had to labor over each and every page. Though I was given a small raise, it wasn’t nearly enough to compensate for how much time it took me to write Kotter. I began work on what would have been my second Kotter script but abandoned it after four pages. I couldn’t pay my bills writing that book. How was the mood at DC at the time? “Jenette Kahn was the new publisher, but she seemed to be getting a lot of guidance from old hands like Sol Harrison and Joe Orlando,” Isabella recalls. “Paul Levitz was starting his amazing climb to the top. There were other young staffers being given opportunities and there were a few new people like myself coming in. I’d describe the mood as ranging from ‘cautious optimism’ (from those who had been promoted and the newer people) to ‘moderate concern’ (from the older hands). I fell somewhere in the middle of that range.”

(below left) DC’s 1976 house ad for its new “DC TV Comic” line. (below) From Welcome Back, Kotter #3 (Mar. 1977), writer Tony Isabella’s solo issue and the first issue laid out by Ric Estrada (with Bob Oksner finishes). Courtesy of Yoram Matzkin. © 1976 DC Comics © 1976 Komack Company.

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characters, I outranked him. [At one point] he told me that ‘Horshack wouldn’t say that.’ It was a joke (“Your mouth is so big, Evel Knievel wants to jump it”) that I later used in an episode. I think it was a unique situation for Joe.” Work on the TV series was all-consuming for Mark: “I didn’t even have time to do my laundry! I would run out at lunch and buy clothes to wear the next day. When I left [the show] I had 80 pairs of underwear...”

TWICE AS FAR… Kotter turned out to be something of a mistake as a comic, neither attracting new fans to comics nor interesting the increasingly narrowing super-hero comics market. The decision was made to do it more like the DC movie/TV comics of old, with cartoony artwork and line-drawn covers rather than photo covers. (Mark Evanier asked production manager Sol Harrison about the no-Lynda-Carter photocovers: “The readers wouldn’t like it.” I know myself that as a teenage boy I hated seeing photos of Miss Carter in her skimpy costume...) What were the editorial expectations for Welcome Back, Kotter? Here’s Tony again: “DC’s sales were tanking, so the company was trying all sorts of stuff, including media tie-ins like Kotter. The hope—I think characterizing it as ‘editorial expectation’ disguises the company desperation— was that a comic book based on a popular-withkids TV show would sell okay and possibly bring some new readers to other DC titles. Welcome Back, Kotter’s first [TV] season was brilliant. It was very funny and very well acted. In fact, it was an inspiration for Black Lightning in that I had Jeff Pierce return to his old school as a teacher much as Gabe Kotter returned to his.” And the comic book? “As for the comic book, I was pleased with the solo script I wrote, not so pleased with its final publication. The art didn’t live up to my expectations and, as I recall, errors made it into print that should have been caught and corrected by editorial and production.”

…WITH A CHOCOLATE BAR

Et tu, Epstein? Page 20 from Kotter #5, from the collection of Yoram Matzkin.

DC was hoping to attract new readers to the DC family, even creating a new umbrella logo for the line—“A DC TV Comic”—that adorned the current Shazam!, Isis, and Super Friends books (but not Wonder Woman? Lynda Carter herself wondered, “Why no photo covers?”). After two issues with Eliot Maggin scripts, and one from Tony, Joe Orlando offered the assignment to the story editor of the Kotter TV series, comics-writer-made-good Mark Evanier: “I did a couple of issues,” says Evanier, “and one was published as a treasury edition (WBK #4 and Limited Collector’s Edition C-57). But by the time I wrote the second one the decision to cancel the title had been made. I wrote the scripts between working on [the TV] Kotter, even writing on the set.” What was the difference between writing Kotter for comics and TV? “When it came to doing Kotter (the comics), Joe Orlando didn’t realize that when it came to those

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With Mark Evanier too busy with the TV Kotter, Bob Toomey took over the scripting with #5–7, then Scott Edelman finished out the run with #8–10, with Bob Oksner and Ric Estrada on the art. It was cancelled just in time for the fabled DC Implosion, and written off as another failed DC experiment. The stories are fun, but they mostly make you want to scare up old episodes of the TV show. Maybe they should have gone with the M*A*S*H comic after all…. Thanks to Mark Evanier and Tony Isabella!

D arre ll “ Big D ” M c N e il

Editor’s note: Animator and occasional BI “Backstage Pass” columnist Darrell McNeil was a close friend of Alex Toth, and has a few comments about the late, great illustrator that he’d like to get off his chest…

It’s the Ides of March (or close enough, hell, I’m not Latin!) as I write this; it’s been almost a year (and will be a year plus two months when you read this) since an unexpected source called me at 11:39 the night of May 27, 2006 to tell me something I should’ve been (and hadn’t been) told earlier that day. My mentor and best friend of the previous 15 years, Alexander Toth, had died. It wasn’t totally unexpected … and I’ll explain why later in this treatise. But I still had to know. Those who know me know that I travel everywhere by “rancid” transit (you know: “Take the bus and leave the #!?&;?&?#! to them!”). Try to get from South Central to Beautiful Downtown Burbank in the middle of the night. During the day it takes two and a half hours. That night it took almost five (including my walking the last six miles), one way. But I still had to know. And at 5:12 the next morning, through the locked doors of Belmont Village, from the rather befuddled lips of the night person, I found out. An unconventional way to find out. But then, Alex Toth wasn’t a conventional man. Neither am I. And what we had didn’t fit many conventions at all. That’s what made our decadeand-a-half “run” so good. And, to this day, made it so memorable to me. And made it so hard to write about. So why am I putting pencil to paper and scribbling some stories now? Thank Bob McLeod. Why? ’Cause he stood up for Vince Colletta in a recent BACK ISSUE. And that reminded me of a funny incident between myself and Alex in pleasanter times … which I’ll get to at the end of this somewhat scattershot sonata. Forgive me for what is definitely not the linear approach I usually utilize in my yearly incursions into Euryland, but I’ve been bouncing between several different projects over the last year, while taking in the various published tributes to “Unca Alex” over the same period. While most have been well produced and put together, the bulk of the commentaries revealed to me a man who was, for the most part, extremely talented, truly visionary, totally bitter and frustrated, and down on his profession, his worldview, and state of mind in general. Which would make for a

“If you’re going to steal, steal from the best”… …says Darrell McNeil of his creation Rainbow Girl, seen in the inset, striking an iconic pose the artist “borrowed” from this Black Canary illo drawn by his friend and “unca,” Alex Toth. Black Canary TM & © 2007 DC Comics. Rainbow Girl TM & © 2007 Gold Medal Productions.

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sadly pitiful person in life … if I didn’t know the man as long as I did … or as well as I did. In the former, ours was a relationship that began with my first seeing his name on the original Space Ghost animated series in 1966, which led to my first meeting with Alex when I was a child of 14 at the one and only Disneyland Convention in 1971, followed by my working with Alex at Hanna-Barbera in 1976, with his supplying the presentation art/stylings to three series I sold to H-B when I was 18, to my re-acquaintance with Alex 15 years later in 1991. In the latter, I got to and did know Alex better than anyone (and I mean anyone!) in the twilight of his life and career. In between those 15 years are a helluva lot of good times, a helluva lot of long, loud, intense debates and diatribes, and a helluva lot of stories to be told. In that “unconventional” way I mentioned earlier, I’m gonna begin my Alex story … with the end. Or to wit, the last night I spent with Alex … the night before he died. That night was Thursday, May 25, 2006, and among so many ironies was this one: Originally I wasn’t going to see Alex that day. I usually made a point of seeing Alex at his one-room home at Burbank’s Belmont Village assisted living place at least once a week, the five-hour round trip by bus be damned. For Alex, it was worth making the time. Contrary to what’s been opined by some, Alex never liked living in his oneroom room at Belmont Village. How did I know? In our usual three-hour soirees, he’d spend the first hour ranting, raving, and roaring about the various things he hated about Belmont. Things as complex as the food, as simple as finding the right place in the room to position his radio so that he could hear Rush Limbaugh, among other talk radio programs that he fancied. (And as the man who first turned Alex onto Rush, I wasn’t about to deny him that!) While his weekly rant/vent cooled down Alex considerably (his attendants noted that he was always happier after I left), it would take a while to get him back into “future mode.”

(this page and opposite) Alex Toth doodles that accompanied a 2005 letter from the artist to BACK ISSUE editor Michael Eury. 8 6

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“Future mode,’’ you axe? That anything like “à la mode”? Nope, keeds. Put it to ya this way: If people thought all Alex did with his time was draw doodles, write commentaries to old comic stories, and complain about everything created since 1952, they were kidding themselves. Believe me, over 15 years, Noel Sickles and Zorro wasn’t even close to what we talked about. Not even. Anyway, back a paragraph or so: With the exception of Paul Power, who Alex had reconciled with after a multi-year estrangement, no one else had come by to see Alex that week. (“Too busy,” said them.) I was going to hold off until the following Sunday, but I had just finished another change to one of our several working collaborations—a development drawing of a Shadow-like character Alex had drawn for me for a new animated concept I was developing called “Mr. Clift.” Two weeks before, I tossed at Alex several color schemes I was pondering for the character to differentiate him from Kent Allard: “To hell with it! Paint him all black! No red highlights.” I painted that way the next week. (He said, “Yeah.”) Now the character had a gun in his hand, which some commented would be a hard sell for a kid’s cartoon. (Even now.) “Fine … don’t really need it for this character,” sez I, so I took the gun out, leaving his hand in an awkward “fist-type” position, and showed that to Alex that last night. His response: “If you’re going to drive off the edge of the cliff, don’t just stand there wiggling your toes.” Translation: Drop the fist hand altogether. I did. The subtraction made a big difference, I realized, when I removed it that night after seeing Alex that Sunday, I’d show him the final take on “Mr. Clift.” He died the day before I was to show it to him. As I’m rerunning that last day in my head, it occurs to me that, without knowing that day was to be our last together, he had come to another decision, too; this one concerning a request made to him several months before. A small company that produced DVD behind-the-scenes extras for Warner Bros. was at the time going to produce commentary for the Space Ghost DVD collection and wanted Alex to supply some personal reminiscences. Which meant his having to appear on camera … which did not suit him. He had what he thought was a better idea: He sent them to me and said that I should do it, figuring that between the facts that I knew him, was a fan of the show, was inspired partly by it to get into the biz, and laid out the new SG series later, I’d be perfect for it. (Or as he said, “You’re representing me now, kid!”) That night he decided to tell them that he would do commentary on three conditions: that he not be on camera, that they come out to Belmont to record it, and that would I be there too to co-commentate with him. We did a lot of “cleaning up” that night. We played catch-up discussing several of the dozen ongoing projects we were working on. He was Gold Medal Productions’ “design consultant” (“That’s ‘creative producer’ to you, Joe,” he growled, “Joe” being, of course, Joe Barbera), then would smile that smile of his, a “position” he enjoyed ’cuz despite all continual “b&m’ing” (bitching and moaning) about the dour state of comics and animation and his inability to contribute anything new to either form—to which he was wrong on both counts, as I’ll demonstrate in a forum to be named later—he loved being around someone who had worked with him before (at H-B), knew his varied “quirks,” and knew how to work with (read: around) them. (Long sentence, huh? Got that from him, too!)

I’d constantly zing and prod ’im, letting him know, “See? What’d I tell ya? You still got it, man!” “What I got,” he’d reply, “is brushes that are older’n you!” “Oh, they used brushes back in the Paleozoic era?” I’d fire back … and on we’d go. (Unlike fellow grumpy bear Lou Grant, he loved “spunk”!) You know what else Alex loved? He loved giving of himself … to the right person. And not just in terms of money (though he did quite often; his least-favorite fourletter word was “free”), but, particularly in my case, of his creativity. He offered me numerous doodle pages, creative criticisms, suggestions, tons of artistic insights, model designs (of my own characters … how cool is that?), and, knowing from our earlier-cited H-B days what a concept generator I was, creative ideas and pages that he’d come up with—on one condition, said he. “Which was?” said I. “That you damn well better use them, man! When I finally fall off my twig, they’re going to be yours. You’re the one guy I’d trust ’em with, dig?” He called it his version of “paying it forward.” Without mentioning names, he was like this (in different forms and ways) with others, and would get extremely perturbed (read: pissed) when he’d go to that kind of effort and the recipients (the ones he designated to use his creative offerings) didn’t put his words or teachings to use. I did, still do, and … well, just keep watchin’…. Now some of you out there, particulary some of Alex’s other “letter swappers,” as he’d call ’em, are reading this and saying, “Alex didn’t mention any of this to me.” Well, there was a reason for that—a lot of our get-togethers concerned business that was none of yours! Alex valued his privacy; he also valued mine— and with the Internet, various websites, and certain people thinking that they were privy to everything Alex knew, then turning around and letting everyone else know, I made it clear to “Unca Alex” that, to paraphrase Sin City, “What happened between us stayed between stayed between us.” And it wasn’t like “A” told me everything, either … I’ve been amazed (and amused … but not surprised) by the things others have mentioned since his passing that I didn’t know. (Not to mention reading so much that we may not have seen unless he died. But I digress….) Geeze, I am starting to “tangent” off here. Kinda like him…. Anyway, we spent that last day/night doing what we typically did … right down to his ordering up a Shrimp Scampi dinner from downstairs for me. (C’mon, Darrell … you can stay a little longer, can’t’ya? Shrimp Scampi!”) Yeah, like I could resist! As I fed my face (I had brought some of Alex’s beloved noodles for him), I had thought to myself that I almost didn’t come here today. I had called Alex two days before to tell him that I was jammed working and that I was gonna come by that Sunday. (And I had a reason why it would’ve been that Sunday.) He understood … on Tuesday; two days later he called me early, almost pleading with me to please come out there and see him. (He actually got my mom who, although they’d never met, was extremely fond of him.) “He sounded so lonely and sad. Go see him,” she said, in that way that mothers do. I juggled some other things around to make that time, and surprised him, too! His birthday was coming up the following month (June) and I had two things planned, I told (warned) him.

The first was something he wanted me to do for the last number of years. To wit: One thing he looked forward to when it came to us was my ability to talk about just any and everything. (As could he.) Unlike the vast majority of folk he dealt with, the names “Noel Sickles,” “Space Ghost,” or “Milton Caniff” rarely entered our confabs. It was almost everything else: politics, pop culture, Hollywood, history, energy, UFOs, steam power, sex … our confabs hit ’em all. He always wanted us to some time just set up a tape recorder and “scat”—just go, since the two of us displayed an adversity to “dead air.” Unfortunately, if you go back for the part of this piece where I mention his one-hour opening “rants,” that explained why I wouldn’t do this; after the energy and high decibels expended there, it was kinda hard to dial it down to “conversational mode” (as opposed to “future mode.” Or a la …Or even com—). Anyway, I told him that, finally, we were gonna do this thing. I had come up with at least 30 topics/names he’d never previously been axed, and that, on his 78th, we were gonna skip the rant time and go right to this. “Cool,” he said. The second thing was something I’ve rarely done, but with him, not knowing what was to come, I figured, “Screw it, I’m gonna do it!” I decided I was going to give him his birthday present early: an out-of-print DVD of one of Alex’s artistic idol’s early work … that being Winsor McKay, one of the first animators. Which thrilled the dickens out of him, especially when I told him that I was going to take the DVD back and transfer everything to VHS tape, which he preferred to DVDs, which confused and irritated him. (Me, too, though since getting my portable player I’ve become more comfortable with ’em. He’d’ve gotten a kick out of that!) Anyway, the thing I’ve rarely done? As I gave it to him, I felt the need to, after 15 years, finally tell him “I love you.” His response was typical. “Oh, come on!” “You need to hear this and I’m telling you. I love you, man. Now shut up!” He laughed, knowing how it was intended and whence it came, then smiled and said, “Love you, too, kiddo.” He’s the only man I’ve said that to, and the look on his face showed me that he appreciated it. As I was leaving his room, not knowing what was to happen the next night, he asked me to do something he hadn’t in the year he’d been at Belmont: He asked me to lock the door behind me. Usually he wanted it left unlocked or open. But not this time. As I was closing the door, after stating I was coming back in a couple of days, he said in parting “Tell your mom I said hello.”

From the last note Alex Toth wrote to Darrell McNeil, a month before Toth’s passing.

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“I will, man. She loves you, too.” “At least two people feel that way about me. Thanks for always being here for me. Love you, too.” As I heard the lock click, I felt a little weird. It didn’t help, and I didn’t connect it until later, but a couple of old ladies who were Alex’s neighbors were nearby and one of them said in a low voice, that I wasn’t meant to hear, “…he doesn’t have long.” She was right. He didn’t. But we did. Fifteen years’ worth. And I’ve been working on so many things reflective of both my future and my past time with the man who will always be my best friend. As I was always his.

The opinions expressed in this editorial are not necessarily the viewpoints of BACK ISSUE or TwoMorrows Publishing.

The character Mr. Clift from McNeil’s Clift’s Hangers animated series concept. Darrell and Alex were working on this project the night before Toth passed away. Mr. Clift and Clift’s Hangers TM & © 2007 Gold Medal Productions.

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Longtime animation artist DARRELL McNEIL, in addition to having worked on a score of Hanna-Barbera (among other) TV cartoons, is developing Big D’s PC-TV, which he says is “coming to a phone near you.” The characters, clockwise from top: Jesse James, I. M. Wright, Jenna of the Jungle, and Lefty.

Oh, speaking of stories … I almost forgot the one I was going to tell that started this little trip down memory lane, to which I again thank Bob McLeod, whose defense of Vince Colletta inspired this. As I’ve said to various friends o’ mine who share my comic-book proclivity, it was Colletta’s inks over Kirby’s pencils on Kirby’s “Fourth World” ’70s DC material that blew my mind in a way that hadn’t been blown since Neal Adams’ emergence on the comics scene. I loved the feathered, “realer” look that Colletta gave Jack’s pencils (and no, I didn’t know that Colletta dropped background details, extra figures, etc., and as a kid didn’t care). When it came to Kirby’s artwork, Colletta’s inking of Jack was to me the best interpretations of Kirby’s pencils I’ve ever seen. “What,” you axe, “does that have to do with ‘Unca Al, the animator’s pal’?” Well, one day back before Alex was at Belmont, I mentioned the above to him. He smiled that smile, raised that eyebrow, and said, “Hold that thought.” He reached behind the couch, pulled out one of his portfolios, opened it, pulled out a pair of pages, and said, “Your opinion, Mr. Ebert…” The pages were originals from one of the only four stories Alex had ever penciled for Marvel, from a fourpage Western tale he had done that Colletta inked. I looked … and I looked … and without a doubt, looked at some of the absolute worst inking I had ever seen. Of anyone’s work, let alone Alex’s. I then glanced sheepishly over to Mr. Toth, who was lighting up another cig (he still smoked then), and with that look on his face, he then said, “Well?” “Would you like to shoot me now?” “No … that wouldn’t teach you the lesson you need to learn, DM, ol’ son.” And indeed, the dastard did concoct a punishment worthy of my truly onerous affront… …he gave me the pages. I miss you, “Unca A.”

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

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

We start this issue with an April 25, 2007 letter (introduction edited for brevity) from Bill Pearson, a familiar name to Charlton Comics readers: My old pal Dan Adkins just sent me your magazine, which is why I am so late in responding about an article in issue #19. Very nice publication, by the way. I’m astounded at how many comics-related titles TwoMorrows has running these days. This is a very minor matter, and since it means disputing the words of a man long deceased, I probably should just let it go. But I don’t like to see misinformation in print, particularly when it involves me. Don Newton was a friend of mine, an excellent artist, and we worked well together on the Phantom series at Charlton, early in his career. As Don relates, in BACK ISSUE #19, I would send him ideas for stories, and he did write a few of them with John Clark and, I suspect, other pals in his longtime fan group in Phoenix. In the case of The Phantom #70, “The Curse of the Mali Ibex,” I wrote the story, sent the script to Don, and he illustrated it masterfully. He didn’t contribute the script or see it until he got it in the mail, and he didn’t make any changes on his own. I didn’t “bring the story over and we’d tear it apart and start over…” because I was in Connecticut and he was in Arizona. A few years ago Don’s biggest fan, who has a website devoted to Don, asked me in an email how much of that particular story Don had written, and also asked for an interview. I replied that Don had not had any part in writing the story except to accept the basic story idea I submitted for his approval. I never heard back from Don’s champion. By the way, the original script had two additional pages, but my superiors at the company ran a stupid two-page survey of some kind in every Charlton title that month, and I had to cut two pages (some really nifty scenes with Peter Lorre, as I recall, helping to get the Phantom from one location to another), substituting a solitary weak caption to bridge that lost material. It really annoyed me because I was especially proud of that script, and thrilled with the extra effort Don had put into his art. I’ve rarely had an opportunity, before or since, to write anything as complex and cooperatively rewarding for any comics title. I also lettered and colored the story. But my ambitious efforts were not appreciated by the management. When my “freelance” invoices were added to my salary, I ended up making more money than the person who wrote out the checks that week, and that just couldn’t be tolerated. The comics dept. was informed by a company edict that staffers (except for George Wildman, head of the dept., who was doing Popeye) could no longer do any freelance work for the company. That’s why Don and his friends had to write the subsequent issues of The Phantom, and why I did all my freelance work for other comics companies during my seven-year term at Charlton. And those, BACK ISSUE, are the facts. Congratulations on editing a fine magazine, – Bill Pearson

Nice to hear from you, sir. Thank you for writing and for the kind comments about BI. And we appreciate your comments regarding the Don Newton matter. As you might imagine, oftentimes our piecing together of comic-book history is a tag-team effort, where the facts come to light in pieces, or in stages, from a variety of sources and perspectives. Thank you for being an important part of that. Don Newton’s “champion,” by the way, is Barry Keller, author of BACK ISSUE #19’s retrospective of the artist. I shared your letter with Barry, and he responded: “I did indeed have an email conversation with Bill years ago in which he offered to do a limited interview with me. Shortly thereafter my hard drive crashed and I lost his email, but would love to get back in touch with him. “As to the ‘quotes’ attributed to Don in my article, the attached two pieces are my source, a hand-written letter from Don to Howard Siegel. I only know what I read in Don’s own hand-written letters. They have been my ‘source’ for almost everything I ever attribute to him, since they are in actuality ‘his own words.’ “My sole purpose in all of this is to keep Don’s memory alive for those who loved his work and for those who will some day discover his work. Other than that, I have no agenda. If that makes me ‘Don’s champion,’ then I wear that title with pride.” Courtesy of Barry Keller, Don Newton’s original hand-written letter follows… – M.E. © 2007 King Features.

BILL PEARSON ON CHARLTON’S PHANTOM #70

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And thank you, Dave. Consider BACK ISSUE our contribution to keeping our pasts alive. Re your “downside” comment: Those of us who contribute to BACK ISSUE are routinely saddened by the losses of the writers, artists, and editors who helped shape our childhoods. We take pride in the fact, however, that we’re able to provide voice to many former pros and celebrate their contributions to the medium. TwoMorrows is now making BACK ISSUE (and its other magazines) available in a downloadable PDF format! You’ll definitely find this to be a savings—check out www.twomorrows.com for more info. Re your wish list: S.H.I.E.L.D. is part of our “Spies and Tough Guys” issue, #26, and McGregor’s Black Panther is one of the “Comic-Book Royalty” explored in issue #27. Your other suggestions are on our “to-do” list. (Killraven was covered in BI #14, by the way.) My interest in British reprints was further piqued during my research into the UK’s Planet of the Apes comics for my recent book, Comics Gone Ape! (Rob Kirby, John Roche, Alan Maxwell, and Dave Ballard were extremely helpful—thanks, gents). You will occasionally see coverage on British Marvels (and other UK comics) in BACK ISSUE, beginning with Captain Britain in an upcoming issue. Also, the aforementioned Mr. Kirby is producing a history/index book on Marvel’s UK line, to be published by Quality Communications; discover more by visiting www.qualitycommunications.co.uk. As usual, BACK ISSUE was the centerpiece of my reading this week, and as usual another fun issue. The articles on PLOP! and Blue Devil were especially nice, I thought, since when else have they ever been profiled? And finding enough room in the Daredevil article to reprint Ol’ Hornhead’s Hostess ad was an inspired touch. My favorite part of the issue was the piece on Ty Templeton, an awesomely talented artist and interesting interview. Somebody get this guy on Plastic Man, already! As to the suggestion in the letter column that BI could be more critical—I guess, like everything, it’s how you do it. If it’s done honestly and gently, then sure. We’ve all seen how some comic-book blogs can be critical yet fair, and some are just an excuse to be cruel. I’m sure BI would take the former approach. – Rob Kelly A HELLUVA ADDITION TO MIGNOLA’S RESUME Frequent BI contributor Michael Aushenker writes: My buddy Rich Carradine (thanked at the end of my Son of Satan article) made an interesting observation that I don’t think anybody made explicit in BACK ISSUE #21. In the datacard for Mike Mignola, they list his first gig as an uncredited inking job on Defenders #116. As discussed in my Son of Satan article (as well as the Defenders article in issue #19), Defenders #116 falls smack-dab in the middle of the DeMatteis/ Perlin run and, of course, features the Son of Satan prominently (as the even-numbered issues tended to do). In other words, the creator of Hellboy got his start inking the Son of Satan character. That’s quite a bombshell for our devil-themed issue, don’t you think? – Michael Aushenker The devil you say! Thanks for the info, Michael. – M.E.

Thank you so very much for the time and trouble you put into every issue of your fabulous magazine. I have BACK ISSUE shipped to me in England, happily paying the international airmail fee so I don’t have to wait too long, and wallow in nostalgia every time I read one of the excellent articles. My era was 1962–1980, though I didn’t actually read my first super-hero comic until the early ’70s. That’s when I saw a TV advert for the first issue of Spider-Man Comics Weekly, with an actor dressed as Spidey climbing the walls. I pleaded with my mother to buy it for me (there was a free gift of a Spider-Man mask, which tore as my head got bigger). I’ve seen you making references to the British Marvel editions, but perhaps one month you could do an in-depth article. We had some great publications, including a bizarrely shaped mag called The Titans, which featured five stories every week. Two “American” pages of story were squeezed onto each page. If you need any background on the ’70s British Marvels, I’d be happy to help. There were also some titles produced in the UK in the late ’60s or early ’70s, I believe, by Fleetway Publications. They were certainly “unofficial,” in that the lead story was often a Marvel reprint. I vividly remember Spider-Man’s battle with Daredevil at the Ringmaster’s instigation, Giant Man’s clashes with the Human Top and the Black Knight, and the Fantastic Four against the SubMariner/Dr. Doom team. However, there were also vintage tales from other publishers. I thrilled to stories featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents (lots of those), Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle, the Fly, the Shield, the Black Hood, Thunderbolt, and many more. Each magazine was also filled with lots of three- to five-page “twist in the tale” stories, many of which I assume were EC reprints. Titles of these Fleetway (?) magazines included Astounding Stories and Creepy Worlds. I’d be thrilled to see a feature on these lesser-known but fondly remembered (by me, at least) mags. There are a number of other (American) comics from the ’70s that I’d also love to see featured. I apologize if you’ve produced these recently, or have them lined up, but here are some suggestions: • “Panther’s Rage” (from Jungle Action) and “War of the Worlds” (Amazing Adventures) by the wonderful Don McGregor; • The Secret Society of Super-Villains, an intriguing concept which sadly lost momentum; • S.H.I.E.L.D., always a big favorite of mine; • Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel and Warlock; • the work of Marie Severin, my favorite artist, responsible for so many of my favorite stories; • a piece on the first girl I ever loved. Yes, Sue Storm. I’ve never forgiven Reed Richards; and • anything between 1972 and 1975. For me, they were truly golden years. I loved the layout of the covers, the stories, the art, the Marvel checklist page, and oh, everything! The only downside of BACK ISSUE is having to read that a favorite artist or writer has passed away. When I was young, I thought that people like John Buscema and Gil Kane were gods. It seems that they were mortals after all, but I miss them (all those talented people who have left us) terribly. Sorry, I’ve rattled on, haven’t I? I only started the email intending to say a heartfelt “Thank you—keep up the fantastic work,” so I’ll end with that sentiment. Very best wishes, Michael. Thank you for letting me be young again. – Dave Barker, Wakefield, England

THE BRITISH ARE COMING! THE BRITISH ARE COMING!

NIXON STRIKES AGAIN Last issue, I printed Mike W. Barr’s letter about the Kennedy/Nixon flip covers to MAD #60 (Jan. 1961), which, as Mike wrote, played “both sides against the middle.” Alter Ego historian and comic artist Jim Amash informs us both covers were produced by EC Publications to “hedge their bet. It was a real concern with EC,” Jim says, “over the distributors knowing which cover to display.” And MAD publisher William Gaines told Amash some time ago that “he would’ve preferred that Nixon had won the election.” - M.E. CONFESSIONS OF A “MARVEL SNOB” Love the mag. Every issue has been great. I always pick it up just planning to read one or two articles and end up reading the whole thing. Last ish I was just going to read about Son of Satan and Daredevil, but couldn’t resist the Blue Devil, PLOP!, and Devil Dinosaur articles. I scantly remember Blue Devil, but I think it’s awesome that there’s a place for such obscurity. BACK ISSUE is so fun because you avoided the easy slant towards mainstream ’70s/’80s books and revel in the more obscure ones (e.g., the ones with a 20-issue run or LESS). More, more, more, please! The Daredevil article was great. I really liked how writer Philippe Cordier showed the transition in art and (to the degree possible) the writing over the course of his review. Heck, I don’t even really like Daredevil, but some of the details about Klaus Janson’s evolution and style (duoshade board?! Wow!) were fascinating, and the John Romita, Jr. section (whom we always hated as kids for his X-Men run, but now...!) really showed his storytellin’ abilities. I would love to see more issue-by-issue breakdowns of titles. For example, my favorite ish so far was #16, which had very detailed descriptions of G. I. Joe and Transformers, series which I’d never even read, but got me fired up enough to go buy some of the more interesting-sounding arcs. Along those lines, I’d also encourage more criticism in the articles (I think you asked, perhaps rhetorically, in the last letters column). I can understand it’s difficult for us (those that grew up with the burden of consuming all this fine literature) to be critical those books, but before I go get all excited and dig ’em out, I’d like to know if they’re actually worth the read. There’s been a bit of Defenders articles floating around, and I love for someone to tell me go read issues X and Y and skip the rest. I just don’t have the time anymore to read the whole series if it ain’t gonna be worth it. Would love to see more Defenders, ROM, Dazzler, Moon Knight, Marvel Two-in-One, Micronauts, Power Man and Iron Fist (hey, whatta about them?), Invaders, and Champions (okay, okay, I’m a Marvel snob—you get the picture!). Also, I don’t personally care if you bleed into late ’60s or early ’90s stuff. No need to apologize for that. Thanks for your commitment. Catch you next ish! – Josh Gray You should be happy with our recent Marvel coverage—and covers—Josh: In addition to #21’s Daredevil and this issue’s Mary Jane Watson, our next three covers spotlight Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Black Widow. (Don’t despair, DC disciples: Aquaman splashes onto issue #27’s cover.) You like Micronauts? Keep reading….

BACK ISSUE #24: “MAGIC” ISSUE Dr. Strange headlines our coverage of magicbased characters next ish: MICHAEL GOLDEN is interviewed about the Master of the Mystic Arts (plus The Micronauts and The ’Nam), GENE COLAN and PAUL SMITH talk “Pro2Pro” about their stints drawing the Sorcerer Supreme, FRANK BRUNNER discusses his unforgettable tenure on the title, and there’s a Dr. Strange Art Gallery, too! Plus: BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, a Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, DC’s Silverblade and Amethyst, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, and a tribute to the late, great MARSHALL ROGERS. And you won’t be able to take your eyes off of our magical Dr. Strange cover by Michael Golden! Don’t ask, just BI it. See you in sixty! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor

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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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WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH (former Marvel Comics editor and Spider-Man writer), WRITE NOW!, the magazine for writers of comics, animation, and sci-fi, puts you in the minds of today’s top writers and editors. Each issue features WRITING TIPS from pros on both sides of the desk, INTERVIEWS, SAMPLE SCRIPTS, REVIEWS, exclusive NUTS & BOLTS TUTORIALS, and more! Issue #16 features reflections on writing the Silver Surfer by the character’s greatest scripters of all time, including STAN LEE, STEVE ENGLEHART, JIM STARLIN, and J.M. DeMATTEIS! Plus, an in-depth interview with TODD McFARLANE, giving his unique point of view on topics ranging from SPAWN, the status of Image Comics in 2007, what makes great comics writing, and more! Also: Incredible Nuts and Bolts script and pencil art previews of BRIAN BENDIS and FRANK CHO’s MIGHTY AVENGERS, and of DAN SLOTT’s new Marvel project! And the conclusion to the amazing STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable (begun in BACK ISSUE #23), with insights from PETER DAVID, MIKE W. BARR and MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN, a FREE PREVIEW of DRAW #14, and more! (80-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $26 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

WRITE NOW #4

WRITE NOW #13

WRITE NOW #14

WRITE NOW #15

HOWARD CHAYKIN, PAUL DINI, KURT BUSIEK, DENNY O’NEIL

X-MEN SCREENWRITER, AGENTS, WRITING MANGA, BREAKING IN

BRIAN BENDIS, STAN LEE, PETER DAVID, JIM STARLIN

ABADAZAD’S DeMATTEIS/PLOOG, “52” WRITERS, JOHN OSTRANDER

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

THE TODD McFARLANE INTERVIEW

Interview conducted by Danny Fingeroth via telephone 5-30-07 Transcribed by Steven Tice Copy-edited by Eric Fein, Danny Fingeroth and Todd McFarlane

odd McFarlane’s comic book career spans more than twenty years and dozens of popular characters. As artist, his work has graced the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man (where he cocreated Venom), The Incredible Hulk, and Detective Comics. His professional writing career kicked off with the launch of one of the bestselling series of all time, Spider-Man. After years as one of the industry’s top creators, Todd joined several other popular comic book artists to form Image Comics. There, he launched his own creator-owned series, Spawn, which soon caught the attention of Hollywood and was the inspiration for a live action movie and an animated series. In addition to his comic book work, Todd also heads up his own toy and collectible company, McFarlane Toys. A busy man of many interests (including part-ownership of the Edmonton Oilers NHL hockey team), Todd was able to give us some time to speak about the subject of Write Now: writing for comics and related media. —DF DANNY FINGEROTH: Did you write as a kid at all, or in school, Todd? Was that anything you were interested in then? TODD McFARLANE: I was pretty good at sort of short story stuff, but I think that was just a byproduct of my wild imagination as a whole. DF: What kind of short stories? What would they be about? TM: The teacher would assign us to do a factual composition about, say World War II, I couldn’t do something like that. But if they said, “Go home and come up with a made-up story and bring it in,” and you could add fantasy stuff and big, dramatic melodrama to it—the equivalent of the Jack-in-the-Beanstalk stories—then I could put in a flying elephant, and purple dinosaurs a thousand feet tall, and I could do it easily. DF: This was in elementary school? TM: Oh, yeah. You know, the “creative writing” classes. DF: What about in high school or college? Did you do any writing then?

TM: Not nearly as much. The writing there was more serious so a lot of it was more historical reports and dissertations in some of the classes. And you had less of a chance, or at least in the classes that I was taking, to just have fun with writing like I did when I was in high school or younger. DF: I’ve read that you didn’t really read comics until high school. How’d you avoid them? TM: Umm…I played a lot of sports. You know, when we went on road trips, Mom and Dad would stop at the 7Eleven and buy a couple of Slurpees and a couple of comics and throw them in the back to me and my two brothers, so it’s not that I was devoid of comics. I’d read a handful, so I was aware of what comic books were. I never bothered collecting them, though. But at the age of about nine I started collecting baseball cards and football cards, so I was collecting, it just was in a different place. Later, all of a sudden I went, “Hey, you know what? Let me check out these comic books that I keep sort of walking by.” WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW | 93

DF: You must have been drawing as a kid. TM: Oh, yeah. I was the proverbial “best-artist-in-theclass” kid from Day One. It really goes back to the first Major League Baseball game I went to in the Anaheim area in California which I got to attend because, as a kid in kindergarten, I won an art contest. I drew a pitcher throwing a ball, and it got hung up in the stadium. My dad said, “I’ll take you to the ball game and you can see your artwork and you can watch the game.” So we went. Maybe around then I would have started collecting comic books or done something different, but Dad took me to a ball game that day, and I got to see art, and at the same time became mesmerized by sports. And that was after watching sports on a black-and-white TV my whole life, then walking into a stadium. That was a big moment for a kid back then. In person, you see the bright green grass, and the reds were fire truck red, and it was like walking into the Land of Oz. You went from the black-and-white into the color. You just went, “Wow.” DF: With your love of sports combined with your artistic talent, you could have gone on to paint sports portraits or do sports magazine illustration. What was it about comics that made you at some point realize that the storytelling in them appealed to you? TM: This is weird, Danny. I remember the day of consciously going into a store to buy my first handful of comic books. I mean, I close my eyes and recreate it. I remember the books that I bought. They were on a spinner-rack. What I don’t remember is, “why now?” I mean, why, at the age of sixteen? I’d been walking by comic books all my life. The closest I can give you is that I had been that incessant doodler for so long, but I didn’t have any focus for my art, and maybe I was just getting older, going, “Somewhere along the line I’m going to have to figure out what to do with this.” And so what happened very quickly was that when I bought those comics and fell in love with them and became a fanatic of comics, that I went, “Aha! Now I know what to do with this doodling. Train myself to draw American superhero comics.” Because I had, like, fifty styles back then, and all of them were raw, at best. And so I thought, “Focus on this one task called ‘super-hero comics,’ see if you can teach yourself this, because it’s kind of cool.” And from there on, from the time I started collecting, I stopped drawing just willy-nilly doodle stuff and Mad magazine type stuff, and I just went, “Everything’s now going to be super-heroic stuff.” DF: Was there any friend or relative who said, “Hey, you should check these comic book things out,” or did it just sort of dawn on you? TM: Like I said, I’d walked by that store 500 times. And I just thought—because comic books were only 30, 35 cents back then, and I had a couple of bucks in my 94 | WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW

pocket—”I’m going to go buy five comic books.” Why then? I don’t know. And those five soon turned into 35,000. DF: Now, you said somewhere that you got over 700 rejection letters? I remember seeing them at that exhibit at the MoCCA [Manhattan’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art] last year. TM: I sent off about 700 samples, and about half of them came back rejects, so about 350 out of the 700 were officially rejected. The other ones just filed it in the garbage and didn’t even bother to send a rejection letter. DF: What kept you going through that? TM: A lot of the same things that keep me going now: stubbornness and immaturity—the two things I’d rather not teach the youth of America. You know, I give seminars and discuss, how do you succeed? I hate to say it, but it’s about characteristics I’d rather not even give my own boy, let alone you good people reading this. But you’ve just got to get myopic and stubborn. Those aren’t really the best traits to have. But that was it. I was blinded by my own talent to think that I was

better than I was. DF: Well, that’s often what it takes to get through the rough spots. When you sent in the art, was it drawing stories you had written, too, or you would take other people’s stories and interpret them your own way? TM: At first it was just pin-up shots. But then, the people who were responding, said, “Hey, you’ve got to give us page-by-page story stuff.” So there were two ways of doing that. You could either, go and look at a comic book and then do your own re-imagining of an existing comic. I did that from time to time, and, as I’ve told kids, it’s a good way to do it, but make sure you don’t take the Byrne-Claremont X-Men at the peak, or whatever’s a top ten book and try to do better than that. Go get a book that’s floundering, and reimagine that book, because you’ve got a much better chance of inspiring somebody to hire you with that than trying to draw like Neal Adams or write like Chris Claremont. But I also did, at that time, create my own characters. So in high school I created this character amongst many, called Spawn, and I actually did like a 25, 30-page comic book of that, and that was part of some of my samples when I was sixteen. And then they just went dormant until I pulled them out in the early ‘90s.

suddenly started writing one day, with Spider-Man #1, but actually you had writing experience. TM: I was writing, but not nearly at the prolific pace that I was drawing. I was probably doing five pages of artwork for every one page I was writing, where a true writer writes all the time. But at that point, my first drive was to do artwork. DF: I imagine you weren’t doing much writing once you actually broke into Marvel and DC as an artist. TM: When I first broke in, it was strictly as a penciler.

DF: Sort of like Erik Larsen with the Savage Dragon. TM: That’s it, yeah. Along those lines. DF: So you would do some of your own stories and some adaptations of other people’s stories, it sounds like. TM: When I was re-imagining someone else’s stuff, like if I were looking at a badly drawn Captain America story, then I would use that story, but draw it my own way. If it was my character, the true writing came then. I wasn’t trying to rewrite Captain America. They’ve got a writer for that book. I was never, at that point, trying to take over a writer’s spot. I was trying to take over an artist’s spot. But when I did my own comic, then there was no writer, so I had to be the letterer, writer, penciler, inker, all that stuff. DF: And would the character always be Spawn, or did you have other characters, as well? TM: I had some other ones. I had a group called “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” and then I had this other one called “the Bruise Crew.” DF: So people may think, “Oh, Todd just

Here’s a rare glimpse of the creative process Todd uses to create an issue of Spawn, specifically 1996’s #52 (cover by Greg and Todd shown at left). Below, we see Todd’s skeleton plot-outline for the issue. It’s a “beat sheet” style plot, which Todd used as notes for his telephone plot conversation with penciler Greg Capullo. [© 2007 Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc.]

Todd hand-wrote his script (left) for page 4 of the story on an overlay that went over a copy of Greg’s pencil art (see next page). Todd and Greg are working “Marvel-style,” aka plot-first style, where the dialogue is written after the pencil art is done. Also shown is how panel one of the page came out. You can see the entire page later in this Nuts & Bolts section. [© 2007 Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc.]

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Here’s a copy of Greg’s pencils for page 4 page with Todd’s balloon placements indicated. This shows letterer Tom Orzechowski specifically where each copy unit should go. [© 2007 Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc.]

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For the rest of the Todd McFarlane interview, and more great Write Now! insider writing tips and how-to's, be sure to pick up WN #16, on sale now! Look for the sensational MIKE ZECK cover!

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

JOHN ROMITA... AND ALL THAT JAZZ!

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: THE ART & LIFE OF GENE COLAN

DICK GIORDANO CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

BRUSH STROKES WITH GREATNESS: THE LIFE & ART OF JOE SINNOTT

The ultimate retrospective on COLAN, with rare drawings, photos, and art from his nearly 60-year career, plus a comprehensive overview of Gene’s glory days at Marvel Comics! MARV WOLFMAN, DON McGREGOR and other writers share script samples and anecdotes of their Colan collaborations, while TOM PALMER, STEVE LEIALOHA and others show how they approached the daunting task of inking Colan’s famously nuanced penciled pages! Plus there’s a NEW PORTFOLIO of never-before-seen collaborations between Gene and such masters as JOHN BYRNE, MICHAEL KALUTA and GEORGE PÉREZ, and all-new artwork created specifically for this book by Gene! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (limited to 1000 copies, with 16 extra black-and-white pages and 8 extra color pages)! Written by TOM FIELD.

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS on his career milestones! Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! Also includes an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, plus a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

During his 56-plus-year career in comic books, JOE SINNOTT has worked in every genre, and for almost every publisher, from 1940s Timely Comics to Charlton Comics, Treasure Chest, and Dell as a top penciler. But his association with Marvel Comics in the ’60s as its top inker cemented his place in comics history. This book celebrates his career, as he demonstrates his passion for his craft. In it, Joe shares his experiences working on Marvel’s leading titles, memories of working with STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, and rare and unpublished artwork from his personal files. It features dozens of colleagues and co-workers paying tribute to Joe, plus an extended Art Gallery, and a Checklist of his career. Written by TIM LASIUTA, with a Foreword by STAN LEE, and Afterword by MARK EVANIER.

(176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

“Jazzy” JOHN ROMITA—the artist who made THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Marvel’s #1-selling comic book in the 1960s—talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with such comics legends as STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Plus, Roy Thomas shares memories of working with Romita in the 1960s70s, and Jim Amash examines the awesome artistry of Ring-a-Ding Romita! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art—original classic art, and unseen masterpieces—as well as illos by some of Marvel’s and DC’s finest, this is at once a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905757 Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover with COLOR) $49 US ISBN: 9781893905764 Diamond Order Code: APR074019

(136-page softcover with COLOR) $22 US ISBN: 9781893905726 Diamond Order Code: MAR073744

(168-page softcover with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905450 Diamond Order Code: APR053190 (192-page hardcover with COLOR) $49 US ISBN: 9781893905467 Diamond Order Code: APR053189

R! WINNE! D R A AW ORY EISNESRT SHORT ST BE

HERO GETS GIRL! THE LIFE & ART OF KURT SCHAFFENBERGER

• BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH • SERGIO ARAGONÉS • MURPHY ANDERSON • JOE KUBERT • JACK KIRBY • BRENT ANDERSON • NICK CARDY • RICK VEITCH • ROY THOMAS & JOHN SEVERIN • SAM GLANZMAN • PAUL CHADWICK • EVAN DORKIN • C.C. BECK • WALTER SIMONSON • ART SPIEGELMAN • Cover by STEVE RUDE • Foreword by WILL EISNER

Profusely illustrated bio of KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, the preeminent Lois Lane artist and important early Captain Marvel artist who brought a touch of humor and whimsy to super-hero comics! Covers his LIFE AND CAREER from the 1940s to his passing in 2002, and features hundreds of NEVER-SEEN PHOTOS & ILLUSTRATIONS from his files! Also includes recollections by family, friends and fellow artists such as MURPHY ANDERSON, WILL EISNER, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX ROSS and MORT WALKER! Written by columnist MARK VOGER (Schaffenberger friend for the final 13 years of the artist’s life), with a Foreword by KEN BALD.

(160-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905047 Diamond Order Code: STAR11522

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905290 Diamond Order Code: SEP032545

STREETWISE Featuring NEW autobiographical comics stories by:

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

• ALAN MOORE • WILL EISNER • STAN LEE • GENE COLAN • JOE KUBERT • JOHN ROMITA • HARVEY KURTZMAN • DAVE SIM • DAN DeCARLO • HOWARD CRUSE • DAVE COOPER and more!

A comprehensive look at GEORGE TUSKA’S personal and professional life, including early work at the Eisner-Iger shop, producing controversial crime comics of the 1950s, and his tenure with Marvel and DC Comics, as well as independent publishers. The book includes extensive coverage of his work on IRON MAN, X-MEN, HULK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS, BATMAN, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and many more! A gallery of commission artwork and a thorough index of his work are included, plus original artwork, photos, sketches, previously unpublished art, interviews and anecdotes from his peers and fans, plus the very personal and reflective words of George himself, making this book a testament to the tremendous influence Tuska has had on the comic book industry and his legion of fans! Written by DEWEY CASSELL.

(208-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905160 Diamond Order Code: JUN022611

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905405 Diamond Order Code: DEC042921

“I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS GUY!” BLAKE BELL takes a look at what its been like living with comic book creators over the past 60 years, with the people who know them best! Explore the lives of the partners and wives of the top names in comics, as they share memories, anecdotes, personal photos, mementos, and never-before-seen art! Featured are interviews with the “significant others” of:

HOW-TO BOOKS & DVDs

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 2

WORKING METHODS

COMICS 101:

COMIC CREATORS DETAIL THEIR STORYTELLING & CREATIVE PROCESSES

HOW-TO & HISTORY LESSONS FROM THE PROS

Art professor JOHN LOWE puts the minds of comic artists under the microscope, highlighting the intricacies of the creative process step-by-step. For this book, three short scripts are each interpreted in different ways by professional comic artists to illustrate the varied ways in which they “see” and “solve” the problem of making a script succeed in comic form. It documents the creative and technical choices MARK SCHULTZ, TIM LEVINS, JIM MAHFOOD, SCOTT HAMPTON, KELSEY SHANNON, CHRIS BRUNNER, SEAN MURPHY, and PAT QUINN make as they tell a story, allowing comic fans, artists, instructors, and students into a world rarely explored. Hundreds of illustrated examples document the artists’ processes, and interviews clarify their individual approaches regarding storytelling and layout choices. The exercise may be simple, but the results are profoundly complex!

TwoMorrows has tapped the combined knowledge of its editors to assemble an all-new 32-page comics primer, created just for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! You’ll learn: “Figure Drawing” and “How To Break Down A Story” from DRAW!’s MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Writing Tips” from WRITE NOW!’s DANNY FINGEROTH, plus ROUGH STUFF’s BOB McLEOD provides “Art Critiques” of promising newcomers! There’s even a “Comics History Crash-Course”, assembled by ALTER EGO’s ROY THOMAS and BACK ISSUE’s MICHAEL EURY! (32-page comic book) $2 US Diamond Order Code: FEB070050

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 1 Compiles material from the first two sold-out issues of DRAW!—a wealth of tutorials, interviews, and demonstrations by DAVE GIBBONS (layout and drawing on the computer), BRET BLEVINS (drawing lovely women, painting from life, and creating figures that “feel”), JERRY ORDWAY (detailing his working methods), KLAUS JANSON and RICARDO VILLAGRAN (inking techniques), GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY (on animation and Samurai Jack), STEVE CONLEY (creating web comics and cartoons), PHIL HESTER and ANDE PARKS (penciling and inking), and more! Each artist presents their work STEP-BY-STEP, so both beginning and experienced artists can learn valuable tips and tricks along the way! Cover by BRET BLEVINS!

Compiles material from issues #3 and #4 of DRAW!, including tutorials by, and interviews with, ERIK LARSEN (savage penciling), DICK GIORDANO (inking techniques), BRET BLEVINS (drawing the figure in action, and figure composition), KEVIN NOWLAN (penciling and inking), MIKE MANLEY (how-to demo on Web Comics), DAVE COOPER (digital coloring tutorial), and more! Cover by KEVIN NOWLAN. (156-page trade paperback with COLOR) $22 US ISBN: 9781893905580 Diamond Order Code: APR063421

(200-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905412 Diamond Order Code: OCT043046

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905733 Diamond Order Code: MAR073747

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

TOP ARTISTS DISCUSS THE DESIGN OF COMICS Art professor DURWIN TALON gets top creators to discuss all aspects of the DESIGN of comics, from panel and page layout, to use of color and lettering:

HOW TO DRAW COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

COMICS ABOVE GROUND

SEE HOW YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS MAKE A LIVING OUTSIDE COMICS

DVD

HOW TO CREATE COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

COMICS ABOVE GROUND features comics pros discussing their inspirations and training, and how they apply it in “Mainstream Media,” including Conceptual Illustration, Video Game Development, Children’s Books, Novels, Design, Illustration, Fine Art, Storyboards, Animation, Movies and more! Written by DURWIN TALON (author of the top-selling book PANEL DISCUSSIONS), this book features creators sharing their perspectives and their work in comics and their “other professions,” with career overviews, never-before-seen art, and interviews! Featuring: • LOUISE SIMONSON • BRUCE TIMM • DAVE DORMAN • BERNIE WRIGHTSON • GREG RUCKA • ADAM HUGHES AND OTHERS! • JEPH LOEB

REDESIGNED and EXPANDED version of the groundbreaking WRITE NOW! #8 / DRAW! #9 crossover! DANNY FINGEROTH & MIKE MANLEY show stepby-step how to develop a new comic, from script and roughs to pencils, inks, colors, lettering—it even guides you through printing and distribution, & the finished 8-page color comic is included, so you can see their end result! PLUS: over 30 pages of ALL-NEW material, including “full” and “Marvel-style” scripts, a critique of their new character and comic from an editor’s point of view, new tips on coloring, new expanded writing lessons, and more!

(168-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905313 Diamond Order Code: FEB042700

(108-page trade paperback with COLOR) $18 US ISBN: 9781893905603 Diamond Order Code: APR063422

• WILL EISNER • SCOTT HAMPTON • MIKE WIERINGO • WALT SIMONSON • MIKE MIGNOLA • MARK SCHULTZ • DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI • MIKE CARLIN • DICK GIORDANO • BRIAN STELFREEZE • CHRIS MOELLER • MARK CHIARELLO If you’re serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this guide is must-reading!

Documents two top professionals creating a (208-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29 US comic book, from initial idea to finished art! ISBN: 9781893905146 In this feature-filled DVD, WRITE NOW! Diamond Order Code: STAR19844 Magazine Editor DANNY (Spider-Man) FINGEROTH and DRAW! Magazine Editor MIKE (Batman) MANLEY show you how a new character evolves from scratch! Watch the creative process, as a story is created from concepts and roughs to pencils, inks, and coloring—even lettering! “The closest thing you’ll find to Packed with “how-to” tips and a comic creation tutorial; an tricks, it’s the perfect companion to the WRITE NOW #8/DRAW essential reference for anyone who’s #9 CROSSOVER, or stands ever hoped to self-publish or make a alone as an invaluable tool for amateur and professional serious bid at a career in the field.” comics creators alike! (120-minute DVD) $35 US ISBN: 9781893905399 Diamond Order Code: AUG043204

ink19.com on HOW TO CREATE COMICS

MODERN MASTERS BOOK SERIES Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks and DVDs are devoted to the BEST OF TODAY’S COMICS ARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more! And our DVDs show the artist at work!

VOL. 1: ALAN DAVIS

“This volume does a really terrific job of explaining why Walt Simonson is great. It’s a really excellent job, for a really excellent comics artist. Get it.” Steven Grant on MODERN MASTERS VOL. 8: WALTER SIMONSON

V.2: GEORGE PÉREZ

V.3: BRUCE TIMM

V.4: KEVIN NOWLAN

V.5: GARCÍA-LÓPEZ

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905252 Diamond Order Code: STAR20127

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905306 Diamond Order Code: APR042954

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905382 Diamond Order Code: SEP042971

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905443 Diamond Order Code: APR053191

V.6: ARTHUR ADAMS

V.7: JOHN BYRNE

V.8: WALTER SIMONSON

V.9: MIKE WIERINGO

V.10: KEVIN MAGUIRE

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905542 Diamond Order Code: DEC053309

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905566 Diamond Order Code: FEB063354

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905641 Diamond Order Code: MAY063444

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905658 Diamond Order Code: AUG063626

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905665 Diamond Order Code: OCT063722

V.11: CHARLES VESS

V.12: MICHAEL GOLDEN

V.13: JERRY ORDWAY

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905696 Diamond Order Code: DEC063948

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905740 Diamond Order Code: APR074023

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905795 Diamond Order Code: NOV068372

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905191 Diamond Order Code: STAR18345

MORE GREAT MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES ARE COMING IN FALL 2007; SEE OUR JULY CATALOG UPDATE THIS ISSUE!

MODERN MASTERS STUDIO DVDs (120-minute Std. Format DVDs) $35 US EACH

GEORGE PÉREZ

ISBN: 9781893905511 Diamond Order Code: JUN053276

MICHAEL GOLDEN ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

COMPANION BOOKS

KRYPTON COMPANION BLUE BEETLE COMPANION

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION VOL. 1

TITANS COMPANION

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!

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 GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, LEN WEIN, & others! Also included is a comprehensive Silver Age section featuring interviews with NEAL ADAMS, NICK CARDY, DICK GIORDANO & more, plus CHRIS CLAREMONT and WALTER SIMONSON on the X-MEN/TEEN TITANS crossover, TOM GRUMMETT, PHIL JIMENEZ & 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.

(224-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

(224-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905504 Diamond Order Code: SEP053209

Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets flew the skies! Features all-new interviews with ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, , MOONEY, O’NEIL, OKSNER, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SHOOTER, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and others, plus tons of rare and unseen art! By BACK ISSUE magazine’s MICHAEL EURY!

His history from 1939 to today! Reprints his first appearance from MYSTERY MEN COMICS #1, plus interviews with WILL EISNER, JOE SIMON, JOE GILL, ROY THOMAS, GEOFF JOHNS, CULLY HAMNER, KEITH GIFFEN, LEN WEIN, never-seen Blue Beetle designs by ALEX ROSS and ALAN WEISS, as well as artwork by EISNER, JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, KEVIN MAGUIRE & more! By CHRISTOPHER IRVING.

(240-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

(128-page trade paperback) $21 US ISBN: 9781893905702 Diamond Order Code: DEC063946

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 1

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 2

ROY THOMAS has assembled the most thorough look ever taken at ALL-STAR COMICS, featuring: Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON! Issue-by-issue coverage of ALL-STAR COMICS #1-57, the original JLA-JSA teamups, & the ’70s ALL-STAR REVIVAL! Art from an unpublished 1945 JSA story! Looks at FOUR “LOST” ALL-STAR issues! Plus rare art by BURNLEY, DILLIN, KIRBY, INFANTINO, KANE, KUBERT, ORDWAY, ROSS, WOOD and more!

ROY THOMAS’ new sequel, with more secrets of the JSA and ALL-STAR COMICS, from 1940 through the 1980s, featuring: a wraparound CARLOS PACHECO cover! More amazing information, speculation, and unseen ALL-STAR COMICS art! Unpublished 1940s JSA STORY ART not printed in Volume One! Full listing of all the 1963-1985 JLA-JSA TEAM-UPS and the 1970s JSA REVIVAL! Full coverage of the 1980s ALLSTAR SQUADRON and YOUNG ALL-STARS by ROY THOMAS, with scarce & never-published art!

(208-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905054 Diamond Order Code: APR042953

LEGION COMPANION The definitive history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with DAVE COCKRUM, MIKE GRELL, JIM STARLIN, JAMES SHERMAN, PAUL LEVITZ, KEITH GIFFEN, STEVE LIGHTLE, MARK WAID, JIM SHOOTER, JIM MOONEY, AL PLASTINO, and more! Plus: rare and never-seen Legion art by the above, plus GEORGE PÉREZ, NEAL ADAMS, CURT SWAN, and others! Unused Cockrum character designs and pages from an UNUSED STORY! And a new cover by DAVE COCKRUM and JOE RUBINSTEIN, introduction by JIM SHOOTER, and more! Written by GLEN CADIGAN. (224-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905221 Diamond Order Code: STAR20091

BEST OF THE LEGION OUTPOST Collects the best material from the hard-to-find LEGION OUTPOST fanzine, including rare interviews and articles from creators such as DAVE COCKRUM, CARY BATES, and JIM SHOOTER, plus never-beforeseen 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 rarelyseen classic 1970s cover by Legion fan favorite artist DAVE COCKRUM! Edited by GLEN CADIGAN. (160-page trade paperback) $22 US ISBN: 9781893905368 Diamond Order Code: SEP042969

(240-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905375 Diamond Order Code: AUG063622

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS COMPANION The definitive book on WALLACE WOOD’s super-team of the 1960s! Included are interviews with Woody’s creative team, plus writers and artists involved in the T-Agents resurrections over the decades, and a detailed examination of the origins and exploits of the characters themselves! A perfect compendium to sit alongside the recently-published T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS ARCHIVES volumes, it features reams of artwork, much of it rarely-seen or previously unpublished, including a 27-page story drawn by PAUL GULACY & TERRY AUSTIN, UNPUBLISHED STORIES & ART by GULACY, GARRY LEACH, ALAN DAVIS, and others, and a JERRY ORDWAY cover! Edited by JON B. COOKE. (224-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905436 Diamond Order Code: MAR053228

COMICS HISTORY BOOKS

IMAGE COMICS

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE In 1992, seven artists shook the comic book industry when they left their top-selling Marvel Comics titles to jointly form a new company named IMAGE COMICS! Out of the gate, millions of readers flocked to the energetic adventures by these creators, as together they ushered in the Image Age, where comics would sell in the millions, and a comic book artist could become a mass media celebrity. IMAGE COMICS: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE is an unprecedented look at the history of this comic book company, featuring interviews and art from popular Image founders ERIK LARSEN, JIM LEE, TODD MCFARLANE, WHILCE PORTACIO, MARC SILVESTRI and JIM VALENTINO. Also featured are many of finest creators who over the last fifteen years have been a part of the Image family, offering behind-the-scenes details of the company’s successes and failures. There’s rare and unseen art, helping make this the most honest exploration ever taken of the controversial company whose success, influence and high production values changed the landscape of comics forever! By GEORGE KHOURY.

COMICS GONE APE!

THE DARK AGE

The missing link to primates in comics, spotlighting a barrel of simian superstars like Beppo, BrainiApe, the Gibbon, Gleek, Gorilla Man, Grease Monkey, King Kong, Konga, Mojo Jojo, Sky Ape, and Titano! It’s loaded with rare and classic artwork, cover galleries, and interviews with artists & writers including ARTHUR ADAMS (Monkeyman and O’Brien), FRANK CHO, CARMINE INFANTINO (Detective Chimp, Grodd), JOE KUBERT (Tor, Tarzan), TONY MILLIONAIRE (Sock Monkey), DOUG MOENCH (Planet of the Apes), and BOB OKSNER (Angel and the Ape)! With its all-new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS, you won’t be able to keep your filthy paws off this book! By MICHAEL EURY.

Documents the ’80s and ’90s era of comics, from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and WATCHMEN to the “polybagged premium” craze, the DEATH OF SUPERMAN, renegade superheroes SPAWN, PITT, BLOODSHOT, CYBERFORCE, & more! Interviews with TODD McFARLANE, DAVE GIBBONS, JIM LEE, KEVIN SMITH, ALEX ROSS, MIKE MIGNOLA, ERIK LARSEN, J. O’BARR, DAVID LAPHAM, JOE QUESADA, MIKE ALLRED and others, plus a color section! Written by MARK VOGER, with photos by KATHY VOGLESONG.

(280-page trade paperback) $39 US ISBN: 9781893905719 Diamond Order Code: MAR073745

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: JUN068194

(168-page trade paperback with COLOR) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905535 Diamond Order Code: NOV053233

TRUE BRIT

CELEBRATING UK COMICS ARTISTS GEORGE KHOURY’s celebration of the rich history of British Comics Artists and their influence on the US with in-depth interviews and art by: • BRIAN BOLLAND • ALAN DAVIS • DAVE GIBBONS • KEVIN O’NEILL • DAVID LLOYD • DAVE MCKEAN • BRYAN HITCH • BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH And other fine gents! (204-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905337 Diamond Order Code: MAY042968

BUY TWO COLLECTIONS OF MARK EVANIER’S ACCLAIMED COLUMNS, & GET ONE FREE! $17 EACH US, OR ALL THREE FOR $34 US! ALTER EGO COLLECTION, VOL. 1

COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOL. 3

Collects ALTER EGO #1-2, plus plus 30 pages of new material! Behind a new JLA Jam Cover by JOE KUBERT, GEORGE PÉREZ, DICK GIORDANO, GEORGE TUSKA, NICK CARDY, RAMONA FRADON, & JOE GIELLA, there’s: GIL KANE, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, & GARDNER FOX on the creation of the Silver Age Atom! “The STAN LEE Roast” with SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, PETER DAVID, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JIM SHOOTER, et al.! MICHAEL T. GILBERT on WILL EISNER’s 1966 Spirit story! ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, & MIKE MACHLAN on creating Infinity, Inc.! Interviews with LARRY LIEBER, IRWIN HASEN, & JACK BURNLEY! Wonder Woman rarities, with art by H.G. PETER! Plus FCA, new sections featuring scarce art by GIL KANE, WILL EISNER, CARMINE INFANTINO, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MURPHY ANDERSON, DICK DILLIN, plus all seven of our super-star cover artists!

Reprinting the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #7 and #8, plus over 30 NEW PAGES of features and art, with a new PAUL GULACY portfolio, MR. MONSTER scrapbook, the story behind MARVEL VALUE STAMPS, and more! Includes a new MICHAEL T. GILBERT cover, plus interviews with GILBERT, STEVE RUDE, PAUL GULACY, STEVE GERBER, DON SIMPSON, HOWARD CHAYKIN, SCOTT McCLOUD, RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BYRNE, DENIS KITCHEN, and more!

(192-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905597 Diamond Order Code: APR063420

(224-page trade paperback) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905429 Diamond Order Code: FEB053098

For years, MARK EVANIER’S essays and commentaries have been among the most popular, well-read writings on the comic book industry, and these books collect both old and new essays, and are profusely illustrated by awardwinning MAD cartoonist (and Mark’s collaborator of 20 years on GROO THE WANDERER) SERGIO ARAGONÉS, including new covers! Whether you’re a comics history buff, or you just enjoy Mark’s witty, unique perspective on comics, these collections are not to be missed!

COMIC BOOKS & OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE

Topics covered in this colossal volume range from the state of the art form and its leading practitioners— including JACK KIRBY and CARL BARKS—to convention-going and Mark’s old comic book club. (200-page trade paperback) $17 US ISBN: 9781893905153 Diamond Order Code: STAR17814

WERTHAM WAS RIGHT!

Included in this volume are his definitive history of the FOX AND CROW comic book, tributes to artists BOB KANE and GIL KANE, Mark’s diatribe on comic book numbering, and many more, capped off by an essay on comics’ greatest villain, DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM! (200-page trade paperback) $17 US ISBN: 9781893905269 Diamond Order Code: APR032577

SUPERHEROES IN MY PANTS!

“For both those who didn’t realize that they did comics on this side of the Atlantic, and those seasoned know-alls who can already tell their Dudley Watkins from their Paddy Brennan, this book is a treasure-trove of rare art, interviews and information, illuminating a hidden and unsuspected world of wonders.” Alan Moore on TRUE BRIT

Includes essays on JULIUS SCHWARTZ, bad convention panels, CURT SWAN, cheap comic fans, unfinanced entrepreneurs, stupid mistakes in comics, PAT BOYETTE, and other aspects of the Art Form. (200-page trade paperback) $17 US ISBN: 9781893905351 Diamond Order Code: MAR042849

T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

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 money-saving BUNDLES, including an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with the entire run at HALF-PRICE! “Even though I was an eyewitness to much of the comics history covered in BACK ISSUE, I was fascinated and even surprised by the info provided by Eury, his contributors, and their interview subjects. I learned something on darn near every page. It’s a terrific magazine!”

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

“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!

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

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

Tony Isabella on BACK ISSUE!

BACK ISSUE #3

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

“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, two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

“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!

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

(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

BACK ISSUE #8

BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

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!

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!

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

(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

T! LD OU O S , Y SORR

BACK ISSUE #13

BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

BACK ISSUE #17

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!

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!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP053303

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV053296

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN063431

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR063547

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY063499

BACK ISSUE #18

BACK ISSUE #19

BACK ISSUE #20

BACK ISSUE #21

BACK ISSUE #22

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

“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, GERBER and COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, “Greatest Stories Never Told” on 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!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL063569

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP063683

(104-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV063993

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN073984

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR073855

ROUGH STUFF celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVERBEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history, before-and-after comparisons, critiques, early work, and more from top comics pros!

ROUGH STUFF #1

ROUGH STUFF #2

ROUGH STUFF #3

ROUGH STUFF #4

DAVIS • PÉREZ • TIMM • NOWLAN GARCÍA-LÓPEZ • ARTHUR ADAMS BYRNE • SIMONSON

BRIAN APTHORP • FRANK BRUNNER PAUL GULACY • JERRY ORDWAY ALEX TOTH • MATT WAGNER

MIKE ALLRED • JOHN BUSCEMA YANICK PAQUETTE • JOHN ROMITA JR. P. CRAIG RUSSELL • LEE WEEKS

BISSETTE • CHAYKIN • COLAN KALUTA • ANDREW ROBINSON JOHN TOTLEBEN

(116-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: APR063497

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG063714

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV064024

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB073911

TwoMorrows Publishing 2007 Catalog Update JUNE-DECEMBER 2007 • ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

Introducing: COMICS INTROSPECTIVE!

TwoMorrows Publishing proudly presents a new book series that spotlights indy comics talent with an outside-the-box approach. Through a combination of original photography, multiple art gallery sections, and an introspective dialogue with each subject, COMICS INTROSPECTIVE is unlike anything being published. Printed on deluxe glossy stock to maximize the impact of the art and photography, the goal is to make the series as breakthrough as the innovators it covers.

Volume 1: PETER BAGGE

Volume 2: DEAN HASPIEL

With a unique, expressive style, PETER BAGGE’s work runs the gamut from political (his strips for reason.com), absurdist and satirical (the BATBOY strip for WEEKLY WORLD NEWS), and dramatic (APOCALYPSE NERD). From his Seattle studio, Peter Bagge lets journalist CHRISTOPHER IRVING in on everything from just what was on his mind with his long-running Gen X comic HATE!, to what’s going on in his head as a political satirist. This debut volume of COMICS INTROSPECTIVE features an assortment of original photography, artwork picked by Bagge himself, and a look at where Bagge’s work (and mind) is taking him.

Volume Two shines a light on DEAN HASPIEL, the multi-genre cartoonist behind BILLY DOGMA, the existentialist bruiser hero, and the artist on Harvey Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR mini-series and THE QUITTER graphic novel. Writer/editor CHRISTOPHER IRVING hangs with Dean in his Brooklyn apartment for the day, talking about Haspiel’s diverse and unique approach to comics, his use of Dogma as a semi-biographical “avatar”… and just what “Aggro-Moxie” really is. Featuring galleries of original Haspiel art, as well as original photographs by RYAN ROMAN, and an introduction by Y The Last Man’s BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, we continue this experimental and bold new series.

(128-page trade paperback) $21 US • ISBN: 9781893905832 Diamond Order Code: DEC063948 • Ships July 2007

(128-page trade paperback) $21 US • ISBN: 9781893905900 Ships January 2008

Coming in 2008: Volume 3 featuring JAY STEPHENS, and Volume 4 featuring BOB FINGERMAN!

UPCOMING BOOKS: MODERN MASTERS SERIES Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks are devoted to the BEST OF TODAY’S COMICS ARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

Vol. 14: FRANK CHO

Vol. 15: MARK SCHULTZ

Vol. 16: MIKE ALLRED

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905849 Ships October 2007

(128-page TPB) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905856 Ships December 2007

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905863 Ships February 2008

MORE MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES ARE COMING IN 2008: GAIJIN STUDIOS AND JOHN ROMITA JR.! SEE OUR JANUARY CATALOG FOR DETAILS!

t o

KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50) ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

(10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) In 1961, JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS launched ALTER EGO, the first fanzine devoted to comic books and their colorful history. This volume, first published in low distribution in 1997, collects the original 11 issues (published from 1961-78) of A/E, with the creative and artistic contributions of JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, & others—and important, illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! See where a generation first learned about the Golden Age of Comics—while the Silver Age was in full flower—with major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS & BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by the late JULIUS SCHWARTZ.

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.

(192-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905887 Ships February 2008

(224-page trade paperback) $31 US ISBN: 97801893905870 Ships March 2008

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 2

The publication that started the TwoMorrows juggernaut presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire halfcentury oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! (A percentage of profits will be donated to the JACK KIRBY MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTER.) (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905894 Ships December 2007

HOW-TO MAGAZINES

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation, featuring in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

WRITE NOW! features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, exclusive Nuts & Bolts tutorials, and more! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

ROUGH STUFF features never-seen pencil pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history, plus columns, critiques, and more! Edited by BOB MCLEOD.

DOWNLOAD DIGITAL EDITIONS OF OUR MAGS FOR $2 95, STARTING IN JULY! SEE PAGE 4 FOR DETAILS! 2

NEW MAGS: T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, plus rare and unpublished art. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

ALTER EGO focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

BACK ISSUE #23

BACK ISSUE #24

BACK ISSUE #25

BACK ISSUE #26

“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!

“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” color 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!

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073880

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships September 2007

(104-page magazine) $9 US Ships November 2007

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships January 2008

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

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!

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 synopsis for the origin of Man-Thing, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

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!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with WALT GROGAN and 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) $9 US Ships September 2007

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships December 2007

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships January 2008

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships March 2008

DRAW! #15

WRITE NOW! #17

WRITE NOW! #18

ROUGH STUFF #6

ROUGH STUFF #7

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 B.P.R.D.’S GUY DAVIS, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

HEROES ISSUE featuring series creator/ writer TIM KRING, writer JEPH LOEB, and others, interviews with DC Comics’ DAN DiDIO and Marvel’s DAN BUCKLEY, PETER DAVID on writing STEPHEN KING’S DARK TOWER COMIC, MICHAEL TEITELBAUM, C.B. CEBULSKI, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, Nuts & Bolts script and art examples, a FREE BACK ISSUE #24 PREVIEW, and more!

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!

Features a new interview and cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE, interview with BUTCH GUICE, extensive art galleries/commentary by IAN CHURCHILL, DAVE COCKRUM, and COLLEEN DORAN, MIKE GAGNON looks at independent comics, with art and comments by ANDREW BARR, BRANDON GRAHAM, and ASAF HANUKA! Includes a FREE ALTER EGO #73 PREVIEW!

Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Ships October 2007

(80-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007

(80-page magazine) $9 US Ships January 2008

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships January 2008

Digital Editions: $295 Pros@Cons!

Summer 2007 Update Edition • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by John Morrow

New Cover Art!

For various reasons, we’ve had to change cover art on a couple of items since we published our January catalog. Above are new covers for WRITE NOW #16 (shipping in July), and MEGO 8” SUPERHEROES: WORLD’S GREATEST TOYS (shipping in October)! For WRITE NOW, we’ve added a roundtable of Silver Surfer writers, including STAN LEE, STEVE ENGLEHART, JIM STARLIN, J.M. DEMATTEIS, and RON MARZ, so we felt this new cover painting by MIKE ZECK seemed spot-on. And the MEGO cover changed at the polite request of our friends up at DC Comics, so who are we to argue? Same great pubs, but with great new fronts! Get ’em soon!

Beginning with our July issues, we’ll begin offering digital editions of all our new magazines at www.twomorrows.com, for only $2.95 PER DOWNLOAD (way less than HALF THE PRICE of the printed versions)! Not only that, but these new PDF editions will feature much of the art from our printed magazines’ black-andwhite pages in FULL COLOR! As a special bonus, subscribers to our printed magazines will get FREE ACCESS to the digital versions of the issues in their subscription, which will generally be available 2-3 weeks BEFORE copies are even printed. So if you’ve hesitated to subscribe because our mags show up in your local comics shop before they’re in your mailbox, you can now see the whole issue digitally (and in color) weeks earlier, for no extra charge! We’re offering these digital editions as a test to see if there’s a market for them, not as a way to do away with printed magazines. But we’re relying on the honesty of our readers, to NOT share their digital editions with others. Since we rely on sales from every printed copy and download to keep the magazines going, if readers illegally share these files with others, the TwoMorrows mags you love so much could cease to be published in ANY format. So enjoy the files, but make sure you pay for yours! And if you’re a subscriber, send your e-mail address to www.twomorrows.com to get free access to these new digital editions!

During the second half of 2007, we’ll be exhibiting at the following comic cons: COMICON INTERNATIONAL (San Diego, CA, July 25-29, 2007) WIZARDWORLD: CHICAGO (Chicago, IL, August 9-12, 2007)

BALTIMORE COMICON (Baltimore, MD, September 8-9, 2007) SPX (Small Press Expo) (Bethesda, MD, October 12-13, 2007)

ULTIMATE SINNOTT

So stop by our booths and buy something!

We Built And Diamond Order Codes It, They Came...

Here’s a list of Diamond Order Codes that weren’t yet available when we printed our January Catalog: Alter Ego #68: MAR073852 Alter Ego #69: APR074098 Alter Ego #70: MAY073879 Alter Ego #71: JUN074006 Back Issue #22: MAR073855 Batcave Companion: NOV068368 Brush Strokes With Greatness: Joe Sinnott: MAR073744 Comics 101: FEB070050 Draw! #14: MAY073896 Image Comics: The Road To Independence: MAR073745 Jack Kirby Collector #49: JUN074028 John Romita... And All That Jazz! (HARDCOVER): APR074019 John Romita... And All That Jazz! (SOFTCOVER): APR074018 Rough Stuff #5: MAY073902 Write Now #16: MAY073903 Modern Masters Vol. 12: Michael Golden: APR074023 Modern Masters Vol. 13: Jerry Ordway: JUN073926 Modern Masters: Michael Golden DVD: MAY073780 Working Methods: MAR073747

BATCAVE DELAY

Our upcoming book THE BATCAVE COMPANION (by MICHAELS EURY and KRONENBERG) has been pushed back to April, to allow extra time to make it the most outstanding “Companion” we’ve ever done. Stay tuned! We guarantee it’ll be worth the wait!

Over 25,000 copies of COMICS 101 (our Free Comic Book Day publication) were handed out on May 5 at comics shops across the country, and from our webstore. And thousands more have been given away at conventions we’ve attended. If you somehow missed your copy of this great sampler of our mags (featuring “how-to” and history lessons from our editors), you can still get one online for a measly $2 IN THE US (which covers our postage costs to send it to you). Get it while the gettin’s good!

Only at www.twomorrows.com, we’re offering an ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION (only 52 copies, lettered “A” to “Z” and “AA” to “ZZ”) of our Joe Sinnott bio, BRUSH STROKES WITH GREATNESS! Joltin’ Joe has drawn 52 pencil drawings, and one has been bound into each copy, making a truly one-of-a-kind edition! So hurry online to get yours, and you can choose which character you want before they sell out! NOT SOLD IN STORES!

New Subscription Sell Outs! Rates: (due to postage hikes)

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Four tabloid issues in the US: $44 Standard, $56 First Class (Canada: $64, Elsewhere: $76 Surface, $120 Airmail).

BACK ISSUE!: Six issues in the US: $40 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $90 Surface, $108 Airmail). ROUGH STUFF, DRAW! & WRITE NOW!: Four issues in the US: $26 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $60 Surface, $72 Airmail). ALTER EGO: Twelve issues in the US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

These items are now SOLD OUT: HEROES & VILLAINS: THE WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS TRIBUTE SKETCHBOOK WRITE NOW! #12 DRAW! #9 and #12 COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 2 COMIC BOOK ARTIST #11 To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ twomorrows

NEW RATES: Prices include US Postage. Outside the US, ADD PER ITEM: Mags & DVDs, $2 Canada ($7 Surface, $9 Airmail) • Books, $4 Canada ($12 Surface, $22 Airmail)

NOW SHIPPING FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #70

ROUGH STUFF #5

DRAW! #14

WRITE NOW! #16

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

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 a FREE ROUGH STUFF #5 PREVIEW!

NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED art galleries (complete with extensive commentaries by the artists) by PAUL SMITH, GIL KANE, CULLY HAMNER, DALE KEOWN, and ASHLEY WOOD, plus a feature interview and art by STEVE RUDE, an examination of JOHN ALBANO and TONY DeZUNIGA’s work on DC’s Jonah Hex, a new STEVE RUDE COVER, plus a FREE BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW!

Features in-depth interviews and step-bystep demos with DC Comics artist DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), plus Part 3 of editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, a new MAHNKE cover, and a FREE ALTER EGO #70 PREVIEW!

An in-depth TODD McFARLANE interview, STAN LEE, STEVE ENGLEHART, JIM STARLIN, GEORGE PÉREZ, and J.M. DeMATTEIS on writing the Silver Surfer, Nuts and Bolts script and pencil art from BRIAN BENDIS and FRANK CHO’s MIGHTY AVENGERS and from DAN SLOTT’s AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, STAR TREK comics writers' roundtable Part 2, cover by MIKE ZECK, plus a FREE DRAW #14 PREVIEW!

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, a pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, a wraparound Kirby Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more! SHIPS IN AUGUST!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073902

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073896

(84-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073903

(84-page tabloid) $13 US Diamond Order Code: JUN074028

IMAGE COMICS

COMICS INTROSPECTIVE VOLUME 1: PETER BAGGE

WORKING METHODS

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 12: MICHAEL GOLDEN

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073879

JOHN ROMITA... & ALL THAT JAZZ! The artist who made AMAZING SPIDERMAN Marvel’s #1-selling comic book in the 1960s talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art, it’s a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905757 Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover w/ COLOR) $49 US ISBN: 9781893905764 Diamond Order Code: APR074019

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE In 1992, seven artists shook the comic book industry when they left their top-selling Marvel Comics titles to jointly form a new company named IMAGE COMICS! IMAGE COMICS: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE is an unprecedented look at the history of this company, featuring interviews and art from popular Image founders ERIK LARSEN, JIM LEE, TODD MCFARLANE, WHILCE PORTACIO, MARC SILVESTRI and JIM VALENTINO. Also featured are many of finest creators who over the last fifteen years have been a part of the Image family, offering behind-thescenes details of the company’s successes and failures. There’s rare and unseen art, making this the most honest exploration ever taken of the controversial company whose success, influence and high production values changed the landscape of comics forever! Written by GEORGE KHOURY. Introduction by DAVE SIM.

First volume of TwoMorrows’ new book series spotlighting INDY COMICS TALENT with an outside-the-box approach, combining original photography, multiple art gallery sections, and an introspective dialogue with each subject—all on deluxe glossy stock to maximize the impact of the imagery. Volume One features PETER BAGGE, whose work runs from political (his strips for reason.com), to absurdist and satirical (the Batboy strip for Weekly World News), and dramatic (Apocalypse Nerd). From his Seattle studio, Bagge lets us in on everything from what was on his mind with his long-running Gen X comic Hate!, to what’s going on in his head as a political satirist. Written by CHRISTOPHER IRVING.

Art professor JOHN LOWE puts the minds of comic artists under the microscope, highlighting the intricacies of their storytelling and creative processes stepby-step. For this book, three short scripts are each interpreted in different ways by professional comic artists to illustrate the varied ways in which they “see” and “solve” the problem of making a script succeed in comic form. It documents the creative and technical choices MARK SCHULTZ, TIM LEVINS, JIM MAHFOOD, SCOTT HAMPTON, KELSEY SHANNON, CHRIS BRUNNER, SEAN MURPHY, and PAT QUINN make as they tell a story, allowing comic fans, artists, instructors, and students into a world rarely explored. Hundreds of illustrated examples document the artists’ processes, and interviews clarify their individual approaches regarding storytelling and layout choices.

(280-page trade paperback) $39 US ISBN: 9781893905719 Diamond Order Code: MAR073745

(128-page trade paperback) $21 US ISBN: 9781893905832 Diamond Order Code: MAY073779

(176-page paperback w/ COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905733 Diamond Order Code: MAR073747

Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Golden’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905740 Diamond Order Code: APR074023

MODERN MASTERS: MICHAEL GOLDEN DVD Shows the artist at work, discussing his art and career! (120-minute Std. Format DVD) $35 US ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

SUBSCRIPTIONS: JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Four issues US: $44 Standard, $56 First Class (Canada: $64, Elsewhere: $76 Surface, $120 Airmail). BACK ISSUE!: Six issues US: $40 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $90 Surface, $108 Airmail). DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF: Four issues US: $26 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $60 Surface, $72 Airmail). ALTER EGO: Twelve issues US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). FOR A SIX-ISSUE ALTER EGO SUBSCRIPTION, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

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