Back Issue #26

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“ SS P P II EE SS A AN ND D T TO OU UG GH H G GU UY Y SS ”” II SS SS U U EE !! “

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BLACK WIDOW TM & © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Exclusive “Pro2Pro” Interview with

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PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH on Master of Kung Fu, Nick Fury, 007, and Their Longtime Collaboration SUICIDE SQUAD • JAMES BOND • AIRBOY • REDEEMER • SGT. ROCK • MS. TREE • AND MR. T! WITH KUBERT • COLAN • TRUMAN • OSTRANDER • KESEL • MCDONNELL • AND MORE!



Volume 1, Number 26 February 2008 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 COVER ARTIST Paul Gulacy

FLASHBACK: Black Widow: The Gloria Steinem of the Jump-Suit Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The amazing adventures of Marvel’s spy superheroine

COVER COLORIST Laurie Kronenberg

PRO2PRO: (Karate) Kickin’ It, Old School!: Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy . . . . . . . . . .8 The writer and artist kick back for a Master of Kung Fu dialogue

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Shang-Chi/Nick Fury Crossover . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Moench and Gulacy were thiiiiiis close to pairing Marvel’s martial artist and super-spy

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

BEYOND CAPES: James Bond: A Comics History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 A look at the scattershot comics appearances of the most famous of secret agents

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

WHAT THE--?!: Between a Rock and a Bizarre Place: Sgt. Rock’s Team-Ups in the DC Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 The WWII hero’s offbeat pairings with Batman, Superman, Swamp Thing, and others

SPECIAL THANKS Michael Aushenker Mike Baron Terry Beatty Lee Benaka Al Bigley Alex Boney Jerry Boyd Norm Breyfogle Michael Browning Pete Carlsson Dewey Cassell Howard Chaykin Steve Cohen Gene Colan Max Allan Collins Gerry Conway Tony DeZuniga Chuck Dixon Randy Emberlin Angela Fowlks Mike Friedrich Mike Gagnon Grand Comic-Book Database Robert Greenberger Paul Gulacy George Hagenauer Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions Ben Herman Eric Houston Tony Isabella Geof Isherwood Dan Johnson

BEYOND CAPES: Keep ’Em Flying: The Story of Airboy at Eclipse Comics . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Dixon and Truman’s travails and triumphs in resurrecting the Golden Age flyboy FLASHBACK: The Suicide Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 An in-depth, art-loaded examination of John Ostrander’s dastardly do-gooders OFF MY CHEST: The Painless Birth of the Suicide Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Series editor Robert Greenberger spills his guts on the origins of DC’s hard-hitting team INTERVIEW: Howard Chaykin on Atlas Comics: The Good, the Bad, and the Higher Page Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 The superstar writer/artist discusses the Scorpion and the fly-by-night publisher of 1975 BEYOND CAPES: P.I.s Inc.: The Many Detectives of Don McGregor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 McGregor’s film noir comics Detectives Inc. and Nathaniel Dusk, with art by Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan WHAT THE--?!: They Call Me Mr. T! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Pity th’ fool who counts out this comics-friendly ’80s icon GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Joe Kubert and The Redeemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 The comics legend looks back at the series that didn’t—but might yet—happen BEYOND CAPES: The Mystery of Ms. Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 The story of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty’s tough-as-nails lady P.I. BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Reader feedback on magical issue #24, and a bonus for fans of Micronauts! 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, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: 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 Paul Gulacy. Black Widow TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. S p i e s

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A Black Widow sketch by Bill Sienkiewicz, courtesy of Anthony Snyder. Black Widow © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mike Keane Scott Kent Randy Kerr Karl Kesel Jim Kingman Michael Kronenberg Joe Kubert Joe Kulbiski Dave Lemieux Marvel Comics Luke McDonnell Doug Moench Miss Moneypenney Albert Moy John Ostrander Michael Rankins Rose Rummel-Eury Paul Sager Jeff Singh Anthony Snyder John K. Snyder III Tom Stewart Timothy Truman John Yon cat yronwode


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We’ve been told repeatedly during the past several years that the world changed on September 11, 2001. That isn’t true, at least not in the way it’s been presented to us. What changed on 9/11 was America’s perception of and reaction to terrorism. But political and religious extremists’ use of violence is certainly no recent phenomenon. If you don’t believe me, just read writer John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, DC Comics’ 1987–1992 supervillains-as-expendable-operatives series which was recently revived as a miniseries and is about to see its earliest adventures collected in a Showcase Presents edition. Given the current popularity of supervillain gatherings, some readers might lump Suicide Squad into the same category as DC’s new Salvation Run book

S.C.I.-Spy © 2008 Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy/DC Comics.

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or the ’70s oldie Secret Society of Super-Villains. Don’t make that mistake: Ostrander’s Suicide Squad was about honor, dishonor, bravery, deception, and a very fragile world peace. Its ragtag team of secret agents, superheroes, and costumed convicts was often sent deep into the Middle East (and other volatile parts of the world) on missions impossible in stories that seem chillingly contemporary today. In this issue writer Michael Browning blows the lid off the Squad’s history, with the aid of series contributors Luke McDonnell, Karl Kesel, Geof Isherwood (whose name I misspelled last issue in the caption to his astounding Six Million Dollar Man vs. Bigfoot illo; my apologies, Geof), John K. Snyder III, and Johnny O himself—and series editor Bob Greenberger chimes in with an “Off My Chest” guest editorial. (For those hoping for commentary from one-time Suicide Squad cover artist Jerry Bingham, our efforts to enlist his participation were unsuccessful.) Long before Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, when it came to international espionage, nobody did it better than novelist Ian Fleming, and in this issue we look at the scattershot comic-book appearances of his enduring creation, James Bond—and in an exclusive “Greatest Stories Never Told” article by Dave Lemieux, we explore the planned-butscrapped crossover of Bond’s Marvel Comics counterpart, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Marvel’s answer to real-life tough guy Bruce Lee, Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu. This issue also features one of our most-requested “Pro2Pro” interviews, uniting Master of Kung Fu’s unbeatable creative team, Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy—who also, among their frequent collaborations, did a James Bond miniseries together (wouldn’t you love to see a Moench/Gulacy Batman/ Bond crossover, with Ra’s al Ghul as the villain?). Also this issue: We’ve declassified dossiers on comic-book secret agents and tough guys Black Widow, Airboy, Sgt. Rock, the Scorpion (and Atlas Comics), Detectives Inc. and Nathaniel Dusk, Mr. T (that’s right, fool!), the Redeemer, and—one of my personal favorite series from the 1980s—Ms. Tree, with the aid of Tim Truman, Howard Chaykin, Joe Kubert, Don McGregor, Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty, and other friends. That’s a heavy-hitting lineup! If you’re still craving terrorist-chasing, knucklebusting action after reading this issue, let me point you toward 24: Cold Warrior, coming this February from IDW Publishing (and the Fox Network). From the iMac of writer Beau Smith (Cobb, Wynonna Earp), this latest comics adventure of TV tough guy Jack Bauer is a must-read. Learn more at: www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/busted. One correction to share: In our Frank Brunner Dr. Strange interview in BACK ISSUE #24, we were misinformed about the art on page 41. It was actually Frank’s rough interior layout from a page from Marvel Premiere #10, not a cover layout for issue #14, as captioned. Our apologies to Mr. Brunner. And we’d like to extend our belated gratitude to Michael Cross, the contributor of the awesome Bob Layton Iron Man art that appeared as BI #25’s cover. Thank you, Mike. The art on this page is a teaser for this issue’s Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy “Pro2Pro” interview. It’s Gulacy’s cover art to the third issue of the 2002 DC/Vertigo series he co-created with Moench, S.C.I.-Spy. Enjoy!


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Allan Harvey

Marvel’s premier femme fatale super-spy, the Black Widow, aka Natalia Romanova, aka Natasha Romanoff, first appeared in a 1964 Iron Man story (Tales of Suspense #52) as a baddie. She later saw the error of her ways, defected to the West from her native Russia, and spent the remainder of the 1960s as part-time Avenger and occasional guest star—usually pursued by the smitten archer Hawkeye. In 1970, as a teaser for her forthcoming solo series, Black Widow (BW) guest-starred in Amazing Spider-Man #86, where she went head to head with an unwell wall-crawler in a classic Marvel misunderstanding. There she wore her trademark skintight all-in-one shiny black outfit for the first time. And very fetching she looked, too!

BLACK’S WIDOW’S AMAZING ADVENTURES Debuting in August 1970, Amazing Adventures was one of the last of Marvel’s “split books,” where two features were combined to provide the reader with more bang for their buck, and allow a degree of market research for the potential popularity of fledgling characters. While the Inhumans took up the lead spot of Amazing Adventures, Black Widow settled down in the back as the first Marvel superheroine to star in her own series. Initially, the stories were written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by John Buscema. They introduced “international jet-setter” Natasha Romanoff and her chauffeur and confidant, Ivan Petrovitch. (BW’s origin changed over the years, but basically involved Natasha being orphaned during the War and cared for by Ivan until the Russian authorities took an interest and inducted her into their super-spy training program.) Bored of her rich lifestyle, Natasha takes to the skies as the Black Widow. Aided by her anti-grav shoes and S.H.I.E.L.D.-designed “widow’s web” line, she can swing across Manhattan with aplomb. Golden wristbands that power her “widow’s bite” stun beams and a spare equipment belt complete her outfit. Confident, almost arrogant, as Natasha, the mask slips when she’s in BW guise. She quickly becomes

She may have defected to the USA… …but we can find nary a defect in the beautiful Black Widow. Plate Four from Paul Gulacy’s 1982 Black Widow Portfolio, published by S.Q. Productions, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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unsure of herself and her abilities as she makes mistakes. Not least of her concerns is that, as the new costume has no mask, she’ll soon be recognized and lose her private life. A justified fear as it turns out. BW tries to help a gang of youths in Spanish Harlem create a center for underprivileged children. Unfortunately, the gang have taken over a building illegally and find themselves subject to court action to evict them. Natasha, caught in the middle, sees her reputation plummet as the newspapers turn against her, and the mafia plots to have her denounced as a communist insurgent.

Sketching the Fetching Femme Black Widow by Hannibal King, courtesy of Anthony Snyder. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

It is around this time that changes in the strip began. Gene Colan drew Amazing Adventures #3 (Nov. 1970), with inks by Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. This pairing works beautifully, and the resulting few issues remain a joy to behold. It’s a great shame that Everett died a short time later, robbing us of further collaborations. “I loved Bill’s work very much,” says Colan. Although probably best known for his long run drawing Tomb of Dracula in the 1970s, Colan had a solid background in superheroes, with stints on Daredevil, Captain America, and Iron Man. Prior to joining Marvel he’d worked in romance comics, experience he was able to put to good use delineating the adventures of the delectable Ms. Romanoff. “I try to think before I draw that I’m drawing someone attractive and, as long as I keep that thought in my head, it turns out well,” he says. Roy Thomas succeeded Gary Friedrich as scripter, before relative newcomer Gerry Conway took charge of BW’s adventures. “I’d been writing for DC comics for two or three years,” says Conway, “working on features like Phantom Stranger, and scripting ‘mystery’ stories for comics like House of Secrets and House of Mystery, but, to paraphrase the joke about the actor’s ambitions to be a director, what I really wanted to do was write superheroes—specifically, Marvel heroes. Through friends I’d become acquainted with Roy Thomas, who was Stan Lee’s right-hand man at the time, and Roy offered me a shot at the Marvel ‘writing test.’ Stan wasn’t impressed, but Roy liked what I did, and began throwing some short assignments my way, including scripting over his plot on an early Ka-Zar, and ultimately, Black Widow.” Under Thomas the series had taken on a new tone, one continued by Conway: soap-opera melodrama replaced the political plots of Gary Friedrich. BW and Ivan became closer, with Ivan taking a larger slice of the action. Their relationship began to resemble that of the central characters of the UK newspaper strip Modesty Blaise. Like Modesty and co-star Willie Garvin, Natasha and Ivan are the closest of friends—but purely platonic. Conway: “Writing the Widow was a lot of fun. I’ve always had a weak spot for powerful, assertive women in fiction, particularly redheads (ahem). I also enjoyed the dynamic between the Widow and Ivan: playful, vaguely sexy, but ultimately more friendly than romantic.” Thomas and Conway started a subplot where BW truly begins to doubt herself following the death of a youth she’s trying to protect. Pursuing those responsible, Natasha’s anxiety leads her to delay a capture attempt and the culprits escape. With this failure witnessed by police, the Widow’s competency is called into question, and the mental strain weighs heavily on her. She even begins to believe that anyone who crosses paths with her is destined to die.

HORNING IN ON DAREDEVIL At this point, the decision was made to remove BW from the ailing Amazing Adventures. The Inhumans took over the complete book, and Natasha was moved across to Daredevil, then in the safe hands of Conway and Colan. “I was looking for a way to re-energize the title,” says Conway, “and starting up a romantic and professional relationship between DD and the Widow seemed like a natural—particularly given my fondness for Natasha.

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Taking No Bull (above) Natasha vs. Man-Bull, in the Mighty Gerry Conway/Gene Colan/Tom Palmer Manner! Page 18 of Daredevil #95 (Jan. 1973), from the collection of Lee Benaka. (right) The ’70s dynamic duo of BW and DD, as rendered by Alex Maleev. Actually drawn at an 11" x 17" size, this is an example of a $500 commission that can be obtained by the artist through Anthony Snyder (www.anthonysynder/art). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BW first appeared in Daredevil #81 (Nov. 1971)— and not a moment too soon: Her very first act is to rescue Daredevil from drowning! Soon, she is completely smitten with Ol’ Hornhead. Luckily enough, DD, in his civilian identity as Matt Murdoch, had recently split from long-term girlfriend Karen Page, and so the coast is clear for a mutual exchange of affections between the blind lawyer and the Russian ex-spy. Their growing relationship provides the backdrop to these issues, while the main plot concerns itself with BW being framed for the murder of the supervillain, the Scorpion. Matt’s old partner Foggy Nelson leads the prosecution, which doesn’t endear him to Natasha. She is, however, soon acquitted, but, feeling she needs a fresh start, she persuades Matt to move with her to San Francisco. “I liked San Francisco,” says Conway, “and was looking for a new venue for our characters— New York seemed to be getting pretty crowded.”

Gene Colan continued to provide very strong artwork and was soon joined by Tom Palmer on inks, that magic combination ensuring a memorable run of issues. Colan was happy to have BW as regular co-star in the book: “I did [enjoy drawing her]. She was seductive, pretty, [and] she rounded out the plots very well in that DD had a love interest.” In plotting this new direction, Conway focused very heavily on the relationship between Matt and Natasha. Often as much as half of any given issue was taken up with the melodrama of their unfolding love, or the concerns of one for the safety of the other. Not to mention poor old Ivan, who continued to be a presence in Natasha’s life—even living in the house she and Matt shared! With Daredevil #92 (Oct. 1972), Marvel officially recognized Natasha’s co-star status, and the title of the comic, at least on the cover, became Daredevil and the Black Widow. “Giving her co-billing on the title was something that evolved as readers responded to the dynamic,” says Conway. S p i e s

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© 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Cloak and Dagger (below left) A hat and trenchcoat takes Ms. Romanoff back to her espionage days in this Sal Buscema/Dave Hunt page from Marvel Team-Up #57 (May 1977); contributed by Lee Benaka. (below right) Cover art to Champions #7 (Aug. 1976), penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Frank Giacoia. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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DD #91 saw Natasha referred to as “the Gloria Steinem of the jump-suit set,” while DD #94 had her declare, “I’m my own woman—first, last and always.” Superheroine as feminist icon: truly the age of “relevant” comics was upon us. It wasn’t long, however, before further changes began to close the door on this golden era for Natasha. Steve Gerber, as one of his first scripting jobs, took over the writing of the book from Conway with DD #97, and Colan left the book soon after. Gerber played down the relationship material, returning the book to more standard superhero fare. It wasn’t long before DD found himself embroiled in cosmic stories that tied into Jim Starlin’s Thanos epic, and there was little room for BW. If she appeared at all, it was merely to worry about Matt, and she was dispatched to New York for a time to become an Avenger. She soon returned to San Francisco—just in time to see Matt leave for New York permanently. This change was the result of falling sales. For a short period Daredevil became a bimonthly title, and Marvel editor Roy Thomas met with Gerber to plot out the changes needed to improve Hornhead’s fortunes. Matt Murdoch’s return to New York was deemed necessary, as was reducing Natasha’s appearances. Her name was removed from the logo, though she continued to play a regular part in the book for another year or so. During that year, strains were shown developing in their relationship as DD continued his work in New York,

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while the Widow became almost destitute in San Francisco. She lost her house and fell into debt. She eventually sold her beloved Rolls Royce to make ends meet. DD was still crazy about her, but Natasha was fed up playing second fiddle to him in public. The Black Widow was no man’s sidekick! Tony Isabella began writing Daredevil with issue #118. He quickly tied up a few loose ends, such as having Natasha finally reach a kind of understanding with Foggy Nelson, whom she still hated following her murder trial, and set in motion the final break-up of the flame-haired couple. “I never found Matt and Natasha to be a convincing couple,” says the writer. “My intention from the get-go was to break them up. “Beyond the romantic elements, I felt their superhero partnership was detrimental to both characters. I definitely appreciated/enjoyed having the freedom and the time to make the break-up a logical resolution to their romance. My only regret was that I didn’t get to write the actual scene in which they parted. My editors wanted to write the book themselves. Even—and sometimes especially—in comics, rank has its privileges.” BW and DD broke up in Daredevil #124, but Isabella wasn’t finished with her just yet. He had decided to create a superteam that eschewed cosmic menaces and fought on behalf of the common man. Thus, the Champions were born and they debuted in their own book in the month following BW’s removal from Daredevil.


It’s Natasha, by George! A 2004 marker drawing by Black Widow’s Marvel Fanfare artist, George Pérez. From the collection of Paul Sager, contributed by Jerry Boyd. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

THEY WERE THE CHAMPIONS The Champions was an uncommon group: Iceman, the Angel, Ghost Rider, Hercules, and Black Widow. That’s two mutants, a demon, a god, and a Russian ex-spy, all fighting for “the common man.” Originally intended to appear as an oversized title, the material that was supposed to be Giant-Size Champions #1–2 eventually saw print in the first six issues of the regular monthly Champions book. Isabella: “My original concept for the Champions title was ‘Route 66 and The Odd Couple with superheroes.’ It was just supposed to be the Angel and Iceman travelling across the country doing superhero stuff, chasing beautiful women, and driving each other nuts. It was supposed to be a superhero buddy book, not entirely unlike what Power Man and Iron Fist later became. “Unfortunately, editors got involved and laid down all sorts of just patently ridiculous ‘rules’ for doing superhero team books. Like, every team had to have five members… and every team had to have a woman… and every team had to have a guy with superstrength… and every team had to have a member who had his own title as well. It was utter madness—including my trying to make something good out of the book despite their insane editorial edicts. “Hercules was chosen because I always liked the big blowhard. The Ghost Rider was chosen because I was writing his book and figured I could keep him too busy to hang with the Champions on a regular basis. The Black Widow was chosen because I liked writing her and figured that, by keeping her busy with the Champions, I could keep other writers from reuniting her with Daredevil. “The ‘heroes for the common man’ [tag line] came because I wanted to find some way of making the team different from all the other superteams on the market at the time. I know the title has many fans and I think I did some good work on it in spite of the editorial interference, but I wish I could have done it my way.” BW had much to do. She quickly showed her worth to the new team, was voted leader, met Alexei Bruskin, the man who trained her, and even started a fling with Hercules. But Champions was never a huge success, despite the later presence of penciler John Byrne and fun plots from Bill Mantlo, and following its cancellation with #17, BW returned to supporting player status within the Marvel Universe. “My favorite BW moment,” says Isabella, “is one I never got to write. If I had been able to complete the three-issue story I started just before I left Marvel for DC, I would’ve revealed that Ivan was actually Natasha’s father. It was a whole ‘Russian tragedy’ thing where he, because he had failed to save her mother and (he thought) brother, didn’t feel he deserved the love of his daughter. But he made sure he was always around for her.”

BLACK WIDOW, POST-’70s As an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha played a part in Frank Miller’s groundbreaking reinterpretation of Daredevil in the early ’80s. Then Marvel Fanfare #10–13 (Aug. 1983–Mar. 1984) hosted a new solo adventure. Scripted

by Ralph Macchio, with art by fan favorite George Pérez, this saw Natasha return to Russia to track down the errant Ivan, whom S.H.I.E.L.D. believes has defected. He has too much knowledge in his head and it’s Natasha’s mission to bring him back before he can do too much damage. In a story full of intrigue and plot twists, she finds herself falsely accused of murder (again, poor woman) and pursued to Hong Kong by a gang of genetically enhanced assassins. Meanwhile, a perfect duplicate of BW is dispatched to S.H.I.E.L.D. to destroy the organization from within. Ultimately, Natasha finds Ivan, who has been brainwashed by old Daredevil villain Damon Dran, battles the evil Snap Dragon, warns S.H.I.E.L.D. of the evil in their midst, rescues Ivan, and blows up the bad guy. Phew. It’s a great story, and one fondly remembered. So popular was it, that it was eventually reprinted in a single volume in 1999, as Black Widow: Web of Intrigue. To this day BW remains an important character to fan and professional alike, and her influence as archetypal hard-as-nails superheroine continues to be felt. Gerry Conway went on to create a book based on a similar template in DC’s Cinder and Ashe. “Obviously, there’s a line of descent from Modesty Blaise through the Widow to Cinder DuBois,” he says. “I think of them as sisters in noir.”

© 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ALLAN HARVEY is a London-based writer and artist. He maintains Gorilla Daze, a blog that appreciates wacky comics. It can be found at: www.thefifthbranch.com/gorilladaze.

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by

Dan Johnson

Fads never last for too long, and yet sometimes the comic books they inspire become timeless. During the 1970s, anything that could be used as a hook to generate a comic book at Marvel Comics was up for grabs, with some efforts that fared much better (for example, motorcycle enthusiasm and Ghost Rider) than others (disco and Dazzler). Of all the 1970s fads that caught the creative eye of the folks at Marvel, one was a natural for a medium that thrived on fast-paced action: the kung-fu craze. It just so happens that at the same time Marvel Comics was ready to start kung-fu fighting, the company had also acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu series of novels. Beginning in Special Marvel Edition #15 (Dec. 1973), writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin infused the world of Rohmer’s master criminal with a little chop-socky action by giving Fu Manchu a son who would become his greatest adversary… at least in the Marvel Universe. Thus Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was born. Shortly after the series began, the son of Fu Manchu acquired a new creative team, writer Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy, and it was under them that the Master of Kung Fu series (as Special Marvel Edition was re-titled with issue #17) reached its creative zenith. It was they who ensured that Master of Kung Fu would become a legend long after Pet Rocks and mood rings were a thing of the past. – Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: Paul, Master of Kung Fu was one of the first projects you did for Marvel Comics. How did you get started with the company, and how did you come to work on this series? PAUL GULACY: [I came to the industry] through the coaxing of inker Dan Adkins, and before I began work with Marvel, I submitted a short story that I had drawn and written that involved this mystical Chinese fellow. Included in that story were some martial-arts themes which at that time editor Roy Thomas took note of. [When Master of Kung Fu came along] I was already doing some black-and-white horror stories and my first color work was “Morbius: The Living Vampire.” Tie all this in with Jim Starlin’s exit on Master of Kung Fu after three issues to work on another title and bingo, Roy gave me the call. JOHNSON: What were your thoughts in taking over the book when it was offered to you? Having worked previously on horror titles, it seemed like this series would be a big departure for you as an artist. GULACY: When you’re young and hungry, you’ll take anything they offer. If it was Captain Schmuck, I’d be all over it. But with this book, I had to do some homework. 8

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Door’s Open! Come On In! Paul Gulacy’s pencils for an unused Master of Kung Fu cover, similar to the layout Paul used for the cover of MOKF #55 (Aug. 1977). Very special thanks to Dave Lemiuex. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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I had seen a few kung-fu movies, but not Enter the Dragon at that time. Martial arts was here and there in Bond movies and such, but this was at the crest of that new kung-fu craze. I remember being an art student and going to see the first martial-arts movie ever shown in this country called Five Fingers of Death. It was totally wack. JOHNSON: What did you think when you learned that Doug was coming in as the series’ new writer? GULACY: I didn’t know Doug. I can’t remember any of his work at that time. In fact, I didn’t know a whole lot about the industry in general. I read some comics, but not many. Bear in mind, when I was attending art school, I thought I might be ending up in advertising or as an illustrator after graduation. I got hired out of the blue, on a lark, while I still had a year of school to finish at 19. My ending up in comics was completely out of left field and unexpected. DOUG MOENCH: [In regard to Paul’s hiring,] I was in Marv Wolfman’s office and there was a stack of submissions and tryout artwork and Marv was showing them to me. We were looking through these and I came across pages by Paul, but I didn’t know that, they had no name on them. The actual drawing was not as good as it would soon become, and remember, this was really early on and this was his tryout stuff. On the other hand, the artwork was very dynamic and very exciting. As for the storytelling, it was the best I had seen in I don’t know how long. When I saw this stuff, I said, “Oh, my God! Who’s this guy? Give me this guy, let me write something for him.” And I went on and on and on, and Marv just stood there looking at me, and I said, “You’ve got to hire this guy!” After three minutes of me going insane like that, Marv said, “Already done.” Marv had already decided Paul should be hired. When they asked me to do Master of Kung Fu, one of the reasons I said yes was because Paul was, by then, on the book. JOHNSON: Before the both of you started working on the comic, how familiar were you with the Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer? GULACY: [I think] maybe I read one or two books when I was in my early teens. It was good stuff. Very moody, atmospheric pulp writing. Very reminiscent of Kenneth Robeson’s work on Doc Savage. I remember Christopher Lee playing Fu Manchu in the films. MOENCH: I was really not that familiar at all with Rohmer’s work. I had seen a couple of Fu Manchu movies, too, and by osmosis, I knew what he was all about, but I had not read any of the novels. JOHNSON: What can you tell us about the deal that Marvel Comics had struck to use Rohmer’s characters? MOENCH: All I know is that Marvel paid a small fee, I think on a monthly basis, to Rohmer’s widow for the rights to use Fu Manchu, even though there would be many months and many issues where he was not featured at all. GULACY: Quite frankly, at that time anyone could have obtained the rights to Fu Manchu for a song. I don’t think the novels were exactly selling like hotcakes. I can’t even remember if they were being published at that time. JOHNSON: Sometimes when characters are licensed there are certain restrictions that come into play. Were there any imposed by Rohmer’s estate while you were working on the book? MOENCH: Not that I’m aware of, and I don’t think there was any problem whatsoever, or I would have heard of it. Nothing was ever changed or forbidden.

Beginnings: “Snow Job” in Eerie #29 (Sept. 1970), Warren Publishing

Milestones: Aztec Ace / Batman / Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: “Prey” and “Terror” story arcs / many Batman graphic novels and special projects including Batman vs. Predator II, Bloodstorm, Book of the Dead, Crimson Mist, and Red Rain / The Big Book of Conspiracies The Big Book of the Unexplained / Creepy / Doc Savage (B&W magazine) / Eerie / Electric Warrior / James Bond: Serpent’s Tooth Master of Kung Fu and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu / Moon Knight Outlaws / Planet of the Apes (B&W magazine) / Six from Sirius Slash Maraud / Vampirella / Werewolf by Night

Works in Progress: Five-issue Batman miniseries with Kelley Jones (early 2008) / working on proposals for several other comic-book projects and novels

DOUG MOENCH Photo courtesy of Doug Moench.

Beginnings: “Scarlet in Glory” in Dracula Lives (Nov. 1974), Marvel Comics

Milestones: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: “Prey” and “Terror” story arcs “Blood on Black Satin” from Eerie #110–111 / Star Wars: Crimson Empire / James Bond: Serpent’s Tooth / Master of Kung Fu and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu / Outlaws / Sabre / Six from Sirius Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy Squadron Supreme: Nighthawk vs. Hyperion / Year One: Ra’s al Ghul

Works in Progress: Penance: Relentless sci-fi screenplay Shadowracer: Go

Cyberspace: www.gulacy.com

PAUL gulacy Photo courtesy of Paul Gulacy.

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That could just be a coincidence, or I did Fu Manchu just the way Sax Rohmer’s widow wanted it done. Whatever the reason, there was never anything that needed to be fixed. JOHNSON: What was the creative flow like between the two of you when you were working on Master of Kung Fu? GULACY: We just did our thing, and I don’t mean that in a smug way. We creatively played off one another. It was a good pairing, and other artists will tell you that Doug is a real joy to work with. He doesn’t dominate or throw his weight around. We were able to make good music together. MOENCH: The only arguments we ever had were about the direction of stories. There were never any problems with working together. In fact, this was one of the easiest working relationships I have ever had. The chemistry was perfect. Our sensibilities on storytelling and what comics should be as a form meshed perfectly.

Early Gulacy Paul Gulacy inked by—of all people!— Silver Age stalwart Jack Abel. Page 25 of Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #2 (1974), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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We both loved the Jim Steranko, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman styles of visual storytelling. To me, that is the essence of comic-book form, to be able to work with an artist who gets that, as opposed to an artist who treats comics closer to illustrated stories. To me, if you just took a typesheet of the dialogue and read it, you should not be able to figure out what is going on, because without the art providing a key element of the narrative, its not really comics. The artwork should roughly follow what is going on, and [the story] should not be completely evident until you plug in the dialogue that complements the artwork. The two have to mesh together in this synergy and the whole is greater than the sum of their individual parts. JOHNSON: I have heard that you tended to go more for the philosophical aspects of the story, Doug, and Paul really handled the action. MOENCH: I think Paul was always, “Awww, this fortunecookie stuff! Let’s do it more like Bruce Lee!” And I would tell him, “Aside from your artwork, the biggest appeal to me was the philosophical stuff, the Eastern mysticism and so on, so shut up.” That’s the kind of thing we fought about, not about how we should work together. It was just specific disagreements on the emphasis. GULACY: If Doug let me stage the action, and I left him room for his balloons, we were off to the races. JOHNSON: I have heard that both you gents were big movie buffs. That seemed very apparent when it came to the famous people who were “cast” as characters in Master of Kung Fu. GULACY: I’m a huge fan of many actors, directors, and screenwriters, but I don’t consider myself a film buff. I know a few things, but not really extensively. I have my favorites, but, yeah, for the fun of it and sort of a tip of the hat, I would throw those personalities in there. I frankly can’t recall Doug ever suggesting a particular actor in the script, so I have to take humble credit for that. All tongue in cheek and for laughs. By the way, Clive Reston was a loose take on Sean Connery. My decisions were just off-the-wall, like I was playing casting director. “All right, I see David Niven playing this guy, Marlene Dietrich as the vixen, Charles Laughton over here…,” and so on. All for fun. Master of Kung Fu was a crazy potpourri and kaleidiscope of iconic pop-culture imagery intertwined with solid writing and a well-thought-out cast of characters, and that, I think, made it a standout. There was nothing like it at that time, nor has anything been done like it since then, in comics at least. JOHNSON: Doug, in speaking with you in the past, I know you tend to go more for realistic stories. MOENCH: As a reader, I liked the traditional superheroes as much as anyone, and it’s not that my characters couldn’t be superheroes, but I enjoyed it more when they were a little more off-beat. It suited me better. JOHNSON: Doug, of the three big series you wrote at Marvel in the 1970s—Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight, and Master of Kung Fu—Master of Kung Fu is the one that tends to veer more toward the real world, and I think really showcased your abilities as a writer. Also of the three, this seemed to be the one that was the hardest to wedge into the Marvel Universe. MOENCH: Yeah, and I never even tried. There were stories [featuring Shang-Chi] in Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man and Marvel Two-in-One with the Thing, but I didn’t write those. I just wrote the actual [MOKF] series. I don’t think I ever brought in any other Marvel characters.


Red Pajamas A Gulacy commissioned illo with high-kicking Shang-Chi in his standard Marvel togs. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

You mentioned that I treated this realistically, and I would have liked to have gotten even more realistic. I would have liked to have dropped the red pajamas outfit. I wanted to treat it less like a costume and more like actual clothes. Shang-Chi should have worn other clothes. We tried to do that, and it only lasted an issue or two. We put him in a skintight commando-action outfit, and the editors came down on us. They said, “Okay, you had your fun, now bring back the pajama outfit.” Bruce Lee didn’t wear the same thing all the time, and that was what Paul was going for. He wanted to put Shang-Chi in cool clothes. Shang-Chi is always going to be this simple guy who was raised in a monastery, but on the other hand, as he increasingly adapts to the outside world, with his interaction with other characters, he’s going to be a little more worldly, although he’s always more worldly than anyone else in the story by being more simple. That’s the essence of the Eastern mysticism. JOHNSON: While you two were hashing out whether or not the focus of Shang-Chi’s world should be philosophical or action, I think that actually helped the stories. That struggle was what the character himself was dealing with in the pages of the comic. MOENCH: Oh, yeah. The essence of that book was a paradox. It was almost hypocritical. Shang-Chi was totally anti-violence and a total pacifist, and yet he always had to fight. There was a nice tension, and a nice conflict, and all drama depends on conflict. JOHNSON: I know a few folks who are heavy into martial arts, and they take everything about it very seriously, and you guys seemed to have had the goods down to where it has a substantial following in that community. When you got into the series, how much research did you do for the book? MOENCH: None at all on my behalf. Again, it’s like osmosis. You sort of pick up things. I never felt the need to research this stuff at all. It just felt like something I knew from within. I know Paul did at least play around [with martial arts]. I remember him telling me he used to practice nunchucks [nunchakus] in front of a mirror. I don’t know if he actually took any martial-arts classes

or just did this on his own. Paul did love kung-fu movies, and after I started the book, I started paying more attention to that kind of stuff than I would have otherwise. But it wasn’t deliberate research. GULACY: I used to live next door to a friend of mine, and fellow comic-book artist, Val Mayerik, and I used to tag along with him when he trained at the dojo. I’d pick up moves. I practiced many hours with nunchucks, and yeah, in front of a mirror. It makes it easier to draw when you know how they work and what damage they can do. You don’t want to hit yourself in the ear too often. When I lived in Jersey, I would attend martial-arts tournaments at the Garden. I watched the movies and I studied Bruce Lee to death. He was the king. I pussed out on taking up martial arts because of the injury factor. My hands paid the bills. JOHNSON: Looks like all your research paid off in terms of the book having credibility, Paul. GULACY: I think one of the biggest compliments I ever received was a guy I met at a show in Los Angeles who was in partnership in a karate school with Chuck Norris, and he told me I was doing it right in the books. JOHNSON: Another reason Master of Kung Fu has a following is the espionage element you gents introduced to the series. A number of fans consider that as the turning point for Master of Kung Fu, and I feel it is what allowed it to outlast the kung-fu craze. The direction you chose makes sense, especially when you’ve got a character who is supposed to be the son of a criminal mastermind and head of an international organization. There was no way he could fight Fu Manchu on his own, so it makes sense he would join forces with a law-enforcement group. MOENCH: There were a couple of reasons [for introducing the espionage angle]. Even by the time I came on, which was just a few issues after it started, and although those first issues were great, you could tell the series was heading for constant repetition unless a drastic change was woven into it. [You couldn’t have a series where] Fu Manchu is trying to kill his son and every issue a different assassin tries to do him in again and again and again. That was going to get boring.

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On the other hand, you didn’t want to lose Fu Manchu, but I felt he should be saved for special occasions. Fu Manchu should be kept in the background, and if we’re going the espionage route, let’s give it that sort of old 1930s pulp flavor as much as that 1970s James Bond glitz flavor. [I went with espionage] to avoid the constant repetition and to come up with a supply of logical and viable bad guys. It was sitting right there to be picked up when you had Sir Denis Nayland Smith from the Fu Manchu pulp series available. This character was involved in British Intelligence, so I figured, let’s expand that beyond the 1930s British Intelligence to today’s world of espionage and global threats. In a way we were doing terrorism before people were talking about terrorism. It was just a very obvious and appealing way to introduce more vareity and a globetrotting aspect. This way we wouldn’t be stuck in New York or London all the time, and we could go all over the world.

Meet Leiko Wu Shang-Chi gets his first eyeful of Leiko (boy, does he ever!) in this sexy Moench/Gulacy/Dan Adkins page from Master of Kung Fu #33 (Oct. 1975), courtesy of Heritage. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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JOHNSON: Master of Kung Fu had several nods to the father of James Bond, Ian Fleming. Were you guys big fans of his work, either the novels or the movies? MOENCH: Paul liked the movies more, but I liked the books. Although I had not read the Fu Manchu books at the time, I had read Ian Fleming’s books. There was no way Shang-Chi was James Bond, but on the other hand Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr could be very off-beat versions of Bond. Shang-Chi, introduced and taking the lead all the time, would work very well and prevent the series from being nothing but a rip-off of James Bond. GULACY: [Master of Kung Fu] wouldn’t look the same without that Bond touch. All of this was right up my alley: Bond, Bruce Lee, Fu Manchu, hot chicks, gun battles, explosions, a guy that looked like Bond. I’m still doing that. [laughs] I need to grow up someday. Actually, years ago, I had friends say to me, “You’re still doing that?,” and I said, “Yep, still doin’ it.” [laughs] JOHNSON: In regard to Shang-Chi taking the lead, if I’m not mistaken, he was the first Asian good guy to headline his own comic book and also was one of the first positive Asian role models in comics. MOENCH: As one of the good guys, yes. [Before Shang-Chi] you had the Yellow Claw and Iron Man had the Mandarin. Probably the very first [Asian hero] that I can recall was Jimmy Woo, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and even he was not a star. Other than him, I don’t really recall any other good guys, so you are right. JOHNSON: The relationship you presented between Shang-Chi and Leiko Wu was also the first realistic relationship involving two Asian characters in comics as well. I’ve heard stories about how various creators in the early 1970s tried to introduce more minority characters into books and there was some resistance because publishers didn’t know how white readers would respond. Having a relationship like you did really helped to break new ground. MOENCH: I never thought twice about creating Leiko Wu and introducing her as a love interest. Nobody ever blinked at Marvel. There was nothing to it, and it made sense, so we went for it. JOHNSON: The name Shang-Chi means, “The advancing and rising of the spirit.” Master of Kung Fu was a book that surrounded the hero with a wide variety of characters, and I feel they all were responsible for helping to advance and raise his spirit, or rather his soul. In regard to that, let’s discuss how his various relationships changed him and allowed him to grow. Let’s start with Leiko. MOENCH: She gave him love, which may sound cliché, but is really all you need, as John Lennon said. That was the greatest thing. Caring about someone else probably does more for your spirit than anything else could. Him caring about Leiko was a way to advance his own spirit. In my mind, Shang-Chi cared about every other spirit, including the spirits of insects. This really was a guy devoted


The Spy Who Loved Me Lovely Leiko takes the spotlight in Paul’s original cover art to the Moench/Gulacy reunion series of 2002–2003, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu. Cover to issue #3 (Jan. 2003), courtesy of Heritage. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

to the cosmic consciousness embodied within Eastern philosophy. It’s almost like everything he did in his relationships was done without effort or calculation. There was a total openness. He did not have to work at things, except when it came to his father. His father had brainwashed him. On the one hand, Fu Manchu had given him the tutelage in this wonderful Eastern philosophy, but on the other hand, talk about Yin and Yang, he tried to forge him into an assassin, which completely conflicted with everything else he had been taught. JOHNSON: I think that is something a lot of people can relate to. I think at one time or another, all sons feel as though they are at odds with their fathers. MOENCH: There’s the competition and the whole Oedipal thing. It’s all wrapped up in a very complex relationship to the nth degree because of who Shang-Chi’s father was and what he did to him. It was an epic relationship, in Freudian terms and every other term you could think of. JOHNSON: We all have a story about how dad wanted us to take over the family business, but certainly nothing like what we saw in Master of Kung Fu. Previously in comics there had been efforts to up the ante in terms of the adversarial role between the hero and villain, and this really bumped it up to one of the most intimate of levels. MOENCH: In this case, don’t forget, Shang-Chi was raised to respect and revere his father beyond the normal father/son relationship. Fu Manchu’s appearance in his life was carefully measured and only doled out on special occasions, and it was a rare thing. To be raised to respect and revere this great, great man, who was even more than your father, he was a great man in the world, and then to find out that what he really is the biggest mind psyche you can imagine. [It would be like] growing up loving your father and then finding out he is Charlie Manson. What kind of conflict is that? JOHNSON: The last story arc that you both worked on, “The Death Seed” (MOKF #45–50, Nov. 1976–Mar. 1977) seems to be the story that everyone remembers from this series. Most people agree that Paul certainly left on a high note with this one. The big hook with this story is that each issue was told from the point of view of different characters: Shang-Chi, Clive Reston, Leiko Wu, Black Jack Tarr, Denis Nayland Smith, and finally, Fu Manchu. MOENCH: That was a big Fu Manchu story. JOHNSON: Using a different character to tell a different chapter of the story was something that had not been done before in comics. How did the idea to present the story that way come about? S p i e s

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MOENCH: I was doing so much work back then, it was automatic. It came from the subconscious. I just rolled out of bed, fell in at my desk, and just went. I don’t know if I was tapping my dreams or what. I have no idea how I did that much work. I just sat down, and it flowed. There were a few things, like I remember Paul coming and visiting me in Manhattan, and I took him to see The Yakuza, the Sydney Pollack movie. We both loved that it had the Yakuzian tattoo stuff and we came out of the theater saying, “Let’s do a villain who has a tattoo. How about the Cat? He’ll have a cat tattoo.” And that’s how that story came about. [In regard to “The Death Seed,”] I remember I did consciously think, to a certain extent, that I wanted to do a huge story, the best thing we had ever done. It was time to bring back Fu Manchu, so I thought, “Let’s do it in a huge way.” [It was supposed to be] six issues, although I really cheated and it was eight issues with a prologue and an epilogue. Deciding that up front [was different], instead of what most of the Marvel writers at the time were doing, which was sort of going along and none of their stories ever ended. You could never tell where one story ended and another started, they just kept going on and on. Here I wanted a very definite structure, a definite beginning, middle, and end. I had six characters and it somehow organically fed on itself and came out very nice, I thought. JOHNSON: When you both sat down to do this story, did you know this would be your last Master of Kung Fu story together during this run? MOENCH: No, but Paul was having a very hard time meeting a monthly schedule. He put more detail in his pencils than anybody else, and he labored over this stuff and he was always complaining about how his back hurt him constantly from sitting at the drawing table so many hours a day hunched over. Paul was the type of artist where [his work] had to be detailed or it wouldn’t have been him. He couldn’t go to a looser style like Jack Kirby could and it still be Paul Gulacy. I didn’t know for sure that this would be his last story until very near the end when he was saying, “This is really killing me and I can’t take it anymore.” GULACY: [I was] burned out. It was enough after two years. I never anticipated a long career in this business at that time. I had my mind set on becoming an illustrator and I was dying to work in paint. I remember one morning, with script in hand at my board, looking down on that blank sheet of paper and wanting to vomit. I had enough. When it gets like that, you need to move on, I think, in all aspects in life. But on the other hand, if something is in your blood, it’s in your blood. JOHNSON: There were some fill-in issues where you worked with different artists, Doug. Did that ever throw off the creative rhythm of the series? MOENCH: Oh, sure. That will always throw you off, but I actually liked a few of the fill-in stories. Some of them were really off the wall, [and I figured] I wouldn’t try to make them like the regular Paul Gulacy issues. I came up with Rufus T. Hackstabber, the Groucho Marx character, for one of those fill-in issues, and talk about being different from the regular issues! But I enjoyed those a hell of a lot. I really thought Shang-Chi was so unique and so extreme a character that you could imagine going as far as you could [with him], and what could be weirder than Shang-Chi and Groucho Marx together? It wasn’t Paul Gulacy, but they were fun. JOHNSON: I don’t know if Shang-Chi and Groucho Marx getting together is all that bizarre. After all, Groucho was one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers. If Shang-Chi was seeking wisdom, he was the man to go to. MOENCH: Oh, yeah. In his own way. JOHNSON: Paul, you have won a lot of praise for the splash pages you did for Master of Kung Fu. A great many fans agree that they are movie-poster quality in terms of their layout. Ironically, though, you didn’t do the covers for the series.

First Time in Color… …for those of you who are reading this issue in the downloadable PDF format, that is (visit twomorrows.com for more info). An early Gulacy Shang-Chi image, published only once before (in B&W) in the Comic Book Artist Collection vol. 3 (2005). Special thanks to Albert Moy and Dave Lemieux. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Martial Artist and Amazon Princess (left) A color poster, featuring Paul Gulacy’s artwork of Shang-Chi and Wonder Woman, promoting the 2007 Granada (Spain) Comic Convention held from March 8–11, 2007. Regrettably, Paul, the con’s featured artist, was unable to attend. From the collection of Dave Lemieux. (below) A MOKF montage that was used as the title page of Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy. Shang-Chi TM & © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. Wonder Woman TM & © 2008 DC Comics.

GULACY: Well, the basic reason I never did the covers was primarily because the book was running so late, or just under the wire. The production department would clearly point out to me that there was no time and they hired another guy to get the cover finished. It simply became routine. It’s funny how I ended up doing covers after I left the book. Nowdays the covers are done first, so, as a result, the splash page [in MOKF] became my covers. I was inspired obviously by the Bond movie posters, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon, and a host many other martial-arts films, movie posters like The Long Duel, The Caper of the Golden Bulls, The Cincinnati Kid, the Flint movies, and Funeral in Berlin. [Also,] any posters done by Robert McGinnis, Frank C. McCarthy, and Bob Peak. JOHNSON: Was there anything you two didn’t get a chance to do on the series during the original run that you wished you could have done? Was there a story you two had discussed that went untold? GULACY: Yes, but nothing carved in stone. Master of Kung Fu meets Nick Fury was one idea. [Editor’s note: For the scoop on that crossover you didn’t see, read the “Greatest Stories Never Told” article following this interview.] Keep in mind, Doug and I moved to work on a variety of other things after Master of Kung Fu. [There were] sci-fi epics like Six from Sirius and plenty of memorable Batman stories. We, as team, didn’t sit still after Master of Kung Fu. DAN JOHNSON is a regular BACK ISSUE contributor whose writing credits include Herc & Thor for Antarctic Press and occasional gags for the daily and Sunday Dennis the Menace comic strip.

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The plot was approved. The creative team was lined up. ShangChi and the cast of Master of Kung Fu were poised to meet up with Nick Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for an epic battle against the combined forces of Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw. Then, Marvel delayed the project by six months and this classic confrontation faded into a legend of what might have been, but never was.

ENTER SHANG-CHI AND THE MOENCH/GULACY TEAM In the mid-’70s, writer Doug Moench and newcomer artist Paul Gulacy teamed up for a spectacular run of 26 issues on the Marvel title Master of Kung Fu (MOKF). Their collaboration on the series ran from 1974 through 1977 and included three Giant-Size specials. In fact, at the peak of the series’ popularity, Master of Kung Fu was ranked third in sales of all comics sold, behind only the Amazing Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian. While the comic had originally been influenced by the Kung Fu TV series and the martial-arts craze of the ’70s, Moench and Gulacy fairly quickly shifted the direction of plotlines to include espionage and international intrigue, and expanded the cast of supporting characters, and, of course, lots of martial-arts action. Gulacy’s version of Shang-Chi, the main protagonist, was strongly reminiscent of Bruce Lee (and not unintentionally so, as it turns out). Gulacy has previously reported in interviews that this was his way of keeping the memory of Bruce Lee alive and of paying homage to him. Fans responded quite favorably to Gulacy’s rendition of Shang-Chi and to his detailed, cinematic artistic style. The storylines by Moench (with significant co-plotting by Gulacy) were amazing. Even Stan Lee, Marvel’s founder, was highly complimentary of the team and supported Moench and Gulacy’s efforts on the book.

THE STERANKO FACTOR AND NICK FURY Prior to this title, in the late ’60s, Jim Steranko had come onto the scene and shook the comics world with his unique and stylistic take on “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” That series was featured in both Strange Tales and then later in its own title. S.H.I.E.L.D. was, and still is, Marvel’s elite counterespionage and spy organization, charged with keeping the world safe.

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Steranko was highly creative and went beyond the limits of typical comic-book storytelling. At the time, who knew that his artistic style and cinematic storytelling technique would call out to the soul of budding artist Paul Gulacy. The influence is unquestionable. The two artists have been compared to each other throughout their careers. In the mid-’70s, their paths almost crossed directly on an unprecedented crossover of Master of Kung Fu and Nick Fury. Gulacy was to have been the artist and Steranko was scheduled to be one of the inkers (along with Dan Adkins). Just envisioning this potential collaboration of artistic talent is aweinspiring. Steranko, of course, had long before this time left the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. book and comics as a whole. In addition, the S.H.I.E.L.D. book itself had been canceled in 1971. Lastly, the characters of Shang-Chi and Nick Fury had never before met in comics. This planned crossover would have been a landmark endeavor in many ways. Unfortunately, it did not come to fruition. Steranko’s role in this unrealized crossover was one of being both a strong influence on the concept of a crossover of the two series (as conceived by Moench and Gulacy) and of being tapped as one of the inkers. As Doug Moench recalls, “Before Paul and I ever met, we were both, as it turns out, obsessed with Steranko. I just loved his stuff and, of course, Paul did, too. So, when we were doing Master of Kung Fu and I took it in an espionage direction… it [a Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover] was an obvious thing to do. Here we were, two guys who loved Steranko so much, doing something that had this spy game in it. Well, what about Marvel’s spy organization… Nick Fury and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Moench adds, “It was an obvious thing to do… and who better to do it than ourselves? And I had the whole thing worked out.”

though. In fact, a letter from a fan (Jackie Frost of Los Angeles) that was printed in Giant-Size MOKF #4 even commented about the fact that the Yellow Claw had, in fact, not appeared in Giant-Size MOKF #3, as was advertised. The fan further suggested the idea of having Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. as guest stars in a future MOKF issue. The editor’s response was as follows: “While we’re not denying the merits of your suggestion to feature Nick Fury as a co-star—it just so happens that the stellar stalwart of S.H.I.E.L.D. has very recently appeared in no less than three other series ("Man-Wolf" in Creatures on the Loose, Daredevil, and The Incredible Hulk). Therefore, for the time being, at least, we feel he deserves a rest, lest ye madcap minions of Marvel grow tired of seeing his cigar chompin’ puss.” Moench also reports that the planned ShangChi/Fury crossover was delayed by six months or more, which may have ultimately been the reason it never occurred. He comments, “It had been approved and everything. The editor said, ‘You can do it, but

Old Enemies The enmity of Nick Fury and the Yellow Claw—which began in this Steranko classic in Strange Tales #161 (Oct. 1967)— would have been revisited in the MOKF/S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover, with Fu Manchu thrown into the mix. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE SERIES DELAYED: TOO MUCH FURY? Doug Moench recalls having had editorial approval for this crossover, and it most likely would have been by Roy Thomas or Len Wein, based on the time frame mentioned by Gulacy and Moench. Roy Thomas was the editor of Giant-Size MOKF #2 (Dec. 1974), while Len Wein had become editor with Giant-Size MOKF #3 (Mar. 1975). Moench remarks, “The one thing you did need approval for was using other characters… you know, a crossover, a guest star. You definitely had to get that approved. There were just too many characters with various storylines.” Intriguingly, in Giant-Size MOKF #2, the next-issue box at the end of the story proclaimed, “Next Issue: The Yellow Claw! ’Nuff Said?” It never happened,

Tough Guy Team-Up (opposite page) A double-shot of Paul Gulacy art from the swingin’ ’70s: At left, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top agent in a never-beforepublished illo done for a fan at the 1974 NY Comic Con; and at right, Paul’s Master of Kung Fu from the 1977 Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar. Both are courtesy of this article’s author, Dave Lemieux. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Spies Like Us A howlingly awesome, neverbefore-published commissioned collage—featuring Nick Fury, Val, the Yellow Claw, Baron von Strucker, the Hellhound, and the insidious Yellow Claw—produced in 2007 by Paul Gulacy for collector Joe Kulbiski. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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you can’t do it for six months,’ or whatever it was. I don’t know if they were planning to revive S.H.I.E.L.D. or if S.H.I.E.L.D. was being used in The Hulk or whatever. But it got put off and then we got involved in other storylines. Then, at some point, it just got put off so much by various things that Paul ended up getting burned out on the book [MOKF] and he said, ‘I can’t do this monthly anymore.’ Then other artists came in and it was no longer such a priority, because it was really Paul’s homage to Steranko. I think after the idea got delayed over and over, and then Paul left the series, it was sort of like, ‘Aw, we’ll never get to do our Fury thing.’”

THE PLOT RECALLED Moench and Gulacy wanted this crossover to happen almost from the beginning of their run on Master of Kung Fu, according to Gulacy. In an e-mail interview, on June 19, 2007, Gulacy states, “If I can recall, it seemed to me that the idea was formulated early on. Doug and I did a story called ‘The Crystal Connection’ [in MOKF #29] and in that story there were some brief underwater scenes. I began to think, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a couple of issues of the MOKF gang in that kind of setting… predominantly underwater?” According to Moench’s planned storyline, the Yellow Claw was to have had an underwater fortress in the South China Sea and there would have been a huge underwater battle between the MOKF/S.H.I.E.L.D. crew versus the combined forces of Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw. Moench states, “The Yellow Claw had a domed city in the China Sea or something and that’s where a lot of the story was going to take place. There was going to be this big underwater battle. [Paul] loved the Thunderball movie. That was probably the source of the Nick Fury crossover underwater scene… Thunderball.” Gulacy confesses, “Absolutely. The Bond film Thunderball was a huge inspiration and we would have blasted off from there.” This underwater scenario ended up being used by Moench and Gulacy in their James Bond: Serpent’s Tooth series in 1992 from Dark Horse Comics. The villain in that storyline, a megalomaniac named Indigo, had a huge underwater dome for a headquarters which was also mobile. The crossover plotline was to have involved both the Yellow Claw and Fu Manchu, who, according to Moench, had formed an alliance which ultimately became dissolved. Moench remarks, “I remember we were going to have the Yellow Claw competing with Fu Manchu. Two bad guys competing. And the ShangChi crew—you know, Clive Reston, Black Jack Tarr, Leiko Wu, and Shang-Chi, and all those guys—were going after Fu Manchu… while Nick Fury and his guys were going after the Yellow Claw. And then, of course, the two teams would meet, you know, bump together.” Regarding the unsteady alliance between the villains, Moench states, “It might have started out with [Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw] as allies, but then they double-crossed each other. At some point, the two would turn on each other and our guys would get caught in the middle of it.” The secondary characters would also have had some interesting match-ups of personality and interactions in this crossover. One obvious comparison would have been between MOKF’s Black Jack Tarr and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Dum Dum Dugan. Moench states, “I’m not saying that there wouldn’t have been conflict between Black Jack Tarr and Dum Dum Dugan. They might have had a piece of each other, but no, they wouldn't have fought

each other. You know, a conflict enriches the story and puts in a little bit of humor. They are so alike… they’d end up being pals.” Gulacy agrees: “You know that would be intense. Those two guys are cut from the same cloth. That would have been hilarious. Those two doing more brawling with each other than with the enemy.” Gulacy also focused on the women in the story, joking, “You would have this contrast happening with all the secondary personalities from the Kung Fu and S.H.I.E.L.D. gangs. Eventually, they would all meet up at some point in the storyline. Leiko Wu and Val (S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine) on the same team in bikinis blasting away. Picture that.”

Son of Fu Manchu In print for the first time: Collector Dave Lemieux remarks, “This pencil drawing of Shang-Chi was done for me in 2006 by Paul on the inside of my hardcover copy of Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy.” Thanks for sharing this with us, Dave!

FORMAT FOR THE SERIES So, where would this crossover have occurred? Would it have been in the pages of the monthly Master of Kung Fu comic or in the Giant-Size quarterly MOKF? Moench recalls, “I think we were going to do it in some kind of giant special. There were those Giant-Size specials and it was probably going to go in one of those.” This makes sense given the previously mentioned next-issue box in Giant-Size MOKF #2 announcing the Yellow Claw for the next quarterly issue. Moench adds, “And if that didn’t work out, it would have been like a three-issue storyline [in MOKF]. I know it was going to be a big deal thing. It could have gone a few issues.” S p i e s

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Gulacy had not started any of the artwork for the crossover, according to both creators. In fact, the number of published Gulacy drawings of Nick Fury are very few indeed. Moench comments that Paul “did pinups of Nick Fury, but he never drew anything for an actual story.” One of the most amazing pinups Gulacy did of Nick Fury (and Val) was published by CPL/Gang Productions in the comic fanzine Contemporary Pictorial Literature (CPL) #7 in 1974. Gulacy also produced a plate for the Black Widow Portfolio featuring both Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff (aka the Black Widow) for S.Q. Productions in 1982.

ENTER THE YELLOW CLAW One of Nick Fury’s main foes had been the Yellow Claw (see Strange Tales #161–167 from Oct. 1967–Apr. 1968.) The Claw was a Chinese-born fanatic who was bent on world domination. In the seven-part story arc, the Yellow Claw had a huge underwater complex which was located in the middle of the New York harbor. The Claw came very close to doing away with Nick Fury. In an unexpected twist, this version of the Yellow Claw was ultimately revealed to be a sophisticated robot under the control of Dr. Doom. It was further revealed that Doom was involved in a bizarre world-spanning game of chess with a supercomputer known as the Prime Mover.

STERANKO ON BOARD AS INKER?

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Finest The Howling Commando-turned-secret agent and Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine in a Gulacy pinup published only once previously, in the fanzine CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature) #7 (1974). Courtesy of Dave Lemieux. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Adding Steranko to the project would have been awesome in and of itself. This would have made the Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover a truly special event. So, how close was Steranko to being part of this landmark comics event? Gulacy recalls, “Well, Jim and Dan Adkins [who inked nine issues of Gulacy’s work on the MOKF series] had been friends going way back to when Dan used to ink some of the Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. books (for Steranko). I figured with a shot-in-the-dark phone call, we could get ol’ Jim in on this thing. If I’m correct, Doug told me that [Steranko] was in, but bear in mind that the four of us are in on a lot of things that never see fruition.” Moench states, “Oh, one thing I remember is that we had Steranko coming with us. Paul talked to Steranko [about doing some inking on the crossover], and he teased us. He never committed completely, but he did say, ‘It sounded good.’ He loved what we were doing on Master of Kung Fu, and he kept saying, ‘Yeah, that would be something. I’ll come back to comics.’ We were pretty excited for a while there.” The plan was to have Steranko ink as much of the crossover as possible, with Dan Adkins providing the rest of the inks, according to Moench. Gulacy remarks, “Dan would have been the other designated inker.” Moench further states, “Our goal was just getting Steranko to ink as much as he was willing to do, perhaps getting together with Adkins and inking some of the main figures and maybe having Dan Adkins do the backgrounds… something like that.”

GULACY TO FINALLY DO COVERS ON MOKF? What about the covers for this crossover? Would Gulacy finally get to produce his own covers for this inspirational event?


Gulacy states, “If there was time, of course, I would do the covers. The reason I didn’t do many covers during my run on MOKF was because I was always right under the wire on the deadlines. Marvel would get nervous and hand the covers to someone else. I frankly always considered the splash pages were the covers.” Moench also hoped Gulacy would have done the covers to this series. He added a contingency, however, as he states, “If they [Marvel’s editors] would let him. That was a real frustration [for Paul]. That’s why I started designing the splash page as another cover, so Paul could get to do a cover. [Marvel] had that ‘House style’… that ‘House look.’ All of the covers had to have action. Of course, it was ironic that after Paul stopped doing the [MOKF] book, all of a sudden they picked up Paul for the covers.” Moench further states, “Paul wanted to do the covers, but like movie posters… instead of a Marvel Comics cover. My feeling was that the covers of Master of Kung Fu should look like the book—like the inside art. I know you can’t tell a book by its cover, but you can try. The cover should look like what’s inside the book.”

A GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD… AN EPILOGUE It would have been quite the experience to have seen this unrealized crossover appear in the mid-’70s, if only the stars in the sky (and comic forces) had aligned properly at the time. It would have been Shang-Chi and Nick Fury, Black Jack Tarr and Dum Dum Dugan, Leiko Wu and Val, Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw, Gulacy and Steranko, and, of course, Moench and Adkins. What a great line-up of characters and talent. Gulacy’s parting comment about the crossover sums it up for me, remarking, “This Shang-Chi/Nick Fury thing would have been pretty awesome. It was a great idea at the time and I’m sure it’s something that would have stood up to the test of time. It would have been fun to draw Shang-Chi telling Fury to put that cigar out… or else.” Moench comments, “I’m sure Paul believes, and I believe it, too, that Steranko did the definitive Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.… but that doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t have had fun. We would have. I think it would have brought a whole new readership to Shang-Chi and the [MOKF] characters. Information for this article was obtained through a telephone interview with Doug Moench on April 9, 2007 and through an e-mail interview with Paul Gulacy on June 19, 2007. Both interviews were conducted by Dave Lemieux, who also transcribed the interview with Moench. DAVE LEMIEUX is a frequent contributor to the Paul Gulacy website (www.gulacy.com) and to the comic fanzines BACK ISSUE, Comic Book Artist, and Comic Book Marketplace. He has compiled a comprehensive index of Gulacy’s work which was included in an abbreviated version in CBM #111 and more comprehensively on the Paul Gulacy website. Dave also provided assistance to Michael Kronenberg for the Gulacy art book Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy, which was published in 2006 by Vanguard.

Head Games Dave Lemieux also shared with us this unpublished Gulacy gem we couldn’t resist printing: a 2007 commission featuring Captain America and Modok. Wow! © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Grell, Mike Grell. Detail from Grell’s (with Dameon Willich) cover to the first issue of the miniseries James Bond: Permission to Die, published in 1989 by Eclipse Comics/Acme Press. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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Bond, James Bond. Star of 30-plus novels and over 20 movies. Yet despite his immense popularity, the world’s greatest spy has had a checkered career when it comes to the funnybooks. The story of Bond in comics starts in 1957 when the British newspaper The Daily Express approached Bond creator Ian Fleming with a proposal to develop a daily comic strip starring 007. Fleming was reluctant until the Express editors let it be known that the proposed adaptations would be written by Anthony Hern, the paper’s literary editor. Bond made his comics debut on July 7, 1958 in Hern’s adaptation of Casino Royale, illustrated by John McLusky. The James Bond of the comic strip is subtly different from the Bond of the novels. In order to produce a strip that was accessible to a wider audience, many of the novel’s edgier scenes were toned down or restaged. For the second strip, Live and Let Die, the writing assignment was switched to Henry Gammidge, who introduced the idea of having Bond narrate the story. While this worked in places, in others it presented Bond as an “omniscient” narrator with knowledge of events he shouldn’t have. In the next strip, Moonraker, Gammidge took the device even further by having Bond address the readers directly. This technique was scaled back in Diamonds Are Forever and used for the last time in From Russia with Love. In 1962, James Bond faced a peril far greater than any of his colorful villains—the wrath of a publisher scorned. Just as Thunderball started to appear in The Daily Express, the rival Times newspaper approached Ian Fleming for permission to print The Living Daylights in the debut issue of their new color magazine. Lord Beaverbrook, the publisher of the Express group of papers, was furious and ordered that the Bond comic strip be withdrawn immediately. The result on the Thunderball strip was that the last two-thirds of the plot were basically reduced to just six panels. The following year, Bond made his first foray to US shores and comic books by a somewhat circuitous route. Wishing to cash in on the release of the Doctor No movie, the British arm of the Dell publishing © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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McLusky, John McLusky… …drew the first Bond comic strips (left), written by Anthony Hern. (below, in circle) Manga Bond. Courtesy of Alan Porter. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

company obtained the rights to produce an adaptation. This was produced by Norman J. Nodel, a former military field artist and mapmaker better known as a children’s book illustrator. Judging from the art, his adaptation was primarily based on photographs taken during the film’s production. Some sources suggest that Dell may have in fact only optioned the screenplay rather than the actual movie. The story first appeared in the British Classic Illustrated line (#158A) and in several European countries under the “Detective Series” label with a Dell copyright. However, when the US publishers of Classic Illustrated declined to produce a US version, the idea was floated that Eon Productions could publish their own comic book for the American market. With no comic-book experience they approached the largest comics distributor, Independent News, which at that time shared a parent company with DC Comics, where the Nodel adaptation was eventually published in Showcase #43 (Apr. 1963). One unusual aspect of the DC version when compared with the European was that several racial references were omitted and skin tones changed so that non-Caucasian characters, including the Asian Doctor No, became white. The contract between Eon and DC Comics included an option for the rights to an ongoing James Bond series.

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However, the Showcase issue proved to be a one-off appearance. DC did little to promote the book, which had basically been forced upon them, and the flat artwork with typeset word balloons looked unlike any other DC comic. It looked positively amateurish compared to their dynamic superhero titles. Two other strikes against it include the facts that DC published the book too soon and it had disappeared from the newsstands long before the movie had opened in the US; in addition, it didn’t help that the issue’s cover sent a somewhat mixed message with a small handlettered box on the lower left of the cover stating that it is “based on the novel and now a United Artists film thriller.” Perhaps if it had been released a few months later with a Sean Connery photo cover, it might © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions. have been a different story. As it turned out, Bond wouldn’t officially reappear on the American newsstands for another 18 years. While Bond himself was absent from American comics, his spirit lived on when Marvel took the more fantastic elements of the Bond movies and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV show and built upon them with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., whose Strange Tales stories would occasionally give Bond a name check. For instance, in Strange Tales #162 (Nov. 1967), the S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent of Q issues Fury with an invisible car (a full 35 years before Pierce Brosnan would get one in Die Another Day), with the quip, “Wait till that guy Bond gets a load of that baby.” The implied idea that Fury and Bond knew each other, and maybe occasionally worked together, was reinforced a few issues later, in Strange Tales #164, when a familiar figure in a tuxedo turns up at the door to the barbershop that serves as the secret entrance to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s HQ, only to get the door firmly shut in his face (see lower left). In 1964, the Japanese comics studio SaitoProduction Co. Ltd. produced a series adapting four of the Fleming novels. In truth, the adaptations had little to do with their source material. While the names of the major characters, location, and basic plot are Fleming’s, the surrounding material is nearly all original story. The manga Bond first appeared in serialized form in an anthology title Boys Life from Shogakukan Inc., and were later collected in 1966 under the Golden Comics imprint.


Back in the UK, Ian Fleming had apologized to Lord Beaverbrook and on June 29, 1964, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service kicked off the second series of Bond comic strips, with Henry Gammidge and Jim McLusky once more in creative control. They would only be around for one more story, however, before being replaced by the duo considered by many to be the quintessential Bond creative team. American writer Jim Lawrence gave the audience a new, tougher James Bond, a man not afraid of violence. His scripts featured more complex characterization and involved plots. In many ways, Lawrence got closer to Fleming’s Bond than Gammidge, who saw his job as to translate Fleming’s work for the comics medium; Lawrence, instead, was inspired by Fleming. When Lawrence came on board, the series was up to Fleming’s last novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, and it was obvious that Fleming was growing tired of James Bond. To overcome the shortfalls in the novel, Lawrence added to the original by introducing a whole new subplot at the start of the story that gave substance and a compelling reason for Bond’s motivations and actions. The Man with the Golden Gun also saw the debut of artist Yaroslav Horak on the strip. Horak had a crisp, detailed cinematic style and was fond of using unusual angles and tight closeups that would draw the reader into the heart of the action. Just as the comic strip was abut to enter a new era, Bond made a return to the pages of a comic book, this time in Scandinavia. In 1965, Semic acquired the license to produce a Bond comic book using the existing newspaper strips. In order to make the strips fit the different format they were often cropped, stretched, and otherwise butchered. Despite the questionable quality of the product, the James Bond comic books became big sellers with Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish editions being published for many years to come. The newspaper strips continued, but it wasn’t long before Lawrence began to add significantly to Fleming’s work. With Octopussy, he turned Fleming’s 43-page morality tale into a gripping spy drama that ran for 27 weeks. By the time he got to the last Fleming story left un-adapted, Lawrence knew he would be continuing on with new, original stories. With the exhaustion of the Fleming canon, the author’s estate gave its first official permission for the creation of new Bond stories to The Daily Express team, who debuted the first Bond “continuation” story, The Harpies, on October 4, 1968. Given the amount of changes Lawrence had already made to the later Fleming stories, The Harpies read like a logical continuation of Fleming’s work and started a run of 33 original Bond tales written by Lawrence. James Bond now entered a world where the fantastic rubbed shoulders with reality, during which Lawrence always maintained the Fleming tenant that while his surroundings may appear fantastic, Bond was always a serious character. Interest in the literary and comic-strip Bond was waning throughout the 1970s, and in an attempt to boost readership in late 1977 the strip moved from The Daily Express to The Sunday Express; but the experiment only lasted for one story before James Bond quietly disappeared from the British papers. Everything changed in 1981, when the holders of the literary license decided to launch a new series of Bond novels. Thriller writer John Gardner was commissioned to reboot the Bond franchise with a contemporary look and a more modern James Bond. With the new Bond selling well, an attempt was made to resurrect the comic strip in the popular tabloid, The Daily Star. Jim Lawrence was still at the helm, but for the first story only, Doomcrack, the art was provided by Harry North, who altered the character’s appearance drastically to the point where Bond was almost unrecognizable. He was soon replaced by original Bond artist John McLusky. Lawrence made a few minor changes in order to tie into the new novels’ continuity without ever doing any direct adaptations. Despite these changes, the strip faded and was quietly pulled from the paper halfway through a story without explanation, bringing to an end 25 years of the comic-strip Bond.

Gulacy, Paul Gulacy. A 1979 Gulacy illo of Sean Connery as 007. The artist would go on to draw Bond in the 1992 Dark Horse miniseries Serpent’s Tooth. Courtesy of Michael Kronenberg. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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Over in Sweden, Semic used the reboot as an excuse to renegotiate its license and received permission to also create its own original stories. Unfortunately the resulting stories varied in quality, ranging from those that were clearly based on Fleming’s creation to some that were verging on parody. The Danish version of the Semic book ceased publication in 1984, while the Norwegian version struggled on until 1994, after changing into an anthology title. In Sweden, the ailing Bond book merged with The Saint, and together the two British heroes managed to limp along to 1994, ending an erratic 31-year run. Nineteen eighty-one was also significant for Bond in the USA, as Marvel would make an attempt to capture the movie audience with an adaptation of For Your Eyes Only. Written by Larry Hama with art by

Howard Chaykin, it was published as both a regular two-part miniseries and as the color magazine Marvel Super Special #19. Chaykin’s artwork was lacking in its usual level of detail and gave the impression of being rushed, perhaps due to tight deadlines and changes made during the movie production. In 1982, the US branch of the James Bond Fan club issued a magazine-sized collection featuring the only US reprints of the Daily Express newspaper strips. The album, under the title of The Illustrated James Bond 007, included reprints of Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia with Love, and Doctor No. Marvel tried again two years later with an adaptation of Octopussy. It appears that writer Steve Moore and artist Paul Neary had more time to work on the project than Hama and Chaykin, as the result rates among the better Bond movie adaptations. Most of the cinematic establishing shots are full of excellent background detail, all the principal players are recognizable, and the plot is followed closely without any obvious © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions. logic jumps. Octopussy was published as the 48-page Marvel Super Special #26. The late ’80s saw a new movie Bond in Timothy Dalton, and a new comics publisher in Eclipse. The 1989 Eclipse adaptation of License to Kill suffered from two major problems. First, the production was rushed to meet the movie release date, and writer Richard Ashford’s tale ended up being handled by four different artists. Mike Grell did the breakdowns, while final art chores were divided between Chuck Austen, Tom Yeates, and Stan Woch. The second problem was that Eclipse didn’t have permission to use Timothy Dalton’s likeness, and as a result Bond’s appearance is inconsistent, his facial features changing slightly depending on which artist was drawing any given page. License to Kill was followed by the first original Bond story to appear in US comics. Permission to Die, also published by Eclipse in 1989, was a solo effort from writer/artist Mike Grell. The three-issue miniseries was hampered by scheduling delays with a two-year delay between issues two and three. When the Bond license switched to Dark Horse Comics in 1992, Dark Horse continued with the concept of telling original new stories. Serpent’s Tooth, a three-issue miniseries by the team of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, is regarded by some Bond fans as approaching the level of parody with its flying saucers and a bad guy who looks like a human lizard. However, Gulacy’s distinctive art and his stylized take on the world of Bond make this an interesting interpretation. Despite its flaws for the Bond purist, it is a fun read and perhaps the slickestlooking Bond comics adventure. Maybe it’s for this reason that it is perhaps the most well known, and most widely reprinted, of the various US Bond series. The following year, Dark Horse published the first two issues of A Silent Armageddon, a planned four-issue miniseries by writer Simon Jowett and artist John Burns. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled after the first two issues, with Dark Horse citing a six-month delay in art for issue #3 as the cause. The next Bond story from Dark Horse, also published in 1993, is unusual in that it includes the return of a character from the Fleming novels, Tatiana Romanova, who appeared in From Russia with Love, making it the only serialized original Bond tale published in the traditional US comic-book format. Light of My Death appeared

Moneypenny, Miss Moneypenny. 007’s hat-tossing skills rival Oddjob’s on this pre-lettered, highly detailed page from Mike Grell’s Permission to Die miniseries. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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in Dark Horse Comics #8–11. Written by Das Petrou with art by John Watkiss, the story was divided into four eightpage chapters and suffers slightly from trying to fit in a globetrotting adventure with action, romance, and a plot twist into such a confined space. This story is the only Bond “period piece,” in that it is firmly set in 1961 as opposed to the ubiquitous “now” of all Bond stories. This unique Bond story has yet to be collected in a stand-alone format, which is a shame, as it deserves a wider audience. Nineteen ninety-four saw a return to the world of Bond for writer Simon Jowett, this time teamed with artist David Jackson, on Shattered Helix. The two issues of Shattered Helix were intended as a direct sequel to the incomplete Silent Armageddon, but manages to stand alone as a tightly plotted, self-contained story. The story follows the model of the early Bond novels and movies by making good use of interesting locations to help drive the plot. James Bond returned to the pages of Dark Horse Comics with the series 25th and final issue. Instead of the usual anthology format the whole issue was in “flip book” format with the James Bond story “Minute of Midnight” occupying the back half. Written by Doug Moench with art by Russ Heath, the story was obviously designed to run over several more installments in future issues of Dark Horse Comics, but was bought to a hasty conclusion with the title’s cancellation. The last Dark Horse Bond story was published in 1995. Written by Don McGregor, with art from Gary Caldwell, The Quasimodo Gambit, a three-issue miniseries, is told in a very text heavy style with a lot of information crammed into each panel. The fact that some pages run to 24 panels per page adds to the feeling that perhaps this story would have worked better as a novel than a comic book. The following year McGregor was back scripting a James Bond comic, this time for new license holder Topps, who had decided to return to the adaptation format. Topps’ Goldeneye turned out to be 007’s swansong in US comic-book form as only the first issue of the planned three was published. No clear reason for the withdrawal of issues two and three has ever been stated. Some speculate that Topps was concerned about the overt sexual nature of the planned cover placing the strips in context. Titan’s aim is to for issue #2 (see inset), with its art eventually present every James Bond newspaper that showed the female villain, strip produced. These collections, up to 13 Xenia Onatopp, getting sexually volumes at this writing, are available in US aroused when killing. From the © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions. comics and book stores and are essential reading evidence of the first issue, this for anyone interested in this classic character. could have been the best Bond While there are no current plans for any new original movie adaptation yet as the artist, Claude St. Aubin, moved away from the convention of trying to recreate the Bond stories in comic-book format, as far exact movie scenes in favor of retelling the story using as this author is aware, it appears that comic-book techniques. The result was a dynamic-looking Bond, or at least a version of him, book with strong action sequences that played to the will be returning to stores. Ian Fleming Publications has strength of the four-color medium. With the demise of the Topps Goldeneye title, James announced a series of Bond quietly disappeared from the shelves of the US graphic novels, with art comic-book stores, and has been conspicuous by his by Kev Walker, adapting the “Young Bond” novels absence ever since. Between 1987 and 1990, UK publisher Titan Books (see inset), with Silverfin released four collections of The Daily Express newspaper scheduled to be in stores strips. In 2004, Titan relaunched and extended the series during the Fleming centenary with new editions complete with additional material year of 2008.

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Horse, Dark Horse (above) A montage of Bond covers from Dark Horse Comics’ 007 miniseries. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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Writer Robert Kanigher maintained throughout his thirty years of chronicling the military missions of DC’s Sgt. Rock that the leader of the combat-happy joes of Easy Company did not survive World War II. In the letters column of Sgt. Rock #340 (May 1980), Kanigher clearly stated, “…1945. That’s the year Rock is killed in action. On the last day, in the last hour, in the last minute—in a place he never should have been. And only because Rock is Rock with his last breath.” Writer Bob Haney, who scripted six of the seven Batman/Sgt. Rock team-ups in The Brave and the Bold from 1969 to 1977, maintained otherwise, and in so doing had Rock participate in some of the most outlandish adventure stories written in comics. Yet Kanigher also wrote, “Character is continuity, not the dead wood of previous plots” (Sgt. Rock #397, Feb. 1985), so hopefully Haney’s scripts, not to mention anyone else’s involving the legendary sergeant, didn’t offend him too much. Though Haney certainly tried. Haney threw continuity out the window and left no outrageous plot device unturned. What mattered to Haney was an action-packed, thrill-a-page story told in one issue. In that respect, Haney always delivered. In “The Angel, the Rock and the Cowl,” the first Batman/Sgt. Rock team-up published in The Brave and the Bold #84 (June–July 1969), Batman looked back on an earlier case in his career involving Sgt. Rock. The problem was that the adventure was set during World War II, and the Batman recounting it was the then-modern rendition of 1969, with yellow insignia and illustrated by Neal Adams. It is revealed that Bruce Wayne had been Batman since the 1940s and in appearance he hadn’t aged a bit in almost 25 years! Near story’s end Sgt. Rock makes the modern scene, having clearly survived World War II, a big Kanigher no-no, while appearing significantly older than Bruce Wayne. In the follow-up story published two years later in The Brave and the Bold #96 (June–July 1971), with art by Nick Cardy, millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne was assigned as US ambassador to an

Rock Up at Bat Detail from Neal Adams’ Joe Kubert-esque cover art to The Brave and the Bold #84 (June–July 1969), from writer Bob Haney, inexplicably teaming heroes from two DC eras. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Throwing Continuity to the Wind (above) An undated passport photo of Brave and Bold scribe Bob Haney. Courtesy of Randy Kerr (www.blueroadrunner.com). (right) Batman meets Easy Company, from B&B #84. © 2008 DC Comics.

unnamed South American country by President Richard Nixon. The actual US ambassador had been kidnapped, right under the nose of the noble Sgt. Rock. Wayne was to continue negotiations as Batman hunted for the ambassador, while an unknown enemy sought to discredit Sgt. Rock. Rock looked much younger than he did in the previous team-up. In fact, he didn’t look a day over 1945 (actually, he looked better than with the weathered features regular Rock artists Joe Kubert and Russ Heath gave him). B&B’s #84’s adventure was noted and referenced in this story, tying it snugly into Haney continuity but again disregarding Kanigher’s. Two years later, in The Brave and the Bold #108 (Aug.–Sept. 1973), blessed with outstanding art by Jim Aparo, Batman and Rock teamed up again in “The Night Batman Sold His Soul,” but now Rock looked older and there was no mention of Batman being around since the 1940s. The story had a clever plot: that Rock has been hunting a very-much-alive Adolf Hitler for years. But Batman was eventually convinced that this wasn’t Hitler, but the Devil himself, and that he had sold his soul to him. I can’t imagine Denny O’Neil’s Batman at this time believing that. The implication at story’s end was that Hitler was one of the Devil’s many guises, and that while evil could be confronted, battled, and held at bay, it could never truly be defeated. A downer ending, but 1973 was a very cynical time in American history, and every now and then a comic book of the time reflected that. A year later, in The Brave and the Bold #117 (Feb.–Mar. 1975), also with art by Aparo, Rock believed he’d seen the ghost of a man he had court-martialed

and executed for cowardice during World War II. It turned out Rock wasn’t seeing a ghost. The soldier was actually a spy for the US Army and his execution was faked so he could continue his job in secret. The soldier remained a spy well into the Cold War, and to keep Rock from getting too close to the truth the Army had him arrested for crazed behavior and put on trial for a dishonorable discharge. Fortunately, Easy Co. knew its loyalty and recruited Batman to help save Rock, and the world’s greatest detective came through. Actually, this story has no bizarre twists, but it does raise a legitimate question regarding the actions of the US Government. Sgt. Rock truly believes he is seeing a man he executed for cowardice during World War II. Instead of simply telling Rock the truth, the US Army chose to lie to him, discredit him, and put him up for trial. While I do understand that telling Rock the truth would kill the story, it’s still disturbing to see a respected and decorated military man treated so harshly by his own country.

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The greatest example of the inexplicable is in The Brave and the Bold #124 (Jan. 1976). Batman and Sgt. Rock have located a Gotham City terminal locker where M-76 rifles, stolen by terrorists, are believed to be stashed. They are about to open the locker. Has it been booby-trapped? The reader turns the page. In the very next panel, in one of the most jarring transitions in comics history, artist Jim Aparo takes a break from illustrating the story he’s illustrating, the very one the reader is following. At this point Aparo, Haney, and editor Murray Boltinoff become part of the story, are even threatened by the terrorists, and it plays on as if it’s a perfectly natural situation. Despite this, it is a thrilling story. The Brave and the Bold Special 1978 (officially DC Special Series #8), with art by Ric Estrada and Dick Giordano, was incredibly entertaining, featuring a bizarre team-up of characters who do not actually team up, and in some cases don’t actually know they’re teaming up. “Hell is for Heroes” was cover-touted

Amnesiac Action Ace “Tag-A-Long” tags along with Rock and Easy on page 8 of DC Comics Presents #10 (June 1979). Art by Joe Staton and Jack Abel. © 2008 DC Comics.

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as “the Strangest B&B Team-Up Ever,” and DC was not kidding. Batman was on one side of the Atlantic trying to catch the vicious killer named Lucifer, but he kept getting injured. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in England, a statue of Batman had been stolen and Sgt. Rock had been assigned to bring it back. Every time the statue, or “stachoo,” as Rock liked to call it, was damaged, Batman felt the pain and took the breaks. Deadman kept infiltrating Easy Co.’s Bulldozer’s body to help Rock in his quest to take back the statue, and the ghost of Boston Brand also took advice from the spirit of Sherlock Holmes. The “real” Lucifer—yes, the fallen angel himself— turned out to be the mastermind behind the villainy. As opposed to his more downbeat appearance in B&B #108, Haney made sure the Devil got a good thrashing here. Every other writer who utilized Rock in a team-up set the character in his familiar World War II environment, which must have pleased Kanigher, but only up to a point. Yet despite the efforts of writer Gerry Conway and artists Mike Vosburg and Bob Smith, the two-part Wonder Woman tale guest-starring Sgt. Rock tale in World’s Finest Comics #248 and 249 (Dec. 1977– Jan. 1978 and Feb.–Mar. 1978) just did not work. Sgt. Rock being hypnotized by Dr. Psycho was a stretch, but what made it unbearable was the last panel in the story where Sgt. Rock indulged in a casual conversation with Wonder Woman in an extraterrestrial spaceship overlooking the Earth. I can picture Kanigher passing out while reading this, and I think Bob Haney would have, too. Sgt. Rock closed out his string of team-ups in the 1970s by unknowingly hooking up with Superman in DC Comics Presents #10 (June 1979), written by Cary Bates and illustrated by Joe Staton and Jack Abel. While saving Paris, France, from an exploding bomb, the Man of Steel was hurled back in time to Paris of 1944, where he lost his memory. Donning US military garb worn and discarded by German soldiers that had infiltrated and escaped Sgt. Rock’s Easy Co., Superman joined Rock’s troop as the amnesiac “Tag-A-Long.” When the Man of Steel’s memory returned, he secretly helped Rock succeed in his mission against the Nazis. Allowing Easy Co. to find him “dead,” “Tag-A-Long” was buried, and as Easy departed to carry on in the war Superman dug out of his grave and returned to 1979, via experienced methods of time travel, to learn who planted the bomb. Sgt. Rock’s final team-up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #162 (May 1980), written by Bill Kelley [Editor’s note: a pseudonym of B&B editor Murray Boltinoff], with art by Aparo, explained the incongruities in his first two appearances with the Dark Knight by implying that those adventures took place on Earth-Two, the parallel Earth where DC’s Golden Age superheroes and men of mystery resided. Sgt. Rock confronted his long-time nemesis the Iron Major. This is unquestionably Sgt. Rock’s most “realistic” adventure in The Brave and the Bold, more in tone with how Kanigher handled the character and, ironically, the least interesting. During Rick Veitch’s woefully underappreciated writing stint on Swamp Thing, Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. made an appearance in issue #82 (Jan. 1989). The story is more fantastic than odd, yet perfectly plausible within Swamp Thing’s supernatural environment. The “time-travel” plot device is new to Sgt. Rock,


but he isn’t aware of Swamp Thing or its journey during the course of the story, which also includes Easy Co., the Unknown Soldier, and Anton Arcane. This is a very well-written tale, with Rock admirably in character. Finally, as we began and thus we will conclude, there is Kanigher. Kanigher refused to team Sgt. Rock with superheroes (which is another reason why he’d never be completely happy with anyone else’s treatment of the character), but he did have Rock “team up” with one “historical figure” of his own creation (the Viking Prince, Our Army at War #162–163, Jan.–Feb. 1966), one real historical figure (Joan of Arc, Our Army at War #247, July 1972), and two DC war heroes during World War II (the Unknown Soldier and Mademoiselle Marie, DC Super Stars #15, July–Aug. 1977). The Viking Prince team-up is implausible but a joy to read. After centuries of frozen captivity, the Viking Prince is blown back into reality during World War II, only he wants to be killed so that he can return to Valhalla so he can be with the Valkyrie he loves. The Prince joins up with Rock in the sergeant’s mission to locate and destroy a Nazi TNT drone launch site. But the Prince has been cursed by Odin because the love he feels is a forbidden love! He can’t be killed by metal, wood, fire, or water. So what happens? The Viking Prince is killed by a plastic explosive. Rock maintained a subdued incredulousness (obviously in preparation for all those upcoming Haney adventures). In the case of the Joan of Arc story, it’s not technically a team-up, but more of an inspired, spiritual inclusion of a noted figure from military history. The woman may or may not be the reincarnation of Joan of Arc—that’s the story’s mystery—and it’s not something Kanigher seeks to resolve. What’s interesting is how Rock handles these kind of situations. When it comes to war he’s a realist, but he doesn’t casually dismiss the supernatural and unexplained. He keeps an eye on it. And more often than not he buries it. The Sgt. Rock/Unknown Soldier/Mademoiselle Marie team-up is okay. Marie is in love with Sgt. Rock but hates the Unknown Soldier; the Unknown Soldier, master of disguise, takes over for Rock when Rock is injured and bed-ridden; the disguised Soldier and oblivious Marie find themselves captured together; the real Rock comes to the rescue; and you can figure it out from there. (Mlle. Marie wasn’t new to teaming with Rock. One of her more notable appearances with the sergeant was as the iron-clad “Martin” in The Brave and the Bold #52, Feb.–Mar. 1964, which showcased the “3 Battle Stars” team-up of Rock. Lt. Cloud, and Tankman Stuart.) There were other Kanigher “team-ups,” of course, with members of the Haunted Tank and the Losers, but those were within the characters’ respective titles (Our Army at War, G.I. Combat, Our Fighting Forces). I leave those to another study, although I will note the interesting team-up of Gravedigger and Sgt. Rock in the last issue of Men of War (#26, Mar. 1980). In it, Gravedigger leads Easy Co. as a wounded Rock swiftly, as always, recuperates. There is not a single Sgt. Rock team-up story discussed in this article that doesn’t have a bizarre or un-intriguing aspect to it. Over the course of these 13 war/adventure stories, I have described a wealth of premises, plots, styles, and appearances truly far-fetched, from ludicrous to preposterous to absurd to farcical to downright excellent—but, in keeping with the bizarre mode, it’s excellence with an odd twist. So you have now been forewarned that a high degree of lunacy —not exactly intentional, either—reigns supreme. So throw incredulity to the wind, track these books down, and have some fun. JIM KINGMAN purchased his first comic book, DC’s World’s Finest Comics #211—a team book, naturally—on a family road trip in March of 1972, and has been reading and collecting comic books ever since (with no end in sight). He has been writing about comics since 1993, and while he feels it’s darn near impossible to write about comics while on the road (but he’ll make exceptions for editor Eury), he enthusiastically maintains that time spent with a good comic after a long day of traveling is one of life’s greatest joys. Jim currently edits and publishes Comic Effect, a small press fanzine emphasizing the fun in reading comics, and has a monthly column on comics at silverbulletcomicbooks.com.

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TM

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Eric H ou s t on

In 1987, Eclipse Comics’ Airboy tied Miracleman as the publisher’s number-one title. With high sales figures, a talented creative team, a cadre of passionate, outspoken fans, and an assortment of miniseries and oneshots, it seemed that Airboy’s publishing future was certain. Yet within only two short years, the book would be cancelled, its publisher going out of business soon after, and, instead of becoming highly soughtafter collectors’ items, its back issues now languish in convention quarter bins. What happened? How did a Golden Age hero rise from the ashes, reaching truly dizzying heights, before falling to Earth once more?

FIRST FLIGHT Military Comics’ Blackhawk ruled the four-colored skies of World War II, but he was content to share the wild blue yonder with a spate of other costumed aviators. Among them, few were better or more popular than Davy Nelson, better known as Airboy. Initially appearing in the pages of Hillman Periodicals’ Air Fighter Comics, Airboy was the daring teen pilot who flew the miraculous, bat-winged plane Birdie. Beautifully drawn by the likes of Fred Kida and Charles Biro, Airboy’s Golden Age adventures were always exciting and were some of the best stories the era had to offer. Air Fighter Comics was quickly renamed Airboy Comics and the book became increasingly popular, with Davy and his fellow flying heroes, like the Iron Ace, the Flying Dutchman, and Skywolf, enjoying a long publishing life. Still, when World War II ended and the evil Nazi and Japanese pilots that had been Airboy’s bread and butter vanished from the skies, Airboy Comics’ sales plummeted and, as of 1953, young Davy Nelson was grounded and all but forgotten. There were, however, a faithful few who remembered the boy aviator, among them a handful of future comics professionals. Tim Truman, at this writing the writer of Dark Horse’s Conan, recalls his own introduction to the Air Fighters: “One of [Jim Steranko’s History of Comics volumes] featured a huge chapter on aviation comics, centering on the Hillman material. I’d read

“Take that, ya airhog!” Tim Conrad’s dizzyingly dazzling original cover art to Eclipse’s Airboy #39 (May 1988), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Airboy TM & © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

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and re-read that chapter over the years, completely awed by the concept and information.” Chuck Dixon, former Detective Comics writer, also recalls reading about Airboy in his youth: “I remember even, as a fan, drawing pictures of Birdie and Airboy and idly dreaming that I might one day write a story about them.” cat yronwode, meanwhile, discovered Airboy through comics reprint publisher Ken Pierce and recalls seeing the name again one fateful day: “I was the editor-in-chief over at Eclipse and I was looking for things that we could do that were in public domain. I had a list that had actually been provided to me by Alan Light, former publisher of the Comics Buyer’s Guide, and Airboy was on that list.”

PHOENIX Once it became clear the Air Fighters existed in the public domain, cat yronwode and Eclipse set out to make their own Airboy comic. yronwode approached Tim Truman, who was already working on Eclipse’s Scout, to spearhead the new book. “Scout was probably their top seller then,” recalls Truman. “I was pretty easy to work with and I always delivered the art and story on time. I had a really great relationship with Eclipse and they knew I could pull together a bunch of folks who would deliver the goods. It seemed like something that would work out for everyone, so they asked me to be creative director for the Airboy project— put together an art and writing team, come up with new concepts for the launch of the series, and the like.” Truman selected young comics writer Chuck Dixon to script the book, while Truman himself would serve as editor. From there, the two men worked with cat yronwode to decide exactly how to bring Airboy into the 1980s. “We talked a lot about the possibility of it being the same character, just brought to the present,” remembers yronwode, “the way Captain America had been, but we decided that was not the way we wanted to go. Eventually, Tim came up with a proposal that involved [our Airboy] being the son of the Golden Age Airboy.”

BACK IN ACTION Using Truman’s idea as their basis, Truman and Dixon built Davy Nelson, Jr. into a relatable, three-dimensional character, introducing him and much of his supporting cast in their very first story arc. We first meet Davy as he practices karate with an elderly Japanese man named Hirota, the original Airboy’s first “kill” turned trusted family friend. Then, we are re-introduced to David Nelson himself, the original Airboy, only to find that the bright-eyed, heroic youth of the second World War has long since disappeared, replaced by a broken man who runs a weapons manufacturing company, living in seclusion from everyone he loves, even his own son. Suddenly, the scene erupts into chaos as a group of heavily armed mercenaries attack the Nelson Estate. Our heroes ably defend themselves, but with one great loss: David Nelson dies saving his son. Hirota quickly takes Davy away, telling Davy for the first time of his father’s heroic history, while giving Davy the red, gold, and blue uniform of his father’s Airboy. From there, Davy and Hirota begin their mission of revenge, bringing the old band back together along the way. The first man they meet is Skywolf, an ally of David’s from World War II, now a grizzled old warrior who has traded in his bizarre “semi-plane” and wolf-pelt mask for a grim leather uniform and attack helicopter. Luckily, Skywolf knows where the mercenaries came

Early Flights Air Fighters Comics vol. 2 #8 (Fall 1944), a classic Golden Age Airboy cover by Bob Fujitani, and Eclipse’s Airboy #1 cover, featuring Timothy Truman art.

from, the South American nation of Bogantilla. He also happens to know the whereabouts of David’s most faithful ally from the war, the miracle plane Birdie. Dixon and Truman (and Davy and Skywolf) waste no time updating Birdie, giving “him” a new jet engine and updated armaments. Dixon and Truman were also quick to give Birdie its own subtle personality, making the plane almost more man than machine and a supporting character in its own right. Once in Bogantilla, the story begins to twist and turn as Davy and his friends learn that the mercenaries are not their enemies but freedom fighters, combating a corrupt government. Worse, Davy learns that this government is backed by arms made by Nelson Aviation. Davy quickly joins the Bogantilians in their plan to attack the capitol. Davy hopes to absolve his father’s sins, but remains unaware of the whole truth. A visit to a local shaman, aided by the mysterious Heap— a tragic, misshapen swamp creature who was also an ally of David’s and whose original appearances predated both Swamp Thing and Man-Thing by decades—reveals that David had been in the thrall of his old enemy Misery for decades, while the supernatural foe held David’s lover, Valkyrie, hostage.

Air Fighters Comics © 1944 Hillman. Airboy TM & © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

NAZI SHE-BITCH Valkyrie was easily the most popular supporting player from Airboy’s Golden Age run. Valkyrie started life as the leader of the Air Maidens, an all-female Nazi flying circus. After a single encounter with Airboy, however, she defected to the Allies, falling madly in love with David. She would come to join David on many of his adventures, sitting on his lap inside Birdie’s cockpit. Still, she remained an effective femme fatale, as Truman describes her, “sort of like Veronica from Archie as a lovable Nazi she-bitch.” Given her popularity, both with Golden Age readers and with the entire creative team of this new revival, Valkyrie’s return was practically inevitable.

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There was, however, still the question of how to bring her back. The Eclipse team gave some initial thought to creating an entirely new Valkyrie to go along with their new Airboy, but, as Dixon remembers, that idea was quickly forgotten, “There was no way we could have a new Valkyrie. Everyone agreed that it had to be the original Val, with her Nazi past and all that baggage.” Aging her, as they did with Skywolf, wouldn’t work either, as Dixon had a romance planned for Val and Davy. Ultimately, the team decided to cryogenically freeze Valkyrie, much like Marvel had done with Captain America in the ’60s. That was how Misery kept Davy’s father under his thumb. With his lover held prisoner, David was forced to do whatever Misery asked. Thus, Davy’s mission changes once more as he and the Bogantillan rebels

attack the capitol in an attempt to topple the government, avenge Davy’s father, and now, save Valkyrie. The resulting attack on Misery’s castle, as well as the first meeting between Misery and our young hero, is a pulse-pounding, unforgettable, action-packed sequence that is filled with battles both in the air and on the ground and which immediately cemented Airboy as one of the premier action titles of the ’80s. Yet, as fantastic as the action is, it truly is the characterization that sets Airboy apart. “The characterizations sang,” recalls Truman: “Chuck was doing some truly fine writing at that point in his career and I was throwing all sorts of bizarre ideas at him from left field. The stories and approach were so unique—a real melding of straight adventure and superhero stuff.” cat yronwode, meanwhile, believes the story is meant to someday grace the silver screen: “Tim’s original storyline, the passing of the mantle, that would be a dynamite movie.” This first story arc, and the book’s entire first year [beginning with the cover date July 15, 1986], was published in a biweekly, 16-page format. This not only kept costs down, but also gave Airboy a welcome, old-time movie-serial feel. Tim Truman penciled the first two issues before handing art chores off to the spectacular Stan Woch. “Even before they asked me to do the first issue,” remembers Truman, “I'd already shown Eclipse some samples that I’d asked Stan to work up. They were bowled over, as I knew they would be. Stan was three times the draftsman I'll ever be, and I knew that he had to be the artist for the book.” From here on, Davy’s adventures as Airboy would continue at a breakneck pace. Subsequent storylines would find Davy fighting everything from giant rats to Russian soldiers and would take him to locales all over the world, including the Arctic Circle, the American Midwest, New York, and an explosive return to Bogantilla. His cast would also grow, eventually including a new, female Skywolf and the Iron Ace, a World War II fighter pilot once known for flying in a suit of armor and now tragically trapped within a cybernetic shell. The original Skywolf, meanwhile, remained a popular part of the title, regularly helping Davy in his adventures and even headlining his own series of flashback backup stories. Indeed, Skywolf proved to be a personal favorite for Chuck Dixon: “I based his voice and much of his personality on my own dad. That character wrote himself and was more fun to write than almost any other character I’ve touched upon.” Meanwhile, the fans’ interest was always centered on the budding romance between Davy and Valkyrie. Dixon began crafting Davy and Val’s romantic tension with their very first meeting. After defeating Misery in Bogantilla, Davy frees Valkyrie from her cryogenic tomb. When she awakens, Valkyrie instantly mistakes Davy for his father and embraces him, kissing

Back from the Golden Age Skywolf was reintroduced on page 13 of Airboy #2 (July 29, 1986), drawn by Truman and Tom Yeates (both of whom signed this original). Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonysnyder.com/art). © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

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Somebody Call Orkin, Quick! Airboy has a rat problem on this creepy cover to issue #20 (Apr. 28, 1987) by our featured cover artist Paul Gulacy. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

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the boy passionately. Upon seeing the aged Hirota, however, Valkyrie begins to realize her mistake and faints, leaving Davy both disgusted and excited. Over the course of the series, Davy and Val would continue to wrestle with their feelings. While they clearly feel strongly for one another, Val’s past romance with Davy’s father keeps them separated. Dixon explains, “That part of it was kind of creepy. But that’s what made it interesting. The hardest part was making it a true romance and not merely an exploitation gimmick. I played up Val being lost in time to make her more sympathetic and to explain her infatuation with her former lover’s son. I then made Davy Jr. a bit reticent to take up with his dad’s former gal pal. The readers moved from ‘ew’ to ‘get them together!’ after a while.” Despite regular letter-column demands to bring Davy and Val together, Dixon wisely played things slow. Still, the couple finally got together in issue #31 (Oct. 6, 1987), staying that way for the remainder of the series.

Vivacious Valkyrie Brian Bolland’s eye-opening pinup from Eclipse’s Valkyrie #2 (1987), contributed by John Yon. (Bolland fans, Brian—and Mike W. Barr—compare notes on Camelot 3000 in next issue’s exclusive “Pro2Pro” interview!) © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

TURBULENCE As Airboy approached its first year of publication, the series tied Miracleman as Eclipse’s top-selling book. While this was definitely a time to celebrate, it was also a time of difficulty for some and, with issue #23, Tim Truman departed the series. “The stress of doing my own book [Scout], plus trying to edit a bunch of other titles, just got to be too much for me,” explains Truman. “For some reason, I thought we could branch 4Winds [Truman and Dixon’s studio at Eclipse] out into a publishing venture, as well—a pretty stupid thing to do with no staff. So I was doing all this work, and it was always at home with me, too. My studio was at home, so it really affected my family time. I loved my wife, Beth, dearly (and still do—we’ve been together for about 30 years) and our children, Beth and Ben, were preschoolers. The family needed more of my attention. At about the same time, my father was diagnosed with cancer and that was quite a blow. I wasn't used to artists calling me up and asking stupid questions like, ‘Is it okay if I use a non-repro blue pencil to draw with?’ With the biweekly schedule, people started blowing deadlines. Stan was maddeningly insecure about his art and, while he always met deadlines, he needed a lot of pep talking. Eclipse started sending out late checks. I've never been the most even-tempered person in the world. Given the pressures, I became

Spinout in a Spin-Off As seen on this Gulacy/Will Blyberg-drawn page from issue #2 of the Airboy spin-off Valkyrie, the action wasn’t limited to the sky. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder. © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

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such a grouchy old prick, and everything was taking me too far away from my family and from my own work. In the end, it was clear that I had to get back into life. I learned a ton of lessons, though. These days I take things much easier.” With Truman gone, cat yronwode took over direct editorial responsibility for the series and she and Dixon’s clashing political ideals quickly became a point of contention. “Well, I had seemed to be the buffer between cat’s leftism and west coast-ness and Chuck’s more, shall we say, conservative outlook,” recalls Truman. “They just didn’t get each other at all, I think.” Dixon also remembers the clashing ideologies that came when yronwode assumed the editor’s chair: “Well, the political discussions heated up. I was, and still am, virulently anti-communist and cat’s mom was investigated by HUAC, so the sparks were bound to fly, but I have to say that she tried to find a common ground and let me get away with stuff she didn’t care for. I think she found some of my ideas outrageous and was amused by my irreverence to left-wing figures. I particularly recall her laughing when I suggested a story revealing that it was Skywolf who killed Che Guevara. The only time she became heated is when I had Airboy battling on the side of the Mujahideen. It was kind of de rigueur at the time to show the Afghans as heroes in their fight against the Soviets. While I knew that these guys were no sweethearts, I thought they were fighting the good fight. She insisted that there were fanatics among them and our support of them would one day come to bite us in the ass. Guess she was right on the money that time, huh?” While Dixon and yronwode worked past their differences to produce a number of exciting Airboy stories, increasing art delays and steadily declining sales figures took their toll and Airboy ceased publication with #50 (Oct. 1989), a double-sized issue featuring art by Adam, Andy, and Joe Kubert. The story saw Davy and the Heap travel to Misery’s home dimension to save his father’s soul. Unfortunately, the issue ends with a cliffhanger, as Davy is blasted off the back of a motorcycle by the shockwave of an atomic blast before reaching the portal home. Dixon did, of course, have plans for what would have happened after #50: “My idea was for Airboy to find himself in sub-Saharan Africa and battling the slave trade there. I would have been way ahead of the curve on that one! The plan was that he run into the White Lion, a kind of racist version of Tarzan I created as a phony Golden Age backup in Strike!”

FUTURE FLIGHTS? After Eclipse ceased publication, Todd McFarlane Productions acquired the trademarks to all of Eclipse’s properties, but to date has failed to publish any new Airboy stories. Of course, everyone involved in the Eclipse revival would love to see Airboy return to comics once again. “I'd love to see it,” says Truman, “but getting the same vibe that the original team had would be impossible. It was such a unique chemical spill of creativity and creators. There was a lot of ‘us’ that made up the core of those books.” But does Chuck Dixon think there’s any chance of Airboy taking flight again? “Actually, yes! I’ve written a series of backups and I’m working on a few minis featuring the Golden Age Airboy. In his purchase of all the Eclipse material, Todd McFarlane bought only the Eclipse versions of Airboy, Valkyrie, Skywolf, et al., but he doesn’t own the rights to the original Hillman versions.

So long as my stories are set in that era, in those costumes, it’s all cool. The stories will be coming out from Moonstone in the very near future.” According to Joe Gentile of Moonstone Publishing, the first of Dixon’s new Airboy stories, a retelling of the first meeting between David and Valkyrie, should begin publication as a backup in Moonstone’s Phantom by the time this article sees print. Whether or not the Eclipse material will ever see print again is hard to say, but it seems clear that Airboy’s future is secure.

Steelfox Airboy’s cover was usurped by this iron-head on issue #42 (Aug. 1988), penciled by Stan Woch and inked by Willie Blyberg. Courtesy of Heritage.

ERIC HOUSTON lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is a television producer and life-long comics fan. He first met Airboy in a quarter bin in South Bend, Indiana, and has never looked back.

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by

M ic h ae l Brown in g

It’s been twenty years since John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad first appeared in the pages of Legends, and comics are still trying to catch up with this concept that was so far ahead of its time. Legends spawned other major titles like the Mike Baron/Jackson Guice Flash and the famous (or infamous) Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis / Kevin Maguire Justice League. Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, however, didn’t take hot characters or the name of a very popular superteam to make a successful book. It took the name of a long-forgotten DC adventure team that had made only a few appearances in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, the original Suicide Squad, consisting of Rick Flag; his girlfriend, Karin Grace; Dr. Hugh Evans; and Jess Bright, first appeared in B&B #25 (Aug.–Sept. 1959) and lasted through #27, with a three-issue follow-up in B&B #37–39. After those few appearances, the Suicide Squad faded into relative obscurity and wasn’t to be heard from again until 1987, when the idea for a revamp of the team was given to writer John Ostrander, who was slated to write the Legends miniseries. The team’s third incarnation (there was another, World War II version of the Suicide Squad that appeared in Secret Origins vol. 2 #14, May 1987, that provided a bridge from the first SS team to the Ostranderpenned group) first appeared in Legends #3 (Jan. 1987), written by Ostrander and drawn by John Byrne and Karl Kesel. The Suicide Squad’s ongoing series lasted only 66 issues—beginning with Suicide Squad #1 (May 1987) and ending with issue #66 (June 1992), with one annual and a Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special along the way—but has a loyal fan following to this day.

Dirty Dozen Minus Eight Nightshade, Deadshot, Vixen, and Bronze Tiger, four of the Suicide Squad’s most popular members, are featured in this awesome commissioned illustration by Geof Isherwood. From the collection of Michael Rankins. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Suicide Squad Promo Art Scans of Xeroxes of the original art used to promote the Squad, where the images of the various characters were cut-and-pasted together into a bulletin board-like setting. “As I remember,” shares Karl Kesel, who sent us these scans, “this was done long before any interior art was done, and it’s clear Luke McDonnell and I were both unfamiliar with each other and the characters themselves.” Karl adds an interesting sidenote: “As much as I loved what John did with Captain Boomerang as a character, it still bugged me no end that Boomerang would just keep producing an endless array of boomerangs seemingly from nowhere. While trying to figure out where he might keep his weapons, Stephen DeStephano suggested a bandolier (missing in this promo art, you’ll notice). Not only did this give Boomerang a clear place to store his weapons, it also established a limited number of weapons, with the possibility that he could actually run out—always good for drama. It also added a nice asymmetrical element to Boomer’s design. This is why Stephen DeStephano is a genius!” © 2008 DC Comics.

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Ostrander says that when he was given the name “Suicide Squad” by editor Bob Greenberger, at first he thought it sounded stupid. The team’s name was almost as bad as the moniker of the World War II fighting group, the Losers. “At the time, I had just come over to DC and was feeling around for work,” Ostrander recalls. “Actually, I wanted to do Challengers of the Unknown because I loved the title, but that had already been grabbed by somebody else. So Bob Greenberger, who was my contact at DC at that point, suggested this other title, ‘Suicide Squad.’ I thought, ‘Well, that’s a stupid idea. Who in their right minds would be a part of something that calls itself a Suicide Squad?’ The more I thought about it, I said, ‘Well, someone who doesn’t have any other choice, that’s who. And who doesn’t have any other choice? Prisoners.’ From that, it became The Dirty Dozen and Mission: Impossible with supervillains.” Ostrander believed that supervillains spending their lives in jail would do almost anything to be free again—even if that meant going on a “heroic” suicide mission with little or no hope of returning. But if they did return, they could go free, courtesy of the Suicide Squad’s parent, the United States government (which denied all claims to the SS).

From Who’s Who #22 (Dec. 1986) The Squad by Luke McDonnell and Rick Magyar, contributed by Michael Browning. © 2008 DC Comics.

The Squad was first drawn by John Byrne and Karl Kesel in Legends, then, in the Suicide Squad monthly title, by Luke McDonnell, John K. Snyder III, Grant Miehm, Kesel on his own, and then McDonnell again, before Geof Isherwood wrapped up the series. Ostrander says it was a boon to have Byrne drawing the Squad’s first appearance. “Legends was the first big, company crossover following Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Ostrander relates. “If you’re going to do a kickoff, people are going to be reading that book. This was also John Byrne doing a lot of DC characters for the first time. The fact that [the Suicide Squad first] appeared there didn’t hurt anything at all. Squad was one of three books that came out of Legends by design, including Justice League [and] the new Flash. We were actually working on the Secret Origins issue at the same time.”

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ROGUISH ROSTER To find characters for the group, Ostrander went through his set of Who’s Whos and picked B-grade villains to use in the series. “I still have the same Who’s Whos,” Ostrander says. “In fact, for the new series [which debuted in late 2007], I went through the Who’s Who and found someone who hasn’t been used in a long time and will be showing up in the new miniseries.” In choosing villains, Ostrander reveals that it was “a matter of scrounging around and seeing who we could use and who they will not mind us doing something to. Can we use them and kill them? In some cases, it’s just us messing with their backstory. The best example of that is Deadshot, in terms of us giving him a backstory that eventually became the [Deadshot] miniseries.” The first group of supervillain prisoners to sign up was Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, the Enchantress, Plastique, and Mindbender. They were joined by the Bronze Tiger from the Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter series of the 1970s, former Charlton Action Hero Nightshade, and Rick Flag Jr., the son of the original Squad’s leader. Ostrander says the big DC Universe villains like Joker and Lex Luthor didn’t fit well with his idea of the Suicide Squad: “I didn’t want to bother with some of the heavy-duty major bads, because I couldn’t do much with them. For instance, having the Joker in the Squad didn’t really fit with what I was going to do.” Ostrander continues, “We had open season with some of the villains. DC wasn’t using the Rogues’ Gallery from Flash at that time at all. They had different plans. So, basically, we had our pick of who we wanted to do. “Captain Boomerang was suggested to me and I thought he was a stupid character,” Ostrander says. “I love characters who really are just scum and know it and don’t care. They don’t get better. I thought we could really make Boomerang that. Every time you think you’ve gotten to the depths of all the nastiness he could do, he finds new levels. He’s not going to reform because he’s happy. He’s actually well-adjusted. He’s happy being who and what he is. The key to Boomerang is that even when he seemed to act noble, there was always the question of how it was serving him.” Batman villain “Deadshot, at that point, wasn’t actually a big player,” says Ostrander. “I had seen his costume and read his background in the Who’s Who and thought he was a really neat-looking character and

Not Necessarily “Lame and Forgettable” Explains Karl Kesel, who submitted this drawing (top): “This is a nearly completed sketch for a Captain Boomerang logo (not surprising, since I had also designed the Suicide Squad logo.) John Ostrander had done amazing things with a character whom I had always considered pretty lame and forgettable, quickly transforming him into one of my all-time favorite characters in comics! So much so that I pushed hard for a Captain Boomerang one-shot. I’m not sure it was ever officially green-lighted, but talk at the time was that John would write it, or co-write it with Keith Giffen, Keith would lay it out, and I would do the finished art. John had the amazing ability to take weak-ass villains (which, let’s admit it, DC has a truckload of) and make them shine and sing. He did the same with Punch and Jewelee—characters I couldn’t see any point to until John gave them his special spin. I ended up liking them so much I drew their Who’s Who entry, and there was talk about John and Kim writing a Punch and Jewelee one-shot that I would draw. Another great opportunity that never came together.” (above) Captain Boomerang’s headshot and a character panel from Who’s Who in the DC Universe vol. 2 #2 (Sept. 1990). © 2008 DC Comics.

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there were some possibilities there. I wanted to play with him in particular. Other than that, it was a matter of mixing and matching and seeing who worked best.” Plenty of DC Universe second-string villains showed up for missions throughout the Suicide Squad run, including Blockbuster, Captain Cold, Killer Frost, Parasite, Thinker, Weasel, Multiplex, Mister 104, Manhunter Mark Shaw, Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy (who became a central figure late in the series as the de facto leader of a South American nation), Black Adam, Bolt, Silver Swan, the Writer (Grant Morrison’s alter ego from the Animal Man series), Ravan, Dr. Light, Duchess (who was really Lashina from the Female Furies of Apokolips), Outlaw, Javelin, Punch and Jewelee, Slipknot, Psi, Penguin, Mindboggler, Sportsmaster, Stalnoivolk, Deadline, Maser, Pathfinder, and Kaliber, among others. Superheroes sometimes worked with the Squad, including Speedy, the Adam Cray Atom, Shade the Changing Man, and Black Orchid. Cray was killed in the next-to-last storyline, called “Mystery of the Atom.” “I thought that in an espionage group, someone with those shrinking powers would work out real well,” Ostrander says. A character brought to prominence by Ostrander was Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, who became Oracle in the Suicide Squad. She’s a very popular character today in Birds of Prey and the Batman books.

BOSS LADY The Squad was led by Flag, but the real boss was Amanda Waller, otherwise known as “the Wall,” an African-American woman with an attitude. They probably could have made a movie out of Waller’s life and called it Diary of a Mad Black Woman. She didn’t take any lip from anyone—especially not the likes of Captain Boomerang and the other supervillains under her watch. “Back when I started, I knew some heavy-set African-American women who took no guff,” Ostrander recalls, “and I thought that would be really interesting as a ramrod to take someone who has elbowed her way out of the ghettos and gotten her children out as well, who has experienced all of this firsthand, and who has this attitude. Yes, she has a moral code, but it basically comes down to, ‘I’m going to get the job done by whatever means is necessary.’ She’s not polite about it and she’s tough as nails. There just was no one in comics like her at the time and I said, ‘Let’s do this,’ just because there wasn’t anyone like her. For my money, there hasn’t been anyone like her since, either. What’s fun is going back to write her [in the 2007-2008 Suicide Squad miniseries] and her voice is just as clear as the last time I wrote her.

Big Girl, Big Gun Karl Kesel’s 1986 original sketch for the character who later became known as Duchess. “Obviously, by the time she appeared on the printed page,” Karl says, “she had changed quite a bit visually, although the basic idea remained the same: Lashina with amnesia, wielding a Big Gun. I came up with this idea—although John did more with it than I could have ever imagined—and I’ll admit it was completely inspired by the movie Aliens. In fact, I didn’t have a name for the character—John came up with ‘Duchess’—my only (bad) suggestion was ‘Ripley.’” Sketch courtesy of Karl Kesel. © 2008 DC Comics.

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L L E N N O c D M LUKE ART GALLERY

(right) Luke McDonnell was the artist on Justice League of America vol. 1 before its Legends reboot. Here’s his cover art (inked by Bob Smith) to JLA #258 (Jan. 1987), which includes Vixen, who would jump to Suicide Squad with Luke. (far right) McDonnell/Bob Lewis cover art to Suicide Squad #5 (Sept. 1987). (below) McDonnell/ Rick Magyar art from the Belle Reve prison Who’s Who entry. Art scans from the Michael Browning collection. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Ostander can’t envision any version of the Suicide Squad that he’d write without Amanda Waller at the helm. But he says that doesn’t mean someone else can’t do their version of the Squad and totally forget everything he’s done. “I took the title and reinvented it. I can see somebody taking the title and reinventing it and ignoring what had been done, including Amanda,” Ostrander admits. “But if you’re going to do something along those lines, I really think you’ve got to have her. She’s so identified with the book, for me to try to write it without her, it would be very difficult.” (Recommended reading: Suicide Squad Annual #1, which explored the tragedies which shaped Amanda Waller into the stern leader readers know and love.)

“The Wall” Behind Bars A Who’s Who vol. 2 panel recapping Amanda Waller’s imprisonment, from a 1989 storyline. © 2008 DC Comics.

HIGH STAKES Death was as much a character in Suicide Squad as any of the villains, because you never knew who was going to die next. One of the most shocking deaths was Rick Flag, Jr., who was killed at the end of the series’ second year. Flag’s death just proved that, according to Ostrander, “no one—no matter how important to the team—was safe. “If you have nasty boys doing nasty things, some of them are going to be nasty off campus, as well, and some of them are going to die,” Ostrander says. “So many of the characters in The Dirty Dozen didn’t come out at the end. I wanted that to be a real factor in Suicide Squad from the start. People would die on the missions and that would startle the readers and they shouldn’t take any of them for granted.” It wasn’t just the bad guys who died on Suicide Squad missions. Sometimes, the good guys died, too. “Flo died on Apokolips,” Ostrander says of the supporting character who was popular with fans. “I liked Flo a lot. I figured often that if it didn’t bother me, it wouldn’t bother the readers, so I had to do the things that would bother me. Flag’s death was very difficult. But I told Bobby Greenberger that I had a back door for it if we ever wanted to use it and we are, in fact, using it now. The option was not to use it because it would send a very big message to the readers that anybody could go. No one was safe. The last person they would expect not to come back would be Rick Flag. The fact that we killed him off made everyone go, ‘What?!’ He stayed dead until recently when [DC] announced they were bringing him back. I said, ‘Okay, if you’re going to do that, I can tell you the way that I know that it could work’ and we worked it into the new Squad miniseries.” Ostrander says it was the secondary characters like Flo and Briscoe that made the series work: “This is a superteam that, early on, we decided was going to have its own support team. I think the Justice League should have that from the start. You’ve got the heroes going off and you’ve got people doing maintenance or paperwork or the guards at the prison. These are all important members of our team. They were as much a part of the Squad as anything else.”

Tails from the Back Side… …of a page of Suicide Squad original art, that is, where Luke McDonnell sketched this character design of Shrike. From the Michael Browning collection. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Just Shoot Me The Squad’s breakout baddie, in (right) bio panels from Who’s Who vol. 2, and (below) the cover art to Deadshot #1 (Nov. 1988). Art by Luke McDonnell; courtesy of Michael Browning. © 2008 DC Comics.

Is death overdone in comics these days? “Like anything, death can become a plot device and can be overdone,” Ostrander contends. “When you start emphasizing it too much, people go, ‘Well, yeah, you’re going to kill this character now.’ And they’re going to come back. You look at it and go, ‘Right, they’re dead and they’re going to come back… um, what’s today?’ The epitome was The Death of Superman. Was there anyone working in comics who didn’t think Superman was going to come back? I know there were people in the media who called me who asked if they were really killing off Superman. I said, ‘This is comics. We kill off characters and they come back all the time.’”

MISSIONS: IMPOSSIBLE The group was officially called “Task Force X” until its cover was blown and it became public. Not long after, the Suicide Squad went off on its own, leaving its government connections behind. The Squad’s first mission, in a storyline called “Baptism of Fire,” sent them to the Middle Eastern country of Qurac, where they had to infiltrate Jotunheim, a fortress formerly used by the Nazis during World War II, and kill members of the organization Onslaught. This mission set the stage for many conflicts to come, as they faced off against the superteam Jihad and the effects of that first battle would play out over the remainder of the series. The team’s second tour of duty, a storyline called “Mission to Moscow” that began in issue #5 (Sept. 1987), wasn’t as successful as its first. The team had to go into Russia to free the captive Zoya Trigorin, a revolutionary writer who didn’t want to be freed. The mission went badly as Trigorin was killed and team member Nemesis was captured. During this storyline, Batman and the Justice League International came into conflict with the Squad due to Batman’s investigation into Waller’s activities. Waller didn’t back down from Batman—in their confrontation in issue #10 (Feb. 1988), she informed him that she could learn his secret identity, causing Batman to back off the investigation. (Batman resurfaced in later issues of Suicide Squad, including a cover spot on #40, in the “Phoenix Gambit” storyline.) Batman wasn’t the only person keeping an eye on Waller and the Squad. Senator Joe Cray had been blackmailing Waller all along to ensure his re-election,

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Heads Up, Dark Knight! A Deadshot vs. Batman commissioned illustration done in 2005 by Luke McDonnell. Inset: Another McDonnell Deadshot image from Who’s Who entry. Both from the collection of Michael Browning. © 2008 DC Comics.

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and Flag decided to deal with the situation. But Cray wasn’t the only threat to Waller. Derek Tolliver, a former liaison between the Squad and the government, was working with Cray against Waller. Flag killed Tolliver and went after Cray, not knowing he’d made a deal with Waller to keep the Squad a secret. The entire Squad was sent after Flag, but it was Deadshot who took care of the situation—in his own way. “He was told to stop Flag from shooting Cray, and Deadshot finds a way of doing it—by shooting Cray himself,” Ostrander laughs of the events in Suicide Squad #22 (Jan. 1989). “That was a twist. He did what Amanda told him to do, but I don’t think that’s what Amanda had in mind.” Because of Cray’s murder, the police discovered a press release that exposed the Suicide Squad. Waller was replaced by Jack Kale, an actor, who worked for the Wall so she could run the Squad from her jail cell. As the Squad stepped into the public eye and became a superhero team, Flag went to Jotunheim and was killed destroying the fortress.

From Deadshot #2 (Dec. 1988) Strong light/dark contrasts make this McDonnell splash page a standout. Courtesy of Luke McDonnell. © 2008 DC Comics.

TOMORROW’S HEADLINES TODAY Suicide Squad brought then-current events into the four-color world of comics. Ostrander admits he based many of his storylines on real-world headlines and sometimes that gave readers a chill. “In terms of the whole tone of the Suicide Squad, I think the DC Universe has finally caught up to the Squad,” Ostrander believes. “We were very gritty and not quite as heroic, and that’s more often true in the DC Universe these days than not. Maybe it’s not just in the DCU. Maybe it’s comics in general that are just catching up. “At the start, people were questioning if people would buy the fact that there’s this superpowered team of villains sponsored by the government doing dirty deeds in the name of the government and being given their freedom surreptitiously. After we started working on this, Irangate broke and we all looked like pikers. We were very edgy, out there on the edge. Then it just looked like we were following the headlines. “I recently went back and reread the first storyline and it actually chilled me,” Ostrander confesses. “We did this so long before 9/11 and here it is about a supervillain terrorist squad from the Middle East who, in the opening pages of the series, attacks what seems to be an American airport and the plane carrying the President of the United States. I don’t know if you’d be allowed to do that these days. I don’t even know if I’d try that these days. Then, later on, when the Jihad came back again, they were blowing up the tunnels into New York. That, also, was a little eerie for me. It’s a little unsettling. I would study the newspapers and then try to take elements and project into the future what could be storylines for the Squad. And it got spooky for about a year or year and a half, where just around the time the stories in the Squad were appearing in print, that area in the world would flare up. I had a friend who actually called me up wanting to know where I was planning to send the Squad the next summer because she was making her vacation plans and did not want to go where I was sending the Squad. It was freaking me out a little bit, too. It just meant I was paying attention. “Denny O’Neil, when he was doing Green Lantern/Green Arrow [with Neal Adams], that run really taught me just how much you can pull current events into comics. I was basically taking a note from that.” Karl Kesel still sees the Squad’s impact in the comics of today. “Suicide Squad was part of a larger movement in comics at the time that was questioning what or who is a hero and exploring that vast, uncharted area between good and evil,” Kesel says. “I think it brought those questions into focus and into the mainstream in ways that hadn’t been done before. And, for the very first time, it did it on an ongoing, monthly basis.”

OSTRANDER’S COLLABORATORS Luke McDonnell, who had just come off a tour of duty drawing Justice League of America (aka “Justice League Detroit”), enjoyed working with Ostrander on the Suicide Squad series and loved Deadshot best of all. “I thought John’s stories were great and it was nice having current political situations in the mix,” McDonnell says. “I liked Deadshot because of his look and his intensity. I think the title worked well with the 4 8

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(top) Penciled versions of two of Snyder’s pages from Suicide Squad #34 (Oct. 1989), set on Apokolips and featuring Granny Goodness and the Female Furies. (bottom left) Cover pencils from issue #31 (July 1989). (bottom right) Original line art to the cover of Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #2 (Dec. 2007); in the published version (not pictured), headshots of Bronze Tiger and Amanda Waller were added in color. Art courtesy of John K. Snyder III. © 2008 DC Comics.

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second-stringers. No one really cared what you did with them in terms of personality development.” McDonnell redesigned Nightshade and Lashina, who became the Duchess. He also created Shrike, a character who was killed early in the series. McDonnell then went on to pencil and ink the 1998 Deadshot miniseries with Ostrander. “I wouldn’t mind working with John again,” McDonnell says. “The Deadshot miniseries was fun, but kind of gloomy. It was interesting to work on. “My favorite characters in Suicide Squad were Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, because they were both strong personalities,” McDonnell says. “I didn’t care much for drawing the Captain, though, because he had a dopey costume.” “Deadshot was definitely the breakout star of the Squad at that time,” Ostrander observes. The character’s “miniseries comes to a very powerful— if not happy—conclusion.”

Rooftop with a View John K. Snyder III layouts and Karl Kesel finishes on the splash to Suicide Squad #28 (May 1989), edited by “Back Issue Bob” Greenberger (nice nickname, Bob!). © 2008 DC Comics.

Karl Kesel inked three issues before leaving the series, but later returned to ink the book over John K. Snyder III’s pencils and then drew it himself for awhile. “I left because I was desperately trying to ink two books a month and finally had to admit I couldn’t,” Kesel says of his early departure from Suicide Squad. “At the time, I was inking the Squad and Superman. So, obviously, Superman won. I came back after I left Superman, which was very prestigious and I loved inking Byrne, but the Squad always had my heart, so when an opportunity came to return to it, I took it. “John really believes in collaboration,” Kesel continues, “so I felt really involved and essential to the book. It was always a treat to read each new script. Things kept happening that I didn’t expect—in good ways! I was one of the book’s biggest fans and I got to work on it, too! The best of both worlds! “I thought the concept was so basic and brilliant,” Kesel adds. “It was one of those great ideas that you wonder why no one else had thought of before! John constantly did amazing things with the characters. Pre-Squad, if anyone had told me I would become a Captain Boomerang fan, or love Punch and Jewelee, I’d have said they were nuts! But John made them all compelling, fascinating characters.” John Ostrander was equally impressed with Kesel’s creative energy: “I laid it open to everyone if they had ideas about what to do with characters, and Karl would send us these long notes that we called ‘Kesel’s Epistles,’ with all these ideas, and we wound up using a lot of them. We didn’t use all of them because it would have been impossible!” Bob Greenberger, the series’ original editor, was fundamental in the developmental process of Suicide Squad. Dan Raspler replaced Greenberger as editor with issue #31, and remained at the helm for the rest of the series. Ostrander’s best collaborator on the book, though, was his late wife, Kim Yale, who co-wrote the majority of the series with her husband. “I think I only wrote the first year or year and a half without her,” the writer recalls. “She was there for virtually all the rest of it. She started by the second year. We’d sit down and discuss the story, discuss the scenes, and then we’d plot it out together. Early on, I took the function of senior writer, because it’s what the editor expected of me. We had twin Macintosh computers and often she’d write a scene and I’d write a different scene, and we’d put it on floppy disks and we’d go back and read each other’s scene and then rewrite each other’s scene. It was really collaborative all the way around.”

PLAYING FAVORITES The writer of Suicide Squad says that choosing a favorite storyline is like choosing your favorite child. “There were so many I enjoyed doing,” Ostrander says. “Some of them were very simple and some were very complex. Early on, we had one called ‘Flight of the Firebird’ [issue #5] which I think helped define the Squad because they go into Russia to bring out this dissident, Zoya Trigorin, and it all goes spectacularly wrong. She dies along the way. It’s a complete and utter failure. They leave a person [Nemesis] behind, as well, and, as a result, that helped set the tone for the Squad early on. “We took the Squad to Apokolips [in #33 (Sept. 1989)],” says Ostrander. “Talk about a mismatch. I just wanted to see if we could, and it worked. Big things

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happened to the Squad there. Briscoe and SHEBA [the Squad’s helicopter] didn’t come back and Flo died. There were major changes because of that. “The biggest, most ambitious storyline was ‘The Janus Directive,’” Ostrander continues, “where we brought in Checkmate and Firestorm and Manhunter. We just ran through all the books and had our own little [11-part] crossover in our own, little world. Then, there were also the small, individual stories like the ‘Private Files’ stories that were usually single issues. I loved those. Very often, it would all be subplots moving forward, but it really gave you a chance to get to know the characters better.” To Ostrander, every artist who worked on the title was important to the makeup of the book. “Luke McDonnell was a terrific storyteller and underrated that way,” Ostrander says. “He was very good in terms of character. The fact that he wasn’t flashy was very important because it added to the sense of reality about the series. It didn’t seem like it was all off in superhero land. It was more rooted in reality. “I think he reached the acme of his style in the Deadshot miniseries when he inked himself, because he has a bold inking line on some figures that I think really emphasizes everything about what he does so well. I would actually love to see Luke come back and ink himself. I think the design of his work really comes through. He knows how to make sure the story is clear from panel to panel and

that is really important. At no point do you back up and ask what just happened. “John K. Snyder III is a little more stylized, but in a good way. His art still had that same touch of reality that I liked. It was like he was related to Luke. I think it was a little more flashy and more designed-oriented. John has a really good sense of design that is just really amazing,” Ostrander says. Snyder enjoyed drawing Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. “Who wouldn’t?” the artist asks. “The Squad fit into that rogue universe. It was a natural.” Snyder enjoyed working with Ostrander and co-writer Kim Yale, and loved his time on Suicide Squad. “John and Kim were wonderful to work with,” Snyder says. “They were always very positive and encouraging. I received full script on the Squad, so this was a matter of structuring panels and pages so the characters were placed to match the dialogue in the script. For example, if the script had Bronze Tiger barking out an order to Count Vertigo, the panel would be laid out to have Tiger on the left, and Vertigo on the right. Then, when you have a sequence with numerous characters bantering between each other, it’s like putting together a puzzle! I have much admiration for the talent that goes into a team book. It’s fun, but a challenge as well.” At this writing, Snyder is illustrating the covers on the Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag miniseries. He believes the series has such a large fan following because it is a book about underdogs: “Everybody S p i e s

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Rustam’s Last Stand Penciler Grant Miehm’s clear storytelling (inked by Karl Kesel, who submitted this art, which he also signed) made this busy double-page spread from Suicide Squad #26 (Apr. 1989) easy to read. © 2008 DC Comics.

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loves an underdog/misfit, right? This is a group of misfits, bottom feeders of the villain roster of the DCU, who occasionally get killed off… for awhile, anyway,” Snyder says. “Losers who sort of save the world now and then, and John O. brings in a dark sense of humor and adventure that makes it work. It’s not your everyday comic book, and that’s why we’re still here. It’s an honor to be a part of it and I’m looking forward to more!” Ostrander compares the storytelling of artist Grant Miehm to that of Luke McDonnell. “Grant Miehm did a couple of issues that were good stuff,” Ostrander says. “He made sure the characters were clear. When you’re doing a team book, it’s really tough. There’re very few people like George Pérez who can put everybody and their cousins into all the panels and still make it work. Grant was able to make sure that despite our large cast, that the reader wasn’t getting lost.” “Geof Isherwood had a different challenge,” says Ostrander of the artist who gave the book a gritty realism that it needed for its final arc. “We took the characters out of costume a lot. At the time it seemed like a good idea, but, in retrospect, it wasn’t. It made them more real, but it made them less identifiable as supervillains. So we lost some of that aspect there,

© 2008 DC Comics.

I think. But Geof was very good in terms of mood and emotion of what was going on. With all the artists, the Squad kept throwing them all around the world. Geof, in particular, was able to capture our locations very well.” Isherwood enjoyed drawing the characters out of costume. “Funny, I thought I’d prefer to draw them in costume, as well,” Isherwood says. “But I found I enjoyed drawing them as ‘real’ people, also. I also prefer to draw characters with visible faces so I can draw their full expressions, so heroes in ‘civvies’ allow for that. Still, drawing them as superheroes is what the readers want, and I can relate to that. “I had to familiarize myself with the characters, not having read the series beforehand,” Isherwood continues. “It took me a few issues to get more of a grasp on their backgrounds. John and Kim’s scripts were well-written and easy to draw from. There was plenty of reference. Looking back on a few issues lately, I realized again how much! My ‘morgue’ was stuffed with National Geographics and weapons books. Team books are slower to draw, with more characters, and keeping up with everyone is a tricky task, juggling scenes so half the cast doesn’t get forgotten. John and Kim did that excellently.

The Phantom Menace Strikes Again! “For a short, wonderful time it looked like I was going to take over the full art on the Squad book,” smiles Karl Kesel, who shared with BACK ISSUE this cover sketch for Suicide Squad #29, his personal favorite. “Nothing would have made me happier, believe me, but for reasons I can’t quite recall, it didn’t happen. (I seem to remember that Luke McDonnell moved on to draw The Phantom, and left the Squad a little sooner than expected, and I wasn’t quite ready to take over the art chores, so others were brought in. But I could be wrong.) “Instead of focusing on one scene in the book,” Karl continues, “I wanted to capture the feeling that everything was hitting the fan, that total chaos was breaking loose, and it occurred to me that a scene inside Belle Reve’s security nerve center, with alarms going off and all sorts of characters and mayhem on different monitors, and then this lone security officer (who clearly has no superpowers) suddenly finds himself face-to-face with Major Victory—to me that captured the feel of the issue better than anything else could. I’m glad the editor, Bob Greenberger, went for it—although he did insist on me adding one Squad member.” © 2008 DC Comics.

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Pandemonium!!! Hold on to your hats, readers! It’s kaos, Kesel-style in Karl’s cover sketch to Suicide Squad #30! “The most interesting thing about this sketch—other than I was insane for deciding to draw this scene—is the note about Peacemaker’s new helmet,” Kesel tells BACK ISSUE. “No idea who was going to design it, or what it might have looked like, since I never saw anything about it other than a mention in the script. Obviously, no new helmet was introduced.” Preferring to keep his Squad art close at hand, kind-hearted Karl reveals, “I gave the original art to this cover to the editor, Bob Greenberger. One of the very few pieces of Squad art that I penciled and inked myself that I’ve parted with.” © 2008 DC Comics.

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Guest-starring Shade, the Changing Man

“When I started drawing the book, I looked forward to doing Deadshot, but I found I liked most of the characters equally,” Isherwood admits. “Perhaps my preference goes to Captain Boomerang, because of his nasty sense of Aussie humor. But what the heck is a ‘droob’? I also liked Amanda Waller running the show—a tough, black woman who belied the stereotypical team leader and was all the more human for it.” Isherwood contends that Suicide Squad was far ahead of its time because it was a departure from the normal four-color superhero vs. supervillain battles. “Having costumed heroes was misleading in a way,” Isherwood says. “as they weren’t fighting the usual supervillain menaces. Compared to what’s become popular on TV now, I’d say [Suicide Squad] was 15 years ahead of its time, although it owed much to the original Avengers TV show and Mission: Impossible, too. The Squad, in the right hands of course, would make a great movie, or

The Karl Keselillustrated cover art to Suicide Squad #32 (Aug. 1989), spotlighting Steve Ditko’s wonderfully offbeat DC creation (weren’t they all?). From the Michael Browning collection. © 2008 DC Comics.

series of films, with superpowered characters in stories like the Bourne series.” Karl Kesel loved inking Luke McDonnell’s pencils, but also enjoyed inking the other Suicide Squad artists. “Without being too wishy-washy, I liked ’em all for different reasons,” Kesel says. “I had a particular fondness for Luke’s work, because he really established the tone of the book—very down-to-earth and rooted in the ‘real’ world—although John K. Snyder’s layouts were a blast to finish off. Very powerful, Kirby-esque stuff. “But my favorite times were the handful of covers I penciled and inked myself,” Kesel admits. “Not meaning to pat myself on the back, but I think they’re good, solid covers. The emergency-lightsflashing-in-all-reds cover [SS #29 (June 1989)] is still a piece I’m particularly proud of. There’s a great sense of threat and urgency to that piece, and along with all the images on the various video screens, it does what a cover’s supposed to do— makes you wonder what the hell is going on inside the comic!”

DEATH AND AFTERLIFE Sagging sales brought on the end of the Suicide Squad’s first ongoing series. “There comes a point where they say, ‘Well, look, the sales are going down beyond a certain point,’” Ostrander says. Suicide Squad “wasn’t losing money, but they start to tell you that sales aren’t going to come back up again. They certainly weren’t going to invest any promos or ads or special gimmicks to get people to come back. It was basically like, ‘Okay, wrap it up and go on and do something else.’ At some point they decided that the talent could be used better elsewhere on a new #1 or something.” Suicide Squad vol. 1 lasted 66 issues, for five-anda-half years. “I thought that was a pretty good run,” Ostrander says. Ostrander and company didn’t keep the Suicide Squad rooted in the real-world headlines for the entire series. The Squad was involved in battles with the terrorist organization Kobra and a zombie army before ending with the “Rumble in the Jungle” storyline that had the Squad travel to Diabloverde to depose the nigh-invulnerable dictator Guedhe, who had his own version of the Suicide Squad. Waller got one last victory as she tricked Guedhe into committing suicide before disbanding the group for good. Or so it would seem. The Suicide Squad returned on several occasions, first in Superboy #13 (Mar. 1995), written by Karl Kesel, with Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Knockout (a Superboy villain), King Shark, and Sidearm as the new Squad. “I did it in Superboy because I loved the Squad so much and missed the book,” Kesel says. “Initially, there was resistance to doing the story, but afterward, I was told the fan response to it was through the roof. The Squad’s always had a loyal following. I also came this close to killing Captain Boomerang in that story. There was talk about killing him somewhere else, for reasons I don’t remember, and I begged to be allowed to do it. Like in Larry McMurtry’s novel Anything for Billy, about the life and death of Billy the Kid, I wanted Boomerang to be killed by someone who loved him. I wasn’t given the green light, however, and Boomer hung around for a few more years before meeting an untimely end.” 5 4

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That wasn’t the Squad’s last mission, as Bolt, Killer Frost, Copperhead, and Sledge joined Cameron Chase on a mission to South America in Chase #2–3 (Mar.–Apr. 1998). Chase, though, was betrayed by the villains. Next, US President Lex Luthor put together a new band of Suicide Squad villains to battle the alien Imperiex in the “Our Worlds at War” storyline that ran through many of the DC titles in 2001. But when Luthor recruited Doomsday, the villain who killed Superman, the creature wiped out most of the new Squad as soon as he was released from imprisonment. Another version of the Suicide Squad, written by Keith Giffen, had its own ongoing series from November 2001 to October 2002. That Squad starred Bulldozer from the Sgt. Rock series, an imposter of Sgt. Rock who was leading the group, Deadshot, Killer Frost, Major Disaster, and Modem. Others who went on missions with this version of the Suicide Squad were Big Sir, Blackstarr, Bolt, Clock King, Cluemaster, Hawkman, Multi-Man, Power Girl, Reactron, Solomon Grundy, Star Spangled Kid (Courtney Whitmore), and Wildcat. The series wasn’t well received, despite good writing by Giffen and nice art by Paco Medina, plus comic art legends Russ Heath and John Severin, and died an early death with the twelfth issue.

Two incredible Isherwood/Kesel covers (thanks to Geof for the scans!): Deadshots clash on Suicide Squad #51 (Mar. 1991), and Schrek snacks on Nightshade on #57 (Sept. 1991).

The newest version of the Squad first appeared in Checkmate vol. 2 #6 (Nov. 2006) and is, as of this writing, starring in a new, eight-issue miniseries written by Ostrander, with covers by John K. Snyder III. This Squad plays a part in the miniseries Salvation Run, tying into the next major DC event, Final Crisis. Did John Ostrander read the other incarnations of the Squad? “I read all of them,” Ostrander reveals, “and my basic feeling was and remains that I was given open rein to do what I felt was correct, and I salute them for doing the same thing. Everyone else that has used them has done a fine job. “Now, this is how I do it. “What I really am impressed by is the way people have remembered [Ostrander’s Squad] all these years and have said, ‘We want it back. We want Waller back in the Squad.’ So DC is giving it a shot. They’re giving it a shot with me. This sort of grew as it went.” The miniseries Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag, which premiered in late summer 2007, started, according to Ostrander, when DC editor Steve Wacker approached him about a four-issue Squad miniseries as part of the company’s “Year One” projects. “Steve left and it went into limbo, and then it ended up with [editor] Joan Hilty, and then it went to six issues and then to eight,” Ostrander says. “So I took what we’d started with, some of the ideas from that.

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Suicide Squad Spin-Off Karl Kesel’s sketch and finished art for a Mayfair Games Suicide Squad game that tied into their larger DCU role-playing game. Wonder why Aquaman rogue (and step-brother) Ocean Master is shown? “Lord knows why,” says Kesel. “I just drew what I was told.” Contributed by the artist. © 2008 DC Comics.

I felt that if Rick Flag was going to be back, we had to explain how that happened. And then, we’d slowly bring it up to speed and end up with a story that was set in the current DC Universe and then find elements that would link the whole thing together. It gets better as we go. Around about the time we are in the modern DCU, we have some surprises coming. And then the new issues that are out by the end are once again, me working from the stories you see in the news.” A Showcase Presents edition reprinting Suicide Squad #1–18, Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1, Secret Origins #14, and Justice League International #13 was supposed to be released in November 2007, but has been delayed, according to Ostrander. “From what I understand, [DC has] simply reshuffled what they were going to do and the Showcase thing will still appear, but sometime [in 2008],” Ostrander says. “I think Luke’s art in particular works real well in black and white.” Would Ostrander write another Suicide Squad ongoing series? You bet he would! “If they asked me, I would,” Ostrander says. “But right now, that’s not being discussed. Could that change at some point? Yeah, conceivably. But, that’s up to DC. I think they’re going to evaluate sales, fan reactions, and critical reactions. Critical reaction has been pretty good so far. “The Suicide Squad was a unique team. I think [a new ongoing series] definitely has a place to go in the DC Universe. One of the main purposes of it is to show how dangerous these villains are if left to their own devices. On that, I think we’ve always succeeded pretty well. I would love to go back and retell that story of Deadshot’s first appearance [in “The Man Who Replaced Batman” in Batman #59 (June–July 1950)]. I’d love to rewrite that story and play with that origin a little bit. I’d love to retell it with Deadshot as he is now. I’ll try pitching it to them someday and see what they say.” Matewan, WV native MICHAEL BROWNING is an award-winning newspaper editor, writer, and photographer, and is an advisor with The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. He’s contributed to Rolling Stone, BACK ISSUE, Comics Buyer’s Guide, Comic Book Marketplace, Rough Stuff, and Charlton Spotlight, and publishes his own fanzine, Comic Book Issues.

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TM

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They say suicide is painless, and creating this comic-book series certainly fit the category. I had recently experienced my Crisis on Infinite Earths follow-up, Crisis of the Soul (see BACK ISSUE #9), blowing up in my face in late 1985. Around early December, executive editor Dick Giordano told me we were hiring Mike Gold and he was being asked to step into the breach and create a new crossover for the company. He was going to be working with his First Comics colleague John Ostrander, whose Grimjack I liked a lot. Penciling would be John Byrne, already on board with the Superman revamp, and Len Wein, just leaving staff for fulltime freelance, would dialogue. I would interface between Mike and John in Chicago and the rest of DC editorial in New York. One of the goals for the new project, Legends, was to revamp a few key franchises such as a new Justice League of America, in addition to returning the Flash to his own title. But in the post-Crisis DC Universe, it was also a time for new beginnings. Legends was being designed to spin off at least one or two new series in addition to the revamps. I was getting a consolation prize of editing one of the new projects, which I would develop with Johnny O. The interesting thing is, over a year earlier, John and I had already met. I was DC’s sole rep at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, so I was awfully lonely at the booth, especially in the mornings. John and I struck up a conversation that rapidly morphed into a friendship. We got to know one another by phone and this newfangled thing called e-mail. Initially, John wanted to do a revamp of the Challengers of the Unknown, but I had to say no; some newcomer named Jeph Loeb had been given a crack at the team. We talked about the kinds of series he liked and the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. As we chatted, it became apparent we both liked things with an edge to them and to set readers’ expectations on their ear. A theme for Legends was the nature of heroism and the role of government, so we thought that dovetailed nicely with what we had in mind. At the time, DC published books filled with good guys battling bad guys. People who lived in the gray spaces, that moral limbo, didn’t really get a lot of attention at the time (John Constantine didn’t earn his own series until 1988). We wanted to mix things up, taking good guys and bad guys, sending them out together on those suicide missions, a staple in storytelling dating back to the Dirty Dozen if not earlier. Would heroes sink to new depths or would villains rise to the occasion, earning their presidential pardon? Editors were more than happy to offer us recurring bad guys from their titles and later, as we gained popularity, the title got to use bigger guns starting with the Penguin and later Poison Ivy.

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From the Squad’s “Personal Files” This Luke McDonnell cover for Suicide Squad #8 (Dec. 1987) was bumped for a very similar one by Jerry Bingham, so we’re happy to share with you this previously unpublished version. © 2008 DC Comics.

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The Squad’s Co-Conspirators

In picking the heroes to use, we looked on the periphery of the DCU, intending not to use characters that already had their own titles so we could play with them with freedom. John picked a few, like the Bronze Tiger, and I latched on to Nightshade, who needed a place to operate after her acquisition from Charlton Comics. John went about coming up with a series proposal and was naturally finding ways to introduce the characters via the crossover event. While it would fall to Byrne to give us our first look at the Squad, we’d need a series artist. Well, one of the casualties of Legends was the current incarnation of the JLA, so it meant Luke McDonnell was out of work. I liked Luke’s stuff dating back to his days on Iron Man and figured he’d bring a nice sense of action and mood to the event. Luke liked what he heard and signed on. Once he received John’s series bible, he began designing the unique elements for the team. Now we needed an inker. Karl Kesel, probably the best talent to come out of New Talent Showcase, was inking Legends and was frequently in the DC offices. He heard about what we were planning and got very excited, more or less volunteering to ink the new series. Speaking of volunteering, ace letterer Todd Klein completed our logo (working from Karl Kesel’s design) and also liked what we had in mind and let me know he’d be happy to letter the project. Rounding out the team was colorist Carl Gafford, who brought his vast knowledge of the DC Universe to the pages. While John and I fleshed things out including the supporting cast at Belle Reve and Sheba the attack helicopter, Karl began writing his own ideas. Over the next few months we would receive long, handwritten, enthusiastic letters which John called “Kesel Epistles.” He was brimming with ideas for characters to use, what to do with the characters already chosen, places they should have missions, and everything else under the sun. From Karl’s ideas spawned the entire Lashina storyline that kept the Apokoliptian connection that started with Legends. He was certainly not “just” the inker. Sadly, his commitment to Superman had to take priority and after a mere three issues, he bowed out, but his influence lasted for years. Marketing came up with the idea that we bridged from Legends to Suicide Squad #1 by doing an issue of Secret Origins that explored the background and started some threads. As this was all coming together, we needed a cover done for marketing. Fortunately, around that time Howard Chaykin was looking to do

Writer John Ostrander, seen in a 1988 photo from the defunct fan-mag Comics Scene, and original penciler Luke McDonnell, in a photo sent to us by Luke himself!

© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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McDonnell’s a Marvel! Luke McDonnell’s work on Iron Man (like this splash to issue #151, inked by Bob Layton) caught Suicide Squad editor Greenberger’s eye. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

covers in addition to his fresh take on The Shadow. He sat in Andy Helfer’s office and did the cover in just a few hours, later presenting me with the original as a gift. When the book debuted, it was well reviewed and well received. It sold moderately well but unlike many of the launches around that time, it struck a chord with the readership. It has remained an enduring concept with longtime readers and has been revived time and again, the latest once more under Johnny O’s stewardship. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a forthcoming volume of Showcase Presents bring back the first year and a half or so of the series so people can see what the fuss was all about. I edited a large number of titles during my time in editorial, and the Squad remains one of the highlights where everything worked right, from concept to execution and then managing to sustain it. John, Luke, and Karl delivered more than any editor could have asked for. ROBERT GREENBERGER has been working in the comics field for nearly thirty years, beginning with the creation of Comics Scene magazine, and then with two stints at DC Comics and one year at Marvel Comics. He’s currently a freelance writer and editor based in Connecticut.


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Scorpion’s Sting Oh, the humanity! This amazing Chaykin cover to The Scorpion #2 went unpublished! At least we can enjoy it here, thanks to art collector Jeff Singh’s generosity. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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In 1974, a new comics company, called Atlas Comics, was launched into the expanding market. Although short-lived, the events and conditions surrounding the company are still both glorified and vilified today by writers, historians, and collectors. Because of the people behind the creation of Atlas Comics, the roots of the long-defunct company will always be entwined with the early history of comic-book powerhouse Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman sold Marvel to a new firm in 1968, and left his management position within Marvel in 1972. By 1974, Goodman had started a new operation called Seaboard Periodicals, which published a new line of comic books called Atlas Comics. These events made Goodman look like a smart businessman for many reasons. Primarily the big stroke of genius was that Atlas already had built-in name recognition. Prior to being known as Marvel Comics, Goodman’s original venture was known as “Atlas Comics.” Goodman still retained the legal rights to the Atlas name after the publisher made the change over to Marvel Comics in 1961, seven years before Goodman sold the company. Another wise tactic employed by Goodman at the time was to produce a number of comic-book series that were seen as imitations of successful Marvel characters. In order to produce these books, the new Atlas Comics was offering better payment rates to the established artists that were currently working for Marvel and DC. This led a number of creators to switch over to Atlas, thereby giving fans one more reason to check out these new superhero comics being done by some of their favorite artists. Although Goodman was able to pique the interest of some readers, fans proved to be loyal to the more established and popular characters at Marvel and DC. This choice by the comic-buying public led to low sales at Atlas, and the comic line crumbled after roughly only a year in business. In the decades since, these comics have become known as Atlas/Seaboard comics, to differentiate them from the pre-Marvel Atlas of the ’50s. These comics have caught the imagination of a number of collectors worldwide. The back issues have become attractive to collectors because they present an opportunity to look into the past and see the early work of some of today’s favorite artists, and also easily and affordably collect an entire set. None of the series lasted more than four issues, and most issues trade on today’s collectible market at roughly half the cover price of a new comic book found in specialty stores or on newsstands. This makes them highly affordable and collectible. Over time, the subject of these Atlas/Seaboard Comics has not only caught the interest of collectors, but many historians and writers. Some recollections have painted Goodman’s actions as an attempt at revenge or spite against his former company. Others have envisioned the defunct publisher in the opposite way, as a pioneer in the arena of creator’s rights. In my time I have been a collector of Atlas Comics, read a number of pieces about them, and written a number of pieces through my own research. One of the most popular series published by Atlas/Seaboard, and indeed the most original of its titles, was called The Scorpion. The Scorpion was created by a young Howard Chaykin, who’d been working in the comics industry for just a couple of years at the time. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity be able to talk to Mr. Chaykin via telephone and speak to him about his experiences with the Atlas Comics of the 1970s in an attempt to set the record straight. In the process I discovered that the truth about the company may not be heroic or villainous, but somewhere in between. – Mike Gagnon

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Beginnings: Assisting Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Gray Morrow, and Neal Adams

Milestones: “Iron Wolf” in Weird Worlds / Sword of Sorcery / “Cody Starbuck” / The Scorpion / Star Wars / miscellaneous Batman projects / American Flagg / Black Kiss / The Shadow / Blackhawk / The Flash TV series / American Century / Mighty Love / Challengers of the Unknown / City of Tomorrow / Hawkgirl / Blade / Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage / Punisher #50 /

Works in Progress:

Double Vision?

Wolverine / Batman and Catwoman in The Brave and the Bold / Phantom Eagle, with Garth Ennis (Marvel Comics)

Atlas editor Larry Lieber, as caricatured in the line’s publications and in a photo.

Howard chaykin Photo credit: Scott Kent.

MIKE GAGNON: Thanks for your time and being able to discuss Atlas Comics. HOWARD CHAYKIN: No problem. GAGNON: Is it true that there was pressure from the management of Atlas Comics to produce Marvel-style characters, or perhaps rip-offs of Marvel characters? CHAYKIN: There might have been; but I was never aware of it. That pressure never came to me. GAGNON: So you were never pressured in your work? CHAYKIN: You have to remember, in those days, I was never “one of those guys” [known for superhero material]. So no, I never felt any of that pressure. It never came down on my shoulders. GAGNON: At one point Martin Goodman hired Larry Lieber, Stan Lee’s brother, to be head editor of Atlas. Did you ever have any experiences dealing with Larry? CHAYKIN: I never dealt with Larry, I barely ever spoke to him. I didn’t ever really know him. My guy was Jeff Rovin. I mean, let’s face it, Martin was Larry’s uncle, which is one reason why Larry got the job. GAGNON: Is it true that you walked away from your Atlas series The Scorpion? If so, why? CHAYKIN: Yes. I walked away because I was running late. I was very behind on the book. What I had no idea about at the time was that someone in the [Atlas] office told Alex Toth that I was no longer on the book, and that he had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with it. Ultimately what was published as The Vanguard, an Alex Toth strip that you may remember, was supposed to have been published as a Scorpion story. As I recall, I think Larry came in and did a couple issues and turned the series into a Spider-Man imitation before it was canceled. And that was that.

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GAGNON: What, if any, were your personal experiences with Atlas publisher Martin Goodman? CHAYKIN: I’ve never met Martin in my life. Let’s face it, there’s very little reason for the publisher to interact with the talent, that’s what editors are for. When you work in comics you don’t deal with a publisher, you deal with an editor. The jobs are two completely different functions. A publisher has very little interest or reason to handle matters that concern the creators. They have other day-to-day matters that they handle. GAGNON: Were you a fan of the original Atlas comics? CHAYKIN: I was unaware of them. I’m not that old. [laughs] GAGNON: Neither am I. [laughs] CHAYKIN: Atlas was Marvel Comics, right? Before it was called Marvel? GAGNON: Yes… CHAYKIN: I was shown a lot of that stuff later on. A lot of the guys from EC ended up at Atlas Comics. The legend was that Atlas Comics was the best publisher after EC [closed shop], because a lot of them went there. A lot of the legends that I admired were there: Alex Toth, [John] Severin, Ed Davis. GAGNON: Did you feel enticed or wooed into working for Atlas Comics, perhaps over working for other companies? CHAYKIN: They were offering fairly high rates for the time. Again, we’re talking 30 years ago? I’m just going by memory, but from what I recall they were offering high rates, comparatively speaking, and paid as on time as any of the other companies. Comics have always been a fairly fast turnaround. In any other graphic art, you’re looking at at least a 30-day turnaround, more often 60 to 90 days. In comics it’s more like two weeks. What Atlas really did was to serve the purpose of raising the rates paid in comics across the board, across the industry. Which was good for the creators at that time. Nobody had any idea how long it was going to last, but we didn’t think of it in that way, in those terms. GAGNON: Is it true that Atlas was a pioneer in creator’s rights? CHAYKIN: I don’t remember that. I’m not even sure what that means. GAGNON: Like offering things like ownership of your creations and things like that? CHAYKIN: I don’t own anything I created for them.


House of Borrowed Ideas The Brute was Atlas’ alternative to the Incredible Hulk. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions, seen here is page 24 of The Brute #1 (Feb. 1975), penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Pablo Marcos. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

GAGNON: It’s been said by other writers and historians that the talent at Atlas was discouraged from working for other companies. Did you ever have an experience like this? CHAYKIN: No. I don’t read a lot of that material. What’s been said? GAGNON: Several articles written over the years have stated that Martin Goodman threatened to blacklist any creators who worked for any other comic publisher. CHAYKIN: I never heard any of that. It’s funny that that’s been said. They had their problems, but that was never one of them. Other people may have heard of that at the time, but I certainly didn’t. GAGNON: What was your process or motivation for creating the Scorpion? CHAYKIN: They said they wanted a book called The Scorpion. Bottom line. I mean, there’s no need to complicate it beyond that. I think they wanted their own version of The Shadow, and that’s not what I came in with, I came in with something else, but I think it was something that we were both happy with. That was my process. GAGNON: What did you think of the new Scorpion and the changes made to the series after you left? CHAYKIN: I didn’t have an opinion on the second Scorpion. As far as I remember, it was a guy in a blue suit. I didn’t own the material. I can’t blame them. They decided to do a more commercial-looking book, and, God love ’em, go with that. I wasn’t there anymore and my feeling is, if I’m not there I’m no one to bitch. I didn’t have an opinion then, I certainly couldn’t give a sh*t now. GAGNON: That’s a refreshing outlook. [laughs] CHAYKIN: Why do you say that? GAGNON: Because a lot of times you hear and read about creators who don’t like what has been done with characters after they are gone, or don’t like changes made to stories. Sometimes people will just say they could have done better… CHAYKIN: Well, those people don’t get out enough. GAGNON: Is it true that you had some help from Bernie Wrightson for issue #2 of The Scorpion?

What Goes Around… Chaykin’s hard-hitting Scorpion on issue #1’s cover (Feb. 1975); Atlas’ Spider-Man redo of the hero on issue #3’s cover (July 1975); and Howard’s return to the concept with his Marvel character Dominic Fortune, whose appearances included Marvel Premiere #56 (Oct. 1980). Scorpion © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas. Dominic Fortune and Marvel Premiere © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Atlas Comics Checklist All titles were published in 1975. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

Barbarians featuring Iron Jaw #1 Blazing Battle Tales featuring Sgt. Hawk #1 The Brute #1–3 The Cougar #1–2 Demon Hunter #1 The Destructor #1–4 Devlina (B&W magazine) #1–2 Fright featuring Son of Dracula #1 The Grim Ghost #1–3 Hands of the Dragon #1 Iron Jaw #1–4 Morlock 2001 #1–3 Phoenix #1–4 Planet of Vampires #1–3 Police Action featuring Lomax N.Y.P.D. and Luke Malone, Manhunter #1–3 Savage Combat Tales featuring Sgt. Stryker’s Death Squad #1–3 The Scorpion #1–3 Tales of Evil (anthology; characters included Bog-Beast and Man-Monster) #1–3 Targitt #1–3 Thrilling Adventure Stories (B&W magazine) #1–2 Tiger-Man #1–3 Vicki #1–4 Weird Suspense featuring the Tarantula #1–3 Weird Tales of Macabre (B&W magazine) #1–2 Western Action featuring Kid Cody, Gunfighter and the Comanche Kid #1 Wulf the Barbarian #1–4

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Who Is This Masked Man? This Larry Lieber-sketched Zorro clone was revealed in The Comic Reader #110 (Sept. 1974) in an announcement about the then-forthcoming Atlas/Seaboard line. This isn’t Kid Cody and it sure ain’t the Comanche Kid… can anyone identify this character? Courtesy of Al Bigley. © 1974 Seaboard/Atlas.

CHAYKIN: Well, we were so late that I called everyone I knew. Wrightson, Davis, Kaluta, Simonson all helped out. I think Milgrom did a couple pages. I was living in the same building as Wrightson, Milgrom, and Simonson at the time. I was pals with Ed Davis and Kaluta, too. We all just pitched in a page here and a page there. It was a group effort. GAGNON: How did your character of Dominic Fortune (inspired by the Scorpion) come about at Marvel? CHAYKIN: It was after I was either fired or walked out of Atlas, I can’t remember which. I just walked across the street and said “Would you like to do this here?” Marvel and Atlas were cattycornered at the time. Atlas was on 57th Street and Marvel was on Madison, just off of 57th. They were like a block and a half apart. GAGNON: Was your experience at Marvel better than your experience at Atlas? CHAYKIN: Yes. You have to remember that the primary function of Atlas was to raise the rates that freelancers were getting paid in the comic industry. To that extent it served its purpose, but that was its only real function. GAGNON: Who owns Dominic Fortune? CHAYKIN: Marvel does. GAGNON: Well, I think I’m all out of questions. Thank you very much for your time and it’s been a pleasure speaking with you. CHAYKIN: You’re welcome, any time. MIKE GAGNON is a freelance writer and content provider based in Ontario, Canada. You can find more on his work at www.mikeggagnon.ca.

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Don McGregor does everything with a passion. Creates, writes, talks, I’ll bet he even sits passionately. One of his biggest passions, his loves, is his characters. Black Panther, Killraven, Saber, Ragamuffins, and detectives Nathaniel Dusk, Ted Denning, and Bob Rainier. It’s those last few we talk of here: Nathaniel Dusk, McGregor’s ’30s hard-boiled dick he did for DC Comics; and Detectives Inc., a series that goes back to before Don’s first job writing horror stories for Archie Goodwin and Jim Warren, and to one of his oldest passions. “I created Bob Rainer and Ted Denning (of Detectives Inc.) for me and Alex Simmons to play,” McGregor reveals. “I got a camera from my dad and we were filming ourselves as these characters. We would be our own stunt men, using real knives! Alex would take a swing at me with an axe, I’d duck… we thought that’s how they did it! What did we know?” Don and Alex took the characters and made their own photocopied comic, with Don scripting and Alex drawing, staying up into the wee hours to staple the Pepto-Bismol-color covers on the package to hand out the next day at the New York Con. It was 1969. To find out where Detectives Inc. landed, we’ll have to skip forward a few years, past the job Don got at Warren Publishing by insulting Jim Warren (great story—sorry, another time), over his memorable run at Marvel with Black Panther (in Jungle Action) and Killraven (in Amazing Adventures), to Eclipse Comics and Dean Mullaney. After leaving Marvel, Don was invited by Dean to be part of the Eclipse lineup. Don wanted to try something new, but wasn’t sure if his audience would be there. His series Ragamuffins, following a group of kids in the ’50s, was near and dear to his heart, but he didn’t think it should be the first thing he tried: “The business has a very short memory. They knew me at first as a horror writer, from my Warren stuff, and now as a heroic fantasy writer. I wanted to do something that had some kind a chance for a market…”

Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

Crisis on Earth-Noir The Gene Colan/Dick Giordano cover art to Don McGregor’s Nathaniel Dusk: Lovers Die at Dusk #1 (Feb. 1984), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Updated for the ’80s (gone were the references to campus unrest—remember when that was big?), it still retained many scenes from the original (such as a scene between Bob and his ex-wife, which many have attributed to Don’s then-recent divorce) and, of course, Bob and Ted themselves. The artist was the late Marshall Rogers. Don…? “[Marshall] had architect training, and he captured the buildings perfectly. “I ran into him at the last New York con we were at together. What he did with the art was amazing, wonderful. He took the time and effort to get it right… I was glad I got the opportunity before he was taken away to tell him, it meant an awful lot to me.” In A Remembrance of Threatening Green, you feel Don throwing off the shackles of the mainstream comics, the fights with Marvel over why there were not enough white people in Panther, over knocking out the color of an interracial kiss in Killraven, and the fact that Taku and Venomm suffered the love © 1969, 1987, 2000 Don McGregor. that dared not speak its name. There was none of that in Detectives Inc.—Threatening Green featured the first lesbian characters (and sex scenes) in above-ground comics (even cited by the Gay League Comics Timeline as such). It was one of the earliest graphic novels, and with the format and subject matter, broke new ground for comics. Be sure you read the sequence with Rainier talking to his young lesbian client. As she bares her soul about her murdered lover, Bob starts to fantasize about her lifestyle, which leads him into fantasies about his ex-wife. He comes out it and realizes she’s reached the end of her story, and he didn’t hear any of it. She asks what he thinks. He’s caught, and he, embarrassed, has to admit he didn’t catch it all. It’s a true human moment, and Marshall Rogers’ art visualizes it well. With the success of the first series, Don and artist Gene Colan launched the second Detectives Inc. book, A Terror of Dying Dreams, in which Bob and Ted—and Don and Gene—broke new comics ground again. The story had originally been written as a movie, also directed by Don, taking the characters back to their roots. Alex Simmons played his part of Ted, but this time Don stayed behind the camera. The movie has been a hit with Don’s and Detectives Inc.’s passionate fans. Both graphic novels were reissued by Image a few years ago (not the movie, though— you’ll have to pester Don about seeing it, but there is a nice trailer up on his site) and are still available.

Marshall’s Law (below) Texture, as well as raindrops, saturate this amazing Marshall Rogers title page from McGregor’s Detectives Inc. graphic novel. (circular inset) Detectives Bob and Ted. © 1969, 1987, 2000 Don McGregor.

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© 1969, 1987, 2000 Don McGregor.

Don created Saber, a black Errol Flynn-type character, with art by friend and former Panther collaborator Billy Graham. After the success of that series, he felt the market was ready for the series he’d wanted to do for ten years, Detectives Inc. The series featured two P.I.s—Ted Denning and Bob Rainer— one black, one white, and both closer than brothers. They worked the streets, taking cases and helping those who could find help nowhere else. Ted and Bob weren’t the only characters: “New York was always meant to be a character in the series. I used real locations, we took reference photos of everything.” The first story was the one that Don and Alex Simmons had told back in the ’60s, handing it out to pros on the con panels to read while they sat and waited for their chance to speak: Detectives Inc.: Remembrance of Threatening Green.


NATHANIEL DUSK Not so with Don’s other detective (actually, he has several, but we’ll just focus on these): Nathaniel Dusk. You’ll have to hunt for him in convention bins or online sales until DC gets around to a collection. How did this one come about? Don…? “Well, that’s… I’ll have to tell you another story first.” Life is complicated. “I was looking for a name for a different character, Alex Risk, that I did for Fantasy Illustrated. He was sort of a Nick Charles/Philo Vance sort, and I had three names: Risk, Edge, and Dusk. Edge wasn’t right, and Nathaniel Dusk wasn’t strong enough for the character. Dusk—always nightfall, was always dark, nothing clear...” If Alexander Risk was a Hammett/Vance riff, upper-class detective, then Dusk was what his name implied: dark and all Raymond Chandler. Set in 1930s New York, Dusk was a WWI vet who walked the mean streets, looking out for the least among us, because who else in his world would? Why P.I.s, Don…? “The P.I. travels every strata of society, always in the truth of the moment, [and] always knows the right thing to do.” Even if doing the right thing costs him everything. What was it Chandler said about Phillip Marlowe? “Down these mean streets a man must go.” The first Dusk miniseries was published in 1983. Lovers Die at Dusk had Nathan searching for the killer of his lover, the person who orphaned her two small children. Dusk spends the four issues in various states of rage, from slow simmer to full blown. Don even dials back some of his purple style to better fit the genre. The art is by Gene Colan, and printed from his tight, dark pencils. The color is washed out to better show the art, but gives it a sort of ’30s color-film look that enhances the series. The series is loaded with period research and details, featuring the 1934 taxi strike, NY locations both still standing and long gone, and Don doing nice hard-boiled prose.

Two years later, DC published Apple Peddlers Die at Noon, reuniting Don and Gene with Nathaniel Dusk. This time Dusk is hired to protect an apple peddler who’s getting death threats. But who would want an old street peddler dead? The series is again printed from Colan’s pencils, looking even better than the last series. McGregor again shows his obsessive research by throwing in the actual weather from 1934; a dead horse in Times Square, Luna Park; and the Fourth of July fireworks display over Harlem. This second series is one of Don’s favorites. A planned third Nathaniel Dusk series, Hookers Die at Midnight, was never to be, nor was the suggestion of using Nathaniel for a series of prose stories. But what now? Any new detectives in the pipeline, Don…? “I’m about 80 pages into a new Detectives Inc. graphic novel, A Fear of Perverse Photos.” This story will deal with sexual histories, and the impact of past behavior on the present. Commissioned by Desperado Comics, it’ll feature art by Craig Hamilton. Ted and Bob are back, still trying to deal with life, their jobs, and the intersections thereof, older in wisdom but not in years. Down those mean streets a man, and his lifelong friend, will go again.

Trench Coat and Tobacco… …nothing says “hardboiled” like that combo. Gene Colan illos of Don McGregor’s Nathaniel Dusk, from (left) issue #1 of his first series and (above) Who’s Who #16 (June 1986). © 2008 DC Comics.

Thanks to Don McGregor. You can find more at donmcgregor.com. Tell ’im BACK ISSUE sent ya. TOM “The Comics Savant” STEWART, star of stage and reader of moldy old comics, is a regular contributor to BACK ISSUE, as well as other TwoMorrows publications. He has a top-secret project in the works that we’ll gladly tell you about whenever we’re allowed.

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Now how ya gonna have a “Tough Guys” issue without including the pop-culture icon who is the epitome of tough—with a capital “T”! I’m talkin’ about that mohawk-sportin’, weird-bearded, gold chain-wearin’, fool-pityin’, ass-kickin’-without-name-takin’ bad dude! I’m talkin’ Mr. T, sucka! Even back in the day, Mr. T was a mystery. A celebrity oddity. He dressed like a rapper but he didn’t rap. He was from our planet and yet, as out there as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He was definitely different. Well, here we are, 25 years on from when T (Laurence Tureaud on his birth certificate) hit superstardom. But before you count out the erstwhile “Bad Ass” Baracus and one-time Clubber Lang, you better make time for this jibba-jabba, punk! See, Mr. T is not merely an enduring ’80s TV icon back with a reality show… he’s also an enduring comic-book presence who has toplined various comic-book series in the ’80s, ’90s, and, yes, as recently as 2006!

THE 1980s: SOME T & A-TEAM You might say the British really enjoy their “T” time. The enigmatic African-American character actor known as Mr. T—best remembered for his early ’80s roles in The A-Team and Rocky III—enjoyed his first foray in comics as part of an A-Team feature that ran in the English children’s magazine Look-In. Soon after came Marvel Comics’ (mercifully) short-lived The A-Team (Mar.–May 1984), lasting three issues. While Mr. T was not the star of the book, he was definitely the star attraction, functioning like he did on the hit NBC series (1983–1986) that inspired it. Across 98 episodes of the Stephen J. Cannell-produced TV action-adventure, The A-Team followed the exploits of a special unit of ex-military soldiers— framed for a crime that they did not commit; forced to go underground as mercenary heroes for hire. Mr. T was the colorful sidekick character that stole the show with his gruff attitude, eccentric appearance and irascible one-liners… much as the Fonz usurped Happy Days or Vin Diesel hijacked The Fast and the Furious from their respective ensemble casts. Naturally, Marvel’s A-Team capitalized on its popular source material; its lead characters drawn as dead ringers for their TV inspirations—Col. John “Hannibal” Smith (played by George Peppard), Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Dirk Benedict), Capt. “Howling Mad” Murdock (Dwight Schultz), Amy “Triple A” Amanda (Melinda Culea), and Sgt. Bosco Albert “B.A.” Baracus (our man T!). These characters look a tad too self-conscious of their television counterparts (you can picture the artists drawing while eyeing taped-up publicity photos). The ostensible plots of these selfcontained adventures involve the A-Team on missions to stop a friend of Baracus gone traitor (#1); to rescue 6 6

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I Got Ya Power Ring Right Here, Fool! Mr. T and the T Force #1 (June 1993), by legendary Green Lantern artist Neal Adams. © 2008 the respective copyright holder.

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THE 1990s: BACK IN FULL FORCE By 1990, Mr. T’s star was fading fast. NBC had canceled The A-Team. Rocky IV had come and gone without a Clubber to clobber. No studio in Hollywood was fast-tracking D.C. Cab 2. But 1993–1994 saw Mr. T’s grand return to la bande dessinée with Mr. T and the T-Force, published by Now Comics (the company behind Speed Racer, Married… with Children, and other comics based on licensed properties). This may be a completely subjective reflection of my own personal “T-ology,” but T-Force appears to be the most realized of all Mr. T comics. Sure, T is credited as the “star, creative director.” But T-Force delivered top-tier talent, and, despite its contrivances, packed solid visual punches and light, fun storylines. Contrary to what one might expect, Mr. T operated less like a mohawked Luke Cage and more like a hood Shadow. The sincere (if hokey) premise involved Mr. T saving misguided ghetto teens—one kid at a time—by making them part of his team following his confrontations with them. In each issue, after tangling with the criminal element, T would find at least one diamond-inthe-rough (not an evil kid, just a lad led astray) and slap a house arrest-type wrist device on him that would work as a tracer and a communicator between T and the teen. (This confining electronic bracelet seems dubious in light of T’s oftrepeated declaration that his own gold chains symbolized a reminder of the slavery that African Americans had struggled to overcome). Soon, T amassed a “B-team”—reformed gangstas, taggers, and Janie, a clinic nurse with her ear to the streets—to help him combat crime. Part of T’s appeal has always been his vulnerable side; his concern for kids and his community. T-Force delivered on its simple T-driven mandate of providing a message of hope

to inner-city youth struggling to stay clear of the influence of gangs, crime and drugs. T-Force’s letters column, “T-Time,” was filled with missives from young readers such as a struggling teen father who found inspiration in T’s self-affirming series. Emphasizing positivism, community, and self-empowerment in the face of adversity, T-Force stressed that violence was not the solution… even as the T-Force kicked serious thug ass! Mr. T ran around shooting bad guys—with a video camera—to non-violently deliver the incriminating footage needed to put them away. Master artist Neal Adams crafted the initial two issues (with Pete Stone), which boasted the “Adams Lite” art associated with his Continuity Studios work. Adams forcibly set the tone for the series, which “mélanged” Mr. T’s hardcore alpha personality with tender vulnerability. An entire splash page is devoted to Mr. T weeping over a crack baby. That pretty much sums things up. In #2, after the towering Incan villain (a patsy for a drug cartel) assaults Mr. T with a flurry of crack-filled hypodermic needles, a hallucinatory T puts his will power to the test as he must mentally overcome the vial’s vile effects. The sequence gives Adams a clever excuse to pit T against some fantastic and imaginative (if imagined…) Alien-esque creatures.

© 2008 the respective copyright holder.

a pair of kidnapped Japanese brothers (#2); and to retrieve a stolen jet (#3). The art—by Marie Severin, Jim Mooney, and Alan Kupperberg, respectively—was flat. Nobody’s heart seemed invested in this slapdash licensed property, accelerating the comic’s demise. Yet the title had a few charms. The awkward caricatures echo those ’70s cameo-laden Hanna-Barbara cartoons (i.e., The New Scooby-Doo Movies, guest-starring Don Knotts, Sonny and Cher, etc.). There’s something entertaining about T’s recurring catch phrases and flying phobia. It’s almost comical (pun intended) how the spectacularly unfunny Murdock’s “out there” antics and “insane” non-sequiturs fall flat (remember, he was the loony tunes A-Teamer…). With #3, A-Team folded. But it would not be the last time Mr. T would grace a comic book. One thing would change: In every subsequent comic-book series, Mr. T would get top billing.

A-Team from the Makers of X-Men Detail from the cover art to Marvel’s A-Team #1 (Mar. 1984), penciled by John Romita, Sr. and inked by Marie Severin. A-Team TM & © Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

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Norm Breyfogle took over art duties with two of the series’ best installments (#3–4), in which T tackles callous crime lords Gladstone and the runt-ish Mr. Big, taking the battle from the ghetto—where the villains perpetrate their destructive schemes—to the cushy suburbs they retreat to. When asked by BACK ISSUE how he landed his T-Force gig, Breyfogle responds, “Ask Mike Friedrich; he was my agent at the time.” So we did. Friedrich (yes, the very Mike Friedrich whose funky writing style enlivened such ’70s titles as Captain America and the Falcon and Strange Tales featuring the Golem) tells BACK ISSUE, “Tony Caputo, the publisher of Now Comics, called and asked if Norm was available. He told me that they were planning to launch the series with art by Neal Adams, and Tony said he thought Norm would be an appropriate high-profile follow-on. “I remember Norm got a lot of money compared to DC Comics or Malibu Comics, in part because there was a tight deadline he agreed to meet, even though he had prior commitments. He didn’t sleep much those couple of months.”

Tough T’s Tears Softie-at-heart T rescues a crack baby in Mr. T and the T Force #1. Art by Neal Adams and Continuity Studios. © 2008 the respective copyright holder.

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“I originally turned them down because I was busy,” adds Breyfogle, “but they eventually made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I ended up cramming it into my schedule… the only thing that I can recall off-hand continuity-wise from the Adams-drawn issues was the video camera that Mr. T carried.” Visually, T-Force lost its “Continuity” beginning with #5, drawn by beloved Jonah Hex artist Tony DeZuniga, whose art strays from the initial presentation. But if the series lost some stylistic singularity, it wasn’t because Breyfogle quit. “A limited commitment is all they wanted,” Norm notes. DeZuniga (#5–6) has fun with the book’s look, employing playful, sketchy, expressive drawings. Deathlok creator Rich Buckler and his Visage Studios (#9–10), inking penciler Todd Fox, create a cheesy-cool ’80s superhero book throwback reminiscent of early Bill Sienkiewicz. In T-Force #9, Mr. T tackles black organized crime heavy Eddie Blades, “one of Clarence’s boys,” at a Neighborhood Pride Day street fair. When Blades turns up dead by #10, T is framed for the murder, and Clarence (“No last name. On the streets that name means power—and fear!”) sics his boys after T in an ’80s action-movie potboiler replete with speeding subways, samurai thugs, and exploding building theatrics worthy of Die Hard. Robert Stofega and Aubrey Singer wrote this two-parter. T-Force’s writers were no less an abundance of riches: Nexus scribe Mike Baron (#3–6) and the Batman books’ superstar Chuck Dixon (#7–8). Solid cover art adorned nearly every issue. Dave Dorman’s richly painted cover (#3) is a stunner worthy of those early ’70s Marvel mags. Norm Breyfogle’s dark pastels (#4–5, 7) capture Mr. T as American icon, busting through bricks Hero for Hire-style, even fending off ninjas à la Frank Miller’s Daredevil. Jason Palmer’s Drew Struzan-esque montage graces #9. Adams contributed fun covers (#1–2), as did Buckler (#10). Some T-Forcers even hung out with the Big T. “I met Mr. T at either the San Diego [ComicCon] or the Wonder Con in the year [I worked] on the book,” recounts Breyfogle. “He was in front of his fans so I merely shook his hand and went my way. He was enthusiastic in his Mr. T sort of way (you know what I mean!).” “I remember meeting with T in Chicago,” says Baron, who scripted Breyfogle’s issues and collaborated with DeZuniga on a rigged boxing-match saga. “They flew me down from Madison, picked me up in a limo, and delivered me to an office park somewhere in the ’burbs,” where Baron met with T and Caputo. Despite T’s self-professed lack of childhood interest in comics (as revealed in a T-Force #3 interview), Baron remembers Mr. T as a pervicacious creative consultant: “T was adamant that the comics be wholesome and uplifting. I remember staring in awe at his jewelry. I sketched the brooch he was wearing, life-sized, in my diary.” BACK ISSUE contributor Jerry Boyd remembers the atmosphere surrounding T-Force’s release at Philadelphia’s ComicFest in October 1993: “Mr. T was posing for pictures,” recalls Boyd, “signing the new comics. It was a Saturday afternoon, and as the day wound down, T was visibly tired. He'd been lifting up small kids and holding them for happy parents to take snapshots of them together.” A half hour before the con’s end, T's aide announced that his obligatory signing time had ended.


“The parents and kids heard this and softly moaned in disappointment,” continues Boyd. “Mr. T heard their moans, and quickly scanned their small, sad faces. He said, ‘No, I'm stayin’ as long as there are kids and people in line to see me. I pity the fool that walks out on their fans!’ He beamed an infectious grin, gleefully lifting up another youngster for a picture. Everyone seemed to stand a little straighter, energized by the star. Now I understood his appeal. He was a tough guy and a goodhearted, upstanding person as well. “Neal Adams, who was sitting there, grinned also, and said to the folks standing nearby, ‘See, that's one of the reasons I love this guy!’”

21st CENTURY T: “THE TOUGH GUY WHO LOVED ME,” STERANKO-STYLE! “I met Chris Bunting in San Diego three years ago,” Randy Emberlin informs BACK ISSUE. “I had been doing my artist’s alley table. He said that there was a project that he would contact me on. Then I got an e-mail out of the blue.” In May 2005, Mr. T #1 appeared, courtesy of British publisher APComics, written by Bunting with art by Neil Edwards and Emberlin, and colors by Don Mackinnon. Veteran embellisher Emberlin believes that Bunting had sought him out because “I had done my hard time at Marvel.” Working from reference photos of the eponymous celebrity provided by the publisher, Emberlin enjoyed collaborating with his “T”-mates: “[Bunting] seemed like a real straight guy from England. I would work with [Edwards] again. He’s got an interesting style that I think we can use in comics.” Emberlin does a fantastic job of translating Edwards’ heavy contour, cartoony pencils into a ghetto gothic. Mr. T #1’s cover depicts a two-fisted T backed by a pair of fighting colleagues, including an Asian gal. But the sidekick-free story prologues a multi-issue story arc with a Morgan Freeman-esque doctor trying to lure Mr. T (who spends most of the book lurking in the shadows of an abandoned tenement) out of seclusion to take down the Shaz-8 gang. The climactic splash shows an extreme closeup of a snarling T with fists raised, ready for action. Mr. T is back! Emberlin knows that APComics “wanted to depart from all the previous Mr. T comics. [Mr. T] apparently had creative control and the final word on it. He wanted to make sure his persona was handled properly. [Mr. T’s agent] is the one who procured this assignment. I think [Bunting] talked to Mr. T. He’s the one who really had this connection, not these companies. “Karl Kesel lives here in Portland; he helped me out, printing out in blueline from a JPEG or a TIFF file,” adds the Oregon-based inker, who admits that Mr. T had problems with its production quality. But he has high hopes for a rumored trade-paperback collection. “The stories weren’t bad,” Emberlin says. “He’s assembling a cast of supporting characters… like a Doc Savage book. It was fun.” The first issue had variant covers, including one featuring T in a Santa hat (“It’s a hoot,” says Emberlin). APComics produced four issues of a six-issue arc, but only released two issues. Bunting prematurely took the property away from APComics and restarted with the Florida-based Mig.Biz. When reached via e-mail, Bunting told BACK ISSUE that he was contractually obliged not to talk about Mr. T. Despite the ’80s superstar’s “creative supervisor” role on T-Force, Emberlin did not meet the titular T. “I was hoping to,” he adds. “That was planned for the release at San Diego [Comic-Con International] 2005. We were expecting to see him. Apparently there was something that was attempted. Mr. T wanted a limo and they said they were going to provide transportation to drive him to San Diego. But it didn’t happen… I was at the APComics table signing sketches and people were coming over looking for Mr. T.” [BACK ISSUE also tried to reach Mr. T for this article. His agent did not return calls before press time.]

Reality T-Vee Norm Breyfogle took a little T time to draw Now Comics’ Mr. T and the T Force. © 2008 the respective copyright holder.

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“I Pity the Undead Fool…!” Denver-based cartoonist Stan Yan, artist on Ape Entertainment’s SubCulture, launched his Celebrity Zombicatures in 2007 with this monster “T”-ribute. Find this and more zombified celebs at www.squidworks.com/Zombicatures. Dr. Doom, Dexter’s Lab, Teen Titans, Gumby, and the Hulk. T takers outside of cartoons included the Spice Girls, AC/DC, Weezer, Halo 2, Osama bin Laden, Bill O’Reilly, John Wilkes Booth, Kathie Lee Gifford, even Stephen J. Cannell. Mr. T vs. Everything also went flash animation (www.newgrounds.com/collection/mrt.html).

STILL A HATER? TOUGH TURKEY!

SOMETHING OF A T-NOMENON

© 2008 the respective copyright holder.

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Still not convinced that Mr. T and the medium are tight? T’s career in comics is not merely limited to comic books. He’s an online comic-strip pioneer, too. Mr. T vs. Everything became a cult sensation after a University of Idaho law student created Mr. T vs. Superman, circa the mid-1990s. This absurdist comic—in which Lex Luthor offers a gaggle of gold chains to T in exchange for wiping out Superman—spawned some 258 fumetti-style comics in which T calls out a cheap-ass adversary. Other face-offs pitted T against Spider-Man,

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For more on Randy Emberlin, visit randyemberlin.com. Visit Tony DeZuniga at http://uptil3.com/LeRoid/tonydezuniga.html. Tough guy Mr. A would like to show his vulnerable side and thank his Mom, Marlene Aushenker, for her infinite love and support. MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist. His comic books include the El Gato, Crime Mangler series, Cartoon Flophouse, and Those Unstoppable Rogues. Visit cartoonflophouse.com.

Photo credit: Marlene Aushenker.

When Mr. T rebooted at Mig.Biz in 2006, the first issue was topical and tropical: Hurricane Katrina. For the cover of Mr. T #1, the legendary Jim Steranko came out of comic-book semi-retirement to render the streetwise hero. Consider T one very lucky hombre to be among the select characters blessed by Steranko’s talented hand. Echoing Steranko’s classic Nick Fury covers, the glorious black-and-white montage, more appropriate for an exotic international man of mystery à la James Bond or Shang-Chi, appeared in solicitations and Wizard magazine in anticipation of the book… which died on the vine. “I inked the whole thing,” says Emberlin. “He rides in a helicopter and he jumps into the disaster area and saves someone falling into the water off the roof of a house. As far as I know, it didn’t get printed.”

“It should have been left alone as a TV character,” DeZuniga writes BACK ISSUE. “That character was forced [into] the comics because he [was] very popular [at] that time, but it didn’t work out.” Perhaps, Tony. But while they may remain disposable vanity projects or celebrity cash-ins to the casual collector, Mr. T comics united some of the brightest luminaries— even legends—of the field (including DeZuniga). Some even dug the Mr. T experience. “I really enjoyed writing T's adventures,” says Baron. “I wrote by drawing out each page. I had a Mr. T rubber stamp that I used for most of his appearances.” Proud of his T-Force contributions, Breyfogle comments, “I actually work best when under pressure because it forces me to be more spontaneous.” “I thought it would be cool to work on a Mr. T comic,” says Emberlin. “I’m looking at the Mr. T Preview #1 cover. That is the one that I take with me when I go to conventions and people get really excited about it. He looks like the black Hulk… running toward you… explosions are going off. Looks… like Brian Hitch artwork.” And besides, observes Breyfogle, “Mr. T turned out to be the best-paying job of my comics career!” To paraphrase a ’90s tough guy, rap star DMX, “T ain’t goin’ anywhere, he right here!” Mr. T has enjoyed a career in comics spanning three decades; a feat that eluded other ’80s phenoms, such as Boy George and Pee-wee Herman. Heck, you don’t see no ALF returning to comic shops every decade, now do you, fool? That goes double for you, Punky Brewster! Mr. T keeps returning to comics… and the comics keep returning to T. “He is a comic-book superhero,” says Emberlin. “He’s bigger than life.” In other words: Pity the fool who underestimates the positive power of Mr. T!


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Dewey Cassell

What if there was one man who had the capability to redeem all mankind? Someone who had the potential to ensure the salvation of the world. Someone who could be reincarnated through successive generations to fulfill his destiny. And what if he didn’t know? Such was the basis of the story The Redeemer, created by Joe Kubert in 1983. Kubert was well known and respected for his seminal work on characters like Hawkman (in The Brave and the Bold), Sgt. Rock (in Our Army at War), Tarzan, Tor, and Enemy Ace (in Star Spangled War Stories), but he had taken a hiatus from illustrating sequential comics for almost ten years, devoting time to his role as editor and cover artist for DC Comics, as well as heading up a school for aspiring cartoonists. With The Redeemer, Kubert planned to get back into the saddle and was looking forward to it. He explains how it started: “It’s difficult to really recall what provoked this whole thing, but nevertheless, I was always looking to do something with which I would be attached permanently. That is, creator-owned. I always felt that there would be an advantage to doing that. At that time, of course, DC was open for that sort of an arrangement with me. I came up with the idea of The Redeemer. I showed them exactly how I intended to handle this thing. They agreed and they wanted it.” The Redeemer was intended to be a 12-issue monthly maxiseries, published by DC Comics and distributed exclusively through the direct market (avoiding the Comics Code). The story was to be written, illustrated, lettered, and colored by Kubert. The title character, the Redeemer, was a man named Jim Torkan. Torkan would be reincarnated through many generations, each time striving to make the right choices amidst moral ambiguities. Kubert elaborates on his concept: “The premise of the story is that there is one character, the character that was the Redeemer, who exists in these different time frames, as the main character in the variety of stories that I was doing. In each story, the Redeemer kept coming in and the whole thing was a battle against evil. The evil character was sustaining and permanent throughout. Each time, the Redeemer was vanquished, but came back again. He came back again to change and alter and redeem the evil and pull it back to good again. That was the premise of the story. A constant battle between good and evil over a long period of time, with the same character.

Redeemer TM & © Joe Kubert.

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The character himself wasn’t aware that he was being reincarnated every time. Nevertheless, he was, in different roles as the ‘hero.’ The Redeemer’s job, his purpose in life, was to set things right.” While the Redeemer was unaware of his calling and with no certain recollection of his past lives, he did possess some sense that he had been in similar circumstances before, allowing him to “learn” from his previous incarnations. As Kubert tells it, “There was a feeling, a sense that he had. What I try to equate the story with was that each one of us is born with some sense of what’s right and what’s not right. Where that comes from, I’m certainly not sure. But I have a feeling that it’s there and every one of us have a tendency to try at least, consciously or subconsciously, to do the right thing. But there are people, apparently, who are devoid of that feeling and who attempt to get whatever they want in any possible way, and that is the incarnation of evil that the Redeemer is constantly fighting.” That “incarnation of evil” was manifested in the story as the Infernal One, an omniscient being who lived in a palace in a bitterly cold, remote part of the Himalayas, and who was bent on dissuading the Redeemer from his true purpose. The Infernal One was unable to directly hinder or harm Torkan, so through his minions, he would make every effort, in every incarnation, to tempt the Redeemer from the righteous path. Kubert explains about the Infernal One: “He was all-powerful, except that his power lies in the fact that he sets things on the road of the Redeemer to tempt him away from doing the right thing. It isn’t done in a physical way. It’s done in a very manipulative way. He doesn’t come up and twist the Redeemer’s neck and say, ‘Do this or else.’ As it happens to all of us, he does it in ways we don’t even realize.” In fact, Torkan would not have even been aware of the Infernal One. Kubert elaborates, “Perhaps at the end of the story, he [Torkan] would realize the kind of temptations that had been offered to him and that he had avoided, and was grateful for the fact that he did the right thing and continued on. He never completely and totally succeeds, of course, which is the reason he is reincarnated for the different stories.” The concepts of reincarnation, temptation, and redemption are common themes in many ancient and modern religions. However, Kubert indicates that he never intended to make a religious statement with the

Soul Man (left top and bottom) Joe Kubert’s production sketches of Torkan. (top right) An introductory panel of the Reedemer, from the first issue. (bottom right) DC Comics’ house ad for the unproduced series. Reedemer TM & © Joe Kubert. DC bullet TM & © DC Comics.

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story: “It’s not a religious tract, as far as I’m concerned. My intention was not to connect with any particular kind of religion. I only took on the very small job of trying to determine a basic feeling that we all might have, distinguishing between good and evil and trying to do the right thing.” Each of the Redeemer’s incarnations would find him in a different time period in history. Kubert’s intent was to make each issue of the maxiseries a unique setting for Torkan, although the stories would not necessarily be told sequentially. Kubert says, “There was enough flexibility in the stories. The stories were set in different time frames and in different backgrounds and [with] different characters. Essentially, they could have been told out of the sequence that I was actually doing them. One didn’t necessarily follow the other with any kind of tight record. Except the first one, which really sets the whole thing up, the stories could have appeared at any time.” Part of the tension in the stories would be derived from the choices with which Torkan was faced. Like so many of the choices we make every day, there is not always a clearly distinct right or wrong answer. Each choice may involve compromise and an ethical or moral dilemma. Torkan’s escapades were intended to unfold in many compelling venues. Kubert recalls, “In one, if I remember correctly, it was a story that dealt with knights in armor, another dealt with a Western.” Others included a prehistoric caveman story and an adventure on the high seas. Not accidentally, many of these genres are favorites of Kubert and ones in which he had already enjoyed tremendous success. Kubert continues, “I love each genre. My intent was to have the stories as varied as possible to keep the reader wanting to come back [to find out] where this thing was happening again, what kinds of guys the Redeemer took on in this next story, and therefore what the story was about.” The first story of the maxiseries opens with the Infernal One gathering his followers to his palace, a place perhaps out of normal time. There, the Infernal One tells his minions about the Redeemer and the threat

he poses to their existence. He sends them out to the various timelines to attempt to thwart the Redeemer in every incarnation. When we first meet Torkan, he is a scientist on a space station in the 26th Century. The station is invaded and Torkan has to fight the raiders to protect himself and a female companion. The art is classic Kubert. The Infernal One appears hunched over, aged, and sinister. Torkan is tall, lean, and dashing, and his female companion is gorgeous. DC Comics advertised aggressively for The Redeemer. Publicity, interviews, and some artwork from the first issue appeared in several trade publications. But it wasn’t long after it had been announced that DC put the project on hold. In fact, the same issue of Amazing Heroes (right) that featured an interview with Kubert about The Redeemer also included an announcement that the project “had been postponed until next year.” As much as Kubert had wanted to do the story, The Redeemer simply proved to be too much work for him. Kubert reflects, “They [DC] were very happy with what was going on. The only reason I didn’t continue was because there physically just wasn’t enough time. Not only editing and drawing and doing whatever I was doing up at DC, but my responsibilities with the school, just knocked over the possibility of my being able to do it. I guess I was just a little bit overly optimistic in terms of the amount of work I could handle at any given time. I just couldn’t do it.” There have been rumors that DC and Kubert were under pressure from critics because of the overtly religious tone of the story, but Kubert denies this supposition. “No, not to my knowledge. There wasn’t enough material coming out to have any kind of flak at all, except for the promotional material we put out. But no, there was never any negative reaction. If you’re intimating that perhaps that was the reason I did not continue, that’s not true at all. The guys I worked with up at DC, Paul Levitz, who now is president up there, my relationship with them is and always has been excellent and I’ve never gotten any pressure on any of the work I’ve done.”

Redeemer TM & © Joe Kubert. Amazing Heroes TM & © Fantagraphics.

Kubert’s Cast (left) Jen and Torkan, and (right) the series’ antagonist, the Infernal One. TM & © Joe Kubert.

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Infernal Logic (top) The Infernal One contemplates spritual matters on a page from the unpublished first issue, and (bottom) déjà vu for Torkan. TM & © Joe Kubert.

By the time Kubert stopped work on The Redeemer, not quite half of the maxiseries was finished. Kubert notes, “I had blocked out where all 12 books were going. I had about four or five of them already completed. They’re not all colored. I think the first two are.” Kubert had also drawn at least one cover. At the time, Kubert was getting paid on a salary basis by DC Comics for the editing and other work he was doing, and DC made a commitment to pay him for The Redeemer at the same time. Kubert explains, “Before I knew it, they had paid me for the whole job and I had finished only about half of it. When we decided, both DC and myself, that I just didn’t have the time and I couldn’t physically do it, I bought the whole thing back. I paid DC for all the money they had paid me to do the work. All the work that I’ve done and the whole concept and the whole story is now my property.” The end of the maxiseries would not have been the end of the story. While it might have brought some resolution to the thread, and some greater awareness for Torkan of his purpose, Kubert intended to leave the story open-ended. As Kubert indicates, “It’s the kind of story that could go on forever, for as many different stories as I wanted to do. It was like an open door for me to take any genre, any kind of background at any time sequence, and do a story about the character that was involved in the things that I described. I liked the story. It sure as hell challenged me. I liked getting into the research that I had to do, in each case, in each one of the chapters.” Kubert hopes to resurrect The Redeemer one day. He believes that The Redeemer is still a relevant and compelling story, 24 years later. “I still think it’s a pretty good concept. I hope that someday, the character will see print. It could be done without having all 12 stories. If I were to publish it, I think I would want to change some of the text, some of the dialogue. None of the drawing. I think the thing holds together pretty good, but I might sharpen the text up a little bit. At that time, we didn’t have computer coloring available to us and I think I’d like to do that, too.” Could there theoretically be a point where Torkan succeeds in “redeeming” and would no longer be reincarnated? Kubert was dubious. “Yeah, when we have a Heaven on Earth, that could happen. The possibilities are, I think, kind of remote.” Seems we’ll always need a Redeemer. Sincere thanks to Joe Kubert for the interview, conducted via telephone on September 14, 2007, and copyedited by Joe; and to Pete Carlsson for his help with the logistics. DEWEY CASSELL is a frequent contributor to BACK ISSUE, as well as the author of the book The Art of George Tuska, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. He is currently writing a book about Marie Severin.

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Upon first glance, it might be difficult for a reader to take a comic book that uses a pun as its title seriously. For that matter, it might be hard to imagine the creators of a book called Ms. Tree taking their book seriously. Generally, puns are reserved for texts that joke, wink, and play. But when Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty created Ms. Tree in 1981, they were dead serious about the tone and direction of their title character. Michael Tree (yes, a woman) was a hard-edged, tough-as-nails private investigator who, while operating within the familiar framework of crime fiction, defied many of the expectations of the genre. For the next 12 years, Collins and Beatty crafted a narrative that directly engaged the hardest, most controversial social issues of the time. How they managed to pull this off and stay afloat in a medium dominated by teenaged, mutant, and ninja superheroes makes Ms. Tree… well, a mystery indeed. Collins and Beatty didn’t initially set out to craft a book that would join the surge of alternative comics in the 1980s. Ironically, Collins—a writer probably best-known in comics circles for his graphic novel Road to Perdition— hadn’t intended to be a comics writer at all. “I began as a crime novelist who also happened to be a comics fan,” Collins says. “I’d never thought about writing comics, though up through junior high I’d hoped to be a cartoonist, writing and drawing comics. It was discovering the mystery fiction of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane that sent me down the road to perdition of crime writing, so to speak, and I dropped my comics aspirations but not my comics enthusiasm. My first two novels, Bait Money and Blood Money, had a secondary character who was a comics fan/aspiring cartoonist, and the novels are full of comics references. Those novels were what attracted the attention of the Chicago Tribune Syndicate editor, who was looking for a mystery writer to take over Dick Tracy. So my entry into the world of comics scripting was through my mystery/crime fiction, and my Tracy work attracted attention among comics fans and also editors, since it was grounded in both Gould and what’s now called noir fiction and film.”

Alex Boney

She’s No Soccer Mom Ms. Tree promotional art that was produced for DC but unused, contributed by its artist and character co-creator, Terry Beatty. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

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While Collins found a way into comics through his work in another medium, Terry Beatty was more interested in the direct route. Like Collins, Beatty had been a long-time comics reader. And like Collins, Beatty was living in Muscatine, Iowa. As Collins explained in 1983, “Terry Beatty (24) and Max Collins (34) are both lifelong residents of Muscatine, Iowa, a Mississippi rivertown small enough to insure that two comic book fans— even if separated by ten years—were bound to run into each other; they were further entwined by fate due to Beatty’s father having been Collins’ junior high English teacher” (letters column, Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Adventures #1, Feb. 1981). Beatty and Collins had known each other for a while by the late ’70s. And while their friendship might seem to have been accidental, their working relationship was not. Both Collins and Beatty had a common ambition to break into the comics business, and both recognized strengths in the other that would allow them to make it happen. In Collins’ case, the professional partnership he sought with Beatty was driven by his uneasy experience writing Dick Tracy. “I’ve never really talked about this,” Collins says, “but the whole relationship with Terry, which was a mixture of business and friendship (and still is), grew out of my troubled relationship with Rick Fletcher, the Dick Tracy artist. Landing Tracy was a childhood dream come true, but I soon found myself partnered with a gifted but unhappy man whose tragic relationship with Chester Gould—they were like father and son, but turned on each other—made me the brunt of all kinds of misery. Fletcher and I grew very friendly, though, toward the end; but it was rocky through much of the ride. The whole idea of getting something going with Terry was to have a positive, happy working relationship with an artist. That really was it. That and having a place to do the tougher, more dangerously topical stories that I couldn’t get past the Tracy editors.” Beatty was more than happy to be a part of the ride. He and Collins first collaborated on self-syndicated newspaper project called The Comics Page. The project never took off as well as the creators had wanted, but it did get the attention of editors at Eclipse Comics. “I just wanted to do comics,” Beatty says. “The fact that I was working with Max, and that crime stories were his thing— and that we were asked (by Dean Mullaney) to create a detective feature (for Eclipse Magazine)—is why we came to work on Ms. Tree. I suppose, left to our own devices, she might have ended up being created anyway. But we also attempted to sell ourselves as a creative team to the Tribune syndicate on several newspaper strips that were not crime stories. I’d been thinking I’d break in as a humor cartoonist—and in some ways wasn’t quite ready to draw an ‘adventure strip.’ But Max and I shared an enthusiasm for Spillane and Hammett and all that hardboiled stuff—so Ms. Tree seemed like something we could both enjoy working on.”

Then and Now (above) An undated photo of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty at the Hollywood Bowl, taken by Alan Light and submitted by Terry Beatty. (left) One of Beatty’s unused cover roughs for the new Ms. Tree HardCase crime novel, Deadly Beloved. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

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Beatty. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry

From its first story, Ms. Tree was a feature that wore its influences and intentions on its sleeve. This was very much a crime-fiction story in the classic Hollywood and pulp tradition. In fact, its source lineage could be traced directly back to one of the best-selling crime fiction novelists of all time. “The Ms. Tree character strings from a specific source: the Mike Hammer novels by Mickey Spillane. A traditional convention of the private eye story—what the hell, a cliché of the private eye story—is that the private eye has a faithful secretary who loves him, and whom he loves, but while marriage is often discussed, it never seems to happen. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Mike Hammer’s relationship with his secretary Velda. But where Spillane departs from convention or cliché is that Velda is a licensed private eye, too, a pistol-packing mama who stands near six foot herself and is damn near as tough as Hammer. She is, in fact, essentially the female Mike Hammer. So it occurred to me… what if Hammer ever really did marry Velda, and what if Hammer were then murdered on their wedding night? Why, Velda would quite naturally step into her late husband’s shoes— taking over the detective business, and solving his murder” (letters column, Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Adventures #1). When Ms. Tree first appeared in Eclipse Magazine— an anthology title that serialized a Ms. Tree story in its first six issues—the feature character, Michael Tree, was something of a novelty in the comics world. The private investigator was not a new “type,” but the fact that Ms. Tree was a woman and didn’t wear a colorful costume was relatively new to comics at the time. As Beatty explains, “What made it new and different was the gender switch. In ’81, the influx of modern female P.I.s hadn’t happened yet. We also had the advantage of being part of the alternative comics scene, which meant we could do the sort of controversial material that the Tribune wouldn’t let Max do in his stories for the Dick Tracy newspaper strip.” Although female private eyes had been an established—if not widely known—part of detective cinema for some time (see Linda Mizejewski’s Hardboiled & High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture), the female dick in comics certainly was something new. But while Ms. Tree featured a woman protagonist, the book never really came across as a novelty act. In Ms. Tree #5 (Nov. 1983), Ms. Tree removes her blouse to distract a criminal (a direct homage to Mickey Spillane’s 1947 novel I, The Jury). But generally, the book was not about gender. The book had to be more substantive than that for it to survive. After her stint at Eclipse Magazine, Ms. Tree graduated to her own title, where Collins and Beatty began taking full advantage of their new freedom. At first, Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Adventures seemed to be exactly what the title advertised. The first story arc is a fast-paced, action-packed narrative in which Ms. Tree solves the mystery of her husband’s death. The form of the narrative was simple. Beatty utilized the standard, familiar nine-panel grid as the basis for each page’s layout. Collins told tight, straightforward stories that were cleanly broken up into chapters with cliffhanger endings. According to Beatty, the craft of the book was a purposeful response to comics trends of the time: “Max and I intentionally kept to a simple grid format. It was a reaction to the over-the-top and out-of-control page layouts that were all over comics in those days—everyone trying to do Steranko and Adams but without a handle on the sort of storytelling and design skills those artists also brought to the mix.”

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Collins concurs. He and Beatty were trying to bring comic books back to basics, primarily to show that complicated stories could be told within the conventions that made the comics form what it was. “Ms. Tree emerged at a time when comics artists were feeling their oats, and not in an entirely good way. Complicated, silly, incoherent layouts were everywhere. We wanted Ms. Tree to work in the syndicated strip way and on the Johnny Craig EC model, as a self-professed ‘experiment in coherence.’ I liked the idea that within a fairly conventional, traditional format, we would tell some fairly wild stories. Few heroes in any medium have done the sort of extreme things Ms. Tree has, except in the silly über-dark material which is inherently juvenile.” As the book progressed, it became clear that the creators were using traditional tools to break new ground. After the book dropped its flamboyant title and became simply Ms. Tree with issue #4, characterization eclipsed action as the focus of the story. The supporting cast—especially the employees of Tree Investigations, Inc.—began developing tangible personalities that created interesting narrative possibilities. As Collins later

© 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

explained, “In genre fiction like Ms. Tree, characters are often built on types; but that is just the skeleton—we try to lay some flesh on, and take the familiar characters into unfamiliar directions” (letters column, Ms. Tree #28, Apr. 1986). It was still detective fiction; there were mysteries to solve and criminals to shoot and human horror to confront. But Ms. Tree’s tough-gal persona was laced with nuance and subtlety. She wasn’t always what she appeared to be: “We are doing comic-book melodrama here,” Collins explained, “and we do deal with stereotypes—although we try to build some flesh-and-blood onto those stereotypes, so that, for example, Ms. Tree herself is a distinctive tough detective, not just another refried Philip Marlowe (albeit in a dress)” (letters column, Ms. Tree #23). One of the most interesting and challenging aspects of Ms. Tree is the title character’s code of justice. The private investigator’s code of ethics has always been part of the appeal of crime fiction. When faced with a world that seems to be gravitating toward chaos and violence, the private eye is forced to confront crime and evil on the frontline. In response, she must develop a code of justice that operates outside the constraints of traditional law and order because those constraints (while ostensibly humane) sometimes work against the interests and safety of the public at large. In this sense, crime-fiction comics like Ms. Tree, Sin City, and 100 Bullets are a logical fit for a medium dominated by superpowered vigilantes. The obvious difference is that private eyes don’t have superpowers. They’re good at making connections and solving mysteries, but their skin won’t stop the bullets that always seem to be flying at them. And this changes the way they respond to violence and depravity. At their root, true-crime stories are about ethics. The protagonist of a crime-fiction story must develop her own personal code of ethics—one that allows her to survive in a world where the law is flouted and the innocent are pistol fodder. Ms. Tree is no exception to this. In some ways, Michael Tree is difficult to sympathize with because her code of justice—especially early in the series—is so black-and-white. As Collins explained, “We sometimes find Ms. Tree’s vision of justice more harrowing, than heartening. The heroine of this book is, slowly but surely, learning that eye-for-an-eye justice has its drawbacks” (letters column, Ms. Tree #13, Nov. 1984). There are times when Michael Tree seems to have stepped straight out of an issue of Steve Ditko’s Mr. A. She often operates from a position of cold, detached objectivism that, while effective, isn’t entirely humane. In this regard, Collins stays true to his influences and source material: Ayn Rand, an objectivist writer best known for her novel Atlas Shrugged, cited Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer as a suitable example of personal ethics.

One Tough Broad A powerful example of Terry Beatty’s concise storytelling: page 7 of Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Adventures #2 (Apr. 1983). Contibuted by Steve Cohen (AIRBOY2@aol.com), moderator of several Yahoo comics groups: the Gene Colan Discussion List, Wallace Wood-L, Charlton-L, SequentialArt, ComicsHistoryMistakeHunters, and a new Marie and John Severin group. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

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No Wonder She’s Hardboiled Collins’ and Beatty’s Ms. Tree criminals slithered onto the page with gruesome gusto. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

Collins and Beatty provided a focused, unconventional look at what would happen if such a personality actually had to cope (with a gun and a powerful sense of vengeance) in the modern world. Ms. Tree dealt with hard-hitting, contemporary issues such as pornography, pedophilia, abortion, psychotherapy, gay rights, rape, and cults. And because Collins and Beatty tackled these topics and their protagonist responded to them, readers often had a difficult time making sense of the creators’ intentions and agendas. Collins repeatedly insisted that his goal was far simpler than it seemed to be: “For the record, I do not see Ms. Tree as an issue-oriented book. It’s a crime-oriented book—and, being as it’s set in modern times, the crimes are of a sort one might encounter today—like the abuse of a runaway child or the bombing of an abortion clinic. If you expect Ms. Tree to answer the problems of the day, you’re expecting more than a buckseventy comic book can rightly be expected to offer. We’re not a polemic—we’re a story. A melodrama. Set in modern times” (letters column, Ms. Tree #26, Feb. 1986). Because Ms. Tree was approached in an unconventional way and aimed at a more mature audience, the book generated intelligent argument and ardent discussion in its letters column. The column, called “SWAK!” (an anagram for “Sealed With A Kiss”), actually set an appropriate tone for the series as a whole: “Using those initials as an onomatopoeia for the sound of Ms. Tree smacking a bad guy with her gun is meant to wryly suggest the tough-and-tender mix we strive for with the feature” (letters column, Ms. Tree #6, Feb. 1984). It also suggested the tough-and-tender responses the book would get from its readers. Despite Collins’ and Beatty’s attempts to present issues

objectively and have their characters respond to them logically, many readers tried to interpret the book’s overall philosophy in widely (and wildly) divergent ways. As Beatty notes, “We were trying to press some ‘hot buttons’ by tackling touchy subject matter. And it always amused me when we’d present both sides of an issue within a story—and then have people on both sides angry with us! ‘How dare you publish a pro-abortion story?’ and ‘How dare you publish an anti-abortion story?’ are letters we received about the SAME story.” Despite the occasionally charged give-and-take in “SWAK!,” Ms. Tree actually maintained a loyal readership throughout its 12-year run. This is an impressive feat, given the book’s sporadic publication history. In 12 years, the adventures of Ms. Tree were published by five different companies. The book shifted from full-color (at Eclipse and First Comics) to duotones (at AardvarkVanaheim and Renegade) back to full-color (at DC). This might seem an insurmountable set of odds in the S p i e s

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Throwing in the Trowel Make that shovel. Backlighting makes Beatty’s shadowy cover to Ms. Tree #17 (Apr. 1985) a standout. Courtesy of George Hagenauer. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

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turbulent comics marketplace. As Beatty notes, “I’m sure jumping from one publisher to another caused some readers difficulty in finding the book. But then again, if we hadn’t made the jumps, the series would have ended altogether.” Ultimately, the key to the book’s survival and success was adaptation. Amid all the moves and adjustments, Ms. Tree always maintained a sense of continuity and development. Ms. Tree avenges her husband’s death, she adopts her orphaned stepson, she maintains an antagonistic relationship with the troublesome Muerta family, and she eventually has a child as a single mother. The series flows in a logical progression toward a logical end. In this sense, despite the unforeseen “real-world” circumstances, the book stayed true to Collins’ philosophy as a writer: “My storytelling approach is a combination of careful plotting and haphazard improvisation. The philosophy of Ms. Tree was that stories would flow out of stories, and that we would also chart the impact of events on our characters—they wouldn’t start clean and fresh for a new tale, they’d drag along the baggage of what they’d been through as well as the damage they’d done.” Ms. Tree finally ended its 12-year run at DC Comics, where it started as a “Quarterly” and shifted into an occasional “Special.” But the status of the book at DC made it difficult to maintain a consistent audience. The book was labeled “Suggested for Mature Readers,” but it was quite different from the books that would soon be pulled into the Vertigo imprint. “I think we probably should have been under the Vertigo umbrella, though we wouldn’t have been a perfect fit,” Collins says. “We’d have reached a wider audience, and going from Eclipse to A-V to Renegade was just scrambling for survival. Vertigo has published, and continues to publish, interesting material, but Ms. Tree— for all its topical bent—is traditional hardboiled stuff. I do not like noir material that self-consciously tries to be dark— James Ellroy is the poster child for that overwrought nonsense. I write to entertain, not to impress.” Although Collins and Beatty remain modest about their work on Ms. Tree, what they accomplished remains a pioneering venture in the history of alternative comics. Fortunately, their work with the character will continue in at least one medium. Ms. Tree has been optioned by the Oxygen network, which seems to be moving forward with a television series based on Ms. Tree. And in November 2007, HardCase Crime published a prose novel featuring the character. As Collins explains, “the novel, Deadly Beloved, is an expansion and re-working of my script for the Oxygen version of Ms. Tree. I think it came out well—it’s something of a reboot and reworks some old material, but it has a lot of new stuff, too. And Terry did a knockout cover—one of the best HardCase Crime covers— and that’s really saying something.” Collins and Beatty both have a fond attachment to the character who was instrumental in landing them in dream jobs in a medium they both greatly admire, and both of them hope to reprise the character more fully in the near future. According to Beatty, “I’ll just be happy if [the novel and the television show] become enough of a success that they allow Max and me to tell a new Ms. Tree story or two in comics form.” Surely they won’t be the only ones who benefit from such a possibility. ALEX BONEY is a PhD student at the Ohio State University. He is currently finishing his dissertation, which is about modernism, comics, and the rise of the American heroic ideal. He has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from James Joyce to Booster Gold, and co-edits an online comics review site at www.guttergeek.com.

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that art in pencil form. Which makes Gene Colan’s work such a fantastic follow-up, too! Being a big Silverblade fan, it was great seeing the write-up on that! Peter Pan and Wendy? Never heard of the series, but I really enjoyed the article! And such amazing artwork! Zatanna and all she went through? I was there during it and loved the recap! The Elementals did indeed bring back nice memories of Comico, which made me take note to place an order for the trade with my local comic shop! Top-notch work, Michael. Thanks so much for the entertainment! – Mike Aragona On behalf of the talented writers who helped produce BACK ISSUE #24, Mike, thank you. – M.E.

EVERY LITTLE THING BI #24 DOES IS MAGIC

BELIEVE IT OR ’NAUT Another fine issue of BI! I loved the Golden interview, as I have not read too many in the past. What caught my attention was the opening paragraphs on the origins of the Micronauts series. I own the original concept art by Bob Hall (below) that was used to pitch the series. To my knowledge, this was the only concept piece that was done to sell the series to Mego. Years ago I purchased the art from Mike Burkey, who had an interesting story. He didn’t know who did the art or what it was for until Bob Hall stopped by his booth at a con and told him. I’ve since corresponded via e-mail with Bob, who shed some more light on the art. Although my discussion was not extensive, he did confirm that he was the artist and what it was used for. –Mike Keane What can we say, Mike, but… WOW!!? Thanks for sharing this. – M.E.

Micronauts TM & © Mego Corporation.

I’ve been wanting to write to you pretty much from the moment I started reading issue #24 but just (a) never got to finish the magazine until now, and (b) wanted to get all my thoughts out before I did! Right from the start, the issue was fantastic! Reading about The ’Nam was a big kick and I loved the interview with Michael Golden. All that info on The Micronauts was another fun romp and the Dr. Strange work was very interesting. In fact, I was shocked at just how much of Dr. Strange I had followed myself when younger (and how many of those issues I still have!). Ditto on Dr. Fate, whom I both followed and really enjoyed. The article was great! Amethyst I never read although I knew of her. Now I’m looking forward to reading the first collection! Again, it was very interesting reading about how it all came together. Do I really need to mention how much I loved the Marshall Rogers “look back”? Especially as it touched upon Scorpio Rose! Frank Brunner’s art? Staggering! Just so beautiful. And all the pinups were definitely drool-worthy! It’s great seeing all

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You know, I never realized how many superb artists have had a hand in chronicling Dr. Strange’s adventures until I read this issue. I always thought he was an under-used, underrated character, and to be reminded he’s been drawn by Ditko, Brunner, Rogers, Colan, Smith, and Golden makes we wonder why he isn’t a bigger comics star! I mean, come on—Spider-Woman gets a Marvel US postage stamp ahead of the Sorcerer Supreme? SPIDER-WOMAN?? By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth! The interview with Michael Golden was a great; he was always an artist whose work in a comic always guaranteed a purchase from me ... and Marvel definitely needs to get on The Essential ’Nam. I thought I was the only one outside of Cary Bates who remembered Silverblade ... a neat series and I was glad to see it get some attention, all these years later. Those Colan covers were out of this world! Owning a few Craig Hamilton originals, I can testify to how amazingly, unbelievably intricate and beautiful his work is ... and those Peter Pan pages are some of his finest. That whole article was one long, sad story of missed opportunities and tragic errors. Some of the things mentioned in BI are frustratingly vague, but I understand with space considerations you don’t always have time for diversions. As a faithful, devoted JLA reader, I always wondered why Gerry Conway, who had written the book for so long, was suddenly gone. The phrase “...Conway was yanked off the book” makes me want to read a whole article on why! At the time, I remember feeling that no one was really at the helm during those last few issues of the book—a sad, whimper-not-a-bang ending for one of DC’s most important books. And if that wasn’t enough, Super-A! Awesome! – Rob Kelly Rob, if you’ll allow me a chance to plug a forthcoming TwoMorrows book I’ll soon begin writing, Justice League Companion vol. 2 will cover the original series from issue #100 through its demise—which means a heavy focus on Gerry Conway’s long stint on the title, including his last days on JLA. Re your “frustratingly vague” comment, admittedly, our efforts to cover lots of terrain doesn’t allow us to dig as deep into some subjects as some of our readers might like, but we appreciate your understanding that there are only so many pages per issue. – M.E.

MARSHALL ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD I just want to add my voice to Terry Austin’s in imploring Marvel to collect the astonishing Stern/Rogers/Austin run on Doctor Strange for re-release. Marshall Rogers was one of my first favorite artists, and I discovered his work through the Master of the Mystic Arts, which in turn led me backwards to Detective Comics and Mister Miracle. Early critics might have jumped on his unusual (for the time) style, but there was no denying the pure, furious, creative energy that leapt off every page he drew—and that remained the case throughout his career. He is much missed. The six issues of Doctor Strange on which Mr. Rogers worked are just about perfect in every respect—fast-moving, thrilling, funny, unpredictable, and absolutely true to the characters. In truth, as much as Mr. Rogers and Mr. Austin were responsible for making Doctor Strange one of Marvel’s very best titles of the early 1980s, Roger Stern presided over a long run on the book in which every issue was of incredibly high quality. Working with Paul Smith, Michael Golden, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Green, and Bret Blevins (among others), he produced a body of work on the title that I think is darn near definitive—and only “darn near” because nothing touches Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Mr. Stern hardly ever gets the credit he deserves, and I’d like to give him a shout-out for writing some of my favorite stories (including his collaboration with John Byrne on Captain America) growing up. By the way, please tell Mr. Golden he didn’t get away with it— I spotted his cleverly hidden signature on the cover! – Adam Beechen

Michael Golden—you’re busted, amigo! And while I normally don’t speak for others, Adam, I’ll betcha Roger Stern is beaming ear-to-ear over your praise. We’ve covered his work in these pages, and will continue to do so, and one of these days, we’ll give his and Mr. Byrne’s Captain America the all-star treatment it deserves. – M.E.

PURPLE PROSE Thank you, thank you, thank you for the article on Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. I didn’t think any issue would knock #17 (the “Super Girls” issue) out of top place with me, but #24 has at least tied it. Amethyst has been one of my favorite series for years—and I’ve bugged DC endlessly about collecting it, restarting it, novelizing it, anything to get it back in the public eye. They’ve always been very gracious in their replies, but so far, nothing. Maybe you will have more of an impact. I used to tell Amethyst—a simplified version— as a bedtime story to children I babysat. It was a thrill years later for one of those children (now grown) to tell me she told Amethyst to the children she babysat. Long live the Purple Princess! I would have loved the issue for that alone, but then you went and included an article on Silverblade. I came upon this series relatively late—a few years ago, in fact—but fell in love. I found it to be wonderfully imaginative. You could never be sure where it was going to next. Thank you for the background on it. And the Zatanna piece: My first exposure to her was the Zatanna Special, and then for reasons unknown I never ran into her again until her appearance on Batman: The Animated Series. I loved her perky enthusiasm and was disappointed with her role in Identity Crisis. Thank goodness for back issues. And thank goodness for BACK ISSUE keeping all these series alive. Keep up the good work. – Penny L. Kenny Silverblade was the sleeper hit of BACK ISSUE #24, Penny. If Tom Stewart’s article on the series leads BI readers into the back-issue bins for this overlooked Bates/Colan classic, so be it! – M.E.

WHENEVER I CALL YOU SUPER FRIENDS I can’t believe how much I enjoy BACK ISSUE! Sadly, I wasn’t aware this magazine even existed until issue #19, but I’ve been buying and reading it religiously ever since and have even purchased all the available, er, back issues and have read almost every single one of them as well! I’m sure you hear this all the time, but being a 33-year-old fan of superheroes and comics since I can recall (I even made my dad read me comics as bedtime stories before I was old enough to read!), this magazine is a real treasure! You’ve managed to shed light on so many things I have been intrigued by or that I just barely recall, like the “Bugs Bunny Meets the Super-Heroes” stage show as detailed in issue #3. I attended the original incarnation, “The Bugs Bunny Follies” in 1976… when I was only about two years old! I remembered going to the show, but nothing specifically, so your magazine managed to enlighten me and even stirred up some long lost memories! I also proudly owned and cherished DC Comics’ Super Dictionary as a child, so your feature on Conjura in issue #24 was greatly appreciated! (I just wish more story pages could have been shown! They were fascinating!) I was wondering/hoping you might be considering devoting an issue or at least more articles to Super Friends. Without a doubt, Super Friends was the most important pop-cultural influence of my entire life! It was my first exposure to the world of superheroes and

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what spurred my interest in comic books. And I know that many of today’s biggest names in the field of comics, like Mark Waid, Alex Ross, and Geoff Johns, were also hugely influenced by the show. I find that, for as influential and successful as the show was, today’s fans just don’t “get” it. Oh, I understand that it wasn’t the highest quality production and that the animation and writing weren’t really on par with the comics of the time. And compared to the wonderful shows created by Warner Bros. in the ’90s-the present, it’s downright crude and in some cases laughable. But, as a child of the ’70s and ’80s, Super Friends was the most dramatic and intense action cartoon on Saturday morning! I also must say, on a personal level, once Super Friends hit syndication in the ’80s, I thrilled to their adventures every weekday afternoon plus Saturday mornings… they were a more consistent and present part of my life than the characters in the comics who only appeared once a month, or the action heroes of the era like Indiana Jones and the Star Wars rebels, whose adventures I’d witnessed once or twice in the theater and then never again until home video became more prevalent. And as much as I love my real-life friends, it seems as time goes on and people get older, you tend to drift apart and lose touch with one another. But the superheroes have never done that. They’ve consistently been a part of my life, and I can always go back to them to thrill to their great adventures, just like “going home” again! Even with the Internet, it’s hard to find much information, much less reliable info, on Super Friends. Even with the DVD releases, it seems like most of the “extras” found are just people’s reactions and opinions. I’d love some concrete information on things like the creation of the ethnic Super Friends, Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado. Most commonly found cels of Samurai feature him using flame powers, whereas on the show, he had wind-based powers. At what point was the change made and for what reason? See, I’d love some information like that! I’ve also seen Alex Toth drawings of Catwoman and have read that both Catwoman and the Joker were planned for inclusion in the Legion of Doom, but were replaced with the Cheetah and Toyman… is this true or just rumor? There’s also the Super Friends comic-book series handled by such greats as E. Nelson Bridwell, Kurt Schaffenberger, and the magnificent and vastly underrated Ramona Fradon! It took me years to complete my collection of this particular series, but proudly I now have all of them! I even have an original page of Ms. Fradon’s artwork from it! I don’t think anything has ever been written about this series, but I would think that fans might be interested in hearing about these simplified adventures which gave greater backstory to the Wonder Twins, including their human alter egos Johan and Johanna from Sweden (!); often guest-starred other established DC heroes, some that appeared on

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the cartoons, like Hawkman, Green Lantern, etc., and some that didn’t, like Supergirl and Black Orchid; and the debuts of the Global Guardians, who later went on to integration into the mainstream DC Universe, most notably Green Fury and Ice Maiden, who became Fire and Ice in the “real” Justice League. Heck, the Global Guardians could probably fill out an entire article on their own! Not only that, but some of the original Super Friends from the cartoon have since been incorporated into the DC comic-book universe. The Wonder Twins “debuted” in Extreme Justice in the ’90s and still pop up occasionally. Apache Chief was the basis for Manitou Raven in Justice League. Samurai popped up for one panel in the hardcover collected version of Infinite Crisis! And in animation, Apache Chief, Samurai, and the Wonder Twins have appeared on Harvey Birdman, Attorney-At-Law. And “Beyond Capes” there was also the short-lived ’70s series devoted to Rima, the Jungle Girl. I find her to be one of the leastunderstood of the Super Friends characters in that a lot of people assume she was just another “ethnic” heroine created for the show. In fact, she originated in the novel Green Mansions and even starred in a live-action movie, depicted by Audrey Hepburn! However, the heroine from The All-New Super Friends Hour and the character in the Rima comic book couldn’t be more different! And finally, there’s the Super Powers toy line. Next to Megos, this has to be the most-favored toy line for any comic fan from the ’80s! It was fabulous! Perhaps a summary of this fantastic line’s history with some information on its origins could be included. There’s even a website I found (www.toyotter.com/spfind/) that provides the artwork for the projected fourth wave of Super Powers toys that never came to be! Perhaps your magazine could obtain permission to reprint some of that for your readers! – Jason Motes Jason, I’ll be your new best (super) friend with the following announcement: BACK ISSUE #30, shipping in September 2008, is themed “Saturday Morning Heroes,” and includes two articles on Super Friends—a “Backstage Pass” by SF animator and Alex Toth protégé Darrell McNeil, and an overview of DC’s Super Friends comic by Andy Mangels. And if that’s not enough, I’m arranging a reprint of some of that “Toy Otter” Super Powers material as a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at the SP action figures you never saw! – M.E.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SPIDEY I realize that as comic fans get older they tend to look at Spider-Man as the Velveeta of comic-book characters. I web-manage the R. Crumb website (RCrumb.com), and as a fan and cartoonist myself, my tastes have matured and expanded. But I’ve never lost my love for Spider-Man. Spider-Man is one of the biggest characters in comics. I greatly appreciate the features that have been done on him, and I appreciate the focus on a lot of other material that I didn’t know was so good, but for one issue, Spider-Man deserves to be the theme, specifically his 1980s work. The ’90s were not kind to the character and the jury is still out on this decade. It seems Marvel has not yet figured out how to successfully apply the Watchmen/Dark Knight formula that’s been applied to most comics in the industry to Spider-Man. Perhaps that template doesn’t quite work for this character, but there is the question, How can Spider-Man and his stories mature and grow as the times continue to change? The 1980s Spider-Man work was really ahead of its time and answered that question perfectly. Peter David hit his first home run writing Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man and a few issues of Web of Spider-Man. I have never seen Rich Buckler’s work look better than it did when he was working with David, and the other artists David worked with, such as Mark Beachum (who was amazing but I never hear about him anymore) and one-time inker Kyle Baker, really showed us what a mature Spider-Man book could be. The stories were darker, but the character wasn’t, and I think that’s what made this work. It showed a very pensive and thoughtful protagonist put into a slightly different element. David created the Sin Eater and the


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 (e-mailed 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 e-mailing 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:

ISSUE © 2007 TwoMorrows.

Very insightful letter, Todd. You’re absolutely right about there being a number of BACK ISSUE-era Spider-Man classics that have yet to be examined in this magazine, and “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and the Hobgoblin saga are in the works for upcoming issues (by the way, check issue #10 for our Stern/Frenz “Pro2Pro” on “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man”). However, we’re prohibited from doing an exclusive Spider-Man (or any other other single-character) issue due to licensing restrictions, so folding Spidey features into our other issues’ themes is the path we’ll have to take. Another thing that comes to mind, thanks to your letter, is the fact that most of the major comics stars—Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, Avengers, etc.— haven’t yet received much (if any) coverage in BACK ISSUE. In our quest to include some of the minor leaguers, perhaps we’ve overlooked the majors. But we’re fortunate to have such a wealth of 1970s and 1980s material to cover—we’re now in our fifth year of publication and we’ve barely scratched the surface of comics from the era. And we’ll strive to balance the commercial with the obscure. Next issue: Comic-Book Royalty! If you love the Bronze Age Aquaman, Sub-Mariner, and Black Panther, and love to hate Doctor Doom, this is the issue for you! Plus an art-rich Mike W. Barr/Brian Bolland “Pro2Pro” interview on Camelot 3000; flashbacks to Baron Winter’s Night Force and Arion, Lord of Atlantis; a creator-packed tribute to Jack “King” Kirby; the story behind King of Rock Elvis’ Captain Marvel, Jr. fixation; and a spotlight on the comics adventures of the artist formerly and currently known Prince. That’s BACK ISSUE #27, on sale in sixty days. Don’t ask, just BI it! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor

S U B M IS S IO N G U ID E L IN E S

Aquaman and Mera © 2008 DC Comic s. BACK

© 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Foreigner and he wrote two of the best-written (and best-drawn) Sabretooth stories I have ever read. He did a great story showing the perspective of J. Jonah Jameson in Web of Spider-Man. This is the bar that Spider-Man comics should look to, to be elevated. At the same time, Amazing Spider-Man was doing the traditional superhero thing, and doing it better than ever. Bigger at the time than the alien costume or the marriage, both of which you’ve covered, was the Hobgoblin mystery. I’ve made requests before for a Hobgoblin article and I’m going to keep bugging you about it until you realize what a wealth of possibility is here. Not only was this a great comic storyline, it was a great real-life soap opera. Roger Stern created the character and with John Romita, Jr. he did some of the best Spider-Man comics of all time. The creative reins were passed, mid-story, to Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz in what is the most seemless transition I’ve ever seen (helped in no small part by the incredible inks of Klaus Janson that unified the overlapping issues). This Hobgoblin story, which ran from Amazing Spider-Man #249–251, is one of the top-ten greatest Spider-Man stories of all time, totally deserving to sit next to Frank Miller’s Daredevil work in terms of tone and quality. Later, there was this drama where DeFalco and Frenz were yanked from the book by editor Jim Owsley (Christopher Priest) and the Hobgoblin story was squandered right before it was about to climax. This is good stuff that isn’t as widely talked about as alien costumes and the marriage. There’s a lot meat here. The pre-McFarlane ’80s included “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man,” the Scorpion takes a bride Annual by Stan Lee and Ron Frenz, two Frank Miller-drawn Annuals, the debut of Cloak and Dagger, the end of Marvel Team-Up, and anti-drug promotional comics… just a huge number of quality projects that are overlooked now by the Image-pop that directly followed. There’s a lot of great art this issue could feature: Frenz and Rubenstein, Bob McLeod, Mike Zeck, Rich Buckler, Mark Beachum, John Romita, Jr., Charles Vess, John Byrne, Frank Miller, and many more. And let’s face it, a Spider-Man issue might attract the attention of more readers who haven’t discovered BACK ISSUE yet. I really do appreciate that this magazine isn’t just focusing on the headliner characters that get all the attention. But these stories star a headliner character, but they really are the lost gems now. Oh, and the perfect cover to this issue—the very rarely seen Spider-Man Old and New poster by Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein, or the just-as-rare John Romita, Jr. Hobgoblin poster! I’m excited about the upcoming Iron Man and Gulacy issues. You’re doing a great job with the magazine. I love it, I’m always entertained by it, keep it up! – Todd Merrick Novak

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Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE Concord, NC 28025

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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HOW-TO BOOKS & DVDs

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 2

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COMIC CREATORS DETAIL THEIR STORYTELLING & CREATIVE PROCESSES

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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

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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:

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COMICS ABOVE GROUND

SEE HOW YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS MAKE A LIVING OUTSIDE COMICS

DVD

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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

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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

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more! 2004 EISNER AWARD NOMINEE for Best Comics-Related Periodical.

Go online for money-saving BUNDLES, including the entire run at HALF-PRICE! “If you enjoy the classics, you’re only hurting yourself if you don’t grab this.” needcoffee.com on ALTER EGO

ALTER EGO #2

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #6

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ALTER EGO #8

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

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

Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, tributes to DAVE BERG and VINCE FAGO, FCA and more!

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY022386

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ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! STEVENS & HASEN covers!

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC023029

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN032492

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB032260

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR032534

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: APR032553

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

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

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

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

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

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, ROY THOMAS on the ’60s JLA (with rare art by SEKOWSKY and DILLIN), the super-doers of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY032543

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN032614

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL032570

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG032604

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP032620


ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: OCT032843

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV032695

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC032833

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN042879

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB042796

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR042972

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: APR043055

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY043050

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN042972

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL043386

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG043186

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP043043

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: OCT043189

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV043080

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC042992


ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN053133

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB053220

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR053331

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: APR053287

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL053293

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG053328

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP053301

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: OCT053396

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

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

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

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

Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA interviewed, the first comic book Thor (not the one you think!), SIEGEL & SHUSTER, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN063429

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(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY063496


ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

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

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

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Art by Toth’s influences: CANIFF, SICKLES, COLE, KELLY, BECK, ROBINSON and others! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE BACK ISSUE #20 PREVIEW!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his work in the Golden & Silver Ages, with CARDY artwork, plus art by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, JOE ORLANDO, BOB HANEY, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN063522

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG063690

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: OCT063800

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV063991

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC064009

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, Green Hornet, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, JOE SIMON, JACK KIRBY, CHARLES CUIDERA and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Jerry Lewis, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, and others, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

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

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

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #5 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN073982

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB073887

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR073852

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

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, The Penguin, Thunderfist, The Dreamer, The Brain, Johnny Canuck, et al.! Features a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

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

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!

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 Diamond Order Code: JUN074006

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL073975

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG074112

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV073947

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


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 !

TM

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! “I learned something on darn near every page. It’s a terrific magazine!” Tony Isabella on BACK ISSUE!

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP032621

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV032696

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN042880

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR042973

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY043051

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL043389

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(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV043081

BACK ISSUE #9

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BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #14

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!

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!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN053136

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR053333

(108-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY053174

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL053295

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


BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

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BACK ISSUE #19

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

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

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

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (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. New cover by ADAMS!

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

(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

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

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

BACK ISSUE #20

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BACK ISSUE #22

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BACK ISSUE #24

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

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

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

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

“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!

(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

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

BACK ISSUE #25

BACK ISSUE #26

BACK ISSUE #27

BACK ISSUE #28

BACK ISSUE #29

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

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

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

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and P REZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: SEP074091

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV073948

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

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

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


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 Diamond Order Code: AUG074034

(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!

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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 January 2008

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! GO TO WWW.TWOMORROWS.COM FOR DETAILS!


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 !

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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” 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 Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

(100-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 Diamond Order Code: JUL073975

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG074112

(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 Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG074138

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

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG074137

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


A NEW MAGAZINE COMING FEBRUARY 2008 FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING: BrickJournal magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages! Edited by JOE MENO, it spotlights all aspects of the LEGO Community, showcasing events, people, and models in every issue, with contributions and howto articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more! Produced with assistance from the LEGO Group. Volume 1, #18 are available NOW as downloadable PDFs for only $3.95 each, and #9 is available FREE so you can try before you buy! Go to www.twomorrows.com to order. The first print issue ships February 2008—order now! 80 pages, full-color! SINGLE COPIES: $11 US Postpaid (add $2 US First Class or Canada, $7 Surface, $9 Airmail). 4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $32 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($42 First Class, $50 Canada, $66 Surface, $78 Airmail).

BrickJournal #1 (Volume 2) BrickJournal #1 (Volume 2) features reports on some of the top events worldwide that are held by the LEGO community, including Northwest Brickcon in the US, and events in Denmark and Germany. There's also interviews with LEGO set designers and other adult LEGO builders, including LEGO Certified Professional Nathan Sawaya! Plus there's stepby-step instructions, new set reviews, and other surprises in every issue!

TwoMorrows Publishing

DOWNLOAD A FREE DIGITAL EDITION OF VOL. 1, #9 NOW AT www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 FAX: 919-449-0327 • e-mail: john@twomorrowspubs.com • www.twomorrows.com


MODERN MASTERS 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 don’t miss our companion DVDs, showing the artist at work in their studio!

MODERN MASTERS 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

VOL. 1: ALAN DAVIS

V.2: GEORGE PÉREZ

V.3: BRUCE TIMM

V.4: KEVIN NOWLAN

V.5: GARCÍA-LÓPEZ

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

(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

V.14: FRANK CHO

V.15: MARK SCHULTZ

(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: JUN073926

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905849 Diamond Order Code: MAY078046

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


COMING SOON FROM TWOMORROWS!

ROUGH STUFF #7

DRAW! #15

WRITE NOW! #17

ALTER EGO #74

BRICKJOURNAL #1 (V2)

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!

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!

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!

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, showcasing events, people, and models! #1 features an interview with set designer and LEGO Certified Professional NATHAN SAWAYA, plus step-by-step building instructions and techniques for all skill levels, new set reviews, on-the-scene reports from LEGO community events, and other surprises! Edited by JOE MENO.

(100-page magazine) $9 US Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: NOV073966

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Ships February 2008 Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page magazine) $9 US Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: AUG074138

(100-page magazine) $9 US Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: OCT073927

(80-page FULL COLOR magazine) $11 US Ships February 2008 Look for it in December’s PREVIEWS

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

SILVER AGE MEGO 8" SUPERSCI-FI COMPANION HEROES: WORLD’S In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the GREATEST TOYS!TM

ALL- STAR COMPANION V. 3

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 14: FRANK CHO

The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Ships April 2008

place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY! (144-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

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

Lavishly illustrated with thousands of CHARTS, CHECKLISTS and COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, it’s an obsessive examination of legendary toy company MEGO (pronounced “ME-go”), and the extraordinary line of super-hero action figures that dominated the toy industry throughout the 1970s. Featuring a chronological history of Mego, interviews with former employees and Mego vendors, fascinating discoveries never revealed elsewhere, and thorough coverage of each figure and packaging variant, this FULL-COLOR hardcover is the definitive guide to Mego. BRAD MELTZER raves, “I’ve waited thirty years for this magical, beautiful book.” And CHIP KIDD, internationally-recognized graphic designer and author of BATMAN COLLECTED, deemed it “a stunning visual experience.” Written by BENJAMIN HOLCOMB. (256-page COLOR hardcover) $54 US ISBN: 9781893905825 Diamond Order Code: JUL073884

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

US

More amazing secrets behind the 194051 ALL-STAR COMICS and the 1941-44 SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—and illustrated speculation about how other Golden Age super-teams might have been assembled! Also, an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA-JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS and SECRET ORIGINS, with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by KUBERT, INFANTINO, ADAMS, ORDWAY, ANDERSON, TOTH, CARDY, GIL KANE, COLAN, SEKOWSKY, DILLIN, STATON, REINMAN, McLEOD, GRINDBERG, PAUL SMITH, RON HARRIS, MARSHALL ROGERS, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, TONY DeZUNIGA, H.G. PETER, DON SIMPSON, and many others! Compiled and edited by ROY THOMAS, with a new cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (224-page trade paperback) $31 US ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: MAY078045 Surface

Airmail

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

1st Class Canada $56

$64

$76

$120

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$54

$66

$90

$108

DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF (4 issues)

$26

$36

$44

$60

$72

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$78

$108

$132

$180

$216

Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Frank’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905849 Diamond Order Code: AUG074034

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

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt

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


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