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WARLOCK AND THANOS TM & © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

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Marvel’s soul-searching hero

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MARVELMAN NEW UNIVERSE CRISIS LOGAN’S RUN STAR HUNTERS with STARLIN SHOOTER GIORDANO DAVIS LEACH WIACEK MICHELINIE

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BATCAVE C O M P A N I O N NOW SHIPPING! Batman. Is he the campy Caped Crusader? Or the grim Gotham Guardian?

Both, as The Batcave Companion reveals.

On the brink of cancellation in 1963, Batman was rescued by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, who, abetted by several talented writers and artists, gave the hero a much-needed “New Look” which soon catapulted Batman to multimedia stardom.

In the next decade, when Batman required another fresh start, Schwartz once again led a team of creators that returned the hero to his “creature of the night” roots.

Writers Michael Eury (The Krypton Companion, The Justice League Companion) and Michael Kronenberg (Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy) unearth the stories behind the stories of both Batman’s “New Look” and Bronze Age (1970s) comic-book eras through incisive essays, invaluable issue-by-issue indexes, and insightful commentary from many of the visionaries responsible for and inspired by Batman’s 1960s and 1970s adventures: Neal Adams, Michael Allred, Terry Austin, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Adam Hughes, Sheldon Moldoff, Will Murray, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Rozakis, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson.

Featuring 240 art- and info-packed pages, The Batcave Companion is a must-have examination of two of the most influential periods in Batman’s 70-year history.

Written by Back Issue’s

MICHAEL EURY & MICHAEL KRONENBERG ISBN 978-1-893905-78-8 $26.95 in the U.S. plus shipping Batman, Robin, and all related characters and indicia are TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

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

Volume 1, Number 34 June 2009

The Retro Comics Experience!

Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Today!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Jim Starlin

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 FLASHBACK: The Life and Death (and Life and Death) of Adam Warlock . . . . . . . . . . . .3 An in-depth look at Marvel’s cosmic messiah, with Jim Starlin and Roy Thomas

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

INTERVIEW: Jim Shooter’s First Day at Marvel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 The in-between years in the career of comics’ teen-turned-titan

SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Michael Aushenker Pat Bastienne Jerry Boyd Eliot R. Brown Mike Browning Bruce Buchanan Rich Buckler Glen Cadigan Lex Carson Dewey Cassell Paty Cockrum Jennifer Contino Alan Davis DC Comics Fred L. deBoom Mark DiFruscio Kirk Dilbeck Scott Edelman Danny Fingeroth Ron Frenz Jason Geyer Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Glenn Greenberg Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions Tony Isabella Dan Johnson Rob Jones Mike Keane Rob Kelly David Anthony Kraft Garry Leach Peter Lee

Steve Lipsky Tony Lorenz Nigel Lowrey Howard Mackie Andy Mangels Marvel Comics Bob McLeod David Michelinie Ian Millsted Brian K. Morris Al Nickerson Nightscream (courtesy of Wikipedia) William F. Nolan George Pérez Paul Ryan Brian Sagar John Schwirian Richard A. Scott Marie Severin Jason Shayer Jim Shooter Dez Skinn Anthony Snyder Jim Starlin Roy Thomas Titan Books J. C. Vaughn Karen Walker Hank Weisinger Brett Weiss Bob Wiacek Bill Worboys Photography Rob Yancey

FLASHBACK: Sparks in a Bottle: The Saga of the New Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 A galaxy of creators explore what went right, then wrong, with Marvel’s ambitious line PRO2PRO: Dick Giordano and Pat Bastienne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 When worlds collided! Behind the scenes of Crisis on Infinite Earths GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See . . . . . . . .40 Our wish list of all-star talent on DC’s books, circa 1986 BEYOND CAPES: Logan’s Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 William F. Nolan’s future is great—until you turn 30! With George Pérez Detail from Jim Starlin’s cover art to Warlock #9. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

INTERVIEW: Bob Wiacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 The top-tier inker discusses his Star Wars stint—plus Star-Lord, too FLASHBACK: The Art of Marvel Slurpee Cups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Ever wonder where the art on those cups came from?

BEYOND CAPES: Star Crossed: Remembering DC’s Star Hunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 An incisive look at David Michelinie’s short-lived sci-fi series FLASHBACK: Blood and Sapphires: The Rise and Demise of Marvelman . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Alan Davis, Garry Leach, and Dez Skinn discuss comics’ first “real world” superhero GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. . . . .77 Chapter Six of Bob Rozakis’ fantasy comics history spotlights Kirby, King of Comics!

INTERVIEW: The Unique Voice and Vision of Steve Skeates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Concluding the dazzling dialogue with one of comics’ most diverse scribes BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Reader feedback on our “Tech, Data, and Hardware” issue—plus more photos from the Eliot R. Brown archives!

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@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $44 Media Mail US, $60 First Class US, $70 Canada, $105 International First Class, $115 International Priority Mail. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Jim Starlin. Warlock and Thanos TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2009 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. N e w

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Watchmen: The Film Companion

TM & © DC Comics.

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by Peter Aperlo Titan Books • 176 pages softcover $19.95 US ($22.95 CAN) hardcover $29.95 US ($34.00 CAN)

Michael Eury

Anyone who’s read comics for, well, a lifetime can tell you that as far as stories go, there’s very little “new” in the medium. Granted, storytelling methods may change, and formats may improve, but at the end of the day it still comes down to good guy versus bad guy, with soap opera sprinkled in to make those guys seem more real.

Still pretty much the same thing that was sold for a dime back in the Golden Age, only in a glitzier package.

But every now and then, something comes along and shakes up the comics world. Sometimes it’s an individual such as Jim Shooter—described in this issue by interviewer J. C. Vaughn as a “human lightning rod”—who has on numerous occasions revolutionized the medium; or cosmic king Jim Starlin, whose cover-featured Warlock shattered conventions and offered readers a truly conflicted, and often disturbed, protagonist. Sometimes it’s a special event such as DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths, which took the company that had been number two (with a bullet) for close to two decades and re-energized its entire line. Sometimes it’s a science-fiction concept like William F. Nolan’s Logan’s Run, prescient of today’s Botoxed, youthabsorbed culture, where not only do you trust no one over 30, but you don’t even let them live that long.

And sometimes it’s a marketing concept like Slurpee cups, which took 1970s Marvel superheroes (as well as DC characters and sports stars) and fastracked their mass-market omnipresence. These creators and concepts—and the others spotlighted in this issue— heralded a “New World Order,” and we’re honored to share their groundbreaking stories with you.

A few of you might be puzzled over the absence of the DC maxiseries that made the desconstruction of caped crusaders fashionable: Watchmen. “Surely,” you might argue, “no comic represents more of a ‘new world order’ than that Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece.”

Been there, done that. I direct you to BACK ISSUE #12 (Oct. 2005) and its “Extreme Makeoevers” theme, which included Adam McGovern’s superb article “Arch Heroes: Watchmen and the Birth of the Postmodern Super-Hero.”

It featured commentary from Dave Gibbons as well Dave’s developmental art from the series.

But given now-playing-at-a-theater-near-you Watchmen’s recent profile on the pop-culture radar, we do offer—on this very page—brief reviews of three Watchmen–related titles currently available from Titan Books.

And hey, if you’re not getting enough of the Bronze Age here in BACK ISSUE, be sure to visit Andrew Wahl’s Comics Bronze Age site (www.comicsbronzeage.com). It’s filled with ’70s comics reviews and commentary … and fun.

This is an amazing book, sort of a BACK ISSUE-meetsCinefantastique examination of director Zack Snyder’s film.

Comics fans will appreciate the Who’s Who–esque dossiers on the characters. There are exclusive interviews with the stars and chief crew plus informative background into the plot and concept, but author Peter Aperlo never forgets his source material’s visual medium—the exposition is used judiciously, allowing the graphics to dominate the book.

It’s superbly designed, almost Chip Kidd–like (without Kidd’s occasional in-your-face excesses). Ab-so-lutely beautiful!

Watchmen: The Art of the Film

by Peter Aperlo Titan Books • 256 pages • hardcover • $40.00 US ($45.00 CAN) While the Film Companion tells you the “what” of Watchmen, this book reveals the “how.”

From character and costume sketches (by Gibbons, David Finch, and our pal Adam Hughes), to storyboards, to set designs, to behind-the-scenes photos, Aperlo’s book truly makes the reader (or viewer— there’s even less text here than in the Companion)—feel as if he witnessed firsthand the development of Snyder’s adaptation.

Black Freighter fans will appreciate the frames from the animated version, not seen in the movie but recently released on DVD.

Watchmen: Portraits

by Clay Enos Titan Books • 240 pages • hardcover $50.00 US ($57.50 CAN) Clay Enos was the “Jimmy Olsen” of the Zack Snyder Watchmen movie, on the set as the project’s official photographer. Portraits provides just that: Enos’ black-and-white photos of people attached to the film—the stars, the supporting characters, extras, and crew. The portraits are astounding, but will be appreciated more by the Watchmen devotee and by photography buffs than by the traditional comics reader.

Watchmen TM & © DC Comics.

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The character of Adam Warlock has been a mainstay in the Marvel Comics Universe for over 35 years. Although today synonymous with cosmic adventure, Warlock is also a character with a history of transformation.

Initially immaculately conceived as a perfect being in the tail end of the Lee/Kirby era, Warlock went on to become a messiah to a planet under Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, and ultimately a shattered, conflicted pariah in the hands of Jim Starlin.

Warlock went through two distinctly different phases in the 1970s. Both of these were remarkably different from the typical superhero fare published at the time.

Questions of belief, personal freedom, power, and corruption—all of these were explored through Warlock.

THE SAVIOR OF COUNTER-EARTH In the early 1970s, it seemed like Jesus Christ was everywhere. The terms “Jesus freak” and “born-again Christian” entered the language, and two successful musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell, promoted the image of Christ in an entirely new and exciting way. Jesus had become a pop-culture icon.

Roy Thomas, writer and editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics at the time, had been a fan of the Jesus Christ

Karen Walker

Superstar soundtrack and envisioned bringing the story to comics, but in a superhero context. He did have some concerns: “Yes, I had some trepidation about the Christ parallels, but hoped there would be little outcry if I handled it tastefully, since I was not really making any serious statement on religion … at least not overtly.”

However, he did decide that he should isolate this project from the mainstream Marvel Universe. At the same time, though, he wanted to use a pre-existing character, rather than create a brand-new one.

Fortunately, there was a perfect character already available. In Fantastic Four #66–67 (Sept.–Oct. 1967), Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had woven a tale about an artificially created “perfect being.” He emerged as a golden-skinned man from a pulsating cocoon. His creators wanted to use him to rule the planet, but he rebelled against them and destroyed them. He disappeared, only to appear a short time later in Thor #165–166 (June–July 1969), where he made the mistake of kidnapping the Thunder God’s girlfriend, Sif. Now calling himself “Him,” the traditional Marvel hero battle ensued, with Him ultimately deciding no girl was worth taking a beating from Thor, and he made a quick exit. He wrapped himself in another protective cocoon and drifted off into outer space.

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Seek and Ye Shall Find “The Seeker,” a Jim Starlin-illustrated Warlock print thought to be from the 1970s. #29/100.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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But this was not the last we would see of Him. Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane would bring him back, drastically transformed. In Marvel Premiere #1 (Apr. 1972), Him’s cocoon is discovered in space by the High Evolutionary, Marvel’s resident cosmic-level scientist.

The scientist is preoccupied, however, with his latest project. Previously, he had performed experiments where he evolved animals into anthropomorphic, sentient beings—his “New Men.” Now, the Evolutionary is contemplating a grander experiment: the re-creation of Earth!

But he seeks to not merely re-create Earth, but to do it better. His goal is to make an Earth where mankind would arise without ever knowing aggression or violence.

Essentially, the Evolutionary plans to create a paradise.

The Evolutionary uses a small chunk of Earth to generate his new planet. He dubs his world “CounterEarth,” as it occupies the space directly opposite the Earth, on the other side of the Sun. As Him watches from within his cocoon, Counter-Earth quickly goes through billions of years of progress. As humans appear, the Evolutionary, completely exhausted, collapses into a deep sleep. It is here that this perfect Earth goes irrevocably off-course. The Man-Beast, an early New Man creation of the Evolutionary who symbolizes the “fallen angel” of this story, breaks into the Evolutionary’s orbiting home. While the Evolutionary sleeps, the ManBeast instills violence into the proto-humans. Eventually, the Evolutionary awakes, and discovers with shock what

What’cha Gonna Do About Him The character who would ultimately become Adam Warlock emerged from a cocoon and was originally called “Him.” Covers to Fantastic Four #67 (Oct. 1967) and Thor #166 (June 1969), both penciled by Jack “King” Kirby and inked by Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta, respectively. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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has been done. He struggles with the Man-Beast and his followers, and is about to be overwhelmed, when Him bursts from his cocoon. He helps the Evolutionary drive back the evil New Men, who flee from the station.

But the Evolutionary is filled with dismay. He had wanted to give mankind the kind of peaceful life they had never had on his Earth. But since the Man-Beast has seeded the world with evil, he feels it is hopeless.

He resolves to destroy the planet.

The newly transformed Him pleads with the Evolutionary to let him save Counter-Earth by driving out the influence of the Man-Beast. After much debate, the High Evolutionary gives Him his blessing, saying that he is like the son he never had. He places a small jewel upon his forehead and, in a ray of light, sends Him off to Counter-Earth, proclaiming, “Men shall call you ... Warlock!”

By going this route, Thomas was able to achieve his desire of isolating his new character from the rest of the superhero community, although leaving the connection to and potential to interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe. Thomas had liked the name “Warlock” and decided to give it to the reborn Him. Thomas and Kane collaborated on a new look, giving him a red tunic with a golden lightning bolt, their tip of the hat to the Fawcett Captain Marvel. Kane added the gem on Warlock’s brow, which would become far more significant in Starlin’s run. The story also clearly set up Warlock as a Christ-like figure.

Marvel Premiere #2 (also by Thomas and Kane) picks up right where #1 left off. Warlock plummets to Counter-Earth and is discovered by a group of four runaway teenagers. He is without his memory and is an enigma to himself as well as the astounded kids. A girl named Ellie Roberts gives Warlock his first name, Adam, as he is “really one of a kind.” Warlock’s arrival is noted by the Man-Beast, who sends out his minion, Rhodan, to attack him. In the meantime, the teens’ fathers track them down. All are men of “the Establishment.”

While the kids explain why they have rejected their parents’ values, Warlock steps into view, and the adults immediately accuse him of stealing their children.

Rhodan then attacks Warlock. After a brief fight, Warlock uses the soul gem to revert the New Man back to his true form—a rat. Warlock tells the teens it’s time to go. When the men object, Warlock tells them to look into his eyes.

They see the world that they and other men of power have created. “They see thru the eyes of a starving Biafran … an orphaned child in Asia … a city-dweller gasping unclean air into filth-choked lungs. And they know that this is their world … the world which they created … they, and men like them … and so few of them were bad. So very few.” Having seen this, the men halt their objections and Warlock and his flock move on.

Three months after Marvel Premiere #2, Adam Warlock would shift to his own title. Thomas stayed on board as writer for the first two issues, and then handed the reins over to Mike Friedrich (with science-fiction author Ron Goulart filling in on issue #5). Kane would handle the art chores on issues #1, 3–5, with John Buscema filling in on issue #2 and Bob Brown handling issues #6–8. Thomas would continue to edit the title throughout its run.

Warlock continued the story of Adam’s attempts to drive the Man-Beast out of Counter-Earth, but drifted toward standard superhero stories with pseudobiblical references injected into them. Warlock spends much of his time trying to convince the High Evolutionary not to destroy the planet, and the rest of his time battling the Man-Beast and his minions. Although the concept of a superhero savior was still present, it often came across as forced, and certainly contradictory to the idea of a pacifistic savior. It’s questionable whether the concept could really work in a medium driven by physical conflict.

Perhaps the most interesting ideas presented in the book dealt with the Counter-Earth versions of a couple of popular Marvel characters. On CounterEarth, Adam encounters a Dr. Victor von Doom who is scarred like his otherworld counterpart, yet uses his scientific know-how to benefit mankind.

His colleague, Reed Richards, also made a spaceflight like his counterpart on Earth, but tragically, his Sue Storm fell into a coma, and he began transforming into a dangerous creature known as the Brute. Doom would become a believer in Adam, and sacrifice his life in issue #7 to stop the Brute.

Adam does develop a following on Counter-Earth, although the scope of the movement is never quite clear. When he prevents the Brute from destroying the Golden Gate Bridge, he is hailed as a hero, which worries President Rex Carpenter (a name obviously heavy with allusion). In the final issue, Warlock #8, Warlock would battle demons and discover that President Carpenter was actually the Man-Beast in disguise. But their confrontation was not resolved in the issue—we were told in a caption that this would occur in another title “some time, somewhere.”

That “somewhere” would be in the pages of The Incredible Hulk #176–178, almost eight months later. Roy Thomas was the editor of that book, and it seemed as good a place as any to finish the Warlock story.

While Warlock had strung some biblical analogies along in its pages, the story in Hulk would be a nearly literal translation of the death of Christ.

Gerry Conway was the writer for the first two issues, #176 and 177, with Tony Isabella helping out by scripting the last issue, #178. Longtime Hulk artist Herb Trimpe would draw all three issues. Editor Roy Thomas was credited with having conceived the story.

Second Coming Artist Gil Kane paired with writer Roy Thomas to re-create Him into Adam Warlock. The Counter-Earth Crusader hopped from a two-issue tryout in Marvel Premiere to his own series.

Kane covers (inked by Dan Adkins and Joe Sinnott, respectively) to Marvel Premiere #1 (Apr. 1972) and Warlock #1 (Aug. 1972). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The Hulk arrives on Counter-Earth after having been sent into space by the Inhumans. He is captured by the Man-Beast’s aides (who, oddly enough, look like real-life aides of then-President Nixon) and reverts to Bruce Banner. Believing that the Hulk will lead them to Warlock, a small transmitter is placed under Banner’s skin. They later allow the Hulk to escape, and he does indeed find Warlock and his followers. Strangely, these followers are “good” New Men—Adam’s human followers are mostly unseen.

Adam and the Hulk become friends, and the Hulk becomes a part of their community. During a blatant take-off of the Last Supper, the transmitter under the Hulk’s skin goes off, causing him great pain, and bringing the Man-Beast’s forces to Adam’s hidden lair. The Hulk has become an unwitting Judas.

Warlock is captured, put on trial, and then publicly executed (crucified on a platform that resembles both a cross and an ankh). Warlock cries out, “High Evolutionary, why have you abandoned me?”

Miracle Worker Thomas and Kane display the Golden Gladiator’s might on page 14 of Warlock #5.

Inks by Tom Sutton.

Courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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After Warlock dies, a cocoon forms around him.

The Hulk grabs it and leaps off with it. Days later, as the Man-Beast prepares to wage war across the planet, Adam bursts from the cocoon and reverts his foe to his original wolf form. Having done this, he declares his work finished and takes off for the stars. That’s where writer/artist Jim Starlin would find him just six months later.

THE PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC GOD-SLAYER Jim Starlin’s groundbreaking run as both writer and artist on Warlock established the essential personality of the character for years to come. It also brought metaphysics and existentialism into mainstream comics, with Warlock and his opposite number the Magus representing the dual nature of all human beings. More often than not, Warlock was his own worst enemy, his own inner conflicts more potent than any external threat.

Starlin had already established himself with his work on Captain Marvel, which had been canceled twice before he turned it into a title with solid sales.

Underscoring the more casual nature of the comics industry in those days, Starlin describes how he came to be working on Warlock: “I had quit Captain Marvel over a dispute at that point, but I settled this dispute with Marvel and I was going to come back. But Al Milgrom or somebody was already on it; I think Steve Englehart was writing it. So Roy [Thomas] asked me [what character] I wanted to do. So I went home that night and pulled out a bunch of comics. I came across, in the Fantastic Four, Him, and came back the next day and said that’s who I wanted to do, and that night I started working on it.”

Although Starlin was aware of the previous Warlock series, he decided to head a different direction.

“I made a conscious effort to avoid going down that avenue, because I had basically taken Captain Marvel, a warrior, and turned him into sort of a messiah-type character. So when I got to Warlock, I said to myself, ‘I got a messiah right here to start off with, where do I go from there?’ And I decided a paranoid schizophrenic was the route to take.”

Using that as his springboard, Starlin would explore ideas not seen in comics at that time. His artwork was as revolutionary as his story concepts, with striking depictions of beings of vast cosmic power, such as the Magus or Thanos, or bizarre other-dimensional realms, somewhat reminiscent of the work of Steve Ditko (a definite influence; Strange Tales #181 was even dedicated to Ditko). The reader’s ability to understand and sympathize with Adam’s confusion and ambivalence was heightened by the visual experience of the stories.

Starlin’s run begins with Strange Tales #178 (Feb. 1975). Warlock attempts to rescue a space-suited woman on a small planetoid. She is being chased by members of the Universal Church of Truth, who say the woman is a heretic. She tells Warlock that he is needed to stop the Church. However, Warlock is unable to prevent her death, and her killers escape. Wanting more information about what has transpired, Adam makes a disturbing choice. In an eerie sequence, he uses his soul gem to reanimate the girl’s corpse. She tells him the history of the Universal Church: that its god, the Magus, appeared 5,000 years ago and established the Church by subjugating all who opposed him.

He conquered entire planets and now his “faith” has been spread across the galaxy. As Adam listens, suddenly the Magus himself takes

over the girl’s responses and tells Warlock that resisting him is pointless.

He reveals that he and Warlock are “one and the same being!”

Despite his shock, Adam decides to go after the Magus, whom he presumes to be a rogue aspect of his own personality.

The appearance of the Magus is one of the most memorable images from the series; instead of an actual physical being, we see a huge floating head, glowing and crackling with cosmic energy. Only later would we discover that this was not the Magus’ true form but one he used to intimidate his followers—and Warlock. The inspiration for this came from an unexpected place: The Wizard of Oz! Starlin explains, “This was one of the least-planned-out stories that I ever did. When I started off, my first thought was just to do The Wizard of Oz. The Magus and the big head, you know, I mean, it was definitely straight out of The Wizard of Oz. It just sort of developed into the religious story.”

In the next issue, Strange Tales #179 (Apr. 1975), Warlock attempts to attack one of the Church’s spaceships. He is easily captured and placed into a hold with many other prisoners, all of whom are monstrous in appearance. The Church practices prejudice against any species that is not “made in the Magus’ image”—that is, species that are not bipedal humanoids. The prisoners ask Adam to lead them. Adam explains that he does not believe in leading people, that all men must lead themselves. The prisoners are disappointed and turn their backs on him. However, one prisoner, a “degenerate” troll

named Pip, decides to engage Adam in conversation. The reprobate Pip, the perfect comic counterpoint to the godly Adam, would soon become his sidekick and accompany Adam on his journeys. Adam tells Pip that he only said he would not lead them, not that he would not help them.

Warlock then stealthily takes out most of the guards on the ship, finally engaging the ship’s commander, Captain Autolycus. Adam recognizes a sense of nobility in Autolycus, and regrets having to fight him. In the heat of battle, Adam’s soul gem suddenly springs to life and drains Autolycus of his soul. Warlock is shocked by this, but has little time to ponder it. He frees the prisoners, encouraging them to remake their lives, free of anyone’s rule. Adam then heads off with Pip, determined to destroy the Magus, although it may mean his own death.

So Warlock would go from messiah to god-slayer. When asked if this was in response to what Thomas had done with Warlock, Starlin says, “No, that was in response to seven years of parochial school. The Universal Church is Catholic, of course, because that’s what Catholic means. Basically it was the first in a line of stories I’ve done in my career that have said, ‘Let’s think twice about this religion thing.’ …

My thought was, ‘[it’s] not a good thing,’ having read about the Inquisitions and many other horrible things done in the name of a belief system. I have been sort of steadily using that theme in different stories as I’ve gone along, and Warlock was just the first one.”

With Autolycus’ death by the soul gem in issue #179, Adam now had yet another foe to fight. He would struggle to control the everhungry gem the rest of the series. Although the gem had been seen in the previous series as just another part of Adam’s powers, Starlin decided to make it a sentient, vampiric entity. “Basically, to illustrate that you don’t always have control over your life, no matter how sharp you think you are,” Starlin says. “That was basically [Warlock’s] darker side coming out on him. Not that he had all that bright a side to him!”

Warlock received a costume change in issue #180. A long, flowing cape with a high collar was added, and one of the more striking elements of his old costume—the lightning bolt on his chest— was removed. Roy Thomas feels that was one change he truly regrets.

Starlin responds with a laugh: “That lightning bolt was a bitch to draw!

Trying to get that straight—I just recently did some drawings for the Shazam! Captain Marvel, and I remember how difficult that lightning bolt was. I could handle it better now, but I was younger and didn’t draw as well [then], so the lightning bolt [was dropped] really fast.

I’m sorry Roy didn’t like that—but I was more than glad to see it go!”

Warlock, decked out in his new outfit, and Pip arrive on Homeworld, the seat of the Universal Church. They have the misfortune of running into some of the Church’s Black Knights, an elite solider group that enforce the Magus’ will. Warlock is able to defeat the Knights, but struggles to keep the soul gem from stealing their souls.

He realizes that he can no longer be parted from the gem, as their long association has resulted in a part of his own soul being absorbed into the gem. Without it, he is a “hollow shell.”

Adam proceeds to the Church and there confronts the Matriarch, a seductive woman who is the head of the organization (amusingly, the symbol of the Church appears to be the same cross/ankh that Warlock was crucified on back in Incredible Hulk #177). The slinky Matriarch reveals to Adam that the Magus is not a part of his psyche but rather his own future self, who has traveled back in time.

Before this has a chance to sink in, the Matriarch tricks Warlock into stepping onto a trap door, and he falls into the depths below the Church, where he is put on trial in a kangaroo court. The Matriarch wants to control Warlock, in order to wrest power from the Magus.

“The Man Who Stalked the Stars!”

Detail from cosmic-king Jim Starlin’s cover to Strange Tales #178 (Feb. 1975), where the writer/artist who had recently reinvigorated Captain Marvel took over Warlock’s adventures. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Whatta Buncha Bozos!

An amazing Starlin/ Milgrom original page from Strange Tales #181 (Aug. 1975), the controversial “1000 Clowns!” story, signed by Jim Starlin.

Courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Eventually Adam fights his way free, but the soul gem acts on its own and steals Judge Kray-Tor’s soul.

Filled with guilt, Adam begins to collapse. The Matriarch then has him transported yet deeper under the Church, for brainwashing.

A new cast member is introduced in this issue: Gamora, the deadliest woman alive. She finds Pip in a bar and uses him to get information on Warlock’s whereabouts. It is her intention to either join Adam in defeating the Magus, or if he is incapable of that, to kill him!

Strange Tales #181 (Aug. 1975) presented the very memorable story “1000 Clowns!,” which not only takes religion to task, but Marvel itself. In the course of the story, Adam is taken into “the Pit” for “reconditioning”— essentially, virtual-reality brainwashing. The Church attempts to break Adam’s “overly strong free will” and get him to conform to their ideas. But Adam resists at every turn and eventually destroys the machine by the pure force of his will. In the course of the story, Adam visualizes his tormentors as clowns—but to the knowledgeable reader, they are obviously members of the Marvel staff, such as Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman, John Romita, Sr., and Len Wein (the title’s editor).

The clowns show Adam “the way things are,” but he refuses to conform. He is shown a clown who is tied to a cross and is having pies thrown at him. The lead clown says, “It’s a pity. He used to be one of the best.

But he tried to buck the system. He began to think that people were more important than things! He even began to question ‘the way things are’!” The persecuted clown, with blond hair and glasses, says, “I tried! I played the game as long as I could … just couldn’t take it any longer … but you wouldn’t understand!” This character was intended to represent Roy Thomas. Although it cast Thomas as the lone voice of sanity in this mad play, Starlin felt that Thomas was unhappy with the story. “The odd thing was, the only person who really took exception to the whole thing was Roy Thomas, who I treated the best of anybody I drew into the story,” says Starlin. When Thomas was asked about it, he said, “I don’t recall the story well, but I do know that what I objected to what not Jim’s treatment of me, but of the rest of Marvel’s staff. I appreciated his kind feelings toward me, and I share them back ... but I didn’t like to see personal laundry of this type aired in a Marvel comic.”

Adam sees that the clowns are building a mountain of garbage, which repeatedly collapses. They suspect the falls are caused by the diamonds that somehow keep getting in the pile! As the lead clown says, “Someone keeps putting it in there when we’re not looking!”

Starlin had a specific reason for doing this story: “It was just me wanting to say there’s more than just your standard fight story. I actually in retrospect didn’t get as much pressure as a lot of other folks were getting to conform to that thing. The Captain Marvel stories went and sold really well … the book was going from being canceled to selling really well, so they just sort of left me alone. But a lot of my other friends were saying they were being told, ‘You have to do this, you have to do that,’ and most of the time I didn’t see that you needed a fight in every issue. I did some nice books that didn’t have fights. And I still hold that to be true.

But, you know, they like action. Action is okay, but fights are another matter, I think.”

Considering the content of the story, it’s surprising it actually got published. Starlin reveals his method: “That’s another case of turning it in late. There were a

number of times when we made sure a story didn’t get in until the last moment, so there couldn’t be any changes made on it.” He adds, “I think Roy, to his credit, said, ‘Well, it’s a good story.’”

Adam discovers the only way out of this insane place is through the Door of Madness. There, he is attacked by the dark part of his own soul. This “madness monster” tells Warlock that if he accepts him, he will gain true understanding of the Magus. Warlock then accepts his dark side, saying, “The gossamer veil of false morality has been lifted from my eyes! ... You’re merely a different point of view…” With that he bursts free from the control of the Church technicians, and finds Pip and Gamora waiting for him. He explains to them that he is now insane, but this may help him figure out the Magus’ plans. At that moment, the glowering visage of the Magus appears on a viewscreen, informing Warlock that he has simply taken one

Big Gulp From Heritage Comics Auctions, an unpublished Jim Starlin-drawn cover intended for the 1982–1983 Warlock deluxe reprint series. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In-Between a Rock and a Hard Place

more step closer to becoming him. The screen pulls back, and the true form of the Magus is revealed: a purple-skinned Warlock (complete with original costume) with a large, white Afro! He tells Warlock, “We’ve come too far down the path of my creation!

You’ve lost, Warlock!”

The story picks up two months later, in Warlock #9—the numbering was simply continued from the original series. Warlock and the Magus confront one another, and the Magus explains that their destiny is to be agents of chaos and order. Warlock is appalled by the Magus’ actions and resists him, but his future self begins to break him down by showing him the inevitability of it all. Meanwhile, Gamora telepathically contacts her master. She tells him that the Magus is apparently unable to detect her presence— “as you predicted!” This mysterious, unseen being tells her to wait for the right moment, and then strike at the Magus.

The Magus explains that he will summon a being known as the In-Betweener, who will abduct Adam to a realm “between reality and illusion—and time and space!” There, Warlock will learn that “the great division is not right or wrong, but … purpose or death!”

As the Magus begins to fire his soul gem at Adam, Gamora leaps forward to stab him. Suddenly,

Starlin’s original art to the wraparound cover to the reprint series Warlock #2 (Feb. 1983). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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the Magus reacts to Gamora and knocks her away, simultaneously bathing Adam in the glow of his gem—which will call the In-Betweener. He leaves them and Pip, secure in the knowledge that the future will unwind the way it is supposed to. Adam falls to his knees and cries: “From savior to vampire, and soon to be mad monarch of a thousand worlds … that’s me!”

As Adam wallows in despair, a portal opens in the middle of the room. Gamora’s master steps out, revealing himself to be none other than Thanos, the Mad Titan! “Thanos stands with you, Adam Warlock, prepared to fight to the death!” he growls.

Thanos came into the storyline for one reason: creator Starlin simply loves the character. “Thanos was the first character I ever created for comics, and it’s all been downhill since then,” he says, laughing. “Every time I’ve come back to Marvel, I’ve worked on Thanos, in some form or another. All the books I’ve done long runs on, he’s come in. I just love the character.

Love the whole idea of somebody being infatuated with Death and taking that as his lover.” [Editor’s note: For a history of Thanos, see BACK ISSUE #9.]

As Warlock #10 (Dec. 1975) opens, Thanos, Warlock, Pip, and Gamora are confronted by the vanguard of the Church’s Black Knights, a force of some 25,000 warriors!

The foursome battle fiercely, but eventually determine that even they cannot overcome so large a foe.

Warlock, Pip, and Gamora escape to the tunnels under the palace, while Thanos stays above, to allow their escape. In the tunnels, Adam finds the Matriarch, broken and bleeding, left to die by the Magus for her treachery. They share a moment as her life fades.

She tells Adam, “I guess we were both destined to be losers, Adam! For we set impossible goals for ourselves!

I wanted to be a goddess and you wished to slay a god!” As she dies, Adam momentarily expresses regret. He wonders why life must be so painful. Thanos reappears and tells him that pain is the price of life.

The evil Titan teleports the group to his starship, Sanctuary, and there explains why he is helping Warlock. As the reader would suspect, Thanos’ reason is not altruistic. He tells him he needs Warlock’s soul gem to facilitate regaining control over Titan. If Warlock is to soon become the Magus (he has less than two hours before the In-Betweener comes for him), this will prevent Thanos from achieving his plans. He also believes that the Magus will eventually oppose him.

For these reasons, he had plucked Gamora from an alternate future, where her entire race would be wiped out by the Universal Church. He trained her to be the perfect assassin to kill the Magus. Thanos thought that the Magus would be unable to perceive her as she was a “contaminated element” from the future, but this failed. “So we must now fall back upon our last recourse … suicide!” Thanos convinces Adam that the only way to prevent his becoming the Magus is by stealing his own soul.

Warlock is in a no-win situation. There are no good choices left for him to make. He almost seems to look forward to his impending suicide, just to deliver himself from his fate. Although the Matriarch had described herself and Adam as losers, Starlin says, “I don’t think I ever designed him to be a loser as much as being conflicted. He was basically not wanting to work into a role—there was this division between self-will and predestination, and his frustration in having to deal with it, knowing that both of them are pretty well true.”

Warlock #11 (Feb. 1976) features “The Strange Death of Adam Warlock,” and that was an apt title.

Comic characters had died in the past, but never had we seen a death like this. Adam’s sense of utter hopelessness, and his decision to commit suicide, was far from the heroic ideal.

As the story begins, the Magus and his troops flood into Thanos’ ship. While Thanos engages the Magus, Warlock uses Thanos’ time-probe device to travel along his life’s path. Inside his own timeline, Warlock discovers a spot on his life-path that has many divergent branches, one of which is mired in darkness. This is the route that leads to the birth of the Magus. But as he arrives there, he encounters the In-Betweener. He explains to Warlock that despite all the evil that the Magus has done and will do, he is the champion of life, and is necessary to oppose death’s champion, Thanos.

This is no comfort for Adam, however, and since he still has five minutes before the In-Betweener can take him off to his realm, Adam determines to destroy the path that will lead to the Magus’ creation. With a blast of his soul gem, he first purifies the dark path, and then shatters it. He then travels down what little of the path that’s left, and comes upon a scene of destruction, where he discovers his future self, near death.

He asks if his future self understands what he must do. “My final moments are upon me!” the battered Warlock replies. “You are here to steal my soul so it will never become the foe I defeated those long months ago!”

“Months,” the present-day Warlock says. “I didn’t realize it had happened such a short time ago!”

“Short time?! You fool, it’s been an eternity! During that time, everything I’ve ever cared for or accomplished has fallen into ruin! Everyone I’ve ever loved now lies dead! My life has been a failure! I welcome its end!”

With that, the present-day Warlock uses the soul gem to absorb his dying self’s soul, and the Magus disappears, along with all signs of his existence. All is wiped clean, except that those closest to the change—namely Warlock, Pip, Thanos, and Gamora— all remember what had transpired before. Warlock and Pip are transported to Homeworld, where the Universal Church has never existed. However, they find that another similar church has appeared in its place!

Some things, it seems, are destined to be.

Elemental Man Page 26 of the Star-Thief tale, from Warlock #13 (June 1976). Art by Jim Starlin and Steve Leialoha; scan courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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One might wonder where a series could go once its star has committed cosmic suicide. As it would turn out, Warlock would only have four more issues before the title would be canceled, one of a number of titles canceled due to a paper shortage.

Issue #12 would feature Pip in “A Trollish Tale,” a bit of levity after all the heavy subjects of previous issues. The roguish troll gets in trouble when he comes between a high-class call girl and her superpowered pimp. Eros (later known as Starfox) makes a brief appearance.

The next two issues (#13–14) featured Adam dealing with the menace of the Star-Thief, an Earthman who was deprived of his five senses and had developed massive psychic abilities. He decided to punish mankind for not curing him by using his mind to wipe out the stars. This idea of destroying stars would come back soon enough in the conclusion of Adam’s conflict with Thanos.

Dream Team Back cover artwork to 1995’s Ultraverse/ Marvel Dream Team #1, featuring Warlock and Mantra, illustrated by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer and courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The series ended with Warlock #15 (Nov. 1976).

With the knowledge of his impending death, Adam seems paralyzed by indecision. On a lifeless planet, he ponders his purpose: “Perhaps I should find some cause to champion, except I’ve become too cynical of late to believe in anything. It’s difficult to stand up for apathy!” Suddenly an alien hermit appears, and engages Adam in a discussion of life, and Adam’s place in it. When he tries to convince Adam that life is its own purpose, Adam responds, “I want more! For I have seen the future and know I’ve less than a year to live. I want to leave behind something of value.” The old alien than tells him that he too has seen his future, and that it is his nature to lose. Not only will Warlock die but Gamora and Pip as well, and also the High Evolutionary, “whose death you will cause.” He then tells him to look to the spirit, and disappears.

Warlock believes he means he must look into his soul gem. Adam removes the gem and the two engage in a battle of wills. As the gem seems to be getting control over Adam, he asserts his mastery over his own life and tells the gem, “I will be either free or dead!” With that, Adam reclaims the gem and realizes that despite all he may be fated to experience, he still has the freedom to control whether he lives or dies.

He then soars off into space.

If the book had continued, Starlin reveals that “I had a bit of a Destroyer-Warlock battle half-drawn, a few pages of it drawn. I was going to start going down a darker line with him. Some of the ideas I actually remembered and sort of worked in as he came back in the Infinity Gauntlet books, and what have you, when he had his own [title], Warlock and the Infinity Watch.”

Warlock would next appear with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #55 (Mar. 1977), in an inconsequential adventure written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by John Byrne.

Ultimately, Starlin would (seemingly) finish off Warlock’s saga a short time later. It would conclude in two annuals, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Twoin-One Annual #2, both published in the summer of 1977. How did this unusual arrangement occur?

“Archie Goodwin was the editor at that point, and I had just finished working at Ralph Bakshi’s out in California,” Starlin explains. “I had come back to New York, and I don’t remember where I ran into Archie, but he said, ‘Hey, how would you like to do a book while you’re in town here?’ And I said, ‘What’ve you got?’ And he said—whatever, Avengers Annual is the first one I think I did. I said, ‘Okay, sure,’ and went home and started doing the Warlock story. I figured it was as good a time as any to finish off a few things I had in mind there. And I got done with that and they said, ‘Gee, this is really nice, how would you like to do Two-in-One Annual, too?’

So I had a few things left over and it was really as informal as that.”

Avengers Annual #7 had Starlin once again writing and drawing the story, this time with Joe Rubinstein as finisher. Warlock finds a nearly dead Gamora on a lifeless planetoid. She tells him that Thanos attacked her when she discovered his plans for stellar genocide.

As she passes away, Warlock absorbs her soul, as well as her knowledge. With this knowledge, he then heads to his next destination—Earth. There he finds the Avengers, Captain Marvel, and Moondragon, all drawn together by a feeling of impending doom.

Warlock explains that they have a common enemy— Thanos. He details Thanos’ twisted plan—to use a single large, synthetic soul gem (harnessing power stolen from the six infinity gems) to destroy the stars themselves. Thanos plans to do this as an offering to Death, his erstwhile lover. The heroes head off into space and engage in a colossal battle. Warlock and Mar-Vell travel to Thanos’ private ship and there Adam discovers that Thanos has left Pip braindead. He takes Pip’s soul into his gem, and with information gained, heads off for the mad Titan’s location. Mar-Vell destroys the projector for the synthetic gem, knocking himself unconscious in the process. But this is only a momentary setback for Thanos—he has another projector.

Warlock then attacks him, and is easily defeated.

This surprises Thanos but before he can think about this any further, Thor and Iron Man come bursting into his ship. Thor immediately attacks Thanos, while the Golden Avenger destroys the synthetic soul gem.

His plans thwarted, the Titan teleports away.

Meanwhile, as Captain Marvel regains consciousness, he sees two Warlocks: his battered and dying ally, and another. The time has come for Warlock to take his own life. The death scene from Warlock #11 is replayed here, with Mar-Vell as a silent witness. Although he’s not sure exactly what happened, he tells the Avengers, “Minutes ago I saw, heard, and felt a moment I may never truly understand, yet this much was clear to me: For the first time in his long and tortured life, Adam Warlock is at peace.”

Captain Marvel was correct. For Adam’s spirit lived on in the world within the gem. There he, Gamora, Pip, and so many others the gem had absorbed had finally achieved a state of serenity. Unfortunately, though, Warlock still had one last task set for him.

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 begins with Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) experiencing a troubled sleep. He dreams of the Avengers being defeated and imprisoned by Thanos, and the huge Titan taking the soul gem from the brow of the dead Warlock.

Peter awakens and realizes that this was no dream, but a psychic message sent by Moondragon. He has no way of getting to space, but he knows who does: the Fantastic Four. He makes a late night visit to the Baxter Building, where he finds the Thing. Although skeptical, the Thing agrees to take a spacecraft out to investigate. The two heroes discover Thanos’ spaceship and enter it, fighting their way through scores of alien mercenaries. They are captured and Thanos then tells them that he plans to use the soul gem to destroy Earth’s sun. Thanos quickly defeats the Thing, and Spider-Man runs, thinking he has no chance at all.

After this initial panic, he decides the best he can do is to try to free the captured Avengers. It turns out that Spidey is pivotal in this conflict—like Adam, he has been chosen by Chaos and Order to play a role.

But freeing the Avengers is only a small part of it. While he succeeds at this, they are still unable to stop Thanos.

A barely conscious Spider-Man then senses that the key to success is the soul gem, and he manages to shatter the container holding it, thus releasing a fiery, angel-like Warlock. He faces a terrified Thanos, who says, “I saw you die! I killed you!” Warlock responds, “That you did, vile serpent. Yet I could not rest while you remained a threat to my universe!” With that, Warlock grabs Thanos and turns him into stone. Warlock disappears again into the gem, and the Avengers bury his body.

The petrified form of Thanos stands alone on his spaceship, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

At that time, Starlin intended this to be the last we would see of the two foes—but, of course, it appears to be Warlock’s nature to constantly die and be reborn. Starlin himself would bring the character back in Silver Surfer #46 (Feb. 1991). This return would be the first of many, as the character would come and go over the years. At this writing, he appears in yet another form in the revived Guardians of the Galaxy book. But the glory days of Warlock, and his battles with his inner demons and external enemies, have never been surpassed.

Marvel Two-in-One Warlock and his Two-in-One Annual teammate the Thing take on the Mad Titan himself, Thanos, in this stunning Starlin commission contributed by Brian Sagar.

Special thanks to Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, and Jim Starlin for their time.

KAREN WALKER is a mild-mannered research analyst by day, and a comics connoisseur by night. She has written chapters for the soon to be published Assembled!2, edited by Van Plexico, and is one third of the team behind twogirlsaguyandsomecomics.blogspot.com.

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Teenaged writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. Editor-in-chief of Valiant.

Editor-in-chief of Defiant. Editor-in-chief of Broadway Comics. Once again writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Human lightning rod.

Whatever you call Jim Shooter, his career in comic books has taken him as a teenager from his parents’ home in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the loftiest perches in the industry. His defeats have been spectacular and well covered.

By any objective standard the writer, editor, and (if forced by dire circumstances) artist has had a tremendous impact on fans, fellow creators, and how comics are done for more than four decades. His original run of “Legion of Super-Heroes” in the pages of Adventure Comics is still the stuff diehard Legion fans love to talk about. Critics sneered at Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars, but it sells out every time the trade-paperback collection is reprinted.

Many Marvel veterans bristled under what they described as his autocratic leadership, but seminal runs such as Walter Simonson’s Thor, Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s Daredevil, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil, and Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants, among others, all were published on his watch.

To get to that stage, though, Shooter had to pass through one of the least documented portions of his comic-book career. While both DC and Marvel fans and historians have interviewed and editorialized about his first Legion run and his tenure as Marvel’s editor-in-chief, not nearly as much as been written about his earliest days of his editorial tenure at the House of Ideas.

His stints as associate editor and editor-in-chief certainly weren’t his first exposure to Marvel, though, perhaps to the chagrin of his original Legion editor Mort Weisinger.

“Mort taught me a lot, but it was usually ‘Never do this, always do that,’” Shooter says. “He gave you the rules and you followed them. Okay. With Mort, if your family desperately needed the money, you just followed orders.

“But then, occasionally, I’d read a Stan Lee story that totally violated Mort’s rules and worked,” he continues.

“Rocked, in fact. Brilliant. I started to realize that Mort’s rules always worked, story-mechanics-wise. Easy, idiot-proof, safe. Trying things that explored the frontiers beyond the confines of Mort’s rules was tricky—fraught with opportunities to fail—but if you were daring, if you had the necessary depth of understanding and the skills, you could do wonderful things. This revelation led me to seek the underlying logic that explained why Mort’s way always worked, but exceptions could work, too.

“On my own, I started studying story and storytelling,” Shooter says. “And I found out that there were more things in heaven and earth than were

Back to the Future Writer Jim Shooter’s return to the Legion occurred in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #209 (June 1975) through #213 (Dec. 1975). Here, minus cover copy and a digit in its issue number, is the original cover art by Mike Grell to Superboy #211 (Aug. 1975), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

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J . C . Va u g h n

dreamt of in Mort’s philosophy. I slowly grokked and slowly expanded my horizons. I even got away with a few forays into dangerous territory while still under Mort’s thumb.”

Shooter discovered Marvel Comics during a hospital stay as a youngster.

“The Marvel comics I read in the hospital were a revelation,” he explains. “Suddenly, what was lacking in DC comics became very clear! Marvel comics had much more spectacular action, much more human-sounding dialogue, much more credible characterization, and much more relatable characters. And the stories! Wow. Stan absolutely threw down and danced upon clichés and conventions.”

He describes that as the moment the light bulb went off in his head. If he could write even a little like Stan, maybe he could sell stories to DC, he thought. “They sure needed help.”

After his initial successes with DC, some there even started calling him their “Marvel writer.”

“They meant it disparagingly,” he says.

As his high school days came to a close, having been accepted at New York University and under increasing pressure from the relentless Weisinger, Shooter flew to New York to talk with Stan Lee at Marvel.

He had no appointment or knowledge of any particular assignments available. The student standby fare in those days was $27.50, pretty much everything he had at that point, but he went anyway.

“I called Stan Lee and asked for an interview,” Shooter says. “Idiot.

What if he was out of town, or sick that day? Fool. I called from a pay phone on Madison Avenue. Miraculously, the receptionist put me through. Unheard of. No one got to speak with Stan. Did she sense the desperation in my voice? Whatever. Lucky fool. I told Stan I wrote for DC and wanted to write for Marvel. He said, and I quote, ‘We don’t like the writing at DC.’ I said, and I quote, ‘I don’t either. The people there call me their “Marvel writer,” and they mean it as an insult.’

Stan thought for a few seconds and said, ‘I’ll give you 15 minutes.’

“I showed up at Marvel’s offices at 1:00 PM, as prescribed. I met with Stan. We started talking comics theory. We agreed on everything.

After three hours of conversation, during which, at one point, Stan jumped up on his thankfully sturdy coffee table waving a yardstick as if it were a sword (he’ll deny that, but it happened), Stan hired me as an editor. That was the good news. The bad news was that there was no way I could do what he wanted and go to NYU at the same time. I picked Marvel.”

He showed up for work as agreed at Marvel on the following Monday with his suitcase and no idea where he was going to sleep that night.

“I worked all day, mostly editing a Millie the Model script— and caught a major mistake. Stan, who wrote the book, was very impressed and grateful. Hey, I was a made man on day one,” he said.

Lee’s receptiveness, however, wasn’t shared by Weisinger.

“Somehow, Mort had found out that I had taken a job at Marvel.

He called me at my desk that first day and proceeded to scream at me for being an ingrate, ‘After all I’ve done for you, retard, imbecile, idiot, blah, blah, blah.’ Ho-hum.”

Shooter ended up staying at the YMCA. “I spent three weeks working at Marvel,” he says. “That would have been at the end of 1969 or maybe early 1970. I loved it.

I co-plotted several stories, I edited lots of comics, I learned paste-up,

Beginnings: Legion of Super-Heroes stories in Adventure Comics #346 and 347 (July and Aug. 1966), at age 13

Milestones: Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics (creator of Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, and Princess Projectra) / Superman and Action Comics (creator of the Parasite) / Captain Action / Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes / Super-Villain Team-Up / The Avengers / Dazzler / Marvel editor-in-chief / Superman vs.

Spider-Man in Marvel Treasury Edition / Valiant Comics / Defiant Comics / Broadway Comics / winner of Eagle and Inkpot Awards

Work in Progress: Legion of Super-Heroes / DC Comics Classics Library: Legion of Super-Heroes: The Life and Death of Ferro Lad

JIM SHOOTER Photo by Nightscream, from the Nov. 2008 Big Apple Convention in Manhattan.

sort of, from the great Ancient One, Morrie Kuramoto, I proofread, I did everything. Marvel had a very small staff.”

But he was only 18, fresh from Pittsburgh, with just a few dollars in his pocket. After just a few weeks he realized he couldn’t survive.

“Finally, I gave up. I went home to Pittsburgh, where at least I could sleep in a warm place,” he says.

After leaving comics, he worked at a paint and plastics plant as a quality control tech, at a lumberyard, at a restaurant washing dishes, as a security guard, in a payroll office, in a department store, as a house painter, as a car re-conditioner, and as a janitor. During those days, he also got work doing comics-style advertising concept, writing, and illustration.

“I did work for big clients like U.S. Steel and Levi’s—and made incredible money, when there was work. The trouble was that such work wasn’t steady, hence the parade of low-end jobs to bridge the gaps,” Shooter says.

That led him back to comics, and the entire chain of events led to his first day at Marvel Comics….

Bouncing Boy Young Jim Shooter (center) first wrote Legion stories for the LSH’s ’60s editor, Mort Weisinger (left), then returned in the mid-’70s to write the series for editor Murray Boltinoff.

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This interview is excerpted from a longer interview which followed a lengthy preliminary conversation in New York City in late October 2008. It was conducted through e-mail beginning December 1, 2008, with this portion concluding December 28, 2008.

Cry Wolf!

J. C. VAUGHN: How did you get back into comics for your second stint?

JIM SHOOTER: In 1973 … or maybe 1974, dunno … a guy named Harry Broertjes called me and asked if he could interview me for a fanzine devoted to the Legion.

The Legion Outpost, I think. Among the last things he asked me— might have been off the record— was why I wasn’t writing comics at that time. I told him that I was sure Mort wouldn’t want me back at DC, and that, having walked out on Marvel after only three weeks, I felt I’d burned my bridges there.

Harry told me, for one thing, that Mort had retired and wasn’t at DC anymore.

He thought that people at Marvel and DC just didn’t know how to get in touch with me. I didn’t understand how that could be, but….

(Harry is now a mild-mannered guy who works for a great metropolitan newspaper. Hmm.) The next day, I got a call from a guy named Duffy Vohland, who represented himself as an editor at Marvel. He wasn’t. I think he was an assistant in Marvel’s British department. Harry had apparently given him my number. Anyway, he said that I would be welcome at Marvel, and that I should come up to New York and meet with editor-in-chief Roy Thomas and other people.

Okay. I think I went the next day, which was my day off at the department store. I did meet with Roy, who offered me a regular book to start with, Man-Wolf [appearing in Creatures on the Loose]. I hadn’t picked up a comic book for years, and I had no idea who Man-Wolf was, but….

After my meeting with Roy, I went to lunch with a bunch of Marvel staffers and freelancers. They all encouraged me to go over to DC and look for work there, too. Apparently, it was okay to work at both companies at once, at that point. Things had changed since the old days when Frank Giacoia, Gene Colan, and many others were forced to use pseudonyms when moonlighting for the enemy (as if you couldn’t tell it was their work). I went to DC’s offices—someone had to tell me where they were, since DC had moved from where I’d left them last, 909 Third Avenue.

Shooter passed on Marvel’s offer to write “Man-Wolf” in Creatures on the Loose to return to familiar ground at DC on LSH and Superman. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

I didn’t know who to ask for.

I figured that Nelson [Bridwell] would probably still be there. Yep. Nelson was very glad to see me and escorted me right into the publisher’s office.

The publisher was Carmine Infantino!

That was a surprise. He’d been the art director for a while during my first stint, and had always liked my cover designs, so he remembered me, sort of. Carmine wrongly greeted me as “the kid who created the Legion.” Well, no, but….

No matter. Carmine summoned then-Legion editor Murray Boltinoff and told him to put me on the LSH again. Murray seemed pleased. Cary Bates, who was writing the series, had more work than he could handle. Murray needed a guy. Then Carmine walked me down to Julie Schwartz’s office, introduced me (we’d already met, years ago), and told Julie that I was his new Superman writer. Julie sort of grunted an okay.

So, DC offered me two strips with which I was familiar, and Marvel offered me “Man-Wolf.” I went with DC. A mistake, as it turned out.

VAUGHN: What was different about your perspective as a writer the second time around?

SHOOTER: First of all, I wasn’t very confident. How could I be, having been through Mort’s self-esteem meat grinder? Yes, by that point, I’d figured out that I wasn’t a “moron,” but I sure wasn’t feeling like I was God-King of comics writers.

Julie (though ornery and acerbic) wasn’t as verbally abusive as Mort, but he seemed to be deliberately hazing me. And, as I learned later, he was. He made me rewrite things two and three times for totally bogus reasons. I had no idea what was going on. Remember, I wasn’t all that confident, figured I was rusty, and for a long time I kept thinking, maybe it’s me. Nah. Meanwhile, Murray was nicer (though crusty and sarcastic) but seemed to have early stage Alzheimer’s. Seriously. Ask his former assistant, Jack Harris. Murray would give me instructions, forget what he’d said, then be upset that I hadn’t followed some orders he’d never given me. I ended up doing rewrites because Murray misremembered things. Again, at first, I thought it was me. Maybe I was confused.

Maybe I didn’t understand him correctly.

At one point, Julie asked me for a plot for a Superman story. When I came to the office to pitch it, he cut me off and said, “Forget what you came up with, here’s the plot.” He gave me a plot bit by bit, scene by scene. I took notes. I followed that plot to a “t.”

Julie’s assistant, Bob Rozakis, rejected the script because he didn’t like the plot! I pointed out that it was Julie’s plot, and appealed to Julie, but Julie said tough s**t, if Rozakis didn’t like what I’d written, I should re-plot the story with him.

Familiar Faces Jim Shooter’s byline returned to the credits of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #209 (June 1975), and during his brief stint he used characters he had added to the series, like this tale’s title star, Princess Projectra.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Okay. I did. Then, I rewrote the script according to the new plot.

Then, Julie’s other assistant, Nelson, rejected the story, again, because he didn’t like the plot! In his letter, Nelson said the dialogue was great, each scene was well-realized, everything was good—except the plot, which he found puzzling, since I was usually so good with plots.

I had to go to New York to see Murray anyway, so, while there, I went to Julie’s office and tried to tell him that I was being batted around like a tennis ball among him and his two assistants. The first thing he said was that he “stood by his assistants.” He added that if I had written the story well enough, I would have made the plot work. Either of them.

Angry, I went home and wrote a letter to Carmine, explaining what happened. The last paragraph of the letter said, “What do I expect you to do? I expect you to stand behind your editor. But I thought you ought to know what happened, and that I will never work with Julie Schwartz again.”

I got a letter from Julie a few days later. He had intercepted my letter before it reached Carmine! Julie’s letter said, “Dear fellow J. S., You shouldn’t have sent that letter to Carmine. You will never work in this business again.” Exactly that.

No great loss at that point. Curious, I called Murray and asked him if he still wanted me to write the last batch of stories he’d approved. He said, of course.

Why wouldn’t he? No reason, I said.

That’s when I realized it wasn’t me. It was them.

Murray continued to be a little fuzzy-brained.

One time he sent back a script to be rewritten because it “didn’t work” due to the fact that people could see Phantom Girl. “Jim, she’s a phantom! How can they see her?” Well … she gets immaterial, not invisible.

So I argued with Murray for the first time. And won.

Feeling, for the first time that I knew what I was doing, after that, I often argued with Murray and won. One time, he asked me to send him three “springboards,” which are one-paragraph ideas. I did.

He sent them back with a scathing letter saying he asked for plots. What the hell was I doing sending him these paragraphs? So, I called Murray, told him I was happy that he liked the springboards and asked him which to write first. He seemed confused and asked me to “refresh” him regarding the springboards. I did. He specified which order he wanted them in and I wrote the scripts.

VAUGHN: What were the first things you worked on then?

SHOOTER: Superman and the LSH. However, I also did do a few stories for Marvel during that same period.

A Super-Villain Team-Up, an Iron Man, I think … maybe something else. Maybe a “Man-Wolf.” I forget.

It was kind of an adventure. I had no idea how to write “Marvel style.” I sent in plots, as requested— okay so far—then was stunned when finished pencil art came to me in the mail. Wh-wh-what?! What the hell was I supposed to do with that?

I tried calling Marv Wolfman, [Marvel’s] editor-in-chief at the time, but every time I called and asked for Marv, the receptionist transferred me to Dan Adkins, who worked in the black-and-white department. He didn’t know how to transfer calls, and eventually just started hanging up on me. I kept trying to explain to the receptionist what was happening, but no matter what, I got Dan. Click.

Finally, a fan, a member of the Pittsburgh Comics Club, told me he thought what I was supposed to do was write dialogue and indicate on the pencil art where the balloons should go. So I did.

Because I was clueless and couldn’t reach anybody who could explain things, I made some gigantic screw-ups. Not all my fault. For instance, the penciler on the Super-Villain Team-Up was George Evans—and it was his first Marvel job, too. He’d always worked from full scripts before. The Marvel plot-pencils-then-dialogue thing was as much a mystery to him as it was to me.

And he didn’t know the characters! At one point in the plot, I wrote, “Doctor Doom taunts his helpless captives.”

George drew Doom dancing around with his thumbs in his ears, wiggling his fingers going nyah-nyah!

When I saw that in the art, I didn’t know what to do.

See, I assumed that some editor had checked the art before it was sent to me. (Nope. Marvel didn’t do that.

The writer was, to some extent, the editor. Who knew?)

At DC, with Mort, questioning anything was death.

I couldn’t live with that image, though, so I wrote the most polite note possible suggesting that perhaps, this was a mistake. There were lots of mistakes, by the way, but that one was over the top. I think Marie Severin fixed that panel when she saw it as the pages flowed like molasses through the office, but I know for a fact that everyone at Marvel thought I had called for that nyah-nyah.

Anyway … somehow I struggled through.

P.S. The end of the Julie Schwartz story is this: Years later, Al Milgrom, who was big buddies with Julie, asked me why we didn’t get along. I told him what happened. He asked Julie about it. Julie, apparently, hated Carmine, and when Carmine walked me into his office and “ordered” Julie to give me Superman, Julie was outraged. He regarded me as Carmine’s buddy, exploiting that connection to get a job, which made me the enemy.

Julie deliberately set out to drive me away/make me fail. He was stunned by how long I persisted, no matter what atrocities he perpetrated upon me—

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Master of Kung Fu Gone was Karate Kid’s original orange-and-brown uniform when Shooter penned this origin tale for the martial artist from the future for Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #210 (Aug. 1975). Art by Mike Grell.

TM & © DC Comics.

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remember, for a while, I assumed the problems were legit, because I was rusty, and I had been trained to think I was not all that good to begin with. When he finally succeeded in driving me away, he regarded the letter I sent Carmine as an attempt to get him fired.

Al told him my side. Next time we were at a convention together, Julie was friendly toward me.

Weird. We never talked about what had happened, but, from that point on, we were friends.

Being friends with Julie meant that he would say outrageous things about you and make fun of you “good-naturedly” all the time. At that same Chicago Con, for instance, I was making a call on a pay phone— remember those?—and ran out of change. Julie was standing nearby and offered to loan me 50 cents.

Later, I tried to pay him back, but he wouldn’t take the money, so he could always tell people I owed him money whenever my name was mentioned. And he did.

He also always made fun of my ties. If they were narrow, they were too narrow, and if they were wide, they were too wide.

I was better off when he hated me.

I used to go to lunch with Julie now and then during his last few years. Those were great times.

We’d talk about the old days, ancient guys, and departed friends. And Mort.

One time Julie proudly showed me a book he’d written about his life in the biz, and pointed out the page where he told the story of my letter to Carmine.

It was a totally false account, which made him look like the hero and me look like a whining loser. And he showed me this proudly! He thought I’d be amused.

Maybe that is the way he remembered it. Dunno.

But, I know this—at that point in his life, Julie wasn’t in touch with what was and had been going on in the fanzines for much of my career. He didn’t understand the extent to which a lot of people thought I was a pariah already, and that he was providing more “evidence,” more grist for the mills of the haters. He didn’t really

Boy of Steel Ferro Lad is one of Jim Shooter’s most beloved additions to the Legion mythos.

Seen here are the Curt Swan/George Klein cover to Ferro Lad’s first outing in Adventure #346; a Mike Grell-drawn memorial statue in the Shooter-written “Last Fight for a Legionnaire” in Superboy #212; and the cover art to the 2009 hardcover collection DC Comics Classics Library: Legion of SuperHeroes: The Life and Death of Ferro Lad. TM & © DC Comics.

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get it. He thought I was a star. A big shot. A revered, honored creator. He thought that he was making an irreverent jab at an invulnerable giant (oh, say, like him, except not that giant), proving that he was irreverent, even to giants and, in a strange way, that I was so accomplished that I was impervious.

I laughed it off, and we went to lunch. Even then, we didn’t discuss what had happened. We remained friends till the day he died.

VAUGHN: How did your second Legion stint come to a close?

SHOOTER: As is pretty obvious from the answers above, that DC experience was not great. I continued working for Murray, but there didn’t seem to be much of a future there. Then, one day in December of 1975, I got a call from Marv Wolfman, then-editorin-chief of Marvel. He offered me an editorial position.

I agreed to come to New York to discuss it on Monday, December 29.

I arrived on time for my 10:00 AM interview.

Marv wasn’t there. When I walked into the editorial suite, however, I was happily greeted as if I already had taken the job by the rest of the editorial staff— Roger Slifer, Scott Edelman, and Roger Stern. “The new guy’s here! Jim’s here!” It was as if they were overwhelmed, desperate for help. Um … they were.

They asked me to proofread the lettered, inked art boards for an issue of Captain Marvel that had to go out that day. Okay. They were very happy to see me and deferential, as if I were the new boss. They came to me and asked me questions about finished art boards they were proofreading! “How should I handle this?

What should I do here?” What da f**k? So I proofread Captain Marvel and answered questions the best I could.

The other two people who sat in that room were Marv’s secretary, Bonnie, and Chris Claremont, who wasn’t in. He did arrive later, but spent most of his time sitting in Bonnie’s chair with her in his lap, necking. They eventually got married. I was at the wedding.

The Great Shooter Search (left) Quick—get out your stopwatch and time yourself to see how long it takes you to find Jim Shooter in this 1977 Marie Severin illo of the Marvel Comics Bullpen. (below) This photo of Jim Shooter with fans dressed as Legionnaires originally appeared in DC’s late, lamented house ’zine, The Amazing World of DC Comics, issue #10 (Jan. 1976). art © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. photo © 1976 DC Comics.

I soon found out that, for years, since Stan had stopped being the one-man writing-editing-creative head guy, mostly Marvel writers were on their own. Writers sent plots directly to the pencilers, pencilers sent the pencils directly back to the writers, writers sent the script, pencils, and balloon placements directly to the letterers, letterers sent the lettered pages directly to the inkers, and the inkers finally sent the pages to the office. So, the first time the work was seen by someone in editorial was when the pages were finished, all but colored. Everybody on the editorial staff was a “proofreader”— trying to fix problems that were already committed to ink on boards.

So, if there were major problems with a story, or major mistakes, they had to be corrected on the inked, lettered boards! That’s hard.

Much rewriting, re-lettering, redrawing, and re-inking had to be done routinely.

Marv breezed in around noon, stopped in his office long enough to drop off his bag and breezed out again, going to lunch. Okaaay … so I went to lunch with the editorial troops at the local Brew Burger.

Sometime after we got back, Marv breezed back in, and finally we had our talk. Marv wanted me to replace Chris Claremont, who was going freelance. Chris occupied a position Marv called “pre-proofer.”

What? Apparently Marv had come up with the “revolutionary” notion that if someone in editorial read the plots before they were drawn and checked out the scripts and pencils before lettering and inking, mistakes could be caught earlier when they were easier to fix, before they got to the “proofreaders” in a finished state.

I said, so you want me to be the editor? He said, no, I’m the editor.

I said, no, you’re the editor-in-chief. He was still uncomfortable with my title being editor, so he offered the title “associate editor.” Okay.

Whatever. The job was the same, the money was okay. I was to supervise the plots, scripts, and pencils, head up the “proofreading” staff and be his second-in-command. Fine. Marvel was a train wreck at that time. I thought I could help fix it.

What a total lack of organization. What a mess.

VAUGHN: Were you doing anything else for DC at the time?

SHOOTER: When I took the job at Marvel, I still owed Murray a few stories. It was okay by Marv that I deliver them. I told Murray

I’d finish what was on the docket, but then I was done. He seemed honestly disappointed.

Roger Stern, who had started at Marvel only two weeks before me quickly became a friend and volunteered to help me plot those stories.

I think it was a good exercise for him—he wanted to become a writer— and he was a great help to me. That was all I had going with DC then.

I officially started at Marvel on the first working day of 1976, January 2, a Friday.

Just like in my first try at Marvel, I showed up that day with a suitcase and no idea where I was going to sleep that night. Déjà vu.

But, this time, I had some money in my pocket. I think I stayed at the Y again, at first, but at least I could afford to eat.

J. C. VAUGHN is the executive editor and associate publisher of Gemstone Publishing, home of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and The EC Archives. He created Antiques: The Comic Strip, Zombie-Proof, and Vampire Hunter Dean, and he co-wrote 24 and Shi, among other things.

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®

by

Dan Johnson

In 1986, Marvel Comics was coming up on its 25th anniversary as the publisher of the most popular superhero comics in the world. In 1961, inspired by DC’s Justice League of America, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby took an idea for a team of superheroes, who in spite of having amazing powers and abilities, had their own unique hang-ups and quarreled and bickered with one another. With the publication of Fantastic Four #1, Marvel laid the foundation for a whole new line of comic books that would revolutionize the way fans and future creators would look at superheroes.

For 25 years, the Marvel Universe lived and thrived and expanded. To mark this milestone, a decision was made to do the impossible and try to catch lightning in a bottle a second time. It was a bold concept, and one whose birth and ultimate demise was fraught with equal amounts of heartache and success, disappointment and glory.

THE BIG BANG THEORY The New Universe was an ambitious undertaking, but then so was the man behind this idea, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Initially, Shooter intended something much more radical to mark Marvel’s anniversary. Indeed, creating a whole new universe was actually the fallback plan. “Eighteen months or so before Marvel’s 25th anniversary, there was a meeting called by the president, Jim Galton, to discuss how to ‘celebrate’ the anniversary— that is, how to capitalize on it and make money from it,” recalls Shooter. “Someone must have told Galton that the 25th anniversary was coming up, because he knew precious little about our comics, or anyone else’s, for that matter. It might have been me.

“The meeting included Galton, all the vice presidents, and a couple of director-level people, I think— maybe nine or ten people,” continues Shooter.

“The ‘directors’ I’m referring to, by the way, were the people like Carol Kalish who were below the veeps and above the manager-level people, not members of the board of directors—all of whom knew less and cared less about the comics than Galton did, if that’s possible. I was a VP as well as editor-in-chief.

“Anyway, at the meeting, a number of fairly pedestrian ideas were put forth—work with Abrams to publish a coffee-table book, do some sort of special promotion at the San Diego Comic-Con, etc., etc.,” says Shooter. “Eventually, I was asked whether I had any ideas for special publishing in honor of the anniversary. I had been thinking about it, and I proposed that we do a Big Bang—that is, bring the Marvel Universe to an end, with every single title concluding—forever—in dramatic fashion in May of 1986 and in June begin relaunching the entire universe. We’d start each title again from #1.

We’d preserve all that was good about each character and title and weed out the glitches, bad stuff, and

Worldview A New Universe montage assembled by BACK ISSUE’s dynamic designer, Rich Fowlks. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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From the Brown Vault (opposite page) From Eliot R. Brown’s files, Mark Gruenwald’s ideas about the New Universe, and three pages of notes from a developmental meeting. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

stupidities. We’d improve the continuity. It would be a second edition of the Marvel Universe that would not track issue-for-issue, item-for-item, event-for-event with the first one, but would draw upon the vast pool of creative ideas expressed in the first 25 years, much as Stan had drawn upon the wealth of creativity expressed in the Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics prior to 1961. It could be heavily promoted, and sales, both for the end of MU1 and the beginning of MU2, would be outstanding, I felt.”

As it was, Shooter had another reason for wanting to relaunch the Marvel Universe, one that would have seen a great injustice corrected.

“I also proposed that we could use the universal rebirth of Marvel as a line of demarcation from which to begin paying creators’ royalties to Ditko, Kirby, Ayers, and the rest,” says Shooter. “We could just include them from that point on in the standard creator participation programs that I’d installed, as each of the characters they had created long ago were re-introduced. Needless to say, that whole idea was shot down.

Too risky. Our sales were booming then, by the way, and we held a nearly 70% market share. Galton was afraid to mess with success.

“Since they wouldn’t let me do Plan A, I proposed Plan B—celebrate the 25th birthday of one universe by creating another one—a New Universe,” says Shooter, revealing how the first brick for the foundation of the line of comics was laid. “That flew. I was given a budget of $120,000—big money in those days—to develop eight new titles with which to launch the New Universe and promised a massive advertising promotional, and PR campaign as well as other support—staff, bonus money to insure that we’d be able to get top-drawer creators.”

Even before Shooter could get the New Universe underway, the first of several problems sprang up that worked to hinder the line.

“Marvel’s parent company, Cadence Industries, was taken private by its board under the name Cadence Management, Inc.,” says Shooter.

“CMI immediately began trying to sell off the pieces of Cadence, including Marvel, to make a quick, windfall profit for themselves.

They put enormous pressure on Marvel to cut costs and increase revenues to maximize profit gained from a sale. (Companies like Marvel are usually sold for a multiple of cash flow.) One of the many casualties of that effort was my budget for creating, developing, and establishing the New Universe. It was simply removed. Cut down to zero.

“We were still obligated to go through with the New Universe, however,” says Shooter. “CMI wanted more revenues, remember.

I took over the project personally. I came up with the basic conceit of the New Universe, that is, start with the real world and add ‘realistic,’ science-fiction-style heroes, i.e., based on real science, as opposed to the Marvel Universe, which is fantasy/pseudo-science-based.”

ASSEMBLING THE TEAMS With a reduced budget, Shooter began to form a team that would be responsible for the creation of the New Universe from his staff at Marvel.

These staffers included seasoned pros like Tom DeFalco, Archie Goodwin, and Mark Gruenwald, and a couple of up-and-comers, Eliot R. Brown and Jack Morelli. Right from the first production meeting, the team hit the ground running trying to come up with ideas for new books. “Jim was pounding the war drum to get something brand new started,” Brown recalls. “I remember we were at an editorial meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel on Park Avenue and Jim held up a sheet of paper and said, ‘I have here a proposal to do a brand-new series of books and I want ideas from everybody.

We’re going to get this going and it’s going to be something different.’”

As ideas started being bounced around, Shooter started playing his cards close to his vest. “Jim was playing it very cautious,” says Brown, remembering the initial editorial meetings that brought him onboard for the New Universe. “Jim was doing that for upstairs. He couldn’t

Brown Thinks Big Eliot R. Brown remarks of his gag memo: “I cannot recall whether Marvel was still owned by Cadence Industries at the time, or I had just used some old stationery! Whoever owned us then, whether it was New World or Cadence, in four short years, we would be owned by Ron Perlman and see the beginning of the end!” © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

hire a brand-new editor and he was promoting from within, which apparently is different. He did say, ‘You have to be conditional, you have to be secretive. We’re not telling anybody [what we are doing],’ and that was fine. I’m thinking this was in November of 1985. We had one more big editorial meeting and we were pitching ideas or titles for the books. I remember ‘New Universe’ [for the name of the line] was not favored at the beginning, but after trying other ideas, it was finally settled upon.”

In spite of the budget cuts, there was a clear need to get New Universe up and running. But the clock was ticking and the launch date for the new line was quickly approaching. Pressure was building to meet the proposed launch date that was less than a year away. “Because of time lost at the beginning, everything was late,” recalls Shooter.

“It was a nightmare getting anything out the door on time. All in all, given the circumstances, I thought we did better than anyone could expect.” To illustrate how diverse the proposals were for the New Universe line, one need only look at two creations which would eventually be published by Marvel, but at the time were considered not quite right for Shooter’s vision. Those series were Speedball and Strikeforce: Morituri.

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NEW UNIVERSE TITLES • D.P. 7 #1 (Nov. 1986)–32 (June 1989), 1987 Annual

• Nightmask #1 (Nov. 1986)–12 (Oct. 1987)

• Justice #1 (Nov. 1986)–32 (June 1989)

• Psi-Force #1 (Nov. 1986)–32 (June 1989), 1987 Annual

• Kickers, Inc. #1 (Nov. 1986)–12 (Oct. 1987) • Mark Hazzard: Merc #1 (Nov. 1986)–12 (Oct. 1987), 1987 Annual

• Spitfire and the Troubleshooters (renamed Codename: Spitfire with #10) #1 (Oct. 1986)–13 (Oct. 1987)

• Star Brand #1 (Oct. 1986)–19 (May 1989), 1987 Annual

SPECIALS AND MINISERIES • The Pitt one-shot (Dec. 1987) • The Draft one-shot (Nov. 1988) • The War #1 (Oct. 1989)–4 (Mar. 1990)

THE ORIGINAL TITLES In the end, eight books would launch New Universe: • Star Brand, created by Shooter, which concerned Ken Connell, a man who is branded with a tattoo that is the most powerful weapon in the universe; • D.P. 7, created by Gruenwald, which spotlighted paranormals coming to grips with their new powers as they elude capture by an agency that wants to rein them in; • Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, created by Brown and Morelli, which starred Jenny Swensen, a young lady who is determined that her father’s experimental armor will not be used as a weapon; and • Kickers, Inc., created by DeFalco and Ron Frenz, which featured superpowered football player Jack Magniconte and his teammates who moonlight as adventurers.

Four series created by Goodwin rounded out the line.

They were: • Nightmask, about a hero who can enter other people’s dreams; • Justice, which concerned John Tensen, who believes he is an alien peace keeper; • Psi-Force, which focused on another group of paranormals on the run who, when they combine their powers, can create a being known as the Psi-Hawk; and • Mark Hazzard: Merc, a solider of fortune.

Eliot R. Brown had previously worked as an assistant editor to Tom DeFalco in the Spider-office and for Louise Jones in the X-office. He then worked for Shooter, DeFalco, and Bob Budianski as a special projects managing editor.

He left that to take on the task of editing four of the New Universe books, including Justice, Kickers, Inc., Nightmask, and Star Brand. “Several months [after the initial production meeting at the Roosevelt], Jim called me into his office and asked me if I was interested in starting up a line as an editor,” recalls Brown.“How could you say no?

“Tank Girl” vs. “Rambo” (left) Steve Geiger’s cover pencils for Spitfire and the Troubleshooters #4 (Jan. 1987), courtesy of the man who inked the art, Bob McLeod. (opposite) First issue covers for the original New Universe series. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Jim told me I needed to pick an assistant, and there was only one choice, Jack Morelli, one of my closest friends. I couldn’t think of anybody else I wanted to try something horrible like this with. I can’t speak for Jack, but I can certainly speak for me. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had worked with two of the best editors in the business and I felt that I could imitate them enough to get by until I found my way.”

In spite of the lack of a proper budget to get the New Universe up and running right, Shooter and his team were able to catch a few breaks and bring in some top-notch talent-in-the-making to work on New Universe. “We had no more ability to promote the launch than we would have for regular books,” says Shooter. “We had no bonus or incentive money to entice top-drawer writers and artists away from sure-thing, high-royalty books like the X-Men or Thor (or from other companies), so we ended up using new guys and people who couldn’t get other work. A couple of them, though raw at the time, turned out pretty well. Whilce Portacio and Mark Texiera come to mind.”

As it was, Shooter got quite lucky with his own creation, Star Brand, and the art team that offered to help him launch the title. “John Romita, Jr. and Al Williamson volunteered out of the blue to do Star Brand with me—giving up time that could have been spent doing better paying work—just because they wanted to help me out,” recalls Shooter.

On the books he was editing, Brown was able to tap some diverse talent to get his corner of the New Universe ready for launch.

“Shooter suggested Geoff Isherwood [to draw Justice],” recalls Brown.

“Geoff lived up in Canada, so I only spoke to him [by phone]. He was very accommodating. There was a crisis point where Jim needed to produce four cover posters for a dog-and-pony show, some sort of presentation for the dealers and the store owners. I verbally described a cover to Geoff and he handed back exactly what I wanted. He is a

terrifically talented fellow. The only controversial thing I may have done was fight for Tony Salmons to work on Nightmask. I thought Tony was the quentisential dreamscape person because he is the last, best, natural delineator of a Ditko-esque world, aside from Steve himself. I think the first issues bared that out. The first issue was terrific. It was exactly the right note of macabre and bizarre and disturbing and off-balance putting. I still have a great deal of respect for Tony and his style.”

Meanwhile, Brown had a creation of his own he was working on, Spitfire and the Troubleshooters. “I think Jack Morelli actually came up with the idea [for the series],” says Brown. “It was more than Iron Girl, it was a different technological attitude, more realitybased. Iron Man was not unreal, but Iron Man as a concept did too much. Even in the 1980s, the suit was so smart, it could have gone off and had its own adventures. I tried to do something that was more of a garbage can with legs and a good brain in it, something more mechanical.”

Brown’s own contribution to Spitfire and the Troubleshooters stemmed from his visits with an old friend of his. “One of my childhood friends went to MIT, so I visited him quite a lot in the mid-1970s,” says Brown. “I had an insider’s view of the campus because we ran all over the place and went into places we weren’t supposed to go. We would run around on the rooftops, and this was called roof hacking. We would break into rooms and swipe ladders and climb up the sides of buildings. Jack and I went back and started photographing the whole campus so we would have plenty of reference for the series.”

To make the Spitfire experience perfect, Brown was able to make a request that made the project a dream come true for him and Morelli. “I was able to say I want Herb Trimpe and I want him to ink himself,” recalls Brown. “I got that, and that was nice.”

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Star Brand Unpublished (this page and opposite) Never before in print: unused Star Brand #1 layouts by John Romita, Jr. According to Eliot R. Brown, who contributed the scans, Romita deviated from Jim Shooter’s original plot and Brown, as editor, had him redraw these pages closer to script. Thanks, Eliot, for being such a packrat and saving these rarities! © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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THE DREADED DEADLINE DOOM While Brown was having fun creating his own series, he began to hit several walls involving the creators he was working with that threatened to keep his books from meeting their deadlines. The most frustrating of all the hold-ups occurred on Star Brand, which was intended to launch the entire line. “John Romita, Jr. was avoiding us because he was difficult to reach sometimes, and this was bad,” recalls Brown. “He wasn’t answering his phone, and we were trying to reach him in the evening. All of a sudden, Virginia Romita [John’s mother] came in and said, ‘I found [John, Jr.] at the laundromat.’

This is a mom doing a solid for her son and we spoke at that point and figured out a new time for him to come in [to deliver the artwork for the first issue]. I know at one point I was supposed to fire John, Jr. and I could not bring myself to do it. Jim said, ‘I want you to fire this guy,’ and he handed me the phone and there was John, Jr. This was in Jim’s office, so this was doubly terrifying. I did something bad.

I made it seem like I was reading John the riot act, but John was backing away from the deadline. He said, ‘I’ll bring them in Friday.’

I said, ‘No, you’ll bring them in on Thursday!’ And he said, ‘No, on Friday.’ And I said, ‘That’s right!’ I was playing it up for the room.

I did that because I knew Jim was going to be out of town that weekend and I also believed the hype about the New Universe, and I knew that if you started changing horses in midstream, you were bound to have problems. It’s one thing to get John Romita, Jr. on a project, and it’s another to rip him off of it in the middle of it.”

“Those were tough times,” says Brown as he remembers the other hurdles he faced in getting the first issues of his books completed.

“Those were the toughest parts about being an editor on such a strange project. Archie was slow. Kickers, Inc. had the potential to be

a lot of fun, but Tom, uncharacteristically, slowed down and did not produce. Tom had some hot ideas and some funny stuff [in mind for the book]. The first issue was forced through production, but it looked great. It set [the series up], but then Tom stopped.”

While Archie Goodwin created four of the New Universe books, he only committed to write two of them, Justice and Nightmask, and of those books, Goodwin only wrote the first issue of Justice before handing the title over to Steve Englehart. Danny Fingeroth, who took over Psi-Force with issue #3, has this to say about Goodwin and that series: “You know, I never had the sense that Archie had any particularly strong feelings for [Psi-Force]. I don’t think I ever discussed it with him. I always figured he was just sort of pulled into coming up with some new characters as part of his job as a Marvel staffer. But I never had the sense that, once he developed Psi-Force, he ever gave it much more thought. I had the feeling that he was more involved with Nightmask, a New Universe series he wrote.”

KICKING BACK As for the situation with Tom DeFalco and Kickers, Inc., the problem wasn’t that DeFalco had no interest in his own creation, but rather that he had too much invested in it. “Tom had an idea that he pitched to me and we started playing with,” recalls artist Ron Frenz. “At the time, the name of the strip was ‘Mr. Magnificent and His Team Supreme.’ They were going to have a vehicle called the Ultramobile that could travel all-terrain and it was much more broad adventure, à lá the Challengers of the Unknown.

As things started to form, there was more information about what the New Universe was going to be trickling down from Shooter. We found out Shooter was pushing this idea that the books would be ultra-realistic.

Tom wanted to do very tongue-in-cheek, seat-of-your-pants adventures.

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seeing something much broader. When Tom saw that Shooter wanted things more grounded in realism, he tried to take the strip back. But Jim wanted a sports book. Tom tried to tell him it wasn’t a sports book, but Shooter told Tom, ‘Trust me, it’ll be great. I want it for New Universe.’”

As it was, neither DeFalco nor Frenz stayed with Kickers, Inc. very long. “By the second issue, we did a little ditty called ‘There’s a Robot in My Rose Garden,’” says Frenz.

“Tom wanted to do this robot story, and my recollection is that Jim said, ‘You don’t want to do robots. That’s ridiculous, it’s goofy.’ Tom then presented him with a Popular Science article about military robots with treads and working arms and said, ‘No, this is available today.

It’s science fact and this is the kind of robot we’re going to do.’ There was always this ongoing debate about what the New Universe was going to be and what worked within the New Universe and, of course, Shooter was the final arbiter of such things. What ended up being the case with Kickers, Inc. was that working conditions became almost impossible. The third issue ended up dealing with gangsters and satanism and Mary Jo Duffy came in and scripted the second half of the issue. I didn’t pencil the fourth issue, but it was off a plot by DeFalco, I believe.

It was a very bumpy ride. After we left, they tried to bring in the sports element and make it a larger part of the book.”

The situation with DeFalco and Frenz is an example of the greatest problem that impacted the majority of the books in the New Universe line, the fact that very

Bait and Tackle (left) It’s the titular titan vs. Madame Midnight on the Sandy Plunkett/ Alan Weiss cover to Nightmask #4 (Feb. 1987), and (right) the Mark Texiera-drawn cover to Kickers, Inc. #8 (June 1987). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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few of the original creators stayed on their books for very long. What ended up hurting the New Universe line is that most of the books failed to find stability with creative teams, and as a result, few of them ever found a direction as they were passed off from one different writer and artist to the next.

The creative shake-ups on the books began even before the books were officially launched. In the case of Brown, he was dismissed from his position as an editor of the New Universe before the first issues of his books even went to press. “The books were taken away from me,” recalls Brown, “and I thought I had quite a lot done compared to the other editors. There were four other titles and none of them had their first issue done whereas I had at least three of my four books done. The only one that wasn’t done to any degree was Justice, which was the most troublesome. I thought I was doing pretty well, all things considered. When it came time for me to hand over all my stuff, I plopped down 99% of the finished books.

“Years later, I see there are some other complicated incidences in my checkered career on staff. Jim either didn’t tell me or I misunderstood what I was doing.

Nothing has come forth about New Universe, and I do not know why I was dismissed [from my editorial role] to this day. I do know I would have liked a couple of more months on the schedule to learn how to crack heads and to learn how to fire people, if that is what needs to be done, and to grab somebody by the scruff and drag them through.”

Brown’s dismissal from the line meant that he and Morelli never got to see Spitfire and the Troubleshooters come to fruition and, in fact, of all the series’ creators, they spent the least time on the book they launched. “[We did] one issue,” says Brown. “Jack and I had figured out the plot [for the first issue] and Herb Trimpe had drawn the book. As I handed in the first half of the script to the editor, Bob Harras, I noticed on his desk the completed script attached to the boards. Gerry Conway had taken it over. I harbored no ill will to Gerry Conway—he’s an old giant in the industry and I’m sure he did a fine job.

My only problem was that he changed a few names, which I don’t think he should have since Jack and I created the series. But that is neither here nor there. And that is pretty much it. We were in, we had our fun, we were out.”

JEWELS IN THE CROWN In spite of the troubles that the New Universe was experiencing, several things were working in the line’s favor. While all of the other books would experience turnovers in creative teams, one book would keep its original writer and artist until the very end, and in the process become the greatest success story of the New Universe line. That book was Gruenwald’s D.P. 7.

“I think that D.P. 7 is the most literate and the most interesting of the New Universe line,” says Brown.

“I found those stories very readable and those characters very engaging.”

On D.P. 7, Gruenwald reunited with Paul Ryan, the artist with whom he had worked on 1985’s Squadron Supreme, a pre-Watchmen series which many contend was just as influential as DC’s Watchmen in its portrayal of superheroes in the real world. “I was working on Squadron Supreme miniseries with editor Mark Gruenwald,” recalls Ryan.

“We were coming to the end of the series when Mark mentioned Jim Shooter’s plan to launch a New Universe for Marvel. I thought it was a cool idea and very ambitious for anyone to create an entire New Universe. Stan and Jack just went one day and one title at a time. Mark asked if anyone had tagged me yet for any New Universe title. No one had, so Mark asked me to work with him on D.P. 7.

I had only been in the business for about a year and there were no new prospects, that I could see, after the Squadron ended. I was happy to be working on anything at Marvel.”

Mark Gruenwald had a reputation in the comics business for being a positive force, both as a creator and an editor. His work on D.P. 7 reflected that and helped to make the book the highlight of the line.

“Mark absolutely believed in the New Universe and especially the cast of D.P. 7,” says Ryan. “We talked about them as if they were people we knew and cared about.

We brought many of our real-life experiences, both positive and negative, to the series. We loved our characters.”

Elsewhere, Psi-Force was also finding an audience with readers. “The characters were well-conceived and designed,” recalls Fingeroth. “As individuals and as a team, they worked very well in an X-Men-ish kind of way. Like an X-Men series, Psi-Force was about a team of ‘hunted and hounded’ superpowered young people who didn’t always get along, but when push came to shove were always there for each other. Those qualities may have been what readers found most familiar and relatable about them. Of course, Mark Texiera’s and Bob Hall’s art was exciting and set a powerful tone for the look and feel of the book, and I like to feel my stories were pretty well written, too.”

As for Star Brand, while there may have been problems getting John Romita, Jr. to produce artwork, Shooter himself was hitting a career high with the series that represented some of his best and most personal work as a writer. “The best thing about Jim Shooter is that he had spent so much time in comics as a writer and a creator, and had spent so much time bouncing ideas off of other people and having ideas bounced off of him, that when it came time for him to create his own brand-new book, he had lots of ideas of his own that were unusual,” says Brown. “One of the things he did with Star Brand was that the entire story was told from the main character’s point of view. Nothing happened that he did not directly experience and relate. That was different. [Usually,] there are always editorial asides and captions, but Jim had none of that. This was all directly told by the main character, Ken Connell. [Connell] was a thinly veiled version of Jim himself. He was drawing upon his own experiences growing up in Pittsburgh and he drew quite a lot of story from what he knew.”

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Kathy’s Kinetic Kick Original art page 14 to Psi-Force #9 (July 1987), by the art team of Bob Hall, Armando Gil, and Art Nichols. Scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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EVEN NEWER NEW UNIVERSE Within a year of the New Universe’s launch, it was obvious that the line was in trouble. Action had to be taken and a new editor had to take the helm. “I was called into Jim Shooter’s office and asked if I wanted to be promoted and take on the New Universe books,” recalls Howard Mackie. “I actually tried to decline it at the time, I will be honest about that.

There was a lot going on with New Universe at the time, and Jim was heavily involved with it. He was the lead writer and the creator of the New Universe. As a fledgling editor, I didn’t see this as necessarily a great position to be stepping into. There was going to be a lot of work, and a lot of responsibility, and Jim had wanted to implement major changes. I actually went into Tom DeFalco’s office and asked if there was any way I could turn this down and he told me, ‘Not really, you gotta do it!’”

From Star Brand #5… …the art team of John Romita, Jr. and Al Williamson. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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While Mackie was still in the process of coming onboard, the next great hit to the New Universe came.

“I took on the position, and really only had one or two meetings with Jim about where we were going to go with the New Universe,” says Mackie. “I had received the promotion at the beginning or the middle of the week, and I was going to be leaving on Friday on vacation. While I was on vacation in Florida, I received a phone call that Jim’s relationship with Marvel had been terminated. When I came back from Florida, Tom DeFalco was the editor-inchief and Mark Gruenwald was the executive editor. Mark was really the overseer of the New Universe from that point on. His book he was writing, D.P. 7, became the lead book, but he was really the executive editor of the New Universe.”

The troubled line was now without its architect.

Shortly after Shooter’s departure, the line was cut in half.

Kickers, Inc., Mark Hazzard: Merc, and Nightmask were all canceled at issue #12 and Codename: Spitfire (formerly Spitfire and the Troubleshooters) at issue #13 (all were cover-dated Oct. 1987). With four books left to keep the New Universe line going, there was a scramble to try and keep things afloat. “Mark and I met with Tom, and when I was brought in, I was given carte blanche to do whatever was needed to be done to get the New Universe rolling in a different direction,” says Mackie.

“At that point, the sales had begun to slip and most of the creative teams had been changed or were in the process of being changed by Jim Shooter before I came in.”

While many would have seen the situation as a daunting challenge, Mackie saw it differently. “It was a very freeing position to be in,” says Mackie. “It went from feeling like the most restrictive position to be in, where I was going to be working directly with the editor-in-chief, working on what was basically his baby to having no other charge other than make this work and have fun doing it.”

One of the steps that Mackie decided to take was to go out and recruit new talent for the books in the hopes of rejuvenating them. In the process, he reached out to a creator who had recently severed his ties with Marvel and asked him to take over what had been the flagship title, Star Brand. “I approached different creators and one of them was John Byrne,” recalls Mackie. “That was, honestly, one of the most absurd phone calls I had ever made. To think John Byrne would want to write Star Brand was ridiculous. [I started off by saying,] ‘I guess you heard I got a promotion’ and he said, ‘So, you called me to do a New Universe book?’ I said, ‘You don’t have to give me an answer now, but if you happen to think of any Star Brand stories, let me know,’ and I hung up. About an hour and half later, John called me up and cursed me out and it turned out that indeed he did have some stories in mind.

That was how I got John Byrne involved with New Universe. All I needed to do was plant the seed, leave it in a dark room somewhere, and it would sprout.”

Star Brand marked the return to Marvel Comics for John Byrne. A few months before, Byrne had left the company and gone to DC Comics to relaunch Superman.

His return to the company he had helped define during the early and mid-1980s was cause for celebration by fans and Howard Mackie as well. “It was quite a coup for me to get him not only back to Marvel, but back to Marvel doing a very, very low-profile book. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I had a personal relationship with John, so he was doing this particularly as a favor to me, but we also had quite a bit of freedom. We could do things that we could not do in the regular Marvel Universe in terms of 25-plus years’ worth of continuity and with creations that had not been handled by so many people prior. That was part of the appeal to me and then to John as well.”

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Down in Flames From the files of Bob McLeod, Mike Zeck’s cover pencils for Mark Hazzard: Merc #7 (July 1987). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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THE PITT

Nearing the End of the New U

As it would turn out, Byrne’s arrival to the New Universe would set off an event that radically altered the line. “[When I took over New Universe,] we had a number of meetings,” says Mackie. “The early stuff was borne out of meetings between Mark Gruenwald and I, and then Mark and John Byrne and I. I recently found some old notebooks I had at the meetings and I have a distinct memory of sitting around John Byrne’s side porch and that was where we worked on what eventually became [the event called] The Pitt. [The whole event] was a collaborative effort, [evolving] out of one scene in the comic where Mark, John, and I are sitting around my office and Star Brand comes and attacks Marvel.

The generation of The Pitt was that Star Brand can pass the Brand along to anyone else, but he can never put it into an inanimate object. That is when I suggested the idea, ‘What if he does?’ We figured it would be catastrophic, and then I said, ‘Where would we put it?’

He’s from Pittsburgh, so let’s do it there. And that was the generation of that story. We felt we needed to draw attention to the books in some big way, and in the Marvel Universe, you can’t blow up Manhattan and at DC, you wouldn’t blow up Metropolis or Gotham City.

Here we were dealing with real-world locales that gave us the potential to impact the line. We were really trying to stick with Jim’s initial premise, which was this is the world outside your window. But quite frankly,

(left) A page from D.P. 7 #20 (June 1988), drawn by Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi, and (right) the original cover art to Justice #31 (May 1989), illustrated and signed by Lee Weeks.

Courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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the first time a character with superpowers shows up, it changes everything. That led us into thinking, how much more can it change? That led to the events of The Pitt, and then The Draft and then The War and the other stories we had going out. It had ramifications in all the books.”

The Pitt was a one-shot that would redefine the rest of the New Universe’s short run, an event that ended up destroying the very place where it all began, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the home of Star Brand’s main character, Ken Connell. The events that led to The Pitt also drastically changed the direction of the entire line, as Ken Connell was quickly taken off the board as the lead character of the New Universe. Mackie says, “We were trying to establish that all the rules were going to be different.

By doing something like that, we were saying, ‘Don’t expect to see your typical superhero comics stories that you might see anywhere else in the Marvel Universe.’

Whether we succeeded or not, I leave that to the critics.”

The new direction with Star Brand, and the departure of Connell, who represented Shooter’s most personal comics work, raises a dark question that has always surrounded the radical new direction that the New Universe took. It is a subject that Mackie is quick to address and put to rest. “I know a lot has been read into the changes we made and that they were attempts by us to take swipes at Jim Shooter,” says Mackie.

“That really was not my intent. We made sure that anything we did was developed out of what had been

Short-Lived Line This Marvel house ad for the New Universe piqued readers’ curiosity, but the line would fizzle after a few short years. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

previously established with the characters. Pittsburgh was where Jim chose to set the character of Ken Connell, and that was part of the New Universe. In terms of blowing up Pittsburgh, it really was determined by the way Jim chose to establish the character in that town. We were really trying to stick with Jim’s original premise, that everything had to have a real-world ramification. I can’t speak for John Byrne, but I really had no issues with Jim. Jim hired me, he gave me my promotion, and quite frankly, still to this day, I find myself, when I’m writing or editing comic books, thinking of things I learned from Jim. I think he did a hell of a lot for Marvel and the last thing in my mind was to try and take a swipe at him. There was no reason, quite frankly.”

Besides bringing Byrne into the fold, Mackie felt he struck pay dirt with his other writers. “I was looking for talented writers,” says Mackie. “I already had Mark [Gruenwald], and there was Peter David [on Justice]. This was still relatively early in his career. Also I pulled in Fabian Nicieza on Psi-Force.”

Meanwhile, D.P. 7 held its own with readers and kept hope alive that the New Universe might find new life yet. “I do remember when the line was cut,” recalls Paul Ryan. “Mark and I were just happy to be among the survivors. I don’t think we ever thought of D.P. 7 as the flagship title of the line. We just kept telling the stories that flowed from the marvelous mind of Mark Gruenwald.”

Despite the solid work that was being turned out by Mackie and his teams, time was up for the New Universe. By the beginning of 1989, the line was winding down. Star Brand ended with issue #19 (May 1989) and D.P. 7, Justice, and Psi-Force all ended with issues #32 (June 1989). All unresolved storylines from the four titles were wrapped up in The War, a four-issue miniseries published in late 1989. And with that, the door was closed on the New Universe.

THE END … AND A NEW BEGINNING “The writing had been on the wall,” says Mackie about the cancellation of the New Universe books. “The sales had been going down, and it is interesting because, by comparison with comic-book sales today, the New Universe when it ended would have been considered a very successful line to continue with.”

“Right up until the last issue, D.P. 7 had respectable sales numbers,” says Ryan. The New Universe was finally put to rest because it lacked editorial support. Without Jim Shooter there was no one in a position of power to keep it going. Yes, four of the eight original titles were dropped, but that didn’t mean that new titles and characters couldn’t have been added to the New Universe lineup.”

Since the end was in sight, and since the New Universe had already established itself as a line that didn’t play by the same rules that the Marvel Universe did, Mackie admits that he and the rest of his crew decided to go out with a bang.

“We didn’t want this to suddenly end. We wanted to create an ending,” says Mackie. “That was what we ultimately were able to do. Even if you look at the final covers, the all said, ‘Number 32 in a 32-Issue Limited Series.’ We wanted to give a sense that there was a plan and we wanted to go out the way we wanted to. We could have dragged it out a little bit longer, but it was time to move on.”

In recent years, the New Universe has been discovered by new readers who have sparked to its characters and situations, especially the highlights of the line like Star Brand and D.P. 7. In 2006, to mark the New Universe’s 20th anniversary, Marvel enlisted Warren Ellis to write New Universal, a series that reimagined the New Universe characters. “Like anything, there are hordes of fans out there who would

like to see their favorite characters come back in their own way,” says Mackie. “I have to be honest, I have not looked at the new imagining of the New Universe and I don’t have any idea if it has anything to do with what we did. I know that the New Universe fans are out there, and they are probably more so fans of specific characters. D.P. 7 is the one that incites the most fan following of the readers I have seen.”

As it happens, it is not only the fans of D.P. 7 who look back on that series fondly and it’s not just the fans who wish the series could have gone on a little longer.

Indeed, of all the New Universe books, D.P. 7 was the one that perhaps had a shot of continuing. The interest on the part of the creators was certainly there. “Mark and I had many more stories to tell,” says Ryan about D.P. 7. “Mark and I had discussed a D.P. 7 miniseries or graphic novel.

Unfortunately, Mark passed away before he was able to complete a finished plot. I think the way we finished the last issue of D.P. 7 was nicely done.

We started the series with seven characters. In the last panel of issue #32, seven characters, united, walk into history. Thanks, Mark. It was a great run.”

DAN JOHNSON is a frequent 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.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), DC Comics’ legendary 12-issue maxiseries

by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, reshaped the company’s cumbersome continuity. Readers still recall today their anticipation over the series’ “permanent” revisions and their enthusiasm for Crisis’ numerous intracompany crossovers.

It’s no easy task producing a publication of any type, especially a project of Crisis’ enormity. Crisis’ editorial planning stages—from cameo appearances of the Monitor to the famous character “Death List”— have been well documented (nowhere better than in the superlative collected edition, Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths, which comes highly recommended). But what did it take to get Crisis on Infinite Earths,

the maxiseries and the crossover event of the decade, out the door and to the printer on time? Were there behind-the-scenes machinations— from blown deadlines to temperamental creators—that threatened to implode this earth-altering project? And over two decades later, how does Crisis hold up in the minds of those who helped bring it to life?

To find out, BACK ISSUE has made the interdimensional hop (via e-mail) to the studio of Dick Giordano, that mirthful master of “Meanwhile…” who at the time was DC’s vice president/executive editor (as well as the inker of Crisis on Infinite Earths’ earlier issues), to ask some Crisis-related questions … and joining in on the chat is Pat Bastienne, who during Crisis was DC’s editorial coordinator—and later became the company’s talent coordinator (Pat’s participation in this dialogue was limited due to an injury—thanks, Patti, for doing what you could, and get well soon!). Join us as we pick Dick’s and Pat’s brains and venture back to a time…

®

by

Michael Eury

condu cted by e-mail on Januar y 25, 2009

Meet the Monitor George Pérez’s take on the foreboding figure behind Crisis, and (above) the DC Comics memo spelling out the Monitor’s use in other series.

TM & © DC Comics.

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MICHAEL EURY: Dick, your editorial approach was creatively nurturing but relatively “hands off.”

What was your biggest challenge, as executive editor, to editorially manage such a massive crossover event as Crisis on Infinite Earths?

DICK GIORDANO: Since I wasn’t the editor of Crisis on Infinite Earths, my editorial approach, hands off or on, was basically irrelevant. Marv, and I think George, approached me with the idea and I offered little input as they pitched a story that I knew would be an “event” of the biggest magnitude. I was one of those who believed that our continuity was fast becoming too convoluted for our new audience (newsstand sales were being replaced at a dizzying clip by direct market sales which attracted older more mature readers) and that any attempt to simplify and clarify the DC Universe continuity would be welcomed by some and vilified by others. I fully expect a volley of death threats (kidding! ). I also knew that the project management would be a job and a half and could not be run by me alone. For it to work, it had to be a team effort.

I was, for lack of a better term, the project facilitator.

EURY: Were there editors used to doing things their way who resisted across-the-board coordination?

GIORDANO: Of course there were. An editor who didn’t believe he knew what was best for the characters in his charge couldn’t have been a very good editor.

EURY: So how did you get them to play ball?

GIORDANO: I’m happy to relate that at a mass out-ofoffice meeting attended by all the in-house editors, the writer/editors, Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, and myself, a lively exchange of ideas gave us confidence that all parties would, at least outwardly, participate.

There were no threats and Jenette, Paul, and myself were there to contribute creatively, not as managers.

EURY: Pat, how did DC approach the daunting task of coordinating all those interconnected stories in its different series, as well as the Crisis maxiseries itself?

Beginnings: Sheena background art for the Jerry Iger Studio (Fiction House, 1951)

Milestones: Editor of Charlton Comics’ “Action Heroes” line / Sarge Steel / 1960s romance comics / editing at DC in the late-1960s on titles including Aquaman and Teen Titans / inking Neal Adams on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Detective Comics, and Batman in the 1970s / Diana Prince: Wonder Woman / Continuity Associates, with Adams solo art on Batman tales including “There is No Hope in Crime Alley” in Detective #457 / the Human Target / Marvel Comics’ Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with Roy Thomas / Sons of the Tiger / returning to DC as editor in the 1980s and becoming its editorial director for a legendary stint / inking Crisis on Infinite Earths and Man of Steel / Jonni Thunder / Modesty Blaise / Future Comics / The Phantom / Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time (TwoMorrows biography, 2003)

Works in Progress: Colony (online comic with Bob Layton, at www.boblayton.com) / The Unseen

Cyberspace: www.dickgiordano.com / www.theartistschoice.com/giordano index.htm

dick giordano Photo courtesy of Rob Jones.

World Watching The Monitor’s aide Lyla stands up to her boss in this two-page spread from Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (Apr. 1985) by Wolfman, Pérez, and Giordano.

Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

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TM & © DC Comics.

“By the Great Apes!”

What else would you expect Gorilla City’s Solivar to exclaim when being summoned by Lyla, a.k.a. Harbinger?

Autographed original art to page 14 of Crisis #1 (Apr. 1985).

Art by Pérez and Giordano.

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

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PAT BASTIENNE: As you know, it was my job to keep it coordinated and keep each section on time. The first inker (unnamed here) was holding down two jobs and running into trouble, so it was decided, basically by me, that I’d fly out to Milwaukee and ask Jerry Ordway to take up the gauntlet inking the rest of the series. Not an easy commitment….

EURY: How did Mr. Unnamed Here inker respond to the reassignment?

BASTIENNE: Well, Dick did get somewhat put out with me for wanting to change the inker. But being the kind of man he is, he came to terms with it all in the end. He knew it was not possible for him to keep on top of the schedule.

GIORDANO: Well, I’d like to think that the jury is still out on whether I could have finished on time. But you were almost always right, Patti, and you did save me a bunch of all-nighters. I thought, wrongly, I suppose, that I was Superman in those days.

EURY: And it’s not as if you weren’t involved with Crisis in other capacities.

GIORDANO: I did sorta stay connected with Crisis.

I did a lot of work in issues of Who’s Who, the Crisis companion title.

EURY: Did any editors go beyond the call of duty?

GIORDANO: I think it helped that Roy Thomas immediately jumped in with ideas to make the project work. He was the person who had the most to lose with the elimination of Earth-Two. EURY: True—and as a result, Roy’s All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc. titles had more Crisis crossover issues than DC’s other series.

How involved was Roy with you, as well as Crisis’ writer/editor Marv Wolfman, with charting the fate of his Earth-Two characters?

GIORDANO: Roy was an old friend that I spent more time with in the

Crisis Shake-up and Aftermath Pages from (left) All-Star Squadron #52 (Dec. 1985), art by Arvell Jones and Alfredo Alcala, and (right) Infinity, Inc. #25 (Apr. 1986), art by Todd McFarlane and Tony DeZuniga. (below) Pat Bastienne, from 2007. Photo courtesy of Rob Jones.

TM & © DC Comics.

years before Crisis than most people would have guessed, but he went past me (for good reason) and dealt with editor Marv, consulting editor Len Wein, and perhaps George. I wasn’t the knowledgeable continuity freak and he could get quicker, more knowledgeable input from that group than from me. I always agreed with Denny O’Neil’s view that continuity was a tool and should be taken out of the toolbox only when necessary and left there when it got in the way.

EURY: Early on, it was decided which DC characters were part of the DC Universe and which weren’t— Swamp Thing: yes, Camelot 3000: no, etc. In retrospect, were there any characters or series that were made a part of the DCU that might have been better left to a world of their own?

GIORDANO: None that I can think of at the moment. We made the creation of that list a priority and gave it the thought that it required.

EURY: Conversely, were there any series separated from the Universe that should have instead been made a part of the DC timeline?

GIORDANO: Again, none that I can think of now. I’m not overly fond of “what iffing.”

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EURY: From what’s been reported, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and you, Dick, have been credited as the chief architects of Crisis, with Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz becoming involved later. How much say did DC’s editors have in the post-Crisis directions of their books?

GIORDANO: We tried awfully hard to make participation more fun than kissing your sister. The stronger editors could create their own stories so long as the goals of the overall series were not screwed up. Maybe a bit of noodling here and there, but we felt by and large, stepping on creative egos would be counterproductive.

When necessary, I would use a little low-key persuasion … sealed with a kiss or a small bribe!

EURY: Pat, do you have any recollections about mishaps with the Crisis crossover issues—pages incredibly late, going missing, that type of thing?

BASTIENNE: Nothing went missing, as I spent the better part of my days keeping on top of it and calling everyone working on it at least every few days. Logging in all the stages of the books—writers, pencilers, letterers, inkers,

The Gang’s All Here Crisis’ first-wave players assembled, from Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. Original art signed by Wolfman, Pérez, and Giordano and courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

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colorists, etc., etc.—and remember, this was in the pre-computer days—had me concerned all the time.

EURY: Did Marv and George Pérez stay on deadline on Crisis itself?

GIORDANO: You know what … I don’t recall. Did we ship any issues late? I know that the boys started out with some decent lead time and things did get a bit hairy, time-wise, at about the seventh issue, which was a doublesized issue. Jerry and I split the inking on that issue.

But, hey! All’s well that end’s well, so I suppose that if we did ship any late, our readers didn’t seem to notice.

BASTIENNE: As it turned out, we didn’t do too bad after all.

EURY: So nothing went awry with the maxiseries or the crossovers?

BASTIENNE: Well, the only glitch I remember was the delay of the timeline that was to be done by an assistant editor, but that somehow ran amok.

GIORDANO: Come on, Patti. You can tell the nice people who the assistant editor was! No? You’re just being nice

The End of the World As We Know It (opposite and above) Various Crisis crossovers. (right) The death of Supergirl issue, Crisis #7, and (far right) Dick Giordano’s memo to Jenette Kahn calling for the Maid of Might’s demise.

TM & © DC Comics.

and considerate—like always. Probably got that from me….

EURY: Let’s look at the art in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

George Pérez’s pages were more character-crammed than ever. Dick, was this the most time-consuming project you’d ever inked?

GIORDANO: I don’t remember it being so. As in all the story work I did for DC during my tenure there, I had help with background inking, the filling in of big black areas, and the final erasing. George’s pages were indeed crammed with characters, all of which I inked, but they were well and accurately drawn so it made my work easy … especially compared to other work that I did where it was up to me to fix and repair a bit.

EURY: “Superman with boobs.” When I interviewed you for your biography, Dick, you said that’s how you described Supergirl when lobbying for her death to Jenette and Paul. During and immediately following Crisis, did you ever regret the decision to kill her off?

GIORDANO: Not a bit! Supergirl was created initially to take advantage of the high Superman sales and not much thought was put into her creation. She was created essentially as a female Superman. With time, writers and artists improved upon her execution, but she never did really add anything to the Superman mythos—at least not for me.

EURY: Crisis’ two major dramatic moments—the deaths of Supergirl and the Flash—have now been undone by continuity changes. In fact, most of Crisis on Infinite Earths itself has been undone by Infinite Crisis and beyond. What’s your reaction to this?

GIORDANO: Everything in comics is subject to change… always.

The dead are rendered undead, planets recreate themselves, and what you thought you knew, you don’t.

I never expected that the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths would be etched in stone forever. Every new regime has to create a sandbox that they are comfortable in playing in … and so out with the old!

Isn’t that what Crisis on Infinite Earths was about? The new kids on the block are rightfully entitled to having their fun.

EURY: Readers know of the sweeping continuity changes of Crisis, but there was some creator collateral damage that took place when implementing them. Dick, I’m told that you called Julie Schwartz, Cary Bates, Elliot Maggin, Curt Swan, and others into a meeting to tell them that as a result of the Man of Steel reboot, their services on Superman were no longer needed. What do you recall about that meeting?

GIORDANO: Not a thing! Matter of fact, I don’t even remember that such a meeting took place, although it must have. Maybe I mind-blocked it.

EURY: John Byrne’s Man of Steel, Miller and Mazzucchelli’s “Batman: Year One,” and Mike Grell’s Green Arrow were among the post-Crisis fresh takes on DC heroes. Were there reboots or relaunches with creators that were planned and didn’t materialize?

GIORDANO: None that had got past the talking stage. I always wished that we could have implemented Marv’s post-Crisis idea that we should have faded to black at the conclusion of Crisis, and, after a short hiatus, launched reboots of all the major characters left after Crisis. I declined to even try as I firmly believed that we could not marshal the resources to do it justice.

EURY: What was the greatest failure of Crisis on Infinite Earths?

GIORDANO: Our seeming inability to hold the course created by Crisis and some of the mistakes made, intentionally or unintentionally, in stories that gave lie, big and small, to the conclusions of Crisis.

EURY: And its sweetest success?

GIORDANO: DC became a major player in the direct market and placed us very near our major competitor in market share. We were finally being taken seriously!

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John Byrne on Superman? Frank Miller on Batman?

George Pérez on Wonder Woman? Mike Grell on Green Arrow? For the DC Comics reader of the mid-1980s, the news of this quartet of comics superstars taking over four of DC’s greatest heroes in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths induced fanboy heart palpitations!

Dick Giordano, at the time DC’s executive editor, confessed to me that his unfulfilled dream for the post-

ACTION COMICS writer/penciler: John Byrne inker: Karl Kesel

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN writer: Marv Wolfman artist: Jerry Ordway

AQUAMAN writer/artist: Tim Truman

THE ATOM writer: Steve Gerber penciler: Pat Broderick inker: Bruce Patterson

THE ATOMIC KNIGHTS writer: Mike W. Barr artist: Brian Bolland

BATMAN writer/penciler: Frank Miller inker: Klaus Janson

BLACK CANARY writer: Howard Chaykin artist: Dave Stevens

BLUE BEETLE writer: Len Wein penciler: Steve Ditko inker: Dick Giordano

CATWOMAN writer: Frank Miller artists: Los Bros. Hernandez

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN writer/artist: Barry Windsor-Smith

CLAW THE UNCONQUERED writer: Roy Thomas penciler: John Buscema inker: Tony DeZuniga

Deadly Darkseid, the nastiest of New Gods, in a Jim Starlin-drawn commission courtesy of Anthony Snyder.

THE CREEPER writer: Steve Gerber artist: Bill Sienkiewicz 4 0

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His Apokolips Are Sealed!

TM & © DC Comics.

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Crisis DC Universe was to follow Marv Wolfman’s suggestion of rebooting the entire DC line. Let’s pretend that was in fact what DC did, assembling the top talent of 1986 to revitalize not just its core titles, but virtually every title published by the company! Thanks to a poll of BACK ISSUE’s writers conducted by ye editor, BI proudly presents our ultimate wish list of what might have been…

GREEN ARROW

NEW GODS

writer/penciler: Mike Grell inker: Dick Giordano

writer/artist: Jim Starlin

GREEN LANTERN

writer: Marv Wolfman penciler: Alan Davis inker: Paul Neary

NEW TEEN TITANS

writer: Mike Baron penciler: Steve Rude inker: Willie Blyberg

HAWKMAN

THE PHANTOM STRANGER

writer: Archie Goodwin artist: Al Williamson

writer: Alan Moore artist: Jim Aparo

THE JOKER

PLASTIC MAN

writer: Alan Moore artist: Brian Bolland

writers: Keith Giffen/ Robert Loren Fleming artist: Ty Templeton

JONAH HEX THE CRIMSON AVENGER writer/artist: Will Eisner

DEADMAN writer: J. M. DeMatteis artist: Bernie Wrightson

THE DEMON

writer: Michael Fleisher penciler: John Buscema inker: Tom Palmer

THE QUESTION

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA

SARGE STEEL

writer/artist: Dean Motter writer: Max Allan Collins artist: Terry Beatty

writer: Mark Gruenwald penciler: Mike Zeck inker: Bob McLeod

SGT. ROCK writer: Doug Murray artist: Michael Golden

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA

writer/artist: Mike Mignola

DETECTIVE COMICS writer: Frank Miller artist: David Mazzucchelli

DOCTOR FATE

writer/artist: Howard Chaykin

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH

writer: Bill Willingham artist: Matt Wagner

writer/artist: Walt Simonson

THE DOOM PATROL

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES

writer: Steve Gerber penciler: Gene Colan inker: Dick Giordano

THE SHADOW

writer: Paul Levitz artist: Bob Hall

SHAZAM! writer/artist: Scott McCloud

THE SPECTRE writer/penciler: Michael T. Gilbert inker: Tom Sutton

writer: Jim Shooter penciler: Dave Cockrum inker: Terry Austin

ENEMY ACE writer: Archie Goodwin artist: Alex Toth

FIGHTIN’ FIVE (CHARLTON HEROES)

SUPERMAN writer/penciler: John Byrne inker: Terry Austin

LOIS LANE writer: Chris Claremont artist: John Romita, Sr.

SWAMP THING

MARTIAN MANHUNTER

writer: Len Wein artist: Bernie Wrightson

writer: Alan Moore artist: Dave Gibbons

writer/artist: Paul Chadwick

TITANS WEST

FIRESTORM, THE NUCLEAR MAN

METAL MEN

writer: Tom DeFalco penciler: John Romita, Jr. inker: Brett Breeding

writer: Chris Claremont penciler: Paul Smith inker: Bob Wiacek

writer: David Michelinie co-plotter/artist: Bob Layton

THE WARLORD writer/penciler: Dave Sim inker: Gerhard

MISTER MIRACLE writer: Doug Moench artist: Paul Gulacy

THE FLASH writer: Roger Stern artist: Steve Lightle

WONDER WOMAN writer: Len Wein artist: George Pérez

Contributors to this feature: Mark Arnold, Michael Aushenker, Jerry Boyd, Mike Browning, Bruce Buchanan, Jennifer Contino, Mark DiFruscio, Michael Eury, Jason Geyer, Glenn Greenberg, Allan Harvey, Dan Johnson, Rob Kelly, Michael Kronenberg, Nigel Lowrey, Andy Mangels, Ian Millsted, Brian K. Morris, Al Nickerson, John Schwirian, Richard A. Scott, Jason Shayer, and Brett Weiss.

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HELPING COMIC BOOK CREATORS IN NEED

Because everyone deserves a golden age!

® Welcome to the 23rd century. The only thing you can’t have in this perfect world of total pleasure is your 30th birthday. Logan is 29.

by

Such was the tagline of the 1976 sciencefiction film Logan’s Run. The film was based on a novel written by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson and published in 1965.

The novel had a curious beginning, as William F. Nolan relates: “We have to go way back to 1963.

There was a science-fiction course being taught by Charles Beaumont at UCLA. It was an evening adulteducation class, one of the earliest science-fiction classes.

He called me one day—we were very close friends— and said, ‘Would you come down and speak to my class?

This is a very basic course and I’m just starting it, so what I need from you is an example of how science fiction differs from social fiction.’ I said, ‘Okay. Let me think it over and I’ll come up with something.’ So, I put the phone down and the next week, as I drove on the freeway toward UCLA, I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got to have an example and I still haven’t thought of one.’ Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute. That old cliché is that “Life begins at 40.”

What if you turned that around? In social fiction, life begins at 40 and a guy turns 40 and runs off with a Vegas showgirl. In science fiction, what if you turned 40 and you were living in an overpopulated state and it was against the law to live past 40, so death begins at 40?

That might make an interesting science fiction example for the class.’ That’s all I ever thought it would be. So, I gave the lecture and I used that example and when I was driving home after the class, I thought, ‘You know, I could probably sell that and make $100 or maybe even $200 off it.’ I even had a title, ‘Killer Man, Killer Man, Leave My Door.’ So, in the future, the K-Men—it was Sandmen in the final novel—would come to your door on your 40th birthday and take you away for euthanasia and that would be the end of you. I could write about an ex-K-Man who turns 40 and is pursued by his own people, but since he knows all the rules and he has been a K-Man, he knows how to stay one step ahead of them. But in the end, they find him and execute him and that’s the end of the story.

And I thought, ‘I could probably even make a novelette out of that.’ That’s as far as it went then, in 1963.”

That was not, of course, the end of the story. Early the next year, Nolan was visiting with another close friend, screenwriter George Clayton Johnson, who had worked on TV’s original Twilight Zone. Nolan told Johnson of his story idea and George loved it, suggesting they write it together. Their plan was to write a novel first and then a screenplay. Before parting, they jotted down some key ideas on index cards, such as lowering the age of death.

As Nolan explains, “We cut it from 40 to 21 eventually because we thought death at 21 is far more shocking for most people than death at 40. You’re just achieving your

Dewey Cassell

Running for Their Lives Logan’s Run montage created by George Pérez for the artist’s 1977 Accent on the First “E” portfolio.

Art scans in this article courtesy of Dewey Cassell.

Logan’s Run TM & © MGM.

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©1967 William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.

adulthood, you’ve just turned 21, and suddenly you have to die.” Due to hectic schedules, it was the following year before they were able to set aside time to write the story.

To get away from distractions, they holed up in a motel room, cranking out the novel on a typewriter in 21 days. After a few revisions, they submitted the manuscript to several publishers simultaneously and Dial Press made the best offer. Having sold the novel, Nolan and Johnson then sat down to draft the screenplay, following a similar writing approach. At the time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer became interested in Logan’s Run and ultimately met their asking price of $100,000.

MGM purchased the film rights to Logan’s Run, but rejected the screenplay submitted by Nolan and Johnson. The project went through a series of screenwriters, including Richard Maibaum, who had penned a number of the James Bond films.

Irwin Allen also pitched an idea for the film, but MGM did not want to surrender the rights to the property. It ultimately took nine years to bring to fruition. Each year, MGM would change executives and the new executives would have a different idea of how to do it. Finally, David Zelag Goodman was chosen to adapt the novel to the screen. Goodman did not have a sciencefiction background and the film differed from the novel in several significant ways.

The death age was changed from 21 to 30.

At the time, teenage actors were less plentiful and it would have been challenging to cast the entire movie with people under 21. Other changes were more capricious. Nolan recalls his conversation with producer Saul David: “Saul said, ‘We’re getting rid of your euthanasia thing, the Sleep Shop.’

And I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Yeah. MGM took your whole Sleep Shop concept and put it into Soylent Green, another one of our movies. And I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ And he said, ‘Well, we own the rights to both books.’

There were additional changes, as Nolan recalls in his further conversation with Saul David: “Saul said, ‘By the way, we’re bringing in an old man.’ And I said, ‘Oh, you mean Ballard, the Sanctuary master.’ And he said, ‘No, we’ve got a contract with Peter Ustinov. He’s going to come over from England and he’s going to take the part of this old man who lives in the Senate building with hundreds of different cats and he quotes from T. S. Eliot all the time.’ And I said, ‘Where’s Ballard?’ He said, ‘We got rid of Ballard.’ And I said, ‘So what does Sanctuary mean?’

And he said, ‘There is no Sanctuary.’”

Despite the authors’ objections, MGM proceeded with the film, which proved to be a box-office success.

Logan’s Run was directed by Michael Anderson, and starred Michael York as Logan, Jenny Agutter as Jessica, Richard Jordan as Francis, and Farrah Fawcett-Majors in her breakout film role as Holly. The film won an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects.

Bringing the Novel to the Silver Screen (top) Logan’s Run movie poster, courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries (www.ha.com). (inset) 1969 Dell paperback edition of the novel. (bottom) Scene in the ice cave from the film, with Michael York as Logan and Jenny Agutter as Jessica. © 1976 MGM.

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LOGAN RUNS TO MARVEL

Lost Film Scenes Survive in Marvel Adaptation

Marvel Comics obtained the rights to adapt the Logan’s Run film to comic-book format. Gerry Conway, who had recently returned from a stint at DC Comics to become editor-in-chief at Marvel, was slated to write the adaptation, which was to be illustrated by George Pérez and Klaus Janson. However, after the first issue, Conway elected to leave the editorial job and changed his writing assignments, at which point David Anthony Kraft took over the scripting chores for Logan’s Run. Kraft remembers the ironic circumstances surrounding the assignment. “I think it amused Jim Shooter to offer me the job because I had been standing around the Bullpen,” he recalls, “carrying on at great length about how much I thought the Logan’s Run movie stank. It was wrong in so many ways. It was an example of how not to do science fiction and so on. I made my displeasure quite well known. Normally, I would be saying, ‘I’m not going near that,’ but George Pérez’s first color series was “Man-Wolf” [in Creatures on the Loose], that I wrote. I always liked working with him and this was a chance to work together. Plus, Klaus Janson was inking the book and the two of them together are just great. So I decided I would solve this by taking the job and fixing some of the plot holes and character problems. Indeed I actually did that; there are some things in the movie that I thought were just egregious errors and when I wrote the comic, I fixed them as I went along.”

Normally, comic-book adaptations are done prior to a film’s release so the timing of their publication roughly coincides with the film. As Kraft observes, “Usually, when you adapt movies, the movie is not made yet and they give you a script and you don’t know what’s going to be in the final cut. When you’re working from the script, you don’t know if the movie is going to be good or bad, because the movie is not released yet. Star Wars was like that. When Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin were doing Star Wars, they were working off a script and had no idea that the movie was going to be legendary.” In the case of Logan’s Run, the film was in theaters by the time Kraft, Pérez, and Janson started work on the second issue of the adaptation.

Prior to that time, Pérez recalls that he had limited source material from which to draw: “What they sent me, instead of photos, were slides. Of course, I didn’t have a slide projector, so I was looking at slides through an eye viewer and trying to draw from that. I remember there was one scene where Logan goes into this chamber where he gets all the information about hunting down the runners. I remember drawing the scenery and the computer banks in the background in a certain way and not realizing until I saw the film and saw it full-sized that what I did as a top and bottom of the computer was actually the computer and the reflection of the computer on a black glowing floor.

I couldn’t tell on the slide that I was looking at a reflection as opposed to just one complete piece of machinery.” There were also several scenes in the script that were cut from the finished film, but which remain in the comic-book adaptation, notably an opening sequence where Francis terminates a runner who falls back into a fountain, as well as a later sequence in the ice cave where Box sculpts a nude Logan and Jessica embracing.

Like Kraft, Pérez also embellished the story. As he notes, “David wanted to be a little more experimental as well, like I was trying to do with some of the visuals. One of the things that I did comment on, when I finally saw the film with Archie Goodwin, is that a mall is a mall, no matter how much they try to make it futuristic. It was a mall that they were running around in. But I took what art designs I could take and use. I was able to do a little more with the visuals than they could have done in the film at that time. And, obviously, miniatures in a comic would look more realistic in relationship to a lined drawing of a character, but on a film, it looked like a miniature. Of course, the characters are more heroic because one of the things we didn’t have the rights to do was use the likenesses of any of the actors in the film, so we had to visually create the look of Logan, Francis, Jessica,

(top) The cover of Marvel Comics’ Logan’s Run #1 (Jan. 1977), by George Pérez and Al Milgrom. (bottom) Page 3 from issue #1, depicting a scene deleted from the film. Art by Pérez and Klaus Janson. © 1976 Marvel Comics Group.

Based on material © 1976 MGM.

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An Eyeful for Marvel Editors It wasn’t the violence on this final page from issue #2 of Logan’s Run that concerned Marvel Comics’ editors. (inset) Pérez and Milgrom’s cover to issue #2 (Feb. 1977). © 1976 Marvel Comics Group.

Based on material © 1976 MGM.

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Details Lost in Printing (left and center) This closeup of a runner’s eye from page 30 from issue #2 shows the effect of plastic plates on the quality of printing. (right) Frank Giacoia inked George Pérez’s cover to Logan’s Run #5 (May 1977), the concluding chapter of the film adaptation. © 1977 Marvel Comics Group. Based on material © 1976 MGM.

the Old Man, etc. I basically was drawing a standard super-heroic face for Logan, a slightly more arched face and darker features for Francis, and then a Janet Van Dyne [the Wasp character in the Avengers] for Jessica. The only thing we were able to do pretty much dead-on was Box because you never saw Roscoe Lee Browne’s face.”

The limitation regarding likenesses of the actors was not unusual.

Marvel faced the same constraints in adapting Planet of the Apes.

One other way in which Pérez embellished the story was his inclusion of minorities, which were conspicuously scarce in the film.

In addition, the silver screen was more restrictive with regard to the depiction of violence, even more so than comics. Pérez explains, “When we did the comic, we could obviously go a little more violent because you’re looking at a line character, not a flesh-and-blood human doing it. I remember the end of, I think it was issue #2, where Francis has just killed a female runner that Logan had let go. I had her stomach smoking and the editors weren’t at all worried about it.

They were more concerned that I was showing the underside of her breasts popping out of the halter-top dress she was wearing.”

There were some challenges with the comic-book adaptation, one of which was the length. The adaptation was originally planned for four issues, but that expanded to five by issue #3. Pérez recalls, “There were certain things that we were able to play up visually since we had five issues for the adaptation of the film, so it was pretty lengthy.

Of course, comics were only 17 pages at the time, instead of the now-standard 22. I know that when Gerry did the first issue, one thing I did notice was that, ‘My God, this was a heck of a long lead-up.’

“Not really very much happens in the first issue,” Pérez continues.

“It starts to set up and by the end of the story it finally tells Logan that he’s basically got to run. Now, whether David had been doing it from issue one, he would have paced it a little different and put a little more action in, it’s hard to say. Gerry must have had an idea of what he was going to do for an overview and then David took it from there and tweaked it so that we would hit the points we wanted to hit and still have a dramatic cliffhanger that would lead to a good start for the next issue. I think that I do remember that despite the fact that it was five issues, I thought the last issue tended to be a little more cramped, dealing with the confrontation between Logan and Francis, Francis’ death, going back home, and telling everybody else the truth about Sanctuary. You have a little bit of a packed feeling compared to the issues before it.”

In addition, there were some printing challenges that most readers were probably not aware of, although they certainly witnessed the effect, as Kraft explains: “It was during that run on Logan—issue #2

or 3, I think—that corporate Marvel decided that a way to save money was to use cheaper plastic plates for printing. If you look at the last page or two of that issue, it is a closeup on a runner’s eyes and Klaus did some beautiful fine line work on that, and I was so proud of the issue. When it came out, with the ‘camera’ pushing in on her eyes and you’re seeing her pupil close up, it looks all wobbly like Klaus had Alzheimer’s or something. It was all due to the plastic plates. The fine lines actually melted on the presses. The people who were incredibly artistic and did wonderful work, previously metal plates would have printed them, but the plastic plates melted them.”

The artwork for Logan’s Run was exceptional. “I really thought George did a great job on the art for that,” Kraft observes. “He’s so detailed anyway, but there are scenes that he did where every single leaf that ever fell from the forest was clearly delineated. It’s just beautiful stuff. Years later, when I was publishing Comics Interview, I did an interview with Adam Hughes and he’s this new guy, from my perspective, and he is telling me that one of the things that got him into doing comics was Logan’s Run. He liked it so much. He said, ‘I read that series over and over again until it was ragged.’ You never know the effect you have on people.”

Pérez certainly recognizes it as a turning point in his career. “A lot of people thought the comic-book adaptation was superior to the movie because it came across a lot better in the comic-book adaptation than it did on the screen. One of the things, for me, is that it taught me how to use real reference of any considerable size for the first time. I tried to copy the art direction as well as I could and make it dynamic using the real Washington, D.C. Logan’s Run taught me how to try to be a little more realistic and start slowing down as an artist so I could relearn my craft. It showed a marked change in my style. I became a better artist after Logan’s Run.” N e w

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BEYOND THE MOVIE

Rare Logan’s Run artwork

The comic-book adaptation of the film was well received and foreign editions were published in Spain and Italy. Marvel had planned all along to continue the series after the adaptation was finished, but the new adventures of Logan would be led by a different creative team, as Kraft relates: “I had undertaken another series or maybe two—I’m not sure exactly, but the adaptation was something I thought I could take and fit it into my schedule. It had a beginning and an end. But I couldn’t do it as a regular series. I was very loaded up with stuff. When they said they were going to continue it, I said, ‘I’m not really a Logan fan anyway,’ plus they changed artists. Probably if George had stayed on it, I would have quit whatever else.”

John David Warner assumed the scripting responsibilities for the ongoing series, with artwork by Tom Sutton, Terry Austin, and Klaus Janson. Warner did a nice job of extending the concepts from the movie, including the Sandmen attempting to re-establish order and an intriguing subplot involving the computer core, as well as incorporating the original Sandman gun from the novel, which could fire different projectiles.

The sixth issue not only featured a new Logan tale, but also a backup story with Thanos and the Destroyer.

It is noteworthy because it was the first solo Thanos story, outside of the Warlock series. The story was written

by Scott Edelman and drawn by Mike Zeck.

Edelman explains how the solo Thanos story came about: “In order to avoid the Dreaded Deadline Doom,

(left) Unpublished penciled page by Tom Sutton, planned for issue #9 of Marvel’s Logan’s Run. (right) First page of the debut “Logan’s Run” story in Look-In magazine.

Marvel page © 1977 Marvel Comics Group. Based on material © 1976 MGM. Look-In page: © 1978 MGM.

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writers were asked to come up with five- and six-page shorts which would allow the lead stories of a title to be a little shorter, so those creators could catch up.

We were asked to pitch tales of any characters which tempted us, while not changing those characters in any way. So, during the brief time that these sorts of stories were encouraged, I wrote pieces on Spider-Man, the Vision, Nick Fury, Rick Jones, the Falcon, and other characters. It made sense that the Thanos story would be the one they chose, since it was the most science fictional of the tales floating around at the time.”

By virtue of the Thanos story, the sixth issue of Logan’s Run is prized by many collectors. [Editor’s note: For more on Scott Edleman’s backup stories, read the article “The Lost Angel Stories” in issue #29 of BACK ISSUE, available from www.twomorrows.com.]

The backup story served its purpose and issue #7 of Logan’s Run featured a full-length Logan narrative with a cliffhanger ending. And then the series was abruptly canceled. The letters column in issue #6 noted that Marvel had been in “further contractual negotiations with Hollywood.” Penciled pages by Tom Sutton for issue #9 recently surfaced, suggesting Marvel was optimistically proceeding ahead.

Pérez recalls what happened: “Unfortunately, they continued the comic book without getting all the ‘i’s dotted and the ‘t’s crossed regarding the license on Logan’s Run, so they had to cancel the series.” As a result, right in the middle of the second adventure, everything stops.

Finding Logan in Unlikely Places (right) A page from the “Huntsman” story in Bizarre Adventures #28, with “the Arena.” Art by Michael Golden and Steve Mitchell. (inset) The cover of Malibu Graphics’ Logan’s World #1 (1991), a faithful adaptation of the novel.

Huntsman © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. Logan’s World © 1977, 1991 William F. Nolan.

LOGAN RUNS AGAIN However, that was not the end of Logan’s Run in comics. With the success of the feature film, MGM decided to produce a weekly television series chronicling the further adventures of Logan and Jessica. (This is why MGM did not want Marvel to proceed with the comic-book series.) Nolan co-wrote the pilot for the television series, but the script was dramatically altered before debuting on CBS in the fall of 1977. He was also offered the role of story editor on the series, but declined. The series was a ratings failure, lasting only 14 episodes, but it spawned a comic-strip series based on the television show that appeared in Look-In, a teen magazine published in Britain. Look-In routinely featured “picture strips”—serialized comic-book stories— based on popular television shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, Space:1999, and Buck Rogers. The Look-In “Logan’s Run” series was not strictly an adaptation of the television show, but rather featured new stories based on the show and its characters, written by Angus P. Allan. The “Logan’s Run” series ran in Look-In for at least 26 weeks in 1978. There was also a hardback British Logan’s Run annual.

In 1990, Malibu Graphics bought the rights from Nolan and Johnson to adapt the novel Logan’s Run and sequels Logan’s World and Logan’s Search to comic-book format (although the latter was never produced).

The stories were written by Tom Mason and Chris Ulm, and illustrated in black-and-white by Barry Blair.

Nolan relates what transpired: “Malibu did use the book. They used all dialogue from the book in both adaptations, and all of the structure of the book and the characterization and everything.

The artwork was terrible, I thought, but the adaptation was excellent.

They did them as six comic books per novel. For each series, I did a little one-page introduction they printed ahead of the adventure.”

Nolan has an appreciation for comic books as a literary medium, based in part on his own background. “I started my career working for Walt Disney Comics in California, writing ‘Mickey Mouse,’” Nolan comments. “I wrote several Mickey Mouse adventures for Walt Disney Comics before I began to sell my short stories and novels. So, I have always loved comic books. I grew up with them.

And I think they can be very literary, especially the new graphicnovel format with writers like Frank Miller and Alan Moore. They are wonderful and very adult. They have evolved tremendously from the days when I used to collect them as a boy. I don’t mind being in comics at all.”

Logan made one other appearance (of sorts) in comics that is worth noting. In issue #28 of the black-and-white magazine Bizarre Adventures, published by Marvel in 1981, Archie Goodwin wrote a story called, “Huntsman,” which was illustrated by Michael Golden and Steve Mitchell. Although the issue contains no direct attribution to Logan’s Run, the story is clearly derived from concepts in the novel, the film, and the television series. The lead character’s name is Ballard and he is part of a police force called “Huntsmen” that track down “defiers” who are trying to avoid a ritual called “the Arena” in which people float upwards in an anti-gravity dome, fighting to reach the “safety ring” and an extended lifetime.

Some of the scenes in the story are lifted directly from the film and the cover of the magazine bears an image of Ballard wearing a costume identical to Michael York’s.

As to whether or not Logan will run again, that remains up in the air. Nolan notes with some frustration, “Eleven years ago, Warner Brothers said, ‘We want to do a remake of Logan’s Run and we want to move the death age back to 21.’ I’m still waiting for them to do it.

Joel Silver, who produced The Matrix and Die Hard series, is producing it for Warner Brothers. They’ve had several directors on it, including Bryan Singer, and several different writers working on scripts and they’re all gone. Maybe there will be a remake of Logan’s Run and maybe there won’t. I’m not keeping my fingers crossed.” When it comes to luck, Logan’s may have finally run out.

Sincere thanks to William F. Nolan for his wonderfully detailed recollection of the history of Logan’s Run. Thanks also to George Pérez, David Anthony Kraft, and Scott Edelman for their invaluable insight into the creative process behind the Logan’s Run comics.

In addition, I am grateful to Peter Lee, Kirk Dilbeck, Rob Yancey, and Tony Lorenz for the images of the artwork. Tony is editor of Pacesetter, a magazine devoted to George Pérez, which can be ordered by e-mailing him at tlorenzp@yahoo.com.

DEWEY CASSELL is a frequent contributor to BACK ISSUE as well as author of the book The Art of George Tuska, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. Dewey-3 was a charter member of the Logan’s Run Organization of Fans with a designation of Sandman. He is currently writing a book about Marie Severin.

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Having grown up in the ’70s, I was, as were many kids my age, a huge fan of the Star Wars movies.

The Marvel Star Wars comics published following the movie adaptation not only helped to fill the gap between films, they also fueled the fire of imagination for many of us as we dreamed of a galaxy far, far away.

Writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin have both discussed their work on the movie adaptation as well as their subsequent stint on the early “expanded universe.” Although both creators liked the original movie, the franchise wasn’t exactly their “cup of tea” and they wrapped up their work on the series with Star Wars #10.

Beginning with issue #11, a whole new creative team consisting of some of the industry’s top professionals assumed direction of the title.

Writer Archie Goodwin, penciler Carmine Infantino, and inker Terry Austin injected a whole new life into the series.

As the series continued, inking over Carmine’s pencils was handled alternatively by Bob Wiacek and Gene Day. Most of the early creators of the Star Wars comic have been interviewed about their work with the exception of Bob Wiacek. Recognizing this, I set out to provide a comprehensive interview with the inker whose comics career has spanned more than three decades. My sincere appreciation to Mr. Wiacek for his taking the time to discuss his work on the series.

– Mike Keane MIKE KEANE: Early on in your career, you inked a couple issues of the black-and-white magazine Marvel Preview featuring Star-Lord (issues #14 and 15, dated Spring and Summer 1978, respectively). It appears this work predated your work on Star Wars.

BOB WIACEK: It did.

KEANE: Both “Star-Lord” and Star Wars were penciled

by Carmine Infantino. How did your collaboration with Carmine on “Star-Lord” come about?

WIACEK: The first time I had inked Carmine was on an issue of Iron Man, issue #108, and [Marvel] liked it so much that it was because of that, that I got to ink the “Star-Lord” stuff.

KEANE: Do think that your work on “Star-Lord” was a tryout for Star Wars?

WIACEK: No, I don’t think that it was because they didn’t inform me about it. It was only due to the fact that they liked the work that I did with Carmine on that issue of Iron Man that I got the job [on Star-Lord].

KEANE: I enjoyed the work you both did on these two issues. The black-and-white medium is very conducive to an epic set in outer space. What media did you use in your “Star-Lord” work? Was it a combination of pen and ink, brush, and zip-a-tone?

WIACEK: The Star-Lord work was all brush except for a lot of the mechanical stuff. I used a 102 or a Gillott 170 that I had been using at the time. And I used a Rapidograph for the small, intricate stuff. Except for the small figures, nine times out of ten I would use brush on the figures.

I used zip-a-tone, and that was my first serious use of the

Checkmate Signed by its inker, Bob Wiacek, the Carmine Infantino-drawn original cover art to Star Wars #35 (May 1980). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Star Wars TM & © Lucasfilm.

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by

Mike Keane

Beginnings: Doctor Strange #4 (1974): background inks as one of the “Crusty Bunkers” / Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #220 (1976): first credited inks

Milestones: inking Paul Smith on X-Men / inking Walt Simonson on X-Factor / inking Steve Rude on Spider-Man: Lifelines / The Brave and the Bold

Works in Progress: JSA #23–25 (inking Jerry Ordway) / Nexus (inking Steve Rude on a regular basis starting with #102)

Cyberspace: www.theartistschoice.com

BOB WIACEK Universal Talent photo courtesy of Bob Wiacek.

© 2005 ????

medium. Some of it I liked, and some of it I failed at what I was trying to do and it didn’t come out the way I’d wanted it to. On the second one, I used a lot of grease pencil work and I really liked the way that came out.

KEANE: One thing that stands out is the difference in techniques that were used between these two issues. In issue #14, you primarily used zip-a-tone for various effects, while in issue #15 a grease pencil is heavily utilized instead. Was this you experimenting with different techniques?

WIACEK: Yeah, I was trying out different techniques and trying to get a different look between the two issues. I was heavily influenced by the work that Alfredo Alcala was doing—not capturing necessarily his style, but capturing his work using a grease pencil. I had thought about experimenting with ink wash but I wasn’t very comfortable with it and instead I tried working with a grease pencil.

KEANE: There are many similarities between the art and general look you and Carmine created for both “Star-Lord” and Star Wars.

The technology, starships, and even military costumes in both series were very much alike. Marvel Premiere #15 and Star Wars #24, for instance, reflect this comparison. As far as your inking, it appears that by the time you began Star Wars you felt more comfortable with the media you had experimented with, and you began merging the different techniques you had used on “Star-Lord.”

WIACEK: Yes, I didn’t want them both to look the same.

KEANE: To achieve various effects which required white contrasting with the black background of space (e.g., stars, spaceships racing through space), you used a combination of techniques. You used either white ink or a razor blade to tear away at the black-inked pages.

WIACEK: Oh, yeah, that was a technique that a lot of artists were using. In fact, Jack Abel taught Terry Austin and me. I didn’t get it down as good as Terry did until later on, where you’d let the razor skip down the page.

I remember Jack doing it a number of times.

KEANE: Carmine had taken a break from Star Wars after issue #15 to work with you on these two issues of “Star-Lord” and returned to the series with issue #18.

Although it went un-credited, your first work on Star Wars would have been assisting Terry Austin by inking a couple of pages of issue #13.

WIACEK: And I had inked an issue of Star Wars that Walt Simonson penciled [issue #16].

KEANE: This would have been your first full issue [issue #16, “The Hunter,” featured the first appearance of the popular bounty hunter, Valance the Hunter]. What led to you getting this fill-in issue?

WIACEK: It was interesting how that came about. Jim Shooter contacted me and said that he had two books that needed to be inked. Back then he was giving out work occasionally. One was Star Wars over Walt Simonson and the other was, believe it or not, an adaptation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with pencils

by George Pérez. I’m glad I said yes to Star Wars. I loved Simonson’s work and I don’t think that Sgt. Pepper was ever published. [Editor’s note: Actually, it was, as Marvel Super Special #7 (1978).] I found out later that that was my tryout for the series. They liked what I did and I became their regular inker with issue #18.

KEANE: What was your opinion of the movie?

WIACEK: I loved the film and saw it four times when it was first released. I was just blown away because it was the old serials,

Valance the Hunter An undated Bob Wiacek rendition of the Star Wars bounty hunter. Courtesy of Mike Keane.

TM & © Lucasfilm.

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comics, and the Errol Flynn swashbuckling movies all thrown together.

And we who were fans of comics and worked in the industry knew that Darth Vader was influenced by Jack Kirby's Doctor Doom. The actors were believable and likeable.

KEANE: What kind of interaction did you have, if any, with Carmine Infantino?

WIACEK: I didn’t have any interaction with Carmine. He would send his work in and I would go in to pick it up, or he would send it to me. I had no discussions with Carmine at all. I never spoke or saw him since he did not come into Marvel. The last time I had seen him he was still editorial director at DC. KEANE: There was an approval process mandated by Lucasfilm for each issue back then which required that the script and a layout of the entire issue be submitted for approval. Did you ever discuss any of this with Archie Goodwin, or talk about some of the difficulties he may have been having, if any?

WIACEK: As far as the stories were concerned, it wasn’t something that I ever got involved with. I would bump into Archie and we would just small talk where he would say “I’m sending the script in to Lucasfilm.” Little things like that would be all he would talk to me about regarding the series.

KEANE: Did you have any direct exposure to this approval process with Lucasfilm?

WIACEK: With the art, my speculation is that by the time I came on board, Lucasfilm recognized that we had tight deadlines we were working under and that major changes would affect an issue’s deadline.

KEANE: Did Lucasfilm ever require you to make significant changes or corrections after you had submitted the final inked pages?

WIACEK: As far as I can remember, they never did anything like that. The only changes would come from either Jim Shooter or Stan Lee. The only time I was criticized that I recall came from Stan on an issue where Han and Chewbacca were floating and battling each other in space [issue #22]. Stan and Shooter noted that Chewbacca and some others should have been made more distinguishable from the space background they were in and not having them blend into it. Especially characters like Chewie. “Your line has to be more open.” The only critiques that I was aware of came from Marvel.

KEANE: Roy Thomas especially has discussed his frustration with some of the restrictions Lucasfilm placed on his work and what he could, or more accurately, could not do with the characters.

WIACEK: I remember Terry [Austin] telling me about it right before I was doing the series. That they wanted the ships to look like the ships. The Millennium Falcon had to look like the Millennium Falcon right down to the minute details; the characters had to look like the characters in the movie.

I don’t know about the backgrounds, though. If there were ships or characters created for the comics that had nothing to do with the movie, like “the Wheel” which Carmine designed himself, I don’t think they cared as much. The work still had to look good, however, they weren’t as concerned with detail unless it had to do with elements from the film.

Terry was a good inker for the book because he was into doing that kind of detail, and not just the Carmine stuff. The issue penciled by Michael Golden that Terry inked [issue #38], now that blew a lot of the earlier stuff away as far as details. Everything was there.

KEANE: Your ongoing work with Carmine began with issue #19. How would you describe his pencils in light of the exactness that was required by Lucasfilm?

WIACEK: By the time I was inking the book, I was given some detail from Carmine and everything was there but there was a lot of sketchy things going on. It wasn’t always definitive what the ships looked like.

Naturally, everything was always drawn beautifully but it needed extra work in the inks for definition. The forms of the Millennium Falcon and Star Destroyers were there and as long as it looked like what it was supposed to look like, that was fine [with Lucasfilm].

Starstruck (top) A Star-Lord page from Marvel Preview #15 (1978), by Infantino and Wiacek, and (bottom) the same creative team on the cover art to Star Wars #48 (June 1981). Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Lucasfilm.

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Bubblehead An undated Spaceman illo by Wiacek. Courtesy of Heritage.

KEANE: There are a number of comparisons which can be made between the work you helped to create in the comic and the second movie, The Empire Strikes Back. Many elements in the comics bore a close resemblance to The Empire Strikes Back: a bounty hunter searching for Luke, Jabba the Hutt made several appearances seeking to settle his debt with Han, etc. There was even one issue titled “The Empire Strikes!”

WIACEK: And that’s okay. If the comic helped to influence the movie, that’s great. It’s not saying that this would have been dishonest.

No, in fact, it’s very honest that comics would influence film. I think that they are interconnected. There are different things you can do and there are things that are limited in this genre. If those issues helped to make that movie work, that’s terrific.

KEANE: Were these similarities immediately recognizable to you?

WIACEK: It wasn’t until a while after I saw the second movie that I went back and looked at my work and made the connection. I wasn’t the only one who noticed that. I never said anything to Archie about it. But you never know, comics have influenced movies for quite some time, overtly now, but covertly back then. Comics influenced people more than you think. I wouldn’t doubt it if we had an influence over the second movie and I think that’s great.

KEANE: What was the main reason for alternating inking chores between you and Gene Day? Were you working on another series at the time or was there an issue with deadlines?

WIACEK: The issue, primarily, was keeping up with deadlines.

KEANE: There were a few inventory stories that Carmine and Gene Day worked on that were not printed as part of the regular series and were subsequently released in a pair of Marvel Illustrated books.

WIACEK: There was also another inventory story that Mary Jo Duffy had written that Carmine and I worked on [issue #24]. I’m not sure, but it may have been one of the first things she’d done. It was an Obi-Wan story which took place before the first movie that was lying in the drawer and because of deadlines they had to use it.

KEANE: Were you ever involved in the creation of any of the characters for the series?

WIACEK: Not really, no. Although as a funny sidenote, in the issue that I worked on with Walt [issue #16], I was brainwashed into being very meticulous about making the characters look like the characters and there was one character in this issue that looked like a rabbit [Jaxxon]. No one had given me any direction with any of the characters other than the fact that this particular character had appeared previously in the series that was done by Howard Chaykin and Tom Palmer [issues #8–10]. I realized that Walt had put a cotton tail on the rabbit and I took it out because it wasn’t in the previous issues and I didn’t think that it belonged.

I didn’t know, I had no idea. It was early in my career and I wanted everything to look perfect, especially since I was given the chance to work on Star Wars. Marvel didn’t care, although I saw Walt afterwards and he cornered me and said, “How dare you take out that cotton tail!!!” And all I could say was, “I’m sorry, Walt!” [laughter] KEANE: Did you work off of any reference material? Movie stills, etc.

WIACEK: I used the Star Wars Storybook, which was really a great reference for the spaceships. In fact, I still have it and it’s really

TM & © Lucasfilm.

Art © 2009 Bob Wiacek.

beat up. This was all I really had except for a few stills from the movie.

KEANE: What ultimately led to you leaving the series?

WIACEK: I recall leaving because I was offered something else and they were probably looking to bring a new team onto the title.

Simonson and Palmer took over the series after us. I believe Battlestar Galactica was being canceled so Walt was coming off of that book and was offered Star Wars.

KEANE: Al Williamson was brought in to do the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back at the end of your run. I have to think that you couldn’t sit and wait until the adaptation wrapped up before continuing with the title. By that time, you would have needed to move on.

WIACEK: Yeah, and Carmine was moving on by that point and was working on Spider-Woman. I helped out on a few pages on that here and there.

KEANE: You returned much later in the series to ink issue #96.

WIACEK: Yeah, that was an issue by Cynthia Martin.

KEANE: What was your most memorable experience working on Star Wars?

WIACEK: I enjoyed inking Carmine very much as he was one of my favorite pencilers, and learning from that experience. I would learn new techniques with each artist I worked with. Other than that, I enjoyed being on a book like Star Wars and the fact that I was given a wonderful penciler to work with.

MICHAEL KEANE is an architect whose love for comics inspired him to draw at an early age. His passion for comics continues to this day through his collection of original art.

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In the mid-1970s, Marvel Comics’ merchandising had shifted away from mail-in premiums and dimestore novelties. One of the first and most fun marketing concepts given to retailers, which still endures today, were Slurpee cups. They were primarily distributed from large-chain convenience stores such as 7-11. Yes, I’m old enough to remember begging my mom to take me to 7-11, conning her into buying me a Slurpee so I could get one of these Marvel cups.

A set of 60 cups were offered to 7-11 retailers in the summer of 1975.

The set was so well received that a new set was again created and offered in the summer of 1977. Maybe you have some of these sitting around in your attic. Other retailers like Circle-K, Icee, and Kolee also issued Slurpee cups. You might even find a few that are blank with a vacant spot where the retailer could have their name printed!

But when you look at these cups, a lot of times you could get a feeling of déjà vu, an idea you had seen this art before, and you are correct! Almost all of it has been recycled in some shape or form. I have been fascinated with the production of these cups and who their original artists actually were. I knew that Marie Severin worked in Marvel production in the early ’70s, and I eventually tracked her down (with the help of her old friend Herb Trimpe) at her home in New York and we had a phone conversation about these cups. I think everyone knows she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in the business. She listened politely to my ramblings and finally told me, “You need to talk to Paty.” She had to spell the name out for me as I was unfamiliar with this person who is known only by her first name! I finally realized she was talking about Paty Cockrum, a comics creator, as well as the wife of the legendary Dave Cockrum.

Upon contacting Paty Cockrum, she was able to give me a wealth of information about these cups. She had begun work at Marvel Comics in October of 1974 shortly after Marvel had signed a contract to produce the 1975 Slurpee cups. Although Tony Mortellaro and Marie Severin had already begun the project, Paty was quickly brought in.

Tony Mortellaro had previously created archived files on some of the more prominent Marvel characters. However, Paty made a discovery: “Some of the lesser characters were not represented in the files. So I started building merchandising files with good shots of each character.

“Tony left staff and Marie became busy with other projects,” Paty continues. “I finished up the run. I began to amass a large file of action poses to offer prospective merchandisers. I had access to the archives at Marvel. They had silverprints of all the books that they had printed for decades.”

However, the work was a bit more difficult than that. You will notice some of the art has additions or subtractions or subtle differences. Paty describes the process she was presented with in 1974: “Marie [Severin] and Tony Mortellaro were doing the touch-ups … taking out blurbs and word ballons and touching up the holes to form a merchandise image.”

It became a fun and creative process. She also mentions, “We played all kinds of games with the figures … flopping them … redoing arms and legs and wings and heads and expressions. As soon as art came in on major characters, I would glom the pages, stat them, give them back, and go do work on the lifted figures … clean it up, stat it down or up to fit the master file, and then add it to the growing collection!”

Paty singularly became the Marvel production department in the 1970s and the Slurpee project was one of her biggest. In picking and choosing the art to use, merchandisers wanted the characters to signify the heroes’ current look. Costumes might have been recently updated or modified. The characters’ creative teams may have changed. Most retailers had a desire for John Buscema or John Romita, Sr. art to advertise their products. Paty notes, “Romita’s art was so much more visually attractive … especially to merchandisers who did not understand the stylistic difference in the art forms. They invariably went to the Buscemas, either one … Romita… Cockrum, Adams, Buckler; good, representational artists.”

The characters on the cups also had to be good representatives of Marvel. Normally a smile was added to each character. None of the characters were to give a frightened or confused state. The usually scowling Hulk is provided with a John Romita-smile as he rampages

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Lex Carson

Oh, Thank Heaven… …for 7-11. An ad for the 1975 Marvel Slurpee cup collection, including Super-Stan. (Where’s Rascally Roy, we wanna know??) All images in this article are courtesy of Lex Carson. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. 7-11 TM & © Sunderland Corp.

through a town. My personal favorite is the 1975 Captain America image, smiling as he throws a punch at you.

Identifying the art and artists used for the Slurpee cups has been and continues to be difficult. A few, such as John Romita’s Invisible Girl, were created for the Slurpee project. Some of the art was presented in premium magazines such as FOOM or, in the case of John Severin’s 1975 Kull image, from a Kull private portfolio printed by Pacifico.

Images also came in from “across the pond,” as some have been found in the Marvel British issues such as Mighty World of Marvel.

There are still a few that have not been identified, and I hope some readers of this article can help. In particular, the 1977 cup images of the Black Widow, Iron Fist, and the Black Panther have been extremely puzzling. If you know who did this work, please let us know!

Drawing Bead on a Slurpee Interior art images from FOOM #7 (Fall 1974), with art by Dave Cockrum; and the 1975 Hawkeye cup using the Cockrum art. All Slurpee-cup photos were produced by Bill Worboys Photography. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Distinguishing a 1975 Slurpee cup from a 1977 cup is a very easy task. The 1975 cups presented a single action pose of a character.

A set of 60 was created, complete with a numbered checklist. The back of the cup had a head image of the character and a word balloon telling their origin and background. Today’s comics strive to have a “jumping on” point for the reader. The 1975 Slurpee cup gives its owner an immediate idea of who the character is. This was an elementary but effective marketing concept. The 1975 cups are primarily printed in two colors and black. The 1975 cups also come in two styles. Some are wide while others are slightly taller (I prefer to have the taller ones as they appear thicker and are more durable).

The word balloons on the back of the cup are usually black ink on the white plastic surface. However, you will find some cups that had black ink in a yellow word balloon.

The 1977 cups are wild in design. Paty was provided with a much wider color range to work with, and to say the least, she got very creative with background scenarios and even paneled sequences. The result is a panoramic scene with multiple characters which is not easily captured by the camera. With two more years of experience in production and many more images in her archives, Paty’s 1977 set is a very groundbreaking piece of work. Forty cups were issued in 1977.

You probably wonder, if Marvel had a bigger budget with the second issue, whey were there not more cups? Each cup for the 1977 issue, with more color and multiple images on each, were simply more expensive. Paty explains, “If we wanted more color and more interesting possibilities with the designs, we had to go for less cups in the run.”

Of course, Paty was working at Marvel with a budget of her own.

“Any time I could get my hands on extraneous art,” she recalls, “like spots Dave [Cockrum] did for fun … or Buscema did on the back of pages, I would stat them and add them to the masters in my files.”

People also ask if some cups are more sought after than others. I think that is a topic open to debate. Some have said the John Buscema 1975 Doc Savage cup is difficult to find, but I really see no scarcity in its supply.

There is also a strong interest in the Dave Cockrum X-Men cup. Yes, it is the only one with a Wolverine image. There were multiple cups made of some of the more popular Marvel characters such as SpiderMan, Captain America, and Fantastic Four, but the X-Men had just recently relaunched its “new” lineup and Marvel was unaware that it would become such a major part of its universe. The image Paty uses for the X-Men cup was somewhat difficult to find. Dave Cockrum drew it for the letters page of a black-and-white magazine: Rampaging Hulk #2. The team is shown on the letters pages on page 40 and 41, but there is only an exploding cloud of brimstone signifying that

Nightcrawler has “bamfed” or teleported out of the picture. You’ll be somewhat amused to find the image of the teleported Nightcrawler on page 65 of this Hulk magazine. This gag took me over 30 years to figure out and Paty and Dave Cockrum both had a laugh at how slow I have been to discover the subtle humor involved. The X-Men cup is the only one you’ll find in either issue that is signed by the artist.

Another unusual cup with quite a bit of history is the 1975 running Spider-Man. This image was originally done by Steve Ditko. It is a panel from one of the early Amazing Spider-Man comics. Marie Severin shared with me that a Marvel staffer cut out the image and reattached the arms to fit onto a poster in the 1960s. My guess would be the staffer might have been either Sol Brodsky or Frank Giacoia. The curves of the legs and the shinbones on Spider-Man are vintage trademarks of Steve Ditko. For the Slurpee issue, John Romita presented Paty with a similar image for marketing. Paty recalls, “John told me that is was a redo of a Ditko running pose that had been lifted from the books and monkeyed with to a degree. He just redid it so we could have a good vertical action pose of Spidey.”

Of course, no marketing project could be complete without an image of the master of self-promotion: Stan Lee. Marvel’s head honcho adorns one of the 1975 cups with original art as an amalgamation of several of the Marvel characters under the guise of “Super-Stan.” His body image was created by John Romita. Lee, who has always had a fondness for the way Marie Severin drew his face, allowed her to create the head for his likeness.

DD Slurpee The Gil Kane-drawn Daredevil image from the cover to Marvel Two-in-One #3 was recycled for the Man without Fear’s 1975 cup. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Hulk— Cherry Smash!

The Hulk/Wendigo cover from the UK’s Mighty World of Marvel (June 30, 1976), plus views of the 1977 Hulk cup. Note the slight alteration on this UK cover as oppposed to the original cover from Incredible Hulk #180 (inset): Wendigo has been redrawn, uncredited. “He looks kind of John Byrne-ish to me, but I can't confirm this,” says Lex Carson.

(Herb Trimpe was the cover artist for Incredible Hulk #180.)

The 1970s Western, horror, martial arts, and barbarian genres are represented in both issues. Not only will you find Marvel heroes, but also the Western outlaw Night Rider. The barbaric Conan, Kull, and Red Sonja are all represented.

Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist also have multiple cups.

Paty had a great deal of creative control over the project. You see her penchant to use certain artists for the Slurpee cups more than others. You will find very few Jack Kirby images. Kirby was working for DC when the 1975 cups were issued, but even his return to Marvel in 1977 did not return “the King” to prominence with this project. Paty also scarcely used the work of John Byrne, Steve Ditko, Ross Andru, or Barry Windsor-Smith. The decision not to use Windsor-Smith’s work was not her personal preference. Paty explains, “Windsor-Smith had wowed his populace with his very beautiful illustrative art on Conan. We looked at his art and realized that it was so intricate in its line work that it would not print well on a cup.”

As mentioned earlier, the cups would continue to be distributed throughout the ’70s. Circle-K would later offer another version of a few Marvel characters based upon the 1975 format. Icee would have an issue of cups in 1978. Mr. Fantastic was also provided with a more recent image from the cover of Fantastic

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Four #176. The most notable accomplishments for the Icee cups are that Spider-Woman has her own cup and Ms. Marvel is shown in the costume she (somewhat) appears in today.

If you have the urge to gather a collection of Slurpee cups, I suppose I would be remiss if I did not mention a few things. First and foremost is the fragile nature of these cups. The cups are delicate and crack easily. They were cheaply produced and not necessarily meant for everyday use 30-plus years later. A trip through the dishwasher, or even hot water applied with pressure, may destroy the ink visuals on the cup.

If you have the urge to clean them, you should gently hand wash the cups. A very common defect is rings around the top. Longterm exposure to sunlight will also fade the ink graphics. Cups stored in sunlight and stacked within each other usually have slight rings at the top from exposure. No need to try to clean these areas—it won’t come off.

Decades since their humble beginnings, Marvel Slurpee cups still endure today. Marie Severin shares, “If I knew this was going to be more relevant, I would have paid more attention in production, and asked for more money!” In the spring and summer of 2008, we saw nicer 7-11 versions of Iron Man and Hulk cups promoting their summer blockbusters.

From the basic two-color design in 1975 through its explosion of panoramic color in 1977 to today, the Marvel Slurpee cups provide a heroic way to expose yourself to potential brain freeze.

Bucky’s Favorite Slurpee Flavor is Cola Says Lex Carson, “The Captain America Stat Sheet is a production piece from Marvel which gave merchandisers images to put on their products. The other side of the sheet matches up the four-color separations. Art displayed is by John Romita, Jack Kirby, and John Buscema, respectively.” Also shown: the Cap cup. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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1975 MARVEL SLURPEE CUP CHECKLIST Image from Thor #185, Pg. 1 Falcon Image seen in FOOM advertisment circa 1975, as seen in Defenders #27 Theory: (Romita) character sketch Captain America (2) (One is a Koolee) Image from 1975 poster series (Romita) Sub-Mariner Image from Sub-Mariner #63 cover (new costume colored in) Quicksilver Image from Avengers #75 cover Iron Man Image from Iron Man #60 cover Spider-Man I (crouching) Image from cover logo of Marvel Team-Up #4 (later a 1975 poster) Hulk I (Hulk Smash! fist raised) Image from 1975 poster series (Herb Trimpe) The Thing I Image from cover of Fantastic Four #117 Conan Image from cover of Conan Annual #1 Dr. Strange Image from Marvel Premiere #9, pg. 1 (Frank Brunner) Valkyrie Image from Marvel Two-in-One #7 (cover) Night Rider Image from cover of Night Rider #4 Ghost Rider Image from MTIO #8 Nick Fury Image from cover logo Nick Fury: Agent of Shield #1 (Steranko) Black Bolt Image from Fantastic Four #46 cover, perhaps retouched for ’70s “Inhumans” series logo Nighthawk Image from cover of Defenders #15 Triton Image from Avengers # 94, pg. 1 Dr. Doom Image from GiantSize Super-Villain Team-Up #2 cover Man-Thing Image from Man-Thing #17 cover King Kull Seen in Savage Sword of Conan #1 sequence #7, originally from John Severin Kull I Portfolio/Pacific Comics The Vision Image from cover of Avengers #57 Spider-Man II (swinging w/hand extended) Image is from cover of Amazing Spider-Man #135 Human Torch From Marvel poster advertised in Mighty World of Marvel #1 (UK), Oct. 7, 1972 (later released in US) Hawkeye Image from FOOM #7, pg. 6 (Cockrum) Thor

Power Man Promotional art for new character as seen in Captain America #149 (Items page) Scarlet Witch Image from Avengers #85, pg. 19 Black Panther Image from Jungle Action #8 cover Dracula Image from Tomb of Dracula #17 cover Image from Dr. Strange Clea #5, Pg. 16, 1st panel Medusa Image from Fantastic Four #144, pg. 3 Cyclops Image from X-Men #43, story #2, pg. 1 (Werner Roth art) Hercules Image from cover logo of Marvel Premiere #26 Crystal Image from Fantastic Four #131, pg. 6 The Beast Image from FOOM #7, pg. 28 (Byrne/Vohland) Hulk II (walking) Image from Marvel Team-Up #18 cover logo Invisible Girl Image made by John Romita for this project (from Paty Cockrum), later seen in The Superhero Women, 1977, pg. 55 Red Sonja Image from Savage Sword of Conan #1, interior art Iron Fist Image from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10, pg. 7 (Frank McLaughlin/Rudy Nebres) Mr. Fantastic Image from Fantastic Four #59 cover Mr. Fantastic B (1978?) (Icee) Image from Fantastic Four #176 cover (Kirby/Sinnott) The Thing II (both arms raised) Image from Jack Kirby T-shirt (1964), later cover logo for Fantastic Four Doc Savage Image From Doc Savage Magazine #1, pg. 5 (J. Buscema) The Angel Image from X-Men #66, pg. 9, retouched

by Paty Cockrum Warlock Image from Strange Tales #178, Pg. 6 Daredevil Yellow back, Image from Marvel Two-inOne #3 cover Ka-Zar Image from Ka-Zar #1 cover Super-Stan Image created by John Romita, head by Marie Severin (from Paty Cockrum) Yellowjacket Image from Avengers #59 cover Black Widow Image from Daredevil #103 cover (John Romita) The Watcher Yellow back, tall model, Image from cover of Fantastic Four #48

Killraven Image from Amazing Adventures #30 cover Captain Marvel Image from Captain Marvel #29 cover (Starlin/Romita) Silver Surfer Yellow back, tall model, Image from Silver Surfer #4 Spider-Man III Image from Ditko/Esposito MMMS poster, redrawn by John Romita in Marvel Treasury Edition #9 pinup Shang-Chi Image from cover logo of Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #1 (Romita?)

Black Knight Image from Marvel Super-Heroes #17 cover The Thing III (walking) Image from Fantastic Four #67 (Kirby) Odin Image from Silver Surfer #4, pg. 33 (J. Buscema/S. Buscema) Hulk III (arms back) British comic cover Thundra Image from Fantastic Four #148, pg. 22, 2nd panel

1977–1978 MARVEL SLURPEE CUP CHECKLIST Avengers I v. Stranger (2) Primary image from Avengers #138 cover, Cap from Invaders #2 cover, S. image from Avengers #152, pg. 30, Vision from Av. #57 cover Avengers II (standing) (2) IM from FOOM #4, pg. 6, SW from Avengers 152, pg. 7, 2nd panel, Vision from Av. 152, pg. 26, 1st panel, Yellowjacket from Avengers #59, pg. 2, last panel Black Panther Blank, not a 7-11 cup, but 1977, art ???

Black Widow ???

Captain America and Falcon Image from Captain America #190 cover Captain America and Red Skull Image from Captain America #184 cover Captain Marvel Image from Captain Marvel #37 cover Champions Widow from FOOM #7, pg. 6 (Cockrum), Iceman from X-Men #57, pg. 13 (N. Adams/Palmer), Hercules and Angel from Champions #10 cover (Cockrum), Ghost Rider from Champions #4 cover Conan I (Montage) Image from Conan #36 interior (J. Buscema/Chua)

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Conan II Savage Sword of Conan #15 pinup Daredevil Image from Daredevil #15, pg. 1 (John Romita and “Frankie Ray” (Frank Giacoia) Dr. Doom and Sub-Mariner Image from Marvel Super-Villain Team-Up #4 cover; Subby’s costume altered Dr. Strange and Dormammu Dormammu image from Dr. Strange #3 (cover), Strange from Marvel Treasury #6 pinup (Brunner) Dracula Tomb of Dracula #30, interior art Fantastic Four (with Dr. Doom) Dr. Doom from FF #156 cover, Reed/Thing from Marvel Treasury #2 cover (flopped) Sue/Romita, Latverian castle scene from Fantastic Four #87, pg. 2 (Kirby/Sinnott) Fantastic Four (with Galactus) Reed, Sue, Johnny from FF #173 cover; Ben and Galactus from FF #175 cover (Kirby/Sinnott) Fantastic Four (running) From Fantastic Four #126 interior except for Human Torch (pinup from FF Special #5) Fantastic Four in Negative Zone Image from FF #110 interior Hulk and Abomination Hulk image from cover of Marvel Feature #11, Abomination from Hulk #171 interior Hulk and Wendigo Hulk image from Hulk #180 cover, Wendigo image from Mighty World of Marvel #196 cover (UK) Hulk with Jets Image from Mighty World of Marvel Annual (1976), Trimpe/ Cockrum Image, Romita mouth?

Hulk through Wall Image from Marvel Treasury Edition #5 cover (Romita) Howard the Duck Image from Marvel Treasury Edition #12 cover (Brunner) Howard the Duck and Sewer Pipe Image from Howard the Duck #1, interior art (Brunner) Inhumans Image from Amazing Adventures #5, pg. 1 Iron Fist ???

Iron Man and Daredevil Image from Iron Man #89 cover Master of Kung Fu Image from Master of Kung Fu #44 cover (Buscema/ Milgrom)

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Ms. Marvel (A) Old costume, Image from Ms. Marvel #3 cover Ms. Marvel (B) (1978, Icee ) New costume, Image from Ms. Marvel #20, pg. 15, panel 1, cup is smaller, 1975 tall model size Nova Image from Nova #5 cover Red Sonja Image from Marvel Feature #4 cover Silver Surfer and Mephisto Surfer image from Silver Surfer #3, pg. 13, Mephisto and background also from SS #3, pg. 10 Spider-Man (crouching) Spectacular Spider-Man Treasury Editon, inside cover clip art (1974) Spider-Man (w/Sandman and Kraven) (2) Kraven (flopped), Sandman, and Spidey image from Marvel Special Edition #1 (1975) Spider-Man with Villains/Web Spider-Man image from Marvel Tales #44 (Romita), Lizard from Amazing Spider-Man #46 cover, Goblin from AMS #136 interior, web added

by Paty Cockrum, Ock from ASM #56 cover, Vulture from ASM #63 cover Spider-Man Web-slinging Romita image used as previously as merchandising art, reminiscient of interior image from Amazing Spider-man #75 Spider-Woman (1978, Icee) from Spider-Woman #5, pg. 7, panel #1 (1978) Thor (w/Loki ?) Thor image from Thor #209, pg. 17 (J. Buscema/ Colletta), Loki from Silver Surfer #4 (J. Buscema/S. Buscema) Thor (with giants) Thor image from Thor #193 cover (flopped), Giants from #193 interior, retouched Thor on Rainbow Bridge Thor image from Thor #220 (pg. 1, J. Buscema/ Esposito), Asgard from Thor #143, pg. 3 (Kirby/Everett) X-Men (2) Dave Cockrum (signed), image from Rampaging Hulk #2, pgs. 40–41, Nightcrawler “bamfing” into pg. 65

1977 MISC. Captain America Image from Captain America #190

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Donovan Flint, Star of “The Survivors”… …the working title for Star Hunters, in this early Don Newton/Bob Layton pinup signed by both artists. Sadly, Flint did not survive the DC Implosion.

Art courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonysnyder art.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

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With those words, a young filmmaker named George Lucas introduced moviegoers to a scrappy band of space-faring freedom fighters trying to overthrow an evil Galactic Empire in his sci-fi blockbuster Star Wars.

Released in May of 1977, Star Wars quickly went on to become a cultural phenomenon, adding a slew of new terms to the English lexicon, including “Death Star,” “the Force,” and “Darth Vader.”

However, in the fall of that same year, DC Comics introduced its own scrappy band of space rebels warring against interstellar tyranny in the form of a new comic series called Star Hunters. Over the next three decades the Star Wars franchise would spawn two sequels, three prequels, countless comic-book tie-ins, and enough merchandising sales to surpass the GNP of a small country.

Meanwhile, Star Hunters has largely been relegated to the role of a footnote in comic-book history as one of the approximately 30 titles given a speedy demise during the now-infamous “DC Implosion” of 1978. Despite its alltoo-brief sojourn through the galaxy, Star Hunters remains a book that was as far ahead of its time as the hit movie that would forever eclipse it in the popular consciousness.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY “Beginning an epic of space and time,” proclaimed the opening page of DC Super-Stars #16 (Oct. 1977), wherein the Star Hunters made their debut. “Step 150 years into the future,” beckoned the first caption, “into a world of galactic flight and interplanetary intrigue, of alien cultures and death at the speed of light! A world whose greatest hero speaks with an unmistakable Irish brogue—” While that last line might prompt contemporary readers to conjure up sound bytes of Colin Farrell or U2 frontman Bono, the origins of this Irish space hero actually stem from a bygone era of swashbuckling adventure films that were akin to the Star Wars of their day.

Shaping An Imagination The 1956 sci-fi masterpiece Forbidden Planet imprinted the imagination of writer David Michelinie.

Forbidden Planet © 1956 Loew’s/MGM.

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Created by writer David Michelinie, Star Hunters was first conceived of back in 1975 when Michelinie was scripting The Unknown Soldier and Claw the Unconquered for DC. In a text piece entitled “The Story Behind the Story,” printed alongside the Star Hunters’ first appearance, the details of the development process illustrate just how Michelinie’s concept evolved over a prolonged period of editorial reshuffling and creative setbacks. That evolution first began during the fall TV season of 1975 when Michelinie noted the gaining popularity of science-fiction television series such as Space: 1999 and reruns of Star Trek. From this trend Michelinie came to believe that the time might be ripe for a similar resurgence in the world of comics.

Reflecting on the creation of Star Hunters some three decades after the fact, Michelinie recalls that his interest in science fiction began at a young age. “I was a huge science fiction fan, both books and movies,” Michelinie remembers. “My favorite movie of all time is Forbidden Planet, which I saw when my age was still in single digits.

Most of what I read was science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford D. Simak, and Fredric Brown were staples throughout high school, with Harry Harrison, Harlan Ellison, and Michael Moorcock added during college. Novels that I loved and undoubtedly helped form my creative direction were Starship Troopers by Heinlein, Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, The Shrinking Man [more famous by its film adaptation’s name, The Incredible Shrinking Man] by Richard Matheson, Star Born by Andre Norton, Time is the Simplest Thing by Simak.

[I also] clearly remember some of the short stories I absorbed then, even after all these decades, like “Third from the Sun” by Matheson, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury, “The Waveries” by Brown, and “A Wind is Rising” [by science-fiction humorist Robert Sheckley].

Those kind of stories kicked my imagination into high gear and made me want to make up stories of my own.”

Obviously, science fiction has always been a part of the comics medium as well, going back to the early days of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, and carrying through to the pantheon of DC’s Silver Age sci-fi heroes such as Adam Strange, the Atomic Knights, and Captain Comet [see TwoMorrows’ Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion for a comprehensive exploration of this era in DC history].

Nevertheless, as the “Story Behind The Story” explains, “science fiction had not traditionally done well in comic books.” In fact, just a year earlier DC had canceled its science-fiction anthology series Weird Worlds, which adapted such sci-fi adventure classics as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and David Innes of Pellucidar, as well as serving as the launching pad for Howard Chaykin’s shortlived Ironwolf saga. Despite these recent sci-fi failures in a marketplace increasingly dominated by superheroes, Michelinie continued to wonder if, “Perhaps the time had come when it could succeed.”

During this same period, team books were coming into vogue across the comic-book landscape, prompting Michelinie to conceive of the potential series as a team book set against the backdrop of space. After developing the idea further with editor Joe Orlando, Michelinie brought the pitch to DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino.

Galaxy Quest Original artwork to the cover of Star Hunters #1, illustrated and autographed by Rich Buckler and Bob Layton. From the collection of Fred L. deBoom.

TM & © DC Comics.

SURVIVORS AND OUTCASTS “David called the series ‘The Survivors,’” recounts the text piece from DC Super-Stars. “The premise of the concept was that a team of people were secretly infected with a disease germ by the authorities.

While the disease didn’t affect them, [it was] deadly to anyone else who might be exposed to it. Since the team would then be a menace to anyone on Earth, the very authorities who had infected them supplied them with a spaceship to leave the planet. Their mission would be to find other habitable worlds and colonize them for the earth... Thus the group would travel through space, exploring various worlds, and having exciting adventures.”

Infantino liked the initial concept, but wanted to change the title from The Survivors to something more dramatic, eventually deciding on The Outcasts in order to place greater emphasis on the team’s exile from Earth. Before Michelinie could rework this new emphasis into a revised pitch, the entire premise received yet another editorial overhaul, this one transforming the Outcasts into something that was now almost entirely unrecognizable. Upon being summoned to a second conference, Michelinie was informed that instead of a series about a team of Earth exiles traveling through space, the proposed series would instead revolve around stories of real UFO encounters. Such a radical change in direction caused Michelinie to make his exit from the proposed series, which now bore little resemblance to his original idea.

“To be honest, I have no memory whatsoever of that ‘real UFO’ business,” Micheline admits today. “I must have been so disappointed or depressed that I blanked it from my mind completely. As for getting the original concept back on track, I believe that resulted from a change in publishers, a new administration coming in that was interested in starting new projects. I guess they saw possibilities in my original idea and decided to give it a shot.”

IN LIKE FLINT Enter Jenette Kahn as the new publisher of DC Comics in 1976, and a second chance at life for David Michelinie’s proposed sciencefiction series. When Kahn put out a call for new series proposals, Michelinie’s original pitch landed on her desk, where it would again be given the greenlight. This time, however, the series would finally reach its destination, making it all the way to the comic racks, albeit with another title change—several, in fact.

However Michelinie first needed to hammer out the details of his oft-reconceptualized series, starting with the main character whom he wanted to depict as a stoic, brooding figure, perhaps not unlike Howard Chaykin’s previously mentioned Ironwolf. Editor Joe Orlando disagreed, seeing the protagonist as more of a “devil-may-care” swashbuckling adventurer. With an assist from writer/artist Tom Sciacca, Michelinie came up with the appropriately suave name of Donovan Flint to suit just such an adventure hero. The name, which evokes both high-seas adventure and spy-thriller intrigue, was a remarkably appropriate choice for comic series that would successfully incorporate both of these genres into its sci-fi milieu.

The character of Donovan Flint began to flesh out further when Michelinie found inspiration in the form of an adventure film called The Fighting O’Flynn (1949), starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as a swashbuckling hero during the Napoleonic Wars. In the tale, Fairbanks plays an Irish soldier of fortune battling French agents to secure Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion plans against Ireland. Not only did the title character of O’Flynn share a kinship with Michelinie’s vision for Donovan Flint, but Fairbanks’ exuberant performance would provide the model for Flint’s distinctive Irish brogue, punctuated by such colloquialisms as, “Sorry, me bucko,” and “Well, bless me soul.”

With Michelinie’s script now finally taking shape, the search for a suitable series artist led to the late, great Don Newton being selected for the job. [BACK ISSUE #19 (Dec. 2006) presents an in-depth appreciation of this fine artist’s career and work.] Although Newton was perhaps best known at that time for his work on Charlton’s The Phantom, he had most recently been penciling the revival of Jack Kirby’s cosmic-themed New Gods for DC. Thus Newton was called upon to design not only the Star Hunters themselves, but also the futuristic hardware and various alien worlds that the team would be exploring in their travels through the galaxy.

The final addition to Star Hunters’ creative team is a name that modern readers have come to closely associate with David Michelinie due to their long and exceptionally popular run on Marvel’s Iron Man. That name is, of course, Bob Layton, who was tapped to be the series’ inker after previously working with Michelinie on Claw the Unconquered. Although comic fans would someday view this early partnership between Michelinie and Layton as “the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” it would also have the unintended consequence of causing Newton’s early departure from the series.

CORPORATE RAIDERS Alternately titled at various points: Star-Hunter, World-Tamer, and Donovan Flint, Starhunter, the belabored birth of Star Hunters finally came to term with a double-sized edition of the anthology series DC Super-Stars, issue #16 (Sept–Oct. 1977). In a story entitled “The Farrell Alternative,” we meet soldier of fortune Donovan Flint working as a hired “troubleshooter” on a remote asteroid-farming colony. When a group of callous space thieves try to hijack a food shipment destined for an overcrowded and underfed Earth, Flint literally jumps into the fray to thwart their plans. Despite being outnumbered, Flint gets the better of N e w

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The Buckler/ Layton Team Rich Buckler and Bob Layton’s covers to Star Hunters #2 (Dec. 1977– Jan. 1978) and 3 (Feb.–Mar. 1978).

TM & © DC Comics.

the hijackers by utilizing what would become his signature weapon: a pair of mentally controlled laser pistols that leap into Flint’s waiting hands from “biomagnetic clamps” on his gloved forearms. In Flint’s skilled grip, these pulser handguns “spit destruction with an accuracy unrivaled by common men...”

The inspiration for Flint’s trademark laser pistols came from one of those aforementioned science-fiction authors who influenced Michelinie in his youth. “The mentally controlled pistols, those were a variation on something I had read in the novel Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison,” Michelinie explains. “If I remember correctly, the hero in that book had a pistol in a forearm holster.

When he moved his hand as if to hold a gun, the flexing muscles triggered the holster to slide the pistol into his hand—which, in essence, was a variation of the old Wild West ‘hold-out’ gambler’s device, which held a derringer on a sliding rail up a card player’s sleeve. I added the thought-activation bit to make it more futuristic.”

Upon returning to Earth, instead of being greeted as a hero, Flint finds himself butting heads with one Ms. Darcy Vale, a loyal employee of the all-powerful Corporation. As we later learn, this unnamed Corporation seized control of the Earth in response to an unspecified event called “the Panic of ’93” and now rules the planet in oppressive, unilateral fashion. “Making a global corporation the villain in Star Hunters,” Michelinie observes, “that pretty much stemmed from my being in college in the late 1960s, where I developed a healthy distrust of both Big Business and unchecked government.

Which, come to think of it, is kind of redundant.”

Fancying herself the epitome of a good corporate employee, Darcy Vale proceeds to berate Flint for pinching a single apple from the very food shipment he just prevented from being hijacked. Indeed, Darcy is shown to be so ambitious that she has no qualms about dating the loathsome chairman of the Corporation,

TM & © DC Comics.

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Charlie Bane, for no other purpose than advancing her ascent up the corporate ladder. While not exactly a model of 22nd Century feminism, to be fair, Darcy’s attitude is hardly unheard of ... in any century.

Meanwhile, Flint occupies his free time by partaking in a barroom brawl and then making off with a lovely lass, promising to show her “a handy little gadget from Regulus IV that has the most intriguing effect on—” Alas, the rest of that thought must be left to the reader’s imagination, for no sooner does Flint awaken the next morning than he is immediately summoned to the office of Director Farrell, a member of the Corporation’s secretive Board of Directors.

Upon arriving, Flint is irradiated by a sonic blast that rearranges his genetic structure, causing his cells to mutate to the point where he now has only 24 hours to live.

Consequently, Flint must leave the planet immediately because the only way to reverse the mutation is through exposure to stellar radiation: specifically, the same kind of stellar radiation that is normally filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere. Director Farrell does offer to provide Flint with a cure for this genetic affliction, but only if Flint agrees to join a Corporation expedition to recover an ancient alien relic known as the Sornaii Artifact.

Director Farrell goes on to explain that the Sornaii Artifact is composed of two halves, with the first being recently uncovered on a remote frontier world. That first half describes how an ancient alien race called the Sornaii set out across the galaxy eons ago to sow the seeds of life on various fertile planets, including the Earth.

Thus the Sornaii may very well be the progenitors of the human race. Further, when the missing half of the Sornaii Artifact is joined with the existing half, it reveals the location of the Sornaii Homeworld. However, the Corporation wants to keep this discovery a secret from the public for fear that it might somehow undermine their unopposed rule of the Earth.

Michelinie cites another classic work of science fiction as a source of inspiration for this plot element, saying, “I’d been blown away by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey back in 1969, and that’s probably where the idea of another race ‘seeding’ life on Earth came from. Also, I believe the whole Chariots of the Gods, we’ve-been-visited-by-other-races craze was in full bloom at that time. So that was also a likely influence.”

In response to Director Farrell’s ultimatum, Flint has the understandable reaction of trying to strangle him within an inch of his life, only to be subdued by Corporation security. Recognizing the hopelessness of his plight, Flint finally resigns himself to joining the expedition. Flint is then ferried to the starship C.S.V. Sunrider, where he meets the rest of his expeditionary team, all of whom have been infected with the same genetic mutation, thus ensuring their obedience to the Corporation. Among the others on the team: Flint’s old friend Jake Hammersmith, exobiologist Theodore McGavin, ship’s physician Dr. Bruce Sellers, and computer specialist Mindy Yano. To add insult to injury, Flint learns that his nemesis Darcy Vale has been assigned to command the expedition.

TRASH TALK The first real test for this intrepid band of space explorers comes when they attempt to leave the Solar System and find their ship under attack from an array of “guardian drones” which function like an interstellar defense system. What exactly these guardian drones are defending the Solar System against—an attack from without, or escape from within— is never made clear. Amidst the mayhem, Flint and Darcy do their fair share of bickering over who should really be giving the orders, while timid Mindy is forced to make her first extravehicular jaunt into space to reprogram the attacking guardian drones.

After circumventing these drones and departing the Solar System, the group crosses over into their own book in Star Hunters #1 (Oct.–Nov. 1977), with the same creative team from their debut in tow. In a story entitled “Junkworld!,” we find the Star Hunters searching for the second half of the Sornaii Artifact on the planet Merdd, a world transformed into a giant garbage dump by the Corporation to handle the Earth’s overflow of refuse. In light of the fact that “merde” is a French word that translates into an expletive for human excrement, it’s possible Michelinie may have been cleverly circumventing the Comics Code Authority here.

“Yes, ‘Merdd’ was my sophomoric attempt at sneaky humor,” Michelinie confesses. “Readers in Paris probably loved it.” At first glance, using an entire planetoid as a landfill may not seem like the most economical means of waste management, but as it turns out, the squatters who have settled on Merdd have made a fortune for themselves by repurposing the trash as memorabilia. And judging from a worn copy of Batman #1 that a random squatter is shown to be reading, Michelinie and Newton may have been taking a sly poke at overzealous comic collectors as well.

After a brief confrontation with Merdd’s squatter population, called Junkmen, Darcy explains that the first half of the Sornaii Artifact was discovered at a Merdd trading center. When Darcy demands to know the location of the second half, the Junkmen direct the team to a foreboding cave guarded by a toxic-waste creature (who happens to bear a distinct resemblance to DC’s Swamp Thing, a character that Michelinie had briefly written). Although Flint finds his pulser handguns to be ineffective against the monster, McGavin uses his exobiology skills to communicate with it. In the process he learns that the creature is a harmless life form with a desperate longing for companionship, but the cruel Junkmen have driven it into seclusion. Just as Flint recognizes that the team is being used as a decoy, the Junkmen seize the opportunity to destroy the distracted

creature and steal the trash from its cave. In response, Flint is outraged by the murder, but the Junkmen turn over the second half of the Sornaii Artifact as recompense for the deception.

One of the most striking things about this premiere issue is the fact that the Star Hunters actually succeed in accomplishing their mission in the very first story. From the setup in DC Super-Stars #16, the groundwork had been laid for an ongoing quest in which the Star Hunters could spend years searching a very large galaxy for a very small artifact. Yet against all expectations, the team snatches the proverbial needle from a galactic haystack on their very first try.

In keeping with this, the series would routinely go on to defy expectations with similar unexpected and dramatic shifts in plot direction.

“I thought the hunt for Homeworld would be more intriguing than the hunt for an artifact,” Michelinie explains, of the sudden resolution to the quest for the artifact. “Would I do the same thing today?

Maybe, maybe not. I don’t like to drag storylines out, but perhaps there were a few possibilities that such a structure could have served well before moving on…. When writing a series, particularly a brand-new one, I like to have a solid vision of the characters but only a vague notion of the direction they’ll take. That way I can let the characters move the storylines and remain flexible as to where they go. This is the best way to let surprises happen, both for the writer and the reader.”

STAR WRITER IN THE MAKING Judging from the series’ letters column, called “Star Writers,” the debut of Star Hunters seemed to elicit equal amounts of praise and trepidation from readers. While reaction to Michelinie’s story and Newton’s artwork was overwhelmingly positive, there was also a distinct tone of skepticism generated by its sci-fi trappings.

Rebels Yell Writer Micheline and inker Layton signed the original cover art, penciled by Buckler, to Star Hunters #6 (Aug.–Sept. 1978). Courtesy of Anthony Snyder.

TM & © DC Comics.

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“So DC is once again taking another fling at the science-fictionspace-opera type of story,” one respondent wrote. “I wish you well … but unless the potential is utilized correctly, it could flop.”

Another reader weighed in on the new series, saying, “It’s beginning to seem like SF comics are the dime-a-dozen sow’s ears of comics today.

Well, STARHUNTERS is the proverbial silk purse. And it can be done.”

One final letter worth noting is that of an aspiring scribe named Mike W. Barr, who wrote that Flint’s mentally commanded pulsers were “too gimmicky,” and voiced his displeasure over the fact that the C.S.V. Sunrider looked too much like the U.S.S. Enterprise. If the name of that erstwhile critic sounds familiar, then keep reading for a career update on Mr. Barr, who would go on to have a bright future in comics, writing a lot more than letters.

ART WARS Any celebration that Flint and his teammates enjoyed over successfully recovering the second half of the Sornaii Artifact would be short-lived.

Upon returning to the Sunrider, the team finds Mindy stricken down by a severe epileptic seizure. Meanwhile, the creative team behind Star Hunters would lose a member of their own as artist Don Newton decided to leave the series that he helped to create. As reported by Barry Keller in BACK ISSUE #19 his article “Don Newton: He Showed Us How To Do It Right”: Don was very happy with Star Hunters until he saw Bob Layton’s inks; his whole interest in the book then changed, because Newton was adjusting for the first time to seeing his work inked by others, as [Dan] Adkins and [Joe] Rubinstein were just about the only people beside Don himself to ever ink Don’s pencils. Newton was often very critical of inkers, almost obsessively so.

In later years, his frustration with an inker may not have driven him off of a book, but it did this time. Don asked for a different inker, and when told of Layton’s commitment to the book, he asked to be removed from Star Hunters.

All of which comes as news to Michelinie, who reacts, “Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. I forgot exactly what I was told about Don’s early departure—something like wanting to work on other projects, I believe. That’s a shame.”

With Larry Hama filling in for the departed Newton, Star Hunters #2 (Dec. 1977–Jan. 1978) finds Flint trying to prevent Darcy from informing the Corporation about their successful recovery of the artifact, at least until he can better discern their motives. Yet to the surprise of both Flint and Darcy, Director Farrell has somehow already been apprised of their progress and orders the team to proceed immediately to the Sornaii Homeworld.

HERO REBORN En route to Sornaii’s place of origin, the Star Hunters take an unplanned detour when the Sunrider gets caught in an energy drain emanating from the planet Nightworld (called such due to the brevity of its daylight hours). Once on the planet surface, the team traces the drain to the base-camp of the Annihilists—a crazed, militant faction dedicated to the destruction of the Earth because they reject the policies enacted by the Corporation after the Panic of ’93. Using a powerful weapon called the World Ripper, the Annihilists plan to fold back the dimensional layers of space and unleash a black hole onto the unsuspecting Earth.

Mike Nasser assumed the art chores for Star Hunters #3 (Feb.–Mar. 1978) as Flint and company succeed in thwarting the mad scheme of the Annihilists. However the Sunrider gets damaged in the process, causing its engines to build toward critical mass. With Dr. Sellers and the stricken Mindy still onboard, Flint races back to the ship to evacuate them. When Flint then goes back to the ship to rescue the Sornaii Artifact, the Sunrider explodes into a giant fireball, “sending his shattered atoms shrieking, cascading into a cold and comfortless void,” the caption describes. “Or, to put it a bit less pompously—our hero just died!”

Fortunately for Flint, death might best be described as a “conditional state” within the twin realms of science fiction and comic books. Such is certainly the case for Donovan Flint, who is almost instantly resurrected from the afterlife by a mysterious, ethereal being called “the Entity” who has a greater cosmic purpose for Flint as “the Chosen of the Sornaii.”

SWASH BUCKLER Also chosen in this issue was new series artist Rich Buckler, now assuming the full-time mantle with Star Hunters #4 (Apr.–May 1978). In retrospect, Buckler was a logical choice for the book after having recently made his mark in the annals of comic-book science fiction by co-creating (with Doug Moench) the futureshock cyborg Deathlok the Demolisher for Marvel. Indeed, Buckler made his presence felt immediately by giving Flint a modest costume redesign, adding a bit more color, a distinctive headband, and an open-chested tunic that enhanced the character’s overall swashbuckler appeal. Longtime Marvel readers might also notice a certain similarity between Flint’s new look and that of Corsair, the swashbuckling leader of the similarly themed space pirates the Starjammers, who made their first appearance just a few months before Star Hunters in X-Men #104 (Apr. 1977).

Despite his new look, Flint remains recognizable enough to give his shipmates the shock of a lifetime when he shows up very much alive after the team has gone to the trouble of holding an impromptu funeral in his honor.

At this point, the book’s penchant for sudden, unexpected plot shifts would again make itself known as Flint boldly assumes command of the Star Hunters team and announces his intention to return to Earth to overthrow the Corporation.

Ignoring the vociferous objections of Darcy, the rest of the team falls in line behind Flint, helping him to

Separated at Birth?

Marvel’s Corsair (right, as drawn by Dave Cockrum in this detail from the cover of X-Men #154) and Flint (left, as drawn by Rich Buckler and Tom Sutton in this panel from page 24 of Star Hunters #7).

Corsair © 2009 Marvel Characters Inc. Star Hunters TM & © DC Comics.

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commandeer an advanced Annihilist starship they rename Sunrider II (complete with a smart-alecky “quasi-sentient” computer named Ozzie—think HAL 9000 meets KITT). Interestingly, the introduction of this new starship, Sunrider II, would ultimately prompt David Michelinie to walk away from the series he created, as well as DC Comics, and defect to crosstown rival Marvel.

Undeterred by her own ouster, Darcy spends much of Star Hunters #4 trying to impede the team’s efforts by reporting Flint’s mutiny to the Corporation and sabotaging their new ship. At the same time, Dr. Sellers discovers that Mindy’s epileptic seizures are being caused by a Corporation transmitting device secretly implanted in her brain for the purpose of spying on their activities. While Dr. Sellers ponders the dilemma of how best to remove the device from Mindy’s brain, Flint tries to undermine Darcy’s loyalty to the Corporation.

Star Hunters #5 (June–July 1978) opens in medias res with Flint and Hammersmith infiltrating an asteroid base called the Sonora station, responsible for all Corporation communications between the Earth and its outlying colonies. After hacking into a Corporation transmission, the team uncovers a secret message from Chairman Bane wherein he boasts about how thoroughly he has duped Darcy into blindly following his orders. Shaken by Bane’s total disregard for her, Darcy tearfully aligns herself with Flint in his efforts to unseat the Corporation. Now united against their common foe, the Star Hunters seize the command center of the Sonora station and send the entire asteroid plummeting into a nearby sun.

Meanwhile, Chairman Bane reveals himself to be the puppet of a far greater evil, in the form of the sinister Blood Legion, led by Vilislith, Prince of Bones. Here the series provides yet another unexpected plot twist with the introduction of the Blood Legion, a cadre of space vampires last seen in the pages of Howard Chaykin’s “Ironwolf.” Whether this appearance is meant to directly connect Star Hunters continuity with that of Ironwolf remains unclear, even to Michelinie himself after all these years. “I do remember reading “Ironwolf” and enjoying it,” reflects the author, “but I have no idea why characters from that series were incorporated into Star Hunters. I can only assume we were attempting a ‘Marvel Universe’ shtick, trying to make the DC future look like a cohesive whole by crossing future-based series over with each other. I only hope we got Howard’s okay before doing it. If not, I belatedly apologize.”

The penultimate issue of the series, Star Hunters #6 (Aug.–Sept. 1978), begins with Flint and Dr. Sellers getting captured by Corporation enforcement units and sent to the Avernus space prison. Alas the whole thing turns out to be a ploy, as Flint and Dr. Sellers allowed themselves to be captured in order to gain the confidence of prison overlord Emil Sturm. As it turns out, Dr. Sellers had formerly been serving time himself on Avernus after being arrested by the Corporation for disobeying their dictates over whom to treat—making Dr. Sellers a kind of sci-fi Captain Blood as it were.

[For the uninformed, the novel Captain Blood was made into a 1935 swashbuckling adventure film starring Errol Flynn, as an Irish doctor-turned-pirate who is sentenced to a penal colony for offering medical treatment to a rebel.] Together, Flint and Dr. Sellers convince Sturm to help organize a prison revolt so they can use Avernus against the Corporation, only to have Sturm doublecross them once the fighting gets underway.

MULTIVERSAL SOLDIER

Space Invaders

The 44-page series finale entitled “Homecoming” provided an action-packed farewell for the intrepid space heroes in Star Hunters #7 (Oct.–Nov. 1978). The story, which opens with Flint and his crew overtaking the Corporation forces on Avernus, includes a ‘plot assist’ credit for Bob Layton (who ironically does not ink the issue). In reminiscing about one of their earliest writing collaborations, Michelinie describes Layton as “an irrepressible idea man. He can’t help it. So even though he was hired simply as an inker on the book, he got caught up in the characters and story and couldn’t stop his imagination from roaming. And since we had become friends while he was inking this book and Claw the Unconquered, he felt comfortable discussing his ideas with me. And since I’m no fool, I’ll take good ideas wherever I can find them. Bob’s input was detailed enough on that issue that I felt he deserved a credit.”

As the plot continues to unfold, the Star Hunters find themselves faced with an inmate population on Avernus every bit as opposed to the Corporation as the Star N e w

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Page 19 of Star Hunters #7, the series’ final issue to see print. Art by Buckler and Sutton.

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

TM & © DC Comics.

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Hunters themselves. Hence, Flint tries to rally support among the inmates for an attack against Earth by relating the details of his resurrection by the Entity.

Flint proceeds to explain to the prisoners that an eternal struggle between the forces of light and darkness has been waging since the beginning of time, a war for control of a series of dimensions called the Multiverse. This battle has been fought over countless eons using mortal surrogates, including, apparently, Claw the Unconquered, and the sword-and-sorcery heroine Starfire (from Starfire #1–8, Sept. 1976–Oct.1977), both of whom are glimpsed in Flint’s visions of this eternal struggle. Of late, the cosmic balance has shifted toward the forces of darkness due to the Blood Legion aligning itself with the Corporation. If left unchecked, these dark forces will transform the entire galaxy into a Dante-esque vision of Hell, consumed by decay and corruption. Thus the Entity has selected Flint to serve as the “Chosen of the race of Sornai” and a champion of the forces of light.

If the above description evokes the oeuvre of acclaimed author Michael Moorcock, it is with good reason. Michelinie was very deliberately referencing another one of the aforementioned writers whose work influenced him so greatly as a young man. “I was a big fan of Elric, Corum, and the rest of the heroes populating Moorcock’s multiverse,” Michelinie recalls. “I thought the Eternal Champion concept was brilliant, and I was consciously trying to create something similar in my DC work … I was looking toward a cohesive whole that I had hoped would lead to a graphic novel that would bring all four aspects of my own ‘Eternal Champion’ together in one monumental story.

That’s right, I said ‘four.’ I had planned to bring another surprising DC character in as probably the most unexpected ‘hero’ of all—Jonah Hex!” Back on Avernus, Flint earns the allegiance of the prisoners with his tale of resurrection and begins training them as a combat force, transforming the inmates into an army capable of sacking Earth. At the same time, Dr. Sellers departs with Mindy in order to perform the delicate procedure of removing the transmitter from her brain. In search of a safe haven, Dr. Sellers chooses a “free planet” along the frontier called Bogart. Judging from the name, it is tempting to imagine “Bogart” as a world reminiscent of the film Casablanca. Regrettably, this world would remain unrealized, and this part of the tale forever untold.

In what turned out to be the climactic conclusion of the Star Hunters’ unfinished space saga, Flint’s invasion force engages a space fleet of Corporation defense ships in a pitched battle above the Earth. Employing an experimental “warper” ship, Flint uses its “karma drive” to teleport to various locations over the battlefield, destroying numerous Corporation starships at will. However, the Blood Legion’s Vilislith, Prince of Bones is also on the scene to command the opposing forces. In an ending symptomatic of the series itself, the battle would remain undecided as we see McGavin killed by an enemy ship, while Flint gets shot down over the Earth. The last page of the series shows Flint emerging from the crash wreckage, now stranded on the surface of the Earth with only 24 hours to live unless he can either find a way back into space, or a cure for his genetic mutation.

A final caption teases, “Next: The final battle with the Corporation!”

IMPLODING STARS Whatever the outcome of this final battle, it would not have been written

by Star Hunters creator David Michelinie, even if the series had continued.

As announced in the letter column for Star Hunters #7, Michelinie was leaving the book with that issue. “We’re very sorry to see Dave, and our illustrious inker Bob Layton, depart these pages,” reads the last “Star Writers” column.

“They’ve given us some high adventure and some new insights, and we wish them the best of luck with their new endeavors.”

Notwithstanding the polite farewell, the reasons for David Michelinie’s exit from Star Hunters were far more personal than merely wanting to pursue new endeavors. “Okay, for the first time ever in print, here’s the reason I left DC Comics in 1978,” Michelinie reveals. “The act of destroying the Star Hunters’ spaceship, the Sunrider, in issue #3 was a conscious effort to move the look away from a U.S.S. Enterprise variation to something more realistic and detailed, a definite Star Wars influence. Mike Nasser’s design for the replacement ship introduced in issue #3 was deemed too massive and bulky, so Rich Buckler was asked to submit some original designs, which would be retro-fitted to issue #3 and be standard from then on.

The DC Explosion A rapid line expansion backfired for DC in 1978, leading to a slew of cancellations including Star Hunters.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Dynamic Don Newton We close with a look at another of illustrator Don Newton’s cosmic masterpieces, this painted cover to Marvel’s Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Special #1 (1976), courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

What Mr. Buckler submitted were a half-dozen original drawings on art paper, and one Xerox copy. The Xerox was more what we had in mind so we went with that. I noticed that the Xerox showed three odd holes along the top of the original, elliptical on the sides and circular in the center; they looked kind of familiar, but I couldn’t place them at the time. So that design was approved and life went on. Then, some months later, I was up early on a Saturday morning, turned on the television—and saw the Star Hunters’ new spaceship zooming along on a cartoon show! (I wish I could remember the title.) It was then that I realized that those odd ‘holes’ on top of that Xerox were the holes at the top of an animation cel, meant to fit over anchoring prongs on an animation stand to keep the cel steady while an artist worked on it. The bottom line was that Mr. Buckler had submitted a Xerox of an animation cel from a network cartoon show,” Michelinie recollects. “I had created Star Hunters, had put my professional name and reputation on it … I was embarrassed, humiliated, and angry. I went to the editor and, for the first and only time in my career, asked that an artist be removed from a book I was writing. I was told that my request was reasonable and would be granted. [However,] when issue #7 was finished, and I asked who the new penciler was going to be, I was told that minds had changed. Even though they knew I’d quit because of it. So after five years of giving DC Comics my time (and overtime), my best efforts, and my unquestioned loyalty ... I felt I was being treated like s**t. So I called Jim Shooter at Marvel and asked if I could get some work there. His reply was, and I quote, ‘Would today be too soon?’”

[Note: BACK ISSUE contacted Rich Buckler in the hopes of getting his recollections of the incident, but Mr. Buckler was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.]

The last “Star Writers” column gives no hint of this discord, instead announcing that Michelinie and Layton would be replaced

by Gerry Conway as writer, and Tom Sutton as inker, promising, “The new team is going to attempt a foray into outer space adventure like you’ve never seen before. Stay with us.” Alas, it might have been more accurate to say, “a foray into outer space adventure that would never be seen,” for there would be no Star Hunters #8.

Instead the series would become one of the more than 30 comic book titles given an unceremonious end by publisher Jenette Kahn, ironically the same person who had offered Star Hunters a second chance at life two years earlier. When Kahn first succeeded Carmine Infantino as publisher at DC Comics, the company was already in the midst of a sweeping expansion of its comic-publishing line. Beginning in 1975, the company launched more than 50 new titles, expanded standard page counts from 17 to 25 pages, and raised cover prices from 35 to 50 cents, all of which was part of broader marketing campaign, highly touted in house ads that read, “Beginning this summer!! THE DC EXPLOSION!” While certainly ambitious, the ultimate success of this massive expansion resembled something approximating the final moments of Krypton’s unstable sun after baby Kal-El made his escape. The bloated red giant collapsed in on itself, and what began as a bold publishing initiative in turn ignited a mass extinction of comics titles, a cancellation cavalcade infamously referred to in its aftermath as the “DC Implosion.”

By 1979, the DC comics line was actually smaller than where it began prior to the Explosion initiative. Suffice it to say, 1978 was not a good year for DC Comics, with a number of notable science-fiction and fantasy-oriented series strewn among the carnage. Among them: Claw the Unconquered, the New Gods revival, the post-apocalyptic Kamandi, Star Hunters, and the anthology series DC Super-Stars, where Star Hunters made its debut one year earlier.

Some three decades later, Star Hunters remains a largely forgotten casualty of this era, one of comicdom’s numerous short-lived forays into

science fiction, including such notables as Sun Devils, Spanner’s Galaxy, Atari Force, and the highly regarded Camelot 3000 (by none other than “Star Writers’” own Mike W. Barr, who would also go on to write DC’s Star Trek comics, among others—as well as the aforementioned Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion book). Yet Star Hunters remains something of a pioneer in the genre, and like the Star Trek television series that partly inspired it, often managed to inject some degree of relevancy into its otherworldly tales.

“I was a product of the mid-to-late 1960s, with my formative education years occurring during that time,” Michelinie points out.

“It was the era of anti-war protests and ecological awareness and I was involved in all of that. On rereading the Star Hunters books for the first time in decades, I can see little social comments here and there: Earth having to grow food on other planets because it’s let the human population expand beyond its capacity to support it; the increase of waste products necessitating finding another planet on which to dump Earth’s excess garbage; the burgeoning feminism of Darcy Vale and her desperate need to succeed in her executive assignment. And, of course, the distrust of ‘Big Brother’ in both government and commerce. So in that way the stories reflected their author. Right on, brothers and sisters!” As for a possible return to the Star Hunters saga someday, Michelinie seems cautiously open to the idea: “I think the characters and situations would be as entertaining to play with and explore today as they were 30 years ago. Though the tastes of both readers and publishers have changed quite a bit in that time, and those changes might not allow the series to strive for the same ‘fun factor’ it did then.”

Nevertheless, many of the fertile ideas sewn into the pages of Star Hunters seem to echo down through the years, in much of the science fiction that has come after. Be it Mike Grell’s Starslayer (a fellow victim of the DC Implosion, which led to it becoming an independent title), Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar, Epic Comics’ Swords of the Swashbucklers, or television’s Babylon 5 and Firefly. While it is unlikely that any of these works were directly influenced by Star Hunters due its brief and largely unheralded run, the book still has the distinction of boldly going where few comics series had gone before it, and also, perhaps, paving the way for the multitude that has come after.

“An epic of space and time,” indeed.

MARK DiFRUSCIO is currently a freelance writer living in San Diego. He would like to thank David Michelinie for his time in contributing to this article.

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“The sodium-lit hour before dawn…”

by

At the Larksmere nuclear power station, terrorists drag the near-unconscious form of journalist Mike Moran.

Between half-closed eyes Moran glimpses a sign on a glass door from the wrong side.

The letters appear reversed: “Atomic” has become “CIMOTA”… Whispering this word, Moran explodes in a fury of light and noise; in his place stands a godlike being dressed in blue, an “MM” logo on his chest.

Smiting the terrorists as he ignores the ineffective gunfire bouncing bullets off his skin, this near-perfect man takes to the sky in orgiastic release.

“I’m Marvelman…” he cries, the curve of planet Earth far behind him. “I’m back!!”

And indeed he was. Not that anyone had ever missed him. In fact, someone opening the first issue of Warrior magazine would have been forgiven for having never even heard the name “Marvelman.”

Marvelman was that most rare of beasts: a British superhero. While superheroes had come to dominate American comics, costumed do-gooders had never taken hold in the UK. British children preferred the cozy cartoon hijinks of Biffo the Bear, Dennis the Menace (the British one, not the Hank Ketcham kid), and the Bash Street Kids; or war and stirring adventure stories based on good old British values and derring-do, featuring such luminaries as Union Jack Jackson, Morgyn the Mighty, and Alf Tupper.

Perhaps publisher Dez Skinn is correct when he suggests that superheroes “aren’t really needed in a country already full of legendary characters. Swinging across a London skyline on a Bat-rope or spider-webbing never felt right to me.”

Instead, during comics’ Golden Age, UK publishers such as Len Miller turned to the US and reprinted American wares for the home audience. He published weekly reprints of such US fare as Don Winslow, Spy Smasher, and Lash LaRue, though Captain Marvel proved most popular. But in 1954, Miller found himself with a problem: Fawcett, the US publisher of Captain Marvel, was getting out of the comics business following a decade of legal battles with DC Comics over the allegation that the Captain was plagiarized from Superman. Miller’s well had suddenly run dry.

Many comics publishers used the services of packagers to compile their comics, while they concentrated on the business aspects. Mick Anglo was one such packager, and Miller asked him to create a new character to replace Captain Marvel, with the idea that the new character would be similar enough that the audience might not realize there had even been a change.

Anglo altered the costume from red to blue; removed the cape; changed dark-haired Billy Batson to blond-haired Mike Moran; and the old wizard mentor Shazam became super-scientist Guntag Borghelm.

Allan Harvey

You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly The final page of Marvelman from Warrior #1.

Art by Garry Leach. All art scans in this article are courtesy of its writer, Allan Harvey. © the respective owner.

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Thus was Captain Marvel transformed into Marvelman.

From issue #19 of Miller’s weekly Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. titles, readers were informed that the heroes had decided to retire so new Marvel heroes would replace them. With #24 of their respective titles, the original Marvel Family bowed out.

One week later (February 3, 1954), Marvelman #25 and Young Marvelman #25 duly appeared, and continued very successfully for the next half-decade. In 1956, a third title was added, The Marvelman Family, which saw the debut of Kid Marvelman. For these three titles Anglo assembled a small studio of artistic talent that produced strip artwork, covers, and puzzle pages. Amongst those delineating Marvelman’s adventures were future comics historian Denis Gifford, and Don Lawrence (who went on to become one of the big names of British comics adventure art).

The practice of repackaging US comics took a severe hit in 1959 when the UK government changed the law to allow the importation of US comics. Children abandoned the black-and-white reprints for the four-color excitement of the new imports, and sales declined.

No Marvel Family Retread The very first page of Marvelman from Warrior #1, showcasing the new, realistic art approach.

Art by Garry Leach. © the respective owner.

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Miller canceled the Marvelman Family title, switched Marvelman and Young Marvelman to monthly frequency, and filled them with reprints of older adventures.

Succumbing to the inevitable, Miller ceased publication in 1963 (both titles having reached a fairly impressive #346) and filed for bankruptcy. Marvelman quickly faded into obscurity.

MARVELMAN RECYCLED But Dez Skinn remembered.

By 1981, Skinn had decided to quit his role as the editor-in-chief of Marvel UK. Marvel had begun its UK publishing venture in 1972 with Mighty World of Marvel #1, a weekly title reprinting Hulk, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four adventures. More titles followed, and initially sold very well, but by the late 1970s, sales were down, and cancellations and series mergers had occurred. New ideas and a new approach were needed.

On a business trip to the UK, Stan Lee hand-picked Skinn to head up the new operation.

Skinn had worked professionally in comics since 1969, and had published his own magazine, House of Hammer (later Halls of Horror), that focused on the output of the famed horror-movie studios. Each issue included a comic-strip adaptation of one of the movies. Later Skinn founded Starburst magazine, which had as its focus the newly emergent sciencefiction movie scene.

On taking up the reins of Marvel UK, Skinn began using homegrown talent to produce the new material required to fill out the reprints (new covers, story recaps, etc.), and initiated the new titles Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Weekly, which featured brand-new strips by British creators. Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Steve Dillon, Alan Davis, and David Lloyd produced work for Skinn during this time.

But working for a huge machine like Marvel brought its frustrations. As Skinn explains, he finally decided to leave due to an “inability to maintain any quality control [when producing] 1400 pages a month. When I took the job on, after an arm-twisting weekend from Uncle Stan—where he wanted me to carry out the suggestions in my report on turning around the fortunes of his US-led UK reprint line— I had sufficient staff to fulfill my suggested changes (‘the Marvel Revolution’ as I named the sweeping overhaul we were implementing). But the problem with success is large companies always want to replicate such until you become your own competition at the cost of a dwindling return on individual investments.

“Because part of my brief at Marvel UK was to create new material that the US could reprint,” Skinn continues, “to make it more of a two-way street I brought my old team in (from HoH) and ultimately believed we should be doing it for ourselves instead of others.”

Earlier, Skinn had published a shortlived reprint comic called Warrior. Now, having divested himself of his Marvel duties, and itching to get started on a new venture under his own Quality Communications brand utilizing the very best British talent available, he recycled that venerable title.

“Britain’s always had dynamic one-word titles for its comics,” he explains, “with no need for the asinine suffix the US seemed to need. Where they had Action COMICS, Detective COMICS, ad infinitum, our shores went for emotive key words like Lion, Tiger, Victor, Valiant, and such. So Warrior seemed an obvious choice nobody else had picked up on—both times!

It fit perfectly as a newsstand logo.”

Skinn knew what he wanted for his new anthology title.

And that included a British superhero as the lead, despite the traditional lack of success such characters had in the past. He decided on the all-but-forgotten Marvelman: “It was always going to be Marvelman. I knew the character’s history: I’d had a few Annuals as a kid and those cheap and nasty little comics. Wasn’t particularly thrilled with them, outside of occasional stunning art, but I’d always had a soft spot for Mick Anglo, who used to editorially package them. In fact, when I moved down to London in search of a more fulfilling role than on provincial newspapers, Mick was the first person I visited, back when he was packaging Super DC as a UK title.

“So, given the difference between a brand-new character who would sell no more copies, or a somewhat forgotten character who might sell about a dozen more, I opted to follow the similar relaunch I’d done with Captain Britain—tease at first, then, as a bonus, surprise those who actually cared. If it failed, it was only six pages out of 52—the beauty of the anthology approach. It always seems crazy to me that the US forgot about launchpads to test new ideas off the back of already popular ones. If I’d have given each character their own title, the failures would have certainly outweighed the successes, with the uncompromising “V for Vendetta” probably being an early casualty. But with five or six strips an issue, regular [readers] only needed two or three favorites to justify their buying the title. Similar to music albums, I guess.”

WHAT IF SUPERHEROES EXISTED IN THE REAL WORLD? Skinn needed to find a creative team to do Marvelman justice. Surprisingly, the job went to people he had barely heard of: First, an eager young comics writer called Alan Moore. “I didn’t even remember Alan’s name,” Skinn confesses. “He’d done a so-so two-page humor strip for me at Marvel UK and used to subscribe to my 1960s fanzines, but I didn’t [really] know him.

My first choices were two regular contributors to titles I’d done prior: Steve Parkhouse and Steve Moore, as both had more affinity to this peculiarly US craze than other writers I’d worked with. When Steve Moore told me a friend of his would give his eye teeth to write “Marvelman”, and nobody else seemed very interested, I told Steve I’d accept an on-spec submission (as in, if I didn’t like it, there wouldn’t be a kill fee).”

Following discussions with Skinn, Moore produced a pitch for the Marvelman revival. Seen today, the document provides a blueprint for a whole new approach to superheroes: What if superheroes existed in the real world? It was revolutionary, and would become extremely influential.

Skinn then had to consider the art: “Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland were my first choices, [for the] same reason as my thoughts about a suitable writer: They knew and liked superhero comics.”

With Bolland and Gibbons busy elsewhere, Skinn finally chose relative newcomer Garry Leach. “When I was scratching my head for a suitable artist, one of the guys in the office had showed me an old 2000AD Special that Garry had done a strip in. But I must admit I wasn’t that impressed with it. While it was anatomically sound and well laid out, I felt it was terribly overworked in the inking—a common problem with artists before they gain much self-confidence. But nobody was queuing up to draw [Marvelman], and Garry was very enthusiastic about it when I spoke to him. So after a few character

drawings being approved (one of which ran on most issue’s covers, in the left-hand sidebar), I put him and Alan Moore in direct contact to develop the approach.

So he may have had a lot of input. In fact, given his incredible passion, I can’t imagine him not having [any]!”

While it’s usually Moore who gets the lion’s share of the credit for the strip’s success, Leach’s contribution should not be overlooked. Alan Davis, Leach’s successor on the strip, has no doubts as to the artist’s importance: “Garry was far more than ‘just’ the artist. I have never met anyone more dedicated and focused to a job than Garry. I saw all of his preparatory work and notes at Alan’s house so I have no doubt he was a major influence on the tone and direction of the strip, but rarely, if ever, gets the acknowledgement he deserves.

“Whatever the case,” Davis continues, “I have always said that my ‘style’ on the series was simply a bargainbasement attempt to imitate what Garry had done— [but] with far less skill [on my part]. I met Garry only a few times and couldn’t claim to know him, but I believe he poured his heart into ‘Marvelman,’ spending weeks

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Back in a Flash For the first time in 20 years, Mike Moran transforms into Marvelman.

Note the reversed word “CIMOTA.” From Warrior #1.

Art by Garry Leach. © the respective owner.

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From Human to Super-Human (left) Leach’s cover to Warrior #2. © the respective owner.

working on each page. It wouldn’t have been possible for him to make a living wage from the series without the book selling three or four million. Nobody else involved with Warrior was that committed.”

Garry Leach himself is more modest when asked how his style influenced Moore: “Not that much, really. Alan had already plotted out the storyline, and the realism was more of a visual aspect than textual.

I kind of steered some of the action to a real world. For example, when Johnny Bates appeared, Alan had scripted him with his old yellow Kid Marvelman costume under his suit. I scrubbed that because it didn’t seem likely a grown man would actually wear it under his work clothes.

It was just little things like that. We already knew the strip would take a more standard comic path as the Marvelman universe developed.”

At the time, Moore and Leach’s take on superheroes was brand new.

Frank Miller was starting to make waves with his gritty Daredevil run, but its influence was yet to be felt in a big way; besides, it was still set firmly in the Marvel Universe. With Marvelman, the creators were trying something different: having a superhero exist in the real world, and extrapolating from that conceit. In order to give life to Moore’s scripts, Leach needed to develop an innovative approach to comics storytelling. “[It was] fairly new,” Leach admits. “I had in mind the kick in the pants that Neal Adams’ art had brought to the genre. I just took that a stage further and dropped the comic effects that we all used: whizz lines, the explosive punch, and all that. If you couldn’t actually see it for real, I tried not to use it in the art. That’s how the Tinkerbell effect developed [in the strips MM is surrounded by a shimmering glow], a plot device to legitimize those old industry effects.

“At the time I had a fairly realistic style anyway, but, yeah, I felt the main thrust of the story was that it was set in a ‘real ’ world, unlike every other hero strip then. It followed that a realistic style would help enforce that creative intent. That style would also help us stand out from all the hundreds of other superhero strips around.”

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A more pragmatic need for this approach is suggested

by Alan Davis: “The first episode simply wasn’t long enough for readers to be engaged by the story. If the strip had been drawn in a traditional superhero style, it wouldn’t have had any real impact. Garry’s design and technique set the tone and promise of what was to come.”

“Most of the prep[aration],” adds Leach, “was simply deciding on a visual ‘feel’ for the strip. You have to bear in mind any preceding look for MM was Mick Anglo’s semi-humorous, built-like-a-beer-barrel stuff.

Don Lawrence’s version was as real as it ever got.

Once I’d committed to the realistic art approach I had to pick some easily accessible character models. It’s no secret that I settled on Paul Newman and Audrey Hepburn for the Morans, and there were a pile of movie books available for both of them.”

This illustrative style, one that harkened back to the Golden Age of newspaper strip illustration by the likes of Hal Foster and Alex Raymond, took Leach a long time to produce: “Anything from two to four days [per page].

Sometimes I’d dump a page if I wasn’t happy with it and start again from scratch, or wander off till I had an idea sorted. The last page of the first episode— ‘I’M BACK!’—I re-drew three times before I nailed the look I wanted. I’m a very slow artist because I just can’t let a page go if I’m not satisfied with it, deadline or not. It kind of tends to piss editors off.”

REAL WORLD HERO IN SLOW MOTION Indeed, Leach’s output for Warrior dropped alarmingly.

So much so that the artist suggested a temporary replacement to help him meet deadlines: Alan Davis.

Then working fulltime in a warehouse and drawing comics in the evenings, Davis was the artist on the recently revived Captain Britain strip at Marvel UK. Following several early chapters by Dave Thorpe, that strip was now being written by Alan Moore.

Davis’ first work on Marvelman appeared in a one-off story in Warrior #4 (Aug. 1982). Many of the contents of that issue had originally been intended for a Warrior Summer Special, but distributor reluctance meant the cancellation of the project. That story, “The Yesterday Gambit,” written by Moore, with art

by Davis, Paul Neary, and Steve Dillon, was never reprinted in the US. Dez Skinn recalls the aborted Special: “It would have been either writer Alan or me as far as choosing artists for the Summer Special. I’d have definitely chosen Paul Neary and Steve Dillon as they’d both worked with me previously. But [Alan Davis] certainly wasn’t chosen (by me) at that stage to be Garry’s successor. His work still wasn’t that hot. Amazing how rapidly he came on. But the Special wasn’t a tryout for anybody; it was meant to not only increase our line/profile/turnover (a three-month shelf-life for a Summer Special should never be sniffed at!), but to also give Garry a chance to catch up. He was already struggling with the strip, being such a perfectionist.”

Hey, Is That Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman? (opposite page) Nope, it’s Liz and Mike Moran, as drawn by Garry Leach in Warrior #2. © the respective owner.

While Davis agreed to pencil two chapters to help Leach get ahead, it was with some reluctance: “I joined the party late and had been warned not to trust Dez Skinn (or any other independent publisher), so, rightly or wrongly, I kept him at arm’s length,” Davis says. “The business arrangement at Quality and with the creators involved seemed naively un-businesslike, but as my contribution was minimal, I was prepared to risk a small investment of time and labor.”

To help smooth the transition between artists, Leach inked Davis’ pencil art. However, all was not well, as Davis explains: “Garry was way behind on deadlines. He needed breathing space and I was willing to hack out a few issues to give him time. [His] intensive technique was the reason he couldn’t meet deadlines.

I was used to doing at least one or two pages of pencils and inks a day.

“I penciled the first strips so that Garry could apply surface technique and keep the overall look consistent with earlier issues, but I think Garry was still spending three or four times longer inking the

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Pow! To the Moon!

Alan Davis’ first work on Marvelman.

From the unpublished-inthe-US story from Warrior #4. © the respective owner.

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pages than I had taken to pencil them, so he wasn’t making up enough time and I was asked to ink a couple of episodes. I still thought I was just filling in until Garry told me he had decided to move onto something new—’Warpsmith,’ I think.”

With Leach’s departure, Davis took on full art chores, which meant that for several years the only two British superhero strips were both written and drawn by the same creators! Davis employed slightly different styles, however. While he was content to use Kirby/Ditko-influenced exaggeration on Captain Britain, he toned it down for Marvelman.

“I don’t delude myself about my lack of skill or ability at that time,” says Davis. “I had no formal art training, no technical knowledge—I hadn’t even mastered perspective. Comics were a hobby for me.

I was working in a regular job and drawing in the evenings and weekends. All I could really do on “Marvelman” was draw using less dramatic angles, with less exaggeration and hope to add a superficial resemblance to Garry’s work with multiple Letratone applications.”

“In No Way Associated with Marvel Comics Ltd.” Steve Dillon’s splash page to the unpublished-in-theUS MM story from Warrior #4. Note the disclaimer along the left border. © the respective owner.

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LEGAL AND FINANCIAL WOES Alans Moore and Davis concluded Book One of the Marvelman saga in Warrior #11 (July 1983), and immediately embarked on Book Two; each new issue of the increasingly erratically published magazine bringing a new chapter. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #28 for an in-depth look at the plots of these stories.]

Readers of Warrior #21 (Aug. 1984) were left breathless with anticipation at a cliffhanger ending that saw a powerless Mike Moran helpless at the ferocious jaws of ‘Marveldog.’ It would be a long wait…

Although Warrior ran for a further five issues before being canceled with #26 (Feb. 1985), Marvelman was conspicuous by his absence. Where had he gone?

The “official” story was that Marvel Comics had threatened legal action over the name.

When Marvelman had first appeared in the 1950s, Martin Goodman’s company was called “Atlas.” But by the time Skinn sought to revive MM, the Marvel Comics name was well established. Only too aware of potential problems, he had gone so far as to include a legend on every MM strip in Warrior to the effect that Marvelman was “based upon, and a continuation of, the 1954 L. Miller & Son Ltd. copyright character and is in no way associated with Marvel Comics Ltd.” “[We were] hedging our bets,” says Skinn. “And with the vanity and bluster of youth, we actively didn’t want to be seen to be associated with Marvel.”

While Marvel had been content to offer little or no challenge when MM was merely one of several strips appearing inside Warrior, the appearance of a Marvelman Special in 1984, mostly consisting of Mick Anglo-era reprints, brought problems. As outlined at length in Warrior #25 and 26, solicitors acting for Marvel Comics and Skinn’s Quality Communications exchanged letters. Several of these are reproduced in their entirety, with Marvel firmly requesting that Quality cease publication of “Marvelman.”

As far as the general readership was concerned, that was the reason for MM’s disappearance. But hidden away in a letters column reply was a hint as to the real reason: uncertainties over syndication “relating directly to the creators’ income.” In other words: money problems.

Skinn: “The public face was Marvel could take the blame—no point sharing the dirty side of the business with our readers. [It] was pretty handy they leaped in when they did, though.”

Davis: “Despite the bad press Dez Skinn received, I believe he did his best to hold it together … but it did get very silly towards the end. From my perspective, on ‘the inside,’ it was a protracted and rather petty squabble that was subsequently rewritten to sound worthy or mature. (Not so much about creative rights and corporate bullies but how much was Dez making on the back-cover badges and who thought of the word ‘sobriquet.’)

“I never actually quit Marvelman. I hadn’t been paid for an episode and made it clear to Dez that I wasn’t prepared to resume work until I was paid.

By the time I received a check, relationships between Dez and Alan [Moore] had deteriorated—in fact, it was suggested that the reason I got a check was because of their split, to encourage me to side with Dez. Whatever the true rationale, I said I wouldn’t take sides, and the episode I had been working on stayed in mothballs as I waited for them to settle their dispute. Warrior crashed before they did— if indeed they ever did.

“I always believed the legal issues involving Marvel Comics came well after things fell apart at Warrior, and were used as a convenient excuse after the fact, because, far from being unexpected, I know the possibility of Marvel’s legal actions had been discussed prior to the launch of Warrior.”

With Warrior’s cancellation, and with creative differences and legal battles on his plate, Skinn went to the US hoping to license some of the Warrior strips.

Early deals with Pacific Comics fell through, though eventually most of the Warrior material saw print in the US. Marvelman itself found a home at Eclipse Comics.

And that was when the problems really began…

THE MIRACLE MILE As detailed in BACK ISSUE #28, Eclipse started publishing reprints of Marvelman in 1985. To avoid further legal problems with Marvel Comics, the character was renamed Miracleman, with all strips and logos re-lettered accordingly. Each issue comprised several chapters of the Warrior material, and when that ran out artist Chuck Beckum (nee Austen) was hired to draw the leftover Alan Moore scripts.

However, Eclipse had used Alan Davis’ strips without his knowledge. Indeed, Davis had expressly refused the company permission to reprint his work, and, moreover, he was never paid for the use of that work.

As Davis explains, “All of the creators on Warrior were being paid less than half of what [UK publisher] IPC or Marvel UK was paying for original work.

Ownership of the [Warrior] work and the possibility of royalties was the investment. Initially I was working for the flat page rate, but when I was asked to make a greater commitment I insisted on a share of the series/character copyright (for whatever it might be worth), and Dez, Alan, and Garry all signed a share of what they ‘claimed’ to own over to me. This was separate from the actual creator’s ownership on the pages I drew, which are mine by virtue of British copyright law.

“At around the same time as the Eclipse negotiations began, Marvel US was planning to reprint “Captain Britain,” which was a big deal to me back then, so when I discovered Alan [Moore] had refused Marvel permission to reprint “Captain Britain” I asked him to reconsider, and when he wouldn’t, I sent Alan and Dez a letter saying that I was not prepared to allow my work to be reprinted by Eclipse until Alan saw sense.

Alan never replied to my letter. Dez asked me to reconsider, but I said the ball was in Alan’s court. The next I knew Eclipse had published my pages without my permission and against my wishes.”

In George Khoury’s book Kimota!, Eclipse editor cat yronwode claimed that Davis had in fact sold his share to Eclipse, and that there was no problem in reprinting the work in the US. Davis vehemently disagrees: “I can only reiterate that I never sold anything. When this lie [that Davis had given his permission] was first made public, I did two or three interviews where I called the responsible parties liars and thieves and challenged them to produce any documentation.”

Asked if he had suffered similarly, Garry Leach replies, “not really. We had an agreement with Eclipse and they did pay out on that initially; it was the later outstanding royalties that they didn’t cough up on. They were pretty N e w

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Splash Page (above) Eagle Award-winning cover to Warrior #7, by artist Mick Austin. (above left) Alan Davis arrives as penciler and inker.

From Warrior #8. © the respective owner.

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The End is Near… (top) From Warrior #21, illustrated by Alan Davis. (bottom) The 1984 Marvelman Special became the patsy for the demise of Marvelman in Warrior. Art by Mick Austin. © the respective owner.

hopeless … or devilishly devious—I’m not sure which. I only found out about that whole Alan non-payment thing many years later.”

The Eclipse Miracleman series ran until issue #24, with new material

by Alan Moore completing Books Two and Three. From #16 new writer Neil Gaiman built upon Moore’s ideas, taking the saga in a new direction for Book Four. All four Books were collected in hard- and softcover formats.

Book Five was just getting started, but bankruptcy finished Eclipse before the completed #25 saw print.

The real-world events and legal wrangling that followed have kept the series out of print ever after. In 1996, Todd McFarlane purchased Eclipse’s assets in an auction, which he believed gave him the rights to Marvelman/Miracleman. Others, including Neil Gaiman, say not. The battle, both in and out of court, continues. Further complications arise from the possibility that Dez Skinn may never have actually secured the rights to the character in the first place. Asked today, he remains coy: “I’ll pass on this one as I enjoy reading the online speculation too much.”

However, in an interview for Kimota!, Skinn admitted that, when planning Warrior, he had believed the character to be in the public domain.

He contacted Mick Anglo out of courtesy: Warrior was to be filled with creator-owned properties, and Skinn wanted MM’s creator along for the ride.

In yet a further wrinkle, the elderly Anglo has claimed that he has, in fact, owned the character since day one. In the recent book Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette, it is stated that Anglo’s rights have been sold to a business called Emotiv & Company, which is actively working to resolve the ownership question. Until it is all sorted out, Marvelman/ Miracleman is likely to remain out of print.

Asked about a potential trade-paperback reprint, Garry Leach opines, “[W]ith the present copyright situation being an even worse mess than it was before, that’s a pretty unlikely scenario.”

Summing up, Alan Davis has this to say: “To me, “Marvelman” is no big deal—quite literally the equivalent of a couple of issues of a US comic more than 20 years ago— sadly most memorable because of the politics and crap. I am in the fortunate position of having ‘survived’ Warrior and had many other irons in the fire and put it all behind me. Recently there has been some guff over the fact that my demand for an acknowledgement of how I was ripped off and compensation for the theft of my work has prevented a reprint of Marvelman. I guess some people don’t understand the concept of defending a principle. The work I contributed to “Marvelman” was for First English Language Publication only, so I retain exclusive ownership of the art and character designs on those pages I drew and I have never relinquished any percentage of that.”

It is unfortunate that circumstances prevent the current generation of fans from reading this seminal work. Perhaps, however, were they to do so, they may feel a measure of disappointment. The first two Books now appear over-familiar, their style and approach having been plundered many times. But if “Marvelman” does indeed stand diminished today, that’s merely a testament to its power and influence.

Alan Moore and Garry Leach begat something astonishing, and Alan Davis, John Totleben, Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, and the rest followed through with extraordinary work into which they poured their hearts and souls.

They gave birth to a New World Order of comics storytelling, a world still being explored today.

World-renowned wit, raconteur, bon vivant, and international playboy, ALLAN HARVEY is none of these things.

He does, however, recognize a fine comic when he sees it.

Want proof? Visit www.thefifthbranch.com/gorilladaze.

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What if … instead of selling his share of All-American Publications to Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in 1945, Max Charles “Charlie” Gaines had purchased National Comics (DC Comics) from them? That’s the premise of this fantasy series being divided between the pages of BACK ISSUE and its TwoMorrows big-sister mag Alter Ego and set on “Earth-22,” where things in the comics business happened rather differently than the way they did in the world we know.

Just imagine: a comic-book industry in which the Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash, rather than Superman and Batman, are the premier heroes of comics, media, and merchandising. The author, Bob Rozakis, a longtime writer, editor, and production manager for DC Comics, has imagined just that in…

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. The Story of M. C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire Book Two – Chapter Six: Kirby: King of Comics

Fantastic Five Jack Kirby’s return to AA Comics brought a revitalization to characters he had created during his previous tenure in the company. The Challengers of the Unknown traded in their purple jumpsuits for cosmic costumes and weaponry and were enmeshed in a war between old and new gods.

Art courtesy of Shane Foley. (All comics images in this article are © DC Comics.)

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BOB ROZAKIS: Stealing Jack Kirby away from Marvel must have been quite a coup back in 1970.

TED SKIMMER [longtime AA Comics employee]: Oh, absolutely. It was the equivalent of the Yankees getting Babe Ruth from the Red Sox. Even though Jack had worked with Joe Simon for DC in the ’40s and then by himself for AA in the ’50s, he was just another artist back then. But after he and Stan Lee “created” Marvel Comics, he was elevated to a whole new level.

By 1970, Marvel had made serious inroads into our sales. They were expanding their line in leaps and bounds and the older readers would drop our books in favor of new Marvel titles.

ROZAKIS: But it wasn’t just Jack’s art that was the cause of that…

SKIMMER: Of course not. It was the whole Marvel mystique that Stan had propagated. But Jack had defined the look of the books. They were bringing in new artists alongside the old-timers and every one of them was trying to make their books look like Kirby was drawing them.

Billy knew he needed to shake up the staff and the books. When he pulled in Joe Orlando to handle the horror books, he was addressing one niche in our line.

Same thing when he signed Joe Kubert to co-edit the war books with Bob Kanigher.

But Kirby—that was a whole new ballgame. Jack started out with a wide variety of books and changed them all.

ROZAKIS: How much of it was Jack’s doing? As opposed to Bill giving him instructions on how to change things?

SKIMMER: Oh, it was almost all Jack.

Billy gave him Young Love and said, “You and Simon started this 20 years ago. What if you were starting it now?” Jack started doing the “Soul Love” series in the book, featuring black people, then brought in Hispanic characters, and, after that, Asians, Indians, Eskimos … you name it. He did the first interracial love stories in comics. He did stories about married couples having affairs and going through divorces. He did stories about premarital sex, birth control, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and even sneaked an abortion in one time.

ROZAKIS: As I recall, that did not play well in some parts of the country.

SKIMMER: No, it didn’t. In fact, it got all our books yanked from some stores in the Bible Belt. But it also got us a lot of publicity and what we lost in those areas was more than made up for by the sales in urban areas and in college towns. Very quickly, the general public was reminded that Stan Lee and Marvel were not the only comic-book game in town.

ROZAKIS: Why did Bill give him Doiby Dickles?

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SKIMMER: Even after Mort [Weisinger] left, the Green Lantern books were still the best-selling ones we had, but they were lagging behind some of the Marvel titles. Overall, Billy liked what Julie Schwartz had done to update the character, but he wanted to see what Jack would do. So he gave him the worst-selling book of the lot and said, “Do it your way.”

ROZAKIS: So if it didn’t work out, the main titles, GL and AllAmerican, were unaffected.

SKIMMER: Exactly. Jack had some big ideas for where he thought superhero comics should be going and this gave him a way to introduce those concepts into the AA Universe.

ROZAKIS: What he did with Challengers of the Unknown, for example. That was quite a change from four guys in jumpsuits fighting the monster of the month.

SKIMMER: The first editorial meeting that Jack came to, we were sitting around the table and he started talking about his ideas for grand cosmic adventures and epic sagas.

You would have thought he was speaking a foreign language.

Billy loved the ideas and Jack’s enthusiasm, but the other guys … well, Julie [Schwartz], Murray [Boltinoff], and [Robert] Kanigher had been editing comics since the ’40s and each of them had his own approach. Kubert and Orlando, being artists, could relate to what Jack was saying about making the storytelling more dynamic, but they weren’t quite sure what he meant either.

ROZAKIS: There was certainly a lot going on in his books, what with his new race of gods that had replaced the old ones—the combination of the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods who had battled one another into oblivion—and the intermingling with the superheroes of the AA Universe. And he seemed to be pulling characters out of everywhere.

SKIMMER: Billy gave him pretty much free rein. Jack started by reinventing a lot of what he had done in the past. He and Joe Simon had created the Boy Commandos for DC back in the ’40s; he brought

them back in Doiby Dickles as the DNA Commandos, making them clones of the original kids and putting them in the slums of Gotham City rather than in World War II Europe.

ROZAKIS: I remember when he started using the concept of clones in the book. I wrote a letter saying that he was pushing the suspension of disbelief a bit too far. Who knew how right on the money he actually was! He was years ahead of Dolly the sheep.

SKIMMER: Jack’s imagination seemed to know no boundaries. Not in his storytelling and not in his artwork. Those photo-collage backgrounds he started using in the books, they were a real challenge for the production department.

ROZAKIS: That was back in the days before Photoshop and computer image manipulation…

SKIMMER: Oh, yes. Jack would cut pictures out of magazines and paste them on a board, then draw the characters, and cut and paste them onto the montage. Unfortunately, with the type of separations and printing we were doing, a lot of those pages ended up looking like mud.

I remember coloring one of the books that had a photo background and not being able to tell what was in it. When I asked Jack how I should color it, he told me, “Just add some shapes and things.” So I threw some green here, some magenta there. When it printed, my crazy colors made it look even more bizarre and Jack told me it was exactly what he’d wanted!

ROZAKIS: [laughs] How were the sales?

SKIMMER: Some were better than others. When there was a minimal tie to the mainstream AA characters—or no tie at all—the books seemed to do better. The core Green Lantern fans weren’t so happy with what Jack did with Doiby Dickles.

ROZAKIS: Is that why the book was folded with Girl Lantern and Cathy Crain into Green Lantern Family?

SKIMMER: That was part of it. None of the three books was selling particularly well. Interest in the two “girl” books was dwindling; I think our audience was probably 95% male by then. Joe Orlando was editing Girl Lantern, but he never liked superhero books. And Billy was very unhappy with what Nelson [Bridwell] was doing with Cathy Crain.

ROZAKIS: Nelson was trying to tie all the continuity together. Unsuccessfully.

SKIMMER: So Billy decided to put the three features together. He made Murray Boltinoff responsible for the “Doiby” and “Cathy” stories and gave Julie “Girl Lantern.” Nelson was in charge of reprints.

ROZAKIS: Which made up the bulk of the book.

SKIMMER: Right. There was only one new story per issue and it rotated among the three “stars.” So the extra burden on Julie and Murray was minimal.

ROZAKIS: What was Jack’s reaction when Bill took Doiby away?

SKIMMER: He didn’t seem to mind much. Jack was trying all sorts of things in the book and each issue seemed wilder than the last.

ROZAKIS: Like the Don Rickles guest appearance?

SKIMMER: Precisely. Don Rickles … Doiby Dickles … the team-up seemed perfectly logical. To Jack, anyway.

ROZAKIS: I loved the line on the cover. “Kirby says: Don’t ask, just buy it!”

SKIMMER: Jack never wanted to do long runs on any of the books anyway. He had so many ideas; he just wanted to get them rolling and have others take them over. He was a fast worker, but there was no way he was going to write and draw all the books he was coming up with.

The King and His Creations (above) Jack “King” Kirby. (left) AA house ad announcing the return of an old title as a home for myriad Kirby creations. Jack’s 14-issue run on the title ran the gamut from revamped Golden Age heroes to brand-new concepts. Art courtesy of Shane Foley.

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Something Old, Something New (this page) Kirby’s version of a sword and sorcery comic. (opposite) Wildcat, a character Kirby drew in Sensation Comics in the late ’50s, was pulled into the Fourth World in his own one-shot special. Art courtesy of Shane Foley.

ROZAKIS: He certainly had his finger in just about every genre.

SKIMMER: And each with his own spin. In the Days of the Mob was his nod to the crime comics that were big in the late ’40s and early ’50s. Spirit World was his horror book. He wanted to do them as magazines, though.

ROZAKIS: Like MAD? And Jim Warren’s Creepy and Eerie books?

SKIMMER: No, Jack didn’t like the black-and-white format that Kurtzman and Warren were using. He wanted to do full-color, slick-paper magazines, along the lines of National Lampoon or Heavy Metal.

Billy was in favor of trying some new formats, but Charlie was the one who put the kibosh on them.

ROZAKIS: But Charlie had retired by then.

SKIMMER: Charlie still owned the majority share of the company, even though Billy was running it. And the people at Independent News (IND), which was the distributor, still reported to Charlie, too.

Billy told me that when he presented Jack’s ideas to the IND guys, they were very cool to them. They saw comic books as one format, in one place on the newsstands, and did not want to gamble on something so drastically different. Somebody up there called Charlie in Florida, expressed his “concerns,” and the next thing Billy knew, his father was telling him all of Jack’s stuff had to be standard comic-book formats.

ROZAKIS: I wonder what Charlie would say had he lived to see all the changes we’ve made in formats in the past 20 years?

SKIMMER: [laughs] He would probably ask, “Do they make money?” and when the answer was yes, he’d say, “Good!” Charlie wasn’t against change; if there was money to be made, he would go for it.

But if the IND people were telling him Kirby’s format ideas were going to bomb, he would listen to the “voice of experience.”

ROZAKIS: Did they have any basis for their opinion?

SKIMMER: Maybe, maybe not. There was a mindset there that comic books were somehow the bastard child of the publishing business. Where other magazines raised their cover price over the years to keep up with inflation, the comics publishers spent too long sticking to that 10 cent cover price. Long after Stan had pulled in a college-age audience for the Marvel books, the distributors still looked at comics as strictly kids’ stuff.

And this was all before Phil Seuling and the Direct Market, so there was no way to dispute their philosophy.

ROZAKIS: So, as with many of his other ideas, Jack was years ahead of his time.

SKIMMER: Absolutely. I think Jack would be having a field day in today’s market. He certainly would have been challenging your skills as production director.

ROZAKIS: Let’s talk about World’s Finest Comics a bit. What was the idea there?

SKIMMER: You mean reviving the old DC title? That was strictly to protect the trademark.

ROZAKIS: I was referring to the contents. That Jack was using it as a teamup book and also like his personal version of the original Showcase format.

SKIMMER: Well, one of the things going on at the time was the battle between AA and Marvel for space in the comics racks. Both companies were cranking out as many titles as we could to push the other one off the stands.

ROZAKIS: While vying with Archie and Harvey and others as well.

SKIMMER: Right.

As I said, Jack was full of ideas for new features and there was no way he could get all of them done. At least, not as ongoing titles.

Plus, we had no idea which ones would catch on and which ones would crash and burn. So Billy suggested that he use a blanket title and he could change the contents as often as he wanted.

ROZAKIS: It started out as a team-up book.

SKIMMER: At first, it was going to be Jack’s version of Comic Cavalcade or Brave and the Bold. He revamped two of his old DC characters from

the ’40s, Sandman and Manhunter, in the first issue.

ROZAKIS: That was one of the things he did in the first few years at AA. He brought back just about every character he’d worked on in the ’40s and ’50s in some new incarnation. The Boy Commandos, Wildcat, Manhunter, Sandman…

SKIMMER: Well, I think he was following the same premise that Billy had laid out for Young Love: If you were creating this now, what would you do with it?

The first issue of World’s Finest was strictly boilerplate superhero stuff. The villain tricks Manhunter into fighting Sandman and Sandy, but they figure it out and kick his butt.

ROZAKIS: Well, it was standard fare in Marvel books, but it didn’t happen so often in the AA titles. In our books, all the heroes were all friends.

SKIMMER: [laughs] Whereas the Marvel heroes were always suspicious of one another and much more likely to beat each other up rather than ask questions!

ROZAKIS: The second issue of World’s Finest had the Shining Knight and Etrigan the Demon, something old and something new.

SKIMMER: Sword and sorcery was selling. Conan the Barbarian was a hit for the boys downtown, along with some of the other Robert E. Howard characters. Billy asked Jack to come up with something, so he took another old character—the Shining Knight—and mixed in Merlin and the legend of King Arthur, added his own creation, the Demon, and brought the whole thing to the present day.

Knights, swords, magic, and monsters all in the modern world.

ROZAKIS: We “Woodchucks” used to look forward to seeing the packages that Jack would send with the next issue since it was always something different. We would call Mark Evanier out in California and ask him what Jack was planning, but he would say he didn’t know.

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JACK KIRBY’S WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #1 Sandman and Manhunter #2 The Shining Knight and Etrigan

#5 Divorce—American Style #6 Newscast Legion and the Guardian

#11 Sgt. Stripes and the StarSpangled Man

the Demon #3 Mister Miracle and the

#7 Robot Mobster #8 Sandman in the Spirit World

#12 Captain Victory and His Galactic Rangers

Challengers of the Unknown #4 Atlas

#9 The Dingbats of Danger Street #10 Wildcat vs. Manhunter

#13 Mister Miracle and Kid Kamando #14 22-Caliber Tess

SKIMMER: Sometimes, I don’t think even Jack knew what he was going to do next. I know that Billy was often surprised.

ROZAKIS: How did the book sell?

SKIMMER: Like the contents, the sales were all over the map. You had a core group who would buy every issue—the completist collectors and the “It’s Kirby so I’m buying it” fans, but the “casual readers” were a bit more discriminating.

The superhero issues sold well. That was pretty much a given with Jack’s books. As I recall, The Dingbats of Danger Street was at the bottom of the list, but it wasn’t that far behind Divorce— American Style.

ROZAKIS: I don’t think there was any type of comic he didn’t touch in that run. My favorite was Robot Mobster. Who but Jack could

come up with the idea of a mad scientist building a robot with the brain of Al Capone so he could take over the Chicago crime syndicate?

SKIMMER: Billy had high hopes that Sgt. Stripes and the StarSpangled Man would catch on and be the Captain America of the ’70s. That’s why it was spun off into its own title a couple of months later. But, as we found out when Kanigher and Kubert tried to do a series about it, there wasn’t that much interest in a book about the Vietnam War. ROZAKIS: World War II has always been the best-selling war in comics.

SKIMMER: Actually, I was betting on 22-Caliber Tess, I figured that since we had managed to tap back into the Westerns with Jonah Hex and Scalphunter, she would be an interesting spin on the genre.

ROZAKIS: Mark Evanier once told me that Jack’s original title for the book was 22-Caliber Tess and the Forgotten Gold Mine of Grover’s Gulch.

SKIMMER: [laughs] Well, if we had gone with that, there wouldn’t have been any room on the cover for art!

ROZAKIS: Oh, I don’t know. Jack always managed to fit lots of art in between all those bursts and balloons on his covers.

Okay, one other thing I wanted to talk about: The story about Jack wanting to quit to go back to Marvel.

SKIMMER: You mean after Billy’s first run-in with [Steve] Ross and the Warner Board over the poor sales? That was really pretty funny when it was all over, though it was kind of scary while it was happening.

A lot of it had to do with the fact that Jack had moved out to California while the rest of us were here.

Somebody started speculating about the Board demanding that we cut back and get rid of some of the staff. Then somebody else pointed out that we were spending a lot of money shipping the art back and forth to the West Coast by courier and that eliminating that would be a big saving.

Well, it didn’t take long for that to mutate into the Board demanding that Jack would have to move back to New York.

ROZAKIS: And that is what made its way to Jack’s ears.

SKIMMER: Exactly. Next thing you know, Jack calls Billy to say that if he’s got to live in New York in order to continue working for AA, he’ll quit and go back to Marvel. But Billy was out of the office, so Lillian took the message and said something to Midge about Jack quitting. Then Midge mentioned it to someone else, who was overheard by another person.

ROZAKIS: [laughs] Et cetera, et cetera. Talk about a bad game of “telephone.”

SKIMMER: So when Billy comes in, the first thing he hears is that Jack is quitting. He gets Jack on the phone and starts yelling at him about how well he’s been treating him and how could Jack do this?

And then Jack is yelling back at him about having to leave California.

Well, eventually they both stopped yelling and realized that neither one of them had accurate information.

And that is the story of how Jack quit to go back to Marvel. Or didn’t!

ROZAKIS: You have to wonder, though, what the company—in fact, the entire industry—would have been like if Jack had left.

SKIMMER: Thankfully, we only have to speculate about it.

NEXT: “Crisis on Fanboy Earth!”

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John Schwirian

JOHN SCHWIRIAN: After your time off from comics, you returned in 1980 to write a lot of strange humor for Marvel including the way-out “What If Aunt May Had Been Bitten by the Radioactive Spider?” [What If? #23] and the adventures of Bucky Bizarre. How did Marvel lure you back into writing comics?

STEVE SKEATES: When I left the comic-book industry in disgust over the Isis debacle, I didn’t exactly get totally immersed in being a bartender whilst trying to forget all about comics, although on certain levels that might well have been what I should have done! Instead, I spent a lot of time (while admittedly rather heavily sampling those wares my place of employment was peddling) devising various surefire story ideas as I plotted my next comeback, reemergence having become for me more or less a way of life—my career supposedly over before it had hardly begun back when Stan Lee fired me, the revitalized version thereof biting the dust when Dick [Giordano] gave up his editorial position at DC, then assignments getting way scarce due to Conway’s departure and Orlando’s utterly stupid decision to have his pal John Albano write Plastic Man, and now this!

It took (this time) merely a single trip to NYC for me to suddenly find myself once again busy being a fulltime comic-book scripter! The best of the story ideas I took with me, a little something called “The Whole Tooth,” was immediately grabbed up by Lynn Graeme, who made it a part of [Marvel Preview #23’s] Bizarre Adventures 2 (a particularly fine collection of off-the-wall stuff by O’Neil, Roger Stern, Frank Miller, and various others, with my piece therewithin not only having a great plot but also possessing—at least in my opinion—some of the best-written captions and dialogue I’d ever constructed!) while (to get back to Ms. Graeme) also asking me to write a 25-page story for the next issue of the Howard the Duck magazine.

All in all, no doubt about my having shown up at exactly the right moment, seeing as Larry Hama had just inherited Crazy magazine and noticing me wandering the halls there at Marvel, he immediately decided that I should play a major role in this new venture of his!

Furthermore, though I had no idea what sort of a shake-up had happened back at DC during my two-year-plus absence, I now found O’Neil working for Marvel, and Marvel indeed seemed to agree with him—he was more laidback than ever, more relaxed, even friendly and was no longer strictly enforcing any silly arbitrary rules! Truly, a nifty development!!

SCHWIRIAN: What was the premise behind Bucky Bizarre?

SKEATES: Ultimately, O’Neil inherited from Lynn Graeme (who was departing for some sort of greener pastures) the Bizarre Adventures book, which the big boss-man Jim Shooter never saw as having all that much sales potential— to Jim, this book was more like a toy that he was giving as a gift to O’Neil, something for O’Neil to play around with, something to help keep Denny happy while he was simultaneously hopefully being productive within other less-pleasing arenas! To Denny’s way of thinking, Bizarre Adventures (as he himself had developed it) was

Master of Weird Humor Steve Skeates juiced up editor Joe Orlando’s offbeat title Plop!, especially with his tale “The Gourmet,” which ran in this issue (#1, Sept–Oct. 1973). Cover art by Basil Wolverton.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Beginnings: Scripting Larry Lieber’s plots in Two-Gun Kid #79 and 80 (Jan. and Mar. 1966)

Milestones: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (Tower Comics) / Abbott & Costello / The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves / Sarge Steel backups in Judomaster / Aquaman and Aquaman in Adventure Comics / The Hawk and the Dove / Teen Titans / Kid Flash in The Flash / Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella / Plop! / assorted DC mystery stories / Crazy / Plastic Man / Dr. 13 in The Phantom Stranger / Challengers of the Unknown in Super-Team Family / Blackhawk / Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham

Work in Progress: “Possessions,” drawn by Dick Ayers, featuring the adventures of Tepeth-tet, forthcoming in All-Smash Funnies #2 (Comic Enterprise Publishing Group)

steve skeates

© 2009 Marvel Characters Inc.

Marvel No Frills (right) Skeates wrote Marvel’s Generic Comic Book #1 (Apr. 1984). Cover art by some old hack. (above) Bucky Bizarre appeared in this issue of Bizarre Adventures (#34, Feb. 1983). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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simply too dark—he wanted to throw in there at the end of each issue a short light humorous entity that perhaps would even offset any suicidal urges brought about by the rest of the stories in that particularly depressing magazine, and he even figured that I’d be the perfect person to devise such a series. I came up with something called “Buck Bizarre,” a square-jawed, overly muscular time-traveling pseudo-hero-type who lived in a world of puns, but that wasn’t quite cutesy enough for O’Neil, so he added a “y” to the guy’s name, and had Hama work up a visual idea for the character, making him look more like a cute kid than like a muscular hero. Hey, fine by me! As a matter of fact, although there were indeed some clunkers, I do believe this baby had a better record of being spot-on than most other series of this ilk!

SCHWIRIAN: The Generic Comic Book and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham are fun reads— like your Gold Key material—yet they are pretty much the last of your mainstream comic-book material.

What happened here?

SKEATES: Larry Hama asked me to write something called The Generic Comic Book—I have no idea whose idea this was (perhaps Tom DeFalco’s, perhaps Hama’s)—but what this baby essentially ultimately turned out to be was an old-style ’70s sort of comic: clichéd, humorous, even silly, and with a what-if-superheroes-existed-in-the-real-world refrain. Wow, yes, I hadn’t had so much fun writing a comic book in something like five years, all of which convinced me that I really didn’t care where comics had gone, didn’t really care what editors now expected—this (the ’70s sort of comic) was what I wanted to write! And, if this sort of comic essentially didn’t exist anymore—well then, that was it for me! I wasn’t gonna struggle trying to write stuff I neither understood nor cared about! If the fun-to-write stuff no longer existed, then I was outta here! I quit!

And that would have been it, too, if it hadn’t been for a phone call from Larry Hama. It seems, you see, that upon the demise of Crazy (which had never really sold well anyway), Hama had been given to edit a certain Star Comic featuring the antics of a funny animal with the unlikely moniker “Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham,” a character created by Tom DeFalco, who recently had replaced the departing Jim Shooter as Marvel’s editor-in-chief. DeFalco had told Hama that if he [Hama] couldn’t find someone else to write Spider-Ham, then he [DeFalco] could do the job. No way did Hama want his boss to be [on this particular project] working under him—you can just imagine the sorts of problems this could cause! So Hama had been asking everyone he knew if they’d please, please write this series. Thing is, this was during that period when Marvel was offering a nice piece of change to those writers whose books really sold, and everyone knew Spider-Ham stood no chance at all of selling even modestly well, so Hama (so far) had gotten no takers whatsoever! Finally, he thought about me, called me up, and literally begged me to take the job. Actually, it didn’t sound all that bad— a book I could easily twist around so that I was parodying Spider-Man’s adventures from the ’60s and ’70s rather than reflecting anything that was happening in the funnybook field at that particular time and place, so I easily gave in to all Larry’s sniveling pleading.

SCHWIRIAN: Mary Skrenes is credited with working with Steve Gerber on several projects (mainly Omega the Unknown), but you’ve revealed that she co-plotted with you on several series. Can you give me a little background on this lady of mystery?

SKEATES: Had Mary gone to the same high school as I, or even attended the same college, surely the two of

Hogging the Spotlight Skeates skewered classic Spider-Man tales in his early Spider-Ham stories. Cover art to Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 (May 1985) by Michael Golden. [Spider-Ham fans, make sure you don’t miss BACK ISSUE #39!] © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

us more often than not would have been seated right next to each other, seeing as how faculties depend a tad too much upon the alphabet when devising their respective seating charts. But then Mary was from out West, whereas I had lived most of my life in New York State, and there was also quite a bit of a difference in our ages, so we had to wait until we were both (eager-beaver writers that we were) making a resounding splash upon the Big Apple cityscape (or was that merely a Hell’s Kitchen fire-escape?—one or the other) in order to instantly become close friends, writing partners, fellow cigar enthusiasts, traveling companions, and more! And, even then, in keeping with the way things generally befell yours truly within that house-of-cards arena known as my comic-book career, Mary had begun her big splash while I was (of course!) out of town!

In other words, once I made the New York City scene, I had to play catch-up, become acquainted with “the new girl” (women, after all, were in short supply within the comic-book industry, and Mary was sexy and spirited enough so that O’Neil, Adams, and everyone else in the business had the hots for her!), and all of them—everyone in the know—was anxiously waiting for me to accidentally step on my tongue once I met Ms. Skrenes. Didn’t quite work out the way everybody expected it to, however, mainly because I was not all that far removed (time-wise) from the opening stanzas of my marriage to the world’s cutest midget who had oh, so neatly wrapped up my heart, and besides Mary came damn close to being a spitting image of my first wife, and I certainly didn’t want to go that route again! So, instead, like I said, Mary and I became friends, fast friends, and on occasion even writing partners. Mary, in fact, for her part, found it downright refreshing that I wasn’t on the make, that when I said I wanted the two of us to work together on a story, that’s exactly what I meant!

Mary was born and raised in Las Vegas, had moved to NYC in the hopes of landing some sort of writing or editorial work, and, prior to my meeting her, had even worked briefly as Joe Orlando’s assistant.

Apparently she and Joe had not parted on exactly friendly terms, so that when she and I would co-write a mystery story for Joe (which was quite often actually) we would turn the story in under my name only; Mary both honestly and strongly felt that having her name on it might very well hurt our chances of selling the piece, and the main thing was getting the loot, paying the rent, being able to survive in that big, expensive city. Mary and I also co-wrote a number of Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny and Tweety and Sylvester stories (here names didn’t matter since there were no credits on these babies), yet Mary knew enough not to even ask if she could help me with whatever Underdog insanity I happened at any particular moment to be working upon—that was a series this selfish bastard wanted all to himself!

Ultimately, once my second marriage had gone the way of its predecessor, Mary and I (mainly for the sake of convenience) moved in together, choosing Hell’s Kitchen for our base of operations (a bad-rep section of New York City, which a bit later would become the setting for much of the action in that Gerber/Skrenes opus known as Omega the Unknown), even as (truth be told and believe it or not) our relationship remained of the purely platonic ilk—to be quite honest, we were downright afraid to let any romance (or, silly idealistic paranoiacs that we were, even any of that “friends with privileges” sort of deal) creep in around the edges, slither in between the cracks, or whatever, fearing that something like that might prove too distracting, might even undermine, might (in fact) utterly destroy the true beauty of what we had going for ourselves, a gloriously functioning writing partnership. Besides, as I’ve already indicated, we weren’t really all that attracted to each other anyway.

Yet, who didn’t love Mary? What I personally loved most about her was her way with words dialogue-wise. I commented earlier on Gerry Conway’s ear, his ability to hear, remember, understand, and reproduce the way real people actually talk. Well, as a matter of actuality, Mary owned an ear quite similar in many ways. In point of fact, I have no idea which of these two had the superior ability here; I can only say, even though I have throughout my career received muchos compliments concerning the sparkling true-to-life underpinnings of my dialogue, I was nowhere close to being in that impressive league those two so easily rose to the top of.

Interesting, though, that I should suddenly at this particular juncture find myself talking about Conway, albeit merely for comparison purposes, seeing as Gerry and his wife Carla, once Mary and I had moved in together, suddenly became our best friends, our rich friends, forever inviting us over for elaborate dinners, and seemingly quite determined to see and treat the two of us as an item, a couple, seeing us (amid the increasingly volatile couplings and uncouplings rampant within the comic-book industry) as misfits, as more or less homebodies not unlike themselves, ours (like theirs) being one of the few sane and stable relationships to be found in the industry—the irony being that what they assumed to be a stable and mature romance was stable mainly because of the absence of any romance, replaced, as that utter insanity was, with the far more manageable reality of the two of us being best friends and business associates.

And, while I’m on the subject of our business arrangement, do please allow me to point out that it wasn’t merely I who went out and found the work that then Mary and I worked on—Mary was a hunter and a gatherer in her own right; she’s the one who procured (for example) our various Red Circle assignments, as well as getting the two of us involved with that relatively high-paying magazine called Harpoon.

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Meanwhile, back on the social front, though the Conways somehow thought Mary and I were being “true to each other,” we were actually seeing other people—in a word, we were dating (dating being relatively a big deal back there at the end of the ’70s).

And, when the two of us were dating other writers (like when Mary was seeing Steve Gerber while I was romancing Lark Russell), that’s when things really got crazy—and I do mean Crazy with a capital C, seeing as there was this sort of double date which somehow got extended from a Friday night affair into a weekend-long brouhaha in which the four of us essentially wrote the entire first Gerber-edited issue of Crazy.

Furthermore, Gerber may have been the only writer who got credit for the first issue of the Howard the Duck comic, yet Mary, Lark, and I were hanging around while most of that was going on, blithely tossing in all sorts of ideas. [Editor’s note: As did artist Frank Brunner.] And Gerber (in my case, anyway) even returned the favor—by tossing me a number of ideas for Gold Key stories. It was almost as though the little two-person factory Mary and I had set up to construct comic-book stories was getting a tad too populous and way out of hand. Marty Pasko started collaborating with the four of us, as did John Warner. Then we started breaking it all back down into smaller groups with Mary and Gerber working together (leading to Omega the Unknown) and Lark and I collaborating (mainly on humor stuff), and there were undoubtedly other permutations and elaborations going on that have (at this late date) rather slipped my mind.

In the end, though, it wasn’t so much that the working relationship Mary and I had built up got overpopulated, confusing, and unstructured and therefore crumbled; it was the entire New York City comicbook scene that fell apart. Fax machines, personal computers, express mail, conference calls—all of that (and more) making it no longer imperative that one live in New York if one wanted to work in comics, and so everyone started moving out. Gerber, Maggin, Bates, and Pasko (amongst others) took off for California. Mary moved first to Albuquerque and then back to her old hometown of Vegas (and, as you may have just now guessed, the reason I spent the summer of 1980 and the entirety of 1984 in Albuquerque and Las Vegas respectively is that I felt a sudden need— due to a couple of romantic entanglements of mine falling all apart—to simply once again hang out with a great-looking chick who was merely very much my best friend). And me—I went back into hiding in Allegany County, simultaneously the richest county in Appalachia and the poorest county in New York State.

SCHWIRIAN: At this point, you were completely disillusioned with the comic-book industry. Where to next? Was Hollywood your next big venture?

SKEATES: Somewhere west of the Isle of Lucy sits a reported land of milk and honey, a chunk of real estate replete with every April dancer imaginable, a gleaming suburb in search of a city which itself is what Gerber and Conway and Pasko and Maggin took off in search of, chasing the elusive 27-digit check that supposedly comes hand in hand with writing for that hideous boxy deal that sits blaringly in the far corner of everyone’s living room, yet (for reasons all my own, I suppose) I was not similarly lured away from the actual printed page, off into mind-numbing La-La Land.

An age thing, I would submit, and, though I say “reasons all my own,” in actuality I can view myself as being in the same boat as O’Neil, who also never

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2009 Warren Publishing.

Vampirella TM & © 2009 Harris Publications, Inc.

On the Newsstand Writer Skeates contributed to a variety of black-and-white comics magazines.

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succumbed to the lure of the tube, the two of us being old enough to actually remember a time when that one-eyed monster didn’t rule everyone’s home, a time when people read newspapers and books and if they wanted an adventure show they’d have to go out to a movie or listen to The Green Hornet on the radio.

A nostalgia thing as well, of course, a love for those slower and quieter days, twisting and squeezing the past so into something that never was, that even World War II comes off in my remembrance as something peaceful and sweet, yet there were (in fact) those who were onto me—Pat Boyette (for one) noticing that my comic-book scripts sounded not so much like literature or movies or even teevee shows but instead had all the distinctive rhythms of 1940s radio.

Still, fed up with comics, yet hardly interested in television, what was I to do? What was I to do? A notall-that-interesting quandary (but at least a constant companion) made even worse by the unfortunate absence of any dream that might transport me beyond comics. Hey, I entered the comic-book field not wanting to become the greatest comic-book writer that ever lived, wanting instead to be one of the best while simultaneously being able to write the sorts of comics I wanted to write—stories with the emphasis more on form than upon content, plots with a touch of Philip K. Dick to them, off-the-wall humor well-used often to make an important point but not always, sometimes just for fun, and, within but a few years I had actually achieved that goal. What followed (even as portions of what I had achieved withered away) were veritable decades in which I kept asking myself, what do I do for an encore?

I spent three months writing a novel, a worthwhile experience in that I discovered that I actually could sustain something of such uncommon length and bulk, yet the end result, the book itself, was too clever for its own good, an apt lesson emphatically shouting into my face that my style didn’t fit something (anything!) possessed of such grandeur, that it was meant for smaller stuff.

I worked as a reporter, and the fact that I had written fiction for so many years gave my articles quite the compelling lilt of liveliness and over-the-top drama, and there certainly was a sense of power I derived from twisting the facts, making the left look heroic and the right look even dumber than I tend to think they actually are, yet I quickly tired of that scene (especially the legwork), ultimately informing myself that it was great to find out that I could do this, yet this really wasn’t anything I really wanted to do.

I even tried my hand at artwork, ultimately writing and drawing my own comics which I then self-published.

No money in that, of course, yet doing the art part I learned all sorts of things about writing (and specifically about writing comics), ideas and realizations that just never occurred to me during all those years of only doing the writing portion.

Meanwhile, many of those who had been entranced by television had done all right for themselves. Gerber, for example, had become the story editor first for G.I. Joe and then for Transformers, and was big on getting comicbook writers to do scripts for these series. That’s how it came to pass during that year in which both Mary and I were living in Las Vegas that we reunited long enough to co-write a Transformers episode. Also, I helped plot (uncredited) a number of G.I. Joe and JEM episodes. The pay here was beyond great and I love the fact that I was able to do this, yet I remain quite convinced that I’m a print man rather than someone who should be writing for TV. SCHWIRIAN: What came next?

SKEATES: Was I rushing things a bit here, playing it fast and loose, jumping (within our last episode) from the mid-’80s all the way up to the Now, and thereby (perhaps even inadvertently) leaving out all sorts of significant info that admittedly isn’t so much about career decisions but nonetheless concerns events that had more than a minuscule amount of impact upon this particular individual and what he laughingly refers to as his life?

Hmmm … yes, could be! I mean, after all, there was in there (around and about 1989 and 1990) my comic strip!

SCHWIRIAN: A comic strip? You mean a newspaper syndicated strip, like Dick Tracy or Peanuts?

SKEATES: Well, now, have I just now properly piqued your curiosity, or what? After all, a weekly comic strip taking up space in an actual newspaper for just about exactly a year, making for approximately 52 installments— hey, that’s nothing to sneeze at! And the fact that this year-long event was essentially the first step in this particular correspondent’s arduous journey vis-à-vis learning how to draw, basically on-the-job training then—all of that insanity merely adds to the importance of this happenstance, would you not say?

In any event, since the ’60s, whenever I’d tell someone that I was working for or used to work for DC and Marvel, that person would just naturally assume that I knew how to draw! So finally, in 1989, I decided to use that particular assumption to my advantage, going to the local newspaper, informing them that I had worked for the aforementioned mainstream comic-book companies and, that having recently relocated to the area (yet knowing the area rather well, having lived there before), I had come up with the compelling notion of gracing their paper with a weekly strip. Thus, not only did they assume that I knew how to draw, they also figured my strip would be about the local scene (you know, local politics, with perhaps an emphasis upon how shabbily the state government tended to treat its poorer counties like for example the very counties that this particular newspaper served, and like that)—neither of which was true!

I have no idea if it works this way anywhere else in the world, but where I was situated there were two daily papers—the Hornell Tribune (which basically served all of Steuben County) and the Wellsville Daily News (which served most of neighboring Allegany County)—both of which delivered to its subscribers the same Sunday paper (called the Sunday Spectator), and it was in that paper that I placed my strip (a two-tiered black-and-white deal making the scene in the Living section), so that (serving my massive ego well) said strip would essentially be reaching everyone within a two-county area. Additionally, to further convince the editor and publisher that’d I’d be talking within my strip about local matters, I named my two main characters Stew Ben and Alec Gainey and indicated that the two of them were “localized private eyes.” Furthermore, just in case you were wondering, I was charging the paper the nominal fee of five bucks an episode (basically to cover my expenses).

What emerged was a very surrealistic strip that, for starters, had my two heroes meeting up with a superhero so egomaniacal that he had the word “me” emblazoned upon his chest rather than any letter or letters indicating whatever his super-name might be, progressed to the point where Stew and Alec were projected into an alternate reality whereupon a scientist friend of theirs in an attempt to get them back accidentally blew up the entire planet Earth. Meanwhile, since I had spent a lot of time anyway within this strip smashing down the fourth wall (there were also songs and dances and quotes from people like Upton Sinclair Lewis, but that’s something else again,

isn’t it?), now in the alternate reality I had one of my heroes hit his head upon a low-hanging caption, the two ultimately noticing the amongst the stars and moons and planets that were whirling about said victim’s bumped head was a tiny replica of the Earth. Thus the two of them watered and nurtured said replica for seven days, watching it grow ever larger, thus recreating the Earth. A job well done, or so it seemed, but then as Stew and Alec (upon this newly recreated Earth) returned to their private-eye office, they came face-to-face with themselves. In recreating the Earth, they had also recreated themselves. It was the old sci-fi chestnut about the Universe correcting the silly paradox of someone meeting himself by having both of them (or, in this case, all four of them) cease to exist.

Therefore, the last panel of my final strip was totally blank.

Yowzah, it had indeed been a fun run! And I had learned quite a bit within the arena of how-to-draw, my earlier strips being crude and clunky and devoid of any shading (like they belonged in a coloring book or something), my later stuff having a definite charm to it with shading playing a very prominent role therewithin! All of which brings us up to 1991.

Hey, I was on a proverbial roll, and I wasn’t about to stop simply because my strip had reached its conclusion— instead, I switched gears! Rather than being appropriate for newspapers, my new stuff was all of a sudden in the proper proportions for a comic book, as I dove into producing one-, two-, three-, four-, six-, and ten-page stories (for some reason there were no fives, sevens, eights, or nines) that I wrote, drew, and lettered myself, sometimes Xeroxing certain ones off and sending them to friends, more often, though, simply stuffing my finished projects into what quickly became an overflowing suitcase! Visiting the bar, downing endless brews while hobnobbing with various drunken intellectuals (hey, it was a two-college town I lived in, and most of my friends N e w

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Steve Skeates, Cartoonist Examples of Skeates’ cartoons, produced for regional newspapers in 1989 and 1990. © 1989 and 1990 Steve Skeates.

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were on the faculty of one or the other of those schools), and then staggering home—that (pathetically) was generally the extent of my social life whilst living in the Southern Tier! Yet, in 1991, I probably wasn’t even doing much of that, so busy was I at filling up that suitcase!!

Somehow, it seems to have taken a whole year before I started to slow down, whereas nowadays it’s finally reached the point where I’ll maybe draw up a page or two every three months or so. Meanwhile, somewhere within the mid-’90s, I discovered the small press and started published my own stuff (selling said stuff at conventions, as well as doing trades with all sorts of folks through the mail). Fact is, for over ten years now, I’ve been putting out my own silly makeshift comics (sometimes as many as seven a year, other times as few as two) and, amazingly, just about everything in those publications was originally produced in 1991.

SCHWIRIAN: What was your strip called? How did the locals respond to it? Did you ever reprint any of it in your self-published stuff?

SKEATES: No particularly clever title for the strip, perhaps because I had already rather exhausted my well-honed clever-bone via devising the names for my main characters, so I simply called said insanity The Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey and let it go at that, although, come to think of it, in my ever-eager tendency to annihilate the fourth wall, one of the first clues my heroes had that they had been transported into an alternate reality came when they suddenly noticed that they were no longer in a strip named after themselves; now they were in something called The Lovable Adventures of Fuzzy Rodent. But anyway, reaction to that and to the strip in general varied tremendously due to the bizarre extremes within the categories of intellectualism, pseudo-intellectualism, pseudo-sophistication, and homegrown homespun small-town inbred Republican pea-brain-ism that abounded within those two counties, typified by professors and others at the colleges pointing out that my strip

was the only thing in the paper that wasn’t a “waste of trees,” even as the publisher’s bowling buddies were trying to convince him to have that new “stupid and incomprehensible strip” removed from said grumpy old tried-and-true and mainly dead serious information organ they had long depended upon and obviously didn’t want tampered with.

All of that culminated in the editor (convinced by the publisher that he had to do something, even as the publisher had been similarly convinced by his sports-minded buddies) putting the whole thing up for a vote, letting the readers decide, i.e., running a you-can-cut-it-out ballot in the paper which allowed anyone who picked up a copy of that rag to vote to keep the strip or to deep-six it. I was working as a bartender at the time, a job which easily enabled me to stuff the ballot box, making copies of the ballot, convincing my regulars to fill it out and vote for the strip, and even providing all the postage vis-à-vis sending those ballots in.

The fact that it was a real squeaker, that the strip won by an extremely thin margin, is an indication of how hated, how under-appreciated, amid the bulk of the populace, the outpourings of my particularly weird sense of humor truly were. Meanwhile (perhaps somewhat strangely, I suppose), my reaction was to fight back, to make my strip even weirder than I had originally intended—actually, though, it is this reaction and what it led me to produce, some of the weirdest stuff I’ve ever written, that I’m (as far as this event is concerned) the most proud of.

Still, the strips were of such an ungainly size and shape as far as anything other than a newspaper is concerned, plus most of these weekly outbursts seemed to conform to that age-old adage about the whole being more than the sum of its parts—you know, interdependence and all that, the strips feeding off each other—all of which rather precluded my reprinting any of said strips within any of my self-publishing endeavors. Beyond even all of that, though, there was also a feeling here similar to that which I had received from writing my novel—that (as much as I loved what I had produced this time) the main thing wasn’t the product itself but how producing that product had changed me—giving me added confidence in being as wacky as I possibly could, while (as well) getting to the point where now I honestly feel I can actually draw!

SCHWIRIAN: Amidst your self-published material lies an intriguing private investigator character named Norton J. Ordenfey. What were his adventures like and where did you come up with that name?

SKEATES: Norton J. Ordenfey, my popular chain-smoking private eye and imagined self, was (as a matter of fact) the first character I created once my comic strip was over and I dove headfirst into doing up comicbook pages. Now, I gotta admit (as we disengage ourselves from my self-published stuff and leap back to when I labored in the mainstream) that coming up with names for characters was never even close to being my long suit, although I did tend to get a little better as I continued to churn out the scripts. At one point I even hid my inability to come up with interesting names by not naming my characters at all (this was mainly in mystery stories) whilst trying to convince the editor that this guy or that guy didn’t have a name because I wanted to make him more of an Everyman. Then, for some inexplicable reason, I went through my Car stage; every character I came up with had a last name that started with those three letters—Carson, Carter, Carstairs, Carstagg, and even Carstage itself! The trouble, of course, was that these names and a number of others were just there, just indiscriminately tacked on, rather than offering any sort of a clue as to that particular character’s personality.

Along those lines (i.e., the conjuring up of a name that really fit), I’d say Vernon Glute (the label I slapped upon my main character in

Bud and Lou John Schwirian wrote and cartooned this tribute to Steve Skeates’ stint as gag-master of Charlton Comics’ Abbott and Costello. Skeates wrote the first six issues for Dick Giordano in the late ’60s and early ’70s, then grew dissatisfied with the book beginning with issue #7 when new editor Sal Gentile monkeyed with his gags. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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We’ve Heard Worse Lyrics…

Another toon from the pen of Skeates. © 1993 Steve Skeates.

“The Gourmet,” that Plop! tale of mine that seems to get reprinted every other year) is quite likely the best character name I ever came up with, but then when you’re writing basically a humor story the names do come much more easily—Upton Adam Stray, Thurston Maw, Wilbert Fancy, Murky Depths, Sleuth Shamus, Sunshine Flashbasket, Tepid Lakewater, Sir Tenley Upchuck, and on and on and on we go!

But about Norton (while, first of all, remaining within the category of names)—that particular moniker (with a minor variation in its spelling) first appeared in my comic strip and there-within was attached to a very minor character, a fairly lunk-headed teenager who had but a two-panel walk-on and then would never be seen again, yet (take my word for it) the scene was gonna work much, much better were this kid identified by name, so I spent quite a number of days wracking what passes hereabouts for a brain, trying to come up with something and somehow ultimately (and thankfully) hit upon an appellation that to me was both goofy and rather thought-provoking. Then, more than a year later, as part of an attempt to write and draw one huge, ungainly grim-andgritty (yet somehow silly at the same time) murder mystery, I tried to devise a slouch-hat-wearing, chain-smoking, prototypical film noir private eye (or at least a parody thereof), got the visuals rather nicely worked out (a continual scowl enhanced by one eyebrow and his hat brim being seemingly one and the same, a cigarette forever in his mouth, and his head larger in relationship to his body than a normal human head would be, thus giving these proceedings a rather funny-animal feel, etc.), and was trying out all sorts of tough-sounding names, when suddenly that name I’d created for the comic strip flashed into my mind.

It didn’t seem to fit, yet I hated for such a nifty name to go to waste, and besides, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of bestowing that handle upon my P.I., and one of the best parts about it (at least humor-wise) was that it would be such a seemingly bad fit.

Norton outlived that ungainly murder mystery, a project I ultimately abandoned yet one that yielded several nice scenes I later threw into other stories or let stand on their own. He even became my imagined self, developing certain traits that I possess or even taking over certain traits I personally wanted to get away from (like my having been quite the heavy smoker), his career as a detective rather paralleling my writing career in its utter bumpiness, and, in my more autobiographic pieces, he’d often be the character the me in my story would be writing about, thus enabling me to examine and emphasize those parallels, even as he began to grow into his name—the silliness of the pseudo-pig-latin form of his last name, with the “fey” at the end there also suggestive of a certain foppishness that only seems to be totally contradicted by his tough-guy demeanor. One might too easily say that his rough exterior hides one of those ever-popular hearts of gold people tend to talk about; I’d be more inclined to say it hides a lot of confusion, bewilderment, self-doubt, and various other neurotic traits that I (for one) have finally (I do believe) gone beyond merely coping with and have begun to actually appreciate. Hey, is this character growing on me, or what?

SCHWIRIAN: So what do you do now to earn your daily bread?

How do you toil from nine-to-five in search of the elusive pension promising the possibility of a retirement to enjoy?

SKEATES: Actually, I’m not exactly in the nine-to-five group, more in the more blue-collar eight-to-four troop, and actually I’m but a part-timer seeing as I only make the work scene 30 hours a week, and having started getting the muchos reprint and royalty checks DC will be sending me this year, I’ve even been thinking about cutting back on those hours.

Anyhooo, I work in a grocery store, part of the Wegman’s chain— voted in Fortune magazine for over ten years now one of the best places to work in America. I started out on floor crew, which works in the middle of the night, driving around things that look rather like Zambonis, hence the rumor (undoubtedly started by certain silly things I myself said) that I actually did drive a Zamboni, a misleading job description that even showed up in the contributor’s section of the

hardcover reprints of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. I moved from there to maintenance by somehow fooling the people in charge that I actually know how to fix things. I also learned how to do the register so I can act as a cashier whenever the store gets really crowded. I’m getting a tad tired of this job now, but I must admit that when I started it I loved it, mainly because it was so different from what I was used to— actually punching a time clock, mainly using my body rather than my brain, not being alone with my computer but actually making contact with customers, and very rarely bringing my job home with me!

That pretty much brings us up to right now, a time when my main writing job is constructing the occasional article for [the fanzine] Charlton Spotlight—I’m still not all that comfortable writing articles, takes me at least ten times longer to write one of these than it does to construct a piece of fiction of equal length, and when I’m writing fiction I don’t have all that much of a tendency to come off as a insufferable, pompous windbag.

In addition, I still dabble in comics, working for smaller companies that pay a fraction of what I used to make, while at the same time (if you ask me) my scripts are crisper than they’ve ever been (owing mainly to everything I learned while drawing my own stuff).

Interestingly enough, my most recent comic-book story which should be hitting the stands somewhere any day now was illustrated by none other than the great Dick Ayers, the very first artist I worked with back when I first got involved in mainstream comics some 40 years ago. How’s that for going full circle? Furthermore, this year [2008] DC is reprinting a lot of my stuff, not only putting my name back out there, thereby making it easier for me to get work, but also providing me with nice reprint checks which have enabled me to cut back on my physically demanding day job and thus spend more time developing new projects. So, here we go again!

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Send your comments to: E-mail: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Please inquire before sending attachments.

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

ONE MORE STEVE GERBER LETTER… I’m a huge Steve Gerber fan, and I’ve really been enjoying BI #31.

I just have a couple of additions/corrections: I wish the article on Metal Men #45 had included Gerber’s perspective on that issue, because it’s so relevant to his stance on creators’ rights. It’s well known that Gerber was very unhappy with Marvel’s decision to revive Omega the Unknown a few years ago.

On his blog and on the HTD Yahoo group he expressed the belief that ethically a comic writer should not accept an assignment to write someone else’s character if the character’s creator is ready, willing, and able to write new stories him/herself and does not approve of someone else writing them.

Regarding Metal Men #45, Gerber wrote: “The Metal Men story is one I should never have written. Robert Kanigher, the series’ creator, was very much alive at the time and still writing for DC. I learned later that he was far from happy that some young snot was attempting to revive the characters he had created, and I felt terrible about it.”

And a minor correction: The image on page 24 which you identify as a “Gerber cartoon” from FOOM #15 originally appeared on the splash page of Man-Thing #22, drawn by Jim Mooney.

Keep up the great work!

– Jason Czeskleba

REQUEST LISTS

TM & © DC Comics.

I love BACK ISSUE and eagerly await each issue. Would you please consider these suggestions for future issues?

1) The Secret Society of Super-Villains: As you may know, this series ended suddenly and without warning with #15 and one heck of a cliffhanger. DC recently solicited a Showcase Presents: SSoSV B&W TPB which was supposed to include the never published #16, but it’s been postponed and may never see the light of day. Any chance you could get Bob Rozakis to, at long last, reveal what his plans were for the series, specifically the origin of Star Sapphire and her connection to Carol Ferris?

2) Supergirl: This series also ended abruptly and with a cliffhanger; then, of course, she was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

How about an interview with writer Paul Kupperburg in which he could reveal the truth about Linda Danver’s boyfriend Phil Decker, his plans for Dick Malverne, and the return of Supergirl’s parents from Argo City, which he alluded to in the letter column of the last issue. I believe he also mentioned in an earlier letter column that writer John Ostrander was the inspiration for the character of Johnny O, which just begs for elaboration!

And some Carmine Infantino art would be a bonus, as well.

3) Infinity, Inc.: I know Roy Thomas is busy with Alter Ego, but maybe he’d be willing to share with BACK ISSUE why he went for a “new direction” beginning with #51 until it’s (again, abrupt) cancellation with #53. A lot of changes occured in 8 8

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those three issues, like Skyman’s death, their headquarters destroyed, many members leaving, and the loss of their Incorporated status, and it would be great to learn what else Roy had planned for the team. Along those same lines, he mentioned in the letters column of the last issue his plans for a Helix miniseries, which never happened, and this would be a great place to share his plans at that time.

4) The Huntress: How about a roundtable discussion with Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, Joey Cavalieri, Roy Thomas, and others on her creation, evolution, popularity, and the decision to kill her in Crisis.

It seemed to have been a last-minute decision and I always wondered just who originally suggested she die and who actually gave the okay. And if any of those folks from suggestions 1 through 4 say they can’t remember, don’t let them off the hook! As Roy has probably noticed in his countless interviews with legends in Alter Ego, sometimes just talking about those events can jog memories.

5) Shazam!: Why hasn’t the live-action series been released on DVD yet? This is especially puzzling since The Secrets of Isis was released last year. Is there a reason for the delay and if so, what is it? I know Andy Mangels could get to the bottom of this!

Thanks again for a great magazine!

– Daniel Brozak Daniel, Secret Society of Super-Villains is on tap for next issue! And the Huntress is coming in #38, themed “Family.” Also, please see BACK ISSUE #17 for an article on Supergirl. Here in BI we generally back away from Roy Thomas’ series, since he often covers them in Alter Ego, so that’s where any future exploration of Infinity, Inc. will have to occur. And with our recent interviews with Jackson Bostwick and John Davey (#30) and Michael Gray (#33), we’re kinda Shazam!-ed out right now…

– M.E.

SOCKAMAGEE! I checked out HOM #173 and surprisingly there was no illustration of Robby Reed and his many incarnations as noted on your first page; I think you may have meant The New Adventures of Superboy #49 (Jan. 1984), inked by Frank Giacoia.

Wow, it was really good to see the Dialers Robby, Chris, Vicky, and Nick again! Call me a nerd but I always liked Robby Reed and those offbeat heroes he’d become, and there were so many of them. More than you’d realize until you look them all up and go about drawing them all into one panel (LOL) as I did in NAoSboy #49 and then again with Chris and Vicky in DC’s Who’s Who #6 (Aug. 1985).

– Thanks, Howard Bender We appreciate that info, Howard. Good to hear from you! And readers, be sure to visit Mr. Bender’s site at www.howardbenderart.com.

– M.E.

LOVED THE LOOSE-LEAF I’m a long time BACK ISSUE reader (actually got a letter published a few issues ago, thanks so much), and I had to write again. I would usually wait until I had finished the issue before writing, to make sure I had nothing else to say, but a particular article in issue #32 jumped out at me, and I felt I had to write while I had the thoughts fresh.

I was given my first stack of comics at the age of five. While there were many in the stack, DCs and Marvels all, one of them stuck out to me: Who’s Who (first series) #2. This issue featured mostly characters with name’s beginning in B, and I hold it mostly responsible for my continuing love affair with Batman. And while that comic is very special to me (20+ years later I still have it, while the rest of that stack has long since disappeared), that’s not what this e-mail is about.

Now, flash forward five years. The Batmania spawned by the Burton Batman film has helped fan the small flame of comic fandom in me into a blazing inferno. I’m a ten-year-old who can’t get enough Batman, and is starting to not be able to get enough comics in general. And it’s my birthday. My parents have said

Thank you, Matthew. I sincerely appreciate your comments, and am happy you found the loose-leaf Who’s Who so enjoyable.

– M.E.

© 2009 Paarker Bros.

ROMMENTS I greatly enjoyed issue #32’s articles focusing on ROM and learned a few things I didn’t know previously. However, I’d like to submit two small corrections to Mr. Aushenker’s article.

First, Brandy Clark’s original boyfriend was Steve Jackson, not Rick Jones (p. 21). Steve, Brandy, and ROM was the original love triangle. Steve was killed by the Wraiths shortly after Brandy became Starshine. There were hints of a possible relationship forming between Brandy and Rick after ROM left Earth, but it was always obvious who Brandy’s true love was.

Second, I’m afraid BACK ISSUE’s publication of Al Milgrom’s cover for ROM #1 (p. 17) is not the first, as stated on page 22. Or even the second.

It was originally published as a pinup in ROM #3. It was then reprinted in Marvel Age #9 with the addition of a word balloon where ROM shouted, “ROM, not RON!” This was in answer to many, many letters Marvel Age received about a typo in Marvel Age #7. This version of the pinup can be seen at my ROM fan site, “Rom, Spaceknight Revisited” at http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/ comics/Rom/comic/checklist.shtml#Text.

In addition, the art on page 22 is misidentified as being penciled

by Sal Buscema. It was actually Steve Ditko’s pencils.

One last note, regarding Bill Sienkiewicz’s ROM covers. In addition to the four issues of ROM/ROM Annual he provided covers for, he also did a Dire Wraith cover for Marvel Age #23.

Thanks so much for providing us ROM fans an issue filled with so much ROM goodness.

– Lee K. Seitz

Michael Aushenker responds: Just to respond very quickly, Lee … you’re totally right about Steve Jackson, and I know in an early draft of my ROM: Spaceknight piece, I mentioned the love triangle including Steve Jackson.

Somehow, that might have got lost by the time we went to publication, as my ROM article went through several rewrites, and for that, I apologize.

No intention on misleading anyone regarding running the original ROM #1 cover for the first time in BI #32. That’s an error on my part, and in my correspondence with Al, through no fault of his own, he did not correct me when I mentioned words to the effect that this would be an exclusive for us.

If I had edited and worked on so many titles as Al has, I don’t think I could keep track of every published work either. So I take full responsibility on this front. That said, I’m very happy to remind our readers over time about the unused cover, which, along with many of Al’s ROM covers, was top notch.

The Marvel Age #23 Dire Wraiths cover … I missed it back in the day. So thanks for pointing that out, as well as your other points.

Overall, Lee, I’m glad you enjoyed our in-depth ROM: Spaceknight coverage as much as I did putting it together. Best, Michael Aushenker

Inc. © 2009 Marvel Characters,

that, as I’m old enough, I will go with them to the toy store and bookstore to pick out my own presents. But lo and behold, when I get home from an enrichment class of some sort I was taking (this was a Saturday), there are various family members and piles of presents waiting for me: it’s a surprise party for me, for that big birthday where you first hit double digits. I start tearing off wrapping paper, finding Batman toys, Transformers, and all sorts of other things. But in the middle of the stack, I find something special: a binder with the DC heroes emblazoned on it. And the next present is the first four issues of the loose-leaf Who’s Who, wrapped nicely together. I’m pretty sure I forgot the rest of my presents, and spent the rest of the day, and probably much of the weekend, reading and rereading those entries.

And from there on out, I went to the comics shop each month and got the next issue, and filled that binder, and the second one as well. I got the two-issue update that came out shortly thereafter, and even Who’s Who in the Impact Universe. Those loose-leaf pages gave me an infinite amount of pleasure as a kid, and I think helped me get a better feeling for the DC Universe, a world I was just starting to enter, and have spent many years since thoroughly wrapped in.

I read the article you wrote, remembering your time working on the series, and I had to write. I might not have been the fan you met at that convention, but trust me, he is not alone. Your Who’s Who holds a special place in my heart, and on my bookshelf, to this day. Thank you for helping introduce me to my favorite fictional world.

– Matthew Lazorwitz

ADVENTURES ON EARTH-ROZAKIS Just wanted to write in again and say how much I enjoyed the latest issue, BACK ISSUE #32.

Wonderful Spider-Mobile blueprint cover, and the history behind the Marvel Handbooks and DC Who’s Who was quite interesting, although as a Canadian I do have to object to the pinup on page 41 of Ice having frozen the seal-clubber into a glacier to save the baby seal pup she’s cuddling.

I mean, I understand the animal-rights activists’ point of view and am personally against cruelty to our four-footed or in this case four-flippered friends, but these guys are not sadistic sportsmen but Newfoundland fishermen who were, until the recent oil boom, among the poorest people in the country and were going out on the ice at great personal risk to get enough money to see their families through the winter (and don’t get me started on how off-shore international fishing depleted the cod stock to the point that we actually had to shut down our east coast fisheries, and this from a resource, to judge from reports written by the first explorers to come to Canada, that was once so plentiful you once could have walked from ship to shore using their squirming scaly backs!).

Anyway, from the ridiculous to the ridiculous … loved the articles on Dial “H” For Hero (always a fave!), Richie Rich, and ROM, although I noticed that the otherwise complete write-up on the latter failed to mention the part the Skrulls played in the creation of the Dire Wraiths, an unfortunate omission especially in light of the recent Secret Invasion storyline.

My favorite stuff, though, as usual was [Bob Rozakis’] ongoing alternate-universe history of All-American Comics, which I have been enjoying the holy heck out of. The “Who’s Who” pages were quite appreciated, especially the one on the alien version of Robin with that Silver Age Earth-2 costume I’ve always loved so much (DC Direct has got to make an action figure of it!).

Man, I must admit the whole thing has really got my imagination going, and I find myself unable to stop from going all fanboy and offering suggestions.

Love the new Batman and the “magic” alien utility belt that can produce anything he can think up, but shouldn’t it also have belt-jets á lá the original Nightwing and Flamebird as well as various future incarnations of the Caped Crusader they came up with back in the ’60s (not to mention Archie as Pureheart the Powerful!) that allow him to fly using his cape like glider wings (hey, they’ve done it in the new movies...).

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And speaking of the movies, shouldn’t that cool costume they came up with be some sort of body armor, perhaps able to convert into a spacesuit when necessary?

Man, can’t wait to see what they come up with for the Bat-villains, too! The Joker could be a shipwrecked alien ambassador that no one took seriously due to his clownish appearance until he finally snapped and decided to get the last laugh. Catwoman could actually be half-cat, perhaps part of a race of “Cat-Women of the Moon,” à lá the famous (infamous?) old B-movie. Two-Face could be an alien or mutant who literally has two faces like the ancient Roman god Janus. Heck, there could even be a race of Penguin People on Pluto!

Speaking of aliens, love the idea of there being an entire Batman Corps, but I don’t like the idea that was put forth in that mock letters column in the latest Alter Ego that Hal Jordan had misheard the dying alien who had given him his belt and that they were actually called “Beltmen” … no, I think it would be cooler if the Guardians of the Universe had actually given their original officers giant bats native to Oa to ride à lá the cave elves in those early issues of The Atom and kept them as a symbol after replacing them with the superior belt technology.

Sorry to go on a bit there, but as you can see the whole concept has really fired up my imagination.

Oh, and thanks also for the article on the New York superhero fashion show. I heard about it on the news and am glad to have a permanent record of it.

– Jeff Taylor

S U B M IS S IO N G U ID E L IN E S BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s: Unpublished artwork and covers Original artwork and covers Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc.

Original sketches and/or convention sketches Original scripts Photos Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities

ELIOT’S TREASURE TROVE

l Characters, Inc. Kraven and Spider-Man © 2009 Marve

BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

More of Eliot Brown’s photos, you ask? You’ve got it, Joe— eyes right!

Next issue: Villains! Kraven’s Last Hunt, SSoSV, the Joker’s comic (and a Joker art gallery), Kobra, Magneto, Luthor and Brainiac’s makeovers, exclusive interviews with NED “Otis” BEATTY and artist MIKE VOSBURG, and ROGER STERN, TOM DeFALCO, PETER DAVID, JOHN ROMITA, JR., RON FRENZ, and JIM SHOOTER make sense of the harried history of Hobgoblin.

With J. M. DeMATTEIS, DICK GIORDANO, DENNY O’NEIL, MARV WOLFMAN, GERRY CONWAY, and a killer Kraven cover by MIKE ZECK! Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty!

– Michael Eury, editor 9 0

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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). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BACK ISSUE #32 was eagerly anticipated since the presolicits and worth every penny. Bravo, Michael! I was never a regular reader of ROM but did follow Bill Mantlo’s career from my first issue of Captain America (#191’s “The Trail of the Falcon”). He was a favorite writer of mine during Marvel’s glory days and I was happy to see not one, but two wonderful articles on Bill’s works.

Likewise, the behind-the-scenes looks at Who’s Who and the Marvel Universe Handbooks were long overdue for in-depth coverage. As a child of the ’70s and ’80s, both of these projects provided me with my first looks at hundreds of colorful Marvel and DC heroes and villains.

Despite each company’s different approaches to marketing, I still love both series equally. Any variations in production design or layout only served to emphasize each company’s unique approach to showcasing their characters. And Michael, I loved the ’90s loose-leaf Who’s Who format just as much. Those magazine-size pages were genuine works of art. While your favorite piece is Adam Hughes’ Ice, mine would have to be Fire’s own bio, for obvious reasons ;-). I just wish I’d kept those beautiful plastic binders in my collection, as they’re rare and unique collector’s items nowadays!

But the gem of the issue is by far the grand Eliot R. Brown retrospective. Eliot was always one of Marvel’s unsung heroes for me, going back way to his days as the tech expert on the original Handbooks. Besides this, Eliot’s Bullpen was my Bullpen: the one I grew up with, the one where all the cool people who produced the comics I so dearly loved worked and played each day. I would love to see a Modern Masters volume devoted to the talented Mr. Brown and am eager to see more pictures from Eliot’s archives.

The man is a veritable treasure trove of information on a special era in comics history and one heck of a nice guy to boot! Thank you for giving us Marvelites and DC devotees one more reason to MAKE MINE TWOMORROWS! – Joe Tages

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@gmail.com or by sending a SASE to the address below.

Please allow 6–8 weeks for a response to your proposals.

Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 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

Another Marvel Slide Show photos and captions courtesy of Eliot R. Brown

(top left) Preparing for Dave Cockrum’s birthday party, 1979. 575 Madison Avenue. (left to right) unknown fingers, Dickie McKenzie (wife of Roger McKenzie, writer), Jo Duffy, Paty Cockrum (bending over), Ron Zalme (in background), and Marie Severin. Marie has made one of her typical ideal cards (in seconds flat, I once watched; unsettling to be in the presence of such ability) while everyone is getting ready to sign. (top right) More of Cockrum’s party: A remarkably young Jack Morelli in deep shadow (he had to be 15 and still attending HS of Art & Design, just a few avenues away), John Romita (foreground), Dave Cockrum (in red shirt), can’t tell who’s glad-handing Dave, Len Wein (back to camera), can’t tell who is just right of Grue, Mike Higgins is making the wild eyeball just over Danny Crespi’s head.

Perched on the table are Cindy Cavenaugh (from upstairs, but she knew when parties were being held) and Mark Rogan. This took place in the small-ish editorial office right outside of Shooter’s office. (middle left) Cockrum’s party, continued: Giant, glowing head of Stu Schwartzberg, Wein (shirt visible), Gruenwald, with a sliver of Linda Florio right behind Joe Albelo. Next right are Steve Grant (writer), seated is Helen Katz, can’t tell who is behind Higgins’ mop, and Danny Fingeroth looking particularly grubby. (middle right) Jazzy Johnny Romita hard at work, 1979.

Still 575 Madison. Stan had the corner office, then his secretary had a little windowed alcove, then John’s office. The man hardly stopped and was my favorite

subject for his remaining an easy target. John was the staff art director and would slave to get things right. Famously, he would apply an entire pad of tracing paper to a piece of artboard, so that the pad would rest on a T-square (ad agency hot-doggin’ style) and whip off three or four quick sketches. Then he would bring in that magnifying art lamp and refine one or two of those sketches. Then prepare his brush and ink for his life. Then, back with the lamp and touch up with White-Out. One more go ’round with ink and maybe, maybe done! Loved that man. (bottom left) 575 Madison, probably late 1978, Cockrum was the staff art correction artist. Shootin’ the breeze. Danny Crespi yakkin’ with Dave Cockrum in the production office.

Wall o’ book covers set up like a calendar to let us know where things were at, ya dig? (bottom right) Bob Larkin and a very lost Stan Lee at the 1979 Office Christmas Party at 575 Mad. Bob is a fantastically talented painter, did tons of covers and posters—he took over for James Bama on Ballantine’s reprints of Doc Savage; more pointedly to Marvel, he did the famous “POWER” Hulk poster, asking for a florescent green fifth color. Whatever was Stan doing down here with us will forever remain a mystery. This was the remnants of Magazine Management’s office party, up on the ninth floor. We came in last to have beer nuts and off-brand soda.

Note Pizzazz mag poster—Stan loved this mag, he was trying to get to young kids, I think to take on a Sesame Street magazine or some such.

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TWOMORROWS BOOKS

by MICHAEL EURY

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS on his career milestones!

Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! Also includes an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, plus a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ! (176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

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

THE KRYPTON COMPANION Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, RICH BUCKLER, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites! Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork

by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars.

Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators (including JOHN BYRNE, JEPH LOEB, and ALEX ROSS) examining Superman’s influential past! Plus an Introduction by Bizarro No. 1 (by SEINFELD writer DAVID MANDEL), and a cover by DAVE GIBBONS! (240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

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

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Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

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All characters TM & ©2008 their respective owners.

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2008 Interactive Catalog

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COMICS GONE APE!

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The missing link to primates in comics, spotlighting a barrel of simian superstars like Beppo, BrainiApe, the Gibbon, Gleek, Gorilla Man, Grease Monkey, King Kong, Konga, Mojo Jojo, Sky Ape, and Titano! It’s loaded with rare and classic artwork, cover galleries, and interviews with artists & writers including ARTHUR ADAMS (Monkeyman and O’Brien), FRANK CHO, CARMINE INFANTINO (Detective Chimp, Grodd), JOE KUBERT (Tor, Tarzan), TONY MILLIONAIRE (Sock Monkey), DOUG MOENCH (Planet of the Apes), and BOB OKSNER (Angel and the Ape)! With its all-new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS, you won’t be able to keep your filthy paws off this book! By MICHAEL EURY. (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: FEB073814

TwoMorrows Publishing 2009 Update WINTER/SPRING

Supplement to the 2008 TwoMorrows Preview Catalog

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BATCAVE COMPANION

All characters TM & ©2009 their respective owners.

IT’S FINALLY HERE! The writer/editor of the critically acclaimed KRYPTON COMPANION and the designer of the eye-popping SPIES, VIXENS, AND MASTERS OF KUNG FU: THE ART OF PAUL GULACY team up to explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-byissue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

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(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 • Ships April 2009

COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, and now TwoMorrows offers you the chance to go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 • ISBN: 9781605490182 • Ships May 2009

ALL-STAR COMPANION Volume 4 The epic series of ALL-STAR COMPANIONS goes out with a bang, featuring: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and International Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE

(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490045 Ships June 2009

(Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Ships July 2009

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s: An Issue-By-Issue Field Guide

The comic book industry experienced an unexpected flowering in the early 1960s, compliments of Marvel Comics, and this book presents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of being one of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one of the most dynamic, slightly irreverent and downright original contributions to an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s takes the reader from the legendary company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity.

With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships July 2009

GRAILPAGES:

Original Comic Book Art And The Collectors GRAILPAGES brings to light the burgeoning hobby of collecting the original, hand-drawn art that is used to create comic books! Beginning more as a novelty, the hobby of collecting original comic art has expanded to a point where some of the seminal pages commonly run more than $10,000 each. Author STEVEN ALAN PAYNE lets you meet collectors from around the globe and hear their passion in their own words, as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to broad, encompassing collections of literally hundreds of pages of original comic art by such artists as JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Balancing out the narratives are incisive interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Fans of comic art, comic books, and pop culture will find in GRAILPAGES an appreciation for a uniquely American form of art!

(128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 • Ships March 2009

MAGAZINES

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BRICKJOURNAL magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, spotlighting the LEGO Community with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Edited by JOE MENO. 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.

BRICKJOURNAL #3

BRICKJOURNAL #4

BRICKJOURNAL #5

BRICKJOURNAL #6

Event Reports from BRICKWORLD, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), spotlight on our cover model builder BRYCE McGLONE, and interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going!

There’s also STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more!

Interviews with LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE BUILDER), Event Reports from BRICKFAIR and BRICKCON, plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and a report on constructing the Chinese Olympic Village in LEGO!

Features event reports from around the world, and the MINDSTORMS 10TH ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS! Plus an interview with the head of the LEGO GROUP’S 3D DEPARTMENT, a glimpse at the LEGO Group's past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO'S IDEA HOUSE, instructions and spotlights on builders, and an idea section for Pirate builders!

Spotlight on CLASSIC SPACE SETS and a look at new ones with LEGO SET DESIGNERS, BRANDON GRIFFITH shows his STAR TREK MODELS, plus take a tour of the DUTCH MOONBASE with MIKE VAN LEEUWEN and MARCO BAAS. There's also coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and photos from TOY FAIR NEW YORK!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084428

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084408 Ships March 2009

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Ships June 2009

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood,

by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover

by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084454

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: OCT084483

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084368

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094555 Ships March 2009

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrates his life and career through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, and more.

Edited by JOHN MORROW.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRINT EDITION, AND GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES!

BACK ISSUE #29

BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

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

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more!

Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY084246

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUL084393

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084399

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084369

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

ROUGH STUFF #10

ROUGH STUFF #11

ROUGH STUFF #12

Interview with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on his series.

Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and demo

by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments.

Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships Spring 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084469

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084404

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships April 2009

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084377

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

WRITE NOW! #20

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships June 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships August 2009

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US FINAL ISSUE! Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084398

BACK ISSUE #33

BACK ISSUE #34

BACK ISSUE #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors, Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery, James Bond Jr., and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, roundtable with Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on the New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” and a new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in a “Pro2Pro” interview, the history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, looks back at Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby covers inked by DON HECK and PAUL SMITH!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! There’s a new interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, a re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a missing page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?”, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094556 Ships March 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 Ships February 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships May 2009

NEW MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW, DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

Volume 19: MIKE PLOOG

Volume 20: KYLE BAKER

Volume 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

Volume 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM

Volume 23: DARWYN COOKE

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Roger Ash (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490076 Diamond Order Code: SEP084304 Now shipping

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490083 Diamond Order Code: SEP084305 Ships February 2009

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Todd DeZago (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Ships March 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: JUL088519 Ships May 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490205 Ships June 2008

AGE OF TV HEROES Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-thescene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with.

Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (Spider-Man), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more!

Written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: SEP084302 Rescheduled for July 2009

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EXTRAORDINARY WORKS KIRBY FIVE-OH! OF ALAN MOORE: LIMITED HARDCOVER Indispensable Edition Limited to 500 copies, KIRBY FIVE-OH! The definitive biography of the co-creator of WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA finally returns to print in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Features an extensive series of interviews with MOORE about his entire career, including a new interview covering his work since the sold-out 2003 edition of this book was published.

Includes RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ART, and private PHOTOS of the author, plus a series of tribute comic strips by many of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring a RARE MOORE STORY (remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN! (240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: OCT084400 Limited Hardcover Signed by Alan Moore (100 hardcover copies) $49.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

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BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

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$115

DRAW! (4 issues)

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

$88

$120

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$230

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$38

$48

$55

$78

$85

LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics, including his 50 BEST STORIES, BEST COVERS, BEST EXAMPLES OF UNUSED KIRBY ART, BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS, and profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s PENCIL ART, a DELUXE COLOR SECTION, a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER! Includes a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individuallynumbered extra Kirby pencil art plate not included in the softcover edition! It’s ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, and is not sold in stores! Edited by JOHN MORROW.

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286 Ships February 2009

(168-page Limited Edition Hardcover) (500 hardcover copies) $34.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

SHIPPING COSTS: Order online for exact weight-based postage, or ADD $2 PER MAGAZINE OR DVD/$4 PER BOOK IN THE US for Media Mail shipping.

OUTSIDE THE US, PLEASE ORDER ONLINE TO CALCULATE YOUR EXACT POSTAGE COSTS & SAVE!

Subscriptions will start with the next available issue, but CURRENT AND OLDER ISSUES MUST BE PURCHASED AT THE BACK ISSUE PRICE (new issues ship in bulk, and we pass the savings on in our subscription rates). In the US, we generally ship back issues and books by MEDIA MAIL.

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR Volume 7

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

“HOW-TO” MAGAZINES Spinning off from the pages of BACK ISSUE! magazine comes ROUGH STUFF, celebrating the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version. So don’t miss this amazing magazine, featuring galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art, from some of your favorite series of all time, and the top pros in the industry!

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ROUGH STUFF #1 Our debut issue features galleries of UNSEEN ART by a who’s who of Modern Masters including: ALAN DAVIS, GEORGE PÉREZ, BRUCE TIMM, KEVIN NOWLAN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, ARTHUR ADAMS, JOHN BYRNE, and WALTER SIMONSON, plus a KEVIN NOWLAN interview, art critiques, and a new BRUCE TIMM COVER!

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The follow-up to our smash first issue features more galleries of UNSEEN ART by top industry professionals, including: BRIAN APTHORP, FRANK BRUNNER, PAUL GULACY, JERRY ORDWAY, ALEX TOTH, and MATT WAGNER, plus a PAUL GULACY interview, a look at art of the pros BEFORE they were pros, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Still more galleries of UNPUBLISHED ART

by MIKE ALLRED, JOHN BUSCEMA, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and LEE WEEKS, plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the process of creating a cover (with BILL SIENKIEWICZ and JOHN ROMITA JR.), and a new ROMITA JR. COVER, plus a FREE DRAW #13 PREVIEW!

More NEVER-PUBLISHED galleries (with detailed artist commentaries) by MICHAEL KALUTA, ANDREW “Starman” ROBINSON, GENE COLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, and STEVE BISSETTE, plus interview and art by JOHN TOTLEBEN, a look at the Wonder Woman Day charity auction (with rare art), art critiques, before-&-after art comparisons, and a FREE WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG063714

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ROUGH STUFF #5

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

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!

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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!

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ROUGH STUFF #9

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ROUGH STUFF #8 Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art

by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB084188

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY084263

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $26 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($36 First Class, $44 Canada, $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $44 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($60 First Class, $70 Canada, $105 1st Class Intl., $115 Priority Intl.).

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!

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BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

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

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

Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

BACK ISSUE #17

BACK ISSUE #18

DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery

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

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s!

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

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

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

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

by NEAL ADAMS!

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP063683

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

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

Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

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

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

“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 PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #85

WRITE NOW! #20

ROUGH STUFF #12

DRAW! #17

BRICKJOURNAL #5

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features event reports from around the world, and the MINDSTORMS 10TH ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS! Plus an interview with the head of the LEGO GROUP’S 3D DEPARTMENT, a glimpse at the LEGO Group's past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO'S IDEA HOUSE, instructions and spotlights on builders, and an idea section for Pirate builders!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR094514 Now shipping!

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084398 FINAL ISSUE! Now shipping!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB094564 FINAL ISSUE! Now shipping!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084377 Now shipping!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084408 Now shipping!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE:

BATCAVE COMPANION

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, & DESTROYER DUCK, a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING, unseen Kirby covers & more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 7 Reprints KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30 plus over 30 pieces of Kirby art never published!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Now shipping!

GRAILPAGES

The definitive autobiographical book on ALAN MOORE in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Includes new interviews covering his work since the original 2003 edition of the book. From SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and beyond – all are discussed by Alan. Plus, there’s RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK, and PHOTOGRAPHS, tribute comic strips by NEIL GAIMAN and other of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring the RARE MOORE STORY “The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse” (newly remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN!

Explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-by-issue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: JAN088702 Now shipping!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US ISBN: 9781893905788 Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 Now shipping!

Indispensable Edition

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!

2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

Media Mail

Original Comic Book Art & The Collectors Examines the hobby of collecting original comic book art, letting you meet collectors from around the globe as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to hundreds of pages of original comic art

by JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Features interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Written by STEVEN ALAN PAYNE. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 Now shipping!

VOLUME 20: KYLE BAKER

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490083 Now shipping!

VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US • ISBN: 97801605490137 Ships May 2009 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl.

Intl.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$60

$60

$84

$136

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

$60

$70

$105

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DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$47

$70

$77

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

$88

$120

$140

$210

$230

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$38

$48

$55

$78

$85

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