Back Issue #35

VILL AINS! VILL AINS! AND MORE VILL AINS!

00 9 Au g u s t 2

1

82658 27762

8

07

SPIDER-MAN AND KRAVEN TM & © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

N$o6..3955

HOBGOBLIN MAGNETO KOBRA LUTHOR AND BRAINIAC’S MAKEOVERS SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS THE JOKER MIKE VOSBURG INTERVIEW

THE

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 35 August 2009 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Mike Zeck COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

SPECIAL THANKS Michael Aushenker Michael Bailey Mike Bair Cary Bates Ned Beatty Jerry Boyd Trent Caldwell KC Carlson Ernie Chan Gene Colan Gerry Conway Peter David Tom DeFalco J. M. DeMatteis Ric Estrada Funky Flashman Shane Foley Ramona Fradon Ron Frenz Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Glenn Greenberg Robert Greenberger Lawrence Guidry Jack C. Harris Heritage Comics Auctions Dan Johnson Rob Kelly Todd Klein David Anthony Kraft Joe Kulbiski

Paul Levitz Marvel Comics Brad Meltzer Metropolis, Illinois, Chamber of Commerce Ian Millsted Brian K. Morris Karla Ogle Dennis O’Neil Martin Pasko George Pérez Jerry Robinson Tone Rodriguez John Romita, Jr. Bob Rozakis Rose Rummel-Eury Paul Ryan Jim Shooter Anthony Snyder Bob Sprenger Joe Staton Roger Stern Tom Stewart Mike Vosburg John Wells Marv Wolfman Write Now Mike Zeck

PRO2PRO: In Our Sights: Kraven’s Last Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck relive one of Spider-Man’s most chilling tales PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: When Hobby Met Spidey: A History of the Hobgoblin . . . .10 David, DeFalco, Frenz, Romita, Jr., Shooter, and Stern unmask the Spider-foe with the identity crisis CHECKLIST: Wanted, The World’s Most Dangerous Villains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 A quick look back at DC’s 1970s reprint series BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Secret Society of Super-Villains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Antagonists Assembled! The story of DC’s trouble-making team INTERVIEW: From Vixens to Villains: Mike Vosburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Why he hated Secret Society of Super-Villains, and other tales told by the top talent FLASHBACK: The Joker’s Not So Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 The Clown Prince of Crime in his own magazine THE JOKER ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Six sizzling pages of Joker art by Chan, Estrada, Giordano, Pérez, Rogers, Ryan, and more!

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Magneto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 He’s bad, he’s good, he’s bad again—the history of the mutant Master of Magnetism BRING ON THE BAD GUYS PINUP: Big-Headed Bad Guy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Genial Gene Colan’s awesome rendition of Captain America’s enemy, MODOK FLASHBACK: Kobra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 The Kirby creation that slithered into his own short-lived series INTERVIEW: Ned Beatty: Time Out with Otis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 The acclaimed actor discusses Superman’s not-so-arch foe in this exclusive interview FLASHBACK: What Not to Wear: The Luthor and Brainiac Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 The ’80s makeovers that time (and creators) won’t allow us to forget GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. . .78 Book Two, Chapter Seven of Bob Rozakis’ fantasy comics history reveals a “Crisis on Fanboy Earth” BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Reader feedback on “Teen Heroes” issue #33 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. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office.

Cover art by Mike Zeck. Spider-Man and Kraven the Hunter 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. Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 1

Joker headshot drawn by Dick Giordano for the logo of the Joker comic book. From the collection of Bob Sprenger. TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

by

This issue, we look at villains from the Bronze Age. I don’t like to play favorites, either with issue themes or with individual issues’ contents, but amid the mesmerizing material in this outing is Glenn Greenberg’s “Pro2Pro” roundtable on the Hobgoblin. His Hobby History, like Alex Boney’s Power Girl retrospective in BACK ISSUE #33, bravely tackles a convoluted subject and does so exceptionally well. Glenn wisely lets the creators involved with Spider-Man during the day to speak in their own words about the Hobgoblin’s haphazard journey through comics, and it’s fascinating reading. Great work, Mr. Greenberg!

Of course, we’ve also got “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” Secret Society of Super-Villains, the Joker, Magneto, Kobra, Lex Luthor’s and Brainiac’s makeovers, Ned “Otis” Beatty, a Mike Vosburg interview, and Bob Rozakis’ latest AA Comics History installment this ish. Tell your wife you’ll be busy for the next few hours…

Michael Eury

recent casualty in the TwoMorrows Publishing magazine line: the BI spin-off Rough Stuff, which ended its run with issue #12 (Spring 2009). Let’s salute RS editor Bob McLeod for a dozen dazzling issues!

We’re discussing having “Rough Stuff” return as a department here in BACK ISSUE beginning in 2010 (the rest of 2009’s issues are booked). I’d appreciate reader feedback about that: Would you like to see “Rough Stuff” come home to BI? E me at euryman@gmail.com and make your voice heard.

Lastly, despite these troubled financial times, let’s not forget that we’ve weathered such storms in the past. Money woes were obviously on writer Tony Isabella’s mind back in late 1975 when he wrote Marvel Comics’ The Champions #5 (Apr. 1976). Hopefully the title on this splash page (drawn by Don Heck and John Tartaglione) will offer you some comfort and remind you that things will get better….

Another type of “villain” struck at a friend of ours recently. Len Wein, the writer and editor who brought you Swamp Thing and Wolverine and some of the best comics you’ve ever read, and his son Michael luckily escaped a house fire on April 6, 2009 (Len’s wife Chris was not at home at the time of the fire). The Weins sadly lost their dog Sheba in the blaze.

Len Wein also lost his collection of comics, books, art, and collectibles. Mark Evanier has kindly stepped in to organize a campaign to rebuild Len’s collection of comic books that Len has written or edited. This is a wonderful opportunity for BI readers to give something back to a man who has provided us with so much entertainment.

On his povonline.com site, Mark has posted a regularly updated list of comics that Len is looking to reacquire. Please visit www.povonline.com/weinproject.htm for the list (and for more details). To minimize duplication, it’s best that you email comicx4len@povonline.com noting the issues you wish to contribute before sending any comics.

TIMES ARE TOUGH ALL OVER Despite the news media’s fixation with the swine flu as I write this column in early May, another topic continues to dominate the headlines, and has done so for months: the economic downturn. It’s contributed to a 2 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy of Anthony Snyder.

Photo courtesy of Todd Klein.

THE “LET’S REBUILD LEN WEIN’S COMIC BOOK COLLECTION” PROJECT

by

Dan Johnson

conducted March 18, 2009

Sometimes a comic-book character can exist for years—even decades—without making much of an impression on readers. Then, all of a sudden, the right writer and artist come along and find just the right approach to presenting a previously underestimated or underused character and make him a sensation.

This was the case with Kraven the Hunter when J. M. (Marc) DeMatteis and Mike Zeck created “Kraven’s Last Hunt” (a.k.a. “Fearful Symmetry”), which ran through Web of Spider-Man #31–32, The Amazing Spider-Man #293–294, and The Spectacular Spider-Man #131–132 (Oct.–Nov. 1987). In this saga, readers witnessed Kraven’s descent into madness as his final battle against Spider-Man unfolds. At the end of the story, he takes his own life.

Recently BACK ISSUE got DeMatteis and Zeck in its crosshairs and got the lowdown on Kraven the Hunter’s swansong.

– Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: J. M., how did “Kraven’s Last Hunt” come about?

J. M. DeMATTEIS: There is a long history to this story.

I’d had this “back from the grave” story brewing in the back of my head for a while. About three years before Kraven, I had actually pitched Tom DeFalco an idea for a Wonder Man miniseries. I worked up something where Wonder Man gets killed, or so his brother, the Grim Reaper, thinks, but six months go by and Wonder Man comes up out of the grave and then they have their final confrontation. DeFalco, thank God, said no. He didn’t like it, and if I had done it then, the story would have been okay, but nothing special.

Then I pitched the idea to Len Wein over at DC as a Batman story, which took it another step closer to what ultimately became the Kraven story. [In this version,] the Joker believes he has killed Batman, and while Batman is “dead,” the Joker’s mind snaps and he becomes sane. The Joker then lives out this normal life as a sane human being until the moment Batman comes back from the grave. I

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are Detail from the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #294, part 5 of “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” Art by Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod. (inset) Kraven’s first appearance in issue #15 (Aug. 1964). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 3

Beginnings: First sale: “The Lady Killer Craves Blood!” in House of Mystery #282 (1980) First in print: “The Blood Boat” in Weird War Tales #70 (1978)

Milestones: Moonshadow / Blood: A Tale / Greenberg the Vampire / “Kraven’s Last Hunt” Spider-Man arc / Justice League / Brooklyn Dreams / Abadazad / I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League

Works in Progress: The Life and Times of Savior 28 (IDW) / Metal Men (with Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire) / Hero Squared: Love and Death (Boom! Studios) / editor-in-chief of Ardden Entertainment, publishers of the new Flash Gordon series /multiple episodes of the Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold / Imaginalis, a young adult novel (2010, HarperCollins)

Cyberspace: www.amazon.com/gp/blog/ A2WH67KVWUHJP9/ref=cm_pdp_blog_blog

j.m. dematteis

Beginnings: Illustrations for text stories appearing in Charlton Comics’ line of animated titles (1974)

Milestones: Master of Kung Fu / Captain America / Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars / Punisher: Circle of Blood limited series / Punisher: Return to Big Nothing graphic novel / “Kraven’s Last Hunt” Spider-Man arc / Legends of the Dark Knight / Damned / covers for numerous titles

Works in Progress: Many Style Guides and other licensee art for DC Comics’ licensing department / commissioned illustrations through website

Cyberspace: www.mikezeck.com

mike zeck

4 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

did a whole backstory on the Joker and his new life as a normal person, but then Len told me, “We’re developing this new story called The Killing Joke with this English writer, Alan Moore, and [your two stories] are kind of similar. Since we already have Moore’s story in development, we can’t do your story.” (I eventually developed the Joker elements of that pitch into “Going Sane,” which ran in Legends of the Dark Knight in the mid-’90s.)

A year goes by and Len leaves the staff and I pitched another variation of the idea to Denny O’Neil, who took over the editing of the Batman books. I took the Joker out and I used Hugo Strange.

As I recall, the reason it got rejected then was that DC already had a Batman graphic novel for that year. This was probably in 1985 or 1986, and the whole graphic novel thing was so new then that DC was only doing one a year.

So now I’ve been rejected three times by three of the best editors in the business, but this idea really would not let go. I really believe that stories have lives of their own and timing of their own. No matter how much I may try, the story is the one in control, and it’s going to come out when it is ready to come out and in the form it wants to come out. So, I popped the idea on the back burner.

What happened next, and this was in late 1986, was Tom DeFalco, who was [editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter’s right-hand man, and Jim Owsley, who was the Spider-Man editor at the time, took me out to lunch and asked me if I wanted to write The Spectacular Spider-Man. That’s when I got the idea to do the back-from-the-grave concept with Spider-Man. To me, Peter Parker, is the richest and most multi-layered of the superhero characters out there. He is the most human and the most three-dimensional. The wedding [between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson] was being planned, so by the time my story was going to see print, Peter would have been married and the idea of doing this story with a married Peter Parker just added a whole other level of emotional quality to the story. I had this Batman story with Hugo Strange, so I thought I would come up with my own version of Hugo Strange, my own crazed guy who is obsessed with Spider-Man. So I cooked up this new villain, and to this day I have no clue what I created. I didn’t save my notes and I don’t remember anything about this character.

I developed the story, all the major beats, and pitched it to Owsley who totally loved it and said, “Let’s do it!”

So we were all ready to go and it was about Spider-Man and this villain whose name I don’t even recall.

JOHNSON: How did Kraven get involved?

DeMATTEIS: As I was getting ready to work on the story, I was sitting in my office and looking through a Marvel Universe Handbook and came across the entry for Kraven the Hunter. To this day, I don’t know if this was something that was established in continuity, or if whoever was writing the Handbook entry made it up, but they mentioned that Kraven was Russian. For me, a total Dostoyevsky fanatic, the idea that Kraven was Russian and had the same tortured, Russian soul that the great Dostoyevsky characters had, unlocked this door in my head and suddenly I had a new understanding of this character.

I thought about Kraven and the forces that had driven him to be who and what he was. This was a character I had never had any interest in whatsoever.

I always thought he was one of the stupidest Spider-Man villains ever, but suddenly I had this whole new take on the character.

JOHNSON: Mike, what were your thoughts about Kraven as a character?

MIKE ZECK: My thoughts were that Kraven had been around since the early 1960s and was never given the upper-tier villain treatment in all that time. I think readers and authors alike pretty much dismissed Kraven as just some clownish lower-tier bad guy who would just reappear with the same shtick from time to time.

I was floored when I read the “Last Hunt” plot and found an at last totally defined and respected character in Kraven. I immediately knew I was holding in my hands the absolute definitive handling of Kraven the Hunter, and a story that I felt had classic potential. It was that good.

DeMATTEIS: I think it was Owsley who suggested bringing Mike in, which delighted me no end. Mike and I had worked together for a couple of years on Captain America, and I felt we had just hit our stride when he went off to do Secret Wars.

JOHNSON: Mike, what do you remember about coming in on this project?

ZECK: I don’t remember the single moment I was asked about penciling the project. After working with Marc on the Captain America title, I was keen on working with him again. We talked frequently as friends and often discussed new projects and our schedules to see when we might collaborate again. It happened that the Kraven saga was that project.

DeMATTEIS: Mike is really one of the best artists I’ve ever worked with ... and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing talent. Mike’s drawing is fluid, it’s energetic, it’s deeply emotional, and he tells a story with such effortlessness … well, it seems effortless to me, I’m sure he’s working his butt off on every panel … that

scripting from his pages feels equally effortless. Because Mike nailed the plot elements so perfectly in his pencils —every action, every emotion, was there, clear as a bell— I didn’t have to worry about belaboring those elements in the captions or dialogue. I was free to do those interior monologues that were so important to the story.

If any other artist had drawn “Kraven’s Last Hunt”— even if every plot point, every word in every panel, had been exactly the same—it wouldn’t have have been the same story. Mike raised it to another level.

JOHNSON: How did Vermin enter the story?

DeMATTEIS: [When] Mike came on, I thought back to our Captain America run, and we had created the Vermin character ... this weird little man-rat. So I pulled Vermin into the story, who ended up working out perfectly as a central figure that we could use to contrast how Peter Parker and Kraven acted as Spider-Man. And that was really the final element falling into place. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

You Dirty Rat… (right) Spidey vs. Vermin in Mike Zeck’s cover pencils to Spectacular Spider-Man #132, courtesy of Bob McLeod. (above) A very creepy Vermin from page 5 of Amazing Spider-Man #293. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 5

Spider Snack Kraven’s insanity is graphically displayed in Mike Zeck’s astounding pencils from page 10 of Web of Spider-Man #31.

Photocopy of pre-inked art courtesy of Bob McLeod. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Staying Alive Mike Zeck considered the opportunity to draw this iconic cover to Web of Spider-Man #32 a “Christmas gift.” © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

From the time I had the initial idea for the Wonder Man story, it took three or four years for the elements to come together, but once it finally happened, it was one of those stories that I sat down to write and I really didn’t have to think about it. The story just came flying out.

JOHNSON: When “Kraven’s Last Hunt” came out, it was around the same time that comics were being influenced by The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen and everyone was doing dark and edgy.

Now, of course, J. M., you had been working on the story long before that trend started. Did you ever feel that people thought Spider-Man was jumping on the bandwagon?

DeMATTEIS: That was certainly in the air, and if you were working in the business, you were breathing that in. Not to in any way minimize the impact that Frank Miller and Alan Moore had, but Watchmen was not a book I was particularly paying attention to.

(Let’s pause a moment while half your readers faint.)

The Alan Moore book that I really, really liked was Swamp Thing.

JOHNSON: I was thinking that the release of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” all came down to timing.

DeMATTEIS: I’ll tell you exactly what it was for me.

When it came time to finally write this story after developing it in some form for three years, I was in the middle of a divorce. It was one of the darkest, most painful periods of my life. This story became a vehicle for my pain. The darkness in that story, and also the struggling for the light that Peter Parker does in the context of the story, had nothing to do with The Dark Knight Returns or Swamp Thing or Watchmen.

It had to do with my life. The timing was such that all that other material was in the air, and I’m sure it all filtered in, but really, the core of what that story was about, and why it was as dark as it was, had nothing to do with anything that was going on in comics.

It had nothing to do with anyone else. It was me, expressing through the metaphor of the superhero story what I was going through in my life. I felt as buried alive as Peter Parker. I felt as insane as Kraven.

And I felt as much a dweller in the darkness and the sewers as Vermin.

There are different pieces of my psyche that were reflected in those characters. It was probably great therapy for me to write that story. I was trying to claw my way back to the light the same way Peter was as he was clawing his way out of the grave. So, I wasn’t jumping on anyone’s dark bandwagon, I was just writing about my life.

JOHNSON: Mike, did the trend towards darker and edgier comics have any influence on your approach to the artwork?

ZECK: The Punisher limited series wasn’t far behind me at that point, so I wasn’t a stranger to “grim and gritty.” Those other titles didn’t influence me in any way. Marc’s plot was influence enough. I knew to prepare for dark interiors, stormy night exteriors, dank sewers, and even hazy, drug-induced hallucinations.

Certainly darker and moodier than anything I had approached before. Or since, I suppose!

DeMATTEIS: I’ll tell you one thing in “Kraven’s Last Hunt” that reflected Alan Moore’s influence: Moore is the most wonderfully visual writer and I thought that he, more than many artists, knew how to use visual metaphor and recurring imagery. Looking back, and I don’t know if it was conscious then or not, but I think the recurring imagery, for instance the image of the gravedigger that repeats throughout the story [stemmed from his Swamp Thing]. Just seeing what Moore was able to do helped me to think in a different way, in terms of the visuals.

And, of course, what Mike did with that imagery was spectacular.

JOHNSON: Speaking of visuals, the cover of Spider-Man pulling himself out of the grave Kraven left him in [Web of Spider-Man #32, the fourth part of the series]—even after all these years, that packs a punch.

Mike, what can you tell us about the creation of that particular image?

Villains Issue

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 7

Spidey, Snared!

One of our hero’s closest brushes with death. Mike Zeck’s pencil art from 18 if Web of Spider-Man #31. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ZECK: Since Marc had the entire series plotted out, I decided to pencil all of the covers before starting the interior art. Marvel would need them in groups for solicitation anyway since the six issues would be published within a two-month period.

Chapter Four was the absolute no-brainer of the six covers, and I completed that piece first. If an issue has a scene with the title hero rising from his own grave, it’s like receiving the number-one gift on your Christmas list! Anyone spending even one second mulling over a cover idea for that issue would have been in the wrong business. The other covers flowed from that one.

I spent something over a week concentrating on the six covers without outside input, then took the set into the Marvel offices to run them by [editor] Jim Salicrup. I think I can safely say that his excitement level for the project went up another notch when he had that cover set spread out on his desk.

JOHNSON: What are your thoughts about that iconic cover now, 20 years later?

8 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

DeMATTEIS: It’s an absolute classic.

ZECK: It’s a great memory, I think it delivered the intended emotional impact and it holds up well a few decades later. Like I said, though, it was like receiving a gift, and ultimately one of the easiest covers I’ve ever done.

JOHNSON: I remember the grave cover after all these years, and back when it hit the newsstands, and because of it, some friends I knew thought that this story was going to be in the same vein of the other dark stories that were out there. It had an edge, but nothing like The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen.

Hopefully people looking for something like those stories did pick up the comics and discovered a terrific Spider-Man tale.

DeMATTEIS: I don’t think people picked up the Kraven story because of Watchmen or Dark Knight but because they loved Spider-Man. He was the single most popular character at the most successful comicbook company. They picked up Spider-Man and then they were excited by the story. And the presentation helped tremendously.

What Jim Salicrup did, letting it run through all three of the Spider-Man books, was incredibly innovative.

Jim had come in after Jim Owsley left staff, and he very wisely said that you can’t have Spider-Man buried alive in Spectacular Spider-Man and have him fighting Doctor Octopus over in Web of Spider-Man. Jim decided to let the story run through all the books and it was a great idea that people are still copying.

Up until then, I don’t think anyone had ever done that with a character who was in multiple books.

Jim came up with that, and he deserves all the credit in the world for it. That really heightened the story’s impact. Had “Kraven’s Last Hunt” been coming out in just Spectacular Spider-Man [and not in the] two other monthly Spider-Man books, I’m convinced the impact would have been diluted. Jim put a spotlight on it and said, “This story is special. Come on in and join us for two months and immerse yourself in this story.” That presentation made a huge difference in how that story was received.

JOHNSON: J. M., what was the reaction when you pitched the idea and you said you wanted to cap it off by killing Kraven?

DeMATTEIS: I have to tell you, in pitching this to Owsley and then when Salicrup came on, no one said boo. Shooter was still there [when it was being developed], and then DeFalco took over as editor-inchief, and neither of them objected.

ZECK: I know that Jim Salicrup, too, had a sense that he was involved in something special and was nothing but supportive throughout the project.

DeMATTEIS: No one said, “No, you can’t kill Kraven.”

Everyone said, “This is a great story, let’s do it.” The other interesting thing is that if that story was being done now, it would somehow be hyped into a big event. At the time, the ending was a huge surprise for people.

JOHNSON: What kind of response have you gotten regarding this story from fans over the years?

DeMATTEIS: I don’t do comic-book conventions that often these days, but on the rare occasions that I do, it’s amazing how many people come up with “Kraven’s Last Hunt” [issues for me to autograph].

It’s a story that people still respond to and people still talk about it.

JOHNSON: The thing that stood out for me was that this story did mark the death of a Lee-Ditko creation.

Still Dead A spider-crouching, out-of-his-gourd Kraven in Zeck’s pencils to page 1 of Web #31.

The villain’s suicide in “Last Hunt” shocked readers, sparked controversy, and inspired a 2008 follow-up featuring Kraven’s vengeful daughter. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Up until that point, the only other one of their Spider-Man villains that had been killed off was the Green Goblin.

DeMATTEIS: What is amazing to me is that Kraven is still dead. The reason I think his death had an impact is because, for the five-and-a-half issues before that, Kraven had become a character that people cared about. If he had died in some other story, or even done the suicide thing in another story, it wouldn’t have had the impact [without that build up].

What I found amazing about that story to me were people’s reactions. [They were going,] “Oh, my God! You killed Kraven!” I knew that two months before that, they didn’t care about this character. That story made them care about Kraven, so that when he did die, it meant something.

These days, characters die every ten minutes so they can become the big events being hyped on the Internet and try to pull everybody in. Kraven’s death was an outgrowth of the story. I wasn’t thinking that I was getting to kill off a major character. I was thinking, “Where is this story taking me? Where is it headed?” [His eventual suicide] was where the character was headed.

ZECK: Two things about the death: It was a totally fitting exit for the character that Marc had written, and it came with a sense of triumph rather than despair or cowardice. I was secretly happy that his death meant that no one else was going to get a chance to take that character and potentially dumb him down again. In my opinion, the definitive story had now been written and Kraven was exiting the Marvel Universe with style. So lights out, close the curtain, let him rest in peace and let’s all rejoice in his final triumph.

DeMATTEIS: I have to disagree with one part of what Mike just said. I think that in Kraven’s mind, that was happening, that he was embracing an honorable death. But one of the things that was very clear in that story was that Kraven was suffering from mental illness. His whole obsession with Spider-Man was a reflection of that illness. His mother had died, insane, in an institution. In fact, his last line before he blows his brains out was, “They said my mother was insane.” In Kraven’s own head [he was thinking], “Yes, now I have completed my quest and I will die with honor.”

But that was not an act of honor. That was an act of insanity. In many ways, it was an act of cowardice.

That was why “Soul of the Hunter” [published in 1992], the little sequel that we did, came about with the encouragement of Tom DeFalco. [When “Kraven’s Last Hunt” first came out,] Tom had gotten a bunch of letters from people saying, “Oh, you’re glorifying suicide!”

Normally I would dismiss that as the usual rantings, except it really disturbed me that people would think that the purpose of that story was to glorify suicide.

That is something I would never do. That is not my view of life or the universe.

“Kraven’s Last Hunt” has a lot of darkness in it, but the story primarily is about Peter and his journey into the light and the power of simple human love. The reason Peter makes it out is because he has Mary Jane in his life, and that is his salvation.

JOHNSON: You presented an interesting contrast between Spider-Man and Kraven in this story. On one hand there is Kraven, a man who has nothing left to lose, and then there is Peter, just married, who has everything to live for.

DeMATTEIS: It’s the absence of love versus the presence of love. That was the key for Peter. He wasn’t crawling back from the grave so he could put on the Spider-suit again and go punch the next bad guy. He needed to be with Mary Jane and her love helped pull him out of there.

Kraven didn’t have that in his life. The great love he had was his mother, and that ended in tragedy.

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.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 9

by

He exploded onto the scene in 1982, a mystery man who tantalized readers with his hidden true identity and a storyline that brought a level of excitement and energy to the world of Spider-Man that had not been seen in years. He quickly rose to prominence as one of the web-slinger’s most popular foes, and each subsequent appearance was met with great enthusiasm as more clues were dropped about who he really was. The mystery continued for several years, through a number of different writers and artists, until it was finally resolved in a story that would satisfy few and disappoint many. And to get there, much behind-the-scenes drama transpired, including personality clashes, interoffice politics, and even possible creative sabotage.

His name is the Hobgoblin, and this is the story of his creation, development, downfall, and eventual rebirth, as told by the key figures responsible: Roger Stern, who co-created the Hobgoblin and wrote the initial stories; Tom DeFalco, originally Stern’s editor and then his successor as writer; Peter David, who was tasked with writing the issue in which the Hobgoblin’s identity was revealed; John Romita, Jr., the Hobgoblin’s other co-creator, who drew the original stories written by Stern; Ron Frenz, artist on the issues written by DeFalco and on the project that brought Stern back to the character; and Jim Shooter, Marvel’s editor-in-chief during the Hobgoblin’s first five years of existence.

Editor James Owsley, now known as Christopher J. Priest, could not be reached for comment. However, his article, “Oswald: Why I Never Discuss Spider-Man,” posted on his website (www.digital-priest.com), discusses this subject matter in detail and provides his point of view. All comments from Owsley/Priest included herein were taken from that article and applied within context.

– Glenn Greenberg

Who Was That Masked Man? Depends upon which issue you’re reading… © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Glenn Greenberg

Fearsome First Appearance (left) John Romita, Jr.’s initial costume designs for the Hobgoblin.

All JR Jr. Hobgoblin character designs are courtesy of Glenn Greenberg. (below) Hobby’s premiere, in Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) #238 (Mar. 1983).

Cover art by the Romitas (Jr., pencils, and Sr., inks). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

PART ONE: BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT! In 1982, Roger Stern was in the midst of his run as writer of The Amazing Spider-Man, paired with penciler John Romita, Jr. Earlier, Stern had written issues of its sister title, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, where the first seeds for the Hobgoblin had been planted—though Stern didn’t realize it at the time. The creation of the Hobgoblin was actually a response to reader demands.

ROGER STERN: There was a huge amount of fan mail from readers who wanted all of the classic villains back: Doctor Octopus, Kraven, etc. That was fine, but they had all appeared not that long before I started writing Spider-Man. I didn’t want readers to say, “Here they are yet again.” Most of the mail asked for the return of the Green Goblin, who at the time was dead. There had been other guys who wore the costume, but I called them “fake Goblins.” One was Harry Osborn, who wasn’t really the Green Goblin—he had a psychotic episode and thought he was the Green Goblin (Amazing Spider-Man #136–137, Sept.–Oct. 1974).

And the other was Harry’s crazy psychiatrist, Bart Hamilton (Amazing #176–180, Jan.–May 1978). These two guys weren’t really the Green Goblin because neither of them was super-strong—how did they avoid horrible groin pulls while they were flying around Manhattan straddling a jet engine?

Hamilton was dead, Norman was dead, Harry I liked— I didn’t want to put him through this crap again. He had grown into a really good friend for Peter. And I was not into bringing dead guys back and it never occurred to me to bring Norman back. I was more interested in bringing in some new characters, particularly a new, really strong villainous character.

I decided to meet the fans halfway—I would come up with a new character who had stolen the Goblin’s equipment and part of his schtick, but he would be a very different character.

The one thing that would be similar to the Green Goblin was that no one would know who he was. Unlike Norman, who was as crazy as a soup sandwich, this guy would be frighteningly sane. A megalomaniac, sure, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t do stupid things. He does coldly rational things, which makes him even scarier.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 11

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Hats Off for Hobby JR Jr.’s face models, sans headgear, for the Hobgoblin. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

TOM DeFALCO: Originally, when Roger proposed the idea of the Hobgoblin, I think it was supposed to be the thief who found all the stuff. Now, the way I remember it, I said to Roger, “Why don’t we keep it a mystery? The guy who finds the stuff, let him go to somebody else mysterious, and then we go from there.” I would love to take more credit, but the truth is, all the creativity came from Roger.

STERN: I plotted that first story (Amazing #238, Mar. 1983) with no strong idea of who the Hobgoblin was. As I was scripting those gorgeous pages from JR (John Romita, Jr.), particularly the last third of the book, and developing the Hobgoblin’s speech pattern, I realized who he was.

It was Roderick Kingsley, that sunuvabitch corporate leader I had introduced in my first issue of Spectacular (#43, June 1980). A high and mighty pain in the ass.

Corporate leaders and Wingnut Republicans are my favorite villains. They write themselves!

DeFALCO: At one point, I said to Roger, “Do you know who he is? Because it’s important for you to know that, so that you can build the mystery accordingly.” And Roger said he knew, and we decided to just keep it a complete secret, even from each other! We weren’t even sure that anyone would give a s**t when we started this thing!

But I told Roger, “I’m going to keep a list of suspects and I’m going to cross off guys as their times come, and when it comes time to reveal, you’ll tell me who you think it is, and if I agree, that’s who it’ll be. And if I don’t agree— well, I’m the editor!”

STERN: Kingsley started out as this sort of effete guy in the fashion industry. I beefed him up and made him more of a corporate raider who had taken over a cosmetics company and I established that he had a lot of other corporate holdings. If things had gone on any longer, he probably would have bought a comic-book company. Imagine that—a guy in cosmetics getting into comics!

JOHN ROMITA, JR.: First thing I did when I heard the name “Hobgoblin” was cringe. I didn’t care for the name, but I didn’t care for the Green Goblin, either. I thought both of their names were goofy! And when I first saw the Green Goblin, I thought he was too much like the Joker. But once you get used to it, you buy into the premise. And once we actually started working on the Hobgoblin stuff, I accepted it and bought into it. But I prefer the more realitybased, street-level type of supervillains. When things got too exotic and too weird, it bothered me. I didn’t like Mysterio. I disliked Venom severely. Doc Ock was okay, because there was a certain mechanical reality to him. I loved the Kingpin. For me, the best thing about the Spider-Man series was the amount of reality in it. If not for Roger Stern, the Hobgoblin stories probably wouldn’t have been good.

Roger’s take on Spider-Man was consistent with Stan Lee’s and what I grew up on.

STERN: JR came up with the costume. I don’t know who came up with the color scheme—all I said was, “Just no green or purple!” The only instruction I gave to JR was that maybe he make it a little more medieval-looking and make his face a little creepier.

And he did!

ROMITA, JR.: “Base it on the Green Goblin and knock yourself out!” That was the extent of the conversation.

I just designed the costume and that was that— which is not saying a whole lot, since it’s based so much on the Green Goblin! I don’t remember who came up with the color scheme.

Amazing #238 was inked by John Romita, Sr., and represented one of his earliest professional collaborations with his son.

ROMITA, JR.: It was a thrill to be working with my father. I think it was a thrill for him to be working with his son. He made me look so good!

In terms of the Hobgoblin, I was doing everything based on what my father and Ditko had done with the Green Goblin.

STERN: I decided I was going to give the Hobgoblin the same powers as the Green Goblin. He was going to use the serum that gave Norman Osborn his super-strength (as revealed in Amazing #40, Sept. 1966), but he would do it under a controlled situation, unlike Norman. So the Hobgoblin wouldn’t go crazy.

For some reason, the story in which the Hobgoblin gained his super-strength appeared not in Amazing but in Spectacular, which at that time was being written by Bill Mantlo. Stern consulted on the story, which ran in Spectacular #85 (Dec. 1983), but he objected to a line of dialogue that he feared would give readers the mistaken impression that taking the serum had driven the Hobgoblin just as insane as Norman Osborn had been.

12 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

The dialogue was revised, but not to Stern’s total satisfaction.

Still, fans remained excited about the new character and the stories in which he appeared. And of course, they tried to guess his true identity.

STERN: Readers were starting to guess wildly who the Hobgoblin really was, and I’d gotten a couple of letters from people who had actually mentioned Kingsley.

And I realized that I had to throw them off the trail.

The idea of Roderick Kingsley’s brother was something I had in the back of my mind for a while, because when Kingsley first showed up in the stories in Spectacular, he was a total pain in the ass, but other times, he was a little wimpy. And I thought, “He has a brother.” They were not twins, they were separated by a year or two, and in my mind, Daniel was the younger one and he was the one who had picked up the bad gene for pattern baldness! But otherwise, they were close enough in voice and appearance that Daniel could pass for Roderick. And Roderick would occasionally say, “I don’t want to deal with these people,” and he’d stick a rug on Daniel’s head and say, “Go out and pretend to be me.” After Rod became the Hobgoblin, it was very handy to have Daniel out there playing Rod whenever Rod needed him to.

Stern began to set the stage for the introduction of Daniel Kingsley in what turned out to be one of his last issues of Amazing, #249 (Feb. 1984). In that issue, a number of characters suspected of being the Hobgoblin, including an on-edge Kingsley, all ended up in the same place—with the Hobgoblin himself! And in issue #250 (Mar. 1984), while ensconced in his mansion, a stressed-out Kingsley thinks to himself, “Of all times for my brother to be out of town! If I ever needed him—!”

STERN: The Kingsley who appeared in those scenes was really Daniel, passing for Roderick.

Glider Rider (above) An early Romita, Jr. sketch showing Hobgoblin in action. (left) One of several cover appearances of Hobgoblin’s mask.

ASM #245 (Oct. 1983) cover by JR Jr. and Dave Simons.

Had Stern stayed on Amazing, he would have introduced Daniel Kingsley formally. He would have also connected Roderick more closely to the main cast and involved him more in their lives, so that when it was finally revealed that Roderick was the Hobgoblin, it would have the same kind of dramatic impact as when Norman Osborn was revealed to be the Green Goblin.

STERN: I figured it would be at least another year before I’d actually reveal the truth. My original idea was to keep the mystery going for as long as Stan did with the Green Goblin, and go one issue beyond that.

But it was not to be. Looking back, does Stern regret leaving the series before doing the Big Reveal?

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

STERN: A little bit. What happened was, Danny Fingeroth had taken over for Tom DeFalco as the editor of the Spider-Man books. Danny’s a great guy, but he worked totally differently from the way Tom did.

And I realized, “Danny and I are going to drive each other crazy if I stay on this book much longer.” I like Danny, and I didn’t want to get on his bad side, and I had lots of other work. So issue #250 seemed like a nice place to leave. And I was talking to JR, and he was getting so busy with the X-Men and was planning to give up Spider-Man for a while, so it seemed like the perfect place.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 13

PART TWO: THE TORCH IS PASSED

Lethal Landmark Issue Hobgoblin sneered his way onto the cover of the anniversary issue ASM #250 (Mar. 1984).

Art by Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

With Stern departing, Fingeroth tapped his editorial predecessor DeFalco to take over as writer. DeFalco, in addition to his new writing gig on Amazing, was at the time also serving as Marvel’s executive editor, second-in-command to editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.

To replace Romita, Jr., Fingeroth chose Ron Frenz, who was making a name for himself on Marvel’s Star Wars series—and had already penciled the now-classic Spider-Man backup story “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man,” written by Stern and published in Amazing #248 (Jan. 1984).

It should be noted that Stern actually wrote the plots for the first two issues of the DeFalco/Frenz run: #251 (Apr. 1984), which featured the conclusion of a multi-part Hobgoblin story, and #252 (May 1984), in which Spider-Man returned from the Secret Wars sporting a new black costume. DeFalco scripted over Stern’s plots. For DeFalco, stepping in to replace Stern was a daunting task.

DeFALCO: If you ask me who I think the best Spider-Man writer ever was, I would have to say Stan, because Stan established everything. If I had to come up with number two, I would have to say Roger Stern.

STERN: Those issues that Tom scripted over my plots came out beautifully. I put Tom’s Spider-Man work ahead of mine. Tom accomplished some of the things that I wanted to do but didn’t get to, and he did it so well. It just flowed and seemed so natural to me.

DeFALCO: I think Roger is being very kind, but I can’t believe anything I did ever approached his stuff. I think he just wants to say some good things about me before I croak!

RON FRENZ: Initially, I was hired to only do six issues, while Romita, Jr. went off to get X-Men up and running.

And he was supposed to come back and do both X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man. And six issues in, I found out from Danny Fingeroth that JR had come into the office and said he’d seen the stuff that Tom and I were doing, and Danny said, “Yeah, I’m really happy with what they’re doing.” And JR said, “You are, aren’t you?” And Danny said, “Yeah, I think they’re really gelling as a team.” And JR said, “If you’re really happy with these guys, give it to them.” And the first time I met JR, I thanked him for my run on Spider-Man. STERN: If I’d known that Ron Frenz was going to be coming on, I might’ve stuck around for at least another six months, just to see some things through! But Tom and Ron had such a great run.

Usually, when I leave a series, I don’t really look at it for about six months to a year. But the one exception was The Amazing Spider-Man, because Tom and Ron worked so well together. It was just wonderful.

DeFALCO: I was just desperately trying to do the best work I could do.

FRENZ: I remember working on my first issue, sending in the early pages, and I got a call from

14 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Fingeroth, and he said, “You need to bulk up Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin’s bigger than the Green Goblin, and you’re drawing him too much like the Green Goblin.” By the end of the issue, I’d made some adjustments, because I realized that I was drawing him a little too close to how the Green Goblin looked in the early Ditko stories.

I thought the Hobgoblin was a great idea.

He was a way to move forward. It wasn’t just a matter of bringing in yet another Green Goblin. I remember the wonderful differences that Roger would paint.

The Green Goblin was crazy, the Hobgoblin is not crazy—he’s just scary.

DeFALCO: When I left as editor, I didn’t know who Roger thought the Hobgoblin was. So when I took over as writer, the first thing I did was I had a discussion with Roger, and he told me. He said Kingsley. And I said, “I’m sorry, he’s been eliminated as a suspect.”

And I explained where he’d been eliminated: issue #249, where he was in the same room as the Hobgoblin. And Roger says, “Oh, no, he has an evil twin.” And I said, “A what?” What I didn’t know was that there was one thought balloon that appeared between my tenure as editor and Danny’s tenure, and in that thought balloon, Kingsley mentions having a brother. I felt it violated one of the rules of writing mysteries, which is that you have to play fair with the readers. If there is a twin, we have to see that twin early on. Otherwise, it’s a cheat. We have to know that there’s a twin going into it, or essentially we’re being unfair to the readers. It just didn’t work for me as a writer.

FRENZ: I asked Tom, “Did Roger ever tell you who the Hobgoblin was going to be?” And Tom said, “Yeah.” And I said, “Is it something we’re going to deal with?” And he said, “It was the evil twin of

Beaten Senseless Hobby robs Spidey of his spider-sense in ASM #251 (Apr. 1984)—but it returns in the nick of time! Art by Ron Frenz and Klaus Janson; special thanks to Ron Frenz. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Roderick Kingsley.” Apparently, Roger had been sowing seeds from very early on about the differences in Kingsley’s personalities and so forth. I have to admit that as a regular Spider-Man reader during that time, even I never really picked up on that.

STERN: I don’t recall referring to Daniel as Rod’s “evil twin.”

They’re not true twins, after all. And besides, it’s Roderick who would be the evil one! But, hey, it was nearly 26 years ago—maybe I did use that shorthand. Tom makes a good point about playing fair with the readers. And I would have, had I continued writing Amazing. Daniel would have been introduced—perhaps in a way that readers might have thought that he was the Hobgoblin— long before I lowered the boom.

What’s important is that I told Tom he should feel free to make the Hobgoblin whomever he wanted him to be. I knew that whomever Tom chose, he would make it work.

DeFALCO: I went through everything and asked myself, “Who could we use that would work?” And I figured out who I thought was the Hobgoblin, and I just went accordingly.

By the time DeFalco brought the Hobgoblin back for his first appearance after Stern’s departure (Amazing #257, Oct. 1984), DeFalco had already determined the identity of the man behind the mask. That man was Richard Fisk, son of Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin.

DeFALCO: He was a character who had appeared in Spider-Man continuity, a guy who understood power, because he had been raised by the Kingpin, and he had the perfect reaction when he saw the Kingpin (in Amazing #249). He fit it to a “T.” PETER DAVID: I remember Tom suggested Richard Fisk.

Fisk was one of the names bandied about.

STERN: Richard Fisk could’ve worked. That would have made sense.

But revealing Fisk as the Hobgoblin was a ways off, as far as DeFalco and Frenz were concerned. In the meantime, they had plenty of stories to tell that didn’t involve revealing the identity of the man behind the mask.

FRENZ: One of the reasons why I really embraced the Hobgoblin was because Tom and I had the opportunity to decide where Harry Osborn was going to go and Tom basically said, “You know, we’re going to give the guy a happy ending (as seen in Amazing #259–261, Dec. 1984–Feb. 1985).” Tom loved what J. M. DeMatteis ultimately did with Harry (which included his death in Spectacular #200, May 1993), but when we were on the book, we did the one scene where Harry put the shoulder bag on and was throwing pumpkin bombs at the Hobgoblin, and everybody thought, “Oooh, Harry’s gonna become the Green Goblin again!” And Tom said, “No, we’re gonna give the guy a happy ending and let him go raise his kid.” I enjoyed that story immensely.

One of the first things DeFalco and Frenz did with the Hobgoblin was have him forge an alliance with a character they introduced early in their run: another masked criminal who called himself the Rose. DeFalco had not given much thought to who the Rose really was, but as time went on, he realized that he could use existing Spider-Man continuity to his benefit.

DeFALCO: It was kind of a retrofit. When I created the Rose, I wanted a character in middle management. We had all the big crimelords, and then the second-tier crimelords, and this guy was supposed to be second-tier. He doesn’t fight, he hires people to do the fighting. I put him in a mask to make him distinctive. It was not a plan that he would have a secret identity.

But at some point later on, I was reading something about the big mystery of “Who is the Rose?” I didn’t realize there was a mystery! So I realized I’d have to come up with something for the Rose, and I figured I’d use Roderick Kingsley, because we’d already eliminated him as the Hobgoblin but he fit perfectly as the Rose.

DAVID: Roderick Kingsley was supposed to be the Rose.

STERN: Kingsley as the Rose would have worked fine.

DeFALCO: I don’t know if I had a plan for when we would do the reveal of the Hobgoblin. I kind of thought that it was interesting while it was running, but as soon as we resolved it, it would no longer be interesting. And as long we could keep coming up with twists and turns, we should keep it going!

One of those twists involved Flash Thompson—of all people— being unmasked as the Hobgoblin (Amazing #276, May 1986). Of course, Flash was framed by the real guy, whose true identity remained a hot topic of discussion amongst fandom.

Eventually, Danny Fingeroth departed as editor and was replaced

by James Owsley, now known as Christopher J. Priest. His arrival resulted in big changes for DeFalco and Frenz. And although they didn’t know it at the time, it was the beginning of the end for them on Spider-Man.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 15

PART THREE: DARK DAYS JAMES OWSLEY/CHRISTOPHER J. PRIEST: The DeFalco/Frenz run on Amazing was the crown jewel, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Frenz was passionate about Spider-Man, verging on fanatical, and nobody knew Spider-Man better than former Spider-editor DeFalco.

DeFALCO: Owsley and I did not get along.

FRENZ: It was immediately rough waters when Owsley took over as editor. It was the opposite of a smooth transition. He came in like an atom bomb.

DeFALCO: Owsley became editor and demanded to know who the Hobgoblin was. And I didn’t trust Owsley. At one point, we decided to have a Spider-Man creative conference, and in front of everybody—including a couple of reporters from the fanzines—he demanded that I tell him who the Hobgoblin was. And I said to him, “There are guys here from the fan press!” And he goes, “I don’t care, I’m the editor, I’m in charge, blah blah © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

blah.” And I said I wouldn’t say anything while the fan press was there. And Owsley made the guys from the fan press walk out the door. Meanwhile, there are still at least a dozen guys in the room.

Like a secret with a dozen guys is really going to stay a secret! But he gives me the huff and puff and demands to know, “Who’s the Hobgoblin?” So I said, “Ned Leeds.” And Ron Frenz, sitting across the table, does a double-take and wonders what the hell I’m talking about. Because Ron knew I was planning for it to be Richard Fisk. I had been keeping a notebook at the time, where I kept everything.

And in that book I wrote, “Hobgoblin secret identity— Ned Leeds” [for Owsley]. So that I’d remember if he ever asked me again who the Hobgoblin was, that would be the answer I would give him. In reality, Ned Leeds was never seriously considered as the Hobgoblin.

DAVID: I was writing Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. DeFalco was writing The Amazing Spider-Man, which was the head book. And we had a Spider-Man writers conference. I was there, Owsley was there, David Michelinie [who was writing Web of Spider-Man at the time] was there, DeFalco was there. We were going to decide at that conference who the Hobgoblin was going to be. We knew that Roger’s original notion was that it was going to be Roderick Kingsley. And the problem was that we, at the time, felt, “Who really gives a crap about Roderick Kingsley?” None of us was really blown away by it.

And there was also, to some degree, the notion that this was Roger’s idea, and maybe we shouldn’t do it because it was his idea. The decision was made that the Hobgoblin was going to be revealed to be Ned Leeds, and the notion was that DeFalco would take point in doing the stories that would lead to the revelation. And that’s where we left it.

I don’t recall anyone from the fan press being at this writers conference. It was a Spider-Man writers conference—we’re gonna have press there?

DeFALCO: I had tried to introduce Richard Fisk into the series a couple of times, but Owsley, who believed in decompression long before decompression existed, was constantly looking at my plots and saying, “This one issue should be broken up into three issues.” And he would pull out scenes, and those would always be the Richard Fisk scenes. And it would be very aggravating to me, because I was trying to get these scenes in and I couldn’t tell him why.

FRENZ: We never had the chance to get Richard Fisk into the continuity. But I really liked the idea of making the Hobgoblin turn out to be Ned and having it revealed to the reader, but without revealing it to Peter Parker. So we’d be putting Pete in situations with Ned where he’s wondering why his spidersense is going off.

OWSLEY/PRIEST: I left the DeFalco/Frenz team undisturbed on Amazing, other than to emphasize that they were the head team: that we took our cues from them and followed their lead.

Look, Up in the Sky An aerial battle in pencil form by the fabulous Mr. Frenz, from ASM #276 (May 1986).

Courtesy of Ron Frenz and Write Now. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

News Flash!

Longtime supportingcast member Flash Thompson was unmasked “as” Hobgoblin in this two-parter in Amazing Spider-Man #275 and 276 (Apr. and May 1986).

Covers by Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein (#275, left) and Tom Morgan and Rubinstein (#276). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

FRENZ: As far as everyone taking their cues from Tom and me, that wasn’t true. DeFalco and I had established that Mary Jane was a runway model. That’s very different from a supermodel. And it was in a story by another creative team that a policeman recognizes MJ from a magazine cover. And that ended up taking Mary Jane in a direction that we never intended.

DeFALCO: Owsley gave us a schedule that basically said I’d have to do a plot every three weeks to get the book on time. So Ron and I would follow that schedule and when I would turn in the third plot, Owsley would give us a new schedule that showed I was a month late.

And he kept doing this to us. And that’s why he kept scheduling fill-in issues by other people. Just kept jerking us around. Very aggravating. According to the official production schedule, we were not only on schedule, we were months ahead of schedule. But editors get to create their own schedules. And what Owsley would do is go to [then-editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter and say, “Tom can’t keep to the schedule.” And Shooter would say, “Well, if he can’t, then fire him.”

OWSLEY/PRIEST: I had been told, at least a dozen times, to fire Tom. Tom was late. Tom was busy. Tom was distracted. And now, Tom was not doing his best on Spider-Man. Inker [Joe] Rubinstein quit, annoyed that DeFalco and Frenz were habitually erratic. I scheduled fill-in after fill-in, affecting sales. Tom and I planned one schedule fix after another, but these efforts were routinely torpedoed by Shooter himself, who’d suddenly send Tom here or make Tom drop what he was doing and work on thus and so. All the while complaining about our near-misses (I never, not once missed shipping) with Tom, urging me to get rid of him. It was Jim himself who was playing havoc with Tom’s writing schedule.

DeFALCO: I think what Shooter said to Owsley was, “If the guy can’t make deadlines, get rid of him.”

And consequently, Owsley was constantly revising and remaking the deadlines.

FRENZ: One of the things that Owsley did was that he started commissioning fill-ins like crazy. We had done the two-part Firelord story (Amazing #269–270, Oct.–Nov. 1985) and Owsley pulled it out of rotation and was thinking about doing it as a graphic novel or as an annual or something like that, and in the meantime, he ran a series of fill-ins. And it was driving Tom and I crazy because we had a two-part story that was completely done and apparently being carried around the office under Owsley’s arm instead of going to press!

JIM SHOOTER: Wow. I’m stunned. I was unaware of this drama. I guess I was too naive, or too busy to be truly aware of this petty, political crap, but whatever, I wasn’t.

DeFALCO: I was constantly checking with [then-production manager] Virginia Romita to make sure where we were on the schedule, and we were far ahead. We were the farthest ahead of anyone on the Spider-Man books. The day Owsley fired me, and he told Shooter and everybody that it was because I couldn’t meet deadlines, Virginia came in and said, “Is he out of his mind? I have the production schedule and you guys have the most on-time book in the house! You’re what I use as an example for everyone else!”

FRENZ: At one point, Owsley and DeFalco flew into Pittsburgh and we had dinner at a nice restaurant and it was all about getting the book on schedule.

And within a month-and-a-half, two months, Tom and

Villains Issue

© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 17

Ned’s Dead (left) Peter Parker discovers the body of Ned Leeds in the Jim Owsley-written Spider-Man vs.

Wolverine #1 (Feb. 1987). Art by Mark Bright and Al Williamson. (right) Shadows tended to follow the Hobgoblin’s unmasked face.

From ASM #276, drawn by Frenz and Brett Breeding. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

I had met that schedule, and then Owsley kept hitting us with another schedule. And it was an unenjoyable roller-coaster ride for several months until he pulled the rug out from under us and fired us. And I remember Tom telling me that Virginia Romita came to him and said, “What the hell’s going on with the Spider-Man books? You were the most on-time of anyone on those books!”

To make matters even worse, in late 1986—four months before the identity of the Hobgoblin was finally revealed— Marvel released a special one-shot, Spider-Man vs.

Wolverine, written by James Owsley. Among the most notable things about this one-shot was the shocking death of Ned Leeds, who was murdered while on an assignment in Berlin with Peter Parker for the Daily Bugle. Readers were not the only ones who were shocked

by Ned’s sudden demise.

DeFALCO: Owsley came in the week before Spider-Man vs. Wolverine was going to be released, and fired me from The Amazing Spider-Man. I maintain that he knew that I was going to freak out when I saw that story, where he had Ned Leeds killed. Because Ned was a cast member of my book! And Owsley never warned me ahead of time that he was going to kill off Ned in this side project of his.

FRENZ: Owsley let Tom and I continue with our plans without telling us in advance that he was going to kill Ned. We had no heads up until Spider-Man vs. Wolverine came out that Ned Leeds was killed in that story. I can’t speak to why he did it, but I can speak to the way he did it. He kept it a big secret until we felt screwed.

DeFALCO: Later on, Owsley and Peter got together and tried to go through everything to see who else the Hobgoblin could be. And they couldn’t come up with anybody. So that’s why Peter had to do the story that showed, yes, it was Ned. There was no plan, and I blame that all on Owsley and not on Peter. Peter was given the assignment and was trying to do the best he could.

18 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

DAVID: Owsley comes into my office—I was working at Marvel [in the direct sales department] at the time— and he says, “We’re going to go out to lunch and discuss who the Hobgoblin is going to be.” And I said, “What are you talking about? The Hobgoblin is Ned Leeds.” And he said, “No, he’s not Ned Leeds.” And I said, “What do you mean? We all discussed this at the writers conference. And those are the stories that Tom has been writing.” And Owsley said, “Tom’s not doing the book anymore. And it’s not going to be Ned Leeds. And I’m going to tell you who it’s going to be.”

So we went out to lunch, and Owsley reveals to me that he’s killing off Ned Leeds in the Spider-Man vs.

Wolverine one-shot. And I said, “What the (expletive) do you mean? Ned Leeds is the Hobgoblin!” And he said, “No.” And I said, “Why are you doing this?”

And Owsley said, “To piss off DeFalco.” And I said, “Well, that’s kind of juvenile. Look, you’ve got to rethink this.” And he said, “It’s already drawn.”

DeFALCO: Owsley killed off Ned to screw up my continuity. Then he decided to fire me instead.

He thought he’d throw me a curve ball by killing off Ned. I would’ve been annoyed about it, but it wouldn’t have been a curve ball for me because I never intended for the Hobgoblin to be Ned anyway. I just knew I couldn’t trust Owsley and this proved it.

DAVID: I asked Owsley, “Well, then who’s the Hobgoblin going to be?” And he said to me, with great triumph, “The Foreigner!” And I said, “The (expletive) he is! From a character standpoint, it makes no sense for the Foreigner to be the Hobgoblin, to say nothing of the fact that we’ve been saying from the get-go that the Hobgoblin is someone who’s already part of Spider-Man’s cast. And the Foreigner was introduced after the Hobgoblin. This makes no sense, top to bottom.” And Owsley said, “Well, okay, you figure out something better.”

Farewell from the Foreigner (this page and next) Assassins surround Ned Leeds in ASM #289 (June 1987). From the team of writer Peter David, pencilers Alan Kupperberg and Tom Morgan, and inker Jim Fern. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

So I go back and reread Tom’s stories with an eye toward who the Hobgoblin can be other than Ned Leeds. And I come to the realization that the answer is—nobody! Tom had been too thorough in doing the job that he was told to do at the writers meeting. No wonder every fan writing in about the Hobgoblin said, “I bet he’s Ned Leeds!”

Because Tom was too thorough. The only reason we got any letters that didn’t say it was Ned Leeds was because those fans said, “It can’t be Ned Leeds, that’s too obvious.”

And I’m thinking, “We’ve got a problem here. I can’t think of anyone it could be other than Ned Leeds.” And I go to Owsley and I ask him, “Who kills Ned in the one-shot?” And Owsley says, “Some unnamed terrorists.” Because this is how much thought Owsley had put into it.

So I said, “No. Here’s how we do it. The Foreigner”—and I used the Foreigner because Owsley seemed hot on the Foreigner—“is an assassin. The Foreigner killed Ned because the Foreigner figured out that Ned was the Hobgoblin. Someone wanted the Hobgoblin dead, and they hired the Foreigner to do it.” And Owsley said, “Well, how did the Foreigner figure it out?” And I said, “Well, he read DeFalco’s issues!” Actually, I said, “We don’t really have to go into details about it. He’s the Foreigner. He has a Hobgoblin file. That’s all you need.”

And Owsley said, “Well, who would want the Hobgoblin dead?”

And deconstructing it, we decided that the perfect person would be the Jack O’Lantern. They’d already crossed paths, and the Hobgoblin had pretty much handed his head to him (Amazing #288, May 1987).

So why would the Jack O’Lantern want to go head-to-head with the Hobgoblin again, when he could hire someone else to take care of the Hobgoblin for him?

My argument was, “Once we kill off Ned, he’ll go from being the lead suspect to the last guy you would think of. Because who would be stupid enough to do a story in which we reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin after the guy is dead? And that we never have the big climactic confrontation and unmasking that everyone is expecting and which has been done a hundred times? This has never been done before! Fans are going to go so bats**t over this that it’ll never be done again, because it is quite conceivably the dumbest resolution that we could possibly have!” Owsley said, “I love it!” And I was brought in to write the resolution issue (Amazing #289, June 1987).

DeFALCO: I don’t think I ever read the resolution issue.

OWSLEY/PRIEST: I came up with an idea: Sensational Spider-Man

by DeFalco/Frenz. This would, likely, have been a quarterly special, like Spider-Man Unlimited or some such. Tom and Ron could do as much Spider-Man as they wanted and were capable of doing, and we’d be off the hook for the monthly deadline. Tom and Ron continue to do the work they love, I get out of Shooter’s line of fire. I told Jim I was taking Tom off of Amazing, and creating this other animal for him and Ron. Jim said, fine.

SHOOTER: No one was ever in my “line of fire.” I tried my best to work with everyone and, with great reluctance, cut bait when it was absolutely necessary.

OWSLEY/PRIEST: Tom took the news very hard. It ended our friendship, and, I am told, Tom saw Jim’s hand in this and threatened to quit.

A stunned Shooter appeared at my door the next day, and I knew I was about to be fired. He asked me, and I quote, “Why’d you do that [fire Tom]?” I just stared at him as he stammered and stared at the floor and shook his head and exhaled, and I felt like I was in The Godfather II, the victim of some macabre Corleone plot. What the blessed hell was this man talking about?!? I cleared this all with him before I did it. More to the point, for months he’d been after me to do something about Tom. I said, “Because you told me to. We talked

about this beforehand.” To which Jim replied, and I’ll never forget this, “Yeah—but I never thought you'd actually do it.”… The horror of it was I’d alienated Shooter, my mentor, and alienated DeFalco, one of my best friends in the business.

SHOOTER: Owsley’s memory of my allegedly hypocritical behavior regarding DeFalco is fiction. And bizarre.

I know this: when DeFalco was an editor, he was the best ever at keeping his books on time—make that ahead of time. That’s why I promoted him to executive editor, my assistant, so he could coach and help the editors with regard to keeping the schedule. The particulars of the Spider-Man situation, in which he was a writer, not the editor, I don’t recall.

DeFALCO: Shooter could have stepped in, but he kept saying, “I’m going to give [Owsley] enough rope to hang himself.” I never told Shooter about Owsley’s schedule shenanigans. Shooter eventually learned about them. And eventually, Shooter did fire Owsley.

FRENZ: I think Shooter felt constrained by not wanting to have to say, “Boy, I really blew that one [giving Owsley the Spider-Man titles to edit]!” I thought it was very ironic that Shooter went into DeFalco’s office after we were fired and said, “What the hell’s going on with these books?” And Tom looked at him and said, “You’re asking me?

He’s your guy! Go find out!” And of course, on his website, Owsley has his own tale to tell—none of which, as far as I’m concerned, holds much water.

DeFALCO: I maintain that Owsley wanted to fire me so that he could take over writing the book. He felt he understood Spider-Man and I didn’t.

DAVID: I very much doubt that Owsley was angling to write the book himself.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 19

Following DeFalco’s departure as writer, Owsley did indeed take his place, scripting over the plots that DeFalco had already written for the first two parts of the five-part “Gang War” storyline (Amazing #284–285, Jan.–Feb. 1987) and then writing the remaining three issues himself (Amazing #286–288, Mar.–May 1987). Owsley then wrote Web of Spider-Man #29–30 (Aug.–Sept. 1987), in which he provided more detailed information about Ned Leeds’ time as the Hobgoblin, as well as the origin of the Rose, who turned out to be Richard Fisk.

Around the same time, Owsley was fired as SpiderMan editor and replaced by Jim Salicrup.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

SHOOTER: I fired Jim Owsley because his tenure as an editor was a train wreck. When I fired Jim Owsley, he thanked me. Seriously. He said, “Thank you.”

He admitted that he just wasn’t good at the administrative stuff (i.e., schedules). P.S.—there was plenty of work for him as a writer, so it was not such a big deal.

In fact, it was like giving him a raise. He is, as everyone knows, wonderfully creative. Meant to be a writer, not an expediter.

OWSLEY/PRIEST: Suddenly, the three books that I had worked for years to give unique identities to were homogenized into a blur of Spider Sameness: same logo style, same basic look, indistinguishable from one another.

Oh, and suddenly, Ned Leeds was the Hobgoblin, a move that infuriated Roger Stern, but one that I had absolutely nothing to do with.

STERN: I wasn’t infuriated at all. I saw it as an opportunity.

I realized that the stuff established in #289 could serve as the foundation for a whole new story.

DEFALCO: How could Owsley have nothing to do with it? He edited the freaking book!

DAVID: Owsley had nothing to do with it? Bull.

That’s nonsense. He was the editor!

The credited editor on Amazing #289 is actually Salicrup, but both DeFalco and David assert that this was only because the book was sent to the printer after Owsley was no longer editing the Spider-Man titles.

STERN: I’d read the Spider-Man vs. Wolverine comic that had come out a few months before Amazing #289.

I said, “Oh, they killed Ned. That’s terrible!” I always liked Ned. It wasn’t his fault that he took Betty Brant away from Pete—they were on a break at the time! Ned was basically a straight shooter, a really good guy. A good reporter, an honest guy. So now Ned was dead.

And then, in Amazing #289, it’s revealed that he had been the Hobgoblin. Okay. Except that the way Ned was killed, he couldn’t have been the Hobgoblin. After Amazing #289 came out, I’d occasionally cross paths with a Spider-Man editor and I’d say, “You know that story doesn’t work,” and they’d say, “We know. We don’t want to talk about it.” And I’d say, “Okay, but if you ever change your mind, I can fix that for you!” And eventually, I got the call.

PART FOUR: THE LONG ROAD BACK As of Amazing #289, the Hobgoblin costume was filled by a replacement: the former Jack O’Lantern, Jason Philip Macendale, Jr., who assumed the identity after having Ned Leeds killed. It is safe to say that the Hobgoblin’s popularity evaporated quickly in the wake of this turn of events. Later creative teams did what they could to generate renewed interest in him. His costume became tattered, to give him a more ragged, fearsome look. During Marvel’s “Inferno” crossover event, he was given supernatural powers by a demon and became a literal hobgoblin (Spectacular #147, Feb. 1989). When that incarnation failed to catch on, the supernatural aspect was exorcised from his body and became a separate character: the Demogoblin (who would eventually be killed by Macendale). Later, Macendale was given super-strength courtesy of the formula once used by Kraven the Hunter.

By Spring 1996, Ralph Macchio was editing the regular monthly Spider-Man titles and was making plans on what to do following the conclusion of the infamous Clone Saga. One plan was referred to by Macchio as “the SuperVillain Restoration Project,” through which many of SpiderMan’s longtime enemies—specifically, those who had lost their luster over the years—would be returned to their original, most effective, and most villainous incarnations. High up on the list were Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, Electro, the Scorpion, and the Sandman.

Around this time, the Jason Macendale incarnation of the Hobgoblin had been revamped yet again, courtesy of writer Howard Mackie and artist John Romita, Jr., in Spider-Man #68 (May 1996). He was given a new costume and a number of cybernetic attachments in an attempt to establish him as an exciting, effective, major-league villain once and for all. The response from

20 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

readers was tepid. With the Macendale Hobgoblin still considered an also-ran, and Macchio already working toward restoring key members of Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, an intrepid assistant editor at Marvel (okay, it was yours truly) thought the time was right for Marvel to finally take Roger Stern up on his longstanding offer. The idea was brought to Macchio, who gave it his blessing, and ultimately, to then-editor-in-chief Bob Harras, who was intrigued—but would not give the go-ahead unless one condition was met.

STERN: The only condition was, “You gotta tell us who he is!”

Stern revealed the name. Harras was then briefed on the Roderick/Daniel Kingsley scenario and the logistics of how Ned Leeds would be exonerated posthumously. It would turn out that Ned was framed by the real Hobgoblin just as Flash Thompson had been. But the framing of Ned was far more elaborate, involving intricate brainwashing and extended periods in which Ned wore the costume, acting as the Hobgoblin and completely unaware of his own actions. The clearing of Ned’s name meant that his widow, Betty Brant, would have a large role in the story. Harras was satisfied enough by all of this to sign off on the project and Stern began reacquainting himself with all of the old Hobgoblin stories, and reading the more recent ones for the first time.

STERN: One of the many things that made Ned not work: the Hobgoblin gets all of the original Green Goblin’s stuff from his informant, Georgie Hill, and then he blows Georgie up. I never would’ve seen Ned doing that. The other thing, of course, was how Ned was killed—four guys jumped him and killed him. Except, the real Hobgoblin was about as strong as Spider-Man. If four guys jumped him, they’d end up as red paste on the wall. And they didn’t!

DAVID: The Foreigner’s assassins were no slouches. They caught Ned completely flat-footed. They were on him before he could even make a move. They had a garrote around his throat. I don’t care how super-strong you are, if someone is cutting off your air, super-strength will only take you so far. He wasn’t invulnerable.

If someone’s got wire around your throat, you don’t have the leverage to get at the guy, you’ve got a number of other trained assassins holding you down—you’re screwed.

STERN: Actually, Ned made several moves. The issue (Amazing #289) showed four men breaking into Ned’s hotel room and threatening him.

Ned reacted first by tossing pumpkin bombs, and then by shooting ray blasts that scattered all four of them. One assassin got off a shot, hitting Ned in the right shoulder. Then, another assassin grabbed Ned and broke his left arm. And then, the last guy crouched over Ned and applied a garrote. One man. He wasn’t even holding Ned down. In fact, no one was holding him down.

Ned fought and died in a way that was consistent for a fit, athletic guy who thought he was the Hobgoblin. He had the Hobgoblin’s weapons, but not the Hobgoblin’s superhuman speed and strength— or the Hobgoblin’s willingness to kill.

The real Hobgoblin never had the slightest problem with killing people. He wouldn’t have simply scattered those assassins, he would have blasted holes in them. Any assassin who survived to fire off a lucky shot, or tried to break the Hobgoblin’s arm, would have been pulped. Given the way that attack unfolded, a man with the Hobgoblin’s strength and speed would never have let anyone get that garrote around his neck in the first place.

DAVID: I still maintain that the way I resolved it was pretty much the only way to approach it. I fully cop to it, it was my idea. And all things considered, I think I did the best I could. I’m still proud of it, and to this day, I have no regrets. Like it or not, you have to admit, it was an unprecedented way to handle it, and it hasn’t been done since.

STERN: Overall, Amazing #289 turned out to be a win/win situation for both of us. Peter devised a one-of-a-kind story—no argument there—under battlefield conditions. And it made possible the story that I eventually got to write.

When I was preparing to revisit the Hobgoblin, I went over the story that Howard and JR had done in Spider-Man #68, which was still fairly recent at the time, and I said to the editors, “Wow, they did all this work to revamp the second Hobgoblin—what do you want me to do? I can have Macendale beat my guy, anything you want, because you just went to all this trouble.” I heard back and was told that I could open my story by having my guy kill Macendale. That left things pretty open!

The project took shape as a three-issue limited series entitled Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives, edited by Tom Brevoort and yours truly.

And as far as the editors were concerned, there were only two artists who could possibly be considered to illustrate it. One—John Romita, Jr.— was already the regular penciler on the monthly “adjectiveless” Spider-Man series and was declared off-limits for ancillary projects. The other— Ron Frenz—was in the midst of his run on Superman over at DC Comics.

But when approached about the project, Frenz was happy to sign on.

FRENZ: I was flattered and shocked to be approached. I was thrilled to be working on Spider-Man again. I was thrilled to be working with Roger. I was surprised, given all the time that had passed, that Marvel decided to do it. Because Roger had been pitching it almost every year since Ned had been killed!

DeFALCO: After I became editor-in-chief (in 1987), Roger came to me and proposed the story. And I said to him, “Roger, I totally agree with you—none of the stuff about Ned being the Hobgoblin made

All in a Frenzy The heinous Hobgoblin in a commissioned illo by Ron Frenz. Special thanks to Write Now. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 21

any sense. But I think too much time has passed.” I think you should always move forward and not look back.

Don’t try to recreate the past.

My problem with [Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives] conceptually was that ten years earlier, we knew who the suspects were. But so much time had passed that you had to reintroduce all the suspects because nobody knew who they were anymore. A character like Kingsley hadn’t appeared in the books in about ten years. I just thought it was too late.

STERN: Writing it was a little bit of a challenge. Kingsley and the other suspects hadn’t been seen in years. Other Spider-Man writers graciously agreed to reintroduce some of those characters in the other Spider-Man books before the first issue of Hobgoblin Lives came out.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Roderick Kingsley himself appeared in Spider-Man Unlimited #14 (Dec. 1996), courtesy of writer Glenn Herdling and artist Joe Bennett.

FRENZ: The project was a joy for me. There was nothing about it that should have worked, and yet the whole thing did. The fact that Roger is a total pro is the only thing that made it work. You’re re-establishing these characters that haven’t been in the books since forever.

But it was okay, because Roger treated the three issues as a standalone story where you talked about their long-standing ties but you also gave the readers everything they needed to know about these characters, over the course of a three-part story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

STERN: I think it worked out well. I had plenty of space to work—three issues, 32 pages each, no ads.

FRENZ: It was the first time that Roger or I had worked on Spider-Man with Pete married to Mary Jane. It was the first time either of us had dealt with that dynamic.

And thanks to Roger, it was one of the first times that they were handled as a real couple. I loved being a part of that. And I loved what he did with Betty Brant in the story.

Interestingly enough, the design I used for the Green Goblin in What If? #105 [the debut of Spider-Girl]— if you take that and change some of the blacks around and put a Hobgoblin color scheme on it, that was an idea I had for the Hobgoblin when I was hired to do Hobgoblin Lives. And I spoke to Roger about it and asked if that was something he might want to do—jazz up the Hobgoblin a little bit. But I completely understood that since we were going back to the root of the character, that we’d probably want the character to look like the character. And ultimately, that’s exactly what Roger told me he wanted. And he was absolutely right. If this was going to be the guy, he had to look like the guy.

Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1 (Jan. 1997) was inked by George Pérez, who was originally slated to ink the entire series. Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, Pérez had to bow out after the first issue, though he did ink all three covers. Issue #2 (Feb. 1997) was inked by Jerome Moore and Scott Hanna and issue #3 (Apr. 1997) was inked by Bob McLeod. The series was eventually collected in a trade-paperback edition.

STERN: It is a shame that George Pérez couldn’t have done the finishes on all three issues, but the other guys stepped up and did a good job. And Ron, he did a great job! Overall, it was a very satisfying project for me.

FRENZ: My only disappointment about that job was that each issue was inked by somebody different. But overall, as a trade paperback, it reads seamlessly and looks great. It’s a beautiful package—and it includes that Hobgoblin timeline that Roger put together to show how everything worked!

DAVID: I was aware that Roger eventually did his story with Roderick Kingsley. And I was amused that, for a number of the fans, the response was, “Eh, so what?”

Because at the time, that was our response! But I certainly wasn’t upset that he did it. Why in the world should I be upset that Roger decides to come back and take this character that he created and do the story that he wanted to tell?

Goblins Go At It! Harry Osborn once again dons the Green Goblin guise in ASM #312 (Feb. 1989) and butts heads with Hobgoblin. Cover art by Todd McFarlane. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

STERN: I got such a great response from readers.

After all these years, people are still bringing me copies to autograph. It’s a shame that the collected trade paperback was allowed to go out of print.

Stern returned to the Hobgoblin again when he co-wrote (with yours truly) the three-part story “Goblins at the Gate,” published in Spectacular Spider-Man #259–261 (July–Sept. 1998), illustrated by Luke Ross. For the first (and thus far, the only) time, Roderick Kingsley—the original Hobgoblin—came face to face with Norman Osborn— the original Green Goblin. The story ended with both men still standing and Kingsley ultimately escaping to a Caribbean island. When last seen, Kingsley was relaxing on a beach, enjoying a drink, living off of his secret stash of money, and wondering whether he would ever take up the role of the Hobgoblin again.

In the Spider-Girl series by DeFalco and Frenz, which takes place in an alternate future timeline and chronicles the adventures of Spider-Man’s daughter, Kingsley did indeed come out of retirement. How did DeFalco feel writing the Hobgoblin as Kingsley, an idea that he had personally rejected years earlier?

DeFALCO: Roger created the Hobgoblin and he got to come back and make him the character he’d always intended him to be. I just picked up the character from there. When you’re writing this stuff, you play the hand you’re given and you just move forward.

In the Marvel Universe proper, however, Kingsley and the Hobgoblin have not appeared since the last chapter of “Goblins at the Gate.” Stern suggests that the return of Norman Osborn probably signaled the end of the Hobgoblin as a major player in Spider-Man’s world. Indeed, Stern went on to write a key storyline about Norman himself: the 2000 limited series Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin, teamed once again with Frenz.

Still, Stern has an idea that he’d like to bring to fruition.

STERN: What I’d love to do is a total knockdown between Norman and Roderick. We came close with “Goblins at the Gate,” but we were told by Marvel editorial at the last minute that we couldn’t put Norman in the costume. At that time, Norman was being cagey, he wasn’t going into action as the Green Goblin. But I’d love for them to face off again, with Spider-Man in the middle. Because after “Goblins at the Gate,” Roderick won! He pulled off the perfect crime. He did all that crap and got away with it!

DAVID: Granted, you’ve got two similar guys flying around chucking pumpkin bombs, but on the other hand, that could make for a pretty interesting face-off.

I don’t think you really need the Hobgoblin at this point if the Green Goblin is still flying around. I think you’d need another take on him other than he’s a guy who flies around on a glider and chucks pumpkin bombs. You’d have to have some other way of approaching him.

FRENZ: I think the only thing that’s hurt Hobgoblin, as far as usage, is that Norman Osborn is back. And everybody thinks if you’ve got Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin, why do you need Roderick Kingsley as the Hobgoblin?

What would be really cool is if Roderick Kingsley killed Norman! [laughter] The Hobgoblin is a cool character and he does have weight and I think part of the reason for that is because he’s been, primarily, only handled by Roger. And Roger has steered his destiny so clearly, by coming back ten years later and doing Hobgoblin Lives, that the Hobgoblin is one of those very few pristine characters out there, when you think about it. He’s not a character that’s been passed around like a two-dollar whore!

Oh, My Stars and Garters!

Ken Steacy original artwork from the Rick Geary-written illustrated book Spider-Man: Ghosts, Ghouls, and the Hobgoblin (Mouse Works, 1996).

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

As an editor and writer for Marvel Comics, GLENN GREENBERG helped get Spider-Man out of another long storyline that grew in complexity and ended up disappointing many: the infamous Clone Saga. He is currently hard at work on his first screenplay.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 23

Three decades before Mark Millar and J. G. Jones’ movie-inspiring Top Cow miniseries, the title “Wanted” meant something entirely different to the average comic-book fan. Wanted, The World’s Most Dangerous Villains originated in 1970 as a grab bag of hero vs. villain reprints in DC Comics’ DC Special Giant series. Its first outing prompted a follow-up Giant, and then a regular-sized ongoing reprint title bearing the Wanted, The World’s Most Dangerous Villains brand. Under the guidance of DC’s continuity and reprint guru E. Nelson Bridwell, Wanted offered readers glimpses of bad guys both omnipotent and obscure, packaged under beautiful all-new covers by Murphy Anderson and Nick Cardy.

by

Michael Eury

WANTED, THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS VILLAINS CHECKLIST DC SPECIAL #8 (July–Sept. 1970)

WANTED #2 (Sept.–Oct. 1972)

Cover art: Murphy Anderson Villains: Joker and Luthor (vs. Batman and Superman), Flash Rogues’ Gallery (vs. Flash), Sinestro (vs. Green Lantern), Shadow-Thief (vs. Hawkman) Stories: “Joker-Luthor, Incorporated” (reprinted from World’s Finest Comics #129), “Who Doomed the Flash?” (reprinted from The Flash #130), “The Day 100,000 People Vanished” (reprinted from Green Lantern #7), “Shadow-Thief of Midway City” (reprinted from The Brave and the Bold #36)

Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Joker and Penguin (vs. Batman), Trickster (vs. Flash) Stories: “Knights of Knavery” (reprinted from Batman #25), “The Trickster Strikes Back” (reprinted from The Flash #121)

DC SPECIAL #14 (Sept.–Oct. 1971) Cover art: Murphy Anderson Villains: Toyman (vs. Superman), Captain Cold and Heat Wave (vs. Flash), Penguin (vs. Batman and Robin) Stories: “The Toyman’s Castle” (reprinted from Superman #47), “The Heat is On … for Captain Cold” (reprinted from The Flash #140), “The Bird Sayings Crimes” (reprinted from World’s Finest Comics #55)

WANTED #1 (July–Aug. 1972)

Forgotten Villains Fabulously Rendered Neither Dr. Clever nor Dr. Glisten earned a second lease on life after their 1973 reprint exposure in Wanted #7, but this fetching original cover art by the alwaysawesome Nick Cardy fetched $1,135.25 in a February 2008 Heritage Comics Auction.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Cover art: Murphy Anderson Villains: Signalman (vs. Batman), Clock King (vs. Green Arrow), Puppet Master (vs. Green Lantern) Stories: “The Signalman of Crime” (reprinted from Batman #112), “The Crimes of the Clock King” (reprinted from World’s Finest Comics #111), “Menace of the Giant Puppet” (reprinted from Green Lantern #1)

WANTED #3 (Nov. 1972) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Dummy (vs. Vigilante), Human Fly Gang (vs. Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl), Nyarl-Amen (Dr. Fate) Stories: “The Little Men Who Were There” (reprinted from Action Comics #69), “The Fish-Men of Nyarl-Amen” (reprinted from More Fun Comics #65), “The Human Fly Bandits” (reprinted from Flash Comics #100)

WANTED #4 (Dec. 1972) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Solomon Grundy (vs. Golden Age Green Lantern), Master Man (vs. Kid Eternity) Stories: “Fighters Never Quit” (reprinted from AllAmerican Comics #61), “Master Man” (reprinted from Kid Eternity #15)

WANTED #5 (Jan. 1973) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Iron Mask (vs. Doll Man), Dr. Light (vs. Green Lantern) Stories: “Wizard of the LightWave Weapons” (reprinted from Green Lantern #33), “The Man in the Iron Mask” (reprinted from Doll Man #15)

WANTED #6 (Feb. 1973) Cover art: Nick Cardy

Villains: The Mist (vs. Starman), Golden Wasp (vs. Wildcat); Blue Lama (vs. Sargon) [Note: The Sargon story is not cover-featured.]

Stories: “Finder’s Keepers” (reprinted from Adventure Comics #77), “The Man Who Met Himself” (reprinted from Sensation Comics #71), “The Wasp’s Nest” (reprinted from Sensation Comics #66)

WANTED #7 (Mar.–Apr. 1973) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Dr. Clever (vs. Johnny Quick), Dr. Glisten (vs. Hourman); Gentleman Ghost (vs. Golden Age Hawkman) [Note: The Hawkman story is not cover-featured.]

Stories: “The Adventures of the Human Streak” (reprinted from More Fun Comics #76), “The Crimes That Couldn’t Have Happened” (reprinted from Flash Comics #90), “Dr. Glisten” (reprinted from Adventure Comics #72)

WANTED #8 (June–July 1973) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Captain Cold (vs. Flash), Mr. Who (vs. Dr. Fate) Stories: “The Big Freeze” (reprinted from The Flash #114), “Mr. Who” (reprinted from More Fun Comics #73)

WANTED #9 (Aug.–Sept. 1973) Cover art: Nick Cardy Villains: Prankster (vs. Superman), The Nightshade (vs.

Sandman and Sandy) Stories: “Crime’s Comedy King” (reprinted from Action Comics #57), “The Adventure of the Magic Forest” (reprinted from World’s Finest Comics #6)

®

by

Robert Greenberger

Imagine, if you will, the mighty Justice League of America, trapped by a band of their most dangerous foes, and forced to endure a personality swap. What could have happened during those hours when the villains inhabited the bodies of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?

That’s exactly what happened when the JLA fought the Secret Society of Super-Villains in three titanic issues of Justice League of America #166–168 back in 1979.

While the heroes triumphed, it fueled the imagination of readers who imagined what happened between panels. One such fan became obsessed with the concept, imagining the villains unmasking the heroes and posing for photos, the ultimate in blackmail material. Such a moment became a pivotal revelation in 2004’s Identity Crisis, written by comics fan turned bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer.

As Meltzer tells me via e-mail, “I’m so sad, I’ve been carrying that idea around since nearly the first moment I read it as a kid. Just made no sense to me.

As for the title, it was the evil Justice League? How could that not be appealing?”

MOB MENTALITY In 1975, Gerry Conway was hired as an editor at DC Comics and quickly created “Conway’s Corner,” where he mixed series revivals such as Blackhawk with new titles including Secret Society of Super-Villains (SSOSV) in early 1976. At this point, DC’s villains had teamed up in small groups, usually seen in Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery stories.

No real lasting group of evildoers had been around since the Injustice Society back during the 1940s.

The first example of individual foes of a superhero uniting as a group took place in America’s Greatest Comics #1 (Mar. 1941) when six of Mister Scarlet’s old enemies teamed up with a seventh newcomer as the Death Battalion. In the Silver Age, editor Julie Schwartz

A Bunch of Baddies Detail from the cover to DC Special Series #6 (Nov. 1977), headlining the stars of this article, the sinister Secret Society. Art by Rich Buckler and Jack Abel.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 25

Rejected Reprobates Two pages from the Carmine Infantinorejected first issue of Secret Society of Super-Villains; note that Clayface was intended to be a member.

From Amazing World of DC Comics #11.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

and writer Gardner Fox gathered foes of the JLA members into periodic one-shot teams (including Justice League of America #5, 14, 28, 35, 61), mostly unnamed groups save for the Crime Champions (#21–22). Archie Comics brought together the many adversaries of Thomas Troy’s alter ego as the Anti-Fly Gang in 1962’s Adventures of the Fly #21–23. Barry Allen’s foes were first declared “Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery” in 1964’s 80-Page Giant #4 but didn’t join forces in a story proper until 1965’s Flash #155.

While not featuring an entire conglomeration of bad guys, Marvel’s Super-Villain Team-Up, launched in 1975, was a counterpart of sorts to DC’s SSOSV. “Well, it was DC (specifically, Julie Schwartz) that introduced the concept of a supervillain Rogues’ Gallery,” Gerry Conway says. “Obviously, this was lifted from Dick Tracy, but having costumed villains with a shared goal—even if it was simply the destruction of their common enemy—seems to be something that was unique to DC. Marvel’s villains rarely teamed up in groups larger than two (at least, back in the ’60s and early ’70s), but DC seemed to do a number of stories where groups of villains—usually Batman villains— ganged up to plot their revenge. This may or may not have been true, but it was an impression I had at the time, and creating a team of supervillains that existed as a kind of ‘evil’ Justice League struck me as a fun idea.”

26 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Selecting the villains to use proved more challenging as each editor was somewhat protective of their bigger-named opponents. As a result, Conway sifted through the DC print library for inspiration while thumbing through the recent releases to see who might form such a team. He also needed a leader, and with the obvious choices such as Lex Luthor initially off the table, he looked to the heavens and used Darkseid.

By that time, Jack Kirby’s initial cycle of Fourth World stories had ended and no one was using the New Gods, so Darkseid was available and a solid choice.

As a result, readers saw the initial team composed of Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, and Gorilla Grodd from Flash; Shadow Thief from Hawkman; and Sinestro from Green Lantern. They were joined, cleverly, by one of the not-dead-yet Manhunter clones along with Copperhead, who had appeared only once before in The Brave and the Bold #78, and by a brand-new and mysterious woman using the Star Sapphire persona.

“I don’t really recall the exact rationale,” Conway admits, “but my guess is, I used the villains that other editors let me use. I think I also approached it from an aesthetic point of view—which villains would look good together, which seemed to ‘fit’ in a group, and so on. These were villains who weren’t particularly active in their host titles.”

FIRST ISSUE NOT-SO-SPECIAL Conway tapped Pablo Marcos as his penciler and they set out to produce an introductory story. But what they produced is not what went on sale in the spring of 1976. No, that first story wound up getting entirely rewritten and redrawn and it was some time later that it appeared, in the pages of the house fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics #11.

According to Paul Levitz, who was Conway’s assistant editor at the time: “My memory of SSOSV is unusually vivid, though I don’t know why. Custom in those years was for the editor to bring the finished inks of an issue in to [editorial director] Carmine [Infantino] for a cover conference, during which Carmine would usually sketch a cover design in pen on typing paper. While I wasn’t in the room, I clearly recall Gerry coming back down the hall to his office, confused, as Carmine had looked through the issue wanting to see the villains’ clubhouse or headquarters, and when that wasn’t in the book, asking Gerry to redo it. In my time at DC in Carmine’s years, this was the most significant change in an issue I recall his asking for at that late stage.”

Conway notes, “[Carmine] was a whimsical guy, in both the good and bad sense of the word, and more than a few of his decisions were pretty impulsive. (Most of the stories he approved for [the tryout title] 1st Issue Special being an example—few of them actually would’ve made good comic-book series, if there’d ever been any real intention to publish them as a series.)”

Conway rewrote the script introducing readers, and Carmine, to San Francisco’s Loman Building, which secretly doubled as the Sinister Citadel. In Conway’s initial storyline, we see the team being formed in San Francisco, wisely staying away from the East Coast-centric heroes. Then we learned the members had to endure initiations to stay affiliated—but Copperhead wound up getting captured.

Next thing we know, Captain Comet returned to Earth from the stars and mistakenly thinks a member of the Green Lantern Corps was a villain and accidentally aided Grodd and Hi-Jack. He quickly learned the error of his ways and was thereafter determined to disband the Society but the revelation that Darkseid was behind it all made the job that much harder.

Fans were shocked to see the return of such an old-time figure from the company’s past. “I wanted a regular ‘lead hero’ for the villains to interact with,” Conway says. “Given that Comet hadn’t appeared in continuity for so long, I think it was a pretty successful revival. He wasn’t much of a character to start with, so he was pretty much a blank slate.”

[Editor’s note: For a detailed look at Captain Comet, see BACK ISSUE #29.]

The Lord of Apokolips apparently wanted the Society to be Intergang 2.0. They proved fairly ineffective in this new role, so Darkseid came to Earth and show them how it’s done. Before arriving, though, Funky Flashman tried to sign several of the Society as clients, but the highlight of the issue is Kalibak versus Grodd.

During the delays in redoing the first issue, Conway assigned scripting of the next few issues to David Anthony Kraft, making his DC debut on the title.

“Gerry lured me to DC with visions of sugar plums. Or naked dancing girls,” Kraft says. “So I followed him, of course!

“I grew up on Superman and Batman, so I had a healthy respect for the DC Universe. But I was at my best when you just turned me loose. Which Gerry did.” As a result, Gerry started several plot threads and left them to Kraft to execute.

Kraft enjoyed the seat-of-your-pants feel for the book, in addition to playing with an ever-changing roster of characters, including the arrival in issue #3 of the Wizard, fresh from Earth-Two. While Kraft enjoyed the variety, one player proved difficult to write: “Oddly, Gorilla Grodd was kinda a puzzler for me. I knew he was popular with the powers-that-be, including Julie Schwartz, but didn’t quite grok Grodd. Or, indeed, Captain Comet, for that matter.”

CONWAY’S NEW CORNER During this period, Conway was lured back to Marvel to serve as its editor-in-chief, an assignment which lasted all of three weeks. Kraft also left DC just as abruptly after writing only three issues: “Truth? I got stiffed on the promised page rate, and followed Gerry back to Marvel.”

Conway’s abrupt return to Marvel, with Kraft in tow, meant a scramble to produce the next issue, which fell to editor Denny O’Neil and fill-in scribe Bob Rozakis. Picking up on the thread, Darkseid finally arrives with Mantis. During the melee, the Manhunter clone dies

From Conway’s Corner “Ten Masters of Evil” gather on the cover of Secret Society of Super-Villains #1 (May–June 1976), and tangle with the evil New Gods on the cover to #3.

Art by Ernie Chan (a.k.a. Ernie Chua).

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 27

A Schwartz Redux Editor Jack C. Harris used the cover to editor Julius Schwartz’s The Flash #122 (Aug. 1961, by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson) as the inspiration for the cover to SSOSV #8 (see inset).

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

WANTED: A DIRECTION

while Captain Comet rescues GL, who’s been trapped in this mess for several issues. Hawkman lends a hand as the heroes take on Sinestro, who is determined to destroy the Sinister Citadel.

Jack C. Harris was handed the title for good, and for the young editor it was a joyful working relationship. “First of all,” Harris says, “I liked the concept, but I never liked the title of the comic. I always had trouble believing that a group of superpowered people would form a society with the word ‘villain’ in their name. I thought the same thing about Marvel’s X-Men title and Magneto’s group [the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants].

Would he really win support with the word ‘evil’ in their name?

“The cover concepts were one of my editorial duties. Rich Buckler turned my ideas into the best he could do, but I never felt as if my ideas were good enough for his art. I think there was a ‘sameness’ to my ideas which might have hurt the title in that casual readers might have missed buying an issue because they thought they’d already seen it.

My favorite was #8, which was a reworking of Flash #122.

“Other than that, I liked playing around with the villains. I was also an old Captain Comet fan from his Strange Adventures days, so having him as the resident hero was fun, too. All I remember was that I wanted to have all his storylines wrapped up so we could start something new.”

Rozakis stuck around for several more issues and introduced Debbie Darnell, whose purpose never really gets revealed. He also had fun, pairing the various villainous Captains in an escapade with Green Arrow and Black Canary on hand to thwart the scheme. Copperhead was also freed from jail by Lex Luthor, who smelled opportunity with Darkseid no longer interested in the Society. The Wizard wanted the team for himself but loses in a brief battle. Felix Faust and the Matter Master are hired to disrupt production of a Superman movie, but they were handily beaten

by Hawkgirl and Captain Comet. Luthor leaves the team in disgust, only to be arrested, something arranged by Flashman, who now ran the team.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

With issue #8, Conway had returned to DC and although no one can remember the particulars, returned to the Society as one of his assignments. After months of seeking a direction for the series, Harris and Conway both recognized it was time for the book to have a goal.

Conway continued to mix and match his villains, having some fun with the lesser lights. These days, characters crossing from one parallel universe to another would require lots of explanation, but the Wizard just ran amok and there wasn’t much hew or cry about it. In fact, Conway notes, “I didn’t make that big a deal out of it, so I figured the readers wouldn’t be confused.”

Continuity-conscious Paul Levitz retroactively dealt with the Wizard issue in All-Star Comics #66 (May–June, 1977), where the defeated villain pleads with Power Girl that he’ll move to Earth-One if she doesn’t beat him to a pulp. The flashback depicting his journey to Earth-One appeared in SSOSV #12.

“I wanted some specific goal,” Harris says of his role.

“Some mission; some single, great aim the villains were after. I remember tossing an idea around about having some secret, unknown leader who was running everything from behind the scenes, and the readers wouldn’t learn who it was until a great revelation issue. I was never able to get that off the ground. I think we got sidetracked by too many subplots and plot threads that we wanted to tie up.”

Having said that, he loved working with Conway, who proved adept at energetic stories without losing sight of characterization.

“We had some great plotting sessions and he always surpassed expectations,” Harris recalls. “The only ‘weird’ part about it was that there weren’t enough writers like him.”

In the interest of sparking reader involvement, Harris initiated a Super-Villain Popularity Poll in issue #8’s letter column, asking fans to send postcards naming their favorite villain. The winner (announced in #14) was the Joker, with the Calculator in second place, Two-Face in third (he must have been so ashamed), and Kobra and Grodd tied for fourth. The title’s cancellation soon after the winners were announced meant none of them got a chance to appear. In SSOSV #9, Harris also introduced Funky’s Big Rat Code, which he used in subsequent issues both for fun and to pass along teases about upcoming stories.

MANY ARTISTS, MANY GUEST STARS After Marcos, Conway turned the art over to Rich Buckler, who lasted for several issues, then the art got handed to Dick Ayers before newcomer Mike Vosburg took over. Harris notes, “I liked all the artists on the run. I had mixed feelings about the covers, but that was my fault. Mike Vosburg’s style was perfect for group comics.

Pablo Marcos had a slick, modern style I loved, and Dick Ayers was one of the best layout/storytelling men in the business, able to fit dozens of characters into a single panel and still make it work.”

With most of the previous threads resolved by Rozakis, Conway started fairly fresh as the Society relocated just before Captain Comet arrives at the Loman building, tipped off by Luthor as part of a plea deal.

Flashman, meantime, explained that the Society’s new motto would be “Let the Villain Fit the Crime” and use people on an as-needed basis.

For their first assignment, a mysterious client asked them to steal a unique powerful prism from Blue Valley, pitting the team against Kid Flash, who was defeated. When they tried to obtain the second item on the list, a Power Glove, Captain Comet and Kid Flash were waiting for them.

Soon after, Kid Flash was busily searching San Francisco for the team, which was in the process of melting down given the conflicting egos and

agendas. The speedster found himself an uneasy ally of the Trickster, who was harboring a grudge against the team.

Together, they spoiled the team’s next operation.

Meanwhile, Star Sapphire had gone to Gotham City to recruit the Creeper, whom they believed to be a villain and useful for their next assignment. He agreed to sign on, figuring this to be a good chance to bring them down from the inside. This particular thread never paid off in subsequent issues, although the Creeper did manage to catch the Wizard temporarily in #10 before deciding that Captain Comet could mop up the rest of the villains.

The title led readers after issue #10 right into DC Special Series #6, a 34-page extravaganza penciled by Arvell Jones, wherein Grodd usurped control of the team and used them to attack the heroes en masse, hoping to capture and then kill their foes. After a series of skirmishes, most of the villains were beaten and taken into custody, although several managed to escape.

Captain Comet and the team also made appearances during this time in Super-Team Family, all part of the serialized “Search for Jean Loring” storyline, their involvement ending with Grodd imprisoned once more in Gorilla City. When the remaining villains returned to their title, they found artist Mike Vosburg waiting for them. The Wizard finally got to call the shots and had the team complete assembling the magical objects that had been collected over the last few issues. He used them to give himself a makeover and revealed he had been the mysterious client who hired them in the first place. His first act was to show Funky Flashman the door, ending the title’s connecting to the Fourth World.

“I remember one of the ongoing efforts was to redesign the Wizard, because then-editorial director Joe Orlando thought he looked old-fashioned,” Harris remarks.

“I do recall a bit of frustration since I wanted some of the [other] costumes redesigned (especially Captain Comet’s), but the powers-that-be vetoed the effort. Other than that, I would say I had a good 80% editorial freedom.”

For Vosburg, who first gained attention with Starfire, SSOSV was just an assignment. “I had worked for Joe Orlando and I’m sure he talked me into working on the book after the Starfire run ended,” Vosburg recalls.

“For whatever reason, DC was trying to keep me busy.”

The title, with its ever-changing lineup of characters, was a far cry from the sword-and-sorcery world of Starfire and proved more than challenging for Vosburg: “That book almost made me reconsider my decision to leave teaching and work in comics.

Every issue was a mad rush to throw in as many characters as possible so that more fans would pick it up because their favorite was in it,” he says.

The following issues had the team follow the Wizard, intending to go rob Earth-Two. But en route a “dimensional storm” sent them through the multiverse, breaking the Crime Syndicate of America from their longtime prison, and everyone wound up on Earth-Three.

The Society managed to find a way to Earth-Two, but Captain Comet was stuck facing a very unhappy Power Ring, Ultraman, and Superwoman. Conway’s final issue was largely a slugfest.

With issue #15, Rozakis was back as the regular writer.

He decided that while on Earth-Two, the Wizard would use the Secret Society of Super-Villains to take down the Justice Society of America, one member at a time.

“I enjoyed the JSA characters because I had become attached to them as a fan,” Vosburg recalls.

“What I do remember was trying to break the page up

in different and interesting ways as opposed to the six-panel grid I had been used to. I doubt if I was successful on a lot of the layouts, but it did force me to look at things in a different way.”

Vosburg was not a longtime fan of superheroes and supervillains, so none of this came easily, despite his being a thorough professional to the delight of his editor and writers. Vosburg returns the compliment, adding, “I always liked Gerry’s writing … without the revolving door of the cast it would have been a pleasant task.

Jack was a prince! He never took the work too seriously.”

Kid Flash and Creeper There were no shortage of guest stars in Secret Society of Super-Villains.

This page from issue #9 (Sept. 1977) features the yellow-clad alter egos of Wally West and Jack Ryder. Art by Rich Buckler and Bob McLeod.

Scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

GROWING PAINS Vosburg is also somewhat critical of the finished art, having been paired with various inkers to make deadlines.

“Bob McLeod inked the first issue I did,” he recalls.

“We never were a good pairing. Both of us were talented in our own way, but certainly didn’t fit together as a team.

“I remember the final issue I did was partially inked by Bob Smith, who did several issues over me,

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 29

and appeared in a book called Cancelled Comics Cavalcade years later.

Bob did some great work on my less-than-professional pencils at the time. I remember that Joe Orlando also inked an issue, which I was quite complimented by. I was always disappointed with the finished work when it appeared; I really wanted to ink my own stuff. It probably would have helped because I would have become aware firsthand of all the problems as a penciler I was causing for inkers. It would have forced me to learn and improve.”

For Rozakis, who was already writing Freedom Fighters for Harris, the timing couldn’t be better given the circumstances at the time.

“Well, we wanted to wrap up the Freedom Fighters story since their book was being canceled, so I came up with the Silver Ghost using the SSOSV to take on the heroes,” Rozakis says. “At the same time, we wanted another ongoing plot, so I was setting up the Wizard and the JSA in the backup slots. Jack was the editor, so he made the decision to go ahead with it, but the basic premise was mine.”

Rozakis, a letterhack turned junior woodchuck then assistant production director, delighted in playing with the entire DC Universe, noting, “I think the greatest strength was the wide variety of villains in the DCU that could be used. I looked at it as an Impossible Missions Force type of thing: Come up with the scheme and then pick the right bad guys to carry it out. And sometimes, as with the ‘Captains Cataclysmic’ issue I wrote, just team up villains with something in common, like having ‘Captain’ in their names!”

The lack of direction and changing sales fortunes also meant the title was to follow the Freedom Fighters into oblivion. DC’s parent company made a rushed judgment call to scale down the line in what is now known as the DC Implosion. Several issues of many discontinued books were completed, and for copyright reasons 35 sets

were photocopied into two volumes, the now legendary Cancelled Comics Cavalcade. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #2 for Mike W. Barr’s look back at that infamous comic-book clearing house.]

“SSOSV #16 was already at the printer at the time of the DC Implosion and was going to be the last issue published,” Rozakis explains. “However, knowing that it was the first part of a three-part story, I went to Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz and said, ‘Maybe we don’t want to publish this and leave the readers hanging.’ They saw the logic and so it was yanked. The second part was already penciled by then and I had written the script for the third.

“In retrospect, I should have kept my mouth shut and maybe the other two chapters would have eventually appeared somewhere.”

Harris recalls, “My memory is vague, but I think we at least started the crossover with the Freedom Fighters. Beyond that, I’m not sure. I think the best use of the basic concept came some years later with the newer Suicide Squad made up of pardoned supervillains. I would have been much happier with the title if we had come up with that back then.”

“I had already written #18,” Rozakis notes.” Jack and I had talked about how we would wrap up the ‘Wizard’s War of the Worlds’ by moving that plot to the front of the book and bringing in the big guns of the JSA. At the same time, the Star Sapphire plotline would have continued to percolate in the backup slot.”

So, what would have happened during the unpublished three-parter?

There was a lot of fighting, plus the revelation that the Silver Ghost had been a Nazi escapee from the Freedom Fighters’ Earth-X who was specifically seeking out FF member Firebrand for revenge. In the climax of the un-illustrated #18, the Silver Ghost and Firebrand engaged in final battle “with both of them being transformed irreversibly to silver, locked together in a death-grip” (as Bob wrote in his recounting of the plot in the text page of DC Comics Presents #62, Oct. 1983).

THE SAGA OF STAR SAPPHIRE Star Sapphire was an unresolved mystery throughout the series.

She was not Carol Ferris, but was apparently French and had a powerful jewel of her own to use and worked with the Society for her own unexplained reasons. Conway today admits he has no recollection of why she was not Carol.

When Rozakis wrote a weekly online column for Silver Bullet Comics, he revealed what was to happen in the unpublished issues and beyond. Issue #17, for example, would finally tell the world about who this Star Sapphire really was.

Excerpted from the column, Rozakis wrote, “We move quickly into a flashback where we learn that Sapphire was once RemoniNotra, a poor working girl on the medieval-type world of Pandina.

Two Zamoran women appear, advise Remoni-Notra that it is her destiny to be their queen, and transform her with a star sapphire.

“Taking her place as queen, the new Star Sapphire learns that four other women across the universe have been given similar gems, one of them being Carol Ferris of Earth. Should any of them choose to become Star Sapphire, she would come to Zamora and battle Remoni-Notra for the throne.

“Remoni-Notra decides to eliminate her potential competition and travels to Earth to find Carol’s star sapphire. Unfortunately, she can find no trace of it or any memory in Carol’s mind. She takes on two identities, Camille the real estate agent and Debbie Darnell, romantic interest of Captain Comet. As Star Sapphire, she joins the Secret Society, hoping it will enable her to track down the missing gem.”

Bob first detailed the origin of the Remini-Notra Star Sapphire in, of all places, the letters column of Justice League of America #174 (Jan. 1980).

Crime Syndicate Captain Comet takes on Earth-Three’s Johnny Quick, Superwoman, and Power Ring on this page from Secret Society of Super-Villains #14 (Apr.–May 1978). Art by Mike Vosburg (who’s interviewed in this issue!) and Bob Smith. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Guest-starring the Justice Society of America From the Vosburg/Smith art team (with pasted-up background art by Joe Staton and Bob Layton), the JSA appears in SSOSV #15 (June–July 1978). Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

VILLAINS UNITED Despite SSOSV’s cancellation, a turning point in the Wizard’s war against the JSA took place in the Cary Bates-scripted Flash story in Adventure Comics #460 (Nov.–Dec. 1978). Therein, the Earth-One Flash visited Earth-Two and unwittingly stumbled into the Wizard’s trap intended for Jay Garrick. Barry Allen escaped, of course, and would logically have tipped off Jay to what had happened, thus leading to the flashback in JLA #166 where the Justice Society chased the defeated SSOSV into interdimensional limbo.

Conway (with penciler George Pérez) revived the SSOSV with an entirely new roster of villains (led by the Ultra-Humanite in the body of a white ape) in 1981’s Justice League of America #195–197. Writer Roy Thomas and artist Jerry Ordway picked up their story in a time-travel yarn in All-Star Squadron #25–26 and Annual #2.

Post-Crisis, DC seemed to distance itself from the Secret Society of Super-Villains. A panel in the Floronic Man’s origin in Secret Origins #23 alluded to his presence in the team while a nightmare created by Doctor Destiny in Dan Jurgens’ 1993 Justice League of America #72–74 featured the 1978-era SSOSV battling a very dark version of that era’s Justice League. The first indication that the Secret Society was still part of post-Crisis DC continuity came when they were referred to as still active in 1998’s Flash #140 (written by Mark Millar).

While these creators were producing issues and largely having a good time during those anything-can-happen days, they were clearly influencing a new generation of fans. Several of those fans have since become working professionals and have provided various reappearances of the Secret Society, up to and including the Society first introduced in Meltzer’s Identity Crisis and later seen in Gail Simone’s Villains United and Secret Six. It’s worth noting that the group seen in Villains United, et al. only called itself “the Society,” reflecting the modern-day sensibilities expressed by Harris about including “villain” or “evil” in one’s name.

What is the enduring appeal of this somewhat goofy title?

Conway: “Gosh. I’m not much for revisionist history, especially when the stories being revised were written by me; but it’s an interesting thought that something I wrote could have been a springboard for such a powerful story. Shouldn’t I get some kind of royalty? Just thinkin’...”

Kraft: “Fun stuff. I always liked ‘deconstructing’ superheroes/ villains (as when I got on The Defenders at Marvel, and She-Hulk, who I gave a pink Caddy convertible to drive and martinis to drink and two boyfriends, which in those days was frowned on). So a buncha errant supervillains? Fun!” Harris: “That’s an easy one: The villains are always more popular than the heroes. Many people read Batman so they can see the Joker and Catwoman; they read The Flash so they can see what the Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, and Grodd are up to; they follow the nefarious plans of the Red Skull by reading Captain America; and I never missed an adventure of Dr. Doom in the pages of Fantastic Four! Now there’s an idea: A cross-company Brotherhood of Evil Supervillains. I would guarantee such a title’s success!”

Rozakis: “It was a fun book for the readers because they could see a variety of heroes and villains in a mix-and-match setting.

We would constantly get suggestions about what villains to use— that’s one of the reasons I used Lex Luthor in #7—so there was fan input as well.“

Conway’s legacy as an editor is still being felt today with his sense of legacy, begun in All-Star, now felt throughout the DC Universe. Similarly, banding together the villains for more than a one-time gig was a terrific stroke, and clearly the somewhat chaotic, somewhat goofy stories had a charm to them since we got to see favorite villains try to work together. Evil still couldn’t triumph back then, so the trick was to have them defeated without making them appear weak, so the Kid Flash or Hawkgirl cases stand out as cleverly plotted affairs. The book had that feeling that anything could happen and anyone could appear, making it unique among the other titles of the era.

While never a bestseller or critical darling, the title did shine a spotlight on the nefarious folk populating the DC Universe at a time when no one could possibly imagine that an entirely new generation of writers and artists would find a way of honoring the comics of their youth for yet another new generation of readers. No doubt, the Sinister Citadel remains vacant, only waiting for the right tenant to come and take up residency.

ROBERT GREENBERGER also read SSOSV as a teen and went on to work at Starlog Press, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and elsewhere. A freelance writer today, his novel Iron Man: Femme Fatales was released in June and his Batman Vault is scheduled for November. He thanks KC Carlson and John Wells for inspiration, research, and feedback.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 31

Working for DC and Marvel, two things stuck with penciler/inker Mike Vosburg: his reputation for drawing superheroines … and Vince Colletta.

The artist’s organic career has taken him from drawing myriad female superheroes for the Big Two, to his independently published Lori Lovecraft, and storyboarding Hollywood blockbusters. His latest portfolio, Heroine Addiction (available through his website: www.vozart.com) bursts with all of the superwomen he’s done … and the ones that got away.

Needless to say, there’s more to the mighty Mike than superheroines. Vosburg illustrated such titles as DC’s Blackhawk Special and Justice League Quarterly, Tales of Evil featuring Man-Monster #3 for the ill-fated Atlas Comics, and books in Marvel’s creator-owned Epic line.

And, of course, in the spirit of this issue’s theme, there is the infamous Secret Society of Super-Villains, a series that drove Mike to the brink.

The following interview was conducted at Vosburg’s Tujunga, California, home, where he resides with wife Annie. On a sunny Southern California afternoon, the two Mikes––Vosburg and Aushenker––sat down inside the former’s studio and discussed his career over Diet Cokes after Vosburg gave a tour of his house, adorned with original art by his heroes: Robert McGinnis, Bob Fawcett, Bob Peak, Leonard Starr, and Alex Toth. Modest and matter-of-fact, Vosburg spoke his mind on working for DC and Marvel during comics’ Bronze Age, how his career got interesting and lucrative after he left comics, and what he really thinks of that ding-dang Secret Society of Super-Villains.

Candor is a Vosburg hallmark––this is, after all, the man who once dramatically exited a Comic Art Professional Society gathering in the early 2000s by picking up his portfolio case mid-meeting, declaring to a packed room of cartoonists and animators that “Comics are dead,” and walking out.

– Michael Aushenker MICHAEL AUSHENKER: Let’s start with your upbringing…

MIKE VOSBURG: I was raised in the Midwest in Pontiac, Michigan. I didn’t have a TV when I grew up.

Comics were my form of entertainment, with movies.

You had mystery comics, Western comics, superhero comics, funny animal comics, hillbilly comics.

AUSHENKER: And comic strips?

VOSBURG: We’d get the Sunday paper, so I’d see the kind of standards you see over the years.

AUSHENKER: What fired your imagination?

VOSBURG: I loved the Prince Valiant stuff. The first strip that excited me was something called Tim Tyler’s Luck.

It was an adventure strip. As I got older, my favorite thing was On Stage. My two big influences were Leonard Starr and Joe Kubert. At the time, I thought they were both very different artists, but I look at them now and the only difference is that Joe’s line is a little rougher.

AUSHENKER: Which Kubert work?

VOSBURG: Hawkman made me really want to draw comics. When I was five years old, I remember getting

Live and Let Fly The many women of Mike Vosburg, who poses à lá Roger Moore from the poster drawn by one of his all-time favorite illustrators, Robert McGinnis. Of course, Vosburg’s favorite woman is his wife, Annie. Photo by Michael Aushenker.

Characters © their respective owners.

32 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

by

Michael Aushenker conducted on March 2, 2008

this comic about a caveman with a giant squid and a giant albino caveman. It scared the sh*t out of me and I went, “Whoop!” I couldn’t even read it.

AUSHENKER: When I interviewed John Romita, Sr., he was amazed and frustrated that Kubert was only two years older than him.

VOSBURG: When I got into fandom, I learned that Kubert started at 14. I used to send him letters.

AUSHENKER: So did comics become an escape from Detroit?

VOSBURG: What I learned at Pontiac is that you worked in the auto industry. You worked on the line and if you were smart, you worked in the office. I went to college in a little school called Oakland University.

The college I went to was closer to home than the high school I went to. It was in Rochester. College was about two miles away and Catholic school was five miles away. The weather was always cold but the other thing about growing up in that environment was I was going to be the oddball.

AUSHENKER: The oddball of your family?

VOSBURG: In my family, in general. Moving to L.A., I’m still an oddball, but everyone out here is an oddball so you fit right in.

AUSHENKER: Did you always want to be a comicbook artist?

VOSBURG: The idea of being a comic-book artist, it was fantasy. Growing up with the idea you would be a cartoonist had as much reality as becoming a movie star.

What really brought it home to me was that, in Detroit, there was a huge group of comics fans including Starlin, Milgrom, Rich Buckler, Terry Austin, Mike Nasser.

Jim [Starlin] was a guy I knew since I was a teenager.

Jim and Al [Milgrom] were best buddies. I was teaching school when I saw that Jim got a job working in comics; it made it real for me. If you wanted to pursue that, you could. In my youthful ignorance, I went full steam ahead. I was headed anywhere but the US Army.

AUSHENKER: What did your parents do?

VOSBURG: My dad was a janitor. I’m a big anti-talent person. People say, “Oh, you’re lucky to have talent!”

The only talent I had was that my parents encouraged me.

He’d never worked for the auto industry. As a janitor, [Dad] liked the autonomy. There were too many [auto industry] strikes.

AUSHENKER: How supportive were your parents of your artistic direction?

VOSBURG: They thought it was great. Jim started working, then about a year later, Al was working and I’d go to New York and stay at their place.

AUSHENKER: A big crash pad?

VOSBURG: Yeah, there were two or three of them along the way. Mike Friedrich was there, Bill DuBay, Steve Skeates. I had whatever couch was available. I’d go to New York for three or four days a week and make the rounds. The first house was in Staten Island. Later, Allen had an apartment in Queens with [Walt] Simonson and then [Bernie] Wrightson and [Howard] Chaykin were in the same building. We were all a group, so anyone who was doing stuff, you showed them your work. You’d wind up doing a little bit of stuff, a figure here or there.

Oddly enough, I never got work from anyone I knew from fandom. I got work from Gold Key from someone who obviously had no idea what he was doing because he hired me. I showed him my portfolio and he thought I was a nice young man. I did some work in underground comics before that. I came fresh from teaching school at St. Michael’s to doing work for Bizarre Sex for Denis Kitchen. It took me about six months to a year after I left

Beginnings: First published work: Denis Kitchen’s Bizarre Sex (early 1970s) First mainstream work: Twilight Zone and Boris Karloff Presents (Gold Key/Western Publishing, 1974)

Milestones: House of Mystery / Tales of Evil featuring Man-Monster / Starfire / The Mighty Isis / Secret Society of Super-Villains / Savage She-Hulk / Ms. Marvel / Team America / Sisterhood of Steel / Offcastes / G.I. Joe (comic book and animated series) / animation storyboards for Jem, Bionic Six, and others / Bloodshot / Archer and Armstrong / Tales from the Crypt (HBO TV series) / storyboards for many films including the Narnia movies / music video storyboards

Work in Progress: The graphic novel Retrowood

Cyberspace: www.vozart.com

mike vosburg Funny, She Doesn’t Look Like a Teen Titan…

DC’s first Starfire was the Russian superhero (later called Red Star) who was first seen in 1968’s Teen Titans #18. Before the golden-skinned current holder of the name debuted in 1980, DC’s second character to be named Starfire was this sword-wielding beauty. Cover art to Starfire #3 (Dec. 1976–Jan. 1977)

by Mike Vosburg and Vinnie Colletta.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 33

my teaching job before I had work that was good enough to get me work from the New York publishers. With the underground publishers, I probably made enough to pay for the paper and ink.

At 24, I got married to my first wife.

We were married for a couple years before we parted ways. This was 1974.

AUSHENKER: Which Gold Key books did you draw?

VOSBURG: The Twilight Zone and Boris Karloff. At the same time, Milgrom and I went up to Connecticut and talked with George Wildman and Nick Cuti and I wound up getting some work from Charlton, too. Charlton I liked because I got to ink that. The Gold Key stuff, all I did was pencil. I probably did eight or ten stories for Charlton over a year. Three or four romance stories, three or four mystery stories. I even did a war story, much to my chagrin.

AUSHENKER: Was drawing hardware too technical?

VOSBURG: Um, you gotta remember the times. Vietnam was going on. I was very, very anti-war, so the idea of doing a [jingoistic] book didn’t appeal to me.

Every picture I liked, I’d swipe from “Sgt. Rock” by Russ Heath or Joe Kubert and get through it that way.

AUSHENKER: Did you use references?

VOSBURG: Yeah, but not enough. As a young kid, you think you have to make this up in your head. I’m trying to compete with all these guys who use reference plus, for me, I never had any art training. I spent the rest of my career trying to catch up in a sense. I was always very intimidated when I’d go in and see someone like [José Luis] García-López. All of the Filipino artists knew how to draw, and Neal Adams.

I admired the Kirby imitators, but here was a whole new of school artists who knew how to draw. They were imitating Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff.

AUSHENKER: Did you relocate to New York?

VOSBURG: I commuted from Detroit [by airplane]. I found New York very intimidating. About the same time I was [working for Charlton], I got about two or three stories from Joe Orlando. Joe was really the guy who brought in talent and let you move on. Joe was the only editor at the time who was an artist.

AUSHENKER: You started with horror?

VOSBURG: Right. I did House of Mystery.

That gave me an in at DC.

Vosburg Vixen A pen-and-colored-marker good girl sketch by Vosburg, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2009 Mike Vosburg.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

AUSHENKER: The horror books were where DC stuck the “Filipino Invasion” artists. So you were an honorary Filipino artist [laughter]. What about getting work from friends?

VOSBURG: They were there as a support group and a place to stay, but none of them had any clout then. I knew Roy [Thomas] for ten years, [and] Julie Schwartz. I wasn’t walking in cold, but it was the work that was going to land you assignments and I was really green.

That’s part of the job, going through those early refusals. What happens eventually is that they realize, “Oh, this guy! He is serious, he’s going to come back,” and you’re in the right place at the right time when they go, “Um, I need this story.” Carmine [Infantino] was DC’s editor-in-chief. Joe was a very sweet man. Carmine was more the old boy.

AUSHENKER: You didn’t like Carmine?

VOSBURG: My problem with Carmine was I never liked his art that well, so having him critique me—if it were Kubert, I’d respect that but with Carmine … [shrugs]. Vinnie [Colletta] was very helpful, very pragmatic.

He’d tell me to copy people I like and eventually I’d develop my own style.

AUSHENKER: There was no contractual exclusivity?

VOSBURG: No, but it was coming in quickly. They wanted to lock you in.

At the time, the feeling with Marvel and DC was we could eventually wipe out the other. At the time, Marvel wasn’t really offering me anything. In my mindset, I was never into the Marvel approach, the whole idea of the characters.

The classic example for me is that they had the best superhero artist: Jack Kirby.

All they did with him was, “Work faster and we’ll get you worse inkers.” They never brought in a Wally Wood to bring Jack to the next level. They were interested in entertainment. They weren’t interested in anyone who would bring a real illustrative quality to the work.

Whereas at DC, the whole approach was, “We want a very slick magazine quality to our work.” There’s a reason why Dick Giordano and Neal Adams were at DC. AUSHENKER: You didn’t enjoy Marvel’s superheroes?

VOSBURG: Superheroes, they’re a guy with an advantage. I mean, I like Batman, he’s your average guy, a little weird, in a suit. But Superman…?

My favorite was Hawkman––he had one little gimmick––the anti-gravity thing––but he was basically mortal.

I was not a science-fiction fan and Marvel always went toward science fiction, whereas DC had a lot more mystery. As mystery began to [wane], I did a book for DC called Starfire, which was a lot of fun. Starfire was a

Master of Campus Unrest Shang-Chi vs. the National Guard from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #9 (Feb. 1975).

Pencils by Vosburg, inks and washes by Jack Abel. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

bimonthly book and wasn’t enough to keep me busy, then The Mighty Isis book was open, so I did Starfire one month, Isis the next. This was 1976–1977.

[At Marvel,] I did a bunch of “Shang-Chi” [Master of Kung Fu] for the black-and-white magazines, about ten issues. They had a paper crisis, books were shutting down. I’m not sure what happened to [Deadly Hands of Kung Fu] but, at some point, I gravitated toward DC. I once got a script from Doug Moench.

It was like, Page 1: description of Shang-Chi fighting on the beach. Page 2–15: fight scene, make it interesting.

Page 16: wrap it up. Of course, I turned it in and Doug said that the fight scene wasn’t that interesting.

[With Starfire,] every issue changed writers and it would change from a comedy series to a dramatic series to a barbarian series. We had Steve Englehart, Elliot [Maggin], David Michelinie. It would have been better if they stuck with one direction. Starfire ran for eight issues, as did Isis.

AUSHENKER: You worked with Colletta on Starfire.

VOSBURG: Vinnie could take someone like me and make me look good and take some of the best guys in the business and they would never look any better than me. The problem was that as I got better, the work wasn’t looking any better. I realized that if I was going to get better, I gotta ink my own stuff. Vinnie didn’t understand. He thought it was a personal thing: “Wait, I thought you liked my work!”

AUSHENKER: What about working with your pal Milgrom?

VOSBURG: Al was just a great guy. I just saw Al in New York. I had dinner with him and Simonson. It was the first time I saw him in five or six years.

AUSHENKER: Milgrom’s underrated. Love the cover of Human Fly #1!

VOSBURG: The problem with comics back then, you’re either called an idiot or a genius. But if you stick with anything long enough, you’ll get called a genius.

AUSHENKER: You’ll get your cult [laughter].

You drew “Supergirl”…

VOSBURG: I just did [Superman Family #182].

AUSHENKER: Was your reputation for superheroines following you around wherever you went?

VOSBURG: No. When I worked for Marvel, I did “ShangChi” and Team America, Savage She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel.

AUSHENKER: So back to 1977…

VOSBURG: I was working on Starfire and Isis and those books just ended. DC was possibly getting work for me. So I’m in Battle Creek at this point. The phone Villains Issue

Tigra’s Tryout From Marvel Premiere #42 (June 1978), with Voz breakdowns and Ernie Chan finishes. Speaking of hot women, Mike tells BACK ISSUE of how Satana almost became another notch on his superheroine belt. He was once assigned by Marvel to draw a regular Satana feature, and he recalls how “offputting” he thought it was. After some internal debate at Marvel, Vosburg received the call that they were killing the feature before it began. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 35

rings and this guy says, “Mike, this is Stan Lee.” Of course, I’m trying to figure out which of my friends this is putting me on. He goes, “Mike, you’ve got to be the hottest artist I’ve seen in comics.

With your kind of stuff, we’ve got to have you here at Marvel.” He had me at step one. “We really want you to sign a contract.” So I signed a contract. The end of the story is, some time later, I run into Stan at Marvel’s offices and I introduce myself. As soon as I left, I’m told he said, “Mike Vosburg—I’ll have to find out who that is.”

AUSHENKER: What were you drawing for Marvel?

VOSBURG: Those team-up books, Ms. Marvel … stuff for Star*Reach that I was so much more interested in. Another frustrating story [was] those two [Ms. Marvel] stories (#22–23, Feb.–Apr. 1979). Those were originally done for Marvel Fanfare. Well, I did the first story, and it sat in the drawer for three years before it was published. Three years later, [writer] Chris [Claremont] finally had a break in his schedule where he could get the second story done. Same thing, it sat in the drawer for another four or five years. Meanwhile, my career in comics was pretty much over. I moved on to animation. So by the time they wanted me to do a third one, I was, “No, I’ve got other stuff I’m doing now.”

AUSHENKER: What was your Star*Reach material?

VOSBURG: It was all my Lori Lovecraft stuff. Mike Friedrich was doing something bold. As a Star*Reach editor, Mike was a godsend. As an agent, he was a pain in the ass.

AUSHENKER: He repped you?

VOSBURG: Later on. But Star*Reach was great. That was the exciting thing in comics going on at the time. Circulation was 10,000 to 20,000, which sounds small but it was going to all the hardcore fans through shops, newsstands, the underground distribution. That’s what the underground taught you: a different way to distribute books.

AUSHENKER: When you returned to Marvel in the early 1980s, you worked on She-Hulk, Team America, and G.I. Joe. VOSBURG: After Team America, I wound up on G.I. Joe because I had a contract and they had to give me more work. [Editor’s note: Don’t miss Vosburg’s Team America comments when we cover that series in our upcoming “Red, White, and Blue” issue, BACK ISSUE #41, coming in July 2010.] G.I. Joe was an interesting book because it made me a lot of money and brought me royalties. My biggest problem with G.I. Joe is that the guy who they brought in to ink it was an expert on hardware and machines. Unfortunately, he inked the characters the same way.

AUSHENKER: In terms of the Big Two, what did you enjoy and not enjoy?

VOSBURG: Starfire, John Carter was fun. She-Hulk had its ups and downs.

The problem with She-Hulk was there was always one element missing (story or inking). Dave Kraft, who wrote it, sometimes you got really interesting stories, other times it was soap opera. I liked Chic Stone’s inking a lot, but no one else at Marvel did. I learned so much from the way Frank inked my work.

AUSHENKER: He was a Caniff School guy like Frank Robbins.

VOSBURG: Right. He had a very slick line, he knew how to draw.

The oddest thing about that book was that Frank drew really beautiful women, I drew really beautiful women, and yet, the She-Hulk was never overly attractive.

AUSHENKER: What were your low points?

VOSBURG: Team America. The one that drove me to Marvel from DC was Secret Society of Super-Villains. It was a variety show where every character had to have a scene, wave to the audience and move on. I hated that book.

AUSHENKER: So it tested your threshold for nonsense. [laughter] What about Tigra the Feline Fury [Marvel Premiere #42, June 1978]?

VOSBURG: Tigra was one of the first superhero things I did and it sat in the stacks for a while. Stan had talked to me about it and I had forgotten about it.

AUSHENKER: You also drew a What If? featuring the Dazzler (“What If Dazzler Had Become a Herald of Galactus?”).

VOSBURG: I did a bunch of What If?’s. There was a Nova, a Silver Surfer one. [I enjoyed it.]

AUSHENKER: Were there any shining moments where everything clicked?

VOSBURG: There was a Star Wars Annual [#1, 1979] I did that I think Archie Goodwin wrote and Steve Leialoha inked and that was as close as it got over at Marvel.

AUSHENKER: If you go to a convention, what do they want you to draw? Is there a go-to character?

VOSBURG: Oddly enough, it’s from my own series, a sci-fi series for Epic called Offcastes. Then I did Sisterhood of Steel, that was a lot of fun.

Marvel created the creator-owned [Epic] series to keep [creators] happy but they didn’t promote them the way they did the regular line because there was no motivation for them to do that. I did Sisterhood of Steel in ’84 and while I as doing that, I moved to L.A. When I was in L.A., I almost immediately started working in animation.

It was just a good time to switch. I had just married Annie.

AUSHENKER: I’m guessing the pay was better.

VOSBURG: Yeah. It was a regular job. You got medical benefits, vacation, you didn’t have to work as much, and it was exciting.

What I wound up doing was [the] G.I. Joe [cartoon], and I had the advantage. It was funny, when I made the rounds to Hanna-Barbara and Universal and some other studios, they said, “You’re from comics, you wouldn’t understand storyboarding.” But at Marvel Entertainment, they were desperate for storyboarders. Originally,

The Voz Does The Daz A scene from What If? #33 (June 1982), which asked the burning question: “What if Dazzler had become a herald of Galactus?” Vosburg delivered the answer in spades … and sparkles! © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

I was hired as an assistant. By the time I went in for work, they said, “Look, everyone’s so busy,” and they asked me, “Would you like a job here doing storyboards?” I said, “Yeah!” Well, as soon as I started working for Marvel [Animation], my name started to appear on the union list. The same people who told me I couldn’t storyboard were calling me up and asking, “Are you available?”

AUSHENKER: What cartoons followed G.I. Joe? VOSBURG: Jonny Quest. I did a number of things for Bobby Dranko at Hanna-Barbera—Galtar [and the Golden Lance], did a lot of character design. This was the mid-’80s. Within a year, I was in California. I wrapped up what I was doing in comics and did animation fulltime for about five or six years. Then Howard Chaykin moved out here and he was working on the American Flagg! series so I worked on that for a year on First Comics.

AUSHENKER: What was that collaboration like?

VOSBURG: I love working on Howard’s stuff. Howard has a really great sense of humor. It’s not superhero stuff. They were talking about events that were going to happen in five years and a lot of it was over readers’ heads. Like one story was about what was going to happen to Russia when the Iron Curtain came down.

I don’t think that sophistication in comics does very well.

AUSHENKER: You worked with Mike Zeck…

VOSBURG: An incredible artist, but our styles didn’t mesh well. The Punisher book was just…

AUSHENKER: “Punishing”? [laughter] VOSBURG: A nightmare. I did that as a favor for Carl Potts. I got slammed in the press in terms of hacking out a job. After American Flagg, I went back to Marvel and I worked on Cloak and Dagger with Terry Austin.

Then I had my best experience in comics. I did Offcastes and I worked for Valiant Comics for a year.

It was started by Jim Shooter but he left and Bob Layton was running things. He said, “Draw comics as you think they should be drawn.”

AUSHENKER: Finally! [laughter] VOSBURG: I did Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot, which was great, because I started working with Kevin VanHook, who now directs movies on the Sci-Fi Channel, so I storyboarded a number of movies for him. I did all the covers for the Tales of the Crypt TV series (1988–1995). [The self-published] Lori Lovecraft was one of my favorite jobs. Lori was a bad actress trying to survive in Hollywood after she got too old at the age of 21. They were my homage to all the films I love from the ’30s and ’40s. The Karloff movies, Universal monsters, Bill Powell, Alfred Hitchcock. My favorite comic series was The Spirit, so I was trying to capture that whimsical sense of fun with a little more sex.

AUSHENKER: Would you revive Lori?

VOSBURG: I’ve finally reached the point with selfpublishing where the demands on you as a business were way more than I want to do with my creative time.

Since then, I’ve worked on [the animated] Spawn and won an Emmy for [directing] that. I’ve been storyboarding the Chronicles of Narnia films. I’ve done music videos for Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Gwen Stefani.

After I did the [Eminem] job, it was like, “Wow, this guy’s a good storyteller!” I worked with a good director, too––Phillip Atwell. Storyboards, especially for the movies, was a lot of fun because when I was a kid, films were the magic. One of the nice things about seeing the Narnia films is that it looks like my storyboards come to life. But let me clarify, I was not the only storyboard artist working on those films.

Working with [director] Andrew [Adams] was a joy.

Not Stan the Man (above) Vosburg has storyboarded music videos, including Eminem classics “Cleaning Out My Closet” and “Stan,” the Gwen Stefani/ Eve urban pop hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” and others for artists such as De La Soul and Marilyn Manson.

Seen here is his work for the “Stan” video. (left) From 1988, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! #5, page 11.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 37

Emmy Winner At his Tujunga home, Mike Vosburg poses with the 1999 Emmy he won for directing HBO’s Spawn cartoon on his new basketball court (paid for with Narnia money). March 2, 2008. Photo by Michael Aushenker.

AUSHENKER: Is working on storyboards more rewarding?

VOSBURG: If I won the lottery, I would still do comics.

I love the medium. Chaykin and I would joke about this. Most people would have this fantasy where they rip their shirts open and have the Superman or Batman logo underneath. We fantasize about ripping our shirts open and we’re wearing tuxedos and we’re Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. That’s my problem with comics.

I wanted to do comics about Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and I could care a rat’s ass about doing a comic about Batman. It bores me. And especially comics today, which are so much more violent than anything Fredric Wertham ever dreamt of. Everyone raved to me about the Spider-Man movie and I watched it and I thought, “You know, it’s a comic book for ten-year-old kids. It’s got an attempted gang rape and the villain at the end is going to get a spear through his testicles.”

I’m thinking, “That’s not a great movie.” But that’s the culture that we’re in now.

Lori Lovecraft By the 1990s, Vosburg had left behind the majors to pursue his independent Lori Lovecraft series. Above is a drawing of the character’s original 1970s incarnation, which Vosburg later renamed to avoid confusion with porn star Linda Lovelace. © 2009 Mike Vosburg.

38 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist.

His comic books include Cartoon Flophouse, the El Gato, Crime Mangler series, Liberty Comics starring Liberty Girl, and the Gumby’s Gang miniseries spotlighting Pokey, Prickle and Goo. Visit cartoonflophouse.com.

I’ve said before in these little excursions into obscure DC history that the late ’60s to mid-’70s was a time of great experiment, change, and a tryit-and-see-if-it-works mentality. Editorial director, later publisher, Carmine Infantino was looking around for something that would garner attention on the stands, now thick with Marvel titles (Marvel pumped out a ton of reprint books trying to shove the Distinguished Competition off the racks). For the next several years he would try reprints, revivals of older characters, new characters, spinning off backups and secondary characters into their own titles, and licensing Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs characters in an effort to play catch up, all the time assured of the superiority of the DC brand. The books now, more than ever, new and old, would live and die by the numbers.

Running down that numbers list, it couldn’t escape notice that one of DC’s most consistent-selling characters, one created in 1940 and guest-starring (special guest-starring?) in several titles, books, movies, and a prominent role in one of the most popular TV series of the ’60s, never had his own series. The Joker, kicking around for over 30 years, bearing the scars of many jailbreaks and Batarangs, never had a place to call his own (the Ha-Hacienda doesn’t count). The numbers told the story: Batman would have a spike in his titles when the Joker appeared.

Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ recent revival of the original Joker, the insane homicidal clown with a need for crime and for taunting Batman, in “The Joker’s FiveWay Revenge” in Batman #251 (Sept. 1973) brought new life to the character, and new interest from the fans.

As O’Neil says, “It works, it continues to work!”

The Joker’s team-up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #111 (Feb.–Mar. 1974) was one of the best-selling issues the title had up till then.

Psycho killer be damned! Here was a character just crying out for his own title, and Infantino, editor Julie Schwartz, and writer O’Neil would give it to him!

Rip Off (Poster) Artist The Clown Prince of Crime mocks his pernicious peers on the Dick Giordano-illustrated cover to The Joker #1 (May 1975). (inset) The popular Batman/Joker team-up from Brave and the Bold #111. Cover art by Jim Aparo.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

by

Tom “The Comics Sava nt” Stewart

“I COULD SENSE THE PROBLEMS…” Denny stopped by the DC offices on his usual day, dropping off work and looking to talk to any editor who might want to talk to him. “It would sometime be Murray Boltinoff, or one of the others, but it’d usually be Julie,” O’Neil says. By the early ’70s, Denny had established himself as the closest thing DC had to a prestige writer, heading (along with artist Neal Adams) the revamping of Batman, the award-winning Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and the effort to update Superman (Denny never felt comfortable on Superman), all for editor Julie Schwartz. He was becoming Julie’s guy to start, or re-start, things, including the Joker.

“We’d been successful with a few projects [that] had garnered some attention,” O’Neil says. “Well, back in those days when hippies walked the earth and the mountains bubbled, there were no set writers, there were no contracts, it was a very informal arrangement. It was about being reliable. ‘It may not be good, but you’ll have it on Thursday.’”

So, how did the Joker get his own series? Denny?

“Ha! I have no idea! I stopped by Julie’s office, and he said, ‘We’re going to do a Joker book.’ I know that alarms went off, I could sense the problems that such a thing would entail … but it was a job. I didn’t see myself as a Batman writer. Julie kept giving me assignments and they were usually about Batman.”

And Denny’s thoughts on the character?

“He was and is the great trickster figure in all of pop culture, maybe in all of storytelling. But in order for the Joker to work, in my opinion, he can’t be a nice guy, he can’t be amusing like a clown. There has to be a real element of danger. He might turn on you in a second. He is the antithesis of the Sherlockian detective. He represents totally irrationality.”

Which is why giving him his own series was something of a minefield. The last time a villain had his own series was the ’50s, with the Jack Kirby/Joe Maneely/John Severin Marvel series Yellow Claw. It ran from Oct. 1956 through Apr. 1957, a short four-issue run. And that was with Kirby!

LIVE BY THE CODE At this point, even though it had been weakened, the Comics Code Authority (CCA) was still around, and publishers still felt the need to have that “Approved by the Comics Code Authority” stamp in ever-shrinking prominence on their covers. Rules had been loosened (Drugs! Zombies! The word “Weird” appearing again on covers!), but no one was really sure how loose they had become.

Here’s Denny O’Neil: “Comics were supposed to be totally unobjectionable to everyone on the planet,” aimed squarely at the eight-year-old boy with a quarter burning a hole in his pocket. “The reason we could push the envelope as much as we did was because nobody knew what worked. When that’s the situation, they’re a lot more open to experimentation. My first impression of [DC in the mid-’60s] was that it was a bunch of colorless guys who didn’t enjoy themselves much.

Julie was heads above the crowd, but I don’t think he knew it.

“Nobody knew what worked,” O’Neil says. Not only were comics changing, but the audience for them was as well. Comics were being read by an older, and more vocal, crowd. The distribution system that had served comics for over 30 years was breaking down,

forcing publishers to find new ways of getting their books to that new audience. Publishers were feeling their ways in new territory where the old rules weren’t working and nobody knew what the new ones were.

So, what of the Comics Code?

“Well, that was one of the alarms that went off in my head,” Denny reveals. “If you adhere to the letter of the letter of the Code, the bad guy has to be caught at the end of the story; there has to be a strong suggestion that justice will be served. We have a continuing character that, by his very nature, is a criminal. He’s not the Joker if he’s Simon Templar the Saint, or Boston Blackie, guys who are ‘bad’ but are actually Robin Hoods. He’s the Joker—he’s got to be a vicious, unpredictable criminal. Okay, now fit that into the Comics Code as it was back then. I don’t think whoever made the decision to give him his own series realized that it was a huge problem.

Maybe they were thinking about the Joker of the ’50s, the rottenest thing he did was maybe try to figure out someone’s secret identity.”

Villains Issue

What a Cut-Up! The Two-Face/Joker alliance splits in this Irv Novick/Dick Giordano original art page from Joker #1.

From the collection of Bob Sprenger.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 41

Bad Company Among the Joker’s criminal guest stars: (left) Willie the Weeper, from Joker #2, and (right) the Royal Flush Gang, from issue #5. Pencils

by Irv Novick, with inks on #2 by José Luis García-López and on #5 by Tex Blaisdell. Courtesy of Bob Sprenger.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

THE JOKER’S NOT SO WILD The first issue of The Joker, cover-dated May 1975, probably hit the stands around March of 1975 (I eagerly bought my copy from the Court Street 7-11 in beautiful Pasco, Washington), with story by Denny, and pencils by the underrated Irv Novick, with inks by Dick Giordano. In “The Joker’s Double Jeopardy,” Two-Face escapes Arkham Asylum, but refuses to take the Joker with him (hey, he tossed the coin and Joker lost, fair and square). This sets up the conflict for the issue, and really, the tone of the series. Each issue would feature another villain providing a sort of surrogate Batman for the Joker to work off of. The Joker was to be a sort of Brave and the Bold of villainy. It worked for Batman, why not Joker?

Issue #2 (July 1975) has the Joker teaming up, sort of, with Willie the Weeper, a self-proclaimed criminal mastermind with a problem: he weeps uncontrollably after each attempted heist. The Joker decides to help him, while helping himself to the loot. The Joker?

Helping someone? Yeah, kinda. This issue also features a couple of hapless Arkham security guards, Benny and Marvin, who will reappear in later issues before being dropped off the face of the DC Universe (not by the Joker, though that might have made an interesting story). The art is by Irv Novick, and inked by José Luis García-López in an early DC artistic appearance.

The third issue (Oct. 1975, “The Last Ha Ha!”) features the return of that other laughing, green-

42 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

haired DC character, Steve Ditko’s the Creeper, still bouncing around since the cancellation of his own title in 1969. This is also by O’Neil, featuring the Creeper working against, then with, and then against, the Joker. Throw in nice Ernie “Chua” Chan/García-López art and a Peanuts takeoff and you’ve got a show. This one is reprinted in The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told.

The Joker #4 (Dec. 1975, “A Gold Star for the Joker”) has García-López taking over the penciling (with Vince Colletta on the inks) and a new scripter, Elliot S! Maggin. For some reason, the Joker steals a bus and a driver’s uniform and drives to Star City (he is crazy), where he falls for Dinah Lance (the Black Canary … hey, he’s not that crazy!), and fights Green Arrow, while stealing the star from Star City. He ends up falling off of the Star City Bridge. Will he survive...?

Issue #5 (Feb. 1976, “The Joker Goes ‘Wilde’”) has him pretending to be the long-lost grandson of a deceased, reclusive painter, and battling the Royal Flush Gang (the Rodney Dangerfield of DC villainy) for a group of paintings holding a secret. It was written by Martin Pasko, with an assist by science-fiction legend (and former comics scripter) Alfred Bester.

The next issue (#6, Apr. 1976, “Sherlock Stalks the Joker!”) brings Denny O’Neil back to the series to pit an actor who thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes against the Joker.

(When I picked this up off the stands, I was wondering what the little white box in the corner of the cover with all the lines in it was. Yep, it was my first UPC symbol.

Twice as Not-Nice Battling Jokers and special-guest Catwoman on this original art page from The Joker #9, the series’ last published issue. Art by Novick and Blaisdell, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Ah! Memories.) The Joker is out to humiliate Mr. Holmes, even though Joker admits that, “He isn’t real, and I am!” So the Joker does petty crimes related to Sherlock’s cases, while being hunted by the man who would be Holmes. O’Neil (a Holmes fan) fills the story with lots of “in” references to the Holmes canon, and a couple real groaners as well. Art by Novick and Tex Blaisdell. Then it was back to Arkham.

Elliot S! is back for “Luthor—You’re Driving Me Sane!” in Joker #7 (June 1976, art by Novick and Frank McLaughlin), featuring Lex Luthor in his ’70s purple jumpsuit and rocket boots. This time the Joker and Luthor get caught in a Luthor machine that sucks the crazy out of the Joker and spews it into Luthor … who doesn’t want to give it back! Maggin begins a three-issue run here. Yes, even in 1975, publishers had a hard time keeping the same creative time on more than two issues in a row.

In #8 (Aug. 1976), the Joker meets the Scarecrow and laughing ensues. Irv Novick is back on art, as is Tex Blaisdell. Irv (1916–2004) was one of the old-timers, drawing comics since 1939, an artist with a nice easy style, good storytelling, and a sense of design. He always seemed surprised that people were interested in all those pictures he drew. He may have been drawing some of the World’s Greatest Superheroes, but it was just a job to Irv, and one he did well.

For the final issue (#9, Oct. 1976), Maggin brought in Catwoman in “The Cat and the Clown” and threw in a movie comic and his trained cat. Both Irv and Tex are back for the last go-’round. The Joker disguises himself as the comic, is smacked by the Catwoman, who then steals the movie-star cat. In the end (SPOILER ALERT!), the Joker ends up back in his straitjacket and back in Arkham, forced to watch that week’s movie … about the comedian and his trained cat.

The Joker #10 was to be “99 and 99/100% Dead” by Martin Pasko, set with this story to take over as series writer. The story was drawn up (Martin still has the copies somewhere in all his boxes of stuff), but the decision had come down: The Joker had failed to escape the Arkham Asylum of cancellation.

DIE BY THE CODE The Joker, no matter who was writing the book, suffered from the problems Denny O’Neil points out: “You can’t kill him, you can’t even reasonably put him in jail without stretching the suspension of disbelief. He has to break out of jail every month. Now it wouldn’t be a problem. The medium has changed, some say matured, some say reverted … I would be in the matured camp.“ Of course, this is the rut The Joker fell into right from the beginning. Each issue would have him either escaping, or just escaped, meeting the guest villain (sometime hero), and then ending up back in Arkham at the end (or at least looking like the law was about to clamp down hard on his little purple gloves). What was a self-respecting homicidal psycho to do?

It was a problem the series never really solved. Denny?

“In ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ we had him kill five people.

You couldn’t get away with that in the [Joker] series, at least I don’t think so.”

Which brings up an interesting point: Of the nine bimonthly issues of The Joker (May 1975 through Sept.–Oct. 1976), Denny O’Neil wrote four, Elliot S! Maggin wrote four, and Martin Pasko wrote one (well, two, but one went unpublished). In all of Denny’s issues, the Joker kills only one of his thugs by tossing him down a incinerator chute (#2, “The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper”), but in Elliot Maggin’s issues, the Joker does away with eight unlucky souls, and in Martin Pasko’s one published story, three people are offed.

Maybe the CCA could have been pushed a bit more than Denny thought. Not to condone murder, of course.

But more killing wasn’t the problem. The Joker was just too sane.

He was operating on a half tank of crazy, and it seemed off, like the later Marx Brothers films where the brothers would help the young lovers instead of make fun of them. The Joker worked best as a ruthless antagonist, taunting, bedeviling, and driving the hero as insane as he was. In the future development of the character, this series would be pretty much ignored. Everyone moved on.

As a ten-year-old who was eagerly buying almost everything DC put out (except the last few romance comics—those turned you into a girl just by looking through them) and specializing in anything Batman, I snapped up all the issues of The Joker, but until I went back and read them, I really didn’t remember them all that well. I remembered that Catwoman was in there somewhere, and the Creeper, but I couldn’t tell you a plot to save my collection of 7-11 DC Slurpee cups … they didn’t make an impression. I read them, and then they joined the stack in the closet, to be thumbed through but not read again until I started researching this article.

When Denny himself became the overall editor of Batman, he ignored this series, as would future Joker writers. He didn’t even bring back poor Benny and Marvin.

TOM STEWART is a writer and playwright living in Seattle. Look for his first book, By This Ax I Rule!

Conan and the Battle for the Legacy of Robert E. Howard, now available. Find him and he’ll sign it, but he hides real well.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 43

The Joker is ejected from the Batcave in this 1994 illustration

by Paul Ryan.

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

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

A triple-shot of Dick Giordano magic: (top left) original cover art to The Joker #3, courtesy of Heritage; and two Joker pieces from the collection of Bob Sprenger.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 45

(top left) A San Diego Comic-Con 1980 sketch by Joker co-creator Jerry Robinson, courtesy of Heritage. (top right) A Ramona Fradon sketch from the Bob Sprenger collection. (bottom left) A 1990 convention sketch by Marshall Rogers, courtesy of Heritage. (bottom right) Another Sprenger contribution: a 2007 illo by Ernie Chan.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Kryptonite paralyzes Superman as the Joker scrams the scene in this 1979 coloring book page

by Ric Estrada.

Courtesy of Bob Sprenger.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 47

(top left) The Joker

by Mike Bair, 1994, courtesy of Heritage. (top right) A sketch

by Tone Rodriguez, contributed by Jerry Boyd. (bottom left) A Trent Caldwell sketch from the Sprenger collection. (bottom right) Detail from Kyle Baker’s cover painting for the 1989 hardcover The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

48 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

(main) Batman interrupts the uninvited Joker’s Batcave visit in this undated illustration

by George Pérez, courtesy of Heritage. (top left) A 2007 sketch by Pérez, contributed by Bob Sprenger.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 49

Advertise With Us! ALTER EGO! • BACK ISSUE! • DRAW! (please inquire for BrickJournal rates) COVERS: 8.375" Wide x 10.875" Tall (plus 1/8" bleed all around) FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875"

These rates are for ads supplied on-disk (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable).

No agency discounts apply.

Display ads are not available for the Jack Kirby Collector.

Ad Rates: Back cover COLOR: $800 ($700 for two or more) Inside cover B&W: $400 ($350 for two or more) Full-page B&W interior: $300 ($250 for two or more) Half-page B&W interior: $175 ($150 for two or more) Quarter-page B&W interior: $100 ($87.50 for two or more)

Bulk Ad Rates!

Run the same size ad for 26 insertions and these discounts apply: Back cover COLOR: $10,000 ($385 per ad) Inside cover B&W: $6000 ($231 per ad) Full-page B&W interior: $4000 ($154 per ad) Half-page B&W interior: $2000 ($77 per ad) Quarter-page B&W interior: $1000 ($39 per ad)

We accept check, money order, and all major credit cards; include card number and expiration date.

Send ad copy and payment (US funds) to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. • Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 • fax 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

by

Ian Millsted

A character with enough charisma and empathy to open a successful X-Men movie franchise before being developed for his own solo movie, Magneto was not always as interesting a character. The 1980s have become notorious in the comics industry for introducing superheroes to leather accessories, lethal weaponry, and a more ruthless manner as the good guys became grittier in an effort to seem more interesting and mature. As the superhero concept approached the bloody excesses of the early 1990s, Magneto began an opposing flirtation with the side of the angels after years as the X-Men’s primary nemesis.

These years revealed the psychological underpinnings of Magneto and created a more complex, sympathetic character.

EARLY ATTRACTIONS Introduced in X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963), Magneto was a powerful mutant able to control magnetic fields who wanted to ensure mutants’ survival by placing them in control over the rest of humanity. This brought him into conflict both physically and philosophically with Professor X and the X-Men’s dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. This dynamic would later often be compared to the Martin Luther King, Jr. vs.

Malcolm X schools of philosophies regarding civil rights, but was not as politically allegorical as stories from later decades. A fairly one-dimensional villain in the Dr. Doom megalomaniacal manner who lacked either an origin or true identity, Magneto would soon appear as a threat in other Marvel titles, and it was in one such appearance that Magneto’s long road to redemption would begin.

Magneto Triumphant!

Detail from the cover to Classic X-Men #18 (Feb. 1988), by Arthur Adams and Terry Austin. (inset) Magneto’s first appearance, X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 51

A Mutant’s Mission Although it predates BACK ISSUE’s ’70s/’80s purview, we couldn’t resist running this pulsepounding page from X-Men #1, where readers learn—for the first time— of Magneto’s goals.

Art by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman. Scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

During X-Men’s publishing hiatus (the title was canceled due to low sales even as figures later came in to show that Roy Thomas and Neal Adams’ classic run on the series in the late 1960s had created a new spike in sales), the Len Wein/Sal Buscema-produced Defenders #15–16 (Oct.–Nov. 1974) saw Magneto using rediscovered ancient technology to create Mutant Alpha, the ultimate mutant who was intended to help him claim dominion over the Earth. Alpha would instead become Magneto’s betrayer, reducing him to an infant so that he could start his life anew with another chance to make choices for good.

The following year saw the team of mutant heroes regain their (initially bimonthly) title with a new lineup, and it wasn’t long before writer Chris Claremont and penciler Dave Cockrum introduced them to the master of magnetism in X-Men #104 (Apr. 1977). When the new roster of X-Men visited the Muir Isle in Scotland to check the safety of its custodian Jamie Maddrox, they were ambushed by Magneto. It was revealed that he had been staying at the island under the

supervision of Moira MacTaggert, a scientist friend of the X-Men who was also researching mutants.

An agent of the alien Sh’iar race called Eric the Red wanted to create a diversion for the team and attacked Muir Island solely to restore Magneto to adulthood, but in a younger, more powerful body than before his alteration by Mutant Alpha. Easily winning the upper hand until a showdown with Cyclops, Magneto left the island while his adversary chose to tend to his fallen teammates in order to rush back to New York to save Professor X from Eric the Red rather than defeat Magneto.

Magneto returned at the climax of X-Men #111 (June 1978), whisking the titular team away to his lair beneath a volcanic chamber in Antarctica to seek revenge for his confinement at Muir Isle as a child by imprisoning the X-Men within chairs that neutralized their powers and physical abilities to that of six-year-olds, their every need tended to by a robotic nanny.

The team inevitably escapes for another showdown with Magneto, but when his lair nears destruction from the lava above, he flees and is not seen again until a brief but important appearance in X-Men #125 (Sept. 1979). A short circuit in Magneto’s computer banks projected the image of his late wife Magda, making him muse, “How deeply it hurt when you ran away from me. But that was long ago.” As well as the first hint of a more sympathetic Magneto, this issue also suggested to astute readers (who may have picked up on their physical similarities or read details from a concurrent issue of The Avengers) that Magneto and Magda were the true parents of Pietro and Wanda, a.k.a. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, former members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who had reformed and joined the Avengers.

[Editor’s note: See BI #29 for more information regarding this revelation.]

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND The classic “Days of Future Past” storyline in (the now officially renamed Uncanny) X-Men #141–142 (Jan.–Feb. 1981) portrayed a dark future where the few surviving mutants are kept in concentration camps and are forced to wear power-inhibiting collars. An aged Magneto is wheelchair-bound (thus echoing Professor X) but an accepted member of the small team of former X-Men. The positive change in the character’s attitude was the only positive note in a bleak apocalyptic future, but the turning point in Magneto’s path to reformation resulted during a subplot building from Uncanny X-Men #145 (May 1980).

Following the death of Phoenix, her lover (and team leader) Cyclops quit the X-Men to grieve, eventually joining the crew of the Arcadia, a fishing vessel captained by the beautiful Aleytys (usually called “Lee”—probably as her name was spelled differently nearly every issue!) Forrester. Hit by a storm at sea, Cyclops and Lee washed up on a remote island within the Bermuda Triangle. With Cyclops’ dangerous optic powers now revealed to his new friend and held back only by bandages that kept his eyes closed, things looked bleak until a mysterious island appeared a mile from shore. Exploring the ancient alien city on this new island, Cyclops is alarmed to discover it is the current base of operations for Magneto. Fearing for his life should Magneto discover his true identity, Cyclops is given freedom to roam the city while struggling to find a way to escape with Lee when Magneto reveals that he knows who Cyclops really is and that he is

52 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Anniversary Antagonist Dave Cockrum’s 2001 recreation of his cover to Uncanny X-Men #150 (Oct. 1981), which was originally penciled by Cockrum and inked

by Joe Rubinstein. Courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

using the ancient technology of the island to create a field neutralising all mutant abilities except his own.

With the story’s conclusion in the double-sized Uncanny X-Men #150 (Oct. 1981), Magneto at last reveals his master plan when he holds the world’s political leaders for ransom. He demands that they decommission all of their nuclear weapons and surrender control of their nations to him, planning on bringing about a new golden age of peace with mutants ruling under his command, or else he will annihilate the humans. Naturally enough, the world leaders take umbrage at this and the Soviets dispatch the submarine Leningrad to deploy their nuclear arsenal against Magneto (quite how they discover his secret lair is never even mentioned!). Magneto makes good on his threat, sinking the Leningrad (something that would return to haunt him numerous times) and raising a volcano to destroy the Siberian city of Varykino. Interestingly, Magneto chooses not to wipe out the city dwellers as he would have previously, controlling the devastation enough to allow for a desperate mass exodus.

As well as suggesting a more forgiving side to the powerful mutant, the issue also plants the first seeds of reconciliation between Magneto and the X-Men. After allowing Cyclops his general freedom (although not without placing him within a restrictive magnetic field to stop him from attacking Magneto while sinking the Leningrad), Magneto is shocked to learn of Jean Grey’s (supposed) death, offering sympathy while hinting at his own loss: “I am truly sorry. She was an honorable foe, Cyclops—as are all the X-Men—worthy of respect.

I … cared for her. I grieve for her. I know … something of grief. Search throughout my homeland, you will find none who bear my name. Mine was a large family, and it was slaughtered—without mercy, without remorse.

Speak not to me of grief, boy, you know not the meaning of the word!” Bedside manner aside, this marked the first time Magneto had revealed any hints of his past.

Inevitably, the X-Men covertly arrive on the island after investigating Cyclops’ disappearance at sea.

Storm discovers Magneto asleep and ponders, “Why are we enemies?! There is much to admire about him— almost to admire. What a shame. What a tragic waste.

For all his crimes, for all the pain and grief he has caused, Magneto is not, in his heart, an evil man.

Given different circumstances, he could have been like us—or we like him.” After Wolverine destroys the technology that inhibits their abilities, the X-Men rush into action but Kitty Pryde destroys a vital computer and sends Magneto into a rage. In a pivotal moment, Kitty tries to escape his clutches by phasing through him, but his powerful magnetic field nearly kills her as a result. Seeing the fallen young teen shocks Magneto into recalling his past (for the first time), revealing that the loss of his family in Auschwitz desensitized him and the death of his daughter spurred him into trying to create a world where none like him would have to suffer such horrors again.

Surrendering himself to Storm, he adds, “I was prepared to pay any price, make any sacrifice to achieve it. But I forgot the innocents who would suffer in the process. In my zeal to remake the world, I have become much like those I always hated and despised.” When the rest of the X-Men arrive at the scene, Magneto has departed with much soul searching ahead of him.

ORIGINS Uncanny X-Men #161 (Sept. 1982) shines more light on Magneto’s past when it reveals that he used the name Magnus as a volunteer at a hospital in post-war Israel. Despite their differing views, he became firm friends with the visiting Charles Xavier (who would later found the X-Men), who used his telepathic abilities to bring a young Dutch patient, Gabrielle Haller, out of the catatonic state she had languished in ever since her experiences in Dachau. All three were constant companions until the newly emerging terrorist Villains Issue

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 53

Revelations Classic X-Men provided key moments in Magneto’s backstory. (left) From issue #12 (Aug. 1987), Magneto’s past at Auschwitz (art by Dave Cockrum and Sam Grainger), and (right) from #19 (Mar. 1989), Magnus becomes Magneto (art by Kieron Dywer and Terry Austin). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

organization Hydra kidnapped Haller, hoping to use her memories to locate a stash of lost Nazi gold. Magnus and Xavier used their powers to save Haller but the actions of Hydra, under the command of former Nazi Baron von Strucker, made Magnus believe that humanity would never learn to rise above its cruel nature, leading him to escape with the Nazi gold and use it to fund his own activities over the coming years.

Magnus’ full origins would finally be revealed in Classic X-Men #12 (Aug. 1987). One of the first Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz, Magnus became an adult within its savage fences but escaped after the loss of his family with Magda, a young gypsy he had fallen in love with. They marry in the Carpathian Mountains and have a daughter named Anya before the search for work takes them to the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa. When an employer cheats Magnus of his wages, his anger triggers his magnetic abilities for the first time and he subconsciously launches various metallic objects at his boss. He returns home to find it on fire, with Anya trapped upstairs while the local authorities (called in by Magnus’ employer) beat him even as he pleads for them to stop so that he can rescue his daughter. When they do not and Anya burns before him, he lashes out in anger and uses his powers to kill his attackers, making Magda (whilst pregnant with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) flee in terror.

54 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Classic X-Men #19 (Mar. 1987) shows that Magnus later went to work hunting Nazi war criminals for the Israeli government following his parting with Xavier but his superiors killed his lover in retaliation for bringing down Nazis who were already working with them. Magnus takes bloody revenge and ends his association with the government. This is the final catalyst that leads Magnus to become Magneto, raging, “It is I who shall lead my people to the glory they deserve. I, ubermench. I, mutant! I—Magneto!”

A KINDER, GENTLER MAGNETO By this time, a softening contemporary Magneto had started to appear outside the core X-Men title, starting with Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 (Feb. 1983). Written by Bill Mantlo, the issue finds Magneto following the trail of Magda to the fabled Wundagore mountain, where he meets Bova, a cow/ woman hybrid created by the master geneticist known as the High Evolutionary to serve as a nanny to his army of animen. However, she also nursed the twins Wanda and Pietro, the children Magda abandoned shortly after giving birth to years before.

Learning of his children for the first time, Magneto travels (under his own power!) to the Inhumans’ city of Attilan on the Moon, where the Scarlet Witch was visiting Quicksilver (now married to Crystal, the sister-inlaw of Black Bolt, king of the Inhuman race). Upon his arrival, the obligatory battle starts with his heroic

The Trial of Magneto In the landmark Uncanny X-Men #200 (Dec. 1985), Magneto joins the X-Men. Cover art by John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green. (inset) Magneto got lots of face time in Secret Wars. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

offspring until Magneto reveals his true relationship to the twins.

The fact that Quicksilver’s daughter Luna was born human despite her exotic genetic heritage (the Inhumans voluntarily underwent a process that altered their DNA to give them superpowers or abilities) was another element in Magneto’s reappraisal of his views on humans.

As a result of his recent actions, Magneto found himself assigned to the side of good in the opening issue of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (May 1984). Marvel’s first crossover event found an alien entity called the Beyonder abducting a number of top-ranking heroes and villains to an alien world where they would fight to the death in order to receive all they desire and decide whether good or evil was the stronger force.

Magneto’s inclusion among their ranks irked many heroes and he immediately departed, declaring that he had now reconsidered his past extremist views but felt they were valid at the time. He initially stayed outside of the conflict until the threat presented by the villains led to him working alongside the X-Men for the first time. Unsurprisingly, the heroes eventually win and return to Earth, but Magneto decides to return alone to his orbiting base on Asteroid M instead of alongside the X-Men. His time there wasn’t to last long, as the techno-organic alien Warlock arrived on Earth in New Mutants #21 (Nov. 1984) after careening through space, smashing through Asteroid M on the way.

Starting an extended run of appearances flicking between both the X-Men and New Mutants titles, Magneto had survived the resulting fall to Earth and was saved from a shark attack in the open ocean

by Lee Forrester in Uncanny X-Men #188 (Dec. 1984). The subplot continues in New Mutants #23 (Jan. 1985) when Magneto and Lee return to his mysterious Bermuda Island base and eventually become lovers after Magneto admits he doesn’t want to be alone. They are only disturbed in #29 when Professor Xavier sends an urgent telepathic distress call pleading for Magneto’s help: The Beyonder has arrived on Earth and the ailing Xavier needs his one-time friend to lead the X-Men in defense of the Earth from the alien menace! Magneto dons a new uniform and rescues the New Mutants before the storyline then feeds into the start of the Secret Wars II (July 1985–Mar. 1986) limited series, willingly reuniting with his former enemies out of choice rather than circumstances.

MAGNETO, X-MAN Over the following months, Magneto spends more time with the senior X-team, forming a special fondness (despite—or because of— their encounter in the Bermuda Triangle) for Kitty, who thinks he has the makings of a hero after he convinces fellow X-Man Rachel (who had travelled back from the “Days of Future Past” timeline) not to execute in anger a hate-killer in Uncanny X-Men #196 (Aug. 1985). Magneto denies Kitty’s suggestion and says, “I am no hero, merely a man who has seen and done and endured what can never be forgotten … or forgiven.” Magneto later accompanies her to the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC, in Uncanny X-Men #199 (Nov. 1985), where he reconnects with Ruth and David Shulman, fellow prisoners he knew at Auschwitz. When Freedom Force (a government-

sanctioned team of mutants that had once operated as the second generation of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) arrives and tries to arrest him, Magneto refuses to accept their authority as he denies citizenship of any country but does question his previous actions and surrenders to them.

The following issue finds him on trial in Paris for crimes against humanity, defended by Xavier and Gabrielle Haller, now Israel’s ambassador to Great Britain. Magneto acquits himself well against prosecutor Jim Jaspers (a character lifted from Alan Moore’s Marvel UK work), but the trial is interrupted by Fenris, the mutant twin offspring of Baron von Strucker, who is seeking revenge on Magneto for stealing the Nazi gold from their father in Israel years before. During the chaos, the deteriorating Xavier is saved from death’s door by the spacefaring Starjammers, who whisk him away to outer space to use their alien technology to heal his terminally ill body. Before departing, Xavier asks Magneto, “Take over my school. Look after my X-Men. Teach the New Mutants. Do what no one believes can be done! It will stand as a far nobler monument—and better safeguard to mutantkind—than your martyrdom at this trial.” Magneto sheds a tear for his friend and reluctantly agrees, finally joining the side of the angels.

He assumes control of Xavier’s school in New Mutants #35 (Jan. 1986), creating instant resentment from the junior team until he shortly proves himself. He beats them all effortlessly in a training session but he only—tenuously—wins them over when he saves team leader Dani Moonstar from human attackers. The New Mutants weren’t the only ones reluctant to believe that Magneto had reformed, as the X-Men vs. Avengers (Apr.–July 1987) miniseries Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 55

found the former villain (now adorning a less-intimidating third costume) at the heart of the action and beset by adversaries on all sides, with the X-Men springing to his defense, even as they harbor doubts themselves.

Originally written by Roger Stern and marking artist Marc Silvestri’s first work on the X-Men, the series finds the remains of Asteroid M crashing down in Kampuchea and Magneto setting forth to retrieve his trademark helmet from the debris. He plans to use the microcircuitry in the helmet to telepathically remove bigotry from the Earth’s population (now that Xavier was not around to oppose him) and bring about peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants.

However, the United Nations sanction the Avengers to arrest Magneto again so that his trial against humanity can continue and a verdict be reached, even as the Soviet Super Soldiers also attack to ensure he pays for the loss of the Leningrad. When Magneto is shocked that his helmet does not work on Captain America, as he already has no prejudices (except against Nazis, presumably!), he realizes he needs to reassess his distrust of humans and surrenders to the authorities. Once more defended

by Gabrielle Haller against the prosecuting Jim Jaspers, Magneto was subsequently declared a warring state during his previous years, but as he did not sign the Geneva Convention, he therefore could not be charged for breaching an agreement he had not made. Despite warning that member states could still prosecute him under their own domestic law, the UN found Magneto innocent and set him free.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

STERN REMARKS Writer—and former X-Men editor during the Claremont/Byrne run—Roger Stern reveals the genesis of the project: “Well, when the project was first devised, X-Men was well on its way to becoming Marvel’s best-selling title— if it hadn’t gotten there already. I believe that someone in marketing hit on the idea of doing two miniseries—one of the X-Men with the Fantastic Four and one of the X-Men with the Avengers. I wasn’t keen on the idea, but it was made clear to me that if I didn’t write it, they’d find someone else who would. So I reluctantly agreed to write what was originally supposed to be titled The Avengers vs. the X-Men, in an attempt to keep the Avengers from looking like jerks in comparison to the X-Men. That was my major concern.

At the time there was an unfortunate tendency for other Marvel characters that guest-starred in Uncanny X-Men or New Mutants to be depicted as less than capable.”

Stern explains that the choice of Magneto as the central figure “was pretty much unavoidable. At the time, Professor Xavier had left Magneto in charge of the X-Men. And for the most part, the X-Men just accepted that this mass-murderer was suddenly a good guy. That’s right, I said it! Magneto was a mass-murderer.

And not just in the early stories. He sank a Russian submarine, killing all aboard (Uncanny X-Men #150). He had also taken over missile bases (X-Men #1 and 113), destroyed an entire Russian city (also in Uncanny X-Men #150), and tortured fellow mutants (Captain America Annual #4)—the X-Men among them (X-Men #112–113).

Magneto really fit the definition of a terrorist. He was always using bombs to cover his tracks—thermonuclear bombs in some cases (X-Men #4 and Journey into Mystery #109).

All of that was seemingly forgotten by much of the X-Men’s readership. Or maybe there were so many new readers, that they didn’t know Magneto’s full history. I can recall some fans referring to seeing Professor Xavier as a parallel to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Magneto as a parallel to Malcolm X.

56 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

“I didn’t buy that,” Stern continues. “I saw Xavier as being like FDR and Magneto like Hitler. Think about it … wise wheelchairbound man rallying the forces of light to oppose a megalomaniac bent on world conquest. There was even an early story (X-Men #4) where Magneto took over a third-world nation, employing a corps of goose-stepping storm troopers.”

Explaining why writer Tom DeFalco and artist Keith Pollard replaced him and Silvestri for the series’ final issue, Stern also reveals his intended finale: “When I took on the assignment, the one condition that I made was that the story had to explore Magneto’s character.

After all, the Avengers were smart enough to recognize Magneto as a villain. And so, part of the story was to remind readers of all the no-good, rotten things he’d done in his life, and have him show his true colors ... albeit in such a way that he could have still gone on doing whatever morally ambiguous thing he was up to in the X-Men. So I outlined all four issues, and everything was approved.

“But once I had written the first three issues and plotted the final issue, I was told that my original ending to the series—the one that I’d insisted upon and had been approved—had to be changed.

Without my input, the story was re-plotted, greatly reducing the role of both the Avengers and the X-Men in the story. They practically become bit players in that final issue. I was never given a straight answer as to why. To this day, I don’t know. I thought that the new ending deviated too far from the original intent of the story, so I chose not to script it. As far as the art was concerned, I believe that Marc Silvestri was spirited away to draw Uncanny X-Men, which was without a regular penciler at that time. I haven’t been able to locate my original plot, but I have located my notes for that last issue…”

AVENGERS VS. THE X-MEN ISSUE #4 (Rough Outline) The Avengers have the X-Men in custody, but Magneto has disappeared. Both teams search high and low trying to find him. Magneto mysteriously turns up in the hands of UN authorities; he’s turned himself in. World Court is quickly convened, and Magneto is quickly brought to trial. But among the gear Magneto salvaged from Asteroid M is a gizmo that will let him subtly influence the minds of the Court; he can use the gizmo only once before it burns out.

Magneto is torn as to whether or not he should use the gizmo.

After much angst, he decides that the ends he believes he will accomplish (i.e., being vindicated and freed, so that he will become a rallying point for the freedom and liberation of mutants worldwide) justify the means.

He uses the gizmo, destroying evidence of its existence thereafter. Magneto is for all intents and purposes acquitted, perhaps found guilty of lesser charges and told to make some sort of reparations to injured parties. As Magneto is no longer a fugitive, the Avengers have no legal reason to pursue him, but they let him -- and the X-Men -- know that if they ever catch wind of the slightest impropriety on his part, they’ll be all over him like ugly on an ape.

Magneto discovers to his chagrin that all he’s done is save himself from incarceration. Mutants don’t rally to his side, the world still doesn’t trust him, the X-Men are becoming more and more uneasy around him, and he’s taken that first misstep towards reverting to his old ways.

Day of Judgment Magneto offers himself to the World Court to assuage anti-mutant sentiments in The X-Men vs. the Avengers #4 (July 1987).

Cover art by Keith Pollard and Joe Rubinstein. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“That was just the in-a-nutshell version, but that’s what had been approved,” Stern reveals. “If it hadn’t been, I never would have written the first three issues.

From what little I can recall of my plot for the fourth issue, there was a good bit of action for both teams.”

The attempt to reform Magneto never really convinced Stern: “I understand the desire to give Magneto more depth as a character, but there must have been a way to do that and still retain him as the X-Men’s greatest villain. Up until that point, they had never really been able to defeat him. And if he had ever shown remorse—true, sincere remorse—for all of his crimes, I never saw it. Even if you bought into the retcons that made Magneto a concentration-camp survivor, it didn’t excuse the life he had since led. He didn’t bear witness to the Holocaust. He hadn’t challenged Holocaust deniers.

He hadn’t become a Nazi hunter. If anything, he became a kind of Super-Nazi. Magneto, after all, believes in a master race—homo superior—and he had always seen himself as the ultimate example of that master race. The whole idea of Magneto suddenly becoming a ‘good guy’ seemed so unbelievable to me. It was as if Xavier said, ‘Hey, kids, I have to go out of town. Say hello to your new headmaster—Magneto! Don’t worry. He’s a good guy now! Just ignore the dozens of times he’s tried to kill us and take over the world.’ Yeah. Right.”

RELAPSE Magneto’s newfound freedom was soon spoiled when trouble reared its head with the attack of a mysterious team of assassins called the Marauders in the first official X-Men crossover, 1986’s “Mutant Massacre,” which led to the deaths of numerous mutants. This new threat forced X-Men team leader Storm and Magneto to forge an alliance with the team’s enemies in the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Hoping to create a stronger defense through a unified front, Magneto represented Xavier’s school and heroes by assuming the role of the Club’s White King (the Inner Circle’s membership adopting positions derived from the major chess pieces) in New Mutants #51 (May 1987), but this increased the New Mutants’ distrust of him.

Magneto suffered huge blows when the group’s continued rebellion resulted in the death of team member Cypher and the entire team of X-Men were believed to have died in action during the “Fall of the Mutants” crossover.

These losses led to the first staggers of Magneto’s fall from grace in New Mutants #75 (May 1989), which saw the former villain returning to his original costume and helmet as he wins total control through combat of the Hellfire Club. He merges the roles of the Black and White Kings into a new position, the Grey King.

Magneto reveals that he had actually joined the Hellfire Club to consolidate its resources with Xavier’s in order to protect mutants from bigotry, intending to forge the New Mutants and the Hellions (the Hellfire Club’s equivalent team) into an army to be used in the strategic defense of peace. With Xavier’s school now destroyed

and the X-Men believed dead, Magneto allowed the New Mutants to sever all connections to him as he turned his attention to his offspring once more.

“Acts of Vengeance” was a 1989–1990 crossover centered on the Avengers titles that found the villainous Loki forming a cabal of Marvel’s top villains with the idea that if they attacked each other’s heroic enemies, they would have the element of surprise and be able to defeat their opposition and then pursue their own goals unchallenged. Magneto was recruited but had two ulterior motives: He made a show of solidarity with his supposed cabal allies by briefly attacking the title star of Amazing Spider-Man #327 (Dec. 1989) before swiftly retreating to seize the opportunity to get revenge on cabal member and former Nazi the Red Skull in Captain America #367 (Feb. 1990).

The crossover ran through his prolonged appearances in Avengers West Coast #53–57 and 60 (Dec. 1989– July 1990). [#58 and 59 were fill-ins following the departure of writer/artist John Byrne.]

Villains Issue

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 57

These issues reunited him with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who had undergone a nervous breakdown due to the revelation that her two children were not actually real (although this didn’t prevent them from inheriting Wanda and Pietro’s powers and returning years later as Wiccan and Speed of the Young Avengers), and her android husband being dismantled and reassembled into an emotionless machine (comics may be soap operas, but you never see that on Days of Our Lives!). Magneto abducted his catatonic daughter and managed to revive her on his new Asteroid M, but she was revived with a much darker, fractured personality. Her teammates in the Avengers inevitably arrived to claim her, bringing them into conflict with Magneto again until the unpredictable Quicksilver, who had been pretending to ally himself with his family, sided with

the Avengers and helped turn the tide against his father and save his sister.

Hurt more emotionally than physically, Magneto slinked back to another old lair, this time his former base in the prehistoric Savage Land, reappearing in a cliffhanging iconic image to save the X-Man Rogue at the conclusion of Uncanny X-Men #269 (Oct. 1990). Readers had to wait until #274 for the continuation of the storyline, which saw Magneto, Rogue, local hero Ka-Zar, and spymaster Nick Fury combining forces to save the Savage Land from the tyrannical rule of the beautiful but deadly Zaladane. Zaladane was ironically defended by a group of superpowered, evolved locals called the Savage Land Mutates who were originally created by Magneto himself during the Thomas/Adams X-Men run of the 1960s. Fury’s team of United Nations soldiers included the father of one of the sailors lost aboard the Leningrad who took the opportunity to align himself with Zaladane and betray Magneto in revenge for his son’s death.

The story concluded in #275, when Rogue begs Magneto not to submit to his dark side after he relives his tragic past during his torture at the hands of Zaladane.

Magneto makes his position clear: After stating, “My people are in danger—more so than ever before— and a kindler, gentler Magneto cannot save them,” he executes Zaladane. As he parts company with

Family Affair (left) Writer/artist John Byrne signed this original art page to Avengers West Coast #56 (Mar. 1990, courtesy of Heritage), which set up the family reunion witnessed in the next issue (below). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Rogue, herself a former enemy of the X-Men now considered a valued team member, he muses, “The chains we forge for ourselves—tempered by hardship and grief, honed by duty—are often all too tragically unbreakable. She looks after me, a last, imploring entreaty. That part of me will always yearn to accept.

But my choice is made. My destiny is set. And from this fateful crossroads … we go our separate ways.”

With those words, Magneto set himself apart from the X-Men once more, but it was his fate at the hands of Mutant Alpha that brought his journey full circle and finally returned him to his more ruthless methods.

Jim Lee’s work on Uncanny X-Men had sent sales soaring again, leading to a new record-selling spin-off simply titled X-Men (Oct. 1991). When a squad of American spacecraft fires on another craft containing a crew of mutants, who are trying to reach Asteroid M to seek sanctuary, Magneto intervenes and takes all involved to his orbital base. Magneto seemed to have lost his dedication to his cause until the arrival of these mutants fleeing murderous humans led him to retrieve nuclear missiles from the wreck of the Leningrad.

BORN TO BE BAD This again sets the X-Men against Magneto, who comes face to face with the remains of the Leningrad’s crew during the skirmish, but it is the readiness of Wolverine, a former comrade, to kill him that weighs on his mind. This spurs him into decisive action again, attacking the island nation Genosha (which had only recently ended mutant slavery and enforced genetic tampering) in order to offer Asteroid M as a haven for any and all mutants, including even the X-Men. Magneto discovers that his DNA had been altered and realizes this could only have happened during his period as a child with Moira MacTaggert.

She had discovered an instability in his nervous system

Solo Star

that may have made him unable to properly process his abilities, possibly making him erratic and unbalanced.

She tried to fix that instability in order to use the process on her own mutant son, but also to provide Magneto a more balanced future. This sends Magneto into a fury, raging, “You took from me the dimensions of moral choice! Every decision I’ve made since my rebirth is now suspect!”

The storyline ended with X-Men #3, marking the swan song of both writer Chris Claremont and the last vestiges of the heroic Magneto, who was facing Xavier for the first time since Uncanny X-Men #200. The falling hero mistakenly believes his former friend to have acted alongside MacTaggert, who reveals that the genetic engineering she had done was unsuccessful as it only worked if a mutant never used their powers or else their original genetic structure would reassert itself. This means that every decision since his rebirth was indeed

Villains Issue

(left) Magneto #0 (Sept. 1993), featuring a foil-logo cover and a Bill Sienkiewicz painting, reprinted key stories in the villain’s history. (above) Magneto #3 (Jan. 1997), third in a four-issue mini drawn

by Kelley Jones and John Beatty, revealed the secrets of the mutant Joseph. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

BACK ISSUE • 59

Mutant Mix-Up The Master of Magnetism vs. Mutate 665 on the cover of the final issue of Magneto Rex #3 (July 1999), by artists Brandon Peterson and Matt Banning. Courtesy of Heritage. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Magneto’s own choice. After a climactic battle with the X-Men, Magneto allows them to go free even as he and his group of Acolytes die in the destruction of Asteroid M. His final thoughts to Xavier lament the fact that it was better things end that way as eventually one of them would have to kill the other to end their conflict.

Of course, death never lasts in comics and Magneto eventually returned from his apparent demise. In recent years (deep breath now!), Magneto was left in a vegetative state by Xavier in order to resolve their continuing opposition without bloodshed, but he eventually recovered, ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton, gained a younger clone called Joseph (who thought he was Magneto rejuvenated and joined the X-Men before giving his own life to save the Earth), burned out most of his powers, gained political control of Genosha, crucified Xavier but was seriously wounded by Wolverine, apparently died in an attack by a new generation of mutant-hunting Sentinel robots, gained a doppelganger who infiltrated the X-Men before being decapitated, returned from the dead again, lost his powers again after the Scarlet Witch depowered most mutants at the end of the House of M series (driving a further wedge between himself and his children), helped restore the shattered psyche of Xavier, discovered that the green-haired X-Man called Polaris was indeed his daughter (a long-discounted supposition now found to be true!), and resurfaced to attack the X-Men again in their new stomping grounds of San Francisco as part of a diversion devised with the High Evolutionary. Phew!!

Magneto remains an essential figure in the X-Men mythos, becoming the driving factor in the successful X-Men movie series. Following 2009’s Wolverine film, he is set to star in his own spin-off prequel (likely to be called X-Men Origins: Magneto) that follows his post-World War II experiences. As the success of the X-Men films led to Marvel Comics creating Wolverine: Origin to reveal the character’s long-obscured past in an official capacity before the filmmakers gave him an origin, perhaps this explains the creation of 2008’s X-Men: Magneto Testament limited series. As well as retracing and fully exploring the character’s World War II origins, the series finally reveals Magneto’s true name as Max Eisenstadt. Despite his relatively high profile for a supervillain, Magneto will probably now always swing between good and evil, his inexcusable actions having a sympathetic root cause that results in one of comics’ most interesting adversaries.

IAN MILLSTED is a writer and teacher based in Bristol, England.

60 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

This Gene Colanpenciled MODOK illustration, drawn at 15" x 20", is a 1999 installment in art collector Joe Kulbiski’s planned (but never completed) series of Captain America’s Rogues’ Gallery commissioned drawings. To see the first in the series, featuring Baron Zemo, see BACK ISSUE #27.

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 61

Unlock the FINAL secrets of the JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA (& friends) !

THE

• Amazing new info on the Golden Age JSA—including every JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY message ever—and an incredible index of the solo stories of the original JSAers, from 1939 to 1951!

• Sensational new JSA and INFINITY, INC. cover by JERRY ORDWAY, drawn especially for this volume!

• The OTHER 1940s Hero Groups Examined in Depth! THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—THE MARVEL FAMILY—THE ALL WINNERS SQUAD— & M.C. Gaines’ own INTERNATIONAL CRIME PATROL! • Issue-by-issue 1980s spotlight on INFINITY, INC. & SECRET ORIGINS! • Rare, often unpublished art & artifacts by: ALEX ROSS * TODD McFARLANE JOE KUBERT * CARMINE INFANTINO ALEX TOTH * GIL KANE MURPHY ANDERSON * IRWIN HASEN WAYNE BORING * SHELDON MOLDOFF MORT MESKIN * GENE COLAN MART NODELL * HARRY LAMPERT DON NEWTON * GEORGE TUSKA PAUL REINMAN * JOE GALLAGHER CHESTER KOZLAK * LEE ELIAS E.E. HIBBARD * ARTHUR PEDDY JIM VALENTINO * ALAN KUPPERBERG MICHAEL T. GILBERT * RICK HOBERG MIKE SEKOWSKY * JACK BURNLEY MIKE MACHLAN * FRANK HARRY DICK DILLIN * BERNARD KRIGSTEIN H.G. PETER * MICHAEL BAIR —& many others!

VOLUM E FOUR

Companion

Edited by

ROY THOMAS $

2795

In The US

ISBN 978-1-60549-004-5

ON SALE NOW!

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

by

Rob Kelly

KOBRA! When you see that name, who do you think of?

Well, you probably think of that organization of vaguely competent bad guys led by Destro, but that’s not the Kobra we’re talking about—in this case, we’re talking about Kobra (also known—mostly to himself—as King Kobra), the DC Comics madman bent on world domination, who debuted in his very own title, Kobra, the first issue of which hit the newsstands in November 1975.

Kobra is in many ways your archetypal supervillain: He wants to take over the world, talks about himself in the third person, and murders his own henchmen over their slightest mistakes. That last trait sounds a lot like a certain Clown Prince of Crime, doesn’t it?

The similarities don’t end there: One of the reasons Kobra has always stuck with me as a character is because he was a villain who had his own comic book—something you see fairly regularly nowadays, but was almost unheard of in the 1970s. And while the Joker did earn his own book earlier in 1975, he was then (and arguably still is) the most famous comic-book bad guy of all time. Kobra, on the other hand, was a completely unknown entity, yet DC’s then-head honcho Carmine Infantino let Kobra slither past 1st Issue Special tryout stars like Dr. Fate, Lady Cop, and the Dingbats of Danger Street directly into a solo title.

Maybe that’s because Kobra was the creation of the legendary Jack “King” Kirby, who wrote and penciled the first issue’s story, “Fangs of the Kobra!”

The first story was done (according to the man who would assume the writing of the book, Martin Pasko— more about him in a moment) as a prototype issue, more a proposal for the series rather than an actual first issue. It concerned two men—King Kobra and Jason Burr, twin brothers separated at birth but who retained a psychic connection to one another.

The proposed series (originally to be titled King Kobra) sat in DC’s inventory for over a year. In the meantime, Kirby had left DC to return to Marvel.

Eventually DC editor Gerry Conway handed the material over to Pasko, who was told, “Do something with this.” Pasko read the book and was not impressed, thinking it was little more than a “toss-off”

by Kirby, who at the time had one foot out the door at DC (Kirby told Pasko as much a few years later).

Pasko had new stats made of the art, with all the dialogue whited out so he could rewrite the story as much as possible. Necessary art changes were then made by Pablo Marcos. Pasko retained the Corsican Brothers angle, developing a new backstory and details about the cobra cult from his own research on India. Pasko’s thinking was that if Infantino gave him and editor Conway the marching orders to do a regular book, “We wanted to be able to live with it.”

If Looks Could Kill Jason Burr reflects upon his fate on the cover of Kobra #2 (Apr.–May 1976). Original cover artwork by Ernie Chua, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 63

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Servitor Strikes Notice artist Pablo Marcos’ facial redrawings in panels 1 and 2 of this this bombastic Jack Kirbypenciled page from Kobra #1, otherwise inked by D. Bruce Berry. As evidenced by the artboard’s top line, Kirby had intended for this series to be titled “King Kobra.”

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Kobra #1 (cover-dated Feb.–Mar. 1976) sets up the book’s central premise—Kobra and regular guy Jason Burr are brothers, but only Kobra knows this. Burr is approached by a Lt. Perez (who says he is with the NYPD) and is told he is the key to catching international super-criminal Kobra. Burr and Perez are attacked by a giant robot (which fell from space!) sent by Kobra to kidnap him, but they manage to defeat it. We then learn that Kobra and Burr’s psychic connection is so acute that when one of them feels pain, the other feels it as well. So as long as Burr stays alive ... ssssso doessss Kobra (sorry, slipped into Kobra-ese for a moment)! The first issue ends with Burr and Kobra meeting face to face, but Kobra escapes before the police can apprehend him.

It’s at this point that Kobra, as a title, really takes off—Marty Pasko was free to take the story anywhere he pleased, and the book moves at a breakneck pace, jamming more crazy situations, settings, and character asides in six issues than several years’ worth of comics do nowadays. In issue #2, we meet Burr’s old lady Melissa, and we see that as Burr kisses her, Kobra “feels” it, too (exactly how far these feelings between the brothers can go is something left to the imagination— damn Comics Code). Kobra then runs afoul of another supervillain, named Solaris, whose weapon, the Heliotron, Kobra tries to steal. Perez and Burr get involved, ending with Burr and Kobra locked in a struggle as they fall from the sky after Kobra saves Burr from getting blasted by the Heliotron.

In #3, the authorities rescue Burr, and they think Kobra falls to his death ... but they can’t find his body.

When dealing with Kobra, you have to remember the “Joker Rule”: No Body = Still Alive. Shortly thereafter, Kobra shows up at Burr’s apartment (!) and Burr’s girlfriend Melissa seems to know him! After another

tussle with Solaris, Burr learns that Kobra stole a large cache of “illegal cobra venom” from the C.I.A. (even though President Nixon ordered it destroyed!) and that’s why the Feds are after him—to keep their illegal activities under wraps. (Say what you want about Richard Nixon, at least he ordered illegal cobra venom destroyed.) Turns out Perez is not from the NYPD—he’s C.I.A.—and has been lying to Burr all this time. Burr is not amused.

In #4, Burr starts to suspect Melissa isn’t telling him the whole truth, and they tentatively break up.

Then he meets a mysterious stranger named Randu Singh, who is also after Kobra! Meanwhile, Kobra meets a two-headed alien (what are the odds?!?), who Kobra believes might, if he can experiment on it/them, help him learn how to sever the psychic link between him and Burr.

Kobra sends two of his giant robots, called “Servitors,” to find Agent Perez. They find him at an airport, ripping the plane open, crushing him to death! As Burr and Singh arrive, the aliens realize Kobra’s plan and Villains Issue

Kobra’s Free Fall (above) The title terror tumbles on this original art page to Kobra #3 (June–July 1976). Penciled by Keith Giffen early in his career, with inks

by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin.

Courtesy of Heritage. (above left) Chua’s cover to issue #3.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 65

Kubert’s Kobra This Joe Kubert cover to Kobra #4 (Aug.–Sept. 1976) is certainly striking, but with the title’s constantly rotating interior art teams the book never got a toehold in the DC line.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

split, sending Kobra into a rage. He punches Burr out, which should knock him out, too ... but somehow it doesn’t, and he takes off. Does this mean Kobra is now somehow more powerful than Burr?

In #5 (Nov.–Dec. 1976), an old star from the DC Universe shows up— private eye Jonny Double. Double stumbles onto the Kobra case when he’s almost killed by an explosion, the only piece of remaining evidence being part of a suitcase with a Kobra symbol on it. He is apprehended by Kobra and strung up on the Golden Gate Bridge, which will be destroyed, along with all of San Francisco, when the approaching dawn triggers Kobra’s new solar-powered machine called the Quaker.

In #6, Double manages to escape and destroys the Quaker. Kobra gets away and tracks down Burr on a plane headed toward San Francisco. Burr is so sick of all this, he’s ready to kill himself, as long as it takes his evil twin with him. Kobra then reveals that he has kidnapped Melissa! Meanwhile, Randu Singh and Jonny Double learn of Kobra’s newest plan to tap into global-communication cables, “bugging” the entire world. Singh and Double find Kobra’s secret ship, called the Ark, and sneak on. Kobra blinds Singh with some gas from his glove, and then tries to fly away in the Ark. Double blasts it with a wrist-laser (stolen from Kobra), causing it to crash, seemingly killing Kobra… but that means Jason Burr is dead, too! Doesn’t it?

In #7, we learn, of course, that Kobra survived. Burr, still alive, meets Jonny Double for the first time, and he tells Double the whole story. Kobra then kidnaps Burr, beaming him up into the Ark where he sees Melissa in suspended animation! As if that wasn’t bad enough, Kobra has built a machine called the Empathic Magnetizer (patent pending), which “re-routes” pain felt by some of Kobra’s minions (used as guinea pigs) into Burr, and Burr only!

66 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Burr learns from Melissa that she knew Kobra years ago and fell in love with him. And even though he’s an evil monster, she still does love him, in some way. Burr is convinced Kobra brainwashed her, and he escapes and tries to fight Kobra, who is now working on a plan to resurrect the dead! Kobra pushes Burr off the Ark into the water, and we see Kobra’s ultimate weapon—the perfectly preserved bodies of their parents, which Kobra will bring back from the dead!

To be continued … well, sort of.

Even though it was advertised on the last page of #7, there was no Kobra #8, which promised to guest-star Batman. Luckily, the story did see the light of day in DC Special Series #1, an 80-page anthology book featuring stories starring Aquaman, the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman. In “The Dead On Arrival Conspiracy,” Batman gets involved in the case, and makes his way to Kobra’s secret HQ in the Swiss Alps. Here he finds Burr—who Kobra learned wasn’t dead in the ocean after all—and is knocked out by Kobra’s goons. He wakes up alongside Burr, dangling over the Lazarus Pit, something Batman is all too familiar with. Kobra plans to kill them both and have them reborn as his slaves.

He makes the fatal mistake of not seeing his plan all the way through by sticking around, and soon Batman frees himself and Burr.

He apprehends Kobra, while Burr takes off with the hypnotized Melissa. As they leave aboard a ski lift, Melissa stabs Burr in the back, then throws herself and Burr out of the car to their deaths! Turns out Kobra had killed Melissa and reincarnated her as a slave, and she has carried out his orders to murderous perfection.

Batman is shocked when Kobra gets free and jumps off a cliff, seemingly to his death. But at the last second, Kobra’s Ark ship grabs his falling body with a tractor beam, spiriting him away. We are left with Batman, vowing never to stop hunting Kobra and to bring him to justice.

Wow—and that’s only half the stuff that goes on in just these eight stories. Kobra has a crazy, movie-serial, what-else-can-theythrow-in-next quality to it, and that feeling extends to the book itself.

After Kirby, Marcos, and Berry on the art for Kobra #1, #2 is drawn by Chic Stone and Marcos, #3 by Keith Giffen, Terry Austin, and Dick Giordano, #4 by Pat Gabriele and Lowell Anderson, and #5 by Rich Buckler and Frank McLaughlin. Only issues #6 and 7 were by the same team—Mike Nasser and Joe Rubenstein. Whew!

As ramshackle as the book is, it is entertaining in a way that not too many comics are anymore. Sure, a lot of it doesn’t make sense (two-headed aliens? Bringing the dead back to life? Nixon banning cobra venom?), but Pasko wrote Kobra as such a classic indefatigable villain that he’s still around to this day, causing trouble in the DC Universe. (In 1985 alone he was a genuinely creepy menace in Batman and the Outsiders, as well as the butt of jokes when taking on Superman and Ambush Bug in DC Comics Presents. Say what you want, the guy is versatile!) As a sidenote, I can’t help but think, with all the accoutrements Kobra carries with him—henchmen dressed like snakes, the floating Ark, the Servitrons, the Quaker, the secret base in the Swiss Alps—Kobra might have made for a kickin’ toy line from Mego. Oh, well.

Marty Pasko, looking back, says, “I wrote all of Kobra with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek—it was a preposterous exercise dumped in my lap, and it helped pay the rent on a very nice place in the Village. As embarrassing as it is by today’s standards, there is apparently still something appealing about the character, because other writers keep digging it out of mothballs every now and then.

Nice to know those books are still entertaining somebody somewhere, if not in the manner originally intended.”

All hail King Kobra!

by

Michael Eury

conducted on June 14, 2008 Morris and transcribed by Brian “Red K”

One of my most enjoyable experiences in recent memory was being a guest writer at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, in mid-June 2008, thanks to the book I wrote (with the help of guest contributors) and edited, The Krypton Companion. On the Saturday afternoon of the threeday weekend event, while I was chatting away with super friends new and old, my wife Rose nudged me with news she had just received: “Get to the Chamber— now!” Obediently, I chimed, “Right away, Mista Lewtor!”

That “Chamber” was not some Kryptonian Council Room, but instead the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce office, where three Hollywood guests were signing autographs: the original live-action Lois Lane and grand dame of Metropolis, Noel Neill; Smallville’s Chloe Sullivan, the adorable Allison Mack; and the man I had arranged to interview for BACK ISSUE (through the kind and sincerely appreciated coordination of Superman event planner Karla Ogle), Ned Beatty.

Right away, Mista Lewtor! (left) Actor Ned Beatty on June 14, 2008 in Metropolis, Illinois and (inset) Beatty as Superman’s Otis. All Metropolis photos in this interview are by Michael Eury.

Superman: The Movie TM & © Warner Bros./DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 67

Beginnings: Deliverance (1972)

Milestones: Movies: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean / White Lightning / Nashville / Network (1977 Oscar nomination) / Silver Streak / Gray Lady Down (with Christopher Reeve) / Superman: The Movie / Superman II / Back to School / The Big Easy / Switching Channels (with Christopher Reeve) / Captain America (unreleased, 1990) / Where the Red Fern Grows / Shooter / Charlie Wilson’s War / In the Electric Mist Television: guest appearances on numerous series including Kojak, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, Hawaii Five-0, The Rockford Files, and CSI / recurring appearances on Roseanne and Homicide: Life on the Street / Emmy nominations for the telefilms Friendly Fire (1979) and Last Train Home (1990)

Works in Progress: Toy Story 3 (voice, 2010)

ned beatty

Superman Celebs (top) Beatty tells a story to a fan. (bottom) Smallville’s Allison Mack and Beatty.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Since his breakout performance as Bobby Trippe in director John Boorman’s disturbing but unforgettable backwoods drama Deliverance (1972), Louisville, Kentucky, native Beatty has become one of Hollywood’s most familiar faces in a diverse range of character roles. Despite his myriad successes on screen and stage, one character of Beatty’s remains most beloved among comic-book fans: Otis, the bumbling but endearing henchman of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1980).

And so I zipped (not faster than a speeding bullet, mind you, but still at an impressive clip) past a legion of fans lining two city blocks anxiously awaiting their moment to say hello to the stars, to be ushered into a back room to conduct the following brief interview with the accommodating Mr. Beatty, who could have taken this time to relax but instead chose to spend his “break” chatting with me. No wonder we all love Otis, even though he hangs with a bad crowd!

– Michael Eury MICHAEL EURY: What do you think about this Superman Celebration?

NED BEATTY: I think it’s kinda fun. I thought being in the [Superman] movie was a great deal of fun. It was a big thrill to see it and see that it had such life and such romance and a lot of sweetness in it. I loved that.

When I started as an actor, I wanted to work for Disney because I thought I really liked movies with kids and dogs. [chuckles] And did you know that Disney never hired me. [gesturing to his shirt] Well, this is a shirt I got from the people at Pixar, and I’m doing a movie with them [Toy Story 3].

EURY: That’s a Cars shirt, isn’t it?

BEATTY: Yes. So they sent me a shirt of it. I thought, well, heck, I’d wear it and make a good target.

[Michael laughs] But [with Superman], I got the offer from them for some sort of a mean character and I thought, “I don’t play a bad guy. I want to be a nice guy with kids and dogs.” [chuckles] EURY: Otis might have been a villain’s henchman, but he was a nice guy.

BEATTY: Yeah, and I think it was kind of sweet because I honestly believe that Dick Donner, the director, created the character, and he just very simply told me what he wanted me to do, and I did everything he asked me to do. He wanted me to be a comedian in every scene. He said I always had to be eating and usually some kind of junk food, candy bars, anything like that. “Oh-kay, Dick. I can do that. I can do it.” [Michael laughs] But I just got the idea from that first scene that you wanted a person who was just childlike as possible.

I had a wonderful time with a young actor I was working with. He was about ten or 11 at the time we were doing this thing called All the Way Home at USC. He had seen Superman, he liked Superman, and I asked him how he felt about Otis.

“Oh,” he said, “I liked Otis. Otis was fun. I liked him.”

I said, “Well, did you think Otis was a bad person?”

He said, “Well, yeah, Otis did some bad stuff, but he’s a good person.”

I said, “What do you think his problem was?”

And he said, “Well, his problem was a lot of kids are like this. They’re good kids, but they get in with the wrong people. It’s their hero that’s not so good.”

Dastardly Duo (left) Lex Luthor’s plot revealed, from Superman: The Movie. (center) Director Richard Donner (seated, wearing glasses) on the set of Superman. (bottom) Holographic stand-ins for Otis and Lex from Superman II. TM & © Warner Bros./DC Comics.

I said, “That’s exactly right! Because he loved Lex Luthor so much, he fell in with this crazy guy.” So I said, “What if they made another movie and Otis could be friends with Superman? And then he would be like a Superman person. And then he would do all of these things with Superman and could get to fly with Superman.” And the kid just started shaking his head like this [shaking head]. He said, “No, no, no.”

[Michael chuckles] I said, “You don’t think Superman would fly with Otis?” He said, “No, uh-uh. Otis would never fly. Otis would bounce.” [Michael laughs] Isn’t that a great line? “Otis would bounce.”

EURY: Too many candy bars. [chuckles] BEATTY: Exactly! [imitates a bouncing ball] Da-bonng, da-bonng! I sort of love that.

But I swear to you, Dick Donner—it was something out of his past. I don’t know what it was, but he knew what he wanted [Superman] to be and Gene Hackman didn’t like it much.

EURY: Oh, really? Why not?

BEATTY: No, he didn’t like the fact that for some reason … he may not have liked the fact that I was having more fun than he was, because he was just playing the villain. For him, well, there wasn’t much spotted for him.

EURY: Hackman came back in the fourth Superman movie and was paired with Jon Cryer, who played Lex Luthor’s nephew. Were you approached about that movie?

BEATTY: No, no. I think later, I saw Gene … last time I saw him, the last and only time I saw him, was, for some reason, on the QEII, over there, making an ocean crossing. I was with my family and I think he was by himself. But anyway, he came up to me on the boat and right in front of me, he said, “I want you to know I’m sorry.”

EURY: Sorry about…?

BEATTY: Nothing, just—he said that. Gene’s kind of funny. He’s Old World, in some ways. He said, “I’m sorry.” The only thing I can think of is, somehow,

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 69

That Sinking Feeling Beatty is visible in this lobby card from the 1978 disaster movie Gray Lady Down, which featured Christopher Reeve in a small role. Image courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, Movie Posters (www.ha.com). © 1978 Universal Pictures.

he just didn’t want me there, he didn’t want the character there. I don’t know, I mean I have no real reason—I think the character’s just a little bit out of the box for a lot of people.

EURY: But Otis was a favorite of kids.

BEATTY: Well, kids got it. They knew what they were watching.

EURY: Well, Otis is a favorite of adults, too. Just think about it: 30 years later, here I am, asking you questions about Otis. [Ned laughs] You’re here in a town that is celebrating your arrival, talking about this character, a character that people have grown to love.

BEATTY: Yeah, but you know, it was really Dick. It was Dick Donner’s creation and boy, that’s a hard nut to crack or to figure out. Dick Donner has one of the biggest voices I’ve ever heard in my life, and it’s a basso speaking voice. [almost operatic] And when he opens his mouth [Michael chuckles], it’s like when old-fashioned assistant directors used to have to be very loud because they didn’t have any loud speakers.

They had to project loudly. You had to hear them when they said, “Quiet,” and, “Don’t anybody move.” You had to hear it. Well, Dick sort of reminds you of those guys.

And he and Hackman did not get along. When I first got to England to work there [on the Superman shoot], they had been there working for a week and they’d already [clashed]. By the time I got there, which was like three or four days after this happened, they were best buddies again.

But the whole thing about Otis, I can’t help but think that there’s something that [Gene Hackman] disliked a lot and I can’t say exactly what it was.

EURY: When I originally saw Superman: The Movie I looked at Otis as being a throwback to the campy Batman TV show-type henchman. But Otis had a lot of heart and you could not help but like him and actually, in a way, almost feel sorry for him. Why did Otis hook up with this bad guy?

BEATTY: Yeah, yeah, what is his problem? Why did he do those really awful, awful things? I don’t know.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Autograph Session Ned Beatty treated each fan with respect and courtesy.

But he was very endearing. And Donner thought of all the things like him making the mistakes. Why didn’t he write all of the [missile code] numbers down on his arm? It’s because he just ran out of arm. [Michael laughs] It’s a kid thing.

EURY: A lot of people might not realize that you were in a film with Christopher Reeve that predates Superman, the submarine disaster movie, Gray Lady Down (1978). I haven’t seen that in a long time, so please refresh my memory: Were you actually in a scene together?

BEATTY: We were in a scene together right before David Carradine and I—David Carradine was a scientist and also a naval officer. But he had been in this tiny submarine that would go way, way, way deep, and the deal was that we needed to go way down and help these guys escape from this sub which was on the ocean floor, too deep for most people to go. I was an enlisted man, a chief, and I was his mechanic. I was like the guy who made the nuts tighter, whatever you want to say. [chuckles] So we’re doing this scene in the board room of the thing and Chris is playing this ensign. I don’t think he had a line. He’s just standing against the wall, listening to all this stuff that’s going on, and for some reason, I wanted to break him up.

[Michael chuckles] I don’t know, he was a terribly good-looking man.

EURY: Yeah, he really was.

BEATTY: And when I first saw him, he was quite thin and he was just a marvelous-looking guy. And I wasn’t flirting with him or anything, but I just tried to crack him up. We made friends and I said, “I’m sorry.

What’s your name?” We made friends.

EURY: I guess you’ve got to do something to pass the time while being stuck on a submarine.

BEATTY: I think Charlton Heston was in [that scene]. Oh, God. No, Charlton Heston wasn’t because he was [trapped]—Charlton Heston and Ronny Cox were … brrr—down in the submarine.

I said, “That scene was boring the hell out of me.”

[Michael laughs]

But [Christopher Reeve and I] did know each other and we started making friends on this little movie.

I don’t know how many days we worked together, probably no more than three or four.

EURY: So by the time he was cast as Superman, you were one of the few people who knew who he was.

BEATTY: I knew, yeah. So when I got to England, he’d been there about a week and I think he was kind of happy to see me. He went to his dressing room and had weights in his dressing room. I said, “What are you going to do with those?” He said, “They want me to be buff.” [laughter] Chris was fascinating. I almost, almost got to do a film with him. Who was the guy who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull…? Oh, I can see him as good as I can see his wife…

EURY: I’m drawing a blank, too.

[Editor’s note: The author’s name, which I couldn’t recall during the interview, is Richard D. Bach, a noted aviation expert and enthusiast. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, his story about the joy of flying from the perspective of a bird, was an enormously popular 1970 novel that was made into a movie three years later. Bach wrote other books about flight including Stranger to the Ground and Biplane. His first wife, Bette, also an aviator, editorially assisted Bach on his early books.]

BEATTY: But anyway, the deal was, he had a book and he wanted to turn it into a movie. But I had a partner at the time who was a writer and we worked on a basic outline. We actually started writing the script.

I think we had about 30 pages, and I said, “Chris [Reeve] is the one who should play this.” It’s about a barnstorming pilot and Chris loved to fly. He loved to fly, I mean, just nuts about it.

[Bach] lived up in Oregon and I said, “Chris, would you be willing to go up and meet the guy to see if we got anything going here?” And Chris liked that material. He’d read the book. The book was about this flyer, basically needing an avatar, same kind of a business.

So anyway, I said, “Well, how should we go?”

He said, “I’ll fly.”

EURY: No harnesses strapped to him for this? [laughter] BEATTY: So we got up there in a little, tiny airplane that looked like something [Reeve] made out of stuff in his yard. He owned a Stearman, which is the biplane which the old barnstormers used to use.

They’d give people rides. [Chris] could do a flip, so he comes flying out and meets us in the air and we kind of go down to the ground and all this sort of thing.

And oh, boy, what a ride! [chuckling] But the [movie deal] never came in. Anyway, that’s a terribly long story, but it’s a good Chris Reeve story because I think part of the reason he did so well as Superman was that flying was a big thing [in his life].

I mean, he loved to go soaring. He loved to fly higher.

EURY: The tagline for Superman the Movie, “You’ll believe a man can fly,” really was true because he pulled it off with grace and conviction.

BEATTY: Yeah!

Villains Issue

Stars in Stripes (left) Otis has fun with “Mista Lewtor” during the prison breakout scene in Superman II. (above) The teaser poster for 1978’s Superman: The Movie listed Beatty among its many stars.

TM & © Warner Bros./DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 71

by

Lex Luthor and Brainiac. In Superman’s rogues’ gallery they rank in the upper part of the top ten.

Premiering in 1940 and 1958, respectively, these two villains have since continued to vex, bedevil, and otherwise try to kill the Man of Steel time and again. By the ’80s, they had managed to make their marks on the small screen, with Luthor even making it into the movies. But in comics, these two titans of terror couldn’t fight against the march of time and a decision was made that would change both characters … “forever.”

They were going to get a makeover.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY In 1983, DC rolled out a number of “anniversary” issues for several of its longer-running titles. These issues had extra pages and shared similar trade dress at the top of the covers, noting which fabulous year or issue number the titles were celebrating.

Superman received his anniversary issue in the form of Action Comics #544 (June 1983), which celebrated the 45th year of the title. This issue was where the big change happened.

Lex Luthor was at that time mainly sporting a purple-and-green number that was decked out with gadgets and even had rockets on the boots. Brainiac looked very much as he had in his first appearance, with a pink/purple shirt complete with a white flare collar and bare legs.

With styling threads such as those, why would the creators need to change things up?

The reason was simple: The editor of the Superman line at the time, Julius Schwartz, wanted a fresh take on some old concepts. Marv Wolfman, who was writing Action, remembers, “All I was told

by Julie was that he was looking for new ideas on both Luthor and Brainiac and I came up with one for each of them.” Cary Bates, the main writer on Superman during that period, has a similar recollection about being asked to redo Luthor. Julie gave the

Malevolent Makeovers Superman’s top two terrors were overhauled in Action Comics #544 (June 1983). Cover art

by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

72 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Michael Bailey

Luthor assignment to Bates while Marv Wolfman was asked to produce his Brainiac revamp. While working with Marv Wolfman on New Teen Titans at the time, artist George Pérez was tapped to design Luthor’s look, and artist Ed Hannigan handled the new and improved Brainiac. Both designs were reproduced in Action #544 as pinups.

LUTHOR UNLEASHED The genesis of Lex’s redesign dated back two decades in a story titled “The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman,” which appeared in Superman #164 (Oct. 1963). In that Edmond Hamilton-written tale, Luthor challenges Superman to a good, old-fashioned fist fight on a distant planet under a red sun, where Superman was bereft of his superabilities. Luthor tries to help the primitive civilization that lived there and with the aid of Superman brings fresh water back to that world. The citizens declare Luthor a hero, while Superman was seen as the villain.

This concept was not forgotten and eventually the planet renamed itself Lexor. Luthor even found romance on the planet in the form of Ardora, who would wait patiently every time her true love was taken back to Earth.

Twenty years later, “Luthor Unleashed,” written

by Cary Bates with art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, was the first story in Action Comics #544.

It opens with Luthor grievously injured after a particularly fierce battle with Superman. RX99, one of Luthor’s robots, helps Lex to a rocket and Luthor travels to Lexor where Ardora sees to his medical care. After recovering, Luthor discovers that he has a son by Ardora and Lex seeks to put his sordid past behind him and settle into family life. Back on Earth, RX99’s actions lead Superman to discover where Lex has escaped, and the Man of Steel begins a journey to Lexor.

In the meantime, Lex finds a hidden lab full of ancient technology, a discovery he keeps to himself.

He goes on to build a “neutrarod” which stabilizes Lexor’s core, saving it from its eventual destruction.

Around this same time, a mysterious, armored marauder wreaks havoc on Lexor. When Superman arrives on Lexor, Lex reveals that he was the marauder using the armor he had found in the hidden lab. Using the suit’s ability to mix energies he fires an energy meld at Superman, which bounces off the Kryptonian’s chest and strikes the neutrarod. This sets off a chain reaction and despite his best efforts to save his wife and son, Lex watches as his family and the rest of Lexor are destroyed in a violent explosion. Thanks to his armor Luthor survives and swears vengeance on Superman.

This vengeance carries over into Superman #385–386 (July–Aug. 1983), where Lex sets up another neutrarod to destroy the Earth just as Lexor was destroyed. Superman manages to stop the chain reaction, but Luthor escapes.

New Looks (above) Lex Luthor’s previous togs are about to get junkheaped on this Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson page from Action #544. (left) There’s no hint of humanity left in the new Brainiac, as seen on Gil Kane’s cover to Action #545.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 73

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

A rematch would come over a year later in the pages of Superman #401 (Nov. 1984). In “Operation: False Front,” Luthor imbues the suit with artificial intelligence and instructs it to not only capture Superman but perform all manner of dastardly deeds with Superman trapped inside and helpless to stop it. With Supergirl’s help he breaks free of the suit’s control, and once again there is a stalemate between Luthor and Superman.

Beginning nine months later, in Superman #410, 412, and 413 (Aug., Oct., and Nov. 1985), Lex launches another nefarious plot to destroy Superman. This time he creates devices that convince Superman that he has performed acts of heroism that never happened.

When Superman writes of this as Clark Kent and the front-page story is proven to be a lie, his professional life is ruined and Clark is fired from the Daily Planet.

Over the course of the three issues, Superman begins to lose touch with reality, and it is only with the love and support that his friends show Clark Kent that he is able to snap out of the state Luthor has put him in.

Luthor is captured during this story, but not by Superman. He is taken by Brainiac and plays a key role in the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

After appearing in the special Superman and Batman: Heroes Against Hunger (1986), Lex dons the power suit one last time in Superman Annual #12 (1986). It is in this story that the suit’s true origin is revealed. The armor was originally designed by an elderly Lexorian scientist named Ukruh as a means to keep his society under control. Ukruh believed that the technology his race had developed was beyond their maturity to handle. Ukruh dies, but not before finishing the suit, which destroyed most of the civilization that had been built after it went into a form of hibernation.

When Lex had uncovered the suit he excised the energy being inside of it, but now that being was back.

Only Superman and Lex working together could stop the creature’s rampage. The war suit escapes, but Luthor is no longer in possession of it.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE Marv Wolfman had a simple idea when it came to revamping Brainiac: “I decided to go for the computer/ machine aspect of the character rather than the human-looking one. I thought Superman should have villains who looked and acted as threatening as possible.

Back then there were very few Superman villains who looked like they were a danger.”

The second tale in Action Comics #544 was titled “Rebirth,” written by Wolfman with art by Gil Kane.

Brainiac triggers a supernova but Superman is able to prevent its explosion from destroying the surrounding solar system. While Brainiac escapes he also evolves into a new, robotic form with absolutely no hint of humanity. Brainiac’s new motivation is simple—outwit the “Master Programmer” and the “Programmer’s” Angel of Death, Superman. To this end Brainiac launches a series of attacks on alien worlds which

74 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

eventually get the attention of Superman. The two face off for the first time and after an extended battle, Superman seemingly defeats his enemy.

This proves short-lived as Brainiac attacks Earth in Action Comics #546 (Aug. 1983), and it is only the combined forces of Superman, the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans that manage to defeat Brainiac and release the alien race he had enslaved in his previous conquest.

After that, Brainiac was largely absent from the Superman titles. His next major appearance came during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where he collected a large group of villains from the various Earths that were in peril during that event. In Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 (Sept. 1985), Brainiac kills the Lex Luthor of Earth-Two before sending the villains on a campaign of terror and destruction over multiple Earths. At the end of that issue, Brainiac is seemingly destroyed by Psimon, a member of the Fearsome Five. In the beginning of Crisis #10, Brainiac proves that he is hard to kill and gains vengeance on Psimon, killing the Titans’ villain, though that death would prove to be temporary. In Crisis #11 (Feb. 1986), a damaged Brainiac is found by the Forgotten Heroes [Editor’s note: An assemblage of offbeat DC characers], leading to Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (Mar. 1986), where Brainiac awakens, takes the Forgotten Heroes to Apokolips, and witnesses Darkseid’s role in destroying the Anti-Monitor.

Brainiac’s final “new look” appearance occurred in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 (both Sept. 1986).

“Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” details the final story in the life of the Earth-One Superman. Luthor, sans power suit, finds the head of Brainiac and is taken over by the robot. The all-new Luthor/Brainiac “team” seek to finally destroy Superman. Brainiac is joined by Saturn Queen, Lightning Lord, and Cosmic King of the futuristic Legion of Super-Villains, who tell him that they know Superman disappears after a battle with his greatest villain. Brainiac believes that he is that villain but is eventually defeated when Lana Lang kills Luthor and leaves Brainiac without a host.

The next month the Superman books went through a complete reboot. This brought the new looks of both Luthor and Brainiac to an end.

For the moment.

WHO WINS? WHO LOSES? YOU DECIDE! The “new look” Luthor and Brainiac had lives outside of the comics. Both of them were part of the initial wave of the Super Powers Collection, the toy line developed by Kenner Toys that started hitting toy shelves in 1984. The conceit of the line was that each figure had a special ability that could be activated by either squeezing the arms or the legs of the figure. The figures also contained a mini-comic book and had a file card on the back that could be clipped out and saved.

Lex Luthor’s Super Powers figure had a karate-chop action when its legs were squeezed, while Brainiac’s had a high kick when its arms were pushed together.

There was also the Lex Soar-7, Lex’s vehicle, which had a claw on the bottom that could grab figures, a chunk of “kryptonite” in the back to power the vehicle, and little straps inside the cockpit that could attach to two holes on the figure’s armor that would simulate the armor getting recharged.

Sartorial Sightings (opposite left) Armored Luthor made the Adams/Giordano cover of 1986’s Heroes Against Hunger. (opposite right) Lex and Brainiac’s spaceship are among the villain-loaded Pérez cover of Crisis #9 (Dec. 1985). (this page) From 1984’s series one of Super Powers toys, the Brainiac and Luthor file cards, and (inset) appearances of the villains in mini-comics.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 75

Lex Luthor and Brainiac, like the rest of the figures from the first and second wave of Super Powers, had their own mini-comics, with Lex making appearances in the Superman and Hawkman editions and Brainiac appearing in the Flash edition. The action-figure line ran for three waves in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

There was a proposed fourth wave that could have given Brainiac his own vehicle, the Brainiac Skull Ship, but this wave was never produced. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #30 for an in-depth look at Super Powers’ unrealized fourth wave.]

ANIMATED AND OTHER COMIC-BOOK VERSIONS

© 2009 DC Comics.

The mainstream DC books and the toy line were not the only places where Luthor and Brainiac’s new looks could be seen. With each wave of Kenner’s Super Powers Collection, DC Comics published a miniseries to tie in to the figures that were being released.

The first Super Powers miniseries contained five issues plotted by Jack Kirby and scripted by Joey Cavalieri, with pencils and inks by Adrian Gonzales and Pablo Marcos, respectively. The second series, released in 1985, was six issues long and was written by Paul Kupperberg, with pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Greg Theakston.

The third and final series was only four issues long and published in 1986. Kupperberg came back for the writing chores, with Carmine Infantino providing pencils and Marcos inking. Each series dealt with a struggle against Darkseid, and Lex Luthor and Brainiac had very little to do with the story past the initial miniseries.

Luthor and Brainiac were also featured in their new looks on the last two seasons of the Super Friends animated series on ABC-TV’s Saturday morning lineup.

The series was almost completely revamped to coincide with the Super Powers Collection action-figure line.

The penultimate season was renamed Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and both Luthor and Brainiac were featured in three episodes each. Lex fought the Super Powers team in “No Honor Among Thieves” and the “Case of the Shrinking Super Friends,” while Brainiac appeared in the aptly named “The Wrath of Brainiac” as well as “The Village of Lost Souls.”

Both characters appeared in “Curator,” which was the 14th episode produced that season. Brainiac and Luthor

Tie-In and Reboot (left) The new Luthor and Brainiac were included in the lineup of the toy tie-in Super Powers miniseries of 1984, but (below) two years later, in the Man of Steel Superman relaunch, Lex Luthor was dramatically overhauled.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Metal Menaces (left) Luthor was back in a modified version of his battle armor in 2003’s Superman/Batman #6 (cover by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines), and (above) both his and Brainiac’s ’80s makeovers were immortalized in plastic as DC Direct action figures.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

who was rendered discorporate and took over the body of circus mentalist Milton Fine. At first he used Fine’s body as a host, but when that body began to deteriorate Brainiac teamed with Lex Luthor and manipulated events so that a new, more suitable body could be made.

Once Brainiac had control of this new body, he took to the stars and returned periodically to make yet repeated attempts to kill Superman.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK would return in the final season of the Super Friends series, this time under the name The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, though they would only appear in one episode each. Lex was featured in “The Seeds of Doom,” while Brainiac was the villain in “Brain Child.”

MAN OF STEEL: 1, NEW LOOKS FOR LUTHOR AND BRAINIAC: 0 In June of 1986, DC began publishing the six-issue miniseries Man of Steel, written and penciled by John Byrne with inks by Dick Giordano.

This was a dawn for a whole new era for Superman as the hero’s history was substantially rewritten.

Lex Luthor was featured in this series as well; he made a shadowy cameo in the second issue before his first full post-Crisis appearance in issue #4. This Luthor was different from anything that had come before and was the realization of the revamp Marv Wolfman had proposed in 1983. Luthor wore a power suit, but it was the threepiece variety that befitted his new stature as a business mogul who controlled a vast network of criminal enterprises. In Man of Steel #4, Luthor held back his own security force at a party on one of his yachts to see what this new Superman could do. After trying to hire the Man of Steel, Lex is placed under arrest and thus an arch-enemy is made. Instead of the old origin of the animosity between Luthor and Superman stemming from a lab accident that made Lex become unhinged, Luthor now hated Superman because the presence of this heroic newcomer challenged egotist Luthor’s position as Metropolis’ “benefactor.”

Brainiac’s revamp was a bit more complicated, and began in Adventures of Superman #438 (Mar. 1988). Instead of being a living computer, the post-Crisis Vril Dox was a member of the Coluan race

While the continuity might have changed the “new look,” Luthor and Brainiac would eventually resurface. Lex’s armored look came back during the 2003 “Public Enemies” arc of Superman/Batman, written by Jeph Loeb with art by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines. The new armor wasn’t exactly what George Pérez designed in 1983, but it had the same feel and color scheme. The armor would go under a number of modifications as different artists tried their hand at it during the various crossovers connected to Infinite Crisis. As of this writing, Luthor most recently wore a version of the armor during the “Unlimited” storyline that ran Justice League of America #13–15 in late 2008. This armor, or at least a version of it, was also featured in the fourth wave of figures in the DC Superheroes line released by Mattel. Brainiac was also represented in that line, though his look was nearly identical to the Ed Hannigan design. In 2005, DC Direct released the second wave of its Crisis on Infinite Earths figures, with the Pérez Luthor and Hannigan Brainiac getting the premium action-figure treatment.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE As with most things in superhero comics, big change never lasts.

The “new look” Luthor and Brainiac lasted a little over two years in the comics themselves, but with the Super Powers Collection, the two seasons of the Super Friends, and even the DC Direct figures, they have cemented a place in the history of the medium. The fact that the Luthor armor has made a comeback of sorts is indicative of this, and while Brainiac has not followed suit, the past 20 years have shown that while costumes change, certain looks are never forgotten.

MICHAEL BAILEY is a blogger (www.fortressofbaileytude.com), a podcast host (www.viewsfromthelongbox.com), and reviewer for the Superman Homepage and the Spider-Man Crawlspace. He lives in Fayetteville, Georgia, with his wife, their dog, and a Lex-Soar 7.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 77

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 Seven: Crisis on Fanboy Earth

The arrival of Michael Uslan in 1981 was the beginning of a sea change for the staff at AA. While Bill Gaines was initially concerned about having a “corporate overseer,” he knew Uslan and trusted him.

Gaines also realized that things were going to have to change on his editorial staff. The men who had been there since his youth—Julie Schwartz, Murray Boltinoff, and Robert Kanigher—were all over 65 years old. Kanigher wanted to retire; he told Gaines he would continue to write but no longer wanted to commute to the city and sit behind a desk.

Schwartz and Boltinoff could not be expected to carry the editorial loads they’d handled for decades. Even Gaines’ latter-day additions would need attention. Jack Kirby had moved to California, Joe Kubert wanted to devote his energies to his school, and Joe Orlando wanted to be the company’s art director so he could develop new talent.

Adding to this was that the succession plan that had been put into place with the arrival of the “Woodchucks” in the early 1970s was no longer viable. After years as assistant editors with no positions to move up into, the “kids” had mostly moved on.

Bob Rozakis had taken over the production department following the retirement of Sol Harrison. Guy Lillian had moved to New Orleans to go to law school.

Allan Asherman had become the company librarian.

Only Jack Harris remained in the editorial department, and he wanted to be a freelance writer.

Working together, Gaines and Uslan began rebuilding. One of their first candidates was Dick Giordano, an artist and former editor for Charlton Comics, who had partnered with Neal Adams to form Continuity Studios. When the negotiations bogged down over buying out Giordano’s share of Continuity, Gaines commented that, “In the old days, my father would have bought the whole thing and brought both of them in!”

Warner corporate, however, was not interested in making such a deal and Giordano did not join the staff.

She’s Dead, Alan The turning point of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and one of the most memorable events in comics: the death of Girl Lantern. Art courtesy of Larry Guidry and Shane Foley. (Unless otherwise noted, all comics images in this article are © DC Comics.)

78 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

by

Bob Rozakis

THE AA COMICS EDITORIAL LINEUP 1986: Julius Schwartz

1990: Martin Pasko

All-American Comics Ambush Bug The Brave and Bold Green Lantern ’Mazing Man

Adventures of Green Lantern All-American Comics The Brave and the Bold E-Man Green Lantern Kid Lantern

Murray Boltinoff and Joe Kubert (co-editors) G.I. Combat Sgt. Rock

Joe Orlando Angel Love Elvira’s Tales from the Crypt Jonah Hex New Talent Showcase Weird Science featuring Swamp Thing

Jack Kirby and Mark Evanier (co-editors) Blue Demon Captain Victory Challengers of the Unknown Kid Kamando Silver Star Super Powers

Len Wein Batman Comic Cavalcade Justice League of America New Teen Titans New Teen Titans Spotlight Superman

Mike W. Barr

All in the Family With negotiations underway for a new Flash movie, AA added this new title to feature Flashette, Kid Flash, and other members of the “family.” Art courtesy of Larry Guidry and Shane Foley.

A number of the other candidates had been editors at Marvel and AA was successful in adding Len Wein and Gerry Conway to the roster, though they failed to entice Archie Goodwin to come along. Their biggest success, as far as Gaines was concerned, was the signing of Roy Thomas. Gaines and Thomas had been friends since Roy’s two-week tenure as Mort Weisinger’s assistant back in 1964. “Whenever we had lunch,” says Thomas, “Bill would say, ‘So, when are you going to let me hire you?’ After I stepped down as editor-in-chief at Marvel, I agreed to start writing for AA. And finally, when he offered me the chance to edit the Golden Age characters, I had to agree to take the staff job.”

To ease the workloads on the senior editors, Boltinoff and Kubert became co-editors of the war books, with Kanigher their primary writer. Schwartz’s workload was cut to only the Green Lantern titles (and an occasional miniseries, such as Rozakis’ ’Mazing Man). Kirby’s longtime assistant, Mark Evanier, was promoted to co-editor.

Orlando’s first step toward becoming art director was the creation of New Talent Showcase and a reduction in his editorial load.

AA Comics Presents All-Flash E-Man Flash Comics Flash and the Outsiders Lantern Legion

Roy Thomas All-Star Comics Arak, Son of Thunder Infinity, Inc. Wonder Woman World’s Finest Comics

Bob Greenberger Aquaman Atari Force Booster Gold Secret Origins Star Trek Who’s Who in the AA Universe

E. Nelson Bridwell AA Blue Ribbon Digest Best of AA Digest Silver Age Spectacular

Roy Thomas All-Star Comics The Atom and Electron Comic Cavalcade Time Masters Wonder Woman World’s Finest Comics

Barbara Randall AA Comics Presents All-Flash Flash Comics The Huntress Lantern Legion L.E.G.I.O.N. ’90

Paul Kupperberg Batman The Batman Corps Justice League of America Justice League Everywhere New Teen Titans Superman

Bob Greenberger Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dragonlance Secret Origins Sgt Rock Star Trek Star Trek: The Next Generation

Joey Cavalieri Hellblazer Sandman Swamp Thing Tales from the Crypt (featuring the Doom Patrol) Weird Science (featuring Animal Man) Weird Western Tales (featuring El Diablo)

Mark Evanier Blackhawk Challengers of the Unknown Kirby’s Kingdom Manhunter Mister Miracle Suicide Squad

Allan Asherman AA Blue Ribbon Digest Best of AA Digest Silver Age Spectacular

Michael Uslan Crisis on Infinite Earths

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 79

Give Me an “E” After a series for Charlton Comics, writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton brought E-Man into the AA Universe.

And where better to start than face-to-face with Green Lantern?!

Art by Joe Staton.

E-Man TM & © Joe Staton.

80 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

She’s Almost Dead, Jay To generate interest in the Crisis, AA invited readers to vote on whether Girl Lantern or Flashette would perish. Had the vote gone the other way, this penciled art would have been completed and used on the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

Art courtesy of Larry Guidry. (inset) Flashette’s debut appearance.

The editorial staff did not remain locked in very long, however. Jack Harris left staff to freelance in 1982, essentially trading places with Mike W. Barr, who had been one of his regular writers. Gerry Conway returned to Marvel (and shortly thereafter to a freelance writing career) in 1984 and was replaced by Bob Greenberger.

“Billy called it the Great Fanboy Invasion,” says Ted Skimmer, a longtime AA staff member and confidant of Gaines. “He said it seemed like every Monday he would come in and there’d be somebody new sitting in one of the offices!”

In fact, the turnover continued through the decade. Following Julie Schwartz’s retirement in 1987, Martin Pasko, one of his longtime writers, took over the Green Lantern family of titles. Joe Orlando became the fulltime art director, handing over his editorial duties to his assistant, Joey Cavalieri. Murray Boltinoff and Joe Kubert left staff in 1989, when Sgt. Rock was the only war book left in the line. Jack Kirby handled over the full editorial reins to Mark Evanier. Following the death of E. Nelson Bridwell in 1988, Allan Asherman was pressed back into editorial service to edit the three digestsized reprint titles. And when Mike W. Barr and Len Wein each decided to return to freelancing, they were replaced by Barbara Randall and Paul Kupperberg, respectively.

“After decades of the same people doing the same jobs,” said Skimmer, “by 1990 it was a completely different roster. Evanier was the one with the longest tenure in the editorial department … and he wasn’t even in New York!”

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 81

To mark the 20th anniversary of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, AA Comics presented a panel discussion of the behind-the-scenes decisions that went into the groundbreaking maxiseries.

AA editor Mark Evanier moderated the panel, which included publisher Michael Uslan, former editors Len Wein and Mike W. Barr, editorial director Bob Greenberger, and production director Bob Rozakis. The following is excerpted from the transcript of that panel.

if Green Lantern was 30 years old in 1970, Kid Lantern was a teenager in pre-World War II Littletown.

ROZAKIS: I never thought of it as pre-War. I just figured that’s what middle America was still like. Till Kid Lantern met Bonnie and Clyde, anyway…

WEIN: We kicked around a number of ideas, but when you came down to it, the simplest explanation was that they were not the same characters.

MARK EVANIER: The Crisis was probably the first big “event” in the comicAnd what better way to explain that than book business. What prompted it? to invent parallel Earths?

MICHAEL USLAN: We were bored and needed something to do. [laughs] EVANIER: So who actually made LEN WEIN: You have to look at it from a fanboy perspective. that suggestion?

We wanted a logical explanation. We had heroes who had fought MIKE W. BARR: We all claim to have in World War II still looking like they were 30 years old! come up with idea. [everyone laughs] BOB ROZAKIS: Clearly, they used a lot of steroids.

BOB GREENBERGER: But we actually USLAN: Actually, it was something that had come up a number stole it from Julie Schwartz! of times during our editorial meetings. Before we got into the ROZAKIS: Right! Julie had this folder of business, we were the fans who were writing in and asking how, pencil sketch covers from the ’60s that were never used. There was one that showed Barry-Superman and ClarkSuperman both racing to save this Mark Evanier guy as a girder is about to fall on him.

EVANIER: But the story was never written and the cover was never completed.

USLAN: The copyright on Superman was coming up for renewal at the time. According to what Bill Gaines told me, his father decided not to waste money on a potential legal battle with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

He had a Superman that was popular and profitable and did not need to reopen the old lawsuit.

EVANIER: Were there other cover sketches like that in Julie’s files? More importantly, where are those sketches now?

ROZAKIS: There was one that showed the two Batmen. I remember that.

GREENBERGER: The sketches are all in the hands of collectors now. They were auctioned off a few years ago with a lot of Julie’s other stuff.

EVANIER: Getting back to the Crisis, who else was in the meeting? I’m assuming all of you were.

BARR: I think Julie and Murray [Boltinoff] were there.

WEIN: And Bill Gaines.

USLAN: Joe Orlando, Nelson Bridwell, and Roy Thomas. The whole editorial staff, except for you and Jack, Mark.

EVANIER: We missed out on all the fun, being here in California.

So this started out in a regular staff meeting?

USLAN: Yes. We were bob greenberger talking about doing some kind of “big event” for the summer and everyone was kicking around ideas. And someone said, “You know, we really should clean up the continuity.”

WEIN / BARR /GREENBERGER / ROZAKIS: That was me! [audience laughs and applauds]

And Then There Were Four…

With Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, 40-plus years of continuity contradictions were finally put to rest, as the AAU became four parallel universes.

Art courtesy of Larry Guidry and Shane Foley.

82 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Rings Around the Universe Following the Crisis, the Lantern Legion was revitalized with new members and a new look for the original team.

Art courtesy of Larry Guidry and Shane Foley.

USLAN: Exactly.

We decided that the biggest problem was the original heroes—GL, Flash, Wonder Woman, and the others— and how to explain their still being in their late twenties or early thirties almost 50 years after their debuts. We talked about some kind of magical aura that came with their powers, but that would not explain why the secondary characters like Doiby Dickles and Joan Garrick didn’t age. And there was some consideration Michael uslan of the idea that they all drank some “fountain-of-youth” elixir, kind of like Stretch Bando’s Gingold, but one that kept them young.

Somebody suggested that the heroes in the current books were actually the children or grandchildren of the originals, along the lines of the “Sons of Flash and Green Lantern” stories that ran in Comic Cavalcade in the ’70s. But we decided that was going to become too confusing.

And then the idea of parallel worlds was suggested.

WEIN / BARR / GREENBERGER / ROZAKIS: I suggested that! [audience laughs and applauds again] USLAN: I don’t care what any of you say, Julie gets the credit for it!

Everybody liked that idea best and we all got into quite a discussion about it.

ROZAKIS: Not everybody, Michael. As I recall, Murray didn’t care and asked if he could leave. He was only editing the war books, after all.

BARR: And Joe and Bill weren’t far behind him.

WEIN: I remember Bill shaking his head and saying, “Fanboys!” as he walked out.

USLAN: He said that a lot.

EVANIER: So you decided to break the 45 years of AA books into different parts. How did you come up with the parameters for each Earth?

GREENBERGER: That was pretty easy, actually. Earth-One was the WEIN: They were taking place all over the place. original, with the Justice Society and the old DC heroes, along with the EVANIER: Did it really matter? first versions of GL and Flash and the rest. The Earth-Two stories began WEIN: It did to us! with the start of the Silver Age, when Julie created the new Superman. USLAN: One thing we did decide was that the Crisis was going to WEIN: And those ended in 1970, after Mort retired and Julie and result in the creation of a new parallel Earth, taking place in the Jack Kirby made their changes to the Green Lantern universe. current day. And that would be called Earth-Prime. All the stories Although we debated a lot about when the Earth-Three version of that appeared after the Crisis would take place on a world with a the Flash began, because there were the major changes when Julie unified history.

And we were determined to make sure everything was logical. got him back in 1964.

Kid Lantern would be a teenager in the ’60s, for example. Sgt. Rock BARR: Nelson had a lot to say about that.

EVANIER: I would suspect that between Nelson, who was the biggest would be 60 years old, assuming he turned up, although Bob Kanigher always insisted that Rock was killed by the last shot stickler for continuity I’ve ever met, and Roy, who loves to tie fired in World War II. everything together nice and neat, you had quite a debate.

BARR: That didn’t stop Murray and Bob Haney from USLAN: Nelson was working on a complete list of using him in Brave and Bold! every story we’d ever published, assigning each ROZAKIS: On that Earth, he didn’t die! And was in one to the proper Earth, when he passed away. pretty good shape for a guy 50 years old!

As far as he was concerned, the Earth-Three Flash EVANIER: Well, you guys did clean up a lot of the began appearing in 1964, out of synch with the past breaches in continuity. The “Sons” stories in rest of the characters.

Comic Cavalcade, for example.

ROZAKIS: Well, he did have a point. All of the Jack WEIN: We were originally going to ignore them, Schiff version went away when Julie took over. but Nelson pointed out that they could be the GREENBERGER: There really wasn’t a clean break sons of the Earth-One Flash and Green Lantern. between Earths-Two and Three. Wonder No reason the heroes could not have gotten married Woman’s adventures switched before 1970 also. and had kids after the comics moved to following And then there were the team-ups in Brave and len wein their Earth-Two counterparts.

Bold and Showcase…

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 83

BARR: And Roy covered it in All-Star Comics when he brought back the Justice Society.

GREENBERGER: Originally, the plan was for Nelson to be the Continuity Cop. But then he got ill and I stepped in to handle it.

EVANIER: The Earth-Prime you created in 1986 is now Earth-Four. Did you guys make the decision that you would do another revamp when you were setting up the Crisis?

USLAN: It was definitely in one of those early meetings. We realized that our parallel Earths were about 15 years apart as far as the emergence of the superheroes.

Earth-One ran from 1940—actually, 1938 when Superman first appeared—to 1956.

Earth-Two went from ’56 to 1970 and Earth-Three ran from ’70 to 1986. So we decided that, assuming we would still be in business and still working for AA, we would reboot the AAU again at the beginning of 2001.

EVANIER: Which you did as the Millennium crossover.

WEIN: And now our original Earth-Prime is Earth-Four and the current books take place on Earth-Prime.

EVANIER: So the AA Universe will get another reboot in 2016?

USLAN: That’s the plan. Whether any of us has anything to do with it is debatable.

GREENBERGER: Julie and Murray continued to work well into their seventies. No reason we can’t do it, too!

EVANIER: When you introduced the parallel Earths, you brought back the original Superman and Batman.

Were there any legal ramifications?

USLAN: Actually not. In fact, it turned out quite well for Siegel and Shuster and Bob Kane. Bill had heard that Jerry and Joe were not doing well, so he arranged for them to receive a “royalty” for the use of their version of Superman. Same thing for Kane and his Batman. They also got some money when the two characters were part of the Kenner action figure line.

The company wasn’t legally obligated, since we still had rights to those versions of the characters, but Bill thought it was the right thing to do.

GREENBERGER: Bringing them back also made Roy Thomas very happy.

He revived the original Justice Society in All-Star Comics and wanted Superman and Batman to play a major part in the team.

EVANIER: Speaking of bringing back the JSA, were there any concerns about publishing books that were taking place on different Earths? mike w. barr Did you think there would be a problem for the readers?

WEIN: No, we figured our readers were smart enough to understand the parallel worlds concept.

BARR: I think we debated about which Earth Infinity, Inc. was taking place on, since they were the children and grownup sidekicks of the original heroes.

ROZAKIS: As I remember it, Nelson and Roy debated.

The rest of us just sat there, unable to get a word in. [everyone laughs] GREENBERGER: Roy had wanted to put the series on Earth-One, but Nelson argued that the original heroes would have to be in their seventies and the “kids” in their forties. He insisted that if Roy was going to do stories about young heroes there, they would have to be the grandchildren of the Justice Society members.

They finally agreed that Infinity should be on Earth-Two to make the ages work out most logically. As part of the agreement, Roy would have the final say on anything happening on those two Earths.

BARR: Nelson was the Continuity Cop, but Roy was the sheriff of EarthOne and Earth-Two! USLAN: And the AA Universes lived happily bob rozakis ever after.

NEXT: “The Darkest Night and Beyond”

Not Dolls—Action Figures!

Fanboys’ dreams were fulfilled when Kenner released the set of 36 Super Powers action figures, including virtually every major hero and villain in the AAU. To promote the line, Jack Kirby wrote and penciled a miniseries featuring all of them. Art courtesy of Larry Guidry and Shane Foley.

84 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) No attachments, please!

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

STRAIGHT SHOOTER Before my diatribe about the latest issue [BACK ISSUE #33], I have to say that I loved the article/interview with Elliot R. Brown in issue #32. We don’t get much on the “behind the scenes” guys such as him, and it was a warm and welcome look that gave us an insight to the field that we don’t often see. Hopefully future issues may include similar articles with people such as Jenette Kahn, Bob Wayne (at DC), or even people like Jim Shooter.

My comments have to do with Mary Wilshire’s comments in the Firestar article. When asked about her challenges on working on the Firestar mini, the first thing that comes to her mind is Jim Shooter, because his “sexism was legendary” (and oh, yeah, he had great comic-book acumen).

Nowhere else have I heard anything like this about Jim Shooter. For this to not be challenged or explored in the article, this insult of his character, is just bad reporting, and at the very least purely innuendo. It’s pretty popular to jump on the anti-Shooter bandwagon, but Mary should at least have a reason for doing so. He couldn’t have been that bad if he actually approved the miniseries starring a relatively unknown female character that was unproven in the comics market. Additionally, he did so with an artist who was not exactly a “big star” and had a style more closely associated with romance comics than traditional and more popular superhero comics—and oh, yeah, was also a woman. Sounds to me like Shooter was very progressive regarding this project.

As for the accusation of Marvel’s lack of marketing efforts towards the book and/or character, at the time Marvel’s efforts towards marketing outside their traditional market was lackluster at best. The direct market was just starting, and Marvel was doing their best to exploit that, pretty well to the exclusion of anything else. The same could pretty well be said of most mainstream companies at the time.

So why did Firestar not work (or at least the miniseries), my belief is that even though I think Mary is an amazing artist and writer, that her style was not exactly “thrilling” for the market that it was entering (and which was the only market that Marvel seemed to be interested in at the time). At the time, if a series did not sell based on its character (i.e., Wolverine), then the selling point was the artist—and unfortunately Mary being on it was not a plus sales-wise...

That’s all I have for now. Thanks for the entertaining issue.

– Rob Postuma Thanks for your comments in defense of Jim Shooter, Rob. As writer J. C. Vaughn said last issue in his interview with Mr. Shooter, Jim has been a “human lightning rod” throughout his comics career. Here at BACK ISSUE we’re in awe of Jim’s ever-evolving body of work and remind readers that the opinions of interviewed creators aren’t necessarily our own.

– M.E. THE FURY OF FIRESTAR Hi, just bought BACK ISSUE #33 yesterday, and as ever it’s an interesting, varied read (though there’s the odd surprising mistake, such as John Schwirian’s assertion that Bob Kanigher was behind the non-powered Wonder Woman).

Mike Gagnon responds: As is often the case with any subject there are at least two sides to every story, and many more angles from which to view those sides. (Incidentally, I got an e-mail from Christy Marx the same day I was sent this one. She wanted to say how much she enjoyed the article.)

Your letter has raised some very valid points and has given me another angle to consider on the subject. It will also stick with me as I write future articles.

I’d like to thank you for feeling strongly enough to write in and present your views. It is loyal readers like you who help us writers continue to build and perfect our craft.

– Best regards, Mike Gagnon

DANTE’S DISCO INFERNO Enjoyed that new BI offering.

The Ron Dante interview missed another comic connection.

Ron sang the way-cool songs on the famous 1972 Spider-Man Rockomic Buddah Records LP! He didn’t perform as Spidey, just on the four included songs!

I also heard rumors that they planned a Captain America record next. Too bad nothing came of it!

Keep up the good work!

– Al Bigley, www.albigley.com

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Send your comments to:

The article that’s made biggest impression on me so far, though, was Mike Gagnon’s “Off My Chest” piece on Firestar. Honestly, it was a bit Princess-Paragon-embarrassing seeing creatives questioned so earnestly about why Firestar never hit the heights a couple of decades ago. The article even points out that she was basically a cypher, a placeholder inserted into a kiddie TV cartoon because the Human Torch was unavailable, and physically modelled on Mary Jane Watson. That’s it—she was invented, based on two existing templates, to fill a hole, not because anyone had a passion for her. Compare that with John Byrne’s feelings towards his creation, Kitty Pryde, earlier in the issue. Firestar will likely never rise above C-lister; she’s just one of many mutants, and one of numerous characters with heat powers. Rather than bemoaning the fact she never became a comic-book superstar, Mike should be thrilled she received as much exposure as she did— heck, she’s done better than fellow Johnny Storm substitute Herbie the Robot.

– Martin Gray

Thanks for that trivia, Al! – M.E.

JUST A GIGOLO Longtime subscriber, firsttime writer here.

I think your “Teen Heroes” issue was one of the best you’ve put together yet! Loved the article on the Teen Titans, although I do think Mr. Schwirian may have been a bit rough on ol’ Bob Haney. Sure, the early TT issues were pretty hokey by today’s standards, but they were radical compared to most of DC’s whitebread, stuck-in-the-’50s output of the time. The TT at the very least squabbled and ripped on each others as teens always do. Of course, the “ginchy” era of Titans isn’t BI’s purview anyhow.

As for the Flash, I have all the Baron/Guice issues, and while I did (and still do enjoy them) I was a bit put off by Baron’s take on Wally as a super-gigolo. It really contradicted Wolfman’s portrayal of Wally over in New Teen Titans, and this was the first instance I had ever notice of a writer’s “voice” totally changing a character.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 85

Michael Gray seems like a genuinely likeable fellow. Glad to know he looks back on his Shazam! days fondly, and with a good attitude. Great interview! The mystery of Les Tremayne’s dislike for Jackson Bostwick is a puzzling one. I guess we’ll probably never know why. It’s interesting how Gray’s story completely lines up with Bostwick’s own recollections a few issues back.

Supreme praise to Alex Boney for sorting through the mess that is Power Girl’s backstory. If there was ever a poster-child against retcons it’s PG. I had forgotten about that whole Equinox thing. Hoo boy. I think DC is finally realizing the potential fanbase PG has, and I’m glad. Hopefully this article will clear the air for a few readers who may have been afraid to give the girl a try due to all the mess surrounding her!

All in all, a fine, fine issue. Congrats to all involved.

– Chris Franklin

MORE ON THE GERBER ISSUE I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Steve Gerber tribute issue! I was very saddened to hear of his death last year, and was a little disappointed that there wasn’t really much about it from Marvel or any plans to do any tributes (that I was aware of anyway). So this issue came as a great surprise and I loved every bit of it. I’d never met Steve, but I will always be a huge fan of Howard the Duck and his ManThing runs.

Anyway, I’ve just attached my own personal tributes that I did last year for a comic forum, and thought I’d share them with you!

Thanks again for a great issue.

– Daniel Cox

I was able to get my hands on #32, no thanks to my comic store, so I can now comment on both #32 and 33... #32: I was a big fan of Joe Staton during the ’70s and ’80s.

I first discovered his work on Charlton’s Six Million Dollar Man comic. He did a great job on the All-Star Comics revival following Wally Wood’s brief but impressive run. If that exhibition of Joe’s work had been in NYC, I definitely would’ve attended. Ethan Van Sciver I’m not that much a fan of.

I have the whole run of ROM but not the figure, though I do remember the commercials for the figure. Sal Buscema and Al Milgrom, neither of whom I’m a big fan of, were perfect for this book. Later it was great seeing a veritable “who’s who” of creators inking Steve Ditko. I was surprised that Marvel never had ROM and Spider-Man team-up either in MTU or in ROM’s own book. I remember Jackson Guice sneaked a Ditko-esque Spider-Man in the background of an issue when he was inking Ditko. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it but was very disappointed when Guice admitted to it in the letters column.

Hearing that Busiek and Olliffe’s Untold Tales of Spider-Man scuppered Ditko’s return to the character is crushing!

I preferred DC’s Who’s Who to Marvel’s OHOTMU. It’s a shame that George Pérez wasn’t able to do all the covers.

With the exception of the cover John Byrne did for the Superman issue, the non-Pérez covers were tame. I like equally the original and the loose-leaf versions. I got letters printed in both versions!

Great Eliot R. Brown interview! The Barney torture page from “Not The Punisher Armory” had me in tears.

I’m sorry I didn’t know about the “Dial ‘H’ for Hero” segment earlier or I would’ve sent in my photo of the T-shirt in time for press. I got two of them for having two characters picked: Twilight and Miss Muscle.

Can we please stop beating the dead horse that is “The Secret History of All-American Comics”?

© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Daniel, your Gerber tribute paintings are superb, and we appreciate your sharing them with us.

– M.E.

JUST STATON HIS OPINIONS…

86 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

#33: Excellent cover by George Pérez, but those colors were too toned down.

I recently completed my run of the original TT series and agree that the no-costume period was rather tame. I liked where Rozakis was going with the revival. Shame it was canned again.

Nothing to add to the incredible Wolfman/Pérez run. I do remember the whole Baxter/newsprint experiment with both the Titans and the Legion. I dropped the newsprint versions once they started reprinting the Baxter issues. The wheels definitely had fallen off by the time of Team Titans.

Loved the interview with Michael Gray. Great behind-thescene stories. I think it would’ve blown my young mind had Michael and his car show compatriots made an appearance at a NY auto show.

I was not expecting the Ron Dante interview. I know so little about the music end of the Archies animated series that this was all new to me. Obviously I’ve heard “Sugar, Sugar” but I didn’t know that there was so much more music that charted.

I thought it was cool that Kara Zor-L was totally different than her Earth-One counterpart, the way I liked that Clark Kent-Two was editor of the Daily Star and Bruce Wayne-Two was police commissioner. I have almost every Power Girl appearance yet I totally forgot about the whole pregnancy thing until I was reminded about it here. I’m glad that’s been retconned out of continuity by Geoff Johns.

Never did get into Nova, except for the Spider-Man crossover and appearances in FF and ROM. How did he get his powers back, or a close approximation, when he joined the New Warriors?

Someone might want to tell Christy Marx that the reason Johnny Storm wasn’t in that second FF animated series wasn’t that old wives’ tale of children setting themselves on fire in order to imitate the Torch. Sony/Columbia had optioned the rights to Johnny for a motion picture which never came to fruition.

Is “The Secret History of All-American Comics” ever going to come to an end?

Man, was I ever sorry to hear that your interview request with Chris Reeve was turned down. What a shame.

In closing, has anyone written in about the “Super Powers” Wonder Woman blow-up doll I mentioned in my letter? I’d love to know if someone else out there saw it, and possibly bought it.

– Delmo (The Saint) Walters, Jr. So, does the inclusion of original art by Joe Staton in this issue’s AA Comics History change your opinion of Bob Rozakis’ fantasy history? (The series concludes next issue, by the way.)

We haven’t received any reader remembrances (or admissions) of the blow-up Wonder Woman, Delmo, but Rob Kelly does have something to say on the subject…

– M.E. Once again, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the print edition of the newest BI, so I downloaded the digital one and began reading it in chunks, leaving me the ability to write you a letter about issue #33 the same day it actually came out. Technology is wonderful.

Jason Shayer’s Kitty Pryde article was superb, giving me insights to a character I never paid that much attention to. Now that the actress that played her in X3, Juno’s Ellen Page, is such a huge star, maybe Kitty will be the next X-Man to get her own movie spin-off.

I also really enjoyed Alan Porter’s James Bond, Jr. article—not only because it was simply entertaining, but as a Bond fan I now have some background on the James Bond, Jr. concept without actually having had to read any of the material.

The All-American Comics articles continue to make my head explode.

And finally, re the letters page: I now know more about Delmo (The Saint) Walters than I ever imagined I would. But he’s right: He should have bought that Wonder Woman blow-up doll.

Another fine issue, and extra thanks for letting me be a small part of it on page 16. BACK ISSUE #33 features my first ever print byline, so it will always be special to me.

– Rob Kelly

WISHES HE LIVED ON EARTH-22 Just picked up BACK ISSUE #33 and loved the teen hero theme.

The Teen Titans article was great, although I feel that I have to point out that the Russian hero now known as Red Star was originally known as Starfire and not Firestar, although that mistake is quite understandable considering that Marvel mutant heroine’s later appearance in the same issue.

I also have to wonder why Danny Chase was never referred to by his superhero name of Phantasm (always liked his spooky invisible body in hockey mask and brown robes costume and was always sorry that the character never caught on).

The interview with Michael “Shazam!” Gray was wonderful.

I was a big fan of the show back in the ’70s, although I must admit that I am probably one of the few people in the world who preferred John Davey to Jackson Bostwick as Captain Marvel because I felt the former’s good-natured big and beefy build was more in keeping with the way the Big Red Cheese looked to me in the original comics than Bostwick’s more traditional chiseled superhero physique.

The Ron Dante interview was a nice surprise. My girlfriend is a big Archies fan, so she is really looking forward to reading it when she gets a chance (I know for sure that the discography will definitely be quite welcome to an old-time record collector like her!).

The Kitty Pryde article … well, I’ve never been that big a fan, especially when in one issue she basically called a boy in her school a coward at his funeral when he committed suicide rather than being outed as a mutant. Anyone who wears a mask and feels she has to use a pseudonym in public has no right to lecture anyone on being out and proud.

Loved the article on Nova because he was my favorite hero back when I was a teenager in the ’70s, and I was especially ga-ga to see the stuff on Marv Wolfman’s original fan stories that formed the inspiration for the later Marvel character. Man, I have to tell you, one of my greatest joys in life is find info and art on things like this. Thanks!

And then there’s James Bond, Jr. … I remember thinking at the time that you know that you are getting old when the sexually transgressive anti-heroes of your youth like James Bond and Conan become Saturday morning cartoon characters...

I read the first half of the Steve Skeates interview in Alter Ego #84, so I was quite happy to see the rest of it in your magazine, especially since I am a big fan of his Isis, “Codename: Assassin,” Underdog, and especially his Plastic Man stories.

And finally, well, you know what a big fan of the alternate history of All-American Comics I am, so you know I loved the stuff on their/ your version of Teen Titans.

Loved the shot of Hawklad in the Kid Flashstyle cowl on page 73 and much prefer it to the mask-less hood he wears in other panels, but I must admit the young hero I really want to see more of is the Golden Age Atom’s kid sidekick Electron.

TM & © 2009 DC Comics.

Villains Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 87

Am I the only one who noticed that his costume is virtually identical to that old Ideal action figure from the ’70s, Electroman? I’ve actually managed to pick up one of them off of eBay, and man, I’ve got to tell you that at 16 inches tall, it is one of the biggest and not to mention LOUDEST (I swear, you could use its built-in motion sensor as a burglar alarm!) action figure I’ve ever come across, and in case you’re wondering, the costume is red and black with a yellow cape, diamond chest emblem, and belt buckle, and a shiny silver belt and “e” symbol. I’d love to see more of this character.

I see that he’s named Bobby Pratt, so is he related to the Atom?

Is he taller than his mentor or is he also short like the pint-sized powerhouse, which is why Professor Al Pratt took him under his wing, remembering as he would his own early days at school and the nasty comments of his classmates?

And, gosh darn it, does the Atom still have that cool convertible that converts into the Atomobile like he did TM & © 2009 DC Comics. for two panels during his guest appearance in 1967’s The Atom #31????

Hmm, got a bit over-enthusiastic there ... sorry for going all fanboy on you.

Must be time for my meds!

Anyway, enjoyed the rest of the articles too, and am looking forward to next issue.

– Jeff Taylor With all of your questions about Bob Rozakis’ AA history, Jeff, we turned to BobRo himself—so yes, you’re getting to…

Credit penciler Larry Guidry and inker Shane Foley—the Infantino and Anderson of AA Comics—for the look of Hawklad and Electron (along with a lot of the other characters in the AA Universe).

Hawklad’s look goes back to his origin in the “Hawkman” backup series in Flash Comics, but he gained a more prominent role when he co-starred with Hawkman beginning in Showcase #30 and continuing into the Hawkman solo title of the ’60s.

Electron, a.k.a. Bobby Pratt, is the son of Al and Mary. Clearly, he inherited his height from his mother’s side. He gained his powers while playing in his father’s science lab at Calvin College when a power surge during an experiment turned him into a human battery.

As for the Atomobile, Al gave up using it but it’s safely in the Pratt garage, awaiting the day that Bobby gets his driver’s license.

– Bob Rozakis Next issue: “Monsters” are on the prowl in BACK ISSUE #36! We unleash the stories of Morbius the Living Vampire, Frankenstein, Vampirella, Swamp Thing, Anton Arcane and his Un-Men, Man-Bat and the Patchwork Man, the Golem, ghost-breaker Dr. Thirteen, Marvel’s Monster Power Records, and It, the Living Colossus. Contributors include DICK AYERS, JOSE GONZALES, TONY ISABELLA, MICHAEL KALUTA, ESTEBAN MAROTO, MIKE PLOOG, TOM SUTTON, NESTOR REDONDO, RICK VEITCH, LEN WEIN, and BERNIE WRIGHTSON. Plus: a monster art gallery, the final chapter of BOB ROZAKIS’ AA Comics History, and an exclusive interview with illustrator TONY DeZUNIGA. With a Morbius vs. Werewolf by Night vintage painted cover by EARL NOREM! Don’t ask—just BI it. See you in sixty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor Morbius and Werewolf © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. BACK ISSUE TM © TwoMorrows.

88 • BACK ISSUE • Villains Issue

S U B M IS S IO N G U ID E L IN E S BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s: Unpublished artwork and covers Original artwork and covers Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc.

Original sketches and/or convention sketches Original scripts Photos Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities Creators and collectors of 1970s/1980s comics artwork are invited to share your goodies with other fans!

Contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive complimentary copies (and the editor’s gratitude).

Submit artwork as (listed in order of preference): Scanned images: 300dpi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (emailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments.

Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by emailing euryman@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, 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

SAVE

15

TwoMorrows Publishing 2009 Update

All characters TM & ©2009 their respective owners.

WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER SUMMER/FALL 2009 INE! ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW, DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

SAL BUSCEMA:

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST In 1968, SAL BUSCEMA joined the ranks of Marvel Comics and quickly became one of their most recognizable and dependable artists. Following in the footsteps of his big brother JOHN BUSCEMA, Sal quickly came into his own, and penciled some of Marvel’s most memorable storylines, such as the original AVENGERS/DEFENDERS WAR, as well as “The Secret Empire Saga” and the Nomad arc in the pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA. He also had a ten-year run on THE HULK and drew 100 consecutive issues of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, making him one of the few definitive artists of the Bronze Age. SAL BUSCEMA: COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST, by Alter Ego’s JIM AMASH with Modern Masters’ ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, explores the life and career of this true legend of the comics industry, through an exhaustive interview with the artist, complete with extensive examples of his art, including a deluxe color section, and a gallery of work from Sal’s personal files. Fans love the fast and furious style of Sal Buscema, and this first-ever career-spanning book is guaranteed to please! Ships November 2009!

(176-page trade paperback with 16 color pages) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490212 (192-page HARDCOVER with 32 color pages, dust jacket, and illustrated endleaves) $46.95 US ISBN: 9781605490229 ULTRA-LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION (ONLY 52 COPIES!) (52-copy edition, each with a custom pencil portrait of one of Sal’s favorite characters, individually numbered) $100 US • ONLY FROM TWOMORROWS!

Volume 24: GUY DAVIS

Volume 25: JEFF SMITH

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490236 Diamond Order Code: FEB098482 Ships November 2009

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490243 Ships January 2010

LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVES: LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION!

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE: Indispensable Edition 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 Limited Hardcover Edition) $49.95 US LIMITED TO 200 HARDCOVER COPIES!

SIGNED BY GEORGE PÉREZ!

MODERN MASTERS: IN THE STUDIO WITH GEORGE PÉREZ DVD

Get a PERSONAL TOUR of George’s studio, and watch STEP-BY-STEP as the fan-favorite artist illustrates a special issue of TOP COW’s WITCHBLADE! Also, see George as he sketches for fans at conventions, and hear his peers and colleagues—including MARV WOLFMAN and RON MARZ—share their anecdotes and personal insights along the way! AUTOGRAPHED COPY! (120-minute Standard Format DVD) $34.95 LIMITED TO 30 AUTOGRAPHED COPIES!

TM

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

UPCOMING MAGAZINES Sample a FREE digital edition of each of our magazines online!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRINT EDITION, AND GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES! NEW! DIGITAL-ONLY (PDF) SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

SAVE MONEY WITH A PDF/ DIGITAL SUB!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$17.70

DRAW! (4 issues)

$15.80

ALTER EGO (12 issues)

$35.40

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$15.80

NEW ULTIMATE BUNDLES!

We offer ULTIMATE BUNDLES of our magazines, including new ones for DRAW! and ROUGH STUFF! Go online for sets featuring all the instock issues of our mags (plus some extra goodies) at HALF PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #36

BACK ISSUE #37

BACK ISSUE #38

“Monsters!” Frankenstein in Comics timeline and a look at BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s and Marvel’s versions, histories of Vampirella and Morbius, ISABELLA and AYERS discuss It the Living Colossus, REDONDO’s Swamp Thing, Man-Bat, monster art gallery, interview with TONY DeZUNIGA, art and commentary from ARTHUR ADAMS, COLÓN, KALUTA, NEBRES, PLOOG, SUTTON, VEITCH, and a painted cover by EARL NOREM!

“Comics Go to War!” KUBERT/KANIGHER’s Sgt. Rock, EVANIER and SPIEGLE’s Blackhawk, GEORGE PRATT’s Enemy Ace, plus Unknown Soldier, Wonder Woman’s return to WWII, the Invaders, Combat Kelly, Vietnam Journal, Sad Sack, the Joe Kubert School, art and commentary from AYERS, HEATH, KIRBY, ROBBINS, ROMITA SR., SINNOTT, and the return of GERRY TALAOC! JOE KUBERT cover!

“Family!” JOHN BYRNE’s Fantastic Four, SIMONSON, BRIGMAN, and BOGDANOVE on Power Pack, LEVITZ and STATON on the Huntress, Henry Pym’s “son” Ultron, Wonder Twins, Commissioner Gordon & Batgirl’s relationship, and Return of the New Gods.

With art and commentary from BUCKLER, BUSIEK, FRADON, HECK, INFANTINO, NEWTON, and WOLFMAN, and a Norman Rockwell-inspired BYRNE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships September 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships November 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2010

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

TM

ALTER EGO #89

DIEDGITIIOTANSL

C o l l e c t o r

BL AVAILA

E

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

HARVEY COMICS’ PRE-CODE HORROR MAGS OF THE 1950s! Interviews with SID JACOBSON, WARREN KREMER, and HOWARD NOSTRAND, plus Harvey artist KEN SELIG talks to JIM AMASH! MR. MONSTER presents the wit and wisdom (and worse) of DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE, & more!

SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover!

BIG MARVEL ISSUE! Salutes to legends SINNOTT and AYERS—plus STAN LEE, TUSKA, EVERETT, MARTIN GOODMAN, and others! A look at the “Marvel SuperHeroes” TV animation of 1966! 1940s Timely writer and editor LEON LAZARUS interviewed by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, the 1960s fandom creations of STEVE GERBER, and more! JACK KIRBY holiday cover!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL! Big FCA section with Golden Age artists MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO, and interviews with the FAWCETT FAMILY! Plus Part II of “The MAD Four-Color Wannabes of the 1950s,” more on DR. LAURETTA BENDER and the teenage creations of STEVE GERBER, artist JACK KATZ spills Golden Age secrets to JIM AMASH, and more! New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY, PART 3! DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw by MICHELINIE & CHAN, Hercules by GLANZMAN, Dagar

by GLUT & SANTOS, Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, KANE, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al., and JACK KATZ on his classic First Kingdom! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3), and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships October 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships December 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2010

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships March 2010

BACK ISSUE! #1-17 NOW AVAILABLE AS DIGITAL EDITIONS! MORE ON THE WAY! We’ve just finished adding all the remaining issues of BACK ISSUE! magazine to our webstore as Digital Editions, offering an inexpensive way to complete your collection, or get a digital version of sold out issues!

Throughout 2009, we’ll be adding other older issues as PDFs, so visit www.twomorrows.com regularly for updates!

BRICKJOURNAL #7

BRICKJOURNAL #8

DRAW! #19

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

Focuses on LEGO ARCHITECTURE, with a look at the new sets designed by ADAM REED TUCKER! There’s also interviews with other architectural builders, including SPENCER REZHALLA and JASON BURIK. Then, we take a look at a LEGO BATTLESHIP that’s over 20 feet long, and present event reports from BRICKWORLD in Chicago and other events worldwide!

PLUS: Our usual indispensable building tips and instructions, and more!

We go to the Middle Ages, with a look at the LEGO Group’s CASTLE LINE, featuring an interview with the designer behind the first LEGO castle set, the YELLOW CASTLE. Also: we spotlight builders that have created their own large-scale version of the castle!

There are interviews with other castle builders, and more surprises, along with a report from BRICKFAIR in Washington, DC! Plus still more instructions and building tips for beginning and advanced builders alike!

DOUG BRAITHWAITE, one of the top realistic artists in comics today, gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a "Rough Critique" of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column gives the low-down on the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP helps you get your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, plus a new interview (and back cover inks) by Bullpenner GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, 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 JOE SINNOTT!

(80-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 Ships September 2009

(80-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 Ships November 2009

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships December 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US Ships November 2009

BOOKS by BACK ISSUE’s editor MICHAEL EURY

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, 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 examining Superman’s influential past! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS!

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

BATCAVE COMPANION 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-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 musthave for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG. (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368

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

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

COMICS GONE APE!

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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)! All-new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS, and written by MICHAEL EURY.

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!

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: FEB073814

(176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPER-HERO ACTION FIGURE (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 COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Code: APR091003

MAGAZINES

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

E

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!

TM

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

SUBSCRIPTION RATES 2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

Media Mail

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!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority Intl.

Intl.

US

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$60

$60

$84

$136

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

$60

$70

$105

$115

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

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

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/twomorrows

TwoMorrows Publishing is a division of TwoMorrows, Inc. TM

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

TwoMorrows Publishing 2009 Update WINTER/SPRING

Supplement to the 2008 TwoMorrows Preview Catalog

ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

SAVE

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.

15

WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

(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

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

TM

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!

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

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

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

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

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

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

Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

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!

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

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

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

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

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

DIEGDITITIOANL

DIEGDITITIOANL

BL AVAILA

BLE AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

BACK ISSUE #19

BACK ISSUE #20

BACK ISSUE #21

BACK ISSUE #22

BACK ISSUE #23

“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

(104-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV063993

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN073984

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR073855

(108-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073880

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIGITITIOANL ED BLE AVAILA

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

BACK ISSUE #24

BACK ISSUE #25

BACK ISSUE #26

BACK ISSUE #27

BACK ISSUE #28

“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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP074091

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073948

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN084020

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR084109

THE LATEST FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #87

DRAW! #18

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

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 (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA), MR. MONSTER, 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!

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 Now shipping!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US Ships August 2009

ALL-STAR COMPANION Vol. 4

COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s

Features: 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 Intl. 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.

Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, so 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.

This issue-by-issue field guide presents a step-by-step look at how Marvel Comics went from being one of the least creative publishers in a generally moribund industry, to its most dynamic and original in an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, follow the 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.

(128-page trade paperback) $15.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR094433 ISBN: 9781605490182 • Now shipping!

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY091042 ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships Aug. 2009

(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US ISBN: 9781605490045 Diamond Order Code: APR091002 Now shipping!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95-3.95! Print subscribers get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships August 2009

2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

BRICKJOURNAL #6

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, coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and TOY FAIR NEW YORK photos!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US • Now shipping!

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3

Compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 (Vol. 1) of BRICKJOURNAL for the first time in printed form! Interviews with builders and JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of the LEGO Group, features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets, how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more!

(224-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490069 Diamond Order Code: JAN094469 • Ships August 2009

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE REVISED 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, 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 more, including his recent return to comics shelves and the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. By MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Order Code: APR091003 Now shipping!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl.

Intl.

VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Now shipping!

VOLUME 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: FEB094473 Ships July 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!

Digital Only

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$60

$60

$84

$136

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

$60

$70

$105

$115

$17.70

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$47

$70

$77

$15.80

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issues is half-price!

$88

$120

$140

$210

$230

$35.40

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$38

$48

$55

$78

$85

$15.80

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

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

A plea from the publisher of this fine digital periodical: TwoMorrows, we’re on the Honor System with our Digital Editions. We don’t add Digital Rights Management features to them to stop piracy; they’re clunky and cumbersome, and make readers jump through hoops to view content they’ve paid for. And studies show such features don’t do much to stop piracy anyway. So we don’t include DRM in our downloads.

At

However, this is COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, which is NOT INTENDED FOR FREE DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE. If you paid the modest fee we charge to download it at our website, you have our sincere thanks. Your support allows us to keep producing magazines like this one.

If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. Our website is the only source to legitimately download any TwoMorrows publications. If you found this at another site, it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, and your download is illegal as well. If that’s the case, here’s what I hope you’ll do: GO AHEAD AND READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK. If you enjoy it enough to keep it, please DO THE RIGHT THING and go to our site and purchase a legal download of this issue, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop.

Otherwise, please delete it from your computer, since it hasn’t been paid for.

And please DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, support our company by paying for the material we produce. We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this hard work.

All of our editors and authors, and comic shop owners, rely on income from this publication to continue producing more like it. Every sale we lose to an illegal download hurts, and jeopardizes our future. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so helps ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download.

And please don’t post this copyrighted material anywhere, or share it with anyone else.

Remember: TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com TM

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