Back Issue #40

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MAY 20

P E O P L E ”

I S S U E !

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CATWOMAN TM & © DC ENTERTAINMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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BLACK CAT • HELLCAT • WILDCAT • JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS • VIXEN • TIGER-MAN THUNDERCATS • WHITE TIGER • SONS OF TIGER • PUMAMAN • and bonus beast BADGER!

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Volume 1, Number 40 May 2010 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Beyond!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

COVER COLORIST Freddy Lopez COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS Walter George Alton Jonathan Miller Mark Arnold Mike Nelson Michael Aushenker Chuck Patton Mike Baron Alan J. Porter Mike W. Barr Bob Rozakis Bedrock City Comics Roger Salick Alan Brennert John Schwirian Bruce Buchanan Jason Shayer Mike Carlin Anthony Snyder Ernie Colón Roger Stern Gerry Conway Jim Sukman DC Comics John Wells Tom DeFalco Scott E. Williams J. M. DeMatteis Marv Wolfman Kirk Dilbeck Tom Ziuko Steve Englehart Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Heritage Comics Auctions James Kingman David Anthony Kraft Selina Kyle Paul Levitz Andy Mangels Bob McLeod Allen Milgrom

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Miss Edgewood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Foxy Lady: The Vixen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 From cancellation to comebacks, this cat-like crimefighter has legs FLASHBACK: The Domestication of Wildcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 The Golden Age’s punchiest pugilist refuses to stay down for the count BACKSTAGE PASS: ThunderCats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 This ’80s flashback makes grownups purr like happy kiddies BEYOND CAPES: Josie and the Pussycats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Long tails and ears for hats, the breakout beauties from Archie Comics FLASHBACK: Catch a Tiger-Man by the Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 The short-lived ’70s Colón/Ditko superhero—plus a different kind of Cougar OFF MY CHEST: Cat of Nine Tales: The Reformation and Conflictions of Selina (Catwoman) Kyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 So, is she a villainess or a heroine? Jim Kingman has his theories…

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path . . . . . . . . . .39 The story of Spider-Man’s slinky sometimes-girlfriend BEYOND CAPES: Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 White Tiger and the Sons of the Tiger brought martial-arts action to Marvel ROUGH STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Pencil art rarities from Tom Ziuko’s vault FLASHBACK: Beware the Claws of Patsy Walker: The Hellcat Cometh . . . . . . . . . .61 Follow her purrr-gression from teen queen to heroine BACKSTAGE PASS: Each Man is a God: The Inside Story of the Pumaman . . . . . .68 Star Walter George Alton shares behind-the-scenes photos of this cult superhero movie FLASHBACK: Cult of Personalities: The Badger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 This issue’s bonus beast, the Badger was America’s first “deconstructionist” hero BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Reader feedback on “Family” issue #38 BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Joe Staton and Freddy Lopez. Catwoman TM & © DC Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2010 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing.

ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Cat People Issue

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A 1994 Black Cat illo by an unidentified artist. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

COVER ARTIST Joe Staton

by

Miss Edgewood

I’m editor Michael Eury’s kitty, Miss Edgewood, welcoming you to the “Cat People” edition of BACK ISSUE. In the two and a half years since I allowed Michael and his wife Rose to live in my house, I’ve been walking across his keyboard while he’s at work. The moron, he keeps shooing me away. Really gets my dander up. Can’t he see that I’ve been trying to tell him there’s a writer inside me? So now, while he’s not looking, I’m taking over. Like all of us cats will one day. (Watch your backs.)

We’ve already taken over the comics and cartoon business. You think I’m yanking your yarn? Just look at how many heroes, villains, and toon characters are based upon felines!

This issue’s got a litter of ’em. So many we couldn’t fit ’em all in. Sorry, Sabertooth.

And Mister Tawky Tawny. And Puma. And Heathcliff.

(I don’t see too many dog-related heroes and villains. Man’s best friend? Feh.) Excuse me. Must groom.

>LICK< >LICK< >LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK< That’s better.

Okay, before you start gripin’, “Hey, what’s the Badger doin’ in this issue? He’s not a Cat Person!,” lemme tell you somethin’ about Norbert Sykes. He’s one cool cat. He likes critters. I guarantee you, if the Badger saw some punks chuckin’ rocks at a kitty, or tryin’ to punt a pussycat, he’d shorin-ryu ’em where the sun don’t shine!

Whoa! Wait! What’s that?

Bug!

>POUNCE!< >SWAT!< Did I get ’im? I think I got ’im. Heh. What? Oh, yeah. This issue, they tell me, features 16 pages in color. Like I can tell.

For me, the world’s mostly black and white, with a random hue here and there. Sorta like Frank Miller’s Sin City. But I hope you humans like the color pages. I know I will. I’m gonna curl up on ’em and nap as soon as I finish this.

And this issue also came out one month after the previous one. Not that that means much to me, since I sleep about 14 hours a day, but for those of you humans who like BACK ISSUE, you’ve got two more issues per year now. >YAWN!< Sheesh, this is hard work. I’ve been at this editorial for … oh, four minutes now, without a nap. >YAWN!< Time for a well deserved snooze.

Enjoy the “Cat People” ish, and our new color pages. ’Night.

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 (e-mailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by e-mailing euryman@gmail.com or by sending a SASE to the address below. Please allow 6–8 weeks for a response to your proposals.

Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE Concord, NC 28025

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®

by

John Schwirian

Leaping onto the comic-book racks and newsstands in 1978, Vixen quickly joined such luminaries as Firestorm and Steel as the latest sensation in the budding DC Explosion. As DC Comics’ first female African-American hero, Vixen shone as the newest superstar in DC’s Hall of Fame.

Um, well, at least, that’s how the story might have been told, had Vixen #1 ever made it into publication.

Unfortunately, circumstances arose that prevented the premiere of DC’s newest character, resulting in the cancellation of the series before the artists could even finish drawing the story.

In the late 1970s, writer Gerry Conway was on fire, putting out one new title after another. Firestorm, Steel the Indestructible Man, Secret Society of Super-Villains, and more emerged from Conway’s fertile mind.

And, according to the house advertisement appearing

in the November 1978 cover-dated offerings from DC Comics, The Vixen was about to strike back with the first issue scheduled to hit the stands on August 8, 1978.

Unfortunately, the Vixen was defeated by the greatest DC villain of 1978—the DC Implosion! In the 1970s, Marvel Comics dominated in sales, and DC attempted to regain its former prominence by increasing the number of titles it put out each year.

Unfortunately, blizzards in the winters of 1977 and 1978 disrupted the distribution of DC’s books.

Sales dropped severely, and DC executives ordered the cancellation of nearly 30 existing and planned titles.

Thus, the first Vixen story was banished to the pages of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade (an in-house collection of photocopied art pages from canceled titles distributed to DC employees), never to be seen by the majority of comics readers.

Cat People Issue

Cat and Woman Joshua Middleton’s astounding cover art for the 2009 Vixen: Return of the Lion trade paperback.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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THE LADY IS A FOX!

Catty Woman (below) The splash page and (right) cover from the unpublished Vixen #1, as culled from the pages of DC’s Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, courtesy of Bill Alter. Art by Bob Oksner and Vince Colletta.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

character who hadn’t been used in almost a decade, and I felt my take on So, who was the mysterious Vixen? the idea was different enough to According to her creator, Gerry make Vixen unique.”

Conway, her genesis lay in the fact Yes, Vixen was indeed different that comic books were lacking in a from Animal Man. Where Animal specific area. “I wanted to write a Man gained his powers from black female superhero; other mysterious beings from another than Storm in X-Men, I don’t think planet, Vixen’s powers were granted there were any other notable ones by the Tantu Totem, a mystical artifact in the field at that time,” Conway from her African homeland. “I liked says. Knowing that she would be the idea of tying Vixen’s powers to an African-American woman, her heritage,” Conway clarifies, Conway kicked around several Gerry Conway “making her more than just another ideas for superpowers for his new ‘lucky accident’ kind of hero.” hero. “At the time, there were few With a concept firmly in place, it was time to start African-American female superheroes, so there wasn’t much chance of overlapping powers with fleshing out the details.

Meet Marilyn McCabe, famous New York model other characters. Quite a few heroes had ‘animal’ powers—Spider-Man, for example, but I liked the and part owner in a fashion designer firm. In addition idea of a hero who’d have many different abilities to her career, Mari has friends—photographer Willie Lockman, business partner Peg, and publisher/ to draw on.”

An African-American female superhero, now that boyfriend Solomon Samules. She’s sitting on top of was new, but animal powers? Didn’t DC already have the world and all is wonderful … that is, until she a hero with animal powers—Buddy Baker, a.k.a. sees a news report about the arrival at the United Animal Man, from Strange Adventures? “I was aware Nations building of President Manitoba of the of Animal Man,” Conway explains, “but that was a African nation of D’Mulla. The sight of this man brings back repressed and traumatic memories of Mari’s childhood. Born in Africa, she was orphaned at the age of eight and then adopted by a couple in the United States. Slowly, the memories return, memories of her father, C’Mellu Dantogi, a leader of his people who preached non-violent protest in their struggle for independence. But a soldier attacked their village, burning their huts and killing the people as he sought out Dantogi. Mari was taken to safety, where her father placed her in the care of Reverend Peak. From her shelter, she watched in horror as the

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soldier brutally murdered her father. That soldier was General C’Tanga Manitoba, the self-proclaimed “Lion of Hell.”

She also remembered the talisman her father gave her, the Tantu Totem, an ancient mystic artifact that was rumored to grant animal attributes to its wearer. Mari then performed the sacred ritual that bound her to the amulet and activated its power.

Creating a costume from clothing leftovers at the modeling firm and adding pieces from an old Halloween outfit, she became the sleek silver-andgolden Vixen, a beast of prey!

Seeking out Manitoba, she found him trying to kill Reverend Peak in order to silence the last surviving witness to the massacre he performed all those years ago. The spirits of the lion, the antelope, and the fox aided her as Manitoba attacked her with a machete. Ironically, Manitoba killed himself when he lunged for Vixen, toppling a massive cross that crushed him to death. Strangely enough, it was Manitoba who called Mari a “vixen,” which became her superhero moniker. Feeling reborn, Mari decided that she could not ignore the calling of the Tantu Totem, and the tale concluded with the statement that this was both “THE END ... AND THE BEGINNING.” “The Vixen is a Lady Fox” was written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Bob Oksner (who also

designed Vixen’s costume), inked by Vince Colletta, and lettered by Karisha. Cory Adams was listed as the colorist, but the issue never got to that point, stopping at editor Jack C. Harris’ desk before the last page could be lettered. Nothing further was done with Vixen, even though a second issue was originally scheduled.

Conway admits to having a few ideas as to where he might have gone next: Vixen fighting crime in New York, and African politics being left behind with the origin story. “Vixen was always intended to be an US urban superheroine,” Conway elaborates. “The African background was just going to be part of the origin tale, but might have influenced stories in a general (or more specific) way as the series progressed. I hoped to write the series for a long time and develop the character. At that time I didn’t plan a series beyond the first few initial stories, letting the stories themselves suggest future events as I wrote them.”

While Gerry Conway never started a script for a follow-up story, DC executives had planned to expand the page count for Vixen #2 in order to include an 8-page story written by Bob Rozakis starring the Harlequin (a.k.a. Joker’s Daughter) from Teen Titans, a story that never made it beyond the script stage. Still, Conway was fond of the Vixen, and hoped to find a way to use the character someday...

Cat People Issue

Cat-Like Reflexes From Vixen #1, (left) a look back at Mari’s past, and (right) Vixen in action.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Final Page (left) Unlettered Oksner/Colletta artwork and (right) Gerry Conway’s edited script from the last page of Vixen #1.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

THE VIXEN STRIKES BACK

THE BIG LEAGUES

While several of the stories planned for canceled series found homes in other titles, Vixen wasn’t so lucky. When asked why, Conway chuckles.

“Honestly, I don’t think anyone was that wild about how the first issue turned out.” The plug may have been pulled on a bimonthly Vixen comic book, but Mari McCabe wasn’t dead yet. “I loved the character,” confesses Gerry Conway, “and wanted to see her in print anywhere it was possible.”

And that is how Vixen finally made her official debut three years later, in 1981, in Action Comics #521. With approval from editor Julius Schwartz, Conway at last was able to introduce the Vixen to comics readers in a story titled “The Deadly Rampage of the Lady Fox.” Artists Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte recreated the visuals created by Bob Oksner as they illustrated Superman’s encounter with Vixen in New York City as she shut down an evil furrier.

Nearly three more years would pass before Conway was able to use Vixen again, this time in DC Comics Presents #68 (Apr. 1984). Reunited with Curt Swan, with Murphy Anderson on inks, the team presented “Destiny’s Children,” where Superman and Vixen fought Admiral Cerebrus, who was kidnapping young boys to power his psychic-assault weapon.

Still not satisfied with the direction Vixen was going, Conway decided to include her in another book he was writing—Justice League of America!

In 1983, the general feeling at DC was that the traditional lineup of the Justice League had gotten stale. It was getting difficult to coordinate appearances of heroes in their own titles with their adventures in Justice League. Just as Stan Lee had done decades earlier with The Avengers, Gerry Conway booted out all of major characters and set out to rebuild the team using second-stringers. Thus, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, and Zatanna became the core of the new team and moved their headquarters from outer space to an underground bunker in an urban neighborhood in Detroit. Conway then brought in four new characters of his own creation: a revamped version of his World War II hero Steel, the Hispanic hip-hopper Vibe, the runaway Gypsy, and Vixen.

As Vixen was now a fixture in a monthly title, Conway could start developing the character in a more satisfying manner. The first big change— a makeover. “I wasn’t happy with her original look,” Conway remarks, “and saw this as an opportunity to start over. Mostly, I wanted to make her more interesting.”

The task of designing the new look fell to Justice League artist Chuck Patton. With minimal direction from Conway, Patton set out to create an appropriate new costume for Vixen. “I do remember at the time,” Patton recalls, “that I followed Oksner’s initial design for Vixen—but I did not like the overall color scheme.

I believe she was dressed then in some kind of light bluish and yellow outfit that I thought was just awful.

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The goal of the new Justice League was to Commander Steel, and I was told to stick as bring a younger but harder-edged close to that design as possible. Vibe and appearance to the team rather than Gypsy were abominations that I the Old Guard’s primary colors. wished I could’ve erased and startGerry’s description of her stayed ed over! But Vixen came off better basically to how he created her— than I expected, and to see her same as before—but he was open to around today, and evolved and however I wanted to visually interpret improved in a Halle Berry direction, her. So first thing first—I needed her makes me smile.” looking more earthy and sexy—so I As a member of the Justice changed her colors to an earthier League, Vixen virtually abandoned color palette—to denote not only her career as a fashion model, the fox aspect of her identity but immersing herself in her new life as a chuck patton also her African origins as well. superhero. Her role on the team “I wanted her to be majestic, seemed to be to function as the powerful, and roguish,” Patton continues. “However, a adviser to the new members and buffer between them ‘vixen’ isn’t exactly known as such a creature. So I and the old core. “In our ‘new’ version of the JLA turned to Marvel Comics for inspiration. (‘JLA Detroit’),” elaborates Conway, “I wanted her to I revised her hairdo to reflect a wild animal approach, balance Gypsy’s youth and inexperience with a more again utilizing a fox-like image, but I didn’t want her seasoned, mature approach. Making Vixen’s character wearing a mask and becoming a black Catwoman (ironic given her current look now). What I was going for was to literally make her a female Wolverine— and so the ‘Wolverine hairdo with dreads’ was born.

I used a couple of strands of hair to give her a ‘masklike visage’ and simplified her outfit just a bit and voila … Vixen reborn.”

Amazingly enough, you could say that Vixen’s parents were Storm and Wolverine!

“Hey, I was young and fairly impressionable back then,” Patton laughs, “and the Wolverine ’do was the coolest at the time. I was also using Grace Jones as my real-life model for Vixen—and Grace wore many a wild wig in her day!

“Of the new Justice Leaguers’ outfits I created, I was and still am most proud of Vixen,” Patton admits. “I followed what [artist] Don Heck had created for

Cat People Issue

Back in Action (left) Conway brought back the Vixen in Action Comics #521 (July 1981, cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano), then re-teamed her with Superman in DC Comics Presents #68 (Apr. 1984, cover by Gil Kane).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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BACK ISSUE • 7

Welcome to Justice League Detroit Vixen, with a “Wolverine hairdo and ’dreads” pencil-coiffed by Chuck Patton, takes center stage on the cover of Justice League of America #239 (June 1985, inked by Mike Machlan).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN After Justice League of America was canceled [but soon rebooted in the wake of the Legends miniseries], Vixen disappeared for a short while, eventually reappearing in the pages of the Suicide Squad by writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale. Following the League’s disbanding, she traveled to Africa to try to make a difference there. However, she soon felt overwhelmed and returned to modeling in America. While she was on a photo shoot in the Caribbean, the crew accidentally filmed a drug transaction at sea. The drug smugglers gunned down everyone on the beach while Mari was safely swimming underwater not far away.

Unable to bring in the man responsible due to political immunity, she joined forces with the Suicide Squad to find vengeance. In the course of the mission, Vixen found herself in single combat with the man who had ordered the massacre. As they fought, he stabbed her, and Vixen’s animal instincts took over. Losing control, Vixen struck her foe so violently that the blow broke his neck. Her guilt and fear over how the totem was controlling her led her to stay with the Squad, where she developed a growing attraction to Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger. She stayed with the team for a long time, but when Bronze Tiger turned away from her due to psychological manipulations by Sarge Steel, Vixen felt it was time to move on and left the Squad to find her place in the world.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

TM & © DC Entertainment.

more ‘edgy’ was an attempt to bring a different kind of energy to the team.”

The next step was to finally get her origin story into print, with several revisions to the original. “As I said, I don’t think I was that happy with how the first issue turned out, and having a chance to revisit the origin story with a fresh take, I took it,” Conway says.

This time around, her African homeland was M’Changa and her father the Reverend Richard Jiwe.

When Jiwe was elected president, his half-brother General Mustapha Maksai assassinated Jiwe and assumed control of the country after a bloody civil war.

Calling himself the Gored Ox, Maksai tracked his niece to America in order to claim the totem for himself.

However, the Tantu Totem was created by Anansi the Spider to be used to protect the innocent. When Maksai took the mystic relic, he was transformed into a monstrous man-ox, for his hands were red with the blood of the innocents he had murdered. During the ensuing battle with Vixen, the mad beast fell and was impaled, killing Maksai and avenging Vixen’s father.

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In the years that followed, Vixen would pop up occasionally in various titles, helping out here and there. She worked with Animal Man, the Justice League Task Force, and Oracle’s Birds of Prey, but she never settled anywhere for very long. In the late 2000s, she returned to the Justice League of America and has proven herself to be a dependable and valuable member of the team, and was given her own miniseries. A change in the Justice League’s roster at the hands of writer James Robinson sent Vixen on her own in 2009. But don’t expect Vixen to be absent for very long. A character this rich in potential is bound to find a new niche in the notso-distant future.

By day, JOHN SCHWIRIAN is a mild-mannered high school English/ special ed teacher, but by night, he dons the role of comic-book historian. In addition to his passion for all things Teen Titans, he explores the sunken regions of the DC Universe in his self-published fanzine The Aquaman Chronicles.

®

by

John Wells

On a cool fall day in 1941, a stranger came upon a little boy crying on the sidewalk. It seems a bully swiped his comic book just as he’d been reading about the Golden Age Green Lantern. When the man confessed bewilderment at the name, the youngster explained that this was a man who put on a mask and costume and went out to fight bad guys. The stranger let that settle in for a moment, specifically the detail that GL’s get-up prevented him from being recognized. Whipping out a dollar bill (a veritable fortune in an era still recovering from the Great Depression), the man told the thunderstruck kid to buy himself a pile of comic books and walked off into the night. Ted Grant had believed all hope was lost that night, but a little boy inspired him toward a path that would change his life in ways he could never imagine.

Ted had aspired to a career in public service since his youth, with an eye toward eventually becoming a doctor. Determined that his son not be a studious weakling as he had been, Henry Grant encouraged the boy’s participation in sports from an early age, and in college Ted found a particular proclivity for boxing. But times were tough and Henry’s death left Ted with no more financing for his education. Dropping out of school, the young man came under the wing of heavyweight champ “Socker” Smith and ended up with a boxing career of his own. The friendship ended in tragedy when Smith and Grant’s managers engineered a match between the two and then tried to fix the bout by placing a drugged needle in Ted’s glove that would knock out Socker.

Instead, Smith died and his friend stood accused of murder.

Fearing that Grant might accuse them, the managers ran the police car carrying the boxer into a gorge, but their target miraculously survived.

THE COMING OF WILDCAT Taking his cue from Green Lantern, the fugitive boxer donned a black costume complete with a cat-head mask including floppy ears, a faux gray whiskered lip, and jowls hanging off each side of his jaw. Declaring himself Wildcat, this two-fisted mystery-man beat confessions out of the two managers in short order before surrendering to the police as Ted Grant.

Created by writer Bill Finger (best known for co-creating Batman) and artist Irwin Hasen, Wildcat was the closing feature in Sensation Comics #1 (Jan. 1942), an issue most famously known for its introduction of the ongoing Wonder Woman series.

If Wildcat resented being overshadowed by the Amazing Amazon, he never acknowledged it. Instead, Ted Grant persevered, becoming world heavyweight champion in #2 and finding love with Joan Fortune. Issue #4 introduced comic relief in the form of gangly, would-be detective (and later Ted’s manager) Hiram “Stretch” Skinner and, more enduringly, a means of transportation for the feline crimebuster. With handlebars jazzed up to resemble

Purr Box Detail from the Jim Aparo-drawn cover of The Brave and the Bold #118 (Apr. 1975), the Batman/Wildcat/Joker team-up.

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its rider’s mask, the Cat-O-Cycle became Wildcat’s ride of choice for the rest of the decade and far beyond.

“Having gotten to know Irwin Hasen in the years since,” former DC Comics president Paul Levitz observes, “I realized that the original Wildcat stories probably had some of the first realistic ‘fight’ art— Irwin having been a sports cartoonist specializing in boxing before he came to comics.”

By the time Wildcat solved “the mystery of Cell 17” in Sensation #90 (June 1949) and his original publication history ended, Wildcat had been fighting crime for seven years. He’d racked up a few recurring foes like the Yellow Wasp (#20, 25, 66) and a woman in a black-striped, yellow-fur costume known as the Huntress (#68–69, 71, 73, 75, 76).

And he was even a member of the famed team of superheroes called the Justice Society of America for two issues (All Star Comics #24 and 27).

THE SILVER AGE WILDCAT TM & © DC Entertainment.

Although Wildcat’s JSA connection had been more by accident than design—the consequence of a merger of DC Comics with sister publisher All-American— it was still enough to place him among the select group

of 1940s heroes that DC began reviving in the 1960s.

In 1961, writer Gardner Fox conspired with editor Julius Schwartz to unite the modern incarnation of the Flash with the Golden Age version who ran around 20 years early. The story—which revealed that the earlier Flash and his JSA cohorts existed on a parallel world later dubbed Earth-Two—was a huge success, inspiring multiple sequels, a full-fledged JSA revival via annual summertime team-ups with the Justice League of America, and finally an effort to launch spin-off series featuring the older, wiser Society heroes in pairs such as Starman and Black Canary in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) #61–62.

Fox and artist Murphy Anderson’s B&B #62 (Oct.–Nov. 1965) was notable for its revival of a certain Feline Fury in a guest-appearance. From Ted Grant’s perspective, it wasn’t a particularly proud moment. Retired both as undefeated heavyweight champion and a superhero, he was allowed a brief moment to shine but mostly sat out the issue as a hostage of the Huntress and missed out on her defeat altogether.

This was a visually mellower Wildcat, reflecting the version of the character as he’d appeared in 1949 rather than Irwin Hasen’s original design. His costume was now blue with black highlights, the claws had disappeared from his boots, the jowls had vanished from his mask, and the ears on his hood were stiff points that resembled nothing so much as Batman’s cowl. It was fitting, then, that Wildcat was tapped to appear in the 1966 and 1967 Justice Society team-ups in Justice League of America #46–47 and 55–56 that were published at the height of the media frenzy involving the white-hot Batman TV show.

Fan-turned-pro writer Mike Friedrich tapped into a gray-at-the-temples Ted Grant’s insecurities in The Spectre #3 (Mar.–Apr. 1968), devoting fully half of the ghostly title character’s comic book to Wildcat’s growing frustration over the effect that age and retirement had taken on his fighting prowess. The capper was an attack by a cosmically empowered minor crook who found that he could literally control the hero’s every move and subjected him to a humiliating defeat before a crowd at a boxing match. The Spectre stepped in to defeat the “mystic mastermind,” but Ted was left feeling like a has-been.

Losing the ability to fight effectively had, from the Ghostly Guardian’s perspective, created a void in both Grant’s and Wildcat’s lives. Hoping to stem his teammate’s depression, the Spectre suggested Ted become a mentor.

Opening Grant’s Gym in his hometown of Knickerbocker City, Ted began instructing kids in self-defense and boxing, slowly regaining his old confidence and enthusiasm in the process.

While reader reaction to the youthful Friedrich’s story was mixed, the dynamic neo-realism of Neal Adams’ art was greeted with wild acclaim. The story reverted back to Wildcat’s original costume design with greater balance of black and blue and a more rounded mask that returned its jowls and droopy ears.

Groomed for a Comeback Neal Adams’ photorealistic art helped bring Wildcat to life in the pages of The Spectre #3 (Mar.–Apr. 1968).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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THE WILDCAT OF “EARTH-B” Two years later, Bob Haney and Irv Novick’s Brave and the Bold #88 (Feb.–Mar. 1970) picked up the plot, revealing that Ted Grant had gotten too involved in the problems of his kids, gone into debt, lost his gym, and spiraled back into depression. This time, millionaire Bruce Wayne intervened, approaching the former champ at a Gotham City flophouse and asking him to be a boxing coach at the World Youth Games in Vienna. Ted wouldn’t hear of it—until he saw Wayne being accosted by muggers and leapt in to save him.

His heart racing, Grant changed his mind and accepted the offer, unaware that the millionaire had paid the “muggers” to attack him.

In Vienna, old insecurities came roaring back when the one-time champ was approached by a Soviet fighter named Koslov, who insisted Ted fight him in an exhibition bout. Ted persisted in turning him down even as he lost the faith in the kids he was coaching. Once again, it fell to Bruce Wayne to energize his friend. As Batman, he insisted Grant take the challenge and started a fight on the front to prove the champ still had what it took. The Caped Crusader threw the fight, but privately conceded the fighter would’ve been tough the beat in his prime.

In the story’s B-plot, Batman was captured while tracking down a Soviet spy in possession of a satellite launch code, a fact that Ted learned from Koslov while they were in the ring. The Gotham Gangbuster had previously rigged the lights to go out in the arena should he need to step in and finish the fight himself (disguised as Grant). The champ didn’t know that, but he did realize that the blackout was an opportunity to sucker-punch Koslov, slip out of the ring with his rival, hop on a motorcycle, rescue Batman, and return.

The fight resumed and Ted was knocked to the mat—where his eyes fell on a batarang with “has-been”

written on it. Rallying, the champ rose to focus his full strength on beating Koslov. Another victory for the Cold War. It’s hard to say what’s most remarkable about the story: There was the repeated condescension of Batman toward Wildcat; the occasional impression that Batman was more concerned about the US losing face to the Soviets than Ted Grant’s well-being; the fact that Ted only operated as Wildcat on two pages on the 24-pager—and Batman never knew it; or the detail where the lights were out in the boxing ring long enough for Ted to drag Koslov into Vienna, rescue Batman, and return without anyone in the packed stadium ever realizing they were gone!

For some readers, though, the problem was something else. The 1960s had seen the proliferation of older comic-book fans who paid attention to the internal continuity and consistency of each character’s history. Wildcat, they pointed out, was a character from Earth-Two, along with the rest of the Justice Society.

Batman was from the Justice League’s Earth-One.

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B&B Seein’ You Brave and Bold #88 (Feb.–Mar. 1970) introduced an Earth-One Wildcat. (left) Cover by Neal Adams and (above) original art to page 16, by Irv Novick and Mike Esposito.

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Wildcat by Cardy Prolific cover artist Nick Cardy drew (right) the covers to these three reprint editions featuring Wildcat, and (below) the cover to the hero’s return in B&B #97. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

Despite the fact that there were multiple JSA heroes who had duplicates on Earth-One, the suggestion that there might be a Wildcat on each world was greeted with abject horror.

What exacerbated the controversy was the fact that B&B #88 had sold quite well, good enough to inspire four more Batman/Wildcat team-ups between 1971 and 1976, all written by Bob Haney. Visually, the Earth-One Wildcat followed the retro model of Neal Adams’ version, while the Earth-Two Wildcat continued to wear the more Batman–like outfit when he popped up in the 1972 and 1975 JLA/JSA team-ups (Justice League of America #100–102 and 123–124).

THE WILDCAT EXPLOSION Remarkably, Wildcat was evidently regarded as enough of an attraction to be featured on the covers of three separate 1973–dated reprint comics: 100-Page Super-Spectacular #DC-14, Wanted: The World’s Most Dangerous Villains #6, and Secret Origins #3. Wanted’s cover was notable for referring to one of the Feline Fury’s old foes as the Golden Wasp rather than the Yellow Wasp, a mistake that writer Alan Brennert unwittingly perpetuated in 1990’s Secret Origins #50.

Writer Haney really didn’t care which Earth his stories were taking place on. His priority, fully supported by editor Murray Boltinoff, was in telling an entertaining story, and their judgment was borne out by sales of the comics in question. “Every month, we’d look at the sales figures and if [Batman] was teaming with Wildcat, how did it do?” Haney explained to Michael Catron in an interview posthumously published in The Comics Journal #278 (Oct. 2006). “Well, if it did all right, we’d throw in Wildcat again. So it was a very cold, calculating thing. I remember [publisher] Carmine [Infantino] being in on the meetings.”

“Why do we avoid the Earth One/Two theme?”

Boltinoff wrote in B&B #119’s letters column. “Simply to make our stories clear and concise for readers unfamiliar with that device, initiated years ago to satisfy the time paradox. If we can offer an entertaining story minus that expedient, we find comfort in knowing we’ve achieved our purpose. Entertainment, that’s the name of our game, not employing convenient, nitty-gritty gimmicks!”

Bob Rozakis flatly added in 1975’s Amazing World of DC Comics #7 that “it has been established—or at least, we’ve decided it here—that there are two Wildcats and the one in Brave & Bold is on Earth-One.”

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The details of those stories, incidentally were these.

While searching for a lost Mexican idol in 1971’s B&B #97, Wildcat was stricken with amnesia and catatonic for much of the story. When a beating in the climax restored his memory, the Feline Fury spilled the location of the treasure to the smugglers he and Batman had been pursuing with the full knowledge that the bandits would trigger ancient deathtraps set up to protect the idol.

Crisply illustrated by Jim Aparo, B&B #110 (Dec. 1973– Jan. 1974) reestablished Ted Grant as the spokesman for an oil company called the Tryton Corporation.

Investigating rampant charges of corruption and theft at Tryton, Batman convinced Ted that the accusations were true, while assuring him that most of the crimes took place before he was aboard. The champ took it personally, anyway. “In the ring I took responsibility for low blows— or not fighting my best. I never griped or alibied— and I’m not starting now!”

It was back to exhibition matches in B&B #118 (Apr. 1975), the most famous of the Batman/Wildcat team-ups and one featuring a third drawing card in the form of its guest-villain, the Joker. The story dealt with the search for a canine lab animal whose blood held the antibodies for a virus plaguing a cell block. Putting a gun to the dog’s head, the Joker forced Batman and Wildcat (whom the villain somehow knew to be Ted Grant) to wear cesti (spiked metal gloves worn by Roman gladiators) and demanded they fight to the death. Thanks to the timely distraction of the dog itself, biting the white-faced

Team-Up Titan Aparo Brave and Bold master artist Jim Aparo’s renditions of Ted Grant and Wildcat, from (above left) #110 and (above) 127, with (left) Nick Cardy’s cover to B&B #110.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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TM & © DC Entertainment.

madman, the heroes escaped, but the image of the two fighting resonated strongly and eventually found its way into Chuck Dixon and Beau Smith’s 1997 Batman/Wildcat miniseries.

After accidentally killing an opponent named Kid O’Hare in a match, Ted swore off boxing, bought the Caribbean island of Key Allegro, and opened a luxurious health spa (1976’s B&B #127). At least until Batman revealed that a Bob Haney lookalike named Hannibal Kingsley (a.k.a. El Zapatero) was using the island as a stopover as he smuggled illegal aliens into the US. In between the last two B&Bs, the existence of an Earth-One Wildcat was further legitimized when he joined forces with the contemporary cult hero the Creeper in Super-Team Family #2 (Dec. 1975–Jan. 1976). Even at the time, the pairing seeming remarkably uncommercial (where even the cover gave a Batman/Deadman team-up reprint top billing), but Wildcat was obviously seen as a modest draw based on the string of B&B stories and the Creeper had been getting an editorial push at the same time in various books.

Scripted by Denny O’Neil, drawn by Ric Estrada and Bill Draut, and edited by Gerry Conway, the story was set on the Caribbean island of San Lorenzo and pivoted around the abduction of a prizefighter named Japhy Shim by a master of disguise (and Creeper adversary) named Proteus. It represented a marked departure from the B&B quintet in a few respects, starting with its depiction of Wildcat as a celebrity prizefighter in his own right who fought in exhibition bouts just like Ted Grant. Where Haney’s Wildcat had been a hard-luck hero who was almost patronized at times by Batman, O’Neil’s version was confident and funny and simultaneously bemused and encouraged by a new kid like the Creeper. Meantime, the Creeper thought he “should be able to cover [Wildcat’s] goofs,” but that he wasn’t half bad for a has-been. The generation gap angle was very quickly going to become part and parcel of Wildcat’s character.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON EARTH-TWO… One month later, in fact. As writer and editor, Gerry Conway had revived the Justice Society in All-Star Comics #58 (Jan.–Feb. 1976), but altered the formula of the strip in a way that would define the strip from that point onward. In a concession that a group of heroes pushing their 60th birthdays needed a touchstone for a teenage audience, younger heroes like Power Girl and the Star-Spangled Kid created a new dynamic for the group.

Wildcat was at the forefront of the new JSA, garbed in the B&B version of his costume but firmly entrenched on Earth-Two in this series. (Indeed, after B&B #127, the Earth-One Wildcat never appeared again.) What he lacked in superpowers, he made up for in heart and spirit, willing to take on menaces like Vulcan and Solomon Grundy even when he was outclassed.

His primary role in the book, though, was that of the crusty old-timer and foil for the hyper-sensitive Power Girl.

Admitting in All-Star #59 that they might have gotten off on the wrong foot, he declared she wasn’t bad “for a broad.”

“Wildcat,” Power Girl responded icily before she slammed a door in his face, “I—am—not a— ‘broad!’”

“I liked the crotchety older guy,” Conway’s scripting successor Paul Levitz declares. “Seemed to me that as the most physical of the on-duty older guys, he was probably feeling his age the most (never mind the punishment that fighters took on top of his heroic injuries). Worked particularly in mind vs. Power Girl’s enthusiasm.”

As Levitz’s run began in earnest, Wildcat fell on hard times. He was brainwashed by the Fiddler into fighting Hawkman and blasted by the Icicle for use as a hostage.

Still, he managed to knock out the mind-warping PsychoPirate in All-Star #68 with a single punch simply by closing his eyes and refusing to meet the villain’s hypnotic gaze.

A two-parter in All-Star #70–71 found Wildcat commiserating with the Star-Spangled Kid over the fact that neither of them had a life outside the JSA. Whereas the Kid had been pulled 20-some years into

Pick of the Litter Crusty ol’ Wildcat was one of the Justice Society old guard enlisted to oversee the young Super-Squad in All-Star Comics #58 (Jan.–Feb. 1976). Cover by Mike Grell.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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the future and separated from his family, Ted Grant declared that his lonely existence was all his fault.

Already in a melancholy state of mind, Wildcat was deeply affected when he met a new heroine called the Huntress (no relation to his old enemy) and discovered that she was Bruce Wayne’s daughter. Taking a paternal interest in the young woman, Wildcat affectionately called her “princess” as they united to rescue the StarSpangled Kid from the villainous Strike Force.

TOUGH TALK Wildcat’s speech patterns had been casual (“ya” for “you,” for instance) from the start of the JSA relaunch, but they deteriorated further (“dis,” “dem,” and “dat” for “this,” “them,” and “that”) under Levitz, creating the unmistakable image of a punch-drunk fighter who’d taken way took many blows to the head. Reader Mike Fedik was one of several to object to the characterization of Ted Grant as an almost pitiful caricature and pointed to the character’s origin in Sensation #1 and the detail that the future Wildcat was an intelligent man who’d studied medicine in college.

Replying to Fedik in All-Star #72, Levitz admitted that the treatment of Wildcat was “one of the most controversial things” he’d done in the book. The resolution of the matter actually began in the story in that same issue. Poisoned by the Thorn, Wildcat was left comatose and in an odd state of limbo thanks to an earlier undiagnosed brain injury. Recalling the Feline Fury’s earlier encounter with the Icicle, Power Girl realized that the villain’s frost ray was responsible for Wildcat’s state of mind and his deteriorating speech in the weeks that followed. Long story short, the new Huntress recovered the frost gun from the JSA’s headquarters (after fighting the old Huntress to get it) and provided it to doctors for study. While Ted was on the disabled list as he recovered from brain surgery, All-Star Comics was canceled and the JSA feature was relegated to a smaller berth in Adventure Comics in the fall of 1978.

Wildcat finally returned in what amounted to a solo story in Adventure #464 (July–Aug. 1979). Declining an offer to join Power Girl, the Huntress, and Robin for a night on the town, a wistful Ted instead wandered the streets until he came across the long-shuttered Grant’s Gym. As Grant looked at the building, an AfricanAmerican teenager recalled that his brother had once trained there and left disappointed when Ted told him

it was never going to reopen. Minutes later, a mugging in the now-dismal area forced Wildcat to go into action and brought some able assistance from the teen whom Ted had just met.

Recalling the day he saved Socker Smith in a similar situation, Wildcat pulled back his mask and introduced himself to young Charlie Bullock. They had, it seemed to Ted, a lot in common. That night, Wildcat packed his bags and left the JSA brownstone, informing the new generation that they didn’t need a “broken down ol’ stumblebum around” any longer. “Besides,” he continued, “someone’s gotta start worrying about where the next generation of superheroes is coming from.”

On the subject of Wildcat’s departure, Levitz recalls, “As the page count shrank (and I assumed we’d be stuck at that for a while in Adventure, perhaps at varying lengths but certainly not a guaranteed book’s worth every two months), I think I was leaning towards a smaller cast and I thought he was plausible as a retiree.”

Curiously, a recurring black attorney named Charles Bullock surfaced a few years later in the Levitz-scripted Huntress backup series [Editor’s note: which we covered Cat People Issue

Punch-Drunk Pussycat (left) A dictionimpaired Wildcat, from All-Star Comics #69. (above) Star-Spangled Kid takes Ted on a flight on this original-art page (by Joe Staton and Bob Layton) from issue #70.

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two issues ago], although the age difference made it impossible for him to be the kid Ted had met a few years earlier. “Busted,” Levitz confesses.

“Charles Bullock was a friend on the audio-visual squad at P.S. 244 in Brooklyn, probably the first African-American I was friendly with (de facto segregation was just ending in New York with the beginning of school busing), and the name occurred to me to use a couple of times in later years.” The recurring name of Jediah Rikane in Levitz’s “Starman” [in Adventure Comics] and Legion of Super-Heroes features had a similar origin. “Jed Rifkin was a buddy at Stuyvesant High School, and I mangled his name into SF terms a couple of times (probably appropriate to have used him in SF, since I think he ended up at the National Institute of Health),” Levitz says.

WANTED: ONE WILDKITTEN A year later, a series called “Whatever Happened To…?” was introduced in DC Comics Presents and, as the name suggests, its goal was to revisit a variety of dormant DC characters. Contributing writer Mike Tiefenbacher recalled in The Comic Reader #217 (Apr. 1984) that one of his pitches for the project dealt with the Earth-One Wildcat and would have involved Jimmy Olsen tracking down Ted Grant and learning that he’d retired after causing the death of a child. In a sequel, Ted Grant would’ve come across a Golden Gloves prodigy whom he trained and watched become a new hero called Bobcat.

Editor Julius Schwartz blanched at the idea of reopening the can of worms known as the Earth-One Wildcat and rejected the pitch on the spot. Not one to waste a good name, Tiefenbacher later wrote a wildly different version of Bobcat for 1984’s New Talent Showcase #4 and 13.

Recalling the classic kid strips of the 1950s and 1960s, this Bobcat was a boy named David Tresh, who cobbled together a homemade

costume for adventures that including scaring a bully and recovering a confiscated baseball from a neighbor’s garage.

This isn’t to say that the Earth-One Wildcat didn’t get one final shout-out. The light-hearted Blue Devil #16 (Sept. 1985) ended with a page from a supposed scientific journal that reported that “Ted Grant has withdrawn his lawsuit stemming from the article ‘Wildcat: Brain Damage and the Heroic Ideal.’”

The problem with a Wildcat protégé may have been a simple matter of gender. Amazing Heroes #37 (Dec. 1, 1983) reported that Gerry Conway had created a female Wildcat circa 1981.

“Dick Giordano was all ready to give her a series, at least a backup series,” Roy Thomas recalled in that issue. “She was going to have the same outfit as Wildcat, with the same color and everything, but she was a young woman. It’s a pretty sexy outfit. At the same time, though, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman had independently come up with a character for the Teen Titans whom they wanted to call Wildcat.” Conway dropped his proposal in deference to Wein and Wolfman only to have their version of Wildcat go unused.

Back on Earth-Two, Roy Thomas had moved from Marvel to DC and resolved to take the JSA forward by moving backward. In the monthly title All-Star Squadron, he wrote about DC’s Golden Age heroes while they were in their prime in a series set in 1941 and 1942 against the backdrop of World War II. With literally dozens of potential characters vying for attention, the young Wildcat popped up only occasionally in the book and rarely in a role of any consequence.

Still, Wildcat took part of the spotlight in 1982’s All-Star Squadron Annual #1 that linked his origin to that of fellow heroes the Atom and the Guardian in the sort of continuity needlework that Thomas was famous for. It seemed that Ted’s college trainer Joe Morgan had subsequently trained the other two heroes in their civilian identities and harbored a growing resentment when he wasn’t able to profit from their subsequent success. Approached by a glowing alien orb (very long story), Morgan was transformed into a superhuman who attacked his former students in an ultimately futile effort to kill Green Lantern. Regaining his senses as he lay dying, Morgan accepted the fact that the heroics of Wildcat and the others would serve as vindication for him.

The success of All-Star Squadron eventually led to Thomas and Jerry Ordway’s present-day spin-off Infinity, Inc. (II), that took the generational aspect of the 1970s JSA series and created an entire team of younger heroes with ties to the older team. Wildcat, appropriately, was one of the most prominent of the Justice Society members to welcome and support these upstarts. The fact that the team was being led by his friend and kindred spirit the Star-Spangled Kid ensured that the Feline Fury made lots of visits to the team’s California headquarters.

THE MISSING LYNX It was during one of those visits (II #16, July 1985) that Ted Grant introduced Infinity, Inc. to music reporter Yolanda Montez, the daughter of his old friend Mauler Montez (“the toughest boxer Ted Grant ever had to beat on a T.K.O.”). Yolanda had long ago figured out that “Uncle Ted” was secretly Wildcat but kept that knowledge to herself, along with the fact she possessed retractable claws thanks to a genetics experiment conducted on her and others in infancy.

With his friend Gerry Conway’s permission, Thomas brought the unrealized female Wildcat to life. Originally envisioning the character as a Canadian called the Lynx, he reconceived Montez as an orangecostumed heroine called La Garro (going so far as to depict her in a preview in All-Star Squadron #28), but circumstances eventually led him in a different direction.

To Infinity and Beyond Writers Roy and Dann Thomas kept the old and new Wildcat in view in Infinity, Inc. Page 10 of issue #25 (April 1986), drawn by Todd McFarlane and Tony DeZuniga. Courtesy of Heritage.

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Coach Grant Writer Alan Brennert reveals a painful secret in the Black Canary origin in Secret Origins #50.

Art by Joe Staton and Dick Giordano.

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Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s watershed 1985– 1986 Crisis on Infinite Earths series was meant to create a fresh start for the DC Universe as well as promoting greater gender and ethnic diversity among its heroes.

To that end, several names attached to white males were reassigned to women, resulting in the Japanese Dr. Light, the African-American Dr. Midnight, and, yes, the Hispanic Wildcat. In Crisis #5, the original Wildcat was struck in the legs by a bolt of lightning while saving a young woman and was gravely informed that he’d never walk again.

At the end of #6, Yolanda vowed that Wildcat would fight on through her and she donned his familiar black costume, her long auburn hair flowing out of the mask.

Ted was furious at being replaced but quickly got over it once the newcomer told him who she was in Infinity, Inc. #25 (Apr. 1986). Indeed, he became her biggest booster, leaping to the new Wildcat’s defense in issue #29 when the other Infinitors began sniping about her. When the Star-Spangled Kid likened his behavior to a mother cat defending her kittens, Wildcat sniffed, “Tomcat, maybe. I ain’t nobody’s mother.”

Defying every prediction, Ted was already up and walking by that point but any chance of a full return to action was nipped in the bud by 1986’s Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1. Just like that, Wildcat and the rest of the older Society members (excluding only Dr. Fate, Power Girl, and the Star-Spangled Kid) were whisked off to an other-dimensional limbo, where they were fated to spend all eternity fighting the battle of Ragnarok and preventing it from spilling over into Earth.

TOP CAT As Yolanda Montez forged on in Infinity, Inc., Ted Grant was consigned to the past with the All-Star Squadron, including a cute story in which he pitched a baseball game for the assembled heroes at Yankee Stadium (Young All-Stars #7, Dec. 1987). Reflecting the sensibilities of the 1980s, the latter team was retooled as well to spotlight a teenage sub-team called the Young All-Stars.

Particularly notable was the 20-something Wildcat’s training session of the newcomers in Young All-Stars #16 (Sept. 1988), a nice retroactive anticipation of his future relationship with the second-generation JSAers.

The role of mentor had begun to define Wildcat.

Mindy Newell’s 1989 Catwoman miniseries was meant to build on the new history of the character established in Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s “Batman: Year One” in Batman #404–407. In the course of Newell’s first issue, a sympathetic policeman put battered streetwalker Selina Kyle in touch with a Gotham City trainer named Ted who helped her develop some much-needed fighting skills and unwittingly provided her with the strength to go into action as Catwoman. The casual reader had no idea who Ted was (although a Wildcat poster in his gym offered a broad hint), but knowledgeable fans made the connection and appreciated the joke that Catwoman had been trained by Wildcat.

The sequence inspired one of the most haunting sequences in Wildcat’s history as part of a story by Alan Brennert and artists Joe Staton and Dick Giordano in

Secret Origins #50 (Aug. 1990). The heroine Black Canary had been one of Wildcat’s teammates in the old JSA but she expressly forbade her daughter Dinah from following in her footsteps despite the girl’s starry-eyed adulation of her superhero godparents. Consequently, young Dinah slipped off to Grant’s Gym on the sly to learn self-defense from Ted along with others like Yolanda Montez.

Dinah eventually asked Ted why so few of the Society members had ever had children. Stiffening, he told her the story of a fling he’d had with a woman named Irina that resulted in her getting pregnant. The couple agreed that neither marriage or parenthood was an option but they never had a chance to give up the child for adoption. One horrible night immediately after the birth, the infant boy vanished from Irina’s home with only a taunting note from the Golden Wasp left behind.

“I searched for years, but I … I never found out what happened to him. Jake,” Ted choked.

“We named him Jake.”

With old memories pulled back to the surface, Wildcat privately vowed that Dinah Laurel Lance Cat People Issue

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Born to Be Wild Wildcat has become a legacy character, appearing in a range of series including Kingdom Come. Art by Alex Ross.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

THE JSA RETURNS

TM & © DC Entertainment.

would be able to defend herself. And later when the teenager developed sonic powers, he simply smiled when her parents wondered how she’d acquired them and never hinted that he might have encouraged his magically empowered teammates to create them.

“In that Black Canary origin,” Alan Brennert recalls, “I was trying quite consciously to tie the story into the post–Crisis continuity, specifically that Catwoman series establishing Ted Grant as Selina Kyle’s trainer. I almost didn’t take the assignment when [editor] Mark Waid offered it to me—it was supposed to be the origin of the modern Canary, but when I recalled that the elder Canary hadn’t gone off to fight Ragnarok with the rest of the JSA, I realized this was a loose end just crying out, so to speak, to be tied up, and I jumped at the chance.

“The scene in which Ted tells of his kidnapped son was one of my favorites, and I thought it would also serve as the germ for a story later down the line in which Wildcat encounters that son as an adult, perhaps now as an adversary raised by the Wasp. But the incident served a larger purpose, which I thought was important: to illustrate the high cost of being a hero, and the dangers your family is subject to because of your decision to put on that suit and fight for what you think is right.”

Although Wildcat never starred in a story of his own in Secret Origins, such a tale was actually prepared but never published before the title’s cancellation. Written by Roy Thomas and penciled by Greg Brooks, excerpts from the origin were published in TwoMorrows’ Alter Ego #14 (Apr. 2002) and All-Star Companion vol. 4 (2009).

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DC thought better of the Justice Society’s retirement in 1991 and brought them back. After killing Yolanda Montez and others in 1993’s Eclipso #13, DC changed its mind about the JSA in 1994 and used the Zero Hour miniseries to shut down the team again.

The latter ostensibly stripped Wildcat of any sort of artificial enchantments that had allowed old men to fight crime but absolutely no writers paid attention.

By this point, Wildcat had a cool factor earned through a combination of his B&B appearances and JSA mentoring that made him a favorite of fans and pros alike.

Beau Smith used Ted as a supporting-cast member in Guy Gardner: Warrior until that title’s cancellation, and then penned Batman/Wildcat and Catwoman/ Wildcat miniseries with Chuck Dixon in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Dixon also cemented Ted Grant’s Gotham connection in Robin #31 (July 1996), with a present-day team-up involving the Boy Wonder and the revelation that he’d trained a young Bruce Wayne. Alternately, Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Batgirl: Year One #2 (2003) asserted that Wildcat tried to talk Barbara Gordon out of costumed heroics with absolutely no success.

In a book entitled simply JSA, Geoff Johns included Wildcat, the Flash, and Green Lantern as the three standard-bearers of a revitalized Justice Society that ran with the concept of legacy heroes … and legacy villains. Among the latter was the mutated Killer Wasp, whom Ted suspected of being his lost son Jake.

According to 2001’s JSA #21, however, the original Yellow Wasp had come to love Jake as his own even as he experimented on his natural offspring. Overcome with resentment, the younger Killer Wasp claimed to have killed both Jake and his father, but no evidence existed to confirm it.

In 2007, Ted’s unspoken desire for a son was finally realized when he discovered that he’d fathered a boy named Tom Bronson years earlier. Learning that he could transform himself into a were-cat, Tom was coaxed into joining the JSA and sharing the Wildcat name with his dad (Justice Society of America [third series] #1–4).

Medical student. Boxer. Costumed hero. Has-been.

Underdog. Mentor. Comeback kid. Ted Grant has had as many lives as a cat. Indeed, Grant Morrison actually declared outright in JLA #31 that the Feline Fury had magically acquired nine lives years earlier, a revelation expanded upon

by Geoff Johns in JSA #53.

What’s more important, though, is what he did with those lives.

In that respect, Wildcat may have achieved immortality.

JOHN WELLS knows more about DC Comics history than just about anyone, and is kind enough to share that knowledge from time to time with BACK ISSUE readers.

For people of a certain age, the sight of a stylized silhouette of a black panther’s head against a red circle brings with it an almost uncontrollable urge to utter one of the most memorable battle cries, pulled from memories of 1980s cartoon watching.

“Thunder … Thunder …

ThunderCats HO!!”

TM

THUNDERCATS, THE TV SERIES ThunderCats featured a band of humanoid feline warriors fighting for survival on an new planet, the not-soimaginatively named Third Earth, following the destruction of their home planet, Thundera. The series mixed many aspects of science fiction and fantasy along with some familiar comic-book and mythology tropes, and this mix of influences undoubtedly helped its popularity. The level of animation was considered high quality for the time (although it doesn’t really stand up to a repeat viewing 20-plus years later), with the opening sequence and its memorable theme song being a particular standout.

Central to the series’ ongoing themes was the struggles of the youngest surviving ThunderCat, Lion-O, to come to terms with his role and responsibility as the group’s hereditary leader, an Arthurian parallel that added yet another layer to what on the surface appeared to be simple kids’ cartoons. The series was created by a prolific inventor named Ted Wolf, in his only screenwriting credit, who saw it as a morality play with human characters in strange feline bodies. After Wolf’s pitch was picked up, the concept was passed to veteran comics and animation writer Leonard Starr to develop for TV production.

The series, produced by the Rankin/Bass animation studios, debuted with an hour-long special in January 1985 and was followed by a regular series starting in the following September, and would eventually run for a total of 130 episodes over four seasons as well as a TV movie, until being canceled in 1990. ThunderCats is unusual for animated shows of that period in that it actually had a defined end to the series that brought the whole story arc full circle.

Most people’s memories of the series tend to revolve around the 65-episode first season (subsequent seasons were short by comparison with “only” 20 episodes each), which featured the core cast of Lion-O; the fleet Cheetara; the strongman Panthero; the master of camouflage Tygra; the acrobatic twins WilyKat and WilyKit; the obligatory 1980s cartoon comic-relief character, the annoying Snarf; and the equally required ghostly mentor, Jaga. This band of warrior felines battled both their traditional enemies, the Mutants of Plundar, and Third Earth’s resident bad guy, the mummified sorcerer Mumm-Ra. The first season, as well as having the most episodes, was the only season to feature any real sense of continuity with an ongoing arc rather than just a sequence of self-contained single-episode adventures. Key to all these adventures was Lion-O’s magic sword (more Arthurian overtones), the “Sword of Omens,” which as well as giving the bearer the ability to glimpse the short-term future, or “the power of sight beyond sight” as the series termed it, also, in a not-so-subtle Freudian undertone, grew at times of danger and projected a searchlight beam topped by the sigil mentioned at the opening of this article. It was a device designed to alert or summon the heroes in a Gotham–like rallying beacon.

by

Alan J. Porter

Lion-O Says, “ThunderCats HO!” Detail from the cover of Marvel/Star Comics’ ThunderCats #1 (Dec. 1985). Art by Jim Mooney and Brett Breeding. Special thanks to Andy Mangels for this article’s images. © 1985 Lorimar Telepictures/Marvel Comics Group.

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THUNDERCATS, THE COMICS SERIES The series’ debut on TV was accompanied by a ThunderCats comic-book series from Marvel under its Star Comics imprint.

The Star Comics line was Marvel’s attempt at winning back the elusive young readership by publishing titles that were primarily adaptations of children’s animated TV series or tie-ins to popular toy lines. The line was overseen by Tom DeFalco (who would also script a few of the ThunderCats stories), and over the course of its four-year existence published 33 different titles ranging from ALF to Wally the Wizard by way of Care Bears and Star Wars: Ewoks.

One-time Star Comics and ThunderCats editor Mike Carlin recalls, “I’m sure a Star Comic of one or another series is a lot of folks’ first comic, but the line probably didn’t alter the general comics readership that much, or it might have been around for longer than four years. Those first-timers would probably have read another comic eventually. The original stuff didn’t really click big, and much of the licensed stuff (like ThunderCats) was limited to the life of the source material.

“Unfortunately, readers and retailers complain that there aren’t enough comics for younger readers, but whenever Marvel or DC produces titles with that audience in mind the sales figures simply don’t compare with the sales on the ‘real’ comics. I suspect kids always want what their older siblings and friends are getting and deem the kids stuff for babies. Perhaps if Transformers or G. I. Joe was a part of the Star Comics line at the time they all would have faired better, or maybe the Transformers and G. I. Joe would’ve also suffered from the same ‘Baby Comics syndrome.’”

The first issue of Stars Comics’ ThunderCats title was cover-dated Dec. 1985, and was a direct adaptation of the TV show pilot episode. However, it would appear that the comics series had already been in development for a while.

In the letters page, in response to a complaint from a young fan that the early issues were inconsistent with the show, then-editor Mike Carlin mentions that several stories had been written and drawn before the show aired, and were based on concept drawings rather than the on-screen designs.

Talking about the ThunderCats in a recent interview with the author, Carlin expands on his letters column note: “On books like this, the editorial team and writers and artists usually work from a series bible. But even the most detailed bible is merely a starting point. Shows veer from their own blueprints, and by the time ‘licensees’ hear of changes it’s usually too late to match exactly!

We were probably six months ahead from writing stories to on-sale dates … so we were lucky to even have a videotape (and luckier for the writers and artists to even have VCRs to play them on that early in the game!) before watching episodes on the air.”

The comics series followed the general feel of the TV show’s first season, and was perhaps the most “adult” of the Star Comics line, being closer in tone to Marvel’s traditional superhero titles.

The ThunderCats book is often referred to as the best quality book of the Star line in terms of both storytelling and art.

“Our desire was to emulate the TV series,” explains Carlin, “which wasn’t quite as heavy as a regular Marvel Comic but it was definitely serious and with more at stake than whether or not Planet Terry had birthday cake or whatever they were up to there.

The He-Man [and the Masters of the Universe Star] series was more heroicadventure as well, but with clear comic relief coming from the cartoons’ established ‘lighter characters.’”

Three Times as Ugly (left) Giant-size Mumm-Ra attacks the crusading clowder on the cover to ThunderCats #6 (Oct. 1986). (above) Page 6 of #issue 1, scripted by David Michelinie with art by Mooney and Breeding. © 1985 and 1986 Lorimar Telepictures/Marvel Comics Group.

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THUNDERCATS CREATIVE TEAMS The creative team on the early issues included Marvel regulars David Michelinie on scripts, Jim Mooney on art, and Brett Breeding on inks. Jim Mooney also contributed the cover art with occasional inking from artists like Butch Guice, Jim Sinnott, and Al Milgrom. With issue #9 when Don Daley took over as editor, the scripting duties passed to Gerry Conway, with Jose Delbo on pencils. Later in the run the original stories were occasionally replaced by adaptations of TV scripts, such as in issue #18, which featured the art of Ernie Colón inked by Al Williamson.

When Carlin was given the title by Star Comics chief Tom DeFalco, the creative team was in place. “I had no problem with anyone involved,” Carlin says.

“David writes clear and concise stories with good beginnings, middles, and ends, and Jim Mooney was a tried and true superhero artist (Supergirl, anyone?).

He may not have been 1985’s flavor of the year, but he was impeccable as a draftsman and storyteller! (I was also happy to work with Jim again when I shifted to DC Comics a few years later—on the comics adaptation of the Superboy TV series. Oh, and with David M. again on the regular line of Superman titles in the ’90s!)”

Carlin continues, “The first issue was an adaptation to set the same stage for the comic universe as the TV universe, but after that we were free to populate their mythology with more adventures than they’d ever be able to get to. The ThunderCats people were great and easy to get okays from, but I believe that’s because David Michelinie, Jim Mooney, and Brett Breeding were respectful to the source material and more than competent.”

At the start of the Star series, the book was published on a bimonthly schedule, which, judging from some of the letters, seemed to irritate many of its young (and not so young) fans. In 1987 it switched to a monthly schedule and stayed that way until the series was canceled, along with the entire Star Comics imprint, the following year.

The series ran for 24 issues.

ThunderCats UK From the United Kingdom, (left) ThunderCats Annual 1987 and (right) the 1992 Annual.

MARVEL UK THUNDERCATS COMICS

© 1987 and 1992 Lorimar Telepictures.

But Marvel wasn’t the only company producing ThunderCats comics at the end of the 1980s.

Welsh Publishing produced six issues of a quarterly ThunderCats Magazine in 1987–1988 which, while mainly focused on a mix of TV and movie news, nature articles, and puzzle pages, also included a five-page ThunderCats comics story written and drawn by Paul Kirchner. The comics section, which interestingly was referred to as a “picture story” in the magazine contents, perhaps to avoid any licensing conflicts with Marvel, were much simpler in both writing and art style than their Star Comics counterparts.

But the ThunderCats story was far from over at Marvel, as following the demise of the Star Comics imprint the feline warriors moved across the Atlantic, first to Holland where a six-issue series reprinting a selection of the Star Comics stories was published by Otto Simon B.V., and then on to the offices of Marvel UK, where the animated series had made its debut on the BBC in 1987 to great acclaim.

Rather than just reprint the US-produced stories, the UK arm of Marvel also started its own line of original ThunderCats tales that were published on a weekly basis for three years between 1987 and Cat People Issue

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WildStorm and Warner Bros. (left) J. Scott Campbell’s dynamic cover to ThunderCats #0 (Oct. 2002). (right) Lion-O and friends are headed for the big screen!

The teaser poster for the forthcoming ThunderCats motion picture. © 2002 and 2010 Warner Bros.

1990. Many of the well known names of the British comics scene got their early starts on the ThunderCats title, including writers Dan Abnett, Mike Collins, and John Freeman. Most of the art on the series was inked

by Tim Perkins, to provide a consistent on-model look over a rotating list of pencilers (such as Martin Griffiths, Andrew Wildman, and Doug Braithwaite) needed to keep on a weekly production schedule.

The first eight issues of the Marvel UK run were reprints of the US-produced Star Comics, but original stories by UK creators started with issue #9. First up were Simon Furman and Steve Yeowell, who were quickly followed by Ian Rimmer and Martin Griffiths. Griffiths would go on to be the most prolific artist on the title. As the series progressed, original stories would be interspersed with occasional stories from the Star Comics line, but by the end of the series’ 135-issue run, the vast majority of the stories were new, original material. Many issues also include double-page mini-posters of characters, fact files, or maps of Third Earth. In the later half of the magazine’s run, the comic strips started to be split over two or even three issues, with the rest of the space filled with backup text stories, which were presumably quicker and cheaper to produce. Overall, the original UK stories were a little darker in tone than the Star Comics with a more dynamic art style, closer to standard superhero fare.

Marvel UK was also more aggressive than its parent company in repackaging the material for different audiences and distribution channels. They produced two Spring Specials and one Winter Special, a ThunderCats Pocket Comic digest-sized collection, and what today we would call a trade-paperback collection. There were also seven hardback annuals (a British tradition) published between 1985 and 1992, the annuals both predating and continuing beyond the official run of ThunderCats comics. Strangely, despite the show’s huge popularity in the UK, which in many ways was greater than in the US, ThunderCats was subject to censorship and irregular scheduling, and several of the final episodes have still yet to air in the UK. When asked about the possibilities of using the UK-produced material in the US market, Carlin explains, “At the time Marvel in the States and Marvel UK were fairly independent—the ocean was a very big hurdle to get over in a timely fashion back then

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(fax machines were just starting to be used … but were still fairly expensive, and there was no Internet)—so there was no interaction.

I assume if the series lasted longer and the comics proved immensely popular we would have eventually used each other’s material … but it never made it that far.

“Comics in the US were pretty much only comics back then.

Digests cost a lot of money to have displayed at the time—comic shops were just starting to open … only years later do Marvel and DC see reformatted collections thriving. So [the ThunderCats trade paperback] was probably a unique situation to British distribution back in the day.”

THUNDERCATS BEYOND MARVEL Marvel’s association with the ThunderCats came to an end after DC Comics’ parent company, Warner Bros., acquired the property as part of its purchase of the Lorimar Telepictures production company.

However, it would be another 12 years before ThunderCats returned to the comics in a collection of five miniseries produced under DC’s WildStorm imprint published between 2002 and 2005.

I asked Mike Carlin if, when he was working on ThunderCats, did he sense that it had staying power and would be so fondly remembered 20-plus years later, or did he view it at the time as just another Saturday morning cartoon designed to sell toys?

“I’m stunned people still care,” Carlin says, “but that’s a good thing. I’m sure I look back on the things I loved when I was a kid for similar reasons.

At the time of their youth this was their thing.

Not their older brother’s, or their dad’s, or anyone’s. It was new and theirs! So the 20–30-year-olds who now get to wear T-Cats T-shirts are just happy they can buy something that makes them feel ten again!”

ALAN J. PORTER has been writing on various aspects of pop culture for over ten years, but somehow always seems to come back to the Beatles, Batman, and Bond. You can find out more at alanjporter.com.

by

Mark Arnold

Josie started out as an answer to the already-popular Archie series. The character of Josie was created by Dan DeCarlo, who christened the character after his wife, ® Josie DeCarlo, who claimed the inspiration for the fictional Josie: “We went on a Caribbean cruise, and I had a [cat] costume for the cruise, and that’s the way it started.”

Josie’s initial adventures were fairly straightforward.

It was not until Josie donned cat ears and formed a musical trio with her friends Valerie and Melody that they became the iconic Josie and the Pussycats.

Josie as a character premiered in Archie’s Pals ’n’ Gals #23 (Dec.1962), but nothing on the cover indicated this debut and it was just a standard backup story. Josie as a comic book debuted shortly thereafter, coverdated Feb. 1963, but the character was created as far back as 1958. DeCarlo spent several years trying to sell Josie as a syndicated newspaper comic strip, but having no success, he ultimately sold it to Archie.

In Dan DeCarlo’s final interview with R. J. Carter, from late 2001, DeCarlo explained the origins of the other characters: “I submitted the Josie strip to [newspaper] publishers and [they] sent it back and said, ‘It’s not what we’re looking for, Dan, but keep up the good work,’ or words of that kind.

“Then is when I decided to take it to Archie to see if they could do it as a comic book. I showed it to Richard Goldwater, and he showed it to his father, and a day or two later I got the okay to do it as a comic book.

“When they agreed to make it a comic book— because I only had six dailies, and there was just Josie, Melody, and Pepper, the three girls. Then I submitted a model sheet, and I designed all the other characters.

I designed Albert; I designed the big, hulking guy (not Alan M.—he came later).

“I designed all the characters, anyway, and Frank Doyle was doing all the writing. I didn’t have any more input on what direction they were going to go with Josie.”

The success of the group did a few things. First, the title of the Josie comic book changed from She’s Josie to Josie and the Pussycats beginning with the 45th issue.

Second, it prompted Archie Comics to create bands for their other titles josie de carlo including the Bingoes for That Wilkin Boy, the Madhouse Glads for Archie’s Madhouse (which was also renamed Madhouse Glads), and, of course, the Archies.

[Editor’s note: For more on the Archies, see Mark

What’s New, Pussycats?

Detail from the cover for the trade paperback The Best of Josie and the Pussycats (2001).

Art by Rex W. Lindsey. © 2010 Archie Comics.

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Vintage Josie (above) Josie originated in this unsold newspaper strip in the late 1950s. Art by Dan DeCarlo. (right) Josie spins off from the pages of Pals ’n’ Gals into her own title. © 2010 Archie Comics.

Arnold’s interview with the voice of singing Archie, Ron Dante, in BACK ISSUE #33.]

Of course, the Archies and Josie and the Pussycats were astounding successes, while the Madhouse Glads and the Bingoes as concepts were virtually stillborn by comparison. Madhouse Glads as a title went on to other incarnations as a mystery/horror title and later a humor anthology, while That Wilkin Boy was phased out as a regular book.

After the success of these bands, and especially of the Archies on Saturday morning television, it was inevitable that an animated Josie would soon follow. The Archie Show debuted in 1968 by Filmation, and soon the ears of competing animation studio Hanna-Barbera perked up, especially after the success of a second series called Sabrina, the Teen-Age Witch. Hanna-Barbera asked Archie Comics Publications if they had any further characters in their library that could be converted into an animated cartoon series. Josie and the Pussycats was the strongest possibility.

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Red-haired Josie McCoy (a.k.a. James or Jones) and her ditzy blonde friend Melody Valentine (who always spoke in a sing-song voice complete with music notes), as well as Alexander Cabot III (the Veronica Lodge equivalent of Josie), appeared in the very first Josie story, along with other Josie friends named Pepper and Albert that eventually faded from view.

Shortly thereafter in She’s Josie #8 (Sept. 1964), Alex’s twin sister Alexandra made her debut. Her black cat, Sebastian, debuted in #43 (Sept. 1969), which was also the debut of Alexandra’s skunk–like hair stripe.

Eventually, a love interest for Josie entered into the picture, the handsome and muscular blond Alan M. (Mayberry) in Josie #42 (Aug. 1969).

The biggest change was the formation of the Josie and the Pussycats band in issue #45 (Dec. 1969), which also featured the debut of Valerie Brown (a.k.a. Smith), who would not have joined the band had Alexandra turned down the gig due to Josie and Melody’s resistance to using “Alexandra’s Cool Time Cats” as the name of the band.

Valerie had no such reservations and fit in well as the Pussycats’ new guitarist. With Josie also on guitar and Melody on drums, the band was complete and soon premiered on Saturday mornings on September 12, 1970, on CBS. The show continued on CBS through August 31, 1974, and then continued on in reruns from September 6, 1975 through September 4, 1976, on NBC. From 1972–1974, the show was retitled Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, with new episodes showing the group accidentally shot into outer space to entertain intergalactic species.

Here, Kitty Kitty Kitty (left) Blonde and beautiful Cheryl Ladd was years away from Charlie’s Angels acclaim when she was one of the singing Pussycats in 1970. (inset) The Josie LP from Capitol Records. (right) Movie poster for 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats. © 2010 Archie Comics.

As a sidenote, though she did not voice the character, the future Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd did the singing voice for the animated Melody, and she appeared on a difficult-to-find Josie and the Pussycats vinyl album issued on Capitol Records in 1970.

The animated Josie and the Pussycats also teamed up with the Scooby-Doo gang in an episode from The New Scooby-Doo Movies in fall 1973, where the similarity between the two casts was somewhat striking.

Meanwhile, the Josie and the Pussycats comic book was still going strong, but after the cancellation of the show in 1976, sales took a downturn until the title was canceled after its 106th issue in October 1982.

Josie and the Pussycats carried on in various issues of the Archie Giant series from that point on, until it, too, breathed its last in 1992. After a couple of giant-sized Josie specials in 1993 and 1994, it looked like this would be the last of Josie and the Pussycats, until… …April 11, 2001, the premiere date of the Josie and the Pussycats live-action movie with Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson taking on the respective roles of Josie, Melody, and Valerie.

Paul Costanzo, Gabriel Mann, and Missi Pyle rounded out the cast as Alexander, Alan M., and Alexandra, respectively.

Pyle had the best line of the movie as Alexandra; when asked why she was along for the ride on the concert tour, she says, “Because I was in the comic book!”

Josie and the Pussycats was created as a live-action movie partially because of the success of the 1996–2003 Sabrina, the Teen-Age Witch live-action hit TV series starring Melissa Joan Hart, and Archie Publications took one more trip to the well to see if they could garner another live-action hit. The movie was shot between August 21st and October 26th, 2000, for a budget of $22 million.

This time they were met with some resistance as longtime Archie artist Dan DeCarlo issued a complaint

that he created Josie and should be entitled to some of the movie’s merchandising profits, despite the fact that the movie only grossed $14,300,000.

According to The Comics Journal #221, DeCarlo was “was offered a check for $35,000 to sign away his rights to the property and refused.”

Said DeCarlo of the offer, “They did make an offer that my lawyer told me about. It was up to me to agree, and he said he didn’t think it was enough, and I went along with him. He made a counter-proposal: He wanted $100,000, and four-percent of the Josie merchandising, and they turned that down. That’s when the lawsuits really went into high gear.”

Unfortunately, the strain of the lawsuit took its toll on DeCarlo: first, by Archie relieving DeCarlo of his duties of 40 years service in May 2001, and second, when DeCarlo lost the case on December 11.

DeCarlo passed away a week later on December 19, 2001, at the age of 82.

Meanwhile, Josie and the Pussycats returned to star in comic books with Archie and Friends #47 (June 2001).

This new series lasted through issue #104, the last nine issues in manga-style adventures, which proved to be unpopular with readers. Josie and the Pussycats recently returned in issue #130 in the traditional format.

They also can be found in the back pages of various Archie digests. The Best of Josie and the Pussycats appeared in 2001 as a trade paperback.

© 2010 Archie Comics.

MARK ARNOLD is a comic-book and animation historian. He has written books about Harvey Comics and Total TeleVision (Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo) and is currently at work on a book about the history of Cracked magazine.

He was a regular contributor to Jeff Branch’s Riverdale Ramblings in the 1990s.

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TM

Thrilling Adventure Stories (Feb. 1975), like many an Atlas/Seaboard series, only lasted two issues. But the first issue introduced us to a character which, if you’ve seen him, for better or for worse (mostly worse), you will never forget him: a ludicrous, slapdash-dressed crimefighter called Tiger-Man. Tiger-Man’s saving grace? Half the time, he was drawn by Ernie Colón; the other half, Steve Ditko.

ENTER THE TIGER-MAN Written by Jonah Hex co-creator John Albano and drawn

by Colón, “Tiger-Man and the Flesh Peddlers,” as you can guess from the story’s title, is a couple of notches grittier, grimier, less inhibited than the forthcoming Comic Code–approved standard comic-book spin-off advertised at tale’s end. In this magazine format, Tiger-Man stalks the underworld with eye-gouging, throat-slashing ferocity.

“The violence was a reader-grabber, as most pop violence is––movies or TV or whatever,” says Colón, who also penciled Tiger-Man #1 (in which he and writer Gabriel Levy were uncredited). “Personally, I liked working on [Atlas Comics’] The Grim Ghost better. It seemed a little more brainy, more thoughtful.”

Colón turned in an uncluttered, well-told inaugural story with his sketchy characters bursting out of the confines of their panels: the black boot legs of a dead prostitute, the legs of a lifeless thug drained of life by the Tiger-Man, listlessly hanging out of the panels. A thug gets punched out so hard by the wildcat superhero, he flies back beyond the panel’s borders.

Within the magazine, “Flesh Peddlers” appeared in good company, published in an issue which contained the Nazi camp breakout piece “Escape from Nine by One” by Russ Heath, the Frank Thornedrawn “Lawrence of Arabia,” and Jack Sparling’s “Kromag the Killer.” (The mag also included an article hyping Warner Bros.’ then-upcoming Doc Savage movie.)

Not an origin story, “Flesh Peddlers” finds Tiger-Man on the trail of the prostitution ring overlord Hecht, the fat cat behind a rash of killings, including Tiger-Man’s sister.

Tiger-Man brutally wrings information out of Hecht’s thugs to get to the crimelord himself. Once at Hecht’s mansion, he violently dispatches the mansion’s security guards. The superhero evades explosions with the alacrity of a cheetah and the fury of “a frenzied demon” (Hecht’s words). When Tiger-Man finally reaches him within his estate, Hecht backs up in fear and falls into a pool of piranha. Concludes Tiger-Man: “It’s strange how the forces that govern men’s destinies. On your end, Mr. Hecht, you fed off the flesh of others and now … those tiny cannibals can feed off your flesh.” Revenge exacted with EC Comics-worthy irony. End of story.

Claws of the Cat (above) Tiger-Man #2’s (June 1975) cover,

by Frank Thorne. (inset) Tiger-Man’s first appearance. Cover art by Ernie Colón. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Cat People Issue

by

Michael Aushenker

EARNING HIS STRIPES After a grotesquely violent debut in the magazine Thrilling Adventure, Tiger-Man #1 (Apr. 1975) arrived, in standard color comic-book format.

In Tiger-Man #1, Dr. Lancaster Hill (partially named after actor Burt Lancaster) isolates the tiger chromosome while encamped at an African village. In an effort not to lose a life (or his medical license) with his experiment, Hill injects himself … with obvious results. Soon, he can kill a tiger with his bare hands, and an African chief (alternately referred to as Chief “Junka” and “Jnuka”) gives Hill a costume fashioned from the very beast Hill had snuffed. Clearly, Chief Junka or Jnuka never majored in fashion design, and the piss-poor outfit–– a tiger mask-and-unitard combo (anticipating the movie Flashdance, he appears to wear tiger-striped leg-warmers)––is the hardest element of Tiger-Man to overcome. Even in the superhero genre, where suspension of disbelief is routine, Tiger-Man is a hard pill to swallow, looking as downright dopey as his name. And so, dressed like a cast member of the Broadway musical Cats, Dr. Hill experiences his first test as a newly minted crimefighter when a pair of rodeo cowboy scum (!!) slays his sister, Anna Hill. With his garbage costume and his tiger-scent powers, he tracks the killers down and lays some feline smackdown on ’em.

Tiger-Man #1, as rendered by Colón in an impressionistic realism that combined early-Moon Knight Bill Sienkiewicz with Spectacular Spider-Man-era Sal Buscema, rises above what would otherwise be a rote revenge tale (with its garden-variety origin) and transcends most of the snoozy books released by Atlas.

ONE COOL CAT: STEVE DITKO For many, the Tiger-Man journey truly begins with issue #2 (June 1975) and ends with #3 (Sept. 1975), a pair of issues scripted by Gerry Conway that is worth discussing for two reasons only: “Steve” and “Ditko.”

As Ditko comes aboard with Tiger-Man #2, the series abandons Colón’s semi-realism, and Ditko’s inimitable style, with its surreal edge, takes over. Whereas Colón’s Tiger-Man looks like a man with a mask, Ditko’s appears organic and anthropomorphic. Many of #2’s pages conform to that meticulous Ditko grid, as the master artist tells his story cleanly and intensely, panel by panel, the action almost animated.

Issue #2, “Stalker in a Concrete Jungle,” pits Tiger-Man against his first supervillain. As Ditko presumably designed Blue Leopard, the antagonist’s costume looks better than the series’ protagonist, although it’s a throwback to the camp era of Batman.

In “Stalker,” what starts out as a crook ring bust-up leads to Professor Anderson Hobart, who supplied the criminals with high-tech suits of armor. Suddenly, the Blue Leopard materializes to assault Tiger-Man. He has arrived all the way from Africa to seek vengeance against Dr. Hill for crimes related to his visit in issue #1 on behalf of Na’ Bantu, witch doctor of the village in Zambia. According to Blue Leopard, more than Cat People Issue

Does Whatever a Tiger Can (above) Original Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko’s rendition of Tiger-Man, page 9 of issue #2. (left) Colón’s cover to Tiger-Man #1 (Apr. 1975). © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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© 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

200 villagers died by starvation a month after Hill left, and they hold the doctor responsible.

Upon paying a visit to Professor Hobart later that evening, Tiger-Man discovers Hobart slain by the Blue Leopard … with the evidence pointing to Tiger-Man as the killer. Blue Leopard attacks Tiger-Man, but this time, his claws are laced with lethal poison. A fight ensues, during which Tiger-Man evades Leopard’s deadly scratch.

The fracas turns into a stalemate, as Blue Leopard flees, and the issue ends with Tiger-Man contemplating when his adversary will return. (Try “Never!” Tiger-Man, as your series only lasted one more issue!)

While the set-up of Tiger-Man by Blue Leopard and the battle scenes between the wildcat supermen pop in #2, Tiger-Man #3—the series’ finale—improves on the former installment as Ditko gets into a groove.

In #3, the masterful artist retells Tiger-Man’s origin in flashback with newfound energy and intensity, as the bloodthirsty cat-hero exacts vengeance against the two men who robbed and murdered his sister. The silverhaired, monocled-and-goateed Dr. Otto Kaufmann—

a.k.a. the psychic-powered Hypnos—is the most ordinary of baddies, but his face is pure Ditko-supporting cast, the kind of mug that might turn up in Static or The Mocker. The climactic pages 16 through 18––evolving from fistfight and foot chase to Tiger-Man turning the hypnotizing monocle against its owner––are actionpacked and move as well as any Amazing Spider-Man sequences. Heightening the art’s style quotient: some old-school tricks, such as coloring Hypnos red in the foreground of the foot-chase panel on page 17; or on page 5, panel 4, where a scarlet fill on Dr. Hill ups the emotional ante as Hill sweats it out, questioning his sanity. Effective.

Another memorable sequence from issue #3 is page 11, in which Tiger-Man rescues a hypnotized blonde from drowning after her car careens out of control off of a pier.

Ditko really pulls us into the story, as panel 3 shows TigerMan swimming with blonde in tow, the panel bifurcated by a strong, wavy diagonal that pits the scene half underwater, half above surface. You can feel Tiger-Man’s struggle to thrust her out of the ocean. Gives you nausea.

ATLAS SHRUGGED Years after publisher Martin Goodman sold Marvel Comics, which had shot to the top of the mainstream comic-book heap, the publisher started Atlas/ Seaboard in 1975.

As a writer who started scripting comics at a young age, Gerry Conway at the time lived and worked in Manhattan. He had already authored a legendary Amazing Spider-Man story arc, the death of Gwen Stacy, two years before his first issue of Tiger-Man. “I can’t recall whether I worked for Atlas before or after I left Marvel the first time to work at DC,” Conway says. “I have a feeling it was after. I was married to Carla [Conway] at the time, and I think we collaborated on a couple of scripts, possibly for Atlas. Honestly, it’s a bit of a blur; I was 23, working too much, insecure, angry at the treatment I’d received at Marvel (rightly or wrongly—all these years later, who knows?), and I’m pretty sure I decided to write something for Atlas out of spite. Which was only fair, since Atlas itself was created by the Goodmans out of spite and in an attempt to show that Marvel’s success was due to Martin Goodman’s business acumen more than Stan Lee’s creative genius. And we see how well that worked out.

“I believe the company also existed to give Chip Goodman something to do, since his job overseeing Magazine Management (Marvel’s parent company before the Goodmans sold out) went away when Martin left. I don’t think anyone who worked for Atlas at the time had any illusions about the quality of the work we were all doing. After all, Tiger-Man? Really? Seriously?”

Since it’s in an Atlas/Seaboard book, it’s very easy to dismiss Ditko’s work on Tiger-Man. Conceptually, Tiger-Man is not anyone’s finest moment. Even in terms of Ditko’s superhero work for Atlas, it pales compared to his four issues of The Destructor. But as with Destructor, Tiger-Man #2 and 3 caught sensei Steve in peak form, applying his storytelling prowess and the

Last Gasp Original art to page 11 of Tiger-Man #3 (Sept. 1975), penciled by Ditko and inked by its contributor, Al Milgrom. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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deceptively simple, stylized aesthetic, which earned Ditko his stripes. The detail with which Ditko relishes depicting the seedy underworld in Tiger-Man helms closer to his personal, independent-comics triumphs (Mr. A, The Mocker) than it does to his lackluster latter efforts, such as his 1980s Marvel output.

Despite Ditko’s high pedigree, writing both Tiger-Man books barely registers in the memory of Conway, who today scripts episodic television dramas such as Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

“I can’t recall a single thing about my work on Tiger-Man,” admits Conway, “which probably indicates just how good it was. I’m sure it was professionally written … and probably pretty uninspired.”

Perhaps he does not remember his collaboration with Ditko with good reason: The scribe did not work directly with the iconic artist.

“I only went up to the Atlas office once or twice,” Conway remembers. “I forget who worked there (Rich Buckler, maybe?), and my primary interaction was with Chip Goodman, who spent most of our conversation trying to convince me that Marvel was going to go under at any moment, because Atlas was going to pay higher rates and steal all their top talent. The subtext of the conversation was basically that Chip was going to show Stan who was the smarter. And that’s what he did.”

Conway notes the general vibe at the short-lived Atlas, which flooded the market with titles throughout 1975 in a futile attempt to bury Marvel.

“I remember more about the experience of scripting briefly for Atlas. At the time I believe it was being run directly by Chip Goodman, Martin Goodman’s son, and living proof (like our 43rd president) that intelligence isn’t always an inheritable trait,” cracks Conway, who adds that he had worked with Ditko before.

“I believe I worked with Steve on Man-Bat at DC,” Conway recalls, “though I forget whether it was only in the capacity of editor. I do recall meeting him in person for that project, and it was a surreal moment.

He was exactly as I’d pictured him, very polite, very reserved, very … strange.

“The impression I had was that Steve had resigned himself to doing work that he hated to generate income, so he could do the work that he loved more or less for free.

“He was heavily into his Ayn Rand-influenced anti-hero indie series at the time,” adds Conway, in reference to Ditko’s Objectivist hat-and-trenchcoat character, Mr. A. Ditko did not have to suffer Tiger-Man for long, as it was scratched before issue #4 could surface. After only one year in operation, Atlas (and Tiger-Man) was history.

THE TAIL END OF OUR STORY So what happened over at Atlas? Ernie Colón puts it bluntly: “Screwed-up management. Except for Jeff Rovin, the editor-in-chief. It was his vision––regarding artwork returns, higher page rates, and co-ownership—that defined Atlas’ possible golden future. It’s really too bad that so many insurmountable obstacles were thrown in his path.

“Atlas was doomed from the start, with books canceled before returns came in to tell us how well or how badly they’d done,” Colón continues. “Sometimes a canceled book would turn out to have good sales.”

Marvel’s sudden competitor, with its half-baked concepts and half-hearted execution, was never a serious threat. After Atlas’ collapse, all talents involved were able to resume professional ties with the Big Two. “Honestly, I don’t think anyone thought for a minute that Atlas was anything but a sinking ship from the start,”

Monocle Man

Conway says. “It really wasn’t hard to return to the Marvel/DC fold afterward, since, in a sense, I hadn’t left.”

And with the demise of the fleeting Atlas/Seaboard ship, Colón, Conway, and Ditko made a beeline from a certain feline. Meow.

Tiger-Man vs.

Doctor Hypnos in an action sequence drawn in the inimitable Ditko style. Art for page 13 of Tiger-Man #3 courtesy of inker Al Milgrom.

A special thanks to the Jerry Boyd Lending Library of South Bay, California, and Alan Rutledge of Frank ’n’ Sons, City of Industry, California, for providing me with research materials for this article.

MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist with a feline-themed superhero series of his own: El Gato, Crime Mangler. His other comic books include Cartoon Flophouse featuring Greenblatt the Great!, Silly Goose, and Those Unstoppable Rogues. He is also the writer of the Gumby’s Gang series (WildCard Ink). Visit CartoonFlophouse.com and read cartoonflophouse.blogspot.com daily.

© 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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Atlas Cat, Take Two: The Cougar Back in 1975, when the word “cougar” was simply another name for mountain lion, Atlas Comics unleashed a second superhero with a feline moniker. Debuting with the same cover date (Apr. 1975) as Atlas’ striped-andwhiskered counterpart Tiger-Man, The Cougar contained a different set of thrills and suspense.

For starters, the Cougar’s name was not literal but symbolic. Unlike Tiger-Man, who possessed all sorts of powers attributed to the species of wildcat he was named after, the Cougar was more human—a man named Jeff Rand, to be exact, who once portrayed a costumed hero called the Cougar in a failed film and, afterwards, vowed to fight crime in real life as his movie persona. It’s a fatuous concept, akin to Robert Townsend fighting crime as the Meteor Man or Damon Wayans taking on supervillains as Blankman after their films had tanked.

by Michael Aushenker

That silly premise notwithstanding, The Cougar was not as unreadable as other Atlas titles published in the company’s year-long pursuit to topple Marvel.

The Cougar resembled Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle’s Crossfire meets Kolchak, The Night Stalker. The Cougar #1 saw the erstwhile screen hero defeating the vampire Krolok drawn by Frank Thorne’s hand, while in The Cougar #2 (July 1975), drawn by Dan Adkins, the villain pitted against our hero essentially leapt from Dracula to the Wolfman; this time, it’s a werewolf hunting down our hero.

Cougar #2 culminates with a Cougar/werewolf smackdown, in which Rand gets tossed across a room, smashing into a wall. A doctor gives his grave diagnosis of the pummeled Rand. He tells Rand’s lady friend that the Cougar’s spine was snapped and that he is now paralyzed and he may never walk again.

In the last panel of what became the series’ final printed issue, the teaser points to an issue #3 which never saw publication. The teaser reads: “NEXT ISSUE: A crippled Cougar—helpless in a Jungle of Evil?!

Don't miss ish # 3—introducing the most devastatingly different superhero of all time!!”

So did Cougar #3 ever make it to the writing/art stage? Or were the cool cats behind this series leaping before they were looking?

The teaser is an intriguing one. It suggests, of course, that they wanted to take Jeff Rand/Cougar in an unorthodox direction for superhero comics with this paralyzed character. Did the writer intend to rebuild him with bionics? Or leave him wheelchair-bound? Or was the entire paralyzed bit just a big ol’ red herring?

Somewhere out there is the answer. If any former Atlas employees or informed readers have the info, please let us know. Curiosity can not kill this cat …

Atlas already took care of that!

This Cougar’s No Maneater Frank Thorne’s original cover art to The Cougar #1 (Apr. 1975). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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by

Jim Kingman

1) CATWOMAN’S A VILLAINESS, SHE CAN’T GET NO REFORMATION “I don’t want to sound egotistical, Robin—but I’ve come to the conclusion that Catwoman is in love with me!”

– Batman, the World’s Greatest Detective “Of course she is! Everybody knows that—but you!”

– Robin, no slouch at deducing the obvious, either The above revelatory exchange between two renowned crimefighters in Batman #197 (Dec. 1967) focused on but one of the emotional conflicts, spanning over 20 years, between Selina (Catwoman) Kyle and the man/men of her affections, Bruce (Batman) Wayne. Theirs was a romance compounded by contradictions and connections, mysteries and secrets, commitments and betrayals, tension and tragedy, and punctuated by doses of madness, magic, and science fiction to often resolve matters or muck up their relationship even further.

After Catwoman’s male-bashing, mensmashing escapade in Batman #210 (Mar. 1969), wherein she donned a new, hip-for-then blue bodysuit costume complete with bouncy cat tail and a shorter hair style, Selina decided to stay clear of Batman and pursued criminal activity outside of Gotham City. As chronicled by writer Denny O’ Neil, she crossed paths with Black Canary (Adventure Comics #418–419, Apr.–May 1972) and Diana Prince, Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman #201–202, July–Aug. and Sept.–Oct. 1972) before returning to Gotham, disguised as a tiger trainer to infiltrate a circus she felt was abusing a tiger (Batman #256, May–June 1974). While she encountered Batman during this exploit, the Caped Crusader was investigating a murder and not seeking her. When the murder was solved and the tiger freed from captivity, Selina’s personality, for the first time in years, had been given some depth. Batman pointed out to Robin that Selina caused “evil,” even when she didn’t intend to. Selina had always been an adventuress and a thrillseeker and had chosen villainy as the best route to pursue those desires. She was equal parts compulsive and independent, stubborn and devoted only to herself, but she also had,

Can Catwoman Change Her Stripes?

A gorgeous 1989 specialty piece by the legendary Gray Morrow (for more of the late Mr. Morrow, join us in two issues for our Vigilante article). Special thanks to Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com) for the art.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Friskies Irv Novick’s original cover art for Batman #324 (Mar. 1969, courtesy of Heritage) was rejected for Neal Adams’ revision of the same pose (inset).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

as revealed in this story, her sentimental, caring side.

She was arguably the most human of all of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery.

In Batman #266 (Aug. 1975), also written by O’Neil, Catwoman donned her classic cat-eared cowl, purple dress, and green cape and continued her villainous ways, although it was becoming clear with each successive exploit during the 1970s that her reputation was fading. Supporting roles in The Joker #9 (Sept.–Oct. 1976) and Robin’s first full-length “novel” (Batman Family #8, Nov.–Dec. 1976) were confirmation of this, and when she stepped completely out of character and became a killer in Bob Haney and Jim Aparo’s notorious The Brave and the Bold #131 (Dec. 1976), also going so far as plotting to kill Batman, it was apparent her popular glow had severely dimmed.

Even a thirst for attention and brief change of identity in Batman #291 (Sept. 1977) didn’t help matters.

What saved Selina Kyle, and possibly led to her reformation, was a violent encounter with a woman not of her Earth, hence the science-fiction element.

2) WHAT MAY HAVE CAUSED SELINA’S REFORMATION It was revealed in the classic origin of the Huntress, “From Each Ending … a Beginning” by writer Paul Levitz and artists Joe Staton and Bob Layton and published in DC Super-Stars #17 (Nov.–Dec. 1977), that the Catwoman of Earth-Two, a parallel world where DC’s Golden Age superheroes and villains resided, married Bruce (Batman) Wayne, and they had a daughter together, Helena, who would years later become the Huntress. Months later, in The Batman Family #17’s “Horoscopes of Crime” (Apr.–May 1978), written by Bob Rozakis and illustrated by Don Heck and Bob Wiacek, the Huntress visited Earth-One and encountered Catwoman. The results of this face-off, I’m positing, would be huge, and affect Selina’s life for years to come, although she would never speak of it out loud or think it for the reader’s benefit in any thought balloon.

During her brutal catfight with Selina, the Huntress couldn’t help but feel she was battling her own mother. Overcoming her hesitation, she delivered to Catwoman a knockout punch.

As Selina collapsed to the ground, the Huntress said, “Maybe someday you’ll reform like my mother did—but until then, you’re just another criminal!”

What if Selina heard this statement before she fell into unconsciousness, and later did some detective work, obviously inspired by the Batman, and eventually learned that on a parallel Earth, her counterpart had given up crime, married Batman, and had with him a daughter!

Wouldn’t that be motivation enough for her to reform? Of course, because in her next appearance, Detective Comics #479 (Sept.–Oct. 1978), she had reformed!

27 Lives Between Them Detail from the back cover of Who’s Who in the DC Universe #4 (June 1985), depicting the Catwomen of Earths-One and Two, as well as Cat-Man. Art by George Pérez.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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“Looking back at the story in Batman Family #17,” notes Rozakis, “I don’t think I did much to develop Catwoman’s personality one way or the other. Mostly, I seemed to be playing on her penchant for cat-related crimes and going for snappy wordplay.”

Whether Rozakis knew it or not, he may have greatly influenced Selina’s future.

3) BUILDING A REFORMATION (ENTER CONFLICTION #1: BRUCE WAYNE) When the sultry and mysterious Selina Kyle entered the Wayne Foundation office of multi-millionaire Bruce Wayne to request an appointment with the philanthropist (’Tec #479), writer Len Wein purposefully veiled her identity to allow the suspense to build for future issues of Batman. Still, longtime readers knew immediately that this was the lady also known as Catwoman. What readers couldn’t figure out was why Catwoman was this way, all seriousness and attitude, a far cry from her more playful antics as Gotham City’s Princess of Plunder. As it turned out, Selina Kyle had officially reformed, beginning a different but no less thrilling phase of her life.

While Wein’s redefining of Catwoman doesn’t appear to have stemmed from her encounter with the Huntress, as Selina never brings it up, she might have chosen not to divulge the incident and its consequences simply to keep Wayne from doubting her sanity; after all, if the Huntress had inspired her to give up crime, Selina would have to explain the existence of parallel worlds and her near-exact doppelganger, and Wayne might have decided to dismiss Selina’s reasoning and begin avoiding her.

(Obviously not, because as Batman Wayne would know of the existence of Earth-Two. But Selina wouldn’t know Bruce and Batman were one and the same. Or did she?)

In the beginning, under Wein’s tenure, the reformation went well, but the relationship stumbled a bit.

Selina and Bruce discussed investment proposals involving honest money Selina had come by.

Over dinner, they talked about her new life, and shared a kiss. When Bruce asked Selina why she embarked on a life of crime, she replied: “To be honest, Bruce— I really don’t know! Partly for the thrills, I suppose— and to attract the Batman’s attention! You know there was a time when I thought I loved him! Now I’m in love with life—and freedom! I want to start over” (Batman #313, July 1979). Bruce remained suspicious, however, and had Lucius Fox compose a profile on Selina that she learned about, and that almost derailed their relationship. But they overcame that obstacle, and continued to see each other. They indulged in late-1970s excess, including disco dancing on a jet airplane. They attended plays and social functions.

But then Selina was struck by a series of severe headaches. She visited Batman’s own doctor, Dr. Dundee, and after running some tests he diagnosed that she had contracted a rare disease during her career as Catwoman and had only a month to live (Batman #322, Apr. 1980).

When she asked if there was any hope of a cure, the doctor replied that a combination of ancient Egyptian herbs may provide a remedy, but that was still far from certain, even if the herbs still existed.

To clear her head, Selina visited the Robbins Riverside Museum, where an Ancient Egyptian cat exhibit was on display, and which just happened to include an urn of preserved ancient herbs. Selina realized

Selina’s New Look (below) Artist (and writer) Frank Robbins’ original design for Catwoman’s ’70s costume. From the back cover of The Amazing World of DC Comics #4 (Jan.–Feb. 1975). (left) Wonder Woman #201 cover.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Cat’s in the Cradle (left) Chaos for Catwoman on the cover to Batman #324 (June 1980), drawn by Jim Aparo. (right) Full-page house ad for DC’s Catwoman backup series of the 1980s.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

she couldn’t simply walk up to the herbs and help herself, although she tried. Later, she called Bruce for advice, but as Batman he was out in pursuit of visiting Flash-foe Captain Boomerang. Desperate, she reached for her long-unused Catwoman costume.

In the dead of night at Robbins Riverside Museum, an unsuspecting guard came upon a shadowy thief who scratched him. Briefly he caught a glimpse of a familiar costume, and wondered out loud if Catwoman had returned to crime!

While Selina exhibited strong hints of a criminal relapse during this episode, she overcame them, although her reputation as Catwoman still held sway with Batman, the police, the Gotham press, and the general public. As it turned out, it was the Cat-Man who committed the crime at the museum, and during Batman and Catwoman’s battle to defeat him, he apparently lost his life. Fortunately, Selina’s disease went into remission due to the magical powers of the Cat-Man’s cloak. Later, a cured, rested, and irritated Selina Kyle left Gotham City to start a new life away from suspicious and untrusting eyes (Batman #326, Aug. 1980).

For the foreseeable future, Selina would rely more on her Catwoman instincts, wearing the costume, and becoming motivated by love and obsession.

It made her a far more interesting character but nixed the idea of any future attempts at her establishing a “normal” life.

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4) REFORMATION, ALMOST INTERRUPTED (ENTER CONFLICTION #2: TALIA) When Robin sought Selina’s aid in helping him to save Batman from what he saw as an evil seduction by Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, Talia (Batman #332–335, Feb.–May 1981), Selina appeared poised to confront Bruce and work out their relationship. But when she, as Catwoman, witnessed Batman and Talia sharing a kiss, she was struck by pangs of jealousy, a feeling she couldn’t explain or come to terms with. Still, she continued to aid Robin, and soon became deeply involved in thwarting Ra’s al Ghul’s maniacal plot to achieve world domination.

During this epic battle, known as “The Lazarus Affair,” Selina once more felt the thrill of being an adventurer.

Would she swing back to villainy or follow a more honest course? That, she realized, would be internally decided after the reckoning with al Ghul. She disappeared after his defeat, avoiding Bruce altogether.

Had Selina stuck around a while, she certainly would have been happy to see Talia leave Gotham. However, if she had overheard Dick’s comments to Bruce in Batman #335, “She [Selina] went off, Bruce … asked me not to tell you where. She’s afraid you’ll go after her.

She cares for you. But there’s something between Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne, something between Batman and Catwoman, she won’t speak about. Something that’s obviously keeping you two apart.” She certainly would not have been pleased with Bruce’s reaction. He had absolutely no comment on the matter.

5) REFORMATION UNDER FIRE (ENTER CONFLICTION #3: VICKI VALE) When Gerry Conway became the writer of Batman in Batman and Detective Comics after Marv Wolfman, he had Batman seek out Selina’s aid on a case involving the Mannequin (Detective Comics #507, Oct. 1981).

Conway established where Selina lived when she was thinking personal matters through: a penthouse in Gotham Village. After that exploit, Selina was kidnapped and taken to Egypt by a deranged museum curator known as the Pharaoh, who saw Selina as a reincarnated Egyptian princess (Detective #508, Nov., 1981). Batman successfully rescued her, but then she was immediately kidnapped again by Cat-Man (Detective #509, Dec., 1981). Since these demeaning close calls with death were linked to her former Catwoman persona, Selina felt she could no longer deny her still-existing feline-fury connections. Even Bruce Wayne mentioning Catwoman caused her to recoil from him, seeking safety in shadow and seclusion.

“I was always fascinated by Selina Kyle,” admires Conway, “because I think I saw her as the ultimate bad-girl-trying-to-be-good. In my mind, Selina was a genuinely ‘bad’ person, by which I mean, she was somewhat amoral, and slightly sociopathic.

“I’m not saying she was crazy, I just think she felt she was outside society’s rules, and had little empathy for anyone else,” Conway continues. “That’s not to say she had no feelings for other people, like many criminals or murderers, just that they were relatively minimal. But, and this was to my way of thinking a big ‘but,’ some part of her was seeking redemption, and saw in Bruce Wayne/Batman the individual who offered her that redemption.”

Instead of coming to terms with Bruce, however, Selina left Gotham City to come to terms with herself.

Bruce Jones wrote the Catwoman backup feature in Batman for a few months (Batman #345–346, #348–351, 1982), picking up Selina’s story from where the lead story in ’Tec #509 left off: She ventured from Gotham on a train with a lot on her mind, even experiencing a nightmare involving a rather bizarre wedding to Wayne. Jones then utilized her as a private investigator and bodyguard, allowing her to develop her role as a reformed Catwoman in positive ways.

But shortly after solving a murder case in Cleveland, Selina learned that celebrated photographer Vicki Vale was dating Bruce. Back in Conway’s corner, something in Selina snapped and as Catwoman she returned to Gotham in a jealous rage, dead set on killing Vicki and Bruce (Detective Comics #521, Dec. 1982 and Batman #355, Jan. 1983). She didn’t, of course, but she emerged from this incident a deeply troubled and despairing woman. On top of that, she divulged a stunning secret…

Selina knew that Bruce and Batman were one and the same! Her admission was made on page 23, panel 3 of Batman #355 (nicely rendered by artists Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala). When and where Selina learned this information is hard to pinpoint. She may have known as far back as her first reformed appearance in Detective #469.

A desperate Robin may have told her in Batman #331.

Honestly, Selina could have figured it out at any time.

To Selina’s credit, she kept this knowledge close to the cat o’ nine tails, never using it as leverage or to gain the upper hand. In fact, this is the only occasion Catwoman let it slip. And Batman, who was right there to hear his greatest secret jeopardized, said nothing, thought nothing, and pursued nothing in regard to it.

It became almost an accidental incident, a throwaway revelation, but it’s as powerful a moment in superhero comics as the snap of Gwen Stacy’s neck, also written

by Conway. Catwoman knew Batman was Bruce Wayne, and it didn’t matter. What mattered was their love for one another, and the miserable dawning that it was a love that could never be truly consummated.

Not that they wouldn’t give it another try.

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Letting the Cat Out of the Bag Catwoman unexpectedly (to the reader) reveals that she knows Bruce Wayne and Batman are one and the same on page 23, panel 3 of Batman #355 (Jan. 1983).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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“Did Selina love Bruce?” ponders Conway. “I think she did, as much as she was capable of experiencing love, but it was a self-centered, distorted version of love, constantly being challenged by the reality of her situation.

The conflict between her desire to love Batman, and be loved by him, and her need to control her experience and that of her lover, drove her to do crazy things.

She’s an incredibly deep character with lots of potential.”

(During this period, the Catwoman of Earth-Two was featured in several flashback episodes sprinkled throughout the DC Universe [Wonder Woman, Superman Family, All-Star Squadron], notably the beautiful coda to DC Super-Stars #17, “The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne,”

by Alan Brennert, Joe Staton, and George Freeman, published in The Brave and the Bold #197, Apr. 1983.)

Love on a Rooftop A 1986 Paul Gulacy Bat-and-Cat painting, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

6) REFORMATION SUSTAINED (ENTER CONFLICTION #4: NOCTURNA) While Selina left Gotham again to lick and heal her emotional wounds, Bruce carried on with his relationship with Vicki Vale. Catwoman returned briefly to aid Batman in his battle against all his foes (Detective Comics #526, May 1983). Doug Moench then took over from Conway as Bat-chronicler on Batman and Detective Comics.

When Moench had Selina return to Gotham in Detective #548, it was not to give Vicki an ultimatum, although they did encounter one another, but to rescue her pet black panther Diablo, which had been poisoned by a Syrian

terrorist, Darkwolf. When Diablo died, Selina teamed with Batman to exact vengeance on the terrorist.

Disguised as an airline stewardess, she battled Darkwolf on an airplane he had hijacked, and was thrown from the soaring plane. Fortunately, Batman tossed a parachute after her, but later he could not find Selina’s body (Batman #382, Apr. 1985). It was in this moment that he realized how much he really loved her. Maybe.

Sort of. Their relationship wasn’t out of the woods yet.

In fact, it was heading for a thicker forest.

Months later, a series of murders committed by the delusional and rampaging Night-Slayer led Gotham’s politicians and police to believe the slayings were done by Catwoman, so Selina returned, this time to clear her name (Batman #389, Nov. 1985). She had also come back to one of the most convoluted chapters in Batman’s history. Red skies glowed over Gotham, and red rain pummeled the city, generated by the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Bruce had broken up with Vicki (and it wasn’t pretty; Batman’s break-ups never are). Robin was having mother issues. The Night-Slayer was seeking Nocturna, a mysterious, pale woman introduced by Moench, who had a way of seducing men of all ages, causing them to behave irrationally—including Batman. All of Moench’s intricate plotting converged at a fevered pitch at an observatory, appropriated by Nocturna, outside of Gotham (Batman #390, Dec. 1985). There, Selina was struck by lightning. As she was held limp in Batman’s arms, he then realized how much he really loved her.

Really. Then he got a grip and rushed her to a hospital.

While Selina recovered, Batman became determined to make their shaky relationship work. They became partners in romance and crimefighting. The romance didn’t work, but on a crimefighting level Batman and Catwoman continued to operate together. But even that relationship was on precarious ground, as Selina realized she had risen proudly from her own conflictions, and Batman hadn’t really changed a bit.

7) THE REAL CONFLICTION REVEALED (IT WAS BATMAN ALL ALONG) While Batman kept flailing emotionally with his feelings and restrictions regarding relationships with women, Selina had continued nailing their complex situation with each re-entry into Bruce’s life, every agonizing step of the way taking greater control of her own life.

Certainly it was painful for her, but she always recovered, and came away from ordeal after ordeal with not only a better understanding of what made Batman tick but also a better understanding of herself. So what if she occasionally responded with irrational behavior? She learned to bounce back each time with intelligent recourse.

Selina also concluded that the more dangerous the woman, the greater Batman’s connection to her. As Selina grew closer to Bruce, more comfortable, more familiar, the less dangerous she appeared. While this also hurt Selina deeply, and caused her to react dangerously, she also again grew to understand another shade of Batman’s personality that he just couldn’t get.

Selina also desired the thrills that came with living life to the fullest. Her perseverance on two levels—living outside and within the law—allowed her to recognize herself honestly, and maintain that desire. Selina also saw something else beyond Bruce Wayne’s scope. With Robin, he could be the father figure he never had. But with Selina, Bruce could never be the husband he always desired to be because that desire did not exist in him.

Still, she was willing to give the man she loved one last try at a crimefighting partnership.

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8) REFORMATION “RECALIBRATED” (WITH CONFLICTION DISMISSED) “Now do you believe me, darling? I turned in my own gang after I heard rumors they might try this robbery … doesn’t that prove I’m on your side?”

– Catwoman to Batman “That was never the issue, Selina. The issue is whether or not we can have any kind of relationship in our line of work.”

– Batman’s cold reply With the above affront to her patience and determination, written by Mike W. Barr in the first of a two-part tale in Detective Comics #569–570 (Dec. 1986– Jan. 1987), I believe Selina finally realized that Bruce (Batman) Wayne, on every level of their relationship, was a schmuck. A romance, a partnership between them, it could never honestly happen. The danger between them was the only love they could share.

But this time, what would she do about it? Leave Gotham again? The matter was suddenly taken out of her hands as the Joker, who read in a Gotham newspaper that Batman and Catwoman had become a crimefighting team, enlisted the aid of mad scientist Dr. Moon to “recalibrate” her mind via a reprogrammed cat-scan machine to change her back to her villainous ways.

Did Dr. Moon’s recalibration of Selina’s mind succeed? To some degree, yes, but in Selina’s defense it was also an opportunity to bow out of Batman’s life. She survived the recalibration and got the heck out of Gotham to be on her own— permanently. Selina had finally won her freedom.

And with that, the DC Universe was rebooted, and Catwoman, along with everyone else on a new, one and only Earth, started over in the post–Crisis on Infinite Earths universe.

Barr’s reflection on the creative process behind the plotting of this story is extremely interesting, and serves as a pleasant reminder that so much of the fun in building and sharing a consistent superhero universe is that multiple interpretations and readings of any character can always be discussed and incorporated into the much grander picture.

“When I became writer of Detective Comics,” explains Barr, “I was under orders to undo the fact that Selina Kyle knew Batman’s secret identity— if, indeed, she did. I read a couple of issues by the previous regime and couldn’t tell if she knew or not.

She seemed to be ‘dating’ both Bats and Bruce Wayne, but I could never tell if she knew one was the other.

So I asked the artist of those stories, who wasn’t sure, either. With no idea if Selina actually knew Batman’s identity, I decided to skirt the issue by having her disclose a set of untrue identities of Bats and Robin to the Joker. The reader would never know if she was trying to protect Bruce Wayne, or if she never really knew and was trying to get the Joker to stop torturing her by taking a shot in the dark. Since Dr. Moon’s treatment ripped her

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Cozy Couple (above) A very domestic Catwoman and Batman as drawn by Brian Bolland in 1980 for the British fanzine BEM. (left) Selina is turned bad by the Joker. Cover to Detective #570 (Jan. 1987) by Davis and Neary.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Whip It! From the Heritage Comics archives, Eduardo Barreto’s original art to a Batman/Catwoman pinup.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

though I doubt she’d take many of them to bed.

On Earth-One the fact that the relationship was never consummated gave it a great deal of its charm. Pop culture deals heavily with the guy trying to get the girl into bed, so reversing the relationship, making the male the reluctant conquest, gave the whole affair a great deal of zest. Adding Robin to this, and his uncertainty if Catwoman’s relationship with Batman is going to drive a wedge between Robin and his father figure, and you can have a lot of fun. I certainly did for those two issues.”

I believe it’s safe to assume that Catwoman and Batman’s long-standing, albeit complicated, relationship was the troubled romance of the Bronze Age of Comic Books.

9) REFORMATION AND CONFLICTION REBOOTED

TM & © DC Entertainment.

memory of all that knowledge anyway, at story’s end she no longer knew, whether she had ever known or not.

“As to Selina’s mental state,” continues Barr, “I always thought she was ‘simply’ a very good thief who didn’t want to have a real job, though her skills were such that almost any real job she took, she would excel at.

Of course, the fact that she so enjoyed being a thief also implies a somewhat anarchic, at least morally neutral, role toward society, mitigated in the reader’s eyes by the fact that Batman was such a straight arrow that she would enjoy having him as a boy toy, at least for a little while. It’s interesting to speculate what would come about if she ever actually achieved her goal. Would she become bored with Bats, or would their relationship grow, changing her mind-set as well, paralleling the Earth-Two versions of the characters? Of course, Batman and Catwoman also made an extremely attractive couple physically, which was also part of Selina’s attraction to him. Her nature would be such that she’d flirt with almost any attractive male who crossed her path,

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In “Batman: Year One” (Batman #404–407, Feb.–May 1987), by writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli, Catwoman began anew in the post–Crisis universe, reintroduced as Selina Kyle, prostitute, working the Eastside of Gotham City with her younger pal, Holly. As Bruce Wayne was inspired by a bat to become a bat-man, Selina would be inspired by the early exploits of Batman to become a cat-woman.

“Frank Miller posited, in a way, that Selina had sadomasochistic tendencies,” suggests Conway, “and I think that’s probably true. In which case her relationship with Batman was, in some part, sadomasochistic, with Selina alternating between the sadistic and masochistic roles.”

Writer Mindy Newell then followed Miller’s reinterpretation with a Catwoman story set in then-present Batman continuity for Action Comics Weekly #611–614 (Aug. 1988), wherein Selina’s friend Holly was killed.

As part of her means to avenge Holly, Catwoman, in disturbing Brave and the Bold #131 fashion, murdered two men (they were bad men, but pointlessly murdered all the same). Newell then wrote the outstanding Catwoman miniseries (four issues, Feb.–May 1989), which expanded on Selina’s origins from “Batman: Year One”; introduced Selina’s sister, a nun; and featured a dramatic confrontation between Catwoman and Batman in the final issue. Although Newell’s Catwoman tales would be revamped in later DC continuity, she set the stage for Selina’s strong resurgence and, of course ongoing—at times still pensive— relationship with Batman throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

JIM KINGMAN purchased his first comic book, DC’s World’s Finest Comics #211, on a family road trip in March of 1972, and has been reading and collecting comic books ever since (with no end in sight).

He has been writing about comics since 1993, and currently edits and publishes Comic Effect, a small press fanzine emphasizing the fun in reading comics.

by

Jason Shayer

There are villains that you love to hate, villains that are plot-device punching bags, and villains you truly sympathize with. Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, is one of the latter. Classifying her as a villain is a bit of a misnomer, though. While she’s broken the law as a cat burglar, Felicia is more of a self-absorbed rogue than your typical Spider-Man villain.

Throughout the Spider-Man titles of the 1980s, the Black Cat’s life became intertwined with Spider-Man’s.

As with all good characters, she was defined by her weaknesses and flaws and how she dealt with them.

Her all-too-human side was no better portrayed through her efforts to cope with a variety of psychological issues. To properly understand who the Black Cat is, let’s start at the beginning and explore the forces that shaped her.

ORIGIN The Black Cat pounced on to the scene in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979). Classic 1970s artist Dave Cockrum provided the initial design for the Black Cat, bringing her to life in a voluptuous, fur-lined, skin-tight costume and collar.

While Felicia Hardy’s costumed feline persona might remind you of DC’s notable cat burglar, Catwoman, Felicia is her own woman. While they share some obvious characteristics, such as being thieves and deriving pleasure from playing cat-andmouse games with superheroes, the Catwoman actually wasn’t the inspiration for the Black Cat. “Oddly, I hadn’t even thought of Catwoman,” creator Marv Wolfman admits. “If I had, I wouldn’t have done it. I was watching a Tex Avery cartoon called ‘Bad Luck Blackie’ [about a cat] that caused bad luck to a pursuing dog and thought that would make for a great villainess for Spider-Woman, which was where I was going to use her.”

“We did a cover (Spider-Woman #9, Dec. 1978), but before I wrote the story I decided to quit the book so I moved [Black Cat] over to Spider-Man. I made her more of an action character, where the Spider-Woman character was designed to be a mystery villainess, very 1940s in design and very noir in approach. You can see the original Spider-Woman cover in the letters column of the first Black Cat story [Amazing Spider-Man #194].”

Pounced and Bounced Keith Pollard and Bob McLeod’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979), premiering the Black Cat, was scrapped for the version in the inset, by Al Milgrom. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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PARENTAL LOSS Amazing Spider-Man #195 (Aug. 1979) provides us with some insight into what molded Felicia’s Black Cat persona. Felicia grew up believing that her father, Walter Hardy, a world-famous cat burglar, had died in a plane crash.

Parental loss can leave a child, such as Felicia, with lingering doubts about their own self-worth. Children can cope with the loss of a parent by idealizing that person.

From Fathers and Adolescents: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives, “The centrality of the father figure and a continuous need for the idealized father is evident even in cases where the father is not necessarily positive (…) even in cases where the father was absent or abusive, children exerted enormous efforts to preserve the ideal image. The negative image of the father may even be reconstructed into a positive and idealized figure.”

In Felicia’s case, she over-identified with her absent father.

She developed an idealized fantasy life and drove herself to emulate that fictional lifestyle. This coping mechanism allowed her to deal with this emotionally traumatic event.

She learned everything she could about her father and was particularly interested in his criminal exploits. She used these elements to build her idealized fantasy.

Later, Felicia learned that her mother had lied to her about her father’s death. Walter Hardy was in fact still alive, but in jail. She took a bold step, making her debut as the costumed Black Cat to break him out.

An important facet of her idealized view of her father was how it altered her morality. Despite his criminal tendencies, in her eyes he could do no wrong and she applied that perspective to her own criminal actions.

She wasn’t afraid to cross the line into unlawful territory, and proved to be resourceful, recruiting a criminal crew to assist her in the jail break.

However, things aren’t always as they seem. Her father’s jailbreak wasn’t motivated by any criminal intent or desire, but rather by love. It was only when she heard Walter was dying that she selflessly decided to break him out. She’s emotionally deeper than her flashy exterior might convey, and that’s what keeps the reader and Spider-Man so interested in her.

What Felicia didn’t know was that her father was the one who wanted her to believe he had died in a plane crash. Walter didn’t want Felicia tainted by his lifestyle. Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in the exact opposite.

Still deluded, she told her father that “you would have been proud of the way I trained (...) I perfected your every move. Learned your every trick.”

Dr. Ayala M. Pines, in her book Romantic Jealousy: Understanding and Conquering the Shadow of Love, tells us an “internalized romantic image” is developed “very early in life, based on powerful experiences we had during childhood. Our parents and other adults involved in raising us influence the development of our romantic image in two ways: the way they express, or don’t express, love toward us; and the way they express, or don’t express, love toward each other.”

Felicia’s carefree and thrill-seeking rogue persona is an internalized romantic image of her father. Her attraction to a masked adventurer, like Spider-Man, follows that romantic image. Similarly, you don’t have to look far down her relationship list to see that pattern: the Foreigner, Thomas Fireheart (the Puma), and even the heroic jock, Flash Thompson.

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE? The Black Cat returned almost a year later, in Amazing Spider-Man #204 (May 1980), when her criminal exploits once again caught Spider-Man’s attention. Her interest in Spider-Man escalated and bordered on obsessive-compulsive as she stole a variety of loveinspired object d’art to add to her Spider-Man collection.

In the following issue, when cornered by Spider-Man in her hideout, Felicia proudly displayed a shrine devoted to him.

Spider-Man was caught off guard by her obsession.

Looking at this development, it isn’t hard to conceive that her emotional balance was shattered by the death of her father.

Her mother didn’t approve of her following in her father’s footsteps, so there was no doubt Felicia was carrying around a lot of emotional baggage. A reasonable way to deal with such stressors was to turn towards the only other person she looked up to.

“I like the men in my life to be a little mysterious!” Felicia remarked about SpiderMan in Amazing Spider-Man #194. How can you get more mysterious than a masked superhero? With her father dead, Spider-Man became a substitute father figure and new role model in the fictitious world she chose to wrap around herself.

However, on another level, you can put together a theory that she was merely feigning her emotional issues to try and get out of having been caught.

Former Spider-Man writer Roger Stern fills us in: “The Black Cat had already been shown to be clever and conniving, right up until the end of Amazing Spider-Man #205. That’s the issue where Spider-Man cornered Felicia in her lair, and discovered that she had a whole wall of photos devoted to him. He jumped to the conclusion that she had a psychotic obsession with him.

Stray Cat Strut The Web-Slinger’s got his hands full with his fetching new foe on page 21 of Amazing Spider-Man #195.

Pencils by Pollard, inks by “Many Hands.” © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend Black Cat at her slinkiest, in a 1986 Marvel poster illustration painted by Joe Jusko. Scan of the original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Fixated Feline (below) Spidey discovers Black Cat’s obsession with him in issue #205 (June 1980).

Art by Keith Pollard and Jim Mooney. (right) Guess who’s back in Amazing Spider-Man #226 (Mar. 1982). Cover by John Romita, Jr. and Al Milgrom. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“As I later revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #226, the Black Cat had realized that Spider-Man was about to capture her, so she let him think that the pictures she had used to study his moves was a ‘shrine’ to him.

Spelling out how Felicia had faked her illness—in order to plan her next moves and her eventual escape— was my way of showing just how clever she really was.”

Roger Stern definitely cast the Black Cat in another light.

In her next appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #226 (Mar. 1982), he added more depth to her character, making her more intelligent and devious. Her ruse to feign mental illness was motivated by the fact that it was easier to escape from a mental ward than a highly guarded prison.

As for Roger Stern’s take on the Black Cat, he has this to say: “I’d been reading a lot of old Milton Caniff and Will Eisner stories at the time, and I thought it would be fun to establish some crafty, challenging female adversaries for Spider-Man. I’d already introduced Belladonna in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (PPTSS), and I thought that the Black Cat was too good to waste away in an asylum somewhere. Spider-Man had more than enough enemies who were crazy.”

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HERO COMPLEX The Black Cat got embroiled in the Owl/Octopus War that ran through the pages of PPTSS in early 1983. Black Cat exploited Spider-Man’s feelings for her and used him to protect her from the Kingpin, whom she had recently robbed.

Both readers and Spider-Man were kept guessing as to whether or not Felicia’s feelings were genuine.

“Oh, for crying out loud! You’re brave, Cat, and beautiful, but you’re also as nutty as a fruitcake!,” announced Spider-Man in PPTSS #75 (Feb. 1983).

“She may be more crooked than curvaceous, but she’s my lady!”

During the climax of this storyline, Dr. Octopus and his goons savagely beat the Black Cat. Fortunately, Spider-Man got her to the needed medical attention to save her life. Over the weeks she spent in the hospital, her feelings for the Web-Head solidified. She looked forward to his visits and the neutral setting of the hospital forced her to think about her role and how she wanted to be a part of Spider-Man’s life.

“I’m going to go straight! No more cat burglaries— no more crime! I’m going to start living solely for the man I love!” she told Spider-Man in PPTSS #78 (May 1983). A few issues later, she drove their relationship into a new direction, hoping “when I was well again that we could continue as a team!”

(Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #78, May 1983).

This new direction not only had her playing on the right side of the law, it had her enforcing it as a superhero. Interestingly, their relationship continued without Felicia knowing Spider-Man’s true identity, a fact that didn’t seem to bother her.

Face Off (left) The anguished Spider-Man and Black Cat, on this dramatic Milgrom cover to Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #76 (Mar. 1983). (right) Felicia prefers her man masked.

From Spectacular Spider-Man #87 (Feb. 1984), drawn by Milgrom and Mooney. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT From Comic Scene #8 (Mar. 1983), Bill Mantlo highlighted the appeal of Spider-Man: “…being Spider-Man is a lot of fun—wisecracking, joking, feeling the exuberance of swinging through the air on a slender webline. That experience, being something we mere mortals can never hope to do, has got to bring out a certain excitement in the reader.”

Obviously, not only in the readers, but in Felicia as well, as that level of excitement was infectious and drove her attraction to him.

Felicia is human, no different in feeling vulnerable and insecure, but when she met and fell in love with Spider-Man, those feelings magically disappeared.

Interestingly, when you compare and contrast Felicia Hardy/ Black Cat and Peter Parker/Spider-Man, they’re dual opposites.

And, of course, opposites attract.

Felicia Hardy is terribly self-absorbed, whereas Peter Parker is giving to a fault. She’s reckless, while his responsible nature is his character’s cornerstone.

Felicia loves the thrill she gets from her unlawful antics, whereas Spider-Man respects the darker side of his vigilantism.

She has no secret identity; the Black Cat is simply Felicia with a mask, whereas Spider-Man is Peter Parker’s alter ego. Peter becomes a different person when he puts on Spider-Man’s mask. Felicia has nothing to hide, while Peter’s secret identity protects everyone he loves.

Bill Mantlo elaborated this point later on in his interview in Comic Scene #8: “[Spider-Man]’s joking to cover up his own fear, his own hesitancy, his own awareness of his limitations against maniacs who will stop at nothing.”

The Black Cat provides us with a mirror image of how Spider-Man might have turned out had he not had the steadying influence of Uncle Ben.

IDENTITY COMPLEX Roger Stern felt that “the Black Cat should be interested in Spider-Man, but not so much in Peter Parker. Up to that point, it was always Peter who had the on-again/off-again romantic entanglements. I thought it would be fun to add a few more complications to his Spider-Man identity.”

And that’s exactly what Bill Mantlo did in the pages of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man. Black Cat was Spider-Man’s girlfriend, not Peter’s.

As their relationship progressed, Spider-Man decided to let Black Cat into his life and she was underwhelmed by his humble apartment: “Lover, you’re Spider-Man—famous the world over as a fearless fighter of crime! How can a hero like you live here??! Here??!”

In PPTSS #87 (Feb. 1984), Peter boldly revealed his secret identity to the Black Cat. She was the first girlfriend he had unmasked himself to.

Until that point, Felicia was always uncomfortable and reluctant to see Spider-Man unmasked. She feared that the thrill and excitement of their mysterious romance would be lost if she knew who he really was. Her fears became concrete.

“We all look for something in a relationship,” Tom DeFalco, former Spider-Man editor and writer, explains. “Felicia was looking for the excitement of the relationship. Whenever you start a relationship, it’s full of excitement as you’re pursuing the other person. Once you settle down, that’s where the difficulty occurs.

Felicia was the kind of person that loved falling in love, but wasn’t so crazy about being in love.”

Unfortunately, her reaction is one of shock and disbelief.

“Y-your mask … please … put your mask back on!!! (…) Wearing that mask, you’re my man of mystery. You’re the night and excitement and death-defying adventure!”

The panel sequence and framing of this scene amplified Black Cat’s reaction. Artist Al Milgrom focused on Felicia with no background and pulled away from her in an almost Hitchcock–like progression, as if her fictional world was collapsing in on itself.

“It’s funny, Felicia is almost like the Lois Lane, liking Superman but not Clark Kent,” Al Milgrom reveals. “That set up this weird love triangle where Felicia liked the hero identity more than his civilian identity.”

It isn’t difficult to see how the internalized romantic image of her father was transferred to Spider-Man. In him, Felicia saw the partner of her dreams. The only problem was that romantic

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Black Suit, Black Cat (below) Spidey—in his Secret Wars-spawned costume—and Black Cat tangle with the Answer on this gripping Milgrom cover to Spectacular Spider-Man #93 (Aug. 1984). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

image of Spider-Man didn’t include the boring and ordinary Peter Parker.

In the offbeat Amazing Spider-Man #246 (Nov. 1983), “The Daydreamers!,” Roger Stern gets into Felicia’s head. This story taps into Felicia’s daydreams and shows us her ideal version of Spider-Man who is a lovable rogue, her perfect companion-in-crime, and ridiculously wealthy. And to top it off, when Spider-Man takes off his mask, Cary Grant’s face is revealed and the classic movie To Catch A Thief is alluded to.

Roger Stern “saw her as a more casual romantic interest. If things had gone the way I’d wanted, the Black Cat would have become the woman who would show up now and then in Spider-Man’s life.

The rest of the time she’d be off in some exotic locale. And I thought that she might occasionally lure our hero off to one of those locales. It would have made for a nice change of pace to get him out of his usual element.”

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INFERIORITY COMPLEX After Black Cat’s brutal beating at the hands of Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man had thought it best not to have a partner that didn’t have powers. However, Felicia convinced him otherwise.

In her criminal days, to live up to her namesake, Felicia would set traps or obstacles in the area where she planned to commit her burglaries—for example, rigging shelves to collapse on her pursuers, allowing her to escape.

Teaming up with Spider-Man, she quickly developed an inferiority complex. She was only human, operating at an Olympic level in terms of her agility and speed, but still no match for the proportionate powers of a spider.

In Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #88 (Mar. 1984), during a battle with Mr. Hyde, Spider-Man told Felicia to stand down. Her reaction was sour: “This is the last time I’ll be shunted off to safety, my Spider-Man! The last time!” And later that issue, “As long as I possess no super-powers of my own, I’m a liability to him!”

Felicia’s inferiority complex drove her to obtain superpowers at any cost. While the Secret Wars had whisked Spider-Man away, Felicia went on a quest to gain superpowers. An underworld scientist, succeeded in unlocking Felicia’s latent power and enhancing it.

However, Felicia was mortified to discover that the scientist was employed by the Kingpin and found herself awkwardly in his debt.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe vol. 2 #2 (Jan. 1986) defined Black Cat’s new powers as follows: “[Her] bad luck tricks subliminally affect probability fields, causing improbable things to occur within her line of sight. This talent would seem to be a natural unconsciously-controlled ability to manipulate probabilities in extremely localized areas which is triggered when she is in a stressful situation (such as fighting or escaping).”

With her new bad-luck powers, as well as enhanced agility and speed, she rejoined Spider-Man with a renewed confidence.

However, Felicia kept from him the truth of who was behind her powers.

This secret became increasingly difficult to keep as those powers began to affect anyone around her, including Spider-Man.

RELATIONSHIP ISSUES While Felicia and Peter had relationship issues to deal with, the general fan response to their relationship was rather loud. From the letters page in PPTSS #92 (July 1984): “We were literally swamped with mail on PETER PARKER #87, all of it with advice on what poor Peter should do about his love life. Now we know what Ann Landers must feel like!”

While the response was overwhelming, it wasn’t clear how readers actually felt about their relationship.

From the letters page in PPTSS #82 (Sept. 1983): “But you might be interested to know that not all our readers share your enthusiasm for a permanent Black Cat/Spidey union.” I was unable to aggregate any real numbers on fan opinion, but it wasn’t hard to see that it was divided.

Having been an avid Spidey fan in the 1980s, my 13-year-old mind frame didn’t fully grasp the implications of their relationship.

As someone who dreamed of being Spider-Man, I was similarly attracted to the Black Cat. At that age, or any age, who wouldn’t fantasize about the Black Cat being his girlfriend? Peter Parker was the nerd that readers could associate with, and having such a glamorous and beautiful girlfriend was almost unthinkable.

It was one thing being Spider-Man’s girlfriend, but being his crimefighting partner was something different and never fit for me.

Until then, it was Peter Parker that had girlfriends, like Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane, and he couldn’t share both sides of his life. But with Black Cat, Spider-Man ceased to be a loner and joined the ranks of other crimefighting couples, like Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman or Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

You couldn’t help but be happy for Black Cat and Spider-Man as they seemed to have found something special in each other.

However, it didn’t last. Unlike the other couples mentioned above, Black Cat wanted nothing to do with the Peter Parker side of Spider-Man’s life. Her reaction was the flip side of his Peter Parker relationships, who wanted nothing to do with Spider-Man. Their relationship came to a head in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #100 (Mar. 1985): “It’s not that I don’t love you, Felicia— ’cause in a way I do, you’re the most glamorous, exciting girl I’ve ever known.

But we’re so different … too different. You’re …

I don’t know … too amoral. I like adventure as much as anyone, but I do care about which side of the law I get my kicks on!”

Spidey continued: “For you, there is no Felicia Hardy! Only the Black Cat! You want it to be the same way for me, want me to be Spider-Man all the time! I can’t be … won’t be … the person you seem to want me to be: a mysterious masked adventurer out of some romance novel. I’m sorry, Felicia, but we’ve got to stop seeing each other!”

THE BLACK CAT RETURNS After their breakup, Black Cat drifted off into that Negative Zone where second-string characters go, waiting to be called upon again.

And she did return with a vengeance a year later in PPTSS #112 (Mar. 1986), under writer Peter David.

While reprising her role as a costumed vigilante, the Black Cat’s tone changed from her usual self-absorption to something altruistic.

She found a compromise between the thrill of her former criminal lifestyle and being a superhero by adopting a Robin Hood–like role, stealing from the bad guys and turning over the loot to the poor and needy.

However, despite making it on her own as a superhero without Spider-Man, life threw Felicia a curve. Her bad-luck powers had suddenly disappeared (Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #115, June 1986). It turned out that Spider-Man was still suffering the lingering effects of Black Cat’s bad-luck powers and sought out Dr. Strange’s help. Dr. Strange freed him of those influences by going directly to the source and eliminating them.

Kingpin Between Them (left) Detail from Al Milgrom’s cover to Spectacular Spider-Man #98 (Jan. 1985). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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After taking a serious beating after coming to depend on those bad-luck powers, a new Black Cat reasserted herself. She marked this new direction by donning a new Black Cat costume.

Felicia tracked down Dr. Strange and learned that he didn’t actually eliminate her powers, but rather altered them. Her physical abilities were all heightened in proportion to a cat, including night vision and retractable claws.

She then confronted Spider-Man in PPTSS #116 (July 1986) and blamed him for the loss of her bad-luck powers. Their heated argument allowed Felicia to unload all of her pent-up anger and frustration over how their relationship ended.

Shortly after, Sabretooth attacked her, but Spider-Man came to her rescue. Felicia was offended by his rescue, feeling that she could have handled Sabretooth.

However, in PPTSS #119 (Oct. 1986), Felicia got her rematch against Sabretooth. One of the sideplots Peter David was exploring was how the Black Cat was more than a secondary character. Before their battle, Felicia purged herself of her unhealthy feelings toward Spider-Man and accepted their new status as friends. That commitment was quickly put to the test as she knew Peter was watching her fight with Sabretooth. Although Sabretooth came off as a cathartic punching bag, their brutal battle ended with Felicia’s triumphant victory.

She topped off this emotional moment by winking at Spider-Man, who had come onto the scene late.

Unfortunately, she again fell prey to a new, mysterious adventurer, the Foreigner. She agreed to work with him to make Spider-Man’s life miserable. As she helped bring the Foreigner’s plans to fruition, she realized that she still had strong feelings for Spider-Man. She doublecrossed the Foreigner and saved Spider-Man’s life. Fearing for her safety, Felicia fled to Europe to start afresh.

ROMANTIC JEALOUSY In the late 1980s, donning her classic costume, Felicia returned to North America and set her sights once again on Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man #331, Apr. 1990). She was mortified to learn that in her absence Peter Parker had married Mary Jane Watson.

The news was devastating to Felicia. She loved and adored Spider-Man and believed that he loved her despite her flaws. To see him in love with or even care for someone else amplified the pain of the loss of their relationship and what might have been.

Insanely jealous and determined to make Peter realize he had married the wrong woman, Felicia started a relationship with Peter’s longtime friend, Flash Thompson. Felicia’s game put Peter in an awkward position as Peter couldn’t tell Flash what was going on without risking his secret identity.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Felicia and Peter were forced to patch things up as a series of threats required their combined efforts.

Roger Stern saw the Black Cat “relating to Spider-Man as Mary Jane Watson related to Peter Parker. They both fit the role of the sometimes-girlfriend who would waltz into his life just often enough to turn things upside-down. I never saw either Felicia or Mary Jane as the marrying kind. If they were really true to themselves, Mary Jane wouldn’t get serious until the last party was over and the Black Cat could never settle down as long as there was still one great caper to pull off.”

What actually undid Felicia this time was her feelings for Flash Thompson. In PPTSS #209 (Feb. 1994), Felicia proposed to Flash, realizing she was actually in love with him. However, Thompson refused her proposal not because she used him, but because he felt it would only be a matter of time before she left him or resented him for tying her down to a normal life.

What Flash didn’t know was that she was ready to settle down, feeling that she could love someone normal. Confronting this issue was difficult for Felicia as well, realizing that had she been able to come to terms with it earlier, she might still be with Spider-Man.

ORIGIN REVISITED In 2002, Kevin Smith penned a new Black Cat miniseries, Spider-Man/ Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do. While this miniseries was infamous for its delay, which finally saw completion three years later in 2005, Smith had retconned her origin. The miniseries revealed that when Felicia was a freshman student at Empire State University, she had been raped by her boyfriend, Ryan. Refusing to report the assault, she channeled her anger into training and learned a variety of martial arts. She dropped out of school and focused solely on preparing to kill Ryan.

However, she was robbed of her revenge, learning that her ex-boyfriend was killed in a car accident. With nothing to lose, she turned to a life of crime.

This update conflicted with her basic character. Black Cat’s flirtatious behavior and relationship pattern didn’t fit well with the trauma and emotional suffering she endured. However, her Black Cat identity provided that escape, allowing her to become someone different: “I didn’t think about what had happened with Ryan [her ex-boyfriend] anymore. I justified it to myself.

Something was stolen from me … so I started stealing back.

I built myself a new identity. From then on, I was Felicia Hardy, thief extraordinaire.” (Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #6, Mar. 2006)

The Cat’s Meow The premiere issue (July 1994) of Felicia’s first miniseries, Felicia Hardy: The Black Cat. Cover art by Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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BLACK CAT – KEY APPEARANCES The Amazing Spider-Man #194–195 (July–Aug. 1979) Felicia’s first appearance as the Black Cat. Spider-Man’s life would never be the same after this two-parter.

The Amazing Spider-Man #226–227 (Mar.–Apr. 1982) The Black Cat's third appearance shows us a more cunning and devious Felicia Hardy.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #100 (Mar. 1985) The Black Cat and Spider-Man break up.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #119 (Oct. 1986) Black Cat takes on Sabertooth and takes him down.

Spider-Man/ Human Torch #4 (June 2005) A fun, self-contained retro tale that captures the playful relationship between Spider-Man and the Black Cat.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #74–79 (Jan.–June 1983) Felicia becomes embroiled in the Owl/Octopus War and further involved in Spider-Man’s life.

Heroes for Hire #1–7 (Oct. 2006–Apr. 2007) The Black Cat is pulled into the Civil War event and joins the pro-Registration group.

The Amazing Spider-Man #246 (Nov. 1983) “The Daydreamers!,” an eclectic tale that peered into what really motivated Felicia.

WRAPPING UP: THE ANALYSIS While Felicia carried unresolved issues from her childhood, she is sane from a reasoning and cognitive point of view. Felicia is capable of experiencing guilt, accountability, and compassion. She knows the difference between right and wrong, but doesn’t always make the right decisions. While guilty of making wrong and self-serving choices, there’s little evidence of any true psychological disorder.

It’s also important to keep in mind that over the years, Felicia’s character has been handled by many writers, each with their own take on her. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to argue that most comicbook characters have mild forms of schizophrenia or multiple-personality disorders.

A solid testament to her character is how she has become an integral part of Spider-Man’s life, accompanying him through comic-book revamps and alternate versions, and into other media like TV shows and video games.

The Black Cat returned to the pages of Amazing Spider-Man in the fall of 2009.

With Mephisto having undone Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage, Felicia has another chance to win Spider-Man’s heart.

Purrrrfect Detail from the cover of the Kevin Smith-scripted Spider-Man/ Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1 (Aug. 2002). Cover art by Terry Dodson. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

JASON SHAYER’s addiction to comic books and his 12-year-old mind frame have caused more than a few people to raise an eyebrow. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s teaching his four-year-old daughter and newborn son the finer points of comic-book collecting.

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“When three are called and stand as one … as one they’ll fight, their will be done … for each is born anew, the Tiger’s Son.” – Sons of the Tiger oath The Sons of the Tiger first appeared in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 (Apr. 1974). Deadly Hands was a black-and-white anthology magazine that attempted to capitalize on the kung-fu craze of the early 1970s, most notably captured in the song “Kung Fu Fighting.” The first issue, edited by Don McGregor, included the origin story of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, a non-fiction feature on kung-fu film legend Bruce Lee, and even an amazing Bruce Lee cover by Neal Adams.

Also featured in this first issue was a story about a three-man martial-arts team called the Sons of the Tiger.

This feature was written by Gerry Conway, who at the time was in the middle of his instantly classic Amazing Spider-Man run, and drawn by Dick Giordano, who already had achieved fame as an editor at Charlton and DC and as an artist on Batman.

Giordano explains how he received the assignment: “Someone from Marvel called and asked if I would be interested in doing the assignment. I don’t recall who called but it was most likely Gerry or Roy Thomas. I said I was interested and that I liked working on Gerry’s scripts. The script arrived by mail at my studio.”

While Giordano created the look of the characters, he says that he and Conway didn’t do much back-andforth collaboration in creating the Sons of the Tiger.

“We didn’t come up with the characters,” says Giordano. “Gerry did. We actually did very little work together on Sons of the Tiger. I lived and worked in Connecticut and Gerry in New York. The characters were fully realized in Gerry’s script, and I created the visuals for them. Artists and writers seldom get together and hash out concepts or characters together.

“I liked Gerry, still do when we meet. I will always accept assignments, sight unseen, when written by writers that I have enjoyed working with in the past.”

Barroom Brawl White Tiger shows ’em who’s the top cat in this dynamite painted cover by Earl Norem from the black-and-white Marvel magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #27 (Aug. 1976).

Special thanks to Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com) for the original art scan. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Bruce Buchanan

Working in a black-and-white magazine format presented its share of challenges and opportunities, as Giordano explains: “The page size is different—bigger—allowing for more room to spread out a drawing, and because there is no color, it is necessary for the artist to do additional rendering either by adding tonal values or rendering more heavily in ink. I chose the tone route because I had done some Dracula pages for Marvel in tone and enjoyed the experience. Other than that, the storytelling problems are about the same, as is the drawing skill set you bring to the table.”

Giordano adds, “A side benefit of the B&W format magazines is that your work is reproduced bigger, looks better, and often is more dramatic, but this is just a show-off benefit!”

The Sons of the Tiger returned to the pages of Deadly Hands in issue #3 (Aug. 1974), again with a story from Conway and Giordano. Conway worked with Don Perlin in the subsequent issue for a story entitled “Night of the Death-Dream.” The Sons of the Tiger got their first cover story in issue #6 (Nov. 1974), in a tale called “The Way of the Jackal” by Denny O’Neil (under the pseudonym of Jim Dennis) and a young, then-largely unknown artist named George Pérez.

Marv Wolfman, the editor of the book, would later pair with Pérez on their now-legendary New Teen Titans run. Even at the time of “Sons of the Tiger,” Wolfman knew Pérez was something special, as he told BACK ISSUE back in this magazine’s first-ever issue: “You can teach perspective, you can teach anatomy, you can teach all that stuff, and a good artist is going to learn that fairly quickly, once they get a steady diet of work,” Wolfman said. “But, boy, there are people who have been in the business 30 years who still don’t know how to tell a story, and George had that from Day One.” In all, the Sons of the Tiger appeared in of 21 the 33 issues of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Many of these stories were written by workhorse Marvel writer Bill Mantlo, who often teamed with Pérez.

Eyes of the Tiger

MY THREE SONS The Sons of the Tiger are Abe Brown, Bob Diamond, and Lin Sun. The three martial artists studied at the Tiger Dojo in San Francisco under Master Kee. One day, they return to the dojo to find that the place has been ransacked and Master Kee mortally wounded. Master Kee tells his disciples to open a box containing a set of jade tiger amulets—a tiger’s head and two tiger claws.

These amulets give the three men increased power and martial-arts skill when they join hands and speak the above incantation. The three then set out to avenge their master and defeat the Silent Ones, an evil underground sect that murdered Master Kee. The Silent Ones are a mystical race of beings bent on world domination.

All was going well for the Sons of the Tiger—until a woman came between then. The beautiful and dangerous Lotus Shinchuko showed up out of nowhere in Deadly Hands #8 (Jan. 1975) to help the boys in a fight with the Silent Ones. She explains she had escaped from the Silent Ones, but it turns out she really was still under their mental control and turns against the Sons of the Tiger.

However, once the Sons remove the mind-control device from her neck, she truly joins the team and helps them destroy the Silent Ones once and for all. Along the way, Lotus and Bob Diamond become lovers.

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(left) Early George Pérez art on a Sons of the Tiger pinup. (above) Artist Dick Giordano’s textured art enlivened this Sons page from the black-and-white Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 (Apr. 1974). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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COLOR ADVENTURES

ENTER THE WHITE TIGER

Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema brought the Sons of the Tiger into the mainstream Marvel Universe in Marvel Team-Up #40 (Dec. 1975), as the team makes its color comics debut in this issue.

This issue was the second of a two-part story that can be described as a loving tribute to the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man. Spider-Man and the Human Torch have been taken captive by a collection of bad guys that includes new versions of the Crime-Master and the Big Man, two deceased Lee/Ditko villains, as well as the Enforcers and the Sandman, who is back to wearing his old-style striped green shirt and khaki pants for this encounter. All we needed was Flash Thompson shoving “Puny Parker” around the halls of Midtown High and Doc Bromwell paying a house call to sickly Aunt May, and it would’ve been 1963 all over again!

With the two superheroes in a bad way, the Sons of the Tiger come to the rescue. The four were working out in a gym next door when they heard a commotion. The kung-fu masters arrive just in time to bail Spidey and the Torch out of a jam—and the battle royale is on! The Sons of the Tigers seem to be an odd fit for what is essentially a nostalgia story, but Mantlo was the regular writer on Marvel Team-Up at the time as well as being the scribe for the Sons of the Tigers’ adventures, so it appears he was engaging in a little promotion for the kung-fu magazine by pairing them with two A-list Marvel heroes.

The team wouldn’t remain intact for long. Lotus becomes attracted to Lin Sun and chooses him over a jilted Bob, which leads to a fight between the two men and a dissolution of the Sons of the Tiger. The three Sons throw their amulets in a trash can and go their separate ways.

However, an ending for some is a beginning for another. The series effectively gets rebooted in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19 (Dec. 1975) when the amulets are found in the trash by a young Puerto Rican man named Hector Ayala. The combined power of the three amulets transforms Ayala into the hero known as the White Tiger.

“Now is the hour of light, amigos! The time of … the White Tiger!” the hero proclaims on the splash page to Deadly Hands #19.

While still continuing the martial-arts theme, the White Tiger is far more of a traditional superhero, with a mask covering his face, a secret identity, and superpowers (since the White Tiger wears all three tiger amulets, he possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, and fighting skill). The Sons of the Tiger still pop up from time to time, but the White Tiger is now the lead character. Mantlo also introduces a new supporting character, Nathaniel “Blackbyrd” Byrd, a tough Harlem detective who befriends the White Tiger.

The White Tiger appeared on two painted covers to the magazine, the first by Ken Barr (issue #22) and the second by Earl Norem (issue #27).

He also encounters a number of other characters from Marvel’s mainstream books. In Deadly Hands #21 (Feb. 1976), the White Tiger battles the Prowler, a Spider-Man villain-turned-good guy, when the Prowler mistakes the new hero for a murderer.

In issue #23 (Apr. 1976), the White Tiger takes on another Mantlo creation, Jack of Hearts, in a story drawn by the legendary Gil Kane, after the White Tiger is once again mistakenly believed to be a killer.

But the White Tiger and Jack of Hearts put their differences aside and join forces with Iron Fist and Shang-Chi (two other frequent co-stars of Deadly Hands) to battle the criminal empire known as the Corporation. This story takes place in Deadly Hands #32 (Jan. 1977), and since the magazine was canceled with the subsequent issue, it would be the White Tiger’s last black-and-white appearance.

RETURN OF THE WHITE TIGER But you can’t keep a good superhero down. Writer and co-creator Bill Mantlo had been given the reins of a second Spider-Man solo book entitled Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (PPTSS). He brings White Tiger over in issue #9 (Aug. 1977) and the White Tiger becomes a regularly recurring guest-star in the title for the remainder of Mantlo’s run.

In PPTSS #9, Hector Ayala, like Peter Parker, is attending college at Empire State University. An unpopular budget decision leads the cash-strapped university to close its night school, leading to an angry protest, primarily from poor, minority kids like Hector. He and Peter meet and Hector tells him, “Only one place to go—back to the South Bronx—the University of the streets! Get a good schoolin’ there— if you’re into learnin’ about dope, numbers, rats and poverty! But you … you’re white, amigo! This just doesn’t affect you at all!” Peter says he has to think about that.

The funding debate leads to a confrontation between the arrogant university president and a hot-headed activist professor named Ramon Vasquez. Vasquez urges the school to sell the Erskine Manuscripts (the personal papers of the World War II scientist who created the formula that transformed scrawny Steve Rogers into Captain America) in order to keep the night school open. The university president brushes off the suggestion, declaring, “The Erskine Manuscript is worth far more than any of those loudmouthed slum kids will ever amount to!”

Meow Mix Spidey (with the Torch in tow) encounters the Tiger trio in Marvel Team-Up #40 (Dec. 1975). Original cover art

by Sal Buscema and courtesy of Anthony Snyder. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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That night, the White Tiger (or a man dressed as the White Tiger) breaks into the school library and steals the valuable manuscripts, getting the jump on Peter Parker in the process. That leads to a Spider-Man/White Tiger showdown in PPTSS #10 (Sept. 1977). The fight spills into the South Bronx, where Spider-Man is shocked to hear the locals cheering on El Tigre Blanco.

Spidey realizes that White Tiger is one of the good guys and was set up in the library robbery—just as many villains have framed Spider-Man in the past.

The two heroes shake hands and part as friends.

The White Tiger next appears in another Mantlo–scripted title, The Human Fly, in issues #8–9 (Apr.–May 1978). The Human Fly was a short-lived series that was billed as “The Wildest Super-Hero Ever—Because He’s Real!” [Editor’s note: For more on the Human Fly, see BACK ISSUE #20.] The Human Fly was a real-life stunt man who traveled the country helping people in need and solving various social ills.

The White Tiger tale was a rare traditional superhero action story for the book. In this two-part story, drawn by Frank Robbins, the White Tiger helps the Human Fly defeat an old Daredevil villain known as Copperhead. John Byrne draws the White Tiger on the cover of issue #9.

Along the way, the White Tiger also appears in The Defenders #63–64 (Sept.–Oct. 1978) as part of a large group of lesser-known heroes who help out the core members of the team during the “Defenders for a Day” storyline. He joins such characters as Black Goliath, Havok, Polaris, the Falcon, Stingray, Quasar, and Captain Ultra.

Mantlo and Buscema next bring back the White Tiger in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #19 (June 1978). This time, the hero helps Spider-Man battle the Enforcers, who were hired to take out the Web-Slinger by the villainous Lightmaster (also a Mantlo creation).

Things are going well for Hector Ayala, who has met a happy-go-lucky young woman named Holly Gillis.

The two hit it off instantly and they even befriend Flash

Remarkable Larkin

Thompson and his then-girlfriend Sha Shan. However, when they go to a local diner for a soda, the Enforcers break down the door and take over the restaurant.

Their plan is to hold the patrons hostage, knowing that Spider-Man will come to the rescue. “Oye! These hombres didn’t count on the White Tiger being among their captives!” Hector thinks.

However, Spider-Man shows up and, as it turns out, he doesn’t need Hector’s help to defeat the Enforcers.

Unfortunately for Hector, the Lightmaster was watching the events unfold and draws an incorrect, but deadly, conclusion: He thinks Hector is Spider-Man! “Was it coincidence that only you—Hector Ayala— remained inside the diner during the battle? I think not,” the Lightmaster says. “For I—Lightmaster— have finally discovered Spider-Man’s most carefully guarded secret!”

The following issue, PPTSS #20 (July 1978), sees the Lightmaster put his plan into action. Peter, Hector, Flash, Sha Shan, and Holly are having a pleasant conversation on the Empire State University grounds when the Lightmaster strikes, kidnapping Hector.

During the battle, Hector loses his tiger amulet, the source of his powers.

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Two pulse-pounding painted covers by Bob Larkin, starring the White Tiger: (left) Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22 (Mar. 1976), and (right) #31 (Dec. 1976).

(Mr. Larkin’s art will grace our cover in a mere four issues!) © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Campus Unrest White Tiger leaps into the mainstream Marvel Universe in 1977’s two-part Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #9–10 (Mar. 1976).

Covers by George Pérez and Frank Giacoia. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Peter, as Spider-Man, tracks the Lightmaster to a warehouse in Long Island City. The villain plans to murder “Spider-Man” on a live TV broadcast. Hector is in no shape to fight back—in addition to losing his powers, the loss of his amulets has made him physically ill. “I— I keep tellin’ you, amigo. I ain’t Spider-Man! I’m just a poor Puerto Rican—an’ I’m sick!” he says, to no avail.

Spider-Man took the amulets with him and he finally recognizes them as the White Tiger’s. He returns them to their rightful owner and the White Tiger and Spider-Man spring into action. The heroes defeat the Lightmaster, although a television audience now knows that Hector Ayala and the White Tiger are the same.

WHAT PRICE CELEBRITY? The next few issues show Hector struggling to adjust to life as a celebrity. He is mobbed by the other students at school, Holly Gillis at first doesn’t want anything more to do with him (although she later changes her mind), and even Hector’s little sister Awilda gives him a hard time about being a superhero.

In PPTSS #25 (Dec. 1978), Hector ditches class to stop a car burglary, only to get scolded by his sister about risking both his life and his college scholarship.

Hector’s plight as a publicly known hero serves as a cautionary tale as to why Peter Parker must remain vigilant about guarding his own secret identity.

The White Tiger next helps Spider-Man battle the mysterious evil of Carrion in one of the best Spider-Man

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storylines of the 1970s (PPTSS #28–31, Mar.–June 1979). Carrion is an undead, immensely powerful villain who stalks Peter Parker both at home and at school. Carrion knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man. In fact, he seemingly knows just about everything about Peter. But Parker knows nothing of this man nor does he understand why Carrion wants him to suffer.

It turns out that Carrion is the undead clone of Dr. Miles Warren, a.k.a. the Jackal, Peter’s former biology professor who was thought to be dead at this time. Carrion blames Parker for the death of Gwen Stacy, whom Miles Warren loved. But Carrion’s plan ultimately backfires and the villain perishes in an inferno of his own making. Mantlo and artist Jim Mooney create a compelling mystery.

The White Tiger gets written out of the title somewhat abruptly in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #32 (July 1979). Hector and Holly announce they are starting up a college extension program in the South Bronx, so they won’t be seeing much of Peter. It is a strange and anticlimactic write-off for a guy who had been a major character in the title for some time.

FAMILY CRISES For more than a year, the White Tiger remains in limbo.

He returns to the pages of PPTSS #49 (Dec. 1980) in a grim story from Roger Stern and Denys Cowan.

The story is narrated by Blackbyrd, who reveals that Hector Ayala’s family has been murdered.

Human Target (left) The White Tiger barely survives a shooting in Spectacular Spider-Man #52 (Mar. 1981); cover

by Frank Miller and Bob Wiacek. (right) The sultry new Tiger. Detail from David Mack’s cover to White Tiger #4 (Apr. 2007). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“Not long before I was offered the writing assignment on Spectacular [Spider-Man], the Tiger’s identity had been revealed to the public,” Stern tells BACK ISSUE. “And my immediate reaction was, ‘His loved ones are in serious danger.’ Hector was very much a workingclass hero and I figured that it was just a matter of time before someone would strike at him through his family.”

The White Tiger seeks justice—and revenge—against those yet-unknown assailants. It turns out the Tiger’s family has been murdered by Gideon Mace, a crazed ex-military officer who seeks to eliminate all costumed heroes in New York. At the end of issue #51, Mace shoots and apparently kills (or badly wounds) the White Tiger.

The following issue (which includes a powerful Frank Miller cover of the White Tiger being shot), the barely alive hero is dumped in front of the Daily Bugle offices, where he is discovered

by Peter Parker, Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and editor Joe Robertson. A tearful Peter rides in the ambulance with Hector, leaving Jonah and Robbie with heavy hearts. “It’s too easy for some of these costumed types, with all their strange powers, to take the law into their own hands,” Jameson says. “That makes them menaces in my book. But when I see a young man who’s been shot up like that, I … well, I just don’t know.”

With the White Tiger in emergency surgery, Spider-Man confers with Blackbyrd at the hospital and tracks down Mace and his private army.

The villain has holed up in a Manhattan National Guard Armory and has taken control of the armory’s array of military–style weapons.

Mace says he intends to declare war on Spider-Man, no matter what the cost to civilians in the area. Spider-Man defeats Mace and his troops and Peter Parker returns to the hospital to find that Hector is going to pull through, despite taking a dozen bullets.

After he heals, Hector calls in Holly and Blackbyrd to announce that he is relinquishing his costumed identity forever. He takes off the amulets, even though doing so causes him great pain. “The White Tiger must die! I must purge him from my soul,” he declares.

He gives the jade amulets to Blackbyrd and instructs him to return them to the Sons of the Tiger. He and Holly board a bus headed far away from New York and toward a new life together.

“I had no further plans for [White Tiger] in Spectacular,” Stern reveals. “I figured that Bill Mantlo would probably find a place for Hector and his girlfriend Holly in The Hulk or ROM or some other book of Bill’s. I was a little surprised that that never happened.

“I thought he was a fairly interesting character, but that he seemed a little out of place in Spectacular. He felt very much grafted on as a supporting character. I saw the Tiger as a combination of street-fighting and mystic-martial arts. Neat stuff, but a little outré for Spider-Man.” The White Tiger’s career gets a brief coda in the pages of another comic book. Finally, the jade amulets resurface in Power Man and Iron Fist #74 (Oct. 1981), by writer Jo Duffy and artist Kerry Gammill. The villain Master Khan steals the amulets and reunites them with a jade tiger statue. The tiger becomes an actual living, magical tiger, which transports Khan and the heroes to K’un-Lun, the mystical realm where Iron Fist first gained his powers.

Sadly, Hector Ayala’s story doesn’t have a happy ending.

He returns to crimefighting and is framed for murdering a police officer in Daredevil #38 (Dec. 2002). Despite attorney Matt Murdock’s best efforts, Hector is convicted and then shot and killed while trying to escape. After the hero’s death, Daredevil finds evidence to clear his name. It’s a tragic ending for a hero who deserved far better.

Marvel has since reintroduced a new, female White Tiger—Angela Del Toro, the niece of the original. The former FBI agent has the amulets of the tiger, which give her the same powers and abilities as her predecessor. She was featured in her own limited series in 2006.

BRUCE BUCHANAN has been a journalist and freelance writer since 1996 and is currently working on several comicbook projects. Contact him at brucebuc@bellsouth.net or www.comicspace/brucebuchanan/.

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With this issue’s “Rough Stuff” we celebrate our furry, feline friends—both two- and four-legged.

Didja ever notice that most characters associated with cats are usually of the villainous sort? Oh, sure, you’ll have the the occasional Felix the Cat or Wildcat, but for the most part, if there’s a cat involved, there’s sure to be trouble ahead.

Take this nasty fellow, for instance—Mr. Jinks. He’s the bane of Pixie and Dixie’s existence, but not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

Here we have some preliminary pencil art for a Hanna-Barbera VHS collection of episodes by the wonderfully talented Len Smith.

To m Z i u k o

Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

by

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This is a great example of the awesome cover pencils of the King, from later in his career—Jack Kirby’s take on Tigra, the Were-Woman [in Marvel Chillers #7, Oct. 1976], locked in battle with one of the Fantastic Four’s deadliest enemies, the Super-Skrull.

TM & © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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While the Marv Wolfman/ Gene Colan Tomb of Dracula series continues to rightfully be recognized as a high-water mark in the pantheon of comic books, the duo also collaborated on the oft-overlooked Night Force, published by DC in the 1980s.

Colan’s art on this short-lived series was just as richly sumptuous and moody as his work on the Lord of the Undead— as evidenced by this magnificent two-page sequence featuring the main character Baron Winters, and his constant companion, Merlin.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Here’s Wonder Woman in hot pursuit of the elusive Catwoman, only to be surrounded by her baleful minions. Pencil art by the masterful Ross Andru, done for a Fisher-Price special- projects book in the mid-’80s.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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As promised, I’m trying to bring something special and different to the last page of this feature each issue.

Here’s a behind-thescenes missive sent to then-DC Comics publisher Jenette Kahn and the aforementioned Ross Andru (during his brief editorial stint at DC) from the immortal Alex Toth, offering his take on a proposed Wildcat series. Had only they taken him up on his offer—ah, what might have been….

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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“It’s not the sight they expect to see! The rumpled girl in the borrowed costume is gone! Crouched in her place, claws gleaming in the feeble lamplight, is a far more impressive form … a far more sinister form. Even Iron Man catches his breath.”

With the preceding words from The Avengers #144 (Feb. 1977), Captain America, Iron Man, and the readership of The Avengers were introduced to the Hellcat, Marvel Comics’ latest attempt to create a strong, independent female character who reflected the attitudes of and toward women in the 1970s.

TEEN QUEEN TIPTOES INTO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE by

Jonathan Miller

It was not the sight anyone had “expected to see.”

Author Steve Englehart had taken 1940s teen-romance queen Patsy Walker and had her step into the role of the Cat, an ill-fated character that had debuted in her own title in 1974, which was subsequently canceled after only four issues. Despite having starred in her own title and numerous others for more than 20 years (see inset), Patsy Walker was probably unfamiliar to readers of superhero comics, coming from the world of romance (read: girls’) comics, and never theretofore had the two met. She was an unlikely candidate to become an action hero, but in two concurrent plotlines that had Marvel’s prestigious superteam meet the company’s greatest Western stars in addition to the former queen of its romance line, Englehart blurred the distinctions between genres and expanded the bounds of the Marvel Universe.

Patsy and her best friend and erstwhile co-star Hedy Wolfe— Veronica to her Betty—made a cameo appearance as spectators at the wedding of Reed Richards to Sue Storm in 1963’s Fantastic Four Annual #3, establishing that they were part of the same continuity as the immensely popular line of superhero titles that ushered in the extinction of the genre the girls belonged to. Such a nod to the other types of entertainment the company produced was a knowing wink reminding readers that, whatever the style or subject matter, comic books were all essentially just lighthearted entertainment, not to be taken too seriously, and that regardless of one’s respective preference for talking animals, teen angst, or fantastic adventures, it did not exclude the enjoyment of the rest.

Englehart took the idea one step further when he added Patsy to the supporting cast of Amazing Adventures with issue #13 (July 1972), in which the Beast, formerly of the X-Men, was appearing in an

Cat Scratch Fever Hellcat in a 2009 sketch by Buzz (who shares his name with the character’s ex).

Courtesy of Kirk Dilbeck. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Here Comes Hellcat! (right) Writer Steve Englehart used the Beast’s feature in Amazing Adventures (panel here from #15) to inch Patsy Walker into the mainstream. (below) Hellcat’s big debut. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ongoing feature. Questioned in connection with this article, the veteran author recalls that the girls’ walk-on in Fantastic Four “struck my fan’s eye by including her in the Marvel Universe (MU). So when I got my chance to do strange things in comics, I thought it would be cool to bring her in as a real character, with things to do. Part of my ‘training’ as a Marvel writer was writing romance stories and Westerns, but Patsy was defunct as a comic by the time I got there so I never wrote anything about her previous to ‘The Beast.’ Still, as a fan, I had collected everything Marvel, including Patsy Walker and Patsy and Hedy—toward the end of their runs, they had moved into a running soap opera, which I enjoyed—so I knew them as characters, and enjoyed exploring Patsy in the MU.” Although the Beast already had a love interest in his lab assistant, Linda Donaldson (who was, unfortunately, an operative of the Secret Empire), Patsy served as a feminine presence, a damsel in distress, albeit an intrepid one—equal parts Nancy Drew and Katy Keene.

Patsy, now married to her former high-school sweetheart, Col. Buzz Baxter, also provided intrigue and melodrama, elements associated with romance comics, but truthfully an intrinsic part of the appeal of superhero titles, ever since the Marvel Age began with Fantastic Four #1.

Things like Reed and Sue’s relationship problems, Spider-Man’s girl troubles, and Thor’s angst over his mortal love interest and conflicts with his father were what defined Marvel Comics and redefined the medium.

Patsy’s inclusion in the world of superheroes demonstrated that the distinctions between the two genres were not so sharply defined after all.

FROM AMAZING ADVENTURES TO THE AVENGERS When “The Beast” was replaced with another feature in Amazing Adventures, Englehart incorporated him into The Avengers, and Patsy soon followed. The one loose end from the earlier series Englehart seemed intent on tying up was a pact the two had formed after Patsy had discovered that the Beast’s other identity was Hank McCoy. The story in The Avengers revealed that Patsy had elicited a promise from the Beast in return for keeping his secret from her husband and his employers, the shady Brand Corporation: she had demanded that the Beast help her become a superheroine and he reluctantly had agreed to, despite having no practical way to accomplish such a feat.

Englehart relates that he initially had no plans to turn Patsy into a superheroine, but that “my characters tend to write themselves, and pretty soon I knew she would want in on this game for real.”

In The Avengers, the other heroes are somewhat bemused by Patsy, particularly after her enthusiasm gets the better of her and she attempts to aid them against their opponents, the Squadron Supreme, with disastrous results. When they later happen upon the Cat’s costume in the Brand Corporation’s facility, however, even the reluctant Captain America is persuaded by her girlish exuberance and naked idealism to allow Patsy to don it. As Patsy says in The Avengers #144 (Feb. 1977): “I’ve waited all my life for this moment!

You couldn’t stop me with a team of wild horses!”

In a sequence that relates Patsy’s history as a way of explaining her motivation, Englehart effectively married the disparate worlds of romance and superhero comics. Camp elements like a caption that attributes the design of Patsy’s wardrobe in one panel to a reader, referencing a popular gimmick in girls’ comics that

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invited readers to send in fashion ideas for the characters, are balanced with the perspective that inhabitants of a fictional world not inclusive of fantasy and sciencefiction elements—a world much closer to our own— would have of the world of superheroes. Superheroes represented wonder and adventure, and Patsy wanted to be one for the same reason any of us would: because she thought it was cool.

The events of Patsy’s life as related in her own magazine of many years were reimagined in this context, with the added element of fascination that ordinary teenage girls would naturally feel for Spider-Man and his ilk were such people brought into the realm of possibility. While having lived the life of an ordinary person, Patsy was revealed to be a closet fanatic about superheroes, following their adventures and fantasizing about being one, just like any fan. The Cat, who had failed to inspire female fans in her four-issue run, succeeds in the context of the narrative, her status as a mysterious lone woman who had proven she could hold her own alongside the many male heroes clearly resonating with Patsy. The relative obscurity of the earlier character worked to make her appear as a kind of underground, cult hero, one that young women like Patsy Walker could relate to.

“I wasn’t real interested in the Cat,” Englehart recalls.

“I read the books and they seemed like pandering, frankly—not very good stories written to appeal to a demographic. Once [Patsy] entered the MU, met the Beast, confronted her husband—all that began to change the Patsy I had inherited to someone a little more savvy. By the time she became the Hellcat, she could stand back far enough to see the ironies in her taking over a feminist creation. But she was really more about jumping into the superhero pool than standing back, if you follow my metaphors. She didn’t muse on the irony; she wanted to be a heroine.”

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Hellcat vs. Hubby

Hellcat was seen to pursue this objective immediately upon assuming her costumed identity, striking the first blow for the Avengers during their rematch with the Squadron Supreme and helping to balance the odds against their opponents. She came to be characterized by her unabashed enthusiasm for superheroics, and the outright glee she displayed at rubbing elbows with her heroes. Making a quip as she deftly protects the Scarlet Witch from a foe’s attack, she thinks, “Oh, boy! That was just like Spider-Man!” The other signature characteristic that became associated with Hellcat was a lingering association with the story elements of Patsy Walker’s original genre. Both whimsy and melodrama would continue to define her. When Englehart introduced Patsy into the Avengers, he established that she had divorced Buzz, a very cynical development for a character whose entire history was built around romance.

“I think it was the first divorce,” Englehart says.

“When Roy Thomas was going through his own divorce and writing the FF, he sort of tried to break up Reed and Sue, but nobody really liked that for Reed and Sue and he didn’t follow through. I, however, could present Patsy and Buzz as broken from the get-go, and because they were even less than minor characters (because they were no characters at all in the MU), nobody had an objection. No, the social realism of those days was still pretty primitive. I just needed to explain why she was available to Hank McCoy, so I needed to explain where Buzz had gone, and I chose the most interesting option (in my opinion).

Then, once I had Patsy and Buzz at loggerheads, other plotlines came from that, with him being a real bastard and her turning out to be stronger than even she had known.”

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(left) Hellcat didn’t find the kind of happy ending that Patsy Walker always had, but she faced it like a superheroine.

From Avengers #149. (above) The George Pérez cover to Avengers #150 (Aug. 1976). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Happy-Go-Lucky Hellcat (above) From Defenders #44 (Feb. 1976); art by Keith Giffen and Klaus Janson. (right) Panel from issue #57; art by Dave Cockrum and Dan Green. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The relationship drama was interwoven with the costumed-crimefighting plot as Buzz’s corruption proved complete enough that he is perfectly willing to murder Patsy along with the Avengers at the behest of his Brand Corporation masters. It figured prominently in the denouement in which Patsy, whose new career as a superheroine had been largely incidental to the main plot, rescues herself and prevents Buzz from killing her still-incapacitated new teammates.

The confrontation was decisive in more ways than one, repudiating the naivete of Patsy’s original incarnation in favor of a more worldly character, who bests Buzz philosophically as well as physically by refusing to yield to his paternalistic contempt for her ability. Hellcat was very much a woman of her era, the romantic outlook of Patsy Walker reinterpreted for the 1970s. She was still girlish and without intellectual pretensions, but grown savvy from experience and determined to prove herself, evincing a less pronounced feminism, one without the didacticism of the Cat.

JOINING THE DEFENDERS

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

As such, she made a natural candidate for The Defenders, a quirky, unconventional superhero team book rife with offbeat humor and political commentary. She was written out of The Avengers at the end of the story arc that introduced her and reassigned to the other book with The Defenders #44 (Feb. 1977), replacing Dr. Strange as one of the core cast members and remaining so for the better part of a decade.

In The Defenders, Hellcat’s jocundity balanced the mix of personalities whose interactions drove the book: She flirts casually with the uptight, well-meaning Nighthawk; generally charms the temperamental Hulk; and forms a deep bond with the noble, stoic Valkyrie. She anxiously pursues her new career as a superheroine, having foregone membership in the Avengers in favor of participating in the adventures of the lesser-known team. The smaller cast created more opportunity for writer David Anthony Kraft—along with collaborator Roger Slifer, initially—to explore her character:

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“I absolutely love Hellcat!” beams Kraft. “I liked the happy-go-lucky aspect, the colloquial way of speaking—she sounded airheaded, but wasn’t.

Hellcat solved things a lot, which people didn’t always notice. It showed you didn’t have to be Mr. Fantastic to solve problems. She was spontaneous, but not an unintelligent person.”

If people weren’t always aware of that side of Hellcat, it may have been because the scripts tended to play up the more comic elements of her character. More so than in Englehart’s stories, Hellcat’s role in Defenders tended to draw on her generic origins, as if Patsy Walker as she had been written in the 1940s had somehow traversed the boundary between the fictional worlds of teen humor and superheroes, which, of course, she had, but with the tone of her former stories still quite apparent. In short, she evinced a very different style of characterization, one which was a slightly odd fit for heroic adventure stories. Whereas Iron Man was known to be invincible, Spider-Man amazing, and her compatriot the Hulk incredible, Hellcat was given the adjectival sobriquet “happygo-lucky,” and it became hard to take the character completely seriously due to her refusal to take almost anything seriously.

A guest appearance in Defenders #65 (Nov. 1978)

by Millie the Model, another star of Marvel’s

long-since discontinued girls’ line of magazines, was very tongue-in-cheek, Patsy and Millie nonchalantly chatting about their respective careers in modeling and crimefighting. Surprisingly, there was even an element of poignancy to the scene, an undercurrent of wistfulness and regret on Patsy’s part as she recognizes that her friend has successfully realized the dream they once shared, while for her it had ended unhappily.

Kraft and his collaborator—and later, successor— Ed Hannigan clearly felt affectionate toward her, though, and presented her sympathetically.

According to Kraft, the classic cartoon exclamations like “Jumpin’ Jehosephat!,” “Jiminy Crickets!” and what became her signature catchphrase, “Cheese and crackers!” that Hellcat’s dialogue is peppered with are drawn from life: “It was a side of my character; I gave her that side of my character. ‘Cheese and crackers!’ was something I read in The New Yorker’s ‘Talk of the Town’ column. The magazine is thought of as being intellectual, but it could be very informal. I was aware of a lot of other influences when I was writing the book.”

A running gag commencing in Defenders #49 and continuing over several issues known as “Hellcat’s Coffee Catastrophe” seemed to reference popular television commercials of the time, which some feminists saw as being rather sexist in their presentation of women’s roles as being traditionally domestic. Kraft’s script suggested Patsy was better suited for her new career as Hellcat than for her former one as a housewife.

“There’s some of that in there,” Kraft says. “It also is showing the other side of the characters’ lives, how just having a coffee pot explode in your kitchen is a kind of disaster. I liked doing that. In those days, comics didn’t go places like that.”

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER Hellcat brought a lighthearted irreverence to the title, or perhaps added to the existing one, the book always having had a nontraditional approach to superhero teams. Hellcat was the perfect counterpoint to the deadly serious Valkyrie, a warrior-woman whose character was conceived with such militantly feminist overtones that it included the premise that any physical action she might take against another woman would cause her physical pain. The original Cat was much closer to Valkyrie in demeanor and would have created an entirely different dynamic. As it was, the contrast between Patsy and Val made them appear to naturally complement one another.

The dynamic between the pair informed a subtext that represented a subtler aspect of Kraft and Hannigan’s characterization; over the course of many issues, they established one of the strongest, longest-lasting friendships between women in mainstream comics. Characteristically of good serial fiction, this was done gradually and without overt declaration. Their closeness is made evident through the nature, number, and frequency of their interactions.

As Kraft says, “Even though stories sometimes have slapstick themes or lightness associated with them, I always saw them as full-fledged characters. In the situation, the two girls living together at the Riding Academy with all these guys around, they’re naturally going to gravitate to each other.”

As the title character in her own magazine, Patsy Walker was often closely associated with Hedy Wolfe. Hedy was her best friend but also her rival, competing for the attention of boys. Ironically, in comic books written to appeal to girls, her relationship to other young women was catty and competitive, but thanks to the feminist consciousness-raising of the 1970s, even given the mostly male audience for superhero comics, as Hellcat she showed nothing but admiration and solidarity toward her female peers. She is as openly admiring of Ms. Marvel, yet another feminisminfluenced attempt to create a character for a female audience, as she had been of Valkyrie upon their first meeting, and when former teammate the Red Guardian is brainwashed by a Svengali–like supervillain, she tries to relate to her woman-to-woman.

An unfortunate exception was Tigra, who was the later identity assumed by Greer Grant Nelson, the original Cat. They are played against one another

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© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Sister Act (left) Patsy visits her old gal pal, Millie the Model, in Defenders #65, and (below) makes up with her new gal pal, Valkyrie, in #55. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Daimon’s Inferno (right) Patsy Walker reads Patsy Walker in Defenders #89, then (below) gets an extreme makeover on this blazing Michael Golden cover to #94 (Apr. 1981). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

in the pages of The Avengers #305 (July 1989), for little reason other than the chance to have Captain America make a remark about their “cat-fight.” The scene ignores their individual and shared histories in favor of a predictable and clichéd characterization of women’s attitudes towards one another.

Hellcat’s girlishness and flippant manner set her apart from characters like Ms. Marvel and the Cat, but Patsy was just as liberated in her own way. She was often shown to be more sexually aggressive than was typical for the period. Her flirtations with Nighthawk were casual and understated, but she frequently demonstrated an interest in a great range of men that crossed her path.

Kraft considered her very liberated indeed: “Patsy had zero hang-ups about sex. She was as happy-go-lucky about sex as about anything else.

I didn’t think of her as a swinger, per se. She had the same attitude as a lot of guys: if she liked you, she’d have sex with you.”

SERIOUS BUSINESS As the series wore on, Patsy’s blithe, breezy reactions to even the most grave of circumstances veered toward outright parody, which was not entirely out of place in a series that didn’t always take itself too seriously. Nevertheless, a story in Defenders #89 (Nov. 1980) drew attention to her more serious side, when she confronts the death of her mother. Once again, the writers drew on Hellcat’s earlier fictional history as the star of Patsy Walker, this time bringing it wholesale into established continuity by treating those stories as fictional within the current series, comic books created by her mother that were based on the current incarnation of the character’s adolescence. By rendering the earlier stories canonical in this fashion, the story “A Death in the Family” created another level of removal between the disparate versions of Patsy Walker.

New writer J. M. DeMatteis took over with #92 (Feb. 1981) and moved the series in a new direction, reintroducing Daimon Hellstrom—the Son of Satan— a supernatural character created in the mid-’70s who had appeared in the title before, and beginning a mini-epic in which the heroes battled a satanic conspiracy. Hellcat featured prominently in the storyline, being possessed by Avarish, one of the demons of the Six-fingered Hand and discovering that her soul had been promised to Satan by her own mother.

Whereas the overtones of Patsy’s former incarnation as a teen-romance/humor character had made an awkward marriage with the trappings of superhero stories, they formed a natural juxtaposition with the generic elements of horror. A romance developed between Patsy and Daimon, complicated when they confronted Satan himself, who claimed that he was Patsy’s true father. The Devil later recanted this claim and Patsy, after reuniting with her true father, married Daimon in #125, after which the two were written out of the title.

DeMatteis recalls of Hellcat that “she was one of those characters that I discovered in the writing.

She came alive for me, became interesting, on the page. This was one of the things that came out in the writing. You set these characters spinning across the page and, with luck, they’ll come alive and, once that happens, they tend to do surprising things. Patsy and Daimon didn’t necessarily hook up because I wanted them to … it was because they wanted to, if you know what I mean.”

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They appeared infrequently after that as husbandand-wife occult investigators, Patsy officially retiring her Hellcat identity but still occasionally donning her costume. These sporadic appearances usually had a more traditional superhero tone, but still reflected her unique genesis. In one (Solo Avengers #9, Aug. 1988), she appears on a talk show, promoting her tell-all autobiography, The Hellcat Chronicles, and confronting her ex-husband, Buzz Baxter, who had completed his own metamorphosis from romance character to supervillain and, in his new identity as Mad Dog, disrupted her wedding to Daimon. The couple’s appearances together played up the contrast between their generic origins, particularly Richard Howell’s “The Town and Patsy Walker!,” a sendup of Marvel romance comics of the 1950s, that appeared in Marvel Fanfare #59 (Oct. 1991).

Unfortunately, this proved Patsy’s undoing in the 1990s, by which time mainstream comics had begun to favor a much grimmer tone. When Daimon embraces his evil heritage in the pages of his own title, Hellstorm, launched in 1993, Patsy is driven to suicide.

Happily, death and damnation are rarely permanent setbacks and Patsy was rescued from Hell in Thunderbolts 2000, guest-starred in Avengers Annual 2000, and went on to figure prominently in a short-lived new Defenders series.

Steve Englehart returned to the character in the first Hellcat miniseries, chronicling Patsy’s return to Centerville, the world of teen humor and romance she had emigrated from when Englehart wrote her into Amazing Adventures. Like its most famous daughter, Centerville had also migrated to the Marvel Universe proper and been introduced to the worlds of mystery, horror, and adventure. In the three-issue series, Patsy uses her new supernatural powers to battle Mayor Nicholas Scratch and outwit

Mephisto. A striking new costume was designed for the series, but later appearances saw her return to her traditional one. A second miniseries, Patsy Walker: Hellcat followed in 2008.

“In the last stories I did with her, in the mini with Norm Breyfogle, I boiled it all down to her repeated assertion that she was ‘just a girl’—even as she outwitted the Devil,” says Englehart. “I always found a core of steel very deep inside her soft outside, and by the mini, she’d found it, too. In a sense, her evolution in my stories was all about her finding that out. It was her personal approach to feminism: the freedom to be who she was. I never stopped liking her, as I hope the mini showed. In fact, I liked her a lot. That young, naive girl becoming her own woman was fun to write.”

Solo Avenger Page 26 of Marvel Comics Presents #36 (Dec. 1989). June Brigman’s rendering of Hellcat (inked by husband Roy Richardson) is sultry and dangerous in one of the character’s few solo appearances, which tended to be more serious in tone.

JONATHAN MILLER has always wanted to be a superhero.

He’s not asking for a miracle, just a costume with some power or a serum or something. He knows all you heroes are friends. If anyone knows Reed Richards, please ask him to write to Jonathan at captainmarveljr@hotmail.com.

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© 2010 Marvel Characters. Inc.

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In 1980, a brand new hero burst onto the scene. He had amazing powers, which he inherited from his ancestors, who, in turn, received them from the gods. He was also new to his role as a hero and inexperienced, resulting in as many mistakes as successes.

No, this wasn’t some lost Stan Lee creation, descended from the mold of Spider-Man, nor was it television’s Greatest American Hero. It was the Pumaman, star of his own 1980 feature film.

In this article, we’ll go behind the scenes of this minor camp classic via a brand new interview with the film’s star, Walter George Alton. We’ll investigate the stories behind the film’s production and most memorable moments, including the unforgettable flying scenes and the Pumaman’s unique costume, and even take a look at how the Pumaman has returned to the public consciousness. This is the inside story of The Pumaman.

BIRTH OF THE PUMAMAN If you’ve never heard of the Pumaman, you probably shouldn’t be too surprised. After all, the Pumaman has only appeared once, in the eponymous 1980 film The Pumaman, starring relative newcomer Walter George Alton and cinematic luminary Donald Pleasence. The film began production in 1979 in Italy, where it is known as L’uomo puma, under the direction of Alberto De Martino. Influenced by Erich von Daniken’s 1968 book Chariot of the Gods and almost certainly inspired by the success of 1978’s Superman: The Movie, De Martino set out to write a screenplay about a superhero who was granted his powers by an ancient alien race that had once posed as South American gods.

According to the film’s introduction, “An ancient Aztec legend tells of a god who descended from the stars at the dawn of time and became the father of the first Pumaman.”

Seemingly divine powers were then passed down through the generations from father to son, giving rise to the film’s rather nifty mantra, “Each man is a god. Each man is free.”

In De Martino’s story, palentologist Tony Farms, the modern Pumaman, has no knowledge of his celestial lineage.

Thus, when the evil Kobras attempts to use a golden mask, left behind by those same aliens, to take over the world, Tony finds himself in over his head, desperately trying to master his newfound powers in time to defeat the madman.

While the story had the promise of a genuine superheroic epic in the mighty Marvel mold, a muddled script and low budget unfortunately got in the way of the film’s heady ideas about gods, aliens, and men, and even undermined the possibilities of the unsure, rookie-superhero plot that, for decades, had worked so well in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man—and which, shortly thereafter, would also prove a rousing success on the small screen with The Greatest American Hero.

Still, seen as a camp superhero adventure, more in the vein of Adam West than Christopher Reeve, The Pumaman is actually pretty entertaining. The film’s star, Walter George Alton, puts it nicely, saying, “In a way, the movie was kind of a camp movie, not really a spoof, but a fun, crazy movie about an Italian superhero guy.”

The Greatest South American Hero The original movie poster art for L’uomo puma (The Pumaman) depicted a blond champion who looked nothing like the film’s star. © 1980 ADM Films Department - DEANTIR.

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by

Eric Houston

SECRET IDENTITIES

Walter George Alton

Walter George Alton arrived in Italy in 1979 to take on the role of Professor Tony Farms, a.k.a. the Pumaman. Having acted primarily in soap operas and commercials, Alton recognized The Pumaman as his first real shot as the star of a major motion picture. “It was exciting to be the lead in a movie and to take up the challenge of what they wanted me to do stunt-wise,” remembers Alton today. “It was also a great deal of fun to work with Donald Pleasence.”

Alton is, of course, referring to the iconic British actor, who, by then, had already starred in such films as The Great Escape and Halloween. Pleasence was cast as the evil Kobras, both to give the film a marketable name and because, as Alton recalls, “[The producers] thought he would be a perfect villain because of his appearance and his persona and they were right on that score. I think he was a fun villain.” Pleasence certainly does seem to be having a lot of fun on camera, delightfully overplaying his part as the leather bejumpsuited heavy just enough to add to the camp spirit of the thing. And it seems that Pleasence had even more fun behind the scenes, trading stories with Alton about acting and his time as a World War II bombardier. “He was a wonderful and funny man,” remembers Alton.

The film also features Sydne Rome, an American-born actress living in Italy, as Jane Dobson, Tony’s love interest and unwitting thrall of Kobras; and Mexican-born actor and former boxer Miguel Angel Fuentes, playing Vadinho, an Aztec mystic sent to find and train Tony and join him in the fight against Kobras.

A capable teacher who is, at times, even more heroic than Tony, Vadinho unfortunately also represents one of the film’s earliest and oddest lapses in logic as, when we meet him, he is engaged in searching for the new Pumaman by throwing his prospects out of high-rise windows. If they survive the fall, they must have the powers of the puma. If not—well, the movie doesn’t really dwell on that, choosing instead to quickly wipe Vadinho’s murderous actions under the rug in favor of portraying him as a sort of buff Aztec Yoda, speaking in constant riddles as he teaches Tony how to use the powers of the Pumaman.

Given this and some of the script’s other odd choices, it is surprising to learn that, while the actors seemed to be completely aware of the film’s camp potential, the crew did not see things that way at all.

“I don’t think they looked at it that way,” says Alton. “They were trying to play it pretty straight.”

The star of The Pumaman (left) kindly shared with BACK ISSUE these photos taken during film’s shooting.

In the bottom shot, Alton poses with Miguel Angel Fuentes, who played Vadinho.

Pumaman © 1980 ADM Films Department - DEANTIR.

THE COSTUME Camp approach or not, filming on The Pumaman went smoothly.

The cast and crew got along famously with perhaps the only point of contention between the film’s star and producers coming over the Pumaman’s costume, which, ironically, represented one of the few instances where Alton had to actually fight the filmmakers to play things straight. “You can’t have a superhero wear such a ridiculous costume,” Alton told the producers upon seeing the Pumaman’s original costume, which is hinted at in the film’s promotional art. The poster shows a blond Pumaman (in the movie, he has brown hair) wearing an extremely tight-fitting golden outfit with a long, golden cape and a golden Aztec crest hanging over the Pumaman’s bared chest. Still, even this artistic representation was a marked improvement over the physical costume, which Alton remembers as being mostly pink. “To me,” he says, “it just wasn’t masculine enough.”

As ridiculous as the original may have been, the revised, caballero-like costume is actually one of the film’s more straightforward successes, eschewing the spandex look of most superheroes in favor of a uniform more in keeping with the character’s South American origins. Fashioned primarily from heavy cloth, the costume consists of khaki slacks; a brown, long-sleeved shirt bearing a slightly less ostentatious crest; a similarly adorned golden belt; and a red-lined cape that can be folded down into a sort of brown poncho. The resulting look is unlike any other superhero of the day, giving the Pumaman a unique look and distinguishing him from other big-screen heroes.

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On the Set More behindthe-scenes shots, including (bottom left) Alton in costume. (bottom right) Mystery Science Theater 3000 has fun with The Pumaman.

Pumaman © 1980 ADM Films Department - DEANTIR.

SWIMMING THROUGH THE AIR With the new costume in place, principal photography marched on without a hitch and, soon enough, most of the cast and crew departed for new adventures. Alton, however, remained, spending the next few weeks strapped into a harness in front of a blue screen, filming perhaps the movie’s most memorable scenes: the flying sequences. The summer before production started on The Pumaman, Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie promised audiences, “You will believe a man can fly.” Sure enough, that film’s revolutionary special effects gave motion-picture audiences the most realistic portrayal of a man in flight to date. Not to be outdone, director Alberto De Martino and his specialeffects team sought to bring the same sense of wonder to The Pumaman.

Unfortunately, the results were not quite what they hoped for.

Alton’s initial idea was to play the flying scenes much as Christopher Reeve had, with his body still and graceful. De Martino, however, had other ideas. “The director kept saying, ‘Kick your legs! Kick your legs!’” recalls Alton. “Their aim was to have the flying look pretty real.

Unfortunately, the director was worried that, if I didn’t move, it would look fake, so he wanted to have me kick my legs and move my arms, like, and he would even say this, swimming through the air.” Sadly, the resulting image looks less like “swimming through the air” than it does desperate flailing, resulting in a much more comedic than graceful effect. “If you want the film to be a little funny or tongue-in-cheek or camp, then maybe that would be appropriate,” muses Alton, “but that’s not what they were thinking at the time that they shot it.”

THE LEGEND OF THE PUMAMAN With the flying scenes finally wrapped, Alton returned to America.

Throughout production, the crew had been abuzz with the thought of a Pumaman 2 and even Pumaman 3, but no sequel ever materialized.

The movie was rarely seen in America and proved even harder to find on video than in theaters. Alton himself did not get to see the finished product for quite some time, ultimately having to go to the trouble of converting a European PAL VHS tape to the North American NTSC standard in order to see it.

As the years went on, The Pumaman became a more and more distant memory. Still, according to Alton, this fun, crazy movie has its fans: “I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails from people asking, ‘Are you 70 • BACK ISSUE • Cat People Issue

the fellow who played the Pumaman? If so, I want you to know that I grew up with the film and I’ve always loved it and I still watch it today with my kids and they love it,’ and I think that’s great.”

Despite these fans, The Pumaman seemed destined to fade ever further into obscurity. That is, until 1998, when the cult-favorite cable TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured The Pumaman in one of its more memorable episodes. For those readers who have never seen it, Mystery Science Theater 3000 features a man and two robots making wisecracks while silhouetted against a movie screen.

Head writer and host Mike Nelson recalls particularly enjoying The Pumaman: “Every writer had his favorite movie, one that only he liked, and I liked The Pumaman. When a movie is dull and is just people talking and not lit well, it’s just not as fun. It’s fun to see when they stretch for some big concept, like The Pumaman, and actually go for it.” Nelson is also pleased that his show has helped bring The Pumaman and many other forgotten films back into the public eye: “I enjoy being somewhat of a curator and finding things that you think to yourself while watching it, ‘I think people would get a kick out of this.’ Most people don’t go out of their way to find really odd films, so it’s fun to find a movie like The Pumaman, where your jaw drops and you think, ‘How has nobody ever seen this? This must be shown to the world.’”

And so, The Pumaman has returned to the public consciousness with a bigger splash than ever before. Clips of the movie, particularly the flying sequences, are favorites on the Internet, where the modern Pumaman fan can even buy everything from Pumaman T-shirts to bumper stickers. With Pumaman arguably more popular than ever, and with other ’80s films like Tron and the Indiana Jones series only now receiving long-awaited sequels, can it be long before Pumaman 2?

ERIC HOUSTON is the author of The Comic Book Podcast Companion, also available from TwoMorrows, and while he does believe in the gods who came from space, it’s really more of a Christmas/Easter thing.

®

by

Scott E. Williams

The 1980s—a decade of buzzwords and catchphrases.

Movies gave us the “mockumentary,” a type of comedy in which part of the joke was pretending that what we were seeing was real. TV gave us “dramedy,” a type of show that fell between drama and comedy without fitting nicely into either niche.

For comics in the 1980s, the word was “deconstruction.” French writer Jacques Derrida apparently coined the word in the 1960s, using it to describe a difficult-to-define system of exhaustively examining a writing, in order to determine its various meanings.

For Derrida, deconstruction was a means to an end— the end being showing that nothing had absolute meaning. In comics, the word came to represent an approach that would examine what motivates heroes and how their antics would play out on a world more realistic than the one Silver Age heroes had occupied.

Two seminal works of the 1980s—Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns—would come to embody this approach. However, in Wisconsin, one American hero had beaten them to the punch.

Moore’s Marvelman explored the real-world effect of a Superman–like character in a non-super world, starting in 1982, in Britain’s Warrior comics anthology.

The character did not appear stateside until 1985, as Miracleman, published by Eclipse Comics.

By the time Miracleman had debuted in the USA, the Badger had been kicking butts and deconstructing the superhero for two years.

“HE’D HAVE TO BE CRAZY” Initially published by Capital Comics, The Badger (inset) was a follow-up to Nexus, Capital’s science-fiction book about a man with vast powers who must use those powers to execute mass-murderers, regardless of mitigating circumstances.

The ensuing examinations of complex moral choices and the consequences thereof rendered Nexus a successful and critically acclaimed comic.

In 1983, Nexus co-creator (with artist extraordinaire Steve Rude) Mike Baron had an idea for a new book, one that would ask, “What would motivate a man to put on a colorful costume and fight crime?”

Baron’s answer inspired The Badger, a book that would enjoy a 70-issue run, an oversized graphic novel, a four-issue miniseries, and a 1991 one-shot.

“All the elements that made The Badger came together from a lot of different angles,” Baron says.

“The first was that very question—why would someone

Crazy Cat Detail from Steve Rude’s cover art to The Badger #32 (Feb. 1988). Unless otherwise noted, Badger scans in this article are courtesy of Jim Sukman.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

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BADGER’S CELEBRITY FRIENDS The Badger suffered not only from multiple-personality disorder, but also hallucinations. Specifically, he saw the ghosts of dead celebrities.

Sometimes, these spirits offered helpful advice, and sometimes, they just seemingly wanted to chat.

Other characters seemed oddly reminiscent of real-world newsmakers.

Still others might only have existed in popular myths (aside from The Badger).

Some of the luminaries who visited with Badger: Warren Oates. The star of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was Badger’s most frequent ghostly visitor, starting in The Badger #9 (Jan. 1986). In that issue, Oates helps Badger locate a pair of runaway panthers running loose in a mall. Badger is trying to rescue the animals but gets distracted in a pet shop by fish. As Badger screams, “You fish are stupid, you know that? Stupid!” at the fish, Oates advises Badger to stop that and head over to Radio Shack.

There, Badger manages to rescue one of the panthers, the other one having been shot by police.

John Wayne. When Badger decides in The Badger #14 (June 1986) to seek vengeance for a snake, against a San Francisco chef making snake-bile cognac, the Duke smacks some sense into Badger, pointing out that Chef Herbert Ng is more honorable than the serpent Badger purports to represent.

A very Hulk Hogan–like pro wrestler named Killdozer battled Badger in The Badger #25 (July 1987).

Oates and W. C. Fields show up in The Badger #29’s (Nov. 1987) multidimensional romp.

Badger battles furriers and the Dire Wolf (from the Grateful Dead song of the same name) in The Badger #36 (June 1988).

When a beer-shilling pit bull (think Spuds McKenzie) is framed for murder in The Badger #39 (Sept.

1988), Badger must clear his name.

Paul Bunyan. Bunyan and Badger combined forces in The Badger #42 (Dec. 1988), to track down an arsonist setting forest fires, although sparks flew between Babe the Blue Ox and Lamont, Badger’s ninja-trained buffalo.

Badger takes on a Ted Turner-ish media tycoon named Morris Meyer, who is intent on colorizing every classic movie he can get his hands on, in The Badger #55 (Jan. 1990).

Ham’s rivalry with mogul Donald Trump appears periodically through the book’s last years.

Daisy’s completion and publication of her book on the Badger earns her in The Badger #69 (Mar. 1991) a slot on a late-night talk show that might give déjà vu to 1980s viewers of the Arsenio Hall Show. When a TV-studio stylist gives our hero a swanky new ’do, he immediately phases into Max Swell, a more cultured, more effete personality.

During Daisy’s interview, Max pats the leg of the next guest, and compliments him his “lovely coat.”

Unfortunately, the next guest is a loud, foul-mouthed comedian named Sam (as in Kennison) in a bandana and trenchcoat. Sam lays a homophobic diatribe, only to drive Max offstage (or at least off-panel).

Within seconds, Badger is flying into Sam’s teeth, feet-first, with a trademark salutation: “Greetings, from the land of beatings!”

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do this? The immediate answer was, ‘Well, he’d have to be crazy.’”

With that, Baron knew he had his hook, as well as a way to mix in a character whose conception predated even Badger himself. When Baron and artist Jeff Butler had begun planning a new book, the first thing that they envisioned was a character who became a straight man (when needed) for Badger, but also a character with his own rich mythology. Ham the Weather Wizard was born.

“Jeff didn’t want to do superheroes, so instead, we came up with an idea for a series about a fifth-century Druid wizard in modern times,” Baron says. “We put together six pages on him and gave them to Capital.

Capital said no.”

However, Butler insisted that the pages not go to waste, and the creators instead made them into a prologue in the first issue of The Badger. As the series opens, Ham himself is squaring off against a coalition of rival sorcerers, who zap him into a coma that would last until the 1980s. Ham ended up in a Wisconsin mental hospital. While case worker Daisy Fields thought he was a vegetable, the physically inactive Ham was actually communicating mentally with a man in the adjoining room.

Ham’s neighbor was Norbert Sykes, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, who was suffering from multiple-personality disorder. One of Sykes’ personalities was the Badger, a self-styled defender of

Badger’s Crusade Norbert Sykes’ first dialogue, from The Badger #1 (Sept. 1983). Script by Mike Baron and art by Jeff Butler.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

human dignity. Sykes had been committed to the hospital after an altercation in which the Badger had hospitalized four teenagers.

But this was no ordinary superhero, and the evils he battled more greatly resembled things one could read about in a newspaper than in the pages of a superhero comic.

The teens’ sin?

In the first words the Badger/Sykes utters out loud in the comic, “Those boys were catching ducks with pieces of bread wadded up on fish hooks, hauling them to shore and stomping them to death.”

REAL-WORLD “EVILS” As the series progressed, Badger periodically took on evils ranging from mundane-yet-annoying to truly awful.

When publisher First Comics picked up the series with Badger #5 (May 1985), Baron (and new artist Bill Reinhold) offered a series recap, opening with the Badger’s campaign against evils great and small. One of that issue’s opening panels depicts Badger delivering a high kick to a man in a grocery store, while yelling, “Next time, fill out the godd*mned check before you get in line!”

Baron says he enjoyed having a costumed hero who could pummel those with whose evils readers could identify. After all, most of us have never had to endure an invasion of shapeshifting aliens or a reservoir poisoned by a clown-faced psycho. By contrast, who hasn’t wanted to knock out the inconsiderate people smoking in non-smoking sections, people in theaters who talk during movies, or litterbugs? Every time the Badger bloodied one of these offenders’ noses, Baron was inviting readers a type of vicarious catharsis. “[Badger] started out by beating up my list of personal bitches about society,” Baron says. “What I quickly came to realize was that these complaints were almost universal. I think a lot of people got a kick out of seeing Badger combat everyday rudeness.”

And kicks were in great supply within the pages of The Badger, as Baron’s crazed hero was a martial-arts master. Proficient in countless disciplines, including shorin ryu (a Japanese martial art that focuses on fluid movement and flexibility), Badger had fights that looked like actual fights. While most superheroes battle in a series of actions that look like action poses, the portrayal of combat in the pages of The Badger always flowed from panel to panel in a way that conveyed how such battles would actually unfold. The unique approach deconstructed the action sequences that had been the lifeblood of many superhero titles.

Baron, himself a second-degree black belt, says the realistic fights were important to his vision of the series.

“It was something I was always striving for,” he says.

“One of the things I wanted for The Badger was to show martial arts correctly within the pages of a comic, where the reader could actually see that we were not faking the techniques. I worked long and hard to choreograph those fights, because they had to be real.”

Cleaning Up the Streets (left) A montage from Badger #5 (May 1985), the first issue published by First Comics. (right) A 1984 Badger sketch by Bill Reinhold.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

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Hello, Larry (left) Martial-arts action from Badger #9, and (right) one of Sykes’ multiple personalities is triggered in this page from Badger Goes Berserk #2.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

Roger Salick, the only person other than Baron ever to write an issue of The Badger, is one of the United States’ foremost martial artists, and he agrees that the physical continuity of the fight scenes helped make The Badger a visceral reading experience.

Baron had almost always plotted his books by way of storyboard breakdowns on legal pads, and for fight scenes, he would write detailed accounts of how the fights should flow on the page, for the benefit of the pencilers who would bring those fights to life.

For Badger and for Marvel’s Punisher books, Baron and Salick sometimes even used videotapes, usually involving Salick and his martial-arts students, to show artists how to choreograph the fights.

“We were both interested in having martial arts be presented in a credible fashion, inasmuch as we could, in the space provided in the books,” Salick says.

Adding to the realism was the fact that Badger himself was far from undefeated. Over the course of the series, Badger lost at least half a dozen fights, first and most notably to a man known as the Hodag, who demonstrated more than once (in a story that ran from The Badger #10–13, Mar.– July 1986) that he was the Badger’s superior in the fighting arts. More than two years would pass from Hodag’s debut to the 1988 Badger: Hexbreaker graphic novel, wherein our crazed hero would finally get the better of this foe.

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THE BADGER HAS ISSUES Baron points out that while such formidable opponents as Hodag did pop up from time to time in The Badger, the titular hero was often undone not by his enemies’ skills, but by his own mental issues.

The Badger (and Ham) made it out of the hospital in the first issue, with Ham recruiting Daisy Fields to serve as his secretary. The three of them lived in a castle, outside Barneveld, Wisconsin, where Daisy kept Ham’s books while still trying to treat Norbert Sykes. The latter was a battle Daisy never would win, as Sykes’ multiplepersonality disorder mirrored real-world cases, few of which ever resolved in a whole mind, free of fracture.

As the series progressed, readers learned of the Vietnam imprisonment and childhood abuse that had caused Norbert to develop added personalities, in which he could mentally retreat from the traumas of his young life.

These issues came to a head in the 1989 miniseries Badger Goes Berserk, in which readers learned where most of the alternate personae came from, as well as the answer to a question that had plagued readers who had been aboard since the start: Why did the Badger call everyone “Larry”?

“Larry” turned out to be Norbert’s abusive stepfather, and while the Badger (in a rare moment of unity between his seven personalities) finally confronted his tormentor and thrashed him once and for all, Baron told us (through Daisy and in a bit of narration at the story’s conclusion) that this victory would not equal recovery.

INSIDE NORBERT’S NOGGIN Norbert Sykes suffered from multiple-personality disorder, and his head was a crowded place.

Aside from the Badger persona, which sometimes seemed to be Norbert and sometimes seemed distinct from him, six other personalities resided within him. Here’s a Who’s Who of the residents of Norbert’s head: Max Swell. Max was the favored persona, the one Norbert/Badger most commonly lapsed into. Max was a somewhat effeminate but highly cultured patron of the arts. Max seemed to be a highbrow antithesis of everything Badger himself was.

Sample dialogue: “If anybody needs me, I shall be at the Edgewater, reviewing my season opera options.”

Gastineau Grover de Paul. A street-smart warrior of AfricanAmerican descent. This persona could be a reaction to the white-supremacist beliefs of Larry, Norbert’s abusive stepfather.

Sample dialogue: “Deep woods in the dairy state ain’t nothin’ like sweet home Chicago.”

Pierre. Pierre was a compulsive mass-murderer, and French.

Sample dialogue: “Pierre will cut! Pierre will chop!”

Emily and Alice. Two little girls, who seemed to be always crying. They sprang directly out of Norbert’s feelings of vulnerability, over the abuse he endured as a kid.

Sample dialogue: “Boo hoo. Sniffle.”

Leroy. Leroy was Norbert’s childhood dog. Larry killed the pooch, right in front of young Norbert.

Sample dialogue: “Ggrrr! Ggrrr! Woof! Woof!”

In the real world, multiple-personality sufferers are rarely healed altogether, one of many facts about the condition Baron discovered in his extensive research on the condition as he prepared to write The Badger.

“I read everything I could find on the subject, I talked to several psychiatrists, and later on, I even heard from multiples who had enjoyed the comic,” Baron says. “Of course, psychiatric fashions change all the time, and while multiples were all the rage in the 1980s, in the 1990s, most psychiatrists believed there was no such thing. They believed these people were either suffering from some type of dissociative state, or were very clever sociopaths, but I still believe multiple-personality disorder is real.”

CREATOR STORIES While Baron penned Badger Goes Berserk, Salick took over as lead writer for the four regular issues of The Badger (#51–54, Sept.–Dec. 1989) published during the miniseries. Salick had been writing backup stories in both The Badger and Nexus for years, and his transition to lead writer was seamless, as Salick had a clear grasp of the characters and what made them work.

Salick himself credits Baron’s ability to create complex characters that seemed real, for all their fantastic surroundings.

“Mike has a peculiar gift for characters who are offbeat,” Salick says. “There were certainly no forced harmonics when writing those characters, because you can do anything with them. Mike has mastered what I call ‘the troubled mind,’ that rare gift for unrestrained characters. I mean, Badger himself is about as far out as anyone can get.”

Salick, who marks 40 years in the martial arts in June 2010, met Baron through Steve Rude, when Rude became one of Salick’s students, in the 1970s.

Just Swell A glimpse into the “life” of Max Swell, from The Badger Goes Berserk #2.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

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“I needed a window painted for the martial-arts school where I was teaching, and a friend of mine said I should talk to this kid who was working at Burger King,” Salick says. “I went, and I saw this tall, skinny kid flipping burgers, and it was Steve Rude. We were both pretty broke at the time, but he wanted to study martial arts, and I needed the window painted, so we swapped services.”

Salick saw Baron and Rude work on short stories and sample pages, in tireless efforts to get into comics.

“Mike had done some newspaper writing, but Steve was just trying to break in [to comics], but his talent was obvious,” Salick says. “It was really gratifying to see these two guys, through sheer talent and grit, work their way into the comics field and really become masters at that craft.”

A decade after meeting them, Baron was offering Salick his own chance to try out the medium. By the mid-to-late 1980s, Mike Baron had become one of comics’ most prolific writers, on a monthly basis.

He wrote DC’s Flash and Marvel’s The Punisher, in addition to his First Comics work on Nexus and The Badger. Baron was looking for someone to write backup stories in his First books, and asked Salick if he would like to write some shorts.

“Mike was getting so busy that he sometimes had more than he could do, so he asked if I’d be interested,” Salick says. “It sounded like a good time, so I tried it on a trial basis, and it turned into a relationship that lasted a long time. I was really honored and fortunate to work on such great characters as Badger and Judah [the futuristic warrior who went from a Nexus supporting character to star of his own backup strip and two miniseries].”

While the mental-health problems and physical combat of The Badger had roots in reality, the series’ inclusion of Ham the Weather Wizard infused the book with a fantastical element that allowed Baron to take stories in any direction he liked.

“That was one of the things I liked best about writing that book,” Baron says. “It was ‘anything goes.’ I could put those characters into any kind of situation, depending on the mood I was in, and the characters would work within the context of any kind of story.”

Salick says Ham was as unique as Badger, in his own way.

“Anyone could have done a regular wizard,” Salick says. “But a guy who’s performing ritual sacrifice, in order to mystically manipulate the lottery? That could only have come from Baron.”

In fact, some of Baron’s favorite Badger stories were the sillier ones— such as Badger #29’s (Nov. 1987) “Magic Word,” a stream-ofconsciousness story where nothing seems real, except for an enormous thug who becomes apoplectic at the mention of the word “lawyer.”

The seeming dreamscape was the perfect forum for artist Eric Shanower, who also pitched in for Badger Goes Berserk, in addition to producing a series of Oz graphic novels for First.

Shanower was just one of the top-flight artists who helped make The Badger one of the most readable books of the 1980s. Other artistic luminaries included Ron Lim, the aforementioned Reinhold, Mike Zeck, and Tim Vigil.

Sometimes, Baron even mixed social issues with silliness. Where else but in The Badger could you have read a comic-book story about an ex-Nazi transsexual nun—as a sympathetic character, no less?

The Badger #40–41 (Oct.–Nov. 1988) featured Syster Twyster, a repentant former S.S. officer who was trying to deliver money he had stolen from remaining Nazis to Jewish victims of the Third Reich.

“I really just sat down and thought, ‘Okay, what’s the most offensive character I could create?’ And Syster Twyster was what came out,” Baron says.

However, the two-part story is packed with both dark humor and genuinely poignant emotion, as Baron and artist Ron Lim do the seemingly impossible—they make Syster Twyster a likable character, one whose end is strangely quite sad. The story also gives Ham a rare chance to shine as a central piece of the action. Generally, Ham remained on the sidelines, monitoring the action via a giant crystal ball known as “the astounding rotundity” (which leads to a running joke in the series, as various characters say to Ham, “I thought you were astounding rotundity”). Here, however, a gunshot wound had sidelined Badger, and Ham stepped directly into the fray, to defend the “sister” against her Nazi pursuers.

The Badger also called attention to the fringes of 1960s radicalism (Badger #21, Mar. 1987), “crazy” TV pitchmen (Badger #22, Apr. 1987), the plight of people living in low-income housing (Badger #26–27, Aug.–Sept. 1987), and the sometimes-shady world of furriers (Badger #36, June 1988). Amidst all of this, Badger battled vampires (Badger #43–44, Mar.–Apr. 1989), put together an all-animal marching band (Badger #38, Aug. 1988), fought a San Francisco chef over a snake (Badger #14, Aug. 1986), and took his ninja-trained buffalo for a haircut at Houston’s Galleria Mall, where the animal went ice-skating and received an invite to a debutante ball (all this action is packed into Badger #37, July 1986).

In 1988, the Badger cast grew by one, as The Badger #45 (Mar. 1989) opened with Badger waking up in his room at Ham’s castle, lying next to a woman identifying herself as his wife.

Badger readers first met Mavis Davis, M.D., in the Hexbreaker graphic novel, published a few months earlier. In it, Badger competes in a worldwide martial-arts tournament, where the winner gets anything he wants, via the power of the mystic hosts, the Black Lotus Society.

While Mavis is a rival competitor, she and Badger seem simpatico, and when we next see her, it is in Badger #45, where she is now Mavis Davis-Sykes.

“I thought it would be funny to have him wake up one morning and be like, ‘WHAT?!,’” Baron says. “Usually, in comics, you get the wedding

Win Some, Lose Some The Badger suffers a defeat in The Badger #30 (Dec. 1987). Original art signed by Bill Reinhold and courtesy of Heritage.

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

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and then not a lot on the marriage. I wanted to flip that, partly to show that sometimes when a person has overwhelming mental problems, life can throw curves.

Although as curves go, Mavis was a winner. She had a lot of character, and every man needs a wife with character.”

Indeed, Mavis proves to be even more of a lover of animals than Badger himself, and every bit the martial artist he is. The two were a match made in Heaven (or at least a crazy-funhouse version thereof).

THE BUTLER DID IT By late 1990, The Badger was firing on all cylinders, as Baron and new artist Steven Butler (debuting in The Badger #60, June 1990) delivered a frenetic comic that was as alternately funny and dark as the series ever had been. Badger dealt with a torrent of emotion over the death of his mother, chased crooks with Elvis and (in the series’ hysterically funny finale, Badger #70, Apr. 1991) even went for a ride with Santa Claus.

However, changes were afoot. The Badger #69 (Mar. 1991) featured a retelling of Badger’s origins, and a bombshell of an announcement in the letters column.

There, Badger editor Alex Wald told readers that The Badger (and all of First’s other monthlies, excepting Lone Wolf and Cub and Classics Illustrated) would end as a monthly. Instead, Wald wrote, The Badger would continue as a series of quarterly graphic novels in the squarebound format quickly becoming known as “prestige.”

“The arrival of diverse forms and subjects within comics heralds a new age of creative vision and expression,” Wald wrote. “As we have in the past, First will pioneer the comics of the future.”

Unfortunately, for Badger fans, the future would not last very long. Precisely one of the Badger specials, the squarebound Badger Bedlam, saw print, and it would be the last readers saw of Norbert Sykes and his eclectic “family” of Mavis, Daisy, and Ham for a few years. Not long after the format change’s debut, First Comics stopped publishing altogether.

Baron became aware of First’s problems a few months before the company’s demise, “when the checks started being fewer and farther in between.”

Baron notes that First had recently moved into fancy new offices and believed increased overhead contributed to First’s demise.

Fortunately for Baron and the readers of his two flagship titles, The Badger and Nexus, Dark Horse Comics was eager to pick up publishing rights to both books.

Nexus flew again in 1992, but Badger would not return until 1994. That year, Dark Horse published two Badger minis—the four-issue Shattered Mirror was a serious retelling of the character’s origins with a somber examination of his mental illness, while Zen Pop Funny Animal Version gave readers the funny, frantic Badger that many knew best.

While the two books presented a fascinating balance and again illustrated the versatility of the character and concept, they were not bestsellers. Badger next saw print in 1997, as a short-lived ongoing series from Image Comics.

Since then, The Badger remained dormant until late 2007, when IDW Publishing released a one-shot, Badger: Bull!, and a miniseries, Badger Saves the World. By now, Baron had retooled Norbert Sykes as a Desert Storm vet, but with his psychological demons still abundant.

The new books showed that the Badger still had the vitality to speak to real-world issues while still delivering action and laughs. IDW is also reprinting the Capital/First run of Badger in a series of trade paperbacks.

Readers can also keep up with his activity at Baron’s website, www.bloodyredbaron.com, which offers Baronrelated news and commentary from the man himself.

Salick, once described by Black Belt Magazine as the nation’s finest martial-arts writer, says he did not write as much as he had hoped, but he says he would love a chance to tackle the wild world of comics again.

Information about his martial-arts school and the digital art in which he also specializes is available at www.salicks.com.

While The Badger no longer carries a monthly presence, its importance should not be missed. It asked questions (and found similar answers) about the motivations of a costumed crimefighter that the much-heralded Dark Knight Returns would ask, years after Badger’s debut.

And a quarter-century later, the original Badger issues still show a unique voice and wit, with richly complex characters whose contradictions and idiosyncrasies made them relatable. The series was not only ahead of its time—it was ahead of where most comics are in 2010.

What a Ham! Zaniness wasn’t confined to matters psychological in The Badger, as seen on this Ron Lim/ Paul Abrams page from #43 (Jan. 1989).

Badger TM & © Mike Baron.

SCOTT E. WILLIAMS is an award-winning journalist, an author of three books, and currently, a law student and sales clerk at Bedrock City Comic Company (www.bedrockcity.com) in Houston. Scott has been reading comics faithfully since 1974, and his wife actually has a superpower—the awesome ability to tolerate the thousands of comic books that occasionally spill out of his study.

Cat People Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 77

E-mail: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) No attachments, please!

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

NEW TO THE FAMILY I just wanted to take the time to compliment you on your fine publication. Having just started picking up the magazine with BACK ISSUE #35 (the “Villains” issue), I’ve been floored by the quality of the articles and how much of the nearly 100 pages goes toward actual material, unlike other comics magazines, which seem to mostly consist of filler material. For roughly the same cover price, your magazine wins out easily.

In regard to the latest issue, BACK ISSUE #38, I enjoyed the retrospectives on John Byrne’s Fantastic Four and Louise Simonson’s Power Pack, both titles that I’ve always had an incredible fondness for. Overall, though, I thought this month’s theme of “Family” was one of the best so far (albeit my so-far short history with BACK ISSUE).

I’m still working my way through the older digital issues from your website (I’m still within the first year’s worth of issues), but if it hasn’t been done yet, I’d love to see a future theme regarding legacies, both those within the comics universes (e.g., Flash, Captain America) and those older characters that inspired creators to create new characters or updated versions of those characters, and a “Characters of the Cosmos” theme featuring space-faring characters, like Buck Rogers, the Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, L.E.G.I.O.N., etc.

As to whether or not you should publish in full color, I think it may only be needed with certain artwork used within the articles.

To be honest, though, I think the black-and-white content has a certain appeal (especially within the realm of nostalgia, which the magazine captures so well), and to do away with it completely would take away that which makes this magazine unique. So, my vote goes to color on a limited basis.

Finally, has there been any talk about the magazine going monthly? Sixty days to get my fix is too long of a wait. However, with that said, I wouldn’t want the quality to drop if sixty days is what is needed to put the magazine together.

Anyway, thanks again for the great magazine, and I can’t wait to see what you have coming down the pipeline!

– Jason Snyder Welcome, Jason!

We have discussed going monthly, and our new 8-times-peryear frequency is a step toward that. If our sales increase due to our new frequency (and our 16-page color section), maybe BACK ISSUE will be winging your way each and every month.

As you’ll discover once you’ve read more of our back issues, we’ve twice covered cosmic characters, in BI #9 (our “Cosmic” issue) and #34 (our “New World Order,” featuring Jim Starlin’s Warlock). But there are other space-faring heroes we’ve yet to spotlight, including the Silver Surfer, so don’t be surprised if some variation on this theme occurs down the road. And “Legacies” is a great idea for an issue!

– M.E.

BYRNE-ING PASSION As a longtime BACK ISSUE reader, I greately enjoyed your tribute to the John Byrne Fantastic Four Marvel Comics era. It definitely brought back those wonderful years when I was a teenager who excitedly scraped together six dimes just to pedal down on my bicycle to the nearest 7-11 to purchase the latest issue of Fantastic Four.

78 • BACK ISSUE • Cat People Issue

A FEW MORE FACTS CONCERNING JOHN BYRNE’S FF: Regarding my article for BACK ISSUE #38—“John Byrne’s Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!”—I would like to add the postscript that Kerry Gammil guestpenciled pages 3–21 of FF #266 (May 1984). Additionally, Mr. Byrne also once more wrote and/or illustrated the entire Fantastic Four or members of the team in Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Chapter One, and Marvel: The Lost Generation.

– Tom Powers

FAMILY GUY BACK ISSUE #38 was one of the most thoroughly entertaining issues to date.

The “Family” theme was a rather fun one, considering how many different interpretations of the family concept were featured throughout.

It was nice to read an article on John Byrne without getting into the usual mud-slinging that often seems to surround him, especially online. Much like Jim Shooter, Byrne seems to galvanize people to one side or another, but Tom Powers gave a fair examination of Byrne’s Fantastic Four work without getting personal, which is much appreciated. I had forgotten how Byrne briefly drew the Thing in his original lumpy form. My only (minor) complaint is that Byrne’s art wasn’t examined a bit more.

Karen Walker’s Ultron article was quite a revelation. Being only a passing Avengers fan, I had no idea the character had been tied into Avengers’ history so thoroughly. I always thought he had such a great design. When most robot designs from the ’60s and before seem very dated now, Ultron’s still holds up today.

I must admit, during the mid-’80s, I avoided Power Pack like the plague. As a boy around 10–13 years old, I had no interest in “cute” kid comics. Looks like I missed out on a fun, heartfelt series.

And Jon Bogdanove’s story of how he broke into comics has to be the best ever. He simply found the Simonsons’ number in the phone book and called them. Genius!!!

Another thing my boy pride wouldn’t admit to was buying Wonder Woman! I just did it to read the Huntress backups, so Timothy Callahan’s brief history was much appreciated.

I only wish she and Batgirl had gotten a more in-depth look, but I realize space is limited.

Growing up on the Super Friends, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Wonder Twins, and clearly I’m not the only one. I remember being first exposed to them, not Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog, so I have no problem with Zan and Jayna shoving them out of the way!

There was only one article that I felt kind of stretched the family theme a bit thin. The Brothers Grimm history seemed a bit light to warrant such space, making only three appearances in the Spider-Woman title. Maybe you had to be there, as I didn’t get their odd humor either. My only prior exposure to them was as an entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, so perhaps I just wasn’t the target audience for this one.

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Send your comments to:

John Byrne’s run on FF was definitely the best that comics had to offer back then. I was almost never disappointed with the innovative way he told the many personal lives of the FF, like Reed and Sue losing the baby, etc.—comics today just don’t have that same kind of impact that they once did.

John Byrne was a tremedous artist and still is a very great talent that is underappreciated to this day. You never saw the kind of stories that Byrne put into issues of the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine in other comics. John Byrne transformed the FF from two-dimensional comic-book characters to three, or perhaps four dimensions. It would be nice to see that same kind of care being put into other comics today.

– Christopher Krieg

Heidi Saha … wow. I’ve heard of this magazine [starring Saha] before, but I had never seen any images from it (or Warren’s other pics of her). I can only hope Warren was trying to appeal to boys the same age as Heidi, but even then, it seems wrong on several levels.

The pic of Heidi in her Vampirella costume, complete with baby fat, gives me the crawlies. The whole affair was questionable at best.

One suggestion for future issues: How about a “Back In Print” sidebar for each article, detailing where folks can find reprints of said stories. Maybe also list the original issues being examined as well?

– Chris Franklin

Michal, as you now know, partial-color interiors are now part of BACK ISSUE. This poses a challenge in finding the right imagery to spotlight on those 16 color pages with which we’re now graced, but we’ll keep digging for interesting art to make those pages sizzle.

(And those of you who collect painted or colored sketches, commissions, and recreations, and have color art you think might be appropriate for BI, please contact me at euryman@gmail.com to discuss. Thank you!)

– M.E.

Chris, sometimes writers mention trade-paperback reprintings of examined stories in their articles, but perhaps a consistent format for this, in “Back in Print” sidebar form, is the way to go. What do the rest of you think?

– M.E.

I was just skimming through the digital version of BI #38 and noticed the page of C. C. Beck’s Shazam! script. Though the editing is credited to E. Nelson Bridwell, there was definitely the hand of Julie Schwartz evident there—I recognize his handwriting. In fact, the ENB editing credit was written in by Julie!

– Bob Rozakis

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

AN OVERLOOKED ULTRON STORY? Greetings from Italy!

Just a few words to say how much I love your magazine. I can’t wait for every issue to show up in my favorite comic shop in Milan … so I have started to buy the digital edition as well.

Anyway, I have just read the Ultron article on issue #38 and I’m scratching my head wondering why the author didn’t spend a word about what was probably one of the most important Ultron stories ever, in Daredevil #275–276 (Dec. 1989–Jan. 1990). Written by Ann Nocenti and beautifully drawn by John Romita, Jr., it was one of the very few good things that came out of that not-so-marvelous “Acts of Vengeance” crossover and a tale which is still highly regarded these days.

The rest of BI #38 was perfect. It even made me want to read Power Pack.

That’s all. Except for a request: Having recently re-read my Eclipse Comics collection, I was wondering if you had plans for articles about Tim Truman’s Scout, Prowler (I loved it), or Masked Man. I sure would love to read about them.

Arrivederci!

– Giulio Uggé Thank you, Giulio! You’ll be happy to learn that Timothy Truman’s Scout will be blazing into these pages in a mere two issues.

Re the Ultron two-parter in Daredevil, Karen Walker, who wrote the article, tells us: “Although the Daredevil story you cite is nicely done, since the theme of this issue was ‘family,’ I wanted to focus on how Ultron related to his Avengers ‘family.’ Since the Daredevil story had no real connection to this subject, I felt it was unnecessary to include it.”

THE COLOR QUANDARY SOLVED! Once again, BACK ISSUE hits the bullseye with your “Family” issue.

I especially enjoyed “Apokolips Then.” It’s ironic to note that Kirby’s Fourth World run is regarded as classic stuff, and yet nobody could ever figure out how to end the epic story. I applaud Gerry Conway, a very talented writer, for acknowledging that even someone of his caliber found it difficult to follow in the King’s footsteps.

Regarding the possibility of your printing interior color: I agree with Rob Stuparyk; if the price hike didn’t take BI over $10 or $11, I’d probably still keep buying it. After all, it’s 100 pages of material, dense with text and pictures; I think even with a reasonable price hike it would still be a bargain. If you decide to keep the magazine as-is, I’d be fine with that, too. But, to play devil’s advocate, it seems that the majority of your artwork is original art or pencil sketches; is the color really necessary? Would you consider partial color interiors?

– Michal Jacot

THE HAND OF SCHWARTZ

Thanks for letting us know, Bob. – M.E.

BACK TO (KUBERT) SCHOOL I just picked up a copy of BACK ISSUE #37 and was pleasantly surprised to see some photos of my old Kubert School classmates in the article on the school by Dan Johnson.

I also noticed that you had not been able to identify some of the students, so I thought that I would throw a few IDs your way: The photo on page 10, which shows Joe Kubert in the background and a student wearing glasses in the foreground: That student is Rex Wayne Lindsey. Rex has been drawing for Archie Comics for the last 25 years. Rex and I were roommates for the better part of five years and even took a cross-country trip together once. Rex and I were among the graduates of the fourth graduating class at the Kubert School.

The bottom photo on page 11 showing a group of students seated: The bearded student standing in the rear to the far right of the photo is Stan Woch. Stan dropped out during our second year in December 1980 to become an assistant to Gray Morrow, penciling the Buck Rogers and Barbara Cartland Romances newspaper strips. Later on, he did a good deal of work for DC on such features as Batman, Swamp Thing, Green Arrow, Doom Patrol, and Sandman (among others).

Seated in the foreground to the right, with the long wavy hair, is Kirk Tingblad. Kirk only attended the school one year (1979–1980) and then went on to a career in animation. He has worked on many animation projects over the years including Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Johnny Bravo.

Seated just to the left of Kirk, wearing eyeglasses and an arm bracelet, is Bob Orzechowski. Bob left the school at the same time as Stan Woch to also become an assistant to Gray Morrow on the newspaper strips previously alluded to. He later did work for DC Comics and Cracked Magazine, among other things.

I would date all three of these photos at about 1979–1980.

I’m pretty sure that Roy Krenkel was also present with Al Williamson during that 1980 guest-speaker day (photo on page 13).

Joe offered them both jobs as teachers. Roy was very eager to take such a position, but unfortunately came down with the brain tumor that eventually killed him soon after visiting the school. Al did eventually join the faculty, although it wasn’t until a year or two after I left the school (mid-1980s).

Mike Chen and Timmy Truman (both shown in other photos in the article) were in the class ahead of me (class of 1981).

Hope this has been of some help to you.

– Joe Moore P.S. Among the instructors I had when I attended the school were Joe Kubert, Tex Blaisdell, Irwin Hasen, Hy Eisman, Johnny Costanza, Sal Amendola, John Belfi, Milt Neill, and Ben Ruiz. Selby Kelly, Stan Kaye, and one of the Hildebrandt brothers were also instructors there when I attended the school although I never had any of them as a teacher.

Joe, your photo identification was very helpful. Thanks!

– M.E.

Cat People Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 79

© 2010 Harris Publications.

TERRY AUSTIN’S POWER RECORDS SPIN Spent the last couple of weeks catching up on the last several issues of BACK ISSUE magazine (a sure cure for the post-holiday doldrums) which John Morrow was recently kind enough to send my way.

I especially enjoyed Dusty Abell’s interrogation of longtime Marvel Bullpenner Elliot Brown [#32], accompanied by all the photos of those kookie young turks that I used to know so well! We can only speculate why they have all aged so badly while I yet maintain my boyish exterior (I’d mention still retaining my youthful exuberance as well, if I didn’t think that they would jealously rise en masse and attempt to smite me as their various infirmities would permit)....

What prompted me to write, however, was a couple of omissions from Rob Kelly’s article concerning the Monsters of Power Records.

The first most glaring one was of the long-playing A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein that was written and penciled by Neal Adams and inked by Dick Giordano with me inking the backgrounds. I was working up at Dick and Neal’s Continuity Associates as Dick’s background inker when they were producing the artwork for the Power Record series (a quick check of the comics themselves confirms my memory of having inked all the backgrounds on both John Buscema’s Star Trek: The Crier in the Emptiness and Russ Heath’s Star Trek: Passage to Moauv, as well as Neal’s Batman: Stacked Cards and Curt Swan’s Superman: Alien Creatures, a few pages of backgrounds on Larry Hama’s The Amazing Spider-Man: The Invasion of the Dragon Men, as well as the splash pages and lots of backgrounds on both of the Space: 1999 entries penciled by Russ Heath: Breakaway and Return to the Beginning).

Anyway, what makes the oft-reprinted in the years since Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein offering so memorable to me is the traumatic experience that I suffered while working on the pages one weekend: I was laboring away one Saturday morning at Continuity in the little room I usually shared with Bob Wiacek, although he was absent that day. So that you can properly appreciate my ensuing trauma, I should mention that at that point in my budding artistic career it was my habit to work with the bottle of ink that I was using ACTUALLY RESTING ON THE PAGE THAT I WAS INKING, and that when Neal had questioned this potential folly of mine a few months earlier by pointing out the likelihood of an accident occurring, I had replied with some arrogant scorn that I had been doing it for years and had never had any sort of accident!

You guessed it, that mournful Saturday I flipped over the bottle of ink and completely obliterated a complete panel of Neal’s backgrounds (page 14, panel 6 if you’re curious)! Panic seized me in its icy grip and I began to run up and down the hallway, seeking some sort guidance that would somehow dig me out of the mess that I had created, only to remember that Dick worked at home on weekends and that Neal seldom materialized until some time in the afternoon since he usually left the premises well after midnight.

Finding no succor close to hand, I finally summoned up all my courage and phoned Dick at home to tearfully confess what I had done. He calmly assured me that everything would probably work out okay and that I should show it to Neal on Monday. I left the office and spent the remainder of the uneasy weekend contemplating how Neal was going to react to my misdeed. At first I was convinced that he would immediately banish me from the building, maybe even from comics—I envisioned him sternly escorting me over the State Line, maybe even administering a swift kick in the slats to see me on my way back to Michigan; then I realized that would be too easy a fate, that he might prefer to keep me around and torture me in order to extract his due!

Of course, what actually happened was that on Monday I crept up to the front room where Neal held court, sweating profusely and stammered out my guilty tale, confessed to being half-witted at the very least, and thrust the evidence of same in front of him, cringing for the blow that I was sure would follow. Whereupon Neal quietly said, “No problem—I’ll pop my layout back on the Art-O-Graph and trace it off again.” And proceeded to do just that, bless ’im! And I was permanently cured of ever working with the ink bottle on the paper again thanks to my vivid imaginings of Neal’s bloody revenge that never materialized—or did it???

That leads to the story of the other Power Records Monster that I alluded to way back in my second paragraph: It seems that the Power Records folks had asked Neal and Dick to come up with some original non-licensed comic material that could then be dramatized on future book and record sets. The one that got the furthest along was a Larry Hama story about a young ninja that eventually saw print in, I think, one of the Marvel black-and-white magazines. However, I entered the offices of Continuity one day shortly after the traumatic events described above to see some pencil sketches of some original characters that Neal had come up with for the project, complete with typed synopsis describing their backstories. The one that caught my eye was a poor dripping creature of the swamps (remember that Man-Thing and Swamp Thing were big in comics at the time) whose name I don’t recall but will call Muck-Monster for the purposes of this retelling. Neal described how this poor schnook got unwittingly caught up in some shady government conspiracy involving the testing of some horrendous chemical pollutants, at which time there was an accidental explosion which resulted in this wretched ignorant goof being turned into this inarticulate shambling mess, a pitiful mockery of a man, hunted and feared by a world that couldn’t understand him.

The name of that condemned, benighted soul was Terry Austin!

– Terry Austin Terry, what a great story! From your insightful, funny letter, it’s clear that you’re no “inarticulate shambling mess” … glad you escaped the fate of your Power Records doppelganger.

By the way, Rob Kelly intentionally omitted A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein, which featured an original story, since his article was on Power Records’ adaptations of Marvel Comics Monsters series. If you’d like to learn more about A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein, and see the artwork Terry references above, check out Rob Kelly’s Power Records site: powerrecord.blogspot.com.

Next issue: “Red, White, and Blue,” saluting comics’ most popular patriots! Captain America gets a star-studded study, with articles examining his Bronze Age highlights as well as the Red Skull’s history. We revisit HOWARD CHAYKIN’s groundbreaking American Flagg, Marvel’s Contest of Champions, ROY THOMAS and GENE COLAN’s Wonder Woman, and the “Twelve Trials of Wonder Woman” storyline, guest-starring the Justice League of America. Plus: The Freedom Fighters and Team America! With art by and/or commentary from JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, JUSTIN GRAY, AL MILGROM, ROGER STERN, MIKE ZECK, and more. All behind an American Flagg/Captain America cover by Howard Chaykin! Don’t ask— just BI it! See you in sixty!

Michael Eury, editor

American Flagg TM & © Howard Chaykin. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

80 • BACK ISSUE • Cat People Issue

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 details on other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #26

BACK ISSUE #27

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

BACK ISSUE #33

“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!

“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!

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BACK ISSUE #34

BACK ISSUE #35

BACK ISSUE #36

BACK ISSUE #37

BACK ISSUE #38

“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on 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,” new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, 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!

“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!

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“Racers” theme issue, with building tips on race cars by the ARVO BROTHERS, interviews with the LEGO Group on TOP SECRET UPCOMING SETS (we can’t say anything yet about them, except... camels), photos from NEW YORK TOY FAIR 2010 and other event reports, instructions and columns on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION and MICRO BUILDING, builder spotlights, LEGO HISTORY, and more! Now bi-monthly!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 Ships June 2010

ALTER EGO #96

DRAW! #20

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “EarthTwo—1961 to 1985!” with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, ANDERSON, DELBO, ANDRU, BUCKLER, APARO, GRANDENETTI, and DILLIN, interview with Golden/Silver Age DC editor GEORGE KASHDAN, plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and a new cover by INFANTINO and AMASH!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “EarthTwo Companion, Part II!” More on the 19631985 series that changed comics forever!

The Huntress, Power Girl, Dr. Fate, Freedom Fighters, and more, with art by ADAMS, APARO, AYERS, BUCKLER, GIFFEN, INFANTINO, KANE, NOVICK, SCHAFFENBERGER, SIMONSON, STATON, SWAN, TUSKA, our GEORGE KASHDAN interview Part 2, FCA, and more! STATON & GIORDANO cover!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECHH madcap parody mag from 1967-69, examined with rare art & artifacts by ANDRU, COLAN, BUSCEMA, DRAKE, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, KIRBY, LEE, the SEVERIN siblings, SPRINGER, SUTTON, THOMAS, TRIMPE, and more, GEORGE KASHDAN interview conclusion, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MARIE SEVERIN!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) Focus on Archie’s 1960s MIGHTY CRUSADERS, with vintage art and artifacts by JERRY SIEGEL, PAUL REINMAN, SIMON & KIRBY, JOHN ROSENBERGER, tributes to the Crusaders

by BOB FUJITANE, GEORGE TUSKA, BOB LAYTON, and others! RON GOULART on 1940s MLJ! Interview with MELL LAZARUS, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

Cover by MIKE MACHLAN!

WALTER SIMONSON interview and demo, Rough Stuff’s BOB McLEOD gives a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, Write Now’s DANNY FINGEROTH spotlights writer/artist AL JAFFEE, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the best art supplies and tool technology, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS offer “Comic Art Bootcamp” lessons, plus Web links, comic and book reviews, and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships May 2010

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships June 2010

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships July 2010

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships August 2010

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships Summer 2010

TwoMorrows.

Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) ®

BACK ISSUE #39

BACK ISSUE #41

BACK ISSUE #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #55

“April Fools”! GIFFEN and LOREN FLEMING on Ambush Bug, BYRNE’s She-Hulk, interviews with HEMBECK, ALAN KUPPERBERG, Flaming Carrot’s BOB BURDEN, and DAVID CHELSEA, Spider-Ham, Forbush-Man, Reid Fleming, MAD in the 1970s, art and commentary from DICK DeBARTOLO, TOM DeFALCO, AL FELDSTEIN, AL JAFFEE, STAN LEE, DAVE SIM, and a Spider-Ham cover by MIKE WIERINGO, inked by KARL KESEL!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Red, White, and Blue” issue! Captain America and the Red Skull, CHAYKIN’s American Flagg, THOMAS and COLAN’s Wonder Woman, Freedom Fighters, and Team America! With art and commentary from JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, ROGER STERN, CURT SWAN, MARK WAID, LEN WEIN, MIKE ZECK, and more.

Cover by HOWARD CHAYKIN!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Wild West” issue! Jonah Hex examined with FLEISHER, DeZUNIGA, DOMINGUEZ, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GIFFEN, HANNIGAN, plus TRUMAN’s Scout, TRIMPE’s Rawhide Kid, AYERS’ Ghost Rider, DC’s Weird Westerns, the Vigilante’s 1970s revival, and more! Art and commentary by ADAMS, APARO, DIXON, EVANS, KUNKEL, MORROW, NICIEZA, and more. Cover by DeZUNIGA!

“Kirby Goes To Hollywood!” SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MELL LAZARUS recall Kirby’s BOB NEWHART TV show cameo, comparing the recent STAR WARS films to New Gods, RUBY & SPEARS interviewed, Jack’s encounters with FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL McCARTNEY, and JOHN LENNON, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a Golden Age Kirby story, and more! Kirby cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

(96-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships June 2010

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships July 2010

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US Ships Summer 2010

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com www.twomorrows.com

All characters TM & ©2010 their respective owners.

• Back Issue! now 8x per year!

• BrickJournal now 6x per year!

• Back Issue! & Alter Ego now with color!

• New lower international shipping rates!

WHE N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

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.

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