Back Issue #7 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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

N$5o..975

ROUNDTABLE

the Brave & the Bold jim aparo

PRO2PRO

21 creators discuss the f f

ROUGH STUFF

super teams pencil art

FLASHBACK

SUPER TEAMS ISSUE! Dennis O’Neil talks teams! Teen Titans! Super-Sons! Visit Metropolis! Comics DVD GUIDE and SANTA CLAUS IN COMICS!

4 er 200 D e c em b

evanier & meugniot’ s dnagents

e he th gt ng i n t i t a a r br eb le e el Ce he th C ft of o s s c i c mi om Co tC y!! st ay es da Be od B T o T d d n an s,, a 0s '880 ' , , s 0 s 0 7 ' '7

SUPERMAN, BATMAN, AQUAMAN, SPECTRE, AND PHANTOM STRANGER TM & © 2004 DC COMICS. FANTASTIC FOUR AND CLOAK AND DAGGER TM & © 2004 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. DNAGENTS TM & © 2004 MARK EVANIER AND WILL MEUGNIOT

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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

ll a r o f e n o d n a All for one,

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

ouurr IItt’’ss o

s M A E T super e!

Volume 1, Number 7 December 2004

ue ! iissssu

Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael “Brave and Bold” Eury

EDITORIAL ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 A salute to B&B and Teen Titans writer Bob Haney

PUBLISHER John “Two-in-One” Morrow

FLASHBACK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD ............................................................................. 3 The history of DC’s much-more-than-just-a-team-up title

DESIGNER Robert “World’s Finest” Clark PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington —in one issue together! SCANNING AND IMAGE MANIPULATION Rich “Super Friend” Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson COVER COLORIST Murphy Anderson III

FLASHBACK BONUS: THE BRAVE, THE BOLD, AND THE BOB ........................ 21 Bob Haney, through the eyes of Mike W. Barr PRO2PRO MINUS 1: JIM APARO INTERVIEW ................................................................... 23 The Bat-artist supreme looks back on his Brave and Bold days THE ULTIMATE TEAM-UP GUIDE................................................................................................. 28 A checklist of B&B, Marvel Team-Up, and other team-up titles ROUGH STUFF: SUPER TEAMS ...................................................................................................... 32 Pencil art by Brigman, Byrne, Cockrum, Gammill, Heck, Infantino, Leonardi, Newton, Robbins, Ross, Swan, and Toth

BATMAN CREATED BY BOB KANE SUPERMAN CREATED BY JERRY SIEGEL AND JOE SHUSTER SPECIAL THANKS Jason Adams Neal Adams Murphy Anderson Jim Aparo Terry Austin Mike W. Barr Spencer Beck Jerry Boyd Tom Brevoort June Brigman Rich Buckler Mike Burkey Cary Burkett Kurt Busiek John Byrne Nick Cardy Chris Claremont Dave Cockrum Gerry Conway Don Corn Tom DeFalco Mike Dunne Kieron Dwyer Steve Englehart Ric Estrada John Eury Mark Evanier Ramona Fradon Marguerite Haney French Kerry Gammill Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database David Hamilton Wallace Harrington Jack C. Harris Russ Heath Heritage Comics Carmine Infantino

Dan Johnson Randy Kerr Karl Kesel Chris Khalaf Scott Kress Joe Kubert Stan Lee Rick Leonardi Paul Levitz Willie Lumpkin Andy Mangels Will Meugniot Moebius Cookie Morris Brian K. Morris Dennis O’Neil Jerry Ordway George Pérez Adam Philips John Romita, Sr. Alex Ross Steve Rude Rose Rummel-Eury Paul Ryan Jim Shooter Bill Sienkiewicz Walter Simonson Joe Sinnott J.E. Smith Jay Stephens Roger Stern Roy Thomas Alex Toth George Tuska Mark Waid Len Wein Marv Wolfman

THE GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: TEEN TITANS SWINGIN’ ELSEWORLDS (AND THE SUPER-SONS) ................................................... 44 Jay Stephens talks Titans and Bob Haney, daddio! With unpublished art PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: FANTASTIC FOUR .................................................................... 47 The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine, as seen by 21 top creators PRO2PRO INTERVIEW: MARK EVANIER AND WILL MEUGNIOT ................... 62 The writer and artist recall DNAgents, with tons of juicy Meugniot artwork OFF MY CHEST: DENNIS O’NEIL .................................................................................................. 74 A guest editorial on the perils of writing super teams BACKSTAGE PASS: METROPOLIS LIVES! ............................................................................. 76 BACK ISSUE’s guided tour of the “home” of Superman GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD STOCKING STUFFER ........................................ 80 Marvel’s Santa Claus, plus Christmas comics of the ’70s and ’80s DVD BACK ISSUES, PART TWO ..................................................................................................... 81 Our checklist of comics-to-film-to-DVD titles continues BACK TALK ....................................................................................................................................................... 88 Reader feedback on issue #5

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BACK ISSUE Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $30 Standard US, $48 First Class US, $60 Canada, $66 Surface International, $90 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Brave and the Bold, and Teen Titans TM & © 2004 DC Comics. Fantastic Four TM & © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. DNAgents TM & © 2004 Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2004 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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With this issue, BACK ISSUE begins its second

(far right) Bob Haney’s

year of publication! We’ve worked hard to improve

continuity-busting

our editorial and design content, and your letters

Super-Sons of

are supporting our efforts. Thanks for sticking with

Superman and Batman,

us. And tell your friends about BACK ISSUE—especially

as seen in World’s Finest #238 (1976). Courtesy

the ones who haven’t read comics in a long time. This issue’s “Super Teams” theme allows me a degree of editorial (and fanboy) self-indulgence with

of Wally Harrington.

(B&B), my personal fave funnybook. Regarding our “Pro2Pro minus 1” interview with B&B artist Jim Aparo, my original goal was to moderate a dialogue between Mr. Aparo and his former B&B collaborator, writer Bob Haney. Haney, the scribe responsible for tightly plotted, incredibly inventive, and often offbeat DC fare like Aquaman, Teen Titans, the “Super-Sons” in World’s Finest Comics, and, of course, tons of B&B team-ups, had rarely been interviewed, so this intended “Pro2Pro” would be a coup for the magazine and a thrill for me.

be a vicious beast, assaulting mercilessly and elimi-

retired from Woodstock, New York, to somewhere in

nating or eroding an individual’s ability to commu-

Mexico, but had no telephone and could only be

nicate. My father, who died in March of this year, had

reached by US mail to a PO box. In March 2004 I wrote

endured this torture during his last months. And

sample copy of BI and a self-addressed stamped envelope for his reply. After weeks without a response from Haney, I finally connected—with the help of fellow B&B fan Chris Khalaf—with Randy Kerr of the BlueRoadrunner.com site, the visitor’s information site for

Randy Kerr (www.blueroadrunner.com).

wishing to send him a card or letter of encouragement may do so at:

Bob Haney had suffered a stroke in early 2004, and

Community Convalescent Hospital

had been moved to a convalescence hospital in

8665 La Mesa Blvd.

southern California.

La Mesa, CA 91941

good (he sees, tries to smile, [and] moves his right

[This news was upsetting for me from two perspectives. Professionally, the proposed Haney/Aparo interview could not take place. But that minor dis-

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As you’ll read in this issue, Bob Haney never quite received the accolades he deserved for his myriad comic-book contributions. I am honored that in some small way, BACK ISSUE can aim the spotlight onto this wonderful talent whose creative voice provided hundreds of hours of entertainment

arm only).”

•

from his sister’s report from June. BACK ISSUE readers

Room 308, Bed 1

to say that “Bob’s condition is stable but not too

I S S U E

At this writing, Bob Haney’s condition is unchanged

Through Randy I received the sobering news that

Marguerite) French, who wrote me in June of 2004

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a similar plight.]

Robert Haney

I connected with Haney’s sister, Margaret (aka

•

now one of my favorite storytellers was weathering

San Felipe, Baja, Mexico, Haney’s home since 1998.

After several communications with Mr. Kerr,

much of my childhood and adolescence. A stroke can

Philips of DC Comics informed me that Haney had

Bob Haney with an interview request, including a

Photo courtesy of

over Bob Haney’s illness. I’d never met Bob, but felt close to him, as his imagination guided me through

Tracking down Bob Haney was not easy. Adam

Bob Haney in 2003.

appointment was eclipsed by the personal grief I felt

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to hundreds of thousands of readers. Here’s to you, Bob Haney! Michael Eury, editor

Titans,Tryouts, and Team-Ups by

Michae

l Eury

“When all else has faded and been forgotten in the vast cave of time-one thing alone survives-brave men doing bold deeds! This alone endures!” Opening caption by writer Bob Haney “Hell is for Heroes” The Brave and the Bold Special (DC Special Series) v. 2 #8 (1978)

The Brave and the Bold was DC Comics’ most influential series of the Silver and Bronze Ages. There. I said it. You can stop laughing now. It’s easy to dismiss The Brave and the Bold as “that Batman team-up” comic —that was its role for almost two-thirds

of its 200-issue run (1955–1983). Granted, the words “brave and bold” have become synonymous with the team-up concept: DC has twice

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revived the title, as miniseries, to unite some of its heroes, with a proposed relaunch as a monthly series

■ It was the first series where Jim Aparo, who

(above right)

written by Kevin Smith hanging in limbo as of this

would ultimately emerge as one of the great Bat-

writing; writer Dwayne McDuffie’s “The Brave and

artists, got to try his hand at drawing the Dark

the Bold” Justice League Cartoon Network two-parter

Knight.

Heath-drawn splash page. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

Hawkman Returns (below right) From B&B #34 (1961). Art by

involved a Flash/Green Lantern pairing at its story

The Brave and the Bold also unveiled the lauded

core; and The Brave and the Bold, a 2002 Star Trek

Silver Age revival of Hawkman and the introduction

novel by Keith R.A. DeCandido, was a generations-

of oddball hero Metamorpho, the Element Man; and

spanning epic involving characters from three

ended its impressive run of nearly three decades with

different eras.

the inaugural appearance of Batman and the Outsiders,

But The Brave and the Bold was much more than

a group that would spin off to star in one of DC’s

the DC Comics equivalent of a buddy movie. The

bestselling titles of the 1980s. And along the way, The

title was the source of several phenomenally impor-

Brave and the Bold hosted meetings of everyone from

tant comic-book milestones that make my audacious

the Flash and the Doom Patrol to Aquaman and the

opening claim not so far-fetched after all:

Atom to Batman and . . . just about everybody.

Joe Kubert. Courtesy

■ It was the launch pad for the perennially

of Heritage Comics.

popular Justice League of America, the concept

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■ becoming DC’s first “entry level” series, afford-

rights from DC’s publisher to Marvel’s publisher,

ing lesser-known characters a larger audience by

and inspired the latter to mandate his editor to

riding piggyback on a more visible main star,

create a super-team comic, that series being

mostly fan-favorite Batman; and

Fantastic Four;

■ offering exposure to “homeless” heroes not cur-

■ It was the original home of the Teen Titans,

rently seen in their own features (for a time, it was

a team that has endured through myriad

the only place you could encounter Aquaman, the

incarnations, the most recent of which being an

Teen Titans, and the Metal Men).

extremely successful, widely merchandized TV

B&B 101

cartoon; ■ It was the title where Neal Adams, the extraordi-

The Brave and the Bold—affectionately known to its

nary illustrator who almost single-handedly ele-

readers as B&B—got its start in 1955 as a “high

vated comics art to a new level, first began to

adventure” title, appropriating its name from

visually transform Batman from a wisecracking

Horatio Alger, Jr.’s novel, Brave and Bold or the

Caped Crusader to a fearsome creature of the night;

Fortunes of Robert Rushton (interestingly, a 1956 war

■ It was where Green Arrow first stepped out of

movie titled The Bold and the Brave earned an Oscar

the long-standing stigma of his “Batman with a

nomination for actor Mickey Rooney). Edited by DC

bow” second-string status by appearing in his

stalwart Robert Kanigher, B&B was home to short

bearded, more dynamic look (which he still

stories starring a trio of swashbucklers: the Viking

1959

1960

B&B

Tryout format

First

premieres

begins with

appearance

as adventure

Suicide Squad

of JLA

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in #25.

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1955

series.

•

The Brave and the Bold further proved its mettle by:

whose success spawned golf-course bragging

timeline:

The Brave and the Bold

In its capacity as comics’ premier team-up title,

in #28.

A beautiful Russ

sports today); and

From B&B #1 (1955)

Prince (illustrated by Joe Kubert), the Silent Knight

petition with his passion

(drawn by Irv Novick), and the Golden Gladiator

for science fiction and

(with art by Russ Heath), the latter of which soon

concocted the utterly

vacated the series to be replaced by Robin Hood.

bizarre anthology Strange

Editor Kanigher was the series’ chief scribe, although

Sports Stories, which

he was abetted at times by authors France Herron, Bill

included everything from

Finger, and the writer who would eventually become

phantom pugilists to a

closely associated with B&B, Bob Haney (more—much

gorilla baseball team, but

more—on him later). Some of these brilliantly illus-

despite a five-issue spot-

trated tales have occasionally resurfaced in various

light in issues #45–49,

DC reprints, most notably DC Special #12 (May–June

this series struck out

1971), headlined by Kubert’s Viking Prince.

with readers.

By the end of the 1950s, the successful reintro-

Maybe DC didn’t

ductions of the Flash and Green Lantern in DC’s

need two tryout titles,

Showcase prompted a change in B&B’s format:

the thinking presumably

Beginning with issue #25 (Aug.–Sept. 1959), The

went. And so, com-

Brave and the Bold parroted Showcase as a tryout series,

mencing in 1963 with

with DC ambitiously looking for the next big

issue #50, The Brave and

thing(s). First out the gate was the Suicide Squad,

the Bold changed its

another brainchild of Kanigher’s, a war/spy series

format yet again.

that floundered through a trio of appearances. The

Kanigher creation, “Cave Carson – Adventures Inside

“TWO GREAT HEROESTEAMED IN A BOOKLENGTH BLOCKBUSTER. . .”

Earth,” following for three forgettable issues.

Green Arrow and the

Squad was followed in issue #28 by a concept that would prove to be one of DC’s greatest triumphs: the Justice League of America (JLA), edited by Julius Schwartz. Three issues of B&B was all the JLA needed to promptly graduate into its own title, with another

Schwartz returned with B&B #34’s Hawkman rebirth,

Manhunter from Mars

written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Joe Kubert.

joined forces in B&B #50,

After a successful three-issue run, Hawkman was seen

their logos (actually, fac-

again in issues #42–44 before taking wing in his own

similes thereof) appearing

series. But the Justice League and Hawkman aside,

side-by-side on the cover,

B&B was not proving to be a hitmaker like Showcase:

marking the first-ever

The Suicide Squad came back, then disappeared, as did

super-hero team-up comic

Cave Carson. Schwartz eagerly infused athletic com-

book.

First appearance

B&B #50

First appearance

of Silver Age

launches

of Teen Titans in #54.

Hawkman

team-up

in #34.

format.

1961

First appearance of Metamorpho in #57.

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This was a revolutionary concept. Super-hero

the team-ups that followed, at least one of the

crossovers—adventures where a character from one

characters starred in his own comic. B&B team-ups

series appeared in another’s—first occurred during

ranged from the predictable—science-based Justice

the Golden Age, beginning with battles between the

Leaguers the Atom and the Flash (#53)—to the con-

Sub-Mariner and Human Torch. Super-teams had also

venient—DC’s resident “super chicks,” Supergirl and

been around since the 1940s: The Justice Society of

Wonder Woman (#63)—to the extraordinary—

America, the Young Allies, and the Seven Soldiers of

Batman vs. the “hero and villain in one man,”

Victory were a few such groups.

Eclipso (#64)—to the patently bizarre—the pairing of

But never before The Brave and the Bold was the

the Flash (as a triplane-flying poltergeist!) and the

team-up concept—two separate heroes sharing one

Spectre (#72). As characters came and went through

adventure, with a different combination following in

B&B’s revolving door, so did artists: Howard Purcell,

the next issue—employed (discounting DC’s own World’s

Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Bruno Premiani, Ramona

Finest Comics, of course—while its long-running

Fradon, Murphy Anderson, Win Mortimer, Dick

Superman/Batman feature seemed like a team-up

Giordano, Carmine Infantino, and George Papp were

title, with the logos of “Your Two Favorite Heroes”

just some of the illustrators who lent their talents to

appearing together on the splash pages and occasionally

the series (see this issue’s “The Ultimate Team-Up

on the covers, this dynamic duo [trio, if you count

Guide” for a complete listing of B&B team-ups).

Robin] was more an ongoing partnership than a

George Kashdan and Murray Boltinoff co-edited

team-up). Recalls writer Mike W. Barr, who would

the first five issues of B&B team-ups (with the excep-

eventually script the final B&B team-ups: “Back in

tion of #52’s teaming of war heroes, edited by Robert

the 1960s, when it was rare for DC characters to even

Kanigher), with Kashdan then taking over the title

acknowledge each others’ existence outside of the

solo (aside from a two-issue vacation during the

pages of Justice League of America and World’s Finest,

Starman/Black Canary installments in #61 and 62,

the idea of a regular exhibition of DC team-ups was

which were edited by Julius Schwartz). Kashdan epit-

exciting.” Less exciting, however, was the initial team-

omized the old-school, button-down, story editor:

up choice of Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter,

The script is the key, just hire a warm body to draw it and

not quite the heavy hitters one would expect to launch

we’ll keep the trains moving on time, thank you very

a groundbreaking new concept. This odd pairing of

much. So The Brave and the Bold kept churning along

second bananas seemed predicated upon B&B’s previous

under Kashdan’s watch, never missing a beat, seem-

“showcase” format—a one-time “split” adventure

ing artistically schizophrenic with its rotating artists,

was a safe way to test their marketability.

but always delivering surprises.

BOB HANEY, B&B-KEEPER

Hawkman, the first of whom already had his own

While a regular B&B reader could not anticipate the

title, with the second’s series in the works (Hawkman

next issue’s artist, there was one creative constant on

#1 launched in early 1964). And for the majority of

most of the stories: writer Bob Haney. Haney started

1968

1969

Batman

Neal Adams

Green Arrow’s

becomes

begins 8-

new look is

permanent star

issue stint in

in #74.

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#79.

1967

introduced in #85.

issue, to be exact. Issue #51 featured Aquaman and

That rationale didn’t last for long, though—one

at DC in late 1950s, having previously honed his skills for a variety of comics publishers including

Haney is probably best known as the scripter of those sometimes

Fawcett, Harvey, Dell, and Quality. He was a regular

endearing, sometimes absurd,

contributor to DC’s war line, writing for Star Spangled

early Silver Age issues of

War Stories, All-American Men of War, Blackhawk, and

Te e n Ti t a n s , a g r o u p h e

the Revolutionary War series Tomahawk. Haney was

formed by combining Kid

also no stranger to super-heroes: He authored many

Flash, Aqualad, and Robin

issues of Aquaman (following the Sea King to television

in B&B #54, then bringing

in 1967 as one of the screenwriters of his animated

them back (with Wonder Girl

adventures, as well as cartoons starring other DC

added to the cast) cover-billed as

cartoons); co-created (with principal scribe Arnold

the “Teen Titans” in issue #60.

Drake and artist Bruno Premiani) DC’s “strangest

Yes, it was Haney who coined such

heroes,” the Doom Patrol; and created (with artist

teen-speak as “Twinkletoes” for Kid Flash,

Ramona Fradon) one of DC’s most bizarre heroes,

“Wonder Chick” for Wonder Girl, “Bird Boy” for

Groovy Gillhead

Metamorpho the Element Man, whose two-issue tryout

Robin, and “Gillhead” for Aqualad, you dig? With

A 2003 commissioned

in The Brave and the Bold #57 and 58 interrupted the

Titans villains like the hot-rodding Ding-Dong Daddy

sketch of Aqualad

title’s team-up format.

and the Austin Powers precursor the Mad Mod, Bob

by Nick Cardy.

Haney presumably fancied himself to be acutely hip,

From the collection

but frequently came off as someone’s out-of-step dad,

of Michael Eury.

cating with “the youth of today” (in his defense, Haney was certainly not alone in this regard). Bob Haney’s pulsating prose rivaled Stan Lee’s, inciting readers into a frenzy with his boisterous

Holy Blue Hannah!

captions. His opening caption for issue #64 screamed, “Get set for the big switch—as we present two costumed

(left) A recent

caperers battling each other . . . the one and only

Ramona Fradon

Batman, tangling with the devilish, dastardly Eclipso!

pencil drawing of

Need we say more? No, but we will . . . it’s the most!”

the “Fab Freak of

And before a reader could catch his breath after

1000-and-1 Changes,”

finishing an exhilarating issue, Haney’s hyperbolic

Metamorpho. Courtesy

closing captions guaranteed more action to come, as

of Heritage Comics.

in this teaser from issue #69: “And Brave and Bold

time will come again, too, real soon, with fabulous DC team-ups in the very next issue! Miss it never! Read it ever!”

1974

Super DC Giant

#98 is first

Centennial

B&B #112

#S-16 is first B&B

B&B with

issue teams

begins

Jim Aparo art.

Batman with

short-lived stint

reprint edition.

“4 Famous Co-Stars.”

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as 100-pager.

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Eclipsing Haney’s scripting skills was his uninhibited imagination. Bob Haney was the consummate story man: He penned tales original and derivative, in genres as varied as street crime to space exploration, each told compactly within the confines of a single script. His characters were often extremely unconventional: Witness the Astounding Separated Man, as just one example, the menace who challenged t h e Te e n T i t a n s i n their second adventure (#60); this pink-hued, pimply behemoth could literally disconnect his enormous body parts and command them to attack

The splash from

autonomously (including a stomping foot and a

B&B #59 (1965),

floating eye that cried fire). Weird stuff.

drawn by Ramona Fradon and Charles Paris. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

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in #59, joining forces with Green Lantern. Batman returned in #64 to battle Eclipso. Those pairings outsold issues starring other characters, and as a result Batman

began

appear

Burt Ward overnight sensations, and making the Caped Crusader a satire of his former self (and of the super-hero genre). Haney relished this capricious characterization of the not-yet-dark knight. His Batman was pals with Commissioner Gordon and a host of other VIPs, paraded around in daylight, and even borrowed a cue from the TV show’s dialogue, with Batman frequently referring to his B&B teammates as “old chum” (West’s Batman’s nickname for Ward’s Robin). The Batmania-era B&Bs witnessed such uncharacteristic scenarios as our hero mutating into “Bat-Hulk” (#68) and offering his services as a sports trainer (#71). But Haney’s light-hearted take was Batman du jour, and sales figures were such that with #74, a team-up with the Metal Men, Batman commandeered the permanent lead spot in The Brave and the Bold, a position he

his stories were sometimes outlandish, they were

never relinquished.

questions unanswered.

With issue #78, The Brave and the Bold was reassigned to former co-editor Murray Boltinoff, as

His effortless facility with diverse story matter

Kashdan was ousted from DC’s staff as part of a

made Bob Haney the perfect candidate to write the

housecleaning that brought to the fold new editorial

ever-changing Brave and Bold. And so Bob Haney, the

blood like Joe Kubert, Joe Orlando, and Dick

story man, and George Kashdan, the story editor,

Giordano. That issue’s tale, “In the Coils of the

went on their B&B spree, issue after issue, merging

Copperhead,” continued to mine the quirky vein of

heroes with wanton abandon.

Haney’s freaked-out fables (it was likely commis-

1979

DC Special Series

Anniversary issue #150

features new, extra-

teams Batman with

length B&B team-up.

surprise guest Superman.

•

frequently.

campy Batman series making actors Adam West and

1978

I S S U E

“Batmania” was the rage at the time, with TV’s

plotters in the history of comics writing. While

S u p e r

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cycling in and out of team-ups. His first outing was

Haney was also one of the most talented

At first, Batman was just one of the many DC heroes

I s s u e

Writer Bob Haney ends lengthy B&B run with #157.

Batman’s First Team-Up

THE CAPED CRUSADER TAKES CHARGE

sioned by Kashdan and shepherded through produc-

latter resemble fluttering

tion by Boltinoff), with the Amorous Amazon

bat wings (elongating

Wonder Woman and the Desirous Daredoll Batgirl

Batman’s cape for dra-

ripping into each other for Batman’s affections.

matic effect has become commonplace over time,

NEAL ADAMS REVITALIZES BATMAN

trend). He also disre-

B&B #79 signaled a sweeping change for the title and

garded Haney’s script

for DC. It was the first issue of a celebrated stint illus-

directions that called for

trated by Neal Adams. Adams was a relative new-

daylight scenes and

comer to comics, having drawn the Ben Casey TV

depicted the character

show-inspired syndicated newspaper strip for a few

operating only under the

years, and had quickly made a name for himself on

cloak of nightfall. With each issue, Adams’ renova-

DC’s The Spectre and on the Deadman feature in

tions of Batman became more visible, and Haney

B&B #78’s Titanic Triangle

Strange Adventures. Adams was dying to draw the

seemed revitalized by this change, his stories growing

Courtesy of Scott Kress

Caped Crusader, but was turned away by Batman editor

darker. #82, for example, placed former Haney char-

of Catskill Comics

Julius Schwartz: “Julie was ticked when I switched

acter Aquaman in his grittiest adventure to date,

(www.catskillcomics.com,

from his Spectre to [editor] Jack Miller’s “Deadman,”

where the “sleepwalking” Sea King battled his Justice

selling original and

so when I mentioned my doing Batman he told me to

League teammate, and #85, best known for its updat-

commissioned art from

get out of his office,” Adams reminisces in his

ing of Green Arrow, involved an attempted political

Mike Grell, Ron Frenz,

introduction to Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams,

assassination, quite a departure from the Bat-romantic

Dick Ayers, Al Feldstein,

Volume One (DC Comics, 2003). Adams was assigned

triangle farce of just a few issues prior. Adams’ eminent

and others).

a smattering of covers featuring Batman (including

run ended with #86, although he returned, teamed

B&B #75 and 76), but resorted to plan B (or is that

with writer Denny O’Neil, for issue #93’s offbeat

plan B&B?) to get to draw the character’s actual

Batman/House of Mystery tale.

but Adams started the

adventures. “Maybe Julie Schwartz wouldn’t use me

Another important change implemented by

on Batman because I was already doing “Deadman,”

Boltinoff in issue #79 was the addition of a letters

the artist continues in his introduction, “but

column (Kashdan had run factual text pages in the

[Murray] Boltinoff said he would use me on any of

series), “The Brave and the Bold Mailbag.” Boltinoff

his titles. I asked if I could do The Brave and the Bold

preferred to give as many writers as possible the

and he said yes.” Boltinoff hired Adams to join

opportunity to see their names and comments in

Haney beginning with B&B #79’s pairing of Batman

print, and did so by running excerpts—“Bits from the

and, appropriately, Deadman.

B&B Mailbag”—in lieu of lengthy communiqués so

In B&B, Adams wasted no time in hosing off the

common in other DC editors’ books. B&B readers

stench of camp from Batman: He lengthened the

were finally given a voice, and they certainly spoke

Caped Crusader’s cowl ears and his cape, making the

up! Hardcore letterhacks objected (sometimes vocif-

1991-92

Best of DC

B&B ends run,

Best of the Brave

Six-issue,

[digest] #26

spins off

and the Bold

non-Batman

features

Batman and

#1–6 reprints

B&B miniseries.

B&B reprints.

the Outsiders.

Haney/Adams tales.

S u p e r

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erously) to Boltinoff’s excerpting, but this format

Rock) that scoffed at other series’ histories took place

continued throughout the editor’s tenure. Before

on “Earth-B,” the B standing for, depending upon

long, the column adopted a cheerful signoff well-

whom you asked, either Boltinoff, Bob (as in Haney),

remembered by readers: “B&B seeing you!”

or Brave and Bold (or perhaps all of the above). Mike Barr reveals, “One former fan, now a comics pro, told

CRISIS ON EARTH-B

me he once wrote former publisher Carmine

B&B #84 presented one of the series’ most ambitious

Infantino a 12-page, single-spaced, double-sided let-

stories, “The Angel, the Rock, and the Cowl,” co-star-

ter detailing the continuity errors in a single issue of

ring Batman, the contemporary (late 1960s) hero,

Haney’s B&B. You know that got read.”

and Sgt. Rock, the World War II hero. Impossible? Not to Bob Haney. His script began in Batman’s era then flashed back to the 1940s, with a young Bruce Wayne and nascent Caped Crusader aiding Rock and Easy Company on a mission. Given this story’s timeline, Batman would have been in his mid-forties in 1968, which obviously was not the case (both Batman and Superman were frozen at age 29 for many years during the Silver Age). This Batman/Sgt. Rock tale was an early example of author Haney’s disregard for continuity for the sake of a good story, a trait he’d only hinted at earlier (#72’s Flash/Spectre

Recoiled

team-up depicted Earth-One’s fastest man alive

Karl Kesel’s cover to

visiting his “buddy” the Spectre in his Earth-Two

Hawk & Dove #9

neighborhood, and there was no mention of parallel

(1990) paid tribute to

worlds in #75’s Batman/Spectre outing).

Earth-Two hero Wildcat was Batman’s teammate

Parallel Earths aside, Haney’s scripts sometimes

in issue #88, in a story presumably set on Earth-One,

introduced elements that created repercussions in

although no ink was given to its location, or to how

other titles. “B&B became infamous amongst fans for

these heroes of parallel worlds joined forces. Wildcat

such plot twists as having Batman encounter the

was a favorite of Haney’s, and healthy sales of B&B

brother of Joe Chill, the man who murdered his

#88 warranted the character’s reappearances in four

parents (#79, “Track of the Hook!” with Deadman),”

more issues. Continuity-savvy readers scratched their

Mike Barr adds. “It was a custom he also practiced in

heads in bewilderment. Some surmised that this was

many of his other assignments such as World’s Finest,

an Earth-One Wildcat. Another explanation surfaced

where he and Boltinoff not only introduced the

among fandom: Haney’s unusual B&B tales (including

‘Super-Sons’ series, featuring the future sons of

the Spectre team-ups and some appearances of Sgt.

Superman and Batman, but a storyline that brought

2000

Big Bang Comics

Flashback series

Bob Haney

Vol. 2 #20’s

Flash & Green

scripts

Haney/Aparo tribute.

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Lantern: The Brave and the Bold #1–6.

I s s u e

1998

Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1.

Bob Brown’s B&B #78

in a heretofore unknown brother for Bruce Wayne. And,

the environment’s moodiness.

as if this weren’t enough to set dozens of fanboys to

In #95, the first team-up to hide its co-

puncturing their Bob Haney voodoo dolls, he also

star (cover billed as Batman and ?, and

established that said brother was brain-dead, making

featuring Plastic Man as its mystery

his body a perfect permanent home for one Boston

guest), author Haney introduced internal

Brand, aka Deadman. Horrors! Oh, the continuity!”

continuity to the series, with the corporate ice maiden Ruby Ryder, a female

NICK CARDY SIGNS ON

forerunner to what Lex Luthor would

In 1970, artist Nick Cardy, once Haney’s collaborator

become in the 1986 Man of Steel

on Aquaman and Teen Titans, was enlisted by Murray

Superman reboot, making the first of several

Boltinoff for a brief B&B stint (#91, 92, 94–96) that is

appearances. Issue #96, Cardy’s last as

well-remembered by readers. Cardy’s Batman was

penciler/inker, was unique in its use of two cover

beefier than Adams’ lean rendering of the character,

artists: Nick Cardy composed the cover scene and

and the hero’s bat-ears and cape had shortened once

drew guest star Sgt. Rock, but Murphy Anderson

again (“I had a tendency to make Batman’s ears too

(DC’s “Mr. Fix-It” of the early 1970s, hired to do

small,” Cardy admitted in an interview a few years

patchwork on Superman and Batman figures and

back), but Nick’s take on the Caped Crusader meshed

faces to bring them in line with the house style) drew

wonderfully with Haney’s street-level scripts.

the Caped Crusader.

The Cowl & the Rock This sketch by Neal Adams, recreating the B&B #84 team, is, as of this writing, available for sale at the artist’s site (www.nealadams.com/

The Batman/Black Canary merger in issue #91

Cardy vacated the title in 1971 to become DC’s

sell1.htm). Courtesy of

perfectly underscored Cardy’s talent at drawing

chief cover architect, and editor Boltinoff was shop-

Neal and Jason Adams.

beautiful women (once again, Haney added the story

ping once again for a regular artist for B&B. And a

element of a super-heroine’s attraction to Batman).

guest star helped point him in the right direction.

on the title: Its team-up between Batman and a

ENTER: JIM APARO

Wild for Wildcat

quirky Haney creation, the one-hit-wonder sleuths

Jim Aparo, a former Charlton Comics artist, joined

(Mid-left) Continuity

called the Bat-Squad, was set in foggy London, pro-

DC in the late 1960s as the artist of Aquaman, part-

confounder Wildcat

viding the artist an opportunity to flash his stark ink-

nering with writer Steve Skeates and editor Dick

was not confined to

ing contrasts and crosshatching effects to augment

Giordano on a serialized storyline involving the dis-

B&B team-ups—in

appearance of the Sea King’s wife Mera. Aparo soon

1975, he co-starred

picked up a second DC title, The Phantom Stranger.

with the Creeper in

When Haney penned a script pairing Batman with

an all-new tale in

the Stranger for 1971’s The Brave and the Bold #98 (the

Super-Team Family #2.

characters’ second meeting), Boltinoff went straight

Art by Ric Estrada and

to the guest star’s artist for that issue.

Bill Draut. Courtesy of

Visually, B&B #92 is probably Cardy’s strongest effort

Chris Khalaf.

Aparo was comfortable with his lower-profile

assignments, and at first found the prospect of draw-

B&Big Bucks

2002

Writer Kevin Smith

Faux “1969”

dated Friday, July 30, 2004, “Recently on eBay, page 13 from Brave and the Bold #80

announces as-yet-

B&B Annual

sold for $1,414.99. The art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano featured Batman

reprints

and the Creeper. The art is one of the early appearances of the Creeper, as he first

team-ups.

appeared only several months earlier.” Another item of note: B&B #80’s Bob Haney-

unrealized B&B revival as Green Arrow follow-up.

2001

As reported in the Scoop e-newsletter (http://scoop. diamondgalleries.com/)

created villain, Hellgrammite, reappeared in 1990s Superman continuity.

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The Phantom

and protection” to his godson after rescuing him

Stranger

from the cult’s clutches. Despite this tale’s blatant

A recent commissioned

invitation for a sequel, or perhaps the addition of a

illo by Aparo. Courtesy

new supporting-cast member, the kid was never seen

of Spencer Beck.

again. Now Haney had made Batman a deadbeat dad.

HANEY AND APARO: B&B’S TEAM SUPREME

The B&Bs You Didn’t See

His one-issue mission accomplished, Jim Aparo exited The Brave and the Bold. Briefly. The aptly initialed Bob Brown returned to B&B with #99’s Batman/Flash team-up, but Boltinoff was so impressed with #98, he offered Aparo the series with issue #100, beginning what would be a phenomenally lengthy stay for the artist.

“The Brave

Then-publisher of DC, Carmine Infantino,

and the Bold

revealed in an interview in Alter Ego #38 (July 2004)

Mailbag”

his fundamental role in Aparo’s assign-

featured guest-star recommendations from readers. Some of the most unusual

regularly

team-ups requested by readers include: • Batman and

ing Batman quite daunting. “I’d never

ment. “It was my idea to put Jim Aparo

drawn Batman up till then, so this

on Murray’s book, The Brave and the Bold,

was a big thing for me,” the artist

and that book was our bestselling

confessed in a 1991 interview for DC’s

Batman title,” Infantino said. “Aparo

Direct Currents newsletter. He was so

was great.”

intimidated by the prospect that he

Bob Haney and Jim Aparo formed an alliance more durable than any Batman

• Batman and the

team-up, lasting through most of the

Boy Commandos

That issue’s tale, “Mansion of the

1970s. “Bob was a good writer.” Aparo

Misbegotten,” was Bob Haney’s

beams; “I enjoyed him very much.”

homage to the 1968 horror film

Although they were creatively joined at

Rosemary’s Baby. Set primarily in a

the hip for years, Haney and Aparo met

Gothic manor where a group of

only once or twice, and rarely even

townspeople worshipped a lad

spoke on the phone, communicating

• Batman and Captain Action • Batman and Charlie’s Angels • Batman and the Green Lantern Corps • Batman and the

(Batman’s godson!) who was apparently the son of the

Green Team

devil, this creepy tale proved the perfect introductory

• Batman and Ironwolf

vehicle into the mainstream DC Universe for Aparo.

• Batman on Krypton

He was already adept at drawing the Phantom

• Batman and Krypto the Superdog • Batman and Mon-El • Batman and Sugar and Spike • Batman and Super-Turtle

1 2

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chucked his completed first page of B&B #98 and redrew it from scratch.

the Amazons

mostly through their editor (for the artist’s personal recollections of his Brave and Bold stint, see this issue’s Jim Aparo interview beginning on page 23). With Murray Boltinoff standing proudly behind his

Stranger and that character’s surreal realm, and

team, B&B barreled ahead with team-up after team-

despite his initial misgivings he instantly adapted to

up, paying little heed to events in DC’s other titles.

Batman, offering a lithe, sinewy Caped Crusader

Issue #100, uniting Batman (and Robin) with the

compatible to Neal Adams’ style but uniquely his

popular trio of Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and

own rendition.

Black Canary, shocked many readers. “In an attempt

Haney’s continuity curse struck again with this

to capture some of the heat from the much-lauded

issue’s conclusion, where Batman pledged his “love

Green Lantern/Green Arrow series,” recalls Mike Barr,

S u p e r

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“Bob’s script called for Green

each issue was uncanny. However,

Arrow to kill a drug dealer with an

“Bob’s approach to the character of

arrow to the heart. This act—

Batman was, shall we say, unique,”

Batman’s Strangest Roles

uncharacteristically decisive for a

observes Mike Barr. “While many of

DC hero—spurred a firestorm of

the other Batman titles were start-

controversy; no apology whatso-

ing to feature an approach to the

ever from Haney, who maintained

character, spearheaded by the

the pusher got what he deserved;

efforts of Denny O’Neil and Neal

and a ‘response’ story in Green

Adams, that was—well, the current

Lantern / Green Arrow in which GA

buzzword would be ‘darker,’ but

accidentally killed a thug who was

it would be more accurately

trying to off him, then went on a

described as ‘psychologically more

Wonder Woman/Batgirl)

valid’—Bob’s approach to the Dark

• Bat-Dad (#83: Batman/

months-long spiritual journey to seek forgiveness, revealing that if the

B&B’s Big Bang Writer/artist Chris Khalaf

Haney’s Batman was no longer

the roar of a mountain river,’ he also

paid tribute to Haney and

the wisecracker he was during the

had a whine like Fran Drescher on

Aparo’s B&B in the “The Free

late 1960s, but he maintained a

and the Brave” 1998 issue

lighter side throughout the 1970s.

of Big Bang Comics.

His teammates often called him

also sidelined the Caped Crusader in a wheelchair (!) after he took a

sniper’s bullet.

• Batman, Athletic Trainer (#71: Batman/Green Arrow) • Bat-Stud (#78: Batman/

Teen Titans)

Knight was often a lot sunnier.”

Emerald Archer had ‘a laugh like

crack.” The centennial issue of B&B

(and not all of these were Bob Haney’s ideas)

• Batman on the Frontlines (#84: Batman/Sgt. Rock) • Senator Bruce Wayne (#85: Batman/Green Arrow) • LeMans Batman (#87: Batman/Wonder Woman)

“Bat-buddy.” Haney’s Batman was an adaptable jack of all trades, a

• Batman, Deadbeat Dad (#98: Batman/Phantom

Batman was back on his feet in #101 in a reunion

globetrotting James Bond in a cowl. He fought

with Metamorpho, but Aparo was knocked off his

enemy spies and soldiers, terrorists, kidnappers,

• Batman of Arabia (#112:

the next issue, or at least out of his drawing chair: A

voodoo priests, demons, super-villains (he even

Batman/Mister Miracle)

family emergency called him away halfway through

teamed with them, joining forces with the Joker in

illustrating #102’s Batman/Teen Titans tale, the issue

the bestselling B&B #111, spawning numerous Joker

being completed by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.

appearances in the title over the years), and rebel-

That story is noteworthy for another reason, says

lious youth. His adventures whisked him away to

Mike Barr: “In B&B #102, ‘The Commune of Defiance,’

landscapes urban, occult, exotic, undersea, and extra-

Batman exhibits a badge proving him to be ‘a depu-

terrestrial. He leapt from rooftops, drove his

tized Gotham City sheriff. Haney was again going his

Batmobile, and if necessary, he skied, rode camels or

own way in terms of B&B continuity; making Batman

horses, even flew spaceships. And when Batman’s

a deputy sheriff effectively vitiates his vigilante status.”

cape and cowl failed, Haney’s Bruce Wayne could be

(Barr also adds that “#102 was sort of the ‘unified field

called upon to serve as a senator, an international

theory’ issue of B&B: script by Haney, interior art by

ambassador, and even a disco dancer. Nobody did it

Aparo and Adams, and cover by Cardy—the four cre-

better. (Cue Carly Simon.)

Stranger)

• Batman the Walking Corpse (#115: Batman/ Atom) • Batman, Gorilla Soldier (#120: Batman/Kamandi) • Scuba-Batman (#142:

Batman/Aquaman)

ators who made the Batman B&B such a great run.”)

Bob Haney continued to ignore events in his guest

Bob Brown stepped in again to cover for Aparo on

stars’ series and forged full steam ahead, the story

#103’s Batman/Metal Men adventure, its plot involving

always being the key. In The Brave and the Bold #106,

a rogue sentient computer borrowing heavily from

he depicted Green Arrow’s alter ego, Oliver Queen, as

2001: A Space Odyssey, and Aparo was back on board

being a millionaire, when it had recently been estab-

with issue #104’s Deadman team-up.

lished in the pages of Justice League of America and

• Batman, Airfighter

Green Lantern that Queen had lost his fortune.

(#167: Batman/

Haney’s ability to plot a cohesive and unique tale

• Disco Dancing Bruce Wayne (#151: Batman/ Flash) • Astro-Batman (#155: Batman/Green Lantern)

Blackhawk) S u p e r

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The Most Versatile Artist Alive

#104. During the mid-1970s, Aparo had reached his

Aparo’s rendition of

prime, and his work on The Brave and the Bold

B&B guest star the Flash

sparkles as some of the most dynamic art appearing

(here from issue #125)

in DC’s titles during that era. That these tales have

stood (or ran) equally

rarely been reprinted is unfortunate.

sound effects were often integrated into his panel composition, such as in the inset example from

alongside that of the hero’s principal illustrator, Carmine Infantino. Courtesy of Chris Khalaf. Batman’s most extraordinary—and controver-

sial—co-stars appeared in “The Small War of the Super-Rifles” in issue #124 (1976): Jim Aparo, Bob

Creator Cameos

Haney, and Murray Boltinoff broke the fourth wall

Aparo, Haney, and

and “were fundamental to the story’s outcome,” rem-

Boltinoff, in B&B #124.

inisces Mike Barr, in “a team-up with a current-day Sgt. Rock, in which a terrorist gang realizes the key to

Readers wrote in to complain, but editor Boltinoff

defeating Batman is to rewrite the Brave and Bold

stood behind his writer: In the lettercol of #108, the

scripts sent to artist Aparo by writer Haney, so the

editor dismissed a fan’s complaint with a “Lose a

Caped Crusader will be killed. Continuity buffs made

million, make a million” retort.

themselves nuts.”

Jim Aparo’s ability to expertly render almost any member of the DC Universe—Black Canary, Sgt. Rock, the Atom, the Metal Men, Swamp Thing, and

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FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

even Jack Kirby creations like the Demon, Mister

Jack C. Harris joined Murray Boltinoff as his assis-

Miracle, and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth—was

tant editor with issue #125 (see sidebar), but jumped

awe-inspiring, earning him a loyal fan following.

on board the ship at a time it was taking on water.

The artist admits to using comics or photocopies of

The Haney and Boltinoff engine had lost its spark,

comics as reference for many of the guest stars traips-

relying more upon familiarity and past sales figures

ing through B&B’s pages. With some characters, his

for team-ups than on originality. Green Arrow

reliance upon other artists’ interpretations was

teamed with Batman, and appeared again and again

obvious: Aparo’s Green Lantern, Joker, and Deadman

(get a room, you guys!), as did Wildcat, the Joker, and

borrowed heavily from Neal Adams and/or Mike

Sgt. Rock. Change was needed, and Boltinoff was

Grell, and his Sgt. Rock from Joe Kubert. At times

reassigned to other titles, his last B&B being #131.

even his Batman closely mirrored Adams’ version,

Denny O’Neil took over for a brief stint as story

with some readers regarding Aparo as a Neal Adams

editor in early 1977, bringing along his Richard

clone. This is an unfair and inaccurate assessment.

Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter character for his first issue,

Jim Aparo’s storytelling was always inventive, with

#132. O’Neil employed a heavier hand in working

shifting camera angles keeping the reader moving

with Haney to invigorate the author’s tales. But by

briskly from panel to panel. He was a triple threat in

issue #139 (Jan.-Feb. 1978), O’Neil had segued off the

B&B, penciling, inking, and lettering his work. His

title and Paul Levitz had signed on. Levitz, also the

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editor of Batman and Detective Comics, stated from the

1975, when it was increased to eight issues per year).

Deadman Walking

get-go his conviction to support the long-running

Paul also maintained an active and enthusiastic

Batman teamed with

Brave and Bold creative team. In #139’s Mailbag, he

presence in the B&B Mailbag, and encouraged readers

Deadman yet again

wrote, “And our first editorial statement of intent

to submit requests for future team-ups.

in B&B #133 (1977).

is that Bob [Haney] and Jim [Aparo] will go off B&B

Issue #150 featured an anniversary treat: Under

Courtesy of

only over our dead body, since they’ve been doing

the logos of “Batman and ?” the Caped Crusader

Chris Khalaf.

a brilliant job on this mag for more issues than we

challenged the reader, “Can you discover who my

can count.”

co-star is in this special story?” The tale featured the

Editor Levitz introduced several changes in an

kidnapping of Bruce Wayne by hooded terrorists (not

effort to reenergize B&B. Issues #142 and 143 featured

the same ones who’d snatched Jim Aparo in #124),

a rare two-parter, with the innovative twist of a different

with a brutish keeper named Karns assigned to watch

Bat-co-star in each of the two issues (Aquaman and

over the playboy. Karns exhibited some peculiar abilities

the Creeper, respectively). Len Wein and Dick

that stymied Wayne, until he deduced that his warden

Giordano’s Human Target, formerly seen in Action

was secretly his World’s Finest Comics crony Superman

Comics, was revived as a backup series in B&B #143

in disguise. This exciting adventure was the Man of

and 144 before hopping over to Detective. With issue

Steel’s only B&B team-up appearance, and fans were

#145 (Dec. 1978), The Brave and the Bold was promoted

treated to the rare opportunity of seeing Jim Aparo’s

to monthly status (it had been a bimonthly until

powerful rendition of the hero.

A Brave and Bold Education by Jack C. Harris In 1974, after graduating from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and after a series of correspondence and phone calls with then-DC Vice President Sol Harrison, I was hired as Murray Boltinoff’s Assistant Editor. It was a dream come true . . . almost. Murray was a “story man.” He didn’t care about continuity and trivia. The story-at-hand was paramount. As a member of comics’ First Fandom, I was a fan of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, and Justice League of America, books crammed with crossovers, editorial asides, and trivia. Murray’s books had none of that, even my favorite, the Batman team-up title, The Brave and the Bold. The teams were never based on “fan favorites,” but on sales. This is why Wildcat and Sgt. Rock appeared often in the B&B pages (while totally ignoring the multiple Earths theory running rampant throughout other titles). Writer Bob Haney followed Murray’s philosophy, often reading only one issue of Batman’s teammate; taking enough to make his story intriguing, but not enough to absorb influence from the other character’s writer. This made for some interesting occurrences, such as the Batman/Hawkman crossover in which Hawkman never flew, and Black Canary having her hair done when she wore a wig. But, it didn’t matter in the end. I learned Murray had been right. The story-at-hand was the most important aspect, and in the years to follow, writers realized that continuity and trivia work best encased in good, solid storytelling. Taking such a stand back in the ’70s was, indeed, a brave and bold thing to do.

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B&B script, a Batman and Mera story, probably written around 1979. I doubt if a copy survives anywhere, and it was never drawn, but it’s

Bob Haney continued to ply his craft, hammering

years, Bob Haney is moving on to other assignments

worth mentioning as

out tightly plotted tales each issue. He resisted change,

and we’re shifting to a system of rotating writers on

a back issue that

however, continuing to characterize Batman in a

B&B. Hopefully this infusion of new blood will be the

fashion contrary to the hero’s appearances elsewhere.

change we need.” With that issue’s Batman/Kamandi

never was. . .

On several occasions editor Levitz

reunion, Bob Haney made his

assigned new DC staffers Cary

last contribution to The Brave and

Burkett and Mike W. Barr (see

the Bold.

sidebars) script-doctoring assign-

Haney’s B&B stint has not been for-

well, forcing Levitz to execute a

gotten by comics readers. In a July

major change.

2004 installment of his “Comic

Regular readers could not help

Effect” online column (www.silver-

but notice B&B’s stagnancy. In the

bulletcomicbooks.com/effect),

Mailbag in issue #157 (Dec. 1979),

commentator Jim Kingman praises

fan Doreen Greenley wrote: “I’m

Bob Haney’s “layered plot structure,

sorry to say that your plots are get-

over-the-top dialogue, kinetic pacing,

ting thin. They may be spectacular

and flamboyant wit.” And as Neal

or fascinating, but without any

Adams observes of his Brave and

real substance. Heroes go in, heroes go out, and nothing

Mera missed out on

changes. Change something,

that B&B team-up,

please.” Editor Levitz’s reply:

but appeared here

“Brave and Bold has been [in] a

in Adventure Comics

fairly successful rut for a while,

#451 (1977).

and some of the stories in the past few months have shown that

Well over two decades later,

ments. Haney did not take to this

more than we would have wished. So with our appreciation for a job well done for many

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Bold collaborator in his Batman Illustrated introduction, “Though they have not gotten the recognition they deserve, Bob Haney’s stories are classics in good old comic-book drama, and dense in plot, incident, and twists. Haney will never be paid enough in money and honor in his lifetime for his contributions

to the medium, and that’s a shame.”

The B&B Backup by Cary Burkett

the chance to work on the title. All Batman titles were being grouped together and placed under the editorship of Denny O’Neil. B&B was removed from the editorial fiefdom of Murray Boltinoff (and what was known as “Earth-B” around the DC offices, because of the lack of continuity with other titles). However, writer and artist didn’t change: Bob Haney and Jim Aparo continued to handle those assignments. Bob, of course, is the one who was faced with the real adjustments in a new editorial direction. One day Bob turned in a script that Denny had problems with. I don’t recall what they were, only that they were such that Denny felt the last two-thirds of the script needed to be completely rewritten. Somehow, the task fell to me, as an eager editorial assistant in the DC offices. I jumped at the opportunity, and agreed to rewrite about 12 pages of a 17-page script overnight, based off new plot angles that Denny dictated to me in a brief conversation. I had my first chance to actually write dialogue for the Batman, and it was a thrill for me, even though I wouldn’t be credited for it. Sometime later, all the Batman titles were given to Paul Levitz. As Paul’s assistant editor, I began to work on B&B every month, giving a “first-edit” to Bob Haney’s scripts before passing them on to Paul for his final edit. Paul wanted to maintain a solid consistency in the way Batman was depicted in the various titles. But Bob had formed his writing style and Batman characterization under Murray Boltinoff, and found it difficult to adjust to a somewhat different approach to the character. The sailing wasn’t all that smooth, if I recall. At some point, Bob turned in a script for a Batman/Creeper team-up that Paul was unhappy with. Once again, the last two-thirds of the script were thrown out, and once again, I was asked to re-write the script. Paul came up with the basic plot, and I took on the job of scripting it. This time, Paul gave me co-credit as writer of the story with Bob Haney. I think that may have been my first credit as a writer for a super-hero story. Bob wasn’t happy about it, and let both Paul and me know. But Bob’s style and approach to the book weren’t what Paul wanted.

Paul always insisted on remembering that Batman was the star of the book. He always wanted to find ways to include classic Batman bits, to tie the book more

The Brave and the Bold was changing universes when I first got

firmly to the “Batman Family.” It sounds easy, but super-hero teamups tend to shift both characters away from their established roles. Paul always looked for ways to add strong elements of Batman’s detective work, or a deathtrap escape, or at least one of his stock disappearing routines when Commissioner Gordon was talking to him. When B&B expanded from 17 to 25 pages along with the rest of the DC line, I got the chance to create a backup series for the book. Paul, of course, had a lot of input into the creation of Nemesis [the example here is from issue #173], and even came up with the name. He wanted a non-costumed hero for the backup, a character who would be both a contrast and a complement to Batman. Nemesis ran for a few years in eight-page installments each month in the back of B&B, through Paul’s tenure on the magazine and also through Dick Giordano’s. The short page count always made it a struggle to fit everything in, as I recall. Nemesis was a master of disguise, and it was fun trying to surprise the reader by having an unexpected character turn out to be Nemesis. He was always a planner and a thinker, manipulating his opponents by clever ploys, and the plots took me a long time to work out. Twice, Nemesis joined Batman in full-fledged B&B team-ups, the final time to end the series when new editor Len Wein decided to drop it in favor of full 25-page stories. Nemesis finished off his battle against the criminal Council, and I ended my association with The Brave and the Bold.

remember.

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Continuity matters were clearly addressed during Levitz’s run: As examples, Earth-Two’s Doctor Fate was drawn to Earth-One by an extra-dimensional threat, and the Batman/Blackhawk tale was set on Earth-Two during the Golden Age. Rotating writers included Burkett, Barr, Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, Marv Wolfman, Michael Fleischer, J.M. DeMatteis, Denny O’Neil, and Paul Kupperberg. Jim Aparo provided artistic consistency by drawing the majority of the tales and most of the covers. A new backup series, Nemesis, written by Burkett and illustrated by Dan Spiegle, bowed in 1980 in issue #166. On two occasions (#170 and 193), newbie Nemesis appeared as Batman’s co-star. Despite these changes, B&B still suffered from predictability. Some diehards felt comfortable with the series, like commentator “Mofro,” who wrote, in #170’s Mailbag, “Most fans never hesitate when [B&B] shows up on the stands; if they liked it last month, they’ll like it again this month.” Yet there was no inducement for new readers to pick up an issue, and sales sagged as a result. Levitz moved into management at DC in 1981, and Dick Giordano returned to the company to edit the Batman titles (see sidebar), his first B&B being #177. Giordano and Aparo introduced next-issue “teasers” in their stories, illustrated clues identifying B a t m a n ’s u p c o m i n g co-star. The inset, from #178, reveals #179’s Batman/Legion of Super-

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B&B SEEING YOU

Heroes adventure by the

As editor of The Brave and the Bold, Paul Levitz suc-

sight gag of the LSH’s

cessfully straddled the line between spotlighting B&B

star cruiser silhouetted

returnees (Plastic Man, the Flash, Green Lantern, and

against the full moon

Hawkman) and introducing new teammates for

(readers expecting a

Batman (Supergirl, Red Tornado, Doctor Fate, Black

Batman/Star Trek cross-

Lightning, and Firestorm). He even gave the green

over were no doubt

light to some highly unusual co-stars for Batman,

disappointed).

including the Civil War-era hero Scalphunter, the WW

Giordano also brought

II fighting pilots the Blackhawks, the Guardians of the

television writer Alan

Universe, and Lois Lane.

Brennert to the fold as

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the scripter of several memorable issues, including

footsteps into DC management, assuming the

#181’s Batman/Hawk and the Dove team-up (which,

reins of B&B with issue #192. Mike Barr had by this

in B&B’s former tradition, sidestepped continuity by

juncture become the “main” Brave and Bold writer (in

depicting the ex-Teen Titans as adults, while in con-

the final team-up tally, Barr wrote ten issues, second

current titles their TT teammates remained adoles-

only to Bob Haney), but confesses, “Over the years,

cents), and #182’s unique pairing of the Batman of

B&B had developed a reputation as something of a

Earth-One with the adult Robin of Earth-Two.

dinosaur amongst the DC stable.” The comics mar-

In late 1982, Len Wein became the editor of the

ket of the early 1980s was changing dramatically,

Batman titles as Giordano followed his predecessor’s

and The Brave and the Bold, that sturdy old workhorse

A Giordano-drawn

from the Silver Age, had

commissioned illo.

grown stale.

Courtesy of

In the lettercol of B&B

Mike Dunne.

#195, Wein announced,

Remembering (or not) Brave and Bold by Dick Giordano When I was hired at DC in 1981, it was as editor of the Batman line (Batman, Detective, and Brave and Bold) and special projects editor. My predecessor was the super-organized Paul Levitz, who was moving up the company ladder and leaving editorial chores behind. He actually had three issues of each series either in the drawer or on the way in! I didn’t have much to do at first except closing Paul’s issues and planning the issues following Paul’s stuff. I remember deciding that I would do continued stories (story arcs) for Batman and Detective (Paul’s were all done in one) and have some fun with Brave and Bold. Because I had time on my hands, I accepted an assignment to work with Atari on some in-pack comic books. Sounded like fun and a piece of cake! WRONG! It took up so much of my time that I was editing my regular assignments on the fly, and although I remember planting clues in each issue of Brave and Bold for sharp-eyed fans to find out who the next issue’s guest star would be . . . that’s pretty much ALL I remember! Thinking back, I don’t remember a whole lot more about my activities on Batman and Detective! I WAS spending as much time on the Atari stuff (if you count flying and driving time) as I was on the Batman line. I wasn’t giving the Batman books short shrift, but the quantity of work I was producing forced me to be more reactive than reflective and didn’t register in my memory banks. I had fun . . . but I can’t remember why!

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in response to a letter writer’s query about a rumor circulating over the title’s cancellation, “Much though we hate to admit it, at this point in time it does indeed appear as if Brave and Bold #200 will be the last issue of the mag in its current incarnation. Sales simply have not been sufficient enough to continue B&B as we know and love it.” But B&B did not go out with a whimper. Its final issue, the double-sized #200, featured a 40-page tale by Barr and Dave Gibbons “teaming” Batman with his Golden Age counterpart in parallel stories set in two different eras (“The Earth-Two Batman story was set in 1955 because B&B debuted in 1955,” reveals Barr) and wonderfully drawn in modern and Dick Sprang-influenced classic styles by Gibbons. Also in that issue, Barr and Aparo united for a special 16-page preview of their B&B follow-up series, Batman and the Outsiders. Unfortunately, space limitations in The Brave and the Bold #200 crowded out a farewell Mailbag (with one last “B&B seeing you”); however, the Caped Crusader’s words on the last page of the Batman/Batman tale provided the perfect appraisal of his long and illustrious run in this classic series: “. . . I’ve faced my greatest challenge . . . and I won.”

B&Before and After You don’t remember Batman tangling with Chemo in B&B #187’s

Special thanks to Mike W. Barr

Metal Men team-up? That’s because Aparo’s original art (above,

and Chris Khalaf for their valu-

courtesy of J.E. Smith) was doctored by DC’s production department

able fact-checking assistance;

to pit the Caped Crusader against giant robot B.O.L.T.S. instead, as

and to Paul Levitz, Dick Giordano,

seen in the printed version (right). The artist and editor don’t recall the

Jack C. Harris, and Cary Burkett

reason for the change, but at least we have this chance to see the

for their contributions.

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The Brave, the Bold, and the Bob by Mike W. Barr I was affected more deeply than I had thought by the news that Bob Haney lies in a stroke-induced coma from which he will probably not recover. Not that I ever bore any animus toward Bob, it’s just that as a fan, though I did enjoy many of his stories, he was never one of my favorite writers. But when I became a staffer at DC Comics in late 1977, Bob was one of the few writers—Robert Kanigher being one of the others—from the Silver Age that were still active, many of their compeers, including Gardner Fox, John Broome, and Bill Finger, having been blacklisted by DC years earlier. I was just the staff proofreader, the absolute lowest man on the totem pole, but Bob nonetheless remembered my name, often greeted me before I saw him, and was generally a lot nicer than he had to be to the last dog in the pack. The joke around the office—Bob laughed at this as heartily as anyone—was that Bob was the guy you wanted to have pose for the picture on the dust jacket of your novel. Tall, ruggedly handsome, and bearded, Bob was the idealization of the novelist come to life. Bob was writing only a handful of regular features for DC by that time: Unknown Soldier, possibly the Superman and Batman feature in World’s Finest, and—the reason we’ve assembled here today—Brave and Bold. Though Bob’s best-remembered stories are his early collaborations with Neal Adams, it would be unfair to say he was ever just carried by the artist, whether that was a young Adams or, after Julius Schwartz filched Adams away to work on Batman and Detective Comics, a mature Jim Aparo, at the peak of his considerable powers. Bob was not only a good plot man, but possessed a distinct prose style, bombastic yet somehow sincere, that stood out in a field that was growing increasingly fuller of refried Stan Lee. (“Yes, the loom of fate weaves a weird tapestry this nigh—upon which the Batman and his old ally, the Atom, are forced into a team-up so bizarre that only death itself can cut the thread that ensnares them. . .” B&B #115, “The Corpse That Wouldn’t Die.”) Some of Haney’s B&B issues deserve to stand with the best work of O’Neil and Frank Robbins. B&B #106’s “Double Your Money—and Die!” (with Green Arrow) is an excellent action-mystery story, omitted from the many recent “best” collections of Batman stories only because Haney and his work are no longer considered politically correct, due to his freewheeling approach to DC continuity. Eventually, I guess, it was decided that youth must be served—literally. Though Bob continued to write B&B for years, the occasional fill-in issue by another writer, often DC staffer Cary Burkett, was seen in latter days. Cary, with whom I shared an office for a few months, also once rewrote a Haney script and was given co-scripting credit by editor Paul Levitz, to whose hands B&B was given as new group editor of all the Batman titles. Cary told me that Haney was quite angry over this, and another writer never again shared credit with Haney. Which is not to say his scripts weren’t rewritten, the rewriter simply wasn’t credited. I, as Paul’s assistant after Cary left staff, did major rewrites on two B&B scripts, issue #155 (“The Fugitive from Two Worlds,” with Green Lantern) and #157 (“Time. . . My Dark Destiny,” with Kamandi). Paul, knowing my interest was in

writing, would cock an eyebrow and a mischievous grin at me over lunch, and say, “I’ve got a 17-page Brave and Bold script that needs a total rewrite by 5 PM. Interested?” In retrospect, I was far more interested than I should have been. Not that I wasn’t grateful for the chance, but the styles of a continuity scofflaw like Bob and—in those days—a hardcore continuity buff like me just didn’t mesh. I would get myself a couple of cans of Coke and lock myself in my office, hang a sign reading “Do Not Disturb! Working For Paul!” on my door, then try to shoehorn aspects of other Batman stories into Bob’s scripts that didn’t belong, causing one fan to exclaim that he didn’t even know Bob Haney knew about the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City. Times were changing. Bob Haney just wasn’t giving editors— or at least, the B&B editor—what he wanted. To be fair, at least some of this was Bob’s own fault; it seemed he rarely read the books to see what the characters he teamed with Batman were like in their own books. A prime example of this was a scene in his original draft of the script for B&B #155. Green Lantern, meeting a number of other GLs on the planet Oa, is spoken of by them with contempt. I wondered where this came from, when I realized Bob was probably trying to write what he conceived of as a modern scene, a Marvel-style scene, circa 1963. But this was 1979. Too, Bob didn’t realize how the business was changing. I recall witnessing a conversation he had one day in the early 1980s with Marv Wolfman, then the scribe of DC’s meteoric Teen Titans revival. Bob was harrumphing about the newly instituted system of royalty payments, claiming that the payments received were not from “real sales.” This led both Marv and me to wonder why DC would be shelling out bucks for books bought by imaginary readers. In retrospect, it may have been that Bob was angry over the fact that he was not asked to write the new Titans book, a title he had co-created and seen revived by other writers—twice—while he was still active with the firm. (Having seen the title Outsiders recently revived after being repeatedly told that DC had no plans whatsoever to revive it, I may be attributing my own feelings to Bob. The difference is that Bob had no interest in updating his approach to the material or knowledge of the characters.) I asked Cary why Bob wasn’t taken out for a firm but cordial lunch and asked to update his approach, with some help from the

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younger guys. Cary replied that DC didn’t think such an intervention would “take.” Perhaps, but it should at least have been tried. And, last but not least, Bob also had the temerity to get old in a business that was, like the show business it more and more modeled itself after, discarding the aging—unless they were editors or executives. DC VP Joe Orlando was quoted as saying that no writer over 35 would work for him. When Doom Patrol writer Arnold Drake pointed out that Orlando would never see 35 again, Orlando replied, “I’m the exception to the rule,” an exception that became rule at DC. Though Bob continued to work for DC for a few years after that, his tenure on Brave and Bold was soon over. When I became editor of Unknown Soldier (US), a World War II title featuring a character that I believe Bob co-created, I was told I could use a different writer. I preferred to talk to Bob about updating his approach, believing he certainly deserved that opportunity for his years of service. His US scripts for me required an occasional slight rewriting, but nothing drastic. When I attempted to expand the editorial appeal of the book in its last days, Bob wrote a swell three-part Tomahawk story for me, leading me to believe that Bob was most comfortable with assignments that stood alone, without having to account for their protagonists’ appearances in simultaneous exploits elsewhere. But management had decreed that the day of the anthology books at DC was over, despite how well they might have been doing, though most of them probably weren’t doing very well. With Bob Haney off Brave and Bold, the assignment rotated, giving the readers more variety in the type of story told. I wrote ten issues all told, beginning with #169, a Batman/Zatanna team-up entitled “Angel of Mercy, Angel of Death!” Looking back on the first Batman story I ever wrote, it’s okay and owes, oddly enough, much to Haney’s style of plotting and pacing. By this time editor Levitz had added a back-up to the title, “Nemesis,” by Cary Burkett and Dan Spiegle, leading to a book-length teaming of Batman and Nemesis. The editorial reins of the Batman titles shifted again, first to Dick Giordano then to Len Wein. For Giordano I wrote #177, featuring Batman and the Elongated Man (A seeming natural, but it had never before been done in B&B. But then, sales of the issues of Detective Comics in which the characters had teamed were among the lower-selling issues of the run.), #184, Batman and the Huntress, and #190, Batman and Adam Strange. This latter take utilized a point of trivia set up by Gardner Fox in Adam’s run in Mystery in Space, but never before acknowledged. It drove a lot of continuity buffs nuts, so I guess Bob Haney was still casting a shadow over B&B. Dick’s editorial approach was less rather than more; he would talk over an idea with me and make very few suggestions (save to occasionally suggest the insertion of a line of dialogue referring to events in other Batman books), nothing that I could point to in the final script, yet the script was better than it would have been without his involvement. I can’t explain it, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. For Len Wein I wrote #192 (Batman and Superboy), #194 (Batman and the Flash), #195 (Batman and I . . . Vampire!), #198 (Batman and Karate Kid), #199 (Batman and the Spectre), and #200 (Batman and the Earth-2 Batman, a particular favorite in that the protagonists never really met). My approach to the title was usually to see what Batman and a character from a list of proposed guest-stars either had in common or in what way were they diametrically opposed, and exploit that. Batman and Superboy, for example, differed from a standard World’s Finest team-up in that Superboy had all the powers of his adult self, but less of the sophistication and control he would later attain. And once brought to the future (well, his future) by the machinations of villain I.Q.

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(another creation of Fox), how would the Boy of Steel react when he learned his beloved adoptive parents were dead in this era? Sometimes a point of DC continuity drove a title, but by providing a point to pivot characters around, never as an end in itself. When I learned that Karate Kid was to marry Princess Projectra in Legion of Super-Heroes, I wondered how the girlfriend KK had left behind in the 20th century in his own title would take the news. With the blessings of the Legion team, who had no interest in tackling the issue themselves, we got a good story and some cross-pollination. Sometimes it’s that easy. Sometimes. Most of the team-ups were with characters who were currently inactive, but when active characters were used, I did my homework. Thus I was told that Marc DeMatteis, creator of “I . . . Vampire,” very much liked the approach I took with the character in #195. #200 was, of course, The Brave and the Bold’s last issue, to be replaced on DC’s schedule by upstart title Batman and the Outsiders. But even after B&B’s cancellation, Bob Haney’s spirit lived on. In BATO #17, an LOC asked why Metamorpho didn’t know Batman’s secret identity, since, after all, he knew it way back in B&B #123. I replied that, since in that story Bruce Wayne needed Metamorpho’s help in escaping from prison, that story could not have been part of the same continuity that featured master escape-artist Batman in BATO each month. All well and good—I thought. Then, a few weeks later, I received a letter from a different fan (I won’t name him, but he was a fairly prolific letterhack) who said he thought declaring such a story non-canonical would make me very unpopular. (He was right, just about 19 years too early.) “In fact,” he continued, “I wouldn’t attend any conventions this summer if I were you, as I can’t guarantee your chances of survival.” HUH? While I grant that said letterhack probably didn’t realize the full import of what he was writing, that was no excuse. I called the FBI and gave them a copy of the letter. A few days later, they called and said their local office had confronted the young man and his parents. The former had broken into tears, and the latter were not happy. And I probably cost us a reader. Oh, well. Words have meanings and threats have consequences, and people have to realize that. But, looking back, it does occur to me that Bob would have gotten a laugh out of the whole affair, not at my expense, but at how seriously these stories, and the fates of their characters, can be taken. The companies still don’t know how to exploit that, thus the abysmally low sales of the current books. My next contact with Bob Haney was in 1987 when I was researching an article on one of the aborted attempts to form a union for comic-book freelancers, and its consequences—the blacklisting of many writers that had made DC what it was, such as Gardner Fox, John Broome, Bill Finger, and France Herron. (“The Madames and the Girls—How DC Got Rid of the Troublemakers,” reprinted in an issue of Comic Book Artist.) His memory was sharp and clear, and the pain of those days still fresh in his mind. I read he had placed a western-themed short story with one of the independent publishers about that time, possibly his last published work. I most recently saw Bob on July 17, 1997, at the San Diego Comic-Con. He had moved from upstate New York to Baja, California. He had shed his trademark beard and looked good. I prefer to remember him that way, a big, garrulous guy, who loved comics but had no pretensions about their alleged cultural significance, and who had been put out to pasture long before it was necessary. Fortunately his work is still out there, which is probably how he—and any other writer—would like to be remembered. Best of luck, Bob. B&B seeing you, someday.

Batman’s

Bravest and Boldest Ally:

MICHAEL EURY: You came to DC Comics at the invitation of Dick Giordano, who was your editor at Charlton Comics before he was hired by DC. JIM APARO: Dick was a really good friend of mine. He still is. He hired me at Charlton. We’re about the same age, we had the same amount of children—two daughters and a son; we were duplicate copies, you know? EURY: Your first issue of The Brave and the Bold was #98, teaming Batman with a character whose book you were drawing at the time: the Phantom Stranger. But you didn’t

conducted on May 24, 2004, and transcribed by Brian K. Morris.

draw the next issue of B&B. Was the Phantom Stranger team-up originally a one-time event, or did editor Murray Boltinoff have you in mind to permanently take over the strip? APARO: I believe it was just for that one issue. But I liked drawing Batman and Murray was satisfied with the work I did, and brought me back permanently [beginning with issue #100]. EURY: What approach did you bring to Batman that was different from that of Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Irv Novick, and the other Bat-artists of the day? APARO: Not much. Neal, of course, was one of the big

interview

by Michael Eury

stars of Batman. I know we all looked at him on how to

draw Batman. Yeah, Neal was quite a help. Not personally, but his style of art. Now he’s in advertising, I think. EURY: That’s true. APARO: I was in advertising before I got into comics. I worked in an outfit in West Hartfort, Connecticut. I was one of the artists on the advertising staff. EURY: What types of accounts did you work on? APARO: Oh, local stuff, either stores or factory-type things.

Pop quiz for the B&B junkie: Who appeared most

EURY: Fashion illustration?

frequently with Batman in The Brave and the

APARO: No, it had nothing to do with that. I’d make

Bold? No, not Green Arrow, but artist Jim Aparo, whose versatility with drawing a host of heroic co-stars dazzled readers for almost 100 issues. My original goal with this “Pro2Pro” was to moderate an interview between B&B’s team supreme,

Undetected Cover

Aparo and writer Bob Haney, but Mr. Haney’s

An unused Aparo

recent illness (see editorial) unfortunately made

cover intended for

that impossible. But a solo chat with the amiable

Detective Comics

Mr. Aparo is far from settling for second best, so

#481 (1978). Courtesy

read on as one of Batman’s premier illustrators

of Mike Burkey

shares his recollections on his unparalleled tenure

(www.romitaman.com).

as the tsar of team-ups. –Michael Eury

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posters, ads for sales presentations, drawing things

out okay. Carmine [Infantino], he was in charge of DC at

like toasters.

the moment. I got along with him, too.

EURY: That probably helped you as an artist, in regard to

They were great guys. They really were, once you

adding the smaller touches of realism. If you needed a

got to know them. I got along with Murray, although a

toaster in the background of a scene, you knew how to

lot of people complained about him. I got along with a

draw one, right? (laughs)

lot of people at DC. But the reason was because I was

APARO: (laughs) Yeah, that’s right.

not there all the time (laughs), I wasn’t down there in

EURY: In The Brave and the Bold, did the editors of the

New York. I was in my own studio in Connecticut.

guest-star characters have any approval rights over

EURY: How often did you actually go into the city?

your team-ups?

APARO: Oh, not that much. In case they really needed

The Team-Up Tsar

APARO: Not really. Murray was the guy.

me to come down, for whatever reason, I would make

The only time Aparo

EURY: I find that surprising, because today, using another

the trip. And then every once in a while, I would come

drew the New Gods

editor’s characters involves layers of approvals. So no

down on my own to see everybody, to see what they

was in this 1977

other editors ever reviewed, or even disapproved of, your

were doing. But they left me alone.

DC house ad.

interpretations of their characters? You were never asked

From B&B to JLA Jim Aparo was one of

to redraw, say, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern? APARO: Yeah, that happened occasionally, Michael, but

because I would make copies of my pages here so I

I didn’t mind, you know? Although most of the times, I

would know what I drew and then I would send the

was on the money. They must have enjoyed what I was

originals down by mail. They would deal with it; do the

doing. But I really had no interference.

color, do the lettering, whatever they had to do.

EURY: You definitely proved your versatility, drawing all of

the superstar artists to Justice League of America #200 (1982).

APARO: Murray let me do what I had to do. He believed

about this?”, “What about that?” You blow a whole

that I could handle it. But when changes needed to be

day, just answering.

made, he would just call me on the phone and tell me,

EURY: What was it like working with B&B writer

“Now, Jim, I want you to do

Bob Haney?

this thing. I’ll send you some

APARO: Bob was a good writer. I enjoyed him very

pages back and correct them,”

much. I only met him once or twice, but we got along

or whatever, and I’d send them

well. We talked a lot on the phone when I needed help.

back in.

“What did you mean by this?” and “What did you

EURY: Was Murray Boltinoff a

mean by that?” We never had any problems.

hands-on editor?

EURY: Were Haney’s B&B scripts detailed, with specific

APARO: Murray was a good

panel directions, or did he give you leeway to interpret

man. He was in New York and I

the stories?

was Connecticut (laughs) and

APARO: In Bob’s scripts, he would say, “Batman is

that helps, because normally,

going to be doing this, but you can do it at any angle you

when you’re working together,

want.” Some other writers would say, “No, I want you to

it’s kind of hard. You know, he

draw him straight on.” Haney would give you the idea of

was always constantly changing

what’s supposed to be in the panel, and it would be up

this what-not or that what-not,

to you as the artist to put it down the way you think it

“You didn’t do this the way I

should be and what angle it’s going to be at, looking up,

wanted you to do it.” The com-

looking down, sideways, upside-down, whatever. Most

petition

writers that I worked with gave me leeway.

was

always

there

between our artists and Murray.

EURY: I’m sure when you were encouraged to put more

And

of your own storytelling there, it made you put more of

that’s

true

Julie

Schwartz, too, but it worked

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When you’re down there, you can be doing something else and somebody will ask you, “Well, what

those DC characters.

who contributed

You’re left alone, you’re doing your thing, you sent it down there. I could send stuff down, pages at a time,

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yourself into the stories as well.

APARO: Right, yeah. EURY: Many of Haney’s scripts called for Batman doing some pretty peculiar things: riding a camel in the desert [in B&B #112’s Mister Miracle team-up] and leading an army of gorilla soldiers [in B&B #120’s Kamandi teamup]. Do you recall ever reading a Haney script and thinking, “Now this is kind of outlandish for Batman”? APARO: No, because I was going along with it. But, Michael, it was an education for me. I would go to my local library—I knew the librarian there—and she used to give me books for reference, so I

Tricks of the Trade

would know what these things looked like because I

Aparo’s 1980s how-to manual

never went overseas and, say, to the Middle East, you

from Eclipse Comics’ Tips From

know? It was for me, really, an education.

Top Cartoonists.

EURY: I’ll bet it was. You usually think of writers being

the ones spending time at the library. . . . APARO: Yeah, I guess Haney was a library man. His scripts definitely depended on that reference. But I had to consult books with photos in them—what the buildings looked like, and the towers, and this and that, and how the people looked. EURY: What type of art reference did you receive from DC for drawing Batman’s co-stars? Were there company model sheets for the characters? APARO: Most of the artists got comic books that came in the mail. EURY: Comp copies. APARO: Yeah. They used to send me the books anyway,

Beginnings:

“Miss Bikini Lu v”

strip in Go-Go #5 (19

67)

Milestones:

The Phantom / Aquaman / The Phantom Strang The Brave and er / the Bold / Batm an in Detective Comics / The Sp ectre in Advent ur e Comics / Batman and the Outsiders / Batm an

Works in Progre ss

: Retirement, and commissioned illustrations via the Artist’s Ch oice. Cyberspace:

www.theartists choice.com 2004 DC Comi cs.

so I’d hang onto them. What was the book where a whole bunch of them were together? EURY: You’re probably thinking of Justice League.

Caricature by Jim Aparo. Ch aracters ©

APARO: Right. There were two versions of the Justice League, weren’t there? EURY: Well, there’s the Justice Society. APARO: Right. So that’s how I got the reference for the

jim aparo

characters. EURY: Exclusively from the comics.

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APARO: I never had to bother [DC] about it unless I had to

tough to do, since they kept changing shape, but I

draw somebody that I hadn’t

enjoyed them.

seen in a long time. They would

EURY: You had a knack for drawing beautiful women.

send me a copy of a book,

Your Wonder Woman is fondly remembered.

or whatever.

APARO: The first time I drew her [B&B #105], she was

EURY: Did you ever find it

in regular clothing.

intimidating to draw so many

EURY: That was during the period she’d lost her

different characters?

powers and was wearing a white jumpsuit—definitely

APARO: No, I had a lot of fun

inspired by Diana Rigg, “Mrs. Peel” from the TV show

doing it. And it was a challenge

The Avengers.

to do all these different things.

APARO: You know, I thought it was a great idea. It didn’t

I mean, it wasn’t work . . . well,

last long before they put her back in the original outfit.

it was work, physically, but

EURY: The star-spangled bathing suit. . . .

mentally, I enjoyed it. EURY: You were a jack of all trades on many of your B&Bs: pencils, inks, and even your own lettering. Did you submit lettered penciled pages to Murray Boltinoff for editorial review, or

Revisiting Old Friends

did you have a different method? APARO: They used to go in full—fully completed pages.

A commissioned illo

Most artists didn’t want to do lettering. They just wanted

by Aparo of Aquaman

to draw and that’s it. But I always loved lettering. EURY: That also gave you more freedom in panel

and family, from

composition—you could even control how sound effects

2002. Courtesy of

worked with your art.

Spencer Beck.

EURY: Let’s discuss your recollections of some of the characters you drew in Brave and Bold. What about Green Arrow? drawing him, the new version of him. I’ve got [a Green Arrow drawing] tacked on the wall over here. He looked better with the beard than he did before.

Jim Aparo continued

EURY: Were you aware that it was actually in The Brave

to draw Batman well

and the Bold that Green Arrow was updated? In one of

into the 1990s. (right)

the issues that Neal Adams did [#85], a year or two

A page from Detective

before you came on to the book?

Comics #640 (1992),

APARO: I remember that now, now that you bring that up.

penciled by Aparo

EURY: What about Deadman?

and inked by Mike

APARO: Deadman . . . he’s standing there, people are

DeCarlo. Courtesy

walking by him, they don’t see him. That was quite a

of Chris Khalaf.

character, fun to draw. EURY: How about the Metal Men?

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APARO: Yeah, and they beefed it up a little bit. EURY: Ohhh, yeah, they did. (laughs) Now, you drew Sgt. Rock quite a few times. APARO: I was never a military-type artist. I had to depend on Joe Kubert—what a great war artist. Sometimes I would show up in New York and talk to Joe about drawing Sgt. Rock. He said, “Oh, you’re doing great, don’t worry about it.” He was quite a guy, Joe. I really liked him. Before I got into comics, I used to read his stuff. EURY: So the Batman/Sgt. Rock team-ups were the only time you ever really drew any war stories? APARO: I think those are the only ones, really. EURY: Do you remember much about Wildcat? He was a Golden Age character who appeared with Batman a lot in B&B. APARO: Yeah, I drew him a couple of times. EURY: Were you aware of the controversy surrounding Wildcat’s appearances? The Spectre’s, too?

APARO: He was a very frequent guest star. I liked

Three Decades of Gotham Residency

APARO: They were quite a problem. Yeah, they were

I s s u e

APARO: No, not really. What controversy? EURY: Wildcat and the Spectre were, at the time, on DC’s Earth-

Two, while Batman was on Earth-

EURY: That wasn’t the only story

King of Cameos Can you identify

One. So each time Wildcat and

Bob Haney wrote and you drew

Spectre appeared with Batman, it

where Batman and his teammate

drove the readers who followed

fought terrorists. It’s a little bit

continuity crazy.

creepy now, isn’t it, when you

APARO: We didn’t keep up much

think about what goes on in the

with that.

news every day?

E U R Y: Yo u e v e n g o t t o d r a w

APARO: Yeah, yeah.

Superman in one issue of The Brave

EURY: So, you not only were

and the Bold [#150]. He was a sur-

drawing comic books, but with

prise guest star.

Brave and Bold #124 you were

APARO: Yeah, I enjoyed drawing that.

starring in a comic book. Did your

EURY: A few DC heroes of the day

family get a kick out of that

curiously never teamed up with

particular issue?

Batman in Brave and Bold, like

APARO: Sure. But my kids never

Not Quite a Batman/

got too excited about my job. They

Jimmy Olsen, Challengers of the

Shazam! Team-Up. . .

just accepted it as what I did. They

Unknown, and Captain Marvel. Were

. . .but Aparo occasionally

would occasionally read an issue,

there any heroes you wished you

drew Captain Marvel on covers,

APARO: I used to read Captain Marvel, Jr. when I was a kid. I loved that character. . . . EURY: And Brave and Bold never

including The Comic Reader #172 (1979). Courtesy of Chris Khalaf.

but they weren’t big comics fans. EURY: You drew a lot of celebrity cameos in B&B, from Columbo to Sammy Davis, Jr. Did you ever called you on? APARO: I don’t think so, no. But

teamed up Batman and Captain

I used to leave clues in the artwork, as a hint to the reader for the next issue’s guest star. Like when I knew I

APARO: I would have had a good time drawing them.

was going to draw Green Arrow next issue, I’d leave

That’s one I do regret not being able to do. I don’t

an arrow.

would’ve been fun.

know why we never did

EURY: You drew almost every issue of The Brave and

that team-up, I really

the Bold from 1971 to 1983. What was the secret to

don’t.

your longevity?

EURY: You appeared on

APARO: There

the cover of B&B #124,

were a lot of

coerced by terrorists to

characters I end-

draw Batman’s death.

ed up drawing,

You also appeared in

which, to me,

the story itself, with

I enjoyed. How

along with Haney and

many

Boltinoff. What are your

get a chance to

recollections of this tale?

do something

APARO: Oh, yeah. Haney’s script had me doing the art-

these B&B issues?

sneak one in that no one’s ever

Marvel or Captain Marvel Jr. A Batman/Shazam! issue

Aparo snuck into

Martian Manhunter, the Doom Patrol,

had a chance to draw in B&B?

the celebrities that

artists

like that?

work from my basement studio. These guys wearing masks—hoods—came down and forced me to draw. I escaped through the window. I have a window, of course. (Michael chuckles)

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TEAM-UP GUIDE ael Eury

by Mich

Back in the ’70s and ’80s, super-heroes were pairing off—and sometimes squaring off—on the stands almost every week. The Ultimate Team-Up Guide collects all of DC’s and Marvel’s team-up titles of BACK ISSUE’s era in this comprehensive checklist! (Guest-star appearances or crossovers in regular series are not included.)

DC Comics Presents teamed the Man of Steel with tons of titans. Cover art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

DC Comics 1963–1982 (team-up format) #50: Green Arrow and the Manhunter from Mars #51: Aquaman and Hawkman #52: 3 Battle Stars: Sgt. Rock, Lt. Cloud, and Tankman Stuart #53: the Atom and the Flash #54: Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin #55: the Metal Men and the Atom #56: the Flash and the Manhunter from Mars #59: Batman and Green Lantern #60: the Teen Titans #61: Starman and Black Canary #62: Starman and Black Canary (guest-starring Wildcat) #63: Supergirl and Wonder Woman #64: Batman vs. Eclipso #65: the Flash and the Doom Patrol #66: Metamorpho and the Metal Men #67: Batman and the Flash #68: Batman and Metamorpho #69: Batman and Green Lantern #70: Batman and Hawkman #71: Batman and Green Arrow #72: the Spectre and the Flash #73: Aquaman and the Atom #74: Batman and the Metal Men

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(Batman takes over lead) Batman’s teammates: #75: Spectre #76: Plastic Man #77: Atom #78: Wonder Woman co-starring Batgirl #79: Deadman #80: Creeper #81: Flash #82: Aquaman #83: Teen Titans #84: Sgt. Rock #85: Green Arrow #86: Deadman #87: Wonder Woman #88: Wildcat #89: Phantom Stranger #90: Adam Strange #91: Black Canary #92: Bat-Squad #93: House of Mystery #94: Teen Titans #95: ? (Plastic Man) #96: Sgt. Rock #97: Wildcat #98: Phantom Stranger #99: Flash #100: 4 Famous Co-Stars (Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Robin) #101: Metamorpho

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#102: Teen Titans #103: Metal Men #104: Deadman #105: Wonder Woman #106: Green Arrow plus ? (Two-Face) #107: Black Canary #108: Sgt. Rock #109: Demon #110: Wildcat #111: Joker #112: Mister Miracle #113: Metal Men #114: Aquaman #115: Atom #116: Spectre #117: Sgt. Rock #118: Wildcat co-starring Joker #119: Man-Bat #120: Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #121: Metal Men #122: Swamp Thing #123: Plastic Man and Metamorpho #124: Sgt. Rock #125: Flash #126: Aquaman #127: Wildcat #128: Mister Miracle #129: Green Arrow co-starring Atom, Joker, and Two-Face #130: 4 Famous Co-Stars (Green Arrow, Atom, Joker, and Two-Face) #131: Wonder Woman vs. Catwoman #132: Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #133: Deadman

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

ULTIMATE

The

#134: Green Lantern #135: Metal Men #136: Green Arrow and Metal Men #137: Demon #138: Mister Miracle #139: Hawkman #140: Wonder Woman #141: Black Canary #142: Batman vs. Aquaman #143: Creeper #144: Green Arrow #145: Phantom Stranger #146: Unknown Soldier #147: Supergirl #148: Plastic Man #149: Teen Titans #150: ? (Superman) #151: Flash #152: Atom #153: Red Tornado #154: Metamorpho #155: Green Lantern #156: Doctor Fate #157: Kamandi #158: Wonder Woman #159: Ra’s al Ghul, Master of Assassins #160: Supergirl #161: Adam Strange #162: Sgt. Rock #163: Black Lightning #164: Hawkman #165: Man-Bat #166: Black Canary #167: Blackhawk #168: Green Arrow #169: Zatanna #170: Nemesis #171: Scalphunter #172: Firestorm #173: Guardians of Universe #174: Green Lantern #175: Lois Lane #176: Swamp Thing #177: Elongated Man #178: Creeper #179: Legion of Super-Heroes #180: Spectre #181: Hawk and Dove #182: Robin the Ex-Boy Wonder (Robin of Earth-2) #183: Riddler #184: Huntress #185: Green Arrow #186: Hawkman #187: Metal Men #188: Rose and Thorn #189: Rose and Thorn #190: Adam Strange #191: Joker #192: Superboy #193: Nemesis #194: Flash #195: I . . . Vampire

WORLD’S FINEST COMICS DC Comics 1970–1972 ■

Batman briefly vacated the series in the early 1970s to make way for different Superman co-stars.

All issues star Superman, with these guest stars: #198: the Flash #199: the Flash #200: Robin #201: Green Lantern #202: Batman #203: Aquaman #204: Wonder Woman #205: the Teen Titans #206: Batman (reprint Giant) #207: Batman #208: Dr. Fate #209: Hawkman #210: Green Arrow #211: Batman #212: the Martian Manhunter #213: the Atom #214: the Vigilante

All issues star Spider-Man and these guest stars, unless otherwise noted: #1: the Human Torch #2: the Human Torch #3: the Human Torch #4: the X-Men #5: the Vision #6: the Thing #7: the Mighty Thor #8: the Cat #9: the Invincible Iron Man #10: the Human Torch #11: the Inhumans #12: the Werewolf [by Night] #13: Captain America #14: the Savage Sub-Mariner #15: the Ghost Rider #16: Captain Marvel #17: Mister Fantastic #18: Human Torch and the Hulk (no Spider-Man) #19: Ka-Zar #20: the Black Panther #21: Doctor Strange #22: Hawkeye #23: Human Torch and Iceman (no Spider-Man) #24: Brother Voodoo (Issues #1-24 reprinted as The Essential Marvel Team-Up vol. 1) #25: Daredevil #26: Human Torch and Thor (no Spider-Man) #27: the Hulk #28: Hercules #29: Human Torch and Iron Man (no Spider-Man) #30: the Falcon #31: Iron Fist #32: Human Torch and the Son of Satan (no Spider-Man) #33: Nighthawk #34: Valkyrie #35: Human Torch and Doctor Strange (no Spider-Man) #36: the Frankenstein Monster #37: Man-Wolf #38: the Beast #39: the Human Torch #40: the Sons of the Tiger #41: the Scarlet Witch #42: the Vision #43: Dr. Doom #44: Moondragon #45: Killraven #46: Deathlok

■

#55: Doctor Fate and Hourman (guest-starring Green Lantern) #56: Doctor Fate and Hourman

SHOWCASE DC Comics 1965

■

#47: the Thing #48: Iron Man #49: Iron Man #50: Doctor Strange #51: Iron Man #52: Captain America #53: the Incredible Hulk #54: the Incredible Hulk #55: Warlock #56: Daredevil #57: the Black Widow #58: Ghost Rider #59: Yellowjacket and the Wasp #60: the Wasp #61: the Human Torch #62: Ms. Marvel #63: Iron Fist #64: the Daughters of the Dragon #65: Captain Britain #66: Captain Britain #67: Tigra #68: the Man-Thing #69: Havok #70: Thor #71: the Falcon #72: Iron Man #73: Daredevil #74: the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players (from Saturday Night Live) #75: Power Man #76: Dr. Strange #77: Ms. Marvel #78: Wonder Man #79: Red Sonja #80: Dr. Strange and Clea #81: Satana #82: the Black Widow #83: Nick Fury #84: Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu #85: Shang-Chi, Black Widow, and Nick Fury #86: the Guardians of the Galaxy #87: the Black Panther #88: the Invisible Girl #89: Nightcrawler #90: the Beast #91: Ghost Rider #92: Hawkeye #93: the Werewolf #94: the Shroud, Master of Darkness #95: Mockingbird #96: Howard the Duck #97: the Hulk and Spider-Woman (no Spider-Man) #98: the Black Widow #99: Machine Man #100: the Fantastic Four #101: Nighthawk #102: Doc Samson #103: Ant-Man #104: the Hulk and Ka-Zar (no Spider-Man) #105: the Hulk, Power Man, and Iron Fist (no Spider-Man) #106: Captain America

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#107: She-Hulk #108: Paladin #109: the Dazzler #110: Iron Man #111: the Devil-Slayer #112: King Kull #113: the Fantastic Four #114: the Falcon #115: Thor #116: Valkyrie #117: Wolverine #118: Professor X #119: the Gargoyle #120: Dominic Fortune #121: the Human Torch #122: the Man-Thing #123: Daredevil #124: the Beast #125: Tigra #126: two team-ups: Spider-Man and Hulk/ Power Man and the Son of Satan #127: the Watcher #128: Captain America #129: the Vision #130: the Scarlet Witch #131: Frog-Man #132: Mr. Fantastic #133: the Fantastic Four #134: the Jack of Hearts #135: Kitty Pryde #136: Wonder Man #137: Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs. Galactus (no Spider-Man) #138: the Sandman #139: Nick Fury #140: the Black Widow #141: Daredevil #142: Captain America #143: Starfox #144: Moon Knight #145: Iron Man #146: Nomad #147: the Human Torch #148: the Mighty Thor #149: Cannonball #150 Spider-Man and the Uncanny X-Men

MARVEL TEAM-UP Marvel Comics 1972–1985

#196: Ragman #197: Catwoman #198: Karate Kid #199: Spectre #200: Batman (of Earth-2)

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#8: Ghost Rider

#1 (1976): Spider-Man and the X-Men #2 (1979): Spider-Man and the Hulk #3 (1980): The Hulk, Power Man, and Iron Fist (with Machine Man) #4 (1981): Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, Power Man, and Daredevil #5 (1982): Spider-Man, the Thing, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, and Quasar #6 (1983): Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger, and the New Mutants #7 (1984): Spider-Man and Alpha Flight

#9: Thor

#2 (1977): Thing and Spider-Man, with the Avengers and Captain Marvel

#10: the Black Widow

#3 (1978): Thing and the Man Called Nova

#11: the Golem

#4 (1979): Thing and Black Bolt

#12: Iron Man

#5 (1980): Thing and the Hulk

#13: Power Man

#6 (1981): Thing and introducing . . . the American Eagle

#14: the Son of Satan #15: Morbius #16: Ka-Zar

#7 (1982): Thing and the Avengers, Hulk, Doc Samson, Fantastic Four, Thor, Alpha Flight, and the X-Men

#17: Spider-Man #18: the Scarecrow #19: Tigra #20: the Liberty Legion #21: Doc Savage

GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN 1974–1975

#22: Thor

#26: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #27: Deathlok #28: Sub-Mariner #29: Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu #30: Spider-Woman #31: the Mystery Menace (Alicia Masters) #32: the Invisible Girl #33: Modred the Mystic #34: Nighthawk #35: Skull the Slayer #36: Mr. Fantastic #37: Matt Murdock, Attorney-at-Law #38: Daredevil

#39: the Vision #40: the Black Panther #41: Brother Voodoo #42: Captain America #43: the Man-Thing #44: Hercules #45: Captain Marvel #46: the Incredible Hulk #47: the Yancy Street Gang

MARVEL FEATURE Marvel Comics 1973

#48: the Jack of Hearts

#11: the Thing and the Incredible Hulk

#49: Dr. Strange

#12: the Thing and Iron Man

#50: battles the Thing

■

#70: ? (Yancy Street Gang)

#1: Man-Thing

#57: Wundarr

#2: the Sub-Mariner

#58: the Aquarian

#3: Daredevil

#59: the Human Torch

#4: Captain America

#60: the Impossible Man

#5: Guardians of the Galaxy

#61: Starhawk

#6: Doctor Strange

#62: Moondragon

#56: Thundra

#7: the Valkyrie

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#1: Rawhide Kid and Dakota Kid

#71: Mr. Fantastic #73: Quasar #74: the Puppet Master #75: the Avengers #76: Iceman #77: the Man-Thing #78: Wonder Man #79: Blue Diamond #80: the Ghost Rider #81: the Sub-Mariner #82: Captain America #83: Sasquatch #84: Alpha Flight #85: Spider-Woman #86: Sandman #87: Ant-Man #88: She-Hulk #89: the Human Torch

#92: Jocasta

SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP Marvel Comics 1975–1980

#93: Machine Man

#1–13: Dr. Doom and Sub-Mariner

■

#94: Power Man and Iron Fist #95: the Living Mummy #96: Multiple Guest Stars #97: Iron Man #98: Franklin Richards #99: Rom Spaceknight #100 Ben Grimm

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1 (1976): Thing and the Liberty Legion

I S S U E

WESTERN TEAM-UP Marvel Comics 1973

#72: the Inhumans

#91: Mystery Guest (the Sphinx)

#55: Giant-Man

B A C K

#68: the Angel #69: the Guardians of the Galaxy

#52: Moon Knight

All issues star the Thing, with these guest stars:

•

#67: Hyperion

#90: Spider-Man

#54: Deathlok

■

#65: Triton #66: the Scarlet Witch

#51: the Beast, Ms. Marvel, Nick Fury, and Wonder Man #53: Quasar

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE Marvel Comics 1974–1983

#63: Warlock #64: Stingray

#25: Iron Fist

#6: Spider-Man and Human Torch (reprint)

#23: Thor #24: Black Goliath

#1 Spider-Man and Dracula #2: Spider-Man and Master of Kung Fu #3: Spider-Man and Doc Savage #4: Spider-Man and the Punisher #5: Spider-Man and the Man-Thing

3 0

MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL

#14: Dr. Doom and Magneto #15: Dr. Doom and the Red Skull #16–17: Red Skull and Hate-Monger

GIANT-SIZE SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 1975 #1–2: Dr. Doom and Sub-Mariner

SUPER-TEAM FAMILY DC Comics 1975–1978

#5: Aquaman

#46: the Global Guardians

DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL

#6: Green Lantern

#2: the Creeper and Wildcat

#7: the Red Tornado

#47: the Masters of the Universe (yes, He-Man)

#1 (1982): Superman and the Golden Age Superman

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#8: Swamp Thing

#48: Aquaman

#9: Wonder Woman

#49: Shazam!

#2 (1983): Superman introduces Superwoman

#10: Sgt. Rock

#50: Clark Kent

#3 (1984): Superman and Shazam!

#11: Hawkman

#51: the Atom

#4 (1985): Superman and Superwoman

#12: Mister Miracle

#52: the Doom Patrol

#13: the Legion of Super-Heroes

#53: the House of Mystery

#14: Wonder Woman and the Atom #15: the Flash and the New Gods

#14: Superboy

#55: Air Wave

#15: the Atom

#56: Power Girl

#16: Black Lightning

#57: the Atomic Knights

#12: Green Lantern and Hawkman plus the Atom #13: Aquaman and Captain Comet plus the Atom

#17: Firestorm

DC/MARVEL CROSSOVERS Co-published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics 1976–1982

#18: Zatanna #19: Batgirl #20: Green Arrow

■

#54: Green Arrow

#11: the Flash and Supergirl plus the Atom

#3: the Flash and Hawkman

#58: Robin the Teen Wonder and the Elongated Man #59: the Legion of Substitute Heroes #60: the Guardians of the Universe

Superman vs. the Amazing Spider Man (1976)

#21: the Elongated Man

Marvel Treasury Edition #28 (1981): Superman and Spider-Man

#22: Captain Comet

#62: the Freedom Fighters

#23: Doctor Fate

#63: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

Marvel and DC Present #1 (1982): the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans

ALL-NEW COLLECTORS EDITION DC Comics 1978 ■

#24: Deadman

#64: Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth

#25: the Phantom Stranger

#65: Madame Xanadu

#26: Green Lantern

#66: the Demon

#27: Manhunter from Mars

#67: Santa Claus

#28: Supergirl

#68: Vixen

#29: the Spectre

#69: Blackhawk

#30: Black Canary

#70: the Metal Men

DC Special Series #27 (1981): Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk

#61: OMAC, One Man Army Corps

#31: Robin the Teen Wonder

#71: Bizarro

#32: Wonder Woman

#72: the Phantom Stranger and the Joker

#33: Shazam!

#73: the Flash

#34: the Shazam! Family

#74: Hawkman

#35: Man-Bat

#75: Arion, Lord of Atlantis

#36: Starman

#76: Wonder Woman

#37: Hawkgirl #38: the Flash

#77: the Forgotten Heroes (Animal-Man, Dolphin, and Congorilla)

■

The original super-hero comic became a team-up title after the Man of Steel Superman revamp.

#39: Plastic Man

#78: the Forgotten Villains

#40: Metamorpho the Element Man

#79: Clark Kent

#41: the Joker

#80: the Legion of Super-Heroes

#42: the Unknown Soldier

#81: Ambush Bug

#43: the Legion of Super-Heroes

#82: Adam Strange

#44: Dial “H” for Hero

#83: Batman and the Outsiders

#45: Firestorm

#84: the Challengers of the Unknown

#586: the New Gods #587: the Demon #588: Hawkman #589: the Green Lantern Corps

#592: Big Barda

#87: Superboy

#C-58: Superman vs. Shazam!

#593: Mr. Miracle

#88: the Creeper

#594: vs. Booster Gold

#89: the Omega Men

#595: ????????? (Martian Manhunter)

#90: Firestorm and Captain Atom

#596: the Spectre

#91: Captain Comet

#3: Adam Strange #4: the Metal Men

All issues star Superman, with these guest stars: #2: the Flash

#598: Checkmate

#93: the Elastic Four (Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad, Plastic Man, the Elongated Man, and a stretchable menace)

■

#1: the Flash

#597: Lois Lane and Lana Lang

#92: the Vigilante

DC COMICS PRESENTS DC Comics 1978–1986

#590: the Metal Men #591: vs. Superboy

#86: Supergirl

#C-56: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

All issues star Superman, with these guest stars: #584: the Teen Titans #585: the Phantom Stranger

#85: Swamp Thing

#C-54: Superman vs. Wonder Woman

ACTION COMICS DC Comics 1987–1988

#599: the Metal Men #600: Superman and Wonder Woman

#94: Harbinger, Lady Quark, and Pariah #95: Hawkman

Action Comics Annual

#96: Blue Devil

#1 (1987): Superman and Batman

#97: the Phantom Zone Criminals

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ton Hamil ” e n o amb vid “H y Da

s m a e T r e S up en ci l in P

BATMAN AND SUPERMAN • CURT SWAN

Curt Swan penciled this commissioned illustration back in 1984, and when BACK ISSUE editor

Michael Eury found a copy of it in your humble Hambone’s files, he immediately got on the horn and asked Mr. Murphy Anderson to ink it

as this issue’s cover!

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B A T M A N A N D S U P E R M A N • ALEX TOTH

From Superman Annual #9 (1983), the World’s Finest team by Alexander (Alex) Toth! Of course, Mr. Toth’s sizeable credits include Super Friends, “Green Lantern,” “Johnny Thunder,” House of Mystery, and hundreds more classics. See our “back issues” section for Comic Book Artist #11 (Jan. 2001), featuring a

Toth spotlight.

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FANTASTIC FOUR • JOHN BYRNE

Difficult as it is to comprehend—now— Mr. John Byrne went through the tryout system at Marvel Comics. Here is one of his Fantastic Four samples (which have floated around the industry for decades, which I’m sure John is sorry to know). Tryout or not, Byrne’s talents as a storyteller and pencil artist are completely

evident here!

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Alex Ross’ Marvels recreation of Jack Kirby’s cover to Fantastic Four #1, what may be the single-most recreated comic-

FANTASTIC FOUR • ALEX ROSS

book cover ever. Alex chose to enhance Kirby’s original, changing only the camera angle. A perfect tribute to Stan and Jack’s breakthrough creation (for more of Ross’ take on the

FF, see page 45).

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CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON • FRANK ROBBINS

From 1975, Captain America and the Falcon pencils by the one-and-only Frank Robbins. Also a newspaper-strip artist and a comic-book writer, Robbins’ comics art credits also included Batman in Detective Comics (who remembers She-Bat?), Roy Thomas’ Invaders for Marvel, and Morbius the Living Vampire in Adventure into Fear.

Dynamic stuff!

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Heroes for hire

POWER MAN AND IRON FIST • KERRY GAMMILL

Luke Cage and Danny Rand, powerfully penciled by artist for hire Kerry Gammill! Kerry has always made storytelling and panel composition look so effortless. This splash is from 1981’s Power Man and Iron Fist #74, which featured

a Frank Miller cover!

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JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA • DON HECK

Don Heck—one of the original Marvel Bullpenners—shows his underrated storytelling powers at DC! His JLA #215 (1983) pencils demonstrate the correct way to tell a writer’s story (i.e., no unnecessary detail or confusing panel layouts . . . or overly rendered figures)—just tell the

story! Don knew it all!

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In what was to be Don Newton’s last comicbook series—a page from Roy Thomas’ Infinity, Inc., issue #12 (1985). Wanna see some of Newton’s

INFINITY, INC. • DON NEWTON

earlier work? Check out BACK ISSUE #6’s “Beyond Capes” article on Charlton Comics’ 1970s horror titles (you can order it from TwoMorrows in case

you missed it).

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POWER PACK • JUNE BRIGMAN

One of June Brigman’s first regular penciling assignments was Marvel’s fondly remembered Power Pack (1984–1991), created and written by Louise Simonson. If you thought the FF was “family,” PP upped the ante—they were super-powered siblings! And long before the Powerpuff Girls! What

a splash page!

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Rick Leonardi tackles (and quite ably, we gotta add) that nightand-day super-team,

CLOAK AND DAGGER • RICK LEONARDI

Cloak and Dagger! Another artist’s artist— Rick was fully capable of translating whatever writer Bill Mantlo needed . . . and more. A gifted pencil pusher! (And check out 1983’s four-ish Cloak and Dagger series to see Leonardi’s graphite inked by the fabulous

Terry Austin!)

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BATMAN AND BLACKHAWK • DAVE COCKRUM

Dave Cockrum’s artistic fluency is truly shown here— and there’s nary a mutant in sight! This beautifully constructed page is well timed for this issue’s lead feature—it’s from The Brave and the Bold #180 (1980), where writer Marv Wolfman admirably combined the unlikely team of the Caped Crusader

and the Ace Airfighters.

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SUPERMAN VS. SPIDER-MAN • CARMINE INFANTINO

When you think of Carmine Infantino, chances are, you don’t think of Spider-Man. Enter 1976’s Superman vs. the Amazing SpiderMan, a DC/Marvel co-publication “tabloid”-sized special, where then-DC head honcho (and cover designer supreme) Infantino laid out this unforgettable cover, which was eventually penciled by Ross Andru and inked by Dick Giordano. And for some real rough stuff, the insets show Carmine’s preliminary sketches for the cover. Courtesy of Jerry Boyd (from an original art catalog).

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s n t a i T Teen ’ Elseworlds: Swing in’ E

o o G G a Haney ) r e h e w o (N Michael

Eury

Hey, man, like, remember the ’60s? Some of you don’t, because you weren’t born yet. And some of you don’t, because you lost too many brain cells back then. And some of you (like me) who grew up in the ’60s remember—and even revere—writer Bob Haney, who spoke our language (or at least tried to) with his wild, sometimes hokey, but always charming Teen Titans scripts. A lot of kids wanted to be Batman, but I thought Robin was the coolest (his briefs and booties aside), largely due to Haney’s characterization of the Boy Wonder in the Titans. Haney’s Robin was smart, athletic, and a natural born leader—and he still had time to dig the sound of the Flips, to his mentor’s dismay (to which Robin remarked, “Batman—you are definitely un-round. . . ” in Showcase #59). Many comics profes-

Whither Goest They?

sionals also grew up on Haney’s stories, so it came as no surprise in 2002 that DC Comics planned a nostal-

To limbo, baby, that’s where!

gic Teen Titans flashback tale in its “Elseworlds” non-continuity imprint.

The pencils to page one (far

Then-DC editor Dan Raspler spearheaded the project, and recruited Bob Haney himself to type (yes, type—

right) of Teen Titans Swingin’

the esteemed Mr. Haney never joined the computer age) the script—who else could best recapture the feel of

Elseworlds Special, courtesy

those ’60s classics? While the script was not available for review, it was reportedly set in the early 1960s and

of artist Jay Stephens, and

involved both President John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. Original Teen Titans artist Nick Cardy returned to draw the cover, with interior art by Jay Stephens and Mike Allred. Everyone was committed to

the finished version (above)

making this one-shot a visual blast from the past. In 2003, Teen Titans Swingin’ Elseworlds Special was solicited,

with inks by Mike Allred.

then. . . . . . it disappeared.

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Faster than Kid Flash, mention of the book seemed

stuff so deadly seriously. Not me, and not Bob. You can

to vanish. Also, editor Raspler was let go from DC (he

still love super-hero comic books and have capital-“F” fun

wasn’t alone, incidentally) as part of an editorial

with the genre. Kids dressing up in primary-colored cos-

Conspiracy theorists, take a powder: The shelving of the Titans Elseworlds seems more an editorial decision

tumes to fight injustice is an inherently stupid idea, after all. I happen to like that kind of stupid. . . EURY: What do you have to say to Haney’s detractors?

than a boardroom machination. While no official rea-

STEPHENS: Keep reading the Ultimate comics and pre-

son was ever stated by DC for the book’s removal from

tending you’re “mature.” We think it’s cute!

its schedule, the Swingin’ solicitation came at a time

EURY: How did Haney’s typewritten script compare to

when both DC’s Teen Titans revival and the Cartoon

scripts and plots by contemporary writers?

Network’s Teen Titans series—neither of which bear

STEPHENS: Ha-ha-ha-ha! Haney’s scripting hasn’t changed

any resemblance to Haney’s incarnation—were becom-

one little bit in all these years . . . it was like opening a

ing runaway successes. Titans Elseworlds’ retro look

time capsule. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy many a good,

stood in sharp contrast to the Titans the market was

modern comic script (and I’ve worked with some of the

embracing. Granted, some BACK ISSUE readers prefer

best), but Haney is from another planet entirely!

restructuring. Wha’ hoppen??

the swingin’ version of the teen super-team, but other than its commendable reprint line, which includes Archive Editions of both the Silver Age and the New Teen Titans, DC Comics is in the business of moving its characters forward. But since many BI readers are curious about might have beens, I contacted cartoonist/animator Jay Stephens (whose TV cartoon Tutenstein recently won an Emmy— congrats, Jay!) via email to ask him a few questions about Swingin’ and Bob Haney. Jay, who lives in Canada, was also kind enough to send the penciled pages you see here, as a glimpse at the Teen Titans you didn’t see. MICHAEL EURY: How’d you land the Swingin’ Titans assignment? JAY STEPHENS: My old chum, Doc Allred, got wind of the gig, and knew I’d like a shot at the pencils. EURY: How familiar were you with the 1960s’ version of the TTs? STEPHENS: Very. I’m in love with the checkerboard era of DC Comics [in case you came in late, mid-1960s DC covers had a “go-go checks” pattern running across their top borders] . . . I’d like to marry it one day. You know, if my wife ever divorces me. Which is entirely possible. EURY: And with writer Bob Haney? STEPHENS: Bob’s one of my all-time favorite comics writers. He co-created the Doom Patrol, you know . . . best superhero team, ever. The Titans ain’t so bad, either. Also . . . Fat Batman [Bat-Hulk, in The Brave and the Bold #68]. EURY: Bob Haney was known (loved by some, disliked by © 2004 DC Comics.

others) for his often crazy ideas, pseudo-hip dialogue, and disregard for continuity. I’m guessing those elements played right to your sensibilities. . . STEPHENS: Oh, God, yeah. So many people take this

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EURY: Did you know that Bob Haney also has an ani-

Punish Not My Super-Sons

mation background? He wrote scripts for many of the DC toons produced by Filmation during the ’60s. STEPHENS: I actually drew the “Monster Machine” [an episode written by George Kashdan, actually, a Haney contemporary] from Filmation’s Teen Titans cartoon

This issue’s coverage of super-hip

into the opening splash of the Titans Lair. Most kids

super-team writer Bob Haney would

from that era were watching super-hero cartoons

not be complete without mention of one of his . . . well, oddest

before they could read. Their first impression of the DC

creations, the teenaged sons of

characters is more often than not Bob Haney’s! The

Superman and Batman.

campy Batman TV show (another one of my faves)

In late 1972, when World’s Finest

shares that Haney sensibility, too.

Comics readers were anxiously

EURY: What was the Swingin’ Titans story about?

awaiting the latest in editor Julius Schwartz’s series of non-Batman

STEPHENS: I’m not telling. Well, okay . . . JFK is kid-

Superman team-ups (see this issue’s

napped by aliens.

“The Ultimate Team-Up Guide”), fans

EURY: This would’ve been JFK’s first appearance in a DC

were blindsided by issue #215’s

comic in some time. What challenges did the story’s

new editor (Murray Boltinoff) and

mid-1960s setting present?

the return of the Superman/Batman

STEPHENS: I was asked to drop some acid to get into

team—and their co-stars, Superman Jr. and Batman Jr.! The “Super-Sons”

the right mindframe. I watched a lot of Star Trek and

were the brainchild of Bob Haney,

Yellow Submarine.

who defended his continuity-shat-

EURY: Now that’s dedication! With Speedy being

tering concept in that issue’s letters

involved, all five Titans appeared in the tale. Did you

column: “It is not imaginary, not

have a favorite to draw? A least favorite?

fantasy, but the way it happened,” the author wrote. “Thus, this issue

STEPHENS: Speedy is definitely my favorite to draw.

gives you just one other, previously

And Wonder Girl. My least favorite was the Joker’s

undisclosed portion of [Superman

Daughter. Just kidding . . . no Joker’s Daughter in this

and Batman’s] unique stories.” Even

story. You know who else isn’t in this story? Ragman.

Haney’s most diehard supporters

EURY: Did any of the Titans guys do the Batusi with

(myself included) scratched their

when the majority of your citizens were still blissfully supporting your current President’s new war. Doc Allred’s X-Statix story featuring the late Lady Diana had recently been pulled, so that might have jinxed us, too. EURY: How’d you take the news of the book being put

Wonder Girl?

heads over this one, but the writer

and the book was originally scheduled to come out

managed to incorporate his “gener-

STEPHENS: Well, without giving too much away,

ation gap” perspectives into the lives

someone actually MAKES OUT with Wonder Girl in this

of DC’s big guns in 11 endearing

story, and later proposes marriage! EURY: In today’s post-9/11 USA, do you think the story’s depiction of a kidnapped US President and the Vietnam War might have given DC cold feet? STEPHENS: Could be. It’s a blatantly anti-war story,

on hiatus? STEPHENS: Badly. I dropped more acid and joined a commune. Want a hand-woven basket? EURY: How many pages had you done when the plug was pulled? STEPHENS: The entire book is penciled, inked, and colored, and had actually been solicited before it was shelved. Nick Cardy’s gorgeous cover was done. Orders

stories that appeared sporadically

Kieron

i n Wo r l d ’s F i n e s t u n t i l 1 9 7 6 .

based on sales.

Dwyer

Denny O’Neil penned a 1980

EURY: Any chance this book might get the green light

illustrated the last,

script which was the Super-Sons’

again?

last hurrah, but Haney came out

STEPHENS: I have no idea. You’d have to ask DC. I’m

of retirement in 1999 to write “Superman Jr. is No More” for DC’s Elseworlds 80-Page Giant. This

Readers wanting to experience more of Jay

unlucky indeed: Elseworlds 80-Page

Stephens fun ’n’ fab artwork are encouraged to visit

Giant was recalled by DC due to

his website (www.jaystephens.com). Buy a hand-

controversy over a different story

woven basket while you’re there.

reportedly exist.

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not speaking to them anymore. And by not speaking to them, I mean they aren’t returning my phone calls.

13th tale of the Super-Sons was

in the issue. Only 1,500 copies

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hadn’t come in yet, so it was an internal decision not

roundtable discussion

hosted by Peter Sanderson

The Fantastic Four:

John Romita Sr.’s Fantastic Four, for an unspecified project. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine

The Fantastic Four is where the modern super-hero genre truly began. Created in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four was the first series in the“Marvel Age of Comics,” giving rise to all the rest. Lee and Kirby endowed the FF with multidimensional personalities, with flaws as well as virtues. In their 102 issues together, Lee and Kirby created the Marvel Universe, demonstrating an imaginative reach unsurpassed in the medium. Yet their epic fantasy was rooted in a world recognizably our own, in which their characters could experience tragedy as well as triumph. Moreover, with Fantastic Four, Lee and Kirby turned what was considered trivial juvenile fiction into a vehicle for personal expression. Fantastic Four set mainstream comics on the road toward the greater artistic sophistication they have achieved in the four decades since it began. Fantastic Four also revolutionized the super-hero team book. Though created in response to DC’s Justice League of America, the FF was no coalition of unrelated characters from different series. The four leads— Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, their genius leader; his wife Susan, the Invisible Woman; her younger brother Johnny Storm, the Human Torch; and their best friend Ben Grimm, the monstrous Thing—were each at once distinctive individual personalities and necessary components of a conceptual unit. One can see them as a family, as human embodiments of the four mythic “elements” (water, air, fire, and earth), or of different aspects of a single mind, sometimes at odds with each other, but ultimately united. For this roundtable discussion we have submitted 12 questions about this landmark series to its cocreator, Stan Lee, and 20 other comics professionals. Most of them have written, drawn, or edited Fantastic Four over its long history; all have been influenced by it. Most people responded to the questionnaire via email; Gerry Conway and Alex Ross instead asked to be interviewed by phone. With a new motion picture adaptation now in production, Fantastic Four is on the brink of reaching beyond comics to a vast new audience. In this roundtable, comics creators from over the entire span of Fantastic Four history tell us what this landmark series has meant to them.–Peter Sanderson

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SANDERSON: Who is the most essential member of the Fantastic Four, and why? STAN LEE (FF co-creator/longtime writer): To me, they were all equally important. But I always felt the Thing was the most colorful and the most appealing. JOHN BYRNE (FF writer/artist, 1981–86): “Essential” is a tricky word, but I would probably have to say the Thing. Without him, it’s not really the FF. TOM BREVOORT (2000s FF editor): I don’t know that any one member is essential—what was essential was the family dynamic between the four characters; that’s one of the elements that separated the series from everything else around it. But taking that into account, the Thing was probably the greatest innovation as a personality among the original four. MARK EVANIER (colleague of FF co-creator Jack Kirby): I don’t know that there is a “most essential” member. One of the things I always liked about the comic was that all four of them were important and that they worked together . . . or didn’t work together. A good team comic isn’t just about a group of heroes. It’s about a group of heroes and how they function together. But since that probably doesn’t answer your question, I’ll pick the guy with the orange rocks for skin, just because he’s usually been the most interesting because he’s the one who’s most ambivalent about their odd lot in life.

(Center) Stan “the Man” Lee, in a 1969 illustration by Don Heck. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

CHRIS CLAREMONT (1990s FF writer): The brat in me wants to say Valeria (because I created her). The traditionalist wants to say Reed, because he’s the Big Brain. I’d say Sue, but everyone would assume I’m playing to my own cliché. Johnny would have to wait for everyone to stop laughing (sorry, kiddo). Which brings me to Ben. Who, to me, embodies the heart and soul of both the team and the concept, representing the great dangers inherent in Reed’s ambitions—because of them all, he’s the only one who can’t possibly hide what he’s become—but at the same time, triumphs that element of the human spirit which enables us to overcome adversity. And he’s just plain fun to write.

GERRY CONWAY (1970s FF writer): There are two answers to that question: There’s the member who’s essential to the Fantastic Four and the member who’s essential to the book. For the Fantastic Four, it’s Reed Richards. He’s the organizing principle of the group, keeping it on track. For the book, commercially and creatively, it’s the Thing. He’s the most interesting and compelling character. ROY THOMAS (1970s FF writer): To the group itself, I believe Reed is the most essential, as the father figure. For me to enjoy the book, though, the most essential character is and always has been the Thing, one of the most unique characters in the history of comics.

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LEN WEIN (1970s FF writer): Well, for sheer commercial value, I’d have to go with Ben Grimm. He’s probably the most popular. But I’ve always felt that Reed Richards was the most important member of the group, in that he carries the greatest emotional burden, feeling responsible for Ben’s condition, concern for his growing family, etc. Also, when you get right down to it, Reed probably also generates the greatest number of different storylines. ALEX ROSS (Marvels and Earth X artist): I think of the Thing, who has the personality and the charm, and that’s what sells. Otherwise, it’s the Human Torch, who was a carryover to the Silver Age. [The original Human Torch debuted in 1939 and inspired Lee and Kirby’s creation of the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch.] He had the legs to support himself in a solo series and he did [in Strange Tales]. His helping hand made the book what it is. But my choice for the most essential member is the Reed Richards character. He’s the straight man in comics, who would be considered by some to be boring. But on his back is the greatest burden. By his steadfast calm and what would be considered his boring personality, he’s the bulwark that they rest upon. I have a great fondness for characters like that. I see Reed Richards as the metaphor for the creative mind. Reed having a super-power almost sullies his worth. Jim Krueger [Ross’ collaborator on Earth X and its sequels] and I have a particular love for this character— maybe because I’ve become a more boring, straitlaced guy! RICH BUCKLER (1970s FF artist): Reed Richards, I would think, since putting together the group was his idea, and he provides the leadership. MARK WAID (2000s FF writer): Reed. Without him, it’s entirely likely that the other three would have squandered their heroic potential living out unrealized, mundane lives. MARV WOLFMAN (1970s FF writer): Reed Richards. Simply because he’s the crux of the group, the one who holds it together and the “father” figure in the family. Since the FF is a family, there needs to be one head, and Reed’s it. PAUL RYAN (1990s FF artist): I would say it is a toss-up between Reed and Sue. Reed is the planner/inventor. If a particular menace is beyond his malleable powers to stop he invents a device to defeat the villain. Sue is the tie that binds them all together. Without her I think they would go their separate way. KURT BUSIEK (Marvels writer): My first impulse was to answer “Reed,” but thinking it over, I’ll say “Sue.” Ben and Johnny are flashy and fun, and Reed’s the one who gives them a direction, but he’d be doing the same things even on his own. It’s Sue that binds them together as a family, that makes them a team. Without her, I think they’d drift apart.

JERRY ORDWAY (1980s FF artist): While my favorite is Ben Grimm, the most essential is Sue, who really held things together. She exerted an influence over Reed, her mate, Johnny, her brother, and Ben, who usually acted the gentleman when Sue was around. It wasn’t a perfect family, but it worked. STEVE ENGLEHART (1970s FF writer): I’d say Ben, but they’re all essential. Didn’t keep me from shaking them up, because essential isn’t a license to be boring, but if all of them are operating on all cylinders, each one has something vital to contribute.

STEVE RUDE (Kirby admirer/FF special projects artist): I don’t know how the team would function were one to be omitted, because as a team, all four personnel are critical to doing their job. For example, without Reed, they would be leaderless, without the Thing, they would lack their heavyhitter, without Sue, there would be too [much] testosterone . . . etc. WALTER SIMONSON (FF writer/ artist, 1989–91): In a sense, I don’t think this is really answerable. Characters have dropped out and been substituted for but in the end, the FF is the original four members. The FF do seem to be a family group and if you change members, you may still have four characters and they still may be “fantastic” and they may even by great pals, but it ain’t the same family. ROGER STERN (1980s FF writer): I’m not sure that there is one single “essential member.” Hasn’t every one of them quit and/or been thought dead at least once? I think they’re all pretty essential, myself. You can have other heroes fill-in for one of them for a while, but the FF is Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny. Other combinations may make for an interesting change of pace, but nothing beats the original. KARL KESEL (2000s FF inker/co-writer): None of the FF is more essential than the others. That’s why no matter who else rotates through the group, it always comes back to Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. As I’m sure others have pointed out, as representative of the Four Elements (fire, air, water, and earth), the FF are interdependent, even on a conceptual level. TOM DeFALCO (1990s FF writer): They are all essential. Reed is the team’s mind, Sue is the heart, Ben gives them fortitude, and Johnny is [the] fun side. SANDERSON: Who was your favorite substitute member of the Fantastic Four, and why? (Substitutes have included Luke Cage, Crystal, Dr. Doom, Ghost Rider, HERBIE the Robot, Hulk, Medusa, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine.)

LEE: Crystal was my favorite. If memory serves, I think I introduced her as love interest for Johnny Storm. BREVOORT: Probably Crystal, since her inclusion A) was done by Stan and Jack, and so it had a legitimacy that the later ones lacked, and B) maintained the family flavor of the series in a way that the other characters really didn’t. Crystal was a member of the household; everybody else was merely a guest star. ORDWAY: I think Crystal was my favorite. I loved the issues where Johnny and Wyatt Wingfoot first encountered the Inhumans. Later, when she subbed for Sue, she fit in perfectly. EVANIER: Never cared for any of the substitute members, but if I have to name one, I’ll say Crystal. Few of the others ever seemed to really relate to the other three; they just seemed stuck into the stories for marquee value.

Bowen Designs’ Thing mini-bust, sculpted

BUSIEK: Crystal, because she’s the only one that fits cleanly into the “family” dynamic—she’s Johnny’s girl, and that’s a family tie. Plus, “she makes Dorrie Evans look like a boy!” Second choice: Medusa, for her imperious attitude.

CONWAY: They are by definition second best. They’re not the first team. I liked working with Medusa, because she was another female in the group. Thundra was good to a degree. The big problem I had writing the Fantastic Four was the lack of strong female figures. Sue Storm wasn’t a strong female figure [back then], and I like strong female figures! [laughs]

STERN: Probably She-Hulk, though I’ll always have a soft spot for Crystal. She was Johnny’s first really major romantic interest, after all. ROSS: She-Hulk, mostly based upon sex appeal. She fit quite nicely the way Byrne wrote her in. She had the most natural fit, rather than Crystal or Medusa or Power Man. With Crystal, you couldn’t get a real strong grasp on what her gimmick is. You need someone with a more distinct power. Crystal is not an attractive female super-hero on her own. If anything happened with the Thing, it feels like She-Hulk can fit into the ensemble. BYRNE: She-Hulk—because she occupied the same position as the Thing, with many of the same abilities, but came at the job from a totally different angle.

(far left and above)

KESEL: She-Hulk, probably. John Byrne did some wonderful, unexpected things with her as a member. I got a real sense that she connected with the family and fit in, a real sense of belonging. Now she doesn’t write, doesn’t call. . .

The Torch, by John Romita, Sr. Courtesy of Frank Giella.

RYAN: She-Hulk. She has power to spare and curves that can stop traffic. She also has a great attitude about life. Just ask Wyatt [Wingfoot].

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DeFALCO: I really loved what John Byrne did with the She-Hulk—especially the story where she’s photographed sunbathing atop Four Freedoms Plaza—and I also enjoyed putting the Scott Lang Ant-Man into the book because he was so totally out of his depth. CLAREMONT: I’d have to go with She-Hulk, because she made a great counterpart to Ben. But I’ve always thought the Impossible Man should have been given a decent shot. ENGLEHART: Ms. Mar vel, of course. [Sharon Ventura, the second Ms. Marvel, not Carol Danvers; she became She-Thing.] The “She-Thing” touched something very primal about the group that had been lost for 25 years. BUCKLER: Luke Cage. THOMAS: I enjoyed writing Luke Cage/ Power Man as a member . . . Medusa, too. No particular reason I can think of, though. Maybe I just liked looking at drawings of Medusa.

Neal Adams’ take on the

SIMONSON: After the answer I gave above [to #1], it may seem odd that I’m the guy who wrote the “new” Fantastic Four story with Spidey, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider. But I did the story for the same reason I do all my stories; I thought it would be fun. And I hoped it would be something a bit different. After comics have run for years, it’s tough sometimes to find new situations for everybody; the “new” FF (a lineup that got a little help from Kurt Busiek, who was working at Marvel back then) seemed like an idea that was fun. It obviously wasn’t meant to be anything permanent. But it was a gas to press other characters into service into roles of the original FF. The Hulk = the Thing. Ghost Rider = the Torch. Spidey = Reed. Wolverine = Sue??? So maybe it wasn’t an exact fit. But it seemed entertaining on its own merits, offering some new story possibilities for a few issues.

Silver Surfer. Courtesy of David Hamilton.

WOLFMAN: Sorry, I think the FF works only when the main four are there and not when there are substitutes. WEIN: I actually don’t have a favorite. To me, the Fantastic Four is Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Anybody else is just salad dressing. SANDERSON: What is your favorite FF story (not written or drawn by yourself, with the exception of Stan Lee) and why?

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alienation. There are so many themes in that one story. The ability to triumph over your own worst impulses. The hero [of that story] is the villain, which is wonderful! That’s another tremendous theme: When you receive a gift of power, it changes you, for better or for worse. You’re not doomed to be a bad person. It’s a very empowering story. [SANDERSON: I point out that the “villain” dies.] We all die. That’s the ending of every story. So the question is, how do you die, who do you die as? BYRNE: “This Man, This Monster” is probably the best written and drawn, though I have a soft spot for the one in FF #5 because it was the first one I read. SIMONSON: “This Man, This Monster”—the quintessential FF story. Great character interaction and a core story about betrayal, heroics, and death. All in 22 pages. You can’t do any better. BUCKLER: “This Man, This Monster.” Because it explored the Thing’s character and gave some depth to the Ben Grimm side of him. WAID: “This Man, This Monster,” which was not only the perfect FF story showcasing all the key elements of the series but also a genuinely powerful story in and of itself. KESEL: “This Man, This Monster.” Total surprise, huh? Bet no one else said that. But, y’know, it’s probably the best comic story ever produced. Clichés are clichés for a reason. STERN: Probably issue #51—“This Man, This Monster.” It’s hard to pin things down, though. By the time I started reading the FF, long, wide-ranging stories had become the norm: the Inhumans Saga [FF #44–48], the Galactus Trilogy, the Black Panther story [#52–53], the Doom/Silver Surfer story [#56–60]. Makes it difficult to pick just one issue, or even just one story arc. ORDWAY: I liked “This Man, This Monster,” where the fake Ben saves Reed from the Negative Zone. It’s really hard to narrow them down, as the Galactus trilogy is way up there, as well as the one where Doom stole the Surfer’s powers [#56–60]. WOLFMAN: The Galactus trilogy that introduces Galactus and the Silver Surfer, followed by “This Man, This Monster.” WEIN: I guess it’s the same story everybody mentions, “This Man, This Monster,” followed closely by the first Galactus story. The former because it captures the amazing humanity of the series, the latter because it epitomizes the book’s mind-blowing cosmic scale. ENGLEHART: FF #49 (of course). It happens to have been the first one I ever read, in addition to being everyone’s consensus favorite. Story and art, both at their very peak; I ran around showing it to people saying, “Don’t tell me comics can’t be great!”

LEE: I have two favorites. 1) The so-called Galactus Trilogy [FF #48–50] and 2) damn it, I forget the name, but it’s the one where someone else, a bad guy, becomes the Thing but ends up as a hero sacrificing himself for the others [“This Man, This Monster” in FF #51].

CLAREMONT: FF #49 and 50, because they got me hooked on Stan and Jack, on Marvel, on U.S. comics when I was primed to walk away.

CONWAY: It’s the greatest comic-book story of all time: “This Man, This Monster.” It sums up the entire theme of the Fantastic Four and of super-hero comic books. It’s the perfect super-hero story: [about] the struggle between power and responsibility, friendship and duty, sacrifice,

BREVOORT: I think I’d have to go with Doom stealing the powers of the Silver Surfer [FF #56–60], because it was a heck of a topper to the Galactus Trilogy, and because it came smack dab in the middle of the greatest period in the history of the strip. I read it years after the fact, when it was

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THOMAS: FF #4, with the return of the Sub-Mariner, one of my favorite characters. (I’d even asked for this [revival] in a review I wrote of FF #1.) The story returned Namor with the kind of characterization that Bill Everett would have been proud of, and for the most part picked up seamlessly from the 1950s Sub-Mariner comics I loved. It was also an instant love triangle, and I loved the way Namor was half-hero, half-villain. ROSS: My first instinctive response is the story in issue #11 that had the Fantastic Four answering their mail [“A Visit with the Fantastic Four”]. It was reprinted in Les Daniels’ Comix: A History of Comic Books in America. It was probably the first Fantastic Four story material I saw as a boy; this was around 1976. It was one of the most down-to-earth, realistic portrayals of any superhero comic to date. It always piqued my curiosity. It made me a diehard fan of Dick Ayers as my favorite Kirby inker. BUSIEK: Probably #41–43, the Frightful Four story where Ben gets brainwashed. I wish it was inked better—it’s the last [Vince] Colletta arc before [Joe] Sinnott comes aboard— but the emotional drama is compelling and believable, and the Frightful Four make a great contrast, an evil dysfunctional family in contrast to the FF as positive family. EVANIER: I always liked the first Inhumans sequence [FF #44–48] and the first two Annuals. RUDE: One of my favorites is the one where they were tensely awaiting the arrival of Galactus on an island, just off Manhattan. I believe that was FF #75. Stan and Jack were of one potent mind when they did this tale. It was one heated argument and mind-blowing occurrence after another. The action never let up. Sue was pregnant and Reed was trying to shelter her against the ruckus. So the three of them sat there, the strain of inaction weighing on them. Reed needed to focus on the upcoming battle against Galactus, not knowing when it was going to happen. And Ben, with all his negative, nervous energy, was getting on everyone’s nerves wanting to clobber something. RYAN: My favorite story was written by John Byrne. Interestingly enough the FF barely appeared in the issue. It involved a young boy who idolized the Human Torch [#285]. His obsession led him to set himself on fire. It was a poignant tale of childhood neglect. It really hit home with me. SANDERSON: Who is your favorite character in Fantastic Four other than Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben, and why? LEE: Doctor Doom. Because, to me, he’s the most unique

Rich Buckler’s cover

BREVOORT: Doctor Doom, the first of the stylish, sophisticated villains of the comics, so original, so trendsetting at the time of his conception and development that the specialness has almost been lost over the years, as so many other characters have played riffs off of the elements that originally made Doom unique.

Inc.

DeFALCO: My favorite would have to be the time Doctor Doom stole the powers of the Silver Surfer. Without any hope for survival, the FF take on their greatest enemy who now wields the power cosmic—HOO-HA!

of villains.

reprinted in (of all places) Marvel Triple Action, and the power of this sequence simply jumped off the pages at me.

ENGLEHART: Doctor Doom, because he’s a first-class villain who helped make the FF a first-class storyline. WOLFMAN: Doctor Doom, arguably the best villain ever created in comics, with the richest and most textured origin and characterization. C O N W AY : W i l l i e L u m p k i n . I ’ m kidding! Stan and Jack in issue #10? Doctor Doom, because he’s the dark side of the Fantastic Four, of adolescent angst. And he has a sense of honor and the potential for redemption. BUCKLER: Doctor Doom. BUSIEK: Um . . . either Franklin for fleshing out the family that much more, or Doom for being such a terrifically majestic, compelling villain.

The Silver Surfer

ROSS: Doctor Doom, the tragic figure creating a very exciting villain. The relationship between Doom and Reed is spun from the same source from the Luthor-Superman relationship: The accident that scarred one of them that leads to resentment. The interesting thing about [Doom and Reed] is they’re two geniuses driven by creativity, unlike Luthor, who was science-based, and Superman, who wasn’t creating things. It’s like Doom comes up with creative schemes just to impress Reed: Look upon my works and be impressed. Reed is in this ego conflict with Doom, like the competing egos of anybody in a creative industry, especially when it comes to creating art. Reed and Doom are the yin and yang of comic-book artists! There’s a Reed and a Doom in all of us. My second choice would be the Black Panther, the first black super-hero in [mainstream] comics, or Black Bolt, because of the Inhumans as a group, not him as an individual.

WEIN: Well, I’d love to give a shout out to my main man, Willie Lumpkin, but to be

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serious, it has to be Victor Von Doom. There is a breadth and depth to that character that still hasn’t fully been explored, and we’ve been working on it for over 40 years. Right after Vic, however, I would have to add the Impossible Man. God, there’s something about writing that pointy-headed foul-up that I absolutely adore. CLAREMONT: Doom is one, the Impossible Man, another (and, I confess, Valeria is third). [Chris Claremont introduced Reed and Sue’s daughter, Valeria, as a teenager from an alternate future. She was later born in the FF’s present-day timeline.] Doom, basically because he’s Reed’s primal opposite. He presents the opportunity to present a character who can be as close to three-dimensional, and yet remain majestically larger than life, as any in comics. Impy is the exact opposite, one sight gag after another, the perfect opportunity to puncture any and all hope of pretentiousness with giggles and a visual aesthetic derived from Will Elder and Wally Wood. Valeria: sorry, but she’s my (small) contribution to the canon and I felt like I’d only scratched the surface of her stories when I had to leave the book. And also, Salva [Salvador Larroca] drew her so beautifully. Also, there’s Namor, for many of the reasons that apply to Doom, except that he’s essentially a good guy and he carries a blazing torch for Sue. If that isn’t food for conflict and heartbreak, what is?

THOMAS: None of the others really ever mattered to me, unless you count Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom, in that order. SIMONSON: Too many to choose from because the book has had such an impressive roster of guests and villains. Black Panther and Galactus are two that instantly spring to mind. But there are a lot of choices. And of course, I loved Weezie’s [Louise Simonson’s] version of Franklin over in Power Pack. ;-) DeFALCO: I certainly had a lot of fun with Franklin because I got to see the man he would become and Reed and Sue should be proud. [Tom DeFalco introduced an older version of Franklin from an alternate future.] BYRNE: Alicia Masters. She was a dream to write. It seemed like every time I approached her I found new layers, new nuances. STERN: I’d have to say Alicia Masters. She’s been part of the “family” since issue #8, she’s been a big part of the Thing’s life, and the Surfer’s, and the Torch’s, though the last was later explained away. EVANIER: I liked the Silver Surfer in his earliest, purest form. There was something very fresh about the character, the way he reacted to people around him, and the way they reacted to him. I’m one of those folks who never cared for him after he started to figure out the human race, perhaps because I haven’t.

Romita’s costume sketch for the Sub-Mariner’s 1970s’ look. Courtesy of Mike Burkey

KESEL: Dragon Man. Like a million other Lee/Kirby concepts, he’s brilliantly realized—capable of raging like a wild animal one instant, as innocent as a puppy the next. More

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than any other FF character, Dragon Man touches the 12year-old fan in me—probably because he’s the kind of “dog” I would have killed to have had as a kid. In fact, I once heard that Roy Thomas (I believe) was going to have the FF take in Dragon Man as their pet—which the 12-year-old in me would have loved to see! ORDWAY: I am a big fan of Wyatt Wingfoot. Again, the book was so good during that time. And if you reread the issue where the Torch goes off to college [#50], you can see how brilliant the creators were to keep changing the status quo—virtually rebooting the storylines every year or so. Wyatt was such a strong character, yet he needed no powers. RYAN: Willie Lumpkin. You just gotta love those ears. Reminds me of myself when I was younger. SANDERSON: Doctor Doom is obviously the FF’s foremost villain, but who is the next best villain in the FF series? WEIN: Well, that’s a slam dunk, isn’t it? Clearly, it would have to be (a little drumroll here, please) Tomazooma, the totem that walked like a man. RYAN: That would have to be Occulus. Such a interesting character, such power, such majesty, such . . . what, Tom [DeFalco] and I created him. Must have slipped my mind. BUSIEK: Diablo! No, Paste-Pot Pete! No, Darkoth the Death-Demon! STERN: Gotta be the Monocle. Wait, come back! I’m kidding. DeFALCO: I just hope it isn’t Avi Arad! SANDERSON: Okay, guys, let’s get serious! LEE: Galactus. BREVOORT: In terms of trendsetting, it would have to be Galactus, especially as he was portrayed in that first appearance. He’s the granddaddy of all the many cosmic giants who’ve come after him, and yet none of them can really hold a candle to the original, no matter how hard they try. BYRNE: Though technically not a “villain” in the classic sense, I would have to say Galactus. BUCKLER: Galactus. RUDE: Galactus. ROSS: The default setting always goes to Galactus, just because it’s the biggest story. WEIN: C’mon, obviously, it has to be Galactus. I mean, here’s a character that uses planets as hors d’oeuvres. How much more dangerous can you get? And yet there is something tragic about the character. Another perfect melding of menace and melodrama. WAID: The obvious answer would be “Galactus,” but I think that’s deceptive in that there’s just not much you can DO with him—or, probably, SHOULD do with him. At best—at BEST—any other Galactus story ever can only hope to equal, not better, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s initial Galactus story. I’d actually lean towards the early Frightful Four—the ones who actually beat the crap out of the FF early on. CONWAY: It’s a tossup between Sub-Mariner and Galactus. Doctor Doom is the main threat to Reed Richards because he’s Reed’s equal in terms of intelligence. Sub-Mariner is Reed’s major threat to his emotional stability, because he was the main competitor for Sue’s affection. Galactus raised

the stakes for the Fantastic Four from saving the Baxter Building to saving the world, and for Marvel Comics in general.

CLAREMONT: Reed. Because when you come right down to it, it’s all his fault.

BUSIEK: Nah, it’s gotta be Namor. Sometimes a friend, sometimes a foe, always imperious and larger than life, with tons of presence.

SANDERSON: What is the Fantastic Four’s co-creator most proud of in his FF stories?

THOMAS: Sub-Mariner, in those first few years before he got tamed down to relative insignificance. ORDWAY: Prince Namor was, to me. He not only had the same scope as Doom—he was fighting for his people —but he also had that romantic connection to Sue, which probably made us hate him all the more for Reed! WOLFMAN: I would have to say SubMariner because he challenged the FF on an emotional level that most of the others didn’t and couldn’t. Both Subby and Doom had personal connections to the group and they played the best. STERN: The problem is that Doctor Doom is such a great villain, everyone else winds up tying for last place in comparison. The Sub-Mariner would be a natural secondplace finisher, if not for the fact that he was Marvel’s first and foremost anti-hero. In fact, a lot of the FF’s best opponents—the Inhumans, the Surfer, the Panther—turned out to be heroes in their own right. And Galactus, dangerous as he was, was more a force of nature than a villain. I suppose I’d give the nod to the Mad Thinker. After all, he did worm his way into the Baxter Building on three different occasions. SIMONSON: Too many to chose. Maybe Galactus, but I thought the Inhumans were great even if, in the end, it turned out that most of them weren’t villains in the ordinary sense. ENGLEHART: Kang/Rama Tut has moved to The Avengers, but since he originated in the FF, I’ve got to go with him. In the “villain (?)” category, Galactus. EVANIER: The Mole Man. But there was also something compelling about the Red Ghost. I always imagined Stan or Jack coming up with the character and the other one saying, “Not bad but he needs something . . . hey, how about a couple of Super-Gorillas?” KESEL: I’ve got two answers. The most self-serving: the Frightful Four—the way Mark Waid and I are redefining them in FF #514–516 as a dark reflection of the FF themselves. [This new Frightful Four is more of a family, comprised of the Wizard, his ex-wife, and his daughter, with Hydro-Man as the Thing’s counterpart.] It’s an idea that’s just been sitting there, waiting for someone to do. I don’t know why the Frightfuls should exist if not as an example of everything the FF aren’t—or everything they are, gone horribly wrong. My guilty pleasure: the Skrulls—the scrawny, bugeyed Skrulls from FF #2! Imagine an entire race of shifty, untrustworthy, back-stabbers, all played by Steve Buscemi! What’s not to love? I’m also really intrigued by the idea of a shape-shifting race, and what sort of culture would evolve from that.

FF foe/friend Sub-Mariner vs. Iron Man in a George Tuska sketch.

LEE: The characterization, the really far-out concepts, and the humor.

Courtesy of Don Corn.

SANDERSON: And what do the rest of you consider your greatest contribution to the Fantastic Four mythos, and why?

DeFALCO: Getting fired—just ask the FF fans who still call me “the Evil One”! WEIN: Gee, I don’t know, getting off the title before I had a chance to screw it up too badly? Seriously, I’m not really sure I made any major contribution to the book. The only villains I added to the mythos were the Eliminator, Nicholas Scratch, and Salem’s Seven, and the most significant thing I did was to break up the team in the final issue I fully scripted. Not exactly a memorable run.

A John Byrne-drawn pin-up from the FF’s 30th anniversary issue, #358 (1991). Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

WOLFMAN: Mostly not screwing it up too badly. But I’d say the realization that Galactus was using elemental characters as his heralds, and creating Terrax. Also, issue #200, the only issue I wrote I really liked.

C L A R E M O N T: To b e honest, I don’t think anything of mine matters that much. Good as the stories may have been, inspired as I may have felt, everything I did derived from the work of Stan and Jack. They built this glorious mosaic, they defined the essence of the characters and told pretty much all the best stories; all I’ve done is add some minor gilding around the edges. CONWAY: I’m not really sure I had one. Of all the Marvel characters I wrote, [I thought] my job [on the FF] was primarily a caretaker, not to change or contribute to the book, [just to] keep it going. I didn’t feel it was my destiny to write Fantastic Four like I felt it was my destiny to write Spider-Man [laughs]! BUCKLER: I had the opportunity to indulge myself as a fan and artist, and attempt to

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carry on some of the spirit of the early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby days on FF. I hope I succeeded. RUDE: Probably just being so much a fan that I had to get into the business. ORDWAY: Gosh, my contribution was a drop in the bucket. I can only say that I tried to honor what Kirby and Lee had established. My brief few issues of penciling are bittersweet for me, as I was under some odd editorial restrictions at the time. John Byrne had just left the book after a long successful run, and I was under the editor in chief’s microscope, I think. Suffice to say, I always wished I could go back to FF, and put in at least a good year’s worth of work, to prove myself.

Big brain Reed in a 2002 sketch

STERN: I don’t know. I suppose it would have been getting Johnny and Alicia married, if that hadn’t been done away with. I did manage to finish transitioning the Thing back into the FF and the She-Hulk back into the Avengers. I kept things running for a few issues and hopefully didn’t screw up too badly.

BUSIEK: I don’t think I’ve made one—I’ve only written them in books like Marvels or in guest-appearances. But what the hell, I suggested the idea that wound up restoring Lockjaw to doghood. Not a major contribution, but it’s probably the one bit I’ve had something to do with that was a change and that lasted. And while I get what John [Byrne] was going for with that [asserting that Lockjaw was a person in dog form], I think it was a conceptual error. ROSS: My greatest contribution would commonly be seen as bringing a more photo-based realistic depiction to adventures that we all know from the Lee/Kirby days in the series Marvels. RYAN: My greatest contribution would have to be that costume on Sue. You know the one. It created quite a ruckus. We were vilified for putting Sue, the Sainted Mother of the FF, in a sexy, revealing costume. Strangely enough the same people, when requesting a convention sketch, ask for Sue in that costume. BREVOORT: Beats me. Maybe the fact that I allowed the creative team to give Reed and Sue another child [Valeria]. WAID: Strictly speaking, it’s not really “my” contribution— I pretty much just turned a smart memo from Tom Brevoort into Reed dialogue—but I’m pretty proud of Reed’s monologue in the nine-cent issue where he explains to Baby Val just exactly why he created the Fantastic Four. THOMAS: I convinced Stan to let me bring back the Impossible Man, whom he had refused either to write or to allow anyone else to touch for 12 years. I’m also kinda proud of my apartheid story, my first FF story [#119], if that counts. BYRNE: I feel that the book had wandered somewhat off track before I was brought in. Witness, for instance, that

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story in which a mutant child conjured up “ugly” versions of the characters, including an ugly version of . . . the Thing! Point missed? I like to think I helped steer the book back onto its proper course. ENGLEHART: Reviving the organic, anything-can-happenbecause-this-is-real-life nature of the stories. That had been completely lost when I came on, but IMHO, it’s essential to the Reed-Sue-Johnny-Ben story, if only because the momentum always brings you back to the same four characters, and if they don’t grow and change, they’re boring. SIMONSON: Time travel was the theme of my stories and the Reed-Doom time fight towards the end of my run was probably the peak, graphically, of that idea. It was—I think—a unique realization visually of my whole series. KESEL: For what it’s worth—the “Ben is Jewish” story. Stuart Immonen did his usual amazing art job, setting the exact right tone for the tale. I’m still very happy with how the issue came together—and would like to finally give credit to [artist] Steve Lieber for contributing the issue’s GREAT last line when the villain tells Ben: “You don’t look Jewish.” SANDERSON: At its peak in the 1960s, Fantastic Four was indeed “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” But in subsequent decades FF was surpassed in sales and fame by Spider-Man and X-Men. Can and should Fantastic Four still be Marvel’s flagship series? LEE: Probably, just out of sentiment because it was the title that started it all. CLAREMONT: That’s a marketing decision. But it’s certainly a goal for the creative team to aspire to. RUDE: It all depends on the creative team doing the work as to how successful it might be. DeFALCO: Of course! All you’d have to do is put Paul Ryan back on the book! RYAN: I think the FF can be Marvel’s flagship title if the right creative team can rediscover its soul. Tom DeFalco and I would be more than happy to help in any way we can. WOLFMAN: No. Fantastic Four is what I call an external comic and not an internal one. Spider-Man is internal; you care more for the characters than the stories. FF is external. As much as you care about the characters, you really care about the stories and the constant invention. Since writers today won’t or are incapable of creating new characters and villains, all we usually have are recycled stories. Some are great and some aren’t, but without a constant flow of new characters, the FF, being an external comic, most likely won’t ever reach the level of being a flagship book again. CONWAY: It wasn’t from the day Spider-Man premiered. For many years it was Stan’s desire to maintain the illusion [that Fantastic Four was Marvel’s leading title.] But after Amazing Fantasy #15 it was clear to readers that Spidey is the dominant character at Marvel. Marvel without the X-Men would be hobbled. Marvel without Spider-Man wouldn’t exist. EVANIER: I think once Marvel got past the point where you could buy a full month’s worth of everything they published for two bucks, the concept of a “flagship” series went out the window. BUCKLER: I don’t know if having a “flagship series” is essential.

WAID: Can it be? Any series can be if it’s done well. Remember, we work in an industry where Green Arrow has been a top-selling series not once but twice. “Should” it be? I don’t feel as strongly about that as I do, say, that Superman should be DC’s flagship, and I worry with both properties that they may lack a certain timelessness I can’t quite define . . . but I certainly wouldn’t object to seeing the FF atop the sales charts. WEIN: Should it be? Well, as the book that started the whole blamed Marvel Universe, there’s always the nostalgic inclination that it should be at the top, despite the fact that it has been eclipsed by those other titles. Can it be? Well, they say water finds its own level. Part of the reason X-Men and Spider-Man have surpassed the FF is the fact that they are better-known properties, due in no small part to the various TV series and feature films that feature them. If the big-budget FF movie coming next year is well done and does well, anything can happen. ROSS: The spirit of the company should never be far removed from what helped found them. If the Fantastic Four as a film property for Marvel can recapture the sense of fantasy from the 1960s, it can be something to re-cement that in the public’s mind. I’d hate to think a concept based around the family has outlived its usefulness. ENGLEHART: Any book can be the best if the creative team puts the energy into it. We were picking up sales every month before creativity was outlawed. The trick, if you can call it that, is to make the foursome come alive and not just rest on triumphs from 40 years ago, or try to get by with spectacle. It’s about those four human beings. ORDWAY: Absolutely. There is so much to work with, in all the back issues. Kirby and Lee laid a solid foundation there. I think [Mark] Waid and [Mike] Wieringo are doing a great job of it now. KESEL: FF is like Superman and Batman and Spider-Man and X-Men—all these titles should always have top talent working on them. They’re the foundation that the rest of the industry is built on. SIMONSON: It seems to me that the X-books and their derivatives have been the core titles of Marvel for a long time now, but the FF is where it all started and as such, that book will always carry the admiral’s flag, no matter who does it or what the sales are. BUSIEK: Can it? If whoever’s doing it can make it that wild and inventive and involving, sure. Should it? I don’t know— I think those first hundred issues are such a massive achievement that even if there was never another issue, it’d have earned its spot in comics history and then some. THOMAS: Sure! After all, other heroes come and go at the top, like Spidey and the X-Men and maybe one or two others from time to time . . . but the FF will always have been the first heroes of what became the Marvel Age. BREVOORT: I don’t think it’s a question of “can” or “should”—Fantastic Four is Marvel’s flagship, by virtue of the fact that it was the first. It established the style and set the tone for everything that came thereafter, and that’s something that no amount of latter-day sales can ever

change. Sure, tastes may change, and the popularity of any given characters may wax and wane, but innovation in any particular area can only come about once—and in the Marvel firmament, FF was it. BYRNE: Do we measure flagship status by sales? FF will always be Marvel’s flagship, in the way Superman is D C ’s . S a l e s d o n ’t matter. Position in history is what makes a flagship. Without the FF, there might not have been a Marvel Comics as we knew them. SANDERSON: How can you keep Fantastic Four, a book about a family of heroes with a traditional sense of morality, vital and relevant in times when so many readers seem to prefer heroes with a darker side to their personalities? Should Ben Grimm be Grimm and Gritty?

One of Byrne’s FF audition pages

LEE: That’s not for me to say because I’m no longer writing it. But if I were writing it, I don’t think that would be a problem for me. One can make any type of character popular and appealing—depending on how one writes him or her.

(for more info, see this issue’s “Rough Stuff”). Courtesy of

RYAN: You can’t. Nobody seems interested in nice guys anymore. I think Ben has long since passed the point of being the tragic monster of the group. He has been the bashful, blue-eyed Thing for too long to change. Unless, of course, he experienced a personal tragedy that sent him on that course again.

EVANIER: I thought there were times when it got pretty non-vital and irrelevant before the “darker side” trend set in. Any issue that packed a powerful sense of déjà vu failed the vitality test for me. Making characters grittier is not the answer for anything except maybe for characters who have that kind of darkness inherent in their premises. I never saw the Fantastic Four that way.

STERN: Should it? Yes. Can it? Well, anything is possible.

DeFALCO: Ben is the template for the vast majority of comicdom’s grim and gritty anti-heroes, and I don’t think morality ever goes out of style. ENGLEHART: They may or may not have dark sides to their personalities, but they sure as hell need personalities. If

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change and growth stems from who we know they are, they can go in any direction. If they get changed just for the hell of it, they stop being who we know they are, and then the book’s dead because it’s all about those four human beings whom we know. BUCKLER: A great artist–writer team would help, and really hard-hitting stories by comics pros that really know their craft—that should do it. SIMONSON: I think comics titles are what they are. Every title that runs for a while develops its own themes and leitmotifs. And (in mainstream super-hero work, anyway) speaks to certain simple truths. The market now seems to me to have fragmented beyond the idea that only grim and gritty comics will find an audience. There are still families out there; they still squabble and fight amongst themselves. And pull together in times of crisis. I don’t think the essential thematic core of the FF is any less relevant now than it once was. The key is to find ways to communicate that core to a modern audience. (And hopefully, not alienate your old one! Always a trick with long-running titles.)

The cover of TwoMorrows’ The Jack Kirby Collector #22, with Dave Stevens inking a 1973 Jack Kirby illo.

ROSS: The same question is commonly asked about the DC echelon of heroes, with the exception that people always think Batman is just gritty enough. It’s all in the approach, not to the characters themselves, but to the world they’re in. The Human Torch doesn’t have to become more hiphop. There’s a strategy of depicting these things in a way that’s more real than it has been before. It just needs to be viewed through that lens. The film might make that change in people’s minds.

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FF Movie Cast The principals in the new Fantastic Four movie (2005)

BREVOORT: People had families in the early ’60s; people have families today. What makes the strip work at its heart is that the characters and situations are relatable, no matter how far-out or cosmic they may get. Sure, the specifics of the series may have to change somewhat in reflecting the world of the 21st century rather than the swinging ’60s. But as long as the characters live and breathe on the page, as long as the stories contain that universal note of truth, people will respond to them.

have been announced: Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic: Ioan Gruffudd* (King Arthur) Sue Storm/Invisible Girl: Jessica Alba (Dark Angel, Sin City)

BUSIEK: Ben’s always had a darkness haunting him, so I think he’s got that covered. But family is eternal; it’s always relevant. You make the FF relevant by making them the best FF they can be, not by imitating something else. They should set trends, not follow them.

Johnny Storm/Human Torch: Chris Evans (Cellular, Not Another Teen Movie) Ben Grimm/The Thing:

ORDWAY: Why give in to the current social times? I think we all need something positive and uplifting nowadays. I firmly believe these characters were conceived as moral characters, and don’t think that should change. We as a society have such distrust for public figures, etc. Why our fantasy ones need to be the same, I don’t know. The Fantastic Four don’t need to be remade as the Osbournes, do they? There’s comedy, drama, romance, and adventure already in the FF concept. Run with it.

Michael Chiklis (The Shield) Doctor Doom: Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) Director: Tim Story (Barbershop) Screenwriters: Michael France, Mark

BYRNE: By ignoring those readers and being true to the core of the book. There are plenty of dark, grim, glum books. Those who like them should read them, and not expect everything to be the same. Funny to remember that when the character [Ben Grimm] was first introduced, he

Frost, and Simon Kinberg *Pronounced “Ian Griffith.”

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was the grim and gritty one. Grimmer and grittier than any character we had seen in comics in a long time. I tried to explore certain aspects of that when I was writing the book, within the framework of the character he had evolved into. But it is important to keep the characters on model, and the Thing is someone who is almost pathologically cheerful. That is how he deals with his deformity. STERN: No. Occasionally tragic, but never grim and gritty. The FF-as-family still works for me. I think that the audience for such a series is still out there, but much of it has been lost to the market for well over a dozen years. You would need to spend a lot of time and effort, if you truly wanted to reclaim that lost audience. Of course, such a long-term investment in marketing, presentation, and distribution is something that the whole industry needs. CONWAY: The comic-book audience that publishers appeal to is not the actual potential audience for comics. Over the last 300 years publishers have aimed for a smaller segment [that] wants darker material. When I was writing comics, the sales averaged 400,000 for a Spidey title. Now a bestselling book sells 40 to 50,000 copies. That is not an audience! [laughs] I don’t know what that is! If they’d find a way to expand the audience with positively based books, the Fantastic Four would sell. What you’d need to have is a really forwardthinking publishing entity. We need to recreate the mass-market comics audience. RUDE: Is it so much the readers who are demanding the dark side of heroes, or the dark-sided people doing the work themselves? WEIN: Dear God, I am so sick of grim and gritty, I could scream. Remember when comics were escapist entertainment? If I want to be depressed, I can pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV. I read comics to be uplifted, to believe that there still are heroes in the world, despite what most of our public figures have done to prove otherwise. Make Ben Grimm grimmer and I swear to you, it’ll be Clobberin’ Time! THOMAS: I’m so sick of comics following trends rather than leading them. If there is an anti-moral or cynical edge to our society, all the more reason the FF should continue as they have been. Anyone can swim with the stream. WOLFMAN: No. You have to make the FF surprising and inventive and fill it with new ideas we haven’t seen before. The FF does not and should not get dark and dirty; it wouldn’t be the FF if you did. Don’t go dark. Go clever. WAID: Of course not. And didn’t you get the memo? The “dark hero” trend peaked somewhere in the timeframe of 9-11, thank God. KESEL: Personally, I believe Mark Waid is showing how to make the FF vital right now—without going all grim ’n’ gritty. All you have to do is show the characters as real people— which Mark excels at—and readers will respond. They always do. CLAREMONT: So “many” readers? What are we talking here, a few tens of thousands? Does the Spidey movie feature “grim and gritty” characters, focusing on the darker sides of their personalities? How well did it perform compared, say, to Punisher or The Chronicles of Riddick? I take

exception to the premise of the question because it presumes that the only definition of contemporary relevance is to embrace the “dark side” of publishing. I submit, based on movie trends these past few years, that precisely the opposite is true, that audiences are more interested in positive, dynamic heroes and stories. Look at Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, both Spidey films, even something like King Arthur. For what it’s worth, FF is the book to emphasize the family dynamic, heroes who are heroes, a family that resembles more the family we want to belong to. Yes, it’s an ideal. So what? That’s what comics should be all about, ideals and dreams that speak to the brighter angels of our nature. SANDERSON: Who would be your ideal cast for a Fantastic Four movie? We’re looking for actors who would play Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, and (perhaps most interestingly) Doctor Doom. (You can suggest current actors as they are today, current actors when they were younger, or even deceased actors from the past.) LEE: I dunno. I’m lousy at casting. I’m sure the studio will do a better job. BUCKLER: Dunno. SIMONSON: I’ll pass on this one. I never had any clues about casting questions. Don’t watch enough movies. THOMAS: Sorry, I’ve never thought about that and don’t intend to start now. The Thing would be covered by makeup or prosthetics, so he could be played by my kid sister. WOLFMAN: I don’t even think about that for books I’ve created, like Titans or Deathstroke, etc., let alone other books. CLAREMONT: Hadn’t ever considered it, and sorry, but nothing readily comes to mind. BREVOORT: Ahh, I stink at this sort of thing. Next. ENGLEHART: I’d say George Clooney for Reed, but beyond that, no idea.

a kid I thought they were just about the same character. The Reed Richards I see in my mind is not of our modern age; he’s the fuddy-duddy dad. There’s little difference in my mind between him and Superman. Another Reed Richards guy is the father on Lost in Space. Guy Williams is exactly the kind of guy to play Reed Richards. For Doom, I’ll recommend the character from [the movie] Flash Gordon, who played the character Klytus: Peter Wyngarde. RYAN: Reed: Mark Harmon. Sue: Kelly Ripa. Johnny: Chris O’Donnell: Ben: The Rock. Doom: Rutger Hauer. BYRNE: With my time machine charged up I would cast Jeffrey Hunter as Reed Richards and Rod Taylor as Ben Grimm. A very young Troy Donahue would have been perfect for Johnny. The best Sue I have seen does not require a time machine, and that would be Elisabeth Rohm, of Angel and Law and Order. Casting Doom is really casting a voice, and the voice I used to hear in my head was Max von Sydow.

CONWAY: Dr. Doom should be Anthony Hopkins doing the voice. Ewan McGregor as the young Doom. Ben Affleck as Reed; they’d do the Fantastic Four as a younger group. Jack Nicholson from 30 years ago as Ben, with the attitude from The Last Detail. Kirsten Dunst as Sue; why not? And any one of the callow young actors as Johnny.

BUSIEK: I’m lousy at these games. I guess I’ll pick a 35-year old Paul Newman for Reed, a mid-20s Patricia Neal for Sue, Marlon Brando in his prime for Ben, and, uh, some annoying blond kid for Johnny. Dennis Christopher at the start of his career. Doom? Pride, brilliance, arrogance, lordly attitude? Jeremy Irons.

WEIN: When I was a kid reading the FF, I always thought that Efram Zimbalist Jr. (of The FBI and the voice of Alfred in the Batman animated series) would make the perfect Reed Richards. For some reason, the late, great William Bendix was always my choice for Ben Grimm (perhaps because Stan stole Bendix’s signature line—“What a revoltin’ development this is.”—from his hit radio and TV series, The Life of Riley). Kim Basinger would make a great Sue Storm. And I have no opinion whatsoever for a good Johnny Storm choice. Victor Von Doom? Hmmm . . . Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, someone like that would be perfect.

KESEL: If I had a time machine, here’s what I’d like to see: A young Brad Pitt as Johnny, William Hurt as Reed (no one does “smart” better), Janet Leigh (fresh off her success on Psycho) as Sue, and a young Marlon Brando as the Thing. (“I coulda been a contender . . . instead of a thing, which is what I am.”)

DeFALCO: A younger Michael Douglas (Black Rain) for Reed. A younger Michelle Pfeiffer (Tequila Sunrise) for Sue. James Gandolfini for Ben. A younger James Van Der Beek (the first season of Dawson’s Creek) for Johnny. Gene Simmons (yeah, the KISS guy) for Doctor Doom. I’ve just seen [him] play a Doom-like gangster on Third Watch, and I think he was fantastic!

ROSS: You could cast just about any young actors as Sue and Johnny. The Thing is just so much makeup effects so you could get anyone from John Goodman to small guys with gravelly voices. To me it’s all hinging upon Reed again. You need a strong lead, a guy who’s in his 40s, who’s a father figure, in a certain amount of good shape. I’m well known for having used Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, for Reed Richards in Marvels. As

STERN: I wouldn’t cast actors. I’d rather see an FF movie done as CGI-animation, along the lines of Final Fantasy, but following the designs of Jack Kirby. Then all you need is a great story and really good voice actors. I don’t have any choices off hand for the FF, but if that time machine of yours is working, let’s get a 40-year-old Orson Welles to voice Doctor Doom. Otherwise, give Maurice LaMarche a call and have him use the vintage Welles voice that he looped for

ORDWAY: I haven’t a clue. I guess Vin Diesel or David Boreanaz could be Ben, Reese Witherspoon as Sue—ah, I don’t know. Hollywood will do what they want.

Bashful, blue-eyed

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the Ed Wood movie. RUDE: I actually loved the cast from the “unreleased” version from about five years ago. Was that a Roger Corman film? [Yes.] I thought they were all dead-on, especially Sue, who was a real dish. EVANIER: I’d cast it with Muppets: Sam the Eagle as Reed, Miss Piggy as Sue, Cookie Monster as the Thing, and pick any old puppet and set it on fire for the Torch. No, really, I don’t have any idea on this one. . . SANDERSON: What did the FF’s co-creator think made Fantastic Four most different from previous comics? LEE: The characterization, the realism, the imagination, and the humor. SANDERSON: What was the first issue of Fantastic Four that the rest of you read, and what was your reaction to it? What made it different from other comics you were reading? THOMAS: I bought two copies of FF #1 a minute after I saw them. As I wrote very soon in my review, I was attracted primarily to the Thing . . . and to the fact that the characters didn’t necessarily like each other all that much. Of course, I did make the mistake of selling one of the two copies when the price went up to 50 cents . . . but I still have the other one in my bound volumes.

Benjy’s gone berserk, and it’s up to his FF family to stop him.

WEIN: Well, showing my age, the first issue of the FF I ever bought and read was the first issue of the FF, issue #1. Truth to tell, I almost didn’t buy it. My local drugstore racked the comics vertically, so all you could see was the logo. The original FF logo (which has since grown on me tremendously) at the time looked almost like a funnybook logo, so I let it sit on the rack for two whole weeks until I finally pulled it out to look at it. What hooked me was Stan’s masterful blurb “Together for the first time!” To my pre-adolescent mind, if these characters were together for the first time here, they must have been separate elsewhere before, and I’d just been missing them. So I bought the first issue, figuring I could sample a bunch of different strip characters all at the same time. Who knew? What made it different to me after reading it was that here were a team of characters who actually argued among themselves just like my family did. I’d never seen that in comics before and it was something I brought with me to the JLA when I started writing that title at DC (remember the feud between Green Arrow and Hawkman?).

A panel from FF #111 (1971), drawn by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. Courtesy of Jerry Boyd.

RYAN: I picked up FF #1 and fell in love with the series. It was so fresh, exciting, and different. These characters talked and acted like real people. Kirby had a kinetic energy that actually gave the illusion that these characters were moving on the page. BUCKLER: The first issue. Their origin grabbed me, and the characters too. Plus they seemed to talk like real people, and had problems. Definitely different for the time.

DeFALCO: I bought and read FF #3 and 4 together. I was blown away by these characters and the fact that their story continued from issue to issue. Before the Fantastic Four, comic-book characters never remembered anything they had learned in a previous issue. Lois Lane would get absolute proof that Clark Kent couldn’t possibly be Superman one month and completely forget it the follow-

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ing month. Johnny Storm quit the team in FF #3 and the FF went looking for him in FF #4. That may seem like a small thing now, but it was revolutionary then. CONWAY: Issue #4 with Sub-Mariner. I went crazy. I had been reading Superman comics and enjoying them, but I loved issue 4. I made my mother take me back to see if they had more. And they did, they had issue #3, and I bought it. I loved the idea of the fighting heroes, the heroes arguing with each other. It was very grown-up for a kid my age: I was eight or nine. It was very compelling. BYRNE: As noted above, it was Fantastic Four #5, “Meet Doctor Doom.” It blew me away—though that was not a term we used in 1962! It was like no other comic I had ever read, with a monster as one of the lead characters, and people who seemed somehow like real, three-dimensional people. WOLFMAN: My first FF was issue #6, and then I went back and got #1–5 quickly. Jack’s art boggled my mind; I’d never seen anything like it, and both Doom and Subby were incredible characters. EVANIER: I think it was #11 or so and it didn’t make much of an impression on me, maybe because it wasn’t that good an issue. But shortly after that, a friend traded me most of the previous issues and reading them in one sitting made a big impression on me. The characters just felt more real than the ones in other comics of the day . . . more alive. SIMONSON: I don’t remember the number offhand and I’m not home to check my stash. But it would have been around FF #43 or 44, when the FF discovered the Inhumans’ Great Refuge. It simply had a graphic power and a narrative drive I hadn’t seen in comic books at the time. CLAREMONT: FF #49—“The Coming of Galactus.” Knocked me off my feet. I still to this day remember the place I bought it and the circumstances, in frightening detail. The art grabbed me, the bravura dynamics and storytelling, the visual characterization. I loved the characters. I cared about what happened to them, I was in suspense right to the end because Stan’s script kept me there. And then, next issue, it got better! ENGLEHART: I loved it absolutely (#49, as mentioned above). It was so, shall we say, cosmic, and so well drawn by Kirby and Sinnott. Nobody else was operating on that scale. STERN: Fantastic Four #54.”Whosoever Finds the Evil Eye!” I found that issue on a spinner rack in the summer of ’66, and loved it immediately. It was the first comic book that I remember beginning in medias res. I mean, the issue opened with Wyatt Wingfoot up at bat against a baseball team fielded by the FF and the Black Panther. And that, as it turned out, was an epilogue of sorts to the story of the previous two issues, which then led into a neat adventure of Wyatt and the Torch heading for the Great Refuge and encountering Prester John along the way. With several pages of cutaways to the Inhumans. Talk about coming in midway through the movie! But it was all so compelling that it didn’t matter. Jack and Joe’s art in combination with Stan’s wordplay sucked me right in. I hadn’t seen anything like that before, and I wanted more immediately. Luckily, Lancer paperbacks came out with their FF and Spider-Man [reprint] books right around then. Between those and Marvel’s reprint

books—Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics and Marvel Tales— I became a faithful reader in no time. KESEL: My first issue was FF #68 (I think)—a black cover with Sandman and Blastaar on it [Actually #63]. I’ve often wondered why I bought it, since I had absolutely no idea who these characters where, but I still remember the energy that issue had—unlike anything else I had ever seen in Superman or Batman comics. It was about a year later when I picked up my next issue—#81, when Crystal joined the group—but from that point on I was hooked. ORDWAY: Well, the first one I picked up was with the Sentry on the cover, in May 1967 [#64, cover-dated July 1967]. I honestly didn’t like it, and didn’t buy another off the stands for many months. It sounds weird to say now, but I thought it was too science-fiction-y and too science-oriented. I immediately liked Thor, Spider-Man, and all the other Marvels of the time. I started liking the book because I was intrigued by the back issues I found, with some of the stories mentioned earlier. I read the series through in Masterworks volumes recently, and my admiration is great. RUDE: Don’t recall the exact issue, but if any artist other than Kirby were drawing it, it would have been a far lackluster affair. WAID: My first FF issue was #141, which opens with an unkempt, unshaven, and decidedly unheroic Reed reacting to divorce papers filed by Sue. It was different, all right—but it’s probably only my own completist compulsiveness (“Must—buy—ALL—the—Marvels!”) that brought me back next month. With a pretty crappy family life of my own at the time, I was on that razor’s edge of being able to identify with a dysfunctional family and yet not wanting to let another one into my life. Luckily, things got brighter for the FF soon (Gaard, anyone?). All that said, what probably made me any kind of an FF fan wasn’t the FF book itself but Steve Gerber’s Marvel Two-In-One Thing team-up book. BUSIEK: #157, I think, and there was a lot going on, but I was kind of lost. I responded to the energy of it, and even then I could tell they were a different kind of group, but it took a few issues to get a sense of them as a family. I was buying back issues right from the start, though, and I think it was getting back to #155 that got me grounded and interested. ROSS: Aside from what I mentioned before [FF #11], I think the first issues I had involved Arkon and the alternate version of Johnny [Gaard, FF #162–163] and then the issues with [the Counter-Earth version of] Reed as the Brute [#177–179, #181–183]. I just wanted to know more about the backstory of the things. One of the earliest stories I saw was the Power Records issue, with John Buscema’s retelling of the origin. This was a comic book printed on card stock with a small 45 [record] that was a dramatic version of the comic you’re reading. This was in the early ’70s. So it was John Buscema’s retelling of the origin I saw, not the original Lee-Kirby version. [This is a reprint of “The Way It Began,” by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, from FF #126.] BREVOORT: The first issues I read were #177–179, all purchased from a big bin at Genovese Drug Store, in which

An unpublished version

they sold off newsstand returns in what was likely a shady manner. Those particular issues were both fast-paced and colorful, and managed to juggle humor with suspense and action, as the Frightful Four capture the FF, hold them for ransom within their own Baxter Building headquarters, then hold open auditions for their fourth member. More so than most issues of FF, there were more sequences played strictly for comedy. But it worked somehow. It was also a seemingly unending soap opera, as were most of the Marvel books of the period, which was way different than the tightly structured Julie Schwartz [DC] comics that had been my preference up to that time. Overall, they had a kind of crazy energy about them that was intensely appealing, even when the particulars of who and what everybody was about were clouded.

SANDERSON: What is the greatest effect that the original Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four had on your own work (not just on any issues of FF you have written or drawn)? EVANIER: No effect, other than the effect that experiencing anything good has some benefit to a writer. WEIN: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I carried things I learned in the FF into many other books I’ve written over the years. BUCKLER: I think Kirby and Lee’s work made me realize that comics could play like really cool movies, which greatly affected my narrative style in the comics I drew. WA ID : E a sy: I t ’s made me constantly aware that we are a visual medium and that super-hero comics about guys in boardrooms are death on a stick. ORDWAY: Well, artwise, Kirby showed me how to stage a fight scene with issues like the two in the #20s, where the FF and the Avengers try to stop the Hulk. The way Jack drew destruction, and all that was a huge help to my own work. The comic itself just inspired me with its originality and wealth of new characters. RYAN: I have tried to capture the excitement and

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Couldn’t be further from the truth, since I never was an X-Men fan. I always said my Titans was DC’s Fantastic Four. Does that indicate my feelings for that title?

fluidity of Kirby in my own work. Another thing, Kirby was a great one for using props. His characters didn’t just stand face to face and talk to each other. Remember issue #3, when Sue introduced the costumes for the first time. We see Reed trying on the costume and smoking a pipe while commenting on the design of the new duds. Jack also had a great sense of depth to his layouts. I’ve tried to incorporate that in my own work.

A panel from FF #172 (1976), drawn by George Pérez and Joe Sinnott. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

SIMONSON: I was probably more affected by the Thor comics I read back in the day, but the FF certainly opened up the possibilities of a sort of joyful pulp SF as a broad background for interesting stories in comics for me. And I now see that the character interactions among the cast had far more to do with my continuing interest in the title than I realized back when I was reading the book regularly in my fan days.

DeFALCO: Stan and Jack taught me that you could pack an incredible amount of story—including subplots and intricate characterization—into a single issue of a comic book. STERN: Well, there was always a lot of humanity to the FF. No matter how huge the cosmic menace, how desperate the situation, or how long-winded Reed’s explanations became, you always cared about those four as people. I hope that a little of that has rubbed off on me over the years. BUSIEK: Kirby’s grounded-but-grandiose storytelling and the warmth of Stan’s dialogue. Whenever I’m stuck on a super-hero plot, I ask myself how it’d play out if Jack was drawing it, and that usually solves the problem, even if I wind up doing something else. The whole run is a textbook of how to tell an exciting story about characters you can care about. CONWAY: It showed the possibility of storytelling from an emotional point of view. My struggle as a writer has always been between plot and emotion. [Fantastic Four showed you] could do both: have overarching, dramatic, plot-dense stories, which owed a lot to Jack’s storytelling methods, with a very emotional, personal kind of writing style Stan brought to it. It was the melding of two great techniques.

ENGLEHART: Treating each character as a living being, with his own personal psyche. This comes from Stan’s deciding to put them in a universe, where the characters interacted and so had to distinguish themselves from each other; writing them all the same would not have worked. KESEL: I think in some ways I’ve always tried to recapture the energy of those Lee-Kirby FFs in my work—and usually failed miserably. But probably just as important an influence was the humor in the FF book—there were times I laughed so hard at Stan’s dialogue that I couldn’t breathe, honest to God—and I might be a little better at that. RUDE: The sense of comic books being avenues for the fantastic. Ground it in real life and then extend it to places where only imagination can follow. WOLFMAN: I’ve said this for years so I’m not making it up now. Everyone always said my Teen Titans was DC’s X-Men. © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ROSS: Going back to what time I spent with Marvels, there was a passion for rendering moments from Fantastic Four stories, the Kirby ones, as the most important history in comics. Along with [Amazing] Spider-Man, it was the timeline of that period. At DC it was all disconnected stories. This [the Lee-Kirby FF] was the tale that comics for 30 to 40 years to come would be spun from. In Earth X and the subsequent sequels, we followed the mode of creativity from Fantastic Four, where everything was game, anything was possible. We’d investigate what Kirby’s Celestials really were, where do old super-heroes go when they die. Our inspiration was the trail started by Lee and Kirby, the greatest creative drive that comics have ever seen. BYRNE: Impossible to define. I would not exist as a comic-book professional had it not been for Lee and Kirby. CLAREMONT: If I hadn’t read that issue [FF #49], and gotten hooked as a teenager on comics, and Marvel, I wouldn’t be here today, doing what I do. So, I guess, it’s all Stan’s fault. THOMAS: I’ve always wanted any comic I wrote to be as good as the better issues of the FF. That book, not SpiderMan, is what I always considered the apex of Marvel’s original 1960s achievement. BREVOORT: The Lee-Kirby FF is the gold standard of superhero comics, the run you eternally try to equal. SANDERSON: Why do you think longtime comics readers feel such affection for the FF as a series and as characters? LEE: It must be because they enjoyed the series years ago, and when you enjoy something when you’re young that feeling of affection stays with you. THOMAS: Because they’re intelligent enough to know that this is one of the best comics ideas of all time . . . and took the super-hero group in a whole new direction. BREVOORT: First and foremost, they’re great characters, and they were created and presided over for close to a decade by perhaps the strongest writer-artist team in comicbook history. So many elements of style, of concept, of storytelling, and of character originated within those 102 Lee-Kirby issues that it’s positively staggering to consider. ENGLEHART: It’s easy to have affection for the characters as written, and they are the oldest, and for a significant time the best, of all the Marvel characters. We know them. WOLFMAN: Great characters who had adventures and fought villains the likes of which we’d never seen before in comics. It was a completely new approach to super-hero comics with more imagination than any super-hero comic ever had before or has had since. It was a wonderful blend of drama, comedy, action, incredible art, and brilliant ideas all wrapped up into one book. Stan and Jack were and remain unbeatable. SIMONSON: I think it’s because the first 50 or 60 issues of the title (these numbers will change depending on whom you’re asking and when they began reading the comic) were such great comics. Delightful stories about sex, death, and betrayal. And a lot of other stuff besides. A regular cast

the Super-Skrull might come diving out of the sky at you. But you’d have a great time all the same. The FF are all fun, interesting people. What’s not to like?

ROSS: The purity of the concept. In a way as a kid I could always understand the basics of this four-person group as I could never understand the new X-Men. In a way they are the prototype for all super-hero groups that followed them. You could see the chaos from the different personalities that would be exhibited but also the order of a family and a reason the different characters would be together in the first place.

BUSIEK: Because they’re family—because they work so well as a cast, even if they’re just having breakfast. They’re so grounded in their human sides that when the big cosmic stuff blows up, it works all the better because we like them and we see through their eyes.

EVANIER: I always felt there was something organic about the characters. They just naturally fit together, unlike some other groups which are just a batch of characters whose personalities don’t necessarily interface. And of course, with the Fantastic Four, Mssrs. Lee and Kirby did 100+ wonderful issues and established a franchise, a cast o’characters and a very fine tradition. Besides, we all knew it was “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” because it said so right on the cover. They couldn’t say that if it wasn’t true . . . could they? DeFALCO: I think longtime readers have such affection for the FF because it was a comic that stretched the boundaries of our young imaginations in a way that no comic, book or movie had ever done before or since. CONWAY: If you mean people who read the book in the 1960s, it’s because it was the first book to open the door to a different kind of storytelling for comics. It opened our hearts and our minds in a way nothing else did. I loved Spider-Man, but Fantastic Four took my cherry, as it were. WEIN: Because they introduced us to a kind of comic-book storytelling we’d never seen before. Comics started to grow up a bit with the advent of Fantastic Four, and we’ve all grown up with them.

you enjoyed spending time with, a remarkable and continuously refreshed supporting cast, situations fraught with drama (and humor), and brilliant graphic design and storytelling.

ORDWAY: Well, for anyone who read and loved it during its heydays, you were invested in the adventures of a family— and cared for them all. With a book like The Avengers, if someone didn’t get along, they left, to be replaced by some new character. With the FF, it was just them. They’re like the Beatles—if Paul leaves, the group disbands. The FF exists because they all put their hands on the others and made a pact to help humanity with their powers. It’s hard not to feel invested in that concept.

A 1980 pin-up by illustrator, writer,

RYAN: They are family.

and all-around nice

KESEL: Family. And on that note—as a wise man once remarked—’Nuff Said.

guy Terry Austin. Courtesy of the

Peter Sanderson is a comics critic and historian whose work includes the coffee-table book Marvel Universe (Harry N. Abrams, 1998). In the fall of 2004, he began teaching “Comics as Literature” (including “This Man, This Monster”) at New York University. He currently writes the weekly online column “Comics in Context” at www.filmforce.ign.com/ comics.html.

CLAREMONT: Because unlike Spidey, they engaged our most positive emotions. We admired them, we celebrated their triumphs and embraced their tragedies. Spidey was a figure in constant struggle, hanging on literally by his fingernails. For most of us, his character struck way too close to home. In the FF, we had as I said, the presentation of an ideal. They were for the most part the grown-ups we hoped we might become, smart and tough and courageous, even if occasionally hot-headed, butt-headed, and impetuous. Thor was the evocation of myth as Myth. The FF were Myth made Human. They took on the Great Powers of the Universe for the best of all possible reasons: because they could and because there was no one else. And they prevailed because, well, they were just plain fantastic. BYRNE: To invoke a cliché, what’s not to love? No matter how many times these characters get stepped on, or fed through the mill, the core, the center that Lee and Kirby created, is so solid, so endearing, so very real, that it always shines through. STERN: Again, the humanity. Who wouldn’t want to have those people as their friends? Can you imagine how much fun it would be to, say, take in a ballgame with Ben? Go cruising for burgers with Johnny? Or head out to the country with Reed and Sue for a picnic? Okay, given who they are, it might not be terribly safe. You’d never know when

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How to Build a Better Super-Team: by Dan Johnson conducted on June 18, 2004

Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot on DNAgents You can’t keep the good guys down for long. Sure, every team of super-heroes has its darkest hour, those moments when it looks like all is lost. If you’re lucky (and a member

interview

of the Teen Titans or the X-Men), those bleak periods might only last a few issues. For other super-teams, the dark times can last much longer. You want to talk long stretches of nothing but shadows in a room painted black? Try over a decade. That was the long stretch visited upon one of the most original super-teams of the 1980s, the DNAgents. This team of genetically engineered super-heroes— Surge, Rainbow, Amber, Tank, and Sham—was last seen in the late

Engineered for Action

1980s in their series published by Eclipse Comics. For too many years,

A pin-up by

DNAgents appeared to be nothing

Will Meugniot

more than a pleasant memory, lost

from the DNAgents

forever except in back-issue boxes.

series bible. All

But the longer the wait for the

artwork in this

return of heroes, the sweeter it seems

feature is courtesy

when they finally come back to us. The DNAgents are proving just that with the release of their first

of Will Meugniot.

reprint collection from About Comics. This volume collects, for the first time ever, the first six issues of the original DNAgents series in trade-paperback form. To mark this occasion, BACK ISSUE sat down

with the team’s creators, writer Mark Evanier and artist Will Meugniot, for this special “Pro2Pro” in which we uncover the secrets that went into building one of the best super-teams ever. —Dan Johnson

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DAN JOHNSON: Let’s start off with something fairly easy. MARK EVANIER: Will, you want to start? WILL MEUGNIOT: Sure. Actually, it came about from a couple of things. Both Mark and I had been following the then independent comics movement with a lot of interest. I was working at Marvel Productions [animation] at the time, and Dave Stevens would come by the bullpen with his Rocketeer pages and the guys and I were all just blown away. I was already toying with the idea of doing something in the area, when I ran into Stan [Lee] on the way to the office. We were in the middle of working on the [early 1980s NBC] Hulk cartoons, and the network had just decided that the Hulk’s clothes had to magically appear on him

Beginnings:

Cartoon-comics scripts for Disn ey and Gold Ke and an apprentic y, eship under Jack Kirby (circa 1969–70)

Milestones:

Comics: DNAgen ts / Groo / Crossfi re / Tarzan / Blackhawk / Cr ossfire / Welco me Back, Kotte Fanboy / POV co r/ lumn / The Mig hty Magnor Animation and Live-Action TV: Welcome Back Kotter / Garfield , and Friends / Pl astic Man / Thundarr the Ba rbarian / The Tro llkins / ABC Weekend Spec ial / Rickety Ro cket / Superman The Animated Se : ries / Richie Rich / Dungeons & Dragons / That’s Incredible!

Respective Co mpanies

What was the story behind the creation of the DNAgents?

Works in Progress:

thinking, (laughing) “You know, it might be fun just to do a comic where you didn’t have to do that kind of stuff.” So

POV Online / DNAgents and Crossfire TPBs (About Comics) / Superheroes in My Pants

I called Mark, and Mark was ready to go on something. EVANIER: Yeah, we went to lunch down in Little Tokyo that day and talked over ideas, what we wanted to do and themes that interested us both. Somehow, in a flash of inspiration—or maybe it was Teriyaki sauce—we got stuck

Cyberspace: w

with this idea.

ww.newsfromme .com

JOHNSON: Mark, if I’m not mistaken, DNAgents was the first time you had ventured into the super-hero genre, right?

Cartoon by Se rgio Aragones. Characters ©

every time he transformed back to Banner. I got started

EVANIER: Not quite, but it was fairly close. I did a few super-hero things before then, but I had stuck closer to funny-animal comics and I did the Tarzans for a couple of years. I like all kinds of material, and I’d been eager to do a super-hero story for some length of time. I thought it would be interesting to try and build some new characters, as opposed to playing with someone else’s. MEUGNIOT: I gotta say that was one of my interests too. When I had done stuff for Marvel before, like the Tigra series and Howard the Duck, I was never happy about not having any editorial control over what happened. Vince Colletta inked my second job, and Sonny Trinidad inked my third. So I thought it would be nice to have control over who was inking my stuff and to work with a writer I really liked. JOHNSON: When DNAgents came out, the independent market was really just starting to take off. Mark, I had read the stories about Blackhawk at DC—

Beginnings:

Rutherford’s The Gila in Tony First fanzine art: shell (1967) ditto zine, Bomb e-Woman in t: Tigra the Wer ar ed ish First publ #3 (1976) Marvel Chillers

Milestones:

nity / / DNAgents / Va l Chillers (Tigra) erica Am y ar Comics: Marve M / rs ve / FemForce co on / The Thing / Exotic Fantasy nds / Flash Gord ie Fr r pe s/ Su n: io Animat s Amazing Friend ider-Man and Hi / x Si ic on Lone Ranger / Sp m / Bi of the X-Men / Je G.I Joe / Pryde venturer / Ad e th n na Co / Captain Planet ited ider-Man Unlim Silver Surfer / Sp

ss: Works in Progre nom (direct-to-video feature) / vs. Ve G.I. Joe / Valor

i Monkie Monde

EVANIER: (faking bewilderment) Wait, DC published Blackhawk?

) (Komikwerks #4

JOHNSON: That’s what I’ve heard.

: Cyberspace oardpro.com www.storyb

MEUGNIOT: I never even heard of that book, man! JOHNSON: Well, I’ve heard rumors to that effect. I hope one day DC will realize that they published it and put it out in a trade paperback, because that was a terrific series. EVANIER: I think there’s more of a chance of O.J. finding the real killers. MEUGNIOT: It’s funny, sometimes the things that we’ve done that we love are the ones that are least likely to get recognition.

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First Issue Special Will Meugniot’s

EVANIER: Yeah, you can’t be too results-oriented in this

about having the better printing that Eclipse had than anyone

pencils to the cover

business. Sometimes, your favorite projects are not the most

else. I think the only downside was the higher cover price.

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lucrative or the most noticed. You just have to do enough

JOHNSON: You do bring up the good point that you two

different things so that it all averages out.

were the first creators to be represented by an agent in the

JOHNSON: Gotcha. Anyway, I was going to ask, what

industry. Tell us about that.

would you say were the immediate advantages of taking

EVANIER: I had known Mike for many years, and I was used

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DNAgents out through the direct-sales

to being represented by an agent for my television work.

market, besides the artistic control that

I thought at that point the comic business needed to

Will mentioned?

mature. There was a time in the industry when they not

EVANIER: We actually had an auction,

only wouldn’t talk to agents, they wouldn’t let you show a

courtesy of Mike Friedrich, who at that

contract to a lawyer before you had to sign it. I just felt

time was agenting comics properties. In

there was a maturation process emerging in the comic-

fact, I believe we were the first thing he

book business at that time and I was eager to do my part

ever offered around. Mike wanted to use

and support it.

the DNAgents to start his agency, and

MEUGNIOT: I felt the same. There were a lot of things about

he asked if he could even submit it to

DNAgents that [were ground-breaking]. It was actually the first

publishers that we wouldn’t want to go

comic that was sold via a television-style pitch. Mark and I did

with, just so he could help establish the

a bible with illustrations, just like you would if you were selling

commerce of his business. He passed it

a television show.

around, and there was a lot of interest

JOHNSON: Both you gentlemen have pretty impressive

everywhere, but the most serious offer

careers in the television industry. What was the pitch like for

came from Eclipse. That was the one we

the book?

liked the best and that’s why it wound

EVANIER: We devised these characters together and we

up there. They made the best offer, both

wrote up descriptions of them. I had been doing bibles for

in terms of money and format, and also

Saturday-morning cartoon shows. At some point I think I

creative control.

held the record for the most pilots that actually went on to

MEUGNIOT: We were both really excited

become series. So we did a 15- to 20-page bible describing

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each of the characters. One of the great things about these

EVANIER: Well, I would take issue with that, because one of

bibles is that once you sell the property, whether it’s a TV

the things they were buying was Will Meugniot artwork.

show or a comic book, you can pretty much ignore the

Everyone liked the artwork. I never heard anyone say they

bible. If you went back and looked at it today, I’m sure

didn’t like the way the comic was drawn, except maybe

you’d see all these different ideas that we never used and

those damn inkers!

all these elements that we changed as we got into it. The

MEUGNIOT: Poor Al [Gordon]. He used to suffer mightily.

bible provides a certain comfort and a starting point. It’s

EVANIER: That’s one of the first things you have to under-

easier to start with something and deviate from it than to

stand in this business. Never listen to the inker saying the

start with nothing. Will did some wonderful drawings of

pencils aren’t fabulous. That’s just his way of saying, “I

the characters and he drew a six-page sequence—

want more money.” Al, I think, really had a wonderful time

MEUGNIOT: That we actually wound up using in the first

doing the book. He enjoyed the hell out of it. Ultimately, I

issue, with some minor modifications.

think, people responded to the fact that Will and I seemed

EVANIER: I think it was pretty much the drawings that

to be in sync. We seemed to have the same idea and at least

snagged everyone. When you have just words on paper,

we both liked it.

they’re just words. But once you have actual pages with

JOHNSON: Mark, I read over the letters to the readers that

word balloons and panel borders, suddenly there’s a comic

you did in the first few letter columns for DNAgents, and

book there. It becomes a little easier for someone to say “yes”

you made the point that this book wasn’t just your idea by

DNAgents #2’s cover,

or “no.”

yourself, that DNAgents was definitely a collaborative

in pencil form.

MEUGNIOT: I think Mark is underestimating his appeal

effort between you and Will. I was curious what insight you

there. At that point, though I had done a little bit of stuff

could give us into who contributed what exactly to the

for Marvel, and had talked to DC, I had not actually been

making of the comic?

responsible for a regular book before. I’ve got to say, a lot of

EVANIER: One of the great testimonies to the way we work

what sold the book was Mark’s credibility and the fact that

together is that I’m not sure of very many of those. There

he was willing to put me forward as being an acceptable,

were times I said to Will, “Hey, that was a good idea you

professional person who would turn a book around on

had there” and he said, “I thought that was your idea.” I

time. I doubt I could have sold a book by myself.

was trying to disabuse people that all the ideas on the page

Catch Me If You Can

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were the writer’s. It was a very unfair

Forever Amber

MEUGNIOT: What I think was funny is that when Mark and

thing that I felt was too often assumed

I were talking about it, we kind of had visualized different

in a lot of comics, including those that

people being the characters, yet they had similar traits.

involved a fellow I used to know

Graphically, a lot of what made Rainbow so alive was my

named [Jack] Kirby. Once or twice

wife, Jo, posing for me, so Rainbow really had Jo’s anatomy

there were pieces of P.R. and

and posture.

publicity that referred to me as

EVANIER: And I think it was very cruel that you made her

being the creator of DNAgents,

dye her hair nine different colors, Will.

and I thought that was enor-

MEUGNIOT: She did! I think that was what led to the unfor-

mously unfair. I wanted to

tunate military cut a couple of years later.

make a point of being sure that

EVANIER: Jo, by the way, did a rather phenomenal coloring

people understood that the

job on most of the issues. She was not our first colorist, but

credit or blame had to be

once we gave her the post, we went, “My God! Why didn’t

divided up.

we have her do it from the start?”

MEUGNIOT: If I may say, as a

MEUGNIOT: Mark and Jo and I all got into the technical

long-time collaborator of Mark’s,

aspect of coloring, what could be done with those old-

this is one of the real pleasures of

fashioned by-hand separations. If you look at some of the

working with him. Mark has always

issues, starting around six through the early teens when all

been really clear on the issue of

three of us were on the book, we were doing things that

DNAgents’ co-creation. I think the

people haven’t really done with coloring in a long, long

reason we’re still friends and that we

time. We were just exploring the mechanical process of what

still hang out together when we have

you could do. When we went to the [San Diego] Con, Jo

the chance, is that we’ve kind of avoided

and I would hang out with Murphy Anderson. Murphy’s

going into the whole issue of who did what,

outfit was the doing the color separations on the DNAgents,

because we really just sat down, came up with it together,

and he just loved the fact that we were experimenting and

passed things back and forth, and came up with the final

gave us little tips on what we could do. When you look at

Will Meugniot’s

product. I think that because of Mark’s association with

the book, there were things happening there in color that

portrait of the pig-

Jack, he was much more sensitive to the situation than a lot

weren’t happening in other comics at the time.

of other people would have been.

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EVANIER: We had one issue that had an almost all-green

EVANIER: There are certain things that I think came from

cover, and it was one of those issues that was just snatched

me and things that I think came from Will. But if you get it

up instantly from bookstores. I didn’t really pay that much

right, by the time we were done, we weren’t 100% certain.

attention until Dick Giordano came up to me once at a

Trust me, I’m not dodging your question.

convention and he complimented me on the coloring of

JOHNSON: That’s quite all right.

that cover. The reason it sold so well, he said, was that at

MEUGNIOT: One thing for sure is that Mark actually was

that moment, we had the only cover on the stands with a

the editor of the book in a way that I wasn’t, because we

lot of green on it. If you looked at a whole rack of comics,

had worked in that relationship before. When we were

your eye went right to it.

doing the Tarzan material, he was my editor. There was no

MEUGNIOT: I remember that! It was an electric green cover.

doubt that he knew more about comics than I did and it

Jo and I had been looking at a lot of the anime magazines

made sense to let him be the editor, especially since it was

from Japan and the Japanese have a green and a pink that I

an unpaid post.

don’t think we can generate, and we did a lot of experiments

EVANIER: [laughing] That’s right! I am extremely good at

in trying to get this electric green and a vibrant pink that they

jobs that don’t pay you any money at all [like] convention

do sometimes in their magazines, and I think its a custom

panels and web logs. If there is no money in it, I’m good at it.

ink. If you look at that cover I think it’s just this leaping figure

JOHNSON: Understood. The main reason I brought the

of Rainbow with a big face behind it, all rendered in color

issue of credit up is that I was a huge fan of Crossfire, Mark.

holds. I’m not really crazy for the drawing, but as a technical

I know at times you said that series was very autobiograph-

thing, it’s really fascinating given the technology of the time.

ical. Also, I remember one of the issues I read had a reference

JOHNSON: What about the other characters that made up

in the letter’s column to something that was said by the

the DNAgents? Was there anyone in particular that you

person who inspired the character of Rainbow.

modeled some of the other characters on?

EVANIER: I don’t remember that one. I put a lot of different

MEUGNIOT: I used to tease Rick Hoberg that I based Surge

people I knew together in writing certain characters. Will

on him, which was a bit ironic, because eventually Rick did

was doing the same thing in drawing them and making his

our Surge miniseries with Mark. Rick and I are best friends

contribution to the story.

in the animation business. We started at Hanna-Barbera on

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More Than Meets the Eye DNAgents #8’s cover the same day, working for Doug Wildey on Godzilla. Rick just always had that incredibly exuberant, optimistic attitude and I always envied that of him. EVANIER: I based some of the characters’ speech patterns and attitudes on people I knew that Will didn’t even know. The character of Amber was, more or less, a lady who worked as my secretary for a couple of years. She apprenticed with me as a comedy writer and then went on to write for David Letterman and Jay Leno, though I think she still counts the fact that she inspired a comic-book character as the high point of her life. She had a lot of freckles, and when I looked at Amber as she was drawn, I thought of this lady. JOHNSON: What about Tank and Sham? EVANIER: There’s a little of ourselves in all these characters, I think. I had different people in mind. It’s a fundamental error, I believe, to base a character on any one person. What you do is take an attitude or a style of speech and you don’t take it exclusively. MEUGNIOT: Right. With Rick [Hoberg], it was more the emotional thing, just getting that energy he had, and still has. JOHNSON: I also wanted to check on something that you said in one of the first issues of the book, Mark. It had to do with the original theme of the series and that it had changed from what you and Will had originally envisioned. What can you tell us about the original theme and just how did it change? EVANIER: I’m not sure I can. I never read the bible again after we started on the first issue. I don’t even remember what was in it. One of the great things about doing comic

books is that you don’t have to collaborate with too many people. For all intents and purposes, you collaborate with the artist, the letterer, the colorist and the inker. They all make very crucial contributions, but from the standpoint of what interests me in the story, the only person I collaborated with was Will. So it’s a two-person act of creation, as opposed to a television show where you have to convince dozens and dozens of people to get on the same wavelength, or to follow your lead. Therefore in comics, there’s a tendency for things to grow more organically.

I could have an idea and just turn to Will and say, “I want [the book] to be something like this.” Usually, he got what I meant, without me having to elaborate on it. Then, he would take it and run with it and would give me back something that was more or less my idea, but often elaborated on in a different way than I might have taken it. I trust Will. He’s a thinking artist who has an ability to get inside the characters. The first time I saw Will’s work, before I ever met the guy, I was impressed by it because there was something very organic about the

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for which you are emotionally prepared. So the underlying theme for me, was this notion of sending these characters out into the world with these enormous responsibilities and powers, but without a full understanding of that world. They did not quite understand the people with whom they had to interface, which is the way I’ve always felt about my life. I’m constantly meeting new people and finding myself unprepared to deal with them or I find myself in new situations that I feel unprepared to deal with and I guess we all do. What we tried to do was what Mr. Kirby used to suggest, which was take reality to a cosmic level and then go beyond it. Each of the five core DNAgents represented different personality types, which gives you the opportunity to then ask, “How does this type of person cope with romance or fear or a lack of recognition or the lack of, in many cases, parental protection? I had one of the most loving family relationships you could ever have. I had an absolutely perfect relationship with my father and mother, and yet there were still times when I went though the natural process of feeling like an orphan just because I was trying to find my way in the world without them. So that became part of the DNAgents. MEUGNIOT: Yeah, what he said. JOHNSON: Let’s talk timing of the book, and I say that on several different levels. In the early 1980s, when you talked about subjects like genetic manipulation and shady dealings going on behind the closed doors of company board rooms, those ideas seemed almost too fantastic to believe, and I think those were ideas that then people had a hard time grasping. But nowadays, it just seems like you guys were well ahead of the game. MEUGNIOT: That’s one of the first things we discussed. We sat down and talked about how if someone was really going to be a super-hero, how would it happen? We’re both a little bit of science buffs, and it was obvious at that point that if you were to make a real-world super-hero, it was either

Will Meugniot’s

people he drew. They felt like very real people to me. The hardware and the monsters and the cosmic stuff, that was terrific, but that’s not what interests me in an artist. What you want to do is have an artist who’s versatile enough that you can let the idea grow on its own. That’s when you sometimes find yourself writing things that weren’t what you perhaps intended, but they’re the natural evolution.

concise storytelling

JOHNSON: Well, you did mention that in this new theme,

both seen a lot of sleazy corporations.

(of course, Mark

there was an importance to the fact that the DNAgents were

JOHNSON: Let’s also talk timing of the book in regard to

only five years old. Could you elaborate on that perhaps?

what else was out there on the market then. The New Teen

EVANIER: I think we all, and by “all,” I mean Will and myself

Titans was starting to take off for DC, and X-Men was going

From Storyboards to Storytelling A sample of

Evanier’s expertly polished scripts

going to be mechanical or biological through genetic engineering. And one of the things that always bothered me about traditional super-heroes was the absence of a funding mechanism. If you have globe-trotting super-heroes, it’s going to take some money, so that’s where the corporate world comes in. Also, having worked in Hollywood, [Mark and I] have

and anyone who’s drawn to this comic book, struggle

strong at Marvel Comics. What kind of response do you

certainly help),

mightily with the notion of going from adolescence to

think DNAgents got because of the groundwork that had

from DNAgents #4.

adulthood. There are various periods along the way when

been laid by those other team books?

your abilities have not kept up with your responsibilities or

EVANIER: Pretty good. Oddly enough, one of the things we

your responsibilities are ahead of your maturity and they’re

had to overcome early on was the fear of some fans about

not quite in sync. You find yourself filling an adult role

committing emotionally to a comic from an independent.

before you’re emotionally prepared for it. Or conversely,

The fear then was that a comic from an independent might

you find yourself not being allowed to fulfill an adult role

disappear on you. It might not come out every month or

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last every long. I actually had a few fans at early signings say

have a weird idea, you

to me, “Are you going to keep doing this? Are you sure

do it without spending

you’re going to keep doing this? I don’t want to buy it and

days or weeks discussing

have you stop it after four or five issues.” I thought that was

it. I learned that from

a prejudice against independents that the independent

Kirby. One of the reasons

publishers had to overcome. The fans felt that a DC or a Marvel

Jack was able to do as

comic is going to be around for a while. At the time, I wasn’t

much as he did was

reading X-Men and I was barely reading Teen Titans. The only

that if he had an idea

time I read Teen Titans was when Marv Wolfman told me,

he felt was good, he just

“This is a good one this month.” I felt there was room out

put it down on paper

there for other groups of young heroes, and just by the virtue

and he didn’t spend a lot

of ours coming from different sources, it would be different.

of time fretting about

MEUGNIOT: If you look at DNAgents, it seems like it’s a little

it. I don’t know why we

island of super-heroics in the Eclipse lineup. I think that put

did [the crossovers],

it into a little tough position because it wasn’t the type of

except Marv and I

book you would expect from Eclipse. It was an odd situation,

thought it would be

and one it took a few issues to overcome.

fun to cross-promote

JOHNSON: Given the success that DC was having with

the books.

Teen Titans and Marvel was having with X-Men, it would

MEUGNIOT: The thing

appear that DNAgents would have been the series to reach

that the modern fans

the broader, more mainstream audience that an independent

are missing out on, that

publisher like Eclipse would have wanted in the early 1980s.

made this “crossover”

MEUGNIOT: I think [Eclipse] agreeing to pick up the book

so fondly remembered,

was a step in that direction, but at the same time, I think on

is that everyone involved

some levels they were a little troubled that they’d agreed to

kept this a secret. It was

publish the book.

treated so casually that

EVANIER: Eclipse, I think, wanted the series because a certain

nobody knew it was

part of the marketplace was not taking them seriously as

going to be there. People

publishers because their lineup was a little esoteric. In hind-

had the chance to discover it for themselves and not have

sight, it doesn’t seem that esoteric today. They were putting

it pushed as a hyped event.

out things like Sabre, that came out before us, and The Masked

EVANIER: I actually had people coming to me asking if

Man, and today those look like very traditional comics. At

this was a coincidence that just the same month that the

the time though, if something didn’t look like a DC or Marvel

Teen Titans had done a story about characters like the

comic, a certain part of the industry would look at it with blank

DNAgents, the DNAgents had done a story about characters

eyeballs. So Eclipse was very interested in it for that reason

like the Teen Titans, and with the same plot. In those cases

but they also felt it was a super-hero book that was palatable.

you have to feign innocence and go, “What!?! Marv did that!?!

They were very proud of the book and I think we had a lot to

I’ll have to beat him up!”

do with keeping Eclipse around as long as it was in existence.

MEUGNIOT: On our side, one of the areas of sensitivity is

If not for a flood and a few financial shenanigans in the

that DC and Marvel, at that point, had a habit of doing parody

distributor area, they might still be around.

characters of each other and somehow [those parodies] always

JOHNSON: Speaking of the Teen Titans, I remember the first

ended up being parts of their real universes. We were both

Shower the People

thing that really made me aware of DNAgents was the

very glad Marv killed off the Recombatants at the end, making it really hard for them to return.

Compare the last panel

crossover that you gents did with the New Teen Titans comic. What was the story behind this secret crossover,

JOHNSON: It sounds like the crossover with the Titans was

where the Titans became Project Youngblood and the

a fun thing for you to do, and it would appear that the

#6’s pencils (above) to

DNAgents became the Recombatants?

whole book was a pleasant experience. Was there anything

the printed version to

EVANIER: Marv [Wolfman] and I worked that out. I think

that you wanted to do with the DNAgents that you missed

see how Meugniot had

we were in Las Vegas together and we said, “Let’s just do

the opportunity to do?

this for fun.” We had not intended that the DC version would

EVANIER: Well, I wanted to do it for ten years, just to see

look as much like the DNAgents as it did, but that’s what

how many ways we could keep these characters going, but

because, in the artist’s

Steve Rude felt like drawing. It was just something to get

Eclipse wasn’t really able to support it for very long.

own words, “Rainbow

attention. Getting back to the fact that comics are done

MEUGNIOT: I really wanted to keep doing the book longer,

was just a little

with so little teamwork, there’s also the nice factor that

but financially, the years that I was doing the DNAgents, I

there isn’t a huge amount of money involved. So if you

made about a third of what I was making at studios before

of page 4 of DNAgents

to change his art

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and after I did the book. It just got to the point where it was a financial hardship doing the comics. That’s always been a regret because I liked working with Mark, and I really loved those characters, but there just came a point where I said, “God, I wish I could take a vacation again sometime.” EVANIER: Will was working incredibly long hours and he was so much in demand for animation work. I know roughly what he was getting, and I would have made that leap myself because unfortunately in the comic-book industry, even if the DNAgents had become much, much more successful, it would not have paid him as much as storyboarding whatever show it was he went to then. Where did you go at the time? MEUGNIOT: It was Marvel. They had just started doing the G.I. Joe miniseries and they kept calling, offering more and more money.

DNAgents Publishing History

JOHNSON: That was one of the questions I did want to ask, what had prompted you to leave the book, Will. Mark, what about after Will left? What was it like doing the book without him? EVANIER: I wanted to keep DNAgents going because I felt, first of all, Eclipse had invested [in it], and it

DNAgents #1 (Mar. 1983) –

had an audience built up. I kept thinking of those

24 (July 1984) (Eclipse

kids at the signings who’d said to me, “This is going

Comics)

to be around for a while, isn’t it?” I didn’t want to let them down. Also at that point, we had some

The New DNAgents #1

very strong interest in the property in television, so

(Oct. 1985) – 17 (March

I didn’t want to kill the comic and therefore harm that

1987) (Eclipse Comics)

potential interest. So I said to Will, “Do you mind if I find another artist?” and he said, “Great, go ahead.” I was very fortunate that I found a lot of good guys who I enjoyed

Three-Dimensional

working with. None of them were Will, because. . . well,

DNAgents #1 (Jan. 1986) (Eclipse Comics) DNAgents Super Special #1 (1994) (Antarctic Press)

producing Jem and he was producing The Inhumanoids. He’d be producing a show and still doing the comic at night and I would go, “How can you do this!?!” I just couldn’t believe how fast he was, and how good he was. EVANIER: And I was fortunate. I had Chuck Patton, and I

they weren’t Will.

found this kid named Erik Larsen, who I think has done

MEUGNIOT: Jo kept coloring the book so it was easy for me

some comics of interest since then. We also had a lot of

to follow it, and I enjoyed what Richard [Howell] did with them.

interesting guest artists from time to time. I was just very

When Mitch Schauer came on and drew some of the later

fortunate that I had a lot of friends I wanted to work with

books, I really liked what he did and was always envious of

and this gave me the opportunity to do so.

him because he was so much faster than me. He had a day

JOHNSON: Let’s talk about the interest that had been

DNAgents: Born Orphans

job in animation and then turned around and did the book

expressed in doing DNAgents as a television show.

Trade Paperback (2005)

at night, which was something I could have never done.

EVANIER: We had three separate options for live-action

(About Comics)

EVANIER: Mitch was very devoted. He was a guy who had

television shows, and quite a few pilots were written, one

wanted to very much work in comics and he had submitted

of them by me. We made an awful lot of money off options,

to DC and Marvel and I don’t think they even looked at his

but the odds of getting a television show on, even if the

work. They just kind of threw it in the slush pile. I saw his

head of the network says, “Oh, I love this,” are something

art, grabbed him up, and almost immediately after that, DC

like one in ten or one in 20. In this case, we just didn’t have

offered him one of their top books for more money than I

the right property at the right time.

was paying him. I told Mitch to please feel free and grab it,

MEUGNIOT: I think the time we probably came closest to

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and he said, “No. You wanted me when they didn’t, so you’ve

having a series was the very first time but NBC bought a very

got first dibs.” So Mitch drew the book as long as he could

similar show, Misfits of Science, and that was what killed it.

after that until his animation career became so lucrative

EVANIER: CBS wanted to do it. There was a pilot script

and busy he just didn’t have time.

written, and then, for reasons that had nothing to do with

MEUGNIOT: We were at Marvel at the same time, I was

our project, there was one of those periodic shake-up of

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EVANIER: It would have been great, but it would have

Not Necessarily the New Teen Titans

bankrupted the studio because CBS was only going to pay $750,000 for the pilot. So, the studio, in this case it was Paramount, went and said, “We’re not going to make a

Will Meugniot’s

1.5 million-dollar pilot unless CBS gives us 1.5 million dollars.”

two-page spread

That was the negotiating position that week. A year earlier,

from DNAgents #14’s

they would have grabbed that deal, figuring it was a good

“unofficial Titans

investment, and a year later they did grab that kind of deal. But that particular month, they were trying to pressure

crossover,” in

the networks to pay more and unfortunately they made

pencil form.

they loved it, but not enough to change their entire structure for how they paid for shows. A couple of other pilot scripts were written. There was one that was all about babies being murdered. . . MEUGNIOT: That was the one with the traveling pizza truck. EVANIER: Yeah. We had this wonderful writer, who was a very talented guy and who had a lot of experience, who did this script that nobody understood or liked. The premise was that the government was murdering all the cloned babies in the world, and the DNAgents were the only ones that got out. So, you open up this script to the first page and FBI agents are breaking into a lab and strangling babies with their bare hands.

executives at the network. As invariably happens in those situations, the new guys come in and immediately kill all the old guys’ projects. That’s standard operating procedure. You don’t want to start your regime by accepting the choices of the guys who got fired. If a certain executive had been terminated six weeks later there, we probably would have had a series. MEUGNIOT: That was the most heartbreaking of them. EVANIER: Before that point, and again later when CBS optioned the property again, we had a financing problem. A pilot script that had been written, a very good one I thought, and there’s this thing in Hollywood called “deficit financing,” where the network pays 80% or 50% of the cost of actually

MEUGNIOT:

producing the show, and they expect the studio to deficit-

I can’t see this on CBS at eight

finance the rest of it and then to recoup their investment

o’clock. The DNAgents have been through a lot

out of reruns, foreign sales, and merchandising. Right about

of weird permutations and it’s probably been under either

then, a number of studios, including unfortunately the one

option or under consideration for option about as much

with which we were allied, began to balk at deficit financing.

time as it hasn’t. I think maybe it just might get made as a

The pilot script for the DNAgents show was cost out at, origi-

television show someday. That’s one of the reasons we’re

nally, four million dollars. That’s what they claimed it would

both excited about the About Comics reprints. It’s a chance

cost to produce, which was way too much. I did a rewrite

to get the property visible again.

on it, and brought it down to about 1.5 [million], just by taking

JOHNSON: That is a wonderful set-up to my next question,

out scenes with 20 helicopters and such.

which concerns the collection of the first six issues of

MEUGNIOT: I remember a big scene where Tank sank a

DNAgents that will be released by About Comics. Tell us

submarine. It was fabulous.

about this new venture.

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EVANIER: Well, Nat Gertler called me up and asked

MEUGNIOT: One of the problems is that neither of us has

if anyone was reprinting DNAgents, and I told him

actively pursued a new series because we’re both kind of

no. He said, “I want to,” and I told him, “Let me

busy. I would love doing it again, but there really is the

check with Will,” Will said yes, so I called Nat back

question of finding the time and money to do it.

and said fine. That was really about all there was

EVANIER: I miss those characters. I missed them a month

to it.

after we stopped doing them, but unfortunately I don’t find

MEUGNIOT: The cover [for the first collection] is

the comic-book business that thrilled these days with other

the first time I’ve drawn the characters in seven years

people’s properties. Most comics are being done as loss

and it was so much fun. I didn’t have to pull any

leaders for movie deals and so you don’t have a lot of pub-

references, I just remembered everything.

lishers rushing to put out someone else’s characters.

JOHNSON: Well, now we are seeing reprints of

JOHNSON: In case fans of the DNAgents were lucky enough

DNAgents, and Crossfire too, and there are options

to one day get new stories, what would you say would be

open on the series, and nothing sells a movie or a tele-

different about them than 20 years ago?

vision show better than new comics. Any chance we could

MEUGNIOT: For one thing, I would like to think I draw

see some new DNAgents stories perhaps?

better now than I did back then. Also, I think one of the

EVANIER: If a publisher wanted to put one out, I think we

blessings of the comic-book characters that we baby boomers

could probably figure out how to do it.

loved as kids is that the people creating them acknowledged there had been a 20-year gap in their

Perched for Pilfering

publication and the characters were updated to a ’60s sensibility. I think we would have to update our

Meugniot’s concept

characters to make them contem-

rough, drawn in

porary, but not sacrifice their souls.

marker, of the villainous

EVANIER: I think you have got to

Vulture from the offbeat

go back to the original premise and say, “What about this still survives?”

TV cartoon Spider-Man

Not only in terms of what is still

Unlimited (1999–2001),

viable as a story, but what is still

a series set on Counter-

interesting? I can’t stand reading my

Earth due to contractual

own work, so I almost never do

restrictions caused

unless I’m forced too for some assignment. I’m sure that if tomorrow we

by the then-in-pre-

had to go back and do DNAgents

production Spider-Man

again, or if we had the opportunity

live-action movie.

to, I’d go back [to the original series] and say, “Here’s the part I really

don’t like, and let’s see if we can build on the good stuff.” MEUGNIOT: I think what was fresh about the book 20 years ago were the things like the genetic alteration of human beings to make them super-powered, and the corporate milieu of the book, but other properties have taken those ideas and run with them, so now those

Mary America

concepts would seem old. I think we’d have to find today’s spin on

Meugniot’s

that kind of stuff.

Mary America was seen

JOHNSON: Well, I think this is a

in Komikwerks #1

good spot to wrap up this “Pro2Pro.”

and FemForce #120.

Let me just say that I am very pleased that the original DNAgents

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will be available again soon.

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Back in Print

MEUGNIOT: I didn’t realize how nostalgic I would feel

comic-book rack with this tiny DNAgents cover on there,

about seeing the book on the stands again until I started

and this executive was looking at the cover and went,

seeing the solicitations for it. I’m really very excited by the

“God, I remember DNAgents. I loved that comic. Who did

notion that the DNAgents are coming back. I’ve missed

that comic? Who has the rights to it?” That’s always nice to

cover to About Comics’

having the characters in my life.

know that your work is remembered.

DNAgents TPB, from

The progression of the

EVANIER: I feel the same way Will does. I know this is a boring

Will Meugniot’s pencils

interview, because we keep agreeing with each other. But

to his inked art to the

this was a very enjoyable, creative experience for me and

just see how people go for it this time. MEUGNIOT: Like Mark, I’ve worked on other things that have been more successful than the DNAgents, but whenever I go to a meeting at a strange company, usually there’s someone, who has a DNAgents for me to sign or who raves about the book. I really think, in many ways, doing that comic was the foundation for my later career. EVANIER: I was at a network meeting about a year ago and I took along a copy of this book that TwoMorrows published of my old columns called Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life. I thought I’d just to give it to the guy I was meeting with because he’d said he was interested in reading some of my articles. On the cover, Sergio Aragonés drew a little

sidebar sidebar sidebar

the old issues. It’s nice to have the material available again,

(wish we could publish

end

it’s always nice to revisit that. I get asked about these characters all the time, and people are still selling and buying

Slammin’! Remember the Sgt. Slammer comic book? No? Then you didn’t see the movie Russkies (1987), for which Slammer was created as a prop. This “Sgt. Sissy” cover was written and penciled by Will Meugniot and inked by Will’s frequent collaborator Larry Houston. © 1987 New Century Vista Film Company.

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guest editorial by denny o’neil

Joe Reader’s Logic

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I think Joe Reader’s logic must go something like this: I like super-doers in

Editor’s note:

costumes, and if there’s more than one of them in the magazine I’m buying, I’m getting

Among the many, many,

a good deal.

many accomplishments

What our imaginary Joe is contemplating are super-hero comic books that feature more than one good guy. They’ve been popular for a long time—more than 65 years— and maybe they sometimes are a good deal. And, sometimes, maybe they’re not. For writers they can be a problem. A little Creative Writing 101, if you don’t mind: Conflict is basic to almost all fiction—certainly all fiction that involves a struggle between good and evil, and that includes each one of the thousands of super-hero

and teacher Dennis O’Neil is his ability to combine diverse characters—from the super-knights of the round table the Justice

comics I’ve read, written, and edited over the decades. For conflict to be interesting, it

League of America to the

has to exist between antagonists who are approximately equal, in physical and mental

politically polarized pair

capabilities if not in moral maturity. Put the toughest girl scout on the block in the box-

of Green Lantern and

ing ring with Mike Tyson and your pay-per-view profits will not be large. Now if you,

Green Arrow—into one

the writer, are dealing with a demi-goddish powerhouse like Superman, the Silver

adventure. But writing

Surfer, or Captain Marvel, to name just three, you’ve got to exercise some ingenuity to give your hero an opponent he can’t logically obliterate in a few nanoseconds. Put a bunch of costumed demigods in the same story and have someone wish you the good luck you’ll need. I once begged off writing Justice League of America when I realized I was making the book Alien Invasion of the Month comics. Having just two heroes can be as bad as having a herd of them if their powers are

•

of comics writer, editor,

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super teams isn’t as easy as Denny makes it look, and he’d like to get that off his chest. —Michael

disparate. Superman and Batman are good examples.

they did, of course, was far more interesting than the

Superman, in his most powerful incarnations can, after

exploits of characters in school readers, and besides, the

all, shove planets around, as well as fly to the ends of

pictures were really neat. All this meant that the plot

the universe and see through walls and into the past and

was the thing, and characterization existed only insofar

move at almost light speed and is very smart and maybe

as it was needed to facilitate the storyline.

a lot of other things I’ve forgotten. Batman? Well, he’s

Stan Lee changed that. The members of his super-

. . . pretty doggone strong and a really, really excellent

group, the Fantastic Four, were touchy, sometimes

detective. And stuff. What are these guys doing in the

cranky, and even, on occasion, ill-tempered. That made

same story? Any foe who’s a problem for the Last Son of

them less-than-perfect role models, at least to those folk

Krypton should have no trouble with the Caped

who concerned themselves with such things as role

Crusader; and his enemies, who tend to be human-scale,

models. But it also made them a lot more fun to read.

wouldn’t stand a prayer against the Man Of Steel.

Stan opened a door that a lot of us have gone through.

Superman and Batman are often comrades because of

He demonstrated that giving the good guys flaws did

historic accident. It made commercial sense, in comics’

not make them less good, nor diminish the splendor of

salad days, to have them appear together. They were

their deeds, and that characterization was useful for

both enormously popular back then and to place them

something other than plot-advancement; it could be a

between the covers of the same magazine was the pub-

vehicle for entertainment. Now, the importance—the

lishing equivalent of a two-for-one sale—irresistible to a

primacy, even—of characterization is taken for granted.

kid clutching a dime and looking for entertainment.

Chris Claremont kept his readers in an iron grip for

And it’s possible that the creative folk of the ’40s were

something like 14 years, largely because they got to

too new at the super-hero game to worry about story

know, and identify with, the various X Men.

logic or, believing their readers to be quite immature, not worried about the lack thereof.

However, a warning to young writers: Characterization is not achieved at the expense of plot, nor is it

The writers of the earliest group comics that I’m

achieved by having your fictional people just, you

aware of, [the Justice Society of America in] All Star

know, sit around and yak or, worse, by presenting

Comics, published in the early ’40s, solved the disparate

their interior churnings in endless

powers-quandary by breaking their stories into bite-

captions. Another dictum from good

sized pieces. The baddie’s evil schemes were multi-part

ol’ Creative Writing 101: Character is

and presented in chapters; and each super-doer was dis-

action. Which means that what your

patched to handle a part of the menace and, not coinci-

villains and heroes do is as revelatory

dentally, was given his own chapter. That meant that an

as what they say. And nobody will

array of super-powers would not instantly overwhelm

care about their emotional state if

the heavies and, incidentally, it solved what must have

they aren’t cool people and they

been an editorial problem. The deadline-beset editor—

won’t be cool people if all they do is

editors are always deadline-beset—could assign different

sit around and stare at their navels.

chapters to different artists and orchestrate the various

Navel-staring is not, to the average

sections to be finished more-or-less simultaneously.

onlooker, entertaining. They may

(Remember: in those days, the average comic book was

tolerate it for a while, but probably

a whopping 64 pages long.)

only if they think something livelier is to follow.

Alien Invasion of the Month Comics

In those happy times of yore, characterization was

So, how about our pal, Joe Reader? Is his logic valid? Is

pretty rudimentary. Comics, it was assumed, were read

he getting more for his comics dollar by buying titles that

The author admits that

only by kids, and maybe not-too-bright kids at that,

feature groups? Well . . . maybe. If the various characters

writing the Justice League’s

and, heck, almost anything might corrupt the darlings.

interact in amusing ways and each contributes to the

adventures was no cakewalk.

(Mark Twain was scolded for greatest of American novels,

development and resolution of the plot, sure—hooray

Art by Neal Adams and

Huckleberry Finn, because the free-spirited Huck was a

for groups. If assorted, mismatched good guys are merely

Dick Giordano, from the

bad role model and his language was a disgrace!)

crammed between covers like holiday souvenirs

Super DC Calendar 1976.

Consequently, stories presumably aimed at younger

crammed into a suitcase, the result is not likely to result

Courtesy of John Eury.

readers generally featured heroes not a lot more inter-

in a good story. And at the end of the day, night, year,

esting or developed than the ones in schoolbooks. What

and possibly millennium, the story’s still the thing.

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Metropolis Lives! A Guided Tour of Superman’s City, June 2004 by

Brian K. Mo

rris

You’re Entering Superman Country Superman watches over travelers half a mile west of Interstate 24’s exit 37. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs

Metropolis truly exists. But there are no shining metal

accompanying this

and crystalline skyscrapers filled with alien technology to be

article were taken

found. This is Metropolis, population 6,482 and founded in

1838, the official, honest-to-Earth Prime home of the Man of

Brian K. Morris.

Steel, Superman. The real-life Metropolis, the only city with this name listed in the U.S. Postal Zip Code Directory, rests amidst rolling farmlands in the southeast corner of Illinois. When the late Robert Westerfield moved here, he became the prime mover behind the city’s “adoption” of the Last Son of Krypton. Illinois House Resolution #572, dated June 9, 1972, declared Metropolis, Illinois, as Superman’s “official” home. With DC Comics’ permission, the “Superman Association” got to work. A museum opened and investors lined up to fund “The Amazing World of

is Metropolis’ most

Superman,” an ambitious 1,000-acre theme park conceptualized by Neal Adams

impressive and famous

(see DC Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-31, Oct-Nov., 1974), and a tabloid-sized magazine

landmark, in all

promoting the park was produced. However, the dream was not yet to be. Delays in

its 15' glory.

completing the nearby interstate and petroleum shortages at the time scuttled the city’s plans. In 1974, every asset of the museum was auctioned off and the Superman Association shelved its plans. But in 1979, when Superman: The Movie convinced the world that a man could fly, phone calls poured into Metropolis, and the idea of putting on an annual festival

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Guarding Market Street

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took on full four-color life. The result: The “Superman

Scott

Celebration” is held each year during the second weekend in June. Open to the public at large, the

“Superman”

event is free.

Cranford greets two pint-sized

THE CITY OF SUPER-PEOPLE

festival-goers

If the billboard near the last exit in Illinois doesn’t tell you who this town belongs to, the image painted on the water tower might. Or perhaps it would be the signs that advertise souvenirs at the gas station, the drugstore, the greeting-card shop, the quick oil change garage, or ones along Route 45 that proudly say, “Super Statue Ahead” They lead travelers to Superman Square, where a 15-foot-tall bronze statue depicts the town’s favorite son. Erected in June 1993 at a cost of

Noel Neill poses with

$100,000 to commemorate the [DC Comics event the]

one of her adoring fans.

death of Superman, this statue replaces a seven-footer from 1986. Each brick in the foundation represents donations from local fans, businesses, families,

man was dressed as Robin, the Boy Wonder, and the

schools, and celebrities.

ceremony was attended by “Jor-El,” “Zatanna,”

During Superman Celebration 2004, a huge tent on

“Supergirl,” and dozens of well-wishers.

the statue’s left side houses magicians, musicians, tives sell T-shirts, distribute schedules for the week-

THE CLASH OF CAPE AND COWL

end’s festivities, and cheerfully greet the estimated

Ever since 1993, the Celebration plays host to

models, and more. Chamber of Commerce representa-

20,000 visitors from all over the globe.

celebrities from movies, television, and comics. In

Along the next few blocks, vendors line the street,

some years, the stars come from outside the world

selling curly fries, ice cream, funnel cakes, and just

of Superman, such as recent attendees Adam West,

about anything that can be deep-fried or can fit into a

Yvonne Craig, and Julie Newmar from TV’s Batman;

pita. Icy cold drinks are gratefully consumed to counter

or the 2004 guests, TV’s Hulk Lou Ferrigno and original

the usual June heat and humidity. Families shop for

Captain Marvel (in Shazam!) Jackson Bostwick. Over

toys, comics, and craft items before moving toward

the years, both TV Superboys from the 1990s, John

the carnival rides and other attractions. The festive

Haymes Newton and Gerard Christopher, have

atmosphere is distinctly “small town” with its easy

greeted fans, as have live-action Men of Steel Kirk Alyn

pace and simple fare.

(from the Superman movie serials), Bob Holliday (from

What would a Superman Celebration be without its

the stage musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman),

Superman? Wearing the familiar red, blue, and yellow

and Lois & Clark star Dean Cain. Superstars from

uniform, Scott Cranford, the city’s Superman since

the comics pages have included Jeph Loeb, Mike

2000, strides the streets of Metropolis as if he’d just

Carlin, Kerry Gammill, Steve Rude, and Alex Ross,

stepped from the pages of Action Comics. He greets

the latter of whom met his wife at the event. Super-

children and adults alike with a warm smile and a firm

cinema stars Lois Lanes Margot Kidder and Phyllis

handshake, giving everyone the feeling that they’ve

Coates; Jimmy Olsens Tommy Bond, Jack Larson, and

actually met their favorite hero. A professional actor

Marc McClure; and Valerie Perrine, Lane Smith, Jeff

and stand-in, Cranford has made appearances in

East, Jack Halloran, and Sarah Douglas have also

television’s first

movies like Batman Returns, Independence Day, Predator

appeared as guests.

Captain Marvel, poses

Jackson Bostwick,

with Brian K. Morris.

II, and Die Hard II. He also operates his own website,

But if there’s royalty here, it’s Noel Neil, the official

www.heroicworld.com, where he displays his photos,

“First Lady of Metropolis” and the Lois Lane that

Photo by and ©

artwork, and writing. In 2001, Cranford got married in

many baby boomers grew up with while watching

2004 Cookie Morris.

full uniform at one of Metropolis’ city parks. His best

George Reeves repel bullets and duck from the empty

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Celebration or draw attention to the event, Hambrick also sells Superman-related items in a museum-based gift

shop,

eBay,

and

his

website,

www.supermansuperstore.com. Inside the Superman Museum, visitors can see memorabilia from the Superman Family’s numerous media appearances. Entire sections are devoted to photos and props from Smallville, Superboy, Supergirl, and Lois & Clark, as well as cels from Super Friends and other animated shows. Mannequins display clothing once worn

George

Reeves,

Kirk

Alyn,

Gerard

Christopher, Terri Hatcher, and Dean Cain, and even the “flying harnesses” used by Superman Christopher Reeve and Supergirl Helen Slater in their respective guns when hurled at him on TV’s The Adventures

Cinema’s

Toys, games, videos, homemade curios from around

of Superman.

four Supermen—

Lines begin to form an hour before the stars’ scheduled

Kirk Alyn, George

appearances. Each celebrity is given space inside one

Reeves, Christopher

of the three downtown Metropolis banks, all within

Reeve, and Dean

walking distance of each other. For later risers, a large

Cain—adorn

tent houses a late-morning public Q and A. When that session ends, admirers queue up outside the Chamber

this mural.

films.

of Commerce, clutching their prized “autographables” and waiting patiently in the warm sun for a few seconds with all the celebrities.

the globe, and several decades’ worth of comic-book original artwork line the walkways of the museum. The past and the present exist simultaneously in the museum’s winding corridors. And as you exit, you know that Jim Hambrick is still searching for new treasures. And why not? He’s already got a place to put them. “I have a 30,000 square foot space outside of town,” Hambrick told Roadside America. “As soon as the Interstate goes four-lane there, we’ll see about moving.”

One of the few uniforms worn by

FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING

WHAT CAN ONE MAN DO?

Christopher Reeve

When five-year old Jim Hambrick was in the hospital

Before put in charge of marketing for the Superman

stands on display in the

and needed cheering up, his mother gathered her limited

Museum, Atlanta-based David Olsen’s involvement

remaining complete

Superman Museum.

funds to buy a Superman lunchbox, the gift that

with the Man of Steel seemed almost predestined. His

changed the course of Jim’s life. He began accumu-

mother’s maiden name was “White,” like a certain

lating a collection of Superman memorabilia that

great metropolitan newspaper editor; he shares a sur-

eventually numbered in the thousands, the largest in

name with the world’s most famous cub reporter; and

the world.

his wife is the granddaughter of the late DC artist Dick

Hambrick created a traveling display of Supersouvenirs that toured the U.S. Starting in 1985, he

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Dillin (Blackhawk, Justice League of America, and various Superman titles).

took eight years (one year alone spent packing) and

Eight years ago, Olsen discovered the Superman

five 55-foot tractor trailers, and moved his display to

Celebration via a friend. Upon learning that the

Superman’s official home, establishing the Superman

auction held at the event drew only 30 people, he

Museum in 1993, putting a fraction of his personal

approached Hambrick about taking it over. In 2004,

collection on public view for a mere three-dollar

more than 230 items were offered for bid and

charge. As Hambrick told The Paducah Sun in 2001,

the room filled to capacity. “We’re at 200 people-

“The statue brings in a lot of people. And 95 percent

plus every year now,” Olsen explains, “and the only

of the people who come to see the statue who [leave]

reason we can’t get more is because the facility won’t

their cars come into the museum.” Several thousand

hold enough.”

people pass through the gates of the museum during

The offerings come from professional dealers, atten-

the Celebration, with around 200 daily during the rest

dees, and celebrities alike. Any given auction might

of the year. When he isn’t helping to organize the

contain old games, toys, coloring books, artwork done

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THE SUPER-KEY TO FORT SUPERMAN

The name of

A couple of years ago, the idea of reviving the plans to

home-town newspaper

build an Amazing World of Superman theme park was

should surprise no one.

Metropolis, Illinois’

proposed to the city council. Now called Superland,

Wonder if its editor is

the new park would be built upon the proposed site of

called “Chief”?

the original Amazing World. But despite the millions of tax dollars raised by a casino that pour into the city annually, funding the park still requires a major investment, to say nothing of the inevitable legal challenges. David Olsen believes that Metropolis wants to

An entire room in the Superman Museum

“still keep their small-town atmosphere. But at the same time, they want to bring more and more

is devoted to the Maid of Might’s history,

to the table.” He doesn’t expect sweeping changes

with posters, Helen Slater’s actual uniform

overnight, but thinks “it’s slowly progressing and so I

from the Supergirl movie, statues, and props.

think it’s becoming more and more positive.”

memorabilia such as plates, dioramas, or a trading-

WHATEVER BECAME OF THE MAN OF TOMORROW?

card set painstakingly matted and framed. But money

On Monday morning after the Superman Celebration,

is definitely no object to get a piece of the legend, no

Metropolis’ Market Street is empty. Soon, the road will

matter how little or how much you bring. Olsen

open up to vehicular traffic again and the town will

explains, “The great thing about the auction is you can

return to its normal routine. The Superman Museum

shows off muscles that

walk in with a dollar and probably end up getting

will open as usual, ready to honor the world’s

are as real as his smile.

something.”

greatest hero. But the statue of the hero remains,

by fans or one of the attending pros, and homemade

Some might tell you that the spirit of Superman lies in giving of one’s self to those in need. Thus, a portion

Josh Boultinghouse, winner of the Superman Celebration 2004’s Costume Contest,

its steely gaze burning into the dreams of every child who wishes he could fly.

of funds raised go to causes such as the Christopher

And 361 days from this particular day, faster

Reeve Foundation (for research into cures for spinal-

than a speeding bullet, the global pilgrimage will

cord injuries) or to buy toys for a local orphanage.

fill the streets with activity and laughter. The

Often, item donors return their auction winnings or

celebration will begin again!

make outright contributions to the Committee. Knowing that people appreciate what David Olsen does motivates him to make each auction better than the last, while not losing its mellow atmosphere. “It’s not because of accolades,” he says. He’s happy, “just knowing that I’m helping other people enjoy their vacations. And I do it mostly because I enjoy doing it for Jim Hambrick. I know that he’s got too many hats and he can’t do it [alone]. “It’s not because I have to stare at the statue one more time or I have to go through the museum one more time. I just enjoy coming here and seeing the people, meeting with them, and seeing how everybody’s doing.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION: • The Superman Museum (www.supermanmuseum.com) • The Superman Celebration (www.supermansupersite.com) or (www.supermanhomepage.com) • The Metropolis Chamber of Commerce (www.metropolischamber.com) • Scott Cranford (www.heroicworld.com)

And in the end, being here is about enjoying yourself. “If you [have] come here with a different agenda,” David concludes, “you shouldn’t have come.”

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STOCKING STUFFER Back in the 1980s, Marvel Comics briefly explored the possibility of producing a comic book starring the merry and magical Santa Claus! Plans went south, but not before John Romita, Sr. produced this spectacular cover rough (and you thought Marvel’s jolly one was Jack Kirby!). While Santa Claus didn’t materialize at the Ho-Ho-House of Ideas, the accompanying covers on this page remind us that St. Nick and the theme of Christmas were no strangers to the world of comics of the 1970s and 1980s. Happy Holidays! Batman, Brave and the Bold, DC Comics Presents, Justice League of America, and related characters and titles © 2004 DC Comics. X-Men, Hero for Hire, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Marvel Treasury Edition, and related characters and titles © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. Comico Christmas Special © 2004 Comico.

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Warner Bros. (1992-1993, 89m) Comments: 4 episodes each of the Dark Deco hit series from Fox that redefined DC’s animated future. Batman was never better on the big or small screen. With Catwoman and Mr. Freeze. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Featurettes, game, trivia.

The Phantom VCI (1943) Comments: This 15-chapter serial stars Tom Tyler (who also played Captain Marvel in an earlier serial) in a black-and-white adventure. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. res. © 1996 Paramount Pictu Features Syndicate. The Phantom © 2004 King

Batman: The Animated Series (4): Secrets Of The Caped Crusader

Harsh Realm - The Complete Series

wo t t r Pa

Fox (1999-2000, 387m) Comments: A boxed 3-disc set of Chris Carter’s virtual reality series that was barely based on James Hudnall’s comic book (though enough for Hudnall to win a lawsuit). Interesting, though it “ends” with a cliffhanger. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. by

Andy Mangels

In BACK ISSUE #5, I presented the first part of a comprehensive look at DVDs featuring comic-book characters translated to film and television. We only made it through the letter “M,” so the following continuation of the article will offer the rest of the alphabetical listing (plus a few that have come out in the A–M set since Part One).

Hellboy - Director’s Cut (and Gift Set) Columbia TriStar (2004, 132m) Comments: This 3-disc set includes 10 more minutes of footage integrated into the film, a new commentary track, and a third disc with all sorts of extras and special features, including San Diego Comic-Con panels, artwork, a Scott McCloud featurette, and more! The Gift Set also contains a mini-bust. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

For those not “in the know,” DVD technology allows video and audio images to be stored (with crystal clarity) on a small disk and gives room for a host of extras: widescreen theatrical

special feature

images, director and star commentaries that can be played over the film, isolated music scores, deleted scenes, outtakes, uncensored footage, behind-the-scenes clips, alternate

Justice League: The Brave and the Bold (5) Warner (2002, 87m) Comments: Green Lantern and the Flash fight Gorilla Grodd, the Lex Luthor assembles his Injustice League to fight the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes! DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Featurettes, game, storyboards.

endings, music videos, foreign language subtitles, and more. For fans, the ability to get their favorite comics film on DVD with all the bells and whistles is irresistible. There are many good sources for DVDs, but some comic book-based DVDs are tougher to find. First, check with your local comic-book store to see if Diamond or other distributors they use might carry the disk in question. Failing that, to get the best price, go to www.dvdpricesearch.com. At this time, we will not be covering CrossGen or Marvel Comics “Comic on DVD” releases,

Lady Death: The Motion Picture ADV Films (2004, 80m) Comments: Brian Pulido’s busty bad girl stars in her own animated original release. Watch as 15th century Swedish girl Hope takes on Lucifer for control of Hell! DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Mutant X: Season Two (#5/6) Mutant X: Season Two (#6/7) ADV Films (2002-2003, 200-250m) Comments: The mutants are back with 4-5 new episodes per set. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

but future updates to this article may do so.

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The Phantom Paramount (1996, 100m) Comments: Billy Zane cuts a dashing figure as Lee Falk’s “Ghost Who Walks,” in this Paramount film which looked great but failed to kick in with audiences.Couldithavebeenbecause of the stupid advertising tagline, “Slam Evil!”? DVD Extras: Widescreen, trailers.

The Punisher Artisan (1990, 92m) Comments: Dolph Lundgren is appropriately dead-eyed (or is that a natural state?) in this not-very-faithful film version of the Marvel comic. DVD Extras: Widescreen, production notes, trailer.

The Punisher Lion’s Gate/Fox (2004, 124m) Comments: Thomas Jane stars in a faithful adaptation of the comic book, crossing the origin story with the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon run. Not terribly exciting, it’s pulpy fun much of the time, except when John Travolta is onscreen. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Exclusive comic book included.

The Return of Swamp Thing Image (1989, 89m) Comments: The costume looked better, but the story (incredibly loosely adapted from elements of Alan Moore’s run on the series) was bogged down in silliness, cute kid sidekicks, and overacting from everyone except the actual plants. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, trailer, PSAs.

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Road to Perdition (widescreen, fullscreen, or DTS) Universal (1990, 92m) Comments: Tom Hanks is a killer who wants to save his son, while Paul Newman is a gangster who has already lost his in this excellent Prohibition-era adaptation of a DC/ Piranha Press graphic novel. DVD Extras: Widescreen [except on fullscreen version], commentary, deleted scenes, featurette, production notes, photo gallery.

Sabrina: The Animated Series – Bat Attack! (2) Sabrina: The Animated Series – A Witchmas Carol (3) UAV Corp. (1999, 88m)

Sabrina: The Animated Series – Friends Forever! MGM (2003) Comments: Spinning off from the live-action sitcom, this animated series features a younger Sabrina and Salem, her talking cat. The MGM release is an original-to-disc release, while the others collect 3-4 episodes each of the animated series. DVD Extras: Production notes, pencil tests, bloopers (MGM disc).

Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular Anchor Bay (2003, 49m) Comments: Jill Thompson’s fun comic-book series was adapted for a Canadian special, and finally gets a U.S. release. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Smallville Warner (2001, 91m) Comments: Long before U.S. audiences got a chance to buy it, the Smallville pilot and “Metamorphosis” were given a Canadian DVD release with many of the extras which later showed up on the U.S. boxed set. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentaries, interactive map, storyboards, trailers.

Smallville: The Complete First Season Warner (2001-2002, 922m) Comments: Young Clark Kent has never been more fully explored than in this WB series, and though the first 21-episode season (here on six discs) is heavy on kryptonite-powered-villain-of-the-week syndrome, it’s still exciting to watch the legend of Superman being created. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentaries, deleted scenes, interactive map, storyboards, trailers.

Comments: Six episodes on each disc of the adult-oriented animated series are put together in the “unrated version,” as originally aired. DVD Extras: Widescreen, fullscreen, commentary, featurette, music videos, storyboards, cast bios, digital trading card, trailer.

Spawn: The Ultimate Collection HBO (2000) Comments: Boxed set featuring all 3 animated Spawn DVDs plus special 4th disc. DVD Extras: 4th DVD contains interview with Todd McFarlane, featurette, storyboards, and more.

Smallville: The Complete Second Season Warner (2002-2003, 91m) Comments: Shifting away from kryptonite villains, this season veered toward romance and conspiracy, rewarding mostly for Michael Rosenbaum as the ultra-complex Lex Luthor. Of the 23 episodes here on 6 discs, none is cooler than “Rosetta,” starring Christopher Reeve. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentaries, deleted scenes, “Chloe Chronicles” shorts, featurettes, bloopers.

The Rocketeer Touchstone/Disney (1991, 108m) Comments: Bill Campbell is picture perfect in this faithful and entertaining high-flying adventure based on Dave Stevens’ popular comic series for Eclipse and Dark Horse. A comics classic that never found its audience. DVD Extras: Widescreen, trailer.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch Lions Gate/Fox (1996, 91m) Comments: It’s Sabrina’s 16th birthday and our heroine finds out that she’s really a witch. Melissa Joan Hart takes the role for a telefilm that led to the long-running sitcom series based on Archie Comics characters. DVD Extras: None.

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Nostalgia Ventures Comments: It’s not clear what this project is, but given the company’s Archie cartoon output, it’s likely that it’s the animated series from 1971-1973 DVD Extras: Not available for review.

Scooby-Doo Meets Batman Warner (1972, 82m) Comments: Two of The New ScoobyDoo Movies team up Batman and Robin and the crew from the Mystery Machine up against Joker and Penguin. DVD Extras: Game, music videos, how to draw.

Sheena

Sabrina: The Animated Series – Witch in Training (1)

Columbia/TriStar (1984, 117m) Comments: Tanya Roberts shows everything in this “Victoria’s Secret meets Africa” campfest. The TV series will be forthcoming from www.moviecraft.com. DVD Extras: Widescreen.

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Spawn New Line (1997, 94m) Comments: Some cool computer special effects (and some not-socool ones in Hell) plus a nifty supersuit make this a great-looking comics film which doesn’t resonate on any level other than visceral. Lots of extras load this disk which has a “Director’s Cut” of the film. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, featurettes, storyboards, art gallery, music videos, easter eggs, trailer, and more.

Spawn, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn 2, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle HBO (1997, 144-150m)

Spider-Man - The ’67 Collection Disney (1967-1970, 150m) Comments: For those with a fond recollection of the 1967 ABC SpiderMan series (and its catchy theme song), here’s the first-ever complete collection of all 52 episodes, on 6 discs! Revel in the pop-art coolness, reused animation, and early Ralph Bakshi art. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Spider-Man - The Ultimate Villain Showdown (1) Daredevil vs. Spider-Man (2) Spider-Man - The Return of the Green Goblin (3) Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock (4) Disney (1993-1997, 79-80m) Comments: Each disc contains a quartet of episodes from the third season of the long-running Fox series, plus 1967 Spider-Man episodes and other goodies. DVD Extras: Stan Lee intros, character bios.

Disney (1999, 238m) Comments: This boxed set includes the first 3 of Disney’s Spider-Man series. DVD Extras: As above.

Spider-Man (widescreen, fullscreen, or Superbit) Columbia/TriStar (2002, 121m) Comments: The big-budget feature film exceeded expectations with strong acting, good CGI, and a story that was mostly faithful to the comics. It’s a toss-up whether the CGI looks better diffused on a movie screen or shrunken on a TV screen, but you sure get a lot of extras on the discs! DVD Extras: Widescreen [except on fullscreen version], commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, production notes, photo and art gallery, music videos, bloopers, trailers, and more. The Superbit version has higher-resolution images, and a NEW commentary track unavailable elsewhere.

Spider-Man: Limited Edition Collector’s Gift Set Columbia/TriStar (2002, 121m) Comments: This boxed set features the widescreen DVDs, plus the Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters and Marvels DVD, a comic book, a film cel, and a lithograph. DVD Extras: As above.

Spider-Man: Deluxe Edition Columbia/TriStar (2002, 121m) Comments: This new 3-disc edition contains the same content as the 2-disc set, plus more featurettes, game previews, and footage from Spider-Man 2. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Spider-Man: The Ultimate Face-Off (3) Columbia/TriStar (2003, 64m) Comments: The 2-disc MTV set is broken down into multiple separate discs. Each contains 3 episodes. DVD Extras: Widescreen. Unavailable for review.

Spider-Man 2 (widescreen, fullscreen, or Superbit) Columbia/TriStar (2004, 127m) Comments: Although the CGI is worse, the drama and characterization make this a sequel that tops the original. One of the best comic-book films ever made! Each version has two discs. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Widescreen [except on fullscreen version]. The Superbit version has higher-resolution images. Release Date November 30, 2004.

Columbia/TriStar (2003, 219m) Comments: MTV reintroduced Spider-Man in a CGI series based on the feature film, but buried it after 13 episodes. Here are all 13 of them on 2 discs, including work by Brian Bendis. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentaries, featurettes, art gallery, music, and more. Unavailable for review.

Spider-Man: The Mutant Menace (1) Spider-Man: High-Voltage Villains (2)

Anchor Bay (1984, 124m) Comments: Helen Slater is a perfect Kara Zor-El in this schizophrenic film. The scenes Slater is in are largely fun, especially as Kara discovers her powers, but Faye Dunaway and Brenda Vaccaro as the villainesses are much too campy. This is the “international version” of the film, with 10 minutes of added footage! DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, featurettes, storyboards, photo gallery, production notes, trailers.

Columbia/TriStar (2004, 127m) Comments: This boxed set features the widescreen DVDs, plus two other discs, a comic book, postcards, a sketchbook, and a photo booklet. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Release Date November 30, 2004.

Spider-Man / Spider-Man 2 (widescreen, fullscreen) Sony/Columbia TriStar (2002 & 2004, 248m) Comments: 4-disc set includes both films. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Widescreen [except on fullscreen version]. Release Date November 30, 2004.

Warner (2000, 127m) Comments: The first six episodes of Milestone/DC’s African-American super-heroic youth are featured here. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Map, bios, featurette.

Superboy, The Adventures of www.gerardchristopher.com (1989-1990, 124m) Comments: For a hefty price, you can order a 3-disc set of all 26 episodes of the second season of the TV series, directly from the star himself! Seasons 3 and 4 to be released eventually. Check out www.gerardchristopher.com for more info. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Superman Cartoons of Max and Dave Fleischer, The Image (1941-1942, 141m) Comments: An earlier version of the above set (the cover is close-up of Clark Kent removing his shirt), this features an extra wartime parody called “Snafuperman.” DVD Extras: None. Since the Superman cartoons are in public domain, they have appeared on multiple DVD collections, with varying quality, and some rerecorded soundtracks. Those include:

Max Fleischer’s Superman Winstar (1941-1942, 100m)

Max Fleischer’s Superman: The Lost Episodes Winstar (1941-1942, 100m)

Max Fleischer’s Superman/Max Fleischer’s Superman: The Lost Episodes

Spider-Man 2: Limited Edition Collector’s Gift Set

Static Shock: The New Kid Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Special Edition

Supergirl

Spider-Man Collection, The

Animated World of Max and Dave Fleischer: Superman / Popeye, The Falcon Pictures (1941-1942, 232m, 3 disc)

Cartoon Crazys: Comic Book Heroes Supergirl: Director’s Cut

Fox Lorber (1941-1942, 100m)

Anchor Bay (1984, 138m) Comments: Essentially same as above, although this has another 14 minutes of added footage! DVD Extras: Widescreen.

Superman vs. Monsters and Villains Superman vs. Nature and War Goodtimes (1941-1942, 65m)

Superman vs. Nature and When Popeye Ruled and Casper

Supergirl: Limited Edition Anchor Bay (1984, 306m) Comments: This set features both the “international” disc and Director’s Cut DVDs as above, with many extras! DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, featurettes, storyboards, photo gallery, production notes, trailers, plus 16-page color booklet and numbered edition package up to 50,000 copies.

Goodtimes (1941-1942)

Superman and When Popeye Ruled and Top 10 Forgotten Goodtimes (1941-1942)

Superman and Other Cartoon Treasures Treasure Box Collection (1941-1942, 90m)

Superman Cartoons Westlake Entertainment (1941-1942, 85m)

Superman Collection, The Complete: Diamond Anniversary Collection

Superman

Image (1941-1942, 147m) Comments: The Paramount cartoons of Max and Dave Fleischer are the first animated appearance of Superman (or any comic-book hero) and are gorgeous examples of the animated form even 50 years after they first appeared. This set of all 17 shorts is remastered from crisp 35mm originals and looks stunning. DVD Extras: None.

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Delta (1941-1942, 2 disc)

Superman Vol. 1 Delta (1941-1942)

Superman Vol. 2 Delta (1941-1942)

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Superman and Friends

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Comments: Dennis Miller plays a detective who infiltrates a vampire brothel to find a missing Corey Feldman (so that’s where he went after Lost Boys). Angie Everhart is the buxom madam, and this has a wonky funny sensibility amongst the blood and carnage. DVD Extras: Widescreen.

Superman: The Movie Special Edition

Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight

WB animated series, done “Light Deco” in a companion style to Batman. The second disc features 4 more episodes. DVD Extras: Featurette, character bios, game, how to draw.

BCI Eclipse (1941-1942, 90m)

Superman Cartoons Platinum (1941-1942, 2 discs)

Superman Cartoons Vol. 1 Platinum (1941-1942)

Warner (1978, 154m) Comments: Thought of by many fans as one of the best comic-book films ever made, Superman has been recut, remastered, remixed, and lengthened for this disc. It also contains a host of extras. DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, featurettes, isolated score, deleted scenes, screen tests, storyboards, bloopers, trailers, and more.

Superman II Warner (1981, 127m) Comments: Though the disc is barebones and doesn’t included the extensive extra footage shot by the original director (or used on television), this is still a stunning sequel. DVD Extras: Trailer.

Superman III Warner (1983, 125m) Comments: From the sublime to the ridiculous, this is the nadir of all of Superman’s Hollywood adaptations, with Richard Pryor along as “comic relief.” DVD Extras: Trailer.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Warner (1987, 90m) Comments: If only they had put back in the excised half-hour and put the scenes back in proper order, this film would make sense. Alas, they did not. DVD Extras: Trailer.

Superman Collection, The Complete Warner (1978-1987, 493m) Comments: Boxed set featuring all 4 Superman film DVDs as above.

Superman: The Animated Series The Last Son of Krypton (1) Superman: The Animated Series A Little Piece of Home (2)

Superman Cartoons Vol. 2

Universal (1995, 92m) Comments: A cool cast (including Jada Pinkett and genre fave William Sadler) gets trapped in a decrepit house while a demonic Collector (Billy Zane) unleashes hell upon them to gain access to a powerful totem. Not based on an EC Comic, but featuring the cackling Cryptkeeper anyhow. DVD Extras: Widescreen.

Swamp Thing MGM/UA (1981, 93m) Comments: Frightmeister Wes Craven directed this pulpy adaptation of the DC character, camping the scene up with a goofy Arcane (Louis Jordan) and vamping it up with a busty Adrienne Barbeau. Notable mainly for the rubbery costume and visible zippers of its title character. DVD Extras: Widescreen, fullscreen, collectible booklet, trailer.

Swamp Thing Guardian of the Earth UAV Entertainment (1991, 110m) Comments: Includes all 5 eco-friendly episodes of Swamp Thing’s toy-lineinspired animated series. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection HBO (1989-1995, 80m) Comments: The only DVD collection of live-action Crypt episodes released to date, this collects director Zemeckis’ 3 winners: “And All Through the House,” “Yellow,” and “You, Murderer.” All-star casts and excellent makeup make these EC Comic adaptations fun and gory. DVD Extras: None.

Tales from the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood

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Universal (1995-1996, 260m) Comments: A disc with both Bordello of Blood and Demon Knight. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Tales from the Cryptkeeper Vol 1: Stacks Of Fear Funimation (1993, 110m) Comments: Episodes of the animated horror series that caused a nationwide panic attack! DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Tank Girl MGM (1990, 106m) Comments: Lori Petty actually did a pretty credible job in the title role, but this adaptation of a wonky British comic proved a bit too wonky for film audiences. DVD Extras: Widescreen, trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Original Series Vol. 1 Lions Gate/Fox (1987, 93m) Comments: This was a wildly popular series in its day, and here are the first 5 episodes, plus 4 bonus episodes that have never been aired! Fans have complained about the lowquality transfer. DVD Extras: None.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Warner (1996, 61-85m) Comments: The Man of Steel’s origin is retold in the first 3 episodes of the

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New Line (1990, 95m) Comments: The first live-action film based on Kevin Eastman and Peter

Laird’s independent comics series launched this property into the stratosphere for several years. With excellent costume work and stunts, you almost believe that a turtle could kickbox. DVD Extras: Widescreen, fullscreen, game, trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze New Line (1991, 88m) Comments: Shredder’s got some dangerous ooze, and the Turtles and a pizza boy have to stop it. DVD Extras: Widescreen, fullscreen, game, trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III New Line (1993, 95m) Comments: Had I done my set visit a day or two earlier, they would have cast me as a pirate extra in this timetraveling adventure. Life is sad that way sometimes. DVD Extras: Widescreen, fullscreen, game, trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3-Pak New Line (1993, 278m) Comments: Boxed set featuring all 3 TMNT film DVDs as above.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1: Attack of the Mousers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2: Meet Casey Jones Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3: The Way of Invisibility Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4: The Shredder Strikes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5: Notes from the Underground Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6: Shredder Strikes Back Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7: Return to New York Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8: Search for Splinter Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9: Turtles in Space Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10: Secret Origins Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #11: The Ultimate Ninja Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #12: Croc Attack! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Michelangelo’s Christmas Rescue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-4: Box Set (4 discs) 4Kids/Funimation (2003-2004, 60m)

Comments: This new animated version of the Turtles has been released in an ongoing series of DVDs, each containing 3 episodes. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review.

Teen Titans: Divide and Conquer

Vampirella New Concorde (1996, 85m) Comments: A sexy alien who survives on synthetic blood lands on Earth to take on her enemy, who is in Las Vegas, disguised as a rock star (played by— but not disguised as—the Who’s Roger Daltrey). Campy and poorly lit, but at least this is (unbilled) the “Director’s Cut” instead of just the televised version. DVD Extras: Commentary, cast bios, trailer.

animated series took a few liberties with the “Phoenix Saga” storyline by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin, but the 5-part serial is presented here in its entirety, and it’s a darn good adaptation! DVD Extras: Fullscreen, closed-captions.

X-Men: Reunion / Out of the Past / No Mutant is An Island X-Men: Sanctuary / Proteus / Weapon X, Lies and Videotape Universal (1992-1997, 69-70m)

Universal (1999, 100m) Comments: Not many people realize that this film was based on a Dark Horse comic. Jamie Lee Curtis does her best impression of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley when something deadly from a salvage ship threatens her crew’s lives. DVD Extras: Widescreen, featurettes, deleted scenes, production notes, trailer, and more. The DTS version also has specialized DTS sound encoding.

X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine

X-Men

Disney (1992-1997, 79m) Comments: More cool episodes from the Fox animated series, here released by 2 different companies! The Disney disc actually repeats the “Out of the Past” episodes. DVD Extras: Interview, featurettes (Disney disc only).

Fox (2000, 120m) Comments: Has any comics fan not seen this excellent film, with Hugh Jackman a standout as Wolverine? And how can you go wrong with Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan? DVD Extras: Widescreen, interview, featurettes, screen tests, art and photo gallery, deleted scenes, easter eggs, trailers, and more!

X-Men 1.5 Fox (2000, 120m) Comments: A 2-disc set that expands upon the extras of the first DVD, enhancing the Xperience with 5 added hours of behind-the-scenes material! DVD Extras: Widescreen, commentary, featurettes, screen tests, deleted scenes, art and photo gallery, easter eggs, trailers, and more!

The Tick: The Entire Series Columbia/TriStar (2003, 64m) Comments: Taken away long before its time, this was one of the funniest liveaction comedies ever produced on Fox. Catch all 13 episodes (including the unaired ones) on this 2-disc set. DVD Extras: Commentaries.

X2: X-Men United (widescreen or fullscreen)

TimeCop

TimeCop 2 Universal (2003, 81m) Comments: Someone goes back in time to kill Hitler, so the Timecops send a martial artist back to stop them. This was released with zero fanfare or advertising. DVD Extras: Widescreen. Unavailable for review.

Warner Bros. (2000-2003, 84-85m) Comments: More mutants join the team for its second season, including Beast and Angel. The DVDs contain 4 episodes each. DVD Extras: Interviews, featurettes, trailers.

Virus (Special Edition or DTS)

Warner (2003, 132m) Comments: The first 6 episodes of DC’s manga-esque teen hit series are featured here. DVD Extras: Unavailable for review. Comic book featurette, music video.

Universal (1994, 81m) Comments: In a pretty decent action film based on a Dark Horse comic, Jean-Claude Van Damme travels through time to stop paradoxes. Like his acting career. Also available in a 2-pack with Hard Target. DVD Extras: Fullscreen, production notes, trailer.

X-Men: Evolution: Season 2 (1) Mutants Rising X-Men: Evolution: Season 2 (2) Powers Revealed X-Men: Evolution: Season 2 (3) Enemies Unveiled

Wonder Woman The Complete 1st Season Warner (1975-1977, 725m) Comments: The world’s most famous heroine gets her first boxed set, collecting the entire World War II run. An excellent picture transfer with top sound! Note that two New Adventures of Wonder Woman volumes are available in England, but you need a region-free DVD player to view them. DVD Extras: Commentary, featurette.

X-Men: The Phoenix Saga Universal (1992) Comments: The usually faithful Fox

X-Men: Evolution: Season 1 (1) UnXpected Changes X-Men: Evolution: Season 1 (2) Xplosive Days X-Men: Evolution: Season 1 (3) X Marks the Spot X-Men: Evolution: Season 1 (4) Xposing the Truth X-Men: Evolution: Season 1 Collection Warner Bros. (2000-2003, 63-85m) Comments: The WB’s reimagined animated version of the X-Men places them in a normal high school and uses some elements from the feature film. The new continuity and de-aging works surprisingly well. The DVDs contain 3-4 episodes each. DVD Extras: Interviews, featurettes, trailers.

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Fox (2003, 132m) Comments: A rare sequel that’s even better than the original film, this is on most fans’ lists as one of the best comic-book films of all time . . . and it deserves the honor. This is a 2-disc set. DVD Extras: Widescreen [except on fullscreen version], commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, art and photo gallery, trailers, and more.

X-Men Collection (widescreen or fullscreen) Fox (2003, 110m) Comments: A boxed set containing X-Men 1.5 and X2: X-Men United as released individually.

Editor’s note: This exhaustive list will conclude in BACK ISSUE #9. Really! –M.E. I s s u e

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BATCAVE C O M P A N I O N NOW SHIPPING! Batman. Is he the campy Caped Crusader? Or the grim Gotham Guardian? Both, as The Batcave Companion reveals. On the brink of cancellation in 1963, Batman was rescued by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, who, abetted by several talented writers and artists, gave the hero a much-needed “New Look” which soon catapulted Batman to multimedia stardom. In the next decade, when Batman required another fresh start, Schwartz once again led a team of creators that returned the hero to his “creature of the night” roots. Writers Michael Eury (The Krypton Companion, The Justice League Companion) and Michael Kronenberg (Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy) unearth the stories behind the stories of both Batman’s “New Look” and Bronze Age (1970s) comic-book eras through incisive essays, invaluable issue-by-issue indexes, and insightful commentary from many of the visionaries responsible for and inspired by Batman’s 1960s and 1970s adventures: Neal Adams, Michael Allred, Terry Austin, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Adam Hughes, Sheldon Moldoff, Will Murray, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Rozakis, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson. Featuring 240 art- and info-packed pages, The Batcave Companion is a must-have examination of two of the most influential periods in Batman’s 70-year history.

Written by Back Issue’s

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

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

Just finished BI #5, and thought I would comment. . . Great cover by Alex Ross. I would love to see his rendition of Chris Reeve as Superman, or George Reeves, for that matter. I was a little disappointed with Adam Hughes’ effort, as I think he should’ve done a full-figure shot of Lynda as WW. I didn’t realize that Lou Ferrigno had written a book on his Hulk career. I must pick that up! Darrell McNeil’s article on never sold animated series was good but, referring to the current TT animated series as Pokemon-inspired sounds like sour grapes to me. The highlight of the issue was Andy Mangels’ interview with Lynda Carter, and the mini-interviews that followed, both old and new. He covered all the bases! The poster that appeared on pg. 28 was part of a series of super-hero posters put out by a company called Thought Factory in 1978. There were seven in all: Superman, Batman, WW, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Captain America. The Superman and Batman ones were painted by Drew Struzan. Not sure if he did the WW one, too. The frame grabs from the failed 1967 WW pilot were viewable, which is good. Funny how John Romita poo-pooed the ’60s Spider-Man cartoon and the ’70s live-action Spider-Man series. I loved them both, and am surprised that Nicholas Hammond wasn’t asked to do a cameo in either the first or second Tobey Maguire film, or that the series isn’t available on DVD. Maybe someone, preferably Andy Mangels, should interview Mr. Hammond for a future issue of BI? The Mike Barr article on Star Trek comics was great, though I wish he would’ve covered the most recent efforts, like Marvel’s second bite at the apple, Malibu’s DS9 run, and Wildstorm’s brief tour of duty. Having sat through the 1989 version of The Punisher, Dan Johnson’s interview with the director of that tame feature didn’t change my opinion of the film. Looking forward to the next issue. – Delmo (The Saint) Walters, Jr. Adam took great strides to offer a WWII-era counterpoint to Alex’s ’70s-era Wonder Woman pin-up; it might not have been exactly what you expected, but give it a chance, it’ll grow on you. (And for fun, here’s a non-Lynda Carter Wonder Woman illo by Adam and Karl Story, courtesy of Wally Harrington.) Thanks for the Thought Factory info, Saint. Incidentally, I steered Mike Barr clear of coverage of more recent Star Trek comics, as they were published past our editorial realm of the ’70s and ’80s. – M.E.

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

BACK ISSUE #5 was enjoyable and each issue has been getting better and stronger. Great luck with it. I loved all the Alex Ross pictures of Wonder Woman. As for Darrell McNeil’s Teen Titans (and others) cartoon show article, let me add to his piece that DC’s publisher at the time, Jenette Kahn, brought Len Wein and me to California to pitch the Titans cartoon to Hanna-Barbera. At the same time we also pitched them Dial “H” For Hero. Both looked like they were going to be greenlit, but, alas, neither made it. Please ask Darrell if he knows if any art was done on the Dial “H” show. I’ve never seen any and would love to. Also, I loved seeing the Blackhawk animated art which I had never seen before. I’m a huge Blackhawk fan—in fact, Dave Cockrum and I did our own “homage” (theft!) of Blackhawk with Marvel’s Sky Wolf two-parter. Blackhawk was also my very first sale to DC Comics. Finally, you should ask Darrell to do an article on the proposed but never realized Warner Brothers Aquaman movie. I saw the test footage and it was incredible. Same with the Mike Mignola designs for the never produced New Gods movie. If he can get some of those art designs they would blow everyone away. Best, and keep up all the good stuff. I really do like the magazine. – Marv Wolfman

Consider Darrell McNeil officially asked, Marv. And thanks for your support—it means a lot! – M.E.

This issue is dedicated to Batman, Lois Lane, and Flash artist Irv Novick, 1916-2004.

ON S U B M I S SEI S GUIDELIN BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s:

Unpublished artwork Original artwork Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc. Original scripts

Just a quick note to say how much I am enjoying this publication. I picked up the first issue when it came out and I haven’t missed one yet! One little comment would be, for the “Rough Stuff” section, if you could include a little “quickshot” bio of the artist spotlighted. This issue featured Jerry Ordway (a true, classic artist) but it would be nice if it included a little info on what he has done or what he’ll be doing next, maybe a checklist of key books—and if “Rough Stuff” is going to be about a character or a theme, then a little info on them would be nice. Fer instance, Kirby’s “Fourth World”—how long did the series last? Which books were included? What were the highlights of the books???? That kinda stuff! Thanks for the Memories! – Brian O. Randolph

“Datacards” for the subjects of our “Pro2Pro” interviews, doing the same, or something compatible,

and/or convention sketches Rare fanzine material Other rarities

Creators and collectors of 1970s and 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

Although we include informational

Photos Original sketches

BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by e-mailing euryman@msn.com or by sending a SASE to the address below. Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Dr. Lake Oswego, OR 97034

for “Rough Stuff” hadn’t occurred to me—until your letter, Brian. Good idea! I’ll discuss this with the feature’s own David “Hambone” Hamilton. And Superman’s Pal Jerry Ordway has

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his stunning work there on projects like the cover for volume 3 of Superman: The Man of Steel, pictured above. And a special Euryman hello to Andy Kanzer, Allen Christopher Trembone, Comic2read, Paul Green, Martin Gray, James Hicks, Fred Grandinetti, Ricky T. Butler, Jr., and the rest of you who wrote BACK ISSUE recently. Your feedback is important, so keep the comments coming. See you in 60, with a Kyle Baker cover (left)! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury

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BOOKS by BACK ISSUE’s editor MICHAEL EURY

KRYPTON COMPANION Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites! Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars. Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators examining Superman’s influential past! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS!

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA written by MICHAEL EURY (co-author of THE SUPERHERO BOOK). It traces the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom through vintage and all-new interviews with the series’ creators, an issue-by-issue index of the JLA’s 1960-1972 adventures, classic and never-before-published artwork, and other fun and fascinating features. Contributors include DENNY O’NEIL, MURPHY ANDERSON, JOE GIELLA, MIKE FRIEDRICH, NEAL ADAMS, ALEX ROSS, CARMINE INFANTINO, NICK CARDY, and many, many others. Plus: An exclusive interview with STAN LEE, who answers the question, “Did the JLA really inspire the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four?” With an all-new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

BATCAVE COMPANION The writer/editor of the critically acclaimed KRYPTON COMPANION and the designer of the eye-popping SPIES, VIXENS, AND MASTERS OF KUNG FU: THE ART OF PAUL GULACY team up to explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-by-issue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a musthave for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG. (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

COMICS GONE APE!

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

The missing link to primates in comics, spotlighting a barrel of simian superstars like Beppo, BrainiApe, the Gibbon, Gleek, Gorilla Man, Grease Monkey, King Kong, Konga, Mojo Jojo, Sky Ape, and Titano! It’s loaded with rare and classic artwork, cover galleries, and interviews with artists & writers including ARTHUR ADAMS (Monkeyman and O’Brien), FRANK CHO, CARMINE INFANTINO (Detective Chimp, Grodd), JOE KUBERT (Tor, Tarzan), TONY MILLIONAIRE (Sock Monkey), DOUG MOENCH (Planet of the Apes), and BOB OKSNER (Angel and the Ape)! All-new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS, and written by MICHAEL EURY.

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

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: FEB073814

(176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPER-HERO ACTION FIGURE (Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Code: APR091003

TwoMorrows Publishing 2009 Update WINTER/SPRING

Supplement to the 2008 TwoMorrows Preview Catalog

ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

SAVE

BATCAVE COMPANION

IT’S FINALLY HERE! The writer/editor of the critically acclaimed KRYPTON COMPANION and the designer of the eye-popping SPIES, VIXENS, AND MASTERS OF KUNG FU: THE ART OF PAUL GULACY team up to explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-byissue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 • Ships April 2009

COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, and now TwoMorrows offers you the chance to go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 • ISBN: 9781605490182 • Ships May 2009

ALL-STAR COMPANION Volume 4 The epic series of ALL-STAR COMPANIONS goes out with a bang, featuring: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and International Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE

(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490045 Ships June 2009

(Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Ships July 2009

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s: An Issue-By-Issue Field Guide

The comic book industry experienced an unexpected flowering in the early 1960s, compliments of Marvel Comics, and this book presents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of being one of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one of the most dynamic, slightly irreverent and downright original contributions to an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s takes the reader from the legendary company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons. (224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships July 2009

GRAILPAGES:

Original Comic Book Art And The Collectors GRAILPAGES brings to light the burgeoning hobby of collecting the original, hand-drawn art that is used to create comic books! Beginning more as a novelty, the hobby of collecting original comic art has expanded to a point where some of the seminal pages commonly run more than $10,000 each. Author STEVEN ALAN PAYNE lets you meet collectors from around the globe and hear their passion in their own words, as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to broad, encompassing collections of literally hundreds of pages of original comic art by such artists as JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Balancing out the narratives are incisive interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Fans of comic art, comic books, and pop culture will find in GRAILPAGES an appreciation for a uniquely American form of art! (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 • Ships March 2009

MAGAZINES

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

BRICKJOURNAL magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, spotlighting the LEGO Community with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Edited by JOE MENO. ALTER EGO focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

BRICKJOURNAL #3

BRICKJOURNAL #4

BRICKJOURNAL #5

BRICKJOURNAL #6

Event Reports from BRICKWORLD, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), spotlight on our cover model builder BRYCE McGLONE, and interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going! There’s also STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more!

Interviews with LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE BUILDER), Event Reports from BRICKFAIR and BRICKCON, plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and a report on constructing the Chinese Olympic Village in LEGO!

Features event reports from around the world, and the MINDSTORMS 10TH ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS! Plus an interview with the head of the LEGO GROUP’S 3D DEPARTMENT, a glimpse at the LEGO Group's past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO'S IDEA HOUSE, instructions and spotlights on builders, and an idea section for Pirate builders!

Spotlight on CLASSIC SPACE SETS and a look at new ones with LEGO SET DESIGNERS, BRANDON GRIFFITH shows his STAR TREK MODELS, plus take a tour of the DUTCH MOONBASE with MIKE VAN LEEUWEN and MARCO BAAS. There's also coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and photos from TOY FAIR NEW YORK!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084428

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084408 Ships March 2009

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Ships June 2009

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, plus rare and unpublished art. Edited by MICHAEL EURY. DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation, featuring in-depth interviews and step-bystep demonstrations from top comics professionals. Edited by MIKE MANLEY. ROUGH STUFF features never-seen pencil pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history, plus columns, critiques, and more! Edited by BOB McLEOD. WRITE NOW! features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, exclusive Nuts & Bolts tutorials, and more! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood, by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084454

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: OCT084483

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084368

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094555 Ships March 2009

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrates his life and career through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, and more. Edited by JOHN MORROW.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRINT EDITION, AND GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES!

BACK ISSUE #29

BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

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

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more! Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY084246

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUL084393

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084399

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084369

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

ROUGH STUFF #10

ROUGH STUFF #11

ROUGH STUFF #12

Interview with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on his series. Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and demo by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments. Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships Spring 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084469

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084404

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships April 2009

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084377

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

WRITE NOW! #20

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships June 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships August 2009

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US FINAL ISSUE! Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084398

BACK ISSUE #33

BACK ISSUE #34

BACK ISSUE #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors, Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery, James Bond Jr., and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, roundtable with Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on the New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” and a new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in a “Pro2Pro” interview, the history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, looks back at Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby covers inked by DON HECK and PAUL SMITH!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! There’s a new interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, a re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a missing page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?”, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094556 Ships March 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 Ships February 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships May 2009

NEW MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW, DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

Volume 19: MIKE PLOOG

Volume 20: KYLE BAKER

Volume 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

Volume 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM

Volume 23: DARWYN COOKE

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Roger Ash (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490076 Diamond Order Code: SEP084304 Now shipping

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490083 Diamond Order Code: SEP084305 Ships February 2009

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Todd DeZago (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Ships March 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: JUL088519 Ships May 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490205 Ships June 2008

AGE OF TV HEROES Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-thescene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with. Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (Spider-Man), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more! Written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: SEP084302 Rescheduled for July 2009

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EXTRAORDINARY WORKS KIRBY FIVE-OH! OF ALAN MOORE: LIMITED HARDCOVER Indispensable Edition Limited to 500 copies, KIRBY FIVE-OH! The definitive biography of the co-creator of WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA finally returns to print in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Features an extensive series of interviews with MOORE about his entire career, including a new interview covering his work since the sold-out 2003 edition of this book was published. Includes RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ART, and private PHOTOS of the author, plus a series of tribute comic strips by many of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring a RARE MOORE STORY (remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN! (240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: OCT084400 Limited Hardcover Signed by Alan Moore (100 hardcover copies) $49.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

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BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

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DRAW! (4 issues)

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

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BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

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LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics, including his 50 BEST STORIES, BEST COVERS, BEST EXAMPLES OF UNUSED KIRBY ART, BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS, and profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s PENCIL ART, a DELUXE COLOR SECTION, a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER! Includes a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individuallynumbered extra Kirby pencil art plate not included in the softcover edition! It’s ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, and is not sold in stores! Edited by JOHN MORROW.

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more! (288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286 Ships February 2009

(168-page Limited Edition Hardcover) (500 hardcover copies) $34.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

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COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR Volume 7

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TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

“HOW-TO” MAGAZINES Spinning off from the pages of BACK ISSUE! magazine comes ROUGH STUFF, celebrating the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version. So don’t miss this amazing magazine, featuring galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art, from some of your favorite series of all time, and the top pros in the industry!

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ROUGH STUFF #1 Our debut issue features galleries of UNSEEN ART by a who’s who of Modern Masters including: ALAN DAVIS, GEORGE PÉREZ, BRUCE TIMM, KEVIN NOWLAN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, ARTHUR ADAMS, JOHN BYRNE, and WALTER SIMONSON, plus a KEVIN NOWLAN interview, art critiques, and a new BRUCE TIMM COVER!

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The follow-up to our smash first issue features more galleries of UNSEEN ART by top industry professionals, including: BRIAN APTHORP, FRANK BRUNNER, PAUL GULACY, JERRY ORDWAY, ALEX TOTH, and MATT WAGNER, plus a PAUL GULACY interview, a look at art of the pros BEFORE they were pros, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Still more galleries of UNPUBLISHED ART by MIKE ALLRED, JOHN BUSCEMA, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and LEE WEEKS, plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the process of creating a cover (with BILL SIENKIEWICZ and JOHN ROMITA JR.), and a new ROMITA JR. COVER, plus a FREE DRAW #13 PREVIEW!

More NEVER-PUBLISHED galleries (with detailed artist commentaries) by MICHAEL KALUTA, ANDREW “Starman” ROBINSON, GENE COLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, and STEVE BISSETTE, plus interview and art by JOHN TOTLEBEN, a look at the Wonder Woman Day charity auction (with rare art), art critiques, before-&-after art comparisons, and a FREE WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

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

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

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Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, and more! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073966

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ROUGH STUFF #8 Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB084188

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY084263

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $26 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($36 First Class, $44 Canada, $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $44 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($60 First Class, $70 Canada, $105 1st Class Intl., $115 Priority Intl.).

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

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BACK ISSUE #8

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

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #9

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BACK ISSUE #13

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

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BACK ISSUE #14

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DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

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

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

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

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

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #85

WRITE NOW! #20

ROUGH STUFF #12

DRAW! #17

BRICKJOURNAL #5

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE:

BATCAVE COMPANION

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, & DESTROYER DUCK, a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING, unseen Kirby covers & more! (84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 7 Reprints KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30 plus over 30 pieces of Kirby art never published! (288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Now shipping!

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The definitive autobiographical book on ALAN MOORE in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Includes new interviews covering his work since the original 2003 edition of the book. From SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and beyond – all are discussed by Alan. Plus, there’s RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK, and PHOTOGRAPHS, tribute comic strips by NEIL GAIMAN and other of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring the RARE MOORE STORY “The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse” (newly remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN!

Explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-by-issue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: JAN088702 Now shipping!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US ISBN: 9781893905788 Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 Now shipping!

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Original Comic Book Art & The Collectors Examines the hobby of collecting original comic book art, letting you meet collectors from around the globe as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to hundreds of pages of original comic art by JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Features interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Written by STEVEN ALAN PAYNE. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 Now shipping!

VOLUME 20: KYLE BAKER

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490083 Now shipping!

VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US • ISBN: 97801605490137 Ships May 2009 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

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Christopher Reeve was my hero. He first became my hero in late 1978, when he convinced the world that a man can fly. He later impressed me when he refused to become typecast as Superman, but never denigrated his Superman role or the character’s fans. But he most impressed me with his courage, hopefulness, and activism in the years following the 1995 accident that paralyzed him. To millions, he truly became a superman. At roughly the same time Christopher Reeve became disabled, I began to face a disability: progressive hearing loss. After bouts of anger, self-pity, and depression, I found inspiration in Reeve’s own struggle and learned to live with my condition with a newfound optimism. I’ve never since felt sorry for myself, and I thank Christopher Reeve for that. I did not have the pleasure of meeting my hero. The news of Christopher Reeve’s death came at a time when I was attempting to arrange an interview with him for BACK ISSUE. I am devastated, and feel a personal loss. I’m not alone.

tribute

I invite BACK ISSUE readers to keep Christopher Reeve’s memory alive by joining me in making a donation to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. – Michael Eury, editor, BACK ISSUE Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation 500 Morris Avenue, Springfield, NJ 07081 (800) 225-0292 www.ChristopherReeve.org

CHRISTOPHER REEVE 1952–2004