Back Issue #80 by TwoMorrows Publishing

FLASH AND GREEN LANTERN IN THE BRONZE AGE!

May 2

01 5

82658 27762

No$.8 .89 50

Mark Waid examines the Flash/GL team • The Lost GL Fill-ins • Larry Niven’s Gathet’s Tale BONUS ARTICLE! DC Comics’ New York Office Memories! featuring Barr • Bates • Gibbons • Grell • Infantino • Kupperberg • O’Neil • Wein & more

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 to www.twomorrows.com for other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #71

BACK ISSUE #72

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

BACK ISSUE #68

BACK ISSUE #69

BACK ISSUE #70

“1970s and ‘80s Legion of Super-Heroes!” LEVITZ interview, the Legion’s Honored Dead, the Cosmic Boy miniseries, a Time Trapper history, the New Adventures of Superboy, Legion fantasy cover gallery by JOHN WATSON, plus BATES, COCKRUM, CONWAY, COLON, GIFFEN, GRELL, JANES, KUPPERBERG, LaROCQUE, LIGHTLE, SCHAFFENBERGER, SHERMAN, STATON, SWAN, WAID, & more! COCKRUM cover!

TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Revisit the 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, and 500th issues of ‘70s and ‘80s favorites: Adventure, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Batman, Brave & Bold, Casper, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern, Showcase, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, and more! With APARO, BARR, ENGLEHART, POLLARD, SEKOWSKY, SIMONSON, STATON, and WOLFMAN. DAN JURGENS and RAY McCARTHY cover.

“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

BACK ISSUE #73

BACK ISSUE #74

BACK ISSUE #75

“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!

“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.

“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.

“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

“‘80s Independents!” In-depth looks at PAUL CHADWICK’s Concrete, DAVE SIM’s Cerebus the Aardvark, and RICHARD AND WENDY PINI’s Elfquest! Plus see ‘80s independent comics go Hollywood, DAVID SCROGGY remembers Pacific Comics, TRINA ROBBINS’ California Girls, and DENIS KITCHEN’s star-studded horror/sci-fi anthology Death Rattle. Cover by PAUL CHADWICK!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans! BACK ISSUE #76

BACK ISSUE #77

BACK ISSUE #78

BACK ISSUE #79

“Let’s Get Small!” Marvel’s Micronauts, The Atom in the Bronze Age, JAN STRNAD and GIL KANE’s Sword of the Atom, the rocky relationship of Ant-Man the Wasp, Gold Key’s Microbots, Super Jrs., DC Digests, and Marvel Value Stamps. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, JACKSON GUICE, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, ALEX SAVIUK, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, & more. Cover by PAT BRODERICK!

“When Comics Were Fun!” HEMBECK cover and gallery, Plastic Man, Blue Devil, Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, VALENTINO’s normalman, Bronze Age’s goofiest Superman stories, and the Batman/Dick Tracy team-up you didn’t see! Featuring MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PARIS CULLINS, RAMONA FRADON, ALAN KUPPERBERG, MISHKIN & COHN, STEVE SKEATES, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, and more!

“Weird Issue!” Batman’s Weirdest TeamUps, ORLANDO’s Weird Adventure Comics, Weird War Tales, Weird Mystery Tales, DITKO’s Shade the Changing Man and Stalker, CHAYKIN’s Iron Wolf, CRUMB’s Weirdo, and STARLIN and WRIGHTSON’s The Weird! Featuring JIM APARO, LUIS DOMINGUEZ, MICHAEL FLEISHER, BOB HANEY, PAUL LEVITZ, and more. Batman and Deadman cover by ALAN CRADDOCK.

“Charlton Action Heroes in the Bronze Age!” DAVE GIBBONS on Charlton’s WATCHMEN connection, LEN WEIN and PARIS CULLINS’ Blue Beetle, CARY BATES and PAT BRODERICK’s Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and a look at Blockbuster Weekly! Featuring MIKE COLLINS, GIORDANO, KUPPERBERG, ALAN MOORE, PAT MORISI, ALEX ROSS, and more. Cover by AL MILGROM.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

Volume 1, Number 80 May 2015 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks

COVER ARTIST George Pérez COVER COLORIST Tom Smith COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mike W. Barr Pat Bastienne Cary Bates Jerry Boyd Cary Burkett Johanna Draper Carlson Ivan Cohen Gerry Conway DC Comics J. M. DeMatteis Scott Dunbier Mike Flynn Dave Gibbons Alan Gold Mike Gold Grand Comics Database Robert Greenberger Arnie Grieves Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Dan Johnson Gerard Jones Hal Jordan Barbara Kesel James Kingman Todd Klein Paul Kupperberg Paul Levitz Tom Lyle

Ron Marz Brad Meltzer Al Milgrom Stuart Moore Larry Niven Marilyn Niven Luigi Novi Dennis O’Neil Scott Peterson Janice Race Dan Raspler Bob Rozakis Michael Savene Lenny Schafer Robert Simpson Anthony Snyder Jim Spivey Rick Stasi Joe Staton Roy Thomas Anthony Tollin John Trumbull Michael Uslan Irene Vartanoff Mark Waid Matt Webb John Wells Marv Wolfman Michael Zeno Dedicated to the memory of Julius Schwartz

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website or Apps. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR DEVICE and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded within our Apps and at

www.twomorrows.com

FLASHBACK: The Speed of Life: The Bronze Age Flash’s Triumphs and Tragedies . . . . . .2 No matter what Cary Bates threw at him, Barry Allen kept coming FLASHBACK: Meanwhile: The Bronze Age Adventures of the Other Flash . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Jay Garrick had a pretty good run, here and there FLASHBACK: I’d Buy That for a Dollar!: The Flash and Green Lantern in Adventure Comics . . .25 The Dollar Comics stories of DC’s colorful crusaders OFF MY CHEST: The Flash/Green Lantern Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Guest writer Mark Waid examines DC’s brave and bold buddies PRINCE STREET NEWS: The B and the B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Barry and Hal belly up to the bar to bellyache about being B-listers FLASHBACK: Being Hal Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Twenty-five years in the conflicted life of the greatest Green Lantern of them all GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Lost (or Discarded) Green Lantern Fill-ins . . . . .48 Guest columnist Paul Kupperberg revisits his unpublished GL tales PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Niven’s Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Larry Niven, the Green Lantern bible, and the Guardian known as Ganthet BACKSTAGE PASS: An Oral History of DC Comics’ Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 As DC moves west, BI strolls through its hallowed NYC halls BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Reader reaction

BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by George Pérez. Flash and Green Lantern TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2015 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing, except for Prince Street News, which is TM and © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 1

John Wells

Fast Friends From DC Comics’ 1978 calendar, Flash and Kid Flash take on Captain Cold and Mister Freeze in this pinup drawn by Irv Novick, THE Flash artist for most of the 1970s. TM & © DC Comics.

The honeymoon was over. On their first wedding anniversary, Barry and Iris Allen clinked glasses and the man who was secretly the Flash marveled at how much his world had changed over the past decade. The Central City police scientist had acquired super-speed in a lab accident, counted everyone from Superman to the star of his favorite childhood comic book as friends, and—best of all—married his longtime girlfriend. If Barry didn’t think she was one-in-a-million before, he certainly did after Iris’ response to his divorce-worthy disclosure that he had a double life: He talked in his sleep, she shrugged, and she’d known her husband was the Flash since their wedding night. Since it mattered that much to him, she continued, she’d just pretended not to know. The Scarlet Speedster’s world changed after those closing panels of September 1967’s The Flash #174, and not just because he had a life partner who was now fully invested in every aspect of his life. There’d been constancy in those 11 years as a human thunderbolt, and his name was Carmine Infantino. The sleek, modernistic style of the celebrated penciler had defined the Flash series and its colorful Rogues’ Gallery from the 1956 pilot episode in Showcase #4, earning him a well-deserved reputation (along with editor Julius Schwartz) as one of DC/National Comics’ foremost fix-it men. In 1967, the subject that DC publisher Jack Liebowitz wanted to fix wasn’t one title but all of them. As the company’s new art director, Infantino would now be bringing his striking design sense to the layouts on all of DC’s covers, but the job came with a price.

Obliged to end his tenure as the Flash’s signature artist, the 42-year-old cartoonist handpicked his successor and consciously eyed someone with a style thoroughly unlike his own.

THE POST–INFANTINO ERA It hadn’t been a good year for Ross Andru up to that point. Turned down by DC for a raise, the Metal Men and Wonder Woman penciler had fled to the seemingly greener pastures of Marvel Comics only to find himself a poor fit on the handful of stories he drew. From Infantino’s perspective, though, he was someone who was now equipped to bring Marvel-style dynamism to DC, and the newly minted art director wasted no time in assigning Andru and his inking partner Mike Esposito to both The Flash and Superman. The new team’s inaugural effort on both characters took place in the same comic book. Four months earlier, Superman and the Flash had embarked on an inconclusive race in Superman #199 to determine bragging rights on which hero was really the fastest. The Flash #175’s rematch teased a definitive answer, but both speedsters could claim victory depending on the angle captured in the photofinish footage. (Two more crossovers would follow in the next few years, one in 1969’s Superman #220 and the other in 1970’s World’s Finest #198–199.) In a departure from Julius Schwartz’s usual core of writers, E. Nelson Bridwell stepped in to write Flash #175, ensuring that the Man of Steel remain consistent with the stories overseen by his protective boss, Superman editor Mort Weisinger.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

A Visit to Earth-Prime Barry Allen drops in on Flash editor Julie Schwartz in The Flash #179 (May 1968). By Bates/ Andru/Esposito. TM & © DC Comics.

Another Weisinger writer paid the series a visit in 1968’s Flash #179 heads prevailed and the idea was scrapped,” Hanerfeld explained, when 19-year-old Cary Bates posed the question, “The Flash—Fact or although the kernel of the idea found its way into the BroomeFiction?” In a twist on the parallel world stories involving heroes of scripted Flash #176 wherein the Scarlet Speedster fought Death to the 1940s like the Flash of Earth-Two, Bates had the Scarlet Speedster save his critically ill wife. Enamored of the original cover sketch, accidently propelled into the “real” world, where a star-struck kid Schwartz eventually had it fully rendered by Andru and Esposito for referred to him as Barry Allen and handed him a copy of Flash #172 for issue #184 while Robbins wrote a plot to fit wherein Central City was an autograph. Rather than be a cosplayer in a world where cosplaying seemingly vaporized. wasn’t cool, the Flash made a quick trip to New York City to visit the The Flash himself appeared to perish in issue #186 and, editor of his comic book. Convincing an incredulous Julius Schwartz admittedly, those were his skeletal remains on the cover. As detailed to buy him the equipment necessary to build a Cosmic Treadmill that inside, though, they’d been pulled from the future via Golden would take him home, the Scarlet Speedster had no idea that the man Age hero-turned-villain Sargon the Sorcerer in a ploy to convince who wrote up his visit to “Earth-Prime”—as it was dubbed in 1975— the 25th Century’s Reverse-Flash to divulge the secrets of true would eventually be charting his destiny on a full-time basis. time-travel. Penning the 1969 story was Mike Friedrich, In the short-term, Schwartz counted John Broome as another newcomer whom Schwartz had used in several his primary scripter, but the writer’s relocation to Paris titles over the past year. He returned to The Flash four obligated a larger pool to draw on. One of those men times through 1971 (#195, 197, 198, and 207), the had been Gardner Fox, but, having alienated DC last of which saw Sargon’s return. management with his requests for better benefits, As writers dropped in and out, John Broome Fox was effectively frozen out of most assignments held firm in between their scripts as he’d done since and penned his last Flash story for issue #177. the second Flash story in 1956’s Showcase #4. By That final effort—“The Swell-Headed Super-Hero”— 1969, he’d had enough. “I wasn’t fired or anything sported a famously outrageous cover that depicted like that,” he emphasized at the 1998 San Diego the hero with a cranium the size of a watermelon. Comic-Con. “I just lost momentum. I lost steam. With sights like that and the antics of the campy I just couldn’t keep going.” He bid the series farewell Batman TV show, incoming writer Frank Robbins— with late 1969’s Flash #194, and he wasn’t alone. a well-regarded veteran of the Johnny Hazard From the beginning, Andru and Esposito had newspaper strip—took it for granted that all supercary bates a tough act to follow on the series and fans never hero comics were played for laughs and wrote let them forget it: The sleek hero was too bulky! © DC Comics. accordingly in a two-parter for Flash #180–181. Set The art was cartoony! And it didn’t look like Carmine in Japan, the Flash fought robotic Samuroids amidst locals who Infantino! The first shots were fired in an “extra” edition of the spoke in slurred English. It was tasteless at best. Having written “Flash-Grams” letters column in 1968’s Flash #179, and the hits were what was perhaps the worst Flash story of the Silver Age, Robbins still coming two years later even after the team’s final interior story adjusted to the superhero genre quickly, but his best work in issue #194. (Schwartz had pulled them off the covers with Flash appeared elsewhere in the Batman and Superboy series. #189, subsequently employing Joe Kubert, Infantino and Murphy The light touch employed in some of the 1968 Flash stories Anderson, and Neal Adams.) and the series’ general sense of security were at odds with a plot that In an interview in 1977’s Amazing World of DC Comics #15, Andru had briefly been considered to kick off the post–Infantino era. Head conceded that his efforts at emulating Jack Kirby’s larger-than-life in hand against a black backdrop in an Infantino sketch, the Flash heroics had been a misfire (albeit one that looks far better in retrospect). stood opposite a screaming declaration: “You are about to read the “I was trying to incorporate the Marvel superhero look into the most tragic day in the life of the Flash!” wrong character. He shouldn’t have been that beefy … that muscular. According to Mark Hanerfeld in The Comic Reader #69 (Sept. 1968), I was trying to create exaggerated camera effects, and overdid it. it was supposed to have been the day that Iris Allen died. “Calmer I look back at some of that stuff and I cringe.”

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 3

THE BRONZE AGE BEGINS

Going for the Bronze The Flash #195 (Mar. 1970) was the title’s first Bronze Age issue. (right) Its Neal Adams cover. (left) Gil Kane begins his brief stint as Flash artist. Note to whom Flash is signing autographs! TM & © DC Comics.

Seeking a replacement for Andru, Schwartz decided to pull Gil Kane from a dying title to shore up the stronger Flash, thereby leaving a vacancy for Neal Adams to fill on Green Lantern #76. Kane’s run (1970’s Flash #195, 197–199) was comparatively brief and undistinguished compared to the landmark Green Lantern/Green Arrow series, but it immediately restored the sense of grace and motion that had been missing from the series. Kane successfully transitioned the feature from its mildly dated 1960s look to one suited to the 1970s. Barry Allen’s crewcut and bowtie went by the wayside and Iris’ hairstyle became more contemporary. Meanwhile, Schwartz went back to the beginning for Broome’s replacement. Robert Kanigher had been the man he assigned to recreate the Flash in 1956 and he was a worthy candidate to pick up the crimson baton. After an initial script in Flash #192, Kanigher was—the odd Friedrich story aside—on permanent duty from issue #195 to 208 in June 1971. Earnest humaninterest stories—like the Scarlet Speedster’s seeming failure to save the crew of the Trident submarine (#192), his defense of a supposed killer dog (#195), or his reversion to a childlike state thanks to a head injury (#198)—were a staple, but some issues veered from the pattern. Issue #200 (Sept. 1970)—peppered with

4 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

references to that milestone number—took a page from The Manchurian Candidate and had an Asian-born beauty named Doctor Lu attempt to brainwash the Flash into assassinating the President of the United States. Kanigher’s most outrageous contribution to the series was his revelation that “The Flash’s Wife is a TwoTimer!” (1970’s Flash #203). In a twist on the origin of Superman, Barry Allen’s spouse had been born Iris Russell in the year 2945 A.D. and catapulted back in time as an infant by her parents when their civilization was threatened by nuclear annihilation. By the time the story was done, the Flash and Iris had paid a visit to the year 2970, reuniting with her alive-and-well parents Eric and Fran but affirming that their home was in the 20th Century. The issue was also notable for an experimental cover that depicted the Flash trying to hold Iris in the photographic real world as she was pulled into a Neal Adams-rendered vision of the future. Spearheaded by DC production man Jack Adler, the cover used a background photo snapped outside of DC’s 909 Third Avenue offices and required a conspicuous pedestrian in the background to have his features concealed with a beard, lest he object to appearing in a comic book. The Flash’s most significant visual statement was being made beneath the covers, where Irv Novick began a long and satisfying run as the book’s penciler effective with issue #200. The pairing with Kanigher made sense purely in terms of good working relationships since the two men had been friends and collaborators for nearly two decades. More importantly, though, Novick was able to distill the essence of Infantino—the cityscapes, the Flash’s runner’s build, et al.—while maintaining his own style and ensuring that the feature belonged in the 1970s rather than the 1960s. Novick was famously dismissive of his work on Flash and all his other series, regarding each story as just another job, but the pride in craftsmanship was apparent on the printed page. Whether inked by Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano,

Exposed! Barry Allen’s secret is out! Striking Gil Kane original cover art to Flash #197 (May 1970). Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart.com). TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 5

The Manchurian Candidate A peek inside Flash #200 (Sept. 1970), which began Irv Novick’s long run as the series’ penciler. Inks by Murphy Anderson. TM & © DC Comics.

or Frank McLaughlin, Irv Novick defined the Flash for the 1970s. He was joined by Cary Bates, running only a few paces behind him. Although he’d written almost exclusively for the Superman titles since the 1960s, the young Bates had also formed a relationship with Julius Schwartz early on. The editor had periodically bought cover concepts from Bates like those for Flash #179— developed into “Flash— Fact or Fiction”—and issue #193, but it was the book’s back pages that gave the 22-year-old his opening. In the interest of boosting the title’s appeal, Schwartz added a backup feature to the book effective with issue #201. The Golden Age Flash starred in the first before a Kid Flash strip by Steve Skeates and Dick Dillin settled in with Flash #202. The Elongated Man—who left Flash in 1964 for a since-canceled solo strip—joined the rotation with issue #206, and Bates was on hand to write that first adventure. With his foot in the door, Bates was available when Schwartz needed a script for Flash #209 (on sale in July 1971) and kicked things off with a heady concept called “the Speed of Life.” Caught in the backwash of an entity called the Sentinel, the Flash was swept into a realm beyond the mortal plane and put his skills to the test to destroy a Devourer that threatened the outside universe. Back on Earth, the villainous Captain Boomerang and Trickster stood over their apparently slain foe’s body, arguing whether they should unmask him. “Have you no respect for the dead?” Boomerang snapped. “We may be criminals, but we’re not heathen savages! The Flash lies dead at our feet. Isn’t that enough?” The unusual code of conduct amongst the Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery was one that endured long after Bates left the series. “I always envisioned them as ‘gentleman villains,’ for lack of a better term, who shared a certain camaraderie” he remarked in The Flash Companion (2008), “with the notable exception of the more obvious loners and subversives (like Grodd and Reverse-Flash).”

Bates’ affection for the Scarlet Speedster’s costumed adversaries was readily apparent from his first scripts (with Gorilla Grodd also featured in issue #209 and the Mirror Master in issue #206’s backup), and it signaled a change in the book’s editorial emphasis. From the moment Carmine Infantino left the series, Schwartz had downplayed the Rogues, perhaps fearing the readers would associate them with the nowmaligned camp approach of the 1966–1968 Batman TV show. On the rare occasions between issues #175 and #208 when the series’ classic colorful crooks did fight the Flash (#175, 177, 182, 186, 188, 193), their presence went unheralded on the covers with only a single exception (#193). With fans-turned-pro like Bates rising in DC’s ranks, the pendulum swung back. On the heels of Abra Kadabra’s return in Flash #212 (Feb. 1972)—wherein the Scarlet Speedster was sucked into an animated cartoon—Schwartz announced the first team-up of the Flashes of Earth-One and Earth-Two since 1967 for the following issue. To his chagrin, deadline issues forced the editor to run an all-reprint issue in issue #213— something he’d just had to resort to with Green Lantern #88—but he made the best of it. Since the Len Wein-scripted story was a sequel to the Silver Age revival of Vandal Savage in 1963’s Flash #137, Schwartz simply reran that earlier dual-Flash team-up to set the stage for issue #215’s return of the immortal villain. (Issue #214 had been another reprint issue, albeit one that had been pre-scheduled.) Wein scripted one more story for issue #217—wherein the Flash was split into five men—before Schwartz reassigned him to Justice League of America. As casually as that, Cary Bates had the series all to himself. “I was certainly more than happy to be thought of as the ‘regular’ Flash writer, but it just sort of happened,” he said in The Flash Companion. “There was no official announcement or contract to that effect.” The bad news was that he was writing for a magazine whose sales were on the downswing. The numbers for most industry titles had been sliding since the 1960s, but DC had compounded matters through its decision to expand its line to a thicker 25-cent package between 1971 and 1972 (encompassing Flash #208–216). Reduced from an eight-times-a-year frequency to bimonthly with issue #217 (and now priced at 20 cents), The Flash simultaneously became the sanctuary for the Green Lantern strip when the latter’s book was canceled.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES If Schwartz, Bates, and company were worried, they didn’t show it. The book simply returned to the formula that was in place when it was at its peak, visually reinterpreted by Irv Novick. Strange transformations— like the Scarlet Speedster’s conversion into an animated neon sign (Flash #216)—abounded, and Bates’ scripts even called for flourishes such as Infantino-style hand gestures emerging from captions. Barry Allen’s charming—and ironic—penchant for lateness once again figured into plots. Iris Allen—particularly prominent under Kanigher—slipped into the background to a degree. Fearing oversaturation, Schwartz still resisted featuring costumed bad guys on most covers, but Bates was reviving members of the Rogues’ Gallery in all but a handful of the interiors. The Flash #224 (on sale in August 1973) defied the trend, as much for its dark tone as its absence of colorful villains. The issue opened with the assassination of would-be district attorney Charlie Conwell, a coworker of Barry’s who’d previously appeared in issue #197. A thematic sequel to 1964’s Alley Award-winning “Doorway into the Unknown” (Flash #148), “The Fastest Man Dead” followed the Scarlet Speedster’s pursuit of his friend’s killers and the strange circumstances that helped him bring them to justice. The final-panel revelation that Charlie’s ghost had shadowed Barry throughout was hardly a surprise, but the story was memorable nonetheless.

Dropping In (top left) Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), the color art guide for the Adams/Giordano cover of Flash #206 (May 1971). (top right) Mirror Master is the guest-villain in that issue’s Elongated Man backup, by Cary Bates and Dick Giordano. (bottom) Flash editor Julius Schwartz and artist Irv Novick in an undated comic-con photo by David Siegel. Special thanks to Roy Thomas and Alter Ego. The Flash TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 7

On the “B” Side Kid Flash rotated with the Golden Age Flash and the Elongated Man as an early-1970s Flash backup. Original art page (courtesy of Anthony Snyder) from the Kid Flash tale in Flash #211 (Dec. 1971), by Steve Skeates and Dicks Dillin and Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

Another Bates sequel struck close to home. In 1974’s issue #228, he recalled “The Day I Saved the Life of the Flash.” In a reversal of his earlier “Fact or Fiction” plot, it was the real-world writer of The Flash who materialized in the realm of comic books. Beating a path to the Barry Allen residence, Cary tossed out personal details like Iris’ 30th-Century parentage and her husband’s secret life to get the Scarlet Speedster’s attention before helping him defeat the Trickster with his “plotting power.” (Yep, really!) Flash stories were typically running about 12 pages at this point, and the addition of Green Lantern to the book would seem to have precluded anything longer. Schwartz quickly established a pattern that got around that obstacle. Initially, he united the two leading men in one longer story (Flash #222 and 225), but the 1974 introduction of twice-a-year 100-Page Super Spectaculars into the numbering offered an alternative. In issue #229, the 20 pages of new story were handed over to a dual-Flash team-up (reviving the Golden Age villain Rag Doll), while Green Lantern’s spot was filled with a 1964 reprint. For the next Giant at the end of 1974,

8 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

GL was again relegated to reruns while issue #232’s brand-new lead co-starred the Flash and Kid Flash. After a couple years on the book, Bates was ready to shake up the formula a bit. Change took the form of a charming college student whose father had been Charlie Conwell. Before his death, Charlie had asked Barry and Iris to look after his daughter if she was accepted at Central State University. That day came in Flash #232 (Mar.–Apr. 1975) and the Allens welcomed Stacy Conwell into their household even as they privately fretted over the secret identity challenges ahead. (In a sense, the teenager recalled Schwartz’s 1964 introduction of Aunt Harriet into the Batman series as an outsider who unwittingly complicated the heroes’ secret lives.) Although high-school senior Wally West met Stacy in that initial story, lack of space guaranteed that there’d be no romance with Kid Flash anytime soon.

RETURN OF THE ROGUES The Allens had trouble enough with the unwanted attentions of another speedster. Professor Zoom, the 25th-Century villain also known as the Reverse-Flash, had once transformed himself into Barry’s double on what had fatefully been Barry and Iris’ wedding day (Flash #165). The close encounter with his foe’s wife fueled an obsession that Zoom finally acted on in Flash #233 when he atomized the Flash and tried replacing Barry again. Iris, however, had previously set her husband’s watch ahead to stymie his habitual tardiness and “Barry’s” timepiece was spot-on. Since Mrs. Allen had learned the truth, Zoom decided he’d just have to kill her, spinning a metal yardstick like a propeller to carry out the deed. That moment of crisis was enough to push the real Flash from the vibratory plane where he’d been trapped and the husband and wife had a tearful reunion. Bates realized he was on to something with the fatal attraction plot and revisited it almost immediately, even it wasn’t immediately apparent to readers. It began as a Flash/Green Lantern story in #235, wherein Vandal Savage claimed to have abducted Iris and GL’s girlfriend Carol Ferris. When the dust settled, though, it turned out that Iris was already gone when Savage made his strike and he didn’t know where she was, either. In fact, the cliffhanger revealed, Barry’s wife was on Earth-Two in the home of Jay Garrick, the original Flash. He and the mystical Dr. Fate, issue #236 explained, had discovered a “pestilence” within Iris that would react with cosmosshattering consequences should she be within range of Barry’s super-speed aura. In issue #237 (Nov. 1975), everyone converged on the 30th Century: Iris, because Dr. Fate hoped its scientists could find a cure; Barry, because he hoped she was in her parents’ time; and Professor Zoom, because … well, he’d set it all into motion when he cursed Iris weeks earlier. The problems would all go away if she agreed to marry the Reverse-Flash, but her current husband had strenuous objections. Figuring out the vibratory effort that would negate the toxic energy in Iris’ body, the Flash reunited with his wife and they made a happy return to 1975. The introduction of issue-to-issue continuity in the three issues—an “A” plot and a “B” subplot—had worked out nicely, so Bates maintained that structure. Thus, while the Flash fought newcomer Mr. Originality (issue #238) and reunited with the Rogues’ now-reformed tailor Paul Gambi in a full-length Kid Flash team-up (issue #239), Stacy Conwell was worrying about the seeming presence of her dead twin sister Sarah at accident scenes throughout Central City. When the subplot moved to the “A” position in issue #240 (Mar. 1976), Barry discovered that

“Sarah” was actually Stacy herself sleepwalking while under the influence of an alien drone. “Ongoing subplots were becoming more and more common at DC,” Bates observes to BACK ISSUE, “no doubt in part due to an effort to keep up with Marvel, where long story arcs had become the norm. Of all the old-guard editors, I think Julie was the most receptive to progressive ideas and change because so many of the writers he worked with were under 30 or former Marvel writers or both.” Bates wasted no time pushing the next subplot to the fore, uniting six of the Rogues in issue #242 for the funeral of one of their own … revealed in the following issue to be the Top (first seen in 1961’s Flash #122). The villain otherwise known as Roscoe Dillon had acquired enhanced mental powers in his last days—a consequence of the repeated centrifugal force his super-spinning had subjected him to—but his brain had also become hypersensitive to the Flash’s superspeed. Aware that the cumulative effects would be fatal, the Top vowed to have the last laugh and planted six bombs throughout Central City that would detonate at midnight on June 30, 1976. Listening to a prerecorded message of his threat, the sextet of Rogues realized they’d have to rise above their criminal proclivities to track down the bombs and save the city … without telling the Flash, who’d never believe them. Thanks to Picture News reporter Iris’ investigation of the late Top’s arsenal, though, the Scarlet Speedster had largely figured it out and was on hand in issue #244 when the Rogues stacked the six bombs atop one another … which was supposed to neutralize them. Unfortunately, a recorded announcement proclaimed that this would only work if they were stacked in a particular order… and there were 720 possible combinations! It was a good thing the Flash was on hand to run through them all—with a second to spare.

The Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery had only united twice during the 1960s, but Bates was quick to tap their potential in the 1970s, whether organizing them in annual conventions (Flash #231 and #254–256) or playing up their sense of honor as in the Top story. The latter detail made them a good fit for 1976’s new Secret Society of Super-Villains title where—in the early issues, at least—Flash foes Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and Gorilla Grodd joined other villains to oppose the greater evil of Darkseid and his forces in stories written by Gerry Conway, David Anthony Kraft, and Bob Rozakis. [Editor’s note: See BI #35 for the full Secret Society story.]

STREAKING AHEAD Bates himself penned a pair of Flash guest-appearances in 1974, one (with Novick pencils) that was part of the “Twelve Trials” series in Wonder Woman #213 and another that found the Weather Wizard trying to kill his crimson foe with Superman as his proxy (Action Comics #441). Later, in a sequel to Flash #228, he and Elliot Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Prime Time (left) Who’s the mystery man manipulating the Fastest Man Alive on the gripping Nick Cardy cover to Flash #228 (July–Aug. 1974)? (right) Our own Cary Bates, whose “plotting power” helped Flash trap the Trickster. Art by Novick and Tex Blaisdell. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 9

Three’s Company Readers meet Stacy Conwell, in Flash #232 (Mar.–Apr. 1975). Art by Novick and Frank McLaughlin. TM & © DC Comics.

S. Maggin wrote themselves into 1975’s Justice League of America #123–124, with Bates cast as a costumed supervillain. Elsewhere in 1975, the Flash could be found crossing paths with the Super-Sons (World’s Finest #231), delivering a birthday surprise to the Elongated Man (Detective Comics #449), joining forces with Batman (The Brave and the Bold #125), and uniting with Hawkman against Grodd (Super-Team Family #3). More than halfway through the 1970s, the Flash, his foes, and his creative team were all thriving. With a solid five years behind them, the Bates, Novick, and Schwartz team had built a devoted audience and it was paying off in sales. The Flash had returned to an eight-times-a-year schedule in early 1975 (issue #233), and the news was even better in December of 1976 when—for the first time in the title’s history—it went monthly (issue #247). With Green Lantern now departed (following issue #246) for his own revived comic book, the Scarlet Speedster had his comic book all to himself for the first time in years. After wrapping up an Abra Kadabra story with an Earth-Two Flash guest-shot, Bates introduced

10 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

readers to a character that many could relate to: a teenager with aspirations of becoming a superhero artist. The problem for the Allens’ young neighbor Barney Sands was that his Master Villain creation had been brought to life by an alien intelligence and the Flash couldn’t stop him—until Barry dressed up as the similarly generic Sands creation Super-Hero (issues #248–249). Those issues and Flash #250–251 (June–July 1977) were linked by a subplot in which actress Daphne Dean (a.k.a. Barry’s childhood sweetheart) returned to play her old boyfriend as a publicity stunt. All she really accomplished was creating friction in the Allen marriage and unwittingly putting Iris in the literal crosshairs of an adversary with a big-time grudge against the Flash. The entertainment world knew her as Lisa Star, but the blonde ice-skating champion was really Lisa Snart, sister of Captain Cold and the lover of the late Top. Combining some of her brother’s freeze-weaponry with gem-like devices of her own, the self-styled Golden Glider was determined to kill the Flash’s significant other just as—in her mind—he’d taken hers. Julius Schwartz was particularly invested in the new villainess, even coining her alliterative codename. “Julie believed we could get a lot of mileage out of the Lisa Snart/Golden Glider character,” Bates tells BACK ISSUE, “particularly because she was closely linked with not one, but two Rogue villains (being both Captain Cold’s baby sister and the Top’s girlfriend).” Witnessing an intimate exchange between the Flash and Iris, the Glider initially assumed the hero was having an affair with a married woman. Only good fortune prevented the villainess from murdering her. By the time she returned in issue #257, the Glider had realized that the Flash was Barry Allen … at which point she again tried to kill his wife, along with his parents—on their 50th wedding anniversary. The Golden Glider was promoted as the first female member of the Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery but, more generally, she was the first significant new villain added to the series since the 1960s. Bates had introduced a few one-shot characters like the thrill-killer/master-of-disguise Saber-Tooth (Flash #234), the teleporting Mr. Originality (#238), and the Electric Gang (#242), but none of them had made an impact. Others like the aforementioned Master Villain and the Molder (a split personality developed by the Elongated Man in issues #252–253) weren’t designed as recurring characters. That didn’t stop an unwitting George Pérez from drawing the latter into a crowd scene in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths #10, prompting then-fan writer Mark Waid to declare that this was an earlier Molder (from The Brave and the Bold #76) wearing the latter’s costume. There was more to the Flash than supervillains, and Bates and Novick put their versatility on display in a standout story for Five-Star Super-Hero Spectacular (a.k.a. DC Special Series #1). Opening with a series of scientific “Flash Facts” like those that Julius Schwartz used as filler in the 1960s, Bates noted that “it is a common fallacy to assume a bolt of lightning cannot strike the same spot more than once.” On cue, just such a bolt struck a wall full of chemicals, pouring their contents not onto Barry Allen but his lab assistant Patty Spivot. Inevitably, history repeated itself and, now endowed with super-speed, Patty whipped up a costume and declared herself Ms. Flash. Alas, this was not the same brew of chemicals that had given Barry his powers and “Ms. Flash” soon became an involuntary weapon of mass destruction. Just as Central City went

up in flames, the scene cut back to the moment of the lightning strike as Barry whisked his assistant away before she could get a toxic bath. “Although many people say they can ‘think fast on their feet’ in times of crisis,” Bates concluded, “only the Fastest Man Alive could’ve imagined a whole sequence of events in a mere hundredth of a second.” Bates “deliberately plotted ‘How to Prevent a Flash’ to be different from the super-speed stories normally in the Flash’s own mag,” editor Paul Levitz explained on the June 1977 one-shot’s text page. “No supervillain is featured—and the strong supporting cast that is a Flash trademark is absent. Instead, the story plays up the dimension of the Flash’s powers— an area rarely explored in recent years. Since the story was counter to the ordinary, we chose the regular star artists of The Flash—Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin—to balance that out.” In early 1978, Patty returned to the series—initially in DC Special Series #11 and then Flash #262—on her way to becoming a regular member of the supporting cast. She passed a departing Stacy Conwell, whose increasingly inconsequential appearances in the book ended in issue #263. Nearly 20 years later in The Life Story of the Flash, Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn explained her abrupt disappearance, revealing that she’d married boyfriend Chuck Marston (from Flash #246) and that they now owned a chain of pizza restaurants that specialized in “speedy delivery.”

COMEBACKS Stacy had stuck around long enough to attend the highschool graduation of Wally West in DC Special Series #11’s Flash Spectacular. At 63 pages, it was the longest single Flash story ever published and was divided into chapters featuring not only the Flash himself but Kid Flash and Earth-Two’s Jay Garrick. The emotional heart of the story was Wally, who decided to come clean to his parents that he was leading a double life. Looking ahead to marriage and family, the young man concluded that superheroics had no place in the picture. His college graduation day, he confided to Barry, would also signal the end of Kid Flash. The central villain of that issue had been Gorilla Grodd, a character who’d been unseen in The Flash itself since issue #209 back in 1971. The simian mastermind hadn’t been idle, though. He’d fought Superman individually and as part of a team (1973 and 1974’s Action Comics #424 and 443), shown up three times in Super-Team Family (issues #3, 13–14), and took an increasingly large role in Secret Society of Super-Villains. He’d have been even busier had Bates and Elliot S. Maggin’s proposed Gorilla City comic book not been killed before its completed first issue was published [see BACK ISSUE #15—ed.]. For his crimes of the past decade, Grodd was atomized by the denizens of Gorilla City at the beginning of the Flash Spectacular, but the balance of the story detailed how he came back. Also making a comeback in the issue was the Turtle, the very first foe that the Flash fought in Showcase #4

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Zoom with a View Reverse-Flash is out to kill in The Flash #233 (May 1975). (left) Signed original cover art by Dick Giordano, courtesy of Anthony Snyder. (right) A page from that tale, by Bates/ Novick/Blaisdell. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 11

Spin Out The “Death of the Top” tale, Flash #243 (Aug. 1976). (right) Its Ernie Chua cover, and (left) its Rogues’ Gallerypacked splash page. TM & © DC Comics.

(and whom Bates had previously used in Flash #220). The revival came on the heels of a revival of Showcase #4’s other villain—the time-traveling Mazdan—in Flash #254–256 and Silver Age Green Lantern nemesis Black Hand in issues #258–259. After a palate-cleansing tale in which Barry and his 30th-Century father-in-law investigated a curious branch in the Russell family tree, it was back to more serious business. Iris West Allen had rarely been a traditional damsel in distress, but both her life and her marriage had been repeatedly imperiled since the mid-1970s. The events of 1978’s Flash #261–264 seemed to cap that cycle when a new superhero called the Ringmaster showed up in Central City, first stealing the Scarlet Speedster’s glory and then his wife. Reeling from Iris walking out on him and a succession of blows to his confidence, Barry retired his Flash alter ego … and then seemed to murder his estranged wife in a jealous rage. The entire scenario was being stage-directed by the Golden Glider—who used hypnotic rings to control both Iris and the Ringmaster—but her attempt on Iris’ life had been enough to jolt Flash out of his despair. It was Iris—freed from the brainwashing—who finally brought the villainess to justice, freezing Lisa Snart in her tracks with her brother Len’s cold-gun. Barry and Iris took a well-deserved second honeymoon in Flash #265 (Sept. 1978) before Bates and

12 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Novick recounted the origin of Silver Age villain Heat Wave (Flash #266–267), a detail left out of his 1963 debut (Flash #140). After the heaviness of the previous year, issue #268’s “Riddle of the Runaway Comic” was an agreeably lightweight change of pace. Young Barney Sands had discovered in the previous issue that Barry was a collector of Golden Age comics—a fact suggested as early as Showcase #4—and it was the teenager who dragged the Flash into a complicated search for a missing copy of 1941’s Flash Comics #26 … complete with a visit to a comic-con and sinister cosplayers dressed as Wildcat and the Golden Age Green Lantern. “In retrospect, I wish I had thought of occasionally revisiting this aspect of the character during the tenures of subsequent editors (including my own),” Bates tells BACK ISSUE. “Those years when Barry was going through all his various ordeals, wouldn’t it have been nice to see him kick back and pull out a Golden Age Flash comic now and then, just to give himself a much-deserved break from all the drama?” For Julius Schwartz, who was reducing his editorial workload to just the Superman titles, “Runaway Comic” would have been a fine story to go out on after 22 years on the series, but there was one more issue to go. “Domain of the Dark-Eyed Dragons” (Flash #269) was a sequel to the first full-length story that Schwartz had ever run in the series (issue #120’s “Land of Golden Giants”) and it brought the story’s principals— Kid Flash, Dr. Manners, and his daughter Gail—back together for another jaunt to the prehistoric past. Five months earlier in June 1978, DC had briefly expanded its line’s story page count from 17 to 25 pages, and The Flash benefited from a Kid Flash backup strip (issues #265–266) and a flashback piece on the Scarlet Speedster’s costume (#267). The Kid Flash story for issue #268 had reintroduced Gail Manners and ended with a cliffhanger leading into the “Dark-Eyed Dragons” story,

but the abrupt reversion of the page count back to 17 crushed that plan. Instead, the short story went into inventory, eventually revised with a new last page for Flash #325 (Sept. 1983), while the 25-pager meant for issue #269 was shaved of 2 1/2 pages when published.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

CREATIVE TEAM CHANGES If Carmine Infantino’s departure from the series had been traumatic for fans, the transition in the fall of 1978 was doubly so. Along with Schwartz, signature penciler Irv Novick also opted to leave the strip with Flash #270. From the point that Cary Bates became the lone series writer in issue #218, The Flash could boast the same writer/penciler team in virtually every issue (“virtually,” because Kurt Schaffenberger subbed for an ailing Novick in issue #264). Although Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula came close, no other title from the 1972–1978 period could claim such a long, consistent run. According to Mike W. Barr in issue #276’s letters column, the veteran artist believed “he had done his best work on the character” and that it was time to move on. Novick’s new address was in Batman, a series he’d had to drop in the mid-1970s as The Flash’s frequency increased. Ironically, Ross Andru was back on the series again … but this time as editor rather than artist. He could certainly sympathize with new pencilers Rich Buckler (issues #271–272) and Alex Saviuk (issues #273–279), though, when fans raked them over the coals for not being Irv Novick. The real controversy soon centered on what they drew rather than how they drew. On the cover of his inaugural issue, Andru had declared,

(top) Flash flips for Golden Glider, while Iris steps out with the Ringmaster, on the Rich Buckler/ Dick Giordano cover of Flash #262. (bottom left) The first appearance of Golden Glider, from Flash #250. (bottom right) Barry Allen runs into Ms. Flash in Five-Star SuperHero Spectacular. TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 13

“Flash’s life begins to change … and it will never be the same again!!” That was no empty promise. Abandoning the more structured subplot patterns and multi-part stories of recent years, Bates developed a free-flowing narrative more in tune with a Marvel series than the classic DC title. Multiple plots ran alongside each other with individual stories rarely wrapping up neatly and all but one issue over the next year ending on a cliffhanger. Bates continued to write more traditional standalone Flash stories for Adventure Comics (where a companion solo strip was published in issues #459–466 during 1978 and 1979; see article following), but his work on the home title was a radical departure. “If we had made up a fake name for me when I was writing for Ross,” he remarked in Comics Feature #8 (1980), “I bet that most readers wouldn’t have been able to recognize me.” The run opened with a darker-than-normal costumed villain—a mute killer called the Clown (issues #270–272)—but the threats quickly took on a more personal tone. At work, Barry’s attention was divided between an internal heroin smuggling operation and his observation of behavioral scientist Gilbert Nephron’s efforts to reprogram a convicted killer. Meanwhile, a sandyhaired young woman fixated on the Flash was stalking the Scarlet Speedster. And on the home front, Iris Allen was growing angrier by the issue over her husband’s increasing absence from her life, a character bit carried over into Adventure #462’s solo story and even a Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #151. The drug subplot, at least, earned Barry a new friend named Frank Curtis, an undercover cop assigned by their boss Captain Harvey Paulson to get to the bottom of the corruption in police headquarters. There were no positives to the Nephron Project, though, where the overloading of the pleasure and pain centers in convict Clive Yorkin’s brain were nothing less than torture in Barry’s eyes. By the start of issue #274, Yorkin had become addicted to pain, and

And You Thought Aunt May Was a Buttinski… Behold: the art team of José Luis García-López and Wally Wood, from the Flash Spectacular, DC Special Series #11. TM & © DC Comics.

transformed into an inarticulate—and super-strong—madman who left Nephron a vegetable before fleeing into the night. The techniques used on Yorkin bore a distinct similarity to those used in both Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick’s subsequent 1971 film adaptation, something that reader Mark Ellis was quick to point out in issue #277’s letters column. Whatever the inspiration, Bates says that “Ross was very involved with the Clive Yorkin character and fascinated by the idea behind the “Nephron process”… the notion of science being able to reverse the brain’s pleasure and pain centers, which, of course, backfired when it turned Yorkin into a supervillain.” Elsewhere, the mystery woman—mistakenly presumed by many readers to be Stacy Conwell—was identified as Melanie (no last name). Possessed of a variety of mental powers, she compelled the Flash to come to her side twice and, in issue #275 (on sale in April 1979), forced him to remove his mask. After all that build-up, Melanie looked on his “ordinary” face and stormed off in disgust over the fact that another obsession had let her down. “Six months ago it was John Travolta,” she sighed. “Now—you! I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

THE DEATH OF IRIS ALLEN Watching a teenage girl leave the motel room, Iris Allen herself wasn’t happy and drove away in a state of hysteria. Her husband was close behind, rescuing Iris from a near-fatal car crash and explaining the odd—and rather insulting—events that had just taken place. In minutes, the tensions of the previous weeks dissolved and the Allens recommitted to their marriage with the mutual decision to have a child. (Bates had teased such an event a few years earlier in issue #242, prompting a flurry of letters from readers wishing it had been for real.) First on their itinerary was a superhero-themed costume party, one that Iris and Barry attended as Batgirl and (because the Batman costume was rented) the Flash. More problematic was the celebrant dressed as the Golden Age Sandman, a stranger who’d been assigned by the mystery drug-dealer to kill Barry during the festivities. Unwittingly injected with hallucinogenic angel dust, Barry could barely stand when he heard his wife scream for help from another room. There, to his horror, was Clive Yorkin standing over Iris’ body. By the time other partygoers rushed in, both

14 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Allens were insensate and one—a responder reported— was dead. The fatality, Flash #276 (Aug. 1979) confirmed, was Iris West Allen, and the fans went wild. Issue #282’s letters column overflowed with reaction, much of it negative and including a few vows never to read the title again. Even Alex Saviuk, informed of what was coming shortly after he began drawing the book, was incredulous. In The Flash Companion, he recalled saying to Andru, “‘But she’s not really dead, right?’ And he said, ‘Oh no, she’s dead.’” The motivation for the shake-up was nothing more than a numbers game. At a glance, the Flash would seem to have been more popular than ever in 1978. He’d been positioned as a lead in Adventure Comics, co-starred with Superman in the first two issues of DC Comics Presents, and was deemed high profile enough to be featured in the opening arc of that year’s World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip. And yet, after a progressive rise during the mid-1970s, sales on The Flash itself were on the decline again. The average copies sold of an issue in 1977 had been 153,299; in 1978, they were 115,716. Ross Andru had just completed a well-regarded five-year run as penciler on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man, a title he’d inherited only a few months after the stunning death of Peter Parker’s beloved Gwen Stacy in 1973. The reaction then had been electrifying and the new DC editor believed that killing a similarly “untouchable” character in The Flash would get the same reaction. It was Andru who suggested the murder of Iris Allen, but Bates tells BACK ISSUE that he was a willing partner. “I was totally on board … even back

then I had already been writing Flash for seven or eight years, and I knew a change with such dramatic and far-reaching consequences would be creatively stimulating for everyone working on the book.” “The book was getting stale,” Bates opined in Comics Feature #8. “It had nothing to do with anyone associated with the book. I just think the marriage was a good idea in 1966, but after so many years there was nothing one could do with it. Instead of being a plus and a unique factor, it became a hindrance. It was bogging down the book. One thing I’m very proud about with The Flash is that we took so long to do Iris’ death and we did it—I won’t say with glee—with such depth and giving it such importance. We also did it so there was no warning it was going to happen. In real life, death doesn’t happen after a long series of dramatic incidents that build up to it. Usually it just happens.” Alex Saviuk was particularly shaken by the scene in issue #276 wherein Frank Curtis visited a hospitalized Barry, pulling out Iris’ wedding ring and confirming her death. “The whole scene choked me up just to draw it,” he recalled in The Flash Companion. “I was a newlywed and completely in love, so I could relate to his anguish.” In the immediate aftermath, the Flash—still affected by the angel dust—angrily pleaded with the Justice League to somehow raise Iris from the dead before he decided to hold a press conference as Barry Allen in which he’d retire his crimson alter-ego. Horrified at what her former crush was about to do in issue #277, Melanie stepped forward to talk him out of it. “I’m sorry to say you look—ordinary,” she smiled when he put his costume back on. “Extraordinary!!” Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

His Sunday Best Flash takes center stage in the newspaper strip The World’s Greatest Superheroes. June 18, 1978 Sunday page by Martin Pasko, George Tuska, and Vince Colletta. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 15

Then there was the matter of Clive Yorkin. Having mutated into a parasite who drained the life energy from others, he’d become an even greater threat. Assisted by Melanie’s mental powers, the Flash spent most of issues #278–280 pursuing him before Yorkin finally buried himself in a sinkhole and perished. Security footage of Iris’ demise guaranteed that Barry would have no closure: According to the tape, she’d collapsed without Yorkin ever touching her. The final answers came over the course of Flash #281–283 (Jan.–Mar. 1980). Captain Paulson was exposed as the man behind the police station heroin ring, operating on orders of Professor Zoom, who’d been augmenting the drugs’ effects with 25th-Century science. More significantly, though, the Reverse-Flash was exposed as the true killer of Iris Allen, invisibly vibrating his hand into her brain when she refused his command to marry him. The two speedsters finally faced off in the midst of the volatile time-stream, whose destructive forces seemed to take Zoom’s life. Barry’s own survival required him to race forward in time in issue #284, reliving the triumphs and tragedies of his life and coming to terms with Iris’ passing. Coming as it did after the extended pursuit of Clive Yorkin, the exposure of the Reverse-Flash as the real murderer leads one to question whether that was the original plan. The eventual explanation had to go to great lengths to work around the details in the original death story. An encounter between Iris and Green Lantern in issue #275 suddenly had a meeting with Zoom inserted into it, for instance, and the villain’s earlier death threats had to be erased from Iris’ mind. If the plot twist was an afterthought, though, it can’t be confirmed. “That’s a very plausible scenario, and possibly even accurate,” Bates remarks today, “but looking back some 30-plus years later I just can’t say for sure.” Whatever the case, Professor Zoom was a vastly more resonant choice for the killer than a comparative non-entity like Yorkin. The Golden Glider, the other Rogue obsessed with Iris, was strictly a no-show in the scenario, though. “Considering how Lisa always blamed and hated the Flash for the Top’s death … and how she was the only villain back then who knew his Barry Allen identity,” Bates observes, “I could see how it would seem plausible that her need for revenge might eventually make her a likely culprit behind Iris’ death … but all these years later I can’t say one way or the other if the notion ever crossed my mind.”

THE RUNAROUND Sales, Bates confirms, went up over the course of the traumatic Andru run, but it was time for some stability in the series again. Under incoming editor Len Wein, The Flash evoked the Silver Age once more, spotlighting bachelor Barry Allen and his alter ego’s adventures against a succession of colorful rogues. Along with familiar faces like the Trickster (#285), Mirror Master (#292), and Gorilla Grodd (#294–295), there were the brand-new Rainbow Raider (#286), a successor to the

Novick No More (top) This house ad in Flash #270 (Feb. 1979) signaled changes for the Scarlet Speedster. (bottom) The splash to that issue, Irv Novick’s last as penciler. TM & © DC Comics.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

original Dr. Alchemy (#287–289), and a revival of the 1975 assassin Saber-Tooth (#290–291). Bates wasted no time in replenishing the supporting cast. Along with Barry’s clock-watching new boss Captain Darryl Frye, issue #285 also introduced the widower’s new neighbors in the Utopia Towers apartment complex: S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Mack Nathan and his son Troy, and a reclusive woman named Fiona Webb. It was hardly a surprise that the latter was being positioned as Barry’s eventual love interest, and issues #290–291 dug into her history, explaining that her real name was Beverly Lewis and that she’d been put into the witness protection program after testifying against mobster Ross Malverk … who happened to be a Barry Allen lookalike. It was an unlikely foundation for romance, but Fiona’s gratitude for Barry’s help in capturing Malverk’s hired killer Saber-Tooth led to the couple’s first date. Curiously, the budding romance was ignored a few months later in the Gerry Conway-scripted Justice League of America #187–188, wherein the Flash became infatuated with new member Zatanna. The flirtation was dismissed soon after in JLA #191, but it was an odd disconnect with what was going on in the Scarlet Speedster’s own book. The earlier JLA two-parter, incidentally, was penciled by Don Heck, who’d also become the regular Flash penciler. The veteran artist had initially been assigned the Flash strip in Adventure Comics (beginning with issue #461 in late 1978) and, when Alex Saviuk left to pursue

advertising work, Heck moved over to the main book with Flash #280. Despite an increasingly strong run of stories (particularly once he began inking his own pencils in issue #291), Heck was bumped from the book at the end of 1980 in favor of an artist with previous experience on the character. His name was Carmine Infantino. Unceremoniously fired as DC’s publisher in January 1976, Infantino had steered clear of the company ever since despite continued entreaties from managing editor Joe Orlando to return as an artist. In 1980, Infantino finally agreed to come back, picking up a variety of assignments that included one special request. “Do me a favor and draw The Flash,” he recalled—in The Flash Companion—Orlando asking him. Having lost the short-term readers of the Andru run along with some alienated by Iris Allen’s death, sales were dropping again and DC was looking to the series’ original designer to revive them. Infantino returned in 1981’s Flash #296, a team-up between the Scarlet Speedster and the Elongated Man, another character that the artist had designed. “I don’t know how much of his heart was really into being a freelancer,” Mike W. Barr remarked in The Flash Companion. “I think sometimes his approach to the work was a little slap-dash. But Carmine was professional. He certainly met all the deadlines, and it was just a delight to see him back on The Flash again after all those years. I think it was Paul Levitz, who at the time was looking at some of Carmine’s new Flash

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

The Death of Iris Allen (left) This house ad for Flash #275 (July 1979) foretold of a death in the family—Barry’s wife, Iris, as revealed in the next issue. (right) Iris’ funeral, as shown in issue #277 by penciler Alex Saviuk and inker Frank McLaughlin. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 17

Monitor Duty Make-Out? Flash’s brief flirtation with Zatanna, from writer Gerry Conway’s Justice League of America #187 (Feb. 1981). Original Don Heck/ Frank McLaughlin art, courtesy of Anthony Snyder. TM & © DC Comics.

pages and said something like, ‘After 15 years of fill-ins, Carmine Infantino is back where he belongs.’” According to Barr, the veteran artist was shocked to learn of Iris’ death (“I never thought they’d do that”), but he had the opportunity to draw her again only a few months later in The Flash #300 (Aug. 1981). Awakening in a hospital bed, Barry Allen was informed that he’d been institutionalized ever since he was paralyzed in a lab accident years earlier. His entire career as the Flash had been nothing more than the desperate delusions of an invalid. Barry was having none of this and began running through the details of his life as he grasped for a means of escape. When Iris West Summers, her husband, and two children visited Barry, his resolve nearly crumbled, but his psychiatrist went one step too far. When he revealed Professor Zoom was also alive and brought him to the hospital, the doctor (really Abra Kadabra) effectively broke the mental block that kept Barry immobilized … because the Reverse-Flash would never have existed had there not been a Flash to inspire him.

In The Flash Companion, Bates cited issue #300’s “1981: A Flash Odyssey” as his favorite individual story in his entire run. “I think that story should have been dedicated to Julie, John Broome, and Carmine,” he declared, “since in my mind it was probably the closest I ever came to emulating the very essence of the [’60s] Flash that got me into comics.” On both sides of the anniversary issue, Bates had a subplot cooking in which Barry’s father Henry Allen was nearly killed in a car accident and his spirit displaced by a familiar entity. Roscoe “the Top” Dillon had returned in the body of a man in his 70s, but that was only going to be temporary. Reunited with the Golden Glider, he intended to move into the body of the Flash himself but—in mid-transition—the Scarlet Speedster outwitted him and Barry’s dad’s spirit reclaimed its proper home (Flash #302–303). Interestingly, Bates had done earlier stories in which the Flash and Iris’ spirits had each left their bodies (1971’s Flash #209 and 1978’s Adventure Comics #462), as well as one with Batman in a recent Infantino collaboration (1980’s Detective Comics #500). It wasn’t the last time he’d use the concept. Amidst comparatively heavy stories like Henry Allen’s near-death experience, The Flash was still amenable to lighter situations. Such was the case with Colonel Computron, a computer-game-themed villain who debuted in issue #304. Mike W. Barr, who replaced Len Wein as editor three issues earlier, came up with the

Weary Widower Barry suspects there’s more to Iris’ death than meets the eye. Page from Flash #281 (Jan. 1980) by Don Heck and Chirarmonte. TM & © DC Comics.

18 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

issue’s memorable cover. “I was playing a video game briefly regained the editorship of Flash—put an early in an arcade somewhere in New York,” he detailed in end to the Dr. Fate series in issue #313. The Flash Companion, “and I thought it would be such Incoming editor Ernie Colón (Flash #315–327) a classically Flash idea to have the Flash turned into a introduced one last backup—a Creeper series in character in a video game and have the villain trying issues #318–323 initially written by Carl Gafford and to kill him by playing the video game.” drawn by Dave Gibbons—but the events in the lead Barr also oversaw a new look for the book as 1982 feature soon dictated that every page in each edition dawned. Infantino’s art on the series to that point be devoted to the Flash himself. had a rather wispy quality courtesy of inker KILLER STORYLINE Bob Smith, so it was a revelation when new If there was a hot-button issue in fandom embellisher Dennis Jensen came aboard in the early 1980s, it was the debate with issue #308. Possessed of a lush, over whether superheroes—including inky style reminiscent of classic DC prominent figures like Wolverine and artist Murphy Anderson, Jensen added the Punisher—should kill. Beginning in weight and texture to Infantino’s issue #314 (Oct. 1982), Bates intropencils that virtually modernized the duced a pair of archetypal extremes. In look of the series overnight. In the one corner was a comically ineffectual 2010 book Carmine Infantino: Pencilercostumed hero called Captain Invincible, Publisher-Provocateur, the legendary secretly Barry’s own boss Darryl Frye. artist told Jim Amash that Jensen was In the other was a blue-cloaked the only embellisher on his latter-day vigilante called the Eradicator, who was Flash run that he really liked. carmine infantino cleansing Central City of its criminal Barr’s other notable contribution elements by reducing them to sudsy Bill Crawford,The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino. to The Flash was in its backup feature, powder. The Flash was caught in the where Firestorm the Nuclear Man had nested moderate middle ground. since issue #289 (Sept. 1980). Convinced that the “It wasn’t just the shifting morality of certain secondary feature should have qualities different Marvel characters, but the whole Marvel approach in from the lead—all the better to attract a larger general that was influencing me as The Flash gradually audience—the editor resolved to introduce a transformed into a book with long story arcs (and I’m supernatural feature in Dr. Fate by Martin Pasko and Keith Giffen in issue #306. Sales did go up, Barr noted in still talking about the pre-trial days),” Bates informs The Flash Companion. Meanwhile, though, vocal Firestorm BACK ISSUE. “I remember I was particularly impressed supporter Len Wein not only spun off the Nuclear Man with what Frank Miller was doing in Daredevil at the into his own comic book in early 1982 but—when he time I was writing the Eradicator stories.” Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Infantino Returns Carmine Infantino returned to DC Comics, and The Flash, in 1981 with issue #296—just in time to illustrate the anniversary issue (left) Flash #300 (Aug. 1981). (right) This Carminesketched bust of Barry-Flash came from the San Francisco Baycon III booklet, from 1977, and was copied for BI by Jerry Boyd. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 19

Overlapping with a story involving Green Lantern foe Goldface, the vigilante plot ran for seven issues, during which the Eradicator was exposed as Senator Creed Phillips, a.k.a. Fiona Webb’s new boyfriend. By the climax in issue #320, the Flash realized his foe had a split personality and sped him past the graves of his earlier victims in the hope of jabbing his conscience. The strategy worked all too well, convincing Phillips to turn his eradication process inward and commit suicide. There’d be no happy endings for anyone involved in the adventure, no matter how much a reconciled Barry and Fiona might have hoped when they became engaged to be married in issue #322. Over the course of four issues, the Reverse-Flash emerged from the time-stream and embarked on a revenge plot with a simple goal: He’d kill Barry Allen’s soon-to-be second wife as surely as he murdered his first. Goading the Flash into a state of hysteria as they literally raced around the world, Zoom was within a split-second of success when the Scarlet Speedster stopped him at the end of issue #324— snapping Zoom’s neck in the process. It was all downhill from there. The Flash became the crimson center ring in a media circus, attacked by enemies old and new—notably an over-sized hulk called Big Sir—as he prepared to be put on trial for the murder of the Reverse-Flash. Unwilling to go public with his Barry Allen alter-ego, the Scarlet Speedster only fueled the anxiety of Fiona Webb, who was driven to the breaking point by the unanswered questions about her missing fiancé. A veritable trial of the century featured celebrity testimony from the likes of time master Rip Hunter and Kid Flash before descending into such a blatant example of jury tampering that any judge in the real world would’ve declared a mistrial. [Editor’s note: A more detailed look at this period can be found in BACK ISSUE #28, the “Heroes Behaving Badly” issue.] In the final lap, the 64th-Century villain Abra Kadabra’s attempt to conjure up a guilty verdict was quashed by the Flash and a sextet of the Rogues (Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Rainbow Raider, Trickster, and Weather Wizard). Despite the revelation that one of the jurors had been possessed by a 30th-Century time-traveler who was just as intent on getting a not-guilty verdict, the Flash’s conviction was overturned. Either way, he wasn’t around to see it. Barry Allen decided he rather liked Central City circa 2985 A.D., particularly since the aforementioned time-traveler from that year had been Iris Allen. For Eric and Fran Russell, the circumstances of their daughter’s 20th-Century passing were a matter of historical record … and it was within their power to retrieve her spirit at the moment of “death” and psychically implant it within a new body in the future. On the last page of The Flash #350 (on sale in July 1985), two star-crossed lovers reunited and—for a moment, at least—all was right with the world. One month later, in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths #8, Barry Allen made one last run … destroying an antimatter cannon that threatened the Multiverse and sending himself hurtling through time as he crumbled into skeletal remains and finally nothing but an empty red, white, and yellow costume. Like Iris Allen before him, the death of the Flash was dictated by sales. The modest spike registered by Carmine Infantino’s return in 1981 dissipated quickly and average sales per issue had shrunk to a dismal 69,881 copies by 1985. The drawn-out trial story hadn’t helped, although Bates (who’d become editor of the title with issue #328) later revealed that it wasn’t supposed to have run as long as it did. Seeking high-profile—but low-selling—heroes to put on a death-list for the forthcoming Crisis maxiseries, in early 1984 DC publisher Jenette Kahn had authorized both Supergirl and the Flash as casualties. Shortly thereafter, Bates related in 1986’s Amazing Heroes #91, “I was told that the comic would end with #350 and Flash would be killed in Crisis. I realized it would be foolish to end the trial and start a new storyline, so I expanded on the plot I had all along—that two characters from the future

Snapped! (top) Barry stops Professor Zoom’s attempt to kill his new sweetheart, Fiona Webb, in Flash #324 (Aug. 1983). Art by Infantino and Dennis Jensen. (bottom) And things got worse for Fiona after that… Splash page original art from #330, courtesy of Anthony Snyder. TM & © DC Comics.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

would determine the trial’s outcome. I had already planned on Abra Kadabra as the villain. He’s probably my favorite Flash villain over the years, and it was easy enough to make the other Iris West.” Determined to give the Flash as happy an ending as possible in his own book, Bates admitted issue #350 had been one of the most challenging of his career to that point. “It was that way for Carmine, too,” he noted. “We both got really sentimental.” Infantino would later express his dislike for the Flash killing an opponent, but his opinions were undetectable in the pages he drew. On both the interior layouts and covers, the celebrated artist pushed himself to produce some of his most innovative work in years. Ever the professional, Infantino never considered bailing on the book in its final months. “I brought him in,” he declared in The Flash Companion. “It was fitting for me to see it through to the end.”

BARRY FOREVER As a martyr to a more heroic age, the late Barry Allen inspired a degree of reverence and devotion far beyond anything afforded him during the later years when his adventures were actually being published. For a quartercentury, he continued to appear in stories set in his halcyon days, a few of them written by Cary Bates (2011’s DC Retroactive: Flash–The ’70s #1) or drawn by Carmine Infantino (1988’s Secret Origins Annual #2 and 1990’s Flash Special #1). Even Irv Novick made a brief return in the aforementioned Flash Special, albeit as penciler on a tale featuring Jay Garrick rather than Barry Allen. Wally West, who’d honored his mentor and uncle by becoming the Flash starting in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, never fully escaped his shadow. The Mark Waidscripted “Return of Barry Allen” (1993’s Flash #73–79) even teased the prospect of the icon’s return … in part to make the point that the former Kid Flash was now seated at the adult table and that it was time to move on. Perhaps inevitably, the specter of falling sales (exemplified in a pair of failed runs starring Wally and Barry’s grandson Bart) decreed that—saint status notwithstanding— a Barry Allen revival might be the course correction that the Flash franchise needed. DC ran with it. In the wake of 2009’s Flash: Rebirth miniseries, a year-long series revival, a New 52 Flash reboot, and a 2014 Flash TV series starring Grant Gustin, Barry Allen is more prominent than ever. “I think the longevity over so many decades (and so many writers, editors, and artists) attests to the fact that the Barry Allen character is archetypal in some mysterious way that transcends the super-speed power,” Cary Bates declares to BACK ISSUE. “After all, over the years there’s been a procession of other super-fast heroes, both at DC and Marvel, but none of them has ever left such an indelible mark. Even during the decades when Barry was officially ‘dead,’ he and his legacy were still being discussed on message boards by the fans. The fact that there is now a new Barry/Flash TV series and a big-budget Flash film in the planning stages is just further evidence of his staying power.” It’s far beyond anything that Julius Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, and Carmine Infantino could have imagined when they reconceived the character in 1956. “The original Flash [Golden Age comic book] only lasted for nine years,” an incredulous Schwartz declared in 1986’s Amazing Heroes #91. “We didn’t think the new Flash would last half that.” Nearly 60 years after his birth and 30 since his death, Barry Allen is still defying the odds.

Special thanks to Cary Bates, not only for his generous responses to my interview questions but for the many years of pleasure his comic-book scripts gave me as I grew up in the 1970s. There was a Midwestern authenticity to Barry, Iris, and their world amidst the Flash’s fantastic adventures that I found eminently relatable. For more on the behind-the-scenes forces in Central City, I also highly recommend The Flash Companion (2008), still available from TwoMorrows. Edited by Keith Dallas, the book boasts biographical essays and interviews—some of them quoted in the preceding article—that make it the key resource on the men behind the Fastest Men Alive from the 1940s to the 21st Century. My own contributions, incidentally, include pieces on E. E. Hibbard and Gardner Fox plus a lengthy chat with Wally West scribe and Bart Allen creator Mark Waid.

So Happy Together Barry and Iris reunited, in the final issue of The Flash, #350 (Oct. 1985). TM & © DC Comics.

JOHN WELLS is a comics historian specializing in DC Comics. He is the author of the TwoMorrows books American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–1964 (2012) and 1965–1969 (2014).

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 21

Was Jay Garrick destined to be an also-ran? It seemed that way in the late 1960s. During the Infantino era, the Golden Age Flash of Earth-Two had appeared with his younger counterpart six times between 1961 and 1967 (Flash #123, 129, 137, 151, 170, and 173). Once Jay’s co-creator Gardner Fox—who’d written all but one of the 1960s team-ups—was gone from the book, the dual-Flash team-ups came to a screeching halt. Jay—if not the team-ups—was back in 1970, first as part of that year’s Justice League/Justice Society team-up (JLA #82–83) and then in his first solo story since 1948’s Flash Comics #104. Scripted by Bob Kanigher with art by Murphy Anderson, the sevenpager in the back of Flash #201 went on sale a year after 1969’s Woodstock rock festival and hinged on Jay and his wife Joan attending a similar event in Stockwood. Also in attendance was 1940s bad guy the Fiddler, who had his eye on “the million-dollar till.” It was a cute story filled with jokes about aging and the generation gap but it didn’t inspire a follow-up. Instead, editor Julius Schwartz turned the backups over to younger heroes like Kid Flash and the Elongated Man. A pair of “new” Golden Age Flash stories did appear in Flash #205 and 214, although both were inventory pieces that had been left unpublished when Flash Comics was canceled in 1948. Two pages of a third unused tale featuring Rose and the Thorn also appeared in Lois Lane #113, although the story didn’t appear in its entirety until 1995’s The Comics #10, a fanzine published by Robin Snyder. After a five-year gap, the dual-Flash team-ups resumed in Flash #215 (May 1972), a Len Wein/Irv Novick-produced adventure wherein Vandal Savage manipulated the two speedsters into recovering the meteor that had given him immortality. By the time Cary Bates wrote the heroes’ next meeting in 1974’s Flash #229, Jay really did seem to have lost his footing. He was struggling mightily to capture his old foe Rag Doll until Barry discovered that the Thinker was mentally toying with the elder speedster. Flash #229 had been one of the series’ periodic reprint giants, and another was planned for issue #235, whose new lead would feature Vandal Savage and a small role for Jay. DC’s abandonment of its in-series specials left that issue’s reprints in limbo, but not for long. Noting that the art on some of DC’s 1940s stories was primitive by 1970s standards, reprint editor E. Nelson Bridwell arranged to have two tales from 1946’s All-Flash #22 redrawn—one by Edgar Bercasio and the other by Rico Rival—for Flash #235 and a later issue. After that option fell through, Bridwell got them into print in Four-Star Spectacular #1 and DC Super-Stars #5. By that point, it was 1976 and the Justice Society was back in its own comic book. As perhaps its most

John Wells

The First Fastest Man Alive Detail from the Golden Age Flash chapter of Cary Bates’ DC Special Series #11 (1978). Art by Kurt Schaffenberger and Murphy Anderson. TM & © DC Comics.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

JSAARP (left) Flash needs an Icy Hot rubdown in his Kanigher/Anderson backup in Flash #201 (Nov. 1970). (inset) This Flash Giant, DC Super-Stars #5 (July 1976), reprinted (top right) this 1946 All-Flash tale, which was redrawn by Rico Rival for a ’70s German audience (bottom right). TM & © DC Comics.

recognizable member with his distinctive red-blue costume and mercury cap, Jay was prominently placed on the early covers of the revived All-Star Comics. He was also an aging husband, though, and issue #61 featured a memorable scene (by Gerry Conway, Keith Giffen, and Wally Wood) in which Joan Garrick burst through barricades surrounding the JSA’s burning, recently attacked headquarters and insisted Jay come home with her. He did … but only for that issue. The public display of affection didn’t do the Flash’s secret identity much good, which may have inspired Jay’s decision to go public in 1978’s Flash Spectacular (a.k.a. DC Special Series #11) in a tale by Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Murphy Anderson. The announcement inspired a visit from former DC speedster Johnny Quick, but the first meeting descended into a slugfest thanks to the interference of Gorilla Grodd. “If today is only a sample of what our life is going to be like now that our world knows you’re the Flash,” Joan sighed, “I’m going to start looking for another house … on Earth-One!!” The story was sandwiched between two other dual-Flash adventures by Bates and Novick that pivoted on mistaken identity. Accidently arriving in Earth-Two’s Keystone City in late 1976’s Flash #247, the evil Abra Kadabra encountered Jay and was baffled as to why Barry Allen had changed the look of his costume and hometown. Midway through 1978 in Adventure Comics #460, it was Barry’s turn to be confused when he was caught in a trap that the Wizard meant for his Earth-Two pal. Subjected to mind-games that included Joan’s supposed marriage to the Fiddler, Barry tripped up the plot by being the wrong Flash.

Caught up in the turbulent events of his own life, Barry rarely got together with Jay after 1978. The final dual-Flash team-up addressed the tragedy head-on, inspired by editor Mike W. Barr’s observation that events on Earth-One were sometimes echoed on Earth-Two. When Joan Garrick was abducted by the Lord of Limbo in 1981’s Flash #305 (by Bates and Infantino), Barry feared that Jay’s wife was destined to die as Iris had done. With the help of Dr. Fate, though, the dual-Flashes cheated fate and brought Joan home alive. Although Jay and Barry still crossed paths in the occasional JLA/JSA team-up (notably in 1983’s JLA #219–220), the Golden Age Flash was seen most regularly in the pages of All-Star Squadron. Like his guest-turn in 1977’s Wonder Woman #239–240, the Flash was at his prime in that World War II-based series and inevitably carried over into guest-appearances in its modern-day companion book, Infinity, Inc. The Golden Age Flash survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths, even looking on with approval in Crisis #12 when Wally West vowed to continue his uncle’s legacy. The possibility of a retired Flash—any old-time hero, really—peering over a young namesake’s shoulder was a troublesome prospect for a 50-year-old comics company trying to give itself a youthful facelift. Hence, the bulk of the JSA was shuffled off to limbo in 1986’s Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1. That banishment—like all the subsequent attempts—didn’t take, at least where Jay Garrick was concerned. He was still running strong when the curtain came down on the post–Crisis DC Universe in 2011. In real-time, he’d have been about 94 years old. Not bad for an also-ran.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 23

TwoMorrows Apps! For Apple or Android devices

https://itunes.apple.com/us /app/id767332506?mt=8

BOOKS

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com. presspadapp.twomorrows publishingcomicbooks

https://itunes.apple.com/us /app/id739680744?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com. presspadapp.alterego

https://itunes.apple.com/us/ app/id739028056?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com. presspadapp.backissue

https://itunes.apple.com/us /app/id720724963?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com.press padapp.jackkirbycollector

https://itunes.apple.com/us /app/id739698959?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com. presspadapp.draw

C o l l e c t o r

https://itunes.apple.com/us /app/id739048849?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com.press padapp.comicbookcreator

https://itunes.apple.com/us/ app/id739668659?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store /apps/details?id=com. presspadapp.brickjournal

ROMITAMAN R OMITAMAN O ORIGINAL RIGINAL CCOMIC OMIC AART RT IF YOU LOVE COMIC BOOKS, THEN YOU “MUST” CHECK OUT THE OTED TO BUYING, LARGEST INTERNET WEBSITE IN THE WORLD DEVO SELLING, AND TRADING ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK ART AND COMIC STRIP ART! YOUR BEST ARTWORK INTERN TERNET SOURCE IS RIGHT HERE! CHECK OUT OVER 8000+ “PICTURED” PIECES OF COMICBOOK AND COMIC STRIP ART FOR SALE OR TRADE. ALSO CHECK OUT THE WORLD’S “LARGEST” SPIDER-MAN ORIGINAL ART GALLERY! I BUY/SELL/AND TRADE “ALL” COMICBOOK/ STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT. SO LET ME KNOW YOUR WANTS, OR WHAT YOU HAVE FOR SALE OR TRADE!

www.romitaman.com w ww.romitaman.com A Advertise dvertise With With Us! Us!

$500,000 $500,000 PAID PAID FOR FOR ORIGINAL ORIGINAL C COMIC OMIC A ART! RT!

COVERS: 8.375" Wide x 10.875" Tall (plus 1/8" bleed all around) FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875"

COLLECTOR COLLECTOR PAYING PAYING TOP TOP DOLLAR DOLLAR FOR FOR “ “ANY ANY YA AND ND A ALL” LL” O ORIGINAL RIGINAL C COMIC OMIC B BOOK OOK A AND ND C COMIC OMIC S STRIP TRIP A ARTWORK RTWORK FFROM ROM T THE HE 1 1930S 930S T TO OP PRESENT! RESENT! C COVERS, OVERS, P PINUPS, INUPS, P PAGES, AGES, IIT TD DOESN’T OESN’T M MATTER! ATTER! 1P PAGE AGE O OR RE ENTIRE NTIRE C COLLECTIONS OLLECTIONS S SOUGHT! OUGHT! CALL CALL OR OR EMAIL EMAIL ME ME ANYTIME! ANY YTIME!

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

3 330-221-5665 30-221-5665 m mikeburkey@aol.com ikeburkey@aol.com O OR RS SEND END YOUR YOUR LIST LIST TO: TO:

MIKE MIKE BURKEY BURKEY

H4 4266 P.O. P .O. BOX BOX 455 455 • RAVENNA, RAVENNA, O OH 44266 CASH IS IS WAITING, WAITING, S O HURRY!!!!! HURRY!!!!! CASH SO

ALTER EGO! • BACK ISSUE! • DRAW! COMIC BOOK CREATOR! These rates are for ads supplied on-disk (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpresss files accep ptable). No agency discounts apply. Display ads are not available for the Jack Kirby Collector. Call for BrickJournal rates.

A Ad dR Rates: ates:

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

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

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

Dan Johnson

Adventure Comics was one of DC Comics’ first comic books, and up until its cancellation with issue #503 (Sept. 1983) it was also one of the company’s longest-running titles. Unlike Action Comics and Detective Comics, which featured Superman and Batman, respectively, Adventure Comics suffered from the lack of a stabilizing lead feature as it entered the early 1970s. The book took on a schizophrenic quality that saw lead features being rotated in and out on a regular basis. During one of the book’s most memorable phases, from issue #459 (Oct. 1978) to 466 (Dec. 1979), it became a Dollar Comic and boasted a host of DC superheroes. Included in this initial roster were the Flash and Green Lantern. [Editor’s note: Dollar Comics were DC’s late-1970s experiment to produce a range of thicker packages with a higher price point in an effort to make comics more profitable for retailers. The full story of Dollar Comics was explored in BACK ISSUE #57.] “It was part of the [DC] Implosion in 1978,” says Paul Levitz, who served as the editor for the first three issues of Adventure Comics in its Dollar Comics format. “We were limiting the number of titles, and doing a few as thicker Dollar Comics kept more projects going.” Indeed, while featured players the Flash and Green Lantern (and Wonder Woman) had titles of their own, the new Adventure Comics also featured a wide variety of characters that had no solo title to call their own, including Aquaman, Deadman, the New Gods, and the Elongated Man. As Levitz wrote in the front and back cover’s editorial/title page of issue #459, “Adventure Comics has no single super-star. Unlike Superman Family or Batman Family there’s no hero dominating the entire magazine, or setting the tone for all the stories and characters … the fact that no hero dominates Adventure Comics gives us tremendous flexibility, and we hope to use that to great advantage.” While the role that Adventure Comics played in the history of the Flash and Green Lantern is often overlooked, there is significance to their Adventure stories that impacted Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, and to a lesser degree, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott.

paul levitz

GL, A FLASH IN THE PAN

While there was no single super-star in © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Adventure, each issue, save one (#462, Apr. 1979), opened with the Fastest Man Alive. All of the Flash stories in Adventure were written by Cary Bates, the writer responsible for the solo Flash book, with art provided by The Flash’s regular penciler, Irv Novick. “[I have] no recollection of when I learned about the Dollar format,” says Bates. “In those days I was always grateful for work, and Flash was obviously in my comfort zone.” If Bates was in his comfort zone, the Scarlet Speedster was being taken out of his, at least initially. As Levitz wrote in the first Dollar Comics issue, “Unlike the Central City/supporting cast-oriented epics that appear elsewhere, our stories will concentrate on aspects of the Fastest Man Alive that have been ignored the past few years. Future storylines include journeys to far-off times and dimensions, and exploration of the unique powers that make Barry Allen the Flash.” The first Flash Adventure story, “The Crimson Comets of Fallville High,” finds Barry Allen attending his high-school reunion. While there, a former classmate with the ability to read minds senses one

A Must-Buy Comic GL and Flash, plus Wonder Woman, headlined this first issue of the Dollar Comics incarnation of Adventure Comics, #459 (Oct. 1978). Cover by Jim Aparo. TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 25

of her former classmates is the Flash. She makes the mistake of confiding this information to another member of Barry’s graduating class who is in debt with the mob and hopes to sell this information for his life. Thankfully for Barry, the girl with something extra picks up on the thoughts of another classmate who is preparing to play the Scarlet Speedster in an upcoming television show. Overall, this is a fun little story of coincidence that made a nice contrast from the tangles Barry had with the various rogues in his own book. In this same issue, as the Flash was facing more Earthly concerns, Green Lantern was taking to outer space, flying solo without his then-current co-star, Green Arrow, in a tale called “The Call of the Cosmos.” This story finds Hal Jordan being called to aid a female alien whose ship is being attacked by energy leeches. Once she is saved, Green Lantern learns that she has volunteered for this mission to our region of space just so she could meet the man who saved her world once and profess her love to him. The Green Lantern Adventure feature was written by Cary Burkett. “I only did the two stories,” says Burkett. “I don’t think I received any direction about setting the stories in space, so that was probably my choice, just to avoid any initial continuity problems with the regular series.” Adventure Comics #460 (Sept. 1978) features what this writer considers the best Flash story from this book’s run. “Nightmare to Remember” begins with Barry Allen visiting Jay (Golden Age Flash) Garrick on Earth-Two. As he gets ready to leave, Barry does so from the dimensional spot that Jay uses to come to Earth-One. Instead of finding himself home in Central City on Earth-One, though, Barry ends up in a nightmare version of Keystone City where the Shade is the mayor and Jay’s wife Joan Garrick is married to the Fiddler, a trap devised by the Wizard. Having learned of the dimentional spot that Jay used, the Wizard laid the trap there and fixed it so it would be sprung the next time he tried to access Earth-One from that location. The trap was intended to drive the Golden Age Flash out of his mind, but since the Wizard has the wrong Flash, the trap isn’t so successful and is child’s play for Barry to escape. Green Lantern returns to outer space in this same issue in a story titled “Deadly Song of the Wizard.” Hal Jordan faces off with the alien magician, Myrwhydden, a being that had been trapped inside his power ring by his predecessor, Abin Sur. This would be the final appearance in Adventure Comics for Green Lantern, as DC pushed him out to make way for one of his Justice League teammates who had recently lost his own title. “Green Lantern makes another brief appearance in a special seven-pager,” wrote Levitz in the editorial, “special because it’s his last appearance in these pages for the time being. Since Aquaman’s own magazine was recently canceled, we’re adding him to the Adventure line-up, and that necessitates dropping GL.” When I asked Levitz if there was anything else he could tell me about Green Lantern’s departure, he added, “A lot had to do with the workloads of the talent, and the backlog of material we were cannibalizing from dead titles, [such as] the JSA and Deadman material.” While the Green Lantern feature in Adventure Comics was short-lived, one man who worked on these stories has had an enduring legacy with the Emerald Crusader. For Joe Staton, these two Green Lantern outings were just the beginning of his association with the character and the Green Lantern Corps. “I’m a GL fan starting with the Showcase appearances,” says Staton. “Coming off the Julie Schwartz’s SF stories, GL seemed the perfect mix of superhero and SF. From the time I started at DC I always tried to keep my name in for GL assignments. I certainly had no idea that [these little stories] would lead to me being a big part of all the Lantern mythos. I’m very pleased that it did.”

JSA MENTORS Adventure Comics #461 is a significant issue for two reasons: a departure and an arrival. The Flash story in this issue, “The Multiple Murders of Mapleville,” has Barry Allen being framed for murder by an organization that helps criminals on the run fake their deaths and then assume new identities. It’s a pretty straightforward tale, but important as it is one of the last Flash stories illustrated by penciler Irv Novick. His final issue of The Flash, #270 (Feb. 1979), has the same cover date as this issue of Adventure Comics, and Novick’s departure

First Adventures The title pages to the Flash and GL stories in Adventure Comics #459 (Oct. 1978). TM & © DC Comics.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

The Adventurers’ Club A trio of Bronze Age photographs kindly contributed by Mike W. Barr: (top left) Cary Burkett in his office (which was also MWB’s office), holding a cover by Mike Nasser to “The Mule from Mu,” an unpublished co-creation with Roger McKenzie. (top center) Joe Staton in the DC freelance bullpen. (top right) Editor (and one-time Flash artist) Ross Andru proofreading a “Scalphunter” page (from Weird Western Tales) in his office. (bottom) Original Joe Staton Green Lantern page from the hero’s last Adventure outing, #460. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

marks the end of his nearly decade-long association with the Scarlet Speedster. “I don’t think I was ever privy to the reason behind Irv’s choice to move on,” says Bates, “though even for the ’70s era his tenure on The Flash lasted longer than most DC artists’ gigs.” As Novick was making his exit, the Justice Society of America was arriving in the pages of Adventure Comics. The world’s first team of superheroes was anchored by the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and Green Lantern, Alan Scott. “Since the recent cancellation of All-Star Comics as part of our conversion to a slimmer line, the JSAers were homeless,” wrote Levitz on the title page of this issue. “And we thought that was a shame.” Joe Staton stayed with Adventure Comics and took on the penciling duties for the Justice Society of America feature. These were characters he was already familiar with and more than happy to work on again. “I had already been working on the JSA in All-Star and [my first story] in Adventure was originally done for that run,” says Staton. “I’m always happy to be working on Earth-Two, especially as I was trying to continue the Wally Wood-influenced look for the JSA. All good with me.” The Justice Society of America stories that appeared in Adventure Comics and their use of the original Flash and Green Lantern (along with Wildcat) would shape how the characters would be seen for years to come. The stories in Adventure Comics are where the groundwork was really laid for Jay Garrick and Alan Scott to take on the roles of father figures and mentors for the superheroes that followed in their footsteps. Future writers, most notably Geoff Johns and David Goyer, would explore those roles in the pages of JSA and Justice Society of America, but it is in Adventure that we start to see Garrick and Scott becoming the leaders of their generation of heroes. These roles would become cemented after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths erased all traces of the Earth-Two Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. As it is, nothing highlights their stepping to the forefront more profoundly than the death of the Golden Age Batman, which is spotlighted in the first two-part Justice Society of America story, “Only Legends Live Forever,” that began in this issue and concluded in Adventure Comics #462. “Truthfully, I didn’t realize just how important the story was at the time,” says Staton. “I normally don’t understand

just what I’ve done until after it’s been around for a while. That goes for things that turn out to be classics and things that are held as horrible examples.” Adventure Comics #462 saw a major change as legendary comicbook artist Ross Andru took over the editorial reins from Paul Levitz. “With this issue, there’s a new guiding hand behind the editorial ‘we’ of Adventure Comics, but the new Adventure tradition will go on, striving only to reach even greater heights,” wrote Andru as he introduced himself to the readers of the book. Just prior to assuming this position, Andru had taken over the editorial duties of two of Adventure Comics’ featured characters’ own monthly titles. He remarked in his introduction, “We’ve also taken over the editorial chores on The Flash and Wonder Woman solo magazines, so hopefully you’ll be seeing better character continuity and tighter interweaving of plots on those two features.”

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 27

Three Flash Artists Title pages from a trio of Adventure stories, penciled by (top left) Irv Novick, from issue #460; (top right) Don Heck, from #462; and (bottom) Michael Nasser, from #466. Scans courtesy of John Wells. TM & © DC Comics.

SIDESTEPPING CONTINUITY In spite of what Andru promised, the events in Flash’s Adventure Comics outings never reflected the events that were unfolding in his own title. When Andru came in as the editor on the monthly Flash title, he and Bates set out to shake things up for Barry Allen. His first issue, The Flash #270, marked the beginning of a very tumultuous time for Barry Allen in a story arc that would run until #284 (Apr. 1980) and included the death of Iris Allen. The death of the Scarlet Speedster’s wife was really only part of the hell that the Flash was put through, though, as John Wells explains in this issue’s Flash article. As the readers of The Flash were seeing events unfold that would forever change the life of Barry Allen, and the course of that book in the process, the readers of Adventure Comics simply got some nice standalone stories that offered a reprieve from the turmoil and the paces that the Fastest Man Alive was being put through in his own book. I asked Cary Bates if there had ever been any plan discussed to combine the events of Flash with the Adventure Comics Flash feature, and he says there were none that he recalls. The first Flash story in Adventure Comics under Andru’s editorship, “The She-Demon of the Astral Plane!,” does make a passing mention of the Allens having some problems in their marriage, but for the most part this tale of a monster from the astral plane that wishes to take over Iris’ body after she agrees to undergo an experiment in astral projection by an old college boyfriend ignores the other events in The Flash. One thing the story does offer that would be key in Barry Allen’s future adventures is the feature’s new penciler, Don Heck. “If we’ve had an immediate impact on this magazine it’s in the artistic changes that begin in this issue,” wrote Andru. “Don Heck takes over the penciling chores on the Flash and José Luis García-López on Deadman, with Irv Novick and [Deadman artist] Jim Aparo moving over to the Batman group of magazines down the hall.” Heck drew the Flash feature in Adventure for the rest of the run, save for the final installment, and then transitioned over to Flash starting with #280 (Dec. 1979), where he remained until #295 (Mar. 1981). “Since I had no say about who the Flash artist(s) would be at any given time, my main concern was always trying to give them the strongest script possible in visual terms,” says Bates. “Seeing how I myself was a childhood Flash fan, I will concede in my own mind I would always imagine it was Carmine Infantino drawing my stories, regardless of who the actual artist was. As you know, by a fortunate twist 28 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Five-Star Super-Hero Spectacular Jim Aparo fans were deprived seeing this beauty, scheduled for Adventure #467, in print. Scan courtesy of John Wells. TM & © DC Comics.

of fate Carmine did eventually come back to the monthly Flash book for the final five or six years of my run.” Adventure Comics #463 (June 1979) would also see the Justice Society of America dealing with the aftermath of the Batman’s death and facing off with Fredric Vaux, the man responsible for the death of Earth-Two’s Caped Crusader in “The Night of the Soul Thief.” In this story, Alan Scott shares a moment of reflection with the still grieving Dick Grayson as Jay Garrick playfully races Power Girl. Again, the role of these characters becoming mentors and father figures is taking root in this installment. Meanwhile, this same issue finds Barry Allen Flash facing off with “Urtumi, the Image Eater,” a mythical creature that feeds off the after-images of the Scarlet Speedster, or rather, his ectoplasmic fractions. Iris Allen gets only a brief mention in this story and she would meet her fate one month later in the pages of The Flash. The month after Iris’ demise, in Adventure Comics #464 (Aug. 1979), Barry Allen faced off with his one of his oldest and deadliest rogues, Abra Kadabra, in a story titled “The Day Up Was Down.” Here the high-tech magician from the 64th Century returns to literally turn the Flash’s world upside-down in his quest to steal an artifact from our century: a television applause box. No mention was made of the dearly departed Mrs. Allen in this story. Whatever plans Andru might have had to tie the events of Flash’s solo book in with the Adventure Comics’ stories never came to be. But then, perhaps the casual-reader nature of what the Dollar Comics Adventure was supposed to be kept such plans from properly bearing fruit. “Those anthology-style comics with little short series about characters that have their own regular comic felt to me even then as very ‘old school,’ ” says Cary Burkett. “Those Dollar Comics were targeted towards younger readers, I think, with an eye to appealing to parents who bought comics for their kids. At least that’s my recollection. No doubt there was more to it. But we writers knew going in that our stories could have no impact on the [characters]. That had to happen, if at all, in [their] regular series.” Adventure Comics #465 (Oct. 1979) saw Barry Allen finding out “Who is Invading Central City!” after an encounter with twin sonic booms allows him to temporarily tap into the mental wave lengths of nearby dolphins disturbed by criminals using their aquarium as a safehouse. The Justice Society of America story in this issue, “Countdown to Disaster,” mainly focuses on Power Girl and Huntress, but Jay Garrick and Alan Scott get some moments to shine as well. Most importantly, this story’s prologue sets up the annual team-up between the JLA and JSA that was featured in Justice League of America #171 and 172 (Oct. and Nov. 1979), and is a prelude to the murder of Mr. Terrific during that event.

FLASH’S FINAL ADVENTURE Adventure Comics #466 (Dec. 1979) ended the Dollar Comics run for this series. The Flash clashed with his old foe, the Weather Wizard, in a tale called “The Cloud with the Lethal Lining.” Don Heck was absent from this installment, beginning his tenure on the Scarlet Speedster’s solo series. Penciler Mike Nasser stepped in to illustrate this tale. Meanwhile, Power Girl and Huntress take center stage for “The Defeat of the Justice Society!,” which tells why Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, and the other original members of the JSA gave up their war on crime and vanished out of sight in the 1950s. As Power Girl learns from the Huntress, at the height of the Communist scare in America, the JSA refused to unmask when summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, choosing to step aside rather than to give in to the witchhunt that was occurring at the time. Speaking of retiring, this was intended to be the final outing of the Justice Society in Adventure Comics. Originally, Adventure Comics #467 was supposed to continue in the Dollar Comics format, and it would have seen Green Lantern

returning to the book as a regular feature. But poor sales saw DC Comics scrapping the format and Adventure Comics was reduced to a standard-size comic book that sold for 40 cents. Instead of thrilling to tales of the Flash and Green Lantern (along with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the title’s newcomer, the Atom), readers were treated to a brand-new hero, Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko’s Starman, and an old favorite, Plastic Man by Len Wein and Joe Staton. The content slated for the Dollar Comics Adventure #467 was later used in other books. The Flash tale, “The Pied Piper’s Paradox Peril” (written by Gerry Conway), eventually appeared in Flash #293 (Jan. 1981), and the GL story, “The Green That Got Away” (written by Denny O’Neil), would see print much sooner in Green Lantern #128 (May 1980). Some may see this Adventure Comics run as a mere blip in the careers of the Flash and Green Lantern (both the Silver and Golden Age versions), and it was just one of many rosters that Adventure tried and failed to hook readers with. For me, this was a great time for a classic book when it played host to some of the biggest superheroes in the DC Universe. And all for a mere buck. That’s a bargain I’d take any day of the week. DAN JOHNSON is a comics writer who is currently writing and creating features for the new line of Charlton Comics and is also their Chief Executive Assistant Editor. His other notable comics work includes Herc and Thor for Antarctic Press and several books for Campfire Graphic Novels. Dan is also a gag writer for the Dennis the Menace comic strip and a contributing author to the short-story anthology, With Great Power.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 29

DC editor Julius Schwartz was a clever, clever man. Not only was he responsible for the Silver Age revivals of most of the company’s superheroes (Flash, the Justice League, Batman, Hawkman, the Atom, and many more), but he was always looking for a “hook,” a “twist”— a way to set that hero’s next adventure apart from all that had come before. “Be original!” was a phrase he barked at dozens of his writers (including me) over the course of his career. Historians know of Julie’s many “be original” accomplishments, but one that too often gets overlooked is his invention of the Annual Event. Julie loved his Annual Events. Sales on the very first Golden Age/Silver Age Flash team-up (The Flash #123, Sept. 1961) were so strong that Schwartz scheduled a Double-Flash story every spring. One of these led to the revival of the Justice Society in 1963, and for nearly 25 years, readers could count on seeing a bombastic Justice League/Justice Society crossover every summer in Justice League of America. But even before the JSA resurfaced, Julie first reached outside the doppelganger trope and—perhaps inspired by the time-tested Superman/Batman team in Mort Weisinger’s World’s Finest Comics—took two very dissimilar characters in his editorial stable and forged a lifelong friendship between them. In Green Lantern #13 (June 1962), Scarlet Speedster Barry Allen joined his fiancée, reporter Iris West, on a California assignment to interview test pilot Hal Jordan. Despite the fact that Barry (as the Flash) and Hal (as Green Lantern) served together on the Justice League, neither knew of the other’s dual identity— but when fate teamed them up to thwart an alien mark waid invasion, their secrets were revealed, creating a bond of brotherhood between them. At the end of the © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia tale, this statement was made to the readers: “This Commons. is the first of a proposed series of stories featuring Green Lantern and the Flash working together as a team! If you would like to see more of this dynamic duo in action, let us know!” And with that, another Schwartz Annual Event was born. For the rest of the decade, skipping only 1968 (a year in which Green Lantern’s personal life was in violent transition), the Emerald Gladiator and the Fastest Man Alive took turns guest-starring in each other’s books, usually the ones cover-dated March. Over the years, they fought alien conquerors, supervillains like Major Disaster and T. O. Morrow, and … well, okay, more aliens. Schwartz was big on aliens, but to be fair, no ordinary Earth-born villain was likely to be able to defeat such a winning team. But why did they click? How is it they worked so well together? Schwartz tried a few more combos in the Silver Age—Starman and Black Canary, Dr. Fate and Hourman, Batman and Elongated Man, the Earth-One and Earth-Two Atoms—but they didn’t take. (He never even bothered pairing up the Golden and Silver Age Hawkmans.) Yes, Flash and GL were the biggest superpowered stars in Schwartz’s editorial stable, but there had to have been more to it than that— and I believe that 1968, the first “skip year” for the team, provided a clue that I picked up on some 31 years later.

Fast Friends Barry Kitson deliciously renders Barry’s and Hal’s pals and gals on the cover of the Waid/Peyer-written Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold #1 (Oct. 1999). TM & © DC Comics.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Mark Waid

In 1999—outside the usual timeframe covered by this fine magazine, but forgive me, I promise this is relevant—friend and co-writer Tom Peyer and I produced for DC Comics a six-issue miniseries called Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold. Therein, we chronicled, issue by issue with artist Barry Kitson, the “untold” Flash/Green Lantern team-ups of the Silver and Bronze Ages: the time Kid Flash became “Kid Lantern” for a day, the first four-man team-up between Barry and Hal and their Golden Age counterparts, and so on. It was a lot of fun, but before plot came character, and Peyer and I sat down and thought hard about why (other than editorial convenience) these two men would have become such fast friends. The commonalities were obvious. Not only were they fellow JLAers, but they were both cops—Barry as a forensic scientist with the Central City Police Department, Hal as a member of the 3600-strong interstellar Green Lantern Corps. Clearly, as superheroes, they shared certain values that defined their heroism and sense of self-sacrifice, and (as was true with most of Schwartz’s characters) their powers and adventures were very alike in tone, grounded very heavily in science fiction rather than fantasy or magic. On the other hand, Barry was a methodical man, a little shy and withdrawn, whereas Hal was charming, charismatic, and commanded the room when he entered. Barry’s job as a “lab rat” was relatively dull and kept him behind a desk; Hal’s civilian occupation as a test pilot, especially during the Space Age ’60s, was the height of glamour. Barry, from the day we met him, was engaged to be married; Hal was a swinging bachelor with a lot more romance in his life. In fact, in 1967, Schwartz and his GL writer John Broome shook up the status quo of the eightyear-old Green Lantern series by breaking off Hal’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend Carol Ferris,

Through Thick and Thin (top) This brave and bold team first paired off in the Silver Age, in Green Lantern #13 (June 1962). Cover by Gil Kane and Joe Giella. (bottom) Although their team-ups were infrequent by the time The Flash #332 (Apr. 1984) was published, Hal and Barry’s friendship remained. Original art panel courtesy of Arnie Grieves. Art by Carmine Infantino and Frank McLaughlin. TM & © DC Comics.

making Hal leave his Coast City base, and even having their lifetime flyboy embark on a series of short-lived careers, from insurance investigator to toy salesman. Meanwhile, Barry’s (and the Flash’s) life stayed almost exactly the same. It wasn’t until Schwartz handed the series over to editor Ross Andru after 20 years with issue #270 (Feb. 1979) that Flash’s world came down around him with the same dramatic urgency as Green Lantern had endured previously; all through the Bronze Age, Barry Allen’s life was a rock of stability compared to Hal Jordan’s. And I maintain that’s why the team drifted apart. After 1969’s Flash/GL team-up (The Flash #191), outside of their JLA appearances, the two heroes didn’t meet up again for four years (“The Heart That Attacked the World!”, The Flash #222, July–Aug. 1973)—in a book-length story that, infamously, they shared virtually no scenes together! Worse, while GL had appeared in Flash’s book, the favor could no longer be returned— from 1972 to 1976, there was no Green Lantern series outside of short backups in Flash’s own title. Their next—and final—official Bronze Age team-up came in The Flash #235 (Aug. 1975), in which GL shared his co-star billing with the Golden Age Flash, hardly a “return to tradition.” The ’70s saw no more pairings or crossovers, and once Schwartz left Flash, Barry’s life was so filled with tumult and chaos that there was no time for two old friends to band together to thwart an alien invasion like in the good old days. Like so many buddies, Barry and Hal had grown apart—and that was the end of the partnership. In retrospect, the Barry/Hal team worked best when, despite their differences, they each had some measure of stability. As Tom Peyer and I saw it—and your mileage may vary—while their friendship stayed forever strong, their kinship suffered every time they lost common ground. (In Flash & Green Lantern #4, for instance, we made a big point of how much ground the straight-and-narrow Barry Allen lost once Hal became inseparable with Barry’s polar opposite, the anti-authority hippie Green Arrow.) Hal, buffeted by the whirlwinds of change, was always relieved to ground himself in Barry’s life from time to time, but it’s entirely likely that as Hal’s lifestyle morphed and shifted, Barry had a more difficult time getting a read on his old buddy. Then, after Iris West died and Barry’s tumultuous life was no longer a port in the storm for Hal, the two friends simply drifted apart. Times change, people change, no harm, no foul. That’s life. Even still, their team-ups—fewer in number than we tend to remember—nevertheless became a thing of legend, and rightfully so. In their day, they had one of the best and most recognized friendships in comics. And the fan in me believes that, somewhere out there, there’s still one last adventure of the Flash/GL team to be told, one final epic set just before Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths that reaffirms the core of that brotherhood one final time, in a spectacular blaze of glory. Perhaps someone will have the opportunity to tell that tale someday. It seems unlikely, but I hope so. In fact, Tom Peyer and I just had an idea…. Among writer MARK WAID’s many, many credits is an eight-year run on DC’s Flash.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 31

32 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 33

Almost everything I’ve ever needed to know about Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s character I learned at the age of ten when reading my first Green Lantern story, “…And Through Him Save a World!” in Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) #89 (Apr.–May 1972). In this classic “relevance” story by writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams, edited by Julius Schwartz, there would be no mention of GL’s civilian identity, Hal Jordan; of Hal being a former test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, a company run by his girlfriend, Carol Ferris; that he was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, proudly protecting his sector (2814) of the galaxy; and that his superiors were red-robed, little blue men known as the Guardians of the Universe. That history would be filled in for me later. Here, for the first time, I got inside Hal’s head. I saw him reflect on a country steeped in beauty but marred by industrial pollution, and bore witness to his strong sense of law and order. Yet, Green Lantern did not let duty blind him. When Hal realized he was wrong, he could swallow his pride and willingly change. In this tale, change was brought on by tragedy. Isaac, an ecological activist who had been vandalizing and sabotaging Ferris Aircraft property, had chained himself, crucifixion-style, to a grounded Ferris airplane that was set to test a new fuel that could seriously harm the environment. Up until this point, Green Lantern had sided with the law, aiding in Isaac’s arrest, while his partner, Green Arrow, had joined Isaac’s cause. GL soon realized the nobility of Isaac’s actions, although it was too late to prevent Isaac’s death from the pollution that ravaged his lungs. With Isaac laying lifelessly at his feet, GL stood hurt and angry, and listened with growing frustration as Carol’s assistant foreman called Isaac crazy and Carol insensitively stated that progress must always claim victims. GL snapped, and with a burst of will and a sweep of his power-ring charge he destroyed the airplane, dramatically, effectively stating that this kind of progress was not worth the cost of a human life. “What’s the idea?” shouted the foreman. “That was a nine-million dollar aircraft!” “Send me a bill!” Green Lantern dared, turning away. Hal’s reaction remains tremendously moving. Here was a man who could be stubborn when it came to duty, conflicted by mixed emotions, yet aware that in all of us there reside gray areas of right and wrong. Then and there Green Lantern became my favorite superhero, and Hal Jordan my favorite comic-book character. What I also did not know at that time was that Hal had come a long way from years of personal turmoil that had eaten away at his pride and confidence, and more recent accusations of alleged inexperience when it came to his performance as a Green Lantern.

On-Again, Off-Again Hero Hal Jordan calls it quits on this unforgettable Dave Gibbons cover to Green Lantern #181 (Oct. 1984). TM & © DC Comics.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Jim Kingman

THE WANDERER What I also didn’t know was how good a man Hal Jordan was since his debut in DC’s Showcase #22 (Oct. 1959). As a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft outside of his hometown of Coast City, Hal was confident, daring, intelligent, courageous, alert, stable, and steady. As a man, he was honest, firm, kind, likeable, loyal, respectful, and responsible. As a Green Lantern, he was fearless, willful, and driven by a strong sense of duty. Hal Jordan was not perfect, however. His impulsiveness often misdirected him into lifechanging decisions and his naiveté blinded him in situations that required thought. Combine the two and matters got really rocky. Still, there was an uncanny levelheadedness to Hal that eventually reasserted itself in times of intense crisis or emotional trauma. His decency, the better of him, always supplanted the worst life had to offer him and the worst he threw at himself. “Hal is an old-school hero,” asserts Denny O’Neil. “Brave, skilled. He’s used to being part of a hierarchy. Life, though, is making him question his values.” Jack C. Harris, who edited Green Lantern from 1978 until 1981, tells BACK ISSUE, “When Hal Jordan was first introduced, he was described as being totally without fear. While this was a great aid to him as a superhero and a test pilot, I always thought it hampered him with his ‘people skills.’ Fearless people tend to be cocksure of their actions and tend not to question anything, including authority. I recall a number of John Broome[-written] stories where Hal was totally (and happily) subservient to the Guardians of the Universe. O’Neil picked up on this point when he began the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories. Green Arrow was able to point out these flaws to Hal and, on some level, GL was able to change. However, I always believe it is very hard for people to actually change their personalities. So the best Hal could do was reach a happy medium, intellectually realizing

he should be feeling differently about a situation, but emotionally having trouble doing so.” There is a classic moment in Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) #76 (Apr. 1970) where Hal Jordan is confronted by an African-American gentleman atop a Star City tenement. GL had just made a miscall during an aggravated assault, attacking a group of young men apparently intent on harming a defenseless older man. What Hal didn’t realize, and what he couldn’t possibly have known when he entered the fray, was that the older man, Jubal Slade, was a lousy landlord and these young men, the landlord’s tenants, had had enough. In defending the landlord, GL was subsequently struck with thrown trash and was harshly criticized by Green Arrow. Then the African-American man stepped in and said to GL, “I been readin’ about you … how you work for the blue skins … and how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins … and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never bothered with—! …The black skins! I want to know … how come?! Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!” And with those words Hal Jordan was forced to confront his values, and his value. In the accompanying caption, it reads: “In the time it takes to draw a single breath … the span of a heartbeat—a man looks into his own soul, and his life changes…” Let the torment begin. The thing is, Hal was already tormented, and not with being a Green Lantern. It was more personal than that. At the dawn of the 1970s, Hal Jordan was much like his country at the height of the Vietnam War: fractured, conflicted, spirit in decline, identity and resolve slipping. Yet this was because GL was heartbroken, and had been for some time. Hal’s life changed abruptly and dramatically during the course of Green Lantern #49 (Dec. 1966). In the wake of Barry (the Flash) Allen’s marriage to Iris West, Hal decided to propose to Carol Ferris. She had made other plans, however. While Hal was away performing his duties as Green Lantern, she met the handsome and wealthy Jason Belmore, and after a whirlwind courtship she had accepted Belmore’s proposal to marry her. Hal took the stunning revelation from Carol with extraordinary understanding. But later, he was devastated, and even considered resigning as a Green Lantern. His good friend and work colleague Tom Kalmaku convinced him otherwise. After defeating the story’s villain, the Dazzler, Hal’s emotional pain was still Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

“Send me a bill!” In the last issue of Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams’ awardwinning Green Lantern/Green Arrow, #89 (Apr.–May 1972), GL gives Big Business the (ring) finger. TM & © DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 35

prevalent, and he decided to leave Coast City. Distraught, he told Tom, “…I can’t stay here in the same city with Carol—knowing that she will be married to another man!” “And so,” announced the closing narration, “Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan becomes a wanderer—a drifter!” With that, Hal began this first, much lesser-acknowledged road trip across America. For the remainder of the 1960s, Hal wandered the country for months, living in motels, looking for jobs, and, of course, battling evil as Green Lantern. He took on three jobs: first, flying tourists on sightseeing trips over Idaho; then, as an insurance-claims adjuster; and finally, as a traveling salesman for the Merlin Toy Company. During his stint at the Idaho job, he learned that a girl he’d just met only adored Green Lantern. Disappointed, Hal hit the road in his station wagon. He wound up in a small city in the state of Washington, where he took a job as an insurance claims adjuster. During one of his vacations, he became involved with a new lady friend, Eve Doremus. Much to Hal’s satisfaction, she preferred Hal over his alter ego, Green Lantern. For a few months, Hal’s life began to settle down. His relationship with Eve improved to steady boyfriend/girlfriend status, and his insurance job remained solid. But then Hal’s personal life took an unsettling turn. Green Lantern saw Eve with another man. It became one big shake-up after another in Hal’s life, with Green Lantern #69 depicting a disturbing sequence of events. Finding himself repulsed by another woman who turned out to be an extraterrestrial, confronted by Carol Ferris one last time before she married (and not handling the situation particularly well), and still smarting from seeing Eve with another suitor, Hal decided to quit his job in Evergreen City and become a wanderer once more. Fortunately, Hal moved on to something potentially happier: traveling salesman for the Merlin Toy Company! It wouldn’t be all fun and games, however, as he faced tough competition from his rival, Olivia Reynolds, who bore a striking resemblance to Eve.

DYSFUNCTIONAL ALTER EGO In Green Lantern #73 (Dec. 1969) and 74 (Jan. 1970), Hal returned to Coast City, encountered Tom Kalmaku, and was astonished to learn from Carol Ferris that she had broken off her engagement to Jason Belmore. She admitted to using Jason for his money, power, and glamour, but in the end Jason was no match for Green Lantern. Hal resisted temptation, and it was his rushed departure that caused an emotionally stricken Carol to transform into her alter ego Star Sapphire, potential queen of the Zamorans on a distant world. Fortunately, it was a toy rocket that saved Hal from the amnesiac banishment instilled on him by the transformed Carol. After defeating Star Sapphire and Sinestro, his greatest foe, Hal forced Carol to face her insecurities and MIKE W. BARR suppressed identity as Star Sapphire. GL then changed to Hal Jordan and shifted his thoughts to Olivia Reynolds. Olivia returned in Green Lantern #75 (Mar. 1970), stricken by a mysterious illness triggered by the tremendous force of the “U-Mind” embedded inside of her. Hal saved her, of course, but the doctor treating her received the credit, and Olivia appeared attracted to that. “I think Hal would have lots of casual relationships with women,” says writer Mike W. Barr, who chronicled GL’s adventures in Green Lantern #154–164, “simply by nature of his personality. Meeting Carol would have hit him like a ton of bricks as he realized Carol was a woman—and perhaps the first woman he ever met—who was his match in career drive. He would certainly pursue Carol, but he wouldn’t sit around moping if she wasn’t available. Thus the casual relationships. Not that

Kiss and Make Up (top) After their reconciliation in the previous issue, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris get reacquainted in Green Lantern #84. (bottom) An undated GL sketch by Neal Adams, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Hal would mislead any of these relationships—or anyone fateful day in early 1970 in GL #76. else—as to their importance.” There’s something wrong with this picture, however. Adds writer/artist Dave Gibbons, who illustrated GL’s From Green Lantern #49 well into Green Lantern/Green exploits in Green Lantern #172–186: “I suppose it was Arrow, Hal’s engaged in a lot of personal torment. So pretty typical of the kind of DC character you got at the why has he such confidence in Green Lantern #89? Why, time. Somebody with great powers and able to function for that matter, is he with Carol Ferris? Because they got in this sort of adventurous, scientific back together in Green Lantern #83, kind of place but a little naive when it and for Hal Jordan that made all the came to the ways of women. A little bit difference in the world. of arrested development and perhaps In O’Neil and Adams’ “And a preoccupation, almost in a priestly way, Child Shall Destroy Them!” in GL #83, with things other than romance and Carol was struck down by a young girl’s sex. That is certainly the way that he mental blast, crippled, and confined used to strike me, that he was rather to a wheelchair (she would later a clinical personality. A man with regain her ability to walk). She and great experience in deep space but Hal re-established their romantic not so much back at home.” relationship, and this took a lot of the “Hal certainly has problems emotional burden off Hal’s shoulders. keeping his relationships functional,” In fact, for the remainder of GL’s admits artist Joe Staton, who had adventures with Green Arrow, Hal two long stints illustrating Green Jordan slowly becomes his more steady dave gibbons Lantern in the Emerald Crusader’s self, although at times experiencing own book (#123–153 and 188–200, angry outbursts more suited to Green Photo by Chris Phutully. plus a good portion of The Green Arrow. Meanwhile, the Emerald Lantern Corps). “Maybe he wants relationships to be Archer becomes more tormented, owing in part to the straight-ahead like a conflict with a villain, rather than realization that his ward, Speedy, is a drug addict. something that needs to be worked at. He’s better as So with his confidence returned, Hal was once a superhero than he is as a boyfriend.” again levelheaded. He would remain naïve at times; It was a respected Green Lantern and a so-so for example, his incredulous reactions to the drugs boyfriend who journeyed to visit Green Arrow that inflicting the young men and Speedy in Green Lantern

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Recharged (left) DC Special #17 (Summer 1975) tested the waters for the return of GL’s own magazine. Cover by Mike Grell. (right) This oddity was published a year earlier, in France. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 37

GL/GA Rebooted (right) GL/GA #94’s (Apr.–May 1977) Grell cover features a smooth-faced Green Arrow. (left) That issue’s splash, signed by penciler Mike Grell and inker Terry Austin. Original art courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart.com). TM & © DC Comics.

#85–86, but that is understandable, as a Green Lantern his job did not involve coming across the ravages of drug addiction. Still, if you read Green Lantern #76 and then Green Lantern #89, you realize he’s come a long way from a long spell of personal torment. I’ve brought Hal around in an intentionally unchronological time-hopping circle to where I met him when I first start collecting comics during the spring of 1972. At that time, Green Lantern was canceled in February with #89, and in June he and Green Arrow would start appearing in the back pages of The Flash. Green Arrow moved over to Action Comics in December, and GL would continue to appear bimonthly as a solo feature in the Scarlet Speedster’s book. While following GL’s adventures linearly from 1972 on, I caught up on his past through reprints and back issues. Green Lantern #76 was reprinted, along with issues #77–79, in two Paperback Library editions published in 1972 (the first paperback also reprinted GL’s origin from Showcase, which explained how he was chosen to be a Green Lantern by the dying alien Abin Sur, Hal’s predecessor in the Green Lantern Corps).

38 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

When I started ordering back issues in 1975 through an ad in DC comics, the first GL book I purchased was #49. This aforementioned story, where Hal left Coast City, genuinely shocked me, because for years I had read that DC superheroes were not as flawed as Marvel’s; they were presented as straight and straightforward, and, well, kind of boring, especially during the 1960s. Green Lantern #49 contradicted these theories dramatically. Hal was genuinely devastated and heartbroken when Carol told him he was marrying another man, and his reaction to leave Coast City and start a new life was hardly boring. He appeared more intriguing and realistic to me than any other superhero, aside from Green Arrow. And for years Hal Jordan would remain that way. The Silver and early Bronze Age history of Green Lantern Hal Jordan has been substantially covered elsewhere, particularly in BACK ISSUE. Green Lantern/ Green Arrow has been praised by many sources over the years, of course, and I highly recommend the coverage presented in BI #45 by authors John Wells and Michael Kronenberg. GL’s feature in the back of The Flash was covered by Robert Greenberger in BI #64. As part of 2015’s 75th anniversary of Green Lantern as a character and concept, I will take now take a straightforward approach to GL’s exploits in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #90–122, Green Lantern #123–200, The Green Lantern Corps #201–224, Action Comics Weekly #601–635, and Green Lantern Special #1–2. That is a lot of ground to cover, and for Hal Jordan, some of that ground gets shaky. First, though, I wanted to establish three things at the outset of this article: Hal Jordan’s character, Hal’s relationship with Carol Ferris, and how huge a Green Lantern Hal Jordan fan I am. I make no apologies; I am extremely protective of his character. You want to call him “cocky,” that’s fine, but for a long time he was more confident than cocky. You want to call him a “womanizer”—well, I supposed in the wake of Justice League:

Cry for Justice you can, but during the Silver, Bronze, and early Modern Ages of comics he was extremely respectful of women, although I admit he had some issues dealing with women. But so has Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, and the Atom. Boring? Yes, there’s a repetitiveness to most of those superhero-versusvillain battles—that comes with the territory. Hal Jordan, however, is not boring. With that validated, in my humble opinion, we’ll begin our 14-year, 270-issue odyssey with Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) #90 (Aug.–Sept. 1976).

GL, THE NEW ADVENTURES After two successful issues of DC Special (#17 and 20, 1975) consisting of Silver Age Green Lantern reprints, the Emerald Crusader was awarded his own magazine in May of 1976, continuing the previous numbering of Green Lantern with #90. It wasn’t a solo venture, however, as Green Arrow also returned. Alongside the Emerald Archer (and sometimes Black Canary), Green Lantern battled Sinestro (#91–92), the Mocker (#96–99), Hector Hammond (#101), Sonar (#105–106), Replikon (#108–109), Zalaz, stealer of the Starheart (#111–112), the Crumbler and Professor Ojo (#114–118), El Espectro (#120–121), and several alien races in-between. O’Neil wrote the series, with the exception of #101, which was scripted by Frank McGinty. Mike Grell and Alex Saviuk were the main artists, aided and abetted by inkers Bob Smith, Terry Austin, Bruce Patterson, and Frank Chiaramonte, although Grell was slightly marred by the notorious Vince Colletta. Don Heck contributed his unique penciling style toward the end of the series. Denny O’Neil, Julius Schwartz, and Jack C. Harris were the book’s editors. It was announced in Green Lantern #92 that GL would be flying solo with #93. The anticipation and excitement of that announcement was offset by the epilogue in #93, which depicted Green Arrow being apprehended by a government agency. It certainly appeared that GA still had a co-starring role in the book. The true reality check came with GL #94 (Apr.–May 1977). A clean-shaven GA and Black Canary share prominent positioning on the cover. Green Lantern can be seen on a television monitor, apparently dead. Inside the book, GL mysteriously collapses on page four, and is flown by his alternate, John Stewart, to Oa for medical treatment. The remaining ten pages of the story, with the exception of four panels showing John and Hal being tugged into a neutron star, belong to Green Arrow. In the letters column, Rozakis has an explanation entitled, “Hey, What’s Going on Here Dept.” It reads: “After all our horn-blowing about Green Lantern returning to solo status with #93, you were no doubt surprised to find Green Arrow still on the scene—and getting involved in the beginnings of this issue’s epic in the two-page epilogue last ish! The reason is simple—response to the first GL/GA (#90) of our series was so overwhelming that publisher Jenette Kahn insisted we keep the Emerald Duo together in the magazine!” This made for an awkward coupling. With the relevancy era now long past, the stories leaned toward space opera, removing Green Arrow from his Earthbound element, and it’s not like GA could give Hal pointers when it came to extraterrestrial threats and powerful costumed villains. As the

Grudge Match (top) José Luis García-López pits GL against his archfoe Sinestro in this pinup from DC’s 1977 calendar. (bottom) The Crumbler versus our heroes on this original art to the cover of GL/GA #114 (Mar. 1979), by Alex Saviuk and Dick Giordano. Courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 39

Hal Says “I Don’t” GL’s ill-fated wedding to Kari Limbo, as shown on the Giordano cover to Green Lantern #122 (Nov. 1979) and its Don Heck/ Vince Colletta splash page (courtesy of Anthony Snyder). TM & © DC Comics.

series progressed, though, O’Neil aimed at situations involving Hal’s character, and it made for some strong storytelling. In Green Lantern #100 (Jan. 1978), Hal has borrowed money from Carol to buy a tractor-trailer and begin a new job as a truck driver. Using his CB radio (then all the rage—well, by the time of the publication of this story, the rage had settled down), Hal pinpoints the location of a truck-jacking, and thwarts the thieves as Green Lantern and rescues the lady trucker. Later, Hal rescues a costumed youth trapped in a band of broadcast energy. Hal recognizes the costume as belonging to Air Wave, a Golden Age superhero. The teenager is Air Wave’s son, practicing to become a superhero on his own. Hal decides to take Air Wave II under his wing. They team up to battle Master-Tek, who has been hired by a foreign nation to destroy an underground communications center. After the unlikely duo defeat Master-Tek, Air Wave II reveals his name to be … Hal Jordan! Young Hal’s father, Larry Jordan is Hal (GL) Jordan’s uncle. GL is amused that, as far as he can surmise, this is the first time two superheroes have shared the same real name. In Green Lantern #108–109, an alien creature hitches a ride on an asteroid probe and travels to Earth. While passing the JLA satellite, it catches a glimpse of Batman, the Flash, and Wonder Woman and is able to replicate their powers, along with a flashy composite of their costumes for visual punch. On Earth, the alien, now calling itself Replikon, battles and escapes the combined forces of Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. Smarting from defeat, Hal returns to the Star City hotel where he and Carol are staying. Apparently, she is sitting alone at the hotel restaurant, but Hal soon sees she is having dinner with another man. Carol introduces Hal to Andre, and asks her boyfriend if he would like to join them. Hal refuses, and slinks away to sulk. Suddenly, shades of Green Lantern #49! Carol is once again feeling neglected by Hal and Green Lantern. After dinner with Andre, outside her hotel room she is obviously smitten by the mysterious and handsome stranger, who makes her feel like a “school girl.” Meanwhile, atop a Star City building, Andre broods, then reveals his true identify: Replikon! Hal soon discovered that Replikon and Andre were one and same, and also learned that Replikon was planning to destroy Earth’s ozone layer so it could use the devastated planet to raise its children. Green Lantern explained to Carol what Andre/Replikon was up to, and though she didn’t like it, she aided Hal. Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary were able to defeat Replikon. Carol was not happy, and left Hal. Once again, Hal was dumped by Carol and on his own … but this time not for long.

WEDDING BELL BLUES In Green Lantern #116 (May 1979), alternate Green Lantern Guy Gardner apparently disintegrated while re-charging his power ring and was believed dead. Kari Limbo, Guy’s girlfriend, was introduced in GL #117 as Hal visited her to explain Guy’s tragedy. She was distraught, and slapped Hal. Hal stayed to console her, feeling a tenderness grow inside him. Kari was a fortune-teller by profession, but she was actually much more than that. She was a sensitive psychic. In GL #118, Kari was still lost and vulnerable in the wake of Gardner’s death. She teamed with Green Lantern and Green Arrow to battle Professor Ojo and the Crumbler, who Kari felt was responsible for Guy being destroyed as he was charging his power ring at Hal’s power battery, as it had been adversely affected by the touch of the Crumbler’s glove. After the team triumphed over the villains, Hal and Kari draw closer together and shared a kiss. In Green Lantern #121, Hal Jordan’s truck was destroyed by a storm, and given his financial debt there would be no going back to that cross-country (and outer-space parking) career. El Espectro, a Spanish warrior displaced 400 years, hijacked a plane carrying Carol Ferris. Meanwhile, Kari heard a voice in her head calling out to her. GL and GA battled El Espectro, and during the skirmish GL encountered Carol for the first time since she

40 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

had dumped him. After El Espectro was defeated, Carol offered Hal a job as test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, but their relationship would be strictly business. Later, Green Lantern and Kari were reunited. GL revealed his secret identity to her, and they confessed their love for one another. Kari proposed to Hal, and he accepted. Hal almost married Kari in GL #122 (Nov. 1979), but during their wedding she had a vision, which led to Superman being drawn into the Phantom Zone. Kari then had another vision, which led to Hal Jordan entering the Phantom Zone to rescue Superman. In the Zone Hal discovered that Gardner was alive and mind-controlled by the evil General Zod. After Superman and Green Lantern escaped the Phantom Zone and Hal informed Kari that Guy had not been killed, Kari nixed the wedding because her heart still belonged to Guy so long as he was alive.

FLYING SOLO Green Lantern/Green Arrow ended with #122, with GA exiting the title. After almost ten years, Hal Jordan finally had his own magazine, beginning with #123. With a title all his own came a series of new directions. The road trip is a recurring theme in Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s life from when he left Coast City in Green Lantern #49 to just before he almost married Kari Limbo in Green Lantern #122. There are no real road trips for Hal in Green Lantern #123–200, but I’m using it as symbolism for this portion of my article. It allows me to interconnect the different directions six writers brought to Hal’s story. I begin with O’Neil’s last literary road trip with Green Lantern, a character he wrote for an entire decade. In Green Lantern #123 (Dec. 1979), Guy Gardner was rescued from the Phantom Zone by Hal, but not before suffering severe brain damage. Kari then voluntarily became Guy’s caregiver, and was subsequently rewarded for her noble feelings of true love by being relegated to comics, er, limbo for several years. Meanwhile, Hal split with Green Arrow, who wasn’t happy with Hal’s decision, making it clear in this issue and the next, and then he was gone from the series. O’Neil bowed out as GL scripter with an epic event entitled “Power War” (Green Lantern #125–129), wherein Green Lantern returned to grand space opera and thwarted the invasion of Earth and Oa by the Weaponers of Qward. O’Neil left the series on a high note: While Hal and Carol’s relationship remained strained, he gave them a quiet moment together, and subtle hope that they could reconcile their differences and be a couple once more. “Green Lantern is one of the best super-good guys,” says O’Neil. “His premise is unlike any other, and it allows writers to give him some stories that are broadly science fictional and others that are rooted in our world, and yet neither violates the premises of the mythos. The ring allows for some great visuals, something that always benefits superheroes.” Now, a brief detour. A GL story by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum originally scheduled for Adventure Comics #465 was published in GL #128. With O’Neil’s departure for Marvel Comics, Marv Wolfman was set to take over Green Lantern with #133. In the interim, three different writers provided nine-page GL stories: Bob Rozakis in #130, Mike W. Barr in #131, and Paul Kupperberg in #132.

It had become par for the course since Green Lantern #49 to put Hal Jordan through the emotional wringer from time to time (some would say all the time). Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton hit the road running by doing something a little different right at the beginning of their run on Green Lantern: Hal and Carol resolved their differences and became a couple again. Then they were both put through the emotional wringer. The US Government threatened to cancel its contracts with Ferris Aircraft due to a series of major accidents at Ferris and the company’s inability to produce a solar jet. The Southern California Ferris Aircraft Division was destroyed in a bombing. Carol’s father Carl Ferris and his wife were kidnapped. Then Carol was kidnapped. This was all the doing of Conrad Bloch, a vengeful ex-partner of Carl’s who had been severely deformed by an explosive blast he had set to destroy Ferris’ equipment. His sons, Jason and Benjamin, were cut of the same ilk, with Jason being a ruthless congressman blackmailing his colleagues for political favors and votes. The Blochs aligned themselves with Goldface, an almost-forgotten Green

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Double Vision Dick Giordano’s cover art (courtesy of Heritage) to the second solo issue of Green Lantern, #124 (Jan. 1980), was flopped prior to publication. Hey, both versions look great to us! TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 41

GL Gets Mooned Original Joe Staton art (courtesy of Heritage) from the splash of Green Lantern #138 (Mar. 1981), featuring the Demon of Darkness, Eclipso. TM & © DC Comics.

Lantern foe not seen since the mid-1960s, to destroy the Ferris family and company. While Green Lantern did his best to help Carol, Wolfman and Staton kept the Emerald Crusader relentlessly occupied. GL battled Dr. Polaris (#133–135); the Gordanians in the future, alongside Space Ranger (#136–137); Eclipso (#138–139); the Omega Men, in one of those superhero-encountershidden-alien-race-on-Earth debacles that features misunderstandings and intense skirmishes at the beginning but everyone, well, mostly everyone, in this case, winds up friends at the end (#141–143); the Tattooed Man (#144); Goldface (#145–146); Black Hand (#148); and the Weaponers of Qward, who had created an anti-GL Corps (#148–150). Doing his duty secured Hal the title “the greatest Green Lantern of them all.” Using his GL position for personal use, however, did not sit well with the Guardians of the Universe. In Green Lantern #148 (Jan. 1982), an angry Guardian appeared before Green Lantern via power ring transmission. The Guardians were enraged that Hal had decided to aid Carol and Ferris Aircraft instead of dealing with a threat to an entire world. “Your problems are all meaningless, Earthman,” contended the Guardian. “They deal with troubles in commerce. Personal gain means nothing to us! Our Corps was created to save worlds!” Well, heck, how do you debate that? Carol and Tom Kalmaku made their plea with the Guardian, but Hal understood his duty was to the Corps. Still, he felt he could no longer split his loyalties. He would travel to Oa to be briefed and then attend to the situation on the planet Ungara, but afterwards he would give up the power ring … forever! In Green Lantern #151 (Apr. 1982), Hal had 24 hours left on Earth. He explained to the Flash that he would be taking a leave of absence from the Justice League. He battled Goldface for a lengthy spell but eventually defeated him. He rescued Carol from Benjamin Bloch and Carl Ferris from almost certain death in Death Valley. Ferris Aircraft survived, but the company was broke. Carol and Hal spent Hal’s last moments on Earth together, and then Green Lantern left Earth to begin his exile. Wolfman and Staton’s greatest triumph was bringing Carol Ferris back as a worthwhile character, not as a self-centered woman finding male “diamonds” in the rough whenever she felt slighted by Hal Jordan. “Carol Ferris was a ‘liberated woman’ long before it became a movement,” Jack C. Harris explains. “Her strong business sense and her distancing herself from romantic entanglements with employees (Hal Jordan) was very much ahead of its time. It was editor Julius Schwartz’s

attempt to get away from the clichéd ‘Superman/Clark Kent/Lois Lane’ triangle; by making Carol the strong one not wanting to get involved and Hal wanting Carol to love him as Hal Jordan rather than Green Lantern, Schwartz avoided the relationships that were being played to death in the Superman Family line of comics.” Marv Wolfman tells BACK ISSUE, “To be honest, Carol never had much of a personality. But the idea that here was the one of the first totally competent women in comics who also ran her own company was completely novel and daring for the late 1950s/early 1960s. I like to think of her sense of strength and independence as a definite link to the present-day woman. She was way ahead of her time.” Dave Gibbons continues, “The way I remember it she was the boss’ daughter, so very much so that she’d inherited his power and position, but she always wanted to prove that she was capable of doing it through her own skills, her own abilities. And I think that was the key to her—she wanted to be independent from her father and she was Hal’s girlfriend. But again, she didn’t just want to be somebody passive on the sidelines. I think she had a great drive to succeed and to make her own mark in the world. The fact that she could deal with Hal being called up into deep space and that she could deal with her father’s somewhat imperious personality meant that she was a woman of great strength and character.”

EXILE Here we begin GL’s road trip in space. The “Green Lantern Exiled in Space” saga is a misleading title; after all, how can you consider yourself exiled when the sector you patrol comprises a good portion of the galaxy, and the only place you can’t visit for a year is Earth? Still, there’s no place like home, and Hal does long for it. It’s a little slow going at first. He begins his exile living in an outpost he’s constructed on an asteroid. Weeks pass before the Guardians summon him on a missing involving war and different stages of evolution of the planet M’brai. From there, Hal’s duties pick up. His assignments take him to other worlds; lead him into encounters with Hector Hammond, Evil Star, the Headmen, and the Omega Men; offer him a companion in Dorine Clay, whose romantic interest in Hal is not reciprocated by him, although they do share some intimacy prior to being executed (they survive, of course); and provides a visitation to Oa where an epic adventure is conducted entirely in his head. He also gets to play the role of Green Lantern … barbarian! There’s room for an Earthbound adventure starring GL alternate John Stewart and Green Arrow, and a full-length tale featuring one of Hal’s fellow Green Lanterns. Finally, the saga climaxes with a touching sci-fi tale in Green Lantern #171. “Some have written that Hal Jordan is best understood as the absolute best ‘policeman’ in the Green Lantern Corps,” states Mike W. Barr. “This is true, but I was more comfortable with Hal’s GL duties as being very nearly a religious calling. I think he had some sort of longing in his soul that he couldn’t identify but was never fulfilled and

42 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

GL Greats (top left and right) A Keith Pollard double-shot: Cover to GL #158 (Nov. 1982) and John Stewart ringing up on the page 2 splash of #165 (June 1983). (bottom) Dave Gibbons’ original cover art to #176 (May 1984), featuring the Shark. TM & © DC Comics.

was funneled into his job until he was recruited into the Corps (see the splash page of GL #154). He’s fearless and incorruptible—without showing off about it—but still an understandable, approachable guy who would not necessarily expect others to match his standards. He probably has lots of casual male friends, but few close friends. “Regarding the positioning of Hal as ‘fearless,’ I gave this a lot of thought before writing about the character,” Barr continues. “I decided ‘fearless’ didn’t mean he had no recognition of danger, nor would he take foolish chances in situations where there was little chance of success. ‘Fearless’ meant that he was coolly able to evaluate relevant circumstances and act accordingly. “For instance, if asked to walk a 30-foot beam placed on two concrete blocks one foot off the ground, most of us could do that easily. But Hal can also walk that 30-foot beam when it’s placed between the windows of two buildings with a hundred-foot drop below him. His training as a test pilot enables him to filter out extraneous anxiety to evaluate a situation quickly and practically.”

JOHN STEWART STEPS IN Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Gibbons picked up from where Wolfman and Staton left off. Hal successfully petitioned his case before the Guardians of the Universe and returned to Earth. He sought out Carol and found her sharing a kiss with another man. Shades of Green Lantern #49, Hal decided to leave Coast City. When Carol found Hal and learned why he was leaving, she explained to him that she was just congratulating a new employee, Clay Kendall, on netting a job at Ferris. Oh, that Carol! Hal changed his mind about leaving and he and Carol shared a warm embrace. They were together, but their happiness would not last long. Congressman Bloch was back to destroy Ferris Aircraft, and also claim the Solar Jet that Dr. Bruce Gordon was working on at Ferris. Bloch had a rival now, a mysterious Mr. Smith, who asked Bloch to cease his attempts at destroying Ferris. Block was not cooperative, and called his “ace in the hole” to expedite Ferris’ destruction. That “ace in the hole” was the Monitor—yes, indeed, the Monitor of Crisis on Infinite Earths— and he accepted Bloch’s commission and formed the Demolition Team. The Demolition Team attacked Ferris, but Green Lantern was not there to save the company; he was off on a mission for the Guardians. Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 43

Ferris was aided by a new superpowered character, the Predator. He defeated the Demolition Team and stole a kiss from Carol as a reward. Carol seemed moved by the surprise fuss. Oh, that Carol! When Hal returned from space, Carol was enraged by his absence, demanding that Hal choose between her or being a Green Lantern. Hal took his life on a new road. He chose Carol, and resigned from the Corps. The Guardians appointed his alternate, John Stewart, as the protector of sector 2814, and would later assign Katma Tui to train him. Although Stewart was a little “green,” he successfully defeated Major Disaster and Eclipso in battle. While Hal was happy to be with Carol, he began expressing some doubt if he did the right thing by giving up his position as Green Lantern. “Green Lantern was an intrinsic part of me being where I am today,” Dave Gibbons tells BACK ISSUE, “and certainly when I got the chance to draw GL when I finally made it to DC Comics was a huge thrill. Green Lantern has always seemed to be a character who has had a lot of possibility because he is based on Earth but he’s also got this huge sort of science-fiction universe that he inhabits, and it was always that which interested me. I didn’t actually get to draw a lot of that when I was doing my run in the 1980s. I seemed to be drawing Hal and Carol arguing in the parking lot of Ferris Aircraft about him being conflicted. I would have liked to do a lot more of the outer-space stuff. He’s got this universe of possibilities. And Green Lantern as a hero, [he’s] 8 out of 10; could easily be 9 or 10 out of 10.” Finally, we have Steve Englehart’s time on the road with Green Lantern, where he upended everything (Joe Staton returned as artist). John and Katma Tui began a romance. The Predator was revealed as the alpha extension of Carol Ferris, who transformed into Star Sapphire before a shocked Hal Jordan, and then left Earth to become queen of the Zamarons. Suddenly, and once again, Hal had been dumped by Carol, although this time he was had no position as a Green Lantern to fall back on. Meanwhile, Guy Gardner finally snapped out of his coma, angry and arrogant, and was made a Green Lantern by the Guardians instead of Hal. But then, in the wake of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, long-standing GL Tomar Re was killed in battle and Hal became a Green Lantern once more in one the most genuinely moving sequences ever published in Green Lantern; I refer you to the end of Green Lantern #198 (Mar. 1986). Finally, the Guardians and Zamorans joined together and left their respective planets to plot a future event known as “Millennium,” and the Green Lantern Corps was on its own. Seven Green Lanterns established themselves on Earth, and Green Lantern became The Green Lantern Corps with #201 (June 1986).

THE GREEN TEAM The Green Lantern Corps is a tricky series to negotiate through because suddenly, Green Lantern became a team book. Hal Jordan was certainly the most popular Green Lantern amongst the seven members, but he was no longer the star of his own book. Now there was also John Stewart, Katma Tui, Arisia, Salaak, Ch’p, and Kilowog jockeying for the spotlight, which Englehart insisted everyone share. Still, this is Hal’s article, and I will keep the focus on him. He became a cradle-robber, couldn’t keep a job, aided in the execution of his greatest foe, and became one of the last Green Lanterns standing after a fierce battle on Oa. Actually, there’s a lot more than that involving Hal. Maybe he was still the star of the book. First, the cradle robbing; well, sort of cradle-robbing, depending on how you look at it. Enter into Hal’s romantic radar Arisia. Arisia is a cute alien teenager, Green Lantern of space sector 2815, right next to Hal’s 2814, introduced in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1 (May 1981). She is seriously infatuated with Hal Jordan. Not a problem, Hal’s a good man—he’s not going there. But something was happening to Arisia in the early stages of this series; she was changing, becoming taller, getting older. She was subconsciously willing her ring to expedite her growing up, physically and mentally, to be more appealing to Hal and, more importantly, legal by law (the Comics Code Authority still having some scruples, I imagine). Hal did notice, but it took a lot of convincing on her part, plus Hal and Arisia’s heated battle with a mountain lion down a dark hole to energize his desires, and with one passionate kiss the two were suddenly a couple. Outside of Carol Ferris, it would be Hal’s longest romantic relationship with a woman. Once Hal had his love life up and running again, he immediately had others matters to contend with. He had to deal with the arrogant Guy Gardner, who eventually went on to join the regrouped Justice League. He had to keep the team intact, as Kilowog left for the Soviet Union, Salaak left for the future, and Ch’p left for his home planet. Kilowog did return, however. As Hal Jordan, he was fired from Ferris by Mr. Smith, who had taken over the company from Carl Ferris. Carl actually tried to destroy his former company using a fighter plane, but GL stopped him. Carl had snapped—he couldn’t handle losing his company and his daughter, who had disappeared. He didn’t know Carol and Star Sapphire were one and the same, and Hal wasn’t about to tell him. Carl told Hal to watch out for “them,” but before Hal could find out who “they” were, Carl suffered a fatal heart attack. As it turns out, Mr. Smith was the sleeper agent planted by the Manhunters (of the Millennium crossover) to prevent the Chosen from fulfilling the Guardian and Zamoran’s wishes for a new Millennium. Meanwhile, the Corps battled and abducted Sinestro. They took him to Oa and notified their fellow GLs that the renegade Green Lantern would be placed on trial. The eventual verdict was death. After Sinestro was executed, Salaak returned from the future and warned them that if they had killed Sinestro, the Corps were doomed. At that moment, the central power battery suffered violent discharges that threatened Oa and the Corps. Hal battled Sinestro’s essence, now a part of the central power battery. Hal was able to defeat Sinestro, but the Corps were forced to disband. Only a few Green Lanterns were left, including Hal and Guy.

Carol Peril Hal’s relationship with Carol Ferris continued to take twists during the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons collaboration. Here she’s smooching Clay Kendall in GL #172. TM & © DC Comics.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

GREEN LANTERN “WEAKLY”? “Green Lantern” in Action Comics Weekly (ACW) #601–635 (1988–1989) is an awkwardly paced 35-chapter series, disturbing at the get-go, all over the place in the middle, and eventually exhilarating during the home stretch. Green Lantern shared ACW with Blackhawk, Wild Dog, Secret Six, Deadman, Superman, and, later on, other rotating features. GL had the lead spot. (Superman, the star of the book for 50 years, was allocated a twopage spread in the center of the book.) The first story arc, which I have conveniently and honestly entitled “Depressing,” appeared in Action Comics Weekly #601–605, with a coda in #606. Trust me, it’s really depressing. ACW #601’s “…And the Pain Shall Leave My Heart,” written by James Owsley and illustrated by Gil Kane, is only eight pages, and yet it’s able to set a terrible tone for this new phase of Hal’s life. Hal was now the only Green Lantern assigned to space sector 2814, which initially appeared nice because the focus was completely on him. However, Star Sapphire had returned, and her hate for her life and Hal Jordan had consumed her. Jordan was penniless, and he and Arisia were living with John Stewart and Katma Tui. John suggested that Hal steal from a closed diamond mine in South Africa to appropriate “funds.” With that, Hal became a thief to survive, even transforming the diamonds into currency— counterfeiting, for crying out loud! Meanwhile, Star Sapphire violently murdered Katma Tui, shredding her to ribbons with her sapphire ring. John was, of course,

devastated, and blamed Hal. (My only consolation here? In six years, Hal’s situation would be even worse.) In ACW #602, Sapphire crashed Katma’s funeral, and then sent a fighter jet into downtown Coast City. Hal prevented the plane from actually crashing and was handed a phone book by the ejected pilot. It was given to the pilot by Sapphire. Inside the book Carol (Star Sapphire) Ferris’ name and address were circled in red. In ACW #603, an exhausted Green Lantern battled a deranged Star Sapphire, and both felt that the other must die. How far the Hal/Carol relationship had fallen. In ACW #604, Hal had been chained to a planetoid on the other side of the universe. He sent his almostdepleted ring to John Stewart, who was being questioned by a group of US senators about his involvement in the downing of an Air Force jet over Coast City and the destruction of Carol Ferris’ penthouse. During the inquiry, Carol Ferris appeared as a witness, and John snapped to see the woman who killed his wife. In an instant of fury, John apparently killed Carol. Later, visiting Carol’s body in the morgue, Stewart was taunted by a revived Sapphire. Not wanting to risk a battle that could kill thousands, Stewart walked away. Accepting that Jordan deserved no blame, he sent out the fully charged ring to find Hal. In ACW #605, a mysterious alien, more powerful than Star Sapphire, was able to defeat her. Green Lantern, incarcerated on Golgotha by Sapphire, made a tremendous yet exhausting escape. Then a mysterious ending came to this disturbing storyline: Star Sapphire Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Lots of Lanterns (left) Arisia was just a kid when first seen in 1981’s Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1 (a miniseries), but as the inset shows … she grew up. (right) Courtesy of Heritage, Gil Kane original cover art to The Green Lantern Corps (the retitled monthly) #223 (Apr. 1988). TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 45

abruptly, unwillingly, disappeared, and GL was left with nothing but questions. In ACW #606, in the wake of the mental, physical, and material destruction caused by Star Sapphire, Hal Jordan’s life had fallen apart. His companions in the disbanded Green Lantern Corps were gone. He had a list of once fellow JLA members that he hoped could help him out, but those he contacted shunned him. He was left alone and in despair on a Seattle rooftop.

Wasn’t that fun? It did get better, thankfully. The second storyline, “Fear Factor,” ran in Action Comics Weekly #s 607–614. Hal wanted to improve Green Lantern’s soured reputation and decided to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show to make his case. But when the matter of being born without fear was raised, Oprah was incredulous and the audience broke out in laughter. While Hal pondered his “no fear” factor, a sword-wielding lunatic struck Chicago. Random people were being driven to murder. Even Hal and Arisia were attacked by a room-service waiter intent on killing them. GL soon learned that a mad scientist calling himself Mind Games was using a ray blast to possess people to kill. GL confronted Mind Games and eventually defeated him. Later, GL asked the ring why he had no fear. The ring explained that it could not fulfill Abin Sur’s final request to locate a man totally without fear. It found two men on the North American continent who harbored almost no fears at all, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. The ring chose Hal because he was in closer proximity to Abin Sur, but since it still ran contrary to instructions it rectified the matter by rearranging Hal’s psyche so that he was completely without fear. Hal ordered the ring to instill his fear back, but since he no longer wielded Abin Sur’s ring and now used TomarRe’s ring, GL commanded the ring to do the best it could. And with that, Hal got his minor fears back. The third storyline, “Freak Show,” ran in Action Comics Weekly #615–620. GL battled new villains Castle and Siphon, who were part of a larger team, Freak Show. Freak Show had a boss, and at first it appeared to be the rich and sultry Veronic Hawkes. It was actually her timid sister. After GL defeated Freak Show, Hal—shades of Carol Ferris—abruptly broke up with Arisia. Fortunately, she would carry on with her fledgling modeling career. The Green Lantern Special #1 continues the first Action Comics Weekly storyline. The story dealt with John Stewart’s trial for allegedly murdering Carol Ferris, and the charge against him for telling Hal Jordan to steal diamonds from a closed South Africa mine. It also mended the rift between Hal and John. The fourth storyline, “Priest,” ran in Action Comics Weekly #621–625. Hal became a test pilot once more, part of a crew known as the Gremlins. A mysterious yellow beam exploded from his power battery. GL set out to find the yellow beam and repair his battery before the 24-hour charge ran out. Enter the mysterious alien and former Green Lantern known as Priest. GL’s battery was restored, and Hal aided Priest in ending an alien war. “The Alien and Captain Atom” was the fifth storyline, and ran in ACW #626–631. Green Lantern returned to Earth and brought with him a mysterious spaceship and an equally mysterious alien. The alien had the ability to morph into human form. The alien’s “shrine ship” was destroyed, which made the alien ballistic

From Oa to Oprah (top) Ms. Winfrey’s not happy with the Emerald Crusader in Action Comics Weekly #608 (July 12, 1988). By Peter David, Tod Smith, and Danny Bulanadi. (bottom left) Mike Mignola and Ty Templeton’s GL cover to ACW #614. (bottom right) GL by George Freeman on ACW #634. TM & © DC Comics.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

“In Brightest Day…” Despite the setbacks afforded him, Hal Jordan remains the greatest Green Lantern of them all, as this recent commission by Keith Pollard proves. From the collection of Arnie Grieves. TM & © DC Comics.

and destructive. Captain Atom arrived on the scene, and he and Green Lantern could not get along. They spent more time at odds with one another than dealing with the rampaging alien. When they finally did work things out, Captain Atom relinquished the mission to GL, and Hal left Earth to chase the alien. This set the stage for the final storyline, “Lord Malvolio,” which ran in ACW #632–635. The alien disappeared into a space warp, and GL was transported to a completely different space sector where he met Lord Malvolio, who resembled the Golden Age Green Lantern but on steroids … and far less friendly. It was GL versus Malvolio, and then it was GL simply trying to survive the onslaught of Malvolio. GL eventually escaped, leaving Malvolio to stand in waiting for Hal to return, which I’m not sure he ever did. The series concluded, although Green Lantern would soon team up with Superman in the final issue of Action Comics Weekly, #642. The Green Lantern Special #2 was a nice bridge between Action Comics Weekly and the new, ongoing Green Lantern series that was scheduled to be released sometime in 1990. The story, by Owsley and Mark Bright, set out to tie up and catch up on loose ends from their story arcs in ACW #621–635, while also conducting an epic adventure story with a moral decision weighing heavily on Hal Jordan. It was a fine tale that succeeded on all levels, and it also featured the last remaining Guardian, located on Oa, tooling around the barren deserts of the planet on a motorcycle. Between this special and Green Lantern #1 (June 1990), Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn was published, a six-issue miniseries that told the origin of Hal Jordan before he became a Green Lantern, and retold Green Lantern’s origin for the post–Crisis DC Universe. It is here that we learn for the first time that Hal’s father was killed as he test piloted an aircraft. We also learn that Hal Jordan had a drinking problem when he was younger, a condition he did not have in the pre–Crisis DC Universe. This was status quo for the early Modern Age of Comics, where reinventing or retooling our favorite superheroes with grim grittiness was a key, often unsatisfying ingredient. But again, this hang up for Hal was nothing compared to what awaited GL’s future 47 issues after the debut of GL #1.

IN BRIGHTEST DAY That’s not a good memory, although it’s another aspect of Hal Jordan’s history that should be examined thoroughly, hopefully in a future edition of BACK ISSUE. For now, I want to close this article with a good memory. A few years ago, there was a scientist—his name was Jim, also, who lived in the same apartment building as my wife and I. He had muscular dystrophy, and been in a wheelchair for years, and was no longer working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His nurse often took him up and down the driveway so he could get a small but pleasing glimpse of the world. One afternoon I was taking the trash out and passed by him. I was wearing a Green Lantern T-shirt.

“That’s Hal Jordan,” he said. “Green Lantern is my favorite superhero.” “He’s my favorite, too,” I smiled. We talked about Green Lantern for a while. “Do you know the oath?” he asked. “I sure do,” I replied, and with that as our cue, we recited it together: “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power, Green Lantern’s light.” We laughed. For a few moments, we got to step outside our routine selves and be appreciative Green Lantern geeks. When Jim passed away a while back I remembered that moment fondly. I was sad, but grateful for that memory. I’m grateful for it now. And even with all the rough edges life etched on him, I am an eternally grateful Green Lantern Hal Jordan fan. The author wishes to thank editor Michael Eury for his patience; Steven Thompson for his transcribing the Dave Gibbons interview; and all the writers, artists, editors, assistant editors, letterers, and colorists, beginning with John Broome, Gil Kane, and Julius Schwartz, who contributed their talents over the years in making Hal Jordan the greatest Green Lantern of them all. Frequent BI contributor JIM KINGMAN is the second cousin, twice-removed, of Hal Jordan.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 47

There are stories that have never been told … and then there are stories that have been told but just never got published. Over the course of my years in the comic-book business, I’ve had a (relative) handful of stories that fall into the latter category. Including five different issues of three separate magazines starring Green Lantern. Needless to say, as a 1960s comic-book fan growing up in the shining light that was the Julius Schwartz-edited world of DC superheroes, I was an early and devoted fan of Hal Jordan. Green Lantern, along with the rest of Schwartz’s heroic stable, was about the best DC had to offer in those days. Unlike most of the rest of the DC line at the time, his stories always felt rooted in at least a sort-ofreal-world scientific logic that played off long-established and comfortable science-fiction tropes. Julie kept a shelf full of science textbooks in his cabinet that he used for reference and inspiration. The filler pages in his books weren’t “Cap’s Hobby Hints” or “Casey the Cop” but “Flash Facts” and “Spotlight on Science.”

STRANGE SCHWARTZ TALES My association with Green Lantern—or should I say, with the Green Lanterns—began not under the auspices of the great Schwartz, but for later editor Dave Manak, in Green Lantern #148 (Jan. 1982), with an untitled “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” story that introduced my one and only enduring contribution to the pre–Crisis GL mythos, the Green Lantern from H’lven, Ch’p, the bushytailed chipmunk member of the Corps. Thirteen more GL Corps stories followed, along with a GL Corps Annual and a (published!) fill-in, GL #187 (Apr. 1985), before the post–Crisis Englehart/Staton run began. But, circa 1985, I was finally to write an issue of Green Lantern about Hal Jordan, and for Julie Schwartz. In anticipation of the major paul kupperberg changes coming to the DC Universe in the aftermath of 1985–1986’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, Julie was wrapping up his run as editor of the Superman titles with the two-part “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” crossover in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583, and DC Comics Presents #97 (all cover-dated Sept. 1986); the Superboy and Supergirl titles (written by yours truly) had already come to end with #54 (June 1984) and #23 (Sept. 1984), respectively; and he was also about

Your Three Favorite Heroes—Together! Rick Stasi’s suggested color guide for page one of the unpublished Green Lantern fill-in, written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Rick Stasi and Bruce Patterson. Artwork accompanying this article is courtesy of Paul Kupperberg. TM & © DC Comics...

48 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Paul Kupperberg

through with the line of 14 graphic novels he had produced in the DC Graphic Novel and DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series (published between 1983 and 1987, including my own 1986 adaptation of Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away, with artist Jan Duursema). “As I recall it, after the SF Graphic Novels were discontinued, they wanted to let Julie stay busy, justifying his office space and consulting salary,” says Robert Greenberger, then on staff as DC’s editorial coordinator. “So [editorial director] Dick Giordano assigned him the task of creating a bunch of fill-ins for various DC titles, hoping whatever interest he still had could be instilled in newcomers and those in need of work.” While continuity played a fairly big role in the DCU of the mid-1980s (there wouldn’t have been the need for Crisis if it hadn’t), so did the problem of late-shipping books. Whether the causes, late books were epidemic at the time. Finally, the powers-that-be put their foot down and ordered the fill-ins to be created and kept in the drawer, threatening Swords of Damocles hanging over the heads of editors and creators who were unable to get their acts together. Now, as I write this in late 2013, almost 30 years since their creation, it’s difficult to determine how many fill-in stories Schwartz actually ended up commissioning. “I don’t recall if any of them actually made it into print beyond one or two,” Greenberger says, although one that did see print was Bob Rozakis’ 18-page Blue Devil fill-in that was incorporated into the 38-page final issue of the title, #31 (Dec. 1986)… …And, of course, my own scripted, penciled, lettered, and inked Green Lantern tale, “The Eyes of the Beholders!” with art by Rick Stasi and Bruce Patterson. DC’s comics at the time ran to 23 pages of story and art, but like the Blue Devil tale, it was written as a shorter story to allow for the addition of a fouror five-page framing sequence that could be created relatively quickly and serve, however loosely, to tie the non-continuity fill-in story in with whatever was happening at the time of its use. “The Eyes of the Beholders!” is a Rashomonic take on Hal Jordan’s origin and earliest experiences as Green Lantern. It opens with Superman carrying the Batplane, damaged by skyjackers’ artillery, and Batman on a detour across the desert to investigate the crash of an unidentified aircraft he had spotted on the way home. The World’s Finest team arrives just in time to see a glowing green flare shoot from the ship. “It’s … like a beacon,” Superman tells Batman, “or tracking signal … criss-crossing the planet at the speed of light.” The Man of Steel tracks the beacon with his super-vision while the Caped Crusader muses over its purpose and sees it pick up “that flightless trainer … along with the man operating it! Batman! We know that man!” They do indeed. It’s test pilot Hal Jordan, who they had met, according to the footnote, when he had helped the Justice League of America on a case (in JLA #144, in a flashback story entitled “The Origin of the Justice League—Minus One!” from July 1977). With Superman eavesdropping via his super-senses and narrating the story for Batman, they watch as the spaceship’s dying pilot, Abin Sur, passes the power battery and ring of the Green Lantern on to his human successor, a sequence I lifted directly from the Showcase #22 (Oct. 1959) origin tale, “S.O.S. Green Lantern,” by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella. “Well, well! Looks like we’re about to witness history, old chum!” says the Man of Steel, who’s been around the universe enough to know of the Lanterns.

The story cuts to Washington, D.C., and a highspeed police chase in progress which is being joined from the air by Wonder Woman and her invisible robot-plane. Wonder Woman disables the escaping vehicle, driven, we learn from the grateful cops, by crooks who had just hijacked a shipment of experimental military weapons, one of which is activated, unleashing a storm of flying black spheres that project absolute blackness to cover their attack. She’s overwhelmed by the spheres, which break off their attack before they can do her any damage. One of the cops on the scene— a cameo appearance by editor Schwartz, courtesy of fellow Schwartz fan, artist Rick Stasi—explains that they and she were saved by a costumed, flying, masked man with a power ring which created a giant green hand to swat aside the spheres and dissipate the darkness, followed by a giant boxing kangaroo to take out the bad guys. He called himself Green Lantern. Wonder Woman is impressed by what she’s heard and is happy there’s a new superpowered protector around … not a bad thing, considering that “three hours Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Furry Fury Paul Kupperberg introduced Ch’p (one of our favorite GLs) in a “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” backup in Green Lantern #148 (Jan. 1982). Art by Don Newton and Dan Adkins, with Anthony Tollin colors. TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 49

Secret Origin (left) Green Lantern Abin Sur declares Hal Jordan a man without fear! Page 4 of the unpublished Green Lantern fill-in, written by Paul Kupperberg, art by Rick Stasi and Bruce Patterson. (right) Page 10 of that tale, wherein police officer “Schwartz” fills in Wonder Woman on their rescue by a mysterious green hand from above. TM & © DC Comics.

later, outside Central City,” the Flash is tracking an alien turned darker by the time I snagged my next Green battleship that’s streaking by overhead, shielded from Lantern assignment from editor Bob Schreck, a threedetection but visible to him “because it’s surrounded by issue arc for Legends of the DC Universe, a 41-issue series a vibratory screen at a frequency my speeded-up vision (Feb. 1998–June 2001) that spotlighted a rotating cast of can detect.” The big surprise comes when the great heroes in legendary and/or untold stories from the DCU. warship passes unharmed through a hillside. When the FROM BRIGHTEST DAYS TO Scarlet Speedster tries to follow, he DARKEST KNIGHTS goes ricocheting off the hillside. My pitch to Schreck stemmed from Flash narrowly averts personal disa long-unrelieved itch caused by aster but is no closer to figuring a way the 1994 Green Lantern “Emerald into that hillside to see what’s going on Twilight” story arc that installed Kyle when something even more astonishing Rayner as the new GL after Hal Jordan than an alien warship is added to the turned rogue and became Parallax. mix: a giant, green, glowing drill-bit The decision to flip Hal came at the last angling down from the sky into the minute and new GL writer Ron Marz hilltop. Flash allows that “since whowas given only three issues to effect the ever’s behind it appears to be doing change without much, if any, setup. a better job at getting to them than I “The initial ‘Emerald Twilight’ storyam,” he’ll just hang back and see what line was given to me in an editorial out“their” next move is. Except “they” line of just a couple pages,” Ron Marz turn out to be a “he” … a green-clad tells BACK ISSUE. “The outline contained ron marz masked man with a magical ring that the major beats of issues #48, 49, and disables the warship and tows it back © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. 50, including Hal mourning Coast City, into space in a matter of seconds, leaving Flash to wonder if he’ll ever know the identity of that destroying the Corps and the Guardians, killing Sinestro, masked man. “A guy can’t help wondering…” he muses. and emerging from the battery. Then, at the end, it It was, in telling and tone, a pretty typical late essentially said, ‘Go create a new Green Lantern.’ “The switch from Hal to a new GL had to happen Schwartz-era Silver Age-tinged superhero story, heavy on shtick, with a script dark with Julie’s No. 2 pencil edits. by the end of issue #50 (Mar. 1994), since DC underIt was the mood in the comics themselves that had standably wanted to take advantage of the anniversary

50 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

issue. So we had three issues to tell the story, no ifs, ands, or buts. The decision to implement the ‘Emerald Twilight’ storyline had been made late enough that we were starting behind the eight-ball in terms of the schedule. All three issues drawn had to be written and drawn concurrently.” It was the speed of the switch that left me unsatisfied. Ron, of course, was working according to editorial specs and isn’t to blame for the plot twist’s abrupt implementation, saying, “Ideally, I would’ve preferred about six issues to tell the story. Hal’s descent into … well, if not madness, at least psychosis … is abrupt, especially after he was portrayed as relatively normal in issue #47. … The irony, I think, is that if the same sort of story was done now, it would be a 36-part crossover spread across an entire line of books.” In Green Lantern #48 (Jan. 1994), Hal tried to resurrect his hometown of Coast City, which was destroyed by Mongul during the “Reign of the Supermen” portion of the “Death of Superman” storyline. When he found he was unable to maintain his power ring-produced doppelganger, he confronted a Guardian to demand more power to achieve his task. The Guardian refused. So Hal took the power, recharging his ring with the Guardian’s image, and, with a sinister sneer, vowing to return to Oa, “but you’re not going to like me when I get there.” Unable to change what was writ in the hard stone of (then-current) continuity, I conceived of a patch that incorporated events from earlier GL storylines, including “Emerald Dawn,” that would give a little more weight to Hal’s fall from grace … and which took place in the space/instant between Green Lantern #48, page 18, panel 3 and page 19, panel 1. Convoluted, overlapping reality, time travel-style! Part One of “Emerald Interlude: Fathers and Sons,” with art by Peter Doherty and Joe Rubinstein, begins in the locker room of Ferris Aircraft’s Coast City test facility, where an adolescently awkward Hal Jordan tries connecting with his hard-ass test-pilot dad, Martin, as he suits up for a flight. Hal asks if Martin ever gets scared. “What kind of fool question’s that? … Brave’s just a word, kid. Everybody’s afraid of something. Being a man’s all about not letting the fear run your life… ‘Brave!’ The problem with you, Hal, is you always got your head in the clouds … but I always keep my feet on the ground.” Way to parent, Martin, because as plot devices have it, the next time Hal sees his father it’s as the aircraft he’s testing slams into the ground and disintegrates. In another time, grown-up Green Lantern is at the edge of the crater that was once Coast City, at the moment the energy to maintain his power ring-generated recreation lapses, then jumps to a reprise of the moment in the locker room that Martin walks out on Hal—except this time, we see a shadowy hand reaching from out of nowhere for the boy. Then, back to the edge of the crater and Hal’s encounter with the Guardian who refused him the power to bring everything back, a retelling of the aforementioned GL #48, page 18, panel 3. At which point, time freezes and Hunter, leader of the Linear Men, steps into the moment and without much in the way of explanation, transports GL and himself to the past and the street Hal had grown up on in Coast City. Without waiting for Hunter’s explanation, Hal zips inside his old house in time to catch his old man chewing his

Schwartz-Penciled (top) A page of the unpublished Green Lantern script by Paul Kupperberg, edited by Julius Schwartz. (bottom) Schwartz and Kupperberg in a photo taken at the DC Comics offices, circa 1992. That’s Bob Rozakis partially visible at the far right.

younger self out for some minor infraction of the house rules. Unable to watch (rewatch?) this painful moment from his past, Hal looks away, failing to see the arrival in the moment of a hooded figure, a being who, like Hunter and himself, is invisible to those who live in the time they’re visiting. The figure reaches for young Hal, but mature Hal knocks him away and—after some mild taunting and a reminder that, thanks to time travel, not only isn’t this over just because he’s been stopped here, but he has all the time in the world and then some to accomplish his task—the mysterious figure vanishes. Hunter and Hal also go, while the reader stops back at the Ferris Aircraft locker room where and when the story opened, but for a tweaked version of Hal’s past, as Martin never makes it out of the room because young Hal is touched by the shadowy hand from nowhere and dies. The next stop has Hunter and Hal emerging from the timestream at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where the Linear Man shows the now-flabbergasted Green Lantern irrefutable evidence that someone is messing with Hal’s Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 51

Papa Don’t Preach Young Hal Jordan and his stern father as shown on page one of “Emerald Interlude, Part 1,” an unpublished story arc commissioned for Legends of the DC Universe, by Paul Kupperberg, Peter Doherty, and Joe Rubinstein. TM & © DC Comics.

past: there he sees a middle-aged Martin Jordan, retired from Ferris and flying as a commercial aviation pilot. “You keeled over dead just before his flight. He didn’t fly that day. He didn’t go down. He lived,” Hunter explains. Hal allows Hunter to take him back to the locker room, just seconds before young Hal’s anomalous death. Knowing what’s coming, Green Lantern jumps in to save the day, knocking the mysterious time-killer away from young Hal and fighting him to a standstill. In the course of the melee, the killer smashes the time-travel mechanism in Hunter’s gauntlet, triggering a failsafe device that causes the Linear Man to vanish. Just as the test aircraft starts to go out of control overhead, Hal realizes the identity of his hooded foe, snarling out the name “Sinestro!” as his father dies (again!) in the seemingly inevitable fiery plane crash and the villain pulls back his hood to reveal his true face. Part Two, “Masters and Students,” begins with the flight simulator snatched up by the dying Abin Sur with Hal in it streaking over the desert before landing by the crashed alien ship, where this time, Sinestro murders the Green Lantern before Hal can arrive. Elsewhen, while Hal and Sinestro snarl at one another at the crash of Martin Jordan’s plane, Hunter has materialized at Vanishing Point, the Linear Men’s headquarters at the end of time. As he quickly repairs his damaged gauntlet, he confers with fellow time cop Liri Lee. Sinestro has

52 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

somehow “gained mastery over time, and he’s been able to screw things up enough that everything from the moment they’re in forward is in flux.” Sinestro has also gained mastery over Hal, taunting the now-imprisoned GL with his crimes that lay “within minutes of your return to your rightful time,” referring to his impending massacre of the GL Corps. As corrupt as Sinestro ever was, Hal’s got him beat by a mile—yet it was Hal, we see via flashback, who had been admonished by his then-teacher Sinestro that his foes will use his “honor [as] a weakness to be turned against you. Learn to think like your enemy.” Hal never could wrap his mind around the concept. Besides, what good did it do Sinestro, who wound up being imprisoned by the Corps in the main power battery. Back at the moment of Abin Sur’s crash-landing on Earth, as Hunter comes hurtling into the moment to stop Sinestro’s assassination of the wounded GL, Sinestro escapes, but not before the Linear Man gets a lock on his chronal-energy signature. And, in the “now,” at what was once Coast City, Sinestro explains to Hal how his will power survived intact and he learned to manipulate the power of the main battery from within, becoming a “living conduit of those energies.” And then, he shows Hal what awaits him once he returns to his own time stream and resumes his life: his violent disobedience of the Guardians and subsequent murderous rampage against the Corps, his coldblooded murder of Sinestro, released from the battery by the Guardians to stop Hal … and his ultimate destruction of the universe so that he could “begin it anew, reshape it to [his] own vision” as Parallax. Sinestro reveals he had used the power-ring energy to bring Martin Jordan’s plane down, hoping to drop it on Hal and kill him! Martin fought too hard, however, and steered the plane away from the bystanders on the ground. Enraged, Hal’s ring absorbs the image’s energy and he uses it to take down Sinestro. But not really. Sinestro was just funning with him and strikes back, with a power ring-created dagger to Hal’s gut. Part Three, “Endings and Beginnings,” begins with Hunter’s baffled search through time for Hal, who seems to have disappeared as though erased from his own time stream. That’s because Hal is in “a moment outside of time,” dead and being dragged across the desert by a satisfied (“Well. That was fun.”) Sinestro, knowing he had to kill Hal before Hal could kill him, and as proud of killing Hal as he is of arranging it “so that you never existed!” But Hunter has tricks of his own and is able to track what remains of Hal’s existence in a pocket universe where “his life’s been put on an endless loop, existing forever separate and apart from reality.” Hunter follows Hal through that timeline, finally intersecting with him in the instant before he steals the energy from the Guardian’s projection, and brings them to Vanishing Point where an enraged Hal is made to listen to what awaits him in his true reality: madness, murder, the end of time … a horrible future, but one Hal knows, without either of them saying, that he has to face if the universe is to survive. Hal and Hunter travel to Oa with Sinestro, to the history-changing moment when the villain escaped the power battery. “Reverse that and everything returns to normal,” Hunter advises. So they do, the Hals and Sinestros from several timelines existing simultaneously while they battle it out, until the paradox of all these people misplaced in time existing in one moment is too much for the timestream to take and everything snaps back to normal in one big cosmic auto correct. But Martin’s plane still crashes and kills him!

Power Mad (top) Hal’s quest for the power to recreate Coast City sends him on a murderous spree, from page 15 of Kupperberg’s unpublished “Emerald Interlude, Part 2.” Art by Peter Doherty and Joe Rubinstein. (bottom) Hal prepares to accept his fate, from page 17 of “Emerald Interlude, Part 3.” TM & © DC Comics.

Hunter realizes Sinestro “must have reached out from the power battery and caused the crash … before the moment he started changing time. It … it happened, Hal. Nothing can change that … if it’s any consolation, when you get back to your present, you won’t remember any of this…” “Remember?” Hal snarls. “Somehow, somewhere inside of me, Hunter, I’ll remember! I’ll remember.” And so, as history resumes with Hal taking the energy from the Guardians’ projection, Hunter’s narration, speaking for me, continues, “I always wondered what could make a man like Hal Jordan turn the way he did… And now I know. He remembered…”

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD And on a slightly lighter note… In August of 2009, I wrote “Duel,” a 20-page tale for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the comic based on the 2008–2011 Cartoon Network animated series by the same name, featuring Batman and guest-star Guy Gardner. This was one of two B&B scripts I wrote for editor Michael Siglain, the other being a Plastic Man story, both of which were supposed to be drawn by Joe Staton. Between the time I turned in the scripts and when they were to be given to the artist, B&B underwent a format change, going from a single book-length story to a pair of ten-pagers. My stories had become functionally obsolete. “Duel” opens in Gotham Park, where the military, police, and Guy Gardner have gathered under the shadow of a massive and heavily armed alien spaceship. The ship hasn’t made any threatening moves but Guy wants to go on the attack anyway, which he’s prevented from doing by Batman—at which point, the ship’s occupant reveals himself: the alien warrior Mongul the Conqueror, who has “crossed the universe to claim your planet by rite of combat … your champion against me!” Guy steps forward to accept that challenge, but Mongul projects an image of Green Lantern Hal Jordan and says, “Not you … him—the universe’s greatest Green Lantern!” Learning that Hal is off-planet on a mission, Batman is much surprised and suspicious that Mongul is so “quick to accept my conditions, including a substitute for the champion he claims to have crossed the universe to fight.” The Dark Knight’s concerns deepen when Mongul announces that before Guy can fight him, he must first prove his worth by besting Mongul’s herald, Battlestar. Batman goes after Mongul, but the oversized alien smashes him to unconsciousness pile on the floor in the shadows. Or does he? While Guy and Battlestar duke it out, we find Batman, without his cape, prowling the ship. The “pile” on the floor is actually an inflatable flotation device in his cape “which makes it look like I was still laying there in the arena.” His WayneTech Energy-Sensor directs him to what he’s looking for and, up in the arena, Guy finishes off Battlestar, then turns on Mongul. Mongul reveals that they were never going to fight; the whole point of for a GL to engage Battlestar, who’s actually an energy-draining android, was to absorb the great power of a Green Lantern ring to fuel Mongul’s weapons of war. But Batman’s already put an end to that idea, having disabled Mongul’s power-battery setup. Guy decks Mongul with one punch, proving a power ring’s not necessary to take down this clown. But in order to win, sometimes a buddy is. And now, as we’re more than a third of the way through yet another decade, I start to wonder where and when my next unpublished Green Lantern story will come…! PAUL KUPPERBERG is the author of the comic-book-themed murder mystery The Same Old Story (guest-starring DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz in a supporting role, published by Crazy8Press.com), and writer of the Harvey- and Eisner Award-nominated Life with Archie Magazine for Archie Comics, the YA novel Kevin (Grossett & Dunlap), and both the Kevin Keller and Betty & Veronica Valentine’s Day Mad Libs (Price Stern Sloan). You can follow him at PaulKupperberg.com.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 53

From the very beginning, Green Lantern has had connections with literary science fiction—his “In brightest day/In blackest night” oath was originally written by The Stars My Destination author Alfred Bester, and the names of Green Lanterns Arisa and Eddore paid homage to the Lensmen books of E. E. “Doc” Smith. But the biggest GL/SF crossover yet came from renowned science-fiction author Larry Niven. At the request of DC Comics, Niven wrote a comprehensive Green Lantern bible mapping out the entire 15-billionyear history of the Guardians of the Universe, which led to Ganthet’s Tale, a 1992 one-shot revealing much of that secret history.

Larry Niven, the Green Lantern bible, and the Guardian known as Ganthet

LOOKING INTO CREATION

To properly understand Ganthet’s Tale, we need to look back to its origin. It was 1989, Hal Jordan’s 30th Anniversary year, and classic GL writer Denny O’Neil had just become the new Green Lantern editor. DAN RASPLER, Assistant to Editor Denny O’Neil: One of the themes of Denny’s illustrious comics career has been to insert some form of reality into the fanciful world of superheroes. I know he’s tired of hearing about it, but that now-classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (the one that inserted “relevance” into the DC Universe) was a real revolution. I worked in his office for years, and since I was an enthusiastic superhero fan, it sometimes resulted in some funny arguments and Denny shaking his head in dismay. Denny hadn’t been editing a GL comic (Green Lantern Corps had been Andy Helfer’s title), but that franchise went to Denny when we started up Action Comics Weekly. After ACW ended [in 1989], Green Lantern sort of languished for a while (there were a few specials, but not a monthly title). Then Denny was tasked by [editorial director] Dick Giordano to shake up the Green Lantern franchise. Naturally, Denny’s impulse was to add a strong dose of reality. I remember him talking about the absurdity of a single individual being assigned responsibility of 1/3600th of the galaxy, of the outrageous arrogance of the Oans declaring themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and so on. “Actually, they’re the Guardians of the Universe, Denny,” was my precocious comics-nerd correction. “That’s even more ridiculous!” he’d cry. He’s right, of course, but also wrong—because superheroes are wonderful kid stuff, and I don’t think they need any more reality … but that’s just me. Anyway, Denny’s impulse was to look outside of comics, to bring in a science-fiction writer to add some hard science to the traditionally vague Green Lantern cosmology.

Niven’s Playground The GL-loaded cover to Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale (1992), with foil logo. Cover art by John Byrne, with colors by Matt Webb. TM & © DC Comics.

54 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

J o h n Tr u m b u l l

Sci-Fi Master (left) Perhaps Larry Niven’s best-known work, Ringworld, shown here in a 1977 hardcover published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (right) Niven’s The Magic Goes Away was adapted into comics form by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema as DC’s Science Fiction Graphic Novel #6 (1986). Ringworld and The Magic Goes Away © Larry Niven.

DENNY O’NEIL, Editor: The idea was partially to expand the boundaries a little bit. To get people who might bring a different viewpoint to the discipline. Very much like what [Gene] Roddenberry tried in the first year of Star Trek. His theory was: It’s easier to teach sciencefiction writers how to write television than it is to teach TV writers how to do science fiction. I was thinking along similar lines. The science-fiction writer that O’Neil selected was Larry Niven, a five-time Hugo Award winner and author of more than 50 books, including Ringworld. Comic-book fans likely remember Niven’s “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex,” a whimsical essay about the problems of Superman’s sex life.

stories, he was basing his stories on hard scientific research. That’s what made him appealing to Denny. DENNY O’NEIL: There’s always a danger that things get a little ingrown. It’s a tricky thing. If you grew up reading comics and they were at the center of your life for a time, the tendency is to try and duplicate what you so much loved when you were 15. That’s not always healthy for the art form. Things have to change, and they have to grow. And I think that’s one of the bigger hurdles. Now, virtually everybody who is a professional comic-book writer has been, in one way or another, a fan at one time. LARRY NIVEN: I was a fan. I still needed to bone up, read all the issues I’d missed or forgotten. I did that courtesy of a collector, Bruce Pelz, working at his house.

DAN RASPLER: I’m pretty sure Larry Niven was my suggestion. I’d been reading a lot of Niven (Ringworld, RECREATING THE UNIVERSE the Known Space stuff), and I thought it would be a DAN RASPLER: [Our questions] came down to all coup to get such a popular master of the genre. Denny the wonderfully screwy stuff that Gardner Fox and liked the idea, and I offered to make the initial contact. Julie Schwartz used to make the GL engine run. DENNY O’NEIL: I knew [Niven] socially, from science How does a battery in the center of the universe fiction or SFWA [the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers power rings a zillion light years away? Why is there of America]. I remember seeing him at parties. I was a weakness to yellow? How can a mad scientist an admirer of Niven’s, though I could never possibly introduce evil into a young universe? What is the write the kind of fiction he did. green energy made of? What does willpower or LARRY NIVEN, Story [from his 1991 book larry niven fear have to do with it? All the themes and tropes Playgrounds of the Mind]: Every so often I have to do that Green Lantern writers are still talking about. Photo by Marilyn Niven. something to prove I’m still versatile. Norman Spinrad LARRY NIVEN [from Playgrounds of the Mind]: once warned me against getting into a mental rut, and I took it to heart. I ran down their list of the questions they most wanted answered. “Why DAN RASPLER: Larry wasn’t a comics fan per se, but he knew the a ring?” Because it’ll stay on almost any shape of alien. “Blue skin on the character, and we were offering a lot of money for the overhaul. Guardians? They evolved pink.” It’s a gene-engineered uniform. “Krona We flew him in, took him to lunch at the Top of the Sixes (back when introduced evil into the universe—” No, Entropy! “The oath that recharges DC was at 666 Fifth Avenue), and shook hands. the magic rings—” is for timing and to concentrate the will power (as LARRY NIVEN: The original letter [I received from DC] was just a Denny suggested), “Antimatter—” Hopelessly fouled up; drop it entirely. somewhat generic questionnaire. I have been assuming that nobody else found entertainment in answering speculative questions about the Niven’s GL bible built off of John Broome’s story from Green Lantern #40 DC Universe, as I did. But I don’t know who the other letters went to. (Oct. 1965)—where Maltusian scientist Krona unleashed evil after attempting to view the origins of the universe. This issue was where DC readers first I assume they went to other science-fiction writers. DAN RASPLER: I don’t believe we contacted anyone else. We chose saw creation represented as a gigantic hand holding a spiral galaxy—a Niven because he wrote stories that revolved around hard science. visual that became an iconic image of Crisis on Infinite Earths 20 years He would take a phenomenon of astrophysics, and figure out how later. Krona’s crime was shown to have also created the multiverse, the to add characters to it. He wasn’t basing his stories on other comics antimatter universe, and shadow demons in Crisis #7 (Oct. 1985).

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 55

We’re So Sorry, Uncle Albert (top) Guardian Ganthet drops in on Hal. From Ganthet’s Tale. (bottom) The Ganthet statue, produced in 2002. TM & © DC Comics.

GANTHET’S TALE Niven enjoyed writing the GL bible so much that he also submitted a three-part story detailing the 15-billion-year history of the Guardians of the Universe—Ganthet’s Tale. As Ganthet’s Tale opens, the Guardian Ganthet drafts Hal Jordan into tracking down an old Earth colony of Maltusians, hoping to use them to restore the Green Lantern Corps. Together, Hal and Ganthet find Percival, an elderly Maltusian who accepts the Green Lantern training. As the three heroes journey into space, Ganthet reveals that the ancient story of Krona was a cover-up for an even more heinous crime: Krona’s timeviewer accidentally linked the beginning of time with the end, letting Entropy engulf a billion years’ worth of potential energy from start of the universe. The Maltusians formed the Green Lantern Corps in atonement and crafted the Krona myth to stop others from duplicating his experiment. In the present day, a renegade Guardian named Dawlakispokpok, the inventor of the false origin story, and his Zamaron wife, Thwarcharchura, plan to use their time-platform to slay Krona before he can complete his experiment. Aiding them are their children Doranchatok and Darthartheen, who each have their own power rings. Hal, Ganthet, and Percival try to prevent the family from killing Krona for a crime he hasn’t committed yet. The story is packed with an impressive number of Niven’s scientific concepts. At one point, Hal Jordan defeats Doranchatok by red-shifting his green-light trail up the electromagnetic spectrum to yellow. During the battle, the time-platform is damaged, releasing Entropy as in the story of Krona. Dawlakispokpok is engulfed by Entropy, knowing he caused the very tragedy he tried to prevent. Ganthet uses his life-force to restore an aged Hal Jordan to vitality, and a now-contrite Thwarcharchura and Doranchatok surrender to the Guardian’s authority. A wounded Darthartheen flies away, swearing vengeance.

ENTER JOHN BYRNE LARRY NIVEN: I had infinite leeway until DC took over. They used what they liked, and so did the writers/artists, and I believe the background has changed quite a lot since. I flat out told them I wouldn’t try to justify demons, and they’d fouled up the concept of antimatter enough to render it useless. I took it that my task was to put the science fiction back into the DC background universe— though it was soft science, for sure.

Although Niven had thoroughly plotted out Ganthet’s Tale, comic books were a brand-new medium for him. His material needed to be adapted into a more standard form.

DENNY O’NEIL: There is a learning curve involved. I have employed john byrne very good writers and have taught classes with very smart students, but Photo by Corey Bond / Wikimedia Commons. there is a technique to doing comics. It’s not brain surgery, but in a way it’s a very restricted form. If you’re Some concepts found in Niven’s 40-page GL bible only appeared in the used to writing television or novels, you don’t realize comics in abbreviated or altered form. that you’re dealing with an 8 by 11 page, it’s not DAN RASPLER: One thing I remember was that when the universe something that extends forward in time. Virtually was brand new (according to Larry), it was incomprehensibly hot and everybody [makes] the same set of beginner’s mistakes. dense and opaque. When it finally (after trillions of years) expanded Since O’Neil needed an experienced comics creator who and cooled down enough for light to travel, the first and only color knew both science fiction and superheroes, John Byrne was that existed was yellow … and that had something to do with the a natural choice. impurity which weakened the power rings. I don’t know why that was the case, whether it was based on real science/conjecture, or LARRY NIVEN: DC chose him, but I was whether it was just something typically awesome and cool that Larry very glad. We’re old friends. Met at a San Diego Comic-Con when he showed dreamed up, but it’s stuck with me ever since. GERARD JONES, Writer, Green Lantern vol. 3 (1990–1993): When I me renderings of a Kzin and a Pierson’s started on GL, [editor] Andy Helfer let me know the bible existed Puppeteer in an X-Men interstellar (or was in the works), but told me not to worry about it until we had conclave [X-Men #125, Sept. 1979]. to … and I never heard anything more about it! I think his feeling SCOTT PETERSON, Assistant was that we had enough to do with developing the material we had Editor, Ganthet’s Tale: John Byrne without bringing in new ideas to incorporate. I didn’t hear about was the absolute ideal choice for such a project. Ganthet’s Tale until it was nearly done. 56 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

DAN RASPLER: John is one of the true masters of superhero comics—a brilliant draftsman and an exceptional storyteller. He’s also an accomplished writer, and I think they needed someone to draw all of Larry’s various thoughts together into a coherent narrative. [Author’s note: John Byrne declined to be interviewed for this article.] LARRY NIVEN: The story is mine. I wrote [a] very detailed outline with much dialogue and lots of visuals. I turned it over to DC, who turned it over to John Byrne. He ran with that. There wasn’t much communication [between us]. DAN RASPLER: I was only involved with the project at its earliest stages. After a few years in Denny’s office (as assistant and then associate editor), I was running my own batch of titles, so Dick [Giordano] shifted me into another office and the project went to someone else. Kelley Puckett took over as Denny O’Neil’s assistant. He was later succeeded by Scott Peterson. SCOTT PETERSON: I became Denny O’Neil’s assistant editor in the fall of 1991. When I came on the job, John had had the bible for at least a few months, and maybe more like six. When I asked if anyone knew exactly where Byrne was on the project, the answer was no, just that he was working on it. When I asked if I should be checking up on him, given the radio silence, and given how much other work John was turning out at the time, no one really seemed to think that was necessary. “John’s a stone pro,” I remember Denny saying, and there was no higher compliment in his book. I was new, so as far as I knew at the time, this was just sorta the way the industry usually worked. (Spoiler: It’s not.) A few months later, the whole thing came in from John, penciled, inked, and lettered. I seem to recall the entire book arriving at once. It’s possible it was delivered in sections, but if so, I think it was huge sections, and all over the course of just a few weeks. We went from zero—no real script, no pencils—to, like, 60 pages of finished, lettered art in a matter of weeks,

and maybe a matter of minutes. From bible to (nearly) finished project, all in more or less one go. Boom. John Byrne made some changes and adjustments to turn Niven’s story into a full-blown comic book.

Secrets of the DCU (left) The GL vs. GL cover of Green Lantern #40 (Oct. 1965) belies its continuity importance, as its John Broome story seeded the roots of the DC Universe and introduced Krona. Cover by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. (right) Krona’s race, the Maltusians, as seen in Ganthet’s Tale.

LARRY NIVEN: Nothing drastic. I wanted certain scenes to be based on the Mandelbrot set (Late in the book, Hal sees time as the Mandelbrot set, in which every view of [Krona] is a view of the same moment. It’s the moment in which [Dawlakispokpok] reaches into what he thinks is the beginning of the universe, thus flooding the early universe with Entropy); [Byrne] used a different, cubic design, still a fractal. He didn’t change much else, but he elaborated a lot. Originally conceived as a three-issue miniseries, Ganthet’s Tale was ultimately published as a 60-page one-shot. Despite the new format, Niven says nothing was cut from his story. LARRY NIVEN: You’ll notice the graphic [novel] does break into three segments.

HAL JORDAN’S BIG WHITE-OUT MATT WEBB, Ganthet’s Tale colorist: I think John must’ve brought me in. That was a great job. I was always a Larry Niven fan. John said, “Yeah, Larry Niven’s writing it!” “Oh, wow!” So if you look at it, on the cover there’s a Pierson’s Puppeteer. Larry said that [John]’s the quintessential Puppeteer artist. He really likes the way John draws Puppeteers. [Author’s note: Byrne also included a Pierson’s Puppeteer cameo on pg 16.]

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 57

By the time Ganthet’s Tale was published in 1992, Green Lantern had gained a new monthly series. In it, Hal Jordan sported a new salt ’n’ pepper hairstyle, suggesting he was older than in previous years.

Big Bang Theory Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), original cover art to Ganthet’s Tale, signed by both Larry Niven and John Byrne. TM & © DC Comics.

GERARD JONES: Andy Helfer and I wanted to make Hal distinct from the other mainline DC heroes, who all seemed to be perpetually 29 years old, by making him a notch older and more life-experienced, more weathered, giving him some of that Reed Richards/ Nick Fury gravitas. I always found a certain romance in the craggy old heroes who were slower but tougher than the young guys around them. The gray temples were a visual shorthand to convey that. John Byrne disagreed with Hal’s new appearance, feeling it aged the character unnecessarily, so he used the climax of Ganthet’s Tale to suggest a possible explanation. Hal wasn’t drawn with white hair until the last seven pages, after Ganthet de-aged him. MATT WEBB: John was basically answering the question as to why Hal Jordan now has white temples. Ganthet

can only give him a portion of his energy back, so he was aged a little bit. But this idea was either rejected or forgotten about, and Hal ended up colored with white temples throughout the book. MATT WEBB: I didn’t know anything about it until I got my color guides back. They pay you to do the work, and once they would separate it, they would return them. I got the color guides back and somebody had methodically gone through and whited out the temples right over my coloring. SCOTT PETERSON: I assume someone simply saw that it didn’t match the current iteration of Hal and “fixed” it without paying attention to the story reason. I have no memory of that decision at all, and hope I had no idea at the time. White also worked to Webb’s advantage, however. At the story’s climax, as Entropy was engulfing the universe, Webb had a brainstorm to give Byrne’s double-page spread even more impact. MATT WEBB: I came to the point in the book where there was a really cool two-page spread of the galaxy. I was thinking about all kinds of color and stuff but then it came to me to leave it white! White is, after all, the presence of all color! I called John and said, “John … how about I just make this two-page spread white?” and he said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea!” and I said, “They’ll pay me, right?” John said it was an artistic choice, one he endorsed. So I got paid for doing two pages of white [laughs].”

EPILOGUE SCOTT PETERSON: It was only years later that I really realized how unusual a project I’d been fortunate enough to work on. At the time, I was just sorta, “Oh, right, I get to work on a project by a legendary science-fiction novelist and one of the great comic-book creators ever. That’s pretty cool.” As the Bard wrote, youth is wasted on the young. Ganthet became one of the most significant Guardians of all time, participating in most major GL storylines of the last 20 years, giving Kyle Rayner his power ring and co-founding the Blue Lantern Corps. Although Ganthet went unnamed in the 2011 Green Lantern movie, he appeared in both the Green Lantern and Duck Dodgers animated television series. When asked if he’s kept up with any of his creation’s appearances in comics and other media, Larry Niven confesses, “No, but [DC] sent me a statue of Ganthet.” Green Lantern recruit Percival subsequently appeared in Green Lantern vol. 3 #35 (Jan. 1993) and 45 (Sept. 1993), as well as in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #4 (Mar. 1993). Dawlakispokpok, Thwarcharchura, Doranchatok, and Darthartheen have not had any other appearances since Ganthet’s Tale, for which DC’s letterers are eternally grateful. While Niven’s Green Lantern bible has never been seen in full outside of the DC offices, excerpts appear in Niven’s 1991 collection Playgrounds of the Mind. Hopefully, Niven’s world building will someday inspire more tales of the GL Universe. After all, 15 billion years is a lot of ground to cover. JOHN TRUMBULL is vulnerable to redheads. Thanks to Larry Niven, Gerard Jones, Denny O’Neil, Scott Peterson, Dan Raspler, and Matt Webb for sharing their memories with BACK ISSUE, and to Loston and Carolyn Wallace for proofreading assistance.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

assembled by

Robert Greenberger

TM & © DC Comics.

[Editor’s note: Response to Bob Greenberger’s request for DC office stories far exceeded our expectations—and our allocated page count. Please forgive the condensed layout of this feature, but these remembrances were far too enticing to edit or serialize.] DC Comics closes the door on an era of its history in April 2015 when it relocates from New York City, the birth of comic-book publishing, to be part of the Warner Bros. complex in Burbank, California. The move is significant in terms of how the business has changed, and has emotional resonance for those who worked there and for the fans who visited the offices, dreaming of a chance to one day work there. Todd Klein, at his website KleinLetters.com, has been doing a series of in-depth features on the various places the company would call home. He politely declined to share his memories, saving them for his own space. He did, though, share DC’s early history. Irwin Donenfeld was first recorded in 1932 to have his pulp-magazine companies based on the 9th floor of 480 Lexington, lasting there through 1960. He added distribution with Paul Sampliner, becoming Independent News, and comic-book publishing with Jack Liebowitz, becoming National Allied Publications, Inc. Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s last offices for his fledging comic-book company, before losing it to Donenfeld and Liebowitz, was at 49 West 45th Street. Todd’s research revealed that Detective Comics, Inc. listed its offices at 432 Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South), which he assumed to be a mail drop. When Donenfeld partnered with Max Gaines to form sister company All-American Publications, they established offices at 225 Lafayette Street, on the corner of Spring Street. After Gaines sold out his share, the comicbook staff relocated to Lexington Avenue while Gaines remained at 225 Lafayette, giving birth to EC Comics. Around the time National Comics changed its name to National Periodical Publications, Inc., they also relocated up the block to 575 Lexington. What follows are building-by-building memories from a variety of professionals who graciously gave their time to reminisce.

575 LEXINGTON AVENUE ROY THOMAS, fan, writer, editor I recall that, the morning I first arrived in June of 1965, walking up Lexington Avenue with my suitcase and electric typewriter in either hand (I’d just got to town and had nowhere to stay yet); I was so excited about my new job as editor Mort Weisinger’s assistant editor on the Superman books that I marched a block or two past the correct address

and had to double back, my load getting heavier all the time. The offices were laid out in a row for the editors, with a big bullpen area (you should excuse the expression) off those. Because of my relationship with Mort, I quickly got to hate the office I shared with the woman who was Jack Miller’s assistant on the romance titles (and who never spoke a word to me until two minutes before I left the place forever). Still, my memories of the other things up there continue to shine. Joe Kubert, my favorite artist since I was, like, four, was very friendly and took a bit of time to talk to me that first day, since Mort somehow managed to affect surprise at my arriving precisely when we had agreed that I would and informed me he couldn’t start paying me till the following week. Joe’s kindness made it all a bit more endurable … even more was that of Murphy Anderson, who invited me to stand around and talk with him one of those very first afternoons after 5:00, and I marveled at seeing a Hawkman page appear virtually before my eyes. How many people worked in that bullpen area? How many desks were there … how were they arranged? I couldn’t have told you, then or now … but I remember Joe and Murphy … and a few kind words from production man Ed Eisenberg, as well. Julie Schwartz was friendly, too, with just a few words … he didn’t want Mort think he was poaching on his preserve, in all probability. And going to lunch one day with Mort and writer Otto Binder was a highlight. One of the few, I fear, before a happy happenstance allowed me to depart for Marvel Comics after eight days in the DC offices. Which is weird, because I’d always wanted to work for DC, and had never even considered working for Marvel (or that Stan Lee wanted anybody to do any writing or editing for that company). I was up there once or twice during the latter part of Carmine Infantino’s reign, in the mid-’70s. Gerry Conway brought me over, very hush-hush, to talk to Carmine, and we discussed in a vague way the idea of my coming back to DC sometime. I used the occasion to plug one or two ideas which Carmine liked, such as bringing back The New Gods after Kirby had gone back to Marvel. But I didn’t spend a lot of time there, as I wasn’t eager for word to get back to Marvel that I’d been there. In the early 1980s, after I’d signed a contract with DC, I was up at the offices a number of times at Rockefeller Center or wherever it was, but I never could relax there. I always felt like an outsider, despite my affection for Dick Giordano and Pat Bastienne … and Julie, who was there off and on. I can still draw a picture of the Marvel offices in 1965 … but I couldn’t draw you a map of the DC offices at any time and get anything right except the fact that there were two or three other editors’ offices in between the one I shared with the romance editor

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 59

575 LEXINGTON AVENUE (top) Strange Adventures #134 (Nov. 1961) was where (middle) DC’s fabled headquarters was shown as the “golden skyscraper.” (bottom) A tour of DC’s offices, circa late 1967, as shown in The Inferior Five #6. Art TM & © DC Comics.

and Mort’s. Which was not nearly enough. When he wanted me, he buzzed … and I reacted like a rat right out of Pavlov, scurrying down the hall to receive the latest verbal assault. Too bad, too … because there was history in those halls, in those offices, and most especially in the people who resided in them … and I wish I’d been able to relax a bit more and appreciate them all, be it in the ’60s or ’70s or ’80s. DC was a New York City company, born and bred, even if its heroes lived in Metropolis, Gotham City, Star City, Central City, Coast City, Midway City, and the rest. During the ’80s, the only presence DC had in Hollywood was when Dick G. would fly out every few weeks and I’d drive up to the Warner lot to have lunch with him. Having DC move to L.A. is a bit like when Johnny Carson abandoned NYC for L.A. There’s a sense of loss. But everything changes… MARV WOLFMAN, fan, writer, editor I started going on the DC tours, which in its early days were conducted twice a week, back in the very early 1960s. DC was, I think, on the 8th floor of 575 Lexington Avenue, in the golden Groiler building, which was built only a few years earlier in 1958. Years later, Julie Schwartz had aliens kidnap the building in an issue [#134] of Strange Adventures, but those of us who visited it knew it was safely ensconced on 51st Street and Lexington. The tours back then were conducted by Walter Hurlacheck, who worked in DC’s production department. We—the fans—would all meet in DC’s outer lobby, a small area with a few chairs and the receptionist’s cubicle. Behind the receptionist, on the wall, was a large painting of Superman. While waiting for the tour to start, the receptionist would sometimes hand out bound volumes of old DC comics. And yes, they went back to the first issues of Superman. I got to read lots of the Golden Age that way. When you walked through the receptionist’s door, to the right were editor’s offices and to the left were file cabinets. My memory of those days is a tad fuzzy so forgive me if I’m wrong, but I think the romance comic editors (Jack Miller and company) were in the first office. Murray Boltinoff, Jack Schiff, and George Kashdan were in the second. Mort Weisinger was in the third. I’m guessing Julie Schwartz and Bob Kanigher were in the next one. After that were business offices—Irwin Donenfeld, Jack Liebowitz, etc. We never went down that far. As I said, to the left were file cabinets filled with art, which Walter would show us of upcoming books. After the row of cabinets, to the left, was the door into the production department. Everyone else worked there. The only two artists who seemed to work up at the offices on most days were Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and they sat in the middle of production. I’m sure others will talk of this, too, but one day as we were near the file cabinets, Sol Harrison, who ran production, was wheeling out a

60 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

post-office bin filled with artwork from the 1940s. This was all written-off material; in other words, original art from the 1940s that was never used for any number of reasons. He was wheeling this art to the incinerators to destroy them. Hundreds upon hundreds of never-published art was, in just a few minutes, going to be history. For reasons that escape me, Sol paused in front of us, all young kid fans, and asked if we wanted any of the art before he incinerated them. Like Uncle Scrooge, we dove into the bin and grabbed everything we could. Before I continue, please remember back then nobody thought the art had any monetary value at all. Not even the artists wanted their pages back. But we were fans and we thought original art was great and we wanted everything we could get. The pros didn’t believe the art had value until, years later, we fans finally convinced them it did. We all took our art and hurried to the lobby where we traded pages. I walked out an hour later with hundreds of pages of art, so much so that as a teenager I knew I couldn’t carry the art on the subway, so I took a cab all the way home from Manhattan to Queens. And that cost a lot. At the next meeting of our comics club I gave all my friends at least an entire book of original art. Have to admit I’m not sure had I anticipated their future value I would have done so, but back then I wanted to share the wealth. But I had hundreds of pages, including a full 12-page unpublished Superman story from 1942, which I still have today. I got to meet lots of other fans on these trips, many of whom, like Gerry Conway, Mark Hanerfeld, Alan Kupperberg, and others became professional writers and artists, and some of whom I’m still friends with today. Eventually DC cut the tours down to once a week and then, finally, eliminated them completely. I tried to visit Marvel but they never gave tours. When I broke into the business I discovered why; where DC’s offices were fairly large and open, Marvel’s offices were tiny and cramped. They barely had room for the half-dozen or so people who worked there and certainly not for the hordes of fans who could visit if they could. Visiting the DC offices and meeting the pros, getting art tips from Carmine and Murphy, and getting a chance to speak with legends created strong memories that, even if I can’t remember every detail 50-plus years later, are memories I still cherish. GERRY CONWAY, fan, writer, editor One of the most important people in comics in the 1960s, if not the most important person for the careers of several future comic-book writers and artists, was a man named Walter Hurlacheck. Walter was not a famous writer, artist, or editor. He didn’t publish a fanzine or write a column or own a comic-book store. (In the 1960s there weren’t any comic-book stores.) Walter was a mild, gentle, kindly man with the patience of a monk, who worked in the production department at what is now DC Comics but was then National Periodical Publications, in their offices on Lexington Avenue, a few blocks from Grand Central Station. What made him one of the most important people in comics is something he did one afternoon a week, every week, during the summer. At two o’clock on Thursdays, Walter Hurlacheck greeted a half-dozen to a dozen kids and their parents in the glassed-in lobby of the National Periodicals office, and took them on a tour. It’s hard to imagine now, I suppose, when companies like Marvel and DC have become institutional behemoths in their own right, under the aegis of huge multinational corporations, but there was a time when—if you lived in New York, or happened to be visiting town on the right day during summer vacation—you could drop by the office of your favorite comic-book publisher and get invited into the back rooms where artists performed touch-up work on their stories, and editors left their doors open to chat with readers, and pages of original art were handed out like party favors. DC/National was unique in this. Marvel had no formal tour—if you stopped by their office, you were greeted by the fabulous Flo Steinberg, who’d hand you a mimeographed pinup of the Fantastic Four signed by Stan and Jack. Gold Key Comics was part of Whitman Publishing, and also had no tour; ACG had offices the size of a coat closet; Harvey and Archie were for little kids; and MAD Magazine just seemed too … unapproachable. But National Periodicals welcomed you—why, I have no idea. Maybe it was because they had a Walter Hurlacheck and Marvel didn’t. Maybe Walter was just a nice guy who liked kids and volunteered to show them around. Whatever the reason, for some of us who went on to have extended careers at DC and elsewhere, Walter Hurlacheck was the Most Important Man in Comics. Because he was the man who opened the door and let us in. He was the Gatekeeper. (Some of the

people who used to join me on that weekly tour—week in and week out—included future comic-book superstars Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and Steve Mitchell.) Other people will write about some of the offices DC occupied later—on Third Avenue in the early 1970s, Rockefeller Center in the late ’70s, Broadway from the ’80s till today—but for me, when I wax nostalgic over my earliest memories of the DC, I travel back to the offices of National Periodical Publications, 575 Lexington Avenue (the building Julie Schwartz referred to as “The Golden Skyscraper” in an issue of Strange Adventures that featured that self-same building blasting into space). What were those offices like? Memory is a fallible guide, but if I recall correctly, they weren’t large. Leaving the elevator, you entered a glass-walled lobby with a couple of low, sleek, mid-century modern sofas. Ahead of you was a sliding-glass window to a small room where the secretary/receptionist sat, and to the left was The Door that led to a long hall with editorial offices on one side and the production office on the other. Beyond the door there were four editorial offices, if I remember correctly. The first office on your right as you passed through The Door belonged to editor Jack Schiff; the next was shared by Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan; beyond that was one shared by Julie Schwartz and Bob Kanigher; next up was Mort Weisinger’s. (Undoubtedly there were other people present sharing those offices— Nelson Bridwell was in there somewhere—but I don’t recall who or where. These were the people I interacted with, however briefly in some cases.) The big action, oddly enough, was in the central hallway itself, and in the production room. The hallway and the production room were filled with huge architect/draftsman file cabinets, and these cabinets were filled with original art for upcoming issues, and as we crowded up, Walter would open the file drawers and pull out gigantic pages of pencil work by Gil Kane and Carmine Infantino, or fully inked pages by Murphy Anderson or Lee Elias, and we could touch them, and sometimes, even take some home. (I remember one time Julie Schwartz grumpily handed out pages of Green Lantern to half a dozen of us. Julie always seemed grumpy, but was always remarkably available and generous.) (And yes, looking back, I’m horrified that artists didn’t get their art back, and that it was handed out wily-nilly to pimple-faced teens who happened to be taking a tour on that particular day. But the alternative fate for that art was even worse: at the time we’re talking about, National’s typical practice was to dispose of used artwork by cutting it up and dumping it in the trash. Whatever original artwork from DC’s Silver Age remains in existence today is available only because it was handed out during tours or given away by Julie to lucky readers who got their letters printed on one of his letters pages.) As for what the offices looked like, the easiest way to describe them for a modern reader would be to refer to the offices of Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce on the show Mad Men. The offices of National Periodicals weren’t as elegant or as large as those on that show (and there weren’t any sex-toy secretaries, at least, none that I noticed as a hormonally infused teenager), but if the general sense of clean, modern, no-nonsense men-in-suits doing creative work is pretty much the same. National Periodical Publications was Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce on a budget (and, I’m pretty sure, without the booze). Those days of easy access for lucky locals are long gone, of course. The informality and open-door familiarity of a Walter Hurlacheck is a thing of the distant past in comics today. But in many ways, there’s more actual access to a company like DC today—through the editors’ presence at conventions around the country—than there was when National Periodicals offered tours to whoever happened to be in New York City on a Thursday in the summer. DC Comics may be moving its offices from New York to Los Angeles, but the DC Comics office I first knew hasn’t existed for decades. I said goodbye to it long, long ago. Yet it lives on, as corny as that sounds, in fond memory. Thanks for the tour, Walter Hurlacheck, wherever you are. IRENE VARTANOFF, fan, writer, editorial staffer I remember taking the DC tour at 575 Lexington Avenue on Thursday at 1 p.m. with my friends, and at the end, the man who had shown us around used a cutting board to chop pages of original artwork in thirds, handing us each a third as a souvenir. You could do that then because almost every page of a comic book except the splash had exactly six equal-sized panels. At the time, I don’t think we were horrified. Eventually, we swapped our panels and made other trades and most of us ended up with a whole page of original art. With the help of some tape.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 61

909 THIRD AVENUE In 1968, NPP was sold to Kinney, owned by Steve Ross, as he began assembling the pieces that first became Warner Communications. In a separate deal, he bought EC Publications, which was only publishing MAD at the time. In April 1969, Ross began putting these pieces together at 909 Third Avenue. I have no recollection of who my father met while a salesman for IBM, but one day he announced that he arranged a tour of the DC Comics offices. I flashed back to that sense of wonder as the news spread across the Internet that after 75-plus years, the comic-book publisher was going to be following the Dodgers to Los Angeles. At the time I visited in 1971, I was shown around by Carol Fein, who was then a secretary for Carmine Infantino. She did tours so often through the years that by the time I joined staff in 1984 and she worked for Jenette Kahn, there was no way she could recall this one incident. But I remember it. I must have been 14 and the corporate offices looked unlike any place I had seen before (and I never did visit Dad at IBM so had no basis of comparison at the time). It resembled offices I saw on television shows, with comic books replacing flow charts and spreadsheets covering the desks. As we stood in Robert Kanigher’s office, Infantino himself brushed by, cigar leading the way. I got a quick nod and he kept going. In a spare office, Neal Adams was hunched over a drawing board, penciling the cover to World’s Greatest Super-Heroes. The highlight though was being taken into the austere library where Mark Hanerfeld, then the librarian, made my eyes pop by casually grabbing a volume from the drawer and letting me thumb through the first few issues of All-Star Comics—from the 1940s! MICHAEL USLAN, Comicmobile driver It all started with my teaching the world’s first accredited college course on comic books at Indiana University. It received worldwide press. Two people of significance who noted it all and reached out to me were Stan Lee and Sol Harrison, then-vice president and production manager of DC Comics. Sol offered to fly me to NY to discuss ways DC could work with me on new projects. It was a fanboy-geek dream-come-true. He and Carmine met with me in Carmine’s president’s office at 909 Third Avenue. Even the elevator ride to the 6th floor was an adventure, as Penthouse Magazine’s offices were on the 9th floor, and the elevator was often shared with its procession of Pets of the Month. They (Sol and Carmine, not the Pets) then took me to lunch at the swank corner restaurant that was their executive hangout … Friar Tuck’s, in the shape of an Olde English castle. Friar Tuck’s is long gone but you can still spot the stone castle-like siding on that corner building on Third Avenue. It was there that I began to fill in my firsthand knowledge of the industry from the people who were there since the 1930s and ’40s. Many times in the lunch room, I would desert my fellow-Woodchucks to sit with Sol and Jack Adler and nudged them to tell story after story about the birth of the comic-book industry (Sol did the cover color separations on Famous Funnies #1), the early days of DC, or the secrets about everyone in the business then and now. For example, there was an artist in the earliest days of DC whose work appeared in their first titles. The name was “Sven Elven.” I wondered to Sol and Jack if that was some pseudonym based on the lucky roll of dice, “Seven Eleven”? No, he was a very real guy, a lumberjack type from Scandinavia who lived in upstate NY and would come down every so often and cast his jocular, imposing presence around the NY office. I made friends with Gerda Gattel, the keeper of the DC library, so that she would let me skip some lunches and read volume after volume of every DC title starting in the 1930s as I sat inside the vault. Her dear friend, Ira Schnapp, would come by, lugging his big portfolio to show the latest title logos he designed or to turn in a new lettering job. I would engage him in talks about the early days of DC and he would tell me such tales as how he took Joe Shuster’s crude drawing of the Superman logo and turned it into the reg.us.pat.off. trademark we all know so well. His proudest achievement? He designed the lettering encircling the massive US Post Office on Seventh Avenue at 34th Street. DC had so many Damon Runyonesque characters working there! I enjoyed each and every one! BOB ROZAKIS, letterhack, writer First office I visited, Julie and Nelson shared an office. When I brought some puzzles I created for Nelson, Julie grabbed them, went and got Sol Harrison, and my freelance career as a puzzle maker began. I started on staff about a month or so before we moved out. I remember having to pack up all the stuff in the darkroom because Wayne, the darkroom tech, decided to take the day off. There was a stain on the rug in front of Carmine’s door. Supposedly, it was where Mike Sekowsky once threw up.

AL MIGROM, artist I used to work at DC with Murphy Anderson, who had a desk in proofreader Gerda Gattel’s office, a real sweet woman. There were a couple of drafting boards, so someone else was there, too. I went up, showed my samples, which mostly consisted of my pencils and inks or me inking Jim Starlin’s stuff (we met in elementary school) and his pencils were better than mine. He was already up at Marvel doing work in 1972. So, I went up and met Carmine Infantino, who said, “You guys are a good team, can I get you two up here?” I had to explain Jim was already working at Marvel and well, Carmine’s attitude changed and he said, “He’ll burn himself out.” Murphy was looking for an assistant since Dave Cockrum was off doing Legion stories. He hired me and I used to go up to the offices every day and sit next to Murph. The first thing he handed me was a Curt Swan Superman page and he said, “Start here…” Yikes. Murphy was a very talented artist and inker. He would tell me what I was doing wrong or right. He was working over Irv Novick and various people across a lot of the other features. While working for Murphy I met Vinnie Colletta and Frank Robbins. It was really interesting; when you’re young and stupid, you think you know everything. I had moved on to the Marvel stuff and was a huge Kirby and Ditko fan. Frank’s stuff didn’t send me but when I saw the originals, I saw just how good he was. His drawing was really wonderful, the way he used blacks. What was I thinking? It was a good way to slap me around and see that people didn’t get into the industry by a fluke. I worked for Murphy for just about a year, and during that time, he was also providing art to Will Eisner for P*S Magazine. As the year ended, Eisner decided he was giving it up. Murphy put in a bid to become the new packager and won. He asked if I wanted to come along and work on it but I said, “Gee, Murph, I really want to do comic books.” Right around that time, I began getting a little work on my own starting with Sword of Sorcery. It was a Grey Mouser story that Starlin drew. Jim requested me for inks. Everybody was pretty happy with the results. I crossed the Rubicon there. Cockrum was in a bit of a deadline bind on the Legion so I inked a few pages of backgrounds for him. l left the heads for him and at the same time, Walter Simonson, who I had met fairly recently, came up with his samples, which turned out to be the Star Slammers he did at RISD as a senior project. He also used it as samples, but it was a funny coincidence. I happened to be in St. Louis during a World Science Fiction Convention and stopped by one day to wander around and they were giving away little 4–5–6page black-and-white comics, which turned out to be a serialized Star Slammers, doing it in installments I had seen it previously. Walter was doing an issue of SoS; he was doing a lead story. He was always in a deadline crunch and asked me for help, so I moved into his apartment in Brooklyn for a few days. He would draw and tighten them up, and hand them to me to ink. I was trying to ink Walter as if I was Murphy, which I am not, and it was not a good fit for Walter. But it turned out fine in the end. It was impressive for me, a kid from the Midwest, a big, tall building in NYC. MAD was on a different floor in the same building; Bill Gaines would lumber in periodically and have consultations with the top guys, in a very loose sort of way. That was impressive; I knew about EC Comics by then. There were rows of offices, each with different editors. Sol liked me because I resembled his son. Jack Adler, the assistant production chief, was an instructive guy. At some point, DC introduced this apprentice program; I had been working for Murphy for several months, inking different guys and getting an education, Sol came in and asked how I liked being part of the program. No one told me anything about it. “You’re the first guy we put in.” Pat Broderick was in the program, getting a stipend, some kind of money, so I asked about some money. Sol said, “Oh, well, no, because Murphy is paying you.” If he got $25 a page, I got $5 a page, which was standard going rate at the time. It was sort of interesting. But they wouldn’t pay be to be a part of their program. [Writer’s note: At much the same time, the wannabe writers were put into a program dubbed the Junior Woodchucks.] [DC was] doing a lot of reprints at the time and they had need for a lot of touchups, paying $1–2 a page. I took a stack and used rapidographs, including one with white out for ink. I would go in and tighten things up or open them up in white. It was kind of fun in a way as I got to see a lot of stories from the 1940s. Paul Levitz was already installed as Joe’s [Orlando] assistant, and he was even younger than I was. Even then, he knew as much about running the company as most people there; that was kind of intriguing. It was a very exciting time. A lot of the guys who started doing comics in the late 1930s and early 1940s, clearly a lot of them wanted to be

62 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

909 THIRD AVENUE (left) 909 Third Avenue today. (right) 909 when it was DC’s home, as shown on page 1 of 1970’s Super DC Giant #S-16, “The Best of the Brave and the Bold.” Art TM & © DC Comics.

cartoonists—the ultimate goal was to do a newspaper strip—but around the time I started it was a whole generation of guys who wanted to do comic books. There wasn’t a lot of desire to do strips. Guys I started reading—Bernie Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, Jeff Jones— they were the earliest thrust of that generation. When DC acquired the ERB titles, in came Alan Weiss and Dan Green working on those things. In those years, DC had a coffee room, it was a place where a lot of the guys would hang out, grab a cup of coffee. We were coming from all over the country, wanting to work on comics. There was Frank Brunner, Rich Buckler, a bunch of new guys all at once. All these people with common interests from the hinterlands coming together, no longer an embarrassment, talking about the work; it was a lot of fun. DENNY O’NEIL, writer, editor You might have discerned the state of DC Comics publishing by looking at the company’s workspaces. After a brief visit to DC’s offices on Lexington Avenue—this would have been in the late ’60s or early ’70s—a friend who’d accompanied me remarked on the gloominess of the suite. Gloomy? Well, maybe. But I’d rather use the word “sedate.” The vibe was shy and introverted, like that kid in your senior class who never joined the fun. It was a beige-y kind of place, and it was nigh on to impossible to tell what kind of work was being done behind those doors. That work, of course, was the editing of comic books, and comic books were not held in high repute those days. The medium was still tainted by an earlier decade’s witch hunting, during which authority figures blamed comics for juvenile delinquency and sundry other woes. So those comics guys were doing their jobs and for the most part keeping their heads down. Soon, the company migrated a few blocks north and east, sharing a skyscraper with a huge post office and various commercial enterprises. I remember DC then as an improvement, a cheerier scene, one where jackets and ties were no longer de rigueur. The work the company was producing was fresher, more willing to experiment a little, and the words “comic book” were no longer synonyms for “evil functional illiterate.”

Next, the company went west again, to the building that provided the exterior shots for Elaine Benes’ offices on television’s Seinfeld. Inside, more of the same. Outside, comics and their main avatars, superheroes, were an accepted part of the pop-culture landscape. No need to hide them behind a copy of the Daily News when you were riding the subway. And finally … over to Seventh Avenue, where DC had its final Manhattan home: five floors in a building that occupied a whole block and overlooked the theater that had once housed the Ed Sullivan variety hour and would soon be occupied by the David Letterman show. Not much like the digs I’d visited on Lexington Avenue. No mistaking what was being produced here: the walls were decorated with reproductions of comics covers; a life-size Superman was in the main reception room on the seventh floor; a Batman, clad in a costume Michael Keaton had worn in a movie, was prominent in the 3rd floor reception room. Odd items of memorabilia were scattered throughout the halls. You might have gotten the idea that it was a nifty place to work. I did. For a decade-and-a-half, I shared tasks with enthusiastic colleagues and generous bosses and I had the use of a character who was both an icon and a great storytelling tool. Somewhere in there, while we were involved in getting monthly publications out into the world, our specialties, the superheroes whose adventures first appeared in the lowly comic book, were earning film people billions and occupying a region very near the center of pop culture. Comics publishers became part of showbiz empires who were headquartered a continent away and, perhaps inevitably, comics folk began to migrate. DC was on the move again, not merely across town, but across country. Hollywood, here we come! In going West, DC will leave a hole in the mythos of the Big Apple, the same kind of hole that was left when, last century, network radio vanished from midtown Manhattan. Now, nobody except a few nostalgia lovers thinks about network radio, and maybe New Yorkers will forget that once superheroes were born here. Me? I’m proud to have been there.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 63

75 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA In November 1973 the company relocated to 75 Rockefeller Plaza as Steve Ross consolidated the holdings of Warner Communications. DC shared space with Independent News once again, taking one side of the floor with a common reception area. When I was first hired in 1980, the company had grown and space was definitely tight. I was summer help that year, stuffed in a small, glassed-in office with Andy Helfer. The best part of working in such tight space was that we were across the hall from Murray Boltinoff and heard him and Kanigher plot, yell, debate, and argue with one another. We were visited regularly by Bob Haney, in his final years as a writer, and he’d regale us with stories. Newcomer J. M. DeMatteis would also hang with us while waiting for editors to be free, and I think we both envied his early success.

75 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA (top) 75 Rock today. (center left) Writer Bob Haney. (center right) Bob Rozakis holding the back cover to 1979’s Detective Comics #482, containing his story “Bat-Mite’s New York Adventure,” which featured Bat-Mite’s visit to DC Comics. (bottom left) Colorist Tatjana Wood. (bottom right) Mike W. Barr returns original art to Walter Simonson, circa 1978–1979. 75 Rockefeller Plaza photo by David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons. Haney and Wood photos courtesy of Jack C. Harris. Rozakis and Barr/Simonson photos courtesy of Mike W. Barr, scanned by Michael Savene.

ANTHONY TOLLIN, production artist I went to work in July of 1974 as a staffer at DC Comics. Looking back some 40 years later, I’m struck by just how small the comics world was back then, at a time when comic books were still a mass medium. By my count, there were only about 32 staffers at what was still National Periodical Publications, and that included the payroll department on another floor. Of course, there were far more comics professionals employed as freelancers, but the DC Comics staff in the mid-1970s consisted of about five full-time editors (plus a few part-time editors like Denny O’Neil and Joe Simon), associate editor E. Nelson Bridwell, four assistant editors (Bob Rozakis, Allan Asherman, Guy H. Lillian, and Paul Levitz), Jack Adler and about seven production artists and a darkroom technician, DC president Carmine Infantino, vice president Sol Harrison, and business manager Bernard Kashdan, plus their respective secretaries. MAD’s Bill Gaines had an office next to Carmine’s and would come in on Fridays to assist Carmine on the business end of publishing. Also, Michael Uslan was briefly working as a summer intern for Sol Harrison, before he headed off to law school and his later career executive-producing the Batman movies. When you realize the worldwide impact of the legendary superheroes that came out of those offices, we were really an amazingly small team. Everyone knew each other because there were so few of us. A few years ago, I was identified in a New York Times article on San Diego’s Comic-Con International as an “aging greybeard of the comics industry,” which was a bit of a shock considering that Jerry Robinson’s Artist Alley table was only a few rows away from mine. I still think of myself as one of the younger comics professionals, simply because there was such an age gap when I started at DC. There was a glaring age divide between those who had been in the business for several decades (Jack Adler and Sol Harrison had both done color separations on Action Comics #1 in 1938) and those of us who came in during the early 1970s via fanzines or letter columns. Levitz was still in his teens, while Carl Gafford, Rozakis, and I, along with freelance writers Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, Elliot Maggin, and Marty Pasko, were all in our early 20s, while Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Lillian, Asherman, and Jack Harris were only a couple years older. I had traveled from Minnesota to New York City for the first time to attend the 1972 Seuling Con, and then returned the following spring to go to work for Warren and then freelance at Marvel. I hadn’t been particularly happy at Marvel in 1973, because the House that Stan and Jack had built was undergoing a rapid population explosion of fans of my own generation, and I was interested in learning my craft from experienced professionals, which is what DC Comics offered. Production manager Jack Adler, my immediate boss at DC, had been in the comics business since the 1930s, as had Sol Harrison, while Julie Schwartz, Murray Boltinoff, and Joe Kubert had all been in the field since the early 1940s. It’s strange to realize that today I’m several years older than Jack Adler and Sol Harrison were when they hired me as DC proofreader (and later assistant production manager/color coordinator). And here we were, suddenly working alongside our childhood idols. As someone who had been a Minnesota comic-book collector only a year or so earlier, it was a dream-come-true to be working alongside my childhood idols. Suddenly, I was living in Manhattan and sharing meals in the Warner Communications cafeteria with the likes of Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Joe Kubert, and Sergio Aragonés … and not because I was a visiting fanboy but because I was just one of the guys they worked with at the office. Curt Swan and I shared personal stories, having both grown up in Swedish-American families in Minneapolis. As a science-fiction fan and a co-founder of the Minnesota Science Fiction Convention, it was wonderful to be on hand when former SF agent Julius Schwartz was visited by his former clients like Alfred Bester or Robert Bloch, or his friends from 1930s science-fiction fandom like Isaac Asimov and Science Wonder Stories editor Charles Hornig. As a pulp fan and collector, I formed a bond with Julie, who appreciated having someone around who was familiar with Johnston McCulley’s Thubway Tham and the Crimson Clown, and knew that early Amazing Stories editor T. O’Connor Sloane was the son-in-law of Thomas Edison. As DC’s proofreader, I had enjoyed being paid to read comic books (or more accurately, the original art). However, I consider my five-plus years as Jack Adler’s assistant production manager/color coordinator with more fondness than any other period in my career. While my decades as a freelance colorist (coloring many stories and half of [DC’s] covers, with Tatjana Wood coloring the others) were more fulfilling creatively, I really loved the variety offered by my job as Jack’s assistant, because every

64 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

day was different. I don’t think Jack asked me to do a specific task more than five times in those five-plus years. Jack knew I was a self-starter and trusted me to do what needed to be done. If there was a backup in art corrections, I’d take a book and begin doing corrections. If books were being delayed because of backups in getting Photostats, I’d move into the spare darkroom and begin shooting stats. If we were behind on covers, I’d paste up logos and lettering on covers. And if Bob Rozakis (who had succeeded me as proofreader) was on vacation, I’d proofread whatever books were hottest, and if advertisements needed to be colored, I’d do so. My afternoons were spent bringing 3M color-separation proofs to the editors for okaying, and calling in corrections to Chemical Color, the engraving house. There’s a special bond that one shares with the people they were working with in their 20s, when they were working in their dream jobs and learning your craft, and everything was new and exciting. Such had occurred with Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, Mort Meskin, and their friends when they were creating the comic-book art form in the late 1930s and 1940s. There was a similar enthusiasm in the comics industry in the 1970s, when the business welcomed in a generation of new talent in a few short years. Suddenly, there were all these new, young comics pros, many of whom like myself had moved to New York City to pursue their dreams. Since so many of us were from out of town, we didn’t know many New Yorkers other than the people we worked with, so those were also the people we socialized with after hours, especially those of us who were living in Manhattan. So we attended parties at Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates and at “The Studio,” the professional workplace of Bernie Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, Jeff Jones, and Barry Windsor-Smith, along with First Fridays at Jenette Kahn’s apartment. The New York comics community of the 1970s was something very special, in the days before FedEx made it possible for professionals to have comics careers without living in the New York area. That wasn’t the case in the 1970s, which resulted in a close-knit community of enthusiastic young comics professionals. As Marv Wolfman has observed, we were the first generation of comics professionals who actually wanted to be wanted to be working in the comic-book field. Earlier generations of artists had seen comic books as a way to make money while polishing their skills in preparation for careers in illustration, newspaper strips, or advertising, just as pulp writers had moved into the burgeoning 1940s comic-book field to supplement their declining pulp earnings. Unlike earlier comics professionals, we were right where we wanted to be! As an almost-charter member of DC’s “Junior Woodchucks” young professionals program, I had suddenly moved up from publishing my own dittoed fanzines as a member of the CAPA-Alpha amateur publishing alliance to writing and co-editing The Amazing World of DC Comics pro-zine, and was in the wonderful position of getting paid to interview such legendary talents as Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Mayer, the legendary editor of DC’s All-American comics line who had mentored the early careers of Julius Schwartz, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, and my personal favorite, the late, great Alex Toth. I also got to assemble the display of DC Comics memorabilia for the 1976 Super DC Convention, a fabulous event at which my then-fiancée (and future wife) Adrienne Roy and I dressed a life-sized mannequin in George Reeves’ actual costume from the Adventures of Superman television series. My desk was at the front of the production department, and ace letterer Joe Letterese’s desk was immediately behind mine. Joe was another longtime comics professional who had previously been a member of the 1940s and 1950s Timely/Atlas bullpen, and had lettered the “Bams” and “Pows” for the Batman television series. Bob LeRose headed DC’s cover paste-up department for most of those years, after beginning his career at the Johnson and Cushing advertising agency packaging comic-strip advertisements and the Boy’s Life comics section. Jack Adler’s secretary Lillian Mandel was part of DC’s history and corporate memory, having worked for decades as the secretary to DC publisher Jack Liebowitz. DC was long recognized as having the finest production standards in the comics industry, and our 1970s production department included such young talents as John Workman (who soon moved on to become art director at Heavy Metal), inker Steve Mitchell (who also co-scripted and served as second unit director on the horror film, Chopping Mall), and ace letterer Todd Klein. Preceding Todd at his production department desk was Bill Morse. Bill was the most dangerous of staff employees, because he quickly realized that he was only passing through … and that he would not be making comics his life’s work. So while the rest of us were usually on our best behavior, hoping to live out our lives as DC staffers, Bill was less intimidated by authority and hierarchy. I recall one Friday afternoon when Bill hopped up upon the long production counter that divided the room, and began doing a chimpanzee walk while calling out ape cries. He quickly recruited the back portion of the production department (LeRose, Mitchell, Morris Waldinger,

John Workman, and even staid Letterese) into his Friday afternoon rebellion, and the production department was awash in jungle sounds and exotic birdcalls. Meanwhile, DC president Sol Harrison was in his office about 40 feet away, trying to conduct a serious business meeting with his immediate boss, Bill Sarnoff, president of Warner Publishing. Disturbed by the cacophony, Sol excused himself and entered the production department, turning at my desk to be confronted by the sight of the chimp-walking Bill Morse atop the art counter conducting a symphony of jungle sounds. Jack Adler always called Sol “the Buddha” and Harrison certainly proved it that day. Sol simply shook his head, turned around and walked out of the production department, quietly closing the door to production on his way out. That was Sol Harrison in a nutshell: “Okay, what’s the simplest way to correct this problem? Oh, I’ll just quietly close the door so the sound of crazy production staffers on a Friday afternoon doesn’t disturb my meeting with my boss.” I still consider that to be Sol’s finest moment! And Sol Harrison had many great moments. In an age when more and more companies are led by interchangeable MBAs, DC Comics was blessed to have a long continuity of leadership by people who really knew and understood the business: Sol Harrison, Jenette Kahn, and Paul Levitz oversaw DC’s fortunes for nearly 40 years between them, during which time Marvel Comics underwent who knows how many CEOs and corporate changes. DC was blessed to have multi-talented comics professionals at the helm for so many years. Sol knew the business inside and out, as a printer and color separator, and as an inker, letterer, and colorist. Paul Levitz knew the business as an assistant editor, writer, editorial coordinator, editor, and publisher. I have wonderful recollections of occasional minor crises in the production department, when DC’s president Sol Harrison would come into the room and quietly ask, “Okay, what’s the problem and how do we fix it?” Then he’d take off his suit jacket and drape it over a spare chair, roll up his shirtsleeves, find some empty space on the production counter, and pick up a brush and do whatever was necessary to pitch in and help … which was considerable considering his background in printing, coloring, inking, production, and lettering. Similarly, I remember a day when the final ten pages of a super-late Warlord issue arrived at about 10:30 a.m. that had to be colored and go off to the engraving plant by 3:30 that afternoon. I moved out of production to help my wife, the late Adrienne Roy, color those ten pages that had to be completed that day … and I was not alone. Knowing how late the book was, assistant editor Paul Levitz pitched in too, filling in flesh-tones and costumes. Such was the spirit of DC Comics during the 1970s, when a relatively small staff was producing a lot of wonderful four-color entertainment in what is now recognized as the “Bronze Age of Comics.” We were a team, always ready to pitch in and do whatever was necessary to get the job done and the books off to the printer. My comic-book career lasted some 25 years, followed by a satisfying decade writing historical booklets on old-time radio and more recently publishing trade paperback reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage. I’ve been lucky to have had several wonderfully satisfying careers. But my years as a DC staffer are the ones I remember most fondly, working alongside a tremendously talented group of editorial and production professionals who also loved what they were doing. It’s a really special gift to be surrounded on a daily basis with enthusiastic and talented professionals, and a super way to live! BOB ROZAKIS, assistant editor, assistant production manager, writer I had a cubical at first. When Archie Goodwin left, I got his office. Lillian Mandel, who was Jack Adler’s secretary, called the phone and asked, “Is Archie Goodman there?” “No, Lillian, he went to Marvel.” “Well, when is he coming back?” There was a closet between Carmine and then Sol’s office and the office used by Bill Gaines when he came to consult. The closet was a repository of all sorts of treasures, from the old Superman cartoons to ashcan editions and more. When I was assistant production manager, one lunchtime I was at my desk talking to one of the production guys. Suddenly, secretary Midge Bregman (or maybe Frieda Sacco) started screaming. Carol Fein was choking. I performed the Heimlich on her. What was interesting was that afterwards, the production guy told me I had jumped OVER my desk to get there. MICHAEL USLAN, writer 75 Rock was like moving into the Ritz. More room, a cool location right smack in the middle of Rockefeller Center. Better restaurants (though we all mostly ate in the company’s basement lunchroom or at the lobby hamburger joint we fondly referred to as “Botchulism Bistro”). I recall how Carmine’s office was next to Bill Gaines’ office, then Sol’s office, and the wonderful, wonderful secretaries, Carol Fein and Midge Bregman, who really were the ones who ran the place. Each editor had

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 65

an office, though I think maybe Nelson Bridwell doubled up with Julie, at least for a short time. There were production people in the center and a separate artist/production bullpen headed by Jack Adler’s office at the top. Loved hanging out with all the guys there … Joe Letterese, Morris Waldinger, so many others… Sweet memories! AL MILGROM, editor Neal Adams was dating Jenette Kahn at the time and he just thought I was bright or he wanted to save the industry from my penciling but thought I would be a competent editor and whispered in Jenette’s ear. She was looking to hire new editors and she offered me and Larry Hama the job. I wanted to see how the other half of the creative process worked. I accepted, which was a little difficult, but I thought maybe I could learn some stuff. The guys at Marvel who were editing, they were allowed to freelance. Joe Orlando gave me the 25-cent lecture; his concept was that in the early days cartoonists did everything themselves. Over time, to speed the process along, they developed the production line where guys would do one part of the job. It is the editor’s job to take these five individuals and turn them into a cartoonist. I liked the image. He was a great guy whose work and talent I respected. I listened to what he said. You don’t have a lot of time to slowly learn the process. You arrive and they say, “Here are the books you’re editing, get to work,” and I did. One advantage that Larry and I had was we had contacts with a lot of the young guys, so we were getting Jim Starlin and Howard Chaykin and Bob Wiacek and Terry Austin, etc. Michael Golden started with Mister Miracle, inked by Russ Heath, of all people. One advantage to having the old guys work with the new talent was they could smooth out the rough edges. I got a big kick out of working with guys I grew up reading, like Frank Giacoia and Mike Esposito; would love to see how those guys inked me. They were doing their thing; I don’t remember having any conversations with sit-down chats with Murray or Julie about their history in the business or theories about editing. A lot of people discount Murray, but his books outsold everyone else’s. If he did Ghosts, his anthology sold better than the next guy’s similar anthology. I guess I was talking to Orlando who was in charge of the young snots, and he told me about Murray outselling everyone else. A lot of his talent were guys who were in the business forever, and they had an old-fashioned approach. They were very good, solid professionals, I look at their stuff today and see how talented they were, where at the time I was all about Kirby and dynamic Marvel stuff. Joe said it was because we’re still selling a lot of comics to kids. Murray’s stuff is the most consistent and always delivers. While you don’t get the same highs as some other titles, you also don’t get the lows. It was crazy being in that building [which also housed Warner Bros. film production] because you got on the elevator and there was Robert Redford. During that brief year, there was the DC Explosion being planned, adding eight-page backups, Firestorm and Steel and a bunch of new titles. They came up with backup features to fill the eight pages and they went ahead and did this; the early results were not good. Corporate freaked. I just had my review. Joe said I was doing a good job, just complained I was late in the mornings, even though I left late at night. He said, “But, look, I get in before Jenette, you get in before me, your books are selling pretty well.” Within a week the order came down and I was laid off. They explained that Jack Harris was married with a family while at the time I was single, so I thought that was a pretty humane thing to do. When you’re lifelong dream is to work in comics, of course, you sort of pinch yourself, “Is this really happening?” It was also a lot of hard work; you don’t get to sit there and bask in the glory for very long. It was not only fun, doing something I loved, but I had also met several dozen people who were more or less living the same dream. It made for a terrific sense of camaraderie; there was those get-togethers, once a month. There we were, working together, hanging out together, eating dinner, and having drinks. I lived in an apartment in Queens, rooming with Elliot Maggin, and he moved out to live with a girlfriend. After that stint with Walter, he was living in Brooklyn down the block from Chaykin, when Elliot moved out, so I asked Walter about moving to Queens. He moved in with me; then Chaykin and Wrightson moved to the same building. So did Alan Kupperberg. Walter left to move in with Weezie [now wife Louise Simonson]—I kept losing guys to girlfriends. Roger Stern moved in and lived on the same floor. Finally, the commute was driving me slightly crazy so I wound up moving into the city. It was a very tightknit little community. JACK C. HARRIS, editor, writer I was studying Illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), attending there on the G.I. Bill after serving three years in the US Army Signal Corps. Inspired by some news articles regarding Michael Uslan’s course on comic books at the Indiana

University, three comics-loving friends of mine and I approached the Liberal Arts Department of PCA about doing a similar class. To our surprise, they enthusiastically accepted our idea and supported our course. While teaching the course (in 1973 and ’74), we invited a number of comics creators to come and guest-lecture, including Denny O’Neil, Len Wein, and Dick Giordano. I was already acquainted with Denny, having met and spoken with him at a number of Phil Seuling comic conventions in New York. I had also corresponded with and visited Julius Schwartz a number of times in the New York offices of DC, at 575 Lexington Avenue, 909 Third Avenue, and finally, at Rockefeller Plaza. After graduation from PCA in 1974, I wrote a letter to DC president Sol Harrison, trying to get an interview. As it happened, the day my letter arrived, founding Woodchuck member Guy H. Lillian III had announced his desire to return to school, leaving an opening in the assistant-editor ranks. I was in the right place at the right time. In a series of phone calls, Sol hired me before even meeting me, thanks to my name being familiar to Julie, Denny, and others. Three weeks later, I arrived in New York as editor Murray Boltinoff’s assistant. I had met most of the Woodchucks that previous summer at the Seuling Con. However, at that time, to people such as Bob Rozakis, Paul Levitz, and Allan Asherman, I was just another fan. It wasn’t long before all of these gentlemen because lifelong friends. I even took over Woodchuck Carl Gafford’s apartment he was vacating, right around the corner from where Paul Levitz lived in Brooklyn. I remember the first day there, waiting in the lobby when Julie Schwartz came in and warmly greeted me. Sol called in and introduced me to Jack Adler, who thought fate had brought me there since my name was a combination of his and Sol’s. I met Murray Boltinoff, who was to be my boss for the next couple of years. He was gruff and serious, but he drew me right in, instructing me on just how to proofread and mark for corrections on the art. He instructed me on the proper way to edit a script (by pen, back in those pre–computer days). A little while later, he introduced me to artists Joe Kubert and John Calnan. Working with Murray Boltinoff was a challenge. He was a taskmaster and very professional. He had a background in journalism and really had no time for foolishness. He also approached comics on an issue-by-issue basis, continuity be hanged! If it was a good, well-structured, and exciting story, it mattered not if it contradicted some story from years ago, or even from the previous month! One of my first duties was to take notes during plotting sessions. I’d watch him and writers such as Bob Kanigher, George Kashdan, and Bob Haney talk out stories, throwing ideas back and forth, with Murray being the devil’s advocate over every plot turn and twist. Haney seemed to be able to work with Murray better than any of the others. He’d roll with the punches and do all he could to counter Murray’s objections to plot points. I had a lot of fun proofreading Dick Dillin’s art of the World’s Finest Superman and Batman stories Haney wrote. In those days, before the art was returned to the artists, we made all the notes for art and copy corrections with a non-repro blue pen. I felt a little funny making up the art with this permanent maker, but that’s the way it was done back then. Other duties for Murray included finding clip art from the production room files for cover banners and house ads. One of the earliest ones I did was for World’s Finest #236. Usually, they would run headshots of the heroes, but since the Atom was guest-starring, I got a full-figure of him to stand on Superman’s and Batman’s shoulders. Murray liked that one. He also liked my suggestion for Brave and the Bold #130 which featured Batman teamed with Green Arrow and the Atom to battle Two-Face and the Joker. I thought we should recycle the “4 Famous Guest Stars” logo that Murray had used on B&B #100. Murray had a unique approach to his letter columns. He believed it was better to cram as many readers’ names into each letters page as possible. For this reason, he rarely ran full letters, but rather snippets from numerous correspondents. When I took over writing the letter pages, this still held true. I had to pick excerpts from even the best letters. Murray considered the letters to be personal between the editor and the reader. I remember him getting very angry at me when I once showed a letter written to Brave and the Bold to one of the other assistant editors. It had contained a photo of the male letterwriter, in drag, dressed as one of the female members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He was livid over the fact I had shown this to anyone other than himself. After a time, I was allowed to interject my own thoughts into the plotting process for Murray. I once got on the bad side of Kanigher when I pointed out to Murray that the story idea Bob was pitching for G.I. Combat was a rehash of a previous story Kanigher had written ten years earlier. I even went into the vast DC library and found a bound copy of the earlier issue featuring the story to show Murray. He was really angry at Bob and (unfortunately for me) pointed out my discovery to him. Kanigher and I were never friends after that. Oddly enough, Murray still bought and ran the story. But Murray wasn’t a real Kanigher fan.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Many times he would instruct me to go elsewhere in the office and call his desk phone so Murray would have an excuse to tell Kanigher to leave. When Jim Shooter returned to write the Legion of Super-Heroes (which Murray was editing at the time), Jim and I would sometimes get so worked up over a plot, we’d lose Murray altogether. I remember spending lots of time afterwards defending Jim’s plot, trying to explain the finer points to Murray. The relationship between Jim Shooter and Murray was visually interesting. Shooter is very tall while Murray was very short. Seeing them walk down the hall together caused lots of head-turning. It appeared as if Murray was having a conversation with Jim’s belt loops. Working with the Junior Woodchucks was spectacular. There was Bob Rozakis, Michael Uslan, Steve Mitchell, E. Nelson Bridwell, Allan Asherman, Tony Tollin, Carl Gafford, Guy H. Lillian III, and myself. We all hung out together attended movies together, went to marathon lunches together, and worked long after-hours on issues of The Amazing World of DC Comics, the fanzine that Sol Harrison created as a training ground for the assistant editors. Putting together the early issues of AWODCC was one of my earliest thrills. My first published piece for DC appeared in issue #4, for which I got paid $30. It was an article on my appearances as Two-Face at the New York Comic-Cons and how I did the makeup. I wrote at least something for every issue after that, often laying out and pasting up the pages myself. We would often work far into the evening to get the final paste-ups out to the printer. My favorite piece was the Map of Rann I did from Adam Strange. I also got to interview such people as Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, and Dick Dillin for various issues. Issue #7, the Superman issue, was my “baby.” I was responsible for gathering all the material for that one. Curt Swan’s beautiful pencil original art for the cover still hangs in a place of honor on my den wall next to a letter of appreciation I received from Kirk (Superman) Alyn. Once of my earliest memories at DC was when Paul Levitz schooled me in how to pull clip art from the production-room files to make house ads. Most of the images were from stats but some, much to my horror, were scraps from cut-up original art! In days gone by, originals were cut up because of some vague fear they would be used to reproduce unauthorized reprints of DC’s copyrighted material. Years later, when Mike Gold came on board as our publicity director, I paid it forward by showing him where and how to pull images for house ads. I was astounded as to the celebrities who appeared in the halls of DC on occasion. There was Burt Ward (who appeared in full Robin regalia and who refused to break character so we could interview him for AWODCC), famed pop artist Andy Warhol, Candid Camera producer Alan Funt, baseball superstar Willie Mays, singer Mel Tormé, and, of course, Superman actor Christopher Reeve. Sol Harrison had assigned me to find “some celebrity” to draw the winning entry for our Superman: The Movie Contest. I had made contact with many of the Warner Films executives upstairs while working on the Superman: The Movie Magazine. I called my main contact, who gave me the name and number of the agent who handled a number of the Superman movie stars. I called the number and told the secretary why I was calling. She put me right through to the agent. I again explained what I wanted and he responded, “Oh, there’s someone here who might be able to help.” The next instant I was talking to Chris Reeve himself who said he’d be glad to come over. The next day he was appearing on The Today Show, which was right across the street from our Rockefeller Center offices. When he arrived, I met him in the lobby and ushered him down the hall. We stopped to say hi to Julie Schwartz, the Superman editor at the time, whom Chris had met previously. We then continued down to Sol’s office, where the drawing took place amid the clicking of many cameras. For the next two hours afterwards, Chris hung out in my office. He paged through dozens of comics I had on a rack and surprised numerous people who stepped in my office. We then went on a request for Chris to go down the hall to Warner Records (with whom DC shared a floor) so the staff could meet him. He was mobbed and a few minutes later Sol came down to tell Chris he had a phone call. It was bogus, just a ploy to help Chris escape. A little later Mike Gold and I snuck Chris down the service elevator. I watched he leave the building, warning him that this was probably the last time he’d be able to walk down a New York street without being recognized. I loved working on Brave and Bold as the assistant editor, since I got to see all of Jim Aparo’s art before anyone else. I opened the packages and made sure all the pages had been received and were in order before delivering them to Murray’s desk. Back then, I lived in a New Jersey area, just one town over from Joe Kubert and near Jose Delbo. Since I went into the city every day, Joe and Jose would often drop off art at my house so I could turn in at the office. I remember asking Joe not to seal the package so I could see the art before I handed it in. I’ll reveal an interesting story that I’ve never made public. When Jenette Kahn took over as publisher of DC Comics, she brought on Vince Colletta as art director. Now, I didn’t know Vinnie very well. I only knew him as an inker whose work I didn’t particularly like. I thought it looked “scratchy” when compared to most of the other inkers working at the time. I also scratched my head over some of the early artistic decisions he made when selecting art teams. I thought he took on much too much of the work for himself. I remember pointing out to Jenette that, at the time, I was involved in 24 separate features either as editor or writer; these were full books, backup features, etc. Vinnie was regularly inking 19 of the 24! One artist who was a bit disgruntled over this was Mike Grell, who was writing and penciling his own creation, Warlord. Mike would complain that Vinnie would simply erase much of Mike’s backgrounds rather than bother inking them. When Mike complained, Vinnie would just claim the panel in question was “too

75 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA Superman actor Christopher Reeve visits DC’s office in conjunction with a Superman movie contest, circa 1978–1979. (top) Reeve (seated) with Julius Schwartz (left), Jack C. Harris (background), and Todd Klein (right). (center) The star with Bob Rozakis (left) and DC president Sol Harrison (right). (bottom) Sol Harrison ignoring singer Jim Croce’s advice, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.” Photos courtesy of: Heritage Comics Auction, Mike W. Barr, and Jack C. Harris.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 67

complicated.” I remember one job Vinnie handed in where he had completely overlooked a figure and hadn’t inked it at all. When I went into his office to point it out to him, I was very diplomatic, asking if he had felt there was something wrong with the figure and he didn’t ink it for some artistic reason. His reaction was to get angry at me. He grabbed the page and quickly inked the figure while I stood there. Mike Grell had had enough. So once, he held back an issue of Warlord slated for Vinnie to ink and inked it himself. For years, I had to pretend I knew nothing about his plans. Now the truth can be told! I loved working with Marv Wolfman on Green Lantern and Tony Isabella on Black Lightning. Sometimes, Marv would write a totally outrageous panel in the middle of a script just to see if I was paying attention. Tony was such a perfectionist that he considered deadlines a nuisance. I remember having to call him to egg him on because I was feeling the deadline heat on my end. I felt bad about doing it, knowing that, in the end, the script I would get from Tony would require little input from me. The little editorial time I had to put into it usually helped us catch up to the deadline. Things I created that no one remembers: • When Denny O’Neil was speaking at my course at the University of the Arts, I suggested that he use H. P. Lovecraft’s Arkham Asylum to house crazy criminals such as the Joker and Two-Face. As the world now knows, he used the idea. • When Len Wein and Marv Wolfman were trying to think up civilian identities for the New Teen Titans, I came up with the name Victor Stone for Cyborg. My thinking was he achieved a major victory over his injuries (Victor) and he was strong (Stone). • My Showcase issues of Hawkman contained the first Rann/Thanagar War, which DC later expanded. • I came up with the official number of Green Lanterns in the universe: 3,600; it was based on the degrees of a circle with each GL being responsible for a 100-degree wedge of our circular universe. I was proudest of some of the “discoveries” I made. Bob Rozakis and I were given the task of checking out the portfolios of any artist who arrived at DC looking for work. Most of the time, the work was below standard and we sent them on their way with words of encouragement. Most were gracious. I remember one father who brought his son’s drawings of superheroes. He totally expected us to hire his son on the spot. (The drawings were typical third-grade scribbling of “superheroes.”) He stormed out with the comment, “For God’s sake, they’re only comic books!” However, sometimes people such as John Workman and Bob Smith came in. When these two Washington State friends arrived, Rozakis and I were very impressed and made sure they got through the door. It was gratifying that soon after their arrival, John was working in the production room and Bob was inking Plastic Man! Among the other “discoveries” I made were artist Trevor von Eeden, whose ballpoint pen drawings so impressed me that we called him in minutes after I opened his letter. He was only in his early teens at the time, and I think his dad had to bring him in. Joe Orlando took Trevor under his wing and he quickly became the original artist on Black Lightning. The others were writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, who submitted and sold their first work to Time Warp. They were thrilled when I assigned their first story to Steve Ditko. MIKE GOLD, publicity, marketing, editor It was 1976 and I was about to be, as they say in the radio business, “between gigs.” My station was about to change format and I don’t relate well to playlists. At the same time I was one of the initial organizers of the mammoth Chicago Comicon, and I had invited new DC publisher Jenette Kahn to join Stan Lee and Harvey Kurtzman as our guests of honor. Jenette and I had some previous contact from her Scholastic days, and after she accepted the invite we found ourselves in a long series of telephone conversations. One thing led to another and she offered me a position at DC running the publicity and direct sales marketing office—an office that did not exist previously. I flew out to Manhattan, got the tour of the offices at the Warner Communications building at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, and had a pretty damn fancy three-hour “lunch.” We discussed the comics world in depth and with the type of passion that fans generally bring to the table. But this was 1976, and people in suits and business dresses did not discuss comic books at the 21 Club, certainly with such fervor. I believe we scared a few business people at the surrounding tables. After the Comicon, I moved out to New York to start work at DC Comics. While I’ve been in the media racket and the youth social services racket since I was 17—there’s a fine line between being precocious and downright obnoxious—I was curious to discover exactly why the comics business violated all the rules of traditional publishing companies. It was all very professional. I even wore a suit and tie on my first day,

although in 1976 men’s suits were nothing to brag about. After I was set up in what had been Tony Isabella’s office (thanks, Tony!) on a row of offices neighboring Julius Schwartz and Dennis O’Neil, I closed the door for a second and sat behind my desk. I was in the comic-book business. I was in my office at DC Comics, the one that overlooked the 21 Club. My fanboy heart leapt out of my mouth, jumped onto my desk, and did a jig before returning to my chest cavity. A fan since birth, this was a very heady moment. Taking a deep sigh, I took off my coat, opened the door, and went to work. Clearly, the highlight of the 75 Rock days was the promotion we did around the release of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ Superman vs. Muhammad Ali tome in 1978. We had a press conference that filled the huge Warner Communications ballroom and Jenette made a welcoming speech. Few lights went on. Then Ali took the microphone and the room lit up like a nuclear explosion. Mind you, Jenette was and is a highly photogenic person, but the press was there for the Champ. My heart started beating like a jackhammer. I knew Ali’s lawyer back in Chicago—his offices were next door to my lawyer’s. With the assistance of noted newspaper columnist and broadcaster Irv Kupcinet, we worked out a scheme that we thought would put the story over the top. But we were uncertain Ali would go along, as it went against his most basic nature. When Muhammad Ali took the microphone, he refused to talk about his heavyweight championship defense set for the following month. Muhammad Ali did not talk! He did not brag, and he voiced no cute couplets or predictions. That was news! We made the front page of damn near every newspaper in the country. Of course, the reason for the event was in the second paragraph, but Ali not talking was akin to Man Bites Dog. Most papers ran the cover shot, and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali sold out its deep six-figure print run. That press conference was amazing. I received job offers from both Don King and Bob Arum of Top Rank Sports. Shaking King’s hand was like thumb wrestling with the Incredible Hulk. I didn’t think I wanted to work for him, but I knew I had to be diplomatic about it: refusing the largesse of a convicted murderer gives one pause. I also received a congratulatory call from Warner’s head of media, on behalf of company chairman Steve Ross. The cute thing about that is … Neal filled the cover of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali with a crowd shot that included most of the DC Comics’ staff. He seated me next to Steve Ross. Whereas that book contains, in my opinion, some of Adams’ finest work, I felt that Ross would have had a better seat. PAUL KUPPERBERG, fan, journalist, marketing, and editorial staff I made my first visit to the DC Comics offices at 575 Lexington Avenue sometime around 1967 or 1968 for one of their regular weekly tours. But while I don’t remember the date, and a lot of the details have become sort of hazy after over 40 years, I’ll certainly never forget the experience and the people I met that day. It was the first time I met Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, who were regular visitors on the weekly tour, and DC production manager, Sol Harrison, who conducted the tour. It was the first time I ever laid eyes on such DC creative stalwarts as Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson, both of whom were hunched over pages on their drawing boards in the rare of the production room. We were allowed to catch glimpses of the editors at their desks, including Julie Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, E. Nelson Bridwell, and others. On our way out the door, Sol handed each of the visitors a gift: a color transparency of a recent cover and a piece of original art. Mine was a daily Batman newspaper strip by Joe Giella. My real memories of the DC offices begin on the sixth floor of 75 Rockefeller Center in the early 1970s. By then, I had met fellow fan Paul Levitz, discovered fanzines, and plunged headlong into the world of fandom. In February 1971, Paul and I had started a newszine called Etcetera. Since he attended high school in Manhattan, it was Paul who usually made the trip up to DC to gather the news, but, likely on a school holiday, I made the trip from Brooklyn to join him on one visit. E. Nelson Bridwell escorted us through the offices, filled us in on what was coming up, and introduced us to several editors and artists we passed along the way. My most vivid memory of that day was being introduced to one of my favorite artists, Carmine Infantino, then DC’s editorial director. We shook hands, with me stammering something fannish and inane to “Mr. Infantino,” who responded with a chuckle and “Belay the mister, ensign. Call me Carmine!” I never quite figured out why he called me “ensign,” but I sure called him Carmine and would, years later, also call him a collaborator on numerous issues of Supergirl and other stories I would eventually write for DC.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

75 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA (left) Production manager Jack Adler (seated), with his secretary, Lillian Mandel. (right) DC publisher Jenette Kahn (at microphone), Mike Gold (behind her, with beard), and boxing legend Muhammad Ali (seated, foreground), at a 1978 press conference promoting DC’s Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. Adler photo from The Amazing World of DC Comics #10; TM & © DC Comics. Ali photo courtesy of Mike Gold.

By 1976, I was a regular at 75 Rock, first as a freelancer and then as a staffer as I took the first of what would prove to be several positions with the company. Staff job number one was as assistant to the publicrelations director. My “office” was a cubicle in the corridor near my direct report, but right outside the office of legendary editor Julius Schwartz. I loved all comic books, but the ones I loved the most were those edited by this man, that rough, gruff, middle-aged, balding, buck-toothed genius who revitalized the superhero genre beginning with the reintroduction of the Flash in Showcase #4 in 1956. And here I was now, sitting outside his office, watching the parade of creators who passed in and out: Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Kurt Schaffenberger, Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, Tex Blaisdell, Dick Giordano, and David V. Reed. Often, while waiting to see Julie, these guys would hang out at my cubicle and we’d talk. Mostly it was small talk, chit chat to pass the time until Julie was off the phone or finished with his previous victim (Julie intimidated the hell out of me in those days; it took me a while to realize that his gruff Perry White act was just that, an act, and that inside that hard shell was one of the softest centers to be found in a human being). One afternoon, it was Batman writer David V. Reed who stood leaning on my cubicle, his crossed arms shifting restlessly on a thick, oversized manila envelope he had with him that I assumed contained manuscripts he was here to deliver. I asked him if he wanted to put that down on my desk but he just smiled and said no, he was fine. As the wait stretched on, I asked him again if he wouldn’t be more comfortable putting the envelope down, but he demurred once again. “Man, what’ve you got in there, a pound of grass?” I asked. Dave smiled and, after a careful glance around, peeled back the flap a little for me to see inside. “Uh-uh,” he said. “It’s a kilo.” DC’s library at 75 Rock was a small room back, as I recall, at the opposite end of the office (which occupied maybe one-third of the floor and was plenty of space for the company’s 35 or 40 employees), past the production department and darkroom, near the executive offices. It was overseen by Gerda Gattel, a sweet little gnome of a woman with a thick German accent and a long-standing member of DC’s production department as proofreader. The library was a treasure trove for the new generation of fans-turned-professionals wandering the halls of DC in those days; in the mid-1970s, reprints of Golden Age comics were still a relative rarity, so to be able to simply go into a room and take a bound volume of All-Star Comics that contained stories one had only heard tell of and actually be able to read them was one of the most amazing perks of the job. In 1976, a steady stream of freelancers could be found hanging out in the offices. It wasn’t unusual for a writer or artist to come in to drop off or pick up assignments and spend time socializing with his (and, yes, it was a 99.9% male crew back then) peers. Coming into the business as I did at the crux of the waning days of the Golden Age creators and the influx of youngsters like myself, I was working alongside guys who had worked, quite literally, on Action Comics #1, including Sol Harrison and Jack Adler and the still active Sheldon Mayer (creator of the immortal Sugar and Spike). One of my favorite of these “old timers” (most of whom were within a couple or three years of the age I am now) was Robert Kanigher. Bob was a brilliantly hit-or-miss writer and an egotist of staggering proportions. He could, and would, talk at you for as long as possible, reeling off self-aggrandizing tales of epic proportions without allowing a word in edgewise. He got right up into your face, pipe clamped between his teeth, and talked. And I loved it! I would let Bob go on and on, a big smile on my face, getting for free the stories I used to drop my ten cents

on the candy store counter to read (a fictionalized Bob would later show up as the murder victim in my mystery novel, The Same Old Story). Another legendary talker was E. Nelson Bridwell, a truly sweet and amazingly knowledgeable man who could discuss Shakespeare, the Bible, and Superman with equal weight. But there wasn’t always time to indulge in the long-term commitment often required to ask either of these gentlemen even the simplest of questions, so if we knew time was of the essence, younger staff members going to talk to either of them would go to one of our colleagues and say, “I’m going in to talk to Nelson. Come find me in ten minutes and say there’s an emergency!” When we moved to 666 Fifth Avenue there was, in the reception area, a life-size statue of Clark Kent sat at one end of the couch, leaning forward reading an, of course, mock copy of the Daily Planet that was in his hands. One day I surreptitiously replaced the Daily Planet with a real copy of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union bought from one of the many Times Square news vendors that carried papers from all around the world. I don’t recall exactly how long it took someone to notice and return things to normal, but Clark held onto Pravda for several days at least. J. M. DeMATTEIS, writer The thing I remember most about my time starting out as a freelancer at DC is the quiet: there wasn’t a lot of hustle and bustle in the halls. DC was a ship sailing on very even waters and editorial coordinator Paul Levitz (the world’s oldest young person) had most, probably all, of the books six months ahead of schedule. (Never happen today. Never!) Paul was a superb editor—he taught me so much in those early days—and I also had the pleasure of working with Jack Harris (one of the nicest men to ever sit behind an editorial desk) and Len Wein, who became not just my editor, but my mentor and lifelong friend. That was the era when I sent another lifelong friend, Karen Berger, up to the office to meet Paul. He was looking for an assistant and Karen, who’d just graduated from Brooklyn College with a journalism degree, was looking for a job. They hit it off—and the rest is comic-book history. Jump ahead eight or so years: Andy Helfer—as talented an editor as the company has ever employed—has put me together with some guy named Giffen and a new artist named Maguire on an offbeat revamp of the Justice League. We worked on that book, and its many spin-offs, for half a decade—and some of my most cherished DC memories are of hanging around Andy’s office on a Friday afternoon (the day the checks arrived) with Keith, Kevin, and, it seemed, half the freelance community. I’d arrive at DC in the late morning, make my rounds, visiting Karen, Art Young, Bob Greenberger (whatever happened to him?), and other editors, then plop myself down in a chair beside Andy’s desk and hang out for the rest of the day. The quiet of those early years was gone by the late ’80s: it was creative chaos, in the best possible way. More than 25 years later, Keith G and I are still collaborating, still working for DC—and on a book with Justice League in the title—and I’m astonished by the swift passage of time (as well as the swift loss of hair that accompanied it). So many memories—enough to literally fill a book—but I think the brightest is the earliest: December 1977, selling my first comic-book script to Paul L, an eight-page House of Mystery story with the deathless title “The Lady Killer Craves Blood.” After approving the script, Paul shook my hand, looked me square in the eye and said, “Welcome to the business.” It doesn’t get better than that. Thanks, Paul. And thanks, DC. Here’s to the past and, I hope, a very bright future.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 69

666 FIFTH AVENUE As DC Comics slowly recovered from the DC Implosion, the company had outgrown 75 Rock and was finally severed from sharing space with Independent News. Instead, DC took half of the 6th floor at 666 Fifth Avenue, right below Warner Publishing, its corporate parent at the time. When I was hired for good in 1984, the staff continued to grow and no matter how they rearranged the space, it was never enough. That didn’t stop Bob Rozakis from staging numerous morale events highlighted by his Easter egg hunt. He’d make us all file into the hallway, lock the doors, and hide the plastic eggs. When I arrived, I had a half-desk, formerly used by part-time editor Marv Wolfman, sandwiched between Alan Gold and Karen Berger. In time, I took over Karen’s desk and when Alan moved on, I shared the room with Mark Waid and then Barbara Kesel and others. I didn’t have a place to call my own until I became editorial coordinator and then stuffed it with a computer desk that was too big for the space available. I was among the first five staffers to receive a Mac and recall being lectured by Paul Levitz about how it wasn’t a toy. At the time he didn’t quite know its capabilities and I think he was worried somehow Andy Helfer would hack into his files when we didn’t even have a network as yet. PAT BASTIENNE, editorial coordinator The move from 75 Rock was truly a nightmare for me (and freelancers) because the schedule still had to be met and the offices/production had to be operating as well. It was a difficult time for keeping the books from falling through the cracks and shipping late. Artwork had to be handled with care and watched. Getting it all together and moved from one office building to the other was a chore in itself. But, we all worked at it and came through okay… MIKE FLYNN, marketing A dream came true for me when I was 24. I was a kid who grew up reading the adventures of Superman, Batman, the Justice League of America, and the Legion of SuperHeroes. And in February of 1982, I went to work where those legends lived, DC Comics. It was pretty cool. Then as now, the comics industry was changing mightily. As distributors sought to avoid selling such low-profit periodicals in the 1970s, the direct market had popped up thanks to some forward-thinking fans. That required the comic companies having people on staff to help comic-shop owners buy and promote comic books. When Paul Kupperberg left DC in 1982, I got to be that guy. I knew some of the folks there, but it was still a little bit intimidating. Yes, I knew Paul Levitz, who hired me. Just a year older than me, he was already vice president of the company. But it was really no different than starting any new job in your field—you knew some of the names, but you had to get to know the people. But, oh, the people. Folks who had been legends to me growing up were my office neighbors. Literally. For a good chunk of my time at 666 Fifth Avenue, where DC was at the time, my office was right next to Julie Schwartz’s. Every day I’d walk past his office—he was always in before I was— and I’d say, “Good morning, Julie!” Without looking up from whatever he was reading, he’d say gruffly, “Prove it!” And nothing else. I liked that. To this very day, when someone says “Good morning” to me, I’m just as likely to echo Julie as give any other greeting in his honor. Some of my favorite times at comic conventions, which I was now attending as a DC representative, was just hanging with people who had the same interest in comics as I did but were making comics history at the time. I remember fondly sitting at the bar in the Executive Hotel in San Diego during SDCC—I think it was the Executive Hotel—spending freely as I sat with the creators who’d joined me there and we chatted over beer and bourbon. Oh, and on one con trip—HeroesCon 1982, in Charlotte, NC—Marv Wolfman and I caught E.T., the Extraterrestrial, since neither of us had seen it yet. I remember having conversations with Bob Kanigher, who turned out to be a close-talker. I discovered why Bob Rozakis was truly the Answer Man; as DC’s production manager he made everything I needed to happen happen. I remember Elliot Maggin showing me how to program the Atari 800 computer I was given. And Joe Orlando giving me design hints when I had to produce my first DC ad. When I worked late, my pick-me-up was Jenette Kahn’s stash of healthy pretzels. She made them available to anyone, but after hours, those hard-wheat treats were usually just what I needed. Also addictive. Oh, and talk about cool—think about going into the DC library and grabbing any bound volume of the entire history of the company when I needed to do some research.

On one occasion, I will admit to using my position to my advantage. Sitting in Karen Berger’s office one time, I discovered in her pile of unpublished stories one that my then-girlfriend (now wife) had written. I called it to her attention, and it saw print (of course, Elizabeth had long been paid for it, but still!). But probably my favorite memories involve designing stuff with art director Neal Pozner. Neal had been in the apa CAPA-Alpha with me, and I was told about Neal’s The Legion Handbook when I was still a young, young fan and publishing our first Legion Outposts. As professionals, Neal and I agreed that a new comic-book launch was just like a new movie launch. I remember watching as he kept trying to splatter ink for just the right splash of blood to use over the “o” in the logo for Frank Miller’s Ronin. After I left DC, Neal and I continued to have lunch together regularly. At one meal, he said to me, “You realize, you and I changed comics?” It’s a compliment that stays with me, both because of what he alone accomplished in comics and because it was among the last times I saw him before he passed away. But my absolute favorite memory of my time at DC dates back to my first weeks there. WNEW radio in New York played a midday block of thematically linked music programmed by a listener. I wrote in with an idea for a Superman set (harder then than it is today). WNEW didn’t have the last song I suggested—Klark Kent’s “Don’t Care”—but the DJ played the theme from the 1978 Superman movie. Everyone in the building, it seemed, had his or her radio tuned to WNEW, and the hallways resonated with the loud playing of our theme. It was an early success, and I can still hear the echo. BARBARA KESEL, editor, writer 1. My first day on the job my boss, Dick Giordano, was going to take me to lunch down at the little deli I remember as the “Ptomaine Palace,” but couldn’t—he had a freelancer coming in and had to meet with him. So he sent his lieutenants (i.e., anybody in editorial who didn’t have plans) to treat me to lunch. I was fresh from suburban California, and pretty grossed out by the open bowls of vegetables in vinegar—most of New York seemed to my young eyes as grimily unappetizing as a backdrop from Brazil—but I was enjoying the company and the company! Anyway, it turns out Dick was taking his freelancer to lunch at the same place and they walked past our big table in the middle to get to theirs. Dick stopped to introduce Ron Randall to the six or so DC guys at the table. He introduced me, the only girl at the table, last. My maiden name was Randall and I’d had three years of going to conventions and hearing “Oh, I LOVE your brother’s art/Oh, I LOVE your husband’s art” etc. Ron Randall and I are not actually related, and had never met. So when it was my turn for introductions and Dick had introduced Ron, I gave him a frown and said, “Hi, Ron. Where’s my g*dd*mn alimony check?” Everybody at the table froze. You could hear that bucket of pickled vegetables decomposing. Dick looked especially concerned. Ron didn’t miss a beat. He looked down, stumbled through a half-assed explanation of why he’d been late with my check, apologized … then smiled. We were instant friends. 2. We all had little yellow word-balloon nametags. My name didn’t fit. 3. I started out in the bullpen office (shared with Marv Wolfman, Bob Greenberger, and Alan Gold) next to where the freelancers turned in their vouchers, which meant I’d come back from lunch to find some freelancer or Mark Hamill had taken over my desk and run off with all the pens. (Okay, so shooing Luke Skywalker away from my desk was always totally cool.) I got tired of chasing down replacement pens, so I brought in a dozen or so obnoxiously pink pens and pencils. That was back in the days before Bronies, so those pens never got stolen. 4. Two offices later, I shared a space the size of a Diet Coke case with Mark Waid. He’d keep a case of Diet Coke stashed in his desk. I’d stash Dr. Pepper in mine. 5. In the days before PhotoShop and clip art, one of the most technically difficult production steps in the Watchmen back matter was the paper clips on the faux documents. We finally made a paper clip by having somebody ink a stat of a photocopy of a real paper clip. The handwriting in the back pages belongs to me, Bob Greenberger, Bob Rozakis, and I think I got Marv to do some. 6. I was moved to what had been Sal Amendola’s desk (opposite Nick Cuti) and Sal moved across the hall … leaving the desk packed full of submissions for New Talent Showcase. They filled the drawers, were stacked on top, and piled by the sides. Which is how I became the de facto assistant editor for that title—if I wanted drawers, I had to empty them. 7. We moved around just enough when I was a kid that I’ve been “the new girl” so many times I’ve lost track. I’m really bad at remembering

70 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

faces, and a lot of people look alike (or don’t look like their voice!). Turns out I seem to identify most people by voice. We had no Facebook or Skype in the ’80s—we saw most of our freelancers just twice a year, either at San Diego or another comic-con, or at the DC Christmas party because freelancers would bring themselves and their families to the big city to see the holiday lights, the big tree, all of that. So we’d have visitors arrive during the week before the party. I never wanted to let anybody I might have talked to at least once a week all year know I didn’t recognize them in person, so I successfully bluffed my way through most of the conversations until I got some clue that told me who I was talking to and their identity was no longer … secret. So one year DC had rented out a ’50s-themed club for the party. The public was allowed into the lobby level (bar with gas-pump spigots) but not past the velvet rope to the party upstairs. I was waiting in line with Karl, my then-boyfriend, when an excessively handsome man in front of me turned around and said, “Hi, Barbara!” I had three thoughts: I knew I should know who he was. I knew I’d seen him recently. I knew I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what job he did or book he worked on … I’d run out of bluff material. Busted! So I told him I knew I should know his name, but was blanking on it. He said he was (name redacted), my dentist. The same dentist who had been standing over me a couple of weeks before with a drill in my molar, saying, “That ring is new. I’ve been wanting to ask you out, but I guess I waited too late.” Note to all dentists out there: THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF VERY BAD TIMING. No more bluffing. Since then, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve said to someone, “I know I should know who you are, but…” Thankfully, my current dentist is happily married. 8. I was living the Mary Tyler Moore new-to-the-city dream. Except that I was completely naïve about pretty much everything East Coast. (THERE WAS NO GOOGLE BACK THEN OR I WOULD’VE!) Bob and Deb Greenberger put me up when I first got there, and Bob had to guide me through the perplexing routine of commuter train/subway that got us to work. I had no idea what boroughs were. I tried to find “New York” on a map that just listed “Manhattan/Queens/The Bronx/ Brooklyn/Staten Island” and couldn’t. I asked what hours the subways ran. There were no Del Tacos to be found. 9. I was part of the last wave of editors to learn directly from the classics: Julie Schwartz. Joe Kubert. Joe Orlando. Murray Boltinoff. I also learned from my legion of big brothers: Marv Wolfman. Len Wein. Gerry Conway. Mike Barr. And I’m sure I’m leaving out important names. I was there a little under five years, but during the biggest paradigm shift of DC’s history: we went from the Era of Editors to having the creators wag the dog. From telling to asking. 10. The gents of the industry, the guys you loved to work with because they were just GOOD folks, a list including: Curt Swan. Murphy Anderson. Jim Aparo. Joe Kubert. Tatjana Wood. George Pérez. Dave Gibbons. Jim Baikie. José Luis García-López. Eduardo Barretto. 11. I nurtured a lot of new talent. 12. After they called in all the writer/editor books and we lost some editorial staffers, the day when I realized that literally half of our publishing schedule was crossing my desk made me realize I was being way too agreeable about managing the stray assignments. 13. Newsstand director Matt Ragone lived one stop down from me on the line from Westchester. I rode the train in with Matt, his wife, and either his or her mother and father. I pretty much got adopted by them all. Matt and I would then walk to work. Then he started looping by my office at the end of the day so we could walk down to Grand Central together. I never thought anything about this until the day I was cornered in the women’s restroom by the ladies of licensing wanting to know about my affair… 14. For the record, I’ve had no affairs. Despite some of the times I’ve been asked what I did to get my job at DC. Or Dark Horse. Or CrossGen. None. Okay, I had sex with one inker… 15. The fun of opening the package with issue #12 of Watchmen. 16. The shock and joy of opening the package with the artwork for Kelley Jones’ first installment of Deadman. 17. The joy of opening the packages of art from Tom Artis for Tailgunner Jo, the greatest unappreciated miniseries ever. 18. Pairing Jeph Loeb with Tim Sale and having that work out so well. 19. Reading that Rob kid’s first letters with sketches. 20. Traveling to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to meet with the guys from TSR. We all went out for pizza and one of the guys was telling a story about ice hockey and a Zamboni … to the horror of another one who thought he was telling me a dirty story when he mentioned how they “whipped out the Zamboni and polished her up.” 21. Staying up late in my little apartment to type up a letter column for the next day, knowing there’d always be a letter from “T. M. Maple.”

22. Joey Cavalieri and I started a list of words we knew from reading that we didn’t know how to pronounce. I remember telling him “I know it’s NOT pronounced PA-RA-DIG-UM.” 23. Visiting the new offices ten years later and feeling like I’d entered Maximum Security. 24. Heading to Acapulco with Andy, Jonathan, and who knows who else when DC closed early for snow days. We wobbled back to the subway past skiers on Fifth Avenue. 25. Asking locals to interpret how cold “cold” was: I’d never had to wear more than a light jacket in winter. 26. My coworkers patiently waiting for me at lunch or after work because I was always leaving my coat behind in the offices and only remembering when we hit the wall of cold air in the lobby. 27. The couch in the hallway under the cover wall. 28. The murderer on the couch. 29. Adam West coming to the offices and looking more heroic in person than he ever had in tights. 30. Jenette Kahn bringing Madeleine Kahn to the offices. 31. Hanging out with the Kubies at the Randalls’ apartment. 32. Playing poker at Mike Chen and Kim DeMulder’s place. 33. Stephen DeStefano’s costume designs. 34. New Year’s Eve at Archie Goodwin’s place. 35. Being Dave Gibbons’ driver in San Diego because I was the only one of our NY crew WITH a driver’s license! 36. Meeting adults who lived in apartments long after they could have gotten a house because they WANTED to live in apartments! 37. Wondering where the line was that everyone standing in line was standing on… 38. Having downtown buildings look like the downtown buildings in comic books. 39. Jenette’s toaster collection. 40. DC’s first experiment with a PC and all of us with Macs trying to convince Paul to let us upgrade from typewriters. 41. The first computer coloring… 42. The ladies who painted with red glop at Chemical Color. 43. Spending hours at the NY Visitor’s Center looking for a photo to match the angle of the one George had used on a Titans cover painting but that we didn’t have rights for so we could replace it. 44. Ed Hannigan’s beautiful vellum cover sketches. 45. Hearing that Michael Keaton had been cast as Batman and watching everybody wince. 46. Being so wonderfully surprised at how the movie turned out! 47. Seeing Superman IV at the distributor’s screening and feeling the silent clenching of staff sphincters when the misspelled “Siegle” showed up on screen. 48. Pulling George Pérez into the conference room and tearfully begging him to “fix” the Wonder Woman reboot. I never even really liked Wonder Woman, but I hated the retconned rape origin. 49. Showing Mike Carlin a sketch Karl [Kesel] had done of a female Dove and saying we had this idea for a new series… 50. Developing and launching the TSR books. SCOTT DUNBIER, editor, IDW Comics In April of 1995, I moved to San Diego from New York to join Jim Lee’s WildStorm Productions. The plan was for me to sell original art and do a line of limited-edition prints. And that happened for a little while until, after constantly nagging poor Jim about which artist’s he should be hiring, he said, “You think you know so much, you edit a book.” On such twists of fate are careers built. I went from special projects editor to editor-in-chief in very short order. This was all new to me, and I was feeling my way along, and not always successfully. But luckily Sarah Becker was there to very generously help me along, and Mike Heisler to give me clarity on some important bits of editorial theory. My tenure at DC began in October 1998 when WildStorm was acquired by the comics behemoth. But I had a connection to DC Comics earlier than that, and a good deal of it had to do with my best friend, Shawn McManus. I met Shawn in 1982 or 1983, through Chuck Patton. Chuck and Shawn were roommates out in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn, and I used to hang out there occasionally. In 1984, Chuck decided to move to Los Angeles and Shawn needed a new roomie. In April of 1984, I moved in. Shawn was just breaking in at that time, doing Green Arrow backups in Detective Comics, first as an inker, over Chuck, and then as penciler. Soon after, he got an assignment to do two standalone Swamp Thing issues written by Alan Moore, dream jobs for the longtime Bernie Wrightson fan. I started going up to DC—this was when they were at 666 Fifth Avenue—with Shawn from time to time, we would hang out with

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 71

different guys, including Andy Helfer and others. Shawn was also on the DC softball team then and encouraged me to join. I reminded him that I wasn’t a staffer but he said it would be fine, that I should to talk to Bob Rozakis, the team captain. So I went into the production department and asked Bob if I could play. He looked at me and said, “You’re on third base with one out. The batter hits a fly ball to the outfield— what do you do?” I said, “Tag up and run home.” Bob said, “You’re on the team, you know more than anybody else.” At this time I was starting to sell original art regularly, after dabbling for a few years. Occasionally I would meet artists up at the DC offices and we would conduct business and then go out to lunch. One time I was sitting on the couch outside Andy Helfer’s office, across from the kitchen, when another art dealer came by and sat down next to me. We both had portfolios and we chatted a bit, each waiting for different artists to arrive. Then Paul Levitz came down the hall and saw us. I didn’t know Paul but we had seen each other in the offices, usually when I would dome by with Shawn or before a softball game. Paul walked up to my fellow dealer and proceeded to dress him down, saying, “XXXXX, I’ve told you not to meet artists or do deals in the DC offices, please leave.” To which my competitor pointed at me and said, “What about him?!” Paul said, “Don’t worry about him, just go!” After Mr. X had left, Paul turned to me, apologetically, and said, “I’m sorry, but when you sell XXXXX your original art you can’t do it up here in the office.” I nodded and said, “I understand, it won’t happen again.” And for several years thereafter I would see Paul in the hallways from time to time and he would ask me if I was getting enough work. My reply was usually, “I’m getting by.” MARK WAID, editor, writer The first—and, very nearly, the last—time I ever walked the halls of the DC offices was at the 666 Fifth Avenue address. In September of 1984, I was a fanzine writer and editor who’d been invited by Superman editor Julius Schwartz to pitch some story ideas. In my enthusiasm, of course, I arrived something like five hours early and Bob Greenberger and Barbara (then-Randall) Kesel took me under their wing and showed me around, and no child’s visit to Disneyland was ever more special than that visit was to me. A very charming woman named Ruthie Thomas worked reception— a small waiting area where visitors sat next to a statue of Clark Kent reading the Daily Planet. (Ruthie was great.) Through the top of the always-open Dutch door that gated reception from the main office, you could see a little bit of office buzz, but not until she allowed you access were you in the thick of it. Just past reception was a short hallway maybe 30-feet long (newsstand circulation offices on the left, marketing offices on the right). At the end of the hall, a left would take you to the executive offices of Paul Levitz and Jenette Kahn and to the library (more on that in a moment), but the real action took place after a right turn. That corridor sirened you down to the editorial offices past the ugliest wallpaper anyone had ever seen. Seriously. Open up your old copies of Who’s Who in the DC Universe sometime. See that yellow-and-white checkerboard pattern in all the margins? That was the wallpaper. Allegedly designed by the genius Milton Glaser, who also created the four-starred DC “bullet” logo. Allegedly requested by Jenette herself, who allegedly had rolls and rolls of the stuff stashed away in case any of it ever needed repair or if the offices expanded. I don’t know whatever became of that stash if it existed, but someone might want to use it to write the words “GREETINGS, ALIEN VISITORS!” because I swear you could see it from space. The garish wallpaper was only half of every wall. The other half, the top section, was papered in some strange rubbery yellow “fabric” pattered with pin-size studs just exactly far enough apart where you could press a nickel flat against the wall between them and it would stick. Everyone tried this at least once. Everyone subsequently got yelled at by Paul at least once. Most of the offices were moderately sized two-desk affairs, though the senior staffers like Julie (and the poor schlubs who hadn’t worked their way up to window offices) got smaller one-man offices, some barely big enough not to qualify as a closet. Executive editor Dick Giordano’s office was nearer the back of the joint, next to his assistant, Pat Bastienne’s. Dick—who we all loved—was hard of hearing, so anyone in his office had to speak up, meaning most of the conversations he had were carried pretty loud and clear through the ventilation ducts. Dick’s office wasn’t exactly the House of Secrets. At the far end of the offices, far removed from editorial and past the lawyer’s offices and the proofreader’s desk, was The Library. I will never, ever forget what it felt to step into that library for the very first time. Remember, this was before the Internet, before Google Images, before most of DC’s publishing history had been fully mined and all its covers

and back issues could be easily found or even readily seen. When I walked into that library, full of floor-to-ceiling metal cabinets filled with bound volumes of everything DC had ever published, I nearly passed out. I’m not kidding. It’s the closest I’ve ever come in my life from blacking out simply through excitement. I loved DC Comics as much as anyone who has ever lived—still do—and there I was, pulling out random volumes of Golden Age Detective and Star Spangled, comics I never dreamed I’d ever see. Oh, yeah, I sold a Superman story to Julie that afternoon, my very first sale. Yes, that was my most treasured moment. But the library … that was the most jaw-dropping one. A few years later, I was hired as an editor at DC—the dream job I’d always wanted. I shared my first office with designer Julia Sabbagh. It was small, at the end of the editorial hall, about as far removed as it could be, but I didn’t care. I was elated. I’d inherited the late E. Nelson Bridwell’s desk. That first morning, I went to hang my coat up on the door-back coat hook and was puzzled by a slightly dark coat-shaped silhouette already there. Julia explained that that shape marked where Nelson had hung his same coat every single day, summer or winter, for years and years. She called it the Shroud of Nelson. Dead-center in the editorial end of the hall, just outside a small coffee room, there was a large communal area with a couch where freelancers tended to congregate, the restrooms nearby. Above the couch, pushpinned to the wall, was (arranged neatly week-by-week) a copy of every comics cover being printed that month—a good space to have so editors could see the line at a glance and be careful not to accidentally repeat any upcoming cover designs. This is where we all saw the first pages of The Killing Joke passed around as it came in. This is the spot where Kyle Baker recited The Grinch Who Stole Christmas flawlessly, from memory. This is the spot where Joe Orlando (deservedly) screamed at me for making too much noise with these toy ceramic balls coated with cap-gun powder that would bang and crackle at the slightest impact. Editor Andy Helfer shared his office with whoever didn’t mind that he smoked like a chemical factory. Despite the thick stink of nicotine, it was the cool office; Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis were there most of the time, it seemed, and if you looked up, you’d see sticking out of the ceiling tiles the hundreds of pencils that we’d all flipped into it. Thank God Manhattan was immune to earthquakes; one good jolt and they’d all have come loose at once and someone would have died. I really do miss that place. TOM LYLE, artist So … back in 1985, my wife Sue and I moved to Baltimore, Maryland, with three dogs, a savings account, and no jobs just so that I could be close enough to New York City in order to try and break into the comic-book industry. I would take the train into New York once a month with my latest art samples, go see as many editors as I could in one day, and come home … trying to figure out how to correct the “problems” with my art that were pointed out. At that time, DC’s offices were on Fifth Avenue. The notorious address of 666 Fifth Avenue—which always cracked me up. From an early point in these monthly visits, Bob Greenberger became my consistent early-morning editor meeting because he got into the offices early and didn’t mind meeting me then. Most editors wanted afternoon meetings. Not Bob. By December 2, 1987, I had been freelancing as a comic artist primarily for Eclipse Comics for about a year and a half and yet I was still going (though less frequently) into New York on a regular basis as I tried to get into the Big Two—Marvel or DC. At this time, my regular book at Eclipse—Strike!, with writer Chuck Dixon—had been announced as being put on “hiatus.” Read that as canceled! So, I was desperate for work. Having learned a few things by this time, I had recently been in touch with the writer Roger Stern and schmoozed him some, but didn’t know if that would help, but I knew he had some projects coming up with DC and I wanted “in”! I made my appointments by phone beforehand (I usually made about eight to ten appointments and then just knocked on doors to see other editors—my, how times have changed) and on the morning of December 2nd, I took the train with my pages (inked and drawn by me) from the Strike!/Airfighters Special up to show for potential work. I found my journal from back then and I was really apprehensive about this trip in particular since I needed work … badly. And it also confirms that my memory has not failed me … Bob was my first appointment of the day on that day. It wasn’t until 10:30 in the morning and I seem to remember them usually being earlier than that. My personal recollection of this day is that Bob was doing the usual

72 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

666 FIFTH AVENUE (left) DC’s 1980s home, 666 Fifth Avenue. (top right) One panel of a foldout moving notice sent to DC clients to announce this relocation. (bottom right) Adam Hughes, Mike W. Barr, and editor Michael Eury, the former Maze Agency team at Comico, in Eury’s DC office. MWB is holding a copy of The Maze Agency #9 (his personal favorite of all the stories he’s written). Eury adds, “Someone later stole those Flintstones figures from my office!” Supergirl TM & © DC Comics. Office photo courtesy of Mike W. Barr.

… “Well, you’re still doing this wrong. And this panel doesn’t work. And you still have some problems with too many long shots. And…” The pause that changed a life. I remember Bob looking up at me and saying (after a pause and a big batch of tough critique), “You know. You should be working for us.” TOUCHDOWN!!! My journal says that Bob took my samples to Richard Bruning (then DC’s art director) in order to get his feedback. I was told that the next day (a Thursday—I liked going in on Wednesdays—it seemed to work for more editors) they would bring me up at an editorial meeting where they try to pair talent to projects and that they would call me back. It wasn’t a definitive offer then. But by the next week … I was offered Starman with Bob as my editor and with … Roger Stern writing. Did my behind-the-scenes schmoozing of Roger make a difference or was it just perfect timing on my part? Only Bob knows. I can never thank him enough for that opportunity. It was the beginning of five years at DC. Five glorious years that made my career. I still can’t remember how I kept my composure that day, but my other appointments at DC that day were all after lunch, so I took off after my meeting with Bob and had lunch and waited for my next appointment. One of the coolest aspects of when I broke into comics was that I could make some appointments with editors (Bob was always on my list) and then walk around the DC offices (yes, I would get lost on occasions, but I learned my way around eventually) and knock on the doors of the other editors and ask them if they had time to look at my work. Most would say “yes” and take anywhere from ten to 30 minutes to look at my work and give me some advice. I remember Mike Carlin’s office. It was big. Or so it seemed. He was always gregarious. He was always pleasant. He never had work for me. Denny O’Neil NEVER met you in person, if possible, so I always spoke directly to his assistant editor—at this time it was Dan Raspler. I do remember Denny’s office always being SUPER dark with no lights on except for a desk lamp. It was eerie and kind of spooky, but it was also very powerful.

Who do I remember from back then? Bob, Denny, Dan Raspler, Mike Carlin, and eventually, Brian Augustyn, Jim Owsley, Barbara Randall, Andy Helfer, and I always said “Hi” to Karen Berger even though I was pretty sure I wasn’t her type of artist. I think that she had a huge corner office if I remember correctly. It was always bustling. Always busy. Always boisterous. I have very fond memories of wandering those halls—both as a wannabe and as a DC contract artist. Nice stuff. Fond memories. I was “made” by that building and the people who worked there. STUART MOORE, editor, writer I started at DC in the last days of the 666 Fifth Avenue office. I’m sure it had been a very nice space at one time, but DC had long outgrown it. The Vertigo imprint, which I helped found, was still a few years away. My office was a former conference room which I shared with a marketing person, a contracts person, and another editorial staffer. It was a bit of a zoo. At a Philadelphia convention, over breakfast, Neil Gaiman, Tom Peyer, Roger Stern, and I created a sitcom revolving around one of my officemates. Sadly, this one-of-a-kind collaboration never went to pilot. The 666 offices had very narrow hallways with a gigantic, stylized, bright yellow benday-dot pattern running up the walls. It was very cool to see, on a quick visit. After a few days it kind of grated. With a hangover, it felt like you were walking through a narrowing tunnel with bright circles assaulting you from both sides. The office had a tiny one-person men’s room with a lock, right off the main hallway. I think I’d been there about a week when I went to use it and pushed right open on Julie Schwartz, who’d forgotten to lock the door. Embarrassed, I said to Archie Goodwin, “I just walked in on Julie Schwartz.” Archie replied, “Now you know why they call him a living legend.” One time I walked past an editorial accounting office a few times and noticed the same staffer on the phone, repeating “Uh-huh.” “Uh-huh.” “Uh-huh.” The third time I passed by, he held up a handwritten sign reading: KANIGHER. If former DC editor Bob Greenberger isn’t regretting asking me for this yet, he will soon. Bob used to lead tours of kids through the offices. There wasn’t a lot to see—again, we were pretty packed in at that

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 73

point—so a big attraction was the cover wall, where mockups and proofs of new covers were tacked up. The cover wall was about four feet from the treacherous men’s room, but thankfully I can’t recall any hilarious door-lock errors while the tours were going on. The kids would point at the covers on the wall. “Who’s that?” “That’s the Flash,” Bob would explain. “He runs real fast.” “Who’s that?” “El Diablo. He’s a Western gunslinger.” “That’s Firestorm. He has nuclear powers.” Then one kid pointed at Hellblazer. “Who’s that?” Bob paused. “Ah. That’s John Constantine. He’s … British. He’s kind of depressed all the time.” The kid waited. “And all his friends die,” Bob finished. To me, that is the moment when comics Officially Grew Up. And Bob: hats off. To this day, I can’t think of a better summary description of Hellblazer. BOB ROZAKIS, production director, writer We moved across the street, but because of the locations of the loading docks and the directions of one-way streets, the trucks had to load and drive about six blocks from one building to the other. They spent more time in traffic than anything else. That yellow wallpaper! Robin McBryde and I were the unofficial morale officers and we organized many wacky events. One was Loud Shirt Day, for which I told participants to wear “the shirt your great Aunt Edna bought for you the week after she went blind.” We had Easter egg hunts, which I set up by sending virtually the entire staff out into the hall. JANICE RACE, editor Sharing an office with Len Wein was a hoot; how he did love to watch the soap opera Days of Our Lives on his little TV. I have often remarked to colleagues what the comic conventions were like and how oddly the people (adults!) dressed up. I usually point out that the movie Galaxy Quest captures quite well the reality of those events. Another thing that amazed me was how Len and Marv and Mike Barr could argue like crazy and then at the end of the day get together to decide which movie they were going to see that night or who was going to record which TV show. Perhaps it is not so much Len, Marv, and Mike I am commenting on, but rather on men in general. I don’t think a woman could have those kinds of arguments and then have everything be all right so quickly. I remember Julie Schwartz’s retirement party. And, of course, our retreat to Great Gorge. I remember Mike Barr and I were teammates for a game of Trivial Pursuit, which we won with the answer Stan Musial. He didn’t know baseball and was skeptical of the answer when I told him, but I was sure. I told him to trust me, and he did. Wise man. I’m sure there were many, many other fun moments, but those are the ones that stand out for me. ALAN GOLD, editor I (and Janice Race) were hired, I was told, because managers (I’m guessing Dick Giordano) were frustrated by the total chaos caused by the incompetence and indifference of the fanboys and selfish hacks (who were only concerned with their own projects and “worked” on staff for pocket change and a place for schmoozing and self-aggrandizing); they hired us because we were book professionals, “grownups” (Dick expected) used to and serious about schedules and standards. It was likely we wouldn’t put off everything to the last minute and wouldn’t spend most of our energy making life miserable for Bob Rozakis. Dick was right about us. We got most of our books on time. We didn’t raise any artistic or creative standards, but we put in a full day’s work, and I don’t think our books were appreciably worse than what had preceded us. (Well, maybe Justice League hit new lows while I resigned myself to Gerry Conway’s “vision,” but that’s a story for another day.) In my case (as a cartoonist manqué), there were many happy moments at the beginning, especially working with artists from the days when I still read comics, like Gil Kane (among many others who, sadly, no longer come to mind). And having my feedback regarding plots and dialogue accepted by not-quite-in-favor writers (such as Dan Mishkin and Mindy Newell). The monthly staff meetings (with trays heaped high with heartattack sandwiches from Pastrami & Things, the deli downstairs) were generally fun.

PAT BASTIENNE, editorial coordinator I/we had to watch the pages as Frank Miller delivered The Dark Knight and Ronin like Pinkerton Detectives. As you must remember, everyone wanted to see The Dark Knight art and rightly so. Right from the beginning, I do recall those pages being special and Dick and Frank … and Len, being the initial editor, were very, very excited. Whenever he copied the pages in production, people would just stand around trying to get a look-see. If any copies didn’t come out just right and Len threw them in the wastebasket, people used to dive in after them as soon as he finished. It was a hot book even before it got printed! ROBERT SIMPSON, editor I can honestly say a building saved my life. Growing up, I loved comics. That’s not a huge statement of some heretofore unknown revelatory fact: Anyone who knows me knows I love comics. When I was a little kid I fell in love with comics and when I learned that you could do comics for a living I was determined to work in that field someday. I’ve been lucky in that I got to visit four DC buildings over the years: 75 Rockefeller Center, 666 Fifth Avenue, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, and 1700 Broadway, and that, aside from 75 Rock, I got to work for DC in three of them. The first building, 75 Rock, I visited when I was 13 years old back in 1979: After mailing in countless stories to DC I was invited by Dave Manak, one of the editors, to tour the building. Growing up in Harlem, traveling to midtown Manhattan was a rare treat. I had to convince my parents to let me go—in the days before Stranger Danger, there was still a good amount of suspicion on their part as to why a man in some office would want to see me. I told my parents it was because I had sent them some stories I’d written, and they let me go. Looking back I can’t imagine why they did, but they did. I think my parents saw that my love of comics could be a way out for me, a way to a better life. At least I like to think they did. The building is familiar to a lot of people—it’s in the same plaza as the statue of Prometheus and the ice skating rink everyone sees at Christmastime as host to the big tree that draws crowds from all over the world. I should say the outside of that building is familiar. Very few have ever gotten to see the inside. I’d love to say that the building was a gleaming palace, but in truth it was just an office building. But what a building! They didn’t buy any stories from me then, but Dave encouraged me, gave me photocopies of scripts and artwork, and talked with me not only about the art of comics writing but what it would take to be a working professional in comics someday. I remember the exposed pipework and narrow halls, and dreamed that someday I’d be one of the people sitting at one of those desks that I passed, desks wedged into corners and hallways, wherever they could fit an extra body. Leaving that day, comics and scripts clutched to my chest, I saw Denny O’Neil standing at an elevator speaking with another creator. Years later I’d become very good friends with Denny, and work with him both at DC and Marvel, but I don’t think I’ve ever told him I saw him that day, and what an impression seeing him made on me. I’d seen his name in comics and loved his writing, and he was one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer. And there he was, standing not five feet away from me. I didn’t say anything to him then, I couldn’t believe he was real. There he was, a working writer, and I’d just met with Dave, a working editor. I knew what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I have deeper and stronger memories of the other three DC buildings I worked in. I remember going back to DC looking for work in November of 1983 when I was 18, a couple of weeks after my mother passed away and an equally sad event in my early professional life had taken place, that had me thinking I’d never be a writer again. I remember being told by Margaret Clark to call DC and ask to talk to a guy named Bob Greenberger, that he might have some work for me. DC was at 666 Fifth Avenue at this point, and it was a gleaming palace (though, again, probably more just an office building than a palace, but it was a glittering jewel to me, salvation and something more, a second chance). While Bob took the time to meet with me and supported me, he didn’t hire me that day—another editor he introduced me to, Sal Amendola, did, to write for one of DC’s anthology books, New Talent Showcase. I was a writer for DC, but something even better happened that day. Bob and I became friends, a friendship that has lasted more than 30 years. How many people can you say that about? So one DC building shaped my life, and another saved it. I met some of my best friends in those buildings, watched people I know fall in and out of love, raise their children, fight, laugh, cry, die, and come back to life, all while making comics and shaping on a daily basis the

74 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

fantasies and dreams of people around the world that they might never meet. People like a 13-year-old me. Some of DC already moved to California a couple of years ago but now the rest of the staffers are leaving New York, headed across the country to their new home on the West Coast. It’s sad, but also a happy time full of reuniting and endless potential. I hope for some lucky 13-year-old kid in California that new building, that new glittering palace, is the home of some wonderful dreams. GERARD JONES, writer My memory is of 666 Fifth Ave in early 1984. I was researching the first version of The Comic Book Heroes and had arranged a few interviews at DC. One was with Julie Schwartz, who was probably my favorite figure in comics at that time, and he invited me to lunch. Mind you, I’m a kid from California. I’d been in NYC twice in my life before this: once years before with my parents, then a quick trip with my girlfriend in ’79 when we never really got below the surface. So this was my first immersion in the city. So Julie takes me to Pastrami & Things, the delicatessen in the ground floor of the building, and recommends the pastrami sandwich. He asks what I’ve been up to in New York and I tell him that my girlfriend and I had gone to the Rainbow Room on top of Rockefeller Center to see Sy Oliver and his band (I was big into old jazz and knew Julie was, too). That gets us into ’40s jazz and he mentions that he was a crazy fan of Maxie Kaminsky, who I knew was a trumpet player who worked with some big bands. He was amazed that I’d even heard of Maxie Kaminsky. And then I realized what an incredibly New York moment I was having: pastrami in a deli with this old Jewish guy who had helped build the comics business and seen ’40s jazz bands when they were new. As a suburban kid I had always experienced popular culture from a distance, through the artifacts, but I had this sudden feeling of connectedness, like I was in it. And I’ve never felt that before, never even realized it was different from what I’d known. Then we went back to Julie’s office after lunch, and a few minutes later Frank Miller popped in to show him something he was excited about. This was when Frank was pretty new at DC—Ronin was still coming out—and he seemed very upbeat and enthusiastic. I think that was the moment that I started thinking I might actually want to try to get into the comics community. MICHAEL EURY, editor, assistant to the editorial director The DC Comics office I visited for a spring 1989 job interview was the infamous 666 Fifth Avenue location (insert your own Sign of the Beast joke here). My pal Adam Hughes, with whom I had worked at Comico on The Maze Agency, was my escort; Adam had recently been lured away from Comico to become the new Justice League artist. That summer I was hired as an associate editor, and grew to love that location! Some random 666 Fifth Avenue memories: • After Mark Waid, my first officemate, left DC’s staff, I found his stash of Diet Cokes and Twinkies secretly hidden in a filing cabinet. • My third officemate, Kevin Dooley, and I would playfully mock-fight after hours, with ridiculously dramatic moves worthy of a professional wrestler. (Kevin and I would also do a synchronized-swimming routine in hotel pools while at comic cons.) • Andy Helfer’s office was the resident smokers’ lounge. If I were looking for freelancer Keith Giffen, chances were I’d find him there. • The fire alarm routinely malfunctioned and the building’s “Fire Command Station in the lobby” would frequently interrupt our day with loudspeaker announcements advising us that the signal was being investigated. • Dick Giordano had a profound hearing loss and one needed to speak loudly for him to hear you. Once I became his “assistant to the executive director,” Dick and I would have impromptu meetings in the elevator so that the volume of our discussion would not be heard by prying ears outside of his office door. • When we were preparing to move the offices to the Avenue of the Americas, one of the licensing staff dumped a ton of carded action figures (including Super Powers) into the hallways for first-come, first-served claims. By the time I was finished with a phone conference, all I managed to snag was a Toy Biz Lex Luthor (the cheesy one whose “power punch” made him hit himself in the eye). • Right before we vacated 666, I was tempted to remove the men’s room toilet seat to sell on the fan market. (Imagine the pitch, “Frank Miller sat here!”)

1325 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS DC once more outgrew its space as its 50th anniversary celebration began a wave of huge successes, leading to unprecedented growth. As a result, DC relocated to two large floors at 1325 Avenue of the Americas, situated halfway down 52nd and 53rd Streets, midway between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue. The offices were nowhere near as eccentric as the previous building. By then we were part of Warner Bros. and Bob Daly’s secretary was given the task of overseeing our décor via long distance. It was all very stratified so your office size and furniture was dictated by rank. Upon moving in, I saw I had gained a potted plant. I dragged it into the hall for the janitorial staff to dispose of. The follow morning it was back. After a few more rounds of this, it was gone for good and I felt I had scored some sort of victory over The Man. A strong memory was watching a potential next generation of staffers scramble around the halls. During an early Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Nicole Levitz, Sammi Rozakis, and my daughter Kate ran through the halls as if they owned the place. All three could argue they partially grew up in the various offices, being frequent visitors. Other children, including my son Robbie, could make similar claims. BOB ROZAKIS, production director, writer Small world department: Jerry, one of the two security guards at the building’s front desk, lives up the block from me. The exterior of the building was used as a place where Elaine worked on Seinfeld. We were up on the 27th and 28th floors and whenever it really windy you could feel the building sway. My window looked out at the Hilton Hotel next door and the two buildings did not always sway in synch. When that happened, it was kind of scary to watch. Clark [Kent, the mannequin] moved from the reception area at 666 to the conference room in 1325. I had an argument with some kind of government building inspector regarding the “compartment door” into the darkroom because he claimed that in an emergency it could not be easily moved out of the way for someone in a wheelchair. I took him inside and showed him the stat camera and said, “You have to be able to stand up and bend down to operate this thing! No one in a wheelchair is ever going to be in here!” He reluctantly agreed. MICHAEL EURY, editor, writer Some of the magic disappeared after the office relocation. Now under the auspices of Warner Bros., the new DC offices had become corporate and, well, a bit sterile. Office décor had to be officially sanctioned; an “unapproved” potted plant accidentally left on my desk on a Friday night by my visiting wife was confiscated and disposed of over the weekend. The company was in transition, with the Hollywood development of its characters becoming the new direction, and the playfulness of good ol’ 666 was a thing of the past. JIM SPIVEY, editor From the time I was young, I couldn’t imagine anything cooler than getting a job in comics. So as you can imagine, when I was hired by Archie Goodwin to work for DC Comics (publisher of my favorite characters then and now), I was over the moon. When I first entered DC’s home at 1325 Avenue of the Americas, I was in awe of everything from the giant Superman statue in the lobby to the word balloon outside my new office door with my name on it. And considering my officemate, fellow associate editor Mike McAvennie, spent most, if not all, of his time in his boss’ space planning Zero Hour and the future of the Legion of Super-Heroes, having our office pretty much to myself was the last piece of what was shaping up to be a very awesome picture. Then, I started to notice … things. Things like the place being a friggin’ maze! With its bumpy white walls (some of us called it the most boring Braille story ever told) and nonsensical office layout, I think I must’ve charted at least three different paths to Archie’s office—and there’s a good chance none of them were the most direct route. And for someone with pretty intense vertigo, sitting in my (floor??) office when a stiff wind was blowing outside, listening to the building groan and creak and feeling it sway, was less than comforting. Still, for all its admittedly minor faults, 1325 Avenue of the Americas was where my publishing career began, and where I met some really great people who are still my friends to this day. And that’s pretty awesome, indeed.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 75

1325 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS (left) Julie Schwartz and Archie Goodwin at Julie’s 50th anniversary party at DC, 1994. (top right) This card signed by DC staff and artists was presented to Schwartz at his party. (bottom right) Mike Carlin and Bob Greenberger on moving day, 1995. Schwartz photo and card courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. Moving photo courtesy of Robert Greenberger.

LENNY SCHAFER, librarian Starting work at DC was a dream for a lifelong comics fan like me. I didn’t realize that there were people working there that had no idea what business they were involved in. In my first few weeks at 666 Fifth, I was called into an office one day, and was asked a question that I was sure was a joke. This person wanted to know if DC published a character named “Robin.” I informed her it was one half of “Batman and” and was so for about 50 years (at that time). Around the time of the big move from 666 to 1325 AoA, there was lots of confusion and raw nerves. I had packed up multiple boxes of the archives, and stored them outside the then-library (not much bigger than a closet). There were about 30–40 large boxes sitting in the hallways for days, and I was pulled aside to be told that I had left the library door unlocked the night before, and that it was big deal, security-wise. I pointed out that the majority of the library was sitting unguarded in the hallway, but that went over the head of my supervisor. As the librarian, I was in the midst of history (nothing beats the smell of old comics!) and people creating new history. I got to meet some of the talent from the past; some on staff (Paul Levitz, Denny O’Neil, Dick Giordano, Archie Goodwin, etc.); and others that were newer to the DC books. I would have staff and talent visiting the library regularly to research info for new projects or just to see the old physical copies of the classic comics. As a gracious host, I made sure to have snacks available for anyone that needed to bump up their sugar levels while visiting the past. One regular visitor on Wednesdays was Julie Schwartz, who would

come to visit DC and put in some office time. On one of his visits, I passed by the office he was using, and he called me in. He was on the phone, and wanted me to settle a question he was having with the caller. It was Superman-related, and I gave my answer (which was the same as Julie’s) and the caller thanked me and said goodbye to us both. Julie then asked if I knew who the caller was, to which I had no idea, and he said I just been talking to Harlan Ellison. Other visitors sometimes came in groups, like when the creative team from Batman: The Animated Series came to research old Batman stories. They came in and looked over hundreds of old comics and locked themselves in the next-door conference room to come up with stories for this new cartoon. Soon after the cartoon premiered, we had a visit from the Joker himself, Mark Hamill. He, being a longtime fan as well, wanted to see the older, rare books. I asked him to sign my B:TAS poster before entrance, and he gladly signed it in true Joker style. I really need to get that framed. We also had Mark voice the outgoing voice message, as the Joker, for then-Batman Adventures editor Scott Peterson (without Scott’s knowledge). Another celebrity who sought out advice, once again over the phone, was Penn Jillete. He was looking for reference for a joke as to which book was more valuable (pre–Google days). Much of the DC staff waited for the comp copies of the weekly books. I would get calls to see if they had reached the mailroom yet. It was like working in the comic shop again! For some, it was a chance to make sure their books had been printed correctly; for others, it was just to get the other companies’ books for free.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

1700 BROADWAY DC’s stay at 1325 proved historically brief. After three years, the company made its final New York move, to 1700 Broadway. They took five floors, eventually renting out half of the 4th floor to the syndicated TV series Extra. Once the company began becoming bicoastal, there was a restacking as DC consolidated operations to the 5th through 7th floors. I left staff in 2000 but I returned in 2002 and started with Collected Editions on the 7th floor before we were relocated down to three. Five floors meant a lot of running up and down the stairs but it also kept us further apart, making us long for the smaller, tighter spaces of the past. We had grown beyond the ability to all meet anywhere but the 3rd floor reception area, which had been tricked out to resemble the Gotham City rooftops, complete with Bat-signal. (The 7th floor, for corporate executives, was a street in Metropolis complete with Superman and a phone booth.) BRAD MELTZER, writer My most lasting memory is that first meeting with Paul Levitz. There I am, in the office of the main man. I had just been hired to do Green Arrow. As a novelist, we sat there discussing the state of publishing, and books, and blah and more blah. All was professional and formal. And then, I just couldn’t help myself. I just blurted out, “I loved The Great Darkness Saga!” And from there, we spent the rest of the time talking Legion and comics history. JOHANNA DRAPER CARLSON, online editor The only office I remember was 1700 Broadway, floors 3–7, where I worked for about a year. I thought the lobby designs were amazing, with Gotham City main reception on 3rd, the MAD guys and all their memorabilia on 5, and Superman with a phone booth on 7. The Gotham City rooftop design was particularly stunning, with the Batman and Catwoman costumes and mood lighting, although those metal mesh chairs could be hell on tights. I got a double office to myself. I was told—although I’m not 100% sure this was accurate—that because I was running the AOL and websites and needed both a Mac and PC computer, that no one else could share because the space was only wired for two machines. It was almost 20 years ago, so maybe the networking capacity was that small. Since so much of my work was virtual and I spent most of my days online, I don’t have many other memories of the space itself. I tended to get to work, go in the office, and stay there until I left. I did quite like the wall of covers, though, where all the images for the month’s books were posted and you could see the whole line all together. BOB ROZAKIS, production director When we moved out of 1325, all the computers were stolen, either by the moving company employees themselves or a clever team of fakes. We watched the Macy’s parade from my office at least twice. One of the times, it was windy, so they had the balloons down fairly low—right at window level. All the kids loved it. David Letterman was right across the street. Every now and then, he’d be rehearsing some stunt for the show. One time, Mel Gibson kept riding down Broadway on a horse. There was a hotel across the street that you could see from my office. Marty Todd and I were always early arrivals at work and would often sit in my office schmoozing or going over stuff. One of her frequent comments was “Naked man on 7 (or 8 or 6 or whatever).” For some reason, people staying in that hotel would apparently shower and then stand at the window looking down at Broadway, unaware (or unconcerned) that anyone could see them. IVAN COHEN, marketing publications representative, coordinating editor, creative executive Having spent 14 years working at 1700 Broadway, there’s no shortage of memories to look back on. While most of those memories relate to the people I worked with and the projects we made happen, there are some that are deeply connected to the company being based in New York City. For instance, Thanksgivings when the offices were open to staff and family/friends to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade passing by—on lower floors you could practically be at eye level with passing balloons! There was one year when my girlfriend (now my wife) was marching in the parade, and I ran frantically from office to office to take pictures of her from the windows. Having the Ed Sullivan Theater right across the street meant that there would occasionally be fun distractions during Letterman show tapings, whether they were outdoor stunts on the side street or music performances held on top of the marquee on Broadway. A particularly memorable day was when Paul McCartney performed there, and the surrounding streets were closed to traffic so hundreds to even thousands of fans could crowd in for a look and listen. We had the best seats in the house, though some of us still had to do work for some reason. Working at DC on 9/11 had special resonance, with coworkers having friends and loved ones either lost in the attacks or gone temporarily missing during the chaos that followed. I remember staying at my desk, as I had better phone service there than I would have at home, and hearing from freelancers across the globe wondering if I—

1700 BROADWAY (top) Exterior shot of DC’s last New York City headquarters, 1700 Broadway. (center) The reception room at 1700 Broadway. (bottom) This artist-jam mural, originally produced in 1987 as a History of the DC Universe poster, decorated a wall at 1700 Broadway. Photos courtesy of Ric Bretschneider (www.ricbret.com).

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 77

1700 BROADWAY (left) Bob Greenberger and his assistant, Anne Fornecker, in her office on her last day on the job, July 1999. (center) From left: Fletcher Chu-Fong, Matt Idelson, Jim Higgins, and Annie Gaines, July 1999. (right) From Bob Greenberger’s going-away party from DC, March 2000. From top: Maureen McTigue, Mike McAvennie, Eddie Berganza, and Bob. Photos courtesy of Robert Greenberger.

and the rest of the folks at DC—were all right. Those who had never been to the city had to be reassured that the four miles between DC’s offices and the Towers were far enough as to make it almost another world. That said, the stillness of the midtown streets as the day passed was chilling in a way I’ve never forgotten. 9/11 was a turning point for the culture at DC. In the aftermath of the attacks, the building instituted new security measures which made unannounced drop-ins from freelancers largely a thing of the past. Not that anyone who worked with DC regularly couldn’t find a soft touch to “put them in the system” so they could come visit, but still the flow went from a deluge to a trickle. The idea (never really realistic) that an artist could show up with a portfolio and, if they waited long enough, get their art looked at by someone who could make them a star—became an even more-distant possibility; a story you told art students to make them feel like dogged determination could pay off. Those New York offices offered connections to comics history that will be one step further removed when the company retrenches out West. Joe Orlando and Archie Goodwin were both part of the DC I joined, though I only spoke to Archie a few times and was too shy to approach Joe on the rare days I saw him in the office. Joe Kubert and Julie Schwartz were occasional visitors I got to know a little, but there was definitely a sense that we were between generations. For a fan who had been a teenager in the ’80s, meeting and, in some cases, befriending the likes of Walter Simonson, Jerry Ordway, and José Luis García-Lopez among freelancers, and Mike Carlin, Denny O’Neil, Bob Greenberger

(hi, Bob!), and Andy Helfer on the edit staff was, for me, what knowing Julie, Gil Kane, Curt Swan, and other Silver Age luminaries must have been for them. And while the West Coast has no shortage of comics talent for the next crop of editors to befriend and be dazzled by, it’s definitely going to be more exclusively about this generation and the next, less the combination of eras that marked the DC I was a part of. Other aspects of the comics community will be hit as well, with New York becoming a Marvel–Valiant (with a little Dynamite thrown in) town. But freelance creators have already been driven out of Manhattan—and slowly Brooklyn, too—by high rents, editors have gone suburban to have more space for their comics collections, er, I mean families, and the Ace Bar/ Johnny Foxes/McGee’s axis of comics bars frequented by a broad range of comics pros seems very much a thing of the ’90s and the early 2000s. UK freelancers will have a harder time being in touch with their editors being another couple of time zones away, while those on Characters TM & © DC Comics. the West Coast will have it a little easier. Those of us left behind will miss our relocating friends, resent having to compete with the influx of newly unemployed former DC staffers who will inevitably go freelance and, ultimately, have to answer the big question: “Who’s going to give me free comics now?” Next stop … Burbank! Keep up with writer/educator BobGreenberger.com.

78 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

ROBERT

GREENBERGER

Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

Find BACK ISSUE on

FLASHPOINTS This Flash/Green Lantern issue is a TwoMorrows crossover! If you haven’t already done so, rush out and pick up a copy of our sister mag, Alter Ego #132, for its coverage of the Scarlet Speedster’s and Emerald Crusader’s Golden and Silver Age adventures.

BITS OF BARR BIZ Fun facts about subjects covered in BI #74 and 75: #74: The cover to Fantastic Four #249 (Dec. 1982) caused quite a stir in the DC offices— or, at least, in one of them. DC VP Dick Giordano was so incensed over the cover’s use of the term “Super-man” (albeit hyphenated) that he wanted to sue. It fell to me, as the firm’s resident English major, to inform Giordano of George Bernard Shaw and one of his most famous plays, which preceded DC’s Superman by three-anda-half decades. #75: In “Pacific Comics Memories,” my colleague and fellow Akronite Dave Scroggy mentions Neal Adams’ Ms. Mystic as one of many Pacific titles. But history might have taken a different turn. On my first day as a DC staffer in 1977 I found a sheaf of copies of Adams-penciled pages in a file, and was told this was “Ms. Mystic—we might publish it.” Negotiations apparently fell through; the title was published by Pacific in 1982, edited by one Dave Scroggy. – Mike W. Barr

CONCRETE IS ROCK-SOLID I had been looking forward to BACK ISSUE #75 ever since I first saw it in the “forthcoming attractions” section, and it proved to be well worth the wait. I have loved Paul Chadwick’s Concrete from my very first encounter with him, and been only too happy to share him with others. If ever friends or acquaintances show even the faintest interest in comics, Concrete is the first thing I push in their direction. I can best describe it as the most lifeaffirming and life-enhancing creation in the medium. Art and Super Spectacular logo TM & © DC Comics. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

RATTLING A CAGE Just a quick note to let you know I enjoyed Jerry Boyd’s article in BACK ISSUE about the horror series Death Rattle. He contacted me for some information on Rand Holmes and I’m pleased to see he did a thorough job of describing the comics and creators. He also plugged my Rand Holmes book, The Artist Himself. I appreciated that. – Patrick Rosenkranz Next issue: DC Bronze Age Giants and Reprints! We open DC Comics’ vaults for an in-depth exploration of its 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS! Plus: a salute to “human encyclopedia” E. NELSON BRIDWELL, a history of comics giants, DC indexes galore, and an exclusive interview with MICHAEL USLAN, where he reveals the stories behind the stories reprinted in Fireside Books’ volumes of DC classics. Featuring the work of SERGIO ARAGONÉS, PAT BRODERICK, RICH BUCKLER, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT, JEFF ROVIN, BOB ROZAKIS, GLORIA STEINHEM (!), LINDA SUNSHINE, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. Look for this Super Spec tribute cover featuring classic art by NICK CARDY! Special 100page edition, with a one-time $9.95 cover price! Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty! Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

•

BACK ISSUE • 79

Send your comments to:

A lumbering monstrosity on the surface, and possessed of astonishing abilities, he is also a cocktail of human sensitivities and frailties. And why wouldn’t he be, trapped in a body he never asked for, yet somehow making the best of it. It’s hard to narrow down the whole canon to its essence, although a three-panel sequence at the end of “Visible Breath” (Dark Horse Presents #32, 1989) sums up so much of the strengths and weaknesses of the human condition as we experience them through the eyes of Ron Lithgow. By chance, Concrete’s assistants are forced to share a motel room, while Concrete spends the long night alone outside fretting about whether Larry and Maureen will become intimate. He worries about what it would mean for him, should it happen—rather than feeling happy that his two best friends might find tenderness, or even love, when thrown together. The thought bubbles on the final page, when Ron discovers that his worst fears have not been realized: “They were in separate beds” … “This is going to be a good day” is writing at its very best. If ever there was a case for the continued use of the late, lamented thought bubble, it is here. Long may you continue, Paul Chadwick, and fear not that you have failed to do the best with your talent. Concrete, through its humanity, will stand the test of this, and any time. – Simon Bullivant

THE BEST IN COMICS & LEGO® PUBLICATIONS!

SAVE

WHE % OR N YOU ONLDER INE!

SPRING 2015

THIS JUNE: MONSTER MASH

The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972 Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (Shock Theatre, The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Dark Shadows), “Mars Attacks” trading cards, Eerie Publications, Planet of the Apes, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). SHIPS JUNE 2015! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 9781605490649

GO TO www.twomorrows.com NOW FOR A FREE PREVIEW!

OTHER NEW BOOKS, NOW SHIPPING!

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans! TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

NEW ISSUES:

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans! TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Visit us on the Web at twomorrows.com

KIRBY COLLECTOR #65

BRICKJOURNAL #34

BACK ISSUE #81

BACK ISSUE #82

BACK ISSUE #83

TOMMY WILLIAMSON on the making of his YouTube LEGO sensation BATMAN VS SUPERMAN, BRANDON GRIFFITH’S COMICBRICKS PROJECT recreates iconic comic book covers out of LEGO, JARED BURKS and his custom Agents of SHIELD minifigs, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

“DC Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” An indepth exploration of DC’s 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS, plus: a history of comics giants, DC indexes galore, and a salute to “human encyclopedia” E. NELSON BRIDWELL. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, RICH BUCKLER, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT, BOB ROZAKIS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. Super Spec tribute cover featuring classic art by NICK CARDY.

“Bronze Age Events!” With extensive coverage of the Avengers/Defenders War, JLA/JSA crossovers, Secret Wars, Crisis’ 30th anniversary, Legends, Millennium, Invasion, Infinity Gauntlet, and more! Featuring the work of SAL BUSCEMA, DICK DILLIN, TODD McFARLANE, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOE STATON, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE ZECK, and more. Plus an Avengers vs. Defenders cover by JOHN BYRNE.

“International Heroes!” Alpha Flight, the New X-Men, Global Guardians, Captain Canuck, and Justice League International, plus SpiderMan in the UK and more. Also: exclusive interview with cover artists STEVE FASTNER and RICH LARSON. Featuring the work of JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, RICHARD COMELY, KEITH GIFFEN, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! Alpha Flight vs. X-Men cover by FASTNER/LARSON.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2015

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships June 2015

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2015

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships August 2015

KIRBY COLLECTOR #66

ALTER EGO #132

ALTER EGO #133

ALTER EGO #134

ANYTHING GOES (AGAIN)! Another potpourri issue with a comparison of Jack Kirby’s work vs. the design genius of ALEX TOTH, a lengthy Kirby interview, a look at Kirby’s work with WALLY WOOD, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, unseen and unused Kirby art from JIMMY OLSEN, KAMANDI, MARVELMANIA, Jack’s COMIC STRIP & ANIMATION WORK, and more!

DOUBLE-TAKES ISSUE! Features oddities, coincidences, and reworkings by both Jack and Stan Lee: the Galactus Origin you didn’t see, Ditko’s vs. Kirby’s Spider-Man, how Lee and Kirby viewed “writing” differently, plus a rare KIRBY radio interview with Stan, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, unseen and unused pencil art from FANTASTIC FOUR, 2001, CAPTAIN VICTORY, BRUCE LEE, & more!

75 YEARS of THE FLASH and GREEN LANTERN (a crossover with BACK ISSUE #80)! INFANTINO, KANE, KUBERT, ELIAS, LAMPERT, HIBBARD, NODELL, HASEN, TOTH, REINMAN, SEKOWSKY, Golden Age JSA and Dr. Mid-Nite artist ARTHUR PEDDY’s stepson interviewed, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more!

Gentleman JIM MOONEY gets a featurelength spotlight, in an in-depth interview conducted by DR. JEFF McLAUGHLIN— never before published! Featuring plenty of rare and unseen MOONEY ART from Batman & Robin, Supergirl, Spider-Man, Legion of Super-Heroes, Tommy Tomorrow, and others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Celebrates SOL BRODSKY—Fantastic Four #3-4 inker, logo designer, and early Marvel production manager! With tributes by daughter JANA PARKER and son GARY BRODSKY, STAN LEE, HERB TRIMPE, STAN GOLDBERG, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, TONY ISABELLA, ROY THOMAS, and others! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover portrait by JOHN ROMITA!

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Spring 2015

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Summer 2015

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2015

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2015

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2015

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #6 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #7 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #8

DRAW! #30

DRAW! #31

SWAMPMEN: MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS dredges up Swamp Thing, ManThing, Heap, and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou! Features interviews with WRIGHTSON, MOORE, PLOOG, WEIN, BRUNNER, GERBER, BISSETTE, VEITCH, CONWAY, MAYERIK, ORLANDO, PASKO, MOONEY, TOTLEBEN, YEATES, BERGER, SANTOS, USLAN, KALUTA, THOMAS, and others. FRANK CHO cover!

BERNIE WRIGHTSON interview on Swamp Thing, Warren Publishing, The Studio, Frankenstein, Stephen King, and designs for movies like Heavy Metal and Ghostbusters, and a gallery of Wrightson artwork! Plus 20th anniversary of Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror with BILL MORRISON; and interview Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre's BATTON LASH, and more!

MIKE ALLRED and BOB BURDEN cover and interviews, “Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman” cartoonist DAVID BOSWELL interviewed, a chat with RICH BUCKLER, SR. about everything from Deathlok to a new career as surrealistic painter; plus the late STAN GOLDBERG speaks; the conclusion of our BATTON LASH interview; STAN LEE on his European comic convention tour, and more!

We focus the radar on Daredevil artist CHRIS SAMNEE (Agents of Atlas, Batman, Avengers, Captain America) with a how-to interview, comics veteran JACKSON GUICE (Captain America, Superman, Ruse, Thor) talks about his creative process and his new series Winter World, columnist JERRY ORDWAY shows his working process, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

How-to demos & interviews with Philadelphia artists JG JONES (52, Final Crisis, Wanted, Batman and Robin) and KHOI PHAM (The Mighty Avengers, The Astonishing SpiderMan, The Mighty World of Marvel), JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews of art supplies, JERRY ORDWAY demos the “ORD-way” or drawing, and Comic Art Bootcamp by MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS! JG Jones cover! Mature readers only.

(192-page paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $9.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2015

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Spring 2015

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Summer 2015

Get your FREE TwoMorrows 2015 Catalog! CALL, WRITE, OR GO TO www.twomorrows.com SAVE

ALL BOOKS, MAGS & DVDs ARE AT LEAST 15% OFF EVERY DAY AT OUR WEBSITE

WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER Discount does not apply to Mail Orders, Subscriptions, Bundles, INE! Limited Editions, Digital Editions, or items purchased at conventions.

Get Your TwoMorrows Fix By: • Ordering Print or Digital Editions ONLINE at www.twomorrows.com and you get at least 15% OFF cover price, plus exact weight-based postage (the more you order, the more you save on shipping— especially overseas customers)! Plus you’ll get a FREE PDF DIGITAL EDITION of each PRINT item you order, where available. OR: • Ordering by MAIL, PHONE, or E-MAIL EDITIONLSE and add $1 per magazine or DVD and $2 AVAILAB per book in the US for Media Mail shipping. OUTSIDE THE US, PLEASE CALL, E-MAIL, OR ORDER ONLINE TO CALCULATE YOUR EXACT POSTAGE! OR: • Downloading our new Apps on the Apple and Android App Stores!

OR: • Ordering at your local comic book shop! To be notified of exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases, sign up for our mailing list! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/twomorrows

2015 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl. Intl.

Digital Only

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$45

$58

$61

$66

$127

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (8 issues)

$67

$82

$85

$104

$242

$23.60

DRAW! (4 issues)

$34

$41

$43

$52

$141

$11.80

ALTER EGO (8 issues)

$67

$82

$85

$104

$242

$23.60

COMIC BOOK CREATOR (4 issues)

$40

$50

$54

$60

$121

$15.80

BRICKJOURNAL (6 issues)

$50

$62

$68

$78

$180

$23.70

PRINTED IN CHINA

DIGITAL