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FLASH AND GREEN LANTERN IN THE BRONZE AGE!

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Flash and Green Lantern TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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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

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

TM

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

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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.

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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

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by

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.

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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

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“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

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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.

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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

by

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.

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TM

by

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

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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

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

by

Mark Waid

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

by

Jim Kingman

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

TM

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

by

Paul Kupperberg

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

by

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

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

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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 IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, NYC for L.A. There’s a sense of loss. But everything changes…

CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS

MARV WOLFMAN, fan, writer, ISSUEeditor IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! 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. memory BACK My ISSUE #80 of those days is a tad fuzzy so forgive me if and I’mGreen wrong, I think romance Lantern but in the Bronze Age”the (crossover with “Flash ALTER EGO #132)!

In-depth spotlights their 1970sMurray and 1980s comic editors (Jack Miller and company) were in the firstof office.

MARK WAID’s look at the Flash/GL team, and PAUL adventures, Boltinoff, Jack Schiff, and George Kashdan were in the second. Mort KUPPERBERG’s Lost GL Fill-ins. Bonus: DC’s New York Office Weisinger was in the third. I’m guessing Julie Schwartz and Bob Memories, and Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale by LARRY NIVEN JOHN that BYRNE.were With BARR, BATES, GIBBONS, GRELL, INFANKanigher were in the next one.andAfter business offices—Irwin andwent more. Cover

by GEORGE Donenfeld, Jack Liebowitz, etc.TINO, We WEIN, never down that PÉREZ. far.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95Walter As I said, to the left were file cabinets filled with art, which (Digital Edition) $3.95 would show us of upcoming books. After the row of cabinets, to the http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1186 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