Back Issue #83

S eptember 2 0 1 5

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X-Men, Alpha Flight, and all related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THIS ISSUE: INTERNATIONAL HEROES!

Alpha Flight • New X-Men • Global Guardians • Captain Canuck • JLI & more! featuring an exclusive interview with cover artists Steve Fastner and Rich Larson

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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!

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“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.

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“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!

“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.

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“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.

“Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age” (crossover with ALTER EGO #132)! In-depth spotlights of their 1970s and 1980s adventures, MARK WAID’s look at the Flash/GL team, and PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Lost GL Fillins. Bonus: DC’s New York Office Memories, and Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale by LARRY NIVEN and JOHN BYRNE. With BARR, BATES, GIBBONS, GRELL, INFANTINO, WEIN, and more. Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ.

“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.

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Volume 1, Number 83 September 2015 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Steve Fastner and Rich Larson COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Howard Bender Jonathan R. Brown Rebecca Busselle ByrneRobotics.com Dewey Cassell Chris Claremont Mike Collins J. M. DeMatteis Leopoldo Duranona Scott Edelman Raimon Fonseca Ramona Fradon Keith Giffen Steve Goble Grand Comics Database Fred Hembeck Heritage Comics Auctions Joe Hollon Terry Kavanagh Barry Kitson Andrew Leyland Jean-Marc Lofficier Franck Martini Marvel Comics Robert Menzies

Martin Pasko Carl Potts Bob Rozakis Samuel Savage Alex Saviuk Jason Shayer Craig Shutt David Smith Steve Stiles Dan Tandarich Roy Thomas Fred Van Lente Len Wein Jay Williams Keith Williams Dedicated with admiration to: Rafael López Espí

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FLASHBACK: International X-Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The global evolution of Marvel’s mighty mutants FLASHBACK: Exploding from the Pages of X-Men: Alpha Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 John Byrne’s not-quite-a team from the Great White North BACKSTAGE PASS: The Captain and the Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 How a moral panic in the UK jeopardized the 1976 launch of Captain Britain WHAT THE--?!: Spider-Man: The UK Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Even you Spidey know-it-alls may never have read these stories!

BACKSTAGE PASS: Origins of Marvel UK: Not Just Your Father’s Reprints. . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Repurposing Marvel Comics classics for a new audience ART GALLERY: López Espí Marvel Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 A collection of superhero illos by the acclaimed Spanish artist OFF MY CHEST: Challenge of the Super Friends Global Guardians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Are DC’s international heroes in continuity?

FLASHBACK: Captain Canuck: If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again . . . . . . . . . . 53 The trials and tribulations of Richard Comely’s Canadian crimefighter PRO2PRO: Steve Fastner and Rich Larson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 An exclusive interview with our cover artists FLASHBACK: Justice League International: An Unintentional Trip to the World Stage. . . . 65 Keith Giffen and Marc DeMatteis tell BI how the JL got global GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Shamrock and the Peregrine’s Vanishing Act from Dr. Strange #37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 What on Earth is a “Frankensurfer”?

BACK IN PRINT: Hexagon Forever!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Jean-Marc Lofficier shares the latest news about the Editions Lug universe BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Reader reactions 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 Steve Fastner and Rich Larson. X-Men, Alpha Flight, and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. 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. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. International Heroes Issue

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TM

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International Mutants The All-New, All-Different X-Men! Detail from the cover of 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Art by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Franck Martini

[Lee] had had up to this point. It didn’t make sense to me that heroes in general, not even mutants who were originally supposed to be related to things like the Manhattan Project, were all Americans. […] There was no special reason for an Irish mutant, except that I wanted to do a character called the Banshee (female, if Stan had let me have my way) and BEFORE THE ALL-NEW, he/she wasn’t going to be a German, ALL-DIFFERENT… right? As for the Japanese side of There had been international mutants things—well, they had been on the before the team that appeared in receiving end of the end result of the Giant-Size X-Men #1 (July 1975). Roy Manhattan Project, so I thought it Thomas was then writing the book and would be interesting and productive wanted to give it a different vibe: “I did to throw a Japanese or Japanesecreate Banshee—well, I’d say ‘co-create,’ American into the mix.” because artist Werner Roth contributed So Banshee was introduced in X-Men much of the look, from a sort of general #28 (Jan. 1967) and Sunfire made visual idea I gave him—and Sunfire a his debut between two Neal Adams roy thomas couple of years later with Don Heck, issues (X-Men #64, Jan. 1970). It is also much the same way. I felt that Marvel Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. interesting to note that thanks to the needed a few ‘foreign mutants,’ and just characters from one-month Mexico trip mentioned above, Roy Thomas other worlds in general. At that time I hadn’t been out of also introduced Mexican villains El Tigre and Kukulkan the country except for a month in Mexico, but I felt it was in X-Men #25–26 (Oct.–Nov. 1966), a rare case of South time to build on the New York-central mythos that Stan American mutants until New Mutants’ Sunspot.

If the original team of X-Men was only composed of American characters, such was not the case with the All-New, All-Different X-Men team that appeared after a five-year hiatus. The team would feature an international roster, but its adventures would also take place all over our world and beyond.

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this book sell just well enough in the States to break even,” as Thomas further explained Alter Ego #24 (May 2003).

Thomas shares a bit more about the roster setup with BACK ISSUE: “I thought that perhaps pre-existing characters I’d had a hand in like the Banshee, Sunfire, and Wolverine might fit in, but I don’t believe that I was pushing projected writer Mike Friedrich and artist Dave Cockrum to include any particular character. A Canadian, maybe even a Japanese, made sense in the group, given that the idea was to sell the revived X-Men in countries where our comics were fairly well distributed … but there was no special reason for an Irishman to be included A NEW CONCEPT FOR A unless they wanted him to be.”

NEW TEAM Dave Cockrum, the original New After a few appearances in Avengers X-Men artist, recalled that Roy Thomas and in Marvel Team-Up, the X-Men pitched him the book as “Mutant would return, but with a different team, Blackhawks,” inspired by the internationaland would target different readers member flying aces that originated than before as per Marvel president in the Golden Age in the pages of Al Landau’s suggestion: “Al suggested dave cockrum Military Comics and Blackhawk.

Marvel do a group of foreign superSo the idea stuck, but not the heroes … characters from countries in Sketch by Michael Netzer. countries as Cockrum also recalled in which Marvel sold a lot of comics,” Thomas said to Tom Alter Ego #24: “By the time we were choosing characters, DeFalco. “Stan and I liked the idea. It was my idea to do FSSHT, out the window, you know. So we have a that group with the X-Men.” Russian, we have a Kenyan, and we might’ve sold some More precisely, there was a selling strategy behind in Germany and Canada, but that whole concept just Al Landau’s idea: “He said, if we could put out a book went out the window. We just got caught up in the with characters in it from different countries we sold to, enthusiasm of what we were doing.” it’d probably help. […] It’d be great if we could also make

The next “international” X-Man would be Wolverine, appearing for the first time in the pages of the Incredible Hulk #181 (Nov. 1974)—after a cliffhanger cameo in the previous issue, that is. Once again, Roy Thomas was involved in the creation process as he explained in Tom De Falco’s Comics Creators on X-Men (Titan Books, 2006): “He was my idea. I came up with his name and basic traits. […] [Al Landau, Marvel’s then-president, Stan Lee, and I] decided that we really should have a Canadian character. […] About five or ten percent of our readers were Canadian, and yet we didn’t have a Canadian character.”

International Heroes Issue

Wail and Assail (right) Ireland’s Banshee in X-Men #76 (June 1972), which reprinted issue #28. Cover

by Gil Kane and an uncredited inker. (left) Japan’s Sunfire first appeared in X-Men #64 (Jan. 1970). Cover

by Sal Buscema and Tom Palmer.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Yet with this concept, most of the original X-Men were left out of the book after Giant-Size X-Men #1, with the exception of Cyclops leading a very international and odd team—a team Thomas would not see being launched, as he would leave his position of Marvel editorin-chief shortly before the book’s publication. Mike Friedrich would not become the writer and was replaced by Len Wein; the rest would be history, as the saying goes.

INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS So, included were the foreign mutants that had previously appeared: Banshee, Sunfire, and Wolverine.

As Len Wein recalls, it was purely logical to have them in the team: “Japan, Ireland, and Canada gave us an even more wide-ranged pantheon of characters to play with, though, except for Wolverine, the other two were intended to leave after the first story.”

All the new characters would come from completely distinct backgrounds: Storm, from Kenya, where she was treated like a goddess by the local people; Nightcrawler, from Germany, was considered a monster and hunted like an animal before Charles Xavier rescued him; and Native-American Thunderbird, an angry young man living on an Apache reservation.

Finally, and slightly more surprisingly, comes Peter Rasputin, a.k.a. Colossus, a quiet giant working with his family in a collective farm, from Lake Baikal, Siberia (the script did not mention the USSR).

The choice of a Russian character may seem strange given the initial approach, but as Thomas recalls: “[Initially], we didn’t discuss a Russian/Soviet character and wouldn’t have, since that didn’t fit our sales mission, so to speak—we didn’t sell a lot of comics in the USSR. But Len and Dave had kind of abandoned the original purpose of the

Coming and Going Professor X’s first wave of global mutants was a team in transition—three of the seven X-Men pictured here didn’t last long. From Giant-Size X-Men #1, by Wein (with Claremont) and Cockrum.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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comic, if Len [Wein] ever knew it and if Dave remembered it from my earlier discussion with him and Mike Friedrich … so they went ahead with it. In that age years after Man from U.N.C.L.E., though, it wasn’t that hard to conceive.” Wein remembers that the Soviet part was not a problem at all: “Nothing was ever mentioned. The visual was predominantly the late, great Dave Cockrum’s; the backstory was mine.”

As Wein mentions most of these new characters were created based on Dave Cockrum’s “scrapbook of characters,” some of them having been proposed for DC Comics’ [Superboy starring the] Legion of Super-Heroes, the book Cockrum was drawing before X-Men. Based on unused designs and some brainstorming, the characters took shape.

When asked how the countries of origin were chosen, Wein remembers a very organic process: “Once designed, the characters just suggested their nationalities.”

HAVE MUTANT POWER, WILL TRAVEL Len Wein would leave the book after a couple of issues, during which Sunfire chose to return to Japan and Thunderbird would die fighting Count Nefaria (#94–95, Aug.– Oct. 1975). Britain-born Chris Claremont would jump in as the writer.

He explained in Comics Creators on X-Men that he perfectly fit the X-Men mood: “With me being an immigrant […] with an English accent […] and always moving around— my dad was in the Army (when Chris was a teenager)—I always felt like the proverbial fish out of the water. Being an outsider sort of came naturally to me, so I understood where the X-Men were coming from.”

Claremont’s first issue saw the first appearance of another foreigner, the Scottish “housekeeper” Moira MacTaggert. Little is known about her past at this point, but she would become a very prominent character.

Also, she very quickly developed a (logical?) relationship with Banshee.

The next issues leading to X-Men #100 (Aug. 1976) see the group engage in their first fight in space, and Charles Xavier starts having dreams of an alien creature, which will soon lead to the arrival of Lilandra, the Imperial Guard, and the Starjammers.

Then, right after the birth of Phoenix (X-Men #101, Oct. 1976), the team—minus Cyclops and Jean Grey—travels to Ireland for their first trip outside the USA. This combination of deep-space trips and international travels would become a trademark of the title for most of Claremont’s run. Was it because of its international background, or more simply to change the

scenery? “Actually, both,” explains Chris Claremont.

“The feeling from the start was that, for the X-Men, there was no need to be exclusively locked into either the Mansion or the New York metropolitan area as a primary setting. All the other Marvel series, both solo characters and teams, embraced the city as their primary hub: the FF lived in the Baxter Building; Avengers Mansion was across Fifth Avenue from Central Park; Spider-Man lived and went to high school in Queens, then college in Manhattan; Dr. Strange lived in Greenwich Village; and that’s just a few. Xavier’s School was located outside the city, in Westchester County, so the idea of being separated from the primal Marvel locale was imbedded in the team from the start. Moreover, with the new team, we had the arrival of characters that originated from all over the globe. Right off the bat, Dave and I got Charley [Professor X] involved with Lilandra of the Shi’ar.

And, of course, the evolution of Jean [Grey] into Phoenix expanded the list of possibilities exponentially. When you have characters of such social and cultural divergence to play with, it seems only logical to follow the characters and stories in those varied—of necessity, global—directions.

I guess my feeling was, everyone else played in the New York metropolitan area; fine with me. I was totally happy to go exploring the rest of the planet and, indeed, the universe as well.”

“It was an inside joke that got out of hand,” Claremont sort of apologized during an online interview.

Following Phoenix’s death, the X-Men embarked in the famous “Days of Future Past” storyline in Uncanny X-Men #141–142 (Feb.–Mar. 1980). This time another British TV show was the inspiration of the story: Doctor Who. As John Byrne explained in Comics Creators on X-Men: “Magically, the plot appeared in my head. The entire story where the Sentinels are controlling the Earth and Kitty time travels […]. About four or five years later I was living in Chicago. And Doctor Who was running on a local PBS and on what this episode called ‘Days of the Daleks’ which I had seen in London, Ontario, around 1975. It was basically ‘Days of Future Past’. […] No wonder it popped into my head whole.”

Whenever we mention England we can assume that Monty Python are never too far away, so it makes sense to read one of their Flying Circus taglines: “And now for something completely different” on the cover of “Kitty’s fairy tale” (X-Men #153, Jan. 1982)—which demonstrated how versatile and rich the book had become at the time.

Star-Gate Action, weaponry, international mutants, and Claremont and Cockrum signatures— this one’s got ’em all! Original art to page 23 of X-Men #105 (June 1977), from the collection of Raimon Fonseca.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

UK: THE OBVIOUS CONNECTION Claremont was born in England, so it is quite logical to see UK locations and references in the X-Men stories: “A key element in writing is the concept of ‘writing what you know.’ I know the UK so it became a natural setting to use.”

It starts with a trip to Ireland, filled with traditional legendsinspired characters and mythos. Then Scotland becomes an area of focus early into Claremont and John Byrne’s run with Muir Island (the location of Moira MacTaggert’s mutant research facility): This is where Jean Grey will go when the rest of her teammates are presumably dead (Uncanny X-Men #125, Sept. 1979)—while they are actually stuck in the Savage Land, another frequent location of the X-Men trips. The X-Men would return to Scotland repeatedly—the fight with Proteus took place there (Uncanny #126–127), Banshee settled there with Moira MacTaggert after the loss of his powers, and one of Claremont’s last storylines on the title was called “The Muir Island Saga” (July–Sept. 1991)—a fitting location to conclude his long run.

John Byrne, whose run on the book with Chris Claremont is now the stuff legends are made of, was also born in England and would add a lot of UK-inspired elements. During the classic Dark Phoenix saga, Byrne and Claremont introduced the Hellfire Club, directly inspired by a similar group that had appeared in the famous “A Touch of Brimstone” episode of the British TV show, The Avengers. John Byrne explained on his ByrneRobotics website: “I first encountered Peter Wyngarde, as an actor, on the Avengers episode ‘A Touch of Brimstone,’ which dealt with Steed and Emma having an encounter with the Hellfire Club. Later he turned up on a British series called Department S, and its spin-off Jason King (the name of his character). When Chris Claremont decided he wanted to do a Hellfire Club arc in Uncanny X-Men (he had just seen the above-mentioned Avengers episode) as part of the darkening of Phoenix, I suggested the in-joke of having Mastermind, in his disguised form, resemble Peter Wyngarde and, mixing character and actor, that his name be Jason Wyngarde.”

Similarly to Mastermind, most Hellfire Club members were inspired by actors (Robert Shaw, Donald Sutherland, Orson Welles), and Jean Grey’s Black Queen looks also came from Emma Peel’s attire in “Brimstone.”

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NIGHTCRAWLER VS. WOLVERINE: OR, HOW CANADA (SORT OF) BEAT GERMANY Nightcrawler was very much a leading character in the early issues of the book while Wolverine was almost comedy relief. John Byrne joked about this on his forum: “Chris and Dave never cared much for the character. Nightcrawler was Dave’s creation, and his fave, and he put so much emphasis on Kurt (including adding new ‘powers’ almost every issue!!) that we used to joke around the office that the book should be called Nightcrawler (co-starring the X-Men).”

Byrne even claimed that Wolverine would be excluded from the title: “I don’t think they had a definite issue number selected for Logan’s eviction, but from the way Chris talked, it would not have been much longer, had Dave continued on the title.”

Dave Cockrum recalled quite differently in Comics Creators on X-Men: “No, even though I didn’t like him and didn’t know exactly what to do with him, I don’t think we were ever thinking about actually removing him from the book.”

Byrne further explained his “problem” with Nightcrawler: “Nightcrawler has been a big problem from Day One, largely because he was not created to be a member of the X-Men, or even part of the Marvel Universe. Dave Cockrum created Nightcrawler, […] to be a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes. In that context, such niceties as origins and powers (number and use) were not a problem. DC was much looser about such things than Marvel. […]

But when Kurt came into the X-Men, he pretty much broke all the rules. […] Nightcrawler could teleport, climb walls, had a prehensile tail, was invisible in shadow, AND looked weird. Any one of those would have made him a mutant. […] Kurt got all the goodies, plus more as time went by.”

Interestingly, Nightcrawler’s German nationality and origin was never really analyzed—beyond his “speech patterns.” Claremont preferred to focus on his gypsy background and his Catholic faith.

Byrne provided his vision on his forum: “During my time on the book, Chris decided one day he wanted Nightcrawler to be Jewish, and deeply devout. Roger Stern, then the editor, and I pointed out that the combination of German, Jewish, and Gypsy was very unlikely in someone of what was then Kurt’s generation. His parents would not have been likely to have survived the Holocaust. […] After I left the book […], Kurt became Catholic and very devout. I guess at least PART of what Rog and I said had made an impression.”

For Chris Claremont, Kurt is a central character like Colossus for very simple reasons: “Kurt was—and is, to this day—the most ‘normal’ of the team; his faith is part of that dynamic. [Kurt and Piotr] act as a centerpiece of the team’s primal foundation.”

To further prove Claremont’s point, Kurt’s empathy was established very early in the book, during Cockrum’s run and Byrne’s early issues.

In issue #101, Kurt is the first to support Cyclops while Jean Grey recovers from her first Phoenix outburst. Issue #109 shows a new phase in his evolution from a swashbuckling hero to a deeper character, as he engages Cyclops once again about Phoenix and her terrifying powers: “You think I’m all fun and games my friends?” Nightcrawler says, then later on, “I learned very early on that I must either accept what I am or go mad and though I am now occasionally crazy, I am not insane.”

And Kurt will by then be this tolerant and supportive character that will do his best to welcome and be liked by newcomer Kitty Pryde in Uncanny X-Men #139 (Nov. 1980), as well as be the primary target of the devout William Stryker in the last pages of the “God Loves, Man Kills” Marvel Graphic Novel (issue #5, 1982). He will also become Logan’s

Almost a Legionnaire (top) Nightcrawler, seen here in a 1978 sketch from the archives of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), was created by Dave Cockrum for DC’s Legion. (bottom) Colossus, as rendered by Julie Bell for a 1993 Marvel trading card. Original art courtesy of Heritage.

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Early Alpha Flight (left) The X-Men encounter Alpha Flight. Cover to X-Men #120 (Apr. 1979) by Bob Budiansky and Terry Austin. (right) Storm has issues with Vindicator, as seen on this amazing original art page from that same issue. Art by John Byrne and Austin, courtesy of Heritage.

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best friend in the team even if he had to escape his claws a couple of times with a timely teleportation (X-Men #95, Dec. 1975 and 143, Mar. 1981).

Wolverine’s growth had in fact started with the evolution of his powers, like his claws not being part of his disguise, for instance—or the revelation of his real name, inspired by Mount Logan in Canada. Claremont funnily recalled in BACK ISSUE #4 (June 2004) that “the idea was the tallest mountain being the name of the shortest character.” But it is clearly established that Byrne’s arrival is linked to Wolverine’s more prominent role. As the late Dave Cockrum summarized it, “[Byrne] deliberately played up Wolverine […], but he also played down Nightcrawler … and that annoyed me.”

True or not, Wolverine’s possible eviction led Byrne to focus on the character. In BACK ISSUE #4, he explained, “I stamped my little foot and said there is no way you’re writing out the only Canadian character. So I made him mine. […] He’d probably be a Mountie […]. It just seemed a natural progression from what we’d seen of the character that is background was covert military.”

Tied with Wolverine’s origin comes Alpha Flight, when Weapon Alpha/Vindicator attacks Wolverine to bring him back to Canada in Uncanny X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978).

More encounters would occur between the Canadian mutants and the X-Men to settle Wolverine’s situation in #120–121 (Apr.–May 1979) and 139–140 (Nov.–Dec. 1980). Alpha Flight was purely a Byrne creation, and he explained in BACK ISSUE #29 (Aug. 2008). “Guardian and Snowbird were fan characters.

The other original team members were created to balance the powers of the X-Men. Subsequent members were created after Alpha got their own title.”

JAPAN: CULTURAL INSPIRATION AND FAVORITE LOCATION Japan is by far the most important country in the X-Men mythos, after the USA, and that is partly linked to Wolverine’s rise as a major character on the book.

Obviously, before that there was Sunfire, who very quickly left the team after Giant-Size X-Men #1. Then the team visited Japan on their way back from the Savage Land in X-Men #118–119 (Feb.–Mar. 1979), and a lot of things happened there beyond the fight against Magnum Moses. We found out that Wolverine could speak Japanese—implying that there was more about him than his past as a Canadian agent, and this is

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Turning Japanese The Land of the Rising Sun plays a significant role in the X-Men mythos, including (inset) Logan’s relationship with Mariko, as seen here on Paul Smith’s cover to X-Men #172 (Aug. 1983). (main) From the next issue, original art signed by inker Bob Wiacek (over Paul Smith’s pencils) of a dynamic clash between Wolverine and Silver Samurai. Courtesy of Heritage.

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KENYA, EGYPT, AND NEW YORK: THE EVOLVING ORIGIN OF STORM

also when he met one of his major love interests, Mariko Yashida. For Chris Claremont, Japan provided story opportunities: “I thought—and think— it’s a rich, varied, conflicted setting, and bearing in mind the context of the time, it had the added advantage of being more ‘available’ to the team, China being in the throws of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The Samurai dynamic proved to be the ideal inner-character conflict for Logan.”

It turns out that this Japanese influence was another great Claremont/Byrne collaboration: “Mariko was mine; I had just read Shogun. […] I just absolutely wanted to steal that character,” Byrne explained in BACK ISSUE #4. Further in the same BI issue, Claremont gave further details: “[W]e wanted to play against type. […] We basically wanted to trump all those preconceptions (against Wolverine) and just say, ‘Ha Ha! This is the girl he chooses to fall in love with.’”

Mariko would return regularly in the book, but the most memorable issues related to her, Japan, and its culture are the Wolverine miniseries (Sept.–Dec. 1982) and its sequel in X-Men #172–173 (Sept.–Oct. 1983). Filled with elements of local culture and architecture and highlighting the conflict between tradition and modernism, these issues show Claremont’s love for Japan. The miniseries was mostly plotted on the road as Claremont and artist Frank Miller shared a car on the way back from San Diego to Los Angeles. During the trip, Claremont— as he explained in the trade-paperback intro—presented Wolverine not as a psycho killer but more like “a failed samouraï.”

“The conversation ranged over Samuraï pictures and manga and all the things we were enjoying at the time,” he wrote. “During the course of the discussion, we basically started building the story.” Both stories are tales of love, honor, and deception. And even though Wolverine would not be marrying Mariko, he would embrace the Japanese culture and would antagonize Japanese characters regularly in upcoming issues of Uncanny X-Men as well as his own series, which continued to explore further his connection with Japan.

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Issues #170 to 173 (June–Oct. 1983) present an important evolution for Storm, both psychologically and physically. She becomes the leader of the Morlocks after nearly stabbing to death her opponent, Calisto. And in the subsequent issues, the now-more-reckless leader of the X-Men would embrace this change with a bold and surprising new look of a leather suit and a Mohawk haircut. Most of her friends were surprised and shocked by her evolution, but Storm had become a completely different character from the one she was when she joined the X-Men. Originally created as a mix of two different Dave Cockrum designs, she was called Ororo because, as Wein recalled in BACK ISSUE #8, “Ororo means beautiful in Swahili.”

Storm was introduced as the “Goddess” of a Kenyan tribe near Mount Kilimanjaro.

She appears literally like a virgin territory as almost nothing is known of her life before meeting Charles Xavier in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Len Wein left the book before being able to develop the character any further. It would be up to Chris Claremont to establish her backstory, something that would take place mostly in one issue: X-Men #102 (Dec. 1976). During the fight between the X-Men against Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut, Storm has a major claustrophobia crisis, dreading to be locked in an enclosed space. Lying on the floor, shaking like a leaf, Ororo remembers her childhood: being born in New York, then travelling to Egypt, where her parents would die and where she would become a thief, until eventually leaving Cairo to go south and settle in Kenya, where her powers eventually appeared.

That was a quite the change that was established in this issue—and more elements of Ororo’s past in Egypt would be added in issues #113 and 117 (Sept. 1978 and Jan. 1979). Claremont recalled how that evolution took place: “Ororo is East African—established in Giant-Size #1 as coming from Kenya—so all the elements of her past and ‘origin’ were derived from me asking and answering the basic questions of character creation: who (is she), what (does she want), where (did she come from), when (was she born), why and how. Remember, all these characters were the product of the times in which they lived—and for the X-Men, that was the 1970s. So, Ororo is a child of the ’50s. What was East Africa like in those days? You had the Suez War of the mid-’50s (wherein Ororo was orphaned); you had the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya—along with the gradual overthrow of almost all the European Colonial holdings in Africa.

All of that becomes fuel for the development of character and conflict.”

This was a controversial change that did not sit well with Len Wein, who explained his disagreement in Alter Ego #24: “That’s because they stole it from Modesty Blaise … verbatim! […] What I had in mind was what you saw in the very first story. […] My origin was the origin you first saw: she was born with powers and manifested them living somewhere in an African village and was mistaken for a god. She was the goddess of this area. You don’t need more than that. I’ve always resented Chris’ stealing Modesty Blaise’s origin so blatantly.”

As for John Byrne, the change did not work for him as well: “As a fan, I was so annoyed when Chris and Dave decided to ‘reveal’ that Storm was born in Harlem. What next, I thought, Nightcrawler is from Joisey?” Yet Byrne would also later retcon a part of Storm’s backstory since she first encountered the original team in X-Men: The Hidden Years #6–7 (May–June 2000).

After X-Men #117, little would be changed to Storm’s origin. She would grow from a naïve character to a more assertive person and would eventually and naturally become the team’s leader after Cyclops’ departure in X-Men #138 (Oct. 1980).

As explained earlier, the most brutal change would take place in UXM #173, where Storm becomes a more aggressive and physical character. But things would not settle for her. Storm lost her powers in #185 (Sept. 1984) and would start an on-again, off-again relationship with Forge, the man (and mutant) responsible of creating the weapon that had taken her powers away (#186, Oct. 1984). Mentally and physically shattered, Storm leaves the team and travels to Africa in #198 (Oct. 1985). For the second time after issue #185, the Chris Claremont/Barry WindsorSmith creative team unites for a second outstanding issue focusing on Ororo. Back in East Africa possibly for the first time since her departure in Giant-Size X-Men #1, Storm rekindles her past and is reborn after saving a woman and her unborn child.

Accepting her fate, she will be able to rejoin the X-Men and even be their powerless leader after beating Cyclops in fair fight in UXM #201 (Jan. 1986). Chris Claremont analyzes these pivoting moments for Storm very simply: “‘Lifedeath’ [X-Men #186]. That’s me—and Ororo—getting back to her primal roots.”

It would take a few years and a trip to another dimension in issue #227 (Mar. 1988), then a new strange location—Genosha—to see her fully get her powers back (#272, Jan. 1991).

MAGNETO: FROM GERMANY TO PARIS THE EVOLUTION OF A VILLAIN Taking place in Australia and Antartica, the fight between the X-Men and Magneto in issues #112–113 (Aug.–Sept. 1978) is a fierce and violent one that will separate the team and leave them wandering for quite awhile. This fight presents Magneto as the X-Men’s most violent, skilled, and even sadistic villain.

But a few issues later, a one-page interlude presents an element of Magneto’s history as he sees and image of his deceased wife Magda on his computer screen (UXM #125, Sept. 1979).

One month before, in Avengers #181 (Aug. 1979), a flashback presented the same woman giving birth to the Scarlet Witch len wein and Quicksilver. And this marks the beginning of the road to Magneto’s redemption. More seeds will be planted during the “Days of Future Past” story during which—despite their past antagonism—the remaining X-Men and Magneto have become allies.

The next encounter against Magneto will take place in the Bermuda Triangle, where Magneto has settled his base and from which he threatens leaders of the major countries of the world to destroy their countries if they do not accept to engage in complete military disarmament (UXM #150, Oct. 1981).

For the first time, Magneto shows a different motivation to his actions— peace between men and mutants—and displays signs of kindness and contrition.

Yet he still manages to destroy a Russian nuclear submarine and a large part of a city during the same episode.

As the story unfolds, Magneto tells the tale of the slaughtered members of his family then of his childhood in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Dave Cockrum recalled this key moment in Comics Creators on X-Men: “We talked about it (with Chris Claremont). We both agreed that he was Jewish and had been in the concentration camps. […] We felt that gave him a lot of motivation. Having seen his people slaughtered once, it wasn’t going to happen again (with mutants).”

X-Men #161 (Sept. 1982) gives even more backstory and presents how Charles Xavier and Magneto met after World War II and fought Baron Stucker together, then drifted apart because of their idealogical differences regarding the mutant race.

This was quite a change for both. Chris Claremont explains, “You have to look at the question in terms of publishing context. Xavier—and Magneto—are men in their middle age. I chose to interpret that as (very) late ’40s-early ’50s. That meant both were alive during World War II—indeed, Stan [Lee] established much the

Stormy Relationship One of Claremont’s signature issues, the Ororo/Forge love story “Lifedeath,” from X-Men #186 (Oct. 1984). Art by Barry Windsor-Smith.

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Hero and Villain in One Man Under Claremont’s watch, Magneto transformed from archnemesis of the X-Men (as seen in the left image, a 1979 specialty illo by Ernie Chan) to (right) a complex and sympathetic mentor. Cover to issue #200 (Dec. 1985)

by John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green.

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same thing when he wrote the backstories of Xavier behind the scenes, this story takes place in the French and his stepbrother, Cain Marco (Juggernaut … Cain capital because the complete team of creators went on Marco/Mark’o Cain—sometimes, you just have to love a European tour with its first leg happening there. Writer the Man’s way with words.) It’s an easy step from Chris Claremont, artists John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green, there to Charley’s military service during the Korean and editor Ann Nocenti were invited by then-Marvel War. At the same time, when I got into establishing French publisher Lug Editions. During the trip, the team Magneto’s origins, his being a mutant of European ori- held a book signing but also paid a visit to Lug’s offices. gins immediately led to the Holocaust. And the gypsy The encounter is presented with a joint interview of the creators in the French magazine Special Strange #41 element already existed for Magneto thanks to Stan (Aug. 1985). Special Strange was at the time and Jack’s work on the original run of X-Men.” the quarterly book containing two issues of Magneto played an important part in UXM, one of Marvel Team-Up, and one of the famous “God Loves, Man Kills” graphic Marvel Two-in-One—quite an odd but fun novel during which he almost re-estabmix. Because of the quarterly schedule— lished his partnership with Charles the book mentioned the soon-to-beXavier. Then he continued his evolution published UXM #200 while it was as a “good guy” as he found out he presenting issues #151 and 152 in was Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s French—almost a four-year difference father in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 between US and French publications!

(Feb. 1983), then by playing a dual role When asked if this issue took place during the 1984 Secret Wars maxiseries, in Paris because of the Lug invitation and becoming a supporting character or because it was one of the places the of the X-Men book before finally X-Men hadn’t visited, Claremont replies: joining the team in UXM #195 (Aug. chris claremont “Both.” At any rate, this visit to an 1985). Arrested by Mystique’s newly international publisher is a funny albeit sanctioned team, Freedom Force, Courtesy of Chris Claremont.

Magneto goes on trial in Paris, France, in issue unforeseen moment for a book that was initially created #200 (Dec. 1985). During the fight Charles to sell to foreign markets. It turns out it did pretty well.

Xavier is severely wounded and has to leave earth to be cured by Lilandra’s NEW TEAMS AND STRANGE LOCATIONS— Shi’ar science, leaving Magneto in ALWAYS WITH AN INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR charge of Xavier’s School for Gifted During the Brood Saga, the X-Men went to another Youngsters and mentor of the galaxy and Professor Xavier thought them dead. So he New Mutants. Quite the turn- chose to gather a new team of young mutants and around for the X-Men’s arch- renew his scholar foundation. Very much in the spirit of their predecessors, the New Mutants team was also be nemesis in less than 80 issues!

Magneto stands on trial in composed of international members. Further down the Paris for reasons explained road, a new UK-based team called Excalibur also had in the book. But a similar international vibe, something very simply

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A Visit to Lug Editions The French publication Special Strange #41 (Aug. 1985) spotlighted the X-Men and featured this interview with its creative team.

Scans courtesy of Franck Martini.

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ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ACCENTS

Culture Clash A 1983 specialty drawing by Jackson “Butch” Guice of Russia’s Colossus, Canada’s Wolverine, and Japanese-savvy Kitty Pryde. Plus cute li’l Lockheed.

Courtesy of Heritage.

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explained by Chris Claremont: “Why should the characters—especially in a book like X-Men—be restricted to a single gender, or national origin, or economic stature, or even generic humanity (I’m referring to ‘Warlock’)? When I took over X-Men, the majority of team books were mostly white, mostly middle-class, mostly male, and almost exclusively American. X-Men, by its very nature, almost demanded a broader approach; the same applied to the New Mutants. I mean, comics has the advantage—especially when employing artists as gifted as Dave Cockrum and John Byrne—of presenting a boundless selection of characters and settings without having to worry about the cost of CGI or the practicality of prosthetics. We create characters, worlds, cultures, costumes, you name it. As a result the book looks richer and the stories/characters are more exciting. As for Excalibur, same rules apply, especially since the co-creator [Alan Davis] lives there.”

Even if the Marvel Universe exists on an Earth that looks a lot like ours, there are some locations there that do not exist here such as the Muir Island, Genosha, or Madripoor. Why create new areas? Claremont shares his view on this: “I’m a writer; this is what I do. Not all characters are people; sometimes they’re settings as well. The advantage of Genosha and Madripoor is that I can define the political and social realities; we can reflect the active realities of the contemporary world without feeling in any way restricted by them.”

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In the first issue of the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries (Nov. 1984), Kitty travels to Japan—speaking fluent Japanese. Almost breaking the fourth wall, she explains to the reader something that could be a deus ex machina: “When I first visited Japan, with the X-Men, Professor Xavier telepathically taught us all the language. Thanks to him I speak it like a native.” The X-Men team is from the beginning a sort Tower of Babel, where no matter their origin, all characters speak fluent English.

Their original languages seldom appear: the words “Professor” or “Sir” are translated into German and Russian (Herr professor, Gospodin Xavier), as well as “My God” (Mein Gott, Boszhe Moi). Nightcrawler will have the “wider” vocabulary (unglaubich, liebchen, katzchen, wunderbach…). Storm will never say a word in Arabic or Swahili even though she had stayed a while in Egypt and Kenya. So with these few lines, Claremont presented an explanation nine years after the team’s first appearance.

Coming with the language in any international group is the notion of cultures and specific social behaviors.

None of the clichés you could choose to apply to any culture appeared in the book. When asked about the lack of cultural differences, Claremont simply put it that way: “I write them as people and as individuals. Cultural differences are a simple part of the package.”

No other book (or books, if we add New Mutants and Excalibur) has given such an international vibe and footprint. And that does not count all the space locations and intergalactic species we have discovered thanks to the X-Men. After issue #200, the team would keep on traveling and members had to keep their passport at hand with visits to Scotland, Australia, Genosha, and all across the USA (Austin, San Francisco, New Mexico).

New members joined from the UK and later, Japan (Psylocke), plus one with a Cajun background (Gambit), from a Chinese family (Jubilee), or even from Mojoworld (Longshot).

The final word logically goes to travel organizer Chris Claremont. When asked where he wishes he had taken the team, he said: “Lots of places—and if I get the chance, I’ll do it.” ’Nuff said.

A huge “thank-you” to Len Wein, Roy Thomas, and Chris Claremont for the time they spent answering this writer’s questions. You provided amazing insights! Most John Byrne quotes are retrieved from his website: http://byrnerobotics.com.

Other quotes excerpt from Tom DeFalco’s great interview book, Comics Creators on X-Men (Titan Books, 2006), from BACK ISSUE #4, 8, and 29, and Alter Ego #24.

FRANCK MARTINI discovered the Spider-Man daily strip in the French TV guide at the age of three.

After that, “Nothing would ever be the same again.” When no one is watching, he is also a mild-mannered intranet manager with a patient wife and two daughters.

by

Jason Shayer

Hot off his career-defining run on The Uncanny X-Men with Chris Claremont, Canadian expatriate John Byrne turned his creative efforts north of the border. It took years to convince Byrne to flesh out the rag-tag superhero team he created in The Uncanny X-Men #120–121 (Apr.–May 1979).

With Alpha Flight, John Byrne challenged the convenTM tions of a team book by focusing on individual characters while running the team story as a subplot. Each of these dysfunctional characters had their own story arcs showcased in dedicated issues, while the team plot percolated in the background and brought them together only a couple of times a year.

While this narrative technique seemed unorthodox, Byrne’s vision for the title came to fruition in his second year. The first year was about creating the team’s backstory and establishing new and existing characters and villains. In the second year, Byrne groomed the team’s heart and soul, Heather Hudson (modeled after his wife), to lead Alpha Flight. The only thing Heather couldn’t anticipate was her creator’s detachment.

“Alpha Flight was never much fun,” Byrne admitted in an interview john byrne with Newsarama’s Michael Thomas in 2000 (comicbookresources.com/?id= Photo by Corey Bond.

151&page=article). “The characters were created merely to survive a fight with the X-Men, and I never thought about them having their own title. When Marvel finally cajoled me into doing Alpha Flight, I realized how incredibly two-dimensional they were, and spent some 28 issues trying to find ways to correct this fault.

Nothing really sang for me. If I have any regrets, it would probably be that I did the book at all! It was not a good time for me.”

Despite the negative perceptions of his own work, Byrne made fans on both sides of the Canadian border care about these heroes. By transforming a housewife into the team’s new leader, Byrne led readers through Heather’s emotional journey and charmed us with her spunk and determination.

CANADA’S GREATEST SUPER-TEAM In X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978), James MacDonald “Mac” Hudson, donning his armor as Weapon Alpha, led a blunt attempt by the Canadian government to reclaim their rogue asset, Wolverine. Wolverine wasn’t interested in going back, and after a skirmish with the X-Men, Weapon Alpha had to withdraw. But Weapon Alpha and Department H had piqued readers’ imagination and were eager for another appearance. Just over a year later, Weapon Alpha, now the Vindicator, returned to the pages of The Uncanny X-Men and brought along some friends.

Northern Exposure John Byrne’s Alpha Flight was previewed in the House of Ideas’ promo-zine, Marvel Age #2 (May 1983).

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of the first issue’s appearance [Uncanny X-Men #120], in which only the most tantalizing glimpses of the characters were given, letters started to roll in. Fans were already picking their favorites, wondering about their unrevealed powers, guessing which were mutants, which weren’t. By the time they actually showed themselves in #121, the reading public was primed and ready.

Alpha Flight was an instant success.”

In X-Men #139–140 (Nov.–Dec. 1980), Claremont and Byrne took out a few of Alpha Flight’s members for a test-drive with Wolverine and Nightcrawler. More importantly though, we were first introduced to Heather Hudson, wife of James MacDonald Hudson and executive secretary for Yukon Oil. Our first glimpse of Heather was of a young woman with her hands full of groceries and preoccupied with how to juggle the household responsibilities and her professional career. Byrne’s portrayal of Heather was rather progressive in that it had a realworld view of a superhero relationship.

By the end of this team-up, the Canadian prime minister shut down Department H and Alpha Flight because of budget cuts and anti-mutant temperament.

Readers were left with some hope, though: “An ending of sorts, yet also a beginning—of a new, possibly brighter chapter in the life of Alpha Flight.” Fans would have to wait almost three years to read about that new chapter.

CANADA’S OWN ALPHA FLIGHT!

Soon-to-be Vindicator James MacDonald Hudson makes the scene as Weapon Alpha in X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978). Cover by Dave Cockrum.

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“Several members of what became Alpha Flight date back to my fan days,” Byrne related on his ByrneRobotics forum in 2008. “Guardian is chief among them, being created when I was in my early 20s as the figurehead of a whole line of ‘Canadian comics’ I was hoping to produce. Snowbird, in very different form, was born around the same time. Shaman, originally called Chinook (he had only weather-controlling powers), came next.

(There was also a character called Phoenix. No chance he would ever have made it into Alpha Flight!) I dropped in the renamed (and power-enhanced) Shaman and a redesigned Snowbird, and came up with Northstar and Aurora (super-speed to counter Nightcrawler’s teleportation), and Sasquatch (to balance Colossus), and off we went.

In the process, I came up with real names and some backstory for each.”

“It was only as the characters evolved on paper that definite personalities manifested themselves,” Byrne further explained in his “Alpha Waves” letters column from Alpha Flight #1. “A group that started as a bunch of ciphers whose sole purpose was to survive a fight with the X-MEN became a formidable force in their own right. Within days

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With these words, “You are witnessing the death of a dream…”, John Byrne launched Alpha Flight #1 (Aug. 1983).

The dream belonged to team’s leader, James MacDonald Hudson. Without Department H and its government funding, could Alpha Flight survive?

This clean slate gave Byrne the creative freedom he didn’t have on The Uncanny X-Men or The Fantastic Four. Byrne had a full plate in 1983: In addition to writing, penciling, and inking Alpha Flight, he wrote and drew Fantastic Four and scripted its spin-off, The Thing. That added up to 44 pages to draw and 66 pages to plot and script each month!

“I have The Fantastic Four roughly plotted out for about a year in advance,” Byrne outlined in Marvel Age #14 (May 1984). “The same goes for The Thing, and I generally have Alpha Flight plotted out about six months or so in advance. I’m always kicking around the ideas in my head for how to go with the series, what directions the book will take, and what villains and new characters will appear. Before I begin writing each issue, I turn in a written plot and meet with the editor, Bob Budiansky for The Fantastic Four and The Thing, and Denny O’Neil for Alpha Flight, to help me fine tune the plot.”

Byrne spoke on how he handled this monthly workload in Marvel Age #2 (May 1983): “I’m going to be eliminating a step—I’m going to be doing just breakdowns and then inking those—penciling with ink. I’ve reached a level of comfort with my own work that I don’t need to do full pencils. So I’ll be doing stick figures, layouts, and inking those. It sounds like a lot of work but it actually isn’t.

Although (evil laugh) I’ll still be making just as much money because Marvel pays me for a completed page.”

Alpha Flight’s popularity had grown over the years before their own ongoing series, and their numerous guest appearances had only whet that appetite. Alpha Flight was the second spin-off from The Uncanny X-Men, following The New Mutants, which was published a few months earlier. Canada’s Greatest Heroes were an uncontested success with their debut, double-sized first issue selling over 500,000 copies, an impressive feat even in 1983. Their success wasn’t simply a first-issue phenomena: Comics Feature #46 (July 1986) had Alpha Flight #9 listed as #2 in their Top 100 and Amazing Heroes #49 (June 1984) had Alpha Flight #11 ranked #3 in their Top 100.

Meet: Alpha Flight (top) “Canada’s Fighting-Mad Superheroes” made their first actual appearance in X-Men #121 (May 1979). Cover by Cockrum and Terry Austin. (bottom) Nightcrawler’s got a Wendigo problem on this remarkable Byrne/Austin original art page from X-Men #139 (Nov. 1980), signed by both artists.

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

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The reasons for their popularity are many: not relying on the established Marvel Universe and using Canadian settings; creating new villains; and an interesting and diverse cast of characters. “Well, they are Canadian,” explains Fred Van Lente, co-writer of 2012’s Alpha Flight series. “What’s neat is that you have a Captain America/Iron Man character in Guardian/Vindicator, the twins who are Quebequois and mutants, you have a Hulk-type in Sasquatch, you have the mystic stuff and mythology with Shaman and Snowbird, and they are all incredibly diverse in the modern sense in that you have a high female membership, you got the first major gay character at Marvel, you have first nation characters, and you have an alien. You have a huge amount of diversity going on there and that to me is what makes them super-cool.”

Alpha Flight’s first issue had a strong X-Men influence and you can see how Byrne was exploring the X-Men stereotypes, trying to find identities for these characters. Guardian’s insecurities matched Cyclops’ early leadership worries, the rascally relationship between Sasquatch and Puck was similar to Wolverine and Nightcrawler’s, and Snowbird was as mysterious and powerful as Storm. However, Byrne quickly broke from those comparisons as he developed these characters and leveraged the fact that they were from geographically distinct Canadian locations.

While he spent some time fleshing out the heroes’ backgrounds, Byrne also introduced two new members to the team. Thanks to Heather’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge the death of Alpha Flight, she graduated two members from Beta Flight: Puck, the pint-sized bruiser named after a hockey puck and fred van lente not Shakespeare’s mischievous sprite, and Marrina, the reserved and immigrant alien amphibian.

Courtesy of Fred Van Lente.

“They are not the Avengers; they don’t have regular meetings,” Byrne elaborated in Amazing Heroes #22 (Apr. 1983). “They’re not even the Defenders, in which anyone who wanders through the book is automatically a member. They are a bunch of people who once were members of a group and therefore tend to hang around together. […] There are all people who have very much their own lives outside of Alpha Flight, and it is these lives outside of Alpha Flight that I think will be the primary interest in Alpha Flight. It’s almost as if they all will have their own books; it’s just that their own books will be included in the Alpha Flight book rather than be separate titles unto themselves.”

Byrne didn’t let our heroes lounge around for long. In Alpha Flight #2 (Sept. 1983), Marrina’s ominous past caught up with her and the team tracked her to the Arctic where they encountered the Master, who would become one of the team’s arch-villains. With issue #3’s opening, Byrne experimented with his storytelling, breaking up the story with some non-linear segments. Byrne barely got through Marrina’s alien origins before Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Invisible Girl interrupted the Master’s scheme. Alpha Flight #4 then flashed back into Namor and Invisible Girl’s storyline. Editor Denny O’Neil left a little sidenote: “No, readers, John hasn’t confused Alpha Flight with the Fantastic Four. Bear with us.” And after that ten-page setup, we got back to where we were at the end of issue #3. While it was an innovative way to tell the story, it’s hard not to wonder if Byrne was overthinking his approach to the team-book formula.

A special feature backup, entitled “The Origins of Alpha Flight,” kicked off in issue #2 and ran through the first year’s issues. Fully aware of his stock characters, Byrne used these short segments to flesh them out, review their origins, and definitively establish their backstory. He explored their past and at the same time hooked the readers with questions about the characters’ lives beyond Alpha Flight. However, the method didn’t suit a monthly book as these backup stories took up five to eight pages of a 22-page comic book and really interrupted the flow of the main story. Perhaps a concurrent limited series, much like the Tales of the New Teen Titans from 1982, might have better served the book and readers.

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YOU CAN GO YOUR OWN WAY After defeating the Master, Byrne “broke up” the team and had each of them go their own way, thousands of kilometers apart. “When Alpha Flight was announced the reaction was, ‘Oh, Gawd, another group book,’ ” Byrne told Jim Salicrup a few years later in Comics Interview #25 (1985). “And I said, ‘Okay, we’ll give you something different.

This is not going to be a group book, this is going to be individual issues of their own titles.’ And they didn’t want it. The readers didn’t want it. Because of my particular frame of mind on the book, I couldn’t turn it into what they wanted.”

Moving away from the typical team dynamic was a bold move that allowed Byrne to focus on each character’s story and give them the much-needed depth he felt was missing. Each character resumed their lives and over the next few months had self-contained adventures independent of each other. The other contemporary team books, like Uncanny X-Men or New Teen Titans, spent most of their time in their comic book together in one specific headquarters or locale. Byrne didn’t lose the focus though as he kept a running in the background of these issues that built up to the climax at the end of Alpha Flight’s first year.

In issue #5, Puck got the spotlight. At first glance, we saw a pintsized Wolverine with an even hairier exterior and an “eh” verbal tic.

The 17-page story served as a great introduction to this new character and with some well-chosen dialogue, Byrne set him up well. Puck’s playful nature, pride at being an Alphan, and tenacity were all characteristics that dispelled his “Wolverine” label and made him a fan-favorite.

Alpha Flight #6 (Jan. 1984), “Snowblind,” focused on the demi-god Snowbird and had her not only dealing with an ancient threat, but dealing with the challenges of having an alter ego. After being trapped for a millennium, Kolomaq, one of the Great Beasts, was inadvertently freed in the northern reaches of the Northwest Territories.

Kolomaq was the living embodiment of winter and he unleashed his pent-up rage against her.

Byrne continued experimenting and took advantage of Marvel’s Assistant Editor’s Month stunt, which allowed more creative leeway than usual and oftentimes resulted in some goofy antics. As the battle between Kolomaq and Snowbird took place in a blinding snowstorm, Byrne delivered the six-page battle in all-white panels with only narrative, thought

Puck and Pals AF’s breakout star, Puck, gets super-sized! Byrne original art to an AF promo poster, courtesy of Heritage.

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balloons, and sound effects. Despite some fans’ feelings that it was an easy way to pad the story, the result was wildly creative and allowed letterer Michael Higgins to showcase his special effect skills to capture their battle sounds and panel-damaging effects. Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter agreed and paid Byrne the full rate for his work on this issue.

Issues #7–8 (Feb.–Mar. 1984) gave Alpha Flight’s speedster twins some attention and took readers to Montreal in Eastern Canada. Then Byrne shifted over to the Yukon in Northern Canada where, in an homage to the 1952 horror movie The Thing from Another World, we spent some time with Walter Langkowski in Alpha Flight #9–10 (Apr.–May 1984). With just a couple of pages, Byrne introduced secondary characters, some background conflict, displayed Langkowski’s scientific acumen, and set up the main story. Sasquatch went up against the Super-Skrull in a memorable one-on-one battle that was resolved not with the might of the Sasquatch, but with Langkowski’s quick wits.

A few issues later, Sasquatch’s origin revealed that Langkowski was inspired by Bruce Banner’s work on gamma radiation. Langkowski’s efforts to reproduce Banner’s experiment gave him similar powers, but Langkowski had retained his intellect. However, in this two-parter, we learned that Langkowski was not in as much control of the monster within as we had thought.

Over the last few months leading up to issue #12, Byrne carefully wove several subplots together that then became the title’s main plot, building toward the climatic finale. Mac Hudson accepted a job with Roxxon and moved to New York City. While it was hard to shake off Roxxon’s notorious past that gave fans that “uh-oh” feeling, it was fun seeing Guardian flying around the Big Apple.

That new setting was exciting and raised the possibilities of crossovers with the core Marvel Comics characters.

However, that feeling was contrasted by the mysterious Delphine Courtney, who was busy recruiting former members of Beta Flight and Gamma Flight for a sinister endeavor.

AND ONE SHALL SURELY DIE If you were reading comics in 1984, you’ll no doubt remember those dramatic house ads that hyped up Alpha Flight’s double-sized issue #12 (July 1984).

“Soon, these heroes will face their greatest challenge … one of them won’t survive it.” The ad was straightforward, displaying the team assembled and looking quite serious. Byrne even drew Marrina, who might have seemed like a probable choice, but only made a cameo appearance as she was romantically distracted with Namor and didn’t answer the team’s call.

The issue’s cover blurb warned “And One Shall Surely Die” with the members of Alpha Flight targeted in crosshairs. I recall thinking that they had just launched this title and that Byrne wouldn’t really kill anyone.

And that was exactly what Byrne was counting on.

Leading up to this issue, Byrne invested some time with Heather, as she hadn’t been seen in any real capacity since issue #1. In a moving sequence in issue #11, she walked through their empty house as they were moving to New York City and in her mind, she replayed some milestone Alpha Flight moments that had happened there. Byrne was carefully setting Heather up for an expanded role in the future. She’d always been a perky, strong character, but in these issues you got a real sense that she really believed in Mac’s vision for the team, especially when you consider that she had no superpowers.

Unfortunately, Heather ended up as a hostage for Jerome Jaxon to lure in his former co-worker, Mac Hudson.

Years ago, Mac destroyed his prototype armor, fearing the military would abuse the technology. Unable to close on the deal, Jaxon was fired and his life collapsed in around him. When he learned that Mac was Guardian, Jaxon focused only on revenge.

Byrne wove these storylines together and brought the climax to a slow boil in issue #12, but the story’s execution felt off. Assembling the team from their cross-country locales took up 14 of the issue’s 38 pages. When the team was reunited with Guardian, though, you really felt that sense of hope and teamwork as Alpha Flight took on Omega Flight. And that’s where Byrne did the unexpected.

Mac Hudson was killed—not by Jaxon or Gamma Flight, but by his own suit. His dramatic last few seconds carried a haunting sense of tragedy as he raced to

disarm his overloading power suit only to be distracted

by Heather just long enough for it to destroy him.

“Way back when I first created Alpha Flight,” Byrne revealed in Amazing Heroes #22, “I decided that they would be more vulnerable than the average superhero group. I wanted to see real-life repercussions and I think real-life repercussions would include death. I didn’t take out a dartboard and go ‘SHTOONK!’ Ah! That’s the one who dies. I think it’s a very logical development of what I’m setting up over the first 12 issues of the book. I hope in the structure of the story it won’t seem to be a gratuitous ‘Well, it’s time to kill somebody’ sort of thing. I hope that by the time the character dies people will care about the character, but it’s hard for me to say if it will be all that meaningful or all that important because the story hasn’t happened yet. I’m working on what I hope it will be, but there’s no way to predict about I at this point.”

These days, it’s not hard to see Mac’s death as gratuitous, but in 1984, the only significant Marvel characters that had recently welcomed the Grim Reaper’s cold touch had been Captain Marvel and Jean Grey. While I understand now why Byrne did kill off Guardian, at the time, I was perplexed and shocked. Byrne had made me care for Guardian, only to kill him. Based on the letters column in Alpha Flight #17, I wasn’t the only reader that felt that way. Many fans expressed their displeasure and anger through emotional letters protesting what they felt was Guardian’s meaningless death. Despite that sour taste left behind by that last page, fans no doubt picked up the

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“Snowblind” Byrne made an interesting use of white space in the Snowbird spotlight, Alpha Flight #6 (Jan. 1984).

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Life or Death A pair of gripping Alpha Flight house ads by Byrne.

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next issue to see if this tragedy had really occurred and how the team would fare without their leader.

Byrne changed the direction of the book’s year-long storyline with that gut-wrenching last panel. Killing a team’s leader was something he couldn’t get away with on any other established book. But with Alpha Flight, it was an unexpected twist that allowed Byrne to explore the ramifications of such an event on a team that was nowhere near cohesive.

THE RISE OF A LEADER How do you follow up the jaw-dropping, cliffhanger ending of Alpha Flight #12? With an 11-page, text-less nightmare sequence, of course! Effective and haunting, these pages gave you an idea of the creative freedom Byrne was allowed. On the surface, it’s easy to contrast the simplicity sequence with that of the “white” sequence of issue #6.

But if you take a good look, you can see the work Byrne put into these panels. The panel edges were jagged and the character presentation and body language conveyed the team’s grief. The frightening, nightmarish twist near the end that had Mac rise from the dead as a burning monster really caught you off guard.

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Weeks later, Heather was still traumatized by Mac’s death. Byrne interrupted the usual superheroics and had readers experience the realities of Heather’s tragic situation. The Canadian government was unwilling to offer Heather anything since Mac was operating as a free agent when he was killed, despite his ten years of service to Department H. For insurance purposes, her husband would only be declared dead after seven years since his body was incinerated. With no home and no job, the 29year-old widow’s situation made Peter Parker’s life seem cheery. “Don’t worry about me. I’m from old pioneer stock,” Heather told Puck and Shaman. “My people worked their way across this country, and if necessary I can do it myself, because I know what Mac would want, I’m not going to let him down whatever else happens…

Heather McNeil Hudson isn’t beaten yet.”

Despite all the weight on her shoulders, Heather was seriously wounded trying to rescue a baby from a rogue Plodex monster in issue #14. Thankfully for Heather, Canada’s medical support system took good care of her and didn’t add to her burdens. But the realistic repercussions had her dealing with those injuries for several issues.

Marrina helped track down this monster, but her alien programming was triggered, turning her into a killing machine as well. Namor teamed up with Puck to foil what turned out to be the Master’s latest plot. In the aftermath, Marrina went her own way, retreating from Alpha Flight and Namor as she was embarrassed at being unable to resist her biological programming. Her storyline would be picked up a few years later by Bill Mantlo. This turn in the story was another realistic example of how people handle a crisis and how everything doesn’t have to have a clean ending.

While Chris Claremont was well known for his strong female characters, Byrne wrote his fair share of hardy and tenacious women. He had his eye on Heather as Alpha Flight’s leader from the beginning. Alpha Flight #17 (Dec. 1984) had a great teaser house ad: “Guardian is Dead.

Who will lead Alpha Flight?” and depicted the team along with Wolverine. In an Alpha Flight panel at Fan Expo Canada in 2011, Chris Claremont was asked about Wolverine’s possible return to Alpha Flight: “No. It’s not like John [Byrne] killed off Guardian and then had to figure

Confirmation of Byrne’s strong character work with out what was going on. That only happens with Phoenix.

Byrne knew full well when he did the dirty deed that he Heather can be seen in Denny O’Neil’s parting editorial was going to set up Heather Hudson to take his place as in Alpha Flight #28 (Nov. 1985): “I’ll particularly miss it was logical and unexpected. But that doesn’t prevent Heather. (If I existed in the same world as Alpha Flight, I’d Marvel from teasing the living daylights from as many undoubtedly fall in love with her.) And Puck, who is my kind of hero. Sometimes, I’d get so involved in reading the Alphans’ readers and retailers as they could at the time.”

Alpha Flight #17 recycled ten pages from X-Men #109 adventures, I’d forget I was supposed to be editing them. and retold the story of Wolverine and Weapon Alpha’s first I’d have to remind myself that this is not fun, this is a job!”

After Guardian died, it was easy for fans to abandon battle, but from Heather and Mac’s point-of-view, detailing events leading up to that memorable encounter. Heather Alpha Flight, especially when they thought the team couldn’t struggled with the guilt of having distracted Mac at that survive without its most powerful member and leader.

Byrne’s portrayal of Heather Hudson, who got stronger crucial time, feeling she was responsible for his death.

“You an’ Jimmy were the mother and father to Alpha as the series progressed, was refreshing. With Guardian’s Flight,” Wolverine told her. “But you were the real spirit. death, Alpha Flight needed a leader and none of the team’s members were up to the task. Byrne took another Even though you didn’t really want Jimmy risking his unexpected turn and set up Heather Hudson to neck like that you stuck by him. You were the take the leadership role. This change lined up glue that held Alpha Flight together.” with some of the other Marvel teams that From the beginning, Byrne had a plan. were led by women, like Candy Southern It wasn’t MacDonald, but his wife, on the Defenders (another non-powered Heather Hudson, who refused to let leader) and the Wasp, who had been the dream of Alpha Flight die. She the Avengers’ chairperson for a few gave the team its rebirth as she drew years at that point. them together to face the Tundra back Alpha Flight #18–19 (Jan.–Feb. in issue #1. “If anybody is the leader 1985) had Heather officially take the of the group, it’s probably Heather,” leadership reins and try to reassemble Byrne told Amazing Heroes #22. “In the the team for the first time since first issue it’s she who summons the Guardian’s death. While she’s unable rest of Alpha Flight when Vindicator to do that, she recognized that they goes off on his own. It is she who by keith williams need a centralized base of operations. her actions causes Puck and Marrina to Puck, Snowbird, and Heather joined become the two new members of the Courtesy of Marvel.Wiki. group. And it is she who is sort of the power behind the Shaman and his newly introduced daughter, Talisman, throne. Although she doesn’t like what Hudson is doing, as they went on a time-traveling adventure to face off she wants to make sure he does the best job he can so he against another of the Great Beasts known as Ranaq.

Issue #18 introduced Keith Williams as background doesn’t get killed in the process. So she is a real moving force behind the group. She’s a real neat lady, basically. inker, allowing Byrne more time to focus on his writing.

I’m modeling her more and more on my own wife “John wrote and drew in a way that wasn’t just slam[Andrea] as the character evolves. I’m having her do bang action,” Keith Williams explains. “But also made you care about the characters in the story. I was working things that I think Andy would do.”

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Who’s Who Early in Alpha Flight’s run, Marvel revealed each issue’s featured characters by depicting them in the covers’ corner boxes.

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When Canadians Clash (Again) (left) Those Alpha males mix it up once more on Byrne’s cover to Alpha Flight # 17 (Dec. 1984), the writer/artist’s homage to Cockrum’s X-Men #109 cover (see page 14). (right) Talisman charms fans on Byrne’s AF #19 cover.

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for people like the great Joe Sinnott. I guess it was my reputation for BYRNED OUT being a fast worker, while not giving up on quality, that led Mark In the summer of 1985, Alpha Flight was fresh off its first outing under Grunewald to ask me if I was interested in working with John Byrne Heather’s leadership and they returned home to discover that Guardian on Alpha Flight. John did something for me on Alpha Flight that was was alive. “And I thought that kind of thing only happened in comic unusual. He allowed me, a background artist, to have a credit on the books,” Walter Langkowski remarked as the team was reunited with their book and all the other books that I worked with him on. That was never former leader. Mac Hudson revealed that his suit hadn’t exploded, but done before. I will always be grateful for that.” instead had teleported him to Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons, where an Byrne turned his attention to Langkowski and Aurora, who had alien race rescued him. To put this stunning turn of events into perspective, become romantically involved. Aurora took steps to further define her back in 1985, heroes returning from the dead wasn’t all that common. Jean own identity, replacing her old costume with a new, shinier, sleeker one Grey was still dead and her resurrection in X-Factor was still a year away. that emphasized her more outgoing personality and distanced her Guardian didn’t waste a moment and led his team against the from Northstar. latest attack by Omega Flight. The cyborg Delphine Courtney sought Snowbird’s loyalties were tested in Alpha Flight #23 (June 1985). to avenge Jerry Jaxon, and what better way to extract that revenge As the avatar of the Northern Gods, she was sworn to protect than by impersonating Guardian and betraying Alpha Flight the world from the Great Beasts. She learned that one of them, from within. That was the second time Byrne broke my Tanaraq, was much closer than she ever suspected— heart. It was the perfect trap for readers who were still in the form of her teammate, Sasquatch. While Byrne struggling with the Guardian’s death and were eager had seeded the idea of Sasquatch’s Hulk-like, to embrace his return. But, alas, that was not to be. uncontrollable rage periodically over the last year, This storyline came to a climax with Alpha Flight #28 this plot twist felt a bit awkward as Snowbird, sworn (Nov. 1985), but was awkwardly interrupted by the enemy of the Great Beasts, never recognized him as Secret Wars II crossover and Byrne’s move over to one of the Great Beasts. Byrne revealed that it wasn’t The Incredible Hulk. gamma radiation that had transformed Langkowski “It started with me realizing that I was fast into Sasquatch, but rather a mystical link with approaching the end of my Alpha Flight stories,” Byrne Tanaraq. In a moment as shocking Guardian’s death, told Marvel Age readers in issue #31 (Oct. 1985).

Snowbird shapeshifted into the form of Sasquatch “You see, I had a specific number of stories in mind and tore out Langkowski’s heart, killing both when I started Alpha Flight. As it turned out, a couple carl potts Langkowski and Tanaraq. of those stories, when they were produced, generated The battle for Langkowski’s soul led the team to Courtesy of Carl Potts. other tales, so I actually remained with Alpha Flight the Kingdom of Beasts in the double-sized issue #24 (July 1985). longer than I anticipated. Even so, I realized a couple of months back The full team was reunited and pushed to the limits as they confronted that I was reaching that cut-off point for me, after which I’d have the remaining Great Beasts. They destroyed the Great Beasts and no more Alpha Flight stories to tell. So I started asking myself what I rescued Langkowski’s soul, using Roger Bochs’ robotic alter ego, Box, wanted to do after Alpha Flight? At one time, I would have said Thor. to temporarily house it. Snowbird, with her destiny fulfilled, took a But Thor is in really good hands with Walt Simonson right now. Then I leave from the team, while Roger Bochs joined them as they searched remembered The Hulk.” for a permanent new body for Langkowski. Bob Wiacek stepped in as “John Byrne instigated the switch,” recalls Carl Potts, Alpha Flight inker for this issue and did some of his career’s best work on the alien editor from 1985–1989, “proposing that he take over the Hulk comic landscapes of the Kingdom of Beasts. (with Alpha Flight editor Denny O’Neil also switching to edit the 20 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

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Fur-Flying Fury From the archives of our friends at Heritage Comics Auctions, a dynamic John Byrne/Bob Wiacek/Keith Williams original art page from Alpha Flight #23 (June 1985), signed

by Mr. Wiacek, and (inset) its cover,

by Byrne.

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Hulk book) while my creative team on Hulk switching to working on Alpha Flight.

The Incredible Hulk writer Bill Mantlo was agreeable as was I. Mike Mignola went along as well but was a bit nervous taking on a team title. I also kept Hulk inker Gerry Talaoc on the team to work on Alpha Flight.”

Alpha Flight #28 crossed over with The Incredible Hulk #313 and together, they resolved two dangling storylines: the return of the Hulk to Earth after his year-long exile at the dimensional crossroads and the disembodied soul of Walter Langkowski. Alpha Flight had been searching for the body of Langkowski since issue #23 when Snowbird had killed him. The team had presumed the Hulk was an empty, savage vessel, but they discovered that Banner still existed, trapped within the Hulk’s subconscious. Even though it meant his demise, Langkowski refused to take over the Hulk’s body, as it would kill Banner.

From Alpha Flight #28’s letters page, a departing John Byrne told readers that, “I thought twelve issues would probably be enough to do all the Alpha Flight stories I had floating in the back of my mind. One year to say my piece, establish once and for all who these people are, and then look for something else to do. But, funnily enough, each story seemed to suggest an aspect of the characters I’d overlooked, something that could become the springboard for another story. And another. And another. So the original twelve issues became fifteen, then eighteen, then twenty four. Then twenty eight. Twenty eight issues, and I’ve finally told all the Alpha Flight stories I have to tell. So I leave, at last, the land north of the forty ninth parallel and head south, to the great desert of the American southwest, and a certain gammaspawned behemoth for whom I’ve always had a soft spot in my head and heart.”

Byrne took over the creative reins of The Incredible Hulk with issue #314 (Dec. 1985), while Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola moved over to Alpha Flight with issue #29 in the industry’s first creative-team crossover.

BUILDING ON THE FOUNDATION “I think it’s some of the finest writing I’ve read in a long time,” Bill Mantlo, Alpha Flight writer from 1985 to 1989, admitted in Marvel Age #31. “But I think you have to read it consecutively. You had to sit down as I did, and read Alpha Flight #1–20, in order to get a grasp on the organic maturation of his characters.

It was extremely difficult to follow what he was doing on Alpha Flight from issue to issue, because he never really concentrated on the team. He concentrated on individual members and their problems.”

Characters drove Byrne’s Alpha Flight, not plot. His stories evolved out of the characters who changed and adapted to the turbulence in their lives instead of fighting the typical villain-of-the-month. Looking back, I felt the book needed a more balance. I’m not sure if it was Byrne’s insecurities, as he took a lot of readers’ feedback so personally, or perhaps his heavy workload, but he simply couldn’t create the relationship he wanted with these characters. Maybe it had to do with how these new creations required more effort than already-established characters since there’s an existing background that a writer can leverage.

“Because of my particular frame of mind on the book,” Byrne told Comics Interview #25 in 1985, “I couldn’t turn it into what they [the readers] wanted.

In fact, before my decision to jump to The Incredible Hulk, I was planning to turn it into something even farther from what they wanted. I wanted everybody to lose their powers permanently, turn it into a Challengers of the Unknown.”

“As was sometimes the case with Byrne’s work,” Carl Potts observes, “he’d generated a ton of interesting ideas but occasionally produced issues where the story did not feel satisfying. It seemed, to me at least, that he occasionally was more interested in the premise of the story—the interesting scenario—than in crafting an emotionally and aesthetically satisfying arc.”

At the end of his run, Byrne missed out on an opportunity to deliver a satisfying conclusion to Heather’s journey. Her first outing as leader was overshadowed by the death of Sasquatch. Her second outing was muted by the Secret Wars II crossover and by former Beta Flight member, Madison Jefferies, who singlehandedly defeated Omega Flight. Heather needed a cathartic act to help defeat Omega Flight and cement her leadership role. She deserved to avenge her husband’s death and bury

Team in Transition Writer/artist John Byrne and writer Bill Mantlo and artist Mike Mignola traded assignments in late 1985, with Byrne taking The Incredible Hulk and giving them Alpha Flight. (top) Cover art to Byrne’s penultimate issue. (bottom) Cover to Mignola’s first issue (inks by Bob Wiacek). Original art courtesy of Heritage.

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the guilt she carried. It almost felt like Byrne had built Heather as the team’s leader, but now that he had her there, he wasn’t sure what to do with her.

“My overall impression was that what you had was a series of incredibly well-executed vignettes that did tie together into a total package,” Bill Mantlo explained in Amazing Heroes #76 (Aug. 1985), “but you had to read all 28 issues to get it. The team was never a team. What you had was a lot of individual stories about the individuals in the book, who almost never functioned as a team. In fact, when they did function as a team, they seemed troubled by that role. They didn’t like each other. Alpha Flight is a team book; it should be written as a team book. That’s going to be my first challenge to make each story revolve around the team, or at least involve them while they may revolve around individual members of the team.”

Using the foundation that Byrne had established, Mantlo set to work and within a handful of issues, had Heather stepping up onto the superhero stage wearing a version of her husband’s battlesuit. She took her leadership duties seriously and brought the team together. With their government funding restored, she established a headquarters for the team on the west coast of Canada that gave them a home and a more formal reason for being. Wanting to be the best leader and hero she could be, Heather sought out Wolverine so that he could to train her. Wolverine challenged Heather on this new role as leading from the sidelines was one thing, but to be on the front lines was something quite different. Heather stood up to Wolverine and firmly embraced this new challenge.

“Heather was a ‘normal human’ leading a superhero team with skill and determination,” Fred Van Lente

explains. “She’s not a superspy like Nick Fury or a military guy like Rick Flag, she was a former secretary and a housewife! It made her such a compelling, strong character. Looking to shake things up when we tried our book, those same qualities she had a hero also make her a compelling villain. She was resentful of her husband’s return and her subsequent return to the shadows. These franchise characters live forever, though, so someone will no doubt return Heather to hero status sooner rather than later.”

Byrne had broken the team down to its bare bones and redefined the characters, in an Ahab-like quest to make them interesting. The success of the title and the fan outrage over the character deaths demonstrated how Byrne had succeeded in creating that interest from the readers’ perspective, but he didn’t share their sentiment.

Alpha Flight didn’t really become a team until after Guardian’s death. While Alpha Flight was Guardian’s dream, Heather made it a reality. Byrne’s successors would continue her character arc. While she may have drifted away from what Byrne indented, Heather proved to be a better hero and leader than Mac Hudson had ever been and continues to keep his dream alive.

Monster Mash From the collection of Joe Hollon, a 2010 commission by John Byrne pitting ol’ Jade Jaws against Alpha Flight’s furriest, Sasquatch, with the other AF’ers on the scene.

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

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The full circumstances surrounding the launch of Captain Britain’s comic in 1976 have never been told before.

It’s the tale of the greatest publicity campaign Marvel ever had for a comic book in Britain—conducted at a time when comics were under siege.

It’s an unlikely tale that has Stan Lee in cowboy boots, members of the British Parliament, a shark, and a World Cup referee!

SELLING CAPTAIN BRITAIN TO THE BRITISH The publicity for the launch of the eponymously named and ill-fated Captain Britain (CB) comic book was primarily organized by Ray Wergan. (See BACK ISSUE #29 for more on Captain Britain and BI #63 for a detailed look at British Marvel.)

Employed by Marvel between 1972 and 1978, Wergan had extensive media contacts. While he unquestionably did a thorough job in arranging publicity, events elsewhere ensured that the subject of Captain Britain was discussed on primetime TV, radio, and in newspapers.

In February of 1976, a new comic called Action had been released

by International Publishing Corporation (IPC), one of the three biggest comic publishers at that time in the UK. Bloodthirsty and graphic, with man-eating sharks ripping off limbs, characters being decapitated by bridges, and priests being shot, Action was immediately as controversial as it was popular.

By issue #2 of Action, newspapers had started to comment on it, and not favorably. One of those early articles appeared in The Sun, a tabloid newspaper with an immense circulation of 12 million (i.e., one in five of the UK population).

Action continued to draw negative press over the coming months.

The media were unable or unwilling to distinguish one comic company— never mind comic—from another, and so now all comic books were seen as equally culpable.

With Cap’s debut 25 days away, a new strip called “Kids Rule O.K.” debuted in the September 11th issue of Action. Its portrayals of football hooliganism, then a considerable social issue, would soon bring everything to a climax.

Only four days later, in the Marvel weeklies released on September 15, 1976 (dated September 22), fans had their first teasing view of the shadowy, unnamed hero. The adverts also made reference to him being “British” and “Britain’s own,” which was an intriguing surprise.

Up till then, the only prominent British hero to appear in the British weeklies had been the Black Knight. (Reprints of The Invaders would not let a British audience meet the WWI hero Union Jack, or his daughter Spitfire, for some months yet.)

As the publicity campaign would emphasize, Captain Britain was the first British hero created for a British audience: It’s an important distinction, one that is often overlooked.

Two days passed, and then The Daily Mail—with a circulation of nearly five million, the fourth most popular daily in the UK—ran a prominent story condemning Action’s content. The press and selfappointed “moral guardians” had a new crusade.

First Look (top) Captain Britain’s first public outing gave away little.

Ad from Mighty World of Marvel #208 (Sept. 22, 1976). (bottom) This first color image of Cap appeared two weeks before Captain Britain #1’s launch. All images accompanying this article are courtesy of Robert Menzies.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Robert Menzies

Influential social conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse spoke out. A prominent football referee and part-time barrister (an attorney in the US) was widely quoted. The comic was condemned on TV and even in the House of Commons, the UK’s parliament.

Petitions were signed. A group in the English county of Devon went around defacing covers with stickers warning parents not to buy the comics.

IPC was facing a crisis. Feelings had reached such a pitch in Scotland that Action was banned—and there was talk of a similar ban in England. A worried IPC met distributors on the 21st.

Marvel watched on helplessly. It was too late in the day to postpone Captain Britain and avoid being caught up in the hysteria. Maybe they thought it would pass safely overhead. If so, they were mistaken.

On the 22nd, as the storm over Action raged, the Marvel weeklies dated the 29th had the first clear images, in black and white, of the new British-themed hero. It was also announced that rising star Chris Claremont, longtime Hulk artist Herb Trimpe, and veteran Fred Kida would be the first creative team. When you also factor in Stan Lee’s and Larry Lieber’s involvement—there’s evidence of Stan’s input including such details as the logo—it’s hard to think Marvel was anything other than seriously committed to this project.

The following week, on the 29th (issues dated October 6), fans saw the first color image of Captain Britain—an image that would appear the same day in a blistering commentary in The Evening Times newspaper, a very popular Glasgow-based publication.

The article is an example of the type of feverish, sensationalist scare-mongering that made Fredric Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) infamous in the US two decades earlier. That the author Malcolm Reid interviewed the General Secretary of the Scottish Schoolmasters Association, a Church of Scotland spokesman, and a hospital psychologist probably tells you all you need to know about the hostile and censorious tone of the piece.

Worse still, in the author’s confused mind, the goreand-guts style of storytelling prevalent in Action—which, incredibly, wasn’t even named—was being reflected onto Marvel and Captain Britain.

On the 6th of October, Captain Britain #1 finally hit the newsstands, and the next day there was a highly critical article in the Daily Record, then Scotland’s bestselling tabloid newspaper. “For those who have always thought that comics are a load of rubbish[,] prepare to be proved right.” The feature, by Dorothy Johnson, used Action as a stick to beat all comics, accusing the medium of xenophobic stereotypes and random, cruel violence.

Also on the 7th, an article on page 2 of The Times (of London), a prestigious broadsheet with a circulation of 1.1 million, announced that Action was being suspended.

Bowing to considerable pressure from distributors and fearful of their entire line being affected, IPC suspended publication of Action from the 13th of October—the day

Seduction of the Innocent (top) Graphic images shown here from Action weekly (Evening Times, Sept. 29, 1976) endangered Captain Britain’s release. (bottom) More media outcry (Daily Record, Oct. 7, 1976).

Captain Britain TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Other material © their respective copyright holders.

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that CB #2 was released. They resumed publication in late November with much more subdued content, but the now-neutered title was limping to inevitable cancellation in 1977.

All the publicity wasn’t like this, thankfully. When Maggie Norden interviewed UK editor Neil Tennant as part of Capital Radio’s Hullabaloo program on Sunday, October 10th, she was much friendlier and more open-minded. Capitol Radio, it should be noted, had some history with Marvel and her show was even described as “Marvel-conscious” in the Bulletins page for The Avengers weekly #127 (February 21, 1976).

Amusingly, Norden’s sober perspective rendered the program’s name ironic, as she was one of the media representatives who did not make a hullabaloo about comics. She even played tracks from the record album Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Super-Hero as she and Tennant chatted.

Unfortunately, Capital Radio didn’t reach as far as Scotland or the north of England. Or, it seems, the ears of the British press.

ENTER STAN LEE Confirmation of Marvel’s commitment to the new character and comic book was the involvement of Stan Lee from day one. Neil Tennant even credited him with coining the name (CB #13, January 5, 1977). He was a constant presence in the British weeklies and had been over to promote other UK comic projects in 1972, 1974 (twice), and most recently late 1975, although not on this scale. Oddly, the notion of such a trip had been discussed a few months earlier.

In Super Spider-Man #183 (August 11, 1976), someone in the UK office, probably Tennant, responded to a letter—ironically from Newcastle, which would end up on Stan’s itinerary—asking if “omnipotent Stan Lee is coming to any other parts of the country except London?” The reply reads: “Stan has his [heart] set on doing a barn-storming tour of the country. That probably won’t be possible, but we ARE trying hard to arrange Marvel get-togethers, with Stan 26 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

Stan’s Soapbox (left and top right) From Captain Britain #1 (Oct. 13, 1976), a personal message from The Man and an ad for Lee’s book signing. (bottom right) Images from Stan’s signing session on October 14, 1976 appeared across a two-page spread in CB #10 (Dec. 15, 1976).

David Smith (see sidebar) is at bottom left.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

in attendance, in other centres of the country as well as London.”

That Stan’s idea of a tour was linked to Captain Britain is probably certain. Stan’s other trips had all coincided with the launch of new comic books and the same week a bulletin declared that “the biggest thing to come down the pike since Mighty World of Marvel [#]1!”—the equivalent of Fantastic Four #1 to UK fans— was on the horizon. The tease clearly referred to the good Captain’s new comic.

In October, when Stan flew in—possibly with wife Joan—his schedule was, inevitably, hectic, covering five cities in Scotland and England in as many days and, according to Comic Media News (CMN) in their October–November 1976 edition, included 18 interviews with TV, radio, and newspapers.

SCOTLAND – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10th TO TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12th, 1976 Stan apparently arrived in London on Sunday, October 10th, but stayed only long enough to hop a plane to Scotland.

The following day Stan was in the capital city, Edinburgh, being interviewed by Harry Reid of The Scotsman newspaper, one of the country’s most respected

Word from On High (below) From The Scotsman newspaper, Oct. 12, 1976. Stan is wearing the Captain Britain mask given as a free gift with issue #1.

UK FAN DAVID SMITH REMEMBERS THE MAN’S VISIT “There was a long queue outside the shop—lots of excited children milling about. We queued for about an hour, I think.

“I have a half-memory of seeing Stan at the signing desk almost in the shop window, and there only being a relatively short wait once we were inside the shop. Sitting alongside him was Spider-Man. “I don’t remember speaking to Stan or Spidey. I suspect I was desperately star-struck.

“A photo was taken almost immediately after the signing.

I’m pretty sure I just turned away from the desk, turned to my right, and there was a man with a camera.

“I was astounded to see my photo in Captain Britain a few weeks later. We immediately bought several copies!”

– David Smith, August 2014

© the respective copyright holder.

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Face Front (and Center) This action-packed centerspread of the Captain originally appeared in Marvel UK’s The Titans #56 (Nov. 10, 1976).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ENGLAND – WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13th TO SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16th, 1976 The next day Stan had travelled south of the border and visited Newcastle and Leeds, probably in that order and, it seems, very briefly.

That Newcastle—Joan Lee’s birthplace—was included in the itinerary is probably deliberate. Both Stan and Joan have admitted they visited England and Newcastle many times.

By the end of the day, Stan had travelled south to London—no trip to Wales, alas—for meetings with Fleet Street press journalists and other media representatives that probably spilled over into Thursday.

A minimum of two of these interviews had delayed transmission.

One interview screened the next day was for BBC1’s popular Nationwide program, a magazine-style show that came on after 28 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

the early evening news and combined news, chat, sports, and light entertainment.

The editor of Action, John Sanders, had appeared on the show in September and been aggressively grilled by presenter Frank Bough, and CMN reported that Stan, damned by association, was also given a tough time.

A follow-up radio interview Stan did with Maggie Norden also aired on Sunday, October 17, between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. Recordings of the interview exist, and she was, to her credit, equally cordial and nonjudgmental in her second interview.

STAN’S SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL SIGNING SESSION – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14th In the weeklies available to buy from October 6, there appeared an advert for a signing session with Stan. It was to be his only fan interaction of the trip and he’d be signing copies of CB #1 and the newly released trade paperback Bring on the Bad Guys. The signing would take place on Thursday, October 14 at the now-defunct Words and Music store at 66 Charing Cross Road, London.

Stan ignored the stated signing time of 6:00 until 7:00 p.m. and insisted on staying until everyone in line received autographs. The 700plus fans, undaunted by rain, took nearly two hours to have their comics and books signed.

The 15th was a planned day off for Stan—did he really resist the urge to visit the London office?—and then the following day, the Saturday, he flew back to the relative calm and predictability of New York.

THE FINAL IRONY The character of Captain Britain is a contentious one and many theories have been put forward for why he failed to find an audience in Britain.

One suggestion that cannot be entertained, however, is that Marvel did not vigorously promote it. Captain Britain had the most elaborate publicity drive of any British comic in Marvel’s history, which included having Stan Lee himself cross the Atlantic to spearhead a cross-border media blitz.

However, in what was extraordinarily bad luck, the launch coincided with the climax of the moral panic surrounding IPC’s Action weekly.

And the final, incredible, implausible irony of the whole mess? In 1973, IPC had secretly created a superhero of their own and then ditched the project. His name? Captain Britain.

Acknowledgments: To the indispensable Rob Kirby, The Evening Times, The Herald, The Scotsman, The Daily Record, Comic Media News, Martin Barker, Roy Thomas, Alan Murray, David Smith, Gerry Turnbull, John Roche, Andrew Standish, Thomas Spurgeon, Adrien Auzanneau, and finally Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett for sinking an Internet rumor that one of them attended Stan’s signing session.

ROBERT MENZIES bought the Captain Britain comic book when it first came out.

For nearly 40 years he’s wondered why no one has ever pointed out that the design on Cap’s chest was based on the heraldic lion from the Royal Standard of Scotland.

Stan Lee and Robert Menzies at London Film and Comic Con, July 12, 2014.

broadsheets. Despite the ongoing frenzy of some in the press, the article, which saw print on the 12th, is flippant rather than reproachful, even acknowledging that Stan is a “genius.” In the article’s photographs, note how Stan’s shifting leg positions show that the four images of him seated were not taken in the order presented and have been re-arranged for effect.

You can’t help but wonder if Stan had actually read the comic he was hawking or whether his infamously sieve-like memory was failing him again. He commented to Harry Reid: “I imagine [Brian Braddock/ Captain Britain would] like a drink now and again but he’s too smart to smoke.”

Not quite, Stan! The very first time we meet Brian (page 3 of issue #1), he is smoking a pipe! At this point the interview takes on slightly farcical dimensions as it appears the reporter has also not read the comic as he didn’t notice this goof!

It’s unthinkable that someone in the British Marvel offices did not make Stan aware of the recent negative press. He probably expected it to some degree anyway—Stan has often spoken about comics being at the bottom of the cultural totem pole.

Nevertheless, the current atmosphere went far beyond simple disdain. Some of the media attacks were so fierce that Wergan or Tennant must have warned Stan, perhaps even before he arrived.

Stan, who had lived through the decimating effects of Wertham’s 1950s crusade, probably felt a shiver up his spine when he heard about it. In that light, the fact that Stan made a point to Reid about how comics improve literacy and encourage reluctant readers was probably not accidental.

After the interview, Stan left for Scotland’s other major city, seemingly more abruptly than either Stan or Reid wished. “Stan was warming to his theme, but he had to leave for Glasgow. THOOM. He was gone.”

The cause of Stan’s journey to this writer’s home city was a television interview with Scottish Television (also referred to as STV) at their now-demolished Cowcaddens studios. In 1976, Scotland only had three TV channels and Stan appeared on Scotland Today, STV’s flagship news program that came on at 6:00 p.m. for half an hour.

Even though it was only a five-minute interview, it was a huge coup as the program had enormous viewing figures. Although the interview

by Jim Manson was friendly, considering the climate of the time it was inevitable that the issue of violence in comics was raised.

TM

by

Andrew Leyland

The Amazing Spider-Man first appeared in The Mighty World of Marvel #1, the week ending October 7th, 1972.

This was the beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics, featuring, as it did, the opening salvo of a trio of strips that would redefine the comic-book medium: Spidey, the Fantastic Four, and the Incredible Hulk. This 40-page comic, costing five pence, featured the world’s greatest superheroes in three movie-length adventures, a great mystery surprise for every reader, and a FREE greenskinned monster T-shirt transfer.

What’s this? It’s not like BACK ISSUE to make such a schoolboy error. Surely everybody knows that Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, first appeared in an anthology title, that’s true—but it was Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), not Mighty World of Marvel (MWOM). And the Hulk and the FF first appeared in their own magazines.

Well, yes, all of this is, of course, correct. But for an entire nation across the cold, unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, these three titans of superhero comics did not first headline their own comics, rather, they were introduced to an entire country as stable-mates in one magazine … and thus was born the Marvel Age of Comics—UK division.

There had been an attempt to launch Marvel characters before in POW! and Fantastic magazines in the late ’60s, but MWOM wasn’t a licensed deal. Marvel was looking at launching a new line of comics in a new country, on their own terms. Whilst MWOM was popular in and of itself, Spider-Man was the breakout star, and when Marvel looked to expand its publishing output, Spidey was the logical choice for the second Marvel weekly, his place in MWOM being taken by Daredevil. Reprinting “Spider-Man Tackles the Torch” from Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Feb. 1964), #19 of MWOM was Spider-Man’s last as a regular feature.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly debuted the week ending February 17, 1973, picking up where MWOM left off with a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #10, “The Coming of Electro” (Mar. 1964), and also introducing the startled and eager British Isles to the Mighty Thor as a backup strip.

The first issue, like its elder “brother,” was 40 pages and cost five pence. It featured a free Spider-Man mask and revealed the startling secret of FOOM. No one could have believed it at the time but this comic would run for almost 13 years and a staggering 666 issues. It would be the pinnacle of UK Marvel’s output featuring pretty much every superhero character Marvel ever published at one time or another, but its end would be ignominious as Marvel UK pretty much gave up, allowing the comic to fade away rather than burn out. It would see numerous title and format

Your Friendly British Neighbourhood Spider-Man Spider-Man UK #607 (Oct. 27, 1984) cover artist Jerry Paris also drew the issue’s splash page, with then-newbies Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer following with interior art.

Spidey UK scans courtesy of Andrew Leyland.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“First” Issue (left) Jerry Paris’ cover to Spider-Man #607, signed by Mike Collins (as are the run’s other three covers, following). (right) #607’s introductory text page, which also gave readers the how-to on the Spider-Man rub-down transfers. (This is the first time BACK ISSUE has used the words “Spider-Man” and “rub-down” in the same sentence…)

changes over its run as Marvel, never afraid to jump on a passing bandwagon, and would try to cash in on whatever was popular at the time. With issue #180, the comic became Super Spider-Man with the Superheroes and changed to a landscape format, featuring two pages of its US comic equivalent to every one page of UK. This obviously burned through the US material at a rapid rate and up to six backup strips at any one time were common. Switching back to the more-aestheticallypleasing magazine-sized format with issue #230 in 1977, the comic was renamed again in what would be the first of something of standard practice. Any time a Marvel magazine was canceled, it would be merged into perennial bestseller, Spider-Man leading to such unwieldy titles as Spider-Man and the Titans and Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain. It returned to being Spider-Man Comic after a time, and then Spider-Man and Hulk Weekly when Hulk’s own mag folded. It was rechristened Super Spider-Man TV Comic to coincide with ITV’s airing, three years late, of the Nicholas Hammond-starring TV show, and after a short spell as just Spider-Man, it became Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends to capitalize on the BBC’s airing of the NBC cartoon of the same name. After this, it became simply Spider-Man again. The moral of this story would seem to be that as long as it had the words “Spider-Man” in the title somewhere, the comic would sell.

SPIDEY, UK STYLE For the most part, the UK reprint title did a pretty good job of keeping readers up to speed with the goings on of our favorite Wall-Crawler, even trying to fit different US comics and storylines into one coherent narrative. After a few issues reprinting ASM, the comic would print a few

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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issues of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, then a few Marvel Team-Ups. To keep things fresh, they would occasionally toss in a reprint of a What If? that featured Spider-Man. Reprints of “What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived?” and “What If Gwen Stacy Had Not Died?” were also heralded as events and very popular with readers, if the reactions of the letters pages were any indication.

Throughout the run, there were many UK-specific covers, posters, and even splash pages, but UK Marvel rarely went down the route of 2000 AD or Eagle by producing all-new Spider-Man material. Unlike Star Wars Weekly, for which they did occasionally have to create new strips, and Transformers, where a lack of US content made new strips a necessity, Marvel US had produced enough Spider-Man content to keep the UK comic an all-reprint affair. At least until 1984.

Perhaps the most controversial decision Marvel UK ever made was its decision to not include stories about Spider-Man’s black costume, which came about due to the US crossover Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars [see BI #82—ed.]. In hindsight, it’s quite easy to see that Marvel UK simply wanted to publish Secret Wars, but at that point the Spider-Man strip wasn’t too far behind its American counterparts. Publishing the black-suit stories a year or so before they published Secret Wars seemed like folly. What Marvel UK did was take a completely different tack. Firstly, they wrapped up the Hobgoblin story with a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #251 (Apr. 1984), in which the editors omitted the ending entirely, so Peter never went to Central Park and subsequently never went to the Beyonder’s Battleworld. Then Marvel UK published the inventory they had from the other US Spider-Man books starting with UK issue #600, running

stories from Peter Parker and Marvel Team-Up, edited when necessary to remove any mention of the Secret Wars or Spider-Man and the other New York heroes’ disappearance.

After a few fill-in issues, Marvel UK reached their ultimate goal—an all-new Spider-Man strip, created by UK talent and published in the UK comic. To my knowledge, this really rather landmark moment in Spider-Man publishing history has never been reprinted anywhere and few people even seem to know about it.

Spider-Man issue #607 (Oct. 27, 1984) cost 25p and came with free Spider-Man rub-down transfers, and those got even more prominent cover copy than the lead story.

The cover, by one of the best and brightest UK artists of the time, Jerry Paris, has Spider-Man swinging at such a height that the UK and Ireland can clearly be seen behind him, leading one to wonder if Spider-Man’s webbing is attached to the moon—but other than that, it’s a great cover. Paris was one of Marvel UK’s mainstays, and alongside Bob Wakelin, Mick Austin, and Alan Davis, was one of the more prolific artists of this time.

The first chapter was called “A Hero’s Welcome” and was written by Mike Collins, with art by Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer, although the splash page was by Jerry Paris.

Mike Scott lettered and Ian Rimmer edited the book.

The first chapter takes place almost entirely in New York and has two TV professionals from England flag down the Wall-Crawler to invite him to appear on a Saturday morning TV show in the UK called Saturday Starship.

Spidey takes their details and says he’ll have to think about it, but as he swings and ruminates, he is interrupted by a heist. Spider-Man is doing fine until a new do-gooder makes the scene—Thunderclap—whose awesome hands take down the leftover bad guys as well as destroying a blocks worth of windows—and Spider-Man’s and the cops’ hearing. After dropping his pictures at The Daily Bugle, he awakens next day to see they made the front page— only in true J. Jonah Jameson fashion they accompany an article proclaiming Thunderclap was the hero, not SpiderMan. Jonah has gotten wind of Spider-Man’s invitation and wants Peter to follow and capture everything that the wall-crawling “law-breaker” is up to while overseas.

Meanwhile, in London, a shadowy figure captures the

attention of mercenary Andrew Booth when he says he knows who caused the explosion that ravaged his body and caused him to be rebuilt as a Deathlok-like cyborg called Assassin-8. The next day is Saturday, and as Spider-Man arrives at the TV studio in Birmingham, Assassin-8 prepares to welcome him to town and our shadowy figure’s eyes glow malevolently.

There are a number of noteworthy items in this first chapter, not least of which is that the reader is greeted with a splash page that is absolutely gorgeous. Paris draws a magnificent New York and keeps it all in murky grayscale, with the banner heading, story title, Spider-signal, and Spider-Man himself all in color. The resulting effect is a splash that is really eye-catching. Collins manages to slip some interesting in-jokes into the script with the inclusion of the Spider-signal and its subsequent gags at the expense of a certain Dark Knight. Barry Kitson’s art is also very good, and highlights include an excellent 3/4-page panel recap of Spider-Man’s origin as Spidey swings, almost transparent through the middle. Kitson seems to be channeling Ditko throughout the run. It only bears a passing resemblance to his later DC work and he interprets Spider-Man and his cast very well.

The continuity of the story also places it in the middle of International Heroes Issue

Spidey vs.

Assassin-8 (left) Spider-Man #608’s (Nov. 3, 1984) cover pitted the Web-Slinger against dragons and a high-tech killer.

Art by John Higgins. (right) Page 13, penciled by Mike Collins, with Mark Farmer inks.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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the then-current US comics with Peter’s prophetic nightmare, featuring appearances by Mary Jane, the Black Cat, Hobgoblin, and … Frog-Man! Backstory is added on with regard to the villain Assassin-8. Apparently, he was a mercenary who was blown up in Angola and rebuilt by “his people.”

Who were his people? Why have made him into a steel-jawed cyborg?

A number of questions are raised in this first chapter that sadly never really have a payoff. Collins does set the story up well and he does a good job of getting Spider-Man’s speech patterns and rhythms down pat. There are places where the UK nature of anthology comics doesn’t let the art breathe, forcing a number of crowded panels on a page, but this is a product of a nation where stories were eight to ten pages in length and no one had heard of decompression. Part 1 is all setup and no payoff, but it’s neat to see a different take on Spider-Man and a pleasure to see a UK original strip in the pages of the premier UK Marvel comic. It should be noted that the basis for this story was grounded in fact. Spider-Man’s TV appearance was real and he appeared on Saturday Starship on October 27, 1984. Saturday Starship was another in a long line of Saturday morning magazine shows produced by the UK’s Independent Television network (ITV) to try and compete with more successful shows of a similar type broadcast by the BBC. As usual for UK reprint titles, there were a number of backup strips.

The Incredible Hulk #229 was split into two chapters, with the first chapter herein and the comics adaptation of the sci-fi movie The Last Starfighter, which also started a five-issue run.

PART 2 The story continued into Spider-Man #608 (Nov. 3, 1984), this time featuring a cover by John Higgins of Spider-Man being terrorized by dragons as Assassin-8 hovers around in the background in a threatening manner. There was another free sticker and a Terrorhawks competition advertised. Mike Collins took over the penciling duties for this chapter, which was called “Darkness Encroaching.”

After the Saturday Starship show, Spider-Man, unused to adulation, arrives back in Euston train station and is signing autographs when he is attacked by dragons from his dreams. While defending some children caught in the crossfire, Spider-Man is shocked when the dragons disappear into thin air. Spider-Man is puzzled by how they resembled the dragons in his dreams but is interrupted when Assassin-8 appears and starts beating on the Wall-Crawler, all the while blaming Spider-Man for his condition.

Spider-Man, having no idea what Assassin-8 is talking about, fights back and manages to encase Assassin-8’s flamethrower arm in a web-net, causing it to backfire, knocking him out. Spider-Man takes a look at the now-unconscious foe to see who he is but does not recognize him. Leaving Assassin-8 for the police, he switches back to Peter Parker and heads over to The Bugle’s British affiliate, The Daily Herald. Peter sells some pictures and is shown around. Peter is introduced to Mai Ling, WP (Word Processing) officer, and they spend the afternoon together. Later that night, Assassin-8 breaks free and escapes whilst the shadowy figure, eyes still glowing, watches via a magic ball and schemes some more.

One of the more interesting artifacts of the times was that Marvel UK had a transitional period in the early 1980s when their weekly comics were published not in color or black and white, but in both. In every weekly issue, a number of pages were full color, in contrast to when only the cover and the center pages, normally used for a poster, were color and the rest were black and white. The Spider-Man strip is all black and white, unlike last issue, which had a full-color splash. Oddly, this issue has no splash at all, the story picking up where last week’s left off, although there is a lovely nod to the past as Kitson and Farmer place an old Ditko-esque Spidey face in the top left-hand corner.

Noteworthy in this issue is that the kid Spider-Man rescues on page 5 is wearing an Alan Davis-style Captain Britain T-shirt, which sadly seems never have been marketed, and there are a number of pop-culture references specific to the UK. Assassin-8’s dialogue is full of British colloquialisms such as “old chap,” “dear fellow,” and “old fruit,” and his line to Spider-Man about having a “tense, nervous headache” was a nod to an old avert for

Big Ben, Not Uncle Ben (top) Bob Wakelin’s cover to Spider-Man #609 (Nov. 10, 1984). (bottom) The electric cliffhanger page to that issue.

Art by Kitson and Farmer.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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headache pain-relief medicine; it was a very famous ad campaign and often spoofed on UK TV shows.

The art is magnificent, with a number of panels again aping Ditko. Nowhere is this more in evidence than the shot on page 9, where Spidey avoids Assassin-8’s blaster fire with one of his patented super-speed moves that the artist depicts by having multiple Spider-Mans on the page. This is always a great visual for the reader. The ’80s rears its head with the fashions in this chapter. Peter wears a “Frankie Says” T-shirt.

Ostensibly merchandise from the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the “Frankie Says” slogan took on a life of its own. Peter’s shirt says, “Frankie Says Plowright” which, according to Steve Goble’s blog about Marvel UK, is a reference to Frank Plowright, the organizer of the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention which ran from 1985 to 1998. Mr. Spock is also in this panel. What Spock is doing working for The Daily Herald in London in 1984 is a Star Trek adventure yet to be told.

Collins also has sports reporter Rich make a reference to “how the Albion played today,” a nod to football (soccer) team West Bromwich Albion. It’s probably no coincidence that writer Mike Collins was born in West Bromwich. This chapter is essentially one long fight scene, but the fight is very well choreographed and interesting. Spider-Man is a fluid, constantly moving adversary, aiding pedestrians and the kids who had turned out to see him while simultaneously wisecracking and wondering how his dreams have come to life. Alongside the novelty of seeing Spider-Man fight in front of British billboards and advertisements, this also has some good characterization amid the action, specifically the amusing interaction between Peter and the Daily Herald staff.

page. Spider-Man squats upon Nelson’s Column, reading his positive press in The Daily Herald. More notable things in this chapter: Spider-Man cracks that he’s read the paper from front to back and can’t find Nelson’s Column anywhere, which is a terrible gag, and Peter manages to make money from both ends by selling his pictures to The Herald and then presumably getting another payment when they are printed in The Bugle. A punk makes an appearance, complete with nose ring, and Collins sets this story smack-dab in the middle of the ongoing continuity of the US Spider-titles of the time. There are frequent references to the Black Cat, which kind of undercuts the flirtatious relationship the UK was setting up with Mai Ling, and there are nods to Jonah Jameson having just resigned as editor of The Bugle. One of the most startling and innovative images in the comic comes on page 10, where Kitson uses an actual aerial photo of London as a background plate and then applies a comic panel over it. John Byrne used this trick in various issues of Fantastic Four and Todd McFarlane also did it in a few issues of Amazing Spider-Man, and here it looks magnificent. Kitson also deserves plaudits for his pacing of the bomb sequence. His use of a large background panel that fills the page and then lots of small panels as Spidey hunts for the bombs is a very tensely constructed page which Kitson opens up for the final page splash as Assassin-8 blasts Spider-Man in the back, which gives the reader a very satisfying cliffhanger.

PART 4 The final chapter was published in Spider-Man #610 (Nov. 17, 1984), and Barry Kitson finally supplies the cover. Assassin-8 leaps into Spider-Man and pushes him off the platform and into the path of a subway train. It’s the most comic book-ish of the four covers, by which I mean it’s an action piece and not a painted cover like a lot of Marvel UK’s output. The cost of the cover gig, however, means Kitson does not complete the story, the penciling duties being handed off to Mike Collins.

“Death Line” is the title of Part 4. Spider-Man takes a blast to the back and finds himself falling toward the Thames but is saved by, of all people, Assassin-8, who has decided to execute Spider-Man for his treachery in a more public place. Arriving just above Big Ben, Assassin-8 hurls the Wall-Crawler to the ground, but a well placed web-line allows our hero to land with a gentle thud rather than a bone-shattering crash. Assassin-8 attacks Spidey before he can react and SpiderMan is forced on the defensive to prevent the bionic bonehead from killing any bystanders.

Spider-Man has had enough and manages to get at least one solid

PART 3 The third and penultimate chapter was printed in Spider-Man #609 (Nov. 10, 1984). The cover of Spider-Man swinging in front of Big Ben is by Bob Wakelin.

Wakelin was another popular UK cover artist of the time, contributing a number of covers and posters to the UK magazines.

Entitled “On the Town,” this third chapter sees Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter ego manage to mix business with pleasure, taking in the sights as well as stopping some street crime and making some money from The Daily Herald.

Elsewhere, Assassin-8, cruising for a rematch with our hero, heads over to his version of Bond’s Q, who fixes up his arm, and the glowy-eyed, shadowy figure still watches from a distance, thanks to his use of magic.

The next day, Spider-Man is pursued by the police, a regular occurrence for him in New York but a new feeling in the UK. It turns out they are not after him for anything he’s done, rather they have received a bomb threat at the Thames Flood Barrier and the man phoning in the threat didn’t want money—he wanted Spider-Man. Spidey is happy to oblige, and he manages to locate all the different bombs thanks to his Spider-sense, but it continues to tingle. Spider-Man looks around, only to be sucker-punched by Assassin-8.

The first notable thing about Part 3 is that in addition to returning to penciling duties, Barry Kitson also gets to draw his own color splash

Bon Voyage, Spidey!

Assassin-8 attempts to make the Web-Slinger’s 1984 UK visit his last on this splash page from Spider-Man #610. Written and penciled by Mike Collins, with inks by Mark Farmer.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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A Shocking Ending (left) The original UK Spider-saga came to a halt with Spider-Man #610 (Nov. 17, 1984).

Cover by Kitson. (right) Mr. T cameos in this Collins/Farmer final page to the issue’s Spidey tale.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

blow in that sends Assassin-8 flying into a Ghostbusters dreams, and is never even aware of the malevolent, bus-stop advert, and Spider-Man tries to lead him away glowing-eyed, shadowy figure. One would have thought from the crowds, only instead to end up in the London that Peter could have used the resources of The Daily Underground. Again, Spider-Man is spending more time Herald to find something out about Assassin-8 after he saving passengers and onlookers from Assassin-8’s reckless was first attacked, but it’s never followed up on, with the grenades than actually dealing with the threat, but an Herald staff serving no real purpose to the story. Assassin-8 never finds out that he was duped, nor do we find the oncoming train takes the matter out of Spider-Man’s identity of the shadowy organization that rebuilt hands when Assassin-8, preparing to take a him. The sheer amount of loose threads and final shot, lands upon an electrified rail. He is the deliberately open ending seem to killed instantly. Spider-Man, bruised, imply a sequel was in the works, but it battered, and still none the wiser, wanders never happened for reasons we’ll come off into the cold, rain-filled night. to later. The art is pretty good throughOutside, Spider-Man is greeted by out. There is no noticeable difference a newspaper vendor who congratulates between Kitson and Collins, presumably him on saving the Thames Flood Barrier due to inker Mark Farmer, so the and gives him a free copy of the change in artists barely registers. Collins paper, asking him how long he’ll be has a nice handle on Spider-Man, who staying. A weary Spidey says, tomorrow spends more time protecting people he’ll be back on the plane home. As he than being concerned with his own walks away clutching his paper, the skin, webbing up a stack of grenades newsvendor’s eyes glow menacingly. barry kitson Assassin-8 throws at him and leading The next day Peter arrives at home him away from the tourist areas, and and wonders if he’ll return. After all, Gyrostat (Wikimedia, CC-BY-SA 4.0). what were those wacky dreams about? Who was generally this was a noble experiment. I was lucky enough Assassin-8 and why did he think Spider-Man was to get to speak to Mike Collins very briefly at London responsible for his injuries? There are too many loose Film and Comic Con in summer 2014 and he told me ends for a logical guy like Peter Parker. These questions that the reason for the many loose ends was that Marvel will have to wait for another day, however, as Peter’s UK had intended this feature to run for much longer relaxing evening in front of the TV in interrupted by than four weeks, perhaps for as long as 52, and that the helicopter piloted by bad guys, and it’s time once again plug was pulled rather rapidly.

At the end of the story, Peter is back in his apartment in for Spider-Man to hit the New York skies.

New York, watching The A-Team (another ’80s reference) The last chapter is a little disappointing as nothing is when low-flying helicopters occupied by thieves attract his resolved. Peter Parker never finds out about Assassin-8 or attention. This leads straight into the UK reprint, split into what he wanted, he never finds out about his prophetic

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three parts, of 1984’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18, “The Scorpion Takes a Bride (But Not the Way You Think!)”

by Stan Lee and Tom DeFalco with art by Ron Frenz, Bob Layton, and Jackson Guice. It’s worth mentioning because not only does issue #611 boast a gorgeous cover by Jerry Paris, it also features an appearance by Assassin-8. In the UK reprint, Marvel saw fit to sneak in a picture of Assassin-8 as Peter has a floating-heads reflective moment.

There were a number of special articles in this issue that are of note. Throughout the run, Peter kept a diary, published on the introductory pages of the second, third, and fourth chapters that date this story to Friday, October 28 to Wednesday, November 2, 1984.

THE NOT-SO-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN UK Sadly, after over a decade of service to the cause, Marvel Comics either lost interest in its UK division or decided to target a different audience. After finally getting enough of a back catalogue to launch the Secret Wars weekly comic, Spider-Man fell into neglect. After months of printing heavily edited stories from Marvel US to remove any reference to the black costume, Spider-Man #631 (Apr. 13, 1985) finally saw UK readers being treated to a long overdue reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #252 (May 1984).

Only the UK reprints had fiddled around with continuity so much that the final printed version bore scant resemblance to the US original, with panels redrawn, dialogue altered, and even whole pages being omitted from the original and replaced with new art to paper over the cracks. It was the beginning of the end.

With issue #634, the comic was relaunched again, only this time something was awry. Now named The Spider-Man Comic, this issue featured a Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends story from The Denver Post newspaper and a new backup strip: Fraggle Rock! An editorial clearly states this new look is aimed at younger readers and, hard though this is to believe, it would get much worse.

By issue #639 reprints were of old Spidey Super Stories that Marvel UK hadn’t bothered with the first time around.

Further rebranding was to come with the even-moreinfantile Spidey Comic, replete with “Spidey” in large, multi-colored letters on the cover. With issue #666 (Dec. 14, 1985), Marvel UK’s most hardy perennial came to an end. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

The final ignominy? Spider-Man didn’t even appear on the cover of his final issue in any great capacity. Instead, a photo from Santa Claus: The Movie was used to entice readers. I guess you could say, the fat man had sung.

Almost.

One of the oddest Spider-Man stories, even odder than this wholly original four-part adventure, was a three-page story appearing in Secret Wars and Zoids issue #25 (Dec. 21, 1985), a week after the cancellation of Spidey Comic.

Again, the impetus was Spider-Man’s appearance on a Saturday morning TV show, this time The Wide Awake Club, and even had the same art team of Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer. The writer, however, was one Jim Shooter!

This story was entitled “Web-Slinger Against Changeling” and opened with a vacationing Peter Parker taking behind-the-scenes photos at the renowned Wide Awake Club Television show. Plot exposition delivered via the hosts establish that there have been major thefts of rocket parts from British Aerospace. “Maybe someone is trying to build a spaceship,” states one host. They suspect SpiderMan, mentioning he was spotted in town this week.

Overhearing the conversation, Peter considers changing to Spidey, but he only has his new black suit so they wouldn’t recognize him. If this is the case, how did they recognize him in the first place to say he’d been seen around town?

Suddenly, Peter’s Spider-sense buzzes, cluing him in to the fact that there is a very dangerous chair in the building.

He switches to Spider-Man and, despite the new suit, is recognized immediately as he prevents the host from sitting on the chair—which is revealed to be a Skrull! The Skrull turns into a fly and buzzes off (this joke is in the story, I kid you not!), and Spidey lets him go and leaves.

While this is possibly not the best story Mr. Shooter has ever written, it was a nice epilogue to the last story.

There is a whole untold UK adventure to be built around this, where Spider-Man came back to try and find out more about Assassin-8. but alas, it is a great untold tale.

Spider-Man would return in a Spider-Man and Zoids comic, featuring early work by Grant Morrison, but sadly it would be renumbered rather than carrying on from #666. It folded in February of 1987. It would be three more years before the glory days would return with the launch of a magazine that is still being published today, albeit in altered form. In 1990, The Complete Spider-Man was launched. No longer magazine-sized, this was more the size of a US comic but was 100 pages, reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #330 (Mar. 1990), Spectacular Spider-Man #161 (Feb. 1990), Web of Spider-Man #62 (Mar. 1990), and Spider-Man #1 (Aug. 1990), from which it took its cover. While it would be relaunched with new titles many times, from the Exploits of SpiderMan to Astonishing Spider-Man to the Superior Spider-Man of today, it warms my cold, cynical heart to know kids today can walk into a WH Smiths and, off the shelf, purchase current adventures of “your friendly British neighbourhood Spider-Man.”

Mighty Marvel Flashback The oft-told origin of the Amazing Arachnid, as recapped for British readers in Spider-Man #607. Art by Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The writer wishes to thank Steve Goble for his assistance in preparing this article. His article about the Spider-Man UK comic is well worth reading and can be found here: http://stevegoble.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/your-friendlybritish-neighbourhood.html. Slow Robot’s website Starlogged was also invaluable in regard to the Secret Wars strip. His blog at http://starlogged.blogspot.co.uk/ is a mine of useful information about Marvel UK. This is ANDREW LEYLAND’s first article for BACK ISSUE.

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TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Bonus: Inside Spider-Man UK! Another peek at the Web-Slinger’s Marvel UK adventures, courtesy of Samuel Savage.

(top row) Lettercol and ad from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends #562 (Dec. 14, 1983). (bottom row) Spider-Man Comics Weekly #110 (1975).

An original two-page Spider-Man story, which is completely uncredited.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Dewey Cassell

Your Father’s FF (and Probably Yours, Too) From Captain Britain #2, Fantastic Four pinup art by Steve Stiles and Frank Giacoia.

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

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Think you have seen all the artwork and read all the dialogue of your the story draw new splash pages, so something else had to be done.

Edelman recalls, “Sometimes I’d find a panel from a previous segment favorite Marvel comics from the ’60s and ’70s? Maybe not. which could be enlarged as the basis for a splash page. Sometimes there’d In 1972, Marvel Comics launched a new imprint called Marvel UK to publish Marvel comic-book titles across the pond [see BI #63—ed.]. It was be no suitable panel to repurpose, and a new splash page would need to be drawn.” When a new splash page needed to be drawn, not the first time Marvel comics had been published in England. which was the case more often than not, the responsibility fell Alan Class and Odhams Press reprinted early Marvel comics in to artists like Steve Stiles and Howard Bender. the 1960s. But recognizing a potentially lucrative market, Bender elaborates on how the process worked: Marvel decided to take the reins. Marvel had a tremendous, “Basically, the whole thing was put together and overseen growing inventory of titles that had proved popular

by Sol Brodsky and he had his connections with the in the United States, from vintage superhero comics people overseas, in Britain, who would package it— like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Fantastic an enormous amount of books every week, maybe Four, and The Incredible Hulk to more recent titles like two or three books a day—to be printed over in Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, and Planet of England. Of course, it was all printed in black and the Apes. The same comics could be reprinted in the white. They would split the stories, so they would UK for a whole new set of fans. need a new splash page and a new cover for the other However, reprinting US comics for the UK market book(s).” So, in actuality, part of the Marvel UK was not as simple as it sounds. Comics in the UK were reprint books were not reprints. traditionally published weekly with black-and-white For artists like Bender and Stiles, Marvel UK interiors printed magazine-sized. Scott Edelman, the scott edelman provided a good place to start. Stiles explains how second editor of Marvel UK after Tony Isabella, further he came to work on the Marvel UK comics: “In 1975, explains the challenge: “US comic books at the time K. Tempest Bradford/Wikipedia. generally consisted of a single story stretching through an issue. UK comic I found myself drawing up comic-book samples while living in Joe books tended to be made up of many shorter stories about different Staton’s basement in upstate New York. After three visits to the Marvel characters, with each adventure continuing in segments from issue to issue. offices, Chris Claremont took me over to see John Warner, who was In order for Marvel’s US comics to pass as UK comics, someone had to take then editor of the British line, and I was hired.” Bender had a similar a 20-page story, [and] break it into parts.” The number of pages in each path to the House of Ideas: “I always wanted to work at Marvel. I really part varied depending on the space allocated to it in the Marvel UK comic. loved the way Stan Lee would talk to the readers. After I graduated The by-product of this approach was that new splash pages and art school, I went to New York. I started working in the Bullpen doing covers were needed for the subsequent parts of the story. It was not corrections on the black-and-white magazines, and then they found a practical, or even possible in many cases, to have the original artist for spot for me in the UK Division, which was down the hall.”

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The UK Division afforded many new artists an opportunity to hone their skills.

As Bender notes, “It was a good environment for up-and-coming talent. It was a first step, a foot in the door, to try out. We were just kids anyway, just trying to learn our craft. It was like DC, which had their Woodchucks program. Marvel had the British Department to break in new talent. Even Marshall Rogers did something for us.” Over the years, Marvel UK would be a training ground for creators like Paty Cockrum, Jim Salicrup, Duffy Vohland, Ron Wilson, Pablo Marcos, Ed Hannigan, and another up-and-coming artist named John Romita, Jr. The cover of a comic book is a key selling point and it was important that the covers of the growing line of Marvel comics were appealing, but not repetitive, either across titles or from one month to the next. Consequently, preliminary design layouts for the covers were typically drawn and submitted to the editor for approval to ensure the appropriate variety and dynamic elements. Over the years, the cover prelims were drawn by veteran artists like Marie Severin and John Romita, Sr. The same principle was applied to the new covers and splash pages created for Marvel UK comics, and one of the people who drew those prelims was John Romita, Jr. Bender explains Romita, Jr.’s involvement in Marvel UK: “John Romita, Jr. came in the mid-’70s. It was one of his first jobs. He had a space in the Bullpen, right across from where his father had an office. At that time period in the ’70s, Dave Cockrum was doing all of the cover layouts. They got John in to do cover layouts and splash pages. He did the layouts for most of those UK splash pages.” Another artist who drew prelims for the new Marvel UK covers and splash pages was David Wenzel, best known for his fully painted graphic novel adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, published by Eclipse Comics in 1989.

When it came to drawing the new splash pages for Marvel UK comics, the artists had the advantage that the story was already published. The objective was simply to provide some transition and continuity from one part of the story to the next. Bender explains, “We would just read the story and take out the elements that were going to lead into the second half of the story, and draw the splash.

Maybe draw a huge panel of what is going to come right before the next event [in the story]. If Spider-Man were going to be swinging through the city in San Francisco, we would draw the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.” howard bender It wasn’t always a new splash page, though. In some cases, the first page of subsequent segments in the story featured Howard Bender/Facebook. a recapitulation of what had transpired in the previous issue(s). Bender elaborates, “Eventually, we started doing recaps of what happened in the last issue. Then we would draw a small little splash [panel] of what was going to happen in this issue.

I don’t know why it happened that way, but it gave the letterer a lot more work. [laughter] Most of those splashes were lettered by Irving Watanabe.”

Whether it was a new splash page or a recap of the previous issue, one thing was consistent—the artist who drew it did not receive credit for their work.

On the surface, this seems unfair, since all Marvel stories included credits, but there was a very good reason. “You don’t want to break the bubble,” Bender explains. “The idea that it was the artist it was actually supposed to be.

It was supposed to give the illusion that the story was seamless.” The new splash pages were intended to look like they were drawn by the original artist, an approach typically referred to as “ghosting.” Stiles explains, “John [Warner, the editor,] wanted me to approximate the artists’ styles, which, being a Will Elder fan, I enjoyed. I had some great inkers while John was editor (Giacoia, Abel, Adkins).” The stories reprinted in Marvel UK comics were originally drawn by a variety of artists, some of whom were easier to ghost than others. From his own experience, Stiles notes, “John Buscema was excellent at action and anatomy, and I was still a novice, so I probably had a bigger struggle with him.

I was a big fan of Jim Starlin’s work, so I put a lot of work into his pages.”

Inside Hulk’s Head (top) John Romita, Jr.’s preliminary art for the new splash for Mighty World of Marvel #237 (Apr. 13, 1977), and (bottom) its published final version by an unknown artist. This was to set up the reprint of the US-produced Incredible Hulk #200 which followed. From the collection of Dewey Cassell.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In fact, in some cases, the ghosting was so successful that fans commented on how well the original artist drew the new splash page. Did that concern the artists that did not receive credit for their work? Not according to Stiles, who says, “It didn’t bother me that much back then because only the British fans were seeing those pages and I was getting exposure in the US through my work for other publishers. These days I’ll occasionally get a compliment from a Brit via the Internet, which is nice.”

But when the stories were broken up into segments for the weekly Marvel UK comics, not only were new splash pages (or recaps) and covers needed, but titles and dialogue for each new splash page. The responsibility for coming up with titles and dialogue for each new segment fell to the editor. And just like the artist who was ghosting the artwork, the editor tried his best to follow closely in the tradition originally established by Stan Lee. Some of the titles penned by Edelman for Marvel UK comics include “Mayhem is the Man Called Midas!” (Super Spider-Man #184), “Rampage in the Ring!” (Mighty World of Marvel #213), and “The Flame and the Fury!” (Captain Britain #4).

And then there is one of the more unusual cases of reprinting US comics in the UK. Since most US comics came out monthly and the Marvel UK comics were published weekly, it was logical that they might eventually run out of material. Some titles began reprinting more obscure US stories featuring characters like the Cat and the Scarecrow. And when the UK title letterer. So, we had to change all Planet of the Apes ran out of new the English words and grammar, like material, they decided to adapt the putting a ‘u’ in color to make it Killraven stories from Amazing ‘colour,’ and changing all the words Adventures [see BI #49—ed.]. Killraven like ‘elevator’ to ‘lift.’ That way, the was rebranded as the “Ape-Slayer” people in England would understand and the Martians he normally battled it better, since we had words that were redrawn to be apes. With some steve stiles had different meanings.” If you think creative changes in dialogue, new Dave Hogg/Wikipedia. about it, “Hulk is smashing” could Planet of the Apes stories saw print in the UK. However, the reaction from British fans was take on a whole new meaning in the UK. When it was all said and done, there were quite a lukewarm and the experiment only lasted a short time.

In terms of new material, there were titles like Captain few things about the Marvel UK comics that were not Britain that contained a new story in each issue written just reprints from their US counterparts. Reading the Marvel UK versions of the classic stories can be like and drawn specifically for the UK market. It should also be noted that the Marvel UK comics often included pinups discovering something new about an old friend. that did not appear in the US comics. The pinups were Unfortunately, most of the Marvel UK comics have not drawn by some of the same artists who drew the new been collected into trade paperbacks, although the splash pages and covers. And pinups were the exception individual comics are available on the secondary market.

So, enjoy the hunt and Make Mine Marvel UK! to the rule in that the artists could sign their work.

There was one other change made to Marvel comics Sincere thanks to Scott Edelman, Howard Bender, Steve Stiles, and when they were reprinted in the UK. To make the Marvel Danny Fingeroth. comics palatable to British readers, the dialogue had to be converted to the King’s English. The responsibility for DEWEY CASSELL is a closet Anglophile and author of over 35 that fell to Howard Bender. He explains, “I was doing articles and three books, including The Incredible Herb lettering in production. They were training me to be a Trimpe, available from TwoMorrows Publishing.

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Up to Speed (left) The Titans #43. (right) From Mighty World of Marvel #290 (Apr. 19, 1978), the recap page for its reprint of 1977’s Captain Marvel #53. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Editor’s note: A few examples of Marvel superhero art by renowned Spanish illustrator Rafael López Espí have appeared in BACK ISSUE in the past, piquing the interest of US readers. Thanks to the generosity of one of BI’s readers in Spain, Raimon Fonseca, we proudly present this gallery of López Espí images of Marvel’s mightiest—thank you, Raimon! On these pages you’ll find plates from a 2007 portfolio, most of which are

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accompanied by the 1970s covers for which the images were produced; the 1972 Spider-Man and Iron Man posters painted that were marketed in Marvel’s UK weeklies; and original art from a 1974 Marvel card set. Readers are encouraged to discover more about our spotlighted artist by visiting the illustrator’s website at www.lopezepsi.com.

All characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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OVERSTREET CELEBRATES 45 YEARS!

Bloodshot & X-O Manowar by Cary Nord

Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. by Greg Land

Superman ©2015 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

Captain America and related characters ©2015 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Captain Action by Paul Gulacy

Bloodshot & X-O Manowar ©2015 Valiant Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.

Captain Action and related characters ©2015 and TM Captain Action Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Jack Abramowitz

WHAT EARTH ARE WE ON?

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TM & © DC Comics.

It was never quite clear whether Super Friends took place on Earth-One or in some parallel reality.

(Wait—the headline says “Global Guardians”! Why are we talking about the Super Friends? Patience, please. We’ll get there!)

In favor of the Earth-One theory, Super Friends often referred to the Justice League. But the regular Justice League comics never acknowledged a “Hall of Justice” or any training program for superhero wannabes. It would be easy to conclude that failure to mention these things does not constitute proof of their non-existence except that the presence of a Justice League is not the ironclad proof we’d like to think it is. After all, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man featured the Injustice Gang satellite, meaning that there’s a Justice League in that continuum, and that story certainly did not take place on Earth-One. Supporting the not-Earth-One hypothesis is the appearance of T.N.T. and Dan the Dyna-Mite in Super Friends #12. These WWII-era heroes were certainly not indigenous to Earth-One, whose first superpowered champion was established to be Superman. And yet, plenty of stories clearly set on Earth-One also broke this rule—frequently stories featuring Superman or his younger self! A sampling of such exceptions includes the Guardian appearing in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (starting in #135), Zatara in New Adventures of Superboy #14 and 49, and Air Wave in DC Comics Presents #40, among others. Yes, ten-yearolds go through these kind of mental gymnastics trying to determine where Super Friends takes place.

In preparing this article, I took an informal and not-statistically significant survey of a few people in the comics industry on this subject. To a person, they did not consider Super Friends part of Earth-One continuity: Cartoonist Fred Hembeck said, “I didn’t consider ’em in continuity! Just a feeling. (I didn’t consider a lot of what went on in B&B with Batman’s costars in continuity either…)”

Craig Shutt, a.k.a. “Mr. Silver Age,” replied that “I wouldn’t consider it in [regular DC] continuity, as it’s a different set of characters with somewhat different personalities. Certainly, there was never an BACK ISSUE • 45

Fast Friends Flash runs into Impala in Super Friends #7 (Oct. 1977). By E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith.

Scan coutesy of John Wells.

TM & © DC Comics.

indication that it was in continuity by having characters Everyone at DC thought the show was truly awful, and felt that the scripts were not only a bastardization reference those adventures.” of the source material, but disrespectful of the Martin Pasko, who actually worked at DC entire superhero genre in general. Many at the time, gave an insider’s perspective people at DC (even among executive not only on Super Friends but on some staff) didn’t really want to publish Super other titles as well with his reply: Friends at all, but the title was a “[T]here were many people at DC condition of the licensing arrangement who considered Super Friends to be with the cartoon studio.” invisible. Seriously, the only person who While not officially recognized as thought of it as part of any continuity— such, the Super Friends’ continuum never mind what Earth—was [E.] is popularly known as “Earth-OneA,” Nelson Bridwell. Everyone else thought an offshoot of Earth-One. (As noted, of it as strictly a TV tie-in, no more a part the point of all this will be made of the DCU (which wasn’t even called clear shortly.) that yet, back then) than Welcome Back, Kotter. This was because Hannaramona fradon ENTER THE GLOBAL Barbera had to put in two kids and a GUARDIANS Luigi Novi / Wikimedia. dog to get ABC to take the show (they So here we have Super Friends, featuring were Scooby-Dooing everything to within an inch of its superhero protégés of dubious canon Wendy, Marvin, and life at the time), and at first ABC wouldn’t even allow the characters to be referred to as ‘the Justice League.’ Wonder Dog. The status quo starts to change in issue #7, “The Warning of the Wondertwins,” by E. Nelson Bridwell, with art by Ramona Fradon and Bob Smith.

The tale begins when a spaceship arrives on Earth carrying superpowered teens Zan and Jayna, along with their elastic-tailed pet monkey, Gleek. The trio are refugees from the planet Exor, and made their way to Earth to warn the locals about a dire plot from Superman’s old enemy, Grax. That bald-headed, blue-skinned, fourarmed space pirate planted 12 bombs around the globe, any one of which would be capable of destroying all life on the planet. Wendy and Marvin summon not just the Super Friends but the entire Justice League.

“So many bombs,” Wonder Woman observes. “We’ll have to abandon our usual teamwork!”

“Not necessarily!” Wendy counters. “The JLA computer had info on all Earth’s heroes! You can team with local ones near where the bombs are.”

And so it begins.

First up is Superman, who visits Israel, where he teams with local hero the Seraph. The Seraph is in possession of Elijah’s mantle, the staff of Moses, and King Solomon’s ring, each of which endows him with miraculous abilities. Additionally, his long hair provides him with super-strength à la Samson. The bomb is encased within a gravity field that the Man of Steel cannot breach. The Seraph enables him to access the device by using his staff to part the gravity field as Moses once did the Red Sea. One bomb down.

We transition to London, where the Elongated Man is teamed with Godiva, who has prehensile hair that she can harden, turn transparent, and more. (At first glance, it would appear that Godiva is a blatant rip-off of Marvel’s Medusa. Upon further reflection, we may note that Legion of Super-Heroes reject Spider Girl—who first appeared in 1964’s Adventure Comics #323—predates either of them.

DC might counter that Marvel appropriated not only Spider Girl’s power but her name as well!) In any event, bomb #2 is enclosed within a force-field that, happily, has no effect on hair, so Godiva is able to enwrap herself and the ductile detective in a tonsorial shield.

From merrie olde England we travel to South Africa, where we find the Flash zooming along with local hero Impala keeping pace. (We’re informed that Impala is not as fast as the Flash, but keeping up at this speed is an impressive feat nonetheless.) The South Africa bomb hovers high over a broad plain, leaving Flash with no way to reach it. Happily, impalas are not only fast, they’re champion leapers. Impala is able to leap 19 feet in the air with the Flash on his shoulders; Impala’s “hang time” is sufficient for Flash to defuse the bomb at super-speed.

46 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

Cut to Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plain!). There, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are joined by the Native-American heroine called Owlwoman (no relation to Crime Syndicate baddie Owlman, though a future version of the heroine, from DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1, is based on Watchmen’s Nite-Owl for reasons unrevealed). The American bomb is enclosed in a field of darkness, which conceals a variety of vicious monsters as guards. Happily, Owlwoman is able to see in total darkness—something even owls can’t do—so she guides the Hawks to the bomb, where Hawkman is able to defuse it by touch.

Thus endeth Super Friends #7. The story resumes in the following issue with Superman, Flash, and Elongated Man back in the Justice League satellite. (What? Nobody else could have used help? Not even from Superman?

Whatever.)

We turn our attention to Japan, where the Atom has teamed up with a hero who goes by the name of the Rising Sun, who has solar powers. The local bomb is enclosed in a thick glass cube, so the Atom shrinks down and Rising Sun gives him a ride on a photon.

The next bomb is in Ireland, where Green Lantern has been paired with Jack O’Lantern, a hero GL appears to already know by reputation. Named for the old Irish legend, Jack O’Lantern explains that he was given his lantern by “the fairy folk.” At first, Grax’s bomb seems to be encased within a gigantic emerald. It soon becomes apparent that it’s actually a giant yellow gem full of blue guard monsters, making it appear green. The two Lanterns defeated the monsters, after which Jack used his namesake lantern to teleport the bomb out of its yellow shell so that GL could defuse it. (Have you noticed how it’s always the Justice Leaguer who defuses the bomb? We’ll soon see some exceptions, but one must assume that Justice League membership comes with bomb-squad training.)

Off we go to New Zealand, where Red Tornado has joined Tuatara. A tuatara, we are told, is a native reptile with three eyes. The hero likewise has three eyes, and he explains his powers as follows: “With one eye, you can see in two dimensions … there is no depth perception! With two, you see in three dimensions! With my three eyes, I can see in four dimensions—and the fourth dimension is time!”

Yes, Tuatara can see through time. That’s a rather limited power for a superhero, but he would make an awesome crime-scene investigator! Conveniently, Grax sent the New Zealand bomb back through time, so Tuatara is able to see where it went. Red Tornado uses his speed to pierce the time barrier—an ability he has never used before and I do not believe he has used since—accidentally whisking Tuatara along with him.

While Reddy fights dinosaurs, Tuatara deals with the bomb. Not being a Justice League member, Tuatara doesn’t know how to defuse it, so he simply removes the time-travel device, keeping the bomb from returning to the present upon detonation.

In Venezuela, Batman and Robin are united with another reptile-themed hero. The Caped Crusader says outright not only that he has heard of Bushmaster but that he has wondered how the hero developed his crimefighting gadgets. Oddly, we are given more information on Bushmaster than on the previous heroes, including that his name is Bernal Rojas. He explains to Batman how he has studied reptiles the world over, copying their abilities through the science of bionics.

Bushmaster can glide through the air and run across the surface of the water in imitation of various reptiles.

The Venezuelan bomb is underwater, so the Dynamic

Duo fends off sea monsters while Bushmaster defuses the bomb—the first non-Leaguer to do so!

Moving on to Taiwan, we find Black Canary teamed up with Thunderlord, who has “incredible voice-power.”

(Have you noticed how often the Justice Leaguers have been paired with local heroes whose powers approximate their own? You’d think they would shake things up to avoid such duplication, but it’s surprising how often it came in handy. This is one of those times.)

The Taiwan bomb was enclosed in a cube of silence (whatever that is). Standing on opposite sides of the cube, Thunderlord’s “sonic abilities … with the sound of a thousand thunderbolts” caused the bomb to move away from him; Black Canary’s “sonic scream” did likewise, with the result that the cube shattered. Black Canary— presumably having received JLA bomb-squad training— was then able to defuse the device.

That concludes Super Friends #8. The tale rolls into the next issue with Green Arrow in Australia with the Tasmanian Devil (not the Looney Tunes character). The bomb there was guarded by giant alien monsters.

Happily, in a crisis, Taz gets bigger and stronger, enabling him to “chuck … bunyips like they was little International Heroes Issue

Ice, Ice Baby Icemaiden—later Ice— made the cover of Super Friends #9 (Dec. 1977). Original art by Fradon and Vince Colletta, courtesy of Heritage. The original art’s cover price suggests that this issue was originally intended to feature additional material as part of the DC Explosion.

TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 47

Flying Solo For a brief period, Jack O’Lantern and Seraph were among Super Friends’ rotating backup features.

Covers to SF #37 (Oct. 1980) and 38

by Fradon and Smith.

TM & © DC Comics.

bandicoots!” (A footnote informs us that “a bunyip is a fabulous monster, a bandicoot a small Australian animal.” The pair defeated the monsters and Green Arrow used a magnetic arrow to disarm the bomb.

Off the coast of Denmark, Aquaman summons Little Mermaid, whom he apparently already knows as he addresses by her first name (Ulla) the first time he sees her. This makes sense since Aquaman is king of Atlantis and Little Mermaid is one of his subjects—and a remarkable one at that! We are told that her father was “a legged Atlantide like Aquaman and the people of his city, Poseidonis,” while her mother was “a fish-tailed mermaid of Tritonis” (like Lori Lemaris). Ulla, however, is a mutant, able to shift between legs and a fish tail at will. (Why this ability is useful is unclear.) Little Mermaid has other skills as well.

For example, she can fly. (A mixed-race Atlantean mutant who can fly?

Does Namor know about this?)

Ulla’s ability to fly comes in handy as the Atlantis bomb is suspended in a cubic kilometer of air at the bottom of the ocean. (Not that Superman or Green Lantern couldn’t have handled this but whatever.)

While Little Mermaid can reach the bomb, she balks that she has no idea how to defuse such a thing. Luckily, Aquaman is able to instruct her via his telepathy.

Our final stop is Greece—or so we think! Wonder Woman has joined local hero the Olympian, who wears the mythical Golden Fleece as a mask and cape. This endows him with the powers the Argonauts, which include super-speed, flight, super-strength, invulnerability, and a form of X-ray vision. The traps in Greece, however, are far more easily defeated than the others. It turns out that Wonder Woman and the Olympian have accidentally raided the hideout of a supervillain wannabe called Colonel Conquest rather than the location of one of Grax’s bombs! Oops!

The JLA quickly determines that the final bomb is in Antarctica, and it finally dawns on Superman—who defused the very first bomb—that, Hey! Maybe he can still make himself useful. Not so fast, Wendy says!

It looks like the last bomb is set to go off if anything—even body heat— raises its temperature even a fraction above absolute zero. (This is unfortunate since absolute zero is -273 degrees and the lowest recorded temperature on Earth’s surface is -93 degrees. Either everybody’s dead or the climate on Earth-OneA is significantly different from that of Earth-Prime.)

Fortunately, the same computer that can identify the settings of a bomb in Antarctica from geosynchronous orbit also knows of a heroine 48 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

who has no body heat whatsoever. So the JLA summons Icemaiden from Norway. Teleporting to Antarctica, the Justice Leaguers battled the alien monster guards while Icemaiden defused the bomb.

It should be noted that while the JLA was away, Grax breached their satellite headquarters, intending to avenge his defeat on Zan and Jayna. The villain handily defeated the Wonder Twins despite their powers, only to be taken down by the powerless but well-trained Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. This victory encouraged the Super Friends to graduate their junior members and to enroll the teens from Exor as their new students.

The international heroes introduced in this three-part saga formed the basis of the later Global Guardians, but a few more members were yet to be introduced.

THE LAST FEW PIECES FALL INTO PLACE After a one-panel cameo in Super Friends #12 (the infamous T.N.T. and Dan the Dyna-Mite story), issue #13 featured Dr. Mist. The good doctor—a powerful African sorcerer—summons the Super Friends to deal with the menace of a powerful, immortal giant mole. (Really.

Don’t ask.) At the story’s end we learn that Dr. Mist once ruled a great empire—some 11,000 years earlier! So powerful is Dr. Mist that he lives in seclusion, albeit in a mountain with his face carved into it. Later, he will become central to the formation of the Global Guardians.

The international heroes—still not yet known as the Global Guardians—popped up several more times throughout the run of Super Friends, and several more costumed crusaders joined their ranks.

In Super Friends #25 (Oct. 1979), the titular team is mind-controlled by the villainous Overlord into taking over various continents, where they are opposed by the local champions of justice, most of whom we have already met.

Batman attempted to use the Justice League satellite to conquer North America, but he became embroiled in a battle with Green Lantern. Wonder Woman ran to Africa, where she ran afoul of her black sister, Nubia. (Yes, that’s a thing. Already an established member of the Amazon’s supporting cast, Nubia did not go on to become a Global Guardian.) Robin tried to rabble-rouse in Australia, where the Tasmanian Devil stepped up to stop him. Aquaman aspired to extend his rule beyond the Atlantean city-state of Poseidonis to the rest of the

continent, only the face the objections of his own supporting characters, Mera and Aqualad. The Wonder Twins made the Arabian Peninsula their home base in an attempt to conquer all of Eurasia, only to encounter the Seraph’s wrath.

But what of Superman? The Man of Steel decided to exert his influence over South America, where he was confronted by a heroine we had not seen before.

In Rio de Janeiro, we meet Brazil’s super-protector, A Furia Verde, a.k.a. the Green Fury. Later known as Green Flame and simply Fire, this heroine would go on to a more illustrious career than most of the Global Guardians.

Super Friends #45–46 (June–July 1981) again reunited the series’ stars with international heroes, this time to fight the Conqueror and a slew of guestvillains. Returning this time: Little Mermaid, Olympian, Bushmaster, Godiva, Rising Sun, and, in a last-minute reveal, Dr. Mist. This two-parter also introduced the German hero known as the Wild Huntsman. (In his premiere, he teamed with the Wonder Twins to defeat the Time Trapper. Let that soak in: Zan, Jayna, and the Wild Huntsman—without Gleek—defeated a villain who repeatedly thwarted the entire Legion of Super-Heroes.)

This story is particularly noteworthy in that it represents the first time that the international heroes worked together and didn’t just team individually with Super Friends or Justice Leaguers.

There would only be one more issue of Super Friends—guest-starring Green Fury, actually—but the international heroes would return in DC Comics Presents #46 (June 1982), billed for the first time as the Global Guardians.

GLOBAL GUARDIANS ASSEMBLE! In DCCP, Dr. Mist summons Superman and alerts him to a mystical menace brewing in a half-dozen countries. It’s apparent that they have worked together before as Mist comments that Superman is “swift, as usual” and the Man of Tomorrow asks if the crisis is “something [he] can handle alone for a change.”

For some reason, Dr. Mist has eschewed Superman’s Justice League compatriots this time around. Rather, in rapid succession, Superman teams with the Seraph, the Olympian, Little Mermaid, Jack O’Lantern, Green Fury, and Rising Sun. At the tale’s end, all the heroes gather together and Dr. Mist unilaterally declares, “There are many such heroes around the world—and I give you and them a new name—the Global Guardians!”

(Uh … except for Superman, apparently.)

The Olympian directly acknowledges the events of Super Friends. “So Dr. Mist has a new task for us,” he says. “It has been quite a while since we teamed to battle the Conqueror.”

So, did Super Friends occur on Earth-One? Did a nonSuper Friends version of the battle with the Conqueror occur in regular continuity? Or does this issue of DC Comics Presents occur on Earth-OneA? (Other issues of DCCP are of questionable canonicity, such as Superman’s team-up with Masters of the Universe in the very next issue, and with Santa Claus in #67.) Is it noteworthy that Super Friends is replete with footnotes referring to events in Justice League and other mainstream DC titles, but DCCP #46 does not reciprocate with a single shoutout to the Guardians’ earlier appearances.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia (DK Publishing, Inc., 2004) is no help. Despite being billed as a “definitive guide,” it is woefully confused on this subject. Some Global Guardians—including Little Mermaid, Olympian, Owlwoman, and others—have their respective Super Friends issues listed as their first appearances. For others—like Fire, Jack O’Lantern, and Seraph —DC Comics Presents #46 is given. Still others—such as Bushmaster and Dr. Mist—

Kal-El and the Argonauts (top) From Heritage’s archives, an original art page from Super Friends #46 (July 1981), teaming Superman and the Olympian. Art

by Romeo Tanghal and Colletta. (inset) Green Fury (later Green Flame) was featured on the cover of the last issue of Super Friends.

Art by Kurt Schaffenberger and Bob Smith. (bottom) Once she was folded into the Justice League, she was known as Fire. Pinup

by Adam Hughes from Who’s Who #1 (Aug. 1990).

TM & © DC Comics.

International Heroes Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 49

Global GetTogether Superman teamed with DC’s international heroes in DC Comics Presents #46 (June 1982). (right) Its cover, by Ross Andru and Frank Giacoia. (left) Supes and Green Fury, on page 16. Art

by Alex Saviuk and Pablo Marcos.

TM & © DC Comics.

have Super Friends, with DCCP #46 added as their first appearances “in DCU continuity.” Strangest of all is Icemaiden’s entry, which gives her first appearance in DCU continuity as Who’s Who #9. Seriously, how can a character’s first in-continuity appearance be in Who’s Who?

IN THE DCU FOR SURE The Global Guardians transitioned indisputably into the mainstream DC continuity with the team’s appearance in Justice League Europe Annual #1 (1990). (Well, actually, members of the team started appearing a few months earlier, in Justice League Europe #2, but this Annual represents their big comeback.)

In a fashion more typical of Marvel teams, the Guardians and the JLE are at odds. It turns out that the Guardians have been brainwashed by the villainous Queen Bee. Jack O’Lantern is an evil agent posing as the original, while Dr. Mist has been replaced by an android duplicate.

Oddly noteworthy are the absent members. Only two Guardians carried their own backup series during the Super Friends run: the Seraph and Jack O’Lantern. As noted, Jack O’Lantern was replaced by an evil imposter. The Seraph,

we are told, declined to rejoin the re-formed team “for personal reasons.” (Perhaps it was considered too unseemly for a character with a strong religious bent to be a part of the team during their brainwashed-as-villains phase.)

Regardless, it seems strange to omit the two characters most likely to have fan followings and heightened visibility by virtue of their solo appearances.

In addition to scattered appearances by the core team, several individual Guardians went on to become regular members of the Justice League, including Tasmanian Devil, Fire (formerly Green Fury), and Ice (formerly Icemaiden II).

The Guardians’ appearances in the Justice League titles are unconstrained by any baggage from their previous appearances. For example, in JLE Annual #1, neither Elongated Man nor Godiva acknowledge having met, let alone saving the Earth from Grax’s bomb together. Similarly, in Justice League International #16 (Aug. 1988), Fire is unaware that Batman is secretly Bruce Wayne, a fact she knows in Super Friends #47.

(More evidence suggesting that Super Friends does not take place on Earth-One: Batman unmasks for Green Fury simply because he discovers that she works for Bruce Wayne’s company in her civilian identity. This is very un-Batman-like behavior!) Nevertheless, being post-Crisis titles, neither Justice League Europe nor Justice League International are beholden even to what actually had been in Earth-One continuity.

THE CREATORS SPEAK To get the true story on the Global Guardians, it seems that one would have to have spoken with E. Nelson Bridwell who, as Martin Pasko informed us, was the only one at DC who truly valued Super Friends as a title.

Unfortunately, Bridwell passed away in 1987 and his colleagues don’t seem to have much insight into the creation of these characters—not even series artist Ramona Fradon, who is often credited as their co-creator.

50 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

While Fradon was the first artist to realize these characters, she claims no credit for designing them, telling BACK ISSUE that Bridwell was “meticulous with his characters” and she just drew what he indicated.

She reports having no knowledge of the impetus for introducing these characters, as she “had no relationship with Nelson,” she “just picked up scripts and drew what was in them.”

Bob Rozakis, who was Julius Schwartz’s assistant editor on many issues of Super Friends, concurs. “I don’t recall ever doing any stories involving the Global Guardians,” he says. “They were pretty much Nelson Bridwell’s bailiwick.”

Bridwell also wrote DC Comics Presents #46. Alex Saviuk, who penciled the issue, had an experience similar to Ramona Fradon’s. “I had no idea how or why these heroes were assembled alex saviuk to appear in DC Presents (sic) #46,” he recalls. “Editor Julius Schwartz Luigi Novi / Wikimedia. handed me the script by E. Nelson Bridwell, who had a fondness for all those characters, and told me to have fun with it. When I turned in the artwork, I am pretty sure Julie liked it; he did mention that if the story was popular enough—meaning sales and letters—then maybe the group might get their own series.”

I asked Saviuk why, of the many international heroes who had appeared in Super Friends, six particular heroes—Seraph, Green Fury, Rising Sun, Olympian, Little Mermaid, and Jack O’Lantern—were selected as the founding members of the formal team. “Thinking back about 30 years,” Saviuk says, “I have no particular reason for the selection of these characters to be part of the team—they were quite a colorful bunch, though!

“All in all, it was a great story to draw!” Saviuk continues. “I felt as if I was drawing a Justice League of America story in a way, with all the individual chapter team-ups and everyone gathering together in the end to defeat the villain. There were some wonderful new things for me to draw besides the new heroes: great new villains and environments, as well as the Easter Island statues—which, again, reminded me of a story that appeared in JLA #15 [‘The Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens’] about 50 years ago that I bought THE GUARDIANS TODAY from a newsstand!”

And what of the Guardians’ reintroduction? Justice Sadly, the answers to many questions about the Global League Europe was written by Keith Giffen and scripted Guardians’ formative years appear to be lost along with

by J. M. DeMatteis. DeMatteis tells BI, “My memory is E. Nelson Bridwell. Happily, the characters he created that Keith Giffen and our editor, Andy Helfer, came up persist and have continued to appear throughout the with the idea of reintroducing the Guardians. I don’t DC Universe in recent years. While the Global Guardians think there were any long-term plans. Our work on are yet to re-emerge in DC’s “New 52” Universe, there is JLI was pretty spontaneous. We just kind of played and always hope. For example, Fire, Ice, and, perhaps surprisingly, Godiva were all founding members of the stories evolved naturally.”

DeMatteis was not previously familiar with the short-lived revival of Justice League International.

While they were never AGuardians. “I really didn’t know anything about the characters before they showed up in Justice League,” listers—or even, really, B-listers— he said, “and I took my cues from Keith’s plot and then the Global Guardians hold a developed things in the dialogue. That’s the way Keith and fond spot in many readers’ I worked: He provided the setup and then I expanded hearts. Fans may be confident that more members of the things in the dialogue.”

And what of the burning question regarding the team will eventually make their canonicity of the stories in Super Friends? This, apparently, ways back as DC’s bold new was not a question of as great concern to the creators as multiverse continues to unfold. it was to the fanboys.

JACK ABRAMOWITZ is a writer and “No answer, sorry…,” says Saviuk. educator who, among numerous other “Never came up,” DeMatteis replies. “At least, not irons in the fire, has been writing around me.” about comics for two decades.

International Heroes Issue

This Ain’t No Saturday Morning Cartoon A more risqué take on the Global Guardians (courtesy of Heritage) from Justice League Quarterly #8 (Autumn 1992).

Art by Andy Smith, script by Kevin Dooley.

TM & © DC Comics.

•

BACK ISSUE • 51

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Captain Who? Unless you are a Canadian or a really hardcore comic collector, you may have never even heard of Captain Canuck. I remember when I first saw something about Captain Canuck, known as CC to his fans. In late 1979 or early 1980, I picked up copy The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom, stuffed with ads of comics for sale. Buried in all those ads was a Captain Canuck promotion from Doug Sulipa’s Comic World, a dealer in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

So, from the first time I put my hands on a copy of CC, I was hooked have since collected everything connected to the character. While this is an article about Captain Canuck, you can’t understand CC without understanding the life of his creator, Richard Comely. His is the story of how a few issues of Captain Canuck would get published, and then cease publication, and then come back for more issues, and then go away again.

Only to come back again. Captain Canuck is like a cat with nine lives.

THE COMING OF CAPTAIN CANUCK

by

Jay Williams

In late 1971 or early 1972, Richard Comely and Ron Leishman (www.toonaday.com), a friend of Comely’s from church, were talking. Leishman said there should be a Canadian superhero and even had preliminary drawing in his cartoony style. A couple of years went by and at age 24, Comely decided to self-publish CC with money he borrowed from family plus a small bank loan.

He found a publisher who would give him credit to print the comics. Before Comely could publish Captain Canuck #1, Leishman went to France for two years as a missionary. Comely modified the cartoony style of Fleishman’s drawing to more of a comic-book superhero style and defined the hero’s look as its writer/artist. In April 1975, a one-page marketing flyer richard comely known as the “Jammies” cover was created and sent out to prospective sellers of comics to promote the first issue of Captain Canuck.

Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975), from Comely Comix, was a visual departure from the comics being turned out by Marvel and DC. It had a cover price of 35 cents at a time when US comic books were selling for 25 cents. Issue #1’s cover showed CC in his red-and-white outfit over a Canadian flag, superimposed over a yellow-and-orange sunrise.

After much experimentation, Comely took the black-and-white inked comic pages, laid a sheet of acetate over them, and then used animator paints and colored on the acetate pages. The result was a much larger and brighter color pallet than the standard four-color comic. (Some might describe these colors as strange.) The first issue’s CC 18-page adventure was scripted, illustrated, and colored by Comely, with co-scripter Dave Abbott. It included a ten-page sword-and-sorcery backup, Jonn, co-written

by Comely and Leishman, penciled by Comely, and inked by Owen McCarron. [Editor’s note: To learn more about McCarron, who was also the man behind Marvel Fun and Games Magazine, see BACK ISSUE #77.]

While Captain Canuck was never submitted to the Comics Code Authority for approval to be sold in the US, Comely was committed to having a comic with no gratuitous or excessive violence or sexuality.

This comes from Comely being an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

The Captain Canuck series was set in the then-future of 1993–1994.

Its backstory: In the 1980s, Canada became the leading economic and world power. Canada’s equivalent of the United States’ CIA was an organization called the C.I.S.O. (Canadian International Security Organization). C.I.S.O. selected two men who are unequaled in physical and mental prowess to be trained as its “super agents”: Captain Canuck (who in real life is Tom Evans) and his partner Blue Fox.

Canada’s Crusader Richard Comely’s cover to Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975).

TM & © Richard Comely.

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Pajama Party? (left) The “Jammies” promo cover for Captain Canuck #1. (right) Captain Canuck #4 (left), and its two super-sized Limited Editions. All, from the collection of Jay Williams.

TM & © Richard Comely.

Issue #1 opens with an invasion of northern Canada by five aircraft, destroying a northern air station.

The creator’s tone of the book is made clear in the third panel of page four, when the airplane commander tells the co-pilot, “There will be no unnecessary killing!”

The invaders, Communists led by a man named Zero, threaten thermonuclear destruction if Canada does not yield control of the country to them. CC and Blue Fox are sent to stop this takeover. After surviving a snowmobile accident and polar bear attack, they approach the invaders’ headquarters. Blue Fox reveals himself as a double agent and knocks out Captain Canuck. CC regains consciousness and overpowers Zero and Blue Fox, but not before Blue Fox initiates a missile-launch sequence. As in every good superhero story, CC saves the day by destroying the launch controls before the missiles are fired. On page 17, the C.I.S.O. commander who comes to the rescue comments, “We moved in sooner than we planned. I don’t know why, but … I felt compelled to do so!” CC’s response: “God was helping us.”

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A MATTER OF FAITH Comely’s strong personal faith continued to be visible in the series as it progressed. In Captain Canuck #2 (Nov. 1975), in response to the question from General Sun: “Have you anything to add before you go Captain?”, CC replies, “Just one, General: permission to have a word of prayer before we start.” When these comics were published, Comely was criticized for pushing his Latter Day Saints (LDS) beliefs. While he openly talked about his and Ron Leishman’s faith in the text pages of the first five issues of Captain Canuck, the character of Tom Evans never claimed to be a Christian or LDS member. However, as noted above, CC attributes things that happen to being controlled by God and prays for God’s guidance. Back in 1975 when the earliest issues of CC were published, 48% of Canadians and 79% of Americans attended church.

This was not long after the “Jesus Movement” swept throughout North America, where many flower-power and hippie advocates converted to Christianity. It is my opinion that Comely not only was reflecting his personal beliefs (other comics writers have done the same), but he also was reflecting the reality in North America at that time. No matter where you come down on this, issue #1 sold over 200,000 copies, mostly in Canada, so one could definitely say that Captain Canuck was a success.

In issue #2, the R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) outfits their officers with bulletproof uniforms and stun guns for S.F.S. (Special Forces Squad) missions.

This issue introduces two new partners for CC: Corporal Radon, who becomes the superhero Redcoat, and a French operative named Ke’bec. The story in this issue deals with C.I.S.O. allowing Blue Fox to escape so that he can lead them to Professor Walker, who has developed a dangerous weapon called the Brain Machine. This issue had a print run of 200,000 copies.

Soon after #1 was released, artist George Freeman showed up at Comely’s door looking for work and was hired to take over the artwork on the Jonn backup, beginning with #2.

Before work began on Captain Canuck #3 (Jan. 1976), artist J. C. (Jean-Claude) St. Aubin arrived at Comely’s studio, looking for work. Together he and Freeman inked Comely’s pencils on issue #3’s 12-page CC tale. St. Aubin spoke little English and Comely spoke little French, so their collaboration was at times a bit challenging. “Some

days, we [Comely, Freeman, and St. Aubin] were like the Three Musketeers, and other days we were more like the Three Stooges,” Comely laughs to BACK ISSUE. Freeman became the title’s acting editor as Comely needed someone to edit his scripting, which he had taken over in entirety after the first-issue collaboration with Abbott.

Comely says Freeman and St. Aubin were “God sent.”

In issue #3’s CC story, our hero is injured when a building shakes apart after a jet rocket is launched up the main elevator shaft, and two different adversary groups go the hospital to kidnap the injured CC. This issue also had a print run of 200,000 copies.

THE LIMITED EDITION The pencil and ink work were completed on issue #4, scheduled for July 1976, with George Freeman becoming the Captain Canuck artist, illustrating Richard Comely’s script, and introducing two new backup features: “Catman” (a new character, Jason Corey, not to be confused with the Golden Age hero or the DC Comics Batman villain), written and penciled by Comely and inked by St. Aubin, and “Earth Patrol & Chaos Corps Inc.,” written by Freeman and drawn by St. Aubin.

But before it could be printed, as with many entrepreneurs, Comely ran out of money. Comely tells BI that “getting the comics printed in Canada [cost] two to three times as much as printing at World Color Press” [the Illinois plant where DC printed its titles at the time]. DC Comics records show that the breakeven point on printing costs was about 20,000 issues, so for CC that meant that breakeven for an issue of Captain Canuck was almost 60,000 issues.

About a year passed after Captain Canuck #3, and Doug Sulipa, a big CC supporter who purchased 5,000 copies of Captain Canuck #1, approached Comely with an idea of creating two different black-and-white Large Format Collectors Editions of #4. These would be onesided photocopies at almost the full size of the original art. Comely agreed.

This first printing of Captain Canuck #4: B&W Large Format Collectors Edition (Feb. 1977) featured 35 interior pages, which included an 18-page CC story, an eightpage Catman story, and a seven-page Chaos Corps story.

Its last page contained a certificate of authenticity.

The version was printed in black and white on 10" x 14 7/8" paper with a tan cover. On the cover was a white sticker with “Comely Comix” stamped onto it and a handwritten “Limited Edition # of 300.” Below that were the signatures of Richard Comely and J. C. St. Aubin.

A second printing (Feb. 1978) of only 15 copies has 36 interior pages (cover, 33 story pages, and two separate certificate of authenticity pages) printed in B&W on 11" x 15" paper with an orange cardboard cover. A white sticker with the limited edition # of 15 and Richard Comely’s signature appeared on the front cover. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide notes that this book is “Very Rare.”

Overstreet lists its publication date as July 1977, but Doug Sulipa lists it as February 1978. Comely reveals that he had all 315 printed at the same time in February 1977, but that the second printing of 15 was not released until February 1978. Sulipa’s website reports the following known sales of the very rare #4 second printing: In 2005, a VF copy sold for $525; from 2007–2010, sales on eBay were at $650 in FN+, $499 in FN and $375 in VG.

“HE’S BACK!” By early 1979, Comely had lined up Ernie Katz and Ken Ryan as investors, and the three of them created CKR Productions, based upon their last names. Katz was the behind-the-scenes financial guy and Ryan was actively involved in the day-to-day operations. Captain Canuck’s printing was moved to World Color Press in Illinois to reduce costs. Comely knew from the first three issues

that “you can’t make a go of it just selling comics and advertising your own products for sale. You need to sell ads to generate revenue.” Yet the business-minded Katz and Ryan constantly battled the creative-minded Comely over this matter.

Finally, Captain Canuck #4 (July–Aug. 1979) was released, publishing in color the CC and Catman stories printed in the two Large Format Collectors Editions.

Some changes occurred with issue #5 (Aug.–Sept.

1979). The CC series’ timeline moved forward into 1994. Comely now wanted Captain Canuck to be less like a gadget-heavy Batman and more like the patriotic Captain America, so in this issue Tom Evans, while camping with Boy Scouts, encountered aliens and their spaceship. Using a strange ray, the aliens empowered Tom with twice the strength and speed of a normal man. The Chaos Corps story from the Large Format Collectors Editions is used as the backup story in this issue. CC #5 was the final issue where Comely was the main artist on CC, with the series creator writing, penciling, and inking the lead tale.

With Captain Canuck #6 (Oct.–Nov. 1979), George Freeman took over as editor and inker on the CC story.

International Heroes Issue

The Painted Cover George Freeman’s original painted illustration of Captain Canuck, which later became the cover of the series’ sixth issue.

Courtesy of Jay Williams.

TM & © Richard Comely.

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You Can’t Lick These Good Guys! (below) A sheet of the postal stamps featuring superheroes that originated in Canada (Superman’s co-creator, artist Joe Shuster, was Canadian). (right) Three Captain Canuck newsletters to fans, from 1975, 1980, and 1981. All, from the collection of Jay Williams.

Captain Canuck TM & © Richard Comely.

Superman TM & © DC Comics. Other heroes © their respective copyright holders.

Under the gun to get this issue out, Freeman contacted a comic dealer for whom he has done a commissioned CC color sketch, converting that illustration to an acrylic painting and using as the cover for #6. This was the only painted cover used for a CC comic.

Freeman took over both the pencils and inks of the Captain Canuck feature beginning with issue #7 (Dec. 1979–Jan. 1980), with Comely remaining as writer (“Jonn” returned as the backup feature). When asked if he wrote plot-first or script-first, Richard Comely explains to BACK ISSUE that he used “a combination of the two. George, Claude, and I would sit around and discuss plots for a story. Would it be a single issue or a multi-issue story? Once we made that decision, I would write the script and turn it over to George to be illustrated.” Comely also tells BI that he preferred Freeman’s lantern-jawed rendition of Captain Canuck to his own version.

Captain Canuck #8 (Feb.–Mar. 1980) and 9 (Apr.–May 1980) were a two-part space story that involved Tom’s brother Mike and his wife Saskia. “Jonn” finished its run with issue #8, and a fantasy backup feature called “Beyond” started in issue #9.

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Captain Canuck #10 (July–Aug. 1980) was a standalone issue and is Comely’s favorite. He especially liked the cover and the colors throughout the book.

Captain Canuck: First Summer Special (Sept. 1980) was released in July 1980 and contained 68 pages. Its second CC story was laid out in landscape format rather than the standard portrait format.

Captain Canuck #11 (Sept.–Oct. 1980), 12 (Nov.–Dec. 1980), and 13 (Jan.–Feb. 1981) constituted a three-part story that brought back the aliens who gave CC his enhanced strength and speed.

Issues #11–12 featured 18-page CC stories with a backup feature, but #13 was a full-length, 26-page story.

Due to continuing conflicts with partners Ernie Katz and Ken Ryan, it was agreed with by all parties that Richard Comely would leave CKR Productions before #13 was released. Issue #11 was the last to bear the Comely Comix brand; with issue #12 CKR Productions was listed as publisher. Issue #14 (Mar.–Apr. 1981) had no input from Comely and was the last issue of CKR Productions’ Captain Canuck. The character stepped into limbo.

In 1991, the Canadian National Archives contacted Richard Comely and wanted to purchase the original artwork and scripts of Captain Canuck. By that time, most of the pages from #1 were either sold or given away (George Freeman still has about 20 pages in his possession).

Ernie Katz, as the majority investor of CKR, had held on to the remainder of the original art, skids of comics, and posters. Comely purchased all of this and combined that with the scripts, many of which were handwritten, and sold it all to the National Archives. Once the art and scripts were received, the National Archive put on a six-month exhibit in 1992.

CAPTAIN CANUCK REBORN In 1993, starting from scratch and once again with no financial backers or without thoroughly examining conditions in the US and Canadian comic-book market, Comely decided to try again with Captain Canuck.

Because George Freeman had moved on to bigger and better things with DC and Marvel and was no longer available or affordable, Comely returned to doing writing, pencils, and letters. His son Cory helped out with the coloring. Richard chose not to return to the Comely Comix as the publisher’s name. He was considering “Thunder Comics” when he read a newspaper article about David Semple, who was a photography student who came to the aid of a woman being mugged and was stabbed and lost his life. Comely was so moved by this he decided to name this new publishing venture after Semple, calling it “Semple Comics.”

The original run of Captain Canuck was published from June 1975 until March 1981 and featured Tom Evans as the hero. The stories’ original time setting was in the future, in 1993. It was by sheer coincidence that in 1993 Comely decided to publish new CC stories. His new venture, Captain Canuck Reborn, did not feature Tom Evans as CC, but instead a new character named Darren Oak, fighting as Captain Canuck to unravel the dark New World Order’s control of the Canadian government. I asked Comely, why change to a new character?

“I wanted to go in a different direction with the story,” Comely tells BACK ISSUE. “The Oak family were multi-millionaires. The father has died and the older brother, Nathan Oak, is now running the family businesses and involved in the one-world government conspiracy. Darren Oak is Nathan’s younger brother and was a kickboxing champ. Darren saw the wrong in what his brother and fellow one-world government conspirators were doing. Darren read the original Captain Canuck comics and it inspired to become CC. He wanted to disguise himself so that he could draw attention to himself as he warned Canadians about the one-world government conspiracy.”

Captain Canuck Reborn #0 (Sept. 1993) was produced to generate interest from wholesalers and comic dealers, with 400 ashcan versions of #0 printed and sent out.

This ashcan edition was the same 20 pages as the actual issue #0 but in black and white with a tan cardstock cover. Comely wanted CC to better represent all of Canada and hoped the French-Canadian readers would catch on, printing it in both English and French. Unfortunately for Captain Canuck Reborn, the timing was not good. At that time, French-speaking Quebec was considering separating from Canada while Captain Canuck was standing for a united Canada.

A total of 100,000 copies of issue #0 were printed, of which 25,000 went to comic stores, the rest shipped to the mass market.

Captain Canuck Reborn #1 (Jan. 1994) was also published in both English and French. A total of 87,000 issues were printed, with two different covers.

The newsstand/mass-market version had a green cover. The dealer version was polybagged with an illustration printed on the bag. Inside the comic had a gold cover and included two trading cards.

Captain Canuck Reborn #2 (July 1994) was printed only in English and the print run was reduced to 32,000 copies. The first 19 pages were a setup for the six-page CC action sequence at the end of the story, which was to be continued in issue #3.

The wait for Captain Canuck Reborn #3 turned out to be 18 months; its cover date was Jan. 1996. Again, timing was wrong. Comely admits to launching Captain Canuck Reborn without properly analyzing the marketplace. A speculators’ boom had peaked by the time of issue #2 and comics sales were rapidly falling.

According to Doug Sulipa’s website, only 8,000 copies of #3 were printed.

Comely reveals that Diamond Distributors only ordered about 3,000 of that issue due to the long lag between issues #2 and 3.

In the hope of continuing Captain Canuck, Comely made a bold marking move to get the feature picked up by Canadian newspapers. The remainder of the issues were sent to newspapers as advertising for running the proposed CC comic strip. Issue #3 has a color cover and a 32-page black-and-white interior and continues the story from issue #2 but in the form of two comic-strip stories.

The first story is made up of 40 daily strips (131–179) and the second is made up of 58 daily strips (287–344).

CAPTAIN CANUCK CONTINUATIONS AND CURIOSITIES In 1993, Comely was contacted to see if he was interested in CC being part of a Canada Post set of superhero stamps that would include Captain Canuck, Fleur de Lys by Mark Shainblum, Johnny Canuck by Leo Bachle and Les Barker, Nelvana of Northern Lights by Adrian Dingle, and Superman, who was co-created

by Canadian Joe Shuster. Issued in 1995, over six million sets were sold. While CC being included in this set was great exposure, Comely and Freeman did not make a lot of money from it.

The aforementioned Captain Canuck newspaper strip ran from 1995 to 1996. Comely met Sandy Carruthers, his co-artist on the strip, through Mark Shainblum. Captain Canuck ran in one large and seven smaller newspapers in Canada for almost one and three-quarters of a year. During that time over 300

Volume 1, Final Issue Front and back covers of Captain Canuck #15, the last issue to be completed before CKR ceased publication. Only 150 were printed, each signed and numbered by Richard Comely.

This is #5 of 150. From the collection of Jay Williams.

TM & © Richard Comely.

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CAPTAIN CANUCK: LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY Captain Canuck has made these appearances in the 21st Century: • In 2001, Mark Shainblum re-released two different versions of his 1999 The New Original Captain Canuck: Utopia Moments Part One, each with a different ending.

• In early 2004, Doug Sulipa approached Richard Comely to publish Captain Canuck #15, completing the run of Tom Evans as Captain Canuck. Released in June of that year, it had a full-color cover and the interior was printed on blue paper.

Only 150 were printed, each signed and numbered by Comely.

• Early in 2004, brothers Riel and Drue Langois approached Comely about a new Captain Canuck comic. Rather than continue with either the Tom Evans or Darren Oak Captains, they started with a new Captain Canuck named Dave Semple.

This version of Captain Canuck has sometimes been called “the west coast Captain Canuck.” Semple starred in a four-issue series titled Captain Canuck: Unholy War. • In 2006, while teaching comic-book art at a university, Comely came up with the idea of a new Captain Canuck series entitled Captain Canuck Legacy featuring Darren Oak (CC #2). His idea was to have his students help write, pencil, ink, and letter this new series. It lasted two issues (#1 and #1.5). When asked why

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there was a #1.5, Comely replied that its Captain Canuck story was only ten pages long, so he felt it was only worth one half an issue.

In 2009, IDW issued a two-volume color hardcover series. Captain Canuck vol. 1 (June 2009) reprinted issues #4–10 plus 11 pages from a proposed Sunday newspaper strip. Captain Canuck vol. 2 (Dec 2009) reprinted the First Summer Special and issues #11–14.

In 2011, IDW continued its Captain Canuck reprints with Captain Canuck: The Complete Edition (Nov. 2011), printed in black and white. It included issues #1–3, which were not featured in the two-volume hardcover series, and also included issue #15 and Captain Canuck Legacy #1.5.

In 2013, with new financial backing by Fadi Hakim, Captain Canuck, Inc. was created. From this came a five-episode animated web series.

In June 2014, Captain Canuck Summer Special First Canada Day Edition was released, with six covers featuring art by Richard Comely, George Freeman, and Mike Rooth.

At this writing, plans for Captain Canuck’s 40th anniversary in 2015 include a Free Comic Book Day issue in May and a Crime Stoppers issue in July, followed by a five- or six-issue miniseries and a graphic novel.

The Comeback Kid The sketch cover variant of 2014’s Captain Canuck Summer Special First Canada Day Edition, with an illo of CC by Geof Isherwood. From the collection of Mike Cross.

TM & © Richard Comely.

different daily strips were created. Shainblum wrote one story and Comely wrote the rest. Carruthers and Comely split the artwork on the series. Most of the original art for the newspaper series ended up with in the Canadian National Archives.

In 1999, Mark Shainblum persuaded Richard Comely to bring back the original Captain Canuck, Tom Evans. To test the public’s interest, The New Original Captain Canuck: Utopia Moments Part One was produced, a 32-page, black-and-white ashcan/mini-comic. Shainblum was the writer and Sandy Carruthers was the artist, with a color cover by Dejan Ostojic. Unfortunately, it was not a success.

WHEN IS THE END NOT THE END? Comely Comix’/CKR Productions’ Captain Canuck lasted 14 issues plus a summer special. Semple Comics’ Captain Canuck Reborn lasted four issues, the Captain Canuck newspaper strip lasted 18 months, and finally, The New Original Captain Canuck only lasted one issue. Sadly, as the 20th Century drew to a close, the publishing history of Captain Canuck was laid to rest once again.

But like The Little Engine That Could, Comely would make a comeback in the 21st Century with that “I think I can, I think I can!” attitude. When I look back over Richard Comely’s unswerving faith in Captain Canuck, I think of Tim Allen’s famous line from Galaxy Quest: “Never give up! Never surrender.” I think that about sums it up for Richard Comely.

JAY WILLIAMS is a national sales manager for a healthcare software company with a great love of history (his college major) and comics. Occasionally, his day job affords him the opportunity to visit comic-book shops as he travels all of the USA, as he searches for interesting comics and talks to store owners and managers about the “good old days.”

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Our cover artists, painter Steve Fastner and penciler Rich Larson, started their collaboration back in the mid-1970s, and nearly 40 years later they’re as in-demand as ever!

Many BACK ISSUE readers cherish their fascinating Marvel portfolios of the early ’80s, from which our X-Men vs.

Alpha Flight cover hails, and that’s the starting point for this exclusive “Pro2Pro” chat.

– Michael Eury

conducted by

Michael Eury

MICHAEL EURY: Let’s start by discussing the Alpha Flight vs. X-Men illustration we’ve repurposed as the cover of this issue, BACK ISSUE #83 … which was released, coincidentally, in 1983 in an X-Men portfolio, one of a few Marvel portfolios you did in the early ’80s. How did these portfolios come about, and who is/was SQ Publications?

RICH LARSON: SQP, a.k.a. Sal Q Productions (www.sqpartbooks.com), was and is Sal Quartuccio and Bob Keenan, the hardest-working publishers in fantasy art. Our story is inextricably intertwined with theirs; they were the first to publish our work (in their prozine Hot Stuf’, in 1978), and have published most of our books since. You don’t usually find artists cozying up to their publishers, but we love those guys. They’re probably the longest-lived independent fantasy publishers still actually signing checks.

STEVE FASTNER: Sal Quartuccio called me one day in 1979 and told me he was doing a series of Marvel superheroes portfolios. It was going to be various Marvel artists and inkers producing inked drawings of the superheroes. Sal wanted me to do airbrush coloring for the inked drawings using a photo-process called blue-line transfer. Blue-line makes a light blue copy of the line art on a sheet of illustration board, which I would do the airbrushing on. It also makes a copy of the black ink lines on a sheet of clear acetate. That way, when it’s printed, the black ink lines stay solid black instead of being screened, which would make them dark grey instead.

I had done blue-line coloring on SQP’s The Art of John Buscema book. I told Sal that I’d prefer to do fully airbrushed paintings instead, so he made me a counteroffer.

He would have the artists pencil the drawing on art board and I could do airbrush painting on top. I agreed to do them, and the first set was the X-Men. EURY: You made a reputation in those days doing painted renditions of superheroes before that became fashionable (although, of course, the pulps did that way back in the ’30s). Do you recall the reaction from editors and fans during that time when line art for superhero renderings was the norm?

LARSON: I think it was moderately favorable. A few fans probably took issue with our style as a being a bit too cartoony, or not Marvelesque enough. But the portfolios were successful enough that we did four sets (two of the X-Men, Spidey, and the Hulk), and had the Fantastic Four ready to go when Marvel decided to take the portfolio format in-house.

Next Generation Steve Fastner and Rich Larson’s “Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters – Revisted” plate, from SQP’s first X-Men portfolio.

X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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FASTNER: Heavy Metal magazine had been around for a few years, featuring Richard Corben’s airbrush work.

Comic artists like Wrightson, Kaluta, Adams, Smith, and others were already doing prints, posters, and magazine covers with more elaborate painted styles. Earl Norem, Ken Kelley, and Bob Larkin did painted superheroes for Marvel’s black-and-white magazines. Album covers and

paperback covers featured a lot of airbrush art at the time.

So fans had a taste of it beforehand. I think the comics purists probably favored traditional pen-and-ink stuff, and illustration fans got a kick out of the airbrush style.

EURY: So, there was going to be a Fantastic Four portfolio?

Man, we missed out! Luckily, you’re sharing one of its plates with BACK ISSUE readers. Tell us about it…

FASTNER: [It’s] “Behold Galactus, Devourer of Worlds!”

And the Silver Surfer is gliding into the scene as well.

The painting was done in 1980 for that Fantastic Four portfolio that was never published. We did three other FF paintings, but this one is the best banana in the bunch.

I think this one took longer than usual because of the number of characters and the amount of detail. I had a file of magazine clippings for reference for the planets and space stuff, and had the Lee/Kirby comic book for Galactus reference. SQP was also planning to do an Avengers portfolio, for which Rich did a drawing and I did a pencil study. The second X-Men portfolio, which included the Alpha Flight painting, was the last one produced.

EURY: Tell me about your art studies and your influences.

LARSON: I read and re-read my ’60s Marvels until they fell apart, so I guess those were my first art studies, and also major influences: Kirby, Ditko, Heck, Wood, Steranko.

Andrew Loomis’ Fun with a Pencil is actually the book that got me interested in drawing, sometime in elementary school. MAD magazine shaped my early thought processes, to my parents’ everlasting regret. As far as girl art, Frazetta is pretty much the alpha and omega.

FASTNER: My influences are pretty much the same as Rich’s: Marvel Comics, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Steranko, Corben, Frazetta, Loomis, etc. I also attended St. Paul Technical Vocational School for commercial art, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for a couple years. I took an evening class to learn airbrushing.

International Heroes Issue

Greatest Portfolio Never Told (opposite) “Behold Galactus, Devourer of Worlds!” Courtesy of the artists, one of the paintings from the unpublished SQP Fantastic Four portfolio. (left) Publisher Sal Quartuccio’s SQP gave Steve and Rich early exposure, including the ’zine Hot Stuf’ #6 (Winter 1977) and (bottom) a handful of Marvel superhero portfolios, including these X-Men sets.

Hot Stuf’ © 1977 SQP. Fantastic Four and X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Airbrushed Byrne (left) Fastner painted John Byrne’s pencils on “Beware My Children – The Sentinels,” from the first X-Men portfolio. (right) Cover to the portfolio Fastner & Larson’s Tricks & Treats.

Tricks & Treats TM & © Fastner and Larson. X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

EURY: How/when did you both meet?

LARSON: In the early to mid-’70s we were both working separately as advertising artists in the Twin Cities area.

As comics fans, we would hang around the Minnesota Comic and Fantasy Association meetings at Dave Mruz’s house. I contributed to the MCFA fanzine Morpheus.

Dave was the spark plug for a lot of what was happening in fandom at the time. He continues to support us in ways large and small.

FASTNER: We both belonged to Dave Mruz’s comics fan group, the MCFA. A mutual friend of ours, Larry Becker, introduced us to each other at a comic-book convention in the mid-1970s. I had seen Rich’s art in Morpheus, Charlton comics, and other publications, and he’d seen my work in comic-con art shows and local fanzines.

I suggested we collaborate on a painting sometime, and a couple years later we did.

EURY: What was the catalyst for your partnership?

LARSON: Heavy drinking? [laughs] Steve was clearly going to be a great painter, and I was clearly not going to be a great finished art guy of any sort, so I had it in the back of my mind fairly early on that, wealth- and fame-wise, I’d better try to convince him to work over my pencils.

It worked out, except for the wealth and fame part.

FASTNER: We had mutual interests and similar goals, and some comic magazines were starting to use painted art for their covers, so we combined our skills. Rich has an inventive imagination and a sense of dynamic action.

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I enjoy giving things a colorful, three-dimensional effect using the airbrush.

EURY: Describe for our readers your collaborative process…

LARSON: Technology has been a godsend. When we were working on the portfolios, Sal insisted that the paintings be huge. So I would do a giant layout, and then spend 45 minutes or so applying graphite to the back of it—in effect, turning it into a big sheet of carbon paper (Google it, kids!)—and then retrace the entire drawing onto a sheet of artboard for Steve to airbrush … and then go over all of those lines once again to make them uniformly dark. So, the exact same drawing, three times. Nobody, least of all me, will ever be that in love with their own work. Now, we work in two sizes: 8.5" X 11" and 11" X 15". Either way, I do a drawing at 8.5" X 11", and hand it over to Steve. Technology of various sorts, which Steve will describe, ensues. When Steve is done with the painting, I add a few touches, usually with color pencil, and that’s it.

FASTNER: Rich starts the ball rolling by coming up with an idea of a dramatic scene, then doing a tight, detailed pencil drawing. I take the drawing and scan it into Photoshop, where I clean up any smudges and spots.

I print a lightened copy of the drawing onto a piece of computer copy paper. I start painting by using markers to color in the figures and props. I then use an airbrush to do the “shading,” or modeling, on the people, objects, and sky or background. I do tiny details last with a #3 sable brush and watercolor, ink, color pencil, and gouache. I also do traditional airbrushing for some of larger paintings, doing them in bristol board, using friskiting and acrylic airbrush paints.

I’ll usually do a small pencil study, or even a more finished, full-color study of the art before I do the finished painting.

EURY: Steve, in one of those aforementioned X-Men portfolios, you worked over John Byrne’s pencils on a plate titled “Beware My Children – The Sentinels.” What do you remember about that specific piece?

FASTNER: Giant robots are a lot of fun to do, and the Sentinels are pretty cool looking, so I enjoyed doing it.

We have a friend, Jim Schumeister, who lent us current copies of the Byrne/Claremont X-Men for reference.

It was good of Jim to trust me with his nice, collectable copies, since painters are notoriously messy. Byrne provided me with a pencil drawing on art board. I first did a pencil study of the art on tracing paper, to figure out the lighting, shadows, and highlights. When I felt I’d planned out all the details, I started on the finished painting by friskiting the board, cutting all the little pieces with an X-acto knife, which can be the most tedious step in the painting. I then used Dr. Martin’s watercolor paints to do the airbrushing, having to be extra careful not to drip any water on them and mess up the painting. It was a large size to work in, so wrapping it up and lugging it to the post office was a chore.

EURY: Question for you both: Other than the Byrne piece, have you collaborated with other artists?

LARSON: In the ’70s and ’80s, I worked with San Francisco-based underground comix artist and director Tim Boxell, on his No Ducks and Commies from Mars, and on some stories for Charlton comics. He’s a legitimate renaissance guy-type talent.

FASTNER: At one point I was doing a lot of paperback covers for Byron Preiss Visual Publications. Byron was in contact with a lot of comics artists that didn’t happen to do airbrushing, so I worked over the drawings or layouts of Mike Kaluta, John Pierard, Steve Leialoha, Neil Vokes, and others. I even did one cover with a Steranko layout.

Oh, yeah, I did some Preiss covers with Rich, too.

EURY: How much sequential art have you produced?

LARSON: We’ve done a handful of light, spicy stories for our various collections, and one semi-long, kind of depressing occult saga, Demon Baby, spread out over a trade paperback and three comic books. I drew some

issues of Whisper for Capital and First Comics. I’ve also done a few covers and stories for Charlton. My inking could most charitably be described as rudimentary.

FASTNER: We also did a chapter of a comic story for The Barbi Twins comic book, a classic epic of the bizarre kind.

EURY: What’s the story behind Darke World, the star of your 1992 portfolio?

LARSON: I think we were reimagining the Burroughs Mars and Venus adventures—with chicks! SQP certainly didn’t invent the art portfolio, but they did bring it to mass popularity—by de-emphasizing the limited edition aspects and accentuating, among other things, the bodacious babe component. We were cranking them out there for a while, and Steve in fact had to invent a new way of working so that we could keep up with the demand.

FASTNER: Sal called us and said he wanted to do some black-and-white portfolios featuring fantasy women.

He wanted me to “add a little shading to the art.” So I decided to do the art on photocopies of Rich’s pencils, starting with my set of gray markers. They came in ten shades of gray, so I could color in the figures first, without having to use the time-consuming step of cutting the friskets. I could then airbrush over the marker tones to do the shading, finally using a sable brush and mixed media to do the detailing. The subject matter was fun, and the fans seemed to respond favorably to those portfolios.

EURY: In the mid-’90s you got to draw Superman with his mullet for a trading card set. Were you tempted to give the Man of Steel a haircut?

LARSON: Didn’t they give him an earing as well? On one of the cards, I had Superman and the Kents admiring his costume in the mirror, and I think we got all the way through the painting without realizing I hadn’t reversed the “S.” International Heroes Issue

The Poop and the Scoop (left) Fastner and Larson’s dynamic interpretation of Wolverine, from the second X-Men portfolio. (right) From their Spider-Man portfolio, Spidey rebuts JJJ’s latest editorial.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Faster Than a Speeding Mullet The Man of Steel in his post-Death of Superman long-hair era, from a DC Comics trading card illustrated by Steve and Rich.

TM & © DC Comics.

“Pest Control” From the archives of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), a stunning plate from SQP’s 1992 Darke World portfolio. © Fastner and Larson.

FASTNER: This was done shortly after the “Death of Superman” comics series, so we figured we couldn’t kill him again, no matter how we handled it. I grew up with the Curt Swan Superman, just like Jerry Seinfeld.

EURY: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever been commissioned to draw?

LARSON: I’ve had a standard answer for this for at least a decade: Connie Chung as a frog. However, these days we respectfully decline to incorporate actual people into fantasy scenarios, because of the whole lawsuit-waitingto-happen thing.

FASTNER: I can’t top Connie Chung as a frog.

EURY: Today you’re renowned for your fantasy and good girl art. But is there a character, or are there characters, that you’d like to illustrate but never been asked to draw?

LARSON: We don’t get nearly enough requests for girl versions of male super-characters—especially villains, who often have the coolest costumes. Kang the Conqueror! Captain Boomerang! We can make it happen!

Also, anything from the Fourth World saga. Also Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy.

64 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

FASTNER: Hellboy could be fun. Hey, Rich … what if he was … Hell-girl? Never mind. Maybe Bill Everett’s Venus.

LARSON: I want to do Hell-girl right now! [laughter] EURY: What new projects should we be expecting from you?

FASTNER: Wait till you see our upcoming SQP book!

Just wait…

LARSON: We’re reworking some of the most over the top covers of the least-known, least-likely-to-havelegal-representation, ’50s horror comics. Wertham was right—those puppies were indefensible … and hopefully we’ve made them even moreso! There’s also a new story based on Steve’s premise of having horror hostesses fight each other to get their story told.

EURY: Most creative partnerships peter out after a short time, but you as a duo are zeroing in on 40 years of collaborations. What’s kept you working together all this time?

LARSON: Probably a shared desire not to have to start working for a living. Also, no one else will have us.

FASTNER: Rich is too modest, really. In some uncanny fashion, our career seems to parallel the longevity of SQ Productions Inc. What voodoo compels us to turn out fantasy-babe and superhero art endlessly is a wonder to us as well. Perhaps the answer can be found in the words of the circus geek who was asked why he didn’t quit his job: “What, and give up show biz?”

TM

by

Jonathan Rikard Brown

The year was 1987, and the crossover event Legends had just concluded. After this event and its predecessor Crisis on Infinite Earths, the DC Universe had become a very different place. Characters were becoming grittier. Heroes from parallel worlds had become full-time residents of a single DCU. In all this change it was becoming clearer and clearer that the time for a new type of Justice League was now. As this team would go forward, accompanied by unforeseen commercial success, it would evolve. The League would no longer be anchored to America. It would take a new turn and become a peacekeeping force for the world. It would become Justice League International.

Before a new League could form and evolve, a new creative team had to be brought together. Andy Helfer, who had been editing Justice League of America since 1985, was the one who would chart this new route for this well-established title. [Editor’s note: See BI #3 for more about the Justice League’s rebirth.] In the wake of Legends, a new Justice League cast had emerged.

It was Helfer who would bring on Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis to give the team life. DeMatteis was the first to come on to the scene. He had taken over writing Justice League of America with issue #255 (Oct. 1986).

DeMatteis would continue on with the series until it ended with #261.

In speaking about the transition to the j. m. dematteis new era of Justice League, DeMatteis tells BACK ISSUE, “I’d written the final story of the ‘Detroit’ League for Andy Helfer and, when Andy and Keith were putting the new League together, Keith decided he wasn’t comfortable doing the plot and the dialogue. Andy asked me to come aboard. I took one look at Keith’s first plot, which was terrific, and signed on. [Penciler] Kevin Maguire was the final piece of the puzzle—one of the most gifted, and unique, artists I’ve ever worked with.”

While this one piece of the puzzle was set early on, Keith Giffen had been working with Andy Helfer, prodding him for the opportunity to work on the book. Giffen recounts the story: “I don’t remember when it started, but it was a good while before I got the Justice League or even any indication that I might get it. I was always after Andy, ‘Give me the Justice League. Give me the Justice League.’ ’Cause I saw this potential for the book that I didn’t figure was being reached.” He continues, “It was like with the Legion of Super-Heroes. What attracted me most to that was the potential the book had. Just the ability to go in there and do something really wild. I saw the same thing in Justice League. For months and months, maybe even a year before finally getting the book, I’d go to Andy and say, ‘Give me the Justice League. I can do something good with it.’ Andy would just nod, ‘Yeah yeah yeah yeah, go away, find something else to do.’”

The New Global Guardians After a mere six issues, Justice League was retitled Justice League International with issue #7 (Nov. 1987). Cover by Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon.

TM & © DC Comics.

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The Emerald Gladiator Meets the Big Red Cheese Justice League newbie Captain Marvel encounters Hal Jordan/GL on page 15 of Justice League International #7 (Nov. 1987). By Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire/Gordon. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Keith Giffen would eventually get his shot.

Sales of Justice League of America were diminishing, and the Justice League Detroit era was falling apart [see BI #58—ed.]. In the wake of Legends, the team was to be given a new first issue and a fresh launch.

Andy Helfer finally relented and gave Giffen his shot as plotter, pairing him with DeMatteis on dialogue.

The first issue of the book, simply titled Justice League, launched its new #1 issue with a cover date of May 1987. It was clear from the cover that this was a bold, new League.

Wonder Woman and Superman were nowhere to be found, as they were going through their own reimaginings. Batman, Black Canary, and Martian Manhunter stood as the old guard to greet longtime readers. Dr. Fate appeared in the book for the first couple of issues; DeMatteis would later write that hero’s solo title. Captain Marvel was now part of the DC Universe and Blue Beetle represented the newly acquired Action Heroes from defunct Charlton Comics [see BI #79—ed.], both heroes absorbed into DC’s mainstream continuity via Crisis. Mister Miracle would also be present and hold membership with this new League. The new Dr. Light, Kimiyo Hoshi, would appear in the first issue.

Her appearance would be a major plot point in the issue, but she would not be a proper member.

This finally brings us to the brash bigmouth Guy Gardner, who would serve as the team’s Green Lantern and as a legacy character.

In its initial six issues, the team did not bear the marks of an international unit, but the first stories certainly planted the seeds for how the book would grow in scope.

Before we talk about the initial stories that would lead the team down the road to becoming an international peace force, we must make one note. In the initial stages of the book, it was not intended to go down that path. Giffen tells BACK ISSUE, “To be honest with you—and I’ll say this upfront ’cause I don’t want to sound like I am making excuses or trying 66 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

to get out of answering certain questions—we never gave a lot of thought to what we were doing or how much we had to do with what we were doing. The whole ‘Bwah-ha-ha’ thing is something Marc [J. M. DeMatteis] and I argue about who came up with it first, and I swear it was him. He says it was me. It would be very easy to look it up in the plots. Andy Helfer has the plots. Did it happen in the plots first or did it happen in the book first? But we don’t want to. We don’t care to.

We think we what we were doing was special enough just to leave it alone. We did a good job. So when you ask these questions like, ‘When did it become an international book instead of just a standard US homegrown superhero book?’ I can’t answer 100%.

I seem to recall Andy Helfer maybe mentioning, ‘You could make them worldwide. Maybe they should have embassies.’ It might have all started with Andy, and we got it and ran with it.”

DeMatteis agrees that the move to an international book came about in an organic fashion. He says, “It was just a natural evolution—and another way to differentiate our League from what had come before. I suspect the idea originated with Andy.”

The first issue opens with Guy Gardner reciting his welcome speech to the new League. It is clear that Guy believes he will act as numero uno on this new team—an idea that is quickly rejected as Black Canary makes her appearance on the next page.

Guy Gardner is often used for comedic effect, and why wouldn’t he be? He is the quintessential ’80s guy. He is a walking Sylvester Stallone movie (not the original Rocky).

He is egotistical and sexist.

In regard to the character, Giffen says Guy is “the person in your office or in your life who you knew just annoyed the living hell out of you. Because it was his attitude or just the way he carried himself—it was something wrong. We were just trying to do an obnoxious bastard, really.”

The striking thing about Guy Gardner, when you look at him as the book develops its international scope, is that he is representative of a certain ultra-conservative voice that was coming out of America at this time. At this point in history, the US was approaching the end of the Cold War, with the United States and the USSR at each other’s throats and the threat of nuclear war still hanging in the air. President Ronald Reagan stared down the communist menace.

In Justice League, Guy Gardner is clearly an avid supporter of the US and its president. In him we see a character that believes the world would be a better place if his country would just take over. As the League wrestles with global jurisdiction, when three alien warriors land in Bialya, Guy shows the depths of his political bias when he says in the second issue of

Justice League, “I love it! Let’s hope those three take out president. He was in a position of prominence back then, and it happened. I can’t say that I put anything every two-bit country that’s packing nukes! Nobody but Ronnie-Boy should have his finger on the button! Then deliberately political into the Justice League book.”

While the politics of the work are subjective to its we’d have the world where we want it. Huh?” This is important because as the team grows and develops with reader, it is clear that it reflects the modern world in which global communication and reach were ever-increasing. worldly roster and presence, Guy acts as demonstration The book often deals with the United Nations. of how America functions on this stage.

In the first issue of Justice League, the team It must be noted that this is just a responds to terrorists taking the UN byproduct of the writing and the time it hostage. This event thrust the team into was written. According to the creators, the spotlight. TV news reporter Jack (the there was never any true intent to offer Creeper) Ryder is the one who vocalizes political commentary of any kind. the fact that the team operates without When asked about any critiques the mandate and is a constant voice of dialogue offered on the Reagan era, criticism against the team—but he is not DeMatteis says, “Reagan showed up the only voice. Throughout the first six a couple of times, I think, and we just issues, we are shown cutaways of other played it for laughs and not in a political news teams covering the happenings way. I was not a big Reagan fan, I involving the League, news feeds didn’t vote for the guy, but we not limited to the United States. The weren’t sharpening any knives, either. keith giffen heroes are affecting things on a We would have poked fun at the global level. There are times they are president whoever he was.” Giffen goes © DC.wikia.com. even further and says he did not remember ever writing welcomed and times when their intentions are called anything about Reagan. Giffen states, “I would just give into question. While the League is trying to maintain its Marc [J. M. DeMatteis] the plot cold. I wouldn’t talk it original methods, it is clear that this is a new world, a over with Marc. I would read the dialogue when the book world that will need a new type of Justice League.

While all of this is going on, we see a certain shady came out like everybody else.” In specifically dealing with Reagan, Giffen says, “I guess it was he was just the character in the background: Maxwell Lord. Throughout

International Heroes Issue

World’s Greatest Superheroes (left) Premiering the League’s new international status. (right) It didn’t take long for a US/Russia flare-up with a possessed Rocket Red acting up.

TM & © DC Comics.

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The International Brand (top) Justice League International inspired a line of DC Direct action figures, and (bottom) Giffen and DeMatteis have taken some JLIers out of deep freeze, like Ice. Cover to Justice League 3000 #13, by Howard Porter.

TM & © DC Comics.

the first arc we see Max manipulating the Justice League. He offers membership to Dr. Light and Booster Gold before he is even connected with the team. At the end of the first issue, it is Lord who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the UN attack, though he neutered the terrorist responsible, Collins, by giving him a defective bomb. As we read in the first 12 issues, Maxwell Lord is a businessman who sees an opportunity to make something great out of the Justice League. He is the figure that manipulates the Justice League into taking the world stage. He makes the connections with the United Nations. In issue #12 (Apr. 1988), we learn that Max’s darker side comes from an alien computer that has manipulated him just as he has manipulated the League. Keith Giffen admits that this comes from a last-minute effort to make good on a promise made to the fans to reveal Max’s secrets by issue #12: “Max’s story comes from me and Andy [Helfer] pulling it out of our asses.”

Though it was probably unintentional, Lord pulling the strings from behind the scenes offers an interesting bit of commentary. In issue #7, where the book becomes Justice League International, the group is appointed the official superhero group of the United Nations. This does not happen without the pushing of a figure from the corporate world. By Max’s very placement into the book the reader begins to question where the real power lies in this increasingly global world. Is it with the politicians who appoint the Justice League or the corporate leader who manipulated the system to get his desires?

As the team becomes entangled with the UN, the League’s roster changes.

Captain Marvel and Dr. Fate leave the team. The US and USSR make plays to get representatives on the team in the form of Captain Atom and Rocket Red, respectively.

Maxwell Lord also secures a place on the team for Booster Gold. It is in these moves that we see the team itself become more representative of the world as a whole (a trend that would continue throughout the run as characters like Green Flame and Icemaiden join their ranks as Fire and Ice). Giffen tells us that this was not intentional on the part of the writers. Editor Helfer would bring in new characters, then Giffen and DeMatteis would develop their voices inside the book.

Justice League International offered us a view into a world that was daily becoming more globalized. While some of these insights may have been unintentional, that does not make them any less profound. In the pages of Justice League International, we saw how our superheroes reacted to this new world and embraced it. While this book could have been dark and depressing, it was not; it was fun. It took a chance, pointed at the world it was created in, and laughed in its face. While JLI was fun to read, it was also great time for those involved in its execution.

In speaking about the book’s success, DeMatteis tells BACK ISSUE, “It was just another assignment … a fun one, but I never expected all the fireworks. And I certainly never expected to be working on that series (and its spin-offs) for five years … not to mention the various sequels we’ve done since. Keith and I—and Kevin, too— have been working together, on and off, ever since. And now we’ve got a number of our old JLI characters appearing in Justice League 3000, so it’s all come full circle.”

In summing up his thoughts on the book, Giffen says, “It was fun. Some people listening to these answers might think, ‘Wow, they didn’t have that much freedom.

They had no control.’ And you’re right. We didn’t have as much freedom as I have got on a book like Justice League 3000 or any of the books I have come up with over the last five or ten years. I am not going to say we did everything DC said was supposed to be done, but I would go back and do a book like Justice League any day, even though to a lot of people it would look like I was reviving old rules that comic books have outgrown—though a lot of those rules, comic books should have never outgrown. It was one of the few projects that I worked on from beginning to end and have nothing but good things to say about.”

Justice League International was a product of its time. While the road to an international team may have been inadvertent, the ride was a blast for all those who came along.

The author would like to dedicate his work on this article to the memory of Christopher Carlton, a hero to many in the North Georgia United Methodist Church and beyond. Thanks for introducing me to the JLI. JONATHAN BROWN attended Young Harris College and Brevard College for his undergrad.

He completed his B.A. in 2007. He finished his Master of Arts in Religion with an emphasis on New Testament and a minor in Religion in Literature at the University of Georgia. He has published work in The Jack Kirby Collector and International Journal of Comic Art.

68 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

by

D a n Ta n d a r i c h

Hanging Tin

peregrine

shamrock

Produced for a European reprint, López Espí’s interpretation of Silver Surfer #7’s Surfer/Frankenstein clash. Courtesy of Raimon Fonseca.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

What do you get when you assemble the international superheroes Shamrock and the Peregrine, Dr. Strange, the Silver Surfer, and the Frankenstein Monster? No, not a missing issue of Marvel Team-Up but a Greatest Story Never Told! This is the story behind the story of Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #37 (Jan. 1992).

The lucky Irish heroine Shamrock and the high-flying French hero Peregrine had only made sporadic appearances since their debut in Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #1 (June 1982) [see BI #41 for more on Contest of Champions—ed.]. Molly Fitzgerald—Shamrock—had the ability to alter probabilities to her advantage when battling opponents or solving problems. The Peregrine—Alain Racine—was a winged hero who specialized in savate (French kickboxing). It was this little-used duo who became the stars of an unpublished adventure for Marvel Comics Presents written by Jean-Marc Lofficier, who shares with BACK ISSUE, “I chose the Peregrine because of him being French, of course. I can’t recall why I made Shamrock his girlfriend, although in retrospect it seems natural enough.”

The real-life chronicle begins in Los Angeles where Lofficier met Argentine artist Leopoldo Duranona at a party circa 1987. Lofficier remembers, “[Leo] wanted to work for Marvel and had done a generic few tryout pages in pencil which I felt, with some minimum redesigns, could be turned into a Shamrock/Peregrine story. That’s what I sent as a proposal to Terry Kavanagh” [then-editor of Marvel Comics Presents].

The “audition” was then rewritten by Lofficier and turned into a four-part story. It was during this “second phase” that Lofficier pulled together the various threads of the sordid history of the Family Frankenstein in the Marvel Universe. It picked up on the I.C.O.N. (International Criminal Organizations Nexus) storyline from the canceled Frankenstein Monster (originally The Monster of Frankenstein) comic book that Marvel published from 1973 to 1975. After Lofficier researched and wrote the full script with Duranona in mind as the artist, Marvel told him that the story was to be assigned to someone else to draw. Although

Lofficier did not receive a reason why Marvel was going with a new artist, he did write a note to Duranona in the unpublished script. “Last time, the editor wasn’t wild about the breakdown that you used on page 2, which he thought was too hard to follow.” Marvel then said that Marvel Comics Presents should use more commercial characters such as Wolverine. That was it for the Shamrock and Peregrine story.

Kavanagh explains to BI that he would have used the story as Marvel Comics Presents was a biweekly comic, noting that he was a fan of Duranona’s work from Warren magazines like Eerie and could not imagine passing up the opportunity to use his illustrations. In the letters page of Marvel Comics Presents #15 (Mar. 1989) in response to a fan’s request for the Peregrine, the editor did reply that the French hero would be used: “Well, that’s a pretty strange request with all of the characters to choose from in the Marvel Universe, but we’ll try to accommodate you. Believe it or not, we have a few stories in the works with Le Peregrine.” Marvel Comics Presents #18 (May 1989) gave hope for the character once again.

“If enough readers tell us they want to see more of a certain character (like, say, Le Peregrine or Annihilus, just to name two), we’ll try to accommodate them with a longer series.” And finally, MCP #19 (May 1989) added, “Have you been wondering about the fates of Le Peregrine, Sabra, or Shamrock?” So for now, the shelving of the project remained a mystery.

A few years later, Lofficier worked with Roy and Dann Thomas on Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Lofficier had written “The Book of the Vishanti” backup feature which delved into the mystical corners of the Marvel Universe. He remembered his unpublished story and planned on using it [Frankenstein history only] as a two-part “Book of the Vishanti” backup. In the letters column “Strange Mails” from Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #42 (June 1992), editor Mike Rockwitz revealed, “It was only after Geof [Isherwood] had penciled all ten pages that we decided instead to add the 12-page ‘Frankensurfer’ plot to surround them.” Roy was more than happy to go with the International Heroes Issue

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Contest of Champions Revisited (this page and opposite) Unpublished “audition” art by Leopoldo Duranona from the original tryout pages that writer Jean-Marc Lofficier sent to Marvel editor Terry Kavanagh.

Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Frankenstein idea. Thomas reveals to BI, “I’d been interested in Frankenstein since a very young age.”

All of which brings us to Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #37, “Frankensurfer,” written by Roy and Dann Thomas with a co-plotter credit for the flashback going to JeanMarc Lofficier, with art by “new artist-in-residence,” Geof Isherwood. Dr. Strange is soaring high above New York City when what appears to be the Silver Surfer attacks.

The ersatz Surfer is unsuccessful in his plot “to seize the Sorcerer Supreme” and decides that he “must return at once to Castle Frankenstein!” Dr. Strange quickly travels back to his Sanctum Sanctorum and to the Book of the Vishanti. What follows is a flashback of the history of the Frankensteins which was originally researched for that unpublished tale. But first…

The main event: The unpublished synopsis for the four-part Shamrock and Peregrine story.

Paris, France: Shamrock and the Peregrine are racing over the rooftops toward Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Shamrock’s luck powers had drawn them to the new villain Voltarr and his gang.

Shamrock: “It was FORCE I used to drag you here!

Besides, your party was a bore! You French don’t know how to throw a good party!”

Peregrine: “What you Irish call a party, we call a RIOT, ma chere, and we have laws against these, haven’t you heard?”

Fearless Shamrock leaps off of the roof, much to Peregrine’s surprise. She bounces off an awning, making a graceful landing on street level. “After all, what kind of li’l judy from Dubleen Town would I be … if I couldn’t use my LUCK to make dramatic exits!” Meanwhile, the Peregrine takes care of two of Voltarr’s goons using his

70 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

savate-style fighting to topple the henchmen into the Seine. Shamrock’s luck causes the villain to trip into a puddle of water. He is electrocuted.

The next day, in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower, we find Alain Racine, bestselling horror writer, talking with Molly Fitzgerald. The dialogue is such that these characters have a history of working together heroically and romantically.

The doorbell rings and it is Eric Prawn. He was a private detective who once took a case for Veronica Frankenstein. He reveals that Voltarr was secretly being controlled by I.C.O.N. During this chat, an Agent Vermilion receives orders from the mysterious entity Rainbow, the head of I.C.O.N., to take out Prawn and the heroes. Vermilion shoots and kills Prawn. His dying words are, “Find Frankenstein!”

The second part of the story begins in southern France. “This is where the last recorded Frankenstein, Veronica, has decided to live in tranquility…” And that is where the heroes find her. In order to understand what they are up against, Veronica begins to tell the tale of … the Family Frankenstein!

She starts with the most infamous of the clan, Victor Frankenstein. Born in the late 1700s, he was the oldest of three sons. He studied at the University of Geneva and became obsessed with discovering the secret of life! “He used his arcane science to create a monster, who later killed his best friend, his fianceé, and his younger brother” (Monster of Frankenstein #1–3). Victor met his end pursuing the Creature through the Arctic wilderness. The Monster survived and, a hundred years later, returned to life.

Then Vincent Frankenstein, great, great nephew of Victor, encountered the Creature and attempted to use him for

Special thanks to Jean-Marc Lofficier for the inspiration and Leopoldo Duranona for the amazing artwork! Thanks to Terry Kavanagh and Roy Thomas for their time and recollections.

Appreciation goes out to Rebecca Busselle for words of advice.

DAN TANDARICH is an educator in New York City. This is his second article for BACK ISSUE. Contact him at yellowjacket74@hotmail.com.

Photo credit: Rebecca Busselle.

his own personal gain (Frankenstein Monster #10–11). Vincent was murdered by his maid who absconded with his only son, Basil, thinking that if she took the infant away and raised him as her own she could break the curse of the Frankensteins.

“Basil, too, had a son, Ludwig—my own father—who was equally mad in his desire to recreate life … and like his ancestor, my father too came to a tragic end when he created an evil doppelganger of the alien Silver Surfer (Silver Surfer #7, Aug. 1969). I tried helping the Creature, but was thwarted by I.C.O.N. and their Berserker, an almost unstoppable robot” (Monster of Frankenstein #15–17).

Veronica’s story is interrupted by the arrival of the Dreadknight, who is working for I.C.O.N. He breaks through the window and abducts Veronica, but after a brief fight with Shamrock he falls to his death.

Veronica finishes, “There is another Frankenstein, a direct descendent of a liaison that Victor had while he was still at university, my cousin Victoria.

She leads a peaceful life in the family castle, with the Monster and the other Rejects of my various ancestors’ experiments” (Monster of Frankenstein #18).

The third part of the serial opens with the heroes and Veronica storming Castle Frankenstein, which is now overrun by I.C.O.N. Shamrock and Peregrine take on Lilac, I.C.O.N.’s chief scientist, and her creation, the previously mentioned Berserker. The original script tells us “the centerpiece of the lab is the head of the Frankenstein Monster, mounted on some kind of tubing system with electrodes. The rest of his body lies around it in transparent vats, or on operating slabs, in various stages of dissection.” With the combined knowledge of Veronica and a rescued Victoria, they put the Creature back together.

The final episode begins outside of I.C.O.N. HQ, on a mountaintop in the Swiss Alps. Shamrock, Peregrine, the Berserker, and the newly reconstituted Frankenstein Monster enter the headquarters and confront Rainbow, who is actually … Ludwig Frankenstein (Veronica’s father).

Ludwig: “Being thought dead gave me the freedom to use my duplicator’s limitless power to create I.C.O.N., another tool in my quest for immortality!

Imagine my surprise when I first learned of … Victoria! A niece … one in possession of Victor Frankenstein’s secrets!: Ludwig unveils his ally: “Behold my indestructible … Silver Monster!”

Lofficier details the scene, “For the Silver Monster, think of a Frankenstein-like monster, a big, shambling hulk, but one with the perfect, gleaming skin of the Silver Surfer.” The Silver Monster is defeated by a team-up of Frankenstein, the Berserker, and the Peregrine. Ludwig is about to fly off thanks to a hidden jet belt but is knocked out by a flying Peregrine.

Epilogue: The Berserker relates, “According to I.C.O.N.’s files, the sum total of a human’s memories was transprinted into my positronic brain, thereby granting that human a form of immortality … these memories once belonged to a man named Legrand. Who is—or was—Legrand?” Thus begins the next mission of Shamrock and Peregrine! And that one really is a Greatest Story Never Told as Lofficier admits to never having wrote it.

Shamrock and the Peregrine were not mentioned in Dr. Strange #37; however, the research from the unpublished story formed the core of the flashback delving into all things Frankenstein. Savage Sword of Conan #22 (Sept. 1977), along with additional sources, were added to the flashback. The plot of Dr. Strange #37 relies on continuity established in Silver Surfer #7 featuring Ludwig Frankenstein and his servant, the deformed Borgo. When Ludwig goes too far in his evil schemes, it is Borgo who stops him by forcing both of them out of the castle window to the ground below. But, as revealed in Strange #37, Borgo did not perish in the fall. He eventually tricked Victoria into using Ludwig’s duplicator machine, which had originally been used to create a replica of the Silver Surfer.

Borgo repeated the process with himself as subject and became …

“Frankensurfer!” By the end of the issue, the villain met defeat in another tragedy in the long line of tragedies in the Frankenstein Family saga.

And what of our two stalwart heroes, Shamrock and Peregrine? This adventure would have been their biggest contribution to the Marvel Universe. As a consolation prize, they were each rewarded their own eight-page solo story in Marvel Comics Presents.

Shamrock received the spotlight treatment in MCP #24 (July 1989) and in MCP #51 (June 1990), the Peregrine flapped his wings.

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Once upon a time—in 1950, to be exact—a new comicbook publisher was launched in France in the city of Lyon. It was called Editions Lug and its story was told in greater details in Alter Ego #30.

Suffice it to say here that, for 30+ years, Lug published a great variety of newsstand monthly comics mags featuring a mix of original series, Italian series such as Alan Mistero and Blek, and Marvel licenses such as Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.

It became, in fact, the fifth-largest French publisher of newsstand comics, with the largest and most diverse library in French comics, with over 200 characters/ series, including virtually all genres.

At its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, Editions Lug sold 1.5 million comics sold per year. Average sales per title were 80,000 copies, compared to Marvel’s 120,000.

Their books were translated into three languages.

In the 1980s, the original founders—who had served in the French Resistance—decided to retire. The company passed into other hands, which continued to publish the Marvel books, but switched to reprints-only and stopped the more expensive creation of new series.

The death of newsstands sales eventually proved fatal.

Unlike in the US, there was no network of dedicated comic-book stores to pick up the slack. Ultimately, the company went out of business at the end of 2003.

The Alter Ego article, written just before that sunset, documented a brief revival of the old characters and series of the ’60s and ’70s during the 2000–2003 period, undertaken under the aegis of its editor-in-chief Thierry Mornet and the undersigned.

The flagship of this brief, but ultimately doomed, revival was Strangers, a six-part miniseries that brought together several alien heroes stranded on Earth, and that was translated and published in the US by Image Comics.

The purpose of this article is to look at what has happened during the past ten years, and bear witness to the third rebirth of what is now widely known as—the HEXAGON UNIVERSE.

MOSAIC MULTIMEDIA The keystone of the new operation was the strong desire by the creators to not let their works become buried and forgotten, as had been nearly the case during the 1990–2000 period.

In America, old characters belonging to defunct publishers such as Charlton and Gold Key had to wait for a corporate rescuer to live again. In France, fortunately, the ownership is separate from the publishing rights, and the authors could unite to carry on the exploitation of their own creations.

Dubbed “Mosaic Multimedia” to reflect the diversity and goals of the operation, a “syndicate” was launched, regrouping all the major creators—or, in some cases, their legal heirs—of the series once published by Editions Lug.

Strangers in a Strange Land TPB This English-language edition collects six comics starring a sci-fi-slanted super-team previously published in the US by Image in 2003. Art by Manuel Garcia. © 2015 Mosaic Multimedia.

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by

Jean-Marc Lofficier

Heroes Assembled and Kung-fu Kicks (top) Hexagon: La Ruche Noire, a 48-page B&W comic featuring an Avengers-like group. Art by José Luis Ruiz. (bottom) Kit Kappa TPB, reprinting classic stories starring the martial-arts hero. Art by Alfredo Macall. © 2015 Mosaic Multimedia.

The first task—still ongoing as this is written—was to preserve the classic works. The decision was made to collect and republish these in a format not unlike that of the Marvel Essentials or the DC Showcase Presents books, i.e.: as big trade paperbacks of 500 to 600 pages, but in this case, printed on quality vellum paper, retailing at the attractive price of 35 euros.

The “Hexagon Comics Library” (HCL) was finally launched in 2010 with its first two volumes dedicated to the cult favorite Wampus, a bizarre alien monster sent to Earth to sow chaos and destruction by an unfathomable cosmic entity.

The name “Hexagon” was chosen because it was reminiscent of France itself, sometimes nicknamed “the Hexagon” because of its six-sided profile on a map.

As of this writing (in March 2015), 48 volumes comprise the HCL, with a new one coming out every month for the foreseeable future. That’s almost 30,000 pages of comics—and growing! A true testimony to the astonishing production of Editions Lug during its existence.

Sporting attractive new covers, and occasionally including a new story or two, the HCL initially concentrated on characters loosely belonging to the superhero, science fiction, and fantasy genres, but is now starting to reprint historical, Western, war, and detective stories, evidencing the wide variety of genres tackled by Lug’s creators.

Who are these creators? Most, if not all, will be unknown to the American readers; yet, they form a squadron of dedicated artists such as Luciano Bernasconi, Giorgio Trevisan, Franco and Fausto Oneta, Lina Buffolente, Ivo Pavone, Raffaele Paparella, Edmond Ripoll, Annibale Casabianca, Emilio Uberti, Guido Zamperoni, and others, all of whom Will Eisner praised in his introduction to the first volume calling them “unsung loyalists of European comic books.”

On the writing side, there was Claude J. Legrand, a distinguished French science-fiction writer and translator, and others such as Franco Frescura and Pier Carpi, to name but two.

New stories were created for the volumes collecting stories involving the members of Hexagon, a group not unlike the Avengers, Kit Kappa, a kung-fu fighter, and Kidz, a group of superpowered teenagers.

Thanks to the HCL, those French readers old enough to remember the characters they’d read when they were kids are able to enjoy collected editions of these classic stories, while new readers, often unaware of the rich treasure trove that is the old Lug catalog, are amazed to discover that there was a time when popular French comics—as opposed to glossy color hardcovers like Tintin and Spirou—had nothing to envy from their American counterparts.

EXPANDING THE UNIVERSE Still, what keeps a fictional universe alive and well is the ever-renewed spring of new stories, and not merely the archival collections of its past glories.

If the Hexagon Universe is back on the French comics scene today, it is largely due to its new products.

When the relaunch started in 2010, the decision was made to also reprint the new stories produced during the brief 2000–2003 period, when many of the characters were revamped and brought back to life—starting with the flagship title, Strangers, written by the undersigned and drawn by three brilliant Spanish artists: Manuel Garcia, Fernando Blanco, and Javier Pina.

For the uninitiated who may not have read the Image Comics miniseries, Strangers consists of six characters: Homicron, a female NASA scientist whose body is inhabited by a powerful energy being from far-off planet Alpha; Starlock, a fugitive on the run who escaped from his Martian prison where he’d been consigned by his former masters, a set of awesome cosmic entities called the Towers; Jaleb, the secretive agent on Earth of a Galactic Federation of telepaths; JayDee, a teenage alien metamorph abandoned on Earth who may well be a deadly killing machine; and finally Futura, a mysterious woman who comes from another dimension.

These characters—all old Lug characters, except for Futura—were brought together by Tanka, the star of a once-popular jungle adventure series, now turned into “Invariant,” the agent of powerful entities from Earth’s farthest future.

Their mission is to protect our planet from as variety of extraterrestrial threats.

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Across the Hexagon Universe (above and opposite) Covers of (left to right): Bob Lance #1 (Englishlanguage edition), art

by Roberto Castro; Le Chat TPB, art by Roberto Castro; Kabur: L’etoile Rouge color hardcover, art by Mike Ratera; Dick Demon: Point De Chute color hardcover, art by Manuel Martin Peniche; Guardian of the Republic #1 (English-language edition), art by Eric Powell; Bouche Rouge, art by Mario Guevara; Dimension Super-Héros 2, a collection of prose short stories featuring characters from the Hexagon Universe, art

by Amar Djouad; and Strangers Universe #4: Galaor, 48-page color comic featuring a crossover between Futura from Strangers and heroic-fantasy swordsman Galaor, art by Alfredo Macall. © 2015 Mosaic Multimedia.

In the first miniseries released by Image, dubbed Strangers in a Strange Land, which is now available as a collected trade paperback from Black Coat Press, the Strangers successively fought a megalomaniacal scientist (Astaroth), a madman planning to destroy the Earth (the Necromancer), and finally an A.I. from the same future as Tanka’s “masters” (Duke Oxian), who had secretly been manipulating the other two villains.

In 2010, Hexagon reprinted the original six-issue miniseries, also adding both a seventh episode, drawn by Fernando Pasarin, that had only been published in black and white in 2003, the very last month before the previous company’s demise, and an all-new, eighth episode, drawn by talented young French artist Pierre Minne.

With the publication of this first French Strangers TPB, subtitled Strangers in a Strange Land, as well as a series of short stories that served as prologues to Strangers, now collected in a single TPB entitled “Strangers 0: Omens & Origins,” all the scheduled reprint work had been completed.

Now, it was time to begin creating new works!

(Both Strangers 0 and Strangers 1 are available in English-language editions on paper through Amazon or in e-comic form on Comixology.)

NEW ADVENTURES It began in January 2012, with the launch of a new, bimonthly, color comic entitled Strangers – Season 2.

That season was eventually to consist of seven issues, with an eighth story, not released in comic-book format, but included in a second TPB entitled Strangers 2: Of Gods and Men, which appeared in September 2013. (Sadly, there are no plans yet for an English-language edition.)

The first season had ended with the cosmic threat of the Towers, which had learned of Starlock’s escape and discovered the existence of Earth. Several issues, featuring mostly Homicron and Starlock, were devoted to that thread, ending with a cataclysmic confrontation on the fringes of the Solar Systems, during which Homicron was converted into anti-matter and disappeared from our universe, perhaps forever.

Another plot thread that had been introduced in the previous season was the presence on Earth of worshippers of the same evil cosmic entity who had dispatched Wampus years before. Futura and Jaleb led the search for the mysterious Wathan, their cult leader. In the process, they brought back to life the Zorr-Ko, a powerful android who, not unlike the Kree Sentry from Fantastic Four, had been abandoned on Earth by an ancient civilization.

A couple of issues dealt with smaller threats and introduced (or reintroduced) guest-stars:

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In #1, Tanka teamed up with Phenix, a black-clad female superheroine, to deal with a mad scientist (Baron Von Bolch) and a race of intelligent gorillas; In #4, Tanka and JayDee helped the Dark Flyer, an armored hero from the superpowered group called Hexagon (which had already guest-starred in #4 of the first series), combat an alien threat in Haiti; Finally, in #7, Futura joined forces with the Lakota mage Ozark to travel to the sphere inhabited by the Amerindian god Coyote.

Strangers – Season 2 boasted the talents of Mexican artists Alfredo Macall (#1, 4, 7) and Alfonso Ruis (#6), French artist Pierre Minne (#3), and Spanish artists Mariano De La Torre (#2, 8) and Sergio Fernandez Davila (#5).

STRANGERS UNIVERSE Parallel to the main comics series, several 48-page one-shots were released under the banner title of Strangers Universe (à la Marvel Premiere).

The first two issues were a newly colored reprint of a story originally published in 2001, featuring a cataclysmic battle between the ever-popular jungle lord Zembla and the pre-cataclysmic Prince Kabur, both manipulated by the demon queen Mauve, drawn with Lovecraftian gusto by Spanish artist Mike Ratera. Comics fans should note that Mauve had previously appeared in a Witchblade/Phenix/Sibilla crossover book, Blood Oath, published by Top Cow in 2003.

Then followed an all-new tale of Starlock’s past, when he was teamed up with the original Homicron and the Bronze Gladiator, drawn by De La Torre, along with a colored reprint of the origins of Starlock.

The fourth issue was another new story, a heroic fantasy saga starring Galaor, Warrior of Mû (the legendary, now destroyed, fifth planet) and Futura, drawn by Macall.

The fifth issue introduced France’s own multi-generational superhero, the Guardian of the Republic, written by Thierry Mornet and drawn by Juan Roncagliolo Berger.

Another one-shot, this time in hardcover, completed a story begun in 2003 that had remained unfinished.

It starred Dick Demon, the last scion of a race of alien monsters—the so-called “Twilight People”—that migrated to Earth in prehistoric times. It was released as a 120-page color hardcover, drawn by J. M. Arden and Manuel Martin Peniche.

It was followed by another color hardcover, Kabur: The Red Star, reprinting a saga of King Kabur, brought back to life several thousands of years after his death, to fight a race of alien vampires which has conquered Earth.

As 2014 began, the first issue of the latest comic series, Strangers – Season III was released, now in the

form of 48-page, squarebound, black-and-white books.

Season III finally brought the war with the Towers to an end. But at the end of the story, the group was in disarray: Homicron was still believed to be dead, Starlock had surrendered to the Towers, and Jaleb had mysteriously vanished after the destruction of his spaceship.

Tanka’s first task was to build a new group.

This is what he did by enlisting the help of the Zorr-Ko, the Bronze Gladiator, and Starcyb, a former ally of Starlock, in order to launch a search for their missing members.

This three-pronged quest took the characters into space, to other dimensions, and hidden realms of Earth. In total, it spanned 18 issues— almost three times as long as the previous seasons!—and is scheduled to be completed in the Fall of 2015.

Guest-stars have included Dick Demon and the Twilight People; kung-fu hero Kit Kappa; the Starknight and Malinborne of New Camelot; two space-based heroes; Marino, an underwater hero; the sorceress Morgane; jungle lord Zembla; the Cave Patrol, and several others.

Two new teams were introduced: in Strangers 3.15, the Frontiersmen: a group of heroes fight giant monsters and horror creatures at the Texas/Mexican border in the 1860s; and in Strangers 3.16 & 3.17, the Enchanters, Hexagon Comics’ version of the Defenders, consisting of four magically powered heroes (Ozark, Sibilla, Man, and Metal Man) fighting supernatural threats.

Artists having worked on Season 3 include fan-favorite Macall, French artist Christophe Ouvrard, plus a host of other brilliant Mexican artists such as Manuel Martin, Eduardo Garcia, Nestor Vargas, Roberto Castro, Gabriel Mayorga, and Juan Roncagliolo, as well as Argentinean artists Mauro Lirussi and Jorge Mongiovi.

In parallel to Strangers, the Guardian of the Republic series has also continued, edited and written by Thierry Mornet, illustrated by various French artists, with six issues published to date, including a one-shot taking place towards the end of World War II and introducing a group of freedom fighters called the Partisans. That issue was plotted by none other than Roy Thomas and drawn by Mario Guevara.

In it, a group of Ubermensch gathered by Hitler is about to stop the Allied landing in Normandy; but fortunately, a rival group organized by Churchill and De Gaulle is there to foil the Nazis. The Partisans feature a mix of old and new characters, such as WWII hero Baroud, revamped versions of the Metal Man and Ricky Rox (a speedster), and historical versions of Black Lys and the Guardian of the Republic—two, in fact, one fighting on the Resistance’s side, the other, for the Vichy regime.

Future books in the works include a one-shot devoted to Scarlet Lips (a vampiress), plotted by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Guevara, and more adventures of the ever-popular Guardian of the Republic.

STILL TO COME “But wait, there’s more!” as the commercials say. What happened to the “multimedia” angle? you may well ask.

During the last decade, there was indeed an attempt by a Hollywood production company—now defunct—to spin off the Hexagon Universe into film or TV products. Presently, three of its characters—

Bob Lance, Sibilla, and Count Saint-Germain—are in development at Branded Pictures Entertainment.

More importantly—and tangibly—a new generation of writers has been eager to continue playing with these exciting characters— often new to them—in other formats.

This took the form of a series of prose books, not unlike those published with Marvel characters by the late, lamented Byron Preiss in the late 1990s in the US. Led by the writing team of Romain d’Huissier and Julien Heylbroeck, the years 2013 and 2014 each saw the release of two books: The first, an anthology of short stories featuring characters from, and taking place in, the Hexagon Universe: Dimension Super-Héros Volume 1 and Volume 2.

The second was two full-blown novels by d’Huissier starring the Hexagon group: Matière Noire (translated into English by Matthew Baugh and released as Dark Matter in the US) and La Guerre des Immortels (War of the Immortals). The membership of the Hexagon group, like that of the Avengers, has varied over the years; the founding members being Aster (who is currently seemingly deceased), Jeff Sullivan a.k.a. the Man of Brass, the Mysterious Archer, Black Lys, and the Dark Flyer (who has been replaced by his son).

The two novels by d’Huissier start in modern times after the end of the classic series and feature the new Dark Flyer, Black Lys, Plasma (Jeff Sullivan’s daughter), a new Mysterious Archer, and Rakar, a Native American. Looking for new members, the group ends up recruiting Jeff’s brother, Fred, once a supervillain, and Ben Leonard, the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Ra. In 2015, another collection of stories, this time featuring the ghost detective Barry Barrison, was released. A third volume of Dimension Super-Héros is at this writing in the planning stages, as well as a collection devoted to Sibilla, a sorceress who is the heiress to Cagliostro’s secrets.

Finally, also spearheaded by d’Huissier, this time teaming up with Laurent Duvernay, was a critically acclaimed, award-winning roleplaying game simply titled Hexagon Universe, which was developed by French publisher les XII Singes, released in late 2013.

Its encyclopedia-like publications have greatly expanded the scope and popularity of the universe, motivating a generation of the new readers to explore it further. So far, this role-playing game is already on its fifth volume, with three more in the planning stages.

The history of the Hexagon Universe, which celebrates its 62nd anniversary this year—many like to date it to Zembla #1, which was published in July 1963!—is a wonderful illustration that old heroes need neither die nor fade away. In the same fashion that American icons have been kept fresh through generations of talented artists and writers, despite its periods of involuntary “hibernation,” the Hexagon characters have returned again and again—and will likely continue to do in the future!

Discover more about writer/editor JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER at www.lofficier.com.

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Epic Illustrated, the magazine, will be covered in BI #88.

Eventually we will be doing an issue devoted to issue-by-issue examinations of both the Epic imprint and Marvel Fanfare.

JOE ORLANDO’S WEIRD ADVENTURES

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

TM & © Dave Sim.

FATHER KNOWS BEST Wow, BACK ISSUE #75 was great!!!

The mid-’80s! It was the dawn of a new age, where comic-book creators were finally free of the Comics Code and at last able to unleash their imaginations on the eagerly awaiting public, often to mixed results (see Epic). At last they could gear their writing toward an older reader, and it seemed as if we were growing up together. Just as Woodstock had done to the music business, so did the rise of the comic-book shop reveal the core growing audience of comic-book readers and the money to be made in publishing something better.

I had never finished Cerebus or Elfquest, but had been toying with the idea of doing so. Your articles convinced me.

Cerebus also brings back a great memory of my father.

My dad was a strong, stern, super-religious, super-serious type.

Not much use for nonsense, and even less for comic books.

I don’t know how they found them, but my parents came upon a stack of the most evil-looking comic books, with what could only be described as “a demon from Hell” on the covers, their words.

My father decided to take these foul pamphlets, intending to read them and expose to me the great evil within. The great evil turned out to be Cerebus #22–50, the High Society issues. I figured I’d never see those again.

A few days later, my father comes back into my room with my Cerebus (Cerebi?) in hand.

“I really did not want to like it, but I had to admit, it made me laugh.” With that, he handed them back to me and I never again had a problem with them over my choice of reading material.

Dave Sim and his weird-looking little aardvark had won my dad over, or at least opened his eyes some. Progress.

How about a look at Epic?

The rise of Image, or the aftermath at Marvel?

Of course, I’m looking forward to the 100-pager issue as I am the Weird issue.

Thanks again for the best magazine ever. I could read about comics and those who create them endlessly.

Once again, you have sent me back to the boxes! Now, let’s see, where are those Death Rattles?!

– Andrew “Hondo” Gray Andrew, thanks for sharing that story about your dad.

The 100-page BI #81 and Weird issue (#78) are past tense now— hope you enjoyed them.

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The two issues of NEW Adventure were a decade before their time.

A non-superhero anthology just was not what guys were buying in the early ’70s??????? I really liked Black Orchid. I still think she was Supergirl on an Earth that lacked other superheroes.

– David Edward Martin, via Facebook David, your comment reminds us of the theory back in the day that Black Orchid was actually a masquerading Supergirl. Seems like a good time to revisit an old Super Friends cover…

TM & © DC Comics.

Send your comments to:

I thought it was a terrific move for one of my all-time favorite comics!

Loved seeing all of this cool stuff that Joe Orlando brought to the table, though my favorites were the Spectre, the return of Aquaman (Mike Grell’s earliest DC work), and … the return of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. BTW, as an SSV aside, for the most part, I thought DC did a nice job on their SSV Archives books, but then they blew it by not including the story from Adventure in it as well—oh, sure, they had the script that they unearthed by Joe Samachson, but still, the story should have been collected in one place and that was the prime opportunity to do it.

– Darren Goodheart, via Facebook

EXPLOSIVE LANGUAGE I thoroughly enjoyed Bryan Stroud’s Stalker article in BACK ISSUE #78.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the character and series, not just for the story (which is still awesome), but how in those days of poor

TM & © DC Comics.

comic-book distribution I wound up acquiring the entire run out of sequence, from #1 to #3 to #2 to #4, with issue #2 being purchased at a newsstand (in early August 1975) during a family vacation in New Zealand exactly three weeks after buying #3 off a comics spinner rack in California (in late July). Good convoluted time lines and great memories!

I do have one quibble with the article, however, and it came right in the first sentence with, “The house ads in DC comics in the mid-1970s were trumpeting a slew of new titles as the fabled ‘DC Explosion’ began in earnest.”

There were indeed a slew of new titles, but it wasn’t the official “DC Explosion.” That was still three and a half years away.

1975 brought us the DC Expansion (my term), which included the Fantasy/Adventure line that began in January but not officially designated until an April house ad (the ad included Beowulf; Tor; Justice, Inc.; Kong; Stalker; and, erroneously, The Warlord); three additional Bat-books (The Joker, Batman Family, Man-Bat); Conway’s Corner (All-Star Comics, Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, Kobra); and other assorted gems (1st Issue Special, Tales of Ghost Castle, Hercules Unbound, the returns of DC Special and Korak, Son of Tarzan, to name a few— there were more!).

1978 gave us the actual DC Explosion (DC’s term) in June (for all of three months, and then the Implosion kicked in), and that was certainly trumpeted with official house ads. The explosion consisted of eight more story pages per book, new backup features in several titles, and a few new mags (mostly reprints), with a couple of them, The Vixen and Strange Adventures, advertised but never seeing print (although Strange Adventures was released a year later as Time Warp).

For all its explosiveness, I don’t think it holds a candle to the expansion that occurred at DC throughout 1975.

The “DC Explosion” has been reported as commencing in 1975 several times in other publications and books, so this is by no means a criticism of Stroud, just me being once and for all politely vocal about a general inaccuracy. Now, if you want to get me started on the comic-book-cover-date-is-the-same-as-its-release-date debacle, then I will start to growl!

– Jim Kingman Jim, you’re absolutely right, and thanks for giving us a chance to set this straight. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t correct that—because I recently corrected the same misinformation in a different article.

Bryan is similarly red-faced over this, but sometimes, mistakes happen.

Hopefully the websites that continue to spread this misinformation will correct their content, too.

A KINGMAN CODA I would like to offer a small postscript to Steven Thompson’s excellent Weird Mystery Tales article in BACK ISSUE #78, a small bit of information I stumbled on while researching my JLA/JSA article for BACK ISSUE #82. In The Daily Planet (Direct Currents) vol. 78 (1978) #27 edition published in the back of JLA #159 (Oct. 1978), there’s an entry for

Weird Mystery Tales #25 that reads, “Back again with a pair of chillers: ‘Talisman of the Serpent’

by John Albano and Ernesto Moraga, and ‘The Long Arm of the Law’ by Barry Jameson, Irwin Hasen, and Danny Bulanadi.”

It was a comeback that never saw print! Once again, DARN that DC Implosion!

– Jim Kingman

HOSTS WITH THE MOST Recently finished BI #78, the Weird issue. Being a big time Batman fan, I, of course, loved “Batman’s Weirdest Team-Ups.” Lots of fodder in here for future back-issue hunts!

The trio of articles on DC’s Weird anthologies were all very well done. I really enjoyed the Weird Mystery Tales piece, especially the story of comics’ “Dueling Hosts.”

The features on IronWolf and Ditko’s two ’70s titles made me want to seek out the comics discussed, as all sound very interesting.

The Weirdo and Weird Romance articles didn’t really do it for me, not that they weren’t well written and put together, just neither title was really in my “line.”

Starlin and Wrightson talking about The Weird was a great piece to go out on. They are two of my favorite creators and it was good to see them discuss their collaborations.

– Tim Moen, via Facebook Tim, as you’re aware, BI usually covers mainstream comics, but from time to time we’ll continue to feature offbeat stuff like Weirdo.

We owe that not only to indie creators and their work, but also to their fans, people like our pal who wrote the following letter…

MORE ALTERNATIVE COMICS My favorite article by far in BACK ISSUE #78 was the piece on the great Weirdo. I’d love to see more alternative comics of the Bronze Age covered in BI! – Karl Heitmueller, Jr.

WHAT ABOUT WEIRD WESTERN? I’m sure you’re getting plenty of letters on BI #78 asking, “Where the Hex was Weird Western Tales?”—especially since [Jim Kingman’s] fave Bat-teaming was a [lower case] weird Western pairing with Scalphunter! Instead, we got “Double-Ditkoed,” leading me to wonder if there is a mathematical equation stating that Dx2=W (“The Shadestalker Formula”)?

Apart from that understandable substitution, though, I feared that the predominantly titular-based criteria* used in assembling this issue’s subjects might have added up to a jarring collection of vaguely related articles. Weirdly enough, however, that decision brought BI once again “back” with another solid and entertaining “issue”!

We’re drooling for more such weird rulings from the editor!

In fact, may I suggest a “fish out of water” issue, concentrating on comics writers/artists working in genres they’re not associated with? Just to give one example: Within the brief three-issue run of the National Lampoon clone Harpoon (1974–1975) there’s humor work from Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Denny O’Neil, Jim Starlin/Al Milgrom, International Heroes Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 77

Mary Skrenes, Pat Broderick/Neal Adams, Doug Wildey (repurposed Golden Age art), and Walt Simonson doing A. Gorey (plus the moreappropriate Paul Kirschner, Ralph Reese, Byron Preiss, Jay Lynch, Steve Skeates, and Alan Kupperberg).** Stay novel and don’t get TOO graphic!

– Kenneth W. Lieck * (Included: Weird War, Weird Adventure, The Weird, Weird Mystery Tales, Weird Worlds, Weird Romance, Weirdo). Semi-notably absent: R. Schroeter’s “other” Weirdo, Starlin’s Dr. Weird, and Preiss’ brilliant paperback series Weird Heroes. ** Harpoon example attached.

Actually, Kenneth, you’re the only person who asked about Weird Western Tales and its breakout star, Jonah Hex. Jonah the cowboy has twice appeared in BACK ISSUE, in issues #12 and 42 (he even scored the cover of #42, in a great illo by Tony DeZuniga), and his futuristic series, Hex, was explored in BI #14. Re the other “seminotably absent” features: Space limitations barely allowed us to cover what we did, but hey, you’ve given us some ideas for future articles. Thanks!

And at the bottom of this page is a montage from Harpoon, kindly submitted by Kenneth Lieck.

WEIRDED OUT

© the respective copyright holders.

Just took delivery of the all-weird issue of BACK ISSUE. The cover image of Batman reminded me of the artwork on the bubble-gum cards from the 1960s! Marvelous stuff!

I was obviously delighted to see my letter published and it seems my comments regarding the endless reboots of The Fantastic Four were quite prescient given that it’s going to be canceled and relaunched yet again! I know, as I tip further into my 50s, that I’m no longer part of the key readership demographic for Marvel, but this kind of thing does serve to further alienate the more mature reader.

It just gets to a point, surely, where you just think, Well, who cares?

Anyway, on a far more positive note, issue #78 was right up my street, particularly the articles on Weird Adventure Comics and Weird Mystery Tales. The Spectre tales, drawn by Jim Aparo, were key issues in my meager collection back in the 1970s and I remain of

78 • BACK ISSUE • International Heroes Issue

the opinion that Aparo is sometimes overlooked in the pantheon of great artists. His art, with more than a touch of Neal Adams, was moody, stylish, and often sinister, and his run on both the Spectre series and The Phantom Stranger were memorable, delivered each issue with a consistency that Neal Adams could only dream of!

I remember my abject disappointment when I picked up the Adventure Comics #441 to find that the Spectre had unexpectedly been usurped by Aquaman!

Weird Mystery Tales always seemed to be the poor relation to the more-established DC fright titles like The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets. As I’ve said before, with the erratic distribution of comics in the UK back in the 1970s, you’d often find your favorite title missing from the racks, so if the House … titles weren’t imported, you’d have to buy the nearest alternative.

I’m sure I’m not alone in remembering the jolting absence of The Uncanny X-Men from our local newsagents, just as Jean Grey transformed into the Phoenix in issue #101 with Dave Cockrum arguably at the very peak of his creative powers, then … nothing until issue #108 where, somehow, the X-Men had travelled to the other side of the universe! It took me several years, not to mention quite a few pounds, to finally obtain these missing issues, at a time when it was seemingly more profitable to invest in X-Men comics than gold!

The checklist of key Weird Mystery Tales issues was very informative and listed some of the artists that had a huge impact on me, with the likes of Rico Rival, Rubeny, and the woefully underrated Alfredo Alcala. His work embodied such eerie, oily blackness it was ideally suited to the horror and mystery comics of the 1970s. Who could forget his work on the Marvel B&W comics, such as his adaptation of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, depicting the brutal demise of both Taylor and Brent in the final chapter? And his art on Tales of the Zombie issue #7, as the characters attending the reading of will in a remote house in the Bayou are horribly dispatched one by one?

It resonates with me to this day!

One passing comment in the article, about the nudity in issue #4 of Weird Mystery Tales, made me wonder what other questionable images passed under the usually scrupulous eye of the Comics

TM & © DC Comics.

Code Authority? Storm’s propensity for stripping naked for showers in the X-Men remains a vibrant memory! In terms of gore, blood was a no-no in the color comics, but I do remember a DC mystery title that featured an explorer in the jungle (with art by Rubeny?) who, having been bitten by a snake, was convinced he was going to die unless he cut open the wound to draw the poison out, only to die from an infection from the rusty razor blade he used. The art showed ruby-red blood flowing from the wound, quite gratuitous for the mid-1970s!

– Martin Downham

CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS Michael, I really don’t have a lot to say about the most recent issue, other than a slightly amusing story about the Spectre series in Adventure Comics. I remember buying issue #435 when I was a kid. Yes, my parents let me read that stuff. Strangely enough, I have grown up a well-adjusted individual with no propensity for violence, or cutting any wooden figures up with a table saw.

The funny part is, when Jim Corrigan refers to Earl Crawford as “Clark Kent,” I really thought that’s who it was! I mean, he was drawn as almost a dead ringer for Superman’s alter ego. I kept expecting Superman to show up and have something to do with the proceedings.

My real reason for writing is a couple of questions you posed in the letters column. With regard to Golden Age reboots/returns in the Bronze Age, I think there are a lot of candidates for that sort of thing. It might even be something you might want to co-ordinate with Roy Thomas for a concurrent issue of Alter Ego, along the lines of your upcoming Flash and Green Lantern retrospectives. The example you give of the Justice Society in All-Star Comics might not be the best place to start, though. I say this only because the subject was covered quite extensively in Roy’s own All-Star Companion vol. 3.

The comments about the character Scorpio makes me think of an exchange you and I had a year or so ago about a subcategory of “Greatest Stories Never Told,” where we talked about some of the best stories never finished, at least by their original authors.

I have been compiling a whole list of this type of thing since we spoke, and will send it off to you soon. I personally think this is one facet of comics that is incredibly interesting, especially when you take into consideration the transitory nature of employment in the industry, and especially in the era BACK ISSUE covers. So many storylines were completed by someone other than the instigating party. Just sitting here

thinking, you could almost start an entire magazine just based on that premise.

A couple of other ideas while I have your ear. As you can probably tell by my continuing requests for information on the aborted Firestorm: Corona graphic novel, Firestorm is one of my all-time favorite heroes, and one who has not been examined in any detail in your magazine. Firestorm was covered in BI #20, but that article really only covers the first five-issue series. There is still a lot of ground to be covered with the character.

My other idea is one which I am sure will be near and dear to your heart. There was an article published years ago in Alter Ego, but I think it is long past time for an appreciation of the art and career of Dick Dillin. Knowing your fondness for Justice League of America, you probably share my love of the man’s art. I still consider his renditions of many DC characters to be my favorites. I started reading comics by reading JLA and have always believed the man’s artwork to be vastly underappreciated. In BI #9, you made some nice comments about Dick Dillin in your review of the Crisis trade paperback that reprinted old JLA-JSA team-ups, and from those I can tell you have the same respect for his work that I do. Then there is a paragraph or two talking about his work in issue #58, the Justice League issue. None of this is enough to constitute a full examination or appreciation of the man and his work, however.

– Brian Martin Great letter, Brian! Readers, what do you think of these ideas?

(You’re right: I’m enamored with the Dick Dillin one—JLA aside, he’s remembered by Bronze Agers for his non-Batman Superman team-ups in World’s Finest, some Super Sons stories, and miscellaneous backups.

How many Dillin fans are out there?)

For those unfamiliar with the Spectre story Brian referenced, here’s the panel in question (above), from page 8 of Adventure Comics #435.

Next issue: From hot pants to headbands, it’s Supergirl in the Bronze Age! The Maid of Might’s 1970s and 1980s adventures, including her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and her many rebirths. Plus: an ALAN BRENNERT interview, the Supergirl movie, Who is Superwoman?, and an interview with Wonder Woman Contest winner ORLANDO WATKINS. With MARTIN PASKO, ILYA SALKIND, MARV WOLFMAN, and many more.

Featuring a jam cover recreation of Adventure Comics #397 by KARL HEITMUELLER, JR. and friends (STEPHEN DeSTEFANO, BOB FINGERMAN, DEAN HASPIEL, KRISTEN McCABE, JON MORRIS, and JACKSON PUBLICK).

Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Supergirl TM & © DC Comics. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #66

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LEN WEIN (writer/co-creator of Swamp Thing, Human Target, and Wolverine) talks about his early days in comics at DC and Marvel! Art by WRIGHTSON, INFANTINO, TRIMPE, DILLON, CARDY, APARO, THORNE, MOONEY, and others! Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MR. MONSTER’s Comic Crypt, the Comics Code, and DAN BARRY! Cover by DICK GIORDANO with BERNIE WRIGHTSON!

BONUS 100-PAGE issue as ROY THOMAS talks to JIM AMASH about celebrating his 50th year in comics—and especially about the ‘90s at Marvel! Art by TRIMPE, GUICE, RYAN, ROSS, BUCKLER, HOOVER, KAYANAN, BUSCEMA, CHAN, VALENTINO, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’s Comic Crypt, AMY KISTE NYBERG on the Comics Code, and a cover caricature of Roy by MARIE SEVERIN!

Incredible interview with JIM SHOOTER, which chronicles the first decade of his career (Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman, Supergirl, Captain Action) with art by CURT SWAN, WALLY WOOD, GIL KANE, GEORGE PAPP, JIM MOONEY, PETE COSTANZA, WIN MORTIMER, WAYNE BORING, AL PLASTINO, et al.! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Cover art by CURT SWAN!

Science-fiction great (and erstwhile comics writer) HARLAN ELLISON talks about Captain Marvel and The Monster Society of Evil! Also, Captain Marvel artist/ co-creator C.C. BECK writes about the infamous Superman-Captain Marvel lawsuit of the 1940s and ‘50s in a double-size FCA section! Plus two titanic tributes to Golden Age artist FRED KIDA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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BACK ISSUE #84

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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!

UP-CLOSE & PERSONAL! Kirby interviews you weren’t aware of, photos and recollections from fans who saw him in person, personal anecdotes from Jack’s fellow pros, LEE and KIRBY cameos in comics, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, and more! Don’t let the photo cover fool you; this issue is chockfull of rare Kirby pencil art, from Roz Kirby’s private sketchbook, and Jack’s most personal comics stories!

“Supergirl in the Bronze Age!” Her 1970s and 1980s adventures, including her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and her many rebirths.

Plus: an ALAN BRENNERT interview, behind the scenes of the Supergirl movie starring HELEN SLATER, Who is Superwoman?, and a look at the DC Superheroes Water Ski Show.

With PAUL KUPPERBERG, ELLIOT MAGGIN, MARV WOLFMAN, plus a jam cover recreation of ADVENTURE COMICS #397!

“Christmas in the Bronze Age!” Go behind the scenes of comics’ best holiday tales of the 1970s through the early 1990s! And we revisit Superhero Merchandise Catalogs of the late ‘70s! Featuring work by SIMON BISLEY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, the KUBERT STUDIO, DENNY O’NEIL, STEVE PURCELL, JOHN ROMITA, JR., and more. Cover by MARIE SEVERIN and MIKE ESPOSITO!

“Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!”

In-depth exploration of Marvel’s GIANT-SIZE series, plus indexes galore of Marvel reprint titles, Marvel digests and Fireside Books editions, and the last days of the “Old” X-Men! Featuring work by DAN ADKINS, ROSS ANDRU, RICH BUCKLER, DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, WERNER ROTH, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by JOHN ROMITA, SR.!

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DRAW! #32

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The Broadway sci-fi epic WARP examined!

Interviews with art director NEAL ADAMS, director STUART (Reanimator) GORDON, playwright LENNY KLEINFELD, stage manager DAVID GORDON, and a look at Warp’s 1980s FIRST COMICS series! Plus: an interview with PETER (Hate!) BAGGE, our RICH BUCKLER interview Part One, GIANT WHAM-O COMICS, and the conclusion of our STAN GOLDBERG interview!

Retrospective on GIL KANE, co-creator of the modern Green Lantern and Atom, and early progenitor of the graphic novel. Kane cover newly-inked by KLAUS JANSON, plus remembrances from friends, fans, and collaborators, and a Kane art gallery. Also, our RICH BUCKLER interview conclusion, a look at the “greatest zine in the history of mankind,” MINESHAFT, and Part One of our ARNOLD DRAKE interview!

STAR WARS! Amazing custom ships by ERIC DRUON, incredible galactic layouts by builder AC PIN, a look at the many droid creations built by LEGO fans—truly, the LEGO Force has awakened! Plus JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

Super-star DC penciler HOWARD PORTER demos his creative process, and JAMAL IGLE discusses everything from storyboarding to penciling as he gives a breakdown of his working methods. Plus there’s Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS reviewing art supplies, JERRY ORDWAY showing the Ord-Way of doing comics, and Comic Art Bootcamp lessons with BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

Features all available back issues and books! Download the INTERACTIVE PDF DIGITAL EDITION (click on any item, and you’ll automatically be taken to its page on our website to order), or for a FREE PRINTED COPY, just call, e-mail, write us, or go online to request one, and we’ll mail it to you at no cost (customers outside the US pay a nominal shipping fee)!

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