Back Issue #97

HAWKMAN IN THE BRONZE AGE! July 20

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Hawkman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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BIRD PEOPLE ISSUE: Hawkworld! Hawk and Dove! Nightwing! Penguin! Blue Falcon! Condorman! featuring Dixon • Howell • Isabella • Kesel • Liefeld McDaniel • Starlin • Truman & more!

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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“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.!

“Batman AND Superman!” Bronze Age World’s Finest, Super Sons, Batman/Superman Villain/Partner Swap, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane go solo, Superman/Radio Shack giveaways, and JLA #200’s “A League Divided” (as a nod to Batman v. Superman)! Featuring work by BRIAN BOLLAND, RICH BUCKLER, GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, GEORGE PÉREZ, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by DICK GIORDANO!

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“Comics Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s!”

From Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated, KIRBY’s “Speak-Out Series,” EISNER’s Spirit magazine, Unpublished PAUL GULACY, MICHAEL USLAN on the Shadow magazine you didn’t see, plus B&Ws from Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Skywald, and Warren. Featuring work by NEAL ADAMS, JOHN BOLTON, ARCHIE GOODWIN, DOUG MOENCH, EARL NOREM, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by GRAY MORROW!

“Bronze Age Adaptations!” The Shadow, Korak: Son of Tarzan, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hole, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Worlds Unknown, and Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations. Plus: PAUL KUPPERBERG surveys prose adaptations of comics! With work by JACK KIRBY, DENNY O’NEIL, FRANK ROBBINS, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, FRANK THORNE, MICHAEL USLAN, and sporting an alternate Kaluta cover produced for DC’s Shadow series!

“Eighties Ladies!” MILLER & SIENKIEWICZ’s Elektra: Assassin, Dazzler, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Lady Quark, DAN MISHKIN’s Wonder Woman, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS and ADAM KUBERT’s Jezebel Jade, Somerset Holmes, and a look back at Marvel’s Dakota North! Featuring the work of BRUCE JONES, JOHN ROMITA JR., ROGER STERN, and many more, plus a previously unpublished cover by SIENKIEWICZ.

“All-Jerks Issue!” Guy Gardner, Namor in the Bronze Age, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, DC’s Biggest Blowhards, the Heckler, Obnoxio the Clown, and Archie’s “pal” Reggie Mantle! Featuring the work of (non-jerks) RICH BUCKLER, KURT BUSIEK, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, KEITH GIFFEN, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and many more. Cover-featuring KEVIN MAGUIRE’s iconic Batman/Guy Gardner “One Punch”!

“Bronze Age Halloween!” The Swamp Thing revival of 1982, Swamp Thing in Hollywood, Phantom Stranger team-ups, KUPPERBERG & MIGNOLA’s Phantom Stranger miniseries, DC’s The Witching Hour, the Living Mummy, and an index of Marvel’s 1970s’ horror anthologies! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, ANDY MANGELS, VAL MAYERIK, MARTIN PASKO, MICHAEL USLAN, TOM YEATES, and many more. Cover by YEATES.

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The Future of Comics History.

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“All-Captains Issue!” Bronze Age histories of Shazam! (Captain Marvel) and Captain MarVell, Captain Carrot, Captain Storm and the Losers, Captain Universe, and Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Featuring C. C. BECK, PAT BRODERICK, JACK KIRBY, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, DON NEWTON, BOB OKSNER, SCOTT SHAW!, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more.

Cover painting by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Indie Super-Heroes!” NEAL ADAMS Ms. Mystic interview, Continuity Comics, BILL BLACK Captain Paragon interview, Justice Machine history, STEVEN GRANT/NORM BREYFOGLE Whisper “Pro2Pro” interview, and the ’80s revivals of Mighty Crusaders and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Featuring BUCKLER, DEODATO, ELLIS, GRINDBERG, GUSTOVICH, ISABELLA, REINHOLD, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, and more. Cover by NEAL ADAMS!

“Creatures of the Night!” Moon Knight’s DOUG MOENCH and BILL SIENKIEWICZ in a Pro2Pro interview, Ghost Rider, Night Nurse, Eclipso in the Bronze Age, I…Vampire, interviews with Batman writer MIKE W. BARR and Marvel’s Nightcat, JACQUELINE TAVAREZ. Featuring work by BOB BUDIANSKY, J. M. DeMATTEIS, DAVE SIMONS, ROGER STERN, TOM SUTTON, JEAN THOMAS, and more.

SIENKIEWICZ and KLAUS JANSON cover!

“Marvel Fanfare Issue!” Behind the scenes of the ‘80s anthology series with AL MILGROM, interviews and art by ARTHUR ADAMS, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, STEVE ENGLEHART, MICHAEL GOLDEN, ROGER McKENZIE, FRANK MILLER, DOUG MOENCH, ANN NOCENTI, GEORGE PÉREZ, MARSHALL ROGERS, PAUL SMITH, KEN STEACY, CHARLES VESS, and more! Cover by SANDY PLUNKETT and GLENN WHITMORE.

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Volume 1, Number 97 July 2017 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST George Pérez (Commissioned illustration from the collection of Aric Shapiro.)

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

SPECIAL THANKS Karl Kesel Alter Ego Rob Liefeld Jim Amash Tom Lyle Mike Baron Andy Mangels Alan Brennert Scott McDaniel Marc Buxton Dan Mishkin John Byrne Oswald Cobblepot Graham Nolan Dennis O’Neil Greg Crosby John Ostrander DC Comics George Pérez Joel Davidson Teresa R. Davidson Todd Reis Bob Rozakis Chuck Dixon Brenda Rubin Justin Francoeur (DCinthe80s.com) Bart Sears José Luís García-López Aric Shapiro Steve Skeates Joe Giella Anthony Snyder Mike Gold Jim Starlin Grand Comics Bryan D. Stroud Database Roy Thomas Alan Grant Robert Greenberger Steven Thompson Titans Tower Mike Grell (titanstower.com) Greg Guler Timothy Truman Jack C. Harris John Trumbull Heritage Comics Bill Walko Auctions Len Wein Richard Howell John Wells Tony Isabella Steven Wilber Klaus Janson Doug Zawisza Rob Kelly Michael Zeno Barbara Randall Kesel

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Hawkman in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 From guest-shots to a Shadow War, the Winged Wonder’s ’70s and ’80s appearances ONE-HIT WONDERS: DC Comics Presents #37: Hawkgirl’s First Solo Flight . . . . . . . 21 A gander at the Superman/Hawkgirl team-up by Jim Starlin and Roy Thomas PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Exploring Hawkworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The post-Crisis version of Hawkman, with Timothy Truman, Mike Gold, John Ostrander, and Graham Nolan BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: The Penguin, Gotham’s Gentleman of Crime . . . . . . 31 Numerous creators survey the history of the Man of a Thousand Umbrellas FLASHBACK: Hawk and Dove: Birds of a Different Feather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Hatched during the era of Vietnam War protests, Hawk and Dove have migrated through many changes over the decades FLASHBACK: Dynomutt and Blue Falcon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Big City’s dynamic duo, in animation and comic books ROUGH STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 A pencil-art showcase of Bird Heroes by García-López, Sears, Lyle, Liefeld, and Kirby BACKSTAGE PASS: Condorman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Andy Mangels’ spotlight on the adventures of Disney’s flying hero, on film and in comics PRO2PRO: Nightwing: Flying Solo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel chat about their action-packed collaboration BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 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.

Eight-issue subscriptions: $73 Economy US, $88 Expedited US, $116 International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by George Pérez.

Hawkman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies.

All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2017 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

1976 Joe Kubert Hawkman illustration presented to Martin Greim for the Boston Comic-Con. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. Hawkman TM & © DC Comics.

PROOFREADER Rob Smentek

1999 Black Canary sketch by George Pérez, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. Character TM & © DC Comics. Art © George Pérez.

by M

2 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

ichael Eury

Who doesn’t love birds? Whether you’re a card-carrying Audubon Society member or a backyard bird lover, our fine, feathered friends are among our planet’s most beloved creatures (except when they’re uncaged by Daphne du Maurier or Alfred Hitchcock… or when they poop on your windshield right after you’ve washed your car). Not only are birds beautiful (even those freaky vultures), but they represent the ultimate expression of freedom—flight.

So it’s no surprise that writers and artists of superhero comics have often looked skyward for inspiration. This edition of BACK ISSUE spotlights a flock of characters that have fluttered through the pages of the Bronze Age—comics’ Bird People, a theme recommended in BI’s Facebook group by Brenda Rubin, whose surname is only one vowel away from a bird name, now that I think of it.

Thank you, Brenda, for this suggestion, as it finally gives us the opportunity to explore the adventures of a superhero we’ve barely mentioned throughout this magazine’s 14-year history: our cover star, Hawkman!

Hawkman reminds me of a lunch my wife Rose and I had with writer John Ostrander and his late wife, Kim Yale, at the San Diego Comic-Con way back in the summer of 1994. I was representing Dark Horse Comics, having joined DHC’s editorial staff after my previous stint as an editor at DC Comics. John told me that DC’s then-new Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time! crossover was “to fix what I [John] did with Hawkworld and what you [me, as editor] did with Legion of Super-Heroes.” While it’s inaccurate to pin the continuity conundrums of DC’s Hawkman and Legion properties on any two individuals, there’s no arguing that both series have experienced reboots and reimaginings that puzzled some readers and enthralled others. In the pages that follow, we’ll chart Hawkman’s flight path from the 1970s through the early 1990s, learning why certain migrations were made. Then we’ll allow some other Bird People a moment to roost. (Plus you’ll get more bad bird puns like those.)

Before we begin, for those of you wondering Where the Peck is your favorite bird-based character not listed in our table of contents, allow me to direct you to the following back issues of BACK ISSUE, where you’ll find coverage of their adventures: ANGEL: BI #29 (his lost stories), 96 BLACK CANARY: BI #46, 64 BLACKHAWK: BI #37 FALCON: BI #8, 22, 71 HAWKEYE and MOCKINGBIRD: BI #56 HOWARD THE DUCK: BI #19, 31 NIGHT RAVEN: BI #28 NIGHTWING: BI #73 (his early stories) ROBIN: BI #22, 48, 73 Lastly, this issue’s theme reminds me that we have yet to cover the adventures of James O’Barr’s the Crow, star of indie comics and various screen interpretations. I can’t promise when, but eventually the Crow will get the BI treatment….

Winged Wonders TM

Hawkman and Hawkgirl/woman

by Richard Howell.

A specialty illustration courtesy of the artist, colored

by BI designer Rich Fowlks.

Hawkman and Hawkwoman TM & © DC Comics.

Art © Richard Howell.

by D o u g

Zawisza Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Migrations Dick Dillin, the Hawkman illustrator from the late Silver Age, penciled these two early Bronze Age tales during a time when the Flying Fury was essentially a homeless hero: (left) World’s Finest #209 (Feb. 1972) and (right) a backup tale in Detective #428 (Oct. 1972).

TM & © DC Comics.

IN THE BEGINNING

The Bronze Age opened with Hawkman and Hawkgirl out of the spotlight, waiting for a chance to spread their wings once more. The duo remained more relevant than the relics in the Midway City Museum where Hawkman (Katar Hol) and Hawkgirl (Shayera Thal) worked in their secret identities as Carter and Shiera Hall, despite no longer capturing the title of a comic. The Atom and Hawkman #45 (Oct.–Nov. 1969) brought a conclusion to the series shared with the Ray Palmer version of the Atom. Written

by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Dick Dillin, that story also opened up a subplot for Palmer’s paramour, Jean Loring, that would pay story dividends for the grander DC Universe for more than 35 years, directly or tangentially including more than a few adventures with one or both of the Thanagarian-spawned Winged Wonders in such titles as Justice League of America and Super-Team Family.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl didn’t limit themselves to those two aforementioned titles, nor did they wait on Jean Loring to call them into action. Instead, the Hawks made their presence known in other books throughout the Bronze Age, including Adventure Comics, The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics, The Brave and the Bold, DC Comics Presents, Showcase, Wonder Woman, and even The New Teen Titans before finding their way back to their own solo adventures in the 1985 miniseries The Shadow War of Hawkman.

Of the eventual ongoing series that spun out of Shadow War, Denny O’Neil recalls, “I don’t think there were a lot of expectations. I didn’t have a lot of baggage going in,” indicative that Hawkman was not as prolific or examined as many other DC Comics’ icons of the time. “Hawkman was a character I had touched on when

4 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

I was writing the Justice League, but there was not a lot to carry over.”

It would seem that O’Neil’s recollection is on point, as much of Hawkman’s adventures between 1969 and 1985 took the form of a guest-star or teammate rather than a headliner. Even Hawkman’s stories where he held the starring role were limited to backups or chapters in anthologies.

That doesn’t discount Hawkman (or even Hawkgirl) from being an iconic character in the DC Universe during that time, however, as the duo would leave quite an impact, garner a large following, launch a successful series, and initiate one of the greatest comic continuity calamities of all time.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA DAYS

Before that, though, Hawkman was a major fixture in Justice League of America, frequently appearing in the expository team scene, sometimes banging the gavel to bring the team to order, and occasionally bringing Hawkgirl along with him for an extra set of wings. After all, having another flying character on the roster helped transport non-flyers, if nothing else.

Sometimes writers would even spell Hawkgirl’s civilian identity wrong, as “Shierra” (one too many “R”s) joined in an adventure in Justice League of America #88 (Mar. 1971). Shiera, Shierra, or even Shayera would appear from time to time, aiding the League as a hero in her own right, not simply the yin to Hawkman’s yang.

Justice League of America #80–81 (May–June 1970) took the League (and Jean Loring) to Thanagar to try to resolve Jean’s insanity. Throw in the Jest-Master, and things on Thanagar get a little wacky. Justice League of America

#90 (June 1971) puts Katar in the chairperson’s post at being “teamed up with a feather duster!” to which the front of the table, calling for order, and giving the Hawkman delivers an icy “No comment!” Green Arrow League their task. The adventure wraps with Hawkman continues to sling monikers at his teammate in this issue experiencing a messiah-like moment as he uses portions that include “Feather-Face” and “Ostrich Orbs.” The of Proof Rock (that issue’s McGuffin) to help the bickering between the two makes for mighty Pale People, who had first appeared in The ineffective teamwork, which results in their Flash #109 (Nov. 1959), re-establish their defeat at the hands of the Shaggy Man. religion as the basis of their life. It wasn’t Of the relationship, during an interview every issue that Hawkman played the role for the JLA Satellite blog, www.jlasatellite. of savior for a race of beings, nor did he blogspot.com, Wein told Rob Kelly, “I bang the gavel every issue, but when loved writing the Green Arrow/ he did appear, the writers found ways Hawkman relationship, certainly. It was to make him a team player. probably the thing I was proudest for having brought to the book.

Between some of those Justice League of America appearances, Hawkman had a “When I took over the JLA, it had always pair of backup tales in Detective Comics, bothered me that these characters all starting with Detective Comics #428 got along so well. In fact, most of their (Oct. 1972), where Julius Schwartz and len wein E. Nelson Bridwell conspire on a story penciled by Dick Dillin, pitching the Winged Wonder against an unnamed thief in an eight-page tale. Rich Buckler joined the writing duo six issues later for the second of Hawkman’s two appearances in the title in Detective #434 (Apr. 1973) as Hawkman defeats Sandor Peale in “The Riddle of the Red-Handed Robber.”

Hawkman also appeared alongside Superman in a team-up in World’s Finest Comics #209 (Feb. 1972), by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella. Clearly, DC editorial had interest in giving Hawkman somewhere to spread his wings in solo adventures, but the lack of a dedicated title didn’t help the Midway City hero. Detective Comics would welcome the Winged Warrior again in the future, but not until almost two years (or 12 issues, as Detective Comics was bimonthly at the time) later.

Until then, Hawkman’s most prominent appearance would be in Justice League of America. Len Wein took over with Justice League of America #100 (Aug. 1972), the landmark issue that contains “The Unknown Soldier of Victory!” Drawn by Dick Dillin, this issue opens with League members preparing for their 100th meeting.

This is also the place where the Green Arrow/Hawkman spat begins in earnest. Green Arrow mentions that it seems like a million years since he started fighting crime, to which Hawkman chirps, “Perhaps, Green Arrow— but you’re not unique! We’ve all changed over the years— out of necessity, I suppose!” The two continue a fairly civil discussion, which is interrupted by Green Lantern reminding them they’re supposed to be celebrating.

The pair would continue to chirp at one another, with Green Arrow trying to zing Hawkman with childish name-calling while Hawkman would tersely snap at the Archer, attempting to get his verbose teammate to add a little more silence to their shared air. At one point in Justice League of America #104 (Feb. 1973), Arrow bemoans

Goodbye, Hello Hawkman left the League in (top left) JLA #109, but his short-lived hiatus ended upon his return in (top right) #117.

TM & © DC Comics.

Ruffled Feathers (middle) JLA #112 devoted an entire letters page to reader reactions to the Winged Wonder’s exodus in issue #109—and most fans called for his return. (bottom left) A Green Arrow/Hawkman squabble, from JLA #104. (bottom right) Meet Golden Eagle, a.k.a. Charley Parker, in JLA #116.

Bottom scans courtesy of Rob Kelly.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

GOLDEN EAGLE

6 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Kid Hawkman The origin of Golden Eagle, from Justice League of America #116. Original art page courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

George Pérez-drawn Who’s Who entry from Secret Origins Annual #3 (1989). TM & © DC Comics.

Introduced in Justice League of America #116, Charley Parker swoops through the skies of Midway City, helping bust crime in Hawkman’s absence. The flashback starts with Parker wearing a secondhand store version of Hawkman’s costume, or maybe even like a Ben Cooper version, save for the plastic overalls.

In an attempt to replicate his seemingly missing idol, Golden Eagle managed to escape a trap set by Hawkman’s old enemy, the Matter Master, who has mistaken the youth for the real Winged Wonder. Batman, Elongated Man, Flash, Aquaman, and Green Arrow battle a series of threats from the Matter Master’s Mentachem wand, while Golden Eagle finds himself transported to the villain’s hideaway.

Matter Master realizes that Golden Eagle is not the real Hawkman at all.

Not only that, but somehow the Mentachem wand bestowed Charley with superpowers that were duplicative of Matter Master’s true nemesis. As Matter Master is about to destroy Golden Eagle, the JLA arrives and defeats him. The following issue of Justice League of America features the return of Hawkman.

Parker joins Titans West, but only appears with the team for a few issues, Teen Titans #50–52 (Oct.–Dec 1977). He gets an update in Secret Origins Annual #3 (1989), where Parker’s second-rate costume would get an upgrade. At that time, Hawkworld was in full swing, thus the glider wings and shiny metallic outfit for the one-time Titan.

The previous origin has been modified to fit within the scope of events since Crisis on Infinite Earths. What is known now is this: Carter Hall did guide Charley Parker into the role of Golden Eagle. Golden Eagle was a member of the Teen Titans and apparently perished during the attacks the Titans suffered from the Wildebeests. On titanstower.com, Marv Wolfman is quoted, “It’s not to shake things up, outside of Golden Eagle’s death. He was a useless character in many ways—nobody was using him, and he was replicated elsewhere. It tells the reader that nothing is sacred. That first death may have been tenuous, but the future ones aren’t—this is the direction it had to go once we set the story in motion.”

He did not die, however, thanks to the healing properties of the Nth metal costume he was wearing. He was discovered by Fel Andar and nursed back to health. Charley Parker is truly Ch’al Andar—the son of Fel Andar, who had served Thanagar as a spy. Charley believes his father to be the true possessor of the Hawkman mantle, a hero betrayed by his homeworld and his own wife.

Since returning from his neardeath experience, Ch’al Andar has plotted a way to eliminate Carter Hall and reclaim the Hawkman role as his very own.

On titanstower.com, Hawkman vol. 4 co-writer Justin Gray noted, “Charley is flawed and he was a directionless slacker with deep psychological issues related to being an orphan, being abandoned, being everything but his own man. That doesn’t go away on its own. Even when he discovers the truth about his father he still has no sense of closure and blames Hawkman (Carter and Katar) as a source and a reason his father was taken away a second time. Because of the other Hawkmen, Fel Andar was never able to stay on Earth and be a father. Now Charley has the opportunity to do the right thing in St. Roch, but he is still misdirecting his power/anger/sense of right and wrong in an attempt to retcon his own existence—reinventing himself and his own continuity as a mechanism for dealing with his issues.”

personalities were almost interchangeable. I always felt that, like in any combat unit, these people would absolutely die for one another without a moment’s hesitation, but wouldn’t necessarily like one another at leisure.

“Here was Green Arrow, the ultimate ’70s radical liberal, always at odds with the establishment, and there was Hawkman, interstellar policeman, epitomizing the establishment. These guys would never get along.”

Under Wein’s watch and for a long time after, Hawkman and Arrow would trade barbs. This carried through their time together on the League, but has also cropped up through other runs, including Geoff Johns’ work on Hawkman in the early 2000s as well as during Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow stint. Of the more recent take, Johns told Arune Singh on CBR.com that the reason Green Arrow and Hawkman “don’t get along is because they’re so alike, they’ll never admit, they both have a problem with what love is, they’re both trying to do the right thing, and they’re both trying to make up for their pasts.

But they can’t stand each other because there’s no respect there, while the Atom and Hawkman respect each other, which includes their past.”

Their rivalry was not limited to recently or their solo titles, but became an expectation of readers whenever the two characters shared the roll call in an issue Justice League of America during the Bronze Age. All of that would apparently come to an end in Justice League of America #109 (Feb. 1974). Its Len Wein-written story “The Doom of the Divided Man!” opens with Katar

stepping out of the shadows, declaring his tour of duty on Earth has ended. He and Shayera have been summoned home to Thanagar.

This issue brought a battle-damaged Red Tornado (clearly a marketing opportunity missed in the action-figure department) to the satellite with Bruce Gordon guiding him. BACK ISSUE readers certainly know Gordon as the other half of Eclipso [whose history was chronicled in BI #95—ed.], which is exactly how Red Tornado came to be so damaged.

As Batman divvies out assignments, Arrow pipes up, asking to be paired off with Hawkman and Elongated Man, if for no other reason than to hit Hawkman up with such barbs as the oft-used “Feather-Face” and “Buzzard Beak.” The real stinger comes during the epilogue for Justice League of America #109, where Green Arrow retreats to another section of the satellite to avoid saying farewell to his teammate.

Hawkman would remain absent from the League (and the larger DC Universe) for almost a year. No appearances in Justice League of America, or Detective Comics. Just plain gone.

Justice League of America #116 (Mar. 1975) ended the streak of Hawkman-less issues with “The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!”

Written by Cary Bates, this issue introduces readers to Charley Parker, a fanboy who idolizes Hawkman. On monitor duty, Green Arrow is sorting through fan letters and happens across one from Parker, asking for the chance to meet Hawkman.

The story sets the Matter Master after “Hawkman” only for the League to discover the letter writer has been transformed into a Hawkman replica. The mystery of his transformation and the threat of the Matter Master fuel this issue, giving readers a wild ride along the way that includes several Leaguers being at least partially transformed into animals and fighting animals with agendas, such as a killer walrus!

Hawkman appears to return at the end of the issue, but the following issue, Justice League of America #117 (Apr. 1975) takes a few steps back to reveal what happened when Hawkman returned to Thanagar.

Written by Elliott S! Maggin, this issue shows that as Thanagar was assaulted by the Equalizer, Hawkman also experienced a transformation.

Reunited with his teammates, Hawkman is able to find his strength once more, and by the end of the issue returns to normal. Hawkman’s desire to find a cure for the equalizing disease brings the League into the conflict, making for a fun read in a new, otherworldly challenge.

Parker lingers a bit for the following issue before disappearing completely, save for his eventual appearance in Teen Titans #50 (Oct. 1977) two years later. Golden Eagle would be more fondly remembered than deservedly so, as his adventures don’t even reach a dozen before a major revamp in the 2000s.

After rejoining the League, Hawkman rotates in and out, with prominent appearances and contributions, as needed or constructed by the writers.

This run will include notable adventures such as the appearance of the extradimensional entity Nekron (not the Nekron of Blackest Night infamy) in Justice League of America #128–129 (Mar.–Apr. 1976) and the move to the satellite in Justice League of America #130 (May 1976). Martin Pasko pens these tales, marking a transition as the League takes to the skies above Earth and truly initiating the Satellite Era.

García-López, and Marshall Rogers in a set of stories that don’t do much to broaden the scope of Hawkman’s legend, but do provide just enough to keep the Winged Wonder visible and viable beyond his Justice League of America appearances. These stories keep Hawkman grounded on Earth, stopping crime in Midway City, and they show Hawkman as a thinking man’s hero, thinking through his foes’ attacks and developing plans to foil his opponents.

Before finishing out a round of Detective Comics appearances, Hawkman goes bananas to team up with the Flash in Super-Team Family #3 (Feb.–Mar. 1976). This wacky Steve Skeates-penned adventure is drawn by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood and features Grodd, from his cell in Gorilla City, transforming Hawkman into a gorilla. Grodd commands Hawkman (Hawkgorilla?) to free him, takes control of Hawkman’s Thanagarian Star Cruiser, and changes up his standard modus operandi.

Grodd’s not going to try to take over the Earth any longer. He’s going to destroy the planet, and the Thanagarian craft just so happens to have the anti-gravity ray to set the destruction of the Earth in motion.

The Justice League teammates make fast work (pun delightfully intended) of Grodd and course-correct their day, ending the issue with a double-date with their significant others, Iris Allen and Shiera, but not until the leading ladies in these heroes’ lives endure a misunderstanding all their own.

Missing from this rundown is a comic that never happened. The original Swamp Thing series ended before Swamp Thing #25 could be published. As noted in BACK ISSUE #66, Swamp Thing #24 (Aug.–Sept. 1976) was the final issue of the series, but Swamp Thing #25 would have had a showdown with Hawkman. Although it never truly congealed, the two characters would cross paths from time to time after what could have been.

Detective Comics #467 brings penciler Marshall Rogers onboard (inked by Terry Austin) for a story that leads into a team-up to be

DETECTIVE COMICS

Around the time Hawkman returns to the Justice League, he also returns to Detective Comics, resuming his role in that series’ backup tales, effective with Detective Comics #446 (Apr. 1975). Editor Julius Schwartz plotted the pieces while E. Nelson Bridwell scripted them, with Hawkman (and sometimes Hawkgirl) appearing in Detective Comics #446, 452 (Oct. 1975), 454 (Dec. 1975), 455 (Jan. 1976), and 467 (Jan.–Feb. 1977) before bouncing through some appearances in Super-Team Family and Secret Society of Super-Villains.

This run of Detective Comics adventures feature art from (at the time) soon-to-be industry luminaries like Rich Buckler, Klaus Janson, José Luis

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Oh, man, could Marshall Rogers draw! Title page to Hawkman’s backup in Detective #467, part of Bob Rozakis’ Calculator saga. Inks by Terry Austin.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Weird Stuff in the Wings (top) Hawkman goes ape in his team-up with the Flash in Super-Team Family #3.

Cover by Frank Brunner. (bottom) Ernie Chua/Chan’s original cover art (courtesy of Heritage) to the unpublished Swamp Thing #25.

TM & © DC Comics.

remembered. Through the backup tales of several issues of Detective Comics, the Calculator vexed the title’s lesser luminaries, including Elongated Man, the Atom, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and, in Detective Comics #467, Hawkman. This chapter, titled “The Man Who Skyjacked Hawkman!,” was drawn by Rogers and features a stunning amount of detail and design work that would make Marshall an inspiration to generations of artists to follow.

The following chapter, Detective Comics #468 (Apr. 1977), brings all of the heroes (plus headliner Batman) together to face off against the Calculator [whose history was covered way back in BI #12—ed.]. Whether or not this issue was the measuring stick, there is simply no denying the brilliance that Rogers drew onto every page of this issue, which preceded his assumption of the regular penciling duties for Batman in Detective Comics, effective shortly thereafter. Rogers’ run, paired with writer Steve Englehart beginning with Detective Comics #471 (Aug. 1977), would eventually become the stuff of legend, and it all began with Hawkman.

MEANWHILE… IN THE DC UNIVERSE

Between his appearances in Detective Comics, his Justice League of America appearances, and role in Secret Society of Super-Villains #5 (Feb. 1977), Hawkman kept pretty busy in 1977. That didn’t stop Hawkman’s one-time JLA teammate from decking the Winged Wonder, though.

Frantic to solve the mysterious murder of J’onn J’onnz’s friend R’es Eda, the Martian Manhunter went on a tear through the DC Universe, resulting in crossing paths with the Thanagarian husband and wife in Adventure Comics #451 (June 1977) in a story that would spill into World’s Finest #245 (July 1977) before reaching resolution.

The ragtag bunch of heroes at the heart of Secret Society of Super-Villains would continue to include (or at least involve) the Hawks, as Shayera teams with Captain Comet to take on the Wizard, Matter Master, and Felix Faust in Secret Society of Super-Villains #7 (May–June 1977). Written by Bob Rozakis, this issue has art by Rich Buckler, guest-stars Superman (or does it?), and features Hawkman prepping Thanagarian goulash for dinner, which the Hawks and Comet all remain dressed in their uniforms to eat.

Hawkman continues his team-up tour of the DC Universe in Super-Team Family #12 (Sept. 1977) in a tale that melds the Queen Jean narrative of Jean Loring from The Atom and Hawkman #45 with ongoing adventures in the Super-Team Family title. Remember when I told you this story would reap dividends for decades? Green Lantern and the Atom join Katar in the pages of Super-Team Family #12, but before Jean is found, the issue ends and Hawkman flies off to other adventures and more team-ups. Rest assured, gentle reader, that Atom eventually finds Jean, in the pages of Super-Team Family.

Hawkman meets up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #139 (Jan.–Feb. 1978), written by Bob Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo. The tale features Vorgan, a robotic alien bounty hunter on the trail to apprehend or slay Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.

The story reveals a dark secret that Gordon killed (and buried) an alien. Vorgan seeks to balance the scales, and is more than willing to go through anyone else to do so. Hawkman saves the day, however, not with his mace or another artifact from the Midway City Museum.

No, sir, he stands his ground and rejects the law that Vorgan brandishes as vengeance. Hawkman’s “love of law is legend!” Vorgan realizes that true justice was at foot the entire time and leaves peacefully, without any sort of major conflict.

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The Mars–Thanagar War Martian Manhunter uppercuts Hawkman in Adventure Comics #451 (June 1977). By Denny O’Neil, Michael Nasser (Netzer), and Terry Austin. Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

RANN–THANAGAR WAR I

Vorgan isn’t the only one to leave Earth, however, as Showcase #101 (June 1978) interrupts some routine maintenance to the Thanagarian Star Cruiser. Adam Strange’s ship has been destroyed by the Vantors, and he needs the Hawks to help him return to Rann, which he reveals has been conquered.

In a tale dubbed “Mystery in Space,” Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Adam Strange try to figure out just what happened to Rann and how the Hawks can help Strange. Hawkman and Strange swap backstories to bring the readers up to speed, and the art duo of Al Milgrom and Murphy Anderson couch those previous adventures in profiles of the heroes.

As the story goes on, things start to go wrong onboard the Thanagarian Star Cruiser, boiling tensions and leading Hawkman to grab Adam Strange by the straps of his jetpack, ready to throttle his frequent ally because of Strange’s apparent sabotage.

Rest assured that Harris was not about to put Strange in harm’s way. At least not too much. According to an interview on the website www.dcinthe80s.com, Harris’ personal affinity for Adam Strange stretches back a bit. “I helped writer Cary Bates research Adam Strange for the crossover adventure in Justice League of America #120 (July 1975),” Harris said.

“I was listed as ‘Adam Strange Consultant’ on the first page. Then, in 1978, I got the ultimate thrill by being given the opportunity to write my own Adam Strange adventure when he joined Hawkman in the three-issue Showcase run (#101–103) for the now-legendary Rann– Thanagar War! I had many other plans for the character too numerous to remember.”

HAWKGIRL’S JLA MEMBERSHIP Although she would frequently appear in Justice League of America to fight alongside the League, Hawkgirl was excluded from membership consideration. Steve Englehart addressed this during his run on the title, specifically in Justice League of America #146. In that story, through Superman, Englehart explains that the Justice League has a rule that expressly forbids duplicating powers.

Hawkman questions the nature of the rule, but Superman is steadfast: “We have to have some limits! I’m sorry!”

Hawkman makes a stand, telling Superman the JLA can have either of them or neither.

Englehart explained this moment on his blog, www.steveneglehart.com: “She did have the same powers he did, after all, and as aliens together on [E]arth, it made no sense for him to abandon her.”

All of this occurs as the League is in the midst of fighting the Construct. Tensions are high, the League is fighting a foe it cannot find, and in typical League fashion, the team splits up to fight the foe, giving Englehart real estate to explore, as the Man of Steel puts it, “Why do you suppose everyone’s gotten so mule-headed lately?”

In the Dick Dillin-drawn/Frank McLaughlininked “Inner Mission,” most of the League, including the Phantom Stranger, are present, giving Englehart more than enough personalities to play with. Hawkman figures quite prominently, as Englehart gives the Thanagarian lovebirds the opportunity to declare their love for one another and affirm their connection during a classic Justice League of America adventure.

TM & © DC Comics.

Hawkgirl proves her worth once again, aiding the League against the Construct, as only a handful of heroes are able to avoid the Construct’s influence. The issue wraps with Red Tornado ready to rejoin his teammates in the League, and Black Canary declaring that an election is imminent, as Justice League rules are put aside to welcome in a new teammate—Hawkgirl. In 2008, in an interview with Rob Kelly on Kelly’s JLA Satellite Blog, jlasatellite.blogspot.com, Englehart explained, “I was trying to look at these people as who they were, trying to build them into something better than they had been, characterization-wise, at least, so I thought she should join. … [T]o me, it’s not the powers, it’s the character, and whose using the powers, that’s important to me, certainly. And so I can see on a formalistic basis, you can’t have two Hawk-people, but it’s like, it doesn’t matter, since they’re two different people, that’s the important thing.”

Formula be damned, Englehart would provide ample opportunities for the two Winged Wonders to fly side-by-side. Hawkgirl would appear even more frequently in the pages of Justice League of America, as subsequent writers would bring Shayera into League adventures, fighting alongside the League and participating in the voting process for future members right up until the disbanding of the League in Justice League of America Annual #2. Aquaman declares the world needs a team of full-time, active members. At that point, the duo leave the League, declaring their allegiance to their homeworld of Thanagar, months before the Shadow War hits.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

As for why the story took place in Showcase, Harris said, “At the time, there was an open-door policy for Showcase.

Everyone (editors and freelancers) were encouraged to come up with ideas for the title and pitch them to thenpublisher Jenette Kahn. If I recall, at the time, Hawkman was just floating around various issues of Justice League of America, with no home of his own. I always thought, with his complex background and dramatic look, he should have an epic adventure. Since he had teamed with Adam Strange in the past, I thought teaming them up again in a giant space adventure was the way to go. I tapped into all the old issues of Hawkman, all of the Adam Strange adventures (another personal favorite character), and even the Justice League, so I could pack three issues of Showcase with as much DC science fiction as I could. The greatest luck was getting [Joe] Kubert to do the covers and Murphy Anderson to ink Al Milgrom’s pencils!” The end result is galaxyspanning, three-issue tale set to spill over into other titles.

Before it could stretch beyond Showcase, these new, strange adventures would involve the Shadow Thief and pitch the Vantor-led armies of Rann into a full assault against Thanagar—the homeworld of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. And that’s just the first issue of Harris’ Showcase tale. Of the second issue, Showcase #102 (July 1978), Harris shared this anecdote: “One thing I remember was the cover of Showcase #102, which depicted Hawkman and Adam Strange rescuing Alanna from the Seydor Tower. Joe’s original cover was beautiful, except he mistakenly drew Hawkgirl in the tower instead of Alanna. Because of the story, he had to change it, but I always wished I had be able to change the story instead, since the first cover illustration looked better!”

The interiors of #102 bring Kanjar Ro out of the shadows as the High Deleon of the attacking forces that conquered Ranagar. Milgrom and Anderson fill the pages with an embarrassing array of science-fiction elements—weapons and warriors, spaceships and battles, including the forces Ro has “convinced” to join him due to the influence of a cosmic rod: the Dust Devils of Rythar, the aforementioned Vantors, the Arvese, and Rann’s own subaquatic Kirri.

Showcase #103 (Aug. 1978) takes the war to Thanagar, where Harris digs up Man-Hawks and Andar Pul. The latter reveals that Hyathis, last seen battling the Justice League, has assumed leadership of Thanagar after freeing the populace of the Equalizing Plague from Justice League of America #117. The war between Rann and Thanagar boils down to a personal conflict between Kanjar Ro and Hyathis, with the populations of two worlds being used as puppet armies. The Rann–Thanagar War’s influence in Showcase wraps up when Katar Hol takes out the pesky Kanjar Ro with a right hook, but the war is far from over. Like the mental instability of Jean Loring, the Rann– Thanagar conflict is one that pops up frequently throughout DC Comics’ publishing history since Showcase #103. Harris added, “I always liked the fact that DC took my original concept of a Rann–Thanagar war and expanded it. It’s still gratifying to know that I came up with the idea first. I never imagined it would have impacted the DC Universe as it did. I had only thought it would go as far as those three Showcase issues.”

Fly-Bys Hawkman—and even Hawkgirl—were dependable drop-in guest-stars during the Bronze Age, their appearances including Secret Society of Super-Villains #7, Super-Team Family #12, Brave and Bold #139, Action #491, DC Comics Presents #11, and B&B #164.

TM & © DC Comics.

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The final panel of Showcase #103 could easily have been an ad for toys branded from this adventure, with Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Adam Strange, Alanna, and Sardath all looking out toward the reader under the following text: “But they go on—facing the future like the heroes they are…” From Showcase, editor Larry Hama noted this is the final chapter of the Hawks’ story in this series, adding via the letters page, “The Winged Wonders will soon be found in the pages of Detective Comics and, if your buying power is strong enough, in his own title.” Interesting that the couple is billed together as “Winged Wonders,” but the title is referred to solely as Hawkman’s. Not that that explains or excuses the apparent lack of buying power to conjure up a solo series, as the better half of a decade will pass before the Hawks find themselves in their own title.

The Detective Comics run (Hawkman’s second stint) is brief, lasting just a pair of issues, both written by Len Wein. The first issue, Detective Comics #479 (Sept.–Oct. 1978), introduces Anton Lamont, a.k.a. the Fadeaway Man, as a foe for the Winged Wonders upon their return to Midway City. Between that appearance and their next in Batman’s “other” title, the Hawks fly on through a Green Arrow and Black Canary adventure in World’s Finest Comics #253 (Nov. 1978). Hawkman’s second of two backup tales in Detective Comics, #480 (Nov.–Dec. 1978), brings in the Flash foe the Pied Piper, and also features Murphy Anderson on art, making this one issue well worth seeking out, simply for the Silver Age-flavored Hawkman backup.

Through all of this, from his team-up with Adam Strange in Showcase to his upcoming co-feature in World’s Finest, Hawkman (and frequently Hawkgirl) appear in Justice League of America, adding air support and a few fists as needed. On the way to the World’s Finest gig, however, Hawkman stopped over in Action Comics #489–491 (Nov. 1978–Jan. 1979), helping Superman take on Brainiac and cementing a friendship with the Last Son of Krypton that will be revisited frequently.

JCH’s Showcase (top) Jack C. Harris holding a Todd Reis-produced, shadowboxed, 3-D version of Showcase #101’s cover.

Courtesy of DCinthe80s.com. (bottom) That issue’s cover and an interior page.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Sewer or Later (left) Katar and Shayera fly… low. Original Ken Landgraf/Armando Gil artwork from World’s Finest #262 (Apr.–May 1980), courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart. com). (right) Shayera claims her new name in this sequence from the Rozakis-written Hawkman tale in World’s Finest #272 (Oct. 1981). Art by Alex Saviuk and Rodin Rodriguez.

TM & © DC Comics.

WORLD’S FINEST (OF TWO WORLDS)

TM & © DC Comics.

Joining the Hawks in World’s Finest Comics #256 (Apr.–May 1979), editor and plotter Jack C. Harris enlists Steve Englehart as writer and Murphy Anderson as artist.

As Hawkman and Hawkgirl relieve Superman on monitor duty aboard the JLA Satellite, the couple lament their exile, aching for their homeworld of Thanagar.

With Anderson on hand, it seems only right to revisit the Hawks’ early adventures, which is accomplished by bringing in the Kalvars—Fal Tal and her “harpies.”

Between issues of World’s Finest, Hawkman and Hawkgirl stop over in DC Comics Presents #11, where Frank Rayles draws upon the power of the star Polaris to control Hawkman while also enhancing the Winged Warrior’s abilities. Writer Cary Bates includes Marc Teichman, a real-world contest winner, who helps Superman bring Hawkman back to the heroic side.

Gerry Conway scripted the next three installments of Hawkman’s adventures in World’s Finest Comics #257–259 (June–July 1979–Oct.–Nov. 1979), which were fairly mundane, even by Hawkman standards.

Rich Buckler handles the first two chapters, continuing

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to muddy the waters visually as to whether or not the Hawks truly need spacesuits or breathing apparatus.

Don Newton steps in for World’s Finest #259, which teams Hawkman with Green Arrow.

Hawkman skips an issue before returning in World’s Finest #261, even if that issue merely contains a four-page JLA Databank Dossier. Drawn by Eduardo Barreto, those four pages provide enough for readers to learn all they need to know about Katar and Shayera Hol, from their first adventure on Earth pursuing the shapeshifting alien Byth to their current status as exiles of Thanagar, hoping to one day return to their homeworld, but unable to do so under the rule of Hyathis.

That segment is a text-heavy bit, but it illustrates Jack C. Harris’ thoughts on where the Hawks belong quite nicely. “This was what I loved about the Hawks.

They were at home everywhere. After those first three The Brave and the Bold issues on Earth, they returned to Thanagar in The Brave and the Bold #42 (July 1962) with an astounding adventure on their home planet. When it came out, I thought it was the best comic book I had ever read up to that time! Looking back, one of the most remarkable things about The Brave and the Bold #42 was pages 4 and 5. In those pages, writer Gardner Fox describes some everyday activities on the futuristic planet of Thanagar. He accurately predicts Mastercard credit cards, the Home Shopping Network, and recorded television playbacks, years before we had them here on Earth. He also mentioned pneumatic food tubes and weather control, but we haven’t quite developed them as well as the Thanagarians (yet).”

The Gotham Metropolitan Museum loans some artifacts to the Midway City Museum in The Brave and the Bold #164 (July 1980). With Batman and Hawkman

Hawking Products During the Bronze Age, Hawkman could be spotted on a 7-11 Slurpee cup, in Hostess baked snacks DC ads, and in these mini-comics, the latter a tie-in to Kenner’s gorgeously sculpted Hawkman Super Powers action figure (below).

Hawkman TM & © DC Comics.

present for the exchange, nothing could possibly go Seemingly co-existent with their Thanagarian destination, wrong, except for extradimensional beings looking to the Hawks play a prominent role in Justice League of retrieve the corporeal forms of their gods, Merr and America #188 (Mar. 1981), stopping a killer satellite and Wann. J. M. DeMatteis’ story is relatively conflict-free, repairing the damage cause to the JLA’s own satellite but affords a young José Luis García-López opportunity in a story written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Rich to draw some pretty trippy bits throughout the issue. Buckler. Hawkman and Hawkgirl pair up to investigate the DeMatteis extends the trippiness to a trio of World’s Finest death of a scientist in Detective Comics #500. Paul Levitz issues, pretty much giving Hawkman a solo spotlight in writes the story and Joe Kubert draws it, with the World’s Finest #262 and 264–265. García-López tags out mysterious death looping back around to the for Ken Landgraf to pitch in. Landgraf packs in the detail events that brought Martian Manhunter to Earth. and the shadows, with artwork that is a strong mix of World’s Finest #269 (June–July 1981) propels Pat Broderick and Murphy Anderson.

Shayera to a starring role, showing her Bob Rozakis takes over the scripting duties for Hawkman devotion to her husband and the ruthlessness in World’s Finest #266 (Dec. 1980–Jan. 1981). This issue that it can inspire. Shayera retrieves the pits the Hawks against some giant-sized bugs in medicine Katar needs to rebound, the sewers of Midway City, drawing the ire but in doing so alerts all of of Midway Edison in the process. I asked Thanagar to their return, as Rozakis about assuming the assignment the sky around Thanagar in Hawkman Companion (2008) and he explodes in charging Star Cruisers. “I have said, “I was writing Aquaman in WF to come back to the [World’s Finest] and he was moving to Adventure Comics, so I got Hawkman relationship between Katar and Shayera,” as a replacement assignment.” Artist Alex Saviuk joins Rozakis with World’s according to Rozakis.

Finest #267 (Feb.–Mar. 1981), sticking “The comic-book universe around almost as long as the writer. is full of dysfunctional Over the next 15 or so issues when couples and marriages Rozakis wrote Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s that don’t last. Ralph and bob rozakis (soon to be Hawkwoman’s) adventures, Sue Dibny were played he sees “the overriding theme is the very well, the Nick and Nora strength of Katar and Shayera’s marriage. They would risk Charles of comics. I tried to make the Hols’ life and limb for one another and truly cared for each marriage the foundation for a lot of what I wrote and other.” Those stories would include “The Insect Invasion would want to do that again.” That is evident in this issue, of Midway City” led by Lord Insectus, which spanned and carries forward into World’s Finest #270 (Aug. 1981) through World’s Finest #268 (Apr.–May 1981) and placed and World’s Finest #272 (Oct. 1981).

World’s Finest #272 carries a more significant event a weakened Hawkman under Shayera’s care in what would nearly become a signature move for Hawkman than simply showcasing the relationship between Katar and Hawkgirl in the years to come. Willing to risk both and Shayera. In this issue, Shayera declares herself to be of their lives for the sake of her husband’s health, Shayera Hawkwoman. “The connotations of the word ‘girl’ on Earth do not please me.” resolves to return to Thanagar at the end of the issue.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

This adjustment is a feather in Rozakis’ cap: “I think my biggest change was turning Hawkgirl into Hawkwoman. It seemed the logical thing to do and I used it as part of a much larger plot development.”

The change puts the recovering Hawkman on edge, but he doesn’t dwell on it, choosing the course of action instead, knowing his bride is by his side to the bitter end.

Between or around issues of World’s Finest, Hawkgirl (still “girl” in this adventure) teams up with Superman in DC Comics Presents #37 (Sept. 1981) in a Jim Starlin-driven adventure (see article following) and Hawkman takes on Superman in Justice League of America #200.

The latter of those stories features art from Joe Kubert and George Pérez, and Pérez happens to draw the cover for the next issue of World’s Finest.

The opening chapter of World’s Finest #278 (Apr. 1982) brings Hawkman into the slot of guest-star alongside Superman and Batman, but the 14-page adventure is actually a Hawkman tale with Superman and Batman fighting alongside him against Hyathis’ forces in “Assault on Thanagar,” written by Rozakis and drawn by Buckler. The trio arrive on Thanagar and make their way to Hyathis’ throne room, where Hawkman breaks out Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong to try to settle things once and for all. Hawkwoman bursts in, trying to stifle her husband’s apparent madness, but is unaware of Hawkman’s scheme.

The Gamma Gong is a fake, designed to set Hyathis on her heels in her desire to maintain her rule over Thanagar, but by the time she realizes this, it is too late—Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Batman, and Superman have turned the tides and Hawkwoman deals the knockout blow. As things shift to cleanup mode, Shayera leaves the scene to take care of some unfinished business, leaving Hawkman flying solo for a few issues. Thus ends the first Rann–Thanagar War, and Rozakis recalls it thusly: “I inherited the exile from Thanagar from the previous writers. When I started scripting Hawkman, he and Shayera had already been banished. Over the course of my tenure as writer, I set everything back to ‘normal.’ ”

Declining the offer of a lift back to Earth from his super-friends, Batman and Superman, Hawkman sticks around, building a hyper-drive engine for his new Star Cruiser in World’s Finest #279 (May 1982). Rejecting the pleas from the Thanagarian populace to remain with them and lead them in a new era, Hawkman takes off, searching for his beloved. Instead, he finds trouble in the form of a quintet of space pirates, the likes of which are crafted for such a tale and generally left behind: Qwesjun, Veneer, Drekk, Karniss Gor, and Czemm, the leader of the motley bunch, who pilfers Hawkman’s spacesuit. They throw Hawkman in the brig, where he meets a meek, purple alien named Plert in World’s Finest #280 (June 1982).

The two turn the tides on their jailors, fighting their way free.

Incongruously, Hawkman makes a pair of appearances back on Earth in the same month. The Brave and the Bold #186 (May 1982) pits Hawkman and Batman against the Fadeaway Man in an story written by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn and drawn by Jim Aparo. The New Teen Titans #19 (May 1982), written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Pérez, brings Dr. Light to the famed New York Museum in an attempt to shift gears from supervillainy to thievery. Both issues wrap neatly, giving readers lots of eye candy from two of the legends of the comic-book industry, but NTT #19 takes the cake, as Hawkman vanquishes Light in the following manner: “The Hawkman says nothing, but the sly smile that snakes across his lean face causes the frightened Doctor Light to simply faint dead away…”

Back in World’s Finest #281 (July 1982), Hawkman squares off against Czemm to try to reclaim his Thanagarian Star Cruiser in the penultimate issue of his run, as written by Rozakis and drawn by Saviuk. Plert, now blue, remains aboard the pirate spaceship. Rozakis elaborates on Hawkman’s ability to survive in space and the benefits he realizes from a spacesuit before wrapping up the tale with Czemm’s defeat. Hawkman takes Czemm’s crew in tow, and happens across an outpost satellite of the Xanshi Birdpeople.

The finale of Hawkman’s adventures, in World’s Finest #282 (Aug. 1982), features Rozakis’ favorite tale, “ ‘Doctor Katar and Mister Plert,’ my last Hawkman tale, because it wrapped everything up with a happy ending,” Bob told me. “Penciled by Carmine Infantino! I had a lot of fun with Hawkman battling the ‘raging monster’ and having one after another of his ideas—most of which were used in one monster movie or another—fail.” The issue does wrap things up—Hawkman and Hawkwoman are reunited, Hawkwoman reveals that she was sending the Thanagarian fleet back to Thanagar, and Plert is disposed of. Rozakis and crew clear the decks nicely for the stories yet to come.

The letters page of World’s Finest #282 announces a format shift for the series, as the next issue will be 32 pages, with only a lead team-up tale featuring Superman and Batman and a backup featuring Green Arrow. Readers are instructed to look forward to Hawkman (and Hawkwoman!) appearing in Action Comics as part of the rotation of heroes in the back tales in that title… except that never quite materialized.

Hawkman and Hawkwoman would continue to appear in the pages of Justice League of America, with guest spots in other comics, including the celebratory World’s Finest #300 (Feb. 1984), before finding their way to adventures of their own. Along the way, our favorite Thanagarians stop over in DC Comics Presents #74 (Oct. 1984), teaming up with Superman in a tale co-written by Rozakis and Mishkin. The issue brings the trio into contact with an Orgon as Alex Saviuk is given one last Hawkman and

Winged Kryptonian Rozakis and Mishkin’s (inset) DC Comics Presents #74 (Oct. 1984) teamed Superman with both Hawks. (left) The artistry of that issue’s Alex Saviuk/Romeo Tanghal team. Note that a few word balloons are missing from this original page, contributed to BI by Anthony Snyder.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Hawkwoman adventure to draw. The issue also features Var-El, Superman’s Kryptonian grandfather, wrapping up some dangling storylines from earlier in the DC Comics Presents run.

At this point, the original Justice League of America has been disbanded in Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984), and the Hawks, like Superman and so many other mainstays of the League, have moved on, unable to make the commitment Aquaman demanded of his reformed League.

THE SHADOW WAR

“Only one hero can see the evil. Can Hawkman save us all?”

That’s the text on the posters and house ads for The Shadow War of Hawkman, which is billed as “four issues of dark suspense” on the same piece. In the image Hawkman has a mace looped through his belt and is strapping a cestus around his knuckles.

In the background is a shadowy mass, peppered with eyes.

The house ad colors the mass black and leaves a white background in the far back while the poster colors the mass dark green and puts a blue background behind it. According to Richard Howell’s segment of the text piece in the back of The Shadow War of Hawkman #1 (May 1985), writer Tony Isabella’s Hawkman pitch appealed to executive editor Dick Giordano “because it plays up the mood and mystery of the early [Gardner] Fox/[Joe] Kubert stories (my favorites) and mainly because it re-establishes a strong focus for further adventures, and really mainly because I got to draw it.”

Howell adds that “the key word of the series is focus. The status of Thanagar is sharply defined, various changes are made tony isabella in the manner in which the characters operate and their milieu. There’s a good deal of re-defining, re-working, and streamlining going on in these four issues, and the purpose of it all is to bring together, strengthen, and sharpen the purpose of a great series with way too many elements.”

From page one, the focus of the story is murky and shadowy, as a strike force oozes out of the shadows in the apartment of Mousey Mason, a cat burglar. Unfortunately, the super-saturated colors of the flexographic printing fight against the shadows that are drawn by Richard Howell and inked by Alfredo Alcala.

The saturated colors do work nicely with the bright reds, greens, yellows, and oranges of Hawkman’s and Hawkwoman’s uniforms.

That strike force is of a mysterious origin, and they want Mousey to steal anti-gravity devices from the house of Carter and Shiera Hall—Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Hawkman responds to an alarm that has been triggered at their residence. Pressing Mousey for answers, Hawkman is stunned to see a group of people materialize from the walls and floors, like ghosts.

Realizing why they were in his house, Hawkman rushes back to Midway City Museum, hoping to find Shayera before the attackers find her.

The Shadow War of Hawkman #2 (June 1985) introduces readers to Eddie Hamilton, a winged young man who finds joy in flying, but the mysterious attackers reduce him to a pile of ash, much as they did Hawkwoman in The Shadow War of Hawkman #1. Tony Isabella uses the remainder of issue to provide Katar Hol with moments of introspection and resolution. He reveals his identity to Deputy Commissioner Stewart Frazier. He obliterates the Thanagarian technology.

After all, the villains of this piece were after the anti-grav devices, and certainly they’d like to have more Thanagarian tech at their

Return Flight (top) All eyes were on this dynamic poster chirping the coming of the Shadow War miniseries. (bottom) Courtesy of Richard Howell, concept art for the Shadow War of Hawkman miniseries, with the Dick Giordanoinked issue #1 cover in the inset.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

To Thanagar and Beyond!

Richard Howell’s sample Hawkman pencil pages show his fluency with the Winged Wonder’s combat and flying postures. Also for your viewing pleasure, (right) his character studies of the man and woman underneath the winged helmets, Carter and Shiera. Courtesy of the artist.

Hawkman and Hawkwoman TM & © DC Comics.

Art © Richard Howell.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

disposal… except, as readers learn right before Hawkman does, the murdering marauders are Thanagarians. Led by this invasion force on Earth, Thanagar has declared war on the universe, and Earth is their first target. Fell Andar is the boss of the invasion and has no problems letting Hawkman know his days are numbered. Despite the recently (all things being relative, “recently” in this case means three years prior) wrapped Rann–Thanagar War, Isabella thought it made good sense to bring a Thanagarian attack force to Earth. As he told me for the Hawkman Companion, “I had two compelling reasons for writing The Shadow War of Hawkman. The first was my desire to set Hawkman apart from the DC Universe for a time so that he could shine on his own. The second was my realization that the Absorbascon was actually a terrifying weapon of war. Other writers had already set up the dark changes Thanagar had undergone.

I took what they had done and made it even darker. Some of my favorite moments in the series are when I took a few pages to show the Thanagarians using the Absorbascon to ‘eff’ with the lives of various men and women.”

Which is where The Shadow War of Hawkman #3 opens up. Rab Mekir failed to acquire the anti-grav devices, killing Hawkwoman instead of claiming her equipment.

As punishment, Fell Andar commits Mekir to be the permanent monitor of the Absorbascon. Andar’s forces attack Hawkman, as Isabella narrates the setting, “This is the Shadow War. He [Hawkman] must battle an enemy of whose existence only he is aware… an enemy who knows every errant thought that passes through the minds of men… and he must battle them alone.” Except Hawkwoman returns. She shares the story of how she avoided death, and that it was longtime Hawkman

supporting-cast member Mavis Trent who instead perished. The Hawks make another revelation—everything that the Thanagarian invaders want is at the disposal of the Justice League! Isabella leverages the secrecy of information against the omnipotence of a device like the Absorbascon, and now it is Hawkman and Hawkwoman who are in the shadows, fighting their friends as well as their refreshed foes.

The Shadow War of Hawkman #4 (Aug. 1985) wraps up the series, and once more the Hawks find themselves exiled from Thanagar, this time as a direct result of destroying the invading forces and their own spaceship.

Together Carter and Shiera Hall—Hawkman and Hawkwoman—are ready to face the threats that come, but the first battle has been won, and Thanagar is left to consider the results of its invasion. Isabella leaves the door wide open, ending The Shadow War of Hawkman #4 with, “The war has just begun…”

In the letters page for The Shadow War of Hawkman #4, Funky Winkerbean creator Tom Batiuk wrote, “And much to my delight, the character, story, and art are better than ever… but most important of all, you’ve finally seen the light and are now doing the eyes the way I told you to 20 years ago!”

Mike W. Barr also dropped a note: “I’m not going to say that your current miniseries, The Shadow War of Hawkman, totally realizes the potential in the character, but I think it comes close.” From there, it was up to the rest of the fans to let DC Comics know they wanted more Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

Before the war could continue, however, DC tested the market once more with Hawkman Special #1. Written by Isabella and drawn by Howell, the Special bridges the gap, tying up some of the loose ends of The Shadow War of Hawkman by addressing Katar Hol’s wounds, the loss of their ship, their on-again exile from Thanagar, and their place in the hero community. Isabella also uses the freestanding nature of the Special to bring in Gentleman Ghost and make him an uneasy ally of the Hawks in their war against Thanagar.

DC Comics Presents #95 (July 1986) brings an expeditionary force to Earth. Sent to retrieve energy from the event horizon of a black hole in the interest of Thanagarian imperialism, Kasta channels the power, but once he gets a taste of it, his mission changes and he sets course for Earth, simply to engage Superman in combat. Hawkman lends an assist and Kasta is defeated.

Hawkman avoids informing his former Justice League teammate of the galactic storm, referring to the looming battle with Thanagar and Thanagar’s continued interest in the Earth as a personal war when he debriefs Shayera.

Tony Isabella had grandiose plans for Hawkman and Hawkwoman: “The Shadow War of Hawkman was pitched as a five-year plan, pending sales of the original miniseries. Under editor Alan Gold, that continued to be the plan. Each year would have brought a new and fresh approach to the war with the fourth year being open war between Earth and Thanagar on Earth.”

Of the impending leap to an ongoing series, Richard Howell recalls, “I remember that Tony was very, very positive about the Shadow War clearly being the opening salvo in a long-term Hawkman series, and I think that his enthusiasm was infectious. He was also correct: The Shadow War was a big success—so much so that DC wanted more Hawkman tie-in product before Tony was quite prepared to start work on the new #1. That’s what the impetus was behind the Superman/ Hawkman issue of DC Comics Presents [#95] and the first-ever Hawkman Annual [Hawkman Special #1], each of which featured my pencil work but neither of which was fully written by Tony.

“Incidentally,” Howell continues, “I still have a letter here from Joe Kubert, apologizing—since Julie Schwartz had asked him to ink the DC Presents issue, but his schedule didn’t permit it. (Julie wound up talking Murphy Anderson into the assignment, so I was somewhat mollified.)”

Alan Gold approved Isabella’s plans, and the war was set to reignite.

Hawkman #1 (Aug. 1986) gives a brief recap of the events of the miniseries, but the Hawks are flying into battle by page five, with Richard Howell drawing them, Don Heck inking, and Tony Isabella writing. The story picks up with the Hawks forsaking Thanagarian technology, but trying to trace any further invaders from their homeworld. Isabella draws on the duo’s police experience (after all, Katar Hol was the top detective back home on Thanagar before coming to Earth to capture Byth) to have them employ detective skills in their hunt.

By the end of the first issue, the Hawks’ identities are exposed, they fight the Shadow Thief (who escapes), and they are still trying to track down additional Thanagarians who may be connected to the Hyathis Corporation. Hawkman #2 (Sept. 1986) brings the Shadow

Twitter Feed (top) Some friendly tweets bring Hawkman up to speed on this original art page from Shadow War #2, penciled by Richard Howell and inked by Alfredo Alcala. Courtesy of Heritage. The Hawk-momentum built through 1986, first with (bottom left) the one-shot Hawkman Special, then with another Superman team-up in (bottom middle) DCCP #95 (with Silver Age Hawk-artist Murphy Anderson drawing this cover and inking Richard Howell’s interior art), and finally with the launch of (bottom right) a new Hawkman monthly.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

Bewitched (top left) Zatanna first appeared in 1964’s Hawkman vol. 1 #4, so the Hawk-team of 1986 had her reappear in the fourth issue of their Hawkman series. (right) Howell’s unused cover layout. (bottom left) The published cover.

TM & © DC Comics.

THE LIONMANE’S DARKSTAR CONCLAVE SKETCH

• LEOPARD: A master of camouflage, at will, everything but his spots can fade into the background of whatever he’s against.

• CHEETAH: Wonder Woman’s foe, mutated into a half-facsimile of Earth’s fastest animal.

• DEVIL-BEAST: The embodiment of mankind’s fear of cats.

He can hypnotize with his gaze and has extrasensory abilities.

• FAMILIAR: Like her fabled communion with witches, she serves as a focus for mystical power.

18 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Characters © DC Comics. Art © Richard Howell.

Richard Howell took the initiative to propose a team of feline foes for Hawkman and Hawkwoman to face.

As noted on the sketch: “Ed Dawson (Lionmane) on an archeological dig, once again discovers a meteorite from the antimatter universe. He and his companions are all transformed into weird mutate-creatures. They are all cat-based and each manifests a different feline aspect:”

Thief back, and he brings an army of goons with him. The Shadow War, with the Shadow Thief, continues to linger on through Hawkman #3 (Oct. 1986), as the Hyathis Corporation has to clear its name. Pressing charges against Hawkman and Hawkwoman, the Hyathis Corporation is challenged by longtime Hawk-ally George Emmett, and the Hawks are aware that it is not a front for the Thanagarian invasion. Emmett charges that Hyathis is paying the Shadow Thief, and Hyathis C.E.O. Glendon has to rescind his terse denial after analyzing the facts Emmett brings to the table. Rest assured, however, Glendon is not going away, as the Hyathis boss is secretly Dervon Ved, the only other wingman to receive the honor wings upon his Thanagarian officer’s helmet.

Around this point, there is a shift in editorial, as Alan Gold moves on and Denny O’Neil moves in. While he didn’t bring an agenda of his own, upon learning of Isabella’s five-year plan, O’Neil recalls, “That rang a lot of alarm bells, because, first of all—a five-year continuity? World War II didn’t take much longer than that. That’s a lot of pages to fill. I have always thought that if you’re doing fiction, you should know what you’re story’s going to be.” He goes on to say that editorial staff always knew where they were going in a general sense, but we weren’t trying to figure out a major character for five years ahead.

“My gut told me this is not a good idea,” O’Neil continues. “It is stretching things out so far into the future, that you just can’t predict where the story’s going to go. Beyond that, if you’re going to posit a major war between Earth’s superheroes and some aliens… well, okay, by that time we were working with the DC Universe. We established that continuity. Wouldn’t a major war with extraterrestrials have to involve all the other superheroes? Wouldn’t they at least have to refer to it? Which means I would have to coordinate with dozens of writers and editors. It just didn’t seem like a doable stunt. So I made a deal with Tony, and we both abided by it, and within a reasonable amount of time, he took it in another direction.”

While I’m certain O’Neil wasn’t referring to Hawkman #4 (Nov. 1986) as that other direction, this issue takes a break from the battles against the Thanagarians to let Hawkman and Hawkwoman reconnect with one of their oldest allies—Zatanna. Isabella recalls, “That was my special self-indulgence ish. I included things that I love: Zatanna, a man-made pterodactyl, Kite-Man, a reference to a favorite comic-strip character, and, as a change of pace from the general grimness of the Shadow War, some humor. So, while it was a tribute to the first Zatanna story, it was a lot more than that as well.”

Richard Howell agrees that the issue was a fun one: “I don’t remember who came up with the Zatanna tribute—Tony, probably—but once the idea was birthed to feature Zatanna—in her original costume—in Hawkman #4, the previous version of which contained her debut, we were in complete agreement that it had to be done. (I did some demo drawings to seal the deal, and they worked out fine.) I have to state here, too, that it was also completely appropriate for Murphy Anderson to ink the cover of ‘our’ Hawkman #4.”

Shayera, Winged Warrior The Thanagarian shadow force attack once more in Hawkman #5 (Dec. 1986) and prey upon Ed Dawson, bringing him into contact with the (top) Courtesy of Richard Howell, Howell’s cover Mithra meteorite, triggering his transformation to Lionmane. The Thanagarians pencils for Hawkman vol. 2 #6 (Jan. 1987). pay the price, however, as Lionmane is no one’s lackey. Among the wounded is Coral Shilak (Corla Tavo), the wife of Deron Ved, the Thanagarian running (bottom)Superman writer/artist John Byrne was the shell Hyathis Corporation. Lionmane doesn’t stop there, though, and ensures that Shayera will be flying solo in the next issue, after running tapped to bring the Shadow War to its climax.

Hawkman through with a spear.

Byrne produced the cover for Hawkman #10 and Hawkman #6 (Jan. 1987) is a special issue for Howell. “The only issue of Hawkman for which I still own all the originals (and the cover) is #6, the story, pencils, and cover pencils for Action the Lionmane story (Don Heck’s final issue as inker, sadly) with the fierce #588 (both May 1987).

Hawkwoman cover (superbly rendered by Bruce Patterson).” Shayera handles her own and makes Lionmane pay for his wrongdoings. It would be nearly TM & © DC Comics. two decades before a Hawklady took the title of a solo series, but in this one issue Isabella and Howell set an impressive precedent.

Ved dons a dark blue, shoulder-padded, heavy, metal-fringed costume and assumes the moniker of Darkwing (no inspiration from the animated character Darkwing Duck, as this precedes the cartoon by no less than half a decade), taking the fight to Hawkman, who is on the verge of being released from the hospital following his battle with Lionmane.

Dan Mishkin is attributed to the dialog in Hawkman #8 (Mar. 1987), and Isabella receives plot credit as Hawkman and Hawkwoman bring the fight to the Thanagarians, attacking the force-field tower and meeting Darkwing once more in battle. In the letters page, O’Neil reveals that “Dan will be scripting the next two issues over Tony’s plots, and then, with issue #10, he’ll write the first major Hawkman crossover.”

Asked about the transition from Isabella to Mishkin, Howell reveals, “Dan did a fine job stepping into an awkward situation, but I didn’t think that the series ever regained the momentum it had from the miniseries and the first few issues of the regular series. I would have preferred to work with Dan on something that hadn’t been conceived (the revival, I mean) by someone else.”

Hawkman #9 (Apr. 1987) adds longtime Hawkman foe Byth to the opposition, as the battle against the Thanagarian invaders rages on. This is the first appearance of Byth in this series, and he takes an ally’s form to leverage the impact of his big reveal. The fight continues through to Hawkman #10 (May 1987) before calling in the biggest gun of the DC Universe to help end the Shadow War once and for all.

At this time, Action Comics was essentially a team-up title, written and drawn by John Byrne. Noted as Part Two of “All Wars Must End,” which started in Hawkman #10, Action #588 (May 1987) gives Byrne free reign. Byrne makes use of the scope of a space–bound adventure, drawing a fleet that looks like a fleet and fills the page.

When asked on the forums of his www.byrnerobotics.com site how he happened to handle the final chapter of the Shadow War, John Byrne replied, “At that time, I was talking to DC about doing a Hawkman title of my own. They asked if I would mind wrapping up the Shadow War storyline in Action, so I did. Then I turned in my proposal for Hawkman, and it turned out they wanted a continuation of the stuff dan mishkin that had just led the book to being canceled!!” As tryouts go, Byrne’s work in Action Comics #588 is a solid entry.

Having lost Superman due to Darkwing’s treachery, Hawkman has to disable the ship before it hurls into the sun in the early pages of Hawkman #11 (June 1987). Hawkman and Hawkwoman manage to return to Thanagar, anxious to bring Darkwing to justice, as they believe he is the instigator of the Shadow War. Greeted by swoop-winged hawk-shaped ships, Hawkman and Hawkwoman find a wildly different Thanagar from what they left behind. Hyathis appears to be the cause of Hawkman and Hawkwoman’s problems, but in reality, it is the Ruling Council (who appear to have adopted bondage-inspired attire) led by Shar Gomal, Marrila Koj and a handful of other Thanagarians.

The Council’s attempts to eliminate Hawkman and Hawkwoman are foiled

by Rul Pintar, a former colleague of Katar’s father, in Hawkman #12 (July 1987).

The people of Thanagar beg Katar Hol to be their new emperor. Hawkman decides he cannot and recommends that Pintar take the throne.

After liberating their homeworld (again), the Hawks return to Earth to start life anew. In Hawkman #13 (Aug. 1987), their supporting cast gets some spotlight time, as George Emmett, Stewart Frazier, and Whitney Nichols have moments to move subplots. The foe in this issue is a disembodied spirit who attacks the Hawks through Frazier’s private Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

THE SUPER–SECRET NOT–SO–SHADOWY WAR Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (Apr. 1985) hit racks near the start of the Shadow War of Hawkman miniseries, but Richard Howell recalls, “The whole Hawkman series was an oddity.

It started before the massive Crisis on Infinite Earths began, and it was so continuity-tight that we had no opportunities to incorporate Crisis into its story-flow. At the point the Hawks encountered Superman, the creative staff of the Hawkman series weren’t really sure if we should treat it as if Hawkman and Hawkwoman had met Superman already or not (by that point, Superman was the John Byrne-era version, so was everything new… or not?)”

Isabella recalls, “The miniseries and the Special were written before Crisis #1 was published.”

As revealed in the Compendium that accompanies the Absolute Edition of Crisis on Infinite Earths (2005), Roy Thomas sent a memo (dated May 16, 1984) to Len Wein, Marv

Lovebirds As this Hawkman article rides off into the sunset, we close with this 1986 illo, by and courtesy of Richard Howell, of the other cozy couple he drew during the ’80s, Marvel’s Vision and the Scarlet Witch… and if you look into the silvery moon you’ll notice a certain pair of Winged Wonders.

Art © 1986 Richard Howell. Hawkman and Hawkwoman TM & © DC Comics.

Vision and Scarlet Witch TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Wolfman, and Bob Greenberger regarding some thoughts about the Crisis. “The two Carter Halls problem still remains, but I intend to keep Hawkman in the JSA… and I doubt if the E-1 version’s gonna be killed off. I wouldn’t mind offing Shiera Hall, though, if it were done in some way tastefully… it would just be one more thing to reunite father and son.

“Interestingly, I’m open to suggestions—I’ve this idea that I might decide to get rid of the Silver Scarab, who hasn’t really been that much of a character, and he could then become the JSA Hawkman… without the name Carter Hall.

But that’s something I’d have to think about myself.”

Bob Greenberger offered his thoughts on the matter in a memo dated July 3, 1984: “One of the Hawkmans will be maimed in the course of the action and receive grafted wings, à la Northwind, and be a real Hawkman. If it’s Earth-One Hawkman, the Hawkman miniseries should conclude first.”

collection of African masks. That spirit turns out to be that of Frank Delmore, a deceased “business” partner for a new character named Lewis Brundage introduced in this issue. If nothing else, Brundage affords Mishkin the opportunity to bring in supervillain Bolt as a hired gun.

Bolt takes on the Hawks in Hawkman #14 (Sept. 1987) in a story that gets just a little bit weird. The disembodied spirit from last issue is still around, but has issue with Bolt, and the Hawks luck into an odd series of events, where almost everything wraps up. Mishkin opens a new mystery at the end of the issue, snuffing out Brundage and leaving the Hawks wondering who killed Lorraine Frazier, Frank Delmore, and now Lewis Brundage? On the art side of things, Howell switches up the leggings the Hawks wear under their red shorts to all black, a look that works quite nicely, but unfortunately does not stick around.

Through this storyline, it becomes clear that, had he been given more time, Mishkin might have pushed the Hawks towards a new status quo beyond the end of their series. Mishkin tells BACK ISSUE, “Having been careful to wrap up the threads of the Shadow War storyline in a respectful and respectable fashion, I didn’t really have time to move forward on the direction I wanted to take the book. I would have liked to settle the Hawks in New Orleans and explore Hawkman’s religious conversion experience and Hawkwoman’s rationalist response to it.”

Hawkman #15 (Oct. 1987) brings all of the supporting-cast craziness to a head, mixes in an appearance by the Gentleman Ghost, and sends Hawkwoman to the land between the dead and the living to guide Lorraine Frazier to her final peace. Hawkman, alone and untethered without his true love around, loses it for an issue, giving Hawkman #16 (Nov. 1987) a madcap story that struggles to find equilibrium.

Hawkman #17 (Dec. 1987) wraps up the series. Pushed to the brink of insanity at the loss of his bride for the second time in little over two years in comic-book time, Hawkman cannot stand to live anymore.

Luckily, he hears the voice of Shayera calling to him through the crying of seagulls. Hawkman cobbles together a device to transmit a signal to return Shayera, Lorraine Frazier, and the Gentleman Ghost into their physical forms. Frazier is not long for this world, but her departure requires her to bring another. Seeing an opportunity for eternal rest, Gentleman Ghost joins Frazier, ending his existence on this plane. Hawkman #17 ends with Shayera and Katar staring into the sunset, pondering their future, as Shayera says, “…it’s as though our lives are just beginning.”

DOUG ZAWISZA is a pretty big Hawkfan and he loves to write about comics in his spare time. He’d like to thank his wife, Lisa, and his three daughters for being so wonderful. He’d also like to thank Rob Kelly, Justin Francoeur, Bill Walko, and Michael Eury for their help in pulling this article together. Last, but by no means least, Doug wants to thank EVERYONE that’s ever worked on Hawkman’s adventures.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

TM

by M a r c

Buxton

Flying Solo Sans Hawkman, Shayera joins forces with Superman in an exhilarating team-up in DC Comics Presents #37 (Sept. 1981). Cover art by Jim Starlin.

TM & © DC Comics.

As BACK ISSUE continues its look at bird-themed superheroes and villains, we have stumbled on an avian milestone that takes us far from Earth. So let’s focus those bird-watching binoculars on the farthest reaches of space as we check out DC Comics Presents #37 (Sept. 1981), a high-flying team-up between Superman and Hawkgirl, with plot and art by Jim Starlin and a script from Roy Thomas.

But what is this milestone, you ask? As most of you Hawkfans know, in the halcyon days of 1981 and even over a decade after, it was very rare to see Hawkgirl fly solo. In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Hawk were inseparable, with the male member of the crimefighting duo usually taking center stage over his ever-capable and loyal wife. So one must wonder why Hawkgirl was featured sans Carter Hall in Thomas and Starlin’s DCCP #37. Sadly, that bit of avian curiosity may have to remain a mystery.

When asked about why it was just Shayera Hol that joined Superman in this 1981 team-up, Roy Thomas replied, “You’d have to ask Jim about that… since editor Julie Schwartz is no longer with us. No one ever told me.” Well, sadly, Mr. Starlin isn’t talking about DC Comics past, present, or future at this point in his career, so we are left to ponder why Starlin went with the female half of the famed Hawk team. Whatever reason this choice was made, it certainly proved prophetic as over 20 years later, Hawkgirl flying solo in comics, in the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and on the live action DC’s Legends of Tomorrow became the norm for the character. But it was in DC Comics Presents #37 that Hawkgirl went it alone and proved that she can carry a story on her winged back. Remember, now, this wasn’t just a small backup feature or throwaway tale—this was a team-up where Hawkgirl proved she was every bit as able as Superman himself.

This issue of DC Comics Presents not only served as a coming-out party of sorts for Hawkgirl, one of DC’s earliest female superheroes, it also was one of the very first comics where the name of the great Roy Thomas appeared in a DC credits box. “I was just handed the alreadyplotted-and-drawn story, and all I did was dialogue it,” Thomas tells BACK ISSUE. “This was arranged by Jenette [Kahn], Paul [Levitz], and Joe [Orlando} so that I could hit the ground running when my Marvel contract expired in late 1980 and they could have stories out © Pat Loika / there very quickly with my name on them…”

Wikimedia Commons.

Starlin and Thomas’ love of Hawkgirl is evident from the very first page of DCCP #37. The story is told through the “Docudiary of Shayera a.k.a. Shiera Hall,” as Hawkgirl acts as the POV character and narrator of the issue. It’s interesting that Hawkgirl, a character rarely if ever featured in a comic without her husband, would be chosen over Superman to narrate this tale.

This groundbreaking issue of avian awesomeness begins when Hawkgirl receives a phone call from one Dr. Irwin Wright of the Center of Amerindian Studies. Wright is calling for Carter Hall but is openminded enough to tell Shayera about some artifacts he found that appear to be of unearthly origins. Wright is dismissive of Shayera at first, but to his credit, once he sees how capable and learned she is, Wright forgets about Mr. Hall and shows Mrs. Hall his findings—strange alien artifacts and writings that appear to be Kryptonian in origin.

So Hawkgirl turns not to Hawkman for help… but Superman.

As Superman is brought to investigate the Kryptonian artifacts, he busts down a wall at the excavation site, and in doing so busts between genres as the pulp sensibilities are shattered to be replaced by some truly strange science fiction as Superman and Hawkgirl discover an ancient but functioning Kryptonian lab. Even though they are in the midst of a cosmic mystery, Superman takes time to pay homage to Hawkgirl, pointing out what was so overlooked in the era of Shayera living in Katar’s shadow, that Hawkgirl is, as Superman puts it, “One of the most successful police officers back on… Thanagar.” As Superman compliments Hawkgirl, the heroic pair discovers a recording from Superman’s great-grandfather Var-El. After he rewinds the tape (because advanced Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

Shayera to the Rescue Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), signed Starlin original art to story page 11. Inks by Romeo Tanghal (who, by the way, provides our amazing Nightwing cover for our next issue!).

TM & © DC Comics.

title ‘The Stars, Like Moths…’ after an SF novel from the 1950s that I remembered reading, The Stars Like Dust.” But wherever the ideas came from, a modern-day reading of this Starlin/Thomas production is haunting even through the lens of 21st-Century sci-fi expectations.

Starlin crafts an absolutely haunting panel of Superman, standing on a rock fragment, slowly and helplessly being drawn into a giant red sun. His back is turned to the red orb of death as he resolutely prepares to meet his fate, a fate that is occurring because of his and his ancestor’s arrogance. This is very heady stuff for a 1981 Superman tale, huh?

Shayera dives into the iris to save Superman. Meanwhile, Superman prepares to die, but first he is attacked by—and this is most welcome in this winged wonder-themed edition of BACK ISSUE—a giant interdimensional carrion bird.

Hawkgirl fends the attack by this and additional birds, first trying to use her avian telepathy to control them and then just pummeling them with her mace. While she is making feathers fly, Superman is being sucked ever closer to the red star and contemplates his end in a moment that is pure poetry. “After all the super-villains… the kryptonite… the magic…,” Superman thinks to himself, “who’d have thought it would end like this… that Superman would go out… like a shooting star… to become one more infinitesimal speck of stellar energy… in a cosmic graveyard?” It wasn’t often in the late Bronze Age that Superman had a moment of vulnerability, but there he is, realizing that compared to the power of the unknowable cosmos, he was just another inconsequential bit of matter. But Superman’s death is not to be, as Hawkgirl swoops in and saves the day. Hawkgirl is not feeling inconsequential, not when she has a mission and a friend to save. Hawkgirl’s anti-gravity belt wins the day as Hawkgirl flies through the iris and rescues the ready-tomeet-his-end Man of Steel.

In this, BACK ISSUE’s winged wonder issue, it is Krypton didn’t have MP3s, I guess), Hawkgirl and the apropos that the last image we are left with is Hawkgirl’s Man of Steel listen to the voice of Superman’s ancestor. smoldering wings, sacrificed to save a Superman that And this is where things get epic, as while listening had almost given up. In the second-to-last panel, Hawkto these lost records, Superman makes the conclusion girl stands without her wings, the very thing that gives that his father Jor-El discovered Earth through Var-El’s her a visual identity. But at this point, she doesn’t need journals. Superman honors his great-grandfather, forbidden them just as she doesn’t need Hawkman, because she is not defined by her costume or her husband, she is science and all, because without Var-El Superman would have died in the destruction of Krypton and the galaxy defined by her actions, and in this issue of DC Comics would have been robbed of its greatest hero. As for Presents, Hawkgirl proves that she is a hero that can Var-El’s experiments, the fugitive scientist was trying and will stand on her own. to prove that all energy is naturally attracted to other This issue of DCCP was one of Thomas’ earliest forms of energy and that when a star explodes, the © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. forays in the DC Universe. His greatest DC contributions used-up energies are transported to another dimensional space for later were still to come, and while this issue was wonderfully experimental use. Hey, listen, this is a Jim Starlin comic—you knew it wasn’t going to for 1981 and featured an important bit of evolution in the career of be Superman trying to stop the Prankster or something, right?

Hawkgirl, Thomas does not remember his time on DCCP with overAs Shayera exits the chamber to grab some more equipment, whelming fondness. “I remember Jim, a bit later, saying to me in a Superman has a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness as he discovers not unfriendly fashion, ‘You really got a free ride on that one, Roy’...

Var-El’s iris portal and opens it! Hawkgirl hears the machinery activate meaning, of course, that I hadn’t had to do anything but dialogue it.” and without a thought for her own safety races inside, mace at the While Thomas downplays this tale, it still is a fascinating read in ready. Superman is sucked helplessly into the iris, but Hawkgirl is able hindsight for a number of reasons. It was a hard-hitting sci-fi story that to use her anti-gravity belt to keep herself from meeting the same fate. did not reflect DC’s mascot Superman in the most positive light. This Thomas and Starlin certainly utilize all of Hawkgirl’s power set and don’t story was truly groundbreaking as so many more dark Kryptonian tales allow her to be overshadowed by either Superman or her conspicuous- would follow in the years to come. Also, this issue proved to the world by-his-absence husband. that Hawkgirl is an inspiring hero on her own, something that DC This is a pretty intense sci-fi tale, to be sure. This issue of DCCP stands would explore in many forms of media decades later. in contrast to some of the more lighter and frivolous team-up tales that appeared in that title. We asked Thomas where the idea to do such a MARC BUXTON is a proud contributor to websites like Comic Book Resources daring story that sheds a dark light on Krypton’s past came from: “I’ve no and Den of Geek US. He is an English teacher, and Marc’s loving wife thinks he idea. I never heard any real reaction to the story one way or the other. owns way to many comic books. Marc has been reading comics since the dawn The only thing I really remember about it, I think, is coming up with the of time and is still deeply in love with every era of the great medium.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

TM

by S t e v e n

Wilber

Not Your Father’s Hawkman Original cover art by Timothy Truman for Hawkworld vol. 1 (the Prestige Format miniseries) #2 (Sept. 1989).

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

TM & © DC Comics.

Hawkworld, a series that touched upon politics, religion, race, gender, sex, and more, explored the adventures of galactic police officers Katar Hol and Shayera Thal. In 1989 Hawkman and Hawkwoman were revised, then later completely retconned, after the series’ success. Attempts to mend continuity gaps created controversy among some fans. In time, however, more readers grew to love the new socially minded Hawkman and his quick-tempered partner.

unchanged. That was, until the end of their short-lived series in December of 1987. Following this it was decided by DC editorial that Hawkman and Hawkwoman were in need of a serious update that matched the rapidly changing and maturing medium of comic books.

Enter: Mike Gold and Timothy Truman.

TIMOTHY TRUMAN: Hawkman was one of the DC titles that I’d followed when I was growing up in the 1960s—the Joe Kubert and Murphy Anderson Silver Age stuff, you know? In the early ’90s, Mike Gold was THE HAWKWORLD MINISERIES “Have you never wondered who paid the price the guy who got me interested in doing the initial for your perfect world, Katar Hol?” three-issue Prestige series. I’d worked with Mike a few – Byth, Hawkworld #2 (Aug. 1989) years earlier at First Comics when I was drawing Grimjack.

MIKE GOLD: I was a huge fan [of Hawkman]. Brave These Winged Warriors were originally the reincarnated and Bold #34 [Hawkman’s first Silver Age appearance, souls of an Egyptian prince and princess, later revised written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Joe Kubert] timothy truman as visitors from the planet Thanagar. It was this later changed my life—of course, I was barely ten, so there incarnation that saw the DC Universe undergo a complete Photo credit: Raymond Foye. wasn’t all that much to change. It was the coolest overhaul with Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Many of DC’s characters’ comic book I’d read and would remain that way until Fantastic Four #1 histories were radically altered, but for the most part, the Hawks remained came out. I’ve been a fan of the character and an even bigger fan of Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

Kubert ever since. I liked the idea of a married superhero team, and the visuals were spectacular.

TRUMAN: DC had enjoyed a big success with Frank Miller’s rewiring of Batman, so of course they got all hot about revising some of their other primary characters as well. Hawkworld was one of the first follow-ups. Mike called and asked if I’d be interested. I have to admit that initially I stonewalled him a bit.

On the phone, Mike had said something to the effect of, “Wanna come over to DC and play with the big guys?” I’d been heavily involved doing creator-owned work with Eclipse and some of the other early independent companies and it felt a bit like I’d be selling out. Frankly, while Mike’s a good friend, and I’m mike gold sure he didn’t mean it that way, I took the comment as kind of a slight. I was really proud of the work I’d been doing with the indies.

So it took me awhile to warm up to the idea.

With editor Mike Gold and writer/artist Timothy Truman on board, a plan was formulated to have Hawkman and his cast fit more in line with modern trends being explored at DC Comics. But Gold and Truman would evolve their own corner of the fictional universe into something all its own.

GOLD: Timothy and I have a strong and well-developed working relationship. I respect the hell out of his storytelling instincts and his out-and-out humanity, and when he told me he was interested in doing a contemporary tribute to Gardner Fox, I was right there with him all the way. It was quite a gritty story, very faithful to the concepts of all the previous Hawkman series, but told in a very contemporary manner. The “as above, so below” mentality was extremely political, and that particularly appealed to me. Timothy can bring both the grit of the undersociety and the gleam of the privileged society to the page like nobody else.

TRUMAN: The thing that made me finally agree to do the book was the friendship I’d cultivated with Gardner Fox. I’d met Gar in the early ’80s at Gencon, while I was still doing game illustrations for TSR Hobbies/Dungeons and Dragons. We’d become pals, corresponding with each other via the mail and phone. When I got involved with indy comics companies, Gar became fascinated by the strides that comic-book people like myself had made in the way of creators’ rights. So finally he hit me with an idea he was working up, a long, sword-and-sorcery or space-opera tale along the lines of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. I never got to see the plot that he worked up, just a few paragraphs about the basic idea.

I told him that I’d love to do it, but at the time I had too many commitments with Airboy, Scout: War Shaman, and the 4Winds books for Eclipse.

High Towers and Downside (top) The class divide of Truman’s Hawkworld Prestige Format series was clearly delineated by this promotional poster. “I’ve always been a little leery of Utopian thinking” says Hawkworld’s Timothy Truman. (bottom) Covers to the miniseries’ issue #1 and the series’ trade-paperback collection.

TM & © DC Comics.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Becoming a Wingman A turning point for Katar Hol. Original art page from Hawkworld vol. 1 #2, by Truman and inker Alcatena.

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Gardner Fox had planted the seed for what would develop into a three-issue Prestige Format miniseries titled Hawkworld. Truman created a grand opera drenched deep in science fiction. A young “wingman,” Ensign Katar Hol, is introduced to readers. Despite his aristocratic upbringing, or perhaps in spite of it, Hol insists on pulling duty in the lowly Downside. Below the high-reaching towers among the clouds where the wealthy and influential prospered, refugees and criminals from all over the galaxy lived in ghettos and slums. Being the son of Paran Katar, the scientist responsible for developing Nth metal (an isotope that negates gravity), did not win favor among his fellow officers, even though Nth Metal is what keeps the wingmen airborne. Hol’s admiration for Thanagar’s ancient hero, Kalmoran, with his antiquated notions of honor, also fail to impress colleagues and associates alike. It becomes evident to Hol that his commander, Byth, has far-reaching connections in Downside and is as corrupt as the politicians he abhors. In his first “flashzone,” Katar helped to rescue a group of orphans, but quickly learned few things are ever by-the-book.

TRUMAN: I was taking Katar Hol back to his origins. It seemed logical to set the set the story on his homeworld, Thanagar. When I thought about Gar’s desire to do an old-fashioned John Carter-type space-and-swords story, I kept seeing these Roy G. Krenkel illustrations in my head—those big, amazing buildings that he used to dream up for his Burroughs stuff and the Otis Adelbert Kline Ace [paperback] covers, right? So I wanted to inject that feeling into the work and visualize this epic, utopian fantasy world. At the same time, I didn’t want to make the thing seem old-fashioned thematically.

I wanted to get a little heavier with it—an action story but with some meat on its bones. When I started re-reading the old Hawkman stories that Gar and Joe Kubert had done, the majority of the early ones were set on Thanagar. They gave the impression that Thanagar was this near-perfect Utopian society. I’ve always been a little leery of Utopian thinking.

Since Gar had established that Katar Hol was an ardent archeologist and historian, I used that as the foundation for the rest of the story.

Katar is interested in the tales of Kalmoran, the ancient Thanagarian warrior hero who built their civilization. During the course of his adventure, Hawkman finds out that his big hero isn’t all that the history books make him out to be. So Hawkworld became the tale of a how Katar Hol works through his disillusionment and eventual failure, finds redemption, and re-emerges on the other side as a hero. The history and culture of Thanagar becomes a key element in getting him there.

GOLD: Whenever you make a political statement, the laws of diametrics kick in and a few people will take issue. However, most people want a good, solid story, and all the elements that were used in that political context were already there, so we got very little push-back. My boss, Dick Giordano, was extremely sympathetic to our point of view and stood solidly behind the project.

For its first issue, Hawkworld divided itself equally between the High Towers and Downside, showing the stark differences between these two societies.

At the request of his father, Katar attended a party open to the elite of Thanagar.

There he (and readers) were introduced to Commissioner Andar, Chief Administrator Thal Porvis, and Porvis’ daughter, Shayera. Through conversation it’s explained that Thanagar had conquered several worlds, decimating populations and usurping resources. It’s clear that the decadence of the Towers upsets Hol despite Shayera’s urging to loosen up. But based on the treatment of “lowlies” used as servants and his time in the Downside, Katar is not comfortable with the state of affairs of his home planet. If anyone is sympathetic to Hol’s concerns, it’s his father… not that they could sway those around them.

TRUMAN: As a history buff, I knew that civilizations only become mega-societies when they’re built on the backs of common folk.

The old trickle-down economic theory never, ever works. Somehow, the labor class never seems to reap the same rewards as the guys who own the towers. So that became my starting point.

“—You are an idealist, Katar. And idealists are fools.”

– Byth, Hawkworld #2 (Sept. 1989) While Hol continued as a wingman, the pressures and influences around him—both from above and below—began to take hold and he soon realized he was no better than his peers. Then his world completely unraveled.

Just after leaving Katar’s arms, Shayera is killed in an explosion and her father is horribly mutilated. The wingmen take flight and pursue leads, following a false trail to the Manhawks (humanoid/bird hybrids) and a rebel spy. Confronted with the traitor, Katar guns down his enemy only to realize—too late—that it was his father! Paran Katar had been secretly suppling Downsider rebels with food and medicine and was trying to negotiate peace when he was discovered. Hol had been manipulated by Byth. Framed for his father’s murder, Katar is stripped of his uniform and station and exiled to the Isle of Chance.

There on the island, suffering from shame, anger, and withdrawal from drugs, Katar kills one of the few inhabitants. His reasoning—to steal the wings the man was making—was not unlike Daedalus of Greek legend.

The fallen monk’s brother revealed the wings were always intended for Katar and his act of aggression wqs unwarranted. Hol is consumed with guilt, but R’d Nar T’so leads Katar towards enlightenment, helping the former wingman to cleanse both body and soul. Years later, after his mentor had passed and Katar is truly all alone, a ship from the city is sent to retrieve him. Hol is left in the Downside to begin a new chapter and continue on with his father’s unfinished work.

TRUMAN: It was funny. The fans got it immediately, but it took some of the old-school reviewers awhile to catch on. Dear old Don Thompson of the Comic Buyer’s Guide gave the first issue a scathing review, I remember.

He didn’t like the fact that I took Katar down a rather dark path on his way Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

Good Soldiers The first two issues of the ongoing Hawkworld monthly.

Cover art by Graham Nolan, who signed the copy of #2 shown here (which hails from Steven Wilber’s collection).

TM & © DC Comics.

to redemption. But by the third and final issue, even Don In Katar Hol’s absence, Byth rose to power after being had caught on and loved the book. You have to given the title “Administrator of Protection.” Byth’s remember that long-format stories like Dark corruption through the Downside continued Knight and Hawkworld were pretty rare in unabated, and he was now able to shape-shift, those days. People were used to tidy little a side effect of the Krotan drug he had abused 20-page-story monthly comics wherein for years. Byth appeared to be unstoppable. the hero was conceived one way and It wasn’t until a female wingman took stayed that way issue-to-issue, for ten, notice of a Downsider rebel that Byth’s 20, 30 years. However, my biggest empire would begin to unravel. writing influences were novels. There The young wingman, Shayera Thal, was was one novel in particular that I’d read— the adopted daughter of Chief Administrator The Chinese Bandit by Stephen Becker Porvis, taken in because of her resemblance [1975]—that had made a huge impact on to his deceased daughter. Thal discovered Katar me. In the novel, the lead character starts and his relief efforts among the Downsiders. out as this heartless, self-serving tough Shayera would reveal that she had been guy, but through the course of the one of the orphans “rescued” by Katar john ostrander story he experiences things that put him during his first assignment, and it wasn’t through a lot of changes. In the end, Courtesy of Metropolis Superman Celebration. long before they teamed up against Byth he’s not the same character he was at the beginning. and his forces. Following a climactic battle the villain manages to escape, but not before Shayera could accrue enough evidence to topple his empire. As a reward for their heroism, Katar was reinstated and partnered with Shayera.

Their first major assignment as a duo would be to follow Byth to Earth and bring him back to Thanagar for trial.

THE HAWKWORLD ONGOING SERIES

“These helmets, the hawk symbol—they’re supposed to mean something!

We wear them! Like it or not—we mean something!”

– Hawkman, Hawkworld #8 (Feb. 1991)

The regular series picked up where the miniseries left off.

Katar Hol is uncomfortable with his new role as Thanagar’s greatest hero, knowing full well that it was Shayera’s involvement that brought about the collapse of Byth’s reign.

Yet being a woman and not originally of the upper class, Shayera was deemed unworthy, and both the government and media pinned the title and attention to Hol. That didn’t mean Katar was trusted. Shayera was ordered by Commissioner Andar to spy on her partner and report back to the commissioner and her father, Chief Administrator Porvis.

The administrators were worried that Hol’s disenchantment with the hierarchy could lead to political problems—the son of Paran Katar knew too much. Reluctantly, she agreed.

Thangar and its denizens would have many unique looks with avian influences for those in the High Towers, while the Downsiders maintained their own characteristics and markings much akin to gangs and their usage of jacket colors and tattoos. Hawkman and Hawkwoman in particular were given new costumes to reflect the changes that spun out of Hawkworld.

Their uniforms would continue to evolve as the regular series progressed, along with the fashions of supervillains and Thanagarian politicians.

MIKE GOLD: First, the Hawks had to be redesigned, just as Joe Kubert redesigned the 1960 Hawkman costume from his late ’40s version, which differed from the original Dennis Neville version from 1940. These were different versions of a character, different approaches and different interpretations, and since comics is a visual medium, we have to show it while we say it.

GRAHAM NOLAN: It’s been so long I don’t remember the characters’ names, but there was a Thanagarian council that I had to do various bird designs for that I thought came out really cool. I remember basing their “chamber” on the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia.

TIMOTHY TRUMAN: At the time I was into militaries and, given the nature of the story I’d come up with, I wanted to give the costumes a more teched-out look. The bare-chested, feather-winged look just didn’t make much sense to me as a realistic police force [uniform]. So I designed a “techy” look for the day-to-day mission uniforms that the Thangarian police force wore, but kept the bare-chested version and feathered wings for more ceremonial garb.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

1989 Hawkwoman sketch by Graham Nolan, courtesy of Greg Huneryager. Hawkwoman TM & © DC Comics.

HAWKWORLD FASHION

As Hol and Thal continued to patrol as wingmen, their attempts at quelling rising problems with the Downsiders began to unravel. Before he and Shayera were sent to Earth, Katar made a deal with the unscrupulous off-worlder Kanjar Ro; he maintained minor influence with the Commission for Alien Affairs. Hol employed Ro’s services to ensure the continued relief efforts he and his father had worked so hard for. Clearly, Kanjar Ro only had himself in mind, but so long as Katar financed him, he would do as the wingman asked.

While Mike Gold and Tim Truman continued with the Hawks, there were two noticeable differences between the regular series to the miniseries: the addition of writer John Ostrander and penciler Graham Nolan. Both men would continue on together through most of the series, leaving a lasting impression on Hawkworld.

JOHN OSTRANDER: Tim Truman is a great buddy of mine and I was aware of what he was doing with Hawkworld as a Prestige Format series. When it was decided to do a follow-up ongoing to the Prestige series, he felt he didn’t have the time. Eventually, I was asked to do it, since Tim and I knew each other so well and were (and are) very simpatico. I certainly knew of the characters before that but I especially liked what Tim had done.

In fact, John and Tim had collaborated together years earlier in the applauded Grimjack from First Comics. But their work on Hawkworld wouldn’t quite be the same.

TRUMAN: One of the great regrets of my life is that I was such a jerk when it came time for the monthly series. It wasn’t fair to John, really. Like I said before, I’d done my thing with the miniseries and really wanted to move on. I’m intensely ADHD. By the time I drew the last page, my attention was already focused on another project.

However, DC wanted my name to be on the book, so I was in a tricky spot. I didn’t want to let anyone down. So I said, “Sure.” graham nolan John would call me up once a month and we’d have a 10–15 minute phone call. He’d tell me the plot idea he had in mind for the next issue. I’d make a few suggestions and John would script the story. I now feel that it was incredibly unfair to him. But that’s how I was back then. These days, I certainly would have handled it differently.

GRAHAM NOLAN: I believe I was recommended to Mike Gold by Tim. Tim and I had worked together on some projects at Eclipse Comics. I wasn’t a huge fan of the [Hawkman] character but was a fan of his original Silver Age artist, Joe Kubert. The most disheartening aspect was the color early on. There was a problem with the color-plate separations on the first few issues that made the books very garish-looking.

Traveling galaxy-spanning distances, the Thanagarian heroes used their absorbacons to help them get acquainted with Earth customs and learn English for their destination in Chicago.

Hol and Thal would be greeted by American press and made a less-than-auspicious debut.

Meanwhile, Byth was fully aware of their arrival to Earth and stayed several steps ahead of them. Empowering local thugs and gang members with the Krotan drug, Byth had a new army, the Furies, to battle the newly christened Hawkman and Hawkwoman. In fact, Thanagarian ambassador Darl Klus, the Hawks’ supervisor during their visit, would be revealed to have ties to their foe. Klus quickly went to work to place Katar and Shayera with local officials to bank on positive media exposure. While Katar was forced to dress and perform for Chicago’s elite society, Shayera was set up with a local police force to observe daily patrol. Neither appreciated their individual assignments, but it did stress the differences between the two. Hol held close his romantic notions of truth and justice, being much more levelheaded compared to the hot-tempered Shayera who was much more a pragmatist, eager for battle. Their opposing personalities often led to some of the more dramatic conflicts popular in Hawkworld.

Despite the arguing, it was obvious a bond had formed between the two.

Gravity (top inset) Katar vs. Shadow Thief on the cover of Hawkworld #5 (Oct. 1990). (top) Hawks in space, from that issue. (bottom) Katar and Shayera were certainly no lovebirds at this stage of their relationship. From Hawkworld #7 (Jan. 1991),

by Ostrander/Truman/Nolan/Gary Kwapisz.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

OSTRANDER: Tim, while creating Hawkworld, set that [the Katar/Shayera dynamic] up. Generally speaking, I think I enjoyed [writing] Shayera more.

TRUMAN: I just think the chemistry works better that way. It’s the old “buddy” angle that you see used in police films, right?

It just always seems to work.

NOLAN: Who did I like more? That’s easy…

Shayera! It’s always more fun to draw girls.

Especially a character as sassy as Shayera.

“Freeze, meat! On second thought, go ahead and start something.

I’m in a lousy mood.”

– Hawkwoman, Hawkworld #14 (Aug. 1991)

Warrior Women (top) Ostrander and Nolan’s Hawkworld #16 (Oct. 1991) was part of DC’s War of the Gods crossover and pitted Hawkwoman against Wonder Woman. (bottom left) Hawkman vs. Atilla on Nolan’s cover to Hawkworld #19 (Jan. 1992). (bottom right) The next issue’s villain, the galactic bounty hunter Smif’Beau, a nod to Guy Gardner and Wynonna Earp writer Beau Smith.

(Does this mean Beau is copyrighted by DC Comics?) Cover by Kwapisz.

TM & © DC Comics.

Tensions between Hawkman and Hawkwoman would explode when Shayera revealed she’d been spying on her partner for weeks, even reading his personal journal in which he confessed his admonishment of Thanagar’s principles (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, there was little time for the Hawks to work out their differences. Attacks from the Shadow Thief (prompted by Byth) and the murder of Shayera’s paramour, Verzell Jones (one of her allies among the Chicago police force), interrupted any chance of reconciliation.

It wasn’t until Byth was finally incarcerated

by Hawkman that both Hawks put aside their differences and learned they could truly trust one another. Before the Hawks’ newfound faith in each another would be tested, “Shay” was ordered back to Thanagar to return Byth for trial. Hawkman and Hawkwoman would begin separate journeys of self-discovery, galaxies apart.

By Hawkworld #10, Ostrander was navigating the Hawks’ stories on his own.

The writer set about to continue building and strengthening his Earth and Thanagar casts.

While Katar sorted out his feelings for Mavis Trent, the exhibit coordinator of the Edwards Natural History Museum, Shayera would learn more about her heritage and why she was adopted by Chief Administer Porvis. This revelation put her further at odds with her superiors and helped cement her place at Katar’s side. Shay’s solo adventures on their home planet would lay the groundwork for a major storyline that would wrap up the second year of the series and introduce a new direction for Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

“Thanagar separates its poor from the rest of society rather plainly.

In Chicago, I saw it nearly side by side.”

– Hawkman, Hawkworld #13 (July 1991) Meanwhile, Katar was faced more and more with the realization that the inequalities of Thanagar were no different than on Earth.

As on Thanagar, Hawkman stood as a champion for the people. Katar would ally himself with Weng Chen of the Blackhawks and Firehawk, a character written by Ostrander in Firestorm a few years earlier. Before that, the Hawks had teamed up with the Golden

28 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Age and Modern Age Flashes in the first Hawkworld Annual, cover-dated 1990.

Ostrander was slowly introducing Hawkman into the DC Universe proper. Then Hawkwoman’s return to Chicago was greeted by the crossover War of the Gods, placing the Hawks alongside nearly every DC hero of the ’90s.

OSTRANDER: Crossovers can always be a problem. They interrupt any storyline that you’re developing. On the other hand, that’s also life. You make plans for your future and then real life comes along and makes a hash of them. I recall an old saying is that the gods like it when humans make plans. It gives them something to mess with. Or something like that.

In War of the Gods, deities of various pantheons made Earth their battleground with Superman, Batman, and the Justice League as mankind’s only defense. These events began when Mavis’ coworker, Konrad Kaslak, had partnered with the sorceress Circe, who had been plotting the demise of Wonder Woman and her patron goddess Hecate’s revenge on the Greek gods. Kaslak had provided the witch priceless artifacts, integral ingredients to a powerful spell that allowed her to manipulate the gods. It wouldn’t be long before Kaslak tried to betray Circe at his folly, narrowly escaping her clutches. His fate would go unnoticed by the Hawks when Hawkman was forced to exorcise the Thanagarian death god, Mar Rhigan, from Hawkwoman in Hawkworld #15 (Sept. 1991). In the following issue their next mission would be to apprehend Wonder Woman, who was wrongly accused of conspiring with Amazon assassins. After a brief skirmish, the Amazon Princess’ pacifist nature convinced the Hawks that she had been framed, and they would soon aid her as she tried to clear her name and ultimately stop Circe.

What’s more, Shayera found a true sister and confidante with the Amazing Amazon.

Hawkwoman not only defended Wonder Woman’s birthplace, Themyscira, but also served as an anchor/avatar for the Thanagarian gods alongside other heroes in the final conflict.

Hawkman and Hawkwoman’s return to Thanagar would come after a brutal battle with a sentient alien robot dubbed “Attila.”

This powerful machine had been abandoned and found by a religious zealot who believed his discovery was a sign from God. By transferring his mind into the robot, Attila set out to destroy abortion clinics across the nation. When faced with the winged heroes, the robot’s original programming overrode previous commands and commenced with his initial directive, the final command of his Aonian creators—death to all Thanagarians. The Aonians had been enslaved by Thanagar and eventually forced to live in the Downside. In a last-ditch effort to stop Attila, Hawkman was mortally wounded. Fearing for Katar’s survival, Hawkwoman placed him in suspended animation and raced back to their home planet.

While her partner recovered, Shayera was ordered back to Earth, accompanied by a double of Hawkman, Fel Andar, a former spy.

CONTINUITY TIES When asked about tying past continuity with the current DC continuity of the ’90s, John Ostrander explains, “The idea was mine. I knew it was a sticking point for some fans. And I like to play with continuity. Tim, who set up Hawkworld, chose Byth. When I choose to use a Silver Age character (this is true for my work in general), especially at that time, I like to re-look at it and see how it fit in with ‘modern’ sensibilities.”

Here’s a short guide to some of the characters revamped from the Silver Age to Modern Age:

The Brave and the Bold Occasionally other DC characters would cross over into Hawkworld’s pages, including the Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Amanda Waller.

TM & © DC Comics.

Andar had been to Earth once before, posing as the Golden Age Hawkman during DC Comics’ Invasion! crossover of early 1989. Meanwhile, Katar became embroiled in a war between the wingmen and the Downsiders, eventually aiding his Downsider allies in their escape of Thanagar. Hawkman would arrive back on Earth in time to stop Fel Andar from assassinating Shayera. Both having disobeyed direct orders from their superiors, the Hawks were now wanted criminals on Thanagar and would seek asylum on their adopted planet, donning new uniforms with colors slightly more tuned to their Golden Age predecessors.

“It’s HawkWOMAN. And Katar isn’t my husband, he’s my partner.

And what the hell are you talking about?!”

– Hawkwoman, Hawkworld Annual #2 (1992) Unfortunately, Hawkman and Hawkwoman’s time as official superheroes of Earth and allies to the Chicago Police Department was short-lived. Shayera found herself again possessed, this time by Eclipso, a former spirit of vengeance. Hawkman would be placed in the role of tactician and leader among the other heroes of Earth as they battled Eclipso and his army of eclipsed superhumans. Following a climactic battle on the moon, Shay and the others would be restored to their normal selves. But conflict would again arise between the Hawks when forced to deal with personal terms of justice and principles and the value of the First Amendment. An assignment to uncover the true identity of the pyromaniac and white supremist White Dragon eliminated the Hawks’ chance of asylum. Despite this, Katar and Shayera would come to terms with the romance that had begun to blossom between them. Aided by Carter and Sheira Hall, the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Hawks managed to stop White Dragon’s rampage and elude authorities. With no one but each other, Hawkman and Hawkwoman would escape to the Netherworld, a nickname for Chicago’s South Side.

OSTRANDER: With declining sales, DC wanted to do a new #1, and it was thought that changing Hawkworld to “Hawkman” might do that.

Also, Hawkman was the more traditional title.

The final six-part story, “Flight’s End” (Hawkworld #27–32), would see Graham Nolan depart and two guest artists fill in, Jan Duursema and Tim Truman, the latter returning to the series for covers and three issues of interior art.

Duursema would go on to become the regular artist for the Hawkman series that followed the cancelation of Hawkworld with issue #32 (Mar. 1993).

NOLAN: I think it was time to move on, creatively. I had been developing a Metamorpho miniseries with Mark Waid and was asked to do some fill-in work on Detective Comics as well.

• HAWKMAN AND HAWKWOMAN: No longer a married couple, Katar Hol and Shayera Thal were strictly partners, but slowly came to terms over their romantic feelings for one another before the end of the Hawkworld series.

• BYTH: Both the Silver Age and Modern Age version of the character used the drug Krotan to gain shapeshifting abilities, but Hawkworld’s Byth was a corrupt officer with strong influence in Thanagar’s underworld.

• CHIEF ANDAR PUL: Chief Pul remained true to his Silver Age counterpart as far as being Hol and Thal’s superior, but Hawkworld’s Pul was a deplorable Thanagarian who seduced a 13-year-old, Shayera Thal.

Thal would be killed and her abandoned daughter adopted by Thal Provis, the child’s grandfather.

The child would be given Shayera’s name and treated as though she was Provis’ firstborn.

• DR. KONRAD KASLAK: The Kaslak of old was a sorcerer. Not so in the Hawkworld universe, where instead he conspired with the witch Circe and later, unwittingly, Eclipso.

• DR. MOON: A brain surgeon who aided the likes of the Joker and Dr. Cyber during the Bronze Age, Moon was a scientist for the Sunderland Cooperation (of Swamp Thing infamy) in Hawkworld. Moon assisted the supervillain White Dragon until he went rogue and was dropped by the organization.

• HYANTHIS: Once the Queen of the planet Alstair, with control over plant life, Hyanthis would be revised as the manipulative grandmother of Hawkwoman and try to bait both Hawks against her ex-husband, Thal Porvis.

• KANJAR RO: Through the ’60s, into the ’70s, Kanjar Ro was a dictator of the planet Dhor and an enemy of Hyanthis, but returned to the post-Crisis DC Universe as an (untrustworthy) ambassador of the Commission for Alien Affairs, quickly moving up the political ranks on Thanagar.

• MANHAWKS: Originally a species of galactic thieves, the Manhawks were a stranded race of warlike humanoid birds that wore the face of their skinned enemies.

The females resembled Harpies of Greek mythology, human from the waist up.

• MAVIS TRENT: When first introduced, Trent was an archeologist who would regularly spur Shayera by flirting with Katar. Mavis was reimagined for Hawkworld as an exhibit coordinator who briefly dated Katar. Hol would eventually come to grips with his true feelings for his partner and leave Mavis for Shayera.

• SHADOW THIEF: After rescuing the life of an alien from a foreign dimension, Carl Sands was given a device that allowed him to become a living shadow. In Hawkworld, Sands was given a shadow suit by Byth, combining his ninjutsu skills with his experience as a professional saboteur to beguile Hawkman.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

“Flight’s End” Detail from Timothy Truman’s majestic original cover painting (courtesy of Heritage) to the final issue of Hawkworld, #32 (Mar. 1993).

TM & © DC Comics.

Mike Gold never micromanaged us. He let us run with the series. He was a good editor. I had free reign.

The Prestige series did so well I didn’t want to be the guy to muck it up, so I tried to capture some of the Truman/ Alcatana look but bring my own sense of dynamics to it.

OSTRANDER: The thing I’m most pleased about Hawkworld was exploring the “civics” side of the story. When Katar and Shayera read the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution for the first time, they react like aliens—“Are you people serious about this?

If you are, you’re the most dangerous people in the galaxy!” A mixture both of admiration and horror. It’s a reminder of just how dangerous our government was when it was founded. We are a revolutionary nation.

The Netherworlds of Chicago were in many ways similar to the Downside of Thanagar, separate from normal society.

Human refuse, most with metahuman abilities of their own, were slowly coming under the control of Count Viper, a villain introduced in the first Hawkworld Annual. Viper, a radical patriot from the 1700s, possessed incredible psychic powers. His ability to transfer his mind from host to host allowed him to remain virtually immortal. Viper’s attempt to lure Hawkman to his cause of government takeover failed, resulting in a lasting feud between the Count and the Hawks. Katar and Shayera narrowly managed to defeat the Count and shatter his manipulation over his unsuspecting pawns, but not before Hawkwoman was rendered brain dead by a telepathic assault from Viper.

Both the supervillain and Hawkman were consumed in an explosion, Katar’s fate unclear at the close of issue #32.

Hawkworld would wrap and be followed with Hawkman #1 (Sept. 1993) by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema.

The series would pick up from the final Hawkworld story six months later with the whereabouts of Katar Hol still unclear.

While Hol would return, a new direction would be focused upon with the introduction of Paran Katar’s widowed wife, Hol’s mother, becoming a regular member of the supporting cast. It would be a few years before Hawkman would return to Thanagar and even longer for Hawkwoman to do so.

Fans of Hawkworld would be left wanting for a long time, though elements of the series would pop up in modern-day continuity from time to time. Today the Hawkworld mini- and regular series are looked upon with fondness among Hawkman and Hawkwoman fans for reimagining a world of many fantastic characters and giving voice to issues of particular concern for its era, issues that remain relevant today.

“We see them and we see something in ourselves, our dreams, our hopes; the very best part of ourselves symbolized in them—in two hawks, flying free.”

– Hawkwoman, Hawkworld #9 (Mar. 1991) STEVEN WILBER is a storyteller on canvas and educator in the classroom, based in Boston, continually inspired by his growing 30- plus-year collection of comic books.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

by B

ryan D. Stroud

The Penguin, who was introduced in the pages of Detective Comics #58 (Dec. 1941), would initially appear to be a rather unlikely villain. Dressed to the nines in a tuxedo, tails, and top hat and often sporting a monocle, spats, white gloves, and cigarette holder, he almost seemed more caricature than criminal. Yet, even that debut story hinted on its splash page that this villain was different: “Crossing the path of the Batman, most feared of all crime-fighters, waddles the strange, almost ludicrous figure of the Penguin… the umbrella man!”

That same page showed this new villain with an oversized penguin directly behind him and an umbrella hanging from his forearm, illustrating right from the beginning two of the most enduring conceits for this character. Furthermore, his moniker, his fascination with and use of birds in his capers, and his arsenal of weaponized umbrellas would categorically identify the Penguin down through the decades to the present day.

The use of a customized umbrella is immediately brought into play in the Penguin’s premiere when two valuable paintings are abruptly missing from the art museum he, Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson are visiting. Everyone undergoes a search when the theft is discovered, but the missing artwork is not to be found. Only later do we discover how the theft was accomplished, when the man in formal wear visits the local mob boss, revealing the hollow handle in the umbrella that contains the rolled-up canvases.

Gaining his “street cred,” the Penguin is soon calling the shots for the racketeers and ultimately takes over the gang by shooting the boss with his weaponized bumbershoot.

It isn’t long until the Batman and the Penguin cross paths, but the trick umbrella is again brought into play, this time as a gas gun to incapacitate the Caped Crusader.

Utilizing the alias “Mr. Boniface,” the crook actually succeeds in having the Masked Manhunter toted away by the police after framing the dazed hero by claiming a valuable idol has gone missing and Batman just happened to be the only one present. Before it’s over, we see acid squirting from the umbrella stem in another caper, and in the end, after a brief struggle, the Penguin escapes— but he wouldn’t be absent for long in Gotham City.

THE PENGUIN IS HATCHED

As with many of the earliest efforts in the comic-book medium, the Penguin’s beginnings are a bit murky. One of the first versions was published in Real Fact Comics #5 (Nov.–Dec. 1946) attributed to Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger, and Bernie Breslauer, and illustrated by Win Mortimer.

Bob Kane is depicted in “The True Story of Batman and Robin” subtitled “How a Big Time Comic is Born.” Kane is shown on the street during a summer afternoon in the city when he spotted a gentleman in formal wear

Cry Fowl!

The Darknight Detective vs. the Foul Fowl on Joe DeVito’s 1992 painted cover to the prose paperback The Further Adventures of Batman vol. 2. Art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Batman and Penguin TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

Possible Penguinspirations (top inset) Broadway Bates, from a 1931 Chester Gould Dick Tracy strip. (bottom inset) The Kool penguin. (right) An undated Penguin sketch attributed to Bob Kane, courtesy of Heritage.

Broadway Bates/Dick Tracy © Tribune Media Services.

Kool © R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Penguin TM & © DC Comics.

including a bowler and monocle and carrying an umbrella.

“Eccentric chap, isn’t he? I’ll sketch him in my notebook.”

The next panel shows the Penguin with a caption stating, “The sketch crystallized in Kane’s mind, and months later was born another adversary for the Batman… the droll Penguin, man of 1,000 umbrellas…”

Speaking of well-dressed chaps in bowlers, it has been suggested that a possible inspiration for the Penguin came from Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip, another haven for bizarre criminals. A dapper member of the underworld by the name of Broadway Bates was often seen in the strip using a cigarette holder and wearing a monocle, and predated the Penguin by nearly a decade.

He also had a similarly prominent proboscis. The current writer and artist team on Dick Tracy, Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, even went so far in early January of 2013 to show a familiar, top-hatted figure in silhouette reading a local newspaper headline declaring that Broadway Bates has been captured. Leaning on an umbrella and puffing on a cigarette in its holder, the unnamed gentleman muses that Dick Tracy had always wanted to pin something on

his brother, Broadway, and that he should pay the detective a visit after finishing with his own archenemy.

Thanks to Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics vol. 1 (1970), we have original writer Bill Finger’s recollections: “The Penguin came out of an article in the Saturday Evening Post on Emperor Penguins,” Finger explained.

“They looked like Englishmen in a fancy club. I decided the character had to have two things, a tuxedo-like costume with a top hat, and an umbrella. I made umbrellas with gimmicks, all weapons which would give him character.

I decided to make the villain funny but in a diabolical manner. I used the theme of birds. I bought books on birds and collected hundreds of articles for reference.”

Nearly two decades later, Bob Kane offered his own version of events in his 1989 autobiography, Batman and Me, when he stated that the Penguin was inspired by a 1940 advertisement he’d spotted: “I created one of my most famous characters, the Penguin, after I saw a cute little penguin on a Kool Cigarette pack. Penguins always look like little fat men in tuxedos to me. So this was how I drew the Penguin. Bill [Finger] invented ‘The Man of a Thousand Umbrellas’ gimmicks the Penguin used against Batman. His waddle, pudginess, and short stature made him a more cartoony character than my other villains, but he was a killer and a formidable foe nonetheless.”

The Penguin quickly became a regular in Batman’s rogues’ gallery, garnering 20 appearances in the Golden Age Batman title and eight in Detective Comics. His first cover appearance came on Detective Comics #67 (Sept. 1942), and in a rare move for the day, artist Jerry Robinson kept the original cover art.

Many of the story titles during this time frame utilized both alliteration and bird references, to include “Bargains in Banditry,” “Knights of Knavery,” “Crime on the Wing,” “The Penguin’s Nest,” “Fowl Play,” “The Birdcage Bandits,” and “The Fowls of Fate.”

Another point of interest during this time frame is that the rogue’s real name was revealed not in the comics, but in the syndicated daily strip in 1946 when Batman confronts him: “You took all that risk just to steal a card addressed to Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot? Who is that person?” “Please, Batman! Arrest me! But don’t make me answer that!” The subplot involved sparing his Aunt Miranda the embarrassment of realizing her nephew is a criminal.

THE PENGUIN’S POP STARDOM

The Penguin went on a bit of a hiatus during the Silver Age, making just a few appearances until he made a big resurgence thanks to the hit Batman TV series. Once Batmania took hold, the Penguin became writ large in pop culture, due to the portrayal by Burgess Meredith in both the television series and the original Batman movie (1966), where he played a key role, providing transportation for his fellow fiends with huge jet-propelled umbrellas for the air and a Penguin submarine for the sea. The Penguin was now positioned for more extensive use in the comics. In fact, in the pages of The Brave and the Bold #68 (Oct.–Nov. 1966) marked the first time that the Penguin, the Joker, and the Riddler appeared together in one story, doubtless inspired by the television series.

The second Silver Age appearance of the Foul Fowl was in a tale titled “Partners in Plunder” in Batman #169 (Feb. 1965). Inker Joe Giella shares with BACK ISSUE a few thoughts about his work on the story and the character: “I had no trouble with [Bob Kane ghost artist, penciler] Sheldon Moldoff’s work. It’s just that our styles were 32 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

different. His style was more of a dated style and at the PENGUIN IN THE BRONZE AGE time mine was a more modern style. But we worked Meanwhile, back in the comic books, the Penguin had together great. There was no problem at all on Shelly’s not been forgotten as the Bronze Age got a foothold. stuff. His penciling was tight. When you compared it with Denny O’Neil wrote a story titled “Hail, Emperor Penguin!”

Carmine Infantino’s style, Carmine’s was very loose.” that appeared in Batman #257 (July–Aug. 1974). Denny When discussing the Penguin in particular, Joe relates, graciously shares a few thoughts on his brief work with “I can tell you that the Penguin has always been one of my this classic villain: “I’ve done very little with the Penguin. favorite characters. You know, when Bob Kane had that The best Penguin has been the one on [TV’s] Gotham. show on television, he’d be up on stage and had a studio I can’t imagine it being better. The show is really underaudience and he had a large easel with a big pad on it. On estimated because they’re reinventing a whole continuity, a whole saga, and making it on their own terms that pad were my drawings in a very light blue pencil so it wouldn’t be visible. He would go and modernizing it, and it still works every way over my drawings with a magic marker and that the old stuff worked. I don’t think that’s he’d get a big hand and it would look like ever been tried before in extended serial he was drawing the character. In reality, form like that. They’re pulling it off.” he was following my pencil line. It was Denny included his co-creation, Talia, all planned. I would meet Bob at his daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, in the story. apartment each week and he’d tell me, “I think Talia and Ra’s were getting ‘Joe, this week get me the Joker,’ or the popular [at the time],” O’Neil offers. “It Riddler or whatever character, but I do was a character I was a bit more familiar recall that the Penguin was done a few with. I’m generally not scared off by those kinds of challenges. Maybe it was a whim of times because he was very popular. In fact, the moment. As I keep telling people, for many of the commission pieces I do, we didn’t think it out. [chuckle] It was a they’ll want a full painting of the Penguin, joe giella loosey-goosey business and some of and he’s about neck-and-neck with requests for the Joker. Probably the this stuff got done that might not have Courtesy of Comic Vine. toughest part of drawing the Penguin gotten done because Julie [Schwartz] is the umbrella—for instance, when he uses it as a parachute. simply didn’t ask for permission. He just did it. It was okay.”

If you’re shooting from underneath the umbrella, you get Denny also shares what he feels is the basic difficulty involved with all that structure to keep the umbrella open when writing the Penguin: “There was another problem to solve with doing a Penguin story, and I never did quite and that’s difficult. A lot of detail is involved.”

The Penguin’s popularity was undeniably in ascent, and solve it. The TV people have. It is that Batman is, say, six all you had to do was look at the additional appearances feet tall, 195 pounds. The sense of comic-book conflict, of Oswald Cobblepot for validation. A series of paperback whether we like it or not, is generally physical action. books published by Signet in 1966 included Batman vs. Well, you couldn’t do a fight between these two because the Penguin, devoted to reprints of Penguin stories from it was such an uneven match. You were never quite sure the ’50s along with his first Silver Age appearance what the Penguin did to qualify as a heavyweight villain. from Batman #155 (May 1963) titled “The Return of the He had funny umbrellas, but again that edges very close to Penguin,” scripted by Bill Finger. Another testimony to the comedy and edges away from the kind of action/melodrama Man of 1,000 Umbrellas was the decision to feature him that are comic staples. It’s the vocabulary of the medium in a miniature comic book from a series offered in Kellogg’s that you express conflict through physical action. When I Pop Tarts in 1966. “The Penguin’s Fowl Play” was written adapted comics to a novel form... sometimes in a novel I

by E. Nelson Bridwell, with art by Curt Swan. The 16-page thought it was better to express that through dialogue story features classic tropes such as the Penguin riding rather than another fight. So I never quite knew how to astride an ostrich and a purple coloring to his wardrobe, handle the Penguin. As I said earlier, the guys on Gotham solved that problem.” undoubtedly tipping the top hat to Burgess Meredith.

Live-Action Penguins (inset) Joe Giella inked Carmine Infantino’s cover for Batman #190 (Mar. 1967), produced at the height of Batmania. (left) Burgess Meredith as the Penguin on the 1966–1968 Batman TV show. (center) Danny DeVito’s grotesque turn, in 1992’s theatrical blockbuster, Batman Returns. (right) Robin Lord Taylor as today’s TV Penguin, from Gotham.

Penguin TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

The Penguin continued to be a pitchman for other products during this time frame as can be seen on the inside back cover of The Amazing World of DC Comics #4 (Jan.–Feb. 1975), which reproduces Dick Giordano’s beautiful depiction of the Foul Fowl victoriously strolling away from bound figures of Batman and Robin and was used for a jigsaw puzzle. Some comics published in the mid-’70s sported those well-known one-page advertisements for Hostess products and the Penguin was involved in a plot to create a “Twinkieless Gotham City,” only to be foiled by Batman and Robin.

The Penguin also solo-starred in two Hostess ads.

Despite a short tenure on Batman in the ’70s (four issues), artist Mike Grell made his mark and

Bronze Age Appearances (top left) Denny O’Neil brought back the Penguin in Batman #257 (July–Aug. 1974). Cover by Nick Cardy. (center left) Mike Grell’s Penguin, as seen on the cover of Batman #287 (May 1977). (bottom left) The Bat-team Supreme of Englehart, Rogers, and Austin included Pengy in their celebrated late-’70s Detective Comics run, which was reprinted in 1986 in the Deluxe Format Shadow of the Batman miniseries. (bottom right) Original Dick Giordano art to a mid-’70s Batman puzzle (not the one mentioned in the article), which was released in a round can.

Art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

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as luck would have it, the first story he illustrated for Batman, #287 (May 1977), and continued in the next issue, featured none other than “That pitiless, pestiferous, prince of pain and plunder— that pedantic patriarch of predators—the Penguin,” taking David V. Reed’s prose from the splash page.

Mike was enthused about his assignment: “I was really excited about Batman, because it’s an iconic character. Doing the Penguin character was actually quite a bit of fun. Julie Schwartz wanted him to be a little more realistic and somewhat less cartoony than he had been portrayed, but he didn’t want him to look like Burgess Meredith. So, I think, at Joe Orlando’s suggestion, I actually modeled the Penguin after Julie. Also, I didn’t have to make the nose much bigger. [laughter] Seriously, though, he was a sweet guy… Julie was the nicest gentleman. He was such a tremendously creative guy.”

The tale involved the Penguin’s use of a number of prehistoric birds. “I had my own reference that I’d gathered over the years,” Grell tells BACK ISSUE. “I was always into dinosaurs and archaeology and such, so it was a pretty natural fit for me. Also, when you’re bridging the gap between reality and comic books, close enough is good enough. People aren’t likely to say, ‘Hey, there are too many toes on that Pteranodon.’

The principle of internal logic goes along with any story that you write. You create the internal logic of the story and you stick with it.”

Mike included some terrific details into the story and described such subtleties as a Batman outline as a shadow for Bruce Wayne: “I probably saw that in another comic because that sounds like something that’s so classic, I’m pretty sure I didn’t think of it.” An impressive page layout on page five containing the Bat-emblem consisting of panels is another Grell specialty. “I always enjoyed playing around with layouts on the page and doing shapes within shapes,” he says. “Early on I discovered that if I needed a big closeup and there wasn’t a lot of room on the page, what I could do was leave a blank spot on, say, the bottom

right-hand corner if I was doing a four- or six-panel grid, three across and in two tiers. If I left the borders off that last one and just drew the eyes and nose, maybe the mouth, but then completed the head in the gutters between the other panels, it looked like I drew this gigantic head on the page and it would really pop instead of enclosing it in the panel and confining it like that.

I always enjoyed breaking as many rules as possible.”

Reflecting some more on the Penguin, Mike observes, “I think the key to the Penguin character is brains over brawn. It’s skullduggery. If you have, for instance, a villain coming up against Thor, he’s either got to be more powerful, or he’s got to be smarter than Thor. It’s the same with Superman. He’s either got to be more powerful or way smarter because the protagonist is defined by the nature of the antagonist. The hero is defined by the villain.

Superman wouldn’t be a hero if he punched the living daylights out of some third-grade bully on the playground.

But if a second grader punches out a third-grade bully, then the second grader is the hero. You have to have someone who is stronger, more powerful in some fashion or another, or cleverer. And, of course, when dealing with Batman, it’s a combination of things. The Penguin has to be a jump ahead of Batman. He’s not his match physically, so he’s got to be more clever, more cunning or devious. The fact that Batman is a detective, even though he’s an unpowered superhero, but his great power other than his physical capability is his brilliance, and when you come up against a guy who is a lot smarter than you are, that’s when it gets good.”

in a thunderstorm without one and died two weeks later from bronchial pneumonia. Because of his appearance, odd name, and walk, and ever-present umbrella, the boy became the target of bullies, causing him to retreat to the birds in the shop for companionship. He went on to earn a degree in ornithology, but soon afterward his mother passed away and left a mountain of debt that caused the shop and its inventory of birds to be seized by creditors. Oswald reached his breaking point and decided to turn to a life of crime to gain his revenge on the cruel society that had done this to him.

It turns out that Mike Grell was not the only artist to use a real-world inspiration for the Penguin. A story from Detective Comics #568 (Nov. 1986) called “Eyrie” featured illustrations by Klaus Janson, who reveals to BI, “The most interesting thing about ‘Eyrie’ is that I took pictures of George Roussos in his Marvel office and used him as a model for the Penguin. He loved that and got a kick out of it.” George Roussos, being one of the earliest inkers to work on Batman, was an inspired choice.

Another Penguin origin story came along in 1989 in Secret Origins Special #1. Alan Grant was the writer

The Life of Pie (below) One of the Penguin’s solo Hostess ads. (left) Courtesy of Bryan Stroud, a Mike Grell sketch of ol’ Oswald.

Penguin TM & © DC Comics.

THE ORIGIN(S) OF OSWALD COBBLEPOT

Incredibly, it wasn’t until almost 40 years after his debut that the Penguin was finally given a formal backstory.

From the pages of The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #10 (Mar. 1981), featuring “Secret Origins of Super-Villains,” we are given a Michael Fleisher-written tale titled, appropriately, “The Origin of the Penguin!”

It seems a young Oswald Cobblepot was living with his ailing mother in the family bird shop. Mrs. Cobblepot insisted that her boy always carry an umbrella, as his father had been caught

mike grell Courtesy of Comic Vine.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

Holy Hitchcock! (top) Klaus Janson’s creepy cover to Detective Comics #568 (Nov. 1986), a Penguin tale. (bottom) A sampling from Alan Grant and Sam Kieth’s “The Killing Peck,” in Secret Origins Special #1 (1989).

TM & © DC Comics.

for “The Killing Peck” and explains, among other things, that the similarity of the title to Batman: The Killing Joke was no coincidence: “It was a small tribute to Alan Moore. Also, it’s what happened in the story.”

As to Oswald’s multiple Shakespearean quotations, Alan offers, “Cobblepot’s a highly educated man—I just thought it would be in character for him to quote Shakespeare.”

Unlike the aforementioned origin story, this one showed similarities with Batman’s own origin, with a driven Oswald Cobblepot honing himself physically.

Alan Grant relates, “I think Denny [O’Neil] had established in one of his stories that Bruce Wayne was playing chess-by-post with Cobblepot with neither knowing the true identity of their opponent. I thought it would be fun if Oswald and Bruce were even more like each other.” Grant also reveals that the ending he intended for the story did not see print. “The ending of the published ‘Killing Peck’ was not the original which I wrote (although I did the rewrite, too). In my original, the guy being force-fed fish

by Cobblepot throughout the story was thrown by the hood into the penguin enclosure, where the penguins pecked him to death (hence the title).

However, Denny said it was too brutal and asked me to change it to tigers.

I didn’t agree with him—still don’t— but he was my editor, perhaps klaus janson respected by me more than anyone © Luigi Novi / else in comics—and I did what he Wikimedia Commons. asked. It’s one of only two times that Denny told me he was unhappy with a script’s ending and asked me to change it.”

A TRIUMPHANT VILLAIN

As the calendar changed to the ’90s and the Penguin made his latest bow on the big screen in Batman Returns (1992), the time seemed ripe for the Penguin to finally get his own graphic novel. Penguin Triumphant was published the same year, and writer John Ostrander shares his memories of the project: “At the time there was a Batman movie coming out and DC decided they were going to do some special things. So Denny O’Neil asked me if I’d do the Penguin. They wanted us to do it in what was then known as the Prestige Format, which was a 45-page story.

“So I started going around and thinking. The Penguin can be kind of a goofy character if not done right. I loved Burgess Meredith in the Batman television show and thought he was absolutely perfect. How do you do an interesting story with that? So I wanted to get into things, like what made him the Penguin and what made the Penguin’s real ability, besides being odd? I figured it had to be his brain. So that was basically how it started. We weren’t going to do the same Penguin as in the movie.

I don’t think Warner Bros. would have allowed us to do that anyway. I wanted to get a feel enough for him and then see what we could come up with.”

The story held all the usual identifying characteristics of Oswald, including the distinctive “wauk, wauk” laugh.

John thought it was, in part, a tribute to Burgess Meredith: “It just seemed to me to be an interesting verbal trick. People tend to discount him, and I think that’s always a fatal error with the Penguin.”

Ostrander managed to make the villain a bit of a sympathetic character, showing his rejection in high school and his feeling like an outsider, leading to a desire to be a dashing figure inspired by his fascination with his book about Arthur J. Raffles, the gentleman thief.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

He says, “I enjoyed Raffles a lot, and certainly I went through some of that as well (feeling like an outsider), so I thought, ‘Well, okay, write what you know.’ I wanted to incorporate that in because if I’m working with a character, particularly a villain that’s at the center of the story rather than as the antagonist, you want the reader to identify with that character, and so the question becomes, ‘How do you do that?’ So you have to give them traits, characteristics, a history where a lot of readers can go, ‘Yeah, I understand that and I understand how he becomes or why he chooses to do what he does.’

You might not follow the same route yourself, but you can certainly understand wanting to do that. That’s my goal as a writer. If I can get you to identify with somebody who you ordinarily would never identify with, then you might find elements of that person within you.

That’s part of my overall philosophy, that we all have elements of all these things in us. I don’t hold that there are people who are evil. I think people make bad choices and maybe sometimes deliberately make bad choices, but still, they are just bad choices and we’re all capable of that. So I think it’s important to underline that.”

John wraps up his thoughts with observations on the Penguin, and what made this project satisfying for him: “The Penguin has a particular visual look to him.

I think that’s very important. If you take away most of that, then he’s really not the Penguin. He looks odd, so as with a lot of the Batman villains, someone who’s physically odd or looks weird often becomes someone the fans want to see again. What he’s doing has to have a clearly definable goal, and it’s not always to destroy Batman. Usually, it’s ‘How can I get money? How can I get power?’

“I’m also very proud of that book, because it’s a complete story in and of itself and I always like when that happens,” Ostrander continues. “It comes down to what story are you going to tell and how are you going to tell it and how are you going to make it the

best story that you can? You just go ahead and do the job, as I’m fond of saying. One thing I tell young writers as they’re getting started when I do lectures or a class is that it’s like walking a tightrope. You don’t look down. You focus on where you’re going. If you look down, you’re going to fall.”

RECAST-AWAY!

Perhaps the biggest and most enduring contemporary changes in the Penguin were affected by friends and collaborators Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan, who, to use Dixon’s term, “recast” the Penguin’s modus operandi. “Mostly I just threw it all out,” Dixon explains.

“He’s the only character that I couldn’t resist trying to recast in the canon. So I pretty much completely avoided it. Until I presented the idea at the Bat-summit that the Penguin be turned into more of a Sydney Greenstreet character, a behind-the-scenes player who owned a legitimate nightclub and could be seen making the rounds with beautiful women, which was always part

>Waugh<’s Happening Brian Stelfreeze’s cover to 1992’s Penguin Triumphant, written by John Ostrander, and an interior art page

by Joe Staton and Bob Smith, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

of his character, but less the action hero. Even when I was a kid, Penguin was unbelievable as an action guy. It was never believable that he could actually win in a fight with Batman, no matter how many trick umbrellas he had.

“I always saw him as a true, professional criminal who wasn’t really interested in taunting Batman,” Chuck continues.

“He was more interested in getting away with the loot. So it didn’t really fit that he’d be drawing attention to himself.

He wears a ridiculous outfit and has strange behavior and the birds. Basically that’s why I presented it to the other creators and to Denny [O’Neil] and the other editors the way I did.

‘Let’s have this guy open the Iceberg Lounge and make him a player behind the scenes. It just makes him so much cooler than a chubby little guy trying to wrestle the Dynamic Duo.’ “Recasting him allowed him to appear more in the book, too, because so many writers didn’t want to us him because he was sort of silly. He just sort of broke the mood of the book all the time. Recasting him allowed us to use him more, and we used him a lot more through the ’90s than he’d been used previously. He’d become a character that could appear in any story. He became a fixture in the Gotham underworld.”

Dixon concludes, “My philosophy has been that you can evolve a character as long as it remains recognizable. As long as you don’t get too far from the core, the characters are very malleable. A writer needs to resist the temptation to change things just for the sake of change. They need to remain recognizable to the casual reader, who is the forgotten man in comics.

You must remember that everyone is not a diehard fan.”

Artist Graham Nolan’s recollections dovetail nicely with writer Chuck Dixon’s: “As we were nearing the end of all the crossover stuff in KnightsEnd, we knew we were finally going to get to do some standalone stories. We were at dinner on the last night of a Bat-conference and we were tossing out some villains we would like to do, and the Penguin came up. I always thought he was a bit gimmicky, and so I wanted to do something different. I suggested he be more like Hammett’s Kasper Gutman character from The Maltese Falcon. He would be more of a crimeboss and have holdings and enterprises all over Gotham.

Chuck came up with the Iceberg Lounge as Penguin’s main front. A legitimate business that he makes his deals out of.

“I did a sketch of his new look, thinking of Sydney Greenstreet, removed his tux and tails, and gave him a white dinner jacket and added wisps of his hair on the side of his head like feathers on a real penguin I once saw,” Nolan reveals.

“He still carried an umbrella as a weapon and he always had hot girls around him, hangers-on attracted to his power.”

In the final analysis, the Penguin is an enduring presence after more than 75 years. A fitting piece of John Ostranderpenned dialogue spoken by Batman in Penguin Triumphant seems like an excellent summation of why the Man of 1,000 Umbrellas continues to be a genuine threat: “Everyone seems to consistently underestimate the Penguin, myself included.

Cobblepot is ruthless, vindictive, inventive, and perhaps the most brilliant man I’ve ever fought. He’s smarter than I am.”

With those timeless abilities and the renewed interest in the Penguin with the success of the Gotham television series, Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot will be with us for a long time to come.

Cobblepot, Crimeboss Original Graham Nolan Penguin art from Batman Secret Files vol.

2 (Dec. 1999). Courtesy of Graham Nolan and Bryan Stroud.

TM & © DC Comics.

38 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

BRYAN STROUD is a longtime fan of DC Comics, particularly the Silver and Bronze Ages, and has been contributing to the website of his lifelong best friend, Ron Daudt, for over a decade, doing reviews of those classics. Beginning in 2007, Bryan seized an opportunity to begin interviewing the creators of the comics he’s loved and has been fortunate enough to conduct over 70 to date at www.thesilverlantern.com.

Characters that are created to reflect a social or political movement usually have an expiration date. While Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America, the paragon of World War II patriotism, has managed to defy the odds by weathering changing cultural mores, most of-the-moment characters, such as Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, the stoner statesmen of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture, waft up in smoke once the movement or fad that created them has passed.

DC Comics’ the Hawk and the Dove were the product of a specific time, the era of protests against the United States’ military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Despite that now-dated genesis, Hawk and Dove’s adventures have been routinely re-feathered to keep the costumed crimebusters nested among DC’s line of superstars.

Birds of a Different Feather

by M i c h a e l

Eury

Detail from the cover of Showcase #75 (June 1968). Art by Steve Ditko.

TM & © DC Comics.

TM

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Hawk! Dove!

The hawk vs. dove political clash polarized Americans during the sizzling ’60s.

Political photos courtesy of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.

FIRST FLIGHT

saying their superhero names, those powers would vanish once the threat In 1968, Dick Giordano was hired as a DC Comics editor, jumping from was vanquished, instantly restoring the Hall brothers to their real identities. the minors—Charlton Comics—to the majors. One of his Charlton In the heroes’ origin in Showcase #75, Hank and Don are trapped collaborators, artist Steve Ditko, had also just landed at DC, and on in a locked room but must warn their no-nonsense father, Judge Irwin Ditko’s drawing board were two new superhero concepts unlike Hall, of an impending mob hit. The teens appeal to the heavens, anything the company was publishing at the time: Beware the Creeper wishing for the power to escape. A thundering voice grants them their and The Hawk and the Dove. Both were launched in the tryout title super-abilities and guises for their mission. “…It could’ve been God, Showcase and quickly spun off into their own bimonthly series, with or it could’ve been an alien being,” Giordano said. “Defining it would Giordano at the editorial helm. have taken the mystery away.” Becoming the Hawk and the Dove, The Hawk and the Dove were introduced in Showcase #75 the bird brothers barge into action, with Hawk impetuously (June 1968). Editor Giordano wrote in its text page an barreling into bad guys while Dove passively and strategically explanation of the characters’ names and the series’ concept, looks for nonviolent alternatives to solve conflicts. And thus, for the benefit of readers unaware of the deeper meanings the feature’s premise is established, bolstered by Ditko’s idiosyncratic layouts and renderings. beyond their obvious avian appellations: “…a person who defends our right to be in [Vietnam], favors continued The squawking siblings are next seen in The Hawk and bombing of the North, and in general desires to win the Dove #1 (Sept.–Oct. 1968), by the Ditko/Skeates/ the war by aggressive military action, is characterized Giordano team. They tangle with costumed crooks called by the press as a HAWK! Conversely, the person who the Drop-Outs in their first issue and escaped convicts in sues for a negotiated peace, demands withdrawal their second issue, remaining at ideological odds in and out of U.S. forces from [Vietnam], and in general favors of costume, reflecting “Ditko’s right vs. wrong sensibilities, compromising to attain peace, is referred to as a DOVE!” with their father, the judge, in the middle of their Giordano’s definitions delineated the personalities extremes, not to take sides, but to make the sons think of the comic’s “tough and tame” teenage stars, the over their views,” as Giordano explained to me. steve ditko impulsive Hank Hall and the contemplative Don Hall.

Political ideologies also fractured the real-life team Carmine Infantino, at the time DC’s editorial director, behind the book. “Exactly why I was chosen to write claimed in interviews that it was his idea to personify that torn-from- these purportedly explosively political misadventures of the Hall brothers today’s-headlines political dispute as a quarrelsome duo of superheroes and their father, the judge, while Denny [O’Neil] was given the Creeper book when he and Giordano were brainstorming DC projects for the newly to do, I have no idea,” Steve Skeates told John Schwirian in a 2008 interview arrived Steve Ditko. According to Steve Skeates, the series’ dialoguer which appeared in Alter Ego #84. “Perhaps with my long hair, paisley brought by Dick Giordano from Charlton to DC, the Hawk and Dove poncho, and hippie demeanor I made a better token peacenik (supposedly concept was further developed by a committee of three (Infantino, needed to offset Ditko’s well-known Ayn Rand-style raving conservative Ditko, and Giordano), with Skeates being enlisted for additional plotting. lunacy) than the clean-cut O’Neil would have.” Skeates lamented in the Giordano elaborated on this when I interviewed him for my 2003 interview that his efforts to characterize Dove as heroic (albeit non-violent) TwoMorrows biography, Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a were vetoed by Ditko, Giordano, or Infantino, leading the writer to contend, Time, crediting Skeates with coining the magic words uttered to trigger the “This series more properly should have been called The Hawk and the Wimp!” brothers’ superpowers (enhanced strength and stamina): Hank exclaiming Ditko’s stay at DC was short-lived, and the storyteller departed The “Hawk!” and Don shouting “Dove!” But where did those super-abilities Hawk and the Dove after issue #2. With issue #3 the book’s new penciler come from? “During the series’ development, Ditko was unsure of the was Gil Kane, an artist Skeates felt was better suited for the title. Kane took source of Hawk and Dove’s powers,” Giordano told me. “I said flippantly, over the writing from Skeates beginning with The Hawk and the Dove #5.

‘Just have a voice give them their powers’—and that’s what we did.” While While Kane’s work was solidly entertaining, any momentum engendered Hank and Don could summon their superpowers in times of danger by by Ditko’s arrival at DC after his run on Marvel’s popular Amazing Spider-Man 40 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

was molting, and the continuing characterization of the wedding of Donna (Wonder Girl) Troy, along with just about Dove as a chicken rather than a peace-monger certainly every Titan and supporting cast member, past and present. didn’t help the book grow a sufficient audience. The title Sandwiched between those two appearances was was canceled after its sixth issue.

“Time, See What’s Become of Me…,” a Batman/The Hawk and the Dove team-up in The Brave and the Between issues #5 and 6, Hawk and Dove made a guest-appearance in Teen Titans #21, Bold #181 (Dec. 1981), scripted by television a title also edited by Giordano. Giordano writer and novelist Alan Brennert and kept the duo in his editorial roost, giving drawn by B&B stalwart Jim Aparo. The them hangers-on status in Teen Titans. team-up depicts the former teen superheroes as adults, having allowed them TT #25 features writer Bob Kanigher’s “The Titans Kill a Saint?,” where the bird to age naturally, unlike most comic-book brothers again cross paths with the TTs. characters, who age at a much slower pace. As Brennert told interviewer Rob In this tale, the Titans and Hawk and Dove inadvertently contribute to a militant’s Kelly in BACK ISSUE #84, “These characters assassination of a Nobel Peace Prize hadn’t been used in years, since an old winner, earning a reprimand from the issue of Teen Titans, and at that point, disapproving Justice League of America. it seemed as though they never would This sparks a detour for the Teen be again because they were so… you dick giordano Titans book, as Kanigher (followed by know… of the ’60s! I thought, ‘Well…

Steve Skeates) thrust the junior JLA into © DC Comics. comics’ “relevance” era. Under the direction of Mr. Jupiter, “the richest man in the world,” the TTs renounce their superpowers and costumes and take on missions to “combat the new problems of tomorrow” such as “riots, prejudice, [and] greed.” Hawk and Dove—actually, Hank and Don, since they are mostly out of costume—are along for the ride, taking a back seat to the “name” characters in the book… until Teen Titans #29 (Sept.–Oct. 1970).

Here, the Titans are back in their colorful fighting togs, and Hawk and Dove score a cover appearance, skirmishing with guest-villain Ocean Master as part of a storyline involving Aqualad, who drops in on the TTs after having earlier disappeared from the title. Hawk and Dove’s requisite wrangling is on view here, but the duo manage to work past their differences and join forces.

Two issues later, Hawk and Dove star in a seven-page backup written by Steve Skeates, penciled by George Tuska, and inked by Nick Cardy. It’s a counterfeiting mystery, a quieter story than the duo’s earlier tales… but still, it’s a Hawk and Dove appearance for those readers who had grown fond of the characters. Then, Giordano resigned from his DC position to embark upon his Continuity Studios partnership with Neal Adams. Beginning with TT #32, Murray Boltinoff replaced Giordano as Titans editor, and with issue #33 brought original TT scribe Bob Haney back to the book. Without their primary editor and writer in their corner, the Hawk and the Dove fluttered off into limbo.

Band of Brothers (top) The “voice” gives Hawk and Dove their superpowers.

From Showcase #75. (bottom) H&D cover appearances in Teen Titans.

TM & © DC Comics.

BAD LUCK IN THE BRONZE AGE

It is well over six years before Hawk and Dove are seen again, and when they return, it is once again in the pages of Teen Titans, which had been revived after a few dormant years with 1976’s issue #44. But this time, the bird brothers aren’t alone as Titans guest-stars. Alongside Beast Boy, Golden Eagle, the original Bat-Girl, and Lilith, Hawk and Dove are members of Titans West, a Golden State offshoot of the East Coast-based TTs. Bob Rozakis was the TT writer at the time and conceived the idea of a West Coast-based team of Titans. In a threeparter in 1977’s Teen Titans #50–52, the writer “basically went for the rest of the teen characters from the ’60s/early ’70s that we had not included in the book before” for a bicoastal battle with the villainous Captain Calamity, Rozakis told Chris Franklin in a Titans West article in BACK ISSUE #65.

While it was nice to see Hawk and Dove in print again, as with most of their earlier Titans appearances they were lost in a flock of characters. That holds true for two of their three remaining pre-Crisis outings: 1978’s Showcase #100, a hero-saturated epic gathering all of the characters that had been introduced in that magazine, and late 1984’s Tales of the Teen Titans #50, where Hank and Don Hall attend the Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

let’s run with that. If these are characters who are sort of stuck in the ’60s, let’s make them literally stuck in the ’60s in that they have not matured the way they should have. They’ve aged but not matured.”

Hawk and Dove are portrayed by Brennert as “products of their time,” wrestling to adapt to an ’80s culture where the black and white that once separated Hank’s and Don’s extreme views has now blurred.

At story’s end, the siblings get a fatherly lecture from Batman: “We all have our violent sides… and our gentle ones. We all hate… and we all love! If we deny either side… we die a little inside.” Brennert leaves the Hall brothers at a turning point in their lives.

Reaction to the story was overwhelmingly positive, although some continuity diehards were bothered by its character-aging conundrum, an incongruity compounded by other elements in the story that couched it within the modern DC canon: Barry (Flash) Allen and Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan palled around with Bruce (Batman) Wayne in a charming opening sequence, and on page 2, when Batman first encountered the Hawk, a footnote referenced their earlier meeting in Teen Titans #25. Shrugging off the entire continuity matter was B&B #181’s editor, original Hawk and the Dove editor Dick Giordano, who told me, “As Denny O’Neil often said, continuity is a tool. … I was never going to turn down a good story to satisfy continuity.”

Hawk and Dove had reverted to status quo when readers saw them again in Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC’s revolutionary, world-destroying maxiseries and crossover event. After a couple of pop-ins late in the maxiseries, the bird brothers are back in action, in costumes, in the series’ finale, issue #12 (Mar. 1986). As the Anti-Monitor’s shadow-demons ravage Earth and create the largest body count DC readers had ever seen (at that time), Hawk and Dove bicker over the apparent futility of rescuing civilians while the world is collapsing around them. Dove chides Hawk, “We two have always fought our wars differently. You with your fists, me with my heart. And nothing’s changed after all these years.”

Those Marv Wolfman-scripted words are the last Don Hall ever speaks to his brother, as four panels later, a shadow-demon mercilessly slices Dove apart after he had just saved a child’s life. Dove’s valiant sacrifice is witnessed not only by his enraged sibling but also by journalist Lois

Bronze Age Adventures (left) Hawk and Dove as members of Titans West, as seen in Teen Titans #50 (July 1977). (middle) Is it in continuity?

Who cares? It’s a great story. The Brennert/Aparo classic, B&B #181 (Dec. 1981). (right) The heroic demise of the blue-clad bird brother, from Crisis on Infinite Earths #12.

TM & © DC Comics.

42 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Lane, who broadcasts it on live television for WGBS. Lois, while in a state of shock, eulogizes the fallen feathered-hero thusly: “D-Dove… of Hawk and Dove, two heroes thought to have retired several years ago… was saving the life of a child. And now… now he’s dead. Gone as if he never existed.”

THE DOVE-LESS HAWK

A sequence of solemn panels at the end of Crisis #12 shows grieving survivors mourning the loss of heroes who perished during the disaster, including a graveside image of Don Hall’s burial, with his parents, brother, and Titans teammates (in street clothes) paying their last respects.

After the shock and awe of Crisis ebbed, DC readers wondered: Could the hot-headed Hawk fly solo without the level-headed Dove keeping his feathers from ruffling?

Bob Greenberger, who was on DC Comics’ editorial staff at the time and had been creatively involved with Crisis, tells BACK ISSUE that there were DC writers and editors who wondered the same thing: “Once we killed Dove, there was interest in seeing how Hawk would handle life without his check-and-balance.”

Adding to this was the growing audience for violent anti-heroes such as Wolverine, the Punisher, and the Badger. DC realized that the often-reckless Hawk was a loose cannon within its universe—with the bonus of being tethered to its bestseller, The New Teen Titans—and fired at readers a salvo of post-Crisis Hawk guest-appearances. Hawk is one of a group of “original” Titans summoned by Wonder Girl when she forms a new squad of TTs in Marv Wolfman’s New Teen Titans vol. 2 #19–21 in 1986. Joining Wonder Girl are familiar faces Robin (Jason Todd), Flash (Wally West), Speedy, Aqualad, and, of course, Hawk, in a struggle against the villainous Cheshire. Bob Greenberger notes, “once he began being used, others just jumped on.” Before long, Hawk helps police the streets of Pittsburgh during riots as a guest-star in writer John Ostrander’s The Fury of Firestorm #55–56 (Jan.–Feb. 1987). In writer/ penciler Dan Jurgens’ Booster Gold #16–17 (May–June 1987), Hawk assists a biochemist whose formula is supposed to regulate global population— but the impertinent hero is actually a dupe in the scientist’s genocidal plot. In Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1 (Mar. 1988), plotted

by Ostrander and scripted by Paul Kupperberg, the headstrong Hawk is gunrunning for the Contras and is incarcerated, an action which lures the titular super-teams (plus Russia’s Rocket Red Brigade) into an international struggle to free him. Of these scattered appearances, Greenberger says, “I can guarantee you it was organic and not dictated— we were still pretty much left to our own devices back then.”

Hawk’s most significant non-Dove appearance was a two-part story

by Mike Baron, Jackson Guice, and Larry Mahlstedt—the creative team that would soon launch DC’s new Legends crossover Flash spin-off title— which appeared in issues #7–8 (Mar.–Apr. 1987) of the New Teen Titans spin-off series, Teen Titans Spotlight. It’s clear from Guice’s cover for TT

Spotlight #7 that this fearsome Hawk is not your average Teen Titan—he’s shown blasting an assault weapon at an onslaught of swarming insects.

The two-parter opens with Hank Hall arriving at Denver’s Stapleton Airport, where he is approached by an antinuclear power protestor. Baron wastes no time flapping Hawk’s right wing: “I happen to like nuclear power,” Hall smirks, punching the protestor in the jaw then demanding exoneration from assault charges due to his Teen Titans status. “Teen Titans security clearance checks,” says an airport security guard.

“But I don’t see where that gives you the right to punch anyone who disagrees with you.” Hawk’s response: “Bite my Twinkie.”

In a mere page and a half, Baron, a relative newcomer to DC after becoming a fan-favorite on the indie books Nexus and The Badger, recasts the Hawk from a an entire country in the process (“Those “Might is Right” Vietnam chest-thumper Frogs are a nation of wimps and losers”), to the type of mouthy Reagan-era conHank storms out of the meeting and seeks servative who would post Ollie North and solace in the lush Colorado countryside.

It is here where the story kicks into Dirty Harry portraits by his bedside. There mike baron high gear: Terrorists have taken control are liberties taken from the Ditko canon: of a nearby nuclear power plant, but Hank’s Hawk identity is now publicly known and he manually, not magically, changes in and out luckily, a superhero is nearby! And so Hank goes into action of costume. Was Baron familiar with the earlier Hawk and as Hawk, discovering that the plant is under siege not by Dove stories? “Not very,” he tells BACK ISSUE. “I’d read a few humans, but by insects—termites, whose hive mind allows issues from the Pleistocene Era, but they were not applicable.” them to assemble into a single monstrous, sentient creature As the story progresses, we see that Hank Hall is the Titans’ named Arachnid and demand the end of nuclear power unofficial representative at the Kellogg Institute’s anti- and its degradation of the ecosystem. The termites intend terrorism conference held in Denver, Colorado. Hank’s hawk- to destroy the plant from within by essentially eating it into ish views are clearly on display here, as he rants against the nothingness, but after unsuccessfully blasting and punching idea of bringing terrorists to trial: “Look, egghead—I’m the the bugs, Hawk eventually vanquishes them with an only cowboy here who’s had hands-on experience. I’m intolerable audio frequency. Along the way, his bluster talking common sense—if terrorists know they’re gonna get is tempered by a “dove”—Bonnie, a no-nukes activist— squashed—no excuses, no Miranda, no ifs, ands, or buts— and at story’s end, Hank is not only more sympathetic that’s the only thing that will work.” After poo-pooing toward the termites and their quest but is invited by France’s efforts to negotiate with terrorists, insulting Arachnid to South America to meet with the insect Queen.

Here, There, and Everywhere (top row) After an outing with the Titans, the Dove-less Hawk dropped in on random DC titles. (bottom) Jackson “Butch” Guice’s covers to Hawk’s backto-back solo outings in Teen Titans Spotlight #7 and 8.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

In the following issue, Hank arrives in the Matto Grosso and is greeted by a beautiful young woman named Lupe who is an emissary for the insect race, whose hive is in an abandoned Incan city secreted deep within the jungle.

Hawk once again goes into battle, this time fighting to protect Arachnid and the insects from land developers encroaching upon their wonderland. The invaders have in their employ hired muscle in the form of a hypertestosteroned ex-Marineturned-merc called the Toxicator (think: the Terminator with pesticide-firing weapons), but with the help of Arachnid and some mind-altering insect stings, Hawk turns back the trespassers and spares the hive.

Baron’s two-parter was a parable warning against ecological degradation, an odd fit for Hawk, whose previous conflicts were either verbal political debates or street-level scuffles. Yet, Teen Titans Spotlight #7–8 offered Hank Hall some long-overdue character growth. However, Hawk’s reliance upon two “doves,” Bonnie and Lupe, proved that the character worked best when balanced by a gentler partner.

“Hawk needed Dove because of the title, which I guess is the conjecture of this series,” Mike Baron adds. “Hawk can work just fine as a solo character. So could Dove. But they’re a thing now. They’re a tradition. And there’s something to be said for tradition.”

rob liefeld © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

THE NEW DOVE

Karl Kesel realized that tradition was important when it came to Hawk needing a Dove. It hit him as he was inking George Pérez’s pencils… but his idea went beyond the original battling brothers concept. “I got the idea for a female Dove while inking the Dead-Heroes-fromCrisis montage in The History of the DC Universe,” Kesel tells BACK ISSUE. “I had always liked the Hawk and the Dove (as they were originally called),

Sharper Image A Hawk & Dove sample pencil page from rising star Rob Liefeld, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

and while inking dead-Dove I thought how the name and lightblue costume would really have been much better for a female character. Then I thought, ‘Well, why couldn’t it still be—?’ ” Barbara Kesel adds, “When Karl and I were dating, he showed me lots of character designs in his sketchbook.

One was a female Dove. I asked who she was and he told me he’d always thought Dove should have been female. We talked about that idea, how it added a yin/yang to the liberal/ conservative, and it turned into a series pitch.”

And thus was born a new Hawk and Dove team, one which premiered in a five-issue miniseries branded simply Hawk and Dove, premiering with an October 1988 cover-dated first issue. The creative team, working under editor Mike Carlin: the husband-and-wife writing team of Karl Kesel and Barbara Randall Kesel (actually, they married early into the miniseries’ production; they have since divorced), with Karl inking a new penciling discovery, Rob Liefeld.

The miniseries starts with a new chapter in Hank Hall’s life as a college student at Georgetown University, in the Washington, D.C. metro area, where he meets a quartet of classmates who will become the book’s supporting cast: Ren Takamori, the romantic couple of Kyle Spencer and Donna Cabot, and Dawn Granger, whom readers will soon know as the new Dove.

Karl Kesel reveals, “Since Dove was originally Don (and Hawk was Hank), we wanted the new Dove to have a similarly sounding name.

Just seemed like a nice tradition to keep up.

Donna and Dawn were the two closestsounding names that we could think of. Dawn happened to be my sister’s name, and she attended Georgetown—the dots just seemed to connect themselves. I honestly don’t remember if we’d picked Georgetown first, or if choosing Dawn as the character’s name led us to use karl kesel Georgetown. It’s almost a chicken-and-egg kind of thing.”

Beyond borrowing his sibling’s name and alma mater, was Dove’s personality patterned after Karl’s sister? “I can’t say that Dawn Granger is much like my sister, personality-wise— other than they’re both very smart—but my sis was clearly part of the DNA of the character,” he says. “And they’re both blonde!

By lucky happenstance, Barbara’s brother was an uncannily good fit as a loose model for Hawk. Like I said, these pieces all seemed to fall into place almost by themselves.”

Barbara Kesel notes, “Everything becomes a mixture of who you know, what you think, and what you invent: Ren was influenced by my friend Roberta; Kyle and Donna had some traits in common with Karl and I; and Captain Sal picked up the attitude of the real Dawn’s then-boyfriend.”

A mystery begins in Hawk and Dove #1 with a predator—an unidentified blond man—abducting males he suspects of being Hawk, while the real Hawk meets for the first time the new, female Dove. As the miniseries progresses, Hawk scoffs at this imposter to his brother’s superheroic mantel, and soon speculates that one of his classmates—Ren, Donna, or Dawn—might be this Dove.

The predator is revealed to be the villainous bird of prey named Kestrel—imagine an evil Hawk with the savagery of an unchecked Wolverine, seasoned with Freddy Krueger bloodlust—who kidnaps Hank, leading to a gory Hawk vs. Kestrel battle, with the new Dove joining the fray. Hawk and Dove eventually team up to combat an army of Kestrel’s supernaturally enhanced agents, and Dove reveals her Dawn Granger alter ego to Hawk.

Of the villain’s name, Barbara Kesel reveals, “Kestrel was an giant in-joke because I had a friend with a gaming character named Kestrel who was a quiet, thoughtful character. As a raptor name, it was great for our Hawk and Dove villain and I knew it’d make [my friend] Ron laugh if he read it.”

The fifth and final issue of the miniseries takes a surreal detour into the realm of the Lords of Chaos, from which Kestrel originated.

Hawk and Dove defeat their foe, suspecting that they share a connection with the Lords of Chaos and their opposing sect, the Lords

There’s a New Girl in Town (top) Hawk meets the new Dove, at the climactic end of the 1988 miniseries’ first issue. (bottom) Liefeld as inked by Karl Kesel, on page 5 of Hawk & Dove #1, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

Man of Mystery (left) The enigmatic Barter, as seen in Hawk & Dove #2.

Original art by Greg Guler and Scott Hanna, courtesy of Heritage. (right) This DC house ad promoted the coming of the ongoing Hawk & Dove monthly series.

TM & © DC Comics.

of Order. Hawk and Dove #5 ends with Hank and Dawn now committed to working together as feathered crimefighters.

How did the Lords of Chaos and Order become incorporated into Hawk and Dove lore? Barbara Kesel recalls, “I think it evolved along with the series. Order and Chaos were a hot current undertone to the whole DC Universe, with Keith Giffen being a strong proponent (Karl was inking him for years on many miniseries where our ‘dates’ were me hanging out as Karl’s apartment filling in blacks on Legionnaires 3, Cosmic Boy, ’Mazing Man, etc.). I don’t think the idea suddenly came into focus—it was always part of the magic.”

Karl Kesel recalls, “I know we wanted to move away from Dove-as-pacifist—there just wasn’t much room for drama there. Barbara suggested bringing in the Lords of Chaos and Order, and that opened up a lot of exciting possibilities. I do remember we were living in Harrison, New York, at the time, and were driving someplace in the car talking about the characters, wondering why a Lord of Chaos and Order would have created Hawk and Dove, when it suddenly hit me: Romeo and Juliet!

These Lords were star-crossed lovers out to prove Order and Chaos can work together—can actually be stronger together! It really all fell into place after that.”

46 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

The co-writers were determined from the get-go that Dawn-Dove would not merely be a gender-bending reboot of Don-Dove. Remarks Barbara Kesel, “Comics readers at the time were more willing to accept a ‘pacifist’ woman than a man, although our Dove was hardly that. She brought a level of sexual tension to the team that hadn’t existed with two brothers.” Karl Kesel says, “The new Dove was an equal partner to Hawk. In the original series, Dove kinda whined a lot and the stories had to go really out of their way to show him being useful. Our Dove was very smart, very confident, and just as arrogant as Hawk in her own way. She could hold her own with or without him.”

The real-life story behind Hawk and Dove #5 is worth noting. Liefeld experimented with the issue’s layouts, drawing the issue in landscape form (in a horizontal layout instead of the traditional vertical page layout) to create an unusual look for the Chaos Realm. However, this unexpected deviation from the norm did not meet editor Carlin’s approval.

Karl Kesel recalls of Hawk and Dove #5, “All I know is one day I got a call from Mike Carlin saying Rob had drawn the Chaos realm sideways, and he was going to cut and paste copies of the pages so they were oriented like a normal comics page. Could I work from that? I said, ‘Sure.’

I think I lightboxed those copies onto a clean sheet of artboard—I don’t remember inking on vellum, which would have been the other choice (and I hated inking on vellum).”

Regardless of that unorthodox issue, Kesel was very impressed with the pencils of Rob Liefeld. “They were very solid,” Karl says. “He was a real sponge at the time, constantly soaking up new tricks from Jerry Ordway, Mike Zeck, Kevin Maguire, George Pérez, Mike Mignola, Art Adams, etc., and incorporating them into his art.

You could really see his work improve and his style change over the course of the mini! (And my hat’s off to him because I was on just as much of a learning curve as Rob was, except writing-wise. In the first couple issues we were giving him action pages with seven panels on them! Seven panels!

On an action page! But he made them work.)”

WITH GREAT POWER COMES… A HERO’S DEATH??

forego the inking of the Hawk and Dove monthly, paving the way for inker Scott Hanna. “H&D was, if I’m not With the Kesels’ fresh take on a familiar concept, plus mistaken, Scott’s first regular gig,” Karl remembers. “He has Liefeld’s dynamic art, the Hawk and Dove miniseries was a since gone on to ink everyone on everything, and to do so hit for DC… and a follow-up monthly was quickly slated. with a consistently, amazingly high level of quality—often April 18, 1989 heralded the release of Hawk and Dove #1 on deadlines that would’ve killed Vinnie Colletta! I doubt (cover-dated June 1989), with editor Mike Carlin bringing there’s any editor in the last 20 years that Scott hasn’t saved back writers Karl and Barbara Kesel. Rob Liefeld had moved the bacon of at least once. And it all started with H&D, on to Marvel, where he was attracting attention I’m proud to say.” Guler has similar praise for Hanna’s as the artist of New Mutants, a series for which artistry: “I really liked his work, and he’s just he’d eventually introduce two breakout gotten better and better. I have never met him, but we talked on the phone a few characters, Cable and Deadpool (whose times and he is a really gracious guy.” early days will be chronicled in BACK ISSUE Introduced in the first issue of the #102). Tapped as the artists of the Hawk Hawk and Dove monthly is the enigmatic and Dove monthly were penciler Greg Guler and inker Scott Hanna. pawnbroker known as Barter, a catalyst Greg Guler tells BI, “I had been trying character who helps move Hank and to get into comics for a long time but Dawn—and the reader—toward an underI never put together a real portfolio of standing of the source of Hawk and Dove’s actual pages. Mike Carlin liked my stuff powers. If Barbara Kesel had gotten her and finally convinced me to do ten way, however, a different character would pages of actual samples rather than just have played that role. “We needed a new greg guler pinup-type stuff. I love Superman and source for magical items and information so I penciled a short [Superman] story once they wouldn’t let us use Madame that I put together. It basically was the beginning of the Xanadu! So we went with ‘the guy who can get his story for about six pages and then the end of the story hands on stuff.’ And although ‘Magpie’ would have fit for the last four. I really spent a lot of time on settings and with the bird theme, we didn’t go with that because it interesting dialog scenes because I figured that those are was already in use at DC” [as a villainess introduced in very important, but they are things that most beginning 1986 in Batman #401, written by Barbara herself].

Hawk and Dove #1 also references DC’s then-recent artists aren’t that interested in. I showed it to [Carlin] at the Chicago Comic-Con, and he really liked it. I also crossover Invasion! and pits the feathered fighters against showed to the guys at First Comics and they also liked Gauntlet, a battle-bot. The heroes face Azure, an Aztec the work. I was living in Minneapolis at the time, and by mystic possessing the body of a homeless woman, in time I got home I had two offers, one from DC and one Hawk and Dove #2 and 3. from First. The First offer was the do a fill-in on Nexus, Published concurrently with Hawk and Dove #3 was which was very hot at the time, and the offer from DC Secret Origins #43 (Aug. 1989), its contents including was for a book yet to be decided. I didn’t know what to the origin of Hawk and Dove—both versions—as well as do, so I called Mike Carlin, and he convinced me to do the origins of Cave Carson and Chris KL-99 [DC historian both and he would help me out by doing rough layouts John Wells will be providing an in-depth look at this for the book that eventually became Hawk and Dove. So… incarnation of Secret Origins in our very next issue].

Scripted by Barbara Kesel and Karl Kesel, penciled by I responded by immediately getting the flu!”

It wasn’t the flu but a full workload, including his focus Trevor Von Eeden and John Koch, and inked by Ian Akin on acquiring more work as a writer, that led Karl Kesel to and Brian Garvey, the 18-page story “Bonds” expands

When Doves Cry (left) Dawn Granger’s acquisition of her voice-granted powers comes at a bad time for Don Hall. From Secret Origins #43 (Aug. 1989). (right) The Doves “meet” in H&D monthly #5.

TM & © DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

Robbin’ the Robot... or Fangs for the Memories Karl Kesel loved M.A.C. so much (top left, from H&D #8) that he introduced S.A.M. in Marvel’s Captain America: The 1940s Comic Strip (top right). (inset) Bob Brown’s creepy Copperhead 1968 cover for Brave and Bold #68, and (bottom) Keseland Guler’s recreation over two decades later.

Characters TM & © DC Comics, except Captain America, TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

48 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

upon the new Dove’s origin, as teased in the fifth issue of the miniseries.

Dove/Don Hall’s death scene from Crisis #12 is retconned to reveal that the Dick Giordano-suggested voice which first gave Hank and Don their powers in Showcase #75 also heeded Dawn Granger’s desperate cry for help, taking away Don’s Dove powers during Crisis #12’s rescue scene and giving them to Dawn instead. The voice found a better candidate for the superpowers of Dove, but the timing could not be worse, with the powerless Don Hall perishing while in combat.

“I like to respect continuity and find clever ways to make it all work together,” Barbara Kesel says of the Secret Origins story. “Making Dawn aware of the source of her powers, and the cosmic sacrifice of Don Hall to make it happen, gave her a little guilt to add to her character, a ‘mistake’ she can’t make good on except by being as excellent as possible.

“On a character level, both Hawk and Dove were intentionally flawed: they’re both bullies,” Barbara continues. “Hawk’s flaw is more explosive—temper and a lack of impulse control make his bullying obvious. He doesn’t think he’s a bully, though, because he knows he’s right. Dove’s is more subtle: she’s an arrogant manipulator who always thinks she knows what’s best, because she knows she’s right.

“We wanted a strong tension between them, but not a romance.

Even though events show that Hawk and Dove have a destiny linking them, which makes for a sexual tension between the two once their Order and Chaos avatars step in, their romantic ties are to others.”

The Hawk and Dove monthly continued, winging between established villains and new villains created specifically for the book. Issue #4 features the Untouchables, intangible supervillains that had a smattering of appearances in other DC titles, while #5 introduces an exploding surfer-dude called Sudden Death and includes Dove’s ghostly visitation from the original Dove. (On a personal note, Hawk and Dove #5 was my first DC credit, as I came on board the title as associate editor; I would take over from Mike Carlin as editor beginning with issue #10.) The feathered duo are dispatched by Barter to Paris, France, in issue #6 on a two-issue quest to obtain a supernatural relic which, they discover, has ties to T’Charr and Terataya, a Lord of Chaos and Lord of Order, respectively; while in Europe, Hawk and Dove battle magical knights. During the next few issues, Hawk and Dove find themselves in the coils of the Copperhead, fighting destructive robots, hobnobbing with the New Teen Titans, and quaking from a metahuman called ShellShock.

The cover to Hawk and Dove #9, the Copperhead issue, recreated artist Bob Brown’s creepy cover to the Batman/Wonder Woman/Batgirl team-up in 1968’s The Brave and the Bold #78, where the venomous villain was first seen… to the fannish delight of the book’s co-writer/inker and B&B-loving editor. Outside of a few appearances in Secret Society of Super-Villains and Crisis, Copperhead had slithered into a hole after his chilling debut. “He’d been used so little, he was a blank slate, character-wise,” remembers Karl Kesel. “Since he hadn’t been seen much, you had to ask: ‘Where’s he been?’ Our answer was that he was so good at his job that he’d been killing people all this time and no one knew about it. It instantly made him a very dangerous character, and gave us a great story.” (Issue #9 features another nod to the DC Universe at large, with the book’s cast lining up to witness the blurry Superman and Flash speed by, tying in to their race in the pages of that month’s Adventures of Superman #463.)

The designs for most of the supervillains introduced in Hawk and Dove were by Karl Kesel, who, according to penciler Greg Guler, “sent rough layouts for many of the covers, so if a new villain appeared on the cover, he did the first roughs on them. I followed his lead. Many of the villains were established already and so I just did my take on them. I designed a few of the villains, which is always fun.” Karl Kesel chimes in: “I really liked the team of robots we introduced: the diesel-powered M.A.C., the android Andromeda Strange, the remote-controlled Gauntlet, and the alien mechanical life-form Scarab. I really thought these characters would take off—but no one except me (and maybe Barbara?) seemed interested.

I think we got letters begging for us to wrap up the storyline and move on! Broke my heart. (But I did get to ‘revisit’ M.A.C. a number of years later when I used the very similar S.A.M. in the Captain America: The 1940s Comic Strip that I did for Marvel.)” Barbara Kesel adds, “Some came from

Better Than a No-Prize (top) Hawk and Dove #10 (Mar. 1990) included this announcement about the book’s guest-star contest. (bottom) Courtesy of Karl Kesel, Karl’s original art to a postcard sent to Hawk and Dove contest applicants announcing the Creeper as the winner of the guest-star contest.

TM & © DC Comics.

Karl’s sketchbook, some came from my invention.

Huitzilopochtli came from my love of hummingbirds and Aztec art (and it was yet another bird name!). And because it was a beautifully ridiculous name. Sudden Death is one of my favorites—he’s a bit of a nod to California from my new life in New York and a nod to the crazy testosteroneoverloaded characters being created at the time. I tend to make up names based on a person I know or something nearby on my desk or wall, so ‘Tridic metal’ has its roots in a pack of gum.”

The co-writing Kesels proved masters of the superhero soap opera, threading character arcs throughout each issue: Barter’s suspicious involvement, Special Crimes Unit Captain Sal Arsala’s romantic interest in Dove, the sinister spirit of Kestrel possessing a new host body, the shady past of Kyle Spencer’s Aunt Ruth, and erratic behavior from Hank’s girlfriend Ren. “I loved working on this series and having the space to get a lot of personality into our supporting cast,” Barbara Kesel says. “Ren was probably my favorite character and the awkward romance between Ren and Hank might be my favorite moment, but I also loved how Sal put the clues together and connected Dawn and Dove. Druspa Tau and the T’Charr and Teretaya romance (apparently it’s all about the romances for me? Who knew!).

The fact that Roger and the sharpshooter were family…”

Karl Kesel’s favorite subplot was “the long time it took for Dawn to meet (and go out on a date) with Sal Arsala (named, by the way, after my sister’s husband, Salah AminArsala). We stole that whole subplot straight from the long time it took Peter Parker to meet Mary Jane Watson [in ’60s issues of The Amazing Spider-Man], our twist being that Dawn actually already knew Sal since he headed the Washington, D.C., police’s Special Crimes Unit. So she was avoiding a man (as Dawn) that she actually was already attracted to (as Dove). That was a fun one to play out.”

That subplot was also a favorite of Greg Guler’s: “I liked the subplot where Dove and detective Sal went out on a date, and to protect her secret identity Dawn put on a Dove wig for it. I also liked the mystery surrounding who was Kestrel. The whole series of stories that take place in another reality, where we get to see Hawk and Dove in their true forms, was a lot of fun.”

Along the way, guest artists occasionally stepped in: Chris Wozniak (inked by Scott Hanna) in issue #5’s Sudden Death tale, penciler Paris Cullins and inker Denis Rodier in #10, and Dave Hoover (inked by Hanna) in #13. Why so many fill-ins? “I guess we needed fill-in artists because I was still learning how to pencil comics,” Greg Guler reflects. “I could do at least one page a day, two if one was a splash page or the like. Basically, I was having trouble interpreting what the writer was saying was in the scene and the clearest way to present it. If Barbara and Karl wrote that there were six ambulances driving down the street, sirens blaring, I drew six ambulances.

Eventually I learned the shorthand for that, but it took me a while. I overdid the detail much of the time.”

THE “VOICE” REVEALED

A four-issue story arc beginning in Hawk and Dove #14 (July 1990) unravels the mystery behind the previously unnamed source of Hawk and Dove’s powers. Ren Takamori has been possessed by the spirit of Kestrel and lures our heroes on a trippy sojourn to Druspa Tau. This is the domain of the Lords of Chaos and Order, the dueling bodies of preternatural entities to whom DC’s magical characters, from the Golden Age’s Dr. Fate to more (then-) recent figures such as Amethyst, had been connected via retroactive continuity. In Druspa Tau, Hawk and Dove meet the Romeo and Juliet of Chaos and Order—T’Charr, the fierce Lord of Chaos, and Terataya, the nonviolent Lord of Order, who defied their customs by falling in love—and discover that they bestowed the Hawk and Dove superpowers upon Hank Hall and Don Hall (and later, Dawn Granger) as proof that Chaos and Order can coexist. Hawk and Dove become embroiled in a war between Chaos and Order orchestrated by M’Shulla, a Lord of Chaos, and temporarily find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Ultimately, they absorb the spirits and appearances of their host lords, who perish in the battle.

While they return to their normal appearances at the end of the saga, they experience heightened superpowers.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

“I think the whole Chaos and Order thing was very interesting,” says Greg Guler. “Hank and Dawn didn’t really know how they became Hawk and Dove, and we were learning about that with them as the stories progressed. The Kesels really infused the book with a great mythological backstory that broadened the narrative and gave it an epic feel.”

Hawk and Dove Annual #1 (1990) was a fun diversion, reuniting the Liefeld/Kesel art team on its cover and featuring the return of Titans West, as well as some dead supervillains. (Liefeld also illustrated the Kestrel entry for ye ed’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe #3.) With issue #17 I stepped down from editing Hawk and Dove to take the newly created job as the assistant to DC’s editorial director, Dick Giordano. Replacing me as Hawk and Dove editor was Jonathan Peterson, whose first issue (#18, Nov. 1990) featured the long-awaited team-up of Steve Ditko’s two Showcase creations as the Creeper laughed and leapt his way into a two-issue guest appearance, bringing along another Ditko creation, the Madmen, originally Blue Beetle baddies from Charlton’s Action Heroes line.

The Creeper’s inclusion was the result of a reader contest. As Karl Kesel recounts, “We were trying to create some sort of buzz around the book and attract new readers, and one of the few ways to do that (in those dark, pre-Internet days) was a contest! So we ran a Choose a Guest-Star contest [first announced in Hawk and Dove #10]. I drew up a postcard that we sent to everyone who entered the contest. Then a winner was chosen—totally based on what appealed to Barbara, myself, and our editor (some guy named Michael Eury).” Karl is correct in that I was involved with the initial process, by the time the story was actually produced I had passed the book over to Jonathan… too bad for me, as the Creeper is one of my favorites!

Reader Rick C. Moore was the contest winner, although Karl recalls, “I believe the Creeper was suggested by two different people—a pretty

obvious and instantly interesting choice, of course, both having been created by Steve Ditko at the same time—and I can’t remember if the winner made a better argument as to why the Creeper should appear, of if we chose the entry with the earlier postmark.” I dug out my editor’s copies of Hawk and Dove from a lonely longbox to verify the details of what has dimmed a bit from Karl’s and my memories. The book’s “Words of a Feather” lettercol in issue #17 listed all of the nominated heroes and the names of readers who participated in the contest. Rick C. Moore was actually one of five readers who suggested the Creeper, but his reasoning was what persuaded us way back when: “Back when we learned the true origins of Hawk and Dove—that is, their ties with Chaos and Order— I began to wonder how many other heroes (or villains) might have similar connections,” Moore wrote. “The first to come to mind was the Creeper. … Creeper could have been a grand creation of Chaos (or Order) gone wrong. …” Incidentally, other potential guest-stars outscored the Creeper with nominations, with Dr. Fate leading the pack with 16 votes, followed

by Guy Gardner with 15, the Spectre (8), Hawkman and Hawkwoman (8), Batman (7), and Starman (6).

“I think the crossover is one of the best stories we did in the series’ run,” Karl Kesel beams of the Creeper team-up. “I still have the original art to the cover where Creeper is spray-painting C’s all over the place.

One of my favorite covers in the whole run!” The artist of the Creeper team-up, Greg Guler, also remembers those issues fondly, having read Steve Ditko’s Amazing Spider-Man, Creeper, and Hawk and Dove books during his childhood. “It was great to able to draw the Creeper, who was another favorite. The Creeper was fun because he is so out-there, and the posing on him is always interesting.”

Hawk and Dove #20 (Jan. 1991) was a Christmas issue guest-penciled

by Kevin Maguire featuring thieves costumed as Santa Claus. Steve Erwin spelled Greg Guler as penciler of issues #21 and 22, the first featuring a tussle with the Female Furies, carryovers from Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, and the second heralding the return of Sudden Death as well as former Batgirl Barbara Gordon, whose one-shot, Batgirl Special #1, Barbara Kesel had written (as Barbara Randall, before her marriage), in 1988.

Of the Female Furies story, Karl Kesel beams, “The fanboy (and red-blooded American boy) in me always loved the Female Furies, and there were clearly far more than the four Furies that were usually focused on. So I thought it’d be fun to do a story about these ‘cadets.’ Kirby— consciously or not—had based the main Furies on types of women that men (of his era, at least) had a certain fear of—the Dominatrix, the Dyke, the Spinster, and the Hag (and the Amazon, if you include Barda).

Gobs of Guests Among the DC denizens dropping in: (left) Titans West, in H&D Annual #1; (center) the Creeper, in #18; and (right) the felonious Female Furies, in #21.

TM & © DC Comics.

50 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

I tried very hard to give the new characters names and make them types that fit the same mold—Speed Queen was the tomboy/rebel, Malice Vundabarr (along with the shadow-creature pet Chessure) was the malicious child, Bloody Mary was the seductress. Gilotina was lifted out of one panel in Mister Miracle #8, and while she isn’t a scary archetype by herself, her cheerful, clueless devotion to Granny Goodness and the destructive, devastating fallout from her actions makes her unnerving in her own way. And it was fun to have our heroes instantly and totally out-powered by their enemies. A real Daredevil-fights-Sub-Mariner sort of story.”

The storyline involving the erstwhile Batgirl continued until issue #24, as its adversary was the costumed crimelord (crimelady?) Velvet Tiger, a villainess created

by Hawk and Dove’s own Barbara J. Randall in her first published work for DC, a two-part Batgirl backup illustrated by Trevor Von Eeden and published in Detective Comics #518 and 519 (Sept. and Oct. 1982).

“I was in a comic-book store and responded to a letters column response by Dick Giordano about female characters with a ten-page outline of suggestions for how to make them better,” Barbara relates when recalling the genesis of this Batgirl adventure. “He offered me an editorial job. I didn’t want to leave before I’d finished my degree (unlike college buddy Alan Spencer, who left to write and did really well doing that!). It took a couple more years before there was an opening for me.

“When I turned down the job, he offered me a backup script assignment, [saying,] ‘But we don’t want people to notice there’s a new writer right away, so we’ll keep Jose Delbo on the feature, and please write like Cary Burkett.’

So I did: My scripts were based on Cary’s style and pacing with my own little flourishes, and carefully set up to make Jose Delbo shine. I never saw the art until I picked up the issue on the stands, shocked to see Trevor Von Eeden on the art. They could hear me shouting through the whole store: ‘THIS WAS NOT A TREVOR VON EEDEN SCRIPT! THIS WAS A JOSE DELBO SCRIPT! I COULD HAVE WRITTEN AN AWESOME TREVOR VON EEDEN SCRIPT!’”

HERO BEHAVING BADLY

Hawk and Dove #25 (June 1991) is a curiosity: barbara randall kesel Paris Cullins—not the expected Guler/Kesel team or fill-in Erwin/Kesel team—penciled the cover, for starters. It’s a 48-page issue instead of the traditional 32 pages, spotlighting a “38-page mind-scrambling” adventure titled “Divergence,” co-written by the Kesels but illustrated by the “Tag-Team Art Squad,” a gaggle of illustrators featuring Will Blyberg, Ken Branch, Dick Giordano, Tom Grindberg, Dan Jurgens, Bob Lewis, Kevin Maguire, Gabriel Morrisette, Al Vey, and regular H&D artists Greg Guler and Scott Hanna (whew!). The tale provides the reader with glimpses of alternate timelines of the lives of Hank and Don Hall (including the adult Hall brothers shown in Brennert and Aparo’s B&B #181), all manufactured by

Editorial Headache 1991 Despite the original plan to have Captain Atom go rogue and become Monarch, Armageddon 2001’s ending was altered at the last minute. (top) The death of Dove II. (bottom) Captain Atom’s—make that, Hawk’s—dark destiny revealed.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

Hatchling and Super-Sibs (top) Unity, our heroes’ possible-reality offspring, as seen in Hawk and Dove Annual #2 (1991), part of the Armageddon 2001 crossover. (bottom) The short-lived sister-duo of Hawk and Dove. (inset) Hank and Dawn, back in action in DC’s New 52.

TM & © DC Comics.

the “soul sapphire,” a precious gem that Hawk has stolen in hopes of using it to revive his brother from the dead.

Hawk’s theft of the stone, orchestrated by the conniving Barter, puts the hero on the wrong side of the law… and foretells a dark fate for the short-fused crimefighter.

At this point, Karl Kesel stepped away from co-writing and cover-inking Hawk and Dove, leaving the storytelling in the hands of Barbara Kesel. There were few stories left to tell, however, as the book’s declining sales put it on the chopping block, with DC’s latest line-wide crossover, Armageddon 2001, further altering Hawk’s future.

Barbara Kesel doesn’t recall the exact moment she was informed of Hawk and Dove’s impending cancellation, “but I think #25 and 26 were altered because of the news. The handwriting was on the wall, though. Sales were inching along, and I’d joined the staff at Dark Horse (which was still small and indy), so I was technically working for the competition (and they knew I was pretty much solo on the series by that point), so it was a shock but not a surprise. I know the final Annual was written with me knowing” [of the series’ doom].

Hawk and Dove Annual #2 was an Armageddon 2001 tie-in, with that crossover’s central character, Waverider, revealing a possible fate for Hank and Dawn as a couple who have a daughter named Unity. Hawk and Dove #26 offers backstory into the life of the original Dove, Don Hall, while issue #27 shows Hawk manically trying to conjure Don from the afterlife through a dark rite centered around the soul sapphire.

In Hawk and Dove #28 (Oct. 1991)—the final issue and a tie-in to yet another DC crossover, War of the Gods— it becomes clear that Hawk has been duped by Barter in an insidious plot to revive the slain Flash foe the Top in the body of a US senator Hawk is accused of murdering. While exonerated of the murder, Hawk’s reputation remains tarnished due to his recent run-ins with the authorities. Barbara Kesel involves Hank’s parents, Irwin and Rae Hall, in the story, with Judge Hall coming to the aid of his son after Hank reveals his Hawk identity to him and with Mrs. Hall admitting that she’s known for some time that her boys were the Hawk and the Dove. Despite the issue’s chaos and shocking revelations, the series concludes hopefully, as couples Hank and Ren and Dawn and Arsala seem headed toward happier times.

But there were no bookings at the DC Universe Wedding Chapel… instead, its Funeral Home was about to pick up some business.

The gist of Armageddon 2001, published in 1991 in DC’s Annuals, was as follows: In the future, a superhero52 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

5th Issue Special With his cover for 2012’s Hawk and Dove #5, Rob Liefeld revisited Gil Kane’s cover of the Silver Age The Hawk and the Dove #5 (inset).

TM & © DC Comics.

HAWK AND DOVE FOREVER?

turned-supervillain named Monarch wiped out all of the heroes in the DC Universe and ruled Earth as a relentless despot. His true identity was unknown, so, taking a cue from James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi classic The Terminator, a rebel from the future, the time-hopping Waverider, travels to his past—the present day, for readers of DC’s titles—to explore heroes’ possible futures to discover which character would go bad. As revealed in greater detail by John Trumbull in his “Crisis on Infinite Crossovers” article in BACK ISSUE #82, it was planned that Captain Atom would be revealed to be Monarch until an unidentified DC staffer spilled the beans to the press. DC’s frantic and frustrated editors were forced to anoint a substitute Monarch, and Hank Hall drew the short straw, with pages being rewritten and redrawn at the 11th hour to reflect the change. The crossover’s Annuals were sandwiched between two Armageddon 2001 bookends, and in Armageddon 2001 #2, Hawk views his future where he slaughters Dove, then steps into the evil role envisioned for a different hero.

As she remarked in BI #82, Barbara Kesel was unhappy with this turn of events; at first she was told that both Hawk and Dove would collectively become the substitute Monarch, an idea she thought was intriguing, but once Hawk alone was selected she regarded this an “amateurish fix.”

If there had been no Armageddon 2001 and if Hawk and Dove had not been canceled in 1991, where would she have taken the characters? “The continuing, escalating tension between the romances Hank and Dawn had and the bond between Hawk and Dove (which is still the most fun part of the series for me, trapping them in the ‘I must make a child with you—EEEEEEYEW!’ zone),” Barbara says. “There was talk of more Order and Chaos war stuff in the greater DCU that might have affected them. I’m sure we would have guested more Kirby creations and expanded the role of Captain Sal’s team.”

Post-Armageddon 2001, the life of Hawk—excuse me, Monarch— spiraled out of control, this time not the result of Hank Hall’s impulsiveness but instead of ever-evolving DC Comics continuity.

Monarch became Extant in the Zero Hour crossover of 1994, teaming with then-rogue Green Lantern Hal Jordan in an attempt to remake the timeline and recreate the world. After murdering a trio of Justice Society of America members during that ’94 event, Extant was stopped—permanently— once the JSA’s vengeful Atom Smasher arranged to substitute Extant for his mother in a plane crash that took her life in JSA #15 (Oct. 2000).

We can’t overlook the five-issue Hawk and Dove series of 1997, where writer Mike Baron—with penciler Dean Zachary and original H&D editor Dick Giordano as inker—reimagined the feathered duo and took the concept into a direction unconnected to the Lords of Chaos and Order. Here, Sasha Martens, a soldier’s daughter, and Wiley Wolverman, a hard-rockin’ slacker, are altered into metahumans by the scientist Dr. Avian.

They cross paths with the Vigilante and the Suicide Squad during the course of their miniseries.

But the Hawk and Dove saga didn’t end here. Storylines in various titles during the 2000s revealed that Dawn-Dove was not dead but instead in a coma due to the magic spells of the wizard Mordru (2003’s JSA #44–46). Dawn Granger then teamed with her half-sister Holly to become the new Hawk and Dove in Teen Titans #22 (May 2005), with Rob Liefeld drawing their battle with Kestrel soon after in TT #27–28. Another crossover, 2009–2010’s Blackest Night, ended Holly-Hawk’s career (and life) and brought back Hank Hall, returning Hank and Dawn to the Hawk and Dove roles. Then, during DC’s Brightest Day event of 2010–2011, Dove and the revived, former Deadman Boston Brand had a fling, a relationship which ended when Boston died once again.

If this quaking continuity is inducing a migraine, I’ll spare you the aspirin bottle by cutting to the chase: In more recent New 52 DC lore, Hank and Dawn co-starred in a new monthly, Hawk & Dove, which launched with a November 2011 cover-dated first issue. The creative team behind the book: writer Sterling Gates, with Rob Liefeld returning to the characters as artist (Rob would take over as writer several issues into the run). Deadman was back, and the series introduced new characters Osprey, Condor, and Swan. It was a short-lived venture, however, as Liefeld’s Hawk & Dove ended with issue #8 (June 2012).

While Hawk and Dove’s future is unknown at this writing, there’s hope that we’ll one day see their return flight. “I was touched when [DC Comics co-publisher] Dan DiDio recently told me that DC’s Rebirth was about returning characters to the best versions of themselves, and for Hawk and Dove that meant our series,” says Karl Kesel. “So we must have done something right.”

Very special thanks to Mike Baron, Robert Greenberger, Greg Guler, Barbara Randall Kesel, and Karl Kesel for returning to the flock to answer my questions; to Rob Liefeld; to Alan Brennert, Bob Rozakis, and Steve Skeates; to John Wells, for fact-checking the latter portion of this article; and especially to Steve Ditko, for feathering this nest in the first place! Dick Giordano, you’re not forgotten!

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

New book by MICHAEL EURY, editor of

HERO-A-GO-GO!

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, SpiderMan), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and many more!

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Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo [originally “Scooby Doo”], Where Are You? debuted in 1969 and was airing consistently on Saturday mornings for nearly a decade. To keep the format of four teenagers investigating mysteries with their Great Dane dog from going completely stale, various changes were made over the years.

First was to have Scooby-Doo and the gang pair up with various old and new celebrities as part of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. During this incarnation the gang met Phyllis Diller, Don Knotts, Jerry Reed, the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Batman and Robin, the Harlem Globetrotters, and various others. Next up was a return to the standard mystery format, but to keep things from getting stale, Scooby-Doo’s cousin, Scooby-Dumb, was added to the cast… and yes, he was.

DYNOMUTT AND BLUE FALCON IN ANIMATION

by M

ark Arnold

Dog Wonder and Feathered Fighter Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, in a 1976 publicity cel.

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

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The Scooby-Doo series was starting to show its age. The Hanna-Barbera powers-that-be had seen two phenomena gaining popularity in the mid1970s: superheroes and bionics, popularized by such shows as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Since everything at H-B seemed to require a dog, the decision was made to include a bionic dog. He was named Dynomutt and he was teamed up with a new superhero called the Blue Falcon, who was closely based on other Hanna-Barbera superheroes [including Super Friends’ version of Batman—ed.]. The Blue Falcon, secretly socialite Radley Crown, not only looked and acted like Space Ghost, he was played by the same voiceover actor, Gary Owens (1934– 2015). Dynomutt, Dog Wonder was voiced by Frank Welker. In the metropolis of Big City, the Falcon Flash would summon Blue Falcon and Dog Wonder into action; Blue Falcon’s vehicle was the Falcon Car and he operated from the Falcon’s Lair.

Dynomutt was originally broadcast as a segment of The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour (1976–1977).

It also aired as part of the later expanded form of Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics (1977–1978).

Later, it would be rerun in syndication as its own series from 1978 on. The cast of Scooby-Doo often appeared as characters on Dynomutt. They assisted the Daring Duo in solving their crimes. Dynomutt was originally distributed by Taft Broadcasting, Hanna-Barbera’s then-parent company. Warner Bros.

Television currently holds the distribution rights.

Next, the character appeared in Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, a 30-minute Saturday morning animated show starring the Batman-esque Blue Falcon, whose assistant was a bumbling yet generally effective robot Doberman Pinscher named Dynomutt. Dynomutt could produce a seemingly infinite number of mechanical devices from his body. No origins for the two characters were revealed at that time on the series. It was assumed that they always existed as heroes programmed to fight crime. The characters were created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the same duo that created Scooby-Doo in the first place.

The first episode aired on September 11, 1976, and the final new episode aired on November 27, 1976 during its initial run. There were 16 episodes produced and the show originally ran on ABC, which also had been airing Scooby-Doo by this time. The final first-run episode first aired on The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour on October 29, 1977.

The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour was renamed The Scooby-Doo/ Dynomutt Show from December 4, 1976 through September 3, 1977.

The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt also appeared as part of Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, which originally aired from September 10, 1977 through March 11, 1978, also on ABC. Later, reruns of Dynomutt aired as Dynomutt, Dog Wonder from June 3, 1978 through September 2, 1978 on ABC, and also on The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour from September 27, 1980 through November 15, 1980 on NBC. Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

To the Falcon Car! (left) Our heroes take to the air in this 1976 publicity cel from the Heritage archives. (right) Dynomutt was among the Hanna-Barbera titles published by Marvel Comics in the late ’70s.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour series was released as a DVD collection in March 2006. Comics and animation writer/historian Mark Evanier was interviewed in 2005 about the show and mentioned it on his News from ME blog: “…last week I was interviewed on camera for a forthcoming collection of The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour. Also interrogated were Fred Silverman, Iwao Takamoto, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears, and several of the original voices, including Gary Owens. … [T]he folks doing the ‘extras’ are really doing a thorough job.”

In later years, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon appeared in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode “Heart of Evil” (originally aired August 16, 2012), with Frank Welker reprising the role of Dynomutt. For this episode, Blue Falcon was voiced by Troy Baker. The episode depicts an origin where Radley Crown and his guard dog Reggie were security guards at Quest Labs, the lab run by Dr. Benton Quest of Jonny Quest fame. When a robot dragon attacks and injures Reggie’s organic body, Dr. Quest rebuilds the dog as a cyborg dog. As Dynomutt, he retains his personality from the original series. However, the Blue Falcon is now depicted as a gritty, violent vigilante (following in the footsteps of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight version of Batman). Mystery Incorporated ends up helping Dynomutt and Blue Falcon when the robot dragon attacks Crystal Cove City Hall. It is eventually revealed that the dragon robot is a dragon battle suit built by Dr. Zin in his plot to obtain a power source from Quest.

Dynomutt and Blue Falcon also appear in the 19th Scooby-Doo direct-to-video feature-length film in a 2012

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crossover called Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon. The film starred Frank Welker, who reprised the role of Dynomutt as well as voicing Fred Andrews. This time, the duo are redesigned as a movie-within-a-movie where a second Blue Falcon named Brad Adams (voiced by Diedrich Bader) has a darker, more technologically advanced costume. Dynomutt has been stripped down to a darkerlooking, more destructive robot dog. The film also featured Owen Garrison (voiced by Jeff Bennett) as an actor that played Blue Falcon in the original TV series that he starred in. He was bitter that Brad Adams was cast as Blue Falcon.

Don Markstein’s Toonopedia mentions a couple other token appearances: “In more recent years, Dyno and Falcon have turned up in new productions, albeit not in an ongoing TV series of their own. They were members of Harvey Birdman’s law firm, for example. And when Dynomutt was destroyed in a typical superhero slugfest, the Blue Falcon took his remains to Dexter’s Laboratory to be put back together. They starred in a four-part online adventure, which can still be seen in Cartoon Network’s Toonami section—tho[ugh] again, the Falcon got top billing.”

DYNOMUTT AND BLUE FALCON IN COMIC BOOKS

Dynomutt and Blue Falcon have appeared in comic books over the years.

These include the following, all produced by Marvel Comics: • Scooby-Doo #1–6 (Oct. 1977–Aug. 1978) • Dynomutt #1–6 (Nov. 1977–Sept. 1978) • Laff-a-Lympics #1–13 (Mar. 1978–Mar. 1979) • The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera #2 (1978) • Hanna-Barbera TV Stars #3 (Dec. 1978)

Classic Talent Showcase (top) Working with writer Mark Evanier on Marvel’s Dynomutt was Aquaman co-creator Paul Norris. This page comes from TV Stars #3 (Dec. 1978). (bottom) Another long-time Evanier collaborator, Dan Spiegle, drew this Dynomutt/ Scooby-Doo team-up that saw print in 1978’s Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera #2. Scan courtesy of Steven Thompson.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

There were other Marvel issues produced for overseas, and these may have had appearances by Dynomutt and Blue Falcon. Mark Evanier, who worked on the Hanna-Barbera Marvel Comics, talks about this: “There’s a huge mystery as to how they sold. They lasted a year and a half, some of them, but at the same time, H-B began doing foreign comics. … For instance, in France, they were airing Jabberjaw on TV and they were showing that cartoon every day. That was not current in America, but it was current in France. The French publisher said, ‘Hey, do you have any American Jabberjaw comic books that we could translate into French here?’ There were none, so they had me hire writers and artists and we did Jabberjaw comic books that were published in France.

We did hundreds of pages based on different H-B shows over the next years.

“So even after Marvel stopped publishing our books in America, I was running a full department producing comics for Europe and all over the world for a while there. But the Marvel books, I really don’t know how they sold. The people at Marvel told us they sold terribly.

I’m not sure I believed them because a couple of those folks had made it clear that they hated those comics. The first person there who told me they weren’t selling well was way too happy about that. And the second guy told me that the seventh issue of Dynomutt was their lowest seller of the month. I had to tell him that might have been because there were only six issues of Dynomutt. They kind of hated everything that wasn’t produced within their office.

“Later, I worked with the business folks at Hanna-Barbera when they were dickering to revive the line with another publisher, one who’d never done comics before. During those discussions, they showed me royalty figures—the actual statements and checks Marvel had sent—that indicated some pretty high sales. Was it possible that Marvel accidentally way overpaid H-B? I suppose so, but I’m more inclined to think the books sold well but someone there decided they just didn’t want to publish them.

You know, Marvel was in the business of selling Hulk and Spider-Man. There have been times when they’ve snatched up the comic-book rights to some hot property they didn’t own and it’s like, ‘We’ll put this out so no competitor will get it.’ And then after a short time they cancel it.”

Working with writer Evanier on Marvel’s Dynomutt was artist Paul Norris, best known as the co-creator of Aquaman and for his long stint on the Brick Bradford newspaper strip. On November 6, 2007, Norris passed away. Evanier posted on his blog a tribute to Norris that included this mention of their Dynomutt collaboration: “In the ’70s, I had the pleasure of working with Paul on a comic book of the Hanna-Barbera feature, Dynomutt. He was a lovely man who worked very hard on his art but always managed to have it in on time. He usually delivered the work by mail but once or twice, when he was worried the work might not be early, he drove up to Los Angeles with it from his home near San Diego—three hours each way.”

Blue Falcon and Dynomutt were also cover-featured in Cartoon Network Presents #21 (May 1999), from DC Comics. Among that issue’s Toonami contents was a ten-page Dynomutt adventure written by Dan Slott and drawn by Manny Galan and Mike DeCarlo.

At this writing, there may be a possibility the characters could return for Scooby-Doo Team-Up, also produced by DC Comics. And with DC’s recent reimaginings of classic Hanna-Barbera characters (Future Quest, Scooby Apocalypse, etc.), we might see Big City’s dynamic duo return to comic books yet again.

MARK ARNOLD is a comic-book and animation historian. His upcoming books include Pocket Full of Dennis, The Harvey Comics Companion, and books about The Monkees and artist Warren Kremer.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER ’66

by JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ

Holy José, Batman! Or make that “holy grail,” which we feel we’ve discovered whenever we see the artwork of this modern master.

Pencil page 13 of DC Comics’ Batman ’66: The Lost Episode #1 (2015). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

captions by

Michael Eury

58 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

TM & © DC Comics.

BLACK CANARY and BATMAN/ TIM DRAKE ROBIN

by BART SEARS

by TOM LYLE

Terrific Tom Lyle, whose Starman series will get the spotlight in a future BACK ISSUE, drew this convention sketch of Robin III for its contributor, Michael Zeno, at HeroesCon in June 2007.

Also, here’s Green Arrow’s “pretty bird,” Black Canary, with JLA teammate Batman in a 1991 San Francisco comic-con sketch by the always-amazing Bart Sears, courtesy of Heritage.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

HAWK and DOVE

by ROB LIEFELD

As detailed elsewhere in this issue, Rob Liefeld first garnered notice as the penciler of DC’s five-issue Hawk and Dove reboot—and while this cover wasn’t used on the miniseries, the raw power of Rob’s art was impossible to overlook. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

60 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

In the mid-1980s, the King of Comics worked on two of three Super Powers miniseries produced by DC to tie in with Kenner’s action-figure line of the same name.

Here, from Heritage’s archives, are Kirby’s cover pencils to Super Powers vol. 2 #2 (Oct. 1985), with our cover star, Hawkman, in combat with the eldest son of Darkseid, Kalibak. The published cover, with Greg Theakston inks, is in the inset.

HAWKMAN

by JACK KIRBY

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

TM

While the comic industry is full of colorful personalities, perhaps none have quite reached the heights of Woody Wilkins, the writer/artist/self-publisher of such 1970s titles as Laser Lady and Zowie Comics (starring the amazing Bazooka Boy), or the heroes Gopher Boy and Sponge Man! Don’t remember Woody or his work? Perhaps you remember his exploits better when he was the winged hero Condorman? Mixing the comic-book world with the realm of super-spies, Walt Disney released Condorman into the wilds of the public on August 7, 1981. But the film about comics had already been a comic strip, so, which came first? The condor or the strip…?

TAKING FLIGHT… ON FILM

The answer to that question is… neither. The concept for Condorman was taken from a 1965 novel by SF satirist Robert Sheckley. In his book, The Game of X, subtitled “A Novel of Upsmanship Espionage,” William Nye is “Agent X,” a tourist who is mistaken for the greatest spy on Earth, despite evidence to the contrary. The story caroms from Paris to Venice, and includes killers, secret moles, and even a sexy Mata Hari-like femme fatale.

Disney eventually optioned the book for film, and writer Marc Stirdivant, with an uncredited Mickey Rose and Glenn Caron, went about creating a more family-friendly tale. In their revised story, eccentric comic creator Woody Wilson goes “method” when it comes to his creations; he wants to know the adventures he tells have some realism, so he acts them out first. “If Condorman can’t do something in real life, I won’t have him do it in my comic books!” is Woody’s motto. He thus finds himself atop the Eiffel Tower, dressed in a Condorman flying suit. The results are disastrous, and Woody is saved from the Seine River by CIA file clerk Harry Oslo. Despite his inexperience, Woody is recruited to help on a CIA mission, where all he must do is to swap some papers in Istanbul. When he meets the beautiful female contact, KGB spy Natalia Rambova, he tells her his codename is “Condorman,” and the game begins…

When Natalia decides to defect, she requests Condorman be the one to escort her to safety, unaware that Woody has already created a comic-book superheroine, Laser Lady, based on her likeness. When Woody takes the job, aided by high-tech equipment and vehicles from the CIA, the defection takes Woody and Natalia to Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, Monte Carlo, and L.A.’s Dodger Stadium, all while being pursued by KGB leader Krokov, stainless-steel-eyed assassin Morovich, and an elite pursuit squadron known as the Brocknoviach.

Cast in the film were a mixture of familiar and newer faces. The lead role went to Michael Crawford, a comedic actor from England who hadn’t yet gained worldwide fame for his role as the stage’s Phantom of the Opera. Vampy Nicaraguan model-turned-movie star Barbara Carrera was cast as the defecting Natalia, whose

Phantom of the Osprey Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com), the movie poster for Disney’s 1981 release, Condorman, starring future Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford.

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

by A n d y

Mangels

You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly (and Spy, and Boat) Christopher Reeve’s flying rigs from 1978’s Superman: The Movie were modified for Michael Crawford for Condorman. (top) The hero takes wing, with Barbara Carrera hitching a ride. (middle top) Cloak and dagger doings with Carrera and Crawford. (middle bottom) The Condorboat makes a splash! Among the film’s tie-ins: (bottom) Baskin-Robbins ice cream and (inset) a paperback novel.

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

boss/lover was played by the respected Oliver Reed.

Everyman character actor James Hampton was Harry, while the menacing Jean-Pierre Kalfon was Morovich.

With a budget of $14 million, Condorman spent a large portion on some spectacular stunts. Special effects artist Colin Chilvers, who had just won an Oscar for his work on Superman: The Movie, was in charge of effects for this film as well. He adapted some of the flying rigs used on Superman for Condorman’s flying sequences. Shooting those scenes at Pinewood Studios, he noted in press materials for the film that “our only problem was getting Michael Crawford fitted into molds designed for Christopher Reeve. Turned out we couldn’t. Michael’s chest is to Christopher’s what Katherine Hepburn’s bust is to Mae West’s. So we fitted him with a new set of molds.”

Chilvers also oversaw a huge race in the Alps which found a gypsy truck converting into the Condor Car (a Nova Sterling racer kit car), leading a fleet of five sleek, black KGB Porsche 935 Turbo Carreras and two Porsche Group 5 Lemans up the mountains. The stuntwork for the sequence, which involved rockets, flame-throwers, rampjumping, and maneuvers between oncoming traffic, was handled by French stunt driver Remy Julienne and his 16-man crew. A massive boat race in Monte Carlo was done with a custom-made Condor Craft hydroplane that could reach speeds of 85 mph, and a fleet of Russian speedboats.

THE SURREALITY OF COMICS

Few Hollywood properties in film or television had ever tackled the concept of creating comic books, so it’s not surprising that the “reality” of Woody Wilkins comic-book creation was more surreality. Not only was Woody the sole creator of his comics, from writing to art to letters and colors, he was also the publisher.

Not only was he the creator/publisher of one comic, he published multiple comics. He also had the magical ability to have them published within days of finishing them, and to have them instantly distributed and translated into languages worldwide! Those are feats that the boys of Image Comics could only dream of!

The one area that the filmmakers got right was in hiring real-life comic artist Mike Sekowsky (of Justice League of America, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl fame, to name but a few) to draw all of the art for the film, including mock covers, interior pages, and character sketches. Sekowsky had been working as a layout and storyboard artist at Hanna-Barbera Productions when he was picked by Condorman art director John Mansbridge and co-producer Jan Williams for the job. Sadly, Sekowsky got no credit for his work.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

The Condorman pressbook, sent to advertisers and theaters that were going to exhibit the film, featured a few pieces of Condorman comic-style art, but the art is also uncredited, and is definitely not Sekowsky.

The pressbook also offers ways for theaters to get butts in the seats or press such as: having a “Draw a Superhero Contest”; do the radio or newspaper

A Rare Glimpse Some sample pages and images from the ultra-rare Condorman movie pressbook, courtesy of Joel Davidson/The Cinemologists.

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

contest “Hollywood is for the Birds” in which guessing the most movie titles to feature birds would win tickets; partnering with local marinas to exhibit the Condor Craft; teaming with local conservation groups about saving the condor; ordering special Condorman balloons with cartoon art to give away; or displaying a miniature version of the Condor Car at local auto shows.

Perhaps the coolest Condorman tie-in was a special promotion with Baskin-Robbins in July 1981. In all 2,500 Baskin-Robbins stores, the mike sekowsky “Condorman Crunch” specialty flavor of ice cream was served: “chocolate ice cream with crunchy praline pecan bits and a milk chocolate ribbon.” The stores also gave out two million 23½” x 17¾” posters of Condorman to ice-cream buyers. The uncredited art is yet another element to the comic-book tie-ins, as it appears to have been drawn in a style similar to several satirical creators for MAD or Cracked magazines. There was also a half-page comic-strip ad that ran in Sunday papers promoting the ice cream, and while Disney executive Greg Crosby remembers writing it, it’s unclear who the artist for the ad was.

THE COMIC STRIP HATCHED FIRST

The Sunday newspapers had carried Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales since July 13, 1952. The weekly strips, syndicated by King Features, generally ran three to six months, and often adapted or promoted new or re-released Disney films. Almost every Disney film got a storyline, and Condorman was no exception. What was odd was the timing; although the movie was released on August 7, 1981, the Condorman strip ran from November 30, 1980 to April 12, 1981 in 40 major metropolitan newspapers. The 20-week storyline was uncredited, but was written by Greg Crosby and drawn by comics legend Russ Heath.

Inside Condorman’s Comics (top left) Woody drawing Laser Lady. (top right) Sekowsky Condorman art in the film. (center left) A Zowie comic. (center right) Kids love Laser Lady! (bottom montage) Sekowsky art used in the film, with thanks to Alter Ego, Jim Amash, and Teresa R. Davidson.

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

Condorman Undercover Yep, that’s Woody Wilkins in disguise in this gorgeous Russ Heath-illustrated Sunday Condorman strip from March 8, 1981. Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

Heath, a veteran of comics since 1942 in both strips and work My staff of creative personnel included around 20 artists, writers, for Timely/Marvel, DC, EC, Warren, and others, had seen a rough graphic designers, and gagmen. I used many freelancers as well.” cut of the film before drawing his story, and was provided stills to In 1990, Disney decided to publish its own comics, rather than work from as he drew. licensing them to Gladstone (the successor to longtime licensors The writer for the strip was the aforementioned Greg Crosby, a man Western Publishing/Gold Key/Whitman). Crosby then “worked with whose involvement in Disney comics hasn’t been explored much in the new marketing team to create product, including a line of new the annals of comic history. Crosby began at Disney in 1970 in the Disney Comics, new mass-market publications, and new magazine mail room, then moved in to animation, story sketches, then the ideas. The most successful new concept to come out of all that was comic-strip department, and finally, Consumer Products.

Disney Adventures magazine, a digest-sized comic sold at “When I left the studio after 27 years my title was Vice supermarket checkout counters.”

President of Creative for Disney Publications World Wide,” But we’ve gotten ahead of the game a little, and there’s Crosby tells BACK ISSUE. “I was the writer of the Donald a bit more Condorman history left to feather this story…

Duck comic strip daily and Sunday from 1974 through about 1981. That included layout sketches. I also CONDORMAN BECOMES A REAL contributed gags to the other strips, including Mickey COMIC BOOK Mouse and Scamp. I wrote many of the Disney’s Treasury After the newspaper strips, it was inevitable that of Classic Tales comics, which were for the most part Condorman reach the pages of comic books themselves. movie adaptations told in serial fashion over the span Western Publishing/Gold Key had a licensing deal of several weeks. with Disney and produced comics for most of Disney’s “I was made manager of the Disney Comic Strip major properties. But by 1981, the majority of the Department around 1981 or so,” Crosby continues. newsstand market was too tough for sales, so Western “I adapted the Condorman movie for the Treasury of created a new imprint, Whitman, to publish and greg crosby package comic-book three-packs: three issues of a Classic Tales strip. I knew Russ Heath through Alex comic sold in a bag for a special price. They made Toth, and some others, and I suggested that we use him for the art.” When asked about the early publication, which offered these available to supermarkets, toy stores, and the emerging direct readers tremendous spoilers about the film, Crosby says that “since sales comic-store market.

Treasury of Classic Tales was used to publicize Disney pictures, natuCondorman was published for three issues, cover-dated November rally we tried to schedule them to coincide with the pictures’ release 1981 to February 1982, and also sold in the three-packs. All three issues date. It was impossible to hit the mark for every picture, but we tried featured art by Frank Bolle, the longtime artist of the Winnie Winkle to get as close as we could.” comic strip, co-creator of the Golden Age heroine Black Phantom, and As he moved upwards through the company over the following years, artist for Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom plus many titles for DC, Timely/ Crosby would work on many major properties, including Warren Beatty’s Atlas/Marvel, Fawcett, Charlton, and others.

The scripts for the first two Condorman issues, which adapted Dick Tracy and the live-action/animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit. “I worked on a ton of publications of every kind which related the movie in a different style than the Sunday newspaper comics, to movie projects, as well as the standard characters (Mickey, Donald, are by an unknown author, but the third issue, which was an Goofy). In addition to comic strips and comic books for both foreign original story, was written by longtime DC and animation writer and domestic, I wrote children’s books, magazines, graphic novels, George Kashdan. The comics featured photo-collage covers with short stories, and promotional material. As head of Creative for Disney film scenes.

Inexplicably, the secondary character of CIA boss Russ, played by a Publications, I developed many conceptual publication projects including various book series for our licensees both in the US and abroad. very Caucasian Dana Elcar in the Condorman movie, is portrayed as 66 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

African-American in the comics. The rest of the two-parter in issues #1–2 adapted the movie relatively faithfully. In issue #3, Woody and Natalia are engaged, the CIA is making Condorman’s devices for him under the front of a toy company, and Krokov and Morovich have reappeared to recapture Natalia and return her to her homeland.

Whether there were future issues of Condorman planned is knowledge lost to history. It’s likely that the third issue was actually produced solely to fill out one of the three-pack Whitman bags, especially when the movie release didn’t perform as well as Disney hoped. “As far as Condorman is concerned, after the initial release of the picture, nothing more came of it,” says Crosby. “To my knowledge there was never any talk of doing additional comics with the character.

If a picture wasn’t a big hit, that was that. We moved on to the next one.”

The comics were some of the few items of Condorman merchandising to ever reach the public. There was a tie-in novel written by Joe Claro and sold by Scholastic (350,000 copies printed); a child’s costume; multiple Beta, Laserdisc, VHS, and DVD releases, and… not much else. More recently, Intrada finally released the Condorman soundtrack in 2012, Disney’s Infinity Power Disc game had a Condorman disc, and Disneyland’s Vinylmation Movieland series featured a 3” chibi Condorman in its mystery box first series.

The Real Condorman Comic Whitman’s photo cover to Condorman #1 (Nov. 1981), and an interior page illustrated by Frank Bolle.

CAN A META-TEXTUAL FLYING SUPERHERO CATCH A BREAK?

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

In a world where Deadpool breaks the fourth wall, and comic creators are not unknown to the general public, could Condorman succeed today?

Shortly after the acquisition of Marvel Comics by Disney, Marvel editor Stephen Wacker wrote an impassioned plea in Amazing Spider-Man #619 (Mar. 2010) to the corporate overlords at Disney, begging them to allow him to bring Condorman back in the pages of Marvel’s comics. He even asked readers to start a letter-writing campaign. Nothing more seemed to come of this, however.

In 2012, there was Internet chatter about a potential Condorman remake with The Twilight Saga’s Robert Pattinson, but if there was any reality to it, it has since evaporated.

The beaked warrior has, however, made one small reappearance…

In November 2011, Pixar debuted a seven-minute short film, Toy Story Toons: Small Fry, with the theatrical release of The Muppets. In the story, Buzz Lightyear meets up with a support group of discarded fast food toys, which include a Condorman toy (inset), voiced by Bob Bergen.

Clearly, the feathered hero has his fans in Hollywood, so hope for a reboot lives on. And if the original Condorman taught us anything, it was that with hope, even a comic-book creator can fly!

TM & © Walt Disney Productions.

The interview with Greg Crosby was conducted in January 2016 by Andy Mangels. Unless otherwise noted, artwork and photos are courtesy of the collection of Andy Mangels. Special thanks for scans from the pressbook, provided by Joel Davidson/The Cinemologists.

ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the recent TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features for over 40 DVD releases. He is the writer of the new Wonder Woman ’77 Meets The Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www.WonderWomanMuseum.com

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

TM

The Boy Wonder was all grown up.

In 1996, former Robin Dick Grayson was at a crossroads. He’d been a sidekick to Batman, leader of the Teen Titans, created his own identity as Nightwing, and even understudied as the Dark Knight himself.

But there was still one thing Dick Grayson hadn’t done—headline his own monthly comic book. After a four-issue Nightwing miniseries by Denny O’Neil and Greg Land proved a sales success, writer Chuck Dixon and penciler Scott McDaniel were tapped to create the new status quo for Dick Grayson in an ongoing monthly Nightwing series.

Conceiving of Batman’s ex-partner as a prince regent assigned to rule an outlaw province, Dixon and McDaniel introduced a brand-new city to the DC Universe: Blüdhaven, a decaying harbor town north of Gotham City. Arriving in town to solve the mystery of 21 corpses floating upriver to Gotham Harbor, Nightwing finds a city mired in corruption, with dirty cops like Inspector Dudley Soames and Chief Redhorn going unopposed. Dick soon settles into his new hometown, making friends like his new landlady Bridget Clancy, bartender and ex-cop Hank Hogan, and retired mystery man John Law. Soon enough, Dick uncovers the culprit behind the 21 corpses: Roland Desmond, a.k.a. the Blockbuster. Determined to build a new criminal empire in Blüdhaven, Blockbuster sent a legion of foes to defeat the city’s new protector.

Nightwing was a book of non-stop acrobatic action, as our hero went up against classic Bat-foes Blockbuster, the Scarecrow, and Man-Bat, along with new threats Lady Vic, Stallion, Brutale, the Trigger Twins, and others. Dick Grayson’s private life was no less hectic, as he juggled romances old and new with Clancy, Barbara Gordon, and the Huntress, and got jobs as a bartender and a rookie policeman. Batman and Robin (Tim Drake) also put in periodic guest appearances, maintaining ties with the Bat-Family.

McDaniel left Nightwing after 40 issues and assorted specials to become the penciler on Batman, while Dixon stayed on through issue #70, working with a variety of other artists. Dixon and McDaniel reteamed in 2001 for Nightwing: The Target, a one-shot with Dick Grayson assuming a new costumed identity to clear his name.

A second reunion followed in 2005 for the six-issue Nightwing: Year One storyline (co-written by Scott Beatty), detailing the end of Dick Grayson’s tenure as Robin and the beginning of his career as Nightwing. And their third reunion is right now, as Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel take a backflip down memory lane here in the pages of BACK ISSUE. – John Trumbull JOHN TRUMBULL: How did you two get the Nightwing book? Chuck, did you have to pitch for the book, or were you just assigned it by editor Scott Peterson?

CHUCK DIXON: The book was initially to be co-written

by Denny O’Neil and Alan Grant. For whatever reason, they both bailed three weeks before the first script was due.

Scott Peterson called to ask if I’d be interested. He told

New Blood in Blüdhaven Dick Grayson finally gets his own monthly series: Detail from the cover of Dixon and McDaniel’s Nightwing #1 (Oct. 1996).

TM & © DC Comics.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

by J o h n

Tr u m b u l l

me that Scott McDaniel would be the regular artist. I liked Scott’s work and he’d recently done one of the Amalgam books that I was wild about [Assassins #1, Apr. 1996, featuring a mash-up of Catwoman and Elektra].

Peterson’s only proviso for the series was that it take place in a brand-new city (Blüdhaven), that Blockbuster be the main villain, and that we produce “a Jackie Chan movie on paper” every month.

TRUMBULL: Did you come up with the name for Blüdhaven, or did Scott Peterson give it to you?

DIXON: The town was already named, I think because Peterson liked saying “Blüdhaven.” I wanted to call it Dresher. Don’t ask me why. It just sounds like a place losers would come from.

TRUMBULL: Scott, how about you? How did you get the Nightwing assignment?

SCOTT McDANIEL: I came onto DC’s radar thanks to Marvel assistant editor Pat Garrahy. Pat was instrumental in guiding me along my Daredevil run at Marvel, my first professional monthly assignment. After our run on DD ended, Pat transitioned to DC while I remained working with Marvel, as penciler on Marvel’s new Green Goblin series. This new take on the character featured a young man using the GG tech to serve as a hero. Soon after the book launched, Marvel changed their plans for [the] Green Goblin, wanting to return him to the stable of Spider-Man villains, and they abruptly canceled the new series. That was very disappointing news at the time, as I was having a great time drawing those stories. But it happened at the exact moment DC was looking for an artist on a Nightwing monthly series. Thanks to Pat, I was approached by editor Scott Peterson to be the penciler. I wasn’t sure if this opportunity was the right move. Pat convinced me

it was a great choice. And it turns out Pat was absolutely right. I loved the character, and I loved working with Chuck. It turned out to be the best time of my career!

TRUMBULL: You two had great chemistry on Nightwing.

What did each of you bring to the partnership, and how did you affect each other’s work?

DIXON: Well, Scott accomplished the one thing I demand from all the artists that I work with: He made me look like a genius. We’re both prolific workaholics, so there were no problems there. And he’s one of the very few artists for whom I did not block out action scenes. I would simply tell him how many pages the scene had to be and how it had to end and maybe suggest some dialogue. But all those breathless chase and fight scenes were all him.

McDANIEL: Chuck is very kind. He looked after me like a big brother. The genius of Chuck is that he intimately knows his craft, and as an artist himself, he knows how to write visually and specifically to the strengths of his artist partner.

I always closely study the plot or script before I draw a single line. I look for the overall flavor/atmosphere of the story, for scenes that match, or visual elements that need to be established early in the story, tag all the items for which I need to either secure visual reference or to design, and also to simply understand the logic of the story. Most of the time on typical scripts I end up with three or four giant circled “?”s in the margin for points that just aren’t clear to me and require some clarification. But not on a Dixon document.

Most Dixon documents are populated by my boldly capped and triple-underlined “COOL!” or “WHOA!” or “!!!!” comments! Month after month, he delivered stories that had the highest density testosterone-per-page that I’ve ever encountered in comics. Chuck totally sparked my creative energy, and it clearly showed up on the page.

Not Recommended for Babysitting (left) Lady Vic, on her quest to find crimeboss Marin, in Nightwing #4 (Jan. 1997). (right) McDaniel/Karl Story original art for the cover of Wizard magazine #74 (Oct. 1, 1997).

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

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

TRUMBULL: Chuck, would you and Scott discuss possible plots together, or was that just you and Scott Peterson?

DIXON: I don’t recall discussing plotlines with Mr. McD. I had a sense early on of the kinds of things he liked to draw. It was kind of an intuitive collaboration. I worked to what I saw were his strengths, and he had a lot of strengths!

With Scott Peterson, I had to submit a year-long outline kind of thingy that I hated writing. Those would be pretty sketchy, as I recall. But Scott and the other editors let me get away with it because I worked so far ahead of schedule.

TRUMBULL: How would you two typically work together?

Full script, Marvel style, or something in between?

DIXON: It was full script for the most part. But I didn’t block out major action scenes like I would for most other artists. Scott would always come up with stuff I would never have thought of in a million years. I always thought it best to let him fly.

TRUMBULL: How did things change, if at all, with your subsequent editors of Darren Vincenzo and Nachie Castro?

DIXON: The book was pretty much running on the power of the creative team at that point. I never noticed the changeover.

TRUMBULL: How do you two see Dick Grayson, and what new stuff did you try to bring to the character?

DIXON: We made him a little more approachable.

Nightwing was never meant to be Batman, Jr. or Batman Lite. I made him more common, for lack of a better word. His speech pattern was not as mannered as Batman’s. He said “gotta” and “wanna” and things like that. We also tried to portray him as happier than his mentor. He enjoyed the talents God gave him. He was a happy warrior, much as he’d been when he was Robin.

McDANIEL: As a newbie from Marvel, I didn’t know much about the grown-up Dick Grayson. Editor Scott Peterson was very thoughtful in his guidance to me.

Scott P. told me that the book was to be like a Jackie Chan movie, and that everything Dick did was physical.

Everything. Scott P. gave this example: When Dick needed to tie his shoes, he didn’t sit down and reach down toward the floor like us everyday Joes, but instead, Dick would—without thinking—gracefully throw his foot up against a nearby wall at eye-level and casually reach over to tie the laces. Dick was a pure acrobat, and that was to manifest into all his physicality. Thanks to those blistering action stories penned by Chuck, making Dick move acrobatically was never a problem!

TRUMBULL: What went into creating Dick Grayson’s new status quo in Blüdhaven, as well as his new supporting cast like Bridget Clancy, Chief Redhorn, Dudley Soames, and Hank Hogan?

DIXON: Creating Blüdhaven was the biggest treat. Except for those pesky umlauts, maybe. Scott P. left all that up to me. I used several towns I knew well like Camden, New Jersey, and Manayunk and Chester, both in Pennsylvania.

Towns that are down on their luck. Cities that only have one exit off the interstate because no one ever gets off there anyway. [Blüdhaven] started as a failed whaling town only to move on to the production of asbestos.

That’s why all those flyovers and bridges pass right over

Not-Quite-Right-Wing The hapless, hopeless Tad Ryerson, a.k.a. the wannabe hero Nite-Wing, as seen on (top) the Scott McDaniel/Scott Hanna cover to Nightwing #21 (June 1998) and in (bottom) this panel from issue #34.

TM & © DC Comics.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

downtown Blüdhaven. It’s that aspect that gives the city its own cachet to separate it from Gotham City.

The cast of cops was born out the fact that I was reading a lot of James Ellroy at the time. That explains why the Blüdhaven cops are so darned venal. And I knew from the beginning that Soames would end up with his head on backwards. I mean, that’s so Batman, right?

Clancy came from something I saw on TV. I had the television on and was only halfway listening to a reporter speaking to people on the streets of Londonderry in North Ireland. He wound up speaking to these two girls with the thickest Gaelic brogues and lilts you’ve ever heard.

I glanced up to see it was two Chinese young ladies.

I immediately said to myself, “Oh, I’m going to use this!”

McDANIEL: Chuck was the master of the characters.

He’d create them conceptually, suggest some physicality and costuming ideas, and I would create from there. For me, the real fun was visually creating Blüdhaven. I used industrial, early-to-mid-1900s Pittsburgh and Chicago to get the right vibe of iron and rail mechanical strength, crusty brick architecture, and urban filth that just seemed right for this new city. I found some photo books of that era of those two cities, and they became my starting point for most of the city.

TRUMBULL: You two came up with a lot of new villains for Dick Grayson in this series—Torque, Lady Vic, Double Dare, Nite-Wing, etc. How did you go about creating these characters, or revamping old ones like Blockbuster?

What sort of qualities were you looking for Dick’s foes?

DIXON: Obviously, Nightwing needed foes worthy of him. And DC had a participation agreement in effect so we’d own a piece. Why not create a deep bad-guy bench for Nightwing? I was reading a bunch of books on safaris at the time and Lady Vic came out of that. Double Dare was because I liked the name and, let’s face it, Nightwing battling athletic twins was kind of hot.

Nite-Wing was my favorite of all of them. Just a clueless jerk. He really wrote himself, though I did base

his dialogue on a certain comics creator who was very popular at the time.

And, in every case, Mr. McD gave each of these rascals a fresh, distinctive look in keeping with the themes and function.

McDANIEL: Again, Chuck took the lead here on the characters. He’s the master of character, in both function and form. It was great fun building off the great start he would give me. The characters, like his stories, were so different and unique that they sparked my own creativity. I admit I was grateful that Soames logically needed to wear a neck brace. Even to this day, the thought of having to draw his exposed neck, with skin pulled taught like threads on a screw, gives me the willies.

TRUMBULL: How do you see the relationship between Dick and Bruce?

DIXON: Father and son, only even more difficult because, in the end, there’s no blood between them.

McDANIEL: Agreed. Dick was Bruce’s ward, at a time that would be pretty terrifying and influential for the young circus acrobat. It seems to me that theirs could be a very multi-dimensional relationship. From Dick’s point of view, it seems realistic that, at times, he could view Bruce as a father, uncle, big brother, mentor, employer, probation officer, or prison warden! But mostly I think as a father figure.

TRUMBULL: Dick’s romantic relationship with Clancy got sidetracked when things with Barbara Gordon heated up again. Was this your original plan, or did things change as you were working on the book?

DIXON: Clancy was only ever meant to be a passing romantic interest. Babs was always going to be the big love object. I never told anyone this or asked permission.

I just started moving the pair closer and closer to one another. It’s a match made in comics heaven.

McDANIEL: This is all Chuck! To be honest, while the romance and flirtations were fun, all I really wanted to draw was bats, bullets, and bricks! And I got that in spades, so I didn’t mind at all how Chuck navigated Dick’s love life!

TRUMBULL: One of the biggest surprises during your run on Nightwing was Dick’s decision to become a cop.

How did this come about?

TM & © DC Comics.

Head-Turning Hellion Dudley Soames, the terrifying Torque, as seen in (left) Nightwing #27 (Jan. 1999) and (right) issue #29.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

NIGHTWING BY CHUCK DIXON AND SCOTT McDANIEL CHECKLIST • Nightwing #1 (Oct. 1996) – 1st appearance Dudley Soames • Nightwing #2 (Nov. 1996) • Nightwing #3 (Dec. 1996) • Nightwing #4 (Jan. 1997) – 1st appearance Lady Vic • Nightwing #5 (Feb. 1997) • Nightwing #6 (Mar. 1997) – Robin guest appearance • Nightwing #7 (Apr. 1997) • Nightwing #8 (May 1997) – 1st appearance Tad Ryerstad • Nightwing #9 (June 1997) • Nightwing #10 (July 1997) • Nightwing #11 (Aug. 1997) • Nightwing #12 (Sep. 1997) – 1st appearance Mutt • Nightwing #13 (Oct. 1997) – Batman guest appearance • Nightwing #14 (Nov. 1997) – Batman guest appearance, 1st appearance Stallion • Nightwing #15 (Dec. 1997) – Batman guest appearance • Nightwing #1/2 (1997) • Nightwing #16 (Jan. 1998) • Nightwing #17 (Feb. 1998) – Mat-Bat guest appearance • Nightwing #18 (Mar. 1998) – Mat-Bat, Deathstroke guest appearances • Nightwing #19 (Apr. 1998) – Cataclysm, Part 2 • Nightwing #20 (May 1998) – Cataclysm, Part 11 • Nightwing #21 (June 1998) – 1st appearance Tad as Nite-Wing • Nightwing #22 (July 1998) – 1st appearance Brutale • Nightwing #23 (Aug. 1998) • Nightwing #24 (Sep. 1998) • Nightwing #25 (Oct. 1998) – Robin guest appearance • Nightwing #1,000,000 (Nov. 1998) • Nightwing #26 (Dec. 1998) • Nightwing #27 (Jan. 1998) – Huntress guest appearance, 1st appearance Dudley Soames as Torque • Nightwing #28 (Feb. 1998) – Huntress guest appearance • Nightwing #29 (Mar. 1998) – Huntress guest appearance • Nightwing #30 (Apr. 1998) – Superman guest appearance

• Nightwing #31 (May 1999) • Nightwing #32 (June 1999) – 1st appearance Double Dare • Nightwing #33 (July 1999) • Nightwing #34 (Aug. 1999) • Nightwing #35 (Sep. 1999) – No Man’s Land – Escape to Blackgate: 1 • Nightwing Secret Files and Origins #1 (Oct. 1999) – 1st appearance Shrike • Nightwing #36 (Oct. 1999) – No Man’s Land – Escape to Blackgate: 2 • Nightwing #37 (Nov. 1999) – No Man’s Land – Escape to Blackgate: 3 • Nightwing #38 (Dec. 1999) – No Man’s Land – Ballistic Romance: 1 • Nightwing #39 (Jan. 2000) – No Man’s Land – Ballistic Romance: 2 • Nightwing #40 (Feb. 2000) – Tarantula Spotlight Issue • Nightwing: The Target (Sept. 2001) • Nightwing #101 (Mar. 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 1” • Nightwing #102 (Mar. 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 2” • Nightwing #103 (Apr. 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 3” • Nightwing #104 (Apr. 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 4” • Nightwing #105 (May 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 5” • Nightwing #106 (May 2005) – “Nightwing: Year One, Part 6”

TRADE PAPERBACK COLLECTIONS

• Nightwing vol. 1: Blüdhaven (collecting Nightwing miniseries #1–4, Nightwing #1–8) • Nightwing vol. 2: Rough Justice (collecting Nightwing #9–18, Nightwing Annual #1) • Nightwing vol. 3: False Starts (collecting Nightwing #19–25, Nightwing #1/2, Nightwing/ Huntress miniseries #1–4) • Nightwing vol. 4: Love and Bullets (collecting Nightwing #26–34, Nightwing #1,000,000, Nightwing: Secret Files and Origins #1) • Nightwing vol. 5: The Hunt for Oracle (collecting Nightwing #35–46, Birds of Prey #20–21)

72 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

The Former Boy Wonder Dick Grayson’s history was recapped in 1999’s Nightwing Secret Files and Origins #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

DIXON: We talked about him having a day job, mostly so that Dick Grayson could be [in] the book [as] more than just a guy sleeping, eating, and walking around.

I thought it should be a job that accentuated his role as Nightwing. It seemed natural, after seeing how deeply corrupt the Blüdhaven PD was, that he become a police officer.

McDANIEL: Again, all Chuck. Made perfect sense.

TRUMBULL: Your run on Nightwing had a few crossovers with big Bat-events like Cataclysm and No Man’s Land.

Were these outside storylines an inspiration, an intrusion, or somewhere in between?

DIXON: Both Scott and I stayed so far ahead of deadline that we could work around those events as long as he had enough notice that they were coming. The only complication I can recall is that One Million was going to fall right in the middle of a three-issue arc with Huntress that Scott and I had been building toward.

That was solved by me scripting a new done-in-one story that could be wedged in before the arc started and bump it past the crossover issue. And Scott pitched in to pencil that issue under an unforgiving deadline.

McDANIEL: Wow! Fantastic memory! I honestly don’t recall the details of maneuvering the crossover headaches.

I was still relatively new, and very eager to draw my fingers off. And until you understand the sheer magnitude of Chuck’s prolific creative production, you’d realize the fate of my fingers was truly in jeopardy. Basically, I wanted to be as dependable in a jam as was Chuck, so wherever he went, I worked like a horse to follow!

TRUMBULL: I remember an old Wizard letters column where you two talked about Dick Grayson being religious.

You even included some hints to this on Dick’s bookshelves.

I always find this intriguing, as the spiritual lives of superheroes are rarely delved into. How did you decide to make Dick a Christian?

DIXON: It was nothing overt. We didn’t show him attending church or taking communion. Mostly Easter eggs that Scott planted in the artwork. But I certainly portrayed him as moral young man rather than the rake he was sometimes portrayed as prior to and after our run.

McDANIEL: The visual Easter eggs were simply a nod to my own faith, which is incredibly important to me.

To this day, I strive to live a life that honors my Savior.

But in the book, I think Chuck hit the right note, where Dick’s behavior and standards harmonized very well with the things most people would consider to be right and honest and good. The young man was truly heroic in aspiration, and that was admirable.

TRUMBULL: You two came back to Dick Grayson in 2001 for the one-shot The Target. How did this book come about? Was this story something that you’d planned to do during your original run?

DIXON: I think there was a hole in the publishing schedule just big enough for a Prestige book. It used to be like that. The presses must be fed! I got a lot of one-off jobs that way. A standalone Nightwing story by me and Scott was not a hard sell.

McDANIEL: Yup. To pair up with Chuck on a Nightwing project is the textbook definition of “a no-brainer”!

TRUMBULL: You two returned to Nightwing again in 2005 to do Nightwing: Year One in issues #101–106.

How did this reunion come about? And what did co-writer Scott Beatty bring to the party as a collaborator?

DIXON: Scott Beatty (enough with the Scotts, already!) has the mutant ability to look at foregone continuity and mine it for new gags and angles and all without changing anything established. And he and I always work in an organic writing style where we complete each other’s sentences. No egos get in the way. And it was his suggestion that Deadman be part of the story, and that was sheer genius.

TRUMBULL: Kudos to Mr. Beatty, then! I love the Deadman/ Nightwing costume connection. Supremely clever.

DIXON: What you said!

McDANIEL: It was very fun, and indeed very clever.

TRUMBULL: Looking back, is there anything that you wish you’d done differently during your time with Dick Grayson?

DIXON: I have no regrets except that me and Scott (any of the Scotts!) don’t get to work together more often, though Scott Beatty and I do UNprepped, a miniseries from IDW coming out in 2017. But we did a nice long run that fans are still very fond of. And we had fun doing it.

McDANIEL: I have absolutely no regrets. I was honored to receive the assignment and work with arguably the best action comics writer ever. I gave it my absolute best effort from start to finish. And I’m eager for a chance to cross paths with Chuck again. With the right story and character… it would be epic!

Twice As Not-So-Nice (top) Nemeses Double Dare, prancing through Nightwing #33. (bottom) From Part 3 (of 6) of “Nightwing: Year One,” in Nightwing #103 (early Apr. 2005), Dick Grayson learns that circus aerialist Boston (Deadman) Brand appropriated his high-collar crimson costume design from Dick’s dad, John Grayson… which in turns inspires Dick’s first Nightwing costume.

TM & © DC Comics.

JOHN TRUMBULL is still hoping to become a Batman sidekick one day. Check out his weekly column “Crisis on Earth-T” every Monday at http://atomicjunkshop.com/.

Thanks to Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel for sharing their memories with BACK ISSUE.

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

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HE LOVES JERKS

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Thanks for the comp copies of BACK ISSUE #91!

I did notice that the knucklehead who wrote the Flash Thompson article should have said “One More Day” instead of “One Moment in Time” when referring to the Spider-Man “reboot” that preceded “Brand New Day.” Apologies for the mix-up.

Sigh.

– Darrell Hempel Thanks for letting us know, knuckleh—uh, Darrell… and for the great job you did on the article!

Arthur B. Reeve photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection.

GUYS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

Regarding BI #91: “All-Jerks Issue”!

I wonder if those who have had such fun for years using and enjoying Guy Gardner as the butt of jokes (“All About Guy [Gardner]”) are aware that his name was devised by editor Julius Schwartz and writer John Broome from the names of prolific Silver Age LOC writer (and later DC employee) Guy H. Lillian III and iconic DC scripter Gardner Fox. With this known—that “Guy Gardner” was created as a tribute to the best of DC’s fans and writers—I have always maintained that the character should be restored from a mentally ill, hateful, misogynist lout to his original position of respect in the DCU. And if not, what does this say about those who continue to view and depict him as a buffoon?

I was delighted to see even a few column inches devoted to telling BI’s readers of author Arthur B. Reeve [inset], who provided, via Julie Schwartz, the name of Batman nemesis Arthur Reeves (“Bullies and Blowhards of the DC Bronze Age”), but Reeve deserves a little more space. An extremely prolific writer of detective stories, he created the scientific sleuth Craig Kennedy who, in his day (mostly 1910–1936), was nearly as famous as Sherlock Holmes and starred in novels, short stories, movie serials, and, as late as 1952, a TV series, Craig Kennedy: Criminologist.

(Some of these can be found on YouTube… what can’t be?)

Concerning J. Jonah Jameson’s appearances in Spider-Man Annual #15 (“J. Jonah Jameson: Spidey’s Most Persistent Foe?”), Frank Miller, who did much of the heavy lifting in plotting that story, told me he presented Jameson as an excellent newspaper publisher in every other facet of the job to excuse Jameson’s excesses concerning Spider-Man. Finally, there has been much discussion in BI of late of the short-lived Marvel digest Haunt of Horror. No one has reported,

74 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Loved the “All Jerks” issue! They’re not heroes, they’re not villains, they’re just… jerks. Where would we be without the likes of these irritating fools and foils?

I remembered an issue of Spider-Man where J. Jonah Jameson is throwing a hissy fit in front of the Daily Bugle’s board of directors.

As he rants, he mentions in passing, “Do I need to remind you that I have controlling interest in this newspaper?” I loved that, because in just that one throwaway line he explained how he could run all those “Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?” headlines.

And while I’m on the subject, “Threat or Menace”?? What the heck kind of a choice was that??

While I always enjoy the DC and Marvel articles, it was great fun to see a rare Archie-based article. Reggie Mantle (his creator was making a pun on “regimental”) is one of the first comics jerks we were all exposed to. His antics always made me laugh as a kid, and they still do.

I loved Steve Smith’s idea of an All-Ads issue, although I doubt you’d find enough material to carry it. Still, it would be fun to see an in-depth look at Count Dante, Charles Atlas, Sea Monkeys, and the like.

I picked up Comic Book Fever a couple of weeks ago, and it is the most fun I could have reading a book about comic books. I highly recommend it to your readers.

Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see what’s coming for #100.

– Michal Jacot

BULLY, BULLY!

Re: Flash Thompson’s denial of his bullying of Peter Parker and his attempt to justify his behavior, as covered in BI #91’s “Flash Thompson: Friend or Foe?”: I read the Web of Spider-Man issue when it came out… I didn’t buy what he said then and I still don’t!

– Paul E. Kusnerik

HIS FAVORITE GUY

I have been reading the last few issues of BACK ISSUE with great enjoyment and very few complaints, although I feel I should mention that TwoMorrows might be overusing the cover image of Psycho #2 that you used on page 28 of issue #88 on the comic magazines of the ’70s and ’80s. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a GREAT cover and it does feature the very first appearance of the Skywald version of the Heap, but not only has it been used in the Swampmen book on the muck monsters of the comics, Roy Thomas has used it at least twice in Alter Ego (not to mention in the first of his wonderful three-volume set from PS Artbooks reprinting the Golden Age version of the character).

If you do feel the need to cover the Skywald Heap again somewhere down the line, there is a fantastic pinup on the back of Psycho #4 by Bill Everett who, as you may recall from an earlier email, I am a major fan of, considering him one of the greatest and most underrated artists of the Golden, Silver, AND Bronze Age. The main reason I’m writing though is not about any past issue, but in fact a future issue, BACK ISSUE #91, the “All-Jerks Issue” featuring Guy Gardner. You see, I’m a big Guy Gardner fan. Oh,

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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

as a possible contributing factor to the magazine’s downfall, that the closing paragraphs of the Harlan Ellison story “Neon” were printed out of order in #1, considerably changing the story’s meaning.

The story was reprinted, as the author intended, in issue #2. (For confirmation on this, see http:// heartinajar.blogspot.com/2010/02/ haunted-by-horrorbriefly.html, as well as other such blogs.)

– Mike W. Barr

Drop the “D.” Change Guy Gardner–Warrior to Guy GARNER–Warrior, and that way you could keep the power-ringed Guy Gardner and give the new guy (Guy?) the Vuldarian powers and backstory.

And as for two characters having a similar name, well, there used to be two Hal Jordans, the Silver Age Green Lantern himself and his teenage nephew Hal, who had been named after him and fought crime as the electronically transmitted Air Wave, continuing the legacy of his late father who had been the original Golden Age “Wireless Wizard” (now there’s a hero who should be brought back for the modern digital age…).

Besides, it would be fun to have the two red-headed superheroes (hey, with gingers being the bullies’ target du jour, they need all the heroes they can get!) running around the DC Universe getting confused for each other, much to Garner’s annoyance and Gardner’s ever-increasing rage, until Gardner finally stomps into Warriors demanding a fight.

Garner, of course, knocks him out with one punch, and then, when he regains consciousness, buys him a beer because, hey, that’s the kind of guy he is.

– Jeff Taylor Thanks for sending that Bill Everett pinup, Jeff, which we’ve shared below.

The writing of Beau Smith (known in some circles as Smif’Beau) is probably a major reason why you loved Guy Gardner–Warrior.

Have you been watching Syfy’s Wynonna Earp series, based on Beau’s comic?

© 1971 Skywald.

TM & © DC Comics.

not the obnoxious Guy Gardner–Green Lantern version that is such a fan-favorite, but the more mature Guy Gardner–Warrior he evolved into under the talented hands of writer Beau Smith and artist Mitch Byrd in the later issues of his comic book, gaining new powers and a new backstory that made him, to me at least, a much more interesting character.

Now, I don’t know if any of this will be covered in #91 because it happened in the ’90s, so here’s my personal overview of the series just in case... [Editor’s note: Since the Guy Gardner– Warrior phase of the character’s history was indeed covered in issue #91, the letter writer’s lengthy synopsis, which included a recap of Guy’s ability to morph into weapons, has been edited for space considerations.]

Now, this stuff really impressed me. I mean, I may be a typical, clichéd, wimpy, overweight comics fan, but I come from a blue-collar background, borne out of hardy farming stock with a heavy-duty mechanic for a stepfather, and grew up in a small working-class Canadian town where daily life centered around mining, ranching, and logging, and I quickly learned the difference between bragging, bullying a-holes who called themselves “Real Men” and, well, real men, so it was a major joy for me to see Guy Gardner change from the former into the latter and finally, as he had so often been angrily advised to do by friends and loved ones, grow up.

There was only one problem with Guy Gardner–Warrior: Fans HATED it!!!

They wanted the old Guy Gardner back, the juvenile jerk they loved to laugh at while not so secretly thrilling to his redneck, right-wing rants, and like a ’70s sitcom where a wimpy put-upon character starts to assert himself like a mature adult, or a first-class jerk finally starts to act like a decent human being only to be forced back to “normal” by the end of the episode, DC caved to their demands and the Warrior was all but forgotten. Quite a shame, really, because like I said, his powers and new backstory were pretty darn cool. Even more importantly, though, they were much more film-friendly.

Let’s face it: while a Green Lantern’s glowing green-energy constructs look cool in the comics, the Ryan Reynolds movie proved that they just looked silly up on the big screen.

However, with modern makeup techniques and CGI morphing effects, Guy’s Vuldarian ability to grow weapons out of his body is not just workable, it would be damn impressive. More than that, it ties into the whole “living weapon” fetish that Hollywood has, be it Rambo, Robocop, and, dare I say it, Wolverine (let’s face it, DC has always wanted its own Logan, and frankly, no matter how hard they try, a paid assassin like Deathstroke just isn’t acceptable as a any kind of hero…), with the taunting spirit of Dementor living in his brain giving him a dark side he must constantly fight to conquer, like all modern movie superheroes apparently have to have to have these days (although I must say at least it works as a good monstrous metaphor for the PostTraumatic Stress Disorder that so many modern warriors have to battle in the 21st Century…). Even more, as the owner of a bar called Warriors, the Warrior is the only superhero where it would be acceptable to a modern audience to wander around with a big red “W” on the front of his T-shirt or the back of his leather jacket because it would be seen as promotional merchandising for his business, and you know how much studios love that kind of stuff!

The only problem, of course, would be how to cut Guy Gardner off from the Green Lantern franchise he’s always been so much a part of. I’ve given that a lot of thought and finally realized that the answer is simple:

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

Just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for BACK ISSUE magazine, share my experience with finding the magazine, and offer a few comments on the latest issue I received (#90). When I read my comics, I often think, “Hey, I should write and tell them exactly what I think of them.” But I never do… though I sometimes cancel my subscription, and that has its own eloquence, I suppose.

But BACK ISSUE has finally motivated me to write, partly because I love reading your letters pages (especially when the pros write in to correct you).

I am a little irked that it took me so long to get a subscription (I would love to find a way to blame you for this, but my logic is not devious enough). The first copy of BACK ISSUE I read was the “Liberated Ladies” issue [#54]—I picked it up at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, of all places. I loved it (of course), and repeatedly checked back at the same store to get more. I NEVER SAW IT THERE AGAIN. (*deep sadness*) And, it was years before I saw another issue.

Sometime last year, I was sorting out my comic collection (which tends to accumulate into unwieldy piles in my study) and I found that issue again. And I read it again. And it was still great!

She-Hulk, Starfire, Big Barda! Why was I not getting more of this?

And, why was I not seeing it at my local comic shop? (Command D in Dracut, MA, in case you were wondering.) I went down to ask them that very question.

Well, my comic store does supply BACK ISSUE (and Alter Ego), but only to customers who request it. I signed up immediately (of course), and they gave me (well, sold me) an extra copy of Alter Ego they had lying around to tide me over. (Nice magazine, Alter Ego, but I guess my true love is the Bronze Age.) I was happy.

Could they get me older issues? No, they could not… try eBay, they suggested. I did just that and I’m slowly filling in the gaps (though some issues are difficult to find, or hard to find at a reasonable price—yes! I can blame you for this part, I’m sure!

Bigger print runs!). Although I miss the color in some of the older issues, I find them just as fascinating as the current issues. So, you must be doing something right! Thank you, and please keep it up!

The “Eighties Ladies” issue was filled with good stuff. My favorite feature was the Dazzler article. I did not read Dazzler when it was being published, but a couple years ago I bought one of the Essential volumes and was very impressed. Especially

by Frank Springer, who I knew nothing about but felt he had a wonderful style that reminded me of the old romance comic strips in the newspaper. I suspect his art looks even better in black and white (the Essential volumes are all black-and-white art). I could find out very little about him on the Internet, and was happy to see him mentioned prominently in Roger Ash’s article. Paul Chadwick’s unused Beauty and the Beast cover also made me feel a little sad… it seems so much more evocative than the published version with Beast (who wasn’t even in the X-Men at the time, right?).

Almost every issue of your magazine makes me want to go check out some old comic I never read. This time it was both Somerset Holmes and Jezebel Jade… I’m becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the current comic offerings, so it is very reassuring to see there are all these hidden gems still waiting to be discovered. I don’t know that I’m interested in Dakota North, but I found the article by Martha Thomases to be very entertaining. Thank you!

I know you appreciate feedback (I mean, “Back Talk”), but I don’t have much to offer. I love your magazine the way it is and hope you keep on publishing great stuff. My favorite writer/artist is John Byrne, so I love anything that features him… but I also love how you bring other fantastic artists to my attention that I had never heard of. Or create a new appreciation in me for artists I had overlooked before. Sometimes you publish background pictures behind the text of an article—it doesn’t detract from the article, but I don’t think it adds much either (I can’t really enjoy the artwork behind a wall of text). I know you don’t like to cover subjects you already hit in the past, but as long as it has a different spin and different art to go with it, I would not mind an occasional revisit. Maybe other readers feel the same?

76 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Well, that’s more writing than I had planned. I’m gonna check eBay for a few more old issues (if I can’t find paper copies I might have to—ugh—download digital copies). Thank you for allowing me to express my appreciation for your publication… your work rekindles the love I feel for these classic comics!

– John Shaw What a great letter, John! I appreciate your enthusiasm for BACK ISSUE and share your frustration about its distribution.

Barnes & Noble distribution didn’t net enough sales for us to continue, which I find unfortunate because it was a great venue for discovery by former comics readers who would love our Bronze Age coverage.

I’ve appealed to comics shops numerous times over the years to stock the magazine, but few do beyond filling their customers’ orders. I realize that comic retailers are there to sell new comic books, but I also realize that by ordering a couple of copies of each BACK ISSUE for their racks, those “older” fans who stumble into their stores would have something that spoke to them (outside of whatever oldies they’d find in the back-issue bins). Also, there could be younger fans interested in an issue’s subject matter who might find themselves interested in the magazine’s look back—so much of what happens in comic-book movies, for example, originated in comic books of the ’70s and ’80s!

You did the right thing by asking your comic dealer about BI, BTW. Yes, many of the earlier issues of BI are no longer available in print, and I wish you luck with your search. Of course, twomorrows.com is your source for digital editions, and print editions still available are discounted there.

And speaking of Frank Springer (1929– 2009), shown in the photograph on this page: After assisting George Wunder on the syndicated strip Terry and the Pirates throughout the late ’50s, Springer sprung to comic books in the Silver Age, becoming a Dell Comics mainstay (on everything from Brain Boy to the TV tie-in The Big Valley) before jumping to DC (most notably on The Secret Six) and Marvel, where he gained recognition as Jim Steranko’s successor on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Throughout the Bronze Age, Springer penciled and/or inked random features for Marvel and DC and drew The Cougar, a short-lived superhero book from Atlas/Seaboard. As mentioned recently in BI #94, he was also an artist on Continuity Comics’ Armor. Springer’s work could also be found in National Lampoon and in the comic strips Rex Morgan M.D., The Incredible Hulk, and The Virtue of Vera Valiant, among others.

COUNT ME OUT!

The reproduction of the Black Dragon Fighting Society ad in BI #91 brought back memories. I used to love all the ads in American comics. It was one of the reasons I always preferred the real thing to the British reprints that Marvel put out. When they stopped sending all their best titles to the UK (so as not to compete with the UK reprints) I went almost exclusively DC. I assumed that Dim Mak (the death touch)—the alleged fighting style of the Count—was a joke on the customers and meant a “not very bright person.” Dim Mak did get referenced in an issue of The Badger (can’t remember which one), in which a character was described as being a master of it.

Frank Springer photograph © Marvel.

BUILDING A BI COLLECTION

The longer version of the Dante ad promised all sorts of gouging techniques and other unpleasant maneuvers if you sent off for Dante’s book. A friend of mine at school did send off and got back a book with black-and-white stills of people holding others in supposedly deadly locks, etc. He told me that to get into the inner circle of the Black Dragon Society you had to be a black belt.

I did think at the time and still do that the text of the longer ad and what it promised were not really suitable for children’s literature.

– Jim Greer Hexham, England

© Black Dragon Fighting Society.

Jim, I have indeed added an article about Count Dante to our forthcoming “Deadly Hands” issue (BACK ISSUE #105, not #102, as previously reported), joining the issue’s other contents (Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu, Yang, Bronze Tiger, Muhammad Ali, etc.).

PLAYING CATCH-UP

Apologies for this letter looking back at old issues… I’ve rather been saving the material up until I got a handle on my mailbox again (and it’s only after a year that I’m sort of getting there, at last).

Every so often I come across something in BI’s pages worth further comment with relation to its connection to the Marvel UK operation, and the annotated photocopies that I’ve placed to one side for writing such a missive have started to outgrow me (especially since I’ve been catching up on reading issues published over the past few years), so it’s high time I cleared up this pile.

Starting far, far back in a decade actually not that long ago, one better known for issuing forth BACK ISSUE #9 (Apr. 2005)—and don’t worry, this is by far the oldest edition that I’ll be mentioning— you asked for an ID on a gorgeous Star Wars poster by Tony DeZuniga, as featured on page four of that edition. I don’t recall if the mystery was ever solved for you, but the image you published was one of several that Tony created especially for the UK comics, in this instance appearing as early as Star Wars Weekly #6. Tony was effectively the third Star Wars artist after Chaykin and Infantino, at least as far as British readers were concerned, due to the many covers he produced over the first 30 or so issues whenever a US one wasn’t selected. Which was quite often, as many US covers were never used, instead ending up as B&W posters in later issues of the weekly.

Leaping forward to far more recent editions, the feature on Marvel Team-Up in BI #70 [“Hulk in the Bronze Age”] merits one correction. The short Spider-Man story “The Obligation” that appears in MTU #126, as mentioned towards the end of the article, is not the same version as the one that appeared in that 1982 Chicago Tribune newspaper supplement at all—it’s been entirely redrawn for its (re)appearance in MTU. We had both stories reprinted over here, hence being au-fait with the differences between them, but in any case the newspaper supplement version didn’t have any story title on the splash page.

Staying with #70 for a moment longer, Mark Arnold will be fascinated to learn that Teen Hulk did appear again in another Marvel title, it’s just that it was in a monthly magazine published across the Atlantic, when selected early episodes from the series were quickly reprinted in various issues of the Spring 1980-launched, Dez Skinn-initiated Marvel UK humor title Frantic (which finally created a home for a long-overdue reprint run of Howard the Duck over here) and also in its companion/successor magazine Marvel Madhouse.

In your very next edition, BI #71’s [“Tryouts, One-Shots, and One-Hit Wonders”] look back at Marvel Spotlight touched briefly on the controversial Nick Fury story from #31 revealing the secret of the S.H.I.E.L.D. head honcho’s youthful looks. That tale of the mysterious Infinity Formula is one that I remember well from the monthly pages of Savage Action #9 over here, so while Stan might have attempted to bar it from continuity for some years to come, he clearly didn’t spot the material for that story being prepared for mailing over to their London offices in time. You can’t win them all!

Meanwhile, a few issues later, BI #76’s focus on the smaller things in life [“Let’s Get Small”], or at least in comicdom, rightly gave time to a re-evaluation of Ant-Man. I’ve never been a big fan, I must admit, preferring Pym in his Yellowjacket incarnation, or the Scott Lang iteration of the character, and although I’d come in too late to witness it firsthand, Ant-Man was the only 1960s strip that didn’t get published in the original run of British Marvel titles from 1972–1978. When Hank Pym was finally given a solo slot in 1975’s The Superheroes, it was to showcase his Giant-Man exploits, doubtless because the Avengers stories were many years past his appearances as Ant-Man there.

However, Dez Skinn (him again) was a big fan, and took the opportunity to run many of those early stories, and the later Marvel Feature storyline, albeit in a panel-shredded form in the pages of Hulk Comic, so it was nice to see some of those original covers by Paul Neary included in the feature. Ant-Man fans should, however, also be aware that two later issues of that weekly also featured his only UK-exclusive solo outing, in a Steve Moore-written and Steve Dillon-illustrated tale published in (what, by then, was now called) The Incredible Hulk Weekly #48 and 49. A fun story, and one still worth checking out.

A few pages later in the same BI, we come to John Cimino’s tidy roundup of the Marvel Value Stamps. It was through reading an earlier feature on the topic in one of TwoMorrows’ early collections of Comic Book Artist magazine that I was struck by a connection I’d never made before—one of the many useful side-effects of BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, et al. during the many happy years that I’ve spent researching the highways and byways of Marvel in Britain for From Cents to Pence! I think it’s highly likely that the idea of running the Value Stamp scheme was copied straight out of the pages of the early British weeklies. It helps to remember that until late 1978, a UK production department operated inside the New York Bullpen to physically put together the bulk of the artwork for the weeklies before they were sent across to the London offices for the addition of adverts and editorial material.

The debut token collect scheme featured in the first dozen or so The Mighty World of Marvel during late 1972, teasing readers as to the ultimate reward for cutting holes out of their comics (an exclusive poster), as did an identical giveaway (a poster this time featuring just Spider-Man) in early issues of its rapid spin-off Spider-Man Comics Weekly during 1973. Stan, and indeed Sol Brodsky, would have been well aware of the scheme’s success, as they received regular roundup letters from London regarding topics that readers were writing in about, as well as details concerning sales, promotions, and competitions. It’s no great leap to imagine our single-title stamp schemes inspiring the subsequent two US schemes stretched out across the wider color comic line.

As for the lesser-known story of Wolverine’s origin hailing from a reader art competition, these too were a staple of the UK comics in their early years, and also featured a fair few future pros amongst their winners and runners-up. I seem to recall coming across a character in one of these called Diamondhead, some years after I’d first seen a Diamondhead in the pages of Nova. Again, it could be a one-in-a-million coincidence…

Bird People Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

Lastly, in lieu of the fact that there’s no letters-page provision in copies of [Dewey Cassell’s book,] The Incredible Herb Trimpe— a charming gentleman I had the great pleasure to speak to at length over a Transatlantic phone call back in May 2004—I was disappointed that his work on some of the Planet of the Apes backup strips were omitted from the spotlight section on the B&W magazines in what was otherwise a very enjoyable summer holiday read this year!

Keep ’em coming!

– Robin Kirby P.S. A future feature suggestion: “Infantino: The Marvel Years.”

What agreement did he have with the Bullpen with regard to the amount of work he could do—was it a guarantee of so many pages a year, for instance? He suddenly seemed to be everywhere across the color comics—and on the covers of Star Wars Weekly as part of his work on the double-production system set in place on the US comic—although hardly surprising given his Kirby-equaling prodigious layout speed by then.

Star Wars TM & © Lucasfilm. Nova TM & © Marvel.

Grendel TM & © Matt Wagner.

Rob, I’m enchanted by the Carmine Infantino/Marvel suggestion and have included a couple of his covers below. At best we’ve only mentioned Carmine’s Marvel work in passing, when surveying those series themselves (as with last issue’s Shanna article).

But you’re right: A close look at the deal which brought the onetime DC mainstay to the House of Ideas would be intriguing.

It’s on BI’s eventual to-do list.

And thanks for those scintillating UK tidbits!

GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE

Really enjoy BACK ISSUE. How about an issue focusing on Matt Wagner’s Grendel? You could easily fill a whole issue on that.

There have been so many different Grendels, plus artists who drew them. You can interview Matt Wagner, of course, as well as the Pander Brothers, Bernie Mireault, Joe Matt, Hannibal King, John K. Snyder III, Jay Geldhof, Tim Sale, Dean Motter, Teddy Kristiansen, James Robinson, and so many others that have contributed to making Grendel stories.

If you do this, ask Matt when he is going to do more Grendel-Prime stories, or bring back Grendel Tales. It would be great to see more stores from different creators taking place in that world.

Please consider this. It would be really cool.

– Kelly Heinze Nightwing TM & © DC Comics.

BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

78 • BACK ISSUE • Bird People Issue

Kelly, we did a Pro2Pro interview with Matt Wagner and editor Diana Schutz on the topic of Grendel waaaaaaay back in BI #2 (it’s out of print but available digitally at twomorrows.com).

But I agree that there’s a lot more to cover there… and then there’s Matt’s Mage, too.

I don’t have immediate plans to do this, but I’m adding Grendel and Mage to my editorial to-do list, so you’ll eventually see Wagner’s creations covered here at length. Thanks for the letter and for the great suggestion!

In the meantime, to prepare you for our eventual Grendel spotlight, here’s an undated Grendel-Prime [above] commissioned illustration from the archives of Heritage Comics Auctions…

Next issue: DC in the ’80s! From the experimental to the fan-faves, this was the decade when DC Comics declared, “There’s No Stopping Us Now!” Behind-the-scenes looks at Secret Origins, Action Comics Weekly, DC Challenge, Thriller, Electric Warrior, and Sun Devils. Featuring the work of JIM BAIKIE, MARK EVANIER, MIKE GRELL, DAN JURGENS, DOUG MOENCH, ROY THOMAS, MARK VERHEIDEN, TREVOR VON EEDEN, MARK WAID, and many others! Featuring a mind-numbingly beautiful Nightwing cover

by ROMEO TANGHAL. Don’t ask—just BI it!

See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Celebrate JACK KIRBY’s 100th birthday!

THE PARTY STARTS WITH

KIRBY100

TWOMORROWS and the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate JACK KIRBY’S 100th BIRTHDAY in style with the release of KIRBY100, a full-color visual holiday for the King of comics! It features an all-star line-up of 100 COMICS PROS who critique key images from Kirby’s 50-year career, admiring his page layouts, dramatics, and storytelling skills, and lovingly reminiscing about their favorite characters and stories. Featured are BRUCE TIMM, ALEX ROSS, WALTER SIMONSON, JOHN BYRNE, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE RUDE, ADAM HUGHES, WENDY PINI, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE GIBBONS, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and dozens more of the top names in comics. Their essays serve to honor Jack’s place in comics history, and prove (as if there’s any doubt) that KIRBY IS KING! This double-length book is edited by JOHN MORROW and JON B. COOKE, with a Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER. (The Limited Hardcover Edition includes 16 bonus color pages of Kirby’s 1960s Deities concept drawings) All characters TM & © their respective owners.

(224-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-078-6 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 (240-page LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER with 16 bonus pages) $45.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-079-3

2017 RATES

SHIPS AUGUST 2017 SUBSCRIPTIONS ECONOMY US Alter Ego (Six 100-page issues) $65.00 Back Issue (Eight 80-page issues) $73.00 BrickJournal (Six 80-page issues) $55.00 Comic Book Creator (Four 80-page issues) $40.00 Jack Kirby Collector (Four 100-page issues) $45.00

EXPEDITED US $83.00 $88.00 $66.00 $50.00 $58.00

PREMIUM US $92.00 $97.00 $73.00 $54.00 $61.00

INTERNATIONAL $102.00 $116.00 $87.00 $60.00 $67.00

DIGITAL ONLY $29.70 $31.60 $23.70 $15.80 $19.80

URGENT WARNING FOR OUR READERS! DON’T MISS YOUR FAVORITE MAGS! We are experiencing huge demand for our recent magazines. Case in point: Back Issue #88 & #89 and Alter Ego #141 are already completely SOLD OUT, with other issues about to run out.

Don’t wait for a convention or sale— order now!

BACK ISSUE #99

ALTER EGO #149

ALTER EGO #150

ALTER EGO #151

ALTER EGO #152

Showcases GIL KANE, with an incisive and free-wheeling interview conducted in the 1990s by DANIEL HERMAN for his 2001 book Gil Kane: The Art of the Comics— plus other surprise features centered around the artistic co-creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern and The Atom! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and BILL SCHELLY! Green Lantern cover by KANE and GIELLA!

STAN LEE’s 95th birthday! Rare 1980s LEE interview by WILL MURRAY—GER APELDOORN on Stan’s non-Marvel writing in the 1950s—STAN LEE/ROY THOMAS e-mails of the 21st century—and more special features than you could shake Irving Forbush at! Also FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), BILL SCHELLY, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Colorful Marvel multi-hero cover

by Big JOHN BUSCEMA!

Golden Age artist FRANK THOMAS (The Owl! The Eye! Dr. Hypno!) celebrated by Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt’s MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Plus the scintillating (and often offbeat) Golden & Silver Age super-heroes of Western Publishing’s DELL & GOLD KEY comics! Art by MANNING, DITKO, KANE, MARSH, GILL, SPIEGLE, SPRINGER, NORRIS, SANTOS, THORNE, et al.! Plus FCA, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Unsung artist/writer LARRY IVIE conceived (and named!) the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, helped develop T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, brought EC art greats to the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more!

SANDY PLUNKETT chronicles his career, with art by FRAZETTA, CRANDALL, WOOD, KRENKEL, DOOLIN, and others!

Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Oct. 2017

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Dec. 2017

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Feb. 2018

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships April 2018

BACK ISSUE #100

BACK ISSUE #101

BACK ISSUE #102

BACK ISSUE #103

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES’ 25th ANNIVERSARY! Looks back at the influential cartoon series. Plus: episode guide, Harley Quinn history, DC’s Batman Adventures and Animated Universe comic books, and tribute to artist MIKE PAROBECK. Featuring KEVIN ALTIERI, RICK BURCHETT, PAUL DINI, GERARD JONES, MARTIN PASKO, DAN RIBA, TY TEMPLETON, BRUCE TIMM, and others! BRUCE TIMM cover!

100-PAGE SPECIAL featuring Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom! Buyer’s Guide, Comic Book Price Guide, DC’s Comicmobile, Super DC Con ’76, Comic Reader, FOOM, Amazing World of DC, Charlton Bullseye, Squa Tront, & more! Featuring ALAN LIGHT, BOB OVERSTREET, SCOTT EDELMAN, BOB GREENBERGER, JACK C. HARRIS, TONY ISABELLA, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BOB LAYTON, PAUL LEVITZ, MICHAEL USLAN, and others!

ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMICS! Flash Gordon star SAM J. JONES interview, KISS in comics, Marvel’s ALICE COOPER, T. Rex’s MARC BOLAN interviews STAN LEE, PAUL McCARTNEY, Charlton’s Partridge Family, David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman comics, Marvel’s Steeltown Rockers, Monkees comics, & Comic-Con band Seduction of the Innocent.

With MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JACK KIRBY, BILL MUMY, ALAN WEISS, and others!

MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s ROB LIEFELD and FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed!

Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others!

Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Aug. 2017

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Sept. 2017

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Nov. 2017

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Jan. 2018

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships March 2018

BRICKJOURNAL #48

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #17

KIRBY COLLECTOR #71

KIRBY COLLECTOR #72

KIRBY COLLECTOR #73

THE WORLD OF LEGO MECHA! Learn the secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecha builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

The legacy and influence of WALLACE WOOD, with a comprehensive essay about Woody’s career, extended interview with Wood assistant RALPH REESE (artist for Marvel’s horror comics, National Lampoon, and undergrounds), a long chat with cover artist HILARY BARTA (Marvel inker, Plastic Man and America’s Best artist with ALAN MOORE), plus our usual columns, features, and the humor of HEMBECK!

KIRBY: OMEGA! Looks at endings, deaths, and Anti-Life in the Kirbyverse, including poignant losses and passings from such series as NEW GODS, KAMANDI, FANTASTIC FOUR, LOSERS, THOR, DEMON and others! Plus: The 2016 Silicon Valley Comic-Con Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN & MIKE ROYER panel, WALTER SIMONSON interview, & unseen pencil art galleries! SIMONSON cover inks!

FIGHT CLUB! Jack’s most powerful fights and in-your-face action: Real-life WAR EXPERIENCES, Marvel’s KID COWBOYS, the Madbomb saga and all those negative 1970s Marvel fan letters, interview with SCOTT McCLOUD on his Kirby-inspired punchfest DESTROY!!, rare Kirby interview, 2017 WonderCon Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, unpublished pencil art galleries, and more! Cover inked by DEAN HASPIEL!

ONE-SHOTS! We cover Kirby’s best (and worst) short spurts on his wildest concepts: ANIMATION IDEAS, DINGBATS, JUSTICE INC., MANHUNTER, ATLAS, PRISONER, and more! Plus MARK EVANIER and our other regular panelists, rare Kirby interview, panels from the 2017 Kirby Centennial celebration, pencil art galleries, and some one-shot surprises! BIG BARDA #1 cover finishes by MIKE ROYER!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Oct. 2017

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Winter 2018

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Summer 2017

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Fall 2017

REED CRANDALL Illustrator of the Comics

From the 1940s to the ’70s, REED CRANDALL brought a unique and masterful style to American comic art. Using an illustrator’s approach on everything he touched, Crandall gained a reputation as the “artist’s artist” through his skillful interpretations of Golden Age super-heroes DOLL MAN, THE RAY, and BLACKHAWK (his signature character); horror and sci-fi for the legendary EC COMICS line; Warren Publishing’s CREEPY, EERIE, and BLAZING COMBAT; the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS and EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS characters; and even FLASH GORDON for King Features. Comic art historian ROGER HILL has compiled a complete and extensive history of Crandall’s life and career, from his early years and major successes, through his tragic decline and passing in 1982. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS, a wealth of RARE AND UNPUBLISHED ARTWORK, and over EIGHTY THOUSAND WORDS of insight into one of the true illustrators of the comics.

(256-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-077-9 • SHIPS JULY 2017

It’s

GROOVY, baby!

Follow-up to Mark Voger’s smash hit MONSTER MASH!

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

From WOODSTOCK to THE BANANA SPLITS, from SGT. PEPPER to H.R. PUFNSTUF, from ALTAMONT to THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES, LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. GROOVY revisits the era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, MOVIES, ART—even COMICS and CARTOONS, from the 1968 ‘mod’ WONDER WOMAN to R. CRUMB. A color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the acclaimed book MONSTER MASH), GROOVY is one trip that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9 • DIGITAL EDITION: $15.95

SHIPS OCTOBER 2017 • Free preview online now!

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

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