Comic Book Artist #19 by TwoMorrows Publishing

HARVEY COMICS HOUSE PARTY!

No.19 June 2002

$6.95 In The US

SIMON • JACOBSON • KREMER • COLÓN • POST • COUCHEY • EISNER

A plea from the publisher of this fine digital periodical: TwoMorrows, we’re on the Honor System with our Digital Editions. We don’t add Digital Rights Management features to them to stop piracy; they’re clunky and cumbersome, and make readers jump through hoops to view content they’ve paid for. And studies show such features don’t do much to stop piracy anyway. So we don’t include DRM in our downloads.

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www.twomorrows.com TM

TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Last-minute bits about the Community of Comic Book Artists, Writers and Editors

This certainly is Stan Lee’s year! 2002 marks not only the phenomenal blockbuster opening of the film adaptation of Stan and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man—which is not only a critical success but also looks at press time to soon become the highest-grossing motion picture of all time!—but also the release of The Man’s “bioautobiography,” Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee, now available from Fireside Books. Co-written by celebrity biographer George Mair, Stan’s tome is a tad light on detail but an entertaining read nonetheless, perhaps akin to Julie Schwartz’s breezy bio of a few years back.

Casa CBA has been in close contact via the Internet with Stan in the last few months, with the editor/writer/idea man helping considerably with our Flo Steinberg special last ish and the forthcoming John Buscema tribute in CBA #21. We helped out a wee bit with his book (though the material didn’t make the final cut, alas), but we’re grateful nonetheless for the inscribed copy sent to Ye Ed! The photos in Excelsior! are priceless and we wish The Man the best of luck! Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. By Stan Lee and George Mair. 248 pp, $14 softcover. Published by Fireside Books, New York. ISBN #0-684-87305-2

B. Krigstein, Volume One (1919-1955). By Greg Sadowski. 250 pp, $49.95 hc. Published by Fantagraphics, Seattle, WA. ISBN #1-56097-466-4. <www.fantagraphics.com>

With word due to arrive any second about whether or not the Hellboy motion picture was a go, CBA and Mike Mignola moved like lightning to put together a forthcoming ish devoted to the extraordinary artist, completing a riotous three-hour+ interview and Mike creating a brand-new Hellboy cover for us, plus gathering a wealth of unpublished art, promising the October issue to be a Horrid Halloween Horrorshow! Our congrats to Mr. Mignola, who indeed was given the green light and is now off to live in Hollywood for a year of preproduction work. The film is to be directed by the talented Guillermo Del Toro (Blade II director).

Northampton

SHAMAN

KRIGSTEIN The Great! The arrival of the glorious book, B. Krigstein: Volume One (1919-1955) was a heartstopper! As CBA pal Bhob Stewart breathlessly exclaimed to Ye Ed a few weeks back, this tome may indeed be “the best book on a comic book artist ever,” as it certainly is the most comprehensive. With unfettered access to the legendary EC Comics artist’s studio and files, author Greg Sadowski has spent years compiling this huge book, full of Bernie’s paintings, wartime sketches, penciled comic pages, photos, plus complete comic stories, including the Feldstein-written classic, “Master Race.” A must have!

AND BACK!

Cor blimey! My good pal George Khoury and yours truly just had the good fortune to recently visit working class hero Alan Moore—arguably the best writer in comics history—at his Northampton, England digs, where the scribe was a most gracious and compelling host! Not only did we spend over nine hours talking about everything from his humble beginnings to Swamp Thing to his

current ABC line, but the conversation steered into mystical realms as Alan discussed his take on storytelling, magic, and worlds beyond! Far out! We came home with great material for the forthcoming Swampmen: Muck Monsters of the Comics book, an Alan Moore/ABC issue of CBA, and wunderkind Khoury’s forthcoming part bio/part Alan Moore reader, coming in 2003!

THE GREAT LOVECRAFTIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST DIES

TOM SUTTON

Oh, the prolific and versatile artist Tom Sutton was quite a character! Ye Ed never had the honor of meeting the man in person (though I considered visiting when driving passed the town he lived in—Ames, Massachusetts—a year or so back, but knowing of his somewhat reclusive nature, I unfortunately decided otherwise), but we did share a number of lengthy phone conversations on subjects ranging from his swingin’ life as a Bohemian artist in Boston during the early 1960s to the current state of pornographic comic books in America. By any measure, Tom was a hoot. He had a deep, abiding love for radio drama and classic film noir, the horror fiction of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and that bane of all too many creative types, the accursed combo of tobacco and caffeine ingestion. He was a delightful raconteur, who could ramble on in our late night phone chats about virtually any subject and his insights were often very weird and obtuse, but always, always hilarious. By the Great Cthulhu, I will miss Tom. One of my greatest regrets while doing CBA was when Tom called, suggesting to write and draw comic adaptations of HPL’s short stories “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Innsmouth Horror” to be serialized in CBA. I hesitated, the dim recesses of my mind trying to see how such potential masterworks could fit and during that pause the impulse passed the artist by. Sigh. Those tales would’ve been most cool.

ROBERT KANIGHER: REST IN PEACE Word just arrived that one of the finest writer/editors in comics, Robert Kanigher, has passed away. Ye Ed has long considered many of Bob’s Sgt. Rock scripts to be simply astonishing work, and we mourn the loss of this comics legend. While we never had the chance to—but had hoped to someday—talk to R.K. (frankly, his curmudgeonly reputation preceded him!), we hope to devote a tribute to the man in a very near issue.

Renowned scribe Alan Moore will possibly be the only writer to have a full CBA issue devoted to him because of his profound influence on the art form. This pic of Alan is courtesy of, by and ©2002 Piet

The Amazing Stan-Man TO HELLBOY

A COMICS HISTORY GAME-CHANGER!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

THE

1960-64 Volume NOW SHIPPING! 1980s Volume ships in MARCH!

This ambitious new series of FULLCOLOR HARDCOVERS documents every decade of comic books from the 1940s to today! Each colossal volume presents a year-by-year account of the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends.

This ongoing project enlists TwoMorrows’ top authors, as they provide exhaustively researched details on all the major events along the comics history timeline! Editor KEITH DALLAS (The Flash Companion) spearheads the series and writes his own volume on the 1980s. Also in the works are two volumes on the 1940s by ROY THOMAS, the 1950s by BILL SCHELLY, two volumes on the 1960s by JOHN WELLS, a 1970s volume by JIM BEARD, and more volumes documenting the 1990s and 2000s. Taken together, the series forms the first cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history, sure to be an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast! JOHN WELLS leads off with the first of two volumes on the 1960s, covering all the pivotal moments and behind-the-scenes details of comics in the JFK and Beatles era! You’ll get a year-by-year account of the most significant publications, notable creators, and impactful trends, including: DC Comics’ rebirth of GREEN LANTERN, HAWKMAN, and others, and the launch of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and multiple earths! STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY’s transformation of superhero comics with the debut of FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, X-MEN, AVENGERS, and other iconic characters! Plus BATMAN gets a “new look”, the BLUE BEETLE is revamped at Charlton Comics, and CREEPY #1 brings horror back to comics, just as Harvey’s “kid” comics are booming!

NOW SHIPPING! The Best of FROM THE TOMB Compiles the finest features from the preeminent magazine on horror comics history, along with never-seen material! (192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $27.95 • (Digital Edition) $8.95 ISBN: 9781605490434 • Diamond Order Code: AUG121322

The co-founder of Filmation Studios tells all about leading the last American animation company through thirty years of innovation and fun! (288-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $9.95 ISBN: 9781605490441 • Diamond Order Code: JUL121245

MATT BAKER: The Art of Glamour The fabled master of glamour art finally gets his due! (192-page HARDCOVER with 96 COLOR pages) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 9781605490328 • Diamond Order Code: JUN121310

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

PRINTED IN CANADA

LOU SCHEIMER: Creating the Filmation Generation

1960-64 VOLUME: (224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490458 • Diamond Order Code: JUL121245

’

Name These Harvey Hipsters!

It’s 2002 and the Harvey kiddie comics characters are all grown up and swinging with the Harvey Thriller line heroes! Can you name all of our partygoers as expertly rendered by kitschmeister and artist extraordinaire Mitch O’Connell? Answers on bottom of the opposite page.

2 9

4 5

18 15 16 19 17 NUMBER 19

CELEBRATING THE LIVES & WORK OF THE GREAT CARTOONISTS, WRITERS & EDITORS

JUNE 2002

THE FRONT PAGE: LAST MINUTE BITS ON THE COMMUNITY OF COMIC BOOK ARTISTS, WRITERS & EDITORS Tom Sutton and Bob Kanigher: RIP; new books on Stan Lee and B. Krigstein; and visiting Alan Moore ..............1

Editor/Designer JON B. COOKE

EDITOR’S RANT: MARVELOUS TIMES Ye Ed notes that things sure are rockin’ at the House of Ideas, but not all is perfect ..........................................5

Publisher

NAVAL GAZING: LEST OLD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT Our first report on the initial results of the First Annual CBA Readers Survey and format changes......................7 CBA COMMUNIQUES: STEVE GERBER AND ROY THOMAS CLARIFY Gerber’s not sick and Thomas is not sure we got all the facts straight in CBA #18 ..............................................8 CBA TRIBUTE: REMEMBERING DAN DECARLO Renowned artist Terry Austin recounts a friendship with the late Archie artist and shares Dan’s anecdotes ......12 MICHELLE’S MEANDERINGS: HARVEY WASN’T ALL HUMOR Ms. Nolan reveals those forgotten Harvey titles that were decidedly not for kiddies!........................................84

TWOMORROWS JOHN & PAM MORROW Associate Editors CHRIS KNOWLES DAVID A. ROACH CHRISTOPHER IRVING GEORGE KHOURY Contributing Editors ROY THOMAS JOHN MORROW

COMIC BOOK ARTIST™ is published 10 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. Jon B. Cooke, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204 USA • 401-783-1669 • Fax: 401-783-1287. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT the editorial office. Single issues: $9 postpaid ($11 Canada, $12 elsewhere). Six-issue subscriptions: $36 US, $66 Canada, $72 elsewhere. All characters © their respective owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © their respective authors. ©2002 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Cover acknowledgements: Art ©2002 Mitch O’Connell. Characters ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. First Printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Proofreader ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON Cover Art MITCH O’CONNELL Transcribers JON B. KNUTSON BRIAN K. MORRIS SAM GAFFORD LONGBOX.COM STEVEN TICE Logo Designer/Title Originator ARLEN SCHUMER Mascot WOODY by J.D. King Issue Theme Song TUNNEL OF LOVE Bruce Springsteen Visit CBA on our Website at:

www.twomorrows.com Contributors Sid Jacobson • Warren Kremer Grace Kremer • Ken Selig Ernie Colón • Howard Post Sid Couchey • Joe Simon Will Eisner • Mark Arnold Mitch O’Connell • Terry Austin The Family of Dan DeCarlo Shawn Hamilton • Bill Janocha Bill Matheny • Lou Mougin Fred Hembeck • Michelle Nolan Jeff Bonivert • Scotty Moore Steve Leialoha • Andrew Steven Ronn Sutton • John R. Borkowski Michael Arnold • Sandy Plunkett In appreciation of

Warren Kremer Grace Kremer Ken Selig Ernie Colón Howard Post Sid Couchey and all who contributed to Harvey Publications and dedicated to the memories of

THE HARVEY COMICS STORY FRED HEMBECK’S DATELINE: @!!?* CBA mascot F.H. looks over perhaps the strangest super-hero comics of all time: The Harvey Thriller Line! ......17 HARVEY WORLD HISTORY: A FAMILY AFFAIR—THE HARVEY COMICS STORY Mark Arnold gives us a comprehensive retrospective of the fascinating World of Harvey Comics ......................18 SID JACOBSON INTERVIEW: SID’S KIDS—THE HARVEY YEARS Longtime Harvey editor-in-chief recounts a half-century of heartache and joy working at Harvey......................40 WARREN KREMER INTERVIEW: CREMÉ DE LA KREMER The great children’s comic book artist chats with Harvey alumnus Ken Selig about his masterful work ..............56 SID COUCHEY INTERVIEW: WHOLE LOTTA LITTLE LOTTA Shawn Hamilton gets the skinny from the delightful Sid Couchey, the definitive Little Lotta artist! ..................68 ERNIE COLÓN INTERVIEW: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNIE The versatile artist gives us a peek behind the scenes at the House of Richie Rich..............................................74 HOWARD POST INTERVIEW: HOWIE’S HOT STUFF We chat with the country boy from the city about “The Little Devil Kid,” and other Harvey Hits......................80 SPECIAL HARVEY THRILLER SECTION JOE SIMON INTERVIEW: HARVEY GETS SIMONIZED In an e-mail interview, the comics legend talks about his friends, fads and thrills at Harvey Comics..................86 HIGH CAMP HARVEY: THOSE THRILLING HARVEY HEROES Lou Mougin examines the outrageous and whacky—and sometimes wonderful—line of adventure comics ......88

Tom Sutton WILL EISNER INTERVIEW: RESURRECTING THE SPIRIT Bob Kanigher The master of sequential art recounts his brief, though important, experience with Alfred Harvey’s line............98 Dave Berg RETROVIEW: THE STERANKO CONNECTION and Ronn Foss The first professional comic book work of the premier artist is detailed by Jim Korkis......................................102

HERO INDEX: HARVEY THRILLER CHECKLIST An issue-by-issue look at Joe Simon’s delightfully quirky Harvey comics line and its precursors ......................104 Cover & previous page: Mitch O’Connell’s Harvey house party featuring players from the Thriller line and the kids’ comics. Artwork ©2002 Mitch O’Connell. Above: Groovy 1971 calendar header. Characters ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc., except Sad Sack ©2002 Lorne-Harvey Productions, Inc. Please send all letters of comment, articles and artwork to: Jon B. Cooke, Editor, Comic Book Artist, P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204 Phone: (401) 783-1669 • Fax: (401) 783-1287 • E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com

Our Harvey Hipsters: 1) Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts 2) Bunny, The Queen of the In-Crowd 3) Casper, The Friendly Ghost 4) Clawfang’s girlfriend, Princess Felina 5) Black Cat, Hollywood’s Glamorous Detective Star 6) Misfit, the Bemused Behemoth of Miracles, Inc. 7) Clawfang the Barbarian 8) Freddie the Flower Boy is Captain Flower 9) Magicmaster, the Blue Wizard 10) Dotty Little Dot 11) The Pirana, Deadliest Creature in All the World 12) Sooper Hippie 13) Half-Human, Half-Insect, It’s Bee-Man 14) Klank, Miracle, Inc.’s Super Robot 15) The Micro-Hero of Miracles, Inc., Manlet 16) Hot Stuff, the Little Devil 17) Fruitman, the World’s Peachiest, Berry Grapest Super-Hero 18) Playful Little Audrey 19) and last and, of course, least, Tigerboy (sans Company)! N E X T

I S S U E

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F AT H E R S

S O N S :

T H E

K U B E R T S

T H E

R O M I TA S

Editor’s Rant

Marvelous Times

After a quarter-century in the doldrums, Marvel finally wakes up

What is up with the House of Ideas? With the ascension of artist Joe Quesada into the editor-in-chief position at Marvel Comics, a new, invigorated spirit seems to be permeating the once-staid publisher. After years in bankruptcy proceedings, the virtual rape of the company by venture capitalist Ron Perelman, and forests’ worth of crushingly dull product, the comic book imprint is suddenly looking to be quite the hip-hopping place to be. Proof can be found in the refreshing approach taking place in a number of Marvel titles. Daredevil is once again a crime comic, reaching storytelling heights (under the able hands of writer Brian Michael Bendis and accomplished artist Alex Maleev) unseen since the days of Frank Miller. The Incredible Hulk, now shed of any super-hero trappings, has been smartly remade into a Fugitive-type series by the accomplished team of writer Bruce Jones and artist John Romita, Jr. (not to mention CBA pal Tom Palmer’s inks). The Ultimates by writer Mark Millar and exquisite illustrator Bryan Hitch is a fun, handsome retelling of The Avengers mythos. The latest version of Captain America looks promising under the guidance of John Ney Rieber (scripter) and John Cassady (art). Even the oh-so-calculated blockbuster Origin, detailing (at last!) the background of Wolverine, by Quesada and Andy Kubert, is pretty darn cool. Even the use of artist Michael Allred on X-Factor indicates positive vibes. But what capped it for me was the inspired choice of alt-comics darling and Hate!Weirdo artist/writer, Peter Bagge, perhaps the world’s premier comic book satirist, to create the Startling Tales one-shot, The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man (in which Peter Parker basically turns into Spidey co-creator/artist Steve Ditko, spouting Ayn Randian philosophy and all). I mean, what was the thinking there? For the first time in about 25 years, Marvel is publishing the “good sh*t” once again. While I know Quesada’s Marvel Knights imprint has produced consistently attractive and well-produced books for the last three or four years, and the recent no-brainer use of artist Rich Corben on a Hulk mini-series (Banner) foretold that a new attitude was underway at the editorial offices at 10 East 40th Street, I wonder if the defining moment for the “new” Marvel came from the response of Quesada and president Bill Jemas to the most recent defining event of our time, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What hit me and any number of others as perhaps a totally inappropriate response to the all-too-real tragedies, Marvel’s 9/11 benefit books, Heroes and A Moment of Silence, as well as Amazing Spider-Man #36 (which dealt directly with the events), were immediately embraced by the media, and the deluge of positive press about American comics has continued unabated ever since, leaving me, for one, astonished. Certainly, a number of factors are converging to make these optimistic times for American comic books, including the phenomenal box office and critical success of the Spider-Man film and actual market growth in the industry, not to mention the possibility of a rebounding U.S. economy. Whether or not the potentially top-grossing movie will prompt anyone to actually seek out a comic book shop needs to be proven (as the earlier successes of the X-Men, Batman and Superman flicks seemed to have little, if any, coattail effect on the direct market), the mere presence of the Marvel logo on the film’s opening credits was gratifying. At least, moviegoers who notice and care about such things will know that the House of Ideas is still around and assume that, yep, funnybooks are still being published. (Interestingly, my buddy at Fantagraphics tells me that, as a result of the critical success of Ghost World, the Oscar-nominated film based on a serial from artist/writer Daniel Clowes’s Eightball comic book, sales of Dan’s work have gone through the roof at the SeattleJune 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

based publisher. So maybe there is hope!) A personal high point in recent days was to witness a minor miracle, the six-hour (or so) fall and rise of Top Shelf. My favorite guys in the small press, the alternative comics publisher was facing financial disaster in April when one of their major distributors suddenly declared bankruptcy, though heavily in debt to Top Shelf, for one. Yet within hours of publisher Chris Staros sending out an e-mail plea for help, the comics community came to the rescue, putting the company back on a sure footing, by ordering boatloads of inventory. (Now, keep that vessel sure and steady, Staros and Warnock!) I’m not usually a very optimistic guy and leery as I’ve been about the superhero genre, these days do look bright indeed. “Free Comic Book Day,” ingeniously scheduled for the day after Spider-Man’s opening, appears to be an astonishing success. Yet, as innovative and challenging Marvel appears today, trouble still looms as the company continues to adhere to their idiotic “print to order” and “no reprint” policies, ploys aimed to singularly benefit the collector’s market and no one else. Hey, Joe and Bill: What’s the point in me recommending the myriad worthy Marvel titles to my buds long out of comics, if they can’t find any issues in the shops? Let’s say they go in looking for Gerber’s new Howard the Duck, can’t find one or see a copy up encased in plastic on the wall for an ungodly sum, so what will they do? Purchase another comic? Hang out and chat with the shop owner? Mull over Marvel’s clever strategy? Hell, no. They’ll leave in frustration and disgust, maybe never to enter the store again. Now, this is marketing? Is it me, or do these tactics fly in the face of logic, subverting the good ol’ trusty supply and demand theory? Economics, I’m not too knowledgeable about, but I do got eyes and the future looks bright indeed. CBA orders are up, readers seemed stoked about our format revisions, I’m actually reading new comics regularly, and I just came “down from the mountaintop,” after a visit to magic man Alan Moore’s flat in England, where George Khoury and I interviewed the genius writer for nine hours straight… how could life possibly be better?

Above: Peter “Hate!” Bagge goes Marvel with Startling Stories: The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man #1, a wonky romp written and drawn by Bagge under the apparent premise: “What if Peter Parker were more like his co-creator Steve Ditko?” While we heartily recommend this one-shot, Marvel’s current policies of printing-to-order and no reprints, probably insures that those curious will never find a copy for sale at cover price. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the issue is the startling inclusion of the credit, “Spider-Man created by: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.” Get me a sweater, ‘coz hell has just frozen over! ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

—Jon B. Cooke, Editorman 5

CBA’s Jon Cooke is back in April! Make ready for COMIC BOOK CREATOR, the new voice of the comics medium! TwoMorrows is proud to debut our newest magazine, COMIC BOOK CREATOR, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Behind an ALEX ROSS cover painting, our frantic FIRST ISSUE features an investigation of the oft despicable treatment JACK KIRBY endured from the very business he helped establish. From being cheated out of royalties in the ’40s and bullied in the ’80s by the publisher he made great, to his estate’s current fight for equitable recognition against an entertainment monolith where his characters have generated billions of dollars, we present Kirby’s cautionary tale in the eternal struggle for creator’s rights. Plus, CBC #1 interviews artist ALEX ROSS and writer KURT BUSIEK, spotlights the last years of writer/artist FRANK ROBBINS, remembers comics historian LES DANIELS, sports a color gallery of WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, showcases a joint talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL on their unforgettable collaborations, as well as throws a whole kit’n’caboodle of other creator-centric items atcha! Join us for the start of a new era as TwoMorrows welcomes back former Comic Book Artist editor JON B. COOKE, who helms the all-new, allcolor COMIC BOOK CREATOR!

80 pages • $8.95 All-color • Quarterly Digital Edition: $3.95 COMING THIS JULY: COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2 (double-size Summer Special) Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, rememberreturns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembertures: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY ing LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $6.95 • Ships July 2013

4-issue Subscriptions • PRINT: $36 US with FREE Digital Editions • DIGITAL: $15.80 ($45 First Class US • $50 Canada • $65 First Class International • $95 Priority International) Subscriptions include the double-size Summer Special

Navel Gazing

Lest Old Acquaintance Be Forgot An initial look at the phenomenal response to our first Q&A The inclusion of the First Annual CBA Readers Survey questionnaire in #18 was a last-minute addition, as we here at Casa CBA have been continually perplexed in finding any discernable trends in the orders we receive and are hoping to detect some kind of pattern that will help us serve you readers better. The response thus far has been healthy and well-reasoned (if often wildly divergent), and we appreciate the time and effort given by those who answered. Thanks. But in looking over the many responses, I don’t know if I’ve come any closer in determining any common mindset, just about confirming my suspicion that our readers come from all over the comics spectrum, from the alternative world to those who are only interested in the Golden Age. A full half of you are against CBA coverage of contemporary artists, with some saying that if we even just include portions about “new” artists—as we did in #17 with Arthur Adams—they’ll stop buying the mag altogether. But exactly the same percentage of readers urge us to cover the current scene much more comprehensively. What’s an editor to do? Certainly the recent demise of my esteemed sister publication Comicology has prompted me (somewhat) to consider including post1975 artists in this magazine, but overwhelmingly, I simply want to look at many of these guys, to distill not only an understanding of a particular artist’s approach but to help complete that mosaic of comic book history, where everyone is interrelated. And, certainly, there is a commercial consideration in including those newer creators, though occasionally even that aspect isn’t so clear cut. Orders for #17, our Arthur Adams issue, the first cover-featured contemporary artist, were nothing to write home about; respectable, but not spectacular. In an attempt not to alienate those Silver Age purists, I made an effort to include material on “old school” creators like Gray Morrow, George Roussos, and George Evans (not to mention a very rare interview with Golden Age great Everett Raymond Kinstler). But re-orders for that issue were through the roof and, at the recent Atlanta and Pittsburgh cons, #17 outsold other CBAs three to one. We just received our orders for the Adam Hughes issue (#21), and it will receive the superlative for being our best-selling issue. Ever. Go figure! But while there will continue to be a contemporary presence in CBA from hereon in, I am loathe to betray my loyal readership, those who’ve stuck it out with us since our first issue—through two, yes, TWO Charlton issues—and I vow that significant retrospective coverage will continue in these pages. While single-theme issues will be less frequent, we’ll still be exhaustive on many subjects. Why, in the near future we have any number of looks at the “good old stuff,” including Gold Key comics; the comics of National Lampoon (yes! we found legendary NatLamp design director Michael Gross!); Treasure Chest comics; “Invasion of the Filipinos”; underground comix; the ’60s High Camp Heroes; Mike Friedrich and Star*Reach; Little Archie; and hopefully a look at Playboy’s comics (if Hugh’s down with that!). We’ll also be delving into the 1980s a bit, taking looks at Fantagraphics; The Direct Three: Eclipse, First and Pacific; Marvel and DC in those days; as well as an in-depth examination of Bob Burden’s Flaming Carrot and other weird heroes of alternative press comics. As for interviews, we’ll include a nice mix of both old and new (though don’t be put off if many of our covers will be drawn by the more contemporary artists), epitomized by next issue’s focus on “Fathers & Sons: The Kuberts and the Romitas,” where respective roundtable discussions feature insights from both seasoned veterans and hot young creators. “Oldster off-theme” chats will include Sal June 2002

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Buscema, George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Arnold Drake, Bob Oksner, Michael W. Kaluta, maybe even Don Heck, and lots of other surprise guests. As for “new” folk, look for future cover feature interviews with Mike Mignola, Alan Moore, Kevin Nowlan, Paul Chadwick, Jeff Smith and the lovely Jill Thompson. We’re also inaugurating a few new departments in CBA #21 which we hope will appropriately complement the mag: “A Day in the Life,” which will be a feature article detailing a visit to a currently-working artist, examining their contemporary projects and a “typical” day. First up will be a stop at Alex Ross’ busy studio, and thereafter we hope to drop by the office of Marvel’s current editorin-chief, artist Joe Quesada, and master inker Tom Palmer has just agreed to be our third subject. Still in the planning stages, but of equal interest (I hope!), we’ll debut the first installment of our “Big Shots” interview column in #21, with looks at successful folk outside the comics field who have some connection—and insight—regarding our medium. Emmy Award-winning Robin Green will detail her journey from being Stan Lee’s secretary in the late ’60s to her ’70s “exposé” of Marvel in Rolling Stone to her current role as arguably the best writer for the exceptional HBO hit series The Sopranos, which she also produces. Future subjects will include a couple of Pulitzer Award-winning novelists, a few Hollywood actors, an internationally renowned recording artist, and probably the best science-fiction author of all time. As the art photocopies are threatening to swamp us under, we’ve decided a new “Gallery” section would be just the thing to help clear out the office, so look for non-theme related portfolios of exceptional artwork by some extraordinary comic book artists. Finally, we’ll be starting a “Greatest Comics That Never Were” department, which will get to the bottom of those legendary aborted and/or unpublished comic stories. First up is a look at an astounding unseen Superman story written and drawn by Dave Gibbons! So, I hope you’ll stick along with us for the ride. I promise that the contemporary stuff we’ll feature will be of equal or greater caliber in comparison to those artists we’ve been examining all along. And please write if you’ve got a hankerin’, because we do thoughtfully consider every letter of comment and always appreciate your support. —Ye Ed.

Above: We were just bustin’ DC’s chops with the use of their house graphics on this, our First Annual Readers Survey. Their subscription promo featured art by Carmine Infantino and Vinnie Colletta. ©2002 DC Comics.

YE ED’S NOTE: Oy. Are we late with this issue! Unforeseen complications came up regarding a number of aspects in this special Harvey number, but we vow to speed up production on subsequent issues to catch up. So look for CBA #20 (featuring a special “Father and Sons” ish with the Kuberts and the Romitas) very soon! Thank you for your continued understanding and patience. 7

CBA Communiques

Gerber and Thomas Clarify Plus letters on Fab Flo, Atlas, Arthur Adams, and much more Steve Gerber via the Internet For the record: I did not in the 1970s, and do not now, suffer from narcolepsy [CBA #18]. The condition I had then, and still have— although it wasn't diagnosed until a few years ago, when its cumulative effects over several decades cost me my job at Warner Brothers Animation—is sleep apnea. Quoting from the American Sleep Apnea Association's web site <www.sleepapnea.org>, “people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer… With each apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.” It’s an insidious condition. From the time I was 15 or 16 years old, I would, on a daily basis, wake up more tired than I went to sleep, regardless of how many hours I’d spent in bed. I was constantly exhausted, and never knew why. And yes, sometimes that would indeed result in my nodding off during the day. (It probably did look like narcolepsy—or, worse, laziness or boredom. I don’t fault Jim Starlin for making the mistake.) Over a period of decades, the toll it took on my psyche was, frankly, catastrophic. Fortunately, sleep apnea, once diagnosed, is treatable. I now sleep hooked up to what's called a C-PAP machine, a shoebox-sized device that essentially blows air up my nose all night, forcing the breathing passages to stay open. I don’t fall asleep at my desk anymore, and my thinking is clearer than it’s been for many years.

Above: Steve Gerber, certainly one of the best comic book writers of the ’70s, continues to put out good work. And just when you thought you’d never see the scribe team with his greatest creation again, Marvel recently released this “Max Comics” mini-series featuring Stewart the Duck… I mean, Howard the Rat… you get the picture! Cover by Glenn Fabry. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Roy Thomas St. Matthews, South Carolina It was great to see Flo Steinberg and the 1970s Marvel Comics covered so extensively and well in CBA #18. (Though the spelling is “In Memoriam,” not “Memorium,” by the way.) I thank Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart, in particular, for appreciating my editing “style”—certainly they, and Marvel, thrived under it, and it’s clear that one doesn't need 20 editors and assistant editors in a company as is the case today. Still, a few corrections, just to set the record straight: I’m glad to be reminded that when Stan kicked Jim and Mike Friedrich off Iron Man after one issue, I had the foresight to give them Captain Marvel. However, it’s not quite accurate to say that Mike was suddenly out of work at Marvel soon after he was moved off CM just because a few books were killed. I felt much more of an obligation to Mike than that, since I had persuaded him to leave DC for Marvel. He was offered other titles, but chose to go off in another direction. I hope Mike recalls it that way, because I certainly do. I’m sorry to see Al Milgrom say that Archie Goodwin was annoyed to be passed over for Gerry Conway in 1976 as editor-in-chief when I elected, after accepting the job, not to come back to it after all. Well,

he got it soon enough in any event… but being head editor wasn’t really Archie’s thing, and he knew it. Only, it turned out it wasn’t Gerry’s either, I guess. Steve Englehart was great, then and now, but I have to take issue with his saying that, as ed-in-chief, I made sure I worked with the top talent. Sure, that’s true as far as it goes—Stan did it, and so did I, and no apologies. But when he mentions as three examples of this “John Buscema, Barry Windsor-Smith, Neal Adams,” he’s looking it with hindsight. When I was given John Buscema on Avengers, it was as a fill-in for Don Heck—which means Stan wasn’t especially eager to work with him on a regular basis at that point, as he would be later— and if the two of us worked out when John’s stock wasn’t especially high, why shouldn’t I keep doing so later? There was, of course, no “Barry Windsor-Smith” in the late ’60s, when first Stan and then I went out of our way to find work for him; I gave Conan the Barbarian to “Barry Smith” because I couldn’t get Buscema or Kane, and because I felt Barry was a good choice, but at the time the readers couldn’t have cared less—Barry only turned into the kind of coveted talent Steve is talking about during our run on Conan. And one of the relatively few memories Neal and I agree on is that he got his job on X-Men from Stan, not me, happy as I was about it… and he volunteered to do Avengers, rather than my seeking him out. Steve may have forgotten that I worked with a number of newcomers during the early-to-mid-’70s, like Barry, George Pérez, and others. Donald F. Glut via the Internet Glad to see the tributes to that great artist and wonderful human being, Gray Morrow [CBA #17]. I “met” Gray over the phone when trying to get work on the then new horror titles he was starting up at Red Circle and he bought some of my stories. For the record, I am that mysterious “?” that appeared twice on your Red Circle Comics Checklist. The stories “Horripilate Host” and “The Choker Is Wild,” in Sorcery #4 and 5 respectively, were both written by me without credit (for reasons I don’t know, though that happened a number of times to me back in the 1970s). Regarding Larry Ivie’s comments on Russ Jones, Larry is right on target. I hung around with Russ a lot back in the late 1960s, a very nice, charming and charismatic guy, but by his own boastful admission, a talented con man. I learned, sometimes the hard or costly way, that some of the things for which he took credit were, to put it diplomatically, at best “highly exaggerated.” The romance story that both Russ and Larry mentioned is, I believe, “A Kiss without Meaning,” published in Charlton’s I Love You #57 (July 1965). I remember this story very well because Larry drew my image into it, I remember Larry showing me either the original pencil art or stats and the lead character looked very much like me. The inking, however (I believe by Vince Colletta), obliterated any resemblance to yours truly. I hope Larry publishes panels from the original art somewhere one of these days, if for no other reason, so that I can prove to some of my old skeptical friends that the guy in the story with that great looking blonde babe is (was) really me! [Don will be an interview subject for our forthcoming “Legend of Gold Key Comics” issue.—Ye Editor] Jeff Bonivert via the Internet Two things: First, let me say that TwoMorrows really is bringing new life to comic books. You folks are doing great things today and have so much potential for the future. Okay, now for the second thing: I wanted to voice my opinion and say that you’re right, Jon. Comic books need to rediscover the anthology comic and here’s why: Value. You simply get more for your money. The chance of making a sell will increase if you give the buyer more options/creators/creations in your COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19 June 2002

book to pick from and spend on. If any book, be it Green Lantern or The Avengers, big publisher or little publisher. You can have two or three back-up stories to the big top-selling super-hero or two or three different stories of the same characters all by different and (oh, my God!) new people who really want to make their mark using short stories to tell a tale. Of course, these short stories will be continued from issue to issue, but isn't that what most books are doing now? Long never-ending story arcs? My opinion is based on collecting comics since the mid-1960s. And even though I have money enough to buy tons of comics every month, I am very cautious what comics I do purchase. I mean to say, at my age how many times can I read about the X-Men pounding the crap out of a super-villain? I have seen them do that 1,000 times. And only if a really clever creative team gets on board with a book. I am not buying super-heroes. I feel no obligation to buy every issue of any comic no matter who is doing the work, like I did in my younger collecting years. And how can kids today afford to buy comics? That’s a mystery to me, too. I think it's a big risk for a publisher to pin all their financial hopes on one creative team per book. Make it an anthology! I bought Detective Comics #760 not for the Batman story, but for the Slam Bradley in the back! And I buy Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, not for the first two stories but the Arthur Adams story in the back! Is it time to say “nuff said”? I think you understand. Well, okay I'm done. Thanks Jon, for the invitation to rant right back at ya. P.S.: And now for a plug. I recommend checking out these anthology books in which I contributed stories. Graphic Classics #1 and 2, published by Eureka Productions (see the Web site <www.rsbd.net>), Spark Generators published by Slave Labor Graphics, for the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco. And, last but not least, you can see my 72-page Casey Jones/TMNT epic online <http://www.flyingcolorscomics.com> and click on Web comics. [Ye Ed’s always been a great fan of Jeff’s work and it’s a pleasure making the wonderful artist’s acquaintance, though I suffered a mild depression when J.B.’s Atomic Man saw publication in the 1980s, as that character’s name was the same as my (Captain America rip-off) creation, developed when I was a mere pup.—Y.E.] Jeff Clem via the Internet I just finished reading CBA #18, the Cosmic Comics of the '70s issue, and I thought I might share some of my views on it and some other recent issues. First of all, the Starlin/Weiss/Milgrom cover was fantastic. This is some of Starlin's best work in a long time. Ever since the early days of Dreadstar, Jim's pencils haven't appealed to me, but if this recent CBA cover is an example of the work we can expect in his upcoming Marvel series, then I'm going to check it out. Unfortunately, such a nice cover raises expectations, and the interiors of this issue didn't successfully meet them. Starting with the Weiss/Starlin/Milgrom interview: Well, it doesn't read like an interview. It reads more like a conversation in a very casual setting over some vino and after a huge Italian dinner. Two of the three guys are named Alan/Allen and that makes for bumpy/jerky reading and rereading; wouldn't it have been better to refer to them as Weiss and Milgrom? It was also a little frustrating that, on page 17, the alreadyseen and published and discussed Marvel Super-Heroes #47 Starlin Hulk cover got larger reproduction than the unpublished Starlin/Hulk pencils; you also perform the same disservice in the Englehart interview on pages 36 and 37: I'd much rather see the Cap and Vision sketches in larger size than the already-seen Weiss/Nightshade page and the Avengers splash. As far as the Weiss/Starlin/Milgrom interview goes, I've got to wonder if it would have been better to interview each of them separately. I have many fanzines from the last 30 years, and almost every time someone printed an interview with more than two people present, interviewer included, it made for tedious, obnoxious and boring reading. The people involved are having some fun, but the reader is too distanced. Even though the theme of the June 2002

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issue is the Cosmic heroes that these fellas worked on, the interviews seem to stray from the subject quite a bit and involve elements from their careers that had not a lot to do with their work on these cosmic heroes. You've got the cosmic cover, cosmic creators and, for the most part, cosmic interior art, but the conversations veer too often from that subject matter (Englehart's interview, for example, deals with a lot of non-cosmic stuff like being a C.O. and Captain America, but there's little discussion of, for example, his and Milgrom's overlooked Captain Marvel). Maybe a little more focus in the interviews is necessary to fit the theme of the issue. It seems that every issue contains some kind of explanation from you about why something or other was left out due to space considerations. Yet, when I look at what you do include, I'm genuinely puzzled. For example, in this issue, at the end of the Englehart interview, you explain that, due to space considerations, some of Englehart's interview was edited “significantly.” Ah, but the “outtakes” will be in the new trade paperback coming out in the forthcoming CBA Collection Vol. 2, a compilation that reprints two out-of-print issues I already own, a book that will cost me somewhere between $15 and $20 for, what, 20 more pages of material? Then I look at this issue and I see why Englehart's (and maybe other) material was bumped: A b-&-w reprint of Starlin's advertising art for The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel (seen in many places and hardly his greatest artwork); a one-page Editor's Rant on Kuper's World War 3 Illustrated—not a bad article, really, but hardly what I like to pay for when I buy an issue of CBA; an autobiographical essay by John Buscema which really isn't an autobiographical essay but snippets from a recent interview, and couldn't that have waited until the tribute issue?; and then a three-page article by David Roach about an artist I've never heard of. Now, don't get me wrong—I'm not saying these pieces were bad—they were well-written and informative (excluding the Buscema piece), but did they have to be in this issue of CBA? Did they have to be in any issue of CBA? As good as they are, they stick out like sore thumbs in a nostalgia-based publication such as this. Then, the capper on it is the flip-side of CBA #18, the tribute to Flo Steinberg. Honestly, some of it was interesting, but was it really worthy of half the issue? I'm sure she's a wonderful person and that some of these people have some interesting things to say about her, but, again, half an issue? Anyway, there were some factual errors as well: the Leialoha Spidey-Howard the Duck illo on page 48 was from the cover of The Comics Journal #41 (not The Comic Reader), featuring a great Steve Gerber interview, given after Gerber was fired by Shooter. Also, on page 46, in the caption for the Warlock-Pip-Gamora repro, it is said that those panels are from Leialoha's first inked panels for Marvel from Warlock #11, when in fact, Leialoha's first inking job for Marvel was in Warlock #9. Too, on page 41, in the caption for Milgrom's Watcher/Captain Marvel #36 cover repro, it states that that issue was the debut of his artistic run as penciler, when in fact it was #37; #36 was a reprint with a framing job by Englehart, Starlin and Weiss. What did I like about CBA #18? Well, as I stated above, the cover, and some of the unseen art, especially the Weiss pencils to the unpublished Warlock #16, the MMMS stuff, some of the Flo material, although the Trimpe, Smith, Flo and Fite roundtable

Inset left: Cartoonist Jeff Bonivert’s airy, geometric style was a refreshing find for Ye Ed when he first discovered the artist’s work in Mr. Monster back in the 1980s. Jeff also produced three issues of Atomic Man for Blackthorne Publishing during that decade. Here’s the title character in a Bonivert sketch, drawn especially for CBA! ©2002 J.B. Bonivert. Below: Jeff Bonivert also appears in a couple of fascinating new books, worthy of attention. First, Spark Generators is an autobiographical comics anthology focusing on the artistic influences of the contributors, a diverse crowd that includes Creig Flessel, Bill Morrison, Jeff Smith, and many more, all behind a cover by Will Eisner. Edited by Jon “Bean” Hastings, the book is published by Slave Labor Graphics, 848 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126. Contact them at <www.slave labor.com> for precise ordering information. Profits go to San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum. Cover ©2002 Will Eisner. Rosebud’s two volumes of Graphic Classics are also delightful comics anthologies. Vol. 1 ($7.95 + $2 s&h) adapts Edgar Allan Poe stories, with Vol. 2 ($9.95 + $2 s&h) showcasing the fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Order from <www. rsbd.net> or The Rosebud Store, Eureka Productions, 8778 Oak Grove Road, Mount Horeb, WI 53572. ©2002 Eureka Productions.

was tedious. I like your intentions, and I probably cannot even begin to realize what hard work goes in to putting out such a publication, monthly yet, but I gotta wonder about some of your editorial decisions. Where's Jim Shooter's reaction to Gene Colan's statements from CBA #13? Where are the rest of the Beerbohm articles? What about that Williamson art job promised in The Warren Companion? I really looked forward to the Sandy Plunkett interview from CBA #15 and that was a crashing bore. Why didn't you guys talk about specific works of his, like his Scarlet Witch/Spider-Man story from Marvel Fanfare #6, or his sword-&-sorceryrelated work with Roy Thomas and Conan, or his Daredevil serial from Marvel Comics Presents? I sent you a decent checklist of what I know to be most of Plunkett's comic work and never heard back from you. I wasn't looking for any credit or byline—I just wanted to share some info with you and maybe the rest of your readership. I realize you probably couldn't print it because of space considerations (see above), but if you're going to turn your readership on to a great unknown artist who's been under their noses for a long time, then maybe a brief checklist of his meager comics output couldn't have hurt as a small sidebar to the interview. As good as the mag is, I wonder if it could be so much better if only you weren't perhaps juggling so much, as I hear that your job is pretty much a one-man situation as far as production and editing goes. I'd love to have a great CBA at a bi-monthly rate, rather than a weaker one at a monthly rate. Great CBA issues: pretty much most of #1 through 7, the two Charlton issues (#9 and 12), the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. issue, the Atlas/Seaboard issue (#16), the Toth half of #11 (not that the Mayer half was bad; they should have been done as single issues each). #8 was a forgettable issue for me (though, not apparently your readership since it is sold out), and the issue that made me drop my subscription and just plan to buy it off the stands at my leisure, #17. I really resent having to pay $7 for a magazine that pays tribute to one of the most overrated comic artists ever, Art Adams. I realize that you can't please me every issue, but come on, before you showcase Adam Hughes, and God help us, a day in the life of Alex Ross (enough Alex Ross already!) and the sons of Romita and Kubert, what about more stuff along the lines of your Neal Adams tribute issue, but pay issue-length tributes to Steranko, Barry Smith, Barks, Eisner, Ditko, Kubert Sr., etc. I realize you're dealing with the more contemporary, modern artists to boost sales and attract the younger comics fan, but honestly, I don't think the younger comics fan wants to read about his favorite artists, they just buy the comics! And if you do an issue about an artist, don't just tell us they're great, interview them and reprint some of their art—write articles that examine and discuss their art so that you can educate the reader about why they are so great. Looking back on this letter, you might view it as a hatchet job, and maybe it is, but I'm one of the guys that used to buy two copies (sometimes three) regularly. That's changed since the quality has

become more uneven since about #8. If it seems like a hatchet job, that may be because I care about it so much. You've got access to a lot of interesting people, facts and art and sometimes you're almost there in presenting it intelligently, responsibly and successfully, but being almost there is more frustrating, sometimes to me, as a reader, than it is watching someone totally bomb, which you have yet to do. Sorry for the long-winded critique, but hopefully you'll take it in the constructive way in which it was intended. [Where to begin? First, I appreciate the thoughtful letter, Jeff. I will continue to conduct roundtable interviews for CBA because, in my opinion, the form makes for engaging reading. While subjects may be covered a bit less comprehensively, I think the interaction and exchanges between the interviewees may often reveal much about their personal and working relationships. Besides, I think these are fun to do. As for your criticism of my art selection, well, one can’t please everybody and, as I do not feel compelled to defend every design decision I make, suffice to say, “to each, his own.” However extraneous you felt the Fab Flo section was, I believe it was of equal importance to the Cosmic side of CBA, and in learning about her, we also learned about early Marvel Comics. Besides, I love Flo. The Shooter comments are forthcoming. Bob Beerbohm has been deluged with work from his mail order business and will send the next installment of his “Secret Origins of the Direct Market” soon. Al Williamson had to respectfully rescind permission to reprint “Relic,” an Archie-Goodwin-scribed tale, because of an unforeseen commitment. Sorry you didn’t cozy to the Plunkett interview and I honestly forgot you sent a checklist; I’ll refer to my files and, if I find it, will run it. As for your comment, “I really resent having to pay $7 for a magazine that pays tribute to one of the most overrated comic artists ever,” certainly no one if forcing you to buy this magazine. I enjoy Arthur’s work very much and, while I hope you do continue to read CBA, I wouldn’t want you to feel obligated to buy every single issue; please purchase only what might interest you.—Y.E.] Jim Woodall via the Internet Here is a list of the (very) minor mistakes that I noted. Even so, it was my favorite issue to date (duh!) and the roundtable discussion was the most informative interview I have ever read about those Cosmic ’70s comics. Great stuff! The Avengers Annual #7 page on page 3 is inked by Jim Starlin, not Joe Rubinstein. Although Mr. Rubinstein is credited in the comic as the inker, Starlin inked about a dozen pages or so from that story. For a Starlin fanatic like me it's very easy to pick out the pages. Perhaps not a mistake, but the Doctor Weird #1 cover on page 16 is uncredited. The art is by the late Howard Keltner. On page #24 in the caption describing the Strange Tales #178 page, an “unnamed alien narrator” is mentioned. In fact, on the first page of that four-page sequence, the narrator introduces himself as “Sphnxor from the star system Pegasus”. On page 34, the construction site Kung-Fu fight is from Special Marvel Edition #16, not #17 as credited. On page #46, the the Leialoha inked panels are credited to issue #11. It should read #9. And probably not CBA’s mistake, but Heather Delight, as mentioned by Alan Weiss in the roundtable, was actually Heater Delight (from Warlock #12). The Avenger Annual splash on page #28 is also inked by Starlin; The description of the panel from the Marvel Two-in-One Annual on page #29 is technically correct as by “Jim Starlin and Joe Rubinstein.” Although it's interesting to note that Starlin inked the stone Thanos figure while Rubinstein inked the rest; I'm not 100% sure about this one, but I'm sure Steve Leialoha could confirm this, the splash page from Warlock #13 on page 46 was inked by Starlin. By the way, I loved the layout of the contents page. The selection of the Avengers Annual #7 panel was superb, as was the stone Thanos used for the end of the roundtable. And last and certainly least, I gave you the photocopy of the Magus concept drawing, not Al Milgrom. Did I say how much I loved this issue? Richard J. Arndt via the Internet I have very much enjoyed your last two issues and I'm also very happy with the monthly schedule. The Seaboard/Atlas issue was excellent. I still think much, if not most, of their output was pretty much lowest common denominator but they did publish Howard Chaykin's Scorpion (the information about Toth's “Vanguard” story— which I've had for years—was invaluable) and their b-&-w books COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

were as good as anything Marvel was producing at the time and, in time, may have overtaken Warren. They showed great promise. For Neil Polowin: Toth's contribution to Eerie's Greatest Hits was “The Monument” from Eerie #3. Art Adams and Ernie Colón's respective covers were fabulous! I love Jonni Future (even the t-&-a aspect). No reflection on Mr. Adams who’s one of my favorites, but isn't he a bit young for a career retrospective? The tributes to George Evans, George Roussos and Gray Morrow were heartfelt and welcome. One of Gray's last pieces of art was published in the Indy 9-11 Emergency Relief trade and it was typically beautiful. The checklist from the Red Circle books was useful as well. The artwork was wonderful for this short-lived venture, although the stories were very tame, much tamer than Marvel or DC's Code approved stories of the same period, let alone Skywald or Warren. With the new monthly schedule, I expect a Skywald issue soon!!! Also an issue on Star*Reach; Elfquest; early Eclipse; Hot Stuff; Andromeda; Jack Katz's First Kingdom and Comicscene/Mediascene and the RBCC stuff. Some great material that has not been widely reprinted (well, except for Elfquest). Keep Fred Hembeck's page going. I enjoy his stuff. Missed Alex Toth. [I do plan to cover a number of your suggestions, Richard, including upcoming looks at the “Vanguards of Independence” featuring Dave Sim, the Pinis, and Jack Katz; as well as sections devoted to Mike Friedrich & Star*Reach, and the publications of Sal Quartuccio. As for our features, our Reader’s Survey indicates very diverse opinions over the respective columns of Michelle Nolan, John Cochran, Alex Toth and David Roach, as well as Hembeck’s page. We’ll be thinking long and hard about the comments.—Y.E.] Steve Wilson London, England The purpose of this letter is to prove that you not only have Arlen Schumer's heartfelt thanks for your efforts, but many others too, me included. I read with some surprise that you were doing an issue on Atlas/Seaboard and a whole flood of memories returned that I hadn't given a second thought to in decades. Suddenly I was ten years old again and recalling the beautiful covers of Neal Adams on Ironjaw and Planet of Vampires. I've lost count of the amount of times that I've thumbed through CBA #16 and the attraction has not yet waned. I have only a few questions remaining after your exhaustive chronicling of the company's fate, firstly; who owns the company now and has anyone, at the very least, shown any interest in the characters? One of my clearest memories, as I sadly no longer possess any Atlas titles in my collection, is of a reader's letter in The Scorpion #3, where the reader commented that all the characters were from different time zones and there was therefore little prospect of a team-up. In retrospect, I think that best sums up the Atlas line and fate of the company. United we stand, divided we fall. Forget World's Finest, JSA, JLA, The Brave and the Bold, Marvel TeamUp, The Avengers, Fantastic Four, etc. Forget one universe, one vision and inter-company character recognition and cooperation. I still can't believe that a wise old head like Martin Goodman didn't acknowledge the significant impact of Stan Lee's direction with Marvel, let alone DC’s 24karat stable of characters and was naive enough to believe that Atlas/Seaboard could have the same impact by having Chip control the ship, given his obvious mistrust of his son's ability. I remember when I first heard that they were no more and it came as no surprise. As a ten-year-old, I couldn't understand the constant chopping and changing going on either and they struck me as being disjointed and heading for a fall. But now I know why. So thank you sincerely for providing a lot of answers to questions that have bugged me for nearly 30 years. I hope that one day those issues and stories make it into a collection. Who knows, the characters may possibly be revived one day. In the fantastic world of comics, you never know what will happen next and that's what makes them so fantastic.

CBA and had been looking forward to the ’70s Marvel theme. But lo and behold, you go and dedicate the other half to Fabulous Flo Steinberg! I just finished reading the interview with her and it was great! I felt like I was catching up with an old friend! Leave it to you to dedicate a ton of space for someone who was essentially just Stan's secretary and make it worth devouring even before the main theme of the book! Great stuff and keep it up! Billy R. Haney Estes Park, Colorado First just let me say what a cool magazine you have with Comic Book Artist. I don't have every issue, but the ones I've picked up are right up my alley as a comics fan. Here are some things I'd like to see (and if you have already received or even printed letters along these lines, well… here's another one): The Art of Adam Hughes issue! The ’80s Vanguard, part two, with Michael Zulli, Steve Rude, Charles Vess, and Paul Chadwick! The Women of Comics with Marie Severin, Linda Medley, Ramona Fradon, Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Wendy Pini, Joyce Chin, Melinda Gebbie and you know, this will need to span across more than one issue! The ’80s Vanguard, part three, The British Invasion with Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Alan Davis, John Bolton and David Lloyd. Really, so many of the above warrant a cover feature and in-depth interviews. Keep moving forward into the ’80s and ’90s while continuing the wonderful retrospectives on the art masters of past decades. Keep up the great work! [Adams Hughes coming this Summer! Rude covered in #8; Paul Chadwick coming this Fall; Zulli and Vess are great subjects! Marie and Ramona covered in #10; Jill Thompson just agreed to be featured in (hopefully) our Halloween ish; Pini to come (I hope!); Doran, Chin, and Gebbie also worthy subjects! British Invasion ish coming!—Y.E.]

ARTISTS NEEDED! Ye Editor and associate Chris Knowles (who, along with Andrew D. Cooke and stellar inkers, produced our first comic book, PRIME8™, last year) are looking for comic book artists to help us interpret these innumerable concepts brimming forth from our imaginations. If you’re looking for exposure plus eager to work on exciting new comic book projects, please send copies of published work (if applicable) and Xerox samples of your art to Chris at:

Artist Submissions c/o Secret Sun Productions P.O. Box 1562 Morristown, NJ 07962 Thanks! We look forward to hearing from you.—Y.E. Below: Michael Arnold shares this John Buscema pencil sketch of the Green Behemoth, which we’re printing as a reminder that our huge tribute to the late artist is a mere two issues away, which will feature a brand new portrait of Big John, painted by one of his greatest inkers, Tom Palmer! Art ©2002 the Estate of John Buscema. Hulk ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Ruben Azcona via the Internet Here’s a quick note to let you know I picked up the latest June 2002

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CBA Tribute

Remembering Dan DeCarlo Terry Austin recalls the life & work of the late, great Archie artist Below: The good girl, Betty, from a pin-up page in Archie’s Girls, Betty & Veronica #74 (1962), as exquisitely drawn by the late Dan DeCarlo. From the original art, courtesy of Terry Austin. ©2002 Archie Publications, Inc. Inset right: Dan DeCarlo. Photo courtesy of the DeCarlo Family.

by Terry Austin Several years ago, artist/editor Richard Howell phoned me. A friend of his had written a story for something called The Marvel Valentine Special #1, which involved Bill Everett’s Venus characters squaring off against Jack Kirby’s monster Goom before a backdrop containing some of the beauteous babes from various Atlas titles of the 1950s (Chili Seven, Hedy Devine, an unnamed Irma/Pearl type, etc.). The job had been penciled by the man who was to humor comics what Jack Kirby was to super-heroes, Dan DeCarlo. An Atlas mainstay, Dan hadn’t worked for the company in almost three decades, and the writer, Frank Strom, was afraid they were going to hand the pages over to any old inker who wouldn’t realize what a momentous occurrence they represented. Richard recalled my fondness for genuine, good ol’ funny funnybooks and asked if I would like to ink the job. Like any kid of an earlier time, I’d gotten interested in the four-color wonders of comic books through the titles aimed at the kid consumer, back when the companies were smart enough to have comics for children and had not yet abandoned the newsstand market. I remember reading (and rereading and rereading) my battered copies of Huckleberry Hound, Little Eva, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Jacky’s Diary, Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal, and, of course, Popeye. Sprinkled in their midst were a few gems by Dan DeCarlo: Homer the Happy Ghost, a few Archies, and The Adventures of Big Boy (did Wimpy ever eat hamburgers at the Elias Brothers’ Big Boy restaurants, I’d sometimes wonder. Was that a conflict of interest? For that matter, never mind who’s stronger, the Thing or the Hulk; who’d win in a hamburger eating contest, Wimpy or Jughead? [CBA will gladly pay you Tuesday for an answer to that today.—Y.E.]) Anyway, “Glory be!” I answered and was promptly assigned the job/joy of inking Dan’s pencils. This professional obligation would eventually lead to a treasured friendship with Dan and his lovely wife, Josie, a relationship that has meant more to me than words can ever express. My visits to the DeCarlo home would usually begin with my rummag-

ing through the stacks of Dan’s art out in the garage, picking out some to buy and trying to bring a little organization to things as I went. Over the years, I was able to act as intermediary to get some of these old stories into the hands of other professionals who had cherished Dan’s work in childhood as I had (Bret Blevins, Trina Robbins, Al Gordon, Steve Leialoha, Mario Hernandez, and Mike Manley, DeCarlo fans all!) After commerce had been attended to, I’d present Dan with a stack of Xeroxes of pencil art I had inked since I had seen him last. He loved to see how other artists work; he’d flip through the pages, alternately crowing, “I’m gonna swipe this shot!” or cooing, “Oooh, this is one of the good ones,” meaning he’d found a job by one of the pencilers he favored (invariably, Blevins, Manley or Alvir Amancio). Dan would then show me what he was working on, worrying if his pencils were tight enough (they were). Then, off to dinner, at some Italian restaurant more often than not, where I’d pump him for stories of the old days in comics and for information on the legendary folks he’d rubbed shoulders with. If fate had been kinder, the stories making up the bulk of this piece would have been written in Dan’s own words instead of my clumsy and undoubtedly inaccurate paraphrases. Health problems, both Dan’s and my own, postponed the career-spanning interview we had agreed to undertake for the pages of this magazine. Suffice to say, these anecdotes (and a little known fact or two) Dan told me more than once, so it’s evident he enjoyed them (not counting the ones involving me, of course), as the tales would be related with a twinkle in his eye and frequent pauses for laughter. I’d like to think that if the interview had come off, we’d have worn out the transcriber with all the [laughter] indications… The first night Dan and I shared a meal, he paused outside the restaurant to stare into the window of an art gallery next door. He spoke of always wanting to learn how to paint properly, perhaps after retirement, wondering aloud if it might be too late for a man in his eighties to do so. I told him about being a painter before I got sidetracked by steady comics work, and urged him to give it a go, as I always found the process freeing and enjoyable even if the results were sometimes less than stellar. To encourage Dan, every Christmas I’d give him a book on a painter I thought he’d enjoy (George Petty and Gil Elvgren were two that spring to mind). The last couple of years, he began to enjoy working with color in conjunction with the fan commissions and recreations he undertook. His gift for Christmas 2001, the new book on Robert McGuiness, sits on my coffee table, waiting for Dan to unwrap and wryly comment on the images within, before looking at me in the eye and saying something like, “Hey, this guy’s pretty good, isn’t he?” And then we’d both laugh. There was no laughter in my house last Christmas for my friend Daniel is gone. DAN DECARLO AND NORMAN ROCKWELL By all accounts, one of the early artistic role models for young Dan DeCarlo was the popular illustrator Norman Rockwell. Hardworking, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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talented, famous and successful, Rockwell must have shown like a powerful beacon to a boy born into a family of modest means, a boy who had a talent and a burning desire to do something with it, while the mundane world around him earned a dollar by the sweat of its brow. Dan’s father, Vito, owned a garden/landscaping business in New Rochelle, New York. Working for his father, the teen-aged Dan would find himself laboring on Norman Rockwell’s estate. Dan described calling Rockwell on the phone, but being too frightened and intimidated to speak when the artist answered. Eventually, contact was made. The working class kid spoke to the Great Illustrator and Rockwell spoke back, words of encouragement that must have come like a gentle rainfall to a young seedling foundering in parched earth for too long. Study at New York City’s Art Students League would follow, while Dan prepared for a career in illustration and advertising art, not knowing that the Second World War was just around the corner. DECARLO AND ROCKWELL II A local Boys Club of America had an original painting by Norman Rockwell on the wall. For Dan, this was the closest thing to a visit to a museum. One day, he asked if he could take the painting home to study. The folks in charge said, “Sure, go ahead.” And away went Dan. In 1942, Dan entered the Army and spent the next few years in Europe, honing his cartooning skills by illustrating letters home to his family and using cartoons to court the Belgian lass he would eventually marry. When he returned stateside, there in Dan’s room waited the original Rockwell painting. He took it back to the Boys Club and handed it in, only to find that the personnel had changed in the intervening years and no one knew it belonged there or knew what to do with it. “I shoulda kept that thing,” he’d sigh years later, a faraway look in his eyes as if remembering a longlost love. DON’T MESS WITH DAN Newly discharged from the Army, after serving in England, France, Belgium and Germany, and newly married to Josette (Josie) DuMont, whom he had met at a dance in Belgium, Dan had difficulty finding work upon his return to the states. The added responsibility of caring for twin sons James and Dan Junior, born in 1947, made employment that much more of an imperative. His military background came in handy as he landed a strip for Ziff-Davis called “The Yardbirds,” a humor filler about two dumb guys in the Army, which appeared in the pages of G.I. Joe. This was the sort of regular gig that seemed an answer to the young father’s prayers. June 2002

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One day, upon entering the editor’s office, Dan was informed by the man that times were bad and the artist would have to endure a cut in his page rate. Dan protested but eventually relented after being repeatedly assured by the editor that his hands were tied and there was nothing else he could do. The matter settled, the editor left his office to go talk to the publisher. Shaken, a gloomy Dan DeCarlo decided to go down the hall to the bathroom and compose himself. Passing the publisher’s open door, he overheard a conversation that went something like this: Publisher: “Well, did he buy it?” Editor: “Hook, line and sinker. I told you he’d roll right over… what choice does the poor sap have?” (Followed by hearty guffaws from both.) The editor returned to his office, all smiles, to find a different Dan DeCarlo than the one he had left a short time before. “I thought your proposition over,” Dan stated calmly, “and I just can’t afford to take that pay cut. In fact, this couldn’t have worked out better; with all my other accounts doing so well, I’m going to have to drop you as a client!” With that, he left the office and “The Yardbirds” behind, despite the editor’s protests that he’d try to eke out a little more money from the cold-hearted publisher. Dan would find work with Standard Publications, drawing Jetta, The Teen-Age Sweetheart of the 21st Century and “Pinhead Perkins,” a humor filler in their Joe Yank comic book about one dumb guy in the Army (half the work of “The Yardbirds,” right?). (Author’s note: Although Dan’s military life prepared him for the Perkins assignment, it is unknown at this time if he ever actually traveled into the future to do the necessary research to accurately portray Jetta’s 21st century environs.)

DAN VS. THE BRAIN TRUST In the 1950s, the success of the comic book version of Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace (exquisitely written and drawn by Fred Toole and Al Wiseman) caused every other publisher to attempt a knock-off. Archie Comics begat Pat the Brat; Atlas tried Melvin the Monster, Peter the Little Pest, Willie the Wise Guy, Dexter 13

Inset right: One of Dan DeCarlo’s earliest assignments was the “Pinhead Perkins” strip in Standard Comics’ Joe Yank. This splash is from #6 (1952). Courtesy of Terry Austin. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

Below: Laying claim to his creation, that’s a caricature of Dan (in ink, as well as the tattoo; the rest is in pencil). The master drew this for Terry Austin’s sketchbook in 1998. Josie ©2002 Archie Publications, Inc. Art ©2002 the estate of Dan DeCarlo.

the Demon, as well as a female version, “Little Zelda.” The failure of all these enterprises may be attributed to the fact that the mayhem that ensued in Dennis was always the outgrowth of the innocent curiosity of a child, whereas these other comic book kids were just plain mean, and therefore unlikeable. Anyway, Magazine Enterprises (ME) decided to enter the fray with The Brain, a mischievous child inventor whose “brainstorms” would malfunction, leading to the desired comic mayhem. They hired Dan to draw the series and all involved sat down to “brainstorm” what their new star would look like. Dan did sketch after sketch. He drew a kid with huge owl-like glasses and a lab coat. They said, “No, that’s not it.” A kid in a college cap and gown. “No, that’s not it.” A kid with an oversized cranium in a short-panted suit. “No, that’s not it.” For hours, smart-looking kids pored out of the end of Dan’s pencil with the same response. Finally, out of frustration and with a desire to make this “Brain Trust” look more favorably on the previous fruits of his labors, Dan said, “I drew the god-awfullest kid I could think of … head like an egg, a clump of grass for hair, pop-eyes, buck teeth, huge ears and a loud Hawaiian shirt.” “That’s it!!!” the bosses screamed in unison. “I knew I was fixed for good,” Dan remembered. “Now I had to draw the godawful thing!” REVENGE OF THE FREELANCER. By Stan and Dan. That was the byline on many a humor comic from Atlas in the 1950s. Homer the Happy Ghost, My Friend Irma, Millie the Model, Sherry the Showgirl, and My Girl Pearl were some of the titles to appear with that reassuring byline. While some of Stan Lee’s gags might be a bit repetitive at times (boy, that Irma sure is dumb!), Dan’s lively visual characterizations provoke a grin anyway. They were more than boss and employee; they were partners in a sense, certainly friends also, and their families became close as well. Stan and his wife Joanie once gave Josie one of their dogs, a poodle Dan’s wife would forever love (the pooch having shown a predilection for Mrs. DeCarlo as well). During that period, Dan shared an office with his inking partner Rudy LaPick. At some point, one of them brought in an air pistol that fired some sort of pellets. They affixed a target on a wall and, to alleviate the boredom, they would take turns target-shooting. This diversion came to an end when a private detective in the office next door informed them that some of the pellets were coming through the wall and he thought

someone was taking potshots at him! But before the good time ended, Dan described the setup to his pal Stan, who ventured that it sounded like fun and said he’d like to see the gun sometime. On a subsequent visit to Stan’s office, Dan pulled a pistol out of his portfolio without any preamble, which (he later related) cause poor Stan’s face to go white as he prepared to dive under the desk. Realizing his mistake, Dan hastily stammered out that this was the gun his old friend had asked to see and not the case of a disgruntled freelancer plotting to introduce Stan to Homer the Happy Ghost in person! DAN’S STRIP TEASE Most fan’s of Dan’s work know that he and Stan Lee had a syndicated newspaper strip called Willie Lumpkin (who would later be reassigned to a route that included the Baxter Building). That strip actually began as a feature called Barney’s Beat, about a cop interacting with various characters on his appointed rounds. After failing to sell (“Nobody likes policemen,” grumped a syndicate maven who apparently had never been in a jam), they switch the premise to headline a postman and a successful strip was born. Judging by the originals, by the way, Barney’s Beat was a beaut! Another entirely unknown comic strip collaboration by Stan and Dan took place in the late 1950s. Approached by Stan the day after comic artist legend Jack Cole’s suicide, Dan joined in artistically and the pair produced two weeks’ worth of sample strips for Betsy and Me, Cole’s successful daily. They didn’t get the job, but having seen the originals, I can attest they were absolutely indistinguishable from Cole’s work. Who knew Dan was such a gifted mimic? After Lumpkin petered out, Dan would attempt to get back into newspapers unsuccessfully as a solo act, first with Buzzy and Bunny and then Josie. He would eventually return to the funny papers in 1975, taking over the Archie panels after creator Bob Montana’s death. DANDY DAN VS. STORMIN’ NORMAN III I had told Dan of my periodic visits to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and encouraged him to make the trip. Last winter, he decided to go. A friend would drive him up and I’d meet them there. They arrived, and after dispensing with coats and such, we entered the initial gallery. Dan and I approached the first painting on display, and to my astonishment, Dan proceeded to reach out and rub the palm of his hand all over the surface of the painting. This in a museum where I’d seen guards admonish people for standing too close to a canvas on exhibit! I later asked Dan why he had done such a thing; was he transfixed by the transcendent beauty of the imagery, the power of the artist’s execution of same? Was he flashing back to his boyhood when he’d had his own private Rockwell in his room, albeit a loaner? “Nah,” he growled, “I just wanted to make sure they were showin’ us the originals and not some goddamned prints!” EPILOGUE: THE GIRLS Although we saw each other only twice in 2001, due to his illness or COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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my own, we managed to eke out two jobs together (Elvira #100 and Batman: Gotham Knights #21) and Dan and I spoke on the phone usually every week. One week, he said something I thought unusual. I had never heard him express any fondness for any of the characters whose adventures he’d improved by use of his talent. Keeping in mind that he belonged to an earlier breed of cartoonist for whom the job was largely the means to an end, that being the paycheck that put food on the table and a roof over the heads of the family. By and large, they didn’t care if they were working on Superman or Little Lotta, as long as there was a steady stream of pages moving across the drawing table. Yet, this one day Dan asked me if I knew what was the worst aspect of his being fired by Archie Comics (due to the litigation over the ownership of Josie, a character recently seen in the film Josie and the Pussycats). I said I couldn’t imagine, and he replied, “I miss the girls.” Further questioning on my part revealed the “girls” in question to be Betty and Veronica, Archie Andrews’ perennial blond and brunette girl friends respectively. Bear in mind that Dan was talking about characters he had drawn in countless thousands of pages over an incredible fifty-year span! He started drawing the girls’ exploits in the fourth issue of Betty and Veronica in 1951, continuing until the June 2002

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end of that series (#347 in 1987) and immediately into a second series (a new #1) until the legal scuffle absented him from the book 157 issues later (#163 in 2001). Now count up all the Betty and Veronica Annuals and Giants (B&V Summer Fun, B&V Spectacular, B&V Christmas Spectacular) of which there were hundreds, Giant 25¢ comics back when page count meant something. Add in his work on the same characters in Betty’s Diary, Veronica, Betty and Me, Laugh, Pep, and even Archie and its attendant Annuals, Giants, Spectaculars, and Christmas Specials, not to mention the daily strip, and we’re talking a veritable Mount Everest of Betty and Veronica work. I’ve heard cartoonists whine about burning-out on a character after six issues, and yet Dan’s voice conveyed the wistful pining of a father separated from his children for the first time after a heated divorce when Dan said those words, “I miss the girls.” What could I say but “Dan, I’m sure they miss you, too.” Now, all of us miss him, too. [Thanks to Rocco Nigro for providing memory back-up, Mary Smith’s book Dan DeCarlo for providing historical context, and the DeCarlo family—Josie and Jessica DeCarlo, Michael and Christy (DeCarlo) Merone for providing the photographs accompanying this article.—T.A.]

Above: Two pages of Atlas Comics’ stories featuring Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo in their own strips. At left, Millie and Chili meet the boys in Millie the Model #77 (1957), and above, Irma takes her complaint to Stan and Dan in My Friend Irma #41 (1954). Both courtesy of Terry Austin. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Left inset: Vintage photo of Dan DeCarlo at his drawing table in the 1950s. Courtesy of the DeCarlo Family. Following page: We had hoped to have a longer DeCarlo tribute in these pages (and will run Batton Lash’s remembrance in an upcoming issue) but time and space dictate that we will be continuing this appreciation in the future. (Does anybody have an unpublished DeCarlo interview they’d be willing to share?). On the next page, we feature a more recent picture of Dan in his studio (courtesy of the DeCarlo family), and the three panels of a get well card Terry Austin drew for Dan in early 2001. Top right is front, bottom left is inside, and bottom right is back (featuring Benjamin Bang, a.k.a. The Brain!) Art ©2002 Terry Austin. Characters ©2002 their respective copyright holders. 15

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Harvey World History

A Family Affair: The Mark Arnold charts the highs and lows of one of by Mark Arnold

Below: The ubiquitous Harvey Comics “jester in the box” icon, doubtless designed and rendered by the versatile Warren Kremer, which graced the upper left-hand corner of virtually every cover of the company’s titles for a good 15 years between 1957-72. Note the “box” is shaped like a TV screen, where many a Harvey character thrived in those years. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

”Can I say something about Harvey? Harvey Comics are what we’re talking about. They were the worst! They were the most pathetic comic books ever turned out. You know what I’m talking about: Casper, the Friendly Ghost… Richie Rich. Richie Rich looked just like Casper, except that he wasn’t a ghost. Did you ever notice that?” Such was the verbal abuse spouted over the airwaves at San Francisco radio station KITS radio where, as a guest, I was invited to discuss my fanzine, The Harveyville Fun Times! (hereafter referred to as THFT! published since ’90). The host of the program was Bay Area radio personality Alex Bennett, who featured a great many comedians on his show. On this decidedly minor day of infamy, Dec. 7, 1992, I was booked along with another small press publisher, to talk about our respective fanzines. Mine, of course, was THFT! His was Murder Can Be Fun! What was supposed to be a simple promotional visit and an opportunity to talk about my hobby, turned into an argument, where I found myself defending a position that Harvey Comics are beloved not only by myself, but many other readers the world over are devoted to that memorable comics line. It has been an uphill climb ever since…. Harvey Comics is one of the most important and most overlooked of comic book publishers. Though the majority of the stories were written for children, people of all ages have read them or are re-reading them today, despite not having been published regularly since 1994. And even those who have never read a Harvey Comic, seem to at least know about Richie Rich or Casper, who despite your feelings about each character, are as memorable and recognizable as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. But where did the story start? Alfred Harvey was born on October 6, 1913, in Brooklyn. His real name was Alfred Harvey Wiernikoff. He was the youngest son of Russian Jewish immigrants, and the fraternal twin of Leon Harvey, and youngest brother of Robert B. Harvey. Alfred began his professional career at the age of 15, drawing up to two-dozen advertising cartoons each week for $5 each. Like many others, he was lured by the success of comic books and determined to make a go at it, landed a job at Fox Comics, eventually becoming their managing editor. One of Fox’s biggest successes at the time was The Blue Beetle. By 1940, Harvey grew restless working for publisher Victor Fox (a

hyperbolic self-promoter who was known to exclaim to anyone within earshot, “I’m the King of Comics!”), and attempted to make a go at it himself, by forming his imprint, Harvey Comics (though officially known at the time as Alfred Harvey Publications). Irving Manheimmer, owner of Publishers Distributing Company (whose “PDC” initials could be found on thousands of comics and magazines over the next half-century), assisted Alfred in fulfilling his dream and eventually Harvey built up a standard, but solid line of super-hero titles. Although it is sometimes reported that Alfred, Leon and Robert Harvey founded Harvey Comics in 1939, the reality was that Alfred alone started the company in 1940. The first book was a novelty in comic book publishing: a digest-sized book entitled, appropriately enough, Pocket Comics. Harvey Publications enjoyed tremendous prosperity, and Alfred enlisted the help of legendary creative team, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who had both worked with Harvey previously at Fox. Together, they created such memorable titles as Boy’s Ranch and Stuntman. For brief periods in the late ’50s and mid-’60s, Simon would head up the Harvey Thriller line, but we’ll get to that later. During the 1940s, Harvey Publications slowly expanded its line. Initially after starting Pocket Comics, Harvey acquired already running titles to establish its regular output. Harvey took on Speed Comics, Champ Comics and Green Hornet Comics, the latter notably the first property—this one a radio adventure hero—to be licensed by Harvey, as in the future licensing would prove to be incredibly lucrative for the publishing house. A new title was introduced at the same time, Spitfire Comics, but was very short-lived, lasting only two issues. The same bad luck greeted Super Duper, War Victory Adventures and Hello Pal Comics, lasting three issues apiece, despite the fact that the latter sported photo covers featuring contemporary celebrities such as Bob Hope and Charlie McCarthy. Even the experimental digest-sized Pocket Comics was canceled after only four issues. (Joe Simon, who was one of Alfred Harvey’s first investors, explained in his book, The Comic Book Makers, that the half-size format may have failed because they were easily concealed and thus a snap for kids to “pocket” without paying. Harvey’s next all-new title was appropriately titled All-New Comics, which premiered late in 1942, running successfully until 1947. From 1943 through the end of the war, output was kept to a minimum and All-New, Green Hornet and Speed were the only titles published. While the company prospered during World War II, Alfred Harvey enlisted in the U.S. Army, and produced educational comic books for the Armed Forces. He rose to the rank of Captain, Adjutant General’s division. Brother Leon joined the company as vice-president and editor at this time, as it was renamed Family Comics. After the war, brother Robert, who was an accountant, joined the fold as vice-president and business manager, and the company became Home Publications and finally, Harvey Publications, Inc. In 1945, a one-shot Front Page Comic Book was attempted before Harvey began the first title featuring a character that would eventually branch his line into the direction that would make him world famous, animated cartoon style comics. The title was Nutty Comics and the character was Rags Rabbit, who would appear periodically throughout the ’40s and ’50s and even as recently in Alan Harvey’s Harvey Hits Comics in 1986. Rags’ style would eventually emulate the typical Harvey approach after the Harvey World line was COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Harvey Comics Story the most successful comics publishers in U.S. history

established in the 1950s. As the ’40s wore on, fewer super-hero titles and more humor and adventure titles were attempted. For humor, there was the shortlived Clown Comics and the modestly successful Dotty Dripple and Horace and Dotty Dripple. For adventure, there was the equally short-lived Boy Explorers, Stuntman and Strange Story, though the former two were notable Simon & Kirby creations, and all victims of the industry’s postwar slump. In 1946, Harvey Publications had its first bona fide hit with Black Cat Comics. The Black Cat was originally featured in Harvey’s first publication Pocket Comics back in ’41, and appeared regularly or semi-regularly in just about every super-hero title Harvey produced during that decade. Black Cat underwent a few format changes, most notably becoming a horror anthology in the early ’50s, before reverting back to the original super-hero format at the conclusion of its run in 1963. The Harvey family retained the Black Cat property when the company when up for sale in 1989, and new issues of The Original Black Cat appeared sporadically throughout the ’90s. Talk of a movie is currently in discussion, as is a Web site. As the ’40s progressed, the appeal of super-heroes fell into a lull, and new ideas were attempted to lure readers back. In Harvey’s case, the answer was simple. He began licensing out many established and popular newspaper comic strips at the time. Though helming a fledgling Harvey Company, Alfred realized how successful syndicated newspaper comic strip-reprint titles had been since the success of Famous Funnies in the mid-’30s and so, by the late 1940s, Harvey phased out most of his super-hero titles and introduced its Comic Hits Revival series. The first syndicated strip property obtained by Harvey was Joe June 2002

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Palooka in 1945. Ham Fisher created Palooka in early 1928, with he comic strip centered on boxing with a schmaltzy storyline and Palooka’s naive charm, and became immensely popular. Palooka first appeared in comic books in 1933, though not by Harvey, but by Cupples and Leon Company. But the most enduring run was for Harvey from 1945-61. So popular was this comic that at one point it boasted over one million copies sold each issue. The title begat two spin-offs as well: Humphrey Comics (1948-52) and Little Max Comics (1949-61). In later years, Little Max outsold Joe Palooka, but by 1961, both titles were canceled to make way for the ever-expanding Harvey World line. In 1947, Harvey obtained the comic book rights from Ham Fisher’s arch nemesis, Al Capp, to publish Li’l Abner and also successfully purchased the license for Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Neither title was particularly successful and Li’l Abner lasted only nine issues and Terry for 24. Harvey started publishing a comic book version of Steve Canyon, another Milt Caniff creation, in 1948. But this proved to be the least successful Harvey comic based on a newspaper strip so far, lasting only six issues. Harvey fared a little better with Kerry Drake from 1948-52. A five-issue flop, Love Stories of Mary Worth was followed by Harvey’s most durable comic strip reprint book, Sad Sack in 1949, though that title would graduate to contain all-new material in short order and would be the only Comic Hits Revival title to last throughout the entire Harvey World era. The character was published all the way to the end of the original Harvey line in 1982, and had a brief resurgence by Lorne-Harvey in the ’90s. In 1950, Harvey started an anthology title called Family Funnies, (later called Tiny Tot Comics). The title was designed to

Above: The Harvey World cast (plus the Apollo 16 command module) march along in this illustration that originally graced an ad in the 1973 Reuben Awards Program. Is this by Marty Taras? Image taken from The Harveyville Fun Times! #17. Courtesy of Mark Arnold & Jim Korkis. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: The Big H Kid, the Harvey mascot when the line was most renowned for its licensed “famous name” comics, such as Dick Tracy, Blondie, and others, in the 1940s.

Above: Harvey Comics founder and publisher, Alfred Harvey (left), sharing a drink with Ham Fisher, creator of Joe Palooka, as they toast the 21st anniversary of the comic strip’s debut at Toots Shor restaurant in New York City. Taken on May 1, 1951, at the height of Harvey’s “Famous Name Comics” era, when syndicated newspaper strip characters dominated the publishing company’s line. Below: Before becoming a comics mogul, Alfred Harvey drew advertising cartoons to help support his family during the Depression. All items from THFT #17, courtesy of that zine’s editor, Mark Arnold.

introduce newspaper strip characters into comic books. These issues contained reprints of Lee Falk’s Mandrake the Magician and Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. Though Mandrake never made it into his own Harvey series, Flash lasted a total of four issues with his own title. Also in 1950, two more successful Harvey reprint lines began: Dick Tracy and Blondie Comics. Tracy enjoyed a healthy run at Harvey by starring in 110 issues (#25-145) from 1945-’61. Chic Young’s Blondie had a similar longevity. Like Dick Tracy, David McKay Publishing published the character before being picked up by Harvey. Her series last from #16-163 (’50’65). The series was continued by King Comics and later, Charlton Publications. In all, Blondie Comics lasted for 222 issues. There were also two spin-off titles, published solely by Harvey: Dagwood Comics (’50-’65) and Daisy and Her Pups (’51-’55). Tiny Tot Comics became Junior Funnies in 1951 and introduced Henry, Popeye and The Katzenjammer Kids to Harvey readers. Of these characters, only The Katzenjammer Kids made it into their own

Harvey title for five issues from 1953-54. Harvey Comic Hits was also a comic strip anthology title featuring Mandrake, Steve Canyon, Mary Worth, and one that would surface later in Harvey Hits, Lee Falk’s The Phantom. A final anthology title began in 1952, called Harvey Comics Library. The two-issue series became notorious for its first issue: Teen-Aged Dope Slaves as Exposed by Rex Morgan, M.D.! The Harvey World era was beginning, but Harvey still forged ahead with two more strip titles, Jiggs and Maggie (Bringing Up Father) and Ripley’s Believe it or Not! in 1953. Neither title was successful, lasting no more than five and four issues, respectively. The emphasis on newspaper strips was definitely gone, but two final attempts in the ’60s were made, both with different success. Al Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff was first in ’60. When Dell relinquished the rights to the strip that year, Harvey took over with #116, publishing until #148 in ’65. Two giant-sized spin-offs were issued, Mutt and Jeff Jokes (’60-’61) and Mutt and Jeff’s New Jokes (’63-’65). It was obvious what sold at Harvey by this time, as Richie Rich, Little Lotta, Little Dot, Sad Sack and Stumbo all made appearances in the back of these issues. Apart from Sad Sack, by 1966, all newspaper strip titles were canceled. Though Little Audrey did have a newspaper comic strip that was later reprinted in Harvey issues, the character had her origins in animated cartoons. Ditto for the Richie Rich comic strip, as “The Poor Little Rich Boy” had debuted in comic books. But before the Harvey World began in earnest, Harvey Publications tackled two genres with great, if short-lived, success: romance and horror! Romance comics have taken a backseat to other comic book genres, but they do have their own core of fans. This is due to their camp value, and also due to the fact that romance comics have many examples of early work from future top comic book illustrators. Overall, in comparison, romance comics are substantially undervalued in comparison to their super-hero counterparts, published at the same time. Young Romance #1, considered to be the very first romance comic, was issued by Prize in September ’47. Created by and featuring the work of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the team credited with inventing the wildly successful romance genre and both of who had worked for Harvey at the beginning of their careers. (DC Comics felt this particular comic was worthy of a reissue when they ran their Millennium reprint series during 2000.) The high point for romance comics was from about ’49-’55 when every publisher was producing numerous titles. Harvey, not to miss a hot trend, was there with their titles, but was pretty much out of the genre by the late ’50s, publishing their final book in ’63. DC, Marvel and Charlton, however, carried on with regular titles into the 1970s, when the category finally gave up the ghost. Harvey entered into the fray with the following titles: First Love Illustrated (’49-’63); First Romance Magazine (’49-’58); Hi-School Romance (’49-’58); Love Lessons (’49-’50); Love Stories of Mary Worth (’49-’50); and Sweet Love (’49-’50). Soon after, Harvey took over True Love Problems and Advice Illustrated (’49-’58) from McCombs. This title was eventually renamed Romance Stories of True Love. Harvey actually advertised this book as Love Letters in late 1949 Harvey titles. In fact, the first issue was published as Love Letters, but this was covered up by the time the title reached the stands, literally, with silver ink! Unfortunately, Harvey lost out to Quality Comics in securing the title and hence, the title change to Lessons. An additional title, Teen-Age Brides (’53-’58) was added, and underwent a few title changes over the years, becoming True Bride’s Experiences and later True Bride-to-Be Romances. By 1958, all Harvey romance titles were cancelled, save for First Love Illustrated, which carried on until ’63. Hi-School Romance returned briefly as Hi-School Romance Datebook (’62-’63). Harvey apparently did not care to ever revive these titles as no attempt was made to return to the genre via Harvey Hits or a later digest. Perhaps witnessing other failed return attempts by DC confirmed their suspicions that the time for these books had indeed passed. Artists who gained fame elsewhere like Jayson Disbrow, Joe Orlando, Matt Baker, and Jack Kamen, graced the pages of these COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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books. Such Harvey stalwarts as Warren Kremer, Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, and Lee Elias, who also contributed to the upcoming horror titles, also provided memorable artwork. When EC Comics gradually changed all of their romance and humor titles to horror and crime, they created another major success story within comic books that made all of the other publishers take notice. One of these publishers of course, was Harvey, who created their own distinct series of horror titles. It’s hard to believe now since Harvey is remembered now mainly for such gentle characters as Casper, Richie Rich and Sad Sack. Like EC, Harvey used their extant titles and renamed them Chamber of Chills (’51-’55) and Black Cat Mystery (’51-’54). Mystery was formerly The Black Cat, while Chills does not seem to have an ancestor, beginning enigmatically with #21. (To compare, EC did the same thing when they renamed Crime Patrol, Gunfighter, and Saddle Romances as Crypt of Terror—later Tales from the Crypt—Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror, respectively.) In 1950, with EC’s popularity soaring, Harvey entered the fold with horror tales that rivaled those of Bill Gaines’ outfit for both ghastly story and horrid artwork. Whereas EC had Johnny Craig, Jack Kamen, “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, and Jack Davis (to name a few) as artists, Harvey notably had such talent as Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, Rudy Palais and Lee Elias creating exceptional work. The main difference between the Harvey horror comics and EC is the absence of any hosts, such as the Crypt Keeper, Vault Keeper and the Old Witch over at Entertaining Comics. Harvey had no introductory characters per se, just random tales of terror, save for a June 2002

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lone unnamed witch in Witches Tales (’51-’56), Harvey’s first horror title, debuting in January 1951, and lasting 28 issues, when the title was oddly renamed for a final two issues as Witches’ Western Tales, ending with #30, April 1955. The title left horror behind when it finally became Western Tales for a further three issues. A second title jointed Witches Tales in June when Chamber of Chills premiered. Chills continued with #22-24, then was renumbered #5-26 (December 1954), becoming Chamber of Clues with #27 and #28. Chills is considered the best of the Harvey horror titles, if only for the superb Powell/Nostrand material that appeared in most of the later issues. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide sites Chills as being a very violent title, graphically. This is part of its appeal, but actually all of the Harvey horror titles have their fair share of gore. Harvey’s third horror title was actually a modification of Black Cat Comics, when it changed from issues featuring the super-heroine starlet to horror stories with the title Black Cat Mystery with #29 (June 1951). Mystery contains two classic elements that the Harvey horror is best remembered: 1) the legendary story “Colorama” by Bob Powell in issue #45 (August 1953); and 2) the classic Warren Kremer (!) “White Heat!” cover of issue #50 (June 1954) of a man’s face melting while holding a bar of radium! After December 1954 and issue #53, the series reverted back to the super-hero title. Tomb of Terror (1952-55) was Harvey’s fourth and final horror title. By the appearance of this title in June 1952, Harvey’s horror had hit its stride. Terror ran for 16 issues before changing its name to Thrills of Tomorrow for a final four issues. Of course, the infamous Comics Code Authority put an end to all of Harvey’s—and everyone else’s—horror comic book titles. By 1955, all ceased publication. Two potential later titles, Inferno of Fear and Strange Fantasy never saw the light. That would be the end of that chapter of the Harvey story, except that some of the material was later collected and reprinted in Harvey’s Shocking Tales Digest in October 1981, and still later, Alan Harvey reprinted more material in three issues of LorneHarvey’s horror anthology, The Silver Scream (1991). As with horror, Harvey also emulated EC by launching a line of war titles. Whereas EC had TwoFisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Harvey had the long-running Warfront (1951-58; 1965-67); War Battles (1952-53); Fighting Fronts (195253); and True War Experiences (1952). These were at their sales peak during the Korean War. Harvey again copied EC with their short-lived satire title Flip (1954), Harvey’s answer to Mad. While Harvey was releasing stories of graphic horror featuring ghosts, witches and devils, it wasn’t

Above: One of the first comic titles published by Harvey was Champion Comics. Even before throwing his hat into the ring, Alfred was friends with Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who would sporadically contribute to the imprint over the years, as they did this cover. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Inset left: Mid’40s Harvey house ad promoting their entire comics line. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Left: After both returned to civilian life from WWII, Simon & Kirby stopped by Harvey Comics and contributed two well-regarded issues of Stuntman (as well as one issue of the exceptional Boy Explorers). Stuntman #3 was to introduce Stuntboy and Stuntgirl, flanking our hero in an unused drawing by S&K. ©2002 Joe Simon and the estate of Jack Kirby. 21

Above: The publisher’s reliance on syndicated comic strip characters is evident in this header for their 1953 calendar. Check out the “V” for the beginnings of the “Harvey World” crew. Courtesy of Bill Janocha. All characters ©2002 their respective copyright holders.

Below: Artist Lee Elias drew a mean Black Cat, especially when the damsel—Linda Turner, Hollywood actress by day— is out taking a joy ride! This detail from the cover of Black Cat Comics #1. ©2002 Lorne-Harvey Productions.

known at the time that these same types of characters would soon be stars (albeit in nicer fashion) of a very different Harvey Company that was emerging! The beginning of what Harvey afficionados refer to as the Harvey World had its origins with an unlikely hero… The Sad Sack, or more informally, Sad Sack. Created by Sgt. George Baker and debuting in the May 1942 issue of Yank magazine, the U.S. Army weekly, (not to be confused with a similarly titled sex newspaper of the same name). The sad and raunchy draftee was the first permanent feature of the new weekly. The character proved to be so popular for servicemen and the public-at-large, that in 1944, Simon and Schuster published a hardback collection entitled The Sad Sack (a volume of which was reprinted in 1978 in paperback form as The Best of the Original Sad Sack, and also appeared in a special printing for servicemen.) A sequel called The New Sad Sack in 1946 followed. Eventually the strip began appearing in Sunday comic sections of civilian newspapers and made a one-shot (and first ever) comic book appearance in True Comics #55, December 1946. George Baker was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on May 22, 1915. He performed various jobs such as fitting paper bags on newly pressed clothes in a dry-cleaning establishment, a truck driver, and finally, he became an artist at a commercial art house. There, he drew pots and pans for various newspaper advertisements. In 1937, Baker took a job at Walt Disney Productions, working on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, before being inducted into the Army in June 1941. There he began drawing cartoons that eventually led to his most beloved creation, that bewildered civilian trying to be a soldier, the Sad Sack, which eventually compelled the attention of Yank, who hired Baker onto their staff. During the early postwar years of its success, Baker’s Sad Sack caught the eye of Alfred Harvey. The two men met, became close friends (so close that he became the godfather to Alfred’s son, Russell), and eventually drew up an agreement for Harvey Comics to publish a monthly comic book version in 1949. As in the Sunday newspaper strip, the adventures of Sad Sack showed our hero as a civilian. The idea did not prove to be a popular or a profitable one and after 21 issues, Sad Sack reenlisted in a story entitled, “The Specialist,” in issue #22. Suddenly, the character’s popularity soared and Sad Sack became one of the first Harvey Comics to be published monthly. This popularity led to a live-action film called The Sad Sack in 1957, starring Jerry Lewis, though this feature was only loosely based on its source and really just another vehicle for Lewis’ typically crazy antics. A few years earlier, Mel Blanc portrayed Sad Sack on a short-lived radio series. By the mid-’50s, George Baker

turned over the chores of writing and drawing the further adventures of America’s beloved Army man to other artists including Joe Dennett, Jack O’Brien, Paul McCarthy, and, most memorably, Fred Rhoads. Baker was more strongly suited to the pantomime strip he popularized, and had difficulties translating the character into a speaking one, though Sack’s creator continued to illustrate virtually all of the covers until his death. Seriously ill with cancer in latter years, he was hospitalized at the Alhambra Medical Center at UCLA, until his untimely death on May 8, 1975. Sad Sack, like most other latter-day Harvey characters, had his share of spin-off titles, such as Sad Sack and the Sarge and Sad Sad Sack World. The Sad Sack comic series had the longest continuous run of any Harvey Comic, producing 287 issues from 1949-82, with four more appearing in the early ’90s, published by Lorne-Harvey Publications, the original Harvey family owners. Counting all of the spin-offs, Sad Sack has starred in more comic book issues than Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse! Currently, Sad Sack can be found on Alan Harvey’s website <http://www.sadsack.net/> and will hopefully soon appear in a new hardback book collection featuring never-before-printed Fred Rhoads material from the late ’70s. Paul McCarthy was one of the first artists other than Baker to try his hand at Sad Sack. Already an artist at Harvey, he illustrated other gag strips such as Fun at the Zoo. Starting in the early ’50s, Paul’s artwork graced the pages of Sad Sack for a number of years before the artist’s demise in the early ’60s. He began working on the book inking panels (which were inserted between reprints of Bakerdrawn panels to make the stories flow coherently, linking gag strip to gag strip) which were penciled by Fred Rhoads. Paul’s task was to make the transformation in these stories from Baker’s style to Rhoads’ interpretation a little less jarring for readers. Eventually McCarthy graduated to writing, penciling and inking his own five-page stories. McCarthy’s stories tended to feature General Rockjaw, but he also did his share of Sad Sack and Sadie Sack stories. McCarthy’s style is very neat, with thin lines and none of the dirt and muck that would typically grace a Fred Rhoads or George Baker story. Even if Sad Sack had just survived an explosion, he came out with nary a scratch and maybe with a slight dizziness, under McCarthy’s watchful eye. McCarthy’s Army post was also the cleanest, again due to that pristine drawing style. Unfortunately, little more is known about this artist. He worked on a comic strip entitled Gertie O’Grady in 1940-41. Fred Rhoads remembered working with him, but not much else since McCarthy passed away so many years ago. Fred Rhoads was the next man to join the ranks, and started work on Sad Sack in February 1954. He was born in 1921 in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and was a cartoonist most of his life. After graduation from high school in Pennsylvania, Rhoads attended art school in New York City for a year, during which time World War II started and Rhoads volunteered for duty in the U.S. Marine Corps. After basic training, Rhoads was assigned to duty in Washington, D.C., as a cartoonist on Leatherneck magazine (a Marine publication very similar to the Army’s Yank) where he created the characters Gizmo and Eightball. As a Marine, Rhoads roamed the islands of the Pacific as a combat correspondent, drawing sketches and cartoons for the magazine. He covered innumerable islands and was with the Marines right down to the occupation of Tokyo. His work was very popular with the Marines, and the experience proved COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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to be invaluable later on for all of his Sad Sack stories. After the war, Rhoads found employment in syndicated comic strips, as he worked closely with Fred Lasswell on Barney Google and Snuffy Smith from 1946-53 and Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey from 1953-54. He also labored on Ozark Ike in the 1940s and They’ll Do It Every Time from 1946-47 before joining Harvey. After initially providing the linking material for George Baker strips, Rhoads soon went on to produce his own, all-new Sad Sack material, doing all of his own penciling, inking and lettering. With Alfred Harvey’s help, they created a more expanded line of characters besides just the standard cast of Sad Sack and Sarge, including General Rockjaw, Captain Softseat, Slob Slobinski (originally known as Waldo), Hi-Fi Tweeter and Gabby Gob. Gabby was one of the few that Rhoads was allowed to sign his name to. This Navy-based character starred in many issues of Harvey Hits during the ’60s, and Sad Sack Navy, Gobs ‘n’ Gals during the ’70s. These stories featured characters such as The Chief, Joe Banana, Ensign Hinson, Captain Bilgewater, and Admiral Barry Cuda. Rhoads moved to Arizona in 1968 and had a few non-Harvey books published during his tenure including Rhoads West and Handbook for Parents of Allergic Children. He also revived Gizmo and Eightball for a waterproof recipe booklet for Tabasco Sauce, given to servicemen stationed in Vietnam. During a promotional visit for the booklet, Rhoads was given the key to the city of New Orleans by the mayor. He would become the premier Sad Sack artist for Harvey, eventually taking over cover duties. One year after leaving Harvey in 1977, the artist filed a lawsuit with Harvey Publications claiming the rights to his Sad Sack work and payment for reprints. Angered that he never received a raise for his work in 23 years; and that his approximately 9,500 pages of original artwork was eventually sold to an independent dealer. Alfred Harvey continued to purchase freelance work from Rhoads, and many of these pages eventually saw print in the late ’70s, after Rhoads’ departure, though many had to wait until the early ’90s to be published. There are still many issues worth of Rhoads’ Sad Sack material that remain unpublished. Rhoads, meanwhile made his living doing other freelance artwork and making personal appearances such as Oakland’s

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Wondercon during the late ’80s and early ’90s. By the mid-’90s, Rhoads started developing Alzheimer’s Disease which curtailed traveling. Eventually, he made the move to North Carolina with his wife, Mattie, where he died in 2000. Jack O’Brien began working at Harvey in 1958 for Sad Sack. Born John O’Brien in 1922, he worked for 12 years in the Air Force doing freelance work for various service papers. Among his non-Sad Sack work are Private Stuff from 1953, Keel Karikters from ’58, and Albert also from ’58. He worked for Pflaum in ’54, and Toby and Friedman also. His work may have appeared in Timely’s Joker Comics circa 1942. And, he did the short-lived Cool Cat beatnik comic for Prize Comics in the early ’60s. O’Brien wrote and drew Sad Sack for many years. He often wrote narrative introductions to his stories and tended to draw with

Below: The character originated in a pantomime comic strip appearing in Yank, a magazine distributed to G.I.s in World War II. Drawn by the talented George Baker, the strips were collected in best-selling books. ©2002 Sad Sack, Inc.

sharp, angular lines. His drawings exaggerated the body shapes so that characters like Sad Sack and Hi-Fi Tweeter were drawn very tall and skinny, while Slob and Sarge were drawn very short and squat. O’Brien illustrated his stories using many of the characters developed by Fred Rhoads, but he was instrumental in creating the character of the Professor that usually got Sad Sack to drink whatever potion he was currently Above: Nice outlay of Harvey’s ambitious line of 3-D comics (unabashedly swiped from the late British comics historian Denis Gifford’s International Book of Comics) whose popularity lasted for about ten-and-a-half minutes in the early 1950s. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc

working on. Another recurring theme O’Brien loved to use was one where Sad Sack got hit on the head hard enough to knock him out. This resulted in an elaborate dream sequence that usually had Sad Sack foiling Sarge in some bizarre manner, such as a contest in the days of King Arthur, with Sarge as the Black Knight, competing against Sack in a jousting match. The dreams had Sack come out the eventual victor, only to have it disrupted when Sarge would kick him back into reality and rudely awaken him. Sad Sack got knocked out so often in O’Brien’s stories any real person would have suffered severe brain damage if not death from so many blows to the head. But Sad Sack is a comic book character, folks, and the existence of any brain in his cranium is questionable. Apart from the Professor, O’Brien did not bring many new characters into the Sad Sack universe. He did, however, create a series of pint-sized pri-

vates called G.I. Juniors for the Harvey Hits series. Debuting in Harvey Hits #86, spanning 14 issues, the strip would end that title’s run with #122. The series was unique for O’Brien as he was also allowed to sign his work. Little is known about O’Brien, but according to Fred Rhoads, he was quite a character and may have occasionally found himself at odds with the authorities. Joe Dennett was the last major Sad Sack artist to work at Harvey. He was a freelance cartoonist who worked on Mutt and Jeff prior to his tenure at Harvey. He was brought in according to Fred Rhoads, as a relief man, when Rhoads illustrated the bulk of the Sad Sack material by the end of the 1960s. Dennett would take Rhoads’ pencils and ink the material, though his work was sloppy and inferior to others at Harvey. Yet, apparently he got the job done, illustrating many issues of “Sad Sack’s Muttsy” for the Harvey Hits series, and taking over chores on Sad Sack and the Sarge when Jack O’Brien was becoming less evident. Dennett also used his pen on Little Lotta and Little Dot, attempting to emulate Sid Couchey’s work, but with similarly sloppy results. For whatever reason, I’ve always liked to discover early or first appearances of the Harvey World characters. Many of the Harvey characters were formerly animated cartoon stars created by Famous Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Many of Famous’ artists, writers and directors previously worked with Fleischer Studios, also distributed by Paramount. Fleischer was most famous for creating Betty Boop and beginning the long-running Popeye animated series, which continued through the Famous Studios years. Fleischer’s Superman cartoons were widely considered the best animation outside of Disney in the early 1940s. Paramount appointed Max’s son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel, head of the new studio, along with Sam Buchwald and Isadore “Izzy” Sparber, and re-christened it Famous Studios. At Famous, it was business as usual for the first few years, releasing brand new, if inferior, Popeye and Superman shorts, and introducing new cartoons featuring Little Lulu. The major change was a relocation back to New York from its Miami studios. Harvey would eventually purchase the Famous Studios characters created during the 1940s and ’50s for a reported huge sum of money. These characters included Casper, the Friendly Ghost; Buzzy, the Funny Crow; Herman and Katnip; Baby Huey, the Baby Giant; Spooky, the Tuff Little Ghost; Wendy, the Good Little Witch; Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare; and Playful Little Audrey. After animated life, most of these characters later found a home inside the pages of their own Harvey titles, most notably in the longrunning TV Casper and Company (1963-74). What many people don’t know is that many Harvey titles had two runs. Baby Huey, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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the Baby Giant replaced Paramount Animated Comics; Playful Little Audrey replaced Little Audrey; and Friendly Ghost Casper replaced Casper, the Friendly Ghost, in the late ’50s, each one starting over at #1. For fans and non-fans alike, this similarity in titles has caused endless confusion over the years. To clarify more, Little Audrey #1-24 and Casper #1-5 were published by St. John, best known as the publisher of the Terrytoons characters (Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle). St. John seemed to publish comic books of any animated cartoon characters that somehow escaped Dell’s hands. But did you know that Dell was the first publisher of the Famous/Paramount characters a full five years before St. John? According to Disney comic book writer David Gerstein, Dell had the comic book rights to the Famous/Paramount cartoons from 1944-47. Unfortunately, Famous had not yet developed any of the aforementioned characters (eventually were owned by Harvey) back in 1944. In fact, Famous’ most popular series in 1944 all featured characters made famous from other sources, which also enjoyed very strong comic book lives, including Little Lulu, Popeye and Superman! As for the Harvey characters, Casper didn’t appear in theaters until 1945 and in comics by ’49. Little Audrey made her animated debut in ’47, appearing in comics the next year. The rest had even later debuts, with the exception of Herman the Mouse, who debuted onscreen in “Henpecked Rooster” on February 18, 1944. His partner was the title character, Hector. Herman and his feathered friend appeared in only two cartoons together, when the cock was dropped for a series with a cat who would eventually evolve into Katnip. For their comic book debut, it came in the form of a 10-page story in Dell’s Animal Comics #7 (February-March 1944). The story is about Herman’s attempts to help Hector from being “hen-pecked” by his wife. Strangely, Herman is not mentioned by name until the final panel, despite his appearance throughout the entire story. This was not the only Herman story to appear in Animal Comics, as Herman and Henry continued to appear through issue #17 (OctoberNovember 1945). The other Famous/Paramount characters that made their comic book debuts in Animal Comics, but never went on to Harvey Comics are Blackie the Sheep and Cilly Goose. All of the Hector, the HenPecked Rooster comics were drawn by Paramount animator Rube Grossman or by Walt Kelly, later the world-renowned cartoonist who then drew his most favorite creation, Pogo, for Animal Comics and later in the newspapers, while Kelly, Tom Golden or Otto Feuer, also a Paramount animator, drew the other features. Every story is credited to Famous Studios in each respective first panel. Herman teamed up with Katnip first on screen in “Naughty But Mice” on October 10, 1947, and they made their comic book debut together in Harvey Comics Hits #60 (September 1952) featuring the Paramount Animated Cartoons. They never had a starring series of their own in comics, but did star in four issues of the Harvey Hits anthology title—#14, 25, 31 and 41—and were back-up features in many more. For hardcore Harvey fans, this discovery is akin to the discovery of the pre-Action Comics Superman appearances, or discovering some unknown Carl Barks’ duck story. It is a vital and significant fact, as the true beginning of the Harvey World history in the comics, began at Dell! I’ve made mention of the Harvey World many times in this article. The best way to introduce you to the Harvey World is to tell you the history of each of the major Harvey World stars: CASPER: Casper, the Friendly Ghost is easily Harvey’s most famous icon. In fact, though many people may not necessarily like Casper as a character, his image is second only to Mickey Mouse in worldwide recognizability. Created by Joe Oriolo and Seymour Reit in 1945, Casper first appeared in the Paramount/Famous Studios animated cartoon, “The Friendly Ghost.” He went through a series of 55 theatrical cartoons and was the studio’s biggest animated star after Popeye (though many of the shorts suffered by being exceedingly formulaic, painfully predictable and downright dull). Paramount, knowing that they had a viable licensing property, soon scouted out comic book publishers and toy manufacturers to quickly cash-in with products prominently featuring Casper’s image. Contrary to popular belief, the first comic book company to publish Casper was St. John Publishing, which already had achieved June 2002

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success by publishing comic books featuring the Terrytoon characters such as Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle. The first issue featuring the friendly ghost debuted in September 1949, but was not a tremendous success, perhaps due to the monotonous and repetitive animated series the comic book was based on. The title quietly folded after five issues. Harvey Comics, anxious to break into the children’s funny comic book field like Dell and St. John, eagerly picked up the option on all of Paramount’s characters (except Popeye, which was already being published by Dell). Reports that Casper was ever published by Jubilee are erroneous, as Harvey became the ghost’s second and final publisher until those recent issues released by Marvel Comics. Initially, Harvey also based their comics on the Casper animated series, but after 20 or so issues, the editorial staff must have realized how limited this was. Thereafter, they began to expand Casper’s personality, his environment and he was given a boatload of new characters to interact with. The original Casper theatrical cartoons were first brought to television on Matty’s Funday Funnies in 1959. So popular were these new Harvey characters that they were soon added to the poltergeist’s animated films and by the time a new Casper series appeared on TV, Nightmare, Wendy, Spooky, and the Ghostly Trio were cast regulars in The New Casper Cartoon Show. Shortly before this, Harvey acquired the complete rights to all of

Above: Yuk! Stephen Sennitt’s final horror comics survey, Ghastly Terror, calls this Warren Kremer “exploding head” piece the fourth most gratuitous pre-Code horror comic cover ever. Below: Skull icon used on Harvey’s horror titles of the early 1950s. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Paramount’s cartoons, sans Popeye. Coincidently at this time, they cancelled Casper, the Friendly Ghost with #70 and inexplicably replaced it with The Friendly Ghost, Casper. This abrupt title change has caused some confusion for collectors of those early issues. As Casper’s popularity began to expand, so did his exposure. By the mid-’70s, Casper was a “spooks”-person for UNICEF, General Electric, Collegeville Costumes, the Apollo 16 flight to the moon, Major League Baseball’s National League, the American Dental Association, the Boy Scouts of America, Ralston-Purina’s Sugar Chex cereal, and more recently, Target Stores, Pizza Hut and KFC. In 1979, Casper returned to the boob tube in an ill-conceived animated show, Casper and the Angels. This time Casper was paired with a hairy ghost called Harry Scary and two policewomen, in a loosely inspired version of Charlie’s Angels. The Hanna-Barbera series ran for only a year. When Jeff Montgomery bought the Harvey Company in 1989, he set out to re-establish Casper in the public eye. The fruits of his labors culminated in the hit 1995 feature film, Casper, starring Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman. The film’s popularity led to another new cartoon series that recently appeared on the Fox Network (later on Fox Family Channel), vastly superior to the H-B show, plus a series of video tapes featuring the old Paramount animated shorts. In the last few years, Casper was found in Casper and Friends magazine published by Marvel Comics and in The Harvey Magazine; on TV and video, and in a direct-to-video movie sequels entitled Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy. The character most recently appeared in Casper’s Haunted Christmas, a CGI-animated direct-to-video feature. LITTLE AUDREY: Beginning life in the Famous Paramount animated cartoons, Audrey’s first appearance was in “Santa’s Surprise”(1947), and eventually she appeared in 16 animated shorts.

It was noted film historian and popular critic Leonard Maltin who first postulated that the creation of Little Audrey was perhaps due to Paramount no longer wanting to pay licensing fees to Marjorie (Marge) Henderson Buell for her creation, Little Lulu. This notion has generally been accepted as fact for both Audrey and Lulu are very similar visually (red ribbon, red dress, and all) and they share much the same personality. Coincidentally, both were given a voice in their cartoons by the same woman, Mae Questel. Many of Audrey’s cartoons later appeared on TV as part of Matty’s Funday Funnies. Audrey apparently was popular enough that soon she appeared on a number of products, had her own newspaper comic strip, and starred in her own comic book published by St. John, who published 24 issues of Little Audrey from 1948-52, before the character moved over to Harvey. One particularly interesting Audrey story published by Harvey was in Little Audrey #31, in which the little girl discusses her rise to fame as a Famous Paramount character. Little Audrey was cancelled with issue #53, and revived two months later as Playful Little Audrey in 1957. I once believed that this occurred due to Harvey purchasing Paramount’s characters, but Alan Harvey maintains that the title change was due to renewing Second Class postage permits. Audrey spun off many titles and was generally popular throughout the ’50s and ’60s, but by 1976 and her 121ST issue, in a year when feminism was in full glory in this country, Audrey went the way of all the Harvey World titled females: Cancellation. Little Dot, Little Lotta and Wendy all followed suit to make room for the ever-dominating Richie Rich line of the late ’70s. As Audrey was a back-up feature for only the previously cancelled TV Casper and Company, she did not make a return to the comics page until being featured in Richie Rich and his Girl Friends, marking the first time Richie and Audrey “officially” met. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Audrey had a brief revival for eight issues during the Jeff Montgomery era, but currently her comic book status—as with all Harvey characters—is in limbo, but she has appeared recently in The Harvey Magazine. The only way to have seen Audrey was to watch her classics performances as part of The Richie Rich Show, recently seen in syndication and on Fox Family Channel’s The Harveytoons Show. Audrey also made her live-action debut in Baby Huey’s Great Easter Adventure direct-to-video movie. BABY HUEY: The intellectually dense and stubborn duck called Baby Huey lives in Duckville with his diminutive (in comparison, anyway) parents, Mama and Papa Duck. A very, very large duck, Huey hatched from an egg able to talk and fully-clothed (depending on which account you see, animated cartoon or comic book). The first appearance and origin of Huey is documented in St. John’s Casper, the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949). But the character achieved his greatest success with the Famous/Paramount animation studios. Huey’s first animated appearance occurred in 1950 with the animated short, “Quack a Doodle Doo.” Syd Raymond provided the voice for the dimwitted duck, which also was the voice for Katnip, the cat. The series had two main storylines. One had the gargantuan duckling tormenting his parents and the other Huey trying to fit in with a Huey, Dewey and Louie ripoff trio, and the wolf. In all, Huey appeared in 12 animated cartoons from 1950-59, when Harvey purchased the character rights. These adventures were subsequently aired on Matty’s Funday Funnies beginning in 1959. Marty Taras created the character, drew and helped animate virtually all of Baby Huey’s adventures, as well as Herman and Katnip. After appearing in Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Huey graduated to Paramount Animated Comics in Harvey Comics Hits #60, which was also the youngster’s first Harvey appearance. Paramount Animated Comics lasted for 22 issues, before being replaced by Baby

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Huey, the Baby Giant. The character eventually spun-off into Baby Huey in Duckland and Baby Huey and Papa, but by 1972, all Huey titles were cancelled. The dumb feathered lug did not appear in comics again until ’90, except for one-shot appearances in ’80 and ’87. But Huey has remained popular to some at least, as evidenced by New York “shock jock” radio host Don Imus. He pulled a phone call prank in which Imus portrayed a Mr. Huey and phoned a diaper service where he proceeded to order very, very large diapers the size of bed sheets. After Imus successfully fooled the woman on the line, she asked the name of the baby in question. Imus responded “Baby.” The lady finally realized that she was a victim of a practical joke. This comedic gem is available on the long out-of-print Don Imus album, 1200 Hamburgers to Go. Though no new comic books are being currently produced, Baby Huey was recently alive and well in syndication in station break bumpers on The Richie Rich Show. This comes hot on the heels of the recently cancelled Baby Huey Show, which aired from 1994-96 and featured 26 new cartoons. Plans are now afoot to bring Huey back à là Barney and Friends with a live-action children’s program. The dumb duck recently appeared in a direct-to-video feature Baby Huey’s Great Easter Adventure. BUZZY: The Funny Crow known as Buzzy first appeared in animated form in the Famous/Paramount cartoon, “Stupidstitious Cat,” which also starred Katnip. Buzz went on to appear in eight cartoons from 1947-54, in which the feathered protagonist was usually pursued by a dumb cat in search of crow meat to cure some illness. Like Herman and Katnip, the black bird never had his own comic book series. His only starring appearance was in Harvey Hits #18. He also appeared in Harvey Comics Hits #60 and #62, as well as Famous TV Funday Funnies, Paramount Animated Comics, and TV

Casper and Company. These appearances were usually just filler as the character never caught on. The Harvey Hits issue is difficult to find for this reason, since apparently no one bought it or thought well enough of it to save. Buzzy just faded out into Harvey Comics oblivion, although the animated cartoons were shown for many years on the various incarnations of the Casper TV show. An unfortunate turn of events occurred when Jeff Montgomery first syndicated the cartoons on the Casper and Friends series where Buzzy’s voice was changed! Though Jackson Beck—who also voiced Bluto in the Popeye series—originally gave voice to Buzzy, his Southern dialect was not considered politically correct by the 1990s. Unfortunately, the change drained away any passion the original voice instilled. As with Herman and Katnip—save for a short-lived Worldvision tape in the 1980s and some public domain tapes—Buzzy is not available on home video. Most recently, Buzzy appeared revoiced on Fox Family Channel’s The Harveytoon Show. HERMAN AND KATNIP: Obviously inspired by the popularity of MGM’s Tom and Jerry series that began in 1940, Paramount fished around for a similar success and came up with Herman and Katnip. There was one major difference; Herman and Katnip were graced with regular voices instead of resigning to Tom and Jerry’s usually mute antics. Herman was voiced by the über-nerdish, chinless actor Arnold Stang, probably best known as the voice of Top Cat, a 1960s Hanna-Barbera prime time animated TV series, while Katnip was voiced by Syd Raymond, who also read dialogue for the similarly dimwitted Baby Huey. Interestingly, Herman and Katnip did not originally appear together in animated cartoons or even in comic books. Herman made three solo appearances from 1944-46 before finally teaming up in 1947 with his feline nemesis. Generally, their cartoons followed the same pattern: Three or

four similar looking mice were enjoying something, usually a large cheese or similar fare when Katnip comes in to ruin the fun. The mice barely escape and wonder what they can do to defeat Katnip. The distinguished looking, cosmopolitan Herman inevitably shows up from the city at this juncture and devises many tactics that eventually make the stupid cat succumb. The mice and their urbane hero celebrate victory, usually with a big feast. Herman and Katnip cartoons were made for years and except for a cameo appearance by Katnip in “Self Help Huey” on The Baby Huey Show in 1995, no new cartoons have been made since ’59. Surprising is the fact that a Herman and Katnip comic book series never appeared. Though their adventures backed-up Baby Huey titles, Harvey Comics Hits, Paramount Animated Comics, Famous TV Funday Funnies, and TV Casper and Company for years, Herman and Katnip only starred in four issues of Harvey Hits (#14, 25, 31 and 41). The adversaries’ first appearance in comics was Harvey Comics Hits #60, but Herman had a solo first appearance years earlier in St. John’s Casper #1. Despite their presence on TV, Herman and Katnip are not available on any home video compilations except for the short-lived Worldvision tape that circulated in the ’80s and on those omnipresent, cheaply done public domain tapes. Hopefully the work will resurface someday as I feel their adventures are not that abysmal, sometimes containing some very creative ideas. Perhaps the pair’s final legacy will be as being inspiration to Matt Groening for his notoriously violent “cartoon-within-a-cartoon,” The Simpsons’ “Itchy & Scratchy Show,” another cat-and-mouse chase fest which exploits the same formula—à là Herman and Katnip—over and over and over. TOMMY TORTOISE AND MOE HARE: Quite simply, these turtle and rabbit antagonists served as Famous/Paramount’s answer to Toby Tortoise and Max Hare from Disney and Bugs Bunny cartoons with Cecil Turtle, and basically that rascally Warner Brothers rabbit in

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general, though Moe is brown instead of gray. Strangely enough, though they only made seven cartoons, they are remembered, and even inspired a few bits of Harvey merchandise such as a coloring book as late as 1961. This is perhaps due to Tommy and Moe’s appearance on the opening titles of every Harveytoon short in syndication. The duo even appeared on the remake of those titles when The Harveytoon Show recently aired on the Fox Family Channel. Tommy and Moe didn’t appear in comic books and actually made their first comic book appearance in Harvey, the Magazine for Kids #2, published in 1999. Why they didn’t appear earlier is not known, except that one could guess that by the time of their final cartoon (1957), Baby Huey, Casper, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey and Buzzy were all firmly established and Tommy and Moe weren’t in the same class. By the time Matty’s Funday Funnies appeared in ’59 and Harvey produced another comic book title to cash in (Famous TV Funday Funnies and later, TV Casper and Company), the stories that appeared inside were all reprints, so it would be pointless to produce new tales featuring the pair (despite their weekly appearance in the animated titles). LITTLE DOT: The obsessed girl known as Little Dot began as a supporting feature in Sad Sack #1, September 1949. Looking very different than the way she looks today, and her craving for dots was not as evident. It wasn’t until 1953, when Dot received her own book that she was redesigned in the familiar Warren Kremer style and took on the “Harvey look.” Dot’s stories fall into three major categories. One, Dot’s mania with dots or anything circular (i.e., dot-shaped); two, her friendship with Little Lotta and other friends in the town of Bonnie Dell; and three, the girl’s adventures with her seemingly endless supply of strange and often compulsive relatives. This latter category eventually became the basis for the spin-off title, Little Dot’s Uncles and Aunts. The supporting characters commonly appearing in Little Dot stories June 2002

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include Little Lotta, Richie Rich, Mr. and Mrs. Polka (Dot’s parents) and Uncle Branes, a scientist and inventor. Little Dot was commonly found on the comic racks in her own and various spin-off titles until ’76, when the major rash cancellations plagued Harvey. Since then, “Little Dot” has been a back-up feature in most Richie Rich books, with a brief reappearance in her own book in 1992-94. Recently, the character was seen in The Harvey Magazine. Little Dot bears the distinction of being one of the few Harvey characters never to have had her own animated cartoon series. Discussions were underway in the later ’80s for a Saturday morning show, but to date, nothing has materialized. LITTLE LOTTA: Not-so-little Lotta Plump first appeared in 1953 as a supporting feature in Little Dot. Her obsession with food is equaled only by Dot’s madness for dots. But forget obesity as, interestingly, the more Lotta eats, the more strength she gains. The blond girl puts her tremendous energy to good use and, more than once, Lotta has expressed a desire to someday join the Bonnie Dell Police Department. Despite her gluttony, Lotta has many friends, including Little Dot, Richie Rich, Little Audrey and Gloria. She has a boyfriend named Gerald, in many ways Lotta’s opposite. He is a diminutive, bespectacled boy, not very strong and painfully shy. Despite the differences (or is it because of them?), Lotta and Gerald have many adventures together and frequently dress up to imitate their favorite heroes, Leaping Lotta and Flying Man respectively (the latter a comic book character). Lotta’s initial popularity was strong enough that in 1955, she was awarded her own title. Lotta was just successful enough to sustain one spin-off title, Little Lotta in Foodland. (Some collectors once believed that she also appeared in Little Lotta Foodtown, but this proved to be false.)

Above: Integral to the success of the Harvey World characters was their perennial presence on children’s TV in the 1950s and ’60s, beginning with Matty’s Funday Funnies in 1957 (“Matty,” being the cartoon mascot of sponsor Mattel Toys, one of the nation’s largest toy manufacturers, most notably of Barbie). This house ad appeared in Harvey titles of the early 1960s. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: Ham Fisher’s long-running Mutt & Jeff was another “Famous Name” syndicated newspaper strip that had a healthy run as a Harvey comic book. Characters ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

While Warren Kremer and Howard Post have drawn Lotta, the majority of her appearances were illustrated by Sid Couchey and Dom Sileo. Little Lotta was published from 1955-76, getting deep-sixed when the Richie Rich explosion took all the girls down. After 120 issues of her own title (#121 was advertised, but never issued), our rotund female remained as a supporting feature in Richie Rich books until Harvey’s “first demise” in 1982. Upon Harvey’s return in ’86, it was proposed to have Lotta be the drummer of a rock band with Little Audrey on guitar and Little Dot on vocals, but that concept was wisely shelved. I guess the idea was to have the three become teenagers and have misadventures similar to Josie and the Pussycats (“Lotta and the Littles”?). Recently, the golden-locked chunky lass appeared in The Harvey Magazine and made her live-action debut in the direct-to-video release Baby Huey’s Great Easter Adventure. RICHIE RICH: The poor little rich boy made his debut as a backup feature in Little Dot in 1953. Although artist Warren Kremer and Harvey editor Sid Jacobson say they created the character (Warren pointing out that he named the character for his son, Richard), Harvey family members insist that the company’s founder, Alfred Harvey, began conceptualizing Richie as early as the 1930s. Regardless of his roots, the wealthy kid regularly appeared with his (much-less-wealthy) friends, Freckles and Pee-Wee Friendly, as well as his parents, Richard and Regina Rich, and girlfriend, Gloria Glad. As in Archie Comics, the arch rival is named Reggie, but this twit is Richie’s snobbish cousin, Reginald Van Dough. Other regulars like Cadbury, the perfect butler, did not appear until the ’60s, and other well-known supporting

players later still. Though he would become Harvey’s most valuable property in terms of comic book sales, Richie did not have his own title until 1960. Prior to that, he made two starring appearances in the Harvey Hits anthology series. Later, Richie made up for lost time by adding Richie Rich Millions, Richie Rich Dollars and Cents, etc. At one point in the mid-’70s, Richie was starring in 32 different titles every 60 days! More Richie Rich stories have been published than of any other U.S. comic book character, probably in the entire history of the industry, with over 2,000 issues to the kid’s credit. Certainly Richie was the most successful feature in American comic books in the 1970s. The initial stories had a humorous slant poking fun at the Rich family’s immense wealth. As time went on (especially by the ’70s), Richie’s stories took a turn towards adventure, with some tales rivaling Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge sagas, for sheer entertainment value. Interestingly, the character did not appear in animated form until 1980, when Hanna-Barbera premiered The Richie Rich Show. Currently, these cartoons are available on home video and appear on Cartoon Network. In this series, the cartoons are fairly faithful to their comic book counterparts, except that Richie, Reggie and Gloria appear to be about 12 years old instead of the seven- or eight-yearolds they appear to be in the comics. Also, a red sweater emblazoned with a big “R” and full-length slacks replace Richie’s trademark waistcoat and blue shorts. In 1994, child super-star Macaulay Culkin of Home Alone fame starred in the live-action theatrical film version of Richie Rich. Though not a huge success at the box office, the film proved fairly popular on home video. The movie also starred Jonathan Hyde and John Larroquette. A direct-to-video sequel with a different cast was released in ’98 titled Richie Rich, a Christmas Wish with a third video still in the works, Richie Rich’s Summer Camp. On September 21, 1996, a new animated Richie Rich cartoon series debuted in syndication. It also featured classic Herman and Katnip and Little Audrey cartoons. This series was a spin-off of The Baby Huey Show, which aired from 1994-96. Richie shares with Casper the distinction of being one of Harvey’s two most memorable and enduring characters, appearing most recently in print in the pages of The Harvey Magazine. To create and develop all of these new characters, new talent had to be hired who were capable of producing this type of animated cartoon-style material. As realistic—or less cartoony, if you will— artists such as Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, Lee Elias, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were phased out, the new talent that arrived during the 1950s included Warren Kremer, Ernie Colón, Dom Sileo, Sid Couchey, Marty Taras, Ken Selig, Lennie Herman, Stan Kay, Larz Bourne, Howard Post, Grace Kremer, and numerous others. As the shift towards children’s titles continued throughout the ’50s, Harvey introduced Harvey Hits (1957-67), an umbrella-titled anthology series designed to test a character’s appeal with a starring book. Some like Wendy and Richie Rich succeeded in eventually getting their own titles, while others like Buzzy and Herman and Katnip did not. Harvey tried to emulate Archie’s success with a teen-aged character called Mazie (1954-58), and its spin-off “Flat-Top” (1955), but neither lasted very long. This was a sign that the children’s titles were more popular, and as the 1950s wore on, Harvey created more characters for their books like Hot Stuff, the Little Devil (1957-82; 1986-91); “Stumbo” (backup feature in Hot Stuff, star of Harvey Hits and later, recipient of his own title from 1963-66); and ones for Famous/Paramount including Spooky, the Tuff Little Ghost (1955-80; 1991-92) and Wendy, the Good Little Witch (1960-76; 1990-94). HOT STUFF: An interesting aspect of Harvey Comics is their ability to take characters who would traditionally frighten little children and make them happy and harmless. It is common for little kids to be scared of ghosts, witches and devils, but Harvey always made their monsters friendly at best, mischievous at worst. Hot Stuff, the Little Devil, is one of the latter. The first appearance of the little devil was in Hot Stuff #1, October 1957. Harvey must have had confidence, since blind launches were rare indeed. The character didn’t first appear as a back-up feature in any other title or even have a trial run in Harvey Hits. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Hot Stuff’s role in the Harvey World is somewhat unique, as he doesn’t really crossover into the other characters’ neighborhoods too often. I can only recall maybe two times he teamed up with Spooky and once with Casper. Generally, the diminutive demon remains in his own world, a forest filled with ogres, gnomes, fairies and other devils. The supporting feature for virtually all of the Hot Stuff titles has always been Warren Kremer’s masterful “Stumbo, the Giant.” Strangely enough, though they have appeared in issues together as early as Hot Stuff #3, there has never been a Hot Stuff/Stumbo team-up story. Howard Post and Warren Kremer were the principle artists behind the Hot Stuff stories, though the character’s creation has been attributed to Alfred Harvey. Post’s wild and inventive humor was the mainstay of the title for many years. Kremer drew his share of the headliner’s tales, but the artist’s main contribution was to illustrate all of the “Stumbo” back-ups over the years. Warren also drew the majority of the Hot Stuff covers. As usual for Harvey titles during the ’50s and ’60s, the crimson-colored kid had his share of spin-offs. Hot Stuff Sizzlers first appeared in 1960, then Devil Kids Starring Hot Stuff began in ’62. Finally, Hot Stuff Creepy Caves made its debut in ’74. There was also a proposed Hot Stuff Hottest Devil title, circa ’72, but it never came out. The devil kid has retained a relatively low profile over the years, compared to other Harvey characters. This may be primarily due to the fact that he has never appeared in an animated film, nor appeared on a great deal of merchandise. An animated series was attempted in the ’60s and again in the ’70s, but the character’s devilish looks may have unfortunately kept Hot Stuff off the airwaves. A sort of cult mystique does surround the character, as he is appreciated in the drug, rave and biker cultures, perhaps due to a mistaken satanic inference, and Hot Stuff’s image continues to be applied on human skin in tattoo parlors the world over, in places far creepier than his enchanted forest home. There have been some excellent Hot Stuff stories. One such tale, entitled, “Fire When Ready,” concerns everyone using and abusing Hot Stuff’s heat and light powers for their own selfish purposes, but the result is a spectacular display of his typically short temper. STUMBO: Despite his size, Stumbo the Giant is one of the most overlooked Harvey World characters to sport his own title. Created as a supporting feature for Hot Stuff in 1957, surprisingly little is known as to Stumbo’s origins, excepting that he came from Giantland and now busies himself looking after Tinytown. He regularly converses with local citizens such as the mustachioed Officer O’Floodle, the village constable. Most of the giant’s adventures concern his earnest attempts to improve Tinytown by relocating the entire municipality or by altering the weather. Unfortunately for Stumbo, his well-intended deeds usually backfire and he struggles to return things exactly as they were. Occasionally, the good-natured goliath is at odds with villainous Dr. Cesspool, who is constantly trying to rid Tinytown of Stumbo so that he can rule over the area, but his nefarious plans always fail, as our hero saves the day. Strangely, Harvey has not exploited Stumbo, even though he is a thoroughly enjoyable character, created by Larz Bourne and Warren Kremer. Stories are in the same vein as Baby Huey. Ironically, issues bearing his name command a higher price than average for other Harvey World characters in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. It would be nice to see the character in an animated cartoon, or Kremer’s superbly rendered stories collected in a large volume or just receiving a measure of exposure he so richly deserves, though Stumbo did appear in print recently in Casper and Friends and The June 2002

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Harvey Magazine. SPOOKY: “The Tuff Little Ghost” has an interesting status within the Harvey World. He closely resembles Casper, barring the large black nose, freckles and derby, but his ability to scare the beejeezus out of folks rival those of the Ghostly Trio, all combining to make an interesting character. Spooky has teamed-up with Casper as well as the Ghostly Trio, and on at least one occasion, Hot Stuff. Stories for Spooky usually fall in predictable categories. For instance, the wise-guy spectre frequently encounters “lands” where all the inhabitants are objects that come to life, such as bells or clocks. This same storyline occurred frequently for Hot Stuff as well, so it should be no surprise to learn that both characters were primarily drawn by Howard Post, though Warren Kremer most always drew the covers. Another recurring storyline involved the effort of Spooky’s friend, Poil (or Pearl, if you prefer not to think with a Brooklyn accent) to get Spooky to stop his constant scaring. The weisenhiemer endlessly dreamed up sneaky ways to frighten people but tried, usually in vain, not to get caught. Dom Sileo mainly drew these efforts, although Post did draw a

Left inset: During the dark days of 1957, a number of top-notch artists—let go by EC Comics, Atlas, and others—found a brief respite in the Harvey Thriller line helmed by Joe Simon, the first incarnation—equally shortlived—of that imprint. Perhaps the best title was Race for the Moon, seen here in an unused cover by Jack Kirby, with interiors featuring exquisite work by Kirby and Al Williamson (the latter who inked the former which produced some killer stuff!). Below: We believe these are Bob Powell’s unused variations of a cover for Alarming Tales #6, though Overstreet credits John Severin as cover artist, who certainly inked the job.

appearances in the comics. Possibly because they were both ghosts, the scope of the Casper stories seemed severely limited. By having a human girl who lived with her aunties—witches Thelma, Velma, and Zelma—the focus was broadened with an enchanted forest inhabited by a variety of characters and creatures used as the stage. Also, her relatives were handy to play off Casper and his trio of family members, the Ghostly Trio. The red-hooded enchantress first made her appearance in Casper, the Friendly Ghost #20, May 1954, one month after the debut of Nightmare, the ghost horse. Wendy’s supporting role in Casper helped her gain popularity, and the kid eventually became a mainstay in Casper’s animated adventures as well. In Harvey Comics, this led to supporting features in Spooky and his spin-offs, starring issues of Harvey Hits and finally securing her own title in ’60. A spinoff title called Wendy Witch World followed in ’61. Steve Muffati, then Warren Kremer, Marty Taras and Howard Post drew Wendy’s exploits. Her title was published continuously until 1973, when her popularity and sales began to wain. The title was cancelled, but was brought back the next year after Casper scored some success with a Cub Scout issue. This issue prompted Wendy to be revived, promoting a similar group for girls, the Bluebirds/Camp Fire Girls (this was many years before the organization turned co-ed). While the Camp Fire issue reignited sales temporarily, success was short-lived, with the title being cancelled in 1976, though she made a brief return in 1991-94. Wendy is currently in the direct-to-video film Casper Meets Wendy (where she is played by a live actress opposite the computer graphics image of the friendly ghost) and she was scheduled to have her own animated series and the direct-to-video flick Wendy: Back to Ghoul School.

few. Spooky’s first animated appearance was in “Hide and Shriek,” released by Famous Paramount Studios in January 1955. His character then was basically the same as now, except in the first animated episode, he was drawn completely differently. Spooky gets into mischief scaring people and animals, while Casper tries to deter him. This of course, makes him want to terrorize even more. He also appeared in the later New Casper Cartoon Show with Casper and Wendy. His first appearance in comics was in Casper, the Friendly Ghost #10 (1953). Eventually, Spooky graduated to his own title in ’55, though he still played back-up in Casper. After a few spin-offs, Spooky reteamed with Casper in Casper and Spooky, in 1973. But, by 1980, the derby’d poltergeist gave up the ghost with #161. Spooky briefly returned to comics in 1991-93, but currently can be seen as part of Casper’s Fox cartoon show, airing currently on Fox Family Channel. He’s just as feisty as ever, especially with a madeover Poil. The character also appeared in The Harvey Magazine and on The Harveytoon Show. WENDY: Starting life as a companion for Casper, the good little witch was not, however, the friendly ghost’s first companion. Those honors go to Lu, a female spirit who made her first appearance in “To Boo or Not to Boo,” a Famous Paramount animated cartoon. For some reason, Lu never really caught on, despite making a few

Due to St. John’s sudden poor financial condition (perhaps brought on by the devastating collapse in the 3-D comics craze), it was only a matter of time when another major publisher would pick up the pieces and seek the license for the Famous/Paramount characters. Western Publishing (Dell) seemed a natural as they already had the comic book rights for all the Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Walter Lantz, and soon, Terrytoons characters (the last to be purchased from St. John). Columbia at the time had an agreement with DC Comics, with the popular Fox and the Crow title, but eventually UPA also ended up at Dell, as did United Artists. While Dell had the rights to the Famous cartoons before, they had proved not to be profitable, relinquishing the rights to St. John. In the intervening days, Famous established its roster of stars. When the rights became available again, Harvey jumped at the chance to have an animated line in their stable and outbid Dell for the opportunity. The timing couldn’t have been more opportune. As the 1950s wore on, Harvey shifted away from newer short-lived titles such as Babe Ruth Sports Comics (’49-51); Boys’ Ranch (’50-51); Invisible Scarlet O’Neil (’50-51); as well as the horror, love, war and newspaper reprint titles, shifting its focus more to the safer humor and children’s genres with titles initiated or inspired by Famous’ characters. The reason can be attributed to two things: The other genres were starting to lose popularity, and two—and most importantly—the coming of the Wertham era and the Comics Code Authority. Comic books were under tremendous fire by the U.S. Congressmen and Senators, psychiatrists, religious leaders, newspaper crusaders, and more than a few communities, as the public was becoming increasingly concerned with the escalating violence, horror and sex in comics sold to children. As Dr. Frederic Wertham closed in and the environment darkened with self-censorship just around the corner, Harvey Comics wisely chose to inflict outright wholesomeness throughout their product, jettisoning anything remotely controversial. As a result, the former Nutty Comics star, Rags Rabbit, graduated to his own title (’51-54), and a minor back-up character in the earliest issues of Sad Sack, Little Max and Humphrey Comics, Li’l Dot (drawn by Vic Herman), was redesigned and re-christened Little Dot. This title was significant for many reasons. It signaled a dramatic genre shift for Harvey; introducing the slick “Harvey look” designed by Steve Mufatti though later perfected by Warren Kremer; and Dot introduced two characters that helped round out the Harvey World, Little Lotta and Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Harvey really branched out with these characters. From 196065, the publisher pretty much established the form most people remember, the Harvey World, that continued through the end of the run. Latter-day, ambitious titles outside of the Harvey World during were attempted but proved to be very short-lived. Notable comics, helmed by editor Joe Simon (who would periodically step in to give his friend Alfred a hand) including Race for the Moon (’58); Alarming Adventures (’62-63); as well as newspaper reprint books Mutt and Jeff (’60-65) and even Felix the Cat (’55-61) either quickly died or were losing steam quick. Meanwhile, the popularity of the major Harvey World characters: Richie Rich, Casper, Spooky, Wendy, Sad Sack, Stumbo, Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Hot Stuff, and Baby Huey was so great that all earned spin-off and giant-sized issues during the first half of the swingin’ ’60s. But even these characters proved that too much can sometimes be a bad thing, as they earned no new spin-off titles between 196570. Reasons may include an over-saturated market but more probably the return of editor Joe Simon to create an entirely new line of adventure comics, the Harvey Thriller line. Perhaps jealous of DC’s dominance with the super-hero genre and impertinent Marvel’s astounding popularity amongst older kids and young adults (revealing new markets to harvest), Alfred Harvey chose to take the competition head on. And Joe Simon was just the man to start something new because, after all, hadn’t the guy (with his former partner, Jack Kirby) initiated more trends and genres than virtually anybody else in the business? Hadn’t he been the guy who gave the upstart Stan Lee his first professional job as Simon & Kirby’s assistant? Hadn’t the guy reaped more monetary reward as half of the most successful team in comics than anybody in the business, short of the publishers? No, Joe looked to be just the guy. Super-heroes were exploding in popularity everywhere in the mid-’60s. Camp was in, Batman was at the top of the Nielsen ratings, Superman was on Broadway, and everybody and his uncle were publishing the exploits of costumed adventurers. Tower, Charlton, Gold Key, Myron Fass, Milson, and even Dell and Archie Comics, outfits pretty much geared to a single demographic like Harvey, were cashing in and the pickin’s looked good. What better way than to create a bizarre line-up full of outrageous characters, just like good ol’ Stan was doing over at Marty Goodman’s place. In fall 1965, the Harvey Thriller line debuted with Blast-Off, Thrill-O-Rama, Unearthly Spectaculars, and a revived Warfront, joined early in 1966 with Double-Dare Adventures, Fighting American, Jigsaw, Spyman, and The Spirit. The comic book industry took notice as Joe Simon and Harvey rolled these new comics off the presses. Up and coming talent Joe Steranko was a force in the line’s creation; stalwarts Al Williamson, Gil Kane, Wally Wood, and others were contributing; and the properties—including two of the best comic book characters ever created, Fighting American and The Spirit, prestige books if there ever were some—and, yet, for all the planning and creating, in a little more than a year, the entire line was finit and the Harvey dominance in the adventure field was not to be. All the titles were quietly cancelled, none lasting more than four issues, and Joe Simon left Harvey to enter advertising, return to work on Sick magazine, and contribute briefly to DC with Brother Power, the Geek, as well as other projects. What went wrong with the Harvey Thriller line? Knowing of distributor PDC’s clout on the newsstand, it’s difficult to imagine the oft-cited “distribution problems,” but an over-saturated comics rack—as well as the line’s overall banal content—are the likely culprits. Meanwhile, Harvey christened a new teenage line to nip at Archie’s heels, called Harvey Pop Comics and featuring titles like Bunny, Fruitman, and (yes!) Rock Happening featuring The Cowsills. Though the ditzy blond teenager Bunny had a decent run from 196671, it was nowhere near the popularity the Archies got during this same period (on the music charts with the notorious “Sugar, Sugar,” as well as the newsstand). But after these final experimental lines, Harvey never again veered away from the Harvey World, during the original company’s lifetime. Ultimately, the Harvey Thriller debacle may have been enough to nearly drive the company out of business as for the first time in June 2002

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their history large amounts of reprints appeared in the books, perhaps a cost-cutting measure to secure the ship. Times were tough as the ’60s closed for Harvey, and they continued into the next decade. After hitting a peak year of issuing 230 separate comic books during ’66, by ’72, Harvey issued only 172, the lowest output since ’60 and lower still than ’52-54 and the especially lean years of ’57-58. Although Harvey’s fortunes were, in fact, to change again, the company would never again issue as many comics as they did in the ’60s, their most successful decade. Incredibly, at the close of 1971, Harvey basically stopped publishing their entire line! Upon returning three months later, all of the company’s titles was 48-page giant-sized comics. Also in ’72, Harvey Hits, and all Baby Huey and Stumbo titles bit the dust, though. Casper, Little Dot, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Spooky, Wendy and Hot Stuff were still going strong. So were Little Audrey and Little Lotta, although all their spin-offs were gone. During this period of major restructuring, it was recognized that Richie Rich was turning out to be the line’s bestseller, and so a new title was ordered—the first new Harvey World spin-off in seven years, Richie Rich Fortunes (’71-82). This was quickly followed by Richie Rich Bank Book(s), Richie Rich Diamonds, Richie Rich Money World, Richie Rich Jackpots, Richie Rich Riches, (all ’72-82) bringing the Richie line total to 10

Below: 1967 house ad promoting the Harvey Thriller line from The Spirit #2. Note that two issues did not see the light of day as the line was shut down very soon after this saw print. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: The selection of Casper, the Friendly Ghost as the official mascot of the Apollo 16 command module was trumpeted loud and proudly by the publisher, complete with this cover blurb, used on the character’s titles in 1972. Below: This promotional art , commemorating the April 6-27, 1972 Apollo moon mission (crewed by Ken Mattingly, Don Young and Charlie Duke) graced the program of the 1972 Reuben Awards. Courtesy of Mark Arnold and Jim Korkis. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc

separate titles. In a conversely strange move, Harvey also increased the number of titles for Casper, Spooky and Sad Sack, with Casper and Spooky, Casper and Wendy, Casper and the Ghostly Trio, Casper Spaceship, Spooky Haunted House, Sad Sack USA, Sad Sack Navy, and Sad Sack with Sarge and Sadie. Amazingly unsuccessful compared to the Richie titles, all of these appeared on the stands from ’72-75, with the majority of them cancelled by ’73. As the the decade progressed, Harvey progressed along with them. By this time, it was obvious to all that the Harvey World characters were the company’s true bread and butter. Well established by ’72, soon an unlikely character would be the last major Harvey character to headline his own title, and that was the immortal Jackie Jokers, kid stand-up comedian. Jackie began as an ill-fated attempt to revive the long-cancelled Harvey Hits title in 1971. Only a cover picture of what might have been exists in the advertising from around that time. In it, Jackie sported a bushy head of curly blonde hair. The design eventually graced another intended Harvey character that didn’t quite catch on, Kool Katz. Jokers was redesigned to have a mane of straight, black hair, and his title finally debuted in ’73. After four issues, it was clear that Jackie Jokers was in trouble, so naturally, it was Richie to the rescue. Jackie Jokers #5 was scrapped and that material found its way into the first issue of Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers, which also reprinted Richie stories to fill-out the new giant-sized title. This effort proved successful as the title continued through the end of the original Harvey Company’s run in 1982. With all of these characters established, a few more were attempted during the ’70s, but apart from the ever-growing Richie

cast (with the addition of Irona, Mr. Cheepers, Mr. Woody, Mayda Munny and others), new characters outside of the poor little rich kid’s ever-widening domain were few, and not terribly memorable at that. Among these short-lived attempts were Adam Harvey’s creation, Adam Awards; Komix Kid, originated by Alan Harvey; and Billy Bellhops, created by Russell Harvey, which actually managed a oneshot issue in ’77, Richie Rich and Billy Bellhops. Ernie Colón created Mark Time, a space traveler who also made an appearance in the one-shot Richie Rich Meets Timmy Time. But maintaining status quo and not venturing too far afield of the Richie universe seemed to be the rule during the ’70s at Harvey. In fact, Richie Rich apparently became so popular, that by 1977, all titles starring Little Dot, Little Lotta, Little Audrey, Wendy, Spooky, Stumbo, and Baby Huey, were cancelled and replaced by yet more Richie titles. At his peak, Richie Rich graced the cover of 25 regularly published titles and 6 regularly published digests. Although advertising at the time claimed that Richie appeared in “32 titles every two months,” the truth is that figure took into account one-shots and the fact that it was only a brief time in 1980 that Richie really came close to having 32 titles published over the course of a single year with 31. That’s not to say there weren’t any Richie titles published. To date, there have been 1,728 comic books and digests published with Richie Rich in the title in the U.S. alone. Only Archie, Superman and Batman have had more, and that’s only because they’ve continually been published with multiple titles from the 1930s to the present, while Richie achieved this feet from ’57 to ’94! A significant reason why Richie suddenly achieved all this fame and publication is the changes behind the scenes at Harvey. In 1973, Robert Harvey died, shifting the balance of power to the other two brothers, Alfred and Leon. The family of Robert filed a lawsuit claiming their rightful place in the Harvey fortunes, creating the first strains on the company. Then, Alfred Harvey suffered a minor stroke. Reportedly, he never fully regained his previous abilities, and this was said to cause tension within the office and between the two brothers. Next, long-time Sad Sack artist Fred Rhoads filed a lawsuit in 1977 claiming unpaid royalties on his work as it was reprinted. Finally, by 1977, Alfred Harvey was ousted from his own company, with Leon placed in a lesser role, so longtime editor Sid Jacobson, could take hold of the reins, and place Richie at the top of the heap as the major Harvey breadwinner. Unfortunately, all of this suffering and litigation ultimately led to the original Harvey Company’s demise. On a more positive note, as the behind-the-scenes Harvey Company was slowly crumbling, the public got a more up-beat feeling. People were generally unaware of that internal strife as Casper achieved the honorable and incredibly rare distinction of becoming the official mascot for NASA’s Apollo 16 flight to the moon. The friendly ghost also appeared in various Cub Scout parades and functions and also became, along with other Harvey characters, a sponsor for the United Nations International Children’s Educational Fund (UNICEF), and Casper even promoted the American Dental Association; as well as appearing on Sugar Chex packaging, a shortlived brand of cereal from Ralston-Purina. Richie, meanwhile, also participated in Cub Scout functions, and for the first time, appeared on a variety of toys and merchandise, including the Richie Rich Big Money Game. Sad Sack and Hot Stuff also continued to be a licensing presence during this time. In early 1974, a Richie Rich cover trumpeted, “Soon you’ll see us on TV!” Though it took six years, The Richie Rich Show finally debuted in 1980 on ABC, with animation by Saturday morning TV animation giant, Hanna-Barbera. A year earlier, H-B began its association with Harvey with a Christmas TV special entitled Casper’s First Christmas (which featured the character, along with Yogi Bear and his gang) and the regular series Casper and the Angels. Although it was nice to see both characters prominently featured on TV, both series would definitely be classified as disappointments, as so many modifications were made that the characters were almost unrecognizable to longtime fans. Richie, Gloria, Reggie and Freckles were all aged to be preteens, while Dollar the Dog was “dumbed down” to become a cheap Scooby-Doo rip-off. Casper, meanwhile, was the only character licensed for his series, and so new (lamer) co-stars, such as Harry Scary the ghost, were created. Our spectral hero remained relatively unscathed, but he COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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did suffer by voice talent Julie McWhirter’s poor performance. As the 1980s began, with over 35 regular Harvey titles being published, three cartoon shows on TV (albeit repeats of old Casper and Famous/Paramount cartoons appearing regularly in syndication), along with various products and merchandise featuring the famous characters readily available, it seemed that Harvey could have continued on forever, but sadly, fate had other plans. Fred Rhoads continued his lawsuit claiming damages for lack of any printed credit for his work, never receiving reprint fees, and not getting a raise since arriving at Harvey in 1955. Rhoads stated that he always believed that he was on the company payroll, and not once considered that he was, in fact, a work-for-hire freelancer. Not surprisingly, Rhoads’s litigation caused a major rift between the artist and Alfred Harvey. Until the dispute was resolved, the publisher stopped printing Rhoads’ stories, although Harvey continued to purchase new work by him. Much of this material was stored for later use, some never seeing print to this day. The ultimate results of the lawsuits were varied. The families reportedly settled their differences. Meanwhile, Fred Rhoads lost his case, but never produced new material for Harvey Comics again, the chores being divided between inferior Rhoads imitator Joe Dennett and reprints and unpublished material by Jack O’Brien, George Baker and Rhoads. The only significant new Sad Sack material produced during this period was for a Hostess Twinkie ad with Warren Kremer taking the artist chores on the character for the first time. Ernie Colón had similar disputes with pay, and did leave the company for a time in the ’70s, only to be lured back with a raise. Ultimately, he left the original company for good in 1980. Another big strike against Harvey was the advent of the direct market. During the ’70s, fewer and fewer outlets took on comic books into their inventory, considering it a money-losing proposition. The comic industry staved off a debacle by filling their pages with more and more advertising, switching to cheaper paper, using horrible new printing processes, running more reprints, and raising their prices virtually every single year. In 1980, a newly formed publisher, Pacific Comics, introduced what is widely considered to be the first direct-market comic book, bypassing the traditional newsstand distribution. The advantage to the new direct distribution system for fans was that mainstream comics would arrive as much as three weeks sooner in the comic shops than at traditional newsstands. The comics could not be returned to the publisher or distributor by the retailer, assuring availability and good condition for collectors beyond the on sale date. A negative development was for many traditional outlets to completely drop comic books—such as the huge 7-Eleven franchise—and the fact that many comic shops would refuse to handle publications they felt they couldn’t sell, which encompassed virtually every single title that didn’t feature heroes in skin-tight uniforms engaged in endless fights. Casualties of the direct market—though, more properly, the demise of comics’ presence on the traditional comics rack—included Charlton, Fawcett (Dennis the Menace), Gold Key/Whitman, and have of course, Harvey, leaving only Archie, DC and Marvel as the long-term survivors of the industry. All of these events crippled Harvey, and as the calendar rolled into 1982, it was clear that the publisher was in deep trouble. Many Harvey titles breathed their last with issues cover dated August, September, and October 1982. No comics were issued for November. The final two Harvey Comics issued by the company carried a December 1982 cover date: Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers #48 and Richie Rich and his Girl Friends #16. At their posts, to the bitter end, were Sid Jacobson, Warren Kremer, Dom Sileo, Ben Brown, Sid Couchey, Joe Dennett, Ken Selig, Stan Kay, Howie Post, and Lennie Herman, among others. Harvey never issued an official statement that they were discontinuing operations; as they were said to feel that the shutdown would be temporary. Besides, the comics house was still officially issuing paperbacks featuring black-&-white reprints on a semi-regular basis, and continued June 2002

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to do so for the next couple of years. Meanwhile, Marvel Comics knew that the ailing Harvey Comics was in trouble and started to negotiate the purchase of the company. The House of Ideas had recently acquired the license to publish Dennis the Menace, and had some experience from previously publishing the Hanna-Barbera stable. The initial proposition seemed sound, but Marvel’s success with all of these properties produced books that lasted 13 issues or less. The other choices were Archie and DC, but the former was disinterested at the time, and the latter was not publishing this type of material at the time, so neither company saw fit to purchase Harvey. The ultimate consideration prompting Marvel to pass on buying out Harvey was due to the number of still-unresolved lawsuits. They also reasoned that they could lure Harvey’s bullpen away to create new—and very similar—books to those Harvey had published. So, after a few non-Harvey-like try-out issues in 1984, Star Comics premiered in early 1985, featuring some of the best talents Harvey had ever used. Warren Kremer, Dom Sileo, Ben Brown, Stan Kay, Howie Post, and Lennie Herman, all found a new home at Marvel, producing comics of licensed properties such as Heathcliff and Strawberry Shortcake, as well as creating three all-new titles, Planet Terry, Top Dog and Royal Roy. This last title was a little too close to Richie Rich in concept, design and even initials for Harvey’s comfort, and despite a character revamp, the comic was quietly cancelled after six issues and the threat of a lawsuit from Harvey for copyright infringement. Former Harvey stalwart Sid Jacobson was hired to edit the new Star line, and it is here where the legendary editor’s skills were at their peak. Unfortunately, it was ultimately Marvel that snuffed the Star line, despite a few long-term successes like Heathcliff and ALF. No title lasted more than a few issues, and soon the Star line was abandoned. There were, ultimately two or three reasons that ultimately led to Harvey’s return to the marketplace, this time by Alfred Harvey’s son, Alan. Ghostbusters was one of the hottest movies released during the

Above: First, the kids of America; tomorrow, the world! The Harveys certainly had grandiose business schemes, judging by their adoption of the Harvey World logo in the mid-’70s. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: By the late ’70s, Harvey was publishing 32 Richie Rich titles, more books on a single comics character than any other in American funny book history. This house ad announcing the “Richie Rich Comics Group” appeared in the entire line. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: Continuity freaks, rejoice! The 1990 Harvey comics included this detailed map of Harveyland which gave readers reference to the locations of their favorite characters to one another. Note the location of the “Spartan Comic Book Printing Plant” (and here we thought it was in Illinois!). ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Summer of 1984, going on to hold the title as the most successful film comedy of all time. It had a catchy theme song, a quality cast, funny script, and a clever marketing campaign centered around the “No Ghost” logo immediately identifiable to this day. Well, that logo—basically the universal traffic sign for “Do Not Enter,” with a cartoon ghost behind the symbol, looking dismayed—was the basis of yet another lawsuit. This one initiated by Harvey, who declared that the ghost was lifted from the Ghostly Trio’s Fatso. Although the two poltergeists were deemed to be vaguely similar, the court ruled that there are only “So many ways to draw a ghost,” thereby dismissing Harvey’s case. The publisher’s failed litigation, coupled with the virtual Harvey character clones published by Star Comics—especially Royal Roy whose existence threatened Harvey’s most valuable property—made it necessary for the company to get back in the publishing game, lest their characters fall into obscurity or, worse, public domain. The interfamily lawsuits started a decade before were finally resolved and Harvey Publications was restructured so that Alfred’s family would have ultimate control of the company’s fate. In Fall 1986, Harvey made a triumphant return to publishing with six titles appearing with October or November 1986 cover dates: Richie Rich #219, Friendly Ghost Casper #225, Hot Stuff #165, Casper Digest #1, Harvey Hits Comics #1, Richie Rich Digest #1 and Richie Rich Million Dollar Digest #1. The covers bluntly and proudly stating, “You asked for him!” As a serious collector of Harvey at this time, but one not fluent in the company’s history, I considered the return nothing short of a miracle in publishing, as I figured that no one would care enough to bring my favorite comic books back to life. But sadly, during the year of the Harvey resurrection, Leon Harvey passed away in 1986. Although the return of the company was most welcome in this

author’s eyes, the comic book industry in 1986 and ’87 was very different than it was earlier in the decade or even in the ’70s. Cover prices increased from 75¢ to $1, and print runs and sales continued to diminish. The issues published by Alan Harvey from 1986-89 were a major return to form and were the best-looking and highest-quality issues published by Harvey to date. Not that the public noticed. Even the appearance of new material didn’t help. It was then decided by the Harvey family that the only way out was to sell the characters that made Harvey Publications world famous. Enter Jeff Montgomery, a young son of a venture capitalist that was willing to take a risk on the floundering company. An agreement was drawn up for Montgomery to purchase the rights to the company save for the super-hero material of the ’40s-60s and Sad Sack. Montgomery assumed publication of the comics in 1990, and soon the company moved from New York to Los Angeles. The purchase was reportedly for $6 million, with all the liabilities of the company in tow. After the purchase, the company was re-christened “Harvey Entertainment.” The investor set about to expand his line and take advantage of his purchase. Montgomery’s first plan was to publish comic books featuring the hottest pop rock group of the time, New Kids on the Block. Though the idea was probably a sound one monetarily, the execution left much to be desired as the new comic books were a full 25¢ more than others on the line and six regular NKOTB titles flooded into the marketplace simultaneously. A more modest approach might have been attempted, but as a total stranger to the comic book industry, Montgomery apparently set his sights on the lucrative TV and film industries, figuring the Harvey characters were just the ticket. If I can beg the reader’s gracious indulgence, allow me a personal aside: Meanwhile, a young frustrated writer/artist/publisher had set his own sights on publishing a magazine devoted to one of his COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

favorite subjects, Harvey Comics, and late in 1990, The Harveyville Fun Times! was born. I am that editor and publisher. Strangely enough, when I started THFT!, I had no idea that Harvey had been sold, and in what way, so in my earliest issues, I started to lump Sad Sack in with everyone else and figured that they just weren’t publishing the character. At the time, I had no idea, but I eventually learned the Harvey family retained the rights to the character. Alan Harvey kept Sad Sack, along with super-heroes such as The Black Cat. He set up a new company called Lorne-Harvey (named after his mother’s maiden name and, of course, his father’s last name) Publications and published brand new issues of these characters, plus The Man in Black, The Silver Scream, and others. By happy accident in 1991, I met Alan Harvey who updated me on his family and the company itself. At that time, I found out that his father, Alfred, was still alive, but comatose. I also learned that Vicki, Alan’s mother, was also living and I met her at an International Comic-Con: San Diego. Vicki, it turns out, was instrumental in getting Harvey to purchase the rights from Paramount Pictures back in the late ’50s. By 1991, she was helping Alan head up Lorne-Harvey Publications, and was active clear up to the end in ’94 when she passed away from cancer. Alfred died a few months later in July of that year, shortly before the release of Harvey’s first theatrical feature film since 1957’s The Sad Sack, the John Hughes production of Richie Rich. Richie Rich was on the drawing boards as a feature film for at least a dozen years. Ricky Schroder was originally considered to portray “the poor little rich boy,” but as the company was falling apart in the early ’80s, the project was shelved. Intentional or not, Schroder went on to portray a Richie-like character on the popular TV series Silver Spoons which lasted for five seasons from 1982-87. During after Harvey’s return in the ’80s, the Richie and Casper film projects were casually worked on. By this time, Fred Savage (best known as Kevin Arnold on TV’s The Wonder Years (’88-93) was considered for the role. However, as he started to age, another up-andcoming actor (who achieved international fame in the comedy that would replace Ghostbusters as the top-grossing comedy in history, Home Alone) was chosen for the role of the “poor little rich boy,” Macaulay Culkin. The film proved to be an enjoyable romp when it came to theaters in December 1994. The home video was released the following year, and has had successful viewings on network TV. Jeff Montgomery, meanwhile, happy with the direction Harvey was going, decided to discontinue the money-losing comic book division in 1994. Apparently deciding that mere comics were of no importance—despite the fact that comic book publishing was clearly Harvey’s greatest strength—he continued to look to Hollywood to chart the company’s course. Montgomery’s indifference to Harvey’s publishing roots, coupled with ill-advised licensing choices and lack of proper marketing, plus the proliferation of reprints (with some appearing in two different titles within the same month), and numerous #1 issues, had Montgomery finally throw in the towel, laying all his hopes on a Disney-type success. He was partially right, and only for a little while. Montgomery’s decision to give up on comics was not sudden. He had made a valiant go at it over four years, going so far as to start a second line called Nemesis Comics for more “adultthemed” books such as Ultraman, Frank and SeaQuest. The investor also was instrumental in bringing the Hanna-Barbera line back to the stands, as well as other long-missing comic book characters such as Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Popeye and The Pink Panther. He also introduced new licensed series like Beetlejuice, Back to the Future and Crash Test Dummies, among others. Unfortunately, lack of direction and poor production values on some books coupled with a proliferation of #1 issues, helped to strangle the line. A smaller line of manageable and profitable books with fewer licensed characters probably would June 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

have been the wiser way to go, but Harvey envisioned Marvel-like abilities, a competitor who excelled in getting people to buy numerous comics with “#1” on the cover, such as X-Men #1 turned out to be one of the best selling comics in history, with multiple covers and public exposure. Alas, the comic book industry has fallen on hard times and even if a more conservative approach was attempted, Harvey may not have survived anyway, perhaps due to an insidious new technology infiltrating people’s homes at an alarming pace, the Internet. After 1994 and through 2001, Harvey’s attempts at comic books include the following: a Richie Rich movie adaptation; a Casper movie adaptation; a couple of regular Casper books; Casper and Friends Magazine which lasted three issues; a Casper: A Spirited Beginning movie adaptation; and Harvey, the Magazine for Kids which lasted for eight issues in 1998. All but the last two were published by Marvel for Harvey; such was Harvey’s disinterest at the time for publishing. Meanwhile, Harvey Entertainment, the “movie studio,” was getting ready for its next big screen release, Casper. This time, large volumes of money were not needed to lure a particular actor to the role, as Casper was created completely on the computer. Technology had advanced to such a state that a main character could be completely created—through Computer Graphic Imaging (CGI)—and have the appearance of being living and breathing, or at least as close as you can get when it’s Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Blockbusters such as Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park foreshadowed the capabilities of the rapidly advancing art form, and for a time, Casper could boast that it contained the most CGI images of any film. The popularity and success of this was translated to dollars at the box office, as Casper was a hit movie in Summer 1995. A new wave of merchandise and product tie-ins with Pizza Hut and Pepsi erupted and the popularity continued into home video and later TV. Part of Casper’s success was due to a person very familiar with making hit movies for kids that families love: Steven Spielberg. Montgomery rode on the success of these two films as he made

Below: Who’re ya gonna sue? Harvey Comics filed suit against the producers of the mega-blockbuster movie hit, Ghostbusters, for $50 million, claiming the universally recognized movie logo was a rip-off of Fatso, rotund member of the Ghostly Trio. The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Peter Leisure, who said, “There are only very limited ways to draw the figure of a cartoon ghost.” ©2002 Columbia Pictures, Inc. Below: Perhaps in a last-ditch effort to bolster their ailing comics line, Harvey (under the guidance of Jeff Montgomery) retained the licenses for a vast number of cartoon characters, including the HannaBarbera crew, to be resurrected as comics. The effort was shortlived. All characters ©2002 their respective copyright holders.

Above: Though the comics empire collapsed in the 1990s, one Harvey highpoints of that decade was the Steven Spielberg production of Casper, a pretty darn good motion picture featuring a full CGI version of the friendly ghost (starring Christina Ricci as, get this, a kid with the last name Harvey!). Movie poster ©2002 Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. Casper ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

the company public for the first time ever on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shares for Harvey stock peaked with the release of the Casper film at $16 a share, eventually making a slow descent to becoming a penny stock and delisted by late 2000. As a follow-up, Montgomery turned his sights onto TV, and decided to make amends for a debacle he had attempted earlier in the decade. Casper and Friends took the original Famous/Paramount cartoons and gave the worn prints a much-needed facelift. Unfortunately, in the process, original voices and music were wiped in favor of new vocal work and synthesized music. The updates were not applauded and the series died a quiet death in 1991. For Montgomery’s next attempt, he decided to recruit many artists and writers who worked on the recently successful Ren and Stimpy Show to create new Baby Huey cartoons for the appropriately-named Baby Huey Show (1994-96). This series also featured more of the classic Famous/Paramount cartoons, this time using pristine prints, but also with the original voices and Winston Sharples music restored. The cartoon was a syndication success and so this was followed up by another animated attempt at Richie Rich by Film Roman called Richie Rich (1996-97), which featured the same Baby Huey segments from the previous series. Though this cartoon was much-improved over the early ’80s Hanna-Barbera version, jokes in questionable taste and too many repeat segments crippled this series from becoming as successful, despite some characters making their animated debut like frequent Rich villain, The Onion. Montgomery found greater success with Fox’s Casper animated

series (1996-99) that was based on the theatrical film. This TV success led to many direct-to-video features, Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1996); Casper Meets Wendy (1998); Casper’s Haunted Christmas (2000); Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish (1997); Baby Huey’s Easter Surprise (1998). A Wendy animated series and a live-action Baby Huey series were toyed with, but nothing has aired to date. Montgomery did not remain with the company to see all of the projects he initiated come to life as the investor was ousted by stockholders in 1997. His successors have not been able to reverse the declining stock, as abortive attempts at new product lines including a Hot Stuff clothing line, featuring such items as Hot Stuff G-string thong bikinis, and a movie set to star Sarah Michelle Gellar as the obscure Harvey ’60s teenage Bunny, have so far failed to set the world afire. Meanwhile, Lorne-Harvey is developing a movie project, a liveaction theatrical version of The Black Cat. The movie has been in the planning stages for a decade, with Sean Young of Blade Runner and No Way Out scheduled to star. Since 1997, Harvey and Lorne-Harvey’s operations have become all but nonexistent. Many proposed projects have been delayed indefinitely or aborted totally. No comic books have appeared at all since 1998, and although the possibility always exists, there doesn’t seem to be any assuredly planned in the near future. The most significant change for Harvey Entertainment is the dramatic crashing of their stock, resulting in a name change to Sunland Entertainment and a final sale of the Harvey (still known as the Harvey Classic Characters) characters to Classic Media, LLC, in June 2001. What Classic intends to do or does do has yet to be seen as of this writing. Lorne-Harvey also continues to exist, on the Internet with their Sad Sack and Black Cat Web sites. And of course, THFT! continues to plug away after 12 years. I wanted to give the gift to the world the history of the company that has entertained many others and me for over 60 years! [For those interested in subscribing to THFT!, check out <http://thft.home.att.net> or write to: Mark Arnold, Box 2616, Saratoga, CA 95070]

CATCHING THE HARVEY HABIT Prior to starting work on this special issue devoted to the publisher, I confess that I hadn’t picked up a Harvey comic book—save for a few titles from Joe Simon’s Thriller line—in the last 25 years. Hey, they were kiddie comics, right? I’m all growed-up now, so what could I be missing? Lucky for me, I became reacquainted with Mark Arnold, author of the article above and editor of the ongoing fanzine The Harveyville Fun Times, who had contacted me a few years ago to suggest I devote an issue of Comic Book Artist to the over 50-year history of Harvey Comics. I told him that I’d think about it, and kept the suggestion on the backburner, knowing full well that sooner or later CBA would have to deal with that 500-pound gorilla of a comics company. So, Mark and I spoke again late last year and he kindly offered to help in any way that he could to see the publisher receive some fan recognition beyond THFT’s readership. Not only did Mark very kindly scan me dozens of choice covers from his collection, but he also lent me the entire 10+ year run of his delightful ’zine. THFT really is a great deal of fun and well worth getting a sample issue (check out Mark‘s generous offer opposite!). The ’zine exhaustively covers all aspects of Harvey—with especial emphasis on the “Harvey World” kiddie books— including special issues on horror, romance, Harvey animated cartoons and movies, Marvel’s Star line, the Thriller line, many characters, and far too much cool stuff to list here. There are also columns dealing with other children’s comics, as well as news clippings about Harvey in the news (you’ll be surprised at how common that continues to be!), and the occasional interview with a creator. It may be a tad comprehensive for all tastes, but very pleasantly packaged by Mark, nonetheless. 38

But the real surprise—gift, really—this ish has given me is not only an association with Mark, but also a renewed (and now profound) appreciation for the truly wonderful Harvey comics line. As I, along with millions of baby boomers, did avidly read Richie and the gang between the age of six to ten, but I pretty much stopped reading them in favor of Gold Keys, DC, and finally Marvel in my pre-teen years. As I obviously had to bone-up on my knowledge of the company to sound the least bit competent, I snatched up quite a few issues (thanks, Great Escape!) and dove in. First, I was awed by the sheer design of the covers of the late ’50s and ’60s books, beautifully rendered by (who I would soon learn was that “really good Harvey artist”) Warren Kremer, depicting a simple, effective gag, sans word balloons and blurbs. Then, to read the stories—clear, concise, set-up/ action/punchline, BOOM!—was an eye-opener, filled will lessons many a current comics scripter could learn from. The characters’ appeal (temperamental Hot Stuff, heroic Little Lotta, adventurous Richie, sensitive Wendy, etc.) just came flooding back in a tsunami of nostalgia and appreciation. Needless to say, these days, I’m a devoted collector of Hot Stuff, as well as Stumbo Tinytown (Kremer’s greatest work)! And, finally, it was also a pleasure to spend time with three other folks who have helped enormously: Bill Janocha and Bill Methany (two interviewers whose contributions follow) and especially former Harvey managing editor/art director, the articulate and truly classy Ken Selig, who gave words as to why I love Harvey so much: These comics were so obviously the result of the passion and craftsmanship of those who cared enough to produce the best comics they could. Well said, Ken! (We haven’t a solo interview with K.S., but he’s in Kremer’s interview herein.)—Y.E. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

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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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “AllInterview Issue”! Part 2 of an exclusive STEVE ENGLEHART interview (continued from ALTER EGO #103)! “Pro2Pro” interviews between SIMONSON & LARSEN, MOENCH & WEIN, and comics letterers KLEIN & CHIANG. Plus JOHN OSTRANDER, MICHAEL USLAN, and longtime DC color artist ADRIENNE ROY! Cover by Englehart collaborator MARSHALL ROGERS!

Bronze Age Mystery Comics! Interviews with BERNIE WRIGHTSON, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GERRY TALAOC, DC mystery writer LORE SHOBERG, MARK EVANIER and DAN SPIEGLE discuss Scooby-Doo, Charlton chiller anthologies, Black Orchid, Madame Xanadu art and commentary by TONY DeZUNIGA, MIKE KALUTA, VAL MAYERIK, DAVID MICHELINIE, MATT WAGNER, and a rare cover painting by WRIGHTSON!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

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“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

“Licensed Comics”! Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Man from Atlantis, DC’s Edgar Rice Burroughs backups (John Carter, Pellucidar, Carson of Venus), Marvel’s Warlord of Mars, and an interview with CAROL SERLING, wife of ROD SERLING. With art and commentary from ANDERSON, BYRNE, CLAREMONT, DORMAN, DUURSEMA, KALUTA, MILLER, OSTRANDER, and more. Cover by BRIAN KOSCHACK.

“Avengers Assemble!” Writer ROGER STERN’S acclaimed 1980s Avengers run, West Coast Avengers, early Avengers toys, and histories of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Wonder Man, with art and commentary from JOHN and SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, BRETT BREEDING, TOM DeFALCO, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB HALL, AL MILGROM, TOM MORGAN, TOM PALMER, JOE SINNOTT, and more. PÉREZ cover!

JENETTE KAHN interviewed by ROBERT GREENBERGER, DC’s Dollar Comics and unrealized kids’ line (featuring an aborted Sugar and Spike revival), the Wonder Woman Foundation, and the early days of the Vertigo imprint. Exploring the talents of ROSS ANDRU, KAREN BERGER, STEVE BISSETTE, JIM ENGEL, GARTH ENNIS, NEIL GAIMAN, SHELLY MAYER, ALAN MOORE, GRANT MORRISON, and more!

“JLA in the Bronze Age”! The “Satellite Years” of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, with BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, PÉREZ, and WEIN, salute to DICK DILLIN, the Justice League “Detroit” team, with CONWAY, PATTON, McDONNELL, plus CONWAY and GEOFF JOHNS go “Pro2Pro” on writing the JLA, unofficial JLA/Avengers crossovers, and Marvel’s JLA, the Squadron Supreme. Cover by McDONNELL and BILL WRAY!

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“Toon Comics!” History of Space Ghost in comics, Comico’s Jonny Quest and Star Blazers, Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera line and Dennis the Menace, behind the scenes at Marvel Productions, Ltd., and a look at the unpublished Plastic Man comic strip. Art/comments by EVANIER, FOGLIO, HEMPEL and WHEATLEY, MARRS, RUDE, TOTH, WILDEY, and more. All-new painted Space Ghost cover by STEVE RUDE!

“Halloween Heroes and Villains”! JEPH LOEB and TIM SALE’s chiller Batman: The Long Halloween, the Scarecrow (both the DC and Marvel versions), Solomon Grundy, Man-Wolf, Lord Pumpkin, Rutland, Vermont’s Halloween parades, and… the Korvac Saga’s Dead Avengers! With commentary from and/or art by CONWAY, GIL KANE, LOPRESTI, MOENCH, PÉREZ, DAVE WENZEL, and more. Cover by TIM SALE!

“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!

“Superman in the Bronze Age”! JULIUS SCHWARTZ, CURT SWAN, Superman Family, World of Krypton miniseries, and ALAN MOORE’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, art & comments by ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, CHAYKIN, PAUL KUPPERBERG, OKSNER, O’NEIL, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SAVIUK, and more. Cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and SCOTT WILLIAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

“British Invasion” issue! History of Marvel UK, Beatles in comics, DC’s ‘80s British talent pool, V for Vendetta, Excalibur, Marshal Law, Doctor Who, “Pro2Pro” interview with PETER MILLIGAN & BRENDAN McCARTHY, plus BERGER, BOLLAND, DAVIS, GIBBONS, STAN LEE, LLOYD, MOORE, DEZ SKINN, and others. Fold-out triptych cover by RON WILSON and DAVE HUNT of Marvel UK’s rare 1970s “Quadra-Poster”!

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CBA Interview

Sid’s Kids: The Harvey Years Conversing with Harvey managing editor Sid Jacobson Conducted by Bill Matheny Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson Sid Jacobson is one of those legendary editors—perhaps akin to Victor Gorelick over at Archie—who seems to have been in the comic book business since the Stone Age, is well liked by just about every freelancer, and also happens to be excellent at his job, lording over tens of thousands of quality comics pages since taking on the editorial position at Harvey in the early 1950s. Still a passionate advocate for wholesome children’s comics, Sid continues to work in the field, currently at Sunland Entertainment (the company which once was Harvey). Sid was interviewed in his Los Angeles office and he copyedited the final transcript.

Above: The man himself, Sid Jacobson, editor of the Harvey World line of comics from the early 1950s to, well, the early 1990s, though there was a lapse in the ’80s, when Sid helmed the Star Comics line at Marvel. This pic, courtesy of Sid, was taken during his stay at the House of Ideas.

Inset right: Surprisingly, perhaps the finest run of Harvey children’s comics was during their initial (albeit shortlived) revival in 1986 when each issue was spot-on in all-out entertainment. Editor Sid Jacobson, artists Warren Kremer, Howie Post, Ernie Colón and others just pored their hearts into the work and it showed. This group shot was the centerspread from the resurrected titles trumpeting the line’s return. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 40

Bill Matheny: Where were you born? Sid Jacobson: An apartment in Brooklyn. [laughter] I grew up in Brooklyn. I still see an old compatriot from Brooklyn who I first met when I was seven years old, and we speak together almost every week. We talk about how wonderful it was, growing up in those days. Poor as hell as we were! Bill: Now, did you live in a predominantly Jewish area? Sid: It was Jewish and Italian. Bill: Were they slums, or were they a step above? Sid: No. I’d say lower middle class. I grew up on the second floor of a walk-up of four rooms, and my parents slept in basically what would be the living room, and my sister and I had a bedroom. Bill: What did your father do? Sid: My father was in the garment business. He was what is called a pattern maker. Bill: Did your mom stay at home? Sid: In those days, all mothers were stay-at-home. Bill: Was your sister older or younger? Sid: My sister was six years older. She died ten years ago. We were close. Bill: When you were young, did you read a lot of comics, were you heavily influenced by them? Sid: I did read a lot of comics. I never thought I’d end up in comics, but I did read a lot of comics. I remember Superman and Batman, and I remember they were that important to me, as a kid of my generation. Bill: Were comic strips an influence on

you? Sid: Oh, yeah. I would say so. I became an instant fan of Superman. My father read at least two New York papers a day, the Times in the morning on his way to work, and on his ride home, he read The World Telegram. The New York Post had Superman, and I pleaded with my father until he stopped buying the Telegram and bought the Post so I’d be able to read Superman. [laughter] At that time, the Post World Syndicate had a lot of very good strips. Then, my mother read the Daily News, so I got to read all the strips in that. Bill: You were well-informed! Sid: Yeah, there wasn’t television! [laughter] Bill: You were heavily-influenced by big band music at the time, weren’t you? Sid: Oh, yeah! Bill: When you were a little kid, what was the lure of that? Sid: Well, I was a big band fan. My favorite band was Stan Kenton. I especially loved instrumentals, and had a huge record collection including Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Kenton… I had every Kenton record, went to con-

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certs, and it was tremendous for me. There were not too many boys my age into that stuff, maybe two other guys—Bernie Platin and Jimmy McHugh—who were interested in the big bands, and we talked a lot. I even went to the famous Frank Sinatra concert at the Paramount, the first time he appeared there. That was the only time, I believe, I ever cut class, [laughter] Jimmy and I went together. Later on, I became a songwriter. Bill: Did you guys try to sneak into clubs to see guys, or just had the records? Sid: No, not while I was in school. Bill: So you were in high school at the time? Sid: When I went to the Sinatra? Yeah. In fact, I was in junior high. Bill: Had you ever seen anything like that before? The bobbie-sox hoopla surrounding Frank? Sid: Sinatra? No, nothing like it. In my lifetime, that was the first great outcry for a performer, for a singer. It was unbelievable. Bill: That must’ve been just overwhelming! Sid: It was thrilling. I’d go to places like the Paramount, the Capitol, the Strand, the Roxy… I mean, you could see big bands perform and comedians doing their acts. Sinatra was a rarity, but he started singing for a big band, and then went on his own! Bill: Do you think the big band music influenced your writing and editing later on in any way? Sid: No. I did become a songwriter for a period of time. Bill: I’m talking about the way you approach comics, do you think it influenced your story senses in any way?

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Sid: I don’t know. Maybe the rhythm of sound, the way I might write, but… Bill: I’d think it would very much, when you’re approaching dialogue—even in comic books—you once said that rhythm is the basis of all art. It must’ve had some kind of influence! Sid: When I was in college, I began a jazz club at NYU, so there was this constant interest in music, and in swing or primarily jazz swing. I went to the Royal Roost, Bop City, Jimmy Ryan’s, all those clubs, mainly from college on. Bill: Were the rest of your family into big band music like you? Sid: No, though my family was interested in music. Bill: When you started at Harvey in 1953, the bulk of their output wasn’t humor books at the time, was it? Sid: No. Not when I started. Actually, Harvey was a very sizeable firm at that time. There were four editors: Matt Murphy, Louise Hill, Perry Antoshak, and I was coming in to be the fourth. There was a whole group of famous name, licensed comics: Joe Palooka, Dick Tracy, Kerry Drake, Blondie, Dagwood, The Phantom… well, those was just the properties. There was a whole group of Blondie books, for instance. I think Dotty Dripple at the time had two regular titles, one a monthly, one a bi-monthly. Little Max and Humphrey were Joe Palooka spin-offs. Then, there were four or five horror books, four or five war books, and a line of romance comics that included four or five different titles. Bill: How many books a month were they were publishing? Sid: Oh, I would think at that time between 30 and 45. There was a gal, Louise Hill, who edited all the romance books, as well as Dick Tracy and Kerry Drake. Harvey editor Perry Antoshak, interestingly enough, became Warren Kremer’s brother-in-law. [laughs] Warren was married to a gal named Grace Callori, who filled-in at the Harvey art department, and two of them got together and later married. Grace’s sister Phyliss married Perry. I came in as an assistant to Perry, before the Korean War, and within six months of my being there, Perry got drafted into the Army—this was during the Korean War—and I took over his entire line of books. Bill: So you weren’t working on the humor books when you first came over? Sid: No. The first books I worked on for were the war and horror books, and Joe Palooka. That was when I started. When Matt Murphy went to Dell, I took over his books. That was my introduction to the humor. Bill: Was

Above: Just who are the true creators of Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy? Still heatedly debated, one side says Sid Jacobson and Warren Kremer and the other, Harvey Comics president Alfred Harvey. Regardless, under the helmsmanship of editor Jacobson and definitive RR artist Kremer, the character went on to become perhaps the most popular comic book character of all time, if number of titles are the indicator. The kid had 32 different comic book titles devoted to him! Here’s the debut issue of his first solo mag, cover dated November 1960. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: By the time Sid Jacobson came on-staff at Harvey, the publisher’s horror line—considered to have been some of the most gruesome in comics history—was in full swing. Here’s a house ad for two of their titles. Courtesy of Mark Drummond. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Inset right: During Sid’s early career at Harvey, another fad the company exploited to the nth degree was their ill-fated 3-D comics line, though some of the books produced were laudable, including Captain 3-D, drawn by Simon & Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Draut (who, we believe, drew this heroic pose), and others. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 42

Warren Kremer already at Harvey when you arrived? Sid: He was working on war, horror and romance books. He also did Little Max and occasionally Humphrey. Warren also did some work on Joe Palooka, which would then be approved by [Palooka creator] Ham Fisher. Bill: It’s just hard for me to imagine that Warren did horror work. Sid: He did very good horror material. Very precise, tight kind of stuff. His work was great-looking. There’s a very famous horror story called “Colorama” that Harvey published. Warren drew that cover and the face on it is a distorted picture of himself! Perhaps, his work didn’t have the emotion or the glamour of some others, but he did interesting stuff. Bill: As a child growing up, admiring his humor work, one forgets how diverse and just how talented some of these people are. Did Harvey own the humor characters when you started working on them? Sid: No. Harvey didn’t own the Paramount characters. They didn’t own Casper, Huey, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey; they only licensed them in the beginning. Matt Murphy edited the first few titles, and then left, and I took on those, also. These were licensed properties from Paramount Pictures, and Harvey was basically gifted with these characters in time. By the late ’40s, the studios were not allowed to own chains of theaters anymore, so theatres like the RKOs, Loews, and Paramount Pictures theaters were either closed or sold to others. Then, if you owned a television station, you couldn’t own the product that went on it. ABC and Paramount became one company at that time, merging to become ABC-Paramount, and they wanted to use Casper and the other characters on television. This was a prime-time animation show, called Matty’s Funday Funnies (of which Mattel Toys was the sponsor). So Paramount could not own the property. I remember the day vividly. Alfred Harvey had come to me, saying he’d just signed a great deal, and I think the figure was six million which the Harveys gave for the properties. Then Paramount gave the money back to Harvey as payment for using the characters on television. But to produce new material, they would have to use Paramount’s animation outfit, Famous Studios, which Paramount wanted to keep going. So that was the deal. They kept going, they gave Harvey the property, they got it on the air. Bill: Famous Studios at the time also did a lot of Popeye cartoons.

Sid: Popeye, Betty Boop, Superman. Bill: That was back when it was Max Fleischer’s studio. But at the time, I know they were still doing Popeye cartoons. Sid: Yes. Bill: How did you hook up with Harvey Comics? Sid: Actually, my first encounter was that I read Harvey comics as a kid! [laughs] My link to Harvey went back to my sister Shirley, who knew the three Harvey brothers. She went to school with one of them, met them through school, and she and several of her girl friends used to write bits for a potpourri of gag magazines. She was able to get me subscriptions to all the Harvey comics, and so I was one of the few people in my neighborhood who had Harvey books! Bill: That’s a nice angle! [laughter] Sid: I remember also that the Harveys were always very close to Simon & Kirby, who created Captain America, a very big seller for Marvel (called Timely in those days). My greatest treasure as a kid was a drawing of Cap and Bucky with their signatures. Joe and Jack were my artist heroes. Bill: Did you aspire to work in comic books? Sid: Who would? [laughter] I expected to be a newspaper writer. Bill: You were also a songwriter for a time, weren’t you? Sid: Yes. Bill: Did your sister get you the job at Harvey? Sid: Actually, it was through a good friend of hers. When I’d been going to college, in my third year, my father had died, and I’d gone to see one of my sister’s friends who was working in an advertising agency, and she said, “You should go up to Harvey because maybe they’d have a job for you while you’re finishing college.” So I did, I went to see Alfred Harvey, and he was very, very nice, but there were no jobs, and he said, “You ought to stay in touch.” Then after college started, I worked at a newspaper called The Daily Compass in New York as a copy boy, then I got an editing job at The Morning Telegraph. I worked there probably about six or seven months, starting at $50 a week. This was during the time [U.S. Senator Estes] Kefauver was investigating the crime and horror comics, but also one of the biggest things that were being investigated were the horse racing forms. Walter Annenberg, now famous in so many ways, especially for owning TV Guide, also used to own something called the Continental News Service. Now, his main company, Triangle Publications (which owned the Telegraph in Mayfield), owned all the horse racing wire services, so any time you saw results, it was strictly through Triangle Publications, and it all came out of the offices where I worked! It was also revealed that Annenberg owned a piece of something called Continental News Service, the line that fed the bookmakers, and that stuff was illegal, so they closed that down. All the offices were pretty empty, so as a result, I lost my job. [laughter] They cut out on the Telegraph entirely. Bill: Did you ever bet on horses or anything like that? Sid: Yeah. [laughter] Not much, but it was also sport! The Morning Telegraph sort of backed the wrong horse. I had fun there, it was enjoyable, but I lost the job. They offered me a job on another publication, but I had already recommended another friend for the job. As it turned out, I think I was out of work for about four or five weeks. It was awful at the time. One day, I got a call from Harvey to see if I wanted a job. Bill: When you started as an editor, how long were you there essentially, before you started overseeing books by yourself? Sid: Probably about six months. Bill: Since you initially wanted to be a journalist, did you consider COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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comic book writing and editing beneath you? Sid: It was only when some people would ask, “What do you do?” and I’d mumble, “Well, I edit comics.” Bill: You might as well say, “I rob banks!” [laughter] Sid: When I met my second wife, Maggi, she had a kid, who I guess was about 18 years, who said, “Wow! You work on comic books? Oh man, that’s cool!” I remember suddenly comics became cool, became acceptable, and I thought, “Maybe this isn’t so bad!” Then years later, when I really began to get feedback of how much people appreciated Casper and Richie Rich, it was great to hear how my work affected kids’ lives. I felt really good, and it gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I know that the Harvey line was very separate from the rest of the comic book industry, in every way. The writers did not want to really make a career of it, they were looking to write novels, looking to go to Hollywood to write TV scripts and movies, etc. The artists were always looking to do animation work. We had a great pool of talent—Warren Kremer, Ernie Colón, a good group of writers, Ralph Newman, Stan Kay—and we really cared about the product that we produced. We thought of it perhaps more in the way of children’s books than comics, but it was with great pride that we did our work. Bill: When did you start working on Casper, when the television show started? Sid: After the first issue of Casper, I edited every one. Bill: Was Warren on the book from the beginning? Sid: No, there were several other artists before him. Primarily two guys named Bill Hudson and Tom Goodwin. The writers I first used were writers that came out of the animation studio. They were refined, more impressive, more important. Bill: Talented people in animation also worked in the comics… Sid: Izzie Klein certainly did, as did Larz Bourne and Morey Reden. Bill: Excellent animators. Sid: They were the writers I started with and they all used storyboards to write their stories. Slowly, I found I liked to use visual scripts. In comics, there is such an advantage to use them. It forces the writer to think visually. The Harvey scripts were far more visual than anything else being done! Bill: They were basically illustrated scripts, weren’t they? Sid: Yes. So because we used animators as writers to start, that established the scripting approach at Harvey. It could’ve been Charles Strauss, who was the first non-animator to do this. As an editor, if I could get animators, who could produce visual scripts, because they had that sense of humor, and could learn continuity, that approach to humor would work in comics. It would work! So more and more, I went to use the cartoonists, certainly, like Lennie Herman, Howie Post, Stan Kay. That’s where we went, and it worked! Bill: When you first worked on Casper, there was no Wendy, no Spooky. Sid: We upgraded Casper with Wendy and Spooky. Bill: They also didn’t have Nightmare, or any of the other… Sid: No. Bill: Was Warren Kremer working on the title with you at that point? Sid: Yes. What happened early on was that Harvey brought in a man named Steve Mufatti, one of the head directors at the studio, was really a very good animator, a really creative guy, with whom Harvey had this idea of building their own studio. To the point where they even bought this $50,000 camera, which was never used! [laughs] Bill: To build a TV studio? Sid: Right, and they wanted Mufatti to basically do that, so he came in and worked his heart out on it. I remember he came every day and Warren Kremer would also come in for two or three days a week, so the two guys met. Warren began to spend time with Muffati, and learned animation from him, though with Warren’s own style! Warren’s early humor style could be seen in Little Max, which is closer to the style seen in the humor magazines of the ’50s. Bill: The storybook style? Sid: Right. And he took that, then got closer to using an animation style, but if you look at the Harvey animation, and it’s really because of Warren under the influence of Muffati. It’s a hybrid, it’s not usual animation style, closer to something down the middle, a mixture, with June 2002

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much more background than usual animation. After Warren had gone into animation, I remember one animator, Marty Taras, said to me, “You know, if Warren went into animation, we’d all have to leave our jobs!” I think this was at the time Warren had designed the opening to one or another of the Harvey shows. Bill: Where they had the opening song, “Goodbye to Spooky, and the friendly Ghostly Trio”? I remember that when I was a kid! Did you realize quickly that you and Warren had a good working chemistry, or did it take time to develop? Sid: We worked closely together, certainly, and actually, we had a good chemistry working on the horror and war books, on all of them. We’d design covers together, and enjoyed and loved each other. Then, as we went on, that became tighter and tighter. Bill: How were the sales of Harvey’s books during the 1950s? Sid: Alfred Harvey’s idea of comics was that sales went up and

down with war. During wartime, sales would go up, because servicemen would only read comics when they were away from home. They didn’t want to read newspapers, so they read comics. So, during World War II sales went up, and after the war, they dropped. During the Korean War, sales went up, and afterwards it dropped! During the Vietnam War, it went up, afterwards it went down! A lot of that, had to do with the fact that PXs were big sellers of comics. During the 1950s, the horror and crime stuff was banned in PXs, so that’s when those titles stopped dead. We were a big publisher of horror comics, and I’m proud of the books that we did. Certainly some of the artwork was questionable, and if I were in charge, I wouldn’t have carried it to that extent, but I certainly liked the sense of humor in the stories themselves. We did these take-offs of movies… I had fun, and I had a good staff of artists. Bill: Did it take you some time to evolve Casper and Spooky, or did you and Warren, right out of the chute, feel you needed to broaden them out a bit and get the characters some foils? Sid: I realized Casper, being a good ghost, always had to be the hero, so it then became, “Okay, so you do the opposite,” which was to make Spooky the bad one (if only on the surface). The same thing with Wendy—who was Casper really from a female point of view— you make her a good witch, so you give her bad stepsisters.

Above: Harvey Comics promotional ad touting their “Famous Name” line. Inset is a close-up example of the cover stamp featured on the line, this one from Baby Huey #1. Courtesy of Bill Janocha. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: Company founder and president Alfred Harvey (left) shakes the hand of his editor-inchief Sid Jacobson in this ’70s photo. Courtesy of Mark Arnold.

Inset right: Vicki Harvey, Alfred’s second wife. Courtesy of Mark Arnold.

Bill: And the Ghostly Trio for Casper. Sid: Right. I’ve always enjoyed the Casper comic books we did. They were quite different from the early cartoons, where Casper lived in a graveyard. We moved him to a haunted house, created elves, fairies and gnomes, a gave it a fairy tale quality. I got tired of the situations that were used over and over in the cartoons, where everyone was frightened but a kid, and then the kid would show the world they shouldn’t be afraid. That was the set-up. In the comics, we’d say he could solve people’s problems, he was a super-hero, he used his powers to do good, and that’s where the whole change came about… and in that world, we needed more characters, and we created them. Bill: In the original cartoons, not only was he a dead boy, he was a deformed dead boy. [laughter] Sid: Warren really gave the later and more famous look to Casper. Bill: When you created the Ghostly Trio and Spooky, it wasn’t that long before they presented themselves and became a part of Casper.

Sid: Jim Miele, who was one of our first great writers, also worked part-time as an editor. He came up with a one-page story that featured a devil. Bill: Casper wasn’t in the story? Sid: I don’t remember. But I remember we went, “Wow, what a great idea!” And Muffati created the look of the character. Bill: How long was it before you began spinning the supporting cast off into their own books? For instance, Wendy: Did that happen rather quickly? Sid: No. There was an issue of Harvey Hits that featured her first. Bill: When you started introducing them, Wendy got her own book, Spooky got his own book… I know the Ghostly Trio never had their own book. Sid: But they did. I don’t remember how long it ran, but I believe it was simply called Casper and the Ghostly Trio. Bill: How do you recall the creation of Richie Rich? Sid: Warren Kremer and I created the character in an attempt to do something different with a kid character. More than another mischievous or quirky kid. And he got richer and richer by the story. Bill: Richie came out in ’53? Sid: Richie started in ’53, as a back-up in Little Dot. But the first Richie Harvey Hits was in ‘57, and the first issue of Richie’s comic book was in 1960. Bill: So you guys had really had a chance to cut your teeth on the character long before the first book ever came out! As a side note, you worked on Little Audrey and Baby Huey. Little Audrey was interesting, and you integrated the cast by including an African American kid, which wasn’t very common at the time. Sid: That was a very happy occurrence for me. It was my idea, and the kid was called “Tiny.” Bill: Did you do that immediately when you came in? Sid: Certainly early on. There were some interesting portrayals of blacks at EC, but you couldn’t find black kids in any of the humor titles. Bill: Did you get much mail when you did that? Sid: Actually, the Urban League had a big write-up about the feature. And we received some press. I was very proud of that, and Harvey totally supported the idea. Tiny was simply accepted as a kid, as a friend, as a member of a middle-class black family. Bill: Did you intend to promote a distinct point of view in the comics? Or did you just say, “You know what? Let’s just make these kids just kids of all ages getting together.” In other words, was it a decision you pondered over for a while, or did it just seem like the thing to do at the time? Sid: I did what I wanted to do, I thought it would be good, and as long as I’m stuck in comics, I’ll do something good. [laughter] I thought it’d do a service. Bill: Now, Steve Mufatti also worked on the Little Audrey books. Sid: Yeah. He may have even created Audrey. He certainly did the comic strip for King Features. Bill: After 1960, Richie Rich just took off, and by the 1970s, Harvey was doing as many as 32 bi-monthly titles featuring the character. How much old material did you recycle? Sid: It changed over the years, but after a certain time, you had all this material. I mean, the attitude at Harvey—and it was probably the same at the other publishers—was that after five years, you had an entirely new audience, so you can certainly go back five years, because the character’s always dressed the same, and reuse the material. Archie Comics still runs old material in their digest books, constantly. So, it worked for us. Certainly, at best, half of some books was old stuff. Though the monthly Richie Rich title always was new. Bill: Now, Warren Kremer did most of your covers… Sid: He drew pretty much all of them. Bill: How many pages could he draw a day, do you think? Sid: At his most productive, he could do eight. Bill: So he could basically do two regular-size books a week? Sid: Well, he didn’t work five days straight at the drawing board, because he also came into the Harvey offices to work. But if he COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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worked a five-day week at Harvey, he’d basically do two books a week. He could do eight books a month! I mean, only rarely did he do his own inks, we had a very good ink staff at Harvey. I should make comment on that. I will say that Leon Harvey handled much of the inking. He helped inkers, he was good. We had superb inkers. Bill: Did Warren ink the covers he did? Sid: Warren inked his own covers, yes, but the interiors were always inked by others. Bill: What made your covers so nice was that they were so simple. I mean, you were talking about the backgrounds in the books, though the backgrounds on the covers were many times non-existent, and the way that you sort of thrust the characters into the life of the reader on the covers… Sid: I was always trying to get a poster effect. When I went to Marvel to create the Star Comics line in the 1980s, the Star Comics were always pointed to as the best covers at Marvel, because Warren was working with me there at that time, too. They were posterized covers! We took as our cue the old Dell books; those were superb covers, and that’s what we modeled ourselves after. Bill: You must’ve had some other artists that really captured Warren as best they could, though, of course, it’s not the same? Sid: Well, of course! That was their instruction, but they couldn’t do it! The only one who was close to it, and it was more modern, would be Ernie Colón, who was somewhat in that style. He could do Casper. He could do Richie better than Casper! Ernie’s Richie was very, very good. I mean, a more, modern, slicked Richie than Warren’s. Bill: There was a back-up character in Hot Stuff named Stumbo, which you told me Warren created, and that was his baby. Sid: Oh, yeah. Bill: And you tried several times to get a Stumbo book going, but it never really took off, but the stories were delightful! Sid: It didn’t sell well enough but, yeah, they were wonderful stories. I remember Jim Shooter once telling me that Stumbo was his favorite of all characters. He loved Warren Kremer’s stuff. When we came over to Marvel, Warren made huge boards of character designs, had them hanging on the wall, and I remember Marie Severin—no slouch of an artist, herself—came in, and she said, “Who did these?” I said, “Warren Kremer.” She said, pointing to the outside of the room, “They don’t know it, but this is the best artist who ever walked through these doors.” Bill: Certainly an unsung great. I can’t think of such a prominent comic book artist who developed the visualization of so many characters who is also so unknown to the world at large. Within the comic industry, it’s “Warren who?” A lot of the people who worked on the “bigfoot” material are very good artists and writers and inkers who did great work, but they’re the red-headed step-children of the comic book industry. Sid: And I feel incensed about it. I did a review of a book recently for the New Leader, a book on comics, that covered basically all super-heroes. Super-heroes are not all comics, they’re a part of comics. And these humor comics that no one—certainly no critics— pay attention to, and the only ones who did appreciate the efforts were the kids who bought the books, and those kids who learned from it, and I think got values from it, ethical values. It’s terrible and disgraceful how disrespected the creators of children’s comics are in the comic book industry and its fandom, because, in their heyday, those comics were the most popular out there! Bill: When Richie Rich had all these titles going, the character started taking on different forms. There was Richie and his girl friends, there was Richie as a super-hero with Cadbury, the butler…. It was like you’d created pockets of worlds within worlds, there were certain types of Richie stories, some of which seemed to have nothing to do with the other ones, and yet they all worked within the same universe! June 2002

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Sid: We hoped so, yes. [laughs] Bill: But do you understand what I mean? Sid: Yes, oh, yes! You know, the characters there I think are terrific: Reggie, Cadbury.

Bill: Though the premise of “The Poor Little Rich Boy” was simple and one dimensional, you and Warren—and everyone who worked on the strip—developed him into a multi-dimensional character. He could do different things, and you weren’t allowed that flexibility with Little Dot and Lotta. Sid: They didn’t have the background. Bill: Their stories didn’t lend themselves to different approaches? Sid: There was only so much, I guess, that we could do. Basically, it was just the two of us and the world of Casper and Richie just seemed richer than the others. What I need to add is the importance of the work of Ralph Newman in Richie and Casper. Over the years, Ralph wrote more scripts than any other writer I ever worked with, and there was a consistency and a certain originality to his work, and he helped create a lot of the supporting casts. He created Cadbury the Butler, borrowing the name from the Cadbury candy bars. He did a lot of these stories that you talk about, and a lot of those with Casper. I think the best Casper writer was Stan Kay. Early on, Jimmy Miele set the tone, the best was Stan Kay, and the best Richie scripter was Lennie Herman. Bill: Over the years, people who will admit to having read Harvey—and a lot of people did, many of them comic fans—and agree that one compelling aspect was that some of the stories were downright surreal. There was Little Dot and her endless supply of really bizarre uncles…. Sid: Much of that is Ralph Newman’s work. He did a lot of those with Dot’s uncles. Bill: Like the uncle who has to place a bet everywhere, it’s very,

Above: Talented Harvey Comics writer Lennie Herman in the 1970s. Courtesy of Sid Jacobson.

Inset: In a rare move in the late 1950s, Harvey introduced an African American kid into Little Audrey, who often starred in his own back-up story. This vignette is from Playful Little Audrey #20. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: Another notable Harvey contributor was artist/writer Marty Taras. This autobiographical sketch is from the 1960-61 National Cartoonists Society Album. Courtesy of Bill Janocha. Baby Huey ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

very odd, I mean, and yet it worked really well! Sid: It was funny. Bill: And Dot, with her whole fixation on dots, was a very surreal book! Sid: I think that’s true. Bill: But as a kid, it worked. I knew it was different and odd, and that’s what I liked about it, but as I’ve gone back as an adult and read some of these stories, I’m thinking, “Damn! This is weird!” [laughs] Sid: I guess I didn’t realize it except in retrospect. I guess we’d just moved along with it, but that’s true. Bill: Famous animators like Art Babbitt, who worked on Fantasia, used to say that college kids would ask them in the ’60s, “Were you taking drugs when you worked on Fantasia?” And he would say, “Yes, Ex-Lax.” But the Harvey books were much more surreal than anything I saw in Fantasia! I remember thinking as a kid, “There’s some strange stuff going on in those books!” Sid: Strangely, it had an important following. I’ve spoken to adults who adored Little Dot as kids. Bill: I think Little Dot was great, just because it was so weird. Sid: But it is, you’re absolutely right. And it was fun, there was a certain kind of fun in dealing with it. But Ralph was certainly the best Little Dot writer. Bill: Dot would be played as a straight person, the perfect foil for these really whacked-out relatives, and she must’ve had one prolific family, [laughter] because she had a lot of uncles and aunts! Sid: More than I did! Bill: There must’ve been a lot of cold nights in Dotland, because there was a lot of procreating going on! [laughs] Sid: Once the writer came up with a formula, you kept it going, and you moved on and on, but you look back at it and I must admit they were strange… there were probably 50 Uncle Rush stories, and Ralph wrote all of those, but so many of the others… I remember the betting one, I can’t think of the name, was it Uncle Wager? [laughter] It was fun, that was great fun. Bill: Little Dot had her sub-world of these oddball relatives that blew in and out of her life, many of them one-shot appearances, but other times, like Uncle Rush, who would make repeat appearances. Sid: There were more of them, too. I guess, in a way, Richie had Aunt Noovo, which was sort of a throw-back to the Dot uncles and aunts, and Aunt Noovo could’ve been Dot’s aunt. Bill: Little Lotta was a little bit more straight and ahead of its time. When she became a super-hero, it was funny, because all she did was walk around with a costume, and she happened to be very strong, but I always thought that was really funny, this sort of rag-tag costume, worn by this basically fat kid. But the way you guys handled her was inspired. When I was a kid, I was heavy for a period, and other kids made fun of me, and it was an issue in my life, but it shouldn’t have been. But Lotta was portrayed as really comfortable with herself, not self-conscious at all about her weight. So, while her gluttony was played up, the fact that she was fat was not. She was a good role model in that way. Sid: Well, I was a fat kid, too. Bill: She was confident, okay with who she was, she accepted herself, and the other kids accepted her. On some occasions, there’d be bullies saying, “Ha, ha, you’re fat,” and she’d kick his butt, but that was not common in the stories, as I remember. Did you purposely do it that way? Sid: Oh, yes. I don’t remember ever having a fight about how we would portray her. It was so easy getting resolution and attitude, and caring for each other… there was no supervision, in a way, all I knew was that it was selling, so everything was fine. It was good time. The Harveys were selling all these licenses to the characters, and it was good. They weren’t on our backs! Though we couldn’t introduce any new characters without their approval. After a period of time, they didn’t want to do the new characters, and I had a falling out with Alfred Harvey, because when Paramount still owned Casper, we created Spooky and 46

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Wendy, and he angrily said, “We had to buy them back, there’s a price on them! Don’t ever do that again!” Paramount became the owners of all characters created in these stories while they owned the copyright, so they must have added some price for them when selling them to Harvey. Bill: You must’ve really trusted the artists and writers you worked with, simply because you were putting out so many stories. You were involved in the stories, and yet you had to trust them to see it through without you having to devote a lot of time to the finished product because of the sheer volume, right? Sid: Some needed little editing, some a lot. Jim Miele, for example, as good as his stories and backgrounds were—and they at times were spectacular—he had to be completely rewritten. Lennie Herman and Stan Kay required minimal attention. Bill: At the same time, though, you couldn’t put out 50 books a month, or whatever it was, having to do that with every single script, so you had guys you knew would come through. Sid: Yeah! And later on, Lennie Herman came in, and he worked part-time as an editor, too, so there was some help. He’d come in twice a week, if I’m not mistaken, and he’d work as an editor. Stan Kay sometimes did that, too. Bill: How you tapped into kids’ subconscious, doing stories that kids really cared for. When I was a kid, there was one story about Richie’s Professor Kiwi who invented an ice cream that would replenish itself! As a kid, I was thinking, “Yeah, that’s really cool!” Of course, at the end everyone got stomach aches and everything, but you did a lot of stories like that, where they had such a clear kid’s perspective of what’s fun, and what a kid would be interested in, that you guys captured so well! Sid: Every one of us were fathers. We were also kids once ourselves! Bill: I read Archie books when I was young and liked them, but it wasn’t my word, whereas Richie Rich and Dot and Casper and Hot Stuff seemed similar to my world, yet a place where I’d really like to be at the same time. Sid: Dewey always said that about Archie. [laughter] Really, he did, in every way. Bill: Hot Stuff was created in a single-page gag. How did you decide to spin him off into his own series? Sid: I got this single-page script from Jim Miele, a filler, and it featured either Casper or Spooky (somehow I think it was Spooky), and I said, “Jesus, what a great idea!” I remember running to Warren and showing it to him, and asked didn’t he think that this was something. With great excitement, he said, “Yes!” Now, I don’t recall whether as part of it the baby devil character in the script said, “Oh, boy, am I hot stuff!” but it’s very possible. I said, “Perfect! We found a name!” I don’t remember now whether it was Warren Kremer or Steve Mufatti who did the first drawing—I think it was Steve—but the character was drawn in the one-pager with an asbestos diaper, he’d have big pointy ears…. Bill: You guys worked mainly from drawn scripts? Sid: They were all drawn scripts. I believe the first “Hot Stuff” was done as a single-page script. I can’t even recall what we would have had to convince the Harveys to go any further. And I guess we did. Bill: Do you know if he appeared in solo stories in some of your other titles before he went into his own book, do you remember? Sid: I don’t think he did. Bill: He seems to fit in the Casper/Spooky world… Sid & Bill: [Simultaneously] But he kind of doesn’t. Bill: Exactly. Sid: And we were very careful in that kind of thing. Bill: Was there any concern at all about having a devil character, or Wendy being a witch? Sid: Never. Opposite and this page: One of the cuter promotional devices by Harvey was the use of comic strips featuring their beloved characters, touting their respective titles. They appeared on the text pages of the comic books. All characters except Sad Sack ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Sad Sack ©2002 Lorner-Harvey Productions, Inc. June 2002

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Below: The richest family in Harvey World, the Riches, with Gloria, Cadbury (the perfect butler) and Dollar the Dog. Richie, without a doubt the company’s most popular character vis-à-vis comic books (as Casper may be more widely recognized), provided riches galore for Harvey’s coffers. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Bill: Now, you see this ridiculousness of letters about promoting witchcraft with Harry Potter, whether or not you like the book or not, but did you get much of that mail with Wendy? Sid: Not Wendy…. Bill: Did you get much with Hot Stuff, having a devil? Sid: Oh, absolutely. The reason you couldn’t really launch Hot Stuff in television was because they were afraid. Bill: Was there a lot of mail like that? Sid: I don’t remember if there was a lot, but there certainly was a degree of it. Bill: Did that concern the Harveys? Sid: Only in the sense of what you could do with it. You knew you were being limited. Bill: So as long as the book sold, and you didn’t have him slaughtering goats or any of that thing? [laughter] Sid: Yeah, the book sold. I mean, the attitude that we came up with was really, the devil doesn’t do it, you tempt the devil, and so therefore, he was not… he didn’t start the action, he reacted, and then you also knew he was a good devil, you knew that he really was impish. Bill: I wanted to say, he was not above playing pranks, and sometimes his pranks would lead him into… Sid: Basically, he was a hero, and once we brought in the character of Princess Charma, that became a leveling thing on it. So, he cared for her, she pointed out what was wrong, he was afraid to overdo it, he was no worse than Spooky, just with different

powers. Bill: Now, Baby Huey made the transition from animation to comic books. Did you approach the character any differently, and who worked on that series for you? Sid: Baby Huey was done primarily by Marty Taras, and Taras was the guy who was the main animator of the films, so I used him hugely, Dave Tendlar, who was also a part of that, Dave Tendlar did a lot of Herman and Katnip. He did some Huey, also, but those were the two guys who primarily did that, and certainly Taras much more. Taras did other characters, too. He was incredibly fast. Bill: Did you approach Huey any differently in the books, consciously, or did you trust him to… ? Sid: In what way, in the art? Bill: No, just in the story and the art in general. Sid: He didn’t write the story. Bill: Did you just trust Taras and your writers, or did you want to go… Sid: We tried to develop more character, to get beyond… almost every Huey story in film had to do with the wolf or fox… Bill: Also, his father played a large role. Sid: We could use the father, who turned out to be a good character. We did a lot with the mother. I don’t know how much the father was in the cartoon… later, probably he was, after the new cartoons. Bill: Huey worked better with a strong foil, but it just got old. It’s interesting, because Herman and Katnip, they didn’t work as well in comics, nor did they work as well on the screen a lot of the time. Sid: No, it was too much of a copy of Tom and Jerry. The same thing with Audrey, who was created when Paramount lost Little Lulu, who Audrey was just a copy of. The only thing they added was she had these dreams, and that was the gimmick. Bill: Although the books had a certain whimsy, we discussed those before. Sid: I think a lot of it, because of Howie Post. Howie Post wrote very good stories. Bill: In some ways, Audrey was the most lifelike, real-life figure you did. You stuck much closer to what kids would do or wouldn’t do. Sid: The best series in comic books was Little Lulu. It was brilliant, and I tried to push that in front of people, and say, “Take this kind of method.” Bill: Which leads me to my next question, I was thinking about how it’s interesting how the Harvey line had a strong female presence, and the Archie line to a certain extent, but there were almost none in the super-hero books at the time, besides Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, I suppose, or Supergirl, who came much later. Sid: Harvey had a big female presence. Bill: In your books, the females are really at the forefront of a lot of the stories, and that wasn’t that common back then, if it wasn’t a romance story. The super-hero titles were almost devoid of women, other than as romantic interests if at all. Sid: I can’t explain that, I don’t know. Bill: But you did have strong female characters, many of them were very strong! Sid: Basically, we had Audrey, Lotta, Dot, Wendy, and also in Richie there was Gloria. Bill: Then you had Charma in Hot Stuff. Sid: We really were in such a different world than the other comic book companies. Bill: You also worked a bit on the Joe Simon books, didn’t you? Sid: In some ways, they passed through me. Joe has written about how he totally created Spider-Man, and he offered the property to me, when I was about 21—I’d just come on at Harvey—I think it was called “The Spider,” and I turned it down—and he goes into it as if it meant nothing. But it had nothing to do with spiders! It might’ve been called “The Fly” or “The Wasp” or anything, and he didn’t use it, and that’s what I remember having told him. I also worked on Captain 3-D. Bill: You worked on several 3-D comics. Sid: A lot of the stuff they took from things I’d done, they did something, Race for the Moon, which I’d done before. I mean, they didn’t totally work independently. I don’t remember the connection, but I know it passed through my hands in some way. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Bill: You weren’t involved creatively? Sid: No. Bill: Was it fun working on the 3-D comics, by the way? Sid: I loved it. They went crazy. We came out with the first true innovation, it was called Adventures in 3-D, and True 3-D. They were the kind of mystery and horror stories that were being done at the time, and then just doing them in 3-D. I still maintain that the Harvey 3-D books were the best 3-D books done. The two main artists were Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand. Very good artists. This was the time Nostrand was just really finding himself. Bill: I always thought Powell was really strong. Sid: I loved working with Powell! He was a very decent guy, and did a lot of work! He was a friend of the Harveys and was allowed to sign his name! You’d see his signature in almost every Powell story, you’d see it scratched in. The scripts we did for them were always done visually. They were typed, and then—I don’t recall who did it, maybe Warren—and broken down, and then broken down in planes, so you took care in making it visual. There were different colors for different planes, I remember that, so the artists knew which way to go, they knew where it was coming. Harvey was the only company that did something we called “True 3-D,” and this came, actually, via Leon Harvey, strangely. Leon Harvey and a guy named Larry Riley. The 3-D comics were really planes, five planes, that was set up that you really saw things being behind each other on different levels. Bill: Almost like Disney’s multi-plane camera they’d use in animation, where they would shoot layers of cells to give it a depth? Sid: That was the technique, and by the red and the blue lines, you were able to do that. What Harvey added, through this guy— whether he knew how to do it, or someone else—was True 3-D, it wasn’t on planes, it was actually an optical thing where… in one instance, it would’ve been a spear, but it wasn’t a spear done on five planes and pieces, it was a spear that went totally through! That it was diagonally into us, and they were always, in the books we did… oh, somewhere between seven to ten uses of that, and it really was far beyond what anyone else was doing! I mean, I think the books were prize books for what they were doing at the time, and the first ones, Adventures in 3-D, and True 3-D #1, both sold in the millions. I mean, certainly, Mighty Mouse was the first big seller, and Tor also did well. I don’t think these two books were comparable, because we were beyond what Mighty Mouse did. But then, Harvey went crazy with the 3-D! They went absolutely crazy! I remember being with one of the Harvey brothers in a cab, going down to I don’t remember where (though it had something to do with 3-D), and he said, “This will revolutionize the industry! All books are going to be made in 3D!” But I said, “You can’t read the books! You’re forcing us—the artists—to approach stories in a certain way!” They couldn’t see it. They brought in about six or seven artists, and the whole department was doing 3-D, and they created something like 15 or 20 books that were all going on, 3-D Dolly, Fantastic 3-D, certainly Captain 3-D… I mean, a lot of the characters. Bill: Were you involved with those 3-D books of Harvey characters, too? Sid: I don’t think I was, much. I was involved in Adventures in 3-D, True 3-D, and 3-D Dolly, and a lot of it, they took printed books, and tried to turn them into 3-D. Bill: Who wrote your 3-D stories for you? Did you write any of them? Sid: No. I often wrote synopses, I didn’t do any actual scripts… the only writing I would do is if Warren and I, together, were creating a concept. I think Dick Kahn did a good deal of them, I can’t think of whether Nostrand did any, but I don’t know if he did. Bill: Did you ever give them a plot, saying, “Do so-and-so?” Sid: Yes, I worked that way a lot. One of the most famous stories was my plot, a thing called “Colorama.” But there was a good staff of writers. Remember, they didn’t want any of the editors to do any of the writing at all, and I think that was a good idea. When I worked later at Marvel, those editors did lots of writing, but they don’t write for their own books, they’d write for someone else, so someone else was editing them. I did some of that at Marvel, but at Harvey, the thing was the editors did not write, and that’s a good thing. It made me a better editor and less of a writer. Bill: How did you handle the editing over your course there? In June 2002

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other words, were you heavily involved in the plotting of your books, or were there certain writers you gave a little more leeway to, that you didn’t have to be as involved in, or were you always heavily involved? Sid: Always. Throughout! No matter what, starting with the adventure, the action… the war books. I’d select certain writers who I thought were suited. Bill: The same way with Dot, Lotta, Richie… ? Sid: Absolutely. Bill: Did you also serve as the art editor for your pages? Sid: For a good deal of time, yes. When Warren wasn’t there, I did. Certainly he would be the boss, the art editor, but also, even when we did, we’d talk about it together. Warren’s thing was more in terms of the character construction, and to try and show… some of his things were just great to see, how to construct, and his own thing was always a depiction of a panel at an angle, rather than straight-on, which gave you the depth, and he always tried to teach the art stuff. Bill: So in the ’70s, when you were pumping out your 30-odd Richie issues every two months, and your Caspers, did Warren serve as your art editor also? Sid: He’d come in! Bill: He did a lot of fixes for you? Sid: Right. He’d come in once or twice a week to go over art. Bill: That’s a lot of pages! [laughs] Sid: Well, I’d be selective. Also, to work on covers with him. All covers were handled by Warren and me. Bill: Were you usually autonomous, so far as the books went, so long as they sold and you stayed within the parameters of what the tastes were? Did you answer to someone? Sid: First, Alfred and then Leon Harvey. They’d go over the finished books, in order. They’d go over books like this, turning pages… none of them truly had a rich concept of what these characters were, because they made so many terrible mistakes—more Alfred than anyone—in pursing other things with it. I mean, as an example, Casper. Alfred was an Eagle Scout at a young age, and the Boy Scouts of America were very important to him, so we gave Casper to the Boy Scouts basically, to use in whatever way they chose. The Boy Scout people said, “Casper is white. We would like to have a black Casper. We’d like to call him Jasper.” [laughter] I swear to God! Alfred came to me and asked, “What do you think?” I truly said something like, “They’re out of their f*cking minds! How dare they? No way should we participate in this! To begin with, Casper is of no color. He’s not white, and that’s what it should be. You can’t even think of it!” I might’ve even threatened to quit if this was done. But it was so preposterous. He had no idea. He would also have things allowed, advertising

Above: One of Harvey’s stranger releases was the bizarre Fruitman Special #1, featuring collected reprints from Bunny (the relatively long-running teen title, seen below) of such characters as Perchival Pineapple (crime-fighting fruit vendor with the ability to change into fruit), Sooper Hippie, and Captain Flower (all featured on our cover!). ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Richie with money pouring out of his pocket and out of his cap… I mean, it was all the money end, not really understanding how you had to hide the money! They had no idea! What you could do, you couldn’t create new characters that would be on their own. Bill: Incidentals were fine. Sid: They were fine, but there needs to be limits on it! He had things that he had created. One of them was a kid who would always get awards. Another one was Billy Bellhop, who was a kid bellhop who wanted to be a hero. Alfred tried to throw me a bone, which was always the names, like Jackie Joker. Bill: But Jackie Joker’s alliterative. He’s in the Harvey tradition!

Above: An Eagle Scout himself, Harvey president Alfred Harvey would often lend the line’s characters to various non-profit organizations, such as UNICEF and the Cub Scouts of America. Sid relates an amusing story of politically correct members of the scouts suggesting Harvey create a “black” Casper. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 50

[laughs] Sid: Alfred offered “Sid Sports,” he said, “Wouldn’t that be good?” It didn’t sound good! [laughter] It’s ridiculous. So, after the very beginning, when you could really contribute to developing new characters, we weren’t able to create anything new. Honestly, I don’t recall what we might’ve come up with. But that became a hardship, so we decided the hell with it, we’ll build them into books they never paid attention to, so there we go. Bill: So in the ’70s, when you were pumping out these massive amounts of books, you were in many ways autonomous!

Sid: Oh, yeah, and that was part of the excitement. There was sort of our whole group, we were the company! Bill: Was it ever overwhelming? Sid: No. I mean, what it would be is kind of a thing where, “Jesus, Richie’s got ten books, I think we ought to try three more, come up with some titles.” So then you go Gazillions, you go for Silver, Vaults of Mystery, whatever. Bill: Was there a philosophy that was, “If two sold, three would sell. If three were selling, four would sell,” and they just kept tacking on numbers? Sid: We used to add like one each time! [laughter] Then we’d do three more! It worked! There was enough interest in Richie Rich. And this was all prior to Richie being on television! Bill: And there was no marketing staff, no research staff? The decisions were all just based on the circulation numbers? Sid: Right, and the sales figures were incredible. It was a phenomenon! Bill: You probably had more autonomy than pretty much any other editor in comics at the time, right? Sid: Well, I think Stan Lee had more. And my autonomy was within limits. Bill: As long as you stayed within their parameters, it was true freedom. Sid: Which is what made it work. That’s why Warren, myself, Ernie Colón, Lennie Herman, Stan Kay—to a degree, Howie Post—we loved being with each other, we respected each other, and we created good material! And you knew you had the freedom, and you really, basically, paid no attention to management. [laughter] Leon had to approve the covers, and after a time, he appreciated the art. Still, we’d sometimes plead, “Come on, Lee!” Bill: Chuck Jones would say that the Warner Brothers’ cartoon studio boss, Leon Schlesinger, would come into the art department and say things like, “Hey! What kind of cartoons are you working on today, fellas? Oh, that looks like that would be funny,” and then he’d leave, go to the racetrack or do whatever he did. In a sense, it seemed like the Harveys had their own projects they were busy attending to, as long as you held down the fort. Sid: Absolutely. They got into the big things, they got the money! [laughter] There was one point where Casper became a symbol for one of the Apollo moon shots. Bill: Wasn’t he also a UNICEF spokesman at one point? Sid: Yes. They went down to the launching down in Florida—and I forget which Apollo mission it was—but they would take the glory at the Cartoonists’ Society, because they kept the cartoonist who drew the image anonymous. Bill: Did Warren Kremer work with the artists at all? Sid: Sure. Bill: And he would do corrections: “This panel needs to be redrawn,” and things like that? Sid: Beyond that! He would take a piece of vellum and show the artist how it should be done! It was tightly drawn! Yeah, I think particularly a guy named Ben Brown, who was an okay artist, he did a lot of Richie… [laughs] He really was so fast, and could do it so well… Bill: And he was always right, probably! [laughter] Sid: He’d say, “It takes me so long to do it! How can they expect me to do all this?” Bill: You mentioned that Stan Kay was an integral part of the equation? Sid: Oh, absolutely. Stan Kay became, for a good period of time, a good link to Alfred. My history with Alfred has been up and down over the years. I had been very close to him for long years, and then when it was a part-time thing, all my deals and everything worked through him, and he really pushed me and did me well, and then… I forget what caused it, but I felt he really screwed me badly, and I had a bad time. I resented it, totally, and our whole relationship changed. Prior to that, we had a social relationship, very much, my wife and I were really friends with Alfred and his wife, Vicki. Al and I went way back to his early days, because of my sister, who worked for him long before I did. And then, he would be just put up with me. Then came a period when Leon was the head of the company, because Alfred was sick! He couldn’t do it by that time! An aneurysm had worked its bad way through him. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Bill: So Alfred had actual physical problems? Sid: Oh, absolutely. Leon became my savior and Warren’s, for a period of time, then Leon had a stroke, and I remember Warren was with him at the time, and he came running to me, telling me and we got his wife, and we all got him out of the building, because we knew Alfred might make a big to-do, because he’d resented the fact that he’d been replaced by Leon by the board of directors. I was a member of the board of directors. But that was… once that occurred, that was the whole beginning of the end of the company. It became three different factors: Two wives and Alfred. Bill: And the “range war” begins. [laughs] Going back to Stan Kay for a second, what did he work on, certain characters? Did he do pretty much everything for you? Sid: Early on, when he was first introduced to us, he worked on Felix the Cat. He came in from King Features, where he worked with Joe Oriolo, and Joe came in to work on the original Felix the Cat, and Stan was presented as part of the package that also included Jack Mendelsohn. Then I became very friendly with Stan while he was still at King, and he began to do other stories for me. The thing that he did best was these wonderful Casper stories! Then we created a book, Richie Rich and Casper, and it was done in a way where Richie never knew whether he really ever met this ghost or not, the way it was done, you could interpret it in different ways. He did all those stories, and they were very, very good. And then, he did some kind of editing at different times, then worked with Alfred, when I got into that, because then Alfred took him to do Boy Scout projects and that sort of thing. Bill: In a sense, Stan was your on-call editor? You’d bring him on to edit at times, and other times, he would just write? Sid: Stan would come in twice or three times a week and then work at home the other two. This is after he left King Features, and he was also teaching at the Kubert school at the time. I was very close to Stan. Bill: You worked with a writer named Ralph Newman? Sid: What a huge contribution he made! He was a very, very decent man. My guess would be that certainly he wrote more stories than any other writer who ever worked for me. He was a good cartoonist, and a consistently good writer. For instance, he did most of the Little Dot’s Uncles and Aunts stories. But he could do a lot of Richie, he created Cadbury… he cared about what he did! He did some Casper (which wasn’t great, but it was good), and he’d come in every week from Connecticut, and write scripts the equivalent of probably 40 comic book pages a week. He also did cartooning and some other kind of things, but primarily, this was his work. He worked diligently, he worked hard. He wasn’t the funniest man in person; the funniest man in person I ever knew was Lennie Herman. There was a kind of soft fun about what he did, and he was a good cartoonist fun, and he fought you on every story, [laughter] but there was a long period when he’d come from the northern peninsula of Michigan. He’d have sent me story synopses before, so we’d sit for two, two-and-a-half hours, and talk about them, and he was very important, all the long years, and consistent, long years. He started early on, possibly before Stan. Bill: How would you describe the sense of humor Ralph brought to the books? Whimsical? Slapstick? Sid: I think slapstick, typified by the uncles and aunts stories, which is a kind of old-fashioned humor. I think he wrote strange stories to a good degree! [laughter] He’s the one who came up with the original SupeRichie stories, a simple idea. He couldn’t write real adventure. Someone like Carl Wessler would do more adventure stories with Richie or any of the others. But Ralph worked as a writer in animation, so… I guess he had an animated film kind of sensibility, that’s what it was. I should also bring up Larz Bourne. Bill: Who worked in animation for years! Sid: Larz was an absolutely sensational, visual writer. He did a lot of terrific Little Dot stories, and others, too. I loved working with him. He went out to California. Bill: Bourne worked at Hanna-Barbera for a long time. Sid: Yes, and I kept on trying to tempt him to do more and more for me. He said he just didn’t have time. I think he passed away some time ago. Bill: Right. June 2002

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Sid: Did you ever meet him? Bill: I had some friends who worked with him, but I never met him. Sid: I liked him. He had a

heavy Southern accent. A big, burly guy. Bill: You mentioned Carl Wessler. I know he also did work for DC. Sid: That’s right, he did a lot of straight stuff. Bill: He did a lot of horror stories for DC, war stories, that type of thing. Did you use him a lot? Sid: For a period of time, I used him to a good extent. I don’t remember over how many years. I used Charlie Strauss, too. Bill: You said he was very good at the adventure stories. Sid: Yes, he’d have an adventure look on things. He didn’t write straight humor, so he’d do a lot of Richie stories, and then there were Casper stories that had elements of adventure. It wasn’t fairy-tale adventure. Bill: Oftentimes those stories were two-parters. Sid: Or three-parters! Even in Richie, there were three-part stories. Bill: You were saying the Richie and Cadbury super-hero stories you did. A lot of those stories were James Bondish, the way the villains were handled. Sid: Yes, there were some good, funny villains! There were also some funny villains. One of them was a Ralph Newman creation, the Onion. Bill: I remember that! Sid: It was very funny. Carl Wessler would do more of the real satanic ones. Bill: The villains always reminded me of James Bond in the ’60s, since at many times they were megalomaniacs who wanted to rule the world. Sid: Or in a way, like the old Dick Tracy villains. I think that Newman did more Dick Tracy-type villains. I thought the Onion was hilarious, and he used the villain a lot. Bill: You also mentioned Lennie Herman. Sid: Lennie Herman wrote the very best single kind of story. Lennie wrote primarily five-page stories, not longer ones, and he was in and out. But I think the concepts were funny, and to me, he was the funniest. It took him a bit to get the feel. He was a terrific cartoonist. Bill: When did he start working with you, early on in the run, or was it more in the ’60s? Sid: Probably the ’60s. He was perfect at the little stories. There was a good period of time at Harvey, and during the period of time Lennie worked for us, where we shared a floor with a Wall Street firm. This was in the Gulf+Western Building. It’s now part of the Trump Tower. He had been working for us about five years, and there was a bathroom on the floor that we shared with a stock brokerage. Lennie went out to the bathroom, and Robert Harvey was there in a nearby latrine, next to him, and he said, “Hey, how’s

Above: In a successful appeal to girls—a big percentage of Harvey’s readers—the bullpen created Casper’s horse, Nightmare. Detail by Warren Kremer from Casper Vol. 2, #19. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: The Richie Rich comics group exploded in the ’70s, as new title after title was released. Some featured interesting teamups, such as the Ernie Colón drawn RR Meets Timmy Time. Others left much to be desired, such as the nonsensical RR and Billy Bellhops, the latter a Miami hotel worker created by Harvey president Alfred Harvey’s son, Russel. Below: Other new cast members, including Jackie Jokers, Billy, Adam Awards and Komix Kid—the last two creations of Alfred’s oldest boy, Alan. Nap Sack ©2002 Lorne-Harvey Productions, Inc. Bill Bellhops © 2002 Russel Harvey. Adam Awards, Komix Kid ©2002 Alan Harvey. Jackie, Richie and Mr. Rich ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

the stock market going today?” Lennie said, “I don’t work for them, I work for you!” That gives you an idea of just how much they knew of who we were and what we were doing! Bill: Did Lennie write all the characters for you, or was it mostly Richie? Sid: I don’t remember him writing Casper. He also worked as an editor. Bill: So he was someone else you’d bring in on occasion? Sid: Yes. But I think he wrote primarily Richie stories, which were so good. And then, he became part of our group that went to Marvel. Bill: You, Warren Kremer, Ernie Colón, and Howie Post? Sid: That whole group. Lennie died while we were working for Marvel, and so did Stan Kay. He did a lot of Top Dog and Planet Terry, and it was hard because it was a continuous story. But I think he did some brilliant stuff. Bill: He was a relatively young man when he died, wasn’t he? Sid: He had to be in his late forties. He’d had two heart attacks, and wouldn’t give up smoking cigars or caffeine, all kinds of crap. What a guy. I can’t bring up Lennie to Warren without him becoming tearful. Bill: There were such bonds between you guys! Sid: Oh yes! Bill: You also mentioned Ernie Colón, another great artist you used on Richie. Sid: Richie, Casper… primarily Richie and he also drew Wendy. Bill: Other than Warren Kremer, his Richie Rich was the best. Sid: He rivaled Warren. Bill: His Richie stuff was really, really good. Sid: Absolutely. He was a more modern, slick-looking Richie than Warren’s. Streamlined. He’d stray from the model! To this day, he still strays from model! But it was so good. He was very, very good. He was the only one, I’d say, who could draw as good as Warren, even on Casper. His Casper wasn’t as perfect as his Richie, but it was good. His Casper was certainly next in line to anyone else but Warren. Bill: Did Ernie start work with you in the ’60s? Sid: Oh, yeah. He worked in the art department at Harvey. He

started there, and then went out on his own. Bill: I know he also served as editor at DC. Sid: He did some writing, but not a great deal. Bill: He’s a talented guy. Sid: Very. Bill: Howie Post did a lot of pages for you, a lot of one-pagers. I can always spot his artwork because it always had an impish quality to it. Sid: It’s funnier than any of them, I would say. It was sometimes off-model. But it was always good within his style. He did Spooky, Hot Stuff, and Audrey. He did a lot of writing through it. Bill: His Spooky and Hot Stuff were a lot of fun. Sid: Yes. Bill: When I was a kid, I remember Howie’s Hot Stuff being the more impish type of character. Sid: Right, and the drawings were. My affiliation with Howie goes way, way back. Bill: Was he in the office much? You said he was more of a freelancer. Sid: Yeah. He worked for other companies, and had his own studio. He lived in New Jersey, moved into my community, and then had a studio for long years in New York with his best friend, John Prentice, the guy who drew Rip Kirby (who also worked at Harvey for a lot of years, way back). Ernie, John, Dan Barry and Leonard Starr all had a studio together. Bill: Wow! That must’ve been an interesting place! [laughter] Sid: In my early days at Harvey, I was writing Flash Gordon with Dan Barry, and didn’t know any of the other guys, and I never met Howie there, but then later, when Howie and I became friends, he said, “I was there!” A lot of these guys lived there. Afterwards, he and John got a place similar to that, had a studio together in Manhattan, and then he worked out of there, and he’d just bring pages over. Ernie would also do work there for Harvey, and Warren worked basically as an editor. Bill: You just had a real sense of community? Sid: Oh, absolutely. Bill: You were all very good friends outside of work, weren’t you? Sid: Oh, absolutely! It was great! We really hung out with each other, beyond this, we loved each other! Bill: You hear stories about cartoonists, in the ’30s and ’40s were notorious drinkers. Sid: But we weren’t. I’d hear about a lot of the newspaper cartoonists. Bill: That’s what I’m saying. Sid: But the whole newspaper field did! [laughter] I think there was good reason for it, because you had to wait for the press! You had to wait for the run! So you were there to get proofs. So you hung around, went out to dinner, had some drinks, and came back, worked until the proofs came in, then you had to go over there to make changes for final editions. So you had all this time, and there were always bars around whatever newspaper you were at, and that’s where they hung out! They went from one into the other! I remember this from my first days at a newspaper. Then, through my friendship with Gil Kane, who had parties at his home, there was a huge Connecticut community of comic book artists, cartoonists, etc., and many of them liked to drink! Bill: That’s back when drinking was drinking, dammit! [laughs] Sid: But none of my people! I mean, they drank, but I don’t think any of them drank like those cartoonists. Bill: Let me ask you about Sid Couchey, a man who did a lot of work for you. Sid: He did a lot of work on Dot and Lotta, and sometimes on Richie. Bill: Did you use him a lot? Sid: Yes, I did. He did an awful COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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lot of stories over several years. He was originally in Jersey, then he moved to upstate New York along Lake Champlain, and he would do, I don’t know, maybe a story a week. He kept on for many years. Bill: Was he the artist on Lotta whose style that perhaps wasn’t as fluid as, say, Warren Kremer? Crude isn’t quite the right word, but it certainly was its own little style. Sid: Sid did have his own style, probably a little cruder than Warren’s. And, if it’s true, almost anyone was cruder than Warren’s. But Couchey’s work had a certain humor, style, cartoon-like effect to it, and I think it worked for us. He must’ve worked 20 years, if not more, for Harvey. Bill: His Lotta stories stand out, you can look at the style and tell it’s a little different, but the odd thing is, the characters are designed so strongly, it works! It’s almost like Howie Post’s style was different, but it worked for his humor. Sid: Howie was a little more fluid than Sid. Bill: You mentioned a guy you used a lot named Dick Kahn, and I thought that was an interesting story. Sid: When I first came to Harvey, I did mainly horror and war stories, and Dick Kahn was probably the major writer there for those two, and he also did a lot of romance for us. He did the script on “Colorama,” which was really a damn good story. At an early Harvey Christmas party, a very drunk Howard Nostrand was introduced to Dick Kahn. Nostrand asked him if he was the guy who went into Jewish-owned firms and said he was Jewish and then to Christianowned firms and told them he was Christian. Well, we were all embarrassed by this, and, of course, Dick said he didn’t know what Howard was talking about. I became quite friendly with Kahn and he invited me one Friday night to come up to his apartment in Washington Heights where his mother would make us a great, traditional boiled chicken dinner. I went and it was wonderful, and Dick certainly did present himself as Jewish. Years later, when the kind of stories Kahn wrote were no longer bought, he did a very brave thing. In his early to mid-thirties, he decides to go to med school and was accepted at one in Montreal. He took off for Canada and we wrote to each other for a while and then stopped. While he was gone, the accountant at Harvey, Fred Stevens, told me that Kahn’s checks were always endorsed with the signature “K. Ignatius, same name.” Did I know what that meant? I said that I didn’t. Some time after this, I went to an art show that featured the work of the mother of a friend of my daughter, Kathy. They were a

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family of Armenian Americans. Hanging next to the mother’s work was a piece signed by someone named Ignatius. I asked the woman if she was related to anyone who had worked in comics. She said yes, her cousin Konnie (I believe that was the spelling), who went by the name of Dick Kahn. Years later, I did bump into Dick Kahn and we greeted each other warmly. He had become a doctor and handed me one of his business cards. On it was his Ignatius name! “Oh,” he said, “You know how people don’t want to use Jewish doctors!” So, Howard Nostrand, in his drunken stupor, was indeed correct! But Dick was a terrific writer! [laughs] I’m sure those practices don’t happen much today. Bill: It’s funny how most of us writers or artists become alcoholics, or derelicts, or homeless, he winds up a doctor! [laughs] Sid: Well, it was an amazingly courageous thing! I remember at the time, I was so taken by it! Bill: It’s more common now, but back then, it must’ve been pretty rare. Sid: It was extraordinarily rare! But he knew what he could earn doing comics, and I guess he knew he could go far above that by becoming a doctor. Bill: When did he leave Harvey? In the mid-’50s basically, when all the horror work slowed down? Sid: Yes. Bill: So you must’ve ran into him again in the mid-’60s? Sid: Oh, probably, yeah. He was a great-looking guy. [laughs] He was delicious, he was absolutely delicious!

Above: Who said Harvey Comics didn’t produce super-heroes in the 1970s? Here’s, from left to right, Rippy and Crashman (we’ll leave it to you to guess their secret identities) from Super Richie (later Superichie). Detail from #11. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: Two titles that never made it past a single issue apiece were Richie Rich and Billy Bellhop (left panel, artist unknown) and Richie Rich Meets Timmy Time (art by Ernie Colón, who was allowed to sign the work, a rare thing indeed!) ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: With Harvey on hiatus from publishing in the ’80s, Marvel Comics attempted to seize the children’s comics market by creating a new imprint, Star Comics. Then the House of Ideas raided the same competition, hiring Harvey’s top-notch creators, including Warren Kremer, Ernie Colón, and Howie Post, and even placing longtime Harvey editor Sid Jacobson to helm the entire line. While much of the output was devoted to licensed titles, such as Heathcliff, Strawberry Shortcake, and The Ewoks, at least one was a bald-face rip off of “The Poor Little Rich Kid,” a young wealthy lad by the name of (note the initials) Royal Roy, a character abruptly cancelled after only six issues when Harvey threatened legal action. Still, the imprint did produce some notable work. All characters ©2002 their respective copyright holders. 54

Bill: Like a raconteur? Sid: Yes! He looked a little like Louis Jordan, a dapper individual like that. That’s a favorite story of mine. Bill: Let me ask you about inkers. I know that you used a lot of female inkers, which was rare, as your books evolved. But I don’t… did it start that way, or how did this…? Sid: The first inker we ever used was really an extraordinary guy named Lee Donahue. Lee was a terrific inker. He was a great character, did some amazing things. A very dear friend, especially to myself and Ernie Colón. I think Ernie had a studio with him at some time. Lee had been a Hollywood actor, a stand-in. He was also a racing car driver, and also became a radio disk jockey for a while, kind of a prominent one! In fact, I was on the air with him several times, and he’d do a lot of my songs on the air. But he died too young, after all of this, driving at a trucking company, and was killed on the road. He was a spectacular inker… slow but spectacular. He really set the pace of fine inking. I don’t know if I mentioned it here, but Leon Harvey was really into this, this was the one area that really caught him, and he knew inking, and he pressured people into doing this fine work. Bill: So he was very good. Sid: He was terrific. But he couldn’t handle the pace. When we expanded, we needed more people. Lee had been an inker at Famous Studios, so we began to do the same thing, of dealing with inkers

from animation studios. I know the first group, but I don’t know where they came from. The first two women inkers were Helen Cason and Ruth Leon. They were so terrific. They worked much the same, they were very neat inkers, they were precise. They started in animation, and I believe Harvey had the best of them in the field. Bill: It was real common in animation back then for women to ink cels, or wash cels. The men tended to do most of the animation at that point. Sid: That’s probably how it happened. Those two women, and then Jacqueline Roettcher. She also came from some studio. Later on, she went out to Los Angeles to work with Ralph Bakshi and was soon running the production of the studio. She probably worked for me the longest, until she died soon after I came to California. They really were three terrific inkers! I mean, they turned out a goodly number of pages. Only one of them, Ruth, was married, and she was also a very good fine artist. So, she gave less time to it, the others, this was their total employment, total work. Bill: They must’ve cranked out an amazing amount of pages, considering how much work you were doing in the ’60s. Sid: Yeah, I try to remember how much… I would say they probably could do maybe ten to fifteen pages a week each, if not more. Maybe more, I forget. We were churning it out, certainly, there were so many books. These three were our prime inkers. Though, for awhile, others would come aboard. But those three women were really our prime inkers, and then Lee Donahue, until Lee went on to one of his other enterprises. Still another woman who did a lot of work for us was Roberta Edelman, who probably worked for us for about ten years. Bill: Didn’t Warren Kremer’s wife, Grace, letter for Harvey? Sid: Yes. Actually, Warren’s son, Peter, was a very fine colorist, and he worked for us. I guess in the last work I did for Harvey. Bill: Did you have any colorists you used all the time? Sid: Well, our prime colorist was a guy named Joe Coleman. In the early years, he did all the coloring. A huge amount. Certainly the coloring in the Harvey titles wasn’t complicated, much more simplistic and solid, with little shading if any, than the books of DC or Marvel. There was solid color through it all. It was easy for him, he turned out an awful lot of stories. I know Stan Kay’s wife, Isabel, did a lot of coloring for us later on. There had to be someone else, but I can’t quite recall at the moment. Bill: Did Grace Kremer mostly letter her husband’s work? Sid: Yes. It was just easier that way. Pretty much every story Warren would do, she would do the lettering. The covers, by the way, were mostly done by Warren, who also did the coloring. He was great at coloring. Bill: Wow! He must’ve drawn in his sleep! [laughs] Sid: It’s uncanny! Bill: Your main letterer for a time was Joe Rosen. He and his brother Sam, of course, were also at Marvel. Could you tell me a little bit about them? Sid: I think there were four Rosen brothers, three that did lettering. One did at least part-time lettering. Joe once told me the story that he had come to the brothers and said, “I’ve got an easy way to make money,” and they started doing comic book lettering, and Sam was the oldest, he started first, then Joe, and by the time I came to Harvey, Joe did pretty close to all the Harvey books, except whatever Grace put out… this was our basic lettering staff! When we needed more lettering, Joe would say, “My brother Ted can do it.” So, Ted did some of the work. I remember Joe was very bright and very quiet! I remember going only once to their house in Brooklyn, where at least two of the brothers still lived with their mother, and there was a long table where they worked set up in the basement, and they lettered page after page after page! While they worked, they never said a word to each other, simply lettering away! But they were tremendous! Joe was my favorite letterer, certainly. Bill: Joe and Sam never got married? Sid: I don’t know about Sam, but as far as I know, Joe never did. Bill: It seems like they just worked, that’s what they did! Sid: Yes, I know. What sad times they had, when they did that. Bill: He certainly had a clean lettering style, though. Sid: Oh, it’s terrific. Harvey paid rates that weren’t very high. It was competitive, better than Archie, but it couldn’t compare with DC and COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Marvel. The attitude was, “Look, by this time, you were dealing with animation, and animation was drawn simpler.” When I first came to Harvey, a guy like Warren Kremer would make $40 a page for the horror and war material. He was mid-range. Someone like Bob Powell, who worked with a staff of three or four, was getting $35. The usual artist was getting $30 a page. Then, there was Lee Elias and Al Avison, who would get $50 or $60. But the letterers, somehow it stuck in my mind by the time Joe was ready to leave us, he was making $4 a page. I can’t translate this into today’s terms, but it was something like that. Joe eventually said, “I just had an offer and signed a contract with Marvel.” I said, “Are they paying you much more?” I can’t remember the figure, but I know it was something like going to $12 or $15 a page. For long years after that, Joe Rosen was the prime letterer at Marvel. You couldn’t pry money out of the Harveys. [laughter] You couldn’t get permission to use the artists and writer’s names in credits. What they promised was constant work, and they certainly kept that promise. Sometimes, people who worked for Marvel and DC would be out of work by early summer, because the Summer specials were all done, and they’d stop work. So they lined up at my door, looking for work. I would say they probably got something like eight to nine months of work at DC and Marvel. But we worked around the clock. We worked through the slow season, and there never was a letup, and certainly by then, whoever would take on work for me, I guaranteed them a job. Bill: In the ’60s, Archie and Harvey would routinely outsell Marvel and DC. Sid: Oh, absolutely. I’m sure Harvey outsold Archie! Bill: Both companies sold a lot of books, so why were the rates so low? Sid: I can’t even begin to tell you. When you’re dealing in animation, where animation artists certainly turn out more pages than illustrative artists. There’s no doubt about it! When I came to Marvel years afterwards, there were different rates for Star Comics artists than for Marvel artists. Bill: It didn’t matter how many books you sold? Sid: No! It was a question of time, you knew what could be turned out! An illustration artist could turn out two pages a day. But you know, some of these animation artists are going to pump out maybe three, four or five pages a day. Warren, I think, did seven. So it could be profitable! But I’m not defending the low rates, because I fought hard to get more money for these people. Bill: Whenever anyone asked you for an increase in pay rate, did you put on a helmet and go in there, knowing what you were going to be hearing, or did you tell them beforehand the odds of this happening are like winning the lottery? [laughs] Sid: Ernie Colón, who had put a good amount of work into Harvey in the art department, at one point went around me—which was perfectly fine—and went to Leon and got a raise, and that was good for him! He’d worked for these people, and was welcome to do more. Later, at DC, he wanted to do more illustrative work, and did it! Bill: What did writers make a page? For the illustrated scripts they would do? Sid: I remember the starting rate, but I can’t recall what it went up to. I think the starting rate was about $8 a page. Bill: And what was it for penciling? June 2002

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Sid: Penciling was $30 in those days. Bill: So in those days, if you could crank out a decent amount of pages, you could make not a bad living. Sid: Oh, and some of them did very well! Some of them did very well. Warren Kremer is proud of what he was able to do. Bill: Those rates are comparative to certain comic book companies who are still operating now! [laughs] Sid: To what Archie pays! They’re higher than Archie pays now, in relative terms! Bill: You also used an African American writer? Sid: I did, I’m trying to remember his name. Bill Riley, and he was a cartoonist. Bill: That was rare. This was in the ’60s, right? Sid: Right. He did a lot of stories for me for a period. Bill: After you left staff, you’ve consulted for Harvey at various times? Sid: Well, in different forms. I guess I was employed for about five, six years in all. Now, I do work for the new owners of Harvey on a

consulting basis. Bill: Did you want to add anything else about your Harvey experience with Jeff Montgomery? Sid: It was good. What they wanted to do was certainly get Harvey into the movies, and that did happen. Casper and Richie certainly were major films. Bill: They made a bad Baby Huey direct-to-video. [laughs] Sid: Well, their intention was a good one, but it went through changes. Bill: When you work on the characters, who were some of the creators who work with you now? Sid: Michael Gallagher, the writer. Bill: He’s the nephew of George Gallagher, the guy who created Heathcliff. Sid: Correct. He’s a very good writer, and so is Angelo DeCesare, who goes back, certainly… both of them worked for me at Marvel. I originally met Angelo in the art department at Harvey. And then there’s two people who had no affiliation with me during the Harvey and Star years, but I’ll mention them: Bill White, who has really been

Above: While we realize this inclusion is a bit off the chronology, we wanted to segue into the Warren Kremer interview with a look at two of the stars of his finest strips, Hot Stuff and Stumbo, seen in an early house ad. Note the cloven hooves on the little devil! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

continued on page 79 55

CBA Roundtable

Créme de la Kremer Harvey’s best artist talks with Ken Selig, Bill Janocha and Grace Editor’s Note BILL JANOCHA truly went above and beyond the call of duty in helping to see that Warren Kremer receives due attention in these pages. Our hearty thanks! Bill submitted a biography, which we’ve edited for print below: Bill is a freelance cartoonist and illustrator who has been studio assistant to Mort Walker on Gamin and Patches and Beetle Bailey since April 1987. Editor of the 1988 and 1996 editions of The National Cartoonists Society Album, for which he was nominated for an Eisner Award. He served as the NCS membership chair on their board of directors. As a child, he urged his mother to buy him the latest Harveys. Today, he is married with a young son, who is already an avid fan of the Harvey creations. Below: Warren drew the melange of Harvey characters for a calendar header in the ’60s. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment Inc.

Conducted by Bill Janocha Transcribed by Brian K. Morris If there is any impression Ye Ed hopes any reader of this Harvey Comics retrospective should walk away with, it’s that Warren Kremer is an extraordinarily talented artist. A master of design, character nuance and just plain exquisite drawing ability, he is perhaps the most underrated—or, even worse, ignored—comic book creator of significance in the industry’s history. What Jack Kirby is to superheroes and Dan DeCarlo is to teenage humor, Warren Kremer is to children’s comics. Overwhelmingly, that wonderfully accessible “look and feel” of the Harvey Comics is mostly due to this premier artist’s talents, as his versions of Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, and many other Harvey favorites, are the quintessential character designs. Though we had hoped a new Warren Kremer interview would have been the showcase for this issue, circumstances led us to transcribe this June, 1990 round table discussion with Warren, his lovely wife (and Harvey letterer) Grace, former Harvey art director and cartoonist Ken Selig, and interviewer (and assistant to cartoonist Mort Walker) Bill Janocha. Our grateful appreciation goes to Bill and Ken for their gracious support and dedication in helping Warren receive some measure of attention by the comics industry at large. This talk took place in Warren and Grace’s New Jersey home and the transcript was copyedited by Bill and approved by Warren and Ken.—Ye Editor Bill Janocha: [To Warren] Where were you born? Warren Kremer: In the Bronx, New York, down in the Mott

Haven section, lower town. Ken Selig: Warren always wanted a house, with a workshop and tools. Warren: Which I didn’t get it until I got this house in 1956. Bill: Who were your first influences in the field? Alex Raymond? Warren: Yeah, I loved Raymond’s work. He was the epitome for me, and I also loved Hal Foster’s artwork. Bill: So the newspaper comic strips were important? Warren: Oh yeah. Those Sunday funnies were so easily accessible, more than anything. Bill: You went to the School of Industrial Arts? Warren: Yes. It was right next to the Times’ printing building. 40TH Street on Seventh Avenue. The school was an old, old building, rebuilt in 1861. I’ll never forget, they had a plaque telling that the building was rebuilt and it was a real ancient building. Bill: Did you take the Landon course or study with different artists? Warren: Well, in those days, the instructors didn’t need teaching certificates, as long as they were working artists. In other words, if you were a working sign painter, you’d go right into the school and teach the kids what you knew. And that’s what they did. I had a sign painter teacher called Martin and he was a crackerjack letterer! Bill: As good as Grace? [laughs] Grace Kremer: [To Warren] That’s how you described me at the time, right? [laughs] Bill: Growing up in the Bronx, did you have an artistic family? Warren: Yes, and my dad was a sign painter. Bill: So art ran in the family? Ink in the veins? Warren: I guess so. Bill: You got encouragement? Warren: Well, I took a different path, naturally, than they did, but my family always encouraged me. They never told me, “Ahh, you don’t want to be an artist. You want to be a doctor!” None of that. Grace: A lot of people couldn’t make a living from their art. Ken: If you were a good sign painter, you were slated to be great. A sign painter has to put down a stroke so accurately, one swift move of the wrist. I think that’s where his greatness comes from, the fact that he was born a sign painter. You show me a sign painter and I’ll show you a born artist. Bill: [To Ken] How about your family? Ken: I had a very loving sister. I was born in old New York, grew up with a family life. I decided to work for the family. We had jobs delivering newspapers, selling pretzels… Warren: Did you eat up the profits? Ken: Yes, indeed. I looked forward to it. Especially sitting down there at six o’clock in the morning with that heavy smell of the pretzel dough baking! Oh, that great smell. Grace: With mustard? COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Warren: Yeah, the bakery was down a dark cellar. You always had these bakeries down in cellars and you wondered how did they ever keep the vermin out? You know, there had to be vermin. Ken: I guess because there was so much movement down there, the rats would stay away. Grace: No, no, no! They all had cats. There were mousers in my uncle’s bakery. Ken: That’s probably true, Grace. Warren: There was a speakeasy just across the way from me. When I was a child, I used to see the cops come and raid it and roll the barrels out in the gutter, hit them with an axe and all the beer would flow down the gutter, down into the sewer. Grace: And you’d see grown men cry! Warren: There was a pretzel factory right in the same building. Bill: So when did you start venturing more into getting your work published? You said you worked in the pulps? Warren: I have to tell you that when I was in school, I had a teacher named Bob Seaman and he used to come up to me and say, “Are you doing anything after school?” I’d say no, and he’d say, “You want to come up to my studio and help me?” I said, “Why, sure!” So he’d take me up to 59TH Street, into the same loft we worked in for the Harveys many years later—I used to work up there in the old Journal-American, promotion and advertising section… Ken: That was a two-story building. Warren: A loft, I remember. Ken: And that’s where you worked doing Sad Sack for King Features in that building. Warren: You’re right. Well, they had the entire loft. It was a promotion. I used to do presentations with them. Seaman taught me how to do presentations so that eventually when I worked at Ace Magazines, and they wanted to do a presentation, I made up a little dummy and gave it to them in the mail, they okayed it, and I did the finished presentations. Then I got a job in a publishing house for Ace Magazines. This was during World War II. They had dropped the atomic bomb when I worked there. I remember coming down the lobby and everybody was excited about the atom bomb. I didn’t know what the hell an atom bomb was! I had never even heard of it. Bill: So you started as an illustrator? Warren: Yes, I did. I just went up there with a portfolio. Ace had this editor named Fred Gardener. He couldn’t draw but knew what was good and he’d come look over your shoulder and say, “That’s enough. Don’t spend any more time on that. Get moving onto something else.” That way he got the magazine out on time. Bill: These were adventure, horror or gangster stories? Warren: No, one was a confession pulp called Secrets, the Revealing Romances! [laughs] Well, that’s what I worked on. Bill: It would be guy/girl stuff with women scorned, things like that? What reference were you using? Photos or models? Ken: It was all black-&-white, right? Warren: Those were pulp illustrations. Ken: The pulps really lasted up to the ’50s. Raymond Chandler was big in those

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days. Bill: So, then, that lasted until…? Warren: I think it was in 1939. I used to draw pulp illustrations and also did wash illustrations for the aviation book that was printed in rotogravure. Do you remember that process? They did comic pages in the ’60s, they put out an inquiry, it said “roto comics.” That was all of us: Broome and Avery and all of the cut off before. Yeah, St. John was doing that and he heard of me and called me to his office to do a story on roto in New York for his comic book, which I did. In one day, we shot every picture down in Greenwich Village. The photographer was a newsman and, boy, could he hustle! He didn’t want to waste any time. So I drew up the whole story in storyboard form and we’d go to a location and set the scene up with the shooter. Maybe take three shots and then go to another scene

Above: March 1975 pic of the legendary Warren Kremer at his art table in the Harvey offices. Courtesy of Bill Janocha. Below: Warren’s masterpiece, Stumbo the Giant, mighty protector of Tinytown, in a splash panel detail from Devil Kids #20. Though the character’s solo title was relatively short-lived, he remained as permanent back-up in the pages of Hot Stuff. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: Before becoming renowned for his unparalleled children’s comic book work, artist Warren Kremer toiled on the infamous Harvey Comics horror titles, including perhaps the most appreciated story of all, Black Cat Mystery #45’s “Colorama.” Warren used himself as model for this distorted cover portrait. Inset right: After the exploding head cover (seen on page 25), this has got to be the grossest Harvey horror cover of all time, ya think? ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

and shoot that. And St. John thought it was great. Names of the magazines? Let’s see, I’ll tell you who worked for one of the magazines I worked on: Warren… what the hell was his name? Yeah, that’s right. The guy who took [sounds like “Patchula’s”] place. He married Nadine French. Ken: Warren Smith? Warren: No. No, he knows Johnny Prentice and Leonard Starr. You know who I’m talking about. Ken: He took over from [sounds like “Patchula”]. Warren: What was his name? I can’t remember, so many years ago, back in 1946, ’47, ’48. Who the hell can remember? Ken: Was that a crossword magazine because you were at St. John? Warren: He wanted to make it like a Secrets magazine, you know. Ken: But was that a good seller? Warren: No, I don’t think so. It was a comic book and he had a roto gravure section in it and then the rest were comics. Ken: Is that where Harvey got the idea for a roto gravure line? Warren: I mean St. John took the bull by the horns and did it. Harvey never did it. Bill: Do you want to reject or make a stand on where you—? Ken: I cannot much for Warren. In 1954, Harvey Publications could probably do that and had some associations with guys who were

already in, just like Warren did with many people. And my association was with a guy named [sounds like “Mike Esposito”] who was a topflight artist who did the High School of Art virtually when I did. Warren: He was an animator, was he? Ken: He was an animator. He was at least four or five years older than myself, I thought. But Mike got work in the comic books field with Victor Fox. Did you ever work with Fox? Warren: No. Ken: Well, Mike got work with Fox and then called me in for some inking. Fox was a very cheap house to work for. I never got paid for the work that I did and doubt if Mike ever got the full amount of money that was due him. But the point is that Mike, being four years older than myself, had a cartoonist’s smarts which you could pick up fellow artists. You know, certain guys have a flair. Cartoonists always seem to have trouble taking care of business. Warren: I never met an artist yet who was a good businessman. [laughs] You can go all the way back to Rembrandt. His wife did all his selling for him. Ken: It was his mother-in-law, wasn’t it? Warren: I don’t know. Ask [Warren’s son] Pete about that. Who sold Vermeer's artwork? Ken: I figured it was one of the most impressive people at the time as in my life and Bill’s life. [To Grace] Is that a mother-in-law over there? Grace: Yeah. Ken: Did I say the right thing, Mom? [laughs] Bill: Okay, you were with St. John’s after World War II. Were you still with Ace Magazines, as well? Warren: Yeah. Bill: So what made you—? Warren: Well, Ace put out a string of comic books too and one of the first characters I ever drew was called Hap Hazard. That’s an interesting story: This guy gives me a call. He’s producing Ozzie books for Fawcett. He asked me did I think I could draw Ozzie. I used to be one of those artists that imitated everybody and I said, “I think so.” But it wasn’t Ozzie that I drew. It was a sub-character, Algernon, and I will admit I drew it to perfection. You know, I really made it look like him. I imitated the style, everything, and he liked what I did. The only trouble is I could never meet the guy, could never deliver the work to him. So he used to say to me, “This is my office. If I’m not here, slip it under the door.” And for years this went on, slipping the work under the door. I never saw the guy. [laughs] I’d get a check in the mail for the work. Bill: The racketeer of comics. If you didn’t have the password, you couldn’t get in! Warren: That’s how he did it. Ken: What happened to him? Warren: I don’t know. One day, it all ended and I never saw him again. That’s a strange relationship. All I know is I did the work and got paid, and that’s all I cared about. Bill: What was the title of the comic book? Ozzie? Warren: Ozzie and Harriet. Bill: And Hap Hazard Comics was with which company? Warren: Ace. Bill: So you’re venturing into comic books. Okay, it’s in the late ’40s now? Warren: Yeah. I came to Harvey in ’48, the year of the big crash. And they right away immediately put me on “Humphrey” in Joe Palooka. Oh, how I hated Joe Palooka, but they did it anyway. Bill: [Looking at the comic] Now, I don’t know who would have drawn this. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Warren: I’ll tell you. That was a two-man job. Al Avison drew it and I inked it. This is all my inking, all mine. [Looking at another comic] This I drew. Bill: “Humphrey” doesn’t do much for me either. Harvey was trying at that point. Joe Palooka was a pretty big property. Warren: Alfred Harvey always went in for these old-time artists. Ken: Ham Fisher [creator of Joe Palooka] was a good friend of Al’s. Bill: Like this “Little Max” here. Warren: That’s mine. Bill: Drawing, inking, or what? Warren: The whole thing. Yeah, drawing and inking. I used to ink like crazy. Look at that panel, crazy. Who the hell inks like that? Ken: You did! The covers are what’s remarkable. Take a look at that. Who could beat that? That’s a pretty good cover for many reasons. Logo, penciling, inking, coloring. Bill: That’s simplicity! Detailed enough but in my book, in which a lot of comics now, there’s just so much stuff on them, they all blend in. But you look at this and your eye goes to that. And they had a simplicity, a quick gag, it was an art in itself. Simple, bold line. Look how thick that line is. And in the original, you’re probably talking about lines this thick. Warren: Oh, you should have told me. I’ve got a lot of original covers upstairs I drew and inked. Ken: Nobody gives enough credit to the back cover strips, though. That’s what kept us in business. We had a lot of accounts on back and that’s what really paid your salary and mine. I miss advertising like that in comics and they’re not the same that they were. It’s not the same comics any more. Warren: Well, it’s just like the corner newsstand. There aren’t any more. Bill: So now you’re at Harvey? Warren: And I’m drawing “Little Max” and “Humphrey.” Bill: Now, the three Harvey brothers are there? Warren: Alfred, Leon and Robert. Alfred founded the company. When Alfred went on vacation, Leon minded the store. He saw that everything went out on time. And Robert Harvey handled the money. He did all the investing for the company. Ken: He also worked for the Brooklyn Eagle. Bill: Where is this office at that time? Warren: It was one of the empty offices they had at Harvey, which is in New York. Ken: 1860 Broadway, at 61ST Street and Broadway, one block up from where Warren worked for the Journal-American, over on the next street. An important part of information though, is that the Harvey family had a lot of affiliations with the newspaper people, newspaper cartoonists. Harvey republished a lot of the newspaper strips. Bill: They reprinted Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Warren: Yeah, Mutt and Jeff, The Katzenjammer Kids. I used to imitate those artists and do all their covers. I have a bunch of Mutt and Jeff covers upstairs I did along with some Katzenjammer Kids covers. Bill: Now, you weren’t working on Black Cat? Warren: No, that was Lee Elias. He used to draw the covers for that book. Bill: When you first started working there or throughout the time you were there, your desk is here and Nick Tafuri is over where? Is Howie Post there, too? Ken: Most of those fellows did freelance work, out of the office. Bill: [To Warren] But you were on staff, not a freelancer? Warren: Well, I was a freelancer but they liked my stuff so much that they asked me to come in and edit all their artists’ work, which is what I used to do. I had a desk and the artists would come in to see me and I’d sit down and go over their stuff and say, “You can do this better. You can change this.” And sometimes, they’d argue with me because they had to make changes. Other times, they saw what I was getting at, you know? They agreed and would make the changes. Ken: Warren was a very good art director because he had the ability to be extremely critical in a way that made instant sense. Warren: Yeah, but you could also antagonize people. Ken: Well, you did antagonize me, too! But never once did I want June 2002

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to take a club to you. That’s because there was something genuine about the way you would criticize. You had your own style, in other words. Yeah, you were a pain in the ass, of course, but we learned so much from you. Warren: Well, that’s good. I’m glad. Ken: More to the point, you were always a good friend to us. Just like you did for me personally, you always encouraged us. I got encouragement from other people too, but not half as much as I did from yourself. Warren: This is all news to me! [laughs] Ken: Why shouldn’t I tell you? Warren: Well, I don’t know. Ken: You were just there at a time when we needed you and when I didn’t need you, I let go of you. [laughs] Bill: This from a man who has to wear rubber bands on his forearms! Ken: I should carry around an explanation to show everybody! You see, when I work, it stops my hands from slipping on the paper. Bill: You can grab your hair and go [pretends to pull hair] “Ow, ow, ow.” That wakes you up, too. [laughter] Ken: All right, all right. Warren: You just reminded me of one of my pet peeves: When I used to call up artists and I tried to get

Above: When Ye Ed received a package of material from the generous and articulate Ken Selig (who currently freelances for Archie Comics), he gasped to come across this truly exceptional (albeit unsold) sample Sunday strip produced in 1955. Ken tells us he also put together two weeks worth of dailies. Please, K.S., dig ’em up so we can print this lost treasure, okay? Below: Recent shot of Mr. Selig, courtesy of the man himself.

Above: Contributor Bill Janocha informs us that this Richie Rich cover image carries special significance for cover artist Warren Kremer, with the master going so far as having a poster made of it. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

them to use an arm sheet. When you drew, you need to put a piece of paper under your arm so you don’t smudge the work, smear and get body oils over it. Because the inker would complain that the inks wouldn’t take because it would spread from the oils that came from your arm. Ken: That’s the first time I heard that! I’d be inclined to say, “That’s too damn bad.” [laughs] But body oil might do something to improve the penciling, you never can tell. Bill: A personal signature. Warren: Not on my pencils! Ken: A little DNA in every piece. [laughs] Bill: Where did you meet Grace? Warren: Ah, Grace! We hired her. When I was at Ace Magazines, every artist we ever hired was a man and they were all getting drafted and going into the Army, including me. Grace: Damn that War! Warren: Only me, they didn’t want because I had a hernia, which I still have to this day. So my boss said, “To Hell with this. Let’s hire some girls. They won’t get drafted.” Grace went to Pratt Institute and when she came up and showed her work, I said to my boss, “Grab her.” [laughter] Ken: Grab her literally? Warren: Hey, I worked well over a month before I even looked at her!

Grace: [laughs] So you were just being professional? Bill: When did you start really looking at her then? Grace: With different eyes? Warren: When she came up one night with her uncle. She was going out and had a fur hat on. Oh, it knocked me out. Grace: You’d think it was so beautiful. Bill: Did she get a raise in pay or what’s the deal here? [laughs] It’s kind of like, “No, no. I want $25 a week now.” [laughs] Warren: No, she was just lucky she had a job. Ken: What age were you, Grace, when Warren met you? Grace: Twenty. Ken: Just 20? Could we ever have been that young? Grace: Yes. [laughs] I really was. Don’t you remember when we used to— Warren: No. My mother included, always said I was born old. [laughs] Bill: Were you doing lettering of the comic books then? Grace: No, I was doing layouts, penciling and the title letters, really. Bill: The splash pages with some freehand and that kind of stuff? Warren: Oh, I have some of her later lettering. Bill: She did this and “Toast of the Town”? Warren: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, all of those. Bill: This would be done on the art itself or as an overlay that would be added separately? Warren: No, on the art itself. Bill: So the artist would just leave an area and you would—she’s answering the questions! Grace: I can’t remember. Warren: We had no separations. Bill: You used straight line shots on one piece of art? Warren: That’s it. Bill: Now, your lettering would be done separately, maybe glued down or some of it on boards, paste it like stats? Warren: Lettered it right directly on the artwork. We had a letterer called Joe Rosen who was so good. Grace: Well, he did comic lettering. We’re talking about the stories in the magazines. Warren: Oh. Bill: Oh, I don’t know. I’m just talking about whatever you’re talking about, whether it’s comic books or— Grace: When I first arrived, that’s what I did. I did the titles on the stories. Warren: Yeah, that’s true. That was called “reproduction lettering.” Bill: So you were doing lettering? Warren: They used to get paid by the letter! Five dollars a letter. Grace: Not me. I was on a salary. Ken: Did you know Otto Pirkola at that time, Grace? Grace: No, I didn’t. Ken: Otto was the art director for Harvey Comics, from about 1950 on. Otto would have been handling the things that Grace must have been handling at this magazine she mentioned, the title lettering. Bill: So you two were married in 1947? Warren: Yes, and we went to Mexico for our honeymoon. Bill: Harvey let you go, huh? Warren: [laughs] Yeah, for two weeks. It was like pulling teeth, trying to get two weeks out of them! Bill: Okay, you’re there. Now, at this point, you’re doing work on “Humphrey,” “Little Max,” and whatever characters. Is Casper coming in yet at this point? Warren: Casper came in the 1950s. Bill: This was when the company bought the rights? Warren: Let me backtrack just a second: Alfred was very interested in getting new properties. There were other things he wanted and had heard, in some way, that Paramount was going to sell their body of cartoons. You see, in those days, every movie company—Warner Brothers, MGM—had their own studios. Bill: Warner Brothers, Columbia had theirs. Very successful. Warren: Harvey went to Paramount to buy their properties, like Betty Boop, all of Max Fleischer’s. And they had Casper, Buzzy the Crow, and Baby Huey the duck. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Bill: Well, they had Little Lulu. Warren: And Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey… well, Little Audrey was a takeoff on Lulu. Bill: I heard that the price of Lulu’s license was so high, they said, “To heck with it! We’ll drop Lulu and we’ll just create our own.” That’s how Audrey was created. Warren: Something like that, yeah. Bill: They didn’t buy all the films, right? They only had the right to do comic books of the films? Warren: No, Alfred bought all the characters outright. In other words, if any character like Casper was on TV, Alfred got a piece of it. Bill: Was it Harvey Films? Warren: No, he created Harvey Films later. Hey, Ken? What was the name of the companies we used to have in the beginning when Harvey first bought Casper? Was it Harvey Entertainment? Ken: Harvey Famous Name Comics and Harvey Feature Syndicate. Warren: Yeah, those were the names. Bill: So Harvey was involved with film distribution? Warren: Alfred didn’t want to get involved in films. His business was publishing the comic books so he started to put out Casper comics. Bill: It would say, “The Famous Paramount Movie Star,” though sometimes not. The early Caspers would say, like, “Seen in Paramount Films.” Warren: Exactly. Sid Jacobson became the editor of Casper. Sid wanted somebody to draw Casper and asked me. I said, “I think I could do it.” He said, “Well, give it a shot.” So I started to draw and you saw what I did upstairs. The early stuff was terrible. I mean, compared to what I wound up doing. Bill: I liked the early stuff, though it did get a lot better later on. Grace: [To Warren] You’re too critical. Bill: Still, the early material did have a distinctive look. At the same time, Marty Tares was also drawing Casper? Warren: Let me explain something: In the beginning, it wasn’t just me drawing it. They went to Famous Studios and asked guys like Dave Tendlar, who used to draw Casper. Bill: He used to do stuff for Jingle Jangle Comics, too. He was already freelancing. Warren: Well, he had drawn Casper on the screen. Bill: Oh, yeah. He was one of the animators. Warren: So did Steve Mufatti, an excellent artist. He was my mentor. Bill: Did he do the Little Audrey daily-type strip, like a daily strip that would run on the story pages? Warren: Yes. He drew that. Ken: Those were compiled from the King Features strips that ran in newspapers. Bill: There was a Little Audrey newspaper strip? It wasn’t just a sample that didn’t happen? Ken: No, I thought he did an excellent job of using a pen, by the way. A Gillotte pen, rather than a brush. So few of us use a pen and we all use a brush. Warren: He kept those pens anyway. Ken: Oh, you can get the Gillotte but it’s not the same. At any rate, Steve Mufatti did the Audrey strip, and did a very commendable job of it. Bill: All pretty much pantomime, wasn’t it? Largely the ones I saw. Ken: Yeah, largely that although there was some dialogue. But whoever the writer was on that, it could have been Muffati himself. Warren: Larz Bourne. Ken: Hey, that’s good writing. Warren: Yeah, he was a terrific writer. Funny as hell. Ken: Did he ever come into comics? Bill: Yeah, Larz Bourne created Deputy Dawg. He did a lot of the writing for the Terrytoons, especially in the ’60s. Warren: You know the Audreys I’m talking about? Bill: I’ve just seen them in comic books and it looked like a newspaper strip. But I have no data or have seen in any book that there was an Audrey strip. So you’re confirming there was a short-lived newspaper strip? Warren: Yeah, I remember seeing the originals. Ken: Then, Mike [sounds like “Guard”] at Harvey Comics, being a June 2002

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board man… Bill: I thought he worked at Famous. Wasn’t he one of the animators? Ken: Yeah, he was excellent. Bill: And this would have been freelanced out of the office. He would have brought it in. Warren: Alfred hired him right away, knowing he was the best thing that Famous had. And he was. Bill: And the same thing like Tendlar. Was Tendlar an artist of his brother’s comics, of Casper? Warren: Dave Tendlar. Well, he did one or two jobs, nothing to speak of. Ken: But he also mixed a great martini! But one of my first jobs at Harvey, as a board man, was to take the black out of Little Audrey’s hair because in the comic book Audrey was a redhead but her hair was filled-in with black for the black-&-white strip. So when Harvey converted them to the comic book pages, and they hired me. [laughs] Warren: That’s what you had been doing? Ken: That’s what I was doing and now I could claim to be a cartoonist. Bill: Was Joe Oriolo involved in any way doing comic books or consulting?

Below: Commemorating the rare honor and distinction of having their flagship character be the name for Apollo 16’s command module, Harvey was quick to exploit the connection between Casper and the capsule, even going so far as to having a separate comic title, Casper Spaceship. Warren Kremer penciled this cover and gently encouraged a terrified Ken Selig that Ken’s inks—his first assignment at Harvey—were fine. Ken tells us the support was sorely needed! This image was repro’d from a Chemical Color “progressive proof” supplied by Ken. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Warren: Yes, he worked on Felix the Cat a little bit in the beginning. Bill: When Otto Messmer was doing most of it? Ken: That’s right. Bill: I just didn’t know if he was involved in this sort of Harvey stuff. Warren: He used to draw Felix the Cat for Harvey. Bill: So in the Harvey bullpen, you’re the only guy that’s there full-time, drawing and overseeing, and everybody else is coming in with their work. Warren: Correct. Ken: You were the entire bullpen, as such. Bill: Marty Tares, too? Warren: Yeah. Bill: Were you socializing with any of those artists? Warren: No, it was all business. In the beginning, there was an animated TV show video called Funday Funnies. I worked on the opening and closing segments. Bill: With Moe Hare and Toby Tortoise. So you did work in animation to some extent. Warren: I only drew early storyboards for it and they were sent to Famous and they did the animation. But they copied what I did faithfully. Bill: With this Funday Funnies intro, did you have the Harvey jack-in-the-box come out? Warren: Yes. I had all the balloons going up in the air, turning around and reading the Funday Funnies. Remember that? Bill: The Casper the Ghost show where you had Nightmare and they’re all ganged up over here with Wendy and the Ghostly Trio and then Casper. I haven’t seen it in 35 years! Warren: I wish I had a copy of it. In those days, there wasn’t any videotape. It was all out on 16MM. Ken: You did the penciling on that character that opened up the introduction on the video. Much to my surprise, you said to Leon, “Give it to Ken to ink.” And I was so hyped to think you’d want to use Ruth Leon or Willie Donohue. And I did such a lousy job of it. Warren: But you took it. Ken: Well, I didn’t fight about it, but my job really wasn’t that good. Bill: So the characters started to evolve into the ’50s. Warren: Sid Jacobson had a lot to do with it. He took characters like Wendy and made them a part of Casper’s world. In the beginning, there was no “good little witch girl.” Bill: Dare I ask you who came up with the ideas for Wendy, for Spooky, for the side characters, the Ghostly Trio? Warren: Different writers. Bill: Who’s writing? Are there writers assigned to different characters? Warren: Yes. Jim Mielie was one of the writers. Ken: As far as I’m concerned, Jim was one of the best. He had a peculiar way of writing, a very sentimental man. If you wanted a holiday theme cover, sign up Mielie because he would come back with something that would tear your heartstrings out. There was also Stan Kay, Lennie Herman but they were of a later vintage, weren’t they? Warren: Well, Stan Kay was around pretty long but he didn’t get into it, really. Ken: When did Lennie Herman come on the scene? Warren: Oh, very late. Ken: I thought so. But when they did arrive on the scene though, they made a mark. Harvey Comics had a very real personality stamp, different from other houses. Archie Comics was a good house because they also had equal caliber writers. In fact, they have now guys like Hal Smith writing for them. Warren: Remember [Archie cartoonist] Bill Vigoda? He was the brother of actor Abe Vigoda. Ken: Both houses were running neck and neck. Bill: Archie was pretty much going for the same market as Harvey. Maybe Archie was targeting kids a few years older. The characters were all cute. Who created that unique five-page story format? That was pretty early. Alfred? Warren: Yeah, the reason why was because— Bill: —of the short attention span of the readers? Warren: No, so you could get all the plates on one signature. Ken: The book

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was printed in signatures and we were hell-bent to cater to advertisers. We wanted to sell specific pages for advertising space. If we couldn’t sell the page to an advertiser, we used the page with a one-page filler. Warren: Also, you had to have that for Second Class entry, so you had to include a twopage text story to designate it as a magazine. Also, you couldn’t have the whole comic book devoted to just one character. You had to mix it up. Bill: Hot Stuff comics would have three stories of the character and always a “Stumbo” back-up. You’d have your entrance, the first page single-page gag, and then there would be two or three longer stories and the last would always be “Stumbo.” “Richie Rich” was always the back-up in Little Dot. Ken: We also had the comic book Harvey Hits which was a grab bag of Harvey characters. Each issue spotlighted fantasy characters or regular. Bill: Fred Rhoads did Gabby the Gob? Ken: Right. Bill: How were the rights acquired for Sad Sack? Ken: George Baker, of course, was the originator of Sad Sack but he wasn’t too much interested in doing the nitty gritty of his own work after the character had been established. So he proved his usual friend up at Harvey was also his publisher. They found Fred Rhoads but there were other guys along the way who came to draw it, including Frank McCarthy. Warren: George Baker had the greatest pair of gold cufflinks that I ever saw. Alfred had them make faces of Sad Sack, with the big nose? They were just beautiful. I always wanted something like that. Bill: Baker continued to do the covers until he died in ’75. Ken: The signature of George Baker was always on the covers. Warren: Alfred allowed that. Ken: The insides, though, gradually eased over from McCarthy to Fred Rhoads who did a most commendable job. In fact, I think he took Sad Sack even further than George Baker did, and I liked Baker’s work. I liked Baker as a person as well as a cartoonist. Unfortunately, in the later years, the character almost started to become vicious. Would you agree, Warren? Warren: I know what you mean. Bill: The covers, you mean? Ken: That it was no surprise it would appear there because you really got in the early George Baker Sad Sack, the character that you could respond to, you felt sorry for the guy. The other Sad Sack that came on the scene even later, started to be a little bit pugnacious. I didn’t care for that side of it. But to give Baker his credit, George started to become ill then, and nauseous, and that could have accounted for this new attitude of Sad Sack. Bill: Did you go to National Cartoonists Society or Lamb’s Club functions, to be with other comic strip people? Warren: Harvey personnel did not frequent the logical places that you’d think cartoonists would congregate, because Alfred was always afraid somebody would steal us! Bill: You weren’t probably told, “Don’t go there,” but it wasn’t encouraged. Ken: We did have our own watering holes though, if you wanted to call them that. I mean, everyone had their favorites. Bill: Of course, you all drank non-alcoholic beverages. Richie Rich wouldn’t even take beer. Ken: I wouldn’t even respond to that statement. [laughter] Bill: How do you recollect the creations of Richie Rich and Hot Stuff? Warren: Well, these new ideas were coming up from the editor and the story man. They’d come up with a story that would have to do with chauffeuring. Well, let’s have a chauffeur and they’d make up Bascomb as the chauffeur. Then they’d get somebody—Ernie Colón or whoever—to draw up a model shot. First thing you know, you had Nurse Jenny, Bascomb… Ken: Actually, Nurse Jenny was an Ernie Colón creation, right? Warren: Well, I don’t know who created her. All I know is that the writers used to inject these characters into stories. Bill: You mentioned Ernie. Can we talk about him? Ken: Ernie Colón’s talent is probably the stiffest challenge to Warren Kremer that existed, either in Harvey publications or out. [Points to Warren] An artist has to be damn good to be as good as him. What Warren Kremer had going was consistency, and [to Warren] this is not to put you down in any way, but

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Preceding pages: As Ye Ed just can’t seem to shut up about, Warren Kremer’s efforts on the Hot Stuff back-up strip “Stumbo” are among the best comics material ever published, whether by Harvey or any other publisher in the ’60s and ’70s. These two vertical splash panels (as well as a panel detail), show how innovatively the artist dealt with characters of such varied shapes and sizes. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Ernie is incredibly good. You are more like a children’s book illustrator as opposed to Ernie’s stories which look like they could have been drawn for Paramount Pictures. Ernie is an actor as well as a cartoonist. He always uses posture in his drawings. His drawings always had an association through some aspect of filmmaking. When Ernie was at his best, he was better than Warren Kremer because he was more adventuresome. Warren: But I never pretended to be adventuresome. Ken: No, that’s to your credit. You’re like Harold Foster with Prince Valiant to Ernie’s Terry and the Pirates. You know what would give the best vantage point for telling a story. If that happened to be a particular straight-on manner of portraying the characters, then you would concentrate on that aspect. You started to concentrate on the

Above: A very rare look at Warren Kremer’s pencil art, this one a rough for the cover of Richie Rich and Dot #2. This originally appeared in an issue of The Harveyville Fun Times! and is shown courtesy of Mark Arnold. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment.

look of the characters whereas Ernie would sort of purposely go out of his way to plant that character in a particular part of the panel, to give it a black-&-white look, as opposed to showing you mannerisms in the face. That’s why I say you were more of a children’s book illustrator. Warren: One thing I had going for me was storytelling, always. I had that right from the beginning for some reason or other. Bill: Ernie’s work would have been what characters and what time frame of the book? Ken: Well, Richie Rich with the emphasis on Cadbury. He did a superb Cadbury, didn’t he, Warren?

Warren: Yes! Ken: But then Ernie would dip into Casper… Warren: He did it like me. Ken: But always with a careful look at Warren’s work. Warren had, by that time, done a large volume of work to use as reference material. Ernie would be the first one to admit that’s where his work came from. The work that I have here which, from 1983 to 1990, the years I was the managing editor at Harvey, I had to do those covers, the gags, everything. There was only one person there. I also used Warren’s covers but I would steal from him. I would take a piece of tissue paper and I would take the best shot that I could find for the kind of gag I would come up with. I might couple that with something that I saw in Ernie’s work, too, or even Ben Brown, whoever was useful to me. Bill: Who was Ben? Ken: Ben Brown was also part of the staff at Harvey Publications. Warren: He was a good man. He did Richie Rich for a time. Ernie was like the principal artist of the Richie Rich artists. All of the covers have been Richie Rich stories too, probably, until it was cancelled. Ernie did most of the Richie Riches. Bill: So what years would that have been, the ’70s? Because there’s some Richie Rich stories that look a little more realistic. Warren: You mean less cartoony? Bill: Yes, less cartoony. Warren: Ah, that’s Ernie. Ernie was always on the border of the straight stuff, you know? Even in the beginning, I used to draw a lot of that war and love material. Remember [Harvey editor] Louise Hill? I used to work for her. Ken: One of Ernie’s influences was Tintin, I always suspected. Bill: I think Hergé’s one of the greatest! Ken: Well, Ernie thought that, too, and you see a lot of Tintin in Ernie’s work. Of course, this guy [points to Warren] might have influenced Hergé. We don’t know. And I mean that seriously because when did the first Tintin book come out? Bill: The late ’20s. Ken: All right, it’s the other way around. Hergé influenced my crowd. [laughter] Bill: I would have thought so. As long as you didn’t put that little signature like that swirl, like when they run away, that little spiral swirl. [laughs] Warren: What about Sid Couchey? I once instructed Sid on his drawing, his anatomy. I said, “You know, Sid, take a look at people. Whenever you see somebody, you watch the hands. The hands never come straight out of the arm. It’s always bent up, down, whatever.” It’s a true thing. Ken: But his became a legitimate style. [laughs] Warren: So the next time Sid drew a job, every characters had a hand go that way [angles arm up] and then a hand going down there [angles arm down]. He would drive me crazy on that! Bill: Who were the specific artists? Because as a kid, I’d never noticed anybody’s signatures. But whoever drew Lotta and Dot, there was a special style there which is different. Like a lot of the characters would run and their legs would be out, kind of a stretch. That was not the Casper style and that was not Howie Post, for sure. Warren: It could have been Couchey because he did a lot of work for us on Lotta and Dot. I didn’t draw that many Dots. But I drew every one of the covers. Bill: What characters did Ben Brown draw? Warren: Well, he did whatever was available. Whatever I couldn’t do, he did. You know, if I couldn’t draw Richie Rich that month, Ben did it. Bill: Also now, did Marty Taras, was he the sole Baby Huey artist? Warren: Marty was given nothing but animation stuff—you know, Casper, Wendy, Nightmare—but he never drew Richie Rich. Though he did draw Wendy. Ken: The Witch Sisters. Warren: Yeah, The Witch Sisters. Didn’t like that. In other words, Marty Taras would never work on Richie Rich because there was too much straight stuff in it. You know, the father, the mother. Bill: There were editors assigned to each book? I mean, there are a lot of books coming out. Warren: No, Sid Jacobson handled most of them—Casper, Richie, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Little Dot, the Hueys—he did them all. Bill: The artists came in and they handed the finished assignments to Sid? Warren: And he assigned the artwork, right. He accepted the artwork and sent it to the art department with my corrections (if I corrected them), and the job came back to him. He edited it, changed balloons, or whatever, and got it ready for the printer, and out it went. Bill: Lettering and coloring is done how and where? Warren: In the beginning, what was coloring? We didn’t have Xerox machines. Ken: We had silverprints. Warren: Silverprints, that’s it. I couldn’t think of the word. Ken: Yeah. The covers were all colored in the art department, which I was in. The silverprint was a copy made from the negatives at the Chemical engraving plant and they would pull a swift one with us. Warren: Yeah, it was work for them to do it. They didn’t always want to send us the stats. Ken: That’s true. But rather than sending it out for photostats, we’d just wait one day and get it back on the next delivery. We had daily pickups and deliveries. Warren: See, silverprints accepted color beautifully and photostats didn’t. In fact, they were awful for color. Ken: Yeah, with photostats, we would have to rub them down. Warren: With rubber cement. Ken: We’d use anything, any tricks. Warren: To get the acid out of the paper. Bill: Did you have a staff of just letterers or would the artists do their own lettering or did it vary? Warren: No, we had letterers. Grace was one and Joe Rosen was another. They pretty much handled everything for us. You have to remember, the lettering, they only got how much a page? Ken: Say, two dollars a page. Warren: Practically nothing. So if you didn’t do a lot of lettering, what the hell would you make? Ken: What did the writers get? Warren: Five or six dollars a page. Ken: I used to write for Jim Mielie and I’d get five dollars or six dollars for every page. Bill: How much would an artist get for a page? Warren: As low as Harvey could get it. Bill: I’m not asking you how much you made but can you give a ballpark figure? Ken: I’d like to know that! How much did you make, Warren? [laughter] Bill: What was the average page rate? Warren: I made enough. I used to work night and day. It was at least twice as much as what the writers got. Ken: Inkers made $11 a page, right? Warren: Yes, but the pencilers made anywhere from $15 to $26 a page. Ken: Twice that of an inker. Warren: I used to get $21.50 for the horror stuff. You know, “Amnesia”? Bill: Lee Elias and these books, Black Cat— Warren: Lee Elias was special. He got a lot of money because he was in a syndicate. Bill: He was doing Beyond Mars. Ken: Well, I knew Lee Elias before Beyond Mars or Black Cat. When I went to the Cartoonists Illustrators School, after I’d gotten out of the Army, I had Jerry Robinson as my instructor. I had done one page of assisting for Lee Elias on Beyond Mars because I was in his class. Lee Elias did a class too. Jerry Robinson had started up a strip called Jet Scott for the Herald-Tribune Syndicate and he asked me if I wanted to work on it. At that point, I didn’t think I was good enough and would have trouble. At any rate, Lee Elias also liked my cut so he got me involved in this effort, through the school, for doing Beyond Mars. It was through Beyond Mars that I got the very real break which I was looking for. Warren: What did you do on Beyond Mars? Ken: The inking. I inked Lee Elias. Well, it was just one out of two Sundays. He only did it as a Sunday strip. I did one page and when I June 2002

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say I inked it, those pages were so heavily penciled that you virtually weren’t inking, but just following the guy’s work, putting in the straight lines on his spaceships and whatnot. But the real

break came when I was called in to Silas Rose, the director of the school, after a show, and he was asking me if I wanted to work on Terry and the Pirates. Boy, did I! Because I could see myself as taking over Terry and the Pirates eventually, finally getting the glory kind of thing. So I said yes and then one week later, I got my Korea draft notice. And two-and-a-half years later, when I came back, the job, of course, was gone. Oh, they said I could have the job back. How could you put another man out of work? Well, I couldn’t do that. So my big break happened with newspapers, which I always wanted to be in, but not comics. Bill: A lot of people feel that the comic strips was the place to be with comic books being this anonymous art form. Ken: As it turns out, it was a harmonious thing because just like Warren’s work, you could not find that caliber of talent in newspaper strips. Bill: They seem to be separate worlds. Ken: So when Harold Piccolo called the school and said they needed an artist—this is after my Terry and the Pirates stint fell through—I welcomed the call from Harvey Comics because this was 1954, and Harvey Comics always had affiliations with newspaper syndicates. To me, working for Harvey Comics was still like working for newspapers. You had Terry and the Pirates, Blondie and Dagwood… Warren: King Features was a big one. Ken: Yeah. Warren: Did you do Maggie and Jiggs, too?

Above: Interviewer Bill Janocha joined Mort Walker’s studio in the late 1980s but their first bona fide comic book job together was for this Beetle Bailey #3 (1993) cover image, penciled by Mort and inked by Bill. This was their favorite cover collaboration. Courtesy of Bill. ©2002 United Features Syndicate. Below: Multi-talented Ken Selig, gentleman cartoonist, pitched this Li’l Jazz (the “Confucius on Main Street”) comic strip concept (combining his loves for jazz and drawing) to the shortlived New York Times Syndicate in 1972 but the deal was, according to Ken, just an “almost.” Courtesy of and ©2002 the artist.

Ken: For a time 65

Above: Richie’s Uncle Warren here looks suspiciously like Harvey premier Richie Rich artist, Mr. Warren Kremer, who also drew this story for Richie Rich and Casper #4. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Inset center: Classic Warren Kremer design of the friendliest ghost we know! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: Warren Kremer makes an undisguised cameo appearance in a Harvey Comics story. Yep, the artist is a southpaw. Courtesy of Mark Arnold and THFT! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

we did that, yes. Bill: And Felix. Ken: And Scarlet O’Neil, a big strip. There was a good man that doesn’t get mentioned: Bill Draut. Bill: Is Scarlet O’Neil the invisible girl strip? Warren: Yes, The Invisible Scarlet O’Neil. Bill Draut used to do love stuff. Ken: He did love stuff but prior to that, he did something called The Red Demon. I worked at Harvey and we republished it by my instigation. I said I’d like to reproduce that if they were going to come out with some characters that they still owned. And Vicki and Alfred still owned The Red Demon. They came out with that. He was a good artist who should have worked on Terry and the Pirates. Warren: Yes, really. Ken: You know, also, who’s a good man? Carmine Infantino. Not of our house. He did The Flash over at DC. Carmine you don’t know? Bill: Can we talk about the creation of Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, Little Dot, and the characters? Warren: Hot Stuff was a character that Jim Mielie put into a single-page Casper story. I can’t remember the exact story but it was something to do with sitting on the ground and getting poked with a pitchfork. You know, Hot Stuff was below the ground in Hell, I guess, with his pitchfork coming up through the ground. I said to Sid, “Let’s not draw this thing. There’s a character here we can use. You know, this sort of little devil character.” I remember talking to Father McGuiness about it. Did he think that the Church would object to a devil? Bill: I was wondering whether you ever got any complaints in the mail. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you were doing stories with ghosts, witches and devils. Was there Satanic worshipping going on at Harvey Comics? [laughter] Ken: I remember Jim Mielie came into the art department one day, saying how Alfred wanted to cancel the Spooky books. He was getting protest letters from the then-ongoing church group. So Jim says to me it’s going to get cancelled because we’re using the little devil in the book and should we change that. Of course, Jim and I have our martinis together and many times, it would be a subject of conversation, how characters are going. But I never thought there was anything objectionable to the little devil. I liked it. Warren: He was always a vic-

tim of circumstances. Ken: Who is that, Jim? Warren: No, no! Hot Stuff was always a victim of circumstances. He’d be walking along and an apple would fall from a tree, hit him on the head and he’d go into a rage. You know, flames out of his mouth. Ken: That’s true. But then, you had the same way that it was depicted by Warren. And to get to hear the words, “Hot Stuff, the Little Devil”; alright, if you’re a religious person, then you could have a complaint about it, maybe, like the word “devil”? Okay. But you had to see Warren’s penciling coupled with the writing and it makes all the difference in the world. It comes off but you had to let yourself look at it, rather than condemn it, just by hearing it, “the little devil.” Bill: Jim Mielie, he was an artist? Warren: No, he was a writer. Ken: Well, he could draw. Most of our writers could draw because they had to draw their scripts, stick figures. Bill: So your writers would thumbnail the stories for the artists? Warren: Yes. Ken: But we didn’t copy the storyboard they gave us. We did our own, but it made it easy to follow, because it was a visual picture. You knew which way the character was walking, what he saw, etc. Bill: So you came up with the idea of “let’s make Hot Stuff into a comic book, it’s own title,” and then proceeded to go ahead and assign all the stories and artwork for it? Warren: Well, we got the okay from Alfred, and he agreed. I wrote one of the first stories in Hot Stuff. Ken: Yeah, I remember you did. Bill: What made you change his feet from little cloved hooves to feet? Warren: Well, Muffati was in on that. Muffati drew up a model chart of the character. Bill: See, it was even in the advertising until later. Warren: I have the storyboard on Hot Stuff with the… what kind of legs? Bill: The cloven hoof, there. They still use it in the advertising here. Warren: I forgot all about that. See, that’s Mufatti’s drawing. Ken: My inking. Bill: Then how did Stumbo evolve? Warren: Well, Stumbo evolved, primarily, from me. I have some drawings somewhere in my studio that when I used to work at Ace Magazines, I used to draw up a giant. You know, I never had a name for him. Sid Jacobson named him Stumbo and it was a fellow living in the world with little people, or normal people living with a giant, whichever way you want to look at it. Ken: Harvey really was a very good house to work for, only because we never seemed to have private wars going on with ourselves. If you’d came up with an idea, you would throw it into the common bin. If the thing was successful, we were all pleased together. We’d never fight. Warren: Yeah, you’re right. That’s exactly the way it worked. Ken: And it was only in later years that that attitude dissolved. Warren: In later years, Alfred took too much of the credit, and everybody—me included—resented it. What the hell, we should get some of the credit. We weren’t getting the money, for sure! Ken: But Leon Harvey was always a reluctant president, though. He actually became the president after Alfred Harvey was toppled in ’76. When Robert Harvey died, a little bit of the steam went out of Harvey Publications. Not because Robert was that active in the company but everybody knew the Harvey Brothers. The Harvey Brothers had great friends. The best friend that they had—Warren, you might agree with me—was Irving Manheimer, the distributor who must have bankrolled the early Harvey Comics COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Warren: You also have to remember that when the comics started to go sour, the whole distribution changed. There was no more space available on the newsstands, because they didn’t want to take comic books as the mark-up was so little. They’d rather have an expensive Playboy on the stands. The mark-up is big, they made more money then. Bill: I first saw comics in drug stores. Warren: They could make a dollar on Playboy. They only made a couple of pennies on a comic. Ken: [Indicates a current Archie comic book] I gave that Archie to Warren, which I picked up at the Port Authority. I was very happy to see those comics displayed. And actually, my work is in there so I was very glad to see it displayed because I don’t see my work displayed any more in drug stores, the way you used to be. But the thing I was not pleased with was that I had to shell out a $1.79 for that magazine! Bill: That’s a lot of money. Ken: Plus the bus fare. [laughs] Grace: Tell them to put it on your tab. [laughs] Bill: Would you say Richie Rich was the most lucrative character for Harvey? More so than Casper? Ken: I think so. Warren: We were competing with ourselves at one time. Bill: It seemed like a little bit too many. There were like a dozen different titles. You were competing against yourself. “Do I get Richie Rich Dollars and Cents or do I get Richie Rich Vault of Mystery?” I mean, there were just so many different titles! Ken: There was a reason, though. Warren: We used every adjective you could think of in the Richie Rich titles. Bill: So now, here you had Xnumber of titles every month, so you must be, at this point, farming artwork. No way you’re doing all the art, right? You must have a stable of artists and writers trying to come up with original material. Ken: Well, we used a lot of pick-ups, a lot of reprints. The first story might be a new story and Warren or Ernie would always handle that. You might also use new material for the last one. But the middle of it was always pick-up. Bill: Reprinted stories? Ken: Yes. June 2002

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Warren: You know, I came up with a formula on how to create Richie Rich by pasting up pieces of drawings. I drew a head with open eyes. You could put the eyeballs looking down, looking up, looking this way, any way. You know, with the same head, put a mad frown on his face, a smile. Ken: You realize you might have caused all the problems that we’re having today because of that damn computer? That could be the forerunner of the computer character. Warren: Well, it could be. Ken: Well, thanks a lot, Warren. [laughs] Warren: The only reason why I could do it is because the character had a black coat and the arms blended in. You know, if I took a character and had an arm doing this [angles his arm up], or doing this [extends his arm], it stems from the same shoulder, which was black. After it was pasted in, if there was any white showing, you just took a little ink and scribbled it in and that was the end. You didn’t have to be an artist to do that. Because there was a time we were thinking of getting artists in, we would paste up all the Richies that we needed for the story and just have somebody draw the street with a fence, the house with the front steps, the pillows on the couches, and the front door or the main staircase, whatever. But Richie would be authentically drawn because of this thing that I made. The only trouble is that all of those things that I gave you were roughs. I never got around to inking them sharp, correctly. Ken: Didn’t you realize that you were digging our graves when you did that? Warren: Well, I don’t know. But I never sold it to Alfred. I never even showed it to him because he would have taken it lock, stock, and barrel and given me nothing for it. So to hell with him. Ken: Jeff Montgomery wanted to do the same thing. Warren: Sid never told me that. Bill: Did you wake up in the middle of the night and see a Humphrey Bogart movie about a rich kid, or something, and say, “I want to do that”? Warren: No, no. There was a program on television called The Millionaire, and every week, this millionaire would give a million-dollar check to somebody. The story was what happened to these people who got the money and how it affected them. I used to watch this show and one day, I came up and said to myself, “Gee, what about a continued on page 83

Richie Rich Titles 1. Richie Rich 2. Richie Rich and… 3. Richie Rich and Billy Bellhops 4. Richie Rich and Cadbury 5. Richie Rich and Casper 6. Richie Rich and Casper in 3-D 7. Richie Rich and Dollar the Dog 8. Richie Rich and Dot 9. Richie Rich and Gloria 10. Richie Rich and His Girlfriends 11. Richie Rich and Jackie Joker 12. R.R. & New Kids on the Block 13. Richie Rich and Prof. Keenbean 14. Richie Rich and Reggie 15. Richie Rich and Tommy Time 16. Richie Rich Bank Books 17. Richie Rich Best of the Year’s Digest 18. Richie Rich Big Bucks 19. Richie Rich Billions 20. Richie Rich Cash 21. Richie Rich, Casper and Wendy 22. Richie Rich Diamonds 23. Richie Rich Digest 24. Richie Rich Digest Stories 25. Richie Rich Digest Winners 26. Richie Rich Dollars and Cents 27. Richie Rich Fortunes 28. Richie Rich Gems 29. Richie Rich Gold and Silver 30. Richie Rich Gold Nuggets Digest 31. Richie Rich Holiday Digest 32. Richie Rich Inventions 33. Richie Rich Jackpots 34. Richie Rich Million Dollar Digest 35. Richie Rich Millions 36. Richie Rich Money World 37. Richie Rich Money World Digest 38. Richie Rich Profits 39. Richie Rich Relics 40. Richie Rich Riches 41. Richie Rich Success Stories 42. Richie Rich Treasure Chest Digest 43. Richie Rich Vacation Digest 44. Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery 45. Richie Rich Zillionz 46. SupeRichie

CBA Interview

Whole Lotta Little Lotta! The charming Sid Couchey recalls 30+ years with Harvey Below: From top, it’s Dot and Champy (the Lake Champlain monster), Richie, and Lotta. Sid Couchey carries the burden. From a ’94 SUNY Plattsburgh Art Museum event postcard announcing an exhibit featuring art by Sid, Garry Trudeau, Reg Smythe, Al Capp, and others. Courtesy of the artist. Characters (except Champy) ©2002 Harvey Entertainment. Art ©2002 Sid Couchey.

Conducted by Shawn Hamilton Transcribed by Sam Gafford Sid Couchey’s unique, quirky and utterly charming drawing style is immediately identifiable in the hundreds of Little Lotta, Richie Rich and Little Dot stories he executed for Harvey Comics between the 1950s and ’80s. Last year, Shawn Hamilton—who works for the North Carolina comic shop franchise, The Great Escape—contacted Ye Ed to suggest an interview with this delightful artist, a suggestion CBA is quite grateful for as surviving Harvey contributors are certainly difficult to come by! Many thanks to Shawn and the artist (especially for the wealth of cool stuff loaned by Mr. Couchey!). This interview was conducted by phone and was copyedited by Sid. Shawn Hamilton: Where are you originally from, Sid? Sid Couchey: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 24, 1919. We only lived there a short time, just long enough for my father to get acquainted with Tris Speaker, the old Baseball Hall of Famer. So I’ve been a Cleveland Indian fan ever since. Now that we’re living in upstate New York, that’s not easy! We also lived in Saginaw, Michigan, and Champagne, Illinois. But every Summer we came to Essex, New York, in the Adirondacks on Lake Champlain, not far from Lake Placid. We moved back here permanently in 1961. I have a son, Brian, with wife, Suze, and five grandchildren who live in Spartanburg (Inman), South Carolina. Also, a daughter, Laura, and son-in-law, Tony Abate, living in Brunswick, a suburb of Troy, New York. I had done some cartooning on my own but never had any schooling in art except for one year in ninth grade. Before I went to art school, I attended Essex High School and before that I went to school in Champagne for ninth grade where there were 1500 students. Than I came up to Essex and became valedictorian in my high school. (Later on, I met my wife down in New York City, we got married and moved up to Essex where someone told her that there were only five people in my graduating class. Being valedictorian didn’t cut any ice with my wife any more! [laughs]). I heard there was a school for cartoonists in New York City. I applied but it was filled up with ex-GIs, so I went to a general art school that was located in the penthouse of the Flat Iron Building, called the Art Career School. I received a good basic art education which, I found out served me quite well in that they taught me how to—and what to—exaggerate and distort more meaningfully in order to emphasize incongruity in humor. During my lunch I would spend time up on the rooftop looking over New York City and the other art school I would later attend—The School of Visual Arts on 23RD Street. The head man there was Burne Hogarth. We had some good teachers including Tom Gill and Jack Markow. Shawn: Oh, sure Tom Gill drew The Lone

Ranger for Dell! Sid: That’s right. We had a lot of guest speakers come in from time to time. Incidentally, Milton Caniff came and did a demonstration and he was just tops. I asked Mr. Caniff (I was working on an idea for a strip) what he thought the next comics “wave” would be about. He said the comics business was all cyclical and all you can do is to try and anticipate the next cycle. This would be in the ’50s and he said that he personally thought that comic Westerns would be the next big wave. So I drew this strip called Wild West Wilbur. Unfortunately, if there was a bandwagon there, I never got on it! Good schooling there, though. Shawn: It seems that a lot of the people CBA interviews went through that school. It’s amazing some of the talent that came from there. Sid: It’s a great school. They presented and produced all kinds of art and artists. I never realized the latitude they offered. I mean, I look at all the art courses and I am only in one area—cartooning—but there’s such a variety within that umbrella. Caricaturing, comic books, magazine illustrating, fashion, etc. Then throw in the head man, Burne Hogarth, who loved to teach in the classroom. We had a number of classmates who did very well and Jerry Marcus (Trudy) comes to mind. The first art work I got was with a man named John Lehti, who had a daily strip called Tommy of the Big Top. I did his backgrounds for a couple years. Then he got another contract for a Sunday page based on the Bible called Tales from the Great Book. That was in big papers and I also did the backgrounds. These were made in to four comic book issues. Shawn: Was that for Max Gaines at EC? Sid: No. Gaines had a title about the New Testament. (Incidentally, my pastor contributed something to that.) John Lehti was the first real job I had. Then I had some nibbles but the first comic work I did, a five-page strip for “Hoot” Gibson of Fox Studios. Then I found out that Fox went bankrupt and I never got paid! So I had the thrill of having my work published but no check to show. Shawn: Do you know about when that would have been? Sid: That was in the ’50s. It’s listed in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. It’s interesting but there weren’t many made. I don’t know if you’ve met Dan Busha but I get most of my information from COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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him. He tells me the “Hoot” Gibson material is fairly well sought after. So after Tommy of the Big Top, Tales from the Great Book and the “Hoot” Gibson stuff, I did a few things for Famous Funnies, specifically Heroic Comics. I found out that in Heroic #70, Frank Frazetta had back-to-back two-page stories with me, both having to do with life-saving stories about heroic firemen. Being up here in Essex, I really wasn’t in touch with what was current and didn’t know, until recently, that Frazetta’s popularity had gone ballistic with fantasy art. One day the Famous Funnies editor called me up and said, “We’re folding, so come in and get your stuff.” I went in and the guy brought me to the storage room and said, “Take whatever you want.” I took my stuff and then I’m looking around at all this other leftover material and I saw Frazetta’s work so I took about six to eight pages of his stuff. The next day the phone rang and I was asked if I had taken my stuff. I said, “Yes.” Their next question, “Did you happen to take any of Frazetta’s pages?” I said, “Yeah, come to think of it, I did.” They said, “You had better bring it in because Frank is really upset.” So I had six to eight pages of Frank Frazetta’s work for about 24 hours! [laughs]. John Lehti used to take me to the National Cartoonists Society meeting that was very interesting. I went once when Rube Goldberg was president and Al Capp, Ham Fisher and Otto Soglow (The Little King) were there along with many others. Shawn: That place was just a Who’s Who of cartooning. Sid: I had the opportunity to join later but was coming up here and thought it wasn’t worth it. Although now, it would be interesting to go down and see how that’s changed and what’s going on these days. Shawn: When you were working at Heroic, were you allowed to sign your own names? Sid: Yes. My stories are in the #60s and #70s. Interesting work. Then along came Harvey and that became my livelihood. Some boys who had been at VA with me said that Harvey was looking for some artists. It wasn’t a project they were interested in. I went over, talked to Leon Harvey, Warren Kremer, Sid Jacobson and went to work. Sid would give me the assignments and, after I worked with the spec sheets, I started drawing Little Lotta and Little Dot. Shawn: I was going to ask you that if you started doing work with Heroic Comics, that obviously wasn’t the same style as Harvey? Your style, even though it fits the spec sheets... I can tell your work when I look at a Harvey book. Sid: That’s good, but it’s also a source of embarrassment because I was very green. When I look at some of that stuff now, I cringe. I would love to go back and substitute some of my recent work for that early stuff! [laughs] Anyway, Warren Kremer blew me away with his versatility and speed. Any artist who has seen him work would say the same thing. I would draw my five pages, Warren would edit or correct them and I would get new work. Then in 1959, I got married June 2002

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to Ruth and they said I could go freelance and mail my assignments in. That’s when we headed back to upstate New York. That being the case, I never really knew any of the other Harvey artists, although I met Howie Post one time in the office but that was about it. I did, of course, work with Sid Jacobson, Warren Kremer and saw Leon Harvey occasionally but didn’t really come in contact with anyone after I left. Shawn: You were saying that when you went in, you met with Warren. Did Warren have a hand in hiring the artists? Sid: I have no evidence of it but I just assumed that if you didn’t pass muster with him, you weren’t hired. They just turned me over to him to begin with to try and shape me up. Shawn: So when new artists came in, he would be the one to look them over and give the okay? Sid: To my knowledge, that’s the way he did it. I never actually saw him do it with anyone else but that was my assumption. From my experience, Warren was the guy who worked with the artists. Shawn: You drew Little Lotta and Little Dot? Sid: That’s right, I did those titles for a while before I did Richie Rich. Shawn: Wasn’t Richie Rich introduced in one of those titles? Sid: Yes, in Little Dot, but that was long before I arrived. I drew Richie Rich from about 1961 or ’62 into the ’70s, but I had drawn Little Dot and Lotta during the ’50s. Anyway, here are some of the experiences I had at Harvey, although it mainly involved getting scripts. I would draw lots of things to amuse myself in the backgrounds. I’d put in signs saying “Essex High School,” ”Willsboro Bowling Alley,” “Lake Champlain Ferry.” All local stuff. I have probably a hundred books that have local references in them. One time, there was this ferry that went between Essex, New York, and Charlotte, Vermont. The Ferry Company got a letter one time saying that they had read in a comic book that Richie Rich had taken a ferry on this local New York to Vermont connection. Curious how Richie got into our area, the company sent the letter to Harvey asking for an explanation. Sid Jacobson apparently checked the files and returned a letter to the affect that Richie was very wealthy, could show up anywhere, and furthermore they had their spy (presumably me) in the area so watch for further “Harvey” activity! [laughter] One time I put a

Inset left: Detail of Lotta by Sid Couchey, the character most closely associated with the artist (though he also drew Little Dot and Richie Rich for as many years). From Richie Rich #7. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: The man himself in a recent portrait. Courtesy of Sid.

Above: In the 1970s, the Coucheys visited downstate the offices of Harvey Comics where this fuzzy picture was snapped. That’s (back row) Sid and Ruthie, and (front from left) some cartoon character, Sid and Ruthie’s son, Brian, and the boy’s friend Mitchell. Courtesy of Sid. Casper ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: Ruth and Sid Couchey in July, 1997. (Apparently Ruth reconsidered Sid’s proposal!) Courtesy of Sid.

sign “Couchey 5 and 10¢” on a storefront in a Little Dot story. Harvey went down and surfaced with new leadership. By now I was no longer with them. In 1988, I found a Richie Rich and on the cover it said “All New Stories and Art Inside!” I looked in and there was “Couchey’s 5 and 10¢.” In a 1993 Harvey Classics Giant-Size Richie Rich #4, I responded to a “Favorite Harvey Character Drawing” feature and submitted one of Richie, Dot and Lotta. The three drawings on the page were by a ten-year-old, an eleven-year-old and Sid Couchey, age 72. Sid Jacobson acknowledged me as “The Other Sid.” While we’re talking about specific issues here, my most important comic was Little Dot’s Uncles and Aunts #12. A five-page Lotta story. She’s having problems with homework, especially history. She’s checking out George Washington’s throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac. Comes to a river about the right size. But no silver dollar. Finds a pumpkin, heaves it. Meanwhile across the river sitting on a park bench are Sid and Ruth. Ruth: ”Sid, do you really love me? I don’t think you do!” Sid: “May the sky fall down on my head if I don’t, Ruthie!” Splat! Next panel with Ruth leaving, “I thought so! Now I know you were fibbing.” However, readers, don’t cry! We were reconciled in real life and have been married 43 years with two kids and five grandchildren! Pumpkin pie is now a nostalgic indulgence. When Harvey’s

comic book kids took their last dive (as far as my participation anyway). I took out my frustration by doing a large painting of the three of them still in a spotlight but just barely. Coming up fast behind ready to take over: three heavily armed macho characters with mega weapons ablaze! All paranoid—afraid of running out of ammunition with back-up weapons—bows and arrows, slingshots, etc., etc. A couple of years ago, Ruth and I had our fortieth wedding anniversary. Shawn: Congratulations! Sid: Thank you! So that being the case—I was 40 when married—I was married forty years and single forty years. I’ve been pondering the Biblical reference of spending forty years wandering in the wilderness. Which forty years is that in my case? (Just kidding, Ruth!) Shawn: We’ll leave it at that! [laughs] Sid: We got married and took off on a honeymoon (Warren recommended three weeks). That being the case, Sid had to mail me one set of scripts while on route. Shawn: Who was writing the scripts? Sid: There were several—but I’m ashamed to say, I don’t remember. After Harvey, another magazine I worked for was The Good Old Days, out of New Hampshire. Shawn: When I was growing up, my mom would get me one at the grocery store and that’s where I saw all the old strips like Little Nemo, Smokey Stover and the rest. I just loved that stuff! Sid: They were great. Let me tell you some things cartooning has done for me. First, I have autographed cartoons (done by me) of General Eisenhower, Colin Powell, and just recently George W. Bush in Lake Placid. A large cartoon signed by all the 1949 Cleveland Indians—Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, Bob Lemor, Lou Boudreau, etc., etc. Also all the 1949 Ice Follies—Frick and Frack, etc. and when at the Kansas City Comics Convention, they awarded life time achievement awards to George Pérez, John Byrne and Lee Falk (not too long before Lee passed away). I got the fourth one which, I’m sure, was a token to all the old Harvey sluggers especially before acknowledgements. I got a raft of autographs at the convention. When I was in the service, I was stationed at Huntsville Arsenal and we used to go into Fayetteville, Tennessee, for supplies. We saw this pretty girl sitting at the luncheon counter. On the way out, I got her name and address from the cashier and went back to camp. I wrote her a letter with cartoons and even had an irresistible puppy on the envelope with her address in his mouth. What I didn’t know until she came to the door was that she was about five-foot-ten and, during the date, I learned she had been Miss Tennessee in the Miss America Contest. Ruth doesn’t get jealous though because when I mention it she sniffs and asks “How old would she be now?” I reluctantly reply, “About 86.” Shawn: That’s a great story. When you got the scripts, was it a brief description of what the plot was about or was it a “page one, panel one” type of thing? Sid: It was a sheet with the panels on it with the dialogue written in. We’d stick in the lettering first because you had to fit everything else around. Most of them had sketches of what they had in mind. Shawn: You did the penciling and also did the inking? Sid: They had inkers at Harvey. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

Shawn: So you sent the penciled pages into Harvey and they had the inking done there? Sid: They assigned it, anyway. Shawn: Did you do interior stories or did you do covers as well? Sid: No, I didn’t do any covers. I did covers for The Good Old Days and that was a lot of fun. More color and illustrative. One of the things I thought was fairly good (even back when I was green) was Little Dot’s Uncles and Aunts. One of the stories I did was when they went to Washington and I had to draw the Capitol and Congress and it took a little research for interiors and Supreme Court, etc. Shawn: Over the years, Harvey seemed to go in cycles. They’d do all simple comic stories and then they’d do all adventure stories, then they’d do educational ones. Seemed like every Richie story in the late ’60s and early ’70s was Richie having adventures. Sid: Yeah, I didn’t realize that so much until I was talking with some of the experts. It’s true. It definitely went in cycles. All of cartooning really goes in cycles. Take books for example. I was approached by someone one time who wanted to do a fairy tale book. He contacted several publishers and it turned out that fairy tales had been popular but weren’t any longer. All of the kids books had become practical like those about doctors and nurses and farming and engineering and then that would go out and something else would come in. I heard that about Harvey, sure, but I don’t think it was reserved to just Harvey. Shawn: When I was growing up, I just loved Richie and Casper stories and the ones I enjoyed the most were the adventures. In the late ’60s, there were a lot featuring monsters. Those were my favorites. Sid: Yep, well, I guess it’s a sign of the ages. I liked the adventure ones myself, even the comic adventure ones. But unfortunately, it seems that in this generation—regarding television, movies and comics—all the young heroes are pretty brash and caustic, almost like little adults. I guess that’s just a generational thing. Shawn: Well, you know, Disney is not doing comics

June 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

any more. Harvey’s not doing comics any more. The only ones that are still doing comics is Archie. No one is really publishing comics for kids any more. No one is doing those wholesome comics geared towards kids anymore. Sid: That’s right. Absolutely. This is just a personal aside but not only is it in sitcoms and TV shows but all the advertising and everything, all the jokes are about body parts or bathroom humor. Shawn: Yeah, there’s just been a real loss of innocence. Let’s talk about what you’re doing now. Sid: After Richie went down the drain for me, along came Rascal Raccoon which the State of Vermont mandated go into all the schools about alcohol and drug abuse. A friend in Vermont that I had worked with and I went over and talked to a prevention team and dozens of schools. We came up with three characters that could be the spokesmen for this. One was a bird and another an alien critter and another a raccoon. They chose the raccoon and that went for about five years. Then the State made a three-dimensional Rascal robot that could ask and answer questions of the kids. Shawn: Oh yeah, we had something like that at one of the State Fairs. Sid: Well, Rascal, all five feet of him, is resting in retirement in an Essex garage. After several years the program ended. Vermont called

Above: A diehard Cleveland Indians fan, Sid drew up this twosided trading card after recently throwing out the first ball for an Indians game. Below: Sid Couchey gives us this editorial cartoon with the quip, “Here’s the simple solution to the Harvey characters being pushed around. Why not have Richie pay Lotta to mop up the Super-Aggressors? No problem!” Courtesy of and ©2002 Sid Couchey. Inset left: Couchey cover art for the Good Old Days magazine, circa 1985. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

and said to get ready—they were going to revive Rascal. Then they called the next day telling me to forget it! Seems a real raccoon attacked a prominent physician in Vermont and Rascal’s career was ended. Meantime, I had started having fun with a local “creature” we have up here in Lake Champlain. The Lake Champlain Monster called “Champy.” He’s been reported in newspapers (including The New York Times) for over a hundred years. P.T. Barnum offered a reward for him, dead or alive. He was in the news about a year or two ago. There was a campaign to have Lake Champlain named one of the Great Lakes and it was signed by Congress and everything. So I had T-shirts made that said, “Champy, Monster of the Great Lakes.” No sooner did that get printed than the Congress rescinded the Great Lake designation so that was the end of that. But then I had an idea and made new T-shirts saying “Champy, Monster of the Great Lakes from March 5—March 22 [laughs]. Anyway, Champy is my boy and every year I do a Champy with a Richie illustration for a public service station auction and have done a “Champy meets Nessie.” I’ve also done a series and it was the most fun that I’ve had in a long time... with good reaction. It’s a series of “Champy by the Masters” (in the style of 12 of them—Champy by Sid Dali Couchey, Sid Monet Couchey, and Sid Above: Ever a champion of “Champy,” the Lake Champlain monster, Sid tells us this is “inconPicasso Couchey, etc. Popular in school art classes. trovertible proof that I’m the only person ever to have boarded champy!” Courtesy of Sid. Shawn: Do you just show the originals or make prints? Sid: Now, in the magic of passing time, editing, rewriting and Mother’s Day, I find that Sid: I show the originals but make color copies because I don’t want to break up the the art show referred to above has now passed with some interesting and some unexoriginals. pected results. First, it was deemed a success, We had a goodly number of warm bodies, Shawn: So tell me about the art show you’ve got coming up? reasonably edible shrimp salad, a minimum number of free loaders and quite good sales, Sid: It’s in the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts Show in Plattsburgh, New especially the “Champy by the Masters” series. However, Gordy Little and Calvin York. It’s a humongous former bank building with four large columns in front and a lot of room inside. There’s probably 60 pieces of art there going back to things I did in high Castine, a famous cable television duo, made my day—week—year. In filming me in the Gallery, they found out that, for one, I was a lifelong Cleveland Indian fan, and two, I school and on to the present—even the future. was an artist for Richie Rich, etc. Result: They arranged with Montreal for me to throw Shawn: So it’s a retrospective? Sid: Oh, yeah! It’s a retrospective of my whole career: Subway art, commercial art, lots out the first pitch at the Cleveland vs. Montreal Expos game Friday night, June 21, 2002, four free tickets, a busload of friends from Essex, plus TV crew to record it all! I of styles, even portraits. plan to not conform to the usual Presidential toss, but pad my part a bit. I’ll shake off a Shawn: Anything you’d like to add before we wrap up? Sid: One thing: I understand about political correctness being the way it is today and I pitch or two, clean my cleats, check first base in case of a stealer. Plus the usual necktwitching, hat-doffing, and I even have a set of binoculars to check the catcher’s sign don’t mean to sound sanctimonious or self-serving. But I think I have some talent and I with. I may be arrested but Richie and I’ll have fun! Oh, yes, since I’ll be a pro after worked hard at developing it. I believe ultimately that it was a gift from God and I am the first pitch I, of course, made me a set of Sid Couchey Sports Trading merely the steward of whatever talent I have, as we all are, “For to whomsoever much Cards. Takes three though, to get a Mickey Mantle. Question for the is given, of him shall much be required.” I’ve enjoyed talking with you, Shawn. readers: Is there a First Pitch Hall of Fame? (If not, I’m starting one!) Shawn: That’s great. Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Couchey. Good luck with the show coming up!

The Storyteller’s Story Official Selection in over 25 film festivals worldwide “The best comics bio I’ve ever seen… It’s wonderful, well done.” Brian Michael Bendis “An essential doc for comics fans, ‘Portrait’ will also enlighten the curious.” John DeFore, Austin American-Statesman “Entertaining and insightful. A great film about a visionary artist!” Jeffrey Katzenberg Arguably the most influential person in American comics, Will Eisner, as artist, entrepreneur, innovator, and visual storyteller, enjoyed a career that encompassed comic books from their early beginnings in the 1930s to their development as graphic novels in the 1990s. During his sixty-year-plus career, Eisner introduced the now-traditional mode of comic book production; championed mature, sophisticated storytelling; was an early advocate for using the medium as a tool for education; pioneered the now-popular graphic novel, and served as inspiration for generations of artists. Without a doubt, Will Eisner was the godfather of the American comic book. The award-winning full-length feature film documentary includes interviews with Eisner and many of the foremost creative talents in the U.S., including Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Jules Feiffer, Jack Kirby, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Gil Kane, and others.

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COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

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CBA Interview

The Importance of Being Ernie The renowned artist recounts ups and downs at Harvey Inset right: Ernie Colón, master of all comic book genres, in an early 1990s picture. (Look for a new graphic novel from Fantagraphics Books!) Courtesy of Ernie. Inset center: The artist sure drew a mean Richie Rich! Ernie was best known at Harvey for the “serious” RR adventure stories. This detail is from the signed cover of Richie Rich Meets Timmy Time #1. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: At Ernie’s request, Richie Rich began to become involved in intrigue and adventure, making his titles much more effective reads. While citing Terry and the Pirates as an inspiration, Ernie says it was the exploits of master European cartoonist Hergé’s Tintin which influenced the change. Here’s the young adventurer and his pup, Snowy. ©2002 Casterman, Paris.

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Theresa A. Nobile Ernie Colón is one of the most versatile artists ever to work in the comics field. A master of all genres, whether adventure, science-fiction, humor, and (of course) children’s comics, Ernie has freelanced for just about anybody who has published comics, from Gold Key to DC to Marvel to National Lampoon to Heavy Metal to, well, you name it! Prominently featured in CBA #16’s Atlas/Seaboard retrospective (in which he also contributed perhaps the finest cover ever to grace this mag, proving that his technique and design skills are as sharp as ever!), Ernie discussed his background and post-Harvey career in that issue. As promised, here’s our interview on Harvey Comics with the “other great Richie Rich artist”! This interview, one of many conversations EC has had with Ye Ed (who finds the artist to be one of the most insightful—and passionate—thinkers in the field), was conducted by phone and later copy edited by the artist. Comic Book Artist: What made you first go over to Harvey? Ernie Colón: When I got out of high school, I could not get any jobs in any of the comic houses that survived that horrible Wertham purge of the mid-’50s. So I worked in factories as a messenger boy and so forth and then saw an ad in The New York Times looking for a letterer at Harvey Publications. By then, I was already 24 years old and had not gotten a single art job in all that time since graduating high school. So I went up to Harvey and got a job as a letterer and lasted about 15 minutes. [laughter] Leon Harvey took one look at my work and said, “You are no letterer!” So I started packing up my stuff and getting ready to leave when Alfred Harvey’s wife, Vicki, who I had known before when she had dated a friend of mine, went into her husband’s office and said, “Don’t let this guy go, because he can draw! The hell with the lettering!” So they took me on as a paste-up guy and at night I practiced drawing Richie mostly but also Casper, Little Dot and all these characters. The end of that first year, they felt I was good enough to go freelance. That was the beginning for me. CBA: Was Joe Rosen the letterer at the time? Ernie: Yes, but they were so busy, the comics were selling so well—

Richie Rich was selling a million copies a month—that work had to be pumped out fast. Well, that meant they needed more people but I was not one to letter! [laughter] I still am not. CBA: Do you know who they got to take the letterer position? Ernie: They hired a couple of guys but they were there a short time. I never remembered their names. Joe was the mainstay. The guy was a complete work horse. Unbelievable! CBA: Did you ever see Joe come in? Ernie: He was kind of a spook, an extremely quiet person, the quietest guy I ever knew in my life. If you did not address him, he would never say anything to you! He would sit there with a pipe in his mouth all day along. It’s a wonder his head didn’t fall off. CBA: Was he a cartoonist? Ernie: As far as I know, he did not draw anything, he just lettered day in, day out, hour after hour. He was unbelievable. CBA: Can you recognize his style over other letterers? Ernie: Oh yeah, I think so. That was easy, he had a very fluid easy style. CBA: I noticed when Joe went over to work for Marvel in the early ’70s, he lettered really small. I could always tell Joe had worked on a story because of the tiny lettering, which was much smaller than his brother Sam’s. Ernie: He was used to lettering small because, at Harvey, we always had an eight-panel page, while every other publisher used a six-panel page. We all objected to it but the Harveys just would not let loose with that. They felt that kids should get more for their quarter. CBA: As a kid, were you at all interested in Harvey Comics? Ernie: Prior to joining them? No, I didn’t know much about them. CBA: When you came on, did you immediately realize that some of the material was of high quality? Ernie: Oh, sure! Mostly because of Warren Kremer’s work! Warren is the master craftsman of comics. The guy was like an architect. His drawings were so careful, so beautiful, I always hated for any inker to go over his pencils because the pages were just masterful! He was amazing and was an open book. He would sit down with me and tell me everything he knew. He shared everything openly. He was a wonderful mentor. I had never had one before. I had never really gone to art school. I consider the time I spent at Art and Design a complete waste. CBA: Warren’s career went back a ways, right? COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Ernie: He went back into the ’30s, I think. CBA: What was it about his work specifically that makes it be a step above the others? Ernie: The best example that I can give is that when he was given the assignment for “Stumbo the Giant,” he just worked wonders on that strip. Such an astonishing achievement! Astonishing because here again you have an eight-panel page with a giant so big, he’s using a mountain to relax on. Plus you have little village with tiny people, okay? You got to adhere to this eight-panel page, story after story, and when you look at Warren’s work on “Stumbo,” I challenge any artist in the business to have a more innovative approach! To take a blind script and not look at Warren’s interpretation, I doubt anybody could come close! When you look at Warren’s covers, you realize that he knew how to take advantage of every inch of space so that the design was perfectly balanced and looked beautiful. He is a complete master of comic book art. CBA: Warren is renowned for drawing “Stumbo,” Hot Stuff and Richie Rich? Ernie: Oh yeah! And I don’t think anyone drew Casper as well as he did, including me, to say the least. CBA: For me, new to the study of Harvey Comics, it can be difficult to tell you and Warren apart. For years, I assumed that certain stories by Warren were yours because, well, I later realized you were deeply influenced by Warren. Ernie: That’s true. In the early years, I tried to draw exactly like Warren because I admired him so much. But, as any artist should start out by copying the work of people they admire, whether an old master or a talented newcomer, you use it as a spring board and develop your own style. The ones that I consider cannibals are the ones who copy someone like Neal Adams and then don’t get out of it. They just keep tracing Neal Adams. I did copy Warren Kremer for a time and then went off on my own. If you’re drawing Richie Rich, it has to look like Richie Rich, and Warren developed that look. (Although, we did get a few people in there that really could not draw well and they strayed pretty far from the look of the characters.) CBA: So Warren’s design was obviously the quintessential Richie Rich? Ernie: Yes, Warren’s character designs were the standard. CBA: Now when you first came out who were the writers? Ernie: There was Ralph Newman. The guy was unbelievable! He spewed out stories and most of them were good. Most of them were quite good, and I don’t know how he did it. CBA: Did you look at any of the characters with irony? These are children’s comics featuring a dead boy floating around as a ghost, a billionaire little kid, a girl witch, and even a devil baby! [laughter] Ernie: The only irony that I found in it was that I often found myself needing money, yet I was drawing these stories with a kid who had so much money! That’s what I hated the most! [laughter] But, overall all, I didn’t see the irony, because it’s the same way that I felt as a June 2002

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kid, I loved Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates so much that I would cut out the strips, paste them up and keep them for a while. But, you know, it took me the longest time to realize, “Hey! There’s no pirates in the damn story!” CBA: I never really thought about that either! You’re right! [laughter] Ernie: It didn’t matter. You just accepted the characters as they were, without question. With Casper, we made a conscious effort not to refer to death in any way. I know in the early movies he used to come out of a grave or something, that he once was a little boy, and I thought that was horrible! [laughter] That must have scared the crap out of the kids, you know? But with us, he just existed, with no reference at all to what happened previously to make him that way. So any kid reading the books, just took it for granted that Casper was always a living ghost. CBA: I remember the Casper cartoons as being somewhat grim at times… Casper would come floating out of the grave, and scare the bejeezus out of some hapless mortals. [laughter] But I didn’t really make a conscious connection between the cartoon character of the late ’40s to this wholesome comic book character. I know that sounds strange, but it was true. The cartoons were strange, but the comics were always cheerful and felt wholesome, you know? Ernie: Casper didn’t have legs in the cartoons either! As I remember, we put legs on him. CBA: What were the Harvey brothers like? Ernie: The oldest was Bob, a kind man who handled the money end. Leon and Alfred were fraternal twins. When Robert died the company began to go downhill. CBA: When did Robert die? Ernie: I don’t remember exactly, but I had been there maybe five years or so when he died. He was a very nice man. Then these two guys went after each other’s throats. Alfred was handicapped by a brain tumor and it affected him, I think, in many, many different ways. He began to argue with his brother and berate Leon publicly. Screaming at him. Things just began to get worse and worse. They began to sue each other. In came the lawyers and it became one of these cases where the money began to run out and suddenly there were no more lawyers. The way of the world. So they sued each other into bankruptcy. They got in trouble

Inset right: Ernie the thespian! The artist also did a bit of stage work as evident in this photo of the guy in character during a production of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, MacBeth. Courtesy of Ernie. 76

with the law and were arrested, tried and convicted. But the judge said they were to old and feeble and he sent them home. CBA: Were you directly affected by the events? Ernie: Yes, because we did not get the pension we were promised and benefits of that kind. The whole thing was tragic. You want to walk away and hate somebody but you can’t because it was so miserable. CBA: Those characters still have legs, there is still real strength behind those icons. Ernie: Well, the problem is it is very much like when Ron Perelman bought Marvel Comics. He did not give a sh*t about Marvel’s characters, or the kids who read these characters or the grown-ups who still had a soft spot in their hearts for them. I got this from the Wall Street Journal; he legally took $50 million out of his corporation and put it in his pocket, declared bankruptcy and then walked away. Now that $50 million could have gone a long way to help Marvel. These people are venture capitalists. They are in it for the money. They want to see what they can do with the company; turn it around or blast it into the ground but one way or the other they are going to walk away with their money.

CBA: So what is the comparison with Harvey? Ernie: I’m making this comparison to the people who run Media Classics, the company that now owns the Harvey characters. I think they also own the Gold Key characters. They bought a whole slew of properties in one huge package. They are not doing anything with any of it right now. I am not a businessman so I don’t know what they are up to. If they are holding on to it to sell again, but, in the meantime, all of these characters are lying there, doing absolutely nothing when they could be big earners. These characters should be animated on TV or in movies. These are billion dollar properties. When it was sold to Skip Montgomery, I think he got them for $3 million! Previously, the characters were sold for $17 million! Who knows what they’re worth now, yet the characters are not being published. It’s a big mystery to me. CBA: Did you like the Harvey characters? Ernie: Well, I didn’t like Little Lotta, because you couldn’t hide the fact that she was a pig. [laughs] She was always eating. Gluttony was her trademark. She was always eating a banana or sandwich or something. What I did think was great about Lotta was here was this fat girl in a comic book—which a lot of overweight readers could relate to—and we showed her doing heroic acts and good deeds, and being basically a nice kid. Little Dot? Now, there was a pain in the ass! [laughter] That was horrendous! What was with all of those aunts and uncles, anyway? When Alfred Harvey got in his head to create new characters, he would always give them alliterative names. So he came up with— hold on to your chair!—a character named Billy Bellhops. [laughter] I remember [Harvey editor] Sid Jacobson throwing up his hands and saying, “Right! A bellhop is what every kid wants to be when he grows up!” [laughter] Of course, that comic book was quickly dropped. CBA: Was this about the same time Harvey came out with Jackie Jokers? Ernie: But Jackie Jokers was a good character. That was Lennie Herman who came up with that. That was a fun character who was good. CBA: What was his schtick? Ernie: He was a comedian. Lennie (who was a wonderful writer) loved gags and stand-up comedians. Jackie became friends with Richie and they shared a book together. CBA: Did you draw Jackie’s stories? Ernie: Yes. CBA: What was Jacobson like and who was he? Ernie: He still works out of an office in California that was used by the Harvey Company. He still had some connection to them, but I am not quite sure what it is. He is a great guy who writes books, used to be a songwriter. He use to write hit songs right there in the office. With a guy named Lou Stallman, they put out a few hits together. He then gradually got out of the song business, started writing books and doing some other stuff. He is essentially the most optimistic guy I ever meet in my life. Every thing is stupendous, magnificent, and wonderful. He just keeps using these words over and over again on everything. [laughter] Then if something fails, he just goes on to the next thing which then becomes stupendous, magnificent, and fantastic! CBA: He must drink from the same well as Stan Lee! Ernie: Sid is amazing. He just always bounces back! CBA: I think a wonderful thing about the Harvey comics is just how entertaining they are! The covers are extremely well designed, very eye-catching, with enjoyable stories. Judging from the material, I’d guess you guys were having some fun. Ernie: We were having fun because we all got along so tremendously. Every time I went up there, we would just get together and laugh like crazy! In fact I have a tape here of Lenny and Sid conducting a roast. It’s of one of the Christmas dinners we had in a place called the London Pub down the street from where we worked. CBA: Who else was in attendance? COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Ernie: Myself, Warren Kremer (he’s the one who whoops when he laughs) and gals from the office. CBA: Would you go into Harvey to drop off work on any particular day of the week? Ernie: Generally I would go in Wednesday, but if I finish some pages and needed some money I would go in sooner. CBA: Would Harvey pay you immediately upon delivery? Ernie: Yes! The funny thing was that if I had to wait an hour for the check, I use to complain bitterly. [laughter] Of course, they spoiled us with all of the work you could ever need, as much as you wanted. You worked because there was so much of it to do and they paid you right on the spot. CBA: How were the rates? Ernie: For those days, it was great! About $15 a page, which may not sound like much now, but I will give you an example because it was astonishing when they doubled my rate after I quit (which was because they would not give me a $5 per page raise!) A year later they called me and said they would double my rate, so I came right back again! [laughter] I had been at Multimedia for one year and didn’t like it one bit. With that $30 a page, I bought a brand new Volkswagen bug. Okay, it was for $1,600, but that’s how much it was brand new! [laughter] I paid it off in six months. Now, of course, a new beetle costs ten times more! CBA: How long would it take you to do a Richie Rich page? Ernie: Depending on how complicated it was, three to five pages a day of any Harvey comics. People always ask how did I spend 25 years doing this work? It was easy! They never turned my work away and they paid me on the spot. CBA: Did you do any inking? Ernie: Very little. CBA: Obviously, you do know how to ink. Ernie: Yeah, but I didn’t care for it. First of all, it was slow going so there was no incentive to ink. Every now and then I did do my own stuff because they would sometimes bring in an inker that was awful. CBA: Who were the better inkers? Ernie: Heather Carson definitely. CBA: She was a freelancer? Ernie: Yes. We were all freelancers. CBA: Did she also ink Warren stuff? Ernie: Yes. CBA: Did Warren ever ink his own work? Ernie: He may have, but I do not remember. CBA: I saw one of his horror covers he did back in the ’50s that was just unbelievable! Could this be the same guy? [laughs] Did you ever save any tear sheets of your own stuff? Ernie: I never saved anything. I took it for granted that everything was going to go on forever. I never lobbied to get my art work back; they were not giving the work back to anyone. Many times, I got tired of it, of course, year after year, especially with books like Little Dot. Then I would jump right back in again and, of course, I always got the satisfaction of telling people what I did and consistently got a warm response, to this day. It really was a Golden Age for me. They paid for everything—marriages, divorces, dental bills—everything!

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CBA: Did you mind the bad feelings that arose over time? Ernie: Yes. I thought Warren deserved better treatment than he got. This guy, who was putting out this high quality work, should have gotten credit for it. He was completely loyal… he should have been at Disney! There’s no question about that, but this was a familyrun business and that was that. CBA: I just read that Alfred took credit for creating all the characters. Ernie: Success has many, many fathers. Look at Seymour Reit and Casper, the Friendly Ghost! So many people jumped forward to say they created the character. Same thing with Richie Rich. Warren makes a good case, I think, because he says he named the character after his son Richard, though quite a few people have come forward to say they named the character. It seems to me a bunch of guys got together, started brainstorming, and the end result was this new character, who was then just a minor addition. But, he becomes a success, and they each remember their own Rashomon view. CBA: Did Richie really get popular in the ’50s? Was he suc-

Above: An ’80s assignment which would have benefited from the artist’s own inks was Arak, Son of Thunder, a DC barbarian strip written by Roy Thomas. Courtesy of Terry Austin, this rejected penciled cover show’s the artist’s superb stylings. Art ©2002 Ernie Colón. Arak ©2002 DC Comics.

Above: Two characters Ernie developed in the world of Richie Rich was Chef Pierre and Dollar the Dog, with the artist having a field day refining their antagonistic relationship. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment. Below: We’ll just tell you to refer to the interview on this one! ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

cessful when you came on board? Ernie: He started out as a filler, a back-up feature in Little Dot, and then he took off as a full success. When I came on board, he was still in the back pages of Dot. Casper was the flagship at that time. Casper did well in marketing but not so good in actual comic book sales. Richie was the opposite. CBA: I guess the proof is in how many titles Richie Rich had. I was looking in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and there were four pages straight of Richie Rich titles. Ernie: At one point I think it reached about 30 titles in one month. CBA: Was it overkill or were they actually selling that well? Ernie: No, they were selling! Now all 30 titles didn’t last that long but let’s just say on an average of a ten-year span, this character had something like 15 to 20 titles a month! CBA: The output of Harvey was a slow but steady increase in the 1960s, but by the ’70s, all of a sudden, it just exploded. There were so many Richie Rich titles, it was outrageous. Do you know the reason for sudden growth? Was it just that the market could handle that many titles? Ernie: Apparently this character just appealed real strongly to kids. They just bought anything with Richie that we put out. CBA: Harvey came out with a series of Richie Rich adven-

ture titles—Vaults of Mystery, Super Richie, even a Casper team-up book—and they were very entertaining. They seemed to have a number of your stories in them. Ernie: Let me say this about Harvey: The interesting thing about this company is that people never got together and said, “Let’s do a comic that talks down to kids.” The readers were never condescended to in the Harvey titles. We didn’t hold our audience in contempt. We didn’t gear our vocabulary to any specific age group; if there was a big word kids didn’t understand, they just looked it up! So the stories were able to flow without us taking out all of the big words like so many other editors do for kids, which I think is wrong. But I think that is what has made Harvey so interesting even to an older group. CBA: Did you also work on Hot Stuff? Ernie: Very little. The real guy behind Hot Stuff was Howard Post. CBA: Its amazing that you can say you worked at Harvey for 25 years but you also had another aspect of your career you were all over the place. Would you consider yourself a very ambitious person? Ernie: Yes, I would say so. CBA: Terr Austin sent me a rarity that you illustrated, The Sexorcist! Ernie: Why do these things always come back to haunt you? [laughter] CBA: Is there a story behind this? Ernie: I was working for this publisher (who happened to be French) on a teen girls’ magazine, doing spot illustrations of teenage heart throbs—like, David Cassidy going rollerskating—and other lousy things. He had this idea for a magazine that would combine the thenhot movie, The Exorcist, with sex… The Sexorcist! [laughter] Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to illustrate it and it looked bad to me so I said no. But whenever I would say no, he would always pull out this big checkbook, look at me, and ask, “Then what will it take?” So he wrote out this huge amount and I just couldn’t say no, though I’m not proud of that work. Years later, I was attending a cocktail party, when I struck up a conversation with a woman who had also worked at the teen magazine. She said, “You know who that guy was, the guy who wrote all those big checks, right?” I said, “Sure. He was the publisher.” She said, “But you also knew he had villas and chateaus all over Europe, right?” Sure, I knew he went back to France almost every weekend. She said, “But do you think he made all that money to buy the villas and travel to Europe every weekend and write you big checks, all from what he made on that teen magazine?” I said, “Well… how did he make all that money then?” She smiled and whispered, “He was the French Connection!” So this guy was supposedly ferrying over drugs on his weekend trips! It was a really huge checkbook. [laughter] CBA: Did you also work on other non-comic accounts too? Ernie: I did some advertising which I didn’t enjoy. CBA: With the Harvey material, what was the percentage of the Richie Rich assignments compared to other material you would do? Ernie: On average about 60% on Richie. CBA: Did you like the other characters? Ernie: Yeah, I thought Baby Huey was great. CBA: Did you do any of your own writing at Harvey? Ernie: Yeah. As I told you in our last interview, my comic artist hero was Hergé and I loved his adventure series Tintin. I wanted to do more adventure stories in Richie Rich (because I was sick of stories involving his mountains of money and jewels and gold) so I wrote an adventure with Richie getting in his private plane with Cadbury and setting off for the far horizons. I thought that approach was going forward with the character. CBA: You came full circle from your enjoyment of Terry and the Pirates as a kid? Ernie: Right. I liked those adventures. I was giving this icon a more varied or a different life. Making him even more exciting and yet not changing him. Now he was showing his wealth in a different way. He can afford a private jet and go around the world. But now we can go around the world instead of sitting at home and seeing bigger and bigger piggy banks. I remember the cover of a piggy bank with a ladder on it. That’s fine but the character has to move somewhere from there. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Selig’s Respites

Harvey production guy Ken Selig at his desk in the company office. As for the picture below, Ken wrote (with tongue firmly placed in cheek): “Ernie Colón, my very good friend (the ingrate! I loaned him money every Friday payday, took this picture apparently to prove I was seldom at my desk. I was accustomed to taking somewhat extended lunch hours to cover needed inspiration at the nearby Whitney Museum of American Art and Eddie Condon’s afternoon jazz club on 54th Street.” Left courtesy of Ernie Colón, below courtesy of Ken Selig.

Sid Jacobson continued from page 55

a competent, good artist, who did a lot of work with Jerry Burkadoll. And Jorge Pachecho who is really a top-rate inker, and he’s also worked with the art department at Harvey here in Los Angeles. Bill: You mentioned you were a songwriter. It’s interesting that outside of the comic book medium where you’d made a living, and certainly been involved in creating all these characters, that you’re also a published author, and you’ve had several top 100 hits. You were writing these songs while you were editing these Harvey comics, on top of that! How did you find the time to do both? Sid: Well, this was in a period just when I had gotten married the first time. There was someone who used to work at Harvey who was starting a magazine, and he offered me the job of coming in and working part-time. I decided I wanted to spend more time doing music. So, I told the Harveys I wanted to give up the job, and go into songwriting. And they gave me a goodbye party, but what happened was, the guy who I was working part-time for broke down emotionally, and I needed some kind of employment. But Alfred Harvey’s wife, Vicki, called and said, “Nothing has gone out since you left! There’s not a book that’s gone out, aside from the books that don’t matter. Is it possible you might want to come back?” So I figured, “Sure!” [laughter] But I knew I had to tell Alfred my situation, so I said straight-out, “Look, I’ve been working with Alan Hardy. He had offered me a situation, I’ve been working part-time with him while I’ve been trying to write songs, but he’s become sick,” I said. Alfred said, “Are you willing to give up and come back?” And I said, “Well, I won’t give this up until he’s better. There are certain things I have to finish up for him. When I can walk away from it, I’ll be fine.” And he said, “Could you still work for us during that time?” I said, “Yes.” And he said something or other. And I said, “I still want to write songs.” He said, “Are you willing to work half a week, then give me whatever extra hours you can?” I said, “Yes.” And that’s how it started. This was about 1960. I wrote about 300 songs. “The End of the Rainbow,” “A Boy Without A Girl” for Frankie Avalon, “Don’t Pity Me” for Dion and the Belmonts…. Bill: You did a song called “Yogi,” too. And you had the title cut of a Johnny Mathis album! Sid: Oh, boy! Yeah, it was called “Warm” and it was a hit, too. I did a Kennedy take-off called “The Presidential Press Conference.” “Wonderful You,” by Jimmy Rodgers… there were at least a dozen hit songs. Bill: I admire greatly any man who can write songs recorded by June 2002

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Lorne Greene, Jim Nabors, Robert Goulet! I mean, as far as I’m concerned… Sid: That’s right! All of ’em I got! [laughs] I even had a Sinatra record… Nancy Sinatra! [laughter] Bill: Hey, “These Boots Are Made for Walking” is a great song! They should carve your face on the songwriters’ Mount Rushmore, as far as I’m concerned. Your song, “At the End of the Rainbow,” didn’t you say it was recorded 100 times? Sid: I don’t know if it was a hundred, but it was a lot. Bill: Remember I told you I found it on an old Bee Gees album, that they recorded in Australia, before they broke in England? Sid: It was the biggest hit in Germany since the end of World War II, and my royalties to this day are not bad. I think the song first came out in 1959 or ’60, and it’s constantly been in German movies. It was a millionrecord seller in that country! Probably several times. Bill: Maybe you ought to go on tour with the ALF puppet and go on tour in Germany! [laughter] Sid: My wife and I were on a Mediterranean cruise and it was near my birthday, so she secretly taught the band “At the End of the Rainbow,” and they started playing it, and these Germans came jumping over to me, threw me up in the air, it was incredible! [laughter] Incredible! Bill: You’re the German Irving Berlin, I suppose! [laughs]

Above: After the Harvey comics line’s initial closure in the early 1980s, the company attempted sporadic revivals, trying to recapture their former lofty stature in the marketplace. Here’s Warren Kremer’s cover for the 1986 resurrection. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 79

CBA Interview

Howie’s Hot Stuff!

Howard Post recalls days both happy and hellacious at Harvey

Inset center: Howard Post’s sassy rendition of Hot Stuff was the quintessential depiction of our favorite little devil. This panel detail was taken from one of the hundreds of Hot Stuff stories written and drawn by Howard. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: Howard Post was enormously influenced by legendary cartoonist Walt Kelly, well before Pogo would bring Walt international acclaim. You can see the inspiration in this detail of Howard’s cover art for More Fun Comics #121 (1947). Courtesy of Steve Leialoha. ©2002 DC Comics.

Conducted by Chris Knowles and Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Steve Cohen While artist Howard Post gave us a career-spanning interview in Comic Book Artist #5 (just reprinted in the second CBA Collection), it’s our great pleasure to revisit this delightful cartoonist for a chat about Harvey Comics (and quite a few other subjects!). CBA associate editor Chris Knowles visited Howie one afternoon earlier this year in the artist’s New Jersey studio. Ye Ed followed up with numerous questions in a very recent phone conversation. The final transcript—delivered at the 11th hour (thanks for your patience, Mr. Post!)—was copy edited by Howard. Comic Book Artist: Besides comic book work, you also worked in animation? Howard Post: About 40 years ago, I was doing storyboards on a series for King Features, cartoons for television. I was the chief storyboard artist, cartoonist, writer and bottle-washer. [laughter] There I met and worked with Seymour Kneitel, the director/producer of Paramount Cartoon Studios, but he died in 1964, and I entered the competition for that position and got the job! But I was stupid because I turned down the animation work on The Beatles’ animated movie, Yellow Submarine, though they were begging me to do it, and gave it to a friend of mine, Jack Mendelsohn, and it’s been Jack’s major credential ever since. It's carried him all through Hollywood, and gotten him big money deals and things of that sort. Anyway, the director/producer job was a pleasure, because I was dealing with a lot of animators, whom I had to advise, cajole, stroke, and master over. Some of these guys were embittered because 20 years before I had been working for them as an underling, as an inbetweener, so when I came over there as a director, I got into a helluva fight. Really! I called a meeting, and I said, “Gentlemen, I recognize your attitudes, and if my abilities don’t produce anything substantial within a couple of months, I'll walk out of here on my own power. But If you

don't show me anything, the same rule will apply to you." So I was being Mr. Nice Guy, but wasn't taking any sh*t from them, either. When I was ultimately fired from that job, the animators told me that I was the best director that they ever had. I knew I had a feeling for humor writing and things of that nature, and most of those guys were great technicians or were great money men, but none of them knew all the facets of animation. CBA: Did you work simultaneously with Harvey during your time at Paramount? Howard: I was drawing the Harvey material while already writing on the side for the King Features TV cartoon series, and for anything Paramount Studios did. My work was basically to storyboard, and that was a step into a whole, new beautiful thing, because, you know, I could write, and put all the visual aspects on paper. So the transition from comic books to storyboards was very easy. CBA: I have found animation storyboarding more difficult because of timing, and you have to draw very small. Howard: Right. You would normally have to draw small, unless you got oversize storyboard paper, which I did. I got the biggest there was because I liked the space, and that was a great, delightful thing. Somehow, I graduated to producing a comic strip, The Dropouts, which ran for about 15 years. CBA: I see that you work in a lot of styles. Anthro is very different from The Dropouts and Hot Stuff. Howard: Yeah, I did just about every style there is. CBA: The Dropouts reminds me of Johnny Hart. Howard: Well, Johnny Hart was my competition! CBA: But, to be honest with you, yours is a lot better drawn! [laughs] That was the style in the early ’70s, wasn't it? Howard: If you look at Johnny’s work, he’s a little more design oriented than I am. I was still doing, what you could call “cartooning with a K.” Big noses, you know, “schnozzes,” big feet, and stuff like that. Johnny really was more advanced with the design than I was. My humor in The Dropouts revolved around a couple of guys, with two distinct personalities—an intellectual and a pragmatist—who were stranded on a desert island. I created that strip after I noticed there were a lot of gags about castaways in the various joke books that were around in those days. Prior to The Dropouts, I had just been turned down by the New York Daily News when I pitched them my Anthro newspaper strip presentation. My friend John Prentice actually told me to submit it to Carmine Infantino at DC Comics, where it lasted as a title for a few issues. I shared space with John (who drew the syndicated newspaper strip Rip Kirby) and, for close to 25 years, we were studio mates. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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CBA: In Manhattan? Howard: Right. John was from the Deep South, from Freer, Texas, and he brought his Southern culture with him and I brought my New York City culture with me. When we'd order up lunch by phone from a Kosher deli named Gittler's on Broadway, I'd say, “John, you can order me a corned beef on rye.” Then I'd hear him ordering his sandwich: “I'll have the smoked beef on white toast, with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.” That was a pastrami sandwich for him! It was completely ignorant of what delicatessen food is in New York, but John was fun. We were close friends, and I had to give the eulogy at his funeral. CBA: When did John pass away? Howard: About five years ago. He was in the regular Navy, in fact, at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. John was below deck, fixing asbestos flooring, and he apparently just inhaled too much of that stuff, because that's what eventually killed him. He was, I think, 79 when he died, so he would have lived to a thousand if he had not inhaled that material. CBA: Seventy-nine is a nice age to make it to for a lot of folks. Howard: Not when you're 78! [laughter] CBA: Anthro is such a completely different style… Howard: Completely different. I had just written it and was rejected by the syndicates (for being too cerebral!), John said, “Why don't you try that on Carmine?” So I ran up to DC, where Carmine was editorial director, and said "What do you think of this?" Carmine just thumbs through it, looks over the scripts, things like that, and says, “Do it!” I immediately got myself some bristol board, and began storyboarding the series. CBA: Directly onto the actual board? Howard: As soon as I could write it. I was writing and drawing it simultaneously, and those were the roughs that I submitted to Carmine, and he would give the okay—or change it, whatever he wanted—and then I'd go home and clean 'em up, with that pencilly-penny line. CBA: How was it working for Carmine? Howard: Carmine is an artist and is still a friend of mine. He's a great guy. He knows what the hell he's doing, so my experience was a good one. I should tell you that I shared a studio with Alex Toth and Joe Kubert before I got together with John Prentice. It was a small studio on Park Avenue, a little upstairs walk-up flat. I was the big foot artist there. They were straight guys, but they were both giants. So, if you'll forgive me, there were three giants up there. [laughter] I would do anything. I actually did Westerns for DC, when they needed help.... Somebody asked, “Do you do Westerns?” and I said, “Yeah! Sure!” They put me on a series called “Rodeo Rick,” which I drew for a long time. I love to draw horses and can render realistically when I want to. So I enjoyed that for a while, and they just kept shifting me from one thing to the other. I didn't mind it at all. CBA: Let's just talk a little bit more about Harvey, so Jon Cooke doesn't strangle me. [laughter] How many years did you work there? Howard: Oh God, I'm not really that good with numbers, but would say maybe 15 to 20 years. I June 2002

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brought up two kids on those checks from Harvey. CBA: [Points to Hot Stuff character design] Was this the look you developed? Howard: No, this look was already established by Warren Kremer, who was the true backbone of the entire Harvey operation, the Master Artist of all of the Harvey publications. Warren was there from the “git!” CBA: When you first started in the comics field, did you know of Alfred Harvey and his line of comics? Howard: No. I only knew of Harvey Comics very vaguely. I started in the field with Bernie Baily, a private entrepreneur, who packaged comics for various publications. I didn’t know much about the field at that time; I only knew that Bernie had work and I was supporting a big family and needed the job. CBA: When did you start your association with Harvey? Howard: Sometime in the early 1950s. I worked for Sid Jacobson, who was always there, and I drew Spooky and Hot Stuff. I also wrote and drew one- and two-page fillers featuring all the other characters, Little Lotta, Little Dot, Richie and Casper. I did fillers of any kind, really. I would come up with the gag, pitch it to Sid, he’d say okay, and I’d do the pages that were required. CBA: How did you pitch Sid? Did you draw a thumbnail? Howard: I didn’t have to draw anything. I would just verbally pitch the gag to him. CBA: Did you pitch by phone or did you frequent the office? Howard: I was at the office very frequently. I would go there maybe two or three times a week. CBA: Did you socialize with the staffers at all? Howard: Oh, yeah! Sid and I were friends, and Ernie Colón and I were tight. Ken Selig and I used to kick around now and then (and, in fact, we still do!). We were all close friends with Warren Kremer. Though we don’t get together often enough these days, we do have an annual Harvey picnic at Warren’s place every June. We get together, have lunch, and yak. There’ll be additional friends from outside the business and we all sit around, talk, and have

Above: Writer/artist Howard Post ventures into Anthro territory as Hot Stuff travels back to prehistoric times in a story from “The Land of Long Ago,” in Devil Kids #15. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. Below: It’s tough finding pictures of the artist, but Harvey editor Sid Jacobson kindly loaned me this profile of Howard Post, taken while both were contributing to Marvel’s Star Comics line.

Above: Howard Post’s biographical entry in a National Cartoonists Society Album. I asked Howard if he drew his caricature because I felt it looked awfully like Mort Drucker’s work. Chuckling, Howard explained that a pal of his noticed a resemblance to Hollywood super-star actor Jack Nicholson, and so he doctored a Mort Drucker drawing of the performer from Mad magazine, taking away some of Jack’s hair to match Howard’s present look. Courtesy of Bill Janocha. ©2002 Howard Post. Inset right: With Harvey work completely stopped, Howard joined editor Sid Jacobson to contribute to the ill-fated Star Comics line of Marvel. He drew the comics version of this character. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. & American Greetings, Inc. Below: Ye Ed and the creator both consider Howard Post’s unforgettable Anthro comic series from 1968 to be among the finest work ever produced by the writer/artist. This splash page detail is from Anthro #2, courtesy of Howard. ©2002 DC Comics.

a great time. CBA: What do you think of Warren Kremer? Howard: I love him. I think he’s a good man and a superb artist. As I said, he was the creative backbone of Harvey Comics and he’s an allaround genius. Between Warren and Sid Jacobson, I believe they really created the library of Harvey characters. CBA: At Harvey, you’re mostly known for doing Hot Stuff. What did you think of the character? Howard: I thought the character was great. Let me tell you a story: I was down in Mexico with my then-studio mate John Prentice where we attended an United Features function. We went to a party and I was introduced to this Mexican gentleman. He asked, “What do you do?” I was very modest because I had nothing syndicated at the time, so I replied, “I do Hot Stuff.” He looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Flamito? You draw Flamito?” Well, people started gathering around and I quickly learned that Harvey Comics were very popular south of the border. Casparine was Casper; Flamito was Hot Stuff; Sábanito was Spooky, which means “little bedsheet.” [laughter] CBA: Does Flamito mean “little flame”? Howard: I believe so. It was a nice experience because they were wild about Harvey Comics and I suddenly discovered I was a celebrity in Mexico! [laughter] CBA: Of all the Harvey characters, I confess that Hot Stuff is my favorite. He’s a very engaging little wise guy. Howard: I do like him very much. I hope that sometime in the future he’ll reappear because he’s good looking, fun and just delightful. I couldn’t always contribute 1,000% enthu-

siasm every time I drew the character, but I did really enjoy drawing him. I think we were all able to enjoy ourselves working on the Harvey line-up. I’m sure Ernie had as much fun as I did. If you look at all the Harvey characters, they’re formulaic in the sense that they were structured by Warren Kremer so they could be repeatedly drawn by anybody. Warren had designed them so the basic under-skeleton, so to speak, of Hot Stuff, Casper, Richie Rich, Spooky, etc., were all the same. Warren was a genius with the character designs. CBA: Can you explain what was it that made them the same? Howard: Warren adhered to a formula common in animation. Underneath all the characters are the same identical proportions and, on the surface, the same very superficial characteristics. Once the design got specific, like giving Spooky a hat or put a tail on Hot Stuff, those were the differentiations which makes them entirely different. And they do different things. But basically the understructure was essentially the same, which would carry through comics, animation, licensing, and everything else. As I told you, I’ve been in the animation business with Paramount and DePatieFreleng, I know that when you create a character for animated film, you give it what is called a “turnaround,” which is three views of the same character. Views from the back, front and side. So, all the turnarounds Warren designed were structurally the same, making them very, very easy for other artists to handle and adapt to, even though we all stylized our own way. Ernie Colón, for instance, was much better at imitating Warren than I was. I wanted to have some fun while I was drawing! [chuckles] CBA: Did you write all of the material you drew or just the fillers? Howard: I wrote mostly the one- and two-page gag fillers. Occasionally I would write a full story, depending on the schedule. But Harvey had a staff of writers and writing was not my essential function. I was drawing. CBA: My biggest impression of the Harvey freelancers is that despite working anonymously and some corporate intrigues at the company, you guys had a very good time working together, right? Howard: Oh, yeah! We had a lot of camaraderie and we saw each other quite often. Though we were all freelance, we were still in the office all of the time because it was convenient for Sid to have us all as close as possible and because we all enjoyed each other’s company. All the guys enjoyed each other. CBA: How many pages could you draw in a day? Howard: Not a huge amount. If you backed me to a wall, I might pencil three, but usually just two pages a day. Only very rarely did I ink. I found myself inking only when scheduling was backed-up because an inker was sick or something. CBA: Generally the inkers at Harvey were women? Howard: Yes, there were a couple of women, whose names have escaped me, I’m ashamed to admit; ask Ernie for their names because he remembers women! [laughter] Both the women were great inkers. CBA: Did you have a favorite inker? Howard: No. Once I finished a job, I was off to other pursuits so I rarely looked back on a job. CBA: How would you characterize your time at Harvey? Howard: I thought it was terrific. It was great to work with the guys up there, who were all under the guidance of Sid Jacobson, who COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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had good editorial qualities. Alfred Harvey did make the major decisions and he was also a genius. CBA: Did you get caught up in the intrigues that went on after Bob Harvey died? Howard: No. To me, it was a shameful situation. The brothers’ father had left them investment money after he passed away, and he wanted all three to go into business together. But Alfred had much, much more to contribute than the other brothers. He had a great brain and was all-together intelligent, but he was zany, too! For example, when 3-D comics came out, he had the mad idea to corner the market on the two-colored glasses you needed for the books. He thought 3-D would be the Next Big Thing and thought that all the other publishers would have to deal with him for the glasses. But it was ridiculous because the red-&-blue glasses could be made anywhere by any toy company, plus the trend… the craze, really… didn’t last long at all. So Al Harvey was left holding not only the bag, but a lot of glasses! [laughter] CBA: How were Harvey’s page rates? Howard: They were reasonable for the time. CBA: Were you always leaving and coming back to Harvey or did you always have steady assignments? Howard: I was always working very steady for them. I’m very grateful to Harvey for having me able to support my family. I bought a house and raised a family with what I earned at Harvey. Of course, families and houses were a lot cheaper then, too! [laughter] I was able to live a good middle class life, with a home we could call our own. Harvey was a good place to work for because they were so reliable, and an aspect of that staunch reliability has to be attributed to Sid Jacobson because he kept things running well and was conscientious about the guys who were working for him. He was really quite superb. CBA: How do you remember the move over to Star Comics at Marvel? Howard: Well, Sid went over first as an editor and, when he called me in, I drew a lot of the Star Comics line. I think Harvey wasn’t publishing much new material at the time. CBA: Did the lack of credit, the anonymity, at Harvey bother you? Howard: It only bothered me because I had friends—John Prentice, Leonard Starr, Tex Blaisdell—guys who were well-known syndicated cartoonists, so I had the feeling that I was the country cousin. Needless to say, it was nice to finally get my own syndicated strip so I could join the crowd and not feel so anonymous. It was a good way to go. Right: Lest we forget, Howard Post also drew Spooky regularly for Harvey. From the original art, courtesy of Bill Janocha, here’s the artist’s work from Spooky Spooktown #21. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Warren Kremer continued from page 67

kid who’s the son of a millionaire?” That’s all. I brought the idea in to Sid and told him. He said, “Gee, I think you’ve got something, Warren.” From there, Muffati drew up a storyboard of the character, a model sheet of Richie. We decided Richie would be like Little Lord Fauntleroy with his black velvet jacket, bow tie… Bill: He had the cutest feet and these white boot things. Warren: That was all Muffati. Ken: Of course, Alfred Harvey always said that he created it. Warren: I know! Oh, I had the biggest argument with him. Ken: [chuckles] But I better turn this around now too. I have my own opinion on how Richie Rich was created. I think you’re right about The Millionaire, apparently, but I think what— Warren: I’m telling you where the idea stemmed from. I even named the character after my son, Richard. Ken: And it makes sense, of course. It all falls into place. Warren: Right. Ken: With one difference— Warren: How many times did Muffati draw a rowboat and put “Ethyl” on the back of it, his wife’s name. He was always getting somebody in that he knew, which is all right. Bill: Walt Kelly did. Ken: When Alan Harvey showed me his father’s drawings of Richie Rich, when I was working for Harvey, he said this was the origin of Richie Rich. I said to Alan, “That may be true, but Warren says that he saw The Millionaire and that’s the origin of it.” Warren: Yeah, that’s how the idea came to me. Alfred created Little Dot and that thing was awful. Ken: Maybe you guys weren’t aware of it, but I think it came from Perry Winkle. Warren: What came from Perry Winkle? Grace: I think it’s going to come to blows! [laughter] June 2002

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Ken: Richie Rich is really Perry Winkle! Warren: How do you figure that? Ken: Think of what Perry Winkle looked like. Warren: Perry got a big, red bow? Bill: Okay, it’s been great, guys! [laughs] Stay tuned next week! Ken: What does Perry Winkle look like? Quick. Bill: He looked like one of the Rinky-Dink Guys. Ken: He had a red bow-tie, yellow hair drooping over his forehead, he had different boots he just mentioned, or white socks. He had short pants, so… Warren: I see what you’re saying. But it’s just a coincidence. Bill: I see the tape is ending. Ken: Maybe that’s for the best. [laughter] Bill: Before we go, just a few more questions. What about the creation of Stumbo? Warren: That was strictly mine. He became the fourth story after three Hot Stuff stories [in the title Hot Stuff]. Bill: Then he had his own “giant size” comic, Stumbo Tinytown. Warren: When Stumbo became popular, he got his own book. Bill: He lived in Tinytown? Warren: Yeah, that was the town. There was a volcano, a mountain and he leaned against it. That’s where he stayed. And, of course, he was influenced by the people of Tinytown. Bill: You never did show Giantland, did you? Warren: No, we sort of stayed away from that. Bill: I suppose Harvey didn’t have any retirement plan or residuals for reprints? Warren: No, none of that. They couldn’t let us sign the work. They didn’t want any other company to know who we were. That’s what I always regretted. Bill: All in all, was Harvey a fun place to work? Warren: Oh, I had a lot of fun, especially when I opened this studio up [indicating his home’s top floor]. I just walked up the stairs and sat at my board and started to work. I used to stop and say to myself, “And I’m getting paid for this!” [laughter]

Final Note As a postscript, interviewer Bill Janocha would like to add that it was an honor and pleasure for him to contribute this rare insight into the work of this great studio and work of his dear friends Ken Selig, Howard Post, and especially Warren and Grace Kremer. Ye Ed would like to add that we hope in the future that we may include an even lengthier interview with Warren, as we fervently believe him to be one of the most important contributors to American comic books. The more one gets exposed to Warren’s gorgeous work, the stronger the appreciation. It is with extreme pride that we dedicate this issue to Warren Kremer and the entire Harvey team of artists and writers! Thanks for the memories, pals! 83

Michelle’s Meanderings

Harvey Wasn’t All Humor Michelle examines ten titles defying memory and explanation by Michelle Nolan

Above: Was Invisible Scarlet O’Neil a female version of Dick Tracy, only without the yellow fedora? The presence of brutal violence, bizarre villains and a straight arrow hero sure makes one think! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

A funny thing happened on the way to Harvey Comics becoming known as a leader in the field of children’s humor. Harvey Comics were far from funny in most of their pre-Comics Code productions. Most people who began reading comics in the first quarter century of the post-Code era probably think of Harvey as the most onedimensional comic book company from 1955-79, including the years when Harvey enjoyed the height of its success. Harvey published 13 humor characters who became icons— funny figures that virtually every baby boomer will remember, even people who didn’t read a lot of comic books. Try it. Ask any non-collector from 35 to 55 years old if they remember (in alphabetical order) Baby Huey, Blondie, Casper, Dagwood, Felix the Cat, Hot Stuff, Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Spooky and Wendy the Good Little Witch. I’ll bet he or she remembers almost all of them. Not for nothing did Harvey’s advertising refer to “Famous Name” comics. Harvey, however, was a much different company in the 1941-54 era. The vast majority of the Harvey comics of those years have long since been forgotten, although some of them are avidly sought by collectors for a variety of reasons. Harvey was among the most versatile of companies in pre-Code days. You name it, Harvey tried it… super-hero, newspaper reprint comics of every type, romance, war, Western, horror and humor… about the only type of comics Harvey didn’t produce much of were hardcore crime comics. Among its dozens of bestselling comics, Harvey published more than 70 titles, ranging from one-shots to long-running series like Dick Tracy and Joe Palooka, that were in no way related to the company’s iconic humor characters. Let’s talk about ten of the most unusual and atypical of these titles. All but one were published during a convoluted decade of confusion and chaos, exploration and exploitation in comics—the 194656 era. The tenth title we will explore, the 1957-61 Phantom issues of Harvey Hits, in its own way was the most unusual title of all. How many of you are familiar with the long-forgotten Babe Ruth Sports Comics, the unusual mid-1950s Black Cat Western, the unique Captain 3-D, Harvey’s failed attempt at popularizing Flash Gordon, the ground-breaking Harvey Comic Hits, the hilariously sleazy Harvey Comics Library, the nothing-like-it Invisible Scarlet

O'Neil, the intriguing Man in Black and the high-caliber capers of Stuntman. Here, then, is the Harvey you may never have heard about: Babe Ruth Sports #1-11 (1949-51)—When Street & Smith left the comics business in 1949 after nearly a decade of publishing the 50-issue run of True Sport Picture Stories (known as Sport Comics for its first four issues), several companies tried to pick up the sports slack. The longest-running exclusively non-fiction effort was Babe Ruth Sports, which ran 11 issues and was not surprisingly the namesake of the best-known player in baseball history. Babe Ruth had been retired for nearly 15 years—and dead for a year—when this comic hit the stands in 1949, but virtually every boy in the country knew about the legendary slugger when Harvey licensed the name. If a comic book named after George Herman Ruth couldn’t succeed, well, then there just wasn’t much of a market for sports comics. In fact, that is what Harvey discovered, despite turning in an admirable attempt. BLACK CAT WESTERN #54-56 (1955)—There were several unsuccessful attempts at reviving or creating costumed heroes in the three years before Showcase #4 began the Silver Age with the revival of The Flash in 1956. Only two of these attempts involved titles starring a super-female—and when Black Cat first came back, the Ajax version of Phantom Lady already was nearly gone. Black Cat #54, the first reappearance of glamorous judo expert and film star Linda Turner since 1951, hit the stands in 1955 as part of Harvey’s hastily converted line of horror titles. When these three issues appeared—consisting entirely of nifty Black Cat reprints by Lee Elias along with retouched covers—there was absolutely nothing remotely like them in comic books. Indeed, DC even seemed to have “retired” Batman’s foe Catwoman in 1954 and would not create Batwoman until 1956. But even though Black Cat had no competition—Wonder Woman was an entirely different type of comic—Linda Turner apparently made no impact whatsoever on the comic book market. Today, these three issues are fairly tough to find and would be even tougher were it not for the Harvey file copies that hit the market in the 1980s. Interestingly, Harvey marketed these under its logo imprint “A Thrill Adventure” rather than the familiar Harvey logo. Apparently the company felt that the Harvey logo might turn off older readers by this time! CAPTAIN 3-D #1 (1953)—Other than the 3-D issues of Superman and Batman, the original character Captain 3-D was the only super-hero involved in the short-lived 3-D craze. Brainstormed on an emergency basis by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby along with other artists including Mort Meskin at Harvey’s request, Captain 3-D is one of the few one-shot super-hero titles. Not only did Captain 3-D appear a couple of months “late” during the short-lived 3-D comics craze, the price tag of 25¢ for a 36page comic represented—at the time—the worst price-point in comic book history. FLASH GORDON #1-4 (1950-51)—When Harvey acquired the license to most of the King Features Syndicate characters after the David McKay company left comics in 1949, Harvey struck it rich in 1950 with Blondie and her Harvey-originated spin-off title devoted to Dagwood. But Harvey also struck out with Flash Gordon, despite reprinting handsome Alex Raymond Sunday pages that originally were reprinted in McKay’s King Comics. Harvey’s Flash Gordon, appearing in 1950-51, by rights should have succeeded, or at least should have lasted longer. The Flash COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Gordon newspaper strips were still going strong, the three 1936-40 serials were still being shown as either chapter plays or feature versions in both theaters and on television, and interest In science-fiction comics seemed fairly strong. But Harvey’s only science-fiction title didn’t even last one year. Perhaps it was just a case of newsstand overkill—dozens upon dozens of short-lived sci-fi and fantasy titles were born and died in the 1950-53 period, in addition to all the horror comics on the stands. Or perhaps the King syndicate yanked the license in preparation of selling it to Dell, which produced six Flash Gordon issues for its FourColor series before Harvey acquired the license and published three more Flash Gordon issues after Harvey surrendered it. For that matter, Flash Gordon had the unusual distinction of being one of the few licensed characters published by two different 1940s comic book companies at the same time—McKay (only in King Comics) and Dell (only in one-shots). So perhaps legal issues had more to do with the demise of the Harvey version. HARVEY COMICS HITS #51-62 (1951-52)—More than four years before DC came up with the “tryout” concept in Showcase, Harvey tried the same idea with an unsuccessful variation—none of the characters were original in the 12 issues of Harvey Comics Hits. There were the Phantom (twice), Steve Canyon, Mandrake the Magician, Tim Tyler, Mary Worth, Rip Kirby, Girls in White (an anthology of romance and nursing), Tales of the Invisible (with Scarlet O’Neil), Casper and Paramount Animated Comics with Baby Huey (twice). Other than the two humor titles, nothing clicked. On the overcrowded newsstands of 1951-52—packed with sensational horror, crime and romance comics—newspaper strip characters simply did not resonate with most young readers, however classic they might have been. Harvey even labeled the Phantom “Weird Jungle Fantasy” and Mandrake “Weird Magic Fantasy” but to little avail. HARVEY COMICS LIBRARY #1-2—The two most outrageously exaggerated titles in Harvey history—packaged with classic newspaper strip characters, no less—were “Teen-Age Dope Slaves” with Rex Morgan and “Blackmail Terror” with the sympathetic Dick Tracy strip kid character Sparkle Plenty. What was it about a dog’s bark being worse than his bite? Well… INVISIBLE SCARLET O’NEIL #1-3 (1950-51)—Harvey reprinted nifty examples of Russell Stamm’s unique artistic vision for the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate, along with a biographer of the creator on the inside front cover of #I (and reprinted in Harvey Comics Hits #59). But, like Flash Gordon, the adventurous Miss O’Neil lacked, well, enough visibility on the newsstands. She also appeared during a nadir for female fantasy figures. “What Would You Do If You Could Become Invisible?” Harvey asked in a contest in issue #1, but there were was never a follow-up. I wonder how many responses Harvey received? Invisible Scarlet O'Neil appeared previously in comic books in Famous Funnies #81-167 (1941-48), which was primarily a newspaper reprint title. She may have inspired Invisible Girl in the Fantastic Four. Those may have been the only invisible females in the first three decades of comic book history. I suspect that since Dick Tracy was selling so well for Harvey since the firm acquired the license early in 1950, the company thought a female version also would sell. No such luck, more’s the pity, since this strip was a lot of fun. THE MAN IN BLACK #1-4 (1957-58)—Contrary to what most readers believed when this Phantom Stranger-like character hit the stands in 1957 to narrate stories under the logo imprint “A Thrill Adventure”—courtesy of the masterful Bob Powell and looking like nothing else on sale at the time—The Man in Black was not a new concept. The Man in Black appeared in several earlier Harvey Comics—the Front Page Comic Book one-shot (1945), Strange Story one-shot (1946), Green Hornet #31 through #34 (1946-47) and AllNew #14 (1947). My guess is that the entire Man in Black concept was years ahead of its time and went way over the heads of most young readers. “Greetings! I am the Man in Black! Some call me Fate … some Kismet … and others Luck! But to you, I am the Man in Black! And I will show you the amazing part I play in your life…” began the introduction in #1. June 2002

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STUNTMAN #1-2 (1946)—There was a third issue, a small-size black-&-white version sent only to mail subscribers, but it’s so scarce that most collectors will never have a chance to own it, much less see it. This creative Simon & Kirby creation deserved a much better fate than only two full-fledged issues (with a total of five fulllength stories). Harvey published Stuntman reprints in Thrills of Tomorrow #19-20 (1955), which was yet another small part of the failed mid-1950s hero revival. In Black Cat #9 (1947), Harvey reprinted the 13-page origin story from Stuntman #1. HARVEY HITS Phantom issues (1957-61)—Comic books with newspaper reprints, whether anthologies or titles devoted to individual characters, were mostly long gone when these oddities starring The Ghost Who Walks hit the stands. But, of course, newspaper stalwarts Dick Tracy and Joe Palooka remained in the Harvey adventure character stable, so Harvey apparently thought there was also a market for the Phantom. There were eight of them—#1 (Sept. 1957), #6 (Feb. 1958), #12 (Aug. 1958), #15 (Dec. 1958), #26 (Nov. 1959), #36 (Sept. 1960), #44 (May 1961) and #48 (Sept. 1961). The first appeared 21 years after Lee Falk’s creation first appeared in newspaper strips in 1936. I recall being amazed when I saw these Harvey issues on sale, because there was simply nothing else like them being published at the time. After a flurry of minor hero titles and revivals in the mid-1950s, costumed heroes were at their absolute low point in comics history late in ’57 and throughout ’58. The long-underwear folks were represented only by classic DC survivors and the revival of The Flash in Showcase—other than in a few IW reprints—and by Harvey’s inexplicable comic book “revival” of the Phantom, which was still going strong in American newspapers at the time (and remains one of the most popular characters in the world to this day). The first issue also contained a hilarious five-page satire of jungle comics titled “Shirl the Jungle Girl.” The Phantom reprints were from 1946, but there were no credits! It’s difficult to imagine that Lee Falk’s name did not appear anywhere in this comic book. That problem was rectified with the second appearance in #6, with Falk and artist Wilson McCoy given prominent credit on the splash page. Falk and Ray Moore (the original Phantom artist) were credited in #12 and in a one-page origin at the back of #15, which featured nothing but Phantom pages. But there are no credits anywhere on the 23 pages of Phantom strips in #26. Weird! But then, in #36, once again Falk and McCoy are prominent on the splash page. There were no credits in #44, but Falk and McCoy were back on the splash in #48. Who in the world edited these things? I would not call these eight issues of Phantom reprints scarce, but they seem much less common than most other comic books of the era—especially much less common than DC super-hero comics of the period. On the last three Phantom issues, the Harvey jack-inthe-box logo seems oddly out of place! All of these Phantom issues seem weirdly dated compared to virtually all the other comics of the period.

Above: Before becoming a notoriously gruesome horror title, Black Cat was briefly a Western book. Below: Try as they might, Harvey just couldn’t seem to get their comic book adaptation of Lee Falk’s The Phantom off the ground. Black Cat ©2002 Lorne-Harvey Productions, Inc. The Phantom ©2002 King Features Syndicate.

CBA Interview

Harvey Gets Simonized Talking with the Harvey Thriller editor, comics legend Joe Simon Conducted by Jon B. Cooke

Below: Imagine Ye Ed’s shock when rummaging through some delightful contributions from CBA pal Andrew Steven to find what we believe is an unpublished Wally Wood cover for Harvey’s Warfront title. Yow! Ain’t she a beaut? Thanks, Andrew! Art ©2002 Wally Wood Estate.

Joe Simon is one of the most legendary figures in the history of American comic books. Half of the most successful creative team in the industry—Simon & Kirby—Joe also had a notable career as an editor, significantly landing a position periodically at Harvey Comics to helm their various attempts at jump-starting adventure comics. For a more complete picture of Joe’s Harvey experiences, we implore readers to seek out the forthcoming revised edition of Joe and son Jim Simon’s wonderful insider’s history of the field, The Comic Book Makers (newly designed by Ye Ed!), to be published by Vanguard Productions. This E-mail interview took place at the last minute and we thank Joe for his gracious patience and prompt turnaround. Comic Book Artist: Your soon-to-be reprinted book, The Comic Book Makers, relates your editorial experience at Harvey as follows: “It was 1957. My friend Al Harvey said he was glad to have me join his company, Harvey Publications. I soon went to work turning out a new line of adventure comics… My assignment was to turn out six new titles on a regular bi-monthly basis, starting out without

one solitary artist or writer… The titles we came up with were Alarming Tales, Spyman, Race for the Moon, Black Cat Mystic, Warfront, and Man In Black.” I believe you are blending in two separate time periods here, as Alarming Tales, Race for the Moon, Black Cat Mystery, and Man in Black were released in 1957-58. Joe Simon: I’ll accept that the time periods in TCBM you cite are not accurate. Though it would take time to check it completely, let’s accept your version since you’re rushed and it’s not a big issue for me. CBA: As you wrote in your book, your relationship with the Harvey brothers goes back to the early days of comics. Can you describe your friendship? Joe: I was very good friends with Alfred, Robert and Leon Harvey, a friendship that lasted throughout my life. [Joe’s relationship with Alfred is covered in detail in TCBM] Robert was an accountant. Leon was... hell, he tried. They were both very nice. CBA: You went into a business venture with Alfred as he was starting as a publisher. The idea was small magazines called Pocket Comics, which you said in TCBM might have failed at the newsstand because kids were apparently stealing the things. After that debacle, did you remain in close contact with Alfred? Joe: I wouldn’t call Pocket Comics a “debacle.” It didn’t exactly bomb, it just did not achieve the high hopes and expectations we had. And, yes, Alfred and I remained friends. CBA: Can you describe, in general terms, your arrangement with Harvey regarding the initial Simon & Kirby books, Stuntman and Boy Explorers? Was the general state of the industry the cause for those title’s rapid cancellation? Joe: That’s correct; it was the general state of the industry, as I described in TCBM. CBA: By the late 1940s, you and Jack Kirby were deeply involved with the Crestwood/Prize romance titles. What brought you over to Harvey to have them publish Boys’ Ranch? Joe: Jack and I had a 50/50 partnership with Harvey and we realized this was a chance to do something we loved. CBA: Though you worked on Harvey’s Captain 3-D, were you skeptical that the 3-D craze would be short-lived even as you received the call from Alfred and, if so, did you discuss it with him? Joe: Yes, we discussed it. I foresaw that kids wouldn’t be interested except for an initial curiosity. The 3-D process in comics was developed by St. John Publications and their first editions did spectacularly well, but then the field just as suddenly died. Harvey bought up an entire factory of 3-D glasses so he was stuck with the genre until he COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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unloaded the inventory. CBA: What prompted you to take on an editorial position at Harvey in 1957-58? Joe: It was basically that we were all like family, and I simply loved working with them. CBA: Do you recall the 1957 announcement that the Soviets had launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite? Did comic book folks immediately start looking for ways to exploit those dramatic days? Joe: Yes, we did. At Harvey, we produced Race for the Moon, with “The Three Rocketeers,” a comic I very much enjoyed working on. CBA: Did the collapse of American News Distributors, which almost singlehandedly closed Atlas/Timely (later Marvel), afford you an opportunity to land some of editor Stan Lee’s finer talent, such as Al Williamson, John Severin, and Doug Wildey, who worked on your titles in the late ’50s? Joe: It wasn’t so much as Atlas’s condition at the time, as it was the entire industry was collapsing. They came looking for work and I was happy to be able to give them assignments. (I do remember Doug Wildey’s artwork, incidentally, which I thought was beautiful. I recall he did a lot of work for me.) Still, Atlas was in terrible shape then, so we used Kirby and other distraught Atlas artists. Even Stan Lee came to me desperately seeking solutions to what looked to be a bleak future. CBA: Were you involved in the Man in Black Called Fate concept? If so, was he based on the Shadow/Whistler radio characters or DC’s Phantom Stranger? Joe: This is the first I heard of DC’s Phantom Stranger, but Man in Black was mainly a project Bob Powell had developed. CBA: Who came up with the “Harvey Thriller” group name and what was the intention? Joe: The name was used by Harvey to distinguish the books from the animated-type comics, which were their mainstay. As an aside, don’t forget that Harvey made an impact in television as well, as their Funday Funnies was one of the top children’s shows on TV. Harvey even made it into the history books as Casper even orbited the moon as mascot for Apollo 14, one of the last moon shots. CBA: Do you recall your tenure helming the Harvey Thriller line? Joe: There’s not that much to relate though I do recall a number of artists who worked on the books. I remember George Tuska’s work on Spyman, Bill Draut on “B-Man,” etc. CBA: Do you recall a young Jim Steranko pitching you ideas? Joe: As I remember it, Steranko did not do any art for us, as he was just beginning and had no experience. He did script in the form of layouts—or roughs—on letter-sized paper. They were nice character sketches, including what we finally called Magicmaster. He was upset that I changed the title from Sorcerer to Magicmaster but he didn’t understand that Sorcerer was a single common word, thus it couldn’t be trademarked. CBA: Why was there virtually a year-long delay between the initial volley of Harvey Thriller one-shots and the regular series debut in 1966? Were you waiting on sales results? Joe: No. I don’t recall the period lasting an entire year.

CBA: Who were your writers on the Harvey Thriller line? Were you the head writer? Joe: The usual suspects: The Wood brothers, Ed Herron, Jack Oleck, Carl Wessler, Bob Powell, and myself. I was the Chief Indian. CBA: How was the decision to reprint Fighting American arrived at? Did Harvey ask or did you offer? Joe: It was my job to come up with projects, so I offered Fighting American because I had property. CBA: Did you deal with Will Eisner regarding The Spirit reprint books? If so, was it your suggestion to use some new material? Joe: Eisner did his own work, and he was a friend of the Harveys, as was I. CBA: What is your final assessment of the Harvey Thriller line? Were you gratified or disappointed? Joe: We did great with very little machinery. CBA: Why did you leave Harvey in 1967? Do you think the books were given sufficient chances to find an audience or was the marketplace overly flooded and/or particularly dismal by that time? Joe: The Harvey family was hopelessly mired in self-destructive litigation. It was very sad. I went into advertising and tripled my income. I wound up taking care of my friend. After Bob Harvey’s death, I came in to help out. I took over his spacious office in what is now the Trump International Hotel. Finally I had an office of my own with a huge couch where I could nap away the afternoons! CBA: What is your fondest memory of your experience at Harvey Comics? Joe: My fondest memory? Harvey paying my apartment rent, my hotel bill, my parking garage fees, all my food bills. To quote Alfred: “Richie Rich will take care of it," and he sure did.

Above: See the ad for Joe’s revised edition of TCBM on page 97! And buy it! ©2002 Joe Simon & Jim Simon. Below: One of the highlights of the Harvey Thriller line was the appearance of the oneshot Fighting American reprint book (though it did contain previously unpublished material). Perhaps Simon & Kirby’s finest work from the ’50s. Detail from FA #1. ©2002 Joe Simon and the Estate of Jack Kirby.

DON’T KNOCK ON WOOD [The following anecdote about comic master Wally Wood’s short stint at Harvey Comics in the mid-’60s is quoted from Joe Simon’s remarkable memoir on his life in comics, The Comic Book Makers, a tome (co-written with Joe’s son, Jim) filled with many, many delightful true-life stories of the first three decades of American comic books. A revised edition is forthcoming from Vanguard Productions so please check out the ad elsewhere in this issue. Our thanks for Joe’s kind permission to reprint the quote, which is ©2002 Joe Simon and Jim Simon.—Ye Ed.] Incredibly, we were meeting schedules [on the Harvey Thriller line], turning out good, quality product—until the day Leon Harvey requested a meeting of the artists. Wally Wood showed up first. Leon, who was billed as executive editor, placed some of Wally’s art pages on his very large desk in his very large office, placed a sheet of tracing paper over each board, and picked up a red crayon. That’s when I knew we were in trouble. As Wally looked on in utter disbelief, Leon, with a swish and a flourish of his crayJune 2002

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on, proceeded to give drawing lessons to one of the most accomplished artists in the history of comics. Odd as it might sound, I understood what Leon was trying to convey—that a figure in the air or in space should be surrounded by blank space, not overlapping any background object. He wanted heavier outlines on foreground drawings receding to thinner lines for backgrounds. Action scenes were to come forward toward the reader and be transitional from one panel to the next. His ideas were basically sound animation devices. Unfortunately, his attempts at drawing were so pathetic, he only succeeded in confusing and offending the artist. In the midst of Leon’s swishing and swirling of his now-blunt crayon, Wally picked up his boards, discarded the tracing papers neatly in the wastebasket and walked off without a word, never to enter the Harvey portals again. Leon was devastated. The next day he implored me to get Wally back in the fold. “He’s one of the greatest artists we ever had here,” Leon said. Wally hung up the phone on us and Leon gave up his drawing classes. 87

High Camp Harvey

Thrilling Harvey Heroes Lou Mougin gets the lowdown on Joe Simon’s adventure line by Lou Mougin

Comic Book Artist is proud, once again, to feature a chapter of Lou Mougin’s history of the super-hero comics of the 1960s, this one looking at Joe Simon’s Harvey Thriller line. As noted in the preface to Lou’s Tower Comics article in CBA #14, this irreverent look at those high camp heroes includes some opinions this perhaps more charitable editor doesn’t necessarily agree with. That quibble aside, we need to add that, as this article is reprinted from The Comics Reader #200, way back in 1982, there are some dated references (a few which we annotated). Our thanks to Lou for his kind permission to use this entertaining piece and we look forward to reprising his essays on Gold Key, Mighty Comics and the smaller publishers in coming issues. To some of us, Comic Book Trivia has become a High Art. The proof of this lies in the publication of The Pow! Wham! Zap Comic Book Trivia Quiz, an over-sized paperback in which authors Michael Uslan and Bruce Solomon mine your trivia quotient with 1001 questions about super-heroes. For the most part, the book’s quizzes are devoted to Marvel and DC heroes. (Who else is around these days, anyway?) Want to have some fun with a trivia “expert”? See how many diehard comic buffs can handle this list of questions:

1. What was the name of the evil organization Spyman battled? What was this name an acronym for? 2. Name the super-group that appeared in Unearthly Spectaculars and identify three of its members. 3. What was Jack Quick Frost’s deadly weakness? 4. How did astronaut Barry E. Eames become the villainous B-Man? If you flunked this quiz abysmally, don’t feel too bad. The questions are based on one of the most obscure lines of super-hero comics in existence, the Harvey Thriller Group. That’s right, folks, the same company that gave you a zillion different Richie Rich titles, the group that scooped supernatural heroes Iike the Spectre and Deadman with… Casper and Spooky(?)… was among the many comics groups who took a crack at the super-hero market in 1966. 88

Harvey Comics unleashed a scattergun blast of seven new books, backed by their considerable financial punch and distribution power. Chances are that wherever you were in 1966, if you could find a comic rack there was at least one “Harvey Thriller” in it. And yet only one of them ever made it to a third issue in its original format. Most of the books were so bizarre that they could easily have won a special Funk Award from Carl Marcek and John Wooley for Esoteric Heroism. And yet, and yet… there was some talent in those comics, some outstanding stuff not obvious from those over-crowded, over-blurbed, overdrawn covers. They’re still available from many large dealers, but fandom apparently knows little about them. So, privileged ones, listen while we tell the little-known lore of the Harvey Back-Seat Heroes. Attend, and gain trivial information available nowhere else today, hidden for 36 long years. And then, when some smart guy slops you with the question, “Where did Tiger Boy’s parents originally came from?” you may confidently answer back, “Either from Jupiter or Venus, smart guy!” Ask a fan today what Harvey Comics produced. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get the same answer: Richie Rich. Sad Sack. Casper. Ever since the early ’50s, this brand of fantasy-whimsy has been Harvey’s bread and butter, initially prompted by Harvey’s inheritance of the licensing rights to the Paramount cartoon characters from St. John’s (Casper, Little Audrey, Baby Huey, et al.), eventually resulting in Harvey’s purchase of the cartoon studio and all the characters. For years, chances are that the first fictional ghosts a child encountered were one of Harvey’s pseudo-spectres like Spooky, the bederby’d, freckled, Jimmy Cagney-style “tuff little ghost” with a Brooklyn accent, or Hot Stuff, a pint-sized demon in diapers who runs around spitting fire and brandishing a pitchfork. (And you thought Daimon Hellstrom was original.) It’s a territory Harvey has staked out completely, a genre which made them a viable and surviving comic book company even up until the troubled early ’80s. But, long before the first silly-putty spook ever graced a Harvey page, the company was paying its dues as another Golden Age superhero publisher. Modern fans will recognize their most famous creation, Lee Elias’s super-sexy Black Cat. This archetypical femme crimefighter debuted in a 1940 issue of Speed Comics and went on to a long and successful run in her own book. Harvey also adapted the legendary radio hero Green Hornet to the four-color medium. Other original Harvey heroes included Shock Gibson, Captain Freedom, the Girl Commandos and Stuntman. This last hero was the work of none other than Golden Age comic kings Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who worked extensively for Harvey in the wake of the super-heroes’ downfall. Harvey turned to horror in the 1950s with a vengeance. Their covers for titles such as Witches’ Tales were the most stomach-turning of all time. A gallery of full-color decapitated heads used as bellclappers and kids whose face and hands were in the process of being burned clean of their flesh fronted some of their books. Fun stuff, indeed. The Comics Code rang in the curtain on this period in 1954. In the meantime, Simon & Kirby turned out minor classics for the line, including the famed “kid gang” books, Boy Explorers and Boys’ Ranch, innumerable science-fiction/fantasy stories, and the 3-D hero named—what else?— Captain 3-D. About the time of the Code crackdown, Harvey seized on the funny animal market (or should that be funny-ghost market?). Casper, the Friendly Ghost, who had debuted in a series of Paramount animated cartoons, had run for five issues in a St. John’s COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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comic published between 1949-51. When St. John’s let the Paramount licensing lapse, Harvey picked it up, bringing the Friendly Ghost out of limbo in ’52. Since then and into the ’90s, Casper and his fairy tale friends ran somewhat continuously, through various cancellations and relaunches, with Casper himself logging over 300 issues of his own comic with numerous annual spin-offs, and an entire phantom empire of comics had been built on his gravesite. Just as Archie saved MLJ comics, Casper become the cornerstone for Harvey’s super-success. And, like Archie, the gregarious ghostling seems virtually immortal… even though the over-killed Richie Rich eventually pushed him out of the limelight. Even so, Harvey periodically put out feelers towards the post-pablum readership. Black Cat Mystery, a weird-story book taking over the numbering of Black Cat, appeared periodically until 1958, with some notable work by Simon & Kirby, Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand. (In 1963, three issues of the book appeared as Black Cat in giant-size featuring reprints of the Black Cat’s late ’40s Lee Elias-drawn adventures.) Another mystery book, Alarming Tales, featured six issues of similar stories, chiefly by Simon & Kirby. Again, in 1963 the book revived in the form of Alarming Adventures, which ran three issues. The book featured superb science-fiction work by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall, and is highly recommended; quite a few of its stories were reprinted later on in Harvey’s giant super-hero books. (Also reaching for the older audience were Harvey’s two long-running comic strip-reprint books, Dick Tracy, which ran through 1961, and Joe Palooka, which ended in 1960.) In 1965, Harvey gave the adventure market another try with a trio of summer one-shots: Unearthly Spectaculars, Thrill-O-Rama and Blast-Off. All were books containing stories either published or prepared in the ’50s. All cover-featured a “name” character. And all lasted in that form for only one issue apiece. In these books are found the roots of Harvey’s 1966 super-hero stint, for they were headlined by The Man in Black, Tiger Boy and The Three Rocketeers. The bulk of Unearthly #1 was taken up by four weird tales. The fifth was actually no different, being another science-fiction story entitled “Will Power.” But the book needed a super-hero figure to plaster across the cover, so said cover depicted a tiger with a boy’s head forming from the remains of a multi-eyed plant, about to spring on two hopelessly outclassed guards. (You think it sounds weird? You ought to see it!) The blurb above the logo. read, “We defy you to guess his amazing secret… Tiger Boy from Twilight!” “Will Power” oozed clichés common to most post-Code fantasy stories. Child prodigy Paul Canfield shows off mind-overmatter powers, including levitation, transmutation of a garden into gold, the transformation of himself into an asbestos-skinned giant and, yes, a human-headed tiger. When the smug lad decides to rule the world with his powers, his parents reveal themselves as aliens from Jupiter with ridiculous rabbit-ear antennae, clock-face eyes and noses like hollow pipes. After promptly negating his powers, Paul’s daddy explains, “25 years ago, we disagreed with Jupiter’s rulers… so we were cast adrift in a space vehicle, exiled forever! We searched the universe for years… till we found this planet!” (Searching a whole universe to find a habitable planet in your own solar system sounds counter-productive at best.) “Do we remain as peaceful citizens… or must we seek out another planet where you can do no harm?” Naturally, Paul agrees to lay off the cosmic hanky-panky until his second adventure, over a year later, in Unearthly Spectaculars #2. In this well-drawn Gil Kane five-pager, the all-Jovian boy foiled a bank robbery with all-new powers. Not only could (and did) he become Tiger Boy, but when the occasion demanded, he changed into the robotic Steel Man and the elastic Rubberman, à là Robby Reed in “Dial H for Hero.” In this go-round, his parents looked like giant insects, were described as “Venutian” on page four, and “from Jupiter” on page five, and confessed that Paul had a long-lost sister. When and if he met her, their powers would automatically do them both in. Luckily for Paul, the series ended with that issue. “The Man in Black Called Fate,” superior by far to “Tiger Boy,” led off the first issue of Thrill-ORama with two fine reprints of Bob Powell work from the 1957-58 comic Man in Black. The hero, a black-cloaked, shadow-faced man in evening dress, introduced himself on page one: “Greetings! I am the Man in Black! Some call me Fate… some Kismet, and others Luck! But to you, I am the Man in Black! And I will show you the amazing part I play in your life! These two lovely ladies,” he said, gesturing to the Grecian-garbed beauties flanking him, “are Venus, the Goddess of Love, and the Weaver—she who weaves the patterns of Iife!” “Stop yakking, M.B.,” interjected Weaver, “and step into that little bit going on below… before Venus pokes her pretty nose into it and really gums it up!” Above inset: Wally Wood’s wacky super-hero team, Miracles, Inc., looked promising with the strip’s debut in the legendary Unearthly Spectaculars #2. Right: But the best strip in that ish was Woody’s sublime art job on “Earthman,” featuring a Terran who’s forgotten his identity, lost on a barbaric planet. ©2002 Harvey Ent., Inc. June 2002

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In a four-panel scenario, we met a diamond-cutter who had to split a gem perfectly or lose his life. Too infirm to attempt it, he shelved his hammer. The Man in Black gives the mallet a spectral nudge, sending it plunging towards the gem: “Huh? A perfect split!” Fate starred in two interesting comedy-dramas for that issue and backed up Pirana in issues #2 and 3 a year later. Third in the 1965 triad, “The Three Rocketeers,” was a Simon & Kirby period piece from the Sputnik era related to Kirby’s later comic strip, Sky Masters in spirit and execution. The stories in the issue were unpublished tales prepared for the 1958 three-issue run of Race for the Moon, and the intro copy was strictly Captain Video: “From the moon to Mars out to the distant stars you’ll never find more courageous and exciting new heroes than these men of the space age! Sgt. Beefy Brown—rugged, rowdy—but a right guy! Capt. Kip McCoy—with an eye for adventure and a yen for action. Figures Faraday—get in a jam—and he’ll figure a way cut of it with any scientific principle at hand!” And with those three stereotypes for a cast, S&K cranked out one story about two robot boxers and one about a movie starlet caught in a dimensional warp, the latter being inked by Al Williamson. In addition, this nifty little issue carried a two-page filler, “Danger: Atoms!” by Harvey Kurtzman, and two Williamson science-fiction yarns. It was quite a bargain at 12¢, and it’s still worth 90

the effort at whatever price it’s pegged at today. Like the Man in Black and Tiger Boy, the Three Rocketeers were hauled out of the abyss for a second try in ’66 as another back-up strip for Unearthly Spectaculars. Their first new saga in #2 was drawn by Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia, the second, in #3, was the work of Bill Draut. After a two-page origin bit that brought the heroes together when McCoy crashed his ship into a space station the threesome engaged in a pair of adventures with surprisingly interesting themes. The first dealt with a space battle kept in eternal stasis by a quirk of time while the second briefly stranded the Rocketeers on a “Judgment Star” where two alien races, locked in futile combat, “are condemned to an eternal struggle… a struggle similar to their—but where nobody wins and nobody loses! The battles we saw are sentences… just like jail sentences on Earth!” As nice as the concepts are, the art and writing, alas, were lacking. The sales on the three try-outs were at least heartening enough for Harvey to have a go at the adventure market again a year later. By Summer 1966, the word was cut: Super-heroes were the thing. Batman was the spearhead, followed by a horde of DC, Marvel, Tower, Charlton and Mighty heroes in the Long-Underwear Derby. Thus, Harvey decided to launch its own line of super-heroes and hope for the best. Alumnus Joe Simon was put in charge of it, delivering up three new 12¢ comics (Jigsaw, Spyman and Thrill-O-Rama), two 25¢ all-new giants (Unearthly Spectaculars and Double-Dare Adventures) and two giant reprint titles (Fighting American and The Spirit, which would each include some new material). Jigsaw, Pirana, Bee-Man, Jack Quick Frost, Magicmaster, Miracles, Inc., the Glowing Gladiator and Spyman made their debut. And by the beginning of 1967, they were all very, very dead. The reasons for their early demise are rather obvious from a brief glance at the books. Harvey apparently had no earthly idea of how to do a 1960s super-hero, nor did Joe Simon. Their writing level and concepts were still frozen in the 1950s vein (a condition that prevailed in later Simon books, such as Brother Power, The Geek and Prez, and Jack Kirby’s self-written titles). Plots were primitive. Dialogue was unbelievable. Art was competent, but rarely more than that. Featured characters were rendered by artists like Jack Sparling, George Tuska and Dick Ayers. The stories were simplified to the point of talking down to the reader, and the books used the same format as a Casper-genre funnybook: A first page teaser intro, a second page of ads, and the third page beginning the main story. In addition, text pages (probably written by the same people who did the job for Casper and Nightmare) featuring the heroes filled out the issues, and secondary features of a “humorous” nature were added. These were generally written by Otto Binder, and they worked out about as well as most attempts as camp in comics did: They didn’t. “Letters pages” featured messages to the readers from the featured characters, starting with notes from Spyman and Bee-Man, all the way down to communiques from Pirana’s two barracudas. In the 1950s, Harvey might have gotten away with it. In the Marvel Age of Comics or DC’s Silver Age, they never had a chance. Still, some of the concepts were solid, and the occasional gem among the germs make the Harvey back-seaters worth looking into. Also, comics legend Jim Steranko began his comics career designing and scripting a few of the heroes (which ones have never been truly revealed). And there’s always the famed reprint books of Fighting American and The Spirit, excellent collections featuring the works of Simon & Kirby and Will Eisner respectively. So, let’s begin our backwards glancing with a look at the most long-lived (three issues) of the Harvey Thrillers, Spyman. If Alex Schomberg was still doing covers for comics in 1966, he could have done the one that graced Spyman #1. Joe Simon didn’t miss a trick. The red-garbed Spyman, chained by his feet to an atomic bomb on wheels (clearly labeled, “Danger—Atom”), worked feverishly with one hand to disarm it while with the other hand he punched out one of three flying, armed, green cloaked spies, two of whose comrades were pushing the bomb towards the edge of a skyscraper roof. “I’ve got to disarm this bomb before it destroys the city!” he declared, helpfully clarifying things for the enemy agents. Meantime, a large red arrow pointing to the bomb explained, “Warning to Civilians: Never! Never! Never touch a radioactive bomb! (There is only one electro-robot hand on hand!)” Thanks, guys… we needed COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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to know that. In his origin story (plotted by Jim Steranko, if not actually written by him), Johnny Chance, agent of the supersecret American spy group LIBERTY (headquartered, quite naturally, in the Statue of Liberty), is indeed chained to an atomic bomb by agents of the evil organization MIRAGE. “Only one way to disarm it,” muses Chance as the seconds tick away. “Remove the radioactive core! But with what? My hands?” You betcha. In three panels, the red-uniformed agent plunges his left mitt down into the guts of the bomb and pulls out a vital component. His hand burns off down to the wrist. The cavalry arrives in the form of more LIBERTY agents who pack up Chance and cart him off to LIBERTY HQ. There he is cured and given a plastic-and-metal mechanical hand chock full of deadly devices. (The hand, diagrammed on the cover and on page one, was loaded to the fingernails with an X-ray, a blaster, a tape recorder, a magnet, a camera and a black light ray. And as if that wasn’t enough, in #2, Spyman was loaded down with a gunbelt full of snap-on plastic fingers!!!) Meanwhile, we’re unsubtly introduced to the cast of supporting characters: Dr. Norman Vane, stereotypical, whitecoated scientist figure; a blond ingenue, Diana Erikson, a code expert; and fellow good guy Mike Pierce. Soon, we learn of the villain of the piece, the Whisperer, a hooded, green-clad fiend who… well… whispers a lot. “He is the head of the secret organization dedicated to world domination by terror… MIRAGE, the Empire of Guerrilla Assassination, Revenge and International Menace!” explained an enemy agent. Having a backwards acronym for a name seemed to ensure a twisted mind in the villainry… or the scripter. After the Whisperer attempts to poison the hero, and the hand foils said attempt while Chance is asleep, the LIBERTY handyman displays his powers before the token governmental higher-ups. “With the powers you hold in your hand, you’ll be an invincible Spyman!” allows a general. And, after another round of fun and games, Spyman pulls an Ellery Queen bit by assembling all the suspects in a room and declaring, “The Whisperer is none other than… Diana Erikson! By whispering, we never guessed that it was a girl’s voice, instead of a man’s!“ As fate and spy movie clichés would have it, the she-villain goes out in a blaze of glory when her own bomb blows up her escape craft. “We must never rest until our shores are safe from those like MIRAGE, who would seek to enslave free men!” sums up Spyman. “We shaII ever be on guard!” Spyman stood guard duty for two more issues, which saw him destroy Cyclops, a hideous baddie with a giant death-dealing eye for a head (“It was truly a case of the hand being faster than the eye!”) and the Id Machine, a monstrous robot computer. Following #1’s art by George Tuska were Dick Ayers in #2, with Bill Draut handling #3. After that, Spyman faded off into super-hero limbo, probably to take up glove manufacturing or some such. Pirana debuted the same month in Thrill-O-Rama #2 with another George Tuska cover. This time, the scene depicted a blond-haired hero in a green wet suit jamming a rotund, red-uniformed, red-eyed villain up against the conning tower of a submarine. The bad guy, whose oversized pate was surrounded by a nimbus of electrical energy (“Snap! Crackle! Pop!”) sneered, “Let’s see who holds out longer, Pirana… I happen to know you can’t live long when you’re out of water!” In the background, a ship clearly labeled “Coast Guard” sank into the briny deep while survivors (the only part of the cover which belies Tuska’s pencils; Joe Simon’s inks are quite overwhelming) floundered. The cover copy blared, “Listen! Do you hear the Snap! Crackle! Pop!… No, it’s not static… it’s that big, ugly scheming brain calling you… June 2002

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threatening the world… it’s Brainstorm! The Thinking Man’s Villain.” Well, folks, I confess. I tried. But even today, decades later, I still can’t hear the Snap! Crackle! Pop! Both of Pirana’s outings were drawn by Jack Sparling. A two-page origin sequence went thusly: Marine scientist Edward Yates is testing a new membrane which lets airbreathers absorb oxygen from water when the inevitable Fateful Accident occurs as an electric shock alters his metabolism. Now unable to breathe air, Yates must absorb oxygen from water. “H—how will I survive?” muses the incipient aquaman. “I'll be just a little ‘fish’ among monsters in the sea! Unless I’m as strong as my pet piranha, pound for pound… I’m sunk… Of course! That’s it!” And, as surely as if that piranha had flapped in through an open window, Yates set to work. With water tanks firmly strapped to his back and his feet outfitted with jet-flippers for propulsion through sea and sky alike, the Pirana was off and dripping. Accompanied by his two pet barracudas, Bara and Cuda, the Pirana begins a two-issue war against his nemesis, Brainstorm. Said villain proves to be a deposed South American dictator whose brain is so powerful it sends electrical charges through the air. (Yep—they go “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”) Holding forth from his sub, the Cranium, Brainstorm commands a gang of nasties straight out of a Saturday morning puppet show. The group includes Murderina Mermaid, a half-fish lady android who looked like an Italian wrestler and was bulky and strong enough to immobilize a ship by holding it with a chain; and Chief Ooz, a French fiend who bred killer porpoises long before Day of the Dolphin. The second issue ended forever on a cliffhanger, as Pirana swam anxiously homeward to a reunion with his mermaid sweetie… who was busily sharpening four-inch razor-sharp talons. But, on reflection, maybe there were factors we didn’t know about regarding Pirana’s demise. After all, they could have been sued by Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. Let us withhold judgment, be charitable, and progress on to the next member of the Harvey pantheon. Jigsaw, a Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man copycat, survived for a pair of issues drawn by the inimitable Tony Tallarico (possibly with Bill Fraccio—you do remember Charlton’s 1965 pre-Ditko Blue Beetle, don’t you?) Here’s the story: During an orbit around Earth in a space capsule, astronaut Gary Jason finds himself caught up in the force-beams emanating from “A—a gigantic shape… a cone… magnetizing objects from the Siberian land-mass below… into space!” Yanked through outer space towards the moon at hyper speed, the spacecraft is punched through and through by a fossilized tree (!) picked up by the beam. Jason is injured and pulled out into the magnetic stream (conveniently filled with air) which whisks him to its ultimate source, an alien outpost on the moon. Luckily, the aliens (robotoid forms of life resembling leftovers from a Tupperware party) are friendly and skilled enough in medicine to tape and paste Jason’s broken bones back together again. “We are studying your planet,” explains alien leader Si-Krell. “When the time is right, our worlds will meet.” Jason extends a hand in thanks… and it stretches clear across the room. “Ah!” nods Si-Krell sagely. “A reaction from the operation!” With a “grip of steel” and the powers of putty, Jason returns to Earth, rounds up a passel of escaped circus animals, and then gets hauled back up to the moon for a special assignment from his Krell benefactors. Si-Krell introduces Jigsaw to the villains of the piece, the evil, ravaging Pulots: “Soon they will discover Earth… and ravage it also! Incredible power units protect them! There is only one way… espionage!” So, accompanied by a ravishing blonde Pulotian traitress, Jigsaw infiltrates a Pulot power station and blows the place to smithereens after wiping out the guards 91

Above: Look, kids! It’s the “Deadliest Creature in all the World,” Pirana with his two buddies, Bara and (yep!) Cuda! Jack Sparling provided the art for this panel detail from the last issue of Thrill-O-Rama, #3. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: But the hands-down winner for the weirdest character in the Harvey Thriller line-up has gotta be Jigsaw, “the Man of a Thousands Parts.” A humorless Plastic Man or a Mr. Fantastic of nominal intelligence, this guy is plain strange! What is that fleshy substance between the jigsaw pieces on his outstretched arms? Human flesh??? Detail of Joe Simon’s cover art from Jigsaw #2. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 92

Plastic Man-fashion. “You have made the first dent in Pulotian armor, Earthman!” commends Si-Krell. “You must call him Jigsaw,” admonished the girl. So much for origins. In the next issue, Jigsaw represents Earth in on “Interplanetary Olympics” for, as Si-KrelI puts it, “Since we repaired your body, you have become famed throughout the galaxy!” Well, maybe so, but in the U.S., he was kinda lame…. This rather silly story, pitting the hero against a two-legged; armless, red blob, marked the last issue of Jigsaw. Small wonder. In addition to their 12¢ comics, Harvey boasted two giant-sized 25¢ super-hero books. Each issue of these had three “name” heroes and a handful of featurettes and reprints making them real bargains for a mere quarter. The first of these, Double-Dare Adventures, was headlined by the Harvey hero who wasn’t, the one-and-only B-Man. B-Man’s origin story wasn’t any fun whatsoever. In fact, for painful origins, only the Spectre can go him one better. After hijacking a Martian meteorite, astronaut Barry E. Eames—note those initials— gloats, “The space big shots will have to pay me big, if they want to know what’s inside her!” We found out in short order. The damn thing cracks open and a horde of giant bees swarms out to sting the living daylights out of him! Two days later, Eames is found wandering about in a zombie-like state and is packed off to a local hospital where he recuperates. “Strange,” remarks one doctor. “His heartbeat is triple the pace of a normal one… but it doesn’t seem to be hurting him! Whatever happened to this man, it changed his whole body chemistry!” Eames gets a “buzz” summons from the meteorite, escapes from the hospital and climbs inside the hollow shell, which closes about him and whisks him into space. (Harvey writers seemed to have a thing about space-born origins.) After landing on Mars’ moon Deimos, Eames encounters a race of insectoid beings who bred the giant worker bees within the meteorite. “And now their venom is in your veins, Earthling,” explains a general. “You have their powers!” The Bee, as he comes to be called, is outfitted with a protective costume, antennae that project sonic bursts, powerful insect wings, a drug-tipped stinger and “vapor-honey grenades that puts [sic] attackers to steep instantly! I’m ready… to return and raid Earth!” And for the last three pages of the tale, that’s

just what B-Man does, while putting the whup on the U.S. Army. His only weakness was that he went limp if he didn’t get a daily fix of honey. (Now, would I make up a thing like that?) A two-page text feature immediately followed. Entitled “The Bee Line,” the story told of B-Man’s interruption of a TV program to explain his motives to the world: “The Bee here,” then with an expression of grim scorn, he continued. “My worthy deeds will force all Earthlings to surrender to my superior world. Many of your great scientists have predicted that one day, insects will rule the Earth. You laughed and called them crazy, but I shall prove that they were right. The day is not far away when insects will indeed rule the humans of Earth. You will become our slaves and solve many of our problems— one of which is labor. The entire human race, what is left of it that is, will become slaves of my race… You will fulfill the duties of our ‘worker bees.’ You will become my slaves. Any questions?” The program announcer.cried out, “Yes, I’m sure we have many things to ask The Bee about. I’ll call upon our studio audience!” Wonder what their ratings were the next week? Or what prices the scalpers were asking for studio tickets? In the second issue of Double-Dare, a Dick Ayers-drawn story (Bill Draut had done the first) saw B-Man return to Deimos, where he met the beautiful Queen Bea (!). After she discloses her plans to conquer Earth with his help, the Bee rebels, runs for home, gets invited into the F-Bee-I (that’s the way they spelled it, folks)—they must have missed that TV show in the text story—and starts cleaning up on crooks. Deimosians destroy B-Man’s cache of honey, but Yankee ingenuity saves the day: J. Edgar’s science-boys dream up a synthetic honey concentrate to snap the rampaging Bee back to normal. As derivative as the two-shot strip was (much lifted, seemingly, from Archie’s Fly Man), B-Man wasn’t that bad for a Harvey hero, and showed a little promise as a continuing feature. At least as much as a guy with fifty plastic fingers or a rubberman secret agent from outer space. The fellow who doubled the dare in Double-Dare was introduced on the first page of issue #1, charging full-throttle with sword upraised and wearing enough detailed weaponry to make Deathlok the Demolisher envious. A caption read, “if you can take the thrills and excitement of a journey into the tomb of ancient Egyptian gods… or the return to life, before your very eyes, of a fighting man of 2,000 years ago—then you have taken us up on a Double-Dare—for you have seen—in living color—the Glowing Gladiator!” His first tale, “Legend of the Glowing Gladiator,” seems to be the work of Bob Powell (Jack Sparling took over in issue #2). But the unconventional layouts may be the work of Jim Steranko. At any rate, in the first panel proper of the story, Captain Kidd himself breaks into a museum and rips off an ancient chalice to deliver it to a sinister enthralled figure wearing conquistador’s armor—“The man known only as Destiny.” The inscription cut into the chalice’s surface betrays the location of the fabled, power-granting Amulet of Hannibal. How does Destiny propose to locate the amulet? Well, after giving the time-lost Kidd a day off, he lets his fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages, looks up Adventure, Unlimited, and hires chief troubleshooter Harry Barker to go to Carthage to fetch it. Upon his arrival in the post-Delinda ruins of COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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Carthage, Barker fortuitously falls through a crumbling chamber roof into “The Room of Eternal Dedication.” At the top of a golden staircase, the Amulet hangs from a display. But as Barker stares into the depths of the gem, he finds himself drawn within it to stand “face-to-face with his exact self!” “Welcome, my friend!” hails the replicate, clad in armor, breastplate and arm guard, and brandishing a sword. “Long have I waited for this moment. I am the one men call Hannibal… Hannibal of Barca!” The spectral warrior bequeaths to Harry Barker the Sword of Hercules versus Achilles. “It is the ultimate weapon, for by mere mental command, it has the power to change into any form of armament!” Then, after endowing Barker with the armor, Hannibal hands over the Amulet last of all. “My spirit lives in this amulet! If you wish upon the amulet, I shall grant my weapons the power you ask of them…” And, as the amulet is hung about the adventurer’s neck, “the two figures dissolve like shadows and in their place stands a tall silhouette clad in golden armor!” Following on this origin sequence (one of Harvey and Steranko’s best), the story rapidly simplified as the Gladiator foiled Destiny’s anachronistic thugs (Dillinger and the James Gang) in their attempt to rob a bank. Destiny and his new-found antagonist have it out, ending in the villain’s leaping into his time machine and vanishing an instant before Gladiator’s sword shattered the mechanism. Despite some touches of mediocrity, Gladiator somehow seemed to have potential as a second-string super-hero. By issue #2, however, the Powell art was gone, replaced by journeyman artist Jack Sparling. Destiny become a wise-cracking satyr much less interesting than his former incarnation. But the story was brightened by the intro of Destiny’s “good side,” a beautiful brunette who aided Gladiator. “I, too, am Destiny!” she explained. “And I am deadly… but deadly only to the other Destiny… the evil one… your arch enemy!” The last two panels held another nice sequence. In panel one, Gladiator looks toward Destiny’s outstretched lifeless hand. After he turns away, Destiny’s hand quivers back to life. “Indeed, the Gladiator should beware… because.Destiny can die… and die… and die! I’m a cool cat… with nine hundred lives!” Thus ended one of Harvey’s most interesting hero strips. But Double-Dare boasted a third main attraction, making the title a misnomer. (Triple-Dare, though, seems to lack something…) “From ageless Egypt, where Magic began, comes the shadowy figure of the Sorceror to dispel the presence of evil and triumph over the supernatural. Let us now begin our strange tale and discover… The Secret of Magicmaster!” This was Jim Steranko’s third and last creation for Harvey. (Two other proposed concepts never come to be: Future American and Spacewolf. See Bart Bush’s Harvey Collectors’ Newsletter for Jim Korkis’s article which outlines Steranko’s character concepts for Spyman, the Gladiator, the Sorceror (which become Magicmaster), and the two aforementioned rejected characters.) Based on Steranko’s longtime fascination with magic and stage magicians, the stories in #1 and 2, both drawn by Jack Sparling, were tame even for a Harvey comic. To avenge his musician father’s murder, little Jimmy summons Shamarah, “magician of the gods,” back to life. (“Editor’s note: Please do not attempt to repeat this incantation as we cannot be responsible for the consequences!”) After the blue-skinned wizard and his kid sidekick dispatch the murderer, Magicmaster towers over Jimmy in a reprise of the Robin origin bit. “I will teach you, as I have Merlin, Circe and Cagliostro! There is so much evil in the world today. Perhaps I should remain to suppress it!” “We’ll do it together,” piped up Jimmy. And so they did, with time out each issue for two-page “magic” lessons. The lessons were as forgettable as the stories. Still, both issues of Double-Dare Adventures remain well worth the collector’s while. Both #1 and 2 contain high-quality filler stories reprinted from Harvey’s fine science-fiction books of 1963. #1 boosts a whacko Simon & Kirby reprint, while #2 offers weird tales by Paul Reinman and Al Williamson, along with an unusual little featurette called “The Prisoner of Plastic City” by Hy Eisman. These 25-centers are relatively cheap and deserving of attention. June 2002

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But when it comes to quality, no original title in the Harvey line ever touched Unearthly Spectaculars. This book had its share of mundane stories, but it also held Harvey’s few sparks of real glory. New and old strips by Wood, Williamson, Crandall, Kane and Kirby make this title a must for any back-seat buff. Still, the headline feature was a typically unimaginative long-underwear type yclept Jack Quick Frost, so we deal with him first. Jack debuted in issue #2 (issue #1, as pointed out before, featured Tiger Boy). Secret Agent James Flynn of the ICA (International Counter-intelligence Agency—but, of course!) is sent to the North Pole to intercept some enemy agents building a missile site. Flynn blows the mission, gets captured and is tossed into the ice cold waters. His body freezes into suspended animation à là Captain America. An “underseas atomic test” at the polar ice cap oh-so-conveniently blows open the iceberg he is stored in, and the frosty-fresh hero emerges with freezing powers. Flynn thaws out just in time to foil the foibles of a fiend with a girth that would make Haystacks Calhoun a shrimp by comparison. The nasty, named “Lord Lazee,” is a criminal genius who moves with the aid of a robotic chair. After one duel, the villain rages, “My pet robot, ruined by this… this Jack Quick Frost!” In the second adventure, we learned that Jack’s fatal weakness was dry ice, which “acts like super-heat on my frozen body!“ The strip was no better nor worse than its contemporaries. The art in #2 is by Jack Sparling, while #3 was by Bill Draut. The writer, who probably was doing the lead features in the three 12¢ books as well, knew better than to reveal

Above: Editor Joe Simon pulled the Simon & Kirby creation, The Three Rocketeers, out of the mothballs and commissioned at least one new story from artist Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia (which appeared in Unearthly Spectaculars #2), as well as running reprints of the team’s adventures in the one-shot, Blast-Off, where this Jack Kirby (pencils) and Al Williamson (inks) cast shot appeared. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Below: Former Simon & Kirby studio mainstay Bill Draut contributed some fine work to the Harvey Thriller line, notably the debut story of Spyman, featured in the first issue of the character’s solo title, where this splash detail originally appeared. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: Scotty Moore contributes both versions of the cover of Unearthly Spectaculars #1. He tells us, “The unpublished cover by Sparling (top) is all art, while the published piece (above) stats the Sparling art and adds new art by Joe Simon.” Scotty sent a number of ACG and Mighty Comics covers as well. Look for ’em soon! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc. 94

himself. But, following a two-page plug for Pirana, the book took an abrupt upward turn in quality. For the next story introduced the very first barbarian strip of the 1960s, with art by Al Williamson! A two-page intro recounted the rise and fall of a future civilization, from interplanetary conquest through nuclear war, mutation and the return to barbarism. “This, then, is the world of our story… old, yet new, dying, and being reborn. It is a lawless, brutal world. There are no heroes and no villains, just men and animals pitted against each other in a savage struggle for survival. This is a world for the strong, the swift, and the ruthless… this is the world of Clawfang the Barbarian!” In seven exquisitely-drawn pages, Clawfang debuts, being a brawny, savage raider resplendent in a hood and cloak of wolves’ fur, reminiscent of Buscema’s Conan. Clawfang’s small bond is caught in an ambush at the beginning of the tale; his followers annihilated, the barbarian swordsman takes out a horde of adversaries until archers draw a bead on his half-naked hide. In the nick, a well-endowed princess steps up to order a halt. “He is a great fighting man! Barbarian, if you surrender your weapons, I will spare your Iife!” “And become a slave?” snarls Clawfang. “No! I will die fighting!” Nevertheless, the argument between girl and savage goes on until the whole party is ambushed (again!) by a pack of night-skulking, cave-dwelling Norns. Clawfang is left unscathed, but charges

after the creatures when he learns that the princess has been captured. Ah, for the good old days! Many leagues underground, Clawfang locates Princess Felina, has a pitched battle against the Norns, and stumbles against a metal wall which admits him and his lady into a futuristic laboratory. Within, a bedraggled scientist revives from suspended animation and disarms the barbarian with a zap from a raygun. “So the world has reverted to barbarism! It’s just as I predicted! And now that I’m the only scientist alive, I will realize my dream! I’ll be king! King of the world!” But in another TV Western cliché, Felina draws the villain’s attention and Clawfang barrels him right into a control Panel. The lair self-destructs. Once outside, receiving TLC from Felina, and leaning on his sword, Clawfang muses, “I should have made sure of him. Who knows what evil I may have let loose on the world…” Not the most original of stories, but Williamson’s art more than pulled it through. Following the aforementioned Gil Kane “Tiger Boy” strip, no less than three more stories awaited. One was Mike Sekowsky/Joe Giella’s “Three Rocketeers.” But the other two were the products of Wally Wood himself! In the midst of his work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and witzend, Wood found time to contribute two solid strips to Harvey’s adventure books, and both were easily the best strips of their heroic period. The first bore the curious title, “Miracles, Inc.” “Miracles,” a charming little satire on super-heroic conventions, took up all of five pages, Thematically, it was a cross between The Adventures of Jerry Lewis and Doom Patrol. But it was drawn in a straight style and easily stands beside his best Marvel and Tower work… which is really saying something for a Harvey book! Anyway, scene one opened at the headquarters of Miracles, Inc. Professor Who, a stereotypical comics scientist-egghead (spindly, aged, balding, bespectacled and dressed in a white lab coat) confers with Manlet, an Atom-sized mite perched on his shoulder. At stage right, Misfit, a muscular ape-like creature with the underbite of a boar and Maynard G. Krebs dialogue (“Groovy! The Prof told me to cool this cat, so I’ll wait right here…”) walks nonchalantly through a brick wall to deliver equipment. Reflex, the pseudo-Flash, deigns to run down to the corner store to pick up some coffee. Meantime, Thermo, the leading man figure, beats up a pot of coffee in one hand and makes ice cubes with the other for Una, the Prof’s shapely daughter and panel decoration. Klank, a red-enameled robot, looms over the goings-on impassively. On this uneventful day, an uninvited guest drops by their Munsters-style mansion, rings the doorbell, picks an invulnerable door lock and calmly walks through a battery of lasers and booby traps without once wrinkling his Brooks Brothers suit. Prof is apoplectic. “Go get that arrogant fool, men! Show him that it is not wise to play games with Professor Who!” Nonchalantly, the umbrella-toting intruder crushes Misfit behind an iron door, sidesteps a rushing Reflex (who crashes through a wall behind him), sashays by as Thermo flames on and gets doused by the sprinkler system, swats Manlet’s mini-ramjet out of the air with his bumbershoot, and halts Klank’s assault by asking him to compute the square root of seven (the robot gets hung on a repeating decimal). At last, he confronts Professor Who. “Good day, Sir,” murmurs the invader. “You may call me, er… the Wizard. I have come here to join your organization, since I am the most powerful…” Four panels later, Prof Who, in shirt sleeves, stands over a prostrate Wizard. “Well… now that that’s out of the way,” snaps the Prof, “I am pleased to inform you that your application for membership has passed!” An attempt was made to continue this strip in the next issue with new artist Joe Orlando emphasizing the strip’s echoes of The Inferior Five. The engaging Misfit was dropped, to be replaced by the crime-fighting gourmet Super-Chef and Kaput, a straw-hatted country boy with the meanest hex this side of the Scarlet Witch. In the new plot twist, Miracles, Inc., went commercial and sold their powers to the highest bidder, much as Luke Cage would so some years later. Their new foes, a truly bizarre bunch with handles like Chain-ORama, Counter-Fit and King Cactus, made the heroes look like straights! It was warped and more than a little zany, but without Wood’s artwork and in a far more cartoony style, it was hardly prime fare. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

The final strip in Unearthly #2 was without a doubt the best one ever done for the Harvey Thriller line. Wally Wood let loose ten pages of sublime art for the first and only chapter of the science-fiction epic “Earthman.” This all-too-short feature ranked with the best of the back-seaters, and if any were deserving of continuation, it was “Earthman.” (The cover blurb on the issue says, “Surprise preview showing of top new super-heroes by comicdom’s greatest! Soon to be seen in magazines of their own” but this was to be more than just wishful thinking.) Unfortunately, the story’s existence is known only to a small percentage of fandom, being buried in the back pages of a “Harvey Thriller”; more’s the pity. A gleaming, one-man spacecraft closes in on a “grim, forbidding world of fantastic contrasts… of dead sea bottoms, of dank, airless rain forests… of glistening, gem-like cities and vast wastelands as barren as the face of the moon.” Peopled with humans and sub-humans, nomadic barbarians and super-scientific city-dwellers, the unnamed world forms a Flash Gordon-ish backdrop for the story. The spacecraft crashes and a green-and-orange-suited man crawls out of the wreckage, clutching an injured head and looking exactly like Dynamo of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. He chants a familiar refrain, “Where am I… Who am I? My name… My name is… can’t remember…” The amnesiac, nameless traveller runs afoul of two tribes of hostile barbarians, one group lizard-Iike and mounted swift saurians, the other humanoid, armored and riders of pterodactyls. Luckily, the lesser gravity of his new homeworld gives the man superhuman strength and leaping ability (again, like Dynamo, as well as Superman). “It’s the gravity,” he muses, polishing off a dinosaur. “Nothing compared to Earth! Earth?” The spaceman subdues both tribes in turn by his mighty strength and subsequently becomes a figure of worship to the natives, who proclaim him “Grongad!” He shuffles off in search of civilization with his united followers trailing in his wake. At the end of the Earthman’s journey, he comes upon one of Wood’s patented beautiful futuristic cities and hopes to gain aid from its inhabitants. But, as might be expected, the two tribes do what comes naturally and make ready to sack the place. Making a mighty leap, Earthman reaches the gates ahead of them and turns back the nomads’ first wave single-handedly. But a stun-ray from within the city gates lays him out, and the hero is dragged inside. The Man of Earth awakens under a paralysis beam. He is faced by Lindra, a beautiful blonde, and Noxus, an evil clone of Ming the Merciless. “There is ancient prophecy,” explains the villain. “They [the beastmen tribes] believe that a legendary god-king ‘Grongad,’ who died thousands of years ago, will return… This ‘Grongad’ would unite all the tribes of beast men and conquer the whole planet!” Meanwhile, Lindra notes, “He repeats two words over and over… ‘Earth’ and ‘Man’… Perhaps it is his name… ‘Earthman!’” Noxus plans to use the potential Messiah as a tool for world conquest, with himself as prophet. Lindra, as might be expected, has less ambitious motives. The united beastmen mount a second attack. Lindra frees Earthman to foil their efforts, and the hero manages to save the fair lady from death and capture the noxious Noxus in one fell swoop. After a bullet grazes his skull in the fracas, (as in all such clichés), Earthman’s memory begins to return. “I’m an Earth man… this world is not my home!” Then, while the leading lady implores, “I feel he is leaving… oh, please don’t go!” Earthman turns, in the best Shane-fashion, and walks off into the sunset. “I must retrace my steps to the rocket that brought me here.. then, after I find out who I am, I shall return!” Again, like “Clawfang,” “Earthman”’s plot was childishly simple, but Wood’s art made it great comic-book fare, an updated Grimm’s fable in four-colors. The last caption read, “Earthman would like to hear from you—write to him at Harvey’s… We will forward the mail to his planet.” Wonder if I should have enclosed a SASE? So ran Harvey’s crazy quilt of short-run heroes. But even if none of these books had ever seen the light of day, Harvey would still be famed for the two remaining books in its super-hero line-up. These two, of course, were the giant-sized reprint books of Fighting American and The Spirit. The Spirit #1 and 2 were Harvey’s greatest contributions to comics in the 1960s. They introduced a new generation of readers June 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

(this author among them) to one of the truly timeless heroes in all of comicdom. A couple of Spirit reprint books in 12¢-size had been issued by Israel Waldman’s Super Comics in 1963, but they were not nearly as well-distributed or aesthetically pleasing as the 1966 editions. Only James Warren and Denis Kitchen, in the ’70s, would surpass Harvey in compiling a Spirit magazine. Both issues were copyrighted by Spirit owner-creator Will Eisner, who also furnished Harvey with some all-new material for the books, written and drawn by Eisner with some inking by Chuck Kramer. In The Spirit #1, in his contribution was a retelling of the origin story. The saga of Denny Colt’s encounter with villainous Dr. Cobra, his presumed death and his return as the mysterious outlaw-detective the Spirit, had a few minor changes but was substantially the some as the original June 1940 story. (The earlier origin has since been reprinted in the tenth issue of the Warren Spirit.) The second issue contained a never-before-revealed origin for Spirit’s arch-nemesis, the Octopus, as young Zitzboth Zork (who even wore three-striped gloves when he was six) rose from a middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx to become the King of Crime. A couple of two-page spy spoofs and letters pages, neither of which were particularly impressive, were the only other new material. But the real meat of the books was the reprints. Each issue gave the reader seven choice Spirit sections from the high-quality period of the late ’40s. (Most have since been re-reprinted in Warren and

Below: Another original art gem contributed by Scotty Moore, this is the cover for Thrill-O-Rama #1, though as you can see, the original title of the comic book was intended to be Shockeroo at some point. Ahhh, the useless knowledge CBA imparts! ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Above: Outside of The Spirit and Fighting American, the single best Harvey Thriller issue is Unearthly Spectaculars #2,which features exquisite Wally Wood art jobs (on “Earthman” and “Miracles, Inc.”) plus a superb Al Williamson story (“Clawfang the Barbarian”) and even a Gil Kane pencil-&-inked tale (“Tiger Boy,” which is nice to look at, but to read…?). Bill Draut contributed some very well-drawn stories in other titles but this puppy comes closest to being a bona fide must-have classic. Original art courtesy of Scotty Moore. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

Kitchen collections, but not all.) For the first time in almost twenty years the Spirit encountered Freddy, a “nice kid” who became a murderer and paid for it the hard way, all in ten minutes; Thorne Strand, the archetypical Eisner villainess, all beauty and ruthless ambition, climbing to business success and wealth over her husband’s corpse; Lorelei of Odyssey Road, whose siren song lured truckers to their doom; and Gerhard Shnobble, who was shot down the day he tried to show the world he could fly. Commissioner Dolan and his daughter Ellen returned to prominence; wisely, Ebony White was nowhere to be seen. Since most fans have become well-acquainted with the Spirit from the recent reprints and Cat Yronwode’s exhaustive study of the subject both in The Comic Reader and in Kitchen’s Spirit magazine, little more need be said about this feature. But not all the tales in Harvey’s two Spirits have been reprinted, even after 16 years. Moreover, they remain the last four-color Spirit comics in existence, and contain some of the most classic stories. So they are well worth any Spirit buff’s while, despite being quite expensive nowadays. Fighting American, though overshadowed by The Spirit, was no less of an achievement. Take the classic Simon & Kirby Captain America figure, transplant him to the McCarthy era of the early ’50s, and then people the strip with the zaniest bunch of loonies this side of Basil Wolverton, and you may have an idea of what Fighting

American was Iike. It was one of the craziest strips Jack or Joe had ever worked on, all baroque slapstick and parody that nearly ranks with the best Jack Cole Plastic Man. A fun strip through and through! Probably even the Commies loved Fighting American. The beginnings, however, were grim enough to satisfy any traditionalist. Prize Comics, whose editors conveniently were also Simon & Kirby, launched the book in 1953. Crusading, crippled war veteran and Red-baiter Johnny Flagg was murdered by Communist agents after exposing one too many plots. He dies in the arms of his frail, intellectual brother Nelson. But all is not lost; government scientists rebuild and strengthen Johnny’s body and use it as a receptacle for Nelson’s mind. Outfitted with a red-white-yellow-and-blue uniform, Nelson/Johnny gasps as he views his new corpus from within it. “Wh—why… this is incredible! Am I actually in my brother Johnny’s body?” “You are!” replied a general. “And, as of now, you’re also Fighting American!” Then, after picking up a kid sidekick named Speedboy, the patriotic hero took off like a house afire against Red threats hither and yon. The first few episodes published by Prize were fairly serious, but in succeeding issues, S&K let their imaginations run riot and set loose a horde of freakos even Bedlam wouldn’t touch: Double-Header, who had two heads to plot with, one for a gangster’s mind and the other housing an intellectual’s; Rhode Island Red, a Two-Ton Tessie of a lady Communist who lit her cigars with a blowtorch; and the Handsome Devils, a league of grotesque, puny men who hid their imperfection behind matinee-idol masks while committing crimes. Then there were always Hotsky Trotsky, Poison Ivan, Theda Barracuda, Round Robin… but you get the general ideal Fighting American was a fascinating period document, and the zany humor makes the Red-baiting only a minor facet of the stories. The book died after eight issues just as the Comics Code arrived in 1955, but saw a revival three years after Prize’s demise with the 25¢ edition Simon himself packaged for Harvey in 1966. It reprinted a handful of seriocomic thrillers and two never-before-printed tales from Prize’s files. Whatever the price is on this one today, the collector is urged to grab a copy; it’s funny, well-done, and decidedly like nothing else you’ll ever again read in comics! But the fate of the “Harvey Thrillers” ultimately rested with their original material titles. And they, alas, were fronted by losers who could not hope to keep up with the competition; Marvel, DC and the better back-seaters still boasted high quality art and stories and super-popular heroes, and Harvey got short shrift at the marketplace. Third issues of Jigsaw and Thrill-O-Rama were probably in the works before their cancellation, as a house ad in The Spirit #2 shows the covers to both of these books. But the line was scrapped with only Spyman making a third-issue foray onto the rocks, and Harvey’s only priority once again was the promotion of Casper and Richie Rich. (However, 1981 brought about the issuance of Shocking Tales Digest Magazine #1 from Harvey, reprinting Simon & Kirby and Bob Powell stories from the ’50s mystery magazines. It is interesting to speculate about the possible contents of a similar digest devoted to Harvey’s super-heroes of the ’60s; Archie Comics used the same format to issue previously unpublished stories featuring the Black Hood in their Archie’s Super-Hero Comics Digest Magazine #1. With the possibly-completed third issues of Jigsaw and Thrill-O-Rama, the second issue of Fighting American, and probable other completed material to choose from, a Harvey super-hero digest would be interesting both from a historical and a curiosity standpoint. The inclusion of the various Wally Wood projects would probably ensure success in comics shops at least; shall we start a letter-writing campaign?) The demise of the line was probably just as well, though. Some Harvey heroes had quality, but it was not to be found in those chosen to headline the books. They came and went, and the industry was little-enriched and affected not at all by their passing. Still, there are nights that I wonder if Earthman ever came back for the girl… COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

DIGITAL

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CBA Interview

Resurrecting The Spirit Will Eisner on his hero’s two-issue revival at Harvey Comics Conducted by Jon B. Cooke

What to say about Will Eisner? The most significant comics creator in the history of the industry? Creator of the always beloved crimefighter, The Spirit, whose exploits remain in print 50 years later? The living link between the business of mainstream comics and the art of the medium itself? Yes, yup, and sure, but Will is also just about the nicest guy in the field and it’s always a great pleasure to chat with him, even if it’s about a pair of Spirit comics published in the ’60s. The following interview was conducted by phone on May 22, 2002, and Will copyedited the final transcript, all in record time! Comic

Book Artist: Did you know Alfred Harvey back in the early days of comics? Will Eisner: I knew Alfred Harvey very well from the very beginning. He was one of three brothers. There was Robert Harvey, who was an attorney, and Leon, who was a kind of jack-of-all-trades. Al actually started in the business working as a letterer for King Features Syndicate, lettering one of their daily strips. In the late 1930s, before the War, Irving Manheimer [eventually the owner of PDC, a formidable comics distributor] had been in the business of collecting returns of Sunday comic sections—these big sheets of brightly colored newsprint—and selling them to Africa as wrapping paper. He would store the sheets in a warehouse, then ship them overseas and sell them to African retail stores for wrapping up merchandise. With the War coming on, Manheimer lost his ability to trade internationally— being unable to ship across the Atlantic because of the Nazi UBoats—and he decided he wanted to get into the distribution business. (I got this from Al Harvey himself, my authority for this information.) Manheimer told Al that he needed magazines to distribute— 98

comic books—and suggested that Al get into the business because it looked pretty good. He said, “Listen, Al. The distributors are not supposed to finance anybody but what I’ll do is guarantee to buy a quantity of copies from you.” So that was Manheimer’s way of financing Al, who quit King Features and became a comics publisher. He published Popeye and a number of other syndicated comic strips in comic book form, which he bought at $5 a page, the going rate. So, that’s how Al Harvey got started. Al came to me one day in the early ’40s, and wanted to know if he could publish and distribute The Spirit, but I turned him down because we already had our own system set up. Thereafter, I saw him on and off over the years. He was in the Army at the same time I was, in the mid-’40s. CBA: What kind of guy was he? Will: He had a commandeering manner about him. He was a promoter who looked to dominate situations as much as he could. It’s difficult to characterize him, but he was a big, imposing guy, he seemed to be friendly, and a lot of people liked him. He and I got along socially, but not business-wise. My relationships with publishers were partnerships, but publishers always had the idea that I was an employee. [laughter] That was my relationship with Busy Arnold and it would’ve been the same with Al. He would say, “Why don’t you come do something with me?” I’d say, “I’m looking for an equity situation,” and then he’d say, “Well, I can’t do that.” So we went our separate ways. In 1950, he submitted a competitive bid for PS Magazine, but the Army wanted me. So I won out! CBA: Was that kind of unbalanced relationship unique to comics in the publishing field? Will: Book publishing deals with creators were different, but comics in those days were always work-for-hire. I wouldn’t work on that basis. CBA: Except for your time with Quality Comics, you pretty much stuck to the outskirts of mainstream comics over the years, right? Will: Oh, yeah, sure. From the beginning, I maintained my position. I turned [DC Comics publisher] Harry Donenfeld down. Of course, I could prevail because I had my own little company. I was in a position to be able to turn them down. It wasn’t them or starvation; I had Eisner & Iger. I was doing well and it was a good little business. CBA: And later on, you got the government contract and started American Visuals. Who is Israel Waldman? Will: The kindest characterization is to say that he had a remainder house for comics. He would buy up returned comics in quantity and redistribute them again under his imprint [IW]. His was a kind of junkyard operation. He sometimes would pick up comics that weren’t being printed any more and reprint them. He was a slick operator. CBA: Would he always go through the proper channels and properly acquire the rights to the material he was reprinting? Will: In my case, he did run off a couple of my stories without getting permission, but at that time I was still in the Army, Busy was handling the business arrangements, and Israel must have swiped that stuff when Busy wasn’t looking. He would pick up stuff every so often and print the material without permission. He was pretty much looked upon as a sleazeball. CBA: Sometime in the early 1960s, Waldman reprinted some Spirit comics, called Super Reprints #11 and 12. Do you remember any arrangement made? Will: Actually, I can’t recall the details of any Super Reprints deal. It must have been legitimate, although in the 1960s, I was running Bell COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

June 2002

McClure Syndicate and operating a publishing operation. CBA: Did you have any opinion regarding Harvey’s output? Will: I didn’t have any dealings with them until the mid-1960s, when Al Harvey came to me, said they wanted to get back into the super-hero business, and were wondering if they could reprint The Spirit. Actually, I did make the deal with Leon because, by that time, Al had been seriously ill. CBA: What arrangement did you agree to with Harvey? Will: I owned the copyrights on all the material and I recall it was a flat payment for each issue, a licensing fee. I never sold ownership to anything; it was always a licensing arrangement. But it didn’t go anywhere. It only ran two issues and the whole thing was a failure. CBA: You did produce some new work for those issues, correct? Will: I only made a new introductory Spirit story for the first issue. It was the origin of The Spirit. I redid it because the initial origin story really wasn’t very good and I wanted to jazz it up a little. But, again, by that time I was busy running my own company, so these comics were just a side issue. CBA: You’re not the biggest promoter of the super-hero genre around. Were you comfortable being part of this big super-hero revival? Will: I was neither comfortable or uncomfortable. The comic magazine marketplace was just something I had no interest in. Beginning in 1951, when I started American Visuals, I went into the industrial application of comics, so I couldn’t have cared less about mainstream comics. Look, I was quite astonished to find there was still an interest in The Spirit. As a matter of fact, the Harvey comics came out on the heels of an article I did for the New York Herald Tribune which included a five-page Spirit story. In turn, that was stimulated by the publication of [onetime Eisner assistant] Jules Feiffer’s book, The Great Comic Book Heroes, which discussed and reprinted one of The Spirit stories. CBA: So would you give credit to Jules’ book for kickstarting The Spirit’s revival? Will: It certainly helped. His book called attention to The Spirit and I guess I’m indebted to Jules for giving that work a status. His was the first book to examine the comic book heroes with any intellect and by including me in that book, it certainly gave The Spirit some cache. A third party endorsement is always tremendously valuable. CBA: Now, you obviously held on to much of the original art for The Spirit over the years. Did you always have the idea in the back of your mind to revive the character? Will: I was never really interested in reviving the character. It was only in recent years that I allowed Kitchen Sink to publish The New Adventures of The Spirit, though the stories were done by other writers and artists. CBA: I meant were you intent on having the material reprinted. Will: Not really. I just held onto the artwork because I wanted to. Where I come from, my mother used to save string. [laughter] The artwork just seemed personally very valuable to me and it always angered me that the artwork was always regarded by publishers to be trash. They didn’t pay any attention to it, but I hung onto my work, carried it around over the years, and still have it today. CBA: Does the artwork take up much storage space? Will: I did about 250 stories myself and still have approximately 200 of them left, so about 1,400 pages. Holding onto the art was probably more of a personality quirk. Even today, I find it emotionally difficult to sell my artwork; my wife doesn’t have a problem, but I do. [laughter] CBA: But your being a pack rat really did work out in the end? June 2002

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Will: Apparently! It appears that if you hang onto something long enough, it will be worth something. CBA: Did you send the original art over to Harvey for those two issues? Will: Yes, and as a matter of fact, my art agent, Denis Kitchen, and I recently found out that two or three stories printed in those issues were missing, a discovery we made while taking an inventory. Harvey must have never returned them and maybe sold the stories to somebody. They were purloined. CBA: Did you ascertain those two issues having any impact with readers? Will: Not really. The only impact I could see was when I started going to conventions and would find kids walking around with copies of the old Harvey books, and asking me to sign them. I believe, those books contributed to the growing nostalgia field, at the time. Remember that in those days, there was this slowly growing appreciation of the old stuff, ultimately consummated into the collecting world. The value of comics, as your generation knows it, in fact, grew very slowly. There was a time when they were valueless, but as time went on, people started treating comics originals with greater respect.

Inset left: Comic book “remainderer” Israel Waldman repackaged old Quality Comics material featuring Will Eisner’s creation for his “Super Reprint” line in the early 1960s. Spirit ©2002 Will Eisner. 99

Above and inset: The Harvey Spirit reprints books did, in fact, contain new material by the master. Along with a new cover, #1 contained a seven-page retelling of the character’s origin, plus a two-page humorous vignette starring our hero, titled “The Spirit Lab,” a spoof on the spy genre so popular in those 007 days. ©2002 Will Eisner.

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CBA: I wonder, though, if a number of readers realized not so much that these were from the ’40s, but more that these were high-quality stories with timeless themes. Will, I can tell you today, with a clarity I have of few other memories of being seven years old, exactly where I was, the weather and even the time of day, when I first cracked open The Spirit #1. I was in the backyard of my house, sitting on the steps of the shed, and I was looking at Plaster of Paris sashay her seductive “dance of death,” holding that dagger above the bound Spirit’s head. My sensibilities went, “Uh oh! I don’t think I’m allowed to read something like this!” [laughter] It was provocative, sexy, mature material, and I immediately embraced it, much the same way when I found Mad comic book reprints by Kurtzman a few years later.

Will: Candidly, I really am very pleased to hear that but I must tell you, in all honesty, that at the time, yes, I knew my stuff was good and knew the stuff was better than most. But I was writing to an adult audience with stories aimed at grown-ups, and that was the aspect that attracted me to The Spirit project in the first place. It was not so much the money, or even the fact it would be in a newspaper, but the proposition to provide me with an adult audience was irresistible because I wanted to get out of the comic book ghetto. As Feiffer used to say, I was taking myself seriously; I had literary pretensions. [laughter] CBA: Were you optimistic that the Harvey series might catch on? Will: Not really. Frankly, The Spirit was never written for the standard comic book audience of the time. It was written for adults who comprised the bulk of the newspapers’ audience. At any rate, I’m still amazed that The Spirit has survived, because, in all of my experience, not very many comic strip characters have lasted or made what you might call a comeback. I can only think of Blondie, but I thought none of the features being developed when I was first working had a chance in hell of surviving. So I didn’t hang on to any hope that The Spirit would become popular again, but was obviously delighted with the way things worked out. I held onto it as my property, my character, and was very pleased that the Herald Tribune wanted to run an article and let me do a five-page story. It wasn’t until later, when I was working with [magazine publisher] Jim Warren, who was reprinting the stories, that I realized that the popularity of the character had grown in the marketplace. CBA: I wonder if my generation’s first real recognition of your work was through those two Harvey comics. Will: Jon, the trouble with historians or with young people who are looking back, is that they see a trend and try to attribute it to an event. But, in my experience, a single event did not necessarily change the course of history. It may have been a landmark in the flow of the course of history, so when the river turned leftward, that rock was there but was not the one which turned the river; it just represented the flow’s change. All of those events you mentioned—Feiffer’s book, the Herald Tribune, the Harvey comics—contributed to the revival and the awareness of the comic’s history, sure. The appearance of Jules’ book made a lot of people interested in the history of the art form sit up and say, “Wait a minute! Maybe Jules is right. I’ll take a look at this.” The literary world is in a constant process of discovery. For years, I had the firm belief that Krazy Kat was great, just marvelous. But it’s only recently that they determined that Herriman’s strip was, in fact, work of sheer genius. What happened to create that recognition? Well, it’s people like you who are writing about this material; every time you write an article on an aspect of the comic book business, you are helping make people aware of its existence. Therefore, if enough become aware, the course of events is changed. CBA: In the final analysis, has The Spirit been the greatest return on your investment in your COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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life? Will: The money I’ve made over the years was partly from the comics and partly out of the business dealings I had with my company’s operations. I had a certain amount of business acumen and was able to make money but, yes, The Spirit has constantly been a financial surprise to me. CBA: And, here it is, 60 years later and it’s still in print! Will: There it is. You can imagine my awe. I walk around shaking my head. CBA: But smiling, too? Will: Right! I also shake my right trouser leg to hear the coins jingle. [laughter] CBA: Who was Chuck Kramer? Will: He was a young man who came to work for me when I was producing PS Magazine for the Army. He had been an illustrator at West Point (as a civilian), drawing maps and stuff like that. I used to hire guys from outside of the comics field, like Jerry Grandenetti, who was an architectural draftsman when I hired him, because I needed somebody to do backgrounds. If my assistants hung around long enough, they would break into the field, like Jerry did. Kramer never made a career in comics. He left the field after he quit me and tried to wrest the Army contract away from me. But he lost a lot of money in the attempt and then went to Israel where he became a cowboy! What a strange thing! Who knew they have cattle ranches in the Middle East. [laughter] And that was the last I heard of him. CBA: Was he making the pitch with Mike Ploog? Will: No, Chuck worked with Dan Zoine to put in the bid against me. I hired Mike to replace Chuck. CBA: Kramer did ink the new material in the Harvey issues? Will: Yes, he did a lot of work. He did some inking and some backgrounds. I was a very busy guy in those days and needed whatever help I could get. Whenever I had help on The Spirit, there was never a formula; sometimes I would only ink the heads, sometimes all the penciling, sometimes a little inking, but mostly I needed help on backgrounds. Figures and compositions I could do fast. CBA: Did you ever look at Grandenetti’s inks and say, “He’s doing it better than I would”? Will: He certainly did chairs and tables better than I could! His inking was brilliant. His pencils were a little stiffer than mine, but that really didn’t matter. I was looking for someone who could handle backgrounds. CBA: Did it bother you to turn over all of the art chores by the end of The Spirit’s run? Will: No. As a matter of fact, I tried that in an effort to free myself from doing The Spirit every week because I was working on a lot of other things, running another business. But the clients—the newspapers—did object to the stylistic changes taking place. They wrote me June 2002

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saying, “This is not Will Eisner’s style. Why is he changing his style?” CBA: What do you think of the Harvey reprint books? Are you proud of them? Will: Neither proud or ashamed. They were just reprints of my regular material. They printed them well, but that was it. I don’t want to come across as totally indifferent to my own stuff—I like my stuff—but the only work I worry about is the material I did yesterday. If that begins to look better than the stuff I did today, then I get worried. [laughter] CBA: So you must get sick of it when people come up to say, “I liked your earlier work better.” Will: It’s like the reporter asking the guy whose wife had just fallen off a 20-story building, “What were you thinking when she was falling?” [laughter]

Above and inset: Though Mr. Eisner may not recall in this interview, The Spirit #2 did contain new material. Beside a new cover, there’s the seven-page “Octopus,” giving us “the life story of the king of crime.” This ish also contains another installment of “The Spirit Lab,” a lighthearted gag two-pager featuring “The Man from MSD… Moitle Schmertz’s Deli!” ©2002 Will Eisner.

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Retroview

The Steranko Connection A look at the creator’s first professional contributions to comics by Jim Korkis “My first work in comics was for Harvey Publications. Joe Simon asked me to design a number of super-heroes for a new comic line. Spyman, Gladiator, and Magicmaster were bought… Spacewolf and Future American were turned down. The-powers-that-be didn’t feel I drew well enough to illustrate these characters. So I went to Marvel, Stan looked at some sketches and gave me ‘SHIELD’… just like that!”—Jim Steranko, Comic Crusader #1, March 1968

Above: In the issue of Comic Book Marketplace devoted to Jim Steranko (#28), the checklist compiled by Edmond Rhodes, Jr., mentions that the creator appeared as himself—The Great Steranko—in various Harvey humor titles, including Spooky #126 (where the above panel was taken from) and Spooky Spookytown #47. Well, wouldn’t ya know it, but Ronn Sutton (a frequent CBA contributor and a wonderful artist in his own right) had a copy and sent this in! Steranko was quoted as telling CBM that the Harvey appearances are “probably my best chance at lasting fame!” ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

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The Thriller series was one of Harvey’s periodic entries into the adventure hero field. With the costumed super-heroes at their peak of popularity and with several new companies like Milson and Tower reaping valuable sales dollars, Harvey hired Joe Simon to develop the Thriller series which was released in 1966. Harvey issued several titles, Spyman, Jigsaw, Thrill-O-Rama, Double-Dare Adventures, Unearthly Spectaculars, Warfront (as well as several reprints featuring “The Three Rocketeers,” The Spirit and Fighting American) all of which ran no more than two or three issues before they were cancelled. (Actually, Thrill-O-Rama and Unearthly Spectaculars debuted a year earlier with “The Man in Black Called Fate” and “Tiger Boy”). The Harvey line featured some of the most unusual heroes: Jigsaw was able to stretch like Plastic Man, Jack Quick Frost could throw icicles, freeze streets and breathe blasts of frost; Pirana fought crime beneath the waves with a pair of pet barracudas; Tiger Boy was actually a Venutian creature who could transform himself into half-boy, half tiger, as well as Steelman, Rubberman and other identities); B-Man had strange bee powers and fought aliens. Harvey attracted some outstanding artists to help launch their new adventure line, including: Al Williamson (who besides illustrating some non-character stories, contributed the Conan-esque “Clawfang the Barbarian”), Wally Wood (with his parody of super-hero organizations, “Miracles, Inc.,” his John Carter homage, “Earthman,” and various war stories), Reed Crandall, George Tuska, Mike

Sekowsky, Gil Kane, Bob Powell, and others. But perhaps the most fascinating and little known aspect of the Thriller series was the contribution of Jim Steranko. Steranko was working as an art director for a small, but busy advertising agency, when a meeting with Joe Simon led to an assignment for Harvey Comics. He created several new characters for the new super-hero line and scripted the initial stories for each. Spyman, Gladiator, and Magicmaster were purchased, but concepts for Future American and Spacewolf were turned down. After he saw what was done with the characters he had developed, Steranko was so disappointed that he created Super Agent X and took the character’s origin tale, “The Exordium of X,” around to other companies. (Tower was interested in the character, but editorial policies created too much interference for Steranko; National saw it and wanted Steranko just as a writer; Paramount was going to develop an animated series based on the character before they closed up their animation department. Stan Lee didn’t want the character, but hired Steranko as an artist on the “Nick Fury” strip in Strange Tales.) By examining Steranko’s original character presentations, it is easy to see why he became discouraged with how his characters were later developed by other writers and artists. [ED’S NOTE: Though Jim Korkis’s original article reprinted Steranko’s presentation verbatim, out of respect for the creator’s copyright we will paraphrase below.] SORCERER (later named Magicmaster): World renowned magician the Incredible Apollo dies suddenly and his lone progeny Jimmy—who was dark-haired in Steranko’s presentation, but blonde in the Jack Sparling illustrated story—makes an oath to continue his father’s mystical work. Rummaging through Apollo’s library, the boy finds a decaying volume by a magician from ancient Egypt. By speaking a phrase previously unspoken for thousands of years, Jimmy is surprised to be engulfed in a swirling mist that dissolves to reveal the form of one Shamarah, a “magician of the gods,” who is on a mission to seek justice for the murder of the Incredible Apollo. (In the second non-scripted Steranko adventure, the wizard is cleverly called Kazzam.) Upon inquiring the reason for his being summoned, Jimmy replies it must have been a mistake, though the boy expressed his hope to follow his father’s path and also become a respected magician. Shamarah vows to instruct the youth just as he had Merlin, Circe and Cagliostro, and the pair become a crime-fighting team, using both the mystic’s true sorcery and the lad’s knowledge of parlor tricks (learned from his late dad). Thus starts the grand adventure “into the shadowy unknown.” (Curiously, Steranko’s presentation drawing featured a very Egyptian-looking magician with a cobra on his cowl. When it appeared in comic book form, the features were made more “American-looking” and the snake was replaced with a simpler design and then, completely discarded altogether by the second appearance.) The character seemed a natural extension of Steranko’s background in magic. THE GLADIATOR: re-christened The Glowing Gladiator. This character was illustrated by Bob Powell and later, Jack Sparling. President and chief trouble-shooter of Adventure Unlimited (although Steranko originally described him as just a “world adventurer and archeologist’), Harry Barker is hired to search through the decayed remnants of ancient Carthage for the fabled amulet of Hannibal. Finding it, he gazes intently and is mysteriously pulled into the amulet where he meets Hannibal of Barca. Hannibal describes how his soul had been trapped in the amulet for over two millennium, yearning for release. At nine-years-old, the warrior took “an oath of eternal COMIC BOOK ARTIST 19

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dedication,” promising his father to fight evil in all its forms. In an instant, the revived avenger puts the amulet about Barker’s neck and they both vaporize, replaced by a shadowy figure suited in armor of gold. The Gladiator is armed with the magical Sword of Hercules vs. Achilles, a weapon always accurate, ever able to cut through all earthly material, with the ability to even deflect bullets. The Gladiator is born to battle menaces of the past conjured up by the evil villain, Destiny. By the second story, The Gladiator was being referred to as the Glo-Glo-Gladiator and the mysterious Destiny was transformed into a wisecracking buffoon. The problems of an ancient warrior in a modern world were never confronted, nor were any imaginative ancient menaces pitted against the character. SPYMAN: The artwork was by George Tuska, Dick Ayers and Bill Draut. Of all the ideas submitted to Harvey, this series came closest to remaining true to Steranko’s original concept. In stopping an atomic device set to blow up Cape Kennedy, American secret operative Johnny Chance loses his left hand . He quickly is taken to Freedom Headquarters, hidden below the feet of the Statue of Liberty, where surgeons of Project Normal Plus fit the spy with an electro-mechanical hand. This strange enables Johnny to continue the battle to stop villainy and oppression in his new guise of Spyman, Enemy Agent Fighter. This character was years before the Six Million Dollar Man, but the basic appeal of the two characters was similar, to the extent of having part of the body become “super-human.” The hand had an X-ray probe, great strength, photography unit, black ray, sub-atomic power pack, a secret compartment with life-like plastic skin to fit the hand like a glove, recording head and transmitter, electro-blast unit and many other functions that were never really exploited in the stories. Unfortunately, fandom never got to see two of the more interesting concepts that Steranko developed: FUTURE AMERICAN: Kane Kinkaid, scientific whiz and creator of the “World Brain,” has gathered together the Guardians of the Future, as well as built a time machine made to change the course of history to ensure a positive fate for the human race. The device malfunctions, taking the scientist to circa 9800 A.D., where he encounters the Elders who inform him that his unprecedented journey has disturbed the balance of space and time, now in desperate need of correcting lest the anomaly be discovered by the villainous Time Pirates. Those feared marauders travel through the ages to rape and pillage unsuspecting eras via such rips in time. In the Earth of the Elders, time travel is illegal to deter those who would consider following the Time Pirates’ evil vocation. Part-human and part-mechanical Cyborgs protect the “timeways,” allowed only to watch over but never to visit Earth, to enter any existing world, but simply to observe (in Kinkaid’s time, the Cyborgs were labeled Flying Saucers). But as the fabric of time is being repaired, the villains discover and invade the world of the Elders. As mankind has adopted a pacifist nature, incapable of stopping the Time Pirates, Kinkaid suits up as a timepolice officer (in a similar uniform, as well as name very reminiscent of Simon & Kirby’s classic patriotic super-hero, Fighting American) and battles the baddies with his own 20th century methods. While thankful for the protection, the Elders rule Kinkaid is to be banished, lest his warlike and brutal nature infect the others. Suddenly, Kinkaid zaps back to 1966 where it is revealed the hero is now a Man of the Future, fabulously powerful, incredibly smart, telepathic, and capable of creating “electro-thought force fields.” While barred from time traveling, our hero promise to fight wrong-doing in the here and now, aided by his fantastic powers and the World Brain, a Big Brother-like computer that sees all and is able to talk with Future American. SPACEWOLF: Wrongly convicted by a cabal of evil interplanetary despots and space barons for inciting revolution, intergalactic diplomat Gann Lyndal is banished to forever drift through the cosmos, permanently confined in his starship. His stalwart son, Dr. Kris Lyndat, makes an oath to right the injustice and wreck vengeance on those who convicted Gann. A chance encounter with Voltan Ras, an ailing space plunderer, has the doctor curing Voltan, who is so moved as to vow eternal friendship and the help of his crew of motley space pirates. Kris determines to search the blackness of “forbidden space” to free his dad and fight the wrong-doing perpetrated by showing up wherever his skills are required as his alter-ego, Spacewolf. He skulks June 2002

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the cosmic highways, part-devil, part-angel, “the Robin Hood of Space,” loved by friends, loathed by enemies, and adored by the ladies. Many fans remember the Harvey Thriller series that ended so abruptly. The reason it ceased is still not known, although at the time it was rumored that distribution problems were a major factor. It certainly was a shock to pick up an adventure hero and find ads for Casper, Sad Sack and Baby Huey. Additional issues of Jigsaw, DoubleDare Adventures, The Spirit and Fighting American were advertised, but never released. Concerning Harvey’s attempt at developing superheroes, one of the most fascinating aspects is the fact that it was Harvey, the company famous for Casper and Richie Rich, that gave Jim Steranko his first chance in comics more than two decades ago. Even if their attempt had done little else of merit, the fact alone should earn Harvey the gratitude of fandom.

Above: Magicmaster was originally envisioned by Steranko to be “The Sorceror,” a name editor Joe Simon felt would not be possible to trademark. This introduction page was featured in the second— and final—issue of Double-Dare Adventures. ©2002 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.

This article, somewhat edited from its last appearance in The Harveyville Fun Times #4 (Fall ’91), was reprinted with the author’s kind permission. Jim Korkis is a well-known comics and animation historian who has written extensively on the subjects for a variety of magazines and fanzines for nearly three decades. He is the co-author of the Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars, How to Create Animation and Cartoon Confidential. A longtime Harvey Comics fan, Jim was a contributor to Bart Bush’s The Harvey Collector, where this article originally appeared in 1978. ©2002 Jim Korkis. 103

Hero Index

Harvey Thriller Checklist The complete index to Joe Simon’s ’60s adventure comics

Harvey Thriller Line UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS 1 October 1965 Title page “The Visitor” “Old Wives Tale” “Unbelievable Story” Tiger Boy “Will Power” “The Hidden World” Text filler

Cover: Jack Sparling Jack Sparling 1 ?/Doug Wildey 5 ?/Angelo Torres 2 ?/? 5 ?/Doug Wildey 5 ?/Doug Wildey 5 2

Note: Thirteen-month interval from previous issue. 3 March 1967 Cover: Joe Simon Title page Bill Draut 1 Jack Quick Frost “Lord Lazee’s Terrible Trio” ?/Bill Draut15 “The Saucerer” ?/Carl Pfeufer 2 “Hermit” (r: Alarming Tales #1) Archie Goodwin/ Reed Crandall and Al Williamson 5 “Logan’s Next Life” (r: Alarming Tales #1) ?/Kirby & Simon 2 “Never Say ‘No’ to Dr. Yes” ?/Tony Tallarico 5 Title page Joe Orlando 1 Miracles, Inc. “Rent-A-Hero” ?/Joe Orlando17 3 Rocketeers “1… 2… 3… Infinity” ?/Bill Draut 5 Text filler 2 THRILL-O-RAMA 1 October 1965 Cover: Joe Simon Title page Bob Powell 1 The Man in Black Called Fate “The Hate Cupids” Bob Powell/Bob Powell 8 “Six Hours of Doom” ?/Carl Pfeufer? 5 “When Time Ran Out” ?/Doug Wildey 5 “The Old Hulk” ?/Doug Wildey 5 Text filler 2

2 December 1966 Cover: J. Simon, J. Sparling & W. Wood Title page Jack Sparling with Gil Kane 1 Jack Quick Frost “The Ice Prison” ?/Jack Sparling15 Pirana (preview) ?/Jack Sparling 2 Clawfang “Introduction” ?/Al Williamson 2 Clawfang “Clawfang the Barbarian” ?/Al Williamson 5 Tiger Boy and Company “The Boy Who Hates Us All” ?/Gil Kane 2 Title page Mike Sekowsky/Frank Giacoia (with Wally Wood) 1 Miracles, Inc. “Miracles, Inc.” ?/Wally Wood 5 3 Rocketeers “How the 3 Rocketeers Teamed Up” ?/Mike Sekowsky & Joe Giella 5 “Super Surplus” ?/Carl Pfeufer 2 2 September 1966 Earthman “Earthman” Wally Wood/Wally Wood10 Title page Text filler 2 Pirana “Pirana”

Clawfang “Introduction” ?/Al Williamson 2 The Man in Black Called Fate “The Million Dollar Trap” ?/Jack Sparling 2 Text filler 2 Note: Eleven-month interval from previous issue. 3 December 1966 Cover: Jack Sparling Title page Jack Sparling 1 Pirana “The Escape of Brainstorm” ?/Jack Sparling15 “My Pal, Alien” ?/Carl Pfeufer 2 The Man in Black Called Fate “The Weaver” ?/Jack Sparling 5 Text filler 2 WARFRONT 36 October 1965 Cover: George Woodbridge with Joe Simon Title page George Tuska 1 “Ghost Army” ?/Marvin Stein 5 “American Heroes” ?/Dan Adkins 1 “Duty: Occupation” ?/Bob Powell 1 Corporal Daniel in the Lion’s Den “Warhead” ?/Angelo Torres? 5 Bob Scott, the One-Guy Task Force “The Big Ride” ?/Charles Nicholas & George Roussos 6 Dynamite Joe “Make ’Em Pay” ?/Bob Powell? 5 Text filler 1 Note: Revival of 1950s Harvey war title.

Cover: George Tuska with Joe Simon Jack Sparling 1 37 September 1966 ?/Jack Sparling14 Title page

Cover: Jack Sparling Wally Wood 1

Dynamite Joe “One-Way Street” ?/Jack Sparling 5 “The V-3” ?/Wally Wood Studio 2 Lone Tiger “The Lone Tiger” ?/Wally Wood10 Dollar Bill Cash “Dollar Bill Cash” Wally Wood/Wally Wood 5 Text filler 2 Note: Eleven-month interval from previous issue. 37 December 1966 Cover: Joe Simon Title page Bill Draut 1 Dynamite Joe “Big Trap on Death Island” ?/Bill Draut15 “Beyond Courage” ?/Wally Wood Studio 2 Lone Tiger “The Tiger vs. the Dragon” ?/George Roussos 5 Text filler 2 38 February 1967 Cover: Bill Draut Title page Bill Draut 1 Dynamite Joe “Half-Mask Strikes Back” ?/Bill Draut15 “The Trap” ?/Wally Wood Studio 3 Lone Tiger “Revenge of the Dragon” ?/George Roussos10 BLAST-OFF 1 October 1965 Cover: Jack Kirby/Joe Simon Title page (r: Race for the Moon #3) Jack Kirby & Al Williamson 1 3 Rocketeers “Lunar Goliaths” ?/Jack Kirby & Al Williamson 5 3 Rocketeers “The Great Moon Mystery” ?/Kirby & Williamson 5 “The Space Court” ?/Al Williamson 5 “The Little Earth” ?/Al Williamson 5 Text filler 2 Note: Revival of 1950s Harvey Thrilling title Race for the Moon. JIGSAW 1 September 1966 Cover: Bill Draut Title page Joe Simon and Tony Tallarico 1 Jigsaw “A Nightmare in Space” ?/Tony Tallarico & Bill Fraccio?16 “Introducing: Super Luck” ?/? 2 “The Boys from Up There” ?/Reed Crandall 5 Text filler 2 2 December 1966 Title page Jigsaw “Interplanetary Olympics”

Cover: Joe Simon Tony Tallarico 1 ?/Tony Tallarico17

Man from S.R.A.M. “Madhouse in Hollywood” ?/Carl Pfeufer 5 Text filler 2 SPYMAN 1 September 1966 Cover: George Tuska Spyman “Birth of a Hero” Jim Steranko (plot)/George Tuska20 “Eye Spy” ?/? 2 Text filler 2 Notes: Carl Pfeufer inks on Spyman pgs. 11-20. 2 December 1966 Cover: Joe Simon Title page Dick Ayers 1 Spyman “The Hand is Quicker than the Monster” ?/Dick Ayers17 Robolink “You Push a Button…” ?/Carl Pfeufer 5 Text filler 2 3 February 1967 Cover: Joe Simon Title page Bill Draut 1 Spyman “Death of Spyman” ?/Bill Draut20 Campy Champ “The Terrific Teen” ?/Carl Pfeufer 2 Text filler 2 FIGHTING AMERICAN 1 October 1966 Cover: Jack Kirby/Joe Simon Notes: Contains nine F.A. stories, mostly reprinted from the 1954-55 Prize title, though a few are never-previously released inventory tales from that era. All stories by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. THE SPIRIT 1 October 1966 Cover: Will Eisner “Origin” Will Eisner/Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 7 “The Spirit Lab” Will Eisner/Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 2 Interview with the Spirit (text) Marilyn Mercer 2 Preview Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 1 Notes: Not listed are seven choice Spirit reprints from the 1940s. 2 March 1967 Cover: Will Eisner “The Life Story of the King of Crime” Will Eisner/Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 7 “The Spirit Lab” Will Eisner/Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 2 Preview Will Eisner & Chuck Kramer 1

Notes: Not listed are seven choice Spirit reprints from the 1940s. DOUBLE-DARE ADVENTURES 1 December 1966 Cover: Joe Simon with Jack Sparling Bee-Man “Bee-Man” ?/Bill Draut 7 Glowing Gladiator “The Legend of the Glowing Gladiator” Jim Steranko (plot)/Bob Powell15 “The Has-Been” (r: Black Cat Mystic #62) ?/Doug Wildey 2 “The Ant Extract” (r: Alarming Tales #2)Jack Kirby & Joe Simon 5 Title page Jack Sparling 1 Magicmaster “The Secret of Magicmaster” Jim Steranko (plot)/Jack Sparling20 Text filler 4 2 March 1967 Cover: Larry Lieber Bee-Man “The Revolt of the Queen Bee” ?/Dick Ayers12 Glowing Gladiator “The Two Deadly Faces of Destiny” ?/Jack Sparling15 “Sunken Treasure” (r: Alarming Adventures #2)?/Paul Reinman 2 “The Secret of the Mountain” (r: Alarming Adventures #2) Al Williamson 5 Title page Joe Simon with Jack Sparling 1 Magicmaster “Sorcery at the Circus” ?/Jack Sparling17 “The Prisoner of Plastic City” ?/Hy Eisman 5 Text filler 4

THE ORIGINAL GOES DIGITAL!

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The forerunner to COMIC BOOK CREATOR, CBA is the 2000-2004 Eisner Award winner for BEST COMICS-RELATED MAG! Edited by CBC’s JON B. COOKE, it features in-depth articles, interviews, and unseen art, celebrating the lives and careers of the great comics artists from the 1970s to today. ALL BACK ISSUES NOW AVAILABLE AS DIGITAL EDITIONS FOR $3.95 FROM www.twomorrows.com!

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com

Order online at www.twomorrows.com COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 3 Reprinting the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #7-8 (spotlighting 1970s Marvel and 1980s indies), plus over 30 NEW PAGES of features and art! New PAUL GULACY portfolio, MR. MONSTER scrapbook, the story behind MARVEL VALUE STAMPS, and more! New MICHAEL T. GILBERT cover! (224-page trade paperback) $24.95 • ISBN: 9781893905429

#3: ADAMS AT MARVEL #4: WARREN PUBLISHING

#5: MORE DC 1967-74

#1: DC COMICS 1967-74

#2: MARVEL 1970-77

Era of “Artist as Editor” at National: New NEAL ADAMS cover, interviews, art, and articles with JOE KUBERT, JACK KIRBY, CARMINE INFANTINO, DICK GIORDANO, JOE ORLANDO, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ALEX TOTH, JULIE SCHWARTZ, and many more! Plus ADAMS thumbnails for a forgotten Batman story, unseen NICK CARDY pages from a controversial Teen Titans story, unpublished TOTH covers, and more!

STAN LEE AND ROY THOMAS discussion about Marvel in the 1970s, ROY THOMAS interview, BILL EVERETT’s daughter WENDY and MIKE FRIEDRICH on Everett, interviews with GIL KANE, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, JIM STARLIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, MIKE PLOOG, STERANKO’s Unknown Marvels, the real origin of the New X-Men, Everett tribute cover by GIL KANE, and more!

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#6: MORE MARVEL ’70s #7: ’70s MARVELMANIA

NEAL ADAMS interview about his work at Marvel Comics in the 1960s from AVENGERS to X-MEN, unpublished Adams covers, thumbnail layouts for classic stories, published pages BEFORE they were inked, and unused pages from his NEVER-COMPLETED X-MEN GRAPHIC NOVEL! Plus TOM PALMER on the art of inking Neal Adams, ADAMS’ MARVEL WORK CHECKLIST, & ADAMS wraparound cover!

Definitive JIM WARREN interview about publishing EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA, and other fan favorites, in-depth interview with BERNIE WRIGHTSON with unpublished Warren art, plus unseen art, features and interviews with FRANK FRAZETTA, RICHARD CORBEN, AL WILLIAMSON, JACK DAVIS, ARCHIE GOODWIN, HARVEY KURTZMAN, ALEX NINO, and more! BERNIE WRIGHTSON cover!

More on DC COMICS 1967-74, with art by and interviews with NICK CARDY, JOE SIMON, NEAL ADAMS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, MIKE KALUTA, SAM GLANZMAN, MARV WOLFMAN, IRWIN DONENFELD, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GIL KANE, DENNY O’NEIL, HOWARD POST, ALEX TOTH on FRANK ROBBINS, DC Writer’s Purge of 1968 by MIKE BARR, JOHN BROOME’s final interview, and more! CARDY cover!

Unpublished and rarely-seen art by, features on, and interviews with 1970s Bullpenners PAUL GULACY, FRANK BRUNNER, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, MARIE and JOHN SEVERIN, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE COCKRUM, DON MCGREGOR, DOUG MOENCH, and others! Plus never-beforeseen pencil pages to an unpublished Master of Kung-Fu graphic novel by PAUL GULACY! Cover by FRANK BRUNNER!

Featuring ’70s Marvel greats PAUL GULACY, JOHN BYRNE, RICH BUCKLER, DOUG MOENCH, DAN ADKINS, JIM MOONEY, STEVE GERBER, FRANK SPRINGER, and DENIS KITCHEN! Plus: a rarely-seen Stan Lee P.R. chat promoting the ’60s Marvel cartoon shows, the real trials and tribulations of Comics Distribution, the true story behind the ’70s Kung Fu Craze, and a new cover by PAUL GULACY!

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#10: WALTER SIMONSON

#11: ALEX TOTH AND SHELLY MAYER

#8: ’80s INDEPENDENTS

#9: CHARLTON PART 1

#12: CHARLTON PART 2

Major independent creators and their fabulous books from the early days of the Direct Sales Market! Featured interviews include STEVE RUDE, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DAVE STEVENS, JAIME HERNANDEZ, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, DON SIMPSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, MIKE BARON, MIKE GRELL, and more! Plus plenty of rare and unpublished art, and a new STEVE RUDE cover!

Interviews with Charlton alumni JOE GILL, DICK GIORDANO, STEVE SKEATES, DENNIS O’NEIL, ROY THOMAS, PETE MORISI, JIM APARO, PAT BOYETTE, FRANK MCLAUGHLIN, SAM GLANZMAN, plus ALAN MOORE on the Charlton/ Watchmen Connection, DC’s planned ALLCHARLTON WEEKLY, and more! DICK GIORDANO cover!

Career-spanning SIMONSON INTERVIEW, covering his work from “Manhunter” to Thor to Orion, JOHN WORKMAN interview, TRINA ROBBINS interview, also Trina, MARIE SEVERIN and RAMONA FRADON talk shop about their days in the comics business, MARIE SEVERIN interview, plus other great women cartoonists. New SIMONSON cover!

Interviews with ALEX TOTH, Toth tributes by KUBERT, SIMONSON, JIM LEE, BOLLAND, GIBBONS and others, TOTH on continuity art, TOTH checklist, plus SHELDON MAYER SECTION with a look at SCRIBBLY, interviews with Mayer’s kids (real-life inspiration for SUGAR & SPIKE), and more! Covers by TOTH and MAYER!

CHARLTON COMICS: 1972-1983! Interviews with Charlton alumni GEORGE WILDMAN, NICOLA CUTI, JOE STATON, JOHN BYRNE, TOM SUTTON, MIKE ZECK, JACK KELLER, PETE MORISI, WARREN SATTLER, BOB LAYTON, ROGER STERN, and others, ALEX TOTH, a NEW E-MAN STRIP by CUTI AND STATON, and the art of DON NEWTON! STATON cover!

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#13: MARVEL HORROR

#14: TOWER COMICS & WALLY WOOD

#15: 1980s VANGUARD & DAVE STEVENS

#16: ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS

#17: ARTHUR ADAMS

1970s Marvel Horror focus, from Son of Satan to Ghost Rider! Interviews with ROY THOMAS, MARV WOLFMAN, GENE COLAN, TOM PALMER, HERB TRIMPE, GARY FRIEDRICH, DON PERLIN, TONY ISABELLA, and PABLOS MARCOS, plus a Portfolio Section featuring RUSS HEATH, MIKE PLOOG, DON PERLIN, PABLO MARCOS, FRED HEMBECK’S DATELINE, and more! New GENE COLAN cover!

Interviews with Tower and THUNDER AGENTS alumni WALLACE WOOD, LOU MOUGIN, SAMM SCHWARTZ, DAN ADKINS, LEN BROWN, BILL PEARSON, LARRY IVIE, GEORGE TUSKA, STEVE SKEATES, and RUSS JONES, TOWER COMICS CHECKLIST, history of TIPPY TEEN, 1980s THUNDER AGENTS REVIVAL, and more! WOOD cover!

Interviews with ’80s independent creators DAVE STEVENS, JAIME, MARIO, AND GILBERT HERNANDEZ, MATT WAGNER, DEAN MOTTER, PAUL RIVOCHE, and SANDY PLUNKETT, plus lots of rare and unseen art from The Rocketeer, Love & Rockets, Mr. X, Grendel, other ’80s strips, and more! New cover by STEVENS and the HERNANDEZ BROS.!

’70s ATLAS COMICS HISTORY! Interviews with JEFF ROVIN, ROY THOMAS, ERNIE COLÓN, STEVE MITCHELL, LARRY HAMA, HOWARD CHAYKIN, SAL AMENDOLA, JIM CRAIG, RIC MEYERS, and ALAN KUPPERBERG, Atlas Checklist, HEATH, WRIGHTSON, SIMONSON, MILGROM, AUSTIN, WEISS, and STATON discuss their Atlas work, and more! COLÓN cover!

Discussion with ARTHUR ADAMS about his career (with an extensive CHECKLIST, and gobs of rare art), plus GRAY MORROW tributes from friends and acquaintances and a MORROW interview, Red Circle Comics Checklist, interviews with & remembrances of GEORGE ROUSSOS & GEORGE EVANS, Gallery of Morrow, Evans, and Roussos art, EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER interview, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

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#18: 1970s MARVEL COSMIC COMICS

#19: HARVEY COMICS

#20: ROMITAs & KUBERTs #21: ADAM HUGHES, ALEX #22: GOLD KEY COMICS & examinations: RUSS MANNING ROSS, & JOHN BUSCEMA Interviews & Magnus Robot Fighter, WALLY WOOD &

Roundtable with JIM STARLIN, ALAN WEISS and AL MILGROM, interviews with STEVE ENGLEHART, STEVE LEIALOHA, and FRANK BRUNNER, art from the lost WARLOCK #16, plus a FLO STEINBERG CELEBRATION, with a Flo interview, tributes by HERB TRIMPE, LINDA FITE, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, and others! STARLIN/ MILGROM/WEISS cover!

History of Harvey Comics, from Hot Stuf’, Casper, and Richie Rich, to Joe Simon’s “Harvey Thriller” line! Interviews with, art by, and tributes to JACK KIRBY, STERANKO, WILL EISNER, AL WILLIAMSON, GIL KANE, WALLY WOOD, REED CRANDALL, JOE SIMON, WARREN KREMER, ERNIE COLÓN, SID JACOBSON, FRED RHOADES, and more! New wraparound MITCH O’CONNELL cover!

Joint interview between Marvel veteran and superb Spider-Man artist JOHN ROMITA, SR. and fan favorite Thor/Hulk renderer JOHN ROMITA, JR.! On the flipside, JOE, ADAM & ANDY KUBERT share their histories and influences in a special roundtable conversation! Plus unpublished and rarely seen artwork, and a visit by the ladies VIRGINIA and MURIEL! Flip-covers by the KUBERTs and the ROMITAs!

ADAM HUGHES ART ISSUE, with a comprehensive interview, unpublished art, & CHECKLIST! Also, a “Day in the Life” of ALEX ROSS (with plenty of Ross art)! Plus a tribute to the life and career of one of Marvel’s greatest artists, JOHN BUSCEMA, with testimonials from his friends and peers, art section, and biographical essay. HUGHES and TOM PALMER flip-covers!

Total War M.A.R.S. Patrol, Tarzan by JESSE MARSH, JESSE SANTOS and DON GLUT’S Dagar and Dr. Spektor, Turok, Son of Stone’s ALBERTO GIOLITTI and PAUL S. NEWMAN, plus Doctor Solar, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, and more, including MARK EVANIER on cartoon comics, and a definitive company history! New BRUCE TIMM cover!

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#23: MIKE MIGNOLA

#24: NATIONAL LAMPOON COMICS

#25: ALAN MOORE AND KEVIN NOWLAN

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #1

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #2

Exhaustive MIGNOLA interview, huge art gallery (with never-seen art), and comprehensive checklist! On the flip-side, a careerspanning JILL THOMPSON interview, plus tons of art, and studies of Jill by ALEX ROSS, STEVE RUDE, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and more! Also, interview with JOSÉ DELBO, and a talk with author HARLAN ELLISON on his various forays into comics! New MIGNOLA HELLBOY cover!

GAHAN WILSON and NatLamp art director MICHAEL GROSS speak, interviews with and art by NEAL ADAMS, FRANK SPRINGER, SEAN KELLY, SHARY FLENNEKIN, ED SUBITSKY, M.K. BROWN, B.K. TAYLOR, BOBBY LONDON, MICHEL CHOQUETTE, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and more! Features new covers by GAHAN WILSON and MARK BODÉ!

Focus on AMERICA’S BEST COMICS! ALAN MOORE interview on everything from SWAMP THING to WATCHMEN to ABC and beyond! Interviews with KEVIN O’NEILL, CHRIS SPROUSE, JIM BAIKIE, HILARY BARTA, SCOTT DUNBIER, TODD KLEIN, JOSE VILLARRUBIA, and more! Flip-side spotlight on the amazing KEVIN NOWLAN! Covers by J.H. WILLIAMS III & NOWLAN!

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(122-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

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Previously available only to CBA subscribers! Spotlights great DC Comics of the ’70s: Interviews with MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN on JACK KIRBY’s Fourth World, ALEX TOTH on his mystery work, NEAL ADAMS on Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, RUSS HEATH on Sgt. Rock, BRUCE JONES discussing BERNIE WRIGHTSON (plus a WRIGHTSON portfolio), and a BRUCE TIMM interview, art gallery, and cover!

Compiles the new “extras” from CBA COLLECTION VOL. 1-3: unpublished JACK KIRBY story, unpublished BERNIE WRIGHTSON art, unused JEFF JONES story, ALAN WEISS interview, examination of STEVE ENGLEHART and MARSHALL ROGERS’ 1970s Batman work, a look at DC’s rare Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, PAUL GULACY art gallery, Marvel Value Stamp history, Mr. Monster’s scrapbook, and more!

(76-page Digital Edition) $3.95

(112-page Digital Edition) $3.95

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERNS VIEWS WITH KIRBY and EDITIO BLE A IL his contemporaries, AVA NLY FEATURE ARTICLES, FOR O $3.95 RARE AND UNSEEN $1.95— KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES).

DIGITAL

Go online for #1-30 as Digital Editions, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #34

KIRBY COLLECTOR #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #31

KIRBY COLLECTOR #32

KIRBY COLLECTOR #33

FIRST TABLOID-SIZE ISSUE! MARK EVANIER’s new column, interviews with KURT BUSIEK and JOSÉ LADRONN, NEAL ADAMS on Kirby, Giant-Man overview, Kirby’s best 2-page spreads, 2000 Kirby Tribute Panel (MARK EVANIER, GENE COLAN, MARIE SEVERIN, ROY THOMAS, and TRACY & JEREMY KIRBY), huge Kirby pencils! Wraparound KIRBY/ADAMS cover!

KIRBY’S LEAST-KNOWN WORK! MARK EVANIER on the Fourth World, unfinished THE HORDE novel, long-lost KIRBY INTERVIEW from France, update to the KIRBY CHECKLIST, pencil gallery of Kirby’s leastknown work (including THE PRISONER, BLACK HOLE, IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, TRUE DIVORCE CASES), westerns, and more! KIRBY/LADRONN cover!

FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUE! Gallery of FF pencils at tabloid size, MARK EVANIER on the FF Cartoon series, interviews with STAN LEE and ERIK LARSEN, JOE SINNOTT salute, the HUMAN TORCH in STRANGE TALES, origins of Kirby Krackle, interviews with nearly EVERY WRITER AND ARTIST who worked on the FF after Kirby, & more! KIRBY/LARSEN and KIRBY/TIMM covers!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #36

KIRBY COLLECTOR #37

KIRBY COLLECTOR #38

FIGHTING AMERICANS! MARK EVANIER on 1960s Marvel inkers, SHIELD, Losers, and Green Arrow overviews, INFANTINO interview on Simon & Kirby, KIRBY interview, Captain America PENCIL ART GALLERY, PHILIPPE DRUILLET interview, JOE SIMON and ALEX TOTH speak, unseen BIG GAME HUNTER and YOUNG ABE LINCOLN Kirby concepts! KIRBY and KIRBY/TOTH covers!

GREAT ESCAPES! MISTER MIRACLE pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER, MARSHALL ROGERS & MICHAEL CHABON interviews, comparing Kirby and Houdini’s backgrounds, analysis of “Himon,” 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel (WILL EISNER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, MIKE ROYER, & JOHNNY CARSON) & more! KIRBY/MARSHALL ROGERS and KIRBY/STEVE RUDE covers!

THOR ISSUE! Never-seen KIRBY interview, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. on their Thor work, MARK EVANIER, extensive THOR and TALES OF ASGARD coverage, a look at the “real” Norse gods, 40 pages of KIRBY THOR PENCILS, including a Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more! KIRBY covers inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” MIKE ROYER interview on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE GALLERY tracing the evolution of Jack’s style, new column on OBSCURE KIRBY WORK, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s TECHNIQUE AND INFLUENCES, comparing STAN LEE’s writing to JACK’s, and more! Two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” PART 2: JOE SINNOTT on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE PENCIL GALLERY, list of the art in the KIRBY ARCHIVES, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s technique and influences, SPEND A DAY WITH KIRBY (with JACK DAVIS, GULACY, HERNANDEZ BROS., and RUDE) and more! Two UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #40

KIRBY COLLECTOR #41

KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

FAN FAVORITES! Covering Kirby’s work on HULK, INHUMANS, and SILVER SURFER, TOP PROS pick favorite Kirby covers, Kirby ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview, MARK EVANIER, 2002 Kirby Tribute Panel (DICK AYERS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, HERB TRIMPE), pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by MIKE ALLRED and P. CRAIG RUSSELL!

WORLD THAT’S COMING! KAMANDI and OMAC spotlight, 2003 Kirby Tribute Panel (WENDY PINI, MICHAEL CHABON, STAN GOLDBERG, SAL BUSCEMA, LARRY LIEBER, and STAN LEE), P. CRAIG RUSSELL interview, MARK EVANIER, NEW COLUMN analyzing Jack’s visual shorthand, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by ERIK LARSEN and REEDMAN!

1970s MARVEL WORK! Coverage of ’70s work from Captain America to Eternals to Machine Man, DICK GIORDANO & MARK SHULTZ interviews, MARK EVANIER, 2004 Kirby Tribute Panel (STEVE RUDE, DAVE GIBBONS, WALTER SIMONSON, and PAUL RYAN), pencil art gallery, unused 1962 HULK #6 KIRBY PENCILS, and more! Kirby covers inked by GIORDANO and SCHULTZ!

1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!

KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more! Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!

Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!

KIRBY’S SUPER TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!

KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

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(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work: an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby cover inked by DON HECK!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #55

KIRBY COLLECTOR #56

KIRBY COLLECTOR #57

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, walking tour of New York where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?,” plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, final interview (and cover inks) by GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby back cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

KIRBY COLLECTOR #60

“Kirby Goes To Hollywood!” SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MELL LAZARUS recall Kirby’s BOB NEWHART TV show cameo, comparing the recent STAR WARS films to New Gods, RUBY & SPEARS interviewed, Jack’s encounters with FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL McCARTNEY, and JOHN LENNON, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a Golden Age Kirby story, and more! Kirby cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

“Unfinished Sagas”—series, stories, and arcs Kirby never finished. TRUE DIVORCE CASES, RAAM THE MAN MOUNTAIN, KOBRA, DINGBATS, a complete story from SOUL LOVE, complete Boy Explorers story, two Kirby Tribute Panels, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, pencil art galleries, and more, with Kirby’s “Galaxy Green” cover inked by ROYER, and the unseen cover for SOUL LOVE #1!

“Legendary Kirby”—how Jack put his spin on classic folklore! TONY ISABELLA on SATAN’S SIX (with Kirby’s unseen layouts), Biblical inspirations of DEVIL DINOSAUR, THOR through the eyes of mythologist JOSEPH CAMPBELL, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, pencil art from ETERNALS, DEMON, NEW GODS, THOR, and Jack’s ATLAS cover!

“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

FANTASTIC FOUR FOLLOW-UP to #58’s THE WONDER YEARS! Never-seen FF wraparound cover, interview between FF inkers JOE SINNOTT and DICK AYERS, rare LEE & KIRBY interview, comparison of a Jack and Stan FF story conference to Stan’s final script and Jack’s penciled pages, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, gallery of KIRBY FF ART, pencils from BLACK PANTHER, SILVER SURFER, & more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES, edited by John Morrow Each book contains over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

VOLUME 5

VOLUME 6

VOLUME 7

KIRBY CHECKLIST

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12, and a tour of Jack’s home!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art!

Lists EVERY KIRBY COMIC, BOOK, UNPUBLISHED WORK and more!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974

(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Diamond Order Code: MAR084008

NEW!

Lee & Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS

Celebrate the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, about two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector contributor MARK ALEXANDER traces both Lee and Kirby’s history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby’s working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics! (128-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781605490380 • Diamond Order Code: SEP111248

NEW!

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series. Now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form! Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SPECIAL EDITION

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367

CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION

Compiles the “extra” new material from COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES 1-7, in one huge Digital Edition! Includes a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 200 pieces of Kirby art not published outside of those volumes. If you already own the individual issues and skipped the collections, or missed them in print form, now you can get caught up!

For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! This first “new” Kirby comic in years features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective, and more! (52-page comic book) $5.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

(120-page Digital Edition) $4.95

NOTE: THIS IS ISSUE #58 OF THE KIRBY COLLECTOR!

KIRBY FIVE-OH! CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

For its 50th issue, the publication that started TwoMorrows presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a BOOK covering the best of everything from Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular KIRBY COLLECTOR columnists have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

NOTE: THIS IS ISSUE #50 OF THE KIRBY COLLECTOR!

KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)

Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered! Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size! (60-page tabloid with COLOR) SOLD OUT • (Digital Edition) $5.95

TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom! TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com • www.twomorrows.com

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #61

ALTER EGO #118

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2

BRICKJOURNAL #24

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

JOE KUBERT double-size Summer Special tribute issue! Comprehensive examinations of each facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert School. Kubert interviews, rare art and artifacts, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, anecdotes, pin-ups and miniinterviews by faculty, students, fans, friends and family! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

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

(164-page FULL-COLOR mag) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $6.95 • Ships July 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2013

ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

ALTER EGO #121

JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond! Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, a look at its first decade with ROY THOMAS, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

MARC SWAYZE TRIBUTE ISSUE, spotlighting FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)! Salutes from Fawcett alumnus C.C. BECK and OTTO BINDER, interview with wife JUNE SWAYZE, a full Phantom Eagle story from Wow Comics, plus interview with 1950s Dell/Western artist MEL KEEFER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a SWAYZE Marvel Family cover art from the 1940s!

X-MEN SALUTE! 1963-69 secrets, rare ‘60s BRAZILIAN X-MEN stories, lost ‘60s XMen “character sheet” by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS on the 1970s revival, art and artifacts by KIRBY, ROTH, ADAMS, HECK, FRIEDRICH, and BUSCEMA—plus the MARVELMANIA fan club story, interview with Golden Age writer ED SILVERMAN, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and JACK KIRBY’s unused X-Men #10 cover!

GOLDEN AGE JUSTICE SOCIETY ISSUE! Features on JOHN B. WENTWORTH (Johnny Thunder), LEN SANSONE (The Atom), and BERNARD SACHS (All-Star Comics inker), art by CARMINE INFANTINO, PAUL REINMAN, MART NODELL, STAN ASCHMEIER, BEN FLINTON, and H.G. PETER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY to a vintage All-Star image by IRWIN HASEN!

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships August 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Oct. 2013

DRAW! #25

BACK ISSUE #65

BACK ISSUE #66

BACK ISSUE #67

BACK ISSUE #68

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, and “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software! Mature readers only.

“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

“Heroes Out of Time!” Batman: Gotham by Gaslight with MIGNOLA, WAID, and AUGUSTYN, Booster Gold with JURGENS, X-Men: Days of Future Past with CHRIS CLAREMONT, Bill & Ted with EVAN DORKIN, interview with P. CRAIG RUSSELL, “Pro2Pro” with Time Masters’ BOB WAYNE and LEWIS SHINER, Karate Kid, New Mutants: Asgardian Wars, and Kang. Mignola cover.

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships August 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Sept. 2013

Ambitious new series documenting each decade of comic book history!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1960-64 & The 1980s

JOHN WELLS covers comics in the 1960-64 JFK and Beatles era: DC’s new GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and multiple earths! LEE and KIRBY at Marvel on FF, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, and X-MEN! BATMAN’s “new look”, Charlton’s BLUE BEETLE, CREEPY #1 & more!

MODERN MASTERS: CLIFF CHIANG

Spotlights the career of CLIFF CHIANG (artist of DC’s New 52 breakout hit WONDER WOMAN series) through a career-spanning interview, and loads of both iconic and rarely seen artwork from Cliff’s personal files. There’s also an in-depth look into the artist’s work process, and an extensive gallery of commissioned pieces, many in full-color. By CHRIS ARRANT and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON.

1960-64: (224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-045-8 • Out now! 1980s: (288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-046-5 • Out now!

(192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $27.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-051-9 • (Digital Edition) $8.95 • Ships July 2013

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $15.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-050-2 Ships May 2013

THE STAR*REACH COMPANION

Complete history of the influential 1970s independent comic, featuring work by and interviews with DAVE STEVENS, FRANK BRUNNER, HOWARD CHAYKIN, STEVE LEIALOHA, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, KEN STEACY, JOHN WORKMAN, MIKE VOSBURG, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, DAVE SIM, MICHAEL GILBERT, and many others, plus full stories from STAR*REACH and its sister magazine IMAGINE. Cover by CHAYKIN! MATURE READERS ONLY.

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years: Rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER, FRANK MILLER as comic book superstar, DC’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MOORE and GAIMAN’s British invasion, ECLIPSE, PACIFIC, FIRST, COMICO, DARK HORSE and more!

DAN SPIEGLE: A LIFE IN COMIC ART

PLUGGED IN!

COMICS PROS IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

Documents his 60-year career on DELL and GOLD KEY’S licensed TV and Movie adaptions (LOST IN SPACE, KORAK, MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER, MIGHTY SAMPSON), at DC COMICS (BATMAN, UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMAHAWK, JONAH HEX, TEEN TITANS, BLACKHAWK), his CROSSFIRE series for ECLIPSE, DARK HORSE’S INDIANA JONES series and more, with rare artwork, personal photos, and private commission drawings. Written by JOHN COATES.

Offers invaluable tips for anyone entering the Video Game field, or with a fascination for both comics and gaming. KEITH VERONESE interviews artists and writers who work in video games full-time: JIMMY PALMIOTTI, CHRIS BACHALO, MIKE DEODATO, RICK REMENDER, TRENT KANIUGA, and others. Whether you’re a noob or experienced gamer or comics fan, be sure to get PLUGGED IN!

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $6.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-048-9 • Ships May 2013

(104-page trade paperback) $14.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-049-6 • Ships May 2013

(128-page trade paperback with COLOR) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-047-2 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

SUBSCRIBE! • Digital Editions: 3.95 each, or save with a digital subscription (digital editions are included FREE with a print subscription)! • Back Issue, Draw, Alter Ego & Comic Book Collector are now all full-color! • Lower international shipping rates! $

2013 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

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

Digital Only

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$68

$65

$72

$150

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$43

$54

$78

$11.80

ALTER EGO (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

COMIC BOOK CREATOR (4 issues w/Special)

$36

$45

$50

$65

$95

$15.80

BRICKJOURNAL (6 issues)

$57

$72

$75

$86

$128

$23.70

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THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOL. 2

This sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE presents more vintage features from the first super-hero fanzine, begun by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS. Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY reveal undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published from 1961-78, including features on Hawkman, the Spectre, Blackhawk, the JLA, All Winners Squad, the Heap, an unsold “Tor” newspaper strip by JOE KUBERT, and more!

HARVEY COMICS HOUSE PARTY!

No.19 June 2002

$6.95 In The US

Black Black Cat Cat ©2002 ©2002 Lorne-Harvey Lorne-Harvey Prod., Prod., Inc. Inc. All All others others ©2002 ©2002 Harvey Harvey Entertainment, Entertainment, Inc. Inc. Cover Cover art art by by and and ©2002 ©2002 Mitch Mitch O’Connell O’Connell

SIMON • JACOBSON • KREMER • COLÓN • POST • COUCHEY • EISNER