Comic Book Creator #17 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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100

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PAGES!

Cover art by Hilary Barta

S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 • Vo i c e o f t h e C o m i c s M e d i u m • N u m b e r 1 7

T ENTERTAINING WOODY CBC mascot by & © J.D. KING

Ye Ed’s Rant: The lessons of Wallace Wood.................................................................... 2 COMICS CHATTER In Memoriam: Saying Goodbye to “Fabulous Flo” Remembering a dear friend and sweet human being, Florence Rae Steinberg......... 3

Art by HILARY BARTA Colors by JASON MILLET

THE MAIN EVENTS

About Our Cover

Wallace Allan Wood: His World and the Price of Dreams. CBC is proud to re-present, all within this issue, David J. Hogan’s massive 20,000-word biographical essay on the life and artistry of the great Wallace Wood, from his early years with Fox and Avon through his EC heyday into the Marvel years and success at Tower Comics, his self-publishing years and mentoring an army of young artists, and, lastly, into his career descent and subsequent suicide. This comprehensive examination tells the story of arguably comics’ greatest artist........ 6 Hembeck’s Dateline. Our Fearless Fred looks at Woody’s superb Daredevil run........ 25 Daredevil: Red. J.D. Spurlock on Wood’s re-creation of the Man Without Fear.......... 26

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR is a proud joint production of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows

Exotic Wood. A gallery of little-seen artifacts by the great Wallace Wood................. 28 The Salvation of Ralph Reese. CBC’s career-spanning interview with one of the greatest artists of the ’70s, from his start as Wood assistant and onto his stellar work during that eclectic decade, plus his stints in advertising and at Valiant....... 34 Hilary Barta is Thinkin’ About Inkin’. Our esteemed cover artist chats about his extensive comics career, from early years as fan artist, mainstream inking stint, breakout as humor artist, success as Alan Moore collaborator, into today!............ 62 BACK MATTER Creators at the Con: This ish, photographer Kendall Whitehouse shoots ladies first.... 94 A Fabulous Kindness: Whitehouse shares his Marvel Age “Fabulous Flo” story ......... 95 Coming Attractions: Steve Rude and the Nexus of the Creative Mind in CBC #18........ 95 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Steve Ditko’s “Man of Steel” pin-up........... 96 Right: In this panel detail, the great Wallace Wood draws himself as narrator of his Tower of Shadows #5 [May 1970] story, “Flight into Fear,” a seven-pager the legendary comics artist also scripted.

Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are available as digital downloads from twomorrows.com!

Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $43 US, $66 International, $20 Digital. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2018 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Panel detail © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Artist HILARY BARTA pays homage to the late, great Wallace Wood in our cover portrait of the legend. Colors are by JASON MILLET, who based his approach on the fabled EC Comics color palette of the legendary Marie Severin. “She’s a brilliant artist,” Jason shared, “who just happened to be coloring in the 1950s and she did it brilliantly. Of course, in hindsight, it’s impossible not to realize that she was actually being under-utilized at EC, so thank God Stan Lee at Marvel let her do so much more than just color!” For more of the colorist/illustrator’s work, visit www.jasonmillet.com.

This issue is dedicated to the memories of JESSE CRUMB, MORT WALKER, and DON ARNESON ™

JON B. COOKE Editor & Designer

JOHN MORROW Publisher & Consulting Editor

MICHAEL AUSHENKER Associate Editor

HILARY BARTA Cover Artist

JASON MILLET Cover Colorist

GEORGE KHOURY RICHARD J. ARNDT TOM ZIUKO Contributing Editors

STEVEN THOMPSON STEVEN TICE BRIAN K. MORRIS Transcribers

J.D. KING CBC Cartoonist

TOM ZIUKO CBC Colorist Supreme

RONN SUTTON CBC Illustrator

ROB SMENTEK CBC Proofreader

GREG PRESTON KENDALL WHITEHOUSE CBC Convention Photographer

MICHAEL AUSHENKER FRED HEMBECK GEORGE KHOURY TOM ZIUKO CBC Columnists To contact CBC, please email jonbcooke@aol.com or snail-mail CBC, P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 2

The life lessons of Wallace Wood and other ruminations evoke Wood’s classic Weird Science It’s near impossible to argue that covers, rivets and all. Issues 9 and 19 the man named Wallace Wood both feature views through windows, — he hated to be called “Wally,” on a flying saucer and rocket ship, preferring “Woody” — is not respectively. ‘Iconic’ seem a tepid adone of the most accomplished jective for his SF work at EC. Whereas artists ever to grace mainstream the early WS covers by Feldstein had comics. His style, with an ink-line their roots in pulps from the 1930s, so sensuous and completely capWood’s images were state of the art. tivating, is downright intoxicating He redefined the look of SF in comics, and it ranks him among the true his saucers honed from the same greats in the field. shiny chrome as a ’50s Chevy.” And it is also difficult to find a Since the start of my comics-recartoonist who hasn’t ranked him lated magazine work in the late ’90s, as among the best, whether Jack I’ve used as mascot a character who Kirby, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, was depicted toiling at his art table or Art Spiegelman, as Woody is into the midnight hours, cigarette a transcendent talent. The man’s dangling from his mouth. The feller’s impact was tremendous: Wood creator, my longtime pal and superb was a top artist at EC (the greatcartoonist J.D. King, named the guy est mainstream comics company “Woody”, and he’s been with us of all time), self-publisher whose ever since, today with permanent witzend prozine paralleled the residence on the upper left corner of emergence of underground our contents page. Why “Woody”? comix (a radical community to Well, who else but Wallace Wood which he firmly belonged — for is the quintessential comic book proof, look no further than his creator, eh? 1967 subversive “Disneyland MeSpecial thanks to J. David morial Orgy” centerspread in The Spurlock, not just for his article on Realist!), and a direct influence Woody’s reinvention of Marvel’s and mentor to a legion of young Daredevil within, but also for his supartists from the 1960s until his port as director of the Wallace Wood death in 1981. Wallace Wood by Ronn Sutton estate. He reminds us that “Wally But the story of Wood is also Wood®” is a registered trademark of the estate. a cautionary tale about the harshness of the comic book business and detrimentally obsessive behavior of Very special kudos to our official CBC illustrator, too many of those who so love this art form. After all, Ronn Sutton, who went above and beyond for this the guy, a bona fide titan of the field, died a diseased, special Wood issue, as the Canadian cartoonist shared bitter, and utterly exhausted man, and by his own hand, a couple chapters of the Outré magazine serial and for at that. If there’s anything I have learned in my nearly digging deep into his mountain of Wood material to find 25 years as comics interviewer and historian, it’s that for us a wonderful cache of art rarities by his idol. this industry is brutal and merciless, one that chews As for what else is going on in my world, Twoup genuinely enthusiastic artists and spits them out as Morrows publisher John Morrow and I are working on drained, embittered shells of their former selves. Few a fun project that celebrates the 25th anniversary of his epitomize this as well as the life story of Wallace Wood. imprint in 2019, and yours truly is finally — after workFor this issue, we are proud to re-present a fine ing on it for nearly a dozen years! — finishing up my comprehensive essay on that life story by David J. ridiculously exhaustive history of R. Crumb’s comics anHogan, which originally appeared over the course of thology magazine, The Book of Weirdo, which sports an seven issues in Outré magazine between 1996–98, awesome cover by the great Drew Friedman and will be conveniently now all within one publication. Plus, published by (who else?) the legendary mag’s original longtime Wood assistant Ralph Reese, who credits his publisher, Last Gasp. After that, I’m co-authoring a book mentor with basically saving him from a life of ill-repute, on the life of a terrific artist and also continuing work on shares insight into the man and his artistry, all behind that oh-so secret project with my l’il bro, Andy. And be Hilary Barta’s tribute cover — about which the Chicago assured: More Comic Book Creator to come. Onward! comic book artist shared, “My drawing is meant to — Ye Crusading Editor jonbcooke@aol.com

cbc contributors

Richard J. Arndt Joe Barney Hilary Barta Linda Fite Drew Friedman

Janneal Gifford Michael T. Gilbert Heritage Auctions David J. Hogan Sam Maronie

Jason Millet Paul Power Ralph Reese John Schweiker Art Spiegelman

J. David Spurlock Michael Stein Flo Steinberg Ronn Sutton Steve Thompson

Tom Vincent Kendall Whitehouse Glenn Whitmore Rob Yeremian Tom Ziuko

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

CBC Contributing Photographer

Woody’s Teachings

in memoriam

Farewell to the Fab One

All about the graciously kind, giving, and very, very cool Florence Rae Steinberg

Big Apple Comix TM & © the estate of Flo Steinberg.

by JON B. COOKE CBC Editor I know I had to have heard of the delightful sobriquet associated with her years before I remember first encountering Florence Rae Steinberg. My oldest brother was a rabid Marvel Comics fan back in the mid-’60s (and he had innumerable folded subscription copies attesting to that!), and the Cooke siblings certainly heard tell of “Stan the Man,” “Jolly Jack,” and “Sturdy Steve” in our Westchester home. It’s quite possible, too, that Les Daniels and the Mad Peck made mention of the Boston-bred young woman in the Marvel Bullpen chapter of Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, a book the 12-year-old me devoured and quoted as gospel when it was published in 1971. My memory has it that the legendary “Fabulous Flo” first got my attention through Robin Green’s Rolling Stone article on Stan Lee’s House of Ideas, “Face Front! Clap Your Hands! You’re on the Winning Team!” That 10,800-word article from Sept. 1971 was, to say the least, an eye-popping read for my tender sensibilities as Flo, Stan’s renowned “Gal Friday” and public liaison of the outfit during those early years of the “Marvel Age of Comics,” is described as intentionally tripping overeager teenage devotees, dropping the F-word about the copious fan mail, being cheeky to the FBI, and even (gasp!) toking a little weed! Green depicted her friend thusly: “Flo laughs a high-pitched laugh that sounds like electronic music. And when she smiles her eyes close to crescent shapes. She smiles so hard that she can’t keep her eyes open at the same time.” The Fab One not only comes across as adorable and charming, but very, very cool, as well! (Doubtless, that cover feature article in one of the hottest youth publications of its day was the widest exposure Flo and every other Bullpenner therein would ever receive (besides Stan, of course), and she later confided to me, “I remember I was so embarrassed by that article! I couldn’t show it to my family.” She added, with a chuckle, “I said some naughty words! But it was fun.”) Fast forward over 25 years later to when I finally encountered Flo in real life and, yep, I learned for myself that the lady was most cool indeed. We first spoke for the issue of Comic Book Artist devoted to Warren’s horror comics — Flo was, in essence, “Captain Company,” in charge of Jim Warren’s merchandising branch — and I found her kind, warm, and generous (“wicked pissa,” as they say in her hometown). As far as I could see, everybody who

Michael Aushenker’s epic multi-part interview with RICH BUCKLER has been delayed. Look for part two in the next issue of CBC, along with the return of our letters page and Rich Arndt’s “Comics in the Library” column COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

knew her simply loved the woman, so I decided to put together a surprise birthday present for Flo, enlisting into the conspiracy her most beloved friends… in the course of putting together the celebration, she told me, “Marvel was my first job in the city, so that’s where I made my lifelong friends.”

Among those chums who participated in my “Fabulous Flo” issue of CBA were Linda Fite, Barry Windsor-Smith, Johnny Romita, Roy Thomas, Dennis O’Neil, Steve Skeates, and Stan himself. Marie Severin drew the cover and, during a dinner party recorded for the issue, participant Herb Trimpe cautiously pulled me aside to warn, “Be aware, Jon: Flo is no fan of surprises.” But she loved it (that’s what Flo told me, anyway!) and we remained pals ever since, up until her passing last July. For years, I’m tellin’ ya, the Fab One would tell me during our two- or three-times a year phone chats how appreciative she was for CBA #18. While we would talk on occasion about her part-time job as Marvel proofreader or touch upon my efforts in this field, we’d rarely discuss comics, mostly taking time to converse about mutual friends, my family, and her health. A “civilian” friendship, I call it, the same type of “real-world” relationship I believe I have with Linda and Barry, and had with Herb before he passed. I’ll miss those calls, and miss too her high-pitched voice and easy laugh. A class act, Flo was, full of grace.

Above: University of Massachusetts student Florence R. Steinberg, 1959. Inset center: Comic Book Artist #18’s flip cover by Marie Severin. Inset above: Flo’s Big Apple Comix, her New York City underground one-shot from 1975. Below: Flo and Ye Ed, MOCCA Fest, 2011.

Maybe it’s fitting that I eulogize the woman in an issue devoted to her secret paramour from back in the day, Wallace Wood. I believe I only recently learned of their relationship. Along with the fact she was the creative force behind the awesome Big Apple Comix (with Woody’s cover!), that was very, very cool to learn. 3

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! CBC #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2 FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, rememberJOE KUBERT double-size tribute issue! ing LES DANIELS, a talk between NEAL With comprehensive examinations of each ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artALEX ROSS cover, and more! ist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert (Digital Edition) $4.95 School. KUBERT INTERVIEWS, rare art, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, and interviews with JOE 4-issue subscriptions: anecdotes, KUBERT, ADAM & ANDY KUBERT, RUSS HEATH, and FRANK THORNE! $43 US

$66 International

(164-page FULL-COLOR mag) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $7.95

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #4 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #5

RUSS HEATH career-spanning interview, essay on Heath’s work by S.C. RINGGENBERG (and Heath art gallery), MORT TODD on working with STEVE DITKO, a profile of alt cartoonist DAN GOLDMAN, part two of our MARK WAID interview, DENYS COWAN on his DJANGO series, VIC BLOOM and THE SECRET ORIGIN OF ARCHIE ANDREWS, HEMBECK, new KEVIN NOWLAN cover!

DENIS KITCHEN close-up—from cartoonist, publisher, author, and art agent, to his friendships with HARVEY KURTZMAN, R. CRUMB, WILL EISNER, and many others! Plus we look at the triumphant final splash of the late, great BILL EVERETT, Prof. CAROL L. TILLEY discusses the shoddy research and falsified evidence in the book SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT, DENYS COWAN interview part two, and more!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #6 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #8 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #9 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #10 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #11

SWAMPMEN: MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS dredges up The Heap! Man-Thing! Swamp Thing! Marvin the Dead Thing! Bog Beast! The Lurker and It! and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou! Features interviews with WRIGHTSON, MOORE, PLOOG, WEIN, GERBER, BISSETTE, VEITCH, MAYERIK, MOONEY, TOTLEBEN, VEITCH, and others. FRANK CHO cover!

The creators of Madman and Flaming Carrot—MIKE ALLRED & BOB BURDEN— share a cover and provide comprehensive interviews and art galore, plus BILL SCHELLY is interviewed about his new HARVEY KURTZMAN biography; we present the conclusion of our BATTON LASH interview; STAN LEE on his final European comic convention tour; fan-favorite HEMBECK, and more!

JOE STATON on his comics career (from E-MAN, to co-creating The Huntress, and his current stint on the Dick Tracy comic strip), plus we showcase the lost treasure GODS OF MOUNT OLYMPUS drawn by Joe! Plus, Part One of our interview with the late STAN GOLDBERG, JOHN WORKMAN’s Mighty Aphrodite, GEORGE KHOURY talks with artist LEILA LEIZ, plus HEMBECK and more!

WARP examined! Massive PETER BAGGE retrospective! It’s a double focus on the Broadway sci-fi epic, with a comprehensive feature including art director NEAL ADAMS and director STUART (Reanimator) GORDON, plus cast and crew! Also a career-spanning conversation with the man of HATE! and NEAT STUFF on the real story behind Buddy Bradley! Plus the revival of MIRACLEMAN, Captain Marvel’s 75th birthday, and more!

Retrospective on GIL KANE, co-creator of the modern Green Lantern and Atom, and early progenitor of the graphic novel. Kane cover newly-inked by KLAUS JANSON, plus remembrances from friends, fans, and collaborators, and a Kane art gallery. Also, our tribute to the late HERB TRIMPE, interview with PAUL LEVITZ about his new book Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel, and more!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #12 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #13 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #14 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #15 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #16

JACK KIRBY’s mid-life work examined, from Fantastic Four and Thor at Marvel in the middle ’60s to the Fourth World at DC (including the real-life background drama that unfolded during that tumultuous era)! Plus a career-spanning interview with underground comix pioneer HOWARD CRUSE, the extraordinary cartoonist and graphic novelist of the award-winning Stuck Rubber Baby! Cover by STEVE RUDE!

MICHAEL W. KALUTA feature interview covering his early fans days THE SHADOW, STARSTRUCK, the STUDIO, and Vertigo cover work! Plus RAMONA FRADON talks about her 65+ years in the comic book business on AQUAMAN, METAMORPHO, SUPER-FRIENDS, and SPONGEBOB! Also JAY LYNCH reveals the WACKY PACK MEN who created the Topps trading cards that influenced an entire generation!

Comprehensive KELLEY JONES interview, from early years as Marvel inker to present-day greatness at DC depicting BATMAN, DEADMAN, and SWAMP THING (chockful of rarely-seen artwork)! Plus WILL MURRAY examines the nefarious legacy of Batman co-creator BOB KANE in an investigation into tragic ghosts and rapacious greed. We also look at RAINA TELGEMEIER and her magnificent army of devotees, and more!

Celebrating 30 years of artist’s artist MARK SCHULTZ, creator of the CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS franchise, with a feature-length, career-spanning interview conducted in Mark’s Pennsylvanian home, examining the early years of struggle, success with Kitchen Sink Press, and hitting it big with a Saturday morning cartoon series. Includes rarely-seen art and fascinating photos from Mark’s amazing and award-winning career.

A look at 75 years of Archie Comics’ characters and titles, from Archie and his pals ‘n gals to the mighty MLJ heroes of yesteryear and today’s “Dark Circle”! Also: Careerspanning interviews with The Fox’s DEAN HASPIEL and Kevin Keller’s cartoonist DAN PARENT, who both jam on our exclusive cover depicting a face-off between humor and heroes. Plus our usual features, including the hilarious FRED HEMBECK!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

The forerunner to COMIC BOOK CREATOR, CBA is the 2000-2004 Eisner Award winner for BEST COMICS-RELATED MAG! Edited by COMIC BOOK CREATOR’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.

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #1

ALSO BY JON B. COOKE:

WILL EISNER DOCUMENTARY WILL EISNER: PORTRAIT OF A SEQUENTIAL ARTIST is the definitive documentary on the life and art of the godfather of the American comic book. Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, this award-winning feature film includes interviews with KURT VONNEGUT, MICHAEL CHABON, JULES FEIFFER, ART SPIEGELMAN, FRANK MILLER, STAN LEE, GIL KANE as well as the never-before-heard “Shop Talk” audio tapes featuring JACK KIRBY, HARVEY KURTZMAN, MILTON CANIFF, NEAL ADAMS, JOE KUBERT and more! (96-minute DVD, all regions) $20 • (BLU-RAY) $26

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #2

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, and more!

(76-page Digital Edition) $4.95

(112-page Digital Edition) $4.95

TwoMorrows now offers Digital Editions of Jon B. Cooke’s COMIC BOOK ARTIST Vol. 2 (the “Top Shelf” issues)

CBA Vol. 2 #1

CBA Vol. 2 #2

CBA Vol. 2 #3

CBA Vol. 2 #4

CBA Vol. 2 #5

CBA Vol. 2 #6

NEAL ADAMS/ALEX ROSS cover and interviews with both, history of “Arcade, The Comics Revue” with underground legends CRUMB, SPIEGELMAN, and GRIFFITH, MICHAEL MOORCOCK on comic book adaptations of his work, CRAIG THOMPSON sketchbook, and more!

Exhaustive FRANK CHO interview and sketchbook gallery, ALEX ROSS sketchbook section of never-before-seen pencils, MIKE FRIEDRICH on the history of Star*Reach, plus animator J.J. SEDELMAIER on his Ambiguously Gay Duo and The X-Presidents cartoons for Saturday Night Live.

Interview with DARWYN COOKE and a gallery of rarely-seen and unpublished artwork, a chat with DC Comics art director MARK CHIARELLO, an exploration of The Adventures of Little Archie with creator BOB BOLLING and artist DEXTER TAYLOR, new JAY STEPHENS sketchbook section, and more!

ALEX NIÑO’s first ever full-length interview and huge gallery of his artwork, interview with BYRON PREISS on his career in publishing, plus the most comprehensive look ever at the great Filipino comic book artists (NESTOR REDONDO, ALFREDO ALCALA, and others), a STEVE RUDE sketchbook, and more!

HOWARD CHAYKIN interview and gallery of unpublished artwork, a look at the ’70s black-&-white mags published by Skywald, tribute to Psycho and Nightmare writer/editor ALAN HEWETSON, LEAH MOORE & JOHN REPPION on Wild Girl, a SONNY LIEW sketchbook section, and more!

Double-sized tribute to WILL EISNER! Over 200 comics luminaries celebrate his career and impact: SPIEGELMAN, FEIFFER & McCLOUD on their friendships with Eisner, testimonials by ALAN MOORE, NEIL GAIMAN, STAN LEE, RICHARD CORBEN, JOE KUBERT, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, JOE SIMON, and others!

(128-page Digital Edition) $6.95

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(252-page Digital Edition) $12.95

FINAL PRINT COPIES OF VOLUME 1! ALMOST SOLD OUT!

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

#12: CHARLTON COMICS

#14: TOWER COMICS & WALLY WOOD

#16: ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS

#19: HARVEY COMICS

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!

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!

‘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!

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!

(112-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(128-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(104-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

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[The following first appeared over a three-year period in a seven-part series featured in Outré magazine #7–13, published between 1996–98. It appears here complete in one issue courtesy of the author and with the kind assistance of Outré publisher, Michael Stein.]

david j. hogan

The boy drew. Incessantly, obsessively, he used pen, brush, and Zip-ATone to set down on paper his dark visions: skulls, dank caverns, firearms, grinning fiends. And he drew heroes, too — blond, square-jawed lugs who battled the darkness and defended the women that the boy drew as sultry and full-figured. Countless pages of undisciplined but wildly imaginative sketches and drawings occupied the boy’s time for ten years, from his tenth birthday until his twentieth. As an adult, he remarked, “I had a dream when I was about six that I fund a magic pencil. It could draw just like Alex Raymond.” Raymond wrote and drew the Flash Gordon newspaper strip, bringing to comics a level of draftsmanship and an elegance of style that was unprecedented. The boy had selected Raymond as his hero, and although he never equaled the illustrative quality of Raymond’s work, he eventually surpassed his idol in drama, vividness, and aggressive storytelling. The boy’s mother, a schoolteacher, would accept selected pages her son had given her and bind them on her sewing machine, creating homemade comic books. The boy was creating whole worlds, and an insistently moral universe where good and evil were startlingly etched and clearly defined. In later years, Wallace Allan Wood would claim that his early attempts at drawing were direction-less, implying that because he had done without training and proper guidance as a boy, he had been wasting his time. Yet, to look at the brilliant comic book work Wood did throughout his career is to recognize themes, motifs, and obsessions that germinated in those youthful drawings, and that fascinated Wood for his entire life. He became comics’ best-ever artist because he did not — could not — free himself from the boy he had been.

Wallace Wood portrait © Drew Friedman.

And then there was a world almost completely removed from reality, and defined by dank caves; imposing thrones carved from stone; scattered skulls and skeletons: tide pools thick with octopi and monsters; and sultry women with full breasts and lush mouths. There were cats, too: menacing black ones and oddly anthropomorphized kittens; one sketch page shows a “cat-tank” — a kitten fitted with a cannon and guided by an insect operator. Sometimes Wood’s cats had human skulls instead of cats’ heads. The sketchbook heroes were swaggering, unshaven men of adventure, gripping a bottle of liquor when not brandishing a gun or sword. They were soldiers, sailors, pirates, freebooters, travelers. Typewritten vertically in the margins of some pages are Wood’s ideas for names of his heroes: Justin Blade, Zip Laraby, Lance Parker, Pepper Barton, Sick Storm, Brett Crater. Some names are crossed out: Ted Moll, Red Journey, Barney Future (beneath which Wood typed “terrible”), Orbit Olsen. Other monikers have check marks next to them, as if, after a proper period of rumination, Wood approved of them: Clint Banner, Sick Voyage, Brett Banner. Many of the sketchbook heroes were assisted by tiny, pixie-like creatures armed with enormous guns or swords. Wood’s interest in minuscule creatures with formidable physical abilities would recur in his work again and again, and is vividly expressed in a sketchbook tale called, “The Dweller in the Cellar,” in which the evil sorcerer Zur projects his aggressive mentality into the body of a baby boy. Here, as in Wood’s mature work, size does not matter. If you have the courage, the determination, and the right weapon, you’re dangerous and you can slay giants. Whatever Wood’s true self-image at this time, in the make-believe world of his homemade comic books, he had as much self-confidence and braggadocio as any of his heroes. His sketchbook cover for Different Comics was by “W. Alan Wood, ‘The Kid Cartoonist,’ A DIFFERENT ARTIST!” The cover continued: “Dear Public, Here is a comic we believe is Truly Different! You’ll see what we mean — Editors.” Beneath this were the scrawled signatures of two apocryphal editors, one of whom is “Bob.” In his enthusiasm, Wood made the other signature undecipherable. Some of the sketchbooks contain carefully rendered stories. At the beginning of one, “Tales of Heads,” the alliterative youngster wrote, “Ghostly and ghastly in the garish glow of the dimming disc of a dying moon — sat the idol, serene and silent and pondered — futility[.] Somewhere, in a faroff, debris-strewn cave, dwell the heads — ancient, dried human heads — floating in their glass worlds…” The panels are dark and claustrophobic, effectively textured with carefully applied Ben-Day screens. The heads, bubbling in their bell jars, are pinched and foreboding. The artwork is crude, almost diagrammatic, but has mood and a potent sense of place. Even at a relatively early age, Wood was skilled enough to effectively delineate his private worlds so that they could be experienced by others.

Biographical Essay by

Wood was born in Menahga, Minnesota, on June 17, 1927. To earn money as he drew and dreamed, Wally took jobs as a theater usher, bus boy, pin boy, printer’s apprentice, assistant in a dental lab, truck laborer, and factory worker. At one point, he joined his father, a lumberjack, in the Minnesota timber. The jobs were not glamorous, so Wood’s drawing — as for many artists — became an escape from the drudgery of everyday life. As a teenager, he idolized Raymond, Walt Kelly, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, Basil Wolverton, Roy Crane, and Hal Foster. Each of these men had a unique style and vision. Although Wood took a bit from each, his artistic point of view was completely his own. Wood’s early sketchbooks and doodles are fascinating, not merely because they illustrate the development of a singular talent, but because of the drawings’ peculiarly dark psychology. Although sometimes crude and During World War II, while still a teenager, Wood enlisted in the always firmly rooted in the pulp magazine/dime novel tradition of inflated Merchant Marine and traveled to Guam, the Philippines, Eniwetok, South melodrama, the drawings have an edge that’s unexpected from one so America, and Italy. Near the end of the war, he joined the Army and became young. Much of the work is informed by the melodrama of World War II, a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne particularly as played out in the Division based in Japan. These Pacific. Wood’s sketchbooks are rife experiences fueled Wood’s appetite with animal-like Japanese; grubby for exotica and the love of the yet heroic G.l.s; fetid jungle swamps; mysterious that inform much of his blazing small arms (usually subprofessional work. machine guns and semi-automatic He continued to sketch during For more portraits, order Heroes of the Comics and More Heroes of the Comics [Fantagraphics]. pistols); edged weapons of all kinds.

Portrait of the Artist by

drew friedman

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this period of his life, by now expressing the jaundiced yet immature wit of a young serviceman. Penciled attempts at service strips clearly modeled on George Baker’s Sad Sack were called Private Life and “Wacky” and the Wac. In the former, a G.l. asks the pretty PX clerk, “Say, Miss, is that chocolate pure?” “It’s as pure as the gal of your dreams, soldier,” comes the reply. The dogface considers: “Hmm! Gimme some chewing gum!” To this the clerk can only respond, “!!” After his discharge from the Army in 1946, Wood returned to Minnesota, where he studied for one term at the Minneapolis School of Art. At last, he felt, he was getting the training he needed. Later the same year he moved to New York City to attend Burne Hogarth’s Cartoonists and Illustrators School. Hogarth, a skilled anatomist who drew the Tarzan newspaper strip, offered not just a solid grounding in the principles of drawing, but practical advice on how to apply those principles to the world of commercial art. Wood, like many of Hogarth’s students, was studying courtesy of the G.l. Bill, which brought $75 a month plus an additional $15 monthly for art supplies. Among the students in Wood’s classes were men who would, like Wally, make significant contributions to comic book art: John Severin, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, and AI Williamson (one of the youngest students, and one of the few who was not a veteran). Another student was Harry Harrison, a bright kid with a talent for writing as well as drawing. Wood hit it off well with Harrison and, by 1948, they had teamed up, but not before Wood, working solo, had made his first professional sale: a campaign comic strip for a New York State politician. Late in ’48, the Wood-Harrison team was assigned its first job, a story for comic book publisher Victor Fox.

Mr. Fox was well-named. A onetime Wall Street player and the ultimate capitalist, he ground out comic books like sausages, caring more about quantity than about quality. He was particularly adept at selling sex, in such titles as Rulah, Jungle Goddess;, Crimes by Women, and Phantom Lady. Like many comic book publishers of the period, Fox maintained no creative staff, but turned to comic book “shops” for his stories and art. “Sweatshops” might be a more apt word, for the scripters and artists who toiled as freelancers in these places were at the mercy of the publishers’ middlemen — self-proclaimed agents and “art directors” who took commissions for the work they brought to Victor Fox and others. The system was corrupt. Although Fox’s page rate was $23 (written, penciled, inked, ruled, and lettered), the art directors operated on a kickback scheme whereby they made it clear to the struggling artists that they expected $5 off the top for every page. For a ten-page story, then, the artists had to pony up $50 cash before they were paid for the job. Those who balked received no assignments.

William M. Gaines was not a businessman and did not fancy himself one. Portly and somewhat retiring, he had taken his college degree in chemistry. However, he was a gifted autodidact, and, through trial and error, and the encouragement of his mother, he taught himself the business. When Wood and Harrison visited the outfit — now renamed Entertaining Comics — in 1948, the formal launch of the company’s “New Trend” comics (which produced the legendary EC horror, science-fiction, crime, and war comics, plus a wholly fresh comic called MAD) was still two years in the future. However, Bill Gaines and his creative staffers, writer-artists AI Feldstein and Johnny Craig, were already creating and supervising work that was a notch above that of EC’s numberless competitors. Feldstein and Craig liked the Wood-Harrison samples, and assigned the team a romance story, “I Thought I Loved My Boss,” which was published in issue #10 [Nov. ’49] of A Moon, A Girl… Romance (formerly Moon Girl). Significantly, the assignment came directly from Feldstein and Craig. No middleman was involved and no kickback was demanded or expected. Further, no one insisted that the team conform to a “house style,” the sort of visual corporate identity that #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All covers © the respective copyright holder.

Cash-poor to begin with, the artists found the kickback scheme devastating — and unavoidable. Although there was a great glut of comic books in the late 1940s, there also was a glut of artists, and anyone who didn’t want to play ball didn’t work; there always was another hungry artist somewhere, desperate for work. The agents’ leverage was brutal — and unavoidable. To top it off, artists had to wait weeks and often months for the publishers’ payments, and even when the checks finally came through, they sometimes bounced. So frantic were Wood and Harrison at one juncture that they traveled to the Fox offices and physically threatened a vice-president in order to collect $600 that was due them. Wood,

slit-eyed and vaguely menacing even when at ease, put on a scowl and made a move as if reaching beneath his overcoat for a gun or a sap. The VP immediately produced a good check. Wood and Harrison established their own studio above a Spanish dance club in midtown Manhattan. The first Wood-Harrison job was “My One Misstep,” a ten-pager that appeared in issue #8 [Aug. 1949] of Fox’s My Confession (a continuation of the numbering of the queerly titled Western True Crime). “My One Misstep” and the plethora of Wood-Harrison romance stories that followed were trite little melodramas, overburdened with dialogue and contrived situations that had been created by others. The genre was challenging for artists because of its inherent lack of action and preponderance of static talking heads. Wood and Harrison routinely cut dialogue and captions — anything to pick up the stories’ pace and gain visual excitement. Romance comics were a chore, but they were paying jobs that allowed Wood and Harrison to develop their craft. In 1949 alone, the pair produced hundreds of pages for Fox. Additionally, Wood produced his first solo story that year, a tale that appeared in issue #7 [Sept. ’49] of Magazine Village’s True Crime Comics. He also assisted Terry and the Pirates strip-artist George Wunder during this period, working mainly on lettering when he developed the emphatic letter style that would become a Wood trademark. The comic book stories Wood produced with Harrison were teamwork in the best sense. Initially, Wood penciled and Harrison inked, but when Wood’s inking blossomed, the pair freely alternated roles. In time, Wood, because of his fine touch, inevitably inked the characters’ heads and hands. It was the beginning of the refinement of his gift for detail, a flair that would eventually bring him hundreds of thousands of fans. Sometime in 1948, Wood and Harrison visited EC Comics, a small, struggling publisher located at 225 Lafayette Street, in Manhattan. Originally called Educational Comics, EC had been founded by comic-book pioneer M.C. Gaines, who was instrumental in laying the groundwork for what became DC Comics. Gaines had modest success with his EC line of funny-animal, historical, and Biblical titles (some of which were published under the banner of Entertaining Comics), but his period of industry influence had passed — he had become a fringe player. His death in a boating accident, in ’47 (while saving a boy from drowning), passed control of the company to his wife, and to his son, William.

All covers © the respective copyright holder.

was the bane of comics published by Fox, Fiction House, DC, and others. Best of all, Bill Gaines paid Wood and Harrison fairly and promptly. More than 20 years later; Wood recalled, “I admired [Gaines] and respected him. He got the best people in the business to work for him because he treated them decently. It meant a lot when you handed in a job and he handed you a check. In fact, sometimes he handed you a check before you gave him the job, if you were short. Just having,the check there when you were done was a big incentive and a load off your mind.”

become a significant part of his life in 1950. That year Wally met a mild-mannered young artist named Joe Orlando, who was struggling to break into comics in between unhappy stints as a stockroom boy. Wood was impressed by Orlando’s flair for detail and his ability to pencil quickly. By this time, Wood had picked up an agent, a man named Epworth, and agreed with the agent’s suggestion that he and Orlando collaborate. The pair set up a studio near Lincoln Center. (Harrison and Sid Check, another young artist who developed a style similar to Wood’s, also worked at this studio). The Wood-Orlando team produced SF and fantasy stories for Avon, an aggressive paperback book publisher whose comics were distinguished by above-average art. The most notable of the Wood-Orlando work for Avon (which was typically signed “OW”) is a pair of 1950 oneEC’s policies must have been dazzling to the young shots, An Earthman on Venus and Flying Saucers; issues artists, but because the company was small, it could not maintain Wood and Harrison. Throughout 1948–50, the pair’s two and three of Eerie [’51]; and issues two and #4–6 of Strange Worlds [’51–52]. The pair’s art also appeared in collaborations on romance, science-fiction, crime, and adventure stories appeared in comics published by Fox, EC, #1–5 of Youthful Magazine’s Captain Science [’51–52]. In 1951, Wood collaborated with 20-year-old Al Williamson, Avon, Merit (Dark Mysteries #1–2, 1951), and Quality. They inking the younger artist’s Raymond-like pencils for “Space did stories for EC’s War Against Crime, Saddle Romances, and Modern Love, and were there in 1950, when Bill Gaines Ace,” a science-fiction adventure published in #4 of Magarolled out the daring New Trend line: Wood-Harrison’s “The zine Enterprises’ comic, Jet. These covers and stories display Wood’s evolving fasWerewolf Legend” appeared in the first issue of The Vault cination with alien landscapes, mechanical gadgetry, and of Horror, April ’50 (because the title continued the numgorgeous women. Orlando quickly adapted these preoccubering of War Against Crime, the issue number shown on the cover is #12); “Only Time Will Tell” was published in the pations as his own, and went on to have a successful solo career at EC and, later, DC Comics. (In 1996, Orlando retired debut issue [#13] of Weird Fantasy [May ’50]; and “Dream of Doom” ran in the first issue [#12] of Weird Science, dated following a successful tenure as DC’s VP-Creative Director.) The team also did quickie work for Fox (including the May–June ’50. cover for Martin Kane #4) during this period, and when the Although shy and moody, Wood had an antic sense of company expired in 1951, Wood and Orlando were stiffed humor that best manifested itself in his art. In Harrison, he found a willing accomplice. In the splash page of “Playtime some $3,000. Experiences of this sort increased Wood’s cynicism about the business, but his love for comics was so Cowgirl,” a story that appeared in EC’s Saddle Romances great he resolved to stick it out. Not yet a full-timer with EC, #11, in 1950, the pair endowed the hero’s horse with an he continued to labor for a variety of companies; as most enormous penis liberally festooned with crabs (the marine variety) and lobsters. Gaines thought it was a funny gag but work was controlled by the self-styled art directors, Wood and Orlando often did not know where their pages would nearly had a stroke after discovering the story had worked appear. The industry’s artists had not developed the sense its way through the production process and come back to the EC offices in proof form, the splash page still dominated of community that exists today, so individuals, besides being abused financially, felt helpless and isolated. by the equine member. Only a vaguely confused mention Competition for jobs was fierce, and Wood accepted from the colorist (along the lines of, “Say, is this right…?”) more than he and Orlando could reasonably handle. Reprevented the page from reaching print. gardless, they got on well personally; Wood later recalled Later, Wood and Harrison took a look at another EC of his partner, “[Joe was] very helpful, eager, friendly, romance script, decided they didn’t like it, and changed loyal and true. He would work through the day and night the title to “She Married a Man with No Balls at All” — sometimes.” this time being sure that the joke title was on a peel-off Wood was dead serious about the demands of the strip, with the real title underneath. In August 1950, Wood schedules. Orlando remembered, “The backlog was married a very good-looking, pony-tailed brunette named staggering because we were very paranoid about getting Tatjana, whom he had met while square dancing in Central enough work. We took everything we could get our hands Park. They set up housekeeping — and Wood’s studio — on. It got so heavy at times we would work in Army shifts, in Queens, where Wally often used his shapely wife as a sleeping two hours and then slapping each other with wet model. (The couple later took a nicer apartment, in Forest towels to wake up.” Hills, Long Island.) The marriage was the formal beginning Wood was particularly driven. He often would labor of a reasonably long relationship that alleviated Wood’s for two or three days in a row — chain-smoking, drinking loneliness and probably helped to precipitate his 1950 split gallons of coffee, eating very little. Particularly tight deadwith Harrison. There was nothing acrimonious about the break-up; Wood simply wished to be near his bride and the lines would be met with help from Benzedrine. Wood would sometimes fall asleep at the drawing board, his fingers still best way to do that was to shutter the Manhattan studio gripping the brush, then wake up after minutes had passed and work at home. and resume working where he’d left off. So great was Harrison continued in comics until the establishment Wood’s talent (and desperation) that he would sometimes of the Comics Code in 1955, by which time he’d realized he dispense with penciling altogether and draw in ink right on was a better writer than artist. (“Without Wally, I wasn’t the final board. so hot” he once admitted.) By the ’60s, he had become a best-selling science-fiction author, creator of the Stainless Steel Rat adventure series and author of the novel Make Room! Make Room!, which was later adapted for the screen as Soylent Green. By late 1951, EC’s New Trend comics showed every sign of becoming big successes. Weird Science and Weird Fantasy sold in acceptable numbers, but readers were particularly enthusiastic about EC’s horror titles, Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. The Wood’s new bride, Tatjana, wasn’t the only person to

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feeling constricted by the predetermined panel arrangements, Wood seemed to have been liberated by them. Although restricted to smallish, regularly-shaped panels Wood utilized them as frames within which he created thousands of tiny, alternate worlds. He gave his imagination free reign, filling each panel with incredible detail: machinery, furniture, statues, and other knickknacks, trees and foliage, animals, signs, architectural doodads, debris, and numberless other elements.

Wood’s inking, at once bold and refined, was so skilled that few were aware of the amount “lost” on EC’s gaudily colored newsprint until 1978, when Missouri archivist Russ Cochran began his project of reprinting the entire EC output (from original artwork that had been retained by Bill Gaines) in oversized hardcover books. Cochran printed the stories in glorious black-&-white on high-quality paper stock. In this form, readers can fully appreciate Wood’s brushwork; his masterly manipulation of light and shadow; his clever use of Ben-Day, crosshatching, and other textural devices. The care Wood brought to his EC work is astonishing, particularly since he was one of the company’s most prolific contributors. Wood’s shortcoming during this period was his draftsmanship, which was still developing. Against the standards set by Albert Dorne, Jon Whitcomb, and other magazine illustrators of the day, Wood was amateurish. Even in the less-demanding milieu of comics, his drawing ability was nowhere near that of his idol, Alex Raymond, or EC’s Reed Crandall. Wood’s figures are “short” — that is, the heads are usually a bit too big for the bodies. The figures are occasionally stiff, and, although Wood was without peer in his delineation of luscious women, he sometimes fell back on stock pin-up poses. And hands, a challenge for even the most accomplished artist, were often “suggested” by Wood rather than carefully rendered. None of this diminishes the effectiveness of Wood’s work, for stunning draftsmanship never has been a prerequisite for successful comic book art. Some of the finest draftsmen to have worked in the field, such as Lou Fine and Gray Morrow, never approached the visceral impact that informs Wood’s output. (The aforementioned Crandall, who combined brilliant technical skill with a keen sense of melodramatic urgency, is one exception.) The truth is that the most commercially and aesthetically successful artists in comic book history have been those who, by traditional standards, drew crudely: Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Charles Biro, Matt Baker. Although Wood’s EC work was not crude in any sense, neither was it accomplished in the way that commercial illustrators would have acknowledged. But just as a “primitive” film director like Sam Fuller can be as great in his own way as the genteel George Cukor, so too was Wood a giant among his more superficially accomplished peers. Many thousands of words could be expended in a storyby-story analysis of Wood’s EC work. Every one is worthy of discussion and nearly all are brilliant. Space (and the readers’ patience) mitigate against that sort of treatment here, but among Wood’s EC output, nonetheless, a few efforts are especially vivid and deserve special mention. “Under Cover,” published in Shock SuspenStories #6 [Jan. ’53), is one of the best of Wood’s crime tales. It is a dark tale of violence and bigotry set in a small southern town where the Klan holds sway. After a reporter witnesses the flogging death of an innocent young woman at the hands of the group’s robed “Grand Master,” he is beaten by the Master’s acolytes. In his hospital room later, the reporter tells his story to a doctor and gathered FBI agents, assuring them that he got a good look at the killer’s face when the Grand Master removed his hood. “That’s all we #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All covers © the respective copyright holder.

other 1951 titles were Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, Frontline Combat, and Two-Fisted Tales. Most EC stories other than war (the province of writer/ editor/artist Harvey Kurtzman) were now written by AI Feldstein, who also continued to draw. Johnny Craig was drawing, too, and helped to supervise a stable consisting of many of the finest artists in the business. Some, like Graham Ingels, had been in comics for years; others, like Jack Davis, were newcomers. In time, the artist roster would expand to include John Severin, Will Elder, Reed Crandall, George Evans, AI Williamson, Bernie Krigstein, and Jack Kamen. These men became EC “regulars,” but even those who contributed only occasional stories were top talents: Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, Gene Colan, Russ Heath, Alex Toth, Sid Check, Angelo Torres, Basil Wolverton, and Roy Krenkel. Wood, having already established his credentials with EC in the “pre-Trend” days, began to work for the company virtually full-time in 1951. (Orlando, hailed by Bill Gaines as “another Wood,” soon followed.) For the next five years, Wood produced nearly 1,000 pages of brilliant art in a variety of genres: crime, suspense, horror, war, science-fiction; and humor in MAD, a satiric comic book introduced by EC in ’52. Near the end of his life, Wood revealed contradictory feelings about his experience with EC. On the one hand, he appreciated Bill Gaines’s honesty and generosity (page rates were good and Gaines was a habitual giver of glitzy Christmas gifts; one year, Wally and Tatjana received an expensive movie camera). But when Wood looked back on his EC work with the perspective of an artist who had cleaned up and streamlined his style over the years, he was put off by what he called the “cluttered” quality of his art. He had a point, and yet much of his reputation rests on his EC output. Cluttered or not, it is brilliant. Wood had his best-ever collaborator in EC’s editor-in-chief and primary writer, AI Feldstein. A comic-book veteran who had his first success as an illustrator of teen comics for Fox, Feldstein had a decidedly ’40s art style marked by thick, careful ink work; jut-jawed male characters; busty women; and a visual point of view that was almost inevitably eye-level. Although not a skilled draftsman (his figures were stiff and hands gave him particular problems), Feldstein was able to turn his blunt style into an asset, creating a body of work that, if not pretty, was almost always compelling. At EC, he illustrated stories in a variety of genres, and did especially good work on covers for Weird Science. Paradoxically, Feldstein ultimately became more interested in words than in pictures, and cut back on his drawing in order to script the lion’s share of EC’s SF, crime, horror, and suspense stones. (As noted, war and humor fell under the aegis of Harvey Kurtzman.) Although comic books are an essentially visual medium, Feldstein was determined to turn the medium into a literary one. His stories are marked by intelligence and twist endings (the latter mapped out in sessions with Bill Gaines), and by unusually long, detailed captions. His stories are more akin to illustrated short fiction than to traditional comic book stories. The emphasis on scripting was reflected in the way in which Feldstein’s stories were presented to Wood and the other EC artists: not in script form on typewritten pages, but on pre-lettered boards with panels already placed and ruled. The “short story” feel was amplified by Feldstein’s use of “Leroy” lettering, a neat, very precise mechanical font that gave the pages an unavoidable formality. The artists read the stories exactly as they would appear in print; the boards needed only the art to fill the empty panel boxes. Most of the EC artists, including Wood, accepted Feldstein’s approach amicably. (Bernie Krigstein, of avant-garde temperament, is the notable exception; his defiant alteration and rearrangement of the pre-placed captions and panel borders gave Gaines and Feldstein fits — as well as many pages of cerebral, innovative art.) Wood excelled in every one of the genres in which Feldstein wrote. Rather than

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wanted to know,” exclaims one of the FBI agents. The men in the group — imposters, all — pull guns and riddle the helpless reporter with bullets. “Under Cover” illustrates the amusingly improbable lengths to which AI Feldstein would go to achieve a surprise ending — why don’t the Klansmen simply kill the reporter at the outset instead of staging an elaborate hoax? Well, because then we wouldn’t have had a story and no opportunity for Wood to create a small masterpiece of mood: the moonlit forest clearing in which the murder takes place; the gorgeous, full-figured victim, kneeling before her tormentor, her peignoir clinging to her breasts and hips (this is the scene on Wood’s eye-popping cover illustration, which was marvelously colored by Marie Severin); the pregnant menace of twisted trees and thick foliage; the corrupt, fleshy face of the Grand Master. If Sam Fuller (director of The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, and other blunt melodramas) read comics, he would have loved this one.

The best-loved of Wood’s EC output are his science-fiction stories. His work with Harry Harrison and the solo stories he did soon after look spare contrasted to the richly detailed stories he produced after 1951. If Wood’s attention to detail was vigorous in his suspense stories, it became positively manic in his SF tales, where every clasp and button was carefully delineated on every spacesuit; where every bubble helmet gleamed beneath the cold light of outer space; where every machine was fitted with a splendid array of buttons, levers, toggles, hoses, and air intakes; where every rocketship was a marvel of ductwork, rivets, and curved bulkheads; where every landscape was dotted with amazing flora and fauna; where every woman was so lushly beautiful as to make Marilyn Monroe seem plain; and where every extraterrestrial was adorned with bulging eyes, alarmingly dexterous tentacles, and hideous mouth-orifices. These elements came together beautifully in “A Gobi is a Knog’s Best Friend,” which appeared in Weird Science #12 [Apr. ’52]. In it, spacemen from Earth encounter a strange planet inhabited by civilized humanoids and awful-looking monsters. The visitors assume that the humanoids are the dominant species but, in another Feldstein twist, the opposite is true; in fact, the humanoids are the monsters’ pets! A woman is a key character in “There’ll Be Some Changes Made!” [Weird Science #14, Aug. ’52], a cleverly constructed story revolving around Commander Arnold Morrison, an Earthman who travels to another planet and falls in love with a dishy blonde named Luwana. “Do you have a husband, a mate?” the traveler inquires.”Oh, no,” Luwana answers excitedly. “I am not mated yet!” Near the conclusion of the adventure, Arnold discovers that Luwana and her people are less humanoid than they appear, and that, in fact, they are a snail-like, hermaphroditic race whose members eventually change from one sex to the other. At story’s end, the spaceman’s beloved Luwana has become (egad!) a man: “I stare at the heavy stubble growing out of his cheeks, the broadened shoulders, the flat chest. Luwana looks at me with sleepy eyes! Even those long eyelashes have shed! His glance drops, then he shrugs. ‘Arnold, baby! I wish you’d hurry up and change, so that things can be normal again!’” The amazing thing about Wood’s contribution to this madness is that he managed to make the male Luwana so darned good-looking that you get the sense that if Commander Morrison were able to become a woman, he would! When Gaines and Feldstein swiped “Kaleidoscope” and “Rocket Man,” a pair of short stories written by Ray Bradbury, and combined them to create a single comic book COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

story, “Home to Stay” (illustrated by Wood, in Weird Fantasy #13 [June ’52]), Bradbury merely noted in a polite letter to EC that his royalty payment had been overlooked. This bit of largesse led to a series of authorized EC adaptations of Bradbury stories that began later in 1952 and that appeared not only in the SF books, but in the horror and suspense titles, as well. Bradbury sold story rights to Bill Gaines for a paltry $25 apiece because he loved comics and because, the plagiarism aside, he liked the way Feldstein and Wood had handled “Home to Stay.” Authorized adaptations illustrated by Wood include “There Will Come Soft Rains” [Weird Fantasy #17, Feb. ’53], which is set entirely in and around a deserted, automated Home, and has only one living character, a dog; and a starkly frightening version of “Mars is Heaven” [Weird Science #18, Apr. ’53]. Wood’s energy never flagged during EC’s New Trend period. Indeed, he only got better as time went on. His mania for detail reached an apex in the splash panel of “EC Confidential” [Weird Science #21, Oct. ’53], in which a New Year’s Eve crowd of thousands gathered in Times Square is annihilated by an Air Force bomber that crashes into its midst. The enormous plane is frozen an instant before impact, one awkwardly dipped wing already cutting into the crowd, the panicked revelers rushing forward to an imagined point of safety. Wood drew dozens of figures — men, women, soldiers, cops — in careful detail and drew scores more with only slightly less care. The panel’s background is a riot of illuminated buildings, signs, and theater marquees (one theater is showing an apocryphal film, Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles). You can look at this splash panel a hundred times, and its remarkable impact remains undiminished. The most famous of all SF stories Wood illustrated for EC is “My World,” an autobiographical reflection conceived and scripted by Feldstein for Wood and greatly augmented by the artist. Because “My World” appeared in the final issue of Weird Science [#22, Dec. ’53], the story assumes a special poignancy. (Weird Science and Weird Fantasy were killed because of lackluster sales, but EC SF would continue in Weird Science-Fantasy and, later, Incredible Science Fiction.) Feldstein’s original conception of “My World” was to utilize the autobiographical details in the context of a standard, plotted narrative. But Wood saw “My World” as something more unusual. As published, it’s not a story at all but a poetic, illustrated catalogue of all the SF elements Wood loved: dinosaurs and rocketships; stalwart spacemen and protoplasmic extraterrestrials; beautiful maidens and happy children. There are images of war, hand-to-hand combat, and cataclysmic destruction; and illustrations of peace and the excitement of science and learning. The final panel is Wood’s illustration of himself at his drawing board, brush poised over a page of “My World,” a cigarette held firmly between his lips. Smiling slightly, he gazes directly at the reader. “For my world is the world of science fiction,” he explains, “conceived in my mind and placed upon paper with pencil and ink and brush and sweat and a great deal of love for my world. For I am a science-fiction artist. My name is Wood.” His name is not in the Leroy lettering used in the rest of the story, but is hand-lettered in the lower-case, Old English script that was Wood’s signature during his time at EC. It’s a wonderfully personal touch in a story that encapsulates a highly significant aspect of Wood’s talents. Feldstein’s script is very good (and clearly inspired by the lyrical style of Ray Bradbury), but “My World” belongs almost completely to Wood. It is a high-water mark of his EC output. In addition to his fine illustration of Feldstein’s SF scripts, Wood did numerous covers for Weird Science. Like his interior work, the covers are richly detailed — perhaps too detailed, for they go against the dictum that the ideal comic book cover should be simple and direct. Regardless, many of these covers are memorable; the one for Weird 11

Science #20 [Aug. ’53], for example, depicts a scene from Feldstein’s “50 Girls 50,” in which a man is shot into space with fifty gorgeous women who have been placed in suspended animation. Although interior artists AI Williamson and Frank Frazetta drew the lucky spaceman to resemble actor Buster Crabbe, Wood brought a clever fillip to the cover by depicting the man as middle-aged and balding. The women, sleeping in stacked glass pods that surround our unprepossessing hero, are attired in a variety of shortie skirts, leotards, and bodysuits. One dozing doll wears fishnet stockings! It’s pure Wood. Wood had a special flair for SF covers depicting aliens in menacing and/or violent confrontation with Earthlings. In the best tradition of Hollywood’s The War of the Worlds and Independence Day, these covers are vivid assertions that the respective agendas of humans and extraterrestrials will do nothing but collide. The cover of Weird Science #9 [Oct. ’51] takes us inside the cockpit of an alien spacecraft that is being strafed and bombed by USAF fighter jets. The craft’s tentacled, cyclopean occupants react in horror as their ship is shot to hell around them. Cover art for Weird Science #16 [Dec. ’52] depicts three little boys who watch in apprehension as enormous flying saucers hover above an isolated wooded area at night, disgorging hideous, helmeted visitors. And the cover of Weird Science #18 [Apr. ’53] is another depiction of all-out war, only this time Earth is on the short end, as a mushroom cloud billows above the planet’s surface while an armada of bubble-topped enemy saucers sweeps around both sides of the strike. The lead saucer fills the cover’s bottom half, its helmeted crew clearly visible and plunging directly into our laps. This is spectacle in the truest sense, and short of the computer-composited special effects that distinguish Hollywood blockbusters of today, you’ll be hard-pressed to find greater SF thrills anywhere.

A native of Brooklyn, Kurtzman dabbled in comic books as early as 1939, when he went to work as an assistant to Classic Comics and “Flash” artist Lou Ferstadt. Following service in World War II, Kurtzman set up an art shop with Will Elder and Charlie Stern. Early in 1946, he picked up freelance work from editor Stan Lee at Timely (later known as Marvel). Although Lee felt Kurtzman’s loose style was inappropriate for the super-hero comics that dominated the Timely lineup, he did need one-page fillers, which Kurtzman wrote and drew and called “Hey Look.” The early “Hey Look” installments were cute and often imaginative, but not radically different from gag cartoons done by other artists. The initial installments featured two unnamed pals, one short and acerbic, the other tall and dunderheaded — the sort of team-up with roots in comic strips, vaudeville, two-reel movie comedies, even Steinbeck. Kurtzman’s art was rubbery but uncompelling. As time went on, the artist developed his style until it was dynamic, strongly designed, and faintly abstract, with heavy ink lines and dramatic black backgrounds. Kurtzman’s writing evolved, too. The unnamed protagonists continued, but they eventually became hapless, well-meaning victims rather than the stereotypical “smart one/dumb one.” Neither character was inevitably sharp or dense. Surrealism, instead of straight gags, was often the norm. More significantly, Kurtzman developed a flair for chatty, non sequitur dialogue, and an interest in the nature of the comics medium itself. In one memorable installment, the tall fellow, wearing a natty chef’s uniform, tells his pal,”I can flip an egg any way! Behind my back [which he does]. Now watch this! [he catches the falling egg by sticking the pan and his entire upper body between his legs]. Now I’ll quickly cut up a potatoe! [sic] Now watch this [he prances away from his kitchen window, leaving his partner a tiny figure in the background of the panel]! I get back to the window in time to catch the eggs! [which “flop” into the outstretched pan]. The egg stays still [that is, suspended in mid-air, as our hero executes a double back-flip]… and I flip over [and the egg falls neatly into the pan]. NOW! Watch!” The final panel is pure white where the others have been bold and dark; the lower-left edge is curled up, and although we can’t see who’s speaking, we can discern from context that it is the chef’s small friend: “Hey! You flipped the panel over!” This sort of exploration of comics’ physical and metaphysical boundaries isn’t radical today, but, in late 1948 or early 1949 (the approximate date of the strip cited above), it wasn’t just fresh, but daring… and, of course, terribly funny. “Hey Look” ended early in ’49, mainly because Timely was cutting back on humor titles, as the comic book industry shifted from humor and super-heroes to crime and suspense — genres in which “Hey Look” would not comfortably fit. Stan Lee assigned Kurtzman script chores on an imitation Blondie comic book called Rusty, rigidly clichéd work that Kurtzman found unrewarding and even debasing, particularly since he had enjoyed almost complete artistic freedom with “Hey Look.” Lee also commissioned another, less experimental filler strip called “Egghead Doodle,” and Toby Press editor Elliott Caplin bought humorous fillers called “Genius” and “Pot-Shot Pete,” both of which, though in familiar genres (kids and cowboys, respectively), allowed Kurtzman more creative freedom than “Egghead Doodle.” Fill-ins and one-pagers would have been insufficient to support Kurtzman alone, and were completely inadequate given his circumstances in ’49, the year he married. He also was #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All covers © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.

All the EC Comics artists admired and appreciated Wally Wood’s art. In the early ’80s, Bill Gaines recalled, “Wally would come in with a story and three artists would crowd around him and faint, just poring over every brushstroke and every panel, and, of course, Wally, who’s getting this adulation, sits there and loves it.” Because his talent was so vivid, Wood apparently was given more leeway to alter EC editor Al Feldstein’s breakdowns and make story suggestions than some of the other EC artists. This is suggested by a gag illustration Feldstein whipped up for an office Christmas party around 1952. The drawing depicts Feldstein and Gaines on their knees in a supplicant’s pose, hands clasped before them, pre-ruled and lettered story pages scattered on the floor. They’re pleading with Wood, who stands over them. “Please, Woody!” the bosses sob. “Ya gotta like the story!” Wood, arms behind his back and the picture of disdain, sighs, “It… ah… doesn’t… ah… sigh… inspire me!” To which Feldstein can only respond, “Gulp!” Feldstein would not have bothered to poke fun at Wood’s peccadilloes if he had not been aware that Wally worked like a dog. Occasional EC artist Roy Krenkel remembered, “You’d come to Wally’s door and you realize Wally had been up all night [working]. You left him about 2:00 in the morning and you’d come back about 12:00. You ring the bell repeatedly. The door finally, slowly opens and Wally stands there with an absolutely glazed look in his eyes — totally incapable of focusing. A long, pregnant silence lasting for about a minute and a half would go by and then without any change of expression would be ‘eh’ — just a little coughing grunt. He’d be walking like a mummy and he’d slowly amble in to guzzle some fruit juice and go back to the drawing board. Typical Wood! The guy was totally obsessed with work.” Besides horror, suspense, and science-fiction, Wood

did fine work for EC on war comics and MAD, which were firmly supervised by the third key player at EC other than Gaines and Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman. Because of his considerable influence on Wood’s career, he warrants more than a passing mention here.

All covers © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.

on his own, as the art shop he maintained with Elder and Stern had folded about ’48. So it was a kind of desperation that prompted the writer-artist to visit EC Comics during the winter of ’49. Gaines and Feldstein greatly enjoyed his “Hey Look” portfolio, and although they did not offer him work that day, they contacted him not long after, with news that Columbia University was looking for someone to illustrate a government-handout comic book called Lucky Fights It Through, a “message” comic about syphilis couched in a traditional story of a cowpoke, a cattle rustler, and love. Kurtzman worked hard to execute the Lucky story in a realistic style that was far removed from the surrealistically stretched figure work that distinguishes “Hey Look” and most of the rest of his previous comic book work. A good draftsman with a potent sense of design, Kurtzman produced a story without a single dull panel. In 1950, Gaines hired Kurtzman and allowed him to conceive and edit a new title called Two-Fisted Tales, an anthology book featuring tales revolving around pirates, explorers, gunslingers, and soldiers. Following the start of the Korean War later in that year, the story mix of Two-Fisted shifted more to Korean and World War II combat. Throughout the title’s four-year, 24-issue run, though, it remained reasonably diverse, with occasional stories about Roman legions, the American Civil War, the Crusades, Hannibal, and other ambitiously historical subjects. A companion magazine also edited by Kurtzman, Frontline Combat, was introduced in mid-’51. (Late in ’53, when the Korean War had ended, sales of Frontline Combat fell off. Kurtzman’s deadlines had become untenable anyway, so the book was canceled and editorship of Two-Fisted Tales was handed to artist John Severin, who, with Colin Dawkins, transformed it into an adventure title with a strongly anti-Communist point of view.) As its title suggests, Frontline Combat was oriented toward war stories. Even here, though, Kurtzman took care to maintain an editorial mix that moved freely between historical periods and conflicts: the Civil War, the World Wars, the Spanish-American War, Korea, the campaigns of Caesar, the War of 1812, the Indian wars. For Wood, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat allowed him to move in bold, documentary-like directions, and to apply his gifts for drama and detail to artwork that was carefully researched and historically accurate. The quality of Wood’s work, high at the outset of Two-Fisted, improved almost exponentially, partly because of the robust competition offered by the other combat-book regulars — Jack Davis, John Severin and Will Elder, George Evans — plus talented “drop-in” artists like Alex Toth and Joe Kubert. Wood wasn’t going to allow himself to be outdone by any of these talented men, and he wasn’t. As described, AI Feldstein’s storytelling approach forced Wood to adopt to a particular set of challenges. With Kurtzman, the artist faced others. Not only was Harvey a stickler for historical accuracy (he and his assistant, Jerry DeFuccio, spent hours among the stacks at the New York Public Library), he expected his artists to be sticklers, too. And Kurtzman, although spare where Feldstein was verbose, insisted upon behind-the-scenes control of the art in his EC titles. He not only wrote the preponderance of the war-book stories, but provided the artists with rough layouts they were expected to follow. (Also, Kurtzman eschewed the Leroy lettering favored by Feldstein, instead turning to one of comics’ best letterers, Ben Oda. Wood, however, handled the sound-effects lettering on stories he drew.) As with Feldstein’s own style of editorial control, Kurtzman’s was one that Wood could live with, grudgingly. Although he often strayed from Kurtzman’s tissue roughs, there was no denying that the concise captions (and often there were no captions at all) opened up more of the panel than was available in the horror and SF books. And Kurtzman’s roughs had an urgency simpatico with Wood’s own sense of drama. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Wood did many powerful combat stories for Kurtzman and EC. As with his SF work, one is struck by the level of detail: the panels aren’t simply crammed top to bottom and from side to side, but from front to back; the sheer depth of Wood’s art is remarkable. Additionally, as slick as Wood was with SF art, he brought a dusty, gritty sensibility to his combat stories. This is vividly apparent in “Desert Fox,” a story about Afrika Korps General Erwin Rommel that appeared in Frontline Combat #3 [Dec. ’51]. For nearly the first two pages of the seven-page story, we’re given a standard account of Rommel’s accomplishments and bravado, but the final panel of page two is a shock-cut to a young, anti-Nazi student being shot in the back of the head for (as the caption explains) resistance activity. Rommel’s tale resumes at the top of the following page, only to be interrupted once again, this time by a jarring image of sixty Soviet men, women, and children blown up by German grenades after being forced into a pit. What Kurtzman was doing, of course, was to simultaneously celebrate and debunk the Rommel myth: dramatizing the general’s undeniable tactical genius and courage, but placing those qualities into the larger context of the Nazi regime and its numberless crimes. The final panel of page five and all of page seven are given over to the toughest, most uncompromising artwork Wood ever did: a jumble of dead, horribly emaciated concentration-camp inmates; a bound man who has been drowned in a puddle; the contorted body of a man who has been shot and then buried alive; the torn figures of a woman and her child, blown up in a church; the charred corpse of an old man who has been burned alive; a man who died in agony, his eyes burned from his head; an American G.l., slaughtered after being captured at Malmedy. Such effects today seem gratuitous in comics, especially when attempted by artists still in their twenties, the age of Wood and Kurtzman when “Desert Fox” was created. But both men were service veterans with a keen understanding of the dynamics of World War II, and a first-hand appreciation of America’s G.l. Bill, and the unprecedented kindness and equanimity America extended to her vanquished enemies. To all of this, the horrors of Nazism contrasted sharply. And Kurtzman, a Jew, was understandably eager to strip the barbaric splendor from Nazi Germany, and some of the gloss from the Rommel legend. Kurtzman’s “Desert Fox” script is unsubtle and didactic, with blunt, lecture-like prose: ”If we wanted to show each and every corpse that the Nazi regime was responsible for, it would take four million more pages, and you couldn’t read them in a lifetime!” But Kurtzman’s overbearing approach to this subject was perfect for comics, and his good intentions, coupled with Wood’s chillingly unflinching art, make for a powerfully unsettling seven pages. Other combat stories by Wood, such as “H-5” (the tale of a USAF rescue helicopter in Korea) in Frontline Combat #12 [June ’53], displayed the artist’s continuing interest in sharp delineation of firearms, engines, uniforms, and other nuts-&-bolts aspects of the military. In “Atom Bomb!” [Two-Fisted Tales #33, June ’53], Wood sympathetically depicted the civilian victims of the A-bomb blast over Nagasaki, and in “Trial by Arms” [Two-Fisted Tales #34, Aug. ’53; with story by Wood and script by Jerry DeFuccio] he evoked Norman England with relatively simple brushwork and smart Ben-Day that presaged the streamlined style he would develop in the ’60s. The story’s central sequence, encompassing three full pages, is an almost wordless hand-to-hand duel between two knights. It’s a tour de force of kinetic movement, as the antagonists have at each other with lance, sword, battle-ax, and morning star, their bodies alternately crouching, lunging, and falling. (Another comic book artist, a talented fellow named Howard Nostrand, lifted much of the figure work for a knights’ tale of his own, 13

“lvan’s-Woe,” which was published in Harvey Comics’ Witches Tales #23 [Feb. ’54].)

Wood also illustrated spoofs of newspaper strips, notably “Teddy and the Pirates” [MAD #6, Sept. ’53], “Flesh Garden” [#11, May ’54], and “Prince Violent” [#13, July ’54]. These stories allowed Wood to simultaneously send up and honor three of his idols, Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates), Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon), and Hal Foster (Prince Valiant). Wood’s talent for caricature was reasonably well developed at this time, so he also drew a few movie spoofs: “Stalag 18” [#18, Dec. ’54], “The Cane Mutiny” [#19, Jan. ’55], and “Under the Waterfront” [#21, Mar. ’55]; in the last, Wood revealed what would be a continuing fascination with the face of Marlon Brando. Perhaps the strangest work Wood did for the early MAD was “3-Dimensions,” which appeared in #12 [June ’54]. Three-D comics were faddishly popular at this time; other publishers brought jungle thrills, Mighty Mouse, and even the Three Stooges to readers in three dimensions, and EC published a pair of titles early in 1954, Three Dimensional EC Classics and Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt of Terror. MAD ’s “3-Dimensions” is a peculiar rumination on the effect of 3-D on the physical format of comic books, and upon what passes for comic book “reality.” Throughout the story, Wood allowed his characters to freely (and illogically) move from one part of the page to others via panel borders that are stretched, ripped, and otherwise distorted. Wood’s use of Ben-Day cleverly mimicked the depth effects of 3-D publishing. Kurtzman’s script is typically droll: “Wrap the panel around your face to get the effect,” one character helpfully suggests to the reader. Despite the sanguine remembrance of Wood in Kurtzman’s autobiography, and despite the friendship that developed between the two men, Wood occasionally let slip his darker feelings about the pair’s professional relationship. In 1972, he commented, “Harvey had a very annoying way of criticizing your work. He would never pick on anything specific, he’d just say, ‘Gee, it seems like you really didn’t feel this one,’ vague stuff like that. How do you respond to that? I responded by quitting. I don’t want to work for him anymore… He’s got to have everything his way, which I suppose I admire in a way, too.”

MAD was a success from the start, so Gaines allowed Feldstein to write and edit a companion humor comic called Panic. It was not funny, and the art by Wood and the other MAD regulars (plus labored contributions by horror-suspense artist Jack Kamen and Wood’s onetime partner, Joe Orlando) was for naught. Despite EC’s ups and downs, the artists and writers knew they were doing good work (Panic notwithstanding). And Wood knew he was working his tail off. Years later, he recalled, “I did a page a day for years. Sometimes I could spend a whole day on a panel. Other times I could do a couple of pages in a day. It worked out to about a page a day.” Wood was comfortable in a personal sense with Gaines, Feldstein, Kurtzman, and the rest of the EC staffers and freelancers. When young colorist Marie Severin was given her own office around 1953, she asked the EC artists to provide her with self-portraits, which she would hang on her walls. Wood happily presented his, a carefully rendered, cartoony look at the back of his head! When Severin’s amusement turned to exasperation, Wood pulled out the “real” self-portrait, a grinning profile of the artist wearing a bubble space helmet, a brush parked behind one ear and the ever-present cigarette clamped in an elongated holder #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All covers © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.

By 1952, Harvey Kurtzman found that, despite being responsible for a pair of bi-monthly titles, he still was not making as much money as he felt he deserved. His dissatisfaction was probably fueled by the fact that his editorial counterpart, AI Feldstein, worked at a considerably quicker pace, handled seven EC titles to Kurtzman’s two, and was remunerated accordingly. Kurtzman agitated with Gaines for another title, a humor comic. Gaines agreed, and MAD was born. With MAD, the anarchic humor Kurtzman had displayed with “Hey Look” came to the fore. Although EC house ads for MAD called the comic EC’s new “baby,” it was very much a child of Harvey Kurtzman, who not only wrote every strip, but provided the regular artists (Wood, Jack Davis, and Will Elder) with tissue roughs even more difficult to ignore than those he created for the war books. Regardless, Wood stretched and altered Kurtzman’s layouts as much as Kurtzman would allow. In his 1988 autobiography, Kurtzman recalled that Wood “had done wonderful stuff for the EC war comics, and I knew he would be one of the key cartoonists on MAD. Wally was very talented, but he was also a very tense guy. He kept his feelings all bottled up. I always felt that, inside, he was filled with tension and anger. But he could never let it out, never say what he was really feeling, and it destroyed him… To look at him, you would not have thought that Wally Wood was a funny man. But when we worked together, he was very funny. And he drew the greatest pictures. Working with Wally, I could do things that I could never do alone. He was unique. Nobody could create drawings and make them work together on a page like Wally. He was one of the very best cartoonists ever to draw comics.” The first issue of MAD appeared on newsstands in the summer of 1952. Wood’s work in the earliest issues is wild, almost undisciplined. By #3 [Feb. ’53], though, he had settled down and produced his first significant story, “V-Vampires,” an amusing spoof of the undead, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Will Eisner’s atmospheric newspaper strip, The Spirit. Wood hit his stride with “Superduperman,” published in MAD #4 [May ’53]. Kurtzman’s script looks with skepticism at the inherent goofiness of the whole super-hero premise, and layers the satire with a jab at DC Comics’ bitter court fight against Fawcett and their super-hero, Captain Marvel, represented here as “Captain Marbles.” Kurtzman also turned to what would be a recurring theme, the cruel, fickle nature of women. Lois Pain, “Girl Reporter” — although blessed with a bust-line, legs, and caboose that drive men mad with desire — is an avaricious bitch who is supremely cruel to the shuffling, consumptive Clark Bent and hateful even to the musclebound (and foolishly egocentric) Superduperman. After Superduperman reveals to Lois that he is Clark Bent, she decks him and sneers, “Yer still a creep!” Wood, given his love of human anatomy and his talent for depicting action, was the perfect choice to illustrate “Superduperman.” In the splash panel, our grinning hero crashes through a brick wall and blithely drives his fist into the solar plexus of an old man who happens to be in his way, knocking the fellow off his crutches and separating him from his eyeglasses and false teeth. Later, Supe issues a challenge to the belligerent Marbles, bouncing about like a kangaroo, jabbing at the air and swatting at his own nose in the best palooka tradition. Once the fight is underway, Superduperman tips an entire building from its foundation (you can tell it’s not easy for him because the effort causes his legs to bow outward like a cowpoke’s) and brings it crashing down — to no effect — on Marbles’ noggin. The climax, in which Superduperman tricks Marbles into punch-

ing himself in the face-an act that creates a tiny mushroom cloud and leaves just a puckered dimple where Marbles’ head used to be — is hilarious.

All covers © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.

that exits the helmet via a vacuum seal. Marie Severin came to understand that Wood was most comfortable when he could develop interpersonal relationships via his art. Years later, she recalled, “I used to think he was moody. Maybe he was, but I found out over the years that he was just very shy.” AI Feldstein felt the same: “Wally was shy in a way. He was uncommunicative. I think Wally was a very cautious individual. He liked the fact that people appreciated his art, but he was very careful about letting people come close to him as an individual.” Despite the heavy workload Wood carried for EC, his need for extra cash was ever-present. During the summer of 1952 he ghosted the The Spirit weekly newspaper strip for creator Will Eisner. Eisner’s interest in the strip had diminished by the early ’50s, and he had become very involved in a new venture, American Visuals Corporation, which utilized comics in industrial and corporate training. By the time of Wood’s tenure on The Spirit, the strip, though still popular on the East Coast, had been dropped by many papers elsewhere in the country. Jules Feiffer was by now the scripter (though Eisner edited Feiffer’s work carefully) and the strip’s art was ghosted by hands as diverse as Jim Dixon, Jerry Grandenetti, and AI Wenzel. Eisner’s original intention was to hire Wood to pencil and ink the strip’s backgrounds. Wood was not interested in this modest role and proposed that he alone write, pencil, ink, and letter the strip for the period Eisner had in mind. Predictably, Eisner balked at handing that much control to a freelancer. Quickly, a compromise was reached whereby Wood would work from scripts and illustrated roughs prepared by Feiffer. Wood could alter the composition of individual panels however he wished, but the thrust of the strips would come from Feiffer (and, via proxy, from Eisner). Lettering, normally the province of Abe Kanegson, would be handled by Wood. In all, the Eisner/Feiffer/Wood collaboration encompassed ten Spirit installments and 52 pages. (An additional three episodes were planned, but The Spirit ended with the episode published on Sept. 28, 1952. Of the never-published stories, the first two were written and roughed out in pencil by Jules Feiffer; the third was scripted by Eisner assistant Klaus Nordling.) The strips’ subject matter, science-fiction, was tailor-made for Wood’s interests and abilities; many of the panels, particularly those dominated by moonscapes and rocketships, are stunning in their drama and detail. Sequence number six, for example, “The Last Man on the Planet Moon” [Aug. 31, ’52], is stuffed to the gills with rivets, finely detailed rocket bulkheads, radio sets, bombers, handguns, and craters. Wood didn’t ignore Feiffer’s roughs, but he did interpret them freely, adding dramatic compositions and depth not apparent in Feiffer’s loose sketches. Generally speaking, the sequences penciled and inked by Wood are an interesting stylistic combination of his humor cartooning and his sober SF and thriller work; the work is moody and exciting, but whimsical enough so that the reader is invited not to take it too seriously. In other words, the art is in keeping with the jaunty, tongue-in-cheek style Eisner had established for the strip years before. The most intriguing installment is number three, “A DP [Displaced Person] on the Moon” [Aug. 10, ’52]. The story concerns one Francisco Rivera, a banana-republic dictator who has escaped justice by traveling to the Moon. Trouble is, the loneliness he encounters there has driven him mad. The episode is clever but not at all suggestive of World War II, which is alluded to by the “DP” of the story’s title. Originally, however, the episode was very much preoccupied with the war because, as scripted by Feiffer, the exiled despot was Adolf Hitler! As initially written, Hitler (true to form) attempts to blame others for his latest misfortune: “I am sure of it now. The crew Haupt picked is all Jewish. It is a plot. I must not let them know I have discovered their scheme… I am Hitler! Listen, Moon! Hear those explosions on Earth? That is war! My war! Mine!” Later, Der Führer COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

rails, “*sob* @x%* those Jews! JEWS!” And, in an inspired detail that perfectly captures Hitler’s bloodless nature, the spacesuits of his subordinates are rent apart by pressure because Hitler has “weakened the seams….” Reasoning that the “Hitler is alive” gimmick was old hat by ’52 (and likely wary of exploiting antisemitism), Eisner ordered Hitler transformed into the considerably less provocative Rivera, but not before Wood drew the story as Feiffer had written it. Not unexpectedly, Wood’s (never-published) Hitler is a maniac captured in full fury, his contorted face eerily highlighted beneath his space helmet by the harsh illumination of the lunar landscape, his familiar forelock and toothbrush mustache identifying him. Following Eisner’s decree, changes to captions and dialogue balloons were easily accomplished, and Wood, with the help of a little white paint, eliminated the forelock and turned the dictator’s toothbrush mustache into a Latino handlebar. Three of the ten installments, “Heat” [#4], “The Return” [#9], and “Outer Space” [#10], were dominated by Eisner and AI Wenzel, who penciled and inked the main characters; Wood worked on backgrounds only. Lettering on these sequences is not by Wood, and is probably the work of Kanegson. The collaboration had run into trouble, partly because of Wood’s ongoing relationship with EC, and his concomitant struggle to meet Eisner‘s deadlines, As remembered by Eisner, the team-up was friendly and cooperative from beginning to end. In time, though, it just “didn’t work….”

Fortunately for Wood, his association with EC continued to be a rousing success. But, by 1954, the comic book industry’s unsavory emphasis on sex and gore had caused it to run afoul of parents, educators, civic groups, politicians, and clinicians, all of whom blamed comics for juvenile maladjustment and criminal violence. (One of the funniest sequences in the 1955 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy film, Artists and Models, find the idiotic Jerry on a TV panel show, where he is exhibited as living proof of the deleterious effects of comics.) A New York psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham rode the wave with his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, written after Wertham has studied records of his professional encounters with seriously disturbed children, and noticed that many of them were comic book readers. Wertham then made a tremendous leap of faith by blaming comics for his young patients’ problems. Parents, many of whom were eager to abrogate their responsibilities, eagerly tool Wertham at his word. Politicians, even better at obtuse thinking than lazy parents, jumped on the anti-comics bandwagon. One of them, the opportunistic U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Estes Kefauver, a thin, bespectacled fellow who enjoyed being photographed in a coonskin cap, headed a Senate committee charged with the investigation of juvenile delinquency and its causes.

One witness was EC publisher Bill Gaines, who did himself — and the industry — more harm than good when he argued that Johnny Craig’s cover for EC’s Crime SuspenStories #22 was not in bad taste, even though it showed a man with a bloodied ax in one hand and the severed head of a woman in the other. If the bottom of the victim’s neck were visible, Gaines argued, so that blood and tendons could be seen, it would be in bad taste, but because the wound was below the cover’s lower trim, the image was in good taste “for a horror comic.” Predictably, Kefauver and the media were all over Gaines and most every other comic book publisher like flies on a dead pig. Soon, retailers refused 15

heads or carried about as if they were satchels. One trainer busily runs a rolling pin over the abdomen of an old lady who struggles to do a chest press and, elsewhere in the scene, two visitors, a sleek beauty in a sheath dress and a spindly little girl, casually heft enormous barbells. Later in the piece, more women who have been distorted into impossible positions swill gallons of carrot juice. The aforementioned old lady toughs it out on a rowing machine, and an infant hefts a barbell over its head. The final page is another crowded panorama, this time showing some of Tinny’s celebrity clients Brigitte Bardot, Edward R . Murrow, Dorothy Kilgallen, George Gobel, and, of course, Alfred E. Neuman — each of them plank-shouldered, grotesquely musclebound and, it seems, shot-full of testosterone. Although Bardot wears a bikini, her breasts have disappeared and a thatch of hair sprouts from the center of her chest! The high quality of Wood’s MAD output during the late ’50s and early ’60s is attributable to the expected evolution of his talent, as well as to the considerable talent of the magazine’s other contributors. Larry Siegel, Frank Jacobs, and Dick DeBartolo came up with sharp, often biting concepts and scripts, while Bob Clarke, George Woodbridge, and Mort Drucker became star artists. Wood was keenly aware of the company he was keeping, and pushed himself to achieve excellence.

Concurrent with Wood’s work for the magazine format MAD was a brief sojourn with Trump, a glossy, four-color humor magazine based in New York and published by Playboy ’s Hugh Hefner in 1956–57. The Chicago-based Hefner was a frustrated cartoonist with a lifelong love of comic strips and comic books. Playboy was building steadily in ’57 and Hefner was beginning his successful self-promotion as the ultimate urban male. His men’s magazine had become a cultural phenomenon, so Trump (originally to be called X), he reasoned, should not be any less successful. And he’d be able to indulge one of his primary interests while making money. Hefner hired Harvey Kurtzman as editor, who brought in MAD veterans Wood, Jack Davis, and Will Elder, plus AI Jaffee, Russ Heath, Phil lnterlandi, Arnold Roth, and other talented strip and gag cartoonists. An article in the second issue was written by Mel Brooks. The lineup of talent was formidable, but Trump hit rough water right away when its distributor, American News Company, folded just as the first issue hit the stands, in Jan. ’57. The second issue could not be published until March, by which time Trump was carrying a debt load of $95,000. Compounding the problem was that Hefner was in the middle of a $500,000 move of Playboy’s Chicago editorial offices from East Superior Street to larger quarters, on East Ohio Street. Shortly after, when the number of Playboy ad pages dipped because of a modest recession, causing a downward blip in revenue, Hefner’s chief lender, the American National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, declined to renew the company’s line of credit. All of this meant the end of Trump, which Hefner regretfully killed after the second issue, ending what could have been a significant humor magazine, and what most certainly would have been a lucrative outlet for Wood. Further, it would have allowed Wood to pursue a more illustrative drawing style of the sort suggested by the careful, fine-line approach he brought to his work for Trump in such features as “Elvis Pretzel” (highlighted by Wood’s beautiful figure studies of the gyrating Elvis), “Hansel and Gretal,” and “Candid Camerapix.” Ironically, both issues of Trump sold a robust 65 percent of their print runs. (Kurtzman, of course, would work for Hefner again, on the hugely successful Little Annie Fanny strip, which was illustrated by Will Elder and ran periodically in Playboy.) With Hefner’s humor magazine gone, Wood looked for #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All covers and graphics © the respective copyright holder.

to display EC comics, bundles of which were returned to wholesalers unopened. EC’s not-unwise attempt in 1954 to broaden its range of titles brought Piracy, a lustily entertaining comic about highseas adventure that lasted just seven issues. Wood’s best contribution to the book was “A Fitting End,” an elegantly illustrated tale of 18th century British sailors that appeared in #2 [Jan. ’55]. Anti-comics fever heightened in 1955 and Gaines countered by killing all of his titles except MAD and introducing EC’s “New Direction” comics, a desperate attempt to remain solvent and to comply with the new Comics Code, a censorship board headed by a judge and staffed by a platoon of housewives (described by Harry Harrison as “a lot of decayed old virgins”). This group reviewed every comic book cover and story before publication; those comics that were refused the Code seal were unable to find shelf space. Some of EC’s New Direction comics were interesting and gave Wood the opportunity to do good work: Incredible Science Fiction, Aces High, and Valor featured Wood art that was leaner and considerably less cluttered than the work he had been doing just a year or two earlier. Ever a lover of gadgetry, he seemed very much at home with the aerial adventure of Aces High; although the preponderance of stories in this title were set during World War I, Wood scored heavily with a WW II adventure in #5 [Dec. ’55], “Ordeal,” a stirring, incredibly kinetic look at a P-40 pilot with the Flying Tigers who gets the jitters on the eve of his thirty-third mission. Wood drew the Mustangs and Japanese Zeros with commendable accuracy, depicting them in dogfights and on strafing runs, in daylight and in the dead of night. Although Wood did without sound effects lettering, one can almost hear the snarl of engines, the chatter of machine guns, and the slap of bullets against metal and concrete. Other New Direction titles, such as M.D. (which concerned medical doctors) and Psychoanalysis (which revolved around psychiatrists and their patients), were not at all suited to the comic book medium. Another oddball experiment was EC’s Picto-Fiction line, an awkward blending of illustration with horror, crime, and romance fiction in two-color magazines that sold for a quarter. Neither fish nor fowl, these hybrids quickly died. Battered by critics and spurned by retailers, Gaines killed his entire comic book line in 1956. MAD survived because Gaines, sensing it was a golden goose, transformed it into a 25¢ magazine (with #24) that abandoned garish interior color in favor of crisp black-&-white art with 120-screen halftones. Although Harvey Kurtzman left after #28, AI Feldstein stepped in as editor and guided MAD to immense success, solidifying the magazine’s status as one of the four most significant American periodicals to debut in the ’50s (Playboy, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated are the others). Wood drew a few Code-approved “horror” stories for Atlas (Marvel) in 1955–56; two of these can be found in Mystic #52 and Journey Into Mystery #39. He also drew a handful of Atlas Western stories. Most of his energies, though, were devoted to MAD, where he saw published lively, keenly parodistic work typically centered around comic strips and movies. Like Will Elder, he was a gifted mimic of other artists’ styles, and did expert spoofs of newspaper strips as diverse as Peanuts and Tarzan. He continued to grow as an artist, working more ambitiously with Ben-Day screens and throwing off comic book constraints. Much of what Wood was now doing for MAD was more accurately illustrative than strip-style; some of his best pieces covered full pages and, sometimes, even spreads. A 1959 look at the Vic Tanny fitness craze (here called “Vic Tinny”) opens with the enormous, nattily attired Mr. Tinny posing proudly before a crowded panorama of one of his gyms, where muscled male instructors (each wearing sunglasses and captured in poses à Iá Rodin, Michelangelo, and others) interact with gorgeous female clients, who happily allow themselves to be twisted like licorice and balanced on the instructors’

All covers © Marvel Characters, Inc.

other ways to augment his income. He illustrated the dust jacket for the Gnome Press edition of Return of Conan in 1957, and branched out into science-fiction illustration in the late ’50s. Splendid work was published by Galaxy from 1957 to ’67, and by If from 1959 to ’67. His illustrations also appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow, Amazing Stories, and Planet Stories. Some of his illustrations were fine-lined and elegant; others dark, bold, and detailed. His familiar flair for rockets and gorgeous women was expressed with unprecedented sophistication.

Wood welcomed the SF-magazine work (he also provided illustrations for Mechanix Illustrated during this period), but this was “spot art” that did not pay very well. Worse, he could no longer fall back on comic books. The industry had been crippled by the hysteria of ’54–55, and the establishment of the Comics Code had led to the extinction of dozens of publishers. The industry was still in the doldrums in ’58. Dell continued to crank out innocuous funny animal and TV comics, Marvel was offering idiotic giant-monster stories with titles like “Fin Fang Foom,” and DC editor Julius Schwartz was just beginning his revival of The Flash and other super-heroes from comics’ Golden Age. The linchpin of what would be comic books’ comeback, Stan Lee’s Marvel Age of angst-ridden super-heroes, was still three years away. On the other hand, newspaper strips, if properly promoted and widely syndicated, could be lucrative, so Wood accepted an offer to ink and letter a pair of ideas longtime comic book artist Jack Kirby wanted to develop and pitch to the George Matthew Adams Service, a syndicate that was eager to expand its line of strips. Kirby’s first attempts, in collaboration with inkers other than Wood, were Master Jeremy (soldiers through the ages; inked by Kirby); King Masters (detective action set during the Roaring Twenties; inked by Frank Giacoia); and one that the syndicate came close to buying, Chip Hardy (the adventures of a college student and a brilliant, diminutive scientist; inked alternately by Marvin Stein and Will Elder.) Of the two Kirby-Wood collaborations, one was Surf Hunter, an underwater-adventure strip featuring a rugged blond named Hunter. Wood’s sample inks were typically rich and detailed, particularly on the underwater scenes. The syndicate passed on this proposal. The other proposal was Rocket Cannon, the strip that pushed Chip Hardy aside to win a spot in the syndicate’s lineup. It was sold on the basis of two Sundays penciled by Kirby and inked by Marvin Stein; Wood came on board after the sale. While development continued, the strip’s name was changed to Sky Cannon and, finally, to Sky Masters of the Space Force. The strip offered unusually well-done science-fiction adventure with an eponymous hero, good-looking women, Communist spies, and a whole catalog of rocketships and other gadgetry. Scripts were roughed out by Kirby and written by brothers Dick and Dave Wood. (Although Wally Wood had a brother named Glenn, Dick and Dave Wood were not siblings or related to Wally in any way.) Wood inked Kirby’ s pencils, and designed the strip’s logo. Sky Masters made its debut as a daily strip in newspapers across the country on Monday, Sept. 8, 1958. A Sunday strip was added on Feb. 8, ’59. The everyday grind of a continuity strip was nothing new to Kirby, who had drawn comic strips and political cartoons (as Lance Kirby, Jack Curtiss, and under numerous other pseudonyms) in the late ’30s and into 1940.

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Kirby was nearly as versatile as Wood, and although, on the face of it, their collaboration may seem unlikely — Kirby was a master of exaggerated anatomy and a keen interpreter of super-heroes; Wood’s draftsmanship was more reality-based and he was interested in mood rather than splashy effects — the pair turned out to be congenial and complementary partners. Wood’s gift for delineating shadow, faces, and fabric mitigated the stiffness inherent in Kirby’s admittedly dynamic style, while Kirby provided Wood with powerful compositions and a sense of epic adventure. Wood’s interest in Sky Masters apparently grew as the strip progressed, for late examples appear at a glance to be the work of Wood alone, so completely do his rich, bold inks dominate Kirby’s pencils. The machinery, character design, and women of these strips are noticeably more Woodian than Kirby-like. The illustrated introduction to a collected edition of Sky Masters (published by Pure Imagination in 1991) includes dailies-in-progress with preliminary inks by Wood. This first step in the inking process — really little more than outlining the elements in Kirby’s pencils — illustrates a longtime Wood dictum that’s invaluable advice for aspiring inkers: “First outline everything,” he instructed, “go back and ink everything black that should be black, and then make a few things black that shouldn’t be black.” A side-by-side comparison of the partially inked Sky Masters strips with the finished product makes for a startling revelation. Wood’s ability to “spot blacks,” that is, to heighten a panel’s visual and psychological excitement with aggressive use of black areas, was remarkable. Even inkers as accomplished as Frank Giacoia could not match Wood’s ability to bring depth and dimension to Kirby’s pencils. And Kirby, who struggled throughout his career to draw beautiful women, had just the collaborator he needed in Wood. Alas, the effort poured into Sky Masters did not ensure the strip a long life. At its peak, the strip appeared in some 325 papers, but, by the second week of May 1959, it was gone, the victim of a legal entanglement.

Wood pressed on. He concluded a five-issue collaboration with Kirby on DC’s Challengers of the Unknown, which had begun with #4 in 1958, relatively concurrent with Sky Masters. Kirby had written, penciled, and inked the feature when it made its debut in Showcase #6 late in ’56, and continued with it (and with inker Marvin Stein) when it was given its own book late in 1957. The Challengers were four adventurers who, after nearly being killed in a jet crash, realized they were living “on borrowed time,” and who resolved to make the most of it by battling a variety of villains and menaces around the globe, in outer space, and even in other time periods. The premise was solid and Kirby’s scripts and art were exceptional. Marvin Stein brought a pleasing ink style to #1–3, but one got the impression that he was not adding too much that wasn’t already suggested by Kirby’s pencils. Wood’s subsequent involvement was a revelation. He accomplished what he had done on Sky Masters, bringing depth and detail to the panels, enhancing characterizations of the principals, and transforming Kirby’s wide-featured women into lush beauties. Machines and gadgets — both “real” and fanciful — abound in the Kirby-Wood stories, and locales run the gamut from deep space to castle fortresses, ancient Egypt to a sprawling metropolis in the year 3000. As with Sky Masters, the pair’s Challengers work was a collaboration in the truest sense, in that Wood complemented Kirby’s pencils rather than overwhelmed them. Their work on this entertaining series is perhaps the finest comic book art of the late ’50s.) Challengers of the Unknown was a bright spot in the 17

comic book scene of the late ’50s. Assignments in the field still were not plentiful, so Wood was forced to continue working outside the industry in order to make a living. He did storyboards in 1958 for Weddings and Babies, an autobiographical feature film by commercial photographer Morris Engel. Engel completed the shoot and post-production, but could not interest a distributor, so the film was shelved and has not been seen by more than a handful of people. Wood continued to seek other markets. He had begun to paint good-looking full-page cartoons for men’s magazines in the mid-’50s, inspired perhaps by the enormous success in this area of Jack Cole, the creator of Plastic Man, who became a mainstay of Playboy in the ’50s. Wood continued to produce men’s magazine cartoons into the early ’60s; Playboy bought two, one in 1956 and the other in ’63, and more were published in Nugget, a not-bad Playboy imitator. In an oddly funny gag that appeared in Nugget ’s Oct. ’58 issue, a well-dressed man and woman sit knee-to-knee at a party after having selected their food and beverages from a buffet line. The man balances an absurd number of plates on both legs and on one arm, and has carefully placed a bowl of soup atop his head. Fortunately for him, his beautiful companion has a shelf-like bosom — just the spot for the fellow to park his cup and saucer! Although Wood did regrettably few full-page cartoons for men’s magazines, he did create “adult” comic strips off and on for the rest of his life. The Feb. 1965 issue of Nugget, for example, featured the first installment of his Far-Out Fables feature, “The Story of Cindy Eller.” Cindy is a dead ringer for Jayne Mansfield: a sexy, bubble-headed chick who “dreamed I got rich in my Maidenform bra.” Other tales in this none-too-sophisticated series include “Goldilocks and the 3 Bares,” “Slipping Beauty,” and “Handsel and Feetsel.“ As before, Wood devoted much of his time to MAD, where he continued through ’60. He did no work for the magazine in ’61, but returned the following year, this time staying only until ’64 (he returned briefly in ’71). Bill Gaines later asserted that Wood left because his work was “deteriorating.” There’s no evidence of this in the published material; a more likely explanation is that Wood’s always-dark personality grew darker as he approached forty. Simply put, he probably became difficult to be with.

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All covers TM & © The THUNDER Agency, LLC.

Much of Wood’s emotional distress had a physical origin. He had been plagued by headaches for years and, by the early ’60s, they had developed into debilitating migraines that blocked his creativity and understandably fouled his mood. Often one would strike in the middle of the morning, knocking him flat on his back and keeping him away from his drawing board for the rest of the day. Bills still had to be paid, of course, so, in 1962, Wood branched into bubble-gum cards with the nation’s preeminent creator, New York-based Topps Chewing Gum Company. He was one of a group of two or three artists hired to do character and scene designs for a science-fiction series Topps was planning. This 55-card set, released as Mars Attacks, detailed the horrific and graphically violent invasion of Earth by Martians. Longtime (and now retired) Topps executive, Len Brown, recalled, “I’d been a terrific fan of Wally’s EC work — Weird Science, Weird Fantasy — the science-fiction stories. I loved his conceptions of aliens and rocketships, and I thought that sensibility would be perfect for the Martian cards. We pulled Wally in on the project early, when we wanted to get a sense of the direction we wanted to follow. Wally designed the basic look of the Martians for us and some of his thumbnails evolved into finished cards.” Wood’s notion of Martian physiognomy was deliriously Woodian: exposed, bulging brains; hideous pop eyes; and

skeletal mouth-orifices. The cards’ finished renderings, however, were painted by illustrator Norm Saunders working from pencils by comic-book veteran Bob Powell. As Len Brown explained, “We went with Bob Powell because he had penciled our Civil War card set, which was a big success. Norm Saunders had painted some of those cards, too, so our thinking was simply to reunite the team that had been successful in the past.” The Mars Attacks cards were rough stuff — rudely funny, but also gruesome and suggestive: Horny Martians intrude into girls’ bedrooms and tear their victims’ nighties from their bodies; innocent pedestrians are set upon and impaled on the mandibles of gigantic insects; the Martians blast crowded buildings to smithereens; shrieking soldiers are vaporized in their tracks. On the most infamous card, “Death of a Dog,” a little boy watches helplessly as a smirking Martian turns his death ray on Rover, who is captured in mid-leap, half his body in one piece, the other half a skeleton. Topps, mindful that they had a tiger by the tail, declined to issue Mars Attacks under the Topps name but instead credited it to “Bubbles, Inc.” Kids loved the set and parents, predictably, were outraged, and pressured retailers to remove the horrible things from store shelves. Topps was bloodied but unbowed. And, anyway, before the roof fell in, they had sold a heck of a lot of cards. Years later, Len Brown recalled, “It was a great thrill working with Wally. I’d loved his EC art and, because I was very young when we developed Mars Attacks, just in my early twenties, I was very impressed by his talent. I still think he was great. He could do anything.” (The Mars Attacks set was reprinted to great acclaim in the ’90s and encouraged Topps to issue a funnier, even more gruesome latter-day variant, Dinosaurs Attack!) Topps continued on in the card business, relying on its valuable licensing arrangement with Major League Baseball and the NFL to provide the capital needed to develop other, often humorous gum-card lines. Wood, along with Ralph Reese and Bhob Stewart, contributed concepts, gags, and finished art to many of these sets throughout the ’60s. (Another EC veteran, Jack Davis, did numerous assignments for Topps.) By 1965, Wood (assisted by Dan Adkins) was drawing war stories for publisher James Warren’s Blazing Combat, a nicely done black-&-white comics magazine. He also painted a sexy science-fiction cover for the 1965 “Annual” of Warren’s SF-movie magazine, Spacemen. The work was top-quality but Philadelphia-based Warren (who began his career in the late ’50s as the publisher of a low-rent men’s magazine called After Hours, and who later became nationally known as the publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland) ran a rather loose ship, where page rates were low and where editors often had little contact with the boss. In the early ’70s, after Wood had drawn entertaining barbarian-goddess stories for numerous issues of Warren’s Vampirella magazine, he was offered a lucrative, salaried position that would have allowed him to create and supervise his own black-&-white magazine. Warren’s fast-andloose style was the project’s undoing, however, for when he couldn’t come up with Wood’s salary after the first week, Wood walked away. Meanwhile, the four-color comic book industry had revived, and Wood was back in the mainstream by 1964. He did a few jobs for Charlton, a company with the lowest creative standards and worst production values of any of the “major” comic book publishers. Charlton’s War and Attack #1 [Fall 1964] includes one Wood story, while D-Day #2 [Fall ’64] has three. The real comic book action by this time was in super-heroes, which had dominated the industry since the early ’60s. Although Wood was very skilled at super-hero comics, he had no particular fascination with the genre. Nevertheless, he accepted assignments from Marvel beginning in the latter portion of ’64, penciling and

All covers TM & © The THUNDER Agency, LLC.

inking #5–10 of Daredevil (Marvel’s blind, sonar-equipped super-hero), inking #11, and providing cover art for all of these issues. In 1965, he inked Don Heck’s hurried-looking pencils for #20–22 of another Marvel super-hero title, The Avengers, and inked an “Iron Man” adventure in Tales of Suspense #71. At Gold Key, a publisher that specialized in kiddie comics and mild adventure titles, Wood (again assisted by Adkins) drew #1–3 of Total War/M.A.R.S. Patrol. Also in ’65, at about the time he was wrapping up his Marvel commitments, Wood was approached by a paperback publisher, Tower Books, to coordinate and supervise art and editorial for a new line of super-hero comics. Wood accepted, not just because the work might give him the capital needed to fulfill a longstanding dream: to become a publisher and control his own work. Tower offered 68-page books for a quarter — a gamble when standard 32-page comics from DC, Marvel, and other publishers sold for 12¢. The company’s centerpiece was T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a very well done, faintly self-mocking title that featured characters devised by Wood and writers Len Brown (the Topps executive with whom Wood had worked on the Mars Attacks card set), Larry Ivie, Steve Skeates, and Bill Pearson: Dynamo, whose power belt gives him potent — albeit temporary — super-powers; the 76-year-old NoMan, who can shift his disembodied mind between identical android bodies and use his cloak of invisibility to move among his adversaries; Lightning, a super-fast hero who shortens his life each time he uses his power; Menthor, an enemy agent who turns to good after using the power helmet that allows him to control people and manipulate objects with the force of his mind; and the Raven, a winged character modeled on DC’s Hawkman. Dynamo and NoMan eventually got books of their own. Among the secondary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (assembled in the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad) was Weed, a toughly cynical cigarette addict Wood patterned after himself. Writer Len Brown remembered, “While we were working on Mars Attacks, I mentioned to Wally I thought it was odd that he’d never done super-hero comics, so you can imagine my surprise a few years later when he called to let me know that Tower wanted him to do a whole line of super-hero comics. He did really wonderful work there. “I brainstormed with Wally and then wrote the origin story for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and a few stories after that. My original name for the Dynamo character was Captain Thunderbolt, which Wally thought was kind of old-fashioned — and he was right. In that first story I’d included a villain I called Dynamo, and Wally suggested we give that name to Captain Thunderbolt.” Dynamo’s alter-ego was government agent Len Brown, a name that was not chosen by writer Len Brown. “The Len Brown thing was a complete surprise to me,” he said. “It was Wally’s idea, just a jokey little tribute. I suppose I’d named Dynamo’s alter-ego Bob Grant or something like that but Wally thought it’d be cute to call him Len Brown. It used to embarrass me, but later I took it for what it was, a nice compliment.” The agents’ main antagonists were the Iron Maiden (a curvy chick in a form-fitting chrome body suit who makes no secret of her desire for Dynamo: in her everyday guise, she’s a gorgeous redhead who calls herself Rusty); and the Overlord, a muscular green fellow with distended eyes set in a face contoured like a skull. Besides the comics featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. characters, Tower published Undersea Agent, Fight the Enemy, and Tippy Teen. Wood recruited some of the best artists in the business to illustrate the Tower line: super-hero stars Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, and Chic Stone; EC vets AI Williamson and Reed Crandall; newspaper strip artist Alden McWilliams; and illustrator Boris Vallejo, who later became a noted fantasy painter. Wood himself did solo work on numerous stories and covers, and laid down beautiful inks over pencils by Williamson, Ditko, Kane, and Reed Crandall COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

(whose “Dynamo and the Golem,” is an especially handsome story within T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5). A solo Wood story, “Collision Course” [T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #15, Sept. ’67], concerns Dynamo’s eventful meeting with Andor, a blind superhuman who is manipulated by the Overlord. The adventure boasts a skinny, bald, mad scientist; exceptionally well done fight sequences; loving renderings of the Iron Maiden and her Corvette convertible; and nice touches of whimsy. After being assigned to guard a lonely rail yard, Dynamo perches unhappily atop a freight car, chin sunk in his palms. “Fooey! What a way to spend Saturday night!” he complains. “Gee, I wish something would happen!” The last thought is expressed as one of the Maiden’s gigantic minions rises from the backside of the car, preparing to clobber Dynamo on the head.

Perhaps the trippiest art Wood ever produced graces “The Maze,” the lead story in Dynamo #4 [June ’67]. The adventure opens provocatively, with Dynamo trapped in a fantastic, alternate universe where the soft, organic landscape bulges and rises to ensnare him; where he’s pursued by hideous mutant animals, and where he’s plucked from the ground and examined by a giant version of… himself! After battling these hazards, exploring a great alien city, and fighting for his life against cyclopean robots, Dynamo meets the place’s mastermind, a diminutive, bulge-brained fellow who identifies himself as one of the “lmmi,” an advanced race from the Alpha Centauri star system. Dynamo tricks the lmmi and escapes to Earth through a dimensional portal. The story ends with Dynamo congratulating himself on his cleverness and with the lmmi congratulating himself on tricking Dynamo into escape. “We’re well rid of him!” the lmmi exclaims. “Can you imagine an army of those?” Art on “The Maze” is imaginative and fluid, with inkwork — possibly by Wood assistant Dan Adkins — that’s smooth, detailed, and a joy to behold. Wood had not lost a step in the dozen years since the demise of EC. For the prodigious effort he put forth at Tower, Wood was paid $40 a page, out of which he had to take care of his assistants at page rates that ran between $4 and $18. The work was demanding and the pay relatively modest, but Wood’s spirits seemed to be high, perhaps because he was anticipating his imminent venture into self-publishing. Len Brown remembered, “I didn’t find Wally moody. He was very even-tempered; I never saw him get angry. He was very soft-spoken, always a gentleman. But sometimes he spoke so lowly over the phone I couldn’t hear him. I’m not hard of hearing but sometimes I’d have to say, ‘What was that?’ He was low-key and often spoke that way.” In 1966, not long after the beginning of his involvement with Tower, Wood was named “Best Comic Book Cartoonist of the Year” by the National Cartoonists Society; he had won the award twice before. Meanwhile, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents gained a small but vocal following. Issues #1 through 17 were published regularly between Nov. 1965 and Dec. ’67. But spotty distribution and mediocre sales caused a year-long break in the schedule, the sort of thing that’s death to comics, where continuity and reader loyalty are vital. (Significantly, the page count of Tower books dropped along the way, from 68 to 52.) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #18 did not appear until Sept. ’68, ten months after the previous issue and after the dimming of the Batman TV craze. Super-heroes were losing their hold on the general public. Issue #19 followed on schedule two months later and then… nothing for a year, until #20, which was comprised entirely of reprint material packaged beneath a new cover. There would be no #21 of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents; it, and the rest of the Tower Comics line, had died. Wood’s most important personal relationship also 19

salvage. The front-cover blurb on the first issue [Oct.–Nov. ’68] proclaims, “Featuring DC’s UNTOLD ORIGIN of Captain Action!” Well, it all started in the R&D department at Ideal…. Forgetting for a moment the crass commercialism of the enterprise, the reader is easily sucked into the Captain’s adventures, given that Wood penciled and inked the premiere issue — he even signed his name as he had in the EC days, in lower-case Old English. The art is detailed and carefully rendered (Wayne Howard may have contributed to the inking), and offers a pleasing pastiche of traditional super-heroes, a biblical lost city, and exciting present-day urban sequences. And, in a real treat for super-hero fans, three pages of the story (one of them a full-page illustration) feature Superman, looking imposing in a manner that only Wally Wood could manage. The story marks one of the few times Wood did a “straight” depiction of this great character. The remainder of the Captain Action run [#2–5] was penciled by Gil Kane, with Wood providing typically smooth inks on all of these except #4, which was inked by Kane. Wood remained with DC during the tail end of 1968 and most of ‘69, inking Bob Oksner’s whimsical pencils for Angel and the Ape #2–6 [Jan. ’68–Sept. ’69], and doing what was perhaps the most thankless work of his mainstream comic book career: inker’s chores on Superboy. Bob Brown had become the book’s pencil artist with #150, and Wood came on board with #153 [Jan. ’69]. In all, Wood inked #153–161, with the exception of an all-reprint “giant” #156. Brown was a competent artist whose destiny was to take over series from more talented artists who had defined the series artistically. He assumed art duties on Challengers of the Unknown following the departure of Jack Kirby; he replaced the very talented (and under-rated) Bruno Premiani on Doom Patrol, DC’s entertaining knockoff of Marvel’s Fantastic Four; and he came to Superboy following years of definitive work by Curt Swan and George Papp. Although Brown’s exaggerated, almost frantic style was admittedly graphic, his approach was quite different from Wood’s in that he fell back on a lot of standard, time-saving shortcuts: extreme closeups of faces or hands, figures standing isolated in empty panels, unnecessarily large panels designed to eat up space. Added to this was the wordy nature of Frank Robbins’ scripts; some panels have so many dialogue balloons that the art is nearly crowded out. Wood inked Superboy bravely, bringing a weight and depth that probably were not apparent in Brown’s pencils. What must really have hurt Wood, though, was his knowledge that Superboy was a distinctly second-tier DC title — a moneymaker, to be sure, but hardly important enough to justify Wood’s involvement. Wally should have been the sole artist on Superman or Batman; to exile him to brushwork on Superboy was to squander his gifts. One story, anyway, allowed Wood a chance to show his stuff: “The Day It Rained Superboys,” published in #159 [Sept. ’69], is a big-scale disaster epic highlighted by a crashing dirigible, a falling suspension bridge, fighting aircraft, and a terrible flood. The best shot Wood ever had at big-time commercial illustration came around 1969, when he was hired by Alka-Seltzer’s ad agency to illustrate a print ad depicting all the demons that inhabit one’s stomach after a heavy, spicy meal. Wood was unconcerned that this assignment might seem to represent a scary sort of “crossing-over” into another, unrelated genre. He said, “I don’t worry about words, like whether I’m an illustrator or a cartoonist or whatever. I’m an artist. I do it for a living. I don’t make any great distinctions between fine art and commercial art, either.” Alka-Seltzer got more than its money’s worth from Wood, whose wit and flair for the grotesque paid off with a terrifically funny illustration featuring a fiendishly grinning array of anthropomorphized foodstuffs who have assembled for action in the stomach of some poor unfortunate. There #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Vampirella TM & © Dynamite Entertainment. All other items TM & © the respective copyright holders.

died at about this time. Tatjana, his wife and most frequent model, separated from him in 1967 after being exhausted by never-ending money troubles, Wally’s migraines, and her husband’s increasing dependence on alcohol. Tatjana kept the Manhattan apartment in the West 70s while Wood moved to a small, two-room studio a block away. It was there that Wood, along with assistants Dan Adkins, Ralph Reese, and others, produced the latter portion of Tower stories. Record album cover art for a series of audio adaptations of such classic tales as Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds allowed Wood to work with large-format illustration in 1966–67. That was good, but Wood suffered a pair of profound professional disappointments in ’67. His limited-run newspaper Christmas strip, Bucky’s Christmas Caper, was not picked up for further syndication. An even greater blow came when Paramount shuttered its animation studio, putting an end to Wee Hawk, Wood’s green-lighted proposal for an animated series that would have been a major sale. Characters from the aborted Paramount proposal later appeared in “The Rejects,” a story published in witzend, Wood’s first attempt at self-publishing. The magazine was launched in the summer of ’66, and was wholly dependent on subscribers and single-issue purchasers who saw ads in comic book fanzines and in special-interest newsstand magazines like Castle of Frankenstein. Wood was terribly excited about witzend, not because he had any illusions it would make him wealthy, but because it would provide him and other artists with an uncensored outlet for their “personal” work. (In the staff credit box, the witzend “censor” was identified as Bubbles LaTour — that is, no censor at all!) Along the way, Wood hoped, witzend would at least pay for itself. It was an ambitious magazine from the start and, after three or four issues, it had published new and vintage art and stories by Wood, Steve Ditko, Harvey Kurtzman, Leo and Diane Dillon, and AI Williamson, plus younger artists like Roger Brand (a sometime Wood assistant) and Maus creator Art Spiegelman. Unfortunately, the time and expense required to publish witzend eventually became untenable for Wood, who passed the responsibility of publishing on to the editor, Bill Pearson. The excitement Wood felt about witzend was constantly tempered by the realities of mass-market comics. In 1967, King Comics published a single issue [#5] of Jungle Jim, with art Wood had inked eight or nine years before over the mediocre work of an anonymous penciler. (The issue’s cover was merely an enlarged panel from the story.) After King Comics went belly up in ’67, comic book rights to some of its characters were acquired by Charlton. Jungle Jim inkwork by Wood, perhaps completed when King Comics was still a going concern, shows up in some of the seven ’69–70 issues of Charlton’s Jungle Jim, over pencils by Ditko and (possibly) Wayne Howard, another of Wood’s assistants. Once, when caught by a particularly tight deadline, Wood told story assistant Bhob Stewart to write three Jungle Jim stories in three days; Stewart blanched. Build each page around a visual peak, Wood advised, and don’t become entangled in needlessly tricky layouts. Begin the story with action already underway; to open with expository buildup is deadly. Stewart followed Wood’s suggestions and completed the stories on time. The Charlton Comics work paid poorly, and Wood’s cut was diminished because of Stewart, Reese, and other assistants he was paying. The fact that Wood had to part with more money as he accepted more work was a maddening sort of paradox. In 1968, DC Comics entered into a blatant marketing tie-in with the Ideal Toy Corporation, acquiring the rights to produce a new comic book based on Ideal’s major boys’ toy of the season. The book was called Captain Action and it was one of those products that no amount of hype could

The Cat TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Plop! TM & © DC Comics. The Destructor TM & © the respective copyright holder.

are evil-looking onions, strawberries, pickles, tomatoes, hot dogs. Some of the critters are hefting jackhammers, meat cleavers, and spiked maces, and all are intent on bringing misery to the stomach’s owner. The ad was a tremendous hit. Wood was hired by the agency to create storyboards for a cartoon-animated television commercial that would bring the nasty critters to “life.” Wood complied, but did nothing to ensure that the peculiarly evil aspect of his original illustration was preserved when the creatures were animated. His mindset was fatalistic and he reasoned that the agency and the animators it hired would screw everything up anyway. So Wood walked away and, sure enough, the animated spot had little of the dark humor of the print ad. This sort of “who cares” attitude upset his friends, who knew that things would be better for him professionally if only he were willing to play the game, sell himself more aggressively, and follow through on every project. Wood was perpetually envious of the high-profile jobs that went to other cartoonists, yet his enthusiasm for self-promotion waxed and waned. He did other print ads; a four-cartoon montage for Portage Porto-Ped Shoes is amusing, with each illustration showing a different hazard of squeaky shoes: a doctor awakens his patients, a groom is followed down the aisle by cats, and so forth. But Wood did not do nearly as much ad work as he should have. A tentative agreement with Nabisco fell apart and Wood was further disappointed when the prestigious Evergreen Review declined to publish his work. Wood had a not-unjustified cynicism about businessmen and art directors, but did little to try to affect a change, at least as it might relate to him. Perhaps he never really wanted to escape the grind of comic books. He loved comics and lived for the rare opportunities when he could do them his way. Perhaps his reluctance to pursue more prestigious markets was an unconscious sort of self-sabotage. Wood returned to Marvel in 1970. There, he inked #127 of Gene Colan’s Captain America; drew sword-&-sorcery adventures for #5, 6, and 8 of Tower of Shadows; and did gorgeous solo work on the “Dr. Doom” series that began in Astonishing Tales #1 [Aug. ’70]. Doom was the longtime nemesis of the Fantastic Four and so great was his wicked appeal that he was awarded his own series. (He shared the book with Marvel’s resident jungle lord, Ka-Zar.) Roy Thomas (and later Larry Lieber) scripted the Doom stories with a fine sense of high adventure but the series’ basic flaw — that Doom would have to be thwarted at the conclusion of every story — led eventually to repetition and an inherent lack of surprise. Still, because Doom’s adventures were set in his private nation of Latveria, Wood was free to draw castles and battlements, plus a nifty variety of robots, androids, firearms and other weapons, caves, crowded battle scenes — even extra-dimensional landscapes. It was just Wood’s meat and he seems to have reveled in it. “The Invaders,” the Dr. Doom adventure in Astonishing Tales #4 [Feb. ’71] and the final one illustrated by Wood, is a special treat because Doom is joined by the Red Skull, primary antagonist of Captain America and one of the two or three greatest comic book villains of all time. Wood’s depiction of the demonic Skull and his neo-Nazi splendor (“Today Latveria! Tomorrow the world!”) is a nasty treat. Marvel’s 1970 introduction of the comic book adventures of Robert E. Howard’s pulp-magazine character, Conan the Barbarian, was a smashing success, so another Howard invention, Kull the Conqueror, was adapted for comics and given his own book in ’71. Ross Andru, one of Wood’s classmates long before in Burne Hogarth’s Cartoonists and Illustrators School, handled the pencils while Wood inked. Andru was one of comics’ better storytellers, with a sharp sense of action and composition. However, his style was more “cartoony” than those of other well-known super-hero/adventure artists, so Wood’s aggressive ink style gave the debut issue of Kull [June ’71] more depth and weight COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

than it might otherwise have had. Marvel at least made a gesture of recognition to Wood’s contribution, referring to him on the issue’s editorial page as “one of the greats of fantasy fiction… whose heroic panel-art epics have delighted fans since his EC days…”

The Marvel Age may not have been precisely Wood’s cup of tea, but he was working steadily and there were other opportunities, as well. In a “tryout” Sunday strip, he took a shot at Hall Foster’s Prince Valiant in a page that was published on Nov. 15, 1970. (Foster was then thinking of anointing a successor, a post that ultimately went to John Cullen Murphy.) Wood’s attempt to duplicate Foster’s understated, highly illustrated style was sober and credible. Wood got Foster’s careful inking style down cold, but could not match the older artist’s level of draftsmanship. Wood’s figures were short and stocky, and seemed doll-like instead of imposing. Simply put, Wood was miscast, but the mere opportunity to have a go at one of the greatest of all comic strips must surely have given him considerable satisfaction. The Prince Valiant job, plus Wood’s burst of comic book activity, probably helped to encourage him to marry again, in 1970. He moved with his new wife, Marilyn, to Valley Stream, Long Island, where things seemed happy for a time. But Marilyn suffered a miscarriage soon after and Wood found himself struggling to meet alimony payments to Tatjana. He was also deeply in hock to the IRS, an outfit notorious for being even less patient than ex-wives. In the early ’70s, he was forced to move his studio from Long Island to the Prospect Park area of Brooklyn. This was a small, tworoom place that did not bode well for his marriage. Wood dabbled in horror in ’71 and ’72 — or at least horror as it was timidly defined by DC at that time. The company’s signature spook books, House of Mystery and House of Secrets, had fallen into a rut of cliché and mild scares under the editorial guidance of Wood’s onetime drawing partner, Joe Orlando. Much of the art was by competent journeymen like Bill Draut, but the titles also provided an outlet for talented newcomers, including Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta. Wood’s appearances were infrequent, but they shone like beacons. The shame was that the scripts he illustrated were tired and weak. A typical story, “The Eagle’s Talon,” appeared in House of Secrets #91 [Apr. ’71]. In it, the ruthless dictator of a banana republic executes a rebel leader called El Aguila (The Eagle), a fellow who inexplicably sports a gigantic bird’s talon grafted onto one of his arms. El Aguila vows vengeance and — imagine! — he gets some. Gerry Conway was later credited as writer and Jerry Grandenetti as penciler and at least Wood seemed to enjoy embellishing the sweating, porcine dictator. Wood had better luck with “The Monster” [House of Secrets #96, Feb. ’72], a predictable but laudably terse six-page story written by Jack Oleck, a prolific scripter who had been recruited by AI Feldstein to write EC horror stories when Feldstein felt himself running out of time and ideas. The title character is a normal little boy who is tormented and pursued by mutated doctors and nurses who insist he is the monster. Captured at story’s end, the little boy’s delusion is revealed: it is he who is the misshapen mutant, not the adults who wish to help him adjust. Well, if “The Monster” was to EC horror what Night Gallery was to The Twilight Zone, it succeeds because of Wood’s brilliant art. The boy’s imagined world isn’t merely populated by hideous mutants, but is also a place of harsh, unforgiving, institutional lighting; deep shadows in the streets and alleys outside the hospital; and adults who imprison rather than help. Wood’s mutant concepts are so Woodian, you can’t help but grin. The head physician has a bald, boil-covered forehead, bulging eyeballs, and distended nostrils, from which exit nasty looking tendrils; the nurse has a triangular, lip-less mouth 21

and enormous, dark eyes that gleam with an insectoid sheen. One orderly is slope-brewed and ape-like, another has a face like a grinning skull. Passers-by on the street are a polyglot of well-dressed humanoid dragons, crabs, and cyclops. The lumpy flesh of all these adults is a delicate, sickly green. And the vulnerability of the terrified boy, the fear on his face, are hard to look at without wincing. Never again would Wood’s work in a color comic come as close to equaling the raw power of his EC output.

Wood was among the guests of honor at the EC Fan-Addict Convention, held in New York, in the summer of 1972. He drew and lettered a knockout SF cover for the convention’s program book, and allowed himself to be filmed at work by ad man/actor Pablo Ferro, who hoped to assemble a documentary from the 40 hours of footage he ultimately shot. Although nothing came of the project, Wood and Ferro became friends. Wood had become almost nomadic by the early ’70s. When he moved to New York’s 84th Street some time during those years, he accomplished the task with the help of a fan #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All-Star Comics TM & © DC Comics. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide © Robert Overstreet. Woodwork © the Wallace Wood Estate. Heroes, Inc. TM & © the respective copyright holder.

The summer of 1972 brought the first issue of Marvel’s The Cat [Nov. ’72], another busty-babe-in-Spandex who was heralded (in Stan Lee’s inimitable hyperbole) as “a new Marvel landmark.” She certainly was not that, but Wood worked magic with his inking of Marie Severin’s cartoony, rather too-cute pencils. As was to be expected when Wood inked a lesser pencil artist, The Cat is dominated by him; Severin almost seems a footnote. And the Cat’s sexy appearance, although a trite, male-fantasy element of comic books, became nothing if not luscious beneath Wood’s brush. (The Cat ran for four issues, but Wood’s involvement was limited to the first.) The most interesting of Wood’s output in the early 1970s was done in ’70–71 for Overseas Weekly, a newspaper for American servicemen stationed abroad. Wood was once described by Screw as “one of the horniest men alive” — a reasonable assessment that suggests that his OW strips, Sally Forth and Cannon, tickled him as much as his readers. Sally Forth was a sexy, bubble-headed blonde who was a) perpetually in a jam, and b) perpetually naked. Her antagonists included mad scientists, swordsmen, space aliens, gangsters, bra-less feminists (Sally, at one point, unwittingly becomes the “titular head” of their crusade), jungle lords, Central American revolutionaries, super-heroes, pygmies, and nude harem girls. Sally was helped (or is it hindered?) in her escapades by a diminutive, childlike officer called Q.P. and an extraterrestrial called the Snork, a tiny, hairless fellow with eye stalks, an overhanging upper lip, and a distended navel in a round tummy. Although Wood brought his usual flair for Ben-Day screens, mechanical detail, and female pulchritude to the strip (surely no other comics artist has approached Wood’s skill at drawing naked breasts), his art was whimsically cartoonish. As a result, Sally seemed inviting rather than intimidating; she was a character hard to dislike. Wood clearly had fun with the scripts. When Sally and the Snork see each other for the first time (after Sally’s rocketship has crash-landed on Mars) the Snork says, “Greps no kapootie.” Sally is impressed: “Hey! Where did you learn to speak French?” In another Sally storyline, our heroine meets Superbman who, in his alter-ego as Daily Panic reporter Clark Coward, sits around the office gazing at the naked flesh of his female co-workers; “This would be a pretty dull job without X-ray vision,” he chuckles. The other Overseas Weekly strip, Cannon, had been introduced in Heroes, Inc., a handsome, color comic book Wood had produced for the armed forces, in 1969, with art assists from Steve Ditko (who penciled the first Cannon adventure) and Ralph Reese. (The book’s other features were the SF strip The Misfits and Dragonella, a slightly less-sexy predecessor to Sally Forth). The second incarnation of Cannon was light years away from Sally Forth. Tough, violent, and misogynistic, the feature combined Cold War politics with the blunt force of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer. Storylines brought the eponymous anti-hero into conflict with private militias, neo-Nazis, power-crazed Arabs, and murderous Red Chinese. Government agent John Cannon battled them all, exhibiting many of the qualities Wood admired: great phys-

ical courage, a glib tongue, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. But Cannon is also a cold man who, as opposed to Sally Forth, is hard to like, so the strip often relied on a secondary character, a lean chain smoker called Weasel, to involve the reader emotionally. Weasel is an obvious variation on Weed, the nicotine addict Wood had created for Tower Comics. Both characters seem much like Wood himself. Although nearly as tough as Cannon — in one hilarious sequence, Weasel shoots down a Russian MiG while piloting a bi-plane! — and just as skilled as bedding beautiful women, Weasel is neither as smart about females as Cannon, nor as cruel to them. Where Cannon tells one girlfriend to get lost after she claims he’s made her pregnant, Weasel forgives his woman after she has repeatedly cheated on him. And another doll, whom Weasel has bedded on impulse, shoots him and leaves him for dead, something Cannon would never have allowed, and that makes the yin and yang dynamic of these two strong male characters intriguing. The strip’s generally negative view of women may be viewed as Wood’s pandering to young, emotionally immature servicemen who followed the adventures of Cannon. (Of particular interest is that not only do the strip’s women act pretty much alike, they look alike except for hair color, implying that one woman is essentially indistinguishable from — and thus the same—as another.) The strip’s misogynistic attitude was more forceful than it really needed to be, which suggests that Wood was manipulating his female characters to work out personal anger. But that’s no revelation — writers and artists of every stripe do that all the time. Viewed purely in comic art terms, Cannon is brilliant, and recalls the care and detail of Wood’s EC days, but by now with the artist’s vastly improved draftsmanship and his even keener grasp of visual storytelling. For years, Wood kept file cabinets that bulged with reference photos of figures, automobiles, aircraft, buildings, machinery — anything that might one day give a Wood job the visual authenticity his readers expected. Wood made good use of a lot of this material in Cannon, delineating physical objects with marvelous realism, and placing them in the context of his special sort ol action and drama. Cannon is as confident of its excellence as anything Wood ever produced, and is the last truly great work he did. To stay ahead of deadlines for installments of Sally Forth and Cannon demanded a tremendous effort from Wood and his assistants (two of whom, Ralph Reese and Larry Hama, appear as characters in Cannon). Another assistant, Nick Cuti, recalled mentioning to Wood that a deadline would be blown unless the team resorted to standard, time-saving shortcuts: extreme closeups, silhouettes, two-shots, figures standing alone in empty, borderless panels. Wood agreed (he had once prepared a three-page primer of such visual devices), but when Cuti showed up at the studio the next day he found Wood laboring over art that was careful, detailed, and completely devoid of time-saving tricks. Cuti asked Wood what had become of the shortcuts they had discussed. Wood offered a weary smile and said, “Maybe next time.”

The Marvel Comics Art of Wally Wood TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All other items TM & © the Wallace Wood Estate.

who owned a truck. Wood paid the fellow with a set of the first thirty issues of MAD. As always, Wood was followed to his new digs by Reese, Hama, Cuti, Paul Kirchner, and his other assistants, all of whom were eager to work alongside a master. A new comic book company, bankrolled by Martin Goodman (the man who had founded Marvel Comics in 1939) began operations late in ’74 and offered Wood another outlet for freelance work. This was Atlas/Seaboard, which was controlled by Goodman (who had left Marvel a few years after new owners arrived in 1968), his son Chip, and artist-writer Larry Lieber, brother of Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee. The elder Goodman was ambitious and obviously dreamed that Atlas/Seaboard would rival Marvel. Contrary to good business practice, the new company’s titles were not brought onto the already-crowded marketplace slowly, but in a tremendous burst that introduced more than 20 in the span of a few months. Name the genre, and Atlas had a comic book — and usually more than one — that exploited it: horror, sword-&-sorcery, teen, super-hero, police, science-fiction, adventure, martial arts. The Atlas/Seaboard comics had a carefully cultivated Marvel “look” — not surprising, since many of the new company’s artists had worked for Marvel in the past: Rich Buckler, Howard Chaykin, Frank Thorne, Steve Ditko, and Wood, who did perfunctory inking over Ditko’s pencils in #1 and 2 of The Destructor [Feb. and Apr. ’75]. Other Atlas freelancers included Ernie Colón, Russ Heath, Carlos Garzon, and Howard Nostrand, the fellow who had swiped Wood’s dueling knights twenty years earlier. The sudden explosion of Atlas/Seaboard comics overwhelmed buyers, and even those who did purchase the books didn’t have a chance to grow loyal to all of them because some of the books changed titles, or their protagonists changed costumes, after two or three issues. It was all moot after the summer of ’75, when the Atlas/Seaboard line departed, taking with it Martin Goodman’s comeback dream and a potentially lucrative market for Wood.

Wood moved again, at about this time, to a minuscule, one-room studio apartment in Manhattan. He subsequently relocated to Derby, Connecticut, where he hoped to resume self-publishing. For the moment, that was the dream that sustained him, for his marriage to Marilyn had ended. A photograph of Wood snapped at this time catches him outside his house, hefting an enormous crossbow in his large hands. His eyes — narrow, even in his youth — were now mere slits surrounded by puffy flesh. Thick veins are visible in his temple. He looks bloated and tired. Drinking had become a major problem for Wood, and it was growing worse. When under the influence, he would occasionally stumble and hurt himself, and sometimes his behavior became violent and unreasoning. He met deadlines because of his remarkable ability to bear down, and because of his knack for attracting eager, young assistants. Wood saw a psychiatrist off and on, and struggled to stay focused. He created a second volume of Heroes, Inc. (this one in black-&-white), in 1976. Then, not long after the move to Derby, Wood suffered a stroke, which temporarily robbed him of his vision in one eye and left him physically weakened. As he recovered, he maintained his spirits with preparations to return to self-publishing. He took the step in ’78, when he reprinted the Sally Forth and Cannon strips in a quality, 10" x 12" format. He also inaugurated a chatty newsletter, The Woodwork Gazette, which was replaced after three issues, in the spring of ’79, by a fan club called FOO (Friends of Odkin). Wood was proud of the up-sized Cannon and Sally, and proud that he was able to publish them in a form attractive to collectors. In an editorial in CanCOMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

non #1, Wood wrote, “After a good deal of thought, I have decided to become my own publisher.” Upon enumerating the advantages of joining FOO — which included an original Wood drawing of Sally, Snorky, or his pixie characters, Odkin and Nudine — he added, “I think it’s a good deal. Besides all that [the premiums], you will have the knowledge that you are supporting free enterprise, that you are, in fact, a patron of the arts… My first love is, and always will be, comics. My dream is to publish what I draw, and draw what I publish.” The editorial goes on to describe member access to Wood’s roughs, layouts, and other unpublished material, “plus some of my literary efforts, including an essay on art directors and editors entitled ‘The Big Blue Pencil.”’ Wood made no secret of his loathing of people who stood between him and the fulfillment of his creative muse. He once told his assistant and friend, Bhob Stewart, “An editor is someone dedicated to destroying the work of a creator.”

At this time, Wood’s major project was The Wizard King, a continuation of characters he had introduced in witzend #4, in 1968. This time, he gave the concept grand treatment, publishing it as a 44-page, black-&-white hardcover comic book with illustrated endpapers and a full-color dust jacket. Wood financed the project with his earnings from mainstream comics work. The Wizard King is a happy pastiche of Scandinavian folklore, L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, Snow White, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, classical mythology, and Arthurian legend. The protagonist is Odkin, an elf-like member of the lmmi race, and another of Wood’s small, but determined, males. Although Odkirn — and the other lmmi — exist in the middle of sorcerers, demons, and other terrors, they try their best to remain uninvolved. Sexual activity is the primary way the lmmi keep themselves occupied. Wood’s narrative relates, “The lmmi had no words for things like seduction or rape, for their women were extremely willing… not to say enthusiastic and eager. In fact, none of them had ever been known to say no. This proclivity may, in part, have accounted for the happy stagnation of their culture.” When Odkin is approached by the wizard Alacazar to do battle with the sorcerer Amnot, Odkin patiently explains, “I’m afraid I place a certain value on my life, which prevents my being wholeheartedly concerned with the fate of the world.” A caption adds, “The lmmi did have a word for ‘hero,’ but it was the same word that was used for ‘fool.’” This good-natured cynicism perfectly sums up one aspect of Wood’s character. Significantly, though, Odkin does, ultimately, set out to do good, assisted by a reptilian sidekick, Weer, and transported by a magical, winged galley (a marvelous notion that had appeared in Wood’s sketchbooks decades earlier). In time, Odkin becomes committed to Amnot’s destruction, which sets him apart from another character, Aron, a handsome warrior who would have been the hero in anyone’s story except Wood’s. Because Aron only pretends to be heroic (he’s mainly flippant and self-centered), he is considerably less honest than Odkin, and thus, less likable. The Wizard King was carefully designed and rendered in a style that combines the detail of Wood’s EC work with the whimsy of Sally Forth. Reflecting on it later, Wood said, “It was the closest I’ve come to the real stuff.” The Wizard King was a marvelous achievement but, if Wood hoped to see any real money from it, he was disappointed, particularly when a deal to serialize it in Heavy Metal magazine fell through. Wood’s editorial in Cannon #3 elaborated on the perils of self-financed publishing: “Somehow I’m going to have to figure out how to do a second Wizard King book, and pay my bills. The first book took six months of concentrated work; with no time to do anything 23

And yet much of what he said and wrote throughout his professional career suggests that, if he was not sorry, he was indisputably frustrated, 24

maddeningly so. In an editorial published in a 1978 issue of The Woodwork Gazette, Wood lectured, “The world is composed of two kinds of people, those who create things and those who deface them. The latter category includes all editors, art directors, critics, and not a few publishers. They achieve these positions of power by the fact that they cannot do anything, and have an abiding hatred for those that can. They want and seek power because of this drive, and wind up being your bosses by virtue of the fact that they can’t do anything… except mess things up. “So my advice is, don’t be a creator.” Wood had, undoubtedly, been abused and exploited by no-talents during his career. And yet his words carry more than a suggestion of self-pity. Clearly, a good editor or art director — and such people do exist — can be an immeasurable help to an artist or writer. And Wood knew this. He could not have forgotten the freedom allowed him by the ad agency art director in charge of the Alka-Seltzer print campaign, or the editorial talents of Harvey Kurtzman and AI Feldstein, or the “go your own way” artistic philosophy of publisher Bill Gaines. Intelligent, sensitive guidance of creative talents is, itself, a creative act. Wood’s expressed unhappiness, while grounded in bitter experience, admitted to only part of the story, and so, was disingenuous. His problem, simply, was his inability or unwillingness to communicate effectively in ways other than through his art. Will Elder once said, “There was a very quiet warmth about Wally that l liked… There was a need of showing his sensitivity through his work, since I don’t think Wally had the personality to show it any other way.” Another EC veteran, artist George Evans, recalled, “He struck me, from the start, as being the most serious man alive.” Bill Gaines remembered, “Woody was moody, on occasion, and he was difficult to get close to. It was hard to become a good friend of his, but, when you got to know him, you realized that, underneath it all, he was a sweet guy with a heart of gold, and very lovable. It just took you a while to get to know Wally.” Wood was part of numerous discussion panels at the 1972 EC Fan-Addict convention, but contributed very little to the byplay between the EC veterans and their fans. He mainly sat, squinting through a perpetual haze of cigarette smoke, offering an occasional remark but otherwise content to let Gaines and Kurtzman dominate the discussions. If that frustrated Wood, it was nobody’s fault but his own. In 1980 and ’81, Bill Crouch published The Wallace Wood Sketchbooks, a two-volume, paper-bound set, printed on high-quality, cotton-fiber stock. After Wood’s death, Marvel and Warren issued special all-Wood reprint comics, and additional sketchbook material appeared in the eighth issue of John Benson’s EC fanzine, Squa Tront, in 1983. Wood’s EC art has been collected, since 1978, in Russ Cochran’s top-quality, hardcover reprints of the entire EC output. Today, every comic in which Wood’s work appears is avidly collected and original Wood art commands enormous prices in catalogs and at auction. He was elected to the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1989, and to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1992. Wood is acknowledged as, perhaps, the greatest talent ever to work in comics. Because his career was not all he had hoped it would be, and because his life ended sadly, it’s tempting to eulogize Wood in a sober, regretful way. But then you recall the antic humor of his work for MAD, the obvious joy he poured into his EC science-fiction stories; his loving delineation of beautiful women, the numberless sketchbooks that a boy filled with visions of intrigue and fantastic adventure. You recall all of this, and the bleak aspects of Wood’s life seem less significant. Perhaps the best possible eulogy is a gag Wood tossed into the splash panel of his “Superduperman” story published in MAD. The gag is a poster, slapped onto a brick wall behind the main action. Seen in profile, is a boyish cartoonist, working at his drawing board, a cigarette stuck between his lips. The words beneath the self-portrait are: “When better drawrings are drawrn, they’ll be drawrn by Wood. He’s real gone.” The signature is rendered, of course, in the familiar, lower-case, Old English. The whole thing was unabashed sell-promotion, but the hell of it is that Wood was telling the God’s truth. #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Illustration TM & © E.C. Publications, Inc.

else. SO… Join FOO! […] Or forever reconcile yourselves to seeing nothing but Marvel comics.” The second Wizard King volume, to be called Table Top Land, was never published. However, Wood entertained other project ideas in 1978–79. He sang and played the guitar, and planned an album, Wally Wood Sings. He hoped to develop FOO into a moneymaking enterprise. More significantly, he married for the third time, in ’78. He and his new wife, a woman named Muriel, moved into a house in West Haven, Connecticut. Despite the fright of the stroke, Wood continued to drink. As his vision returned, and his hand steadied, he put final touches on Wally Wood’s Weird Sex-Fantasy, an enormous, signed and numbered, limited-edition portfolio (2,000 copies) of eleven black-&-white illustrations, printed on quality, archival stock and wrapped in a textured, red case with stamped, gold lettering. The individual drawings were handsome, and similar to the science fiction work Wood had done for EC, except for their cheerful sexual content. One of the illustrations, “Freeball,” is set inside the gadget-covered hull of a rocketship, where a nude man and woman couple in zero gravity. In another drawing, “Horizon,” a spaceman blasts a tentacled alien, just as the creature is about to violate a naked beauty. The detail and obvious care Wood brought to this illustration (which was also gold-stamped onto the portfolio cover) is almost touching: despite his strained circumstances, Wood could not allow himself to give his fans anything less than his best. In 1980, Wood moved from Connecticut to a tiny, untidy apartment in Syracuse, New York. Accounts are unclear as to whether Muriel went with him, but a reasonable guess is that she did not. While in Syracuse, Wood began doing a black-&-white sex comic, Wally Wood’s Gang Bang, for a Los Angeles publisher. (Earlier, Wood had contributed to an “underground comic” called Big Apple Comics, so his move into “adult” publishing was not a new experience.) Gang Bang was a modern-day iteration of the old “Tijuana bibles” — the “eight-pagers” your uncle used to keep in his sock drawer — which featured Popeye oiling Olive Oyl, and other comics characters in similar acts. Wood’s spin on this was to take familiar fairy tales and interpret them in the spirit of the old eight-pagers. So, for example, Snow White learns from the Seven Dwarfs that there’s an important distinction between height and length. The art quality on the early Gang Bang stories is good, and Wood seemed pleased to be able to draw the female body in all its aspects. But, because the work was hardcore, it was merely explicit instead of sexy. While in Syracuse, Wood was stricken by hypertension and incipient renal failure. In August 1981, anxious to escape the winter chill and to be nearer his publisher, he moved to a small apartment in Van Nuys, California. By this time, Gang Bang had been joined by Lunar Tunes. Wood’s art had become literally shaky. It was the work of a terribly ill man, and not pleasant to look at. Wood’s kidney problem became more severe shortly after his arrival on the West Coast and, in Sept. ’81, he spent time in a hospital’s intensive care unit. He suffered a series of strokes that impaired his speech, and was scheduled to begin dialysis. The thought of being hooked to a machine horrified Wood, and he spoke to friends about handling his situation himself, his own way. On Halloween evening, 1981, Wood entered his apartment, alone. On Nov. 3rd, the scheduled date of his first dialysis treatment, his body was discovered in the apartment. He had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Three years before his death, Wood admitted, “Working in comics is like sentencing yourself to a life at hard labor in solitary confinement. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t do it… and yet, I’m not sorry for where I am.”

Stilt-Man, Daredevil TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Iron Maiden TM & © THUNDER Agency LLC. Dateline strip © Fred Hembeck.

COLORS BY GLENN WHITMORE

character design of Daredevil and the related launch of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Wood’s work began appearing in EC Comics in 1950 and he soon proved to be the company’s “talent to watch” as he mastered every genre; horror in Tales From the Crypt, war in Two-Fisted Tales, ground-breaking morality plays in Shock SuspenStories, and especially science-fiction — which Wood and Harrison had convinced EC to try — with Weird Science. Wood was quickly recognized as America’s top sci-fi comics talent. This did not go unnoticed by Eisner, who invited Wood back in a last-ditch attempt to save The Spirit. When Wood appeared in the first issue of MAD, in 1952, he was already a star. Wood began a historic 12-year run on what would become one of America’s most popular magazines. It was Wood and Al Feldstein who saved MAD from cancellation when Hugh Hefner wooed Harvey Kurtzman away. By the late-‘50s, Wood, as MAD’s award-winning superstar, was a bigger name than traditional comic book creators and he was also illustrating books and magazines by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, etc. Jack Kirby then invited the artist to collaborate on the Sky Masters of the Space Force newspaper strip. No less than Neal Adams has noted that it was thanks to Wood’s embellishment of Jack Kirby when Adams first came to truly appreciate Kirby. Upon creating the Mars Attacks trading card series with Len Brown and Woody Gelman for Topps Chewing Gum Company, Wood left MAD (which was selling well over two million copies per issue to return) to traditional comic-book work at Marvel, where the top Kirby and Ditko titles, Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, were selling only a tenth as many as MAD. Wood created the risqué spy strip Pussycat for the mens magazines for Marvel’s parent company. For the “House of Ideas,” it was decided that Wood would invigorate the then-foundering new title Daredevil, which had lost co-creator Bill Everett after #1. Stan Lee was thrilled to add such a famous talent as Wood, thus completing a titanic triumvirate of talents: Kirby, Ditko, and Wood. With this stellar line-up, Marvel consistently broke new ground through Wood’s 1964–65 Marvel tenure. With unprecedented heraldry, the cover of Daredevil #5 announced, “Under the brilliant artistic craftsmanship of famous illustrator Wally Wood, Daredevil reaches new heights of glory!” No hyperbole here, Wood rocked the super-hero world by instantly making improvements to the feature. Inside, Stan explained that Wood decided to redesign “portions of DD’s costume” (Note that this is the first time Marvel refers to Daredevil as “DD” and it is because Wood changed the costume from a single D on his chest to an interlocking double-D!). In the title’s letters pages, the editor addressed Wood’s creating of villains like Mister Fear, Stilt-Man, and most importantly, as Wood surprised the world in 1965, an entirely new red character design. As the change came totally unexpected by Marvel, Wood had to stay in the office and re-draw — from the black and yellow costume to Wood’s new red design — #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

This page and next: Above is a detail from penciler Jack Kirby and inker Bill Everett’s figure gracing the cover of Daredevil #1 [Apr. 1964], featuring the Man without Fear’s original yellow-&-red costume. Below is the cover blurb from Daredevil #5, the first of Wallace Wood’s outstanding run on the title, which trumpets the creator’s arrival. Next page features a cover detail from Daredevil #10 [Oct. 1965], perfectly encapsulating the innovative changes implemented by Woody — a completely red costume and clever double-D chest emblem. Far right is poster promoting the Netflix series’ second season.

In league with Marvel Studios, Netflix broke new ground in 2015 with the all-new, streaming broadcast premiere of the live action show Daredevil. The series’ first two seasons are huge hits and at the forefront of one of the most exciting new trends happening in the entertainment industry. But along with all the raves has come an ironic controversy. Though Netflix/Marvel credit a host of comics creators who have contributed in one way or another, to Daredevil over the years, one supremely important name is conspicuously missing: WALLACE (“Wally”) WOOD. Comments started flooding the Internet soon after the first episode’s premiere from fans and creators alike. The slight is particularly ironic as 2015 was the 50th Anniversary of Wood’s legendary surprise debut of his red Daredevil character design! Marvel Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Daredevil writer, and Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway said, “Of course, Wally Wood deserves credit on Netflix and all Daredevil TV and film.” On April 13, 2015, legendary author-editor — including Daredevil with Frank Miller — Dennis O’Neil shared on Facebook, “I was happy to see Bill Everett recognized [at the opening of Netflix’s Daredevil series], but Woody [Wallace ‘Wally’ Wood] surely deserves the same.” Many, including those cited, feel Wood’s contributions to Daredevil are so vital to the essence of the character, that he be credited, not at the end of Daredevil TV and film projects but, up front along with Bill Everett and Stan Lee, who launched the very first issue of Daredevil. For the uninitiated, Eisner Award Hall of Fame creator, Wallace (“Wally”) Wood (June 17, 1927–Nov. 2, 1981) was a fast-living, hard-drinking, fiercely independent man who packed several lifetimes into his 54 years. That being said, Wood was also a quiet individual who chose to speak primarily through his work as a writer-illustrator-cartoonist. Upon discharge from the Army’s 11th Airborne Paratroopers, at the end of World War II, Wood enrolled in the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts), in New York. Wood quickly moved on to assisting Will Eisner, prior to forming the original, late-1940s Wood Studio with Harry Harrison, Joe Orlando, Ed McLean, et al. The studio churned out crime, Western, romance… pretty much everything but super-heroes as they had suddenly, lost all popularity. Rather than discussing Wood’s seductive Sally Forth, Power Girl, and Vampirella work, or his groundbreaking publishing with witzend magazine and the Wizard King graphic novels, or even his trademark “Panels That Always Work,” we review and celebrate more than half a century of Wood’s explosion into the world of super-heroes, with a look at Wood’s road to, and through, his creative development and 1965 red

Daredevil TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Wood Estate Director J. David Spurlock examines 50+ Years Since Wallace Wood’s Daring Reinvention of the Man Without Fear! Daredevil’s guest appearances in Kirby’s Fantastic Four #39. Wood defended the change by saying it was ridiculous for the “Man Without Fear” to be dressed in yellow, the color of cowardice! Wood meant so much to the series that Marvel called the artist, “Kid Daredevil Himself, Wally Wood,” on the 45 rpm vinyl record, The Voices of Marvel Comics, and it was used on the headline to the 1971 Rolling Stone magazine article on the comics company. Gerry Conway called Wood “essential to any list of Daredevil creators,” and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Roy Thomas said, “Wood’s contributions to Daredevil were crucial to [the character’s] early success.” Writer Mark Waid said, “If it weren’t for Wally Wood, Daredevil would have been canceled by #6.” Wood confirmed to Mark Evanier that he also plotted his Daredevil issues, including #7’s “In Mortal Combat with Sub-Mariner,” a saga Lee called one of his “all-time favorite stories… truly monumental.” Longtime Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter called that saga nothing less than “revolutionary.” In their book, Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe, Lee and Roy Thomas call the DD/Subby clash a “defining moment of the new Marvel Universe.” If that landmark comic book story is a defining moment of the entire Marvel mythos, imagine what it is for the character! Colin Smith said Wood’s Daredevil is “defined not by who he defeats so much as by his stubborn refusal to bow down to the most overwhelmingly fearsome of opponents,” and that this theme continues through the Frank Miller run and most of the best Daredevil stories to this very day. In one year, Wood brought Daredevil from nearly-canceled bi-monthly to a monthly hit. That success continued through Romita’s handful of post-Wood issues, but the title soon slipped back to bi-monthly status when it soldiered on for years, only to return again to being a bona fide hit, over a decade later, under Frank Miller. Because Wood was in such great demand from other publishers and advertising clients, Marvel couldn’t get as much as they wanted. Wood’s building of Daredevil, as well as Kirby and Wood’s mutual admiration, inspired talks of Wood taking over the then-foundering X-Men, over Kirby layouts. His appearance in DD #7 led to Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, landing his own Tales to Astonish feature a couple of months later. After Wood had proved his creative prowess on their ilk at Marvel, he started creating all sorts of heroes and villains for other venues, whether for Wham-O, Harvey, or Tower Comics. Relations with Stan Lee had faltered as touchy issues arose. To manage his oppressive workload and to increase his own creativity, Lee had developed the “Marvel Method,” wherein he would provide the artist the briefest of synopsis to be totally fleshed-out into a 20-page comic by the delineator, after which the editor added or polished final dialogue. Lee quickly determined which artists were best plotters and, as time went on, he relied upon them — primarily Jack Kirby — more and more, allowing him time to focus on the artists less adept at plotting “from scratch,” as John Romita, Sr., called it. It’s no surprise that COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

the best co-plotters in ’64-‘65 were his top three talents, Kirby, Ditko, and Wood. But all three felt they should be credited/compensated as co-authors. In Comic Book Marketplace #63 [Oct. 1998], Ditko said that, by 1965, “Stan never knew what was in my plotted stories until I took in the penciled story, the cover, my script and Sol Brodsky took the material from me and took it all into Stan’s office.” In his 1980 interview with Mark Evanier, Wood said, “I enjoyed working with Stan on Daredevil but for one thing. I had to make up the whole story. I felt that I was writing the book but not being paid for writing.” In Shel Dorf’s interview with the creator published in The Buyers Guide, Wood said, “I offered NoMan to Stan Lee once, and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good. I would use it if I could find a way of taking credit for it!’” Also, Wood, like Ditko and Kirby — see Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko — understood that they were to receive royalties, that never materialized, based upon comic-book sales and licensing, an aspect that was exploded during those years of the “Marvel Age” and Batmania. Then came the offer Wood could not refuse: Tower Books wanted to cash-in on that super-hero boom and recruited Wood as their key man and serve as freelance editor/creative director. Wood walked away from Daredevil, never knowing how his work would influence Frank Miller and others or that his red costume would be a hit to last the ages. Wood launched many of his new creations as the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. In a few months, Ditko followed. Wood and his growing crew of top-notch talents produced the longest running super-hero series of the Silver Age outside of the “Big Two,” with spin-off titles and adjacent merchandising, which has inspired continued activity all through the decades until this very day. For Tower, Wood told The Comics Reader, “I was a freelance editor.” In The Woodwork Gazette, the artist explained, “I created all the [T-Agents] characters, wrote most of the stories, and drew most of the covers [and] did as much of the art as I could.” 27

Courtesy of über Wallace Wood fan Ronn Sutton (and a few from Heritage Auctions), here’s a gallery of rarely seen work by the master himself, Woody!

Our Fighting Forces TM & © DC Comics. Stamp art © the Wallace Wood Estate. Pageant © the respective copyright holder.

Above: While his brief stint on the DC Comics’ war titles come nowhere near the caliber of his EC Comics work in the same genre, Wallace Wood did contribute a nice handful of stories to the publisher of Superman in the mid-’50s. This is from Our Fighting Forces #10 [May 1956]. Right: Extremely rare rubber stamps were produced in 1980 in an effort to raise funds for Woody. Far right: A spread from one of three original comic stories Wood drew for Pageant magazine in the mid-’60s, this one titled “America’s Entertainment Explosion” (written by Sy Reit, co-creator of Casper, the Friendly Ghost, and MAD magazine writer). 28

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All material TM & © the respective copyright holders.

This page: Clockwise from above: Woody’s mom saved favorite art from his youth, including these drawings, one featuring a self-portrait; gags for the reverse of the unproduced Captain Nice trading card set (the mid-’60s TV super-hero sitcom was quickly cancelled as the Batman craze was subsiding); contributor Ronn Sutton shares that he’s only seen one other rough for Wood’s tryout for the U.S. Army P*S Magazine assignment and that this page was nearly destroyed by fire at Bill Pearson’s home years later; and lunch box art by Wood for Fireball XL5, a science-fiction themed children’s TV puppet show featuring the dauntless Colonel Steve Zodiac!

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Left: Illustration for Galaxy magazine, Vol. 17, #1 [Nov. 1958], accompanying Robert Sheckley’s short story, “Time Killer.” 30

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Flash Gordon TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Galaxy magazine © the respective copyright holder.

Above: Wallace Wood channeled his very best Alex Raymond in this little-seen take on the legendary space opera hero, Flash Gordon, in a back-up story hidden in the rear pages of King Comics’ The Phantom #18 [Sept. 1966].

All material TM & © the respective copyright holder.

This page: For one brief, shining moment in comics history, legendary creator Joe Simon was in charge of Harvey Comics’ “Thriller” comics line, and he recruited Wood to produce a back-up series for Warfront. Wood’s “Dollar Bill Cash” (left) has an uncanny likeness, eh?

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

SPECIAL THANKS TO RONN SUTTON! CBC extends a tip o’ the hat to our fine portrait illustrator for his great help with Wood rarities in this ish! Dig the Dynamo versus Martians illo the artist rendered exclusively for us!

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Artwork © the Wallace Wood Estate. Mars Attacks characters TM & © Topps Chewing Gum Company. Dynamo, NoMan TM & © THUNDER Agency LLC.

This page: In 1967, Ralph Bakshi became an animation director at Paramount Pictures and recruited top comic book talent to pitch ideas — Steranko (Super Agent X), Larry Ivie (Altron Boy), and Gray Morrow — and Wood sketched out ideas (including these) for Fearless Ferris. Bakshi’s tenure did not last and Wood later integrated certain aspects into “The Misfits” (seen in Heroes, Inc.) and “The Rejects” (witzend).

T H E

S A L V A T I O N

O F

An Artist’s Fifty Year Affair With Illustration

One Year Affair TM & © the respective copyright holder.

Back in the 1970s, the artistry of Ralph Warren Reese, protégé of Wallace Wood and one of the Young Turk creators emerging during that era, was absolutely everywhere. Whether gracing the pages of the black-&-white horror magazines and color anthologies, or inside National Lampoon and its innumerable knock-offs, or embellishing the legendary Gil Kane’s pencils on his Marvel Comics cover assignments, and even within the occasional underground comix, the guy was producing exquisite work, so much so he was honored with the Shazam Award in both 1973 and ’74 for “Best Inker” by the Academy of Comic Book Artists. Teaming with Byron Preiss, Reese was probably most widely recognized for his art on their NatLamp collaboration One Year Affair and in that mag’s spot-on MAD parody (where he expertly imitated mentor Wood’s style). This talk occurred at the artist’s Cape Cod home. 34

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INTE R V IEW C O N DU C T E D BY

Jon B. Cooke

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

B Y

Steven Thompson

Art © Ralph Reese.

Comic Book Creator: Where you from, Ralph? Ralph Reese: New York City. I grew up on the East Side of Manhattan when it was still called Yorkville, before it became the Upper East Side and was gentrified. This was when the Third Avenue El was still there. I come from a working class neighborhood — mostly Irish, Italian, Polack. My father was the building superintendent in a tenement there. CBC: What was your father’s name? Ralph: Conrad. CBC: And your mom? Ralph: Marilyn. CBC: What was her maiden name? Ralph: Graves. CBC: What’s your ethnicity? Ralph: Yankee. My grandparents used to be very proud of the fact that they had relatives that fought in the Civil War and all that sh*t, but that never meant a thing to me. CBC: Did you have siblings? Ralph: I have a brother, Bruce, who is a year younger than me and lives in Pennsylvania now, does social work. I had a sister, Roxanne, who died about ten years ago. CBC: Was she older or younger? Ralph: Younger. CBC: Where are you in the family? Ralph: I’m the oldest son. CBC: What’s your middle name? Ralph: Warren. CBC: Any other people creative in your family? Ralph: No, not really. CBC: Not at all? Ralph: My father, you know, kind of fiddled around with stuff when he was young, and both of my parents had an interest in art and music. Considering that they basically led working class lives, they talked a lot about Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Mozart as opposed to Frank Sinatra. They were fairly cultured people. They both went to college, but

Previous page: Ralph Reese cover art for the One Year Affair trade paperback collection [1976]. Above: Reese’s professional calling card featuring now-defunct address and phone number. Right: Photo of the artist taken this winter at his Massachusetts abode. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

This page: On the upper portion are examples of young Ralph Reese’s creative contributions to his 1964 middle school yearbook, as well as a pic of the kid at 13 or so. At bottom left is a fanzine cover illo Ralph drew in the later ’60s, after taking on the position of assistant to legendary comic book artist Wallace Wood. During that era, the nascent artist helped put together one of the first prozines, Woody’s witzend, wherein Reese work also appeared.

sodes when I was about nine or ten or thereabouts. CBC: Was she institutionalized or was she home? Ralph: She was in and out, but basically what happened was it fell on me to pick up a lot of the slack, and do the things that she wasn’t able to do around the house. My dad was out working, so I would up having to do a lot of the super work and things like that. I worked for an allowance. I mean, my father paid me for doing these chores, but I woulda had to do ’em anyway, you know what I mean? It was that kind of deal. [laughs] CBC: You had two younger siblings, so you had to look after them, too? Ralph: Well, no, not that much, but I did get a lot of the super work pushed off on me. My brother was just a year younger than me, so I didn’t really have to watch out for him. CBC: What’d you have to do for the tenement work? Ralph: Well, I had to polish the brass in the vestibule, in the entryway, and all the brass mailboxes, door handles, and I had to sweep and wash the stairs, going up six flights. And I had to handle the garbage. We had dumbwaiters at that time. CBC: Was that the way the garbage would come down? Ralph: Correct. You’d bring up the dumbwaiter with the can in it and people would throw their stuff in the can and we’d bring it down. CBC: Did your basement have an incinerator? Ralph: No, we had to haul it up onto the sidewalk, so they could take it away. CBC: What was the address? Ralph: 336 East 67th Street. The building’s still there, but it’s been all renovated and all. CBC: Did you get down to Midtown a lot? Actually, you already were in Midtown, right? Ralph: Well, I was living right in the middle of it, so by the time I could get on a bus or ride the subway, I could go anywhere I wanted. That was one good thing about growing up in the city as opposed to the suburbs. In the ’burbs, you gotta depend on your parents to take you everywhere. If that were the case when I was growing up, we never would’ve gotten sh*t done! [laughs] But yeah, from the time I was old enough to cross the street by myself, I was gone. I spent a lot of time at museums there because, at that time, admission was free. Any kid could just walk in and wander around. CBC: All the museums, including the American Museum of Natural History… ? Ralph: Natural History and the Met were both totally free. You could just walk in there. You didn’t have a lot of rigmarole when you got in. But today they bleed you for, like, $25. #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

they had to drop out after us kids came along, so he wasn’t able to finish his education. CBC: So they started the family young? Ralph: Right. My mother was around 19 when I was born, and my father was, I guess, about 24. CBC: Do you know what he wanted to do, what he’d hoped to be? Ralph: He wanted to be an engineer. CBC: But he ended up being a super? Ralph: Well, no, that was his side job. During the day, he worked as an oil burner service man. CBC: Did you spend time with him? Ralph: Sure, we all lived together. CBC: For you, creatively, did you start getting interested in comic strips? Ralph: Well, I had a strong interest in art from the time I was even in elementary school because I seem to have demonstrated some talent for it, like when all the kids would be sitting down to draw something, my drawing would be the one that people “ooo’d” and “aaah’d” over or were impressed by so I had some natural talent even when I was young. I had an eye that I could copy what I saw. CBC: How old were you then? Ralph: It was between fourth and sixth grade when I started pursuing an interest in art and really trying to learn how to draw. CBC: Did your classmates know you as an artist? Ralph: Yes, they did. CBC: Did comics come into play at an early age? Ralph: I read and enjoyed comics from the time I was a kid, from the time I was big enough to read them. I was born in 1949, so the first comics I really grew up with was like the DC stuff with imaginary stories and Kirby and Ditko monsters — Googam, Son of Goom, [laughs] that kind of stuff. CBC: Did you get an allowance as a kid? Ralph: From the time I was… I don’t know. My mother got sick when I was young. She had a mental breakdown. She was a schizophrenic. She started having epi-

witzend TM & © the estate of Wallace Wood.

Costs you $100 to park. It’s crazy. CBC: Did you go to school? Ralph: I went to the High School of Art and Design. I had been in a special art class when I was in junior high school. When I got to ninth grade, they had special classes for music and for art, people who were talented in these areas. So I was in this special art class in ninth grade and my teacher, Miss Lee, there groomed all of us to either get into Music and Art or Art and Design high schools. Since I was figuring on a commercial career, I went with Art and Design. Art had the reputation of being more… “arty.” [laughter] CBC: Did you have to go through a process for that? Did you have to submit a portfolio? Ralph: Yes, but I had drawn half of my junior high school yearbook. CBC: Do you have it? Were you any good? Ralph: No! [laughter] I was good for a 13-year-old who didn’t know a damn thing about anything. [flipping through yearbook] Yeah, that’s me. This would be my earliest published work, you might say. [points to photo of teacher] I hated that guy. He was such a dick. He was! Thing is, he was a real rabid anti-communist and I made the mistake of saying maybe socialism wasn’t such a bad idea in one of his classes, so he gave me all these extra assignments to do just as punishment. CBC: This is junior high? What grade were you in? Ralph: Ninth grade. This is in the Bronx, where we had moved the year before. CBC: So you were in junior high the day President Kennedy was assassinated? You remember the day…? Ralph: Sure. We were all in shock. CBC: What’s your religion? Ralph: None. CBC: Even growing up, you didn’t have one? Ralph: Actually, my parents were both atheists, so I grew up that way. It cost me some. CBC: “Cost me some”? Ralph: Well, like I said it was an Irish/Italian/Polish neighborhood that I grew up in. There was a playground across the street, still is. You know, Julia Richmond High School had a playground out back where we used to go pretty much every day and play ball or whatever the season was. But almost all of them were Irish/Italian/Polish Catholics and a lot of them went to St. Catharine’s School, which was a block or two away from there, right? I mean, really, the vast majority of the neighborhood was Catholic. Once they found out that I didn’t believe, then I was in for a load of sh*t, y’know? Every time I went to that playground. [laughs] I finally gave up on it. I had a guy chase me around with an axe. CBC: Because you didn’t believe in God? Wow! That’s scary! How old were you? Ralph: I don’t know… 12 maybe? But yeah, I said, this is gettin’ too f*ckin’ serious here! I can’t come here anymore. So I had to stop playing sports because I couldn’t hang out anymore. After that, I spent my afternoons after school in the library. It wasn’t just that this kid chased me around with an axe, but there were 40 other kids standing around COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

cheering him. Gave me an education of the ugly side of human nature. [laughs] I needed one. CBC: What’s the age difference with your younger siblings? Ralph: I’m a year older than my brother, Bruce, and seven years older than Roxanne — who passed on. She was in her late 40s when she died. She had ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, so that was horrible and drawn out. Suffering. CBC: So your mom was in and out of institutions. Did she have periods of normalcy? Ralph: Well, no. Once she started having schizophrenic episodes, she was never the same person again. They got worse over time for a couple years and then they fried her f*ckin’ brain is what happened. They had her in state hospital and they gave her a lot of shock treatments and they turned her into a f*ckin’ zombie, y’know? Gradually, over the years, she recovered somewhat, but she was really never the same person again. CBC: How was your father affected by it? Ralph: He went crazy, he was just enraged. He couldn’t

Above: Two pages featuring young Ralph Reese’s artwork for Wallace Wood’s witzend prozine. On left are illustrations accompanying the editor’s poetry from #1 [1966], and at right is Reese art from #2 [’67].

Below: At left is the collage cover for witzend #1 [’66] and, at right, Ralph Reese’s cover for witzend #8 [’71], an issue that also included Reese’s collaboration with writer Bill Pearson (by then, the prozine’s publisher), “Barf, the Insurance Salesman.”

Above: Ralph Reese worked with mentor Wallace Wood on “The Misfits,” a strip appearing in the ill-fated Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, the 1969 comics anthology title published by Wood and intended to be sold in U.S. military post exchanges.

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Heroes, Inc. and related characters TM & © the estate of Wallace Wood.

handle it. He didn’t know how to handle it at all and he just became a bitter and angry man and started drinking more and more and beatin’ on us more and more. CBC: When you were children? Ralph: Yeah. It was ugly. CBC: Were you afraid to go home? Ralph: I was afraid of my father, for sure. I was terrified of him. He wanted me to be terrified of him! He deliberately terrified us. That was what he wanted. CBC: Did you have extended family you could go to for support? Ralph: I had grandparents who lived out in Queens. CBC: You didn’t have any places to feel protected? Ralph: No, not at all. CBC: That must’ve been very difficult. Ralph: Yep. [laughs] CBC: In retrospect, how do you look at it now, as part of your development? Ralph: Well, I feel sorry for my mother. She couldn’t help what happened to her. At the time, I hated her. She had abandoned us, y’know? She just wasn’t there anymore. I had a lot of anger about that, as well as a lot of anger toward my father, too. I guess I kind of came to grips with it over the years, but there are still a lot of scars there. I had

trouble with relationships all my life, you know, because of growing up that way. CBC: After you left home, did you maintain any contact with your father? Ralph: I kept seeing him up until about the time that I was 30, and then I decided that things aren’t really ever going to get any better and I was never going to get what I really wanted out of him. Just being around him stirred up so much bad feelings, I decided to just divorce my parents. I just stopped seeing them and I didn’t see either of them again until their funerals. CBC: How old were you when they passed away? Ralph: My father died when I was still in my mid-30s and my mother died about five or six years later, when I was in my early 40s. They both died fairly young, in their 60s. My father basically died from alcoholism. CBC: Cirrhosis? Ralph: His kidneys failed. Besides that, he was a diabetic and wasn’t taking care of himself. He got blood poisoning, sepsis. CBC: He never divorced your mom? Ralph: No. They never split. CBC: Was he devoted to her? Did he go and visit her? Ralph: Well, yes and no. They stayed together. He was just as mean to her as he was to us. He browbeat her constantly before she even got sick and then after that they hardly even communicated much I don’t think. CBC: When you went to high school, was it far from your house? You had moved to the Bronx, right? Ralph: We had moved to the Bronx, so I had to take the subway down to Manhattan to go to Art and Design. But anyway, even up until the time I went to Art and Design, I was familiar with comic books, but it never occurred to me that it was something that I could actually do for a living. I had planned to make a career in industrial design, because I was interested in drafting and mechanical things — cars, airplanes, and things like that looked shiny and went fast. So that was the direction that I thought I was headed, but I ran into Larry Hama at the School of Art and Design in my first year there. He was in my homeroom class. We became friendly and he was already working for Calvin Beck at the time, the publisher of Castle of Frankenstein. So I started hangin’ out with Larry and he and this other fella named John Smith, who he was friends with, introduced me to the whole world of comic book fandom. So, after school, we would go down to King Features and annoy people or see what we could see or who would talk to us or we could show our stuff or that kind of thing. CBC: Who was in charge at King Features at the time? Ralph: I have no idea. We wouldn’t have been able to see him anyway. We were just kids. High school kids, anyway. We would go and walk in the front door. “Hey, we’re from Art and Design. We’re kids and we wondered if you could show us around. We’re hoping to make a living in doing this someday.” CBC: And they did show you around? Ralph: Sure. CBC: Did you go to DC or Marvel? Ralph: I can’t remember. We never went to Marvel. We may have gone to DC. But, at any rate, there I was in tenth grade. I knew Larry and John from the high school. CBC: Did you know Frank Brunner? Ralph: No. I’d never met him at that point. What happened was I got into some legal trouble. I had been in trouble a bunch of times before that, even from the time I was 10 or 11 years old. I started stealing stuff and running away from home. I was showing all the signs of a troubled kid who’d been abused, who came from a really f*cked-up situation. So I had been in some trouble before. They caught me stealing at E.J. Korvette’s (which was like K-Mart, a department store kind of place). CBC: Were you stealing a coat? A leather jacket? [Ralph nods] How old were you?

Web of Horror TM & © the respective copyright holder.

Ralph: Fifteen. I was in tenth grade. CBC: So you had to go to juvie hall and all that? Ralph: Yeah. They took me in and locked me up and I went to Spofford Avenue in the Bronx, the same place where Mike Tyson got his education. CBC: What’s that? Ralph: That’s a juvenile detention center, a famous one. [laughs] CBC: Was it like an open barracks kind of thing? Ralph: No, no, no. It was all lock-up. CBC: With bars and everything? Ralph: Not with bars, but with steel doors. It was, you know, jail for juveniles! Being a skinny white kid with glasses, I did not do too well there. I was getting my ass kicked a lot. Just for being a skinny white kid with glasses. I mean, 90% of the kids there were black and a lot of them just hated every white person they ever saw. CBC: That’s pretty tough. Ralph: At any rate, I was there not for the first time. I’d been locked up two or three times before that and they were going to send me away upstate to spend some time at the juvenile detention center in Elmira, which had already happened to my brother. My brother had been sent away like a year before because both of us were getting into a lot of trouble. We were both in the same boat. CBC: Just petty larceny? Ralph: Pretty much. That and just not going to school and running away from home. I mean, we ran away from home a few times. CBC: Where were you going to go? Ralph: Well, one time we wound up in Washington, D.C. One time we went up to Connecticut. We had no real plan or anything. CBC: Just hit the road with your thumb out? Ralph: What did we do? [pauses] I think we took the train. We had a little bit of money stashed away. Anyway, it looked like they were actually going to send me upstate and COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

I knew if they did that, that was going to be the end for me. I was going to be stuck in that role in life, probably forever. Not to mention I would wind up being somebody’s bitch. So… I escaped. I escaped from the courthouse when they brought me down there. CBC: What year was this? Ralph: Well, I was 15 so that would have been ’64 or ’65. I escaped from court. I went to the bathroom. I had this youth house outfit on. CBC: Overalls? Ralph: Yeah, with big “YH” on ’em, so anybody could spot me if I tried to… you know. But I got somebody to loan me their coat and I covered that up and I kinda just snuck outta there when nobody was looking, because they really weren’t guarding us that carefully when we went to the bathroom. So I got out of there but I had nothing… I had no prospects. [laughs] CBC: You weren’t cut out for a life of crime? Ralph: No, because I was bad at it! CBC: You got caught! Ralph: [Laughs] It took me a while to figure that out! I am not a f*ckin’ criminal mastermind! CBC: So do you think art was your salvation? Ralph: Larry and John brought me over to Larry Ivie’s house for a place to crash. CBC: And where was that? Ralph: In the West 70s. CBC: Larry Ivie. He was a character, huh? Ralph: Yeah, Larry Ivie they knew from Castle of Frankenstein. He was a “Big Name Fan.” CBC: What did he do? A magazine called Monsters & Heroes…? Ralph: Yeah, he had his own little fanzine he came out with. But, at any rate, he was also sort of known to pick up strays. Like, if you were from Ohio and came to New York for a convention or something, you could probably crash at Larry’s house.

Above: Long considered lost to the ages, Ralph Reese’s unpublished stories for Web of Horror miraculously reappeared a few years ago on the Heritage Auction website. These masterpieces, including this two-page “Tomb Zero” spread, reemerged in particularly rough shape after being neglected for decades. Below: For a period, Web of Horror artists banded together in an attempt to keep the revered horror comics anthology alive but to no avail. Reese contributed this spot illo.

young men would have in their heads. But, at any rate, Ivie introduced me to Wood. CBC: What was your impression of him? Ralph: I was in awe of his talent and of what he had done. He himself was very unassuming. CBC: How tall was he? Average height? Ralph: Not tall. Five-eight, maybe? He was a little shorter than me. Maybe your size or a little bit more. CBC: Mm-hm. Was he addicted to nicotine at the time? Ralph: He smoked a lot. At that time he wasn’t drinking at all. He drank tea constantly. He always had some. CBC: What, Lipton tea? Ralph: Actually, he drank SweeTouch-Nee. He always had a pot of tea setting beside him with this horrible saccharine sweetener in it. [laughs] CBC: Really? What was his studio like? Ralph: Cluttered. [laughs] CBC: He had a bunch of filing cabinets? Ralph: Oh, there was a whole separate room for the files and the Artograph. There was what we called the Artograph room. It was really not much bigger than a closet. Maybe the size of from the door all the way to there. CBC: About five feet by ten. Ralph: And it was floor to ceiling file cabinets with an Artograph and the chair. CBC: And the Artograph is…? Ralph: A tracing machine. You know, an overhead projector machine. But at any rate, I was completely honest with Wood. I told him my story, flat out. CBC: That you were on the lam? Ralph: Yeah, all of that. I didn’t want him to be finding out anything afterwards and thinking I was trying to put something over on him or anything like that. I guess he was impressed with my honesty or just liked me as a person or whatever, but he just let me come and start working as his assistant. CBC: So you were a good kid who had some tough breaks would you say? Ralph: Well, I was really right on the edge of being a criminal and of being just a total anti-social person there for a while. Meeting Wood and getting into the comic book world gave me some sort of direction in life that I could hang onto. CBC: Was it his kindness? Ralph: Partly that. CBC: He was a father figure, perhaps? Ralph: Yes, absolutely. He did more for me than just an employee.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Micronauts TM & © the respective copyright holder.

CBC: And he was cool? Ralph: Yeah, you know. He was known to do that. CBC: I mean, he wasn’t hitting on anybody or anything like that? Ralph: There may have been something there, but it was totally repressed. CBC: You were completely vulnerable, and you’re on the lam, right? Ralph: Right. Anyway, I tried a couple odd jobs while I was staying at Larry’s. I was a busboy at the World’s Fair for a while, this and that. But at any rate, eventually I met Wally Wood through Larry because Ivie had been helping Wood in the very beginning stages of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and before that, when he was mainly inking for Marvel. So Larry Ivie brought me over there and introduced me to Wood. CBC: Where was that? Ralph: The 76th Street apartment where Woody lived with Tatjana. CBC: So you had no idea of his reputation or anything? Ralph: No, I knew him and his work! I had never heard of EC or any of that stuff before I started staying with Larry Ivie, but Larry had an extensive collection of ECs and all that stuff, going back into the ’40s and ’30s. He was a “Big Name Fan,” a big, big one. And Bill Pearson and Marlon Frenzel and John Benson, you know? They were all “Big Name Fans” living in that same area of the Upper West Side of New York and they all used to hang out with each other. CBC: Did you make up for an education there? Did you start reading this stuff? Did you start liking this stuff? Ralph: Well, I became familiar with Wood’s work and with Williamson, Frazetta, all those guys, from staying at Larry Ivie’s house and going through his collection. Wood was always actually my favorite of the regular comic book artists. There was something special about his style to me, the depth of it. You felt like you could actually … CBC: Step into it? Ralph: Step into the pictures, yeah. More so than any other artist, I think. CBC: How about the girls? Ralph: They were nice, too. Actually, Wood’s women were a little… big for somebody who grew up in my generation. We grew up with Twiggy, y’know? CBC: Woody’s were more Marilyn Monroe, you mean? Ralph: Yeah, his women were more like early ’50s. They’re a little zaftig, y’know? Tastes change. By the late ’60s, skinnier models were This page: From top, photo of Ralph Reese in 1966; Reese (left) with fellow Wallace Wood assistant Roger Brand, 1968; Reese in 1968, photo by Bhob Stewart. in fashion and more the ideal that

Micronauts TM & © the respective copyright holder.

I mean, I was his protégé. They never had any children, Wood and Tatjana. CBC: Did they try? Ralph: That I don’t know. I don’t know what the story is there, but, at any rate, he was in his early 40s at that time and I imagine he was somewhat paternal, you know, not just with me but with a number of different people… CBC: He had a number of different assistants, didn’t he? Ralph: Yes, and he sort of took a fatherly role to some of us. There was another kid working there at the time, when I started, named Tim Battersby. CBC: Right. In fact, he was the first name I wanted to ask you about. He died young, right? Ralph: Yeah, he did. We were kind of rivals there at Wood’s feet, so we didn’t get along. CBC: Where was he from? Do you know? Ralph: I have no idea. Somewhere in the New York area. CBC: Was he about your age? Ralph: Yeah, he was my age, maybe a year older. But he was kind of a spiky guy to get along with, too. It was obvious he had a lot of anger issues that he was barely holding in, so he was a real touchy kind of guy to be around. CBC: Was he any good? Ralph: I can’t remember. I don’t know. CBC: He was only around pretty briefly? Ralph: Yeah, basically I supplanted him and took his place. CBC: Was he angry about that? Ralph: I suppose he was. He didn’t like that Wood liked me better than him, but Wood and I had a sort of sympathetic vibration going right from the start somehow. CBC: What do you think it was? Ralph: I don’t know. Our attitudes towards authority, towards politics. We were both kind of Socialist-thinking and leaning people. We liked country and folk music. We liked science fiction a lot. We both used to talk about that all the time. CBC: Were you pretty well ready by that time? Ralph: I had read a lot of science fiction, yeah. All those days when I was cuttin’ school, I would go down to Walgreen’s bookstore on 42nd Street by Grand Central Station and steal a science fiction book — stick it inside my coat — and then go sit in the Horn & Hardart automat for a cup of coffee. So it’s like a dime for three or four hours and I read a whole book. [laughs] CBC: And the school day’s done, right? Ralph: Or I’d go to the museums if it was rainy. CBC: Did you go to the movies at all? Ralph: Not a lot. We couldn’t afford it. But yeah, we went to movies. The Great Escape was my favorite, my number one “feel good” movie of all time, I think. With the cast that it has — Steve McQueen, James Garner, Bronson, Coburn — everybody in that movie was great and the story moved along, you know? It was a feel good movie, even though all those guys died at the end. CBC: Except for McQueen in the cooler…. Did you make much money working for Wood? Ralph: I never made much money working for Wood. He paid me fifty bucks a week, which was barely COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

enough to… CBC: Did you live there? Ralph: No, I had a furnished room a few blocks away. I ate cheese sandwiches. I was really destitute. I had no clothes, even! I didn’t even have a winter coat. CBC: Did you have a shower, a bath? Ralph: Yeah, down the hall. CBC: Shared? Ralph: Yeah, it was a rooming house so there were other rooms, right? CBC: And you’re a 16-yearold kid? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: Wow. You were really vulnerable. Wow. Ralph: I’ve been on my own since I was 15 and change. CBC: As Wood’s example, did you look at comics and say, “This is a place for me”? Ralph: Well, I had started even thinking that this might be something I could do. I just hadn’t been familiar with it and with the fact that there were real people that did this! [laughs] But yeah, once I started working for Wood, that really kind of set my path. I kind of followed in his footsteps and used some of his connections to basically get started in the business. He sent me down to Galaxy with a recommendation to Judy-Lynn Benjamin [del Rey, Galaxy editor]. You know, “Hey, give this kid a shot and if you do, I’ll do a few illustrations for ya.” CBC: What did you do for Galaxy? Ralph: I did at least a dozen stories for them, illustrations. I did one cover. CBC: A painting? Ralph: Yeah. I can’t remember all the titles. CBC: That was in the mid-’60s? Ralph: Yeah. Actually, that was some of the first published work that I got, was at Galaxy. After being Wood’s assistant for a couple years around ’68 or so, then he sent me over to Joe Orlando at DC to get, like, a couple-page mystery story. That was how everybody was breaking in then. Kaluta and Wrightson

Above: When young Ralph Reese attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City during the mid-’60s, he became fast friends with future comics creator — and frequent Reese collaborator — Larry Hama, as is evident with this 1964 portrait. Inset left: The Wood influence is very much apparent in Reese’s cover painting for science fiction digest magazine Galaxy’s Apr. 1969 edition. Below: Reese shares that he did only a limited amount of work for Topps, including art on their Funny Li’l Joke Books [1970] series.

and all the rest of us were trying to break in doing three and four or six pages for the mystery titles. CBC: Right. Before that, when you were working for Wood, what were you doing for Wood as an assistant? What does an assistant do? Ralph: Well, when I started out I had absolutely no skills. I did a lot of Artographing. Basically, Wood would come up with a story, say for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, right? And he’d have typing paper layouts of each page with what was maybe a little sketch of what was going to be happening in each panel. I would work from those and then find all the scrap that was needed. In other words, if this is supposed to take place in a medieval castle, then I had to pull out a whole bunch of medieval castle scrap from all the file cabinets around here, you know, and find shots that will fit in these individual panels. This one is a long shot, or this one you need to see the cupola on the… whatever it is. Or you need a car or you need a city background or you need a figure punching somebody. That was a lot of my duties, Artogarphing stuff, picking out the scrap and Artographing it based on his layouts. CBC: How’d you start developing a style?

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

“Warmonger of Mars” TM & © the respective copyright holder. “Pow Show” sketch © the estate of Wallace Wood.

Above: This Reese/Wood collaboration was intended to appear in the aborted Warren magazine The POW Show in the early ’70s. It finally saw print in Creepy #87 [Mar. ’77].

Ralph: Well, I’d been drawing all my life up until that point, so I’d learned something even before then. I was working on my own little samples and stuff. When I wasn’t working for Wood, I was trying to develop my own skills doing pen and brush exercises, making drawings just for practice to develop my skills. CBC: They weren’t comic book work? Ralph: Mostly stand-alone illustrations. A couple of them got published in witzend eventually. But yeah, that’s the sort of thing I was doing then, as I was learning. I picked up a great deal from Wood. He was very systematic in his approach to the work and also he enjoyed teaching. By the time I had spent three years there under his wing, I could fairly well imitate his style and if you look at my early Galaxy or Web of Horror stuff even, you still see a lot of Wood influence. Even the mystery comics stories that I had done even before Web of Horror. CBC: Were you his longest lasting assistant? Ralph: Maybe. Yeah, probably. Probably so. CBC: Did you meet [Tower publisher] Harry Shorten? Ralph: I don’t know that I ever met Harry Shorten. I mostly dealt with [Tower editor] Samm Schwartz. I was the guy who would run stuff back and forth to the office, y’know? CBC: Where was their office? Ralph: I forget. CBC: Was it the paperbacks? Was that what the offices were, for the paperback company? Ralph: I can’t remember. CBC: What was Samm like? Ralph: Oh, very friendly. Easy to deal with. He had come from Archie. There was never any problem between him and Wood or between him and me. I mean, I was just the errand boy, really. I’d run stuff to the stat house to get stats made, run to the art supply store to get the art supplies, deliver stuff down to Samm Schwartz there. CBC: Did any of the other freelancers in the area stop by? Was Gil Kane in the area? Ralph: Stop by where? CBC: At Woody’s studio or wherever they’d drop off the jobs. Ralph: Well Gil mostly worked directly with Samm Schwartz. He would deliver his stuff to them, at least the stuff that he did all himself. He also penciled a few things that Wood inked. CBC: He did a Menthor story, right? Ralph: At least one. CBC: Did they get along? Ralph: Yeah, they respected each other. Wood thought Gil was pretentious… and he was! CBC: Yes, he was! [laughter] Ralph: He was kind of a fop and all of that and Wood had no patience for any of that sh*t. Woody was totally down to earth. He did not live the high life. He really didn’t care about money, even, or possessions or things all that much. He was really, totally devoted to his art in a way. CBC: Do you think Woody was a pathological workaholic? Ralph: I can’t say if it was pathological. We’re all pathological in one way or another. CBC: Why do we work after all, y’know? Ralph: Well, for him it was more than making money. It was to express something, to be something, to get some kind of recognition, and also to say something. I mean, why be a f*ckin’ artist in the first place? Chances are you’re never gonna get rich doing it. If you wanna make money, be an investment banker or some other business thing. You’re generally not gonna get there in art. CBC: When he went to Tower Comics to do T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, this was him striking out on his own, right? Ralph: Sure. And he was very bitter when DC and Marvel conspired to put Shorten and Tower out of business by destroying their distributing arrangement. CBC: Also, what did you think of the 25¢ price? Ralph: That was fine. The books were selling. They were

“Reggie Rabbit…” TM & © DC Comics. “A Bad Year” © the respective copyright holder.

doing well up until the day when they couldn’t get distributed anymore! CBC: They were just locked out? Do you remember who was their distributor? Ralph: I don’t remember, but DC and the distributor were hooked up. They were all part of the same company. And it was all f*ckin’ mobbed up, too. The Kinney Corporation and… CBC: Yeah, it was really mobbed up! Ralph: Yeah, it was. Seriously. But at any rate… That’s how the mob basically has control of the pornography business all these years. They control the distribution. They control the trucks and the truck drivers, so you can’t get your stuff delivered to a newsstand anywhere in the U.S. without you going through them. That’s been their racket all these years. I mean, now there’s no more newsstands, so it’s not really a powerful thing anymore. At any rate, they did. They put Tower out of business. The books were doing well. It wasn’t as if they weren’t selling. It’s just that they couldn’t get distribution. CBC: A year lapsed between issues and reprints, right? Towards the end they were just reprints. Ralph: I don’t know what they did after Wood left. I don’t know about that. But yeah, he was very bitter about that and very bitter toward both Marvel and DC for that matter, because he felt that they conspired with the distributors to do that. Of course, none of this could be proven. CBC: Right. But the proof is in the pudding, right? If it was making money… ! So this was just after Daredevil that you came in? Ralph: Pretty much. CBC: Was he annoyed at Stan that you know of? Ralph: He hated Stan. CBC: Why? Ralph: Well, first he felt that he’d been ripped off. Second involved that they were totally opposite kinds of people. Stan is a showman, he’s a phony. I give him all the credit in the world for what he built, y’know? He built a brand around him and that brand was successful! You can’t argue with it. You can’t get away from it. It’s all over the place. It’s a multi-billion dollar enterprise now that Stan Lee was the… y’know? But he’s a phony! CBC: He built it on the backs of Kirby and Ditko. Ralph: Yeah, and a lot of other people along the way. But Marvel has not always been the easiest people to deal with in a money or rights sense. But, yeah, Wood hated Stan. Not just because he felt he’d been cheated on Daredevil and didn’t like Stan’s Marvel approach to… CBC: The Marvel Method? Ralph: The quote/unquote Marvel Method. He felt like he was getting screwed. But also they were totally opposite personalities, like I said. Stan’s always putting out the Stan, while Wood was retiring, modest, shy… and Ditko, too. CBC: Did you know Ditko? Ralph: Oh, yeah. He used to come up to the studio on 76th Street a lot. He was doing Mr. A there for witzend once that came and they had worked together on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, too, so he used to come up fairly regularly. CBC: What did you think of Mr. A? COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Ralph: Uhhh… I was totally opposed to everything that Mr. A had to say, and so was Wally Wood. The funny thing is, he and Ditko got along quite well. And so did I, for that matter. Steve was an easy guy to get along with. He’s unassuming, he doesn’t go pushing people around. He’s very laid back. CBC: Boy, he was really good at that time. That was the top. I would argue that his witzend stuff was the best stuff that he ever did. Ralph: Well, I’d still stick with Spider-Man, I suppose. [laughs] CBC: But Mr. A was pure Ditko, right? Ralph: Yeah. And some of the Doctor Strange stuff, because that has the weirdness of Ditko. There’s something in

Above: For a short spell in the late ’60s/early ’70s, Reese contributed to DC’s pseudo-horror “mystery” line, drawing such tales as this “funny animal” oddity from House of Secrets #85 [May ’70]. Inset left: Little known is the fact that Ralph Reese also, for a short period, contributed to Charlton Comics’ romance line. In actuality, the definitive Grand Comics Database has two listings for the artist’s love comics work for the Derby, Connecticut, publisher: Career Girl Romances #63 [June ’71] and Secret Romance #9 [Oct. ’70], both inked by Vince Alascia. So finding this tearsheet for a Sweethearts #115 [Mar. ’71] story amongst Reese’s archives confirms this as a hitherto unknown Reese tale of Charlton romance! 43

Above: This is deliberately drawn by Reese to appear as a crude underground comics page in Eye magazine in the late ’60s. Below: Around the same time, Reese was contributing to Gothic Blimp Works, a New York City underground publication, and producers of an Al Capp documentary about the generation gap solicited the cartoonist to appear in the TV special.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

“Mr. Together Komix” © Ralph Reese.

it. For all that he’s the straightest guy in the world, there’s something really bent going on in there. [laughs] CBC: It’s in the name, right? Strange! Ralph: I don’t know where it comes from, but all those bridges to nowhere and screaming faces. You get the feeling that he has some demons somewhere. CBC: He is a really nice guy. We were correspondents for a time. Ralph: He’s the sweetest, most unassuming, regular guy in the world, y’know? And he coulda made so much money and he hasn’t. I mean, people would pay him $10,000 for a sketch now. He’s gonna die any minute. What would Ditko’s last sketch be worth? CBC: [Spots some recent artwork] That’s nice. Ralph: That’s one of the re-creations I’ve been doing for Shaun Clancy, who has got me re-creating every Gil Kane cover they ever used at Marvel… or a bunch of ’em anyway. It’s easy work. I don’t mind it. CBC: Was Wood starting to think of witzend at the time? When did that come into play? Ralph: While he was still doing T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents,

he started on witzend. He had some ideas that he wanted to do that he couldn’t find a market for. He thought that there were other people who… I guess this was around the time that Tower folded. What year did witzend first come out? CBC: Nineteen sixty-six or ’67. Ralph: Yeah, well as Tower was kind of winding down, witzend got started. Adkins was working up there a lot at the time. And Roger Brand. CBC: Did you know Tony Coleman? Ralph: Yeah! CBC: Was he British? Ralph: Yes. CBC: What was he like? Ralph: He was funny as hell! [laughs] He had all these… what do you call it… like British pub drinking songs and poems that he’d recite, you know, that kept us all amused. Yeah, he was a funny guy. He was funny to have around but he was here, I think, illegally. CBC: Was he? Ralph: Yeah, he had to work off the books. CBC: Wasn’t your first published work in witzend? Was that poetry? Ralph: Uh, yeah. He ran some old poetry of mine in witzend. I make no claims. My first wife was a poet, among other things. CBC: When did you get married? Ralph: The first time? When I was about 20. CBC: You have any kids? Ralph: Not with her. No. We only stayed together for two or three years. She was a radical feminist. CBC: Was that a good thing? Ralph: Well, yes and no. I admired her guts, y’know, but it got to be a little tiresome after a while. She was a real Chairman Mao-quoting, Communist Manifesto, Weatherwoman kind of person. CBC: [Looking at Reese’s junior high yearbook] So is that you right there? Ralph: Yes, I think so. That’s me without my glasses. You can see them jug handles, all right. [laughs] You know how I got that? Before we moved to the Bronx, my father had a piece of land in upstate New York, by Peekskill, and it was his plan to build a house on it, but the government came, they incorporated it into a park and that dream got shot down. At any rate, we used to go up there on weekends and there was like a swampy part on this five acres that we had and I was down there picking blueberries. I got so many mosquito bites that I looked like I had measles. And both of my ears swelled up huge because of all the mosquito bites that I had. I kept scratching them like this and eventually they never returned to their proper size. CBC: Really? Permanent. So you had a really integrated school huh? Ralph: Yes. Actually, John Smith is black, Larry Hama’s a Japanese-American. We had all kinds there. As long as you had a talent in art. CBC: That’s all that mattered. Ralph: Yeah. That’s one good thing about it actually as a career, kind of like being an athlete or something like that. You can come from a really sh*tty, poor, background, but if you have the talent, you can escape it. You can get out of there. CBC: That really was your one ticket out, right? Ralph: Pretty much, ’cause I didn’t really have the discipline to pursue an academic career. I wasn’t going to be able to make it through college, not because I wasn’t smart enough but because I was just too… I had too much going on with me. [laughs] CBC: So, it’s the mid-’60s. The counter-culture was starting to rise up. Were you a part of that? Were drugs a part of your story? Ralph: Oh, yeah, sure. I was a stoned hippie. [laughs] Still am to some extent. CBC: Was LSD a part of it?

Marvel Feature, The Defenders, Iron Man, and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan TM & © Conan Properties, Inc.

Ralph: I did a few trips, maybe a half-dozen or so. CBC: But it wasn’t a part of your creativity necessarily? Ralph: No. I tried working on it once or twice, but it was kind of like speed. It made you focus way too much on one little tiny thing, you know, as opposed to seeing the whole picture. CBC: Alcohol: was that big for you? Ralph: I used to enjoy drinking when I was in my 20s and I used to abuse it to some extent. I would drink if I went to parties or something like that because I felt like it would loosen me up and I’d get happy, you know? And that actually worked to some extent. But then, as I got to be in my late 20s, my early 30s, it just started making me morose if I drank. So there wasn’t much percentage in it. I was never an alcoholic. I never had that gene. No, I was a pot-aholic. I’ve been a pot smoker all my life, yeah. CBC: Do you think that helps you creatively? Ralph: Yes and no. It doesn’t help creatively. It helps give me patience to sit at that desk is what, to not get restless and itchy and whatnot. It made work more enjoyable to me. Not that I needed it or it actually helped to do work, but it made it easier or more pleasant and I could lose myself in it more. I don’t

know. It’s worked for me. [laughs] But it has its drawbacks. CBC: It can certainly affect ambition. Ralph: Yeah, that can be a problem. You find yourself never leaving the house. [laughter] It’s just too much trouble to go outside and do this or that or the other thing. CBC: Did you date when you grew up in the mid-’60s, your teenage years? Ralph: I was too poor and then I was a fugitive on the run and then everything else. I didn’t have any girlfriends ’til I was, oh, 19 or so. My first wife was the first woman that I slept with and that was about 19, I guess. CBC: Really? How did you meet? Ralph: An encounter group. CBC: Oh, yeah? Ralph: Back at that time there were these encounter groups that had sprung up all around the city. CBC: Like they had out in California? What was it, EST? Ralph: That sort of thing. Rather than meet people in bars, people would go to these things. It was supposed to be all psychological. People would talk about themselves and their lives and interact with each other. Really, it was mostly an excuse for people who wanted to find somebody to f*ck. [laughs] CBC: Without going through the rigmarole.

This page: The pencils of Gil Kane and inks of Ralph Reese were an unparalleled match in this editor’s opinion and each pairing a masterpiece. Top left and right are the covers of Marvel Feature #3 [June ’72] and Iron Man #46 [May ’72], respectively. The two also teamed for Conan the Barbarian #17 [Aug. ’72] (though this is from a b-&-w reprint). COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Ralph: You know, people who didn’t feel comfortable in the bar scene or anything like that. I never did. I never felt comfortable trying to pick up women in bars or that sort of thing. I never had clothes, I never had the money, I never had the nice car. They’d go with that sort of disco mentality, you know what I mean? Meeting people in encounter groups was more my sort of thing. CBC: Was it nice? Did you like it? Ralph: It was amusing. CBC: Did it help? Ralph: [Laughs] Naw. CBC: Did you seek out psychotherapy at all? Ralph: Well, I had already been through… After I had been working for Wood for about two years, I got in some more trouble. Me and a friend of mine got busted for drugs. CBC: For weed? Ralph: Yeah. I wound up having to go to a state hospital to avoid having to go to jail. CBC: How did you resolve the first situation? Ralph: Well, I aged out of it basically. CBC: Now, did you have some close calls in encountering law enforcement on the street? Ralph: Not really. It’s not like they had an all-points bulletin out for me. I was a 15-yearold kid. What had I done? I stole a coat from a department store.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

This page and next: Clockwise from above: splash page for Marvel’s adaptation of famed Robert Bloch short story “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” words by Ron Goulart and pencils by his then-neighbor Gil Kane, and inks by Ralph Reese [Journey into Mystery #2, Dec. ’72];Reese’s inks over Kane’s Sgt. Fury #96 [Mar. ’72] were rejected in favor of John Severin’s embellishments; and two 1977 photos of Reese by Sam Maronie.

CBC: But they wanted to send you upstate, right? Ralph: They would have, yeah. CBC: But you weren’t particularly nervous about getting busted? Ralph: It worried me, sure. Fortunately by the time anything happened again, I had aged out of the juvenile thing. They had me in the Brooklyn House of Detention. They had me in a real jail. CBC: So were you looking to sell pot? Ralph: No, they just caught us with a few ounces. CBC: Oh, just for your own use? Ralph: Yeah, but at that time, a few ounces could get you five or ten years. Still could in many places. People were getting life in Texas for a couple of joints! CBC: It’s a crazy country. So how’d you get into the hospital? Ralph: I pretended I was crazier than I was. [laughter] I got enough of them to believe me that they sent me to a state hospital instead of sending me upstate. CBC: How long were you there? Ralph: About six months, but there was nothing therapeutic about it. It was just to avoid going to jail. I didn’t get any benefit from it other than to say I don’t wanna do this again. [laughs] And after I got out of there, then I went to Daytop, which was like Synanon, rehab. CBC: For pot? Ralph: Well, my problem wasn’t just pot. I was just like all mixed up and out of control with myself. This thing was kind of like a boot camp sort of place, you know? It was very rigid and I felt like I needed to do that and get a hold of myself somehow and that they would be able to help. Didn’t work, but I tried! [laughs] So I was actually away from Wally Wood and his studio for the better part of a year there, back around 1968–69, or ’69–70. I forget. CBC: I think ’68–’69 because Web of Horror was still ’69, I think. Ralph: No, it was before that. Way before that. It’d be ’68 I guess. CBC: So you didn’t go to Woodstock, in August of ’69? Ralph: Interestingly enough, I was married to Joan at the time, so yeah, I had been married for a little bit. She had tickets for Woodstock, actually. Somebody comped her a couple of tickets. But by that Thursday or Friday, we hadn’t figured out how we were gonna get there or any of that. We heard how crazy it was getting and just decided. Nah. We’re too late already. This is gonna be too nuts. We’ll never even get near it. CBC: The tickets amounted to nothing anyway. Ralph: So yeah, we didn’t get to go. CBC: You said you were into folk music before. Did you get into rock? Ralph: Yeah, I liked rock ’n’ roll. I never played it that much. I had friends who were rockers. I had a guy living with me — we were roommates for a while — who was really a terrific electric guitarist. He taught me a bunch of stuff but, nah, I never had any ambition to be a rocker. CBC: What was your ambition? Ralph: Musically? CBC: No, just in ’67, ’69. Ralph: Well, to keep doing comics and maybe make a good career as a commercial artist. CBC: Ideally, did you want a regular title to work on? Ralph: No. I never cared all that much about super-heroes. I never had any burning desire to do Superman or Batman or… I liked the science fiction stuff, I liked historical subjects — more the kind of thing they did at EC as opposed to the Marvel style, y’know? CBC: You really lucked out because that was the last vestige of doing that kind of stuff, pretty much. It’s just all super-heroes. Ralph: That’s just it: the Marvel style is not the only style. There are a lot of other things you can do with comics, but somehow over the last 20 years, it’s become that there’s

only one way to do it and that’s Stan’s way, the Marvel way, and no, that’s not true. There’s a lot of stories that can be told in comics. CBC: You came into the scene and into the ’70s there were a lot of options open for a lot of freelance work. Do you recall Jim Warren at all in the ’60s? Ralph: I never met him up until maybe 1970 or so. CBC: When Woody was going to do POW! magazine? Ralph: Before that. After Web folded. I took my samples from Web and went up to Warren. He was going to give me work and, as a matter of fact, he did give me work. He gave me a job and I finished it but then I left it in the cab when I went down to his office to deliver it. A lot of times… Well, not just in those days, but throughout my career, I wound up staying up all night. The night before the day something was due, I wound up having to pull an all-nighter. But the here it is noon the next day, you’ve been up for 36 hours or something, and you’re taking the cab downtown, it’s easy to forget something… CBC: Like the job! [laughs] Ralph: Like the job! Because you’re in a f*ckin’ fog. I got out the door of the cab, I slammed the door of the cab and the guy drove off immediately and I went, “Oh, f*ck!” I even had the guy’s name, the driver’s name, ’cause I had happened to look at it, and I called up the cab company but… [sighs] So then I had to go up to Warren and tell him that I had lost the job. Not only that but I was dead broke and if he couldn’t give me some sort of advance to redo it, that I was gonna get thrown out of where I was living… ’cause I was not gonna be able to pay my rent. I’d been counting on that. And, as a matter of fact, that is what happened. I got thrown out of that place along with my guitar-playing friend, Christian. I actually went and stayed with Joan for a while and that was how we would up getting married. She wouldn’t take me back unless I told her I would marry her. CBC: And how long were you married to her? Ralph: About three years. CBC: Just wasn’t meant to be? Ralph: She was very… excitable, let’s say. [laughs] CBC: Do you know what’s become of her? Ralph: I have no idea. She used to call me up about once a year just to say, “Hey, how ya doin’?” And this and that. I never minded talking to her. She was a few years older than me. She may have passed on already. I don’t know. CBC: Okay, so you went away for about seven months. Ralph: I was in rehab and when I came out I met Joan at an encounter group, we started dating for a while, then we broke up. I took up the place in the hotel on 74th Street where Wood had moved to after he left Tatjana. But then he moved out of that place to marry his second wife, Marilyn, and moved in with her out on Long Island. So I took over his old apartment there. CBC: What was Tatjana like? Ralph: I always liked her. She was shy and retiring, mostly kept to herself. She didn’t come into the studio all that much while we were working there. She had her own interests. CBC: What do you think the attraction was between them? Ralph: I couldn’t say. They met, I think, folk dancing! They were both bright, cultured kind of people. More than that… I mean, what is there between any man and woman? CBC: Yeah, right. Did Wood keep up on the news? Ralph: Yeah, we kept up with politics in general. CBC: How did you avoid the draft? Ralph: They didn’t want me. After all the trouble I had been in and the hospital and all sorts of stuff, they decided that I would be a discipline problem. CBC: Was that okay with you? Ralph: Yeah! [Jon laughs] I didn’t wanna go. F*ck that, man! Get killed in Vietnam? For what…? For nothin’? CBC: Were you involved in the anti-war movement at all? Ralph: Yeah, I was. We protested. My brother and I hitchhiked to Chicago and got gassed and beaten up and stuff. [laughs] COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

CBC: You were there in the ’68 Chicago demonstrations? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: And you did work for Topps? Was that around the same time? Ralph: Well, I did very little for Topps personally. CBC: You did some Valentines, right? Ralph: I only did a couple of jobs for them and then I was late with one and that was it. CBC: Were you dealing with Woody Gelman over there? Ralph: Len Brown. Well, and probably Bhob Stewart or Art Spiegelman. CBC: Did you know Bhob well? Ralph: Yeah. Sure. He used to come up to Wood’s pretty often. CBC: What was he like? Ralph: He was fond of long pauses. CBC: [Laughs] Yes, I did talk to him on the phone. Ralph: So, you’ve spoken to him. You know what I mean. He’d say two or three words, then there’s be a pause… He always had to think of everything very carefully before he said it. CBC: He was a sweet guy. I liked him a lot. Ralph: Yeah, I liked Bhob, too. I was sorry to hear of his passing. 47

This page and next: Examples of Ralph Reese’s Marvel work from the early 1970s (plus a freelance illustration from later years). Clockwise from left: “Escape” panel [Monsters on the Prowl #11, June ’71]; Inks on Frank Brunner’s “Doctor Strange” splash page [Marvel Premiere #6, Jan. ’73]; Two pages from “House” [Journey into Mystery #1, Oct. ’72]; and an illustration for Graymont Enterprises, Inc., from 1987. 48

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“Escape,” Doctor Strange TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

CBC: I miss him. And you came on just as the young Turks were coming in — Jeff Jones, Kaluta, Wrightson… Ralph: Yeah, we all knew each other. CBC: Did you go to First Fridays? Ralph: Yeah, we all knew each other from First Fridays over at Jeff Jones’s house. CBC: So Weezie was there? Ralph: Yeah. This was when Jeff was still married to Weezie. Kaluta and Wrightson were living right down the hall or on the next floor or whatever it was, all in the same building there. So I met a lot of people going to those. I pretty much did that every month for years and years and years. I knew Archie from years before, from when he came up to Wood’s place. He had stuff in witzend, for one thing. CBC: His cartooning! Ralph: Also, Wood had worked with him on a couple of things for Warren, Blazing Combat stories. The “Battle of Britain” thing and then the Messerschmitt “ME-262.” So Archie managed to talk Wood into working for Warren, mainly because Wood didn’t have to deal with Warren. He just

dealt with Archie, who was the sweetest guy in the world and very, very knowledgeable, and just sharp, smart… and a terrific writer. CBC: Oh, yes. And a great editor. One of the greatest. Why was there a problem between Wood and Warren? Just personality? Ralph: Warren was one of the most obnoxious people on Earth that you’d ever want to meet. But he just has a naturally abrasive manner and personality like f*ckin’ Donald Trump, all right? He gets under your skin and Wood doesn’t like that. He doesn’t like that kind of person. CBC: They didn’t work together at all, right? Ralph: Very little. Those couple of Blazing Combat stories. CBC: But that was through Archie, right? Ralph: That was through Archie. And then, you know, they had a bunch of other things that they were gonna do that eventually fell apart. The adult magazine, this and that. I don’t remember exactly. CBC: Richard Sproul and Terry Bisson… How’d you hook up with those guys on Web of Horror? Ralph: Probably through Jeff. We used to go to those First Fridays and we’d all exchange what we were doing and for who. We would try to help each other climb the ladder or whatever. We were all pretty open and convivial about that sort of stuff. Not like protecting our secrets or that kind of thing. CBC: Was that in the spirit of the day, do you think? Sharing as a kind of hippieish kind of thing? Ralph: I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe we were just nice guys and wanted to try to be nice to each other because who else in the f*ckin’ world did we have… other than each other? CBC: You guys were young, that’s for sure. What happened with Web of Horror? Did it just end without you knowing it and they absconded with your material that never saw print or did they pay you for that? Ralph: Um, basically. Well, we knew Terry Bisson was leaving because he had decided to stop working with Sproul. He and a couple of his friends were going to go to Colorado and start a hippie commune. Terry and Clark Dimond and this other friend named Giles Kotcher, who lived in the same building, and maybe a couple other people, too. And they did! They all left New York, went to Colorado, and tried to start a hippie colony, which lasted for a year or two or something but then came apart like those things pretty much always do. CBC: Were you paid for your stories that did not see print? Ralph: I was. Bernie Wrightson paid me out of his own pocket, when Bernie decided to try to take over. After Terry left, Wrightson took it upon himself to take over the reins and keep the thing going with Sproul and he actually paid me out of his own pocket for that last story that I did for them thinking he’d get reimbursed for it when they published it. Instead, they just stole all the f*ckin’ artwork and never gave it back. CBC: Have you seen it since? Ralph: Well, yeah. They auctioned it on Heritage like a year and a half ago, or whatever, right? CBC: It’s beautiful. Ralph: And I still wound up having to split the money with f*ckin’ Sproul, who never paid me and had no right to the stuff to begin with. CBC: [Looking over unpublished Web of Horror story] It’s a beautiful job! You really shine! Ralph: I’m sorry that never got printed. The things to be seen of it now, it’s been damaged, you know? Somebody damaged a bunch of panels or spilled something on it. It’s all f*cked up. CBC: It could still be fixed. Ralph: Dana Andra had a deal going with Dark Horse and Dark Horse pulled out. CBC: Was it a rights issue? Ralph: I don’t know what it was. She’s over in England

trying to sell it to somebody to reprint Web of Horror. I had, actually, two unprinted stories. CBC: Were you happy with your work by that time? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: You were starting to impress people, right? Ralph: I was doing well. I was doing better work. I could see my own abilities developing. So, yeah. I was not having trouble getting work. I was able to keep myself busy working for all the different horror and those kind of magazines and the comics, so… It didn’t pay very well and I was still living pretty meagerly. Joan and I had an apartment on the Lower East Side, right across from Tompkins Square Park. CBC: What’d she do for work? Ralph: She was an English teacher. CBC: And you were working at home? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: Did you always work at home? Ralph: No, I started working up at Continuity a few years later. I rented space there. CBC: Did you get your own room or just a desk? Ralph: Both. When I started, I was in the front room up there with Neal. Actually, when it first started, it was just Larry, Neal, Dick, and I, and Steve Mitchell and Alan Kupperberg, who were Neal and Dick’s assistants. I think Larry and I were the first people up there to rent space. I’m not sure. This was before they even had the whole floor, when they just had, like, the front couple of rooms. And then the back of the space was still occupied by some advertising people. After they cleared out, Larry and I took a room in the back. CBC: Why did you rent space there? Was it convivial, to be with another person? There wasn’t room at home? COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Ralph: Well, Larry had been working with me at my apartment but, yeah, the idea was a) to get out of the house and b) to be a more disciplined about our work, make contacts, and learn something about advertising. After Larry got out of the Army, he and I started working together all the time. We did a lot of work together for a couple years there. CBC: He would pencil and you would ink? Ralph: Right. He was helping me out on some of that mystery stuff that we did. He had been in the Army, where I didn’t go. He let himself get drafted. When he came back — that would have been 1970 or so — we worked together at my apartment for maybe a year or so, and then we started going down to Continuity and renting space there. CBC: Is a lot of the Hama penciling not credited? Ralph: Some of it was not credited, right. CBC: Was his storytelling superior to yours? Ralph: Aww, I don’t know. We just seemed to work well together. At that time, I had become more of an established figure in the comic book world, while he had been off in the Army while I was doing that so he had some catching up to do when he came out. Working with me was a way of getting back into the comic world and the commercial art world. He helped me out on a bunch of Lampoon stuff. I started getting work from the Lampoon on, like, the third, fourth, or fifth issue, right after the Cloud Studio people quit. Michael Gross came in. He called up Wally Wood to work, I think, on the MAD parody, which was one of the very early issues that they did. Wood didn’t want to do it, but he sent me over there instead. CBC: And you did all the Wood work, right? Ralph: I did a Paul Coker parody, and I did a Wood parody. CBC: Wait, you did “Blowing a Joke”? The Horrifying 49

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“The Rats” and “Birthright” © Marvel Characters, Inc. Solomon Kane TM & © the estate of Robert E. Howard.

Clichés send-off? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: That was the funniest thing I’d f *cking ever seen! [Ralph laughs] I still laugh at that (ahem) gag. Ralph: You remember that, eh? CBC: Because it was so dead on! You did a great job on imitating Coker! And you did the Fold-In! Ralph: Yeah, so then I got a reputation with Michael Gross as somebody who could imitate other people’s styles, especially from the comics, so I started getting fairly steady work from the Lampoon. Larry helped me out on a lot of it, some of it credited, some of it not. A few things I couldn’t go to the Lampoon and say, “I can’t do this all myself,” y’know? CBC: You did some beautiful stuff. You did that Communist “Believe It or Not”? Ralph: Yeah, that was one that Larry penciled. CBC: The rendering was perfect. Ralph: Well, that was that coquille board that I learned from Wally Wood. It has a “rubbly” texture to it and you draw on it with a grease crayon. CBC: Is that what they did for the actual

Ripley’s feature? Ralph: Yeah, that’s how they did that and how you get that look. CBC: That MAD parody was just so amazingly spot on. Ralph: [Laughs] The only one I really had trouble with was when they wanted me to do a Dick Tracy parody in one issue. They actually sent it to me and I started on it, but I f*ckin’ couldn’t make myself draw that ugly! [Jon laughs] or think that ugly. I mean, even in terms of the panel composition or things like that. I would want to set it up in a way that sort of made sense but nothing in Chester Gould’s art makes any sense at all. It’s totally flat. There’s no perspective. There’s very little actual drawing! [laughs] I couldn’t get a hold on that one and wound up sending it back to them. CBC: You worked with Jerry Siegel? Did you realize he was Superman’s co-creator? Ralph: He wrote that one story that I did for Web of Horror… Oh, yeah. Sure. At that time, Siegel and Shuster still hadn’t gotten their settlement and Neal and the Academy of Comic Book Artists were still negotiating all that. CBC: You won some Shazam Awards yourself, right? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: You even did some Charlton work? Ralph: I did a couple Charlton romances very early on in my career. CBC: You were inked by Vince Alascia, traditionally considered a horrible inker. You remember him? Ralph: Vaguely. I did a couple of romance stories, but it was just so boring, I couldn’t stand it. [laughs] CBC: You worked for Skywald? Did you work for Alan Hewetson at Skywald? Ralph: No, I worked directly with Sol Brodsky. CBC: Did you stay away from Marvel in the early years? Ralph: Well, what happened was actually Marvel was giving me a bunch of work, mostly working over Gil Kane’s pencils, like on the Savage Sword kind of stories. CBC: “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.” Ralph: Well, there was that and there were some sort of Conan-type characters. There were a lot of barbarians around at that time. I had been doing a bunch of stuff for them, mostly inking on Gil, who was real happy with my work and I didn’t mind doing it. Actually, I always liked working over Gil Kane because at least his drawing was solid. And I felt like I was able to add something to it, give it form and dimension, you know, give it some blacks and solidity. CBC: I think that Iron Man #46 cover is one of the best covers I’ve ever seen. Ralph: Anyway, I liked working with Gil and that was all going okay, but Marvel wanted me to sign an exclusive contract with them. At that time, they were doing that with a lot of people. But the thing is they didn’t give you nothing with this contract other than the guarantee of work. There were no benefits to signing. CBC: No bonus for signing on? Ralph: No nothin’! It was an agreement that you’re only going to work for them in return for them giving you work, basically. CBC: Was this a prelude to Atlas-Seaboard? Was it just around the time that Atlas-Seaboard was coming on? Both Marvel and DC were trying to keep their freelancers from jumping ship. Ralph: I don’t know, but it was all around that same time, early ’70s. CBC: You were doing a fair amount of work for DC, right? Ralph: Not a lot. I did a few mystery stories here and there, but not a lot. I mostly used them as a vehicle to break in. I didn’t really get that much work from DC after those mystery stories.

“The Roaches” TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. “Let the Dreamer Beware”© the respective copyright holder.

CBC: You even had a funny animal mystery story. Ralph: That was the first comic book story that I ever did on my own. CBC: And you were really good! Ralph: Eh, well. It looks kind of crude now. CBC: Well, I like it. So, I just went online looking up your work just before I came that in 2005 Heritage auctioned off 70,000 copies of Heroes, Inc. It sold for $5,500! Ralph: That’s with “The Misfits” story in it? CBC: Right. What the heck happened with Heroes, Inc.? Ralph: I have no idea. CBC: Did Woody put up the money for that? Ralph: I wasn’t that involved with it. I penciled that story for Wood and I visited him a few times out on Long Island. This was when he was married to Marilyn Glass and living out in Woodmere that they did that. But I wasn’t there every day. I only saw him a few times. I don’t remember exactly how that fell apart or what happened to that. CBC: I think the plan was to sell them in Army PXs and I guess it didn’t work, but he did get the contract with Overseas Weekly. Did you work on that stuff? Ralph: Sure! CBC: Cannon and Sally Forth. Ralph: Sally Forth, yeah. Not a lot. By that time, I was mostly working on my own stuff, but I would visit with him every once in a while. Anybody who ever visited Wood wound up helping out. You know, he would sit them down at the table, to draw. [laughs] Very rarely would you just sit around and talk. He would put a pencil in your hand! CBC: Would people be coming in and going? Ralph: Not so much. Not like Continuity, which was in town and where you had ten different people stopping by every day. CBC: And you were a Crusty Bunker, right? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: And how was that? Ralph: Mostly, it was just me and Neal at the start, with some help from Terry Austin on backgrounds. CBC: Did you work on Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali? Ralph: No, I never touched that one. CBC: But prior to that. You worked on a John Buscema Conan story? Ralph: Things like that, yeah. Or we inked a few of Frank Brunner’s Doctor Strange stories, things like that. And some other Gil Kane stuff, more barbarian sh*t. CBC: Around that time, you were selected with the crème de la crème of cartoonists, along with Bernie Wrightson, and I believe Kaluta… Esquire magazine came along and you were one of those guys! Did you feel like, “I’ve made it”? Ralph: Yes and no. I was never a big fan favorite because I never did that much super-hero stuff. The people that get big fan followings in comics are the guys who do Batman or Superman or some other Super title, whether it’s their own or for somebody else. That’s who the fans really flock to see. And I wasn’t that interested in that. I’d rather work on stories about real people, and real life, or science fiction, or other genres! I don’t care. I’ll do a Western. Almost anything but super-heroes. I enjoyed reading super-heroes up until the time I was about 15 or so, then I just started thinking they were juvenile and that pretty much has been my opinion ever since, basically. It’s like, “Are you kidding me?” CBC: Well, I was a huge fan of your stuff. Your facility is just amazing! It just seemed to be getting better and better and better. You did National Lampoon, you worked with Byron Preiss. Ralph: Yeah, Byron Preiss came along after Larry and I had moved down to Continuity. We met Byron. CBC: What’d you think of him? Ralph: Uh… I liked him! CBC: Was he ambitious? Ralph: Oh, yeah! He had big ideas and you know he came COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

from money too, so he had something behind him. His father was a big time corporate lawyer that had a whole floor at 666 Fifth Avenue. So he came from a privileged background, let’s say, and he wanted to get into the graphic novel business. I give him credit for kind of helping that along. He came out with a whole bunch of the first graphic novels that ever existed. CBC: Did he treat you okay? Ralph: [Pauses] Yes and no! We were friendly but there was always a certain barrier between us. He pretended to be my friend, but he really looked at me more as an employee. I think he looked at everyone that way. You know what I mean? I was very disappointed with the Son of Sherlock Holmes thing. I let Byron sell me to do that graphic novel. I thought it was a stupid and boring idea to begin with, but I let him talk me

This page and previous: Examples of Ralph Reese’s exceptional b-&-w work for comics. Clockwise from top left: “The Rats” page [Haunt of Horror #1, May ’74], “The Roaches” splash [Monsters Unleashed #2, Sept. ’73]; “Let the Dreamer Beware” panels [Psycho #5, Nov. ’71]; Solomon Kane panel [“Skull in the Stars,” Monsters Unleashed #1, Mar. ’73]; and “Birthright” panel (Gil Kane pencils) [Monsters Unleashed #3, Nov. ’73].

Above: Ralph Reese Esquire assignment. Right inset: Samuel Maronie pic of Reese in 1977. Below: Reese inked Larry Hama’s layout on this NatLamp job:

into it and I spent six months or more working on it. It came out looking fairly decent, but it was still god-awful dull! And it never sold. It went straight to the remainder racks. To invest that kind of time and energy in something and not pay off… you know? CBC: Did you have a part of the back-end? Ralph: Yes, I did have a royalty arrangement but never collected anything on it because the book flopped. CBC: At the same time, there were a number of National Lampoon knock-offs you were working on, like Apple Pie. Ralph: Yeah, I worked with Dennis Lopez on Apple Pie/Harpoon for a few issues. He was the editor/publisher. There used to be a number of outfits similar to Sproul’s company, you know? Sproul had magazines on astrology, dating, dieting, puzzles… They had like genre magazines, knock-offs of others. And Lopez’s father was somebody like that. He put out crossword puzzle magazines and all that sort of sh*t. But his son wanted to do a humor magazine. He said, “Okay, knock yourself out.” I worked for at least three issues, four issues. But [NatLamp publisher] Matty Simmons called me and told me to cease and desist. CBC: “Don’t work for Lopez or you won’t get any more

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NatLamp work”? Ralph: Yeah. And the thing is, ordinarily I would have told him to go f*ck himself, but I had already committed to doing the One Year Affair and Two Year Affair strips with Byron Preiss, so I had a preexisting commitment there that I didn’t feel like I could just walk away from. CBC: Was it good money from NatLamp? Ralph: I did pretty well. CBC: Did you get a piece of the collection of One Year Affair? Ralph: I just got an advance, but I did get royalties from the Lampoon for other stuff. They always paid you pretty well with the reprints. CBC: Far out! Have you ever gotten royalties like that from any other projects? Ralph: I got some royalties from DC when they reprinted all of that House of Mystery stuff. I’ve gotten a few. I got a big royalty check from Valiant when I was working up there. That was part of the deal. CBC: With Jim Shooter? Ralph: Yeah. Back in 1995, Magnus Robot Fighter #25 sold over a million copies and I got, like, a $50,000 royalty check out of it. I thought we were on our way! I was married and had a six-year-old daughter. CBC: What’s her name? Ralph: Gillian. She’s 26 now. But then, a year later, it all ended. There was the crash. Everybody went out of business. [laughs] I thought we were on the road to success. We were going to buy a house and be able to live decent for a change, but it didn’t work out that way. CBC: Where were you living at the time? Ralph: Clifton, New Jersey. I had lived out in New Jersey before that, while I was renting space up at Continuity. After a couple years, I left, to move in with a girl that I hooked up with and I started working out of home again because we

MAD TM & © DC Comics. All © the respective copyright holders.

were living out in Boonton, New Jersey, which is an hourand-a-half from the city, in far-off suburbia. I had wanted to see what suburban life was like. I had grown up in the city and lived there all my life and had no experience with suburban life. I wanted to see how that was. CBC: How was it? Ralph: It was boring. [Jon laughs] The people we were living with would have parties and all the guys would come and talk about football, all the women would gather in the kitchen and talk about babies and recipes and sh*t, and I’d go back and forth from one to the other going, “Where are my people? Where do I fit in here?” [laughs] “This is not working for me!” On a social level. I mean; it’s nice to wake up in the morning and hear birds tweeting in the trees instead of the f*cking El goin’ over your head. CBC: You worked for the Children’s Television Workshop? Ralph: Yes. I did a lot of work up there with Ron Barrett. He was the editor up there, of a number of their magazines, including Electric Company magazine. He was someone I met through Byron Preiss, who sent me up, recommended me to someone up there. CBC: To Ron Barrett? Ralph: I’m not sure if it was Ron Barrett who I saw first, but I wound up working a lot with Barrett. I liked Ron a lot. He was a good friend. CBC: And he hit it big, huh? Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Ralph: Yeah. Well, I mean, he’d been doin’ okay before that. He was art director at the Lampoon for a bunch of years. He had a lot of strong advertising contacts and was really fairly high up with a couple of publishing people, too. He was working with people like Chris Cerf and Henry Beard, people like that. CBC: Do you remember a magazine called Drool? Ralph: Yes. Sure. That was what Bill Skurski and the rest of the Cloud people decided to do after they got fired from the Lampoon. They came out with that but it only lasted one issue. CBC: Was it funny? Ralph: Yeah! Actually, it was pretty good. Peter Bramley is always hysterical, as I recall, whether in person or through his work. [laughs] It looked like every other Cloud Studios product. It had that underground kind of thrown together look to it also, with the Michael Sullivan fumetti and that sort of thing. CBC: Do you know who bankrolled that? Ralph: I don’t know. We all went up to this guy’s office by the UN building there one time, but I don’t remember the publisher’s name. CBC: Did you like doing the One Year Affair? Ralph: Yeah, I was okay with it. It wasn’t always all that funny. CBC: A little droll? Ralph: Yeah, and sometimes it was a little too Jewish for me, actually. Byron had a Woody Allen kind of schleppy, nebbish feel to what he wrote, which I didn’t always necessarily identify that much with. But yeah, people seemed to like it so I kept doing it. I tried to make it into an artistic showplace for myself, you know? I took photographs for everything and did it the way people did other newspaper strips. CBC: Who were your models? Ralph: That was my biggest problem! I could not get the same girl to model for Jill more than two or three times in a row, so Jill’s appearance kept subtly changing in the strips. Somehow, you can never quite wash out all the character of the model who poses for you. CBC: So who was the model for the guy? Ralph: Different people. Sometimes it was me, someCOMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

times it was Larry. Larry and I were still working together a lot at that time. We were pretty much partners. We both did our own thing, but we’d still work together a lot. CBC: Did you just split the money right down the middle or did you sometimes get paid for a particular job and sometimes he’d get paid for a particular job? Ralph: No, we split the money. Basically, we split it 50-50. I never gypped him on the money ’cause I was always happy with what he did and he’s a talented guy and he was my best friend. Glad I got to work with him all those years. CBC: You worked on Atlas-Seaboard, right? Ralph: A little bit. I only did one thing for them. I did a two-pager for that mystery magazine that they came out with, but then that folded almost immediately. But I never got involved with their regular comics. CBC: So you never went exclusive with anybody? Ralph: No. I always didn’t want to get locked into

Top and above: Reese channels Wood and John Romita, Sr., channels Norman Mingo for NatLamp’s MAD parody. Below: Reese EC pastiche for NatLamp.

This page: Arguably, Ralph Reese’s greatest claim to fame is his Byron Preiss collaboration One Year Affair and its sequel, Two Year Affair, in National Lampoon in the mid-’70s. The run of One Year Affair was collected as a trade paperback in ’76, an event celebrated with a release party (invite above). The first OYA strip is below [National Lampoon #42, Sept. 1973].

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

One Year Affair TM & © the respective copyright holder.

anything. I wanted to keep all my options open, especially at that time because interesting things were happening in different places. I didn’t want to get myself locked into just grinding out sh*t for Marvel. CBC: So you weren’t even looking for a syndicated comic strip? Ralph: I never really tried for a syndicated strip. By that time, the syndicated strips were dying, I suppose. The only possibility for me of selling was a daily joke strip like Doonesbury or Far Side or something like that, but that’s not what I do, you know? CBC: Didn’t you do Flash Gordon for a while?

Ralph: I did Flash Gordon for a year exactly. That was my contract. But, by that time, it didn’t pay sh*t because it was only in 15 papers around the world. Worldwide distribution, 15 papers. They were only keeping it because they wanted to keep the name alive. CBC: How much did you make a week? Ralph: What was it? Seven hundred dollars, I think, for five dailies and a Sunday. CBC: Kept ya fed. Ralph: Just about. CBC: But you had to spend all your time on it, right? Ralph: Yeah, I rarely got a day off. Eventually, I wound up handing off the Sundays to Gray Morrow. The last month or two, I got Gray to do the Sundays for $150. I was just getting too far behind. CBC: So, he did both pencils and inks? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: I guess he was in Pennsylvania, right? Ralph: Yeah, but I was in New Jersey, so we weren’t that far away. CBC: So did you drive over there? Ralph: Yeah. Gray was a good friend. We met a lot up at Continuity and even before that I knew him from the First Fridays. He used to come to those all the time. He was always very sociable and interested in young artists and trying to help them along, being an older brother kind of guy to a lot of us, I think. We young’uns used to go visit him out in New Jersey to ride horses, shoot guns, and stuff. CBC: He was a pretty mellow guy, right? Ralph: Yeah, he was. CBC: Did you like being in his company? Ralph: Oh, yeah! I liked Gray and he always treated me kindly. I felt bad when I heard about his Parkinson’s disease and how things ended up. We all knew that he was a drinker, although he was very quiet about it. Unlike Wally Wood, he didn’t show up at a convention wearing one shoe and his hair all on end, y’know? He was just very quiet about it. You never saw him drunk. It was just every day, steady. CBC: Did it affect his work output? Ralph: No, amazingly. I’m not sure how it affected his desire to create art as opposed to grinding sh*t out to pay the bills. [laughs] I think he got pretty burnt out. CBC: In the ’70s, did you stay in touch with Woody? Ralph: Yeah, sure. Eventually, his second marriage came to an end. That’s Marilyn out on Long Island. CBC: What was the problem with the kids? Ralph: Well, they were her kids and they were half-grown already. CBC: Oh, like he’s an interloper kind of thing? Ralph: Right. They never accepted him. Also, I don’t think Marilyn was really prepared for the kind of person that he was. He was a total workaholic! She was expecting someone who would be more of a husband and a father to her kids and he wasn’t really all that into that. He was into his work. CBC: So he wanted somebody to make a meal or make sure he was fed or… ? Why’d he get married? Ralph: Well, I think it represented to him a different kind of life than what he’d been living. Like me, he had lived in the city almost all of his adult life, although he was brought up in rural Minnesota. CBC: Did he always stay up all night? Ralph: Yeah, he would stay up late. I didn’t show up there until, like, noon. Then I’d work until mid-evening and sometimes I’d stay there 12 hours. Whatever was happening. Whatever it took for whatever was

One Year Affair and Two Year Affair TM & © the respective copyright holder.

going on. CBC: Would late night deadlines like that be fun? Ralph: Well, no. It’s not fun. It’s grind after a while. CBC: Do you think the work killed him? Ralph: No. His drinking killed him, and just not taking care of his health. CBC: Did Woody have a self-destructive nature, do you think? I mean, he did kill himself. Ralph: Well, it wasn’t just that he killed himself. The thing is, he got himself into a position where that was the only option he had left. You know what I’m saying? His organs were failing. His life was totally f*cked up at that point. CBC: He was all alone? Ralph: As far as I know. He was pretty much alone out there in California. CBC: Why was his life f*cked up, besides that? Ralph: Well, what’d he have to show for it? I mean for everything that he did? He was basically destitute. CBC: He never had a piece of whatever? Ralph: No, he never made any big money and when he wasn’t able to keep cranking it out anymore, things only got worse. But mainly, he ruined his health. CBC: But he was bitter, too! He was consumed with resentment, right? Ralph: Yes, yes. CBC: Why did he think Stan Lee ripped him off? Ralph: Well, because he really re-created the Daredevil character and wrote the stories and then Stan just put some dialogue balloons in and called ’em his. CBC: So, he was ripped off by the Marvel method? Ralph: Yeah. Basically, yeah. Same as Steve Ditko. CBC: Was he also mad at Harvey Kurtzman? Ralph: Wood hated pretty much everyone that he ever worked for other than Bill Gaines, as far as I know. CBC: He didn’t hate Bill Gaines? Ralph: Naw. No. He always had kind of mellow feelings towards him. (He also maintained friendly relations with Harry Shorten and Woody Gelman.) CBC: When times were tough, could he go to Gaines? Was Gaines a good touch? Ralph: That I wouldn’t know. CBC: But why was he mad at Harvey? Ralph: A clash of personalities, I think. Two strong egos that just clashed. I’m not sure. Harvey could be mean! He could be cutting and he didn’t make any secret of how he felt about Wood’s alcoholism. I don’t think he would’ve appreciated that. Wasn’t helpful. He hated Feldstein more than Harvey. He hated Al Feldstein and working with him all those years in MAD. Just rubbed him the wrong way. He thought he was a dope. CBC: Do you think he wasted too much time on resentments? Ralph: Well… he didn’t just have resentments towards the people that he worked for. He had resentments towards every woman in his life. He never felt that he was somehow able to get from that what he needed. He always felt betrayed by them in one way or another. CBC: Where do you think that came from? Ralph: Well, from his childhood, probably. He had it pretty rough growing up, too. His parents were divorced when he was very young. He had very little contact or knowledge of his father, but what there was wasn’t good. His father was an alcoholic abuser who was liable to beat on him. CBC: Really? Ralph: He was a tough guy, his father. He was a lumberjack. And he was never around because he was off lumbering somewhere. Then, once his parents got divorced, Wood never saw him again. He had no interest in young Wally. CBC: Did Woody have siblings? Ralph: Yeah, he has a brother, Glenn, who might still be alive. I’m not sure. CBC: Did you meet him? Ralph: I met him once or twice up at Wood’s place. His COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

brother was a fairly well-placed engineer and so he traveled the country with his business. He would come to New York ever once in a while, and he would visit Woody up at the old apartment up at 76th Street. Then they had a memorial event sponsored by the School of Visual Arts, Glenn announced a scholarship in his brother’s name. We had a little memorial thing for that and I saw Glenn there briefly. CBC: Were they just different animals? Ralph: They were just totally different people, yeah. Actually, Woody approached Glenn after his kidneys failed for a transplant and Glenn wouldn’t give it to him. Fair enough. “You did this to yourself, pal.” CBC: Did you ever argue with Woody? Ralph: Very rarely, but I did get tired of listening to him complain about women, how badly they all treated him. [laughs] CBC: Did you tell him? Ralph: Naaaaaaaaaah. CBC: Was he like a father figure kind of

This page: Writer Byron Preiss and artist Ralph Reese’s sequel to One Year Affair was — surprise! — Two Year Affair, an ambitious follow-up that expanded it to full-page and in color. Alas, the strip was aborted early in its run. Above is the first installment of TYA. Below is the One Year Affair collection.

This page and next: Examples of illustrator Ralph Reese’s work with publishing entrepreneur Byron Preiss in the 1970s. Above is Weird Heroes #2 [’75] illustration and below is Weird Heroes #4 [’76] cover. Next page is art and cover of Son of Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in Red [’77], a graphic novel.

CBC: They had a relationship that lasted into the ’70s? Ralph: Well, I’m not sure exactly. Obviously, they broke up before Woody met his second wife. Yeah, he used to talk a lot about Flo. [laughs] It got kind of tedious! CBC: About how much he liked her? Ralph: Well, no. About how much she was driving him crazy! Pretty much every woman that was ever in his life he felt that way about. Like I said, he could never seem to get whatever it was that he felt he needed. Probably that person doesn’t exist, you know? He kept looking for something that he was going to find. Probably looking for something to make up for the deprivation of his early childhood. That’s what happens to a lot of us. We don’t get what we need when we’re growing up and then we go through the rest of our lives with a big hole in our gut because nobody who comes along after that can ever really fill that void. Because you’ve already learned to mistrust, to hold back, to be constantly vigilant to… CBC: Be on the defensive? Ralph: Yeah, whatever. CBC: Trust? Ralph: Not just trust, but to appreciate other people for what they are instead of what you want them to be and that sort of thing. That’s hard, you know? CBC: As far as you know, did he ever try Alcoholics Anonymous? Ralph: No, AA was too religiously oriented. He went through years of psychoanalysis, though. He went through five years or more of psychoanalysis after he quit drinking, to try and stay on the straight and narrow. And he went on seeing a psychiatrist right up until not long before his second marriage. He was still seeing his psychiatrist once a week when he was working on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and I was working with him. CBC: Did he ever express that he was making any breakthroughs? Ralph: The trouble is, the guy he was seeing was really kind of a strict Freudian and Wood was very much into Freud and all Freud’s theories but those have been supplanted. Yeah, they’re true to an extent, but there are other things. Not everyone who hates or resents their father does so because they wanna f*ck their mother. [laughs] There’s a lot of other reasons that might be true. You understand what I mean? Freud got a little too… He was a product of his times, also. CBC: Did you and Woody go together? Ralph: We went to a couple of encounter groups together, yeah. We used to talk about psychology and that sort of thing, just human behavior and why people act so crazy the way they do. And, of course, being a couple of nuts ourselves, we had plenty to work with! [laughs] CBC: When you were working together, did he have the radio on? Would you listen to Jean Shepherd or anything like that? Ralph: Mostly, we played records. Country-Western and folk records. CBC: Like Hank Williams? Ralph: And Ernest Tubb and Merle Haggard, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, and Bob Dylan. All the folkies that were… We listened to a lot of Jack Elliott, if you know who that is. He was one of the second-generation Woody Guthrie people, like Pete Seeger. CBC: Did you go down to the Village and see any of them? Ralph: I used to go down there and hang out. I didn’t go to music clubs that much. I didn’t have any money, so I didn’t get to get out much. Once in a while, I’d get concert tickets or something. CBC: Were you a workaholic? Ralph: No, not really. CBC: You were able to shut it off? Ralph: I always had other interests in life. I’m not like Wally Wood or Neal Adams. These were guys that were like totally into it 100% of the time, every day, all day, from #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Weird Heroes TM & © the respective copyright holder.

thing? There were limits? Ralph: Yeah. Well… I didn’t wanna go there. CBC: Could he have shut you off if you had spoke candidly? Ralph: Sure. Actually, he did throw me out once, when I accidentally revealed something about his relationship with Flo Steinberg. I let something slip in front of somebody once that they had been seeing each other, which I was never, ever supposed to do. CBC: Why was that such a secret? Ralph: Flo wanted it to be a secret more than anybody, because Woody was still married to another woman at the time. This was when he was married to Tatjana. CBC: It goes back to the ’60s? Ralph: Yeah. What happened was, Flo came over to help with witzend. She came over to help with, I don’t know, proofreading or something. Whatever it was, she wanted to get involved and help out. CBC: They had hit it off at Marvel when he came in the mid-’60s? Ralph: They knew each other from that, yeah. I’m not sure how well. Just to chat, probably. At any rate, she came over and started helping out on witzend and, the next thing you know, the two of them are, you know, fooling around. CBC: She was young. Ralph: She was still in her mid-20s. CBC: And cute as a button! Ralph: Yeah, she was cute. CBC: And you worked on her Big Apple Comics. Ralph: Yes.

Son of Sherlock Holmes TM & © the respective copyright holder.

morning ’til… you know, two o’clock the next morning! I always had other interests. CBC: What were they? Ralph: Car racing, girls, sports, chess, making music, and just hanging out with friends. I used to be pretty active when I was younger. I went to play softball and stuff like that. Tennis. CBC: Oh, yeah? You good? Ralph: Not particularly, but I enjoyed it. But yeah, I liked to get out and do things much more than, say, Wood, or Neal for that matter, and Wrightson, as far as I know. CBC: Did you watch car racing on TV or did you go down to the track? Ralph: A little of both. Mostly I just watched it on TV. Actually, you couldn’t even watch it on TV then because you didn’t have the sports channels. You were lucky to get the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, and maybe the Daytona 500. CBC: How does a New York City boy get into that? Ralph: I don’t know! I became a car-racing nut when I was like 12, 13 years old. I always liked things that go fast and the design of them. I was crazy for jet planes back when I was a kid. My first ambition was to be a jet pilot but then I started having to wear glasses, so that went out the window. But I’ve always been attractive to things that are sleek-shaped and go fast, I started off being a big nut for the latest Interceptor or fighter plane or whatever and somehow I crossed over from that into racing cars. It’s kind of similar in a way, the development of technology that brings about advances in the field. It’s just as much about the technology as it is about the drivers or the races themselves. That made it interesting to me. CBC: When did you get your first car? Ralph: Not ’til I was in my 20s, until I moved out to Hoboken. Before I moved to the far-away suburbs, I moved to Hoboken and lived there for about six months or a year, and I bought a car there. I had a Ford Pinto! That was my first car. [laughs] It didn’t explode, but I blew the engine out of it. CBC: Did you hope that there was anything, like Solomon Kane, that you COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

could do where you could get a series out of it? Was that ever on your mind? Were you ever in search of some kind of a property that you could be associated with? Ralph: Like I said, not so much, because I was not as much a super-hero guy. CBC: Well, yeah, but there were properties like Conan. Ralph: Well, Conan was already in other people’s hands. I don’t know. I didn’t really like the Solomon Kane character that much. I mean, it was okay but I was never big on magic or superstition or that sort of stuff and that’s really what those stories are about. You know, Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman or something. I found the setting interesting! Drawing people in 17th and 18th century costumes and backgrounds. That was interesting to me, but I wasn’t that crazy about the character. CBC: Aside from The Son of Sherlock Holmes, did you ever consider doing a graphic novel? Ralph: It’s too late now. I’m 68 years old, Jon. I don’t have the energy to put into that kind of a project anymore. It would never get done. CBC: But was it ever a thought? Ralph: I have a whole proposal here for a book based on futuristic racing cars and stuff, that I tried to sell back just before the big crash back in the ’90s. I figured I would take a stab at trying to create something of my own and have my name on it and be able to keep all the money from it of it took off, but I could never quite get it off the ground. A guy at Acclaim was interested in talking to me about a video game version or doing some development towards that for this car racing thing. Actually, it would have been better as a video game than as a comic book because you want to see these things move, you know? But I passed up on the deal because I wanted to get it copyrighted somehow in my own name first, before I started giving any of this stuff to anybody. I wanted to get it published as a comic or something like that so that it would be mine. It wouldn’t be co-opted. CBC: So what happened? Ralph: Nothing. One of Byron’s editors up there at BPVP [Byron Preiss 57

graduated from Cooper Union and he started coming up to Continuity just to schmooze with Neal and try to get some help or guidance or whatever. CBC: Was he a Wood nut? Ralph: Not originally. He knew of Wood, but he liked all different kinds of artists. He would up working for Wood, taking the place as Wood’s assistant for a couple of years there, a few years. CBC: He did that strip for Heavy Metal, called The Bus. #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All TM & © the respective copyright holders.

Top & above: Color jobs for Esquire magazine (top far right is Larry Hama and Ralph Reese making off with the loot). Right inset: Unpublished Hama/Reese job for U.S. Navy (words by Archie Goodwin). Next page: Inset top is sample of a well-known Reese assignment, Bantam’s Choose Your Own Adventure series. Bottom inset are the two issues of Reese’s Pieces [1985].

Visual Publications], a guy I was working with, tried to flog it around but it never worked out. Never materialized. CBC: Describe Wayne Howard. Ralph: He was a hick. He came from Ohio, or someplace like that. Pretty sure he came from around Columbus or somewhere. But he had this voice, like, (in exaggerated country bumpkin voice) “Gaw-lee, Mister Woooood!” [Jon laughs] He spoke like that! You could hear him from across the room, so that was always comical. He had this real hee-haw laugh that was always amusing, and sometimes embarrassing, especially if we were going out to a restaurant. CBC: Did he dress conservatively? Button-down… Ralph: Yeah, yeah. Well, he was a very straight arrow, conservative kind of guy. But, yeah, he’d be your black Republican, y’know? A rare breed, but they do exist, and he was one of ’em. CBC: He coulda got a job on Fox News. [laughs] He was able to appropriate Wood’s style pretty well. Ralph: Yes and no. His stuff always looked like cheap imitation, where my stuff always looked like… Ralph. There was Wood in there, but there was enough of me to distinguish myself… CBC: Wayne even put his signature in a banner kind of thing. He did Midnight Tales for Charlton, and made that his own. What became of him? Do you know? Ralph: He died! He died young. I forget how. Paul Kirchner could probably tell you more. CBC: How’d you meet Paul? Ralph: He started coming up to Continuity. He had just

All TM & © the respective copyright holders.

That looked very Wood-like. Ralph: He also had The Dope Rider strip in High Times every month for a couple years there. You never saw that? CBC: No, I don’t think so. Ralph: You have to look it up. CBC: It’s good? Ralph: It’s great to look at! It doesn’t make any sense! [Jon laughs] It’s all imagery. Paul’s a clever fellow. He wrote some good books, actually. I have them. He wrote a number of those Big Books for DC there. CBC: Oh, with [editor] Andy Helfer? You did a bunch of stuff for them, too. Ralph: Yeah, I did three or four stories for them, yeah. CBC: Was it a little constraining? Ralph: No, I didn’t mind it. It didn’t pay that well for that time. I wound up being late on one so then Helfer sh*t-canned me, treated me really shabbily. CBC: Were you dependable? Ralph: Yeah, mostly. Sometimes I’d be late, but, you know, you can’t not get stuff done and keep getting work. People just won’t hire you. But I’ve always been slow. I mean, Neal Adams can do 10 pages in the time it took me to do one. Some people, they have this thing in their head and they can just turn it on and churn it out. It’s like they have an art projector inside their head and they just have to trace lines on the paper. That’s not me. I have to grind it out. CBC: How do you face it? Do you face it with anxiety? Ralph: No. I’ve done it for so many tears. It’s not an issue like that, but I’m never completely satisfied with anything I’ve ever done. Immediately when I finish it I think, “Oh, I shoulda done this better!” or “I coulda done that better!” That’s the nature of art, I think. CBC: The creative temperament. Ralph: Yeah, yeah. You’re never completely satisfied with anything. CBC: And you worked for Larry with Savage Tales in the ’80s? Ralph: Well, he did that one… He did that Dr. Deth story for his own magazine, that I inked and lettered and put tones on and stuff. And I did a bunch of work with him on Crazy magazine. CBC: Oh, he was editing that? Ralph: Yeah. Actually, I did a lot more work for Crazy. I just did that one Savage Tales story, the Dr. Deth. But that was Larry’s creation, really. CBC: I guess, after the Byron Preiss stuff, I don’t remember seeing you around a lot. You continued to do some National Lampoon stuff? Ralph: Well, I was still working for the National Lampoon and for Children’s Television Workshop, but I started doing a lot more advertising back around ’73 or ’74. I had picked up that stuff from working with Neal up there at Continuity. We helped him out on a lot of those animatics and storyboards and stuff, right? So eventually I started picking up some work of my own in the advertising world. CBC: Can you tell me any clients whose products you were working on? Ralph: For one thing, Neal used to send us down to Daniel and Charles Agency. There was this guy there who ran the studio there, the art studio. His name was COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Marco. He would call up Neal and say, “We need a couple of guys. We’re jammed up and we need a bunch of stuff done overnight.” Me and Joe Barney and Joe D’esposito a lot of times would go over and put in time there. So we met the art directors who were working there and they moved on to other places. We followed with them and so eventually I got somewhat of a network of advertising contacts, just art directors that I knew from hanging out. I also worked as an animation designer for about six months around the mid-’70s there. It got a job at, it was called, Perpetual Motion Studios. They’ve since gone out of business. But they did advertising cartooning and also produced stuff for children’s television, stuff like The Berenstain Bears and things like that. I designed animated cartoons for them for six months or so. CBC: Was it satisfying? Ralph: I enjoyed it! I liked it and I learned a lot about animation — old style animation that’s done on a camera as opposed to digital… CBC: Cel animation. Ralph: Yeah, that’s all been superseded now. I mean, nobody does that anymore. Guys used to make a good living running those cameras. Now they might as well be buggy whip makers! [laughs] CBC: You continued to work with Byron? Ralph: Yeah. That kind of slowed up a lot as BPVP became more of a regular book publishing enterprise, but I continued to work with him right up until the mid-’90s or so. But it was never regular. I’d get one or

two projects a year from him. CBC: Was Choose Your Own Adventure through Byron? Ralph: Well, he referred me to the person at Choose Your Own Adventure. He was friends with this Judy Gitenstein, who was the editor at Bantam of that series, I guess because they were both working on children’s books. BPVP was always at least half children’s books and the other half art books and graphic novels. At any rate, he knew this Judy Gitenstein and they were looking for somebody. They had an artist who had done the first ten or so, but the thing was growing and they wanted to put out more books than this guy could possibly illustrate all by himself. They had to find some other artists to work on ’em, so they got in touch with me. Well, Byron recommended me up there. CBC: You worked on ’em for a couple years? Ralph: Yeah! Worked on the Choose Your Own Adventures, really, through the ’80s. I guess early ’80s to late ’80s, or at least mid-’80s. CBC: And you were also doing advertising work? Ralph: Yeah. CBC: So you were pretty much completely out of comics for a period of time. Ralph: Yeah, I was out of comics through the late ’80s, up until around 1990. That was when Ernie Colón got in touch with me to come and meet Jim Shooter and maybe start working for Acclaim… or Valiant, as they called it then. CBC: You did Hamilton Comics, too. Dread of Night. Do you remember that at all? Bruce Hamilton, maybe? Ralph: Aw, I forget. CBC: I think that was not a one-shot, but maybe a two-shot, mystery/horror kind of thing. 59

Above: Recent Ralph Reese self-caricature of the artist surrounded by some of his creations. Inset right: Reese cover art for Magnus Robot Fighter #23 [Apr. 1993]. Below: Panel from Reese’s art for House of Mystery #13 [July 2009].

Ralph: Yeah! I did a thing for this film company called Blue Moon, which came out with a few movies back in the mid-’90s there that wound up never getting published. I did a whole comic for the U.S. Navy that never got published, about young sailors and how to get along on Japan without offending the locals. [laughs] Archie Goodwin actually wrote that. We had it all done and in the can, but then the Navy captain who’d commissioned the whole thing got a boat. So he was gone and somehow the whole project never went anywhere, never got published. CBC: But you got paid? Ralph: Yeah, we got paid and there’s a whole unpublished story somewhere. CBC: Do you remember “Randi Ann Reddy”? Ralph: Sure. That was the men’s magazine strip that Larry Hama and I did for Genesis. We did about… I don’t know, ten or twelve of ’em I guess. CBC: These were like Little Annie Fanny? Ralph: Kind of, yeah. “Randi Ann Reddy, Roving Reporter.” CBC: She’d get naked and… Ralph: Yeah, she winds up getting her clothes torn off by the second or third panel in every story. It’s silly. It’s just silly. More silly than sexy, really. There are nudes, but it’s not #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

really a serious work of pornography. You’re not supposed to jerk off to it. It’s more like, “Ha, ha.” You just laugh at it. CBC: Reese’s Pieces…? How did that come about? Did Eclipse Comics come to you? Ralph: Yeah, they came to me to reprint a bunch of the old Web of Horror stuff. And wherever else they got stuff… Skywald, I guess. CBC: That must have been pretty cool. Ralph: Well, you know, it was nice cashing the check! CBC: The ’80s were pretty good. Ralph: Didn’t last long, though. CBC: Captain Atlas and the Globe Riders? Ralph: The Hammond Corporation. CBC: The map company? Ralph: Yeah, I was approached by the art director at Hammond who, I guess, knew my work. Besides Children’s Television Workshop, I also did a bunch of work for Scholastic magazines over the years. CBC: You mean, like Dynamite or whatever? Those kinds of magazines? Ralph: Right, the ones that got distributed for free in schools. Both color and black-&-white. I did maybe half a dozen different things for them. CBC: They pay well? Ralph: Yeah, they paid decent. They paid okay. There was one art director up there who knew my stuff, I think, from the Lampoon, and when they wanted funny, they would go to me. CBC: You were good at funny? Ralph: Yeeaah… Sort of. CBC: Remind me how you met up with Jim Shooter. Did Larry introduce you? Ralph: No. Ernie Colón. I was living in Brooklyn at the time and so was Ernie, as a matter of fact. He had hooked up with Ruth Ashby, who was Byron’s second in command up there at BPVP for many, many years. She was sort of his secretary and all-around runaround, go-between, and editor. But she was married to Ernie and… I think the reason that they called me was because of Barry Smith. Barry was gonna start that Archer and Armstrong series for them and

needed somebody to ink it. Apparently, he had liked what I had done on Gil Kane’s stuff in the past, so he suggested my name to Shooter. Now, I never got along well with Barry Smith, I gotta tell ya. I was really surprised, actually, that… I had known him from the Studio days, from the early ‘70s. CBC: So you were surprised when he suggested you as an inker? Ralph: Yeah. I had lined up Linda Lessman to model for me on those Heather and Feather strips that I was doing for Dennis Lopez and Harpoon. And I did the one and it came out great, and she looked great in it. Looked exactly like her. But once she started going out with Barry, Barry told her she couldn’t model for me for these strips. So once again, I started out a strip with a dead likeness of this girl and now she can’t be there anymore so what am I supposed to do with the strip, y’know? It was based on her looking like her. So I just chose to ignore it. I just got somebody else to take that part. Heather Devitt, one of Mary Skrenes’s friends. She was actually going with Jim Starlin at the time, but she was rooming with Mary Skrenes, so the two of them were Heather and Feather from then on. But, at any rate, Barry Smith told Shooter to try me out as an inker on this thing and I did that one issue, the first issue, of Archer and Armstrong. But, of course, Barry Smith hated it! But they had other stuff going on and it wound up that Ernie stopped doing Magnus, so they put me on Magnus with some unknown pencilers at that time. And that turned out to work out okay. Everyone was happy with that for a couple years. CBC: You worked for Valiant for how many years? Ralph: I’m not sure. I guess four or five years…? Wasn’t always steady. We started talking about stuff that sometimes would take a while to get going. CBC: Is that your last major gig in comics? Ralph: Yes. And that’s the last time I had steady work. CBC: Do you miss it? Ralph: I’m too old now. I couldn’t keep up with it. It’s a whole different world now, the whole comic book business. It’s not a newsstand medium anymore. It’s a whole different thing. You’ve got a hundred different publishers out there, each putting out four or five different titles. It’s so confusing. There’s such a glut of titles for a shrinking market, but then I don’t really understand how the business works anymore. CBC: [Laughs] I don’t think anybody does. Ralph: It seems like 90% of it is just putting out titles that you know are gonna lose money on the hope that somebody will get you a TV or movie deal or a toy or some other kinda thing. CBC: Do you like social media? Ralph: Facebook has been a godsend for me. Once the bottom fell out of my artistic career, I wound up having to go out… First I drove limos, then I drove trucks. For about the better part of ten years I was out there driving for a living ’til I hurt my back and got disabled on the job. During that time, I totally lost touch with everyone from my past because I wasn’t in the comic world anymore. I wasn’t around. My phone stopped ringing. It was like I had the plague, you know, and people were afraid it might be contagious. CBC: So do you get commission work from Facebook? Why do you say it’s a “godsend”? Is it the attention? Ralph: Well, it’s allowed me to reconnect with a couple of hundred old friends and people that I hadn’t seen or been able to interact with for years, so it’s made my life a lot less lonely In that respect. And also, it’s paid off financially. I never woulda met Shaun Clancy if I hadn’t been on Facebook, you know, so I’m able to get enough commissions besides my Social Security income to at least keep things afloat and if I want to buy myself an autoharp or a guitar or something, I can do that once in a while. As you can see, I’m not livin’ high off the hog. CBC: But you’re livin’. Ralph: At least it’s stable and I can pick up a few bucks here and there. My biggest trouble these days is I’ve gotten COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

lazy. I had to support myself from the time I was 15 years old. I’m tired. I’ve been taking time in the last few years just to be self-indulgent. If I feel like sitting here for a week playing video games, I’ll just do that. You know, f*ck it! CBC: You’re 68, man! You’re entitled! You must get people saying, “I just loved your work growing up.” Ralph: Sure! That’s been very helpful to me, actually, because all those years that I was out there driving trucks, I felt that I had wasted my life. That nobody gave a sh*t about any of that stuff and it was all just a big waste and I was a f*ckin’ fool for ever starting in that. I had devoted my life to this and it turned around and bit me in the ass! I mean, here I was, I was 45 years old, I had a six-year-old daughter and a wife and I couldn’t… My marriage wound up coming apart because we went $60–80,000 into debt. We just couldn’t keep up a middle-class lifestyle. It needed both of us working and, when I couldn’t get work, everything just fell apart. CBC: Are you in touch with your daughter? Ralph: Yeah. I see her once a year at Christmas and try to get her to come up more often. CBC: Anything else to add, Ralph? Ralph: Well, I’d just like to say, that even though I never achieved any great financial success or fame, my artistic career has been a lot more interesting than any of the other alternatives I had available to me. I got to meet a lot of smart and creative people and work on some fun projects that I could take some pride in. I might have had a more stable life if I’d been an oil burner mechanic like my dad, but I would’ve been bored out of my mind and nobody would be reading this now. So, thanks to all those who helped me along the way.

Above: This Ralph Reese self-portrait from 2010 includes the likenesses of his compatriots. On the left, clockwise from bottom left is lifelong best chum Larry Hama, perhaps most known for his work on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and other Marvel titles; ’60s studiomate Roger Brand, who was, like Reese, not defined by a single genre, as his artistry was found in undergrounds, prozines, and assisting the work of comics artists Wallace Wood and Dan Adkins; and Wallace Wood himself. On the right wall is Adkins, best known for his inking in mainstream comics and illustrations for science fiction digest magazines.

RALPH REESE

is available for art commissions. Please contact him online via his Facebook account www.facebook.com/ralph.reese.129 61

You might think it all started with Stupid for me, or maybe What The--?! But, nahh, the artistry of Chicago boy Hilary Barta first knockened my sockens off with his rendition of P las, the India Rubber Man, in 1988, via his spot-on Jack Cole riff. Since then, his mastery of the ink brush has been an absolute wonder to behold, whether in collaboration with Alan Moore with “Splash Brannigan” or current work for editor Chris Duffy in SpongeBob SquarePants comics. The following was conducted this past winter by phone.

Interview conducted by JON B. COOKE Transcribed by STEVEN THOMPSON Portrait by JANNEAL GIFFORD 62

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Splash Brannigan and related characters TM & © America’s Best Comics, LLC.

Comic Book Creator: So, where are ya from, Hilary? Hilary Barta: Well, I’m from Chicago, I reside in Chicago, and I’ve never left Chicago! So, that’s me! [laughter] CBC: Do you have any other artists in your family? Hilary: Well, a few of my siblings were artists when they were younger and went to art school. One of my sisters is still a potter, but others in the family gave it up. My parents definitely encouraged the kids to be creative. There’s an article form a Chicago newspaper, from probably the late ’50s (when I was still a baby), and it’s about teaching kids about culture and there’s a picture of my dad, a sociology professor here in Chicago, sitting in the armchair with all his kids around him. He’s holding me when I was a baby and reading to us from a classic piece of literature he wanted us to know about. And then there’s another picture of them taking us to the Art Institute as a family when we were kids. So my parents were all about exposing kids to the arts. It wasn’t just, “get a job,” or “what’s your career gonna be?” And even though I don’t think my dad ever really understood my comics, I think he approved that I was doing what I wanted to do and he wanted to be helpful. And my mom always was pushing the arts. CBC: How many siblings do you have? Hilary: I am the sixth of seven kids. We’re a Catholic family and, like most Catholics, they practiced the rhythm method, which is, you know, [laughs] one kid a year, basically. Yeah. I’m the next-to-youngest and it was quite a raucous upbringing, y’know? There was a lot of hand-me-down clothes, a lot of grabbing for food when it’s put on the table. [laughter] CBC: Survival instincts kick in, right? Hilary: Yeah! Something like that.

Above: As a six-month-old, our interview subject gets namechecked in the April 8, 1958 edition of Midwest, the Chicago Sun-Times magazine supplement. Below: Kurtzman was a big influence on young Barta.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

MAD TM & © E.C. Publications, Inc.

CBC: So where was your father a professor? Hilary: Well, he went to Notre Dame, but he taught at Mundelein College. As I mentioned, we’re a Catholic family and he taught at a small college (that’s since been absorbed into Loyola University). It was a girls school and a lot of nuns who taught there as well as my dad and other non-religious teachers. It was right on the lakefront in Chicago, a beautiful campus. I heard all kinds of stories later that the students and the nuns both adored him! [laughs] There weren’t that many men in the institution, so… CBC: [Laughs] Oh, right! Was he a nice guy? Hilary: My dad was an incredibly nice guy! And he was quite the role model. I think he was probably disappointed that I didn’t go on to higher education. You know, I took art school

classes here and there. He probably would have preferred that I actually went for the degree and everything, but I was looking to get published. That was really my goal, not necessarily the degree. But yeah, he was just a really sweet guy. Bright, funny… he loved Danny Kaye and Sinatra… He liked the smooth singers, like Perry Como. CBC: What was your childhood like? Was it pretty much suburbia? Hilary: Well, I was born in Chicago proper and then we moved when I was five or six. We moved to Evanston, the suburb adjoining Chicago to the North. As soon as I was on my own and got my first apartment, I moved back to the city and so I’ve spent more time in Chicago. Evanston is a suburb but it’s so closely connected to Chicago, it’s the least suburban of a lot of the surrounding suburbs. There are other suburbs if you go further north and they’re much whiter. At that time, Evanston was integrated and that’s one of the reasons my parents wanted to move to Evanston. The public schools in Chicago were pretty lousy, they thought, and my older siblings were going to Catholic school. But she wanted us to get a public education. Both my parents were involved in the civil rights movement. They wanted us to be in integrated schools so that was, I think, one of the main reasons we moved to Evanston. So my education was public school, not Catholic. CBC: When did you start drawing? Hilary: Again, my mom really encouraged me. I will probably talk about my mom in this regard more than my dad only because she was the one that was home more than my dad, as he was off teaching at school. He’d come home and I’d make him his martini. [laughs] But we interacted more with my mom as far as household stuff and she used to encourage us to draw and to create. When we were young, we’d have crayons and, because she’d read somewhere that it was better for kids to be creative, she didn’t buy us coloring books. Parents shouldn’t want their children to be just drawing within the box, literally, in a coloring book. She’d take the crayons and she’d tear the paper off and then break them in half. CBC: Did you pal around with kids in the neighborhood? Were you sociable as a kid? Hilary: Yeah! My brother and I were the youngest and the older siblings were off doing what they were doin’, and at some point it became my younger brother, Dan, and I. I know it’s very different from talking to most of my friends now, but in those days, after breakfast, we’d just run out the door and then we’d get called home for dinner, y’know? [Jon chuckles] My mom actually had a cowbell at one point that she would just ring it and we would come running home from around the block. We kept to a small neighborhood, but two blocks away we had what we called “the Hill,” publicly owned land that eventually became designated as a park. But, in those days, it was just an empty lot where we played baseball and football and stuff. Because it sloped, we’d be able to skateboard down a sidewalk, too, and in those days, we made skateboards by literally taking the wheels off of roller skates and then nail ’em to the bottom of a board. [laughs] No brakes and very little steering, but you could get goin’! We had all kinds of crazy stuff we’d play with the kids on the block. We had a big game called Chase that would take hours sometimes, but one person was “It” and you could hide anywhere on the block as long as it was outside. It could be in

Peanuts TM & © Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Prince Valiant and Blondie TM & © King Features Syndicate.

a yard… you know… anywhere! And then you’d just go around trying to tag ’em and eventually you’d have ten people looking for one kid. Sometimes after the game was over and everyone went home to dinner, I didn’t know it because I’m still hiding in somebody’s backyard. [laughter] CBC: What is the ethnicity of “Barta”? Hilary: Well, my dad was of Czech descent. His parents were from Berwyn, a Chicago suburb with a pretty big Czech community in those days. Mom’s side of the family is Polish. Because our cousins on my mother’s side and my maternal grandparents lived closer to us, we were more involved with Polish traditions. I have fond memories of going to Berwyn with my parents to see my grandmother, who lived in the basement of the building they owned and she’d make a goose or a pork roast or something, and the gravy was just the clear fat [laughs] from the meat, and you’d pour that over your potatoes, your starch… CBC: What’s your father’s full name? Hilary: Russell Barta. CBC: What’s your mother’s maiden name? Hilary: My mother’s maiden name is Bernice Marciniak. CBC: Did you have a big extended family? Cousins and all that? Hilary: Yes, we do have cousins and plenty of ’em. The ones that were closest to us lived in Chicago, and were cousins on my Mom’s side. There were four girls in that family, and we were pretty much “kissin’ cousins.” We hung out together. In fact, when I was born, we all lived in the same building. It was a two-flat and we were on the first floor. My cousins were directly above us so, during my childhood anyway, we stayed very close with that particular family. My other first cousins on the Marciniak side lived in Indiana, so we didn’t see them nearly as often, except at weddings and certain get-togethers but not nearly as often as our other cousins. CBC: What’s your little brother’s name? Hilary: My brother’s name is Dan. Dan works for NASA! [laughs] He’s not an astronaut. His degree was in agriculture and he ended up connecting with NASA because, at that time, they were developing the space station and were looking for a sustainable food source and thought hydroponic gardening was the way to go. So he was one of, I’m sure, several people that were brought in to work on growing lettuce hydroponically, and eventually, over the years, he’s had many different jobs. He travels the world now and presents papers from NASA and such. He’s much smarter than I am and much more accomplished.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

CBC: Was he the closest sibling to you then? Hilary: When we were younger, yeah. He hasn’t been in Chicago for many years. He lives in Houston, where NASA is. But when we were kids, yeah, we were the closest. I mean, there was a little bit of a break. I was joking about having a kid every year, but Mom and Dad had, like, five kids in a row and then there was, like, a couple years break between my older sister and myself. And so, Dan and I were a little bit more isolated. There were years when it was just us and our folks. Dan and I have a long history as brothers and competitors and everything else but we’re always trying to work it out. We’re still trying to work it out. CBC: Did you have a Chicago newspaper come to the house when you were kids? Hilary: Yeah, the paper was The Daily News, which eventually folded. That’s where we got our comic strips and stuff. When The Daily News folded, my folks switched to the Tribune (which we would have never thought about doing as kids ’cause it was so right-wing… a strike-breakin’ rag) [laughs] Unfortunately, The Daily News was shy on adventure strips. For instance, you didn’t have Prince Valiant, which was carried in the Milwaukee Journal and so it was always exciting when, in the summer, we’d go up to the family cottage and I would be scrounging around to find as many old papers as I could to read Prince Valiant… Maybe they also had The Phantom, but Prince Valiant was the one that really got me. It was one of my favorite adventure strips. We also had stuff like Kerry Drake, Steve Canyon…that kind of stuff as far as adventure goes. CBC: Was it comic strips or comic books that grabbed you? Hilary: Well, when I was younger, I didn’t have comic books around, so I would read the strips. That was the first thing. At some point comics started to come into the house — I have two older brothers — and a few Marvels appeared, like an early Hulk from that first run Kirby did. And there were a couple

This page: Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, particularly the strips collected in paperbacks (above) were important to the artist’s growth, and so too were Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant Sunday newspaper strips and Chic Young’s Blondie (below and bottom, respectively).

Above: Early Hilary Barta fan art, plus a bio that appeared in Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector #138 [Sept. 1977]. Below: This letter of comment by Barta was included in The Phantom #73 [Oct. 1976]

Prince Valiant looked like in the ’30s… What the printing was and the color and the separations and how beautiful they were. It’s hard to look at the comic strips that I grew up with. I don’t remember if this was The Daily News or later, but Blondie was still one of my favorite strips and the reason I loved it was it was a full-figure strip, right? It had that classic look, even though they shrunk it down, it was no longer the full page, it still had this slightly eccentric line style. The detail. It hadn’t been completely modernized. And it retained that for many, many years when no one else was doing it. When everyone else was doing close-ups and all kinds of less formally traditional kinds of things. It just had this wonderful charm to it purely for that visual reason. I don’t know if I noticed that as a kid or if I subconsciously enjoyed it, but I remember at some point thinking, “Oh, that’s cool for that reason.” All these other strips are just kind of bland visually, but every panel of Blondie had full figures. Dagwood in the chair. They’d show the whole thing. There weren’t many strips like that for me to hang onto, frankly. CBC: For me, it was Bringing Up Father. Hilary: You know, if we’d had that, I probably would have felt the same way. That’s one of many, many strips that I’ve only seen in retrospect when I’d buy collections or look at histories of comics. That’s how I discovered comics from the Golden Age, too! I’d find one book somewhere that showed a story drawn by Kirby in the ’40s and I’d go, “Whoa! What’s this?” Y’know? [laughter] I guess they did this a little in comic books in the ’60s, but it was probably the ’70s when I was seeing Golden Age stuff when they would do giant-size issues and they’d put the reprints in the back. Anything that had a Golden Age story in it, I would be excited by. At some point, I found Steranko’s History of Comics and that really just opened it all up to me. But I wasn’t a really crazy comic collector when I was young. A lot of my friends I know were saving every issue of Donald Duck, all the Barks stuff, but I was never that guy. It wasn’t until high school I think that I started collecting. Then I started seeking it out and even buying collections from #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector © the respective copyright holder. The Phantom TM & © King Features Syndicate.

other books. I was exposed to them, I think, through my older siblings. I don’t think I was going out to the newsstand and buying them. But what really got me is my folks brought home those Ballantine MAD paperbacks and a ton of Peanuts paperbacks, and I would just devour those! The MAD reprints had all the great early Kurtzman-edited material there and that artwork, in black-&-white, even in paperback form with the panels disconnected from each other, was still just amazing to see and I think that was the first thing that just really blew my mind and made me wanna draw comics. [laughs] CBC: I remember looking at those same paperbacks and not having much context with them and so not really understanding that MAD had once been a comic book. Did you look at them like they were comic strips? Hilary: You know, I probably just thought everything was a comic strip. I didn’t know they were a comic book either. When I was a kid, I was just reading them for jokes, right? I was just reading them ’cause they were funny and, of course, they were amazingly drawn. I mean, the detail of Elder and Wood and all the gags! That stuff was just hilarious! And frankly, MAD is much funnier than the newspaper comic strips! I always had this weird connection: anyone who grew up in my lifetime basically witnessed the death of comic strips, you know? The heyday was gone. It wasn’t like there weren’t really good artists and writers still working or that there weren’t good strips, but when you discover what came before… I’d find out about the beginnings of comics. Winsor McCay, George Herriman… what

The Comic Reader TM & © the respective copyright holder. All characters, The Thing illustration TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

other kids when they were getting rid of theirs because they were feelin’ like they were growing up and wanted to get rid of ’em. I remember in high school I saw an issue of Graphis — I believe a European arts magazine… Graphis Annual, something like that. In any case, it had an international selection of artists, and that was probably the first time I saw certain big names from European comics. Also in there was, I think, a Spirit story or at least some Eisner art, splash pages from The Spirit section. And so The Spirit became one of my favorite comics of all time. Later someone did the little Spirit sections where they published them individually. CBC: I remember that. Hilary: I was buying the underground format reprints. I bought Denis Kitchen’s Spirit magazines! [laughs] I’ve got The Spirit about five different ways, y’know? Well, I’m not that same person now… Literally, at some point, I ran out of physical space. In fact, when my mom moved in three years ago into my apartment, I had to clear out what was originally my studio and it eventually became a library or dump of boxes when the shelves were full. [laughs] Friends give me books and I’ll buy an occasional book but I really have to be careful because I’m just, “Where am I gonna put this?” [Jon laughs] You know, I have a collector’s instinct. I think you have a bug. I think certain people do that. You find something and you go, “That’s cool,” and then you wanna know more about it and then you wanna know, if it’s an artist that you like, who is he influenced by? You find an article in a book on him and it’ll say, you know, like, Wally Wood or whoever it was, was into Hal Foster. They were into Alex Raymond. And it just leads you back down that time tunnel. I’m amazed at some of the people that I know. A guy like Jim Engel. He is like that with everything in pop culture. Everything he loves he completely exhaustively researches and has just an astonishing collection of stuff. I move my interests, y’know? At one point, it was comics and I was getting everything I could. Then I was overwhelmed by the amount of paper I had and I switched to music. [laughs] CDs were coming in and I started buying CDs and I’ve got all these CDs that I never play anymore. But I’ve been trying to control my collecting habits. A lot of it’s through just not having money and space. You just stop buying ’cause you have to! [laughs] I prefer to eat! CBC: Were movies and television important to you, too, when you were growing up? Hilary: The movies on television! As a family, we didn’t really get out to the movies. I mean, it was very rare! I probably saw a Disney film in the theater… Pinocchio… but I was a TV junkie. I watched everything. In those days, it was all black-&-white. Well, we had a black-&-white TV so everything was black-&-white to me. But I loved old movies and still, to this day, love black-&-white. I got to be such a movie fan I would look through the TV Guide every week and see what old movies were on. And they were always on at two in the morning! I would have to sneak downstairs to watch some melodrama with Lucille Ball from the 1930s or something with Cagney and Pat O’Brien or Bogart or whatever. They were always on at crazy hours. Also, it exposed me to foreign films. Our Public Television channel, WTTW, here in Chicago, showed the Janus Film Collection, so they’d show Bergman and sort of the classic, toney kind of foreign films and I saw a lot of stuff that way. Plus my folks rented movies! One way I saw films is that you could check out a 16mm film projector from the public library and borrow films — cartoons and old silent comedies. I remember seeing a few films that way. On the weekends, TV showed Flash Gordon serials, Charlie Chan, and the Bowery Boys films. And sometimes they’d show silent films…. CBC: Were your older siblings involved in the counter-culture at all? Were they hippies? Hilary: Oh, yeah, for sure, without a doubt. Those were the years and we were in what was becoming liberal Evanston. I was on the tail-end of the hippie thing but I had longer hair than any guy in my family. But it definitely hit my family. My COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

brother was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. I was that close, just after the end of the draft. The war just ended around the time I was in high school. Another year or two, they would have caught me. CBC: Did they go down to the Democratic National Convention in ’68? Hilary: Well, my oldest brother, the one who was the most political and most radicalized in those years, was there and I remember that was my main concern. The demonstrations were presented live on television, and we could all see the cops hitting people in the head with batons and stuff. It was really incredibly violent to have it happening here in Chicago, at home, some of the violence you were used to seeing elsewhere around the country. And we had a family member there and we couldn’t get in contact with him. There were no cell phones. We didn’t know if he was alive, whether he had been arrested. Eventually we get a phone call and he’s fine, but I remember watching the news and worrying. “Was my brother coming home? Was his head gonna be cracked?” But we did march. My folks were involved in the Civil Rights movement and also the anti-war movement. I myself would join them or, on my own, go to a march against the war, and most of my friends were doing similar things. My folks even took the bus down to march with Dr. Martin

Above: The cover of this April Fool’s issue of The Comic Reader [#179, Apr. 1980] sported art by Barta. Below: Masterful caricaturist Marie Severin rendered the likenesses of The Thing’s creative team, including inker Barta with a sander. From The Thing #3 [Sept. 1983].

Above: Young Hilary Barta, circa 1983. Below: The Punisher cover on which the inker irreverently signed his name “Barta, Hilary,” a hint to the editor that he wanted off the assignment. Inset right: Barta inks Ron Wilson’s pencils on this page from The Thing #4 [Oct. 1983].

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The Punisher, The Thing TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Luther King at one time. Though my folks weren’t hippies by any means! [laughs] My dad famously tried marijuana once. He was with some friends and they wanted to try it. “What’s this thing the kids are doing…?” And nobody liked it. They wanted their martinis or whatever. But at least they were open-minded enough to try it. Of course, they didn’t tell us about this until later. CBC: [Laughs] Of course! Hilary: But he didn’t get it. He didn’t enjoy it. [laughs] CBC: When did you become cognizant of Jay Lynch and that there was an underground comix scene in Chicago, however small? Hilary: Well, like I said, I was a fledgling, wannabe hippie… freak…?

Whatever the term was going at the time. So I was into black light posters and all that stuff. My friends were really into drugs and I was not and that was partly because my older siblings had been through it and it was somewhat a “Scared Straight” process in my case, I think (though I’m generally kind of timid about certain things anyway). But I hung out with that crowd and there was a head shop right on the border of Chicago and Evanston so we would trek over there, literally walk over there, and we could buy posters and they could buy rolling papers or whatever. But that’s where I probably discovered my first undergrounds. Coming from my family — a Catholic family — I couldn’t even bring a ZAP into the house without hiding it. If they ever saw that stuff, they would have freaked! But I remember being at my friends’ house where I’d hang out a lot ’cause their parents both worked… [laughs] things were a lot looser at their house… and I remember reading “Joe Blow,” the Crumb story, a pretty infamous story, and it pretty much broke every single taboo that I could imagine you could break. But it broke them in this crazy, cheerful, comic way that is still, when I think about it, easily the most shocking thing I have ever seen in a comic book. And it just stunned me! Wow! Comics can be anything! You can say and do anything! I personally couldn’t do that. I don’t have the inner freedom that somebody like Crumb had, but it opened my mind — “blew my mind” would be the expression of the day — in a way that nothing else had! I also discovered Corben and all the other guys, and I loved Rick Griffin’s stuff! I was kind of a flaky-type hippie. I was less into the serious hardcore Spain or whoever. I was more into the hippie-dippie stuff, the psychedelia, and all that. CBC: Did you get an allowance as a kid? Hilary: Well, not much of one. For me to make money to buy comics and stuff was mostly a matter of shoveling snow off walks and mowing lawns, and that sort of thing. But I did remember, at one point, on Sundays, we’d drive to church and then on the way home, we’d stop — we had a really great newsstand which is where I got every comic I ever bought when I was younger. It was the Main street newsstand, the Chicago-Main newsstand. My dad would send me in. He’d give me 50¢ or whatever it was for a pack of cigarettes and then he’d also say, “Here’s a quarter.” So I could buy a comic for a quarter. I’d go in there and I’m looking around. That’s when they did the giant-size books for a quarter and it was a much better deal than trying to buy two or one-and-a-half comics or whatever it would be in those years. [laughs] I don’t know if they were 15¢ then or still 12¢, but I would buy the 25¢ comic. So I bought things like Fantastic Four Annuals or Silver Surfer… these giant books with just unbelievable art! Where Reed and the other guys have to go to the Negative Zone because they have to get the antibody for Sue because she’s gonna have the baby and they have to save the baby and all…? It was just one of the most amazing comics I’ve ever read. It was so exciting. I mean, Kirby and Sinnott. “Epic” would be the word… it’s much more than one short story or part of a longer narrative; it was all there in one comic, this amazing thing. That was the key, fun childhood days of comics, when I was still buying ’em on the newsstand.

All art © Hilary Barta.

That newsstand, by the way…? When I grew older, that’s how I discovered fanzines! The guy — he must have been the son of the owner — this younger guy was managing the newsstand and he looked in the comics. He was so interested in his business that he would look in the magazines and he saw an ad in a comic book for a fanzine, The Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector. He ordered one. It was ridiculously expensive by newsstand standards and it was an nonreturnable kind of thing, so he was paying cover price and selling it at no profit. I bought a copy and I eventually sent my art in to RBCC and became published there a few times. That’s how I got connected to fanzines and fandom which eventually led to larger things… conventions and whatnot. CBC: Were you known in school as an artist? Hilary: Well, in grade school, toward the end… The oldest thing that I have that’s comic-related was in probably third grade maybe…? I’m trying to remember how old I was, but I have a one page full color… I can’t even call it a comic strip because it doesn’t make any sense. But I was watching the Batman TV show, which was a big deal — a very big deal — and unlike other people I know who were upset by the show because somehow it didn’t treat Batman with the proper reverence [laughs], I loved it! And I was drawing this comic. There was no continuity. It was, like, “Bams” and “Pows” just like the show, but that’s the oldest example of my art that I have. I was definitely an artist. I was interested in art and I was attracted to the artist girls in grade school. By the time I got to high school, I actually did a few comic strips for the school paper. And believe me, they were terrible! [Jon laughs] I mean, there’s a reason I started as an inker in comics. I didn’t quite focus on the storytelling part of it. I was more interested in the drawing as opposed to the storytelling. I’m amazed at people who were dedicated to doing comics. I met S. Clay Wilson some years ago at a show and he was selling these comics that he drew as a kid and he had hundreds of them! He would draw them on just a piece of typing paper. They were really influenced by the ECs, y’know? And MAD, but he was into pirates. He would draw on both sides of the paper, so you got two strips for the price of one, and they were comics. It was a little story, and they were amazing! He was drawing comics and pirates from the beginning. He was obsessed with ’em. I was more a guy who would draw a pinup or posed figure. I just didn’t focus enough. I really didn’t focus until I was out of high school. Guys that shot out of high school and they were into comics or, like, they were going to New York in their teens, intent in getting work at Marvel and DC… guys like Bernie Wrightson… they had dedication and an early focus that I really never had. I mean, I never found it later either. [laughter] I’m still too lazy and distracted. CBC: When was your first comic convention? Hilary: I’m not sure. It was the one that became the Chicago Comicon and then Wizard after that. At first, it was first a swap meet, and I think the first one I went to was downtown at the YMCA. That’s the first one I remember anyway. I know other people told me they were held somewhere else even before that. But there were no comic stores. I certainly didn’t know about that. I wasn’t traveling to bookstores like some of my friends who I heard later were searching for comics when they were that young. I wasn’t straying out of Evanston much on my own in those days, so I’m not sure what brought me to that show at the YMCA but that’s the first one I remember. Soon after that the shows were more like a convention and they started having them downtown at the Congress and the Playboy one year and eventually it moved out to the suburbs. CBC: Were you determined as a teenager to become a comic book professional? COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

This page: Courtesy o

Hilary: Well, I mentioned the Graphis Annual in high school. In high school I definitely thought of myself as an artist. Printmaking was the room to hang out in, and I wasn’t really doing comics there, but that’s where I discovered that book or magazine showing this range of international comics. I remember seeing a Rich Corben color story “CidOpey” [Up from the Deep, 1971], and that’s when I definitely decided that maybe comics was what I wanted to do and when I say “maybe,” it’s because I always had

This page: Did y’all know that Hilary Barta is a significant contributor to the world of mini-comics, the DIY subculture that came of age in the 1980s. Above is his Bill Wray-slashWallace Wood influenced cover for Slam-Bang [2004].

This page: Currently

this pull between film and comics. Again, I think the key for me was that it took a while for me to get into the storytelling side of it which eventually kicked in, but originally it was the drawing. When I went to my first convention, I was a fan artist. I was in the RBCC and in some other fanzines, and I eventually wanted to show my stuff to an editor, and it happened to be Al Milgrom, an editor at Marvel. I’m jumping ahead here, but he’s the one who basically looked at my stuff and said, “Maybe I can get you some inking work.” I remember before that I had enough nerve to show my stuff to Will Eisner, who came to one of the downtown Chicago shows, and he was gracious as all get out — as I’ve heard he was with everyone — but he looked at my stuff and said, “I really don’t have anything to say about these, because it’s illustration, not comics.” I was drawing comic characters! There’d be a Cousin Eerie in there, maybe, and I was really into the horror and EC stuff. But he said if I’d showed him comics, he would have been happy to give some feedback, but he just said, “Keep drawing, and bring comics

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The New Mutants, The Uncanny X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Ink’d art © Hilary Barta.

Above: Random pages of Hilary Barta’s (sometimes remarkably lucrative) Marvel inking assignments back in the day, The New Mutants #91 [July 1990], left, with pencils by Rob Liefeld and The Uncanny X-Men #243 [Apr. ’89], pencils by Marc Silvestri. Below: Barta has teamed with Jim Terry to host Chicago-area workshops on the art and business of comic book inking.

next time.” [laughter] CBC: What year did you meet up with Al Milgrom? Hilary: Well, I think the first time I was published was in the very early ’80s, after I had been in fanzines and stuff. I did some science fictional illustration before I got into comics proper but realized there was no money in that because I wasn’t fast enough. I remember getting paid about $15 to do something for Amazing. The best-paying book, which I probably wasn’t good enough for but I happened to know someone and he got me a tryout in, was Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, just a handful of illustrations. I loved doing it, but comics seemed to be more what I wanted to do. Once I showed my work to Al, it only took a couple years I think to get regular work. The first two pages, I think, were inking Don Perlin on The Defenders and I had no idea what I was doing. I can’t tell you how many years my work in comics was nowhere near as good as what was in my portfolio. Anytime I worked on stuff for print, I would kinda get tight, y’know? I’d backtrack and I’d go, ‘I can’t use a brush there! I can’t control it! I’d better use a pen!” I would do all sorts of stupid things. Looking back, I wish I had been more adventurous. If I had gone to New York and maybe worked as an assistant to somebody, I would’ve learned proper technique and a lot of things earlier. I really am jealous of my friends who’ve done that and were able to share studio space with Al Williamson and work as an assistant to Gil Kane or somebody. They just learned so much so much faster and I was just left to pick it up as I went along. Let me emphasize that while Al Milgrom let me get my foot in the door, editor Carl Potts was a true mentor at Marvel. Carl would send all neophytes a huge package containing a photocopied book, The Five C’s of Cinematography. This was a technical manual for film students, but it contained a wealth of info that also applied to drawing comics. Early on, when I was struggling with confidence in my inking, when I was overusing the pen instead of the brush, Carl would send me examples of the work of other artists. And he told me something that the master might have said to the student on Kung Fu: “You have to tighten up and loosen up.” In the true Zen master manner, Carl never explained this. But eventually I figured it out. One has to practice and study so that when one is working, they have the skills and chops to just ink, freely and spontaneously. CBC: Were you living at home when you started as a pro? Hilary: Well, my folks had this really big house, big enough to have room for seven kids, and when I was younger my three sisters shared the third floor, which had a bathroom and a very big bedroom (almost half the size of the house). It was just a giant room that went from one side of the house to the other. I moved up there once the other siblings were

Artwork © The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

gone and, at some point, I was the only child in the house. At some point, I started paying rent. My folks were, like, “Well, you can’t stay here indefinitely.” But, through my 20s, I worked all kinds of odd jobs. And because of not really having to pay for an apartment and all that, I probably took it easy. I wasn’t pushing myself too much. I did what I could and found odd jobs — some of them art jobs, but mostly not. It wasn’t until my 30s I think that I really focused on art and switched over to that. CBC: When was your first time seeing your name in print — in a professional magazine, besides the RBCC? I’ve got a listing here for The Phantom, in a letters column. Hilary: Yeah, I was at C2E2 just a couple years ago and someone actually brought that comic book and gave it to me. One of the two or three letters of mine that were published in comics. That particular letter is not too embarrassing! As I recall, the line at the end says, “And don’t forget! Keep The Phantom out of the jungle!” I have no idea what that meant! [laughs] I don’t know if they edited down some larger paragraph, you know. Maybe they couldn’t even read what I wrote! But, yeah, it was always exciting to see my stuff in print! It’s still weird to see the stuff in print now but then it was just mind-blowing! I remember I did all kinds of weird little jobs. There was a local comic store. I probably met the guy through one of the swap meets which were going before it became a convention, but I remember drawing an ad for him and that ended up in the local newspaper’s TV guide. That was cool just to see my little drawing in there and I’d probably signed it. And I would do local flyers for people, all this kind of stuff, that was the first stuff I ever saw in print. But seeing your letter in the comics? That was pretty cool! Almost as cool as seeing your art in a comic! [laughter] CBC: So you were still doing fanzine art into the early ’80s? Hilary: I’m sure there was some overlap with working professionally and fanzines. When Don Rosa stopped doing the illustrations for the “Information Center” feature in RBCC, I did them for a year or two, or whatever it was, for a few issues. And it was a big deal being in the Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector. I found it on my local newsstand! They printed it with hard cardboard covers. You felt like you were in a real magazine. It was something! CBC: Where did you first meet Al Milgrom. Was that at a Chicago show? Hilary: It was. There were three guys who ran the Chicago shows, and one was Larry Charet who, when I eventually started going to comic stores, Larry’s was the one that was closest by and the one that I went to. But they really were the greatest guys for running a show for someone like me because they allowed any artist who was involved in comics on whatever level — and that includes fan artists — to come and have a table, and you didn’t have to pay for it! You could just request one. This was pre-Internet. I don’t remember how that worked in those days. You let them know you wanted a table and then I would sit there and… I heard I was a godawful jerk. [laughs] Trying to get $10 or $15 for a sketch or whatever exorbitant prices I had in those days. But I think the longer I’ve worked n comics, the more I realize what I didn’t know. I always thought I was better than I was when I was starting out, which probably helped me get to those places where I was showing my work to people who should have turned me down and said, “Go back to work, kid!” I met Al Milgrom at a Chicago show and, at that point, it was still downtown Chicago, I believe. Later, it moved to Rosemont, a suburb. But, oddly enough, and somewhat mind-blowingly, Al was the first guy I showed my portfolio to looking for work. I mean, he was the first editor, as opposed to just showing my art to another artist. And he said yes! Like I said, it took a couple years. He gave me two pages. The first job I got, which took a certain while, was two pages. It took a little longer to get the next story and then a little longer… It would be months between the first few COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

jobs. I think the first one was maybe a short story, and then I got a whole issue to ink and then, after a couple years, they gave me a shot on a comic to ink, a regular bi-monthly book. And even though I really look back at that stuff with dread, they gave me a regular assignment and, from then on, I was never out of comics. CBC: Was your first assignment on The Thing? Hilary: That was the first regular book, yeah. I still don’t understand how I got that job, but that was the first regular assignment I had. CBC: You inked Ron Wilson’s pencils? Hilary: Yes! Ron Wilson was the guy. John Byrne was writing it. One of the coolest things about doing The Thing (besides the fact that I was working on a regular Marvel comic and it was the Thing… just an amazing character to me) was when they were first launching it, they did a couple house ads, one announcing that the Thing’s comic is being created and they asked me to send in a photograph for the ad. So I sent in a photo and then the ad comes out and Marie Severin drew it so there’s this connection to EC Comics! But Marie did a caricature of John Byrne, Ron Wilson, and myself, and the editor, Ann Nocenti, was there, and we were all working on a

Above: To support the “Friendly Frank’s” court battle of the mid-’80s, Chicago artists Hilary Barta and Mitch O’Connell donated this jam piece for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund portfolio. Below: Late ’80s or early ’90s pic of Barta, replete with O’Connell illo (on the right).

Above: The four-issue Plastic Man mini-series from the late 1980s was the perfect showcase for Hilary Barta to display his knack for humor cartooning. This splash is from #3 [Jan. ’89]. Below: Recent commission art.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Plastic Man, Woozy Winks TM & © DC Comics.

giant Thing statue! Ron had like a jackhammer or something and someone had a hammer and chisel, but we were sort of creating this thing, this Thing sculpture we’re creating. Which is just mind-blowing to me that I have a caricature by Marie Severin. How did I get so lucky? I don’t know! [laughter] CBC: Wow, that’s cool! Hilary: I wasn’t the right guy for that

book because I’m not a super-hero artist but as an inker I can probably ink anything. At least in those days I thought I could. But I remember even in The Thing, I was throwing in pretty lame background gags, looking for a way to put in a little humor on my own. There’d be, like, a garbage can and I’d put a little sign on it that said, “Throw it out, America!” Some silly thing! Just putting in a little but of that Will Elder “chicken fat” here and there. There wasn’t much room for doin’ that in The Thing, I gotta say. CBC: Once you started hittin’ your stride, were you inclined to be a humor artist? Hilary: Well, I was an inker before I was a penciler and I was a penciler of action stuff before I really found what I was best at. Because I really think I’m somewhere in between. When I’ve had to write descriptions of what I do, I’d say I’m cartoony but I’m realistically lit. [laughs] I think of weirdly misshapen cartoon characters but then I light them as if they were three-dimensional, solid figures. So they’re over-rendered by traditional cartoon 2-D standards but not by Wally Wood color MAD standards, right? It was that sort of idea. The first person who gave me a job drawing was at First Comics. I was excited that a comic company was starting up then where I was living. They moved to Chicago later, but their first office was in downtown Evanston. I was able to just go in and talk to these guys and Mike Gold wanted me to come and take over Starslayer. Tim Truman was drawing two books for them, Grimjack and Starslayer. Anyway, Starslayer is one of the more difficult periods of my life. I was phased in. I first inked a few issues that might have been penciled fully and then Tim started getting looser and looser. That was part of the plan. Eventually, I was literally getting circles for heads, so you couldn’t even call them layouts exactly… maybe thumbnails. I was totally unqualified and unprepared to pencil and ink a regular comic and that’s what it was and that was my very first penciling gig in comics, so it was just insane of me them to think that I could do it because I had no examples to show that I could do it. I had portfolio pieces maybe, but no track record. So anyway, somehow, I got the job. At some point, I fell behind and Mark Nelson came in. Here I was, a guy who started out as an inker, and now I had Mark Nelson inking me! And it was great because I met a lifelong friend and I learned a lot of things, and one is that I probably should not be doing an adventure comic. And I certainly shouldn’t be doing one on a monthly or bi-monthly schedule, whatever it was. And definitely not by myself. But at First Comics, I also started doing the occasional “Munden’s Bar” story, which was a little wacky, more humorous, and that was the point where I started doing stuff that I would have called my own, I think. I recognized that, hey, this was probably a direction that I wanted to take, toward humor and weird and whatever. I like dramatic stuff, but it’s usually like… oh, film noir, horror… and it’s not super-heroes. I just don’t think of myself as an action guy. CBC: Would you consider Wally Wood your biggest artist hero? Hilary: Well, you know, without a doubt, he’s one of the big influences on me, but he wasn’t then. The MAD stuff, that was it. At some point, I connected with an artist in high school, a friend of mine named Jon Freeman (who tragically died very young) and he was the biggest Wally Wood fan. He bought his art, bought every comic he could find whether Wood penciled it or inked it or whatever, and I think, somehow, just by being exposed to Wood’s stuff through Jon, I just came to love Wally Wood. Earlier on, it might have been any number of artists I could have named — Ditko, Kirby, and John Buscema (who I loved) — and all these other artists were out there, but Wood became more and more of an influence and I really do think a lot of it was due to my friend’s love of him and seeing the original art, being exposed to the stuff. I started leaning on it and I was, “Okay, I’m gonna try to do some of the stuff he did.”

Plastic Man, Woozy Winks TM & © DC Comics.

Backtracking slightly: one of the ways, too, I found out about Wood and EC — you know I had those old paperbacks, but they never led me back to the comics. It was through people like Bernie Wrightson, when he did Swamp Thing and those books. That’s when I was at the newsstand looking for the next issue or for anything with Wrightson in it. Wrightson formed an artistic bridge back to EC. And then, when Warren started, they had Reed Crandall and all these guys who had worked at EC and it really turned me back around and I started going back. You could find EC reprints. I couldn’t afford to buy ECs myself, but I would start seeing the stuff and realize, “Wow, this tradition is something I really love.” Eventually, I think that’s more what I connected to even though I grew up reading Marvel super-heroes specifically. I was not a DC guy. You know, Ditko and Kirby, early on, was sort of EC, in that tradition, which is sort of there in what Ditko did in “Doctor Strange.” Some of that noir-ish, moody stuff is there that Ditko was doing in the monster books. He brought it to super-heroes. I mean, there’s no clear thread here. There were all kinds of influences. Once you start finding stuff, where does it end? And when I found Steranko’s History of Comics, I had to track this stuff down any way I could. CBC: Did you get exposed to Jack Cole? Hilary: Well, not early, early on. The first taste might have been in Steranko’s History or maybe Jules Feiffer’s book. It may have been some comics history book where I might have been exposed to him, but really I discovered him later on when DC reprinted a few 1940s Plastic Mans by Cole in their Giants, back in the days when they were doing the Golden Age reprints in the back of Detective Comics or wherever. I gotta say Jack Cole’s Plastic Man is still the funniest comic I’ve ever read — the most inventive, visually fluid. I mean, in every panel! When Jack Cole was at his peak, he was the most inventive artist I’ve ever seen! But I didn’t discover him early on. He wasn’t my reason for drawing comics, but I knew who Jack Cole was well enough. Doug Rice and Phil Foglio were friends of mine. I knew Phil through Doug. I was in a cartooning class in Chicago with Phil Foglio, but he’d already been a huge sf fan artist. He was a very successful fan artist for years. Phil had been offered a Plastic Man mini-series by DC. He was gonna draw and write it, but he didn’t even know who the character was and really didn’t have much interest in it. He said, “Eh, I don’t feel like drawin’ it.” I went, “Really? Can I draw it?” [laughs] And that was just the weaselly way I got in there. DC wasn’t looking for me, but Phil or I called and asked, “What about Hilary drawing it?” And Doug was gonna be our kibitzer on the plots. That’s how that happened. Once I got that job, I bought every issue I could afford of Cole’s stuff. I couldn’t buy that many Plastic Mans, but I bought a lot of Police Comics or Smash Comics with Midnight. I tried to find everything I could and since, he has moved up into my upper echelon of comics geniuses. He is definitely one of my favorite guys in comics. No question about it. CBC: Was that your first work for DC Comics? Hilary: That’s a good question. It might have been. There were a number of years where, as an inker, I was bouncing back and forth between Marvel and DC, so maybe I’m just… I spent a lot more time bouncing around at Marvel. I didn’t do that much at DC. I did a few jobs earlier. I did more later. Now, one of the reasons I got that job is Mike Gold was in charge of the project. So he knew who I was from First Comics since he was the guy who hired me there. [laughs] He knew I wasn’t a total flake, anyway. Brian Augustyn was the editor. I can’t remember details but maybe I actually just leaned on Mike and said, “Phil doesn’t wanna draw it! Can I draw it?” And I remember the circumstances because I said, “The one thing that I wanna do here is I wanna do it as Cole-esque as we can.” We didn’t wanna do COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

it set in the 1940s, but we wanted to do it as close to Cole’s style as we can, in the spirit of Jack Cole. At least I did. I wasn’t able to draw like Cole, but I could keep the spirit… I shouldn’t keep saying, “the spirit.” [laughs] I’m not talking ’bout Eisner! [laughter] But trying to capture what Cole was doing and that inventiveness and the humor. At the time, DC didn’t really think Plastic Man fit into the continuity, so we had to explain why it was a cartoony book. If I was gonna draw it that way, we had to explain that! To this day, that sticks in my craw. I guess it’s a pretty small price to pay for being allowed to play with Plastic Man but our first suggestion, mine, was, “Can we do ‘Earth-Big Foot’?” [laughter] This was when DC was getting rid of all that multiple worlds stuff, and they’re, like, “No.” So we came up with this even weirder idea that the acid that created him — the acid that Eel O’Brien, you know, the gangster who becomes Plastic Man — gets dumped on him and he’s riddled with bullets and the acid seeps into his bloodstream or

This page: Few cartoonists have been able to capture the essence of brilliant Plastic Man creator Jack Cole’s dynamic storytelling as well as Hilary Barta (sez Ye Ed). This pin-up (titled “Plastic Man Stands Up to Crime”) appeared in the 1990 edition of Who’s Who in the DC Universe [#4, Nov. ’90]. Below: Barta promo art for the Plastic Man mini-series.

believe. And my first pro writing credit was might have been on “Munden’s Bar, too, through editor Rick Oliver. I was inking a Punisher cover penciled by Erik Larsen and I remember realizing, “I hate this comic! This guy’s shooting bullets at somebody.” It just seemed to be all wrong. This was not the Marvel Comics I grew up with. The hero wouldn’t be gunning people down. And I signed my name “Barta, Hilary,” you know, like I was filling out a form, with the last name first. The reason being that I felt like this was like an assignment. My heart’s not in this. And then, after I turned it in, I felt really bad. I thought someone might take that as an insult — the editor, Carl Potts, or Erik Larsen — and they had nothing to do with this. I just called up Carl and I said, “Don’t offer me any more Punisher work. I just don’t wanna do it. I don’t wanna be tempted by the money. I’d rather not. I really hate this character.” And he respected that. I appreciated that. I added, “But if you ever want me to do a parody…!” and they were publishing What The--!?, a parody comic. So the first issue is my first writing and penciling credit at Marvel. I just had this idea for a parody and I went to Peter Gillis who lived here in Chicago. I pitched the plot to him and he wrote the script from my plot. Carl would do this once in a while. He’d go, “Hilary, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is you can’t ink The Punisher story.” I go, “What? Whaddaya mean I can’t ink it? I’m an inker!” “Well, the good news is you have a choice of two artists — Kevin Nowlan or John Severin.” [laughter] CBC: Sophie’s choice! Hilary: You know, I’m like, “I love Kevin! Kevin’s a friend of mine. But, my god, it’s gonna be John Severin!” So, my first penciling job at Marvel is inked by John Severin, and he, of course, did an amazing job! I called him up when it was over because I had to talk to him once and just thank him

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

What The--?! and associated characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Insane TM & © Dark Horse Comics.

Above: Barta has been regularly tapped for his ability to render super-hero parody strips, memorably for the Marvel series What The--?!, which ran for 26 issues between 1988–93. This cover is from #21 [Sept. ’92]. Inset right: Barta had his pencils inked by the legendary John Severin in What The--?! #1 [Aug. ’88]. Endearingly, the inker mistook the henchmen’s x-ed out eyes as areas to be filled with ink. Below: Dark Horse recruited Barta for its short-lived parody title, Insane, which ran for two issues in 1988.

whatever exactly happens in the origin of Plastic Man. Well, our idea was that this literally works like some kind of acid, a hallucinogen, and it affects his perceptions of things. Then, we added to that, when he teams up with Woozy and, you know, Woozy befriends him, he’s like, “Well, I just naturally see weird stuff.” [laughter] He’s crazy, essentially. I’m pretty sure he was literally in an asylum or a homeless guy. We had this sort of political thing… this was during the Reagan era. It wasn’t hard-hitting political satire, but we made reference to the fact that they were closing the asylums. That was part of Reagan’s budget-cutting. They were turning mentally ill people out into the streets. But that tied into giving sort of an explanation for why Woozy and Plastic Man both saw things in a cartoony way. And that also is why — and this was forced on us — we had to have these “reality checks” by Kevin Nowlan. That had to be DC’s idea. I know Kevin specifically was my idea. There was another artist they wanted to use. [whispers] “Oh my God! No, no, no!” And then we got Kevin and Kevin was very upset that he was the guy who had to draw this but couldn’t go crazy and cartoony. His natural inclination was to draw it cartoony and I kept saying, “Kevin, the reason you’re here is to not do that!” [laughs] He wasn’t happy about it. His stuff really is kind of cartoony, his stuff for Plastic Man, but it was kind of twisting the poor guy’s arm to get him to not let him run free and just draw wacky. CBC: It seems, in 1988, you all of a sudden became a humor illustrator. Hilary: Did it happen in 1988? “Munden’s Bar” at First Comics was where I was first drawing as a penciler, I

What The--?!, Marvel Riot, and associated characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

so much. He was such a gentleman! Here I was trying to do Wally Wood from MAD and one of the original MAD artists was the inker! [laughs] One of the reasons that it was great that John was doing it, too, was that I did it on Duo-Shade board and John’s a master of that! They no longer make Duo-Shade. The company closed. The board has two patterns printed on it, two different densities of line, light and dark, and you bring ’em out with two chemicals. You can do subtle toned stuff which prints well in comics because it’s line work and it doesn’t form moiré patterns with the dots from the color. I don’t think that’s an issue anymore with computer color. In any case, the funniest thing about that job, too, I remember, when the book came out and I got the art back, I’m looking at the book, at the inks versus the pencils. I might have kept copies of the pencils, then. But I was just studying the way he inked it and where he made additions. I penciled really, really too tightly. But every once in a while, I wouldn’t follow through on a shadow pattern I’d set up with a light source. The one place it needed to be, John would go in an apply it! He was such a professional. He was so good! But he was so exacting. There was a bar fight. It was a waterfront bar and Punisher’s going around beating people up trying to get information. He’s tryin’ to get to the source of whatever this “stuff” is that’s damaging kids in America. Anyway, he goes into a waterfront dive. There’s the panel, the before-panel, and the after-panel. Everybody in the entire place is shot up. You know, those giant cartoon cannonball holes and all the guys are strewn about the bar. And I drew all these holes in the guys, but what I was also doing, I did the comic book shorthand of, when you’re penciling a black area, all you do is you draw the line around it, then you put a little “x” in there with the pencil. That indicates to the inker or yourself, this is where I meant to have blacks put in. Well, I had all these guys knocked out, killed, or whatever, and strewn about the bar and on some of them, I also put “x’s” in their eyes because that’s the cartoony thing for guys being knocked out, right? [laughs] And John blacked in their eyes as if the Punisher had shot their eyes out! Now, these eyes…we’re talkin’ about tiny little figures!… and somehow he thought I would take the time to put an “x” in the tiny little eye instead of just blacking them in with a pencil. So he would very meticulously ink them in! [laughter] And I just thought that was so charming, him being such a completist, he had to get everything. He didn’t miss anything and, in some cases, added something. So, there you go. That’s my John Severin story. CBC: So you were just bouncing around as an inker, but you were starting to write. Did you enjoy writing? Hilary: I loved writing! I gotta tell ya, I think when I started writing, I was much better than I was an artist. But I was writing short stories and humor, almost completely humor. The What The--!? stories were all parodies à lá Not Brand Echh! The early stories I did in “Munden’s Bar,” which was a back-up series in Grimjack at First Comics. Those were all humorous, but they were less strict, just kind of weird, humorous adventure stories that were all over the board. But I often wrote in collaboration. Peter Gillis and I did, I think two What The--!? together. The second one might have been all Peter’s script. I don’t know. Doug Rice was a guy I’d worked with on Plastic Man and “Munden’s Bar.” The way we plotted on Plastic Man was Doug Rice and Phil Foglio and I would sit around and make each other laugh. I was a little more familiar with the character and history and things I wanted to get in there but then we would just talk about stories and say, well, what can we do that hasn’t been done? That would kind of fit in with what we wanted to do with this Jack Cole kind of thing, but is contemporary. So we had an issue with all these armies of the homeless and a few other things that were kinda modern and we thought would lend themselves to parody and comedy. I liked collaborating because I really like having that other voice, and, especially with Doug, we’re sitting in the same COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

room and making each other laugh. I might come up with a gag, or Doug would, and then it was up to the other person to top it! “Yeah, that’s good, but what if you then do this?” It seemed to me anyway that they were always better than I would have done on my own. I never would have thought of what we came up with together. I just loved the process. Doug has not lived anywhere near me for many, many years now, and we’ve tried doing this via email or over the phone, but it just doesn’t quite work the same as when you’re sittin’ together and throwin’ stuff around a room. But I love that part of it. I love the creative collaboration… [laughs] which is probably the only place I like creative collaboration! When you actually work with other artists, it’s one of the most difficult things you can do. I had much more sympathy for pencilers once I myself was inked, because I realized, “Oh, my god!” This is an incredibly painful

Above: The spirit of Wallace Wood (and his EC Comics aliens) infuses Hilary Barta’s What The--?! #22 [Oct. 1992] cover. Below: Marvel Riot was a 1995 one-shot boasting both Barta’s scripting and art, the latter which graced the cover.

This page: Hilary Barta’s friendship with Image Comics co-founder Marc Silvestri led to Barta producing Stupid, a title which parodied the upstart company’s output. Alas only one issue (poking fun at Todd McFarlane’s Spawn) saw the light of day [May 1993].

light that Wally Wood would do, where he’d have a shadow cut at the mid-figure. Somewhere in the chest maybe. Going up, it was black, as if the guy was walking, stepping out of shadow, but the face was still in shadow. So you know, then you’d just have that three quarter thing where you’d have three quarters in shadow and a backlight hitting one side of the head. And I remember Rob pointing at that and saying, “I like that!” So Rob liked it sometimes when I added stuff, but I think it was more that he just wanted to go in different directions. And to a larger extent, that was me and Marvel. I was getting all kinds of pencilers then who were trying to do what was popular then and if they were just adding more and more lines and I was just inking lines on paper at that point, I described it as… It’s like a foreign language that you’re speaking phonetically. You really don’t understand it. You’re inking it, but it’s not something you fully understand. It’s not part of your visual vocabulary. It’s just you’re doing this because that’s how they pencil and you’re trying to figure it out. In some cases, I was very literal. I just inked the lines. I hate to say “traced,” but you’re just trying to ink something you don’t understand the best that you can. It seemed like it was time to get out of there. Thankfully, I found plenty of pencilers who I really connected with. Jon Bogdanove is one, just a terrific artist and we worked together for a long time on Power Pack. Later, a guy I did a number of projects with was Kieron Dwyer. We did a couple of Elseworlds mini-series at DC and all kinds of little things. But he’s just one of the most solid guys that I’ve ever had a chance to ink. He’s much more connected to the traditional kind of drawing that I grew up on, closer to a John Buscema or somebody like that than he would be to contemporaries like the Image guys. CBC: Did you start to get a really solid feel for the brush? Did you stop being nervous? Hilary: Well, that did happen at some point. There was an actual demarcation and I can’t tell you what year it was but I had been inking with a pen — I had done some brush work — but I just did so much with a pen and I remember I had a Halloween party and George Freeman… terrific guy!… I actually got to ink George on Jack of Hearts and he’s such a phenomenal artist. Well, George is a master of the brush, needless to say, but he’s just an accomplished artist. He was at my house and he wandered into my little studio and he said, “Why are you using the pen?” I said, “Whaddaya mean?” “You’re doing brush lines with a pen. You’re trying to make the pen do brush lines.” And he goes, “You should just use the brush!” And it just kind of clicked in my head that I’d been trying to use the pen, trying to push it to its… I was using like hawk and crowquills and stuff, just pushing them trying to do these fatter lines and more thick to thin stuff that would be natural with a brush and here I am using pens and they’re snapping and bending and… From that day forward, I was embarrassed by the fact that he had to tell me this, but I really did try to focus on the brush more. It was only a matter of time that I just loosened up enough #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Stupid TM & © Hilary Barta.

process to have somebody take what you did and draw it their way. Because inkers inevitably change things in subtle ways but sometimes more dramatically. It can be a painful process. CBC: Did you ever get negative feedback from pencilers? Hilary: I never got negative feedback so much… well, I shouldn’t say that. I remember working on… When I was inking at Marvel and probably in the days when I was wanting to do my own stuff and I didn’t know why I was still inking. It was just a job. But I was inking Rob Liefeld on New Mutants and I don’t think… It wasn’t so much Rob didn’t like me, but that he knew what he wanted. He would have inked it his way and I remember him giving me a little… On one page, when he sent the pencils in, he put little notes. “These are the three kinds of ink lines I want.” He had very specific ideas and that style, what later became the Image style, and Rob was a part of that. But that sort of thinner, linear pen style was just not something I had any connection to. My goal was, “Yeah, I wanna use a brush and I wanna spot blacks and do this and that.” They were all about breaking shadows into line patterns and all kinds of things. So I never felt like we were a good fit. I remember there was one panel where The Blob or somebody is coming around a corner, so I threw a shadow cast from the wall just across him and sort of had the back

Stupid TM & © Hilary Barta.

that I was able to use a brush. CBC: Were you able to eke out a good living doing this? Hilary: Well, the best living I ever made was my days working as an inker at Marvel. There were quite substantial royalties on some of the books. I mean, working with Rob Liefeld on The New Mutants, I made more money than I ever made in my life. Every month you’d get a check and you’d get your pay rate plus your royalties. And the royalties today are almost non-existent. I get residual kind of royalties from reprints, so you get a check for $5 or $25 every once in a while. But those days? That was it. The best. The best I ever did. CBC: Throw me a number. Hilary: I don’t remember exactly but I inked an issue of X-Men and the royalty check was in the thousands… possibly around $7,000. CBC: Good heavens! Hilary: So, if you were the regular guy — I was never the regular guy on X-Men but if you were the regular guy on the X-Men, I did the math, you know? If you made, say, $10,000 a month, you’d get $120,000 annually, just on your royalties! And I knew a few artists that were doing this and they were doing a couple books that were selling well and I thought, “Wow! Here I am trying to make $30,000 a year or something and there are guys who might be making $200,000 or more. The difference from book to book was dramatic. And you know, there was that bubble. Things were really crazy for a while and there was a lot of speculating going on and they did all kinds of different variant covers and such nonsense and it all blew up and things collapsed and came down to where they still are today. They never really went back up. Image was part of that. I did my own one issue of COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Stupid there and I inked some stuff at Image here and there, but not really much. Early days at Image, we’re talking about. Now that Image is really a much bigger company, I’ve done other projects as an inker and finisher and stuff. But I did Stupid, and because Image gave all profit after cost to the creators, that was the biggest royalty check I got on any comic in my life, on one issue. And that was just peanuts compared to how their other books were selling. I can’t imagine what those guys made in a month in royalties on a book like Spawn. I don’t know how you don’t get rich doing that. CBC: [Laughs] I think they did! Hilary: I think some of them maybe held onto the money. They were smarter than others. That move! That perfect timing and the balls to jump from Marvel as top artists… you’ve gotta give those guys credit for it. And they also created the company that would become the biggest competition to Marvel and DC and one of the best companies over the years with people doing their own creator-owned stuff at Image Comics. CBC: Do you think that there’s any life lesson to be learned from the career and the life of Wallace Wood? Hilary: [Sighs] I’m sure there is. When I look at his work — just the work, not the life outside of the work — it seems clear that he had a few peaks. At EC Comics, he could do anything, and he created an astonishing amount of quality work. At some point, it seemed that he turned his style

Above: Though Stupid #1 scored artist/writer Hilary Barta “the biggest royalty check I got on any comic in my life,” the Image parody comic lasted for that one issue. A spoof of Savage Dragon was planned for the second ish, and here are the covers for both the standard (left) and 3D versions of the unpublished Stupid #2.

Below: Barta “Spewn” illustration.

Above: Barta’s inner Jack Cole was on display for his “Splash Brannigan” collaboration with Alan Moore for the America’s Best Comics line. The humor strip ran in Tomorrow Stories. This is promotional art. Below: Commission piece created as a 2017 Secret Santa gift for “Doctor Fantastic.”

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Splash Brannigan TM & © America’s Best Comics, LLC.

almost into a formula, just cranking out adventure strips and some of the super-hero stuff. But it was also, in some ways, a refinement, as he reduced it down to the essentials. Those two things will naturally happen to artists over the course of time. Their style can become more mannered and repetitious than it once was. When you’re dealing with thousands of pages, it’s not hard to see that your style might end up as a formula. Certain scenes repeat over and over and you’re going, “Okay, I’ll just plug in Panel 13.” I mean, Wood had his “lazy layouts.” (Though I believe those might have compiled by one of his assistants.) At the same time, it’s tougher to draw as you get older, and you also start running out of gas at some point. And then, on top of that, Wood had alcoholism that really hit him later, but no doubt was in effect earlier on and just didn’t stop him. But every report you hear about him is he just worked all the time! [laughs] He was constantly working, all night when he was living alone, just sitting there in this little room working. Just sounds so sad. I never met the man… I always wish I had. I later met people who knew him and told me he was a wonderful guy and really sweet. [sighs] I dunno. If there’s a lesson, it’s that this a tough

business, y’know? It doesn’t exactly reward most of the artists that work hard and toil month by month. CBC: How’s it been for you in the industry? Hilary: Oh, I feel that I’ve been really lucky. I have never had the drive of somebody like Wood. The very first time I talked to an editor, I ended up getting work. Right from the start, I got my toe in the door at Marvel, into the most mainstream of comic book companies, and I didn’t have to spend forever scrappin’, trying to get in. Still, I think it took me a while to find myself. I think perhaps that I’m either just out of sync with the times or… I look at EC and I look at the anthology comics with short stories that predominated in the field, before the 1960s when Marvel and DC and the super-hero genre became “The Thing.” I often feel like I could have fit in better during earlier eras. Of course, I wouldn’t be making royalties at Quality or EC, but the page rates were pretty good for the day. Both companies, I think, paid a little better to the artists they wanted to keep around, to reward them. Overall, I think I’ve had it pretty easy. The market for what I want to do isn’t necessarily at the big companies these days. So I’d have to be a businessman and self-generate, create my own comics and… [laughs] I’m not much of a businessman! And so I end up taking work for hire that’s not completely satisfying, or I have to ink somebody that I’m not stylistically attuned to in order to put food on the table. I’ve sort of accepted my fate, to live one job at a time. I’m currently working on SpongeBob SquarePants and I’m having a blast. Anytime you have a good editor, somebody who likes your work and is patient with you, and puts up with your idiosyncrasies and everything else, it’s a wonderful situation. CBC: So Chris Duffy’s a good editor? Hilary: He’s a great editor! Chris is also a great guy. He’s very funny. CBC: When did you feel you hit your groove in comics? Hilary: Well, there are different points. One was drawing and writing “Munden’s Bar” in the ’80s, that Grimjack backup series at First Comics. I could do stories with aliens, science-fiction, fantasies, monsters… whatever! I could do anything I wanted! It had less structure, say, than like the monster books that Marvel did before the super-heroes, where Kirby and Ditko churned out all those great stories of giant creatures and all that kinda stuff. “Munden’s Bar” has that short story format, but is wide open in terms of what the plots could be. Through that series I worked with Stephen Sullivan, another friend I’ve collaborated with on a number of stories. One was an homage to the Road movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. [laughs] I can’t imagine where else I’d be able to do that and even get a paycheck, right? Somebody must have enjoyed it ’cause they kept hiring me to do more. I kept pitching stories and sold ’em. One of my favorite stories started out as a “Munden’s Bar” story, where I wrote the plot and Doug Rice polished the script. It was called “The Competition” and it appeared in A-1, which was a British publication. CBC: Dave Elliott’s A-1? Hilary: Right, Dave Elliott’s book, published by his Atomeka Press. Anyway, it was structured very much like a “Munden’s Bar.” In fact, “The Competition” refers to another bar opening up across the street and everything that owner does to try to compete with what is the establishment, the “Cheers” tavern across the street. It was Cheers battling with the other bar kind of thing, and it was just one of the most fun things I’ve ever drawn. Now I did it in black-&white and Duo-Shade, so I didn’t have to deal with color, which was nice because color is so often a disappointment. Probably the least-satisfying thing for me in comics is when my work has to be colored. When that happens, you’re bringing in different artists. Sometimes, it works out well but a lot of times, it’s just…You’re like, “Errr…really? Green instead of pink?” or whatever. And you’re just constantly having to roll with someone else’s aesthetics being laid on

Splash Brannigan, Tomorrow Stories TM & © America’s Best Comics, LLC.

top of your own work. Thank goodness I’m working with Jason Millet on color now. But I loved “The Competition,” and I loved doing the parodies in What The--?! Those were great times, with Doug Rice and me just sittin’ down and making each other laugh. Another parody thing I did outside of Marvel, was at Dark Horse during their early days, a black-&-white oneshot called Insane. We did a parody of Grimjack (where I’d been doing the “Munden’s Bar” stories) called Dimjack. That was another one with Stephen Sullivan, and we went on to do the first thing I did for Bongo, a Treehouse of Horror story that was a limerick alphabet, basically… A to Z with horror limericks about the different characters. It was really a blast to do. The editing got a little wonky because they edited out contractions and certain things so the meter got thrown off and I was never shown it before it went into print. [laughs] But drawing that was probably the most fun I ever had. I kept turning in pages, saying, “Are you sure this isn’t too gory and violent?” And [editor] Bill Morrison would say, “No, make it more violent!” [laughs] “Go further!” Okayyyy! I think the very first one was “A for Ax” and Comic Book Guy slaughtered customers in his comic book shop and he’s going, “Best. Ax murders. Ever.” CBC: [Laughs] I remember that! Hilary: That was really good and, boy, talk about great color! That was colored by Dave Stewart, so you don’t get much better than that. CBC: And your drawing was outstanding. Hilary: Well, you know, it was fun! Like I say, it was my first job on a Simpsons comic book…Well, I don’t know if it was the very first thing I did for them, as I might have inked something first or penciled something that I didn’t ink for Radioactive Man. But it was my first Treehouse story. I definitely fit better in the Treehouse stories because, under Morrison, the Treehouses really let artists draw the Simpsons a little more in their own style and get a little off-model. With me, I just don’t see linear cartoons; I see everything as three-dimensional with lighting and stuff and it isn’t complete until I add shadows and lighting and all that kind of stuff that Wood and all those other artists that I love — Wrightson — all those guys did that stuff. And that, to me, is a complete drawing. That’s what comics look like. But when I add that to The Simpsons, it can be a problem. It just doesn’t always work. It certainly isn’t compatible with the way they first started doing the comics. They pretty much stuck to the dead weight animation line and it was many years before they started letting people do a little more in the regular books with line weight, as opposed to just dead weight pen. I know that Andrew Pepoy led the charge trying to push that part of the drawing. He did a lot of inking there. In any case, I’ve done three or four Treehouse stories and it’s always the most fun. Just crazier subject matter and they let me go a little bit wilder with the lighting and the shadows, though I found that you can light Homer and Bart rather easily because Homer essentially has a round head. Bart has this sort of tube that’s cut off with spikes in the top, but if you look at Maggie and Lisa, it’s almost impossible to light their heads because they have these big spiky hairdos! The Simpsons don’t actually work in turnaround. They’re specific to certain angles where the eyes don’t overlap this way or this doesn’t touch that another way. I’m sure that when the person is doing the in-beCOMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

tweens, they just sort of jump from one model pose to another but they don’t really work as three-dimensional things you can turn around. CBC: Right. Hilary: You have to kind of jump from a three-quarter, straight on to a whatever. I’ve drawn a lot of stories but it’s been over the course of years so it’s not like I can sit down and draw those characters fluidly. Every time I would tell them, if I got a story every six months, that means I’m starting over every six months. If I was doing one every month or so, maybe I would just get more in the swing of it. But in this case, it’s a pretty weird model

Above: Hilary Barta cover art for Tomorrow Stories #11 [Oct. 2001]. Inset left: Detail from Tomorrow Stories #6 [Mar. ’00]. Below: Tomorrow Stories #7 [June ’00].

Above and below: EC era Wallace Wood is expertly channeled by Barta for his Tom Strong #14 [Oct. 2001] assignment. Below is a panel detail. Inset right: Barta’s contribution for the America’s Best Comics Sketchbook [2002].

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style, that Matt Groening style. It’s a pretty strange one. I ended up enjoying working on it just because of all the stuff you could do with the cartoony stuff and the weird, fun stories. I’m drawing stories for SpongeBob now. I don’t do as much lighting on the SpongeBob characters but taking those characters and sort of making them my own through that rendering style is a fun process. CBC: Do you keep a sketchbook? Hilary: You know, I did a little of that when I was younger in art school, but I’m a pretty lazy artist. I don’t do a lot of that. I

sketch right on the boards. I don’t walk around sketching so much. I’m not Robert Crumb or Chris Ware or any of these guys that seem draw every waking second. CBC: Did you always have a desire to do humor comics? Was that on your radar when you were first starting out, to do this more bigfoot or more animation kind of art? Hilary: Well, I think it’s a matter of style and personality. When I first started out, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just wanted to do comics, and it took me a while to get my footing. We talked about my inking with a pen instead of a brush and that kind of thing and then, you know, I started to get more confidence, but also I began to realize that there was something else that was more what I wanted to do. Because I started as an inker, I wasn’t doing that much penciling, so that put off a process that maybe would have happened sooner in terms of finding where I wanted to go. I think the biggest problem in comics is if you don’t have a style that’s a recognizable thing, “This is how I draw. This is the way I do cartoon characters.” My style seems to be a little more in the lighting, combined with the cartooniness or the gestural kind of stuff or the structural stuff or the figures. But I don’t think that my figure design, or character design, is something that people would necessarily recognize without my inking. I’m not sure. I mean, if I was Fred Hembeck, or John Byrne, or Charles Schulz, you’d go, okay, we know what that looks like. You’d recognize it anywhere. With different artists, it’s not as simple. It’s not as clear, it’s not as focused. I’m certainly someone who is used to that semi-obscurity because I never really had my own book that I did X-number of issues of or whatever. I seem to be more fluid, moving from one thing to another and stylistically making adjustments. I’m always surprised when someone tells me that they can tell I’m the inker on something. When you’re inking someone, 90% of the time you’re trying to bring out what’s there and maybe finish it a bit, but you work with what’s there as opposed to just ignore it and start over and do your own thing. There are very few artists where I kind of run over them with style. I never felt like I had that style to do that. Certainly, early on I never felt like that. But finding your own style is an interesting process. I think if I worked more and kept a sketchbook like you’re talkin’ about, if I’d been more focused over the course of my career, maybe I would have nailed it down sooner and nailed it down more firmly. But it’s harder for people to follow you, right? It’s harder for fans to follow you if you don’t have a single book. The comics are generally built on characters. Creators connect to fans but I think that comes through doing a certain comic more than anything else. So, if you’re talking about my career, I think the toughest part is not being somebody who turns out a monthly book, never having found that book for myself, what that character is. That, probably, if anything, has kept me being a guy who folks might easily remember and recognize. “Oh, yeah! Whatever happened to Hilary Barta? Is he still workin’?” [laughs] “I really liked his stuff, but I never see it!” It’s harder to find someone when they’re just doing odd jobs and short stories and flitting about as I do. CBC: Do you think it was fortuitous that you mostly were inking before your getting into storytelling? Hilary: I don’t know about “fortuitous.” It just is what it is. I just wasn’t ready. Early on in my career, when I was showing my portfolio to people, I was showing them illustrations. There was a reason why I wasn’t doing comics. Exactly why, I don’t know because I enjoy doing it now. It’s still

a challenge how to figure out a page. Part of the creative problem solving in comics is: you’re given a script and then you have to figure it out, because not all writers are visual and not all writers design every page properly. And if you get a full script — as I pretty much work with now, as Bongo and SpongeBob are all full script — you have to figure out, “How do I translate that to the page and make that work?” Especially when it’s awkwardly written or the flow of the dialogue from panel to panel, where they keep switching who’s talking first, how do I do that without constantly breaking the 180-degree rule kind of thing. There are all kinds of technical things about storytelling that are particular to scripts and comics, but I really enjoy the process. I don’t know that it’s fortuitous that I began as an inker, but I enjoyed those years when I was happy inking. When I was inking Jon Bogdanove on Power Pack, it coulda gone on forever. When I was inking Kieron Dwyer, or somebody like that, or Doug Rice, it was always a pleasure. They were talented pencilers and I was trying to do the best I could to finish off what they started. Then there were a number of years I spent just payin’ the rent and trying to make something look good that I wasn’t terribly excited about doing. I don’t know. I wish I was a different person and had started drawing continuity and had my characters from the get-go, but you can’t go back and worry about that stuff. I am who I am. I don’t know WHY that’s the way I am, but that’s how it went. I think I just don’t quite focus the way some people do. I’m not as driven maybe, to do it. That may be part of it. CBC: Personally, I don’t think you’re an acquired taste. I really like your art because you have such a lush ink line and your humor work is so naturally dynamic. The stuff moves for me. “Splash Brannigan” was pure you! Hilary: “Splash Brannigan”! That was the thing that Alan Moore and I did in Tomorrow Stories. Because of the format, it wasn’t in every single issue. I don’t know if there were six rotating characters but they had only four characters per issue, so it would occasionally skip my feature. That was something I had for a couple years, doing a number of stories and building up a body of work so someone could say, “Oh, yeah! He did that character!” I did Plastic Man at DC, an early shot at doing something big as a penciler and, besides doing the short stories, that was the first time someone really hired me to do a humor thing, as well as a mini-series. But “Splash Brannigan” was another high point. That was another case where you’re getting a full script. Alan’s original idea for Splash was as a sort of Flash Gordon crossed with Felix the Cat, who would wear a Rapidograph-type gun in a holster. He’d use it to draw a window on a wall to make his escape and such like. Besides doing the actual character design, my biggest contribution to his creation was suggesting that as living ink, Splash didn’t need a magical Rapidograph — or a costume! Alan and I only spoke on the phone a couple of times early on, but anything I said to him, anything I’d put in a note, anything that came up in conversation, would often turn up later in a story. He’d get this, “Oh, Hilary likes to do noir.” Because when they did the ABC Sketchbook, I drew, you know, Splash as a detective in an inky trench coat and fedora, and did a kind of film noir scenario in one sketch, and I did a Wally Woodish science fiction thing in another. Well, all that stuff turned up in the stories I did with Alan later! [laughs] I just think, besides wanting to hire the right guy to begin with, and that had something to do with the editor. Scott Dunbier probably recommended me to Alan. But also, I think, Alan was just in tune with his pencilers. He’s a creative guy and he’d go, “What would make this guy happy? What story would get the best visuals out of this guy?” I think maybe the last one I did with Alan, which was an extra-long story, was this locked room mystery, film noir thing. It actually ran across a lot of detective, mystery, and noir tropes and it was one of my favorite things we did together. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Just getting the scripts from Alan was fun! I never have had more fun reading a script than reading his! They’re just so much fun to read! I don’t know if anyone ever talked to you about this, how many interviews you’ve done with guys that worked with Alan, but when he was doing the ABC books, he was writing a bunch of different characters at the same time! Just in Tomorrow Stories, there were four, five, or six! A number of strips! And all the artists had to be working all the time or you’d never get the stuff done. Alan would write a couple pages for one artist, then a couple pages for another, and these pages came in drips and drabs. But I always had something to work on. I was usually not waiting for a script. Then you’d get the last page. And he was also writing other comics for them! He was doing all this at the same time and according to Scott Dunbier, Alan does not work from index-card plotting. He would just start writing and, if you’ve read the scripts, literally he would say, “Hullo.” It’d be “H-U-L-L-O.” [laughs] “I thought what we’d do this time…” It was a conversation! He would just walk into the stories, saying hello and say, “I thought we’d do the story about this. In this first panel, we’re gonna …” and he’d wander into it. That was the first time that

This page: This was intended as a Tom Strong #14 cover — note the “ABC” penciled at top. Note, too, the “DH,” which indicates artist Barta tweaked to make it the back cover for Dark Horse’s Fear Agent #22 [June 2008]. 81

Below: Barta drew a threepage Betty Boop comic story for Woman’s Day in their Feb. 2017 “Heart Health” special issue.

you got the sense that he put pen to paper on the story. He didn’t write, this little thumbnail thing where Splash goes to an art gallery and fights a villain and goes inside the artwork… which is one of the stories. They ran through a bunch of paintings and pieces of art. He apparently was writing that while he was writing all those other stories, just a couple panels or pages at a time and yet there’s structure to the story where, you know, at the ending it pays off. I don’t even know how he can do that in one story, let alone working on ten at once! [laughs] But apparently, he did! So it didn’t look like he was making it up one page at a time. It

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Above: The Wallace Wood SF-inspired influence is all over Barta’s art for the APAzine Cartoon Loonacy [’02].

looked like all this stuff was planned out in advance… but according to Scott, it was not. Alan could just juggle that stuff in his enormously fertile and talented brain! CBC: Scott came to you? Hilary: Yeah, I think Scott said, “How’d you like to work with Alan Moore or something like that and I said, “What??” [laughs] Yeah, it’s amazing how many things have fallen into my lap that I haven’t pursued. There have been editors that I’ve called up and begged for work, and then there are times when things like that happen. Somebody’s lookin’ out for ya and they think you’re right for it and it works out great. But, yeah, that one just landed in my lap thanks to Scott Dunbier. (Thank you, Scott!) CBC: I see that in the early ’90s, you did The Toxic Crusaders. Did you do much writing, just writing and not drawing? Hilary: Well, there have been different points of time where I’ve tried to pursue writing. Like I said, as an artist I’m not really a monthly comics guy. I can’t crank out the material at the speed I’d need to accomplish that frequency. I’ve tried to write for other people and, in the case of The Toxic Crusaders, Joe Staton drew the script. I also wrote a couple scripts for What The--?! for a few other artists. Rurik Tyler was the other guy. But, yeah, Doug and I would write for other people. I was trying to expand what I was doing and also be a writer, trying to get known in that capacity, but it’s never really worked. Certain editors would hire me to do those books but when I’ve tried to get regular writing work that just hasn’t happened. I think that’s a case where I’d definitely have to create my own thing with someone and get established and do it myself. It just seems like no one else will hire me as a writer, so I’ve sort of given up at this point, though I can write my own stuff. No one’s really looking to hire me as a hired gun type of writer. CBC: Have you developed any of your own concepts? Hilary: Unfortunately, one of the saddest things that ever happened to me… [laughs] and I don’t even want to name names ’cause I’m not trying to tell tales out of school, but someone who had hired me to do a lot of different things over the years told me, “I’d really like to do Hilary Barta’s dream comic. I’d like you to do your book. I want to edit it and I’m going to see that it gets published.” Then, when I pitched it, I said, “Okay, I’ve got this idea,” and he just said, “Eh, it doesn’t light a fire under me.” I said, “This is that dream project!” [laughs] There’s nothing more frustrating, especially when it happens with people you like and get along with, and you know they like your work… With “Splash Brannigan,” after Alan left ABC and other writers, friends of his, came in to work on the properties, I worked on one “Splash” script by someone else — Peter Hogan, I think — and it was a good script, but I just said, “If Alan’s not doing this, I’d love to do ‘Splash’ on my own if Alan would approve.” And Scott just said — I think we were at a convention — just offhand, he said, “Eh, wouldn’t sell.” You know? That’s really harsh. Though he didn’t mean to be brutal, he’s essentially saying, “Without Alan, your stuff’s not gonna sell.” Now, without a doubt, Alan is a huge name… I mean the ABC comics line would not be Hilary Barta’s comics line. [laughs] There’s a reason Alan Moore gets a line of comics, but it’s still pretty tough to hear something that you assume other editors think, you know? “Yeaaaah, you’re funny but you’re not a big enough name.” I can imagine it would seem like a hard sell to any editor. “Yeah, we’re gonna do something that isn’t straight dramatic super-hero action with a guy who doesn’t exactly have the track record for selling the most comics here.” It’s a tough business, but every business is tough. You walk away and it’s hard to keep pitching ideas when someone that you work with and who likes your work is turning you down. But I’m not gonna play the violin here. People hire me to draw comics, Jon! I’m doing okay. [laughs] CBC: All right. Hilary: It’s just that those are things you don’t really forget, those moments when someone’s like, “It doesn’t light a fire

under me. The thing that you’re all afire about…? Doesn’t work for me.” Pfft…! CBC: Can you share the general idea of what the project was? Hilary: Oh, there were super-heroes involved. The long and short of it was it was me kind of wanting to do my own Jack Cole kind of humorous super-hero kind of character. I keep saying “kind of” because I don’t want to nail it down here, because I’m still going to do it someday… (he says with his days being numbered). I am going to do it. I keep promising Doug Rice because we developed it together, though Doug doesn’t want to hear about it anymore. He’s like, “Just do it already.” So it’s humorous super-heroes but very comic booky and weird. I wanted to throw in everything. I think I probably called it humor noir or something like that… horror, science fiction, and super-heroes. An EC meets Plastic Man-type atmosphere, with humor. Doug and I also have a science fiction humor strip, too, that I want to do — but when I grow up, y’know? CBC: How do you know Doug Rice? Hilary: Well, Doug lived in Chicago then. He now lives in Homewood, a little ways south of Chicago. There were a bunch of local people working on a fanzine, Just Imagine. Jill Thompson, Lenin Delsol, Mark Nelson, Doug Rice, and a number of other talented people were in it. Almost all Chicago-area people. I met Doug during those years. And Doug also worked on staff at First Comics. At one point, when we were really working on a lot of stuff together, Doug lived only a few blocks from me. I could walk over to Doug’s apartment and we’d just start throwing ideas around. It was great! When Doug and I did Plastic Man with Phil Foglio, COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

our plotting sessions were pretty much us sitting around and coming up with these gags, ideas, and situations. Then Phil, in this case, would take it and write a script based on our plots. Once the magazine Step-by-Step Graphics wanted to do a story about how this Plastic Man mini-series was made. It was to be about the process to complete the comic book and it was a really great chance for some publicity about Plastic Man and its creators. First of all, I don’t think DC was terribly happy with the Plastic Man mini-series, but the only evidence I can offer is that they never collected it. Anyway, I think Mitch O’Connell had done something with Step-by-Step Graphics and he recommended that they use us as possible subject matter for the magazine. So I approached DC about it. They responded, “Sure, okay, but they have to get approval from us for any illustrations.” That’s when things hit a snag. Step-byStep said, “This feature is working out, and we really like his article, so we want to make it the cover fea-

This page: Hilary Barta, a.k.a. “Surly Hack,” participates in the rhyme-drenched website LimerWrecks, which links verse to old movies (another love). He put his rhymin’ skills to good use with his alphabet-spanning contribution to Treehouse of Terror #8 [’02], samples herein.

Above: Barta contributed to Radioactive Man #1 [Dec. 2000]. Below: Simpsons Super Spectacular #15 [May ’12] cover.

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ture.” So I drew big Plastic Man figure for their cover and it goes to DC for approval. Then I start getting calls from Stepby-Step and they tell me, “Uh, something’s going on here.” DC’s legal department had been slow to approve the pencil and ink art, and now was taking forever to clear the cover illustration. I’d be on the phone trying to find out what’s going on and then the magazine called me up again. “DC says we can’t use the cover.” They were going to press within a week and, at the last minute, DC just decided, “Nope. We’re not going to give approval. We’re not going to give permission to use our character.” So I had to go all the way up to Dick Giordano, who was executive editor at DC at that time, and he took my call. I said, “Can you explain the problem to me?” Apparently someone in their promotions/legal department nixed this idea. Dick said, “I don’t overrule my people.” I just said, “This doesn’t make any sense. This is promotion for the company!” I’m telling Dick this is a great thing. He goes, “No, no, this is promotion for you.” I was, like, “W-w-what?! This isn’t my character. I don’t own this character! It’s promotion for everyone involved, including DC!” But he wouldn’t overrule the person at DC who made the initial decision.

Later I found out what it was really all about: Time did a cover feature on John Byrne’s revamp of Superman. It was a puff piece, a totally amazing free plug in a national magazine. And, in the article, they included this little inset box. They wanted to inject a slightly contrary view so they mention that some people had complained that Byrne was turning Superman into a yuppie. Which was the one negative note — though hardly a negative note! It’s just a matter of opinion. [laughs] Apparently, John Byrne was terribly upset by this. I don’t know if it was Dick who told me over the phone but it seemed that he was telling me, “We don’t wanna get screwed again!” How could they be “screwed” by an article that was in their possession with a cover by the artist that drew the series for them? This was the attitude that they had when they were approached about a Plastic Man cover feature. It was astonishing! I still don’t understand that mindset. Recently I was talking to somebody that worked at DC about this and they said, “Yeah, I think things have changed.” That was the dark old days. Comics were afraid of mainstream media and they didn’t understand it. I still don’t understand how anyone could be afraid of publicity, right? [Jon laughs] None of this makes any sense to me to this day. This was a self-defeating policy! The punchline is that once DC nixed the cover at the last minute, we decided to add a bio of me at the end of the story, with photos of some of my Marvel credits. And Marvel cleared the rights over the damn weekend. So now it was about me! [laughter] CBC: How did Stupid come about? How did you get into the Image fold? Hilary: Well, I’ve been friends with Marc Silvestri for a long time. Way back, when I was doing work for editor Carl Potts at Marvel — he was the guy who gave me most of the work I got at Marvel after I got in the door with Al Milgrom — Carl was working with Marc Silvestri, or at least knew Marc. I got a call from Carl one day and he said, “You know, there’s this other artist working in Chicago and he really doesn’t know anybody else in the business. So I ended up talking to Marc, who was looking for a studio type of a situation when I couldn’t afford a separate studio. Marc ended up working in my apartment, in the living room. It was a matter of months and then he left Chicago, went to the West Coast. I inked Marc here and there over the years, and remained friends with him, visiting him when he lived in Malibu. He said, “Hey, man, we’re startin’ this company. You really oughta be a part of this. So I knew about Image when it was happening, even before it became a big deal. I think Stupid was probably the first real surprise they had because the other guys were, like, “What the hell is this stupid comic book? This is not another super-hero book. It’s a parody of one.” [laughs] I guess they did another parody, too, with the Splitting Image book… As soon as they had to start making cuts, when the sales started dropping and they began dumping all the secondary stuff besides the initial six creators’ books, they started looking for places to cut and it’s pretty easy to cut a book like Stupid. I did hear (though I never talked to him myself) that Todd McFarlane was flattered by my Spawn parody. Initially, when Doug and I decided we were basically going to do a parody book at Image, we were, like, “Well, what are we gonna parody?” There were the only two books that were actually making their deadline every month and getting the books out — Savage Dragon and Spawn.

So that’s why we did Spawn. I was able to do Stupid due to a connection. It’s pretty much always that way, where you just make connections through editors and fellow artists. Again, I’m not a guy who’s on the phone all the time, asking people to keep me in mind. I just made connections, and a lot of the business is social networking, in the sense that you’re hangin’ out and talkin’ to somebody. I remember that I met Eric Powell at a Chicago Con one year and we were just sittin’ there, drinkin’ beer, talking, and he was, like, “Would you ever wanna do a Goon story?” I said, “Yeah! I think it would be great to do this story that’s like that Buster Keaton short, Cops, where he’s walking along and this cop comes around the corner and Keaton gets nervous and starts walking away. So the cop thinks he’s acting suspiciously so he starts following Keaton. Then another cop joins that cop, then another cop joins those cops, and on and on. I think it would be great to do a Goon story like that, but with zombies instead of cops.” Eric said, “Yeah, that would be great!” Then, like, three years later, he calls me up, he says, “Ya wanna do that Goon story?” and I said, “What Goon story?” [laughter] I couldn’t even remember the plot! It was really funny because I wrote an entire script. The original idea was to do it silent, without any dialogue anyway, just like the Keaton short. So I wrote this script and tell Eric, “You know, here I am trying to write your kind of Southern-fried dialogue and it’s not easy for me to do. That’s your voice and I don’t quite ‘get’ it.” He said, “Yeah, but you were going to do it silent, like Buster Keaton.” “Ohhh! Riiiight!” [Jon laughs] So I went back to the original idea and ended up doing it. It was for Goon Noir. So, that came from just from seeing an artist at a show and you start talking. I recognized in Eric somebody who had similar interests in style and comics and culture and stuff and he’s a really nice guy. And eventually, he’s hiring you. He just asked me the other day about working on something. I’m hoping that’ll come through. CBC: Do you feel that there’s a Chicago cartoonist community? Does it feel like a community, something that’s unique unto itself? Or are you guys pretty separate? Hilary: Well, there is a local cartoonist community, but it’s something that’s shifted over time. I’ve been in this community forever. When I was first starting out, there was Mitch O’Connell, who did Ginger Fox, and a lot of illustration work. He doesn’t do a ton of comics, but we worked together on a couple things. In fact, I wrote a “Munden’s Bar” story that he drew. Then there’s Bill Reinhold, who drew Badger at First Comics, but he’s done a ton of inking and penciling at Marvel and elsewhere. We were all breaking in together. And soon after, there were artists including Alex Ross, Jill Thompson, Tony Akins, Terry LaBan, Angel Medina, Paul Fricke, Scott Beaderstadt, Tom Artis, Paul Guinan, and my one-time roommate Barry Crain. Dan Clowes lived here, and Ivan Brunetti, Chris Ware, and Jeffrey Brown still do. All these guys lived in Chicago, including the people I mentioned before, like Doug Rice. I guess it was in the ’80s when I was first getting into it, and we had a Wednesday or Thursday night thing. It was whenever the new comics came out… and we would get together to play volleyball, and then we’d go to the comic store, then to this bar across the street and hang out. We didn’t have a name for it. Now they call it “Drink and Draw.” We would just hang out and usually end up drawing. We did a couple art games. There was the “exquisite corpse” where you fold a paper — usually it’s into thirds — and someone draws one of those sections and has their lines cross over into the next section, but the next artist doesn’t see the full drawing. They just see the connecting lines and then they do their drawing and then the third artist does theirs and then you unfold it at the end and see what the three parts look like together, which is always fun to do with artists. We also did these very juvenile little comic book battles where you’d just basically draw something horrible happening to the other guy at the COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

table. I know I did these with Alex Ross and a few other artists. Either you’d shoot the guy or he’d stab you or whatever and then you’d come back as a zombie and bite him. [laughs] It was just the silliest thing in the world, completely, like I say, juvenile… high school kinds of things but with grown men drawing, just making one another giggle. That’s how we would entertain ourselves, so that was our community. Now there’s a new generation of artists in Chicago that hold Drink and Draws, talented folks including Mike Norton, Tim Seeley, Ryan Browne, and Jim Terry. Gary and Tom Gianni live in Chicago, as well as Geoff Darrow and others from my generation, and we still have semi-regular lunches. CBC: I see that you did Marvel Riot in 1995… Hilary: Oh, yeah. I did one story for Marvel Riot. I think it might have been a one-shot or something. It was another self parody book, along the order of Not Brand Echh and What The--?! I think, in that case, the editor asked if I wanted to do a parody of X-Men: Apocalypse. I think I wrote it and then drew it. It’s been so long. [laughs] But I did write that one, yeah. CBC: You got a lot of steady work from editor Andy Helfer for the Big Books published by DC under their Paradox

Top: Barta shares about his Treehouse of Horror #8 cover: “I was very happy with this cover, with its Evil-Gro gag. I see a lot of Bernie Wrightson influence.” Above: We admit to flopping this panel detail of Barta’s TOH #8 story, plus, since we’re in an confessin’ mood, the Tomorrows Stories #7 cover detail on pg. 64 was slightly altered by yours truly. 85

Above: Barta’s contribution to Eric Powell’s Goon Noir #2 [Nov. ’06] was a story inspired by the 1922 film short Cops, starring Buster Keaton. It is without dialogue, in honor, Barta says, of that genius of silent comedy.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Alan Freed in The Big Book of Losers. You know, the radio deejay? CBC: Sure, the payola scandal. Hilary: Right, so that was really fun. I was doing caricatures of old rock performers and R&B people. I found a recent biography of Freed that the writer of the Big Book story clearly didn’t read! [laughs] I was reading the script and thought, “This guy seems to be reporting the legend of these events and not what really happened!” Because some of his material was just pure myth. And the gist of the story, too, was that Freed got screwed. Basically, the payola scandal is what he got caught up in and he was just one of many people, but they used him as a scapegoat. But it was fun to research it and the editor, Andy, and I changed a few things in the original script. The writer was mad because Andy added one word. The scene was a televised dance program and it featured an interracial dance between Frankie Lymon dancing with one of the white girls that were there to dance on the show. Apparently it scandalized people, so the panel described this huge white redneck or some character spittin’ out his drink and saying, “What?” when he’s seeing this on television. In any case, the original caption was something like “Angering racist audiences,” and Andy added the word “conservative,” so it was changed to “Angering conservative and racist audiences.” And the writer hit the roof! Apparently the writer was conservative and didn’t like linking conservative to racist (something we still get even today with Donald Trump!). They’re not exactly fond of having this pointed out. In any case, the writer was upset about that but he didn’t say anything about all the factual things that I fixed in the story that he had completely fudged over! [Jon laughs] Anyway, there ya go. More trivia than you need to know about a three-page story for The Big Book of Losers. CBC: [Laughs] You worked with Harvey Pekar? Were you in contact with him at all? Hilary: Yeah! I did two stories when DC was publishing American Splendor. On the very first one, I got the call from Harvey, which was just hilarious! I hadn’t heard from anyone! No editor talked to me. I got this call and he goes, “Hilary? This is Harvey!” I knew his voice very well, especially from his appearances on David Letterman, right? So I almost started laughing ’cause I recognized his voice from just saying “Hello,” and then he goes, “This is Harvey Pekar.” And he went into this whole thing about how he thought I would be right for this story set in Chicago because he liked the artist to go out and do research and, in fact, I did go to his friends and took photographs and they actually took me to the real locations that he visited that were referenced in the story and that kind of thing. But what was funny was we had this whole conversation and Press imprint. I was, like, “Yeah, I’d like to do it, Harvey, but doesn’t an Hilary: I did a number of stories. Those were really cool, editor have to call me?” [laughs] This was for DC Comics. very different from almost anything else I ever did. You He finally said, “Yeah, I guess so!” [laughs] So, sometime know, they were based on historical fact… or legend perhaps, but with some kind of historical context, so there was later, I got the call from the editor. Harvey was a funny guy, a very funny guy! research involved. I had to go to the library for those books CBC: So he knew of your work? and try to find photo reference for different people, places Hilary: I have no idea. I have the feeling that the editor and events. CBC: Did you come up with the ideas for the stories, based and he had a conversation and he was, like, “I think we oughta have a guy in Chicago,” and the editor was, like, on the general premise of what the volume was? “Well, how about Hilary Barta?” or something like that. I Hilary: No, I did not write anything for them, as those Big have no idea. I didn’t ask anybody how it happened. I can’t Books were generally written in bulk by a few writers. One imagine Harvey knew my work, but how do I know? story I drew was written by the great Gahan Wilson! They CBC: But still! That was cool! were often two- to four-page stories, and they had that Hilary: Oh, of course! But he didn’t call up to say, “Hey I weird twelve-panel format. They’d give you these boards want you to do this story because I love your work.” I don’t with the grid on them and they had rules about following really remember that being part of it. I’d love to have that the grid. The whole idea of the Big Books was to sell them in bookstores to non-comics readers. They’d sort of thought memory but I think it had more to do with the fact that I was a pro who had done stuff for DC and I was a Chicago artist this through and somehow the fact-based… the factoid he could select from. I don’t even know if he selected me. (I think that was the word they used) would sort of be a But the fact that I lived in Chicago was the key. It could be means to attract a different type of reader. I don’t know that it was just the luck of the draw, that there were a numhow well they did. They obviously published a number of ber of artists and Harvey called me. But getting a call from them. But I never wrote any. I remember I did one about

him out of the blue…! It might have been the second story I did for Splendor. Now that I’m looking back on it, I think I’d already done the other story, so maybe getting called by him wouldn’t be such a surprise. It may have been that he liked the first story and then the fact that I was in Chicago made sense for the second one. That probably makes more sense now. [laughs] Even if it didn’t happen that way, it should’ve happened that way. CBC: On Bongo Comics, on The Simpsons, were you friendly with Bill Morrison? How did you get that gig? Hilary: That’s an interesting question. I don’t really remember if I got a call from them. I did a Radioactive Man story. I think that might have been the first thing. I think I might have penciled one and then I did a second one that was a longer Radioactive Man story Bob Smith inked, and then maybe at that point I got offered the Treehouse of Horror story. I’m not sure about the sequence. For some reason, I think the Treehouse thing came later. I remember talking to Bill. I think it might have been just a phone call kind of thing. But then again, maybe I asked him for work. The only part you need to save about that is that I really don’t remember how I got work at Bongo! [laughter] CBC: You seem to have worked for most of the publishers, right? Hilary: I think I used the term, “flitting about” before. Without a doubt, I have worked at a lot of different publishers, and sometimes very briefly! As a penciler, that Dark Horse thing was one job. I did something for Alien Worlds, for Pacific Comics. I did a couple things for Fantagraphics here and there, just short stories when they were doing something beyond their real artsy stuff. These were funny, weird things. So, every once in a while I get caught in one of these situations where a guy I know from alternative comics sees me hanging out with Marc Silvestri in San Diego. “What are you doing with that guy?” “He’s my friend, you moron.” [laughs] Certain people see comics as a bunch of cliques, I guess, but to me it’s all comics. Not only have I worked for a bunch of different publishers, but when the mini-comics thing started happening in the ’80s, I’d already worked at Marvel/DC, whatever, done mainstream comics, but I was doing little odd covers and panels for mini-comics, for free, just ’cause it was fun. There were these two guys from Minneapolis. They were in high school when I first met them. They would come to Chicago for the convention and they’d hand me one. “Hey, I did this little mini-comic.” I’d go, “Well, that’s cool! You want me to draw something?” And I ended up drawing the cover of their Halloween issue every year for a few years. CBC: Oh, wow! Hilary: I enjoy doing fun little things like that, just purely for the love of drawing and cartooning. CBC: Looking at your 2008 credits: Boy, talk about eclectic and all over the place! Fear Agent, American Splendor, The Spirit, Creepy, We Kill Monsters #1… Hilary: That list of titles right there: some of it’s inking and some of it’s penciling. The Spirit is inking and Fear Agent I was inking and writing. It’s all mixed up. The Fear Agent thing came about because I worked on a couple projects with Rick Remender and he and Kieron COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

Dwyer, who is an old friend of mine, are friends, and I think I inked a Fear Agent that Kieron had drawn and a short story for MySpace Presents, when Dark Horse was doing the book. Rick was doing back-ups in Fear Agent. Each issue had the main story in front with the continuity that he was writing and then he was having other people do back-ups. Fear Agent is a very EC science fiction-inspired comic, an adventure comic but the visuals and some of the sensibility, it goes back to Weird Science

Above: An EC sci-fi inspired print. Inset left: Cartoon Loonacy APA zine illo, riffing on fellow APA member Ed Repka drawing, as well as EC-era Wood. Below: 2005 Barta cover art.

Above: Left is panel from Mermaid Man 39,616 AD, “A fun sci-fi story for SpongeBob Comics Annual Giant Swimtacular #3 [2015],” Barta said. “Any excuse to play with Wood-styled machinery!” Right is Barta panel from SpongeBob Comics #10 [July 2012]. Left: In the ’00s, Barta drew “Jimmy Neutron” for Nickelodeon magazine. Below: Stephen Destefano inks Hilary Barta’s pencils for the SpongeBob Comics Treasure Chest deluxe hardcover [2017].

Duffy was one of the editors. SpongeBob Comics allow artists to draw the characters off-model. So you had a lot of people from alternative comics working on stories and drawing them in their own style, y’know? I must admit, I’ve never understood why you would say, “We’re gonna do a comic book version of our animated show and then we’re gonna make them draw it exactly the same as the TV series.” Because if you look at the greatest comics based on animated characters, like Carl Barks’ ducks, they don’t look anything like the cartoon. They behave differently. In fact, Donald Duck talks in comic books! Usually, you know, he’s perfectly understandable. It’s stupid! It’s just a dumb idea. The idea that you would do issue after issue and try to make it look like the animated series as opposed to making it a good comic book with the same characters and bringing them to life in this new medium. It’s just a dumb idea! It’s a limiting idea. My guess is The Simpsons would have sold better if they were better comics. That’s my opinion. But, from the beginning, Chris Duffy was doing this Nickelodeon magazine so he already knew of me when SpongeBob happened. Though, I almost didn’t make it into the book! I did a story for the very first SpongeBob and I’d never drawn the character before, so Chris asked me to do samples. I took one page in a sketchbook (I do actually have sketchbooks; I just don’t do much in them), and I drew SpongeBob, Mermaid Man, and Barnacle Boy, and I drew the main villain. This is a case where I got a script and the script is done in thumbnail form. I’ve drawn a few of James Kochalka’s scripts — and he draws it all out in really loose form so you can kind of use his layouts, or at least you have a visual to go by — and, in any case, he created some kind of octopus character as the villain, so I drew all the characters, sent it to Chris, Chris says, “That’s great. Go ahead and draw the story.” So I drew the characters in the story exactly the way I drew them in the sketchbook. Chris then shows the inked pages to the creator of SpongeBob, Steve Hillenburg, and Hillenburg is, like, “Oh, these are wrong.” Apparently this has been my problem all along with SpongeBob: unlike some artists who draw him way off model, in their own style, I’m someone who is a little more flexible. I’m trying to draw on-model, but I never quite get there! Wally Wood was great at that! CBC: Oh, yeah! Hilary: He could do a parody of Mickey Mouse in one story and Harold Gray in another and get ’em down every time! He had really a great ability to do that! But I come up #17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

and… especially in terms of the visuals! The rocket ship, the ray guns, and that kind of stuff. When Rick was asking around for people who’d want to write back-ups, I said, “I would love to do this.” I never ended up drawing any of them! I inked a couple, I believe, and I drew a back cover, but I thought this was another place where I could write stories to show people I could do it. In this case, these were short adventure stories, what I hoped were pithy, twist-ending, weird kind of things. [laughs] And it was yet another dead-end for me as a writer. It didn’t lead to me getting other work as a writer, unfortunately. Yeah, I wrote ’em, they were drawn in some cases, before the book was canceled, and that was it. It was over. I don’t know if my writing’s too oddball or if, you know, things like Fear Agent and What The--?! just aren’t the best venues for promoting myself as a writer in comics. But in any case, it didn’t lead to a ton of writing work, so… CBC: How did you get involved with the SpongeBob Comics? Hilary: Many years ago, I’d done a few things for Nickelodeon magazine. I didn’t actually do SpongeBob, but I did Jimmy Neutron, maybe the only character I worked on there. Nickelodeon was a really cool magazine and Chris

I’m drawing a couple of SpongeBob stories, but without a doubt, I don’t quite get SpongeBob. [laughs] Here’s one of my biggest problems in drawing cartoon characters: I am, at heart, a parodist. I look at the funny side of everything and I look at everything with a skeptical eye and you know, being inoculated with MAD at an early age will do that to someone. I could never take super-heroes seriously after reading “Batboy and Rubin” and “Superduperman.” On some level, even as a kid, I knew this stuff was ridiculous. I still enjoyed reading them, but I kinda knew they were ridiculous. When it comes around to writing them, I don’t really think that way. “What would a guy who’s made out of rocks be thinking?” I just go, “This is ridiculous.” And when I’m doing cute, it’s the same thing. I don’t think I really get cute. Cute is a cliché, right? The Disney cute, drawing these girls with the big eyes. To me, my characters always look like they’re a little bit weird, they’re a little bit strange. Maybe they’re menacing. Maybe they’re stupid and drooling, but they’re seldom just plain cute without any quotation marks around it. And SpongeBob has to look kind of innocent and dopey, maybe, but just…sweet! And when I’m drawin’ him, he kinda looks more monsterish. [laughter] That’s kind of a problem! I just don’t think I have the “cute gene” in me. Something looks wrong when I attempt something cute. I’m, like, “Where’s the joke?” CBC: Was the Tomorrow Stories gig lucrative? Hilary: Were there a lot of royalties on those books? No. It wasn’t particularly big, no. It was a great gig! But the most in royalties I ever made happened when I was working at Marvel back before the implosion and before the Image

This page: Above, at left: Signing for Garbage Pail Kids at Challengers Comics in Chicago (2015). Middle: Talking comics with a budding artist at the 2016 C2E2 con. Right: Looking at an issue of Jim Siergey’s NART mini-comic with my cover art. At bottom: Gift for Barta’s niece, then striking out on her own.

short. One particular aspect that bothered Mr. Hillenburg were the eyeballs of SpongeBob. Apparently, when I’d have SpongeBob turning at an angle, a sideways kind of thing, I’d draw the back eyeball — the one that’s a little further away — I would make it a little smaller than the front one — just a cartoony, little goofy thing. So I get this edict that would come back saying, “No, no, no! We never do that on SpongeBob. The eyeballs have to be exactly the same size.” [Jon laughs] I think I redrew these faces — and I’m doin’ this on the board with whiteout, like five times — and on the fifth time, I couldn’t do it anymore. I went over to my friend’s house who scanned the boards and, in Photoshop, he literally copied one eyeball, moved it over, and pasted it in over the other eye. CBC: [Laughs] Perfect! Hilary: It was literally the same eyeball. So, we attached it to the email and I send it in and I get this answer. “Well, sorry. The eyeballs have to be the same size.” [laughs] So my reply was, “Hey, you know what? I really thought this was gonna be great, but I don’t think it’s gonna work out so why don’t we just call it a day ’cause I am not gonna redraw this again! This is literally the same eyeball. I don’t know what’s going on there, but someone has a problem with my version of SpongeBob and that’s okay. Let’s just call it a day.” And then the reply to me throwin’ in the towel was, “Congratulations! Your story’s been accepted! [laughter] I’m guessing that finally Chris told Steve, “Look, let’s just not have him draw SpongeBob.” Because after that he had me drawing Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy as apparently Steve has no problem with the way I draw them. Right now,

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This page: A couple of years back, DC Comics enlisted Barta to draw covers for their Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters two-issue series. After finishing the above pencils for #2 [July ’15], Barta was informed that Uncle Sam was not a part of the current “Quality Comics” team.

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

thing. The royalties on the X-books with Rob Liefeld, where I’d do the occasional X-Men issue, that’s the best royalties that I’ve ever seen. And then the one issue of Stupid was great, because when Image first started, the sales were just crazy. I know the orders for the second issue that we never finished were maybe half or more of the first issue, so it was already dropping. It wasn’t going to continue like that. I think people were buying multiple copies. There was lots of speculation on stuff at that time. Stupid was the only comic where I was actually flown out to a couple of different cites to promote, and it was just based on that one issue! And there were lines of kids! The only weird thing about it is, the speculation and

collector market has always troubled me because it’s about comics for kids to read and the rest of it is nonsense. It’s really hype and phony. Nobody can guarantee a comic’s gonna be worth anything. And the whole limited edition thing…! Here I’m doing a signing at a store and they’re giving kids a certificate with the signing. I’m telling the guy at the store, “You know I’ll sign this comic for anyone at any time, right? The certificate has no value. Why are you doing this?” [laughs] It’s nothing more special than that. I don’t really get that part of the business. It bugs me. But Stupid sold well enough and I know from talking to these kids who would wait in line in the store to have me sign the comic, that they were reading it! I don’t know if you’ve read Stupid, but in the back we did a “Where’s Waldo?” thing, “Where’s Aldo?” This one boy told me, “I spent, like, two days looking for Aldo and when I finally figured it out, I showed it to my sister and I got her!” But he wasn’t mad at me that we’d played a joke on him. He enjoyed it and he played it on his sister. So I was, like, “Yeah! This worked! Kids really are reading this thing. They enjoyed it! They’re not just waiting in line because they think it’s gonna be worth some money.”That’s why I felt good about it. I didn’t like the idea that these stores were making it seem like it was worth something. It’s worth what it is. It’s worth that art and that story. CBC: Was it cool to get the assignment for the Convergence cover with Plastic Man? Did you feel like that was some recognition, some vindication… at least a little bit? Hilary: Well, I got that through Marie Javins, who’s the editor. She emailed me, and I asked her why I got the assignment. Did she know my Plastic Man? She said, “No, but a little birdie told me you might wanna do this.” She wouldn’t tell me who that little birdie was so somebody…[laughs] I don’t know if that’s an actual person at DC. I’m guessing it was somebody who was around back then and remembered our Plastic Man. But it was fun to get! The thing is, she asked me if I wanted to do a Plastic Man cover and I was, like, “Yeah! Of course!” I was excited and I said, “I wanna do a Jack Cole thing and…” And she said, “Ummm, it’s not just Plastic Man. It’s Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters.” That’s when I said, Oh. Okay.” [laughs] I did draw them and it was enjoyable, but it wasn’t just a funny Plastic Man story. He’s part of some DC continuity thing, so… Speaking of which: I don’t remember if it was the first or second cover. I’m guessing the second. Uncle Sam was part of the Freedom Fighters, but within the continuity, it’s like an alternate world or something. I don’t know. But Uncle Sam gets killed and I was erroneously putting him on the cover after he was killed! Marie’s like, “Hilary! Uncle Sam’s dead! You can’t put him on the cover.” And I had him right in the middle! Because, really, of all those Freedom Fighters, Uncle Sam’s the only character other than Plastic Man that means anything to me. It’s just this classic visual, you know? But I had to take him out. “Nah,” she said, “You can’t really have a dead guy standing on the cover.” So I put the Black Condor… which, oh my God, has gotta be the gayest 1940s superhero costume ever created! He’s wearing, like, leather shorts I think, and a strap or something. [Jon laughs] Oh, god! It’s really a silly costume! I thought maybe for your interview here I could show you the pencils I had for Uncle Sam but I had to erase the pencils. [laughs] I was really happy with

the figure, but I had to get rid of it completely in order to put Mr. Leatherpants in there. Oh, lord! CBC: So, would you do it again? Would you have a career in comic books? Is it satisfying? Hilary: Oh, no. I would become a film director and make millions of dollars and I’d be living in the South of France right now. These are questions I don’t ever spend any time thinking about because, one, I can’t reverse time. [laughs] Would I do things differently? I think I’ve talked about certain junctures where I might have been able to do something different. Sure. I would do certain things differently. I remember when I decided to do comics, I was really interested in film, which I did pursue in terms of taking classes and making 16mm films when I was younger. I was looking into animation at the time. That was the aspect that was always beckoning — which, by the way, I think I would have been terrible at. I forget the exact name of the school, but it was where all the Disney animators trained and there were a lot of ex-Disney people teaching there. Cal-Arts, maybe…? But I just couldn’t see how to swing it and I didn’t really want to borrow the money from my folks. I thought they were kind of strapped at the time, so it just seemed to make sense. Comics were right there, you know? You could go to a comics show and you could just talk to an editor. He’s right there. Not that easy to get a job in film. There’s a much longer line waiting to talk to whoever might hire you in film. It just seemed to make sense. Comics could happen right here in Chicago. I would have had to move to California to pursue film and I didn’t really want to do that. That was when I made that decision. I’ve never really regretted it. [laughs] I’ve not always been happy. Not every year was spent doing exactly what I wanted to do but every once in a while, I’m going, “I can’t believe I’m getting’ paid to draw this! This is so much fun! It’s so silly and here I am drawing kids’ books and I’m 60 years old!” [laughs] I’m drawing these kids’ books and kids will look at the stuff and laugh. Here’s the best compliment, the greatest thing anyone ever paid me: A guy came up to me, maybe two years ago, here in Chicago, over to my table in Artist’s Alley. He had an issue of What HeroesTwoMorrowsAd01.pdf 1 1/16/2018 1:06:56 PM The--?! and this was one of the Punisher/Wolverine parodies I did. He told

me that this was the first comic he’d ever read and he was reading it on the school bus in grade school and he’d laughed so hard, he peed his pants. [laughter] And I was sitting here saying, “Oh, my god!” and I’m kind of apologizing but, thankfully, he was on the way home on the bus. If he was going to school, he might not have felt so fondly about that moment. But it was the first comic he ever read and it made him laugh out loud, and he told me about it! That’s really cool! I think that’s why you get into comics. I’ve heard of other artists getting into comics because they wanted to make money or meet girls or something silly. Both of those things can happen, but probably with the latter, you’re in the wrong business. But I got into comics ’cause I love the comics and you just want to be part of that. To think that I could make a kid laugh just like those artists at MAD made me laugh! What could be more perfect than that? CBC: And what could be a more perfect ending to this interview than that? Hilary: [Laughs] Okay! Put that on my tombstone! Maybe I’ll have to edit it. It’s a little long for a tombstone!

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KIRBY Is King, All Year Long!

B JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #74

Travel through the ages in the FUTUREPAST issue, featuring two different covers! Set course for “The World That Was,” documenting Jack’s work from Caveman days to the Wild West, behind a Kirby Bullseye A cover inked by BILL WRAY! And transport yourself to “The World That’s Here” for Kirby’s visions of the future that became reality, with a B cover featuring his unseen Tiger 21 concept art! Plus an interview with ROY THOMAS about Jack’s work, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER moderating the biggest Kirby Tribute Panel of all time, pencil art galleries, and more! Let us know which cover you want— A or B —for your subscription or single copy! (100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • NOW SHIPPING!

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: CENTENNIAL EDITION

This final, fully-updated, definitive edition clocks in at DOUBLE the length of the 2008 “Gold Edition”, in a new 256-page LTD. EDITION HARDCOVER (only 1000 copies) listing every release up to Jack’s 100th birthday! Detailed listings of all of Kirby’s published work, reprints, magazines, books, foreign editions, newspaper strips, fine art and collages, fanzines, essays, interviews, portfolios, posters, radio and TV appearances, and even Jack’s unpublished work! (256-page LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER) $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-083-0 • SHIPS SPRING 2018!

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID! (KIRBY COLLECTOR #75)

This first-of-its-kind examination of the creators of the Marvel Universe looks back at their own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and television interviews, to paint a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s relationship—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed. Also here are recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more Marvel Bullpen stalwarts who worked with both Kirby and Lee. Rounding out this book is a study of the duo’s careers after they parted ways as collaborators, including Kirby’s difficulties at Marvel Comics in the 1970s, his last hurrah with Lee on the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, and his exhausting battle to get back his original art—and creator credit—from Marvel. STUF’ SAID gives both men their say, compares their recollections, and tackles the question, “Who really created the Marvel Comics Universe?”. (160-page trade paperback) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-086-1 • SHIPS FALL 2018!

KIRBY100

Features an all-star line-up of 100 top comics pros who choose key images from Kirby’s career, and critique Jack’s PAGE LAYOUTS, DRAMATICS, and STORYTELLING SKILLS to honor his place in comics history, and prove Kirby is King! Celebrate Jack’s 100th birthday in style with this full-color, doublelength book edited by JOHN MORROW & JON B. COOKE, with a cover inked by MIKE ROYER. NOW SHIPPING! (224-page COLOR softcover) $34.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-078-6

It Crept From The Tomb Just when you thought it was safe to walk the streets again, FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics) digs up more tomes of terror from the century past. IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB (the second “Best of” collection) uncovers Atomic Comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more from the darkest of the horror genre’s finest creators! (192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6 • (Digital Edition) $10.95 • NOW SHIPPING!

Comics History Lives at TwoMorrows! TwoMorrows continues its groundbreaking series of FULL-COLOR HARDCOVERS, documenting every decade of comic book history from the 1930s to today! Each volume presents a year-by-year account of the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends, with exhaustively researched details on all the major events along the comics history timeline! Taken together, the AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES series forms a cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history, making it an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1990s

THE 1990s was the decade when Marvel Comics sold 8.1 million copies of an issue of the X-MEN, saw its superstar creators form their own company, cloned SPIDER-MAN, and went bankrupt. The 1990s was when SUPERMAN died, BATMAN had his back broken, and the runaway success of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to DC Comics’ VERTIGO line of adult comic books. It was the decade of gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers. But most of all, the 1990s was the decade when companies like IMAGE, VALIANT and MALIBU published million-selling comic books before the industry experienced a shocking and rapid collapse. AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: THE 1990s is a year-by-year account of the comic book industry during the Bill Clinton years. This full-color hardcover volume documents the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends from that decade. Written by KEITH DALLAS and JASON SACKS. (288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $44.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.95 • SHIPS FALL 2018! ISBN: 978-1-60549-084-7

1940-44 and 1945-49 volumes ship in 2019 during TwoMorrows’ 25th Anniversary!

Other volumes available: 1950s • 1960-64 • 1965-69 • 1970s And 1980s back in print Summer 2018!

COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION

AN ORAL HISTORY OF DC COMICS CIRCA 1978

Things looked bleak for comic books throughout the 1970s because of plummeting sell-through rates. With each passing year, the newsstand became less and less interested in selling comic books. The industry seemed locked in a death spiral, but the Powers That Be at DC Comics had an idea to reverse their fortunes. In 1978, they implemented a bold initiative: Provide readers with more story pages by increasing the pricepoint of a regular comic book to make it comparable to other magazines sold on newsstands. Billed as “THE DC EXPLOSION,” this expansion saw the introduction of numerous creative new titles. But mere weeks after its launch, DC’s parent company pulled the plug, demanding a drastic decrease in the number of comic books they published, and leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. The series of massive cutbacks and cancellations quickly became known as “THE DC IMPLOSION.” TwoMorrows Publishing marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the most notorious events in comics with an exhaustive oral history from the creators and executives involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and AL MILGROM, among many others), as well as detailed analysis and commentary by other top professionals, who were “just fans” in 1978 (MARK WAID, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, TOM BREVOORT, and more)—examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever! By KEITH DALLAS and JOHN WELLS.

2018 RATES

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creators at the con

IT’S A WOMAN’S WORLD: Clockwise from right: Harley Quinn writer and artist Amanda Connor at New York Comic Con 2013; Brooke Allen, 2015 NYCC; Lumberjanes artist and GLAAD Media Award winner for “Outstanding Comic Book”; BOOM! editor/writer Shannon Watters, NYCC 2015; legendary Aquaman and Super Friends comic book artist Ramona Fradon, Comic-Con International: San Diego 2014; “The Women of Marvel” panel participants at the 2017 Comic-Con International: San Diego (front row: Sana Amanat, Rainbow Rowell, Judy Stephens, Christina Strain, and Alanna Smith; and back row: Margaret Stohl, Lorraine Cink, and Mariko Tamaki); and comics’ preeminent “herstorian” and comix cartoonist, Trina Robbins, at the 2014 Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Photography by Kendall Whitehouse

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

a merry marcher remembers

A Fabulous Kindness

CBC ’s Con Photographer recalls a lovely missive during the Marvel Age of Comics by K ENDALL WHITEHOUSE CBC Convention Photographer

While it’s difficult to imagine now, before social media, before the Internet, before email, comic book fans engaged in their obsessions in relative isolation. Favorite issues would be discussed and traded among a few close friends, but a fan’s world was relatively small. Yet, back in comic books’ Silver Age — long before business pundits tossed around buzzwords like “connected marketing” — the Marvel Comics Group built a strong sense of community among the company’s far-flung audience. Readers’ comments on the letters page (with their often amusing responses), the chatty updates in Stan’s Soapbox, the lists of members of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, all of this provided a sense of intimate connection with the company and other distant fans. I was reminded of this when, exploring a box of old mementos, I uncovered a long-lost piece of ephemera: a reply to a note I sent to the offices of Marvel sometime during the 1960s. I don’t recall precisely what I asked the famed Marvel bullpen. I suspect after seeing one of the

moments in Fantastic Four when the Thing’s bulk made his life difficult — he was too wide to fit through a standard-sized door, too heavy to avoid crushing a chair — I asked something along the lines of: “How does The Thing take a bath?” The little green card I received in response included a handwritten reply in ballpoint pen: “Maybe he goes through a car-wash, Kendall!” It was signed “Stan + the Gang.” It was many years later before I realized the author of this clever response was “Fabulous Flo” Steinberg, Marvel secretary and all-around “gal Friday” (as the position was then known). Before the panel on “Survivors of the First Comic Con,” at the 2014 New York Comic Con, I finally met Ms. Steinberg. I showed her the card I had kept all these years and told her how I treasured it as a young fan of Marvel comics. She seemed pleased to hear how much her gesture meant to me. And I was thrilled to be able to thank her in person. This page: Flo Steinberg, Marvel’s legendary “Gal Friday,” displays a note she wrote replying to Kendall Whitehouse (who took these pix at the 2014 New York Comic Con).

coming attractions: cbc #18 in late summer

Steve Rude: Nexus of the Creative Mind

The next 100-page issue of CBC headlines with an extensive career-spanning interview with STEVE “THE DUDE” RUDE, who shares not only memories of his work as co-creator of Nexus and assignments for both DC and Marvel, but the great comics creator also ruminates on what it means to be an artist and the very nature of creativity. We also check in with “cubismo” comix artist and “life of the party” MARY FLEENER to discuss her work in alternative comics and her upcoming and highly anticipated graphic novel Billie the Bee. Plus, Gary Buckingham has a chat with the legendary comics creator NEAL ADAMS specifically about his work featuring jungle action heroes, a feature profusely illustrated with breathtaking Adams artwork. We also continue our (delayed) second portion of Michael Aushenker’s multi-part interview with late artist RICH BUCKLER about his early Marvel years and the comics business in the 1970s. In addition, we include a long and fascinating talk, conducted at his Montauk, Long Island home, with late Golden Age artist and renowned Treasure Chest contributor FRANK BORTH about his long history in comics, friendship with Reed Crandall, and life as a freelancer. We also feature our regular features by RICH ARNDT and HEMBECK, as well as the debut of CBC’s new “10 Questions” feature by DARRICK PATRICK! Full-color, 100 pages, $9.95 COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Spring 2018 • #17

from the archives of Tom Ziuko

a picture is worth a thousand words

Now here’s something you don’t see every day — a Steve Ditko Superman drawing! My original color guide for the pin-up page from Superman #400 (1984). — TZ

#17 • Spring 2018 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

ALTER EGO #153

ALTER EGO #154

ALTER EGO #155

ALTER EGO #156

BACK ISSUE #61: LONGBOX EDITION

Remembering Fabulous FLO STEINBERG, Stan Lee’s gal Friday during the Marvel Age of Comics—with anecdotes and essays by pros and friends who knew and loved her! Rare Marvel art, Flo’s successor ROBIN GREEN interviewed by RICHARD ARNDT about her time at Marvel, and Robin’s 1971 article on Marvel for ROLLING STONE magazine! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

ALLEN BELLMAN (1940s Timely artist) interviewed by DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, with art by SHORES, BURGOS, BRODSKY, SEKOWSKY, EVERETT, & JAFFEE. Plus Marvel’s ’70s heroines: LINDA FITE & PATY COCKRUM on The Cat, CAROLE SEULING on Shanna the She-Devil, & ROY THOMAS on Night Nurse—with art by SEVERIN, FRADON, ANDRU, and more! With FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Golden Age artist/writer/editor NORMAN MAURER remembered by his wife JOAN, recalling BIRO’s Crime Does Not Pay, Boy Comics, Daredevil, St. John’s 3-D & THREE STOOGES comics with KUBERT, his THREE STOOGES movie (MOE was his father-inlaw!), and work for Marvel, DC, and others! Plus LARRY IVIE’s 1959 plans for a JUSTICE SOCIETY revival, JOHN BROOME, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY and more!

All Time Classic Con continued from #148! Panels on Golden Age (CUIDERA, HASEN, SCHWARTZ [LEW & ALVIN], BOLTINOFF, LAMPERT, GILL, FLESSEL) & Silver Age Marvel, DC, & Gold Key (SEVERIN, SINNOTT, AYERS, DRAKE, ANDERSON, FRADON, SIMONSON, GREEN, BOLLE, THOMAS), plus JOHN BROOME, FCA, MR. MONSTER, & BILL SCHELLY! Unused RON WILSON/CHRIS IVY cover!

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STANDARD-SIZE REPRINT OF SOLD-OUT #61! Covers every all-new ’70s tabloid, with checklist of reprint treasuries. Superman vs. Spider-Man, The Bible, Cap’s Bicentennial Battles, Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest SuperHeroes editions! With ADAMS, GARCIALOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. ALEX ROSS cover!

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BACK ISSUE #104

BACK ISSUE #105

BACK ISSUE #106

BACK ISSUE #107

BACK ISSUE #108

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY! Return(s) of the New Gods, Why Can’t Mister Miracle Escape Cancellation?, the Forever People, MIKE MIGNOLA’s unrealized New Gods animated movie, Fourth World in Hollywood, and an all-star lineup, including the work of JOHN BYRNE, PARIS CULLINS, J. M. DeMATTEIS, MARK EVANIER, MICHAEL GOLDEN, RICK HOBERG, WALTER SIMONSON, and more. STEVE RUDE cover!

DEADLY HANDS ISSUE! Histories of Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu, Yang, the Bronze Tiger, Hands of the Dragon, NEAL ADAMS’ Armor, Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu mag, & Hong Kong Phooey! Plus Muhammad Ali in toons and toys. Featuring JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, STEVE ENGLEHART, PAUL GULACY, LARRY HAMA, DOUG MOENCH, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, & others. Classic EARL NOREM cover!

GOLDEN AGE IN BRONZE! ’70s Justice Society revival with two Pro2Pro interviews: All-Star Squadron’s ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and ARVELL JONES (with a bonus RICK HOBERG interview), and The Spectre’s JOHN OSTRANDER and TOM MANDRAKE. Plus: Liberty Legion, Air Wave, Jonni Thunder, Crimson Avenger, and the Spectre revival of ’87! WOOD, COLAN, CONWAY, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, & more!

ARCHIE COMICS IN THE BRONZE AGE! STAN GOLDBERG and GEORGE GLADIR interviews, Archie knock-offs, Archie on TV, histories of Sabrina, That Wilkin Boy, Cheryl Blossom, and Red Circle Comics. With JACK ABEL, JON D’AGOSTINO, DAN DeCARLO, FRANK DOYLE, GRAY MORROW, DAN PARENT, HENRY SCARPELLI, ALEX SEGURA, LOU SCHEIMER, ALEX TOTH, and more! DAN DeCARLO cover.

BRONZE AGE AQUAMAN! Team-ups and merchandise, post-Crisis Aquaman, Aqualad: From Titan to Tempest, Black Manta history, DAVID and MAROTO’s Atlantis Chronicles, the original unseen Aquaman #57, and the unproduced Aquaman animated movie. With APARO, CALAFIORE, MARTIN EGELAND, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CRAIG HAMILTON, JURGENS, SWAN, and more. ERIC SHANOWER cover!

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

KIRBY COLLECTOR #74

BRICKJOURNAL #53

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #18

DRAW #35

FUTUREPAST! Kirby’s “World That Was” from Caveman days to the Wild West, and his “World That’s Here” of Jack’s visions of the future that became reality! TWO COVERS: Bullseye inked by BILL WRAY, and Jack’s unseen Tiger 21 concept art! Plus: interview with ROY THOMAS about Jack, rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER moderating the biggest Kirby Tribute Panel of all time, pencil art galleries, and more!

VIDEO GAME ISSUE! Get ready as LEGO designers TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

Career-spanning discussion with STEVE “THE DUDE” RUDE, as he shares his reallife psychological struggles, the challenges of freelance subsistence, and his creative aspirations. Also: The jungle art of NEAL ADAMS, MARY FLEENER on her forthcoming graphic novel Billie the Bee and her comix career, RICH BUCKLER interview Part Three, Golden Age artist FRANK BORTH, HEMBECK and more!

Fantasy/sci-fi illustrator DONATO GIANCOLA (Game of Thrones) demos his artistic process, GEORGE PRATT (Enemy Ace: War Idyll, Batman: Harvest Breed) discusses his work as comic book artist, illustrator, fine artist, and teacher, Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS, JERRY ORDWAY’S regular column, and MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp.” Mature Readers Only.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With!

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orrows Inc.

Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? Those were the happy days of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties—our childhood—and that is the era of TwoMorrows’ newest magazine, covering

#2: Horror-hosts (ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and a new ELVIRA interview), GROOVIE GOOLIES, long-buried DINOSAUR LAND amusement park, BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES history, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, and more! SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2018! Sea-Monkeys® — then & now Winter 2018 No. 3 $8.95

NEW! He Made Us Believe A Man Can Fly! EXCLUSIVE Interview with

Visit Metropolis...

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 • FIRST ISSUE SHIPS JUNE 2018!

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Four issues: $38 Economy, $63 International, $16 Digital Only

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

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Aquaman in Animation

Pillsbury’s Funny Face Collectibles

and Seventies! ic Fanzines of the Sixties Fanboys’ Fantast the Oddball World of Scott Shaw! • Andy Mangels • Ernest Farino • and Featuring Martin Pasko

#3: SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE Director RICHARD DONNER interview, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of AQUAMAN, ’60s and ’70s horror/sci-fi zines, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL’s Superman Celebration, SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages & collectibles, a fortress of Superman and Batman memorabilia, and more! SHIPS DECEMBER 2018! Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

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RETROFAN #1 cover-features an all-new interview with TV’s Incredible Hulk, LOU FERRIGNO, and introduces a quartet of columns by our regular celebrity columnists: MARTIN PASKO’s Pesky Perspective (this issue: The Phantom in Hollywood), ANDY MANGELS’ Retro Saturday Mornings (Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon), ERNEST FARINO’s Retro Fantasmagoria (How I Met the Wolf Man—Lon Chaney, Jr.), and The Oddball World of SCOTT SHAW (the goofy comic book Zody the Mod Rob). Also: Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy; RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC, the real-life Mayberry; an interview with BETTY LYNN, “Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show; the scarcity of Andy Griffith Show collectibles; a trip inside TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles; RetroFan’s Too Much TV Quiz; and a RetroFad shout-out to Mr. Microphone. Edited by Back Issue magazine’s MICHAEL EURY!

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