Don Heck: A Work Of Art by TwoMorrows Publishing

A Work Of Art by John Coates

Foreword by STAN LEE

•

Afterword by BEAU SMITH

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

However, this is COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, which is NOT INTENDED FOR FREE DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE. If you paid the modest fee we charge to download it at our website, you have our sincere thanks. Your support allows us to keep producing magazines like this one. If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. Our website is the only source to legitimately download any TwoMorrows publications. If you found this at another site, it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, and your download is illegal as well. If that’s the case, here’s what I hope you’ll do: GO AHEAD AND READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK. If you enjoy it enough to keep it, please DO THE RIGHT THING and go to our site and purchase a legal download of this issue, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop. Otherwise, please delete it from your computer, since it hasn’t been paid for. And please DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, support our company by paying for the material we produce. We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this hard work. All of our editors and authors, and comic shop owners, rely on income from this publication to continue producing more like it. Every sale we lose to an illegal download hurts, and jeopardizes our future. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so helps ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download. And please don’t post this copyrighted material anywhere, or share it with anyone else. Remember: TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com TM

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

A Work Of Art by John Coates

A Work Of Art Eric Nolen-Weathington & John Morrow Editors

John Coates Author Mark McNabb

Rob Smentek

John Morrow

Cover & Interior Designer

Proofreader

Publisher

About the title page image: Don Heck’s art table was purchased early in 2014 by longtime comic collector and historian Roger Hill, who seized the opportunity to save the table and other historical records from being sold off as junk or sent to the local landfill. Don had purchased this table around 1951 at the time he entered the field as a professional freelance artist, and over the years had used it for hundreds of comics illustration jobs for Charlton, Comic Media, DC, Dell, Gold Key, Marvel, and others. His co-creation of Iron Man (with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) took place on this table in September of 1962 for the comic that was published by Marvel, cover-dated March 1963. This art table is being donated to Columbia University to become a permanent part of the Comics Archives/Department under the care of curator Karen Green. Photo by Chris Boyko. Special thanks to Will Murray, Richard Howell, Lou Mougin, Pat C. Calhoun, John Peel, Jim Amash, Jim Fern, Joe Giella, Jim Salicrup, Stan Lee, Beau Smith, and Don’s nephew, Keith Dettwiler. Thanks to Roy Thomas, Michael Eury, and John Morrow. For those who contributed image scans—whether used or not: Alan Pinion, Brian Rickard, Chris Oliveria, David Currie, Michaël & Heidi Dewally, Dewey Cassell, Dietmar Krueger, Douglas Gillock, Drake Tungsten, Dwayne Dush, Ed Rhoades, Fabrizio Fante, Glen Brunswick, Greg McKee, Heidjer Staecker, James Steffes, Jatinder Ghataora, Jay Litzenberg, Jeff Sharpe, Jon Berk, Jon Hess, Kelly Borkert, Kevin Sollenberger, Lance Bivins, Lloyd White, Matt Moore, Michael Baulderstone, Michael Dunne, Miki Annamanthadoo, Nick Katradis, Paul Bauer, Paul Handler, Ray Cuthbert, Ralph Simmons, Romain Verlier, Mike Burkey, Ron Sonenthal, Sean Lackey, Shawn Fritschy, Rick Shurgin, Thomas Console, Kelly Borkert, Anh “Titans Tower” Trinh, Tom Horvitz, Will Gabri-El, Glenn Hauman, Ceri Levy, Michael Vassallo, Bruce Schwartz, Clifford Meth, C. and P. Phang, and Steve Robertson. For those industry writers and artists who contributed: Flo Steinberg, Dan Adkins, Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod, Danny Bulanadi, Dick Ayers, Steve Ditko, Don Perlin, Joe Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Larry Lieber, Marie Severin, Rich Buckler, Rick Magyar, Sal Buscema, Stan Goldberg, Herb Trimpe, Bob Rozakis, Gerry Conway, Jenette Kahn, Len Wein, Mike Gold, Robert Greenberger, Steve Englehart, Tom Brevoort, Tom DeFalco, Tony Isabella, and Mark Evanier. NOTE: Portions of the profits from this book go to the Hero Initiative, a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501(c)(3). The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterday’s creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment. To donate or learn more, please go to http://www.heroinitiative.org/ Angel, Ant-Man, Avengers, Baron Zemo, Beast, Black Goliath, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blob, Blue Diamond, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Captain Savage, Champions, Cleopatra, Crimson Dynamo, Cyclops, Daredevil, Dormammu, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Dracula, Dum-Dum Dugan, Fantastic Four, Gargantus, Ghost Rider, Giant-Man, Gunsmoke Western, Happy Hogan, Hawkeye, Hercules, Hulk, Human Torch, Hydra, Iceman, Intelligence Supreme, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Jack Frost, Jasper Sitwell, Journey Into Mystery, Juggernaut, Ka-Zar, Kala, Kang, Kid Colt Outlaw, Kraven, Liberty Legion, Living Eraser, Magneto, Maha Yogi, Mandarin, Mantis, Marvel Girl, Melter, Metazoid, Miss America, Mole Man, Morbius, Mr. Doll, Mr. Fantastic, My Love, Nick Fury, Patriot, Pepper Potts, Peter Parker, Porcupine, Professor Xavier, Punisher, Quicksilver, Ramrod, Red Raven, Red Skull, Rick Jones, Scarecrow, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Stan's Soapbox, Strange Tales, Sub-Human, Sub-Mariner, Swordsman, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Thin Man, Thing, Thor, Tony Stark, Torpedo Taylor, Two-Gun Kid, Unicorn, Val-Larr, Valkyrie, Vanisher, Vision, Voices of Marvel, Vulture, Wasp, Whizzer, Wolverine, Wonder Man, X-Men, Yellowjacket TM & ©Marvel Characters, Inc. • Adam Strange, All-Star Squadron, Aquaman, Atom, Batgirl, Batman, Beast Boy, Black Canary, Black Lightning, Blackhawks, Blue Beetle, Bumblebee, Cyborg, Dove, Dr. Fate, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Flash, Geo-Force, Ghosts, Gnaark, Golden Eagle, Gorilla Grodd, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Guardian, Harlequin, Hawk, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Huntress, Jimmy Olsen, Justice League of America, Katana, Lilith, Mal, Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Outsiders, Pied Piper, Professor Zoom, Raven, Red Tornado, Robin, Rose and the Thorn, Royal Flush Gang, Secrets of Haunted House, Speedy, Spiral Zone, Star Spangled War Stories, Starman, Steel, Supergirl, Superman, Teen Titans, Witching Hour, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Wonder Woman, Young Love, Zatanna TM & ©DC Comics. • The Phantom TM & ©King Features Syndicate, Inc. • Mr. Fix-It TM & ©Heroic Publishing. • “Roulette” © Richard Howell. • Captain Glory, Bombast, Night Glider, Secret City Saga TM & ©Jack Kirby Estate. • All True Romance, Danger, Death Valley, Dynamite, Horrific, War Fury, Weird Terror, © Comic Media. • Captain Gallant © US Pictorial. • Sick Magazine, The Bob Cummings Show TM & ©the respective holder. All interviews and other existing text materials used in the production of this book are © the original holders, and are used here for historical purposes.

Copyrights:

TwoMorrows Publishing www.twomorrows.com

10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 919-449-0344 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

© 2014 TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical. Photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-058-8

•

First American Edition, August 2014

•

Printed in the USA

•

Digital Edition available at www.twomorrows.com

CONTENTS

4 - Introduction by John Coates

6 - Foreword by Stan Lee

9 - Chapter One Formative Years

13 - Chapter Two 1949–1954: Early Days in Comics

21 - Chapter Three 1954–1960s: Atlas Comics and the Marvel Age of Comics

65 - Chapter Four Late 1960s–1977: Marvel Comics, Gold Key, and DC Comics

77 - Chapter Five 1970s: Final Days at Marvel—Leaving for DC

87 - Chapter Six 1977–1988: DC Comics

109 - Chapter Seven 1989–1994: Back Home to Marvel, and the Indies

115 - Chapter Eight Don Heck Gallery

127 - Chapter Nine Process, Technique, and Style

139 - Chapter Ten Inking with Don

161 - Chapter Eleven Marvel Merchandise

167 - Chapter Twelve By the Numbers

171 - Chapter Thirteen Jim Fern Remembers His Friend Don

177 - Chapter Fourteen Remembrances

189 - Afterword by Beau Smith

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION Don was working on. In developing this book, I felt a keen sense of The bulk of the interviews with Don contained in responsibility. Don Heck has always been a personal the book are a combination of two—the first being favorite, but is best known as an iconic comic book an extensive, until-now-unpublished interview from artist who was present and heavily involved with— June 9, 1990, conducted by Will Murray and origifrom the pre-conception through birth, and beyond— nally transcribed by Brian K. Morris; and the second what became one of the most important developments being Richard Howell’s interview with Don originally in American comics history, the Marvel Age of published in Comics Feature #21, 1982. Further, I augComics. Not to be neglected, Don also had a very mented these two interviews with segments from long and successful career at DC Comics from the three other shorter interviews, as they contained inmid-1970s through to the late 1980s, totaling over formation or elaborations from Don not found in the forty years in the industry. two previously mentioned interviews. Though Don did some interviews, it was challenging In organizing the book, I combined the interviews to publish a biography of a person who couldn’t provide and sources into a more chronological order-flow to additional insight, clarifications, or hindsight; had no form a single cohesive interview from its collective immediate family; worked alone in his home studio parts. My intent most of his career; was to ensure that and lead a fairly when Don spoke quiet life by his on a specific topic own admission. (e.g., his early days Regardless, at Marvel Comics), given his place in his comments the pantheon of from diverse American comics, sources were cola book treatment lected together for of his career was easier communicalong overdue. tion of the topic I began my being addressed. research by looking Above: Regarding the to the obvious: The Avengers #37, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1967. art showcased, the Don’s published majority of the images contained in this book repreinterviews, few that they were. Secondly, I contacted sent Don both penciling and inking his work. Don Don’s contemporaries for reflections on Don, and also vocalized that he felt his art was not complete unless reviewed any of their previously published interviews he both penciled and inked. In highlighting Don’s to glean any previous reflections on Don that may “complete” art, readers can see Don’s art as he envihave been forgotten. Thirdly, I researched published sioned it, and any uncredited are is “pure” Don. interviews of Don’s contemporaries who are no longer Nevertheless, there is an entire chapter dedicated with us, hoping that they might have provided some to other professionals inking Don’s work, and he theirs. insight. And finally, I researched published resources In that chapter, I intentionally show examples of the from over the last 40 years that contained firsthand drawn faces, as I think this area typically is the most accounts of working with Don: the various fanzines, distinctive when one artist’s pencils are inked by along with reviewing both Marvel Comics and DC another artist. The intent is to showcase Don’s work Comics in-house articles/columns, such as Marvel’s when combined with another professional’s unique style. “Stan Lee’s Soapbox,” “Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins,” In reading this book, you’ll discover that Don was FOOM, and Marvel Age, and DC’s “Daily Planet” and born in a small, ethnic neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. “Meanwhile” columns and DC Direct Currents inon January 2, 1929. His parents—themselves firsthouse fanzine, as well as letters pages in the books generation Americans born of German immigrants— 4

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

were both loving and supportive of Don and his sister, Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates daily newspaper strip. Joan. Don married twice but had no children. In the late 1970s, Don would migrate over to DC Don was in the National Guard prior to joining Comics to begin an eleven-year relationship that Harvey Comics in 1949. In early 1952, he joined included being the regular monthly artist on such Comic Media and became their main artist across titles as Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Flash, and Justice their crime-noir, Western, and horror comics. He League of America, as well as contributing to DC’s found his way to then-Atlas Comics in 1954, where anthology titles Adventure Comics and World’s Finest he became one of their main artists along with Jack Comics, and as earlier with Marvel Comics, numerous “King” Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, other titles across genres. Also, while at DC Comics Joe Sinnott, and Dick Ayers. In 1957, he felt the in the 1970s, he co-created the Steel: The Indestrucsting of Atlas Comics having to cut back on the need tible Man character with Gerry Conway. for new artwork, only to be one of the first artists What I personally discovered was that Don was a called back by Stan Lee once humble man with tremeneconomic factors for the dous talent, who lived small publisher improved. to draw; was admired, The rest, as they say, is respected, and well-liked history. by his peers; was generous Don became an integral with fans; had a sharp sense part of the birth of what is of humor; was a likeable known as “The Marvel but “tell it like it is” kind of Age.” During that period, he guy; liked to tinker with worked on the “Ant-Man” electronics around the strip, co-created Iron Man, house; considered photogco-created two of Iron Man’s raphy a hobby; and was an main villains—The Manavid sports fan. darin and the Titanium The end result of this Man—and co-created book—I hope—has been Hawkeye and Black Widow. to collect together a whole He also maintained a long from the sum of the parts, stint on Marvel Comics’ giving the reader a compremain non-family team book, hensive portrait of Don The Avengers, where he coHeck the artist, peer, created Wonder Man and friend, and person. guided the “de-powered” Most importantly, I Avengers era, including hope, with this book, I’ve some of the best-loved been able to give Don the Avengers stories. recognition and respect he Don would go on to work deserves and earned, and Above: on such Marvel Comics titles that I’ve given his fans addiSICK Magazine #109, page 39, splash, as The X-Men; Amazing tional confirmation of what Charlton Comics, April 1976. Spider-Man; Nick Fury, Agent they’re already well aware. of SHIELD; Daredevil; The Defenders; Ghost Rider; And I hope that possibly, just maybe, this book will and in fact most of the Marvel line of comics across create a few new fans that either previously overgenres, along with co-creating the quirky 1970s looked his work, or as yet haven’t been exposed to it. super-team The Champions. From 1966–1971, Don Enjoy, would alternate as the main artist on Lee Falk’s The Phantom daily newspaper strip as well as freelance for John Coates Dell Comics and Gold Key (a.k.a. Western Publishing). September 10, 2013 He also did a short stint as ghost artist on Milton INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD Don Heck was always a joy to work with. He was the ultimate professional. No matter what he was asked to draw, no matter how tight the deadline might have been, his every illustration was perfectly composed, beautifully illustrated, and always delivered on time. There was a certain sophistication to his artwork. His characters looked like real people existing in the real world. He could draw the most glamorous of females, and his interpretation of heroes like Tony Stark was always right on target. I was tremendously lucky to have worked with the greatest talents in comicdom— and Don ’s name belongs right up there with the best of them.

Stan Lee Sept. 12, 2012

Opposite: Marvel Age #119, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1992. The issue highlighted Iron Man’s then-30th anniversary, with Stan Lee’s “Soapbox” column remembering the character. Left: Tales of Suspense #57, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1964.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

FOREWORD by STAN LEE

1930 T

U.S. CENSUS

chapter

FORMATIVE YEARS

n January 2, 1929, Don Heck was born to proud parents John and Bertha Heck. Don was born during the final hurrah of America’s “Roaring ’20s,” just ten short months before the start of the Great Depression. Don’s family made its home in the neighborhood of Jamaica, in Queens, N.Y., a working-class neighborhood of German and Italian immigrants. Jamaica lies just north of John F. Kennedy International Airport. It’s bordered by Grand Central Parkway to the north, Van Wyck Expressway (a.k.a. Highway 678) to the west, Francis Lewis Boulevard to the east, and Baisley Pond Park and St. Albans to the south/southeast. Keith Dettwiler, Don’s nephew, elaborated on Don’s parents: “John and Bertha were both born in the United States. Their parents had immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s; ‘Heck’ being a German surname. My mother, Joan, was Don’s only sibling. “My grandparents [Ed.: Don’s parents, John and Bertha] were hard working and supportive. John

worked in Queens, N.Y., for the company Neptune Water Company until his death in 1959. After his death, Bertha went to work for the ANS department store at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. She worked there until her death in 1965.” Regarding Don’s early childhood, Keith said it was a happy one. “My mother and Don talked about their childhood fondly. The neighborhood they lived in was one big happy family. You know, people sitting on their porches, or walking the streets. You knew your neighbors and they knew you. “Don was like a second father to me. I grew up in Illinois until I was around twelve or so, when my mother and I moved to Queens, N.Y. It was funny because I liked comics and could always pick out my uncle’s work. “From a personality [standpoint], Don was always a very humble guy and would only say something if it was a necessity. Now, if you asked for his opinion… he’d give it! [laughs] Very matter of fact. He also had a great sense of humor, always in a good mood. From a work standpoint, he was a workaholic, no question. He loved to draw. He even had three studios set up in his home: his basement for painting and photography, a patio, and a small back room on the main floor. I think Don would have been happy just being alone and drawing or working on his hobbies. He really loved both.”

Opposite: 1930 U.S. Census, lines #18-20. Above Inset: Queens, N.Y. Map, 1930. Right: New York City, 1930.

WILL MURRAY: Did you serve during World War Two? DON HECK: No, I didn’t.

Daily Planet Feature Page: DC Profile #73 During the 1970s and early 1980s, DC Comics would devote an interior comic book page, sometimes the inside back cover or back cover of the comic itself, to a segment titled “Daily Planet.” This column was a full-page in-house advertisement presented in the form of a newspaper that announced company news, presented upcoming issue blurbs, and sometimes included mini-bios of their creators under the heading of “DC Profiles.” In Don’s profile, it points out that his first drawing was of Disney’s Donald Duck. The article describes, “His duck sketches convinced his parents that art just might make a career. So, of course, they enrolled him in the nearest drafting school! Don was happy until, at the tender age of fourteen, he sent away for a correspondence course in cartooning and soon discovered that drafting was not the “art” career he had long dreamed of. Four years at the Woodrow Wilson Vocational High School in Jamaica, and a couple more at Brooklyn’s community college, and Don was ready to hit the pavements, portfolio in hand…”. “Daily Planet Feature Page: DC Profile #73,” Superman Family #206, DC Comics, July 1981, inside back cover. Profile by Michael C. Carmichael.

MURRAY: You managed to squeak by? You were young enough not to—? HECK: Yeah. I would have wound up in Korea, but somebody talked me into going into the National Guard. And the guy who talked me into it, we walked up to the National Guard in Jamaica, Queens, and there were two sergeants sitting on the thing, and both of them were trying to talk us into going into his outfit. One was a Signal Corp and the other one was Transportation. So this other friend of mine said he wanted to go into Signal, so I went with him. And thank God I did because Transportation went over to Korea. So it was a 50/50 shot. [laughs] MURRAY: You lucked out. HECK: Yeah, I wouldn’t have even thought about going into the National Guard, except for the fact

Above: Mid-1930s view of Queens, N.Y. Opposite Top: Forgotten Queens (Images of America), Dec. 2013, by Kevin Walsh and The Greater Astoria Historical Society. This image evokes the 1930s and 1940s neighborhood environment of Don’s youth. ©Arcadia Publishing. Opposite Middle: Woodrow Wilson Vocational School, now August Martin.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Jerry Robinson Golden Age Batman artist and co-creator of The Joker When asked about his days of teaching and his students at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School [a.k.a. School of Visual Arts], Jerry replied: “Yeah. Stan Goldberg, another student, is a great professional for Harvey and Archie Comics. Another is Mort Gerberg, a top New Yorker cartoonist. Also Don Heck. He did a lot of top comic book work.” — Jerry Robinson From an interview by “Mr. Silver Age” Craig Shutt.

that when I was going to school, they talked about it. Otherwise I might have wound up on Porkchop Hill, planted. [chuckles] MURRAY: Tell me about your art training. HECK: I had three years in high school, and two years afterward in what is now New York City Tech. I had always wanted to be a cartoonist, but I wanted to be a strip artist, like most people in those days. You wanted to be somebody like Milt Caniff. MURRAY: You have a very sophisticated newspaper strip style, even to this day. It would seem your style is still a lot crisper, and I guess “sophisticated” is the word that normally I would—. HECK: They call it “stylized” in some cases, even though it’s a dirty word and I don’t consider it that. [laughs] I was worried that you would look at a Saturday Evening Post cover that was done by Norman Rockwell and say, “Well, gee, anybody could have done that.”

Classmates at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School Vic Carrabotta was an artist in the Timely/Atlas bullpen in the early 1950s. Historian Jim Amash asked him about fellow students who attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School where Jerry Robinson was one of the teachers: JIM AMASH: There were a couple of students who went there about that time. I want to throw their names out and see if you remember them. One of them was Don Heck. VIC CARRABOTTA: No, I met Don, though, one time. He would come up to get scripts like I did. Alter Ego #58, TwoMorrows Publishing, May 2006, page 43. Interview conducted by Jim Amash.

CHAPTER ONE: FORMATIVE YEARS

Left to Right: Danger #11, splash, Comic Media, Aug. 1954. Horrific #5, cover, Comic Media, May 1953. All-True Romance #13, cover, Comic Media, Sept. 1953. War Fury #1, cover, Comic Media, Sept. 1952.

1949–1954

chapter

EARLY DAYS IN COMICS 2 MURRAY: Did you ever work in advertising? HECK: I did some when I first started out. I worked in advertising, not that I wanted to. I took Advertising Design and Layouts, I remember that. Up to the first nine months I worked [at an advertising firm], and then I said, “I don’t want this.” Somebody called me up on a Saturday and told me, “Harvey’s got a comic book out, and they’re looking for somebody.” MURRAY: Tell me when you got started in the business. HECK: I first worked for Harvey Publications back in December ’49, when I first started in comics. I stayed there for about 2½ years, and then I started to freelance.

Above: Captain Gallant, page 8 panels, US Pictorial, 1955. Right: Death Valley #6, cover, Charlton Comics, Aug. 1954.

Getting Started At Harvey Comics LOU MOUGIN: Who actually interviewed you [at Harvey]? DON HECK: Leon Harvey interviewed me. It was a Saturday afternoon. I said to the guy, “I have a date tonight, its five o’clock in the evening, are you kidding or what?” I said, “It’s going to take me an hour to get there.” I was in Queens and they were in New York City. He said, “We’ll wait,” so I went anyway.

and asked me, so I started to freelance for him. I even did the logos on the magazines—everything you could think of. [laughs] •••••••••• HOWELL: Did you start drawing for Harvey too? HECK: No, I didn’t. In fact, [Alan Hardy] was there in circulation or something like that, and he was leaving. About that time, [Pete Morisi], another friend of mine, was leaving too, and I thought, well, I was going to get all the garbage stuff to do, so I decided I’d better go out and try to freelance. I made some samples up, but they [Harvey] weren’t interested in my work—which was normal. I was only a beginner. Then I decided I’d call up three different outfits in one day. I decided to go out and try to see if I could sell anything.

David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 94. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

RICHARD HOWELL: What was Harvey publishing at the time? What sort of comics? HECK: Well, they used to put out Terry and the Pirates—they used to put out a lot of reprints. Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, that one that Alfred Andriola did, Kerry Drake…. They were also the ones that put out Boys’ Ranch by Jack Kirby [and Joe Simon].

HOWELL: I guess. So they were involved in quite a lot of different types of comics? HECK: Yeah, quite a bit. They had romance, they had Black Cat done by Lee Elias. They also had Joe Palooka, Little Max…. Now you’re really loggin’ ’em. ••••••••••

MURRAY: What were you doing at Harvey? HOWELL: I know it well. HECK: I was finishing off reprints HECK: Yeah, that was a beaut. I wish I would’a grabbed a bunch. I was and stuff like that, doing ad paste-up, white paint, the usual garbage, you right there in the office. [laughter] know. There was somebody who worked for Harvey named Alan HOWELL: Oh boy. Hardy who decided to start some HECK: But that’s life, y’know. If comics. He started Comic Media you could only go back…. back in 1952, and he called me up 14

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Above: Danger Comics #7, cover, Comic Media, Jan. 1954. Opposite: Death Valley #5, original art and printed comic, Comic Media, June 1954.

Comic Media LOU MOUGIN: In 1952, you started at [Comic Media]. DON HECK: March 21 to be exact. MOUGIN: Who else did you freelance for?

HECK: I worked for Toby, Quality, a few others. David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 94. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

CHAPTER TWO: 1949-1954 EARLY DAYS IN COMICS

Comic Media

Dynamite “I saw a comic book in 1953, it was called Dynamite and was published by a very small company. I remember it had one story by Don Heck, pencils and inks, and it was beautiful!” — Fred Hembeck Amazing Heroes #20, Fantagraphics, Feb. 1983, page 51. Interview conducted by Ward Batty and Ken Gale.

MURRAY: Do you happen to remember what the very first comic strip story you ever drew was? DON HECK: No. I remember something about six months later— a war thing called “Harrigan’s Hat.” [chuckles] [Ed.: War Fury #2, Nov. 1952, Comic Media] You know, that’s about the only thing I can remember. You’re talking 40 years ago, almost. I was doing everything I could think of, so it had to be

some sort of “weird” thing. It wasn’t HOWELL: Do you remember a feature. The first feature I did was what they were? HECK: The names of the stories, “Johnny Danger.” or something? •••••••••• HOWELL: Well, characters, or HOWELL: There were more pub- what types…. HECK: Well, no, it wasn’t that. It lishers in those days, I take it? HECK: There were about 20–25 in was just, like, mystery stuff or weird stuff. No major comic or anything. those days. I mean, you could just pick up your phone and take a shot. And so, the first day I walked out I got two jobs. I didn’t even go to the third guy. HOWELL: Why bother? HECK: Anyway, talk about lucky. One job was for Quality and the other, I think, was for Hillman.

Above Left: War Fury #2, Comic Media, Nov. 1952. Above Right: Dynamite #1, Comic Media, Nov. 1953. Left: Weird Terror #2, Comic Media, Nov. 1952. Right: Weird Terror #3, Comic Media, Jan. 1953.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Comic Media

Death Valley “That same year, however, Charlton also introduced the much superior, if largely ignored, Death Valley, which lasted for only nine issues into 1955. The main attraction was Old Scout, well handled by Don Heck...” Comics of The American West, by Maurice Horn, Winchester Press, 1977, page 94.

HOWELL: What publishing company was that? HECK: It was Comic Media. It was HOWELL: So you actually started somebody who wanted me to start a small outfit. It lasted about two drawing by doing the mystery stuff? working for him. I got very lucky. years. In fact, I met Ross Andru HECK: More or less, yeah, like the I have an old [work journal] weird type stuff. Then, I guess I did here, so I can look up what the hell there, when Ross was tied up with Mike Esposito, and their combination a couple of those, and then this fel- I did. [laughter] I did work for War publishing name was Mike/Ross. low I told you about who worked in Fury and Weird Terror, and what circulation at Harvey called me up else? Horrific, and stuff like that. HOWELL: And they were dealing because he was going to start a pub- Danger Comics. It was about these with Comic Media? lishing outfit. And so, I got by for different men who did all sorts of HECK: Yeah. They did a couple of the first two years freelancing. I had things, like working in steel mills and all sorts of things like that. And then we finally wound up with a main character—I think his name was Johnny Danger, if I’m not mistaken, who was like a private investigator, or something like that. I did a series of those stories.

Above Left: Death Valley #3, Comic Media, Feb. 1954. Above Right: Horrific #13, Comic Media, Sept. 1954. Left: Horrific #3, Comic Media, Jan. 1953. Right: Danger #1, Comic Media, Jan. 1953. CHAPTER TWO: 1949-1954 EARLY DAYS IN COMICS

jobs. In fact, they did some Western book they had put together. It could have been Death Valley. I think Ross did the cover on Death Valley #1.

Comic Media

Danger

•••••••••• MURRAY: Of the people you know in the business, who are people you like to associate with? HECK: The first outfit that I worked for: Comic Media. Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and I think Mike Roy at that time, they worked for them. In fact, [they were] around the corner from where [Comic Media] was and I had gone up to drop something off. And it’s the first time I had seen Ross Andru’s pencils, and to me, that was great because then I looked at this stuff and said, “Holy sh*t. Look how good that is.” You go home and you don’t feel bad. You want to improve, and I went home, all inspired to draw. [laughs]

GLEN JOHNSON: Didn’t you and Don Heck share a studio together for a short time? PETE MORISI: No, although I did do the pencils for some of his scripts when he was backed up. He was a nice, talented guy, but we never shared a studio. Comic Book Artist #9, TwoMorrows Publishing, Aug. 2000, page 68. Interview conducted by Glen Johnson.

•••••••••• HOWELL: You said that the outfit [Comic Media] only lasted a couple of years…. HECK: Well, everything took a nosedive back in about 1954. 1952 is when I started freelancing—I think it was about March—and it lasted until about 1954, which is when a lot of companies went downhill, took the slide.

Above: Danger #4, Comic Media, July 1953. Left: Captain Gallant #1, US Pictorial, 1955. Right: Horrific #7, Comic Media, Sept. 1953.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HOWELL: Is that because of the investigations which eventually resulted in the Comics Code? HECK: Yes, I guess it was. I think it was the Kefauver Committee, and they were jumping all over EC, and a lot of companies went under—because they weren’t selling. They just happened to jump on them at the perfect time, when [Comic Media was] going downhill anyway. HOWELL: It must have been a very unsettled time for somebody working in the industry….

HECK: Yes, ever so slightly, yeah. [laughter] That was about June 1954. I went to work for Toby Press for a couple of jobs. I did a “Captain Gallant,” and a couple of Westerns. I liked to do Westerns, and weird, and war, and all the stuff like that.

had gone up to Stan Lee looking for some work, and Stan was always pointing to other people’s work as examples. The particular book that he gave Morisi had some of my stuff in the front, and he was pointing to that all the time and saying, “This is what you should be doing.” HOWELL: You seem to have hung So Pete said, “Listen, if you want on during the attrition. Don Heck, I’ll have him come up HECK: I did, surprisingly enough. here.” [laughter] He called me up, I got a couple of jobs from Toby, and and I ran up there to see if I could then my friend from Harvey, Pete get some work, and that’s when I Morisi—we were pretty good friends started to work for Marvel, which at the time, but you’re talking some- at the time was Magazine Managething like 28 years ago. Anyway, he ment. It was September 1, 1954.

The Kefauver Committee LOU MOUGIN: Of course the Wertham thing and the Senate investigations put a lot of companies out of business around 1955. In the industry, as it was back then, was there a lot of paranoia about what Wertham was doing, that you might lose your jobs? DON HECK: The outfit I was working for at the time was Comic Media. Around 1954 they went out of business. There were other things happening at the time. A lot of companies were going into the 3-D comics and things like that. They eventually lost a lot of money. In those days, they had to have a very high percentage of sales in order to break even. Generally in the 60% range to break even, even though they weren’t paying all that great—but somebody was getting the money. You know, I don’t know who. I don’t know what the deal was back in those days. MOUGIN: You feel the 3-D craze put a lot of them under? HECK: I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because so many things were happening at the same time. As you say, they were blaming juvenile delinquency on comics, that sort of thing. Things haven’t changed much in 40 years. Now somebody else is doing it and blaming TV. MOUGIN: What were the working conditions like then, back in the ’50s? HECK: Nothing spectacular. You went in, picked up your job, and then you went home and worked on it. I did a job for Quality, and the guy gave me the job and asked me what other stuff I had worked on. I told him, “This was my first job.” I looked at him and said, “Hello!” He gave me a decent price to do the work. [laughter] I didn’t hear from him for about a year, and he wanted me to work on Blackhawk. He called me, and I said I was going to take a chance because, after all, it was a whole year before I got the second job. You can’t blame them; I was just a beginner. David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 94. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

CHAPTER TWO: 1949-1954 EARLY DAYS IN COMICS

ATLAS COMICS AND THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

chapter

1954–1960s

[Earlier Don had mentioned to Richard Howell that he was hired by Stan Lee at Magazine Management, a.k.a. Atlas Comics, on September 1, 1954.] HOWELL: You’ve got a good memory for these dates. HECK: Only because I’ve got the book in front of me. I would have known it was September 1954, but I wouldn’t have known it was September 1st. HOWELL: And what were you working on for Marvel at that point? HECK: “Werewolf Beware.” [laughter] Opposite Top: Rugged Action #3, Atlas Comics, April 1955. Opposite Bottom: Mystery Tales #25, Atlas Comics, Jan. 1955. Don’s first known published work for Atlas. Right: Navy Combat #6, splash, Atlas Comics, April 1956, featuring “Torpedo Taylor.”

HOWELL: Oh boy! HECK: Yes. “The Red Pirate.” I remember that one, that was one of those… [laughter] you know, [it] had the whale crashing into one of those whaling boats, [laughter] you know, the ones they throw the harpoons from? Not the big ship, but the small jobs. And there were Westerns, and then it says here that December was the first time I did a Navy Combat. That’s when I got involved with… HOWELL: War comics? HECK: Yeah. Well, I did a character in there called Torpedo Taylor, who was—obviously—a submarine type. •••••••••• HECK: [Torpedo Taylor] had bright red hair, and [later I gave him] a beard. Stan Lee got one of the

Atlas Comics “By 1955 it looked like Atlas might be nearing the end of the line. Oddly enough, it was a group of recent arrivals at Atlas who eventually turned things around. Artist Don Heck had arrived in 1954 and was soon enhancing war books with his vigorous work on characters like ‘Torpedo’ Taylor.” Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels, Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1991, page 80.

guys who was in the Navy—I can’t think of his name, but he used to draw a lot of this stuff too. He was a speed demon up there. But [Stan] asked him if a commander could have a beard, because he hadn’t heard about it. And [the guy] said, “When they’re out like that, they couldn’t have anything.” What was his name? He died in 1956….

a certain line-up. [It was] always Kirby in front with Heck second, Reinman maybe third, and always Ditko in the back, although occasionally you’d be in the back. HECK: Yeah. MURRAY: Occasionally, you’d take the place of the Ditko story. I just thought that was just the way because the Ditko thing was always like a Twilight Zone kind of story. HECK: Yeah, I had no idea why. MURRAY: When you would do those five-page fantasies, did [Lee] always slot them in advance for the magazine, or did he do a whole bunch of them and then throw them in the pot and just put them in whatever issue he wanted to? HECK: No, I’d just get, let’s see— one week, I’d get a script in the mail.

MURRAY: Was Stan a tough guy to work for or an easy guy to work for? HECK: Easy. I never had any problem with him. The only time I had any problem with him was [one time] I’d worked all night, dead tired, and I never did it, page one to 13. I never did it so that the last thing I did was on page 13. I happened to have a couple of panels and I just whipped them out there. I think one was on page 7 and [the other on] some other page, and he spotted those two. Meanwhile, I’d

MURRAY: Yeah, and you didn’t know which issue of what it would go into. HECK: I had no idea where it was going. There were no Bullpen [Bulletins] that we read. [laughs] MURRAY: Joe Maneely. HECK: Maneely, yeah. Stan called Joe in, and Joe said, “Aw, it looks great. Leave it.” [laughs] Like I said, Joe was great as far as drawing, and he was so fast, it was unbelievable. •••••••••• HOWELL: We must be into the middle 1950s by this time. HECK: Yeah, about 1955. •••••••••• MURRAY: Because in the fantasy books, Lee basically got it down to 22

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s amazing how he was able to create… HECK: That illusion. [laughs] MURRAY: Well, he was a great salesman and he’s a great writer too. He brought an emotional dimension to comics that certainly has transformed the industry. HECK: That is great. Like I say, I would put this whole thing together with all the pictures and stuff like that, and send it in, and when I’d get it back and read it, I’d say, “Gee, that works fine. It works great.”

gone in there, and he gave me a job where he had Dick Ayers knock it out overnight, and so I had to repair that. So there I am, repairing this, and Stan’s already complaining about these two panels that are turkeys. I think they were little panels, nothing, and I Left: Battlefront #29, splash, Atlas Comics, March 1955. Above: Love Tales #62, cover, splash, Atlas Comics, June 1955.

got pissed. [laughs] I said, “Why the hell are you bitching—here you are, having me repair six pages of this, and you’re bitching on two stinking, little panels. The rest of it’s all right and you’re complaining about two.” So he turned around and walked out. [chuckles]

to walk in the door, even if you didn’t sleep all night, it didn’t make any difference. “How about doing this?” [Ed.: Re: dropping art off at Stan Lee’s house] The funny part is that where he lived, he would be outside, working. [If] it was summer time, he’d be out there in his MURRAY: When you say “repairing bathing trunks, typing away. And a Dick Ayers page,” you mentioned at one time, I went over there and I before that you’d have to do that just gave him a story, and chewing sometimes. When you say “repair,” the fat as he did, he stuck the story you mean just, like, fix up? next to him and the wind came along. Man, I reached for this stuff, and he says, “What’s the matter?” I say, “I just spent all this time fixing this stuff. I’m not going to have it blown all over the bloody north. After I leave, you can do whatever the hell you want with it.” [laughs]

HECK: No, fix up stuff. In other words, white out or fix up something because of the fact it was knocked out. [Stan] said, “Oh, Dick, I’ve got to have these six pages tomorrow.” Then he gets the six pages in, he looks at them, and he’s, “Well, this isn’t what I really want.” [chuckles] So if you happen Above: Police Badge 479 #5, Atlas Comics, Sept. 1955. Right: The Kid from Dodge City #1, splash, Atlas Comics, July 1957.

MURRAY: They say he does a lot of his writing at the pool now out in California. HECK: Yeah, well, I assume he [does] because he used to do the same thing in… Hewlett Harbor is where he lived, and at that time, he had a pool built in. It was an above-ground pool, but it was built down into the dirt and he had a wooden thing all around it so it had the illusion of being an inground pool. And like I say, he’d be out there and starting in typing away and stuff like that. It worked out good. MURRAY: Yeah, it did. Did you ever have much to do with Martin Goodman? HECK: No, I never met him even. MURRAY: He was sort of a pulp publisher until comics came along and made his fortune in comics. He did the worst line of pulps. HECK: Did he? I had no idea. I didn’t even know the man.

MURRAY: Terrible third-rate pulps. [Don laughs] In fact, his early comics were pretty sensational. They didn’t get really respectable until the ’50s and ’60s, I guess. HECK: The pulp book that I used to like, I went for the illustration, was The Blue Book. MURRAY: Oh, Blue Book. Yeah, Herbert Morton Stoops and guys like that? HECK: Yeah, great stuff.

MURRAY: I’m a big pulp fan, although I’m not a Blue Book fan. I’m more a fan of Doc Savage and The Shadow and things like that. HECK: Well, that’s because you’re more interested in the stories, and I was more interested in the illustrations. Yeah, and they were done by guys who could draw pictures. MURRAY: That’s right. That’s another lost art, illustration. HECK: Yes. [laughs] MURRAY: Well, what’s your normal page speed…?

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HECK: If I do a couple a day, it’s fine. I’m very happy. I never was that super-fast. I tried, but I couldn’t. MURRAY: Still, two is pretty good. I know artists who do one. HECK: Yeah, well, it all depends on how many people that the writer has put into it. You know, if the writer suddenly says, “Over the hill comes a whole army of somebody,” you know. [laughs] “Here comes 300 people.” What the hell does it take on a typewriter, three hundred people? [laughs] MURRAY: Yeah, three words. When you were doing those fivepagers, was that always Stan Lee writing them, or were there occasionally other people? HECK: Most likely it was Stan in most cases, because Marvel had gone down to almost nothing. Not Marvel itself, but the comic part of it. At one point, he had a whole big [office space], the way they do now. It was bigger. And then, all of a sudden, it was down to almost one room. [chuckles] •••••••••• HOWELL: And there was something going on at Marvel about 1956 or 1957, wasn’t there, in

Above: 1953 photo of Berkeley Models Inc. factory in West Hempstead, Long Island, and an example of the model kit instruction illustrations. Right: Caught #4, splash, Atlas Comics, Feb. 1957.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

which a lot of their books got cancelled? HECK: Oh yeah. That was about April 1957. For a long time, like I say, I did Westerns, and Navy stuff. I also did some jungle stuff about a character named Cliff Mason…. HOWELL: At that point were you getting enough work from Marvel so that…?

HECK: I was working exclusively for Marvel. Well, I worked for Marvel for some 20-odd years straight, almost. Yeah, it was straight through until May 1957. I remember going into the city, and I sent my wife up to the office at the time and said, “Just pick up another job,” and she came down and said, “There is none,” [laughter] which was a surprise. So I got lucky again. I’m halfway out on the Island [Long Island, N.Y.], and this fellow ’round the corner—I used to do some little sketches for him occasionally, nothing spectacular—used to say he could use my work. I went over there and said, “You’re always asking me if I have some time. Now I’ve got all the time in the world.” So I did model airplane drafting for about a year over at his house—two years, almost. ••••••••••

Atlas Struggles “Well, they were putting out… let’s see… Journey into Mystery… Tales to Astonish… I remember Jack Kirby was usually doing the lead story, and Don Heck was there. Ditko used to do the story at the end of the books….” — Larry Lieber, speaking about the pre-Marvel Atlas Comics days around 1958, when the publisher almost closed down for a year but kept publishing minimal titles. Alter Ego #2, TwoMorrows Publishing, Autumn 1999, page 20. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas.

MURRAY: There was a big shakeup in the late ’50s where Marvel almost went out of business. HECK: Yeah. They had a big backlog of artwork which they had bought. And then all of a sudden, they weren’t selling, so I think the only one left there was Maneely, who was doing covers and stuff like that, because they had all this artwork in the storeroom. And when he died, I got a call from Stan: Would I do some work? Because I, like a lot of other people, suddenly didn’t have any work. There was nothing for him to give out.

MURRAY: Was that for a specific company? HECK: Berkeley Models. And I also did work for Model Airplane News and stuff like that. I drew plans and everything else like that. I did them, not that I knew so much about them, but I could draw. And this other fellow, Don— his name was also Don—he used to do the work at his house, and he could see what I was doing, so it worked out fine. And I was five blocks away, and I didn’t have to go into the city. [chuckles] ••••••••••

••••••••••

Don elaborates on the work he found after leaving Atlas Comics… HECK: I wound up drawing plans for model airplanes and stuff like

that because there was a fellow who lived about five blocks from where I lived who had always asked me to if I ever had any time. So one time, I went up and knocked on his door and said, “I’ve got all the time in the world.” [laughs]

Atlas Shrugged… “Yes, well, that whole period of 1957–58 was very bad. It was right after the Wertham thing, and in April 1957, comics were in big trouble. Stan had a backlog of material, already finished, so he wasn’t buying any new work. At this time, Jack Kirby had been working there steadily, as were John Severin, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko.”

In 1958, after a phone call from Stan Lee, Don returns to Atlas Comics/Marvel… HECK: In 1958, I was doing a combination of both types of work. That’s when Stan Lee decided to get back into the comics, and I think that [Joe] had died—he used to do quite a bit. He did a lot of their covers—nice guy. HOWELL: Joe Maneely? HECK: Maneely, Joe Maneely— right! I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it, but….

Above: Kid Montana #10, cover, Charlton Comics, Dec. 1957.

— Joe Sinnott Marvel Age #109, page 22, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1992.

Left: Jann of the Jungle #13, splash, Atlas Comics, Sept. 1956.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HOWELL: It seemed that for the greater part of the 1950s, that Maneely and Bill Everett and Russ Heath were holding down the fort at Marvel. HECK: Yeah. So when Maneely died, Stan Lee called in a few people, and one of those he called in was me. The first thing I did for him was a five-page space story. I don’t know what the name of it is. All it says in the book here is “five-page space story.” That was July 1958. HOWELL: That sounds like just about the time that Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense debuted. Could that be it?

Back at Atlas/Marvel “By 1958, however, Lee could offer gainful employment once again to freelancers like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck.” Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels, Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1991, page 81.

HECK: It says here that I did the first Tales of Suspense cover, #1, in July—the 25th—and four pages in Journey into Mystery in August. I was doing a couple of jobs a month, or something like that, because I was still working at the other job at the same time. And after I had been off the comics, even though I was still drawing, for a whole year and then getting back… whoo! [laughter] That first story, it was a rough one. •••••••••• MURRAY: Did the rates drop after the big mid’50s Atlas implosion? HECK: Yes, they dropped. In fact, when I first moved out here, which was ’55, the first phone call I got was a rate drop. [laughs] I wanted to yank out the phone, you know? MURRAY: Wow. How long did it take for rates to get to creep back up at Marvel? Do you remember? HECK: Oh, well into the ’60s. The price in those Above: The Kid From Dodge City #1, cover, Atlas Comics, July 1957. Left: Tales of Suspense #1, cover, Atlas Comics, 1958.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Page Rates in the Early Days of Marvel… “We got $20 a page— penciled and inked. Real ‘scratching the earth’ stuff.” — Don Heck When asked if the page rate increased as superheroes became more prevalent, Don added, “Yeah—to $22 a page!” Gold & Silver: Overstreet’s Comic Book Quarterly #4, Gemstone Publishing, Apr.–June 1994, page 82. Interview conducted by Pat S. Calhoun.

getting was a dollar a page [chuckles] from Marvel’s rate to DC’s rate when I was doing it back in the ’50s, and I said, “That’s stupid. I’m going to make three trips into the city for six dollars?” [laughs] MURRAY: Getting back to Marvel, so you did all those early “Iron Man” and Avengers without the payment rate kicking up for a while. HECK: No, it didn’t. It didn’t start to pick up, like I say, I think until ’64, ’65, and then it didn’t go up that much, like a couple bucks a page or something like that. They had picked up, but we didn’t know about it. I mean let’s face it. It’s sort of like today. They don’t tell you,

days was somewhere around—when the big Marvel [success] started, and stuff like that—something like $20 a page to pencil and ink. And I think DC’s average at that time was something like about $38. MURRAY: Which leads me to an obvious question: Why didn’t you just jump over to DC at some point? HECK: Well, when Marvel went that one time, I called up one of the editors at DC, and I was told I was at the bottom of his totem pole. [laughs] It was Kanigher. Well, what happened was I did some work for him, just a few war stories, and I used to have to go in three times in order to drop [off] the story or to pick up a story and bring it in for the lettering, and then go back after it was lettered, and then bring the job in at the end. That was four times. Or then if you would pick up a new one, it would only be considered three. So I was going to move all the way out here, which as I say, is like sixty miles from the city. And the difference I was Above: Tales of Suspense #9, splash, Marvel Comics, May 1960. Right: Star Spangled War Stories #37, page 3, DC Comics, Sept. 1955. Don freelanced with DC for a short period in the mid-1950s. CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

“Boy, this is terrific.” The only way you know now is you happen to be on a good book that’s giving royalties. In those days, there were no royalties. They used to reprint all our stuff, and we never got a dime for it. MURRAY: You, Kirby, Ditko—not Ayers, I don’t think—were the three biggie guys at Marvel in the early days. [You] always seemed to shuttle back and forth between the two companies. HECK: Yeah, yeah. But I hadn’t even considered DC except for the fact that a friend of mine had said, “Hey, they’re interested in your work.” I said, “Yeah, okay. I’m going to go.” Like I say, I was under the impression, like when Kanigher said I was on the bottom of his totem pole, I was thinking of them all, and so therefore I figured, well, if he’s there, I ain’t going to get any work, period. I didn’t know they had these individual editors, and [all the] stuff that you get is separate. MURRAY: Yeah, it’s like at DC in those days, if you worked for one editor, then you couldn’t work for another one at DC, which is very strange. HECK: Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t aware of that kind of a set-up because I had only gotten a little bit of work with them. I didn’t know all the rules.

Early Days of the Atlas/Marvel Bullpen… DON HECK: Back in those days there were only four, five guys: Kirby, Dick Ayers, Ditko, and myself. LOU MOUGIN: What type of memories do you have of working with those guys? HECK: Well, Jack was always there, because he lived nearby. Jack was so proficient; it was incredible. In fact, I went in there a couple times, and went to the same place to pick up the same paper he was using, because it wound up being good paper and it was reasonable. I’d go in there, and he’d be sitting there with his little drawing table and the cigar smoke. The room was filled with pocket books, all science-fiction stuff. He was a very avid reader. He was unbelievable. He would turn out five, six pages a day. I was struggling, and he was knocking this stuff out like it was going out of style. He was a very nice guy, very pleasant. MOUGIN: What about Steve Ditko? Did you ever get to know him? HECK: I know of him, we met a few times, but not like I got to know Kirby. Dick Ayers I got to know a little better. David Anthony Kraft’s Comic Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 95. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HOWELL: It seems very strange for somebody like me to hear about how infrequently the artists actually met. HECK: Oh, you mean the “Bullpen” stuff. That was a lot of stuff that Stan Lee put into magazines, but the artists were all over the Island. Even today, I could go into the office two times this week, and somebody else could go in two other times… you just don’t cross paths. Or I might come in late in the afternoon, and that somebody else will have been there early in the morning. HOWELL: So you might never meet your inker, or your writer. HECK: That’s true. For a long time it would happen that way. The only reason I met Jack is that a couple of times I went over to his house. It was about 1963. There was some paper he was using that I happened to like, and there was a place right near him that was selling it. So I went in there [and ran into him].

Early Days of the Atlas/Marvel Bullpen… “There was just a small amount of comics to get out. And Stan wrote them all. And I remember Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, or Don Heck or Dick Ayers—a small group—drew them.” — Flo Steinberg, speaking of the early days of Atlas/Marvel. David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #17, Fictioneer, Nov. 1984, page 60.

HOWELL: And was that the first time you met Kirby? HECK: No, I met him once or twice up at the office, but not that often. Very infrequently. I met him first, originally, at Harvey, when he was doing Boys’ Ranch—I think—#1. I was working in there, and as I was leaving, Jack and Joe Simon came in. They had come in just as the regular office was closing, and they were going to work and finish something there, so…. HOWELL: They worked in the Harvey offices? HECK: They did that time, and one of them was going to use my desk. That’s the first time I met Jack Kirby—although, I had seen his work, obviously. •••••••••• MURRAY: Did you know Jack very well?

•••••••••• HOWELL: Had Jack Kirby rejoined Marvel by the time you began working there again? HECK: I don’t know. I didn’t go in there much at the time. It’s possible.

Opposite: Kid Colt Outlaw #103, splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1961. Left: Tales To Astonish #12, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1960.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HECK: Yeah, I used to go over to his house. And he did some characters later on that were printed up, there were about four or five of them, and they were sold later on. But what had happened originally, I actually inked them. It’s just got Jack’s name on it. But his wife was complaining because he didn’t have any artwork around the house, so he penciled it up and he asked me if I’d ink it. So I inked it, and he was going to give me some money for it. I said, “Naw, that’s alright.” I talked him into doing me a couple of pages, which I still have. I told him, “The money, I’ll go through.” [laughs] But I have these two original pages that Jack did just for me that were never printed. One was a big city, and the other was like a big robot-type character. It

Don’s Admiration for Jack Kirby Don Heck: “[Jack would] be sitting there with his little drawing table and the cigar smoke. The room was full of pocket books, all science-fiction stuff. He was a very avid reader. He was unbelievable—he would turn out five, six pages a day. I was struggling and he was knocking this stuff out… he really did a terrific job.” The Kirby Collector #37, TwoMorrows Publishing, Feb. 2003, page 44. Quote recounted by Mark Evanier.

“He was terrific,” says Heck. “He was always willing to help somebody or tell you how to do something. And as far as super-heroes, the main reason they existed was Jack Kirby.” Marvel: Five Fabulous Decade of the World’s Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991, page 99.

“Jack and his magnificent creations cast shadows that go to infinity. He is one of those wonderful human beings whose fantastic, unlimited talent as an artist and innovator is matched only by his kindness to all who knew him, and I consider it a privilege to call him ‘friend.’” — Don Heck on Jack Kirby Amazing Heroes #100, Fantagraphics, Aug. 1986, page 32.

“Don was one of over 150 artists and writers who openly signed the petition to Marvel Comics to return Jack Kirby’s artwork.” The Comics Journal #105, Fantagraphics, Feb. 1986.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

turned out pretty good. Like I say, it was done in 1966. MURRAY: Now these things you inked of his, were they for his own use? HECK: Well, they were originally supposed to be up on the wall, and then later on I saw them when they were sold [Ed.: as Kirby’s 1971 GODS Portfolio]. There were four of them. They were colored and sold that way. [One was] a Norse-type character with a big spear, which was fun to do. [Jack] was a creative genius. What’re you going to do? [laughs] He could take anything and just make it into something.

HOWELL: And Alex Raymond? HECK: Alex Raymond, yes. Well, you know, they were the top. I also like Raeburn Van Buren of Abbie an’ Slats—he was great for girls and stuff. And when I started to freelance more, I spotted that guy Alex Toth, who was [chuckle] fantastic for layout and design. He influenced me too. HOWELL: I guess I picked that out. HECK: Yeah. Well, you could see it. You’re going to be influenced by looking at things, and I mean, you can’t make something out of nothing. You can’t just stick somebody in a closet and expect them to suddenly develop, regardless of what anybody thinks.

•••••••••• HOWELL: You mentioned before that Milton Caniff was one of your main influences. HECK: Oh yeah, no question about it. HOWELL: Who were the others? HECK: Oh, let’s see…. Well, I was the one who would look at everybody. There was, of course, Hal Foster…. Opposite: Journey into Mystery #80, interior panels, Marvel Comics, May 1962. Above: Gunsmoke Western #63, page 27 panel, Marvel Comics, March 1961. Image scanned from original artwork.

HOWELL: Yeah. There’s a whole generation of artists—yours, I guess—who all show a strong Milton Caniff influence. HECK: Yeah. Of course, it would be normal, y’know, because at the time all of a sudden you’d see his stuff and you’d think, “Wow! Where the heck did he come from?!” Bad enough when I started freelancing, I’d just looked at the Harvey stuff: They had Lee Elias, and a few other good ones up there. But then I go out and I see all of these Jack Davis jobs and all of that other EC stuff, and I said, “My God! These are the guys I gotta go up against?” It gets a little scary. Then I figured, well, there’s gotta be room at the bottom somewhere. [chuckle]

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

THE

MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HOWELL: When the Marvel super-hero explosion, such as it was, got going, did you work in the same manner with Stan Lee as did Kirby and Ditko— contributing all the story’s pacing? HECK: You mean when they suddenly threw a synopsis at you? HOWELL: Yes. HECK: Boy, that was a surprise. [laughter] I’d been so used to working from scripts, and then Stan said, “I’m going to give you a synopsis.” Well, Jack Kirby was

Stan on the Success of the Marvel Age… “To start things off, I had the unbelievable good fortune to work with the most incredibly talented artists of our time. There was Jack Kirby with whom I co-created the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, and the X-Men, to name a few. Then there was Steve Ditko, my collaborator in the creation of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. And lest we not forget Don Heck who toiled with me so mightily to bring forth Iron Man, while Bill Everett was my partner on creating Daredevil.” — Stan Lee Overstreet Price Guide #16, Overstreet Publications, 1986, page A-82.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Left Inset: Tales of Suspense #55, Marvel Comics, July 1964. Above: Tales of Suspense #16, Marvel Comics, April 1961.

used to something like that because he was also a writer. I mean, some people might not have liked the stuff he did later, but he did some terrific stuff with all of these different characters, like back when he was doing Fighting American and all the rest of his early stuff, so it was easy for him. For me it was suddenly that someone says, “You’re going to do it!” I said, “I’ll try it, but, I mean, it’s your gamble, not mine. I’m going to get paid for this.” Then we started to work out the system, and then after a while Stan Lee used to, like, give you the first three pages, tell you who the character was you were fighting, and give you the last couple of pages so you’d know how it ended. And in between you’d put about 15 pages of stuff. HOWELL: Sounds pretty loose. HECK: It was. It was. And at the time, I thought, “Oh my God! This’ll never work!” But then I’d sit down and start to figure different things that these types of characters could do. Then when I went back

Above (Left to Right): Strange Tales #80, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1961. Tales of Suspense #13, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1961. Two-Gun Kid #66, cover, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963.

to working from a script years and years later, sometimes I felt like I was a little closed in. I got used to the synopsis. HOWELL: Do you feel that working from a synopsis opened up the possibilities of what you could do? HECK: Oh yeah, absolutely. I’ll tell you why: because you’re not hindered by the amount of copy that’s there, you’re not suddenly stuck with a six-panel or seven-panel page. You can suddenly throw a big panel in there, or a couple of small ones across the bottom, and then catch up with the story later on, or expand it out. You don’t feel, “I must put six panels on here and I’ve got to have so many balloons.” It’s a freer way of working. HOWELL: You prefer doing that, then? HECK: More or less, yeah. But, y’know, I’m at DC now and they work differently. I mean, somebody like [Marv] Wolfman or somebody like that would probably rather work with the synopsis, and I think I did a couple of stories with Gerry…. HOWELL: Conway? Would that be the Steel series? HECK: The Steel one, yeah. He sent synopses in and I worked from them. You can see the differences. There is an openness about some of those pages that

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

Stan Describes the “Marvel Method”… “In the early days, I was writing scripts for virtually all the books, and it was very hard to keep all the artists busy; poor little frail me, doing story after story. So I’d be writing a story for Kirby, and Steve Ditko would walk in and say, ‘Hey, I need some work now.’ And I’d say, ‘I can’t give it to you now, Steve, I’m finishing Kirby’s.’ But we couldn’t afford to keep Steve waiting, because time is money, so I’d have to say, ‘Look, Steve, I can’t write a script for you now, but here’s the plot we’ll use for the next Spider-Man. Go home and draw anything you want, as long as it’s something like this, and I’ll put the copy in later.’ So I was able to finish Jack’s story. Steve in the meantime was drawing another story. Then Don Heck would come over and say, ‘Hey Stan, I need something to do.’ I’d say, ‘Well, I can’t write it for you, Don, but here’s the plot for Iron Man, you go and draw it, and I’ll put in the copy later.’ That way I could keep five, six, ten artists busy; they were drawing, and as they’d bring in the strip, I’d put in the copy. Okay, it started out as a lazy man’s device—or maybe a guy who just didn’t have enough time—but we realized this was absolutely the best way to do a comic.” — Stan Lee Jack Kirby Collector #18, TwoMorrows Publishing, Jan. 1998, page 13. From a panel held at the 1975 San Diego Comic Con.

wouldn’t be in something I drew from a script. You can have big panels, and since the copy gets put down later, it’s no big problem. HOWELL: Do you think it’s an advantage for the writer too? HECK: I think so sometimes. It can go either way. It depends on whether he’s used to doing it that way, but it allows him to have something in front of him when he’s suddenly starting to put balloons in. Sometimes it probably is a hindrance, when he looks at the page and says, “My God! What am I going to do with this?” But when we draw it, we’re also writing on the side of the page what’s actually happening, so it’s not as though the writer suddenly looks at four wordless panels and wonders what the hell’s going on. I mean, it shouldn’t be that way anyway—as long as he remembers what he wrote. HOWELL: When did Stan start the synopsis system for you? HECK: I believe about 1962. It could have been

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

your style certainly fits that. HECK: Yeah, well, I like to draw girls and stuff like that, obviously.

1963. I don’t think he started it with me as early as with some of the others up there. I’m sure Jack was doing stuff from synopsis a lot earlier than that. HOWELL: Yeah, and maybe Ditko. HECK: Yeah, probably, because they were used to that. In fact, I think Joe Sinnott used to pencil and ink at that time, and I don’t think he liked the idea of the synopsis. Well, I wasn’t exactly thrilled myself.

MURRAY: I remember talking to Steve Ditko once, not long ago. He said he always liked your stuff because it was so contemporary. HECK: Uh-huh, at that time. [laughs] Everything is relative.

MURRAY: Everything is relative, but he always admired, I guess, the “sophistication” is one word he used. HECK: Yeah, yeah. Well, I was always a great admirer of his, [and as] HOWELL: Initially. HECK: No. Somebody says, “Guess you certainly could tell of Caniff. what you’re doing tomorrow?” and if Burma and the Dragon Lady were my favorites. [laughs] you’ve never done it, it can scare the hell out of you. MURRAY: Here’s a trivia question. •••••••••• You probably don’t know the answer to this. Is there a semiMURRAY: Did you like doing mystery about who inked Fantastic [anthology titles across different Four #1? It’s not Ayers, it’s not genres]? anybody you recognize, and some HECK: Sometimes yes, sometimes people say it was team-inked, a no. I think I enjoyed Westerns whole bunch of people worked on more. And I enjoyed the war stories it. Yet it doesn’t look like there’s because I could draw a little any piece of Heck or piece of Ditko. rougher type of stuff. HECK: I didn’t even know who drew the Fantastic Four. MURRAY: Well, it’s interesting you say that because I’ve never MURRAY: Oh, you didn’t even seen any of your romance stuff, but look at the—?

HECK: No. The funny part was years later, I was in a comic book shop and they wanted 25 bucks for #1. And I said, “Huh, really crazy.” [laughs] It was sparkling, in mint condition, I think. I wouldn’t pay 25 dollars for a damn [comic]. [laughs] So when I found out what it was worth afterwards, a few years later, I thought, “Uh oh.” [laughs] MURRAY: So when FF came out, it didn’t make much of a splash within the offices. It was just another book. HECK: No, I didn’t even know it. In fact, the first ones that I had gotten were issue #7, I think. MURRAY: Oh, really? Well, I guess it took a while to get—. HECK: Well, in the beginning, they didn’t send it out to me, even though I had been working there for, say, ten years or something. MURRAY: They probably figured you’d never work on the book because it was their own—. HECK: Yeah, and then all of a sudden, when they started, I was put on a mailing list. I knew how to get the stuff.

Opposite Left Inset: Tales of Suspense #55, panel detail, Marvel Comics, July 1964. Opposite Right: Kid Colt Outlaw #99, splash, Marvel Comics, July 1961. Right: Strange Tales #105, panels, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1963. Image scanned from original artwork.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: One of my favorite early Marvel super-heroes was Ant-Man. You slid right into that after Kirby set that book up. You took a different approach to that character. HECK: I tried to do it like him, but…. [chuckles] MURRAY: Kirby built him up larger than life. You drew it from the point of view of a normal-sized world with a tiny Ant-Man. HECK: Yeah, well, that’s the way I would see it. I would think of it as he’s so small, and occasionally I would try to draw him [with] something around the character. So it’s sort of like a matchbook, where you’d have the Ant-Man next to a matchbook and then looking up at the [reader]. MURRAY: [laughs] When you got used to that; did you find you liked it? HECK: No, it wasn’t that bad. When it first happened, it was like somebody saying, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to fly that airplane over there.” [laughs] Whoa, wait a minute! Well, I enjoyed doing The Wasp, and stuff like that, because it was a pretty young girl flying around. And like I say, with the small characters who are—Giant Man suddenly turning into Ant-Man, they’d go up and down. After a while, it became fun. In the beginning, like I say, it was tough when I first did “AntMan,” but after I got used to it, then it was something sort of like making the character that suddenly wound up with a whole bunch of little people around him—Gulliver’s Travels. Of course, when I started thinking of it in that respect, then it was easy to do. Above: Tales to Astonish #43, splash, Marvel Comics, May 1963. Right: Tales to Astonish #54, page 6 panel, Marvel Comics, April 1964. Below: Tales to Astonish #43, panel, Marvel Comics, May 1963.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: I guess you’d done a few “GiantMan” stories as well as “Ant-Man” stories, and you’d inked the first “Giant-Man,” and then Kirby drew that, as I recall. HECK: Yeah. You probably remember more of what he did than I [do]. What happens is you finish something, and you put it in the mail or get rid of it, [and] it’s gone. [laughs] The reason I still have the magazines from that time is because I always kept them. And I’d get an order, turn around and then an Avengers was behind me, or something like that, and Thor was over here or all the issues of Daredevil or whatever I was working on. So in one way, it’s good because I wanted to peek through all those books.

HECK: He was very good, actually. It was a little different in the fact that I was more on the more realistic [side] in certain cases. In other words, I would see something that [only] suggests [realism] in a drawing, or something like that, but it was good stuff. It was generally down and things like that, that stuff there as far as that goes, so I would didn’t gel right for [me]. [chuckles] do the best I could. I would just try to improve it the way I saw it. MURRAY: Well, that’s mostly That doesn’t necessarily mean it Ditko. That was a very specific was better or anything else. I still thing to do, and he apparently do that, even today. If I go to ink touched a chord. somebody and I see it’s all screwed HECK: Oh sure. Like I say, it up on the pencils, I’ll ink it, even works fine. It still does. It looks like though I’m not getting every pencil I just didn’t see it right away, but it part of it inked and not getting doesn’t make any difference. paid for it.

MURRAY: Do you happen to know why Ant-Man became Giant-Man? HECK: No, it was Stan Lee’s decision. Probably [it] was [due to] sales. Any time you see a change like that—one of the few characters that didn’t change was SpiderMan because he always sold, although I never could figure it out. [laughs] MURRAY: Really? You could never figure out why Spider-Man sold? HECK: No, because of the fact he’s so-so. I mean I could see him as flying around as the [hero] and like that. But the old lady there,

MURRAY: You inked Kirby every once in a while. You inked the “Ant-Man” story that introduced The Wasp and you inked the first “Giant-Man” story. What was Kirby like to ink for you?

MURRAY: Yeah. I like the way your style looked on Kirby, but your style is such a refined style, and Kirby is such a thick-lined style, I would think it must have been hard for you.

Above: Tales to Astonish #45, page 9 panels showing Janet Van Dyne as The Wasp, Marvel Comics, July 1963. Right: Tales to Astonish #49, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963. Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

Don’s Additional Thoughts on Ant-Man… HECK: It was in the beginning, of course, in some cases, because [he’d do] something [with] 15 people lined up in a row. [laughs] He brought everything under the sun, you know. But it was fun because I was always—when I worked at Harvey’s, I’d see Joe Simon come in [with Jack], and they were doing, I think, the first issue of Boys’ Ranch. And they were going to work overnight, so one of them sat at my table, [one of them] sat at somebody else’s, and I always admired the different characters they could do, and I knew that he could draw anything.

“It was fun because it was completely different. All of a sudden you’re wondering how you are going to draw this thing, where you can see the things that he sees. It always had to be something where you looked up at the people, past Ant-Man, and towards the other guy. You had to have the relationship between something small and large, and you also had to put something close by to give a gauge, like a matchbook, or something, so that when you looked down, all of a sudden the other character took most of the panel and Ant-Man was small. Jack Kirby had already started it, so I had stuff to work from.” — Don Heck David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 99. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

Above Left: Tales to Astonish #49, cover, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963. Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man for the first time. Above Inset: Tales to Astonish #48, panel, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1963. Left and Opposite Top: Tales to Astonish #48, splash and panel detail, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1963.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: What were the worst things you’ve worked on? MURRAY: And the art of drawing HECK: “Arooga from Outer Space.” real people has been lost in comics. [laughs] Some of those stupid But you know, it’d be nice if this things, some of that mystery stuff industry were to start to diversify that was really poorly written. Oh, again and do other kinds of things God. How did I get intrigued Don discusses his than super-heroes so that people enough to get this thing off the like you and Ditko would have inground? [chuckles] [Ed.: In my transition to work. Not just work, but research I could not find this story. It drawing mainly teresting interesting work. is probably allegorical of the types of super-hero HECK: Well, there was one of the stories he was drawing.] comics… comics that came in the ’60s that Jack Kirby had mentioned. He said, MURRAY: You did a lot of really MURRAY: Did you ever do any “It’s funny, some people complain sharp five-pagers with haunted super-heroes in the ’50s before you that Ditko doesn’t do this right or houses and time machines. went to work for Marvel? that right. He’s always not as polHECK: Yeah, well, I enjoyed HECK: No. ished as somebody else. But there’s scribbling with a pen and brush, one thing he has that most of these drawing a doorknob that was weird MURRAY: So you weren’t a super- other guys don’t have, and that’s and strange. hero artist until the Marvel period. style. And you can look at it and HECK: No, until all of a sudden, I tell that it was done by Ditko and MURRAY: One of the interesting was given a thing and said, “Hey, not done by—.” I don’t know his things about those five-pagers, they by the way, this is what you’re going name. [laughs] You know, God were really only four-pagers, beto be doing next week.” And I was knows who did this. cause the first page was a splash. never that keen on super-heroes Why did Stan Lee waste a whole anyway. I had seen them in the ’40s. MURRAY: Yeah, the same could page—and I shouldn’t say “waste” be said of your work. Your work is because they were always good MURRAY: So in some ways it was distinctive. looking. a good trend, and in some ways it HECK: Well, like I say, it’s handHECK: Yeah, yeah. I had no idea was not a good trend. writing. why it was set up that way. He HECK: Yeah, I always liked probably figured that way he didn’t regular stories. I like people. One MURRAY: Looking back over your have to write that much and he’d of the things I didn’t like about career, what’s made you happiest of get paid for five pages, only doing Superman was the fact that I like all the things you’ve worked on? four. [laughs] somebody [who] can bleed and HECK: I enjoyed the “Iron Man.” there’s no feeling for—it’s kind of After a while, I even got to enjoyMURRAY: Do you remember him like that Arnold Schwarzenegger ing The Avengers. And “Torpedo being particular about those splash [movie], The Terminator. No Taylor” was fun because I had pages? matter what happened—he blows never done anything like that. I HECK: No, I don’t. Ditko would apart and all the rest—all of a even worked on the first one. have more input into what was sudden, he gets up and he starts [He was] one of the first main going on in those days, because walking. That is a [weak] story in characters I did. The characters in he was probably in there more. my estimation. general, the regular people, like I Revenue-wise, it was do-or-die. say. When I did Pepper Potts and [laughs] But there was a time I MURRAY: Right. And that could [characters] like that, people that wasn’t even in there for three years explain why you’re not getting a lot you could grab ahold of, they were straight. I dealt with him on the of work, as everybody in comics— fun to do. phone. not everybody, but most everybody—wants to draw super-heroes. HECK: Yeah, yeah, that’s possible.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: Let’s talk about Iron Man. That’s one of the characters you’re most linked with, and Mark Hannerfeld tells me there’s quite an involved story on how that character came into existence. HECK: There is? [laughs] MURRAY: Well, all right, let me put it this way. As I understand it, you and Stan Lee devised a character or fleshed out the character, but Kirby designed the armor and did the first cover, but that’s all Kirby did. HECK: Yeah. Well, if you look in the thing, it’s listed that Kirby laid out the first story, which was, I think, #39, which is not true. I think he did #40. MURRAY: He did, yeah. HECK: He did the layouts on that, but you’ve got to see some of the layouts to appreciate it, because a lot of times it would be—which was fine because he wasn’t getting paid that much for it—it would be almost like what Ditko did. He did stick figures sometimes. Sometimes Kirby would just put in things and say, “Tie them in.” [laughs] “This is so-and-so and he’s over here. This is a building,” or something like that. But no, #40 was good. He was good on that, I remember. But the reason he did the character was because of the fact, as I said before, he was in the city and the covers were always done first.

Creation of Iron Man “Although he didn’t design the Iron Man armor itself, Don Heck did just about everything else to bring Tony Stark’s adventures to life.” Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero, by Matthew K. Manning, DK Children, Feb. 2010, page 11.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: I thought the covers were done last. HECK: No, because they had to print all that stuff up. MURRAY: But it was unusual at that time for Kirby to design a character, but not do the first stories. Tell me how you ended up doing “Iron Man” and what you and Stan Lee did to put a guy inside that armor.

Left Inset: Tales of Suspense #42, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, June 1963. Above: Tales of Suspense #39, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1963. Opposite Top Left Inset: Tales of Suspense #39, page 11 panel, Marvel Comics, March 1963. Opposite Top Right: Tales of Suspense #45, page 11, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1963. Panel showing Tony Stark as rendered by Don Heck. Opposite Below: Tales of Suspense #46, page 3, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1963. Another panel showing Tony Stark as rendered by Don.

Don on the Creation of Iron Man “Don, who spent the major portion of his career chronicling the adventures of the Armored Avenger, recalled the beginning of his association with Iron Man saying proudly, ‘I did the first one!’ He mentioned that some believe that Jack Kirby did the layouts for that first Iron Man story, but ‘Jack did the cover and I did the inside.’ Kirby did the layouts for the next job, because ‘I probably got behind again, as usual,’ he said, laughing. ‘Jack designed the costume, because he did the cover first... otherwise, I’d have had to go all the way in [to the Marvel offices] just to show sketches.’ ”

[Stan] told the guy, “I need it tomorrow and it’s six pages—gotta have it.” [laughs] MURRAY: Stan gave you a basic verbal plot, but you had to flesh out what Tony Stark looked like. HECK: Yeah. Like I say, I knew what the costume looked like because I got the cover in the mail. MURRAY: So did you have a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters? HECK: No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some character I liked, which would be the same kind of character that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type.

Marvel Age #119, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1992, page 22.

HECK: We didn’t do anything that I know of. He just called me up and told me he was going to have this character, Iron Man, and he said “Tony Stark,” and the way he wound up where he was over in I guess it would be considered Vietnam. And he’d pitch this synopsis over the phone. We didn’t actually sit down and work out the characters. It’s just sort of like them talking about the Bullpen and the Bullpen wasn’t anything at one point. [laughs] The Bullpen was this small office that Stan Lee had in there, where if you happened to walk in there, you would probably have to repair somebody else’s job because CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: Okay, I was going to suggest Hugh Hefner, because he was big in those days, and then Tony Stark sort of had that kind of—. HECK: Yeah, it could be that kind of a set-up. But the character himself, features-wise I mean, became an Errol Flynn type and handsome, good-looking. And the fact that he was rich was nothing special to me. I never knew many people like that anyway. [laughs]

Mark Evanier on the Creation of Iron Man Comics historian and former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier, investigating claims of Kirby’s involvement in the creation of both Iron Man and Daredevil, interviewed Kirby and Heck on the subject, years before their deaths, and concluded that Kirby “definitely did not do full breakdowns as has been erroneously reported about... the first ‘Iron Man.’ [In the early 1970s] Jack claimed to have laid out those stories, and I repeated his claim in print—though not before checking with Heck who said, in effect, ‘Oh yeah. I remember that. Jack did the layouts.’ We all later realized he was mistaken. “Both also believed that Jack had contributed to the plots of those debut appearances—recollections that do not match those of Stan Lee. (Larry Lieber did the script for the first ‘Iron Man’ story from a plot that Stan gave him.) Also, in both cases, Jack had already drawn the covers of those issues and done some amount of design work. He came up with the initial look of Iron Man’s armor....”

Above Inset: Tales of Suspense #39, page 9 panel, Marvel Comics, March 1963. Right: Tales of Suspense #47, page 17, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963. Don inks an action scene in silhouette. Steve Ditko pencils and Don Heck inks. Opposite: Tales of Suspense #39, page 13 story end-panels, Marvel Comics, March 1963.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: I always noticed that, for a while, you and Kirby were alternating on issues. You’d do #39, he did #40 for a while. And he’d always, except for the first cover, he’d draw Iron Man’s helmet like a bullet where it just sort of fit into the groove, but you gave Iron Man a chin. HECK: Yeah. Well, I always tried to put a face, almost like a skull on him. Yeah, I was thinking of a skull look without actually—especially when he got to the newer costume. MURRAY: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. HECK: I didn’t do that either. I think Steve Ditko did it.

morning and you’re trying to finish this thing for tomorrow morning and you’re trying—.

MURRAY: There is sort of a three-issue sequence in which Ditko penciled the last—. HECK: He did the first one with Iron Man [in his new armor], and that was, I think, [Avengers] #16. MURRAY: No, it was actually [Tales of Suspense] #48. HECK: Yeah, but Avengers—yeah, #48, right? It was #48 because I’m thinking of something else. MURRAY: Yeah, [Ditko] penciled the old Iron Man armor [in #47], but you inked it—the Melter story. HECK: Right. MURRAY: Because I remember [Ditko] once complained to me that you put an entire action panel in silhouette, and he couldn’t figure out why the hell you did that. HECK: Yeah, I was probably running out of time and said, “To hell with it.” [laughs] Nobody ever understands that at three o’clock in the

MURRAY: Oh, I think Ditko understands. He was just shocked when he saw an action scene in silhouette. (Ed.: See opposite page for image.) HECK: I was shocked when I saw what he sent me, the pencils when I was inking them. I couldn’t believe it. [laughs] It was stick figures. In fact, I got a job that I inked, and I called up Stan Lee and then I said the rate per page was something like $20. And I said to Stan, “How much did you pay him?” And I think he paid him $10 for these stick figures. “And you expect me to ink from those stick figures for the other for $10? You’re out of your gourd.”

Stan Lee. HECK: Well, Stan always said I was what he called a…. [laughs] Everybody used to go in there and say, “Yes, Stan. No, Stan.” And I didn’t. [chuckles] He couldn’t understand that. MURRAY: I imagine he respected you for that. HECK: I don’t know if he did or not. MURRAY: But he sure didn’t fire you. HECK: Oh, he didn’t have that many people who would work for that kind of money. [laughs]

MURRAY: Oh, well, that kind of explains why that last golden armor Iron Man looks more like Heck than Ditko. HECK: Well, I had to draw over MURRAY: [laughs] It sounds to me most of it. Like I said, I asked Stan what he [paid for the layouts], and like you didn’t take any crap off of

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

had no sleep and God knows what it would have looked like. [laughs]

he said, “Well, what do you think it’s worth?” I said about three bucks a page. [laughs] And so I said, “If you’ll give me the $17 that’s left over from my estimate, I’ll finish it off and ink it.” [chuckles]

the luck of the draw, you would have redesigned the costume. HECK: Yeah, yeah, if I’d happened to [walk] in there and Stan said, “Hey, we’re changing the costume,” I would have designed it at that point.

MURRAY: Now Ditko did do the MURRAY: Yeah, I wonder what first new Iron Man design. HECK: For the same reason, because you would have done with it had you—. of him being nearer to the city. HECK: I have no idea. Probably, if I had gone in there, I would have MURRAY: So in other words, to

MURRAY: Yeah, yeah. And then you came back after two more issues and took over the new Iron Man. And then you stayed with him quite a while. Did you like that character? HECK: Yeah, he was fun to do. I enjoyed it because, like I say, when I was doing Tony Stark at that point, I was being more or less inspired in some cases by stuff I had seen that Alex Toth was doing, and so I was having fun with it. And I saw Toth was working with a Rapid-O-Graph, and I did an Egyptian story with all of these characters, and it was the first time I used a Rapid-O-Graph. [Ed.: Rapid-O-Graph is a brand of technical pens typically used by architects and engineers.] MURRAY: Was that the one where he goes back in time? HECK: Yes, with the Cleopatra type there. There were characters all over the place, and I remember him running and knocking over a ladder with all of these people on it. And the only thing that Stan complained [about] is that I had

Above: Tales of Suspense #44, page 11 panels showing “Cleopatra type” story, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1963. Left: Tales of Suspense #51, page 12 panel, Marvel Comics, March 1964. Note Iron Man’s early mask design. Opposite Above Inset: Fantastic Four Letter Column announcement header, Nov. 1963. Opposite: Tales of Suspense #55, panel, Marvel Comics, July 1964.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HECK: You probably know that. [laughs] MURRAY: You have to be your own person. HECK: If not, you’re not going to do anything. You’re not going to write [well, or write] the right kind of stuff. You’ll say, “Gee, is this what he wants?”—because he’ll change his mind tomorrow. “And while we’re going out on a limb with our predictions, here’s another! Just for kicks, Stan teamed up with Steve Ditko, the great portrayer of Spider-Man, to produce the current Iron Man epic in Tales of Suspense #47. And, for an added touch of genius, Don Heck himself inked the story—the first time Steve and Don have ever combined talents. So, add Stan, Steve, and Don—and you can just barely begin to guess how great this one is! In Suspense #47— Iron Man, reaching new heights of greatness!” — One of many hyperbole–laden announcements listed in the “Special Announcements Section” promoting upcoming Marvel comics. Fantastic Four #20, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963, letters column.

MURRAY: Back to Iron Man, I noticed you, or somebody in the Bullpen, kept changing Iron Man’s helmet over and over again for a year before you settled down to a permanent look. Do you remember that and why you were doing that? HECK: Yeah, there were suddenly rivets pushed into it. That was definitely the stuff that I got in with changing this or that. I guess it probably wasn’t selling that well, because back in those days, if Spider-Man suddenly made a guest appearance, you know the book wasn’t selling well. [laughs] You could almost tell.

something in the sky with a whole bunch of horses and guys in what looked like a chariot, and he complained I drew it too realistically. [laughs] MURRAY: “Too realistically”? That’s bizarre. HECK: Well, he wanted more the other type of stuff. You know, Kirby’s. MURRAY: Did he put pressure on you to do more of a Kirby style? HECK: No. Well, he would say, “Think of Jack Kirby when you’re doing this job here.” Then I’d go and do it my way. MURRAY: Well, of course. That’s how you deal with editors. CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: Because when Ditko redesigned the armor, he [drew] big eye slits and vents so you could see [Iron Man’s] expression. But very quickly, you squeezed him back down, you gave sort of a mean look to the eyes, and then you did this, and you did that. HECK: It’s very possible, yeah, that I may or may not have been thinking about it one way or the other. MURRAY: Well, a lot was made about more changes on the helmet. They made a big thing about, “Well, we changed it again, and how do you like it this time?” HECK: It’s possible, yeah. Like I say, I was always thinking of it as a skull-type look. Maybe I did it and they said, “No, that’s not what we’re wanting.” [laughs] MURRAY: That’s interesting. Here’s a question: Stan makes a big deal about the mistake he made with the early Hulk, making him gray in the first issue, and yet they did that with Iron Man in the first

issue. And can you remember how that came about? Were you any part of that? HECK: No. I didn’t even know it was gray because I did everything in black-and-white. The only time I knew it was gray is when I saw the cover. [laughs] MURRAY: And then they quickly changed it. In fact, it was in the second issue. HECK: No, then he was in the gold armor. MURRAY: In the second story, Kirby has the armor being painted gold, so they must have almost instantly realized—. HECK: Realized he probably looked bland and looked like nothing. Well, they were thinking iron,

Left: Tales of Suspense #50, splash, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1964. Introduction of one of Iron Man’s main villains, The Mandarin, co-created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. Above: Tales of Suspense #55, splash, Marvel Comics, July 1964.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

those old stories that they had years ago— Fu Manchu—and that’s what he said to me. He said, “I want a character like Fu Manchu.” Stan always liked the guy with his hands in—the character from that English writer from the 1600s—. MURRAY: Not Shakespeare? HECK: [Hamlet, the] Shakespearean type character where he put his hand to his head and ranted off. So those two types of things were [what] Stan actually wanted in this character. And then, even Iron Man, he’d say, “Well, he’s walking around, thinking of all his problems,” etc., etc. You know, that’s page one, two, three. [laughs]

Iron Man. Originally, that would be a gray color and then probably somebody said, “Yeah, but it looks so nothing.” MURRAY: I remember Stan, on a panel, saying one character he really liked doing in “Iron Man,” which was death to sales, was The Mandarin. He said The Mandarin never sold, but he liked the character. How did that character come about? HECK: That was Stan Lee’s character, really. He wanted him because he was thinking of, oh, one of

Above Left: Tales of Suspense #53, splash, Marvel Comics, May 1964. Above Right: Tales of Suspense #52, page 3 panel, Marvel Comics, April 1964. Introduction of one of Marvel’s iconic characters, The Black Widow, co-created by Stan Lee, Don Rico (a.k.a. “N. Korok”), Jack Kirby, and Don Heck. Right: Tales of Suspense #54, splash, Marvel Comics, June 1964.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: So you’d have to just do the images— HECK: And he’d flesh in afterwards, yeah.

there. He’s saying, “Holy sh*t, I’m gonna kick the hell out of this guy,” or something like that. You’d put it down.

MURRAY: —and assume he could MURRAY: In a way, you were pick up the threads and then make almost co-writer. HECK: [A lot was] my writing. it work. HECK: Yeah, well, there was no problem with that because he was good at that. But we always wrote everything in the side [margins]. The whole story would be there. You’d say, “Well, he’s doing this or he’s doing that.” It’s not like today. You see a lot of this stuff and you don’t see anything there in the borders. MURRAY: So would you put in strict dialogue or just explanation? HECK: The whole thing. If you were thinking of something, you’d write in what you thought about his dialogue so that he would know what you were thinking. You drew the character, he’s not just standing

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Below: Tales of Suspense #45, page 7 panels, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1963. Introduction of two of Iron Man’s most important supporting characters: Happy Hogan, a washed-up boxer and Tony Stark’s bodyguard and chauffer; and Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s secretary, referred to as “Kitty” here. Both co-created by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Don Heck.

HECK: Yeah, you know, characterization and stuff like that.

MURRAY: Yeah, Kirby says that. HECK: [laughs] Well, that’s normal. I mean people with their own likes and dislikes, whatever. Well, Jack did do such a great amount of creation up there. MURRAY: All the kinds of things you’ve done in comics—war, romance, fantasy, super-heroes— what’s your preferred genre? HECK: Like I say, war, Westerns, and stuff like that—when I was doing “Torpedo Taylor,” when I was

MURRAY: But they changed. Pepper started as a Plain Jane and got glamorous. And Happy even lost his—. HECK: Well, that wasn’t my idea. Stan called up, and he said he wanted Pepper to be prettier, and as far as I was concerned, that killed her. In other words, if she gets prettier, who cares if she’s second fiddle or something like that? But if she’s homely and she winds up going out, then it’s a big deal. And the same [call], he said, “Make Happy handsomer.” And I liked him with his banged-up ear and his crooked nose and a whole mess of stuff like that. It was fun to do with that one. Suddenly, everybody had to be pretty, and I didn’t like it.

having little bits of fun. When I was doing “Iron Man,” I enjoyed it because in the beginning, there were characters like Happy Hogan and that other girl, Pepper Potts. MURRAY: That’s too bad. It’s They were characters. They were funny. I remember the Happy and people. the Pepper when they first apAnd Pepper Potts, I used to think of [Ann B. Davis] on The Bob peared more distinctly than I do the later Happy and Pepper. Cummings Show [when] I thought of Pepper Potts. You know, the one HECK: Yeah. They looked good. who was always interested in boys? They were more fun. And [she] never could go out with MURRAY: And they were more them, and she’s thinking of all distinctive. these dumb broads [Cummings] went out with—that was one of the HECK: Exactly. There was one story where one character… was in things I was thinking when I was an office building or something like [doing “Iron Man.”] MURRAY: And who was Happy Hogan? HECK: He was just a pug. A type of character who would be like the Joe Palooka or Ham Fisher type, some character like that. MURRAY: I assume those guys are brought into the strip to pump in a little more reader interest.

Above: Tales of Suspense #50, page 50, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1964. The image on the opposite left shows Pepper Potts in her original “Plain Jane” look, while five issues later we see her depicted as being more glamorous. Both images, art by Don Heck. Left: Bob Cummings and Ann B. Davis, later “Alice” of The Brady Bunch TV show fame.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

that, and I drew in the back view of somebody like Marilyn Monroe and put it in the guy’s pocket as if it was a handkerchief. And I had an “X” mark on it. I was supposed to black it out, but I never did. It was printed [as it was]. Nobody spotted it. MURRAY: [chuckles] Yeah, you’ve got to watch stuff like that. HECK: It was done very small. It was a small thing. It wouldn’t be that big, but it was funny. I thought, “Shee, I forgot to black that sucker out.”

Don’s Additional Thoughts On Iron Man… “It was fun to do, especially in the beginning. There were two characters, Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts, that I enjoyed doing. To me, Happy was a pug, so it was great.” — Don Heck “I had fun with them. And Tony Stark was the man-about-town type of thing, so that worked out fine. There was more characterization at the time, and I had more fun with it. That was the first time that I started to work with getting a synopsis. The synopsis usually wasn’t even much. At times it was just discussed over the phone.” — Don Heck LOU MOUGIN: One of the things I noticed about your Iron Man work was Tony Stark’s look and all of the beautiful people, the movie-star look you set up. I recall when Iron Man always had a great deal of tragedy and pathos. DON HECK: That was Stan Lee’s thing, he was always thinking of Hamlet and stuff like that. You knew at any time he could die, his heart could go out on him, stuff like that. That to me is a hell of a lot better than, say, the Terminator in the movies; that no matter what you did to him, you couldn’t kill him. David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 97. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: You alternated on “Iron Man” at first. How come you didn’t do all the “Iron Man” at first? HECK: Probably time. Yeah, I probably was behind. Or in other words, I might have gotten some “Iron Man,” and all of a sudden, I was given something else to do and then just couldn’t do both of them. MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, because a lot of [people] think of Iron Man as a Kirby character, but it wasn’t initially a Kirby character. It was more of a Don Heck character. HECK: Yeah, like I say, each time they’d cut a new costume, “Iron Man” was mostly what I did. MURRAY: That was the last of the fantasy books to get a super-hero. Were you sorry to see the fantasy books go the super-hero route? HECK: In some cases, yeah. To me, it was always like you had [to fit] a full story in five pages. You aren’t getting paid that much so I was more interested where it took the whole book, where you could have one story being spread out and you’d have more time to develop things, rather than bang-bang-bang. You know, here we are in New York, then we go over to Paris and we’ll be over here to over here. [Stan] had all these changes, and we’d have five pages [to make it fit]. You’re only getting 40 bucks a page... [laughs] Big deal. MURRAY: Yeah, true. But if they had given you long fantasy stories, wouldn’t that have been just as good? HECK: Oh yeah. If they were longer, I would have been happy with them. It’s sort of like the three Star Wars [movies]. Hey, wonderful. If you want to give me a 40-page Star Wars, that’s great, then you can develop the characters. But try to think of Star Wars

Swordsman. He was another one. MURRAY: He didn’t have any particular inspiration, Hawkeye? HECK: No, he wasn’t even a villain. He shot arrows or something like that. MURRAY: How did he come to be an Avenger and how did that transition come about? HECK: I don’t know. Stan would have probably just decided one time. He was doing very well, and he probably thought of him the way I did. [Hawkeye] was almost like a Robin Hood type character and I saw him as that. MURRAY: Did Hawkeye sell issues of “Iron Man”? Was he popular, in other words? HECK: I don’t know. See, in those days, nobody ever told us if this was doing well [or if] I was doing well. I guess [they were] always afraid that we were going to ask for more money. [chuckles] God forbid they should raise the price up by two dollars an issue. [laughs]

Opposite Top Inset: Tales of Suspense #57, page 13 panel, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1964.

and do it in five pages. [laughs] And make it interesting without putting 14 panels per page on it. MURRAY: You’re the definitive Hawkeye artist.

HECK: I was the one who started it. MURRAY: Tell me about how that character came about. HECK: He was just a villain in one of the stories. So was The

Left: Tales of Suspense #56, page 14, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1964. Below: March 1965 blurb in Marvel in-house news/promotional page, announcing Dick Ayers as now inking Don on the Tales of Suspense “Iron Man” feature.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MURRAY: God forbid they should tell you you’re doing a good job or something is clicking. HECK: Oh yeah. That, you never got. I think Jack Kirby was more into it, so he would know the characters were doing well, and stuff like that, because he was always in there. So he was more up on what was going on. MURRAY: You must find it very strange, 25 or maybe more like 35 years later, to still be doing Hawkeye. HECK: Yes. [laughs] But then, that’s sort of like if you’d be doing Bringing Up Father or something. MURRAY: Do you like that character or are you getting sick of him? HECK: Yeah, he was fun to do. But like I say, they recently

it. [chuckles] MURRAY: Oh, what did they change? HECK: Just in general, they blamed this and that and did something else and changed the face. And then they said, “Well, this is the final version.” But by that time, I was working on the second issue. MURRAY: So your version of the new Hawkeye costume was modified by the Bullpen? HECK: Yeah, it wasn’t even my version because I was only inking. What I get are generally breakdowns in my case. MURRAY: That’s an easy mistake for me to make, because changed his costume, which was all when you ink someone, you sort of over the place, and [they] didn’t make that someone Don Heck. know what the hell they were HECK: Yeah, well, that’s normal. doing with it, and I don’t think it worked MURRAY: Oh no. Not for everyout that well. body. [Don laughs] Not everybody does that. Not everybody puts their MURRAY: That’s own stamp [on it]. You’ll overpower right. They turned a penciler with your specific style. him into a sort of an HECK: I did a couple issues of Iron Man. You basically took his costume Thor, and I did some complaining on some stuff. Well, if I see a Loki and then made it an who doesn’t look like Loki, I change armored version. Loki to look like Loki, okay? That’s HECK: Right. And the way I think it should be done. in fact, when I did it and when you see the But somebody started complaining thing as printed, I had that, “Hey, you’re not following to have it whited-out what I’m putting down here.” because they changed Bingo. [chuckles]

Above: Tales of Suspense #57, cover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1964. Introduction of Hawkeye, co-created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. Left: Tales of Suspense #57, page 5, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1964. Costume designed by Heck.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

found a way to use a tape recorder and wound up using—in those days, it was not used that much. I had a Wollensak tape recorder, and I found something that I could hook to the phone and save on tape. So I said, “Okay, now you can talk.” I could play it back. MURRAY: Did you save any of those tapes? I would think they would be—. HECK: I did, but the machine… it was a long time ago, and the new machine doesn’t play it because the old one was a reel-to-reel. I would expect that it would be all right, but it was [a] different [format]. [laughs] Well, it’s just sort of like our work. You never thought about it. MURRAY: Let’s get back to The Avengers. Your first Avengers story was the Wonder Man story. Somewhere I heard or read a story that DC was unhappy with that story because they felt Wonder Man was too close to Superman. HECK: It’s possible. I had heard there was a Wonder Man at DC, a Wonder Man character. In other words, in one of these other stories like Batman or something like that. That’s what I had heard, and they know the character was plagiarized, which it wasn’t.

MURRAY: You did a long run on The Avengers. That must have been a tough book, because team books are so busy. HECK: [laughs] I also did X-Men quite a bit. Issue #9, I think, is the first one I did. Well, I just suddenly got a call and Stan said, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to be doing an Avengers next month.” [laughs] MURRAY: Did Stan ever offer you something you turned down? HECK: No. Like I say, the only one I ever turned down was Kanigher, and he got pissed off at me. [laughs] MURRAY: Tell me about working on The Avengers. You were largely working with Stan Lee, I guess, at first on that book. HECK: Yeah. As I say, it was mostly over the phone, and I was one of the first who’d come up with the idea [of recording the calls]. I said, “Jeez, he’s talking and I can’t do shorthand or anything else like that.” So I

Left: The Avengers #9, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1964. Don’s first issue on Avengers. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks. Above: The Avengers #9, page 8 panel, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1964. Introduction of Wonder Man. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HECK: Yes. MURRAY: You did? Because that was a case where Kirby did the cover. HECK: But that design, I did it. MURRAY: Oh, the cover didn’t come first in that case. HECK: I guess not. MURRAY: Yeah, because it’s a Heck-looking design and not a Kirby-looking design. HECK: You can definitely spot it. It’s sort of like handwriting. MURRAY: Did you have much trouble with that story in the beginning? HECK: It’s so long ago, I don’t remember. MURRAY: Like I say, it must be rough to do a team book because you have to keep all your characters—. HECK: The good part is I had seven or eight issues that Kirby had [done], so I could suddenly look through and get—there was something down there. It’s sort of like inking somebody, because I told somebody lots of times that I’m not that fast, but if there was something down, and even if it was crap, I could change the crap and fix it and then make it work, and do it faster than I could, in a lot of cases, doing it myself. MURRAY: Was that why the character died at the end of the first story? HECK: No, Stan Lee just killed him.

MURRAY: Somewhere along the line in your Avengers run, you brought back Giant-Man and redesigned his

MURRAY: So he was never meant to be a continuing character in the book. HECK: No, not that I know of. Like I said, that was the first story I’d done on The Avengers, and it had all these characters and oh, sh*t. [laughs] MURRAY: Did you design the Wonder Man costume? Opposite: The Avengers #23, splash, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1965. Don Heck pencils and John Romita Sr. inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Above: The Avengers #11, page 8, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1964. Don Heck pencils and Chic Stone inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Right: The Avengers #20, page 3 panel, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Wally Wood inks. Image scanned from original artwork. CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

that was in a sequence, and it was issue #16. I know it was #16 because of the fact that it was in a comic book shop and somebody’s, “Oh, here’s one of yours.” And we opened it up, and it was the one I hadn’t done, #16. [chuckles] [Ed.: Dick Ayers was the penciler and inker on The Avengers #16, with Jack Kirby layouts.]

costume. Now that’s another distinctly Heck costume, if I’m not mistaken. HECK: [laughs] Yeah, there goes a [inaudible]. MURRAY: Yeah, but you also based it somewhat on the Giant-Man costume that had gone before. There was a certain design similarity. After you’d taken over The Avengers, Stan did that big change in the line-up. I don’t think you did that issue. I think that was Kirby and Ayers or someone. HECK: There was only one I didn’t do on The Avengers

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: That was the one where they got rid of Iron Man and Thor and Ant-Man and The Wasp, and they brought in Quicksilver, Hawkeye—and did that mean the book wasn’t selling that well? HECK: That, I don’t know. Why would you take off Thor and stuff like that? I mean, we’re always so worried about the fact that it had to be sequential things. In other words, Thor, at that part of his book was doing something, and therefore you couldn’t have him doing something different in Iron Man and like that, which was ridiculous. [laughs] But that’s the way it was thought of at the time. And like I say, I don’t think, in the beginning, Marvel was doing that great, so it may have been all of a sudden it was down so many thousand copies this month and we said, “We’d better change it.” Above: The Avengers #32, page 2, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1966. Below: The Avengers #17, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, June 1965. The new line-up. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks. Opposite: The Avengers Annual #1, pin-up, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1967. Pencils by Don Heck, inks by George Roussos.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

Don’s Buick Riviera…

“STRICTLY PERSONAL: By the way, if you see the shiniest, brightest, most-fireengine-red Buick Riviera you’ve ever seen scootin’ down a Long Island highway, wave hello as the dashin’ driver barrels by, because it’ll probably be dazzling DONNIE HECK with his latest pride ‘n’ joy! If we could get him to spend half as much time at the drawing board as he does polishing his flivver, we could publish the AVENGERS every week!” “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins,” Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #29, Marvel Comics, April 1966.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: I thought it was the strangest decision Stan had ever made, because he brought in really minor, minor characters, and villains for that matter, and tried to build up The Avengers out of them. HECK: It seemed crazy at the time. [chuckles] MURRAY: And then I think the first change he made

after that was done with was to bring Giant-Man back as Goliath. Was “Goliath” Stan’s name or your name? HECK: I think that would be Stan. In most cases, I was told what the character was. In other words, he changed. He was Giant-Man, then he changed into Goliath. MURRAY: Why did he bring back Goliath? Did he tell you? HECK: I have no idea. He very seldom asked for my opinions. [laughs] I was gently told such-and-such was happening. I know that sounds boring, but that’s the way it was. [laughs]

Opposite Left Inset: Magazine advertisement for a red 1965 Buick Rivera, just like Don’s! Opposite Right Above: The Avengers #32, cover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1966. Opposite Bottom Left: Nov. 1966 blurb in Marvel in-house news/promotional page, announcing Don’s inking his own pencils on The Avengers. Opposite Bottom Right: The Avengers #32, page 11 panel, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1966. Giant-Man. Above Left: The Avengers #35, splash, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1966. Above Right: The Avengers #36, page 5, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1967. Left: May 1967 blurb in Marvel in-house news/promotional page, touting—with Stan Lee-like hyperbole—Don’s work on The Avengers.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HECK: The Avengers were all right. They were pretty good. The only problem is that when you have too many characters running around, you can only really devote one or two pages to each of them. It wasn’t so bad in the beginning, because there were only a few characters and they’d work as a team. As the time went by, they suddenly started putting all these other characters in there, and—I don’t know. They’re all too big as far as I’m concerned.

character is what he is, y’know, and if you pretty him up too much, you’re taking the initial feeling out of it.

HOWELL: At least you’d drawn some of the characters before. HECK: Yeah. Well, I had done Thor, and I had done almost every kind of character—in fact, even today, I do get to thinking they figure, “Well, Don can always do this guy or that guy or the other one,” regardless of who it is.

HOWELL: What made him what he was in the first place? HECK: Yeah. I mean, if the girl was suddenly as pretty as Pepper was, she could get anybody anyway, so what becomes of her whole reason for being in the strip? But somebody who wasn’t and suddenly gets a date with the boss or something—it becomes something terrific.

HOWELL: But you think that the group got out of hand later? HECK: I don’t say “out of hand,” but sometimes they get to be a little too much. It’s sort of like when I was doing “Iron Man” and Happy Hogan—when I was doing him originally, he’d look banged up, and he’d look like a character, then Stan wanted him to be handsomer, and he wanted Pepper to be handsomer, and, I don’t know, that takes a lot out of it, as far as I think anyway. I’d much rather have a character—a

HOWELL: I think I see what you mean. And you think that the groups moved away from what caused them to be what they were in the first place? HECK: Yeah. I think—yeah. Like the whole purpose of having those guys together in the first place was to see what they’d do together, and if you put too many of them in there, then you’ll never even get a chance to see them do anything with each other—there isn’t the room, y’know? Every character gets half a panel every issue. [laughter] I also did “Ant-Man”—and

HOWELL: The groups? HECK: Yeah. They get too many of them in there, and then they decide to fight 65 other guys. [laughter] How much can you put in?

Above Right: Tales of Suspense #39, cover, Marvel Comics, March 1963. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks. Right: Tales of Suspense #39, page 6 panels, Marvel Comics, March 1963. Art by Don Heck. While in captivity, Tony Stark begins to build his armor.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Above Left: The Avengers #34, page 7 panel, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1966. Captain America and Hawkeye. Art by Don Heck. Middle Right: The Avengers #36, page 4 panel, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1967. Scarlet Witch. Art by Don Heck. Below: The Avengers #26, page 2 panels, Marvel Comics, March 1966. Quicksilver and Hawkeye. Don Heck pencils and Frank Giacoia (a.k.a. Frankie Ray) inks.

“Giant-Man,” which he became later. I had some fun with that. HOWELL: That was a pretty limited cast—like, two characters? HECK: Yeah, well, that’s easier for me. I’m not that fast, so I don’t suddenly have to put in 17 different characters. It gets to be a little hassling for time, sometimes. HOWELL: That’s strange to hear you say things like that, because I’d always associated you with group books. HECK: I know. I still get associated with group books.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HOWELL: Do you think that you were able to devote more storytelling attention and character attention to each character in, say, The Avengers, in the issues you did when the group was smaller? HECK: Yeah, well, you have to be able to. Otherwise there’s too many characters running around; you really don’t have that much time to get involved with the people. It’s sort of like if you’re in a crowded room, or you’re talking to two or four people. In the crowded room, how much time are you going to be able to devote to each one of them? Compared against three or four people? HOWELL: So do you think that when the group got bigger you had to spread the focus around? HECK: Yeah, you have to, you have to. HOWELL: No playing favorites? HECK: Well, you can’t really—it depends. You’d like to, and they tried to do issues where you might have eight or nine characters—I can’t recall off-hand; it’s been a long time—and they might just feature two or three. I thought that was a good concept, because that allows you to bring it down into a smaller group. And then you can concentrate on it. You get involved with what each character is doing more than “1, 2, 3, he’s out! We’ve got to put so-and-so in there, because it’s his page.” HOWELL: Did you have any favorite characters in the group? HECK: Out of Avengers? I can hardly remember who they were. [chuckle] Well, Jack Kirby created Thor, and he was great. Thor was always a good character. And I can’t remember the other ones. HOWELL: Let’s see, there’s Iron Man, of course, whom you were drawing anyway, and Captain America…. HECK: Yeah, well, Cap was always a good character. He could do almost anything, and yet I liked the fact that he could get hurt. It limits the interest as far as I’m concerned if a guy can’t get hurt at all. You know nothing’s going to happen to the man. HOWELL: Just glide through adventures…. HECK: Well, that’s why Iron Man in the beginning was good, because of the fact that his battery could drain down, and the guy could be in the middle of something, and have to get the hell out of there.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HOWELL: And then there was Quicksilver. Then the Scarlet Witch. HECK: Yeah. The Scarlet Watch was good. I enjoyed her. Pretty soon I got to be drawing pretty girls all the time. [laughter] I couldn’t draw girls at all in the beginning—that was my worst feature, and me a fan of Caniff’s! I decided I’d better start learning. I used to love The Dragon Lady and Burma. HOWELL: That certainly was a good place to start. HECK: Yeah.

Opposite Above: Strange Tales #146, page 3, Marvel Comics, July 1966. Don’s second issue of his stint on the “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” feature. Jack Kirby layouts, Don Heck pencils, and Mike Esposito (under the pseudonym Mickey Demeo) inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Opposite Below: Jan. 1966 blurb in Marvel in-house news/ promotional page announcing Adam Austin (a.k.a. Gene Colan) as taking over the “Iron Man” feature in Tales of Suspense from Don, and Don as moving on to the “S.H.I.E.L.D.” feature. Left: The Frogmen #8, page 23 from the lead story, “Sunken Jungle!”, Dell Comics, Feb.–April 1964. Art by Don Heck. Don freelanced for Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics during this period. Image scanned from original artwork. Below Inset: Tower of Shadows #1, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1969. John Buscema pencils and Don Heck inks.

Roy Thomas Recalls How Don Left The Avengers And If He Sought Out John Buscema “No, John was thrust upon me. John had done a ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ story and was working out okay, but Stan felt that he drew well, but needed to refine his style of storytelling by working over Kirby’s layouts for a few issues, to get away from the quiet things he was doing. Here was a guy who was a nice draftsman, and suddenly Don Heck had to go on vacation, so Stan said, ‘Have Buscema do a couple issues of the book.’ So I did this plot that has the group sitting around the mansion, with Hercules absent-mindedly lifting some terrific weights, and John brought in his pencils, which had more power than the finished inks. I looked at these pages and, except for a couple of guest appearances, Don Heck never came back to The Avengers again! [laughs] We gave Don something else to do because he was a good artist, of course.” — Roy Thomas

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, AND DC COMICS

chapter

Late 1960s–1977 tracing paper with some pen drawings or something like that, then I’d work it from that point.

MURRAY: You did work on Spider-Man at one point. HECK: I did the in-between stuff in a lot of cases. In fact, I think I did [Amazing] Spider-Man Annual #3 or something like that. John Romita roughed it out and then I tight-penciled it, and then he’d send it over to Mike Esposito [to ink it], who was listed as “Mickey Demeo” at the time. MURRAY: Yeah, that’s right. You did a run of Spider-Man as well, where Romita would lay it out, I guess. HECK: Right, right. He’d send it out to me, and probably on Opposite: The Avengers #37, unpublished cover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1967. Art by Don Heck. Above: Wonder Woman sketch by Don Heck.

MURRAY: The web lines must have driven you crazy. HECK: They did until John told me what they were. The things had to go a certain way around on the page. Once you know what the pattern was, it was easy. MURRAY: Give Ditko credit, he didn’t skimp on his design, even though he knew he had to draw every issue and every webline. HECK: Yeah. [laughs] Well, I think in a lot of cases, it was sort of like stuff that you’d do. You’re only expecting to do a couple of issues, or something like that, and then all of a sudden, it winds up to be an every month thing and, “Oh sh*t. I wished I hadn’t put this on there and that on there.” [laughs] MURRAY: You did a character later on, but there was one book that was always floundering around and that was Daredevil. First it was Bill Everett, and then it was Joe Orlando, then it was Wally Wood, and then it was Bob Powell. And I would think that would have been a perfect book for you to do, and you never did it. HECK: Yeah, well, I did some Daredevil.

Right: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1968. Layout by John Romita, pencils by Don Heck, and inks by Mickey Demeo (Mike Esposito).

MURRAY: Yeah, but that was after it got established. I would have thought that would have been a perfect book for you to do and yet you didn’t. HECK: Well, what happened when I finally did do some of the Daredevil stuff, it wasn’t inked very well. And no matter what I did, I was getting the bad rap for all these wonderful inkers that were [inking me] for a long time. [laughs] MURRAY: That’s how it works. HECK: Yeah, and the funny part is nobody remembers Above Left: Rawhide Kid #54, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1966. Don Heck pencils and Bill Everett (as “Willie Bee”) inks. Above Right: The X-Men #39, page 14, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1967. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Right: Daredevil #104, page 6, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1973. Don Heck pencils and Sal Trapani inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

that I always get the comment from [people] that say, “Yeah, the first story I ever did when I got in the business was I inked your stuff.” And I thought, “Yeah.” My comment always used to be—not to them—if a cleaning lady walked down the hall with a toothbrush stuck behind her ear, she would have had a Don Heck job by the time she reached the end of the hall.” [Will laughs] She [would say], “Aw, don’t worry. I can ink it.” MURRAY: How do you maintain your sense of proportion and professionalism? HECK: All you can do is the best you know how in the pencils. When they screw it up, there ain’t a damn thing you can do. You know, it’s sort of like if you write a story and they give it to some penciler and he screws up your story, there’s nothing you can do with it. MURRAY: Yeah, they never ask your input, who you’d like to be inked by or anything like that. HECK: Yeah. “Don’t worry, I got just the guy. He’s gonna be good.” “What do you mean he’s ‘going’ to be?” [laughs] “Oh, this guy, he’s going to be good. He’ll be [learning on you], but he’s going to be good.” MURRAY: And how do you find the energy to do your best when you never know—? HECK: I save the Xeroxes so that I know what it looked like when I sent it out. They got it and they did the garbage afterwards; this is what I’d sent. And I Left: Iron Man #35, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1971. Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito inks. Image scanned from original art. Above: The Man from U.N.C.L.E #2, page 6 panels, Gold Key, Oct. 1965. Don Heck pencils and inks. Don did some freelancing with Western Publishing, the publisher of the Gold Key imprint, during this period. Though the faces of the main characters—in this scene Napoleon Solo—look redrawn, and to this author don’t resemble Don’s work, Don’s style is evident throughout the book. Credits confirmed via the Grand Comic Database at www.comics.org. ©NBC Television.

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS

always tell them, even young guys that I know, save the Xeroxes so in case they give you a hard time, you can always walk in and drop it on the [desk] and say, “Hey, what do you want from me?” [laughs] MURRAY: All right, that’s very smart. Eventually, you left The Avengers. HECK: I didn’t need to say, “Switch me over,” to somebody. Or maybe they got John [Buscema], didn’t they afterwards? MURRAY: John, yeah. John, he took over. And did you go to X-Men then? HECK: It’s possible. MURRAY: X-Men had always been a poor-selling book.

Above (Left to Right): The X-Men #41, cover, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1968. Don Heck pencils and George Tuska inks. The X-Men #46, cover, Marvel Comics, July 1968. Don Heck pencils and unconfirmed inker, possibly John Verpoorten or John Tartaglione. The X-Men #47, cover, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1968. Don Heck pencils and Frank Giacoia inks. Right: The Amazing Spider-Man #57, page 2, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1968. John Romita Sr. and Don Heck layouts/ pencils and Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HECK: And that amazes me today when I hear that. Why wasn’t it selling? But even in those days, even if it was selling great, I wouldn’t have gotten any extra money for it, so it didn’t matter like today where some guy’s making all sorts of money on royalties.

MURRAY: Whom were you working with on X-Men when you took that over? HECK: At one point, I was doing breakdowns, and I think Werner Roth was tight-penciling in some cases. Then they had Vince Colletta inking, and in fact I did some other work one time, and Stan Lee called me in. He was complaining because—it could have been for that series too—I was doing breakdowns on some stuff and pencils on some of it. He was complaining that I wasn’t doing as well as he thought that I should be doing as far as panel construction and stuff like that, because he had this other guy inking me, and it looked like sh*t when he was finished. He was complaining about that, so he was trying to find a scapegoat for the problems, and it had to be me. [chuckles] He had somebody else he said he wanted to do the breakdowns for me, and then I could pencil in tightly so he could let this other guy ink it. I asked him, “What’s wrong with the layouts?” I said, “It’s not the layouts, it’s the inker. But you’re not looking at that, are you?” [chuckles]

MURRAY: Who was that inker? HECK: [laughs] It was [Vince] Colletta. MURRAY: Ah, yeah. I hear terrible things about Colletta. He would erase backgrounds. HECK: He’d leave them out. [chuckles] Well, that way, he could turn out that many more pages. MURRAY: That’s right. But you’re cheating the reader, you’re cheating the editor, and you’re screwing the artist. HECK: Yeah. As I often said, he’s a terrific guy, he’s a wonderful person, but his stuff over mine just didn’t look like anything. It looked like garbage, mostly. I Left: Captain Savage #12, cover, Marvel Comics, March 1969. Above: Captain Savage #13, cover, Marvel Comics, April 1969.

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS

knocked my brains out on it. Those girls that were finally inked didn’t look anything like what I did. When I penciled it, then they looked like mine. MURRAY: It’s interesting because Colletta’s style is in the ballpark of your style. HECK: Yeah. Only originally, one of the stories that they gave to Colletta was an Alex Toth thing, and they said, “Colletta is the only one that could ink it,” and that was bullsh*t. It looked terrible because he really couldn’t draw that well. MURRAY: But [Colletta] inked Thor forever and ever. HECK: Well, Kirby said, “Sooner or later, he’s going to learn how to draw this, [laughs] if he inks me long enough.” MURRAY: Speaking of inkers, there’s a guy I used to like inking Kirby. That was Dick Ayers. HECK: When he did ink Kirby, it would look like Kirby’s stuff. He followed it; he followed it well. MURRAY: But when he inked you or Ditko, it just

Don Leaves X-Men “I was there when Neal and Roy’s run on X-Men started. I thought it was wonderful but I had to deal with the mail, a lot of which was from outraged fans of Don Heck.” — Chris Claremont, legendary writer for Marvel Comics, remembering his days as a college intern at Marvel. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe, Harper, page 100.

Above Inset: The X-Men #37, cover, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1967. Don Heck pencils and Frank Giacoia inks. Right: Captain Marvel #16, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1968. Don Heck pencils and Syd Shores inks.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

flattened everything out, and I never understood why that was. HECK: I don’t know, because I always did tight pencils, or I thought I did. I penciled it over. Joe Sinnott did a job on me one time, and he was disappointed in what I had done in [the] pencils, because he didn’t consider them tight enough. MURRAY: Oh, really? I would think you would be one of the tightest pencilers that ever was. HECK: He was disappointed. He always remembered my “Torpedo Taylor” stuff, and he said when he suddenly got the pencils, they weren’t what he expected. But then that could

Above (Clockwise): Captain Marvel #5, cover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1968. Don Heck pencils and Sam Rosen inks. Captain Marvel #6, cover, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1968. Don Heck pencils and John Tartaglione inks. Captain Marvel #16, cover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1969. Don Heck pencils and Syd Shores inks.

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS

have been one of these things where, “Hey, could I have this job yesterday?” Nobody thinks about that at the time. You know, the editor says, “Hey, listen. I’ve got to have this next week,” and it’s sort of like when I did this the last time you called and I was so busy; I was doing a thing called Ford Fairlane. MURRAY: Ah, the movie thing. HECK: Yeah, and there were four issues of it. “And by the way, there’s an extra four pages that had to be done,” and, “Listen, we’ve got to have 20 pages inked by next Thursday.” You know? [laughs] And the pencils

weren’t that good, and I had to re-pencil half the stuff because they had a new kid on the block who suddenly was penciling their stuff, and it looked like garbage if I inked it the way it came in. They’d bitch and moan, you know? MURRAY: That’s interesting. I remember Steve Ditko telling me once that Stan called him in and said, “We are starting to put back features into Tales of Suspense and books like that, and we want you to do one. Take your pick: ‘Ka-Zar,’ ‘Sub-Mariner,’ ‘Hulk.’” And he picked “Hulk.” Did Stan ever do that; say, “Take your pick. We’ve got a bunch of characters, [is there] something you want to do in the back of the book”? HECK: No, I generally got told, “You’re going to be doing X-Men next month.” MURRAY: You’re lucky in the sense that you seem to have worked for both DC and Marvel simultaneously. Some people couldn’t do that or get away with it, I guess. I think there’re some barriers out there. HECK: Yeah, it’s not so much barriers, but I’d rather work for just one because you could only do so much. If you happen to be like Kirby where you could turn [out] five pages a day, or like John Buscema or somebody like that, then it’s different. Man, I hated all that stuff, but Joe [Sinnott] was bound up where both deadlines were due the same week. And unless you happen to have people helping you, you can’t do it. I never had anybody helping me in most cases, because if you did get somebody who was good enough to help you, the following month he was up there getting his own work, kicking your ass. [laughs] Teach yourself, buddy. What, [I get] six months’ worth of help?

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: I guess you can’t win in some ways in this business. HECK: Yeah, well, it’s that kind of a business. The only good part about it is you get to draw all sorts of stuff that you like to do. In other words, if you work for an advertising place, you draw a lot of boring stuff, which you hate. But in comics, I mean, you can draw characters, people, scenes, everything you can think of. It can be great. •••••••••• HOWELL: Have you done much work outside the comic book industry? It looked like you were ghosting The Phantom for a while…. HECK: I did some of the pencil work on that, and I was just doing breakdowns at one point. Funny part is, you feel like you don’t have that much of a special style, especially in those jobs where two or three people are going to be going over it, but for some reason or other, your style comes through. Do you know [Mike] Tiefenbacher, the fellow who ran The Menomonee Falls Gazette? HOWELL: Yes. HECK: I was subscribing to that, and all of a sudden they sent me a letter and asked me some questions. They wanted to know how much I was doing on The Phantom, because they could tell I was doing some of it. I was amazed. Because you figure nobody could ever tell. HOWELL: Sorry. It looked pretty distinctively Heck to me, too.

Don on Jack Kirby Leaving Marvel: “I remember going to the office and seeing a cigar stuck to the wall, and a little note under it saying, ‘I quit.’ Jack was living in California by then, so somebody else must have done it, but that’s how I knew he’d left.” — Don Heck Marvel: Five Fabulous Decade of the World’s Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991, page 145.

The “Marvel Bullpen

Bulletins” touts Don’s return to The Avengers: Hey, and let’s welcome home DASHIN’ DONNIE HECK who just couldn’t keep away forever from the AVENGERS strip he used to draw a couple years ago.

Opposite Above: The Phantom newspaper strip, King Features Syndicate, Inc., Jan. 4, 1971. Art by Don Heck. ©1971 King Features Syndicate, World Rights Reserved. Opposite Below: My Love #11, cover, Marvel Comics, May 1971. Art by Don Heck. Above Inset: Tales of Suspense #80, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1966. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks.

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS

A Rare 1968 Fanzine Interview [This 1968 fanzine interview is the earliest known non-Marvel Comics interview with Don. Conducted in 1968 by Gavin Roth, son of Silver-Age artist Werner Roth, it was originally published in 1968 in Gavin’s fanzine Nine Penny Gnus. In 1969, it was reprinted in Gary Groth’s fanzine, Fantastic Fanzine Special #1, with Gavin’s permission. The length of the original interview was roughly a page-and-a-half, containing 17 questions and Don’s responses. To avoid redundancy, I’ve removed any specific questions/responses that are already covered more fully elsewhere in this book:

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

For example, how Don got started in the business, and comments on the process of creating comics. The remaining interview Q&As are presented as originally published in 1968 and again in 1969.] GAVIN ROTH: When they get fan-letters at the bullpen—do you read any of them? DON HECK: I get some of them through. Generally the ones I get through are asking for original drawings…which is impossible to do. ROTH: What I was getting at was, in general, what is the fan reaction to your inking your own work? HECK: I think sometimes it’s been favorable—the reason I wind up doing mostly pencils is because they feel as though it’s

tougher for them to get a penciler than it is for them to get an inker, so whoever they feel can do pencils to what they want, they sandwich them on the pencils.

[Young Romance] and a bunch of things like that. All of a sudden everybody jumped on. And the same with what he calls longunderwear characters; y’know, super-heroes.

ROTH: Who decided that you should do the layouts for the X-Men, and what’s the point in it? HECK: Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky? I really don’t know... It’s just that they think the layouts are what I can do better for ’em, though that’s debatable. It’s like anything, it’s a personal taste.

ROTH: What do you think is Marvel’s best done strip at present? HECK: Fantastic Four. [Ed.: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott were the creative team at this time.]

ROTH: I guess you’ve heard about Jim Steranko taking a one-issue [Captain America] synopsis and telescoping it into three issues— what do you think of that? HECK: Well, it’s very hard, because of the fact that, sometimes you get a story which doesn’t want to go 15 pages… it wants to go into 30 pages… or something like that! I think the only possible thing you can say about that is that he should’ve gotten in touch with [Marvel]. And I think that’s just a matter of communications… just a little foul-up. At that point I thought I was off the breakdowns or roughs or whatever you want to call them, and strictly on something else, and I didn’t even know about it. ROTH: Is there any end in sight for the innovations in Marvel’s 1968 face-lifting job? HECK: Not as long as you’ve got someone like Jack Kirby who’s always coming up with new ideas… he really is great in my mind. He’s been doing that for twenty-eight years as far as innovations, ’cause he started the “love thing” in about ’52, which changed the whole field quite a bit. ROTH: You mean originated the love story? HECK: Not originated, but—oh, he may have, but, not in the full extent of love stories as such. But he came out with

ROTH: Which artists at Marvel do you admire most? HECK: I have three of them: Jack Kirby! ROTH: Do you have any advice for young aspiring artists? HECK: Yeah… become an engineer. But aside from that… you mean as far as breaking into the industry? ROTH: Yes. HECK: Well, it’s a tough nut to crack—but actually—if you’re good enough, they can just bring good samples around and try at different places. It’s about the only thing you can do. They’ll either accept it because it’s good… what I would say is if you’re drawing, let’s say, something like the Fantastic Four, something which you feel they can use, don’t copy panel for panel, because that doesn’t show any originality. They want to see something that is drawn on your own. Interviewed by Gavin Roth. Originally printed in his own fanzine, “Nine Penny Gnus,” and reprinted in Fantastic Fanzine Special #1, 1969, pages 14-15. Opposite: The X-Men #38, page 2 panels, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1967. Don Heck pencils and George Roussos [as George Bell] inks. Above: The X-Men #39, Angel image, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1967. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks.

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL – LEAVING FOR DC

chapter

1970s

MURRAY: Did you feel you’d been sort of a second-stringer at Marvel? HECK: I never thought of it one way or another.

MURRAY: Well, when I say “second-stringer,” it seemed to me that Kirby was almost on an equal footing with Stan— HECK: Yeah, yeah.

MURRAY: In the sense that Kirby was sort of a—. HECK: Well, I always figured when Kirby was there, he was a creator. He created most of the characters. And to me, that was wonderful, because the characters that he normally would create were good. They were fun to do.

MURRAY: —and Ditko seems to have gotten a lot of choices and options. And the way you talk is Stan would call and say, “You’re doing this next,” and you’d say, “Okay,” and off you’d go. Yet at the same time, you seem to be willing to have given Stan a little bit of guff when Stan would say or do something that you thought was—. HECK: Well, if I didn’t think it was right, I’d say something. But no, I never considered [myself] to be another—in other words, it’d be sort of like if I were working for you and you said, “How about doing this?” And I’d say, “Sure.” It’s no big deal.

Opposite: Iron Man #26, cover, Marvel Comics, June 1970. Don Heck pencils and Johnny Craig inks. Above: The Champions #1, page 11 panel of Ghost Rider, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1975. Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito inks. Right: Sub-Mariner #67, page 32 panel, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1973. Introduction of Sub-Mariner’s new costume. Don Heck pencils and Don Perlin inks.

you use Don Heck? He’s one of the best men in the business!” And you know, one of them said, “You know, I love the guy’s stuff, but I never think of calling him.” And that’s murder. [laughs] I said, “The guy’s gotta eat.” What’s the matter with them? Give him some work. They never gave him the work, anyway.

John Buscema on Don’s Situation Prior to Leaving Marvel ROY THOMAS: Don Heck was the Avengers artist before you. You two were friends, weren’t you? JOHN BUSCEMA: Oh yeah. We lived about ten minutes away from each other. One of the things I remember about Don, he was having a lot of trouble with a lot of the editors in later years. I don’t know why. I always thought Don was one of the better men in the business, and for some reason, these young editors wouldn’t give him enough work to survive. I was out to lunch one day with a couple of the editors and some of the writers. And I brought up the subject of Don, and I told the editors, “What the hell’s the matter with you guys? Why don’t

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

THOMAS: If Stan had told someone he was going to keep them busy, even if they were officially freelancers, he got very angry if that person had time on his hands because no one had work ready for him when he needed it! I continued that policy, and so did an editor or two after me. But, over the years, it went by the wayside. And once the company went to having a whole ream of editors a few years later, if one editor dropped you from a book, nobody else at Marvel felt any obligation to find you a replacement. That horrible, inhuman departmentalization was happening there, like it had at DC earlier. Editors would forget about people. BUSCEMA: And that’s a hell of a way to treat a guy after so many years, and he was damn good. THOMAS: Don had been very popular, especially in the ’60s, doing Avengers and “Iron Man.” Of course, he wasn’t really a guy who enjoyed doing superheroes. I remember the back-up story you did for an Avengers Annual, with humorous versions of you and me and Don Heck in it. Do you remember it at all? It had the feel of Mort Drucker in Mad. BUSCEMA: [laughs] I couldn’t believe that I had done that. I didn’t think I could do it. Alter Ego #13, TwoMorrows Publishing, March 2002. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas. Above: The Avengers #121, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1973. John Buscema pencils and Don Heck inks.

John Buscema on Contributing Factors to Don Leaving Marvel [In speaking about Marvel switching from 12” x 18” pages to 11” x 15” and the changing environment in comics at the time, John Buscema stated:] JOHN BUSCEMA: But I’m gonna tell you something. A situation like that killed Don Heck’s career. He was demoralized because there were [later] editors that were on that guy’s back, and he was a fabulous artist. He’d come to me—we lived close by— practically in tears and ask me, “John, help me out. What the hell can I do to satisfy these guys?” And he’s a talented guy who’s so great, and it destroyed some people. MARK EVANIER: The way Don told me the story is that John [Buscema] was starting his school up and he went to John and said, “Can I take your class? Everyone is telling me I can’t hack it anymore and I just don’t get it, and that you’re the guy I should be drawing like. I’ll pay you money to

teach me.” And John refused to take his money and said, “I’m not going to take money from another professional.” And he gave Don pointers, helped him out a bit, and Don later credited that with the fact he worked until his death. BUSCEMA: A sad story for Don. The poor guy died—seriously now. I don’t want to get melodramatic, but he died from a broken heart. If a book didn’t sell, it was never the writer’s fault; it was always the artist’s fault. The writer is always right and the artist’s the one who fell on his face. Am I right? “The Mighty Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001,” Alter Ego #16, TwoMorrows Publishing, July 2002, page 27. Interview conducted by Mark Evanier. Above: Left to Right: John Buscema, Don Heck, and Joe Sinnott at the 1974 New York Comic Art Convention.

CHAPTER FIVE: 1970s FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL—LEAVING FOR DC

and maybe some of the drama that Buscema and I put in there.” I don’t know why Stan gave the impression that Don’s work needed to be fixed up a little bit. He always asked me to correct certain things, and somewhere along the line he seemed to be a little critical of him, and Heck just said, “To hell with this. I’m not going to do it anymore.” It bothered me very much, because I was thinking to myself, “How can I talk this guy into meeting Stan halfway?” [Romita went on to explain that it happened to other artists; Stan asking them to make their art more dynamic. He continued:]

John Romita Sr. on Don’s Attitude Prior to Leaving Marvel JIM AMASH: Are there any personal anecdotes about [Don Heck] that you remember? ROMITA SR.: He was very unhappy because Stan would ask him to do stuff that was more like Kirby or Buscema and me. One time, Don got very mad and came into my office, saying, “If Stan wants Kirby and Buscema and Romita, why doesn’t he just give the work to Kirby, Buscema, or Romita?” I told him, “Don, there’s nothing wrong with your stuff. All Stan wants is for you to put a little bit of the dynamics that Kirby does,

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

ROMITA SR.: Don was a very good artist, but Stan and he were constantly at each other because Stan would say, “Well, it’s a little too mild. You need a little more excitement here, a little more intensity, a little more flashing in the eyes, a little more jagged edges.” Don was doing the best he could. Once I spent two hours on the phone with him. He lived out of town, and he called me, saying, “I don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to please Stan.” I told him, “Listen, there’s nothing wrong with the work you do. If you’re going to have somebody punch somebody, have him punching with a roundhouse blow and have the other guy crash through a wall. What Stan wants is more excitement, more exaggeration. If a guy’s pounding on the desk, he’s shaking the desk, he’s shaking the floor, that kind of stuff. It’s not like you’re that far from what Stan wants, he just wants you to add a certain amount of a little extra strength and intensity in it, a little bit of power.” Don tried, but he never quite satisfied Stan. Don had the same problem with

other Marvel editors. I constantly tried to keep him trying, and he would say, “I can’t do it. I obviously don’t please these guys.” It was very hard, because I always felt like if I could have Don in the office with me for a couple days, maybe we could work it out, but we never had the opportunity. It broke my heart, because he was one of the first guys to draw the Marvel super-heroes, like Iron Man. I felt like this is crazy. If Ditko’s leaving, and Don Heck can’t get along with Stan, I felt like we were really losing something. AMASH: But some of that life was in Don’s inks over Kirby. ROMITA SR.: He could do beautiful ink jobs, but I don’t think he liked inking a lot. He preferred to pencil. Actually, I think Stan thought his ink line was a little bit too delicate, too fine. He used a very fine pen line, and Stan liked a little more guts in his inking—like Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, and a few other guys. I don’t think Don Heck wanted to be just an inker, because he would have been correcting other people’s stuff, and everybody else would have been doing the storytelling. When Don left that day, I felt blue for like a week. I called him up a couple times and said, “Don, have you thought it over? Do you want to reconsider and not…?” And he said, “Naw, I’m finished with Stan. I’m tired of taking criticism.” It was one of the worst days I had. AMASH: Obviously, if Stan didn’t like his work, he wouldn’t have hired him in the first place. ROMITA SR.: That’s what I said, but Don was saying, “Stan gives me jobs, but he asks me to be somebody else.” And you know, even Jack Kirby used to feel the same way.

Opposite: The Amazing Spider-Man #63, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1968. John Romita, Sr., Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito inks [as “Mickey Demeo”]. Top: The Avengers Annual #2 (a.k.a. King Size Special), page 3 panel, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1968. Art by John Buscema, and featuring a frantic Don Heck fighting deadlines, and our favorite Marvel Comics heroes. Above: Marvel editor’s response to a reader’s letter regarding his dissatisfaction with Don Heck’s inks on Bob Brown’s pencils. The Avengers #125, Marvel Comics, July 1974.

John Romita… And All That Jazz!, by Roy Thomas and Jim Amash, Twomorrows Publishing, 2007, pages 75–77. Interview conducted by Jim Amash.

CHAPTER FIVE: 1970s FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL—LEAVING FOR DC

John Romita Sr.– More on Don’s Attitude Prior to Leaving Marvel MARK EVANIER: Don Heck once said to me that Stan wanted everyone in comics to draw in their own natural style. He wanted Kirby to be Kirby, he wanted Ditko to be Ditko, he wanted Colan to be Colan, and he wanted everyone else to be Kirby. [laughs] JOHN ROMITA SR.: That was how he felt, Stan Lee. One time Don came into my office and said, “You know, I don’t think I’m going to stay here anymore. If Stan wants

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

John Buscema or John Romita, let him get John Buscema and John Romita. I’m tired of trying to fake this stuff,” and I felt embarrassed because I was the guy he was looking to. I said, “Listen, Don, he doesn’t mean you have to draw like us. He means you have to do what we did when we started, incorporate all of the dynamics and the pacing and timing that Jack Kirby used to use. Neither one of us is like Jack Kirby. I aspired to, but I never could do it. But the approach, the pacing, the storytelling, the dynamics that he hoped for was what became the Marvel Style. It had nothing to do with the actual pencils on the page. It had to do with the mental approach.” Don never quite separated those two thoughts in his head. He always felt obliged to draw like us, and I said, “No, he’s not asking you to draw like us. He’s asking you to draw like yourself,” because he was a better stylist than I was. I mean, I admired Don. Don Heck’s style was tremendously independent from anybody else. He had a distinctive style, and I just got so frustrated that he was misunderstanding Stan’s corrections. Stan, sometimes, was a little bit grating to us with his announcements and pronouncements, and I also felt bad that misunderstandings happened between them. He worked for Stan longer than I did, started before me, and worked during the ’50s slump when I was doing stuff up at DC. That was one of his aces, and it drove me crazy that it would happen, but it was a complete misunderstanding, and he had so many unfortunate misunderstandings between the published stuff against him, and everything else they’d throw at him. “San Diego Jack Kirby Tribute Panel” Jack Kirby Collector #35, TwoMorrows Publishing, Spring 2002.

Barry Windsor-Smith On Marvel’s Pressure to Draw Like Kirby

Opposite: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, splash, Marvel Comics, 1968. John Romita Jr. layouts, Don Heck pencils and Mickey Demeo (Mike Esposito) inks. Scanned from original artwork. Above Left: The Avengers #112, cover, Marvel Comics, June 1973. Don Heck and Rich Buckler pencils, and Don Heck inks. Above Right Inset: Captain Marvel #16, page 4, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1969. Don Heck pencils and Syd Shores inks. An example of Don’s “Kirby-esque” renderings.

Stan wanted every penciler in his employ to draw like Jack—not necessarily copy him, I must point out, because that has been misconstrued for too long—but, rather, to adapt from Kirby’s dynamism and dramatic staging. Many pencilers pretty much had their own personal styles wrecked by Stan’s insistence in this matter. It was horrid watching Don Heck—a perfectly adept illustrator of everyday things and occurrences—struggle to create dynamism in his work that simply was not a part of his natural capabilities. — Barry Windsor-Smith Comic Book Artist #2, TwoMorrows Publishing, Summer 1998, page 21. Interview conducted by Jon B. Cooke.

CHAPTER FIVE: 1970s FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL—LEAVING FOR DC

was appreciated, even though he did some great stuff. JIM AMASH: I thought he got a bum rap. Did you get to know him? SINNOTT: Not really. We’d get together at conventions and have a good time. We were roughly the same age and worked all through the 1950s at Marvel. We had the same interests, he was a great guy to talk to, but I always had the feeling that Don was depressed and had a little chip on his shoulder because of how he was treated. I could be wrong about that, but that’s the impression I had. He was a nice guy and told it like it was. He wasn’t afraid to give you a straight answer to a question.

Joe Sinnott: A Fan of Don’s JOE SINNOTT: Oh yes… I loved Don’s work, especially his stuff in the 1950s. He was such a conscientious artist; he did great Navy stories, science-fiction stories… his mystery stories were great too. He was a great inker and a great storyteller. Stan appreciated Don, just like he appreciated Joe Maneely. But in the super-hero era of the 1960s, I don’t think Don really ever found his niche or

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

AMASH: I know he got the nickname “Don Hack,” but people forget that it was Heck that a lot of editors went to when they needed an entire book over a weekend. The inkers would then have to rush through the job too. Then those same editors would complain about the work. Well, just how great are 22 pages going to be when you only have a couple of days to draw them? SINNOTT: Exactly! It was unbelievable just how he was treated. The people who complained about Don had no idea about just what goes into drawing pages. Alter Ego #26, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003, pages 25–26. Interview conducted by Jim Amash.

Don Discusses His “Final Straw” at Marvel “Roy Thomas called me into his office and said that he was going to have somebody else do something I was doing. It may have been Daredevil. It was New Year’s Eve, and I was getting this really thrilling news: Another ‘star’ is going to screw with stuff I had worked on, so I figured maybe I would have a better chance over at DC.” — Don Heck Comics Scene #38, Starlog Group, Inc., 1993, page 12. Interview conducted by Will Murray.

Above: The Champions #1, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1975. Introduction of a super-team. Don Heck pencils and Don Perlin inks. Oct. 1975 blurb in Marvel in-house news/promotional page touting—again with Stan Lee-like hyperbole—the new super-team, The Champions.

Opposite Inset: Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #4, splash, Curtis Magazines (a.k.a. Marvel), July 1975. Don Heck pencils and Frank Chiaramonte inks. Above Right: Marvel Premiere #30, page 14, Marvel Comics, June 1976. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

CHAPTER FIVE: 1970s FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL—LEAVING FOR DC

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

DC COMICS

chapter

1977-1988 As shown in Chapter 4, Don first briefly worked a few assignments for DC Comics’ war books back in the late 1950s. During the early ’70s, Don had a short stint with DC Comics on their horror and romance line of comics, including the popular “Batgirl” back-up feature then appearing in Detective Comics. He would return to Marvel through to the mid-1970s, until leaving Marvel entirely for DC Comics in 1977. Don would stay at DC Comics for eleven years, up to 1988.

Opposite: Teen Titans #52, page 17 pin-up, DC Comics, Dec. 1977. Don Heck pencils and Bob Smith inks. Above Inset: Detective Comics #424, splash, DC Comics, June 1972. Art by Don Heck. Above (Top to Bottom): Young Love #89, cover, DC Comics, Nov. 1971. Don Heck pencils and Dick Giordano inks.

MURRAY: You did a lot of romance work. Was that for Marvel or was that for DC or someone else? HECK: I did DC covers, and I think one of the first things I did for DC in a long—I did something for them, like I said, in the ’50s. I did a lot more [in] 1971 or ’72 or something like that. I think it was Roy Thomas [who] called me [at Marvel], and they were going to have somebody else take something I was doing—I don’t recall, it may have been Daredevil—and they were going to have this other inker on me, and I said, “That’s okay. I’m done.” [laughs] And I said, “Another ‘star’ is going to screw [up] this stuff that I did, working on it.” So I figured maybe I’d have a better chance over at DC. You take a shot. If it doesn’t work, you go back to the other one—the only way you can work at something.

Young Love #91, cover, DC Comics, Jan. 1972. Art by Don Heck. Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #123, “Rose and Thorn” page 7, DC Comics, June 1972. Art by Don Heck.

of new guys, and I felt like I was getting a little short-changed. I decided to see if I could get any work over at DC. Someone said they might be interested, so I went there. I remember that at Marvel I was going to do some book, and they were going to put an inker on me that I wasn’t thrilled about, so I said, “No, forget it.” I went over to DC for a couple of years. MOUGIN: In the mid-1970s, you came back to Marvel, at least partially. HECK: It was one of those things. It wasn’t working as well at DC as I wanted, so I went back to Marvel. I had seen Marvel’s production manager, John Verpoorten, a few times at these meetings they used to have, when they were trying to start artists’ groups…. MOUGIN: Like ACBA? [Ed.: Academy of Comic Book Arts, a comics advocacy organization.] HECK: Yeah, so I went to a few of those, and they asked me to come back to Marvel.

Don on Moving to DC Comics LOU MOUGIN: Around 1970 you went over to DC and did some stuff on Detective Comics with Batgirl? DON HECK: Yes, that was actually 1972, I think. MOUGIN: Also some work on Lois Lane, I remember. What got you back to DC and what was it like working there? HECK: I don’t know for sure—I guess I wanted a change. You start to feel stale after a while. It was a different scene at Marvel at that point. There were a bunch

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MOUGIN: In the late 1970s, you gravitated back to DC again. HECK: I wasn’t happy with the stuff I was getting at Marvel. I felt like I was getting short-changed again, so I talked to [DC Comics Art Director] Vince Colletta and he said they were willing to give me a contract at DC. I didn’t have a contract with Marvel at the time. MOUGIN: You were freelancing? HECK: Right, and I never knew when the next job was coming. I went back to DC in 1977; I stayed there until a couple of years ago. David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 102. Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

Kirby Recommends Don to DC Comics “Jack was a huge fan of Don and his work. In fact, Jack was the person who suggested Don for the ‘Batgirl’ series at DC Comics. Carmine [Infantino] was speaking with Jack and mentioned he was having difficulty finding the right artist for the ‘Batgirl’ series. Jack told him, ‘Why not Don Heck? He draws the prettiest girls in comics.’” Mark Evanier, personal friend of Kirby and comics historian, quoting Jack Kirby on how he suggested Don Heck for the “Batgirl” assignment.

Opposite Inset: House of Secrets #85, page 3, DC Comics, Apr.–May 1970.

Above (Left to Right): Detective Comics #421, splash, DC Comics, March 1971. Image scanned from the original art. Detective Comics #421, final page, DC Comics, March 1971. Image scanned from the original art.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

Don on Moving to DC Comics… “At first I had good inkers [at Marvel], but sometime in the early 1970s, when I thought the quality was going down, I switched over to DC. Then after a year or so, something happened there—I don’t recall what—and I went to Marvel for a couple more years. Then around 1977, I went back to DC again until 1988, when the work suddenly stopped… To put it straight—and this was happening at Marvel too—I felt they started ‘dumping’ the older guys, so to speak.” — Don Heck Gold & Silver: Overstreet’s Comic Book Quarterly #4, Gemstone Publishing, page 83, Apr.–June 1994. Interview conducted by Pat S. Calhoun.

“I left Marvel in 1977. When I came over to DC, the first comic I did was Wonder Woman. I got pulled off it ’cause they didn’t like what I was doing! Someone else was inking it—Vince Colletta. He was the art director at the time, so what could I say to him? But I didn’t like it. He was very fast, could just bang it out, and he had someone doing backgrounds. He did a good job on Kirby, but I guess it depends who they’re inking over.” — Don Heck Comics Feature #34, New Media Publishing, page 80, March 1985. Interview conducted by John Peel.

MURRAY: What are the bigger [industry changes] that you’ve seen—or in the way you work? HECK: I guess the biggest change was the time that Stan Lee had to change the things so that he could [write] all those books, and that started off a trend [of] how they worked with writers. The biggest other change would be the royalties, in the fact that you’re getting a piece of the action for a change. Back in the old days, you were lucky you were working, and if suddenly you either were sick or somebody was going to go get married—in fact Frank Giacoia, from my understanding, was all set to go and get married, and the editor says, “You can’t. You’ve got to finish this job before you can go on your honeymoon.” Top Left Inset: Wonder Woman #206, page 18 panel, DC Comics, June–July 1973. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks. Above: House of Mystery #192, page 4, DC Comics, May–June 1971. Art by Don Heck.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Below: Steel: The Indestructible Man #6, unpublished cover, DC Comics, 1978. Don Heck pencils and Al Milgrom inks. The title was prematurely canceled due to the “DC Implosion” when economic factors forced DC to cease publication of many recently launched titles. Image scanned from original artwork.

Above: Steel: The Indestructible Man #1, splash, DC Comics, March 1978. Don Heck pencils and Joe Giella inks. Image scanned from original art.

Forged for War: Steel: The Indestructible Man #1 (March 1978) “Thanks to scripter Gerry Conway and artist Don Heck, the red, white, and blue shown like never before—on the steel alloy suit of the Word War II cyborg, Steel.” DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle, by Daniel Wallace, Matthew K. Manning, Alexander Irvine, Alan Cowsill, and Michael McAvennie, DK Publishing, 4th edition, Sept. 2010, page 177.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

Rumor of Don ’ s “Personal Tragedy ” ? One industry rumor regarding Don that had been circulating since the mid1970s is that in the 1970s “something tragic” happed to Don where he basically couldn’t draw, and/or had a nervous breakdown, or the like. As with most rumors, the “something” remains undefined. In my research through Don’s peers and those working in the industry at the time, no one seems to know any details other than they had also heard second-hand that “something tragic” happened where Don could no longer draw for a period of time. Keith Dettwiler, Don’s nephew, debunked this rumor entirely: “Absolutely false! When I read that in the questions you sent over, I thought, ‘What!?’ There was nothing tragic or whatever that happened to my uncle. I do know that during the time you mention he became very discouraged with his inkers. Don was a perfectionist. He started to draw less detail in the work because he felt the inkers would hack it up anyway. But no, there was no tragedy. Nothing.” When I mentioned Don spoke of being divorced twice, and possibly that got people assuming some form of “tragedy,” Keith countered, “Sure, he was divorced twice, but he never, ever went into depression or anything like that. He wasn’t the type to go off the deep end. And didn’t. Again, Don was Don. There was no tragedy or whatever that affected his drawing. I think he was just tired of working hard and turning in exceptional work and getting subpar inkers.” Note: See Chapter 13 where Jim Fern recounts how Don directly addressed this topic.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Don began as the monthly penciler on The Flash with issue #280, Dec. 1979, and would continue through #295, March 1981 (16 issues). MURRAY: You did The Flash? HECK: Yeah, I did that. It was about 16 issues on that. I did about three issues of Green Lantern, and I was all over the place. MURRAY: Did you like doing Flash? HECK: Yeah, it was all right after a while, but I was sort of hamstrung. I was told to do multiple-image shots—he’s got this multiple-image shot, and I wanted him done like you didn’t see these little individual figures going, going. A blur [was] what he was supposed to be as far as I was concerned. And then, all of

Opposite: The Flash #290, page 6, DC Comics, Oct. 1980. Don Heck pencils and Frank Chiaramonte inks. Don mentions this scene as an example of some of the—to him—ridiculous scenes he had to draw. Above: The Flash #292, page 6, DC Comics, Dec. 1980. Art by Don Heck. Flash versus the Mirror Master. Above Right: The Flash #292, page 13 panels, DC Comics, Dec. 1980. Art by Don Heck. Right: The Flash #293, page 2, DC Comics, Jan. 1981. Art by Don Heck.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

Top Left: The Flash #294, splash, DC Comics, Feb. 1981. Top Right: The Flash #295, splash, DC Comics, March 1981. Left: The Flash #294, page 8 panel, DC Comics, Feb. 1981. Opposite Top: The Flash #295, page 2 panel, DC Comics, March 1981. Opposite Bottom Inset: Adventure Comics #486, “Dial ‘H’ For Hero”, page 3 panels, DC Comics, October 1981.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

a sudden, they got ahold of me and said, “By the way, you’re off The Flash because Carmine’s back. So, obviously, it’s his book. We’ll give it to him again.” So what did they do? They allowed him to do the same type of stuff that I wanted to do. [laughs] But one story [Flash #290] was whacko. The girlfriend next door and he were ringing the bell, and he comes to the door as his normal self. But you’re supposed to see The Flash go into the apartment and come back as this guy and meet himself at the door. [laughs] I did this shot, and the writer says to me,

“Gee, I was wondering how you were going to do that.” And I thought, [exasperated] “God.” [laughs] MURRAY: You didn’t read science-fiction. HECK: No, I didn’t. You know who was a sciencefiction addict? When Jack Kirby was working, he had all these science-fiction pocket books. He was a science-fiction addict. MURRAY: Yeah, I can believe it. HECK: And I didn’t know how the hell he did it. I said, “How in the hell can you read all of this stuff and still do five pages a day?” [laughs] MURRAY: You don’t sound like you have that high of an opinion of the business as it is today, or the people in the business as it is today. HECK: Well, [I don’t], particularly. I really miss the ways of the old [days]. It was more fun. When you were told, “I need this next Friday,” you knew the guy wasn’t going to say, “Oh well. I can pull this [other] guy in and take three weeks instead.” Because if you did that, then you were out of the business. That’s the way it should be.

Don’s Back to Inking His Own Pencils “I am glad to be back penciling and inking my own stuff—and I’m sure the inkers are happy to hear that!” — Don Heck, commenting on being able to both pencil and ink his work on the Adventure Comics “Dial ‘H’ For Hero” series. Superman Family #206, “Daily Planet Feature Page: DC Profile #73,” DC Comics, July 1981, inside back cover. CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

Don began as regular monthly artist on the Justice League of America title with issue #201, April 1982. MURRAY: In terms of characters, which is the specific series character you least liked working on? HECK: When I was doing The Justice League of America, I did quite a number—in fact, they wanted me to do it and I said I didn’t want to do it, because I didn’t like the guy that was inking it. I said, “He’s the regular inker on it, and I don’t want you pulling him off the story for me, so I’d rather not do it.” And then all of a sudden, one day, they told me, “You’re doing it, period.” But they got a different inker on it. MURRAY: What didn’t you like about Justice League? HECK: Just [that] it was strange to me. You know, different characters. 96

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MURRAY: Yet I can’t imagine it would be that different than doing Avengers. HECK: No, after a while, you get used to it. To me, 20 different characters running around—in fact, a couple of the stories was where it had Superman, you’d have Wonder Woman, you’d have somebody

Chuck Patton on Taking Over for Don on Justice League of America “I was lucky to have met Don Heck. And I remember how Don was looked at in the industry. Because to get into comics, I always tell people you don’t get into it for the money. You really can’t get into it for fame. You gotta love it. And if you’re lucky to get fame and money out of it, that’s actually a plus. And there was a really strong [negative] fan opinion about Don Heck. And the thing was, he was just a marvelous man, you know, and really giving to me as well as joking that I was full of beans, and I’m the young punk who’s taking his job. And on the other hand, you know, he gave me a hell of a lot of advice, and I always respected his work.” — Chuck Patton Alter Ego #58, TwoMorrows Publishing, Aug. 2012, page 26. Interview conducted by Shannon E. Riley.

Opposite Top Left: Justice League of America #187, page 20 panel, DC Comics, Feb. 1981. Don did this fill-in issue—prior to his becoming the regular monthly artist with issue #201— after the unexpected death of thenregular title penciler, Dick Dillin. Don Heck pencils and Frank McLaughlin inks. Opposite Top Right: Justice League of America #203, splash, DC Comics, June 1982. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. Opposite Below: Justice League of America #213, page 10, DC Comics, April 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. Above Overlay And Inset: Amazing Heroes #18, page 16, Fantagraphics, Dec. 1982, in their “Amazing Heroes Newsline” section. Justice League of America #213, page 15 panel, DC Comics, April 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. Right: Justice League of America #205, page 16, DC Comics, Aug. 1982. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

else there, each character doing something. It’s sort of like you open a door, I’ll look through it—in other words, it was nothing great happening. One character could have done the whole damn [thing]. Why four or five super-heroes doing this, like Superman? If you’ve got him, why the hell do you need all these others?

Above: Justice League of America #213, page 10, DC Comics, April 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks.

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Don Considered As Replacement on the shelved 1983 JLA/Avengers Crossover In the early 1980s, Marvel Comics and DC Comics announced a much-anticipated inter-company crossover featuring the Justice League of America and The Avengers. George Pérez— then and now a fan favorite—was the artist and had actually penciled numerous pages before leaving the project frustrated with the office politics and related plot delays. In a written response to DC Comics’ Managing Editor Dick Giordano, Jim Shooter—then-Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief—indicated a final green light on the project, “Presuming that you correct these minor plot problems, the only thing remaining to be settled before the plot is given to the artist is the selection of the artist. Don Heck, who you said was under consideration, is all right with us.” — Marvel Comics, Marvel Age #19, Oct. 1984 We can only assume in Shooter’s response the inference that DC had suggested Don as a possible artist replacement, as no record of the correspondence from DC remains. Attempts to contact Mr. Shooter via his blog, twitter, and other Internet resources to provide comment/clarification were unsuccessful.

HECK: That’s why I wanted to do something on Wonder Woman; I’d do penciling and inking, because then I didn’t have to tight-pencil it that much. I could spend more time finishing it. In other words, when I got it back, I could see mistakes, make corrections, and then ink it. And to me, that’s where I started making the money for a change, because I wasn’t stuck with this other thing. MURRAY: You could make more money penciling and inking? HECK: And inking, yeah, because in other words, instead of having to tight-pencil every damn thing, [I could tighten it up when I] ink it, [and] there’s nobody who can screw it up. [I would] pencil it, but there were certain areas you didn’t have to tighten every damn thing.

Don Helps Bring Back Wonder Woman “After nearly five years of Diana Prince’s nonpowered super-heroics, writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artist Don Heck restored Wonder Woman’s… well, wonder.” DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle, by Daniel Wallace, Matthew K. Manning, Alexander Irvine, Alan Cowsill, and Michael McAvennie, DK Publishing, 4th edition, Sept. 2010.

MURRAY: Oh, I see, I see. I would have thought that in considering the Kirby way of doing things, which is just pencil and that’s it, I would think that you could make more money just penciling and never inking. HECK: No, to me, it was the other way. In fact, somebody says to me, “Where you’re penciling, it’s not the same as when you ink it.” I said, “Why should it be? I know what I want to do with it; as long as the finished product is there...”. Ross Andru said something to me one time; he says, “Gee, your inks look like your pencils.” And I said to Above: Wonder Woman #329, page 24, DC Comics, Feb. 1986. Art by Don Heck. Stunning Amazon battle scene. Left: Wonder Woman #204, cover, DC Comics, Jan.–Feb. 1973. Don Heck pencils and Dick Giordano inks. Return of Wonder Woman to her costume, death of I-Ching, and introduction of Nubia.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

him, “[Is that a compliment?]” [Will laughs] I said, “I’m not sure, the way you said it.” [laughs] In other words, they didn’t go downhill. MURRAY: Yeah, yeah. I think Ditko said that to me, that if he knows he’s going to ink it, he can slide on the pencils, because you don’t have to do it twice. There’s no need to. HECK: Oh, yeah, that’s the thing. And you don’t have to put every single thing in. You don’t have to say, “Oh jeez. If I [don’t] put this down, this guy [isn’t] going to know to fix this,” whereas you will. So you’d have to erase this, oh, four times to get it just perfect. And somebody can turn around and say, “Oh, I can do that in three hours or two hours.” And you say, “Sure, so can I.” Because [yours looks like] a piece of sh*t. It’s not going to take me seven months either. [chuckles] MURRAY: Well, you seldom have the opportunities these days, unless you’re doing something that I’m not seeing, to both pencil and ink your own work. HECK: No, I think one of the last things I used to do [both was] when I was doing Wonder Woman for DC. MURRAY: It’s a thankless task. That’s a book, I understand, [that] never really sells well, but they keep it alive. HECK: It wouldn’t sell if you stood on your ass, you know? [Will laughs] I didn’t know when I got it. [laughs] I did have an inkling, though,

100 DON HECK: A Work Of Art

because there was a writer in there, and he looked at me like I had just gotten a booby prize. [Will laughs] His comment was something to that effect, and I’d go, “Uh oh, I think I just lucked out.” But I got all this, “Oh boy. That’ll be terrific,” blah, blah, blah, and all the rest. And then I think I got one— no, I don’t think I got any royalties on that one. I never got a royalty check on Wonder Woman, no matter how hard I tried. MURRAY: I heard from someone at DC that the daughter of the creator of Wonder Woman has this sort of sweetheart deal, where for licensing purposes, and also to fulfill the lifetime contract they have with her, they have to publish Wonder Woman, no matter what. No matter whether it sells or

doesn’t sell, no matter if it loses money, they have to publish Wonder Woman. So it’s a character that’s sort of terminal. It has been terminal a long time. HECK: Oh, it’s very possible. Well, what I did was I didn’t even think about it after a while. I just started doing as good a story as I could. And I said, “If it does well, fine. If it doesn’t, I’ll just consider this a story that I got to do and hope for the best.” MURRAY: Yeah, you did that for a couple of years, or longer. HECK: Yeah, yeah, almost 30 issues. MURRAY: So at least you got to draw women. HECK: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I say I didn’t mind it, and I did have a good inker on me for a while, [Rick] Magyar. But then I finally talked the editor into letting me pencil and ink it because—and I told the editor the same as Rick Magyar. I told him I asked to ink it not because I was displeased with the inks, because I think he did a great job. I said I just wanted to pencil and ink my own stuff. Opposite: Wonder Woman #329, page 7, DC Comics, Feb. 1986. Right: Wonder Woman #324, splash, DC Comics, April 1985.

Don’s Disappointment on the Sales of Wonder Woman Don speaks of his disappointment in learning the Wonder Woman title was a perennial lowselling book. At first being enthusiastic to draw one of DC Comics’ iconic characters, in his first meeting with the series writer, Don describes, “He looked at me like we had just won the booby prize!” Comics Scene #38, Starlog Group, Inc., 1993, page 13. Interview conducted by Will Murray.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

101

HECK: One more little thing I can remember: I did a story one time for Julie Schwartz, and it was Superman and The Flash [Ed.: DC Comics Presents #38, Oct. 1981]. I think it was a [team-up book], and the

writing was good. And Julie said, “Gee, I like the way you did that job.” So Julie is a sharp editor, he’s one of the few you meet. And he turned, he said [to the writer], “Why don’t you write him a letter? You’re a writer. Why don’t you write him a letter and tell him so?” Which he did. I didn’t follow all of his [script], but I followed something like about 60%, 70% of what he had written down. I followed it and he said, “The other 30%, you made it better.” [laughs] MURRAY: Yeah, that’s nice. HECK: And it was such a nice compliment. I couldn’t believe it. [chuckles] MURRAY: Who was the writer? HECK: I can’t recall, [laughs] but I’m bad on names. In other words, I only worked with this guy the one time. If I worked with him several issues, or something like that, [I would recall]. But he was a good writer and he put down a good story. [Ed.: The writer Don is referring to was Martin Pasko.]

Left: Wonder Woman #311, splash, DC Comics, Jan. 1984. Opposite Above: Wonder Woman #329, pages 27-28, DC Comics, Feb. 1986. Opposite Below Left: Wonder Woman #329, page 37 panel, DC Comics, Feb. 1986. Wedding of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Opposite Below Right: DC Comics Presents #38, page 8, DC Comics, Oct. 1981.

Rumor of the Demise of Don’s Art Greatly Exaggerated… “To be perfectly honest, when Kim [Thompson, then-editor] handed me the Xeroxes to this issue, I felt my stomach drop out, as I recall I did not feel I wanted to review a comic drawn by Don Heck (especially a Wonder Woman comic). The reason being that I just could not see myself taking pot shots at a man who was respected by such luminaries as Dick Giordano and Neal Adams. Here was my first comic to review, and already I could see my career pass before my eyes. Then I actually sat down and read the issue. Guess what? I enjoyed it! That’s right; I enjoyed a Don Heck comic… a Don Heck Wonder Woman comic!… “…This in spite of the fact that it is a Wonder Woman drawn by Don Heck, or perhaps because of it. So if you haven’t read Wonder Woman lately and want to see what Don is doing these days, I recommend that you pick up this issue; you won’t be sorry.” “Comics in Review—Wonder Woman #311”, Amazing Heroes #35, Fantagraphics, Nov. 1983, pages 60–61.

102

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

103

Don at a Comic Store Signing All this time, [Don] had been autographing comics (some of which he couldn’t even recall having done, he’s done so many) and drawing small heads of characters for the fans. Why just heads? “I tried it once, drawing figures,” he remembered, “but it’s too crazy. They’re too complex for a quick sketch. I just do heads now.” One young boy asked for a head of the Vision. Don asked to see a comic with a picture of him. When the boy looked startled, Don laughed, “I’m not going to copy it! It’s been so long, I don’t recall his costume!” Who are his favorite artists? “Joe Kubert, John Buscema, José GarcíaLópez. I just saw Atari Force #6— fantastic! I like that one. One of the best comics I’ve seen.” A fan asked him who his favorite Avenger is. “I don’t know,” he answered promptly. “I haven’t the slightest idea. There’re really so many characters, you can’t get involved with them. I was on so many, and you jump off and on, off and on. Most people who read it know a lot more about it than I do. If I take that much time to read it and get all the background to it, I’d never get the artwork finished. The only thing I can tell you about the Vision is that he doesn’t have a cleft in his chin. Roy Thomas was so upset one time when I put a

104

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

cleft in his chin! ‘Perhaps that’s because he’s an android,’ I suggested, ‘and androids have cleft chins?’ ‘Bull!’ he replied, happily enough. ‘The rest of him is human.’ I like to put a cleft on a character.” He finished his sketch of the Vision and was about to hand it over when he paused, and his eyes twinkled. “I really should put a cleft in that chin, shouldn’t I?” he laughed, and handed it over to the fan—without a cleft! The next fan wanted a Batman, so he set to work. “If you take half the costumes away,” he commented, “the characters are going to look very similar. Really, you take the face, the hair, a little distinguishing thing here or there and just change them slightly, and you have another character.” One thing I had noticed about Don’s characters is that they tend to have their mouths open most of the time. “Well,” he explained, “if you’ve got them talking, they look kinda funny without their mouths open! At Marvel I used to do that, draw them with their mouths closed. That’s the way it was always done in comics. They used to complain, though: ‘Hey, this guy is talking, and you’ve got his mouth closed!’ That was when Stan [Lee] was in charge. I guess no one jumps on that much now.” He grinned, “He probably couldn’t find anything bigger to complain about—I mean, an editor has to do something! Stan wasn’t really a perfectionist, but there was this, ‘There’s got to be a reason for me being here!’” He laughed. Back to a sketch, this time a Wonder Woman. “That one I should know!” he smiles. “Can’t have extra lines on a woman’s face, or it doesn’t look right…. Oh, that made her mean looking. Well, we can change that….” Out with an eraser. “Patience, patience….” As I left the Serendipity comic store where I had been talking to Don, he had just grabbed another pad. “Okay,” he said to the next fan. “And what would you like?” He was having a great deal of fun, doing what he does best—drawing. Comics Feature #34, New Media Publishing, March 1985, page 61. Article by John Peel.

Roy Trades up for Don… “In a feature story about DC Comics’ upcoming 12-issue mini-series DC Challenge! — with a different creative team on each issue in a “can you top this” story format — series editor Robert Greenberger stated that in forming the creative teams, “The choice of penciler has brought out even more excitement in the scripters — Roy Thomas reportedly went to great lengths to ‘trade’ for Don Heck…” Amazing Heroes #79, Fantagraphics, Sept. 1985, page 24.

Don Ushered Out The Door At DC… HECK: But you talk about Dick Giordano... his assistant, or someone like that, thought we should see each other and talk about something. I didn’t know what was going on, and I knew the handwriting was on the wall when Dick Giordano says to me, “If somebody offers you work, take it.” [laughs] I mean if that doesn’t tell you, and you’ve been working for the guy, for the company, for something like ten or eleven

Above (Clockwise): DC Challenge #9, page 4, DC Comics, July 1986. DC Challenge #9, page 10 panel, DC Comics, July 1986. Adam Strange and Jimmy Olsen. DC Challenge #9, page 11 panels, DC Comics, July 1986. Featuring Blackhawk.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

105

next to a building where you’ve got a 65-foot window. MURRAY: Unbelievable. HECK: And I looked at it and I thought, “God.” [laughs] MURRAY: Do you regret having stayed in comics as long as you have? HECK: No, not really. It was something I enjoyed doing, but I would have liked to have hooked up with some good writers on a good strip, but it’s a little late right now. [chuckles] MURRAY: Well, you don’t think in terms of wanting to work in animation or storyboarding or something like that? HECK: I heard that [Kirby] was really good at it. But like I say, it’s sort of like until you get your feet wet, you’re a little chicken to walk into it and find out you’re going to fall on your face. It’s a question of getting lucky enough to happen to meet somebody that you can get your foot in there. And you can do it

years at that point, you know, uh-oh. [laughs] MURRAY: What were you doing at the time he made that suggestion to you? Wonder Woman? HECK: Probably. No, I think I’d just finished up, and I was doing some other stuff and I had to go in for some other—one time he told me that I had to ink this guy, and the guy was a rank beginner. And he said, “Well, this guy, his stuff is more realistic than yours is. Your stuff is stylized.” I was trying to follow his stuff and I’m looking at this crap and thinking to myself, “Oh, man.” [laughs] MURRAY: You can’t get good work out of someone by saying—. HECK: Yeah, “Follow the guy who is obviously a rank amateur who draws a person next to a car, and the car next to a building, and none of them are in relationship as far as size-wise. I mean, if you actually figure one to the other, the guy is 14-feet tall, and the car is about three-and-a-half feet too high, and it’s 106

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

and then fine, you say, “That’s nothing.” But like when Stan Lee first started talking about going from his synopses, I said, “You’re crazy.” “Please don’t worry. You can do it.” MURRAY: No kidding. HECK: [laughs] They weren’t kidding. There was another guy who was all set to go away because he had planned something [for] six months or a year or two to go away on a vacation. And the editor says, “You can’t do that.” He did say, “I’m going.” When he came back, he didn’t have his work. MURRAY: Who was that? HECK: I don’t recall. I don’t remember the name of the—. MURRAY: At Marvel or DC? HECK: DC. They were a bunch of bastards. [laughs] MURRAY: DC, to this day [Ed.: 1990], is very cold and corporate.

HECK: Yes, yes. I worked for them for eleven years straight, which is surprising. Well, they kept me in contracts. They kept doing that, then all of a sudden, I didn’t have any work there. Bang, bang, they just threw me out. Opposite Above: Green Lantern #121, page 3, DC Comics, Oct. 1979. Don Heck pencils and Frank McLaughlin inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Opposite Below: The Superman Family #196, page 55, DC Comics, July-Aug. 1979. Don Heck pencils and Bob Smith inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Left: Justice League of America #198, page 7, DC Comics, Jan. 1982. Don Heck pencils and Brett Breeding inks. Image scanned from original artwork. Above: World’s Finest Comics #277, page 8, DC Comics, March 1982. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS

107

108

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

BACK HOME TO MARVEL, AND THE INDIES

chapter

1989–1994

MURRAY: Oh, so you went back to Marvel. HECK: Yeah, that’s why I had to come back. MURRAY: There must have been big changes at Marvel since—. HECK: Oh yeah. Like, my God. [laughs] MURRAY: Yeah, that’s the thing that amazes me about your work is I’d look at either if it’s a story you inked—a Hawkeye story, let’s say—and I’d compare it to a Hawkeye story you did in ’65, ’66—I don’t see a big difference, stylistically. You have maintained the edge, to an amazing degree, that you had then. Whereas Kirby became sort of a caricature of his own style, that Ditko sort of super-simplified his style to the point it lost some of its weight. But you’ve still Opposite: Fantastic Four Board Game illustration, Marvel Comics. Art by Don Heck. Above: Mr. Fixitt #1, cover, Heroic Publishing, June 1993. Art by Don Heck.

got the weight and you’ve still got the line, and I wonder, one: how you maintain that crispness of line, and two: how come you’re not appreciated, because you’re doing the same kind of work you’d done in the ’60s? HECK: I don’t know why I’m not. [chuckles] They sometimes [say], “Oh, I love your stuff.” But then, like I say, you don’t get the calls. I mean, as far as drawing, I always try to keep drawing. I was looking at the guys who are good, guys like Caniff, or stuff like that. I’ve got the files here and I thumb through them. Or Dan Barry, who was doing Flash Gordon. He was doing great work. And I keep [looking] back at what I consider is good artwork and hopefully, I’ll keep drawing it. Sort of like the reason John Buscema is so good; you see all these pages that he’d done for the books. But not only that, he draws all the time. If he’s not working all day, he’ll fill a whole page of different figures. Just practice working, you know? Maybe a certain panel gave him some trouble. He’ll do it four or five different ways, just as practicing stuff. That’s why he’s so damn good. MURRAY: So you maintain your edge by drawing, no matter what. HECK: I draw all the time, yeah. I’ve got a whole bunch of pages where you’re just drawing figures there, [working] with that, trying different methods or trying different things that you’re working with.

Right: Avengers Spotlight #28, cover, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1990. Don Heck pencils and Al Milgrom inks.

109

Re-Drawing Tales of Suspense #50 for the Marvel Masterworks (1992) Issue #119 of Marvel Age (Dec. 1992), Marvel’s news magazine for its line of comics, included an article titled “Remaking History: Secrets of the Iron Man Masterworks.” The Marvel Masterworks was then, and remains today, an ambitious project of collecting and reprinting the stories from the Marvel Age of Comics in a high-quality, hardcover book format; in this case, the early “Iron Man” stories. The article describes how when Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort decided that the early “Iron Man” stories deserved the Masterworks treatment, he found that the Marvel archives did not have the black-and-white photostats of the story to Tales of Suspense #50, the introduction of one of Iron Man’s greatest adversaries, The Mandarin. He called Don with the unenviable task of asking he recreate the story, in his style of then over 30 years old. In the

110

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

article, it describes the process of Don tracing over enlarged photostats taken from a decaying copy of the published comic, using semitransparent vellum. Don commented: “I didn’t even think about it when we first talked, but when it came in, it felt funny doing something that was 30 years old, especially as they asked me to reproduce it the same that it was… I had to keep myself from changing and fixing. Look at something you’ve drawn only a few months ago. Is it perfect? You look at it and only see mistakes.” Don describes why he chose to use 11” x 17” versus 14” x 21” size paper to recreate the story: “First of all, I’m used to it these days, and second, I would have had to [join] the tracing paper together (to work on the larger size stats), and that would have been trouble.” Luckily, for the fine details lost on the photostats, Don had an original proof copy of the story from 1963 in his personal files to compare. With regard to inking the recreated story exactly as he had done 30 years earlier, Don lamented, “You can’t get these old, good Gilotte 291s they used to have: the brushes are the same, Winsor & Newton series 7, but the pen points these days normally aren’t that great.” When recreating the story, Don remembered about a house he rented on Fire Island that summer in 1963. “It reminded me of when I got out the hammer and nails and built a second-car garage on that house.” He also reminisced about the early days at Marvel. “There were only four of us [artists] around…Steve Ditko, myself, Dick Ayers, and Jack Kirby— maybe one or two others. [In those days] whatever was needed was what you did.” Marvel Age #119, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1992.

whether you want to or not. HECK: If you want to or not, yeah. MURRAY: But you want to. HECK: Yeah. MURRAY: You want to, that’s good. That’s good because you still do good work. HECK: Well, I try to. All I can do is the best I know how at the time. And it also depends on the writing. If you get a decent story, then hell, you’ve got something to grab ahold MURRAY: Do you still like the work? HECK: Yeah, yeah. MURRAY: You still maintain your enthusiasm for it. HECK: Yeah, that’s surprising to me, because I did this for a long time, and after a while in most cases, people would say, [“retire”]. And then if you came in the [office], you [see] you really shouldn’t have thrown in the towel. I guess I’m just stubborn. [chuckles] MURRAY: Well, that’s a good way to be, to be a freelancer, to be stubborn. Do you ever think of retiring? Does it ever enter your head? HECK: I don’t have the money to do that. [laughs] I don’t get these royalties. We don’t get stuff that’s going to do anything for you. MURRAY: So you’ve got to keep working Opposite Inset: Tales of Suspense #50, page 50 panel, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1964. Above: The Destroyer graphic novel, page 143 panel, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1991. Right: Marvel Fanfare #54 (Vol.1), page 4, Marvel Comics, April 1991. A short story where a boy’s Marvel action figures come to life.

CHAPTER SEVEN: 1989–1994 BACK HOME TO MARVEL, and the INDIES

111

HECK: Yeah, because I look at it and I say to myself, “I wouldn’t hire this son of a bitch to do backgrounds. [Will laughs] You want me to draw like this? Hey, you’ve got this guy? Give it to him.” MURRAY: Also, after so many years in the business, you’ve got your style. HECK: It’s like handwriting. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t change it. I mean, Joe Kubert or John Romita, if John Romita does one head on a whole story, you know John Romita did it. In fact, John Romita inked one of my Avengers stories, and he said, “Jeez, I’m sorry, Don. It looked like mine,” because he’s such a powerful inker. I said, “John, I’ve got no complaint.”

No Work: Don Expresses How Puzzled He Was Later in His Career Over Why He Stopped Receiving Assignments “If you were doing bad work, and your artwork had done a tumble, you could say, ‘Okay, I deserve this.’ But when it’s looking good, you ask, ‘Why?’ Sometimes editors say, ‘Oh yeah, I love your stuff.’ But you don’t get the call.” — Don Heck Comics Scene #38, Starlog Group, Inc., 1993, page 14. Interview conducted by Will Murray.

of—you can work with it. But if you’re getting what I call a PTA meeting-type stories [Will laughs], the thing yakking away, how can you make it interesting? MURRAY: Do you ever get them having to show you—this is really insulting, because I know Ditko says he gets this sometimes—they’ll put down some work in front of you, like some young guy’s done, and say, “Try drawing like this.” HECK: Yes, yes.

MURRAY: Wally Wood inked a couple of your Avengers. HECK: Oh, I remember his stuff when he was doing EC stuff. MURRAY: It looked good. I thought what he added equaled what he took away. HECK: Which is as I said, it’s the same when Romita did it and I said to him, “I don’t care if it looks just like you did it,” and it didn’t even bother me. As long as the final product was good, that’s all that really counted.

Don Reflects on His Career “It’s that kind of business. I would have liked to have hooked up with some good writer and done a newspaper strip, but it’s a little late now. The good part about comics is that you get to draw all sorts of stuff that you like to do. If you work for an advertising place, you draw a lot of boring stuff, which you hate. In comics, you can draw characters, scenes, everything you can think of. It can be great.” — Don Heck

MURRAY: That is so insulting. [Don laughs] That is so stupid.

112

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Comics Scene #38, Starlog Group, Inc., Oct. 1993, page 34. Interview conducted by Will Murray.

Reflecting on His Work PAT CALHOUN: Going back a little, I really like that bullet in the head cover [Horrific #3]. [laughter] I always wonder if artists are annoyed when somebody says their favorite thing is something the artist did at the start of their career, when they’d much rather be appreciated for more recent work. DON HECK: Oh, that’s okay. I mean, if somebody says that was the best thing I ever did, I’d be annoyed… because hopefully your best work is the one you’ve just done. But for somebody to like something you did 40 years ago, that’s all right. If nobody liked it, you wouldn’t be in the business in the first place. In fact, there’s a Horrific cover that I like—the African one, #6 [above]. I enjoyed doing that. There’s all sorts of color, with this big head staring at you. Part of that came from National Geographic, and the research made it even more fun. Gold & Silver: Overstreet’s Comic Book Quarterly #4, Gemstone Publishing, Apr.-June 1994, page 84. Interview conducted by Pat S. Calhoun.

Opposite Inset: NASCAR Adventures #8, page 17 panels, Vortex Comics, 1992. Above Left: Horrific #6, cover, Comic Media, July 1953. Above Right: Short interview with Don by David Watkins for a monthly newsletter published Oct. 1993 by the Minnesota Cartoonists’ League.

CHAPTER SEVEN: 1989–1994 BACK HOME TO MARVEL, and the INDIES

113

114

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

RY E L L A G K DON HEC

chapter

8 Left: Gunsmoke Western #63, page 26, Marvel Comics, March 1961. Image scanned from original art.

Opposite: Danger #9, cover, Comic Media, Apr.–May 1954. Art by Don Heck. Image scanned from original art.

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY

115

116

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Left: The Avengers #32, page 3, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1966.

Opposite: Tales of Suspense #56, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1964.

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY

117

118

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Left: Steel, unpublished cover, DC Comics, 1978. Don Heck pencils. The title was prematurely canceled due to the “DC Implosion” when economic factors forced DC to cease publication of many recently launched titles. Image scanned from original artwork.

Opposite: Captain Savage #14, cover, Marvel Comics, May 1969.

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY

119

Above: Secrets of Haunted House #28, cover, DC Comics, Sept. 1980. Left: Ghosts #96, cover, DC Comics, Jan. 1981. Opposite: Adventure Illustrated Magazine, Winter issue, #1, page 49, New Media Publishing, 1981. Prose story with illustration.

120

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY

121

122

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Left: Marvel Super Heroes #13, page 54, Marvel Comics, April 1993. Below: Marvel Super Heroes #15, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1993.

Opposite: Wonder Woman #325, page 20, DC Comics, April 1985. Image scanned from original artwork.

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY

123

124

DON DON HECK: HECK:A AWork WorkOf OfArt Art

These are eight penciled pages by Don for an unpublished story he was working on in the 1990s at Claypool Comics with Richard Howell titled “Roulette.” Written faintly around the outside border of the art were notes back and forth between Don and the editor:

CHAPTER CHAPTER SEVEN: EIGHT: DON DON HECK HECK GALLERY GALLERY

125

(DON TO EDITOR) Rich, last 3 of 4 panels were changed this morning — will tighten up in inking — Don

(EDITOR TO DON) Don, Steve doesn’t say so, but this scene takes place at night. Boston’s not half bad enough to have muggings in Fenway Park’s parking lot in broad daylight. That large wafer-like thing in the sky’s [sic] are Fenway Park’s lights—large, contoured sheets of spotlights. Title is designed for night scene.

PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, AND STYLE

chapter

Above: Don Heck, pen to paper.

HOWELL: How would you describe a “good script,” something that you feel would bring out the best elements in your storytelling? Does it have to have particular elements in it, like lots of action, or particular types of characters? HECK: A little of each, actually. I mean, obviously there has to be a certain part of a story where you sum up in the end, a good visual beginning, and there has to Opposite Above: Batman Family #20, page 10, DC Comics, Oct.–Nov. 1978. To the right is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while to the left is the published page. Don Heck pencils and John Celardo inks. Opposite Below: Flash #282, splash, DC Comics, Feb. 1980. Don Heck pencils and Frank Chiaramonte inks. To the left are Don’s uninked pencils, while to the right is the published page. Notice the revisions on the published page in the upper-right to add dialogue.

be some action inbetween. Otherwise, if there’s too much talk, it may look good on television, because they can bang one panel after another, or one picture after another, but it won’t work in comics. There has to be some action. Nothing is, to me, worse than where the guys are inside one little room talking to one another for four pages, y’know? HOWELL: So you think comics have their own particular requirements? HECK: Yeah, definitely,

Left: Superman Family #197, page 10, DC Comics, Sept.Oct. 1979. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks. Above is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while below is the published page.

127

because of the fact that sometimes the writer will put something down, and he visualizes it in four panels, but technically you have to put it in one. There’s got to be a good visual flow, and exciting stuff to draw. I never liked drawing buildings or cars or everyday stuff. HOWELL: You like the weirder stuff, then—outside of the super-hero line? HECK: I used to like the space opera stuff. “Arooga from Outer Space” never really turned me on [laughter], because it always seemed to me they were patterned after those Japanese movies where, “Here comes the tidal wave, and it knocks out the whole city.” And then you’ve got to draw the city crumbling and stuff like that. And then “Here Comes the Army.” Which is terrific, but if they’d only pay us by the number of figures that we put in, it would be better. It doesn’t work that way, though. You’re paid on a page rate. HOWELL: And you indicated that you had done some Westerns? HECK: Yeah, I always enjoyed Westerns. I enjoyed the war stuff, only because of the fact that I like to draw characters that are rougher, y’know, where you can put in all kinds of lines and everything. HOWELL: Seems like that would suit your inking style, too. HECK: Yeah, I think so. Well, I have a rougher style anyway, as most people have complained about, [laughter] because I don’t have it as slick. But I think that that’s one of the things that was good about Marvel in the 1960s; it was like EC years ago. You looked at

one of EC’s books, and although there were all different people working there, you could spot who did that book right away. And Marvel came along, and they were doing the same thing; you had Jack Kirby, and had Ditko, myself, and a few others like that, and they all had different styles, and there was no question on who was doing it. DC at the time had, I think, too many artists who looked the same. HOWELL: I’d heard that. Gil Kane has a lot to say about it. HECK: Yeah, I think that comes up with the editorial end. They say, “We want you to draw like this, we want you to draw like that,” and I was told at Marvel in the late 1960s, “Why don’t you draw more like this?” And I said, “This is the way I draw.” HOWELL: What period was that? HECK: I think about the time that Steranko got there. He was getting all those letters, y’know. I don’t know how well his books were selling, ’cause I didn’t even know that about my own, but I know that his stuff was getting a lot of attention. HOWELL: How do you actually work breaking down a story? HECK: Well, it varies. I usually rough-pencil a page and put it on a lightbox. Sometimes I just make thumbnail sketches… and sometimes I just draw it straight out. HOWELL: So it varies quite a bit?

128

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HECK: It various depending on how I feel; really, [that’s] what it amounts to. Sometimes I found myself drawing too much on the underneath board, and not enough on the top one, whereas I get that nice juicy looseness underneath, and then I start stiffening up on the outside and I don’t go for it. So then I say, “Well, now I’ll just have to draw it out straight.” And I use a blue pencil. I think it’s the Venus Color-Erase. I use it because it’s easily erasable—it has no grease to it. In fact, they have two of them, a light blue and a dark blue, and sometimes I use them both. I rough in very lightly with the light blue and then I put the dark blue over it. Then I pencil over that. HOWELL: And what purpose do the thumbnails do? HECK: So that you have an idea exactly where everything in the

panel is going to go, and what it’ll look like printed. You could visualize through the thumbnail, and it could be just a bunch of lines to somebody else, but to you it’s a pattern of blacks and shapes.

how you can tell what the writer has put down, and sort of simplify it so it’s drawable—you’ll go crazy. So that’s what I do that for. A lot of people do that. They do it even in illustration.

HOWELL: You get a more abstract HOWELL: So all the different techniques have nothing to do with view. HECK: Yeah, and you can visualize it. You’re not just looking at words, which can be crazy, especially in, Opposite: The Flash #293, page 7 panels, like, one of The Flash stories where DC Comics, Jan. 1981. Art by Don the Flash is changing into his cosHeck. Don evidently decided to tume in the middle of Times lay out the busy, single panel described here into three Square as horses are reeling in the panels for greater effect. background, and a guy is piping a flute, sitting on a statue. That’s one Above: Justice League of America #205, panel. HOWELL: I remember that. [Ed.: The Flash #293, opposite.] HECK: If you don’t put all that somewhere first—so you start to separate what’s going on there, and

page 13, DC Comics, Aug. 1982. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. To the left is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while to the right is the published page.

CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE

129

HOWELL: Figuring out what you meant? HECK: Yeah, well, you put down on the side that such-and-such a thing happened, but he could—the characterization in a person is done with the dialogue. The dialogue has to be written so that it sounds like this is what the guy would be thinking or saying. different types of stories or anything, just with how you feel that day? HECK: Yeah, more or less. And as far as technique goes, it also depends. I might run a stint of six months of doing roughs underneath, and then decide, “Well, I’ve got to get a change away from that and do something different.” HOWELL: Are you at all familiar with On Stage? HECK: Oh, yes, yes. Good stuff. That guy’s super. [Ed.: Leonard Starr.] I got a whole bunch of that too. I used to save all the Sunday pages, and the dailies. That man’s a genius—a super talent, no question about it. 130

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

HOWELL: Were there any favorite writers you liked to work with during the Marvel days? I guess there weren’t as many back then as there are now. HECK: Yeah, there’re so many now, but then there was Roy Thomas, and there was Stan Lee. Those are almost the only ones I worked with. The one nice thing about it, like I said, when they were doing the synopsis, was I had the freedom. You’d send these pages in, and then you’d see Stan put the dialogue to it, and it really worked out nice. It was a good combination, because he was great for looking at things, and being able to put stuff in there.

HOWELL: So you tried to put in attitudes and expressions that Above: Justice League of America #214, splash, DC Comics, May 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks. To the left are Don’s pencils for the page, while to the right is the published page. Opposite Above: Justice League of America #207, page 23, DC Comics, Oct. 1982. Unpublished pencils. The published version has a different layout. Opposite Below: Wonder Woman #315, page 3, DC Comics, May 1984. Art by Don Heck. To the left is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while to the right is the published page.

would transmit that… HECK: I would try to. Y’know, sometimes you’re successful and sometimes you’re not. It depends on what you’re doing. Like I say, I think I had more fun in those days, and that’s one of the reasons. HOWELL: Have you noticed any difference in the visual technique of comics between say, back in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and what the readers or what the editors are after today? HECK: Well, the artwork is different, obviously. In a lot of cases, the newer fellows throw a lot more panels in. Somebody like… back in the 1950s there was a fellow named [Bernie] Krigstein who worked for EC, and he would panel it bang-bang-bang, but they would be a sequence job. These days there seem to be a lot of tricky shots—and I guess they’re great… if they’re selling, I guess that’s what the readers want, but I’m more the older style, I guess. Like today they put “multiple-image shot this,

CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE

131

Left and Right: Supergirl, DC Comics, Don Heck layouts. Below: The Flash, DC Comics, Don Heck layouts.

Left: Wonder Woman #317, page 16, DC Comics, Don Heck layouts. Right: Wonder Woman #321, page 11, DC Comics, Don Heck layouts. Opposite Background: Sketches by Don Heck. Image scanned from original artwork

script, and I think that if the guy gives you enough room to draw the pictures and you’re interested in it, so it seems like it’s going to be fun to do, you draw better. There are certain things you can do if it’s a dull page or something like that. You can try to take one panel or something, and pop it up. Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn’t, but if the script has something to it where you can get into it—a little meat to it—then it works better. And that would be normal, I would imagine.

backgrounds. If I’m drawing trees, for instance, I’ll just sketch in the shapes. Most of the detail is added in the inking.

HOWELL: Len Starr told me a story about how when he was working in the comics shops back HOWELL: Oh, yeah? in the early 1950s, he said he was HECK: Yeah, well, if there’s too considered one of the better storymuch copy, you have no room for tellers in the shop, so he kept being drawing the picture, and it’s a given the stories that were dull. visual medium as far as I’m conHECK: Yeah, well, that would be cerned. normal too, I guess. I’m not sure if it’s always true that way or not. I HOWELL: Do you think that artists and writers might disagree as used to get some stuff when Marvel was doing things—I think it was to that point? later in the 1960s—if the book HECK: I’m sure, I’m sure. I mean, a writer is a writer, and he wants to wasn’t selling as well. I never knew write, and an artist is an artist, and if mine were considered that good at the time, but that may be because he wants to draw. of monetary reasons. In other HOWELL: And they each want to words, they didn’t want to tell us that our books were selling, because think they’re the most important you’d be liable to ask for more part? HECK: Well, it takes two to tango, money. so there has to be meeting of the HOWELL: Do you pencil differminds somewhere. ently for yourself, for when you know you’re going to be inking a HOWELL: You’ve worked with particular job? many writers over the part of your HECK: Yeah. Lighter, because long career that I’m familiar with, when I get it back, I can look at it, and with scripts that I would say and if I see something I don’t like, I are of varying quality. Do you find can just change it. In other words, I yourself working harder on scripts that aren’t up to par, or do you feel won’t have to put that much in at that good scripts bring out the best certain points. Certain things I will tighten up, and other things I will in your art? leave looser—especially the HECK: I think that if it’s a good

HOWELL: Looks like a pretty loose pen line on the rest, though. HECK: Yeah, well, I use different types of pen points. I don’t necessarily always use any certain one. I have an Estabrook one that I picked up years ago—in fact, I probably wouldn’t be able to replace it, but I got a couple of gross at the time. And it’s one [with which] you can put down a real fine line, and you can also dig into it at the same time. It’s a fairly big point. It was called a Professional A-1, and I wish I had bought about four or five more boxes, because they were selling it at Sam Flack’s in the city for two dollars a gross. [laughter] This was about seven, eight years ago. [Ed.: Mid-1970s.]

multiple-image shot that.” I would rather see multiple panel shots, one after another, where you’re getting a real sequence happening, so that you would be able, as you’re looking at it, to see that action happening, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5—each in a separate panel. In fact, I got a book here, it’s got a job by Kubert in it, doing exactly the same as what I was talking about, five shots in a row— and very small copy in there—and it’s a sequence shot, but without trying to throw it all into the one panel and then having a lot of copy. But all artists want the least amount of copy possible.

HOWELL: Do you ink mostly with a brush? HECK: No, I ink mostly with a pen, in fact. HOWELL: Really? HECK: Yeah. I use a brush for the juicy blacks that are put on the wrinkles and stuff like that. That’s all brush.

HOWELL: That sounds like a pretty good investment. HECK: Oh, like I say, I wish I had bought about five to ten more boxes. I didn’t need pens then. I wasn’t inking. I was just buying something, and speculatively at that. HOWELL: Was the fact that you weren’t doing much inking in those days your own choice? HECK: No, no. I always wanted to

CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE

133

ink. In fact, if you’ll talk to Len Wein and ask him about me, you’ll find out that I’m forever asking to ink. HOWELL: Len did mention that story. HECK: Yeah, and it’s true. I would much rather finish my own work. Obviously, if I do that, I’m not going to do as many pages per month, as far as that goes, but I like to get into the characters. I like to work with the whole feeling of the story. And I think you—I do, anyway—draw better if you do the whole drawing. HOWELL: I’ll go along with that. HECK: Except for—recently [Ed.: 1981] I did a job, “Dial ‘H’ for Hero,” and they had a new inker on me…. HOWELL: Dennis Jensen? HECK: Yeah. And he did a great job. HOWELL: It looked somewhat like Murphy Anderson’s inks. HECK: Yeah, yeah. But there were a couple pages that I wanted to ink so badly [laughter] that I was sorry to see them shipped off to an inker. But then when I saw what he did with it, I was not unhappy at all. He did a real good job!

HOWELL: You must have a fairly difficult style for an inker to get ahold of. HECK: I guess so. Remember, though, back in the 1950s, there were some “pencilers” and some “inkers,” but it was predominantly that there were artists. There were a lot of people back in the 1950s about whom you could say, “Who could they have gotten to ink this guy?” and you can’t think of anybody. You could sit back, for instance, and say, “Who would you get to ink Jack Davis?” Well, you wouldn’t get anybody but Jack Davis to ink Jack Davis. Or Joe Kubert for Joe Kubert. Who else are you going to get to ink Joe Kubert? HOWELL: Mort Meskin, maybe? But I see your point. Name an inker for Graham Ingels. HECK: Right. Isn’t that a change we’ve seen in the industry—breaking it down into more of a production line? Of course, back in the 1950s, you were doing smaller stories—five pages, like. HOWELL: I’ve not seen too many comics from the 1950s, but I have seen some, and some titles, like say, Marvel’s Black Knight or Venus—which were by Joe Maneely and Bill Everett, respectively—seemed pretty much like one-man shows. HECK: You mean they did the whole book by themselves? Well, they did quite a bit of that in those days. I mean, these days, up at Marvel, Stan used to say that if he could get two or three penciled books out of you instead of one, penciled and inked, he’d rather do

Left: Blue Beetle #24, page 4, DC Comics, May 1988. Don Heck pencils and Danny Bulanadi inks. To the left is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while to the right is the published page. Opposite: Unpublished Marvel Comics cover of the World War II team The Liberty Legion. Don Heck pencils. Image scanned from original art.

134

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

that, because he could always get an inker to ink your pencils. You have to understand, I’m sure their point of view is if the job doesn’t quite turn out exactly as high as they want it, as long as it’s sort of in-between, and it sells, then they’re happy. HOWELL: Well. That’s not all that encouraging, [Heck laughs] but I guess it makes sense from the publisher’s point of view. HECK: Yeah, yeah, but by the same token, at that point, then you start to get to the point where they all look alike— and that’s no good either, I don’t think, because who cares which book you pick up? They all look like they came out of the same flower pot. HOWELL: You think that that’s happening? You mentioned before that in the 1960s, there were four or five different artists at Marvel who each had very different recognizable styles. HECK: Right. Well, it had to happen, because an inker is going to do whatever amount of pages he can do, and he’s going to start inking over three or four pencilers, and it’s going to start looking very much the same. Because the inker has a certain style, and he’s going to take your stuff, and make it look more like his. And instead of your having, say, myself doing a complete job, and then this inker penciling and

inking another job, and having two century], who used a pen type line. different styles, we have one style, And I just loved that kind of stuff. and two people doing it. Unfortunately I’m in the wrong era, I guess. [laughter] When I say HOWELL: You had mentioned scratchy, I only mean sometimes. It before that the scratchiness of your depends. I like to use a lot of bold inking style was meeting with some blacks if I can. resistance? HECK: Yeah. But I happen to like HOWELL: I’ve heard the term it. That’s why I say I’d be more “scratchy” applied to various inclined to have war stuff or things inkers, including you. HECK: Well, I was told that, and then I was told by an editor— whom I can’t recall now—but he said, “Kubert has the same problem,” and I said, “Well, if you put me in with Kubert, I’ve got no complaint. Thanks for the kind words. If you don’t like his stuff, then I’m not too worried about the fact that you don’t think highly of mine.” [laughter] HOWELL: Kubert has so many artistic drawbacks, really. HECK: Oh, yeah, sure. He’s a fantastic artist. He’s got such a solid drawing style. I mean, it’s threedimensional, but on like that. I think it suits my inking the other hand, there’s very little more. stiffness in it. And he can draw anything, especially those characHOWELL: How would you describe ters from back in One Million B.C. the difference between your own inking style, which you said was HOWELL: Tor? “scratchy,” and…. HECK: Yeah, that’s the book, but I HECK: Well, it’s scratchier than, mean the mammals and dinosaurs. say, some of the new, slicker styles. Fantastic. Because, like I say, I like Caniff. I was also a big fan of Charles Dana Gibson [from the turn of the CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE

135

136

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Don Elaborates On Art Styles…

MURRAY: But it’s funny, he was kind of a bland artist. Maybe not in those days. Today, I think he is, but he seemed an odd style to try to MURRAY: You developed your hang the entire company’s look on. own style. HECK: Yeah. Well, that’s editors. I HECK: Yeah, back in those days, it mean, that’s the way it works. If it was a whole different situation. sells, that’s all they care about. Most everybody I knew had a difThey don’t figure why. That’s one ferent style unless you went to DC. of the things I think that Marvel They were the type that praise you did which is nice, is that Stan got a for drawing them all the same. You whole bunch of caring people, couldn’t tell who the hell did what. doing all this stuff and they’re all different. Ditko and Kirby and myMURRAY: Yeah, they were into, I self and Dick Ayers at that time are think it was the Dan Barry look. primarily what they had. That was their house style. HECK: Yeah, Dan Barry was a MURRAY: Yeah, occasionally good artist. with Joe Sinnott, I think it was. HECK: Yeah, Joe Sinnott and Gene Colan would come occasionOpposite (Left to Right): The Flash #294, cover, DC Comics, Feb. ally. And they’re all different styles. 1981. Don Heck pencils and Dick Giordano Wally Wood was a different style inks. Image scanned from original art. or Joe Kubert was another style, Love Romance #93, splash, Marvel Severin—all good artists. Comics, May 1961. Art by Don Heck. Image scanned from original artwork. Giant-Size Dracula #4, page 38, Marvel Comics, March 1975. Pencils by Don Heck and inks by Frank Springer. Image scanned from original artwork. Tales to Astonish #47, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1963. Art by Don Heck. Image scanned from original artwork. Below: The Witching Hour #20 detail, DC Comics, April-May 1971. Art by Don Heck. Image scanned from original artwork.

MURRAY: Yeah, I loved the fantasy books because it was like a little meal. Kirby would be the main course. HECK: That’s because I was further out. You see, Jack Kirby would be in there more often because he was about, oh, let’s say 20-some odd miles. I was about 50 to 60 [miles] from the city.

MURRAY: So you’d have to bring your work in. HECK: Yeah, but I didn’t go in that much at that time. So therefore, Kirby would be in there, delivering a bunch of stuff, and while he was in there, he would be doing covers. I saw him. He was the fastest thing around too. [laughs] Five pages a day at that time. [laughs] MURRAY: In comic books, were there any people who influenced you? You mentioned Caniff and Barry in newspaper strips. HECK: Yeah, Alex Toth. I saw his stuff when I was first going up there. He’s only about a year older than I am. He’s sort of like he had it right from square one—or Joe Kubert. When I want to do anatomy and stuff, I’ve got to look him up, because I always thought he was the greatest on that kind of stuff. MURRAY: Yet Toth can’t get arrested today [Ed.: 1990] in comics. HECK: Yeah, I know. Don Heck can’t get too much either. MURRAY: But you’re doing better than Alex Toth. HECK: Yeah, well, not much better right at the moment. [laughs] We’ll see tomorrow.

Don Discusses Having a Distinctive Style Versus Following a Trend “When comics went down, Pete Morisi became a cop. He drew well, but he copied George Tuska too closely. And after a while, Tuska’s stuff wasn’t selling. It’s one of those set-ups; you pick the wrong stuff and you’re in trouble.” — Don Heck Comics Scene #38, Starlog Group, Inc., 1993, page 14. Interview conducted by Will Murray.

CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE

137

Above: The Avengers #21, page 15, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Wally Wood inks. Right: The Avengers #20, page 12, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Wally Wood inks. Opposite Above Inset: Giant-Size Dracula #3, panel, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1974. Don Heck pencils and Frank Springer inks.

chapter

INKING WITH DON Over his long career, Don worked with many inkers as well as inked others; all were professionals in their own right, blending their unique style with Don’s.

Don discusses some of his favorite inkers… HECK: I remember I did a couple of jobs for John Romita when he was doing those romance books for DC at a time when I was at Marvel—there was no conflict of interest at the time. I did some roughs, and he tightened them up and inked them. He must have been behind or something. Anyway, you couldn’t tell that that work wasn’t all his. HOWELL: Bet I could. I’ve seen some of those stories. HECK: [chuckles] Well, I thought I was submerged. John Romita submerges everybody, because he has that complete kind of a style. That’s okay. As long as the guy inking over you is a really good artist himself, there’s no complaint from me. When I was on The Avengers, I had Romita, I had Wally Wood. Then around issue #30 or something, I go to [Frank] Giacoia, who is a fantastic inker. He knows anatomy so well, that if you don’t have yours up to par, he just slaps it in automatically. That’s why some people say he’s slower, but he’s putting more into it. You can’t just whip this stuff out all the time. If

you’re going to make it look good, you’ve got to put some time into it. HOWELL: So outside of yourself and Frank Giacoia, who do you like inking your pencils? HECK: Well, Romita did a good job. Wood did a wonderful job. I guess the one who really came closest to me would be Frank Springer. HOWELL: Really? HECK: He did a Dracula Giant [Giant-Size Dracula #3]. HOWELL: Right. I remember those. HECK: I got the stuff back, and I thought, boy, he did a damn good job. And he likes the same type of pen work I do. HOWELL: He probably comes right out of the same school. HECK: Well, if you look at a lot of them, they’re almost all around the same age, us older fellows. [laughter] I mean, you take John Romita, Frank Robbins, who else? HOWELL: Alex Toth? HECK: Yeah. HOWELL: And Mort Meskin, wherever he is. HECK: Yeah, he’s in the same era. You know, you’re talking about guys who did their learning in the late 1940s, early 1950s…. HOWELL: An entire generation of artists? HECK: Well, what had happened is that these guys were the ones working, and then

139

comics had sort of gone down in the number of books, and there weren’t that many publishers, and so the same artists more or less stayed into it. So for a long time, not that many new artists were coming in, and the predominant style stayed the same. Occasionally you’d get one or two new artists, but not too many. Of course, some of them would be really good, like John Buscema or Neal Adams, and that sparks the whole field. There’s nothing like that. It seems that everything is going along fine, then all of a sudden somebody comes in with a new style that’s terrific. I always like to see it, myself, because I like to see something good. HOWELL: Makes you feel that the field is still progressing? HECK: And not only that, you look and you say, “I better get my act back into gear,” because you start to get a little lazy now and then, and competition helps.

BOB MCLEOD Above: Fear #29, page 11, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1975. Don Heck pencils and Bob McLeod inks.

FRANK SPRINGER Above: Giant-Size Dracula #3, splash, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1974. Don Heck pencils and Frank Springer inks.

140

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

The “Fire Within” job was my very first inking assignment over another artist, way back in 1974. I was working in the production department at Marvel doing lettering corrections and art corrections, and asking the editors to give me a chance at inking. Tony Isabella graciously gave me this Don Heck inventory job for one of the black-and-white magazines, so I was also able to add ink wash tones to it. I was very excited to do it, but of course I knew almost nothing about inking. That said, I loved inking Don’s pencils, because they were loose enough for me to add as much as I wanted. I liked the way he used a good variety of close-ups, medium shots, and long shots, up shots and down shots. I wasn’t very familiar with his work before that, but became a fan working on that job. I was disappointed when they didn’t print it. I also met Don briefly when he came into the office to drop off the job. He seemed like a good guy, but that’s the only time I ever saw him.

I had a chance to ink Don’s pencils again a few months later on Adventures into Fear #29. I was still just learning the ropes at inking, so I don’t know how happy Don was to get me on his pencils again, but I’m grateful I had such good pencils to work on. I’m sure they helped me improve more quickly than I might have otherwise.

everything was there in the drawing for the inker, but I did not spot the black areas, indicate where to add shadows, etc., and left it up to the inker to “finish” the overall drawing through their inking. That’s the job of the inker. With Don’s pencils, I remember he “finished” the pencils so I had no guesswork, it was all there, and you just followed what he did. Basically, as the inker, he made my job that much easier. I always wanted to ask Don if he liked my inking on that job, but I lived in Virginia and he lived in New York. I do recall a comment from my brother, John, where he later told me that Don told him that he liked it. That was satisfying. As an inker himself, Don was wonderful as well, mainly because he could draw himself—not just a line-follower. Don had a reputation not only as a talented artist but also as one of the nicest people in the business.

SAL BUSCEMA Above: Amazing Adventures #6, splash, Marvel Comics, May 1971. Don Heck pencils and Sal Buscema inks.

Believe it or not, there is one job that I still remember I did with Don Heck, even though it was well over forty-plus years ago! [laughter] It was a “Black Widow” story [Ed.: Amazing Adventures #6, May 1971]. I remember his pencils were very tight and complete, beautiful. A very “finished style.” I picked up that term over the years, and what I mean is that he penciled it as if he was also inking it: finished. For example, for jobs I penciled—due to workload—I would only provide the inker breakdowns. Tight,

AL MILGROM Above: Steel #3, cover, DC Comics, June 1978. Don Heck pencils and Al Milgrom inks. Image scanned from original art.

CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

141

Growing up reading comics in the 1950s and early 1960s, working with Don Heck was a real treat. One of my career goals entering comics was that I wanted to work with the “Big 5” who kicked off the original Marvel Age: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, and Don Heck. Of course, there were some other artists and writers doing Marvel stories at the time, but these five creators were the architects and driving force behind what became the Marvel Age. I inked Don’s pencils on Steel for DC Comics in the mid-1970s. Don had a very nice, graphic style, and use of blacks as a design element. He was from the Caniff school. Also, his pencils were very tight. Beautiful, professionally rendered drawings are always easy and enjoyable to ink, you know? In the early 1990s, Don inked my pencils on some “Hawkeye” stories. Now, I did full pencils on these, not just breakdowns, but the finished product was Don’s more than mine! [laughter] I didn’t mind because he was such an accomplished artist. Also, like many artists who also ink others’ work, I knew Don’s inking style typically overpowered the pencils, but the end result works. As I’ve said many times, I’m a Jack Kirby fanatic. When I used to see Jack’s pencil pages up at Marvel, or see photocopies of them today, it’s frustratingly inspirational! [laughter] I say this because Don did some real nice inking on Kirby. Kirby is impossible to overpower, but Don’s inking added a lush, refined look over Kirby’s dynamics. It worked because Don’s style came through. I think this was more to do with his generation where as an artist he couldn’t just go over someone else’s pencils without making them a little of his own. Don was very comfortable in either role: penciler or inker. I remember when Don would both pencil and ink his work, after the pencils he would outline everything in a fine pen, then go back and add blacks and lines with a brush. Another thing I remember about Don was that John Buscema was a huge fan. At one point, John decided to open a comic art school, á la the Joe Kubert School. Anyway, John specially hired Don to be the main teacher/lecturer at the school. He loved Don’s work. That’s high praise in my book! In the mid-1980s, Don and I would sometimes ride the train into New York together—just catch up and hang out. I guess the thing I remember the most about Don was that in the best possible way he was a pro. 142

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

JOE SINNOTT Above: Strange Tales #140, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1966. Jack Kirby layouts, Don Heck pencils, and Joe Sinnott inks.

Don Heck was my friend, and I certainly miss seeing his magnificent and unique style to this day. During the Timely/Atlas days of the 1950s, Don’s masterful work was much in evidence, as was Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, Dick Ayers, Russ Heath, and myself, plus others. John Severin, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Jack Kirby, and John Romita came later. Of course Don’s work in the 1960s and 1970s on super-heroes such as Iron Man, The Avengers, etc., will always be remembered by serious comic fans as some of the best of the Silver Age period. I had the pleasure to work with Don on one of the very first “Nick Fury” stories in Strange Tales #140. I’ve always felt that Don’s heart was not into his work after he lost his wife, but he will always be remembered for his great contributions to Marvel Comics.

DAN ADKINS #1 – Nov. 1967

#2 – Nov. 1967

#3 – June 1967

RICHARD HOWELL Above: Hawkman (Vol. 2) #5, page 17, DC Comics, Dec. 1985. Richard Howell pencils and Don Heck inks.

I got to know Don personally while working at New Media [Comics Feature magazine] from 1978– 1980. I really enjoyed Don. He was so funny! For instance, he would tell possible libelous stories about people in the comics industry! [laughter] As a penciler, Don inked my work on the Hawkman series in the early 1980s. I remember Don was so much better than I was! [laughter] He corrected everything that was wrong about my pencils… and some that was right! That’s because Don never felt his role was just an inker. If he was asked to ink your pencils, the outcome would always be a really nice Don Heck job. I would see his inks and was always happy with his work, regardless. Again, he was so much more accomplished than me. The first comics I remember reading as a kid were Don’s run on Marvel Comics’ Avengers title. Looking CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

143

back I thought the [Frank] Giacoia-inked work was really nice. Professionally, I thought Don wasn’t always well served by the inkers that were assigned to him. For someone not familiar with how comics are produced, that might be difficult to understand. Also, Don was an artist that could draw beautiful and stylish people, which sometimes even he felt didn’t translate to super-hero comics. But, I can say that, having personally known and worked with Don, he would put the same amount of professionalism into his work regardless of the inker or the story type.

to figure out what I was inking. In the background, is that a tree, a rock… a figure!? [laughter] If you understand the job of an inker, the penciler did their job, and it was up to me as the inker to complete the page. Not with Don. Being such an accomplished artist, he made it easy by already adding it in. I remember looking at his pencils and thinking it seemed he was having a lot of fun with it, which rubbed off on me as the inker. I then enjoyed inking it, because I could see the care and time he put into it, and knew I was giving the penciler what they intended it to be, as if they had inked it themselves.

DON PERLIN Above: Sub-Mariner #65, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1973. Don Heck pencils and Don Perlin inks.

It was my pleasure to work on Don’s pencils. Not only was he a wonderful draftsman, but he was so precise with his pencils and didn’t leave anything for the inker to interpret. You picked up the page and it was all there, which he didn’t have to do. For example, typically I would get pages from other artists to ink, and sometimes their pencils were so loose that I had 144

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

JOE GIELLA Above: Steel: The Indestructible Man #1, page 16, DC Comics, March 1978. Don Heck pencils and Joe Giella inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

JOHN COATES: How did you first meet Don? JOE GIELLA: I’d known Don through the artists’ community for years.

COATES: I see you inked his work at DC Comics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Do you remember anything significant about inking his work? GIELLA: Well, I’ll tell you. In order to be a good inker, you have to be able to pencil—like I do both. The same with Don. His pencils were all there, complete. As an inker, with some artist’s pencils you sometimes have to redraw it. See, if it looks bad then the editor comes to the inker, so there’s always some conflict between the penciler and the inker. Never with Don. In fact, I had some of the DC Comics pages Don and I did together hanging on my studio wall. Unfortunately, they were stolen years ago, along with some other artwork. COATES: Did you socialize, as well? GIELLA: Some. We both freelanced, so we weren’t in the office together. Don lived farther out of the city than I did. We were part of the “Berndt Toast Gang” that got together the last Thursday of each month for a luncheon. Still do. This is a group of 40– 50 artists that meet monthly for a few hours to talk shop, catch up, discuss jobs, that kind of thing. Anyway, Don and I would always sit together. He was always just a nice guy to be around, you know? A funny guy too. And it was Don that first spoke to me about going to comic conventions. Don would always say, “Joe, you’ve got to go to these conventions. The fans are great and it’s a lot of fun!” I was never interested, but when I started to go I found that Don was right, I liked it! [laughter] Aside from his art, there’s one thing I’ll always remember about Don. I had invited Don over for Christmas dinner one year. During the dinner I get this phone call from my brother-in-law that my mother had passed. My father had passed years earlier on Easter, and now my mother passes on Christmas. Isn’t that strange? So, I have to cut everything short and get to the hospital. Don was so kind and understanding, of course. That’s how he was every time I was around him. COATES: Can you confirm that Don ghosted on The Phantom newspaper strip? GIELLA: He did. This would have been in the early 1970s. I was working with Sy Barry—had worked with him for over 17 years inking his pencils. A lot of people don’t know that. At times Sy would ask me if anyone could help from time to time. Sy liked to also have a life outside of drawing, and producing dailies

and a Sunday page is not an easy job. [laughter] So on occasion we would bring in different artists to pencil the strip in Sy’s style—or close to it—and I would ink it to make it look like Sy’s style as much as possible. I remember Frank Springer did some pencils, and at that time, Don, and a few others. “Ghosting” is pretty common on strips. Like I said, doing dailies and a Sunday is a tough pace to keep up for an individual. Looking back I think that Sy overall was not happy with Don’s renderings. Not that his work was unprofessional, or not well drawn—Sy would never have approved Don in the first place if he had felt otherwise, and he liked Don’s past work. But, I think that Sy felt too much “Don” came through on The Phantom work. Remember, the point of ghosting is to keep the consistent “look” of the strip. Sy was looking for a style that didn’t deviate from his own too much. That’s a tough thing to do when you have as strong a style as Don had. If you had Don draw something, well, it would look like Don drew it! [laughter]

Above: Steel: The Indestructible Man #1, page 4 panel, DC Comics, March 1978. Don Heck pencils and Joe Giella inks.

COATES: Did you see Don toward the end of his life? GIELLA: Sure. We kept in touch at least at the monthly luncheons, but I did visit him in the hospital. I remember Don toward the end was very sick, terminal. Frank [Ed.: Joe’s son] and I went to the hospital to visit. He died within a few days after that. The sad part was that at Don’s wake it was Frank, me, and Jim CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

145

Fern, one of Don’s close friends. Some others may have visited before or after we were there, but this was when we were at the wake. Don was in the business for over forty-plus years and did some really good work, you know? A wake should have a lot of people. COATES: Any other reflections you’d like to share? GIELLA: Other than to say that the relationship I had with Don was great. I’m glad he’s finally getting his due with this book.

Additional Comments from Dick Ayers “Oh, I loved Don’s pencils. They were very good, yeah.” — Dick Ayers Alter Ego #31, TwoMorrows Publishing, Dec. 2003, page 24. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas.

DICK AYERS Above: Tales of Suspense #62, splash, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks.

I remember Don had a tremendous sense of humor, drew the most beautiful girls, and I always enjoyed inking his penciled lines and adding the black shadows and breathing drama into his storytelling. We last saw Don at a Jersey Comic Show and sat next to him, and we had a lot of laughs reminiscing about old times. 146

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

RICH BUCKLER Above: Black Goliath #4, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1976. Rich Buckler pencils and Don Heck inks.

This Black Goliath assignment was one of those treasured occurrences in my early days at Marvel when my pencil art was inked by one of the “giants.” In my teen years as a comics fan and amateur artist, I admired Don Heck’s unique style and versatility.

He seemed to be coming from a different sensibility than most of his contemporaries. His art evinced influences from newspaper strips, and he seemed to be from what I think of as the old school of “illustrative comic art,” like Gray Morrow, Pat Boyette, Frank Bolle, Russ Manning, Angelo Torres, etc. Don adapted well to super-heroes and the “Marvel Style” with his own unique approach. His inking style was lean and clean, loose but tight, and very expressive—especially memorable were his contributions to “Iron Man” and Avengers. Although I never got to meet him in person, Don Heck will be remembered by me as a dynamic artist whose art made a lifelong impression on me in my formative years.

by their style—no signature needed. I made a point of being in the office when he was making the trip into Manhattan from Long Island to drop off beautiful, fully-realized penciled pages, as it was always an enjoyable and engaging experience conversing with him firsthand and listening to him recount his humble beginnings, as at Harvey Comics where he reformatted newspaper strips into the comic book format, including those by one we mutually admired, Milton Caniff. Through his generous and gentlemanly guidance and criticism, I consciously saw my own work progress over the course of the handful of issues of his I inked, from a rather timid, hesitant line to one of confidence

DANNY BULANADI Above: Blue Beetle #23, panel, DC Comics, April 1988. Don Heck pencils and Danny Bulanadi inks.

I worked with Don Heck on two issues of the Blue Beetle at DC. I did not meet Don. I received the penciled pages by mail, inked them, and sent them back. Don was a good storyteller. His pencils were tight, which made it easy for me to ink.

RICK MAGYAR Right: Wonder Woman #322, page 12, DC Comics, Dec. 1984. Don Heck pencils and Rick Magyar inks.

When Editor Alan Gold offered this greenhorn the chance to ink Don Heck’s pencils on Wonder Woman, I welcomed the opportunity, as it was uncommon for Don not to ink his own work. Don was among that group of artists I, as a kid of Catholic comic book tastes in the ’60s, first came to recognize CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

147

and surety. For that, and much more, I will always remember and respect Don Heck.

STEVE DITKO Bottom: Tales of Suspense #47, splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963. Steve Ditko pencils and Don Heck inks.

[Ed.: I first contacted Mr. Ditko by phone requesting any remembrances he may have of Don in general, or of Don inking his work back in the 1960s. I found him to be very cordial, patient, and polite. From that conversation I photocopied and mailed him a few examples of Don inking his work on “Iron Man.” He was kind enough to provide a final response via letter, shown at left.]

LARRY LIEBER Above: Tales to Astonish #53, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1964. Larry Lieber pencils and Don Heck inks.

I don’t recall if I ever met Don personally, but if I did it was only in passing in the office. Regardless, I always felt that Don was one of the best artists drawing comics at the time.

Additional Thoughts from Larry Lieber “I remember I once had Don Heck inking me on a five-page Western, and I remember saying, ‘My God, he’s good at making my stuff look better than it is,’ and he was.” — Larry Lieber Alter Ego #2, TwoMorrows Publishing, Autumn 1999, page 25. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas.

148

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Above: The Avengers #23, panels, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1965. Don Heck pencils and John Romita Sr. inks.

ROMITA SR. ON DON HECK:

JOHN ROMITA SR. Above: My Love #2, splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1969. Don Heck pencils and John Romita Sr. inks.

Don Heck was a great storyteller, versatile with an elegant style. (In the early ’50s when we were both just starting out, I envied how distinctive his style was; most of us competing for scripts struggled to get any personal style.) When I inked his pencils, I regretted my inks lost a bit of his “look”—couldn’t help it—but it was always fun and educational for me to ink him. He came to my rescue in the ’60s, when I was doing romance comics. I was in a mean “artist block,” about to miss a deadline. He penciled a seven-pager for me and got me through it. (It was an amazing job, set in Venice, and he nailed it; better than I could have, and a snap to ink.) That bailout got me going; I’ll never forget that. The Spider-Man Annual [#3] we did in ’65 set me on the right track for my run at Marvel.

(2007) ROMITA SR: …then I inked the story over Don Heck, which was a natural for me, because I had worked with Heck a couple times in the romance department at DC. In fact, Heck, ironically enough, helped bail me out during one of those dry [DC] periods when I couldn’t pencil. I called Don Heck and begged him to help out, and he penciled a sevenpager in about two days. I told him he didn’t have to spot the blacks, just draw the outlines. He saved my life, because I wouldn’t have gotten any money for about two weeks there, and I remembered it fondly. When I went to ink his Avengers, it was like, “Wow, this is amazing. It’s payback time.” I had such a ball inking that Avengers story. JIM AMASH: Don Heck’s pencils were normally very complete, weren’t they? ROMITA SR: Yes, but very stylized. He’d have three-quarter views that had a certain similarity. Everybody had the same three-quarter view. Everybody sort-of had a short nose. He was very stylized, to the point where he would not change features on a lot of people. But by the time he was doing The Avengers, his stuff was terrific. It was better than his romance stuff. JIM AMASH: He probably felt freer and probably was more challenged. Like you said, you get bored drawing romance stories all day long. ROMITA SR: Absolutely. Don was a very good penciler and drew beautiful woman. The shapes weren’t CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

149

always the same as my natural taste, but I was always able to ink him pretty well. Don was a modest guy, but a solid pro who knew he was good. He had a wonderful style that I envied, because you could see at a glance that this was Don Heck. Nobody’s work looked like Heck’s. The same was true with Gene Colan, and Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby. Everybody doesn’t have a straight nose or beautiful mouth, and sometimes you need to add a little personality. For instance, Don Heck did a prizefight scene for The Avengers, and drew a guy with a cauliflower ear. When I was inking him, I was thinking, “You know, that’s something I never think of.” Heck was in the same line as I was, like all of the other guys behind Scorchy Smith by Noel Sickles, and Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Almost all of us sprang up from that stuff. [Heck] could do beautiful ink jobs, but I don’t think he liked inking a lot. He preferred to pencil. I don’t think Don Heck wanted to be just an inker, because he would have been correcting other people’s stuff, and everybody else would have been doing the storytelling. John Romita… And All That Jazz!, by Roy Thomas and Jim Amash, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2007, pages 74–75.

JAMES CASSARA: You left Marvel around 1967. Who else did you work with there? CHIC STONE: Boy, just about everyone! There were so many great pros and legendary artists of our time working for Marvel. A truly great line-up. I inked them all: Don Heck, Larry Lieber, John Buscema; the list goes on and on! The Jack Kirby Collector #14, TwoMorrows Publishing, Feb. 1997. Interview conducted by James Cassara.

MIKE ESPOSITO (2005) Opposite Left: Tales of Suspense #72, splash, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] inks.

CHIC STONE (1997) Above Left and Right: Tales of Suspense #64, panel and splash, Marvel Comics, April 1965. Don Heck pencils and Chic Stone inks.

150

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

JIM AMASH: You also inked Don Heck. MIKE ESPOSITO: Oh yeah, a lot of Don Heck. Johnny Romita had gotten way behind on Amazing Spider-Man, so he would lay it out in breakdown form, Heck would tighten it for the inker, and I

would finish it. We were like a three-man team. I liked Heck’s work at Harvey when I was still a kid. As he became more advanced, he found shortcuts, and he would get bawled out by Johnny Romita sometimes because his work could be too simplistic. He was very good, but he was fast, and sometimes he wouldn’t spend as much time in areas that other guys would put more effort into. That didn’t take anything away from his ability. I liked Don as a person. I drove him home one day. He was divorced, and lived in a little ranch house in Centereach. We talked about horses; he owned a trotter. I drove him all the way home from Marvel, and then I had to drive all the way back to my house in Dix Hills. Years later, I wound up moving to the same town. When he died, I went to his funeral. I think he had problems with smoking, got lung cancer, and it killed him.

JERRY ORDWAY (2005) Above: All-Star Squadron #9, page 6, DC Comics, May 1982. Don Heck pencils and Jerry Ordway inks. This sequence incorporates pages from the never-published Steel: The Indestructible Man (DC, 1978 series) #6— a casualty of the “DC Implosion” in 1978—that were re-inked, re-lettered, and partially re-drawn/re-written.

ROY THOMAS: You also inked the Don Heckpenciled Steel episodes that I tossed in from his canceled title. How was Don to ink? JERRY ORDWAY: …Years later, at a DC Christmas party, I met Don Heck, and he told me how much he liked it, so that was gratifying. Alter Ego #44, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005, pages 44–45. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas.

Alter Ego #54, TwoMorrows Publishing, Nov. 2005, page 15. Interview conducted by Jim Amash. CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

151

because he’s got personal problems.” I don’t mean that. But the fact that he’s been able to do as well as he’s done is, to my mind, amazing. I don’t like to see him personally criticized for sure, and I don’t find that much to criticize in his artwork. I find a lot of other artists whose material I like less. It could very well be that I’m influenced by the feeling that Don Heck did “Iron Man,” and really nobody has done it in my mind since Don Heck did it… with the exception of Gene Colan. The early “Iron Man” was the definitive “Iron Man.” I can’t put that down. I can’t put that aside. If he’s on the other side of being good now, it isn’t through any lack of effort on his part, or lack of intelligence. Or lack of commitment of anything else. And I like inking his stuff, and so does Frank McLaughlin. The Comics Journal #62, Fantagraphics, March 1981, page 69. Interview conducted by Gary Groth.

DICK GIORDANO (1981) Above: The Flash #295, cover, DC Comics, March 1981. Don Heck pencils and Dick Giordano inks.

DICK GIORDANO: If I haven’t gone on record before, I will now; I like inking Don Heck’s work. GARY GROTH: Do you think he’s a good draftsman? GIORDANO: Let me say something about Don that maybe hasn’t been said. When Don Heck does a job, you know that it was Don Heck’s. You never confuse it with Neal Adams, Gil Kane, or anybody else. Now that might not be important to you, but to me that proves that Don has a feeling about what he’s doing, and he’s not going to be swayed into the easy way. If he wanted take the easy way, he could swipe Neal Adams or somebody else and get instant recognition and approval. But Don had had some immense personal problems. I know you can’t go along with every comic book and say, “Here’s a comic book drawn by Don Heck. It’s not really as good as it could be 152

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

FRANK BOLLE Above: Sub-Mariner #67, splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1973. Don Heck pencils and Frank Bolle inks.

BOB OKSNER Above: Wonder Woman #205, page 8 panel, DC Comics, March– April 1973. Don Heck pencils and Bob Oskner inks.

BOB POWELL Tales to Astonish #65, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1965. Bob Powell pencils and Don Heck inks.

GEORGE ROUSSOS

Left: Wonder Woman #205, page 3 panel, DC Comics, March– April 1973. Don Heck pencils and Bob Oskner inks.

(a.k.a. George Bell)

TONY DEZUNIGA

The Avengers King-Size Special #1, page 49, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1967. Don Heck pencils and George Roussos (as George Bell) inks.

Ghost Rider #25, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1977. Don Heck pencils and Tony DeZuniga inks.

CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

153

TOM PALMER

ED HANNIGAN

The X-Men #64, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1970. Don Heck pencils and Tom Palmer inks. Image scanned from original art.

Hawkman #17, page 14, DC Comics, Dec. 1987. Ed Hannigan pencils and Don Heck inks.

BOB BROWN

JOHN TARTAGLIONE

Ghost Rider #15, page 10, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1975. Bob Brown pencils and Don Heck inks. Image scanned from original art.

The X-Men #44, cover, Marvel Comics, May 1968. Don Heck pencils and John Tartaglione inks.

154

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

JIM MOONEY

PABLOS MARCOS

Sub-Mariner #68, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1974. Don Heck pencils and Jim Mooney inks.

Avengers #157, page 17, Marvel Comics, March 1977. Don Heck pencils and Pablo Marcos inks.

BILL EVERETT

FRANK CHIARAMONTE

Amazing Adventures #7, splash, Marvel Comics, July 1971. Don Heck pencils and Bill Everett inks. Image scanned from original art.

Superman Family #195, splash, DC Comics, June 1979. Don Heck pencils and Frank Chiaramonte inks. Image scanned from original art. CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

155

JACK ABEL

GEORGE TUSKA

Ka-Zar #2, page 32, Marvel Comics, March 1974. Don Heck pencils and Jack Abel inks. Image scanned from original art.

The X-Men #40, page 14, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1968. Don Heck pencils and George Tuska inks. Image scanned from original art.

VINCE COLLETTA

BOB SMITH

Green Lantern #122, page 5 panel, DC Comics, Nov. 1979. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks.

Teen Titans #52, page 13, DC Comics, Dec. 1977. Don Heck pencils and Bob Smith inks. Image scanned from original art.

156

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

ROSS ANDRU The X-Men #37, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1967. Ross Andru pencils and Don Heck inks.

ROMEO TANGHAL Justice League of America #214, page 11 panel, DC Comics, May 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo Tanghal inks.

CARMINE INFANTINO Spiral Zone #4, panels, DC Comics, May 1988. Carmine Infantino layouts, Don Heck pencils, and Dick Giordano inks.

JOHN SEVERIN Captain Savage #16, splash, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1969. Don Heck pencils and John Severin inks.

CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

157

DAVE COCKRUM Batman #411, page 7 panels, DC Comics, Sept. 1987. Don Heck pencils and Dave Cockrum inks.

MIKE ROYER Ka-Zar #4, page 6, Marvel Comics, July 1974. Don Heck pencils and Mike Royer inks. Image scanned from original artwork.

FRANK MCLAUGHLIN

SYD SHORES

The Avengers #109, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1973. Don Heck pencils and Frank McLaughlin inks.

Captain Marvel #16, page 18, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1969. Introduction of new costume. Don Heck pencils and Syd Shores inks.

158

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

JACK KIRBY Clockwise Above: Tales of Suspense #43, splash, Marvel Comics, July 1963. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks. Tales of Suspense #80, page 8 panels, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1966. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks.

WALLY WOOD

Tales of Suspense #43, panels, Marvel Comics, July 1963. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks.

The Avengers #22, page 14, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Wally Wood inks. CHAPTER TEN: INKING WITH DON

159

L E V R A M

E S I D N A H C R E l M arve

chapter

he M ent t f o ect erim h p p s x a e ative gness to t throug e r c tha con the ’s willin , s o t a t n t a e l t ortan Stan Lee o impor l was ab fore, or p m i e ot as rvel and reative. S se, Marv lisher be ns. n h a b i c g ug Tho omics, M s no less d otherw book pu r campai thei e an of C g wa omic Age arketin , in-hous other c cased in o m g w with arketin ders as n vily sho m a ea their ith its re rk was h EL V w o t R w c ’s ne MA ETY Don . Y e c sin ERR OCI

M ub GS THE CHIN .M.S.”)-house fan cl R n .M MA .k.a. “Mrted its firstieity” (a.k.a.

d woul s sta ing Soc c s i n a m f h ip er, arc l Co emb embersh n arve arvel M m M a , ta m as 64 yM and luded a r from S ord , In 19 he Merr 1 $ c e only hich in nal” lett 1 ⁄3 rpm rec , “T ”). d s e a l t w . w i t .M.S bership ship kit, , a “perso sided 33 M . “M e mem by gleber tons rated very Th heir mem ack but and a sin r a n as eli ve t pin-b ems, nd w vers!” d arvela , recei stickers, other it l. s ach ord e elie , e-M e vel nd e , inut card etterhead s of Marv ut six m t, True B day-in-th ious Mar c Stan a ard a rec n f r l o e e ti Lee, The Voic layed ab “Face Fro average ted by va n a fran never h bunch o e a p k p ly e titled e record patented ts a moc e interru ges betw e probab ne with h c o h i s b v n i ’ e d wit a T u h o ep k n h t a o d a c n s Y i g x m e “ e — n e y e Le rdi ire tinu rns, h to rodsk t—Arti Stan The reco tan con y rapid-f ction wa ty enoug B l o c S n t . u s, oje g, S style n where ng in fun d introd ld be nu n!” nber in the pr , and, ye i e t e u e i e S g Bullp rs, result ’s record o one wo to happ irby, Flo ake part Goldber mt n e o l n t K a n o t b a t k a ta se S reme e i c l d u S s cre a e e a , s J i h s A c n r i be .S yb ye or. ded ing ecl oject and ma creat is before so anyth rd inclu Ditko d , Dick A r p s i n d s o , th co th like at artists n the re Ditko, a ally Woo and er that D h tech!” n o o e g e : D b e em out ry hi off-b e voices ing Stev Stone, W osit b e m a e v r s g Opp Merry I r e d wa Th describ , Chic ” The hing teinb rd it, an e felt it n S y e l calls s o c n “ l r o o o a F c W R n l . e M . o h t o r i l k S it ed ve to tD , Sam Mar Society oke w a studio be record s tha i p s imek eck. p I S u tto to 12, t: he se Righ l on H ne of 20 s went in e studio T D . e d : v r ar reco ck Ayers In Ju ost of u d into th of M ver. e s h e t c Di Voi cord co on one d, “M The re ’s bit g up with bere others ph n o fD un a few ter] ript o as just h c s n h a [laug re is a tr er Stan h e ft H ice a f f o s ’ Stan 161

FLO: Another phone call for you, Stan. STAN: Oh, not anymore! I’m getting an ear ache! FLO: But it’s Don Heck! STAN: The idol of the “Iron Man” fans?! The ace of The Avengers?! [sound of phone being picked up] Hi, Don! What’s doing? DON: Ah, Stan, I was just wondering, ah, wasn’t I supposed to draw “Iron Man” last week?

STAN: Sure, why do you ask? DON: So how come you mailed me a Patsy Walker strip? STAN: Yike! Did I do that? That’s awful! DON: Ah well, don’t worry, I’ll send it back to you. STAN: That’s not why I’m worried. I must have sent your script to Al Hartley! I can just imagine Iron Man looking like Patsy Walker this issue! Okay, talk to you later Don....

Don then hangs up and immediately the listener hears the voice of Stan Goldberg—Marvel colorist— in Stan’s office with another issue… and so it goes. Though it might warrant a yawn from younger fans, in the precable-TV (i.e., only three–five channels), pre-PC/Internet/ VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray/tablet/mobiledevice world of 1964—not to mention before the era of largescale comic conventions—this record was a unique experience for fans to actually hear the voices of their favorite Marvel creators, including Don Heck.

Above (Left to Right): Donruss Card #13 — Tales of Suspense #60, Dec. 1964, page 2, panel 5. Dick Ayers inks.

Card #18 — Tales of Suspense #60, Dec. 1964, page 11, panel 2. Dick Ayers inks.

Card #14 — Tales of Suspense #60, Dec. 1964, page 2, panel 6. Dick Ayers inks.

Card #19 — Tales of Suspense #64, April 1965, page 8, panel 9. Chic Stone inks.

Card #15 — Tales of Suspense #68, Aug. 1965, page 9, panel 3. Mike Esposito inks.

Card #20 — Tales of Suspense #69, Sept. 1965, page 2, panel 4. Vince Colletta inks.

Card #16 — Tales of Suspense #69, Sept. 1965, splash. Vince Colletta inks.

Card #21 — Tales of Suspense #71, Nov. 1965, page 6, panel 1. Wally Wood inks.

Card #17 — Tales of Suspense #71, Nov. 1965, page 6, panel 2. Wally Wood inks.

Card #22 — Tales of Suspense #68, Aug. 1965, page 9, panel 4. Mike Esposito inks.

162

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MARVEL SUPER-HEROES TRADING CARDS BY DONRUSS (1966) In 1966, The Donruss Company, known for its sports, movie, and TV-themed trading cards, released Marvel Comics’ first trading card set. The set included 66 cards, where each card included an action image from one of Marvel’s iconic characters: Daredevil, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The front of each card contained the action image of the character, as well as some obviously Stan Lee-inspired dialogue. Each character had 10–11 cards devoted to it. The back of each card was 1/66 of a larger puzzle image that, when all 66 were collected, displayed a collage image of the characters in the set. The image on each card was taken from a comic book panel drawn by the artist most associated with the character depicted. With regard to the eleven Iron Man cards in the set, ten cards featured Don’s artwork.

THE MARVEL SUPER-HEROES CARTOON (1966) In 1966, Marvel Comics released into limited television syndication their first animated series, The Marvel Super-Heroes. The series included rotating solo adventures of Captain America, The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, and

The Invincible Iron Man—each character having 13 episodes, with each episode having three six-minute segments to tell a complete story. The stories typically re-told a previously published comic story, and stayed true to that storyline. Wikipedia described the series: “Sixty-five episodes of three seven-minute segments were produced, for a total of 195 segments that ran initially in broadcast syndication from September 1, 1966 to December 1, 1966. “The series, produced in color, had extremely limited animation produced by xerography, consisting of photocopied images taken directly from the comics and manipulated to minimize the need for animation production. The cartoons were presented as a series of static comic-strip panel images; generally the only movement involved the lips when a character spoke, the occasional arm or leg, or a fully animated black silhouette. The series used the original stories largely in their entirety, showcasing Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck art, among others, from the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books.” Of the 13 Iron Man cartoons produced, seven episodes used Don Heck artwork, while the remaining six cartoons used a combination of Gene Colan, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. In a 1968 interview conducted by Ted White— most recently reprinted in Alter Ego #74, Dec. 2007— when discussing the thencurrent Marvel’s cartoon project, Tim asked Stan how closely he felt that the animators followed the style of the original artist. Stan replied: “Oh, very closely. They shoot the actual picture, and all that they animate is opening the mouths and shutting and opening the eyes and moving the arms and legs... but it’s the basic drawing that we’ve got there.” Above: 1966 Marvel Cartoon ad. CHAPTER ELEVEN: MARVEL MERCHANDISE

163

Below are just a few examples to compare the cartoon scene as aired and the actual comic panel used.

Left: Tales of Suspense #45, page 9 panel, Sept. 1963. Art by Don Heck. “Iron Man” (cartoon series 1966): Season 1, Episode 1 — Double Disaster/2:46 minutes into episode.

Left: Tales of Suspense #45, page 3 panel, Sept. 1963. Art by Don Heck. “Iron Man” (cartoon series 1966): Season 1, Episode 1 — Double Disaster/5:24 minutes into episode.

Left: Tales of Suspense #52, page 3 panel, April 1964. Art by Don Heck. “Iron Man” (cartoon series 1966): Season 1, Episode 5 — Crimson Dynamo/5:48 minutes into episode. Left: Tales of Suspense #62, page 6 panel, Feb. 1965. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks. “Iron Man” (cartoon series 1966): Season 1, Episode 2 — The Death of Tony Stark/12:48 minutes into episode.

Left: Tales of Suspense #58, page 6 panel, Oct. 1964. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks. “Iron Man” (cartoon series 1966): Season 1, Episode 10 — Cliffs of Doom/9:58 minutes into episode.

164

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

MARVEL 2013 CALENDAR

1974 MARVEL VALUE STAMPS - Series A From 1974–1976, Marvel Comics ran a promotion throughout their comics called “Marvel Value Stamps.” These “stamps” were actually printed images on an interior comic book page. They measured around 13⁄4" x 14⁄5" and appeared in Marvel Comics on the back of the letters page, advertisement pages, or sometimes (gasp!) on the back of a story page. You clipped out the Marvel Value Stamp—sometimes destroying the story, always defacing the comic book—and collected them in a Marvel Stamp book. Both “A” and “B” series had 100 stamps each, with each being individually numbered, as well. As with Marvel’s earlier 1966 Marvel Super Heroes Trading Cards, and animated cartoon The Marvel Super Heroes, the stamps depicted a character-image taken from a previously published comic book, some with Heck art. Above: The stamp for the character Kang appeared in Master of Kung-Fu #22, Nov. 1974, with Don Heck art reused from Avengers #23, page 19 panel, Dec. 1965. John Romita Sr. inks. Above Right: Marvel 2013 Calendar, and a close-up of the notation for Don’s birthday. Below Right: 7-Eleven cup and Daredevil #103, Sept. 1973, cover (Black Widow figure). John Romita Sr. inks.

Over the past few years, Marvel Comics has renewed its 1970s practice of issuing a calendar featuring its characters. Though recent years’ calendars depicted Don’s artwork, the 2013 offering highlighted Don’s birthday, January 2.

7-ELEVEN MARVEL COMICS PLASTIC SLURPEE CUPS In 1975, Marvel began a licensing agreement with the world’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, Inc., offering Marvel characters depicted on the white plastic cups used to serve their popular icy-flavored drink, the Slurpee. These white plastic cups measured roughly 5¼" tall, 3¼" in diameter at the mouth, and 2" at the base. The 1975 series included 60 cups, each with a different Marvel character, with a few exceptions. Again—as with Marvel’s earlier 1966 Marvel Super Heroes Trading Cards, the animated cartoon The Marvel Super Heroes, and 1974 Marvel Value Stamps, the cup depicted a character-image taken from a previously published comic book, including several Heck images. CHAPTER ELEVEN: MARVEL MERCHANDISE

165

BY THE NUMBERS A myth that has been perpetuated about Don is that while at DC Comics, the circulation of monthly books where he was the regular artist fell sharply during his run—or in some cases it’s also been argued, because of it—specifically The Flash, Justice League of America, and Wonder Woman titles. Obviously, there are numerous factors that contribute to a book’s sales success, though admittedly in a creative industry, the writer and the artist are always integral to a book’s success, either collectively or separately. However, contemporaneous factors such as the state of the comic book industry, changing consumer tastes, creative direction, and the economy should be considered as well. This applies when analyzing both an increase in circulation as well as a reduction. Also, as with any creative industry, sales and popularity do not always equate to quality. And finally, during any period, it’s also important to consider the then latest “hot” creative team being assigned. Opposite: Montage of Heck’s DC work.

chapter

The point: Though circulation numbers are absolute, the possible reasons behind them are not as easy to define. That said, some fans might be surprised with the reality of the before, during, and after circulation numbers of the books in question under Don. [Ed.: For the circulation numbers below I used the average total paid circulation as reported by the respective companies in postal records, which are recorded in the back of the respective issues listed: “10C Total Paid Circulation — Avg. no. of copies each issue preceding 12 months.”] In The Flash #285 letters column, a fan writes his disappointment that Alex Saviuk was not assigned the permanent artist on the book, though he points out, “I have nothing personal against Don Heck,” but that he prefers Alex’s interpretation. He concludes his criticism that the overall “constant shifting of artists” on the title is “a little disconcerting and distracts from the continuity of the stories.” Editor Len Wein responds in the “Flash-Grams” letters column of The Flash #285 (May 1980) that Alex was unavailable and that, “The next logical choice for Flash was Don Heck, who had been penciling the Scarlet Speedster’s exploits in the dollar-sized Adventure Comics. And frankly, we’re as happy as can be about the turn of affairs. Don is breathing new life into the Fastest Man Alive, and we think you’ll come to agree with us if you give him half a chance.”

THE FLASH

Above: Wonder Woman #319, splash, DC Comics, Sept. 1984. Heck pencils and Rick Magyar inks. Right: “Flash Grams” letters page logo.

WONDER WOMAN JLA 167

THE FLASH — BY THE NUMBERS 1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

#272 Apr

#280 Jan

#284 Apr

#295 Mar

#297 May

#309 May

#321 May

#332 Apr

#345 May

#350 Oct

115,716

Don’s Don’s Title 1st 102,297 Final 109,756 92,024 87,562 72,771 69,881 Cancelled Issue Issue Note: The circulation numbers reported in issue #297 show a 7% increase over the previous 12 issues, back to issue #284. Result: The circulation numbers increased during Don’s run.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA — BY THE NUMBERS 1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

#177 Apr

#190 May

#201 Apr

#202 May

#214 May

#216 July

#225 Apr

#238 May

#249 Apr

#261 Apr

128,660 131,587

Don’s Don’s 82,406 121,587 131,892 1st Final 122,397 110,664 96,281 Title Cancelled Issue Issue

Note: The circulation numbers reported in issue #214 show an 8.5 % increase over the previous 12 issues, back to issue #202. Result: The circulation numbers increased during Don’s run. Don had penciled fill-in issues of the title prior to taking over as regular penciler with Justice League of America #201 (April 1982), following the popular run by fan-favorite George Pérez. Don would stay on the series penciling two of the title's most popular storylines: #207–209, “Crisis on Earth Prime,” and #213–216, “Microcosmos Saga.”

In 1981, DC was enjoying a renaissance in sales and creativity across its comic line based on the success of a re-launched title New Teen Titans, an influx of talent from competitor Marvel Comics and Great Britain, as well as strong editorial leadership. This success was contagious across the DC Comics line. Even two of DC’s established “Big Three” characters— Superman and Batman—were rediscovering success: Superman through the writing of Marv Wolfman and art by Gil Kane, and Batman through the writing of Gerry Conway and Doug Moench, with art by Don 168

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Newton, Gene Colan, and others. However, DC remained frustrated with the chronic low sales of one of the remaining “Big Three,” Wonder Woman. DC’s response was Wonder Woman #288 (Feb. 1982), which introduced the new creative team of Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, both fan-favorite and legendary creators. The issue’s cover—and the fullpage house ads across DC’s comic line promoting the title—unreservedly touted, “Look out, world! The sensational new Wonder Woman is bustin’ loose!” Roy Thomas would leave after nine issues with

Wonder Woman #296 (Oct. 1982), coming back to write issue #300, while Gene Colan remained through Wonder Woman #305 (July 1983). Enter Don Heck. Don had drawn the Wonder Woman title in the mid-1970s, and a few fill-in issues. He took over as regular penciler with Wonder Woman #306 (Aug. 1983). Ernie Colón, then editor, announced Don’s arrival as the new regular artist in the letter column: “Taking over for [Gene Colan], Don Heck, whose name cannot be said without someone saying, ‘the most underrated artist in the field.’ I agree. Take a look at the man’s ability—from the school of ability, craftsmanship, and professionalism. Throw in a generous helping of talent and mix well—Don Heck. I welcome him!” Enter Alan Gold. With Wonder Woman #309 (Nov. 1983), Alan Gold took over as editor. In that issue’s letter column, Alan provides his insights into the book. Contrary to the norm when taking over a title, he writes, “The fact is, I’ve stepped into a pretty cozy situation.” Alan goes on to compliment the writer, Dan Mishkin, and his vision for the title, and then comments on having Don as the artist-in-residence, “And Don Heck is an old hand at delivering the doings of the amazing Amazon in a bright, exciting style.” Alan concludes his comments on the creators by pointing

out that, “They know what they want to achieve with this series—a fresh, fast-moving comic, filled with adventure and grown-up emotion—and they’re impatient to prove they can top themselves with every issue.” Eighteen issues later in Wonder Woman #324 (April 1985), Alan delivers a frank assessment in answering a fan’s letter in that issue’s letter column on not only the direction of the book under his helm as editor, but specifically on Don’s art: “A lot of well-meaning fans have noted that Don Heck is doing great work on Wonder Woman, maybe better than anything he’s done elsewhere in a long while, and then they advise me to get another artist for this comic, in the interest of fan acceptance. Well, your heart’s in the right place, [Ed.: Letter writer’s name redacted], but I say no dice to that. If we’re doing commendable work on this comic, sooner or later, word will get around and people will suspend their prejudices long enough to give our book a gander—that’s my belief. Disappointing sales for WW aren’t Don Heck’s fault—any more than they were attributable to the appeal of Gene Colan or José Delbo or any of the other artists who have drawn this series. The book has earned itself a bad rap because of much lackluster fabulation over the years. That bad rap is what we’re up against, I think.”

WONDER WOMAN — BY THE NUMBERS 1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

#279 May

#291 May

#303 May

#306 August

#314 April

#325 May

#329 February

94,901

83,796

96,198

Don’s 1st Issue

73,256

52,145

Title Cancelled

Note: The circulation numbers reported in issue #325 show a –46% decrease over the previous 24 issues, back to issue #303. Result: The circulation decreased dramatically during Don’s run. Wonder Woman was cancelled with issue #329 (Feb. 1986). In February 1987, the character was “re-booted” beginning with a new issue #1, including a new origin and revamped character history. This second iteration lasted through 2006. The character was re-tooled in 2010, and again in 2011. Left: Wonder Woman #313, page 15 panel, DC Comics, March 1984. CHAPTER TWELVE: BY THE NUMBERS

169

1929-1995

Don lost his battle with cancer February 23, 1995, at the young age of 66. Keith Dettwiler, Don’s nephew, remembered Don passing…

170

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

you were good, you would get work, and… a lot of times he was disappointed. He had a lot of sadness in his life… and I always felt that he deserved a better break than he got. Our generation had a different take on comics. You didn’t have to bring… quality and integrity to the stuff. Don did it at a time when nobody else was noticing it except a few people. It was a personal quality level that we strived for, even though we weren’t getting paid a lot of money and nobody was particu“That was a sad time. I remember larly impressed by it, except for that while in the hospital, The some readers who remember our Berndt Toast Gang [Ed.: The group stuff very well.” of artists that would meet monthly] Finally, Comics International, drew him a get-well card with each Britain’s main comic news/industry drawing on it. Stan Lee reached magazine at the time, had a nice out to Don and me when Don was write-up, as well. sick; that was nice.” Comic Buyer’s Guide #114 (March 24, 1995) included a thoughtful two-page obit and bio written by Mark Evanier, as well as pages of tributes and remembrances from both peers and fans. Marvel Comics recognized Don’s passing fittingly in the letters page of Iron Man #318 (July 1995) (right). Comic Book Marketplace #23 (page 55, 1995) contained an obit written by Pat S. Calhoun that reflected on his impact to Pat as a comic book fan (left). HERO Illustrated #23 (page 20, May 1995) devoted a full-page tribute to Don. In the HERO Illustrated obit, John Romita Sr. is quoted as saying, “He was not a P.R. guy, he didn’t promote himself or his work, and he didn’t go out of his way to kowtow to anybody. He as just a pro who did his work, and he figured if

JIM FERN REMEMBERS HIS FRIEND DON One of Don’s closest friends was fellow artist Jim Fern. Jim was more than enthusiastic to discuss Don and their friendship in an interview conducted on May 16, 2012. JOHN COATES: How did you meet Don? JIM FERN: First let me tell you a quick story. Early in my career, I was at the DC Comics office to pick up a job. I remember sitting outside some editor’s office waiting for my appointment. I overheard some editors talking about getting a fill-in artist for an issue of a title, and Don Heck’s name came up. They were like, “Nah, he’s not good with deadlines anymore since his exwife died, and he’s been depressed and suicidal.” I never really thought of it again. Fast forward a few months later when I was working for Marvel. I was visiting my local comic shop to Opposite Top: 1970s photo of Don Heck at his drawing table. Above Inset: Jim Fern. Above: Don and friends from one of the monthly meetings on Long Island called the “Berndt Toast Gang.” This was a group of comic strip artists, comic book artists, and illustrators who met monthly for lunch, drinks, and an occasional tall tale. From left to right: Don Heck; Al Scaduto, who drew the They’ll Do It Every Time newspaper strip; Creig Flessel, Golden Age DC Comics artist; and an unidentified artist.

chapter

13 show a friend the Moon Knight story I was inking. When I walked in, there was this older gentleman in a Member’s Only jacket, and wearing a flap cap or like a cabbie cap, speaking to the cashier, and I heard him introduce himself as “Don Heck.” Evidently he had an upcoming signing at the store and just wanted to visit it in advance. Anyway, the guy behind the counter answered whatever question he was asked and walked away, but my jaw just dropped! I remembered thinking, “I just heard about this guy, and he’s right here.” [laughter] I introduced myself, and since I had some of the work I was going to ink, I showed him the pages and asked him, “What should I do!?” I explained that this was my first full inking job. I had done backgrounds but never full inking. So, Don looks at it and says do this here, do that there, etc. It was great! A day or so later, out of desperation because I still was choking on what to do, I looked him up in the phone book, and sure enough, “Don Heck” was in the phone book! [laughter] At the time it was surreal for me that the artist I admired actually lived like normal people and was in the phone book. Anyway, I called him, and he hesitantly offered for me to come over to his place so he could give me some pointers. He said that he didn’t have much time to spend for me, maybe an hour. That hour became twelve years of friendship. COATES: What year was this? FERN: 1983. 171

COATES: When you say “friends,” can you elaborate? FERN: Don was my family for twelve years. I was going through some really tough times and Don helped me. After that first meeting, Don and I would see one another every day, and I worked in his studio with him at his house. I was a part of his life, and he was a part of mine. We’d also talk on the phone; I’d call him and gripe about a job, he’d call me and gripe about a job. He would come by my place and we’d go get lunch, or he’d cook lunch for me at his place. I mean, it was a friendship. I used to call him “Mr. Don.” That drove him nuts, but it was because of my respect for my elders, the way I was raised. Don also had this dog named Holly— some type of terrier. I called her Hollerin’ Holly. He loved that dog! Really soft-hearted. COATES: Did you ever tell him about the conversation you overheard from the DC editors? FERN: Yes, I was going to get to that. He was livid! Really angry. He told me he was not and had never been suicidal. Also, he said that he divorced his two wives and was glad of it! [laughter] Don said that his passion was art and his wives got tired of always seeing the back of his head because he was always drawing! [laughter] He said they wanted more of him so he chose his art. COATES: Jim, that’s incredible. I don’t know how many times I’ve read in articles the story consistent with what you overheard, of Don being depressed after his ex-wife died, or “something” tragic happened, and his work suffering for it. FERN: Not according to Don. He was pretty adamant about it. Don was anything but suicidal. He was a real sweet guy, very funny. He loved art and drew all the time, even when he didn’t have assignments. He always felt those rumors kept him from getting work and could not understand—and neither could I—how 172

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

those rumors got started. Also, I think Don was as upset about the crack about his missing deadlines. [laughter] From my knowledge and from those that I’ve spoken to over the years that worked with Don, he never missed a deadline. I take that back. About a year before he got sick with cancer, he had colitis, and I helped him with his work. [Ed.: See page 92 for Don’s nephew’s comments on this rumor.] COATES: I’ve always read that Don had a great work ethic too. FERN: Don was late only once with a job, the whole time I knew him, because of a hurricane; we had a blackout for days. Don was working on Wonder Woman, and he drew using Bunsen burners for light. He was really annoyed he was late with this job—I think only a couple of days over the deadline. I can say that in the time we spent together I never saw anything in his personality or habits that supported a bad work habit in anything he did. It’s amazing how a rumor can become “fact” and accepted just because it’s repeated enough. Later on, because of no work, Don wound up doing under-drawings or layouts for me at Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics. COATES: You mentioned working in his studio. What was that like? FERN: Overall, his studio would be considered a comic book artist’s heaven! He had stacks of comics knee-high on the floor, and more in the cabinets and shelves. The original art was on a makeshift shelf with a plywood board on two sawhorses. Under the stairs, he made this hideaway closet that was used only for National Geographic magazines—shelves of them, like a hidden library just for those National Geographics. Don had saved and organized in chronological order published newspaper strips from the 1940s and up, like Terry and the Pirates, L’il Abner, Steve Canyon, Rip Kirby, Apt. 3-G, etc. He loved Milton Caniff, Hal

Foster, Alex Kotzky—Don thought Alex drew the prettiest woman—and the classic strip artists. Don’s studio was upstairs in one room next to the kitchen. He always had two things hanging above his drawing table: a drawing Jack Kirby had given him as a gift, and the latest Playboy magazine pin-up poster! [laughter] The Kirby drawing was a constant for inspiration, but the pin-up would change each month. I remember that when Don drew, he always wore a banker’s visor to keep the lamplight out of his eyes. I would work in there, but for some of the jobs where I really needed to concentrate, I worked in the basement studio. Most of his house was a studio. Two drawing tables downstairs, but he worked only in the upstairs studio when I knew him. He didn’t use the downstairs studio much anymore. Also, he had his own darkroom that he built himself. Way before Xerox machines were popular, Don would photograph his pencils before he sent off his pages to the inker. COATES: I’ve read that Don always wanted to be a newspaper strip illustrator? FERN: He ghosted for Caniff for Terry and the Pirates. It wasn’t for years; it was for a brief stint when Caniff needed help. He had a George Wunder original. I don’t know how long the [Caniff] stint was for. It might have only been for a week, or he helped ghost ink, not ghost pencil—can’t remember which. But he was proud of the experience to work with his idol, Milton Caniff. He ghosted for one other artist I know of, but I can’t tell you because this person would have a conniption. [laughter] COATES: Was he very critical of his own work? FERN: I think most good artists are. Don would always say, “I want my art to have ‘juice!’” He meant he wanted the art to look rendered, look “drawn.” That’s why he would have this cross-hatching, lines, blacks, etc.

FERN: Don was about 5' 11". Don’s “look” reminded me of Art Carney’s character Norton from the TV show The Honeymooners. He didn’t act silly like the character, just reminded me of the look. Don always wore a polo shirt, with a thin vest, and a hat; he always wore a hat since he was bald on top, unless it was warm out. Don and hats were one. I would combine Don with Art Carney and Michael Caine. Don had that deadpan Michael Caine stare when something was bothering him. He’d get quiet and just stare at you. I was watching a Michael Caine movie a while back, and at one point I sat up in my chair and said to myself, “That’s Don!” COATES: You mentioned Don loved art. Did he have any other hobbies? FERN: Don loved sports in general, but football in particular. I remember I would work in the basement studio—I couldn’t concentrate with the TV on, still can’t—so he’d be in his studio upstairs and would come down to tell me the scores. He was also a very handy person and would tinker with things. One time he broke my desk lamp, and when I said, “It’s no big deal,” he was insistent to fix it, and he did. He loved and collected old tools. He also loved models and would build them—airplanes, etc. Don was a saver, and would re-use everything. He was very thrifty. COATES: Did he ever mention his parents or his childhood? FERN: Sure, but I only remember very little. He only had the one sister—no brothers or children of his own. I don’t know that both parents liked art, but I think his father did, and both I’m pretty sure supported his becoming an artist. What I gather is his parents were kind the way he was. Opposite and Above: Don at his drawing table in the early 1990s.

COATES: Can you describe him? CHAPTER THIRTEEN: JIM FERN REMEMBERS HIS FRIEND DON

173

COATES: Did Don ever talk about the early days at Marvel? FERN: All the time! As I said, Don was very funny and told some great stories. Unfortunately I can’t remember any of them! [laughter] I do remember he told me that he would record the phone calls from Stan Lee when Stan would call to pitch a plot. Sometimes Stan’s pitches were brief, because they were phone calls talking over a story. Once in a while, he would have a general conversation with Stan, but the story pitches were brief. Many times Don would say he didn’t even have a script or written synopsis, just a quick phone call. He said he recorded the conversations so he could play it back and make sure he got what Stan wanted. I’m talking those reel-to-reel tapes with spools. COATES: Wow! Talk about historical. Any chance those recordings survived? FERN: I saw the tapes but don’t know what happed to them after he died. Keith, his nephew, handled his estate, I think. Anyway, Don also talked about John Buscema. Don idolized him, and I know John loved Don’s work as well. We all three lived about two miles apart at the time. It always amazed me how both Don and John were very humble guys about their work. Neither could believe someone else could learn from their work. My only beef with Don is he would never speak up to editors. He was too worried about losing a job, or not getting more work. I was with him once with Joe Orlando, editor for special projects, because I was assigned to ink Don, and Joe was telling Don what to do, and Don was like, “Yeah, sure, I can do that, uh huh, ok.” I’m thinking, “This is Don Heck!” Joe Orlando didn’t have any respect for Don’s style of art. COATES: This is just speculation, but some of that might be generational from the comic system he grew up in, so to speak. Editors had more control over your income back in the day. FERN: Could be, but I think Don had that gentle 174

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

personality that he would have been the same in about anything he did. Don never understood the value of his work. I was with Don the day he received a surprise box of returns of his Marvel original art back [Ed.: Early 1990s.] I mean the early stuff, Avengers, “Iron Man,” etc. Boxes! He didn’t even know that they were being returned. So he’s looking at this early artwork. “It’s not my best stuff,” he said. Don had done Wonder Woman [Ed.: Mid-1980s.] and he loved that work. Really thought it was some of his best. He held up some of his Wonder Woman work and was like “Look at this work. It’s so much better.” I said, “Nobody cares about Wonder Woman! Don’t get rid of this art until you speak to me, okay?” So soon after, I’m looking through a magazine and see an advertisement that includes some early Avengers Heck pages that I knew were in that batch. I take the ad and go over to Don’s house. I ask him what he sold them for, and he said around $10 each. I suspected it was really about $5, but I think Don was embarrassed. I showed him the advertisement listing them for $125 each and his eyes bounced the hell out of his head! He didn’t want to just get rid of it. He was sick at the time and thought of selling it for some money because work wasn’t coming in. He sold them way under value because he didn’t think they were worth much because he didn’t think it was his best work. COATES: Any other recollections about people at Marvel? FERN: He was inspired by Kirby’s work and really was impressed with it. Aside from what I’ve already said about John Buscema, he did say his favorite inker besides himself was always Frank Giacoia. Later on he liked Rick Magyar’s work on his pencils. [Ed.: Magyar’s inking began in Wonder Woman #317, July 1984. See Chapter Ten on inking for examples of the artists mentioned.] COATES: When did Don discover he had lung cancer? FERN: Don started to get symptoms about six months before he died. We were at a lunch in [New

funeral, we were sitting in my sister’s living room, and my sisters were giving me advice about my career in the comic industry—really giving it to me. Don was sitting next to me on the couch and calmly turns and says, “Your sisters love to give you stupid advice, don’t they!?” That’s how honest he was. I remember I would visit him in the hospital and tell him not to worry because I’d cut his grass. He’d say “No, no. I don’t want to be a bother to anyone.” That’s the way he was. Don was a sweet guy to the end. COATES: Not that it matters, but was Don a smoker? FERN: Don died at age 65 in 1995—I met him in 1983. He must have been 53. He stopped smoking all together 20 years before I met him. So when he switched from cigarettes to a pipe, I’m not sure, but I’m sure he quit altogether 20 years prior to us meeting.

York] with some other artists. This was a group of artists that would meet monthly called “The Berndt Toast Gang.” Anyway, we were talking to Don Orehek, and at the time he couldn’t stop coughing and we had to leave. I was concerned because my mother died one year before of lung cancer, and Don had the same symptoms. I know I’m off topic, but that reminds me of a funny story about Don. As I said, my mother passed away in 1994, and Don came to the funeral. After the

COATES: I have to say that, just listening to you, it really seems like a blessing to have known him the way you did. FERN: You know, it was. To think that a guy I run into by chance at a local comic shop turned out to be a comic book legend, and we became the best of friends. Don was my lifeblood and I still miss him. Opposite: The Avengers #35, page 5 panel, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1966. Art by Don Heck. Above: The Comics Reader #201, back cover, Street Enterprises, May 1981. Don contributed this original drawing to the monthly comics industry news magazine.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: JIM FERN REMEMBERS HIS FRIEND DON

175

Above and Right: Don Heck’s penciled breakdowns for Poul Anderson’s science-fiction tale “Brake” which was adapted in a twelve-page typed script by renowned comics scribe Arnold Drake from Random House Archives, 1982. Background: Justice League of America #188, page 4 panel, DC Comics, March 1981. Don Heck pencils and Frank McLaughlin inks.

176

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

REMEMBRANCES

chapter

FLO STEINBERG

ROBERT GREENBERGER

Personal Assistant to Stan Lee

Longtime DC Comics Editor

It’s so sad that Don has been gone from us for so many years. I wish he could have had more time to enjoy life—and to see all the wonderful movies starring his characters! In the 1960s, Don’s visits to the Marvel offices were very much looked forward to. As he lived way out on Long Island, his trips into the city were infrequent, with most of his work delivered by mail or car messengers. His smile made all of us smile. His terrific sense of humor made us laugh, and he brightened our workday, and we all loved him. A consummate professional, Don always met his deadlines. His big envelopes with his artwork were always opened with excitement as we “Marveled” at his beautiful, meticulous work. I always enjoyed talking with Don on the phone (before computers!), and his lovely wife—good memories and good times.

I grew up on Don’s “Iron Man” and Avengers work, too young to fully appreciate his skill and style. All I knew was that he had a distinctive style, one I could instantly spot. The appreciation came later as I saw his reprinted earlier work and eventually learned about art itself. When I joined DC, I shared an office with Alan Gold, and when Don arrived to deliver Wonder Woman pages or other work, he was always friendly. He didn’t often regale us with stories but was appreciative of the work we gave him, and a true gentlemen. After discovering his inspirations on my own, I came to fully enjoy his work. A true storyteller, he is one of the more underappreciated craftsmen of his generation.

Above (Left to Right): Tales to Astonish #16, splash, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1961. Art by Don Heck. Tales of Suspense #56, panel, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1964. Art by Don Heck. Right: Flash #280, panel, DC Comics, Dec. 1979. Don Heck pencils and Frank Chiaramonte inks.

TOM DeFALCO Longtime Marvel Comics Editor/Writer I don’t think I ever met Don Heck. The closest I ever came to working with him was when he inked a few issues of Thor that I had written with Ron Frenz. Ron—my coplotter and unindicted partner in crime—was ecstatic when he learned that Don was going to ink his pencils. No, I didn’t know Don

177

personally, but I was always a big fan of his work. I first became aware of Don back when he was penciling Tales of Suspense. While I’m not sure if “Iron Man” really suited Don’s style, nobody could match his Hawkeye or Black Widow. I’ve often thought that Don would have been more comfortable drawing a romance or an adventure newspaper strip than a super-hero comic book, but he certainly did the Avengers proud. He had a subtle way of making his characters seem real and human and vulnerable. He had a way of laying out a scene that visually told you all you needed to know, but always left you wanting more. He was one of the true greats of the Marvel Age of Comics!

I wouldn’t have wanted to get on the wrong side of a Heck woman. He was a masterful storyteller. I worked with him on a number of occasions and loved scripting what he drew from my plots. He was one of my favorite artists, both as a fan and a professional. It has baffled me that it’s taken so long for the fans and some of my fellow professionals to recognize how damn good Don was. In an industry that tries to fit writers and artists into assembly-line boxes, Don Heck was his own artist. He didn’t look like any other artist, and no artist I know of has ever been able to imitate him. He was one of a kind—one of the best kind.

HERB TRIMPE TONY ISABELLA

Longtime Marvel Comics Artist

Longtime Marvel Comics/DC Comics Writer When I first became a full-fledged Marvel Comics maniac, Stan Lee was The Man. But Stan was backed up by a quartet of great artists who I called his Big Four: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, and, of course, Don Heck. I was drawn more to comic-book stories than art, but these artists brought an excitement to comic-book art that I didn’t see in DC’s comics. Sure, there were exceptions at DC, artists with individual styles whose art wasn’t as “clean” as that found in most of the DC books. Most of them—Joe Kubert, Andru and Esposito, Russ Heath, etc.—did most of their DC work for books edited and often written by Robert Kanigher. Editors with style and heart, like Kanigher and Lee, appreciate such artists. Don Heck brought a rugged glamour to characters like Tony Stark, and a dynamic reality to everything he drew. In the “Iron Man” series, Pepper Potts and the Black Widow were the two most gorgeous Marvel women of those early years. In the Avengers, the Scarlet Witch was on fire. But the beauty of these Heck-drawn women was informed by their strength. 178

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Unfortunately, I only met Don a very few times, and all of those were under working conditions. I knew him better by his work, which in my opinion was fantastic. All the artists in place when I started working at Marvel were iconic. I felt like a street kid in the middle of the ’27 New York Yankees. I wasn’t close to being in their league.

JENETTE KAHN 26-year Publisher/ President/Editor-in-Chief for DC Comics Although Don Heck made his mark at Marvel, we at DC were the lucky beneficiaries of his skill and imagination. He drew a Wonder Woman who was not only beautiful but strong, a woman who could be fierce in one moment and tender in the next. With The Flash, he understood the playfulness inherent in the concept of his super-speed, and drew covers with such dynamism, energy, and wit that they still make me smile today. Above: Giant-Size Defenders #4, page 15, Marvel Comics, April 1975. Don Heck pencils and Vince Colletta inks. Opposite: The Avengers #47, cover, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1967. Don Heck pencils and Frank Giacoia inks.

LARRY LIEBER Longtime Marvel Comics Artist/Scripter and Stan Lee’s Brother I don’t recall if I ever met Don personally, but if I did it was only in passing in the office. Regardless, I always felt that Don was one of the best artists drawing comics at the time.

MIKE GOLD Longtime DC Comics Editor I don’t know if Joe [Orlando] came up with it, but in my day it was known as “the Orlando Test.” The idea was, if you could turn a penciled page upside-down and still get a clear sense of what’s going on, you were looking at some really good storytelling. Don Heck always aced the Orlando Test. He was a master storyteller with his own unique style, who, for us Baby Boomers, was tasked with co-creating Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, and taking on The Avengers and the rest of the Marvel line over the long haul. It was his work that provided the artistic cement for the Marvel Universe. I met Don more than a few times during the 1970s. He seemed particularly proud of his genre work for Comic Media in the 1950s. I sought that out and man, was that stuff brilliant. One of the medium’s great artists and a pillar of the Marvel Universe, I thank Don for making my childhood that much more exciting.

BOB ROZAKIS Longtime DC Comics Writer and Production Manager Though Don Heck had illustrated a variety of my stories over the years, we didn’t have much contact.

After all, I was writing full scripts for books like Teen Titans and Batman Family, so there was little need or opportunity for interaction. We did work a bit more closely on the four-issue miniseries of The Centurions. Though we were basing it on the cartoon series and the toys, I don’t recall how much reference material we had beyond the actual characters. We were on our own with a lot of what we did, and Don was great in providing what I asked for in the scripts. At the time, I was using a modified “Marvel style” in my scripting. I would give a list of what was to happen on each page and a rough idea of the dialogue, and it was up to the artist to decide how many panels he needed. Then I would take the pencils and modify the dialogue to fit. Don did a particularly nice job in Centurions #2 with the montage pages showing each of the three main characters recounting his origin. I wish I’d had more opportunities to work with Don, but I’m happy to have had him illustrate the stories he did.

GERRY CONWAY Longtime Marvel Comics/DC Comics Writer As a comic reader in the 1960s, I was an avid fan of Don’s work—particularly when he inked his own pencils. His art had a quality not usually seen at Marvel in those days: a combination of dynamic layout and delicate, almost intimate draftsmanship. I always thought of him as one of the Big Three Artists at early Marvel, the others of course being Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. I loved his work on “Iron Man,” but

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: REMEMBRANCES

179

I thought he really excelled on The Avengers. So, with that fanboy perspective, you can imagine how excited I was to find myself working with Don on a number of projects over the years, from “Iron Man” at Marvel, to Justice League, Wonder Woman, and the creation of Steel: The Indestructible Man at DC. Steel, in particular, was a special experience. As a character deliberately designed to evoke the retro-style of early ’60s Marvel, he was perfect for Don, who brought his usual high level of professionalism and craft to Steel’s creation. It was a privilege to collaborate with him.

STEVE ENGLEHART Longtime Marvel Comics/DC Comics Writer When I discovered Marvel, I set about collecting the issues from before my time—and so I absorbed everything Marvel was in a reasonably short time. I was confronted with a slew of different artists, all working out the Marvel dream. There was Kirby, who was in a class by himself, and Ditko, who really was in a class by himself—and my favorite among everyone else was Don Heck. I never had any doubts about that, and so I was surprised when, over the succeeding months, I discovered that some people didn’t like his stuff. To this day, I don’t know why. He could sometimes be a little slap-dash, but there were plenty of people who were worse, as they all rushed to meet deadlines. What he could do was draw very good-looking men and women, and make you like them. I’ve always said that one of Stan’s great strengths was, he made you like his characters, so that you cared about them, and in many ways, Don was the artistic equivalent. Ant-Man/ Giant-Man and the Wasp hardly ever had a great story, but I was totally drawn into their relationship, 180

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

and that was down to Don. We did a number of books together once I became a pro, and it was always a pleasure to see what he’d make of my mental images. He created the visual for Mantis, and he drew the final chapter of her saga. That one didn’t help his rep among the haters, because it was definitely slap-dash—but the reason was, he was handed an incredibly complex story at the last minute (double-sized) when the scheduled artist couldn’t make it. Though I could have wished for better art, I totally understood that deadlines are deadlines—and I understood that he did everything he could in the time allotted— and it didn’t change my opinion of him one bit. Don Heck was an essential part of the Marvel dream, and I, as fan and pro, would have been a lot worse off if he hadn’t been around. Seeing his art always brightened my day. •••••••••• “…I’m a big Don Heck fan. I like Don Heck, and I’ve never understood why he came in for so much of the flack he did. When we got to the end of the ‘Mantis’ saga in The Avengers, the artist was supposed to be Dave Cockrum, but he couldn’t do it. Editorial turned to Don and basically said, ‘Here’s the climax of a story you know nothing about, full of characters you’ve never seen. It’s 34 pages long. Knock it out as fast as you can.’ Under those circumstances I think Don did the best that you could expect anybody to do.” — Steve Englehart Alter Ego #103, TwoMorrows Publishing, July 2011, page 15. Interview conducted by Richard Arndt. Above: Detective Comics #416, splash, DC Comics, Oct. 1971. Art by Don Heck.

STAN GOLDBERG Longtime Marvel Comics Humor Artist I knew of Don long before we ever met. When I was the head of the coloring department at Timely/ Marvel, I had to go over all the books that had to be colored each month. Whenever I came across one of Don’s stories to be colored, I spent a little more time on his art, because he was always steps ahead of all the other artists. I especially remember his submarine stories. Later, when I got to know him well and I mentioned these stories to him, he said he too was very proud of them. Don was probably one of the most underrated artists in the business, but no one could draw romance better than Don. None of the adventure artists could come close to Don when it came to drawing romance. Besides all of that, he was a good friend and a nice guy.

Stan Goldberg playing the namegame and discussing his days at Marvel… JIM AMASH: Don Heck. GOLDBERG: Don had it tough. I liked Don as a person. One of the first things I colored was a submarine story by Don, and it was great. He gave me a piece of his art before he died, and I cherish it because I always liked his art. He got divorced and never remarried. The last 15 years of his life he was referred to as “Don Hack.” He was treated unfairly by critics. His work was always good. The young editors pushed him aside, and I heard he did portraits for a while. He wasn’t doing comics at all and helped other artists out by doing backgrounds and things like that. I even got Above: Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #123, page 7, DC Comics, June 1972. Art by Don Heck.

him a job once. I was asked to do some work for a company and couldn’t do it, so I referred them to Don. This company was a very low payer, and I told Don to ask for a third of the money up front. He asked and they paid him. Ten years ago, Don got cancer and a lot of the artists who knew him took care of him. His cancer went into remission and then came back and he died soon afterwards. Alter Ego #18, TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2002, page 26. Interview conducted by Jim Amash.

TOM BREVOORT Longtime Marvel Comics Editor I only worked with Don on one occasion, around 1992, when he re-inked an “Iron Man” story he’d originally drawn in 1964 so that we could include it in a Marvel Masterworks reprint, as the original proofs had gone missing over the years. I later found out that the story in question, the first appearance of Iron Man’s seminal foe the Mandarin, was likely the first time Don had worked “Marvel style”—drawing the story from a verbal description from Stan, after which the final copy was written— rather than working from a full script as was the norm. Don told me that he’d remembered drawing the job originally while vacationing on Fire Island for a week. He is definitely one of the unsung heroes of those early Marvel days and a true stylist and storyteller. [Ed.: Read the full story of Don redrawing the “Iron Man” story on page 110.]

GIL KANE (1995) “At his peak, [Heck’s] renderings had an influence on many, most notably John Buscema. He was a nice, self-effacing guy. Unfortunately, the business chewed CHAPTER FOURTEEN: REMEMBRANCES

181

Don on Fire Island “There’d be times when someone wouldn’t bring in the work when it was promised, and we’d have to call the person up. Sol [Brodsky, longtime production manager, and later VP of operations at Marvel] would say to me, ‘Well, how are we going to handle it?’ You know, the good cop/bad cop thing. Depending on who was causing the problem, I would either call them up and whine, or Sol would call and be tough. Everyone reacted differently. Once, poor Don Heck went to Fire Island [Ed.: A remote barrier island located off the south shore of Long Island, N.Y.] and we couldn’t get ahold of him. And we sat and sat and finally we called the police out on Fire Island and had them get Don on the phone!” — Flo Steinberg, speaking of the day-to-day operations of Marvel in the early 1960s Marvel Age #22, interview, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1985, page 18.

him up and spit him out, and he didn’t deserve that.” The Comics Journal #175, Fantagraphics, March 1995. Interview.

BOB HALL (2008) Commenting on his days working in the Marvel offices in the early 1970s: “I had brief conversations with Don Heck and I quite liked him. He was just a very... you see, it’s hard to say what people were like. They were mainly just very pleasant and professional.” AdelaideComicsandbooks.com, 2008. Interview

NEAL ADAMS (via Mark Evanier) (2011) You just reminded me of one of my favorite moments in the early Comic-Con years. It’s not even exactly relevant, but I’m going to stick it in here anyway. This was the fourth year of the Comic-Con. We were sitting out at the Harbor Island Hotel, and Neal Adams was sitting by the pool doing sketches for fans, and kids are throwing questions at him about comics as he’s drawing stuff, and one kid says, “Why do they allow crappy artists like Don Heck in comics?” And there was a pause, and Neal turned to him and said, “You know, if they had put me on those books, with 182

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

those inkers, and jerked me around like that, you’d be standing here right now asking Don Heck why they let a crappy artist like Neal Adams in comics.” [panel audience applause] — Mark Evanier The Jack Kirby Collector #59, TwoMorrows Publishing, Summer 2012, page 73. Mark Evanier quoting Neal Adams on Don Heck at the 2011 Kirby Tribute Panel held Sunday, July 24, 2011 at Comic-Con International: San Diego, moderated by Mark Evanier, and featuring Walter Simonson, Erik Larsen, Richard Kyle, Mike Royer, and Jonathan Ross.

ROY THOMAS Legendary Marvel and DC Comics Editor and Writer, and Comics Historian (2004) JIM AMASH: Let’s move on to Don Heck. He had some problems fitting in at times, because his style wasn’t like Kirby’s, and when he tried to draw like Kirby, it sometimes didn’t work as well. I was always a big fan of his. ROY THOMAS: I liked his work too, and in the early years he had the reputation with readers of drawing the prettiest women in Marvel comics. Of course, he was competing with Ditko and Kirby, who were not specialists in that area. AMASH: Was he a strong plotter?

THOMAS: Reasonably so. He didn’t add a lot of great imaginative elements, but if I gave him the bare bones of a story, he’d fill in the details nicely. I liked working with him, but once I saw John Buscema’s Avengers, it was hard for me to relinquish John. We found other things for Don, but I think he lost his footing in a way. He could do a decent Kirby impression, but Jack’s figures had weight and mass, and Don’s often looked as if they were filled with helium and just floating. He was as good an artist as most in the field, but he wasn’t a natural super-hero artist, and somehow, when the competition got a little stiffer— Romita, Buscema, and the like—Don began to look like a fifth wheel. We kept trying him on different series, but nothing quite worked out. We’d try him on inking; Stan had him finishing up Spider-Man. He was another guy Stan felt an obligation to, and Don was kept working as much as we could, but it got harder and harder. He just never seemed to adjust. After he lost his footing, he never seemed to regain it. He was like somebody lurching around in the outfield because he’s always played second base. I didn’t know Don well, but we had a good relationship. I liked him. I don’t know what he thought of me, or the stories. Mostly, he was just a professional who would get an assignment and do the best he

Opposite: Adventure Illustrated #1, splash, NMP, Winter 1981. Art by Don Heck. Above: Justice League of America #209, panel, DC Comics, Dec. 1982. Art by Don Heck.

could on it. I think Stan may have tried to light a fire under Don Heck from time to time. It didn’t quite work, though, because Don never regained the position he’d had when Marvel was only a severalartist company. He ended up being cast from hither to yon at DC, Marvel, and elsewhere, increasingly unable to make a living in the field. It wasn’t for lack of talent. Sometimes you can have talent, but it isn’t the right talent for the times. Alter Ego #50, TwoMorrows Publishing, July 2004. Portions of an interview conducted by Jim Amash.

MARIE SEVERIN Longtime Marvel Comics Artist (July 2012) DEWEY CASSELL: During the early days at Marvel, there were some guys like Don Heck—. MARIE SEVERIN: Oh, yeah. He was good. Very reliable, very nice. Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics, TwoMorrows Publishing, July 2012.

MIKE ROYER Longtime Comics Artist and Inker (2002) AUDIENCE: Mike, why didn’t you do more work for Marvel apart from Jack? MIKE ROYER: There were things I did at Marvel that, I guess, didn’t gain me any favor. They sent me two Don Heck books to ink, of Ka-Zar. As an inker, maybe I have no personality or did not put all of my personality into the inks, but when I was finished, I wanted it to look like Don Heck had inked it. Of CHAPTER FOURTEEN: REMEMBRANCES

183

course, John Verpoorten called me. He said, “You know, we really wanted that to look like Joe Sinnott inking.” The Jack Kirby Collector #35, TwoMorrows Publishing, Spring 2002. Interview conducted by Mark Evanier at the San Diego Comic-Con Jack Kirby Tribute Panel.

JOHN BUSCEMA (2001) “I had [the school] for a year. The second year I had other people take it over. Don Heck—I forget who else.” — John Buscema, when asked by an audience member about The John Buscema School for art “John Buscema: The San Diego 2001 Interview,” Alter Ego #15, TwoMorrows Publishing, June 2002. Interview conducted by Mark Evanier.

•••••••••• JON B. COOKE: How did you first meet Jack? JOHN BUSCEMA: Back in 1965 or 1966, I got a call from Marvel. They wanted me to go back. I’ll be honest with you, I was afraid, but it was appealing to me because I wouldn’t have to commute. I could work at home. It was a tremendous effort for me to make that decision. But I started working for them in 1966, and I met Jack one day in Stan’s office. Stan and I were working on a plot and Jack walked in. As far as meeting Jack, I think I can count the times on one hand—just for short periods. I saw him at the convention out in San Diego. We exchanged a few words, pleasantries, whatever. We drove home together once. He lived on Long Island, and Don Heck drove us home. That’s about the extent of it. I didn’t have that much contact with Jack. COOKE: Did you ever lose anything in the mail? BUSCEMA: No, but Don Heck did. He lost a job 184

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

once in the mail, and at that point he decided he would Xerox everything. COOKE: Were you close to Don? BUSCEMA: Yes. He lived about 15 minutes away from me. We were pretty close. I made a lot of friends in this business, but some have died, and most have retired and moved away. The Jack Kirby Collector #18, TwoMorrows Publishing, Jan. 1998. Interview conducted by Jon B. Cooke.

DON HECK REMEMBERED by Jim Salicrup Growing up in the turbulent ’60s in New York City’s roughest borough, The Bronx, I welcomed the escapism of pop culture. Especially comic books, and especially Marvel Comics. Those comic books would have a major lasting impact on my life, and one of the artists, virtually working in the shadows behind such giant figures as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others, was Don Heck. While I was exposed to many great comics and art styles when I was young, there was something about Marvel Comics that set them apart and made me embrace them above all others—and I truly loved so many other kinds of comics as well! So, almost any comic published by Marvel during the ’60s is loved by me almost as much as I would love my own family—after all, I grew up with them and I learned a lot from them. In fact, at a very young age my dream was to move to Manhattan and work for Marvel Comics, and by the time I was 15, I was indeed working at Marvel. Don Heck was very easy to take for granted, as he was always there, usually following in the footsteps of another artist, with the exception of Iron Man— whose series he was with from the very start, with

Jack Kirby at first, but he quickly made “Iron Man” his own. Whenever I think of Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, or even the Black Widow or the Mandarin, I always envision them drawn by Don Heck—who, I must admit, I still think of as Dashin’ Donnie Heck, thanks to Stan “The Man” Lee’s penchant for giving Marvel’s creative crew such colorful nicknames. Truth to tell, despite spending time with the man himself, I still visualize the cartoon version of him that appeared in an Avengers Annual back-up behindthe-scenes feature by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema; also, that poorly printed black-and-white photo that was in Marvel Tales #1. If following Jack Kirby on the Avengers wasn’t tough enough, I remember an issue of The X-Men where Don filled in for Neal Adams. Amazingly, inker Tom Palmer was able to smooth the transition so that the issue still felt like it was by Neal Adams, with Don Heck’s work still coming through. I remember attending, with my then-wife and still best friend Paulette Powell, an opening at the Bess Cutler Gallery that actually featured the kind of romance comic book artwork that inspired much of Roy Lichtenstein’s work. Don’s work was featured, and he was there. He and Paulette got along famously. He couldn’t believe she was a fan of his work, but she really was. His version of Wonder Woman remains her Opposite: The Sinister House of Secret Love #1, splash, DC Comics, Oct.–Nov. 1971. Art by Don Heck. Above: Wonder Woman #329, page 17, DC Comics, Feb. 1986. Art by Don Heck. Image scanned from original artwork.

favorite. (In an issue of Web of Spider-Man I edited, I couldn’t resist featuring an art gallery opening with Roy Lichtenstein—we got his permission—and Paulette Powell in attendance—both drawn by John Romita Sr.) As I grew older, I gained a greater appreciation of Don’s work. I began to enjoy much of his non-superhero work, particularly his Western stories. Eventually, after 20 years at Marvel, I had finally decided it was time to move on, and accepted a job at the Topps Company to head up their new line of comics, aptly named Topps Comics. By that time, the early ’90s, the original Marvel Bullpen that I had so loved as a kid was mostly a memory. But after leaving Marvel, I suddenly had an urge to recreate that early Marvel Comics feel, and made a deal with Jack Kirby to license some of his characters at Topps Comics and create the Kirbyverse. It was funny—it was if I had to leave Marvel to finally be at the Marvel of my childhood. Unfortunately, Stan Lee was still under an exclusive contract with Marvel at that time and couldn’t be a part of this event, but we did manage to reunite Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers (with inker John Severin), and Don Heck, along with writers Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Gary Friedrich. Don was given the one-shot Night Glider comic to illustrate, once again following Jack Kirby who had created the character. I picked Don to illustrate this character, as opposed to Bombast or Captain Glory, because out of Ditko and Ayers, I thought he drew the most attractive female characters. Now around this time, Image Comics was the biggest thing in comics, with each of their titles selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Publishers were scrambling to imitate the look of artists such as Todd CHAPTER FOURTEEN: REMEMBRANCES

185

McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and Jim Lee. Older artists either had to start drawing in this new “style” or be left behind. To launch this retro-style universe was greatly satisfying to me, even if it remains just a footnote in comics history. It was meaningful to me to launch a line of characters that Jack Kirby could retain the rights to. It was also great to publish these awesome artists who were being overlooked by Marvel despite their many years helping to build what had become Marvel. Fortunately, the Kirbyverse came out before the ’90s boom was over, and each of the titles sold very well, garnering some of the highest royalty checks ever for these artists. I was surprised at what Don Heck used some of his royalty money for: a photocopier that he could use to print out great copies of his work on original art-sized paper. Published around about the same time as the Kirbyverse comics was the Image Comics series 1963 created by Alan Moore. It was Alan’s take on the same ’60s comics we were attempting to approximate with the Kirbyverse. In a phone call with Alan, we both agreed we should’ve combined our projects, with Alan as writer and Kirby, Ditko, Heck, and Ayers as the artists. That’s not a slight against the writers I worked with or the artists Alan worked with—I never thought of setting the Kirbyverse in the ’60s, and as much as Alan’s artists tried to capture the style of Marvel’s artists, they couldn’t possibly do it as well as the original artists themselves. As we were promoting the Kirbyverse, an unusual request came in from the organizer of the Los Angeles 186

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention. He was very interested in devoting one of their monthly shows to Topps Comics, and specifically wanted, in addition to Jack Kirby and Ray Bradbury (we were also publishing Ray Bradbury Comics at Topps), Don Heck to be a major guest. The organizer was, and I imagine still is, a huge Don Heck fan, and saw this as an excuse to bring Don to his convention. Of course, we happily agreed. Don had never been to California before and was thrilled to be flown out there by the convention. I assumed that there would be several panels that day, each focusing on a different Topps project, but instead there was just one big super Topps panel with all the guests on it at the same time! Our West Coat editor, Gary Gerani was there, along with a major Hollywood movie poster artist that was working with Gary, and probably a few other folks I can’t remember now. That’s because one of the wildest fan moments ever was happening to me—I was about to appear on the same panel with Ray Bradbury, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck! I couldn’t believe it was happening! The kid from the Bronx was standing next to some of his pop culture idols! It was truly mind-boggling! I don’t remember the panel at all, but I do remember hanging out with Ray, Jack, and Don before the panel. Jack was the most talkative of the group, and I got to see three very different sides of Jack that day. The first was Jack the fan. He was truly in awe of Ray Bradbury, just as we were all in awe of Jack. Jack spoke about how he still remembered reading Ray’s stories in the old pulp magazines on the curb on the streets of New York

City’s Lower East Side, and how much he enjoyed them, and how thrilled he was to see Ray. Ray, who was all in white—safari jacket, Bermuda shorts, socks, and tennis shoes matching his shock of white hair—was beyond cool, especially when his limo driver came over and delivered Ray’s beer. Then Jack reverted to his regular guy persona when he caught up with Don on his New York comic book artist friends. Jack had seamlessly switched from fawning fan to talking like my Dad. I’ll never forget Jack asking Don, “So, did Ditko ever find himself a woman?” Jack’s third side was the one he chose to show to fans, and seemed to be his answer to Stan Lee’s public image. This was when he was on the panel and started answering the fans’ questions in a language only Jack seemed to fully understand. But the longest stretch of time I spent with Don Heck had to be on the flight back to New York City after our L.A. adventure. Don was a very soft-spoken, kind, modest man. He enjoyed the trip to L.A. and was happy to be on his way home. We talked about the artists that inspired him, such as Milton Caniff, and many of our mutual friends in comics, everyone from Sol Brodsky to John Romita. He didn’t have an unkind word to say about anyone. It’s hard to believe Don’s gone. Like so many of the great artists from the Golden and Silver Ages, he’s no longer with us, and what we had taken for granted for so long is now sorely missed. I had hoped to have Don illustrate a Zorro story while I was at Topps, but waited too long to ask. There are other projects that still come along, such as The Power Rangers at Papercutz, where I’m the editor-inchief, and I wish Don was still available. As Paulette and I watch the Iron Man and Avengers movies, we think of that gentle and quiet man and his astonishing contribution to pop culture, and we’re thankful that we were lucky to know him, even if it was for far too short a time.

Opposite (Top to Bottom): Don drawing on his patio. Early 1990s. Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention flyer, May 2, 1993, featuring Don Heck. Above (Left to Right): Night Glider #1, pages 4, 17, 26 and 27, Topps Comics, April 1993. Art by Don Heck.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: REMEMBRANCES

187

188

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

AFTERWORD B S BY

EAU

The Four-Color Legacy Of Don Heck I toss the word “Hero” around like manhole covers. I don’t think it’s a term that we should use too often, but I think folks do. It’s a hard habit to break, but in the last couple of years I’ve tried to scale it down to specific categories: life, sports, family, and in this case, art. My art hero is Don Heck. In my opinion, my childhood in the 1960s was pretty idyllic. At times it was like a cross between the TV series My Three Sons and Malcolm in the Middle. I was drawn to comic books before I could even read them. Even though I couldn’t understand the words yet, there were some comics that I could comprehend just by looking at the artwork. Even at that young age, I figured out that any comic book that Don Heck drew, I understood. His work on “Iron Man,” The Avengers, and Marvel Comics’ Westerns were my steady diet of comic book reading. I was never left hungry, but yet I always wanted more. As I got older, I tried and tried to draw like Don Heck. I could somewhat mimic Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, but there was no way I could get the stroke of Don Heck’s brush and pencil. I gave up my aspiring career to be an artist in the 9th grade and turned my focus over to being a writer—your eyes should be very thankful I made that move. My admiration of Don Heck’s work never faltered from my youth through adulthood. I always thought that Don’s artwork continued to move forward

MITH

through his career, getting even stronger and stronger when other artists’ talent begins to fray around the edges. I’ll note here that not everyone agreed with me as the late 1970s and ’80s rolled on. I can remember defending Don’s art and style many times with peers, at conventions and within the letter columns of comic books. It was a time when a lot of readers became entranced with the sizzle of the steak and not the substance of the meat. In the early 1980s, I was one of the co-founders of the first audio/video broadcasts dedicated to comic books called Comicast. We were distributed via the direct market system on audio cassette as well as VHS tape. We interviewed just about everyone in comic books, from the most well known to the up and coming. One of the first people I contacted was Don Heck. We clicked right off the bat. It wasn’t long until Don and I were talking once a week. I was pretty stoked that Don would take the time to answer my questions about working for Marvel during the 1960s when I discovered them in the spinner rack. I asked him about the time that Stan Lee mentioned in his “Stan’s Soapbox” that he was very impressed with the 1965 Buick Riviera that “Dashing” Don Heck had just bought. (The 1965 Riviera was one hot-looking car.) Don told me that Stan was truly impressed with the Riviera, and that he did go on and on to Don about it. Don added that Stan was so impressed with the Riviera that a month

Opposite: Tales of Suspense #52, splash, Marvel Comics, April 1964. Right: Journey into Mystery #100, panel, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1964.

189

later, Stan made sure that Don saw his new Lincoln Continental. Don chuckled about that and said that Stan was never one to be outdone. Don said that in a good way, in the fact that Stan was personally driven, and the success of others motivated him to do better, not so much to top the other people, but to be the best he could be. I told Don that as a kid, I thought the ’65 Riviera was one of the coolest cars of its day. Don once again chuckled and told me that anytime I wanted to see it, all I had to do was look in his driveway, the Riviera was parked there. He was still driving it! Don also mentioned that back in the ’60s, Stan was always trying to get the artists to join in on his P.R. ideas and to interact more with the fans through the comics. Don said that during those times, as artists, they were busting their butts to get their monthly books out, work on extra stuff, as well as jump in and help others finish their books. They didn’t really have the time to sing on records, do interviews, and other such stuff that would be asked 190

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

of them. He said it was truly a different time, and they looked at the drawing as their job and they needed to get it done on time so they could do it all over again. Don said that as he looked back, he kinda wished he did join in more on those P.R. things. It panned out for Stan for future work. He felt if he would’ve followed suit, there might’ve have been more work for him in the present (the 1980s). He also looked at it as something that might’ve helped him gain more clout. By clout, Don meant that he wouldn’t have to have other guys ink his pencils. Don liked to ink his own work. He took that very seriously and felt that not many of the new inkers were taking their jobs to heart. Don told me that there was an art to being an inker that was just as important as penciling. Don did like some of the inkers that worked over his pencils, and he was always complimentary to those artists/inkers. Rick Magyar was one of the “new” inkers that he thought did well over his pencils. Like most true artists, Don preferred to ink his own work, with good reason. Like Gene Colan, Don had his own unique style that demanded ink from the same hand that penciled it. Later in his career, Don felt that Marvel and DC Comics were using him and his vast experience to ink over new and young talent; it wasn’t Don’s idea of perfect work, but jobs were fewer and farther between. It was through Don that my admiration for the work of Milton Caniff grew. Caniff was a huge influence on Don’s work. You can really see it in a lot of Don’s comic book work on Westerns, horror, and action from his runs on 1950s comic books. Don also introduced me to the work of Noel Sickles. I had never heard of Sickles work, and Don was more than happy to educate me. He sent me Xeroxes of Sickles’ art that he had had around his studio for many years. I was stunned and amazed by the beautiful brush and line work. I then did my best to tell others of Noel Sickles. Currently, I’m the Director of Marketing for The Library Of American Comics (IDW Publishing), Above Left: Beau has a letter printed in the Wonder Woman #329 (Feb. 1986) letter column, commenting on Wonder Woman #326 (July 1985). Opposite: Wonder Woman #326, page 1 panels, DC Comics, July 1985. Panels showing Steve Trevor doing his finest “Steve Canyon” impression. Don Heck pencils and inks.

run by my former boss at Eclipse Comics, Dean Mullaney. A couple of years ago, we published Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles. Dean, being the historian that he is, was all about Noel Sickles’ work for many years and shared that interest with Don. I finally got to return that favor to Don. While at Eclipse Comics, we published a comic book series called Winter World by Chuck Dixon with art by Jorge Zaffino. I knew the first time I saw Zaffino’s work from the book that Don would love it. I sent Don copies of the art and the finished books. Don did indeed love Zaffino’s work. Don was able to explain in detail, in artist’s lingo, all the beauty of Zaffino’s art. Don told me he posted the copies of Zaffino’s art around his drawing table alongside that of Caniff’s. He said the work inspired him. A few years later we would lose both Jorge Zaffino (1960–2005) and Don Heck (1924– 1995), both way too soon in my book. Don became a true close friend of mine. For that I will always be thankful to God. To be a kid and receive so much pleasure from someone’s work, and have that work become interwoven into the fabric of your life, is a real gift. To have that same, talented person become your friend is the ultimate pleasure. Don was very kind, helpful, and generous to me. I enjoyed the hours we would talk about films, comics, art, and the craft of storytelling. Don was a modest man, and I’d have to sometimes force compliments on him about his work. Don’t get me wrong; Don was very confident about his art. What he sometimes wasn’t confident about

was that the business had changed. He enjoyed how the fans embraced the business and became a major part of its process, but he also felt their love of comics also turned comics into a smaller version of Hollywood, warts and all. I miss Don’s friendship, his opinions, and his experienced stories of the business and of art, but he did leave a four-color legacy in his art that still fills a paper trail of immortality for us all to enjoy. His body is gone, but his DNA still lives in the pages of comic books.

Beau Smith The Flying Fist Ranch November 25, 2012

AFTERWORD by BEAU SMITH

191

COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS ™

A Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i c a t i o n

No. 3, Fall 2013

BACK ISSUE

ALTER EGO

82658 97073

COMIC BOOK CREATOR

DRAW!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, including Pro2Pro interviews (between two top creators), “Greatest Stories Never Told”, retrospective articles, and more. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

ALTER EGO, the greatest ‘zine of the ‘60s, is all-new, focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art. Each issue includes an FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and stepby-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Most issues contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; Mature Readers Only. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare & unseen Kirby artwork. Now full-color, the magazine showcases Kirby’s art even more dynamically. Edited by JOHN MORROW.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazines) $8.95 (Digital Editions) $3.95

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1950s

BILL SCHELLY tackles comics of the Atomic Era of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis! (240-pages) $40.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 9781605490540

1960-64 and 1965-69

JOHN WELLS covers two volumes on 1960s MARVEL COMICS, Wally Wood’s TOWER COMICS, CHARLTON, BATMAN TV SHOW, and more! 1960-64: (224-pages) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-045-8 1965-69: (288-pages) $41.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 9781605490557

The 1970s

JASON SACKS & KEITH DALLAS on comics’ emerging Bronze Age! (288-pages) $41.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 9781605490564

seus new Ambitio LL-COLOR U ries of F ERS docuV HARDCO ach decade e menting book hisof comic ry! to

The 1980s

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years! (288-pages) $41.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-046-5

AGE OF TV HEROES Examining the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes, featuring the in-depth stories of the shows’ actors and behind-the-scenes players! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95

MODERN MASTERS

LOU SCHEIMER

MATT BAKER

SPOTLIGHTING TODAY’S BEST

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

25+ volumes with in-depth interviews, plus extensive galleries of rare and unseen art from the artist’s files!

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years brought the Archies, Shazam, Isis, He-Man, and others to TV and film!

Biography of the talented master of 1940s “Good Girl” art, complete with color story reprints!

(120-page trade paperbacks with COLOR) $15.95 (Digital Editions) $5.95

(288-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95

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

Don Heck remains one of the legendary names in comics, considered an “artist’s artist,” respected by peers, and beloved by fans as the co-creator of Marvel Comics characters Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, and for his long stint on Marvel Comics’ team book The Avengers. He joined Atlas/Marvel Comics in 1954, and along with industry giants Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Maneely, and Dick Ayers, Don became an integral player in “The Marvel Age of Comics”, drawing The X-Men, Spider-Man, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD, Daredevil, The Defenders, Ghost Rider, and most of Marvel’s other characters. In the late 1970s he became regular artist on top-tier DC Comics titles such as Teen Titans, The Flash, Justice League of America, and Wonder Woman. In Don Heck: A Work Of Art, author John Coates has meticulously researched and chronicled information on Don’s storied 40-year career, including his time at DC, Dell, Gold Key, and as “ghost” artist on Lee Falk’s The Phantom newspaper strip. From personal recollections from Don’s surviving family, long-time friends, and industry legends, to rare interviews with Heck himself (where he discusses his career, artistic technique, triumphs, frustrations, and love of drawing), this book is full of insight into—and first-hand anecdotes from—the early days of Marvel Comics. It also features unbiased analysis of sales on Don’s DC Comics titles, an extensive art gallery (including published, unpublished, and pencil artwork), a Foreword by Stan Lee, and an Afterword by Beau Smith.

“If there were a Marvel Universe version of Mount Rushmore, [Don Heck] would be up there with Stan, Jack, Steve, and Dick.” — Tony Isabella “The spine of the comic book business—its very existence—comes from men like Don Heck.” — Mark Evanier “His art had a quality not usually seen at Marvel in those days, a combination of dynamic layout and delicate, almost intimate draftsmanship. I always thought of him as one of the Big Three Artists at early Marvel, the others of course being Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.” — Gerry Conway “At his peak, [Heck’s] renderings had an influence on many, most notably John Buscema.” — Gil Kane “I always thought Don was one of the better men in the business.…” — John Buscema “Don was a modest guy, but a solid pro who knew he was good. He had a wonderful style that I envied…” — John Romita, Sr. $39.95 in the U.S. ISBN 978-1-60549-058-8 TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina www.twomorrows.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-058-8 ISBN-10: 1-60549-058-X 53995

9 781605 490588