The Fawcett Companion by TwoMorrows Publishing

The Best of

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The Best Of

Editor

The Best Of

P.C. Hamerlinck

Consulting Editor John Morrow

Design and Layout Christopher Day Walter J. Grogan P.C. Hamerlinck

Front Cover Art Jerry Ordway

Cover Concept/FCA Logo P.C. Hamerlinck

Back Cover Art C.C. Beck P.C. Hamerlinck Alex Ross Marc Swayze

Copyright Acknowledgements Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Bulletman, Bulletgirl, Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible, Taia, Minute-Man, Mr. Scarlet, Pinky, Billy Batson, Superman, Batman, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey, Mr. Tawny, Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivana, Ibac, Captain Nazi, Mr. Atom. Oggar, Phantom Eagle, Commando Yank, Radar, Hoppy The Marvel Bunny, Dr. Voodoo, Mr. Macabre, Steamboat, Mary Broomfield, Beautia, Shazam ©2001 DC Comics. Cisco Kid ©2001 King Features. Captain Midnight ©2001 Ovaltine. Fatman ©2001 Milson. Nyoka The Jungle Girl ©2001 AC Comics. Flyin’ Jenny ©2001 Bell Syndicate. Little Ug-Li ©2001 Marc Swayze. The Spirit ©2001 Will Eisner. Captain Tootsie ©2001 Tootsie Rolls. Our Space Age ©2001 Bell-McClure. Willie the Worm ©2001 Chad Grothkopf. Isis ©2001 Hallmark. Kitz ’N’ Katz ©2001 Bob Laughlin. Tom Mix ©2001 Ralston. Torchy, Gabby Hayes, Ozzie & Babs, Don Winslow, Hopalong Cassidy, Captain Video, Vic Torry, Monte Hale, Mike Hammer ©their respective companies / copyright holders. FCA logo ©2001 P.C. Hamerlinck.

Published by TwoMorrows Publishing 1812 Park Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27605

Contents (including original publication dates) Foreword By Marcus D. Swayze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Introduction By P.C. Hamerlinck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang (1996). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 “The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, Or Better, Than Anybody” (1997) . . . .10 The World’s Mightiest Waste of Time and Money (1981) . . . . . . . . . .14 Comics Is A Funny Business (1946) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 “What’s Behind That Comic Cover?” (1940s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 How The Comics Are Made (1942) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Fawcett Writing Rules (1942) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 The Human Quality Of The Captain Marvel Characters (1983) . . . . . .28 Mary Marvel (1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Those Darned Armbands and Cape Loops (1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 “One of the Most Real Characters Ever To Appear” (1998) . . . . . . . . .31 Master Man (1978) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 My Favorite Little Monster (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Captain Marvel & The Atomic War (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 The Marvel Family Feud (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Captain Marvel’s Well Known Comics (1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Captain Marvel Thrill Book (1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Fawcett’s Dime Action Books (1976) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 The Captain Marvel Daily Newspaper Strip (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 The Smithsonian Book Of Comic-Book Comics (1982) . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Fawcett Comics’ Greatest Hits (1982) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Rod Reed—“I Was Proud” (1974) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 “I Chose To Be A Genius” (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Otto Binder—“We Were More Or Less Inspired” (1974) . . . . . . . . . . .59 Virginia A. (“Ginny”) Provisiero—Fond Memories (1998) . . . . . . . . . . .65 Kurt Schaffenberger—“I Admire Craftsmanship” (1980) . . . . . . . . . . .68 Marcus D. Swayze—Southern Gentleman (1978) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 He’s My Man By Mrs. Marc Swayze (1997) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 “I Survived”—Fawcett Artist Ed Robbins (1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 “A Lushness of Line”—Bob Powell And Fawcett (1991) . . . . . . . . . . . .79 FAWCETT COMPANION

King of the Roost—Fawcett writer Joe Millard (1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Remembering Fawcett by George Evans (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Easy Money—Fawcett Writer Manly Wade Wellman (1976) . . . . . . . .85 Captain Lieberson (1952) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 “Visual Expression”—Will Lieberson (1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Legends Meet—C.C. Beck chats with Will Eisner (1983) . . . . . . . . . . .98 Al Allard—‘The Business Has Changed’ (1982) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 “I Never Read Them”—Fawcett Artist Pete Costanza (1980) . . . . . . .101 C.C. Beck Interviews Pete Costanza (1982) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 “I Wanted To Draw Comics”—Fawcett Artist Robert Laughlin (1984) . . .104 Ralph Daigh—“Comics Opened The Doors” (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 The “Ashcan” Whiz (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107 Carl Pfeufer—An Original (1987) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 The Legacy of Mac Raboy (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Chad Grothkopf—“I Believed In What I Did” (1991) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 Bill Parker (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 John Jordan (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 Dave Berg (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 John Putnam (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 “It Helped Pay The Mortgage”—Artist Edd Ashe (1986) . . . . . . . . . .117 Wendell Crowley (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118 Chic Stone (1997) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118 Bill Ward (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119 Jack Binder (1986) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120 Eric Jon Messmann (1986) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 “I Felt I Would Be Impinging”—Shazam! Artist Bob Oksner (1996) . . .122 They Still Call Him Junior—Frank Coghlan, Jr. (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . .123 Captain Marvel’s Leading Lady—Louise Currie (1996) . . . . . . . . . . .125 “A Hero To Look Up To”—Actor Jackson Bostwick (1996) . . . . . . . . .127 C.C. Meets The Captain (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 “My Dad’s The New Captain Marvel”—John Davey (1998) . . . . . . . .130 Elders Fleet, Strong And Wise—Michael Gray (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . .133 C.C. Beck 1910-89 (1989) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 The World’s Mightiest Opinions (1996) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136 I’ll Never Forget C.C. Beck (1979) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137 We Just Called Him “Beck” (1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Ask C.C. (1986) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 Comic Books Are For Kids (1974) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146 “We Were Considered A Bunch Of Idiots” (1974) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Were Fawcett Comics Art? (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 What Really Killed The Golden Age (1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148 FCA Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149 Fawcett Comics Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 CONTENTS

This book is dedicated to Jenny, my loving, supportive wife and best friend. I love you. I would like to thank and acknowledge, in no particular order, all of those who were a part of FCA's history—and those who continue to be a part of it—and who, without them, would have made this book impossible: Bernie McCarty, C.C. Beck, Bill and Teresa Harper, Marc Swayze, June Swayze, John G. Pierce, Jerry Ordway, Jackson Bostwick, Ken Haag, Glenn Musial, Dean S. Potter, Roscoe K. Fawcett, Eileen Fawcett, Dave Manak, Roy Thomas, Bill Black and AC Comics, Dan Fabrizio, Jay Disbrow, Eric NolenWeathington, Rod Reed, Klaus D. Haisch, Matt Lage, Otto Binder, Jack Binder, Pete Costanza, Bill Ward, Ginny Provisiero, Eric Jon Messmann, Bob Oksner, Frank Coghlan Jr., Louise Currie, John Davey, Michael Gray, Joanna Cameron, Will Lieberson, Kurt and Dorothy Schaffenberger, Ed Robbins, Dave Hunt, Bob Powell, Ed Lane, Joe Millard, George Evans, G.B. Love, Bob Rogers, Richard D. Taylor, Bill Woolfolk, Mike Mikulovsky, Manly Wade Wellman, Will Eisner, Al Allard, Bob Laughlin, Ralph Daigh, Henry Yeo, Carl Pfeufer, Helen Pfeufer Sheehan, Chris Day, Don Newton, Jerry Bails, Hames Ware, Mac Raboy, Chad Grothkopf, Bill Parker, John Jordan, Dave Berg, John Putnam, Jim Scancarelli, Nat Champlin, Edd Ashe, Ralph Muccie, Wendell Crowley, Jerry DeFuccio, Chic Stone, Carl Hopkins, A.J. Hanley, Ken Bald, Harry Fiske, Sam George, Alex Toth, Trina Robbins, Tony Santangelo, Peter Krause, Alex Ross, Walter J. Grogan, Shelly Moldoff, Mike Manley, Nostalgia Zone, Steve Rude, John and Pam Morrow, Willis and Ruth Beck, Ian, Trinity Chapel, Jesus Christ.

Foreword By Marcus D. Swayze, Artist and Writer, Fawcett Publications When Bernie McCarty began to assemble the pages of the first issue of FCA back in 1973, he made his objectives clear: He believed most collectors of the old Fawcett comic books wanted to buy, sell, and trade, and he devoted the early issues to that end. The title Bernie chose for his publication, Fawcett Collectors of America, was in itself a step toward unification. A letter to the editor in FCA #5 bore evidence of Bernie’s farreaching efforts: “I received a copy of FCA and can’t remember ordering it, can’t figure out how it got to me, am favorably impressed, and want to subscribe.” The letter went on with positive and negative criticism and in a friendly way chided Bernie for not taking into account the intellectual progress that had been made by young readers. It closed with: “Captain Marvel is now being translated and published in Arabic, where the name is pronounced ‘Cab-den Mar-fel’ since Arabic has no sounds for ‘V’ and ‘P’.” It was signed by Daniel Meyerowitz, Jerusalem, Israel. The “old books” were those issued by Fawcett Publications in a relatively brief 13-year period of comic book activity. The “kids” for whom the early creators insisted they wrote and drew had become moms and dads and another generation had taken their place, then another, and another. By and large, as though by some mystical force, they remembered those old Fawcett books and the stories they contained. It was Bernie’s FCA that opened the way, at least two decades later, for them to communicate. There had been endless speculation as to just what gave those books such staying power. E. Nelson Bridwell said: “The magic word was FUN! Everyone I’ve talked to who ever had a hand in the Big Red Cheese has used that word. Captain Marvel’s creators and the writers and artists who followed them put a peculiar magic into their work!” That pointed to the creative efforts, the art, writing and editing. The tales of parties, ball games and just plain fun did indeed reveal among those early creators a spirit that defied the times. It was as though they shared an unspoken refusal to permit the effects and after-effects of wartime to dampen their spirits, and thereby, those of their characters. One of the early artists insisted it was the writing alone that set the stories aside as unique and unforgettable. That theory, however, met with disagreement from the time it first appeared. Some have claimed that the distinguishing factor was the art, and there is little question that some of the most beautiful pages of comic book art were in the Fawcett books. But not all. Quite

Portrait of Marc Swayze by P.C. Hamerlinck. a number of the treasured stories did not include those pages. What about the editing? A lot of publishing wisdom must have accumulated in the executive offices since the days of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. It would have been a responsibility of the editorial department at all levels to maintain company policies and philosophies as they were being fitted to the comic book world. That should be a consideration, but hardly as a factor in the question at hand. What, then, was it that made those particular comic books so memorable? Must have been the characters, of course. Led by Captain Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Mortal, who happened to be the world’s friendliest super-hero, when those Fawcett heroes and heroines stormed into the hearts of a new generation of readers, they came to stay. But those young readers were supposed to have grown up into perverts and criminals. That’s what a certain order of comic book critics assured the world. Instead, we had respectable citizens, even comic book collectors... and, yes, soldiers, sailors and Marines. The truth of the matter may be that an unwritten policy around the Fawcett offices was: “Comics are for kids!” True, they were written that way, they were drawn that way. As one creator spoke, “We have kids!” The first issue of Fawcett Collectors of

FOREWORD

America hit mail boxes in March 1973, with Bernie McCarty as editor. The fanzine had four pages and dealt in want-sell-trade lists for collectors. Issue #2, June 1973 was expanded to eight pages and subsequent issues stayed at that size. With help from dedicated contributors the newsletter began to include more material of general Fawcett fan interest. It continued publication for more than four years and at its peak had a mailing list of 500 names. Then, after #11, there was a lapse of over a year. “In limbo,” Bernie explained, “due to rising production costs.” When #12 emerged, it was with a new title, a new editor, a new logo, a new numbering system, new policies... just about everything new, except the publisher, Bernie McCarty. The new editor was C.C. Beck. Practically every adjective in the dictionary has been used to describe the editing of Charles Clarence Beck... brilliant, stupid, impeccable, filthy, intellectual, ignorant... you name it. But before any conclusions are drawn, this should be considered: Beck’s immediate promise to the readers was “OPINIONS,” with a strong hint of controversy. What more effective way to get the fight started, and keep it going, than to throw out a few opinions of your own, be they however wild. The new title was FCA Fawcett Collectors of America / S.O.B. Those last initials stood for “Some Opinionated Bastards” and promptly alienated some of the old faithful who questioned the purpose and the taste. From the start, Bernie had called his publication a “newsletter” and numbered it accordingly. With the new title came a second series, starting with FCA/SOB #1. Thereafter, the covers bore that series as well as the newsletter numbers as begun by McCarty.

stroke that affected his eyesight. The Beck-McCarty collaboration ended with Newsletter #30, May-June 1983. With FCA/SOB #30, the logo seemed to be a telling story. FCA appeared in the familiar black type, but SOB was dimmed to about 50% dot halftone. Then, on the next issue, SOB was split diagonally at the O, the first half in approximately 30% tone, the last half barely visible in about 10%. Was SOB saying goodbye? Turned out it was. When Newsletter #35 appeared, the bad word was gone. Again, a name change was taking place, this time under the capable hands of the Harpers, Bill and Teresa, assuming editing chores with issue #31, 1984. Combining it with their coverage of western comics published by Magazine Enterprises, FCA lived on as FCA and ME TOO. The Harper’s carried the newsletter through lay-up, negative work, plating and printing, maintaining a regular schedule and a steady subscription base for nine years. Their last issue was not exactly a wave of farewell, but did make editorial reference to the increasing difficulties of obtaining interesting material and the “shrinking world of fanzines.” It might as well have been a farewell gesture. FCA disappeared for three years and might never have been published again had it not been for a young commercial artist-marathon runner who was located right in the hot-bed of the original Fawcett setting, Minneapolis, Minnesota. At 32 years Paul Hamerlinck had been enjoying Fawcett comics since age 12. “A fellow in Texas reprinted some old Whiz Comics stories and that got me started,” he said. The Minneapolis area being the home country of C.C. Beck, Paul began writing to him in 1978, finally meeting him in person on a memorable day in 1980, and kept up a correspondence with him until his death. When, around the first of 1995, Paul made his commitment to revive FCA, he had already begun to contact writers, artists and potential contributors. Still, it was a courageous “one-man band” that played the prelude when FCA #54 Winter 1996 made its appearance.

For the new logo the original, ornate letters were borrowed for “FCA.” Underneath that, in conservative size and type style, was “Fawcett Collectors of Captain Marvel Adventures #15, 1942. Cover by Marc Swayze. America,” then below, “S.O.B.” in [©2001 DC Comics] Paul’s determination to do cartoony lettering, even larger more than just keep the fanzine than FCA. After only two issues that logo was replaced by FCA and going was made evident in his success at tapping new sources of inforSOB, separated by a slash, in bold, black type. mation such as the Fawcett family and the Hollywood people. Although With SOB #1, April 1980, the newsletter went on a regularly bimonthly publication schedule and for the first time, paid subscriptions were solicited. Beck’s contributions to the publication, according to publisher McCarty, included “beautiful lay-ups, his artwork and his outrageous and astute opinions.” After 19 issues Beck was forced to give up as editor due to a slight

BY MARCUS D. SWAYZE

40 years had passed since the publishing company had parted from the comics game, Paul, it appears, was drawn by the infectious enchantment of those Fawcett comics of the Golden Age... as had been Bernie McCarty... and C.C. Beck... and the Harpers... and many others. Hats off to all of them! Long live FCA... forever!

Introduction By P.C. Hamerlinck I guess its true that your best remembered events are those that are accompanied by strong emotional impact. One of these experiences occurred in late Autumn, 1973. An elevenyear-old boy stood in front of a comics spin rack at the local Rexall Drug, trying to decide on his choice of literature for the week... which normally consisted of such stalwartly legends as Uncle Scrooge, Archie Andrews, and Sad Sack. As the boy vigorously flipped through the rack’s selections, he suddenly stopped; there, wedged in the back of the stack, was The World’s Mightiest Mortal... and he was smiling! Maybe it was that smile— that positive attitude—which made the boy want to take a closer look at the comic book and find out just who was this happy red-suited hero. At that moment, for the first time, the boy was transformed into the world of Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics via a reprinting of a tale from the Forties, which he read right there in the drug store. The tale was positioned towards the back of the comic—as if it were mere filler—in an issue of a new comic book called Shazam! The boy brought the Big Red Cheese up to the pharmacist’s cash register and read the rest of the book as he began to walk his threeblock journey back home down a puddle-filled alley. As he read about Billy Batson and that magic word of his, life somehow seemed a little more exciting for the still-impressionable young boy from a small midShazam #1, 1973. western town. [©2001 DC Comics]

The old stories about Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family had set my imagination on fire. These entertaining stories were filled with such vast variety: Adventure, science-fiction, light humor, whimsy, and satirical tales reflecting the human condition... tales which often bordered on sheer brilliance. While I was captivated by the stories, it was actually the clean and

simple artwork—by one particular artist—that had really drawn me to Captain Marvel... and whose art truly gave life to the character. The name of the artist was C.C. Beck. C.C.’s brand of uncluttered storytelling art had struck me with a force as powerful as Billy’s magic lightning—so much that I later sought out Beck, who was living in Florida. Thus began an eleven-year correspondence and friendship with one of the true masters and pioneers of the medium. There was often weekly communication (sometimes twice-a-week letters, sometimes by phone, sometimes via audiocassette) where C.C.’s goodwill, warmth, encouragement, strong convictions and high standards always came through. Our main topics of discussion covered Fawcett comics, DC Comics, the state of the comics industry, and such esoteric subjects as what was his favorite restaurant (Answer: Red Lobster). C.C. gave me art instruction through the mail along with the helpful advice (or strong warning): “Paul, don’t ever go into comics!” We did some projects together during and after his stint as editor of FCA, including The Critical Circle, where a small group of comic professionals and fans would debate issues brought up in C.C’s lively essays on comics and art. We finally met in person in 1980 and it is a day I’ll never forget. C.C. loved his fans and he made me one happy teenager when he said I could be his “assistant” that day. He also told me if I would have been alive in the Forties he would have hired me to be part of the Captain Marvel art staff. It was indeed a dark day in 1989 when he died, but knowing C.C. Beck was a tremendous blessing in my life. Before discovering Captain Marvel, I was never really interested in any of the caped, long underwear-wearing characters... and certainly none that were published by DC Comics. It was later that I would learn about the insidious lawsuits that DC Comics plagued upon Fawcett

INTRODUCTION

Publications in the Forties. By this time I had become dismayed by the substandard quality of DC’s new Captain Marvel stories in Shazam!… and equally disgusted at the way C.C. Beck was treated by certain DC personnel while he was the artist on the book. In fact, I’d often questioned the real motive of why DC even bothered bringing back the good Captain in the first place.

and an avid fan of Captain Marvel. John led me to a handful of resources on the history of Captain Marvel and Fawcett Publications. One of these items was a newsletter called Fawcett Collectors of America, otherwise known as FCA, published by its founding father, Bernie McCarty, a Chicago newspaper writer, college football enthusiast, and lover of jazz music.

However, in light of all of this, DC Comics must be congratulated on having the good common sense to reprint many of the classic Fawcett stories from the Golden Age, specifically in the pages of Shazam! and the Limited Collectors Editions—the large-sized comics from the Seventies that retailed for a dollar.

Bernie was a boy when Captain Marvel made his debut. Fawcett comics were always his favorite. FCA is the result of an idea discussed at a Chicago collectors meeting in the Sixties between Bernie and fanzine cartoonist A.J. Hanley where the two talked about a way to revive the old Captain Marvel Club. A.J. went on to publish his own comic books while Bernie catapulted FCA in 1973 to help bring Fawcett buyer and seller together. Each FCA editor that followed—C.C. Beck, Bill and Teresa Harper—brought their own unique style to the publication. By the early Nineties, FCA hung in limbo, apparently dead or dying an extremely slow death.

It was a snowy December night when I first discovered one of these large-sized Shazam! comics at a bookstore while I was Christmas shopping. I immediately ran out of the store. The already seemingly long three blocks to home now seemed like three miles as I slipped my way to our garage, grabbed a shovel, and cleared away as many sidewalks and driveways as I could to finance the purchase of the “big” Shazam! The Shazam! Limited Collectors Editions, as well as a reprint of the first issue of Whiz Comics and a comic book adaptation of bible stories, were some of my favorite comics as a boy. The Shazam! Collectors Editions not only included entirely all Fawcett story reprints, but photos of Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel from the 1941 Republic movie serial. A subsequent Shazam! Collectors Edition featured Jackson Bostwick on the cover, the actor who portrayed Captain Marvel on CBS TV’s Shazam! program which I was already a devoted viewer of each Saturday morning during breakfast time in the Seventies. Ironically, I would one day become friends with Mr. Bostwick as well as interview cast members from both the CBS series and the Republic serial. Soon, thanks to other reprints published by Alan Light and Ian Don Maris, I became familiar with Fawcett’s other stars: Bulletman, Ibis The Invincible, Spy Smasher, and the rest. I thought Captain Marvel had some pretty neat friends who also had great imaginative adventures. The trauma of feeling taken advantage of when I once ordered a pair of X-ray specs from an ad in a Gold Key comic had finally subsided and I got the guts to respond to one of the tiny rectangular ads found inside one of my comic books: “Comics for Sale. Golden Age to Present. Send SASE for List.” “What do you need two stamps for?” my mom asked, with annoyance in her voice. As tears began to swell up in my eyes, I attempted to state my case about how I absolutely needed to obtain a comic book list from a place called Don’s Book Vault. From that list— for the bargain price of $2.50—came my very first Fawcett comic: Captain Marvel Jr. #104. It was a rather well-read, well-loved copy with a quarter of the front cover missing; the whole comic had been folded in half, as if once tucked in some kids back pocket many years ago. However, the three-quarters of the cover that remained still had a shine to it much like any of the new comics on the spin rack at Rexall Drug. I couldn’t believe I was holding it. I just sat there looking at it, not even turning to the first page. “Wow,” I thought, “This is really from back then!” I was enlightened to find out that other fans existed through a subscription to The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom and getting in touch with John Pierce, a school teacher from Ohio, a good Christian,

BY P.C. HAMERLINCK

At this point my interest in comics had dissipated virtually to the point of non-existence. I was busy with my career as a graphic artist, and encountering some sad trials of life along the way. However, I never really forgot about Captain Marvel, Fawcett comics, C.C Beck... or FCA. After a call to Bill Harper and a “go for it” from Bernie, I took over as editor of FCA in late 1995. I wanted to indulge in something that would reach beyond nostalgia and evoking simpler times. I wanted to take the concept of FCA and create something of my own, make it fun, interesting and, hopefully, work of lasting merit. I wanted to give back to something that was important to me, and also use the opportunity as a way to say “thanks” to C.C. Beck. I also firmly believed that there was (and still is) so much more Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics history to be dug up, documented and preserved. I knew in order to do this I needed a helping hand from a friend who had produced his fair share of Captain Marvel stories in the Forties. That friend is Marc Swayze. Marc’s underrated achievements and contributions to the Golden Age of Comics are immense, and his amazing memoirs of his years producing comics for Fawcett Publications are a vital part of today’s FCA (now a regular section within Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine, published by TwoMorrows). Marc, I hope because of me, you are no longer considered “the most forgotten of the unknowns, or the most unknown of the forgottens.” In 1997, Jackson Bostwick wrote to me: “I know C.C. would’ve been proud to see that FCA has grown so strong.” In that same year, just a few months prior to his death, Bernie McCarty called me up to say that my version of FCA was his favorite. The best testimonial of all came from Ian, my favorite little superhero, who said: “Daddy, I really like Captain Marvel.” Like father, like son. Waiting for you within the pages of the Fawcett Companion—The Best of FCA is the world of Fawcett comics, which for only a brief thirteen-year period produced some of the most memorable and most widely read comic books in the world. It is this group of comics—led by Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family—which thousands of enthusiastic fans won’t ever allow to die.

Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang Captain Billy Fawcett and the Birth of Fawcett Publications By Ken Haag and Dean S. Potter In the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale, a legend was born shortly into the century. Wilford Fawcett began a venture in 1920 that would became a national giant. The venture was a small Readers Digestsized booklet titled Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, a publication of jokes and anecdotes which became a national monthly newsstand grabber at 25 cents per copy... and its annual for a buck reached 220,000 readers. Thus Fawcett Publications was born. Off-color humor, jokes, and cartoons in those days reaped big rewards. Captain Wilford Fawcett’s Army experience with their publication Stars and Stripes gave him the idea for Whiz Bang. By 1922, 400,000 copies a month of Fawcett magazines were circulated worldwide. Soon larger facilities were needed to house the publishing venture. In 1936 Fawcett Publications moved out east to Greenwich, Connecticut and New York City... where Captain Marvel was born just a few years later. Many people believed Whiz Comics to be an extension of Whiz Bang. Sure, one had “outhouse” humor, scantily clad (for the times) illustrations and photos of young ladies, and was published for adults, while the other featured a boy who turned into a superhero and became a role model for every kid in America. But there were similarities: Whiz Bang editorialized on God, country, mother and apple

Above: Portrait of Capt. Billy. Left: Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang #41, 1923. Below: The first issue of Whiz Comics, Feb 1940. [©2001 DC Comics] pie, and good versus evil... and wasn’t that what Captain Marvel and Billy Batson were all about? Both magazines were big adventures for Captain Billy, and he had many adventures in his lifetime. His first big adventure began at the age of 16 when he ran away from his Grand Forks, North Dakota home, and joined the Army just in time to fight in the Philippines Insurrection of 1899. Young Fawcett enjoyed Army life so well he continued to romance it. He joined the Minnesota National Guard, after starting his journalism career as a police reporter at the old Minneapolis Journal. When World War I came along, Fawcett again served his country overseas, being promoted from an enlisted man to the rank of Captain. He returned to civilian life with many money-making ideas, mostly related to the armed services and veterans. He opened a Minneapolis night club that catered to the whims of ex-doughboys and sailors, appropriately called “The Army and Navy Club.” Prohibition blitzed his night club out of business... forcing Captain Billy to retreat to a roadhouse in Golden Valley, Minnesota. But with Prohibition, the roadhouse proved to be too precarious a business, so Fawcett looked elsewhere. That elsewhere was again service connected: A joke magazine. Not an ordinary joke magazine, but one that would appeal to ex-soldiers and sailors; one that could easily be read by travelers; one that through its jokes, stories,

CAPTAIN BILLY’S WHIZ BANG (1996)

cartoons and photos might be just a bit racy; and one that could become serious, talking about love of mother and country, and strength and goodness triumphing over corruption and evil. Taking his own name, and a sound that would become familiar to doughboys, of artillery shells rocketing through the skies over the trenches in France’s No Man’s Land and finally exploding, he christened the magazine, Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. It took $500 and a lot of sweat to launch Whiz Bang from his home in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale, but by 1923 Captain Billy’s income was between $35,000 and $40,000 a month, and his little magazine’s circulation was close to half a million. The most amazing aspect of this financial success was that Whiz Bang carried no advertising. From Whiz Bang’s earnings, the newly formed Fawcett Publishing Company turned out several magazines, from True Confessions to Mechanix Illustrated. There were sports, adventure, and movie magazines, even imitations of Whiz Bang, such as Smokehouse Monthly.

Publisher Wilford “Capt. Billy” Fawcett, right, congratulates Betty Grable and Jackie Coogan on their engagement. Fawcett Publications continued to grow, as did Captain Billy... in fame and stature. He traveled the world, dined with statesmen, royalty and celebrities. His hunting safaris became known wide and far. To repay the hospitality he received, Fawcett invited the elite to his luxury lodge at Breezy Point Resort, on Big Pelican Lake in the Brainerd, Minnesota lake area. Fawcett’s friends came to the resort to hunt, fish, play and just relax in the prosperity of the ’20s. When the prosperity bubble burst with the coming of the great depression, American business was hit hard. But Fawcett Publications survived. In fact it continued to grow, moving out of the Twin Cities to larger facilities in Connecticut and New York. It did, however, suffer one casualty: Whiz Bang. Sales plummeted and it folded. Whiz Bang’s style of humor had run its course and the public was looking for new entertainment to take their minds off their economic miseries; movie musical comedies of guys in white ties and tails, and girls in sequined gowns dancing on image-reflecting marblefloored stages, and a new concept in magazines: The comic book. The first 64-page, ten cent comic books contained no super-heroes, just reprints of comic sections from the Sunday paper. Then in 1939, the dam broke when Superman and countless other super-heroes marched onto the scene and became part of Americana. In February 1940, Fawcett’s Captain Marvel appeared in Whiz Comics. Unfortunately, out in Hollywood in February of that same year, Captain Billy at the age of 57, with the help of a fatal heart attack, embarked on his final adventure. He never got a chance to see the impact of Whiz Comics and the huge success of Fawcett comics and the magical career of The World’s Mightiest Mortal. To this day Robbinsdale, Minnesota celebrates “Whiz Bang Days” in July as a reminder of Captain Billy’s publishing venture. And it all started with one big Whiz Bang from Captain Billy.

CAPTAIN BILLY’S WHIZ BANG

“The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, Or Better, Than Anybody” The Roscoe K. Fawcett Interview By P.C. Hamerlinck Captain Wilford (“Billy”) H. Fawcett had a love for off-color jokes and stories. He collected many of them while in the military during World War I. When he returned from overseas, he worked the night shift as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune. In the Fall of 1919, he self-produced a mimeographed collection of his favorite jokes and stories known as the fabled Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. It was the beginning of the Fawcett publishing empire. Whiz Bang was a big hit. Captain Billy’s youngest of four sons, Roscoe K. Fawcett (born 1913), along with his brothers, would deliver copies of Whiz Bang to newsstands and cigar stores throughout Minneapolis in his red wagon. By the mid-’20s, Whiz Bang’s circulation was around 500,000. The first Fawcett offices were started in Robbinsdale, Minnesota (where a “Whiz Bang Days” festival is still held every summer) and later in downtown Minneapolis. Captain Billy built Breezy The Fawcett Brothers. From L-to-R: Roger, Buzz, Gordon, and Roscoe. Point Resort in northern Minnesota’s Brainerd 500,000 per issue its first year; by 1945 the figure had Lakes area where he enterrisen to 775,000 and raking in over $500,000 a year. tained many of Only one other Fawcett comic book title sold better: Hollywood’s top movie Captain Marvel Adventures, by the mid-’40s, was stars. A string of successful selling over 1,300,000 per issue, the largest circulation magazines followed for of any comic magazine, and was published every two Fawcett: Screen Play, weeks. Roscoe Fawcett is still very proud of those Motion Picture, Mechanix figures to this day, as I learned during a rare interview Illustrated, Real Life Story, with him in early October 1997. Roscoe was responTrue Confessions and many sible for Fawcett’s entry into the comic book field. others. The company moved According to Roscoe, he was one of the individuals, east in 1935 to Greenwich, along with art director Al Allard and editorial Connecticut and to New director Ralph Daigh, who helped plant the seed for York City in Manhattan’s Captain Marvel/Thunder along with the general Paramount Building. concept of having a young boy gain the ability to turn into a larger-than-life hero, before being placed Roscoe Fawcett became in the able hands of the creative team of writer Bill the circulation manager of Parker and artist C.C. Beck. Fawcett Publications, Inc. In late 1939, Roscoe sent out a “Captain Billy” Fawcett, died on Roscoe’s promotional flyer to magazine birthday, February 7, 1940. He lived long enough to distributors across the United see the first issue of Whiz Comics hit the States announcing the soon-tonewsstands, but not long enough to see Captain be released Whiz Comics Marvel’s phenomenal success. Roscoe and his three featuring Captain Marvel, brothers ran Fawcett Publications until it was sold “another character sensation in to CBS in the Seventies. the comic field!” Roscoe was right: Whiz Comics sold Comics] [©2001 DC

ROSCOE K. FAWCETT INTERVIEW (1997)

RKF: That just proves again that Al Allard was the greatest person in the world to have working for you. I’d say, “Al, can you do this?”... and he’d follow through. FCA: What are your memories of the magazine that launched the start of Fawcett Publications, Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang? Was the use of risqué and off-color humor a source of any problems for the company? RKF: In 1937 a magazine dealer was arrested in Augusta, Maine for selling Whiz Bang, Smokehouse Monthly and other magazines that we published. I went up there (I was living in Greenwich, Connecticut at the time) and the policeman who made the arrest had to get up in front of the judge and read the passages and jokes from Whiz Bang that he based the arrest on. My father made a fortune on Whiz Bang. It cost only 4 cents each to produce... the cover price was 25 cents. The circulation was around 500,000. 20 years or so later I figured there were plenty of people alive who remembered Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang so I thought it would be profitable to release a compilation book, The Best of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. We put it out and it flopped terribly! I had told them to remove most of the risqué jokes. The final product was far too tame and the public ignored it. FCA: You mentioned another early Fawcett humor magazine, Smokehouse Monthly... RKF: It was a spin-off of Whiz Bang. Fawcett was always going into competition Roscoe’s 1943 estimated circulation report. with ourselves. We FCA: What can you tell me about Fawcett’s decision to begin had, at one time, publishing comic books and the creation of Captain Marvel? eight different movie magazines RKF: I was responsible, I feel, for Captain Marvel. I got us into on the market; we the comic book business. The surveys showed the greatest became the leaders comic book readership was among 10 to 12 year old boys. I in that field. said, “Give me a Superman, only have his other identity be a Actually, Fawcett 10- to 12-year-old boy rather than a grown man.” I put our art published the very director Al Allard in charge of coordinating the project with first movie some assistance from editorial director Ralph Daigh. Allard magazine in 1911. had been with us since we opened up our very first office in We also made a lot Robbinsdale, Minnesota. He had long hair and he looked the of money off a onepart of an artist, but he wasn’t that way. He was very downshot Al Capone to-earth; a great guy and a great asset to our company. My magazine in 1931. father, Wilford “Captain Billy” Fawcett, might had been We became the surprised by Captain Marvel’s success... he lived long enough leading sellers in the to only see the first issue of Whiz Comics. I don’t think it romance field, meant much to him. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t too thrilled especially with True about us going into the comic book market... but he wasn’t Confessions opposed either. I know it has been said that Captain Marvel magazine and I was was modeled after actor Fred MacMurray. I had lunch one very proud of the fact time with Cary Grant. I was talking to him about featuring that it was the top him in one of our magazines. He said, “Roscoe, you’re selling romance ©2001 DC Comics, Inc. already doing that! People have told me I look like Captain magazine year after Marvel!” When you think about it, he did look a little like year. My father was him. uncertain at the time when it came out if it should be a detective magazine or love stories... so it was a little bit of both in issue #1. While FCA: What was your primary responsibility at Fawcett Publications? very popular, our sales fell short in the mechanical and detective fields. RKF: I was in charge of the publishing and circulation of the comics and FCA: Fawcett published True magazine, featuring the classic pin-up paperback books. artwork of George Petty. What can you tell me about him? FCA: Fawcett comics seemed to be the great innovator in comic book RKF: Playboy had Varga, we had Petty. Actually, Petty was with packaging; unique cover effects and experimenting with different formats Esquire before us... but he had a big argument with them so he came to and sizes.

“THE FAWCETTS COULD DO IT AS WELL, OR BETTER, THAN ANYBODY”

us. Petty was a great guy. We use to go hunting together in South Dakota. We did wonderful with True which was the largest selling men’s magazine until Playboy came along and killed us. FCA: Western comics were abundant at Fawcett: Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Rocky Lane, Monte Hale, Lash LaRue... RKF: We dominated the western comic book field. When I met Bill Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) he was pleased to be featured in his own comic book. Hopalong Cassidy was our largest selling western comic. Lash LaRue’s comic did very well too. Lash was a good friend of mine. FCA: Did any of the western stars receive payment from Fawcett for the use of their image inside the comics or for the photographs of them used on the front covers? RKF: No, not in those days. We’d just have them sign a release. Hoppy, Lash, Rocky and all of the others just loved the extra publicity they got from it. FCA: Today in your den you’ve shown me some interesting photographs of Mickey Rooney, Esther Williams, Laurel & Hardy and various other movie stars from the Forties reading Fawcett comics.

A 1940 promotional shot of actor Mickey Rooney enjoying an issue of Master Comics.

RKF: Those were all posed promotional shots. Those actors might have actually read our comics... but I doubt it!

FCA: Fawcett published the Captain Midnight comic which was also a very successful radio program at the time. RKF: Captain Midnight was another very successful comic. His popular radio show helped our sales and our comic book could only help further promote the radio show. We also capitalized on the Christmas market: X-mas Comics and Gift Comics were quite successful. Some of those had over 300 pages. We merely repackaged existing comics. FCA: Let’s shift our focus back to Captain Marvel. Were you involved with the decisions to create the various Captain Marvel spin-off characters: Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, and even Hoppy the Marvel Bunny? RKF: No, I was in the service for nine months in 1943 when a lot of those characters came along. FCA: What about the Captain Marvel Club and all of the merchandise produced at that time... were you involved with any of that? RKF: Oh yes! We had to go out and rent an entire building just for the Captain Marvel Club... overnight! I couldn’t believe the response we got; we were flooded with mail... all of those dimes, quarters and dollars that came in! We had to hire six women who did nothing but open envelopes and empty out the money. We must have had between 30 to 35 employees hired solely for the handling of the Captain Marvel Club. FCA: When did you notice the sales of Captain Marvel starting to slip? RKF: Like everything, you hit a peak and you’ve got to come down somewhere. However, Captain Marvel sales were always very, very healthy. When we folded our comics line in 1953, Captain Marvel Adventures was still one of the top-selling comic books. Yes, it had come down some like all the other super-hero comics did during that period, but it was still very healthy and profitable. FCA: Let’s talk about the infamous lawsuits brought on by Superman’s publisher which eventually led to the end of Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics.

RKF: In the beginning everyone was jumping onto the comic book bandwagon. There was no question that Captain Marvel derived from Superman... hardly anything in the world doesn’t come from

ROSCOE K. FAWCETT INTERVIEW

something. We had our Superman-type character just like everyone else had theirs. So why did Superman’s publisher pick on us? Simply because we were beating them in sales! The lawsuits dragged on for years; there were three of them: We won the first, lost the second, won the third... but then there was a problem. One artist, I don’t know who, took either a page or panel from Superman comics and traced it exactly... and simply inserted Marvel where Superman was. That killed us. We settled out of court. We paid them $400,000. The settlement said that we do not admit to copying Superman but promised never to publish Captain Marvel ever again. FCA: Fawcett had already won two of the three previous lawsuits. I know a lot of people who felt you shouldn’t have thrown in the towel. RKF: We felt bad. While we stood a 50/50 chance of winning another trial, had we lost, they would have taken us for every cent we had. It would have completely put us out of business.

Roscoe Fawcett’s 1940 promotional flyer soliciting Master Comics.

FCA: Couldn’t you have continued your comics line without Captain Marvel? You had other profitable comics, especially the western titles.

RKF: Losing Captain Marvel kind of took the heart out of the whole thing. One of your issues of FCA got me thinking about what killed us... the unforgivable dodge of responsibility by one of our employees (referring to that one artist who deliberately swiped from a Superman comic.) That really hung us. Otherwise... FCA: ...Otherwise Fawcett’s original Captain Marvel might still be going strong today. RKF: Yes, in one way or another! I’ve always wondered about it for many years. And now FCA has rekindled my memory. FCA: Were you present at any of the court proceedings? Artist C.C. Beck once told me he had to testify at one of them and that he felt the whole thing was completely ridiculous. RKF: I was there at some of the proceedings. I was there at the fatal one. They took my deposition before it. FCA: As I understand it, Fawcett Publications was sold in the Seventies. RKF: Yes, my brothers and I officially sold our business in January, 1977 to CBS for a very large sum of money, even by today’s standards. All of my three brothers are now deceased. At the time of the sale, Woman’s Day was our biggest selling magazine, surpassing our major competitor, Family Circle. About 90% of its sales were from the racks at grocery store checkouts. CBS later sold it off to a French publishing company. FCA: Thank you for your time today, Mr. Fawcett. Final words on Fawcett Publications? RKF: I was pleasantly surprised with Captain Marvel’s huge success... and very proud of Captain Marvel Adventures having the largest circulation of any comic magazine. I felt we had the right ingredients that appealed to our readers, young and old. I felt we had the right people working for us who put it all together, who did it right and in good taste. I always felt that anything for the mass market, whether it be magazines, paperbacks or comic books, the Fawcetts could do it as well, or better, than anybody.

“THE FAWCETTS COULD DO IT AS WELL, OR BETTER, THAN ANYBODY”

The World’s Mightiest Waste of Time and Money Ludicrous Litigation: The DC vs. Fawcett Court Battles By C.C. Beck “It’s absolutely incredible,” says David Weiss, a court reporter who has dug up documents and transcriptions of the famous DC-Fawcett lawsuit. “You wouldn’t believe the reams and heaps and stacks and rooms full of material that this trial produced. It’s absolutely incredible!” says Weiss. We are glad that the lawyers who worked on this case produced something for the money spent. Weiss informed me that court reporters are paid by the page and do very well. As we all know, lawyers make huge sums of money for their services—and even witnesses and jurors are paid for their time in court. Comic book writers and artists are paid by the page, too, but they unfortunately never make much money. What comic book writers and artists can say in a half-dozen pages, it takes a lawyer several hundred or thousand pages to say the same thing. I was called in to testify at one of the court hearings in 1944. Here is a transcription of the testimony:

Art: Dave Manak. DC LAWYER: All these conversations, I take it, took place in the Fall of 1939?

BECK: That is right.

what was said by Mr. Parker to you or to Mr. Parker about supernatural characteristics that this individual was to have.

DC LAWYER: Was there anything said about the supernatural characteristics of this individual at this time?

BECK: I don’t recall his using the word “supernatural.”

BECK: We called them “magic,” yes, sir.

DC’s lawyers tried their best to get witnesses to say that they copied or “stole” material from Superman stories. Here is the way Republic Pictures’ Morris J. Siegal answered such insinuations:

DC LAWYER: I did not ask you what you called them, I asked you

DC LAWYER: When and under what circumstances did you see any cartoon strips containing the figure or character Superman? SIEGAL: Well, we had purchased the rights to make a serial of Superman, and it was at that time I believe I saw some Superman strips. DC LAWYER: What happened in regard to the production of the Superman motion picture serial? SIEGAL: Subsequently, some several months later, I understood there was some legal problem involved, and we discontinued work on the serial. DC LAWYER: At the time of the production of the Captain Marvel serial were you then familiar with the story and characters portrayed in the Captain Marvel serial? SIEGAL: Yes, I discussed it and generally knew what the character was.

DC LAWYER: Do you recall whether the story or any of the characters or incidents in the Captain Marvel serial contained any material which had been prepared in connection with the proposed Superman serial?

THE WORLD’S MIGHTIEST WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY (1981)

SIEGAL: My recollection is that none of the Superman material was used in preparing the Captain Marvel material.

Apparently nothing happened; four years later Superman’s lawyers said:

DC LAWYER: Prior to the time you first heard of this lawsuit had you ever had, or do you now have, any knowledge or information that any material in any cartoon strips containing the figure or character Captain Marvel, or in the serial motion picture entitled The Adventures of Captain Marvel, or in any material written for such serial motion picture, was taken or appropriated or copied from any cartoon strip or strips containing the figure or character Superman?

“Fawcett has persisted in its deliberate, unabashed, and bare-faced plagiarism. If we add the sales for the years 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1952 we arrive at a figure of $766,000 to be added to the pre-existing profit. Sales and profits from Superman magazines have been seriously curtailed because of the circulation of the imitation Captain Marvel magazine. The very existence of Fawcett’s imitation Superman cartoon has reduced the impact of the original Superman cartoon upon the buying public and has lessened its achievement in the comic field.”

SIEGAL: No.

They were right. Captain Marvel was so much better than Superman that people were reading his books instead, as they had been ever since he started. But this fact had nothing to do with Superman’s claim that he had been copied. If Captain Marvel had been just an imitation of Superman (as many other comic characters were) his sales would have been as poor as those of Superman and his imitators.

If this kind of highflown drivel seems ridiculous today, it must have seemed a bit silly to DC’s lawyers too. Superman’s publisher brought suit against Fawcett Publications in 1941 and the affair dragged on for over ten years. Enormous amounts of money was spent to prepare charts and lists of this and that and to summon and question people not only in the comic business but in related businesses.

Actually, by 1952, sales of all comic magazines were falling. Hundreds of greedy publishers had milked the comic cow dry, and nobody was making money any more. The Golden Age was over, and it was too late to do anything about it.

Despite Superman’s lawyers’ best efforts to get a witness—any witness—to say that Captain Marvel had Art: Jerry Ordway, courtesy of Walter J. Grogan. been copied from [©2001 DC Comics] Superman, not one of them (at least according to the material David Weiss has supplied) ever Whether or not the three million dollars that Fawcett was supposed did so. to have made ever existed was never proven. That figure had been The reason is obvious: Captain Marvel had not been copied from anything, least of all Superman. DC’s lawyers then prepared a list of things which they claimed were copied: Invulnerability to bullets, knives and swords; flying faster than a speeding car; lifting huge boulders and catching heavy objects; breaking steel bars, snapping handcuffs, crashing through doors. Fawcett’s lawyers then showed that Captain Marvel had flown before Superman had, that he had had a boy character in his stories long before Superman had, and that everything used in Superman’s stories had been used before in literature. DC’s lawyers must have begun to feel that the whole business would soon be thrown out of court unless they could come up with something to show that huge amounts of money were at stake. In 1948 they made the following statement: “Fawcett will have to account for at least $2,300,000 in profits derived from the sale of its magazine cartoons. From 1940 to 1948 Fawcett sold approximately 200,000,000 copies of its infringing magazines.”

arrived at by Superman’s accountants and lawyers; Fawcett never said a word one way or the other. Perhaps the amount was higher. Perhaps Fawcett was embarrassed by its enormity. In the early Fifties comic books were dying all over the landscape. Fawcett Publications, like all publishers, had hundreds of spin-offs from their comic books. In addition to a poorly produced Captain Marvel movie serial, they had items ranging from hideous figurines to paper airplanes to Mary Marvel dresses and Captain Marvel tie clips. They even made a Captain Marvel “Magic Flute” which played a single note before becoming permanently inoperative. All this disappeared down the drain in 1953. DC’s lawyers wanted millions of dollars in damages, but Fawcett showed that for the past several years they had lost so much money on their other comic books that even the Captain Marvel books couldn’t cover their losses. Fawcett discontinued all their comics, which must have made Superman’s publisher and lawyers happy at last. The lawyers all got paid (probably not as much as they had hoped) and no Fawcett comic book was ever seen again. They all died a whimpering, miserable death.

THE WORLD’S MIGHTIEST WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

Comics Is A Funny Business By Fawcett Comics Executive Editor Will Lieberson (Originally from Writer’s Digest, Vol. XXVI, #2, 1946)

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars. Doesn’t sound bad, huh? Well, that’s my estimate of what the comic magazine market will shell out to its script writers in the coming year and there’s no reason why part of it couldn’t be yours. But before we give you the moneymaking lowdown, let’s come up-to-date on the nature and history of the field itself. The name “comics”, of course, you know, is a misnomer. It is really a popular term used to describe the technique of telling stories in picture form rather than a description of the type of material found in the magazines. Comics include every type of story, ranging from straight adventure to human interest, right through slapstick, treated in both realistic and fantastic styles. The comic technique is also used politically. During the last New York mayoralty campaign, two of the candidates, William O’Dwyer and Jonah Goldstein, had biographical sketches drawn up as comics which they distributed to the voters. The medium, though, is still comparatively young and its possibilities will enlarge. The first comic magazine, in its present form, to appear on the newsstand was Famous Funnies, in 1933. Its contents were reprints of the Sunday newspaper supplements. Not until 1935 did comic magazines containing original story and art work make an appearance. Fun was the first one of these published. Use of original material nevertheless did not catch on strongly until the advent, shortly before the war, of the costumed alter-ego character such as Captain Marvel, Bulletman, Doc Savage, Superman, Batman, and a host of others. These captured the fancy of an unbelievably large audience, and the field skyrocketed into a bonanza which was curtailed only by the paper shortage. Comics grew up during the war. Their stories were transformed from the old thrill-a-minute, sock, slam-bang, action for action sake type with horrible villains and gory monsters into better-plotted, solidly characterized yarns dealing with heroes that had evolved into definite personalities who lived and breathed convincingly for their readers. Now that the restrictions on paper are at the end, comics are entering into a period of expansion and development. There are a great many writers in the field now, but you can count the good ones on your typewriter fingers. (We are referring to the touch system, not the hunt and peck.) Considering that there are over 150 magazines appearing on the stands every month now, and that there will soon be more, you can easily see that there is plenty of room for new talent to handle the tremendous volume of work. This is where you can come in for a slice of that $500,000.00. There is one thought you must get into your head: You cannot write “down.” We doubt if there is a more alert or discriminating audience in America today than the readers of comics. The slightest author or artist error is sure to bring an avalanche of letters from discerning readers.

C Comic

Recently, in a Captain Marvel story, a technical error in labeling isotopes brought an immediate correction from a college chemistry society in the Midwest. The winner in a Captain Marvel contest was 32 years old, and his runner-up was 70. The wide appeal was early recognized by the Writer’s War Board, which helped create one of the leading characters in Master Comics, Radar, the International Policeman. In addition to its primary function of being entertaining, this strip tries to show the importance of the eradication of fascism and the need to promote an organization for maintaining the peace. The Writer’s War Board considers the comics medium so important that they had Clifton Fadiman, Rex Stout, and Paul Gallico personally go over every Radar script before it was printed. The contents of the comics are also closely watched by leading educators, sociologists and psychologists. Sidonie Gruenberg, Director of The Child Study Association of America, Inc. says, “The comics have taken their place alongside newspapers, motion pictures,

COMICS IS A FUNNY BUSINESS (1946)

and the radio. And, like these others, have become an integral part of the progressive democratization of our culture. Consequently, a tremendous responsibility rests with the publishers of these magazines.” This responsibility actually has to be shouldered by the writer because it is his product that finally makes up the magazine. The writer, therefore, who recognizes comics for what they are and strives to understand them and their audience, will achieve success in the field. Up to now, the editors have rarely accepted an unsolicited comic script. The methods of submitting and buying manuscripts familiar to the pulps and slicks are nonexistent in the comics. There is a good reason for this. To begin with, comics is a volume of business. Production is what counts. For example, Captain Marvel Adventures, the largest selling comic book of them all, appears on the newsstand every other Friday. To write, draw, engrave, and print a 64-page issue of this comic every other week is a tremendous job. Dealing only with writers through the mail would be an impossible task because of the time lapse caused by delivery.

Therefore, most work is done with authors who come to the editorial office and talk their stories over with the editor before writing them. Usually a writer brings in a short outline with him, which is the first step to writing a comic book script. This outline, or synopsis, is usually no longer than two or three paragraphs. In it the writer briefly details his plot, how the hero becomes involved in it, what his actions are, and how he ultimately defeats his opposition. If the idea is good and has not been used before, the editor orders it to a certain page length and the writer goes off to finish the script. (In the comic field, writers are paid by the page, rather than by the word. The prices range from $3 to $10, with the average writer getting about $5 per page. The usual length of a story is about ten pages, which means about $50 a story for competent writers.) Once the author has mastered the technique of comic writing, this outline system will save him both time and money, inasmuch as an okayed synopsis is a pretty good assurance that his story will ultimately be bought. Rejections after an outline has been approved are very few and far between. The percentage of sales of completed stories is far greater in comics than in any other field of writing. The script itself is written to describe each page of art work. The best way to explain this is to show you a concrete example. Reproduced herein is the first page of a Captain Marvel script and alongside of it is a reproduction of the finished art work. You will see from this that the writer, while working on a script, must keep the artist’s limitations in mind. Notice how the “Title Splash” advertises the story itself, piquing the reader’s imagination so that he will go on with the story. Captions are used to introduce the story, change the scene or time and occasionally to heighten a special action sequence or help create a specific effect. The descriptive directions to the artist should be as brief and concise as possible, telling only what characters are in the panel and what props they might have or need later. When a new character is introduced, his general appearance should be suggested briefly and throughout. Changes in expression should be noted for the artist. The dialogue should be simple, direct and carry the story forward. It is preferable not to have more than two people speak in any one panel. The stories themselves vary as vastly as do the characters in the field. Such fantasy characters as Captain Marvel thrive on whimsical humor and provocative “ideal” stories that set his readers’ imaginations spinning. Adventure stories fit in with such characters as Nyoka The Jungle Girl and Congo Bill. Batman and his type call for straight crime conceived by colorful villains with novel motivations. Actually these stories do not differ from straight fiction except that the writer has to learn the trick of telling his story in a picture sequence. It is much the same as movies. The writer must have a mind for pictures. And by pictures we mean colorful and imaginative scenes that an artist can draw effectively in his limited area. No matter how exciting a story may sound on paper, if it won’t make good pictures, it is no good for comics. The best advice that can be given to a prospective new writer is that he make his own personal survey of the comics. Go to your newsstand and buy as many as you can get hold of. (This is a good way to build up circulation anyway.) Read them, study them, and see which ones you like best. Then slant your story outlines to that market.

COMICS IS A FUNNY BUSINESS

“WHAT'S BEHIND THAT COMIC COVER?” (1940s)

“WHAT'S BEHIND THAT COMIC COVER?”

From Spot magazine, 1942

HOW THE COMICS ARE MADE (1942)

HOW THE COMICS ARE MADE

Fawcett Writing Rules The Actual 1942 Writing Guidelines For Various Fawcett Comic Characters (From The Files of Fawcett Comics Executive Editor Will Lieberson) CAPTAIN MARVEL

means we can put a lot of stories into CMA that couldn’t stand alone in Whiz. A Whiz story needs all the elements: Idea, character, comedy, action... each time. It should carry the explanation of SHAZAM, and be complete enough so that a brand new reader will understand everything. But in CMA we can run a weird or supernatural story, a detective story, also a harmless little whimsical story where we poke a little fun at ourselves, and one straight adventure story all in one issue. Wherever possible, you will be informed how the story you are writing is going to be used so that it can be aimed accordingly.

BILLY BATSON is now about 14 years old. He was 12 when the strip started. Don’t ever state his real age—that would spoil a reader’s conception of Billy as being his own age, or younger, or older, as he may prefer to believe. However, for our benefit, Billy has the reactions and characteristics of a boy of 14. BEAUTIA is really Sivana’s daughter. This was explained in Whiz Comics #15, but need not be explained in each issue. Just let it color your treatment of her and of Sivana so that he doesn’t treat her too mean, being his daughter. At the same time, she knows all about Sivana and can’t be too easily taken in by his evil tricks. Sometimes she helps him, sometimes she doesn’t. SIVANA is a real scientist... and a mad scientist. As explained in Whiz Comics #15, his mind is warped against the world, not Captain Marvel particularly against any individual. He’s really [©2001 DC Comics] pretty human and makes plenty of mistakes. He smokes a pipe at times, wears goofy disguises, and usually ends up in the soup, but always with something to show that he’ll be back again next time.

A total of six frames (panels) per page is now not obligatory. Whenever a scene warrants, it can be enlarged to cover half or even two-thirds of the page. Most desirable of course is a good smashing action shot of MARVEL which can be spread over the page. Next in order would be large objects such as battleships, buildings, etc. Third and last are scenics or other shots which add to the appearance of the artwork but don’t really put over what we’re selling: CAPTAIN MARVEL.

STERLING MORRIS has been with Billy since the first issue of Whiz Comics and must at least suspect by this time who Captain Marvel really is. In spite of his position as President of Amalgamated Broadcasting (station WHIZ), he’s not terribly bright, so he either never puts two and two together, or if he does he doesn’t say anything about it, or talks himself out of believing Billy is Captain Marvel. This also goes for other characters who have actually seen Billy’s transformation, such as WHITEY, STEAMBOAT, and others, as they work through a strip after the first time they hear “SHAZAM—BOOM—IT’S CAPTAIN MARVEL.” We don’t have to (as Superman does) keep everything a deadly secret from everyone. Superman still has to hide somewhere, take off his clothes, carry on as Superman, and then get back into his civvies behind a screen—all in time to emerge and have his friends never suspect a thing. This must be getting pretty tiresome to the kids—which is the theory we work on in having Billy’s changes into Captain Marvel often occur right in front of everybody. In contrast to Superman, Captain Marvel is tied down to no such artificial piece of machinery. He just swings into action so fast that most people haven’t time to suspect what has happened to Billy. But of course there is one person who knows: Wily old Sivana! Whiz Comics still carries only one Captain Marvel story. Captain Marvel Adventures has four stories per issue. This

Fawcett Comics Code of Ethics. From the files of Will Lieberson.

FAWCETT WRITING RULES (1942)

CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. FREDDY FREEMAN is a crippled boy about 14 years of age. He is an orphan and lives in a shabby attic room somewhere in the city. He sells newspapers for a living, and it is usually while selling them that dastardly things come to his attention which lead to the story. Freddy’s diary usually starts and/or ends the story. In the diary, he starts with “Dear Diary,” and then gives what amounts to a title caption for the story. Just as Billy Batson yells “SHAZAM!” to become Captain Marvel, Freddy Freeman yells “CAPTAIN MARVEL!” to become Captain Marvel Jr. The same “boom” and lightning flash result from his cry as from Billy’s.

thetic character in his own right. Being crippled for life, he is sensitive to other people’s hardships and troubles. The stories should deal in general with strong human interest plots, rather than just a gang of Nazis or thugs spilling blood left and right and fighting their nemesis. That is, have a story within a story whenever possible, where Junior and Freddy together solve some person’s problem or difficulty. In general, it might be said that the tear-jerker type of story is best suited for this character. Fantasy lends itself to Junior stories, but it should be a more serious type of fantasy than the light whimsical kind found in Captain Marvel. The boy angle should be played up whenever possible. That is, the people he helps and rescues can often be children rather than adults.

The origin of Captain Marvel Jr. occurred during a Captain Marvel story. Captain Nazi Captain Marvel Jr. [©2001 DC Comics] ruthlessly killed an old man and crippled his grandson for life. Captain Marvel took the dying boy down to old SHAZAM, the wizard who gave Billy Batson his powers, and asked Shazam to save the boy’s life. Old Shazam then gave Freddy Freeman the power to become Captain Marvel Jr simply by shouting the name of the great hero, CAPTAIN MARVEL.

The weird type of story goes well with Junior too... anything eerie and mysterious.

Note: It is necessary that Captain Marvel Jr. and Freddy Freeman never speak the name CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. aloud... that is, when no change of character is wanted. They can only think the name, in such cases. This is a tricky point in that the first two words of Captain Marvel Jr.’s name are the very two magic words that cause him to switch back and forth. For instance, if someone asks Freddy Freeman who chased the villain away, Freddy can’t say, “Why, it was Captain Marvel Jr.!” because he would instantly change on the spot. So in such a case Freddy would say, “Why, it was a strange flying boy in a blue costume!”

As in the Captain Marvel stories, it isn’t necessary for Freddy to sneak carefully behind buildings or something to shout CAPTAIN MARVEL and change into Junior. Where the action requires a quick appearance of Junior, Freddy simply yells it out, and the succeeding lightning flash usually confuses things enough for any characters nearby so that they do not know where Junior has come from, or where Freddy has gone to. And vice versa when Junior changes back to Freddy.

There are two continued villains who frequently pop up in Junior stories. One is CAPTAIN NAZI, who is the WORLD’S WORST VILLAIN, and has tremendous strength and power. He can make great leaps but can’t fly. The second villain is MR. MACABRE, a criminal master mind with a green face who always somehow eludes Junior at the end of the story after Junior has broken up his latest devilish doings. In character, Captain Marvel Jr. is a rather serious boy hero. He doesn’t make wisecracks, although he can say clever things. He shouldn’t be cheapened, however, by making a lot of corny jokes when batting thugs around. In such cases, let him either say exactly what he means, or nothing at all. He frequently returns to the role of Freddy Freeman to solve his problems, as Freddy is a pretty clever boy himself. For instance, if the presence of Captain Marvel Jr. would warn the villains in advance, it is crippled Freddy who would come and wait for the propitious moment to change to Junior and finish up. Spy Smasher Freddy Freeman is a strongly sympa- [©2001 DC Comics]

FAWCETT WRITING RULES

Note: Absolutely no one knows that Freddy Freeman is Captain Marvel Jr. He has no confidant at all. This is an important point because it typifies Junior as a lone wolf, confiding in no one and figuring things out for himself in all cases.

The panels per page should run six or seven, with more sixes than sevens. Somewhere within the story can be a page with as low as 3 to 5 panels, allowing room for one big splash of some climactic scene or action. In the captions, shorten the name to CAPT. MARVEL JR. to save space. He must not be called Marvel Jr. or Junior, although of course he can be referred to a “flying blue form” or “the mighty boy in blue” and such indirect terms for variety. And once in every story, a caption should use the tag line, “... and then the WORLD’S MOST SENSATIONAL boy leaped and... ” (Marvel Jr. is the World’s Most Sensational Boy, just as Captain Marvel is the World’s Mightiest Mortal). There should be at least three spots of action in each story. They should be built up. Variety is important. Stories can sometimes deal with Nazis and thugs (international intrigue), particularly now.

SPY SMASHER Spy Smasher may operate anywhere in the world, but his home base is Washington, D.C. He combats enemy agents, spies and fifth columnists. Time is the present. Spy Smasher is the alter ego of ALAN ARMSTRONG, a wealthy, young Virginia sportsman... a socially wellconnected idler who has an apartment in Washington D.C.

as well as a home in Virginia. When Alan Armstrong is suspicious of spy work being done, he becomes Spy Smasher. As Spy Smasher, he has no supernormal abilities, but is characterized by shrewdness and smashing action. Spy Smasher’s exclusive means of transportation is the GYROSUB, a one-passenger vehicle which can act as airplane or submarine with equal ease, and can move at terrific speed. ©2001 DC Comics The Gyrosub is small, shaped like a teardrop with the rounded end in front; it has a propeller at the front; broad-based, sharply tapering midwings, a comparatively high rudder at the tail sticking up, and three landing wheels. Usually, Spy Smasher keeps the Gyrosub parked on the roof of the building in which he lives. EVE CORBY is the fiancee of Alan Armstrong, and the only person who knows that Alan Armstrong and Spy Smasher are the same. Spy Smasher works alone, however; Eve Corby does not act as his partner or

assistant. ADMIRAL CORBY, Eve’s father, is a Vice Admiral and part of US Naval Intelligence. He always wears a uniform. He knows and trusts Alan Armstrong, and sometimes discusses spy problems with him in a confidential tone; in this way Spy Smasher may get a lead on what to go after.

IBIS THE INVINCIBLE IBIS is a prince of ancient Egypt who has come back to life after some 4000 years to fight a war against evil. His companion is Princess TAIA, who is also 400 years old (but does not look it).

Ibis’ prop is the IBISTICK, a wand which enables him to perform magic, warns him of impending danger by vibrating, and acts as a lie detector when Ibis is interrogating anybody. If Ibis loses hold of the Ibistick he loses his magic powers. If someone else gets a hold of the Ibistick and commands it to injure Ibis, however, the stick will inflict upon its holder the injury wished against its true owner. Ibis fights crime of any kind, spys, and evil supernatural beings. He operates anywhere in the world.

GOLDEN ARROW The setting of Golden Arrow is the Old West, but the story is told in the present tense; the combination of time and setting is therefore mythical, as though the West of 1870 were in existence today. Thus automobiles, telephones, radios, and electric power should never be used in Golden Arrow stories. Oil wells and the telegraph may be used, but should be treated as newfangled things and regarded skeptically by “sensible” people. Old-type trains are used sparingly; stagecoaches, outlaws with notched guns, homesteading, and wild Indians are all a part of everyday life. In general, the setting should be kept authentic as of 1870-1880. Story material and villains should, of course, also be in keeping with this time period... highwaymen, claim jumpers, cattle rustlers. But it should never be hinted or implied that the action of Golden Arrow is not taking place right now, today.

Golden Arrow never uses a gun—only a bow and golden arrows. He rides his horse, White Wind, without a saddle, but uses a

FAWCETT WRITING RULES

Jim Barr was a weakling who was rejected for active duty on the police force of his hometown because he was physically substandard. Turning to science, he became a police laboratory chemist.

bridle. A characteristic remark of his, addressed to his horse, is: “Wahoo, White Wind, scratch gravel!”

LANCE O’CASEY Lance O’Casey is a straight adventurer, seagoing hero (remember Conrad’s “King Tom” Lingard?) Locale is the Southern and Western Pacific. Adventures may be strictly local, or may be connected to the War.

In seeking a new serum, Jim Barr gave himself a dose of a unique chemical combination which not only immensely increased his physical strength overnight, but also made him so keen-minded that he was able to invent the gravity helmet, by means of which he can fly. Thus he became Bulletman. The members of the regular police force, however, still regard Jim as a weakling.

MR. SCARLET Locale is a nameless American city. Mr. Scarlet combats straight crime. Time is the present.

The gravity helmet not only enables its wearer to fly, but also has the property of attracting to itself bullets which may be fired at its wearer, and bouncing them harmlessly off, for it is bulletproof. Jim Barr can produce the gravity helmet instantly, at any time.

Lance O’Casey Brian Butler is a lawyer... a special prosecutor, who [©2001 DC Comics] maintains his own private practice. When he encounters difficulty in either capacity in laying his original adversary Bulletman’s partner, also equipped with a gravity helmet, is Bulletgirl, by the heels, he becomes Mr. Scarlet... and as Scarlet he goes out and gets otherwise known as Susan Kent, the only person who knows that Jim whatever evidence he needs. Barr is Bulletman. Susan has taken a dose of the strength serum, and has Mr. Scarlet has no super-power abilities or gadgets. He is straightthe same abilities as Bulletman. forward, athletic, tough and shrewd. Susan Kent’s father is Sergeant Kent of the uniformed police Two persons know that Brian Butler is Mr. Scarlet: Pinky, a 14-year force, who operates out of police headquarters where Jim Barr old orphan boy who is Brian Butler’s ward; and Miss Wade, Brian works in the laboratory. Sergeant Kent is a regular cop, a little Butler’s secretary. disdainful of Jim Barr, but accepting him for Susan’s sake. Miss Wade takes no part in Mr. Scarlet’s crime-busting activities. Pinky, however, usually (though not always) goes along to assist Mr. Scarlet on his adventures.

BULLETMAN Bulletman’s home ground is an American city which is nameless; on occasion, however, he may operate in some specific locale—Hollywood, say, or New York—if it helps the story for him to do so. But he is always in such places as a visitor. He battles crooks and murderers... sometimes even enemy agents, though this is exceptional. Straight crime is the rule. Time is the present.

FAWCETT WRITING RULES

The Human Quality Of The Captain Marvel Characters By C.C. Beck One of the reasons that Captain Marvel stories were so successful during the Golden Age was that the characters in them were based on real people rather than being just two-dimensional, cardboard figures. They all seemed to be human, much more so than the super-human characters presented in other comic books at the time. Captain Marvel himself was based on the actor Fred MacMurray, who was known as a pretty down-to-earth guy. Captain Marvel was not an alien from another planet, living in disguise among us humans here on Earth; he was just every boy’s dream of what it would be like to be six feet tall and in possession of marvelous powers. Mary Marvel was based on Judy Garland, Beautia on Betty Grable, and Sterling Morris on actor Gene Lockhart. These actors and actresses were likable and very popular at the time. Making comic characters resemble well known people (without actually saying so) made them instantly acceptable to readers. Other characters, such as the three other Billy Batsons who turned into the Lieutenant Marvels, were based on real people, too: Fawcett art staff members Paul Pack, Ed Hamilton, and Frank Taggert were the inspiration for these engaging characters. Pack was well over six feet tall and thus became Tall Billy; Hamilton was a sort of rough, rural, likable chap and became Hill Billy; Taggert, who Mary Marvel, the ‘girl-next-door.’ was short and “roly-poly” Recent sketch by Marc Swayze. became Fat Billy. [©2001 DC Comics]

Pete Costanza, both as himself and as other characters, often appeared in the Captain Marvel pages. Jess Benton, another Fawcett artist, appeared as a college boy in a story. In turn, Mac Raboy and the other artists Otto Binder based Mr. Tawny often put me in the stories, and not on himself. always in a complimentary way! [©2001 DC Comics]

THE HUMAN QUALITY OF THE CAPTAIN MARVEL CHARACTERS (1983)

Mr. Tawny, the talking tiger, was actually... who else? Otto Binder! Otto had a lot of fun laughing at himself in the Mr. Tawny stories. Sivana, the world’s maddest scientist, was also Otto at heart, although physically he resembled a pharmacist I had once known. Of course, all short, baldheaded old men with big noses and thick glasses look like Sivana. I’ve been told that I would like Sivana if I didn’t have a full head of hair and a beard. Mr. Mind, the great villain and the least human-looking character of all (being a worm) owed his popularity to being based on every one of us: He lost his temper, he had fits of depression, laughed when he was happy and he cried when he was miserable. Billy Batson was not based on any actual person but was the reader himself. He was an ordinary-looking fourteen-year-old boy dressed in a sweater, slacks, and tennis shoes. He did not wear a fancy costume like the boy heroes in other comics. He had no special powers, until he said the magic word. Crippled Newsboy Freddy Freeman seemed to be more like Dickens’ Tiny Tim character... or perhaps like Peter Pan when he flew about as Captain Marvel Jr. As a result, Freddy and Cap Jr. never had the believable quality that Billy Batson and Captain Marvel had. Freddy’s weightlifter muscles bulging through his skintight outfit didn’t seem quite human.

Mr. Mind owed his popularity to being based on every one of us.

Beautia (upper left) was based on Betty Grable while Ed Hamilton, Jess Benton, and Frank Taggert (above) appeared as college boys in a Whiz Comics Dec. 1940 story.

Golden Age Fawcett artists in 1941: Front Row (l-to-r) Cary Parshall, Frank Taggert, C.C. Beck, Bob Kingett, Mac Raboy; 2nd Row: Russ Peterson, Al Pauly, Al Allard, Ralph Mattison, Harold Noyes, Andy Anderson, Harry Taskey; 3rd Row: Paul Pack, Fred Ripperda, Ed Hamilton, Pete Costanza, Bob Laughlin, George Dupree, Ed Richtscheid, Jack Rindner.

THE HUMAN QUALITY OF THE CAPTAIN MARVEL CHARACTERS

Mary Marvel’s “girl-next-door” appearance didn’t change when she changed from her alter ego and never came close to the success of Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. Even less successful were Freckles Marvel and Uncle Marvel (who was based on artist Jack Binder). Hoppy The Marvel Bunny was no more than a takeoff of Bugs Bunny. Captain Marvel’s style of drawing and the light-hearted way his writers presented the stories are now quaint, old-fashioned and out of place in today’s comic books.

Mary Marvel By Marc Swayze “Hey, Marc, there is a new lead character in the works. She’ll be the twin sister of Billy Batson and, upon speaking the magic word, will become a member of the Marvel Family. She’ll remain the same age, however. We want you to give us some quick sketches of her as herself and as Mary Marvel.” Who said that to me? I’ve been thinking that it was Rod Reed. But Rod says it was Eddie Herron. Whoever, I laid aside the Captain Marvel story I was working on and whipped up some sketches as requested. There was only one character to create, inasmuch as she was to remain the same with only a costume change. I didn’t work up a variety of poses and expressions as I was certain that my first drawings were going to come back, time and time again, for revisions before final approval “upstairs.” “Holy Moley,” as Billy would have said, the drawings were accepted without a single change or even any suggestions! I was given the script for the first Mary Marvel story and went to work on it. It was the story in which Billy Batson meets the twin sister he didn’t know he had and where, when she innocently says the word “Shazam!,” Mary Bromfield becomes Mary Marvel for the first time. I did the art for the first two Mary Marvel stories but was then told that the Captain Marvel stories were too important for me to leave the team who were producing Fawcett’s top comic book character. I did the covers featuring Mary Marvel on Captain Marvel Adventures #19 and on Wow Comics #9, 10, and possibly others. Then I was called into the armed forces and had other things to worry about for a long time.

Those Darned Armbands and Cape Loops By C.C. Beck While Superman’s costume was essentially the old-time circus strongman’s outfit of tights and long cape, Captain Marvel’s was an operetta-style soldier’s uniform. He wore a sash, a jacket-like top, tight pants (not tights), and had a small, braid-trimmed cape flung over one shoulder when he first appeared. Such a costume was often worn by drum majors, doormen or ushers. It wouldn’t have been out of place even on the streets in those days. Captain Marvel’s so-called “armbands” were his Captain’s sleeve marks, showing the rank of Captain. Few people—artists, editors, or publishers—ever understood this or the fact that the decorations on Captain Marvel’s cape were the ornamental buttons and braiding used on military outfits. They have appeared looking like propellers, decorative flowers, and like bunches of bananas. The Marvel Family characters were originally designed to be as different as possible from all of comic books’ other tights-wearing strongman characters, who were also often hooded or masked. The Marvel Family were supposed to look more like high school or college athletes.

Today’s comic characters seem to look more like ballet dancers than anything else. They all wear leotards with tight little panties over them, something like Jane Fonda in her exercise outfit. So far they haven’t started wearing those hideous, wrinkled leg warmers so fashionable today.

MARY MARVEL / THOSE DARNED ARMBANDS AND CAPE LOOPS (1983)

“One of the Most Real Characters Ever To Appear” An Analysis of Mr. Tawny By John G. Pierce Mr. Tawny fit quite well into the Captain Marvel mythos and world... a world which had already included an intelligent, talking worm. Those who did not like the character of Mr. Tawny—many of them Captain Marvel fans— may not have carefully read his stories, for they are among the most charming and amusing—not to mention insightful—in the entire Captain Marvel canon. For you see, Tawny wasn’t just a talking tiger. He was a character fully imbued with human traits, including shortcomings. He was lionized by Hollywood (Captain Marvel Adventures #92), lost faith in mankind (CMA #96), had a persecution complex (CMA #98), daydreamed of himself as a hero (CMA #102), turned against his friend Captain Marvel (CMA #113), went on a culture craze (CMA #137), sought new personalities (CMA #115), looked for happiness (CMA #117), engaged in a sales campaign (CMA #119), had to go on a diet (CMA #121), went on a quest for youth (CMA #131), was talked into marketing bouncing shoes (CMA #134), and became a hermit (CMA #149). Looking over that list, the reader might surely find at least a few situations where one could identify with Mr. Tawny. Tawny sometimes had to learn some hard lessons, usually with the assistance of his friends Captain Marvel and Billy. He was actually the star of the stories in which he appeared, with Cap being more of a supporting character, not totally unlike the Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane tales of the Fifties and Sixties. (Of course, it should be noted that Captain Marvel never played cruel or elaborate tricks and hoaxes on Tawny the way Superman did on his friends!) But through it all, Mr. Tawny usually remained a hardworking individual. His occasional grumblings or dissatisfactions were excellent reflections of emotions most people have felt at one time or another. If young readers could identify with Billy Batson, older readers—of whom, reportedly, there were many—should have been able to identify with Mr. Tawny. He was more fully human, more fully realized, than many of the “human” characters in other comics, and the fact that he just happened to be a tiger simply added to the charm, in much the same way as Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge are also very human figures

whose humanity is paradoxically more acceptable because they happen to be anthropomorphic ducks. Also, if older readers could see themselves reflected, younger ones could imbibe good moral and social values delivered in the form of entertaining adventures happening to thoroughly likable characters. Unrealistic? Not quite. Mr. Tawny, in his own way, was one of the most real characters ever to appear in comic books.

“ONE OF THE MOST REAL CHARACTERS EVER TO APPEAR” (1998)

Master Man “The Wonder of the World” By Bernie McCarty Master Man was the lead feature of the first six issues of Master Comics, an experimental product called “The World’s Biggest Comic Book” and measuring 10 1/2 by 14 inches. The large-size format simply didn’t appeal to kids, and Master Man hardly compared with Captain Marvel, Fawcett’s other super-hero introduced a month earlier in Whiz Comics. On top of that, Master Man was clearly a copy of Superman and when National threatened to sue the brass at Fawcett decided the character wasn’t worth the hassle. The large-size Master Comics ran from March to September, 1940, then was switched to regular size, merged with Nickel Comics, and Bulletman took over as the lead feature. Master Man was competently rendered by artist-creator Harry Fiske. However, the stories lacked imagination and did little more than showcase the character’s physical prowess. The biggest drawback to Master Man’s chance of gaining a measure of success was the lack of a dual identity, a là Billy Batson. The writers had nothing to build a story around prior to the entry of the hero. Captain Marvel’s origin was a classic tale that hooked most kids right from the start. The origin of Master Man turned off most kids. In the space of a few panels on the first page of the first story, Master Man is introduced and his origin revealed: “Introducing to the readers of the world’s biggest comic book the world’s greatest hero: Master Man! Stronger than untamed horses—swifter than the raging winds—braver than mighty lions—wiser than Wisdom, kind as Galahad is Master Man, the wonder of the world! But as a boy young Master Man was weak until a wise old doctor gave the youth a magic capsule, full of vitamins, containing every source of energy known to man: The Vitacap. The boy becomes the strongest man on earth.”

MASTER MAN (1978)

Thus far I’ve painted Master Man as a poorly executed concept. But the very limitations of the strip are responsible for turning the second appearance of Master Man into what may be the single most beautifully “camp” story of the entire Golden Age of comic books. The dictionary defines camp as: “A comical style or quality typically perceived in banal, flamboyant, or patently artificial gestures, appearances, literary works.” I’d like to know if any Fawcett collectors have

MASTER MAN

seen a more perfect example of the kind of camp that was typical of many costumed comic book heroes of the early Golden Age of comics. Master Man’s costume consisted of a blue jersey and red leotards. The jersey was modified from loose to tight-fitting in the second story and gloves were added. While not meant to be, the cover of Master Comics #1 is a humorous classic.

My Favorite Little Monster By Bernie McCarty The most deliciously exciting moment of my youthful comic book reading occurred in the Spring of 1943 when I opened my copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #22 and saw a drawing of a movie screen at a kids matinee. After all these years I remember the wording on the screen: “A thrilling new serial, The Monster Society of Evil, starring Captain Marvel.” A double-page spread in this issue showed the heroic figure of Captain Marvel straddling the Earth while a voice from a distant planet thundered, “I am the most evil being ever to live! And you, Captain Marvel, though you are Earth’s Mightiest Mortal, I will crush you like an ant! Ha, HA, HAAAAA!!!” It wasn’t until chapter five that it was even hinted that Mr. Mind was of small stature. Then chapter six finally revealed that he was just... a WORM! A lowly, insignificant worm, but with a mentality so vast and powerful and evil that “he’s more dangerous than all of Hitler’s armies.” Otto Binder, the writer who created Mr. Mind, said later, “... Mr. Mind was a surprising contrast to all the other villains—always big, brawny, devilish hulks—so that a tiny, miserable worm, filled with more hate than all the other villains combined, simply tickled the readers’ fancies.” The Mr. Mind episodes always ended with a cliffhanger: Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, or Mr. Mind himself in dire peril of one kind or another. I was hooked... and so was every comic book reading kid of the time.

MY FAVORITE LITTLE MONSTER (1981)

In Chapter Two Billy Batson found himself in a cannibals’ stew pot.

Above: This is the famous scene in Chapter Five where Mr. Mind first appears in person and Billy fails to recognize him. Above Right: Mr. Mind, who has been riding around on Hitler’s nose, has fallen down his neck. Bottom Right: The evil Japanese scientists, Doctors Smashi, Hashi, and Peeyu, help Mr. Mind carry out another of his fiendish plans to destroy Billy.

MY FAVORITE LITTLE MONSTER

Villains were always conveniently stupid.

Mr. Mind wraps Billy in silk, eventually leaving him helpless in a giant cocoon.

Captain Marvel thinks he has captured Mr. Mind, but it’s only a harmless caterpillar.

Captain Marvel attempts to save Russia from destruction.

Mr. Mind temporarily loses his evil nature and becomes Billy’s pal.

Mr. Mind wears a tiny parka.

MY FAVORITE LITTLE MONSTER

three lines of panels per page to four. Beck’s art continued to be superb, but something was lost in the smaller drawings. And some of the plots began to struggle... in fact, some of the later episodes were downright silly. However, the finale was beautiful. In Chapter 25 (Captain Marvel Adventures #46) Mr. Mind is apprehended at last, tried in court and found guilty, strapped into a tiny electric chair and executed.

Comic books and the Saturday movie matinee were the chief delights of us roughand-tough kids of the Forties. It was a topic of discussion for weeks afterward when we viewed a good serial chapter, a Three Stooges comedy short and either a Frankenstein or Abbott and Costello feature, all on one rare Saturday afternoon. Always, the serial chapter ranked first in importance and I vividly recall bicycling many miles along a busy highway to reach a distant theater because a better serial was playing there. The best movie serial was Captain Marvel. The best comic book character was Captain Marvel. Artist C.C. Beck, writer Otto Binder and Fawcett Publications combined the best of both entertainment medias and created the “Monster Society of Evil” serial, the greatest achievement in comic book history.

Perhaps the best single issue during the Mr. Mind saga was Captain Marvel Adventures #35 (which introduced Radar). I believe issue #23 had the finest cover, with Steamboat and Cap firing a cannon shell across the ocean towards Germany. The lead panel of Chapter 14 featured the finest single drawing of Mr. Mind. Of the issues containing the initial 14 episodes, Captain Marvel Adventures #22, even though it had Chapter One, and #s 29, 33 and 34 were probably the weakest overall. Cap’s most marvelous feat of the whole serial occurred in Chapter Seven. Mr. Mind and Hitler conspired to halt the rotation of the world, leaving North The opening panel to the Monster Society of Evil serial— America in permanent darkness. Captain Marvel coupled together the anchors of an CMA #22, 1940. entire fleet and jammed them into the [©2001 DC Comics] ground in Africa. As Cap explained, “Now if a big force pulls at them, it will pull the world with it... and start the Earth rotating again!” A soldier asks, “Wow! But what force is powerful enough to pull the whole world around, Captain Marvel?” Cap replies, “Me!... I hope!” The next panel states, “Thus, using his unlimited strength, the World’s Mightiest Mortal pulls our planet around!” Cap is pictured in the astounding, musclerippling pose, high in the sky, yanking on the anchor chains and exclaiming, “Puff! Puff! Come on baby... start turning on your axis again, and we’ll lick Hitler’s axis!”

Captain

Marvel

Chapter number one revealed that all of Cap’s old enemies, Dr. Sivana, Captain Nazi, Nippon Ibac, Mr. Banjo, etc., all who had joined forces with Mr. Mind. Captain Nazi was the initial villain, to take on the Big Red Cheese. Captain Marvel Adventures was already the industry’s leading seller. The serial made it no contest. I re-read chapter one every day, anxiously awaiting the appearance of Captain Marvel Adventures #23. Chapter Two, featuring Ibac, was even better. The first fourteen chapters (Captain Marvel Adventures #22-35) were pure gold. Most episodes ended in a cliffhanger; Even Mr. Mind was in trouble, about to be squished, in chapters 6 and 20. The wartime paper shortage forced comics to cut back from 64 to 52 pages in 1944. The serial suffered. First, the size of the drawings was reduced from

MY FAVORITE LITTLE MONSTER

Captain Marvel & The Atomic War Captain Marvel Adventures #66 Reviewed by John G. Pierce The fact that comics historians have generally presented the Golden Age Captain Marvel as one who fought madcap villains such as Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind in lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek tales, it is often forgotten that he had many adventures of a more serious nature... many of which were told with an overriding sense of moral value and perhaps even social concern. One such tale was the cover story in Captain Marvel Adventures #66 (Fawcett, October, 1946). Appearing less than one year after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “Captain Marvel & The Atomic War” reflected the growing concern over the atomic menace, which had been released upon mankind. The story begins with Billy Batson walking to work on a beautiful day. His morning newscast contains no bad news until Mr. Morris interrupts to give him a bulletin relating how Chicago was just destroyed by an atomic bomb. Mr. Morris relates that “Somebody has started the atomic war against America! And we don’t even know WHO our enemy is! There was no warning—no declaration of war!” Billy quickly signs off so that Captain Marvel can go to investigate.

En route to the North Pole, the suspected source of the bombs, Cap destroys one missile and sees more. He mentally calculates the source of the bombs and radios the General Staff, which begins retaliatory measures. Meanwhile, Cap hurtles [©2001 DC Comics] north, over the Pole and on to the enemy country (never specified) from whence had originated the bombs. Marvel knocks out some of the enemy soldiers dispatching bombs, but then goes on to visit other countries to see what might have happened to them. He arrives in one country in time to see a city blown up by a bomb from a different direction. In the underground headquarters of many countries, confusion prevails as to the identity of the enemy, so each country is launching missiles towards its own traditional enemy. “And so, as greed, confusion and madness sweep through the world, all nations release their atomic bombs at each other.” Obviously, there are too many bombs for even Captain Marvel to stop, and within 24 hours the Earth has been devastated.

Back at Station WHIZ, Mr. Morris tells Cap that more bulletins have arrived, describing how America is being wiped out city by city: Washington, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit, all had succumbed. Cap, realizing that their own city was in danger, orders its evacuation. But it is too late, as a bomb lands, destroying Station WHIZ and hurling Cap upward.

Cap, examining the ruins, reaches the conclusion that he is the only man left alive—at which point the “camera” pulls back to show us the whole thing has been but a drama presented on television, as Billy Batson comes on the screen to announce that they tried their best to show what an atomic war would be like, if it ever came. “We were handicapped by studio limitations showing the horrors of an atomic war. The atomic war itself would be MUCH WORSE!” The son from a family who had been watching the broadcast says, “I guess we’d all better learn to live and get along together—one nation with all other nations and one person with all other persons—so that the terrible atomic war will never occur!” The story went beyond the purposes of mere entertainment; it also had an educational purpose, and it fulfilled both functions admirably.

Captain Marvel, mourning his lost friends and wondering who is responsible, is approached by General Tomkins of the General Staff, who relates that the US has bombs ready but doesn’t know where to send them. He mounts a radio device on Cap’s back and Cap flies off to try to locate the source of the missiles.

The final story of the issue features Aunt Minerva, the villain on a never-ending quest for a husband, with her sights set on Captain Marvel himself this time. It was a totally humorous tale; the type of story which many historians seem to think was the only style of story Captain Marvel ever had.

In a few minutes Cap arrives to view Chicago—or what is left of it. A scream from somewhere on the fringe of the blast enables him to rescue a woman and child, but it’s too late, for they are dying of radiation burns. On his way back home, as he passes over Pittsburgh, Cap encounters more atomic missiles. Although he stops one, the others complete their appointed task and destroy the city.

CAPTAIN MARVEL & THE ATOMIC WAR (1996)

The Marvel Family Feud By C.C. Beck The Marvel Family—Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.—were not always involved in earth-shaking adventures in the Golden Age. In “The Marvel Family Feud” which appeared in The Marvel Family #20, February 1948, they became involved with a hillbilly family named Krugg. Although there was much violence and actual killing in the story, everything was presented in a broad comedy style that made it seem harmless. A story like this one might seem ridiculous and silly to some of today’s readers, but to others it might bring a few laughs. That was all it was intended to do when it appeared.

Synopsis The feuding Krugg family has run out of local victims, so they go in search of William Batson who once insulted the family back when Granny Krugg was a girl.

In the big city they find boy broadcaster Billy Batson and let fly a charge of buckshot at him, but miss. Then they try to kill Mary Batson, whom Captain Marvel saves from death. The Marvel family go on a wild Keystone Kop-type chase and finally catch up with the Kruggs in the lobby of the WHIZ building. A slambang fight follows, with nobody really getting hurt. After the hillbillies are taken to jail the Marvels fly away saying, “Those Kruggs are a very peculiar family.” When serious things like fighting and attempted murder are handled with a light touch—as in these panels—the result is rollicking entertainment. Stories built around trivial events and presented with deadly seriousness are, usually, dull and boring. Pure violence, realistically shown, is offensive. Neither revolting violence nor wishywashiness is very entertaining, and Fawcett comics never failed to entertain their readers.

THE MARVEL FAMILY FEUD (1980)

Captain Marvel’s Well Known Comics by Dan Fabrizio Among one of the rare giveaway comics was a series called Well Known Comics, a 12-page booklet circulated at the height of World War Two by the advertising offices of Bestmaid dairy products. Six issues are known to exist: Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Bulletman and Spy Smasher, Golden Arrow, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. The booklets measured approximately 81⁄2" x 101⁄2" and were printed in one color on stock that was a little bit better than the coarse toilet tissue of the era. The Captain Marvel and Bulletman editions were printed in red, Captain Marvel Jr. and the other editions in blue and green. Samuel Lowe, the discerning entrepreneur of Bestmaid, sought to capitalize on the growing popularity of the only comic creations in America endorsed by Eleanor Roosevelt and Admiral Byrd, the hero of Antarctica. Consequently, in the presidential election year of 1944, Bestmaid released Captain Marvel Well Known Comics featuring a story called, appropriately enough, “Guardian of the Polls.”

Billy realizes that he is too young to vote and calls on Captain Marvel to answer the canvasser. Upon realizing that the canvasser is a Lousely man, Marvel refuses to sign, stating that he will vote instead for Morris. When the canvasser reports the incident to his boss, Lem N. Lousely, the candidate hits upon a scheme to intimidate Captain Marvel. The Lousely group returns to the Batson flat to interrogate the good Captain. Marvel seems to recognize Lousely from somewhere in the past, but this thought is temporarily put aside when the candidate asks him his age and year of birth to determine if the Captain is eligible to vote. Marvel is at a loss to answer these questions. Lousely then accuses Captain Marvel of being an alien, and attempts to arrest him. Marvel resists; Lousely sees this as an excellent chance to eliminate one vote for Morris and shoots the resisting Marvel. Captain Marvel then proceeds to wipe the streets with Lousely and his cohorts, accidentally disrupting a Lousely rally in the process.

“Guardian of the Polls,” He is stopped by Sterling however, actually is an ineptly Morris who implores the edited version of a story called Captain to use legal means, “Captain Marvel’s Birthday” not force on Lousely. Morris which had originally appeared then asks Marvel for his vote in Whiz Comics #47, October if the Captain can prove his 1943. The cover for this age and citizenship. And so, Bestmaid hodgepodge is taken Cover of Bestmaid’s Captain Marvel’s Well Known Comics. Marvel’s search begins. from the splash page of a [©2001 DC Comics] As Billy Batson, he learns totally different story which that City Hall has no record of his birth and returns to the orphanage ran in Whiz Comics #48; hence the incongruity of the Nazi submarine, where he was raised. The orphanage also has no record of Billy’s birth, WACs, and tent city for the cover of Captain Marvel Well Known but an old crone-like nurse persuades Billy to let her tell his past Comics; these elements had nothing to do with its story “Guardian of through use of playing cards. the Polls.” Rather than to deal at length with Bestmaid’s edited version, I’ll discuss the original uncut story which appeared in Whiz #47, and I’ll note the variations from it in the Bestmaid version. The story: Sterling Morris, is running for alderman in the 14th Ward against one Lem N. Lousely, and the election is very close. A canvasser for votes appears at Billy Batson’s flat to drum up votes for Lousely.

Through the cards, we are treated (in flashback form) to a retelling of the origin of Captain Marvel, complete with Shazam’s death. The old nurse determines that Billy is 3004 years old since he gained the powers of Hercules, Achilles and the others who all lived over 3000 years ago. Billy realizes that this cannot be his real age, but it establishes, nevertheless, that “... Captain Marvel is a true member of democracy and

CAPTAIN MARVEL’S WELL KNOWN COMICS (1975)

therefore a true American!” His citizenship thus established, Marvel now seeks to find his birthday. He visits a doctor to obtain medical proof of his age and perhaps a clue. The doctor fails miserably, and the Captain returns to tell Sterling Morris that he cannot vote since he cannot prove his age. At this point, Lousely steps up his campaign to defeat Morris before attempting to burn the Morris votes, but Captain Marvel arrives to save the smoldering ballots. Next, Lousely and his cohorts appear at the polls with beards and canes to try to repeat their votes, but they are discovered by Captain Marvel. Lousely explains that it is all a “joke” and is defended by Sterling Morris himself who insists that “justice always triumphs over evil.” As the 6 o’clock deadline for the poll closing approaches, Morris is informed that an old invalid friend of his has not shown up to vote. Captain Marvel is dispatched to bring the old man in and discovers that the octogenarian has been tied to his wheelchair. They arrive at the polls with seconds to spare and the final vote of the campaign is cast. After the final tabulations, it is discovered that a tie vote has occurred since Sterling Morris voted for his opponent, Lem N. Lousely. Captain Marvel now remembers where he had seen the face of Lousely before the election. He flies out to capture him, returning to Morris’ headquarters with both Lousely and the police. Marvel reveals that Lousely is actually an escaped alien named Panel from “Guardian of the Polls”. Ludwig Van [©2001 DC Comics] Oopendinger, and displays the wanted posters for Van Oopendinger explaining, “I never forget a criminal’s face, once I’ve seen it!” Hence, Sterling Morris wins the election by default. Captain Marvel, however, is still disturbed by his failure to find his birthday. To relieve the Captain’s mind, Mr. Morris throws a surprise birthday party for him, and we are treated to a crossover of the whole Fawcett stable of stars (including Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Spy Smasher, Lance O’Casey, Ibis and Taia, Golden Arrow, Bulletman, Captain Midnight, and Steamboat, who’s serving refreshments!) wishing Marvel “...a happy birthday... whenever it is!” However, even after the party is over, Captain Marvel still agonizes over his lack of a birthday and finally appeals to the readers of 1943 to give him their birthdays, requesting that everyone who wants to lend him their day to write to him in care of the Captain Marvel Club. The Whiz Comics “Captain Marvel’s Birthday” story has an exceptionally well designed splash drawing by C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza

CAPTAIN MARVEL’S WELL KNOWN COMICS

consisting of a two-page spread devoted to the all-star birthday party. The story art itself, however, has been drawn by production artists under the supervision of Beck and is of no great significance apart from the fact that the heads of all the regular characters have been drawn by C.C. Beck; this accounts, in some instances, for the size 19 neck on Billy Batson for the unknown artist had stopped at the necks of the regular characters, leaving the heads for the master, Beck, to complete! In Bestmaid’s Captain Marvel’s Well Known Comics version of the above story, five pages—including the ending—have been totally deleted from the story. We are never told for which office the candidates are running; Lousely’s shooting of Marvel and the Captain’s consequent mop-up of the politicians is not shown at all; the poll-burning sequence by Lousely and crew is also deleted from the Bestmaid version. More important, however, is that the giveaway has no ending: It stops at the sequence where Captain Marvel remembers where he had seen Lousely’s face, and brings Lousely and the police to Morris’ campaign headquarters. The reader of that version never learns that Lousely is an escaped alien nor are they treated to Captain Marvel’s Fawcett starstudded birthday party at the end. It appears that Lowe and company ran into paper problems in 1944 and decided to end the story at the point where it appeared that Lousely had been captured. In addition to the deletions, the Bestmaid booklets were poorly printed on very cheap paper; over the years, brittleness has taken over this inferior product so that its value as a collector’s item is dubious, especially since the booklets are wholly derived from the professionally crafted issues of Fawcett. I find it incredible that today’s collector market stamps such ridiculous values on these poorly crafted items under the rationalization of them being “rare.” These certain giveaways are clearly not worth half of their socalled value, being so blatantly derivative as they are. Although Samuel Lowe of Bestmaid was perhaps one of the first to capitalize on the growing popularity of Captain Marvel and company, he was by no means the last; for by the time Captain Marvel had hit his peak and appeared on a basis of 2 and 3 times a month, the ad agencies were clamoring for tie-ins on a local as well as a national level. Thus there were other diverse giveaways utilizing the Captain’s great popularity, such as Carnation Milk’s 24-page oblong booklet entitled “Captain Marvel and Billy’s Big Game,” and the Philadelphia Bond Bread giveaway called “Captain Marvel and the Stolen City.” In the case of the Well Known Comics series, however, I believe that they would’ve been better off left unknown.

Captain Marvel Thrill Book By Dan Fabrizio Although it had originally been planned as the first issue of a permanent series, C.C. Beck’s classic Special Edition Comics #1 was released as a single book immediately after Fawcett Publications received their first warning of copyright infringement from National/DC in mid1940. The idea was to give the impression that the title was not to be a continuous series while Fawcett marshaled their legal forces to find a way to appease DC and keep Captain Marvel alive.

in plot and interest; and it is assumed that their author, editor Ed Herron, was so involved with Simon and Kirby in creating the all-new Captain Marvel comic and Wow Comics that he hadn’t the time to properly supervise Captain Marvel Thrill Book. The lead story, subtitled “Flirting with Death,” presents Beautia, late the Empress of Venus, working undercover for Sivana as a newsreel photographer. In her capacity as a film documentarian, she is able to obtain scenes and information about top secret U.S. war weapons; the weapons are then built by Sivana and his group and used to destroy the secret installations and coast defenses of America.

However, the great success of Special Edition Comics that summer prompted Fawcett to plan other Captain Marvel oneshot “specials” to capitalize on the growing popularity of their bestselling character. Consequently, a new Captain Marvel book, tentatively entitled 64 Pages of New Captain Marvel Adventures, was prepared. This task was given to freelance artists Jack Kirby and Joe Simon who were also commissioned by editor Ed Herron to create a new hero called Mr. Scarlet as the lead feature for the debut of Wow Comics. In the meantime, Fawcett’s editorial staff was ordered to assemble another all-Captain Marvel special issue composed of existing stories from old issues of Whiz Comics. This magazine was to be released immediately to take advantage of the great demand for Captain Marvel, as shown by the August sales figures for Special Edition Comics. In order not to conflict with the title of Kirby’s Captain Marvel freelance project, it was decided to call this compiCaptan Marvel Thrill Book, 1940. Cover by C.C. Beck. lation the Captain Marvel Thrill [©2001 DC Comics] Book. Since the first six or seven stories of Whiz Comics were essentially continuous, the Fawcett editors were compelled to work with stories of more recent issues: Four complete tales were chosen from Whiz Comics #8, 10, 14 and one from the successful Special Edition Comics itself. Thus, we have a variance of only a few months from their initial appearance to the reprinting of the four stories in this Fawcett anthology. To save time in reaching the fans, Thrill Book was printed in black&-white; to compensate for its lack of interior color and thin page count (52 pages), the book was enlarged to 8 1/2 inches by 11 3/8 inches and given a new four-color wraparound cover by C.C. Beck. By coincidence, all four stories selected for reprinting had originally been drawn by Beck, making the Captain Marvel Thrill Book another great Beck showcase. Unfortunately, the stories chosen for Thrill Book were sadly lacking

Early in the tale, Billy Batson recognizes Beautia and disguises himself in sunglasses to inveigle his way as her assistant. He is subsequently captured by Sivana, gagged and left to die; but Billy escapes as Captain Marvel to defeat the selfproclaimed “rightful ruler of the universe,” and save the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The story is noteworthy only for the fact that Ed Herron and the Fawcett writers had not yet decided to change Beautia into the daughter of Sivana; thus, we have Sivana endeavoring to slay her when she takes pity upon the U.S. Pacific Fleet and warns them of his murderous intentions. Cap, of course, saves the day—and the beauty!

The story “Captain Marvel and the Haunted House” was an unimaginative choice from Special Edition Comics, and it is hardly worth mentioning here except for the moody night drawings used by C.C. Beck to evoke a feeling of mystery. The talents of Cap and Billy are totally wasted in this story of a town councilman who discovers that gold is hidden on the premises of an abandoned mansion and attempts to frighten away all prospective buyers. In this early transitional tale, Captain Marvel is shown as still susceptible to poison gas, a weakness he was to permanently overcome in later stories. “Captain Marvel and the Mysterious Captain Death” is as equally bland as the aforementioned story. The evil duo of Captain Death and Professor Skull work a fleecing scheme by kidnapping millionaires and defrauding their heirs of the inheritances that they subsequently receive when it is assumed by all that the missing victims are dead. Billy manages to get kidnapped and arrives at the prison ship to find the victims alive. As Captain Marvel, he frees the hostages and captures the villains, depositing their prison ship in the center of an empty stadium.

CAPTAIN MARVEL THRILL BOOK (1977)

The “Marvel College” tale in Thrill Book is the only story which proves to be interesting because of several points of controversy it raises for Captain Marvel aficionados. When it is learned that the football coach of Marvel College is an excon, Billy Batson is assigned to the college on a surveillance mission. Although the Marvel College football team has won all of their games, they must win the final upcoming game in order to receive an endowment of $10,000,000 for the college. As expected, Billy sees the crooked coach doctor the team’s drinking water and overhears him plotting with two confederates to make Marvel College lose so that they can collect on bets at 50-to-1 odds. Billy changes the water but is unable to stop the gamblers from eliminating every player on the Marvel team by shooting them with silent “dope guns” from the stands. Billy finally calls on Captain Marvel who assumes all of the team positions and wins the game for Marvel College. Of the four Thrill Book tales, the Marvel College story is memorable for its opening sequence which raises the question of the “Limbo theory” in regards to whether Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are one in the same. Let’s examine this theory before we relate the sequence in question.

decides to call on Captain Marvel to help him and he very softly whispers the word “Shazam!” The Captain appears as a transparent image which hovers over Billy’s shoulder, whispering the answers in his ear. Thus, we have both persons on earth simultaneously, and a theory is born. Needless to say, Billy makes a perfect score in the examination. Aside from its theoretical implications, the scene itself is memorable for its flagrant display of conspiracy, cheating and dishonesty by two of America’s heroes. Although Fawcett was not to use the ploy of an “Advisory Board” listing in its books for another year or so, one wonders what the distinguished panel (including Eleanor Roosevelt and Richard E. Byrd) would have thought of such a scene in a book for impressionable children. The Marvel College story is also one of the few times in the early 1940s where Captain Marvel is deliberately shown capeless as an experimental concession to DC to eliminate similarities to Superman. However, when Fawcett’s lawyers discovered Superman’s defective copyright technicality, Captain Marvel’s distinctive cape returned to him after disappearing for only two issues (Whiz Comics #11 and 12).

As shown in the synopses above, it is sadly apparent that not much thought was given to the It has always been quality of the four stories assumed that the great selected for reprinting in success of Captain Marvel Captain Marvel Thrill has been due to the young Book. In the rush to bring a reader’s identification with salable product to their Billy Batson who is able to readers, Fawcett sacrificed become a super-hero at a content in its concern for moment’s notice. Although dollars. However, whether they are years apart physiby design or circumstance, The limbo/cheating sequence from Captain Marvel Thrill Book. cally, Cap and Billy were an excellent felt-finish paper [©2001 DC Comics] always believed to be one was chosen for the black-&and the same, fulfilling the white interiors of Thrill reader’s fantasy to be as equally strong and powerful. Book. This fact, coupled with the use of a slick cover stock normally reserved for Fawcett’s movie magazines, has left this Captain Marvel Others have said that it is more logical to believe that the person who special unusually bright and supple today, considering that it was first invokes the name of Shazam is temporarily transported to a state of released in early 1941. Limbo or to the Rock of Eternity until he is recalled by the same invocation of Shazam. While it is quite plausible, this theory has never been demonstrated in the entire history of Captain Marvel, although the late Otto Binder once avowed that it would make an interesting story. In any event, the following sequence in question does lend validity to the Limbo theory: Billy Batson has to take an enrollment exam before he can enter Marvel College. Finding the questions exceedingly difficult, he

CAPTAIN MARVEL THRILL BOOK

Although it was far from a great success, Thrill Book sold well enough to ensure the continuation of the new Captain Marvel “specials”—which eventually became the Captain Marvel Adventures series. In this sense, then, the Captain Marvel Thrill Book is considered a historical transition piece in the canon of the most popular super-hero of the Golden Age of comics.

Fawcett’s Dime Action Books by Dan Fabrizio Of all the Fawcett items issued during the Golden Age of comics, the four Dime Action Books of 1941 are among the rarest. The novelettes were initially printed in limited runs to capitalize on the popularity and sales of the Dell Fast-Action and Big Little Books of the 1930s. But where the other two companies were successful in finding distribution in bookstores and five-and-dime outlets, Fawcett was limited solely to newsstand and occasional drug store sales. The Fawcett Dime Action novels successfully matched the style and format of the Big Little Books; but though they carried brand new adventures, they had only half the number of pages that their competitor used; hence the stories were much shorter and less thoroughly developed.

free with his devastating secret! Perhaps the writer overlooked this fact by his distraction in creating lines like the following: SPY SMASHER: “Well, this is a fine kettle of pickles!” ALAN ARMSTRONG: “Why, I’ll be dipped in vanilla ice cream!” GARAGE MECHANIC: “Go on—you been readin’ too many o’ them Whiz comic books!” In any event, instead of satisfactorily concluding his tale, the writer has unwittingly left Spy Smasher open for more of the same.

The 192-page novelettes sized in at 4 x 51⁄2 inches, 5⁄8 of an inch thick, and sported four-color board covers with alternating pages of black-&-white illustrations and comfortable 11 point text. The cover illustrations were based on designs seen previously in the comic book line, and each novelette was devoted exclusively to one of the four Fawcett super-heroes: Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, Bulletman, and Minute-Man. Bernie McCarty advanced the thesis that comic books are created solely for children, and, despite the dissenting opinions of today’s collectors, this fact is never more clearly shown than in the quality of the stories used in the Fawcett Dime Action series. Virtually every cliché of the B-movie and pulp magazine of the era is used in the Dime Action tales; inconsistencies abound, and little is left to the imagination of the reader since little imagination was used in the writing of the stories. Only Otto Binder’s Captain Marvel story contains a semblance of plot and unity of action leading to a somewhat logical conclusion; whereas the other three tales merely have their heroes react knee-jerk fashion to a series of unsophisticated stimuli which were often used decades before 1941. In the “Spy Smasher and the Red Death” novelette, the underworld learns that Spy Smasher is actually Alan Armstrong, the rich playboy. Various attempts to assassinate him fail, and Spy Smasher soon has his antagonist, the Red Death—a double for Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera—imprisoned. Yet a murderous cabdriver named Muggsy, who first discovered Spy Smasher’s identity, is never captured and remains

In “Minute-Man and the Mystery of the Spy Ring,” Army Private Jack Weston (alias Minute-Man, the One Man Army) is beset by Illyria, Queen of All Spies, who seeks to sell the American secret of thelium to a foreign power. Thelium is described as, “... one-fourth the weight of aluminum, twice the strength of steel, and absolutely bulletproof.” Minute-Man pursues Illyria across the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain to finally secure the thelium secret, but the murderous “queen of all spies” escapes to do battle yet another day. One glaring inconsistency in this story occurs when Jack Weston is thrown half-nude into a jail cell, yet manages to escape in full starspangled costume as the Minute-Man: “Hey, there he goes dressed like a

FAWCETT’S DIME ACTION BOOKS (1976)

circus!” exclaims a guard; and we are also told that “... a bullet whistled so close to Jack’s nose that he could feel the heat of it... ” The Minute-Man novelette, however, is partly redeemed by its illustrations which are a cut above the conventional comic book style and show the influence both of Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff upon the unknown illustrator. Of the four Dime Action books, “Bulletman and the Return of Mr. Murder” is perhaps the weakest both in plot and illustrations. We are introduced to a seven-foot high madman called “Mr. Murder, Purveyor of Eternity” who kills just for the sake of killing, declaring “open season” on all doctors because “... they cure people faster than I can kill them off!” Foiled in his attempt to blow up the whole graduating class of a medical college, Mr. Murder flees in his autogyro but is apprehended by Bulletman who promptly knocks him into the Pacific Ocean. Oddly enough, the reader is never told whence Mr. Murder was returning in the title of the tale. One of the more memorable lines in this story occurs when Bulletman explains his tardy rescue of Bulletgirl in Mr. Murder’s dungeon: “My gravity helmet jammed!” Although Jim Barr and Susan

his successful twelve-year sojourn with the company. Though this story contains none of the satire which later characterized the Binder stories, it must be remembered that Captain Marvel was still in a state of transition in 1941. The lightness of Binder’s touch, however, is still apparent even in his first Captain Marvel story, and the tale is mercifully free of the more flagrant clichés of the other Dime Action Books. The Dime Action story was created as a sequel to the Captain Marvel Republic Pictures movie serial which had appeared earlier in 1941. The Scorpion it seems, was not really killed in the finale of the film, and reappears in the book to wreak vengeance on Billy Batson, Whitey, Betty, and Mr. Malcolm. By hook and crook, the Scorpion is able to kidnap the four and return them to Siam where he has made a deal with the native chieftain to deliver them for human sacrifice. In exchange, the Scorpion is to receive a mountain of uranium. Captain Marvel eventually exposes the Scorpion as Bentley, who was presumed dead in the film serial, and the angry natives toss him from the cliffs for deceiving them. While it is quite evident that several artists illustrated the Scorpion story, there is not a doubt that C.C. Beck drew the main characters of Captain Marvel, Billy, and Whitey. Although Otto Binder knew that the Dime Action Books were oriented to young readers, his story doesn’t condescend to them or insult their intelligence; in fact, he even works in a bit of humor throughout where it appears that Captain Marvel is afraid of the Scorpion’s steelmelting acid gun, delaying a confrontation with him until the final chapter. More importantly, however, the story follows a plot (simple though it may be) and leads logically from one sequence to another with an occasional surprise along the way. The other Dime Action Books appear to have had espionage and spy elements superimposed onto common gangster themes, leading us to suspect some last minute changes due to America’s entry into World War II. One advantage of having only 192 pages as compared to the 300-plus pages of their competitors is that the well-crafted Fawcett Dime Action Books have successfully withstood 35 years of wear without the spine-splitting and broken covers so indicative of their bulkier counterparts. The paper, too, has defied brittleness so that the books can be as comfortably read today as in 1941 without fear of damaging them.

Kent are constantly being thrown into dark closets or dungeons, they always emerge fully costumed and helmeted as the Bulletman and Bulletgirl, leading one to ponder at length on the adaptability of body cavities to distinctive headwear. Earlier in the novelette, the gravity helmet is described as “...headgear (which) fits snugly over Bulletman’s head and around his ears.” The same writer later tells us of a thug’s fight with the helmeted Bulletman in which “... one of them sank his teeth into Bulletman’s ear; the pain was terrific.” So was the error. We now know that “Captain Marvel and the Return of the Scorpion” was Otto Binder’s first Fawcett writing assignment, and eventually led to

FAWCETT’S DIME ACTION BOOKS

Of the four Fawcett Dime Action Books, the Spy Smasher and Bulletman titles are the two most commonly found; the rarer Captain Marvel and Minute-Man novelettes are seldom seen or located today. Ironically, these last two books were the best written and illustrated of the four, which may account, perhaps, for their scarcity today.

The Captain Marvel Daily Newspaper Strip By C.C. Beck Although Captain Marvel was one of the biggest things in America in the Forties, he never made it into the syndicated strips. Around 1942 or 1943 writer Rod Reed and I put together some samples... and in accordance with Fawcett’s policy, our names did not appear on the work. The syndicates wouldn’t touch the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Why not? We were never told, but Rod believes that the syndicate’s refusal of Captain Marvel was based on the fear of becoming involved in the lawsuit which DC brought against Fawcett in 1940... which continued to wage until Fawcett had enough of comic books and settled out of court in 1953.

When Otto Binder and I tried to syndicate our own strips, including one of Mr. Tawny, we were told: “We don’t want that old comic stuff with the potato noses and the shoe button eyes anymore. It’s too much like the comic books. We’re looking for beautiful drawing and true to life stories instead. You fellows are way behind the times!” Perhaps we were. But so are the “fellows” who write and draw Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible and the other top comic strips of today. Their comic strips are drawn in the style of Happy Hooligan and The Katzenjammer Kids... and, as you may have noticed, are doing quite well.

THE CAPTAIN MARVEL DAILY NEWSPAPER STRIP (1980)

THE CAPTAIN MARVEL DAILY NEWSPAPER STRIP

The Smithsonian Book Of Comic-Book Comics A Book Review by C.C. Beck When Mike Barrier first wrote to me with the news that a Captain Marvel story was to be included in in his upcoming book, A Smithsonian Book of ComicBook Comics, I asked him to send me a few proof pages of it so that I could see whether it was a good representation of Captain Marvel... and to see if it was a Captain Marvel story which I had actually worked on. I didn’t want to be blamed for some other artist’s work, I told him, explaining that many different artists had illustrated Captain Marvel and Marvel Family stories at Fawcett, and in many different styles, some pretty awful. When Barrier sent me pages of “Plot Against the Universe” (Captain Marvel Adventures #100, September 1949) I was happy to see that it was one of the stories written by Otto Binder and drawn by Pete Costanza and myself. It contained Mr. Tawny, Otto’s and my favorite character, and Dr. Sivana, everybody’s favorite villain (except Fawcett’s; they always thought he was too comical and they would have preferred a more deadly, menacing villain.)

regular legs with thighs, knees, ankles, and feet, which she keeps until she puts her dress back on (page 161) when her spaghetti legs are back! All in all, editors Barrier and Martin Williams have done a good job compiling the book in spite of a few errors in William’s introduction to the Captain Marvel story, where he stated that my middle name is Calvin instead of Clarence and that I was born in Zumbrote instead of Zumbrota, Minnesota. Each comic page is reproduced in full color and has a greyedbrown border which makes it look like an old, yellowed comic book page. Preceding each different artist’s work is a very informative piece of copy about him and the character or characters he drew. Included is the first story of Walt Kelly’s Pogo from 1942; Pogo actually looked like an opossum, and an ugly one! There’s a dandy Basil Wolverton “Powerhouse Pepper” story which I loved and there are stories from Mad and from Will Eisner’s The Spirit. The editors are very frank in their discussion of the comic book publishing business. They state that “publishers that were on the fringes... accustomed to dealing with formula writers... [producers of] hackwork.”

The Smithsonian book starts, logically enough, with the first Superman story written and drawn by Siegel and Shuster in the Thirties. This is followed by Bob C.C. Beck’s granddaughter Dee Dee enjoying some of her grand- “Even when comic books were father’s work in A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics. Kane’s first Batman story (1939) at the peak of their success,” say and Jack Cole’s first Plastic Man the editors, “very little of that story (1941). I had never read these stories in the old days, although the success trickled down—in the form of money or artistic freedom—to the people at DC thought I had. I find myself unable to read them today; writers and cartoonists who were producing the magazines.” But they they are so crude and amateurish that they turn my stomach. Millions of show how some artists, in spite of the conditions, produced work of little kids may have enjoyed them at the time but I was no kid—I was lasting merit. It is the work of these men that they have included in their thirty years old in 1940 and Otto and Pete were about that age, too. Our book. Captain Marvel story was published in 1949 when the three of us each had almost ten years of experience in the comic book field. Frankly, I They point out that Will Eisner’s work was the most formula-free of think it quite outshines the Superman, Batman, and Plastic Man stories... all—his hero didn’t even wear a costume. They point out how Carl but I may be a little prejudiced. Barks, unknown and miserably paid, transformed and enriched Disney’s characters with no help or thanks from the Disney Corporation. The only comic books I ever read and enjoyed were Little Lulu and Donald Duck. Uncle Scrooge was my all-time favorite character. The They tell how the adoption of the Comics Code in 1954 Smithsonian book gives each character plenty of pages. ended the Golden Age of comics and nothing that appeared after the Code took effect is in their book. Evidently they In the first Little Lulu story it’s interesting to note that when she’s don’t consider anything since 1954 to be a comic book. Well, wearing her dress Lulu’s legs are just two pieces of spaghetti underneath I don’t either. it. When she gets into her bathing suit (page 153) she suddenly has

THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC-BOOK COMICS (1982)

Captain Marvel Battles The Plot Against The Universe Dr. Sivana, the greatest enemy of civilization ever known, makes a dread vow: To become the Rightful Ruler of the Universe. He knows, however, that Captain Marvel and Billy Batson, the boy that Captain Marvel changes back into, have always defeated his plots with their great powers inherited from the ancient wizard, Shazam. He decides to get rid of Captain Marvel and Billy through Shazam, but he doesn’t know how to find him. He therefore kidnaps Mr. Tawny, the talking tiger who is a great friend of both Billy and the Captain, and forces him to reveal the location of Shazam’s hideout. In Sivana’s time ship the two go back to 1940 and Sivana prepares to kill Billy before he gets his powers from Shazam. But he fails, due to Mr. Tawny’s bravery, and the two come back to 1949. Later, Billy goes to Shazam’s hideout and learns that the old wizard wears a bracelet made of “Shazamium” which keeps him alive. Billy starts an evil chuckle, then whips off his Billy Batson disguise, revealing himself as Sivana who now puts the bracelet on his own wrist. Shazam is powerless, and furthermore will now disappear into limbo in 24 hours and “there will be no more Captain Marvel,” gloats Sivana. He and the old wizard fly to the Rock of Eternity, which Sivana takes over as his new headquarters.

The real Billy now goes to Shazam’s hideout and summons the spirit of Shazam by lighting the magic brazier. But Sivana shows up instead. And now even Captain Marvel is powerless against the old villain! Sivana forces Captain Marvel to go to work in a secret laboratory making duplicate Sivanas of a living metal called “Sivanium.” Marvel makes a dozen of them and Sivana takes them to the Rock of Eternity where they start planning their conquest of the Universe. Time marches on, and soon there are only a few hours left until Shazam will die and Captain Marvel will disappear into limbo along with his creator. Desperate, the World’s Mightiest Mortal creates a third metal which he calls “Marvelium,” the “World’s Mightiest Element.” Then he goes to the Rock of Eternity, changes to Billy, and puts on a Sivana disguise and joins the others. Billy tricks Sivana into going back to Earth where, with the help of Captain Marvel’s new metal, he traps the old villain at last and then, as Captain Marvel, takes the Shazamium bracelet back to Shazam. At the very zero moment old Shazam is restored and all the duplicate Sivanas are reduced to fragments. Sivana is put behind bars and all seems quiet... until the next story, of course. With his evil chuckle, the World’s Maddest Scientist assures the reader that he’ll be back with new and better schemes to become Rightful Ruler of the Universe.

THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC-BOOK COMICS

Mr. Tawny, the World’s Talking Tiger, refuses to talk when captured by Sivana.

The story of Captain Marvel’s origin is retold with an added element.

These panels show that the artwork was quite realistic at times, in spite of the impossible situations. In the last panel our hero is shown looking ridiculous, something most other super-hero comics never allowed.

In these panels Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are completely outwitted by wily Sivana. Sivana’s speech in panel six is a gem of comic dialogue which only the great Otto Binder could have written. [All art ©2001 DC Comics]

THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC-BOOK COMICS

Captain Marvel was not a super-human, emotionless hero, but a down-to-earth human being with human emotions.

Sivana is finally trapped by Captain Marvel. His helpless expression in panel six is cartooning at its purest. In panel seven, Captain Marvel bops the old fellow on the chin... but gently. Violence was seldom overdone in Captain Marvel stories.

THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC-BOOK COMICS

Fawcett Comics’ Greatest Hits Bernie McCarty and Klaus D. Haisch Pick Their Favorite Fawcetts

Fawcett Top 10 Bernie McCarty SPECIAL EDITION COMICS #1 (1940) This early one-shot issue was all Captain Marvel and pure C.C. Beck (with some assistance by Pete Costanza). The drawing, inking, and lettering were all Beck’s. The character of Captain Marvel was still in a developing stage, but hints of the light humor which helped to make the World’s Mightiest Mortal the biggest selling character of the Golden Age were already there. The stories and their variety really knocked me out when I was a kid; there was science-fiction, fantasy and scary stuff... all well written. The villains were a grand assortment. There was superstrong Slaughter Slade and his giant gorilla, Dr. Allirog, who carried the President of the United States to the top of the Washington monument a là King Kong. There were two villains in neat stories, one about a haunted house and one about a track meet. Best of all, Dr. Sivana and Beautia were there in a great tale involving rocketships, a trip to Venus, a weather-making machine, a spacetraveling cyclone, and giant bugs. And the cover by C.C. Beck was outstanding! What more could a kid have asked for in 1940?

AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #1 (1941) This issue contained all of Fawcett’s top heroes: Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Minute-Man, and Mr. Scarlet. Every story had dazzling action. Captain Marvel took on the “Ghost of the Deep”; Mr. Scarlet tangled with no less than seven costumed foes. Spy Smasher battled Nazi villain “America Smasher” and Bulletman and Bulletgirl faced the Invisible Man. The best story in this issue was “Minute-Man Vs the Fantastic Mr. Skeleton.” Mr. Skeleton resembled a long dead corpse with decayed flesh clinging to the bones. He was a blindly evil force, out to destroy American for his own mad reasons. In addition to a superb cover by Raboy, America’s Greatest Comics #1 truly was one of Fawcett’s greatest. [©2001 DC Comics]

BULLETMAN #1 (1941) Charles Sultan’s work on the early Bulletman stories was excellent, and in this issue he illustrated four marvelous stories in which Bulletman battled the Black Spider and Doctor Mood, rescued Bulletgirl from [©2001 DC Comics] a flaming pit, and was in turn rescued by her from a murder syndicate. The fourth story featured Bulletman’s battle against a “foe as big as a mountain.” The cover on this issue was special: Fawcett experimented with metallic ink on the covers of a few early issues. The experiment worked on the cover of Bulletman #1, as the silver color was perfect for the logo and Bulletman’s helmet.

IBIS THE INVINCIBLE #1 (1942) In this issue Otto Binder recreated an expanded version of the origin of Ibis which I believe is one of the best comic stories ever written. The villains in this issue were a remarkable lot: Black Pharaoh, Nightmare (a dream horse), Ching Fang against whom Hitler, Churchill, and Stalin joined forces, and Zoltic the Bat God. Add the presence of the ravishing Princess Taia— and a beautiful cover by Raboy—and you have another Fawcett classic.

WHIZ COMICS #25 (1941) This issue, which featured the origin of Captain Marvel Jr., is simply an all around great comic book.

MASTER COMICS #22 (1942) Master Comics #21 and 22 are top collectors items even among people who aren’t especially interested in the Fawcett line. I prefer #22 which has Bulletman, Captain Marvel Jr., and Captain Nazi in one smashing story.

FAWCETT COMICS’ GREATEST HITS (1982)

The Test of Time Klaus D. Haisch AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #7 (1943) If there is one quality which sums up what makes Captain Marvel great, it’s not his powers, but imagination. The stories expanded one’s imagination, and really, what could sum up wishful thinking better than the idea of a young boy (comic reader age) turning into a super-hero? The lead story in this comic, “Captain Marvel and the World of Your Tomorrow,” (written by Otto Binder) shows terrific imagination in predicting what is in store in the next century. Some of the ideas—like the frictionless train on page 11—compare to the trains which ride on a cushion of air now being developed in Europe, and are remarkably on target. The ideas which do not seem likely just make the story seem more quaint. Futuristic stories were always a terrific setting for the Captain.

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #57 (1946) The story “Captain Marvel and the Haunted Girl” is a classic. There is always something that really grabs my imagination in a story about a spirit trying to come back and make amends. There is real food for thought in a panel where a ghost laments how he wasted his whole life, and how his children must suffer. However, Captain Marvel shows that no situation is hopeless. [©2001 DC Comics]

MASTER COMICS #21 (1941) In this issue Captain Marvel joined Bulletman in Captain Nazi’s origin story but I have never liked Raboy’s renderings of Captain Marvel in this issue.

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #6 (1942) This is my favorite issue of the total run of Captain Marvel Adventures because all four of its stories had merit and Beck was the artist on two of them.

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #2 (1941) Beck had nothing to do with this issue, which was illustrated by George Tuska and Charles Sultan. In my opinion the stories are excellent and the art is better than in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 which was drawn by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon; Kirby’s renderings were crude and without substance... and that’s a shame because the stories were pretty good.

AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #2 (1942) This issue introduced Steamboat and had great, wild stories featuring Bulletman and Minute-Man.

FAWCETT COMICS’ GREATEST HITS

Marvel Family—including Uncle Marvel—to join forces and stop him. An unforgettable story.

MARVEL FAMILY #85 (1953) The Marvel Family battles “The Primate Plot.” Much has been said about C.C. Beck’s great art, and deservedly so, but the art by another great, Kurt Schaffenberger, makes this issue a favorite of mine. Schaffenberger reaches a new height when he illustrates animals, and he has plenty of opportunity to put his talent to good use in this tale of intelligent gorillas hatching plots in Africa. And the alligators in the death-trap scene are downright breathtaking.

WHIZ COMICS #1 (#2) (1940) The famous first issue that started it all. The art is crude but still great.

CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. #11 (1943) This is the issue that features the notoriously horrible story, “Trouble in Troll Land.” It has been said that the real test of a comic book is the test of time. It doesn’t matter whether it stands out in your mind as being really good or really bad, but just whether or not you remember it. I figure since this story evokes strong reaction (mainly negative) for me—more than most any other Fawcett comic book—then perhaps there may be something to it after all. [©2001 DC Comics]

MASTER COMICS #21 (1941) I love cross-overs, and in this issue Captain Marvel meets Bulletman. I love tough villains, and this issue introduces one of the most vicious: Captain Nazi.

AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #1 (1941) Captain Marvel, Bulletman, Spy Smasher... big name heroes, non-stop action with hardly any fillers in the book. A great issue.

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #7 (1942) Captain Marvel battles, in four stories, a ghost, a scientist, a pirate, and a skier. On land, sea, or high slopes, varied settings provide lots of stomping room for the Big Red Cheese.

MARVEL FAMILY #50 (1950) Some of the most amusing stories are the ones where funny circumstances lead to curious role reversals of the major characters. In “Sivana’s Good Inventions” the evil doctor, who has accidentally created good devices over the years, seeks desperately to destroy them while Captain Marvel desperately tries to save and collect all of them. A humorous twist.

MARVEL FAMILY #1 (1945) As I said, I like the tough villains. Black Adam, created by Shazam himself 5,000 years ago, is so powerful that it’s necessary for the entire

FAWCETT COMICS’ GREATEST HITS

“I Was Proud” Rod Reed, Fawcett Writer and Editor Interviewed by Matt Lage Rod Reed was one of the most humorous of the Golden Age Captain Marvel writers and a Fawcett comics editor from 1941 to 1943 before taking a job as editor of the jazz music magazine Downbeat. FCA: Besides Captain Marvel, what were some other Fawcett titles that you wrote scripts for? What was your last piece of Fawcett work? REED: It’s been a long time ago and I don’t keep meticulous records like Otto Binder does. Some of my Fawcett comics credits that I can recall include Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Mr. Scarlet, Captain Marvel Jr., Nyoka, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. At the end of Fawcett comics I was freelancing and the last things I wrote were comedy-westerns such as Gabby Hayes Western and Andy Devine. I also wrote several short story text pieces for Captain Marvel Jr., Tex Ritter, Young Eagle, Tom Mix, Lash LaRue, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, and others. The last Captain Marvel work I did was probably two different issues of Captain Marvel Storybook; these were printed in comic book format but in straight story form with a page of text and a page of illustration alternating. I must modestly say that I was proud of all my Fawcett writing. FCA: You were a comic book writer who did many humorous scripts. But these scripts had to have some editorial guidance. What Fawcett editor do you believe had the greatest story sense? REED: Wendell Crowley was a marvelous comics editor. He was dedicated, a keen student of the field, a critic whose integrity was above suspicion and a warm and helpful man. But I shouldn’t bypass Will Lieberson, executive editor, who did indeed recognize humor. FCA: Did you enjoy your job as a Fawcett editor more than writing? REED: I did enjoy being a Fawcett editor. Great, wonderful place to work with fine people. Ralph Daigh, my immediate boss, was a fine gentleman. The Fawcett brothers were amiable. There were also a lot of beautiful women in the organization! When I bowed out the US Government had put a freeze on pay raises and I knew I could make more money as a freelance writer than as editor.

ROD REED (1974)

FCA: As a Fawcett editor, what were the grounds for a story to be rejected? REED: Stories were rarely (maybe never) rejected. Sometimes a writer would be asked to fix up his script, here and there. Understand, Rod Reed. each story was written from an outline that had already been approved. Any taboos being violated would have been discovered in the outlines. FCA: As a Fawcett editor, were you in charge of all the comics or just the main titles such as Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics, etc.? REED: Besides editorial director Ralph Daigh, the Fawcett brothers, and Roscoe Fawcett’s circulation department, I was in charge. FCA: In one of your letters you stated that the comic book story conference was overrated. How? REED: A giraffe is a horse put together by a committee. If I hire a real pro writer like say, Joe Millard, I know I’d be wasting my time and his if I sat down with him and went over panel by panel, word by word, what he was expected to write. My motto was to turn the writer loose and let him put his talent, imagination, and ingenuity to work without interference.

FCA: While you were the editor of Downbeat magazine, you were freelancing Fawcett comics scripts. Did you just submit them without the editor’s guidance?

REED: Procedure: An eight-page story about so-and-so is requested. Writer submits one or more outlines. Editor okays outline(s) with maybe a couple of penciled suggestions or changes. Writer does story and submits it, hoping to get a check pretty quick. All was usually done by mail, though there may be an occasional phone call. When I was with Downbeat, I often lunched with one or more of my old Fawcett friends but they were hardly business lunches except, possibly, on somebody’s expense account. FCA: Were you involved with writing any chapters of the Monster Society of Evil serial in Captain Marvel Adventures? You quit Fawcett in the middle of June of 1943, months after the serial started.

because they did their work REED: It’s spooky that you say The Cisco Kid syndicated strip by Reed and Jose Luis Salinas expertly and if they talked about that I left in June of ’43. Where in [©2001 King Features] me behind my back they were the world did you get that info? discreet enough not to let me hear about it. Steranko’s History of Comics? I might have been able to figure out 1943 but the month would have eluded me. If your dates are correct, I FCA: Some of those names I don’t recognize. Were some of these no doubt was present when the Mr. Mind and his Monster Society of individuals associate editors? Evil was whipped up but I can take no credit for it—unless you want to give me a good mark for not vetoing the idea. FCA: Every writer/artist/editor considers some of his colleagues as some of his favorites. Who were some of your favorites at Fawcett?

REED: The title was editor. Each was in charge of a certain magazine or magazines and was responsible for assigning stories and art and seeing that the book was made up and ready to roll by deadline. The executive editor would check all finished pages before going to press.

REED: When praise is being passed around, Bill Parker is always shortBack to the Fawcett artists, I had the utmost respect for Beck... and if changed. After all, all he did was invent Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, he raised any hell at DC regarding Shazam! I’m sure it’s in the interest Sivana, Shazam, and was the editor of of quality work and not merely artistic the first Whiz Comics. He created Ibis temperament. Mac Raboy, the nicest the Invincible, Golden Arrow, Spy guy you could meet, was never satisfied Smasher, Scoop Smith, Lance O’Casey, with any Captain Marvel Jr. script, and Dan Dare. He most likely wrote all though we gave him the best writers the material for the first few issues of available short of William Shakespeare. Whiz. I was the first “outsider” after him Also, although Jack Binder is acclaimed to do a Captain Marvel script. Now as to for his work on Mary Marvel, Marc favorite artists, you will understand that Swayze did the first portraits and when I was executive editor with more stories. I have before me the number than two dozen titles rolling off the one issue of her very own magazine and presses, I met and worked with a great her garb is amazingly mod with short many. C.C. Beck was perfect for skirt that boats almost to the knees. Captain Marvel... a marriage made in Swayze, of course, wanted to do the heaven. Mac Raboy in his different leftwhole Mary series himself and it was handed style was superb. Marc Swayze, my distasteful job to convince him that Ken Bald, Ed Robbins, A. J. Carreno, he couldn’t be spared from the Captain Chad Grothkopf, Dave Berg, Al Marvel team. Mary was then assigned to Liederman, Jesse Benton, Pete Costanza, the Jack Binder shop. This has nothing Kurt Schaffenberger, Jack Binder, and to do with comic books but the most many others. Writers? Otto Binder and amazing artist I ever worked with is Bill Woolfolk of course. Joe Millard was Jose Luis Salinas. He resides in Buenos tops, as was John Broome, Alfie Bester Aires and we have never met. He speaks and Manly Wade Wellman. Editors? little English, but he drew the Cisco Kid During my brief time, about two years, comic strip which I wrote for King as executive editor of all Fawcett comics, Features for 18 years until westerns the editors included Jane Magill, Stanley went out of style. He always had the Kaufman, Ken Crossen, Mercy Shull, uncanny ability to depict characters and Dick Kraus, Henry Perkins, Tom scenes almost exactly the way I had Naughton, Otto Binder, Will Lieberson, envisioned them. Carlton Brown, John Beardsley, and A Fawcett crew weekend party at Rod Reed’s house, circa several others who will hate me for 1942. Reed is on the far left wearing a jacket. Mac Raboy FCA: You mentioned Mac Raboy. In mislaying them. They are my favorites is laying on the ground; William Woolfolk is at the far right. Steranko’s book, I think it was you who

“I WAS PROUD”

described him as moody and introspective. REED: It was a little hard to get past the reserve of this shy genius but it was worth the trouble for he became a warm and valued friend. He was “anti-establishment” before that became fashionable and I’m sure at first he distrusted me merely because I was an editor and therefore a tool of the management. He had the talent to become a fine artist but the need to make a living pushed him into commercial art, a loss to museums perhaps, but certainly a terrific (and maybe undeserved) break for comic readers. Mac Raboy was tops as a human being. His untimely death was a great loss. FCA: Staying on the subject of art, Beck feels the quality of Shazam! could perhaps be better if the old shop system was revived. Do you think it could work today? Otto Binder points out that the Fawcett contributors were more or less inspired in those days. REED: If Beck was in charge of a shop I’m sure he’d demand quality work from all his assistants. All shops in “the good old days” were not that conscientious. An editor for instance, would hire one good artist to make samples. He would show them and get a deal for a series. Then he’d put some cheaper cartoonists to work on the product while his star made samples for another selling job to another publisher. Jack Binder had a shop loaded with talent and maintained a quality standard as high as possible considering the quantity of material involved. Some shops didn’t measure up to that. You can’t recapture the feeling of those days because back then comic books were a brand new thing and an exciting challenge to young talent. But I think anybody with a fresh approach can be just as inspired now as then... if there’s a market for it. FCA: What were Fawcett’s page rates for scripts? And why weren’t editors allowed to write stories since Ed Herron got fired for doing so? REED: When I started, the rates were $2.50 a page—getting up to $14 or so. Regarding the Fawcett rule that editors should not buy anything from themselves, think it over, from a writer’s viewpoint and you’ll see it’s a good rule. FCA: Give us the Reed explanation of why Captain Marvel was a bigger success than Superman and Batman in the ’40s? REED: Answer: Billy Batson. Here was a kid about the age of the

ROD REED

average reader. He was vulnerable. I think that’s the most important difference: Superman and Batman didn’t have kids for alter egos (salute Captain William Parker again)! FCA: The ’50s brought on horror comics, slumped sales, and the presence of Fredric Wertham on the comics scene, saying that comics were giving children psychological damage and proclaiming that such characters as Wonder Woman and Batman were inspiring homosexuality. REED: Dr. Wertham appeared on the comics scene long before the Fifties and he was a pain in the rear to publishers. The eminent doctor must have made quite a bit of money denouncing comics. His articles appeared in all the leading publications. As a layman, all I can say is that a number of the kids who read these comics grew up to engage in violent crimes, while the vast majority may have had, at the worse, a traffic ticket. Did he really say that they inspired homosexuality?! FCA: How did the collaboration involving some Fawcett alumni come together in the Sixties at Milson for Fatman and what task were you involved in? REED: Otto Binder was unavailable and they needed an extra story to complete an issue of Fatman The Human Flying Saucer so I wrote it. FCA: Upon questioning E. Nelson Bridwell on the quality of Shazam! and why DC wasn’t bringing back any of the old writers, he told me that they didn’t want to come back. Did they ever ask you? REED: E. Nelson Bridwell or anyone at DC has never asked me to write anything. If he or they do, I shall give the matter due consideration. FCA: What is your opinion of DC’s attempt at reviving Captain Marvel? REED: Naturally I was quite curious to see how the DC people would treat the Fawcett characters in Shazam!. In general they get high marks for excellent artwork, imaginative stories, fine colors, and printing. I had heard that Beck was unhappy with the scripts (the evidence of “The Invasion of the Salad Men” and “The Incredible CapeMan” indicates C.C. may have had a point) and that he felt it necessary to alter a number of the stories. Exactly how much fixin’ C.C. did only God and Julie can say for sure.

“I Chose To Be A Genius” C.C. Beck Interviews Rod Reed BECK: Rod, you were editor of Fawcett’s comics back in the Golden Age. Did you think back then that we were producing comic features that would be world famous forty years later? REED: No, I didn’t. If I had known at the time I would have marched into the front office and demanded a five dollar raise (per month). BECK: Why do you believe that comics created back in those days are so fondly remembered today? REED: They were a new, exciting entertainment for the kids, and those kids are now approaching senior citizenship. The remembered delights of youth seem even more wonderful after your hair has turned to silver. BECK: Were the Golden Age comics really so wonderful? REED: In all art and music and literature the test of time is the best test. If they’re still alive after forty years those old comics must have had solid bases. BECK: Back in the Golden Age we did things in comics that would horrify today’s liberated minorities. What’s your opinion on equal rights, Rod? REED: Mother Nature doesn’t give anybody or anything equal rights automatically. It seems to me that we are trying to improve on Mother Nature today. BECK: As an editor, did you have any trouble with any of the Fawcett comics writers like Otto Binder, Bill Woolfolk, Manly Wade Wellman, and the rest of the crew?

REED: Payments for freelancers were very low. For scripts we paid $2.50 a page. The guys who were trying to make a living writing comics really had to bat out a lot of pages to make a decent income. BECK: How about the artists? REED: Artist’s rates were low, too. They had to turn out a lot of work and stay up late nights and give up many dates to meet deadlines. BECK: Why did we all work for mere pittances? For fame and glory? Royalties and residuals?

REED: None. As an executive I delegated authority to my underlings. If you don’t do your work you are lazy... but if you delegate authority you are a genius. I chose to be a genius.

REED: No, they didn’t permit an artist to sign his strip and they didn’t give writers bylines. A printed statement on the back of your check said you waived all rights to anything you did. If you were hungry or thirsty, you signed. BECK: Then why did we even bother?

BECK: I won’t ask you about the artists, Rod, because I’m sure that they were all princely fellows who never gave anyone any trouble, right?

REED: I believe the reason a good deal of excellent work got done despite the conditions was because of artistic integrity. The true craftsman does his best at all times because anything less will not satisfy him. BECK: I agree. We had to wait forty years for recognition. Many of the artists and writers and editors died unknown and unhonored.

Fawcett editorial meeting. L-to-R: Mercy Shull, Tom Naughton, Otto Binder, John Beardsley, and Rob Reed (with Pipe.)

REED: A salute to them all, C.C., living and dead. May the present crop fare better!

“I CHOSE TO BE A GENIUS” (1980)

“We Were More Or Less Inspired” Otto Binder: An Interview with Captain Marvel’s Mightiest Writer By Matt Lage Fiction is not life. Fiction shows things the way they ought to be, not the way they are. —Otto Binder FCA: Otto, you must clearly remember what you were working on that day in 1953 when Fawcett comics folded? OB: Yes I do. The last story I wrote was a serial for the Marvel Family featuring the Sivana Family. When we got the bombshell news that all Fawcett comics were being discontinued, out of depression I wrote a parody of my serial in which each of the Marvels, in turn, get killed off. My Fawcett friends thought it was funny, but not that funny... it hit too close to reality.

Otto Binder with his wife, Ione, in the early Fifties. FCA: In DC’s Shazam! comics, Denny O’Neil brought back Mr. Mind’s Monster Society. C.C. Beck says that this was a big mistake. What are your thoughts about a feature which you and Beck both created and killed off and having it resurrected? OB: I thinks it’s a mistake too. You can’t recreate the mood of something done years before in an entirely different context as to what the world was like then. Mr. Mind just happened to fit into that era and catch everyone’s fancy, whereas today he will seem like just a silly worm written by even sillier writers. But I’m always amazed at the popularity of Mr. Mind. Even today, when fans who were kids in the Forties meet me they almost always mention Mr. Mind and how great a character he was. The only way I can figure it is that he was a surprising contrast to all other villains, who were generally big, devilish hulks... so a tiny miserable worm, filled with more hate than all other villains combined, simply tickled the reader’s fancy, I suppose. I was startled myself at the enormous amount of fan mail that came after the chapter which showed what Mr. Mind really was, resulting in many subsequent chapters. Beck really put in a labor of love on that work as the art attests. Editor Wendell Crowley told me it was my greatest work. FCA: Were you sorry to end the serial? Also, I’m wondering how you felt when Fawcett comics folded and what impact that had when you started to write for DC, Fawcett’s nemesis in court for all those years? OB: The sadness over killing off Mr. Mind was brief, along with the serial, but the sadness over Captain Marvel and friends being tossed into limbo was much more painful—particularly to my pocketbook. But money was not the only factor; I really had a lot of fun doing the Captain Marvel stories. When it all ended it took the sunshine out of my life for a long time. And my reaction to DC as being the executioner was hardly of a friendly nature. In fact, we were all pretty sore and bitter about it. It seemed so heartless and greedy; DC wanting to hog the [©2001 DC Comics]

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Joan Jameson, Ma and Pa Potter, Dexter Knox, and Steamboat?

market by killing off it’s closest rival... but then, that’s business y’know. It stinks. I didn’t take it personally obviously as I went to work for Mort Weisinger at DC for many years, becoming sort of the chief writer on the Superman gang. The memory of Captain Marvel faded, but not rapidly. FCA: The other serial you wrote in Captain Marvel Adventures was “The Cult of the Cursed” featuring Oggar. Was this serial as fun for you to write as the Mr. Mind serial? Also, was the Oggar serial art produced from the Beck/Costanza Studio?

OB: The Oggar serial was really a flop, to be frank. It was again one of my ideas and it seemed to be great in my mind, but when it came to writing and developing the theme, it just sort of went nowhere and it was quickly killed after six chapters. That was how it worked: For every good idea, there were a couple of so-so ones. I would say that if one out of three of my ideas/plots/stories were outstanding, that was a great average and something to be proud of. As for the artists who worked on the Oggar serial, I have the impression that it was Beck and Costanza’s shop who illustrated it and pretty much all of the Captain Marvel stories during that time period. I don’t blame any of the artists for Oggar’s failure as the scripts were no good in the first place. FCA: A question regarding some of Captain Marvel’s cast of co-stars: Who created The Marvel Family, Uncle Marvel/Dudley, Cissie Somerly,

OB: I’m pretty sure Uncle Marvel sprang from my mind, but I can’t be 100% certain. Wendell Crowley and I used to bat around ideas and it’s quite possible that Uncle popped out of one of our bull sessions and Wendell may have been the one who came up with the character. I know I did write the first Uncle Marvel story and develop the character, as I did with Freckles Marvel. We wanted the Mary Marvel feature distinctive from the other two... less heroics and more human interest. Mary was my pride and joy, an idea which originated from upstairs. The Marvel Family? I’m not sure but I think they also originated from upstairs. Or perhaps Will Lieberson was told simply to add another good title and suggested combined adventures of the three Marvels—a real blockbuster idea in those days. Again I was given the assignment to launch it all and Sivana was the logical villain, or rather, the Sivana Family. I think both Georgia and Junior (both concepts of mine) were already in existence so it was a natural to pit the two families against each other. Cissie Somerly and Joan Jameson were brought in, I think, through Beck’s suggestions. Ma and Pa Potter were my creations, as was Dexter Knox, to tone down the super-heroics. We were always creating new side characters, most of which became just one-shots if they turned out to have no appeal. Steamboat was the creation of Ed Herron, the greatest early Captain Marvel editor. Steamboat was dropped during a wave of criticism of any anti-minority leanings that came up in that period, with such as the word “niggers” being dropped from newspapers, movies, and all the media. I recall distinctly writing a story with a typical Swede character saying “by yiminy” etc., when orders came down from above to abolish all such dialects, and I had to straighten out his speeches. I was all in favor, actually, of anti-discrimination so it didn’t bother me, except that we did sigh once in awhile because it was fun to depict such dialect groups. We never meant to degrade them, merely play them for humor. We thought it was kind of sad that the public couldn’t distinguish between harmless well-meant-dialect-characters and true racial antipathy, just because we had Swedish people talking like Swedes do, or the famed Yiddish talk, didn’t mean we hated or looked down on them. The only dialect they allowed after the war were the “no solly please” Japanese and the “dumbkopf” from the Germans... until they became our allies and therefore “respectable.” All very ridiculous. FCA: Since you created Mary Marvel and your brother Jack illustrated the majority of her stories, there must have been many Binder-Binder collaborations?

Otto’s 1950 plot submission for “Captain Marvel and the Town of Perfection,” Captain Marvel Adventures #113.

OB: Yes, in fact, most of the time it was the case of it being a Binder-Binder collaboration. I think from about 1948 on, after Jack moved to upstate New York, he did all of the Mary Marvel stories until the end.

“WE WERE MORE OR LESS INSPIRED”

FCA: Did you and Jack ever have disagreements on how the character should be handled? OB: I suppose Jack and I had disagreements at times regarding Mary Marvel but none that I can recall, so they couldn’t have been too important. At times Jack would phone me and suggest switching a panel around or something and I would always give him the go-ahead. Sometimes a writer can visualize a scene and the artist will suggest an alternative scene. I can’t recall difficulties with any artists, with the sole exception of Mac Raboy. He continually complained to all the writers that there was too much action or too many balloons, thus robbing him of a chance to do his pretty scenes. Editors always stuck up for the writers and told Raboy how to do it or else! Poor guy, he must have felt like a pariah. FCA: Which of your Fawcett colleagues did you admire the most?

turned the case against the Fawcetts. But even at DC after that, where Ed was given all the writing he could handle, he did superb scripts—the editors admitted it. FCA: There has always been some disagreement as to who thought of the name “Captain Marvel.” Some say Pete Costanza suggested it during a meeting. OB: I doubt that it was Pete who came up with the name. Bill Parker, the creator, may have been the first one, although he first called the character “Captain Thunder.” It might also have been Beck (already a part of Fawcett’s art department) himself who suggested Marvel instead. This is all very obscure, I’ve heard a dozen reasons of the creation of Captain Marvel. FCA: Excluding Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, what other Fawcett characters did you write for?

OB: Among artists, Beck was of course my OB: I’m not really sure, favorite, I took great but there were many delight in his renditions others. I kept records of of my Captain Marvel what I wrote and gave scripts and thought that the information to Jerry he was a bit of a genius. Bails for his Who’s Who He was the only artist volume. I know I did allowed by the Fawcett quite a lot of Ibis, editors to alter scripts on Captain Midnight, occasion or to insert or Golden Arrow, and delete certain panels, and such. I wrote the change wording (Note: majority of Bulletman This was one of the things stories. I obviously that DC collared Beck enjoyed writing the for). But Beck never took Captain Marvel and advantage of this; he A toast to the Golden Age. L-to-R: Jack Binder, C.C. Beck, and Otto Binder. Marvel Family stories simply made improvethe most, including ments along the way. We sometimes differed sharply over a particular Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr., but next in line would be sequence (he would show me the roughs) but we would always come to Bulletman... a character who lent himself to a wide range of stories. a compromise. Beck was at his best with Mr. Mind, which he delighted in illustrating for its sense of the ridiculous. One of my favorite writers FCA: As I understand it, sometimes there would be story conferences was Ed Herron, hands down; his early Captain Marvel scripts were just between editor, writer, and sometimes an artist. However, with some of great. I also admired Bill Woolfolk who wrote sensitively for Captain the artwork being farmed out by Fawcett to another studio with perhaps Marvel Jr., and whom I discovered more or less. I served as an editor some things being lost in translation so to speak, did this ever affect the briefly for six months at Fawcett way back in 1943. During that time my quality of your stories? job included going through the “junk”—unsolicited scripts by would-be writers, mostly hopeless. I remember the thrill I got when reading a OB: The story conferences at Fawcett were between writer and editor, Woolfolk script. I rushed to the editor-in-chief at the time, Rod Reed, never with an artist. Beck was an exception and was at times invited into and from then on we bought scripts from Woolfolk on a regular basis. a discussion for his input and ideas. All the Captain Marvel stories I He had already been writing for Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics. I just wrote were first discussed between myself and the succession of editors: helped Bill get started at Fawcett. Editor Wendell Crowley was great, Ed Herron, Rod Reed, Tom Naughton, and the parade of editors that without question. As mentioned before, we worked in close harmony on came after that, circa 1943. When Wendell Crowley became editor until stories for all the Marvels, of which he was in charge. After the Marvel the end in 1953, I think I did my best scripts during that time period. Family and Fawcett comics were killed, and Wendell joined his father’s Wendell was the ideal editor and contributed many ideas. As for the lack lumber business (which he hated), we still remained close friends, both of artist participation in the preliminary story development, I think it of us living in Jersey. We played bridge often with the wives, and when would have hindered it. Many of the artists had no story sense at all, Wendell died from a heart operation some years ago, I had truly lost a being strictly craftsmen, and good ones at that. They often “saved” a bad loved pal. Yet, I should amend this by saying that probably Ed Herron story by making it look good; but not by changing any of the scenes of was the best editor. He took over Captain Marvel after the early issues dialogue or captions, but rather simply by visualizing the flow or the of Whiz Comics in 1940 and rapidly built up the character with his own movement of a story properly. Outside of a very few artist/writers such stories and with plots that he suggested to me and others. His history is as Jack Kirby or Will Eisner, the comic artists had no part in plotting or tragic of course. He was drafted in 1942, and when he came back he was writing a story; they simply drew it up. I was astounded, by the way, to denied his old job because the Fawcett brothers found out that he wrote hear quite a few artists admit that they never read a script through first scripts on the sly. Anyway, apparently embittered, during the court to see what the story was about. They simply started working on the battles with DC, he turned state’s evidence over to DC that Captain first panel and continued on to the end—and probably never knew just Marvel was a direct copy of Superman, which may or may not have what the story was about. In one case, artist Pete Riss (who drew

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Bulletman and others), was accidentally given the same script twice for one of the romance comics. He patiently plodded through it for the second time and turned it in, much to the consternation of the editor. I think they paid him half price for the second version, which was almost exactly like the first one. Pete had no idea that they were two different stories! FCA: Tell me about the collaboration in the Sixties at Milson with your old Fawcett colleagues, creating Fatman The Human Flying Saucer and Super Green Beret. Was it as enjoyable as the old days? OB: There were two Miller Brothers (one named Bernie) who were the financial backers, and former Fawcett editor Will Lieberson was the publisher. I guess the three of them talked over old times and decided to try putting something out to try to capture Captain Marvel’s old charm and appeal. They called in Wendell Crowley as editor, myself as writer, and Beck as artist. The character Fatman was decided upon after long discussions, but I’m afraid we never recaptured the whimsical essence of Captain Marvel. The comic was not widely distributed, and died after three issues. I also wrote Super Green Beret. We had another character ready to go called Captain Shazam. We had the costume and gimmicks all written out but then the sales reports came in on Fatman and the Millers decided they had had enough. They lost plenty. No, I really didn’t enjoy writing for Fatman as much as for Captain Marvel. It was fun in a way because he was a good zany character, but somehow he didn’t have the same appeal that Captain Marvel had. FCA: What do you think of Captain Marvel’s revival in the pages of DC’s Shazam! comic? C.C. Beck says that it is horrible and many fans agree.

OB: Raboy was indeed moody and introspective. He couldn’t seem to communicate with editors and writers. He would sometimes mumble to as how he didn’t like a particular Captain Marvel Jr. script I had done, but he never made clear what he wanted—except less action and more beautiful scenes. He loved to make artistic “paintings” out of each panel... but they don’t tell a story! Rod Reed used to bawl him out constantly for neglecting to play up the action sequences. Still, Captain Marvel Jr. was a successful comic that sold very well. Raboy, slow in his work, often had the assistance of other artists who swiped from him and use photostats of existing drawings, such as a flying sequence, that were often pasted into the Junior stories. Oddly enough, although he looked thin and awkward, Raboy turned out to be a terrific ballplayer during our Fawcett party baseball games. He loped along like an antelope and never missed a fly ball. At one of the parties, at my home (we took turns hosting parties), he had a heart attack and gave everybody quite a scare. He recovered nicely, but I guess he was marked for an early death. His work on Flash Gordon was good in his final days. I never saw him again after he left Fawcett. FCA: In All In Color For A Dime, a book dedicated to you, the question was posed: When Billy said “Shazam!” did he simply become Marvel or was he thrown into some sort of limbo?

OB: We at Fawcett didn’t bother about such esoteric details and simply treated it as if Captain Marvel was Billy as a grown man. I know that Cap always referred to Billy as a separate person, and vice-versa, so perhaps the more logical viewpoint is that they were separate individuals and that when one appeared, the other went into some sort of “limbo” as you put it. You know, that would have made a great story! I wish I had thought of it! Most likely Will Lieberson would have vetoed the idea as it would have opened a can of worms that might confuse or disturb the readers. I think most readers simply assumed that Billy changed to a grown man, the World’s Mightiest Mortal. That was the great secret of why Captain Marvel outsold Superman and all the other super-heroes. What boy reader, In the Sixties Binder collaborated with his old identifying with Billy, didn’t feel the thrill of Fawcett colleagues on Fatman, The Human changing into a big and powerful hero? It was Flying Saucer. the perfect formula.

OB: It might surprise you to hear that I find the new Captain Marvel stories to be quite good, although I certainly understand Beck’s point of view. It must be difficult for today’s writers to recapture the whimsy and gaiety we used 30 years before. I myself wouldn’t even try to recapture it. We were more or less inspired in those days, in context with a [©2001 Milson] different world and long-gone values. My opinion would be that the new stories are a little too whimsical, and downright silly at times. In the old days we treated Captain Marvel lightly with humor and satirical plots; but nevertheless we were quite serious about putting across Captain Marvel’s character, with Billy Batson as the actual main character. We took a great deal of care to keep them both in character, but that took endless discussions, while being immersed with the atmosphere of the times, all of which the new writers are missing I’m afraid. Hence, their attitude toward the Captain Marvel character is well out of character!

FCA: Fawcett editor and writer Rod Reed described Mac Raboy as moody and introspected. Any comments on one of Fawcett’s most popular artists?

FCA: Did you ever have a set formula to your Captain Marvel stories? OB: No, decidedly not. There was no set pattern of any kind. In fact, we avoided any suggestion of repetition or similarity. Each story was to have its own unique approach. The stories in each issue of Captain Marvel Adventures and others were tailored to be as unlike the others as much as possible, for greater variety. FCA: Were there any kind of particular stories that you wrote which gave you some problems?

“WE WERE MORE OR LESS INSPIRED”

OB: Problems? You have to be jesting. Many stories were problems because they were too crammed with plotting so that the writer had to learn to condense, make rapid transitions, and so forth to the detriment of the final story. Some stories required too much text, both captions and dialogue, and all the panels became over-crowded which created a problem for the artist to depict anything. All the writer could do was to cram it in and let the editor cut where he could, which sometimes really hashed up a story badly. Sometimes I would write a script halfway and then see it could never be finished in the amount of panels we had to work with, so I had to rip it up and start all over, grinding my teeth. With different stories, I would often make a panelby-panel breakdown for myself... but only if the particular story was a difficult one. These breakdowns would consist of key words and a description of the scene. This kept me from hanging in the air at the end of the story. That’s about one hundredth of the problems that came up. None of the scripts were “easy” to write, as most people seem to think, being deceived by the story’s simplicity. FCA: What inspired some of your ideas when creating a story? OB: I think I previously mentioned that C.C. Beck and Wendell Crowley often supplied me with plot input and suggestions, but basically it was up to me. My inspiration for ideas is a rather pointless question. You don’t find them on street corners or hidden in vases. You have to conjure them up in your own brain. At times, ideas were dry and hard to get and almost obstinately stayed out of reach. Otto Binder, drawn by C.C. Beck. Other times the ideas flowed and I’d jot down half a dozen based themes, though not all would be eventually usable. Writing is a lonely business and the labor of extracting ideas from your skull is by no means “fun.” FCA: Who were some other people at Fawcett you fondly remember? OB: Manly Wade Wellman, a good pal of mine from my early days of science-fiction writing, only entered the comics field briefly for the money. He started out at Chesler’s shop and then went over to Fawcett comics. Bill Woolfolk who I’ve already mentioned, is a really good writer and today a top novelist. Wendell Crowley as I said was the ideal editor, contributing ideas whenever we discussed plots, keeping the artists in line so they “told the story right,” and checking everything carefully. Wendell had great enthusiasm and really cared about Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics. When Fawcett closed its comics line, Wendell was the saddest sack of us all. He really loved the comics. Rod Reed wasn’t editor long enough, only a year or two, but he was certainly competent. He gave up the Fawcett job to edit Downbeat magazine, as

OTTO BINDER

jazz music was his real love. As a person, Rod was superb... friendly, full of quips, warm, and full of laughs (I mean he laughed a lot). The only thing about Rod was trying to get away from him if you went to a bar with him. He wouldn’t let you go and kept buying the drinks. Loved companionship. I remember telling him once that I had heard a rumor that he had given up drinking. His answer to that was, “That’s a filthy lie!” He was insulted at the very thought! Kurt Schaffenberger’s artwork was simply excellent! I think he “made” Lois Lane by his artwork. More importantly, he tells the story with his art. Many artists kill a story by failing to make good transitions from panel to panel to keep the continuity intact. Choosing how to show each scene is vital and Kurt always chooses right. Pete Riss, another close friend, was perfectly content with comics, a rather simple soul. Competent in his artwork and especially good with faces and figures, which was why he eventually gravitated to romance comics later in his career at Fawcett. He had much more talent than he showed. Marc Swayze I did not know very well. He could both write and draw, and Rod Reed, his pal, swore by his work so it must have been good. Ken Bald was really talented and it soon came out when comics declined at the end of the war. He had already been doing commercial art for ads and was doing great and making big money. Ken was good at drawing figures, realistic stuff, almost anything. Pete Costanza was constantly wondering whether he was doing good or bad work. He turned out many excellent things, but was often inconsistent in his work. He is associated mainly with Beck as his inker, and with the Beck shop. John Beardsley I hardly knew at all, just for a small stint at Fawcett and then at Quality. I think he had a knack for picking good writers and keeping them loyal. Quality Comics I think had the best writing staff altogether. Tom Naughton was editor for awhile in the early war years—a jolly fellow who didn’t take the job seriously and thought comics were ridiculous. Will Lieberson who became editor-in-chief around 1942 and remained so to the end, was the right man for the job. He kept the writers and artists in line, added new titles, and in general made it an easy-going business. My brother Jack Binder, in spite of all he did for the comics field, never had his heart and soul in it. He himself admits he did some poor stuff at times. However, he did make successes out of such characters as Mary Marvel and Gabby Hayes. FCA: The comics industry was in a depression around the time Fawcett comics closed it’s doors in the early Fifties... but do you think that Fawcett could have stuck it out with DC’s lawsuits and perhaps later enjoy a comics revival in the Sixties?

OB: Lieberson, Crowley, Beck and I, and others, often talked it over and felt that Fawcett had a good chance to win. In fact, the appeal ruling of the first verdict, I understand, cleared Captain Marvel, but DC reinstated the case. I can tell you this: Panel by panel, Superman swiped as much from Cap as vice versa, and sometimes even story ideas. Of course, Superman was actually swiped by Siegel and Shuster from a Joe Z. Brown movie featuring a superman character (uncostumed) who did all of the feats Superman was to do later. I think Fawcett had a chance of getting the suit thrown out for that reason alone. I also had a sciencefiction story in print in 1937, prior to Superman, calling my hero a “superman.” Fawcett had settled out of court not to avoid losing but because the profits weren’t what they use to be... remember, they dropped their entire line of comics, not just Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family titles. FCA: Today’s comics deal mostly with straight super-heroes in melodrama situations, with little or no humor. What do you think of today’s approach to comic book storytelling? OB: Yes, today most comics play it straight and use “realism.” Humorous stories probably don’t sell very well today. Actually, the Captain Marvel and Marvel Family stories aren’t humor in the strictest sense but rather satire and parody of life situations and the doings and shortcomings of humans. It is often said that Captain Marvel’s tone of

A scene from the Mr. Tawny syndicate strip proposal by Binder and Beck, originally published in Alter Ego. Special thanks to Roy Thomas. [©2001 DC Comics] his stories were “whimsical,” a series of fantasies reflecting life through “funny mirrors” like those at amusement parks. The subject matter is recognizable but distorted by exaggeration, spoofing, or running jokes. The secret of it all was that Cap and Billy were dead serious and never made a joke at all. It was how we played up the slapstick and puns and situation comedy that made it all funny. But remember this: Young kids usually don’t get the joke at all. They take it seriously, namely, the battle between good and evil with the good guy (Captain Marvel) always winning. In a sense, Captain Marvel was like Jonathan Swift’s satires of political situations... also like Alice In Wonderland which to the adult is a study of human nature. I always felt I was exploring and exploiting human nature too, digging out its zany aspects to show that much of life was a joke and full of craziness. Despite the light humor and whimsy, Captain Marvel was pretty close to real life. Witness Mr. Tawny, a talking tiger in typical human situations. I guess that’s why Anthony Boucher, many years ago, wrote me letters telling how “brilliant” certain stories were, calling them “some of the best fantasy-satire in be world.” He and his sons followed Captain Marvel throughout his career faithfully. Yet, I often met people who found out what I did for a living and they would say, “What! You write that childish drivel?” So it goes. FCA: Mr. Tawny is one of the most loved of all the Captain Marvel characters. How did the creation of Tawny come about? OB: As far as I can recall, Tawny was my own concept, which Wendell Crowley—and C.C. Beck in particular—thought was a good concept right from the start. Beck did such a great job personifying the tiger that he caught on immediately with the readers. A flood of letters came in on the first story, so we continued him. Captain Marvel was really just a minor character in all of his stories, the tiger’s sidekick. We made Tawny as lovable and bumbling as we could, which led to reader sympathy. He always had his great dreams, with unfortunate results. I wouldn’t say Tawny stories were exactly satires... they were more like parodies of human life, showing our weaknesses. [©2001 DC Comics]

“WE WERE MORE OR LESS INSPIRED”

Fond Memories Former Fawcett Comic Book Editor Virginia A. (“Ginny”) Provisiero Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck FCA: Ginny, when did you begin your career at Fawcett Publications? GINNY: I went to work for Fawcett Publications in April 1943. If anyone had ever told me that I would be an editor of comic books, I would have laughed since I never read a comic book before, only the comic strips in the newspapers. When I was interviewed by editorial director Ralph Daigh’s secretary she told him I would be good for the comics department. That was the beginning of a wonderful association with a great company.

the best. The circulation department was always on our backs, and if a comic book fell in sales, the editor of the book would be called into Lieberson’s office. FCA: What were your main duties as an editor? GINNY: I was responsible from cover to cover for each magazine that carried my name as editor. This was also true of the other editors. I had to get the scripts for each issue, which meant the story synopsis, written script, and artwork. I would ask one of my writers if he had any plot ideas for the character. They would submit the idea to me, I’d read it and OK it, and then discuss it with Will Lieberson for his approval. Will, as the editor-in-chief, had to give the final OK for all the comics. If a writer didn’t have an idea, it was my responsibility to provide the idea. (I used to keep a file handy of story ideas). The plot was then given to the writer

FCA: Who were some of the other editors when you started and what was one of your first assignments? GINNY: When I started in the comics department, I was the “kid”... Rod Reed was the editor-in-chief and the editors were Will Lieberson, Stan Kaufman, Jane Magill, Barb Heyman, Mercy Shull, and later, Wendell Crowley, to name a few of them. I was given wartime Spy Smasher stories to re-write at home and when Barb Heyman left the company, they gave me the production of the comic books to handle. FCA: When did you become a full-time editor? What were some of the comic books you handled? GINNY: When Jane Magill left, I became editor of Whiz Comics, Master Comics, Spy Smasher, Golden Arrow, Nyoka The Jungle Girl, and Six-Gun Heroes. Soon after Jane left, Rod Reed left and Will Lieberson became head of the department as executive editor. Some time later, Mercy Shull left to run a dude ranch with her husband so I got her books as well. I also edited Bill Boyd Western, Hopalong Cassidy, Tex Ritter Western, Rocky Lane Western, and This Magazine is Haunted. I soon learned who the artists and writers were and what characters they worked on. FCA: Did you like working with Reed and Lieberson? Did they both give you a lot of creative freedom? GINNY: Rod Reed and Will Lieberson were nice guys, good bosses, and gave me the opportunity to be as creative as I wanted to be. Happily so, the circulation of the books I was editor of were very high. I had good writers and good artists and we all worked together to make our comics

VIRGINIA A. (“GINNY”) PROVISIERO (1998)

to develop the story and action. When the script was completed, it was given to me to edit, and then I assigned it to the artist to draw. I would then check the penciled pages to make sure the script was followed correctly, and after okaying the pencil drawings, the artist inked the pages. The inked pages were then given to me to check again, and if OK, I gave the artwork to the letterer to fill in the word balloons. When that was done and after final proofing, the story was ready to be put into the issue. Each issue usually had four stories with the leading character, and some Ginny at her Fawcett 10-year short features. I was also responsible for the cover of anniversary party, April 12, 1953. In each issue of my magazines. the background, left side, is I talked to artists about the executive editor Will Lieberson. To cover concept and together the right is editor Al Jetter. we would develop an idea as to what we were going to depict on the cover. The artist would bring a pencil sketch of the cover to me, in which I had to get Will Lieberson’s OK. Once okayed, the artist would ink the cover. (In the case of Nyoka The Jungle Girl, we used photo covers for the later issues, and these were handled through a modeling agency.) To meet a deadline, I had to put the entire issue together in sequence, including the fillers and short features, and bring the whole issue in to Will for his OK... then he gave it back to me to send to the printer. I was also in charge of the production of all 32 magazines every month. I had to make sure all of the other editors met their deadlines. FCA: And did they meet their deadlines? GINNY: If an editor didn’t have his artwork ready for me to read in the morning (so Will Lieberson could read it before noon), I heard the “riot” act from Will. Then I had to have a talk with the editor. Deadlines simply could NOT be missed! FCA: Did you get to know C.C. Beck and the others pretty well? GINNY: Yes I did. C.C. was always very nice to me. He never gave me any problems. He did such a great job on Captain Marvel. Other nice people at Fawcett that come to mind were Marc Swayze, Otto Binder, Jack Binder, Joe Millard, John Messman, Kurt Schaffenberger, Carl Pfeufer, Pete Costanza, and many others. FCA: Which comic book was your favorite one to work on?

VP: I enjoyed all the comics I edited. Perhaps Nyoka The Jungle Girl was my favorite because I had fun putting her in the jungle doing all the heroic things a man could do. I tried to put her in challenging situa-

FOND MEMORIES

the front cover and stories. Boyd’s people would in turn plug the Fawcett comic book on the TV series so it worked out well for everyone. FCA: How did you feel when Fawcett stopped publishing comic books in 1953? What did you do afterwards? GINNY: I was disappointed and very unhappy when Fawcett decided to cease publishing the comics. I felt as if I was losing some good friends. I had edited comics for over ten years at Fawcett. After the comics vanished, I worked for a few months on Woman’s Day magazine, but I didn’t care for it. Ralph Daigh asked me if I would like a position on True Confessions magazine and I took it. It was fun as well as challenging. I was with that magazine for ten years or so before Fawcett sold it to MacFadden and I went to work for them. After several years with MacFadden, I worked for a technical publishing company in Garden

Above: William Woolfolk’s 1950 Ibis plot submission approved by Virginia Provisiero for Whiz #127. Right: Splash from the printed story. [©2001 DC Comics] tions without regard to her being a female, and I enjoyed doing that. We girls weren’t sissies! I always wanted Nyoka to do tough things that would make the readers delight in her escapades. Nothing was too hard for her. She was my gal! One of my favorite Nyoka covers had Nyoka climb over a fallen palm tree. A few years ago I stopped in Tahiti on vacation and saw a fallen palm tree and I started to climb it just as Nyoka did. That was fun and my family got a kick out of it. Back when our department had to put on a fun skit for an advertising convention, I went as Nyoka and wore a pith helmet and shorts and carried a toy gun. Wendell Crowley dressed as Captain Marvel! FCA: Who were some of the artists and writers who worked on Nyoka the Jungle Girl? GINNY: Irwin Schoffman’s studio did most of the Nyoka artwork. Occasionally, when the situation arose, one of our staff artists would do it. Irwin was a writer as well as an artist and wrote many scripts for Nyoka. Other Nyoka writers included Otto Binder, Joe Millard, Bill Woolfolk and Leo Dorfman. FCA: You mentioned several western comics you edited. Which of those was your favorite? VP: Hopalong Cassidy. When Fawcett decided to publish a Hopalong Cassidy comic, Will Lieberson gave me the book and said to go to our library and look at our movie stills for references. Logically, I chose Bill Boyd photos because of his recognition as Hopalong Cassidy in the movies. After the second issue hit the newsstands, Bill Boyd’s agent called Ralph Daigh and wanted to know who gave us permission to use Boyd’s image in the comic book. Daigh called Lieberson who told him I decided Boyd would be the best one to use since the kids would recognize him from his TV series and movies and buy the book. Daigh worked out a deal with Boyd’s agent and all we had to do was to include the line “Starring William Boyd” under the Hopalong Cassidy title on

VIRGINIA A. (“GINNY”) PROVISIERO

City, New York. In 1968, I moved to Florida and became an insurance agent for almost 20 years before I retired. I’m enjoying retirement; I travel a lot and feel lucky that I’ve had two good careers. FCA: Thank you, Ginny, for sharing your memories of Fawcett Publications. GINNY: FCA has brought back many happy memories for me of those crazy, creative days when we sat around and thought up story plots and ideas and how best to present them. I really enjoyed working for Fawcett Publications. I found them to be a decent and caring company. I was a very busy gal, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I was with them for over twenty years—the first ten with the comics department—and they are my fondest memories.

“I Admire Craftsmanship” Fawcett Artist Kurt Schaffenberger Interviewed by Matt Lage Kurt Schaffenberger was born in Germany in 1920. He came to the United States as a boy and got into the comic business by accident, as many did. He had studied illustration in art school but found that book, pulp and magazine illustration work had subsided due to the rise of the comic book. As an illustrator, Kurt is one who illustrates his comic book stories instead of drawing fancy pictures with no meaning. Like all experienced artists, Kurt has done commercial and advertising work and can handle a T-square and a rubber cement brush with skill and ease. He has no illusions about the comics field, which he has worked in since the early Forties. FCA: When did you start drawing? SCHAFFENBERGER: I have been drawing pictures for as long as I can remember. FCA: Were any of the artists of the early days influential on your style? Did you try to emulate any particular artist? SCHAFFENBERGER: I have never tried to copy any artist’s style. I admire craftsmanship in any field, be it art or plumbing, and such illustrators as Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker and Harold von Schmidt and such comic artists as Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff and Harold Foster were not only great artists but fine craftsmen. I admired them very much. FCA: What was your first job as a cartoonist?

SCHAFFENBERGER: My first job was inking backgrounds for a Captain Marvel story while I was an employee of the Jack Binder shop. FCA: Did you want to work in comics? SCHAFFENBERGER: When I graduated from art school I didn’t know there were any comics other than the syndicated strips. I really wanted to be a magazine illustrator but by the time I was ready to go to work practically all the illustrated magazines had disappeared and only the comic magazines were hiring artists. FCA: What was it like in the early comic book days at Jack Binder’s shop?

Kurt Schaffenberger self-portrait. SCHAFFENBERGER: It was quite a wonderful time for all of us. We were all young, just out of art schools (most of us just out of Pratt Institute), and the world was going to be our oyster. We had softball and touch football games, and all of us and our girls would go out as a group. We were at the Glen Island Casino on New Year’s Eve in 1941. That was just after Pearl Harbor. In June of 1942 I went into the army, along with many of the other fellows, and the Jack Binder Studio broke up sometime around 1943. FCA: After the war was over what did you do? SCHAFFENBERGER: I worked at the Beck and Costanza studio for a while. They were handling all of the Captain Marvel stories for Fawcett. Other artists were doing Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, and so on, although Beck and Costanza did some work on those features, too. FCA: Out of all the Fawcett artists, writers and editors, which were outstanding in your opinion? SCHAFFENBERGER: C.C. Beck was head and shoulders above the rest of the artists. Raboy drew exquisite, pretty, but meaningless pictures. As for the editors, if I got along with them they were great. If the writers didn’t give us too many impossible situations to illustrate, they were fine. FCA: For example?

SCHAFFENBERGER: Well, here’s a situation I remember: “Show the four horsemen of the Apocalypse riding roughshod over downtrodden humanity with the Marvel Family flying to the rescue.” This was a double-page spread and it took four days to draw the thing... a somewhat longer time than it took the writer to type it, I’m sure. That’s just one example.

KURT SCHAFFENBERGER (1980)

FCA: Many people regard the fact that since Beck was the first and most prominent artist on the Captain Marvel stories, the rest of the Marvel Family should always be drawn in Beck’s whimsical and simplistic style. Do you agree? SCHAFFENBERGER: Not at all. Mac Raboy, Bud Thompson, and Jack Binder used their own styles on Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel. When I took over the Marvel Family stories I drew Captain Marvel himself as much like Beck’s version as I could, but I also did my own thing with the stories I illustrated. FCA: You were working on Fawcett comics in 1953 when they all ceased production. Do you remember the day you got the news? SCHAFFENBERGER: I remember the day well! I had picked up a new Marvel Family script from the editor the day before and had just finished penciling the first two pages when Wendell Crowley called me with the news. I was dismayed, to say the least. I would have been totally horrified had I known at the time that it would take me almost two years to re-establish myself in the art field. That was a rough period!

Kurt Schaffenberger, front right, playing his “squeeze box” at a party at Jack Binder’s home, 1942. Rear L-to-R: Memphis Brooks, Dick Ryland, Mrs. Jack Binder, Binder Child, Otto Binder. Middle L-to-R: Ken Bald, Bob Boyajian, Bob Butts, Vic Dowd, Jack Binder. Front, Middle: Al Dulla. FCA: In your long career as a comics illustrator you have worked for many publishers. Can you name some of them? SCHAFFENBERGER: I’ve worked for DC, Marvel, Archie, ACG, Street and Smith, Classics Illustrated, Gleason, and many others. I’ve also done photo retouching, package designing, paste-up and layout. It’s all part of the business. FCA: Which villains did you enjoy drawing the most? SCHAFFENBERGER: The Sivana Family. I’m really sorry I didn’t create them! They were so hateful that they were lovable. FCA: What about Superman’s great villain Lex Luthor? SCHAFFENBERGER: Luthor? Merely Superman with a chrome dome and a sneer. Sivana could have eaten him for breakfast, and he wouldn’t have lasted five minutes against the great Captain Marvel... or even against Uncle Marvel, the fat old Dutch uncle of the Marvel Family!

“I ADMIRE CRAFTSMANSHIP”

Southern Gentleman Fawcett Artist & Writer Marcus D. Swayze Interviewed by Matt Lage and Bernie McCarty Marcus D. Swayze is one of those special, multi-talented guys who make a lasting impression on everybody he meets. Artist, writer, musician, athlete... above all, Marc is charming and gracious, possessing that rare ability to make instant friends. This interview is primarily concerned with Swayze’s career as artist-writer for Fawcett Publications and will illustrate the fact that he was one of the top people connected with the Golden Age of comic books. But it would be unfair to the man if discussion here was limited only to Marc’s association with Fawcett. He was also a newspaper comic strip artist and writer. And he was, and still is, a professional jazz musician. When he learned Swayze was being interviewed for FCA, former Captain Marvel chief artist C.C. Beck commented: “Swayze is a remarkable person, a fine Southern gentleman, a great, great artist, and a beautiful guitarist, pianist and violinist. In addition, he has a beautiful wife and family, a fine Southern mansion, and a marvelous sense of humor. He’s an outrageous punster. Last time I saw him he was working as a gypsy fiddler in a tearoom and loving every minute.” Former Fawcett writer-editor Rod Reed gave Swayze just recognition for creating the pictorial concept of Mary Marvel. Reed noted: “Although Jack Binder is acclaimed for his work on Mary Marvel, Marc Swayze did the first portraits. I have before me the number one issue of her very own magazine and her garb is amazingly mod with short skirt and boots almost to the knees. Swayze, of course, wanted to do the whole Mary series himself and it was my distasteful job to convince him that he couldn’t be spared from the Captain Marvel team.” FCA: Steranko’s History of Comics credits you with working on a variety of Fawcett features. Which specific feature did you do the greatest amount of work on?

SWAYZE: It would probably be a toss-up between Captain Marvel and Phantom Eagle. I was hired in 1940 specifically to

work on Captain Marvel. Except for the time it took to do the original drawings for the Mary Marvel character and drawing the first one or two stories for that feature, plus an occasional illustration for the non-comics magazines, Captain Marvel was all I did until I left for the armed forces in 1942. In the service I wrote Captain Marvel stories on a Marc Swayze, Staff Artist, fairly consistent basis. I took over Fawcett Publications, Paramount the “Phantom Eagle” shortly after Building, New York City, 1941. my discharge in 1944, doing all the art and some of the writing until the feature was discontinued in Wow Comics in the late Forties. FCA: Of all the Captain Marvel artists, with C.C. Beck as chief artist heading the list, where do you believe you rate? Did you work on any other hero characters besides Captain Marvel and the Phantom Eagle? SWAYZE: Considering Beck the number one Captain Marvel artist, I considered myself number two, probably because they told me I was. While on the Fawcett art staff, from 1940 to 1942, nobody produced more Captain Marvel art than I did. And as I look back over the books that were published at the time, I am convinced that I contributed more Captain Marvel scripts than any other artist, and more than some of the writers. When I returned to New York after my discharge, I did not join Beck’s shop or the Fawcett staff because I was determined to continue my career from my hometown, Monroe, Louisiana. In a few months I had accomplished that, with an arrangement with Ralph Daigh, Fawcett editorial director, and executive editor Will Lieberson’s approval, to produce “Phantom Eagle,” and a contract with the Bell Syndicate to draw the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip Sunday page. During the several months while these negotiations were being made, I drew two stories, one featuring Ibis the Invincible and the other featuring Mr. Scarlet and Pinky. FCA: Do you recall specific art, stories, or covers that you did at Fawcett prior to taking over “Phantom Eagle”? SWAYZE: I have several books from A Swayze Phantom Eagle sketch from the Forties. that era and [©2001 DC Comics]

MARCUS D. SWAYZE (1978)

heavy physical action of the super-hero/adventure comics. The plots didn’t bother me. I considered it my responsibility and privilege as an artist-writer to alter a story line here and there, to shorten dialogue and so on, when necessary to improve the feature. FCA: Were stories submitted to you with description by description of what should be shown in each panel, or were you given a general idea and told to take it from there? SWAYZE: Fawcett stories all followed the formal format of description plus dialogue for every panel. I believe it was strict policy that stories be submitted first in outline for approval, the completed script to follow. That was my procedure for writing for them. The writers varied in style and detail in the matter of descriptions. Naturally, some stories afforded more graphic challenge than others. Remember, though, a story had to go past the editor first before it reached the artist. There were some highly qualified, dedicated people on the comics editorial staff at Fawcett. Of course, the stories that I enjoyed drawing the most were those little “masterpieces” which I wrote myself. Wendell Crowley and I had a laugh at a remark one of the writers made about how he generally left the description blank on Phantom Eagle stories because he knew I was going to present the story the way I wanted anyhow.

Swayze Fawcett romance art from Life Story #2, 1949. from them have drawn a list of work I did (see below). It’s not a complete list by any means. Beck retouched all Captain Marvel’s whether they needed it or not, which was as it should have been for consistency of character. Also, while digging out the old comics I noticed that in one of the Fawcett romance comics featuring my work, Life Story #21, 1950, all three stories were done by me, except for the lettering which was done by my sister Daisy Swayze who did just about all my lettering from 1944 on. She was one of the greatest letterers according to Roy Ald, Will Lieberson, and other Fawcett editors. There were quite a number of Fawcett romance comics containing two stories an issue where I did the art.

FCA: To draw a feature such as the “Phantom Eagle” you had to have some knowledge of how to depict planes. Was research mandatory in your work, or was imagination the rule of thumb? SWAYZE: My approach was to rough in the planes the way I wanted them in relation to the story, then get out the file material for detail. I suppose that would be employing both imagination and research. I redesigned the Phantom Eagle’s plane after taking over the feature in 1944, endeavoring to create a small, easily identifiable jet that reflected Phantom Eagle’s character. Due to the volume of work I had taken on, which included the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page and later the daily strip, time was of extreme importance. Therefore all the fussy detail was omitted from the plane.

FCA: Did you enjoy the romance comics work since it was such a change from superhero plots and situations?

Flyin’ Jenny by Swayze. [©Bell Syndicate]

SWAYZE: I enjoyed doing them except for their depriving me of the satisfaction of drawing my own writing. I never had any desire to write the romances. From the art standpoint they offered a number of challenges: More emphasis on and time for character development and emotional expression, more realistic art style as opposed to the

SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

FCA: Of all the comic companies, did you feel Fawcett had the most talented art staff? SWAYZE: Yes. I didn’t look around at the other companies and never worked in a “shop” setting. I knew the Jack Binder crew because they did quite a bit of material for Fawcett and were our opponents on the ball field during our weekend baseball games. I’m sure there must have been some great work being produced by contemporary publishers and shops. I suppose I was too busy doing my own thing to pay much attention. FCA: In drawing comics there are two schools of thought: An artist such as Will Eisner who believes that backgrounds are essential to the story, and C.C. Beck’s belief that backgrounds should be kept to a minimum. The Swayze opinion? SWAYZE: Backgrounds are important in establishing pictorially a change in locale. Beyond that, bits of background are handy for unifying composition or as necessary in the storytelling. I would never foist a background upon the reader to the extent that it competes with foreground activity. Good pictorial storytelling consists of a tasteful balance between those panels heavy with background detail and those with little or no background. This would appear to require more creative ability than would a continuous stream of panels loaded to the brim with drawings. The Swayze opinion is that comics should be drawn not for other comic strip artists but for the greatest number of readers, with high priority given to storytelling, timing of the action to place emphasis

FCA: Who were your favorite artists, writer, and editors at Fawcett? SWAYZE: I’ve had a great respect for the storytelling art of C.C. Beck. He had the opportunity to carry the first several Captain Marvel stories all the way alone, from layout through inking, and those are little classics. Mac Raboy demanded the time, and got it, to do the most finished, beautifully inked work of all the comic book artists I knew. Pete Costanza was very fast. In his long career in comics, and so much of it with Beck and Captain Marvel, he must have established some kind of quantity record. Pete was talkative, witty, and much fun to work with. It is next to impossible for me to classify the writers I knew simply because I didn’t pay much attention to the names on the scripts. Otto Binder was indeed a talented, prolific professional. So were Bill Woolfolk, Jon Messman, Joe Millard and others. Rod Reed, generally thought of as an editor, and a good one, was and is a great writer. Again I must acknowledge one of those I worked with at Charlton during my last year in comics. The writer was Joe Gill who wrote so much, so well, so fast. It would be easier if the editors could be classified according to their ability to play ball. Stanley Kauffman, for instance, was a fabulous infielder, as was Tom Naughton. As supervisors of the Fawcett Comics editorial staff, Ed Herron, Rod Reed and Will Lieberson in turn had complete respect and cooperation from their people. When I was doing the “Phantom Eagle” and the romance comics it was a pleasure to work with editor Roy Ald. The most dedicated, conscientious, greatest student of the comics was my friend, Wendell Crowley. It is so difficult to try and rate creative people, particularly those people you’ve been so fond of. Rocky Mastroserio, Stan Campbell, Chic Stone, Ed Robbins and Al Liederman, just to name a few, were other favorites.

MARCUS D. SWAYZE

Marc Swayze Fawcett Work Compiled by Marc Swayze WHIZ COMICS: From approximately #20, August 8, 1941 through approximately #40, February 10, 1943 I did most of the Captain Marvel story artwork, wrote a few Captain Marvel stories, and illustrated about half of the covers (including #36, 37, 38, 39.) Later, in Whiz Comics #59, October 1944, I illustrated the Ibis the Invincible story, “Pact with the Devil.”

1948 I did the complete story art on all Phantom Eagle stories as well as writing a good portion of the stories. Lettering was done by my sister Daisy Swayze. (Note: No Swayze in #54 and 56, but two Phantom Eagle stories with art by me in #42 and 43.)

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES: From #2 or 3, 1941, through #20 or 21, 1943, I illustrated various complete story art— layout, pencil, inks—and covers (#12, 15, 19), and wrote several stories. Complete story art included Captain Marvel Adventures #15 (“Capt. Marvel and Klang the Killer”), CMA #18 (“Origin of Mary Marvel”), CMA #19 (“The Training of Mary Marvel”), CMA #30 (“Captain Marvel and the Baron of Barracuda Bay”), CMA #40 (“Captain Marvel Gets the Heir!”). Captain Marvel scripts I wrote included: Captain Marvel Adventures #16 (“Captain Marvel and his Country Cousin”), CMA #25 (“Captain Marvel and the Mad Hermit”), CMA #27 (“Captain Marvel and the Pledge of the Gremlins”), CMA #30 (“Captain Marvel and the Baron of Barracuda Bay”). During my time spent in the military, from 1943 to my discharge in 1944, I wrote continuously stories for Whiz Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, and various other Fawcett titles.

WOW COMICS: #9, January 6, 1943 and #10, February 10, 1943, I illustrated both covers and the Mary Marvel story art. #28, August 1944, I drew the 1-page Mary Marvel paper salvage program ad. #29, September, 1944, I drew the Mr. Scarlet & Pinky story (“Mr. Scarlet and Pinky Wrestle with the Spectre of Death in the House of Beauty”). #30, October 1944 through #69, August

on the dramatic incidents, and a minimum of pointless, exaggerated gymnastics and superficial action. Pleasing characters, of course, are essential. FCA: Was there a formula to the artistic styles?

A recent sketch of Mary Marvel by Swayze.

FAWCETT ROMANCE COMICS: From 1948 to late-1953/early1954, I illustrated approximately 80 stories in 10 different Fawcett romance [©2001 DC Comics] comic book titles. Some issues I illustrated more than one story. I wrote no scripts and did no covers (most were photo covers). My work can be found in the following list of comics and by no means is intended to be a complete listing: LIFE STORY #1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 31, 35, 37, 40, 44, 46. SWEETHEARTS #70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 80, 83, 86, 87, 88, 89, 93, 95, 98, 100, 103, 106, 108, 110, 111, 114. TRUE CONFIDENCES #1, 3. ROMANTIC SECRETS #16, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 28, 32, 39. ROMANTIC STORY #2, 12, 20. COWBOY LOVE #2, 3. EXCITING ROMANCES #5, 6, 9. TRUE SWEETHEART SECRETS #8. SWEETHEART DIARY #13. TRUE STORIES OF ROMANCE #3.

When Fawcett hired you, were you shown an example of artwork and told, “Here, this is what we want?” SWAYZE: Eddie Herron, the editor who hired me at Fawcett, had sent me some drawings of Captain Marvel to duplicate as samples of my work. Then, when I joined the staff, Herron, or perhaps Beck or art director Al Allard said they had been unable to tell mine from Beck’s. I’ve always felt that I could draw in anybody’s style comfortably. When I did my one-shots on the “Ibis” or “Mr. Scarlet” features in 1944 I simply used the preceding issue as a style guide. As far as style goes, however, I used the style that fitted the need. Over my 15-year comics career, I must have prepared at least 15 prospective syndicate ideas that showed a variety of styles, some fast, some detailed, some cartoony, some illustrative. Some of my ideas would have made it—only to be halted by my own actions. Marty Guy, Private Detective at the N.Y. Star would have lived had I not been obstinate about their editorial demands. The Great Pierre, a feature the Bell Syndicate was to release in newspapers in 1955 never made it into the comics section because at that point I decided to get out of comics completely.

SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

FCA: Who were your closest counterparts among the Fawcett artists? Beck? Schaffenberger? Raboy? Ken Bald? SWAYZE: I don’t believe I had a counterpart, or idol, at Fawcett or anywhere else. I guess I just wasn’t interested in other styles unless the job required it. On “Captain Marvel,” for example, the style was already established for the feature when I got there, so that’s the style I used. On “Phantom Eagle” neither the style nor the feature were firmly established when I took it over, so I used a style that I could render at top speed because I was doing the Flyin’ Jenny strip at the same time. I only knew Ken Bald as one of the better ball players on the Binder team. I don’t believe I ever met Schaffenberger. He must have come along after I went into the army in 1942. His work that I’ve seen in FCA indicates he is a capable artist. I feel that Mac Raboy and I held a mutual respect for the work of one another, acknowledging the lack of similarity in natural styles. FCA: You wrote many of the stories you drew. Did you try to bring elements of sophistication into the stories, or was that frowned upon by the editors?

Part of the busy Captain Marvel art staff at Fawcett Publications, Paramount Building, New York City, 1942. Back Row, L-to-R, Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck. Front Row, L-to-R, Richard D. Taylor, Jack Keats.

SWAYZE: I had no urge to bring anything into the comics that wasn’t already there. The Fawcett policies were immaculate. The books were put together primarily for young people and as far as I could tell were never suggestive in any way. To illustrate, I was with Charlton Publications for a brief period in 1955. Some of their material consisted of reprints from other publishers, one being Fawcett. All such material

Chronology of Marc Swayze’s Comics Career 1939-40: Assistant to Russell Keaton on the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate. 1940-42: Fawcett Publications staff artist assigned to Captain Marvel. Illustrated complete art for Captain Marvel stories appearing in Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. Also wrote several Captain Marvel stories. 1942-44: Armed forces, but continued to write Captain Marvel stories as a freelancer. 1944: After army discharge returned to New York City; freelanced for Fawcett doing various features, among them “Ibis the Invincible” and “Mr. Scarlet”; signed a contract with Bell Syndicate in 1944 to do art on Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page. 1944-54: Moved to Monroe, LA with Fawcett assignment to produce all the art and some writing on the “Phantom Eagle” feature for Wow Comics; continued Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page and added the daily strip upon death of Keaton in 1945; later worked on Fawcett romance comics. 1954-55: Edited, wrote, and illustrated various features, first on staff, then later as a freelancer for Charlton Publications, Derby, CT.

MARCUS D. SWAYZE

“Captain Marvel and Klang the Killer.” Complete story art by Marc Swayze. Captain Marvel Adventures #15, 1942.

Marc Swayze today.

went through a laundering process for approval by the Comics Code Office which had been established since original publication. The material from some publishers had to undergo tremendous revision: Cleavage, scanty attire, dialogue modified. Fawcett merely had to have some words like “cop” and “guy” changed to “police officer” and “fellow.” When I wrote for Fawcett I did it with the purpose of getting editorial approval, without which a writer does not sell. One of the best ways not to get approval was to violate an editorial taboo. I also knew that a certain percentage of the Captain Marvel scripts were of the light humor type. I tried to fill that need. FCA: Members of the old Fawcett gang, when learning you were to be the subject of an FCA interview, insisted mention be made of your talents in music and baseball. Did you perform professionally in either activity? SWAYZE: Music, yes. Baseball, no, although I thought I was a pretty good amateur and played a little semi-pro ball before losing interest. [Editor’s Note: Swayze showed us a couple of clippings indicating he was a standout in high school and American Legion baseball. As a pitcher in one game he struck out 19 batters. In another game he pitched a twohitter while collecting three hits himself. “I show these with some embarrassment, as sort of proof” said Swayze, “because my wife, June, says, ‘Nobody would ever believe all the things you did.’”]

Swayze on guitar accompanying singer Bing Crosby during wartime.

SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

I played music with many dance bands and jazz combos. My preference was a sort of parlor jazz, never quite as far out as hard bop, but a little on the advanced side, or so we thought. I never got into rock at all. I performed plenty on radio, but not really big time. My trio [Editor’s Note: Swayze on guitar with piano and clarinet] performed nightly for about a year or so from a local club and broadcasted over the local ABC radio station. During World War II Bing Crosby was called on to perform for army camps and I was fortunate enough to be chosen to accompany him. It didn’t last long as I was a G.I. at the time, but it gave me an opportunity to get to know a grand guy in Bing.

He’s My Man By Mrs. Marc Swayze I was in college when Marc and I met briefly before he entered the military. I couldn’t stand him! I thought he was fresh, rude, and conceited. Then, when he came back, I thought he was wonderful! Still conceited, perhaps, but maybe he had a right to be, I thought. It was in the mid-Forties and Marc was drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip and the “Phantom Eagle” for Fawcett’s Wow Comics. He said that he had come home for good. We didn’t recall having met before and were surprised to learn that our families were next door neighbors. Marc did most of his work at night and when he wasn’t writing or laying out a story, I would read to him during the late hours. My mother didn’t appreciate this. For that matter, she didn’t appreciate Marc, this young artist/musician from New York who worked at home all night. So we eloped. In time, the love my Mother and Father felt for my husband was unquesSwayze working out of his Louisiana home in the late-Forties, with his wife June and daughter Judy tionable. by his side. I knew virtually nothing separate occasions, came to visit us. They were always fun and our about the comics... but Marc and I had music as a common interest. I children loved them. Their visits gave the children an opportunity to had studied voice and piano and Marc played in various musical groups. learn something about their father’s career in comics. I once overheard It wasn’t long before I was playing and singing with them. When we Wendell talking with our son, Marc Jr., “Your Dad,” he was saying, “was moved into our first home, the new neighbors must have thought we a journeyman pro. He could do it all. We could send him a story that we were subversives, what with all that night time activity. Our schedule really didn’t think much of and when the finished job came back, it was not exactly in accordance with the customary 9-to-5 routine. Marc’s would be great. One of our writers rarely bothered with descriptions of artwork had to be supported by cardboard when it was wrapped for the action in the panels because he knew your Dad would change it to mailing and we often had to scrounge around behind department stores suit himself.” Wendell Crowley was a wonderful friend, a loyal after hours for corrugated boxes. On one occasion, we had to explain to supporter of my husband and we will never forget him, or the others. a night policeman that we weren’t vagrants or robbers. Then he held his flashlight for us. The night staff at the post office came to know us by In our home there is a Captain Marvel drawing that was presented to name and helped us with information about late plane schedules. We felt Marc when he left the Fawcett offices for the military. On it is inscribed: like we were teaching everybody the importance of publication “To Swayze from Beck, the best pair of drawers Fawcett ever had.” I deadlines! agree with that, although Marc has always insisted that Mac Raboy As one might suspect, our lifestyle changed somewhat when the children, five, began to come along. I dropped out of the music groups, there not being much demand for pregnant vocalists. When Judy, our first, was learning to read, her teacher asked her to tell the class about the comics her father did. Her reply was, “My parents don’t allow me to look at comic books.” We did, really, had she wanted to. We had settled down! I was in the P.T.A. and Marc was on the school board. Of course, there were down times too, but we don’t look back at them. Some of our most memorable days were when Rod and Kentuck Reed or Wendell Crowley, or C.C. Beck and his wife, Hildur, on

should have been included. Somehow it was not disturbing when Marc decided to leave the comics. We had just spent a year in Connecticut and were waiting for the publication of Marc’s syndicated strip, The Great Pierre, when an international chemical corporation suggested he consider joining them as art director. We talked about it at length and finally I said, “Whatever you want to do.” And that was that!

HE’S MY MAN (1997)

“I Survived” Fawcett Artist Ed Robbins Interviewed by Bernie McCarty ED ROBBINS: My parents were in the restaurant business, which got me into the habit of eating. When I got into the comic book business in the early Forties. I found that eating regularly was not exactly a big part of an artist’s life, alas! But I survived. Back in about 1935 or 1936 I saw some terrific girlie drawings in Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. They were signed “BECK”. Who would have thought that six or seven years later Beck himself would come walking out of the Fawcett art department on the 22nd floor of the Paramount Building and hire me as an artist on the Captain Marvel staff?

story he drew about a “little man who wasn’t there” which he did a great job on. Also he assisted on some Mr. Mind/Monster Society of Evil chapters. Robbins is the only man I know with enough sense to get out of the comics business and into another. I hope he prospers and becomes rich, and sets up a home for old comic artists like myself.

Robbins self-portrait. ROD REED: The other day I committed some golfing with Ed Robbins who was one of the early Captain Marvel artists. He is in robust health and is a manager of a real estate firm. Eddie was one of the very best of the young artists who worked in “the bobbin factory,” which is what Jess Benton called the Fawcett Art Department. Later he wrote and drew the Mike Hammer syndicated strip, also written by Mickey Spillane (who also wrote for Fawcett comics). FCA: How old were you when you first started in comics? How did you get your first job? What year did you start at Fawcett comics and how long were you with them? Did you work in the Fawcett art department or in the Beck studio?

Beck started me at $50.00 per week, which was twice the amount of what I was worth and half of what I wanted. He was a good boss. I had gone to Pratt, to the Corcoran School in Washington, and to the Art Students’ League, but in comics I learned the real stuff from Beck, John Jordan (Tom Mix), and Bill Everett (Sub-Mariner and Human Torch). After a stint in Uncle Sam’s outfit I went to work for Marvel Comics and from there I went into total oblivion. Of course it has taken me some years to achieve this, but I believe I have succeeded.

ROBBINS: I guess I was 20 years old when I got my start in comics and got my first job as a result of a couple of friends who were working for Lloyd Jacquet at Funnies, Inc. I did up some (admittedly) crummy samples and Lloyd began feeding me some kind of work around 1939 or 1940. I didn’t start at Fawcett until 1942 and I worked under the supervision of Beck in the Fawcett art department and later on in various studio locations. The last work that I did on Captain Marvel was in the spring of 1946. Subsequent to that, I did romance and western comics (Bob Steele) for Fawcett and continued with them until about 1950. FCA: What were your main duties at Fawcett and what other characters did you draw? Beck said you were so good at doing layouts that you didn’t get the opportunity to do much finished art, is that correct? Did you do any writing?

C.C. BECK: Ed Robbins was one of the best layout men in the business. He was so good at storytelling and composition that we seldom allowed him to pencil and ink, keeping him busy laying out stories for other men to tighten and finish. During World War II Ed would come from Indiantown Gap where he was stationed and work in the studio on weekends. He was so fast at layout that he could make more in a day or two than other men made in a week... but he was worth it. He also worked for other companies where I believe he did more complete work. I recall one Captain Marvel The Mike Hammer syndicated strip, drawn by Ed Robbins. [©2001 the respective holder.]

ED ROBBINS (1977)

FCA: So while in the service you still did some work for Beck/Fawcett... what did you do after leaving Fawcett? Did you go to work for another comic company? ROBBINS: In the service, I only worked sporadically on Fawcett comics. After I left Fawcett, I hunted and fished for a year and a half and then went back to work primarily for Timely. I do not remember any particular character I drew. I ultimately stopped working for Timely in order to do the Mike Hammer strip. FCA: Rod Reed says you both wrote and drew the Mike Hammer syndicated strip. How much of the strip did Mickey Spillane write? How did you land the job?

ROBBINS: My original assignment was strictly doing Captain Marvel layouts as well as layouts for Mary Marvel and some Marvel Family stories. I didn’t do any layouts for Captain Marvel Jr. or Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. It is true that I did not do much finished art for Beck (I do remember one Christmas book that I did, which was in a completely different style) but I did all the finished art on the western and romance comics I did at Fawcett. I did not do any writing for Captain Marvel that I remember, but did do writing for Bob Swift Boy Sportsman. It was Fawcett’s hunting and fishing comic. The art was done by Werstein... I can’t remember his first name. It was inked by Bob Butts who later became my background artist on the Mike Hammer syndicated strip. While I was in the service, I continued to do a few jobs for Beck. FCA: Did you work for any other comic companies while with Fawcett? ROBBINS: I do not remember specifically, but I believe I did some work for Funnies, Inc., and over at M.L.J. (Archie Comics) where I did “The Wizard” all while still with Fawcett. I never did anything for Busy Arnold.

ROBBINS: Rod is correct about my work on the Mike Hammer strip. The writing on the daily strip was started by Joe Gill, who stopped after six weeks, leaving me with an unfinished story, after which I wrote the dailies, first completing Joe’s story (without any idea of what his original story might have been). Mickey did the Sundays for about 9 months after which I took on the job of writing the Sunday strips as well. This was shortlived, however, since the strip was withdrawn at the end of the year. Mickey and I have been friends since our Funnies, Inc. days. FCA: As a comic book artist what was your most enjoyable job? ROBBINS: I enjoyed laying out Captain Marvel stories, but more so because of the people I worked with at Fawcett: C.C. Beck, Rod Reed, and Otto Binder. I also found satisfaction in doing Mike Hammer. That was a job in which I was totally involved. FCA: What did you do after the demise of the Mike Hammer strip? ROBBINS: I have worked only sporadically for National, Western Publishing, and I did some work for Lenny Cole when he was with Dell several years ago. FCA: Which people at Fawcett made a lasting impression on you? Who did you consider to be the best artists and writers? ROBBINS: The outstanding artist at Fawcett was Beck; Marc Swayze, Pete Costanza, and of course Mac Raboy were also great. Otto Binder was the best writer. His scripts made laying out the stories enjoyable.

“I SURVIVED”

“A Lushness of Line” Bob Powell And Fawcett By Ed Lane Bob Powell’s artwork is still largely undiscovered and relatively unknown. During his career Powell worked on The Shadow, Nick Carter, The Man In Black, Thun’da, Cave Girl, Sheena, and many others. Powell’s visualization of a story’s characters was achieved through attention to detail and a quality I call “a lushness of line.” The power of Powell’s brush work to evoke characterization can be seen in many of the Fawcett horror titles, such as Beware!, Terror Tales and Worlds Of Fear. Powell’s studio was extremely prolific, supplying art to most of the major comic publishers from 1939 through the early 1960s, for hundreds of titles. Powell had his own studio from the mid-1940s until his death in 1969. Two main assistants, George Siefringer and Martin Epps, were with Powell for what is generally considered his “peak period”: From the mid-’40s to mid-1950s. Howard Nostrand assisted Powell from 1948 to 1952. In Powell’s Fawcett work, one can see the abundant use of thick brush strokes, the variety of brush strokes, and the very skillful spotting of blacks, and, again, his “lushness of line.” Characterization was enhanced by this lushness and by Powell’s meticulous attention to detail, especially the faces. Fawcett Publications, like other comic publishers, had a line-up of titles encompassing the major genres: Super-hero, science-fiction, western, comedy, romance, adventure, horror, war and mixed (e.g., westernromance). Powell did work in at least 21 Fawcett comics titles, from the late 1949 through 1963. Fortunately for Fawcett collectors, this was the

peak period for Powell art. His art in some Fawcett comics were enhanced by sophisticated screening processes. At that time, Fawcett Publications was one of the very few remaining comic book publishers who still used more combinations of color separation screens, which could produce subtle shadings. The variety and graduated tones lend depth, highlights and dimensional form to the art. Panel from the Fawcett one-shot Vic Torry Unfortunately, many and his Flying Saucer by Bob Powell. [©2001 the respective holder.] Fawcett comics suffered from two problems that seemed to be epidemic with them: Bad color registration and printing on poor grade paper. However, the times when Fawcett had it all together, their stories featuring Powell artwork were something to behold. Another plus for Fawcett collectors was the length of Powell’s stories; 10 to 12 pages were not unusual. With stories this long Powell could really use his art to develop the characters and the mood of the plot. Another notable aspect of Powell’s art was the attention to environmental details, such as backgrounds, clothing, furniture, architecture and the like. In some Fawcett stories, especially the romance comics, he surpassed his usual detailed work, providing the reader with a rich, true-to-life stage for the players in these melodramas. Whether this detail was due to editorial decree or because of Powell’s initiative is not known. What is important is the degree to which it enlivened the credibility of the stories... and that’s the most important part of storytelling, either in comics or any other literature.

Bob Powell Fawcett Index Battle Stories 2

Romantic Story 2, 7, 8, 16, 20

Beware! Terror Tales 1, 2, 8

Strange Suspense Stories 1, 4

Cowboy Love 2/10, 11

Sweethearts 101, 106

Down With Crime 2, 4

This Magazine Is Haunted 4, 5, 11, 17, 2/12

Exciting Romances 8, 9, 10 Fawcett Motion Picture Comics 104, 105

BOB POWELL (1991)

True Sweethearts 5

Fawcett Movie Comics 7, 8, 9

Vic Torry and his Flying Saucer 1

Hot Rod Comics 1-7

Worlds Beyond 1

Life Story 13, 26, 28, 30, 32, 39

Worlds of Fear 1, 2,4,5.

Romantic Secrets 5, 7, 12, 20, 26, 29, 33, 34, 36, 37

King of the Roost Fawcett writer Joe Millard Interviewed by Matt Lage “For a year or so, Joe Millard was king of the roost. He wrote many stories, more than anyone else, and with the smooth professional finish we always envied. He had a whole list of assignments and chocked them off as he did them—often two or three a day. Once he got so mixed up, that halfway into a story he recalled it was a story he had just finished writing!” —William Woolfolk on Joe Millard. Pulp writer, comic scripter, novelist... Joe Millard has certainly made the rounds. A top Captain Marvel writer who was also a member of the Quality Comics stable of writers, Millard was also one of the most prolific pulp writers of the day. Besides Captain Marvel, his Fawcett comics writing credits also include Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, The Marvel Family, Captain Midnight, Don Winslow, and many of those two-page text fillers which we use to flip right past. FCA: Steranko’s History of Comics really didn’t do you any justice in his Fawcett report, so to establish your comics biography, the first few questions will handle it. First, when and where were you born? MILLARD: Having had to prove on numerous occasions that I was ever born, I’ll make it definitive and official: January 14, 1908 in Canby, Minnesota. FCA: Where did your first written work appear? MILLARD: My first written work was a short story in Portal, a Methodist Sunday School paper. My second was a piece on caring for books in American Home Magazine. My first pulp novel was published in Standard Magazine’s Detective Fiction Weekly. FCA: How did you break into the comics from the pulp field?

MILLARD: Mort Weisinger was the editor at Standard Magazines, the publisher who bought my first pulp fiction. On a trip to Chicago, Otto Binder introduced us and Mort gave me the happy news that he’d just bought my first two stories and wanted more. He said if I’d move to New York he would guarantee me all the assignments that I could handle. I moved and Mort followed through with his promise. Then, as the Don Winslow of the Navy. [©2001 the respective holder.] pulps began to die and comic books were on the rise, Mort moved to DC and arm-twisted me to try comics. So, against my will, I did, and the rest is history. Manley Wellman and Otto Binder had long been heckling me to write for Fawcett, so with the ice finally broken, I did. Then some writer there (I’m almost sure it was Bill Woolfolk) took me over to meet Busy Arnold, for whom he was also writing for, and I was lost. FCA: When you started writing at Fawcett, what features did you work on? MILLARD: Any and everything they wanted fast! I can’t remember anything I didn’t do for them, from Marvel Jr. to Mr. Scarlet to Don Winslow of the Navy, etc. We moved so often and traveled so much in the interim I’ve lost any and all early records to refresh what we jokingly call my memory. The one sad memory I have was when, during the heyday of the comics, our house was bulging at the seams with an accumulation of specimen copies of comic books. It got so bad that my wife threatened to move out. Finally our young son loaded hundreds on his coaster wagon and went out house-to-house selling them at 2 for 5 cents. When I think of what they’d be worth today I choke up. FCA: Bill Woolfolk said that you could knock out two or three assignments a day while the best he managed was only four pages a day! How could you maintain such a level of writing at a fast pace such as that and still maintain writing that was envied by the others?

MILLARD: I’m afraid Bill exaggerates a bit. Two scripts a day wasn’t too uncommon but I don’t recall hitting three a day. The pro touch came, I guess, from my pulp training when I did just under one million words a year and often had up to six stories in a single issue under different names. Credit editor Ray Palmer at Ziff-Davis who gave me so many problems for rewriting stories at pulp rates that I learned to

JOE MILLARD (1975)

first-draft everything I write. I also acquired the uncanny knack of subconsciously writing to the exact length desired without ever counting. If I sit down to write 10,000 or 65,000 words, anything fact or fiction came out to that precise length with no awareness on my part. It worked the same in comics and saved enormous time. Also, in my younger days, I held down every kind of job ever invented, which gave me a priceless “savings bank” of characters, settings, and potential situations. I still practice the old pulp writer’s exercise of taking any object from an old shoe to the kitchen table or a newspaper headline and letting my imagination run wild, making it the crux of a far out plot. FCA: But to create all of those stories, where did you get your ideas? I could see it if you were like Woolfolk, who finished a story every couple of days, but two in one day? How? MILLARD: For one thing, I absolutely refused to plot anything in advance. I start with a “grabber” situation and let the ball roll itself from there. It used to be a standing joke in the pulps when new editors insisted on a detailed plot; I always gave them one—always the same one. Then I went ahead and wrote the story the way it wanted and never bothered with an outline. I did the same thing in comics too. At most, I’d call up an editor and check to be sure I wasn’t duplicating someone else’s piece, but aside from telling the basic idea, I never outlined anything. Never had a turndown either that I recall. The secret of comic writing is to think in pictures. I developed that procedure by working as a copywriter in an ad agency where the artist had to have practically everything drawn for him before he could produce what was wanted. Comics were merely an extension of that technique. FCA: When did you first start [Captain Midnight ©2001 Ovaltine] writing Captain Marvel for Fawcett and who was the editor guiding you? MILLARD: I don’t recall the exact date, but I think Rod Reed was my seeing eye dog and certainly the greatest of editors. Other Fawcett editors included Ken Crossen, Jane Magill, Will Lieberson, Stanley Kauffmann, and Henry Perkins, a British-born character with all the rollicking sense of humor of an icicle display. Rod used to drive Henry nuts. When Henry would try to phone the drug store in the building to send up his lunch, Rod would get the calls diverted to his phone and used a combination of deliberate misunderstanding and inspired doubletalk to drive Henry up the walls and halfway to the funny farm. FCA: Out of all the former Fawcett people I’ve interviewed, it seems that the general consensus was that editors were only needed to okay story outlines, referee between artists and writer disagreements, and see that the book was ready before the deadline.

KING OF THE ROOST

MILLARD: While somewhat accurate, I can’t fully agree with that description of Fawcett editorial functions. The editors did give ideas, but more importantly, they were sounding boards from which to bounce ideas and to straighten out things. At Fawcett, Will Lieberson, Stan Kauffmann, Eddie Herron and Ken Crossen were live wires. Ken’s tenure was brief but lively. He had the bad judgment to try to organize comic writers and artists into a strong union, enough to strike for better rates, which didn’t endear him to the brass. I’d also like to mention that I usually got on fine with all the artists so the editor’s referee function wasn’t called up. FCA: Fawcett’s corporate offices were in Greenwich, Connecticut, but their comic offices were in New York. Did you work at the New York offices or work out of your home? MILLARD: Like most publishers, Fawcett set up its business offices in Connecticut to bypass the New York state tax. All checks came from Connecticut but no editorial work was ever done there. My office was my home, partly because of my ridiculous work day usually starting around 1 or 2 a.m. or even earlier when the pressure was on. FCA: You were assigned to do a story, sent in the story outlines, they were subsequently okayed by the editors, you wrote the story, sent it in, and received the check. Now you had to be familiar with every Fawcett feature, didn’t you? If a new feature was created and you were assigned to write a story for it (though not necessary the premiere story), did the editor either give you the past issues of the comic or did he just sit down with you and discuss the book? MILLARD: If there were past issues, I studied them and/or talked it over with the editor and quite often the artist assigned to it. In the case of Captain Midnight which was running or about to run as a movie serial, Wendell Crowley and I, and maybe Bill Woolfolk as well, went to see a private screening of some installments of the serial to get a feel for the character. FCA: Slapstick was one ingredient essential to such a character as Plastic Man. Although Captain Marvel employed some slapstick humor, it’s generally considered that it often was a satire. Did you ever put satire in the stories you wrote, or did you feel that this was left up to someone like Otto Binder who worked more closely with the character? MILLARD: Half the fun of writing Captain Marvel was that naive satire I could slip in... just as 2/3 of the fun of writing Plastic Man stories was the outrageous slapstick. No, nothing was ever left up to Otto or anyone else. FCA: We all know that Otto Binder was the most prolific Captain

neous action (in a single panel) on opposite sides of a giant ocean liner, both taking place at the waterline. Another headache was thinking up substitutes for the perpetual BIFF! BAM! POW! Generally, the character and the story had to conform to an established pattern. I never felt that my hands were tied in any appreciable manner. However, Otto Binder once, in a fit of creative malaise, almost worried himself into a nervous breakdown over what happened to Billy Batson’s pants after he changed into Captain Marvel! We all went through such traumas under the constant strain of knocking out 90 to 100 pages a week, year in and year out. It could be pure murder at times, and a lot of fun at other times. FCA: What writing jobs did you do after the demise of Fawcett and Quality? MILLARD: I went back to general magazine pieces and did, among other things, 13 book length stories for True (a record, I think) plus hundreds of shorter pieces. FCA: Every writer and artist considers some of his colleagues to be among his favorites. Which Fawcett writers and artists did you admire the most? MILLARD: As an artist, C.C. Beck is the natural #1 of course, followed closely by Edmond Good, an artist who drew many of the Fawcett westerns. As for writers, Otto Binder, Manly Wellman, and Bill Woolfolk. I wouldn’t attempt to select any one person from this great bunch. I admire them all. If anyone thinks writing comics at the pace we did was easy, I hope all his children are freelance writers.

Marvel/Marvel Family storyteller, but who is number two? Bill Woolfolk cites himself as second. MILLARD: I won’t referee that one! I’d rate Manly Wellman as second, but it would be a close race with Woolfolk. Otto the undisputed #1. My forte was mainly whipping out whatever piece the editor had to have yesterday. At Quality Comics, Manly topped me in output, according to former editor Gwen Hansen. There was enough Captain Marvel and Marvel Family work to go around for all of us at Fawcett. Woolfolk’s forte was also doing whatever was needed... and doing it well. I never associated myself with any one Fawcett character like the way Otto is primarily connected with the Marvels. FCA: When did you leave comic book writing? MILLARD: I left Fawcett and Quality Comics shortly before both of their demise. I wrote a few jobs for DC occasionally up to 1960 or so. I was also knocking out those short text stories like mad. Postal regulations required one in every issue to qualify for lower postage rates, hence they were important. Once upon returning from Mexico flat broke I banged out eight of these stories in one day to recoup. FCA: Any reoccurring roadblocks in the creative process of writing your stories? MILLARD: If anything, too much dialogue was generally the curse. But the biggest hurdle was visualizing scenes clearly enough to make them make sense. I remember one top writer who once called for simulta[©2001 DC Comics]

JOE MILLARD

Remembering Fawcett By George Evans When I broke into comic books, Captain Marvel, his Marvel Family, and the entire tribe of Fawcett heroes had sprung up and reached the widest audience in all of comics. I didn’t like super-heroes then and I don’t like them now—so when World War II ended and I came back looking for work, I first went to Fiction House, whose pulp magazines I’d enjoyed. I got a job with them immediately—mostly because I had no idea how the economy had improved via WWII and when they asked, “How much per week?” I gave them a figure they couldn’t resist. At that, it was about what I deserved, for I had a lot to learn: About drawing, production, speed and deadlines. Mostly, I helped other feature artists meet their deadlines by “filling in the blacks” (they’d leave large areas, silhouettes, etc. uninked, with a brushed “X”), doing some backgrounds, occasionally background figures and creating those factfilled “filler” pages. At a given point, someone created a new hero called Tigerman and offered the script to two other artists based on their time with Fiction House. The first artist spent two days preparing to tear into the art but never did so. The next artist was at heart a pure cartoonist and a new action hero didn’t sit sell with his comedic approach. Thus, they gave me the assignment with virtually all the working time gone. I took pages home to stay up late and work on as well as at the shop. When I turned it in to the art director he quickly took it into the big gun’s office—Jack Byrne—and shortly Byrne came out. My old stomach tightened. I asked myself, “Do I get fired?” because it’s difficult to be an objective judge of your own work if you’ve had a lot of drawing experience. Anyway, Byrne drops the whole thing on my drawing board, and said, “George! If you can do stuff like this, why have you been sitting on your rear playing with fillers?!” He stunned me by nearly doubling my salary and my schedule now consisted of the big-name characters. Looking over what I still have of my Fiction House output, I cringe... but there are flashes within that work of where my art career might go. At Fiction House, they allowed fans to visit. One day a trio of teenage comic buffs came in. One was Al Williamson. Yes, the Al Williamson... and for whatever reason, he and I hit it off (and still do to this very day.) Al at 13 had as much talent as anyone in our entire shop. He was just undisciplined so that he would only draw what he enjoyed, and then have his buddies help finish the stuff. He must have worked (starting just a wee bit after the visit) for a slew of publishers. I don’t really know if he ever did anything for Fawcett, except helping me when I began to do long stories with short deadlines for them, but, while visiting Fawcett, he obviously hyped my work above even his own, and then pressured me into going with him to their shop. “Roy Ald knows your stuff...,” Al said, (yeah, because Al went into Fawcett and displayed it to him!) “...and he’d like to meet you.”

Captain Video by Evans.

GEORGE EVANS (1996)

Roy Ald was the first Fawcett editor I met. He had a script already waiting for me. Roy also had the news that Fiction House was going to fold. I took that script and Fawcett comics kept me busy until they too folded after being battered by the foolish and seemingly endless court battles brought on by DC. During my years at Fawcett, when they’d devise a new character, they’d offer it among all of their artists on an “audition” basis. They asked the artists to do a sample page of art and character handling; if the character was based on an actor, they had to be recognizable in the art. The wide run of characters I worked on came from my sample pages. At a given point, there was too much for me to handle. Al Williamson was busy with his own assignments and he just could not cope with New Jersey air! Whether he was used to Brooklyn’s pollution, or New Jersey’s being worse, Al would amazingly still agree to help me! I’d pick him up at the Jersey City Terminal. By the time we’d arrive at my place, his eyes would be red and itchy, streaming tears. He snorted and sneezed and leaked enough to dilute the India ink! So, off to the Jersey end of the tunnel train route, to send him back to the air he could cope with. He would take with him selected pages he thought he could do by deadline time, and

sure enough, we’d meet in Manhattan to fit them among the pages to be turned in. When Fawcett wanted me to take on extra books, Roy Ald suggested I use an inker. Other than Al Williamson, I didn’t know anyone who would help. Roy introduced me to Al Hollingsworth, who went on to teach art in the New York City schools system. Later, when illustrating Captain Video, I used several others—the best being Jack Abel. There was trouble from the start with Captain Video. The comic books were now 52 pages, and in the art, all the characters had to be identifiable. I’ve had no problems with that, and when I turned in the art, everyone was pleased. However, the wretched TV producers of Captain Video had clashed with those actors, and hired others. They wouldn’t approve the comics using the earlier actors in fear that they would have been sued. But the producers of Captain Video wouldn’t chip in a penny to pay for the redrawing, and Fawcett’s budget on the book was exhausted. I took on the task (unpaid!) of redoing every identifiable face in those 52 pages! At one point, a weird incident cropped up in mid-1953. Fawcett made a pitch to do a “graphic novel” in paperback size, black&-white. An author of paperback mysteries did the script—a good one, I recall—and it was assigned to an artist who had a distinctive style that would fit the book. One day Roy Ald called and asked if I would take on this project in midstream. The artist had a breakdown and couldn’t continue. Most of the work time was gone, but I agreed to try. I drove in to pick up the script and the finished pages to try to mimic the style. It was uncanny: There were the 17 or so finished pages of classy George Evans self-portrait work. But on the backs of every page was even lovelier artwork/storytelling! The artist could have had 34 to 38 pages done and why his “testing” was so extensive in an unusable format is something I still can’t grasp. But, there’s another grim twist: I think I did three, maybe four pages and then was suddenly beset with an agonizing abscess right where humans sit down. I took the drawing board to maximum height position to work standing up but it was impossible... even pushing a small brush sent stabs of agony. I had to crush Roy with that news and sent the whole thing back via my wife. I then went to a hospital, where I spent the week lying on my belly. They did get Carl Pfeufer, artist of Tom Mix, Don Winslow and others, to finish the book. Carl was a terrific artist. He chose to emulate Alex Raymond’s style as done in his undersea adventure of Flash Gordon... and his stuff was as beautiful as Alex’s. Of course the graphic novel ended up being a hodgepodge of styles, but memory says it was still a very nice product which was, sadly, before its time. The Fawcett editor I worked mostly for was Roy Ald, but had contact with others and we’d all visit on days when I stopped by to turn in artwork. Another editor I did quite a lot of work for was Barbara Heyman. She was a very attractive woman. Had I not been a married man with a daughter, it would have been a mighty temptation to try to

impress Ms. Heyman. In fact, Barbara looked a lot like my wife, so I guess it wasn’t surprising that when Mrs. George Evans would go in with me to Fawcett, bringing our first daughter Carol, she and Barb liked each other. In fact, all the women in the Fawcett office would flock around when we came in. In a re-run of my move from Fiction House to Fawcett, friend Al Williamson had made contact with EC and Bill Gaines. And again, he had plugged my stuff more than his own and, déjà vu, he arranged to meet me at Fawcett on artwork delivery day to escort me down to EC on Lafayette Street. Because of Al Williamson and the kind man Bill Gaines was (yes—Al Feldstein too, and the people at their shop), it was like another branch of Fawcett! Initially, they offered me a lower rate than Fawcett was paying. “But if you fit, we’ll raise it!,” Gaines said. I said I would stick with Fawcett, “..But thanks!” They told me Fawcett was going under. I said I’d stay there until they did. Bill shrugged, “Okay. Same rate as Fawcett... and whatever work you want to handle!” I’d done mostly science-fiction and fantasy strips for Fawcett. I would have liked the same at EC but my first script there was a horror story, and when I turned it in, I was typecast until they discovered on the war books that I knew a bit about old airplanes. Regarding the farcical lawsuit which crunched Fawcett and led them to decide that comics just weren’t worth the battle: It was depressing to know that a good outfit with fine, talented people, was going to be killed by what, to me, was an unforgivable dodge of responsibility on the part of an employee who, unbeknownst to Fawcett, blatantly swiped from their nemesis in court. I talked to Roy Ald before committing to work largely for EC. He told me to go ahead—for it was true—Fawcett comics was pulling the plug. I remember the people there, mostly the editors, with great affection and respect: Roy Ald, Barb Heyman, John Graham, Will Lieberson, Al Jetter, and others. I hope they all went on to great things fitting their talents. The work I enjoyed doing the most at Fawcett were adaptations of movies into full-length books as well as some of the mystery-type comics where they ran two stories an issue and the tales and characterizations could be well-developed in that length. Recently, someone sent me a comic book to autograph. It was an adaptation of When Worlds Collide (Fawcett’s Motion Picture Comics #110, 1951). This was one of the comics that Al Williamson assisted me. We even drew ourselves into the story. After all the years, I could look at it objectively, and with not too much conceit, I thought it was pretty good. While my work for EC is better known, I think most of my best work was done back then for Fawcett.

REMEMBERING FAWCETT

Easy Money Fawcett Writer Manly Wade Wellman Interviewed by Matt Lage FCA: You were a very successful pulp writer. Why did you leave the pulps to write comic books? WELLMAN: I never left anything for the comics... I never did comics exclusively. I became managing editor for Chesler’s comics shop only to have a job reference and to buy a house. I wrote considerably and remuneratively for more serious clients. For me, comic books was just easy money. Those who went into comics exclusively wrecked whatever careers they had; it hurts me to think of those writers who did. FCA: Which Fawcett characters did you work on? Were you still writing for Fawcett towards the demise of their comics line in the Fifties? WELLMAN: Fawcett was farming out work to Chesler. While at Chesler’s I did “Ibis The Invincible” and originated a strip called “Lee Granger, King of the Jungle,” which was sold to Fawcett and was my first script for them. As a freelance writer I wrote stories for “Captain Marvel,” “Spy Smasher,” and others I don’t remember. I was finished with Fawcett comics long before they folded in 1953. FCA: Who were some of the other writers at the Chesler shop who were writing Fawcett stories? Did you work for any other shops? WELLMAN: Eddie Herron, Carl Formes, Phil Sturm, and briefly Hank Kuttner. No, I worked for no other shops. You got a very small slice of what the shop got paid for your work. FCA: When did you break away from the Chesler Shop and start freelancing? Were you ever a staff writer at Fawcett? When you wrote for Quality Comics were you on their staff or freelancing only? Other than Chesler, were you ever an editor? WELLMAN: I left Chesler in the Spring of 1940, as soon as I bought the house aforesaid. I did scripts as freelance, but regularly, for both Fawcett and Quality... but I was never officially on staff of either company. I never edited again except as part of Chesler’s operation. FCA: You are often noted as being one of the greatest of the Captain Marvel writers. When did you first start writing Captain Marvel stories? Were you given a brief “bio” of the character before starting? Who was the editor who approved your scripts? WELLMAN: I don’t recall who the editor was. We talked at length about the character of Captain Marvel, along with some of the minor characters. I also took careful note of what made Superman tick. All those writing pseudo-Superman characters did that. At least, their plagiarists did. FCA: In the course of writing your stories, was there ever a set formula? Lester Dent, writer of Doc Savage stories, always had a set formula. WELLMAN: In comics, practically everything was formula, and editors would always remind you not to drag in unwanted accuracies and plotting. Sure, Lester Dent formalized Doc Savage which more or less had the same story every time. The changes were good ones, in setting and character. FCA: In the Forties most of the stories were produced by the shops. As a freelance writer, did you submit your final story to the Fawcett editor and then they in turn sent it to the shops?

MANLY WADE WELLMAN (1976)

FCA: When writing, for example, an Ibis story concerning an unfamiliar topic, would you first research or look up background information on a particular topic? WELLMAN: Very seldom did I do any kind of information gathering for the comics. Any effort to be authentic was lost on most editors anyway. But I’ve done serious research for serious writing, and have urged this on my students. It’s perfectly obvious that no sane and honest writer tries to write about something he doesn’t know; but relatively few comics writers were sane and honest. FCA: When did you stop writing for comic books? Do you remember what was the last feature you wrote? WELLMAN: I quit writing comics about 1947 or 1948, shortly after moving to the South to begin writing novels. My last comic book work was for Quality Comics; I don’t remember which feature. FCA: Did you know anything about the court hearings between DC (National) and Fawcett? WELLMAN: Only that I testified against Fawcett at one of the hearings. FCA: I understand that you and Fawcett Publications had some kind of a falling out. WELLMAN: Let’s just say they hired an egocentric editor who I didn’t see eye to eye with. It didn’t really matter to me. I was beginning to do all right in a more legitimate field of writing. While I testified against Fawcett, I’m okay with them now; they recently published two short stories of mine in a couple of anthologies. FCA: Of all the Fawcett editors that you were in contact with, which to you had the greatest story sense and really worked well with the writers? Who was his counterpart at Quality Comics?

WELLMAN: When I began writing directly for Fawcett, they had their own artists, though some of my scripts were farmed out to Jack Binder’s shop. FCA: Today, comics companies have story conferences between the editor, writer, and artist. But with all the freelancing going on in the ’40s this probably wasn’t the case. Do you feel the procedure done back then ever effected how the stories turned out after the artwork was completed? WELLMAN: Back in those days we had editorial conferences, sometimes only on the phone. Artists affected quality of stories all right, mostly for the worst. A lot of them were just shoemakers, with little or no sense of what they were drawing. Some of their pictures were funny in a way they didn’t mean to be, and others were just pathetic.

WELLMAN: I think Eddie Herron had to be the best editor at Fawcett. He had seriousness and imagination, and he would work hard to bring changes on features. He and I were close friends, which of course helped. At Quality, Gwen Hansen was a good editor, intelligent, educated, fair-minded, and very pretty, I remember; sort of like a young Katherine Cornell. FCA: Did you come across any frequent problems when writing comics stories? One for Otto Binder was having to cram so much dialogue into a panel. WELLMAN: I had very few problems. Hank Kuttner wisely said, “You don’t have to write these things, you just have to type it out.” Diametrically different from Otto, I used to work to keep from putting too much dialogue into a panel. FCA: Did you try to promote characterization in your stories? Did the editors want characterization over action? WELLMAN: Characterization was usually over the heads of editors and

EASY MONEY

readers, who wanted only POW’s! and YEEOW’s! Characterization was considered grotesque. Action came first, also last, also everywhere. FCA: Who do you feel were Fawcett’s best editor, writer and artist? WELLMAN: Eddie Herron, as I’ve said, was the best editor I knew at Fawcett. He took problems home, studied them, paid attention to fan letters, came up with good gimmicks. Bill Woolfolk was a good writer, and his later writing career as a novelist bears this out. C.C. Beck was far and away the best artist. He could represent human anatomy, and he had the humor that Captain Marvel demanded. FCA: I get the impression that you weren’t very proud to have written for comic books. Did you enjoy writing comics at all, or is it a period of your career you would much rather forget? WELLMAN: I never considered my comic book work as part of a career. I wrote for money, and always thought of myself as a serious writer, not a butcher of comics scripts. I’ve never tried to forget it, but I see no point in ever doing it again. FCA: The Fawcett editors around 1941 were Ed Herron, John Beardsley, Rod Reed, and editorial director Ralph Daigh. You mentioned before that one of the editors had you look at the Superman “formula.” When plotting Captain Marvel stories, did the editor encourage you to “borrow” from Superman stories? WELLMAN: Yes, he showed me panels from Superman comics and said, “Here’s what we want.” He was there before Eddie Herron. FCA: You’ve also stated that you were one of the people who turned state’s evidence against Fawcett. Ed Herron did as well. Was there anybody else? WELLMAN: I don’t think I’ll go into this.

FCA: Do you mind being interviewed? WELLMAN: Not really. By the way, didn’t anyone ever tell you about enclosing return envelopes when you ask for favors? FCA: Bill Woolfolk has said that the Fawcett editors were “merely there” and were of practically no help at all to the writers. Do you agree with this?

MANLY WADE WELLMAN

WELLMAN: I used to discuss ideas with editors, and often they came up with helpful suggestions. FCA: When writing your stories for Fawcett, did you just churn out the stories methodically? Wasn’t there any interest at all, any pride that you felt after creating one of your stories... or did you just regard comic book stories as childish? WELLMAN: My stories were hack work. I could write one a day, after doing better work on real writing. I regarded the comics as a source of income, and I didn’t stay with it.

Will Lieberson’s 10-year anniversary card from the Fawcett staff.

CAPTAIN LIEBERSON (1952)

CAPTAIN LIEBERSON

“Visual Expression” Will Lieberson—Fawcett Comics Executive Editor Interviewed by Matt Lage FCA: When did you first start at Fawcett Publications? Who hired you? Did you become the executive editor right after Rod Reed resigned? LIEBERSON: I first went to work for Fawcett Publications some time in the late Summer of 1942. I had been freelancing for Fawcett’s humor magazines such as Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang and Riot Squad which Rod Reed was in charge of as well as the comics. He asked me to come and work on the comics on a regular basis. The humor books were dying anyway and, with the paper shortage, Fawcett was dropping them in favor of expanding the comics line. Rod asked me if I would like to try my hand at a comic book. He asked me to handle the Don Winslow of the Navy comic book, which was based on the newspaper strip. So Reed was the one who actually hired me, although the final approval came from Fawcett editorial director Ralph Daigh. I became executive editor right after Reed resigned. This came as much of a surprise to me as it must have been a shock to everybody else on the comic staff since

Don Winslow of the Navy, Lieberson’s first assignment for Fawcett Comics. they were all working on the comics much longer than I had been. Up to that point I had only worked on Don Winslow. I remember the very the first story that I bought as a comic book editor was from Joe Millard. However, since comics were like a new toy to me, I decided to try something fresh. I contacted the Office of War Information for the official citations of the Navy men being decorated for bravery beyond the call of duty. The stories for Don Winslow were based on these and obviously it must have impressed everyone at Fawcett. As I said, except for handling the short text features which the post office required in comic books for second class entry, Don Winslow was the only comic book that I ever edited before becoming Fawcett comics executive editor. In speaking about oneself there is always a danger of sounding overly modest or conceited. Well, I guess the truth of the matter is that Rod Reed, and in turn, Ralph Daigh and the Fawcett brothers all felt that I had a great sense of story. Also, with my playwriting background, I was an ideal choice to head the comics since I thought in terms of visual expression rather than literary expression. FCA: Did you ever write any stories for Fawcett comics?

Will Lieberson outside of the Fawcett Comics offices, dressed for a company skit.

LIEBERSON: Not for publication. Fawcett had a rule that no member of the editorial staff would be paid for anything he wrote for in fear that editors might be buying bad stories from each other. Nevertheless, when I took over the comics from Rod Reed, I did write at least one story for each of our major characters, really to define in my own mind with their major characterizations and their differences. No matter how far removed from reality a character might have been it was essential that you kept him true to himself and that you never presented him in a story that made him do things that weren’t true to his character. The same is true for the villains that were created to go along with these heroes. In fact, in many of Fawcett’s comics the villains were actually more interesting than the heroes. While many of the writers, editors and readers can remember particular stories which they thought were great,

WILL LIEBERSON (1975)

it was actually the characters in the comics—the main characters or the villains—that actually brought the reader back to the stands each month. No one story ever made or broke a comic book. While we are supposed to be so much more sophisticated today, that’s a fact that still is true. If you look at television, you’ll see it’s a Rhoda or a Kojak that keeps the viewer coming back week after week. The same is true in the movies. A Paul Newman or a Steve McQueen are more important than any of the particular movies in which they appear. FCA: In my interview with Rod Reed, he said that subject to Ralph Daigh, the Fawcett brothers, and the Fawcett circulation department, the executive editor was responsible for all the comics. If sales were in a slump, was the circulation department on your back, especially during the Fifties? LIEBERSON: Things may have changed after I took over from Reed. The only one I ever reported to was Ralph Daigh. He was a stickler for protocol. My editors could only approach him through me and in turn, could only approach the Fawcetts through him. The only thing Ralph Daigh ever did on a regular basis concerning the comics was to okay the covers. Outside of that, he never Art: C.C. Beck. discussed them with [©2001 DC Comics] me except when we had an idea for a oneshot or some publicity promotion. As for the circulation department, we would hear from them indirectly through Ralph Daigh. Fawcett had a reputation for starting magazines very quickly and dropping them just as fast. A magazine had to really do well—and not just make a small profit—for Fawcett to continue publishing them. This was true in the comics as with the rest of the Fawcett magazines. Evidently, the circulation department had a very realistic approach to sales. Slumps usually were industry-wide and since none of our comics fell out of proportion to the rest of the field, we never heard about this. This was also true in the Fifties. However, it was the slumping sales, generally, and not the court battles with DC, that prompted Fawcett to give up publishing comic books. Many of our titles (such as the westerns) were royalty characters. These titles were holding their own, but a portion of profits were paid off in royalties and consequently they weren’t bringing in enough of a return to warrant Fawcett continuing the department,

“VISUAL EXPRESSION”

especially after losing the rights to publish Captain Marvel and family. FCA: Why was Mary Marvel’s wholesome look changed in the Fifties to a more “mature” look? Also, why the big trend toward the comedy westerns such as Gabby Hayes and Smiley Burnett?... Were they good sellers... as good or better than the super-hero comics that were still lingering around at the time? What were some things done in the Fifties to try to improve sales? LIEBERSON: Perhaps Mary’s mature change had something to do with her new editor. For a long time, Mary Marvel was edited by Mercy Shull who could have fitted easily into a 32A bra. When Mercy left to open a dude ranch, she was replaced by Kay Woods who would barely have fit into a 38C cup and consequently, Mary’s shape began to blossom. As to what was done to try to improve sales, you’ve got to remember that it was around this period that television began to really come into its own. Television now began competing for the kids’ time and took them away from the comics in many cases. But it also introduced them to a whole set of new heroes, particularly old Bwestern films which were being shown since there wasn’t that many kid programs being produced at that time. Sales on established western comics such as Hopalong Cassidy suddenly took a great shot upward... so it was obvious that the kids wanted to read about the characters they were seeing on television. Hopalong Cassidy movies hadn’t been made in many years before they starting re-running them on television; it made a brand new career for Bill Boyd again. In fact, Hopalong Cassidy did so well after being shown on television that we brought out a second book, Bill Boyd Western, to differentiate it from the Hopalong Cassidy character. As for the comedic westerns, Gabby Hayes had a show of his own for Quaker Puffed Rice on which he introduced western movies and he became so popular at the time that we decided to put out a comic of him. The book did very well and consequently we started to go after other secondary comic book characters such as Smiley Burnett. This wasn’t only true about western characters. It had to do with any character that would appear regularly on television that would appeal to kids, hence Fawcett

publishing titles such as Mike Barnett—Man Against Crime, Captain Video, Pinhead & Foodini, etc. But none of them ever approached the sales of Captain Marvel Adventures or any of the other Marvel Family titles. As I mentioned, even though westerns and televisionrelated titles sold well, the royalties ate off a big part of the profits... so without the Marvels, they didn’t leave that much profit to make publishing comics for Fawcett worthwhile. FCA: Otto Binder stated that dropping the Steamboat character from Captain Marvel comics came from the Fawcett management upstairs... but I’ve also heard that it was your decision to drop the character. LIEBERSON: Otto is wrong. The decision to remove Steamboat was completely my own. I always found the character objectionable and when I took over Rod Reed’s position I exercised my prerogative as executive editor and ordered him out of all future scripts.

Stout and Paul Gallico. Their job was to stamp out any propaganda that young readers would be exposed to. When they heard I was with the comics, they tried to persuade me to run some of the articles that they had prepared for our comic books. I finally convinced them that the kids would never read them and if they really wanted to get a message over to the kids, it should be in the form of comic book stories which the kids would never suspect were outright propaganda. They agreed to do the outlines for the stories if I would come up with the character. I went back to the Statler Hilton where I was staying in Washington, and that night, created “Radar—The International Policeman” as a new feature in Master Comics. The next day the four of us worked out outlines for about a half a dozen Radar stories. I then went back to New York and had one of our artists sketch up the character for their approval. After the stories were drawn up, we sent photostats of them down for their final approval. I met with this committee on and off at regular intervals during the whole lifetime of Radar. The whole idea of a comic character fascinated them so much they loved to work on it.

FCA: How did the creation of the Radar character come about? Was it indeed created as a propaganda May 1945 letter to Lieberson from the Writers War Board regarding device? Was the character even the removal of the character Steamboat from Captain Marvel created by someone at Fawcett? stories. LIEBERSON: I created the Radar character for Fawcett. Radar actually came about in a most peculiar way. One day a couple of FBI agents came into my office to see me. They suspected a writer of ours named Schmitt (his first name escapes me) of being an enemy agent who was passing information on to the Japanese through the comic strips he was writing. To show how this could be done, I was sent down to Washington where at the same briefing I met a committee from the Office of War Information. The Lieberson created the character Radar the International Policeman for the Office of War committee included Information, America’s World War Two propaganda agency. (The above panels from Clifton Fadiman, Rex Master Comics #72.) [©2001 the respective holder.]

At the beginning, I gave almost all our regular writers a crack at Radar, but Bernie Miller turned out the scripts the committee liked the best and he did the bulk of the stories. If you go back and look at the Radar stories carefully, you will find loads of committee member Rex Stout’s little touches in them. FCA: What are your comments about the lawsuits brought on by DC? I had heard that Fawcett editor Henry Perkins was relieved of editorial duties for a while in order to help prepare Fawcett’s case. Were

WILL LIEBERSON

others taken off of their jobs to work on the case?

be turned out. Fawcett could have sold Captain Marvel to any one of a lot of publishers for a good sum of money if they hadn’t settled that case out of court. As I stated before, the real reason for the settlement is still to turn up.

LIEBERSON: It wasn’t just Henry Perkins that was relieved of editorial duties. It was actually the entire Fawcett staff that had to work on the case, on top of performing their regular duties. We spent most of FCA: Do you recall which comics each editor handled? our time for almost six or seven months preparing Fawcett’s case. I can’t recall everybody involved but I do know that there was Wendell LIEBERSON: I edited the humor books with Carlton Brown and I was Crowley, Otto Binder, Virginia Provisiero, Edna Hagen, Roy Ald, hired to work with him when I first came to Fawcett. To the best of my Harvey Janes, Al Jetter, and several others who were working on the knowledge, Carlton never case. The comics were actually worked on the comics. Both of being put out in between the us were working under Rod time we spent at the lawyer’s Reed. Ed Herron and John office. If you recall, DC Beardsley both were comics (National) had lost the original editors before my time. It’s trial on the basis that they possible that I may have seen hadn’t properly copyrighted them at Fawcett, although I “Superman.” When they can’t remember them. Otto appealed the case, they were Binder was no longer on the only allowed to bring a new editorial staff by the time I trial on grounds of individual came to work for Fawcett. He cases of plagiarism, with claims was a freelance writer during that Superman plots were the entire time I was at being copied and used in Fawcett. The people I Captain Marvel stories. DC remember when I first came to prepared a gigantic work at Fawcett were Jane album/book, about 154 pages Magill, Mercy Shull, Tom in length, crammed with 8 to Naughton, Ken Crossen and 10 drawings of Superman on Henry Perkins. However, since each page showing him doing I was in a separate office with some super-human feat which Carlton Brown, I don’t know they would date, and then what books these editors show Captain Marvel doing actually worked on until I the same type of feat at a later took over. Tom Naughton date. It became our job to switched from the comics refute each one of these actually before I took over or examples by either showing about the same time and went that Captain Marvel had done to True magazine before going the same feat before Superman into the service. Ken Crossen or, if not Captain Marvel, than was working on Capt. Marvel that some other comic Jr., but he, too, left practically character... and we went back at the same time I took over as far as 1904 to the early Rod Reed’s executive editor newspaper comics. There was position to start his own comic only one example in the whole magazines. This may have been 154 pages where we couldn’t a case where he was asked to find the same feat being done quit. Dick Kraus was hired to by someone else first. Popeye replace me as editor of Don in the early cartoon movies Winslow of the Navy, and I had done most of the feats know that he worked on actually before either Captain Captain Midnight after Marvel or Superman. Our Stanley Kauffmann left but I Fawcett comics inter-company Christmas card for the 1945-50 period. entire staff actually didn’t can’t recall what other titles he think there was a chance that worked on. Jane Magill, if I recall correctly, worked on Fawcett’s Funny Fawcett would lose the trial. When Fawcett suddenly dropped the suit Animals, Whiz Comics and probably others, but those are the two I and settled with “Superman” out of court, it came as a shock to remember distinctly. She also bought most of the two-page short text everyone on the staff. To this day no one really knows the true story of stories which had to be run in the comics to qualify for second class what prompted Fawcett to settle out of court. Several strange things did entry at the post office. (Each book had to have at least two pages of happen during the weekend that preceded Fawcett’s decision, but since type or it wouldn’t be considered a magazine.) Stanley Kauffmann there was no way then or even now to prove any of the coincidences, it handled Captain Marvel Adventures for a while, but it was the job he is pointless to go into it now. I know Otto Binder has said that he felt did on Captain Midnight that was actually brilliant. He really that Fawcett settled out of court, not because they were afraid of losing developed that book into an outstanding one. And it never was the same but because they wanted to get out of the field. It’s true that the after he left. Although the editors handled multiple books, there usually Fawcetts were never really that interested in comics in the first place... was one that was their favorite and to which they were best attuned. For which to me was one of the reasons why they were as good as they example, Wendell Crowley and Captain Marvel Adventures were just were! We never had any interference from the Fawcett management and made for each other. Among the other books that Wendell handled at consequently we could turn them out the way we thought they should

“VISUAL EXPRESSION”

Fawcett were Captain Marvel Storybook, Captain Marvel Jr., The Marvel Family, Fawcett’s Funny Animals, Hot Rod Comics, Bill Battle, Battle Stories, Soldier Comics, Pinhead & Foodini, and many others. During her stay at Fawcett, Mercy Shull handled Wow Comics, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, Mary Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey and, for a while, Whiz Comics. Kay Woods handled Six-Gun Heroes, Hopalong Cassidy, Rocky Lane, Smiley Burnett, Gabby Hayes, and some one-shot movie comics such as MGM’s Ivanhoe. One of the most important Fawcett comic editors who is rarely mentioned is Roy Ald. He handled many comics and out of all the editors I ever had, he was number one when it came to fresh ideas for comic books and stories. Roy handled Commando Yank, Phantom Eagle, and Mr. Scarlet stories in Wow Comics. He also edited Captain Midnight, Young Eagle, and a whole series of romance comics during their heyday as well as Fawcett’s entry into the suspense field with This Magazine is Haunted, Strange Suspense Stories, and Suspense Detective. Roy also dreamt up a lot of the story ideas, including those for Captain Marvel. Ginny Provisiero edited Master Comics, Whiz Comics, Lash LaRue, Tex Ritter, Hopalong Cassidy, Bill Boyd, Rocky Lane, Nyoka The Jungle Girl, Ibis, Mike Barnett—Man Against Crime, and several others. Jane Magill handled Bulletman and some Wow Comics features. There were several other editors who worked for me: Barbara Heyman worked on Bob Colt, Young Eagle, Tex Ritter, Bob Steele, and Captain Video. There was also Helen Houghton who worked the romance comics. To the best of my memory, she was Fifties Fawcett comics house ad. transferred from a different department and only stayed in the comics a short time. There were others who’s names escape me. It is hard to say who actually handled all the books at what particular point because when an editor left, the other editors would ask to take over the comics that they preferred to work on. Whenever possible, I liked to give the editors the books which they most enjoyed. As Rod Reed did, I would look at every magazine before it actually went to the printer. Also, I believe, like Rod Reed, I okayed every story that was ran in every Fawcett comic book. The writer would bring in his outlines and go over them with the individual editors. If the editor didn’t like the outlines, I would never see them. However, when the editor did okay the outline, then he and the writer would come in and they would go over it with me. If the story plot was okay as is, this would be a short meeting. However, many times we would do a complete rewrite because the story might have been similar to something else okayed for another comic and the individual editors had no way of knowing what was being done in the other books except through me. (There were some writers— of course they didn’t last very long—who would try to sell the same

story to the different editors.) I also tried, whenever possible, to match up a writer with the character for which his style was best suited. Even though most of the freelancers thought they were all that versatile that they could write every type of comic book character, this wasn’t really true. Otto Binder probably was the most versatile of all the comic book writers but even so his specialty was Captain Marvel. Other than Otto, I felt Rod Reed was the only other writer who really captured the true essence of Captain Marvel... even though he only wrote a handful of Captain Marvel stories before becoming an editor. With the exception of just a few, most of the comic writers (and many of them were very good) felt that the comics were just a stop-gap; they all had more ambitious plans for their writing talent. The ones that I can say this wasn’t true about would have been Rod Reed, Otto Binder and Jon Messman. Bill Woolfolk, who was a good comic writer, worried continually that writing comics would hurt his ability go back to writing novels. In fact, I think Woolfolk was really ashamed of writing comics. He wouldn’t carry one out of the office unless it was in a plain white wrapper! Fawcett’s comic artists were a completely different breed from the writers. The artists who’d discover they could draw acceptable comics for the most part realized that they had found a home from which they never wanted to stray. Of course, part of the reason for this was that the market for many of these artists was much more limited than the market was for the writers. There were comic book artists who could never have made a living at any other form of art. FCA: Did the out of court settlement with DC also include never publishing any Marvel Family comic, just not Captain Marvel? Do you know what was the last Fawcett comic published in the Fifties? LIEBERSON: The settlement with DC was $400,000 plus our promise never to publish Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics, Marvel Family, Captain Marvel Jr., Master Comics, Mary Marvel, or Wow Comics ever again. Many of the other Fawcett comics were then sold to Charlton Comics, along with a big backlog of artwork and scripts... so in a way Fawcett Comics continued to come out for a period after Charlton took them over. I believe that the actual last comic to be put out by Fawcett was Tex Ritter which came out in late 1953 but dated January 1954; same with the final issue of the Marvel Family (#89) which contained the story, “And Then There Were NONE!” (with a worried little boy on the front cover exclaiming, “Holy Moley! What happened to the Marvel Family?”) FCA: What became of Will Lieberson after the demise of Fawcett comics? LIEBERSON: After Fawcett dissolved the comic department, they

WILL LIEBERSON

persuaded me to stay on, saying that they were going to start some new magazines which would be right down my alley. In the meanwhile, I was to fill in as features editor. It was I who persuaded Jack Cole to try his hand at cartoons when Plastic Man went the way of the Fawcett comics. (As you know, Jack Cole, before his tragic end, had become Playboy magazine’s number one cartoonist.) The magazine which Fawcett had in mind for me was a television magazine but when they decided to turn it into really nothing more than a fan magazine, I wanted no part of it and we eventually parted ways. It was my intention, after leaving Fawcett, to take a year off to write another play. However—and I must admit this was very flattering—when word got out that I wasn’t with Fawcett anymore, I was deluged with job offers. However, I had made up my mind to write the play so I would only accept freelance assignments. Among these was turning out a monthly magazine, TV Junior (which was basically a kid’s version of TV Guide), Gem and Monsieur magazines, and a magazine called Behind The Scenes for Bill Woolfolk who had by now become a publisher and was putting out imitations of Confidential which was hot at the time.

at the military wives, and the third is Hi-Fi/Camera World which is aimed at the beginner rather than at the buff. I never did go back to writing the play but I did get heavily involved with the Broadway theater as a director and have directed many productions during the last five years. Just recently I was appointed artistic director for one of these Broadway shows called Quaigh. FCA: Tell me about being reunited with some of the former Fawcett comics staff for Milson/Fatman comics in the Sixties. LIEBERSON: In the latter part of 1966, I ran into Bernie Miller who had been one of the regular writers for Fawcett comics. As we sat down to have lunch and discuss old times, we decided to try to put out some comics ourselves. This turned into being a very costly fiasco... but nevertheless it was a lot of fun. We got Wendell Crowley, Otto Binder, Rod Reed, C.C. Beck and artist Carl Pfeufer (another Fawcett regular who drew Don Winslow, Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Mr. Scarlet, Commando Yank, and others) together and we turned out Fatman The Human Flying Saucer and the Super Green Beret. These comics were never given a fair chance and $64,000 went down the drain. We still think they might have made it but so many things were against us circulation-wise which would make a story in itself.

Bill felt that I should be publishing and we went into partnership and put out a few magazines. Although these were not successful, they did give me a taste of what the publishing part of the industry FCA: Besides those connected was like and I ended up taking with Fatman and Super over the publishing of Gem Green Beret, did you stay in and Monsieur. However, this touch with any other of your was taking up more time than Fawcett comics colleagues? I expected and with the play still on my mind, I dropped LIEBERSON: Yes, I used The final issue of The Marvel Family—cover by Kurt Schaffenberger. these projects and sat down to quite a lot of the Fawcett [©2001 DC Comics] really devote my time to the artists for the American play. I no sooner got started Armed Forces Features, the Bradbury comic supplement that went to when Gordon Fawcett of Fawcett Publications called to say that a the military. Among those artists were Pete Costanza, Bill Brady, Carl neighbor of his up in Connecticut was starting a comic newspaper Pfeufer, Jess Benton, Vic Martin, Sheldon Moldoff, and on a couple of syndicate to be distributed to the military and that he had promised that occasions, Kurt Schaffenberger. As for the writers, Rod Reed has I would at least call and discuss the project with his neighbor. The worked regularly for me writing sports features as well as many other neighbor turned out to be W. B. Bradbury, for whom I had turned out a types of articles that fitted into our publications. Otto Binder did a college humor syndicate before going to work for Fawcett. As a favor, I couple of straight articles for me as well. agreed to put the syndicate together, lining up—and creating—all the FCA: Out of the entire Fawcett staff, who did you admire the most? strips to be run. This was on a freelance basis, but it soon turned out to be so much work that I agreed to go in full time until the thing got on LIEBERSON: The one most important person that I came across its feet. That was almost 20 years ago and I’ve yet to get back to the play. at Fawcett comics would be Rod Reed. Not only was Rod my The comics were suspended a few years ago but had been replaced in the mentor, but in all the years that I stayed at Fawcett as the executive interim by three magazines which go to the military even though they editor of all their comic books, I always felt I continued to carry have nothing to do with the military. One is Military Life which is more out his policies. or less a sports magazine aimed at the GIs; another is US which is aimed

“VISUAL EXPRESSION”

Legends Meet C.C. Beck chats with Will Eisner In late 1939, when Fawcett was starting its line of comics, Will Eisner started The Spirit, which is still one of the finest characters today, over forty years later. Eisner believes that heroes are secondary; that they’re really just “vehicles for telling a story.” He thinks that outlandish costumes and gimmicks are silly and unnecessary, that adding color or wash to cartoons is a waste of money, and that lettering is so important in comics that he does it himself whenever possible. When comics started Eisner got $5.00 a page, as did most cartoonists. He ran a shop, and worked day and night to meet

deadlines. Other artists inked his pencils (usually very badly) and filled in backgrounds and secondary figures. Eisner himself usually drew the heads of as many characters as possible to keep them of top quality. He developed the story lines and dialog himself. Still active today, Will Eisner says, “I have no desire to be anything but a storyteller. I see comics as a form of literature. There are comics that are a sensory experience and there are comics that tell stories using pictures as a language. To me, the story is paramount.”

LEGENDS MEET (1983)

sequential art” and such exotic terms are used instead. What’s your opinion of this sort of thinking? EISNER: In my opinion, cartoon humor is still wanted but not enough is being produced in comic books. The syndicated strips are almost all comic today, on the other hand. BECK: My opinion is that Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, two of the artists who introduced realistic art in comics, were also fine illustrators who told their stories well. But it seems to me that far too many of their imitators today merely make eye-catching displays of beautiful artwork which have little or no story value. Would you care to give your opinions concerning today’s super-realistic art in comic books?

C.C. Beck, left, chats with Will Eisner at Beck’s Lake Wales, Florida studio, late-1982. BECK: Will, I got into comic books in the Fall of 1939. When did you? EISNER: I got there before you, C.C. I was in comics by 1937... shortly after I got out of high school. BECK: My background was as an illustrator and cartoonist. I had also been a sign painter, a short-order cook, a waiter, a factory hand, a ditch digger, and had played in a dance band. How does your background compare with mine? EISNER: Mine was not as glamorous. I worked in a print shop and started a comic production shop right away. BECK: Back in the Golden Age most comic writers and illustrators got no name credit and had no rights to their work. I understand that you have always had control of your work. Is that right? EISNER: Yes, since I was packaging books for publishers who knew little about comics, everything was in my control.

EISNER: In my opinion, too many comic book artists are artistic athletes flexing their muscles and showing off. There is little story value, which does not contribute to the growth of the medium.

BECK: There are a few comic books being published today that do contain humor and are drawn in comic style, such as Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest, to name just one. The Garfield comic strip is a big hit, and that’s pure cartoon. My opinion is that the reading public has not lost its sense of humor but that the producers and the distributors of the big name comic books have. Would you like to tell our readers what you and Denis Kitchen and other smaller publishers are doing today to counteract the evil influence of the big name publishers? EISNER: The big name publishers are not evil, they are just hungry mastodons. Smaller publishers like Denis Kitchen offer opportunity and creative freedom, and this is the climate in which this literary art form will thrive. BECK: You and I go back a long way, Will, and we’re both just as opinionated as we were when we started out, right? EISNER: More so!

BECK: I hear that working conditions are better for today’s comic book creators than they were in the old days. EISNER: The opportunities are certainly better. Publishers now give name credit and pay for reprints, which they didn’t do in the old days. BECK: Correct me if I’m wrong: I believe that you and I are both basically cartoonists, that is, we don’t draw too realistically and we inject a little humor and satire here and there. Is that a correct assessment? EISNER: I like to think I drew The Spirit in what I call comic realism style. I had comic characters such as Ebony and Commissioner Dolan. I consider my style to be about halfway between Walt Disney’s and Hal Foster’s. BECK: I have been told that cartoon humor is not wanted in today’s super-heroic, epic-style comics. The word “cartoon” is looked down upon; “graphic illustration” or “linear-

Beck points out to Eisner some hand-made weapons he created.

C.C. BECK CHATS WITH WILL EISNER

“The Business Has Changed” Fawcett Art Director Al Allard Interviewed by C.C. Beck BECK: Al, I first met you back in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, in 1934 when you finally gave me a job at Fawcett Publications after the staff illustrator had left. By 1939, when Fawcett got into the comics field, we were all in New York (Fawcett had moved to the East Coast in 1936). Do you remember what was considered a fair salary for a staff artist at that time? ALLARD: From $40 to $60 a week. BECK: How soon after Captain Marvel appeared in Whiz Comics did Fawcett know they had a hit on their hands?

BECK: The general feeling among many today is that the lawsuits brought on by DC against Fawcett were nothing but a big farce.

ALLARD: In just a few months.

ALLARD: The court proceedings were frustrating, time consuming, and costly. The lawsuits interfered greatly with our work.

BECK: How did you, as art director, arrange to handle the expanded amount of artwork our department had to turn out?

BECK: People on the outside always think that the life of an artist is glamorous and romantic. I never found it so, did you?

ALLARD: We hired additional staff artists. BECK: Yes—Pete Costanza, Ed Robbins, Marc Swayze, many others were hired. But after a while it was decided that the comic art should be produced outside the Fawcett art department. Do you recall why this decision was made? ALLARD: Too large a staff of artists becomes less efficient. We felt that by putting the comic artists on a freelance basis they could increase their incomes. The more hours they worked, the more money they could earn.

BECK: I guess I missed out on that. Most of the people I met were artists like myself. None of us were considered “great” in those days. But New York City was a pretty exciting place back in the Forties. Do you have any desire to go back there?

BECK: I understand you’re still active in art, is that right? ALLARD: Oh, yes. My son, Peter, has his own business as a design consultant. I assist him with producing brochures, instruction bulletins, and catalogs. Thank goodness I still have a clear eye and a steady hand.

ALLARD: Well, it was common practice among publishers in the Forties to buy comic art unsigned. Fawcett only did what most other publishers were doing.

100

ALLARD: Oh, yes. In my forty-two years as art director with Fawcett I met and mingled with the “greats,” authors, artists, illustrators, and show business personalities.

ALLARD: Never! After twelve years away from New York, I would be a stranger in a strange world. The business has changed, the old haunts have disappeared, and the old faces are long gone. I’m happy here in Minnesota.

BECK: Why was there the policy at Fawcett where writers weren’t credited and artists weren’t allowed to sign their work?

BECK: But I was credited as “Chief Artist” on the first page of a few Fawcett titles.

ALLARD: You were the exception, C.C.! Captain Marvel had become an institution. You had more authority over production than any other artist and you had artists working under your direction. Al Allard at work in his office at Fawcett Publications.

BECK: Al, any final comments on the Golden Age of Comics?

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ALLARD: Comic book art has never been given proper recognition. The Forties was its Golden Age; it enjoyed an enviable popularity with millions of kids and grownups. I believe that the advent of television sounded the death knell to this form of visual entertainment.

AL ALLARD (1982)

“I Never Read Them” Fawcett Artist Pete Costanza Interviewed by John G. Pierce Pete Costanza was the first artist Fawcett hired to assist C.C. Beck when their line of comic books took off in 1940. He had be doing illustrations for the western pulps before he was hired to draw “Golden Arrow” in Whiz Comics. Pete always considered himself to be a “straight” illustrator, not a cartoonist. When he became Beck’s studio partner producing Captain Marvel, Captain Tootsie and others, he learned that about the only difference between a serious illustrator and a cartoonist is that the cartoonist illustrates funny stories while the serious illustrator handles unfunny stories. C.C. BECK: When Pete left his “straight illustration” work and did Captain Marvel and Captain Tootsie with me, he turned out to be a remarkably fine cartoonist with a great sense of humor. Few suspected that underneath his gruff exterior beat the heart of a jolly humorist. Our styles complemented each other nicely. FCA: How did your art career begin? COSTANZA: I became interested in art when I was about eleven. At fifteen I studied under Bridgeman, the famous anatomist. I spent three years at this and by eighteen I was working at pulp magazine illustration. I then went on to study under illustrator Harvey Dunn. I was doing advertising and illustrative art in the Thirties. FCA: Do you recall your first meeting with C.C. Beck? COSTANZA: Yes, I began working at Fawcett in 1939, right before the release of Whiz Comics. Beck and I struck up a great friendship which later developed into a full-fledged partnership. FCA: Was your first work with Beck on Captain Marvel or on another feature? COSTANZA: Beck was a cartoonist while I was a straight illustrator. I started illustrating Golden Arrow and later Ibis The Invincible in Whiz Comics. We combined our talents on Captain Marvel later. FCA: When did the Beck and Costanza Studio form?

The Beck-Costanza Studio produced Captain Tootsie advertisements for Tootsie Rolls.

PETE COSTANZA (1980)

COSTANZA: There was too much work for the Fawcett art department to handle so art director Al Allard helped us to set up our own studio around 1941. We opened with a staff of fifteen artists. We

Pete Costanza in 1940. produced art for Whiz Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, The Marvel Family, and others. We also produced some non-Fawcett comics accounts, such as Vic Verity Magazine, “Delecta of the Planets,” Joey Bonomo ads, and Captain Tootsie for Tootsie Rolls. FCA: Who originated Captain Tootsie? COSTANZA: It started at the McCann/Erickson Advertising Agency; Beck and I took it over and had a lot of fun doing it. FCA: You have sometimes been credited with coming up with the name Captain Marvel. Was it really you who came up with his name? COSTANZA: Not exactly. When the character’s name was being changed from “Captain Thunder” I suggested “Captain Marvelous” instead. This was shortened to “Marvel,” so I can’t take all the credit. FCA: When did you go to work at DC? COSTANZA: In 1965. I illustrated Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Batman, and a number of other books. In 1971, I had a stroke. I lost the use of my right hand, but was trained to use my left hand by a therapist. About six months later I started to make oil paintings in the style I had learned under Harvey Dunn. That’s all I do now is paint. In fact, I teach a painting class for stroke victims.

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FCA: Who were your favorite Fawcett writers? COSTANZA: Bill Parker, Rod Reed, and Otto Binder were the best. FCA: Who were your major artistic influences? COSTANZA: Harvey Dunn and his students Dean Cornwell, Harold von Schmidt, Mark and Benton Clarke. I was always interested in straight illustration. FCA: What do you think of comics? COSTANZA: I never read them... except for the ones I worked on. FCA: Do you miss working in the comic book field? COSTANZA: Not at all. I’m extremely happy with my painting today. FCA: What phase of your career would you choose as the highlight? COSTANZA: Undoubtedly, right now! I once thought that my stroke was the worst thing that could have happened to me, but now I feel that it wasn’t so bad since I’m enjoying painting... for myself and fellow victims of stroke.

C.C. Beck Interviews Pete Costanza BECK: Pete, we both go back to the very earliest days of the Golden Age of Fawcett comics. You were one of the first artists hired after me when Fawcett started expanding its comic department, remember?

COSTANZA: No, not at all. I have always been an illustrator, and comic books were just illustrated stories, at least in those days. Most of them weren’t too comic, anyway.

COSTANZA: Oh, yes, I remember. BECK: You had been a Western pulp story illustrator. Fawcett hired you to draw Golden Arrow, because you knew how to draw horses. I’ll bet you don’t know what really convinced art director Al Allard to hire you, though, do you? COSTANZA: No, what? BECK: Allard said to me, “This guy is almost as fast as you, Beck.” Speed was important in comics. Do you remember the first comic book we worked on together? COSTANZA: Special Edition Comics featuring Captain Marvel. We got paid extra for that, didn’t we? BECK: Yes, the magnificent sum of ten dollars a page! COSTANZA: Well, that was good money in those days. The pulp magazines were dying and work was hard to come by. BECK: Yes, the cartoon magazines which I had been working on, such as Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, were also dying out at the time. We were both glad to see the comic books come along. It was easy for me to switch to the comics. Was it hard for you?

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C.C. BECK INTERVIEWS PETE COSTANZA (1982)

when I tell them that all we did was just put the dots in most of the character’s eyes during the peak years of Captain Marvel. COSTANZA: Hey, at least Billy Batson and the others had eyes; Little Orphan Annie had no eyes at all! BECK: Neither did Dr. Sivana and Mr. Morris. I guess we saved lots of ink—and time—when drawing those characters, eh? COSTANZA: Oh, we had other shortcuts, too. I used to use a trick I learned when doing Westerns. I’d draw a sign on the wall saying, “No smoking in this... ” and then add “garage,” “library,” or whatever. BECK: You taught me how to indicate a setting with a simple prop, such as a cow’s skull for a desert, a starfish for a beach, and so on. Do you ever wish those golden days had never ended, Pete? COSTANZA: Well, it would be nice to be thirty years old again, Beck. Now we’re both old hasbeens, I guess. BECK: Better has-beens than never-weres, Pete. Everyone today remembers Captain Marvel.

COSTANZA: They do? How many remember Beck and Costanza?

BECK: No, but even “Golden Arrow” and other Fawcett comics had touches of humor in them. Later, Captain Marvel became quite humorous at times.

BECK: Quite a few, Pete. Our names may go down in history.

COSTANZA: But there were plenty of non-humorous Captain Marvel stories too. He really wasn’t a big buffoon doing slapstick comedy, as some people believe. We always drew him pretty straight—at least I did.

BECK: No, but we had a lot of fun, right?

COSTANZA: Well, that’ll be something. We never had any fame during our working years. Or fortune, either, for that matter.

COSTANZA: Right!

BECK: So did I, Pete. Some of the other artists we had working for us drew him in slapstick style, but I never did. The other characters, Sivana and the various monsters and villains were comic, though. COSTANZA: And Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo were comic characters, as were Mr. Mind and Mr. Tawny. And Captain Tootsie, which you and I drew for Tootsie Roll ads. BECK: Do you know that Captain Tootsie strips are valuable collectors’ items today, Pete? COSTANZA: That’s nice. At least we got our names on them. BECK: You and I were partners for a good many years, Pete. During the peak years, you ran our Englewood studio and I handled our New York office. COSTANZA: Yes, and we ended up back together in the Fifties, doing our own work with no assistants, just the way we started out. BECK: I used to get a laugh out of people

C.C. BECK INTERVIEWS PETE COSTANZA

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“I Wanted To Draw Comics” Fawcett Artist Robert Laughlin Interviewed by Bill Harper—Special thanks to Al Dellinges and John Anderson Born September 18, 1925 in Englewood, New Jersey, Robert Laughlin’s interest in comics began at the early age of seven. By the seventh grade he “ran” his own newspaper and later was the art director of his high school paper. Laughlin recalls reading comic strips copiously, but recalls no major influences. LAUGHLIN: My father was a pretty good cartoonist. He was in advertising and didn’t do cartooning professionally, but he drew cartoons about our family at home. With his father’s encouragement and despite the lack of formal art training, Laughlin decided on a career in comics. Upon graduating Laughlin joined the armed services. When he was stationed at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina he created a strip for the camp newspaper. FCA: What made you decide to draw a strip for the Fort Jackson paper? LAUGHLIN: When in high school, I just made up my mind that I wanted to draw comics, and when I got into service, I got the opportunity to do the strip. I did a couple of samples and left them at the camp newspaper office. I was too shy to even go in there and show them. I just left them, and they got in touch with me and wanted me to do the strip. I didn’t get any special time off or privileges to do it. I was doing it all night in the barracks... in poor lighting; but somehow I got it out every week.

LAUGHLIN: Paprocki usually had a big head of the main subject and then he drew a couple of little cartoons beside it doing different activities. I did a cartoon of myself similar to that style so I could put across what I’d been doing in cartooning, which wasn’t much at that time. I sent the cartoon around to some of the comic publishers, and I got a reply back from Fawcett. Two days before his twenty-first birthday, September 17, 1946, Robert Laughlin began working for Fawcett Publications in the comic book art department—which at that time comprised of only two people, Leonard Leone (who became art director and vice president of Bantam books) and Laughlin. LAUGHLIN: Leonard and I were just doing menial jobs, such as making changes in word balloons. We did content pages and advertisements—like those for the Captain Marvel Club—but it was all layout and paste-up work, with no original artwork created. Those ads were all done on a freelance basis. Lettering stories was our main task. The editors were always making changes in the copy. FCA: Did you meet any of the artists?

After Laughlin’s stretch in the service ended, and with some published work under his belt, he created a cartoon modeled after the style of Associated Press sports cartoonist Tom Paprocki.

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LAUGHLIN: Oh, yeah, they came in all the time. The office was one big room, and Leonard and I were over to one side... the two guys with the art desk, and all the editors were spread around the room, including the secretaries. Will Lieberson, who was executive editor, had a separate office off to one side. The artists and writers would come in to talk to their editors so I got to know all of them. By this time, all Fawcett

ROBERT LAUGHLIN (1984)

scripts and artwork were being produced by shops—like the Beck-Costanza Studio—or by freelance artists/writers. After two years of “menial” work at Fawcett, Laughlin decided to freelance comics. He was handed a Tom Mix story to illustrate as an audition and got the job (the Mix story was never published). As a freelancer, he started illustrating stories for Fawcett’s Monte Hale The Fawcett editorial/art staff (wearing Captain Marvel sweatshirts) at their offices in the New York Paramount Building in 1947. L-to-R: Bob Laughlin, Roy Ald, Ginny Provisiero, Edna Hagen, Kay Woods, Len Leone, Western out of his Wendell Crowley, Elinor Mendelsohn, Will Lieberson. home, doing the entire completed art. The editor said, “Much better!” FCA: Did you letter Tom Mix stories?

LAUGHLIN: I did all the penciling, inking and lettering for the Monte Hale stories. I also began doing lettering for other artists—and not just at Fawcett; I did some work for Harvey and other comic companies. I did quite a bit of lettering just to keep things going.

LAUGHLIN: No, it was done by Charlotte Jetter, wife of Fawcett Editor Al Jetter. Al taught his wife lettering. I modeled my lettering after theirs. I think Charlotte was the best letterer at Fawcett.

FCA: Did you illustrate other books for Fawcett?

FCA: Didn’t you work with Pfeufer on occasion?

LAUGHLIN: I was pretty much doing Monte Hale Western. Occasionally I’d get an inside cover. I did things for several other books... Gabby Hayes Western, as I remember, but I don’t think I did any other regular series besides Monte Hale. I did a series of one-page automobile racing fillers for Hot Rod Comics.

LAUGHLIN: When I began lettering The Bantam Prince movie adaptation for Carl. He would stop by my apartment. When I got the chance to ink the Ten Tall Men movie comic for Carl, he did more penciling than he normally would have and gave me pointers and encouragement. As we neared our deadline and I had trouble keeping up with him, he inked the last six pages of the book himself—all in one evening and wouldn’t take a cent of my cut for it. That’s the kind of guy he was. I also lettered some early panels of the syndicated science feature Our Space Age which Carl did with Otto Binder.

FCA: Did you also write any Monte Hale stories? LAUGHLIN: No—I would get the script which described how many panels to a page and told what was to be shown in the panels. The layout was up to me so long as I got in the action required. The writer would also give me the dialogue that was to go in the different panels. Then I did the pages in pencil and took them in to the editor. My first Monte Hale story was for Western Hero and Wendell Crowley, who was a great editor, would make changes, but very seldom would there be any changes. Then I would take it home and letter and ink it. Wendell was my first editor; later I worked with Editor Barbara Heyman. FCA: Who were the artists that you admired the most at Fawcett? LAUGHLIN: My artistic heroes at Fawcett were Carl Pfeufer and John Jordan. The illustrations they created were really beautiful. I used their work as my guide. Carl Pfeufer, the artist of Don Winslow, Mr. Scarlet, Commando Yank, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix and other Fawcett features, had worked on Monte Hale Western prior to Laughlin. Pfeufer had drawn up a page of heads of Monte Hale to help Laughlin’s start with the assignment. LAUGHLIN: One story that Len and I recall is when an editor claimed a likeness of Tom Mix wasn’t quite right, so Pfeufer simply put a dab of white touchup alongside Mix’s nose without touching the original lines.

“I WANTED TO DRAW COMICS”

FCA: You also mentioned inker John Jordan as one of your favorite Fawcett artists. What memories do you have of him and the Pfeufer/Jordan art team? LAUGHLIN: Pfeufer didn’t do a lot of tight penciling; it was very loose. From time to time Jordan would want Carl’s penciling to be tighter, which nettled Carl a bit! I guess Pfeufer and Jordan worked together for so long that John knew what Carl meant. There was something very slick about the combination. Carl was more of an illustrator... loose-styled, and a lot of brush black. One thing I recall Carl saying concerning getting a lot of work done for a deadline was, “Just sit down and do the work.” It was that simple—for him. He would apply himself for whatever length of time was needed to complete a job. Although Laughlin left comic book work in 1951, he remained with Fawcett Publications drawing “Freddie Fumbles” in Mechanix Illustrated magazine for 26 years (1953-1979). It was a poster of his artwork that cartoonist George Gately saw in an Englewood, New Jersey pet shop that led to Laughlin’s working on Gately’s Heathcliff syndicated comic strip. In 1981, Laughlin introduced a comic strip of two delightfully zany and lyrical cats, Kitz ’N’ Katz. There have been five Kitz ’N’ Katz books, along with their own comic books.

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“Comics Opened The Doors” Ralph Daigh, Fawcett Editorial Director Interviewed by C.C. Beck BECK: Ralph, regarding the lawsuits instigated by DC, can you tell us exactly what their claim was against Fawcett Publications? DAIGH: Claims of copying, unfair competition, and many other things were made by DC. What it all boiled down to was that Superman, the Man of Steel, the impervious one, had been wounded and overshadowed by our hero Captain Marvel. Apparently DC didn’t believe that Superman was invulnerable after all. BECK: Who was DC’s lawyer? DAIGH: Their lawyer was Louis Nizer, acknowledged superman of the legal industry, although addicted to elevator shoes. BECK: Did any of the lawyers know anything about comic books? DAIGH: Not much. When one of them was asked what he held in his hand he said, and I quote, “Er... ah... it is defined on the first page as Whiz Comics so I will conclude for the record that it is a comic book, so called.” BECK: How did DC try to prove that Captain Marvel was copied from Superman?

Ralph Daigh, Fawcett Publications Editorial Director from 1935-1974. DAIGH: One way was by an exhibit of panels from their comics and from ours which showed definite similarities. Later it developed that many panels which they claimed we had copied had first appeared in our books instead. The case was eventually settled out of court. But Fawcett had spent a lot of money on the affair, and comics were not as profitable as they were in the ’40s so Fawcett just got out of the comic business entirely. BECK: Personally, I thought the whole lawsuit was silly. Captain Marvel didn’t resemble Superman at all. I know I never looked at DC comics, and if I had wanted to copy anything it wouldn’t have been anything as poorly drawn as Superman was. How did DC’s revival of Captain Marvel come about? DAIGH: Management at DC had changed and there was no longer the rancor, envy, and anger there had been. Relations between DC and Fawcett were more friendly in later years.

1943 Fawcett freelance artist rates, from the files of Ralph Daigh.

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“COMICS OPENED THE DOORS”—RALPH DAIGH (1981)

BECK: Why, in your opinion, did Fawcett never allow any credits or bylines to their comic writers and artists? DAIGH: It was standard practice, industry-wide, in those days, C.C. Personally, as a writer myself, I might have voted to give the writers and artists bylines, but the subject just never come up for discussion. BECK: Were the old comic books by Fawcett really so wonderful? DAIGH: Yes, they had an enormous appeal and smiles wreathed the faces of comic readers. Comics, opened the doors of taste, vision, and creativity among young people. They were much more than an escape; comics were an imagination-stirring, emotional experience.

BECK: Now that you’ve retired after almost forty years, are you enjoying yourself? DAIGH: Yes, indeed. I’m playing golf, reading, and writing books. My book, Maybe You Should Write a Book has been quite successful.

The “Ashcan” Whiz By Ralph Daigh, Fawcett Editorial Director The “ashcan edition” of Whiz Comics (Flash Comics, then Thrill Comics, before finally becoming Whiz Comics and Captain Thunder became Captain Marvel) was prepared to apply for title registration at the U.S. Patent Office, and was only eight pages long. It was the custom of publishers to prepare such editions of all their titles, whether or not they were ever used. Only a few copies were printed and sent by registered mail to wholesalers and distributors to indicate distribution and to establish the date of first usage in case another publisher came up with the same title. In later years most publishers abandoned this practice, regarding it as just another gimmick by lawyers to impress clients and justify a fee. As to why the name of our hero was changed from Captain Thunder to Captain Marvel, I just thought it sounded better.

THE “ASHCAN” WHIZ (1981)

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Carl Pfeufer An Original By Henry Yeo Prior to joining Fawcett, Carl Pfeufer had been involved with three popular strips: Tad, Don Dixon & The Hidden Empire and Gordon Fife & The Boy King. When these strips folded., Pfeufer worked in the Jacquet Shop on The Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch, among others. Pfeufer began a productive decade for Fawcett Publication in 1943, illustrating a wide spectrum of characters: Commando Yank, Don Winslow, Lance O’Casey, Mr. Scarlet & Pinky, Hopalong Cassidy, Monte Hale, Ken Maynard, Tom Mix, Captain Midnight, and several movie adaptations including Ten Tall Men and Montana. Pfeufer also did pencils and/or layouts for Tex Ritter, Lash LaRue, Gabby Hayes and Ibis; he worked solo on Ken Maynard. The majority of his comics, however, were produced in collaboration with inker John Jordan. The Pfeufer-Jordan team drew the majority of all Tom Mix stories. Pfeufer’s early work with Fawcett was highly cinematic, incorporating dramatic angles. Over the years, this presentation gave way to a more formal style. His accurate anatomy work and close attention to proper perspectives were always maintained, thus enhancing Pfeufer’s art with a high level of action and visual excitement. With the discontinuance of Fawcett’s entire comic book line, Pfeufer moved over to Charlton Comics and continued drawing Tom Mix. During the ’50s through the ’60s he was involved with strips and comics for various syndicates and comic publishers. The most notable of these was Our Space Age, a syndicated panel written by Otto Binder. Pfeufer also illustrated several books, such as the 1956 Treasury of True for Fawcett Publications. By the late ’60s he had retired from comics. Henry Yeo examines the career and artstyle of Carl Pfeufer, and Pfeufer’s widow, Helen Pfeufer Sheehan, sheds some insight on the often-overlooked artist.

Carl Pfeufer—1975 Self-Portrait. Among connoisseurs and students of comic book art from the Golden Age, there are many who consider the Fawcett line the showcase of its time. Fawcett comics had a professional look about them: Well-planned covers and layout, an uncluttered look, entertaining features and above average artwork. A contributing factor was that Fawcett purchased and published work mostly by professionals who had paid their dues rather than work by amateurish tryouts. A good share of the known Fawcett artists of that era had done work previously in other fields of art. Names that spring to mind include C.C. Beck, Mac Raboy, Marc Swayze, Pete Costanza, and Jack Binder; their identities and the work of some of these artists were known from the occasional artist credit by a tiny typeset line, “Drawn by—” at the bottom of a story’s opening page. Another interesting aspect of this era was the wealth of distinctive drawing styles to be found in looking through all the different Fawcett comics. There were some prodigious talents that stood out from the pack; and generally it was hard to group these artists by style (such as, for example, the Buscema or Adams schools in modern times) as practically no one was copying another’s work. Even as each individual style evolved over the years, each artist remained distinctive. One does not mistake Marc Swayze’s work for Jack Binder’s; nor Leonard Frank’s for C.C. Beck’s. This great variety of polished professional looking art is certainly a large part of why Golden Age comics continue to be so vital and engrossing. One of the most interesting and original stylists of the time was Carl Pfeufer, a schooled artist who was known to have had a career in sculpture and painting, but who also drew newspaper strips, panels and comic books. His best-known work was for Fawcett Publications.

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Pfeufer’s first work for Fawcett was probably on Don Winslow Of The Navy. He later also took over “Mr. Scarlet” and “Commando

CARL PFEUFER (1987)

Yank” in Wow Comics. With the dawning of the early 1950s, as Western heroes rose above urban crime fighters and war heroes, Pfeufer “went west” and assumed the art chores on Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, Monte Hale, and Ken Maynard. The word “energy” is what comes to mind when one looks at a Pfeufer page. He pioneered dynamic styling in comics storytelling, and brought it all off very well with his fine sense of proportions and camera angle. In spite of some critics disparaging angle and perspective in comics art, these remain in the very essence of dynamic styling. Pfeufer’s line ideally suited the frequently overwrought tone of the stories by emphasizing action and movement. He very effectively altered the standard grid pattern of the typical comics page; stretching, slanting, and sometimes eliminating the margins, allowing the action figures to spill over the panel limits. His studies of people in action are exemplary. He seldom used erect figures, preferring to draw the protagonists in frozen mid-motion. He characteristically stretched their posturing to the maximum limits. However, what frequently look like an impossibly exaggerated pose, on examination, conformed very well to known principles of anatomy. The interaction of the players flowed easily from panel to panel. Distortion of figures and objections were drawn with an eye for effective three-dimensional effect. Not only did Pfeufer’s figures move in his panels, but the reader also experiences a feeling of having to swing from vantage point to vantage point, left to right, now high, now low, as if seated on a cinema director’s boom, watching the scene being acted out. Intelligent use of camera angle certainly held reader interest.

personalities like Tom Mix, Monte Hale, and Hopalong Cassidy. Pfeufer always drew distinct people. That is, when he conceived a character, he would assign a face and body type which would be retained throughout the rest of the story. Commando Yank’s face was distinctly his own and quite different from that of Mr. Scarlet, for example, no matter which way the character was turned in the story panel, or from what angle he was viewed. Pfeufer took the same pains with both major and minor characters. The idea of well-drawn faces did not originate with Pfeufer, of course. However, he accomplished this aspect of graphic storytelling with far greater facility and consistency than most of his contemporaries. Although Pfeufer drew in a realistic style that reflected his classical training, his comic book drawings weren’t exactly photographic. He was neither a detailed nor well-defined inker. His forte was the human figure in action. Not as much attention was paid to backgrounds. In the mid-Forties a new aspect to Pfeufer’s art was presented to comics readers. John Jordan began to ink his pencils on Don Winslow of the Navy, establishing an almost decade-long collaboration between the two. Prior to this, Jordan had done solo work on the Don Winslow comic book as well as the Winslow newspaper strip. This partnership would enrich Pfeufer’s lines. The art assumed a tighter, more precise look. Backgrounds were better filled in, and generally cleaned up. However, there was a debit to this formula. Jordan was apparently very fond of “speed lines”— perhaps to an overabundant degree. Pfeufer’s dynamic concepts lent themselves very well to the addition of “speed lines” but, in any one picture, Jordan would add them to hand, leg, and body motions; and, in fact, to anything else that could move or be moved. The arcing lines were well thought out and made the drawings more lively. The problem was that they tended to sometimes dominate and distract from the basic picture composition.

Pfeufer was a genius in drawing faces. They ran the gamut of emotional expression: Laughter, sadness, horror, pain, and surprise as the occasion A Our Space Age syndicated panel written by Otto demanded. A few easy lines would Binder, illustrated by Pfeufer. capture the likenesses of famous real [©2001 Bell-McClure Syndicate]

AN ORIGINAL

In their time, the Pfeufer-Jordan team was quite prolific, concurrently turning out multiple stories for various monthly Fawcett comics: Don Winslow, Wow

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Comics (Mr. Scarlet, Commando Yank), Whiz Comics (Lance O’Casey), Captain Midnight (covers only), Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix Western, Master Comics (Tom Mix), Western Hero (Tom Mix), Monte Hale Western, and Ken Maynard Western. Pfeufer was also doing newspaper panels and strips on the side. The Pfeufer-Jordan team produced over ninety percent of the Tom Mix stories for Fawcett Publications... probably an unrecognized record for tenure on a story character in comics. Towards the end of Fawcett comics in 1953, Pfeufer and Jordan began to turn in solo work, with Jordan sometimes inking non-Pfeufer pencils such as those in the first two issues of Rod Cameron Western, “Warpath” Fawcett Movie Comic, and the last issues of Don Winslow of the Navy.

Fawcett artists, did occasionally receive credit. But acknowledgment was far from routine and not enough to make his name exactly familiar. Secondly, it is not known if Pfeufer ever answered any fan letters. Maybe he didn’t think his comic work serious enough to want to dwell on it; or he may well have not cared to have it reflect critical consideration of his more “legitimate” artwork. In any case, there is something forbidding to the fan about an artist who is apparently distant and non-responsive to fan mail. Thirdly, a personal conjecture. Pfeufer’s natural talents and professionalism may have worked against him. There seems to be a tendency among many readers to better appreciate art over which the artist has long labored and agonized. Pfeufer’s compositions appeared so easy and simple that they may have invited charges from critics that they were slick, vapid, and empty. But technical proficiency really does not negate good art. It is all right for good drawing to incorporate principles of classical illustration.

It was a schizophrenic experience (if such a thing were possible) seeing Tom Mix stories done by Pfeufer and Jordan consecutively with individual solo efforts in the same comic book. Pfeufer’s action figures and faces were instantly recognizable, his inking now much looser than his earlier work. Jordan’s precise, strong inking, and What would be interesting to know his ever-present “speed lines” appear along would be Pfeufer’s own thoughts and with his characteristic, somewhat distorted feelings about his copious legacy of comics perspective. A John Jordan picture usually work. Was it, in retrospect, less “legitDon Winslow of the Navy by Pfeufer/Jordan. appeared to be viewed through a lowimate” than his other work? Was his powered magnifying glass tilted at a slight creative speed as fast as it would seem from looking at the bulk of his angle. work? What were his concepts on composition and color? What were his work methods? As long as it lasted, the Pfeufer-Jordan collaboration was unique, and produced some of the most original, interesting, and worthwhile comic art ever. They were professionals whose work is still instructive today. Why was Pfeufer, with such a prodigious output of work in newspaper panels and strips and comic books during the Golden Age and after, not, then, better known and appreciated? Firstly, comic artists and writers were usually not allowed to sign their work during this time. Pfeufer, as with only a small amount of

Carl Pfeufer has been unjustly ignored in the appreciation and study of comic artists. Look up samples of his work, especially in his earlier years with Fawcett, and get ready for a visual treat. There is little question that he was an important pioneer in the comics medium, and an outstanding original.

Carl Pfeufer: Personal Reflections by Mrs. Helen Pfeufer Sheehan Carl did not particularly want to be known for his work in the comics. That is the reason he never answered any questions regarding comics. Carl was an introvert. His home life, family and thoughts were very private. He had the capability of producing a large amount of work very quickly. He would pencil in panels as fast as most of us can write. Then he would ink with a brush. He rarely used a pen. When he penciled for others to ink (John Jordan) he took a little more time and put in more detail, especially the main characters. He worked long hours, very often all night, then would go into New York City with his work, chat with the Fawcett editors, get a new assignment, return home, sleep 2 or 3 hours and start working again.

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His comic book work was just as “legitimate” as his other work, but he viewed himself as a fine artist. He had excellent teachers, training, and a very high opinion of himself. Carl used to say Rodin would have “wept with joy” if his life drawings were as good as his! And he meant it! But he would only say such things to me or some very close friends. His art idol was Joaquin Sorolla. We visited the Sorolla museum in Madrid and Carl would study every brush stroke until he could explain how and why it was done. Carl had studied oil painting with William Starkweather, a protégé of Sorolla. Carl was happiest when painting. He was completely absorbed in his work. You did not talk to him or make unnecessary noises. I had to “teach” Carl how to relax and just have fun. He was a workaholic! He was truly disappointed not to have been recognized for his artistic abilities.

CARL PFEUFER

The Legacy Of Mac Raboy By Jay Disbrow I first encountered Mac Raboy’s work when I was a child in the early Forties. The Green Lama from Spark Publications was the comic book that introduced Raboy’s art to me. Of course I had no way of knowing at the time who had drawn the story, for the work bore no artist’s signature. I was impressed by the grace and nimbleness of Raboy’s figures. The striking pattern of his blacks and whites, the subtlety of line and mass, the supple contours of muscular formations... all these elements left a deep impression on my youthful mind. On Captain Marvel Jr., the Raboy charisma shone brilliantly. His style of rendering on this feature was decidedly different from that of the strip’s parent feature. C.C. Beck, the visual originator of Captain Marvel, drew his stories in a “cartoonish” style. Raboy apparently would have nothing to do with this form of artistry. He was a serious illustrator, and all his work proved it. Throughout the more than 280 pages of the various Captain Marvel Jr. adventures, Raboy maintained a quality of art that equaled or surpassed the best of the illustrative comic book artists. A mere glance at one of his pages from this era will reveal the time, effort, and dedication that went into his work. Perhaps one of the outstanding aspects of his work was his facial construction. The Raboy heads were remarkable examples of artistic modeling. Mac Raboy left us with a great legacy of work that has enriched our memories of the Golden Age of comics.

THE LEGACY OF MAC RABOY (1981)

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“I Believed In What I Did” Funny Animal Artist Chad Grothkopf Interviewed By Jim Scancarelli, Transcribed/Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck FCA: Did you create Hoppy The Marvel Bunny?

them to do a funny animal take-off of Captain Marvel?

GROTHKOPF: Yes, I created Hoppy and drew most of his adventures. I also created and drew all of Hoppy’s funny animal pals: Sherlock Monk and Chuck, Willie the Worm, and the whole batch.

GROTHKOPF: I got a call from Ralph Daigh, the editorial director at Fawcett Publications, who saw the type of work I was doing for Stan Lee shortly after it appeared. Ralph asked me to come in and talk to him about a new comic Fawcett wanted to put out using funny cartoon animals. They needed someone to start it up and to create all of the No. 53 characters. So I came up with characters for them: Hoppy The Marvel Bunny, Sherlock Monk and his buddy Chuck (who was a duck) who had Laurel & Hardy-type gags. There was also Benny Beaver and Fuzzy Bear, Gremmy the Gremlin, Billy the Kid (who was a goat) and Oscar (an ostrich), and several others. As I said, my original concept for Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was that he would have daydreams of being strong, so I incorporated that with the Captain Marvel concept. Ralph Daigh and Fawcett gave me complete artistic freedom. I started up and drew the entire Funny Animals comic, came up with story plots and wrote some of the scripts. Nobody told me what to do or how to do it. Fawcett Publications was a family owned and operated business. Ralph Daigh, along with Fawcett’s great art director Al Allard, and advertising director Elliot Odell, were the only non-Fawcett family members who were on the board of directors and none of them ever came in and told me what to do. I started out at $20 a page for the completed artwork and eventually made up to around $35 a page.

FCA: Did you also write all of the stories for these characters? GROTHKOPF: I wrote a synopsis for each story, and then it would be handed off to one of the Fawcett writers. All story ideas and character concepts originated from me. However, my original concept for Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was somehow changed when the writers got a hold of it; Hoppy was supposed to dream about an adventure or wish about something and then by magic it would happen and he would become The Marvel Bunny. Then all he would have to do is say “Shazam!” backwards to bring himself back again. FCA: How did you get into cartooning and comics? GROTHKOPF: I always tell people it was “hunger” that got me into the business! I started out at Detective Comics (DC Comics) in 1938; that was a great time there because they were just starting out. We got seven bucks per page for writing, drawing and lettering. It was a chance to show off our work for those of us who weren’t good enough to break into the pulp magazines. Vin Sullivan was there at DC; he bought anything that you had during that time.

FCA: Did you enjoy working for Fawcett?

GROTHKOPF: No, it was all straight adventure illustration art and it was lousy! Absolutely terrible. I did some work on “Superman,” “Radio Squad,” and other features and it was just awful stuff. I didn’t begin to produce more cartoon/fairy tale type of artwork until I went over to work for Stan Lee at Goodman (Marvel). For Stan I did “The Imp” which appeared in Captain America comics. It was about a tiny character that lived in a man’s ear. FCA: How did you end up at Fawcett Publications? Were you asked by

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GROTHKOPF: Yes. It was a very nice time in my life. Eventually, producing the entire Funny Animals comics got to be too much to do on my own and I got others to help me out. The comic sold very well, over a million copies a year, and Fawcett continued to give me bigger budgets and raises. I never had to ask for a raise, they just gave them to me. Funny Animals was the first comic book to have game and puzzle pages. I originated these pages and they proved to be successful. Then I got the idea of “Uncle Don” (Don Carney) to write a text feature for each issue of Funny Animals. Don was a clean-cut kind of a guy who was married to a stripper. I use to go up to his New York City penthouse on 86th Street right off of Central

CHAD GROTHKOPF (1991)

Park. He was a very nice guy to work with. In fact, we did a lot of public relations projects with the Fawcett’s and Uncle Don. We would set up personal appearances for him at hospitals around Christmas time to visit the kids there. It would make the kids so happy that they would break down and cry. Uncle Don was in every issue up until I served in the military, although they might have reprinted some of his stories for a short time; when I returned from the military, his feature in Funny Animals had vanished... in fact, the whole comic had declined in quality while I was in the service. Buzz Fawcett, one of the Fawcett brothers, and Elliot Odell, allowed me to get the book back on track. Fawcett Publications was the nicest place I ever worked for. I first worked with editors Rod Reed and, later, Mercedes Shull, and both were great. They use to give me movie passes to go to the movies with my wife. We would deliver my artwork to the Fawcett offices on Friday. We were Catholic and couldn’t eat meat on Friday during Lent so after dropping off the art at Fawcett my wife and I would use the movie passes up until midnight... then we’d go out for a big steak dinner! FCA: Why do you think the quality of Funny Animals diminished while you were in the military? GROTHKOPF: I don’t know why. While in the service, I was still drawing the covers for Funny Animals. When I had returned, they had reduced the size of the magazine and it just wasn’t what it used to be; I felt there was too much copy in the stories and other [©2001 Chad Grothkopf] problems. However, my association with Ralph Daigh had continued. Ralph and I would frequently go out to lunch where we could sit and talk. He used to take me to The Lambs Club. To get there we’d always have to walk on the opposite side of the street of where the prostitutes were. Ralph would order the chef’s salad and we’d always have a big order of shrimp. We went over there about every other Friday. Ralph was sharp, full of energy, and easy to work with. Even when I got out of the military and began to get more involved in television and animation, we kept up our friendship. I later took Willie the Worm from Funny Animals and made it into an animated cartoon for a while at NBC. Ralph gave me the go-ahead to do the cartoon and said the character was mine, but reminded me that the rest of the Funny Animals characters belonged to Fawcett. Fawcett never dictated or told me what to do with any of my creations. It was a great place to work. FCA: Was it easy to come up with story plots?

“I BELIEVED IN WHAT I DID”

GROTHKOPF: Yes—both art and story were worked on from my apartment down in the Village. FCA: Do you recall any specific details about creating Hoppy the Marvel Bunny? GROTHKOPF: The first issue of Funny Animals I drew Captain Marvel holding all of the funny animal characters in his arms, like he was hugging them. That cover was really the only time I had anything to do with Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel was extremely popular so it just seemed like a good idea to do a take-off from it, incorporating the similar costume along with Hoppy using the magic word “Shazam!,” and so on. FCA: You mentioned you had others helping you out on Funny Animals—do you remember who they were? Were you doing other work at the time as well? GROTHKOPF: During the entire run of Funny Animals only a few artists were hired to help out on back-up features. Among these artists were Bill Brady and Joseph Oriolo. I did the majority of the book; always Hoppy, Willie the Worm, and the song and game pages—and I did all my stuff on my own: Layout, penciling, inking, lettering... everything but the coloring, which was handled by Fawcett. My wife would help out by erasing some of the pencil marks from my finished pages. When I did television work for Disney and other studios out in Hollywood my wife and I would get the “red carpet treatment” from the people out there because they knew I was associated with Fawcett Publications, who produced all the movie magazines and movie comic adaptations. The movie studios loved the publicity that those magazines generated. So there were a lot of benefits working for Fawcett, more than beyond your page rate. In fact, I got a job working on Howdy Doody because of my association with Fawcett. Martin Stone came over from NBC; he and Bob Smith owned Howdy Doody. They were looking for an artist to work on the Howdy Doody Sunday newspaper strip, books, and someone to do all the drawings for all the licensing: Giveaway comics, belts, umbrellas, you name it. Fawcett’s Ralph Daigh told them, “Hey, your boy is Chad Grothkopf!” So they called me up and I took the job. FCA: Why did you decide not to devote all of your time to comic books?

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GROTHKOPF: After I returned from the military, I decided I wanted to do more animation for television. I had done it before and it was where my heart was; I made good money at it throughout my career... but of all the things I’ve done, working on comic books for Fawcett was the most fun. FCA: Where did you grow up and how did you get your start in drawing? GROTHKOPF: I was born in a small Ohio farm town. I had a very Huckleberry Finn-like upbringing. We’d all go swimming on hot summer days in the Ohio River. The only time I got in trouble with the police was because some of us were raising tadpole frogs in the public water trough and all the town’s horses got sick! I started drawing at a very early age. No one else in my family could draw except one of my cousins. I loved fairy tales and cartooning and would draw everything as if it were alive... trees, street signs, everything. If you were an artist in my hometown you were considered a sign painter; I was surrounded by farmers and art just wasn’t something that was thought of as a legitimate career. Later, when people found out what I did for a living they would ask my wife, “When did Chad go into his second childhood?” and she would respond, “He never left his first!” FCA: Where did you go to school?

GROTHKOPF: I won a scholarship at the Chicago Art Institute where I took a fine arts course, which may seem odd since I made a career as a cartoonist. After graduating, Paramount Pictures selected me to be one of their junior art directors. At Paramount, I did no cartooning, just straight illustration like the type I did when I was at DC. Lousy stuff; my people looked like wooden figures done by a 3rd grader. It was just awful. My heart belonged to cartooning.

Chad’s cover art for the first issue of Funny Animals.

FCA: Do you have a favorite cartoonist? GROTHKOPF: I really admired Chester Gould, who drew Dick Tracy. I unfortunately never got to meet him. FCA: Besides your work for Fawcett, DC, Marvel, and working on Howdy Doody, what are some other things you’ve worked on during your long career? GROTHKOPF: I was involved in some of the earliest animated features for television (including Willie the Worm). I’ve done stuff for Disney, Mighty Mouse for Paul Terry, Alvin and the Chipmunks for Hanna/Barbara, Bugs Bunny and Tiny Toons for Steven Spielberg, the old Underdog cartoon series, and many other things. I have still kept quite busy in my later years. I briefly did some work on DC’s Captain Carrot comic book. I also drew some new Marvel Bunny material for DC, but it was never published. I have traveled extensively and worked in many places around the globe. I was pleased to find that comic books are big all over the world. I consider comics the language of the world. In some countries you’re regarded as a celebrity as big as Frank Sinatra if you’re a comic book artist. There seems to be more of an appreciation for comic art in other countries than there is here in the United States... here, the flavor is gone. But working at Fawcett on Funny Animals and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was really the best time of my entire career. While I became more involved in television animation after I returned from the military, I was always thankful to Fawcett for giving me the freedom to be as creative as I wanted to be. Working at Fawcett was ideal: No one ever interfered with me and I believed in what I did.

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CHAD GROTHKOPF

Bill Parker William Lee Parker, who created Captain Marvel, was a gentleman. Nowadays that is a rather dubious way to characterize a man, since the word has, for preposterous and pointless reasons, fallen into disfavor. Bill was Ivy League. He went to Lawrenceville and Princeton and was a member of the snazzy and exclusive military outfit known as Squadron A. But being a gentleman, he gave himself no airs about such matters and was an easy-going and completely agreeable companion for either work or play. Bill came to Fawcett Publications after working at the New York Herald Tribune, then one of the nation’s better dailies. At the time of the creation of Captain Marvel we were both assistants to Ralph Daigh, Fawcett’s editorial director, and our office adjoined Ralph’s. I had nothing to do with the birth of Captain Marvel other than I was sitting at the desk next to Bill’s when he created The World’s Mightiest Mortal. When Fawcett decided to go into the comic book business Bill was assigned to create the characters. I don’t remember that he suffered any creative agonies as he worked out the first stories for Captain Marvel, Golden Arrow, Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, and others whose names I’ve forgotten; in that process of conjuring up the word “Shazam!” and creating all those characters for Whiz Comics, he continued to be as agreeable and gentlemanly as ever. Bill went into the army in World War II, served in the Philippines, achieved the rank of major, and came back to Fawcett to edit Mechanix Illustrated magazine for quite a while. I had left Fawcett Publications, but I kept in touch with Bill right up until his last and fatal illness. It has always seemed to me unfortunate that “Shazam!” and Captain Marvel embedded themselves into our language only after Bill’s death; few today even know where the word “Shazam!” came from and certainly not who originated it. It was a pleasure to have known Bill Parker and to have worked with him. —Dick Hanser [©2001 DC Comics]

John Jordan John Jordan had been an editorial cartoonist before he got into comic books. He had a solid drawing style. He was a kindly, hard working man. He was one of the artists who epitomized the difference between the people producing comics during the Golden Age and those drawing them now. He and his kind were artists whose experience had been gained in other fields. They were drawn into the comic field because it was a new, promising outlet for their work. Now the comic field is filled with artists who have never worked outside it. For the most part they do their jobs well, but the background, the outside experience, and the excitement that those from the Golden Age brought to comics is missing. —Ed Robbins

BILL PARKER | JOHN JORDAN (1980)

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Dave Berg Who knew, forty years ago when we were turning out the early comic books, that in time they would be called art and be collected for big bucks? There are those who compare our work to that of the early impressionists Cezanne and Modigliani; we have been likened to the early fliers like the Wright Brothers and we have been equated with the first astronauts. Of course, us comic book writers and artists landed on the moon decades before Neil Armstrong made his giant step for mankind! I was born in Brooklyn in 1920, started drawing at three, and later, when my art instructor at Cooper Union told me I was good enough to be a professional, I was too embarrassed to admit to him that I already was already a working professional artist drawing comic books. I worked first with the genius Will Eisner, then with the lovable and amiable Stan Lee, and eventually on Fawcett’s Captain Marvel staff with the thoroughly professional and multi-talented C.C. Beck. At times I posed for the other artists drawing Captain Marvel. In those days I was built. Today I’m still built (especially around the equator) as the accompanying drawing shows. Today I live in California and write and draw “The Lighter Side of...” for Mad magazine. Twelve books of this feature sold eight million copies and have been translated into a dozen languages. We, the pioneer comic book creators may have been hacks, but we were inspired hacks. Our work was a labor of love. Looking back, I know now that those days in comics were some of the happiest days of my life.

Dave Berg’s 1980 self-portrait as the Big Red Cheese.

John Putnam Back in 1944 I found myself erasing pages for C.C. Beck when he had a studio in New York. After a month, I graduated to penciling and inking “boom panels” in Captain Marvel stories. 36 years later, I’m the art director at Mad magazine. We don’t have any boom panels here, so I just handle type and manage to look busy... at least I hope I do.

John Francis Putnam, 1917-1980. Art by C.C. Beck.

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DAVE BERG | JOHN PUTNAM (1980)

“It Helped Pay The Mortgage” Artist Edd Ashe Interviewed by Bill Harper Edmund Marlon Ashe Jr. was born August 11, 1908 in Norwalk, Connecticut off the coast of the Long Island Sound. Throughout his life he pursued no other career except that of an artist. “It is the natural thing when you’re the son of an artist,” he reflected. After graduating from Carnegie Institute School of Art in Pittsburgh, where his father was a professor, he spent eight years doing nothing but creating WPA murals. “These murals became what comics would become later.” Ashe felt that comics was good, steady income and that “It helped pay the mortgage.”

comics, Ashe continued in the comic field with Smith-Mann Syndication, where, with former Fawcett associates Jon Messmann, Carl Pfeufer, Bill Brady and others, he produced strips for the Pittsburgh Courier. Two features Ashe illustrated were Guy Fortune and Mark Hunt. When Smith-Mann ceased publishing, Edd returned to Connecticut and worked for Charlton Comics. [©2001 the respective holder.]

FCA: How did you get into the comic field? ASHE: By chance; I answered a help wanted ad for Harry Chesler’s studio and I was hired to draw comics. FCA: When did you begin working for Fawcett Publications? ASHE: From Chesler to Fawcett was a long path. In between, I did work for MLJ, Fox, then Popular Comics. There must have been at least 30 different comic book publishers at the time. At MLJ Magazines, Ashe was the first artist associated with The Wizard. Later he drew The Human Torch. It was during this time that he met Carl Pfeufer, who also went over to work for Fawcett and became one of their most prolific artists. Ashe instantly became life-long friends with Pfeufer. FCA: What features did you draw at Fawcett? ASHE: Towards the end I was drawing stories from their romance comics. I did Don Winslow of the Navy, in fact, I started Winslow; I drew the cover for the first issue which showed Captain Marvel introducing Winslow. I did the whole comic cover to cover for a while. At the same time I was drawing “The Human Torch” and other features. I was producing 220 or so pages a month plus other outside work, illustrations, cartoons, etc. I also wrote a couple of scripts for Don Winslow. I had taken most of my comic assignments with the understanding from the editor that I could change the story around if I wanted to. When Fawcett discontinued their

EDD ASHE (1986)

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Wendell Crowley Wendell Bradford Crowley was a big man physically... at six-footeight he was a real cloud breaker. He was an old-fashioned, small town kind of person with a wonderfully droll wit and a lot of old-fashioned virtue hidden inside his gangling exterior. He had a generous sensibility to everyone’s needs, he was a firm friend, and he was a wonderful support in any and all situations. He started out in the Jack Binder shop, then went to the Beck and Costanza studio, and later became an editor at Fawcett in the “boom” years. He stayed there, setting the tone for the whole Captain Marvel line, until the end. He loved his work and never compromised his oldfashioned ideas. After leaving comics Wendell went into the lumber business, which he had inherited from his father. He worked long and hard in this field until his health failed. But Wendell lives in the memories of all of us who knew and loved him. In later years, when I became the art director at Mad, I would often invite him to visit our offices. But he always refused; he couldn’t bear to get close to the world he had loved but left behind. —John Putnam

Chic Stone

Above: Wendell Crowley, drawn by C.C. Beck. Left: Crowley as Captain Marvel, outside of the Fawcett offices prior to a skit performed at an advertising convention.

My experience with Fawcett Publications wasn’t the best. When I’m interviewed by fanzines today I never mention my stint on Fawcett’s Captain Marvel staff. I worked at Fawcett as an artist on Captain Marvel until I was drafted into the armed forces in 1942. Fawcett had promised that my job would be waiting for me after I returned from the War... but when I got back there was no job waiting for me. All the comic art was now being produced by freelancers or farmed out to studios. The editors told me—along with some of the other artists who had just returned to the States—that, if we wanted to, we could travel to Englewood, NJ and apply to the C.C. Beck studio for freelance work, which I did. When I got there, Beck wasn’t available... and dealing with his studio partner, Pete Costanza, wasn’t the easiest thing to do because he couldn’t make any decisions without first conferring with Beck. I was finally handed an inking job with a lecture from Costanza on why there wasn’t much work. It seems that while we were fighting the battles in World War II they had to hire other artists to turn out the work... and, in all fairness, they just couldn’t terminate them all when we came back for our jobs. Costanza and I had an argument and I was fired after only three or four inking jobs. I’ve spent many wonderful years in the comic book industry. My happiest days were not with Fawcett; they were with Eisner and Iger, ACG, Timely/Marvel Comics, and early years at DC. Just the other day I was thinking of Marc Swayze and the memorable pre-war days in New York City with the Fawcett’s Captain Marvel crew up in the Paramount Building. I am happy to read in FCA that Swayze has pleasant memories of his time with Fawcett. I only wish I could say the same.

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WENDELL CROWLEY (1980) | CHIC STONE (1997)

Bill Ward Bill Ward discovered as a teenager that drawing might be something more than a hobby. In Ocean City, Maryland he earned money during the summer painting pictures on other kids’ jackets. In addition to earning money, Ward said it was “a fantastic way to meet girls!” Ward enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Early on, Ward found his drawing specialty: Girls! Ward took little advantage of attending one of the finest commercial art schools in the country... and with the certain advent of war and the knowledge that he’d be going into the service when he turned nineteen, he neglected his studies and concentrated on girls and fraternity life. In his own opinion, he “wasn’t a good artist” when he graduated in 1941. Ward, along with some of his classmates from Pratt, went to work at Jack Binder’s studio where he drew backgrounds of stories for Fawcett’s comic books. He worked on Mr. Scarlet and Pinky, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Ibis the Invincible and many others. Ward credits Binder with teaching him the real skills he needed to become one of the best comic book artists of the period. Ward got his big break when he did an entire issue of Captain Marvel Adventures. Ward began doing some work for Quality Comics and became one of the top artists on Blackhawk.

Ward was soon drafted and after training, he was assigned to communications for an anti-aircraft unit at the Quonset Point Naval Air Base, R.I. His duties left him with plenty of spare time so he began laying out Captain Marvel stories and others for editor Wendell Crowley at Fawcett during his long nights. A naval officer noticed his work and suggested he do a strip for the base newspaper. Ward did just that and created the Ack-Ack Amy strip which eventually evolved to become the character for which he is best known: Torchy. After the war, Ward freelanced for Fawcett and produced Bulletman art for an excellent run in Master Comics. He also returned to Quality to draw Blackhawk. Around 1946, Busy Arnold, Quality’s publisher, asked Ward if he had any ideas for another feature for Quality’s Modern Comics. Ward suggested “Torchy”, the strip about the daffy blonde bombshell that he had created while he was in the Army. “Torchy” quickly became a big success and even got its own book. With Torchy, Ward’s particular talent for drawing women led him to the romance comics which had become very popular... and soon he became Quality’s top romance comic artist. Ward’s comics career was wiped out in the early Fifties when Dr. Wertham’s campaign to paint comics as bad for kids was in full force and many publishers went out of business, including Quality. Ward found other work drawing cartoons for Abe Goodman’s Humorama, and at Cracked magazine where he continued for many years. [Bulletman & Bulletgirl ©2001 DC Comics]

BILL WARD (1996)

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Jack Binder When the Golden Age ended Jack turned to making displays and murals for tourist attractions. This work entailed sculpture, carpentry, and shop work of all kinds. Jack was a master of many trades and worked in all media. “Old comics? Some were good, some weren’t,” Jack says. He refuses to be quoted on his opinion of today’s comic books. “Much ado about nothing,” is all he would say when questioned about them by C.C. Beck. Jack Binder was almost 40 years old when the Golden Age of Comics began. Binder was born in Austria in 1902 and came to this country in 1913 when his family moved to Michigan. By 1925 he had found his way to Chicago, where he remained a student at the Art Institute until 1928. The classical foundation and training received there served him for his entire career as a professional artist. While in Chicago he also learned the craft of engraving and printing. In the mid-1930s, Binder moved to New York City. He met Harry Chesler and a lasting friendship developed. Binder was the art director for Harry “A” Chesler Syndication and it was there—at one of the first comic “shops”—that Binder gained the experience necessary to start his own “shop”. In the early 1940s, Binder set up headquarters on the west side of the Hudson River, in Englewood, NJ [©2001 DC Comics]

where he also continued his own freelance work. It was from his “shop” (a renovated barn next to his house) that Binder produced his Fawcett work. Soon the management and supervision of his “stable” of forty artists left him less and less time for his own illustrative efforts. His shop closed and in 1945 Binder moved to upstate New York. Here he continued freelancing for various publishers in New York City, primarily for Fawcett Publications on various features and as the main artist for Mary Marvel stories, most which were written by his brother, Otto Binder, Fawcett’s top Marvel Family writer. His semi-retirement in the mountains forced a complete break from the commercial markets of New York City as he became more and more the “country boy” he insisted he was at heart. He continued to explore art through additional college courses, both as student and teacher. Jack Binder died in March 1986. His daughter, Bonnie, summed up his life: “He lived a colorful life and hardly regretted a moment of it.”

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JACK BINDER (1986)

Eric Jon Messmann Sometimes nostalgia is often confused as quality. Many Golden Age comics, although fondly remembered, were replete with questionable artwork and poorly written stories. We are indeed nostalgic; but, more importantly, we applaud the creator of quality work. Eric Jon Messmann is such a craftsman. Messmann was born in New York City during 1930. As a youth, he developed a strong interest in music and took up the violin. When he was nineteen, Messmann wrote a children’s music book which led him to later write five songs for Walt Disney. However, despite his achievements, script writers were in more demand, at that time, than song writers. So Messmann applied his training to scripting; and through recommendations, he became an “assignment” writer (a cross between freelancer and staff writer) at Fawcett Publications.

look. Although he did some sketching, he left the actual art to the artist. He would, however, describe what action should go in each panel. “Writers play a much more important role than anybody seems to realize. The writer controls the finished product. The writer creates the dialogue; and with each panel of dialogue, he gives a complete description of what was to be in each frame.” Messmann’s fierce dedication to his craft led him to remark, “The artist draws the pictures to the script—I repeat—in essence, the script controls the finished product.” Messmann does give the artist credit but emphatically states, “You must remember this; a script writer who, frame by frame, determines the pacing of the story and the action, as well as plot, controls the story. If the script is bad, no matter what kind of art you have, the story will be lacking. I’ve seen a lot of bad scripts with very lovely artwork, but the story still lacking.”

Fawcett editors would call him in and together they plotted He remained a out the storylines that Fawcett script writer Jon would follow. He until they disconrewrote very little; as tinued comics in 1953, he explained it, “The but Jon has never only people rewriting stopped writing. were those who Today as a novelist, weren’t doing it writing under his own right!” Messmann name and several pen wrote every type of names (Pamela comic book story for Windsor, Claudia Fawcett, especially the Nicole and Jon westerns: Tom Mix, Sharpe-Messmann), he Gabby Hayes, Tex feels that scripting Ritter, Bob Colt. comic books for “You name it; I wrote Fawcett was it!” says Messman. tremendous “Westerns, as any tale, experience... but he have only so many believes his strong basic situations. The Gabby Hayes, drawn by Leonard Frank. Art courtesy of AC Comics. point is the test was to try to ability to write in make them fresh while many different styles and do well with each. “I can get into the dealing with the same set of ingredients over and over again.” mood and write any style. I do the research; then go and do it. To While reminiscing about his Fawcett years, Messmann described his work commercially and make a living at it, you better be able to do approach to script writing. Preparatory to writing a script, he would first what the market is asking.” visualize the story to the point that he had an idea of how the art should

ERIC JON MESSMANN (1986)

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“I Felt I Would Be Impinging” Shazam! Artist Bob Oksner Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck FCA: When C.C. Beck left Shazam! due to the poor writing and problems with Editor Julie Schwartz, you were given the task to be his replacement. Were you familiar with Captain Marvel, Fawcett comics and Beck’s work? Did you get a chance to meet C.C. before starting on Shazam!? OKSNER: I was unfamiliar with Captain Marvel and had never met C.C. Beck. When I was asked to continue his work, I was quite hesitant. I was told of Beck’s “differences” with DC. I felt I would be impinging on Beck’s creation (I continued to feel this way during my entire time drawing Captain Marvel in Shazam!). Also, I had no idea who Captain Marvel was, his history at Fawcett Publications, or what Beck really had in mind for Captain Marvel. FCA: What was your deciding factor to take over for Beck? OKSNER: I was given a few books of his work. The more I looked at Beck’s great artwork, the more I was impressed by the simple strength of his drawings. I now viewed the opportunity to take over Shazam! as a challenge—a challenge to re-create that magic that made him so popular in the Golden Age. The editor wanted me to draw in Beck’s style. He told me they were gearing the book for a younger market. The plots were uncomplicated and gentle... and the artwork reflected it. FCA: You are best remembered for the “Mary Marvel” stories you illustrated in Shazam! Were you more at ease working on this character as opposed to the Captain Marvel stories? OKSNER: When I was given “Mary Marvel” to illustrate, I tried to break away from the confines governing Captain Marvel. I presented her as a “Nancy Drew” type of character. “Mary Marvel” provided a greater opportunity for me to be myself artistically and indeed, provided more enjoyment and satisfaction.

FCA: Did you know artist Kurt Schaffenberger, who also began illustrating Shazam! stories after Beck’s departure? OKSNER: I certainly knew Kurt at DC and I’m proud to call him a friend. I knew he was associated with Captain Marvel at Fawcett during the Golden Age before coming to DC. Kurt is a superb cartoonist and was, of course, a natural for Shazam! FCA: How did you feel when the editors took you off Shazam!? OKSNER: Sad. I missed drawing the Mary Marvel stories much more than I did working on Captain Marvel. However, I still had assignments that would keep me busy for the next ten years, including the Dondi newspaper strip; when it was dropped in 1986, I retired. I turned in my brushes and inks for tennis racquets and I highly recommend the lifestyle. In retrospect, after the years working on Shazam! and after reading FCA, I hold in awe the influence a comic book character has had on fans over the years. Fawcett must of had a remarkable group of writers and artists to elicit and retain such a loyal fan following. Today, I consider myself to be a part of that fandom and take a bit of pleasure and pride in knowing I had a small role in the history of Captain and Mary Marvel.

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BOB OKSNER (1996)

They Still Call Him Junior Frank Coghlan Jr. – “Billy Batson” Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck Frank “Junior” Coghlan, the freckle-faced child star who broke into movies in 1920 at the age of 3, was called “the perfect homeless waif” by director Cecil B. DeMille, who, in 1925, signed him to a 5year contract and was starring him in silent features at age 10. Among some of the legends Coghlan worked with included Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper and William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd. Coghlan is best remembered as Billy Batson in the 1941 Republic Pictures serial, The Adventures Of Captain Marvel. Frank became a naval aviator in WW II and served on active duty for 23 years, retiring from the service as a Lieutenant Commander. For many of those years he headed the Navy film cooperation service. Mr. Coghlan’s autobiography, They Still Call Me Junior, was published in 1993. FCA: Were you already familiar with Captain Marvel prior to getting the part of Billy Batson? COGHLAN: I must confess I had no idea who Billy Batson or Captain Marvel were. William Witney and John English, who directed the Captain Marvel serial, were surprised I didn’t know about the character I was interviewing for and suggested I go out and buy a copy of Fawcett’s Whiz Comics, which I did.

FCA: How was the Billy turning into Captain Marvel transformation sequence handled? COGHLAN: I stood in front of a trough of flash powder that was ignited electrically by one of the prop people. When the smoke enveloped me, the cameraman would yell, “Cut!” Then Tom Tyler would take my place, the camera would turn, and the smoke charge would be set off again. There were times on outside locations, when the wind was blowing from an unfavorable direction, that I lost a few eyebrow hairs from the unexpected powder flash in my face. After the film editors did their splicing, the transformation was very credible. FCA: How long did it take to film the serial? COGHLAN: Thirty-two days. Republic Pictures were the top serial producers and they gave the film the appearance of a more expensive production than its limited budget would afford. They accomplished this by the inclusion of stock footage from several other motion pictures along with the fine special effects produced by the Lydecker brothers, Howard and Ted. FCA: Are you surprised that the serial is still popular today?

COGHLAN: When I worked on Adventures of Captain Marvel, I just thought of it as another movie I did (I made over 400 screen appearances in my career). FCA: C.C. Beck, Captain Marvel’s chief While I starred in silent and talking feature artist, once told me he had only seen one films and many comedy short subjects, most chapter of the serial and hated it. of my fans now consider the Captain COGHLAN: I have never heard any Marvel serial to be my most important and objections on how Captain Marvel was best-remembered work. However, I feel portrayed in the serial. Most viewers privileged to have appeared in such classic Frank Coghlan, Jr. by Don Newton. thought Tom Tyler was great as Captain films as Public Enemy (I played James Marvel, “The World’s Mightiest Mortal.” I guess any author or origiCagney as a boy), Boys Town and the “Andy Hardy” series at MGM. nator/creator dislikes seeing his product displayed differently from their FCA: Did the “Captain Marvel” image follow you throughout your own expectations. Beck probably thought I was a few years too old to Naval career? play the part of Billy. Director Bill Witney said that the minute I walked into his office for the first time I had the role right then and there, mainly due to my resemblance to Billy Batson in the Fawcett comic books. In later years, he told me I was hired for the part because of my acting ability and he knew I could play to part the way he wanted it played.

COGHLAN: Oh, yes. I would be in a chow line or walking around somewhere, and somebody would call out “Shazam!” I always got a kick out of that. I spent 23 years in the Navy. First as an aviator, and later in public relations.

FCA: Had you met Tom Tyler prior to Captain Marvel?

FCA: Aside from losing a few eyebrow hairs in the transformation sequences, were you ever injured during any of the action scenes in Captain Marvel?

COGHLAN: Tom had made a series of western films directed by Robert de Lacy, whose wife Lama was my mother’s best friend. Many times when we had the de Lacys over for dinner, they would bring the tall, strapping, shy, handsome bachelor Tom Tyler with them. So, we were friends for a number of years before we co-starred in Captain Marvel.

FRANK COGHLAN, JR. (1996)

COGHLAN: No, but I’ll never know why the stuntmen were not, particularly David Sharpe. Dave was an absolutely fearless man who made even the most difficult stunt look easy. He was such a meticulous performer that he was rarely injured. I attribute this to his careful planning and his excellent timing and judgment of distance. My favorite

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COGHLAN: Witney was dynamic. Always gesturing. Acting scenes out with body movements. English was the opposite. Quietly authoritative, he would guide us to the effect that he wanted. Their styles complemented each other.

stunt that Dave did in Captain Marvel was in the first chapter when he did a back flip, catching two of the native tribesmen under their chins with wellplaced kicks. And I’ll never forget the day he made a head-dive off the side of a cliff— dressed in the Marvel costume—and falling into a small fireman’s net far below, just to get the right camera angle impression of flying. FCA: Captain Marvel had a strong supporting cast: William Benedict, Louise Currie and Nigel de Brulier, who was superb in his convincing portrayal of Shazam.

FCA: How would you compare working at a small studio like Republic to a larger studio like, for instance, MGM?

COGHLAN: To this day, William Benedict and I are still the best of friends. Bill came to Hollywood from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He worked with the great Will Rogers. His others serials include Perils of Nyoka and Tim Tyler’s Luck. He was also in the “East Side Kids” and the “Bowery Boys” series. Louise Currie starred in many films including Stardust on the Sage with Gene Autry and was the leading lady in another Republic serial, The Masked Marvel. Louise is now a successful interior designer. Distinguished actor Nigel de Brulier played many great roles in earlier years, including the crafty Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask, both with Douglas Fairbanks. Nigel was happy to receive payment for one day of work in Captain Marvel and he was most impressive in his characterization of the venerable Shazam. FCA: Were you in any other serials prior to Captain Marvel? COGHLAN: Yes—you can see me wearing war paint as Uncas in The Last of the Mohicans (Mascot, 1932) and as Jackie Cooper’s pal, Ken, in Scouts to the Rescue (Universal, 1938). FCA: Any special memories from either of these serials? COGHLAN: Not about the films themselves. However, I have a very clear memory of an event brought about by my makeup appearance for Mohicans. For the role of an Indian boy my head had been shaved so that only a “scalplock” of hair remained. I was portraying an Indian and really looked like one. During this period in my life, I was attending high school and was considered one of the leading hurdle racers in this division of track and field. I received permission to leave the Mohican set for three hours to run in the preliminary City of Los Angeles meet and in my haste to arrive in time, I forgot my skullcap which I had been wearing to conceal my appearance. So every time I leaped over a hurdle this “scalplock” would fly up into the air. Within seconds the audience was breaking into a loud Indian war “whoop” with every jump! In spite of all this, I came in second. Unfortunately, the director would not allow me to run in the city finals due to our production schedule. FCA: Did you enjoy working with William Witney and John English, the directing team on Captain Marvel?

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COGHLAN: At the larger studios you would have a trailer as a dressing room and a catering service for your meals. At Republic, you dressed where you could, had a box lunch and fought off the ants under a tree. Still, it was fun being at Republic. PH: You’re still going strong, Frank. You’ve appeared in television commercials for Curtis Mathes, featured in AMC’s The Republic Pictures Story and a PBS special on Shirley Temple. COGHLAN: I also popped up on a couple of television game shows. I was a contestant on a celebrity edition of Scrabble where host Chuck Woollery talked to me about my part in Gone With the Wind. Two years later, I was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune and when I won, host Pat Sajak stood beside me and said, “SHAZAM!” FCA: In 1974 you made a cameo appearance on the Shazam! Saturday morning CBS TV show. How did this come about? COGHLAN: At the time I was Director of Public Relations at the Los Angeles Zoo and Arthur Nadel, the show’s producer, came to my office to arrange for filming an episode of Shazam! in our zoo. He could hardly believe his ears when I told him I was the original Billy Batson in the Captain Marvel Republic serial. Because of this he wrote a special part in the script for me where I play a zoo keeper who drove Billy (Michael Gray) and Mentor (Les Tremayne) around the zoo looking for some bad boys who needed the help of Captain Marvel (Jackson Bostwick). I would say this has to be in the “it’s a small world” category. FCA: Final question: What if Republic had made a sequel to Captain Marvel? COGHLAN: I would have enjoyed playing Billy Batson again. I’m sure Republic never thought Captain Marvel would become one of their best serials, or they certainly would have planned for a sequel as they did for The Lone Ranger. If they had done so, there would have been a problem: Soon after Captain Marvel was released, both Bill Witney and I were in the service for World War II. FCA: Thank you for your time today, Frank! Linda Stirling was right when she told me that you are one of the nicest people in the world. COGHLAN: A happy “Shazam!” to you, Paul, my favorite graphic artist!

THEY STILL CALL HIM JUNIOR

Captain Marvel’s Leading Lady Louise Currie Interviewed By P.C. Hamerlinck Louise Currie lit up movie screens with her talent and charm during the 1940s. Besides being the leading lady in Republic Pictures memorable 1941 serial, The Adventures Of Captain Marvel, her fascinating movie career has included a diverse collection of roles where she worked with such people as Bela Lugosi, Orson Welles, Gene Autry, W.C. Fields, Tim Holt, and many others.

quite well. He was nice, kind and cooperative. Frank Coghlan (who played Billy Batson) and William Benedict (who played Billy’s pal Whitey) were fun and full of enthusiasm. They were all wonderful to work with. FCA: What did you think of the directors, Witney and English? CURRIE: One worked primarily in the studio, while the other work on

FCA: Where were you born and how did your acting career begin? CURRIE: I was born April 7,1919 in Oklahoma. After attending the Sara Lawrence College in Broxville, New York I ventured to California in the late 1930s where I received my acting training from Max Reinhart’s Theater Workshop. FCA: What was the first film you appeared in? CURRIE: The Pinto Kid with Charles Starrett, released in 1941 by Columbia. I went on to make several westerns that same year, including two with Bob Steele. FCA: Tell me about your role in the 1941 classic film, Citizen Kane. CURRIE: I had a small part as a reporter. Orson Welles was a remarkable but very demanding director. FCA: At this point you landed the female lead role in what is regarded as perhaps Republic Picture’s greatest serial, The Adventures of Captain Marvel. The film featured the strong directing of Bill Witney and John English, an excellent cast plus awesome special effects and stunt work. Who doubled for you during the stunts? CURRIE: David Sharpe, the same person who doubled for Captain Marvel! FCA: Tom Tyler portrayed Captain Marvel. What do you remember about him? CURRIE: Tom was very quiet and reserved. I thought he handled the part

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FCA: Your amazing career also included working with Bela Lugosi on a couple of films. CURRIE: Lugosi was interesting to work with. He was a gentleman and well-educated. He took his roles very seriously; he really wanted to be believable, and I think he definitely was. FCA: Out of all the films you made, what was your favorite role? CURRIE: I liked my tough cowgirl role in Gun Town (1946) but my favorite film was Second Chance, where I played a lady thief. FCA: In 1949 you left your acting career behind you. What led to your decision to retire so early from acting? CURRIE: I worked hard and constantly with my acting career throughout the Forties. I was progressing from westerns, serials and mysteries into better and bigger films when I decided to give up my acting career to continue with my avocation of interior decorating. My husband (John Good) and I made the decision to stop acting and continue our other careers because we were raising our three children and we wanted a more secure family life.

location. They made a great team. FCA: I understand the serials were produced very quickly. CURRIE: During the filming of Captain Marvel, we worked very fast, with no time to re-shoot scenes, so each actor had to know their lines perfectly and be willing to work from early in the morning to late at night. It was quite strenuous. FCA: Did you get a chance to view any chapters of Captain Marvel after it was released? CURRIE: We were all much too busy to see any chapters of the serial. FCA: Your second and final serial was The Masked Marvel (Republic Pictures). Did you enjoy working on this serial more than Captain Marvel? CURRIE: I feel they were two completely different types of serials. Captain Marvel had imaginative and believable special effects and perhaps was the more fascinating of the two. As an actress, I enjoyed my larger and more meaningful role in The Masked Marvel. In Captain Marvel, I think the whole purpose of my role’s existence was to be rescued by Captain Marvel.

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CAPTAIN MARVEL’S LEADING LADY

“A Hero To Look Up To” Actor Jackson Bostwick, TV’s Captain Marvel Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck (1996) Jackson Bostwick will always be remembered for his superb portrayal of Captain Marvel on CBS’ Shazam!, the number one television program on Saturday mornings in the mid-70s. In this 1996 interview, Bostwick touches upon his career, his friendship with Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck, the times on the Shazam! set, and the events which led to his “dismissal” from the series in 1975.

FCA: One Saturday morning in 1975 while watching Shazam! I remember the shock I had when Billy Batson (Michael Gray) said the magic word and in his place appeared a different actor as Captain Marvel (John Davey). What happened? Why were you removed from the show, especially one that was experiencing so much success with you as the World’s Mightiest Mortal?

BOSTWICK: I was fired from Shazam! during the filming of the second year of the series. The studio producing the show, Filmation, erred in thinking I was holding out for more money and also taking the BOSTWICK: After leaving Shazam!, I continued to act in various position that I was to be sent out only by them on personal appearances media as well as write, produce and direct. I taught college briefly, at and not by my agent. I was also going to make a record album with my Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama on the subjects of profesbanjo playing (“Captain Marvel Sings & Plays”) which they blocked. sional acting, situation comedy and experiThe cover sleeve alone would have mental theater. I also directed a couple of plays made it a great novelty for for Auburn and still found time to do a small collectors. The Screen Actors part in a film with David Carradine (Future Guild arbitrated my case and I Zone). I am currently still acting, writing and won. Filmation had to pay me for producing. all the shows they didn’t use me on plus residuals. This was a FCA: I remember your appearance in the Walt precedent-setting case for firing Disney film, Tron, starring Jef Bridges. What the star of a show. As to how have been some of your other film work? Filmation erred, I had, in fact, injured myself doing a “take-off” BOSTWICK: I starred in A Matter of Honor, shot on the set one morning and a film distributed by Arrow Entertainment. was unable to show up for work Other films include The Secret of Lost Valley, the next day. I had injured my eye Gus, Island At the Top of the World (all Walt when the stunt boxes collapsed on Disney), The Prey with Jackie Coogan, The me during a head-first landing, Hughes Mystery with Brodrick Crawford, resulting in a broken blood vessel What Waits Below with Robert Powell, The under my eye. I went to the doctor Killing at Outpost Zeta, Escape From DS-3, the following morning as I had a and Bio-Force-1 with Powers Booth and tremendous “mouse” under my Wilford Brimley. I also wrote, produced, and eye and obviously could not have acted in a short subject film, Southern Fried appeared as Captain Marvel. I had Shakespeare in the 25th Century, which won the nurse call the studio to inform the gold medal in my category at the Houston them of my whereabouts, but the Film Festival. This is the same category and receptionist at Filmation dropped festival that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, the ball and this information was and David Lynch had also won gold medals. I not relayed. My failure to show up am currently preparing this short to be made on the set was apparently interinto a feature length film. preted by Filmation as a holdout FCA: Tell me about the time that you met for more money. Also, C.C. Beck. unbeknownst to Filmation, I had my own personal Super-8 camera Jackson Bostwick by P.C. Hamerlinck. BOSTWICK: I met and became friends with on the set and I was recording C.C. Beck in Dallas at a comic convention in some of my action sequences for college lectures. In fact, on the day of 1975. I also became close friends with Clayton Moore (“The Lone my injury, head cinematographer Bob Sparks was taking shots with my Ranger”) at the same convention. Kirk Alyn (“Superman” of the 40s camera. Not only did he film me injuring myself (and in slow motion) serials) and I posed together for pictures there in our Captain Marvel but also, a follow up a few minutes later when my eye was swelling. and Superman costumes. Through the years I continued to correspond Filmation did not realize this had been filmed... so their argument that I with C.C. Beck, where I got to know him even better. He made a was not injured sort of flew out the window when we screened the “Shazam” knife for me as a gift. The Dallas convention was, unfortufootage at my arbitration hearing. They had even gone so far as to have nately, due to our schedules, the only time I met C.C. in person. We the nurse on the set change her account as to what happened. She was took an immediate liking to each other during the convention and we the one who gave me the ice pack for my “mouse!” played some country music together. I played the 5-string banjo and C.C. accompanied me on some bluegrass guitar; I backed him on some FCA: How did getting the part of Captain Marvel come about? folk tunes. BOSTWICK: For my audition I was sent out by my commercial agent. FCA: What happened to you after the Shazam! series?

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So when he told me it was for a Captain Marvel serial I thought he meant a Captain Marvel cereal, like Captain Crunch. Unknown to me was that producer Robert Chenault had been looking for a Captain Marvel for four months... actors that were athletes, athletes that were actors, and finally back to actors that were athletes. At that time I was competing in judo and karate and weighed 214 pounds. Mr. Chenault later told me he had narrowed it down to four people until I came onto the scene. I came into his office in cowboy boots, jeans and a white T-shirt thinking this was a “cattle call” for some kids’ cereal. During the course of my interview with Bob I obviously ascertained this to be more than a cereal ad. He was impressed with some of my martial arts action shots and said he liked my smile and voice. I told him, as this was my first year after graduating from USC with an MFA in acting, that if he were to cast me for this part I would work my very hardest to make it a hit series. He later told me he was leaning towards me for the part. That afternoon I got a call from my agent telling me that I had the part.

special place in my heart for Shazam! and all the good times that were had with the entire cast and crew (certain Filmation executives excluded!) FCA: Jackson, in your FCA interview with C.C. Beck it was mentioned that you were a fan of Captain Marvel comics in your youth. Do you collect Captain Marvel/Shazam! collectibles?

FCA: Did you have a good working relationship with the rest of the Shazam! cast? BOSTWICK: There were no problems concerning fellow cast members on the workings of the show, there were some complaints that as Captain Marvel I was getting more publicity than the other performers. Bob Chenault, the producer/director of the series told me from the beginning that I would have some professional jealousy just because of the nature of the character, costume, etc. I did experience some animosity from a PR lady who represented one of the other cast members. This occurred during a personal appearance at a Christmas parade. I was in costume and getting all of the media attention, not only because I was a relative unknown at the time but also because this appearance was for children and the costume and character lent well to the spectacle. I wasn’t running around seeking the attention of the reporters and photographers. I was standing around like a “Big Red Cheese” and the “mice” were naturally attracted and curious. This PR lady took this as a direct affront to the celebrity of her client and she said I was not sharing in the accolades of the show that he was justly due. Wow, talk about a barracuda! I was not only embarrassed for her but also for my fellow cast member who, by the way, never spoke up in my defense then or later. This event took place during the first season of the show (1974) and I guess I did notice some distance from this person during the start of the second season just before my accident. This was the only time I could directly detect any problems with my fellow cast members. How many times I was shot down behind my back, I’ll never know. Thank God I have always approached my career with the feeling that “there are no small parts, only small actors.” I will always hold a

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BOSTWICK: Yes—not only do I collect Shazam! and Captain Marvel items, but I also collect antiques. I once had quite a collection of Fawcett Captain Marvel comics when I was a young lad. However, my dear mother, in her eagerness to show a mother’s love and to ensure that her son would mature to a man and give up “childish” things decided to clean out my room while I was off to college and throw out all of my comics. However, she did decide that my collection of Classics Illustrated (which had educational value) would not be swept away. But, believe me, a tremendous collection was gone; my entire baseball card collection was tossed as well. Wow, how much love can one son stand?!

FCA: Did you ever see the 1941 Republic serial, The Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler? BOSTWICK: I remember seeing the serial at a local theater and loved Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel. Some of the flying stunts were superb. I didn’t care for the costume, which was based on the Captain’s original suit. FCA: If a new big-budget Captain Marvel movie were to be made today, would you be interested in being involved with the film in some capacity or even reprise the title role? BOSTWICK: I still wear the costume as well as I did in the Seventies. The only difference is that I’ve trimmed down my body bulk. Playing the role again would be no problem with me physically, and the look is still the same. As for being part of the cast other than Marvel, I am an actor and always go under the promise that the “play is the thing.” Wherever I fit, I go. However, no current “known” actors I am aware of fit the Captain Marvel mode. FCA: To thousands of children who grew up in the Seventies, you were the World’s Mightiest Mortal. BOSTWICK: I once told Clayton Moore that I tried to give the kids of my day the same type of a hero to look up to as he did for me when I was a kid. I hope I did that. Watch for Jackson Bostwick’s autobiography, Myth, Magic and a Mortal, edited by P.C. Hamerlinck.

“A HERO TO LOOK UP TO”

C.C. Meets The Captain Jackson Bostwick, Star of TV’s Shazam! Interviewed by C.C. Beck TV producers are known to have very poor taste. The Shazam! television series was very popular in spite of poor stories, inept production, and complete disregard of the original story line. Jackson Bostwick, who played the part of Captain Marvel, gives his opinions regarding the show in the following interview. BECK: Jackson, I had nothing to do with the Shazam! TV show, but I was delighted when I saw you as the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Did you enjoy playing the part of Captain Marvel? BOSTWICK: Very much. He was one of my childhood heroes. I was happy to bring Captain Marvel to life for a new generation to enjoy.

looked up to the Lone Ranger when I was a kid. Incidentally, Clayton Moore and I are good friends. BECK: At a Dallas convention you and I played some fine country music together. How many people know that you’re a great Bluegrass banjo picker? BOSTWICK: You, me, my family... and the neighbors who bang on the walls of my apartment. BECK: As an actor, which do you believe is more important, the play you’re in or the way you perform your part? BOSTWICK: The play. “The play’s the thing,” as the old saying goes. BECK: Even a fine play can be ruined in performance. Who should be blamed when a play is ruined: The producer, the actor, or the director?

BECK: I didn’t think too much of the stories on the TV show. What did you think of them? BOSTWICK: Very unimaginative. I complained, but they only got worse. I made suggestions, which were disregarded. I could write a book on the potential the show could have had. BECK: You were a Captain Marvel fan as a child, you’ve said, but were the ones who wrote and produced the TV series Captain Marvel fans? BOSTWICK: No way! They asked me if I could supply a clever saying for Captain Marvel and I said, “Why not Holy Moley?” Then they misspelled it in the scripts! BECK: Except for your portrayal of Captain Marvel, nothing on the TV show was anything like the comic book. Why do you suppose Filmation screwed up the whole Jackson Bostwick by C.C. Beck beautiful original concept? BOSTWICK: Because the producer, the network, and the “child psychologists” had entirely different ideas about what is good for TV. For example, they thought Billy Batson was too young, so they created a Mr. Mentor character as a sort of chaperone. Then they cast a 29-yearold actor as Billy! They wouldn’t let me punch anybody, and they wouldn’t ever let us show any youngster in real danger. BECK: At least Captain Marvel himself was fine. You looked much more like him than Tom Tyler who had played the part in the 1941 Republic serial. The kids love you at conventions. Do you enjoy meeting fans?

BOSTWICK: Any one of the three can ruin a play. The producer is like the man who builds an airport, the director is like the man in the control tower, and the actor is like the pilot of a plane. I’m a pilot myself, and I know that a badly laid out airport can defeat even the best of pilots. BECK: You’re a pilot? Well, I’ve never tried flying a plane, but besides being an artist I’ve been a musician, writer, cook, bartender, and a ditch digger. Have you ever tried those jobs? BOSTWICK: No, but I’ve sold cars, taught water skiing, have a degree in Pre-Med., a year of work in Marine Biology, and I was a lieutenant in the Army. BECK: An actor’s life is about as rough as an artist’s, I believe. Do you agree? BOSTWICK: Yes. There are many bad features about acting but I have worked with some really great actors—Oscar winners—who made the rest of us feel that all the bad features were merely inconveniences to rise above. BECK: Jackson, you’re about the age I was when I began drawing Captain Marvel. But I waited forty years before I got any recognition. Are you willing to wait that long for your big break? BOSTWICK: Forty years, C.C.? Well, Marie Dressier and many others like George Burns were senior citizens before the world recognized their talent. They never gave up, you see. BECK: And neither will you, right Jackson? BOSTWICK: Right! Shazam!

BOSTWICK: Very much. I tried to give kids a hero to look up to as I

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“My Dad’s The New Captain Marvel” John Davey, Television’s 2nd Captain Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck Actors usually have at least a few weeks to prepare for a role. Not John Davey. He was starring in the Seventies’ CBS Saturday morning series, Shazam! just two hours after his agent called him asking if he wanted the job of portraying Captain Marvel, replacing last season’s Captain, actor Jackson Bostwick. Davey was home with his eightyear-old son when the call came from his agent on July 2, 1975. He was quite wary of doing a show for children. Davey decided to consult his son if he should take the part. After seeing the look on his son’s face, he thought if he could be this hero, even for a while, it would be worth it. He got directions to the set. His arrival two hours later was greeted by applause from the Shazam! crew. Before he knew it he was jumping off a ladder to simulate a flight landing and shaking his head in disbelief. After a while, his attitude about the role changed considerably. As a dad, he liked the way Captain Marvel concerned himself with helping children solve their daily dilemmas... and today he is proud to have been a part of Shazam! Now retired from acting, I talked to John about his career and his days on the set of Shazam!

childhood and young adulthood. However, sometime during those years, for some reason, born within me was the idea that I should pursue my dream of becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. It seemed a perfectly natural idea at the time, but in retrospect, I was lucky to escape that profession with even a modicum of my original brain matter still seated, though somewhat loosely, in my skull. I had my first amateur bout when I was about 12, and weighed 108 pounds. I stopped some kid from a reform school in 32 seconds of the first round, and thought I was on my way. In my next bout a year later (things seemed to move slower back then), a tough kid from Twin Falls, Idaho trimmed my sails and taught me a new word: Humility. Undeterred, I concluded that if I were to be the next Rocky Marciano, I would have to toughen up. This I did, by spending my last summer as a civilian, bucking bales in the sweltering alfalfa fields of northern Nevada. That fall I reported to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. I think it was there I got my first clue that not everybody in the world was as nice as they were in Winnemucca.

FCA: John, where were you born and what kind of John Davey by P.C. Hamerlinck. upbringing did you have? I understand you had a boxing career prior to becoming involved in acting.

JD: I walked up the creaky steps leading into the Main Street Gym in Los Angeles. I had gone there that day, specifically, to inquire as to how one would go about entering the local Golden Gloves tournament. Well, a couple of sewer rats took a long look at this rather naive white kid (by now a full-fledged heavyweight), and, concluding there wasn’t a dime to be made in the Golden Gloves, convinced me not to waste my time with “them amachurs.” Two months later I made my professional debut at the Olympic Auditorium, scoring a 2nd round knockout over a former Golden Glover himself, Ernie Ford. Four and a half years and twenty-six fights later, wiser, though somewhat beat-up, cut-up, and fed-up, I hung my boxing gloves (symbolically) on a nail in my garage. In retrospect, it was a career I

JD: I was born (quite a while ago) in Winnemucca, a small town in northeastern Nevada. My father was a rancher/miner and his work took us shortly thereafter to northern California. When I was about four, we moved back onto a cattle ranch near the Oregon-Nevada border. I lived there until I was about ten, then back to Winnemucca where I lived until I finished high school. My upbringing was, I guess, typical small town. I had, and still have, a terrific family, (with the exception of my late father who passed away when I was seventeen), and great memories of my

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FCA: What happened after the Marines?

JOHN DAVEY (1998)

could have done well without. Still, the characters I encountered, and events I experienced, were priceless. For instance, a young up-andcoming heavyweight named Cassius Clay came out to the West Coast to fight an aging Archie Moore. One day at the Main Street Gym, he borrowed a T-shirt from me, and to this day Muhammad Ali still owes me a T-shirt. I sparred with Joe Frazier, and watched a good friend (Alejandro Lavorante from Argentina) die in the ring. In fact, I’ve recently completed a novel (yes, I, like most ex-actors, have a book to sell) in which parts of the story are loosely based on some of those experiences. FCA: How did your acting career begin and how did your offer for the Captain Marvel role come about? Were you familiar at all with the character?

role without further hesitation, though I was dead sure this was the low point of my career. Turns out it was the high point. FCA: Describe your first day on the set of Shazam! JD: Well, less than two hours after talking to my agent and accepting the role, I found myself in a dressing room with a cute wardrobe girl helping me squirm into my red tights. A few minutes after that, in my first scene as Captain Marvel, I jumped from the top of a ladder onto a pad, thus simulating a landing from one of his amazing flights in the prosecution of yet another heroic deed. I was greeted very warmly on the Shazam! set, and over time forged friendships there that have endured to this day. FCA: Were there any episodes that you can recall that were particular favorites? Did you enjoy playing the role of Captain Marvel?

JD: Well, being even a journeyman white heavyweight in L.A. did have its advanJD: Not really. All the tages. Hollywood, episodes had their ever on the look out pluses and minuses, for fresh meat, and in but mostly I had a love with all types of blast doing them. My athletes, opened its elitist embarrassment doors just a crack. at accepting such a (The doors would “lowly” role soon have swung opened evolved into a rather with a bang if I had defensive pride when actually become the I saw how much joy champ, as was my and clean enteroriginal plan). I rather tainment it brought to half-heartedly kids. embarked on an acting career. I was torn FCA: Did you enjoy between actually working with the wanting to succeed at Shazam! cast: Les it, and feeling in my Tremayne (Mentor) heart that it was a and Michael Gray “sissy” pursuit and (Billy Batson)? not worth serious JD: Les Tremayne is effort. I’m not sure, all one of the finest these years later, if my human beings I’ve dilemma wasn’t ever had the pleasure justified. Anyway, I of meeting, much less had good and bad having the good years doing mostly fortune of working insignificant parts in with. Les has a great insignificant episodic sense of humor, he’s a TV shows and wonderful storyteller, commercials. My first “...A lovely and intelligent woman.” Joanna Cameron as Isis. Illustration by P.C. Hamerlinck. and a loyal and marriage went south, [©2001 Hallmark] generous friend. I and, while hanging out didn’t get to know in my apartment one Mike Gray quite as well as I did Les, but he was also terrific to work day with my eight-year-old son, Tom, the phone rang. It was my agent, with. He definitely had a “devil’s streak” that surfaced at the oddest Ivan Green. He informed me that Meryl O’Laughlin, casting director for moments, and no one on the set was safe when Mike’s fiendish mind was Filmation Studios had called and wanted me immediately on the set of at work. I don’t keep in as close touch with him as I do Les, but we still Shazam!, on location in Topanga Park. “Excuse me?” I said. Ivan went speak occasionally. on to tell me that they wanted me for the part of Captain Marvel, replacing Jackson Bostwick. “Excuse me?” I repeated. Though, as a kid, I had read my share of Captain Marvel comic books, I assumed the format for the show would be along the lines of Captain Kangaroo, or Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I held my hand over the mouthpiece of the phone while I conferred with my son to see if I should accept the part. His reaction (jumping around the room) spurred me to accept the

“MY DAD’S THE NEW CAPTAIN MARVEL”

FCA: You did a few crossover episodes with Isis, portrayed by Joanna Cameron. What do you remember about working with her? JD: Joanna Cameron, while a little aloof at first, turned out to be quite a lovely and intelligent woman. I think she was a little guarded, actually, because, frankly, everyone was trying to “get in her pants.” (Bill Clinton

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thinks you’re nuts!”

hadn’t yet cornered the market on boorish behavior.) Though Joanna and I never became close friends, I believe there was a mutual fondness and respect.

FCA: Tell me about some of your other acting jobs, before and after Shazam! A friend told me he once saw you in a Taco Bell commercial.

FCA: Have you ever met Jackson Bostwick, the first Captain Marvel of the series who you replaced? JD: While I met Jackson Bostwick on a couple of occasions, I never really spent enough time with him to get to know him. He seemed like a nice enough guy. In fact, after returning home from that first day’s shoot on the Shazam! set, my son ran to the phone and called one of his friends. “Guess what?” he said. “My dad’s the new Captain Marvel! The real Captain Marvel got fired!” FCA: With the popularity of Shazam! and it being the number one show on Saturday mornings at that time, did you get the opportunity to meet any of the fans?

JD: During the hiatus between shooting seasons, the cast would often go on personal appearance tours, usually to auto shows, family entertainment parks, shopping malls, and so on. These were often experiences that edged on the bizarre. Once in El Paso, I came within seconds of launching a comeback to my boxing career when I was razzed by some liquored-up rednecks who queried as to how anyone could “git up on a public stage dressed like a @#%*! faggot!” I replied that my motivation sprang from the fact that my paycheck had more numbers in it that they could possibly count without taking off their boots. (Actually, I wasn’t paid all that much, but what the heck!). I think my funniest experience, though, happened at an auto show in Nashville. After most of the kids had had their fill of Captain Marvel, they all sort of wandered away, more or less leaving me in peace. I noticed a little boy, about six years old, lurking nearby with his sister, who looked to be about eight. He just stood there, staring at me, but made no move to approach me or to acquaint himself with me in any way. By now I had been on a few of these appearances, and I figured I knew his problem: Shyness. “Come on over,” I said, but he didn’t move. He just stood there, staring. “Would you like to shake hands?” I asked. Nothing. “Come on over here, I’d like to meet you,” I said. Again nothing. “What’s your name?” I asked. Still nothing. Finally I turned to his sister. “What’s his name?” I asked. “Its Billy,” she answered in a thick Tennessee drawl. “Is he bashful?” I asked. “No,” she answered. “He

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JD: The work I did before and after Shazam! all kind of runs together in my mind. Your friend probably did see me in a Taco Bell commercial. I did a lot of commercials, including one for Pioneer Chicken with America’s sweetheart, O.J. Simpson. Probably the closest I got to legitimacy as far as being an actor goes, were two films directed by Robert Altman: Three Women, The Long Goodbye, and one directed by Robert Benton, The Late Show. Everything else was pretty pedestrian: Barnaby Jones, a few Rockford Files, C.H.I.P.s, S.W.A.T., Night Gallery, and who knows what else. It finally dawned on me that being a starving young actor holds no more romance than being a starving old actor, so a few years ago, I packed up and moved with my wife, Linda, two cats and a dog, up to a ten acre place in the Sierra Foothills above Yuba City heading toward Reno. I’m happy as a clam here, and don’t miss Holly-weird one bit. In fact, a couple of years ago, a dear friend of mine passed away, requiring me to head back to L.A. for the funeral. At the wake, after a few “toasts” to the departed, I made the announcement that if any more of my friends intended to die or get married, they’d better darned-well get to it, because I wasn’t coming back! FCA: What do you do currently? JD: I’m working in a small real estate office in the foothills, where I can often be found, leaning back in my chair, hoping the phone doesn’t ring. I also do some writing as I mentioned before. I’m not really disciplined enough, but I enjoy the self-regulated aggravation. FCA: Any final words on Shazam! or your opinion of today’s television shows? JD: I’m proud and grateful for the privilege of having worked in the “biz” and of doing Shazam!, but I’m glad to be out of the pit. My opinion of TV today? Pretty sad. Well, except for Seinfeld, which at least admits it’s about nothing.

JOHN DAVEY

Elders Fleet, Strong And Wise Michael Gray, TV’s Billy Batson Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck FCA: Michael, where were you born, where did you go to school and when did you first become interested in acting? MG: I was born in Chicago. I went to school in Miami Beach, Florida, which is also where I got my first acting experience by working in local theaters.

FCA: Shazam! tried to teach as well as entertain children. Your comments regarding the scripts were there any favorite episodes of yours that come to mind? MG: I liked all of the scripts and I had several favorite episodes, one in particular was “Little Boy Lost.”

FCA: What were some of your television roles prior to the Shazam! TV series? MG: Immediately before Shazam! I was doing another TV series called The Little People, with Brian Keith who played a pediatrician in Hawaii and I played his office assistant. Before that, I was doing a lot of episodic guest-type roles on various Seventies’ TV shows such as Room 222, Marcus Welby M.D., The Flying Nun, The Brady Bunch, and others. There was also Run, Simon, Run with Burt Reynolds where I played his brother. FCA: How did you get the role of Billy Batson? How old were you at the time? MG: Filmation Studios called me into their San Fernando Valley office where I was interviewed by the two executive producers, Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott. I got the part shortly thereafter. I was in my mid-’20s at the time. FCA: The comic book version of Billy is younger. Were you familiar with the characters of Billy Batson and Captain Marvel before you got the part? MG: Yes, I knew of the characters from Shazam! comics before I got the role. On the show, Billy was 16 or 17 so I was a lot older than what I played. At that time I was being featured in all the teenage magazines like Tiger Beat and 16 who all knocked 5 years off my life. They hired Jackson Bostwick as Captain Marvel after me as they wanted my alter ego to look something like me as an adult. FCA: Were you surprised at the success of Shazam! series? MG: Yes, all of us were. Not only was it popular with kids 5 to 12, but also because of the teen magazines and because of Captain Marvel’s popularity from the Forties, the show’s demographics were quite wide. I had no idea how popular the show was until we starting making personal appearances and attending parades all over the country after shooting the second season of Shazam!

MICHAEL GRAY (1996)

Michael Gray by P.C. Hamerlinck.

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FCA: John Davey replaced Jackson Bostwick during the second season. Your comments on these two actors who portrayed Captain Marvel? MG: Both were fine and a pleasure to work with. Jackson was good and looked the part. He was very serious and very into his work. John was bigger and older than Jackson was. A good person with a good heart and a great sense of humor. FCA: Les Tremayne, the veteran radio/film actor who played the part of Mentor told me you two hit it off perfectly from the very beginning. Your on-screen chemistry was evident. MG: Les is wonderful. We had a lot of fun working together. We have maintained our friendship for over 22 years now. We still talk and see each other often. I’ll never forget the time Les was up in a tree for a scene. Red ants had started to crawl all over him, yet he kept on acting. I guess you had to be there! FCA: Shazam! was cancelled after three successful seasons. How did you feel when the show ended and what are you doing today? MG: I was sorry the show ended. I miss it and miss working with the others. I enjoyed working

at Filmation and I liked everyone involved with Shazam! It was such a low budget show that it probably just got too expensive for Filmation to produce. I think it would have been a long-running series had they kept it on. Afterwards, it was impossible to find other acting roles. I’d become typecast and I couldn’t get work. Today, I own a very successful floral shop with my wife. We cater to many of Hollywood’s top celebrities and studios... but I’d rather be acting. FCA: Thanks for your time, Michael. MG: Thanks for remembering.

Michael Gray by C.C. Beck.

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ELDERS FLEET, STRONG AND WISE

C.C. Beck (1910-1989) I was born in 1910 and joined Fawcett Publications in the middle of the Great Depression and worked on their humor magazines. In late 1939 I started drawing Captain Marvel, Ibis, and Spy Smasher for the first issue of Whiz Comics. Within a few months the comic department had expanded to a point where I was made chief artist in charge of all Captain Marvel illustration. Assisting me were Pete Costanza, Marc Swayze, Ed Robbins, and many other able artists. Jack Binder’s studio also supplied art, as did several more freelance artists. All scripts were supplied by freelance writers under the direction of editors Bill Parker, Ed Herron, Rod Reed, and Wendell Crowley.

Beck moved to Florida, and the years that followed were self-described by Beck as “the dark years.” He worked several different jobs and became obscure.

Except for myself and some editors, Fawcett saw no point in giving name credit to workmen whom they considered of no more importance than printers or engravers. We all worked in the dark, so to speak. We were never permitted to see any fan letters, and we were not consulted on stories. If we ever met any workmen from rival companies we were careful not to let Fawcett know about it. The Golden Age was, to me, about like the days of galley slaves. We were paid miserably and we were treated like unskilled factory workers. When the Golden Age ended we were all relieved, although we were out of work and many of us almost starved to death until we found other jobs. In my opinion, the Golden Age is golden only in retrospect. —C.C. Beck

As long as old comics—and reprints of old comics—exist, C.C. Beck’s memory will live on... but C.C.’s generosity and goodwill is his true legacy to countless fans. Charles Clarence Beck was born June 8, 1910, in Zumbrota, Minnesota. Throughout his formative years Beck demonstrated an interest and flair for art and was encouraged to pursue the field by his parents, a Lutheran minister and a teacher. At 18 he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. While in art school Beck worked at various jobs, including drawing cartoon characters onto lampshades and landing a position with Norman Mingo’s studio. When Mingo moved his headquarters to New York, Beck moved back to live with his parents in Minneapolis and attend the University of Minnesota. In 1933 Beck went to work with Minnesota-based Fawcett Publications where he drew cartoons for Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang and Fawcett’s other

C.C. BECK (1989)

humor magazines. He moved with the company when they relocated to the East Coast in 1936. Fawcett entered the comic book field in February 1940 with the debut of Whiz Comics, where Beck collaborated with Bill Parker to create one of the greatest and most successful comic book characters of all time, Captain Marvel. Beck became Captain Marvel’s chief artist for 13 years until Fawcett discontinued their line of comic books in 1953.

He made only two other forays into the world of comic books. In 1967 he joined other former Fawcett personnel to produce three issues of Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer. His final return to comics reintroduced Captain Marvel to a new generation in Shazam! published in 1973 by DC Comics (the very company that was set out to destroy Captain Marvel during his career at Fawcett through years of litigation in courtrooms). His tenure with DC led to bitterness and disappointment and, after ten issues of being disgusted with the poor writing in Shazam!, he sorrowfully had to say goodbye to Captain Marvel again. Beck began receiving recognition and fame for his Captain Marvel work. He was interviewed on television, radio and newspapers and was invited as the guest of honor at comic conventions throughout the country. Beck was known for his strong convictions and his beliefs on what constituted good art and writing. “My art is boiled down, condensed to the bare bones,” he once said. During his later years Beck produced beautiful paintings commissioned by fans which recreated famous comic book covers from the Forties. In 1980 Beck became editor of Bernie McCarty’s FCA-Fawcett Collectors of America newsletter for 19 issues. Beck also went on to write a regular column for The Comics Journal and formed a discussion group—The Critical Circle—with Trina Robbins, Dick Lupoff, Jerry DeFuccio, P.C. Hamerlinck and other professionals and fans around the country. He died on November 23, 1989. Beck was elected into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1993.

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The World’s Mightiest Opinions C.C. Beck Remembered by P.C. Hamerlinck “Shazam!” became a household word when Bill Parker and C.C. Beck created Captain Marvel for the debut issue of Fawcett’s Whiz Comics in 1940, along with Spy Smasher and Ibis The Invincible. C.C. BECK: I based the characters on famous actors of the time because I knew I couldn’t really create a character out of my head. Nobody can create a character; characters create themselves in answer to what the people are looking for. At that time, Fred MacMurray was a very popular actor and I used him as a basis for Captain Marvel. He had kind of a slanted forehead, wavy hair, and a big chin. Beck used other actors as well. Errol Flynn was his model for Spy Smasher; Tyrone Power in the guise of Ibis the Invincible. Beck’s simple, comic strip art style only added to Captain Marvel’s success. While other artists drew their characters with “poker faces,” Beck drew his with the

more whimsical “shoe-button eye” style more commonly associated with Little Orphan Annie and Barney Google newspaper strips. Beck developed this comic strip style while [©2001 DC Comics] working at his first illustrating job. After graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, Beck was hand painting comic strip characters on lampshades. Eventually finding his way to Fawcett Publications and captivating Americans young and old with his wonderful work on Captain Marvel for 13 years, Beck developed strong opinions about comics and the role of illustration in storytelling. He believed it’s the story, not the artwork, which determines the quality of a comic book. C.C. BECK: Today’s artists are better than ever, but they’re not suited for the job. They’re like good-looking people who can’t act in a movie. And when you give them a terrible movie, which is what they’re giving them today in comics—terrible scripts— the result is just absolute mindless, worthless trash. Beck’s last days with Captain Marvel were in the early Seventies when DC Comics revived the character. Beck was given no control and had very little input to the character that he knew better than anyone. Disenchanted with editorial decisions and poorly written scripts, he stayed for only ten issues of Shazam! Beck’s harsh criticism of DC continued up until his death in 1989 in FCA, The Comics Journal and other publications. C.C. BECK: Over the years, DC comic books have been less and less aimed at 10-year-old readers and more and more at older readers with retarded minds. People are always making the mistake of underestimating the intelligence of children. Beck’s feelings on contemporary comics were not all negative. He found great delight in the Bloom County and Doonesbury newspaper strips.

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C.C. BECK: Both of them are picking up on present-day issues and making good satire out of them. Those guys know how to do it; by indirection, by suggestion, by letting the reader come to their own conclusions. You let the reader imagine. You don’t illustrate anything you don’t have to!

THE WORLD’S MIGHTIEST OPINIONS (1996)

I’ll Never Forget C.C. Beck C.C. Beck, Captain Marvel’s Chief Artist Interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck I greatly valued my friendship with C.C. Beck. I conducted this interview with C.C. in 1979. It was originally published in a comics fanzine from Brazil. —PCH PCH: What method do you use to draw? BECK: I try to do things in the simplest way possible. I do this by drawing and re-drawing the same things several times, eliminating lines, shadows and details until only the most important parts are completed. That’s the way I work. I can draw a scene a dozen times until I consider it perfect. Then I transfer it to the drawing board and cover it with a napkin. Sometimes I repeat this operation two or three times until the design is satisfactory, because I won’t do scrawls for the public. When I was drawing heads of Captain Marvel for people, I’d spend an hour or more at this task. They couldn’t believe that it would take me that long; they thought I could just draw them in a few seconds like Jack Kirby and others were doing. Naturally, I couldn’t compete with Kirby’s speed. PCH: What’s your opinion of Jack Kirby’s artwork? BECK: Jack had an influence on comic art the

same way that Michelangelo did in religious art. Both were excellent artists, but their influence was ominous. Both went as far as possible into distortion, emotions, violence and savage art. Thus, they wiped out all the inhibitions of their followers, who proceeded to imitate them. The quantity of artists who followed the school of Michelangelo was considerable. Cellini was one of them, and his statues are formless, grotesque parodies. Kirby’s imitators are the artists who draw their characters with an enormous clenched fist coming straight at you and the other fist smaller; these heroes are seen fighting their own shadows or throwing their closed fists around instead of doing something useful. PCH: How old were you when you drew the first Captain Marvel story?

C.C. Beck with his granddaughter Dee Dee at the 1981 OrlandoCon. (Photo by Bill Black).

I’LL NEVER FORGET C.C. BECK (1979)

BECK: I was 29 when Whiz Comics was launched. The comics in Whiz were all serious, with a light humorous touch. Captain

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Marvel always remained in that style and wasn’t a simple parody as many people think. DC made him into a clown. In 1953 when Fawcett stopped publishing comic books, Otto Binder and I attempted to do a Mr. Tawny syndicated strip but all they wanted was soap opera and romance material. Those who’ve come up with a great idea like Gulliver’s Travels, Gone With The Wind, Superman, Tarzan, Hopalong Cassidy and Captain Marvel, were tremendously successful. Executives are surprised. Then they hire specialists and spend thousands of dollars to produce more successes with disastrous results. They abuse the creative capacities of the writers, artists and actors. Within a few months everything goes back to the way it was: Useless, insipid, stupid and imbecilic. That’s the way the world goes. PCH: What do you think about comic book publishers?

PCH: Does making a career in comic books represent a good future for young people today? BECK: I’ve seen many young folks embrace a comics career and in a few years they’re doing great work. But the pay is terrible, less than in 1940. PCH: What do you feel are the shortcomings of current comic book artists? CC: They preoccupy themselves with executing a work of embellished artistic quality instead of trying to find out how to tell a story. All the technical expertise is useless if you’re not trying to learn how to do something with that knowledge. The error at DC is that they never know how to do anything, producing an enormous quantity of insipid art. For this reason all their stuff is useless. They overuse shadows, perspective technique, composition, never turning away from anything they consider “artistic.”

BECK: All the publishers of comics, as well as movie and TV producers, forget that the main thing is to have a good story. An excellent artistic work, a lot of action, romantic music and beautiful scenery mean nothing without a good plot. The stories of 1979 are as bad as they were in 1938, before Siegel and Shuster came along. They did a good job, but DC replaced them and began to debase their greatest creation— Superman. DC has ruined all the good things they’ve ever controlled. So did Republic Pictures and the producers of the Shazam! TV series. They didn’t consult or listen to anyone and “...they forced us to get rid of Billy Batson’s pal, Steamboat.” they produced nonsense. [©2001 DC Comics]

PCH: What were the main reasons why Captain Marvel was not successful at DC? BECK: Captain Marvel at Fawcett was always shown doing something interesting, making it easy to illustrate his actions; the opposite happened to Captain Marvel at DC. DC gave Siegel, Shuster, Kirby and many others, especially Otto Binder, the worst treatment possible. They perverted Otto’s creativity and treated him like a dog. The writers and artists who have any value today won’t have anything to do with DC. I talked to Gil Kane at a convention recently in Miami. He said that comics are being produced mechanically—a line of products without personality, in surroundings with no significance. Stan Lee, however, has produced excellent material. PCH: In the mid-Sixties you returned briefly to the world of comics, illustrating Fatman The Human Flying Saucer for Milson. Why did the comic last only three issues? BECK: Fatman was a failure because Milson didn’t have the distributors. No one was able to buy the book because no one could find it on the newsstands. PCH: Do you keep any kind of archive of your past comic book work? BECK: I don’t have any old copies of books with my work, but I can borrow them from some friends. Many of the old comics are quite superior to the new. I doubt that any of the current comics will ever be of any value. They have too few pages and an enormous amount of advertising. And even when the artistic quality is good, the stories and characters are ridiculous.

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PCH: Why did you, along with Pete Costanza, open your own studio in the Forties? BECK: It was Fawcett’s suggestion. They realized I couldn’t make a living doing creative work on an artists’ salary. For this reason, all our work was as freelancers. The artists received payment for work done, and this always kept them efficient. PCH: Did your studio just produce comics?

BECK: Pete Costanza and I were illustrators, and thus we drew whatever was necessary, whether it was serious or comical, beautiful or ugly. But we didn’t adopt a pattern for everything. If a comic didn’t require shadows and vast scenery, we didn’t put them in. PCH: What was your impression of Mac Raboy and his artwork? BECK: Raboy was a rebel... somewhat of a hippie. He was always upset with the world against him. So he drew everything beautiful, even the villains. PCH: What didn’t you like about Fawcett comics? BECK: All of us at Fawcett always liked to produce a good comic. We liked excitement, adventures, strange locations and interesting people. We didn’t like war propaganda, sermons about crime and racial equality and other worthless stuff the publishers were always experimenting with. We were left alone the majority of the time, although they forced us to get rid of Billy Batson’s pal, Steamboat. PCH: Why was Mr. Mind the ideal character? BECK: Because no worm could object to him! Mr. Mind survived by being a worm. That’s the truth. We weren’t doing anything special for him just because he was a worm, any more than we’d do for specific nationality. But when DC did Mr. Mind they missed the whole point and merely had him demonstrate his wormlike qualities. Another thing: At Fawcett, first and foremost, we told an interesting story. We weren’t infatuated with Captain Marvel’s powers like how the character is handled now. Most of Superman—The Movie proceeded in the same

I’LL NEVER FORGET C.C. BECK

manner. Superman didn’t do anything except fly around and show off. It was very stupid. PCH: Do you feel humor is lacking in current comic books? BECK: Yes. But if you look at the fanzines you’ll see that humor is alive and well therein... and never at the desks of comic book companies. PCH: Whose idea was it to put Superman on the cover of Shazam! #1? Also in Shazam! #1, Billy Batson appears younger. BECK: It was Carmine Infantino’s idea to put Superman on the cover. DC’s Billy is more infantile and naive appearing so he seems younger than the Fawcett version. PCH: Were you salaried or paid by the page at DC?

PCH: The majority of the Fawcett stories reprinted in Shazam! were from the late Forties and early Fifties. Why weren’t earlier Captain Marvel stories reprinted? BECK: I have no knowledge of DC’s reprint policy. Perhaps there was too much minority stereotyping in the older stories. PCH: What did you do after Fawcett ceased publishing comic books? BECK: I mostly did commercial art, including doing pastels and retouching photos. I always liked that type of work. Cartooning was always just a secondary field for me. One of the secrets of art is to know when to stop. Fawcett knew when to stop. DC doesn’t. PCH: Are you still in contact with any of your old Fawcett friends.

PCH: Some of the better Shazam! stories were “The Wizard of Phonograph Hill” and “What’s in a Name? Doomsday!” What did you think about them?

BECK: I’m still in contact with the versatile Marc Swayze and occasionally I hear from Rod Reed, Kurt Schaffenberger and a couple of others, but very seldom. I haven’t seen Will Lieberson since I drew Fatman. Wendell Crowley, Otto Binder and most of the others have already passed away. All of them were fine people, brilliant and talented. Now all of my friends are young people such as yourself.

BECK: Those DC stories were good, but too juvenile. At Fawcett, we directed our comics at an older public, not always at 8-year-olds.

PCH: When you designed Captain Marvel’s costume, did you also choose the colors for it?

BECK: I was paid by the page and they returned the originals to me, which I then sold to a dealer.

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use the best artists or actors. All actors know this and some artists do, too. But editors and publishers don’t. PCH: Were you present during any of the court proceedings brought on by DC claiming that Captain Marvel was a copyright infringement of Superman?

BECK: I don’t remember, however, I did the color guide for the first issue of Whiz Comics so I must have had something to do with it. PCH: At DC you penciled, inked, and did your own lettering. Did you also design the Shazam! title lettering? BECK: No, DC used one of their own artists. PCH: What can you tell me about your unpublished comic strip collaboration with Don Newton and Denny O’Neil for National Lampoon called “The Silencing of the Shazam Slayer”?

BECK: I was there during the judgment and I thought it repugnant. It was impossible to establish anything to the court. There was a jury but all the jurors were incompetent to make any considerations about comics. The lawyers and judge could understand copyright laws but nothing more than that. Every esteemed individual was attacked, vilified and transformed into a dunce. Things haven’t changed much. In ancient times the question was brought before the king and if you didn’t like his decision, you could defy it by fighting his champion. It didn’t matter if you were weak or old. You’d hire a champion to fight in your place. Sometimes nothing was determined. The fights lasted for years and many of them continue even today in places like Ireland, Palestine, etc. Preferences don’t change despite what some people think. The general public don’t know what they like. When you permit the public to decide things, they make the worst possible choices. For this reason I don’t believe in research and market surveys. No expert knows in advance what the public might want, but a competent expert would refuse to produce nonsense. In this manner he’d die of hunger while attorneys, bankers and politicians get richer. Soon, everything collapses and they start all over again. In the meantime, some of us go back to producing imaginative things, but the public has gone off bowling and to the discos. PCH: What message would you like to send to other artists? BECK: My conviction is that we have all the talent that we can get by age 5. Like musicians, we spend the rest of our lives learning what to do with our talent. And that’s all. Our battle never ends.

BECK: The strip for National Lampoon wasn’t very good work and I’m not proud of it. PCH: What can you tell me about the writers you worked with at Fawcett? BECK: William Woolfolk wrote about fantasy and witchcraft. Rod Reed wrote humor. Others supplied us with mystery and adventure tales. Otto Binder was the best at science-fiction and exotic stuff, such as Mr. Tawny and Mr. Mind. I’ve always said that art alone is nothing. Art is visible like an actor is. But in reality what counts are the gags and stories. If you have a good story and know how to tell it well, you’ll be successful. If not, it’ll be a disaster. If you have a bad story it won’t make any difference if you

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I’LL NEVER FORGET C.C. BECK

We Just Called Him “Beck” By Marc Swayze Most of us just called him “Beck.” Now and then you might hear a “C.C.” and once in a while even a “Clarence.” But generally it was just “Beck.” I was introduced to him in 1941 by Eddie Herron, Fawcett comics editor, and by Al Allard, art director, to whom I was to report. My major assignment was clear: “Help Beck get out the Captain Marvel stuff!” The Fawcett editorial offices, art staff and comics department were located in the Paramount Building in New York. The art department consisted of 20 to 25 artists, most of whom were assigned to the numerous magazines (other than comics). Only Beck, Pete Costanza, Mac Raboy and perhaps one or two other artists were working on the comics. Pete was called into the armed services shortly after my arrival. One of the first projects Beck and I joined forces on was “Captain Marvel and the Return of the Scorpion” Dime Action Book (the book’s format being that of a Big Little Book). It apparently had a deadline of “yesterday” because Beck and I worked evenings and a weekend to finish it. It was the beginning of a 48-year friendship. Looking back I think my employment at Fawcett Publications may, at first, have been a bother to Beck. For one thing, although he was the undisputed chief artist on the Captain Marvel feature, I was not responsible to him, but to Al Allard. It must have annoyed Beck to see me working on an occasional illustration for one of the non-comic magazines. Secondly, Beck was attempting to put together an assembly line system for the Captain Marvel books and I was not a good assembly line artist. I didn’t like to pencil another’s layouts, ink someone’s penciling or have someone else pencil or ink the major sections of my layouts. However, if Beck ever held any resentment about the situation, and such a possibility occurred to me only years later, he never once indicated it.

C.C. Beck (photo by Bill Black) Why didn’t he? Because the man was a professional... and I don’t use the word casually. In my first weeks at Fawcett we talked while working, at lunch, after work and any other times that were available. The topic, of course, was comics and we saw eye-to-eye on just about every aspect... storytelling, regulated action, characterization, backgrounds, style—you name it, Beck and I covered it! During that time I developed a tremendous respect for the man and I truly believe it was mutual. Music turned out to be another common interest. Several of the staff and I had formed a combo and when Beck learned about it he borrowed a string bass, learned to play it fairly well in a couple of nights and joined the group.

WE JUST CALLED HIM “BECK” (1990)

When I returned from the armed services, Beck was producing Captain Marvel from the 44th Street location. Although he offered me an idle drawing table in his shop temporarily for the freelance work I

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Beck I knew! After some thought I arrived at this conclusion: The difference was between the written word and the spoken word. Beck had a manner of speaking from the side of his mouth, with a hint of a smile, and following his remarks with a little chuckle. That very manner of his, impossible to express in writing, made all the difference in the world! In his criticisms he was not being bitter or disillusioned! He merely exercised his American right to gripe and complain. However, without his little chuckle the printed word came across as “take it or leave it!” quips. Life had been good to Beck and he knew it and was grateful for it. He was blessed with a wonderful wife and children and he was dedicated to them and they to him. That was Beck.

was doing, I don’t think he ever understood my decision not to join his group. We lost touch somewhat in the years after Beck left comics. He later described his leaving comics due to advice from a friend or relative advising him to “get out of the racket and get to the real people.” So he moved to Florida and opened a bar. Through mutual pal, Rod Reed, and later Bernie McCarty, we kept up with each other and were grateful for that. In the past decade or so Beck and his wife, Hildur, visited us and proved to me that he had not really changed. Older, yes, but still as original and dynamic as of old. After Hildur died he never visited again. Beck was soft-spoken. In all the years I knew him I never heard him raise his voice. He was completely unpretentious. He was quick to see humor in life. In one of his visits here he had just returned from having been an honored guest at a comic convention. He spoke of the occasion with a little chuckle; “I’ve worked all my life for pennies and got nowhere... and here I am, an old man, and I’m famous!” Beck was a craftsman and he had the determination to do just about anything he wanted. Along with teaching himself to play several musical instruments he also developed his original tuning and fingering system for playing the guitar. He also could make extremely realistic antique weapons out of paperboard. Beck was an unusual person, small in stature, wiry, quick-witted and, as can be determined from his FCA editorials, ironclad in his convictions and downright vitriolic in expressing them! Over the years I have been concerned over the image readers might draw of Beck from reading his interviews and editorials. I knew him as a clever, intelligent, amusing individual, a truly warm person to be around. Outspoken, yes, but never bitter or disillusioned! However, his writings and interviews gave a completely different picture from the

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WE JUST CALLED HIM “BECK”

Ask C.C. FCA: You’ve been interviewed many, many times over the years. What’s the first question people always ask? BECK: How I created Captain Marvel! I always tell people that the idea was our publisher’s (Fawcett), not mine nor writer Bill Parker’s. If we would’ve had our way, Captain Marvel might have been quite different. FCA: In what way? BECK: In the first place, he wouldn’t have worn long red underwear. In the early issues his top was more like a jacket, but later he had to wear tights, just like all the other comic characters. And there was really no need for him to fly through the air and to knock down buildings and fight whole armies single-handed and all that sort of thing. But Fawcett insisted that we put such ridiculous stuff in the stories. The writers, editors, and artists all tried to give the publisher something better, and we had to sort of sneak in the material that made Captain Marvel really great... the human interest stuff. FCA: In your opinion, what happens to Billy Batson after speaking the magic word “Shazam!”? Does Captain Marvel take his place (if so, where does Billy go?) or does Billy actually turn into “The Big Red Cheese”? BECK: In the first issue of Whiz Comics old Shazam told Billy that by speaking his name he would become Captain Marvel and vice versa. It was that simple; I don’t know why anyone ever felt the need to analyze it. FCA: Why do Mary and Freddy look the same as their counterparts after speaking their magic words, yet Billy becomes an adult as Captain Marvel? And why is Capt. Marvel Jr.’s costume blue instead of red? [©2001 DC Comics] BECK: Why Mary and Freddy looked the same and why Junior’s costume was blue was because the Fawcett management ordered them to. We workers in the art department at Fawcett had nothing to say about such affairs and I had no voice in such matters.

FCA: Was there ever any discussion back then of Captain Marvel animated cartoons similar to the Superman series created by the Fleischers for Paramount?

ASK C.C. (1986)

BECK: Again, I have no idea what went on in the Fawcett offices concerning movies or anything else. Everything Fawcett did was kept secret from us workers. We were not consulted on anything. FCA: Who was responsible for Fawcett comics’ change in layout, e.g., downsizing the artwork, as opposed to the larger layout from early Fawcett comics? BECK: The size of the panels was determined by the number of panels per page, which was decided by the editors and writers, not by any artists. I have always felt that the success of the original Captain Marvel was due to the wonderful stories that he appeared in during the Golden Age. When I worked for DC in the Seventies, the stories were awful and I could do nothing with them, as everyone knows. FCA: In the past you’ve stated your distaste for the 1941 Captain Marvel serial by Republic Pictures. In 1950 you drew a special comic book based on the movie, The Good Humor Man. What did you think of this film? BECK: This movie—which contained references to Captain Marvel (who was called “Niatpac Levram” in the movie)—featured Jack Carson as a dimwitted comic book reader who sold Good Humor ice cream to kids from his truck. It was a pretty stupid movie and was made solely to attract readers of the Captain Marvel comic books, whom it treated as a bunch of empty-headed juveniles who rode around on bicycles shouting “Niatpac Levram!” at the tops of their voices. The Good Humor Man was not as bad as the Captain Marvel serial, however, which bore not the slightest resemblance to the comic book. Both movies were made without any consultation with Fawcett’s editors, writers, or artists. I received no compensation at all and had to buy a ticket to see The Good Humor Man. Then the theater manager refused to give me back my money when I asked for it. FCA: How many people were involved in the production of Captain Marvel stories? BECK: There must have been fifty or maybe a hundred over the years. After the first few issues of Whiz Comics, Fawcett farmed some of the artwork out to guys like Jack Kirby and George Tuska. Later they hired

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all kinds of people to help write and draw Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, and the others. I worked solely on the Captain Marvel stories and occasionally Marvel Family stories, along with a bunch of assistants. FCA: Eventually you became the only Fawcett artist who received any kind of name recognition in the comics. How did you become “chief artist”? BECK: Although I didn’t know it, Captain Marvel was a big hit right from the start. Other publishers began trying to hire me away from Fawcett, at a salary two or three times what I was getting. Thus, Fawcett set me up with my own studio, at a page rate which was considered enormous in those days— fifty dollars—and they gave me name credit as chief artist. While I considered it an honor at the time, I now realize that they were actually just trying to tie me down. If I had left Fawcett, they’d probably have made things difficult for me to work elsewhere. That’s a common practice in business deals.

Binder, Bill Woolfolk, and Rod Reed among the writers, and Wendell Crowley and some other fine editors really were the people who made Captain Marvel successful. FCA: You’re too modest, C.C. Everybody today can see your wonderful touches in the artwork. You’ve even said that you and Costanza did most of the Captain Marvel stories. BECK: Yes, in the early years, before the war, and in the late Forties and the early Fifties. During the war years, everybody and his brother worked on the pages! Some of the art during that period was terrible. FCA: But those were the biggest years in the Golden Age of comics. Captain Marvel was selling in the millions by then. How do you explain that? BECK: It’s my belief that when you’re reading comics you see the drawings only out of the corners of your eyes. If the story is good, nobody stops to admire the art. Our stories were so good that a kid could have drawn them.

FCA: Who were some of the other artists who worked on Captain Marvel?

FCA: You don’t really mean that, do you?

BECK: Pete Costanza, Marc Swayze, Bob Boyajian, Ken Bald, Al Fagaly, Ed Robbins, Al McLean and many others. During the war years, artists came and went like leaves in a hurricane. FCA: With all those different artists drawing the Big Red Cheese at the time, what was your main job duty? [©2001 DC Comics]

BECK: Mostly meeting the payroll. I often had to go to a bank for a loan. Fortunately, my credit was good in those days. Everybody knew that Captain Marvel was a million-dollar business... everybody but me, that is. Fawcett never told me anything, never asked my advice, never consulted me. I was never in a story conference. I knew nothing about the Captain Marvel movie serial. I mostly ran around giving chalk talks at meetings, interviewing potential artists, and if I had time, redraw the heads on the artwork done by the other artists.

BECK: Well, not exactly. You see, most of us artists from the Golden Age had all been illustrators before we got into comics. Our writers were all experienced in other kinds of writing... science-fiction, detective, western, and so on. Artists from the fine arts field, if they haven’t studied illustration, make lousy comic artists. And writers who have never done anything but comic book writing are, in my opinion, mostly lousy writers. FCA: You’re known for having strong convictions and being very opinionated. Some people have called you bitter, narrow-minded and old-fashioned. Do you resent such remarks? BECK: No, they’re all true, except that I’m not bitter. It really hurts me to see young writers following the path to oblivion by writing whooped-up, silly stories which are illustrated by other young people who don’t know rule one about illustrating.

FCA: Do you feel you had very little to do with the success of Captain Marvel?

FCA: Can you explain that a little better? What’s rule one?

BECK: Very little. I give all credit to the writers and editors. Otto

BECK: The first rule of illustration is: Don’t give your story away. You must not be too detailed or too “graphic.” You must suggest or imply,

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ASK C.C.

and not show every little detail. Rule two is: Keep your story moving. You must keep the reader turning the pages, not bring them to a screeching halt with a huge display of fancy artwork that will take them a half hour to figure out. Rule three is: Don’t try to show action. Show the moments before and after the action; in other words, the cause and the effect. When the action itself is shown, everything comes to a halt. No matter how beautifully the panels of a comic may be drawn, if they don’t add to the story, they’re worthless. FCA: Don’t you like beautiful and detailed artwork at all? BECK: Oh, I love beautiful artwork... in its place. Beautiful artwork belongs in art galleries and museums [©2001 DC Comics] and in picture books, albums and such things... not in comic books, in my opinion. FCA: How did you formulate this opinion? BECK: From books on the history of art, literature, astronomy, religion, fashion, and many other fields. Over and over, history shows, things have gone downhill when they get so overdone and overworked that they lose all meaning. FCA: And that’s where you think comic books are today? BECK: I’m afraid so. What’s your opinion? FCA: Pretty much the same as yours. All enthusiasts of Golden Age Fawcett comics agree that they had something special to them that’s missing today, whatever that special thing was. BECK: We were all just trying to entertain the reader. We weren’t trying to dazzle our readers with our artwork. We weren’t trying to create a new “literary-graphic-sequential” art form or anything like that. FCA: Who, or what, in your opinion, changed things? BECK: The publishers, businessmen, lawyers, accountants... these people know nothing about writing or drawing. All they know, when they get hold of a good product, is to beat it to death and suck it dry, wringing every last nickel out of it... then throw it away and start something else. Even Fawcett did that. In 1953, they fired their whole comic department without the slightest regret. They threw us all out to starve. Other companies did the same.

ASK C.C.

FCA: Do you think DC’s lawsuit against Fawcett had anything to do with Fawcett completely leaving the comic book field? BECK: Nobody ever told me anything. I don’t know to this day what happened. FCA: If you could do it all over again, C.C., what would you do different? BECK: That’s pretty hard to say. Do you know what Einstein said when someone asked him that question? He said that he might have been better off as a plumber. I might have been better off as a lawyer, like one of my uncles. Or perhaps an accountant, like my brother. FCA: Why did you go into the art field? BECK: It was the only thing I could do well. In my early days I worked in factories and was fired because I was a lousy factory worker. I’ve worked in restaurants as a waiter, a cashier, and a short order cook. I was terrible at those jobs and ended up as a dish washer. I tried being a musician, with no success. The only thing I was good at was drawing pictures for comic books. And still to this day, comic book artists are the lowest form of life in many people’s opinion. Most people think that cartoonists don’t really know how to draw. They get everything cockeyed and out of shape. That’s why so many admire the work of guys like Hal Foster and others who make pretty, realistic pictures. In my view, cartooning is a very ancient, perfectly legitimate art form. It’s deliberately simplified and distorted and not realistic. The real world is a horrible mess and always has been. FCA: You claim not to be bitter, but some of your statements seem to indicate so. BECK: Well, maybe I am. But bitterness has its place. Salt is bitter... so is mustard, horseradish and dry vermouth. What I’m against is the attempt to cover everything with sugar and whipped cream as if you were putting frosting on a cake. Many of today’s comics are all frosting, with nothing underneath it. FCA: I agree. As crude as they sometimes were, at least the old Fawcett comics said something to us. BECK: That’s the first rule to good writing: Have something to say, then say it.

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Comic Books Are For Kids By Bernie McCarty During my correspondence with Golden Age comics great C.C. Beck— who today has achieved folk hero status— I’ve noticed we seem to think alike concerning the ups and downs of the comic book industry. Perhaps that’s because Captain Marvel, who Beck created with Bill Parker, influenced my early years more than any “real” person. As a child I was attracted to Captain Marvel because the character was pure fantasy. Captain Marvel became my comic book favorite, however, for another reason. As often as not Cap achieved victory through sheer determination, shrugging off his own stupidity, even laughing at himself along the way for bungling through a job that would have been easy for the average super-hero. Captain Marvel didn’t really possess the wisdom of Solomon. Every kid knew that. What Cap possessed was knowledge concerning the matter of making one’s way in the world, maintaining dignity despite the flaws in one’s own makeup. Captain Marvel was somebody to wrestle with, somebody to chuckle with, somebody to look up to... if only in a kid’s imagination. In contrast, Superman was untouchable and humorless. Sure, he was a nice guy to have around in an emergency, but the Man of Steel wouldn’t be much fun for a kid in the role of buddy, teacher or father.

FCA’s Bernie McCarty, by C.C. Beck.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of C.C. Beck’s simple, controlled rendering of Captain Marvel. Beck’s style was the spark that gave Cap “life,” setting the character apart from all other super-heroes. Beck’s artwork appealed to kids, and the kids and adults of the Forties responded by making Captain Marvel the biggest seller in the history of the comic book industry. Captain Marvel’s personality is C.C. Beck’s personality. And by devouring Captain Marvel comic books as a youth, I acquired a few of

those same personality traits. There’s one facet of my personality I’m very proud of, and I credit this to Beck: I can still see the world through the eyes of a 10-yearold. I’m going to state here to the publishers and editors of today’s comic books, in child-like terms, why comic books succeed and fail, why the industry has known great periods of success and great periods of depression.

Comic books enjoyed tremendous sales during the early Forties. The success formula was simple. Comics were geared to an audience of eightto twelve-year-olds and the Golden Age super-heroes shared a common enemy: The Japanazi of World War Two. Because comics were aimed at a pre-teen market, comics also filled a void in teen and adult literature. There was nothing intellectual about these “trashy” little magazines, as some have called them. For adults, comic books provided a few moments of sheer escapism in a brutal world. World War Two ended in 1945 and the industry made a number of critical errors: 1. Super-heroes needed a new, easily recognizable foe. Publishers simply turned to the gangster... hardly a monumental opponent on the scale of the Japanazi. Except for the super-hero himself, the fantasy element virtually disappeared from comic books. Even Captain Marvel’s tales suffered for a couple of years before science-fiction was incorporated into nearly every Captain Marvel plot, thanks to Otto Binder. 2. Publishers suddenly discovered the reader and began “improving” stories in an attempt to boost sales among adults. The result was that comic books appealed to nobody. After all, if an adult wanted “literature,” he would certainly prefer a good book to the comics. And what kid wanted comics with involved plots? 3. And lastly, there was the attempt to inject humor into comic books. Captain Marvel was genuinely funny, but the humor was generally incorporated in a subtle way. When Fawcett’s competitor turned Superman into a clown after eight years of straight-laced action, it was absurd.

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Fawcett ceased publishing their comics in 1953. In the years that followed the comic book industry itself almost died... but not the hearts of those who remembered and loved Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics.

COMIC BOOKS ARE FOR KIDS (1974)

“We Were Considered A Bunch Of Idiots” By C.C. Beck My experience was that all conferences at Fawcett Publications concerning stories, innovations or the introduction of new characters went on in the rarefied atmosphere of the penthouse offices occupied by the Fawcett brothers, or in the offices of the various editors. Artists were never consulted on anything. We were considered to be a bunch of idiots who couldn’t talk, write or do anything but draw rotten (but cheap) pictures. We received our instructions from the art director, who was subservient to the editorial department. Most of the time we made sketch after sketch after sketch of characters outlined on typed sheets by editors. It was a “go” or “no go” setup: Our sketches were either rejected or accepted. As chief artist I made sketches of each new character in the Marvel Family and of Bulletman, Masterman, Radar, etc. Other artists handled western, detective and the like. We were all kept in the dark as far as editorial matters went. We were less important than the engravers and printers and distributors, or the people who make printing ink or pulp paper.

$10 artists would make a half dozen or more illustrations and letter all the copy, saving the cost of typesetting. Then the engraver could shoot the whole page at once, cutting the cost of engraving. A 64-page comic could tell as many stories as a thick pulp, sell for 10 cents and bring in thousands of dollars. Fawcett didn’t care about artists. I don’t know how much Al Allard, the art director, was paid, but here’s how I came to set up my own studio. A rival publisher made me an offer which Fawcett was willing to top. But if they had, they’d have been paying me more than Allard made. So he moved me out, for his own benefit more than for mine. Remember, comics were undignified, crude, and really not thought of as “art.” Nobody expected them ever to amount to much and we artists lived a hand-to-mouth existence, never knowing when our strips would be cancelled. In 1953 all comic work suddenly stopped at Fawcett. “Good-bye, Charlie, it was nice knowing you.” We all scattered like vagabonds and never saw one another again. When fan nostalgia started a few of us got in touch with each other again. After all these years I’m famous. I’m just glad I lived long enough. Some of the other fellows didn’t make it.

The whole reason that comics replaced the pulps was the fact that for

Were Fawcett Comics Art? By C.C. Beck Fawcett comics were the biggest sellers of all during the Golden Age. They were not called “art” in those days; most people called them junk. It is only now, a generation later, that art teachers and critics are beginning to discover the art that went into their production.

Art, according to the dictionary, is “the employment of intelligent and skillful means to the accomplishment of an end.” Much of what is commonly called art evinces very little evidence of the employment of either intelligence or skill in its production. As to its accomplishment of anything, or having an end in mind, many will declare that true art has no purpose at all. In comics the drawings are called, as distinguished from the stories they are supposed to illustrate, the art. Perhaps they should more truthfully be called simply “the drawings.” Many of the drawings in comic books are not art at all but cheaply imitative and naive, ingenuous tricks of the trade. When comic book illustrators try to [©2001 DC Comics] be artful or artistic they tend to produce drawings that are neither art nor illustration. The purpose of a comic book illustrator should be, seemingly quite obvious, to illustrate. It should not be to express his own views of life and nature but the views of the writers of the stories. Most importantly, a comic book illustrator should not try to use little, harmless, entertaining or long-winded, dull, and meaningless story material as a showcase for his own artistic talent (or lack of it).

Both the stories and the drawings in Fawcett comic books were produced by people who used intelligent and skillful methods to accomplish a definite purpose: To entertain readers. They were not dabblers or dilettantes, they were hard-working, professional men and women who knew what they wanted to accomplish and how to accomplish it. A little study of the history of literature and art will reveal that all the true creators in the field—those whose work has lasted—were exceedingly hardworking, highly skilled people. The great ones didn’t look on themselves as “artistes” and “masters”; only the little ones did. And of course the little ones haven’t survived their little eras. There are more “artists” around today than ever before. Whether there are any whose work will be called art in future ages is an open question.

“A BUNCH OF IDIOTS” (1974) / WERE FAWCETT COMICS ART? (1981)

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What Really Killed The Golden Age By C.C. Beck Two features that made comic books a big hit as soon as they appeared were that they seemed to move and that they seemed to talk. The illusion that the pictures moved was obtained by presenting a series of panels, all the same size and shape, with slight changes from panel to panel. The illusion that characters in the panels were talking was obtained by putting copy right in the panels, not off to one side or below. Keeping copy separate from drawings destroys half the magic of comics; instead of moving, talking pictures we have what seems to be a slide show with an offstage narrator explaining each slide as it appears. The earliest comic books were reprints of newspaper comic strips which told stories of considerable length. When the supply of old newspaper strips was used up, comic book publishers commissioned writers and artists to produce new material in the same vein. Unfortunately, some of the new writers and artists felt that producing “comics” was beneath their dignity. Many creative people have very high opinions of themselves and their work and working in comics was to some as degrading as being a piano player in a whorehouse instead of appearing at Carnegie Hall. Therefore they decided to change comics to something else. Many editors and publishers were also ashamed of being in comics and welcomed whatever changes their writers and artists could make to bring more dignity and artistic value to their magazines. The first thing these people did was to get rid of the old panel-bypanel sequences of the daily strips. They made each panel a different size and shape, assembling them on the page in tricky, eye-catching layouts. Each panel was a new composition, like a painting in an art gallery. It did not need to have any connection with preceding or following panels at all; it was simply supposed to make the reader gasp in awe at its marvelous composition and beauty.

It has been known for thousands of years that to appeal to the imagination of an audience a writer or an artist must present imaginative stories or pictures to it. A writer cannot simply tell about little, ordinary, everyday people doing humdrum things, nor can an artist hold his viewers’ attention with over-detailed pictures which look like photographs. Unimportant facts must be left out, while things that don’t exist in the real world must be suggested. This is what cartoonists do, and have been doing, since prehistoric times. Cartoonists simplify their drawings, they don’t show eyelashes and full sets of teeth on everybody. Sometimes they leave off fingers, they very seldom show wrinkles in either faces or clothing, and they don’t hesitate to suggest action by the use of speed streaks, puffs of dust, stars, splats, and such symbols. This kind of art was horrifying to those who wanted to clean up comic books. “It’s crude and insulting!” they said. “It pokes fun at people and is ugly. Art should be beautiful, lovely, inspiring, not offensive!” So they proceeded to draw everything in art school style with everything beautiful... even the villains and monsters. They didn’t want a reader to shudder at a horrible villain’s appearance or to laugh at a hero’s occasional ineptitude, but just to murmur to himself over and over, “My, how beautifully everything is drawn!” When they had succeeded in taking the illusion of action and the imaginative appeal out of comics the new editors and writers and artists turned their attention to the second feature which had made comics successful: The use of speech balloons and sound effects. “A good picture needs no explanation,” they declared. “Adding speech balloons and sound effects is silly. And adding speed streaks and stars and such things is childish. We’ll show everything by our masterful use of pantomime, mood, settings, costumes, and such legitimate devices.”

Very few people are aware that no picture of any kind can move any more than can a statue. All the action in a movie takes place between the frames, when the screen is dark. Action exists only in the imagination of the viewer. When the new writers and artists took away the series of panels, each with a slight change in it, and substituted “action-packed” single panels they took away half the appeal of comics. Everything became as lifeless as so many tableaux in a wax museum.

Along with their removal of all “cartoony” effects these reformers deleted anything that could possibly be taken as a racial slur or in the slightest degree offensive to anyone anywhere. Everyone had to be tall, handsome, athletic, and super-humanly perfect. This change in comic books started very early in the Golden Age. Fawcett comics, like all the others, slowly followed this formula as well, and by the ’50s Fawcett comics were losing their readers by the thousands. When Fawcett stopped publishing their comic characters in 1953, they had already been dead for some time.

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WHAT REALLY KILLED THE GOLDEN AGE (1983)

Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) #7. Art by Mac Raboy.

Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) #8. Art by C.C. Beck.

Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) #9.

Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) #4. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA GALLERY

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FCA/SOB #1/Newsletter #12. Art by Ken Bald.

FCA/SOB #3/Newsletter #14. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA/SOB #4/Newsletter #15. Art by A.J. Hanley.

Fawcett Collectors of America (FCA) #10. Art by Harry Fiske.

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FCA GALLERY

FCA/SOB #8/Newsletter #19. Art by Mac Raboy.

FCA/SOB #11/Newsletter #22. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA/SOB #16/Newsletter #27. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA/SOB #5/Newsletter #16. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA GALLERY

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FCA & ME, TOO! #2/Newsletter #38. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA & ME, TOO! #6/Newsletter #42. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA & ME, TOO! #10/Newsletter #46. Art by Alex Toth.

FCA/SOB #20/Newsletter #31. Art by Bob Laughlin.

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FCA GALLERY

FCA #54. Art by Marc Swayze.

FCA #55. Art by C.C. Beck.

FCA #56. Art by Trina Robbins.

FCA & ME, TOO! #15/Newsletter #51. Art by Tony Santangelo.

FCA GALLERY

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FCA #58. Art by Peter Krause.

FCA #57. Art by Alex Toth.

Captain Marvel. Art by Alex Ross.

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Captain Marvel. Art by Steve Rude.

FCA GALLERY

Billy Batson. Art by C.C. Beck.

Shazam. Art by C.C. Beck.

Captain Tootsie. Art by C.C. Beck.

“The Moment of Truth”—CMA #7 recreation by C.C. Beck.

FCA GALLERY

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Kane Richmond: Spy Smasher. Art by P.C. Hamerlinck.

Taia. Art by P.C. Hamerlinck.

Captain Midnight. Art by Shelly Moldoff / P.C. Hamerlinck.

“It’s Our Town!” Art by Marc Swayze.

156

FCA GALLERY

Fawcett Comics Index HERO/REGULARLY PUBLISHED TITLES America’s Greatest Comics #1-8 (1941-43) Bulletman #1-16 (1941-46) Captain Marvel Adventures #1-150 (1941-53) Captain Marvel Jr. #1-119 (1941-53) Captain Marvel Story Book #1-4 (1946-48) Captain Midnight #1-67 (1942-48) Fawcett’s Funny Animal #1-83 (1942-53) George Pal’s Puppetoons #1-19 (1945-50) Golden Arrow #1-6 (1942-47) Hoppy the Marvel Bunny #1-15 (1945-47) Ibis the Invincible #1-6 (1942-48) Lance O’Casey #1-4 (1946-48) Marvel Family #1-89 (1945-53) Mary Marvel Comics #1-28 (1945-48) Master Comics #1-133 (1940-53) Minute Man #1-3 (1941-42) Nickel Comics #1-8 (1940) Nyoka The Jungle Girl #1-77 (1942-53) (First issue titled Jungle Girl) Slam Bang Comics #1-7 (1940) Spy Smasher #1-11 (1941-43) Whiz Comics #1-155 (1940-53) Wow Comics #1-69 (1941-48)

WESTERN Andy Devine Western #1-10 (1950-52) Bill Boyd Western #1-23 (1950-52) Bob Colt Western #1-10 (1950-52) Bob Steele Western #1-10 (1950-52) Gabby Hayes Western #1-50 (1948-53) Gene Autry Comics #1-10 (1941-43) Hopalong Cassidy #1-85 (1943-53) Ken Maynard Western #1-8 (1950-52) Lash LaRue Western #1-46 (1949-53) Monte Hale Western 329-82 (1945-53) Real Western Hero #70-75 (1948-49) Rocky Lane Western #1-55 (1949-53) Rod Cameron Western #1-20 (1950-53) Six-Gun Heroes #1-23 (1950-53) Smiley Burnette Western #1-4 (1950)

FAWCETT COMICS INDEX

157

Tex Ritter Western #1-20 (1950-53) Tom Mix Western #1-61 (1948-53) Western Hero #76-112 (1949-52) Young Eagle #1-10 (1950-52) WAR Battle Stories #1-11 (1952-53) Bill Battle, The One Man Army #1-4 (1952-53) Don Winslow of the Navy #1-69 (1943-53) Soldier Comics #1-11 (1952-53)

SPORTS Baseball Heroes nn (1952) Don Newcombe nn (1950) Eddie Stanky nn (1951) Jackie Robinson nn-6 (1949-52) Joe Louis #1-2 (1950) Phil Rizzuto nn (1951) Ralph Kiner, Home Run King nn (1950) Roy Campanella nn (1950) Thrilling True Story of the Baseball Giants #1 (1952) True Story of the Yankees #1 (1952) Yogi Berra nn (1951)

ROMANCE Cowboy Love #1-11 (1949-51) Exciting Romances #1-12 (1949-53) Girls in Love #1 (1950) I Love You #1-6 (1950-51) Life Story #1-45 (1949-52) Love Memories #1-4 (1949-50) Love Mystery #1-3 (1950) Negro Romance #1-3 (1950) Romantic Secrets #1-39 (1949-53) Romantic Story #1-24 (1949-53) Romantic Western #1-3 (1949-50) Sweetheart Diary #1-21 (1949-53) Sweethearts #68-125 (1948-53) True Confessions #1 (1949) True Confidences #1-4 (1949-50) True Stories of Romance #1-3 (1950) True Sweetheart Secrets #1-11 (1950-53)

158

FAWCETT COMICS INDEX

True Tales of Romance #4 (1950) Young Marriage #1 (1950) CRIME Crime Smasher #1 (1948) Down with Crime #1-7 (1952-53) Mike Barnett, Man Against Crime #1-6 (1951-52) Suspense Detective #1-5 (1952-53) Underground Crime #6 (1952) Underworld Crime #1-9 (1952-53) FANTASY/SCIENCE-FICTION Beware Terror Tales #1-8 (1952-53) Captain Video #1-6 (1951) Strange Stories From Another World #2-5 (1952-53) Strange Suspense Stories #1-5 (1952-53) This Magazine Is Haunted #1-14 (1951-53) Unknown World #1 (1952) Vic Torry and His Flying Saucer nn (1950) Worlds Beyond #1 (1951) Worlds of Fear #2-10 (1952-53)

FAWCETT COMICS INDEX

ONE-SHOTS/SPECIAL EDITIONS Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man nn (1950) Captain Marvel and His Lts. of Safety – 3 issues (1950-51) Captain Marvel Thrill Book #1 (1941) Comics Novel (“Anarcho, Dictator of Death” featuring Radar) #1 (1947) Gift Comics #1-4 (1942-49) Holiday Comics #1 (1942) Nutty comics #1 (1946) On the Spot nn (“Pretty Boy Floyd”) (1946) Special Edition Comics #1 (1940) X-Mas Comics #1-7 (1941-47) X-Mas Comics #4-7 (1949-52) MISC. Animal Fair #1-11 (1946-47) Billy the Kid & Oscar #1-3 (1945-46) Bob Swift Boy Sportsman #1-5 (1951-52)

159

Comic Comics #1-10(1946-47) Fawcett Movie Comics nn-20 (1949-52) Hot Rod Comics #1-7 (1951-53) Motion Picture Comics #101-114 (1950-53) Ozzie and Babs #1-13 (1947-49) Pinhead and Foodini #1-4 (1951-52) GIVEAWAYS/PREMIUMS Captain Marvel and Billy’s Big Game (Wisco/Klarer) (1948) Captain Marvel Wheaties Giveaway (1945) Captain Marvel Bond Bread Giveaway (1950) ”Capt. Marvel & the Stolen City”; ”The Boy Who Never Heard of Capt. Marvel”; ”Capt. Marvel Meets the Weatherman” Fawcett Miniatures Wheaties Giveaways (1946) Capt. Marvel Jr.—”Case of the Poison Press”; Capt. Marvel—”And the Horn of Plenty”; Capt. Marvel—”And the Raiders from Space”; Delecta of the Planets (3 versions) Hopalong Cassidy (Grape Nuts) (1950) Hopalong Cassidy (Bond Bread) (1951) Hopalong Cassidy (White Tower) (1946) Whiz Comics Wheaties Giveaway (1946) Bulletman Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1942) Capt. Marvel Comic Story Paint Book (1943) Captain Marvel Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1944)

160

Capt. Marvel Jr. Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1944) Captain Marvel's Fun Book (1944) Golden Arrow Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1944) Hopalong Cassidy (Samuel Lowe, 3 diff. Issues) (1950-51) Hoppy the Marvel Bunny Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1944) Mighty Midget Comics (1942-43): Bulletman; Captain Marvel; Captain Marvel Jr.; Golden Arrow; Ibis the Invincible; Spy Smasher; Balbo, the Boy Magician; Commando Yank; Lance O’Casey; Minute Man; Mr. Scarlet & Pinky; The Phantom Eagle Spy Smasher Well Known Comics (Bestmaid) (1944) DIME ACTION BOOKS (1941) Captain Marvel and the Return of the Scorpion Bulletman and the Return of Mr. Murder Minute Man and the Mystery of the Spy Ring Spy Smasher and the Red Death

FAWCETT COMICS INDEX

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

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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.

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The 1970s

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MODERN MASTERS

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SPOTLIGHTING TODAY’S BEST

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

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9 781893 905108

THE FAWCETT COMPANION examines the history of FAWCETT COMICS, publisher of CAPTAIN MARVEL, THE MARVEL FAMILY, SPY SMASHER, BULLETMAN, IBIS THE INVINCIBLE and other time-honored comic book characters! Editor P.C. HAMERLINCK has compiled this volume, collecting the best material from the nearly 30-year history of the FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA Newsletter. Presented here are interviews and features on C.C. BECK, PETE COSTANZA, MARC SWAYZE, WILL LIEBERSON, OTTO BINDER, ROD REED, GINNY PROVISIERO, and more, with behind-the-scenes looks at how the company operated from its 1940 beginnings until ceasing publication in 1953 in the wake of a legal battle with the owners of Superman! Also included is an index of all Fawcett comics published, plus rare and unpublished artwork by BECK, SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, ALEX TOTH, GEORGE EVANS, ALEX ROSS, & more!