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No. 12 January 2002

Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, & Flash TM & © DC Comics

Vol. 3, No. 12 / January 2002 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comics Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Jerry Bails (founder), Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Cover Artists (& Colorists) Paul Reinman, Bill Ward

Mailing Crew

Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

And Special Thanks to: Bill Alger Darren Auck Murphy Anderson Mike W. Barr Dennis Beaulieu Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Bob Brosch Rich Buckler Nick Cardy Alex Chun Dan Clowes Lynda Fox Cohen Gary Crowdus Ray A. Cuthbert Theresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Shel Dorf Scott Foss Keif Fromm Will Eisner Shane Foley Gill Fox Ron Frantz Karl Gafford Marvin Giles Dick Giordano Jennifer T. Go Martin L. Greim Fred Guardineer Bob Harper Ron Harris Mark & Stephanie Heike Daniel Herman Dennis Kawicki John Kelly Jim Korkis Harry Lampert

Mitch Lee Carl Lundgren Dan Makara Joe & Nadia Mannarino Jean-Francois Massé Hugh McCann Tom McNally Brian K. Morris Roger Mortimer Eric NolenWeathington Jerry Ordway Chris Overton Jon Park Bill Pearson Richard Pryor Ethan Roberts Steven Rowe Eugene Seger Kevin Sharpe Dave Siegel Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Tim Takeuchi Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Hames Ware Bill Warren Len Wein Marv Wolfman Ed Zeno Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Ronn Foss

Contents Writer/Editorial: Don’t You Know There’s a War On? . . . . . 2 There’s no Black Terror to deal with the terrorists... so we’ll have to do it!

Written Off - 9-30-49, Part II: Reconstructing Reinman . . . . . . 4 Focus on a never-before-seen “Green Lantern” story from the 1940s—and more!

That 1965 Newsweek Article: A Triptych in Prose . . . . . . . . . . 17 Bill Schelly examines a landmark media piece and its “lost” interviews.

Hail, Hail, This Time’s the Gang’s Really All Here! . . . . . . . . . . 28 Roy Thomas talks to Len Wein and Rich Buckler about All-Star Squadron.

re:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Playing catch-up, with loquacious letters & cogent corrections concerning recent issues.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America #71) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 P.C. Hamerlinck presents another Fawcett foray with C.C. Beck & Marc Swayze.

Gill Fox and “Quality Control” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: The cover of Comic Cavalcade #6 (Spring 1944) was either a joint effort by Paul Reinman (Green Lantern), H.G. Peter (Wonder Woman), and Martin Naydel (The Flash)—or else of an artist carefully emulating the styles of all three. This Reinman-executed version, like Bill Ward’s Blackhawk art on our flip cover, is one of the 1970s re-creations sold by Collectors Book Store in Los Angeles, and is likewise from the collection of Roy Thomas. [Art ©2002 estate of Paul Reinman; GL, Wonder Woman, & Flash © & TM DC Comics.]

Above: If the caption-writer of this Reinman-drawn panel from Comic Cavalcade #15 (JuneJuly 1946) thinks that wood is GL’s “implacable enemy,” he should’ve met the DC honchos who “wrote off” several unpublished “Green Lantern” stories back in 1949! Luckily, Fate spared at least the artwork printed in this issue. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $80 Canada, $88 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

4

by Roy Thomas

Written Off – 9-30-49

Part II Reconstructing Reinman

[Except where otherwise noted, all original-art reproductions accompanying this article are from photocopies courtesy of Marv Wolfman.]

Skip ahead a bit if you’ve heard this one before (especially if you’ve read the fuller account back in A/E V3#10): In 1949 National Comics Publications, Inc. (a.k.a. DC), elected to “write off” what may have amounted to hundreds of pages of unpublished comic art and story, no doubt in order to get a one-time tax break.

Many of these pages were stamped “Written Off – 9-30-49” on that date or later. Prominent among them seem to have been never-used stories from recently defunct (or totally revamped) titles such as Flash Comics, All-Flash, Comic Cavalcade, All-American Comics, Green Lantern, the stillongoing Sensation Comics, and at least one probably-completed but longshelved Justice Society of America tale (“The Will of William Wilson”) from 1945-46... in other words, the majority of the All-American line which had once been M.C. Gaines’ sister company to National/DC, and which had been purchased outright by DC circa 1945.

Along with this, apparently, went at least one “Superman” story drawn in the early 1940s by the Joe Shuster studio.

enlightened DC management, beginning in the late ’60s and early ’70s in the company’s “giant” anthologies. Most of them, however, almost certainly do not exist en toto, or, if they do, the pages and panels are at the very least scattered to the winds and probably impossible for either ourselves or DC to completely reassemble.

We’ve had fun trying, though, in the interests of historical scholarship—oh yeah, and because we dig the stories and art, as well.

In the second half of the 1960s, on at least two occasions, future comics writer and editor Marv Wolfman and several fellow fans were fortunate in being allowed, by production chief Sol Harrison, to cart off what amounted to hundreds of pages and demi-pages of original DC artwork from the 1940s-’60s period, much of the earlier work from the material “written off” in 1949. Under circumstances explained in full in A/E V3#2, many (but not all) of the latter pages had been cut by Marv into thirds (rows, or “tiers”), since in the 1940s most DC comics had three even rows of panels on all pages except the splash.

A few of these “lost” stories have since been printed complete by a more

These Carmine Infantino-penciled panels are from an unpublished circa-1948 encounter between The Flash and The Thinker, complete with editorial notes in the margin. [Flash & Thinker © & TM 2002 DC Comics.]

Reconstructing Reinman

5

This penultimate page from the third, mostly-unpublished Flash vs. Rose & Thorn exploit, scripted

by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Joe Kubert, previously appeared—in color—in Lois Lane #113 (Sept.-Oct. 1971). It, like other pages from this story previously printed in Alter Ego, was also seen, in black-&-white, in Robin Snyder’s The Comics. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Some of this art has seen the light of day in the newly-resurrected Alter Ego, occasionally in other magazines, as well. In the basically outof-print All-Star Companion I assembled and edited for TwoMorrows in 2000, more than a dozen pages’ worth of the unpublished mid-’40s JSA story were gathered together for the first time. And only two issues ago we printed all the art we could find (approximately six pages’ worth) from a Carmine Infantino-penciled, never-before-seen late-’40s “Flash” story, “The Garrick Curse!”

This time around, we’ve attempted to reconstruct what we could of another of those “rescued” stories—a “Green Lantern” tale drawn by the late Paul Reinman (though the writer, alas, is unknown).

Reinman, who in the 1960s would ink many Jack Kirby stories for Marvel and illustrate the “Mighty Comics” material for Archie, was for a brief time in the 1940s a minor luminary at DC/AA. His “Green Lantern” work generally headlined All-American Comics from 1943-47, but also appeared occasionally in Comic Cavalcade and even in AllStar Comics, and he drew at least a cover or two for Green Lantern... though, oddly, no interior stories.

Putting together all the known extant art from this tale was not unlike doing a jigsaw puzzle—which is appropriate, since it deals with a radio program called “Dr. Cypher, the Puzzle King”!

People Do Their Jobs!”

Comic“I LetFandom Archive

17

That Newsweek Article A Triptych in Prose [INTRODUCTION by Bill Schelly: 1965 was a watershed year for comicdom. 1964 had witnessed three regional fan gatherings (in Detroit, New York City, and Chicago) and the first major article on the comic fandom movement (in The New York Times); but the following year brought the first true comic book conventions, publication of The Guidebook to Comics Fandom, and a slew of articles on the hobby—including, most notably, truly national exposure in Newsweek magazine.

[Entitled “Superfans and Batmaniacs,” the latter page-plus article appeared in the February 15, 1965, issue of the periodical, which boasted a circulation of over a million readers. Comics fans, alerted by the fandom grapevine, eagerly snapped up copies of the issue to see what sort of treatment their hobby received.

[To say that the response was one of mild disappointment is probably the best way to characterize fans’ overall reaction. While there was no denying the giddy thrill of seeing comics depicted and discussed in national media, the article managed to get almost as many facts wrong as it did right—not the best batting average for a highlyrespected periodical.

with Phil Seuling (and possibly others) in New York City, and with a group of several Detroit fans at Jerry Bails’ home in a Michigan suburb. Of the Seuling interview, no record has come to light, though it was probably Seuling—a prominent fan and comics dealer in Brooklyn who later became a convention entrepreneur and a coestablisher of the direct sales market—who provided the magazine with the cover reproductions of five Golden Age comics which accompanied the article, as well as the notion that a copy of Action Comics #1 would sell for $100, then an astronomical sum for a mere comic book. Fan gossip at the time was that Seuling seemed to resent Bails, and that this animosity began when Newsweek mentioned Bails, Shel Dorf, and the Bails-founded fanzine Alter Ego by name, but not Seuling.

[Be that as it may: It’s clear that the interview with the Detroit collectors was the primary source of information used for the article.

Accordingly, we are here pleased to reprint three artifacts of 1965: the rarely-seen Newsweek article itself (with the kind permission of the publishers); the Detroit interview; plus, as an offbeat footnote, a spoof of the article which Roy Thomas wrote a few weeks later.

[It was widely known that a Newsweek reporter had met with fans in two cities:

Jerry Bails, in a photo first printed in Alter Ego [Vol 1] #5, 1963. As founder of Alter Ego and other fanzines in the early ’60s, as well as of the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors, Jerry was a seminal figure in the beginnings of comics fandom.

[First, the article itself:]

The 2-15-65 issue of Newsweek cover-featured Indonesia’s President Sukarno. What? No blurb trumpeting the comics fandom piece in its “Life and Leisure” section? Regarding upset fan reaction to the article, Don & Maggie Thompson wrote in Capa-alpha: “Now come on, people, what did you expect? What reactions have you been getting from the ‘outside’ world when you’ve talked about your hobby, anyway? Respectful interest and ‘where do I go to sign up’ reactions?” Thanks to Tom McNally & Roger Mortimer of Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina. [Cover ©2001 Newsweek, Inc.]

Phil Seuling may not have been directly quoted in the Newsweek piece, but he was still a major force in 1960s-70s fandom. Here he hosts the 1969 Comic Art Convention in New York City, as seen in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #10 in 1969-70.

Superman #1, Batman #1, Special Edition #1 (Captain Marvel), & Green Lantern #1 covers ©2002 DC Comics; Sub-Mariner #38 cover ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

18 Comic Fandom Archive

From Newsweek, Feb. 15, 1965 ©1965 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

28

The All-Star Squadron Chronicles

Chronicles

Part III

Hail Hail Now The Gangs Really All Here!

by Roy Thomas [WRITER/EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re baaaack!

Due to the wealth of contributions with which Alter Ego has been happily deluged in recent months, it’s been four issues—the larger part of a year—since we presented Part II of this ongoing series, which detailed how in late 1980, in developing the World War II-era title I had conceived for my new employer, DC Comics, I chose the Golden Age heroes who would be most strongly featured in the initial issues. Onward:]

I. Editors And Enigmas Things were proceeding apace. Several aspects of All-Star Squadron were already fairly well established in my mind. Among other things, I already knew: That my first story arc (not that I used that term then, or like it much now) would commence on Saturday, December 6, 1941—the night before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pulled America into World War II; That it would open with most of the then-active Justice Society of America—plus honorary members Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman—being captured by time-tossed supervillains masterminded by Per Degaton, so that lessdeveloped DC stars could shine in their place; That Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and The Atom would evade Degaton’s net and join forces with several other heroes who had never been JSAers, to form the nucleus of the Squadron.

Also that, just as in 1975 I had had British Prime Minister Winston Churchill give both name and mission to The Invaders over at Marvel, this time I wanted the group to be assembled and christened by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself.

Around this time, DC finally got around to assigning an editor to All-Star Squadron.

Len Wein and I had first met not too long after I became an assistant editor at Marvel in the mid-1960s... and I’m dead certain that, whenever it happened, I met Marv Wolfman that same day. These two longtime

“Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and The Atom would evade Degaton’s net and join forces with several other heroes”—such as Robotman and Johnny Quick on this page from All-Star Squadron #2 (Oct. 1981). Repro’d from photocopies of the original Buckler-Ordway art, courtesy of Jerry Bails. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Hail, Hail, Now the Gangs Really All Here! friends were involved in various fan activities together; even their early writing assignments at DC soon afterward would be done in tandem.

By 1974, as editor-in-chief, I had lured both Len and Marv over to Marvel as full-time associate editors—of the color and black-&-white comics, respectively, though Marv was basically de facto editor of the latter. I’ve been told that being my associate editor back then didn’t look like a job with a lot of room for career advancement, since most people figured I’d stay at Marvel, like, forever. Still, in point of fact, after little more than two years at the helm I opted out for a writing-and-editing contract—at which point Len suddenly found himself editor-in-chief of Marvel’s color comics, with Marv at last inheriting the black-&-whites officially. Health considerations, however, led Len to step down after half a year or so, and by the time I made the move to DC in late 1980 he was firmly ensconced there as full editor of several titles.

Quite logically, the projected All-Star Squadron was added to Len’s pile. Since DC didn’t allow “writer/editors” at that stage (nor did Marvel, any longer, which is partly why I’d left), I was pleased when I learned Len would edit the book—although both Dick Giordano and I remember dimly that at one stage Dick, then a “line editor” like Len, was slated to handle All-Star and Len my planned sword-and-sorcery series. Len, however, has no recollection of ever being told he would edit the title that eventually became Arak, Son of Thunder.

All three of us agree, however, that the switch in assignments made more sense, since Len had been a self-confessed “big fan” of the Justice Society ever since the JLA-JSA team-ups began in 1963, and was already editing Justice League of America—so why not its new 1940s counterpart? For his part, Dick, as he reiterated over lunch last spring in New York City, was far more enthusiastic about heroic fantasy in general than about super-heroes in particular.

The stage had been set, via this “failure to communicate,” for some real problems if Len (or Dick) and I ever found ourselves at loggerheads on the direction, plots, or dialogue of either title. Fortunately, they and I were nearly always “on the same page,” as they say. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of interfering with whatever you wanted to do with the book,” Len told me recently. While I, in turn, respected Len’s expertise, especially as a prospective sounding-board, even if I understandably felt that it was merely my duty to advise him of what I was going to write, not to ask for his consent or accept his creative input. This had nothing to do with Len, of course; I’d have felt the same whether the editor of the two new titles was he, Marv, Dick, Gerry Conway, Julie Schwartz, or anybody else.

Naturally, I realize now (and did then) that, in the event of “creative differences” with my editor, I wouldn’t have had a legal leg to stand on, since, as Sam Goldwyn was reputedly fond of saying, “An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”—and neither are oral amendments to a written one. But hey—anyone who knows me knows that would hardly have stopped me from raising serious Cain over being misled, however inadvertently. After all, it was over a less defensible misrepresentation that I was leaving Marvel—but that’s another story.

Oddly, when this photo depicting “writer/editor Len Wein in his mentor’s office” appeared in Amazing World of DC Comics #3 (Nov. 1974), Len was editor-in-chief of Marvel’s color comics! The “mentor” at left? DC legend Julius Schwartz, who else? On the verge of turning pro writer in ’67, Len drew the illo below for a 1967 New York comics convention. Thanks to Mike Friedrich. [Art ©2002 Len Wein; heroes & photo ©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

When I spoke with Len by phone last October, he confirmed another thing I suspected out loud back in A/E V3#8: Neither publisher Jenette Kahn nor editorial director Joe Orlando nor anybody else ever breathed so much as a word to him concerning the verbal promise that had been made to me before I signed a three-year writing-only contract with DC—namely that, though house editors would be assigned to both new mags I would create, their direction, storyline, and dialogue would be basically in my purview, and that the editors would merely be there to “help” me, end-quote. Len swears that no one ever so much as hinted to him of such a hands-tying agreement, and I’ve no reason to doubt his memory. I had long suspected as much.

29

II. “The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Not In Our Stars...”

Anyway, I threw myself into All-Star Squadron and Bloodwolf (the mag that at the last moment we would all decide, I think wisely, to retitle Arak, Son of Thunder.)

For the former I pored over my bound collection of All-Star Comics and re-read numerous vintage DC and Quality comics, both actual and on microfilm. At Marvel I had played fairly fast and loose with 1940s continuity in The Invaders, since Timely comics had never possessed the internal consistency and character history that DC and Fawcett had.

However, I had definitely decided that I wanted to keep the heroes of the All-Star Squadron consistent with what they had been in the wartime mags, though hopefully with added character development, in keeping with the way I’d written X-Men, Avengers, Defenders, F.F., Invaders, et al.

Since the Golden Age super-doers had been mostly two-dimensional at best, and I wanted to make them three-dimensional (or more nearly so), I decided I would find, or else develop, character traits within them on which I could build.

30

The All-Star Squadron Chronicles Wonder, but once I matched sign and hero, I kept the traits of that sign which I wanted and discarded any others.

Before many issues had elapsed, as it happened, I would cease to refer to these charts, even in passing, but I had enjoyed making them up so much that I didn’t toss them out until only a few years ago—not long before Jon B. Cooke invited me to revive Alter Ego in the pages of Comic Book Artist, as I recall.

Oh well... they were hardly major cultural artifacts.

The reason I discarded some of the less desirable characters traits related to a hero’s particular astrological sign (though I believe I did utilize “indecisiveness” and one or two others from time to time, now that I stop and think about it) is that, realism to the contrary notwithstanding, I didn’t want any preexisting DC/Quality heroes to suddenly develop the proverbial “feet of clay.”

The comic book super-heroes of the WWII era were heroes, as far as I was/am concerned.

Throughout the new series, that “given” would lead me to walk a tightrope between trying to humanize some of the longest-established characters in comics and, at the same time, keeping them above all heroic.

I never wanted them to be just guys who happened to have super-powers but were otherwise just regular joes, because that’s not how they were conceived. I admire, in varying degrees, the Watchmen-influenced series that came along during the ’80s and since, but I wasn’t interested in writing super-heroes who were sadistic or psychotic or even too neurotic— —or racist.

III. On Politically (If Not Aerodynamically) Correct Super-heroes Dealing with race in All-Star Squadron, I knew from the outset, would be one of the trickiest aspects of the book.

After all, America was at war, and roughly half its enemies were of a non-Caucasian race. Neither Stan Lee nor I had ever had any qualms in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos about calling German soldiers “krauts” or the like—though I’m even of The Preview in JLA #193 would mark the only real action Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern German descent on all sides—but racial epithets like would see in All-Star Squadron’s first few issues. Repro’d from original art, courtesy of Jerry Bails.

“Japs” and unfavorable use of the term “yellow” Art by Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway. [©2002 DC Comics.] were out. Even “Nips,” a far weaker epithet derived To that end, I even drew up astrological charts for the major heroes! from “Nippon,” the Japanese name for their nation, would raise hackles, as I’d discovered when writing Invaders a few years earlier—hackles I Not that I’m a believer in astrology. Far from it. In making these onewas interested neither in raising nor in soothing. sheet “charts,” I paid no attention whatever to any arbitrary “birthdays” for any of the JSAers, as had been given on a DC calendar. I simply Yes, I would portray what I generally called the “Imperial Japanese” wanted to make one hero a bit of a Scorpio, another would possess more as the enemy—but because they were aggressively imperialistic, not of the aspects of a Virgo—that sort of thing. But, rather than come up because they were Japanese. I cringe today when I read, in 1942’s Allwith an astrological list of traits and then shoehorn an All-Star into it, I Star Comics #12, The Atom calling a Japanese-American a “Yankee did it the other way around.

Jap,” although the Mighty Mite meant it as a compliment! I deplore many aspects of “political correctness,” both current and even more so I knew, for instance, that I wanted Hawkman to be the group’s retroactive, and consider it overtly stupid to waste time decrying such original chairman, just as he had become of the JSA—though admittedly name-calling in a comic or movie of WWII vintage—even stupider to there only after both Flash and Green Lantern had been “kicked alter such a phrase in a reprint and thus to falsify history—but I upstairs” into their own titles. I forget under what astrological sign I preferred to fudge the matter in All-Star Squadron, even though it found the “leadership” qualities I was looking for for the Winged would make the dialogue a bit less realistic. (Truth to tell, DC would

In this issue:

[Art ©2002 the estate of C.C. Beck.]

No. 71

C.C. BECK’S

ON TOP OF OL’ LYMPOS Plus MARC SWAYZE’S “WE DIDN’T KNOW... IT WAS THE GOLDEN AGE!”

38

Marc Swayze When I was doing Captain Marvel the strategy had been simple: “Put the super-hero on the cover and you’ve got the book sold.” Now it was different. There being no hero in the romance story, what’s to go on the cover that would “have the book sold”?

My original opinion of the lead story position in the romance comics may have been hasty. The location of a story within the pages was not, as I had imagined, a measure of the quality of the story. Any responsible editor, I came to realize, for one thing would have arranged the contents to avoid successive similarities of themes and locales.

The disappointment I had felt earlier at not seeing my art in the front of the book was unjustified.

By

mds& (c) [Art

logo ©2002 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2002 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941 to 1953, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics, designing Mary Marvel and illustrating her earliest adventures; but he was hired primarily to illustrate “Captain Marvel” stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many “Captain Marvel” stories, and continued to do so while in the military. Soon after leaving the service, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to work for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he both wrote and drew stories for “The Phantom Eagle” in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper comic strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, he did artwork for Fawcett’s romance comics. Marc Swayze’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in issue #54 in 1996.

Last issue, Marc discussed the beginning of his prolific artistic output for Fawcett’s romance line. This time, he further analyzes his romance comic work and how he adapted from adventure features to romance stories. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

The romances crept up on us unexpectedly. Away we had flown through the Golden Age with our squint-eyed heroes, slam-bang action, superhuman feats, until... without much notice... it all must have begun to fade. Suddenly we had... right in our laps... on our drawing boards... love, romance.

For the serious comic book artist there was more to it than just expanding the sketch file to include flower gardens and fountains. It meant dealing with a new, female readership, new marketing strategies.

A recent Mary Marvel sketch by MS. [Art ©2002 Marc Swayze; Mary Marvel © & TM 2002 DC Comics.]

On the other hand, many newsstands made it easy for the shopper to browse. In the case of the Fawcett romance comics, little could be judged of the contents from the covers... photographed scenes unrelated to the stories. The next anticipated move of the shopper would be that she flip open the magazine to... the lead story. No question about it, the lead story was an important factor in the sale of the Fawcett comic romances.

It was with some satisfaction that, after the first few stories in Sweethearts, I found my art in the lead position consistently. The same was true when they came out immediately with Life Story and the eight additional romance magazines that followed, all featuring my work. I was reminded of an editorial that told of the average reader of the slick magazines of the 1930s. She looks first, the account went, for her favorite illustrator, then for the author.

“In his stories, the characters he befriended were my friends.” Rare Captain Marvel head sketches by Swayze. [Art ©2002 Marc Swayze; Capt. Marvel © & TM 2002 DC Comics.]

A Twilight Of The Gods

41

A Twilight Of The Gods C.C. Beck’s On Top of Ol’ Lympos

by Ron Frantz Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. The so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men. They belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste. There, they still hold their place, and will continue to hold it, for they are too closely connected with the finest productions of poetry and art, both ancient and modern, to pass into oblivion.

—Thomas Bulfinch, Mythology

Arnold Toynbee, the eminent historian, wrote: “History grew out of mythology. It has been said of the Iliad that anyone who starts reading it as history will find that it is full of fiction; but anyone who starts reading it as fiction will find that it is full of history.”

Mythology has endured the passing of time because the stories deal with problems that have not changed. The problems haven’t changed because people haven’t changed. The same human foibles that Homer observed 3000 years ago are as real now as they were then. Every epoch has certain outstanding characteristics that help explain what men did at the time they were written. The forms of modern literature that are familiar to us today took their beginnings from these ancient tales.

The late C.C. Beck knew these things well. Beck, of course, is no stranger to most comic book fans. Best known as the Golden Age Captain Marvel’s chief artist, he left behind a legacy of wonderfully illustrated stories that have entertained millions. Beck thought of himself as a cartoonist.

However, he was something more. Beck was a humorist in the classic tradition who knew how to tell a good story.

From 1939-1953 Charles Clarence Beck and the Big Red Cheese made it through 150 issues of Captain Marvel Adventures and 155 of Whiz Comics, although, alas, neither would fare as well at DC in the 1970s and since. [©2002 DC Comics.]

There are few things more difficult to write than humor. Critics and humorists have debated the subject for centuries.

Theories about the composition of humor are endless. One popular belief is that the best humor is blended with pathos until the two become one, becoming a juxtaposition of laughter and tears. Some contend that the essence of good humor is that it be presented without malice or harm. One can look to the cartoons of Charles Schultz or the novels of William Saroyan as contemporary examples.

These elements glisten in the artwork and writing of C.C. Beck. His stories were an ingenious mixture of hyperbole and myosis. One easily detects a sweeping grandeur in the style of writing,

For Ace Comics (and Jerry de Fuccio) in the 1980s, Beck “re-created” (i.e., penciled and inked) numerous pages of 1940s comic art, mostly by artists other than himself—e.g., “Fantomah,” Homer Fletcher’s (“Barclay Flagg’s”) flying superheroine from early issues of Fiction House’s Jungle Comics, and Lev Gleason’s epic Daredevil Battles the Claw, originally drawn by Jack Cole. [Re-created art ©2002 the estate of C.C. Beck.]

42

C.C. Beck’s On Top Of Ol’ Lympos

yet Beck often depicts events and situations on a smaller scale than what appears in most contemporary fiction. In light of this perspective, it seems strangely ironic that one of Beck’s last creative works has yet to be published.

I first met C.C. Beck in 1976 at a summer convention in Dallas. The convention had a great guest line-up that included Noel Neil (Lois Lane from the Superman TV series), Kirk Alyn (Superman from the movie serials), and Jackson Bostwick, who portrayed Captain Marvel on the Saturday morning TV show, Shazam!

Beck invited me to sit down at his table for a chat. Talking to him in person was an experience not to be missed. He had a reputation as a curmudgeon, which, in some respects, is not without merit.

Beck was inclined to peppery opinion and not everyone appreciated his sense of candor.

A character sheet by Beck for On Top of Ol’ Lympos. [Art ©2002 the estate of C.C. Beck.]

Our conversation was mostly causal.

We talked a bit about his sour relationship with DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz while Beck was the artist of the Shazam! comic book. To put it mildly, Beck and Schwartz wasn’t exactly a marriage made in heaven... and it was interesting to hear Beck’s story straight from him.

In addition to creating these special commissions, Beck quietly worked on several unpublished novels, including one that he also illustrated, entitled On Top of Ol’ Lympos. After Beck finished writing the book, he tried to obtain a suitable publisher. Finding no success, Beck asked Jerry de Fuccio for help.

Beck took time to talk to fans and show them his original art and realistic-looking model weapons which he had crafted from balsa wood. Most of the fans seemed to have a genuine appreciation for Beck and his work. It was a joy watching him visit with them. I remember one obnoxious fan that tried to talk him out of an original drawing.

Curiously, this fellow felt entitled to such gratuities by virtue of his status as a bigname fan. Lord only knows what misguided notions rattle around in some people’s minds. My only thought is that someone was careless in his upbringing. The fan turned belligerent when Beck refused to offer it as a gift. I took great pleasure watching Beck tell the fellow where he could go.

Being episodically retired from the comic book business, Beck busied himself doing special commissions for collectors. For Jerry de Fuccio alone, Beck illustrated over one hundred Golden Age cover re-creation paintings. Some of the commissions Beck did for other fans were a little bit different. I remember seeing a unique drawing Beck had done for a Tennessee collector, depicting a topless Mary Marvel dancing a striptease, while a smiling Billy Batson played the banjo and Freddy Freeman joined him on the trumpet.

As a former associate editor of Mad magazine, de Fuccio knew a lot of people in the publishing business. He shopped the Ol’ Lympos manuscript around to various book editors and publishing houses, but found no takers.

Then, in January of 1987, while de Fuccio and I were working together on some of the Ace Comics titles, he sent the manuscript along to me, with the following comment: “Ron... I’ve had no success selling C.C. Beck’s novel.

Would appreciate if you’d look at it, just as a courtesy.

Whimsy is hard to place, I know! Maybe he can do some filler for Ace Comics. Greek gods as hillbillies.”

Of course, it didn’t take much persuasion from de Fuccio to get me to read the novel. After reading the manuscript, I called Beck and told him I would like to publish it. When I mentioned that we had met ten years earlier at Dallas, I was flattered to learn that he actually remembered me. Since Beck had not seen any of the comic books I had published, he asked to see some of them. I was delighted to comply with his request and sent a batch out to him the next day. A short time later, I received the following letter from Beck: “I have looked through the comics you sent me and I am much encouraged. They seem to be closer to the original conception of comic books than the things that DC is putting out today. Their stuff is too elaborate to suit me.

Most of yours retain the simple panel-by-panel approach to storytelling instead of using the jigsaw-puzzle layouts favored by many of today’s comics illustrators.”

Pa and Hanimer, the novel’s hero. Evidently there was no “failure to communicate” between these two generations! [©2002 the estate of C.C. Beck.]

We talked several times on the phone over the next few weeks and reached a verbal agreement for me to publish his

Roy Roy T Thomas homas’ Quality Quality Comics Fanzine

Quality Control

5.95

$$

In the the USA USA In

No. 12 January 2002

GILL FOX

Shows-and-tells about

Plus: Plus:

MURPHY ANDERSON NICK CARDY GIL KANE HARRY LAMPERT MICHAEL T. GILBERT WALLY WOOD & More!

Blackhawks TM & © DC Comics

JACK COLE REED CRANDALL CHUCK CUIDERA WILL EISNER LOU FINE FRED GUARDINEER PAUL GUSTAVSON ALEX KOTZKY KLAUS NORDLING BILL WARD

Vol. 3, No. 12 / January 2002 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comics Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Jerry Bails (founder), Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Cover Artists (& Colorists) Bill Ward, Paul Reinman

Mailing Crew

Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

And Special Thanks to: Bill Alger Darren Auck Murphy Anderson Mike W. Barr Dennis Beaulieu Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Bob Brosch Rich Buckler Nick Cardy Alex Chun Dan Clowes Lynda Fox Cohen Gary Crowdus Ray A. Cuthbert Theresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Shel Dorf Scott Foss Keif Fromm Will Eisner Shane Foley Gill Fox Ron Frantz Karl Gafford Marvin Giles Dick Giordano Jennifer T. Go Martin L. Greim Fred Guardineer Bob Harper Ron Harris Mark & Stephanie Heike Daniel Herman Dennis Kawicki John Kelly Jim Korkis Harry Lampert

Mitch Lee Carl Lundgren Dan Makara Joe & Nadia Mannarino Jean-Francois Massé Hugh McCann Tom McNally Brian K. Morris Roger Mortimer Eric NolenWeathington Jerry Ordway Chris Overton Jon Park Bill Pearson Richard Pryor Ethan Roberts Steven Rowe Eugene Seger Kevin Sharpe Dave Siegel Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Tim Takeuchi Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Hames Ware Bill Warren Len Wein Marv Wolfman Ed Zeno Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Ronn Foss

Contents Writer/Editorial: A Matter of Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Issue overview—and a “movie moment” related to our Bill Ward cover.

Gill Fox: Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Quality’s editor (1940-43) interviewed by Jim Amash—with tons of Quality artwork!

A Tribute to Ronn Foss (1939-2001). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 A fond farewell to one of Alter Ego’s earliest editors— and a swell guy.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wood! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Michael T. Gilbert & Mr. Monster showcase the art that caused Wally to go away Mad!

DC, Fawcett, and More!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Circa the early 1970s Bill Ward was one of several Golden Age artists who began to “re-create” classic covers, some of which were sold through the Collectors Book Store on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A., including this re-do of the cover of Military Comics #29 (May 1944), currently part of Roy Thomas’ personal collection. For more about this Blackhawk battle scene, see our Writer/Editorial on the very next page. [Art ©2002 the estate of Bill Ward; Blackhawks © & TM DC Comics.]

Above: Part of editor Gill Fox’s job description in the early 1940s was to illustrate many of Quality Comics’ covers—including Feature Comics #58 (July 1942), spotlighting The Doll Man. For more on Fox’s long and fantastic career, see our in-depth interview! Repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of the artist. [©2002 DC Comics; licensed characters ©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $80 Canada, $88 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

Quality Control

5

Quality Control A Conversation with GILL FOX Artist, Writer, and Editor (1940-43) of Quality Comics Group

Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

[All materials for this interview furnished by Gill Fox and/or Jim Amash, unless otherwise indicated.]

Gill Fox calls this “maybe the only photo of Busy ever seen by the public!” Left to right: Gill, his wife Helen—and Busy, which is short for Everett “Busy” Arnold, publisher of Quality Comics from the late ’30s to the very end in 1956.

[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Gill Fox had the amazing combination of talent and luck to be at the right place at the right time, over and over again in his long career. As editor at Quality Comics in the early 1940s he oversaw the flowering of that company’s best period of publishing. Later he worked with the agents of advertising art at the legendary Johnstone and Cushing Art Service, worked on the first Hi and Lois strips with Dik Browne, and showed a remarkable flair for cartooning, always earning the respect of his peers.

A friendly, funny, giving man who has always cared deeply about his chosen profession, he has not received the attention he deserves.

Hopefully, we can fix that just a bit, starting now...! —Jim.]

I. Beginnings JIM AMASH: What spurred your interest in cartooning?

GILL FOX: It was survival. I come from the depths of the Depression. I knew the way it was going I’d be driving a truck. I had to make a positive decision, and it seemed to me that cartooning would be a way out. For my sixteenth birthday, my mother and father gave me the Landon Art Correspondence Course, which many of the famous artists like Jack Cole and Roy Crane had taken. Once, two other cartoonists and I took Roy Crane out to dinner in New York and questioned him about the course. Crane told us he went out to Cleveland once and found out Landon was an alcoholic. But Landon was awfully, awfully good. In the old-fashioned style.

The course took about a year. If you bought the course, you paid about $7-8. If you took instruction from him, which meant every week, you’d send stuff to him and he’d correct it and send it back for an additional $20. I had to take the cheaper way, but I swore to myself that I would religiously follow it, and it worked.

JA: Did you take art in school, too?

“This,” Gill says, “is my most publicized Plastic Man cover. I get constant offers from all over the U.S. to buy it.”

Repro’d from a photostat of Gill Fox’s original art for the cover of Police Comics #11 (Sept. 1942). The printed color version, as reprinted (restored) in DC’s Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 1, was trimmed slightly at the bottom. [©2002 DC Comics; Spirit © & TM 2002 Will Eisner.]

FOX: Yes. Textile High School in Greenwich Village in New York had some excellent art courses, including a course in advertising; and under that was a course in cartooning. I took four years in textile design, but cut those classes to go to the advertising class. I didn’t get credit for it, but around me were some very good guys like John Stanley [future Little Lulu artist], who had gotten out a year

6

Gill Fox Fleischer Studios, which was in the heart of New York.

In order to pick up samples for reproduction as quickly as possible, I asked a friend going to St. John’s and said, “Hey, let me do a cartoon for you, and you can put your name on it.” I did a couple of covers for St. John’s magazine and my cousin and someone else let me do the same for their high school papers. So I was able to have printed samples for a portfolio.

II. Fox at Fleischer JA: Did you get your start at Fleischer’s?

FOX: That was my first job. I had enough of an art background that they hired me as an opaquer in 1936.

Opaquing is simply coloring the backs of animated cartoon cells. It was easy to do. I was about twenty years old.

A fascinating thing happened there. There was a good-looking man with a little moustache and this guy was good. He was about twenty years old, and his name “God, that man was good!” says Fox. These four panels from a (17-panel!) Sunday for was Burne Hogarth. He went out to lunch and put his April 17, 1938, show how George McManus played with the comic strip form in Bringing Up Father. portfolio on a rack. I took his portfolio and looked [©1938, 2002 King Features Syndicate, Inc.] through it. He came back and I told him what I had done, explaining that I’m a nut and trying to get ahead of me. You wouldn’t believe how good his work was at 16—as somewhere.

Hogarth had already gotten into advertising and had done a good as most professionals today. There was one school that was better campaign about baby powder with a baby lying on the floor. I said, “I’d than ours, and that was the School of Music and Art. Alex Kotzky and love to have an original.” And he gave me that thing and I still have it.

Al Jaffee went there.

But he was so good that he was out of there in a week or two. [NOTE: John Stanley and [future Timely artist] Vince Alascia took an art Hogarth soon become the renowned artist of the Tarzan newspaper course that was an offshoot of the course at Textile. I was deeply strip, and later a teacher of future generations of cartoonists. —JIM.] impressed with Vince’s talent; he did great stuff for the yearbook. Years Incidentally, one of the men who caused all this interest at my high later, I went to see him and he had totally changed. I tried to get him to school was Shelly Mayer. He had gone to my high school. [NOTE: By make a move into a better kind of work, but I couldn’t get him to do it. the late ’30s Mayer had become both a cartoonist and a major editor Vince had an uninspired art career. at All-American and National/DC Comics. —JIM.] I started copying the newspaper comics when I was twelve. I was JA: Who did you know at Fleischer’s that we would know of today? totally fascinated by them. My favorite was George McManus’ Bringing Up Father. God, that man was good! He had been a trained architect.

FOX: Harry Lampert, who was the co-creator of “The Flash,” was in The way he drew his figures, his stylization fascinated me. For instance, the inking department. In fact, Harry recently reminded me that we if you see a hand pointing, the wrist bends downward and the finger were two of the four guys who helped lead the strike at Fleischer’s! comes up. To this day, I’ll draw a guy pointing the way McManus did.

Luckily, by that time I knew that I did not want any part of animation. I was there a year. I was promoted from opaquing to inking in about two I was about sixteen when I went over to the King Features offices in months. There were about a hundred employees there. I would have New York and asked the receptionist if I could see McManus. She said I couldn’t see anyone without an appointment. I mentioned I’d come a long way to see him, so she took me down the hall. McManus was sitting in a chair, smoking a cigar, reading a newspaper, and a guy was shining his shoes. I stood there for five minutes looking in a doorway, and she said, “Have you had enough?” Then she took me back. I loved McManus that much. He looked like Jiggs.

As a kid, I wrote and drew my own stories of that strip. That training taught me to write. I’ve done a lot of gag cartoons, and that training is what a lot of people doing strips today don’t have. How to build a gag and have impact, leaving out a lot of unnecessary elements. Landon told his students, “Don’t go out there until you are ready.” A lot of guys who get syndicated are not ready, and they’re locked in to this semiprofessional style. So I followed Landon’s advice.

While I was going to high school and taking the Landon course, I went to Washington Irving High School in New York City at night.

They had life drawing and continuing education classes. I would go home and have dinner and then go back to New York City and take the life drawing class at night. I did that for about a year.

There were others at Textile High who got out and got jobs and came back and told us about them. One of the places we were told about was

One of Gill’s co-workers at Fleischer was Harry Lampert, who in 1939-40 would co-create the original Flash. This Lampert re-creation was auctioned off at the All-Time Classic New York Comic Book Convention in White Plains, NY, in 2000. To contact Harry re commission art, etc., write him at: 2074 S.W. 17th St., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442—enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

[Art ©2002 Harry Lampert; Flash © & TM DC Comics.]

Quality Control become an in-betweener, had I continued.

comic books. One guy told me you could get paid $5 a page, and that was great money. I began to seek out the publishers.

William Cook was one of the first ones [Comics Magazine Company, Inc.]. I wrote and drew a one-pager that ran on the inside back cover. I began to develop at that point and was hooked on the comic book. That was also my first professional writing.

JA: Did you ever meet the Fleischer brothers?

FOX: Interesting that you should ask me that. During the strike, a group of three guys charged the picket line because we were too close to the entrance. They deliberately charged our line because they wanted to bring charges against anybody who got violent. Dave Fleischer was one of those three guys, and that’s the closest I came to meeting them. Luckily, I didn’t touch him and I didn’t strike anybody. I had been on the wrestling team in high school and knew how to grab somebody. I did get arrested, but they let me go on disorderly conduct the next day. This was a deliberate attempt to demoralize us.

JA: What started the strike?

FOX: We were getting $17.50 a week, which was standard. We were trying for more money and better conditions. Harry Lampert thought that job was the greatest thing that ever happened. They got vacations and raises and everything else. I didn’t like the job anyway and got out of it.

7

Then I did movie pages for Major Nicholson [Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson] at National Comics. This was before [Harry] Donenfeld owned it.

JA: Did you deal with Nicholson himself?

FOX: Not at all. I dealt with Vin Sullivan and Whitney Ellsworth. They were cartoonists, and good editors. I did about 34 pages for them, though I was never paid for them. $5 apiece they owed me. They were movie personality pages and a page about a detective—a drawing of him, and some cartoons around it detailing what he did. Later, Busy Arnold told me that, if he Gill Fox, age 19, in the inking department of the Fleischer had known what I had gone through, he studio. Note the model charts on the walls. could have gotten that money for me. But I never pressed it. I never burn bridges behind me.

We were approached by a union. The gag cartoonists—the ones writing for The Saturday Evening Post, Judge, etc.—had a union behind them. That union was a little to the left. I took my future wife to a dance they ran, and there was the hammer and sickle crossed with the American flag. They took over and organized the strike. Harry and I and a couple other guys helped lead the strike.

I don’t remember how long after that it was, but they closed the place down and moved to Florida. I was still out of work and I wrote them a letter down in Florida. One striker had been beaten by the police at least twice; they really worked him over. But he joined Fleischer’s and went to Florida with them. I figured to do the same thing and I wrote them a letter. They never bothered to answer it. They had wind of who I was.

JA: Do you remember what cartoons you worked on at the studio?

Later, I remember [Sullivan and Ellsworth] talking about “Superman.” They couldn’t get over how Action Comics was selling, and they found out it was because of Superman. I was there when this happened.

But I really wanted to get a syndicated strip and to break into Johnstone and Cushing [an advertising service]. They were big, and their advertising strips were a big deal all over the country. Creig Flessel [important early DC artist] was already working for them. As a matter of fact, I had an incident that taught me a lesson for the rest of my life.

I thought that, if you freelanced for one person, that was all you were allowed to do. I don’t know where I got this idea. One day I brought work in to DC. Flessel was working there and asked me if I’m doing any other work. I said something to the effect that I got a job at Johnstone and Cushing. I thought I was covered because I wasn’t freelancing. He

FOX: Betty Boop and Popeye. They usually gave you a sequence of about 25 drawings and you inked them on celluloid, which was like inking on glass. You warmed up by using a rejected cell that had some space on it left. I have a cel here, not opaqued, with a three-quarter figure of Betty Boop, Popeye, and Bluto. They were wearing football uniforms in the background.

JA: Where did you sell your first [magazine] cartoon?

FOX: While I was at Fleischer’s, one of the guys in the inking department was doing sports cartoons for a magazine called Sport Eye. It was a weekly tabloid with full-size, half-page, and quarter-page sports cartoons about sporting events from the previous week. I got them to okay a quarter-page from me, and it was my first sale. It paid about ten bucks. My future wife and I went to a newsstand to get a copy, but I wasn’t in the issue.

III. DC Days JA: Where did you go after you left the Fleischer studios?

FOX: Word was beginning to come in about a strange publication called

Three of DC’s pioneers—l. to r., Sheldon Moldoff, Creig Flessel, and Fred Guardineer—pose at a 1999 reunion. Shelly and Fred both had artwork (a sports page and “Zatara the Magician,” respectively) in Action Comics #1 in 1938, while Creig was one of National/DC’s top early cover artists.

Photo courtesy of Dave Siegel.

8

Gill Fox

said, “Where are you sitting?” I said, “I’m sitting in the corner.”

felt so sorry for that woman.

Flessel said, “That’s strange. I haven’t seen you. I work there.” Well, I liked him, so I told him the truth. After that, I decided I wouldn’t lie anymore. Creig’s an awfully nice man and we are still friends to this day.

JA: What do you remember about Chesler’s personality?

IV. What Did That “A” Stand for, Anyway?

FOX: He was likable. He’d come in wearing a hat on the back on his head with a watch chain in his vest. He reminded me of a fight promoter, and he smoked a cigar. He was about 35-40 years old. He had about ten guys in his studio.

Several people ran the studio for him. One was Ken Ernst [in 1940 the first artist of Mary Worth after it ceased being Apple Mary]; he was FOX: I didn’t stay at DC long and began to get work elsewhere. Harry good and ran the studio for a couple of months. A quiet guy. Jack “A” Chesler placed an ad in The New York Times or somewhere, Binder was art director for a while, too. He never bothered us and sat up looking for artists for his studio. I went over there and he said, “Do four front doing his work. samples.” I went home and did them in a week or so and brought them in. He said, “These are fine. I can use them. How would you JA: Did all the Before Crime Does Not Pay and Mary Worth and Plastic Man, like a job?” artists Charles Biro, Ken Ernst, and Jack Cole labored in Harry “A” artists write what Chesler’s art shop. These three panels (clockwise, from Biro’s “Sgt. they drew?

I asked how Boyle,” Ernst’s “Larry Steele,” and Cole’s “The Comet”) appeared much and he said, circa 1940 in comics published by MLJ, DC, and MLJ, respectively. FOX: Jack Cole “$20 a week.” My Thanks to Jerry Bails & Hames Ware. [“Sgt. Boyle” and “Comet” art did. Fred Schwab nose started ©2002 Archie Publications; “Larry Steele” art ©2002 DC Comics.] did. I wrote my bleeding, no own stuff. Most of kidding—right the artists did. But there standing in there was a writer front of his in there; I don’t desk—I was so remember who he excited about was. I had a what had syndicate strip happened! My idea, and Chesler father was a got one of the milkman and he straight illusgot $35 a week, trators to draw it. and I had a $20 I was more of a job already. I semi-straight worked for artist.

This writer Chesler about a wrote it and they year. This was about 1937. used it.

You couldn’t believe the people in that studio. Jack In those days you didn’t have a writer and an Cole was there. Winsor artist. The same man did both jobs. If you had 25 McCay’s son Bob was there. cartoonists syndicated, you might have one or two Frank Frollo, who had a that had a writer working with them. Comic books style like Alex Raymond’s. changed that whole thing.

Charlie Biro, Bob Wood, and Paul Gustavson were I also created sports pages and Believe It or there, too. Chesler had Not-type things for Chesler. One week, I wrote about four different studios. and drew a five-page detective strip. I really floundered on it. I was still developing and I really For that twenty, I had to didn’t know how to put a strip together. It was a do five pages a week. One tremendous experience. each day. Pencils, inks, and letters. I wrote them, too. I JA: According to Who’s Who in American Comics remember working on Books, you’re listed as doing “Gill Galen,” “Gcoquille paper, the paper Man,” “Gnaw and Nibble,” “Voices in the Dark,” with a stipple. And I used to letter with a brush. I was a professional “Strange but True”.... letterer for a while.

FOX: That’s mostly misinformation. I didn’t do any of those. Well, JA: Chesler had four different studios?

“Strange but True” could be one of those Believe It or Not-type pages.

FOX: Maybe three, at one time or another. Different staffs at different times. It gets confusing. Incidentally, Chesler took the four pages I did as samples, used them, and never paid me. Later on, when he was packaging books for Quality, he came over and Arnold came out and said to me, “He’s not supposed to be here. I’m busy. Get rid of him!” I went out and told Chesler this and he said, “You used to work for me.”

I said, “Yeah. You didn’t pay me for those four pages!”

Once I ran into a woman with a couple of kids, and she was crying and told me he had about 20 or 40 pages of hers and never paid her! I

JA: What were your early impressions of Jack Cole?

FOX: He was about 23 years old, and he was in the raw stages of artistic development. His stuff was funny and didn’t look anything like the “Plastic Man” work he did later on. But you could see him developing right on the spot. Everybody liked Jack Cole. He was about six-footthree and thin. Tall and narrow. And he had such an inventive mind. I knew him pretty well, but we didn’t get that close. He came up to Stamford later on in the Quality days. But he wasn’t an outgoing person.

He had a very pleasant personality, but he wasn’t a mixer, really.

40

Ronn Foss

A Tribute To

Ronn Foss

by Bill Schelly

-

Fan-artist Extraordinaire and Editor Emeritus of Alter Ego

On September 24th, after returning from an out-of-town trip, I found a message on my answering machine from Ronn Foss’ son Scott. Would I please call him as soon as possible?

Scott and I had traded e-mails before, but this was the first time he’d contacted me by telephone. I feared bad news.

When we spoke, scant moments later, my fears were realized. “Dad passed away about ten days ago,” he told me. Ronn Foss, one of my oldest friends, had died.

I had reached Scott via his cell phone as he waited for a flight to Missouri. He and his sister Alex (short for Alexandra) were in line to board a plane that would take them back to the rural backwoods homestead where they had spent so many happy early years—this time to lay their father to rest.

Scott explained that Ronn had apparently died of natural causes in his home in the Ozark hills near the small town of Birch Tree, Missouri, about September 14th. He and Alex had been contacted soon after, but due to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, had not been able to find a flight out until then.

Scott and I only had time to exchange a few more words, and for me to wish Alex the best as well, before it was time to board. When I hung up the phone, after volunteering to write Ronn’s obituary to be released to the comics press, I must admit I was in a daze.

Although the news wasn’t wholly unexpected, since Ronn’s health had been gradually deteriorating in recent years, I couldn’t really believe that he was gone. That the man who had written me hundreds of letters over the years, who had been a major inspiration for my books of fandom history, and who had recently given me a testimonial I could use

to publicize Sense of Wonder, which he had read in manuscript form—would never write another letter, would never draw another illustration, would never draw another breath… was very difficult to accept.

Ronald Eugene Foss was born in Defiance, Ohio, on July 14th, 1939. His family of six (he was the eldest of four siblings, two boys and two girls) moved frequently around small farming towns in the Ronn Foss in 1985, opaquing negatives for the EC Library edition of Valor.

Midwest until they settled in Fort Wayne when Ronn was finishing grade school. He was just old enough to catch the end of the first great comics era, as well as the end of the heyday of radio and Saturday afternoon movie serials. He loved them all, and created his own comics characters almost as soon as he could hold a pencil.

In 1952 an important event occurred in Ronn’s young life: he met another lad who was equally interested in comics and equally talented as an artist. They first became acquainted in gym class, drawn together because they were the two skinniest kids. The other boy would become Ronn’s lifelong friend, Richard “Grass” Green. (Foss gave Green his unusual nickname.) They drew their own comic strips, created their own super-heroes, and were inseparable through the remainder of their school years.

When Foss was discharged from the US Air Force in the late 1950s, and discovered comics fandom in 1961 (with the receipt of Alter Ego #2, July 1961), he immediately shared this discovery with Green. Both began doing illustrations and comic strips for the fledgling comics fanzines of the era.

Ronn’s earliest published strip featured Dimension Man (co-created with Parley Holman) in Spotlite #1 in late 1961.

A 1964 self-portrait of Ronn, surrounded by most of the characters he created or drew in the comics fanzines of the early 1960s. [Eclipse © ^&!TM 2002 Bill Schelly; Other characters ©2002 the estate of Ronn Foss.]

Foss was one of the most enthusiastic, energetic contributors to fanzines of the early 1960s, providing superb covers, pin-ups, illustrations and strips to dozens of early ditto fan publications, including Headline, Super Hero, Komix Illustrated, Comic Hero, Fighting Hero Comics, and Action Hero. His widely popular work was characterized by its confidence, panache, and sophistication. He was especially adept at drawing lovely women, including amateur heroes The Viper and Joy Holiday. In an era before professional comics artists would deign to contribute to fan magazines, Foss was one of the leading artists among a bevy of talented amateurs.

[Ripley art ©2002 Ripley Entertainment, Inc.]

[Mad art ©2002 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

43

44

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

IT S A MAD MAD MAD MAD

by Michael T. Gilbert Wally Wood was one of Mad’s founding artists and one of its brightest stars. Over a period of twelve years, his uncanny ability to mimic other cartoonists made him the ideal choice to illustrate its many comic strip parodies, first in the Mad color comic, later in the 25¢ (cheap) magazine. Oddly, it was one of these comic strip take-offs that effectively ended Wood’s career at Mad. In 1964 Wally was hired to illustrate a four-page article entitled “Comics for Publications That Don’t Have Comics.” Wood handed in the finished art, as he’d done ever issue since Mad’s first. He’d never had

any trouble before, but this time was different. Wood’s lifelong battle with alcoholism was beginning to affect his work. His drinking was a continuing concern that dogged the talented and prolific artist most of his life, and it flared up again in 1964.

Trouble began when Wood handed in the finished art, which he’d worked and reworked until it was thick with white-out. Worse, he had inexplicably switched the first two panels of a Little Orphan Annie parody with the second two. Wood’s editor was not pleased. For the first time in his career, Mad rejected Wood’s art. Wood was furious and promptly quit.

Some claim that the rejection was just a joke that had gone terribly awry. Others say Wood was fired. Wood’s friend and helper Bill Pearson recently stated: “Woody was not fired. The art was rejected, yes, but he was expected to do it over. Instead, he called [publisher Bill] Gaines and quit. He made a mistake.”

Pearson also claims Wood was tired of Mad, wanted out, and used the rejection as a handy excuse. Wood himself discussed the issue in an uncompleted autobiography, written in the late 1970s. This excerpt recently appeared in the 11th issue of The Journal of Madness for June 2001: “I was at Mad 12 years, 7 years after it stopped being a challenge and after it was not fun at all.”

In the article Wood talked about “Little Wally Wood,” the idealistic, childlike part of himself, and how it related to his break with Mad: “Let me tell you about how Little Wally Wood quit Mad. I turned in a job that I’d worked day and night on, and when they picked on it, I felt entitled to throw a tantrum and quit. Much later, I saw the originals, and it hit me... I was terrible! I had worked very hard to make it bad, so I could feel justified in quitting. That kid is pretty sneaky.”

While Wood may have subconsciously sabotaged the job as he claims, one can’t discount the possibility that his explanation could simply be an after-the-fact rationalization for his own poor judgment. Whatever the case, that action caused a lifelong rift between Wood and Mad. When Wood refused to re-do the strips, Mad hired cartoonist Bob Clarke to step in and take over. The redrawn version appeared in the July 1964 issue of Mad magazine under the forementioned title, as written by Frank Jacobs.

Here’s a Wood preliminary to another Mad job, sketched on the actual script page. If anyone knows where (or if!) the final version appeared, please let Michael know, as he’s been unable to track it down. Perhaps it was never published!? [Art ©2002 the estate of Wally Wood; script ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

Clarke’s version was pleasant enough, but Wood’s many fans sorely missed his distinctive cartooning, which had appeared in virtually every issue since the first. With the exception of two pages in 1971, this was the last time

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wood! the artist would ever do new work for Mad. For years after, publisher Bill Gaines often asked Woody to return to Mad, but Wood’s pride made that impossible. It was the end of an era.

Since hearing the above story, I’ve often wondered about the rejected art. Was it really as terrible as suggested? Since Mad never printed Wood’s version of the strips, it seemed I’d never know.

As it turned out, I was wrong.

Not long ago, I read a post on one of the Internet comic lists from cartoonist Bill Alger. Bill mentioned in passing that he owned the original to one of Wood’s rejected strips. I contacted him, and Bill informed me that he’d bought it a couple of years back from Bill Pearson, who had also printed four more of the rejected strips in his sales catalog. (Note: The published article had three other parodies in addition to the ones printed here. I don’t know if Wood drew versions of those, as well.)

Bill Alger kindly send me scans of the five unpublished strips from Pearson’s catalog, so that I could finally see the strips myself. (Some time later Bill Pearson mailed me a copy of the actual catalog, which we have used to photograph the strips reprinted here.) To my surprise, the art was considerably better than I had been led to believe. Bill Alger agreed, noting: “...Wood strips are much better than the Clarke strips, but there’s something vaguely depressing about Wood’s art on these (especially the Peanuts strip). They’re nicely done, but I’m imagining that when Woody was working on these, he felt much like the way he drew Charlie Brown. Withered and tired. It looked like he was burned out, but he had too much talent at that point in his life to turn out crap. I’d say as light humor they fail, but as a window into the psyche of a depressed

cartoonist, I’d give all A’s!”

Sad or not, the art itself is surprisingly good. It’s by no means Wood’s best work, but the cartooning is solid and well-crafted. It does the job.

Yes, some of the drawings are off. The girl on the left in panel one of the Steve Canyon parody is pretty strange. But other panels, like the illo of Little Orphan Annie walking down the street, are masterful.

So why were the strips rejected?

The white-out and transposed panels in the Annie parody really shouldn’t have been a major issue. Corrections could easily have been made by the production department, as we’ve done for this printing. As far as the sadness in the Peanuts parody, well... Peanuts is a pretty depressing strip at times, and Wood’s art reflects this. Actually, I like the Jules Feiffer feel Wood brought to it.

There may have been other factors that exacerbated the situation, such as personality clashes between Wood and editor Al Feldstein. But as for the work itself, I still think Wood’s take is superior to the printed version. Don’t take my word for it, though. We’re printing Wood’s “lost” Mad strips here along with the portions of redrawn and printed version, so that you can decide for yourself!

Best wishes, Michael T. P.S.: Don’t ask me why Woody signed the Donald Duck take-off “Sy Barry.” Perhaps it was a private joke, as Sy was a real artist who worked for DC in the 1950s, drew syndicated strips such as Tarzan and The Phantom, and would occasionally “ghost” the Flash Gordon strip for his brother Dan. [Special thanks to Bill Pearson, Bill Alger, Bob Harper, John Kelly, and Chris Overton for their help.] [art ©2002 the estate of Wally Wood.]

The Wood Version

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[Mad art ©2002 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

The Clarke Version

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

The Rejected Wally Wood Version

[Art this page ©2002 the estate of Wally Wood.]