Alter Ego #25 Preview

[Toth art ©2003 Alex Toth; Plastic Man TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

SPECIAL ISSUE ON

JACK COLE $

In the USA

5.95

AND...

No. 25 June 2003

Vol. 3, No. 25 / June 2003 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

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

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Alex Toth (with Jack Cole) Bill Schelly & Friends

Cover Colorist

Contents

Writer/Editorial: “He Stretches, Shrinks, and Bends!!”. . . . . . . . . 2 Jack Cole––Artist and Enigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Jim Amash on the creator of Plastic Man... plus a checklist by Jerry Bails & Hames Ware.

A Lonnnnnng Stretch of Tall Talent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Alex Toth on Jack Cole—times four!

“Other Super-heroes Weren’t Like That!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A candid and revelatory interview with Jack Cole’s brother, Dick Cole.

Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Manuel Auad Mike W. Barr Allen Bellman John Benson Bill Black Carl E. Borg Ray Bottorff Jr. Jerry K. Boyd Steve Brumbaugh Jack Burnley Tony Cerezo Chris Claremont Shawn S. Clay Dave Cockrum Lynda Fox Cohen Dick Cole Dave Cook Teresa R. Davidson Craig Delich Al Dellinges Terry Doyle Michael Feldman Creig Flessel Gill Fox Jeff Fox Ron Frantz Paul Gambaccini Ron Goulart Martin L. Greim Ron Harris Mark & Stephanie Heike Tom Horvitz Bob Hughes Bob Koppany Alan Kupperberg Richard Kyle

JACK COLE & PLASTIC MAN Section

Kevin Lafferty Mort Leav Stan Lee Paul Levitz Linda Long Russ Maheras Dan Makara Scott M. Martin David Morefield Matt Moring Will Murray Hari Naidu Mart & Carrie Nodell Michelle Nolan Jerry Ordway Art Paul George Ramsey Ethan Roberts Trina Robbins Steven Rowe Rich Rubenfeld Julius Schwartz Bill Seay Carole Seuling David Siegel Robin Snyder J. David Spurlock Mark Stratton Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Mike Vosburg Hames Ware Robert Wiener Ike Wilson Andy Yanchus John Yon

This issue is dedicated to Jerry G. Bails –––and to the memory of Jack Cole and Bill Woggon

“He Could Do Anything!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Pioneer DC artist Creig Flessel talks about his friend, Jack Cole.

“I Always Considered Him to Be a Genius!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Original Playboy art director Art Paul on Cole’s life and mysterious death.

“He Was a Very, Very Interesting Talent!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Playboy cartoonist Bill Seay shares his memories of Jack Cole.

Lost Comics Lore, Part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Everything Will Murray needs to know about comics... he learned from the Writer’s Digest!

Bill Woggon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 A fond remembrance of the creator of Katy Keene, by Trina Robbins.

re: [comments, corrections, & correspondence] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Golden Age Section (“The Titans of Timely/Marvel,” Part II). . Flip Us! About Our Cover: In 1992 Alex Toth, one of Jack Cole’s biggest admirers among the pro ranks, drew and colored this beautiful drawing of Plastic Man for two grateful Italian fans whose names are shown on the next page. Having seen this piece printed in the acclaimed volume Toth: Black & White, edited and published by Manuel Auad, we thought it would look magnificent surrounded by a muted montage of published Cole/Plastic Man panels (at least, we hope they’re all by Cole!). And it does, don’t you think? [Toth art ©2003 Alex Toth; Plastic Man TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Above: One of the few instances in which DC’s editors heeded Roy Thomas’ solicited advice in putting together the wonderful but sadly out-of-print 1990 hardcover The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told was to include Plas’ battle with the salt-eating alien Amorpho, from 1950’s Plastic Man #21. Here are a pair of panels from that masterful tale, representative both of Jack Cole’s unique talent—and the frustrating attempt by various people for more than four decades to solve the mystery of his untimely suicide. Jack, we hardly knew ye! [©2003 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 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

Jack Cole

Jack Cole–Artist and Enigma Celebrations and Speculations on the Creative Genius behind “Plastic Man”

by Jim Amash Rebel with a Cause —and the Cause Was Art Jack Ralph Cole realized his childhood dreams more fully than most people. He was a dreamer who was also a doer. Even at an early age, the spark of genius and creativity seems to have been within him. Was it the antics of E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theater, Rudolph Dirks’ Captain and The Kids, George McManus’ Bringing Up Father, and others, that awakened the spirit of inventiveness in Cole? Most likely, it was these influences and more, as Cole—like most children—derived invention from the world around him.

To start with, his father, DeLace Cole, was a dry goods salesman who performed in variety shows around the small town of New Castle, Pennsylvania. It seems likely that Jack got the idea from his father that he, too, could perform for others, whether it be on the stage (which he did do, in school), or on paper. And where can a performer have more freedom than on paper? Jack, like his artistic heroes before him, could be stage director, sound man, writer, costume designer, actor, and cameraman... all for free, without answering to anyone. His characters could go anywhere he chose and do whatever they wanted, without parental guardians to keep them in check, and while Cole was at it, they could win him the attention and respect of his friends and family. Only the lack of drawing supplies could stand in his way.

And if there were no drawing supplies, other materials worked just as nicely, since Cole was also very good with his hands. He made furniture, tapped the telephone line so he could listen to his sisters talk to their boyfriends, and published his own little newspaper, among other things. The world must have seemed wide open for whatever Cole wanted to accomplish. After all, that

seemed to be the case for his fictional friends, whether they were in the newspapers, books, movies, or radio.

Not everyone shared Cole’s enthusiasm for his ideas. His parents and teachers were more practical in their own lives, unable to understand that you can make anything happen if you try. However, there were people who admired the young man’s precociousness and undoubtedly encouraged Jack to break through the old-fashioned values of a small town.

Jack also had a rebellious streak. When he couldn’t get the money to take the Landon School of Cartooning’s correspondence course, Jack secretly pocketed his lunch money, hollowed out a book, and placed homemade lunches inside, fooling his parents until he saved enough money to take the course. His newspaper, The Scoop, got him into trouble at New Castle High, as he scandalously lampooned and revealed the secrets of his classmates. The Cole family were Republicans, so Jack became a Democrat. When he couldn’t get the money to bus his way to see the 1932 Olympic Games in California, Jack took his bicycle and made the trip anyway. He didn’t get to see the games, but returned home on different bicycles as New Castle’s version of Marco Polo. As excited well-wishers waited for him outside his house, he rode into town the back way, and surprised them by being inside the house as they waited outside. He just couldn’t help putting an antic final twist on his trip.

This story from Plastic Man #21 (Jan. 1950), reprinted in the 1990 DC hardcover The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told, which pits Plas against an alien who can shape-change as readily as he can, is Jack Cole at his best! But Cole himself was a mystery masquerading as an enigma... whom nobody has ever really figured out. The photo at top of the writer/artist appeared, among other places, in that 1999 issue of The New Yorker. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Dream Girl, Dream Career In 1934, Jack and his brother Bob planned a canoe trip down the Mississippi, but love interfered when Jack married his girl friend, Dorothy Mahoney. Even in marriage, Jack was unconventional. The couple eloped to New Brighton, Pennsylvania, and kept the marriage a secret for a while.

The dreamer had found his dream girl. Dorothy was almost as short as Jack was tall. She was quiet and moody, but the Cole family

Artist and Enigma

5

As comics historian Ron Goulart wrote in Comics: The Golden Age #2 (May 1984), Cole’s “first shape-changing hero wasn’t the red-clad Plastic Man but rather an obscure chap named Mantoka,” an Amerindian who appeared in three issues of a Centaur mag. In his origin tale in Funny Pages, Vol. 4, #1 (Jan. 1940), he turned into an eagle, became a mist that passed through cell bars, and swelled to twice his normal size—and that doesn’t count setting fire to a crook’s hand and freezing a cascading flood of water. During this same Chesler-shop period, his “King Kole’s Court” appeared in comics published by three different companies! On “Mantoka” he used the pseudonym “Richard Bruce,” taken from a brother’s first and middle names; on “Kole” (which, curiously, was basically his own name) he let writer George Nagle take all the credit. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

seemed to like her very much.

Dorothy and Jack’s relationship has been described as intense by at least one friend. Although his endeavors brought him attention, Jack himself was often shy. When Jack was happy (as he usually was), he was as happy as he could be, but his depressions were as deep as his highs were stratospheric. This dark side of Jack’s personality is substantiated by the story of Cole’s bloodying his fists punching trees after a fight with Dorothy. Another time, Jack left Dorothy to stay with cartoonist friend Bob Wood until the couple made up.

Overall, the marriage seemed to be a happy one. With the help of local friends, the Coles moved to New York as Jack tried to break into the cartooning business. He finally made it when he became a shop employee of Harry “A” Chesler in 1937, joining other hopefuls Mort Meskin, Charlie Biro, Bob Wood, and Gill Fox. Cole was already lettering and writing his own material (having demonstrated that talent earlier when he wrote about his bicycle trip for Boy’s Life), honing skills that would eventually release him from the studio situation and allow him to become his own man.

During his stay at Chesler’s, Cole wrote and drew “Down on the Trail,” “Mantoka,” “King Kole’s Kourt,” “Slim Pickens,” “Little Dynamite,” and several other features for Centaur Publications. In 1939, Cole left the Chesler shop and began freelancing for several companies.

At Hillman Publications, he wrote and drew “The Defender.” Novelty Publications snared him just long enough for Jack to visualize “The Hi Grass Twins.” Cole spent some time at MLJ (later Archie Comic Publications), where he started revealing the wild side of his personality on features like “The Comet.” The Comet didn’t mind killing the bad guys, which was a rarity in those more innocent times. “Ima Slooth” and “Manhunters” were the other features he did there.

Also at MLJ were Cole’s former Chesler mates Bob Wood and Charlie Biro. Within a short time, all three men gravitated to Your Guide Publications (also known as New Friday Publications and later as Lev Gleason Publications). For the company’s Silver Streak Comics, Cole wrote, drew, and created The Claw, Silver Streak, and Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor (for whom Cole could have been his own inspiration).

According to reports, he also created the original Daredevil (although the Overstreet Price Guide states that Jack Binder drew the first story).

The ensuing “Claw versus Daredevil” stories gained Cole wide attention in the comics field, and the stories themselves became legendary to

Under another pseudonym, “Ralph Johns,” Cole created Silver Streak. On this inside front cover for the 6th issue of the Lev Gleason comic of that name (cover-dated Sept. 1940), he drew not only the super-fast hero, but nearly two dozen contest winners! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Alex Toth

11

had as good a time at it than good ol’ Jack Cole! How could he not?

They were his very own original pen and ink pals—his babies, creations—moving, acting, in their little worlds, in which just about anything was possible—IF you had a sense of humor—didn’t take any of it seriously—but, then, how could you? Jack Cole at once disarmed half of your critical senses by stating clearly in his simple, humorous word/picture style and continuity that: “Hey! This is a COMIC book!

This is a CARTOON! And I’m a CARTOONIST! I’M having fun making up this stuff for you—so why don’t YOU have fun along with me? Enjoy!”

An offer few of us kid/cartoonist-types, and the lay readership, could refuse! We jumped in with both legs, and our eyes wide open, to not miss a line, a word, of that blessed man’s good works!

We so gladly accepted him on his own terms—the mark of the real talent—his work stood alone, apart, of its own, beyond comparison to any other!

Jack Cole was such a welcome relief to the other overblown superjocks of other titles, books, and publishers!

While we could mix up savory stews of Kirby, Fine, Meskin, Robinson, Biro, McWilliams, Nordling, Guardineer, Flessel, Christman, Beck, Briefer, Raboy, Cartier, Ray, Whitney, Ernst, Wolverton, Tuska, Kida, Borth, LeBlanc, Hasen, Sherman, Roussos—just a touch—a dash—of Cole, was needed—Eisner’s own “spirit” of that time—and more so later—increasingly took on more humorous story/art approaches which might’ve been signs of his appreciation of Cole’s funoriented stories and execution—whatever/whomever/however, etc., it gave Eisner’s “Spirit” series a mighty big plus, into the 1950s—

Four Short Pieces by ALEX TOTH on the “Perfect Delineator” of the “Perfect Comic Book Hero”

While chasing me out of Jack Cole’s glassed-in workspace, thenQuality Comics Group A.D. George (“The Clock”/“711”) Brenner said that “Jack’s more inventive/creative/brilliant a storyteller than Caniff, Raymond, and Foster rolled into one!” My two visits there, to see/chat with/query Cole were cut dead as soon as Brenner came in the front door to find pesky me—“Mustn’t slow/stop the wheels of progress” was his line to me as he whisked me out!

Damn it! Very frustrating—for kid fan/tyro/hopeful/etc.—me! 15 yr old sample-stuffed portfolio-lugger—yup—1943/44—those visits.

[NOTE: In 1987 and 1992, veteran artist Alex Toth wrote several short essays, for different people and purposes, concerning “Plastic Man” creator Jack Cole; one of these saw print in Robin Snyder’s The Comics!, while the others have not previously been printed anywhere, having either been sent sent to Ye Editor directly by Alex, or having come to Alter Ego via collector/Toth fan Jim Amash. At first we were tempted to edit out the handful of phrases or pieces of information that appeared in more than one of them; but Alex Toth’s handwritten notes have a kind of style and poetry all their own, so in the end we elected to let each separate piece of writing stand basically as it was written. We think you’ll agree with our choice, as the essays complement each other. All art & text ©2003 Alex Toth; Plastic Man TM & ©2003 DC Comics.

—Roy.]

I. During his prime years of creative, inventive, free-spirited zaniness and cartooning genius (WWII and postwar years), the time of his peaking “Plastic Man” and “Midnight” series at Quality Comics Group—I don’t think any workaday comicbook cartoonist

Because it was headed by yet another drawing of Plastic Man, we wanted to print the beginning of the 1992 essay that starts on this page.

[Art ©2003 Alex Toth; Plastic Man TM!&!©2003 DC!Comics.]

16

Dick Cole

“Other Super-Heroes Weren’t Like That!”

JACK COLE’s Brother, DICK COLE, in a Candid Conversation with JIM AMASH [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: People have a way of keeping the past vibrant in human memory. One example is Jack Cole, creator of “Plastic Man” and many other comic book features.

Cole’s later work at Playboy magazine introduced him to a new readership and elevated his status as an artist.

Sadly, Jack Cole was never interviewed, and thus his fans missed the opportunity to hear his story as he would have told it. Fortunately for us, his youngest brother, Dick Cole, generously gave of his time and memories so that we might get a glimpse into the man who will always be remembered as a gentle human being and a terrific creative talent. —Jim.]

“A Lot of History There!”

JIM AMASH: How many children did your parents have?

Samuel’s son John married Suzannah Hutchinson, who was the daughter of Anne Marbury Hutchinson, who was very famous in New England. Anne was the first women’s-libber. She didn’t believe everything the Puritans taught and was eventually excommunicated by Governor Winthrop from the Puritan Church. Her family was massacred, except for her, and she was raised by Indians for a while. She eventually married John Cole. A lot of history there. In fact, there’s a statue of Anne Marbury Hutchinson in Massachusetts.

She was my seventh-great-grandmother.

Dick Cole today, juxtaposed with one of his brother Jack’s classic splash pages, from Plastic Man #19 (Sept. 1949). Even the logos were endlessly inventive... and it’s not as easy to turn a flexible hero into a boxing ring as you might imagine! Unless otherwise noted, all photos accompanying this interview are courtesy of Dick Cole. Plas page thanks to Steve Brumbaugh.

[Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

DICK COLE: Six. DeLace, Jr., was born in 1908 and died in 1919. He was run over by a truck when he was eleven years old. Doris Eloise was born in 1911; she died in 1986. Jack Ralph was next; he was born in 1914 and died in 1958. Betty Jane was born in 1916 and died in 1988. Robert Vincent was born in 1919 and died in 1993. I was born in 1929 and I’m still vertical. [laughs] JA: [laughs] I’m glad to hear that. So there’s a 21-year age difference between you and your oldest brother. My family’s like that: the oldest was born in 1949 and the youngest in 1973. We got your family beat! [laughs] You told me when we set up this interview that your family is descended from William the Conqueror.

That’s some history!

COLE: Yes, it is. The first Cole I have a record of in America was Samuel Cole, who was born in Mersea County in Essex, England. He and his wife Anne and three children arrived in Massachusetts in June 12, 1630. They sailed from Yarmouth, England, aboard the Arabelle, which was part of Governor Winthrop’s fleet. In 1633, Samuel Cole opened the first public inn. His Three Mariners Inn was referred to in a poem by John Endicott. My cousin, down in Arkansas, did all this research. He went around New England and visited gravesites and got dates.

JA: That’s astounding history. I take it that you were born into a middle-class family.

COLE: Yes. My parents’ names were DeLace and Cora Belle. My mother was a school teacher in Elmira, New York, before she married my father. She didn’t teach once she got married.

My mother was a very quiet woman. A beautiful lady. My father died in 1968 and my mother died in 1954.

My father’s career was mostly in the dry goods business. He was the manager of several stores throughout the years. In the late ’30s, he purchased his own store in Greenville, Pennsylvania, a small town about 25 miles from New Castle. However, it didn’t pan out, and after three years, went bankrupt in 1941.

We moved back to New Castle, and at the age of sixty he started a new career. He became a State Farm agent, passed the realtor’s exam, and worked with another realtor and insurance agent. After a few short years, he opened his own agency and was very successful. He was active with State Farm for twenty years and retired at the ripe young age of eighty.

“Other Super-Heroes Weren’t Like That!”

17 JA: Your family settled down in New Castle, Pennsylvania, which isn’t that far from where I was born. Tell me a little about where you were brought up.

COLE: It was a small to medium industrial town. We had a tin mill and pottery was made here; engineering companies were here, too.

The extended Cole family in a photo taken probably in the midto-late 1930s. [Left to right, standing:] Betty Jane Cole (sister); Doris Eloise Cole Thompson (sister) and her husband Don; Jack and Dorothy Cole. [Left to right, sitting:] Delace Cole (father); Dick (brother); Cora Belle Cole (mother); Robert Vincent Cole (brother).

To the right is a photo of Jack’s father.

My dad was very outgoing. He was an entertainer, a song and dance man. He was in shows for the Rotary Club, the Masons, and did minstrel shows. He had his own little orchestra and went around to Veterans’ Homes and the like. They called themselves The King Cole’s Corn Crackers. Jack used to call Dad “the old publicity hound” because he was always getting his name in the paper. Dad used to send him newspaper clippings.

My career was in the military. I was full time in the National Guard and when I left, I came back to New Castle and worked for Shenango Pottery. I went back to the Guard full time as a technician for 33 years.

“You’ll Never Amount to a Damn!”

JA: What are your earliest memories of Jack? I notice there was fifteen years between the two of you.

COLE: Jack wasn’t home too much when I was small. He was working and going to school. When I got to school age, he was gone from the house. I can remember him building a canoe in the backyard. That was after his bicycle trip to California, which he started on July 12, 1932, right after graduation. Jack had intentions of taking a trip down the Mississippi in a canoe. In the meantime, my mother found out that Jack and Dorothy were secretly married, and she said, “Go live with your wife.” That’s why he didn’t take the canoe trip.

JA: He certainly was the adventurous type. I can’t imagine riding a bicycle from New Castle to California. Of course, you couldn’t do that now, because it’s illegal to ride a bicycle on interstate roads now.

Was Jack going alone on his canoe trip?

COLE: I think he had a friend who was going to go along with him.

JA: Why did he keep his marriage to Dorothy secret?

COLE: I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t want to tell her parents right away.

One of Cole’s first lessons with the Landon School of Cartooning Correspondence Course, circa 1935, according to Ron Frantz, who provided us with it. Thanks, Ron! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Jack and Dorothy “rented a great big farmhouse when they lived in Barrington, Massachusetts... about thirteen rooms, with several hundred acres, mostly forest.”

Creig Flessel

“He Could Do Anything!”

27

Artist CREIG FLESSEL Talks about His Friend JACK COLE Interview Conducted by Roy Thomas [EDITOR’S NOTE: When comics historians write about the “pioneers” of the field—well, Creig Flessel was one of those guys who was there to open the door and shake the hand of most of those pioneers when they arrived on the scene, as his roots at National/DC go back to 1935—just a couple of years shy of seven decades! Creig has his own interview coming up in Alter Ego a few months from now, but in March of 2003 Roy Thomas, who had first met him at the fabulous All Time Classic New York Comic Convention in White Plains, New York, in 2000, phoned Creig up to ask him a few specific questions about his old friend Jack Cole— who had somehow not been mentioned in the already-transcribed Flessel interview. Creig graciously obliged. But before I talked with him about the creator of “Plastic Man,” I had to touch on another subject....

—Roy.]

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

talking over his shoulder. And he never worried about deadlines.

He was generally on time. But this time, he says, “Oh, tell him to go—.”

RT: When was that, do you know?

FLESSEL: Let’s see, I moved into the place in about 1941. That was before the war, and Jack was moving around at the time. And that was the first time I met him. We became good friends. He moved up to Connecticut, and he moved here and there, and I guess you know the story. We traveled with him on vacation trips, he and Dottie. In fact, we have an 8mm film of a trip we took with them. And I showed that to Art Spiegelman, when he came out for his interview.

Creig Flessel and an unidentified fan at a 1991 comics convention—plus a humorous sketch Creig drew on a manila envelope sent to Roy Thomas. No wonder the package got to him so fast! Photo taken

by Jim Amash. [Art ©2003 Creig Flessel.]

RT: For his article and then the book on Cole, yes.

ROY THOMAS: Did they correct the spelling of your first name [from “Craig” to “Creig” in the paperback edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay] as Michael Chabon promised you he’d get them to do?

CREIG FLESSEL: No, they didn’t do that. It didn’t happen. [laughs] RT: Oh, well. Good intentions. Anyway, as you know, I wanted to ask you about Jack Cole, because you knew him. I never knew him myself, only his work. I was just wondering how you met him and how well you knew him.

FLESSEL: Well, when I met Jack the first time, [artist] Freddie Guardineer called me. Freddie was working for “Busy” Arnold [at Quality Comics Group], and Jack Cole had a job. But, at the time, Jack Cole was living in Huntington, right near me there. So Freddie Guardineer called, all frantic, and said that Busy Arnold said, “Where’s the job? Where’s the job?” [laughs] So I went over and Jack Cole was in a rented house, an old rented house. And down in the basement, the water was up to his ankles, leaking from the outside, in. And the water—it was like the little boy and the dike. He’d plug up one hole and it would come out of another hole. It was like a comedy. [laughs] And we were talking... he was

FLESSEL: The book and The New Yorker. And he saw the film. It’s a good film. It shows Jack very well. It’s a good record. Jack, I never worked with him. I used to see him in New York and, of course, at Dick Wood’s, and all the different—Gill Fox was a good friend, and the whole gang. But I never worked with him, I always admired his work, and he was a lot of fun, he and Dottie. And they stayed at our house, we stayed at their house.

They had this place—they never mention this place up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on the border there. It was a big farmhouse and about twenty acres. And he sold it to—who was the guy who took over the Major Bowes Amateur Hour [radio series]?

RT: Ted Mack.

FLESSEL: Ted Mack, yeah. He sold it to Ted Mack just before he went out to Chicago. He sold the place and he made a good penny out of it.

I remember that Major Bowes came to The Illustrators Club once and a famous opera singer did a take-off of him. Heck, they had an Amateur Hour show there at The Illustrators Club in the early days.

As for Jack Cole, I have no clue to why he killed himself. I have no idea.

Art Paul on Jack Cole

“I Always Considered Him To Be A Genius!”

29

Playboy Art Director ART PAUL on the Life and Death of JACK COLE Interview Conducted & Transcribed

by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Art Paul was with Playboy magazine at its inception, working hand in glove with founder Hugh Hefner. He freelanced design work on the first three issues before joining the staff in 1953; he retired in 1982. A lifelong Chicagoan, Art’s influence has reached far beyond the Windy City, as the many imitators of his design work would tell you if they were being honest. And we haven’t even mentioned his contribution to the Playboy legend, which Art himself will reveal to you. Art’s observations about Jack Cole are just as cogent and the mystery surrounding their final encounter just as puzzling as Cole’s subsequent suicide. —Jim.] ART PAUL: I’ll tell you, Jim, it’s not like I saw Jack almost every day. I had some poignant times with him and always considered him to be a genius. I thought he was just an absolutely marvelous cartoonist and felt that Playboy was fortunate to have Jack working for us.

because I wasn’t getting the type of work that I was really proud of.

Things were really developing; the first issue was really more like a sketchbook, but it had everything in it that we’d later use.

I designed the famous Rabbit Head symbol in 1953. I designed it Art Paul eyes Jack Cole’s wacky cover for Police Comics #71 for the first issue, although it wasn’t JIM AMASH: Tell me how you got (Oct. 1947). Thanks to Steve Brumbaugh for the cover scan. necessarily meant to be a logo at that started at Playboy.

Photo by Suzanne Seed. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.] time. It was supposed to be a symbol with a dot after it to signify the end PAUL: I was freelancing for about two of each article.

It wasn’t until the third issue that we actually used the years, when a mutual friend told me about Hugh Hefner. Hef was bunny on the cover, which of course is still in use today, although I looking for an illustrator for stories in his [projected] new magazine, don’t think they use it as adventurously as we had. which was called Stag Party. He came up to my office with the intention of doing illustration work, when he saw the work I had up on my walls. Some of it was work that I liked and some I hadn’t sold because the subject matter was adventurous. He looked at the stuff and asked, “Is this your work, or things you like?” I said it was some of both, so he got very interested in me as designer and art director. He asked me to commit to his new magazine.

I thought the name Stag Party was a big hindrance in going too far because of the way Hef had talked about it being sophisticated and things of that nature. That name seemed to counter that. However, after some persuasion, and this took a while because I wasn’t sure I should get involved... it seemed like he might change his mind about Stag Party.

And I’d never art-directed anything before, so this was a fun opportunity and I decided to go ahead and do the first issue.

I was working in my own studio and Hef was working in his kitchen at home, so he’d bring material in to me because I didn’t have time to go out and track down work. However, I had to change a lot of things

JA: You were in the office when Jack Cole’s work first came in. What was the general reaction?

PAUL: It was great! Hefner loved it and I loved it. Hefner really did the negotiations with him, because he had the contact.

JA: Do you remember what was in that first portfolio?

PAUL: Not specifically, but they were wonderful drawings. Of course, Jack was responsible for “Plastic Man.” I think Hefner knew more about him than I did. There was great, sensitive feeling inherent in Jack’s work... just beautiful. I’m sure Hefner realized Jack Cole had done “Plastic Man.” Hef was the cartoon editor. In the beginning, I think the cartoon area was his greatest strength.

JA: Why do you think it was so important for Hefner to want Jack Cole to move from the Northeast to be near him?

30

“I Always Considered Him To Be A Genius!”

JA: Do you remember when you met Jack Cole?

PAUL: I don’t remember our first meeting, but I immediately got the feeling of his sensitivity. I liked his work so much, which was the important thing to me at the moment. The readers immediately hooked on to him. Jack’s work was consistent in its quality—the rendering and the ideas. The small black-&-white cartoons were delightful and funny. Everything about him was great for us.

JA: What was Cole like?

PAUL: He was a very nice man and shy. We were very comfortable together and he was thoughtful, but he wasn’t a verbose person. He gave me the feeling that he was a sensitive person.

JA: People who knew Cole back in the 1940s remember him as a joke-teller who played practical jokes on people. But he doesn’t seem to have struck you that way.

PAUL: That’s not what I remember. I’m sure we laughed together and he told jokes, especially with Hefner, but I don’t remember any details after all these years.

JA: Do you think he was happy to be in Illinois?

PAUL: Yes, I think he was very happy to be there. He liked us all, too. He really liked Hef. As a matter of fact, just before he committed suicide, we had a party in the office and Jack was in a state that I’d never seen before. He was drinking pretty heavily, so it seemed. I remember we started to talk because he wanted to talk to me. I said, “Great,” but then I was interrupted and never got back to him. The next day, I heard he committed suicide. It was devastating to me, because I felt maybe I could have said something the night before to change his mind about killing himself. But it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

JA: I’ll bet you’ve wondered about that all your life.

Under the name “Jake,” Cole did cartoons for many companies and mags, including Humorama, founded by Timely/Marvel publisher Martin Goodman’s brother Abe. Thanks to John Yon for the great copy from the original art. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

PAUL: I have, I have... many times.

JA: I can’t imagine living with that thought. I didn’t even know him, but I’ve wondered about it ever since I read about Cole in Steranko’s History of the Comics twenty-five years ago. I was aware of “Plastic Man” and his Playboy work even then.

PAUL: A good portion of the magazine, as you know, was made up of cartoons. We started out using Hef’s own cartoons, but he had the sense to know we needed to use other people’s work. I had to tell him that his work wasn’t meeting up to his own standards, but he already knew that. He was a gifted cartoonist and was a great admirer of Esquire and wanted to get in some of their cartoonists, which he did.

I don’t know if Hefner sought Cole out or if Cole sent work to him first. Now, Shel Silverstein came up to me and I said, “Hef’s got to see this.” I knew Shel had the spark of genius in him and got him and Hef together, and Shel produced historic work for Playboy.

PAUL: Yes, and his earlier work was really the forerunner of what was to come. The understanding I had was that he was really under some kind of work stress and managed to create difficult deadlines for himself in those areas.

JA: But Cole could have done his cartoons from anywhere he wanted, so I wonder why Hefner wanted him to be close to the offices?

PAUL: It was Hef’s personality more than anything else.

He did that to me sometimes when I had to travel on business. He’d call me and tell me to come right back, which I’d do. I think it was just the sense that he liked to have people close to him.

JA: Was he good at meeting deadlines for Playboy?

A Jack Cole cartoon from Collier’s magazine, circa 1952. Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

PAUL: Yes, because he was doing a series of black-&-white cartoons for us in addition to

Bill Seay on Jack Cole

“He Was a Very, Very Interesting Talent!”

33

Playboy Illustrator BILL SEAY on His Memories of JACK COLE Interview Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

University of Illinois at about the same time, though we didn’t know each other then. And he wanted to be a cartoonist. That was his main thing in life. Right around the time we graduated from college, Hefner self-published a magazine called That Toddlin’ Town, which had cartoons about Chicago in it. This was in the late 1940s. Hefner had some of his own cartoons in it and they were pretty good.

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Bill Seay (pronounced “see”) has had a long and fruitful cartooning career, though not in comic books. But in his time he has mingled with many of the comic book greats and is a member of the celebrated Berndt Toast Gang in New York, which has been mentioned in various JA: How did you meet Hefner? issues of Alter Ego. Because of longtime Marvel artist/colorist SEAY: I met him when I started to Stan Goldberg, who himself was work at Playboy. He okayed interviewed back in issue #18, everything and signed every check.

Recent photo of Bill Seay, provided by the artist. we’re able to present Bill’s recollecHe paid very well. I was making a tions of Jack Cole, which give some dollar a minute! insight into a legendary cartoonist and into Playboy magazine at the JA: The public has a certain image of Hefner today, so I’m curious same time. Thanks to both Stan and Bill! You’re two of the good guys about what he was like before all that. in cartooning. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: What were you doing at Playboy?

BILL SEAY: I was doing humorous illustrations. Art Paul was the art director, and I was working at a studio called Meyer-Borth. It was a syndicated advertising service and I was a cartoonist there. I had a drawing in the Chicago Art Director’s Club Exhibition, which Art saw, and he called me up. They had a writer named Bill Iverson, and I illustrated his articles.

SEAY: Well, he was pretty talkative. He was a very nice guy, but he’s worked at building the image people have of him today. I was living in Evanston, Illinois, at the time, and Art Paul and I got together at a parent-teachers meeting. Art said he loved Evanston. I told him he ought to move out here and Art said, “No, Hef likes us to keep the Playboy image even if we are married and have kids.” Hef started building that

JA: What was Hefner like?

SEAY: Hefner was a great guy. I started working for him very early. Playboy was located in a brownstone on the North Side of Chicago, and that’s when I met Jack Cole. They moved into a five-story building East of Michigan Avenue when the magazine began to be a hot item. We had a party to celebrate the new offices, and it was the day after that when Jack killed himself.

Hefner and I went to the

An early Cole magazine cartoon, courtesy of Ron Frantz. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

36

Lost Comics Lore

Lost Comics Lore

Part 1: The First Installment of a Fabulous New Series

by Will Murray If you sift through old magazines like Writer’s Digest long enough, you will learn things you’d suspect even God forgot about magazine publishing.

During the 1930s, Writer’s Digest focused on markets for hungry pulp writers. When comic books happened, the magazine began paying attention to that market, too. Not much, but enough so if you pan through its crumbling pages, inevitably you find nuggets of pure gold.

People forget that before Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson published New Fun Comics, the first regularly-published comic book featuring all-new strips instead of newspaper strip reprints, Dell released a tabloid-format prototype comic book called The Funnies direct to newsstands in 1929, which also ran original material. The first editor of The Funnies is lost to history—unless you read old Writer’s Digests. WD credits Harry Steeger as the originating editor, a claim Steeger himself made in later years—although market notices actually list a “William Vogt,” possibly a house name.

Harry Steeger was apparently the first editor of Delacorte’s The Funnies in 1929. Perhaps by the time this Aug. 30, 1930, cover by Victor E. Pazmino was published, Steeger had already moved on to pulp magazines—including The Spider; seen at right is the cover of the May 1936 issue, painted

by John Newton Howitt. Thanks in part to Ron Goulart. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Steeger went on in 1930 to launch Popular Publications, the pulp house responsible for The Spider, among other titles. Steeger’s Funnies replacement was Edythe Seims, who later followed him to Popular, editing Daredevil Aces and The Mysterious Wu Fang there.

The offer was signed by the company’s president, Jerome Siegel, of Cleveland, Ohio—two years before Action Comics #1! This was the ad that Wayne Boring answered. It launched his long career.

The January 1930 Writer’s Digest noted that The Funnies’ “cartoons and comic strips are usually bought from well-known artists on contract, but free-lance submissions will be inspected closely.”

You’ve probably never heard of M. Ann Young, but she was an early contender in the Superman ghost artist sweepstakes kicked off by the above ad. She writes about it rather innocently in the June 1945 WD:

Although The Funnies did not last long, it was later revived with two new Dell titles—The Comics and Popular Comics. In 1937 WD reported that pulp editor Art Lawson had charge of all three.

The irony in all this is that, as Popular’s publisher, Steeger was the only major pulp guy who decided to sit out the comic book explosion of the 1940s. The decision probably cost him millions.

Dell seems to have believed it owned all title to the word “Funnies” as a comic book title. In 1943 the company successfully sued Nedor over Real Funnies and Funny Funnies, stopping the former after only three issues and turning the latter into an unintended one-shot.

References to the comic book field were scarce in the 1930s issues of Writer’s Digest, but this letter ran in October 1936: “Publication Enterprises Co. is in immediate need of contacting artists to work upon comic and cartoon strips. While at this time our greatest need is for artists to work upon illustration story strips, we would also be pleased to consider the work of cartoonists.

“We work on a 50-50 basis, doing the continuity and selling ourself.

Artists sending in samples of their work are asked to enclose envelope and return postage if they care to have their work returned.

“Any artist who does good work will receive a good reception from us.

This may be an opportunity for some talented beginners who have not yet had the good fortune to break into print.”

“I have read Writer’s Digest for a number of years because it is one of the best ‘tip’ magazines on the market. No, and I am not a writer, either (other than a copywriter), but chiefly an artist.

“To illustrate how I have relied on Writer’s Digest for information let’s go back a few years. Back before Superman was the celebrated personage he is today, Jerry Siegal [sic] advertised in Writer’s Digest for ghost artists. I drew a few pen and ink sketches on a letter and sent it off.

To my surprise, Mr. Siegal proved his interest by returning to me ‘Superman’ copy to illustrate. I rushed out looking for an Action comic in order to discover who this Superman was. Up to that point, I had not made his acquaintance.

“The end to this sad story explains itself when I say that I was just a greenhorn, amateur artist then. Although the action and the proportions of my figures were not bad, my procedure was entirely unprofessional. I used the wrong paper, ink—and even mailed the sketches the wrong way.

Just one good opportunity muffed by lack of art education and experience.”

The happy sequel is that Young later went on to attend art school and became an art director at an advertising agency, selling the occasional cartoon along the way. But she came within a whisker of being the first woman to ghost “Superman”!

Comic books were so new in the 1930s that market notices described

Will Murray

37

should follow the pulp forms, with plenty of fast moving action and drama. Do not send any art work, as it cannot be used. Payment is made the 15th of the month following acceptance, at one cent a word. Ken Hatch is the editor. Suite 605, 276 Fifth Avenue is the address.”

Star Mystery was never published. It may hold the distinction of being the first comic book aborted before launch. Chesler’s third title, Famous Features, did not appear until later that year. Chesler must have been disappointed with the performance of his comics line, because Writer’s Digest reported the following in its October 1938 issue: “Star Ranger and Star Comics, formerly published by Mr. Chesler, have been taken over by Centaur Publications, 461 Eighth Avenue. This company publishes Little Giant Comics and Little Giant Movie Funnies, as well as some more comics. These are all art work. At present there is no market for fiction.”

By 1940 the pulps were fast fading from the scene as comic books began proliferating, sucking up readers’ dimes. Writer’s Digest couldn’t help but notice this. This is from the January 1940 issue: “Fawcett Publications, 1501 Broadway, is bringing out three of the comic type magazines: Whiz Comics, Slam Bang Comics, and Master Comics. Like most magazines of the type, story sequences and cartoons are worked out in the office by staff members. The field is booming, the newsstands being thickly papered with this typically American sort of publication.”

In the same issue, WD reported the rise of the MLJ comics line from the embers of their failing pulp chain: “Winford Publications (Blue Ribbon, Double-Action Group, etc.) are buying very little at present.

The chief activity noticeable in the offices at 60 Hudson Street is the rush of cartooning for the group of comics which they are now publishing. But this is all done by staff workers.”

After answering a help-wanted ad in a 1938 issue of Writer’s Digest, both Wayne Boring and Paul Cassidy were put to work on the Superman newspaper strip that debuted in ’39. Wayne Boring eventually moved over to comic books, where he became the Superman pace-setter from the late 1940s through the ’50s. This 1949 Boring-penciled splash page is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art; thanks to Jerry K. Boyd. But hey, Jerry—you forgot to tell us what comic it came from! And somebody else will doubtless identify the inker, whether Stan Kaye or whoever. [©2003 DC Comics.]

The Author’s Journal for July 1940 ran a plea from Prize editor M.R. Reese calling for an “idea man” to help generate plots for Prize Comics

these upstart periodicals in amusingly awkward terms. This is from January 1937: “H. A. Chesler is starting a group of illustrated magazines featuring action stories in pictures—on the order of the newspaper comics. These will be printed in four colors throughout, and the size is that of Liberty [magazine]. MacFadden is to distribute them, but that seems to be the only connection between this group and the Chesler Publications.

All the art work is to be done by the staff, but Mr. Chesler will be in the market for stories of appropriate type, told in scenario forms to fit into series of twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four squares. Because of the unusual nature of the material, which must tell a story suitable for illustration, it will be necessary to study the magazines before submitting material. There are three magazines now in preparation: Star Comics will go on sale January 5th; Star Ranger will go out January 12th; and later, Star Mystery will follow, perhaps with others to come. Plots

Chesler Publications’ Star Comics (#1 was cover-dated Feb. 1937) was one of several titles which printed Jack Cole’s “King Kole’s Kourt” at one time or another. The page depicted above, though, comes from MLJ’s Blue Ribbon Comics #1, a bit later. [Star Comics art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; “King Kole’s Kourt” art ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

40

Bill Woggon

Bill Woggon

(1911-2003) A Fond Remembrance by Author/Cartoonist Trina Robbins My friend, a woman of A Certain Age, was visiting me and saw the framed Katy Award I’d been given in the 1930s by the Katy Keene Fan Club. Her face lit up. “Isn’t that Katy Keene? I remember Katy Keene!”

And so do most women of A Certain Age. Sometimes that was the only comic book they read. And sometimes they need a little prompting to remember the name. When they see my spinner full of old comics, their eyes get all misty. “Gee, when I was a girl, I used to read this comic about a girl,” they say. “What was her name? The beautiful movie star you could design clothes for? And she had paper dolls, too.”

“The Twiddles,” and “Nevada Jones,” in Wilbur, Suzie, Pep, and Laugh. But it was Katy Keene’s first 1945 appearance in Wilbur #5 that made history—or perhaps, herstory. The glamorous brunette movie queen, along with her paper dolls, pinups, and equally glamorous fashions, was a big hit with kids, especially girl kids. Katy got her own title in 1949, and throughout the 1950s she became her own mini-industry, with such spin-off titles as Katy Keene Fashion Book, Katy Keene Holiday Fun, Katy Keene Pinup Parade, Katy Keene Spectacular, Katy Keene Glamour, Katy Keene Charm, and Katy Keene 3-D.

Most of us were too It wasn’t only girls who young and naive to realize sent in their designs to Katy that the beautiful “readerKeene. Little John Lucas’ designed” fashions printed in father was upset when his Katy Keene comics had been son read and designed redrawn by creator Bill clothes for what he Woggon. Instead, we thought considered a “girl’s comic,” that the designers who sent but the many photos of them in were incredibly himself in cowboy outfits talented, and, despairing of that Bill Woggon included in ever drawing that well, we his comics convinced him never sent in our own that it was a boy’s comic, drawings. But braver or too. John grew up to draw smarter kids did send their Katy when Archie Comics designs to “Bossman” Bill revived her during the 1980s, Woggon at the “Woggon in response to demand from Wheels” ranch in Santa a still-vocal Katy Keene Barbara, California—designs fandom.

Unfortunately, we had no photo of Bill Woggon at presstime—but here is one of his justlynot only for the movie celebrated “Katy Keene” pinup pages. Thanks, Trina. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] [Retired cartoonist Trina queen’s fantastic costumes, Robbins turned her talents but for tail-finned cars, to feminist pop culture over ten years ago when she wrote her first horses, even space ships—and he published them. Some, like the late book on women cartoonists, the now out-of-print A Century of Barb Rausch, Barbie artist par excellence, even earned the title of Katy Women Cartoonists. Since then, she’s written ten more books, Keene artist of the month. Others he inspired to become real designers, including one about dark goddesses (Eternally Bad) and her latest, like Betsey Johnston, Willie Smith, and Anna Sui. None of us ever forgot Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill. And she still likes to write him. about killer women cartoonists (The Great Women Cartoonists, Bill was assisting big brother Elmer on his newspaper strip Chief Watson-Guptill, 2001). You can check out Trina’s website at Wahoo (later to become Steve Roper) when Archie editor Harry <www.trinarobbins.com>.]

Shorten visited the Ohio studio, saw the young cartoonist’s work, and invited him to submit filler material for the Archie comics line. He published quite a few of Bill’s submissions, such as “Dotty and Ditto,”

PLUS: PLUS:

No. 25 June 2003

A 70th-BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO

[JGB portrait ©2003 Bill Schelly; JSA TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

JERRY G. BAILS

FANDOM’s FOUNDING FATHER!

ALSO IN THIS STAR-STUDDED ISSUE: ADAMS • AMASH • ANDERSON BRUNNER • BORING • BURNLEY • "CHAD" CLAREMONT • COCKRUM • EVERETT FLESSEL • GALLAGHER • GILBERT HANLEY • HARRIS • KANE • KUBERT LAY • LEAV • LEVITZ • MURRAY • NODELL NORDLING • ORDWAY • PAUL • PEDDY RAY • SEAY • SCHELLY • SCHWARTZ SEKOWSKY • SEVERIN • SPRANG STASI • SWAYZE • THOMAS • TOTH VOSBURG • WILLIAMSON • WOGGON and MORE!

5.95

$

In the USA

Vol. 3, No. 25 / June 2003 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

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

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Alex Toth (with Jack Cole) Bill Schelly & Friends

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Manuel Auad Mike W. Barr Allen Bellman John Benson Bill Black Carl E. Borg Ray Bottorff Jr. Jerry K. Boyd Steve Brumbaugh Jack Burnley Tony Cerezo Chris Claremont Shawn S. Clay Dave Cockrum Lynda Fox Cohen Dick Cole Dave Cook Teresa R. Davidson Craig Delich Al Dellinges Terry Doyle Michael Feldman Creig Flessel Gill Fox Jeff Fox Ron Frantz Paul Gambaccini Ron Goulart Martin L. Greim Ron Harris Mark & Stephanie Heike Tom Horvitz Bob Hughes Bob Koppany Alan Kupperberg Richard Kyle

Kevin Lafferty Mort Leav Stan Lee Paul Levitz Linda Long Russ Maheras Dan Makara Scott M. Martin David Morefield Matt Moring Will Murray Hari Naidu Mart & Carrie Nodell Michelle Nolan Jerry Ordway Art Paul George Ramsey Ethan Roberts Trina Robbins Steven Rowe Rich Rubenfeld Julius Schwartz Bill Seay Carole Seuling David Siegel Robin Snyder J. David Spurlock Mark Stratton Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Mike Vosburg Hames Ware Robert Wiener Ike Wilson Andy Yanchus John Yon

This issue is dedicated to Jerry G. Bails –––and to the memory of Jack Cole and Bill Woggon

HAPPY 70th, JERRY G. BAILS!

Contents

Writer/Editorial: “Jerry, You’re the Bestest!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Jerry Bails’ Ten Building Blocks of Fandom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Bill Schelly examines ten JGB “firsts”—and that’s just from the 1960s!

The Jerry Bails/Gardner Fox Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Michael T. Gilbert looks at JGB’s correspondence with the co-creator of the JSA.

With a Little Help from His Friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Some of Jerry’s collaborators and correspondents on Fandom’s Founding Father.

The Naming of Alter-Ego ––1961. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 What’s in a name? Jerry Bails, Ph.D., in his own words.

“Roy Writes All-Star Squadron Like He’s Just Writing It for Jerry Bails!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ye Editor reveals JGB’s influence on the early days of the 1980s “JSA” mag.

“IChrisTrusted His Instincts and I Hoped He Trusted Mine!”. . . . . . 26 Claremont (part 2) interviewed by Jim Amash on his X-Men work with Dave Cockrum, et al. re: [comments, corrections, & correspondence] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #84 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 P.C. Hamerlinck proudly presents Marc Swayze, Hames Ware, & Hoppy the Marvel Bunny!

A Toast to the Golden Age of Comic Fandom . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 A Michael T. Gilbert centerspread, dedicated to 1960s super-fans no longer with us.

Jack Cole & Plastic Man Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Bill Schelly surrounded his finely-rendered portrait of Jerry G. Bails with a Justice Society panoply—all 18 Golden Age members, in fact. Ye Ed sent Bill plenty of 1940s art to choose from (plus the 1980s Red Tornado drawing by Shelly Mayer), and publisher John Morrow made a few last-minute tweaks, before Tom Ziuko worked his coloring wonders. Jerry was never “just” a JSA fan, despite the abundance of All-Starrelated art in this issue—but since DC asks that we not mix its heroes with those of Marvel and other companies on covers, this seemed a good a way to go. Can anybody ID all the artists? [Portrait ©2003 Bill Schelly; characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Above: This Rick Stasi art was used as the back cover of Craig & David Delich’s 1977 All-Star Comics Revue. Rick, a commercial artist in Kansas City, went on to do some work for DC in the 1980s, including a “Shazam!” series with Ye Editor. [Art ©2003 Rick Stasi; Spectre, Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, & Starman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 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.

Title Comic Fandom Archive

5

I began researching the history of comic fandom in 1992, because I wanted to make sure the energetic efforts of fandom’s earliest boosters were recognized and celebrated. The occasion of Jerry Bails’ 70th birthday gives me the perfect excuse (as if I needed one!) to focus on his numerous contributions to fandom, especially in that first exciting decade—contributions I’m calling…

Jerry Bails’ Ten Building Blocks of Fandom

by Bill Schelly I. Alter-Ego, with a Hyphen Since we’ll be examining these building blocks in roughly chronological order, the place to start is with the fanzine Jerry Bails founded (with the help of Roy Thomas) slightly more than 42 years ago. The initial idea was to publish a newsletter to boost the Justice League of America, who had recently been launched Jerry Bails in the 1980s—and (since we in their own comic book title. featured all eleven 1960s-70s Alter Ego After visiting with Justice covers back in ish #10) the montage League of America editor Julius cover of the 1997 collection of the best of Schwartz and writer Gardner the first volume of A/E. This 160-page Fox in New York City in trade paperback is virtually out of print, February of 1961, his projected though Bill Schelly recently stumbled upon a few spare copies; contact him The JLA Subscriber gave way to via Hamster Press. Photo courtesy of something much more ambitious: Jerry Bails and Bill Schelly. [Cover art an amateur journal devoted to ©2003 the respective copyright holders.] the revivals of the costumed heroes at DC and elsewhere, as well as historical studies of what Bails deemed “The First Heroic Age of Comics.”

Its title hyphenated at first (and originally planned to be spelled with a lower-case second “e”), Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961) was sent out free to people on Jerry’s growing mailing list, compiled largely from the DC letter columns (mostly Schwartz’s) that now contained full addresses.

Clearly, Bails tapped into a lot of pent-up interest in comics, and in just one year his mailing list topped 500 names. Many who had enjoyed the medium in solitude came out of the woodwork, most of them older than the eight-to-twelve-year-olds who were DC’s target audience at the time. A number of them were talented writers and artists, and soon they were contributing to Alter-Ego or starting their own fanzines. A grassroots movement arose, forming the foundation for a fandom just about comics.

At first, Jerry planned to run such ads in each issue of A/E, but it soon became clear that it couldn’t be published often enough.

Thus, in September 1961, just six months after A/E debuted, he brought out The Comicollector #1, the first comics advertising fanzine.

Labeled “the companion to Alter-Ego,” this 20-pager carried ads by Bails and such early stalwarts of fandom as John McGeehan, Claude Held, John Pierce, Ronn Foss, Paul Seydor, and others. The only article was a review of the first issue of The Fantastic Four, called “Four of a Kind,” by Roy Thomas, actually written for inclusion in A/E. Bails published The Comicollector for a year, then handed the reins to Ronn Foss. In 1964 it merged with Gordon Love’s Rocket’s Blast, forming the venerable RB-CC, which lasted into the 1980s.

II. The Comicollector One of the main purposes of fandom, then as now, was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections.

Edgar Rice Burroughs and science-fiction fans had The Fantasy Collector, which occasionally offered old comics for sale or trade, but there was a need for a publication devoted primarily to the field of comic art.

The masthead of the first issue of JGB’s Comicollector (Sept. 1961).

There were few illos in the early issues.

9

The Jerry Bails/Gardner Fox Letters Once bitten by the comics bug, it’s hard to recover! Since the early days of comic book fandom, many enthusiasts of the medium have worked diligently to preserve comics history and promote fandom. But few have worked longer or harder than Jerry Bails!

You could say Jerry’s the “Johnny Appleseed” of comics. Besides starting Alter-Ego in 1961, in the early ’60s he helped organize the first comic book awards, published the first comics advertising fanzine— and indexed about a zillion comic books in his spare time. That obsession led to the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, which now lists credits for over 19,000 comic book creators. Jerry began this project in the 1950s, finishing in July 2001. Now that’s persistence!

One of the most important contacts for Jerry in the early days—the one that, in a sense, led to Alter-Ego, the Who’s Who project, and everything else—was early comics writer Gardner Fox, co-creator of The Flash, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Justice Society of America, and many other features. Thus, in honor of Jerry’s 70th birthday, we’d like to print a small sampling of his correspondence with Fox. As mentioned in Alter Ego #21 and other issues, Fox’s papers—which include these letters—were donated to the Special Collections at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR—and we thank Linda Long, head of that department, as well as Gardner’s children Lynda Fox Cohen and Jeff Fox, for permission to reprint material from the Gardner Fox Archive.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a copy of Jerry’s first letter to the veteran scripter, but Gardner’s response, dated July 9, 1953 (!), indicates just how early “Mr. Beals” was collecting data on comic book creators. He was a huge fan of Gardner’s All-Star Comics, and had written to him (in care of DC), hoping to buy some desired back issues.

In his second letter to “Jerry” (no more “Mr. Beals” or even “Mr. Bails”), dated Aug. 26, 1953, but which we don’t have room to print in full here, Gardner apologized for not answering sooner, but said, “The summer is a bad time to catch me at anything. I am often travelling, doing research, or just plain knocking off on weekend vacations.” He announced that “I am sending you issues 5-7-8-10-18 of All Star Comics under separate cover. When I get settled for fall, I’ll do some more hunting around and hope to send you more.” He also mentioned he had written all issues of All-Star “from number 1 to number 35, roughly.” (Actually, it turned out to be #1-34—but that doesn’t count several unpublished JSA stories that we know about now.)

Admittedly, the All-Star mags in question were only about a decade old in 1953, but the mind still boggles at the thought of Fox casually tossing his copies of the comics into the mail to help out a fan!

And, in fact, on Sept. 24, 1953, Fox wrote again—to say he was sending Jerry his duplicate copies of All-Star #2, 3, 4, and 6.

10

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Next, here’s the earliest letter (9/6/53) we have that was written by Jerry, who in 1953 was a student teacher. One can well imagine his glee at learning a key fact (mentioned in the first sentence) about the man with whom he was corresponding:

(Above:) Jerry was an aspiring artist long before he contacted Gardner!

In 1942 he did this drawing for a Kansas City newspaper—inspired, he says, by the U.S. Savings Stamp Album that came with his first JJSA kit.

The editor noted his flag had exactly 13 stripes and 48 stars—just the right number! (Right:) A JSA-influenced group created by young Jerry sometime in the ’40s: The Crime Fighters (a.k.a. Crime Destroyers), composed of The Eel, Human Fly, Mr. Victory, Dr. Psycho, The Clown, Hermes, and Scarlet Scorpion. You can probably figure out who’s who.

Around this time, Jerry says, he learned the word “mutants,” which he thought was “nifty and less generic than Crime Fighters,” and used it for his heroes. But he says he “can’t find a drawing for my claim against Marvel Comics. Drat!” [©2003 Jerry Bails.]

By 1959 the student teacher was now well on his way to becoming a Ph.D. Not that that stopped his obsession with comics. The following letter shows Jerry’s continuing efforts to buy Fox’s two bound volumes of All-Star Comics—containing #1-24—which had apparently begun a year earlier, to judge by an 8/26/58 Fox letter which asks for “a chance to think over your offer. Aside from the money involved I believe you would treasure those first 24 issues as much if not more than I.” (By the way, the notation at top left, “WROTE 1/31/59,” is apparently Gardner’s note to himself, to indicate he had replied to Jerry’s letter, and when.)

14

Jerry Bails

With A Little Help From His Friends...

A Few of JERRY BAILS’ Collaborators and Correspondents Have Their Say about Fandom’s Founding Father I. Julius Schwartz [By the day in February 1961 when Jerry Bails met Julius Schwartz, fabled editor of Justice League of America, The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Detective Comics, Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, et al., Julie had been editing comic books for almost exactly 17 years. Since his retirement well over a decade ago, Julie has served as a roving good-will ambassador for DC, and still goes into the office—where he retains a desk—one day a week. I asked him about his meeting with Jerry, which was so important both to Alter Ego and to comics fandom, and the result was the following mini-interview.]

ROY THOMAS: Long before he came to New York, of course, Jerry was writing you letters.

JULIUS SCHWARTZ: Yes. I think he won the artwork for the first issue of Justice League of America.

RT: Right. The first thing I got was the Flash story with the Three Dimwits, with art by Carmine Infantino. Jerry and I were both “guest critics” in the first “Hawkman” letters page in The Brave and the Bold, too. Then, in February of 1961, he was invited to speak at Adelphi College out on Long Island, and he used that as an excuse to come to New York and meet with you and Gardner [Fox]. I was just wondering if you remember anything about that.

SCHWARTZ: I know it happened, but I actually have no recollection of him sitting in a chair across from my desk and my talking to him. I may have given him a copy of Dick Lupoff’s fanzine Xero....

RT: I know you gave him copies of the first three issues, because later he sent them on to me.

[Art ©2003 Al Dellinges; heroes TM!&!©2003 DC!Comics.]

SCHWARTZ: Right, and I told him about science-fiction fandom, and the rest—and it evolved—or devolved—into comic book fandom.

RT: Yes. Before he came to New York, Jerry had told me about this idea he had for a “JLA Newsletter,” but after he talked to you and found out about science-fiction fandom, and Xero, that helped him metamorphose into being a bit more ambitious about it. So you helped jump-start comics fandom, whether you like it or not... just as you did science-fiction fandom in the ’30s. [laughs] I think you and he and Gardner went out to lunch.

SCHWARTZ: I don’t recall. After all, that’s 42 years ago.

RT: [laughs] And you don’t remember it?

SCHWARTZ: You and Jerry had both been in touch with Gardner Fox, hadn’t you?

RT: Yes. It was Gardner who sent me Jerry’s address in November of 1960, after you had given me Gardner’s address....

SCHWARTZ: 52 Crotty Avenue, in Yonkers.

RT: Now that you remember!

With A Little Help From His Friends...

15 When I go to science-fiction conventions, I always ask audiences what’s the first thing they turn to when they buy a new issue of a science-fiction magazine—if you’re a true fan—what’s the first thing you turn to? I ask you that question.

RT: The letters page?

Though Julie didn’t recall it, he and Jerry did meet a second time, evidently at DC’s offices—”circa 1971,” if Bill Schelly was correct when he sent us this photo of Neal Adams (at left), Julie, and Jerry. A couple of years earlier, Neal had drawn the cover of the Schwartz-edited JLA-JSA team-up in Justice League of America #74 (Sept.

1969). Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art.

[Cover art ©2003 DC Comics.]

SCHWARTZ: How did I remember that?

RT: Probably because he wrote his address on thousands of scripts you edited, for all those years.

SCHWARTZ: There are things you remember, and things you want to remember and can’t.

SCHWARTZ: Many people say that. You turn to the letters page to see if your letter got printed.

But that is not the first thing. If you’re a true science-fiction fan, the first thing you turn to is, what’s coming up next issue!

RT: Really? I never thought about that for comics, because when I was growing up, they usually didn’t tell you what was coming up next issue.

SCHWARTZ: But science-fiction magazines did. I looked to the future. I don’t care what’s happening today. What’s happening tomorrow? And that’s what I’d tell Jerry in the letters I’d write to him.

RT: What was it about Jerry that was different? After all, you must’ve gotten letters from lots of fans. Was it because he was a college professor?

SCHWARTZ: When I wrote to Jerry, or when I met him, to me he was just an enthusiastic fan. I did not regard him as a “college professor.” He was just a fan—who reminded me of myself. Don’t forget, I got my start operating a science-fiction literary agency with Mort Weisinger, and that developed from the fact that we used to go up to the [sf magazine] editors, and they gave us information. So, in the same respect, you might say I’m the godfather of Jerry Bails, because what I did with Mort is exactly what Jerry did. We went out and started a fan magazine!

And Bails did the same damn thing! It’s a parallel universe!

RT: And he was encouraged because you promised him advance news for his newsletter, which became Alter-Ego. SCHWARTZ: Well, sure, because when I went up to the editors, I’d say, “Please let me know what’s coming up in the coming issues!”

In the early 1960s Mike Vosburg was a young Detroit fan-artist, and the return of Hawkman a cause celebre in the fanzines of the day—with Jerry Bails among a fannish foursome invited by editor Schwartz to “review” silver prints of the debut of a new Hawkman in The Brave and the Bold #34 (Feb.-March ’61). In 2002 Mike, by now a longtime comics pro, drew this powerful illo of two of his favorite Silver Age heroes, which is repro’d here from the original art. [Art ©2003 Mike Vosburg; Hawkman and Hawkgirl ©2003 DC Comics.]

All-Star Squadron Chronicles

Chronicles

Part VI

21

“Roy Writes All-Star Squadron Like He’s Just Writing It For Jerry Bails!”

by Roy Thomas [WRITER/EDITOR’S NOTE: Several issues of A/E, most recently #21, have dealt with “my” erstwhile DC series All-Star Squadron— mostly with the pre-development of the concept in 1980-81 and with the 16-page free “preview” that appeared in Justice League of America #193. Before moving on to All-Star Squadron #1, and in honor of birthday boy Jerry Bails, I’m devoting these pages to my correspondence with JGB during that prepublication period. —Roy.] When Jerry Bails and I first began corresponding in November 1960, put in touch with each other by JSA co-creator Gardner Fox (and indirectly by sometime JSA editor Julie Schwartz), we quickly discovered we had a number of things in common.

We were both from Missouri, if from opposite sides of the state.

We both enjoyed comic books and their various cousins—movie serials, radio programs, and the like.

Our favorite comics artist was Joe Kubert.

Our then-current favorite comics title was Justice League of America.

But, head and shoulders above everything else: our all-time favorite comic book was the 1940-1951 All-Star Comics, starring the Justice Society of America.

Is it any wonder we hit it off so well?

Though he was thrilled for me when I received a job offer in 1965 to move to New York and work for Superman editor Mort Weisinger, he was equally supportive when, after only two weeks at DC, I decided to leave to work for Stan Lee at Marvel. Still, it must’ve been a bit of a disappointment to him, since it now seemed I would never be involved with the JLA or JSA, as we’d both hoped.

Thus, while Jerry was naturally sympathetic to the trauma I was going through in 1980 when I decided I should leave Marvel after fifteen years and accept a contract at DC, I’m sure there was a side of my old friend that rejoiced at the thought that, at long last, I might get to handle the Justice Society. I shared that ambivalence.

As detailed in an earlier A/E, DC publisher Jenette Kahn was indeed

A bearded Jerry Bails with Roy Thomas, at a dinner reunion held at the Motor City Comics Convention, spring of 2002; photo by Dann Thomas—and Joe Kubert’s 1981 cover done for All-Star Squadron #3. Penciler Rich Buckler insisted on doing his own cover for that issue, so Joe’s version was used later as an interior page of The Young All-Stars—and is currently on view as the gorgeous cover of the TwoMorrows trade paperback Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection. But it’s never before been printed in black-&-white, so you can see all that beautiful art unadorned! Thanks to Mike W. Barr for the great photostat. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

22

All-Star Squadron Chronicles WW-2 is ancient history. However, as the last war with full support of the public and the last one we won decisively, it may be that WW-2 will remain alive for a long time... [remembered] as a time when right and wrong seemed more clear cut.

I am extremely happy the JSA regained their youth, and that you’ll be able to use other DC heroes and create some of your own. But I won’t be the last to complain about the name change. Why bother to relate it to the JSA at all, if you are creating a new group? The people who know and care about the JSA will probably be offended by the name change, which has 17 years of tradition even in its modern incarJerry had a lower opinion of the original Atom than Roy. That hero was one of Roy’s childhood favorites, nation. Besides, “Society” and “Justice” are probably because both of them were short. This tier of apparently never-before-published mid-1940s panels infinitely more positive words than from an “Atom” story by artist Joe Gallagher is repro’d from photocopies sent by Rich Rubenfeld.

“Battalion” or “Squadron”—Lord, these are [Atom TM & ©2003 DC Comics.] military words conjuring up images of 8 airmen burned on the desert, a Mi-Lai amenable to my developing a new JSA-related title. But, since the final Incident, or a Deer Hunter scene of Russian Roulette. Am I the only 1970s-revival “JSA” tale had seen print only a year earlier, and since I’d one repulsed by those words? enjoyed doing The Invaders at Marvel from 1975-79, I decided to opt for a World War II setting for the new DC series—one starring not just [NOTE: At this point Jerry suggests the roll call of All-Star #14-17 as a “them Justice guys,” but the whole panoply of DC’s super-heroes, from way to play down the honorary members who had “Earth-1 doubles,” Aquaman to Zatara, with some Quality and Fawcett characters thrown and argues for the prominent use of Sandman, Starman, and The Spectre. in for good measure!

He felt that “reducing the JSA [presence] to Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and The Atom,” as I planned to do for the early issues, was “not going Recently, I looked over the smatterings of correspondence with Jerry to set well with the very readers you hope to attract by using the JSA,” that I retain from that period—and, to my surprise, I found it shed considerable additional light on what was going on behind the scenes with All-Star Squadron in 1980-81.

The first letter of Jerry’s I discovered from that time was dated May 5, 1980—a response to a letter of mine—and shows I was already hard at work, at least mentally, on the new concept. My second three-year writer/editor contract with Marvel kept me tied up there till autumn. Still, while not neglecting Thor, three Conan mags, the Conan newspaper strip, and other Marvel scripting, I wanted to do whatever I legally could to make sure I hit the ground running when my new writing contract with DC kicked in.

Although Jerry and I had stayed in contact for the past two decades, that May 5 letter suggests that I’d invited feedback from him re the projected All-Star Squadron mag. Below is its text, retyped and abridged from Jerry’s original, handwritten on stationery left over from when he had been furnishing information and encouragement to Craig Delich for the 1977 All-Star Comics Revue.

And it proves that Jerry Bails is no yes-man, nor did I want him to be: Dear Roy, It will be most enjoyable to correspond again.

For my part, I need the break from the so-called real world. It might even fire up my interest in comics again. Although I still faithfully buy them all, I have dropped reading many titles, and I’m months behind on some of the titles I do enjoy.

I’m sure that if anyone can pull off a legitimate JSA revival, it will be you. I still have some qualms about the WW-2 setting and using a president—even FDR—to mobilize the team. For today’s youngsters,

Jerry’s letter of May 5, 1982. Stationery art by JGB? [Heroes TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

The Men Called “X” part nine, cont’d

26

“I Trusted His Instincts and I Hoped He Trusted Mine!”

Part 2 of Our Interview with X-Men Scribe X-traordinaire CHRIS CLAREMONT— Mostly about Working with DAVE COCKRUM Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash [INTRODUCTION: The first onethird of this interview with Chris Claremont was published last issue in our over-full “X-Men” special, under the title “I Was in the Right Place at the Right Time.” However, it’s been apparent to pretty much everybody for the past nigh-three decades that Chris was also the right man in that place and time, and that it was not just coincidental that he wrote The X-Men during those crucial years when it finally became a break-out hit mag and eventually Marvel’s top seller. Last time, he spoke about the revival of the comic in 1975 with artist Dave Cockrum— whose art is a major feature of both last issue and this—and how they began to develop the characters of the New X-Men. —Roy.]

that they’d have to handle it, because what’s the alternative? [laughs] The thing that gave “Dark Phoenix” [as the storyline came to be called] its power was a series of serendipitous events resulting in my being forced to think outside the box. We’d gone the whole route because she’d committed the unforgivable act of murder. Do we throw her in jail for life or do we kill her? And if we do throw her in jail, what happens next? And if we do kill her, what happens next? Out of that, came a story with a lasting, tremendous emotional punch.

If Dave and I had told that entire story, would we have come to that end? I don’t know. That was the synergy of me and John Byrne as much as me and Dave. I should say it wasn’t just me and Byrne. It was also my editors along the way, like Roger Stern, Jim Salicrup, and finally Louise Simonson.

Chris Claremont in a photo from the 15th issue of Marvel’s self-published fanzine F.O.O.M. (Sept. 1976)—and a 2003 commission drawing by Dave Cockrum of Dark Phoenix. You should see it in color!

To find how to purchase original art or special commissions by Dave, e-mail him at <parrotstew@in4web.com>.

[Art ©2003 Dave Cockrum; Phoenix TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Mutant Multitude JIM AMASH: When you brought Jean back into the book, was it in your mind that she was to become The Phoenix?

CHRIS CLAREMONT: Dave and I were kicking ideas back and forth.

We wanted to kick one of The X-Men up to the next level, and she was it.

JA: When you decided to turn her into The Phoenix, just how powerful did you intend her to be? Certainly not as powerful as she later became as Dark Phoenix?

CLAREMONT: We wanted to push the envelope as far as we could. I think we were always thinking about her achieving a cosmic level. In the back of our heads was always the realization of a conflict. There had to be the dark side of the force, or else what’s the point of doing it? There has to be a confrontation. The idea in terms of Jean was like taking a character from ordinary human to sorcerer supreme in one stage, without going through Dr. Strange’s rising and advancing of the spirit.

What would happen if you made one of our characters the next best thing to God? Could they handle it?

Our presumption, because we were still thinking inside the box, was

Chris Claremont

27

JA: One character whom I thought was less welldeveloped, even though I liked him because he had the most normal face of all, was Banshee. What were your feelings about this character?

CLAREMONT: Again, Banshee’s presence gave the book a measure of age. He was obviously not a kid and had been around the block a few hundred times. He had a history that Len himself had established. Part of the problem is that the more characters you have in a book—and back then, we only had seventeen pages—the more limited the amount of screen time you have. You not only have to have a number of heroes, but also an equivalent number of villains, which means that half the time you’re running two teams in the book. Comics is a shorthand medium to begin with, and when you have seven main characters in every issue, you find yourself limited to what you can establish, and how deeply you can investigate each character.

Banshee had too many cool characters to compete with.

There’s Nightcrawler, Colossus, and the rest. To some extent, exploring who the new guys were was more fun than playing with the old guys. Nightcrawler and Wolverine were more interesting to explore, and so was Cyclops, even. We did set up some stuff with Black Tom, Juggernaut, and the castle in Ireland, but again, it’s bouncing back and forth, trying to find the balance. Dave loved Nightcrawler as a character, therefore Nightcrawler tended to get a lot of cool face time. John Byrne loved Wolverine, therefore Wolverine started getting a lot of face time. I loved Storm—([laughs] therefore Storm got a lot of face time. We were all sort of pulling for our guys, subconsciously, if nothing else. And you’re thinking, three or four issues down the road, where am I going to go with this character? Who do we hook him up with and how do we do it?

JA: How do you balance everything in the straitjacket of seventeen pages in a bimonthly book? Everybody’s got to get some screen time.

CLAREMONT: That’s it. And the problem was, after the first six months, trying to balance it so we could get the Dave says this is a “rejected rough for a Nightcrawler poster.” What were they thinking? book on schedule in order to jump to a monthly status. The [Art ©2003 Dave Cockrum; Nightcrawler TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] fact is that sales justified it within a year, and there was no hope in hell that we could get it out monthly at that for budgetary reasons, with a Tony DeZuniga-drawn story. The filler particular time. In those days, it took ten months to get final sales that became 106 had been commissioned when the book was first figures. We started racking up sales in the high 40s, into the 50s in terms started, because the consensus was that we’d sooner or later need it. We of sell-through percentage, which was extraordinary back then. And the just kept fighting and stalling not to use it, but eventually we had no sales kept going up. We knew by issue 100 that, if we could get on choice . schedule, we could go monthly. It was after a year of John being on the book that we finally did it.

JA: Why didn’t you write that fill-in story?

Originally, #107 was supposed to be a non-crossover over with The Legion of Super-heroes. Paul Levitz and I had gotten together and decided that I would handle the story from The X-Men’s point of view in 107, and then Paul could tell the story about the Legion coming up against these five nut cases [laughs] who look faintly like The X-Men. It’d be the same story but from different perspectives. It’d be a noncrossover crossover. But Paul was so far ahead on his schedule, and it turned out that Dave took four full months to turn out issue 107, and even then we barely made it.

CLAREMONT: Bill Mantlo wrote it, but by the time it saw print, the treatment of the characters’ personalities and the visuals were so wrong, that it needed a complete rewrite. At that particular time, Bill Mantlo was writing fill-ins for every book in the line. That was a period, ’75, ’76, when we were having major title cutbacks, and the amount of available work was very limited for writers, due to contractual obligations to Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, and Len Wein.

We were all hurting for work, and in my case I was trying to get a regular book out, so I didn’t have a lot of time.

JA: Four months?

JA: How much thinking time were you putting into each story?

Sounds like you were taking an extraordinary amount of time with each story.

CLAREMONT: Well, we were bimonthly, and Dave drew issue 105.

106 was a fill-in, and then there’s issue 107. That gave him four months, and we barely made the deadline with 107. John had to jump right in with issues 108, 109, and 110, because we had to burn off another fill-in,

CLAREMONT: Well, not so much, per se. Dave and I knew what we wanted to do and had no problem doing it. I don’t think it was a lot

28

Chris Claremont

more time-consuming then than it is now, except that I know the characters a lot better now. But I also had the advantage of working with an artist who was extremely creative in a storytelling sense. I can’t begin to tell you how valuable someone like Dave can be in the creative process, because it’s essentially two guys creating a book at the same time. It’s the situation where I could springboard ideas and Dave could do whatever he wanted with them, and come back with ideas of his own, which in turn would synergize and inspire something new in me.

stuff with it. He’d fight with swords using it.

Dave understood all that. He’d find ways to pose him, perched on the backs of chairs, clinging to walls, holding a teacup in his tail. Little grace notes that helped define who and what these people are on a subliminal basis. I don’t even need to say it with text.

It’s obvious. It’s there. It’s in the collective back consciousness of the reader.

JA: When you got around to thinking about the interaction between the characters, one of the things you did was to have Nightcrawler and Wolverine become good friends. Why those two and not, say, Nightcrawler and Colossus, for example?

CLAREMONT: Those two got along pretty good, but Nightcrawler and Wolverine were yin and yang.

The most gregarious normal character versus the rock masquerading as a human being.

They fit well together; it was just chemistry. Sometimes, you look at the way an artist draws characters in a group; you look at the way characters fit together in a group, and see what sparks a response in your head. You hope the response is that if it sparks a response in my head, then it’ll spark a response in the reader’s head.

Dave’s depiction of Jean in issue 97 crystallized what we wanted to do with the character. If she’d have looked like she did in issue 94, Phoenix would have never happened. She’d have been too boring and we’d have gone off in some other direction.

Cry Wolverine!

CLAREMONT: (Cont’d) The interesting thing is that John Byrne’s depiction of Wolverine was a typically normal face.

We hadn’t seen Wolverine’s face up until Iron Fist #15. That was sort of John’s audition for The X-Men. Dave and I were doing issue 98 at the time and he wanted to draw Wolverine with the swept-back hair and the mutton chops. I said, “Go with it! That’s it!” Dave nailed it! Boom!

What Dave brought to the series was a visual sweep and an idiosyncratic and character-appropriate imagination. His Storm looks nothing like anyone else’s Storm, especially when she’s in civilian clothes, because he understood what he wanted from the character better than anyone else, in terms of what the design philosophy behind her was. He also understood and incorporated her African heritage in a way that very few subsequent artists have. A lot of artists fall back on putting her in mini skirts or slacks or cut-off jeans, so that she looks like any modern-day American woman. The problem is that she’s not, any more than Nightcrawler’s a typical American man, or Wolverine is an urban American male. They all come from different places that have to be factored into their visual presentation.

JA: In the case of Wolverine, whose idea was it to make his skeleton laced with adamantium?

In The X-Men #99 (April 1976), both his fellow mutants and the rest of the waiting world learned that Wolverine’s adamantium claws came out of his hands, not his gloves.

Giant-size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-119 are on view in The Essential X-Men, Volume 1.

Script by Chris Claremont, art by Dave Cockrum (pencils) & Sam Grainger (inks). [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

To me, one of the defining moments in their presentation is in issue 100, when Jean and Storm are standing together in the shuttle. You see how much taller Storm is than Jean. Jean barely comes up to Storm’s chin, if she’s lucky. That tells you something right there about the relationships.

Wolverine is short! John Buscema never quite figured out what the joke was with Wolverine, because he kept drawing him as a six-footer.

And he’s not. He’s a six-foot guy squished down to five feet six. And therein lies the key to his character. He’s a short, feisty little firecracker.

But you need the shortness to help define him. You need to know that when Nightcrawler stands up straight, he’s six foot two. But he never stands up straight; he’s always creeping. Therefore, you always miss the sense that he’s basically Errol Flynn. It comes as a surprise; it should come as a surprise. The tail is an integral part of his personality; he does

CLAREMONT: I don’t know. It might have been my idea, but I’m not sure. We always knew that he had unbreakable bones and that he had adamantium in his body. My thought was that he didn’t have just adamantium. His skeleton was adamantium and calcium. That part I’ll say was my idea. My recollection was that the adamantium was part of the original character that Len developed.

Again, going back to one of Stan Lee’s dictums, and to the rationale with making Wolverine’s claws come from his body and not his gloves... if Wolverine wore gloves with claws in them, then anybody could be Wolverine. Therefore, what makes him unique? Daredevil is unique. Nobody else should have his hyper-senses or be blind. Iron Man was not unique because anybody can, and has, worn the suit. It’s the suit that makes him Iron Man and not Tony Stark, so Iron Man could be Happy Hogan or Jim Rhodes. But that, in and of itself, makes him less special. Stan always figured that’s why Iron Man never struck the same chord with readers as Daredevil, or the F.F., or Spider-Man. Nobody else could be Spider-Man, only Peter Parker.

Nobody else could be a mutant, except for The X-Men. I think that’s why we gave Wolverine the healing factor, because that was something that was uniquely his. It ultimately developed to the point where we wondered, if he didn’t have the skeleton, would he still be unbreakable? Would he still have claws? Finally, our conclusion was,

HOPPY:

THE FORGOTTEN MARVEL

[Repro’d from original art, courtesy of Roy Thomas; ©2003 DC!Comics.]

No. 84

Plus MARC SWAYZE’S “WE DIDN’T KNOW... IT WAS THE GOLDEN AGE!” and HAMES WARE on WENDELL CROWLEY and JERRY BAILS

42

Marc Swayze

By

mds& (c) [Art

logo ©2003 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2003 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and CMA. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he both wrote and drew The Phantom Eagle for Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze turned out artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics

Not long after illustrating and writing stories featuring the World’s Mightiest Mortal, Marc Swayze was doing the same for one of Mary’s earliest adventures. As revealed a few issues back, he only recently realized that he had scripted, as well as drawn, “Captain Marvel and the Training of Mary Marvel” in Captain Marvel Adventures No. 19 (Jan. 1943). [©2003 DC Comics.]

career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue Marc continued to reminisce on his early days at Fawcett Publications; this time he touches upon the laughter and fun atmosphere which prevailed in the art department.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Fawcett Art Dept. group photo, 1941, taken right before Marc arrived on the scene—but you’ll notice a few comic book people in there, as well! (Front row, left to right:) Cary Parshall, Frank Taggert, C.C. Beck, Bob Kingett, Mac Raboy; (second 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 Duree, Ed Richtscheid, Jack Rindner. Originally published in FCA/SOB and the trade paperback Fawcett Companion, which is still available from TwoMorrows Publishing.

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Hames Ware

Who Was Who At Fawcett Wendell Crowley, Jerry Bails, and Discovering the Unknowns at Fawcett Comics

by Hames Ware Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck The Empty Fawcett Ever since I was ten years old, I’ve kept on-going lists of names in an old ledger my grandfather gave me. The names were those of the comic book artists whose work I had started to learn about and appreciate. I separated the pages by publishing companies... but alas, one of my favorite companies, Fawcett Publications, had very few names under it.

took the time to write back in response to a plethora of inquiry letters as to who had drawn what at a particular company. Richard Hughes of ACG was kind enough to respond, as did artists Paul Gustavson, Gill Fox, Rafael Astarita, Lou Cameron, and others.

Along with these came perhaps the best surprise response of all! Since Fawcett had long since folded its comics line, I knew of no one to contact, but the first pages of some of its comics had featured a credit for longtime editor Wendell Crowley. I noted that his family lumber company, which he took over reluctantly after the demise of Fawcett Comics, had business connections in my home state.

The reason for this, I would learn a couple of decades later from Fawcett’s most popular editor, the late Wendell Crowley, was simply “company policy.” Fawcett’s top brass didn’t allow artists to sign their work, although the company had dallied a bit in the early 1940s with some tiny art credits that, for a brief time, appeared near the bottom of the first page of some features. Although I owned none of these “credited” issues at the time, I later acquired a few of them, where indeed I saw that the likes of Carl Pfeufer, Ed Ashe, Coinciding approximately with this came my growing John Jordan, and a awareness of comics fandom. In fact, right in my own backyard, few other Fawcett Michael Barrier was publishing his pioneering Funnyworld, and artists had—at he and others probably encouraged me to contact more least for a little individuals who might share my interest in cataloging and while—gotten documenting the artists of the comics. Prominent among these credits. But that was the founder of the group, Jerry Bails. was all unknown to me circa 1953, and so it was that the notes I kept on At about the same time I received a wonderful response from Fawcett artists Wendell Crowley, who was not only willing but eager to help remained pretty me learn who had drawn what at his beloved Fawcett much empty…

Publications. save for the names of C.C. Beck, Pete Hames Ware at the microphone a few years back (find out why Thus, going to Jerry—with my ledgers full of names and Costanza, Chad at the end of the article)... and C.C. Beck’s cover for the Wendell credits—I was able to also promise “many more to come!”—a Grothkopf, and a Crowley-edited Captain Marvel Adventures #113 (Oct. 1950). vow which excited Jerry as much as it did me! In fact, Jerry Photo courtesy of Hames Ware. [©2003 DC Comics.] few artists whom I would pull off a marvelous coup of his own by getting Jack had cross-referBinder to provide his shop’s credits for a couple of years, enced from other companies, where they had been allowed to sign their including specifics as to which shop artist had contributed what art to work. which Fawcett strip! Suddenly my mostly empty Fawcett art credits

Turning on the Fawcett

However, the empty columns for the names of Fawcett artists would suddenly swell into the largest number in my entire ledger some fifteen years later, as two wonderful events occurred that at long last opened a floodgate of artist identifications.

Living in Arkansas, I had been pretty much isolated from what I would later learn was an active and growing comics fandom. My only contacts early on came from those precious few comic professionals who

pages began to overflow, as Wendell pin-pointed (via photocopied samples I would send) who had drawn what… but with his caution that trying to unravel who’d drawn what during the Binder years would be like trying to figure out who put which bumper on which automobile that rolled off a Detroit assembly line! This would be addressed by Jerry’s having acquired Binder’s shop lists… with much of that very information we had sought after!

Who Was Who At Fawcett

Needless to say, thanks to Wendell Crowley and Jack Binder, not only did Jerry and I have the Who’s Who of American Comic Books’ biggest empty space mostly filled, but the Who’s Who itself was born! It’s safe to say—and I’m sure Jerry would agree—that the Who’s Who might never have become a reality had it not been for these two fortuitous events, particularly the encouragement and support of Wendell Crowley, who not only provided assistance at every turn, but came to visit in person when business brought him to my home state.

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guy’s name, but at the Binder shop there was this bald-headed artist who used to paint different hair styles on his bald pate with India ink!… and this one is Schoffman, period... now why on earth they started farming this stuff out to Schoffman I’ll never know... look at this... it’s got no life... give me Swayze or Schaffenberger any day!!”

Wendell never bad-mouthed anyone. You could always tell when a For a brief period in the mid-1940s, Fawcett printed small (sometimes name I might throw very small) typeset art credits at the bottom of the first page of some stories. at him garnered silence; it was Here, clockwise from top right, from Master Comics #46 (Jan. 1944) are someone for whom he had less “Bulletman” by Jack Binder, “Minute Man” by Phil Bard, and “Hopalong Cassidy” by Harry (“H.V.L.”) Parkhurst... from Wow Comics #30 (Oct. ’44), than admiration. While he had “Commando Yank” by Ed Ashe... and from Wow Comics #34 (March ’45), little fondness for what he called Some of my very fondest “Mr. Scarlet and Pinky” by Harry Anderson. Which gives us a nice excuse the Schoffman Shop period at memories are of Wendell, like a to print some fine Fawcett splashes. [Hopalong Cassidy TM & ©2003 the Fawcett, he loved the work of giant, hunkered-down whooping respective copyright holder; other art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Marc Swayze, Kurt Schaffenberger, crane, surrounded by the battered Bill Ward, Pete Costanza, and stacks of my old Fawcett comics many other of his old comrades. He roared with laughter at the salty and holding up first this one and then that one and saying, “This is language that he said often popped out of Clement Weisbecker: “God, drawn by Eddie Robbins... yeah... and this, this is by a little guy... I can Wendell would you look at this blankety-blank beautiful sunset I just see ’im now... Maxwell Elkan... yeah, and say, did I tell you Bill Brady painted. Is that not the blankety-blankest damn sunset you’ve ever laid only had vision in one eye... later worked over at Dell on Fairy Tale your blankety-blank eyes on?!”

Parade… finished his career over there, never able to sign his work there, either... now this… this I can’t help ya with... oh, I can’t recall the

48

Hoppy

Hoppy: The Forgotten Marvel

by George Ramsey Edited By P.C. Hamerlinck The World’s Mightiest Bunny The year 1942 saw the creation of one of Fawcett’s silliest yet most endearing characters, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.

Created by artist/animator Chad Grothkopf—and see Fawcett Companion, page 112, for more on Chad—Hoppy made his debut in Fawcett’s Funny Animals # 1 (Dec., 1942). Hoppy was a little pink bunny rabbit who lived in the town of Funny Animalville, along with an assortment of other funny animal characters. As revealed in the origin story from FFA #1, Hoppy was a big fan of the legendary Captain Marvel and enjoyed reading the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s adventures in the latest comics. One day he decided to emulate his hero and tried out the magic word “Shazam!” for himself. A clap of thunder and a flash of lightning later, Hoppy was transformed into Captain Marvel Bunny!

Hoppy used his new powers to thwart a varied assortment of bank robbers, kidnappers, cheap thugs, con men, and various magical foes over the years to come.

Captain Marvel Bunny was alternately referred to as “The Cottontail Crusader” as well as “The World’s Mightiest Bunny.”

Little explanation was given for Hoppy’s ability to use the magic word “Shazam!” during his career. A frequent scenario in the first year or so of his stories in Fawcett’s Funny Animals was to have Hoppy conveniently forget his magic word, then spy a copy of a Captain Marvel Adventures

Fawcett was big on having its new heroes properly introduced to the readers! The above ad from an early-’40s comic (probably by Chad) had Captain Marvel introducing Hoppy (though, oddly, not as the Marvel Bunny) and pals —while Capt. Marvel Bunny himself appeared on the cover of (but not inside) Animal Fair #1 (March 1946); a corner is missing from the copy loaned to us by Roy Thomas. The original art for this mag comprises the interior cover of this edition of FCA, courtesy of owner R.T.; Chad signed it at a 1990s con. Sadly, Chad passed on a year or so ago. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Marvel Bunny creator Chad Grothkopf and friends at the 1994 San Diego Comic-Con—and his cover for Hoppy the Marvel Bunny #5 (Sept. 1946). Left to right in the photo are: Sheldon Moldoff (Hawkman/Batman); Ron Goulart (pro writer/comics historian); Joe Kubert (Sgt. Rock/Tor/Hawkman); Paul Norris (Aquaman/ Brick Bradford), “Chad,” and fan David Siegel, who has arranged for many Golden Age pros to be guests in San Diego, and more power to ’im! [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

comic book and remember the word just in time to become the Marvel Bunny and save the day. In Fawcett’s Funny Animals #30 (July, 1945), an explanation for Hoppy’s powers was revealed. In the story “Hoppy Meets the Wizard Bunny,” Hoppy was hit in the head and developed amnesia. Luckily, the mysterious Wizard Bunny (or Bunny Wizard, both versions are used throughout the story) was watching from his perch on a cloud, and he flew down to help Hoppy regain his memory. Obviously this ‘Wizard’ was intended to be a funny-animal version of old Shazam from the Captain Marvel saga. One panel in this story states, “Because it was he who bestowed the magic word and power upon Hoppy, the Bunny Wizard flies down to Earth to help Hoppy.” Eventually the Wizard got Hoppy to say “Shazam!” and his memory was restored, along with his abilities. To the best of my knowledge, this was the Bunny Wizard’s only appearance.

The word “Shazam” apparently has a slightly different meaning for Hoppy.

According to The Oz-Wonderland Wars #2 (DC Comics, 1986), Captain Marvel Bunny has the wisdom of Salamander, the strength of Hogules, the stamina of Antlers,