Alter Ego #28 Preview

5.95

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In the USA

No. 28

September 2003

1950s Timely/Marvel Great

JOE MANEELY

Characters TM & Š2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Vol. 3, No. 28 / September 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

Contents

Joe Maneely Don Newton

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Don Newton

And Special Thanks to: Lee Ames Ger Apeldoorn Terry Austin Mike W. Barr Alberto Becattini John Benson Bill Black Steve Brumbaugh Mike Burkey Tony Cerezo Scott Deschaine Jaime Echevarria Carl Gafford Stan Goldberg Walt Grogan George Hagenauer John Haufe, Jr. Mark & Stephanie Heike Larry Ivie Ed Jaster

JOE MANEELY & The Atlas Age of Comics!

Mort Leav Stan Lee Mark Lewis Nancy Maneely Scotty Moore Brian K. Morris Anthony Newton John Petty Steven Rowe John Severin Marie Severin Steve Skeates Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Marc & June Swayze Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Tom Wimbish

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Joe & Betty Jean Maneely and Pierce Rice

Writer/Editorial: Mighty Joe Maneely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 WHAT IF–-–Joe Maneely Had Lived and Drawn in the Marvel Age? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Dr. Michael J. Vassallo takes a year-by-year look at the life and legend of this remarkable artist!

My Father, Joe Maneely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Nancy Maneely talks about the father she loves, but hardly knew.

“Joe Was the Best!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Stan Lee looks back 45 years, and remembers one of Timely’s greatest artists ever!

A Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Potpourri . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Our peerless publisher John Morrow designed this marvelous (or perhaps we should say timely) montage of five of the comic book characters most associated with Joe Maneely—an artist who, because of the era in which he did most of his work (the 1950s), never drew a single flat-out super-hero story! John assembled the cover from a photo supplied by Joe’s daughter, and color photocopies or original comics provided by Doc Vassallo and Roy Thomas.

Even though we shortchanged the horror tales which were one of Maneely’s most prolific genres, we think it captures something of the spirit of that remarkable talent. And here we thought John Morrow was just another pretty face—no, wait, that’s his wife Pam! [Art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; photo courtesy of Nancy Maneely.]

Above: Ye Editor makes no apologies for preferring Maneely’s work on three issues (and five covers) of the 1955-56 Black Knight to anything else he ever did. When you put out your own magazine, you can spotlight Ringo Kid or Combat Kelly or Yellow Claw or a creeping corpse— or Dippy Duck, for all we care! They’re all great! To paraphrase Stan Lee—“’Nuff said!” [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above panel from Black Knight #1 by Lee and Maneely.

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.

The Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists

WHAT IF... JOE MANEELY Had Lived and Drawn in the Marvel Age of Comics?

3

A Year-by-Year Look at the Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists

by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo [AUTHOR’S INTRO: On April 16th, as this issue was being assembled, Betty Jean Maneely, the widow of Joe Maneely, passed away after an extended illness.

Over the years I had written to Betty many times, often encouraged by my friend Nancy, Joe's youngest daughter.

Nancy assured me that my letters were appreciated and read by her mom, but she doubted that they would ever be answered, as Betty rarely spoke about her late husband, especially to someone whom she had never met. As predicted, my letters were not answered. In those letters I had expressed my admiration for her husband's work. I talked about his unique art style and prodigious output, and I asked about particular recollections and memories about his career, trying to explain to her how truly important her husband was to the full history of Marvel Comics. I wanted her to understand that, despite the passage of years, when you study the history of this medium, specifically the history of Marvel in the decade of the 1950s, you start and stop with a single name: Joe Maneely.

[With this issue's long-overdue look at Timely/Atlas titan Joe Maneely, I hoped Betty would have come to realize this. With the passing of this strong and beautiful woman, I like to think Joe and his Betty Jean are finally back together again. —MJV.] [NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, all art accompanying this article is from photocopies of vintage comic books provided by the author.]

Overview: The Fabulous ’50s The decade of the 1950s was a strange period of unique dichotomy in this country. On the one hand, the American people were enjoying a booming postwar prosperity. The G.I. Bill had helped the returning heroes of the Second World War on the road to a hopeful future in the new decade. The great evil had been conquered, industry was soaring, and a new medium, television, was aborning.

At the same time, however, a pervasive feeling of uncertainty was evident. A “Cold War” with our former ally was becoming entrenched, and the world was being divided into an “us vs.

Okay, so the above photo (which also appears on our cover) was taken while Joe Maneely was in the Navy, a year or three before he drew his first comic book in 1948—but he’s in civvies and he’s at the drawing board, so what the hey! Flanking this caption are two great Maneely covers: Adventures into Weird Worlds #25 (Jan. 1954) and Sub-Mariner #37 (Dec. 1954).

Joe’s foray into super-heroics was atypical—but his horror covers adorned myriad Timely fear-fests! Photo courtesy of Joe’s daughter, Nancy Maneely. [Art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

4

Joe Maneely

them” scenario, with a concurrent build-up of weapons that were capable of destroying this fragile planet many times over. A new “police action” war was beginning in Korea, and as the decade progressed, a distinct, almost palpable uneasiness was clearly evident.

A close study of the time will reveal that this uncertainty was also reflected in many aspects of popular culture. Films spawned Cold War thrillers and radioactively-induced “B”-movie monsters. In the music industry there would be an explosion of youth culture music—i.e., rock ’n’ roll—further worrying an already concerned adult populace.

It’s no surprise, then, that the comic book industry would likewise reflect these diverse trends. The Golden Age of Comic Books waned with the return of our boys from the war in 1945. By the late 1940s, as super-heroes began to fade from the newsstands, they were replaced by genres reflecting an audience with changing and divergent tastes. Crime, romance, horror, and war titles joined the humorous ones already being published. At Timely Comics, a major publisher of the Golden Age, the editor-in-chief was a precocious wunderkind named Stan Lee, who had been at the helm since 1941 and whose cousin Jean was married to the publisher, Martin Goodman.

publisher, tried to wean his company from the shops by starting an in-house staff. Simon and Kirby, followed by Syd Shores, Al Avison, Fred Bell, Don Rico, Al Gabrielle, Mike Sekowsky, George Klein, Allen Bellman, and a score of others joined a staff that would create and produce material “inhouse.” Timely’s earliest creators, Bill Everett and Carl Burgos, both Jacquet shop alumni, continued to freelance for Goodman, and Burgos joined the staff only at the end of the decade. By mid-1942, two distinct bullpens were operating, one turning out the myriad superhero titles, and the other turning out the humor titles.

When Stan Lee went into the service in the summer of 1942, Vince Fago, a funny-animal freelancer, assumed the editor-inchief mantle. This coincided with the boom in humor titles, as Fago, a former Fleischer animator, continued to draw numerous Rarer than rare! This original cover art for Black Knight #5 (April 1956) funny-animal features concurrent was featured in the Christie’s East Comic Collectibles catalog for a 1993 with his editorial duties. Comedy auction. Not only is original Maneely art extremely scarce—but, because Comics, Joker Comics, Krazy of reprintings by Marvel, Black Knight is today the best-known of his Let me start with a little history.... work. As for the Atlas globe symbol enlarged at right: from 1951 to 1957 Comics, and Terry-Toons all began it identified not only Martin Goodman’s distribution company, but—as appearing in mid 1942. Fago’s initial far as most readers at the time were concerned—his comic book company, humor staff consisted of Ernie as well. The name “Timely” was all but forgotten outside the industry.

Hart, Al Jaffee, Ed Winiarski, [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] By 1950 Timely’s super-hero George Klein, Kin Platt, Jim titles, a major force during the boom Mooney, Moe Worth, Mike war years, were all defunct. Previously, along with Marvel Mystery Sekowsky, David Gantz, and later Frank Carin. Chad Grothkopf, and Comics, Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, et al., humor Dave Berg freelanced, as did Basil Wolverton; Milt Stein was an even comics (both funny-animal and “teen”) had filled the stands, as well. later freelancer. There was also a lot of crossing over, as many of the Teen titles had eventually eclipsed the funny-animal books, and by about humor artists (such as Mike Sekowsky, George Klein, David Gantz, and 1946 had even overtaken the super-hero titles in sales and popularity. By Fred Bell) frequently worked on super-hero scripts. Pvt. Stan Lee 1947, with super-hero sales declining, Timely had expanded in other continued to send in scripts from where he was stationed in North directions—first crime, followed by westerns, romance, and, by 1949, Carolina. horror.

Following the war, as sales peaked, the years chugged along as Timely There was a last attempt in 1948 to jumpstart super-heroes again with churned out titles and features by the carload with an ever-changing the quick introduction of new titles like Namora, Sun Girl, a second bullpen staff, which by 1948 included Gene Colan and John Buscema.

All Winners, The Witness, Venus, and Blackstone, but all except the It is into this milieu that Joe Maneely stepped in mid-1949. ever-adaptable Venus were quickly gone. Similarly, Marvel Boy, a gorgeous science-fiction-based feature drawn by Russ Heath, then Bill Everett, attempted in 1950 to cash in on the sf/horror trend and lasted two issues in his own title and another four after a title change to Astonishing before bowing out to the more popular all-horror format.

First—the Fightin’ ’40s

Creator-wise, Timely originally (starting in 1939) bought their features from the Lloyd Jacquet shop, Funnies, Inc., and from the Harry “A” Chesler shop. But, almost immediately, Martin Goodman, Timely’s

Joe Maneely— A Man for a Decade

Ask anyone who reads and collects comic books today who Joe Maneely was, and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Put the question to someone with a marginal knowledge of comic book history, and you

The Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists

5

may get a glimmer of recognition pertaining to Marvel’s 1955 Black Knight series. That’s about it, and even that will probably be because Marvel reprinted some of those stories in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and again in the 1997 trade paperback The Golden Age of Marvel (Vol. 1). What most people don’t realize is that, with the stars aligned a little differently 45 years ago, the birth of the Marvel Universe as we know it might have been vastly different.

Maneely was Stan Lee’s star artist for most of the 1950s, during what is known as the Atlas period of Joe Maneely’s Navy portrait photo, taken at age 17 (in 1943), juxtaposed with a comic strip he did for a Navy Marvel Comics history. Atlas, a name derived from newspaper sometime by 1946. Both courtesy of Nancy Maneely. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Martin Goodman’s distribution company and easily identified by a small “globe” on the cover, was by cartooned for the North Catholic newspaper, creating an original mascot far the industry leader in quantity of titles and issues published in the character “The Red Falcon” before dropping out in his sophomore year. first 3/4 of the decade. Dell/Western sold more books, but no one had as “The Red Falcon” was also drawn as a comic strip for the school many redundant titles on the stands as Goodman’s Atlas. With Lee as newspaper and remained the school’s mascot for decades; perhaps it still editor-in-chief, every imaginable type of comic book was published, is. Gertrude Maneely, a strong and proud woman, gave her son an flooding the market with score after score of books utilizing a huge ultimatum: either return to school or “ship out,” which meant join the stable of freelancers, many of them comic book royalty. service. Maneely chose the latter and served three years as a specialist in visual aids for the U.S. Navy, contributing cartoons to his ship’s newspapers.

Joe Maneely was born in Pennsylvania on February 18, 1926, the son

of Robert and Gertrude Maneely and one of at least five children. He grew up in Philadelphia, where the Maneelys were poor, and attended Ascension BVM Elementary School, often embarrassed to go to school in worn, patched clothing. At North Catholic High School, he

Upon discharge from the Navy, he married Elizabeth Kane, his childhood sweetheart, in 1947. Joe was 21 and “Betty Jean” was 20.

Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, he began studies at Philadelphia’s Hussian School of Art, where he met fellow artist George Ward. They

Doc Vassallo tells us these stories represent some of Maneely’s earliest work for Street & Smith, and thus his debut in comic books.

All three stories appeared in Red Dragon #5 (Oct.-Nov. 1948). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

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Joe Maneely Maneely’s work would later exhibit, the overall effect is of a talented young artist at an early age (22) and early stage of his career, a career that brimmed with promise.

1949—“The Tail-End of the Storied Timely Bullpen” In addition to Street & Smith, Maneely briefly dabbled at Pflaum (on Treasure Chest) before settling in at Goodman and Lee’s nascent Atlas sometime toward the middle of 1949. Older credit listings placing him at This “office letterhead,” says Doc V., was drawn by Joe prior to his move to New York—probably Hillman and Superior (on crime features) in 1949 are likely during the time he shared a studio with George Ward and Peggy Zangerle. ’Twould seems incorrect. Similarly, some recent Maneely-like inking Maneely’s trademark style was already pretty much intact by 1948! [©2003 Estate of Joe Maneely.] examples spotted in panels of 1949 issues of Toytown’s Wanted (on features otherwise drawn by Maurice Del both entered the world of newspaper advertising art, and Joe’s first Bourgo) are inconclusive as of this writing, and most likely not Maneely. professional stint was in the Philadelphia Bulletin’s advertising art department. Maneely also made a trip to San Francisco to paint a mural Joe Maneely began work at Timely towards the tail-end of the storied for a restaurant, the details of which are sadly lost.

Timely bullpen, at a time when Martin Goodman expanded his line in what is known as the “romance and western glut.” Following an industry-wide trend, Goodman flooded the market in 1949 with a deluge of titles. Westerns, recently introduced at Timely, appeared out of Newlyweds Joe and Betty Jean lived in an apartment on Algard Street nowhere, but even more prevalent was the glut of romance titles. In in Philadelphia, and in 1948 Joe began his comic book career at Street & 1949-50 alone, 33 romance titles debuted over a 12-month period.

Smith on titles like Red Dragon, Ghostbreakers, The Shadow, and Eighteen of them lasted only two issues, and five lasted a single issue, Super Magician Comics, at the age of 22. Features he drew at Street & before being canceled. The demand for story art was at an all-time high.

Smith included “Tao Anwar,” “Dr. Savant,” “Russell Swan,” “Django A large bullpen was churning out stories for scores of titles and, as will Jinks - Ghost Chaser,” “Butterfingers,” “Nick Carter,” “Public shortly be seen, actually producing more than was necessary. Unlike the Defender,” “Roger Kilgore,” romance glut, Timely’s western glut “Supersnipe,” “Mario Nette,” and was much more controlled and “Ulysses Q. Wacky.” obviously character-driven. Titles added stayed around longer and It was also here that Maneely met artist provided a fertile ground for the Peggy Zangerle. At some point Joe, Peggy, newly-arrived Joe Maneely to and George Ward formed a studio. There blossom quickly. exists a piece of office letterhead bearing the title “Joe Maneely, Adventure Comics” By all appearances, Maneely made at the address 3160 Kensington Avenue, his Timely/Atlas debut in Western Rm. 501, in the Flo-Mar building in Outlaws and Sheriffs #60 (cover Philadelphia. The exact dates of the studio date Dec. 1949) in the lead story have eluded me, but Joe possibly used it “The Kansas Massacre of 1864”—job for all his work prior to his future move to #6760, as identified by the minuscule New York. numbers which appeared on the

1948—Rice and Red Dragons

George Ward, a fellow graduate of the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia and an artist for magazines and newspapers, including the New York Daily News and the Philadelphia Bulletin, would be a lifelong friend. Ward also would become an assistant to Walt Kelly on the Pogo comic strip for most of the 1950s.

According to Ron Goulart, at Street & Smith Maneely was very possibly influenced by noted pulp illustrator Edd Cartier, who did a brief feature or two coinciding with Maneely’s tenure there, particularly in developing Maneely’s distinctive inking technique. [NOTE: See Alex Toth’s comments on Edd Cartier next issue. —Roy.] The Street & Smith work was vibrant and energetic, traits that would serve him well in the future. His distinctive inking style is clearly evident, though not yet as bold, and while the panels lack the degree of detail that

Probably Joe’s first work for Timely/Atlas was this story for Western Outlaws and Sheriffs #60 (Dec. ’49). The psychiatrist listed atop the splash page was part of Atlas’ window-dressing during the Wertham, pre-Code era. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

splash pages of most Atlas-era stories. (“Job number,” also written “job #,” is the term often used for story [script] codes that appear on the splash page of every Timely/Atlas story from roughly 1946 through 1963. They were usually handed out in order, but could appear out of sequence from month to month, for various reasons.

They went from “1” to “1001,” and then added a letter-prefix “A-1” to “A-999,” then “B,” “C,” etc., up to “X” in 1963; a few letters such as “I,” “N,” “Q,” “R,” “U,” and “W” were left out, most likely to avoid confusion. Job numbers can be used to sort the order in which stories were drawn by a particular artist.) In Maneely’s case, job #6760 was eight pages of pencils and inks, and his skill as a storyteller is dramatically

42

Nancy Maneely

My Father, Joe Maneely A Loving Daughter Talks about the Father She Never Got a Chance to Know

by Nancy Maneely Like my friend Michael Vassallo, I have asked the question, “What if...?”

drawn the card. It reads: “Heigh-ho, Daddy-O! Congratulations to Betty Jean and Daddy Joe!” It was signed by Stan Lee and the rest of the Atlas gang.

My reflections on the subject are personal, and mainly speculative. They are based on fragments of information I’ve managed to piece together about my father, Joe Maneely, from the many friends and loved ones who respected and admired the man and the artist.

I have in my possession a meager collection of my father’s original artwork. There would have been more—much more—but for a 1960s flood in the basement of my mother’s house that destroyed a trunk filled with Joe Maneely panels and sketches. Not to mention hundreds of comic books that disappeared over the years. (I have been rebuilding a collection of my dad’s comic books, painstakingly, in recent years. I have some 125 books, acquired from flea markets, comic book stores, online auctions—and from my friend Michael.)

I have no conscious memory of my father, who Wedding photo of Joe and Betty Jean was only 32 when he died in Maneely, 1947. Courtesy of Nancy Maneely.

June 1958, leaving his widow Betty Jean and three daughters: Kathleen, age 8; Mary Carole, 7; and me, the two-year-old “baby.” My mother assures me, however, that I missed my dad terribly.

For weeks after he died, I would call out “Doe! Doe!” in my baby voice (in imitation of my mother’s calling “Joe” to the dinner table).

Other treasures include a set of three framed pen-and-ink cowboy panels signed by Joe Maneely. They once graced his home office. The two smaller panels hang in my guest room—we call it “The Cowboy Room.” The third and largest picture takes pride of place at my son’s home. Westerns were my father’s favorite theme (at least until The Black Knight came along to capture his imagination), and so I cherish these wonderful pieces.

In the years following my father’s untimely death, Mom struggled to raise us three girls. It was tough. In the ’50s and ’60s the working world was not clamoring for unskilled housewives seeking gainful employment. My dad had left us virtually penniless. In the mid-1950s,

After my sisters were born, my mother went on to suffer two miscarriages before I came along. My birth was dangerous and difficult for both mother and baby. Joe stated firmly there would be no more children, but Mom felt differently; she believes I might have had several younger siblings, had my father lived.

I’m told I was my daddy’s much-loved and fussed-over baby girl. He insisted on taking me everywhere with him. I even had my own special booster seat, which hooked over the passenger seatback and came complete with a little steering wheel (child safety devices were not a part of consumer culture yet!).

My most cherished piece of original art is a hand-inked caricature of baby Nancy (me!) against a giant shamrock backdrop (I was born the day after St. Paddy’s Day, 1956). There I am, wearing a diaper, cowboy hat, and holster, and my father’s blackframed eyeglasses askew. I don’t know which of my dad’s coworkers in the “bullpen” had

“Westerns were my father’s favorite theme,” Nancy says, “at least till The Black Knight came along to capture his imagination.” Here’s an early Maneely “Black Rider” splash, from BR #10 (Sept. ’50), while Joe was still honing his craft—and Sir Percy of Scandia donning the dark armor for the first time after being given it by Merlin the Magician, in Black Knight #1. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Stan Lee

“Joe Was The Best!”

45

STAN LEE Remembers JOE MANEELY Joe Maneely (left) and Stan Lee look over a Sunday page for Mrs. Lyon’s Cubs, 1958. Courtesy of Nancy Maneely.

[NOTE: In June 2003, as this issue was in preparation, I mentioned one of its principal subjects—artist legend Joe Maneely—to my 1960s’70s Marvel Comics boss Stan Lee in an e-mail, and asked if Stan might wish to write a few words about him. I was very pleased to receive the following from him a few hours later. —Roy.] Damn, I wish I had more time.

I’ve got a dozen things to finish by tonight, and then next week is filled with meetings and interviews, so if I don’t bat something out for you now, I never will.

All I can say, which I’ve said so often in the past, is—to me, Joe was the best! I mean the all-time, unconditional, absolute best. He could draw anything—and handle it magnificently. He was the fastest artist I had ever worked with, bar none. His penciling looked like a bunch of hastily scrawled stick figures (which he did in no time at all), and then he’d take pen in hand and speedily draw over them as if he was tracing some great illos that nobody else could see on that sheet of paper.

His versatility was unmatched. He did funny strips (our Mrs. Lyon’s Cubs, which was syndicated in a ton of newspapers just before his death), he did epic artwork like The Black Knight, westerns like The Ringo Kid, horror like dozens of strips whose names I’ve forgotten, romance, war—you name it, he did it—and usually better than anyone else.

Not only was his penciling superb, but nobody could ink like Joe. His ability to use blacks for drama, for emphasis, and for design was almost supernatural. Unfortunately, there’s no way I could try to tell you how fast he inked, because you wouldn’t believe me! The incredibly beautiful black lines and shadings just seemed to appear on the pages like magic.

To top it off, Joe was the nicest, pleasantest, friendliest guy imaginable to work with. Not a trace of temperament or conceit did he have.

He made every project we worked on seem like fun. He made it all seem easy. There was never any strain or pressure. When he had something to draw (like all the time), he drew it speedily, magnificently, and seemingly effortlessly.

I used to feel that if I had a whole team of Maneelys there’d be nothing we couldn’t have accomplished. In fact, even with one Joe Maneely, in time we could have taken over the whole comic book world!

Oh, don’t let me forget that he was also easily as adept at working

Stan singles out Black Knight and Ringo Kid as two particularly memorable Timely/Atlas features drawn by Joe, and we heartily concur. The splendidly noble and evocative splash for the Lee-scripted, Maneely-illustrated Black Knight #1 (May 1955) was reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces #11 (Oct. 1967), and introduced a new generation of comics readers to the marvelous talent that was Joe Maneely. Of the many, many fine Ringo Kid pages he drew, here’s the splash of an origin story for the Kid’s stallion Arab, from issue #2 (Oct. ’54). Thanks to Doc Vassallo. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PLUS: PLUS:

5.95

$$

In the the USA USA In

No. 28

September 2003

EXTRA:

LEE AMES

Captain Marvel, Mr. Mind TM & ©2003 DC Comics.

TO PLEASE!

Vol. 3, No. 28 / September 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

Contents

Writer/Editorial: Showing Our Age(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “The Family of Cartoonists Is My Family!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Golden Age artist Lee Ames talks to Jim Amash about Iger, Timely, and others.

Joe Maneely Don Newton

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Don Newton

And Special Thanks to: Lee Ames Ger Apeldoorn Terry Austin Mike W. Barr Alberto Becattini John Benson Bill Black Steve Brumbaugh Mike Burkey Tony Cerezo Scott Deschaine Jaime Echevarria Carl Gafford Stan Goldberg Walt Grogan George Hagenauer John Haufe, Jr. Mark & Stephanie Heike Larry Ivie Ed Jaster

A Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Potpourri!

Mort Leav Stan Lee Mark Lewis Nancy Maneely Scotty Moore Brian K. Morris Anthony Newton John Petty Steven Rowe John Severin Marie Severin Steve Skeates Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Marc & June Swayze Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Tom Wimbish

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Joe & Betty Jean Maneely and Pierce Rice

A Talk with John Benson (Part II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Squa Tront’s editor tells Bill Schelly about “Post-EC Comic Fandom” —and why Harvey Kurtzman left Mad!

Spot That Style!! (Part II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Michael T. Gilbert shows what Golden Age greats drew when times where lean.

A Brief Tribute to Pierce Rice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 re: [correspondence & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, Steve Skeates, and the 1980s Monster Society of Evil!

Joe Maneely & The Atlas Age of Comics!. . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover & the Above Illo: From 1978-81, new pro artist Don Newton had a ball drawing the “Shazam!” feature in World’s Finest Comics, and in 1979 he executed a gorgeous painting of Captain Marvel and his arch-foe Mr. Mind for renowned X-Men inker Terry Austin. Ever since Terry kindly sent us a copy of same, we’ve been looking for an opportunity to use it as a color cover on an issue of Alter Ego—with due thanks to Don’s son, Anthony Newton, for his permission. By contrast, the above drawing of Cap dropping in on Mr. Mind and a pair of his minions from the original 1943-45 “Monster Society” serial was done in the early 1970s and appeared in the RBCC Special #8 at that time—when it was still Don’s distant dream to professionally draw his favorite hero, let alone a full-blown “Monster Society” sequel.

What a difference a few years made! [Cover & above illo ©2003 Estate of Don Newton; Captain Marvel & Mr. Mind 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.

Lee Ames

Lee Ames in a recent photo.

“The Family of Cartoonists Is My Family!”

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[Self-caricature ©2003 Lee Ames.]

Golden Age Artist LEE AMES Talks about a Long and Lively Career Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Lee Ames tells stories as well as he draws them. His presence at various comic book companies over the years enables him to comment on some of the all-time greats in the history of the medium. Still working at age 82, Lee continues a vitally gifted art career, of which we can give you only a taste. For more, visit his web-sites <www.draw50.com> and <www.leeames.com>, and indulge in the work of a master craftsman. Special thanks for their help to Lee, and to Jerry Bails, Tom Wimbish, and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. —Jim.]

“The One Thing I Could Do above Everything Else Was Draw” JIM AMASH: In looking over your biography, I see you spent time at several different comic companies, so I figure the best place to start is to ask where and when you were born... and what got you interested in art.

LEE AMES: I was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 8, 1921.

The name on my birth certificate read “Male Abramowitz.” Eight days later, I was given my first name, Leon. Twenty-five years later we legalized my nom de plume, Lee J. Ames.

From as far back as I can remember, the one thing I could do above everything else was draw. There was never any question that this was what I was going to do. My father, however, always said I should learn a trade and become a tailor, like he was—or something like that Many Jewish immigrants came over to America and got into the “needle trades,” as they called it then. My father was a presser and later bought a store in the throes of the Depression. How he was able to get the $400 to buy the store is still a mystery, but he didn’t steal it. [laughs] As was needed, he hired a tailor or furrier. Meanwhile, he managed to hold two or more outside jobs, day and night, to pay the store workers and keep us alive and eating. My mother would tend to the customers and I would make deliveries. We also lived in three small rooms behind the store. But we were too busy to consider these things unusually tough.

Later, after we had sold the store, at a loss, we moved to the Bronx.

There, on a visit to the local public library, I saw a book by Washington Irving entitled The Knickerbocker History of New York, with illustrations by James Dougherty. Those illustrations just knocked me over. At that point I decided I wanted to be an artist, an illustrator, just like Dougherty. The first job I had, for a short period of time in 1938, was at

“Firebrand” splash page drawn by Lee Ames for Quality’s Police Comics #10 (July 1942). Well, actually, all art from that Golden Age story printed with this interview are taken from Men of Mystery Comics #23 (2000), with grey tones and art restoration done by the caring crew at AC Comics, and used by permission of publisher Bill Black. See AC Comics’ ad elsewhere in this issue. [Restored art ©2003 AC Comics. Firebrand is TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

an advertising agency as a “go-fer.” Then I got another job with a signmanufacturing company under the Third Avenue El [short for “elevated train”]. It was a very grimy, Dickensian place. Along with a bunch of other kids, I painted signboards and ground, cut, polished, and painted metal and wooden letters for the Ross Sign Company.

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Lee Ames Lee’s tenure at Disney in the late 1930s may not have lasted long, but he must’ve learned something, ’cause later he put together these authorized books on how to draw Walt’s two most recognizable icons. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck TM & ©2003 Walt Disney Productions.]

At the suggestion of a teacher at my high school, I applied for a job with Disney. I sent my samples to the Disney Studio in Hollywood and got the job! And exciting things started happening... not the least of which was, for example, going to the bus stop with my teary-eyed mother, who gave me a small medicine bottle filled with 90-proof brandy, to tide me over in case I needed sustenance. While I was talking to some of the other passengers, my mother got on the bus and started talking to a young lady, asking her to be friendly to her son who was leaving home for the first time. The lady turned out to be a hooker. I had a great trip. [laughs] Prior to that, I had received a check from Disney for the bus fare. I had to pick the check up at the Disney offices in Rockefeller Center.

I went up there and the man who gave me the check was Richard Condon, who later wrote The Manchurian Candidate. He was a publicist for Disney at that time.

I got the check, got on the bus, went out to California, and was hired at $17 a week, $2 of which went toward paying back my bus fare to Disney. I was there for three months (that included the eight days of travel to and from California). However, it was a glorious experience that I’ve cashed in on ever since. I had worked as an in-betweener on both Fantasia and Pinocchio, and some shorts.

Self-portraits done by Lee in 1936 and 1938, respectively. [©2003 Lee Ames.]

“You Will Call Him ‘Walt’!”

JA: Did you meet Walt Disney while you worked there?

AMES: Yes, a couple of times. That wasn’t unusual. In our training period, we delivered packages and equipment. One day I had to bring lunches to Cliff Edwards (also known as Ukulele Ike), who was the voice of “When You Wish upon a Star!,” and to Leigh Harlene, who was the composer. That was a thrill! On one occasion, while delivering packages and standing in the foyer, there was a guy with what was then called a “candid camera,” taking pictures of me... I thought.

I assumed it was for a magazine article he was working on or some other publicity thing. I did whatever I had to do, thinking, “How nice for my mother to see this when it comes out in print.”

Then I turned and behind me were Walt Disney and some associates. Whoops! I was embarrassed because I thought the photographer had been taking pictures of me, but the subject was Disney. I said, “Oh, excuse me, Mr. Disney.” He glowered at me, literally.

I learned the reason immediately from a woman who ran a coffee concession. “Why did you do that?” she asked. “What did I do?” I asked. She said, “You called him ‘Mr. Disney.’ Weren’t you told, ‘You will call him ‘Walt!’?” Well, I never called him anything after that. I later discovered this had happened to a number of people.

In the in-betweening sector where we worked, the guys pinned up drawings on the backs of their desks. One drawing, 20” long and 10” high, was a lovely nude woman, and Jiminy Cricket was standing there, dipping his toe into her groin and tipping his hat. It was lovely and funny. One day, some guests came through, which was unusual because we never had people come through the inbetweeners’ section. This was a special occasion. There were four or five men and a teenage girl, and she saw this drawing and immediately turned around and walked on with the rest of the group. The girl was 15-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt, Jr. [heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune].

JA: Wow! You had an amazing three months there. Why’d you leave so soon?

AMES: I got homesick. And at that time, Disney only gave out 13week contracts—which I had during my training period, and which was about to end. If they wanted you, they’d give you another 13week contract or they’d dump you. I couldn’t foresee myself, this being the Depression, being dumped in California, not knowing anything or anybody, so I said “The hell with that,” and went back home.

Another small story: I took the bus back and forth to the Hyperion Studios, where Disney was then based. One time I was on the bus, sketching away, when an elderly woman, who reminded me of the actress Marie Dressler, admired my sketches. I thanked her and mentioned that I was homesick and planned to return home soon. She said, “Meanwhile, if you’re lonely, why don’t you come and visit me?” She gave me a slip of paper with her name and address on it. She was very nice. I had told her I expected to go home.

Ten years after that, I found an old shoe box in which I kept some of the things from my time at Disney, including cels of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, from which all the paint had chipped off. Imagine what they’d be worth now intact! In the box I also found the slip of paper that sweet, friendly woman had given me. What a warm, pleasant memory. Now, for the first time, I turned that piece of paper over. I had never seen the back of it before. There she had written: “$4.” She was an old hooker!

“The Family of Cartoonists Is My Family!”

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missing was a word-filled balloon over his head! I remember a lot of things about Al. JA: What do you remember about Paul Terry?

AMES: He wasn’t particularly well-liked. But many bosses, just by the domination that goes with being a boss, are frequently disliked. I’ve had other bosses that were wonderful!

“Iger Was the Object of All Sorts of Gags” JA: From there, you went to work for Jerry Iger. Will Eisner was out of the shop by then, wasn’t he?

AMES: Yes. But his old artwork was still there—frequently cut up, repasted, re-storied, and used again and again in a number of the magazines. “Hawks of the Seas” might have been one of those features they did that with.

JA: What led you to Iger’s shop?

Because he only worked for Paul Terry circa 1939-41, Lee Ames wasn’t around when Terrytoons’ most famous creation came along in 1942: Supermouse, who soon transmutated into Mighty Mouse—whether under pressure from National/DC, or because by then there was also a Supermouse in comic books, seems uncertain.

This model sheet was printed in the 1981 Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoon Series

by Jeff Lenburg—but apparently there wasn’t another Terrytoon image worthy of inclusion in the book’s nearly 200 pages. [Mighty Mouse TM & ©2003 the respective trademark & copyright holder.]

AMES: Damned if I remember, but someone must have told me about him. I went up with samples, which were pretty horrible, but I got a job.

JA: How much did you know about comic books when you went to see him?

“I Went Right to Work at Terrytoons” JA: When you came back to New York, where did you go to work?

AMES: I went right to work at Terrytoons, in New Rochelle, N.Y., as an inker. The Disney connection helped. Being an inker was a step down from being an in-betweener, the difference being that inkers were tracers, while in-betweeners actually did creative drawing. At Disney, women exclusively did the inking.

JA: You worked at Terrytoons in 1940 and 1941. I’m a bit confused, because you told me earlier that you weren’t sure if you worked at Harry Chesler’s shop before you worked for Jerry Iger.

AMES: I don’t recall Chesler other than being a publisher’s name, but I did a lot of freelance stuff, though I don’t remember for whom. If anything, it would have been freelance work, not shop work, but that would have been after I worked for Iger. It would have been after World War II, as I also worked in Iger’s shop for a brief period when I returned from the service.

I left Disney in July1939, and I believe I began working for Terrytoons in late 1939. That would have carried on into 1940 and 1941.

That was a transition period before going to work for Jerry Iger.

JA: I see. Any recollections of working at Terrytoons you’d like to share?

AMES: Remember the cartoonist Al Stahl? [NOTE: At one time Stahl worked for Quality Comics.] Al was an in-betweener and an absolutely lovely madman. He lost his job at Terrytoons for, among other things, the occasion on which he came to visit the inkers who worked at a penthouse (with an extended outside area) where we lunched. Al thought it was cute to take paper cups filled with water and drop them off the building, and one happened to splash in front of Paul Terry. So Al had to go looking for a new job. When I got the job with Jerry Iger, I brought Al Stahl in to meet Iger and he got a job there.

Al Stahl looked, walked, and behaved like a cartoon. All that was

Another Ames page from AC Comics’ retouched reprinting of the “Firebrand” tale from Police Comics #10. Lee says that he and later “Doll Man” artist John Cassone sat side by side, with Cassone working on “Lightning”—but maybe he means “The Ray,” another Quality super-hero feature? Reed Crandall had been the original “Firebrand” artist, while Lou Fine had initiated “The Ray.” [Restored art ©2003 AC Comics; Firebrand TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

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Lee Ames now. A terrific human being. We did one of my Draw 50 books together. It was Draw 50 People of the Bible, but he really did the bulk of the work.

JA: What was Jerry Iger like?

AMES: Ha! Take your tongue and stick it between your lower teeth and lower lip thusly... now you’ll sound like Jerry Iger. Mort Leav was the one who did the best mimicry of Iger, and we all used to love that. Every once in a while, he would regale us with such things as the one dance step that he knew and flaunted before us. Of course, we laughed up our sleeves. He’d tell us about his exploits as a boxer... all kinds of nonsense like that. He did luck out, though, when he got to know and live with Ruth Roche.

I think Ruth Roche ultimately got a piece of Iger’s business, which was great. And she was a very beautiful woman. Iger was the object of all sorts of gags that we pulled... not that he was aware of many of them.

He was a scapegoat that we loved to deal with.

JA: Iger wasn’t a well-respected boss, was he?

AMES: I wouldn’t say so.

“Bob Webb Was a Charming Guy” JA: That’s not the first comment I’ve heard like that. How many people worked in the studio?

AMES: I don’t remember well, but I’ll try. I’ll give you names as I go down the list. Aldo Rubano. Arthur Peddy. Al Bryant. Artie Saaf. Mort Leav. Bob Webb. I can’t recall any others right now. There was one small incident comes to mind that knocked me over.

During his career, André LeBlanc (1921-98) drew—often through the Iger Studios—for Fiction House, Quality, Fawcett, and other comics companies; at various times, he also assisted Dan Barry on Flash Gordon and Will Eisner on The Spirit. This illustration was done for Robin Snyder, in whose monthly The Comics! it appeared in Vol. 8, #8 (Aug. 1997). [Art ©2003 Estate of André LeBlanc; The Phantom TM & ©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

AMES: Not a damn thing. I wasn’t very interested in them. I was about 21 at the time, so that may be why. The first comic books I knew, back in the early ‘30s, were hardcover, more expensive books with subjects like The Gumps.

JA: What did you start out doing for Iger?

AMES: Backgrounds.

Then I graduated into penciling figures.

Incidentally, I was hired about the same day Johnny Cassone was. The two of us used to sit side by side. I worked on “Firebrand,” while John worked on “Lightning.”

Sitting behind me was André LeBlanc, who was one of my very best friends. I miss him sorely

At one point, Jerry hired an Italian man whose name was Dic Young.

He was hired strictly to be a clean-up artist, nothing else. He was obviously sickly. I was surprised because I remembered a book written by a Dic Young, that I had picked up at Woolworth’s when I was ten or eleven. It had a title something like Funny Drawings You Can Make.

One example: if you arrange the capital letters for “CHINA,” vertically, from the top down, you can complete the “C” into a circle, add lines to create an Asian face, then add other lines to the remaining letters, and finally complete a lovely little Mandarin figure.

Imagine that! I never forgot that book. I asked Dic if he was the author. He said, “Yes,” in a kind of tired voice. This may have felt like a punch in the face to him.

Bob Webb was a charming guy who had a weird, snorting laugh

(Above:) Mort Leav panels from Our Publishing Company’s Love Journal #19 (1953), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, which is owned by his friend Tony Cerezo. You saw the splash in A/E #19. (Right:) A much later cartoon sequence

by Leav—and who’s to say this isn’t the very same couple, half a century later? Repro’d from Robin Snyder’s The Comics! V7#4 (April ’96).

[Love Journal art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; latter cartoon ©2003 Mort Leav.]

Title Comic Fandom Archive

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A Talk with JOHN BENSON

An Overdue Interview with the Editor of Squa Tront about “Post-EC Comic Fandom” —and Why Harvey Kurtzman Left Mad!

by Bill Schelly

BENSON: Yes. Barks worked on these huge boards and he cut them in half for ease of handling. This page was cut in half, and the two halves happened to be completely different scenes.

One was just a bunch of town-father pigs standing around in the street, and I gave that half to Mike Last issue, John talked about his early life, and McInerney. But the other half has Scrooge how he became interested in comic books, especially sitting on a pile of money and also has him Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad. He also discussed his first pointing at Christmas on a calendar and contacts with EC fandom in 1955, and lots more. This saying, “Bah!”—which is probably the time, John fills us in on the fascinating “Post-EC Fandom” closest he ever acknowledged his period in the late ’50s and his groundbreaking interview with Dickens namesake. So, yes, I still artist Bernard Krigstein, and have that half-page, you bet. gives us his “rap” about Anyhow, Jones never did pay me, Kurtzman, Bill Gaines, and and the paperback never came out.

Little Annie Fanny. This Jones had gotten my script illusinterview was conducted in trated by Bob Jenny, who probably January 2003, was transcribed never got paid, either. But that didn’t

by Brian K. Morris, and is stop Russ from selling it to Warren, copyright ©2003 Bill Schelly. and it appeared in Creepy or Eerie.

The writer is listed as “unknown” in The Warren Companion. Which is my BILL SCHELLY: Have you own fault, because I think the author of ever written any comics profesthe book tried to contact me through sionally?

John Benson in 1957—and art from the cover of the first issue of Gamut (Sept. someone else and I didn’t respond. I 1960), which graphically illustrates the high volume of fanzine activity during the JOHN BENSON: I wrote guess I didn’t realize he was going to 1958-62 period. All the covers depicted on the Gamut cover are of real issues of several stories for Warren: one include a checklist. real fanzines, and include Ec-hhhh, Fanfare, Tales from the Shag, Spoof, Foo, in collaboration with Bhob Hoohah!, Frantic, Concept, Image, and Insight—many of which are discussed in BS: When you graduated from Stewart, which was nicely this installment. Gamut had “dittoed” front and back covers, with mimeographed Westtown, what did you do? Was it illustrated by Angelo Torres; interiors. It was published by Gary Delain, and contributors to the issue included college or was it the military? one with Clark Dimond; and Ken Winter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Marty Pahls—and Robert Crumb. Photo courtesy of one on my own. Bill Harris John Benson. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

BENSON: I was a Quaker, was editor when I wrote that remember? [laughs] I went on to last one, and he edited it heavily and I thought he messed it up. I had it college, Grinnell College, in Iowa. I wanted to go to a small liberal arts take place on the headwaters of the Orinoco River, and he changed it to college. I looked at various ones. Probably that was the wrong one to give the river some fictitious name. I couldn’t understand the point. I choose. It was culture shock. Actually, the guys who were farmers from think if you tie horror to reality it’s more interesting. He tried to make it Iowa, they were great guys. But most of the people there were from the all really simple, like for little kids. Not that my script was any classic to suburbs of Chicago, and I wasn’t really on their wavelength. [laughs] I begin with. became friends with several people from the East there, though, including Clark Dimond, whom I later collaborated with, and who I wrote another story that appeared in a Warren book, though I wrote some comic scripts on his own for the black-&-white horror didn’t write it for Warren. Russ Jones, who was the editor of Creepy for magazines the first issue or so, had put out a comic book version of Dracula in paperback for Ballantine. This was when Ballantine had just brought out BS: Did you continue your fannish activity at college? the EC Bradbury horror and science fiction comics reprints. Russ was going to produce a book of famous short horror stories in comics form BENSON: Yeah, I did. I published my fanzine Image during that for them, and he asked me to do an adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s period. And I continued to correspond with various fans, like like Marty vampire classic Carmilla. I think he knew it was a favorite story of Pahls, Gary Delain, Dick Voll, Ron Parker, of course, and Ken Winter, mine, which I got interested in because I loved Roger Vadim’s film Doug Brown, Doug Payson. Payson was the principal artist for Image. version, Blood and Roses. Anyhow, Russ Jones did not have a very You can see the great cover he did for me reprinted in Squa Tront 10. A good reputation for paying, so when he invited me over to his place, very good artist. Esmond Adams was another guy I corresponded with, before he even asked me about doing it, he spread out some original a contributor to Hoohah! from Huntsville, Alabama. I think he later comic pages on the floor and suggested that I pick one out and keep it. went to Harvard and had culture shock. I exchanged a few letters with This was sort-of like those little gifts they give you when you go to see a Robert and Charles Crumb, too. Then there was Fred, of course, and product demo, a little bribe to get you to be there. So I took a Barks Larry [Ivie]; those are probably my principal correspondents. I still have Uncle Scrooge page. most of that correspondence.

Part II

BS: Really! Do you still have it?

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John Benson

BS: So you started buying back issues of ECs then? Were there were some places where you would find some old comics for sale, like bookstores?

BENSON: There was a store in Philadelphia, which may even still be there. The guy’s name was Bagelman, and I remember going in there around 1958. At the time he had a mail order business, and he was selling Golden Age comics. I looked behind the counter and he had these Golden Age comics. In fact, there was one that, somehow, I was able to flip through, where there was a story about a dwarf in the subway, and it was rather gory or horrific, and I’ve never been able to find that since. [laughs] A very strange comic, and before the horror era. I can remember seeing U.S.A. Comics and Golden Age super-hero comics that he was packing up to sell through the mail, and for pretty good prices, I’m sure.

[Bill chuckles] At Westtown I became very interested in popular music. I like classical music, and at Westtown, of course, you were exposed to classical music. I loved classical music, but I also was very, very interested in popular music. I thought that Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard... I thought they were Art! I still do. I still love rock ‘n’ roll, from the ’50s up until... uh, let’s say about when Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones.

I’ve always been a child of popular culture. I’m not an intellectual. My parents were not intellectuals, either, although they applied a sort of critical judgment to them. We would go to Bob As detailed last issue, Larry Ivie drew illustrations on many of his letters.

Hope movies, and Martin and This one, from a missive to John circa 1958, is one of his most ornate.

Lewis movies, even occasional Used with the artist’s permission. [©2003 Larry Ivie.]

Abbott and Costello movies. But when I had an interest in going to see the Bowery Boys or Ma and Pa Kettle, I was told, no, I could not. [laughs] You know, “That’s too trashy, and too below your interest, and In Squa Tront 10 I wrote about how Charles Crumb came over and you just can’t go to that stuff.” But yeah, I’m totally popular culture. visited, and how he had bought Barks comics from a store at big prices.

BS: Maybe this is a good place to segue to your fanzine Image, which And then, when he needed money, he took them back and the guy gave was, after all, devoted to popular culture. him peanuts for the same stuff he’d sold him. Well, that was the same store I’m talking about. But I do remember he had huge racks of used BENSON: [laughs] Well, theoretically. I said that in my—what’s the comics in the back, and I was really livid one time. I spent about an hour word?—my prospectus, my one ad in Sata, but I never really meant it. It going through all those used comics and I found a Crime SuspenStories, was just a fanzine. How Image came about, and my attitude towards it, the one with the Evans cover of a guy throttling a woman in the is all really well spelled out in Squa Tront 10, which is currently rowboat. All the comics were a nickel, you know. I took it up front and available. his mother was about to sell it to me. And he happened to come up, and he said, “Oh, that one’s not a nickel.” I said, “It’s in the nickel section.”

BS: Okay, so we won’t go over it again here. But I would like to talk “Well, that was a mistake. If you want that, it’s going to be 50¢.” about the period after Hoohah! and before the start of Alter Ego, from about 1957 to 1961, because that was the thing I learned from BS: [pained] Ohhhhh. [laughs] you, that there was a real fandom after EC comics had died, that offered a substantial amount of comics material.

BENSON: I just realized this is like the story of Flip #1, only the ending

is different. I said, “Forget it,” because that was pretty high. It really wasn’t that old at the time. I bought nearly all my back-issue ECs by mail. I was buying a lot from a guy named Dick Phipps, who was selling off his collection. The newer ones were, like, 15¢ and they worked back up to 50¢ for the earlier ones. I was getting $2 a week allowance, which I had to use for school supplies and other things.

BS: Did you ever have a paper route or other source of income before you got out of high school?

BENSON: No. Obviously, at Westtown I didn’t have anything like that.

In Haddonfield, I got an allowance of 25¢ a week, and then later, 50¢.

And I would mow a few lawns, and I had all the money I could want.

My only expenses were the occasional comic, Popsicles... which were a nickel. You could buy a balsa plane for a dime, and your parents bought you your roller skates, and your bicycle, and stuff. But if you have it, you find a way to spend it. I pissed away a lot of money on Ravell plastic models. But at Westtown, I didn’t feel nearly so flush. I wanted to buy all those ECs, and that was tough. I was sending this guy a buck or two a week, ordering the later ones because I got more comics for the buck that way.

BS: But were they in decent shape when you got them?

BENSON: I’ve never been able to evaluate the condition of a comic.

BENSON: I consider that I’ve been in comics fandom since 1956, and when I arrived it was already going strong. It’s kind of strange that Xero is considered a beginning of comics fandom, because Xero’s art director, Bhob Stewart, published the first EC fanzine, The EC Fan Bulletin in 1953, and had been pretty much continuously a part of fandom in one way or another since that time. In fact, I would say that if there is a defining moment for the start of comics fandom, it was the publication of The EC Fan Bulletin. It was the start of EC fandom, EC fandom evolved into “second fandom,” and there were many people who continued on into the fandom later developed by Alter Ego and Xero.

BS: Can you tell me a little more about that “second fandom” in the late 1950s?

BENSON: It was a very active time, with a lot of fanzines. I’d say there were two main groups, with considerable overlap. One was primarily interested in writing about comics and satire magazines, and the other was primarily interested in producing their own amateur satire publications. There must have been well over 30 fanzine titles during this period, quite a number being substantial publications. In the first group I guess the most substantial ones were Spoof, which was called Good Lord! the first issue, Marty Pahls’ Fanfare, Mike Britt’s Squatront, and Joe Pilati’s Smudge.

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[NOTE: All art on the following five pages is Š2003 the respective copyright holders.]

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Spot That Style!

No. 87

Our 30th Year!

MARC SWAYZE on the Golden Age 1 9 7 3 - 2 0 0 3 GEORGE HAGENAUER on Fawcett Digest STEVE SKEATES remembers Isis DON NEWTON & E. NELSON BRIDWELL’s Monster Society of Evil

[Ibis & Taia penciled by Mark Lewis, inked by P.C. Hamerlinck. Art © Mark Lewis & P.C. Hamerlinck; characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

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Marc Swayze But I wish I had known him. I liked his way of thinking big. The grand manner in which he blew into town with his business, his ideas, his family… the whole shebang… and set up shop not at the outskirts, but in the heart of the world’s greatest metropolis, to occupy several floors of a most prestigious of office buildings…was a firm assertion that he and his domain were not to be sneezed at. And they weren’t!

Yes... I wish I had known Captain Billy. He created and left behind an aura of success… the atmosphere into which I strode in 1941, my heels yet stained with cow manure.

By

[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 her origin in Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. 1942; but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications 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. Soon after leaving the Army, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton) for the Bell Syndicate. After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s topselling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his 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. This time, he tells more about his early days at Fawcett... and his own musical background.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

I never knew Captain Billy Fawcett. Our paths probably would never have crossed had he still been around when I joined the company ranks.

The two levels on the organization chart were simply too extreme to suggest such a possibility.

Comic books were new. Let there be no mistake about that. Legitimate, accurate historical accounts describe their having already been around for several years… as well as the related studios that supplied art for them. But let’s have no misunderstanding… comic books, as we came to know them, were still new in ’41.

Newsstands, which existed mainly along the sidewalks of the very large cities… and magazine racks, which existed in drug stores, post offices, and pool halls throughout the land… had to make room for this outrageous little thin, limp, cheap, stapled newcomer that had crept in from nowhere.

The intrusion, however, could be taken as only temporary. There was no way for these novelties to stay around long… slanted almost exclusively for boy readers of pre and early teen-age… and only the ones with a little pocket change to spend.

How many generations ago was that? Three? Maybe four? More?

Long time.

A lot of things were new around that time. I stopped in the lobby of the Grand Central Station behind a crowd of commuters attracted by something going on against one wall…a display or demonstration of some kind.

“What is it?” I asked a fellow at my elbow. “A receiving set,” he answered. “Radio?” I asked. “Television,” he replied. I stood on tiptoe and peered over the heads to see what he was talking about… a box… with no dimensions of more than 2 or 3 feet…the foremost side with a screen… showing people moving about. And you could hear them talking… just like on a small movie screen. That box must have contained a lot of wires and things to bring all that about. I went on my way, certain that the average American family would never be able to afford such a complicated device.

“What orchestra was it you were with?”

It was the voice, later in the day, of Fawcett art director Al Allard, who had just come in from conducting a tour of Hollywood guests through his department. “I was asked that and had to make up an answer,” he laughed.

A pair of Swayze panels: from “Captain Marvel and the Return of the Trolls” in Whiz Comics #37 (Nov. ’42) and Phantom Eagle story in Wow Comics #32 (Jan. ’45). [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

“There were several,” I

42

Fawcett Digest

Fawcett Digest

Walter Klett’s cover for the rare Fawcett Digest from 1946, printed at approximate size of the magazine. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Discovering a Rare Captain Marvel Appearance from the 1940s

by George Hagenauer Edited By P.C. Hamerlinck To this day it’s not uncommon for undocumented older comic books to be discovered that are giveaways or from the more obscure publishers. It is rare that an undocumented story or comic is found featuring a major character or super-hero.

That’s why I was quite surprised when I stumbled upon the first and only issue of Fawcett Digest.

I have been involved in doing background research for the historical novels of Max Allan Collins, creator of Road to Perdition, among other solid accomplishments. Thus, I spend a lot of time digging through older magazines and looking for material that may relate to future stories he has planned. This involves going over many piles of all sorts of odd magazines at book fairs, antique malls, flea markets and shows.

During one of these quests some months ago, I stumbled upon Fawcett Digest. The little 162-page magazine is about the size of a Reader’s Digest and sports a beautiful full-color cover by Walter Klett. Originally I thought this was perhaps some short-lived competitor to Reader’s Digest; but the first page states that it is a limited edition, printed in 1946, and reprints examples of material from every Fawcett magazine published in 1945. It obviously appears to have been a Fawcett promotional magazine (since there is a warning that it is not to be sold) geared towards distributors and advertisers, allowing them to view samples of all of the magazines Fawcett published at the time... including their comic books.

Several years ago, while meeting with Roscoe K. Fawcett, former coowner and circulation manager of Fawcett Publications, P.C. Hamerlinck reports having viewed several promotional and intercompany type publications (including Fawcett Distributor) which were produced in the ’40s and were developed by Roscoe Fawcett himself.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Even more surprising was to learn, by perusing Roscoe’s bookshelf, was that some of these promotional magazines— and Fawcett comics—were also produced as deluxe hardcover compilations! —PCH.] Prior to this, Fawcett had worked hard to upgrade the quality of many of their magazines, such as converting their True magazine from a sleazy men’s magazine featuring women in bondage on the cover to a very slick publication featuring major writers and illustrators... and with covers depicting wildlife hunters and men at work. True had become the type of magazine no one would feel ashamed to have on their coffee table. It’s interesting that Fawcett were apparently as proud of the quality of their comics as they were of their major slick magazines... and promoted the comics equally in Fawcett Digest, even though advertising revenue from the comic books must have been minimal compared to slicks like True, Today’s Woman, and Mechanix Illustrated.

While they don’t reprint an example from every Fawcett comic book, they do reprint a complete “Captain Marvel” story (“Capt. Marvel and His Mission to Mercury”) from Whiz Comics #69 (Dec. 1945). The magazine’s introduction tells of 5,000,000 readers a month for Fawcett comic books and lists their editorial board.

There is also a list of 28 different comic book titles in the front of Fawcett Digest, though a number of the titles seem never to have been printed. Listed are Radar the International Policeman, Sherlock the Monk, and Benny Beaver and Fuzzy Bear, none of which were published separately under those titles. Also listed are All Hero Comics, America’s Greatest Comics, and Commando Yank, although none of those had been published since 1943 (“Commando Yank,” aside from being one of the Fawcett “Mighty Midget” giveaway comics, never actually had its own title).

It may be possible that, with the post-World War II relaxing of paper restrictions, some of the titles listed were planned but never appeared.

1946 did see a number of Fawcett titles resume publication, and at least one comic on the list (Animal Fair) may not have been published at the time the digest appeared.

44

Isis

What It Is Is Isis

A Writer’s True Confessions of the Shazam! Spin-off Egyptian Goddess Super-hero from the 1970s

by Steve Skeates Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck A quick glance inside a comic book shop and— Yipes! What is this?

Women blowing men away, seventeen or eighteen at a clip, with but the slightest flick trigger-wise of one or another impossibly huge hand-held laser-canon!

Women decapitating men with an effortless swipe of a razor-sharp ceremonial épée! Women who kill with their thighs!

All such “hoo-hah” aside, however, even as we return to considerations of my own reckless involvement—okay, okay, so I’m not the only one who’s to blame for the egregiousness of that particular comic book (and, for the record, what I still perceive as particularly terrible are issues #2 and #3!). DC itself had rather cheapened out— no longer numbering the pages of its comics in hopes that the readers wouldn’t notice that the books which for so many years had possessed at least 23 or 24 pages of story were now down to a mere seventeen. Artist Mike Vosburg may have been (and in fact was) particularly adept at drawing comely women, yet his storytelling abilities in this series left a lot to be desired; he seemed in fact infused with an uncommon knack for making even the most exciting scene come off with all the color and flair of a PBS pledge

It’s hard to imagine in light of this so-called “bad girl” mania (is it not?) that women were once anathema as far as comics were concerned—that all but every pencil-wielder in the industry had but one stock woman he knew how to draw, that he’d use her (that one and only) whenever called upon to incorporate into a story someone of the feminine persuasion and nobody much noticed (let alone cared) because women were that far from important story-wise—that the conventional “wisdom” at DC, Marvel, and elsewhere was: “Female characters simply do not sell!!”

In other words, when (back in 1975, to be exact) the only work I seemed to be able to find within the comic book industry was fulfilling the scripting chores for DC’s Isis comic book (based of course upon that strangely unexciting half hour live-action Saturday morning Filmation television program on CBS), it was as though (at least as far as I was concerned) I were being punished for something (being a malcontent? arguing with editors? caring a bit too much how previous scripts of mine had been transmogrified into entities even I had a hard time recognizing as my own?) via being relegated to working upon a comic that obviously had no chance of ever selling! To say I was unhappy would be putting it mildly and then some! Truth be known: even today, I can (though for some reason I rarely wish to) look back at those four “Isis” tales I wrote for DC—plus the one I co-authored (the plot by me but the words by up-and-comer Jack C. Harris)—and abruptly find myself (thanks to my own steel-trap memory) sadly sinking fast beneath huge ungainly gobs of utter embarrassment.

Then again, though, shouldn’t it have been the producers of that TV show who were, deeper than any of us others, dipped in absolute complete industrial-strength embarrassment? Didn’t they know that the original Isis, that Egyptian goddess of yore, fell out of favor with the Pharaohs because too many orgies were being held in the temples devoted to her worship, thus just flat-out tiring out too many of that society’s workers? Is that any sort of a proper goddess upon which to base a Saturday morning TV show?

(Top left:) On the Filmation CBS-TV series, Isis was played in the 1970s by Joanna Cameron. (Right:) The Egyptian goddess/heroine seemed to be off to a good start when she flew from TV directly into comics, premiering in Shazam! #25 (Oct. 1976). Repro’d from the original Kurt Schaffenberger cover art, which was presented to AC Comics publisher Bill Black in exchange for a donation to the comics cartoonists’ Milt Gross Fund. [Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Isis TM & ©2003 the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

48

Monster Society of Evil

Low Society The MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL Struck Back–––and Struck Out–––in 1980-81

by Walt Grogan Edited By P.C. Hamerlinck As the bad-guy contingent in the first extended comic book serial, the Monster Society of Evil wasn’t even a formal group when it first appeared in its original Fawcett version from 1943 to 1945... although it contained the major and several minor Captain Marvel villains of the time. This assemblage, formed by the mysterious Mr. Mind– who was eventually revealed to be a mere worm, though one from another planet—plagued the World’s Mightiest Mortal between issues #22-46 of Captain Marvel Adventures. (The entire serial, crafted by writer Otto Binder and editor Wendell Crowley and illustrated by the C.C. Beck studio, was beautifully reprinted in a limited slipcasehardcover edition from England’s Hawk Books in 1989.)

(Above:) With Captain Marvel serving as prosecutor in the trial of Mr. Mind in Captain Marvel Adventures #46 (May 1945), the worm from another world was found guilty of murdering 186,744 people in cold blood, with script

by Otto Binder, art by the C.C. Beck shop. (Left:) In Shazam! #14 (Sept.-Oct. 1974), the O’Neil/Schaffenberger/Schwartz team pitted the revived Marvel Family against a new version of the Society. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Captain Marvel eventually captured Mr. Mind after 25 eventful chapters and, after a brief court trial, the wicked worm was executed—never to be heard from again.

In the Golden Age, that is.

For, when DC Comics licensed and revived the Marvel Family in 1973, with original “Captain Marvel” artist C.C. Beck as illustrator for a brief spell, it soon resurrected Mr. Mind. After that, it was only a matter of time till the nefarious alien worm re-formed his band of evildoers, and in Shazam! #14 (Sept.-Oct. 1974) he did just that! “The Evil Return of the Monster Society” was written by Denny O’Neil, with art by Kurt Schaffenberger. They were unable to capture the excitement of the original “Monster Society of Evil” adventure within the mere 20 pages they had to work with, and with a much-reduced roster of villains that had the Sivana Family and Ibac joining forces with Mr. Mind. This was the last appearance of the Monster Society drawn in the traditional style. To revive flagging interest in the revived Marvels, DC Comics took drastic action and updated both the art and stories of the World’s Mightiest Family.

The Shazam! series went through this radical change with issue #34 (April 1978). Artists Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein gave Cap, Mary, and Junior a muscular, more realistic look in a story that featured the Marvel Family battling the evil Captain Nazi in the skies over Chicago. With #35, Weiss and Rubinstein were replaced

by Don Newton and Kurt Schaffenberger, while E. Nelson Bridwell continued as writer. Newton would become the artist most associated with the “new look” Captain Marvel and was vilified by both fans and C.C. Beck himself for this updating. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Cap’s “new look” period will be dissected further in a future edition of FCA. —PCH.] The Shazam! series was cancelled after the 35th issue, and Captain Marvel immediately

Monster Society of Evil

49

Immortal, resume his true form.

Black Adam had been Shazam’s champion in ancient Egypt. Soon after gaining the powers granted by Shazam, Adam turned evil. Shazam banished Adam to the farthest star in the universe. Black Adam eventually made his way back to Earth after a 5000-year journey and landed in the United States in 1945. After a brief battle with the Marvel Family, he was tricked by Uncle Marvel into saying the wizard’s name and turned back into his mortal form of Teth-Adam. Captain Marvel’s tap to Teth-Adam’s chin caused Adam’s millennia-old body to crumble to dust, and it seemed as if Black Adam’s first appearance from the Fawcett-era in Marvel Family Comics #1 would be his last. DC revived Black Adam during a series of city-visiting stories in the 1970s. His return was Dr. Sivana’s doing. Sivana used a reincarnation machine of his own design to reincarnate the body of Teth-Adam. The newly-living Adam wasted no time into changing into his super-powered form by shouting the name of the ancient wizard Shazam! But Captain Marvel was successful in defeating Black Adam and placing him in jail.

In the 1980 World’s Finest serial, the warden of the prison that held most of the Monster Society members alerted Cap to their escape. Black Adam was immediately spotted in Cairo, Egypt, and Cap realized he would need help from a secret weapon. After landing near Cairo, Cap changed to Billy Batson to do some reconnoitering of the area and was soon confronted by Oggar, who made Billy mute so that he couldn’t turn back into Captain Marvel. Soon joined by Black Adam, Oggar created an army of soldiers from the sands of the Egyptian desert to conquer Cairo.

“The Monster Society of Evil Strikes Back!” The beginning of the fourpart serial, by Bridwell, Newton, and Hunt, in World’s Finest Comics #264 (Sept. 1980). [©2003 DC!Comics.]

Just as the army was to set off for Cairo, Cap’s secret weapon swooped down: Mary Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Girl. Since his powers had a built-in limitation of ineffectuality against the fair sex, Oggar called down a bolt of magic lightning to change Mary Marvel back into her mortal form. Mary’s quick thinking allowed her to place Billy into the path of the bolt. He was changed back into Captain Marvel, and he and Mary quickly mopped up the sand army and had all but defeated the villains when Oggar used his powers to return them all to the Monster Society headquarters. Realizing that the Monster Society had once again banded together, Cap knew he and his fellow Marvels were in for the fight of their lives.

moved over to a DC anthology title, the dollar-sized World’s Finest Comics, with issue #253.

With a new creative team in place, the Monster Society of Evil was soon re-formed in World’s Finest Comics #264-267 (Aug.-Sept 1980Feb-Mar 1981). The splash page of “The Monster Society of Evil Strikes Back!” by E. Nelson Bridwell, Don Newton, and inker Dave Hunt revealed the new line-up of Mr. Mind’s gaggle of felons: Dr. Sivana, Mr. Atom, Ibac, Black Adam, and Oggar (who had appeared in his own short-lived serial back in Captain Marvel Adventures). Mr. Mind’s objective had not changed between reorganizations; he still wished to “crush” Captain Marvel with help from the other villains.

Oggar and Black Adam, neither of whom was in the classic “Monster Society,” took center-stage in the first chapter.

“The Monster Society of Evil Strikes Back!”

Oggar had originally been a student of the great wizard Shazam.

When he was granted immortality, Oggar became part of the septet of elders that formed Shazam’s name, changing it to Shazamo. When Oggar turned evil, Shazam dropped the “o” from his name, banished Oggar from the group of elders, and gave Oggar cloven hooves and horns. The sorceress Circe imprisoned him in the body of a boar and tossed the boar over a cliff. And Oggar was nearly never seen again.

Unbeknownst to Captain Marvel, during a battle with that wicked worm, Mr. Mind, he unwittingly helped Oggar, the World’s Mightiest

Oggar, who’d had his own brief serial in the ’40s, was back in World’s Finest #264. [©2003 DC Comics.]