Alter Ego #133 Preview

Roy Thomas’ Mooney-struck Comics Fanzine

JIM MOONEY TALKS ABOUT YESTERDAY’S TOMORROWS!

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No.133 June 2015

Vol. 3, No. 133 / June 2015 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

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

Editorial Honor Roll

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Michael T. Gilbert

PLEASE READ THIS:

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

www.twomorrows.com

Cover Artists Jim Mooney

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to:

Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Terry Austin Bob Bailey William Biggins Christopher Boyko Robert Brown Bart Bush John Caputo Nick Caputo Shaun Clancy ComicBookPlus (website) ComicLink (website) Jon B. Cooke Chet Cox Ray Cuthbert Al Dellinges Michael Dunne Mark Ellis Jean-Michel Ferragatti Shane Foley Bob Fujitani Jeff Gelb Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database (website) Arnie Grieves R.C. Harvey Heritage Comics Archives (website) Richard Howell Alan Hutchinson Dr. M. Thomas Inge Marc Kardell

Jim Kealy David Kirkpatrick Lee Laska Stan Lee Jim Ludwig Bruce Mason Doug Martin Dr. Jeff McLaughlin Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Mark Muller Will Murray Marc Tyler Nobleman Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg Jake Oster Barry Pearl Robert Plunkett Ken Quattro Gene Reed Bob Rivard Bernice SachsSmoller Maggie Sansone Randy Sargent Vijah Shah Darci Sharver Anthony Snyder Dann Thomas Herb Trimpe Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Lynn Walker Rebecca Wentworth Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jim Mooney

Contents Writer/Editorial: Sunny Jim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “I Never Really Considered Comics An Art Form” . . . . . . . . . 3 Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist Jim Mooney interviewed by Dr. Jeff McLaughlin.

Seal Of Approval: History Of The Comics Code: Ch. 6 (cont’d) 49 From Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg’s groundbreaking study—the aging of the CCA.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! “Wertham Attacks!” . . . . . . . . . 55 Michael T. Gilbert takes a look at Wertham and the Code, pro & con, as seen in the 1950s.

Comic Fandom Archive: The RBCC Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Beginning Bill Schelly’s multi-part study of the foremost comics adzine of the 1960s.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 68 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #192 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Fawcett/Captain Marvel’s Otto Binder & “The Fawcett Invasion of France” - Part II!

On Our Cover: While Jim (“Madman”) Mooney contributed memorably to Marvel Comics in the late 1960s & 1970s, he’ll probably forever be even more identified with the DC heroes he drew from the 1940s through the ’60s. Our crazyquilt cover is composed of commission drawings he did for Robert Plunkett (Supergirl and her animal buddies) and interviewer Dr. Jeff McLaughlin (Batman & Robin) and Eddy Zeno (The Legion of Super-Heroes), plus a penciled Tommy Tomorrow figure from a proposed revival in the mid-1980s, supplied by Mark Ellis. Jim was drawing, and drawing well, right up until he left us. Photo courtesy of Eddy Zeno. [All hero art TM & © DC Comics.]

Above: One of the few times Jim Mooney drew Daredevil was when the Man without Fear sneaked past Spider-Man’s spider sense to clobber him (we forget just why—but hey, this was Marvel!) in Marvel Team-Up #25 (Sept. 1974). Script by Len Wein; inks by Frank Giacoia. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices.

Eight-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $85 Canada, $104 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 China. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

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“I Never Really Considered Comics An Art Form” Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist JIM MOONEY Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Dr. Jeff McLaughlin

“I Don’t Like Spiders And Bats…”

But Jim Mooney, who’s flanked here by his art for two of the creepy costumed superheroes with whom he’s most identified, had no reason to warble those (slightly reworded) song lyrics. The splash page at left is from Batman #48 (Aug.-Sept. 1948), wherein he penciled all three stories (Charles Paris inked this one; scripter unidentified)—while the Spider-Man color illo was done circa 2006 for interviewer Dr. Jeff McLaughlin, and was inscribed by both Jim and Stan Lee. Photo courtesy of Mark Ellis. [Batman page TM & © DC Comics; Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Jim was a total pleasure to work with—a real pro. He was totally dependable as far as deadlines were concerned, and although he had a great sense of humor and loved to kid around, he took his work seriously and never gave any assignment anything but his best effort. If the world consisted of people like Jim Mooney, it would be a much happier place. —Stan Lee.

When I began working for Marvel, I lumped Jim in with the rest of the giants in the bullpen who worked for them. It was a friendly but intimidating environment in the bullpen in those days surrounded by all that talent, and Jim being strictly a freelancer, his visits were not frequent. I was impressed with his style and can easily picture his work in my mind. —Herb Trimpe.

Working with Jim was always memorable and always a joy. He never disappointed… he always gave more than I envisioned with a script. Jim Mooney was one of the two finest men I’ve ever met in my life. He more than justified his existence. I hope I can say the same about myself. —Mark Ellis.

I remember how delighted Stan Lee was when Jim came over to help us out with Spider-Man. Besides which, Jim seemed about as amiable an artist as ever I met. But I’ll confess, my main thought about Jim is that I consider him my “good luck piece,” so to speak. In 1965 I was [at DC Comics] proofreading a “Supergirl” story he had drawn when I received the surreptitious phone call from secretary Flo Steinberg that Stan Lee would like to see me. Right after that lunchtime I came back to DC’s office and handed in my resignation. Jim’s “Supergirl” was the last page of art I saw as a DC employee for 15 years. And it was always a pleasure to look at.

—Roy Thomas.

I was a fan of Jim’s since the “Supergirl” stories of the 1960s, and it was both an honor and a pleasure to work with him. We struck up a friendship which lasted for almost 25 years. Jim Mooney was many things: a superb comic book artist; a fine storyteller; an accomplished painter; a connoisseur of antiques, theatre, movies, and music; and a true gentleman. I expect that I’m not the only editor, or penciler, or collaborator who has a batter of “Jim Mooney saved my bacon” stories, but it’s worth reiterating that Jim’s output was not only miraculous in its turnaround, but it was expert, individualistic, and stylish—just like Jim himself. —Richard Howell.

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Jim Mooney passed away March 30, 2008, as I was editing the following interview, which we had conducted over the phone during the previous month, while I was in Austria and he was in his home in Florida. I had met Jim at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2006 and had wound up spending most of my time just sitting with him and other legendary writers and artists as they told me story after story. It was one of the most enjoyable weekends I have ever had. And, as I write this introduction, it is one of the saddest moments, as I miss Jim a great deal even though I only knew him for a couple of years. We chatted at least once a month, sometimes once a week.

His grace, his humor, his honesty, and his decency, not to mention his sincere interest in others, made him a dear friend. Little did I imagine, as a kid reading comics, that I would have the honor of becoming a friend of the artist who drew so many of my favorites. Jim had been married twice and had three children: Bruce (deceased), Jimmy, and Noel. He also had seven cats (none of whom was named Streaky). In our conversations, I never asked him how he got the moniker “Gentleman Jim,” because I immediately knew the answer the first time I met him…. It is a cliché, yes, but I am truly a richer man for knowing him. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. It took place in February 2008. A few of my remarks have been interpolated in italics. —Dr. Jeff McLaughlin.

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“The First Job I Got [In] New York Was A Strip Called ‘The Moth’”

Jim Mooney’s long comic book career spanned every age. It began when he did his first seven pages of pencils and inks back in early 1940 for publisher Victor Fox with Mystery Men Comics #9, introducing a character called The Moth. Fox was threatened with a lawsuit by DC Comics over that story, yet Jim would eventually be hired by DC because of it. But that is getting ahead of our story….

When a young Jim Mooney was riding his horse on one of his family’s three estates, it is unlikely that he was thinking about how so many people around the world would become familiar with his comic book art. Born into privilege on August 13th, 1919, in Mount Vernon, New York, James Noel Mooney would find that this wealthy lifestyle was not to last.

Although his father had made millions in real estate and when they traveled they stayed at the finest hotels in the world, James Mooney, Sr., would over-extend himself by investing in Arabian horses at a time when the world was about to enter the Great Depression.

Going from having servants to having almost nothing must have been a great challenge for the family. However, Jim’s mother Irene had her feet firmly planted on the ground. Even though she had not finished grammar school, she had done a little investing of her own and was able to buy a house to make the family moderately comfortable. While Jim’s father continued to struggle, his uncle Ed, who owned the Hartford Dispatch and Warehouse Company, was responsible for getting Jim into a Los Angeles art school. Jim did not want to finish high school because he didn’t want to “hang around for a lousy diploma” in something he wasn’t keen on and so jumped at his uncle’s offer.

Jim loved art school. He especially loved the sketching class, because the models were nude. When he brought his work home to show his parents, they probably wondered what they had allowed their son to get into, but he took a real liking to painting (especially watercolor) and to stained glass. It wasn’t long before his vast artistic talents would be shown off….

JIM MOONEY: [Science-fiction and comic writer] Henry Kuttner was instrumental in getting me my first job while I was still going to art school. He got me my first assignment in the national magazine Weird Tales. He talked to [editor] Farnsworth Wright and he said, “I’ve got a young man here and he’s very good—would you go along if I had him illustrate some of my stories?” So I illus-

Race Into Space Young Mooney’s cover for a mimeographed science-fiction fanzine dated Dec. 1939—featuring a spaceship from that future year 1940. The “Ackerman” listed as co-editor was Forrest J. Ackerman, founding editor in 1958 of the influential Warren magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. [© the respective copyright holders.]

trated some of Henry’s stories which appeared in Weird Tales at a time when I was still going to art school. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: A photo of young Kuttner was seen in A/E #107.]

There seemed to be a touch of glamor in the Mooney family, no matter what their financial situation. Jim’s older sister (by eight years) Julie was a very beautiful New York stage actress and had signed a contract with MGM. Subsequently, the family would relocate with her to Hollywood, California. Although Julie tried to get Jim involved in the movie business, where she found herself in small roles (including much later on in the film adaptation of Abraham Merritt’s Burn Witch Burn!), he discovered quickly that they didn’t need any more Dead-End Kids. So Jim began working at Earl Carroll’s Vanities.

Earl Carroll was famous (or infamous) for having the most beautiful and the most scantily dressed women on stage. Jim’s vocal talents led him straight from a brief appearance on stage to becoming a checkroom attendant. I asked him if he ever got to meet Earl Carroll....

MOONEY: Oh yeah, a couple of times. I showed him some of my stuff. He was interested. I was doing a little bit of sculpture and drawing at the time, and he was really quite nice. He was a very aloof person, but he was very encouraging, and, of course, his sweetheart was Beryl Wallace. They died together in a plane crash years later.

“I Never Really Considered Comics An Art Form”

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of course, was Hal Foster, who did Prince Valiant. Hal Foster was magnificent. He’s probably the best draftsman in comics. I wasn’t so much into Prince Valiant for the story as I was for the drawing.

Jim recalls seeing “Batman” on the newsstands, so he hitchhiked across the country back to New York, because that’s where the comic books were coming from and he thought they might provide him with an employment opportunity.

All Is Vanities Showman Earl Carroll, plus a poster for the 1945 movie version of his Broadway revue Earl Carroll Vanities.

Carroll’s show was the main competitors of the even more famous Ziegfield Follies.

JM: I’ve read that in his auditions the women had to be in the nude.

MOONEY: Oh yeah, yeah. He went to bed with every girl he could find. You know, it’s funny—I remember one of the parties we went to, when my first wife Carol was working in the checkroom [circa 1939].... Actually, Earl Carroll was very personable, very tall, slender, and spoke well and was a person who projected himself as being what he was—which was a very confident gentleman.

JM: Did you bring Carol with you?

MOONEY: Oh no…no…no. I took off by myself ’cause I could. She wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have expected her to do that. I sent for her six or eight months later, once I finally gained a little bit of employment. It wasn’t easy. The first job I got when I went to New York was for a strip called “The Moth.”

JM: Mystery Men Comics #9, April 1940.

MOONEY: And then they were sued by DC for that because they claimed I was copying “Batman and Robin.”

JM: Yeah, which apparently you were.

JM: And how beautiful were the girls?

MOONEY: Oh, none of them was working there if they weren’t beautiful and didn’t have a good figure. The showgirls were a certain height, the chorus girls were a certain height, and they were all pretty girls, every darn one of ’em. You know, I used to love to get an assignment where I had to go backstage and bring a message.

I remember one time when Errol Flynn came up. He went into the ladies’ room and he was raising hell and they finally had to toss him out. I didn’t have the physical stature to stand up to Errol Flynn nor did I have any inclination….

Clark Gable was there. I met Clark Gable at the studio through my sister one time. He said “Hi” and shook my hand. I thought “Wow, this is real celebrity!” He was personable. I don’t know how he was otherwise, but he was nice enough to take and treat a kid brother who didn’t amount to a row of beans as if, you know, you had some reason for being.

JM: So you were working at Earl Carroll’s while you were at art school.

And then you quit there, right?

MOONEY: I quit there because my first wife Carol and I were having a fling. We were close but we were warned: Don’t see each other. Don’t make it apparent that we were together. And this was from Earl Carroll himself. And we, like a couple of damn fool kids, just said, “Well, we’re gonna do what we want!” And you know, he did what he wanted and he said we were fired. [laughs] So we lived on our unemployment insurance for a while.

Comic books were becoming popular, so Jim thought perhaps this might be an opportunity for his artistic side. Like every other kid, he read some of the newspaper comic strips, and Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon was one of his favorites.

MOONEY: Alex Raymond was really a very good draftsman. He really knew how to draw. I thought it was pretty professional.

Although Milton Caniff was a very much-loved artist, Caniff did not draw as well or as accurately as Alex Raymond. Another one,

Magno Mistake About It! For Ace Periodicals, Mooney drew the adventures of “Magno the Magnetic Man” and his teenage sidekick Davey. Seen above is the splash page for Super-Mystery Comics, Vol. 2, #4 (Oct. 1941). The German-accented prisoners are seen in a Canadian POW camp because, in mid-’41 when this story was published, Canada, like the rest of the British Empire, was at war with Nazi Germany—but the United States was not, at least not officially.

Writer unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

Like A “Moth” To A Flame (Top row:) Maybe it’s just because DC was already angry at Fox Comics for copying “Superman” with “Wonder Man” in Wonder Comics #1 (May 1939), over which they successfully sued to prevent the publication of a second “Wonder Man” adventure— but somehow, the Mooney-drawn series “The Moth” that debuted in Fox’s Mystery Men Comics #9 (April 1940) doesn’t seem to us to closely resemble the elder company’s “Batman,” as DC claimed when threatening a second lawsuit. A different artist drew “The Moth” in #10; then, on Mooney’s splash page for #11 (June ’40), note how the writer cleverly worked in a reference to a “bat.” Still, with his power of flight and his creature-of-the-night costume, The Moth seems to us halfway between Superman and Batman.

The bylines “Godfrey Clarke” and “Norton [later ‘Norman’] Kingsley” seem more like authorial house names than Mooney pseudonyms; the writers are unknown, in any event. Thanks to Jim Kealy.

(Right:) Oddly, though, with Mystery Men #13 (Aug. 1940), “The Moth” was dropped and Mooney instead drew the first episode of a new strip, “The Lynx with Blackie the Mystery Boy,” which definitely brought to mind “Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder.” This time, DC did sue Fox again—even though these new Fox heroes, too, could fly! (Incidentally, the spacing in some of the balloons and captions suggests that The Lynx’s name was originally something with more than seven letters total.) After the debut story, others took over “The Lynx” art chores. Scripter again unknown. Thanks to Chet Cox, Gene Reed, Darci Sharver, & the ComicBookPlus website for the scan. For more on “Wonder Man,” “The Moth,” “The Lynx,” and the DC/Fox lawsuits, see Ken Quattro’s well-documented coverage in Alter Ego #101. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“I Never Really Considered Comics An Art Form”

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“DC Was… Looking For Somebody To Do ‘Batman’”

JM: And it happened with “Batman,” right?

MOONEY: Well, the reason I went to DC [circa 1945] was that I understood they were looking for somebody to do “Batman.” When they asked why I thought I could do it, I mentioned the “Moth” lawsuit [where they argued that I had copied the character Batman]. I guess it amused [editor] Whitney Ellsworth.

And he said, “Okay, here’s the script.

Take it home and let’s see what you can do with it.” You know that story by heart now.

JM: [laughs] One of the things I find interesting is that you had heard

From Moth Balls To Bat Boy (Above:) We don’t know precisely which was the first “Batman” story Mooney was assigned to draw by DC über-editor Whitney Ellsworth—but here are his cover and splash page from what may be his first effort for Detective Comics—#132 (Feb. 1948), with inks by Charles Paris. Scripter unknown. The cover is reproduced from the online Grand Comics Database, the splash from DC’s hardcover Batman Archives, Vol. 6. [TM & © DC Comics.]

somehow that they wanted someone to do “Batman,” and yet on the other hand apparently it was “all Bob Kane.” How did that situation gel?

Kane was supposed to be drawing it, but there were a number of people actually doing it.

MOONEY: Well, I met Bob [just the one time] and I disliked him intensely.

Whitney Ellsworth Editorial director of DC Comics, 1939-53— after which he relocated to Hollywood to oversee the Adventures of Superman TV series.

JM: Did he know who you were in terms of drawing “Batman”?

MOONEY: Oh, yeah. He just [acted] very much superior. I mean, it was like you were barely noticeable as far as his scrutiny was concerned. The only reason I went to meet him is because I wanted to talk to Bill Finger at the time.

“There’s Always A Joker In The Pack…”

Jim did this color print depicting Batman and various heads of The Joker circa 2006—based on the cover of Batman #44 (Dec. 1947-Jan. 1948), which is depicted on p. 46. Thanks to Mark Ellis.

[Batman & Joker TM & © DC Comics.]

Bill Finger I liked very much. He was a prince. Unfortunately, Bill was an alcoholic and died bankrupt. He got credit for some of the stuff. But I think that Bill was Bill, in spite of being one the better writers in the business. But he was his own worst enemy. He was a far-gone alcoholic.

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

JM: And at this time there were artists like Dick Sprang around and Jerry Robinson.

MOONEY: I never met Jerry Robinson, though I liked his stuff. I met Sprang. But we were not close or anything like that. Sprang I felt was a very, very accomplished artist.

You know, it’s funny. Of all the artists—I don’t know why I mention this, I happened to be looking at something… a tribute to Jack Kirby.

Of all the guys, Kirby, I guess, was probably the sort of cornerstone of the comic industry as far as the ultimate comic book artist. We never got along. He was the hardest guy to talk to. Aloof. Not physically aggressive or anything like that, but he had a tendency to totally overlook you as if you didn’t exist. He was really immersed with “Jack Kirby” and rightfully so. He was, I would say, probably of all the comic book artists, close to being tip-top.

JM: Who else would you put up there in terms of tip-top?

Jim Mooney—No Mere Carbon Copy (Above:) The legendary Dick Sprang drew the cover of Batman #38 (Dec. 1946-Jan. 1947)—but Mooney drew all three of the stories inside.

Jim particularly remembered “The Carbon Copy Crimes,” written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger and inked by Charles Paris. Thanks to the GCD for the cover, and to Doug Martin for the splash. [TM & © DC Comics.]

MOONEY: There were so many that were so good. But he just seemed to epitomize the comic book style—that strong, simple style. Kirby had another thing, too. That guy was so damn fast that it was amazing. I’d be lucky if I could do a page of pencils and inks a day, and that guy would do three.

JM: You did Batman #38 from 1946.

MOONEY: I remember that one story, “Carbon Copy Crimes.”

JM: Did you emulate anyone while drawing “Batman”?

MOONEY: Well, I was supposed to emulate Bob Kane—you know, make it look like Bob Kane. But of course everybody was told that. It was like, did Dick Sprang stuff look like Bob Kane? God, no. Did Jerry Robinson’s stuff look like Bob Kane’s? God forbid! Jerry Robinson was one hell of a draftsman.

When The Red, Red Robin…

Bill Finger

Our interviewee had less than stellar memories of the “Robin the Boy Wonder” series he drew for years for Star Spangled Comics. This splash page is from issue #76 (Jan. 1948). Well, at least the story was written by Jim’s favorite, Bill Finger! And to judge from the only byline, that Bob Kane sure got around! Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Co-creator of Batman, circa 1945.

Thanks to Marc Tyler Nobleman.

JM: I know some readers can look at the Batman insignia and they can tell who the artist is. Did you have any little touches that you put in to say, “This one’s mine. This is my Batman and not Dick Sprang’s”?

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

JM: Did you have any sense of loyalty to any of the characters that you were drawing?

MOONEY: I was not that involved with them.

As I say, I liked “Tommy Tomorrow.” I liked “Supergirl”… although “Supergirl” was a bore, a tremendous bore. It was the same thing over and over again. A few of the things I enjoyed doing, but it wasn’t something that, if I had my choice and had had the money, I would have ever gotten into it. I know that.

JM: Did you look at any other comics or any of the other artists’ work, while you were working away?

Steve Gerber in a photo that appeared in Marvel’s FOOM Magazine #19 (Fall 1977).

MOONEY: Oh yeah, yeah. As I said, Ruben Moreira was excellent.

Jerry Robinson was very, very good, and there were quite a few others through the years. I can’t come up with names right now, but the guy that has the school… Joe Kubert… Kubert was good, awfully good.

JM: Did you have any tricks or tips when you were drawing?

MOONEY: I don’t know. I mean, I guess my feeling was, if you needed a model, get a model. If I needed a model, my wife might pose for me for a hand or pose in one way or another. And occasionally some of my friends, if I needed something in particular, would pose. But most of the time it came from my imagination. I didn’t need a model. Very seldom did I have anyone model for me unless I needed a particular pose, which was really unusual.

JM: Did you incorporate any of these people into your characters?

MOONEY: Wildfire was based on my first wife Carol. The figure, anyway. Carol was not terribly tall, but she had one hell of a voluptuous figure.

“Steve Gerber Was An Excellent [Writer]”

JM: Was there any writer in particular that you really enjoyed?

MOONEY: I can’t say that there were any writers that I was particularly fond of besides Bill Finger. A good script was a good script, and I really never singled [one] out and said, “Hey, who did this?”

JM: Steve Gerber?

MOONEY: Oh, I see what you’re getting at. That was a different period. I always thought Steve Gerber was an excellent one. I enjoyed those Omega [the Unknown] strips.

They were one of the minor strips, but I found they were probably as interesting as anything I ever did. Certainly more interesting than “Supergirl.”

Certainly more interesting than “Batman” or

Alpha-Steve And Omega Steve Gerber conceived and co-wrote the Marvel series Omega the Unknown, with Jim Mooney as co-creator and original artist. Seen here is their splash page for issue #1 (March 1976). For more on both Steve and Omega, see our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue #31 of a few years back! [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“Legion of Super-Heroes.” I really just enjoyed them immensely.

JM: Why?

MOONEY: Well, I guess it was [that] I had a certain degree of freedom. Nobody said to me: “Hey, somebody else has drawn ‘Batman,’ maybe draw a little bit more like this.” I realize that Supergirl was my own [after her first appearance by Al Plastino]. I don’t know, I just had a certain degree of freedom [with Omega] and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the stories tremendously. Steve was a really excellent writer. But, strangely enough, the few times I tried to make contact with him, it was almost impossible to touch base.

You don’t want to fluster somebody by saying, “God, I love your work, it’s wonderful!” But I’d always express my admiration for something, or how well I thought he had done it, but never, never got much response [from Gerber].

JM: Did you ever put any little hidden things in artwork? You know, little nods or little cute inside jokes or…?

MOONEY: No, the only thing I did was, occasionally I’d incorporate a picture of myself.

Another Tangled Web A hard-working college teacher grading papers—while Spidey attempts to purloin his own handiwork— gave Jim a chance to draw himself into The Spectacular Spider-Man #41 (April 1980). Script by Tom DeFalco. Thanks to Mark Muller & Bart Bush. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

MOONEY: Well, I tried not to be repetitive. Unless the same character was called for, I tried not to repeat it.

JM: How did you remember all that?

MOONEY: I probably kept reference on it.

JM: I mentioned “Supergirl” a little while ago. One of the things I noted in reading “Supergirl” was that, in the last panel, she often would look at the reader and wink or smile as if you two were in on the same secret.

MOONEY: Yeah, I remember using that. You know, as an inclusive thing with the reader, like we’re in cahoots.

JM: Exactly. I didn’t notice that in other books too much. The story ends and that’s it. There’s no sort of “ah-hah” where the character and the reader have a secret to share.

MOONEY: Yeah, it was sort of an addendum that I thought worked, I don’t know.

JM: And of course there were times when she would take off her wig and everyone would go, “Wow, it’s Supergirl!”

MOONEY: That was funny, that was such a staid and really, I would say, very, very acceptable strip morally. As the years go by, the [number of] fans that have wanted [me to draw them a picture of a] nude Supergirl are almost too numerous to mention. I have one—in fact, the last one I did—in color. She’s just coming up from the depths in the nude and there’s a sea serpent there who’s grabbed her uniform—have you seen that one?

JM: No, I haven’t seen that one. I saw one where…

MOONEY: I’ve sold a lot of that one in black-&-white. I have the original color painting. It’s one of those things you can’t put up on the Internet yet… you have to, you know, mask it a little bit.

JM: I saw one where Krypto is flying away with her costume.

MOONEY: Oh, yeah. I really milked that to death—the Supergirl nudes after a while. I finally got a little tired of it. They were easy to do… I could probably knock them out in half a day. It paid for a few bills now and then. But, like anything else, it got a little boring, monotonous, tiring…

JM: But I understand you drew her in the nude to begin with.

MOONEY: Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t. But usually I’d make a very rough nude and then I’d put her costume on.

JM: Okay. Ms. Marvel. You did her for a while…

MOONEY: Yeah, I enjoyed that very much; that was one of my favorites. Joe Sinnott did the inking on it.

JM: Joe was kind enough to send me a comment, let me read it to you:

“My good friend Jim Mooney was one of my favorite pencilers to work with. His work was clean, complete, and highly professional. I can recall a number of books that Jim and I collaborated on, particularly the Ms. Marvel pages. We did issues #4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 13, plus the cover to #8. Ms. Marvel was a really great character to work on and a lot of fun!”

Call Me Ms.!

(Top center:) In the online Grand Comics Database, this cover is listed as having been penciled (maybe!) by Keith Pollard—but Joe Sinnott told Jeff McLaughlin that Ms. Marvel #8 (Aug. 1977) was the one cover of that series that Mooney penciled and he (Joe) inked. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above:) Jim later did a commission drawing of two fightin’ females he drew for four-color competitors: Supergirl and Ms. Marvel. Thanks to Mark Ellis. (Oddly, in their civilian identities, the ladies share the last name “Danvers”—so perhaps that surname was lodged in Roy Thomas’ subconscious somewhere along the line, since he’s the one who christened Carol Danvers, when he and artist Gene Colan created her for the “Captain Marvel” series in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (March 1968)—never dreaming that one day she would become Captain Marvel!) [Supergirl TM & © DC Comics; Ms. Marvel TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MOONEY: Evidently Joe liked doing it. I liked his stuff. Joe was one of those inkers… there was no way of approaching his style and doing it better. I always considered myself a pretty good inker and I think I was; but, ah, Joe was just absolutely superlative. I guess that is why he is still doing the Sunday Spider-Man.

“[The Artwork Was] Just Taken Down To The Cellar And Trashed”

JM: Well, then let me ask a really stupid question, unlike the other ones I’ve been asking… [laughs] What makes a good inker?

MOONEY: What makes a good actor? It’s just something that is

26

Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Artist Jim Mooney Talks About A Long & Landmark-Laden Career

concentrate on the inking and listen to a story, too, but I couldn’t when I was penciling. Because the penciling actually had to be creative—not that the inking wasn’t creative, but it was a mechanical type of thing. I could be listening to something and still know where I wanted the brushstroke or the pen stroke. The penciling, I actually had to think about, how am I going to do this figure so it looks like its flying through space?

JM: Did you always start at the upper left hand side of the page?

MOONEY: I would immediately lay it out panel-wise, and usually I’d just start first panel, second panel, lay it out roughly, and then finish it up more completely with pencil.

JM: Did you use a blue pencil?

MOONEY: Sometimes they objected to that, because sometimes the blue would reproduce. You had to make sure that you had a non-reproducible blue pencil. Sometimes I’d make a very, very light outline with it. But most of the time it was just with graphite.

“How Did I Feel About Being ‘Limited Service’?”

JM: Jim, we were talking earlier about the war and about how the female artists were coming in. As a more of a personal question, what were the war years like for you? Growing up, living in America at the time?

MOONEY: You mean how did I feel about being “limited service”?

JM: Yeah.

MOONEY: Well, obviously I was a young able-bodied guy. I certainly looked like I was perfectly capable of shouldering a rifle and putting a helmet on. I got into one or two situations in a bar that I handled okay, but it was a little bit difficult.

Man-Thing Blues This version of a “Man-Thing” page shows Jim working in blue pencil—this time in far more detail than the “very, very light outline” he speaks of in the text. Thanks to Mark Ellis. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MOONEY: I did, indeed. In fact, my wife at one time was working at a local bookstore. So some of my pages were up on the wall, and most of those the owner of the store took with her when she closed up. So there were quite a few originals I lost that way.

I was looking through this Supergirl reprint today, and my Legion of Super-Heroes as well, which was my all-time favorite.

“Dial H [for Hero]” was a lot of fun, Superboy I really enjoyed, but there’s something about those “Legion” stories that was a little bit more sci-fi. I didn’t enjoy drawing it, because there were so many characters. But I remember that, when I had that assignment, I was busy, busy, busy. In fact, that was when Annie and I had moved up back to Woodstock for a while. And we were snowed in a lot, so I had enough time to lavish on some of the “Legion of SuperHeroes,” though I didn’t really enjoy it that much.

JM: When you were working, what was your set-up like? Did you have the radio on or no music?

MOONEY: When I was penciling, I had no distractions, no music or anything like that. But when I was inking, I would play the radio or I had books on tape that I used to play sometimes. I could

I think the most difficult thing of all was when I went down to visit Stan Lee in Duke [while he was in the Signal Corps]. My wife and my first son were with me, and we’re on a train and suddenly all the rest of the train fills up with troops. I’m the only civilian there with a wife; a rather good-looking and attractive wife. And a son. But the guys were great. They could’ve been real nasty. No way at all. But it was embarrassing, it was very difficult. Occasionally I would feel very conspicuous.

I mentioned that Ruben Moreira was in the same boat; George Tuska, a few of us went through that. Occasionally when we would go nightclubbing or something, you’d just have to avoid getting into any sort of a confrontation if possible. It usually worked out pretty well, but it was uncomfortable. Many of my friends were overseas, some were killed. One was in the socalled Invasion of Normandy; his landing craft was blown up and he was in the hospital. But then, you know, I had a lot of other friends that were active and I was conscious of it, let’s put it that way. Nick Cardy was there, of course. I think he drove a tank for a while.

JM: Some artists were embarrassed by what they did, and others were okay with it. Previously you told me that it really depended upon who you were talking with.

MOONEY: Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I remember one situation when I was up in Woodstock. This guy

Theodore Dreiser, (1871-1945), author of the acclaimed novels Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, was a neighbor of young Jim Mooney’s—but the feelings between them weren’t very neighborly.

49

Dr. Amy K. Nyberg

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of The 1998 Study

By AMY KISTE NYBERG

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Despite our previous two issues’ last-minute forced omission of a chapter, we near the conclusion of our reprinting of Dr. Nyberg’s groundbreaking history of comic book censorship—a work we’ve felt honored to be able to re-present, with a wealth of added illustrations, for Alter Ego’s audience. As we’ve said before, Seal of Approval is “footnoted” in the MLA style which lists book, article, or author name, plus page numbers, between parentheses in the main text: e.g., “(Hart 154-156)” refers to pp. 154-156 of whichever work by an author or editor named Hart appears in the bibliography (which will be printed at the conclusion of our serialization, a few issues from now). When the parentheses contain only page numbers, it’s because the other pertinent information is printed in the text almost immediately preceding the note.

A/E

We’ve again retained such usages and spellings from Nyberg’s book as

“superhero,” an uncapitalized “comics code,” “E.C.” and “DC,” etc. In the captions we ourselves have added, however, we have reverted to A/E house style and preference. These captions, of course, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Dr. Nyberg or of the University Press of Mississippi, the original publisher of the book—the original edition of which can still be obtained from UPM at www.upress.sate.ms.us. Our thanks once again to Dr. M. Thomas Inge, under whose general editorship the volume was originally published in 1998 as part of its Studies in Popular Culture series, and who was of great help to A/E in arranging for its reprinting here… to William Biggins and Vijah Shah, acquisitions editors past and present at the U. Press of Mississippi… and to Brian K. Morris for retyping the text on a Word document for Ye Editor to, what else, edit.

The first part of Chapter 6, seen in A/E #130, dealt with the first few years of operations under the Comics Code, which was adopted on October 26, 1954….

[Main text continued on p. 52]

Do, Do, That Vooda…

The evolution (or maybe devolution) of an Ajax/Farrell title (left to right): Voodoo #18 (Nov.-Dec. 1954), that mag’s final issue as a horror comic… #19 (Jan-Feb. 1955), as, with censorship becoming an inevitability, a switch was made to reprints from Seven Seas Comics, etc.… and Vooda #20 (April 1955), which featured “South Sea Girl” stories from Seven Seas, altered to star the new heroine and to give Ajax/Farrell a shot at avoiding having to pay the Post Office to register a new title for second-class mailing privileges. Wonder if it worked? Artists unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Seal of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

51

“Judge Murphy,” of course, is Judge Charles F. Murphy, who served as the first administrator of the Code, from 1955-56. Frank M. notes that the DC covers depicted on the first page are those of Our Army at War #33, A Date with Judy #46, Strange Adventures #55, Real Screen Comics #85, and Adventures of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis #20, all of which would be cover-dated April 1955—though there were, he reports, slight changes made to those covers before they went on sale. At any rate, the giveaway must’ve been prepared really early in ’55, if not at the end of ’54! [TM & © DC Comics.]

52

Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of Amy K. Nyberg’s 1998 Study

Chapter 6 (Continued)—Evolution Of The Comics Code

B

y the CMAA’s fifth year of operation, there were signs the industry was recovering. [President John] Goldwater reported to CMAA members that circulation of comics was approximately six hundred million annually, and while it was true that a number of companies had not survived, the overall circulation of the comic book industry had increased by almost 150 million annually. He urged members to experiment with new types of material and new approaches to material while maintaining high standards (CMAA Files [Address of the President, 14 Apr. 1959]). While funny animal, teen, and romance comics performed adequately on the newsstands, the publishers were in search of a genre that would appeal to the baby-boom youngsters who were now teenagers. Their “experiment” would be to resurrect the genre that started the industry, that of the superhero. National Comics [DC] led the way with the reintroduction of a 1940s character, the Flash. He made his debut in Showcase #4, cover-dated October 1956. His success was to launch a revival of the genre, and comic book historians use the reappearance of the Flash in 1956 as a marker to indicate the start of the Silver Age of comic books (Benton, Comic Book 177). Archie Comics hired Jack Kirby and Joe Simon to revive their 1940s superhero, the Shield, but the revival lasted only two issues. Next, they tried an original character, the Fly, who had insect-like powers (Benton, Comic Book 59).

As DC revived more of its 1940s heroes, it decided to put them all together in the Justice League of America with an issue coverdated October 1960. It was tremendously popular. Martin Goodman at Marvel, seeking to capitalize on the superhero team concept that had been successful at DC, gave writer Stan Lee the go-ahead to develop a team for Marvel. Lee’s answer was The Fantastic Four (November 1961). The team consisted of a scientist who could stretch, a teenager who burst into flame, an invisible girl, and a monstrously ugly strongman. The team also represented a departure from the traditional superhero formula; instead of

being perfect and god-like, these four behaved “more like human beings who happened to be superheroes than heroes who happened to be human” (Benton, Comic Book 63).

This new approach to superheroes would eventually pay off for Marvel. By 1965, every other comic book publisher was rushing to introduce its version of new-and-improved superhero characters.

And the success of the campy Batman television series in 1966 created a new superhero craze. Sales of all comic books rose as a result, and the Batman comic book reached an all-time high of 900,000 copies, the best performance by a comic since the pre-code days. It was the revitalization of the superhero comic that lent impetus to making revisions in the comics code. The new breed of superheroes, with their human problems, were creatures of the 1960s, a decade very different from that of the Golden Age superheroes of the 1940s. The social upheaval of the 1960s, with its liberalization of attitudes toward sex and the rise of a drug culture, led publishers to push for a code that adhered to more contemporary standards.

But the first comic books to escape the constraints of the comics code came from outside the industry in the form of underground comics. These comics were the product of the counterculture that flourished in America in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At first, underground comic books were available only by mail order or directly from the artist, but eventually a network of retail outlets, including alternative record stores and bookstores, along with socalled head shops, was created for distribution. Historian Mark Estren identifies the first underground comic book as God Nose, produced by Jack Jackson under the name Jaxon, which appeared in 1963. It was not until 1967 that underground comics began to emerge as a unique medium. A whole new alternative comics culture was established, with its peak years coming between 1968 and 1974 (Estren 45, 50; Sabin 41).

Two Faces Are Better Than One In A/E #105’s “Tales from the Code” coverage, we displayed the panels in “The New Crimes of Two-Face!” from Batman #68 (Dec. ’51-Jan. ’52) in which the acid-hurling that led actor Paul Sloane to become the second Two-Face was softened for reprinting in Batman Annual #3 (Summer 1962). Here, from left to right, are pre- and post-Code versions of the aftermath of that criminal assault—which the Code had forced DC to alter into merely a freakish accident. Script

by Bill Finger; pencils by Lew Sayre Schwartz (with Batman and Robin figures by Bob Kane); inks by Charles Paris. Thanks to Gene Reed. [TM & © DC Comics.]

55

OK, we admit it!. Michael T. shamelessly swiped Norm Saunders’ Crime Clinic #5 cover (Summer 1952), from Ziff-Davis. See it bigger in A/E #128. [Š the respective copyright holders.]

56

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Revenge Of The Comic Guys!

C

by Michael T. Gilbert

omic book creators must have felt like Custer at Little Big Horn as Dr. Wertham and other comic critics savaged them in the media. Some fought back the only way they knew— with humor.

For a while it was open season on Wertham and his fellow critics. Al Capp got his licks in, as did Marvel head honcho Stan Lee. And then there was Myron Fass.

Myron Fass’s short-lived Mad knock-off, Lunatickle, took broad swipes at both the good doctor and his arch-foe, EC Comics.

Issue #2’s “The Horrible Comic Story behind the Horror Story Comic Books,” featured unflattering parodies of Fass’ competitor Bill Gaines (Sam Grisly) and Dr. Wertham (Dr. Frederick Von Werthless). Werthless, it was said, was inclined to offer his “unbiased and unasked for opinion.”

The story blamed EC for the excesses that led to the Code. Ironically, the story’s artist, Lee Elias, drew some of the most excessively gruesome pre-Code horror comics for EC’s rival, Harvey Comics.

Piling On! (Above:) “Dr. Werthless” stars on this page from Myron Fass’ Lunatickle #2 (April 1956).

Art by Lee Elias. Writer unknown (see p. 58). [© the respective copyright holders.]

(Left:) Stan Lee’s story “The Witch in the Woods” from Menace #7 (Sept. 1953) depicts an editor’s worst nightmare ––comic-hating parents! Art by Joe Sinnott. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) In “The Raving Lunatic!” from Suspense #29 (March 1953), editor Stan gives a piece of his mind to another angry comic book critic. Art by Joe Maneely.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

62

The RBCC Story Beginning A Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. LOVE & Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector Excerpted from the 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom

by Bill Schelly

A

UTHOR’S INTRODUCTION (2015): Comic fandom has a lot of reasons to commemorate the late Gordon Belljohn Love, publisher and editor of the advertising juggernaut RBCC... or, to spell it out, Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector. I was well aware of this when I wrote The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, way back in 1995.

Therefore, to begin our multi-issue tribute, which will include a series of interviews and other special features from his friends and colleagues, here’s the story of G.B. and his fanzine, made up of excerpts from that tome (with a few revisions). And remember, Gordon was still very much alive when GAOCF was published.

The excerpts begin after I had covered the origin of Alter-Ego and its likewise Jerry Bails-edited-and-published offshoots The Comicollector and The Comic Reader in 1961, as well as Parley Holman’s early fanzine Spotlite….

1961: “Something To Occupy My Time” 1961 was not yet over, and there was one more development with far-reaching implications to occur: the publication of a brief four-page fanzine called The Rocket’s Blast. Only six to eight copies of the first issue were produced, using carbon paper. There could have been no humbler beginning for this acorn which would one day grow into a mighty oak.

The Rocket’s Blast editor Gordon (G.B.) Love was born in 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia. He became a comic fan early with his love for the original Captain Marvel comics in the 1940s. He dreamed of performing feats of derring-do, but, unlike other boys, even modest feats of physical prowess would remain outside his grasp.

For G.B. Love had cerebral palsy. He had had it since birth, when doctors found certain motor functions of his brain had been damaged.

In 1959, G.B. and his family moved from Georgia to Miami, Florida. When the 20-year-old was tested by the rehabilitation people, he was told they had nothing for him. Goodwill offered him a job for $25 a week, but he wouldn’t take that. G.B. Love had a great deal more to offer than charity make-work, even if his cerebral palsy made telephone communication an uphill battle, and he could only type by clutching a pencil in one hand and striking the keys of an electric typewriter laboriously, one by one.

Love Is What Makes An RBCC An RBCC (Above top:) Gordon Belljohn Love. According to Robert Brown, who snapped this photo circa 1980, “The cap was part of a Kool Aid pilot’s kit I got at one of Don Maris’ shows. G.B. loved the caps. There was a ‘hostess’ cap for girls. He was happy to pose for the picture.”

(Right:) Cover art on Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector [RBCC] #60 (1968) by the remarkable John G. Fantucchio. Mid-decade, this artist began producing a string of superb, idiosyncratic covers that upgraded the appearance of the fanzine.

His first appeared on RBCC #44 (1965). His photo will be seen in a near-future issue—as it was in A/E #122. [Art © John G. Fantucchio.]

In a recent [1990s] interview, Love remembered how he decided to publish a fanzine: “[In 1961] I was looking for something to occupy my time, and hoped to develop something that might eventually become profitable. My original idea was to combine sf and comics in a fanzine, but I quickly dropped the sf and concentrated on my first love, comic books. I picked the name The Rocket’s Blast myself but I really don’t remember how I came up with it.”

A letter from Love printed in [the DC comic book] Mystery in Space announced his intention to start a club and put out a newsletter. “At the time I produced the first issue of RB, I was unaware of anyone else trying it, too. After I began publishing, I think the first fanzine I discovered was Alter-Ego.”

Love published under the aegis of the SFCA. This originally stood for Science Fiction and Comic Association, but was changed to South Florida Comic Association. In any case, it was merely the name of Love’s company.

74

Hero then goes out and slings lead with the badman and hits him… or rounds up a posse and hits the hull-danged gang!

Art ©2015 Mark Lewis

Love stories have much more range and variety.

Adventure stories have no narrow restrictions to keep within. Murder mysteries, which can be in a mold of their own, still have an infinite horizon ahead of them.

Part XIV Abridged & Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

tto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), the prolific science-fiction and comic book writer renowned for authoring over half of the Marvel Family saga for Fawcett Publications, wrote Memoirs of a Nobody in 1948 at the age of 37, during what was arguably the most imaginative period within the repertoire of “Captain Marvel” stories.

O

Aside from intermittent details about himself, Binder’s capricious chronicle resembles very little in the way of anything that is indeed autobiographical. Unearthed several years ago from Binder’s file materials at Texas A&M University, Memoirs is self-described by its author as “ramblings through the untracked wilderness of my mind.” Binder’s potpourri of stray philosophical beliefs, pet peeves, theories, and anecdotes were written in freewheeling fashion and devoid of any charted course— other than allowing his mind to flow with no restricting parameters. The abridged and edited manuscript—serialized here within the pages of FCA—will nonetheless provide glimpses into the idiosyncratic and fanciful mind of Otto O. Binder.

In this 14th excerpt, Otto shares his thoughts on writing Western stories. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

H

Westward Ho! i, pardner! Put away that thar six-shooter and let’s have a rootin’ tootin’ palaver together. I’ll git down off’n my great horse Swayback and jine yuh at th’ bar!

But the Western story has been told over and over again, without any real variation whatsoever. And yet, people keep begging for more and more, and not just kids. Why, consarn ye, a good “A” Western will draw the grownups like cheese will mice. And among those mice you will find me, too.

Pardner, I’m baffled. It ain’t hooman!

Perhaps the only logical explanation is that the brawling, lawless, heroic days of the Old West strike some ancient spark in all our souls. Maybe under the veneer of civilization we’re all just aching to be he-men and she-women, and live a rootin’ hootin’ wild and free life.

Of course, that’s the wonderful picture presented to our imaginations. Actually, if you and I were suddenly transported back to those days, we’d find it quite different, I think. We’d find it dirty and boring and sordid and full of villainy and injustice. And I imagine a Westerner transported from then to now would take one look at our set-up, toss away his shootin’ irons, and never go back.

I think he’d find our civilization, with all its faults, pretty good to live in. And he wouldn’t miss those bullets whistling past his ear at all.

Yes, pards, it’s nice to think about those old Western days as times of glory and adventure supreme, but take it from me: you never had it so good as right here and now. Of course, we have wars killing off 20 million and such but, uh, let’s not get into that.

Wars may come and wars may go, but yuh kin bet yore bottom dollar that the days of the Old West will live on and on— untarnished, indestructible. All you Western writers can sit back and relax. You’ve got a sure thing. Take it from this hyar varmint.

Next: FINIS!

As you might dimly surmise, I’m now going to froth at the mouth about the Golden West. At present writing, the Westerns in all forms—books, movies, radio, and comic books—are enjoying another heyday. Periodically they rise to a seat of eminence in the minds and imaginations of the American public. Then, for a while, they will suffer a mild eclipse or slowing down, but year in and year out, the Western story is as durable as a rock.

It’s an amazing phenomenon. Why should that period of history live on in story and song without the slightest dimming of its luster and glory by time? When you analyze it, you run into a blank wall. First of all, the stage is so limited. You can only have one kind of hero: a gun shooting Westerner. You can only have one kind of villain: the ubiquitous badman. And your heroine must always be the soul of virtue.

Your plots are strictly bounded, too. Cattle rustling. Range fights between cattlemen and sheepmen. Pioneering and wild Indians.

The brave sheriff cleaning up a lawless town. Think of another one if you can! And the basic formula is as cut-and-dried as peeling potatoes: your hero has a rollicking fist-fight with the badman.

Then the hero is framed of something. His girl loses faith in him.

Go West, Shazam Man! The author (seen above circa 1944) of so many “Captain Marvel,” “Marvel Family,” etc., stories during the 1940s & early ’50s also wrote his fair share of cowboy yarns for Fawcett during that era, such as (see facing page) his adaptation of the Saturday matinee film The Gunmen of Abilene starring Allan “Rocky” Lane (Fawcett Movie Comic #7, 1950; interior art by Bob Powell)— and the original yarn “The Redwood Robbery” for Ken Maynard Western #6 (Oct. ’51; art by Carl Pfeufer). Also seen is the photo cover of Ken Maynard #5 (Aug. ’51). Otto Binder also penned the Western heroics of Golden Arrow, Rod Cameron, and Gabby Hayes. Pages © the respective copyright holders.]

76

The Fawcett Invasion Of France – Part I .

by Jean-Michel Ferragatti Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

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Hoppy Trails To You! (Left:) Amazingly, out of all the Fawcett characters, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was the first to land in France, beginning with his appearance in Le journal de Bob et Bobette #2, 1946 (Editions Dargaud); art by Chad Grothkopf. All art in this section supplied by Jean-Michel Ferragatti.

(Top of page:) A year later, a blue-clad Hoppy bounced over to Les albums de Pippo #1 (Editions Mondiales), as noted on p. 78. This cover was drawn by an unidentified French artist, clearly inspired by Chadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hoppy figure from the cover of Fawcettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Funny Animals #26 (Feb. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;45). [Hoppy TM & Š DC Comics.]