Alter Ego #19

Dynamic Roy Thomas ’ Dynamic Comics F F anzine Comics anzine

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No. 19 December 2002

Art ©2002 Estate of Dick Sprang; Batman & Robin TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

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DRAW! #22

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art

by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, GIORDANO cover, and more!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! SHEL DORF interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art!

DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, ANDRU, TUSKA, CELARDO, & LUBBERS, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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LEGO SPACE WAR issue! A STARFIGHTER BUILDING LESSON by Peter Reid, WHY SPACE MARINES ARE SO POPULAR by Mark Stafford, a trip behind the scenes of LEGO’S NEW ALIEN CONQUEST SETS that hit store shelves earlier this year, plus JARED K. BURKS’ column on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION, building tips, event reports, our step-by-step “YOU CAN BUILD IT” INSTRUCTIONS, and more!

Go to Japan with articles on two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus take a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of the BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!

LEGO EVENTS ISSUE covering our own BRICKMAGIC FESTIVAL, BRICKWORLD, BRICKFAIR, BRICKCON, plus other events outside the US. There’s full event details, plus interviews with the winners of the BRICKMAGIC CHALLENGE competition, complete with instructions to build award winning models. Also JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customizing, building tips, and more!

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Vol. 3, No. 19 / December 2002 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Dick Sprang Fred Ray

Contents Writer/Editorial: Hope Sprangs Eternal! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ask not what the now-monthly Alter Ego can do for you, but rather—!

Dick Sprang Rides Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The late Golden Age Batman illustrator, interviewed by Ike Wilson.

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Fred Ray

The “Good” Batman Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Road to Perdition writer Max Allan Collins extols the one and only Dick Sprang.

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

The Greatest Batman Artist Who Ever Lived!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Don’t be shy, Bob Koppany! What do you really think of Richard W. Sprang?

And Special Thanks to:

Who Cares? I Do! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Comics master Alex Toth on comic art in general—and Batman in particular!

Manuel Auad Mark Austin Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Jack Bender Ray Bottorff, Jr. Jerry K. Boyd Alan Brennert Len Brown Jack Burnley Steven Butler Tony Cerezo Max Allan Collins Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Joe Desris James Doty Don Ensign Ron Fernandez Carl Gafford Jack Gilbert Michael R. Grabois Janice Green David G. Hamilton Bill Harper Ron Harris Roger Hill Bob Koppany Mort Leav

Mitch Lee Steve Leialoha Arthur Lortie Brian Makara Dan Makara Dennis Mallonee John Moret Jim Motavalli John Province Charlie Roberts Ethan Roberts Jerry Robinson Eric Schumacher Dr. Augustus Scott Noreen Shaw Marc Simms Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Dick & Cindy Swan Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Michael J. Vassallo J. Villalpando Ron Webber Dylan Williams Ike Wilson Michael Zeno

—In Memoriam—

Richard “Grass” Green

Batman during the “Sprang Era” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 We’ve also got a fondness for Kane, Robinson, Schwartz, Mooney, and Moldoff!

Partners in Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sprang and inker Charles Paris talk about their longtime Batman collaboration.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America] No. 78 . . . . . . . . . . . 43 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, and a look at Captain Marvel Jr. Focus on Fred Ray & Mort Leav . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: A late-1980s photo of Dick Sprang juxtaposed with a detail—just a part, mind you—of a 1986 Batman and Robin “conceptual illustration,” which was previously printed only in Ike Wilson’s contribution to the fanzine CFA-APA in ’88. For the full “double truck” drawing, see p. 11. Art and photo courtesy of Ike Wilson. [Art ©2002 Richard W. Sprang estate; Batman & Robin & other artifacts TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Above: We like Ike! (Wilson, that is.) And not just because Ike, the agent for the Sprang estate, sent us what he calls an “unfinished illustration for [a] Gotham Graphics litho certificate” by the fabled artist. Since Dick Sprang is the focus of this half of the issue, we’ve used it as our contents page header, though without altering a single line of the art—except for putting our A/E logo inside it, of course. [Art ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; Batman & Robin TM & ©2002 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 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.

2

Title writer/editorial

Hope Sprangs Eternal!

Okay, so it’s a lousy pun. I just had to get it out of my system.

Naturally, John and I hope that you readers will prove equally supportive.

There really isn’t much I can say about the extensive coverage given to classic “Batman” artist Dick Sprang in this issue.

Although mostly anonymous and unknown as a Bob Kane “ghost” by most fans until the 1980s, long after he had retired, he is definitely up there with Kane himself and Jerry Robinson as the artists who shaped the mythos of Batman and Robin—along with writer/co-creator Bill Finger, of course.

And how can you do that, you ask?

I’m glad you asked that question—or at least allowed me to ask it on your behalf.

Well, above all else—you can help by buying each and every issue of A/E, not just the ones that happen to showcase a Golden or Silver Age superstar, or DC Comics, or Timely/Marvel, or Fawcett, or a cover by a favorite artist. We don’t care whether you buy the mag at your local comics shop (which certainly deserves your patronage) or via subscription (well, we make a little more money that way, and you save $1 an issue, which now is $12 a year... but we’re not pushy). We just want you to buy every issue.

When I think about it, I realize that it was most likely Sprang’s art that I saw on that first Batman cover I spotted on a Jackson, Missouri, comics rack at age four in early 1945, and which I induced my long-suffering mother to buy me. It was probably one of the very first comics, if not the first, I ever owned. Of course, as I’ve said elsewhere, I was a bit shaky on the concepts of both crimefighters and bats at that age, so when Mother read the stories to me, I mentally translated the lead characters into “Badman and Robber,” a couple of lovable, Robin Hood-style crooks. (They had to be crooks, didn’t they? They wore masks!)

The frustration of doing a magazine like ours is seeing advance orders fluctuate—to more when we can spotlight a Buscema or a Romita or a Wood (or perhaps a Sprang), and to a bit less when we’re bringing your attention to other creators of genuine importance Nope—unlike most of the art on the pages surrounding this one, (like Vince Fago or Gill Fox or even the this illo isn’t by Dick Sprang, but is rather a spirited, goodgreat Lou Fine) who haven’t had a natured homage to his work by pro artists Steven Butler (pencils) presence in comic books for a while, and Though I was privileged to meet Dick and Jim Amash (inks). Not to worry, though—you’ll be inundated hence may be less familiar to readers.

by Sprang art in the pages that follow! [Art ©2002 Steven Butler & Sprang only once in passing, I believe, After all, A/E is a mag about the history Jim Amash; Batman, Robin, & Joker TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

I’m exceedingly pleased to be able to of hero comics and their creators—and dedicate half of this issue of Alter Ego to what would be the use of reading only about people and characters you him and his work, with the help of Ike Wilson, Bob Koppany, Jim already know a lot about? Shouldn’t it also be about discovering talents Amash, Mike W. Barr, and various others. My only regret is that another, and features which have been there all along, but which you never knew early-’90s interview with Sprang, conducted by Shel Dorf, had to be left much (or anything) about till now? out for reasons of space—but that just means that I’ll have an excuse to devote still more pages to Sprang, some months down the line!

Moving on: With this issue, A/E shifts to monthly publication, after an “eight-a-year” schedule... and only about a year since it was published quarterly.

I’ll level with you: this increase to putting out three times as much material in a year’s time is not primarily due to sales. Oh, sales are good enough... though neither John Morrow nor I nor our contributors are getting rich from what is basically a labor of love disguised as something resembling a day job. No, it’s because I’ve been on the receiving end of such a bonanza, a cornucopia, almost a plethora of vintage artwork and worthwhile articles and interviews, that I’m plagued by guilt at seeing what I term “art and artifacts” stockpile faster than I can get them into print.

I have a hunch that even monthly publication won’t solve that problem entirely—but at least I’ll know I’m doing all I can. And I want to thank my otherwise eminently practical (as well as loving) wife Dann for supporting me in devoting more of my time and energy to Alter Ego instead of to other endeavors that might be more economically profitable.

Another way you can help is to show Alter Ego to your friends and fellow comics aficionados. And, related to this: we always appreciate it when we learn that someone has talked his comics retailer into ordering a few extra copies of A/E—copies he can display on a shelf in his store—rather than ordering just the precise number of copies that he is absolutely, 100% positive he can sell, because customers have ordered it from him.

Think about it. If nobody but regular readers ever sees an issue of A/E—because it goes straight from under the counter into the buyer’s hands, without anybody seeing it sitting alongside copies of Batman or The X-Men—how the heck is the readership ever going to grow? We don’t expect comics store owners to order A/E on a scale with the more popular Marvel or DC titles—but these folks are supposed to be entrepreneurs, right? And being an entrepreneur involves at least a modicum of risk-taking... of taking a chance, in order to make your own business (and the businesses that your business depends on) grow.

Oh, yeah—and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bestest,

™

COMING IN JANUARY #

20

STILL MORE

TITANS OF TIMELY!

s Plu

THE 1965 NEW YORK COMIC-CON REVISITED—WITH A VENGEANCE!

• Two color covers—by Marvel artist AL MILGROM—and a 1965 comic-con composite by KUBERT, NODELL, BECK, BORING, & SCHELLY! • “Secrets behind THE INVADERS!”—World War II Forever—with JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, FRANK ROBBINS, DAVE HOOVER, PAUL RYAN, & ROY THOMAS! • Rare Timely/Marvel art by JOE SIMON, MIKE SEKOWSKY, BILL EVERETT, SYD SHORES, & CARL BURGOS—and ALEX TOTH on comic art!

• You probably never heard of Golden Age Timely artist BOB DESCHAMPS—but once you read JIM AMASH’s in-depth interview, we’ll bet you won’t forget him!

NOW MONTHLY!

• The 1965 NYC Comics Convention—perhaps the first full-fledged con—covered by BILL SCHELLY & ROY THOMAS—plus, a never-before-seen panel with three great Golden/Silver Age writers—BILL FINGER, OTTO BINDER, & GARDNER FOX—also MORT WEISINGER & MURPHY ANDERSON! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT talks (and draws) with Flash Gordon artist JIM KEEFE! • FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, & others!

m; Art ©2002 Al Milgro . rvel Characters, Inc Heroes © 2002 Ma

Edited by ROY THOMAS • Now 108 PAGES for the same price!

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NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.

TwoMorrows • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Submit Something To Alter Ego! Alter Ego is on the lookout for items that can be utilized in upcoming issues: • Convention Sketches and Program Books • Unpublished Artwork • Original Scripts (the older the better!)

• Photos • Unpublished Interviews • Little-seen Fanzine Material We’re also interested in articles, article ideas, or any other suggestions... and we pay off in FREE COPIES of A/E. (If you’re already an A/E subscriber, we’ll extend your subscription.) Contact: Roy Thomas, Editor Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803)826-6501 • E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

Submission Guidelines Submit artwork in one of these forms (in order of preference): 1) Clear color or black-&-white photocopies.

2) Scanned images—300ppi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (on Zip or floppy disk).

3) Originals (carefully packed and insured).

Submit text in one of these forms: 1) E-mail (ASCII text attachments preferred) to: roydann@ntinet.com (NEW) 2) An ASCII or “plain text” file, supplied on floppy disk.

3) Typed, xeroxed, or laser printed pages.

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4

Spotlight On DICK SPRANG part one

An Interview with One of the Greatest of Golden Age “Batman” Illustrators Conducted by Ike Wilson [NOTE: This interview was conducted in the Phoenix [Arizona] area home of Dick and Marion Sprang on August 12, 1987, by Ike Wilson. It was transcribed by Barry Burris, copy-edited by David Bachman, and edited by Dick Sprang and Ike Wilson, and has previously been printed only in the limited-edition apa-zine CFA-APA #13, Sept.1988. Text ©2002 Ike Wilson.]

IKE WILSON: How did you get started in comics?

DICK SPRANG: I was living in New York City, illustrating for the pulp magazines—the western, detective, and adventure magazines in the era of the late 1930s. I wanted to leave New York and move west, and the only way I could see to make a living as a commercial artist in the Far West was to become a ghost artist for a major comic strip, because there were no significant commercial art outlets in Phoenix or anywhere else in the area I wanted to live, which was Arizona, Utah, or New Mexico. Perhaps there may have been in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but I didn’t want to live in or near those cities. I was able to take over a portion of “Batman” production, prove myself, and after the war I came west and did “Batman” and a share of “Superman” up until the time I retired, voluntarily, in the mid-’60s.

IW: Did you have any special art training, or did you study on your own?

SPRANG: A lot of studying on my own, in addition to high school art classes with a very good teacher who emphasized the fundamentals of drawing—how to draw a box, a hand, an automobile, in perspective. Then I went to work for the Scripp-Howard newspaper chain in Toledo, Ohio. I was in the art department, where we had to meet five deadlines a day. We Dick Sprang in 1991 at the AcmeCon in Greensboro, North Carolina—and a reproduction had five editions on the street that, in part, carried different from photocopies of original art from Batman #56 (Dec. ‘49-Jan. ‘50). According to advertisements for jewelry stores, furniture stores, and so on. interviewer and Sprang estate agent Ike Wilson, this splash is “one of the rare Dick Sprang We had to originals that turned up at the Kansas City Convention [in 1987].” Photocopy courtesy of Ike and of Batman collector/expert Joe Desris, from whose collection it comes; draw the photo by Teresa R. Davidson, courtesy of TRD & Jim Amash. [©2002 DC Comics.] items they sold, plus SPRANG: It was for me. Given a native sort of talent to draw and the editorial cartoons and motivation and drive to develop it is one of the best ways to train. You editorial illustrations. learned your craft by working at it, especially if you were working I had to work with under deadlines. Self-discipline is the best discipline, because it’s the engravers, and I toughest. mastered the technology of IW: Did you ever have the opportunity to work for any other comics printing. I learned the company besides DC? value of meeting a deadline. You grew SPRANG: Yeah, one I remember was Prize Comics. I think we did a up fast in that atmosfew of the “Power Nelson” stories, and perhaps a cover or two. Norman phere. That was Fallon, Ed Kressey, and I had a little studio loft on 42nd Street between better training than 5th Avenue and Grand Central Station. We did the Prize stuff and a few could be found in the sketches for the Lone Ranger comic strip, and a bit of script writing for majority of art that title’s radio show. But that’s the extent of the comic work I did schools of the day. before I joined DC. Our main thrust was advertising illustration, and I, independent of Norm and Ed, did pulp illustrations.

A half-inked panel by Sprang, done for some early IW: So actually comics feature but never used; provided by Ike practice was the best IW: Were you ever influenced by any particular artist?

Wilson. [©2002 the Richard Sprang estate.] method of training?

–––Rides Again

5 would never copy as well as those men did their work, which would have been a mistake anyway. But one of those studies we probably developed was a proficiency somehow that derived from their work.

SPRANG: Yes. Concerning comics, I was mainly influenced by Alex Raymond. In those years when we had full-page Sunday supplements with Terry and the Pirates, Prince Valiant, and Flash Gordon, some of us who wanted to become comic book illustrators studied those men, envied them highly, copied them, and decided we

Alex Raymond was a superb figure man.

He could draw figures in any form of action.

That was a great influence, and evidence of the need to draw figures well. I also studied men like Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth, the great illustrators who brought great compositions and motion to their work. Wyeth’s illustrations of pirates fighting on the deck of a ship—I mean they moved! My A triptych of Sprang art: (1) Napoleon in exile, from a student project (grade/age uncertain). Sprang’s notation indicates that other favorites he felt this previously-unpublished drawing (one of a series) among the illuswas the “Best of series - ‘gazing out upon the sad and solemn trators of my sea’”... evidently a quotation. (2) President Franklin youth were Roosevelt, drawn for the Toledo News-Bee in the late Harold Von ’30s; (3) a half-finished pulp illo, courtesy of Dr. Schmidt, Robert Augustus Scott. The latter drawing appeared in Bob Fawcett Kopanny’s fabulous 1998 coffee table book The Art of —truly a master Richard W. Sprang (more about it on pp. 20-22); the others draftsman— are courtesy of Ike Wilson. [First illo ©2002 the Richard Sprang estate; second ©2002 the respective copyright holder; third Tom Lovell, ©2002 Augustus Scott & the Richard Sprang estate.]

John Gannam,

At left, an ad for the “Fallon-Sprang” studio indicates they were providing art to Prize Comics’ “Power Nelson,” Harvey’s “Shock Gibson,” and Hillman’s “Sky Wizard” (see A/E V3#2), among others. A/E’s founder Jerry Bails feels the splash at right, from Prize #8 or #9 (1941), was probably penciled by Ed Kressy and inked by Norman Fallon, rather than drawn by Sprang, who drew the stronger artwork in the ad. Anybody know where “K-7,” “The Scorpion,” and “Speed Martin” appeared—and what the heck they were? Ad provided by Ike Wilson. Thanks to Jerry Bails for the Prize page. [©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

6

Dick Sprang partially loose and be billowing in the air as the truck speeds along. That is all you need. You don’t need speed lines, the billowing tarp dramatically indicates speed.

IW: When you have drawn Batman’s cape, it shows a lot of movement.

SPRANG: Yes, the cape is an excellent device.

Probably Kane had this in mind when he created Batman, as did the guys who created Superman. It’s a powerful instrument to show speed and action, the way it folds and billows.

IW: Some of your work was inked by Charles Paris.

Did you ever ink any of your own work?

Herbert Morton Stoops, Rockwell Kent, Peter Helck, and Dean Cornwell. Their work taught me many lessons, and I owe them much.

These late-’30s (?) pencil sketches show that Sprang was studying Alex Raymond’s classic Flash Gordon newspaper strip. Provided by Ike Wilson. [©2002 the Richard Sprang estate.]

SPRANG: Oh, yes. In the early years, I inked all of it.

But to increase my production, the powers-that-were at DC decided to have someone else ink my work and that way I could turn out more pencils. It was a matter of expedience. Inking can be fun, and good inking is creative, but after you pencil a drawing, it can be a bore going back over every line. And my pencils were pretty exact.

IW: Did movies have an influence?

SPRANG: Very much. Very much. Movies were a great influence simply because they had movement. In those years the moviemakers realized that the camera was a hell of a versatile device. There was no better means of telling a story than with a movie camera, if the camera moves and the actors move and don’t just stand around and talk. But a comic artist works in a static medium. What I tried to do was get into my work a dramatic highlight, such as you would identify in a film action sequence, in other words to isolate peak action in what moviemakers call the “frozen frame,” the equivalent of a comic book panel. There are a lot of visual tricks used in trying to create this, and it’s tough to describe them without going into great detail.

One detail, for instance, is use of the follow-through that we know in golf, tennis, and baseball, where the follow-through is important to the accuracy of the driven or thrown ball. In the static medium of graphic illustration, the depiction of the follow-through establishes a flowing action. For example, when Batman would be in a fist fight with a crook and he’s striking him on the jaw, you don’t stop the fist right at the jaw. You can, and you can draw your little splash impact symbol there, and have the crook falling back. But it’s far more effective when Batman’s fist strikes the jaw and, with the arm trailing speed lines, follows through, goes beyond the jaw to one side. Leave the splash symbol indicating impact at the point where the fist struck the jaw, but have the fist follow through. This is a way of activating the frozen frame, simulating motion in a static medium. I’ve used it scores of times. Everybody has.

Another method of enhancing the illusion of speed: draw a big truck going down the highway. Okay, it’s a moving vehicle and you draw a bunch of speed lines following the vehicle. You have the wheels off the ground slightly, indicating a higher speed. But a better device is to have a tarpaulin on the top of the truck blow

Dick Sprang in 1945—around the time he penciled and inked the accompanying splash for Batman #32, for the second of the stories in which Prof. Nichols sent Batman and Robin (well, actually, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson) back in time. (Dec. 1945/Jan. 1946). Photo courtesy of Ike Wilson; all rights reserved. [Batman art ©2002 DC Comics.]

–––Rides Again

7 IW: Are you familiar with any of the work of more recent “Batman” artists, such as Marshall Rogers, Neal Adams, or Frank Miller?

SPRANG: Frank Miller, I am. The others I’m not. I have seen Miller only in the hardback book that Graphitti published, The Dark Knight.

IW: What did you think of the book?

SPRANG: Great, marvelous. His cityscapes are magnificent. His buildings, his perspective, his figure movement, his compositions, his use of everything that would contribute to a dramatic presentation is there. And the color work by his wife [Lynn Varley] is superb.

Absolutely superb.

The illo above of DC’s two caped crime-crushers was penciled by Sprang and inked

by Stan Kaye as the splash of World’s Finest Comics #85 (Nov.-Dec. 1956); but, for reasons unknown, editor Jack Schiff decided to make it the cover, instead—and turned Curt Swan’s cover art into the splash at right. Sprang/Kaye splash repro’d from a photostat of the original art, courtesy of Ike Wilson. [©2002 DC Comics.]

IW: Would you say the story is too harsh?

SPRANG: Frankly, I must admit I haven’t read the story. I will when I get time. But this Batman is just not the old Batman. I understand that Robin is now a girl. Is that true?

IW: Were they tight pencils?

IW: That’s in Dark Knight. In the regular Batman book they have a different Robin.

The old Robin has become a character called Nightwing, with a different costume. They have an entirely new Robin.

SPRANG: Yes. I used soft pencils, 2B, and applied them over a very dim sketch. My initial sketch would be laid in heavily. I would dim it with a kneadable eraser, then refine the sketch in final tight penciling.

SPRANG: Well, as I told you early in our visit, I don’t follow modern comics except those that people send or bring to me in small number. I really don’t know what’s going on in any thoroughly informed way. There was an artist [Don Newton] who lived in Phoenix for a time and died quite young. His concept of Batman I liked. He used a great deal more black shading than I was allowed to use. He created a moody, darker image of Batman, which was fine. It fit the character, and the name. He was a hell of a good artist and, I’m told, a very nice, modest guy.

IW: How long would it take you to pencil one page?

SPRANG: One day, six panels.

IW: And how long if you penciled and inked, both?

SPRANG: Maybe a day and a half, maybe more. Inking requires a lot of precisely rendered detail. Never disparage a good inker’s technology and contribution. Charlie Paris, who inked most of my stuff, is a master craftsman.

IW: Speaking of artists, how did you like working with Bob Kane?

SPRANG: I didn’t [work with him]. I met Bob Kane once in DC’s offices to say hello, and that’s all. I know nothing about working with Bob Kane.

IW: Did you ever ink any other artists? I think maybe you inked some of Curt Swan’s World’s Finest covers.

SPRANG: I have no recollection of inking anyone else’s covers or other art.

IW: How did you like working with Bill Finger?

Don Newton’s rendition of Batman, such as this 1983 page, was well-liked by Sprang for its “moodier, darker image.” [©2002 DC Comics.]

SPRANG: Very much. It’s a strange thing. I recently read an extensive interview I gave a

8

Dick Sprang IW: For stories like this, did you do the research on your own?

SPRANG: 95% of the time.

IW: Did Bill Finger contribute to any of this research?

SPRANG: Bill Finger, bless his heart, usually would supply some clippings illustrating points of his story that he thought I might not have in my research files. And when he did, I was very grateful, but most of my research I did from my own files. I had a terrific morgue, as we called such dead matter on the newspaper, and quite a library of book-bound reference works for use when we would go back in time to Ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome, or France. All I had to do was pull that out. It contained costuming, backgrounds, architecture, weaponry, chariots, horse gear, the works. It took a lot of time and you still had to meet your deadline. Drawing the complicated stuff took more time than the research.

IW: You compiled this into separate files?

A great example of elaborate line work (and exquisite inking) by Dick Sprang from the “All for One, One for All” story in Batman #32, 1945. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2002 DC Comics.]

long time ago, in which I said I knew him slightly. But in correspondence with Max Allan Collins, before I re-read that interview, I said I never met Bill, so I really don’t know; it’s so far back in time. Thinking it over, I doubt that I ever met him, but his work was so damned good, his scripts such a delight, that I wish I had met him. He had such a great visual sense that an artist would immediately respond to his writing and realize that he, Finger, may have had a particular artist in mind when he was concocting the story.

A hell of a lot of writers can’t project visually. They give situations that are almighty tough to illustrate. One writer specified that Batman, when responding to a line of dialogue, should nod his head. How in hell can Batman be shown doing that? We have speed lines. What’s a nod line? So my affinity with Bill Finger was based on the ease with which I could interpret his scripts and the visual interest he evoked in his stories, the interplay of diverse characters, the settings, the backgrounds, and the flow of his unique action. He was a marvelous writer.

IW: Did you enjoy drawing those oversized gadgets he used to dream up?

SPRANG: I loved it very much. That was fine, that kind of inventiveness. I created some of the damnedest machinery. I really got a bang out of it. My father was a mechanical and electrical engineer, so I grew up with huge machines he was redesigning—lathes, drill presses, shapers, surface grinders, electromagnets, all manner of complicated devices, so all I did was select and exaggerate parts of those to fit the particular function that the writer made his fictional machine do.

IW: In 1951, do you remember doing a story called “The State Bird Crimes,” in which you drew every state bird?

SPRANG: Oh, my God!

SPRANG: Yeah. Still have them, by the way.

Any young comic artist wants to buy my scrap files, my morgue, I’ll make him a good deal. It would take him damn near all his life to collect what I’ve gathered. So I’m taking bids. [laughter] You can put “laughter” in parentheses. [more laughter] Trouble is that, except for the historical stuff, a lot of it is out of date.

IW: Did you ever help create any of the DC characters?

SPRANG: Yes, many of the secondary villains.

IW: Any of the major ones?

SPRANG: I think—[pause] Who’s that guy with question marks?

IW: The Riddler.

SPRANG: I’m not sure of this. I may have created him.

IW: I know that you were the first to draw him.

SPRANG: Was I? IW: Yes. SPRANG: Well, then, I created him. [laughter] Or, to give the writer his due, I followed his concept as given in the script.

IW: Did you have a hand in creating other villains, like Tweedledee and Tweedledum?

SPRANG: It’s my memory that Jerry Robinson created those. I’m not certain of that. I doubt that I did. In individual stories that didn’t employ a standard serial villain, such as The Joker or The Penguin or Two-Face, but that would introduce as a one-shot a prominent villain of distinctive aspect, I would create him. Many stories went this route, so there was quite a bit of creating, manufacturing certain crooks. Max Allan Collins has written, “Sprang especially went to town with Batman’s fiendish foes—his often nameless, square-shouldered, fedoratopped, zoot-suited thugs were Caligari-like caricatures of Warner Bros. heavies.” I had a lot of fun with those types, but I don’t recall any specific ones that gained serial status other than perhaps The Riddler.

–––Rides Again

9 DC’s executive editor, always strived for accuracy in his artists’ work, and I know he liked my historical treatments.

IW: Did your interest in archaeology help in the time stories?

SPRANG: Perhaps, but in those years I was strictly a beginning amateur in archaeology.

Although, I guess, the input was there to enjoy an affiliation with the exotic architectural settings of the distant past. Ancient Egypt still fascinates me.

IW: Could you explain about how you evoke a mood of storytelling or the flow of a story?

The Penguin and The Joker were two of Sprang’s all-time favorite villains to draw, and he did ’em proud in this art from 1945 and 1952, respectively. The Penguin page also indicates how Sprang varied his shots to make a page “flow.” Repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Ike Wilson. [©2002 DC Comics.]

IW: Who was your favorite villain?

SPRANG: Two. The Joker and The Penguin. I loved them both. They were great to move around through their crazy projects of crime.

IW: Did you ever have any input on doing stories or which villains you would do next?

SPRANG: No, I think it perhaps was up to the writer’s request and the editors’ approval, or the editors’ sole prerogative. If my treatment of a particular villain in former stories was liked better, at the time, than that of anyone else who had recently worked with the character—there were several of us ghosting that strip—the editors would send stories about that particular character to me. This was certainly true with the “back in time” stories that Bill Finger wrote. The editors thought that it appeared I was doing more research than anyone else, so I got those stories quite often. And I don’t doubt that Bill Finger requested that I do his historical stories. Whitney Ellsworth,

SPRANG: That’s a complicated subject, and I can perform it better than I can articulate it. But here are a couple examples. These were action stories; at least, they were supposed to be. If straight action, the flow followed. Some writers, however, used so much dialogue that the characters just stood around and talked. So what are you going to do to make a sequence of pure dialogue interesting? Say you have three successive panels of dialogue. You must vary the scene of each one.

Maybe your first panel would show two conversationalists in closeup.

The second panel would show them in the far distance or as little silhouettes on top of a building, if that’s where they were in the story. This would provide a chance to create mood, whatever was required—dark of night, worm’s-eye perspective, all manner of atmosphere. The third panel would be a variation of the second, maybe a medium shot, or an aerial shot down on the characters—something, for heaven’s sake, to remove the static boredom of just heads talking, such as too often we see on television. Unless the text is very interesting, it can drive the reader nuts.

Then, in action scenes, you would visualize your grouping as on a legitimate stage. You could compose from the angle of view from the orchestra pit, or looking down from the top of the proscenium, from left or right stage, or looking straight on. Variation. Never repeat the same scene, never the same degree of sequential medium shot or closeup or long shot. Always vary it. Then, in all of this moving around, try to

From Sprang’s pencil, if not pen, in 1948 was born the visual aspect of The Riddler. He appeared in only a story or two, however, until the producer of the 1966 Batman TV show decided to feature him, as played to perfection

by Frank Gorshin. [©2002 DC Comics.]

10

Dick Sprang bring a rhythm into the way you draw the continuity of action and setting: the slant of a building in exaggerated perspective leading into the opposite slant of a bridge in the next panel. Something that always keeps the reader interested and alive visually. He is supposed to read the story, but to keep him reading you must not bore him with repetitious panels. That is the trick. After all, it’s a graphically flowing medium.

We learn this from good films. Good filmmakers do this kind of thing all the time. The camera moves, and that’s what you are— the camera—and you are probing constantly for the interesting shot. Now remember, we are drawing dramatic action stuff, not pretty pictures. So the camera probes, trying to get the best effect of movement and suspense.

When you study the top continuity illustrators, like Caniff, you’ll see them doing this all the time. It’s the great tool. As to evoking a mood, the composition of panels establish danger, serenity, Between them, artist Sprang and the writer suspense, fear, humor—all (Bill Finger?) set a dramatic stage for action by the arrangement of the in this 1953 panel. Repro’d from the 1971 panel components. The hardcover Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. direction of lighting is [©2002 DC Comics.] always important. I believe that today, unlike my day, there are a few specialized art schools that teach such matters.

Swordplay, beautiful women, carriages by night, exotic settings and costumes, the stuff I liked best. However, I think I’ll sell it one of these days. As to the Real Fact western story, DC discovered it in their files and sent it to me a couple of years ago. I still hold the original art of the anniversary spread. Five collectors have asked to buy it. I promised the first one first refusal.

IW: Do you remember any deadlines that were especially hard to meet?

SPRANG: Yes, sometimes you would be ill, or faced with an exceedingly tough-to-draw, complicated story, and here was this deadline with thousands of dollars tied up in huge printing presses. If you didn’t get your work in on time there occurred what is called in the printing trade “down time” on that machinery, and what that meant was that machinery, when idle in the printing plant, was figured in dollars for every minute of its non-use, and those dollars were billed to the publisher because he is responsible for not getting the copy in on time.

There was also all the uproar from late distribution, getting the delayed publication out on the circulation trucks to all the retailers throughout the country.

Deadlines are far more important than the artist getting his work in late and saying he’s sorry about the delay. He’s tying up the whole damn magazine. That should be pounded into some of the young kids’ heads.

It’s no joke. However, the smart publisher will give an artist a deadline that occurs about two weeks ahead of the actual deadline. But I strongly advise any young artist to ignore that statement, because it isn’t always true. We realized that. If an artist wants to make a good reputation with

IW: Since you received the scripts in the mail and sent the artwork out, did this ever present any problems? Like the script or artwork getting lost?

SPRANG: Never. I always sent the artwork back via registered mail insured heavily, not for just the amount I was getting for the art, but for the delay in printing should the stuff be lost, several thousand dollars on each story.

IW: Did you ever retain any of your original art?

SPRANG: Just one 12-page production. The Three Musketeers story [in Batman #32]. And the Real Fact story of Billy Breckinridge, the deputy sheriff of Tombstone, Arizona [Real Fact Comics #18].

IW: Any reason for keeping those in particular?

SPRANG: I asked for the Batman story back in 1946, and DC gave it to me. It’s an historical piece that I penciled and inked and liked.

One of the rare stories for which Sprang retained the original art was this western tale from Real Fact Comics #18 (Jan.-Feb. 1949).

Thanks to Ike Wilson. [©2002 DC Comics.]

–––Rides Again a publisher, he damn well better get his work in on the specified deadline.

Dick Sprang at his drawing board, down in his basement, or what he called his “Bear Pit,” circa late ’80s. Photo by John Province.

[Photo ©2002 Ike Wilson, all rights reserved.]

There were two things Whitney Ellsworth impressed on me that would give me longevity in doing my work for DC. One, they liked the way I interpreted a script, and that is a subjective thing. Why it happened, I don’t know, but they liked it. The second thing was getting my work in on time. If you can perform those two functions, you’ve got it made.

IW: I’ve heard Mort Weisinger was a hard

man to please. Was this true?

SPRANG: I’ve heard several DC artists did not get along with him. I got along with him splendidly. He was one of the most gracious men I ever met. If he liked you, he really let you know it. If he disliked you and your work, you also knew it—I’ve heard. He was a big, imposing man, aggressive, for sure; a fast-spoken individual who had come up in publishing the hard way. Leo Margolies, the great pulp editor, was his

11

mentor in the editorial jungle of Mort’s early years. Mort wanted things done the way he liked them, and the stuff I did he happened to like, so all went well with me. We were good friends. I was a weekend guest at his and his wife Thelma’s home on Long Island several times. He treated me like a king. I admired his ability to plot a story. And he was a great springboard plotter. Those came one after another, rapid-fire, while you were visiting with him. He would farm those out to DC’s various writers. He helped several writers and artists gain lasting success—Bill Mauldin among them.

IW: What was your reason for leaving DC in the mid-1960s?

SPRANG: I was tired, after damn near thirty years of production.

IW: Did you continue to work in the art field after leaving DC? SPRANG: Very little. Some documentary art, highly detailed historical stuff. Not much.

IW: I understand you are doing color reproductions of some of your covers. What prompted you to undertake such a project?

SPRANG: A New York agent called me and proposed it. He had been talking to DC about it. They okayed it and licensed my production. The agent sold quite a number of my cover re-creations on the basis of a 20% commission to him, and we maintained a pleasant relationship for several years. Then things changed. I think what followed is of important interest to readers of this journal who buy from agents, and to my fellow artists who sell through an agent.

With three of my Batman cover re-creations in his possession for over a year, this guy refused to answer my enquiry about their sale status.

After a time, I ordered him to return the art if he had not sold it, and to pay me for it if he had. I received no reply to my certified letter, and since then he has ignored my monthly billings. What would the judicial

Ike says this 1986 spread is “a conceptual illustration of Batman and Robin running through the Batcave... from the collection of [pro artist] Steve Leialoha.” It was previously seen only in CFA-APA #13 in 1988. [Art ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; Batman & Robin & Batcave TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

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Dick Sprang appeared on the magazines. The drawing is meticulous in faithfully reproducing the cover. And the color is accurately applied to reproduce the flat field color that was used on covers in the Golden Age. There was no, or very little, shading done on the thighs, arms, or faces.

That is, shading done with hues of color.

My goal is to reproduce the cover if some collector of my work owns a magazine with my cover and he’d like to own an exact re-creation of it by its original artist, and signed by him, to hang in large size on his wall. Anybody can go and attempt to repaint one of my covers, but it won’t look like one of my originals. So I make it the paramount point that this authenticity, my work, is what the collector is buying. And evidently that’s what he wants. I don’t draw the logo or any of the dates or blurbs; I just reproduce the art as it was turned in to the editor from my drawing board. Color, of course, was applied mechanically at publication, but I do supply it from my own hand on the re-creation. Now that this agent is out of the picture, I’m getting numerous orders for covers, especially since the publication of my spread in the [50th] anniversary issue of Detective Comics.

IW: Do you draw this freehand or do you use a projector and trace over?

SPRANG: The best method is to make a slide and project it on the illustration board and then trace it off as well as I can, which is always quite ragged in detail. Then, with the actual magazine cover in front of me, I refine the projection so it exactly reproduces the original drawing.

All proportions are precise, due to the projection, but I carefully render the details—hands, facial expressions, A re-creation of the cover art for Detective Comics #118 (Dec. 1946), courtesy of Ike Wilson.

[Art ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; Batman, Robin, & Joker TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] drapery, objects, everything. There is no sense in me trying to free-hand reproduce the cover twice size, system call this state of affairs? [laughter] because I won’t get it exactly right. Slide projection is a device that ensures proportional authenticity, and my dedication to accurately I’m amused by the petty chicanery of self-feathering, small-time render the detail duplicates my rendering of the original drawing. operators. They always wind up hanging themselves. However, though amusing in the abstract, their operations are disgustingly annoying in the concrete. They deprive a workman of his due compensation, and devolve upon the buyer of the appropriated artwork the onus of receiving stolen property—a very serious consideration. Collectors should be warned of this factor if they have no way of knowing how an agent acquired the artwork he is selling. A collector assumes the presumption of good faith and conformation to ethical standards on the part of the selling agent.

This weekly advertising sheet [name deleted for technical reasons.

—RT] was informed of my agent’s appropriation of three of my Batman cover re-creations, but the publication never answered my letter, and it continues to run this agent’s advertisements. It appears—mind you, I say it appears—that it is more interested in having advertising revenue in hand than in guarding its readership from the advertisements of an unethical advertiser. So, as always, let the buyer beware. The same goes for my fellow comic artists who sell their original art through an agent.

Make sure of his integrity—if you can.

IW: What do your cover re-creations sell for?

SPRANG: $850.

IW: How large are they?

SPRANG: Approximately twice printed size, 15" x 18".

IW: When you did covers for DC, did you usually receive thumbnail sketches for cover designs, or were you able to use your own ideas?

SPRANG: Sometimes I’d get a little sketch. Most of the time it would be a cover illustrating a story I did within the book, and I had carte blanche on how I wanted to compose the cover. Other times, Whitney Ellsworth would say, “Do me a cover, any kind of cover, we need a cover.” I’d dream one up that had no relationship to any story within the magazine, such as Detective Comics #100.

IW: Would you say that the cover is the most important selling point to the book?

SPRANG: In my era I think it was, because comics were displayed differently from the way they are today. They would be displayed with full cover exposure, just like other magazines of that time, and as a result you got the full impact of the cover as it competed for attention with all the others. If it was interesting, you’d pick up the magazine and leaf through, or maybe just on the strength of the cover, buy the thing.

Today, you can barely read the title of the comic in the supermarket and similar outlets, they’re stuffed so tight. In my day you wanted an instantaneous impact. If you were lucky, you created an immediate, positive response, and that’s what a cover’s function should be.

IW: How long does it take to complete one?

IW: How did you feel, after all these years, about doing the doublepage splash for the anniversary issue?

SPRANG: A hell of a long time, because I have been out of production for such a long time. These are exact reproductions of the way the covers

SPRANG: First, I thought, “My God, you mean I have to draw that

–––Rides Again

13

Dick Sprang’s “double truck” art for the 1989 “Batman’s 50th Anniversary” issue of Detective Comics. Repro’d from a photocopy supplied by Bob Koppany. [©2002 DC Comics.]

stuff again?” [laughter] My second thought was that it might be fun.

The third thought was, “What the hell am I going to do?” So I replied to Mike Barr’s and Denny O’Neil’s inquiry with a little scenario, a reprise of Batman and Robin with their cohorts, Alfred the butler, Professor Nichols, and Commissioner Gordon opposed to the major villains and a slew of secondary ones. I proposed to tie them together on the double spread with the bad guys on one side and our good guys on the opposite, and connect the whole thing rhythmically into one unit. They thought this was okay. I suggested I’d like to highlight Batwoman—or is it Batgirl?—(because she was sexy and as a result fun to draw), but I was told they were phasing her out, so eliminate her. That took some of the fun out of it.

IW: Did you go back and research the piece?

SPRANG: Yeah. I dug back in my old files on the characters such as The Scarecrow and Two-Face and The Joker, although I can draw him by heart. Even found some of the old secondary crooks that were fun to draw again. I remember I figured out the composition of the spread in my first thumbnail sketch, so I felt pretty good about not having lost all of my layout input over the twenty or more years of my retirement.

IW: Is it true you are planning to do a story for Mike Barr?

SPRANG: Well, he called me after the double spread in the 50th Anniversary issue and asked, if he would write an 8-page script, would I pencil it? I told him I doubted it, because I didn’t think I had the energy and the time to get back into the multiple-panel production. This was to be a “Batman” story. I said I was not confident that I could meet a near

deadline. He said there wouldn’t be a deadline involved; I could take a year to do the story and that would be fine. So I told him, with that kind of deal, maybe I would.

Later, Max Allan Collins asked if he could do a “Batman” story for me. I told him Mike Barr is first on the list of getting old Sprang back into production; otherwise I would accept his gracious offer, because I admired his writing, and especially his work with Terry Beatty—a very good artist—on Ms. Tree. Well, Mike Barr is no longer with DC, and neither is Max Collins, I believe.

IW: What did drawing comics mean to you? Was it fun or just another job?

SPRANG: Primarily, it was a job to earn a living so I could hang out anywhere in the country I pleased as long as it had a post office.

Secondly, it was interesting when I was fully occupied within a story. I was deeply involved, and that was rewarding to my creative needs. But, after many years, when I finally finished a story, I didn’t particularly look forward to the next one. I was never one of those dedicated artists who sits and draws all the time and can’t live without a pencil and drawing pad in hand. More than anything else, I wanted to get out into the hills and mountains and canyons, and run the rivers in my own boat, explore the West, research its history, and come to know its isolated regions as well as any man—which I’ve done, and am doing in great measure. Comics paid my way, so bless ’em.

But your question about drawing being fun.... Yes, in this regard: when I received a script I would read it through and my visual sense

14 would translate the whole story into a visual unity. Each morning I’d reread the page I was about to do, and by then my subconscious had pretty well set each page’s dramatic impact, so I could start right in drawing, provided I had assembled my research.

As I remarked earlier, the relationship of continuity art to a movie turns the comic artist into a movie camera, and he probes for pictures as a cinematographer does. In the hours he is at the drawing board, his panels flow as he searches for their unity and spices them with varied dramatic impact. And that exploration is the artist’s great adventure and reward. The dramatic style of the story, as a whole, as drawing, is the essence of the adventure comic. There’s a rhythm, a pace, a tempo, and hopefully a beautiful imagery that tells the story. If these elements occur, the result is style, which is to say, elegance within the medium.

Dick Sprang I’ve worked with some who do listen and try very sincerely to act on the suggestions I give them. Others I meet ask, “Can I learn to draw like you do?” Well, that’s a compliment and I thank them for the thought, but I can’t tell them how, unless they just want to copy something I drew and not create their own unique professional identity. I’ll show them tricks, for instance, about a quality of line, a powerful, flowing, living line that in itself can create a great amount of energy within the art. They won’t listen. Too many of them don’t want to hoe the hard road of technical discipline that will make them competent draftsmen.

If you can learn to draw the human figure well, then it’s up to you to learn how to draw it in action. Just observe. Even use a model.

Copy that. It’s discipline and hard work, damned hard work. There is nothing simple about it and never will be. You’ll always be learning, or should be.

Occasionally you’ll encounter some genius who can draw everything with no training. Salute him and go your difficult way.

There is a little technical trick I tell pencilers who screw up on rendering in ink, even though through practice they’ve gained some

It’s a lonely job, just as writing is, or film directing is. The director is alone in the concept of what he is “Learn to draw”: that’s the essence of trying to do, but he has Sprang’s advice to young artists. As can be help where the comic artist seen from these early sketches, he followed his own advice. Courtesy of Ike Wilson. does not. The director has [©2002 Richard Sprang estate.] his production designer, his propmen, actors, cameramen, lighting directors, costume designers, set dressers, architectural experts to design his sets, and interior decorators to fill them.

But you, as a comic artist, must be all these skills and departments.

You’re the costume artist, the location scout, the casting director. You are the whole production crew, and being in command of all these functions that you alone must perform demands a hell of a lot of work. But if you train yourself for the job, and keep growing in your abilities, the job will become fascinating, no longer a job, but a rewarding profession full of challenges that you meet, and have fun meeting.

IW: What advice would you give some young artists today?

SPRANG: Learn to draw. [pause] There’s about 50,000 words involved in that, and I’ll not go beyond it, except to say that, given an ability and training to draw well, to draw any object, any figure, from any angle, to get the drapery exact, and to make the drapery enhance the movement of the figure, and to create powerful compositions, you must develop a sense of drama if you’re doing an adventure comic.

The best way to develop that is to study the best being done in film and the best having been done by the great old illustrators, and the best of today’s continuity artists. Learn how, for heaven’s sake, to project a situation with impact, to interpret a script with gusto, liveliness, vigor, vitality, and authentic substance. That’s tough. It’s probably a self-learning process or a native instinct. It can be taught, but I’ve found that too many people who say they want to become better comic artists are not particularly enamored of being taught anything.

Sprang’s 1988 re-creation of his cover for Batman #20 (Dec. 1943-Jan. 1944). [©2002 DC Comics.]

Rides Again facility in handling a brush or pen. The trick is the simplest thing in the world. You pencil a curved line. Then you have to ink it. Well, it’s easy to draw that line with a pencil; you know where you’re going from start to finish, and if you foul up, you can erase and correct. With the curved line perfectly penciled, take up a #2 brush, wet it and stroke it to a fine point on your scrap paper, then try to exactly ink the pencil line. If you attempt to ink along the line while watching your brush point, it will wobble. You’ll be noodling it and have to white out the jiggles.

An old newspaper artist taught me how to ink that curved line cleanly. You put your brush tip on the beginning of the penciled line (I find it best to stroke from left to right) and focus your eye on the line about an inch ahead of the brush. Never look at the tip of the brush. Now move your brush toward the point of your eye focus, and at the same time keep moving your focus along the line a steady inch ahead of your following brush. Your eye will inform your hand that the curve is there and the brush will reproduce the line exactly, but it won’t if you look directly at your moving brush tip. When you look ahead on the penciled line, that line between your eye and the brush is already a memory, and through the magic of visual memory/motor coordination, you’ll ink a beautiful line.

It’s the easiest thing in the world.

I show this and other technical tricks to aspiring artists, and they’re impressed, but too many of them don’t seem to want to try them, or trying them the first time, fail and quit. Hell, it takes practice and, in this case, a truly blind confidence that practice will engender. Well, okay. I don’t blame them for resisting. There are easier ways of making a living than being a comic artist, I’ll tell you that much. But I won’t tell you what they are, because I never found out. [laughter]

Dick Sprang juxtaposed with panels from six different “Batman” stories, in a montage composed by Ike Wilson in the late ‘80s.

[Photo ©2002 Ike Wilson; art ©2002 DC Comics.]

15

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18

Spotlight On DICK SPRANG part two

The “Good” Batman Artist

by Max Allan Collins [This article originally appeared in CFAAPA #13, Sept. 1988, and is ©2002 Max Allan Collins.]

It seems fitting that Dick Sprang’s limited return to Batman in recent years has been with a series of paintings based upon his own classic covers. After all, that was the way Carl Barks returned to Donald Duck, and Sprang is to the caped crusader what Barks is to Walt Disney’s foul-tempered fowl.

I owned one of those lovely Sprang paintings for a time, but sold it a year or two ago. I’d had the painting—Batman and Robin fighting thugs atop a suspension bridge at night (I’ll leave it to the collectors to pin down which Batman cover that is)—framed and hanging in my office, near my desk. But, frankly, my unhappy experience as the writer of the Batman comic book made the Sprang painting’s presence an intolerable reminder of a glorious assignment gone wrong.

Very little good came of my brief Batman tenure. I was signed for a year’s worth of scripts, but quit mid-way. A good number of readers hated my approach—which was a reversion to the Sprang era humor-tinged adventure (not camp) of the late ’40s and ’50s. I wrote very good Batman scripts (one of the best, a Joker story, has never been published), but I was subjected to editorial tampering and a succession of inappropriate artists, with the notable exceptions of Norm Breyfogle and Denys Cowan.

I did have the opportunity to write two brief articles about Batman, which were published in lieu of letters pages, and was able to express my opinions about the greatest “Batman” artist of them all, Dick Sprang. I said, among other things, that “Sprang’s A 1990s photo of Max Allan Collins (writer of, among many other things, the graphic novel wonderfully exaggerated, perspective-bending style” was “as The Road to Perdition, the ultimate source of the recent hit movie—and before that the vibrant and dynamic a vehicle for the dark-night detective as the longtime scripter of the Dick Tracy comic strip)—juxtaposed with the Dick Sprang art he Batmobile itself.” In discussing the Batman/Dick Tracy formerly owned, a re-creation of the cover of Batman #76 (April-May 1953). This was connection, I mentioned that Sprang—while obviously influenced apparently Sprang’s very first cover re-creation. [Art ©2002 DC Comics.]

by Tracy creator Chester Gould—was a more fluid artist than Chet; I’ll add now that Sprang’s line—while as wonderfully work—it’s too much like the despised TV show. (Never mind that, thick/thin as Chet’s—is more supple, and his camera angles more daring. without that TV show and the resulting rekindling of interest in comics, Both Gould and Sprang mingle caricature and illustration in a manner our hobby might be history.) perfect to the larger-than-life villains that plague their respective detecI do have a Sprang original in my collection. Years ago, I stumbled tives. across some early strip artwork (Swinnerton stuff, primarily) and traded When I was growing up, I thought (like most of you, I’d wager) that it for material that was more up my alley; I had one particularly tough Sprang’s work was that of Bob Kane. While the fans of Carl Barks (at trade with an older collector who was incredibly paranoid that he might least those over age eight) knew very well that “Walt Disney” wasn’t make the wrong deal. To get anything out of this guy, you had to be drawing Donald Duck, Batman fans like me had every reason to believe stupidly generous or the deal wouldn’t come off. He had a Sprang that Kane was really drawing Kane. Later, as I began getting hip enough “Batman” page and I gritted my teeth and let him have a Swinnerton (a to art styles to realize several hands were at work here, I began assuming Little Tigers and Bears or whatever, a four-panel square daily). I that the good “Batman” stuff was Kane’s, and the rest ghosted, never thought I was getting taken (and, truth be told, that Swinnerton would realizing that the work I identified as “clearly Kane” was inevitably still be pretty valuable). But I had no idea at the time that Sprang Sprang.

“Batman” originals were so hard to come by. That page (which is a beauty from the late ’40s) will never leave my collection.

I don’t remember, exactly, when I first heard Sprang’s name. Not all that long ago—I have a feeling it was George Hagenauer who wised me The best thing, incidentally, that came from my brief association with up (as he so frequently does), which means probably sometime in the Batman was to receive several nice letters from Dick Sprang—telling me ’70s. It’s gratifying to see Sprang’s name becoming widely known in the that my scripts were exactly the kind of “Batman” stories he field, although I fear the knuckleheads who consider the Neal Adams liked to draw. and Frank Miller versions of Batman definitive will bridle at Sprang’s Better vindication I couldn’t ask.

Spotlight On DICK SPRANG part three

19

The Greatest Batman Artist Who Ever Lived!

A Paean of Praise—and News about a Book You Probably Never Heard Of

by Bob Koppany Yes, I’m him.

That guy who wrote a book about the greatest “Batman” artist who ever lived.

What book, you’re wondering? Which artist, you’re asking yourself?

I’m not surprised most people don’t know the book. DC Comics only allowed me to print 200 copies of the book, after I spoke with three lawyers about it for more than two hours. And I wasn’t allowed to sell them—I had to give them away! The books ended up going to libraries, collectors, and friends. That’s why the book instantly became the rarest Batman collectible ever produced. That’s why the book was bringing over $1000 less than six months after it was printed. I myself have a standing offer to buy back these books at market rate for an impromptu list of collectors (over thirty in line currently) who wanted a copy, but not one book has come my way for redistribution.

Let me tell you about this book, the Holy Grail of Batmania that you’ve probably never heard about, let alone seen. Its title is The Art of Richard W. Sprang. Dick Sprang. Yes, I know, what a quirky “comic” name. You may never have heard of him, either, but I’ll get to that shortly.

Dick Sprang signs copies of The Art of Richard W. Sprang on Dec. 1, 1998, at the home of editor Bob Koppany. Bob’s lovely wife Marguerite Harning is seen at right, and Sprang’s agent Ike Wilson at left... but alas, Bob doesn’t seem to have had any photos taken of himself with the artist! “This,” Ike says with regret, “is the last time I ever saw Dick. Since [his wife] Marion was ill and Dick apparently had cancer, we never got together for another convention.”

[Photo ©2002 B. Koppany III.]

200 copies plus sixteen publisher’s proofs were printed, and that’s it. That’s Dick Sprang’s legacy. That’s the notice for future generations that he walked the Earth, and what he left behind.

Let me go into detail about what’s in this book. The first 38 pages cover his early years growing up in Ohio, his comic and art influences, high school, art correspondence, and work he did for newspapers. Then he went to New York and became an artist for the pulps, and even wrote some pulp stories, mainly westerns. Forty pages in the book cover these years of Sprang’s life. Then we get to his work at DC, covering twenty pages or so. Sprang talks about the people at DC, and his work, a bit. In 1948 he left New York for Arizona, and settled in Sedona.

The book was 272 pages, hardback. In its pages there are 174 illustrations, 68 He was still producing stories for DC but started his first of which cover his love, exploring. Believe it or not, that’s what he’s known for. years at DC (from He explored parts of Arizona, Utah, and Colorado that few 1941 through 1963 people had explored before. He literally carved the paths and beyond sporadithat turned into the roads that traverse that region. He cally until 1998), found Anasazi (also know as the Cliff Dwellers) Indian with 63 illustrations The “cover page” of the Sprang/Koppany tome—except that the ruins that no one knew about before. For those of you in full color. The white framing area shown here printed as black on the actual book. Its Civil War scene was one of several samples Sprang used unfamiliar with the Anasazi, they were native to the book discusses to land work in the pulp magazines in the late ’30s. No wonder he Southwest in the 1300s or so. Anasazi artifacts are Sprang’s life, his got the job! (“The sword,” he told Bob, “was authentic. It’s my considered to be national treasures and it is illegal to remove work, and everygreat-great-uncle’s.”) [©2002 Richard Sprang estate.] them from America. Vases that were sold before legislation thing in between. It to protect them brought hundreds of thousands of dollars. came out in Sprang’s name is legend among pioneers of the American Southwest. His November of 1998, with Sprang himself signing every one. Then, a year correspondence and explorations are in the Utah Historical Society. and a half later, in May of 2000, at the age of 82, Dick Sprang died. Only

20

The Greatest Batman Artist

That’s what Sprang is known for today... not really as a “Batman” artist.

Anyway, getting back to the book: there are about 20 pages dealing with Sprang’s river explorations, and then we get back to his artistic work. Approximately 20 pages are about technique and his approach to drawing, then back once more to DC. Over 80 pages deal with his work for DC, with a digression here and there. This covers some of the re-creations he started doing in 1986. If you follow original art auctions, you must have seen the one on eBay on July 4, 2002, where there were ten Sprang re-creations posted. The smallest one, a portrait of Batman and Robin, went for $2340. Most of the re-creations went from $4320 to $6600, with the original art from two complete stories from the late 1940s bringing $33,600 and $36,000, respectively. If you collectors kick yourselves for not buying a Carl Barks Ducks painting for $2000 back in the ’70s that bring well over $100,000 now, you’ll be kicking yourself again when you realize what Sprangs will be bringing within a few years, compared to the few thousands they can be had for today at auction.

If you happen to see one of these color re-creations, you’ll see that the color alone is spectacular. Sprang started doing re-creations in the mid-1980s. He colored them with ordinary markers, but the color is applied so evenly that it looks as if it had been applied by a machine press. People to whom I have showed these re-creations are amazed that the color is by markers and think it looks “like a great print.” “That’s no print” is my response with a wry smile. “That’s an original.” But you’ll see that for yourself if you ever see a re-creation. They’re amazing!

Now, you may be asking yourself, why is the art from this guy I’ve never heard of bringing so much money?

Because he’s the greatest “Batman” artist who ever lived! That’s why.

I know... I know.... That’s quite a statement to be throwing out when you consider how many artists have drawn “Batman,” but I can easily justify this statement. First of all, Sprang drew “Batman” almost from Day #1, when there were only Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, and Jack Burnley drawing the hero. However, it is easy to see that Sprang was the artist who defined Batman. If you ever liked Batman, you have to thank Sprang for taking Kane’s rough and almost stick-like figure and giving it character, drama, and personality, laying the groundwork to turn Batman into the character of the night we know today. Sprang was the one who did that. Not Kane, not even Robinson, not anybody else. Sprang. You can only go so far with the great scripts of Bill Finger from the 1940s, and it was Sprang who took the ball and ran with it.

Sprang worked for over twenty years, day in and day out, doing “Batman.” Who else did that? Sure, take any artist who drew “Batman” from 1939 up until today. Who did 20-year stretches on “Batman”? No one else. Not Sheldon Moldoff, not Kane (who had multiple people ghosting for him as soon as he could find a lounge chair to kick back in while others did his work). Not anybody else but Dick Sprang. And Sprang was consistently superb. He did the pencils for “Batman” with

This double-page (or, as the pulp editors called it, “double truck”) spread was done for Popular Western, a pulp mag from the 1930s, and appears—like most other illustrations accompanying this article—in The Art of Richard W. Sprang. This copy was provided by Ike Wilson. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

Charles Paris doing the inking, and the result was excellent. Better than excellent—it was great!

Most comics fans never looked exclusively for Sprang’s work. Well, try a little research experiment. Go to a comic store. Look at the issues reprinting the great “Batman” stories of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that DC has on the shelves today. You’ll find many examples of Sprang’s work there. And you’ll quickly learn that most of the great stories are by Sprang. Or, go buy copies of the Batman Giant Annuals and the 80page Batman Giants of the ’60s, which are still a bargain to acquire.

And if you pursue it further, you’ll find out that he was the first person to draw The Riddler, and the first Supergirl (for the few issues he did that weren’t Batman-related). He also did the cover for Detective Comics #100 and the first Batman Annual cover. Most of his art went into issues of Detective, Batman, or the Superman/Batman team-ups in World’s Finest Comics. If you look at his work, you’ll see an architectural rendering that is almost mechanical in execution. Lines are amazingly straight, deep perspective in almost every panel to heighten the drama, with art complementing the story brilliantly. It’s exquisite.

Sprang is on a level with Will Eisner for graphic storytelling. But don’t take my word for it. Others feel the same. In this book on Sprang are articles of appreciation by former DC editor Mike Gold, comics historian Roger Hill, Ike Wilson (Sprang’s agent), and writer Mike W. Barr.

Okay. You now know the artist by name. So you’re asking yourself why he is still virtually unknown. As you will see, most of Sprang’s work had Bob Kane’s name on it, as he was “ghosting” for Kane. But everyone could tell Sprang’s work. Sprang said that he was happy getting the paycheck from DC, and that was all that mattered. Getting $33 a day for penciling one page of art during the early 1940s was to live like a king. It was great pay. And Sprang was worth every penny. Especially as his meticulousness never caused him to miss a deadline. Everyone loved him at DC. Let’s go back to the book for a few seconds. I myself always knew who he was, but never his name, until an illustration came out in Detective #427 in the late 1980s with a large banner entitled “Dick

Who Ever Lived

21 say, “Dick Sprang thanks you for liking his work,” but the book needed to be done, errata and all.

And I’m glad I did it.

A mid-’40s photo of Sprang at his drawing board—and the cover | art to CFA-APA #13 (Sept. 1988), the issue of the apa-zine (founded

by Roger Hill) devoted to Sprang’s work. This was a re-creation of the cover of Detective Comics #113 (July 1946). [Photo & art re-creation ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; all rights reserved.

Batman & Robin TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Sprang Remembers.” Finally I had a name to go with the art. Once I realized that Sprang was the “Batman” artist, I contacted DC, as I figured Sprang was still alive. Theneditor Denny O’Neil gave me Sprang’s address so I could write to him. I got a return note from Sprang, and later on his agent put me on a list for re-creations. At the time there was a ten-year waiting list for Sprang’s work. It took me seven years to get to the top of the list. I made my requests, and got two doublesized and conceptual pages by Sprang that are in my office and still make me smile when I see them.

But it bothered me that no one knew who Dick Sprang was. The greatest “Batman” artist ever, keeping a low profile.

Bob Kane had the reputation of promoting himself shamelessly at the drop of a hat, but not Sprang. I started asking people why there wasn’t a book on Dick Sprang. A few people mentioned doing something on Sprang sometime in the future, but no one did. It looked like a football lying on the ground that everyone was afraid to pick up and do something with.

So I finally did. I spent two years gathering the interviews and articles, then spent $20,000 printing the book. Twenty thousand dollars of my own money, and I had to give the books away. All the color illustrations were printed on an industrial Argus Chromapress with a resolution of 2480dpi.

Not a cheap book. I keep joking that it would have been cheaper to give everyone a $100 bill and

One of several re-creations done by Sprang showing his version of the scene drawn by Bob Kane and assistants as the cover of Batman #1 in 1940, as seen in The Art of Richard W. Sprang. [Art ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; Batman & Robin TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

But the goal wasn’t to create the rarest DC collectible this side of the Superman signet ring giveaway from the 1940s. It was to make Sprang known to more people. To give people an item showing them Sprang’s versatility and artistic corpus. Yet the people who got copies of the book quickly put them into hiding, and didn’t even write much about Sprang or tell people about him.

I was hoping DC would want to reprint the book, which I would gladly hand over freely with no fees or strings attached, but not a peep came from them. The powers-thatbe even shortsightedly gave away to a historian the archive copy I sent to DC. Anyway, now you know the story of the unknown “Batman” artist, Richard W. Sprang. The greatest “Batman” artist who ever lived. And I hope you see his work for yourself, for you will see that I am not understating his greatness. What you definitely should do, once you learn more about Sprang, is to let DC know that they should do something along the lines of a Dick Sprang Archives. At least, you can tell your collecting friends a bit of DC trivia by asking them, “Know who the best ‘Batman’ artist that ever lived was?”

Chances are good that you’ll surprise them with that tidbit of knowledge.

Should you want to join the waiting list of people who may possibly never get a copy of the book, please let me know by contacting me: Dr. Robert Koppany, 4840 W. 123rd St., Hawthorne, CA 90250-3514; telephone (310) 679-5064. I believe Dick Sprang’s agent, Ike Wilson, has a few tracings and other sketches available (unsigned by Sprang but with a letter of authenticity) and can be reached at 2904 Rankin Terrace, Edmond, OK 73013; telephone (405) 340-1905, or via e-mail at <iwilson444@aol.com>.

22

Spotlight On DICK SPRANG (Interlude #1)

Comics Master

Alex Toth...

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning this issue—or maybe it actually started with his cogent remarks on Lou Fine two issues ago—we’re proud to announce that the commentary of the one and only Alex Toth will become a regular feature in Alter Ego, appearing in most issues of this mag—like, we hope, forever! Alex, who’ll probably disown this grandiose introduction, is widely acknowledged as one of the finest artists/storytellers in the history of the comics medium, from his “Green Lantern,” “Justice Society,” “Johnny Thunder,” et al., in the later 1940s, through the day after yesterday. We’ve invited him to have his say about various subjects and creators featured in A/E, or pretty much anything else—including his own work, any time he cares to—and he’s graciously consented to do so. He’s given his column the tentative/temporary title of “WHO CARES? I DO!” (I like it.)

[This time around, to make up for a Tothless A/E #18, we’re presenting two of his columns in tandem—the first, general comments on comics artists and their style and on the overall comics field... and the second, starting on p. 24, pertinent to Batman, a character he’s drawn from time to time, including in the gorgeous Batman: Black and White book of a few years ago.

Enjoy! —Roy.]

Background art on these two pages ©2002 Alex Toth

Who Cares? I Do!

23

On Comics In General...

Alex Toth at an AcmeCon panel in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1985. Photo taken Teresa R. Davidson; with thanks to TRD & Jim Amash.

In A/E #19 we printed a Zorro color illo of Toth’s, though necessarily in black-&-white. We figured that, since Zorro was an acknowledged forerunner of Batman, it might be appropriate to feature a line-art version of Alex’s illo here, and to juxtapose it with a 2002 Toth sketch with the artist’s appended comment. Both courtesy of Toth fan-supreme Al Dellinges. [Art ©2002 Alex Toth; Zorro TM & ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

24

Alex Toth

...And BATMAN In Particular!

[Text continued on p. 26] Love that “Batman” lettering! Thanks to Al Dellinges.

[Art ©2002 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Who Cares? I Do!

25

(Above:) One of the most dynamic pin-ups yet! This illo was featured in the 1999 book Toth Black & White, edited by Manuel Auad. A few copies of the Deluxe (Limited Edition) hardcover of this rightly-acclaimed volume remain, and can be ordered at <manuel@auadpublishing.com>. This one was a classic the day it was published! [Art ©2002 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

(Above:) Remember when Superman and Batman were buddies? Here, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art (provided by David G. Hamilton), are Toth’s pencils for a tale of “your two favorite heroes... in one adventure together” (as they used to say in World’s Finest Comics) a couple of decades back—only it’s actually from Superman Annual #9 in 1983! [©2002 DC Comics.]

(At right:) And when TV got into the act, even girls were allowed to join the club, as in this Toth storyboard panel. Thanks to Al Dellinges.

[Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman ©2002 DC Comics.]

26

Alex Toth

[Art ©2002 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Previously Unpublished Art ©2002 Frank Brunner

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation!

Contact Frank directly for details and prices.

(Minimum order: $150) Write now (be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope!) and receive FREE with my reply an autographed Brunner “Star Wars Galaxy” trading card!

Contact the artist at his NEW address:

FRANK BRUNNER 312 Kildare Court Myrtle Beach, SC 29588 Visit my NEW website at: http://www.frankbrunner.net

Red Sonja TM & ©2002 Red Sonja Properties, Inc.

Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations!

Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome!

www.twinearthbooks.com

28

Spotlight On DICK SPRANG (Interlude #2)

Batman During The “Sprang Era” A Quick Overview of Dick Sprang’s Contemporaries in the Bat-Arena Text by Roy Thomas While Richard W. Sprang is undeniably one of the best and most important “Batman” artists of the 1940s and 1950s, he was, of course, not the only person drawing the Caped Crusader during that period.

Among his peers were the following talented stalwarts:

BOB KANE conceived the idea of Batman in 1939, even if many (including Ye Editor) feel that writer Bill Finger should be officially acknowledged as the hero’s co-creator. Kane worked on the feature either in comic books or newspaper strips through 1968... at first with the penciling assistance of Jerry Robinson and the inking of George Roussos. This 1970s “specialty piece” seems to be pure Kane, sold in a Sotheby’s auction in the ’90s. It makes everybody look like one big happy family, doesn’t it—as if the Dynamic Duo and their most famous antagonists were enemies only when the comic book “cameras” were rolling! [Art ©2002 estate of Bob Kane: Batman, Penguin, Joker, & Robin TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

This second drawing, a humorous self-portrait sold at auction in 1998, was drawn by Kane on his stationery for a fan named Margie—who clearly had never seen him. [Art ©2002 estate of Bob Kane; Batman, Robin, & Joker TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

JERRY ROBINSON, who is interviewed on our flip side primarily about his friend and colleague Fred Ray (who also drew Batman from time to time in this era), soon branched out on his own as a fullfledged artist on “Batman” covers and stories, and is commonly considered one of the best of the brood. He worked on the hero, alone or in tandem with Kane and/or inker George Roussos, from 1939-45, before moving on to other pastures, first in comic books, then in newspaper strips; he has also written books about the history of the comics field. An interview with the artist is scheduled in an upcoming issue of this magazine. This cover for Detective Comics #68 (Oct. 1942) is one of Ye Editor’s personal favorites. [©2002 DC Comics.]

LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ drew “Batman” stories but virtually no other features for National/DC from 1946-53, and was one of Bob Kane’s most prolific ghosts. The tale whose splash is printed at left is one of his bestremembered efforts, partly because the mystery man turned out to be The Joker, in a story which revealed secrets behind the crime clown’s origin. It appeared in Detective Comics #168 (Feb. 1951), and was inked by Charles Paris. An interview with Lew Schwartz by Comic Book Artist editor Jon B. Cooke is scheduled for an early issue of Alter Ego. [©2002 DC Comics.]

The “Sprang Era” JIM MOONEY, better known for his long stints on “Supergirl” and a 1940s “Robin” series in Star Spangled Comics (and on Amazing Spider-Man at a later date), also drew numerous “Batman” stories in the ’40s and ’50s. This splash from Batman #56 (Dec. 1949-Jan. 1950) has been repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. It may very well have been inked by Charles Paris. [©2002 DC Comics.]

29 WINSLOW MORTIMER began drawing “Batman” stories for World’s Finest Comics and Batman in 1945, and soon became a major DC cover artist. In 1946 he inked two Sunday storylines in the Batman and Robin newspaper strip, later illustrating the strips David Crane (1956-60) and Larry Brannon (1961-68) before returning to draw comic books for DC and Marvel. The art below, repro’d from a 1998 Sotheby’s catalog, was intended for Batman #79 (Oct.-Nov 1953) but was never published, perhaps due to the guillotine, since in 1953 the anti-comics crusade was in full swing.

Un-inked blue-pencil lettering over Robin’s head reads: “For accusing ye town official of GRAFT.” Unless another has turned up since, this is the earliest unpublished Batman cover known. [©2002 DC Comics.]

SHELDON MOLDOFF briefly assisted Bob Kane on the brand new “Batman” feature in 1939, performing routine assistance rather than actual artwork, before moving on to draw “Hawkman” in Flash Comics for several years. From 1953-68, however, he became Kane’s principal artistic ghost on “Batman.” Below are a commission sketch of Robin and Bat-Hound, and a page from perhaps Shelly’s most famous “Batman” outing, “Robin Dies at Dawn!” The latter was written by Bill Finger for Batman #156 (June 1963); this page is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art provided by Jerry K. Boyd. The 1993 sketch was likewise sent by Jerry, courtesy of Dick & Cindy Swan and their German shepherd, Shadie. [Sketch art ©2002 Sheldon Moldoff; “Robin Dies at Dawn!” art ©2002 DC Comics; Batman, Robin, & BatHound TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Naturally, there were several others who drew “Batman” continuity during this time, including most notably Jack Burnley (covers and the newspaper strip). Some of Jack’s Batman work can be seen in our flip side. And Carmine Infantino started penciling the Caped Crusader around the time Sprang drew his last “Batman.” If you’re known by the company you keep—small wonder that Batman has been either near or at the top of the super-hero heap for more than sixty years and counting!

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Spotlight On DICK SPRANG part four

Partners In Time An Interview with the Classic “Batman” Team of DICK SPRANG and CHARLES PARIS Conducted by Ike Wilson

Transcribed by Jim Amash

[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I used to put on comic book conventions for Mark Austin’s Acme Comics in Greensboro, North Carolina—the city where Charles Paris was born. In November of 1989 I was privileged to have both Dick Sprang and Charles Paris as guests. As it turned out, this was the only comic-con where these two longtime artistic collaborators—penciler and inker of many a “Batman” tale— ever appeared together. I had so much to do during the AcmeCon that I asked Dick’s art agent and close friend, Ike Wilson, to moderate the panel with those two gentlemen. What follows is a well-rounded discussion about comics and the first Batman movie, with my personal favorite “Batman” art team. —Jim.]

(Left to right:) Inker Charles Paris, moderator Ike Wilson, and artist Dick Sprang at the AcmeCon panel, 1989. Photo by Teresa R. Davidson; courtesy of TRD & Jim Amash.

DICK SPRANG: [who was already speaking when the tape started] ...and I wasn’t getting anywhere. In 1936 I made up some samples and went to New York City. I tried to break into magazine illustration, mainly the pulp magazines... the western, detective, sports, pulp magazines. That went along pretty well for two or three years. While reading some of the scripts I was to illustrate, I decided to try my hand at writing some pulp stories, and so I did. And that worked; I sold about thirty of them. Then I could see that the pulps were going down the stream and the comic books were coming on.

I could also see that New York City was not a place I wanted to live in after World War II. I figured the only thing I could do was to get a job as a ghost artist on a major comic strip. I didn’t care to create my own. I went to DC Comics [then National Periodical Publications] and I caught on. I worked in New York until 1946; then I left and moved to Arizona and have been there ever since. And up to the time I retired, I did it all by mail. I would send my pencils to New York, they would send them to Charlie in Tucson. We lived about, what, 300 miles apart?

[Charles Paris agrees.]

We never met during that period, but he would ink my pencils and send them to New York. So we didn’t become enemies because we never had close contact, you see. [audience laughs] But I’m telling you that if anyone would ever make an enemy out of an inker of the quality, skill, and vitality of Charley Paris, that penciler would have been crazy, because Charley is the best in the business. Absolutely!

IKE WILSON: Okay, Charley, how did you get started in comics?

CHARLES PARIS: I was going to the Grand Central School of Art,

The Sprang/Paris splash for the cover story in Batman #81 (Feb.March 1954), repro’d from the mostly black-&-white 1971 book Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. [©2002 DC Comics]

studying under Harvey Dunn, who was a very famous illustrator. Some of the fellows in that class were working for DC at that time, so I knew them there. Every year in the spring, after school was out, Dunn would have a cookout for the students and past students. It was at one of those that [comic artist] Jack Lehti asked me if I’d like to be his inker. I had to ask him what an inker was, because I was in the department store display at that time. He told me and advised me to keep my job while he taught me how to ink. I inked for him for about two or three months, when he told me I could quit my job. From then on, I was into comics; I just fell in the back door.

IW: Charley, what was it like to work in the DC bullpen? Who were some of the other pencilers you inked? Did you influence each other or bounce ideas off of each other?

PARIS: We discussed things. Cliff Young was in the bullpen and was doing “Green Lantern.” Alex Brodie [NOTE: Did he mean Steve Brodie? —Jim.], whom Dick knew up in Sedona... he was inking stuff.

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Some of the most dynamic pre-Sprang Batman covers were rendered by Jerry Robinson—such as Detective Comics #66 (by Robinson with George Roussos inks) and #69 (full art by Robinson). [©2002 DC Comics.]

George Roussos was doing the backgrounds on “Batman,” and Jerry Robinson was doing the figures. Raymond Perry was in charge of coloring at that time. I was there, Stan Kaye was in the next desk...

Freddy Ray, Jerry Robinson. There was a change because World War II came along and a lot of guys were being drafted, so the staff changed from time to time.

It was a great experience to work in the bullpen with those people. I was able to ask them how to proceed because I didn’t know anything about this business, really. When Jack Lehti was called into the service and Whit Ellsworth, who was the head editor there, put me in the bullpen... he put me to work inking Lee Harris’ strip called “Air Wave.”

Then Lee was called into the service and they gave the strip to George Roussos, then put me to inking Mort Meskin’s stuff [e.g, “Vigilante”].

He was a great, great penciler, too, and was patient with me. He was one of the best in the business.

You’re probably going to ask me how we got together, so go ahead right now. [audience laughter] IW: [to Sprang] Well, how did you feel about Charley inking your pencils?

SPRANG: I felt wonderful. Until I saw them, well, naturally a penciler gets a little worried about what an inker will do to his all mighty creations, you know. But that turned out to work as beautifully as ever could be expected. I always did a very tight, detailed pencil job of not only the construction of objects and figures, but also the line shading and paid great attention to any background detail such as lamp posts or the mechanics of some of those huge machines that Bill Finger dreamed up.

He was one of the great writers of the comics. And I provided these to my inker, and while it denied the inker some creativity in regards to putting himself into the rendition, Charley didn’t seem to mind that at all.

But his great creativity was the vigor of his inked lines. He had a masterful control of the most difficult inking instrument there is, which is a sable brush. It comes to a fine point and you use a number three or a number two or sometimes even a number one brush. That’s awfully hard to master. Charley is the ultimate master of that particular brush [Note: Dick is talking about a Winsor-Newton sable brush. —Jim.] and his work just made my pencils sing, and I’m eternally grateful to Charley for the fine job he did.

I felt absolutely no regrets once I saw that this man, whom I met only once in the hallway at DC or in Whit’s office, just long enough to say hello to, that he was doing my work. I paid him great silent respect.

Today, I’m paying him verbal respect at long last.

IW: Didn’t Charley once say that the job of an inker was to follow the penciler’s intentions?

SPRANG: That’s an astute statement.

IW: What was it like inking Dick’s pencils as opposed to some of the other artists’ you were inking?

PARIS: It was very great to work on his stuff, because I never had any doubt as to what he wanted me to do with his pencils. I certainly couldn’t say that about some of the other pencilers I inked. I don’t think there was ever any criticism from the office when I turned the stuff in.

Nothing ever had to be changed.

Some of these other guys’ stuff would come in and I’d wonder, “What is that supposed to be? What am I supposed to do with it?”

Sometimes I didn’t know, but that wasn’t the case with Dick’s stuff. He laid it out beautifully and I’d simply try to do the best job that I could on his pencils. It was a great pleasure to be able work with him, and to say this because after 40 years, we didn’t see each other. He lived in

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Sprang & Paris

Prescott and I lived in Tucson. We hadn’t seen each other until about two years ago.

That lady back there... would you stand up please, Marion? That’s Mrs. Sprang and she’s a tennis buff. She had Dick bring her down to watch a few tennis matches that were a few miles from where I lived and they stopped in to see me. Since then, we’ve seen quite a bit of each other, though most of our contact is through the telephone. [Sprang laughs] Now don’t get me started because I’ll go on and you never know where it’ll end.

IW: Dick, how difficult was it to make the transition from pulps to comics?

SPRANG: It was very drastic, because in the pulps we were using a highly shaded style that we called dry brush. Or we’d use a lithographic crayon on pebbled illustration board that’d give a half-tone effect. It was fun because it was very loose and slashing. In comics, we had to limit ourselves to a hard line. It was a great change but it wasn’t too difficult.

It was really simpler, because I wasn’t confronted with the problems of deciding the direction of light with the intensity that you had to do when you’re shading a bunch of gunfighters in a saloon, with one overhead lamp lighting them all with eighteen different shadows moving around. Comics were more simple. Today in comics, we’re seeing a lot of very intricate shading, which is a very good advance for the medium.

Dick & Marion Sprang with Acme Comics owner Mark Austin in the latter’s home in 1989. The lad behind Mark is Robert Millikin. Photo taken by Pocho Morrow; courtesy of Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson.

IW: I know that you put a lot of accuracy in your work. Exactly what kind of research did you do to make that work more authentic?

SPRANG: Well, I had extensive piles of newspapers and had a great file which we called a “morgue,” that we’d go to for almost any use. It was all indexed under almost every conceivable subject. I created my own file by clipping magazines and photos. If you want to draw a certain airplane, you have to make it correct. If you’re drawing the great temples of Egypt, you must make it correct. Our great editorial director, Whitney Ellsworth, insisted on this in a very quiet way. He said, “Look.

When a kid reads this comic and you go back in time (like some of the stories with Batman and Robin), they are looking at the architecture and the chariots or the Knights of the Round Table, we want it to be authentic. In that kid’s mind, there’s a authentic depiction of what’s being depicted, not some faked-out thing. Never fake it, Dick.” I said, “That’s right up my alley because I love research, especially historical research.” I attempted to do that.

As for some of the big machines that Bill Finger and Don Cameron dreamed up... my father was an electrical and mechanical engineer and I grew up in his factory shop where he was redesigning machinery all the time. Huge lathes, punch presses, drill presses, and so on. I became familiar with the principles of mechanical movement. So when Bill Finger would give me some godawful machine coming down the street with arms out in all different directions, I knew how to articulate those metal arms. There’s a certain mechanical joint that’s universally used for that purpose. I don’t think anybody, except for some engineer, would realize that the drawings were halfway authentic, because I couldn’t truly make it authentic. But research was fun and I got a kick out of it. In all of my work, about 75 or 80% of it was about as authentic as you could get... battleships, racing cars, airplanes, architecture... it was fun.

IW: Did Don Cameron come up with those timeperiod stories?

The Riddler first appeared in Detective Comics #140 (Oct. 1948), with art by Sprang & Paris. Repro’d from Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. [© 2002 DC Comics.]

SPRANG: Yes, he did. I don’t know how many he wrote and I wish I’d kept notes of that. He was very creative, and I want to tell you something else. We sit

An early-’40s photo of Charles Paris and his wife Phoebe, as seen in the book Batman: The Sunday Classics, 1943-46, of which more below. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

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Sprang did his homework! Not only does the Batmarine look serviceable in this splash from Batman #86 (Sept. 1954), as inked by Charles Paris—but, although the Dynamic Duo sport only air helmets on page 1, in the story they’re attired in realistic diving outfits. The intake pipe and aquarium have the air of reality about them, as well. At a 1994 comics convention Sprang told A/E reader Jerry K. Boyd wistfully: “I wish we could’ve worked the Batmarine into more stories.” The story was originally published as “The Undersea Batman!” Repro’d from Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. [©2002 DC Comics.]

here as artists and we get all the glory, but without a good story no artist will come across. He will attempt it, but it’ll fall flat. As Charley Paris once told me, “If a movie has a lousy script and they hire eight top stars to play in the thing, it’ll be a disaster. I don’t care who’s playing in it or how handsome they are, it’ll fall flat if there’s no story there.” It’s the same with comics, so my respect goes out to the writers. The great writers of the Golden Age and of today, and of course, there were excellent editors who guided us all.

IW: Unlike today, the writers back then didn’t get credit for their stories.

SPRANG: No. IW: Why do you think that was the case? Some of those writers still don’t get the credit they deserve.

SPRANG: They don’t know who they were. DC really has scant records of the Golden Age performers. I get questions from collectors and indexers all the time and I’m unable to answer them. I never kept a record of who wrote the stories, but I graciously remember Bill Finger’s and Don Cameron’s work because it was so unusual and they had such great visual sense. But it’s a tragedy that they aren’t remembered as well as they should be, and someday I think we’ll solve some of this. We have a lot of investigation going on and we haven’t contacted everyone yet.

But most of the old editors are dead. You have a very good point there, Ike. They should receive credit and they are not getting it.

IW: Charley, when I talked to you in San Diego, you made a comment about how you thought that the comics had a life of thirty days on the newsstands, and that was the feeling of most people back then. What is your reaction to the popularity of comics today when all the fans are just crazy about comics?

PARIS: I love it. There’s so much great stuff being done today, and I was telling you guys that I felt I couldn’t possibly make a living competing with those guys. I was sitting with Joe Kubert [another guest at the same convention], and seeing some of those other fellows out there. It’s just amazing the training the fellows are getting in order to compete. A lot of things we didn’t do, the new guys are going to in depth. A lot of the things that were published in those days simply wouldn’t get by today. I have a great admiration for what’s going on today and I’m happy we collaborated in the years that we did. I enjoyed that stuff, too.

I think a great deal of what is being done today adds a lot of validity to comics as an art form. I really think comics is one of the more valid forms today because of what’s going on in the fine art field that it’s reached a point where the notoriety of the artist is more important than his work. That’s a crock and I don’t have anything to do with it. I don’t have an agent anymore, and I paint for myself and I don’t care. [NOTE: For years, “Chaz,” as he preferred being called, did fine art paintings and widely exhibited that work. —Jim.] I see some guys grinning over there and they must be painters or artists. Are you? You’re not? But you dig what I’m saying, right? You

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Sprang & Paris much black because the paper was of such poor quality that if you put solid black on one side, it’d print through to the other side. [Dick agrees, as the audience laughs] Oh well....

IW: I think Dick once told me that you couldn’t make “Batman” dark and moody because they were trying to conserve black ink at one time.

SPRANG: I was told during the war to go easy on the blacks for the same reason that Charley just articulated to you. Also, because the darn ink cost a lot of money.

Vintage photos of Batman cocreator Bill Finger (top left) and Don Cameron (left), two of the best of the classic “Batman” writers, flanking a specimen of the gigantic apparati which Sprang says those two scribes used to “dream up” for him to draw—an oversize game room, complete with mammoth pool table and balls, from “Two-Face Strikes Again!” in Batman #81, inked by Charles Paris and repro’d from Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. The photos appeared in the gorgeous volume Batman: The Sunday Classics, 1943-46. [Art ©2002 DC Comics; photos ©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

know, I always thought Andrew Warhol was a great sign painter. He had a great nose for publicity because he wanted to be famous and he wanted to be rich and he was. The ashtrays he owned are auctioned for $12,000 apiece and it has nothing to do with his work. There was a time when you couldn’t give that stuff away. But the notoriety attached to these things and the attachments are celebrated, too. It’s gone a long way to establishing him as a public figure and I suppose he’s been a big influence on some people... I don’t know.

But everything changes. A fellow over here showed me some stuff that I didn’t know even existed in comic books.

What’s his name? Jon J. Muth? You seen his stuff?

Wow! That’s fine art stuff and it’s beautiful, imaginative watercolor work. That was unthought-of in our day and couldn’t have possibly been reproduced.

IW: At that time, you weren’t allowed as much freedom as today, were you?

PARIS: Oh no, man. They were yelling at you for putting too More Sprang research: several windmill sketches Sprang did for Detective Comics #248, plus that story’s splash page. The sketches were first printed in Bob Koppany’s The Art of Richard W. Sprang, and are used by permission of the publisher. “Batman” inks by Charles Paris. [Sketches ©2002 Richard Sprang estate; splash ©2002 DC Comics.]

PARIS: You’re talking printer’s ink, not the ink I used.

SPRANG: Oh, sure. Not for our own India ink... they weren’t worried about what that might cost

Partners In Time us. But they were a bit concerned on what it was costing them. They were printing millions and millions of copies every darn month, and the ink bill would get high. But black was short during the war, though Charlie’s reason was more authentic because it would print right through the page. We were limited. Sometimes, the press work was limited, too, because fine lines would be lost in the process, and they soon licked that, because even during the war, we had pretty good reproduction.

But you know, it was a brand new medium in the early ’40s. We were struggling with creating a long story as opposed to a Sunday newspaper strip or a page of individual Sunday strips. Well, how do you tell this long 12- or 13-page story? It was more of a problem for the writer than for the artist, though it was a challenge to everyone.

But anyways, they were great days.

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created. An example which comes to mind is Sherlock Holmes. What would he be doing in the 1980s? It’s ridiculous to try and bring him here.

IW: How would you change Batman if you were starting all over again, Charley?

PARIS: I never gave it any thought.

[An audience member asks how it happened that Sprang quit inking his own work.]

IW: Okay, I’m going to go ahead and take questions from the audience. Does anyone have any questions?

[A member of the audience asks what Sprang thinks about the changes in “Batman” over the years.]

SPRANG: Well, I would not change the original Batman after it was developed from the very first. The Batman from the early to mid-1940s delineated the character far better than is being done today. Batman was a gentler man in those times.

Sure, he had a motive to avenge his dead parents and he took to a life of overcoming criminal activities, but he did it through the medium of his athletic prowess and the drive of his intellect. He never killed anybody. He never used guns or knives such as he uses today. Violence concerned a fistfight... things like that. I think he was adequately defined then.

I was talking with Max Allan Collins about this and I made the statement that a lot of these heroes and historical fictional characters should remain in the age in which they were

Some of the earliest Batman and Robin newspaper dailies, inked by Charles Paris over Bob Kane pencils: the first and last strips of an introductory six-day sequence that was run in any newspaper the first week it picked up the feature—plus the very first continuity daily—and the French translation of the intro daily, as reprinted in a book collection from Futuropolis in the early ‘80s, nearly a decade before the strips were reprinted in the U.S. (For some reason, however, the Parisian company didn’t translate “Who Are They?” into French.) Bill Finger wrote the first continuity daily, and quite possibly the intro strips, as well. The strip lasted from Oct. 25, 1943, to Nov. 2, 1946. U.S. art is repro’d from the three-volume Batman: The Dailies, 1943-46, co-published in 1990-91 by DC Comics & Kitchen Sink Press, with excellent commentary by Joe Desris. [©2002 DC Comics.]

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Sprang & Paris PARIS: I first started working on the “Batman” feature when they made a newspaper strip of it. It’s my understanding that they offered you the strip first.

SPRANG: Yes, the whole thing, dailies and Sundays.

PARIS: You turned it down because you didn’t want to be tied to that tight a schedule.

SPRANG: Right.

PARIS: It was then offered to Jerry Robinson, and I have never asked Jerry his reasons for turning it down, but I have heard that it wasn’t a matter of money as I had first thought. It was a matter of recognition, because his name would not be on there. Jerry was the man who, in my opinion, first gave meaning and style to the character. As the feature became very popular, they turned to other artists like Dick and Jim Mooney and Lew Schwartz, who was in the employ of Bob Kane... he was ghosting Kane’s stuff before he went out on his own. It was Kane’s folly then. He was arrogant.

Whit then offered me the dailies and Sundays to ink. The dailies were drawn by Kane and the Sundays by Jack Burnley.

And if memory serves me correctly, I went to Jerry Robinson and asked him if it’d be all right with him if I took the job. He said, “Yes,” and I jumped at it because it immediately doubled my salary and got me out of the bullpen. I could work at The very first Sunday strip (for Nov. 7, 1943), with art by Bob Kane and Charles Paris, home and work all night with script probably by either Don Cameron or Joe Samachson. This Sunday was and sleep all day if I reproduced both in color and in black-&-white in the 1991 DC Comics/Kitchen Sink (Left to right:) Three Batman legends: Charles wanted to, as long as I volume Batman: The Sunday Classics, 1943-46. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Paris, Jerry Robinson, and Dick Sprang, not so made the deadlines. And many years ago. Evil-doers beware! Courtesy that was one of the great SPRANG: The way I remember it is that Whitney Ellsworth took me to of Ike Wilson. advantages in freelancing for lunch one day and said, “Dick, would you mind terribly if we had the comic books. You could someone else ink your work?” I said, “Well, no.” He said, “The reason work at your pace... go play golf in the morning, work all day and sleep I’m asking is that, if we could, it’d increase your pencil production and at night if you wanted. If you wanted to work all night and sleep all day, have more stories to publish.” you could do that, too.

You see, this was during the war years and they had a hard time They always had a job waiting for you when you called in to say you finding artists because they were being drafted. I said, “It’s okay with were bringing a job in. For an artist, it’s a hazardous profession at best, me. Who do you have in mind?” He didn’t tell me. I don’t think he really knew at the time. Before Charley really started to ink my stuff, some of it was inked by other men, who even today I couldn’t tell you who they were.

When Charley Paris came along, I said, “Okay,” because I knew of his reputation. He was a darn good artist. As I said earlier in this session, when I saw what he did, I was extremely pleased. And now, Charley, what’s your memory of how you came to ink my pencils?

Oddly, though both Sprang and Paris worked on the daily Batman and Robin, they never worked together on it. Sprang drew the brief storyline from Feb. 11 to March 23, 1946—but it was inked by Stan Kaye, while Paris inked (along with most of the rest of the strips) the stories surrounding it, which featured art by Jack Burnley and Bob Kane! [©2002 DC Comics.]

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but nobody’s trying to beat you out of your seat in the office. So I took this job and worked probably for three years or so before it was dropped. Only then did they offer Dick’s stuff to me and that’s how we became a team.

But at the same time, Jerry had left DC and I was inking Dick’s and the others’ work, trying to make it all look like it came out of the same ink pot. I could ink a page faster then they could pencil it.

IW: Dick, at the time when you were drawing comics, it was more geared towards kids. Now, it’s more geared towards adults. Do you think kids today are deprived because it’s not done the same way it used to be?

SPRANG: I think they are, but they’re also deprived of some of the wonderful innocence that kids used to have. I really don’t know, I don’t follow comics anymore, but I realize that different morals exist... a different outlook on life exists today. Look at how different movies were in the 1940s and the 1950s. It was sort of an age of innocence before World War II. I sort of regret it. If I’d had kids, I would have invited the old Batman to my home and would be happy if he played with my kids.

But if I had kids today, I wouldn’t invite today’s Batman to my home.

I wouldn’t even let him get on our block. He’s a violent character. He’s a nice guy when he’s Bruce Wayne, but when he’s barreling around with machine guns blazing, the heck with the guy. I hope DC isn’t listening anywhere... I may never get another assignment.

A Robin & Dick Grayson study penciled and inked by Dick Sprang, courtesy of Ike Wilson.

[Art ©2002 estate of Richard Sprang; Robin/Dick Grayson TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

But I do think something is missing. I’ll tell you one thing that is missing: the good, clean comics that Whit Ellsworth, Jack Schiff, and Mort Weisinger insisted upon. It wasn’t mawkish or Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm or The Bobbsey Twins. It was good, clean adventure stuff. Sure, kids don’t want to watch a Maypole dance being depicted; they want activity and ships at sea and dirigibles in a storm and Batman onto the dirigible... stuff like that. There’s no harm in that; it’s every kid’s mythos. It’s his dream to do all the things he saw in the early days of movies.

There was a movie called The Black Pirate, which was one of the first color films. Douglas Fairbanks was up on the mainmast of a great ship and he put his knife in the top of that sail and his body weight carried him right down to the middle of that deck. Ha! Do you remember that? One of the classics! That’s what we tried to bring to the comics.

Now, it’s dangerous if a kid tried to copy that, but not as dangerous as dropping somebody in a vat of acid, for God’s sake, as they had Batman do in the movie. I think some kids are deprived of their innocence, and sometime I’d like to talk to a roomful of kids about it.

I’d probably get laughed at... I don’t know.

IW: It’s an interesting question. How many of you saw the Batman movie, and how many of you think Batman deliberately dropped The Joker into a vat of chemicals? It’s hard to tell and I’m really not sure about that, but Dick is convinced he did.

SPRANG: I have some expert reasons behind my opinion. [laughter] PARIS: It just occurred to me. How many people think we get paid to sit here and do this? [A fair number of hands go up; both Sprang and Paris are amazed.] Really? Oh, come on! Well, I’m here to tell you that we don’t. We do get our expenses paid here. I really have no connection to comics anymore except through Dick and Ike here. I’m here because I have a brother sitting here. I was born here. I’m a native. You know, for a long time, this was a great way to make a living.

SPRANG: It sure was.

[An audience member comments that he had gotten interested in comics because of Dick Sprang; he appreciated these men coming and signing books.]

According to Ike Wilson, who furnished it to us and had reproduced it in CFA-APA #13 in 1988, this art from 1946 “is one of the earliest Sprang cover originals known to exist.” From the collection of Joe Desris. [©2002 DC Comics.]

PARIS: Well, you know, I feel a moral obligation to do that.

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Sprang & Paris

SPRANG: Sitting at the table in the other room, signing autographs, is an honor, for God’s sake. Because we were ghosts and nobody knew our names until just a few years ago. The biggest kick I get is when a man of your age comes up to me, reaches out his hand, and says, “Thank you for the good times you gave me when I was a kid.” That’s it! That someone enjoyed himself through my medium is great pay.

SAME AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, I know a lot of people just do this for a job. They probably enjoy doing it, but it’s really more of a career-oriented job. You guys didn’t do it for that reason.

SPRANG: We had to love to do it. If you don’t love your work, you aren’t going to get good results. In this highly creative work, if you can express yourself and you get good stories and you work for a good outfit that appreciates your efforts, that is a Dick Sprang must’ve not minded pleasure, dammit. That’s fun.

The reason I retired was that the bloom had gone off the rose. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. I was tired, burned out. That’s what happened. I did too damn much... too intensely. So

drawing Bat-Mite in the team-up, because, although Bob Kane ghost Sheldon Moldoff was the artistic originator of the masked imp, Sprang drew him in a mural design for the DC offices. Thanks to Ike Wilson. [©2002 DC Comics.]

I thought, “Gee, Sprang, it’s time to get out of this stuff because you’re going to go downhill. Why do it? Find something else.”

IW: What was it like working under the editorship of Whitney Ellsworth and Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff?

SPRANG: It was just great. They were gentlemen, every one of them. And they treated you with great respect, especially Whitney Ellsworth... a prince of a fella. Jack Schiff was a very intense man; smoked a pipe. A darn good copy editor. I received a lot of scripts that he had edited. Those scripts were typed like a movie script; doublespaced and even triple-spaced. There was plenty of room for adding words to a caption or a balloon or legend on the splash page.

And, having read so darn many of them, I really got to know Jack’s editing because he wrote with a very precise hand. He didn’t print; he wrote. You could read every darn letter, which was a great attribute as far as I’m concerned, because I can’t write my own name so anyone can read it.

Schiff would take an 18-word sentence and cut it down to a 9-word sentence that sang. Stuff like that, in order to reduce the size of a word balloon, which is a bane for an artist. Whitney told me about that once.

He said, “An artist was working for King Features and somebody else was writing the Sunday page. The balloons were so long and they were getting longer and deeper, so that one Sunday, the artist turned his page in to King Features and everybody in the panels was bent over at the waist and talking under the balloons.” [laughter] So anyway, we always appreciated Jack’s editing.

Now, Mort Weisinger was a controversial person. He was a large, imposing, well-spoken man. He knew the business inside out. He was a major editor at DC and wanted his own way. He wanted things done the way he thought they should be done, which is the prerogative of an editor. He’s the boss. If you want to work for him, then do it his way.

He didn’t ask you to sacrifice any of your great artistic integrity, which is a bunch of malarkey anyway, so far as I’m concerned.

You’re in commercial art. You’re doing commercial art for pay. It’s not gallery work. Some artists really disliked him because they did not do it his way. After two or three attempts, he’d read them off and took them off the assignment... the heck with ’em.

By the early 1960s Mort Weisinger edited the “Superman” titles and Jack Schiff the “Batman” books (though it was Whitney Ellsworth’s name that appeared in the indicia)... but Schiff handled the Superman/Batman team-ups. This Sprang splash from World’s Finest Comics #113 (Nov. 1960) was inked by Stan Kaye. Ye Editor was long amused by the stories’ logo, which referred to “Your Two Favorite Heroes, Superman and Batman and Robin.”

Didn’t anybody at DC ever really read it? [©2002 DC Comics.]

About ten years ago, I read some interviews about some of these guys who were asked about Mort, and you should read what they said about him. It’s ridiculous. They were just backbiting because of their own deficiency in being commercial people, so they took it out on Mort.

That’s crazy! He was one of the kindest men I ever knew. If he liked you, you were king. He didn’t necessarily like you because you did the work the way he wanted, although that was important. He liked a lot of people, which was why he was so darn popular. He did many things as a writer. He wrote for the great, slick magazines of the era, like the [Saturday Evening] Post, Collier’s, and Reader’s Digest. A very, very talented man and my dear good friend. I mourn his loss and I treasure his memory. So that’s what it was like to work under those guys. It was a helluva nice way to work.

Partners In Time IW: You once told me that when you did comics, it was almost like watching a silent movie, where you’d read what the script was and then you’d see the pictures.

SPRANG: Well, it’s awfully tough to articulate a subjective process like that, but it’s true. I’d get a script in the mail and read it right through, visualizing scenes as I read it. That was my job. If the writer was any (Above and right:) Two Sprang “trading cards” done for good, he’d make the hardcover Batman: The Sunday Classics, 1943-46. that visualiThanks to Ike Wilson. [©2002 DC Comics.] zation extremely easy, because he was to have that sense, just like any movie writer. Or a good architect or carpenter, who needs a good three dimensional sense of structure.

The next morning, I’d start drawing. By that time, my subconscious had soaked up what I was going to do. I knew the whole story. The individual panels had to flow with a certain continuity from panel to panel and from page to page.

Now, remember, we are talking about action stories. “Batman,” “Superman,” things of that nature.

What you try to do is to visualize your grouping as on a legitimate stage. Study good films... the best of the good films.

The best artwork was done by the great illustrators: N.C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn, under whom Charley studied and learned a great deal about dramatic compositions.

Or how in heaven’s sake to project a situation with impact, to interpret a scene with gusto, liveliness, vigor, and vitality... an authentic substance. Especially that.

All those things are necessary and it’s a self-learning process or a native instinct.

It’s hard to explain. The story should be seen as a man’s work. If I had the guts to put some of my pages on a big screen, it’d be so easy to show you exactly what I was talking about... what I did. Also, what N.C. Wyeth did, what Milton Caniff did, what Alex Raymond did... all these guys who were far better artists than I ever was. I liked to observe how they created their scenes.

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IW: I know both of you are big film buffs. Who would you say were the most influential directors and actors? What major films influenced you?

SPRANG: I think the man who started everybody off was D.W. Griffith, with Birth of a Nation. If you ever get a chance to see that thing... it’s a silent film, of course... the change of camera angles. He was the first man to use a closeup, and what did he use it for? For emphasis.

Here you have long scenes, medium shots, and all of a sudden, Pow! You’re thrown back in your seat. That’s how it was in his day.

Today, we see closeups and you can see the pores of even beautiful actresses. What for? The effect has been lost. Okay, so you go on from there up to the great action films of the ’20s and ’30s and then you come to something like Citizen Kane. It was a masterpiece of storytelling and camera work and great depth perception. The French film The Rules of the Game. There are many great American films. Some of the best westerns such as The Searchers were extremely well done. You like that one?

[Ike Wilson and Charles Paris agree.] Okay, you guys know that one. I won’t spoil it for the rest. That last scene: no dialogue. How more effective can you get?

Terrific!

Remember those things when you’re beginning to be a comic book artist.

Remember those films... remember Douglas Fairbanks coming down the sail. That’s what guides you to create.

Let me tell me you that’s there’s a danger and I see it today, in some of the modern comics. We used to exaggerate a panel; sometimes we’d go two panels deep on the right hand side and we’ve have to put an arrow in there to guide the eye and that was all right. Today, my God, they have arrows running this way and that way. As Charley Paris once said, “You need a darn road map to get through one page.” It’s true and I think it’s overdone because it’s stopping the reader. It’s stopping the flow of telling the story.

(At left:) In 1989 Charlie Roberts corresponded with inker Charles Paris about the possibility of his doing a Batman sketch. Paris felt he had to say no, since “I don’t even own an inking brush or bottle of India ink. Even were I able to overcome these obstacles, my drawing wouldn’t start to resemble the old Sprang-Paris figures—it would probably be more like this. There wouldn’t be any charge.” The pencil sketch Paris drew at the bottom of his letter is reproduced at approximately its actual size, courtesy of Charlie Roberts.

[Art ©2002 estate of Charles Paris; Batman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

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Sprang & Paris PARIS: I don’t think so. My first job was in a movie house here on South Elm Street called The Alamo. It’s long, long gone but it was a part of a chain that Paramount bought out. There were the Alamo, the Imperial, the National, and the Carolina Theatres, all of which were included in the same company and were of importance in that order. I worked for them for about seven or eight years and worked my way up to where I was working at the Carolina.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: What was the greatest science-fiction movie of your time?

PARIS: I’m still living, you know. [laughter] That’d be hard to say, but I was always a science-fiction buff and was very fond of Arthur C. Clarke’s stuff. My favorite thing of his was Childhood’s End. Was it ever made into a movie? I don’t think so, but it’s a great story. My feeling was that Clarke went to the Book of Revelations for the basic theme. If you read the book, there was a loose association there.

As for the movies, I guess 2001: A Space Odyssey has to be one of my favorites. I was fortunate to have a stepson at the time who turned me on to the book written after the movie was produced. Stanley Kubrick produced the movie. After they made the movie, Clarke wrote the novel. Then there’s an explanatory book written to explain how they did some of those effects. I read the books before I saw the picture so I understood perfectly what was going on in the movie.

But I don’t understand how anyone who didn’t read the book could know what the Obelisk was doing to the people. I felt in the closing scene, the pilot who survived... it was then his mission to go out and play God and create his universe according to his concept.

Anyone of the rest of you get that feeling? Did you?

[Someone says “No.”] No? Then see it again and use your imagination in that scene. What was the purpose of that man surviving, being kept after having gone through that black hole and sitting there after all that stuff? They didn’t put him there to vegetate, man. [laughter] Sprang varies closeups, medium shots, and long shots—even a POV (Point of View) shot— in this single page from “Two-Face Strikes Again!” Inks by Charles Paris; repro’d from Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Everyone has their favorite films and they may not be the same as mine. Action films, I mean. The Maltese Falcon, for instance: there’s not much action in it. But there’s always the threat of action, creating mood. It was very important there. The way the characters looked: Sidney Greenstreet as opposed to Peter Lorre... the great big guy and the little guy.

IW: Well, looks like that’s all the time we have. Thank you for coming, and let’s give Dick and Charley a big hand. [audience applauds]

This is what I used to do when I had secondary crooks in a scene, like The Joker’s henchmen. I’d make them all different shapes: tall, short, wide, medium. That keeps the reader visually alive, too. It’s better than doing the same darn thing every time. I learned that from films. The work of John Huston, the writing of Finley Peter Dunne, who was an excellent film writer who never got the credit he should have had. If you can get some of his scripts, read them. Great excitement in there... great visual excitement.

Everyone has their favorite films. If you’re really interested, the next time you go to a movie, watch closely at how transitions are made. You may not like them, but when you see something that really hits you, emotionally... all right... that’s what I’m talking about.

IW: Charley, do you have any films that particularly influenced you?

Dick Sprang (l.) and Charles Paris at their Acme Comics store appearance in Greensboro, NC, in 1989. Photo by Teresa R. Davidson; courtesy of TRD & Jim Amash.

CAPTAIN MARVEL JR.

The Post-War Years

Plus:

MARC SWAYZE’s “We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age”

[Captain Marvel Jr. panels by Kurt Schaffenberger from Master Comics #107, Sept., 1949. ©2002 DC Comics.]

No. 78

44

We Didn’t Know... yours or mine?”

We were comparing the covers of various issues of Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures… magazines published when we had worked side by side as members of the art staff thirty years earlier. We were having trouble distinguishing our work, one from the other.

By

mds& logo ©2002 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2002 DC Comics] (c) [Art

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic Mary Marvel origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. World War II ended, and after drawing Ibis the Invincible and Mr. Scarlet stories, 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 Marc Swayze (printed) cover for Comics, in addition to drawing Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943) the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper [©2002 DC Comics]... strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. 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. Last issue, Marc discussed his friendship with C.C. Beck. In this installment, Marc recalls a summit visit by the Becks, when he and his erstwhile colleague leafed through old Fawcett comics, trying to determine who had drawn what. Through some handy detective work, Marc points out key artistic characteristics of the World’s Mightiest Mortal to help solve the mystery. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Fawcett comic book covers were assigned as personal art projects… rarely as collaborations… other than the plugs and blurbs that were added prior to printing. With a few exceptions the covers of the two regularlypublished books that featured Captain Marvel had been prepared by C.C. Beck, beginning with their first issues.

By the time I entered the fray, the super-hero had filled out a bit physically and achieved the image that comics editor Ed Herron and art director Al Allard—and others—wanted. It was the Captain Marvel I was there to draw.

It was also the Captain Marvel that Beck and I were puzzling over that evening at my house.

“Your work… or mine?” There must have been some satisfaction, at least on my part, at the difficulty we were having, after so many years, in determining who did what. After all, maintaining the similarity had been my purpose. At the time, though, it didn’t make much difference. We were enjoying a vacation visit and not interested in comic book history. A call to dinner may have been enough for us to lay aside the old magazines with no intention to pursue the matter further.

Since then, though, I have become less patient about leaving such questions dangling. When I decided to do a little snooping on my own, it was like examining Captain Marvel for fleas!

In a close study of the super-hero as he appeared on the covers, I kept returning to the same three areas most likely to reveal a clue to the artist… his yoke, his ears, and the cuffs on his wrists!

As C.C. Beck and I thumbed through some old Fawcett comic books on one of their visits to our home in the 1970s, the conversation, as I recall, went: ...and C.C. Beck’s 1977 re-creation of the Cap and Santa Claus figures from that “Did you do that one… or did I? Is this one cover. [Art ©2002 estate of C.C. Beck; Captain Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Marc Swayze

45 The tragus… not a deep sea fish, after all… in art department language is “the little bump toward the front”… easily executed as another, smaller C. A study of the ears on the covers of the magazines in question reveals that down to the tragus “my” ear and the ear my old sidekick drew on Captain Marvel were very similar. After the tragus, mine had another C, flipped in from bottom up, to suggest the “bowl”… on big guys, the “crater.”

Beck, though, after the tragus, got tricky. At the bottom there was a small dip thing called the, uh… and it went, er…

Well, have you ever seen a crooked little Louisiana bayou?

That’s it…

Impossible to duplicate consistently, maddening to copy in a hurry.

It worked, though. Nobody ever complained about Captain Marvel’s ears.

The Swayze “yoke” and “tragus”—a closeup of part of his cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #15 (Sept. 1942). [©2002 DC Comics.]

The yoke… was the “piece of rope” that went around Captain Marvel’s neck and was attached at each end by a wafer underneath his cape collar. The strands of the standard rope, as I knew it, were wound to come toward you over the top from right to left. That meant that the yoke on Captain Marvel, as it extended across the front from right shoulder to left, would be drawn the same way… over the top, right to left. That’s the way I drew the yoke… although an occasional example to the contrary might have resulted from haste.

Or his cuffs. Those tight-fitting bands around the wrists of our superhero would be the last place one would expect to find a clue as to the artist who drew them. They don’t say much, but the technique—and the instruments used—do.

Funny thing about those cuffs… the metallic shine they carried on the covers of the magazines rarely appeared on the inner pages. Haste, again?

Furthermore, the idea of the shine did not come Somehow or other, the yokes of my old friend twisted the originally from the cover other way… except in a few cases… which, again, might have artists but from those been the result of haste. It’s no absolute guarantee, therefore, of unsung specialists of fool-proof evidence, but when I see Captain Marvel on a comicbookdom, the magazine cover… an old one… the first thing I look for is the colorists. Captain Marvel yoke.

“Have you ever seen a crooked little Louisiana bayou?” had been appearing on the We can all study a little “tragus-nometry” by newsstands a year or more Also: it appears that every artist has a specific, individual comparing this Beck Cap head (and its ear) before the highlight on his concept of the human ear. After having drawn the first one, at from the first issue of Whiz Comics with wristbands was rendered as whatever age, that’s just about it for life. Most of us never alter the foregoing Swayze ear. [©2002 DC Comics.] part of the black-and-white our original version. I suppose when we come to the ear, it being art.

And even then, it didn’t make it to the inner pages. such an inactive, insignificant feature, we casually fling it in and move on.

The highlight consisted of a series of parallel strokes, evenly spaced, widening to merge… the effect sought being a wrist gently lighted on Who notices, anyway? You could put the ear of The Lone Ranger on the wider side, more directly, harshly, on the other. Somehow such a Superman, and Lois Lane wouldn’t know the difference. procedure got called “feathering.”

The ear I drew was a simple, average-size, modestly attractive ear, like Beck’s feathering was rendered by brush. It was his preference to use the ones on my head… well, isn’t that what we all think? Seriously, a “dull” brush… not one worked to the fine point used by many artists. there is nothing complicated about the ear I drew… a C shape to define In the rendering of the cuff highlights, the dull point permitted only the contour at the back, another C, on its nose, for the shadow under about three strokes per wrist-band. the upper rim… then the tragus.

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We Didn’t Know...

An “off-the-cuff” examination. Marc says the cuffs C.C. Beck drew on Cap’s forearms were “feathered with three bold strokes per band” (as on the cover of Whiz Comics #27, Feb. 1942)—while his own CM cuffs sported “five or six finer-pointed strokes per band” (as per the Swayze cover of Whiz #37, Nov. ’42). We just hope you can tell the difference between the two versions printed here! [©2002 DC Comics.]

I had learned to ink using a fine point metal pen, the Gilotte 290.

Although I never considered it superior to the brush for comic book work, I found it difficult to resist for such as the cuff highlights, where it allowed as many as 5 or 6 strokes per band.

Do you see what I’m saying? If the super-hero’s cuffs on the covers of the Whiz and the Captain Marvel Adventures published during the period we’ve been talking about appear to have been feathered with three bold strokes per band… it is very likely to have been the work of one particular artist. If the cuffs show five or six finerpointed strokes per band… well… …what do you think?

[Marc Swayze’s reminiscences of his Fawcett years will continue next issue.]

WANTED: C.C. BECK FAWCETT COVER RE-CREATION PAINTINGS contact: fca2001@yahoo.com

A 1999 sketch done by Marc Swayze for P.C. Hamerlinck’s son Ian. [Art ©2002 Marc Swayze; Capt. Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

The Post–War Years

47

Captain Marvel Jr. The Post-War Years

by Don Ensign Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Part I [NOTE: Over the next few issues of Alter Ego, FCA will serialize this study of Captain Marvel Jr.—his artists, stories, and themes—in the years after World War II.]

included “Junior” stories from 1942-53; the issues sampled are from the post-war and post-Mac Raboy era, Raboy being the artist most associated with the character). The stories reviewed for this article were from Capt. Marvel Jr. #35-40, 62, 63, 65, 67, 69-71, 93-94, 96, 98-99, 108, 110, 117 and Master Comics #65, 68, 83, 93, 95, 111, 117. This is a total of 86 stories out of the more than 580 “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories produced between 1942 and 1953.

But first, an overview of...

Introduction Who were the most popular super-heroes during the Golden Age of Comics?

Superman?

Batman?

Captain America?

Captain Marvel?

Plastic Man? If one were to look at the total number of stories published during what is sometimes called the First Heroic Age, the breakdown is (1) Captain Marvel (over 730 stories from 1940-53); (2) Captain Marvel Jr. (over 580 stories from 1942-1953); (3) Batman (over 525 stories from 1939-1953); (4) Superman (over 465 stories from 1938-53); and (5) Captain America (over 250 stories from 1941-49).

While magazines featuring Batman and Superman had total circulations higher than Capt. Marvel Jr. (if not Cap himself, at least for a few years during the mid-’40s), why did the World’s Mightiest Boy achieve such heights of popularity? While Junior was created as a spin-off of the amazingly popular Captain Marvel, he sustained a significant measure of popularity until the end of Fawcett’s comic book publishing dynasty in 1953.

The focus of this series will be on the post-war years of Captain Marvel Jr. What made readers come back again and again to buy and read his adventures?

We’ll explore the characters of Cap Jr., Freddy Freeman, and the strip’s supporting characters, and what kind of stories made “Captain Marvel Jr.” the popular comic book strip it was. Also, we will take a glimpse at the “CMJ” artwork produced during the post-World War II era, as well as analyzing the worldview that was conveyed through Junior’s stories.

In preparing for this article, I read and analyzed a sampling of stories from issues of Capt. Marvel Jr. and Master Comics (which

Cap Jr. was forged in the fiery cataclysm of World War II. This dramatic splash page by Mac Raboy from Master Comics #27 (June 1942) features both Junior and his ultimate foe, Captain Nazi—the super-fascist whose violent arrogance led both to Freddy Freeman’s crippling and to the origins of Cap Jr.!

Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Jack Bender, the current (and only the third) artist of the Alley Oop comic strip—but Jack tells us that, true to Raboy form, the looming Captain Nazi figure and all art in the panel at bottom right is pasted-on photocopies; only the lettering is new! Much of the breathtaking rendering of London in the Blitz is probably by Raboy’s background ace, Rubin Zubofsky (now Bob Rogers). All the same, Mac Raboy’s masterful style had an enduring influence even in the post-WWII years. [©2002 DC Comics.]

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Captain Marvel Jr. Topsy-Turvy Table” (CMJ #70), “The Singing Donkey” (CMJ #71), and “The Ark from Space” (CMJ #98) minor whimsical classics of the Golden Age years. Thompson seems to have left comics entirely with the demise of the Fawcett line in 1953.

Bud Thompson drew the “Cap Jr.” chapter in the full-length story in Marvel Family #10 (April 1947), as well as many of the young hero’s solo adventures in his own mag. Incidentally, though we’ve sometimes seen this artist’s name rendered as “Thomson”—and thus spelled it that way ourselves a few issues back—’twould seem the usual spelling was indeed the more common “Thompson,” after all. [©2002 DC Comics.]

The Artists The post-WWII “CMJ” artwork is characterized by two major factors.

The first was the continuing influence of original series artist Mac Raboy. Even today, when many collectors and comic book historians consider “Captain Marvel Jr.,” Raboy’s artwork comes foremost to mind. While he drew the strip for a comparatively short time, his stamp was to remain on it through the Fawcett years. The legacy of Raboy’s unique version of Junior would cast a long shadow over the immediate post-war period. During the first few of those years, one can see stories containing many swipes/tracings/copies or photostats of Raboy’s work pasted over the work of other artists.

The other factor that stemmed out of this dominant artistic influence was a hodgepodge of different styles. Some of these artists were not very skilled storytellers, and some stories look as though they were rushed and thrown together by several artists. However, by the late ’40s and early ’50s the art styles finally settled down and the Raboy influence— while not completely gone—had diminished significantly.

The artists who produced the bulk of Junior’s art in the post-war years were Bud Thompson, Joe Certa, and Kurt Schaffenberger. Thompson did perhaps some of the best post-war “CMJ” art. He worked out of his own unique style to produce some of Junior’s finest stories. His work is characterized by loose and graceful figure work and mood-setting backgrounds. In an interview in Alter Ego V3#7, artist Bob Rogers (then known as Rubin Zubofsky) stated that he did background work for both Raboy and Thompson on “CMJ” stories. Exactly how long Rogers worked on the feature is not known, but he certainly deserves credit for the visual success of both artists’ versions of the World’s Mightiest Boy. Bernard “Bud” Thompson’s best work is on stories where fantasy/folklore elements prevail. His art makes such stories as “The Witch of Winter” (CMJ #63), “The Greeting Cards of Hate” (CMJ #67), “The Terrible

If Thompson’s art was exemplified by graceful figure drawing, Joe Certa’s work was characterized by stiff figure-drawing with repetitive, serviceable, and unimaginative A nice 1977 drawing of Freddy and Junior by layouts. Still, Certa Kurt Schaffenberger, courtesy of Jerry K. Boyd. was a competent [Art ©2002 estate of Kurt Schaffenberger; storyteller and was heroes TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] able to produce volumes of work for Fawcett and other publishers for decades.

Kurt Schaffenberger was one of comics’ greatest storytellers. Besides “Captain Marvel Jr.,” his outstanding artwork also graced many “Captain Marvel,” “Marvel Family,” and “Ibis the Invincible” tales.

Perhaps because of Schaffenberger’s slightly more cartoon-like aspect to his art style, his work seemed better fitted to the Big Red Cheese than to the World’s Mightiest Boy. Nevertheless, he produced very likable and appealing work on the “Junior” strip. Comics historian John G. Pierce aptly describes Schaffenberger’s work as “clean, clear, sparkling artwork, of a bright, cheerful world with clearly-defined heroes and villains.

Kurt’s work stands as the epitome of much that has been great about comics over the years.” Like Certa, Schaffenberger was highly productive during his post-Fawcett years.

Generally remembered as one of the top “Good Girl” artists of that era, Bill Ward, whose work also embodied the clean, cartoon-like aspect of Schaffenberger’s work, produced several of Captain Marvel Jr.’s (and Bulletman’s) post-war stories.

As the ’40s turned into the ’50s, Bud Thompson’s and Joe Certa’s work on the “CMJ” strip matured. One can note the improvement in the art of both men as they gained confidence in their own styles and were

Joe Certa art from Captain Marvel Jr. #99 (July 1951). [©2002 DC Comics.]

The Post–War Years able to move away from the overriding influence of Raboy’s wartime tales. The artwork on the post-war “CMJ” strip should be evaluated on its own merits.

The art was a significant factor in the success of “Captain Marvel Jr.” Now for a look at the feature itself, in the years after the Second World War.

Origins Bill Ward’s version of Junior, from Master Comics #117 (Aug. 1950). [©2002 DC Comics.]

Captain Marvel Jr.’s origin was told in Whiz Comics #25 (Dec. 1941). When the evil Captain Nazi was knocked into the ocean by Captain Marvel, he landed near a small boat carrying an old fisherman and his grandson. The old man rescued Nazi, who ungratefully hurled him into the water to die. When the grandson tried to stand up to him, Captain Nazi also violently swatted him into the cold sea.

Captain Marvel rescued the boy and flew him to old Shazam’s cavern abode. The kindly wizard restored the boy to life and gave him part of Captain Marvel’s powers. The result was that the boy, Freddy Freeman, permanently crippled by Captain Nazi’s assault, became the World’s Mightiest Boy, Captain Marvel Jr. Instead of saying “Shazam,” Freddy had to exclaim “Captain Marvel”—the name of the hero who had saved him—to change into a super-hero.

Capt. Marvel Jr. was a knight errant/Sir Galahad-type who helped the oppressed and rescued the weak. The Justice Society of America has been compared to the Knights of the Round Table, but a good case can be made that Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. were similar to warriors of Camelot.

49

these legends. More likely, these similarities were broad patterns found in other heroic legends besides the Camelot stories. Whatever the case, this lifting and injecting (knowingly or unknowingly) of heroic background may be one reason for the tremendous popularity of Capt.

Marvel and Capt. Marvel Jr. during the ’40s and early ’50. These characters were constructed from solid and time-tested heroic traditions and classic literature.

Character Counts The personality of Capt. Marvel Jr. was one of a very mature individual, considering he was apparently the same age as his alter ego Freddy Freeman—14 years old. Junior would be in comic book limbo for almost a decade before angst-ridden teenage super-heroes like SpiderMan would make such a huge impact on the four-color scene. While CMJ was not a whiner, he did display some emotional range in the course of his adventures. In Captain Marvel Jr. #35 (Feb. 1946) he becomes depressed when he learns he has only 24 hours to live. The depression is only temporary, and the knowledge spurs him on to greater action against crime. The World’s Mightiest Boy is not above a little self-pity. When Sivana Jr. succeeds in a defamation of character campaign against Junior (CMJ #110), the Boy in Blue complains, “I-I can’t believe it! How can everyone turn against me because of a few incidents staged by Sivana Jr.? Is that how little faith they have in me?”

However, his basic nobility wins out: “Gulp! I’ll accept the verdict of the people! I’ll go into voluntary exile—and I won’t come back until they ask me to!”

Cap Jr. displays leadership and diplomatic skills when he persuades hostile locals to greet extraterrestrials with charity instead of suspicion (CMJ #98) and encourages voters to support a good candidate for mayor (CMJ #67). His reputation and persuasive skills help in fund-raising for worthy projects like paying the mortgage on an art gallery (Master Comics #117) and getting the latest dresses from New York and Parisian

While it is unlikely that the originators of Captain Marvel or Capt. Marvel Jr. directly patterned their creations after the Knights of the Round Table, there certainly are similarities. Freddy Freeman and Billy Batson were both orphans and (during the Fawcett years) of unknown parentage. Billy was given the power to become the World’s Mightiest Mortal by a wizard, Shazam. Freddy was given the power to become the World’s Mightiest Boy by Shazam. Like Galahad, both lads were given these powers when they were boys.

Galahad was chaste—a virgin— throughout his brief life. Freddy and Billy were not interested in girls (with rare exceptions) during the Fawcett years; neither ever grew out of their (at most) early teen years.

While it may be too much to think that these similarities mean the male Marvels were directly patterned after Arthur and Galahad, Fawcett’s editors and writers were probably aware of

Artists C.C. Beck and Mac Raboy teamed up to depict Cap Jr.’s origin. Captain Nazi, originally a foe of Bulletman’s, had fought off both Cap (Sr.) and Bulletman in Master Comics #21, then flown over into Whiz Comics #25 (Dec. 1941) just in time to kill Freddy Freeman’s granddad and strike the blow that would cripple and nearly kill the boy. After this story, Cap Jr. would become the star of Master Comics, booting Bulletman off the covers and even stealing his Axis arch-enemy!

Repro’d from the 1977 hardcover Shazam! from the 40’s to the 70’s. [©2002 DC Comics.]

50

Captain Marvel Jr. fashion designers for a local dress designer (CMJ #62).

Several stories speak of Capt. Marvel Jr.’s intelligence. In “Warlords of the Moon” (CMJ #71) Junior figures out the source of a fallen bomb. A caption states, “But Captain Marvel Jr.’s keen brain rapidly calculates the origin of the bomb which hit the earth!”

He helps a chemist friend create an antidote for Sivana Jr.’s giant growth potion: “Captain Marvel Jr. is endowed with a keen mind, as well as great At various times, Cap Jr. shared the monthly Master power, through the six Comics with such heroes as Bulletman & Bulletgirl, wise gods of ancient Nyoka the Jungle Girl, comic relief Colonel Corn, times!” (MC #93).

Radar the International Policeman (who had mindJunior’s magical ability reading powers... handy for a cop)—not to mention with languages is a teenage Archie type named Ozzie and cowboy demonstrated when he movie star Tom Mix, who’d been dead for several tries to communicate years. This is the cover of Master #83 (Sept. 1947). with intelligent plant [©2002 DC Comics.] creatures on Mars (CMJ #93): “Captain Marvel Jr., who understands all earthly languages, puts his mighty intelligence to work deciphering the Martian planttongue!” (He performs this mental feat in two panels.) He shows his inventiveness in “The Dumb Dodo” (CMJ #96).

By making a few adjustments to a goose-neck lamp, Junior accomplishes some amazing things: “Light and heat are used to hatch ordinary eggs in an incubator! By adding some improvements, I’ve invented a machine that will hatch out even an ancient dodo egg!”

The Boy in Blue pleads with United Nations delegates (CMJ #99) not to give in to the evil demands of Sivana Jr., then flies to a small island where his “mighty intellect grapples with the tantalizing problem!” The rising tide unexpectedly jars Junior out of his contemplation.

He does “mental calculations that would confound a graduate astronomer” and comes to the conclusion that the tide is caused by an invisible second moon.

In order to counter Sivana Jr.’s “Sound Scrambler” invention (CMJ #108) to disrupt speech communication, the World’s Mightiest Boy constructs a helmet that “insulates against the effect of the electrical scrambler wave,” thus neutralizing Sivana’s device. Though the scheming of Sivana Jr., he exiles himself on a remote island (CMJ #110). While there he makes a radio set to hear news from the outside world: “The astounding intellect of Captain Marvel Jr. enables him to solve problems in radio engineering that would baffle ordinary mortals.” He comments, “

I made a few interesting discoveries about radio waves building this set!”

Junior also proves himself to be a shrewd detective (CMJ #70) and uses clear logic in following the clues in a well-plotted story more typical of Batman.

Powers That Be Since Captain Marvel Jr.’s powers were magically derived, they were never clearly delineated at the beginning of his run. C.C. Beck, commenting on Captain Marvel, stated, “At Fawcett, first and foremost, we told an interesting story. We weren’t infatuated with Captain Marvel’s powers like how the character is handled now” (Fawcett Companion, p. 138).

There seems to be a similar attitude present in the “Capt. Marvel Jr.” stories. However, over the course of his stories we see certain trends emerging. Junior’s basic super-powers were flight, super-strength, and invulnerability. Because his powers were magically based (rather than quasi-scientific, like Superman’s), he was not hindered by the normal laws of physics. In “Captain Marvel Jr. Fights the Arabian Knights” (CMJ #38), the Blue Boy hoists an Arabian sultan seated on a cushion and flies him at such a speed that “he [Junior] can hardly be seen.”

However, the Sultan is clearly visible! The World’s Mightiest Boy is also not only able to fly unaided in outer space, as shown in a couple of stories (CMJ #71, 93)—he can also talk in the vacuum of space.

Junior’s super-strength fits the need of the occasion. In “The Man Who Fell Up” (CMJ #37) the foundation of a huge office building is saturated with a potent “anti-gravity” chemical. To prevent it from hurtling into the sky, he must hold the building down and wait for the anti-gravity effects to wear off. In “The Singing Donkey” (CMJ #71) Junior lifts an entire theatre building off its foundation and replaces it perfectly, apparently without damaging the internal plumbing or electrical wiring. Captain Marvel Jr. uses both great speed and strength to build a massive stone tower as a sanctuary for a man in the “Vengeance Mountain” story (CMJ #96). His awesome strength is displayed in a Superman class event in “The Ark From Space” (CMJ #98).

In this tale he flies to the deep space location of the destroyed planet Smorxx, and quickly reconstructs the shattered world by collecting its massive fragments to “assemble the most stupendous jigsaw puzzle of all time!” He restores the planet into a perfect sphere completely inside its previous atmosphere. He accomplishes this god-like feat in two panels.

The World’s Mightiest Boy achieves an even greater feat when he puts his back to the surface of Mars to speed up its rotation (CMJ #93): “Every last bit of Captain Marvel Jr.’s titanic power pushes against the surface of the planet.” “Mars is rotating in this direction! If I can just speed up the rate of rotation... ah! It’s starting to move faster! Now it’s spinning like a top—and the increased centrifugal force will hurl the dust cloud off its surface!”

Naturally, Cap Jr.’s most frequent foe was Sivana Jr., seen on Bud Thompson’s cover for CMJ #39 (June 1946). [©2002 DC Comics.]

Bullets would bounce harmlessly off Junior (CMJ #37, 69, MC #83), and swords broke into pieces against

The Post–War Years his chest (CMJ #67).

He used his body to stop speeding cars and halt careening locomotives (CMJ #40) and he could make a target of himself for bombs—a few of which “could easily level the biggest cities on Earth” (CMJ #71), but he did have some vulnerabilities. He could be momentarily stunned by a blow landed by a beefy crook (CMJ #69): “Even the World’s Mightiest boy is rocked by the big man’s punch.”

However, the next panel cautions that he “can’t be harmed by even the mightiest Bud Thompson’s cover for CMJ #38 (May 1946). blow” as he decks the [©2002 DC Comics.] criminal. Likewise, when a giant werewolf “thwacks” Junior, he exclaims, “I almost felt that!” (CMJ #117).

The “Lamp of Power” (CMJ #94) presents a situation where, because of a misspoken wish by Professor Edgewise which is granted by a genie, Junior’s ears begin growing huge. Only by trickery is he able to get his ears back to normal. Likewise, in “The Funniest Looking Boy in the World” (CMJ #117) a “practical joker demon” casts a spell on him that reshapes his face so that whoever sees him can’t help but burst into hysterical fits of laughter. Again the Blue Boy tricks his adversary into reversing the spell.

51

Junior (like Captain Marvel) did not display sensory powers like x-ray vision and heat vision à la Superman. When an eccentric “crooner” crook escapes the youth by flying into a cloud (MC #65), the Boy in Blue comments, “He’ll hide in that cloud and it’ll be impossible to find him.” Likewise he can lose track of a criminal when the houselights suddenly go out (MC #83), or a giant werewolf can escape in the dense London fog (CMJ #117). However, his vision, on occasion, can be unusually strong: “Captain Marvel Jr.’s keen eyes pick up a trail that would be invisible to anyone else” (CMJ #96).

Freddy Freeman Who was Freddy Freeman?

C.C. Beck called Freddy “more like Dickens’ Tiny Tim character....”

(Fawcett Companion p. 29). Author Jeff Rovin agrees, calling Freddy “one of the most pathetic figures in comics history” in his Encyclopedia of Super Heroes, p. 59. The 1942 Fawcett Writing Guidelines call Freddy “a strongly sympathetic character in his own right. Being crippled for life, he is sensitive to other people’s hardships and troubles” (Fawcett Companion p. 25).

Golden Age super-hero stories were primarily story- or plot-driven, rather than character-driven. Freddy Freeman, the crippled newsboy who was Capt. Marvel Junior’s alter ego, developed into a character in his own right. While Freddy often set the stage for his dynamic other self to come into action and save the day, he was often not entirely helpless without Junior’s aid.

In a local gym Freddy shows Tough Ted that he can work out on the horse and rings. While Freddy is lame, he has real upper-body fitness and performs well on gym equipment (CMJ #70). Despite his handicap, he rescues several people from certain disaster when he is unable to call on Junior (CMJ # 65). Freddy has the courage to walk through a spooky cemetery at night as an initiation rite for entry into the Newsboys Club (CMJ #40), of which he later becomes president (CMJ #62). In this role he rallies his newsboy comrades to help rebuild a burned-out store.

Unlike his alter ego, Freddy can be rather foolhardy, as witnessed by his frequent and vulnerable changes from Junior as he goes to spy on evildoers. He even comments on this in a 1950 story. After seeing his

Freddy Freeman’s physical afflictions can also be transferred to his alter ego. Freddy samples some apples that have been injected with an “intense hunger serum” by Sivana Jr. (CMJ #92). This causes Freddy to eat huge quantities of food, and when he calls on his alter ego—Junior also devours everything from dishes to furniture. Captain Marvel Jr. can be affected by merely touching something when he touches the “Life Stone” (CMJ #98), which gives the “power to confer Life.” He is given the power to cause inanimate objects like trees, boats, and houses to sprout legs and run around causing mischief and havoc. In another incident, an imp (CMJ #98) stuffs a burning coal down Junior’s tunic.

While Junior is invulnerable, his response is, “Holy Moley! There’s a hot coal down my back!” In CMJ #110 Sivana Jr. blows itching powder on Junior, which so irritates him that it causes him to momentarily lose control of a full-grown elephant he has lifted above More than one artist might do stories in the same issue, as here, where Bud Thompson’s cover story shared space with another by Joe Certa. [©2002 DC Comics.] his head.

52

Captain Marvel Jr. fanciful adventure.

After a bad experience with the “supernatural,” she swears off séances: “From now on I’m going to leave the dead spirits alone and confine my attentions to the living.”

future entrapment in “The Seeing Eye” (MC #111), he thinks, “What a fool I was!

After I saw what was in store, I never should have permitted myself to be taken unaware!”

Freddy is only rarely seen in school.

There were other In the seventy stories supporting characters reviewed for this who eventually ended series, he is shown up at Mrs. Wagner’s attending classes only boarding-house. One once, in CMJ #69. such was Red Why the writers didn’t O’Riley, operator of a utilize the school Detail from a Bud Thompson panel depicting Freddy Freeman... and a splash from Captain Marvel Jr. #40 local service station. environment more (July ’46) showing Freddy in peril. Even in recent years, some oldtimers (and sloppy journalists) have In MC #83 Red is frequently as a basis been known to state that Billy Batson was the “crippled newsboy.” Wonder if there’s any connection for stories is a mystery. experiencing between Cap Jr. and a line of dialogue in The Maltese Falcon, when Bogart (as Sam Spade) wryly tells the Like many superhardships due to lack Fat Man that a “crippled newsie” took Elisha Cook, Jr’s., gun away from him. Probably not, since the Falcon film came out around the same time Cap Jr. made his debut. [©2002 DC Comics.] heroes, Freddy and of business at his Captain Marvel Jr. station. After a stayed the same age (14) throughout the decade-plus of Fawcett issues. criminal is captured there, he proclaims, “Wait’ll this story breaks in the People other than the heroes seem to have aged normally. The villainous newspapers! I’ll get enough free advertising to save my business!”

Greybeard was a young man in 1846, and 99 years later he was released Cap Jr. helps him when he becomes the victim of a con artist (CMJ as an old man in 1946 (CMJ #37). In the far future of 4,000,000 A.D., #65).

Red O’Riley tells Freddy of a wildcat oil investment he is worried Cap Jr. speaks of time-traveling back to the year 1951 (CMJ #99). But in about, probably in Texas or Oklahoma (CMJ #94). The World’s 1952 Freddy Freeman was still selling papers at his newsstand (CMJ Mightiest Boy travels out West and helps his friend. Toward the end of #110) as he had in 1942! the run in Captain Marvel Jr. (#117), Red, while listening to his ham radio, overhears a message from outer space of an alien space ship about to land on Earth.

Supporting Characters

Professor Edgewise is the cause for conflict, usually inadvertently, in a number of stories (CMJ #93, 96, 98, 110, 117). He is portrayed as an elderly, absent-minded inventor/scientist who has a good heart, but Freddy and Junior need to look after him so he doesn’t get into too much trouble.

Comic historian Joe Brancatelli once commented that Otto Binder “never developed the strong secondary characters for Junior as he had for the Captain himself. The feature limped along with mundane and pedestrian supporters like landlady Mrs. Wagner” (The World Encyclopedia of Comics, p. 158). While it is true that Junior’s cast did not exhibit the appeal of, say, Mr. Morris, Mr. Tawny, and others, they were nevertheless solid characters. Besides, Otto was not the major writer of CMJ as he was of the Big Red Cheese. By Binder’s own records (see last issue), he wrote “only” 161 of CMJ’s nearly 600 solo stories.

Leroy Marks, a salesmen and boarding-house resident who can be a practical joker, has an occasional leading role (CMJ #117).

In Junior’s origin in Whiz Comics #25, Freddy Freeman’s grandfather appears in three panels before Capt. Nazi kills him. What had happened to Freddy’s parents was never explained. Did Freddy have any siblings or other relatives? At least in the Golden Age stories this reviewer has surveyed, these questions remain unanswered.

Junior’s regular supporting characters tended to revolve around the boarding-house at which he lived. His landlady, Mrs. Wagner, did occasionally play a surrogate mother role, as in Master Comics #83, where she gently chides: “It’s nine o’clock, Freddy! Go to sleep like a good boy, and you’ll wake up refreshed in the morning!” Freddy later muses, “Mrs. Wagner worries about me like a real mother!” At story’s end, after a series of nocturnal adventures, Mrs. Wagner looks at the sleeping Freddy: “Sleeping like a baby, the little dear! There’s nothing so good for a boy as a quiet night’s rest!”

Sometimes she served as a catalyst for the story. In CMJ #67 Freddy serves milk to a bed-ridden Mrs. Wagner, who complains about feeling terrible. This sets up the whimsical plotline, eventually resolved with a healthy and happy Mrs. Wagner. In another story (CMJ #70) she invites Freddy to accompany her to a séance. A skeptical Freddy accepts, which leads to another highly

Police officer Jim Bellows appears as a back-up character in a number of stories (CMJ #62, 67, 69, MC #83) and provides Captain Marvel Jr. with his link to the police department.

Next: Stories and Super-villains

Don Ensign self-portrait, from the book Proverbs & Parables (New Creation). [©2002 Don Ensign.]

[Don Ensign has been a comics fan since the Silver Age, and participated in the 1960s fanzine scene. He has edited and published Emerald Light: An Encyclopedia of Green Lantern (1992), co-published Valiant Efforts comics, and has written articles for Comic Book Marketplace, RB-CC, and The Jack Kirby Collector. He founded the Christian Comic Arts Society and the Christian apa Alpha-Omega. He has worked with Campus Crusade for Christ, Narramore Christian Foundation, and most recently at the Mt. Blanc Fossil Museum in Texas.]

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Vol. 3, No. 19 / December 2002 ™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

Contents

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

A Fred Ray Interview–––Sort-of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Charlie Roberts got the reclusive Mr. Ray to jot down a few short answers, anyway.

Fred Ray–––Artist-Chronicler of American Landmarks . . . . . . . . . 11 A brief Ray bio—or is it an auto-bio?

Fred Ray Dick Sprang

A Tribute to Fred Ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Golden Age illustrator Jack Burnley on the 1940s work of a DC cover star.

Cover Colorists Fred Ray Tom Ziuko

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

And Special Thanks to:

Manuel Auad Mark Austin Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Jack Bender Ray Bottorff, Jr. Jerry K. Boyd Alan Brennert Len Brown Jack Burnley Steven Butler Tony Cerezo Max Allan Collins Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Joe Desris James Doty Don Ensign Ron Fernandez Carl Gafford Jack Gilbert Michael R. Grabois Janice Green David G. Hamilton Bill Harper Ron Harris Roger Hill Bob Koppany Mort Leav

Writer/Editorial: A Ray of Hope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Jerry Robinson on Fred Ray, the Harrisburg Patriot . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A great “Batman” artist talks about his friend and colleague—and about those covers!

Mitch Lee Steve Leialoha Arthur Lortie Brian Makara Dan Makara Dennis Mallonee John Moret Jim Motavalli John Province Charlie Roberts Ethan Roberts Jerry Robinson Eric Schumacher Dr. Augustus Scott Noreen Shaw Marc Simms Jeff Smith Robin Snyder Dick & Cindy Swan Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Michael J. Vassallo J. Villalpando Ron Webber Dylan Williams Ike Wilson Michael Zeno

—In Memoriam—

Richard “Grass” Green

Fortune. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A memoir by Golden Age artist Mort Leav, co-creator of The Heap—and Mr. Whipple.

Richard “Grass” Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Bill Schelly remembers one who left his mark on comics fandom—and on comics.

Comic Crypt: Wally Wood’s Flash Gordon, Continued. . . . . 35 More about the non-EC work of one of EC’s greatest artists! re: [comments and corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Spotlight on Dick Sprang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: If the main figure in this painting by Fred Ray isn’t Tomahawk, the comic book hero he drew from 1947-68, he’s a dead ringer for him—though a bit more of the original raccoon remains in his coonskin cap! Dan Makara, the collector who generously provided the art, says he understands that Ray “did numerous paintings for his own pleasure which at times he would sell through the Howard Gallery in California. This particular painting he kept for himself. I understand that it hung in his living room over the mantel for over 30 years. In fact, I had to have the picture cleaned, as it smelled heavily of smoke!” As for the frontiersman depicted: “He may or may not be Tomahawk, but he’s certainly the spirit of the time.” Dan’s friend Jim Motavalli, editor of the environmental magazine E, scanned the painting for him, and for us. [Art ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

Above: These panels from Tomahawk #89 (Nov.-Dec. 1963) are repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of collector Bob Bailey, who writes that they’re from “the period where, every issue, Tomahawk was either transformed (à la red kryptonite) into some kind of creature or fought some odd creature out of the Fortean Times!” Hey, look at the bright side, Bob: at least there’s no lady reporter hanging around trying to learn his secret identity—if only because he didn’t have one! [©2002 DC Comics; Tomahawk TM & ©2002 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 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.

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Title writer/editorial

A Ray of Hope Two “hope”-ful puns for the price of one, gainfully employed as titles of this issue’s writer/editorials.

The “hope” expressed, here as on our flip side, is that readers who like the idea of a monthly Alter Ego (or even just of A/E at all!) will be inspired to try to get their fan-friends interested in a magazine dedicated to the antediluvian (i.e., more than a few years ago) history of the heroic comic book... maybe even try to get comics store dealers to order a few more copies than they expect to sell within fifteen minutes of arrival. If so, Crom bless you, one and all.

This half of the issue might be said to be dedicated, even more than the Dick Sprang section, to comics creators who are well-known to their peers, but whose names are even less recognizable than Sprang’s these days to the average comic book fan.

Frederic E. Ray, Jr., was the artist/designer of some of the most famous, influential, and collectible covers ever of Superman, Action, and World’s Finest—but he never signed a single one of them. Even his longrunning “Tomahawk” was rarely signed with his “FRay” signature. But his professional colleagues and latter-day collectors learned his name, as

they learned Sprang’s, and sought out his work as eagerly as any Uncle Scrooge aficionado ever tracked down that of Carl Barks. In fact, two other Golden Age greats, Jerry Robinson and Jack Burnley, have their own say about Fred Ray in this very issue, even if they seem to differ somewhat concerning the attribution of a few key covers. (Our only regret is that we wound up with so much Ray material, “Tomahawk” in particular, sent by generous collectors, that we’ll have to run more coverage on the artist and/or series one of these days, to use it all up!

Not that we’ll mind.)

Mort Leav is, if anything, even less well known than Fred Ray, but he contributed a lot of nice work to comics from 1941-55, when he quit the field to do TV storyboards and other advertising work. The late Jerry de Fuccio put me in touch with Mort, who was a favorite artist of his. Among other things, Mort drew the first “Heap” story or two, but that was only a brief moment in his long career. Reprinting his anecdotal reminiscences from the pages of Robin Snyder’s The Comics! convinced me that Mort, too, will have to receive still more space in future issues of A/E. Sadly, Richard “Grass” Green is honored in this issue only in requiem, for the early fan-artist, who also drew for Charlton Comics in the latter 1960s, passed away this past summer. He may be gone... but he won’t soon be forgotten.

Fred Ray... Mort Leav... Grass Green... add to that list a few names from our FCA section—Marc Swayze, the Fawcett artist who’s referred to himself as “the most forgotten of the unknowns”; Bud Thompson; Joe Certa; Bill Ward; even Kurt Schaffenberger and Mac Raboy—and you have a litany of artists whose names don’t quite resonate on a cover the way those of Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, John Romita, Wally Wood, and a few others do.

But that, really, is what a “fanzine” like Alter Ego is all about.

Mitra forbid that I should have to strive, issue after issue, month after month, to find a comic book “Big Name” to emblazon on the cover!

Sure, such names are great when they happen—and Dick Sprang, virtually unknown to most “Batman” readers till the last decade of his long and productive life, has perhaps become one of those Big Names in recent years, at least among the cognoscenti. But if I had to weave every issue around a big name—either an artist or writer, or a particular hero or comics series—I’d go stark staring mad.

Much of the thrill of Alter Ego, to me, is in showcasing a talent who was little-known, or even completely unknown, to comics readers in the Golden and Silver Ages... but who made his/her own definite contribution. People like Bob Rogers (née Rubin Zubofsky), who assisted Mac Raboy on “Captain Marvel Jr.” and Flash Gordon for years... or Marc Swayze, who co-created Mary Marvel and drew “Captain Marvel” stories that even C.C. Beck sometimes thought he had done... or Arnold Drake, whose name didn’t appear on his first “Doom Patrol” and “Deadman” stories... or Bob Deschamps, whose memories of his 1940s50s days at Timely Comics will rock you next issue, we kid you not...

Or Fred Ray, Mort Leav, and Grass Green.

Hope you’ll come along for the ride. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to Alter Ego, I prefer rides where you’re not 100% certain of the destination in advance.

This Fred Ray splash from Star Spangled Comics #107 (Aug. 1950), unlike many, bears his signature at the top; the bottom blur was probably caused by removal of the issue’s indicia when this page was photocopied from the original art. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Bestest,

Focus On Fred Ray part one

3

JERRY ROBINSON On FRED RAY The Harrisburg Patriot One of the Great Early “Batman” Artists Talks about His Friend— the Illustrator of “Batman and Robin in Buckskin”!

“Superman” story, collaborating with Mort Weisinger. After the war he traveled throughout Europe, South America, and the American West. He studied art at the Pennsylvania School of Fine Art. In 1947 [INTERVIEWER’S INTROhe took over the feature “Tomahawk” for DUCTION: By all accounts, Fred Ray Star Spangled Comics. A strip with a was a private person, respected by his novel setting in Colonial times whose peers and by the many comic book fans coonskin-capped hero anticipated the who knew and loved his work. The 1955 success of Davy Crockett, history of early DC Comics was made “Tomahawk” began in SSC #69 (June richer by Fred’s engaging cover artwork.

1947) with art by Edmond Good and an He both wrote and drew features and uncredited writer; Ray took over with rarely received a byline. Fans knew him #72 and became the artist most identified by his fresh, clean drawing style, Photos of a young Fred Ray in uniform during World War II... with the strip, though Sy Barry, Bob sometimes signed with a small “F.R.,” and of his colleague Jerry Robinson today... flanking one Brown, Leonard Starr, and Frank “FRAY,” or “F.RAY.” of their collaborative efforts, the cover of World’s Finest #3 Frazetta also drew it in later years. DC (Fall 1941). Jerry told Alter Ego that, though the cover [His work first appeared in late 1940. As a originally promoted “Tomahawk” as “the was basically Ray’s, he [Jerry] was asked by DC to ink the DC bullpen artist, he is sometimes Buckskin Batman.” In 1950 DC added a Batman and Robin figures, to keep the official “Bob Kane” credited with contributing to the 1940 Tomahawk title, which Ray wrote and look. Photos courtesy of Ron Webber, Dan Makara, Superman Gum Card series; some of the drew for 22 years; “Tomahawk” also and Jerry Robinson. [Art ©2002 DC Comics.] early advertisements for “Superman appeared in various issues of Adventure Bread” bear a resemblance to his style. His first cover credit is the Comics and World’s Finest Comics. In Les Daniels’ history of DC 1940 Macy’s Christmas giveaway. He was then assigned to produce Comics, editor Jack Schiff credited the success of the Tomahawk comic covers for Superman comics, beginning with issue #8, Jan. 1941. For entirely to Fred Ray: “He was magnificent.” the next two years Ray also produced many of the covers to Action [In 1960 Ray became art director for The Civil War Times, American Comics, featuring Superman, and World’s Finest Comics, History Illustrated, and British Heritage, based in Harrisburg, spotlighting both Superman and Batman, as well as an occasional Pennsylvania. In the 1970s he painted full-color re-creations of his cover for Detective Comics and Leading Comics. His early interior early comic book covers, which sold at the time for $250 each. In 1997 work was on “Radio Squad,” “Sgt. O’Malley,” and “Congo Bill.” At Sotheby’s sold his original cover art to Superman #17 for $37,000. It times he wrote, penciled, inked, and colored the features. You can also was sold privately by a dealer; Ray himself saw none of the profit. find spot illustrations by Fred on many of the two-page text stories.

Interview and Transcription

by Dan Makara

[He joined the Army Air Forces in 1942, and I’ve found at least one of Fred’s editorial cartoons in Yank magazine. While in the service, he continued to illustrate “Congo Bill” and did his first and only

[It was a surprise to see Fred Ray’s personal effects for sale on the Internet auction site eBay in July 2001. Not many had even heard that he had passed away. While alive, he rarely conducted interviews,

4

Jerry Robinson

The cover of a small 1983 book called Antietam and an interior illustration of General McClellan directing the Union forces at that battle fought in Maryland on September 17, 1862. Roy purchased the proofs of this book for his personal collection from Ron Webber. [©2002 estate of Frederic Ray.]

While one classic late-’40s house ad for Star Spangled Comics referred to Tomahawk and Dan Hunter as “Batman and Robin in buckskin,” by the time of Tomahawk #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1950) DC figured they didn’t need that kind of boost any longer. [©2002 DC Comics.]

and when he did, his answers were generally short.

Now his personal life was on exhibit. Page after page of never-seen sketchbooks predating his DC work were shown.

Studies of hobos, views along train tracks, abandoned buildings, bag ladies. Drawings of Tarzan, Robin Hood, a magician. Notebooks from the war years. Fred in uniform going to war. Watercolors of Mexico, oil paintings of nudes. A photo of Fred dressed as a pirate.

[The obituary in the Harrisburg Patriot said that he died at home on Jan. 23, 2001. 79 years old. No immediate family.

JERRY ROBINSON: Fred had a crisp, clean style, very fluid and very nicely composed. His style was not so personal, so that it could be adapted to many characters. It wasn’t jarring when he would move from “Superman” to “Batman” to “Congo Bill.” He had a cartoony look that was at the same time quite stylish.

DM: He would work at the DC office?

ROBINSON: Oh yes. I had begun in comics shortly before him, working directly for Bob Kane on “Batman.” Later that year I was hired directly by DC to work in their bullpen on “Batman.” Fred had his table next to mine.

That would have been in 1940.

DM: What was it like at the office?

ROBINSON: I think we had a pretty unique bullpen, those first years at DC. Joe Shuster [I spoke with Jerry Robinson, the Both the above photos were sent by Ron Webber, via Dan would work there. Jack Kirby... Mort Meskin, real-life “Boy Wonder,” about his Makara. The inscription on the “pirate” gag photo, presumably whom I brought up from MLJ... George friend and collaborator. Jerry, of

by Fred Ray, says, “A rich gal from Phila—EI LEOU!” Was that Roussos. DC was the elite publisher of that course, began working with Bob her name? The dates of the photos are unknown. time.

Kane on the “Batman” feature in 1939, and became the second artist really to work on the strip, DM: So to be given the cover assignment to Superman, the top feature supplying many beautiful covers, penciling over Kane’s breakdowns, of that time, you had to be considered pretty good. and even drawing entire stories from 1939-45, as well as working on such Golden Age features such as “Vigilante,” “Johnny Quick,” ROBINSON: Everyone thought Fred’s work was marvelous!

“Daredevil,” “Green Hornet,” “Atoman,” “Black Terror,” “Fighting Yank,” and others. But he’ll be featured, hopefully, in an upcoming DM: Did the editor provide the cover artist with cover concepts?

Alter Ego interview all his own, so here we decided to concentrate on ROBINSON: Perhaps in latter years. Early on, though, Fred would do his friendship and professional relationship with fellow artist Fred a small rough sketch and get it OK’d. He’d then pencil it full-size. We all Ray:] worked on the same size illustration board, about 14" x 18".

DAN MAKARA: What most impressed you about Fred’s work?

DM: [showing Jerry a copy of World’s Finest Comics #3, the baseball cover] What can you tell me about this cover?

On Fred Ray

5

of mis-attribution from those days.

DM: [showing Jerry the 1997 Sotheby’s comic art catalog] This shows the original artwork to Batman #12. The jeep cover. It sold, by the way, for $22,000! Is this work Fred’s and yours?

ROBINSON: You know... I’d had no idea that this still existed! But no... that’s not Fred’s penciling... no way. Look, just look at the arms on the figures... how stiff! The arms are stiff because I was still under Bob Kane’s influence. Bob was always stiff! Look at the jeep... that’s Georgie Roussos. This cover is by Robinson with Roussos... not Ray and Robinson. What is this... Sotheby’s? You know, they called me while the auction was going on. Someone was questioning if the cover was indeed Fred’s. I told them then, over the phone, looking at a small reproduction... that’s my work. They asked me too late. [See p. 6.]

DM: [showing copies of Batman #8, the infinity cover, and Batman #10, the drawing board cover] These are attributed to Fred and you as well...

ROBINSON: No, no, no... that’s me solo... pencil and ink.

DM: And #9, the spotlight cover?

ROBINSON: I know that Jack Burnley is credited with that one. I don’t see it... stylistically, this is my work. I did this one as well.

A Jerry Robinson Batman sketch.

With thanks to collector Michael Zeno.

[Art ©2002 Jerry Robinson; Batman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

ROBINSON: Hooooo... haven’t seen that book in ages. That’s Fred’s work. I inked the Batman and Robin figures.

DM: How is it that you inked Batman and Robin, and not Fred?

ROBINSON: Well, the editors would want that “Batman” look with which I was familiar.

DM: And Fred would ink the Superman figure?

ROBINSON: Probably. Many times Fred would also paint in the colors. This was not done on the original, but on something called a silver print... a kind of photostat.

DM: [showing Jerry a copy of Action Comics #52, the cover with the five main heroes running toward you] How about this cover?

ROBINSON: That’s Fred’s work! There’s Congo Bill on the right. Fred worked on that strip, so he probably inked that figure. Hmmm... Zatara, is it ? That strip was drawn in a stiff style... this figure is inked very fluid... gotta be by Fred, also... as well as Superman here in the middle.

Now, the Vigilante figure here... if you notice the way the drapery was done... that’s Mort Meskin’s style. Mort inked this. I’m quite certain Bernard Baily did the Americommando figure. [See p. 15.]

DM: So the idea was to have a strip’s artist do the inking on a cover appearance to retain some of the strip’s flavor?

ROBINSON: That’s correct. [Dan shows Jerry a copy of World’s Fair Comics #2, the first Superman/Batman cover] You know... Jack Burnley says he did this one. I don’t know. At the very least the figures of Batman and Robin were inked by me! That’s my style... there’s a lot

Jerry Robinson may have inked the Batman and Robin figures on this Fred Ray masterpiece cover for World’s Finest #5 (Spring 1942).

According to the Sotheby’s catalog that offered the original art for sale in 1994 (in a mere $7000-$10,000 suggested bidding range—it’s believed it actually sold for $16,000, and would fetch far more today), this was at the time the earliest of Ray’s WFC cover art to have surfaced. In a letter to collector Al Dellinges, Ray once said that he “never thought that brush technique was my strong point... the best man with the brush technique that I knew at DC was Jerry Robinson.” [©2002 DC Comics.]

6

Jerry Robinson ROBINSON: Wait... who’s this?

DM: Caption reads... “Mort Weisinger.”

ROBINSON: Wow, a very flattering picture. I remember him as much fatter than that. But yes, that’s Fred... exactly how I remember him!

DM: You know, in the other photos of him on eBay, he looks quite the same... prep school appearance... but his sketchbooks are filled with scenes of the other side of the tracks.

ROBINSON: Well, yeah... more interesting stuff.

DM: Prior to DC, had Fred any art school training?

ROBINSON: None of us had that... except for Mort Meskin. He’d had some training. We all looked up to him for that. So Fred had no training, but I can tell you that, when Fred went into the service, he gave me one of his art books. It was a book on drawing from the Famous Artists School. I guess he’d been taking the correspondence courses.

DM: Here’s another great Superman cover by Fred... #17... holding Hitler and Hirohito. This one sold at Sotheby’s for $37,000.

ROBINSON: I wish I had that one... but nobody back then thought these things would be worth anything. This cover with Hitler, it’s kinda cartoony. We didn’t get Superman and Batman too much involved in the war. Another great war cover by Fred which I also own is the cover where Superman is breaching the Nazi line and bending a cannon barrel.

You now that one [Action Comics #44]?

An early Fred Ray “Radio Squad” page from More Fun Comics, courtesy of Eric Schumacher. [©2002 DC Comics.]

DM: So what you’re saying is that all of the Batman covers which Overstreet attributes to Fred Ray are by you?

ROBINSON: The covers you’ve shown me are my work. [looking through a book reprinting Golden Age Detective Comics covers] Now, these covers... Detective #s 58, 60, and 63... these are by Fred and me. I still own the original artwork to Detective #58.

DM: How about Fred’s Superman covers? Are they Fred solo... or inked by others... Stan Kaye, or Ray Burnley?

ROBINSON: No... those are Fred by himself. See this cover to Superman #14... the one where he’s holding the eagle? I own this original! [Dan is too stunned for comment!] You see, back in those days, it was a common practice for artists to exchange work. Fred was also a friend. I’m sure I simply traded one of my works for the Superman #14 cover.

DM: Now here’s a thought: I’d heard that a single dealer acquired Fred’s collection of original covers a few years back...

ROBINSON: Probably for nothing.

DM: Well, if the Batman #12 was among the pile gotten from Fred, it may have been assumed that Fred had done it. Perhaps Fred had traded you the Superman #14 for the Batman #12?

ROBINSON: Very possible.... sounds like a good trade!

DM: [looking through the book The Batman Sunday Classics’ collection of intro photos] Here’s a picture of Fred...

The cover of Batman #12 (Aug.-Sept. 1942), repro’d here from a photocopy of the original art, is sometimes attributed in part to Fred Ray, but Jerry says he drew this one with some help from George Roussos. [©2002 DC Comics.]

On Fred Ray

7 ROBINSON: If you wanted the art back, you could just take it. Not many of the guys did.

The trick was to get it from the engraver in time.

You see, the art would be sent down to the engraver to be photographed. A silver print for color would be made. Then a printing plate was engraved. After that, the engraver would simply tear up the original. If there was something that you wanted to keep, you had to make sure to catch the engraver in time. I can’t tell you how many times I’d forget to call, or call too late...

DM: So a cover like Batman #1...?

ROBINSON: Shredded.

DM: I can’t think of another example of a Golden Age artist outside of Fred Ray who has so many surviving covers!

Fred Ray’s original art for the cover of Superman #17 (July-Aug. 1942) was likewise sold at auction in the 1990s... as was this slightly later War Bond promotional poster which utilized the same art. As the Sotheby’s catalog featuring it said: “Based on a six-month comic art production lead time during the 1940s, this cover was one of the first covers produced shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [on Dec. 7, 1941].” The portmanteau word “Japanazis,” coined to tie the Japanese and German Axis partners together in the mind of the U.S. citizenry, was rarely if ever used in everyday speech.

Though the original art to this cover brought $36-37,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in the ’90s, Fred Ray wrote in a 2000 letter to collector Charlie Roberts that he had received the fat sum of $10 for doing it in 1941-42. [©2002 DC Comics.]

DM: Wow! A fabulous cover!

ROBINSON: Yeah.

DM: Also, I’d heard that Fred had had a decent collection of original Sunday strip art.

ROBINSON: Well, I can tell you how that came about. One day someone happened to mention to me that they were cleaning out United Syndicate’s warehouse... throwing out the art. So I grab George Roussos and we head over to get some of it. We’d always hang lots of original art on our walls... all over the place. So we get there, and there are these workmen tearing up original Hal Fosters, Roy Cranes... all the great stuff. If we’d had the presence of mind, we shoulda just gotten a truck... paid the workman 50 bucks... and have them load it up.

Instead we asked, “Mind if we take some?” So I grab an armful... George grabs an armful... we get back to the office with a bundle! Now, when one of the artists would come in, we’d ask, “Whose Tarzan do you prefer... Foster’s or Hogarth’s?” However they responded, we’d give them an original Sunday page. Fred being a friend, we gave him a bunch.

I know he walked out with a pile of Scorchy Smith. Noel Sickles was a big influence on Fred.

DM: What was DC’s policy on giving back original art?

ROBINSON: He got to the engraver on time, or one of us saved them. We all loved his work.

DM: What about outside the office?

Did you see one another?

ROBINSON: Oh, sure. I shared an apartment with Mort Meskin and Bernie Still another great Fred Ray cover (for Action Comics Klein. Our place was #50, July 1942), repro’d from a photocopy of the a hangout. Fred original art in the Sotheby’s catalog which advertised always came by. But, it for auction in the 1990s. [©2002 DC Comics.] you know, I don’t recall where Fred lived. He kept to himself and he kept his hometown roots. He always went back to Harrisburg. I saw him off to war in ’42.

After that, well, I left DC in ’46... Fred traveled... then when he went back to DC to do “Tomahawk,” he lived elsewhere... Harrisburg. We’d speak by phone, but never happened to get together.

Fred was a very private person. He loved doing historical drawings.

He was a very fine craftsman and a wonderful guy... low key... a sweet personality!

DM: Thanks, Jerry!

[Dan Makara collects Fred Ray art and reads Jerry Robinson comics. He lives in Connecticut around the corner from Lois Lane (a real street!). Dan wishes to thank Charlie Roberts for his words of wisdom.]

8

Focus On Fred Ray part two

A Fred Ray Interview ---Sort--Of

by Charlie Roberts [NOTE: Fred Ray was apparently loath to talk about his comics work. However, a few years back, Charlie Roberts, who has been researching (and often photographing) comics creators for a long while, managed to convinced the reticent artist to agree to at least a by-mail interview—which was forwarded to us by the good offices of Dan Makara. Getting answers to his questions, Charlie says, was “like pulling teeth,” and the responses are generally brief, sometimes almost maddeningly vague. Still, this is Fred Ray, talking about himself and his work. —Roy.] CHARLIE ROBERTS: Mr. Ray, I’ve tried to make this chronological, and anything you can answer will help educate those of us interested in comic book history. You were there early on and can impart a lot of things which would otherwise be lost. Thank you again for your time.

Where and when were you born?

FRED RAY: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

CR: Did you read comic strips as a child? (If so, what were your favorites? Children’s books, et cetera?)

RAY: Yes. Favorites: Highlights of History by J. Carroll Mansfield, Young Buffalo Bill (later Broncho Bill) by Harry F. O’Neil, Tarzan and Prince Valiant by Hal Foster. Books: “Scribner’s” illustrated classics

by N.C. Wyeth.

A photo of Fred Ray... alongside a self-portrait drawn for a bio in Tomahawk #82 (Sept.-Oct. 1962). Thanks to Dylan Williams and Roger Hill, respectively. The DC piece didn’t even mention his fabulous Superman, Action, and World’s Finest covers! Photo courtesy of Ron Webber and Dan Makara. [Art ©2002 DC Comics.]

[NOTE: Hope Charlie Robert doesn’t mind my breaking into his interview to mention that, in a few paragraphs he once wrote about Hal Foster, he said that in December of 1945 he “went to the suburbs of Chicago to see Foster. My first sight of the great one was a man shoveling show from the sidewalk in front of a rather modest house....

Much of our conversation was about hunting, as I recall.... He did mention that any cats who invaded his grounds were in mortal danger of being shot—to prevent the killing of small wildlife.”

Thanks to Al Dellinges. —Roy.] CR: What sparked your interest in drawing?

RAY: Always drawing as far back as I can remember.

CR: What was your first published art?

RAY: An historical strip in The Evening News on the history of Harrisburg. Still in high school when I started it.

CR: When did you begin working for DC Comics?

RAY: 1940.

CR: Did you pencil and ink the work you “ghosted” for Joe Shuster and Bob Kane?

RAY: Yes, usually. Some of the Batman covers were inked by Jerry Robinson, an expert inker!

CR: Please tell us what it was like working in a comic shop in those days. (Talk about Shuster and Kane?)

RAY: A room full of cartoonists. Siegel and Shuster were on the premises, Kane brought his work from home.

CR: Who were the other ghost artists working with you?

RAY: None.

This illustration from Ray’s Gettysburg Sketches appeared in Robin Snyder’s The Comics! [©2002 estate of Frederic Ray.]

CR: Did you do any interior story art, or just covers?

A Fred Ray Interview

9

An early “Congo Bill” page by Fred Ray, courtesy of Eric Schumacher, beneath one of Noel Sickles’ 1930s Scorchy Smith newspaper dailies.

In a 2000 letter to Charlie Roberts, Ray was a bit more forthcoming in one area than in this interview, writing: “The Superman-Batman genre was never to my interest—as a ‘hired hand’ at DC I found that doing those covers was an interruption to the work I really enjoyed—the “Congo Bill” strip— a great learning experience—it was never my interest to imitate Kane or Shuster—After I got out of the army, as you know, I started work on ‘Tomahawk,’ much more my forte.”

As to the Sickles influence on his story work, Ray once wrote to Al Dellinges: “What a tragedy that his career was cut short [on Scorchy Smith], by Sickles’ own volition. Great stuff! I met Sickles once in his small studio on Lexington Avenue, NYC (1942). Remembered his remark that he considered Roy Crane [creator of the strip Wash Tubbs/Captain Easy] the best illustrator in the comic business. Through the war years Sickles’ work appeared frequently on the ‘newsmaps’ that graced our orderly room.”

About his relationship to his artistic colleagues, Ray was more taciturn in another by-mail interview, done for Al Dellinges some years back. In response to Al’s query: “Who are some of your closest associates?” the artist responded simply: “None.” [“Congo Bill” art ©2002 DC Comics; Scorchy Smith art ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

CR: Tell us about “Tomahawk” (its creation, any assistants, how long it ran, etc.).

RAY: Started “Tomahawk” after the war when the first artist quit. It ran, I guess, about 20 years. Did many of the covers. Also Real Fact Comics.

CR: What comic book work did you do after Tomahawk?

RAY: Several war comics. “Sgt. Rock,” et cetera. Stories were usually of Civil War vintage, used as “fillers.”

CR: What have you been doing in the field of art over the last thirty years?

RAY: Worked on a police story, “Radio Patrol,” I think, and “Congo Bill” before going into the service in 1942.

RAY: Producing a number of historical booklets. Writing, illustrating, and publishing. Art Director for Historical Times, Civil War Times, and American History Illustrated. No longer with them.

CR: Would you list covers and stories you worked on?

CR: Do you look down on the comic book medium in general?

RAY: About 30 Superman and Batman covers, Star Spangled Comics covers. Wrote some of the “Congo Bill” stories.

RAY: No, not really. Some very capable artists in today’s comics, but the subjects leave me cold. Kids love it.

CR: Which covers and stories were your favorites?

CR: What is your favorite thing to draw or paint now?

RAY: Probably the Superman with eagle perched on his arm.

RAY: Mostly historical and military subjects.

CR: Did you work for any other comic book companies?

CR: Artwise, what is your proudest achievement?

RAY: No.

RAY: Probably some of the historical paintings used as past covers.

CR: Ever do any comic strip or magazine illustration?

CR: Do you collect art? If so, what artists are you looking for originals by?

RAY: Lots of magazine illustrations and magazine covers in later years.

Several western magazines and Civil War Times and American History Illustrated covers in oils and watercolors.

RAY: Yes, any favorite illustrator of the past. Primary interest today is collecting (when I can find them) the work of English illustrator H.M.

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A Fred Ray Interview

Three examples of Fred Ray art concerning Colonial, Civil War, and World War II themes, repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Ron Fernandez. [©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

Ray’s cover for Tomahawk #42 (Aug. 1955) has also been repro’d here from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Ron Fernandez. By this time, there was an attempt to incorporate more “modern” and even anachronistic themes into Ray’s stories, which were set in the days of America’s Revolutionary War.

Brock, who worked in first half of 20th Century. Discovered his work in England some years ago and have been looking for his work ever since.

Not originals but published work.

CR: Any comments on Superman’s fifty years in comics?

RAY: Not really.

In a 1971 letter, Ray, who had been asked by Charlie Roberts about memories of his comic book period, responded: “Not really much I can tell you about it... it was a lot of work at miserable wages, but invaluable experience for most of us who were really a bunch of kids at the time.” [©2002 DC Comics.]

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

[Charlie Roberts began collecting original art in 1966 after meeting Milt Caniff at a chalk-talk at the Smithsonian, and was a co-founder of the Orlando-Con in Central Florida. He has written various articles and interviews, and currently works part-time for Hake’s Americana & Collectibles, the catalog/Internet auction house in York, PA. He lives near Oceanside, CA, with his wife Joan and possibly the world’s largest yellow Lab, Hobie.]

Write to: Robin Snyder, 2284 Yew St. Rd. #B6, Bellingham, WA 98226-8899

Focus On Fred Ray part three

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Artist--Chronicler of American Landmarks [NOTE: Our thanks to Dan Makara and Ron Webber for this piece, which was apparently written to appear in a publication which featured some of Ray’s historical artwork. It contains, of course, no mention that he ever drew comic books of any kind.

Though no author is named, Ron believes Fred Ray wrote this third-person bio himself, “to be used as an intro to some published Civil War material used at some state parks in Pennsylvania.” —Roy.] Frederic Ray is the sole author, artist, and publisher of a series of little booklets vividly portraying the history of famous American landmarks.

An illustrator of adventure series, Ray’s second love to art has always been American history. His motor trips about the country are always planned to include an historical landmark.

The idea of producing a Fred Ray in front of some ancient landmark or other—flanked by a pair of Ray art pieces with series of booklets on historical related themes from the 1949-50 period: a page from his booklet Fort Ticonderoga, and his spots had simmered for a long “Tomahawk” splash from Star Spangled Comics #90 (March ‘49). Dan Makara says he’s not certain if time before it was triggered six Ray inked the latter as well as penciling it, but that the story “reminds me of the research Ray did for years ago when, returning from his historical booklets on forts. This is more than likely a nice example of his writing as well as a trip to old Quebec, Ray drawing!” [Fort Ticonderoga art ©2002 estate of Frederic Ray; “Tomahawk” art ©2002 DC Comics.] stopped off at historic Fort Ticonderoga. Recognizing the adopted by other publications at the park. A trip with sketchpad to St. need for an attractive, easy-to-read picture history of the fort, Ray Augustine, Florida, and the old Spanish Castillo de San Marcos resulted returned to his drawing board in Philadelphia, where he was attending in book no. 3, St. Augustine. Ray personally visits the locale for all his art school on the G.I. Bill, and there designed a 16-page booklet. Each drawings to insure accuracy in background portrayal. When his fourth page graphically depicted in word and picture a highlight of the history book, Lake George, was conceived, he journeyed in early March to of the fort. The trustees of Fort Ticonderoga saw the first roughs and Lake George, New York. Says Ray, “Arriving late, I spent the night in a were enthusiastic. Every spare minute that winter went into the booklet, tourist house, rising early in the morning to make my sketches and and it appeared on the counter at the fort the following summer. reconnoiter the site of Fort William Henry (this fort has since been Each year since then, Ray has produced a different booklet for some history-minded tourist like himself who loves exploring the walls of an old fort, inspecting an ancient muzzle-loading cannon, and conjuring up the ghosts of the past. But Ray is also directing his particular approach to American history to the small fry... the youth of America... to whom the picture technique of storytelling is most attractive. His drawings bring it all back to stirring life, being both educational and entertaining at the same time.

Fort Ticonderoga was followed by Valley Forge. His picture map of Valley Forge Park, which appeared in this booklet, has since been

reconstructed). The temperature was 5 below zero, the lake frozen solid.

I can assure you that it was a double-time reconnaissance I made that morning.”

An exploratory trip to Old Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario was followed by a booklet on that famous landmark. The center spread, in which Ray usually depicts a bird’s-eye view of the fort in question or a map of the area, was here elaborated upon to illustrate Fort Niagara in the 1770s. An aerial view of the present structures supplemented by an 18th-century plan made by the French commander of the fort, Captain Pouchot, made this reconstructed view possible.

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Artist/Chronicler

The cover of Fort Ticonderoga. [©2002 estate of Frederic Ray.]

The most recent and most ambitious of Ray’s booklets, The Story of the Alamo, was two years in the making, though it covers only 22 pages. Says Ray, “The problems with which I was confronted were most interesting, and, as I later learned, most exhausting. First, I had to accurately reconstruct a bird’seye view of the Alamo fort of 1836 so that my other drawings relating to the siege could be served up upon a fairly consistent backdrop. Months of research and dozens of letters to university libraries, museums, and historical

societies followed. Only the Alamo chapel, surrounded by the modern city of San Antonio, now stands intact; but originally the Alamo fort consisted of many other buildings and walls encompassing an area some 100 yards wide and 150 yards long. Contemporary maps were employed, though they contained certain contradictions in their floor plans.

“The main fight at the Alamo had occurred in the building adjacent to the chapel called the Long Barracks. What did this structure, for instance, look like? One authentic drawing of the ruins of the Long Barracks survives. It was made by a U.S. Army officer about ten years after the battle. But was the roof of the building sloped or flat at the time of the siege? This was only one of the questions which plagued me for some time. I read everything I could find on the subject; finally I realized that military necessity, plus a description of a gun mounted on the roof, made it obvious that the roof was flat.

“Early drawings and survey maps were compared, and some discarded. A Mexican map made in 1836 by a Colonel Labastida showed me the positions of the ramps to the gun platforms from which the Texas cannon were fired over the walls. Voluminous correspondence with the very cooperative guardians of the Alamo chapel, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, incorporated many other features into the finallycompleted floor plan of the fort. The whole thing had become something of an obsession. If it didn’t succeed in keeping me awake all night, I would see it in my dreams.”

Midway through the Alamo booklet, the Davy Crockett fad suddenly burst upon the country. “I missed it by a few months,” says Ray. “By the time my book was off the presses, the Crockett cycle had passed its zenith.”

This two-page spread from Ray’s booklet The Story of the Alamo was reprinted in Robin Snyder’s The Comics! [©2002 estate of Frederic Ray.]

Ray is a stickler for authentic detail. A European vacation was helpful in preparing the drawings for Old Fort Niagara. Uniforms of the period were exhumed from the libraries of London and Paris, and such small details as a scalping knife carried by an Indian in his illustration of the surrender of Fort Niagara was the result of a sketch made of that knife in a war museum on Whitehall Street, London.

Ray admits to technical errors in some of his earlier attempts to recreate the American past. For example, he points out, the Black Watch at the battle of Ticonderoga wore leather sporans, not the goat-hair sporans of a later date which he depicted. This will be corrected in a subsequent printing. “I made the mistake,” he says, “of being influenced by other artists’ past interpretations of the battle.

Now I start from scratch and do all my own research on uniforms, rather than put my faith in the accuracy of another artist’s costuming.”

DC’s comics for circa October 1955 carried this house ad, which reflected the “Davy Crockett craze” that swept America that year, following the Disneyfication of Crockett on TV. Dell/Western had the Disney-licensed Davy Crockett comic; DC had to settle for a comic called Frontier Fighters, starring the coonskin-cap-wearin’ Tennesseean... and of course Fess (“Davy Crockett”) Parker was soon off playing Daniel Boone on another TV show. A young Crockett even guest-starred in the issue of Tomahawk advertised (#35, Sept. ’55)! Thanks to Bob Bailey for the ad and some of the info! [©2002 DC Comics.]

A few years ago Ray was voted in as a member of the Company of Military Collectors and Historians, a group of experts and connoisseurs on all phases of militaria. Quoting Ray, “If I can’t find what I am looking for in the way of uniforms, accouterments, arms, etc., there’s bound to be a member who can provide the source for the answers. In the Alamo booklet, Mexican uniforms of that period proved extremely hard to find. Finally a company member in Arlington, Virginia, an expert on Latin American uniforms, supplied the little-known data I needed.”

These booklets sell from 25 cents to 50 cents, depending upon the site. Monetarily this is not a success story... most of the profits are consumed by printing, shipping, and distri-

Of American Landmarks

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Collector Bob Bailey was kind enough to send us these Ray-drawn uniforms of the Union and a photograph of Ray’s painting “Drums over Yorktown.” [© 2002 the estate of Frederic Ray.] A trio of sketches of various types by Fred Ray, courtesy of Dylan Williams. [©2002 estate of Frederic Ray.]

bution costs. In some cases it has taken three years of sales to pay for the printing of one booklet. But Ray believes that the personal satisfaction gained by indulging his interests in Americana in word and picture is worth the effort.

Next time you take to the open road, look over the literature offered you at this or that historic landmark. One of these graphic little publications will re-create it all for you, and the kids will love it.

Before we put out a request for Fred Ray art, we had no idea there were so many people collecting his “Tomahawk” work! This splash page of original art from Tomahawk #35 (1954) is courtesy of Dan Makara. [©2002 DC Comics.]

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Focus On Fred Ray part four

A Tribute to Fred Ray

by Jack Burnley [EDITOR’S NOTE: The following piece appeared in Robin Snyder’s monthly journal The Comics! Vol. 11, #6 (June 2000), and is noteworthy in part because it is written by another master Superman artist (and cover illustrator), Jack Burnley, whose comics career drawing Superman, Batman, and especially Starman was the subject of an extensive interview in Alter Ego V3#2 a couple of years back. In a recent phone conversation in which Ye Editor was apologizing for accidentally rendering his wife’s name as Dorothy rather than Dolores in A/E #14, Jack mentioned that, while he and Fred Ray didn’t know each other well in the old days, they almost wound up as neighbors. One day at the DC offices in the 1940s, when he was feeling a bit under the weather, Jack bumped into artist Steve Brodie, who suggested he move to Arizona. “You’ll jump out of bed every morning, eager to greet the day,” Brodie promised him. So Jack made a trip west to investigate, and Fred Ray, who was living in Arizona at the time, got in touch with him and they spent some time together.

But Jack says that a couple of days of Arizona heat put the kibosh on his passing thoughts of moving there. In the last few years of Ray’s life, the two had resumed their acquaintance via mail, which led Jack to send Robin Snyder the following letter/article in 2000. Thanks to both Jack and Robin for permission to reprint it here.

—Roy.] Robin, your feature on Fred Ray will give this fine artist some of the recognition he deserves.

Although he turned out excellent work for DC for more than thirty years, he is almost completely ignored in DC’s books on comics and is barely mentioned in Steranko’s History of Comics. Only Ron Goulart has praised Fred’s art. In The Great Comic Book Artists, Vol. 2, there is a piece on Ray which gives high marks to his work on “Congo Bill” and “Tomahawk,” as well as his “Superman” ghost art. Goulart wrote that Ray “did some of the best straight

This photo of Jack Burnley (also printed with his interview in Alter Ego V3#2 three years ago) shows the artist with one of his most famous covers—New York World’s Fair Comics–1940 Issue—the first drawing of Superman and Batman together... and a black-&-white version of one of his later drawings of the pair.

[Art ©2002 Jack Burnley; Superman & Batman TM & © 2002 DC Comics.]

adventure stuff in comic books” and “also did a very impressive job ghosting Superman.”

In Les Daniels’ “official” 60-year anniversary book DC Comics there is only one reference to Ray, but that one is worth much: “Tomahawk” began as a back-up and graduated to a book in 1950 “and lasted for an impressive twenty-two years. Jack Schiff, who edited the feature, credits its success to artist Fred Ray. ‘He was just magnificent,’ Schiff says.”

Fred’s cover to World’s Finest Comics #3 is included in this big book, but is credited to Jerry Robinson (p. 57)! Also, his great shot of Superman riding a bomb (Superman #18) appears without credit (p. 64).

When I came to DC in late 1939, I was an established professional with ten years’ experience as a King Features Syndicate sports cartoonist.

Fred Ray was a seventeen-year-old beginner. His first Superman covers were drawn in the simple style of, and better than, the Shuster studio. In a Marc Simms of Big B Books e-mailed us a scan of this intriguing “Tomahawk” splash from Star Spangled Comics #94 (July 1949), which evidently was set partly in the 18th century, and partly in the 20th. Readers can contact Marc at <mailbox@bigbcomics.com>. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Fred Ray

Collector Dan Makara, who sent us this art, says it’s a photocopy of “a pencil study on board 15" x 19" for a never-completed painting based on [the cover of] Superman #11 by Fred Ray.” Quite a find, Dan! Ray seems to have been the artist who established the particular type of “S” which Superman sported mostly on covers Ray drew, and which in the 1970s and ’80s was adopted as the chest emblem of the late, lamented “Earth-Two” version of the Man of Steel. [Art ©2002 the estate of Frederic Ray; Superman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

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Next to the eagle-and-shield cover of Superman #14, the cover of Action Comics #52 (Sept. 1942) seems to be one of the most fondly remembered of Fred Ray’s classic covers. In fact, the latter was even used as the cover art of The Golden Age of Comic Books by Richard O’Brien (1977 from Ballantine Books), one of the first tomes to publish slightly-larger-thanlife reproductions of numerous 1940s comics covers. Interesting that every exposed face but Superman’s (Americommando, Zatara, and Congo Bill) sported a mustache. Kinda makes you wonder about Vigilante under that mask, don’t it? [Action #52 art ©2002 DC Comics.]

recent letter he describes that early period as “a learning experience,” and he was kind enough to say that he learned from seeing the work of older artists like me and Creig Flessel, who was drawing “Sandman” at that time.

Fred improved rapidly, and soon he was doing impressive Superman covers that equaled or surpassed mine. Although Wayne Boring has been credited with changing Superman’s image from the cartoony Shuster figure to the more realistic modern hero, actually Fred and I were the first to “modernize” Superman with our covers in the early ’40s.

My favorite Ray “Superman” covers are the patriotic shield cover (#14), the bomb cover (#18), the great Action Comics #48 showing a leaping Superman smashing a Japanese plane, and the striking Action Comics #52, which has Superman and the other major characters running side by side toward the reader.

I left DC to return to sports cartooning in 1947 and was out of touch with comics until the Golden Age revival in 1990, so I didn’t see “Tomahawk,” which by all accounts was Fred’s best work. However, his outstanding “Superman” art is enough to earn him a top spot among artists of the fabulous Golden Age. Thanks, Robin, for giving me a chance to pay a small tribute to a fine craftsman who has been shamefully neglected by DC editors and writers and most other comics historians.

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Mort Leav

Fortune A Reminiscence by Golden Age Artist MORT LEAV Co-Creator of The Heap —and Mr. Whipple!

[INTRODUCTION: Mort Leav (b. 1916) is a true comics pioneers, with a career that spans the late 1930s through the mid-’50s in comic books before he left to pursue other artistic interests. This too-brief memoir was edited together by Robin Snyder from several of Mort’s letters to him over the past few years (hence the occasional address to an offstage “you”), and initially saw print in Robin’s monthly “positive, working oral history of the past, present, and future” of the field, The Comics! (Vol. 12, #2, Feb. 2001), information about which can be found elsewhere in this issue. Several additions have been made based on letters and phone calls exchanged between Mort and Ye Editor, since then... as well as the integration of an earlier letter of Mort’s that had appeared in The Comics! exactly one year before the comments collected as “Fortune.” Our thanks to both Mort Leav and Robin Snyder for their blessing to reprint and expand this piece. —Roy.]

The Illustrating Men Your kind words and Jerry de Fuccio’s Broadway-style column of facts, queries, and musings have bestirred this usually reticent ol’ penand-inker to dust off his memories and write of old friends, past and present. Sitting here in my recliner for most of the 24/7 with my fair share of aches, I, as an old journeyman illustrator, do truly feel flattered that anyone would wish to share in my reminiscences.

A self-portrait of Mort Leav (at left) facing two of his most famous cocreations—Mr. Whipple (he of Charmin Bathroom Tissue fame a few decades back) and The Heap, forerunner of various other Heaps, not to mention the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, The Incredible Hulk, Man-Thing, Swamp Thing, and other monstrous heroes of the 1960s and since! [Art ©2002 Mort Leav; Mr. Whipple is TM & ©2002 Procter & Gamble; The Heap is TM & ©2002 by the respective trademark and copyright holders. So there!]

Another great pen virtuoso was Joseph Clement Coll. Charles A. Voight.

Then there was Howard Pyle and all his famous students such as N.C. Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Frank Schoonover.

They were all the fabulous “glazed paper” magazine illustrators, going right up to the end of the 1940s. I’ll never forget the boost I got from just studying the work of John LaGatta or Wallace Morgan or Henry Raleigh or dozens of others. I was both amused and saddened when a student of mine at the School of Visual Arts asked if I had learned to draw from comic books.

Among comics strips, Milt Caniff’s art, exentensive research, and sophisticated writing style [on Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon] is in a class never to be equaled. Among other sequential art masters to whom I doff my cap is Alex Raymond [of Flash Gordon and later Rip Kirby].

I had always believed that the really great artist and/or illustrator must have a solid grounding in studies of the old masters, and one who is his inspiration and whom he seeks to emulate. As a teenager I spent my Saturdays in the museums and with art books. Sundays were spent outdoors drawing or painting scenery and sketching animals in the zoo. But as for illustrating: in the early ’30s we were still at the tail end of the exquisite pen-and-ink era.

I considered my guru, without peer, Charles Dana Gibson. Gibson’s leading disciple and ten years his junior was John Montgomery Flagg.

A 1977 Leav drawing in the style of one of his idols, Charles Dana Gibson, creator of “The Gibson Girl,” one of the mass media’s first “pinups” —in a far more discreet era, of course. Courtesy of Tony Cerezo. [©2002 Tony Cerezo.]

Douglas Fairbanks [early silent movie actor] was a favorite of mine from the time I was an impressionable child. I did a swashbuckling drawing of him for a Woody Gelman project. If I ever find the brochure in the attic, I’ll send it to you. I remember seeing a Fairbanks film that must have been earlier than the ones mentioned in your [Robin Snyder’s] listing, because he had no mustache. It was The Americano.

He also had been in some tworeelers that had yellowed and faded away with age. One of them, my older brother remembers, was titled Reggie Mixes In. Human capability of such recall is remarkable.

I recall C.D. Batchelor winning the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in

Fortune 1937. I was 21 and beaming with confidence. Come July, portfolio in hand, I went up to the New York Daily News building and Editors Press Service, a South American newspaper syndicate where all our domestic news events were translated into Spanish or Portuguese and then sent to every newspaper and country in our southern hemisphere. I became the art department—drawing everything, lettering in all styles, cutting up and designing photo and copy layouts. All this for only (are you sitting down?) $78 a month. South American newspapers couldn’t possibly pay North American wages. Steranko, in his profile on me, inadvertently had me getting $78 a week. I wasn’t that lucky. Hard to believe, but that puny salary supported my parents. My father had become an invalid. My daily stipend for work expenses was 25¢. Broken down, it included a nickel each way for subway transportation, and for lunch, a lettuce-and-tomato sandwich on toast with mayo for a dime and 5¢ for a glass of milk.

I would frequently go down from our 15th floor office to the 9th floor Daily News offices to pick up their comic strip pages from 4–9 weeks ahead of their publication date (depending whether they were daily or Sunday pages) and replace all English lettering with Spanish.

We also received Eisner & Iger pages for the same purpose. One day we started receiving George Brenner’s “The Clock,” too. That involved me in extra work. Seems Brenner’s drawings, except for the masked hero, had neighborhoods completely devoid of any life. The streets and buildings were eerily quiet. There were long wooden fences without even posted bills. One of my jobs was to stick in background people, kids playing, a dog at a Brenner hydrant, a cat at a garbage can, automobiles parked or moving, perhaps a fluttering flag, etc.

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to go to the Winsor-Newtons after Pearl Harbor.

Although my work appeared in books of Fiction House, Hillman, MLJ, and Lev Gleason, I never worked directly for any of those outfits.

My jobs went there only by way of the Iger shop. That included the creation of “The Heap” with Harry Stein. We were having a ball coming up with names before settling on “The Heap.” That was in the “Sky Wolf” strip, where I also drew a villainous character; half his head and body were made of steel.

Eisner had split and left Jerry with stacks of “Hawk of the Seas” pages. Arty Saaf was assigned to write new material. He carefully cut out Eisner panels and partial panels to paste onto fresh pages and drew the rest, thereby incorporating as much original Eisner as he could. The new stories on the doctored pages would then go directly to the engraver, and—voila!—the books came out with new “Eisner” “Hawks of the Seas” stories.

Some of Iger’s working conditions may seem harsh: e.g., we were allowed 35 minutes for lunch. A favorite dining haunt was a couple of blocks away. One day, Saaf shrewdly invited Iger to have lunch with us.

We went to that eatery. It seemed we were hardly settled in when Saaf looked at his watch, noticed the time that had elapsed, and promptly remarked, “Take your time, Jerry. We only have 35 minutes.”

We were given an hour from then on.

(Continued on p.20)

The inside offices of the News were walled all in windows, and prominently displayed Mr. Batchelor in one, working away at his drawing table, a few of his large originals having been hung behind him.

I often thought of getting up the gumption to interrupt him and introduce myself as a fellow newspaper artist, albeit some rungs below (and some floors above), but I never did.

Come January 1940 and German subs were sinking American freighters in the Caribbean to prevent contraband from getting to the Allies via South America. Some work I was doing for South American newspapers via Editors Press Service could have been sunk along with everything else. Hence, I, among others, was let go.

I had heard that Victor Fox was hiring artists. Armed with a portfolio of my best newspaper illustrations, I hastened to my appointment. The editor was Bob Farrell, who threw a bunch of newspaper comic strip cutouts at me and told me to use them to copy from and knock out as many pages as I could, even if there were to be only two panels to a page. The rates were 5 and 6 dollars a page. I walked out, never to go back.

Years later, I learned through Ray Hermann’s twin brother George that Farrell had been born Izzy Katz. He and George were in the same Army unit. The mail-call guy would announce, “Hey, Katz, you got another letter for Bob Farrell.” Rumor had it Farrell was also an attorney.

Iger Minus Eisner Coincidentally, the Iger & Eisner studio was also selling Editors Press their comic book pages for translation and shipment. Eventually I went to work for Iger. He started me at $30 a week. The very first script I was given in comic books after leaving the job with the South American newspaper syndicate was “ZX-5, Spies in Action.” Eisner had done it before their split. It was also the very first time I tried drawing with a brush. It wasn’t easy because I was using it like a pen. The brushes were Japanese bamboo with rabbit hair tips and cost 12 cents each. They were very springy, pleasant to work with once you got the hang on it. We had

Alas, it has proved impossible to identify, with certainty, any art on “Blackhawk,” “Uncle Sam,” “Doll Man,” or “Kid Eternity” stories that Mort penciled for Busy Arnold’s company from 1941-45, so here’s a “Sally O’Neill” splash from Quality’s National Comics #15 (Sept. 1941). Thanks to Eric Schumacher for the scans and info. Both Eric and Mort believe he is the actual artist of the “Sally O’Neil” splash we printed back in A/E #12, which we attributed to Al Bryant. Check it out. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

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Mort Leav Mort Leav was the original artist—and Harry Stein most likely the scripter— of the “Sky Wolf” feature that debuted in Air Fighters Comics, Vol. 1, #2 (Nov. 1942). This American-English-Polish grouping of aviators was probably influenced by the popular, multi-national Blackhawks over in Quality’s Military Comics, but had its own mystique going for it, as well... and indeed, when Eclipse Comics continued the adventures of the mag’s main star, Airboy, in the 1980s, it also brought back Sky Wolf. The art on these two pages, in fact, is repro’d from Eclipse’s Air Fighters Classics #1-2, which reprinted Air Fighters #2-3, the first issues which featured these continuing characters.

Mort wrote, upon seeing these stories again: “Whew! Where’d you ever dig up those horrors? I drew like that when I was about 11 or 12, but in 1941 I, for one, was 25! And the script, whether by Harry Stein or someone else, was even worse. Did we bring the Frederic Werthams on ourselves?”

[Art on these 2 pages ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

The splash from the first “Sky Wolf” story. Mort writes: “I notice in the ‘Sky Wolf’ artwork I did a take-off on Hitler, Goebbels, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler. All this stuff was done in the Iger shop. The inking looks like it could all have been mine, I hesitate to say.”

The cast of “Sky Wolf” was introduced on page 3—along with the concept of “semi-planes.” And they say Blackhawk’s Grumman Skyrockets might’ve been a wee bit unstable!

Germany’s Führer meets Half-Man, the Nazi ace referred to by Mort Leav in his reminiscences.

This is actually the splash of the second “Sky Wolf” story, in Air Fighters V1#3.

Fortune

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The Heap’s origin panels, from the “Sky Wolf” tale in Air Fighters V1#3 (Dec. 1942), seems to owe quite a bit to Theodore Sturgeon’s horror short story “It,” which had been published in the pulp magazine Unknown (August 1940), with a World War One dogfight thrown in to match the comic’s theme. But Leav says” “I don’t know a Theodore Sturgeon,” or anything about his classic story. ’Course, that doesn’t mean that writer Harry Stein hadn’t read “It”—or at least heard about it somewhere. Two years later, “It” also inspired the origin of the monstrous Solomon Grundy in DC’s “Green Lantern” series, thanks to comics scripter (and science-fiction author) Alfred Bester. For more on the comic book descendants of “It” and The Heap, see the Swampmen trade paperback by Jon B. Cooke and George Khoury, coming soon from TwoMorrows.

Note that comics’ first swampman-thing originally sported a very definite contingent of eyes, mouth, and fangs. Later his eyes (if any) would be shrouded in shadow, with no mouth and a sort of dangling tentacle (or carrot) shape in place of a nose.

Colonel von Tundra, a.k.a. Half-Man, confronts The Heap.

Panels from the final page of The Heap’s first appearance.

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Mort Leav

(Continued from p.17) Iger also had a bullpen artist named Rafe Asterita—he was one of the “hay” artists (whose pen modeling looked like straw)—and a very good background man named Aldo Rubano. An expression there was, “He doesn’t know his Asterita from his Aldo.”

Lee Abramowitz worked in the Iger shop during my time there.

Later, as Lee Ames, he turned out How-To art books over the years for Doubleday. And of course there was also Seymour Reit, who wrote and drew cartoon pages in his own inimitable style.

Harry Anderson must have earned about half of what he could have earned—because he’d never start drawing a writer’s script without feeling constrained to rewrite the whole thing in an effort to eliminate what he called “clichés.”

One day Iger brought in his lady friend, Ruth Roche, from Holyoke, Massachusetts, and had her write scripts. Her method was to ask each artist if he had any ideas for scripts.

Iger had a staff of copywriters. In the short time I was there, they were Toni Blum, Harry Stein (who wrote “The Heap”), Dana Dutch, Jean Press, and Eleanor Brody, among others. Toni Blum was the daughter of artist Alex Blum.

Mort Leav drew this cover for OW’s Mad Hatter #2 in 1945. The late Jerry de Fuccio, longtime associate editor of Mad who sent us the color proof from which this image is reproduced, wrote: “Mort was moonlighting in an Army barracks....

I can’t believe he did such poor muscles at this time!” (Hey, Jerry, if you’re looking down on us— compared to a lot of the art in today’s comics, Mort’s old figure is a Michelangelo study!) [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

The work of some of Iger’s feature artists was sometimes promised to two or three different publishers, and since the jobs were usually under deadline, Sammy, as Ruth Roche called Iger, would sometimes stand over an artist, trying to induce batting out an extra page. He, of course, was paid by the volume of work, while we received the same modest salary. In the ensuing years, I realized how appreciative I should be for that experience, it having prepared me for Busy Arnold’s books, where standards, I believe, were generally a little higher... that is, when Busy gave me a decent inker.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy Arnold [publisher of Quality Comics Group] wouldn’t even let me do my own inking, let alone writing. He figured I could turn out twice as many pages if I only penciled. He was of the opinion that almost anyone could ink if they had any decent penciling to follow. He often gave me inkers with heavy plumbers’ hands—drove me nuts. On very rare occasions I’d get lucky and get Robin King.

I much prefer to do my own inking: I would do a very light “blocking in” so that all the spontaneity would come in my inking— whereas, in Busy’s operation, I would have to do a time-consuming, detailed pencil job for someone else to follow. And then, to have my work so mangled really hurt.

I do remember some of his writers: Bill Woolfolk, Manly Wade Wellman, the talented but unhappy Bill Finger, Otto Binder, perhaps Carl Wessler, Irv Weinstein (who went on to author a book on the Civil War!).

Jerry Iger tried to keep the names of his “stars” secret. Except for Reed Crandall, already in the fold, Arnold managed to obtain the names of those who had been working on his features and invited them over, much to Jerry’s anguish.

When Mort did the above illustration for Jerry in 1996—one of his “last drawings,” he says—he added the comment beneath it. This art was printed in A/E V3#6—along with a larger repro of the Mad Hatter #2 cover— to accompany an article by Golden Age comics scripter Bill Woolfolk, who co-published (and probably wrote) the title’s two issues. Does anybody out there have a copy of MH #2 he/she can loan us, so we can print some of Leav’s interior art in a future issue? [Art ©2002 Mort Leav; Mad Hatter TM & ©2002 the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

I was most fortunate in winding up working for the most generous of publishers, Busy Arnold, and then having the friendship and run of the offices of Ray Hermann. Outside of a few ardent and enterprising collectors, like the late and lamented Jerry de Fuccio, there haven’t been many comic book fans as familiar with the creators in Busy Arnold’s books as they’ve been with the books of the bigger publishers like DC. Between the Quality and Orbit periods, I was in the Army, from whence I did the aforementioned Mad Hatter #2 cover which Bill Woolfolk asked me to do, as well as a script or two that Bill had sent me to be drawn for Orbit. They helped me to pay for someone to do my KP [“kitchen patrol”—Army slang for kitchen duty].

Fortune

21 Now, looking at Stout’s notes, I am reminded of the stacks of letters, both the dispatched and the acquired, that I’d discarded through the years and then regretted having parted with one or another of them. My reverie brings me back to eight years earlier. It was 1936. I was twenty, a year short of becoming a professional newspaper artist. Hearst’s New York Evening Journal was holding a creative contest for amateur poets, short story writers, and artists. The readers sent in their votes.

After winning the drawing part of the competition two weeks in a row, I received a letter from H.H. McClure. He invited me to what I assumed was his residence. If a fading memory serves me correctly, if at all, the letterhead called it The Whist Club, located in the 60s just off Fifth Avenue. The man was tall, straight, thin, and 92. Apparently he had once been a force in the syndicate world and had visions of starting up again. I don’t remember the discussion nor will I conjecture on why I didn’t follow it up.

He gave it one last try with a second letter.

Although in it he spelled my name “Leve,” I am truly sorry I didn’t save that one.

In spring of 1945, as World War II ended in Europe with the overthrow first of Fascist Italy, then Nazi Germany, “Private Leav” drew Uncle Sam turning on his one remaining Axis foe—Japan. If the Japanese figure seems a stereotype, well—we were at war, for God’s sake! And is the fellow at left really that much more a caricature than the fallen Mussolini and Hitler? [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

About a year before V-E Day, in preparation for that day, I made a drawing that I sent to Rex Stout, who headed the Writers’ War Board.

Rex, as you may know, was the author of a prodigious number of Nero Wolfe detective mystery books. You might notice that the Board’s list of eminent writers who participated in the war effort is awesome—but as far as I’ve been able to note, the only two artists who took part while I was involved were Ham Fischer [creator of Joe Palooka] and myself.

I did some “Captain America” stories for Timely immediately upon leaving military service. Dorothy Roubicek was editor. It wasn’t too long before another service returnee arrived.

Martin Goodman quickly put young Stan Lee back in charge.

Some years later, when Dorothy had married Bill Woolfolk, they and I produced a strip called Hotel for Women. Which folded before even leaving its embryonic state. The reason Dorothy gave me at the time was that King Features had just taken on The Heart of Juliet Jones [by Stan Drake].

I thought it especially important that I show you what the 1945 “And Now!” drawing looked like, because the reprint in the Steranko History of Comics,Vol. 2, preempted the space of a significant two-word caption by a list of credits. I think the words “And Now!” help to emphasize what the drawing conveys, an end to the European Theater and a more concentrated focus on the Japanese operation. However, I’ve always considered it an honor that Jim chose to give me the only single-drawing, doublepage spread in the book.

The other drawings I include here, of Miss Liberty leaving the Nazi swamp and of the Gestapo character pleading “Geneva Convention” before the thenAllies (which now seems odd to have included communist Russia), appeared in camp papers in February 1945.

Two classic Leav “political cartoons” likewise drawn not long before V-E Day. We’re only sorry we didn’t have room to print them bigger. Thanks to Tony Cerezo, and to Robin Snyder. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

22

Mort Leav his ideology into the Taffy feature. Ray once gave him a Taffy script to draw. The splash panel of the pages he brought back had Taffy being greeted by no less than Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan, and one or two others of the then Soviet hierarchy. Incredible that she accepted and published the thing!

This picture of a young Mort Leav and an unidentified (perhaps generic?) friend drawing comics was printed in Robin Snyder’s The Comics! Vol. 1, #9 (Sept. 1996). [©2002 Mort Leav.]

Ray Hermann did, on occasion, use the services of Zully and/or Terry Szenics, usually for inking, backgrounds, or lettering. Dick Burdick was Ray’s letterer. Irv Werstein and sometimes Carl Wessler were two of her writers. I think Wessler was also an artist of funny, animated characters, but you [Robin Snyder] would know better than I. “B.Q. Siege” is an unknown mystery to me... a cleanup man, perhaps? If I’m not too off in my memory, I vaguely think Irv told me he was writing a Civil War book: didn’t he die young?

With Busy Arnold having given me what I considered a princely bonus when I was drafted, as well as a similarly royal bounty shortly before, for Christmas, and with Hermann awaiting my return, I had no hesitation in dropping Timely.

I signed all my comics work done for Ray Hermann, but she used to white out my name. She didn’t want other companies to know who her artists were, because they might hire them away. But I would often put my name back in without her knowing it, before the book went to the engravers.

On Other Shores

Ironically, when Ray was forced to close shop during the severe economic decline of the comics in the spring of 1954, it was from Stan Lee that I accepted my very last comic book assignment: a story of the Florida Seminoles.

Most people think Ray Hermann spelled her name “Rae.” Actually, Ruth Hermann’s nickname was “Ray.” As the size of publishing houses go, Ray’s was modest. Hence, although I did all the lead features for any books in which my work appeared and although I did 90% plus of all the covers during the years I worked for her, Ray had no salaried individual titled “art director.”

Who’s Who places me at EC during 1947 doing Animal Fables. This is wrong.

I am in receipt of the odd potpourri of clips you sent me. The caption under the drawing of Taffy and her friend holding the magazine’s label of contents states “probably

by Mort Leav, 1947.” Of course, the “probably” could have been omitted. I guess you can call Taffy a real looker. A twelve-yearold looker? I think the Archie girls were a little older, hence the voluptuousness. (Another of Hermann’s books was Patches, about a 12- or 13year-old boy.)

Maurice Del Bourgo: a weirdo. When not in Ray’s offices, he could generally be located (if one cared) somewhere to the left of Joe Stalin. This would have been his own private business had he not attempted to incorporate

Mort’s splashes for stories in Love Diary #17 (circa 1952) and a 1953 issue of Love Journal. Thanks to Tony Cereza, who once owned original art to both tales. According to the Gerbers’ wonderful Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books, the publisher of both, believe it or don’t, was called Our Publishing Company, a.k.a. Toytown—Ray Hermann’s outfit, according to Jerry Bails’ records.

Thanks to Tony Cerezo & Mort Leav. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

Fortune

23

(At left:) The splash page of what Mort Leav says was “my very last comic book assignment: a story of the Florida Seminoles”—entitled, ironically, “Last of the Seminoles.” It was the last of Mort Leav in comics, as well, and appeared in War Comics #29 (Nov. 1954). Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for digging up this Timely treasure! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

the seafood restaurants along Sheepshead Bay. I don’t know whatever possessed me. The deal was a stupid one for me. I was never much of a businessman, and my wife Win even less so.

The incipient television industry was trying to find its legs—and the soaps and situation comedies were rampant on the radio. One such popular program, running five days a week from 4:00 to 4:15 p.m., was Lorenzo Jones. Jerry had broached a deal with the show’s syndicate, whose name escapes me other than that it had “Air” in its title. As I understood it, the radio people were to give Jerry used 15-minute scripts for transposing into daily comic strips by Jerry and for me to draw.

I would have to give up several weeks of productive comic book work and its attendant pay on the speculation. Jerry, on the other hand, was not then working (which should have given me a clue). The radio syndicate, in the catbird seat, insisted on 50% of any newspaper payout.

Jerry and I were to take 25% each. With the 50% partner doing nothing but clearing its drawers of old scripts and with me creating the visual characters, then doing 90% of the work while giving up my family’s daily bread and butter, I’m sure I should have gone in for rocket science instead.

I wondered why Jerry wasn’t getting a nibble from any newspaper syndicates. What I didn’t know at the time was that, after some failures with other newspaper strips he’d tried, he was being blackballed for his letter campaign dripping vitriol against DC publishers for cutting him and Joe Shuster out of all “Superman” considerations. Win and I had to feel sorry for the Siegels. They were our friends and were going through a rough period. The Lorenzo Jones fiasco I had gotten myself into was of my own making. I didn’t have to accept the dumb deal.

You know that I had an interesting time with Jerry Siegel [co-creator of “Superman”]. The year was 1949. I lived in an apartment near Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn with my wife and two young kids. I was working long hours doing the leads and covers on Ray Hermann’s books: Wanted, Westerner, and Taffy Comics. (I still have color prints and copies of some of that work and even an overleaf of a 1950 Ziff-Davis cover with my drawings in sequential panels of 70-yearold Vice President Alben Barkley’s marriage to a 37year-old widow.) Jerry called and asked if he and his wife Joanne could drop in on us; they were down from where they lived in Danbury or Darien, I forget which. This was the first of several weekly visits to my home, when he’d come to pick up a new stack of strips. Each time the four of us would have dinner at one of

Leav splashes from Wanted #13 (May 1948) and #21 (July 1949), courtesy of Jim Amash—with special thanks for the scans to Teresa R. Davidson. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

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Mort Leav

The first two dailies for a projected Lorenzo Jones strip by Leav, written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, based on a radio show.

The strip didn’t pan out. Thanks to Tony Cerezo. [©2002 the respective copyright holders; art ©2002 Mort Leav.]

Shortly after, good fortune struck Jerry when Ziff-Davis decided to enter the new comic book love-story line and had him run it. I even did three of the Ziff stories toward the end of 1950.

Events came tumbling fast at the time, one of which turned me off Jerry from then on. I had not spoken to Jerry Siegel since I walked away from him except to say “no” when he called me about six months later to ask if I would agree to let him use the Lorenzo strips. Of course, he still had my originals.

Joe and Jerry are both gone. On reflection, I could say that I am glad that they at least had a few short years of having collected some small stipend from DC for having invented the super-hero lineage with Superman. A lineage that, after so many years, I have gotten tired of seeing.

Advertising and After I remember illustrating a number of novelettes in the Triple Nickel Books for Woody Gelman and his partner, Ben Solomon. Woody was in charge of the creative side. He would have been too generous to be the businessman; he’d have paid too much money out to the artists. He was a very nice man, and he and his wife and my wife and I often used to go to dinner together. I must have discarded my copies of the Triple Nickel Books when their pulp newsprint started to flake in the course of time.

In hindsight, had I known they’d be asked about in the future, I’d probably have taken steps to try to preserve them.

I left comics in 1954 to become an advertising artist. Among the many products for which I had been drawing TV storyboards was Procter & Gamble’s Charmin, the commercial in which Mr. Whipple was introduced in 1964. It became the most talked-about commercial during that era. To visualize what he was to look like, I drew myself in the boards except that I gave him hair, my head being kind of bare. It took the casting department little time to come up with Dick Wilson, a delightful Hollywood actor and comedian who, at the time, approximated me in stature and age. Since Procter & Gamble rarely repeated their TV ads but kept a busy schedule turning out new hilarious

commercials for many years, Mr. Whipple’s wide popularity could be appreciated.

I did a gag Mr. Whipple comic strip for each of the last five Christmases leading to my retirement. I distributed it to all who were involved with the Charmin commercials, to all the Benton & Bowles brass, to Dick Wilson, and to Procter & Gamble’s VP in charge of the account, and now, to you. [See Mr. Whipple art on p. 26.]

During the John F. Kennedy Administration, an entertainer suddenly arose from the milieu of obscurity to a relished prominence because he closely resembled JFK, sounded and talked exactly like him. He was instantly in demand on stage and in the electronic media. His name was Vaughn Meador. A couple of copywriters in our agency cooked up a phonograph record idea featuring his voice as John Kennedy’s. They asked if I would draw the record sleeve. I obliged as usual and, as usual, never saw my original art again. Fortunately, I had the presence to make a stat. [See art on p. 27.] I wish I could remember why all the salient political figures of the time were included. As you’ve probably already guessed, the President was assassinated, leaving Vaughn Meador to fall off his platform of split-second fame back into the abyss of obscurity.

Needless to say, there also went the record project.

I retired from advertising at age 62 in 1978. After Will Eisner invited me to guest-lecture a couple of times at his School of Visual Arts class, I took a teaching job there from 1982-85.

Mark Voger reviewed Eisner’s Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood in the Asbury Park Press and wrote of Eisner’s literary qualities aimed at adults rather than at the pre-adolescent comic book reader. I thought I should respond to Mark with a British “Hear! Hear!” in further praise of Eisner. Then, perhaps going a little overboard, I criticized the interminably rooted, caped flying super-heroes who will go on appearing as long as there is the steady birthing stream of new readers. I must be in a minority of one among comic book cognoscenti in believing that all the super-heroes are really the same man in different costumes and with different names.

(Continued on p. 27)

Fortune

Mort Leav art from a trio of Triple Nickel Books, whose dimensions were 5 1/2" x 7 1/4" and which combined 64 pages of text and interior illos by Leav and others, including a Disney-inspired Davy Crockett and the Hardy Boysderived Power Boys. Note the attempt to give the latter the look of Classics Illustrated; it’s even more obvious in color, with the yellow box at upper left added to the art and lettering style.

Len Brown, 1965 T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents writer, who supplied this rare art, believes Leav painted the Crockett cover, besides doing the signed interior illos for that book, two Power Boys volumes, and The Life of Wild Bill Hickok. Len says, “Triple Nickel Books really changed my life. I saw the Davy Crockett book hanging on a newsstand while I was on a bus about a mile away from my house.

The next day I walked all the way over there to pick it up, and wrote a letter to the publisher. Woody [Gelman] responded by calling my house in Brooklyn and inviting me down to his publishing office. He was still putting out some Triple Nickel Books, but basically he was already working for Topps Chewing Gum. This was in April 1955, and I was 14. We stayed in touch for four years and every once in a while I would visit Woody out in Long Island to see his great pulp [and comic strip] collection. He even gave me one of his four copies of Amazing Stories #1.

Woody really was sweet and generous.

“Leav knows whereof he speaks when he says that Ben Solomon was the businessman in the partnership. Ben worked at Topps. I have seen Ben’s name on some Popeye cartoon credits in the 1930s. Both Ben and Woody worked on the Fleischer Superman cartoons for Paramount.

“Woody always said that Leav was really a talented artist.

“When the Triple Nickel Books first came out, I thought they might become my generation’s Big Little Books, but sadly it was not to be. Woody had a great idea.

Low-priced fiction for boys. Oh, well.”

A/E’s editor also remembers the Triple Nickel Books—and Woody Gelman— fondly.

[Art ©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

[NOTE: From high school graduation till he retired two years ago, Len Brown worked for Topps; he co-created the legendary Mars Attacks! card series and Wacky Packs, and in the early ’90s helped start Topps Comics. In the latter 1960s Woody Gelman, once the writer/artist of Nutsy Squirrel for DC, founded Nostalgia Press, the first publisher to collect the classic comic strips Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, and Terry and the Pirates in hardcover form. He did the first hardcover EC collection, as well. —Roy.]

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26

Mort Leav

(Above in zig zag order:) A photo of Mort Leav in his ad agency days—the climactic segment of a storyboard for a Mr. Whipple/Charmin TV ad—a Mr. Whipple comic strip ad from 1975—and an American history drawing done by Leav “when the B&B account executive on the Procter & Gamble Charmin account asked for a series involving the Whipple character for the Bicentennial.” Much of this material appeared in Jud Hurd’s Comic ProFiles magazine some years back.

[Art ©2002 Procter & Gamble.]

(Above and left:) Two Leav cartoons with tragically ever-timely messages.

The “smoking” one appeared in the Sunday New York Times in 1984. [©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

Fortune

27

Mort Leav’s art for a projected Vaughn Meador “JFK” comedy record album in the early 1960s. The records were a smash—but was this particular drawing used on one of them? Ye Editor gave his away years ago, alas. The cast from the left is Charles DeGaulle, Nikita Khrushschev, Nelson Rockefeller, British PM MacMillan, Pierre Salinger, Happy Rockefeller, Senator Everett Dirksen, Bobby Kennedy, former President Dwight Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson, Senators Jacob Javits & Barry Goldwater, JFK, former President Harry Truman, and Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa. And if you have to say “Who?” to more than one or two of the preceding names, you should buy yourself a copy of Don’t Know Much about History—’cause you don’t! [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

(Continued from p. 24) I lauded Eisner’s present-day artwork for its very simplicity in telling a story most effectively. I’m afraid I sounded pedantic in criticizing many of today’s comic book artists who feel they must gratuitously exhibit their entire inventory of brush and ink techniques at the expense of having the reader try to interpret the artwork rather than having the story flow smoothly. I signed my name, making no mention of being an artist or having ever been personally involved in comics, much less having at one time worked in the super-hero field myself.

For several years I had been drawing the covers for the little newspaper in our retirement community and occasionally submitted illustrated articles to newspapers, including The New York Times.

I really don’t have any more to remember, since I left the field 46 years ago.

My last drawings were the two re-enactments of the 1945 Mad Hatter #2 cover, one with hoodlums and one with generalissimos with swords, done for Jerry de Fuccio in 1996.

Mort Leav’s self-portrait (“a handsome young bald-headed fella”) done for his retirement party in 1978—and one of the last two drawings he did—one of the “Mad Hatter” pair done in 1996 for Jerry de Fuccio (see p. 20 for the other one). [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

[NOTE: We’re proud to announce that a new interview with Mort Leav, exploring some of the above topics in more depth, has been scheduled for a near-future issue of Alter Ego. Among other reasons, there was just too much beautiful artwork we had to leave unprinted here!]

Title Comic Fandom Archive

30

Richard “Grass” Green (1939-2002)

by Bill Schelly Richard “Grass” Green, born May 7th, 1939, passed away on August 5th, 2002.

Green, who was given his colorful nickname A recent photo of Grass. Thanks to Janice Green. by the late Ronn Foss, was the first prominent African-American active in comics fandom of the 1960s. His first published work was a cover, in collaboration with boyhood friend Foss, for Alter-Ego #4 (1962).

He had a facility for humorous comics parodies in the Kurtzman vein, such as “Da Frantic Four” and “Speed Marvel,” but proved to be equally adept at straight-ahead super-hero action.

His best-known character was Xal-Kor the Human Cat, who topped readers polls in numerous issues of the fanzine StarStudded Comics, beginning in 1964. Xal-Kor returned several times in various publishing formats, most recently in the May 2002 graphic novella from TwoMorrows Publishing. Grass was planning a new series of Xal-Kor adventures when his life was cut short.

My role as editor of that Xal-Kor trade paperback book was the climax of a friendship between Grass and myself that had begun in 1991, when I was researching the history of fandom.

When I got back from the San Diego con, I had the luxury of a couple of extra days to rest up, before I had to return to my office job.

During Comic-Con International in San Diego this year, my mind was often miles away—on the health of my friend Richard “Grass” Green. Although he was fighting lung cancer, Grass’ wife Janice had made reservations for the two of them to attend… and to make their home in Artists Alley. Knowing that the disease had progressed from his lungs to his liver, with the resultant terminal prognosis, I wondered if it would actually come to pass.

It didn’t.

Shortly before I left for the convention, I received a call from Janice, to let me know that her husband had taken a turn for the worse, and their travel plans had been canceled. “But perhaps we can get out there to see you, when Richard’s feeling better,” she told me, optimistically. I tried to be encouraging, but I had had earlier experience with liver cancer, which had taken my father at the age of 62.

Grass’ hilarious “Da Frantic Four” from 1962 was reprinted in 1999 in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #1; his 1964 collaboration with Roy Thomas, “Bestest League of America Meets Da Frantic Four,” resurfaced in the 1997 trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine. Since both books are out of print except for a bare handful of copies available from Roy and Hamster Press, respectively, we thought we’d re-present pages of both here.

[Da Frantic Four © 2002 estate of Richard Green; BLA Meets Frantic Four ©2002 Roy Thomas & estate of Richard Green.]

When I was active in comics fandom of the 1960s, my first exposure to Green’s creative talents was the four-page chapter he did in the J.S.A.style “Liberty Legion” strip in Star-Studded Comics #4 (June 1964), which featured a team-up of six of the best heroes appearing in that fanzine.

While these pages provided ample evidence that Grass was an aboveaverage artist, it was “The Origin of XalKor, the Human Cat” in SSC #5 that displayed both his writing and artistic skill. I

Richard “Grass” Green

31

Unlike Ronn, Grass hadn’t contributed to any of my 1960s fanzines, so he didn’t know quite what to make of me. Why was I calling him and wanting to talk about the good ol’ days of fandom, after all these years?

It wasn’t long before I managed to convince him of my sincerity, and that I was a true fan of “Xal-Kor” and his other strips (like “The Shape,” which he co-created with Roy Thomas for Charlton Premiere in 1967).

My constant refrain was that he had to get back to the drawing board.

Grass always had a lot of ideas for comics projects, but he had trouble following through on them. Maybe it was just because he’d never made much “dough” (to use his term) for his creative efforts over the years. There really weren’t fanzines in the same sense any more.

Where would his works see print?

He’d long ago given up trying to break into the comics “majors,” after being rebuffed by Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz in turn.

Underground comix, where he found receptivity in the 1970s, were gone, though he continued to dabble in similar types of stories for Fantagraphics’ Eros Comix. His last super-hero push was in 1988 with a series of a dozen issues of Wildman Comix and Stories for a small outfit called Miller Publishing. When he sent me those issues, I was thrilled to find some new tales of “Xal-Kor” as back-up strips. But the stories and artwork had, I felt, declined somewhat from the standard set in the original series in Star-Studded.

Partially to remind Grass of former glories, I reprinted his best strips from the old fanzine days in my own Hamster Press: strips from SSC and FI in two trade paperbacks in 1997 and 1998, Fandom’s Finest Comics, Volumes 1 and 2. The books were well-received, and I think they got Grass out his semi-funk.

This panoramic page from the second “Human Cat” story originally appeared in the 1966 fanzine Star-Studded Comics #8; it was reprinted in Hamster Press’ book Fandom Finest Comics in 1997, and is still available. [©2002 estate of Richard Green.]

was blown away by the quality of the strip, and by the Human Cat himself. It seemed to me that Green was producing work very close to professional quality, and it would only be a matter of time before he was working for DC or Marvel. Most of Star-Studded’s readers must have felt similarly, for all the “Xal-Kor” strips published in those pages over the next several years received enthusiastic praise.

I also made sure I got my hands on any other fanzines he did work for, most notably Fantasy Illustrated, Alter Ego, and Masquerader.

When reading The Eye #1, the first small-press comic book devoted to a single character, I discovered that Green had been the one who had originated the unique character design of the Underworld Executioner (though Biljo White did all the rest).

But it wasn’t until many years later, after I had returned to fandom after a too-long hiatus, that my admiration for Green’s work led to a friendship with the man himself.

Thanks to a chance meeting with a comics fan who had been active in Legion of Super-Heroes fandom in the 1980s, I re-connected with CAPA-alpha in 1991, and almost immediately began researching the history of comicdom. I managed to track down Ronn Foss to his rustic home in the Ozark hills of southern Missouri, and soon was in touch with his lifelong friend (whom he had given the distinctive nickname) Grass Green.

Then came the 1997 Fandom Reunion during the Chicago comicon that summer. What an event that was! I was in fandom-heaven, meeting for the first time such folks as Jerry Bails, Howard Keltner, Ken Tesar, Jerry Ordway and… yes, Mr. Grass Green! He was in fine form that day: meeting his old collaborator Keltner for the first time in person, smiling for a zillion photos, and clowning around through the window when he stepped outside the restaurant for a smoke. Somehow, this gettogether—also attended by Maggie Thompson, Roy Thomas, Joe Sarno, Gary Carlson, and a number of others—seemed to inspire Grass to get back to his artwork. Maybe he just needed to be reminded by a room full of admirers that he was a “star” in our eyes!

Happily, Grass did get “back to the board” after spending some time figuring out exactly where he wanted to take the “Xal-Kor” storyline.

While there were delays, and I occasionally wondered if it would ever happen, he was finally doing lay-outs and turning out pages as the new millennium grew near.

But the thing that cemented it was the support he got from two talented inkers who were also fans: Angel Gabriele and Ron Fontes.

They spurred him on not only with encouragement, as I had, but with their desire to ink his pencils. I have no doubt that knowing that these two professionals stood “at the ready” to do the final embellishment was the thing that kept Green going. Over the following months, he penciled three 30-page episodes which, taken together, would not only lay the groundwork for a new series of “Human Cat” adventures, but provide one helluva lot of action and thrills for those of us who had yearned for more of his cat-vs.-rat saga.

True, he was a little rusty at first. But as he got into Book Two, the old magic grew more and more pronounced. I wasn’t to see the whole three-part novella (“Xal-Kor in 2013!”) in its entirety until early 2002, but when I did—I loved it. This was more than mere action-adventure; he showed his deft skills at creating “real” supporting characters, who interacted with spontaneity and subtlety. There was even a little humor.

Grass Green had done himself proud.

Unfortunately, my joy was severely tempered by the news that Grass

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Richard “Grass” Green (On this page:) A trio of 1967 pages drawn by Grass for Charlton Comics, all ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

had been diagnosed with lung cancer several months before.

He hadn’t shared that news with anyone but his family right away.

Making it even more difficult, this occurred shortly after his best friend, Ronn Foss, passed away in September 2001.

Green’s plan was to self-publish Xal-Kor in 2013! as a 3-part comic book mini-series, “as soon as I can scrape together the dough.” I wondered… would this be too late? Was he fated to not see his most monumental work in print? Lung cancer, I knew, was a very tough one to beat.

To make a long story short, I contacted John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing (you’ve heard of him, right?) and proposed that TwoMorrows

(Above:) Grass’ pro debut. Writer Gary Friedrich, with Missouri buddy Roy Thomas’ blessing, incorporated RT’s “Bestest League” into the former “Blooperman” feature in Go-Go #5 (Feb. 1967). Incidentally, the parodic heroes were colored quite unlike their DC counterparts, doubtless to avoid legal complications.

(Above:) In Go-Go #6 (April ’67) Gary and Grass added “Marvelous” heroes to the mix, calling on Grass’ renditions of “Da Frantic Four” and “Da Scavengers” from his fanzine days... again with offbeat coloring (like, the Thang was green and the Hunk was pink). Oddly, Frank McLaughlin was called on to ink this particular story.

(At left:) Also in 1967, Grass drew and scripted “The Shape!” for Charlton Premiere, Vol. 2, #1 (Sept. ’67), from a plot and character design by Roy Thomas.

Roy originally planned to write the story pseudonymously for editor Dick Giordano, since he was then writing and editing full-time for Marvel; but Grass got carried away and wrote captions and dialogue for the tale, and Roy was delighted to let it stand. The Shape was a sort of alien Plastic Man in a yellowand-black costume (with a pink face).

Richard “Grass” Green

33

American, he could have allowed that joy to be brought down by anger and resentment, but there just didn’t seem to be any room in him for anything but love.

As to whether Grass is now in Comic Fandom Heaven, re-united with his recently passed friends Ronn Foss, Howard Keltner, and Landon Chesney—well, if it’s true, I’d sure like to see the comics they’ll produce.

Who knows, maybe some day I will.

(Left:) “Grass Hoppa’s” humorous creation “Speedmarvel,” from Biljo White’s Komix Illustrated #5 (1962) was reprinted in Hamster’s Giant Labors of Love volume in 2000. (Right:) “The Way We Were”: Grass shares a smile with another 1960s friend, fan-artist and researcher Howard Keltner, at the 1997 Fandom Reunion Luncheon in Chicago. Howard, already ailing with cancer at the time, passed away not many months later. [Photo courtesy of Jeff Smith.]

[Xal-Kor the Human Cat, the extraordinary 100-page graphic novella completed by Grass Green in the final months of his life, is now exclusively available for the price of $9.95 from Hamster Press, P.O. Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98125. All profits go to the Green family.]

and Hamster Press co-publish the Xal-Kor mini-series as a single trade paperback book. With Grass’ blessing, John and I worked together to expedite production. By the time May 2002 rolled around, Grass was able to hold the book in his hands—and know that comics fans country-wide were reading their own copies, at the same time.

Everyone deserves a

Golden Age!

Of course, what we did was not so very difficult. It was Grass (and Angel and Ron) who made it happen, by putting in the hours at the drawing board. They were the ones who brought both art and craft to the project, and they could now be justly proud of their labors. I know Grass was.

And then, scant weeks later, came an e-mail sent by Grass to a number of his fannish friends: the cancer had moved to his liver, and the doctor had minced no words; Green’s prognosis was now terminal, and he had no more than a few months left. Though both stunned and depressed, Grass tried to be philosophical about it. And he surprised me when he told me his wife Janice was urging him to attend the San Diego Comic-Con at the end of July. He asked that I forward information on the con to her, which I did—though I was wondering if he would be up to such a journey.... or if he would even live that long.

Sadly, he only lived one day after the close of the convention.

On August 5th, I received a phone call from Janice: “Richard passed away at 5:00 p.m. today.”

No amount of preparation can soften that sort of news.

What is there to say about the death of a dear friend? When it’s someone as beloved as Grass Green was to so many, it’s even harder to take. Doubtless we’ll all grieve his passing in our own way.

Grass gave joy to a lot of people—not just his family and friends, but to his readers the world over. I can’t help but feel that he was somehow specially chosen to make the world a better place. As an African-

GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

www.ACTORComicFund.org Captain America is a trademark of Marvel Characters, Inc. Copyright © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Missing a Back Issue?

Got a hole in your Mr. Monster collection? We’ll gladly e-mail you a free Mr. Monster EEEK-Mail Catalog! Just Contact Michael T. Gilbert at:

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NOW SHIPPING: THE MIKE MIGNOLA ISSUE!

CBA #23 joins artist/writer extraordinaire MIKE MIGNOLA as we go to

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ola.

and tons of art! Plus, we have a talk with legendary award-winning author HARLAN

002 Mike Mign

gallery section, checklist, and all behind a new Mignola cover! Also, JILL

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35

EC Confidential, Part 4

Wally Wood’s Flash Gordon, continued Introduction Last issue, as part of our “EC Confidential” series which spotlights some of the non-EC work of some of Entertaining Comics’ finest artists, we published some examples of Wally Wood’s brief stint ghosting the syndicated Flash Gordon strip for artist Dan Barry. This time we’re examining more choice examples from the same 1957 “Cybernia” storyline. There’s some great art here, but don’t expect Flash and Dale to look like they stepped out of one of Wood’s Weird Science stories. The two main characters rarely appear in these scenes—and when they do, both have been drawn (or redrawn) by Dan or his brother Sy Barry for the sake of visual continuity.

Furthermore, Wood appears to have penciled only a few weeks’ worth of the eleven-week “Cybernia” storyline, with Flash’s regular artist Dan Barry (or his other ghosts) drawing the rest. Our goal for this twopart article was to showcase all the Flash Gordon strips we believe Wood penciled.

The inking throughout was by the Barry studio, though it’s possible Wood inked a few panels here and there. Some claim that Woody penciled the entire story, but I see very little beyond these strips. Ben Oda lettered the sequence. Dan Barry or some unknown ghost wrote the first strips, with sci-fi writer Larry Shaw taking over on 9/16/57 and completing the story. And a fun story it is!

The “Cybernia” storyline tells of a highly technological city on the planet Mongo whose leaders foolishly believe SCIENCE!!! can solve all mankind’s ills. An Efficiency Calculator runs the city with a minimum of wasted effort, and its citizens have been bred into a race of specialists.

Everyone on Cybernia is an expert in only one specific skill—taking assembly-line efficiency to a whole new level!

Naturally, these interplanetary efficiency experts decide to bestow the benefits of their scientific wisdom on some “primitive” Mongo natives.

In due course, the carefree natives are transformed into efficient, soulless automatons. Flushed with success, the Administrator decides to spread the benefits of their wisdom throughout Mongo.

“But we have no rockets, sir!” says one nay-sayer. No problem! A Product-Designer computer quickly comes up with a shopping list of parts needed to construct a rocket. A team of specialists set to work, with each man building one part of the ship. Unfortunately, when it’s time to build the rocket, they run into one teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy problem. You see, they…

Ahh—why spoil the surprise? Read on…

.]

yndicate

atures S

[©

g Fe 2002 Kin

36

Comic Crypt

[©2002 King Features Syndicate.]

Wally Wood’s Flash Gordon

37

[©2002 King Features Syndicate.]

Yeah, that’s right. These scientific geniuses can design a ship and build all the parts—but they can’t figure out how to put it together! Luckily, Flash arrives with a pre-assembled spaceship. Unluckily (for Flash!), the Administrator decides the best way to learn how to put a ship together is to tear Flash’s ship apart!

Worse, when the “infallible” robot mechanics reassemble the ship, they screw up—causing Flash and the Administrator to crash during a test-run! Both survive, but find themselves lost in the deepest, darkest jungles of Mongo!! Without his precious machines, the Administrator’s fragile shell of superiority quickly cracks.

“No weapons! No food! No survival specialists!” he wails. “We’ll die here!” Ah, but Flash is made of sterner stuff! The Administrator is shocked to see Flash successfully battle the jungle’s perils without the help of machines. He’s never seen such resourcefulness!

Later, the two are captured by savages who banish the Administrator into the deadly jungle, alone and unarmed. It seems like certain death for the pampered politician! But, following Flash’s lessons in self-reliance, the Administrator uses his wits to survive. The next day he emerges from the jungle exhausted, but exhilarated by his newfound independence!

By the time the two return to Cybernia, a much wiser Administrator helps Flash destroy the main computer. The stranglehold of SCIENCE GONE AMOK!!! is finally broken, replaced by individual initiative. At story’s end, a brighter (if less efficient!) future awaits Cybernia—thanks to Flash Gordon!

It’s a great story—and in 1973 writer Larry Shaw related the story behind it for Ed Cox’s fanzine Esdacyos. Larry’s widow Noreen Shaw sent a copy to Art Lortie, who shared it with us: “One Saturday morning in 1957 when I was still in bed in my apartment on Greenwich Street, New York City, at the unearthly hour of eight in the morning, the telephone rang. A cheerful and disgustingly wide-awake voice announced that the caller was Dan Barry, the man who drew the daily Flash Gordon strip. He had also been writing it… but he had written himself into a corner, was in trouble, and needed a good science-fiction writer to help him out.

“I don’t know to this day who told him that I was a good sciencefiction writer, but I went out and had breakfast with him and he hired me. His difficulty was that the syndicate which distributed the strip wasn’t happy with the storyline he was pursuing, but he didn’t see how to get Flash out of the situation he was in without junking the entire situation he had set up.

“Dan was frankly bored with the strip, and to make it more interesting for himself he was trying to do a satirical story set in an extraterrestrial city-state the government of which was designed chiefly to give Dan opportunities for poking fun at bureaucracy. My solution was to get Flash out of there in a hurry by having him take the alien ruler on a hunting trip in the surrounding jungle, thus doing a quick switch to slam-bang action-adventure without losing the characters or the entire original plot idea. Dan and the syndicate liked my work well enough so that I continued writing the daily for a while and eventually wrote three complete Sunday sequences (drawn by Mac Raboy), with very little direct supervision from Dan on the Sunday material.”

38

Comic Crypt

Though they worked on the same story, there was little overlap between Wood and Shaw, as this excerpt from the same article indicates: “Dan used probably dozens of assistants over the years, on the artwork as well as on scripts. Wally Wood, for instance, was just being phased out on penciling as I was being phased in on writing. The word among the experienced was that Dan was afraid anyone else who worked on the strip too long would [be] begging to put his personal stamp on it, which he didn’t want. But that’s another story….”

This can be seen in the later strips. Wood’s art disappears during the entire jungle sequence—then reappears briefly when they return to Cybernia, as seen below. It’s possible that Barry wanted to keep the later scenes in Cybernia consistent with Wood’s earlier portrayal. Or perhaps Barry realized no one drew better robots or futuristic cityscapes than Wally Wood. In any event, the story holds up very well as a whole.

Equally important, it provided Wood the opportunity to illustrate one of his early sci-fi heroes. We hope you enjoyed the results!

[©2002 King Features Syndicate.]

Wally Wood’s Flash Gordon Wait—don’t go away yet! We’ve still got a few more goodies to share.

Now that you’ve had a chance to sample some of Wood’s pencils on the Flash Gordon strip, you may be wondering if he ever tackled the character solo. Well, wonder no more! Wood did indeed draw Flash in a realistic “illustrative” style for a feature in Mad magazine for September 1960. An article titled “If Magazines Carried Comic Strips,” written by Frank Jacobs, appeared in Mad #57. The writer wondered how the strip might change… “If Flash Gordon Appeared in Advertising Age!” Quite a bit, as it turned out!

39

It’s interesting to note the signature at the bottom of the strip: Harry Danbarry. Dan Barry was the official artist on the syndicated Flash, while “Harry” referred to Harry Harrison, who often scripted Flash for Barry. Ironically, before becoming a noted science-fiction writer, Harrison was a comic book artist—often working in collaboration with a young Wally Wood! The art seen here was scanned from the original, supplied by Mitch Lee. Thanks, Mitch!

[©2002 EC Publications, Inc; Flash Gordon TM & ©2002 King Features Syndicate.]

40

Comic Crypt

And if that weren’t enough, we also have a panel or two from the only Wally Wood Flash Gordon story to appear in comic books. This strange 4-pager appeared as a back-up in the 18th issue of King Features’ Phantom comic in 1966. Wood signed it, but I suspect he had some help on this—possibly by Flash-artist supreme Al Williamson. Matter of fact, David Spurlock, publisher of The Wally Wood Sketchbook, recently stated: “Al Williamson told me he wrote the ‘space pirate’ story specifically for Wally. He may have been assisted by [Angelo] Torres or [Archie] Goodwin––I can’t recall. Wally was thrilled to do it but had too many commitments to do more… My understanding is that ‘space pirate’ story is ALL WOOD.” Perhaps—but the layouts remind me more of Williamson than Wood. Wood expert Roger Hill has a similar opinion: “Well, I’ve been looking this story over for quite a while now, and there can be no doubt that Williamson either roughed out the story, or penciled it. He probably was pressed up against a deadline he couldn’t meet and called Woody in to finish it up for him….

There does seem to be a little touch of a Crandall influence here and there also, but that may just be Al’s hand again. He loves Crandall’s work so much….”

The story was run in three chapters, four pages each, over three issues of The Phantom. The final two chapters were drawn by Gil Kane, and it’s possible he may have had a hand in the first one, as well. Further complicating the issue, comics historian Art Lortie states: “This was completely outside established Flash Gordon continuity, [taking place] in an era of space pirates, interplanetary travel, etc.—but finished openended. It also didn’t have any of the Flash Gordon trappings: Dale Arden, Zarkov, Mongo, Ming, etc.

This was obviously a projected series called something other than Flash.”

Confusing, eh? Regardless, of who contributed to it, “The Space Pirates” is a handsome story—and the only Flash Gordon comic book story signed by Wally Wood.

Our thanks to J. Villalpando for lending us a copy.

The Flash Gordon dailies we reprinted were copied from newspapers and retouched for clarity. Some detail and toning have been lost as a result, but the beauty of Wood’s pencils shines through regardless. Our thanks to Flash-fanatic Art Lortie, who supplied the copies.

That’s it for now. We hope you enjoyed our interplanetary romp, and that you join us again next issue. We’ll have lots more surprises!

Till next time…

[All art this page ©2002 King Features Syndicate.]

re: [comments & corrections ]

41 And I was the one who drew the underwear on Danette Reilly [in All-Star Squadron #5]. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. I was the colorist on that series, too. (Having started my coloring career with the JLA and later doing the Legion, All-Star, etc., I got a rep as the “team heroes” colorist in the days before the various Who’s Whos and Marvel Handbooks.) I forget if it was an editor’s directive or the Comics Code, but as I was coloring it, I “matched” any corrections between the art and the colors—but, of course, leave it to me to forget the top line of the panties. The bottom line of the bra could be hidden by the shadows, but where did the top of the panties go? Sheesh, it looks like she wore a one-piece bathing suit to bed! Ah, the errors of yesterday come back to haunt us, All fur now, Carl Gafford

The following e-mail was a bit less pleasant to receive, though we respect its sincerity. Besides, it came (on Feb. 8) from Mike Friedrich, who was not only a comics writer for DC and Marvel Blank no longer, Rob Lindsay—since we slipped in our trademark “re:”! Rob, of course, from the late ’60s through the mid-’70s but is the other self of the super-hero called Alter Ego in the 1986 comic book series of that name. whose Star*Reach Agency has long represented [©2002 by scripters Roy & Dann Thomas & artist Ron Harris.] comic book creators—and who, as the Our litin’ letters section returns after being AWOL for two issues! publisher/co-editor of Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #11, is an editor emeritus of this First, a letter from the ever-amiable Alan Brennert, who besides writing very magazine: some great comics has enjoyed a thriving career in Hollywood, writing Hi, Roy, for television: Dear Roy, I’ve been meaning to drop you a note for some time, telling you how much I’ve been enjoying Alter Ego. Glad to see the interview with Joe Staton, one of my favorite comics collaborators. Joe has a special affinity, I think, for DC’s Golden Age heroes, and I’m inordinately proud of the work we did together.

Re the repro of the cover to All-Star #58 (on page 5 of A/E #14) showing the “sprawling, defeated” JSA: I recall with a chuckle how, when the comic first came out, you told me that the issue should have been cover-blurbed, “Now Dying in Their Own Magazine!” (Didn’t DC actually use a blurb something like this on the re-launch of Superman in the ’80s?)

Alan Brennert You’re asking us, Alan? Amazingly, thanks mostly to the Bails/Bailey/ Bailie trio plus Fred L. deBoom (not “Fred W. DeBoom,” as we mistakenly credited him), A/E #14 was blessed with photocopies of so much original art from Joe Staton’s run in the 1970s “JSA” that we’ll have to run another article on it one day soon, just to see ’em all in print!

And, while Ye Editor doesn’t specifically recall making the comment you mention re the cover of All-Star #58—yeah, it sounds like Roy, all right!

Next, some info from longtime DC colorist Carl Gafford: Roy: Got the latest A/E. Was nice to re-live those days of the All-Star Super-Squad, since I was the original colorist for the first year of the book, and came up with the Power Girl color scheme. I did three versions: one primarily in yellow (pun intended) with red gloves, another with YR2 and blue gloves, and the one I was pushing for—the white one with blue gloves. [Production men] Jack Adler and Sol Harrison hated the white one (Jack always shot down my using white because of the very real danger of bleed-through), but Joe and Gerry liked the white, so we won one that day, at least.

Normally, as an old friend, I would call you if I had a disagreement with something you printed, but something in A/E #12 is more in the area of politics and society, so I’m writing instead.

No, I’m not taking issue with your editorial about our response to the murders of September 11th, with which I profoundly disagree. I agree with your announcement that A/E is not the place for that discussion.

Rather, I’m speaking of the use of the Bill Ward re-creation of an old Quality Comics cover as your cover.

You told a very personal story about how that same re-creation conjured conflicting and sometimes embarrassing feelings when WWII artifacts were juxtaposed with current Japanese guests. I’m really surprised that another element of that re-creation didn’t give you pause, namely the prominent and blatantly racist depiction of the character called by the equally offensive name “Chop-Chop.”

This is not “history”; it is not a reprint of a drawing; it’s a redrawing of it, it’s making it a-new. And I believe the re-creation and republication of these kinds of offensive caricatures means that their damage, to all viewers, continues to occur. As a conscious and sensitive editor, you should know better.

I’m not saying you’re alone in the dilemma you face of wishing to honor the positive totality of the past without perpetuating the negative elements contained within it. On a much grander scale, every stage director attempting to re-create Merchant of Venice has the same problem.

A better approach (and I steal shamelessly from FDR, Reagan, and Clinton here) is to highlight and specify our positive past, while acknowledging without specifying our negative history. In the context of Blackhawk, well, I guess I’d have chosen an historically accurate image that did not contain “Chop-Chop.” Messy? Yes. Better? I believe so.

Of course, the above criticism by no means indicates anything more (Main text continued on p. 45)

42

re: [comments & corrections ]

[Joe Staton art above from JSA Sourcebook ©2002 DC Comics.]

In A/E #15, Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” printed carbon copies of Golden Age scripter Gardner Fox’s original plot concept, expanded story synopsis, and the script for page 1, all from the same “Zatara the Master Magician” story that appeared in World’s Finest Comics #12 (Winter 1943). But we couldn’t score a copy of the actual mag in time to include the finished product. Recently, Mark Austin, owner of Acme Comics in Greensboro, North Carolina (perhaps nudged a bit by his onetime employee, Jim Amash), added a copy of WF #12 to his personal collection and graciously sent us a scan—and it turns out that the version of Gardner’s script that we printed was changed considerably before the story was drawn.

Either the editor (or, more likely, Fox under his direction) greatly lengthened the splash-panel caption, and had the artist—of whose identity we’re not certain—omit the “thugs peeping out between the leaves” which the original script called for... though the crooks do pop up later in the printed story. The artist changed the angle of the shot, too, from Gardner’s directions, so that the brownie is looking down on Zatara and the boy rather than up at them.

The first two story-panels are different from what the original script called for, as well. There, the tale opens in a nightclub when a man asks the magician for help. Interestingly, the story as completed returns to the action as described in Fox’s synopsis (the intermediate stage of the process), which begins: “a boy is out fishing when he loses his rod – but a brownie saves it....”

Thanks to Mark Austin for the scan of the comics page, and to Jim’s friend and neighbor Teresa R. Davidson for burning it onto a CD for us.

(Boy, when we use a phrase like “burning a CD,” it almost makes us sound like we know what we’re talking about, doesn’t it?) Oh, and if you’re ever in Greensboro, NC, be sure to drop in at Mark’s store; in the meantime, you can glom onto his website at <www.acmecomics.com>. Jim tells me Acme Comics has a helluva back-issue stock! [©2002 DC Comics.]

re:

43

Graphs We Got–––Again!

Is our face red! Last issue’s “Comics: The Department of Commerce” article

by Bob Klein utilized a combination of text and graphs to telescope the turbulent story of the ups and downs of the comic book industry. Alas, there was a terrible glitch which severely undercut the comprehensibility of the piece.

Namely, none of the dozen graphs was printed with its bottom horizontal line intact—the data line which indicated which years were covered in that particular graph. And one could only approximate those years from the accompanying text.

We’re not sure how it happened. Those numbers were on the early read-

[Art ©2002 DC Comics.] outs of the issue, but somehow disappeared when clearer images of the graphs were being scanned into the file. They were missing from the final read-out Ye Editor and layout man Chris looked at—but since they were checking only for clarity of the actual gray chart area, they failed to notice.

Naturally, the first time Roy skimmed a printed copy of the issue, the absence of that data jumped out him like a jack-in-the-box!

Roy and Chris felt so bad about it they decided to bite the bullet and run all twelve of the charts again, in the very next A/E—so here they are, so they can be perused alongside the original article, or even pasted into #18 if desired. An imperfect solution—but the best we could do. Now, without further ado, here are the corrected graphs:

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 3a.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

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re: [comments & corrections ] Figure 7.

Figure 6.

[Art from Mad #4 (Feb.-March 1953) ©2002 EC Comics Publications.]

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

re:

45 (Main text continued from p. 41) than my desire that the amazing and admirable job you are doing to keep this part of our pop culture alive be only a small bit improved. I look forward to each issue and enjoy them when they arrive. Keep ‘Em Flying!

Mike Friedrich Roy here, not hiding behind “Ye Editor” for now: I appreciate your remarks, Mike. Besides being aware of the blatant offensiveness of many aspects of Chop-Chop in the original “Blackhawk” series, I even referred to “the inherent stereotyped racism of Chop-Chop” in an art caption in that issue’s editorial. However, whether the original cover for Military Comics #29 was drawn in 1944 by Bill Ward or by Alex Kotsky, the former re-created it beautifully in the ’70s, and I wanted to share it with A/E’s readers—as an artifact of its times and situation, not as an example of contemporary ethnic values.

Frankly, I hoped the fact that the other Asian figure thereon—the sprawled Japanese soldier—was drawn quite realistically would indicate that A/E hardly revels in racial stereotypes. Though I wouldn’t rule out any possible cover in advance, I thought long and hard before using Ward’s, and I’d give similar consideration to any potentially controversial cover in the future, even though Mike’s was the only negative response to the cover. Still, a confession: I always loved Chop-Chop in those comics, and thought of him as a humorous individual rather than a “type,” since I don’t recall there being any, or certainly not many, other burlesqued Chinese in “Blackhawk” stories from circa 1947 on, when I started reading them. Hoping our divergence of opinion wouldn’t rupture our long friendship, I wrote a reply along the above lines to Mike, and his answer was welcome: “I’m with you there. I would hope that our mutual love for comics outweighs whatever political disagreements we have.” On that, Mike, we definitely agree!

Now, a bit of correction/expansion from Dennis Mallonee, Roy’s esteemed editor/publisher on the once-and-future Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt: Dear Roy: You weren’t quite right in issue #14 about the history of Adventure Comics. It wasn’t until quite a while after the demise of the “Dollar Comic” version that it went to a digest format. Between #467 (Jan. ’80) and #474 (Aug. ’80), the title featured “Plastic Man” and the Ditko “Starman.” “Aquaman” was added as a third feature with issue #475, and that format lasted until #478 (Aug. ’80), after which publication was suspended for a few months. The title was briefly revived with #479 (March ’81) as a vehicle for the fan-created “Dial H for Hero” series, but was suspended again with #490 (Feb. ’82). The digest began with #491 (Sept. ’82) and lasted through #503 (Sept. ’83). Truly a sad, whimpering end to one of the classic Big Six. Dennis Mallonee

All characters ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Couldn’t concur more, Dennis. Ye Editor knows for a fact that several staffers at DC lobbied hard, up to the very end, to save the Adventure title and its numbering. Probably we should have telescoped Adventure’s latter-day history a bit more carefully in #14, but we were concerned only with the JSA’s appearances therein.

Well, MIKE “Romita-Man”BURKEY wants to buy your Amazing Spider-Man #39-297 art, as well as “any” comic book art from the ’30s to present!

Check out Mike’s Web site with over 700 pictured pieces of art for sale or trade at:

Now, a missive from our associate editor Jim Amash concerning Hames Ware’s letter in A/E #15, which tried to pin down the identity of a 1940s “Human Torch” artist whom 1942-1945 Timely editor Vince Fago recalled only as “Thomas,” and other matters:

www.romitaman.com

When I interviewed Vince Fago, I did ask him if either Gus Schrotter or Carl Pfeufer could have been the “German” Torch artist he referred to. Vince said, “No.” He didn’t remember either man, but since they were undoubtedly freelancers, not staffers, I’m not surprised. My experience has taught me that staffers seldom remember freelancers after all this time, Spillane and Kurtzman being exceptions.

or write: P.O. Box 455, Ravenna, OH 44266 PH: 330-296-2415 • e-mail: MikeBurkey@aol.com

Roy:

46

re: [comments & corrections ]

Hames made a comment about baseball player names. I always got a kick out of the fact that two comic book creators had famous baseball player names: Walter Johnson and Carl Hubbell.

Re Rudy Palais: Rudy never corrected me when I pronounced his name “Puh-lay.” But when he recounted a conversation with an oldtime artist, Rudy pronounced his own last name “Pally.” I asked why he never corrected me, and he said it was no big deal. But “Pally” is the correct pronunciation, and I figure Rudy’s been too much of a gentleman to ever make a fuss about it.

Jim Amash The following letter regarding the recent passing of Gray Morrow comes from one-time (and we mean that literally) Morrow editée John Jacobson: Dear Roy: I read in Alter Ego #13 of the death of Gray Morrow. I was surprised and saddened by the news. In the 1970s, when I heard of Archie Comics’ creation of the Red Circle line of horror comics, I submitted a script for a three-page story. It was Gray Morrow who replied. He not only accepted the story; he expanded it to four pages and then paid me for four pages.

I never met him face-to-face. This one sale was my only contact with him. But I always fondly remember that extra $15 which he probably didn’t have to pay me. The story was “The Devil’s Matchmaker,” and was drawn by Sal Amendola and lettered by John Costanza. It appeared in Madhouse #96, November 1974. I look forward to a more detailed coverage of Gray Morrow’s career in a future issue of A/E. He also drew the sexiest Black Canary I’ve ever seen, in an issue of The Brave and the Bold. (I purchase your fine magazine at Clyde’s Comic Shop in Rockford.)

John Jacobson 1212 9th Av. Rockford, IL 61104 Thanks, John, for the anecdote about Gray Morrow, who was a true class act.

THE USUAL ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS Dept.: We’re going to try to cover everything we can this time with relation to A/E #14, saving those re #15-16 (the Buscema issues) for next time: Re our article on the unpublished JSA tale “The Will of William Wilson,” Ethan Roberts informs us that the original art he owns from the “Dr. Mid-Nite” chapter was sliced into thirds and reassembled, contrary to what Roy assumed. Still, it’s odd that, though all three tiers of that page were preserved, to date, only one This pencil sketch is doubtless the Joe other row of panels from the Simon WWII-era art that former FCA entire six-page “Doc” chapter editor/publisher Bill Harper refers to in has ever popped up! our “Corrections” department. It, like the (Incidentally, until I saw a recent documentary on silent horror films, it had never dawned on me that “Justice Society” scribe Gardner Fox might well have taken the name “William Wilson” from a story of that title by Edgar Allan Poe. It was made into a 1920s

Kirby Sandman art we reprinted in A/E #14, appeared in The Jack Kirby Collector #17, and was also probably meant to be Sandman, rather than any of the various comics heroes who’ve had the name “Avenger.” We’re grateful to Bill & Teresa Harper and to Leo Levesque for originally sharing both sketches with The Comics Buyer’s Guide. [Art ©2002 Joe Simon; Sandman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

silent called The Student of Prague, which dealt with a man’s doppleganger taking over his life, very much as The Monster did in All-Star Comics #20—thus adding another possible influence besides Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on that classic “JSA” adventure.)

John Moret informs us that the identity of The Huntress’ mother was known two months earlier than in All-Star Comics #71, as we wrote; it was revealed in her origin story in DC Super-Stars #17.

Bill Harper writes that he “noted in issue #14 the sketch of Sandman

by Kirby... credited as a fan sketch appearing in The Jack Kirby Collector. Actually, it appeared first in The Comics Buyer’s Guide, Feb. 1, 1985. [My wife] Teresa and I wrote an article based on an interview with [comics fan] Leo Levesque, who had received it during Jack’s days at Ft. Stewart outside Savannah, Georgia. Also in that article was a great Joe Simon sketch of what appears to be The Avenger.” Sorry about the misfired credit, Bill; we didn’t have access to the full info when we printed the art. But see accompanying repro of the Simon piece you mentioned....

And was Ye Ed’s face red when Al Dellinges pointed out that a photo caption accidentally referred to Golden Age “Starman” artist Jack Burnley’s wife as “Dorothy”—instead of the correct “Dolores”! Like, all we had to do was glance at Jacks’ interview in A/E V3#2.

Ray Bottorff, Jr., forwarded an Internet exchange which may explain where those 15 mysterious Joe Staton JSA solo-illos printed in A/E #14 came from: James Doty suggested it might have been “a promo for the aborted DC SuperClubs (or whatever they were called)” planned for the late 1970s... and Michael R. Grabois responded that James was “probably thinking of the DC Super-Stars Society, which was to have begun right around the time of the DC Explosion in Summer 1978, which became the DC Implosion. Staton did a number of promo things for that.... I sent my request in for the Legion of SuperHeroes chapter. I got back a 4-page pamphlet with info on the chapter, a trivia quiz, and info on the DCSSS in general.

I sent my check in but it was returned, since by that time the project had folded. The Superman Club stuff did go out—I saw one in San Diego a couple of years ago—and there was a cool poster by José Louis GarciaLopez featuring all of the DCSSS subjects. You can read about and see scans of the LSH stuff and poster at <http://lsh.0catch.com/lsh/dcsss.htm> and <http://lsh.0catch.com/lsh/Ishcoll018.htm>.” Thanks, guys! And wouldn’t we love to have some of that stuff to print in Alter Ego! Send any comments to: Roy Thomas/Alter Ego Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803) 826-6501 E-mail address: <roydann@ntinet.com> P.S.: Ye Editor is still lackadaisically hawking a few of his personal copies of the out-of-print Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #1, with material by Ordway, Hasen, Lee, Peter, Gilbert, FCA, et al, for the price of $20 per copy postpaid—autographed if requested. Ditto a handful of copies of Comic Book Artist #2-4 (each with an A/E section) for $15 apiece, likewise postpaid... and sets of Alter Ego #1-4, the 1986 color comic book about a super-hero with that name, with story by Roy & Dann Thomas, art by Ron Harris—$20 postpaid for all four issues, also autographed if you like your comics defaced. Send checks or M.O.s (made out to Roy Thomas) to the above address. Sorry, foreign orders must add $5 for each item—and even that doesn’t totally cover the most recent postal increases!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

DIGITAL

The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with NS EDITIO BLE ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, A IL AVA NLY UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FOR O 5 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of $2.9 America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections

by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

EISNER AWARD WINNER for Best Comics-Related Periodical

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

STAN LEE gets roasted by SCHWARTZ, CLAREMONT, DAVID, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, and SHOOTER, ORDWAY and THOMAS on INFINITY, INC., IRWIN HASEN interview, unseen H.G. PETER Wonder Woman pages, the original Captain Marvel and Human Torch teamup, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, “Mr. Monster”, plus plenty of rare and unpublished art!

Featuring a never-reprinted SPIRIT story by WILL EISNER, the genesis of the SILVER AGE ATOM (with GARDNER FOX, GIL KANE, and JULIE SCHWARTZ), interviews with LARRY LIEBER and Golden Age great JACK BURNLEY, BOB KANIGHER, a new Fawcett Collectors of America section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and more!

GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

Unseen ALEX ROSS and JERRY ORDWAY Shazam! art, 1953 interview with OTTO BINDER, the SUPERMAN/CAPTAIN MARVEL LAWSUIT, GIL KANE on The Golden Age of TIMELY COMICS, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, rare art by AYERS, BERG, BURNLEY, DITKO, RICO, SCHOMBURG, MARIE SEVERIN and more! ALEX ROSS & BILL EVERETT covers!

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ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

Interviews with KUBERT, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and HARRY LAMPERT, BOB KANIGHER, life and times of GARDNER FOX, ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, a history of Flash Comics, MOEBIUS Silver Surfer sketches, MR. MONSTER, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, and lots more! Dual color covers by JOE KUBERT!

Celebrating the JSA, with interviews with MART NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, GEORGE ROUSSOS, BILL BLACK, and GIL KANE, unpublished H.G. PETER Wonder Woman art, GARDNER FOX, an FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, WENDELL CROWLEY, and more! Wraparound cover

by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

GENE COLAN interview, 1940s books on comics by STAN LEE and ROBERT KANIGHER, AYERS, SEVERIN, and ROY THOMAS on Sgt. Fury, ROY on All-Star Squadron’s Golden Age roots, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, JOE SIMON interview, a definitive look at MAC RABOY’S work, and more! Covers by COLAN and RABOY!

Companion to ALL-STAR COMPANION book, with a JULIE SCHWARTZ interview, guide to JLA-JSA TEAMUPS, origins of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON, FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK (on his 1970s DC conflicts), DAVE BERG, BOB ROGERS, more on MAC RABOY from his son, MR. MONSTER, and more! RICH BUCKLER and C.C. BECK covers!

WALLY WOOD biography, DAN ADKINS & BILL PEARSON on Wood, TOR section with 1963 JOE KUBERT interview, ROY THOMAS on creating the ALL-STAR SQUADRON and its 1940s forebears, FCA section with SWAYZE & BECK, MR. MONSTER, JERRY ORDWAY on Shazam!, JERRY DeFUCCIO on the Golden Age, CHIC STONE remembered! ADKINS and KUBERT covers!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

JOHN ROMITA interview by ROY THOMAS (with unseen art), Roy’s PROPOSED DREAM PROJECTS that never got published (with a host of great artists), MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING’S life after Superman, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom Panel, FCA section with GEORGE TUSKA, C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, BILL MORRISON, & more! ROMITA and GIORDANO covers!

Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ‘40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ‘65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

1974 panel with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, FRANK ROBBINS, and ROY THOMAS, ROY and JOHN BUSCEMA on Avengers, 1964 STAN LEE interview, tributes to DON HECK, JOHNNY CRAIG, and GRAY MORROW, Timely alums DAVID GANTZ and DANIEL KEYES, and FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and MIKE MANLEY! Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON and JOE SIMON!

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16

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

STAN GOLDBERG interview, secrets of ‘40s Timely, art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, MANEELY, EVERETT, BURGOS, and DeCARLO, spotlight on sci-fi fanzine XERO with the LUPOFFS, OTTO BINDER, DON THOMPSON, ROY THOMAS, BILL SCHELLY, and ROGER EBERT, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD ghosting Flash Gordon! KIRBY and SWAYZE covers!

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art

by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on JSA & All-Star Squadron, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, FCA, and more!

DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed

by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

X-MEN interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, ROY THOMAS, and LEN WEIN, MORT MESKIN profiled by his sons and ALEX TOTH, rare art by JERRY ROBINSON, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY on Comics Fandom! MESKIN and COCKRUM covers!

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on AllStar Squadron #1 and its ‘40s roots (with art

by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

JOE SINNOTT interview, IRWIN DONENFELD interview by EVANIER & SCHWARTZ, art by SHUSTER, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, and SWAN, MARK WAID analyzes the first Kryptonite story, JERRY SIEGEL and HARRY DONENFELD, JERRY IGER Shop update, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and KEN BALD! Covers by SINNOTT and WAYNE BORING!

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

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17

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ‘60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed, MART NODELL on his Timely years, rare art by BURGOS, EVERETT, and SHORES, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age (with art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, and more), FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more!

Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art

by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

Quality Comics interviews with ALEX KOTZKY, AL GRENET, CHUCK CUIDERA, & DICK ARNOLD (son of BUSY ARNOLD), art by COLE, EISNER, FINE, WARD, DILLIN, and KANE, MICHELLE NOLAN on Blackhawk’s jump to DC, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on HARVEY KURTZMAN, & ALEX TOTH on REED CRANDALL! Covers by REED CRANDALL & CHARLES NICHOLAS!

Covers by JOHN ROMITA and AL JAFFEE! LEE, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, & THOMAS on the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, with rare art by ROMITA, AYERS, BURGOS, HEATH, EVERETT, LAWRENCE, & POWELL, AL JAFFEE on the 1940s Timely Bullpen (and MAD), FCA, ALEX TOTH on comic art, MR. MONSTER on unpublished 1950s covers, and more!

JOE SIMON on SIMON & KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, and LLOYD JACQUET, JOHN BELL on World War II Canadian heroes, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Canadian origins of MR. MONSTER, tributes to BOB DESCHAMPS, DON LAWRENCE, & GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and ELMER WEXLER interview! Covers by SIMON and GILBERT & RONN SUTTON!

WILL MURRAY on the 1940 Superman “KMetal” story & PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR (with art by SHUSTER, SWAN, ADAMS, and BORING), FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and DON NEWTON, SY BARRY interview, art by TOTH, MESKIN, INFANTINO, and ANDERSON, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN on EC and RAY BRADBURY! Covers by C.C. BECK and WAYNE BORING!

JULIE SCHWARTZ TRIBUTE with HARLAN ELLISON, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, KUBERT, GIELLA, GIORDANO, CARDY, LEVITZ, STAN LEE, WOLFMAN, EVANIER, & ROY THOMAS, never-seen interviews with Julie, FCA with BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, NEWTON, COCKRUM, OKSNER, FRADON, SWAYZE, and JACKSON BOSTWICK! Covers by INFANTINO and IRWIN HASEN!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

Full-issue spotlight on JERRY ROBINSON, with an interview on being BOB KANE’s Batman “ghost”, creating the JOKER and ROBIN, working on VIGILANTE, GREEN HORNET, and ATOMAN, plus never-seen art by Jerry, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, RAY, KIRBY, SPRANG, DITKO, and PARIS! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER on AL FELDSTEIN Part 2, and more! Two JERRY ROBINSON covers!

RUSS HEATH and GIL KANE interviews (with tons of unseen art), the JULIE SCHWARTZ Memorial Service with ELLISON, MOORE, GAIMAN, HASEN, O’NEIL, and LEVITZ, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, NOVICK, DILLIN, SEKOWSKY, KUBERT, GIELLA, ARAGONÉS, FCA, MR. MONSTER and AL FELDSTEIN Part 3, and more! Covers by GIL KANE & RUSS HEATH!

Halloween issue! BERNIE WRIGHTSON on his 1970s FRANKENSTEIN, DICK BRIEFER’S monster, the campy 1960s Frankie, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, BORING, OKSNER, TUSKA, CRANDALL, and SUTTON, FCA #100, EMILIO SQUEGLIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

A celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, and AYERS, Hillman and Ziff-Davis remembered by Heap artist ERNIE SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and ALEX TOTH! Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER!

Yuletide art by WOOD, SINNOTT, CARDY, BRUNNER, TOTH, NODELL, and others, interviews with Golden Age artists TOM GILL (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, exploring 1960s Mexican comics, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Flip covers by GEORGE TUSKA and DAVE STEVENS!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

18

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special!

Interviews with KUBERT, HASEN, ANDERSON, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, THOMAS, 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, and INFANTINO, FCA, and MR. MONSTER’S “I Like Ike!” cartoons by BOB KANE, INFANTINO, OKSNER, and BIRO! Wraparound ORDWAY cover!

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ‘40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art

by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s ALTER EGO! 1969 BILL EVERETT interview, art by BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, JERRY BAILS, and ROY THOMAS, LOU GLANZMAN interview, tributes to IRV NOVICK and CHRIS REEVE, MR. MONSTER, FCA, TOTH, and more!

Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ‘40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ‘40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

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ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

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ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments

by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Cards from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ‘40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, more!

ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover

by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ‘80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

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ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, featuring a new ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on DC in the 1960s-1970s, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4!

FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOE KUBERT, LOU SAYRE SCHWARTZ, IRWIN HASEN, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his Golden & Silver Age work (with CARDY art), plus art

by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, tributes to ERNIE SCHROEDER and DAVE COCKRUM, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, SIMON & KIRBY, MARTIN GOODMAN’s Magazine Management, and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Shazam!, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, etc., FCA with MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom and founder of Alter Ego! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus STEVE DITKO’s notes to STAN LEE for a 1965 Dr. Strange story! And ROY reveals secrets behind Marvel’s STAR WARS comic!

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ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

PAUL NORRIS drew AQUAMAN first, in 1941—and RAMONA FRADON was the hero’s ultimate Golden Age artist. But both drew other things as well, and both are interviewed in this landmark issue—along with a pocket history of Aquaman! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus an homage to artist LILY RENÉE!

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book

by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts

by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GRAHAM INGELS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

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ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with P.C. HAMERLINCK on the many “Captains Marvel” over the years, unseen Shazam! proposal by ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK on “The Death of a Legend!”, MARC SWAYZE, interview with Golden Age artist MARV LEVY, MR. MONSTER, and more!

JOE SIMON SPECIAL! In-depth SIMON interview by JIM AMASH, with neverbefore-revealed secrets behind the creation of Captain America, Fighting American, Stuntman, Adventures of The Fly, Sick magazine and more, art by JACK KIRBY, BOB POWELL, AL WILLIAMSON, JERRY GRANDENETTI, GEORGE TUSKA, and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries!

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ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover

by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—LOU CAMERON interview—STEVE GERBER tribute—DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus art by WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, LOU CAMERON Part II, and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood,

by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover

by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, with a focus on Conan the Barbarian by ROY THOMAS and WILL MURRAY, a look at WALLY WOOD’s Marvel sword-&-sorcery work, the Black Knight examined, plus JOE EDWARDS interview Part 2, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stores, and in court), RICH BUCKLER on Captain Marvel, plus an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and pioneers WHITNEY ELLSWORTH and CREIG FLESSEL, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CURT SWAN, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, focus on DC advisor DR. LAURETTA BENDER, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

HARVEY COMICS’ PRE-CODE HORROR MAGS OF THE 1950s! Interviews with SID JACOBSON, WARREN KREMER, and HOWARD NOSTRAND, plus Harvey artist KEN SELIG talks to JIM AMASH! MR. MONSTER presents the wit and wisdom (and worse) of DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE, & more!

SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover!

BIG MARVEL ISSUE! Salutes to legends SINNOTT and AYERS—plus STAN LEE, TUSKA, EVERETT, MARTIN GOODMAN, and others! A look at the “Marvel SuperHeroes” TV animation of 1966! 1940s Timely writer and editor LEON LAZARUS interviewed by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, the 1960s fandom creations of STEVE GERBER, and more! JACK KIRBY holiday cover!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL! Big FCA section with Golden Age artists MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO! Plus JERRY ORDWAY on researching The Power of Shazam, Part II of “The MAD Four-Color Wannabes of the 1950s,” more on DR. LAURETTA BENDER and the teenage creations of STEVE GERBER, artist JACK KATZ spills Golden Age secrets to JIM AMASH, and more!

New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY, PART 3! DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw by MICHELINIE & CHAN, Hercules by GLANZMAN, Dagar by GLUT & SANTOS, Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, CHAN, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al., and JACK KATZ on his classic First Kingdom! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3), and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “EarthTwo—1961 to 1985!” with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, ANDERSON, DELBO, ANDRU, BUCKLER, APARO, GRANDENETTI, and DILLIN, interview with Golden/Silver Age DC editor GEORGE KASHDAN, plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and a new cover by INFANTINO and AMASH!

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ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

“Earth-Two Companion, Part II!” More on the 1963-1985 series that changed comics forever! The Huntress, Power Girl, Dr. Fate, Freedom Fighters, and more, with art by ADAMS, APARO, AYERS, BUCKLER, GIFFEN, INFANTINO, KANE, NOVICK, SCHAFFENBERGER, SIMONSON, STATON, SWAN, TUSKA, our GEORGE KASHDAN interview Part 2, FCA, and more! STATON & GIORDANO cover!

Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECHH madcap parody mag from 1967-69, examined with rare art & artifacts by ANDRU, COLAN, BUSCEMA, DRAKE, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, KIRBY, LEE, the SEVERIN siblings, SPRINGER, SUTTON, THOMAS, TRIMPE, and more, GEORGE KASHDAN interview conclusion, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MARIE SEVERIN!

Focus on Archie’s 1960s MIGHTY CRUSADERS, with vintage art and artifacts

by JERRY SIEGEL, PAUL REINMAN, SIMON & KIRBY, JOHN ROSENBERGER, tributes to the Mighty Crusaders by BOB FUJITANE, GEORGE TUSKA, BOB LAYTON, and others! Interview with MELL LAZARUS, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Cover

by MIKE MACHLAN!

The NON-EC HORROR COMICS OF THE 1950s! From Menace and House of Mystery to The Thing!, we present vintage art and artifacts by EVERETT, BRIEFER, DITKO, MANEELY, COLAN , MESKIN, MOLDOFF, HEATH, POWELL, COLE, SIMON & KIRBY, FUJITANI, and others, plus FCA , MR. MONSTER and more, behind a creepy, eerie cover by BILL EVERETT!

Spotlight on Superman’s first editor WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, longtime Kryptoeditor MORT WEISINGER remembered by his daughter, an interview with Superman writer ALVIN SCHWARTZ, tributes to FRANK FRAZETTA and AL WILLIAMSON, art by JOE SHUSTER, WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, and NEAL ADAMS, plus MR. MONSTER, FCA, and a new cover by JERRY ORDWAY!

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ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

GEORGE TUSKA showcase issue on his career at Lev Gleason, Marvel, and in comics strips through the early 1970s—CRIME DOES NOT PAY, BUCK ROGERS, IRON MAN, AVENGERS, HERO FOR HIRE, & more! Plus interviews with Golden Age artist BILL BOSSERT and fan-artist RUDY FRANKE, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL is a celebration of 100 issues, and 50 years, of ALTER EGO, Roy Thomas’ legendary super-hero fanzine. It’s a double-size triple-threat BOOK, with twice as many pages as the regular magazine, plus special features just for this anniversary edition! Behind a RICH BUCKLER/JERRY ORDWAY JSA cover, ALTER EGO celebrates its 100th issue and the 50th anniversary of A/E (Vol. 1) #1 in 1961—as ROY THOMAS is interviewed by JIM AMASH about the 1980s at DC! Learn secrets behind ALL-STAR SQUADRON—INFINITY, INC.—ARAK, SON OF THUNDER—CAPTAIN CARROT—JONNI THUNDER, a.k.a. THUNDERBOLT— YOUNG ALL-STARS—SHAZAM!—RING OF THE NIBELUNG—and more! With rare art and artifacts

by GEORGE PÉREZ, TODD McFARLANE, RICH BUCKLER, JERRY ORDWAY, MIKE MACHLAN, GIL KANE, GENE COLAN, DICK GIORDANO, ALFREDO ALCALA, TONY DEZUNIGA, ERNIE COLÓN, STAN GOLDBERG, SCOTT SHAW!, ROSS ANDRU, and many more! Plus special anniversary editions of Alter Ego staples MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA)—and ALEX WRIGHT’s amazing color collection of 1940s DC pinup babes! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (NOTE: This book takes the place of ALTER EGO #100, and counts as TWO issues toward your subscription.)

(160-page trade paperback with COLOR) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • ISBN: 9781605490311 Diamond Order Code: JAN111351

ALTER EGO #101

Fox Comics of the 1940s with art by FINE, BAKER, SIMON, KIRBY, TUSKA, FLETCHER HANKS, ALEX BLUM, and others!

“Superman vs. Wonder Man” starring EISNER, IGER, SIEGEL, LIEBERSON, MAYER, DONENFELD, and VICTOR FOX! Plus, Part I of an interview with JACK MENDELSOHN, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by Marvel artist DAVE WILLIAMS!

NEW!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

Spotlight on Green Lantern creators MART NODELL and BILL FINGER in the 1940s, and JOHN BROOME, GIL KANE, and JULIUS SCHWARTZ in 1959! Rare GL artwork by INFANTINO, REINMAN, HASEN, NEAL ADAMS, and others! Plus JACK MENDELSOHN Part II, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by GIL KANE & TERRY AUSTIN, and MART NODELL!

The early career of comics writer STEVE ENGLEHART: Defenders, Captain America, Master of Kung Fu, The Beast, Mantis, and more, with rare art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, STARLIN, SUTTON, HECK, BROWN, and others. Plus, JIM AMASH interviews early artist GEORGE MANDEL (Captain Midnight, The Woman in Red, Blue Bolt, Black Marvel, etc.), FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and more!

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-before-published STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts

by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

Compiles the ALTER EGO flip-sides from COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, plus 30 NEW PAGES of features & art! All-new rare and previously-unpublished art by JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, JOE KUBERT, WALLY WOOD, FRANK ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, & others, ROY THOMAS on X-MEN, AVENGERS/ KREE-SKRULL WAR, INVADERS, and more! Cover by JOE KUBERT!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(160-page trade paperback) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $4.95

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

Collects the original 11 issues of JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS’ ALTER EGO fanzine (from 1961-78), with contributions from JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, and others—and illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! Plus major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by JULIE SCHWARTZ. (192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

COMIC BOOK NERD

PETE VON SHOLLY’s side-splitting parody of the fan press, including our own mags!

Experience the magic(?) of such publications as WHIZZER, the COMICS URINAL, ULTRA EGO, COMICS BUYER’S GUISE, BAGGED ISSUE!, SCRAWL!, COMIC BOOK ARTISTE, and more, as we unabashedly poke fun at ourselves, our competitors, and you, our loyal readers! It’s a first issue, collector’s item, double-bag, slab-worthy, speculator’s special sure to rub even the thickest-skinned fanboy the wrong way!

(64-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

CRAZY HIP GROOVY GO-GO WAY OUT MONSTERS #29 & #32

PETE VON SHOLLY’s spoofs of monster mags will have you laughing your pants off— right after you soil them from sheer terror! This RETRO MONSTER MOVIE MAGAZINE is a laugh riot lampoon of those GREAT (and absolutely abominable) mags of the 1950s and ‘60s, replete with fake letters-to-the-editor, phony ads for worthless, wacky stuff, stills from imaginary films as bad as any that were really made, interviews with their “creators,” and much more! Relive your misspent youth (and misspent allowance) as you dig the hilarious photos, ads, and articles skewering OUR FAVORITE THINGS of the past! Get our first issue (#29!), the sequel (#32!), or both!

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

(48-page magazines) $5.95 EACH • (Digital Editions) $1.95 EACH

These sold-out books are now available again in DIGITAL EDITIONS:

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

Collects hard-to-find Mr. Monster stories from A-1, CRACK-A-BOOM! and DARK HORSE PRESENTS (many in COLOR for the first time) plus over 30 pages of ALLNEW MR. MONSTER art and stories! Can your sanity survive our Lee/Kirby monster spoof by MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MARK MARTIN, or the long-lost 1933 Mr. Monster newspaper strip? Or the terrifying TRENCHER/MR. MONSTER slug-fest, drawn by KEITH GIFFEN and MICHAEL T. GILBERT?! Read at your own risk!

GEORGE KHOURY’s definitive book on the rich history of British Comics Artists, their influence on the US, and how they have revolutionized the way comics are seen and perceived! It features breathtaking art, intimate photographs, and in-depth interviews with BRIAN BOLLAND, ALAN DAVIS, DAVE GIBBONS, KEVIN O’NEILL, DAVID LLOYD, DAVE McKEAN, BRYAN HITCH, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH and other fine gents! Sporting a new JUDGE DREDD cover by BRIAN BOLLAND!

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! It covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor—peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS—and is illustrated with RARE AND UNSEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art! Plus: an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes

by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS, and an Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

TOM FIELD’s amazing COLAN retrospective, with rare drawings, photos, and art from his 60-year career, and a comprehensive overview of Gene’s glory days at Marvel Comics!

MARV WOLFMAN, DON McGREGOR and other writers share script samples and anecdotes of their Colan collaborations, while TOM PALMER, STEVE LEIALOHA and others show how they approached inking Colan’s famously nuanced penciled pages!

Plus: a NEW PORTFOLIO of never-seen collaborations between Gene and masters such as BYRNE, KALUTA and PÉREZ, and all-new artwork created just for this book!

(192-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

A comprehensive look at GEORGE TUSKA’S personal and professional life, including early work at the Eisner-Iger shop, producing controversial crime comics of the 1950s, and his tenure with Marvel and DC Comics, as well as independent publishers. Includes extensive coverage of his work on IRON MAN, X-MEN, HULK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS, BATMAN, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and others, a gallery of commission art and a thorough index of his work, original art, photos, sketches, unpublished art, interviews and anecdotes from his peers and fans, plus the very personal and reflective words of George himself! Written by DEWEY CASSELL. (128-page Digital Edition) $4.95

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OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

Shines a light on the life and career of the artistic and publishing visionary of DC Comics!

Explores the life and career of one of Marvel Comics’ most recognizable and dependable artists!

Biography of the talented master of 1940s “Good Girl” art, complete with color story reprints!

Definitive biography of the Watchmen writer, in a new, expanded edition!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

The first dedicated book about the Golden Age publisher that spawned the modern-day “Freedom Fighters”, Plastic Man, and the Blackhawks!

Unlocks the secrets of Batman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, following the Dark Knight’s progression from 1960s camp to 1970s creature of the night!

Roy Thomas has four volumes documenting the history of ALL-STAR COMICS, the JUSTICE SOCIETY, INFINITY, INC., and more!

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

Examining the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes, featuring the in-depth stories of the shows’ actors and behind-the-scenes players!

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

MARVEL COMICS

An issue-by-issue field guide to the pop culture phenomenon of LEE, KIRBY, DITKO, and others, from the company’s fumbling beginnings to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity!

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

Covers how Stan Lee went from writer to publisher, Jack Kirby left (and returned), Roy Thomas rose as editor, and a new wave of writers and artists came in!

20+ volumes with in-depth interviews, plus extensive galleries of rare and unseen art from the artist’s files!

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

Shows step-by-step how to develop a new comic, from script and art, to printing and distribution!

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

A BOOK SERIES DEVOTED TO THE BEST OF TODAY’S ARTISTS

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

FOR A FREE COLOR CATALOG, CALL, WRITE, E-MAIL, OR LOG ONTO www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com