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TIMELY/MARVEL SUPER-STAR!

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December 2003

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“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

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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LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (KIRBY COLLECTOR #58)

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BRICKJOURNAL #19

“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

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. 31 / December 2003

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

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

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Fred Ray Dick Ayers

Cover Colorists (unknown) Tom Ziuko

DARLIN’ DICK AYERS and Friends Section

Contents

And Special Thanks to: Jack Adams Thomas C. Lammers Dick & Lindy Ayers Harry & Adele Paul Bach Lampert Bob Bailey Mike Leach Jeff Bailey Dan Makara Randall J. Barlow Nancy Maneely Dennis Beaulieu Bob Millikin Blake Bell Cynthia C. Miller Howard Bender Thomas H. Miller Bill Black Shelly Moldoff Chris Brown Brian K. Morris Gary Brown Mart & Carrie Rich Buckler Nodell Jack Burnley Dave O’Dell Sal Buscema John G. Pierce Nick Caputo Virginia Provisiero Nick Cardy Charlie Roberts R. Dewey Cassell Ethan Roberts John Coates Dorothy Shel Dorf Schaffenberger Al Dellinges Marie Severin Harlan & Susan Joe Sinnott Ellison Robin Snyder Michael T. Feldman Paul Stefanowicz Tom Field Steve Stiles Shane Foley Marc Swayze Brent Frankenhoff Greg Theakston Janet Gilbert Maggie Thompson Marvin Giles Alex Toth Jennifer T. Go Herb Trimpe Ron Harris Dann Thomas Cathy Hill Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Richard Howell Mark Voger Tony Isabella Dr. Michael J. Larry Ivie Vassallo Glen Johnson Delmo Walters Marc Kardell Hames Ware Mark Kausler Bill Warren

Writer/Editorial: Putting on Ayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “To Keep Busy as a Freelancer, You Should Have Three Accounts!” . 3 Golden/Silver Age legend Dick Ayers tells Roy Thomas & Jim Amash how he heeded that advice!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: Horror’s Missing Link!. . . . . . . 37 Michael T. Gilbert spotlights the horror comics that came in between EC and Creepy! The Detroit Triple Fan Fair–––and How It Came to Be! . . . . . . 43 Shel Dorf, co-founder of both that 1965 event and the San Diego Comic-Con, reveals a little-known chunk of fandom’s history.

Happy Holidays and Harlan Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Never one to rest on his laurels, Dick Ayers composed this new cover for A/E, showcasing some of the heroes he drew for Timely/Marvel from the 1950s through the 1970s. To learn how you might purchase the original art for this illo, or have Dick draw something especially for you, see p. 36! [Art ©2003 Dick Ayers; Human Torch & Toro, SubMariner, Ghost Rider, Wyatt Earp, Two-Gun Kid, Fantastic Four, & Sgt. Fury ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: A man for all decades! Besides co-creating and drawing the original Ghost Rider for Vin Sullivan’s Magazine Enterprises from 1949-55 (at right, in a panel of original art provided by Ethan Roberts), Dick became the first penciler of that midnight cowboy’s Marvel reincarnation in 1967 (as per the panel at left, repro’d from a photocopy of the original Ayers/Colletta art of Ghost Rider #3, 1967, provided by Mr. A. himself). Since the 1990s, he has also drawn new covers and stories of AC Comics’ own Haunted Horseman; see AC’s ad elsewhere in this issue. [Art ©2003 Dick Ayers; Haunted Horseman TM & ©2003 AC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Putting On Ayers Dick Ayers was the first adventure artist with whom I was ever teamed in an ongoing writing assignment in comic books—even though by fall of 1965 I was already doing two “Millie the Model” mags with Stan Goldberg, and I had previously dialogued a pair of Steve Ditko’s “Dr. Strange” stories and Gene Colan’s first “Iron Man”—before Smilin’ Stan Lee decided I should relinquish “Millie” to Denny O’Neil and script an entire hero comic every month, not just half of one.

I’ve told the story of how I became the writer of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos before, Crom knows, but— On the evening of November 9, 1965, Marvel co-staffer Denny O’Neil and I were headed south via subway to the Lower East Side and the apartment we shared with Charlton writer David Kaler... when we were caught in the first but far from last of New York’s (and incidentally the East Coast’s) infamous blackouts. After a couple of hours in the dim glow of the subway car’s backup lights, our whole group was led along the subterranean tracks by a city worker to the 34th Street station—after which Denny, Dave, and I relaxed long into the night at the candlelighted Red Lantern restaurant in Greenwich Village, since clearly I couldn’t finish the Millie scripting I was doing. The next day we arrived at the Marvel offices to learn that Stan, setting up a candle brigade at his Long Island home, had managed to write an entire (and beautifully worded) “Tales of Asgard” story penciled by Jack Kirby, and perhaps a few more pages I’ve forgotten about. He apologized to production manager Sol Brodsky for not being able to do more. Later that day, Stan decided it was time I turned my “Millie” work (both titles) over to Denny, whom I had brought to his attention as a possible writer a few weeks earlier. So Denny inherited the last half of an easy-to-script “Millie” tale, and I was given 20 spanking-new pages of Dick Ayers pencils for Sgt. Fury #29, which picked up in the middle of a

story begun the previous issue, with Nick and Baron Strucker grimly facing off. While not previously a regular Sgt. Fury reader, I was a big admirer of Dick Ayers, and had been ever since his 1950s work on Magazine Enterprises’ Ghost Rider, The Avenger, et al.—even more so, after his turn on The Human Torch and related Atlas titles in 1954. Dick and I did some good work together over the next year, and when I moved on and my buddy Gary Friedrich took over Fury, it was not an assignment I relinquished without regret. I learned, in the course of the following interview, that some of Dick’s last Marvel work in the 1970s was when he helped me out by finishing off an issue of The Invaders, my beloved World War II opus. Dick and I just couldn’t seem to stay away from teaming up on 1940s fantasies! And I couldn’t be happier that, with Jim Amash’s help, I finally got a chance to finish the interview with Dick Ayers that we started some three years ago! Oh, yeah—and what Michael T. Gilbert and Shel Dorf have to offer this issue ain’t exactly chopped liver, either!

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 2) An ASCII or “plain text” file, supplied on floppy disk. 3) Typed, xeroxed, or laser printed pages.

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Dick Ayers

“To Keep Busy As A Freelancer, You Should Have Three Accounts!” A Candid 3-Way Conversation with Golden/Silver Age Artist DICK AYERS Conducted by Roy Thomas & Jim Amash Transcribed by Brian K. Morris & Jim Amash

(Above:) Dick Ayers—flanked by recent drawings of two of his favorite subjects: the original Ghost Rider (pencil-and-ink) and Sgt. Fury (pencil). Darlin’ Dick’s still got it! [Photo ©2003 Gannett/Robert F. Rodriguez; art ©2003 Dick Ayers; Ghost Rider, Sgt. Fury, & Dum Dum TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Richard Bache Ayers (b. 1924) has been drawing comics—for Timely/Atlas/Marvel more than for any other outfit—since the post-World War II years. He penciled and inked most of his art through the mid-1950s; but, beginning in the late 1950s, he became increasingly important as an inker of Jack Kirby and other early Marvel artists. In 2000 I interviewed him about his work for Vin Sullivan’s Magazine Enterprises company for Alter Ego #10 (still available from TwoMorrows Publishing), but in the course of that rambling talk we touched on several points unrelated to M.E., so I saved those comments for a later issue. And this is it. [Recently, Jim Amash and I decided that, with Dick’s forbearance and cooperation, Jim would interview him primarily about his non-M.E. work prior to what Stan Lee dubbed “The Marvel Age of Comics,” and I’d step back in when we got to Dick’s work in the 1960s and ’70s. Even that straightforward plan, however, went astray, as Jim couldn’t resist asking him additional questions about the M.E. years, and delving into his 1970s work for Myron Fass— and I just had to query Dick about his stint drawing “The Human Torch” circa 1954. Hope you enjoy the verbal ping-pong game that follows. Oh, and unless otherwise noted, all photos and art are courtesy of the artist. —Roy.]

“I Want Comic Books!” ROY THOMAS: When did you start drawing—and when did you know you wanted to become a comic artist? DICK AYERS: Oh, golly. I joke about it, but as far back as I know, as I can remember. I was still small enough that I slept in the crib, because I didn’t grow very fast. My father had stuck some butcher paper—you know, that brown paper—along the wall beside the crib, so I could scribble on it and not ruin the wall. [laughs] And then, he was always great at reading me the funnies. My grandfather pitched in, too. I had the good fortune that my father was a railroad conductor. When he came home off the run, on which he’d be gone for three days at a time, he’d bring an armful of newspapers full of funnies from all over. So I really grew up on comics in the 1920s and 1930s. He taught me with the stick figures, and then he taught me to make them look a little different so I knew one from the other. RT: He didn’t draw himself, though?

Dick in 1929, at age five.

AYERS: No, no, no. He just had a fantastic interest in them, so he encouraged me in that type of thing. Then, when I got in the Army, I got to do a strip called Radio Ray, and that brought perks. [laughs] When I got pneumonia and was in the hospital out in Wisconsin, they

“To Keep Busy as a Freelancer, You Should Have Three Accounts!”

A marvelous montage from Dick Ayers’ War: (Clockwise:) A Radio Ray strip he did while in the service—Dick at the drawing table in 1943, sketching flight charts—and two views of “Slow Starter,” an example of the “nose art” that he “painted for the crews of their B-26 bombers of the 586th Bomb Squadron in the Ninth Air Force, in World War 2, in the Normandy Invasion,” a.k.a. D-Day. The bomber art at bottom left is titled “Homesick Angel”—and, just for perspective, we’ve tossed in a longshot of one of the B-26s he decorated.

When I got out of the service in October of ’45, I tried to get work, like a local cartoonist, editorial, newspaper job. Everywhere I went, if they had a job before, it was being held for a veteran, so I never had any jobs from high school and the Army. I couldn’t get a job in cartooning.

So I rented a room at a studio in New Rochelle, and I was going like crazy and I didn’t hit the gate. He offered me an advance, but I only took a couple hundred dollars to live on in that whole couple of months. Anyway, in March I got a phone call. He was back and he called me in to see him on St. Patrick’s Day when everybody was happy. And I went in and he had changed his mind. So I had no more Chic ’n’ Chu; and in between, I tried to sell it someplace else, and there was a paper shortage and I never could make it.

RT: But you were a veteran, too.

RT: Any explanation as to why he changed his mind?

AYERS: Yeah, but I wasn’t a veteran that had had a [cartooning] job before. So, back to art school. I went to a beautiful, nice school, a penthouse in the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street. I was there two years, learning to draw perfume bottles and such. Commercial art. And there was nobody that taught cartooning, storytelling, or anything. But one of the teachers had a date with someone—I think it was somebody from Marvel—and she told me they were looking for teenage comic strips. [laughs]

AYERS: He said it was for too old an audience. He said the books were, like Disney books and all, for 8-to-10-year-olds, and mine was for 15- or 16-year-olds or something. And I had another story I had written in which I had drawn St. Peter with a bowler hat and a walrus mustache and clog shoes and a kimono with an ascot with a diamond pin. And Oscar LeBeck said, “My God, we can’t have that!” He had changed his mind. He was away on vacation and I didn’t have any guidance. If he’d been there, he could have told me I was off in the wrong direction, that I had to make it more youthful.

gave me a private room; they even brought me my drawing table. I had more offers in the hospital. So really, this is where I said, “Gee, this is all right!” And I kept pursuing it.

I went home and I wracked my brain and I came up with Chic ’n’ Chu. It was cute, and if you read the dialogue, it’s like rap. It was hep talk, jive talk. Everything rhymed. And, by golly, I got three offers in this one day I took off from school. Oscar LeBeck up at Dell told me he would wrap a book around it. I was to have my own magazine, and I would get a royalty on every copy printed, not sold—a quarter of a cent royalty. Roy, I was in clover! He said, “We’ll sign the contract when I come back from vacation in Key West.” This is January of ’47.

I’m into comics now, and I want comic books! And I found there was a summer school at some high school in the 80s, probably Louis Stevenson. And there was a guy teaching gags, so I stuck with it. I had to go through a lot of problems with the G.I. Bill of Rights to do this type of thing. So I took the summer course and, by golly, I sold five gags that summer. We not only learned to draw; we learned to make the rounds. And then I saw a poster—Burne Hogarth was up on 89th Street, at a

Dick Ayers new school he’d started, Cartoonists and Illustrators School. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Next, Dick and Roy discussed his work for Magazine Enterprises. That part of the interview, as mentioned earlier, saw print in Alter Ego V3#10, and is not repeated here. A bit more of Dick’s 2000 interview, mostly comments on his late-1960s run on Marvel’s own version of the western Ghost Rider, has been inserted later in this piece. At this point, in mid-2003, Jim Amash phoned Dick and the two of them picked up approximately where Dick and Roy had left off, beginning with some comments by Dick about a then-upcoming show of his art, which led into reflections on his teenage years.]

“[Siegel and Shuster] Were Very Good Friends” AYERS: I’m going to have a show up in the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. They sent me a book by Charles Champlin, a writer for Time and Life for years, in which he writes about growing up in

the Depression was so bad that my father and mother didn’t have work, so we moved up to that God-forsaken town of Pulteney, and I loved it. I was going to Hammondsport, then I’d be bussed the ten miles to go to school, and down there I’d meet girls. I liked them but I couldn’t date them because I had no car and they lived on the other side of the lake, which was three miles wide. So that frustrated me something awful. I was always writing and drawing my own comic stories, because there was nothing to do, nowhere to go. I’d get little jobs like designing a menu for a restaurant on the lake, and like that. But I got to be 16 and I was writing away to enlist in the Merchant Marines. And when my mother saw this, she came back to White Plains and got a job, so my father had to join her. So it brought us back, and I was in heaven, right here where I had a chance. JIM AMASH: Even though Roy covered your Magazine Enterprises days in Alter Ego #10, I’d like to follow up with a few questions of my own. I know you worked for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster on Funnyman, through them and not M.E., and I’d like to know more about them. Today, most people have this image of them as two very shy men, but at the point you worked for them, I’d like to know what they were like. They had been battling with DC over Superman properties by the time you started with them. AYERS: They were very good friends. They seemed to be relaxed in their manner, and left all discussion of Superman out of the studio. I wasn’t in the studio from 9 to 5; I was there in the afternoons and studied under Burne Hogarth at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School at night. Marvin Stein taught there, and Ernie Bache (who’s no relation to me), who worked in the studio, went there, too.

Never-before-published art from the Chic ’n’ Chu feature Dick created, wrote, and drew in 1947—a display drawing, and two pages from the story, both heavy on the jargon in the bargain! [©2003 Dick Ayers.]

Hammondsport. We went to the same high school; he’s two years younger, so I didn’t really know him. He says that Glenn Curtiss, the famous aviator, was the model for Tom Swift. Hammondsport was a town of around 1200 people. It was on the head of the lake, in a grape region, with wineries all around it. Pulteney was a town of 300 people, which were all cousins and aunts and uncles. [chuckles] And I loved it as a young boy, because I spent my summers there from the age of 8-13, with my grandparents and my uncle. We lived down here in White Plains, and they would take me up there to stay for the summer. And then, when I got to be 13,

The studio was very nice. It had a reception area, with two nice, comfortable chairs and a table. Then, there was a doorway that led to a very nice-sized room. There was a drawing table where Ernie Bache worked and another in the corner for Marvin Stein. On the other side of the room was another table where I worked. I liked that table, because it faced towards a window. There was another table behind me, where a letterer

“To Keep Busy as a Freelancer, You Should Have Three Accounts!”

Gunhawks (p) 1973; Gunsmoke Western Comics (alternate and joint publishers): (a) 1956-57, 1961-63; Hercules (i) 1970; AC/Americomics: Calico Kid (a) 1992 Human Torch (a) 1954, 1962-65; (reprint); The Claw (p) 1992; covers (p) Incredible Hulk (i/some p) 1962-66, 1991-92; Femforce (p) 1991-92; Haunted 1969, 1971-72; Invaders (p) 1976; Iron Horseman (a) reprint from M.E.; Man (i) 1963-65, 1975; It, the Living Nightveil’s Cauldron of Horror (a) 1991; Colossus (a) 1973-74; Journey into Presto Kid (a) 1992 reprint; Red Devil (p) Mystery (a) 1952, 1954-56, (i) 1960-62; 1992; Tara (a) 1992; text pieces (w) 1992; Journey into Unknown Worlds (a) 1952, Thun’da (re-inked) 1989 reprint 1954-56; Justice Comics (a) 1954; Kid Colt (a) 1954-56, 1958, 1960-62, 1967, Comico: pin-ups (a) 1988; The Trouble 1975; Marines in Action (a) 1955; with Girls (i) 1989 Marines in Battle (a) 1954-58; Marvel Universe (p) 1987; Masters of the Revolutionary Comics: Joe Montana Universe (p) 1987; Matt Slade Story (a) c. 1981; Mickey Mantle (a) 1992 Gunfighter (a) 1956; Men in Action (a) Solson, et al.: [specifics unknown] 1952; Men’s Adventures (a) 1953-54; Mighty Marvel Western (a) 1972; Comics Credits (Small Press): Mystery Tales (a) 1952-55, 1957; Mystical Modern Publishing, Voltron (a) 1984-86 Tales (a) 1956-57; Mystic (a) 1952-53, 1955-56; Navy Action (a) 1955; Navy Advertising, Promotional, etc.: Tandy Combat (a) 1955, 1957; Nick Fury, Computer Whiz Kids (cover/p) 1985, 1987 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (i) 1965; Outlaw for Radio Shack; TRS-80 Computer Whiz Although we featured one of Dick and Lindy Ayers’ Fighters (a) 1955; Outlaw Kid (a) 1956Kids (cover/p) 1984 for Radio Shack (both Christmas cards on our flip side, Dick also sent us this 2001 57, (p) 1972-73; Police Action (a) 1954; through Archie) drawing. There’s a hilarious story behind it—but it’s one Quick-Trigger Western (a) 1956-57; that’ll have to wait for another time! So—Merry Christmas! [Also various coloring and lettering credits, Rawhide Kid (p/i) 1956-58, 1960-62, [Art ©2003 Dick Ayers.] fan-trade publications, fanzines—including 1967, 1972, (a) 1960-64; Red Wolf (p) cover for Alter Ego V3#10 and #31] 1973; Ringo Kid (a) 1955-56; Rugged Action (a) 1955; Savage Tales (a) 1986; Secret Story Romances (a) 1954; Sgt. Barney Barker (a) 1954, [List updated by Dick Ayers via Jim Amash in July 2003] 1956; Sgt. Fury (p/some i/some w) 1963-74; Six-Gun Western (a) 1957; Spellbound (a) 1952-56; Strange Stories of Suspense (a) 1955-57; [Check out Dick Ayers’ e-mailing list, moderated by Paul Strange Tales (p/some i) 1952-62; Strange Tales (a) 1959; Sub-Mariner Stefanowicz, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ayers.1] (i) 1966; Suspense (a) 1952; Tales of Suspense (i/some p) 1959-62; Tales of the Zombie (p) 1974; Tales to Astonish (i/some p) 1951-52, 1960, 1962), Thing and Human Torch (p) 1964, (a) 1965; Thor (i) 1962-63, 1992; Two-Gun Kid (p/i) 1954, 1961-68, (a) 1955, 1957, 1959; Two-Gun Western (a) 1956-57; Uncanny Tales (a) 1952-56, War Adventures (a) 1952; War Comics (a) 1953-57; War Is Hell (p) 1974; Western Kid (a) 1955; Western Outlaws (a) 1954-57; Wild Western (a) 1956-57; Wild (a) 1954; World of Fantasy (a) 1956-57; World of Mystery (a) 1956-57; Worlds Unknown (p) 1974; Wyatt Earp (a) 1957-60, X-Men (i) 1965-67 Mayfair Publications: National Crumb (a) 1975 Magazine Enterprises/Sussex: The Avenger (a) 1954; Badmen of the West (a) 1954-54; Bobby Benson (w/a) 1952-53; Calico Kid (a) 1949; covers (a) 1948-56; Cowboys and Indians (a) 1948; Funnyman (p) 1948; Ghost Rider (a) 1949-54; Jimmy Durante (a) 1948; Jolly Jim Dandy (a) 1955-57; Presto Kid (a) 1954-56; Straight Arrow (a) 1951; Western Range Book (a) 1949-50 Myron Fass/Countrywide/M.F. Enterprises, et al.: [specifics unknown at this date] Skywald: Sundance Kid (p) 1971; Wild Bunch (p) 1971 Spire Christian: Attack & covers (a) 1975 St. John/Jubilee: Do You Believe in Nightmares? (a) 1957 Stanmor, et al.: horror (a) 1950-51 Topps Comics: Bombast (a) 1993; Dracula vs. Zorro (cover) (i) 1993 Tower Comics: Menthor (p) 1968, NoMan (p) 1966 Comics in other publications: anti-drug tales for Boy’s Life, 1989, comics for adult education (w/a) 1974+

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

A fourth Picto-title, Terror Illustrated, came within a bat’s bite of capturing the “first horror comic book magazine” honors. However, like Mad magazine, the Pictos weren’t technically comic books at all, but rather copiously-illustrated prose stories featuring typeset blocks of text instead of word balloons and captions. So, by default, Weird Mysteries took the title. When the Picto-Fiction books died, other teen-friendly magazines took their place. In the late ’50s, a torrent of humor and movie-monster titles flooded the market, inspired by the success of Mad magazine and classic Universal horror films newly released into syndication to local TV stations. Operating under the Shock Theater title, a number of stations in different parts of the country hired their own wisecracking horror hosts to introduce the musty movies, much as The Crypt Keeper and The Old Witch had done years earlier in the comics. Shock Theater was launched in 1957 and took off like a rocket. A year later, Forrest J. Ackerman created Warren’s Famous Monsters of Filmland to cash in on the horror craze. Forry’s formula of old horror movie stills mixed with pun-filled articles proved highly popular with the kids. A host of similar magazines followed. Less successful were the legions of Mad magazine knock-offs like Frenzy, Zany, and Panic, which generally lasted only a few issues. These, as well as the monster magazines, all had the same physical

format as Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales. They also shared a similar “black-humor” approach to the material. Comic scholar Mike Feldman comments on their connection to Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales: “The two horror magazines [Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales] were almost unquestionably put together by one of those fly-bynighters who did a whole whack of Mad imitation mags in ’58-’59— there were at least half a dozen titles. They were likely putting this new project together when [disappointing] sales reports came in—and the distributors dropped them all in ’59—except for Cracked. It would probably be easy to spot which company, by comparing some of these with the two horror ones.” So who exactly was the unknown mastermind behind Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales? Well, the surprising answer is… Yipes! Looks like we’re out of room. Talk about a shock ending! Well, don’t worry. We’ll be back next issue to reveal more weird mysteries behind… 0! See you then! Till next time…

Joe Orlando drew the page at left from “Sure-Fire Scheme” (Terror Illustrated #1) for EC in 1955–– and then followed up four years later with “A Good Daughter” for Weird Mysteries. [©2003 William Gaines Agent.]

Shel Dorf

The Detroit Triple Fan Fair —And How It Came To Be

A Fond Look Back at the Predecessor of the San Diego Comic-Con —by the Guy Who Helped Launch Both of ’Em! by Shel Dorf

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: In 1970 Shel Dorf and several comics fans from Southern California inaugurated the San Diego Comic-Con, which in time would dwarf all other U.S. comics conventions in size and scope. But this was only the second legendary con that he helped to found. The first had been birthed in Detroit, Michigan, five years earlier. And here, in Shel’s own words, is its story:]

Tom Altschuler and His Amazing Bookstore Nowadays, kids are born into a world where comics conventions are an established thing. It wasn’t always that way. This is how I remember it in those early days of the mid-1960s. Many comics fans are solitary souls. Reading a comic is a oneperson job. Just the creators and us. But there is a time when we learn to communicate with others of our kind.

Guide mags. Paperback books were there, too, but not many of them. There were also some movie magazines and song sheets. This was downstairs. But the forbidden area was upstairs. Only the serious spenders got to go upstairs. This top floor was where the really valuable collectibles were stored. The musty smell only added to the experience. One whole wall was covered with shelves of Big Little Books. On the floor were wooden crates with movie magazines from the 1920s and ’30s. There were stacks of Golden Age comic books, really old pulp magazines, old newspaper comic sections. Several stacks of old sheet music, extra-large movie magazines (Screen Guide was one) with plush full-color photos in rotogravure printing of favorite pin-up girls and leading men. There were stacks of Esquire magazine that had the Vargas Girls and Petty Girls fold-outs in mint condition. There were adult mags like Laff, Wink, Titter (a chick named Norma Jean Baker posed for several of those covers). We wondered how Tom got these treasures. Here’s how he did it:

It was a group of such fans that would gather at Ableman’s Detroit was a town of factory Bookstore on a Saturday in Shel Dorf (in striped shirt) and three fellow San Diego Comic-Con people workers who lived in big homes and Detroit. It was mainly a used look over some collectors’ items in a 1974 photo from the San Diego had large families. When the kids bookstore. A friendly guy named Evening Tribune, two days before that year’s con commenced. [Left grew up and left, the old folks needed to right:] Barry Alfonso—unidentified staffer—Shel—and Richard Butner. Tom Altschuler owned the place. The headline read (and I’m sure we’re all shocked at its originality): to clean out their attics before they It was huge (probably an old “Out of blue—Shazam!—it’s Comic Con!” Thanks to Shel for the photo, could sell the homes. Tom had a crew furniture store). The downstairs which was taken by Barry Fitzsimmons. (By sheer coincidence, 1974 was of casual laborers who cleaned out the had shelves of books and tables the year A/E editor Roy Thomas, then Marvel’s editor-in-chief, was a guest attics free of charge. One condition: piled high with old magazines. of honor at the con and received his Inkpot Award, sitting on the dais that Tom could keep all the old You could find copies of Liberty, with Charles Schultz on one side, and Russ Manning and Milt Caniff on magazines, books, etc., that they The Saturday Evening Post, the other. Talk about a comics fan’s heaven!) found there. It was just junk to most Look, Life, Redbook, Collier’s, people, so they quickly agreed. No etc. There were also detective, publicity in those days about how much money old comic books would mystery, and science-fiction pulp magazines. There were “men’s bring. I’m sure this was when mothers threw out their grown-up kids’ magazines,” “women’s magazines,” westerns, and over-sized Radio

Title writer/editorial

Deck the Halls with– Comic Books!? Just room to wish all Alter Ego readers a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Season’s Greetings or whatever—

semblance of a private life with Dann and 200 or so beasties (admittedly, over half of them guinea pigs).

—and to take note of the fact that, with this issue, Alter Ego begins its second year as a monthly.

The best Christmas gift I received in 2002—or again this year—is the promise of continuing help and support of the guys and gals listed on the contents page every month—ranging from a whole gaggle of folks with editorial status of one type or another (Bill Schelly, Jim Amash, John Morrow, Jon B. Cooke, P.C. Hamerlinck, Michael T. Gilbert, Jerry Bails, Mike Friedrich)—to Chris Day in Chicago and Eric Nolen-Weathington at the TwoMorrows emporium in Raleigh, NC—to all the knowledgeable and generous souls to whom I so inadequately give “special thanks” every month—including most especially Dann, who I suspect still figures I’ll run out of material one of these days and be available for more yardwork.

Yes, ’twas with the December 2002 edition, with its colorful Dick Sprang and (again) Fred Ray covers, that I bit the Bullet(man) and, with the concurrence of publisher John Morrow and layout guru Chris Day, obligated myself (well, all of us, actually) to produce twelve fat issues of A/E a year—1,296 pages of wonderment. Of course, 10-15% of those pages would be taken up with ads of one kind or another, but somehow, 1000 or so pages of new material a year was still a fairly daunting prospect. It’s been worth it, even though I’ve had to perform a delicate balancing act between scheduled book projects, work on my long-delayed master’s thesis (subject: comic books and the early Cold War), the occasional pro comics assignment (forthcoming stories for Bongo Comics and Dark Horse, plus intros for DC Archives), and—oh, yes—leading at least the

Keep at it with that rake, Red. I’ll be along real soon. (Yeah, right). Bestest,

COMING IN JANUARY

™

NOW MONTHLY!

A “GOLDEN AGE OF MARVEL” REUNION! PLUS: CRISIS ON SILVER-AGE EARTH-DC! • Colorful new covers by DICK GIORDANO (a cavalcade of 1940s Timely/Marvel heroes) and GIL KANE (Green Lantern)! • Golden Age Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed—and reunited after 50 years!—by JIM AMASH & DOC VASSALLO! Plus art by CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, CARL PFEUFER, SYD SHORES, JACK COLE, REED CRANDALL, et al.! • MART (Green Lantern) NODELL on his time at late-’40s Timely/Marvel! • “The Day the Future Began!” DC and First Comics editor MIKE GOLD on 1958-59—a Year of Decision in the early Silver Age—with rare art by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY—GIL KANE—CARMINE INFANTINO— CURT SWAN—and others! • More “lost” comics lore from WILL MURRAY & MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • Fiction House—the Italian Connection! ENRICO BAGNOLI—one of the “Great Unknowns” of the ’40s! • FCA with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and Fawcett mystery artist IRVIN STEINBERG—ALEX TOTH—BILL SCHELLY on BILJO WHITE —a tribute to PETE MORISI—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS • 108 PAGES!

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $60 Standard, $96 First Class (Canada: $120, Elsewhere: $132 Surface, $180 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF! Art ©2003 Dick Giordano; Heroes TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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

Yuletide Cards by Comics Pros & Fans

A Four-Color Christmas

—Mostly In Black-&-White Yuletide Cards Sent by Comics Greats [INTRODUCTORY NOTE: As most of Alter Ego’s readers probably already know, many comics pros and fans create personalized Christmas or Happy-Holiday greetings around the end of each year. Here, courtesy of my own file cabinets and those of several much-appreciated fans, are a few pages’ worth of holiday cards sent by some of comics’ finest talents. The artist is identified in capital letters at the start of each caption following. —Roy.]

SHELDON “SHELLY” MOLDOFF (Above left:) It’s relatively rare to find a Christmas card sent out by an individual artist or writer that depicts a company-owned character—but, says Dan Makara, who sent us a copy, this splendid card was first mailed out in 1942 by the Golden Age artist of “Hawkman” and “The Black Pirate.” Thanks also to John Coates, who sent us a scan of it from a 1992 sending, along with the other two cards on this page. (Top right:) This 1994 card features Captain Midnight and a host of DC heroes drawn by Shelly over the years. (Right:) This space-age card was sent out a few years ago by Sheldon and his beloved Shirley. [Art ©2003 Sheldon Mayer; Captain Midnight TM & ©2003 the respective copyright holders; Hawkman, Black Pirate, Green Lantern, Batman, Robin, Flash, Catwoman, Penguin, & Bat-Mite TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Of Mystics, Mighty Men, and Immortals

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”—Part II

Of Mystics, Mighty Men, and Immortals

A Further Look at the Foreshadowing—or Something—of the Marvel Age of Comics by Thomas G. Lammers [EDITOR’S NOTE: The idea of “Marvel Pre-Hero Prototypes” which pre-dated and were used as models or patterns for many of the heroes and villains created in the early 1960s by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko originated in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and has ever since been disputed in various quarters. Two issues ago, with no ill will toward the Price Guide, Tom Lammers began his examination of “prototypes”—which he defines (I’m paraphrasing here) as a concept introduced so a publisher can learn if it is worth developing further, but with a new, improved, and somewhat different character. For instance, is the Lee-Kirby story “I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!” in Journey into Mystery #62 (Nov. 1960) related in some cause-and-effect way to The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962)? Was the saga “The Spider Strikes!” in Journey into Mystery #73 (Oct. 1961), in which an arachnid gained gargantuan size and human intelligence, intended to find out if

comics fans might welcome a feature, less than a year later, starring your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Tom feels that, unless there was a clear intent on the part of the creators to test the waters with one character as a “model or pattern” for a later one, the original story was not a true “prototype,” but at most a “precursor”—a concept which preceded (and perhaps even influenced) the later effort, but which wasn’t specifically designed to lead to it. In A/E #29 Tom surveyed the Price Guide-listed “prototype” stories related to Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man. This time, he continues with the other Lee-Kirby-Ditko creations introduced in Marvel Comics through 1963. Incidentally, except where otherwise noted, all art for this article was supplied by its author. —Roy.]

Everybody knows that, in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), high school student Peter Parker was bitten by a recently-irradiated spider and became Spider-Man, with script by Stan Lee and art by Steve Ditko. But in A/E #29 Tom Lammers shone a spotlight on Journey into Mystery #73’s “The Spider Strikes!” nearly a year earlier—wherein an accidentally-irradiated spider became huge and malevolently brainy—in what has been perhaps ironically termed a “reverse prototype.” Two issues back, we printed the splash page from JiM #73; here, flanking art from AF #15, are pp. 2 & 3 of “The Spider Strikes!”—penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers, with no writer credited—courtesy of alert A/E reader Chris Brown. (Was it Stan Lee and Larry Lieber working in tandem, as in so many monster stories in those “pre-hero”days?) For the first 21 “Spider-Man” stories at eminently affordable prices, pick up a copy of The Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 1. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“And Men Shall Call Him... Prototype!”

Thor In Journey into Mystery #83 (Aug. 1962), handicapped physician Dr. Donald Blake discovered that, upon striking a gnarled wooden cane against the ground, he was magically transformed into Thor, the thunder god of Norse mythology, while the cane became Thor’s mighty hammer Mjolnir. The Overstreet Guide does not identify any stories as Thor prototypes; and in fact, very few pre-hero [i.e., pre-Fantastic Four #1 in 1961) stories at Martin Goodman’s comics company were inspired by mythology. However, no less than four stories are identified as containing prototypes of the very first foes Thor faced, the Stone Men of Saturn. These invaders, who arrived in a flying saucer, somewhat resemble The Thing in their craggy stone bodies, except that their heads are greatly elongated, making up a greater proportion of their overall height. [See next page.] The earliest of the supposed prototypes is found in Tales to Astonish #5 (Sep 1959), in the Kirby-penciled cover story “I Was Trapped by the Things on Easter Island!” (5 pp.). The pilot of a small aircraft, crashing on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the southeastern Pacific, discovers that the moai, the giant stone heads allegedly carved by the indigenous Polynesians, actually represent the upper portions of partially buried aliens! They are patiently awaiting a signal from their home planet, Lithodia Rex, to begin the invasion and conquest of the Earth. Creatures of stone are also found in the very next issue, TTA #6 (Nov. 1959). The cover story, drawn by Steve Ditko, is “I Saw the Invasion of the Stone Men” (5 pp.). There, Stone Men from deep within the Earth burst through in Times Square and bumble around for a while, seemingly oblivious to the Army’s attempts to destroy them, before returning to the Earth’s core. The third Stone Men of Saturn prototype is likewise found in Tales to Astonish, this one in #16 (Feb. 1961). “Thorr the Unbelievable” (7 pp.) is another Kirby-and-Ayers cover story inspired by the moai of Easter Island. An archaeologist and his nagging wife, digging beneath a strange statue on a newly discovered volcanic island in the South Pacific, find a chamber full of electronic circuitry. Entering it activates the statue, which rises from the ground and reveals that, like the Easter Island versions in TTA #5, it is actually a partially-buried body with only the head emerging from the soil. He is Thorr, left by alien invaders a million years earlier, to be reactivated upon their return. As might be expected, the archaeologist foils their plans of conquest, earning his wife’s respect in the process. It is ironic that this supposed Stone Men prototype bears the same basic name as the hero his descendants battled! Easter Island’s moai return for one last outing in Tales of Suspense #28 (April 1962). In the Kirby-penciled “Back from the Dead!” (6 pp.), criminal Harry Dawes flees in a stolen boat to—Easter Island. There he

Thor looks uncharacteristically relaxed (at least for a Jack Kirby drawing) on the cover of Journey into Mystery #83, as he scatters Stone Men like so many pebbles; inks by Joe Sinnott. One Timely/Marvel precursor of the thunder god, of course, is Venus, goddess of love and the star of her own comic from 1948-52, as detailed in Alter Ego #29. In this page from Venus #14 (June ’51), the immortal beauty talks to Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, just as Thor would later do with his father Odin, head honcho of the Norse pantheon—and is propelled back to Mars, where (now no longer needing a space suit) she promptly encounters a Martian, in a weird mix of fantasy and science-fiction drawn, and probably written, by Bill Everett. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

meets a strange little man who is searching for (and finds) a parchment which, when read aloud, brings the statues to life. They tell Dawes they are aliens, marooned on Earth when their spaceship developed engine trouble, and are waiting for their captain to return for them. The strange little man is, of course, their captain. In perusing these four tales, it is clear that the characters fall into two distinct categories: (1) Pacific island stone statue aliens drawn by Kirby (Tales to Astonish #5 & #16, Tales of Suspense #28), and (2) center-ofthe-Earth creatures drawn by Ditko (Tales to Astonish #6). Although the last are explicitly dubbed “Stone Men,” they clearly have little in common with Thor’s first opponents: they are not from outer space, nor are they invading the Earth with conquest in mind, nor do they physically resemble the Saturnians, lacking elongated moai-style heads. In fact, these Ditko Stone Men rather remind one of the Michelin Man® in overall shape! The stone men in the three Kirby tales do resemble the Stone Men of Saturn in their alien-invader nature and characteristic elongated heads. On the other hand, all three have been waiting for ages to invade, while

Alter Ego #31