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No. 6 AUTUMN 2000
It’s Name-Dropping TIme!
STAN LEE--ROBERT KANIGHER DICK AYERS--JOHN SEVERIN GARY FRIEDRICH--MIKE W. BARR MICHAEL GILBERT--JOE KUBERT AND MORE!
Gene Colan in THE GOLDEN & SILVER AGES!
Dr. Strange, Nightmare & Eternity ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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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!
“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!
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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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LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (KIRBY COLLECTOR #58)
Special double-size book examines the first decade of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the events that put into motion the Marvel Age of Comics! New interviews with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others, with a wealth of historical information and Kirby artwork!
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“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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Gene Colan
Volume 3, No. 6 Autumn 2000
Stan Lee Section
™
Editor Roy Thomas
Associate Editor Bill Schelly
Design & Layout Jon B. Cooke GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS
Production Janet Riley Sanderson
Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke
Contents
FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck
Writer/Editorial: Marvels upon Marvels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Marvel Family at Fawcett & Gene Colan at Marvel.
Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert
Editors Emeritus Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich
“So You Want a Job, Eh?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Gene Colan talks about working with Stan Lee and others.
Cover Artists
When Those Who Can, Teach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Mike Barr on 1940s books by Stan Lee and Robert Kanigher.
Gene Colan & Tom Palmer Mac Raboy
“Play It Again, Stan!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Sgt. Fury in Casablanca with Friedrich, Ayers, & Severin.
Cover Color Tom Ziuko Mac Raboy
Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker
And Special Thanks to: Dick & Lindy Ayers Dave Berg Al Bigley Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Rich Buckler Gene & Adrienne Colan Jerry de Fuccio Joe Desris Keif Fromm Gary Friedrich Jennifer T. Go David Hamilton Mark & Steph Heike Roger Hill Robert Kanigher David Anthony Kraft Mort Leav
Stan & Joan Lee Dan Makara Gene McDonald Eric NolenWeathington Jerry Ordway David Raboy Ethan Roberts Bob Rogers Arlen Schumer John Severin Joe Simon Robin Snyder Glenn Southwick Kevin Stawieray Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Bob Thoms Hank Weisinger Mark Wheatley
More (All-) Stars Than There Are in Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron and its Golden Age roots. Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Michael T. Gilbert on the Man of Steel in 1940s New Yorker and Coronet articles. So—You Want to Collect Fanzines? (Part Two) . . . . . . . . . 47 Bill Schelly says don’t pay an arm and a leg (or a claw). Special Mac Raboy/FCA Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: This stunning Colan/Palmer illo, supplied by David Hamilton, was intended for Dr. Strange #180 (May 1969), but a composite of previously-published Colan/Palmer and Ditko figures (plus a photo of the NYC skyline) was used instead. Mark Wheatley says he heard the cover got temporarily lost in the mails. And that’s the only excuse we can think of for its not being printed more than three decades ago! [Dr. Strange, Eternity, & Nightmare ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: The dreams of babes: This recent sketch by Gene Colan appears in his new book, The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil, edited by Tina & Matt Poslusny (the Comic Book Profiles folk), and is available at <www.GeneColan.com> or for $23.15 ppd. from As You Like It Publications, 5413 Virginia Ave., Charleston, WV 25304. [Characters ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2000 Gene Colan.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly 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@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 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
Writer/Editorial
Marvel Upon Marvels H And that’s only the Fawcett side of things.
ey, guess what!
For the sixth issue in a row (collect ’em all!), we wound up with more material than we could comfortably fit—or even reasonably shoehorn—into a 100-page issue. You can blame it mostly on Roger Hill and me.
For the past year Roger and I have been talking about his “Mac Raboy Project.” Raboy, of course, is generally considered one of the best draftsmen and just all-around best artists in the history of the comic book field, primarily for his work on “Captain Marvel Jr.” for Fawcett Publications in the early-to-mid-1940s, but also for his “Bulletman” there and for his Green Lama for Spark. All he did after that was succeed the immortal Alex Raymond on Flash Gordon, one of the foremost adventure comic strips ever. Roger’s project started out to be a massive article on Raboy’s life and career, accompanied by a lot of gorgeous art. But along the way he managed to track down Raboy’s son David, whom he finally induced to talk for the record— and he stumbled across Bob Rogers (nee Rubin Zubofsky), Raboy’s backWhen Marvels Clash! [Captain Marvel (l.) by C.C. ground man, who Beck, ©2000 DC Comics; Captain Marvel (r.) by Gene Colan and Vince Colletta, ©2000 Marvel Characters, had stories and Inc. Figure on left courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck; figure artwork of his on right courtesy of Bob Thoms.] own to add to the mix. Roger also found Gene McDonald, another artist associated with Raboy. The original plan was to run Roger’s Raboy-related material in a flip half of A/E, in one of the issues in which P.C. Hamerlinck’s excellent FCA magazine section is given double-shrift, meaning about twenty pages for Paul to do his thing aided by the likes of Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, et al.— in this case, Joe Simon and none other than Bill Woolfolk, one of the most respected scripters of the Golden Age. However, it quickly became clear that, even with copious editing, Roger Hill’s Raboy Project was not going to be confined to 20-30 pages in one issue of Alter Ego. And so, “for the first time ever in the world” (as Stan Lee is fond of saying in another piece this issue), I’m announcing in advance that two issues in a row of A/E will give 50% of their space to a combination of FCA and other Fawcett-related features. We’ve had to save the David Raboy and Gene McDonald interviews (along with more of Roger’s talk with Bob Rogers) for next time— and don’t worry, we haven’t even begun to run out of beautiful art to print!
Right up front, in this half, we’ve got a multi-illustrated interview with Gene “The Dean” Colan, as Stan Lee christened him in the 1960s. Gene is a true “artist’s artist,” and, despite eye problems in recent years, is still doing beautiful work. If you don’t believe me, sneak a peek at all the stunning artwork that accompanies my conversation with him— some of it never before printed. You’ll see why, in spite of the fine inking done over Gene by Tom Palmer and others over the years, those of us who were privileged to see his penciled art when it came into the Marvel offices always wished it could be reproduced from his pencils! (A few of the things Gene has to say may interest you, as well; comics aren’t only a visual medium, you know.) Also for the Marvelmaniacs among us (myself included), there’s a study of Sgt. Fury #72 back in 1969—and what it could have been, as originally scripted by Gary Friedrich and exquisitely drawn by Dick Ayers and John Severin—not to mention Mike Barr’s study of Stan Lee’s 1947 tome Secrets behind the Comics (in tandem with a look at Robert Kanigher’s book on comics-writing from a couple of years earlier). Not that we’ve neglected DC, though. Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster present a look at some early “Superman” material outside the comics—and, ready or not, here comes the start (finally) of my own insiders’ history of All-Star Squadron, with awesome art by Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway—and a look back at the Squadron’s 1940s roots. (You didn’t think we were going to get through a whole issue without presenting some great Golden Age art, did you? No way—and not just from Fawcett Comics, either!) Top all the above off with the second part of Bill Schelly’s how-to lesson on collecting 1960s-’70s comics fanzines, and you’ll see why Roy is always walking around in a daze, saying: “100 pages isn’t as long as it used to be!” Our “re:” section, which leads off the flip half of this issue, contains the usual number of corrections to last issue. Like everybody else, we just can’t seem to get through an entire edition without a goof or three. For a change, though, I feel compelled to offer a correction to someone else’s work—which is a nice switch. First off, I want to say that I highly recommend my old colleague and inspiration Julius Schwartz’ new memoir Man of Two Worlds (available from Harper Entertainment for $14—cheap). It’s not nearly long or complete enough, but, as Spencer Tracy once said of Katherine Hepburn, “what’s there is cherce!” Still, as a point of personal privilege, I must take issue with Julie’s anecdote therein about my yakking blissfully away on the phone to him one day and not even noticing while he went to the bathroom and
Writer/Editorial returned. Talkative I may be, but unless that was a really fast trip, ’twould seem highly unlikely. And if it was a really fast trip— well, hell, I’ve pulled stunts like that once or twice myself (though I won’t say on whom).
3
www.kubertsworld.com
More tellingly: The first two times I heard Julie tell that story (in my presence), the guy I was supposedly talking to was not Julie but DC editor Andy Helfer. Make up your mind, Mr. S.! (Hey, it just occurred to me—if it was Andy— and I’m not saying it was, mind you—maybe that bathroom break is the reason he didn’t make an important correction I phoned in for Ring of the Nibelung back in the ’80s, with the result that two word balloons came from the wrong Gil Kane-drawn characters.) Also, as I’ve said elsewhere, the “Marvel writing test” I took in July 1965 was not one where, as stated in Julie’s book, “you had to fill in the balloons right there on the spot.” Rather, I picked it up one day at noon, and brought it back the next. But Man of Two Worlds is still a good book. Too short, but good! Buy it already! In closing: I was honored to be asked to accept a plaque in memory of Bill Everett at this year’s San Diego comics convention, when he and Shelly Mayer were posthumously inducted into the Eisner Awards’ Hall of Fame. Other honorees were Carmine Infantino, Basil Wolverton, and George Herriman. It was great to see Carmine there to accept his award in person. He’s been away far too long. Welcome back, Carmine! Bestest,
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4
“So You Want A Job, Eh?”
“So You Want A Job, Eh?” The Gene Colan Interview A rambling conversation about Timely (and others), mostly from the 1940s to the early-’70s, with “The Dean” Interview conducted & edited by Roy Thomas • Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson [EDITOR’S NOTE: Gene Colan, as artist of “Sub-Mariner,” “Iron Man,” Daredevil, and other major features beginning in the mid-1960s, is one of the most-loved and best-remembered artists of Marvel’s Silver Age. Earlier this year saw the publication of The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil, a trade paperback of more than 100 pages of text and art by Gene. Having admired Gene’s work on “Sub-Mariner” in the months before I came to work for Marvel in mid-’65, I wanted to talk with him about this period—and of course about his even earlier work— and Gene was most obliging.—R.T.] ROY THOMAS: Gene, I wanted to start off by mentioning the subtitle of your annual: “Painting With Pencil.” Because that’s the way I and some other people always thought of your work. How did that title occur to you?
COLAN: No, I didn’t. RT: And yet, back in the ’40s and ’50s, you inked a lot of your stories. COLAN: I inked some of them. I inked a lot of westerns, a lot of war stories. I inked the ones that have my name on them. RT: There was a lot of black in those stories. COLAN: Oh, yeah. RT: I noticed in your annual you do a lot of writing, and you have a nice turn of phrase. Why didn’t you ever talk to Stan about doing any writing years ago? COLAN: It never occurred to me. It really never did. I was so steeped in the art of it, I never thought about writing. But I enjoy writing. As you get older, you begin to review things in your mind, and think you might give this a shot, and so I’ve enjoyed writing some of these articles in the book. They’re things that pop up in my mind, and I have no answers for them—[laughs]—except that I know certain things. Like when someone says, “Maybe,” that means “No.” “Maybe” is just another way of putting you off.
GENE COLAN: It was my wife Adrienne’s idea. Years ago they didn’t have a good method of reproducing for pencil. Today, of course, with the technology they have, it can be done. RT: I’ve tried to explain to people sometimes about the difficulty of even a very good inker catching everything about your work on paper, because you would pencil so many different shades of black and gray on the page… COLAN: Yeah, I did that, really, just to get into it and feel what I needed to feel to put it across. I figured if the inker could capture it, fine, and if he couldn’t, well, that will have to be fine, too.
Very recent photo of Gene and a couple of pals. [Courtesy of Gene & Adrienne Colan.]
RT: One of the things I most remember about working on your pages—since I worked with the original art in those days— is that I always ended up having to wash my hands several times an hour to get the graphite off! [laughs] I’m sure you did, too, and I’m sure Tom Palmer and others did.
RT: Quite often! [laughs] Now, to finally go back to the beginning—you were born in New York in the Bronx, right? How did you get interested in drawing? Was it at an early stage?
COLAN: Oh, I started at three. The first thing I ever drew was a lion. I must’ve absolutely copied it or something. But that’s what my folks tell me. And from then on, I just drew everything in sight. My grandfather was my favorite subject. He was very easy to do, and I loved him very much, so that helped a lot. But I tried my grandmother, it was too difficult. My mother, who looked so much like her, was also difficult… and my dad, I did my father once or twice, and he came across fairly well.
COLAN: [laughs] Oh, yeah. I think all artists should have their work reproduced from pencils, really I do, because once the inker gets in, you’ve got two styles. It’s never interpreted the same way the artist had meant. But I’m slow… and so, because of that, I get a little too nervous inking it. I’m more at home with pencils.
RT: So, at a very early stage, you were drawing from life. A lot of comic book artists nowadays never get to that stage.
RT: You did do some inking in the early days. But during the heyday of Marvel, when you were doing “Sub-Mariner,” “Iron Man,” etc., kind of thing, I don’t recall you often telling Stan, “Gee, I’d really like to ink my own work.”
COLAN: Oh, they’ve got to get around to it. Speed is important when you’re drawing from life—because whoever you’re drawing, often they don’t know you’re drawing them. If it’s somebody, say, in the park, you never know how long they’re going to sit there, so the idea is to get it in
Gene and Adrienne personally handed this brand new, never-published drawing to Roy T. at this year’s San Diego Comicon. All he had to do was stand in line at a photocopy stall in the convention center for half an hour to get a copy made! Some guy in line kept trying to buy it from him, even though Roy explained he only had it on loan! Daredevil versus The Jester. [Art ©2000 Gene Colan; Daredevil, The Jester ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
as quickly as you can. And then rely on your memory. RT: Did you go to the park and try to draw people without their knowing it? COLAN: Oh, yes. [laughs] Even on the commuter train, from when I lived in New Rochelle, I would come in with a pad and start to draw some of the people on the train. RT: When you were young, I take it you liked newspaper comic strips? COLAN: Yes, I would copy them, too. I was highly influenced by Milton Caniff, including Dickie Dare, that came before Terry and the Pirates. Coulton Waugh continued it. He loved ships. Many, many years later, when I became an adult, I saw some of Waugh’s pictures in a gallery. There were paintings of ships, and he signed his name exactly like he did on the comic strip. RT: I understand that you went to the Art Students’ League. Could you tell us a little about what that is? COLAN: It’s a school in which those who are into serious art can get good, solid background training. Usually famous people run it, or had run it in the past. I know Norman Rockwell had a finger in it, and
Hobie Whitmore. It’s in Manhattan on 57th Street. It’s one of the oldest schools around. There’s a modeling class, with live models, and then they have a sculpture class. They would start out at different levels. It was a great experience for me, and I got in on it through the G.I. Bill. Actually, I even went to the League a little bit before I entered the service. Of course, I tried to get work at DC Comics. When I was much younger, I thought if I worked for DC, it was like working for MGM Studios. RT: I think that was the feeling that a lot of people had—including DC! [laughs] COLAN: Well, it was “Batman,” and “Superman.” So I figured, “Gee, what better could I do?” They were very nice to me. I must’ve been about 13 or 14 when I first went up there. I met Bob Kane; he was in the bullpen, and he was drawing. I remember what he was drawing. He was drawing a hand. One of his characters was holding a .45, and I remember the beautiful way he drew it. For some reason, that stuck in my head, because all the anatomy was there, and I didn’t know it. RT: So you’re living proof that Bob Kane did draw, occasionally! COLAN: Oh, yeah! I got to know him better on a personal level many years later, but that was the first time. I was just a kid, and I was told I’d
16
When Those Who Can, Teach
When Those Who Can Teach
©2000
Robert
While the world may beat a path to the door of the builder of a better mousetrap, history confirms that at least some of those beating feet—accompanied by cash-holding hands—will be diverted to the door of the man who figures out how to mass-produce said mousetrap. er.
Kanigh
The field of comic books is, of course, no different. When it was proven that people (mostly kids) would pay good American money for the four-color adventures of their favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) characters, it wasn’t long before the number of comic book publishers multiplied geometrically—or so it must have seemed to a kid with a lone dime, facing a newsstand in the 1940s. And since comic book publishers need comics to publish, they hire writers and artists. But where do the writers and artists come from?
Secrets behind the Comics begins with this typical example of that Stan Lee understatement we would come to known and love in the ’60s. [Georgie, Blonde Phantom, Powerhouse Pepper, Captain America & Bucky, and Millie the Model ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
In most fields, newcomers are young people who have grown up perusing the product of the field they wish to contribute to. The field of comics, however, was still fairly new in the early-to-middle 1940s, when the comics boom really took off. Most young writers and artists had read comic strips most of their lives; and while comic strips and comic books
Stan Le
Whoever said “Nothing succeeds like excess” was right—though not as right as the guy who said it fifteen or sixteen times in a row.
share certain similarities, in many ways they’re more different than they are alike. Today, comic book writers are overwhelmingly former fans who had the “language” of comics imprinted on their cerebral cortexes in their formative years. But in the early days of comic books, talent had to be instructed in the new technique, the format of comic books.
©2000
Interviews Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson
e.
by Mike W. Barr
Capitalism abhors a vacuum even more than nature does, so it wasn’t long before there were at least a handful of “how to” guides surfacing on the subjects of writing and drawing comics. Fortunately, at least some of them were by experienced hands, who could be trusted to share what worked for them. And two of them were by two of the best writers the medium of comic books has ever known: in democratic alphabetical order, Robert Kanigher and Stan Lee. (And if you need to have it explained to you who either of these guys are, back to the Beginners Slope for you!) In 1943 Robert Kanigher wrote the booklet How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines, published by Cambridge House of N.Y. Four years later, Stan Lee contributed Secrets behind the Comics, published by Famous Enterprises, Inc., Publishers of New York City. While many other comic book writers of the period wrote articles about the subject (and we’ve seen some of them here in Alter Ego), How to Make Money WritCan you find the Renaissance man in this picture? ing for Comics That’s a paint-splattered RK on the right, among Magazines and various of his abstract paintings and a whole Secrets behind the autumn’s worth of fallen leaves. [Photo courtesy of Comics are two of & ©2000 RK.] the only book-
Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books
17
length contributions to the field. That alone would make a survey of their contents worthwhile, and the pedigrees of their authors in Stan and Joan Lee on a fact-finding trip in Norway a their chosen couple of years back. [Photo courtesy of & ©2000 field defiStan & Joan Lee.] nitely single them out for further analysis. The best place to begin is in the realm of the physical: How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines (hereafter referred to as HTMM) is a booklet measuring 8 inches by 51/2 inches. Its 96 interior pages are stapled together, with a textured tan cardboard cover glued around it, its interior text typeset, with no price marked on the cover. Secrets behind the Comics (hereafter referred to as Secrets) measures 59/16 inches by 85/8 inches, also with 96 interior pages, printed in two colors (black and red), its cover and interiors saddle-stitched (that is, sheets folded in half and stapled in the center, like a comic book); its text, save for a single typeset introductory page, is hand-lettered by M. (Mario) Acquaviva, a prolific comics letterer of that era. Secrets has a cover price of $1.00. Stylistically, the books also differ greatly, each reflecting the personality of its author. Kanigher comes across as sly and somewhat acerbic, as if testing the reader to see if he’s got what it takes, the twinkle in his eye just visible through a cloud of pipe smoke. Similarly, his book has a more serious approach, its chapters called “Lessons,” such as “Lesson 5—Important Tools of the Trade.” Each of these “Lessons” is further divided into subtopics: “How to Work with the Artist,” “Action Props,” “How to Use Props,” “Using Ingenuity,” “How to Use Scenes,” “Employing the Close-shot,” “The Medium-shot,” “The Longshot,” “The Montage-shot,” and “The Symbolic Shot.” Lee, in contrast, seems to be who he’s always been in print—ebullient, avuncular, face perpetually agrin with the fun we’re having, and are about to have. His book, written in a style that gives the reader the impression Lee is speaking to him and him alone, is divided into “Secrets,” such as “Secret #9—What Happens to a Script after It Is Written?” These differences will become even more apparent as we progress.
Who Were These Guys, Anyway? In an introductory column opposite the title page of HTMM, Kanigher is described as: “Radio Writer and Director; Winner of National Radio Contest; Playwright, Author of FAUSTUS, THY BROTHER, OUTBREAK, BLIND DATE, BORROWED LIGHTNING, Series of Books on WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES, RADIO, MOVIES, STAGE, COMIC MAGAZINES, POPULAR BOOKS; Scripts and Stories in Anthology [sic], National Magazines.” Secrets begins with “Secret No. 1”—and, to let Stan Lee tell it himself, we’ve printed the top half of page 6 of his book above:
(Like, we’d doubt the word of the editor of All-True Crime!)
The Fundamental Things Apply… HTMM begins with a Preface which addresses the audience, whom Kanigher assumes would be either professional writers or aspiring professional writers, with a discussion of the medium: “The easiest way for a new writer to get his start is in the field of the comics… The experience gained by the writer in comics can be applied very well to the movies, since the comics script resembles the movie scenario in many ways. Working in the comics medium has proven an open door into the general writing field for many writers. “This does not mean that the comics are merely a stepping stone to other fields. Independent of the many writing opportunities it opens, the comics is a complete profession worthy of the best efforts of any writer.” The Preface is followed by a one-page analysis of “THE COMICS FORMULA,” which, in those days, referred almost exclusively to super-hero stories:
Right: Wah-hooo! A recent commission drawing of Nick Fury, penciled and inked by Darlin’ Dick Ayers. [Art ©2000 Dick Ayers; Sgt. Fury ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Far right: Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, looking a bit less heroic, in Casablanca.
©2000 Time Warner.
PLAY IT AGAIN STAN! When Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos Went To Casablanca--And Got Detoured To Marrakesh!
A Long, Leisurely Article about a Very Singular Almost-Issue of Sgt. Fury by Roy Thomas (with the input of Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers, & John Severin)
I. “Everybody Comes To Rick’s” At least, almost everybody. Sooner rather than later, nearly everyone in America sees the classic 1942 motion picture Casablanca, with its stellar cast headed by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Ever since its first release only weeks after the Allied invasion of North Africa (coincidentally near that Moroccan city), this black-&-
white Warner Bros. movie has captivated audiences. Despite stiff competition from The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep and The African Queen and maybe one or two others, Casablanca is considered by many to be the quintessential Bogart film. In spite of its flag-waving Wartime ending—in which the hero gives up the girl out of patriotism and marches off to the tune of the (French!) national anthem—it’s generally considered one of the great romance flicks.
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The All-Star Chronicles
The
More AllStars Than There Are In Heaven
Chronicles
by Roy Thomas [NOTE: All-Star Squadron, the comic book series I created and developed in 1981 for DC, ran for 67 issues, an insert in Justice League of America #193, plus three annuals, from 1981-87; it was followed by 31 issues and one annual of its post-Crisis on Infinite Earths sequel series, The Young All-Stars, from 1987-89. And that’s not counting some three dozen related stories in Justice League and in the Secret Origins series I originated in 1985. [In answer to numerous requests over the past couple of years—not that I needed much prodding—this and future issues of A/E will feature an ongoing behind-the-scenes history of Squadron and its antecedents and tie-ins, from the late 1930s on up. I’ll be dealing with events mostly in chronological order—despite last issue’s leap-frog to the “Nuclear” connection between Squadron #16 and a 1950 Wonder Woman.
After all, I had first moved to New York in 1965 to become editorial assistant on National/DC’s seven Superman titles. There had been no thought in my mind before July 1965 about ever working for Marvel; I figured Stan Lee wanted to write the entire line forever—and besides, my main correspondents while I lived in Missouri had been with DC’s Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and (now-Superman-scripter) Otto Binder. It had only been my lack of rapport—to put it politely—with Superman editor Mort Weisinger which had led me open to Stan’s timely offer of employment, two weeks after I arrived in the Big Apple. Still, I look on my exclusive “Marvel period” as a fortuitous circumstance. I was probably able to advance further and faster at Marvel, a company on the rise, than I might have at the older company. All the same, Steve Skeates and Denny O’Neil, two writers who’d worked first for Marvel, had done very well at DC, and I like to think I would have, too.
[Matter of fact, as you’ll see below, it’ll take an issue or two just to get to All-Star Squadron #1! But then, even thirty years ago it took some months to bring the concept to fruition. Hope you’ll stick around for the ride. But hey, even Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield spent several chapters getting himself born!
Matter of fact, even while a writer and associate editor for Marvel, from time to time I had let the “fan” side of me take the upper hand over the “pro.” I’d managed to have some slight back-door influence on DC, unknown to most folks there (and, thankfully, to my respected mentor Stan).
[Oh, one more thing: Along the way we’ll be featuring plenty of good-looking, sometimes previously unseen art, courtesy of Rich Buckler, Jerry Ordway, and some of the most generous fans you’d find in any art form.—R.T.]
I. Backstory In 1980 I reluctantly decided the time had finally come to cut the ties that bound me to Marvel Comics, where I’d been laboring (for the most part happily) for fifteen years.
This re-creation of the “1941 JSA” splash of JLA #193’s All-Star Squadron insert is slightly different from the printed one. The 1981 version had The Shining Knight behind The Atom—though Sir Justin was never a JSAer—and forgot Starman. Roy Thomas commissioned Rich Buckler (penciler) and Jerry Ordway (inker) to do a corrected rendition, which was later printed as a pinup. Repro’d from photocopy of original art, from collection of R.T. [©2000 DC Comics.]
I quickly found that, in some ways, moving to DC was less a leavetaking than a homecoming.
My ally in most of this crosscompany subterfuge was Gerry Conway, who over the late-’60s through the mid-’70s had gone from DC to Marvel and back again a couple of times. After leaving Marvel for the second time in 1976 to become a DC writer/editor, Gerry had enthusiastically convinced DC to let him launch a couple of projects I had suggested to him (along with several which were entirely his own idea, natch).
One of the notions I initiated was the first real confrontation between Superman and Captain Marvel, which Gerry did quite well in a giant tabloid drawn by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.
More (All-) Stars Than There Are In Heaven The other was the second coming, in 1977, of All-Star Comics.
39
II. Three For The Road Sometime in 1980, my wife Dann and I were flown to New York to meet with the ruling DC triumvirate of Jenette Kahn (publisher), Joe Orlando (editorial director), and Paul Levitz (coordinating editor). By then I’d signed a three-year contract with DC, to begin the day my Marvel contract ended, and we simply had to decide what three monthly comics I would write for DC.
Although an All-Star #58plus was initially my suggestion, after I made it I had virtually nothing to do with the project; Gerry carried the ball quite capably alone. (But, when he asked me to, I did cross company lines long enough to write a letter to be printed in #58.) Naturally, Gerry didn’t handle the revived comic exactly the way I would have— nor is there any reason he should have. I swiftly came to terms with the notion of a still-young StarSpangled Kid, an adult Robin, and a newly created Kryptonian named Power Girl all running around on Earth-Two, the parallel world to which Schwartz and Fox had consigned the original Justice Society of America.
It had been agreed, since virtually the day I’d phoned Paul to tell him I wouldn’t be signing the new contract Marvel had offered me, that I would be involved in some way with The Justice Society of America. In fact, written into my DC contract was what amounted to a “right of first refusal” at scripting stories featuring all DC’s Golden Age heroes. Even though not officially an editor, I was basically placed in charge of “EarthTwo,” that charming parallel world whereon dwelt the DC stalwarts I’d grown up reading about in the last half of the 1940s.
Oh, I winced a little at the name “Super-Squad,” even in its logo form as the “All Star Super Squad”; but it was none of my business. The mag got off to a bang-up start, with Wally Wood inking Rik Estrada, and a young Keith Giffen soon taking up the slack.
This made a certain amount of sense. After all, “Earth-Two” had worked well—very well—when My main regret was that, editor Julie Schwartz had been its when Gerry later offered me a combination Prime Mover and chance to ghost an issue or two of home-plate umpire. It was only All-Star, I felt I had to decline. when other editors, less in tune Not primarily because it would Three future JSAers meet for the first time, in DC Special #29 (“The Untold Oriwith that alternate universe, began have been a violation of my Margin of the Justice Society,” Sept. 1977); story by Paul Levitz. Repro’d to poach in it that you wound up vel contract (though it would), but from photocopies of the original Joe Staton-Bob Layton art; courtesy of with weirdnesses like a teenage because I was determined that, if Jerry G. Bails. [©2000 DC Comics.] Bruce Wayne playing tennis with and when I ever wrote a JSA story, his father. Julie had moved on to it would have my name on it, not someone else’s. Gerry understood. other venues, and I seemed, both to DC’s triumvirate and to myself Those issues are probably the ones dialogued by Paul Levitz, who soon (and, I hoped, to the venerable Julie, as well), his natural successor. made the 1970s All-Star his own over its remaining life. But the time, or something, was clearly out of joint. And, after 17 bimonthly issues of All-Star, a first-ever JSA origin in a DC Special, and half a dozen stories in the oversize Adventure Comics— —the second JSA series died when Adventure was canceled, as of #466 (Nov.-Dec. 1979). With my sands running out at Marvel, in some ways the timing of this cancellation could not have been much less propitious for me. In other ways, it couldn’t have been much better.
Jenette and the boys sure knew how to make a guy (and his wife) feel welcome on our first DC-related trip east. We checked into our hotel room in Manhattan to find it festooned with multi-hewed balloons. Sometimes there’s nothing more meaningful than a meaningless gesture. When I met with them the next day, “the triple pillar of the world” quickly downsized. Jenette, whom I’d known before moving west in ’76, excused herself after a few minutes,
Besides All-Star Squadron, also on Roy’s plate were Arak, Son of Thunder (pencils by Ernie Colón) and a very brief stint as Batman writer (art by Gene Colan & Adrian Gonzales). By his third and final Batman (#340, Oct. 1981), an homage to Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder’s wonderful “Mole!” tale in Mad #3, Roy relinquished the dialoguing to Gerry Conway. [©2000 DC Comics.]
42
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt
“Why I Don’t Believe In Superman”
43
amusing “Why I Don’t Believe in Superman” has to be one of the earliest articles devoted to the Man of Steel. It’s so early, in fact, that Kahn refers to Superman and his Kryptonian parents as “Kal-l,” “Jor-l,” and “Lora”—not today’s vastly different “Kal-el,” “Jor-el,” and “Lara.”
Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert Superman! Faster than a delicate haiku! Superman! More powerful than a dangling participle! Superman! Able to split infinitives with a single adverb! Superman! …in the New Yorker? Hard to believe that such a rough-and-tumble character would ever be welcome in the rarified pages of the New Yorker magazine. More amazing, the article in question appeared on January 29, 1940, little more than a year after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s wonder-child burst into immortality in June 1938. By any account, E.J. Kahn Jr.’s
Technically, the piece in question discusses the Superman newspaper strip, not the comic book—but that’s splitting hairs. Author Kahn’s observations about Superman the strip apply equally well to Superman the comic book. So why did Mr. Kahn focus on the strip? My guess is that, while the typical New Yorker reader might accidentally glance at the Sunday comics page, it would be highly unlikely that same reader would pick up a kiddie comic book. Or at least unlikely they’d admit it! But enough talk, old bean. The gauntlet is thrown. Mr. Kahn clearly doesn’t believe in Superman. And I, for one, am anxious to find out why….
Why I Don’t Believe in Superman Reprinted by permission; ©1940 E.J. Kahan, Jr. Originally published in The New Yorker. All rights reserved. When I read a while ago that a Nazi newspaper had protested against the activities of Superman, holding them to be offensively pacifistic, I decided to get acquainted with the fellow. After all, it isn’t every comic-strip character who is singled out for such personal attention. Little Orphan Annie was once attacked by the Daily Worker, but that isn’t very eventful and she had been around for years anyhow. Superman, on the other hand, is a comparative newcomer—just a year and a half old. In that short time he has been furiously active and, I found by collecting some old newspapers recently and leafing through them, undeniably pacifistic, though not in the ordinary, do-nothing sense of the word. If Superman disapproves of a war, he simply stops it. When, for example, Blitzen and Rutland went to war in his strip, he grabbed up Dictator Amork of Blitzen and General Gotha of Rutland. Tucking one under each arm, he flew to the trenches and there instructed them to fight it out on a man-to-man basis in full view of their assembled and hitherto embattled forces. You know what happened: they began to pull one another’s hair, the softies, and the soldiers threw down their arms in disgust, thus ending the war instantly for lack of participants. Superman can take wars in his stride, or flight, because he is impervious to attack. Bullets spin off his superskin like raindrops off a windshield, and once, when a rascal attempted to whack him over the head with a heavy club, the weapon bounded back so fast off Superman’s superskull that it knocked his assailant cold. At the start of Superman’s career it was hinted that he could leap an eighth of a mile, hurdle a twenty-store building, and outrun an express train. It has since developed that he can also outrun a bul-
let, swim an ocean without puffing, demolish an airliner by meeting it head on in mid-air, and change the course of a forest fire by breathing heavily on it. He can knock out burly pugilists in exactly one second, divert a flood by barehandedly digging a pit a mile long in a few minutes, and win a rather one-sided combat with a battleship by pushing it close to shore and then walking out of the water holding the ship up over his head. “Nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin,” his authors once crowed, and they have lived up to his word. Bayonets, when thrust at him, crumble into so much scrap steel, and the Princess Tania, one of several young ladies who have crossed his impressive path, ruined a perfectly good dagger by trying to drive it into his hide. Superman was momentarily dazed after a collision with a loaded torpedo, but when in form he can project himself right through the side of a ship, and destructive implements are generally his dish. Not long ago somebody fired a cannon at him from a distance of a few yards. He caught the cannon ball in one hand, remarking, “Nice curve on that ball. Wanta play catch, eh?,” and threw the ball back at the cannon, shattering it to bits.
As MTG relates, The New Yorker never mentions comic books, only the newspaper comic strip—but somehow, that guy with the big “S” on his chest in the above newspaper ad (reprinted in the 1998 hardcover book Superman: The Dailies) looks a lot like the comic book hero who was then making little kids’ hearts beat a bit faster. Oh, and incidentally—none of the following daily strips appeared with the New Yorker article, which was un-illustrated. [©2000 DC Comics.]
Superman has had three identities. Originally he was Kal-l, the infant son of Jor-l and Lora, a nice young couple living on the planet of Krypton. Kal-l arrived on earth by means of a rocket ship into which his parents had thoughtfully inserted him just before Krypton burst into fragments and disappeared. Kal-l matured into Superman and abandoned his given name forever, in one frame of a single comic strip. He decided almost immediately to become a newspaper reporter and, in his words, to dedicate himself “to helping the oppressed, and seeing that truth and right
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7
™
NEXT ISSUE IN JANUARY SUPER-TEAMS OF THE GOLDEN & SILVER AGES—AND BEYOND! A Special “Companion” Issue to THE ALL-STAR COMPANION!
• Two fabulous color covers! New JLA-JSA by RICH BUCKLER (an homage to Sekowsky/Anderson)—and a MARVEL FAMILY #1 re-creation by C.C. BECK! • JULIUS SCHWARTZ on JSA and JLA—his first interview since his memoir Man of Two Worlds! • A complete guide to two decades of JLA-JSA team-ups—with commentary by LEN WEIN, GERRY CONWAY, MIKE FRIEDRICH, and others! • Rare art by RICH BUCKLER, JERRY ORDWAY, et al.—as ROY THOMAS continues the secret origin of All-Star Squadron! • The Many Oaths of the Golden Age Green Lantern—with rare art by MART NODELL, IRWIN HASEN, PAUL REINMAN—article by CRAIG DELICH! • Extra-big FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section starring MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, DAVE BERG—with an unpublished illo by ALEX ROSS and P.C. HAMERLINCK! • MAC RABOY, Part Two! ROGER HILL talks with the son of the great Captain Marvel Jr. artist—and with artist/assistant BOB ROGERS! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER rummage through the Comic Vault— BILL SCHELLY gives you a guided tour of the first true comics convention ever!
Single issues: $5.95 ($7 Canada, $9 elsewhere).
SUBSCRIBE NOW! Four Issues: $20 ($27 Canada, $37 elsewhere).
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Submit Something To Alter Ego! Alter Ego is on the lookout for items that can be utilized in upcoming issues: • Convention Sketches • 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@oburg.net
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Lightning Strikes Twice!
5
Captain Marvel Jr., Flash Gordon, & the Incomparable Art of MAC RABOY! by Roger Hill [INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Mac Raboy’s artistic abilities and accomplishments in the four-color medium have been recognized and acknowledged in many of the books on comics history published over the past forty years. Two years ago, when I decided to write an article on Raboy for an issue of the CFA-APA (Comic and Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association), I quickly discovered that since around 1970 almost nothing new had been documented on this amazing artist. As popular as his work has always been among comic art aficionados, it stuck me as odd that no one had pursued further research on Mac Raboy. [Virtually everything written on Raboy after 1970 has relied primarily on Jim Steranko’s early-’70s The History of the Comics and the 1948 King Features Syndicate promotional booklet titled Famous Artists & Writers. Most readers of Alter Ego will be familiar with the two Steranko volumes, but the King Features Syndicate booklet is somewhat rare and not easily accessible to collectors or historians. This booklet is priceless, with its numerous biographies of writers and artists, accompanied
by photographs of each. It supplies some general information about Raboy up to 1948 and presents the first published photo of the man ever seen by the public. We will run that bio page next issue, along with an interview with Raboy’s son David. [Mac Raboy will always be most remembered for the “Captain Marvel Jr.” artwork he created for Fawcett Publications between 1941-44. While my own appreciation of Raboy’s “CMJr” art has grown steadily over the years, it was his Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip that initially caught my eye when I was sixteen years old. I liked Raboy’s Flash art immediately! I thought he drew beautiful “leggy” women, muscular “handsome” men, and rocketships that, while simple in design, were sleek and just “pulpish” enough to travel the galaxies with ease. The stories themselves… well, they left a lot to be desired. But Mac didn’t write the stories (well, actually, he wrote at least one of them); he just illustrated them. His tenure on the strip ran from August 1, 1948, until December 17, 1967, close to a thousand Sunday pages. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.