Issuu

Roy Thomas’ Canuck Comics Fanzine

RECOGNIZE THESE GUYS? MOST OF ’EM ARE IN—

THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS!

6.95

In the USA

No. 71 August 2007

82658 27763

PLUS:

Vol. 3, No. 71 / August 2007 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

Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White

Editor Emeritus Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant Chris Irving

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

Cover Artist George Freeman, from a layout by Jack Kirby

Cover Colorist

Writer/Editorial: Of (49th) Parallel Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Great Canadian Comic Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Lavishly illustrated! The full text of the 1971 classic work by Michael Hirsch & Patrick Loubert.

Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Bob Bailey Dave Baker David M. Beck Rod Beck John Bell Bill Black John Byrne Nick Caputo Vic Carrabotta Ernie Chan Richard Comely Gerry Conway Corus Entertainment Michaël Dewally Michael Finn Shane Foley George Freeman Benito Gallego Janet Gilbert Daryl Gold Steven Grant Mike Grell George Hagenauer David Hajdu Jennifer Hamerlinck Fred Hembeck Michael Hirsh Chris Ivy Jack Kirby Estate Henry Kujawa Alan Kupperberg Richard Kyle

Contents

Jerry Lazare Steve Leialoha Mark Lewis Ron Lim Stephen Lipson Patrick Loubert Nelvana Limited Michael E. Manny Bruce Mason Steven E. McDonald Josh Medors Raymond Miller Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Joe Petrilak Robert Pincombe Francis A. Rodriguez Leo Sa Al Schutzer Dave Sim Clive Smith Ronn Sutton Marc Swayze Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Harold Town Michael Uslan Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Alan Walker Jim Warden Hames Ware Steve Whitaker Randy Witten

This issue is respectfully dedicated to the memory of

Arnold Drake

“The Last Remaining Guy On The Ship” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Golden Ager Al Schutzer talks to Jim Amash about writing Superman, Blue Beetle, et al.

“One Minute Later!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Michael Finn’s offbeat approach to art commissions—and to The Invaders!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Kooky Krossovers! (Part I) . . . 63 Michael T. Gilbert on crazy intra-company crossovers of the Golden Age.

In Memoriam: Arnold Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 re: [comments, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 73 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #130 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, Raymond Miller, and P.C. Hamerlinck in a fantasy phantasmagoria. On Our Cover: To accompany our colossal “Canadian content” this issue, we were determined to find exactly the right artist to transform Jack Kirby’s cover layout for What If? #9 (June 1978)—done for the issue that introduced the 1950s “proto-Avengers” assemblage which has reappeared a time or two of late in Marvel comics—into a grouping of Canadian heroes, both “Golden Age” and modern. And who better to do it, suggested publisher John Morrow, than the talented north-of-the-border artist George Freeman, who has drawn not only Captain Canuck but also the likes of Elric, Secret Origins (Golden Age Green Lantern), Avengers West Coast, et al.? Nobody, that’s who! [Captain Canuck TM & ©2007 Comely Comix; Vindicator & Wolverine TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Mr. Monster TM & ©2007 Michael T. Gilbert; Nelvana, Thunderfist, The Dreamer, & The Penguin TM & ©2007 Nelvana Limited. All rights reserved.] Above: A vintage drawing of Nelvana of the Northern Lights and her faithful hound–slash–brother Tanero, by Adrian Dingle. [©2007 Nelvana Limited. All rights reserved.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $9 US ($11.00 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $78 US, $132 Canada, $180 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. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Of (49th) Parallel Worlds I

n 1971 I purchased a copy of a brand new hardcover book—The Great Canadian Comic Books, assembled and mostly written by Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert—and the result was a bit like what happened the day Barry Allen discovered there was this parallel Earth—“Earth-Two”—on which a different Flash lived and fought and dashed around. Just as cartoonist Jules Feiffer had opened the eyes of much of the American public to the existence of 1940s super-hero comic books in his 1965 volume The Great Comic Book Heroes, Hirsh and Loubert (and cohorts Alan Walker and Howard Town) wanted to make their fellow Canadians aware of their own proud heritage of World War IIera comics, long moldering in attics and largely unknown to a new generation. To those of us in the USA and elsewhere who smugly considered ourselves pretty knowledgeable about the super-heroes of the 1940s, TGCCB was a kick in the pants and our first clue that, north of the 49th parallel, there had been “an Age undreamed of” by those of us who sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead of “O Canada” at public events. (The Canadian tome actually dealt in detail only with the output of a single company—Bell Features—but since that line was virtually the DC Comics of the Great White North, learning of its existence was still a revelation.) Ever since reviving Alter Ego in 1999, and even though younger comics historian John Bell has written about the “Canadian Whites” of 65 years ago both in two books of his own (see p. 43) and in the stillavailable A/E #36, I’ve wanted to reprint the entire text of The Great Canadian Comic Books in this magazine, along with much of the art from the volume that we didn’t utilize in that 2004 issue. And, with the

kind cooperation of Randy Witten, VP of Legal Affairs for Corus Entertainment, the current owners of the book’s copyrights, we’ve finally managed to do just that. (We’ve avoided repeating more than a bare, inevitable handful of art spots that appeared in #36.) Actually, this seems to be an A/E issue devoted to parallel worlds— as UK collector Michael Finn (with whom Dann and I shared a table at dinner at a comicon in Bristol, England, in 2006) regales us with some of the art he has specially commissioned which purports to depict what happened “One Minute Later” with regard to various key covers of the 1970s Invaders and related series… but we’ll let him tell you about that in his own words, beginning on p. 54. Hmm… come to think of it, Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” segment on “Kooky Krossovers” at MLJ and Quality partakes to some extent of a parallel universe, as well, since some of those adventures, as you’ll see, were unreal even compared to the usual comic book fare— and, in FCA, Fawcett’s Colonel Porterhouse has adventures that are an alternate reality to those of the heroes of 1940s Whiz Comics! All that, plus Jim Amash’s interview with Al Schutzer, a Golden Age comics writer so unknown by most of fandom right up to the present that he might as well be on a parallel Earth! As this issue went to press, his vital stats still weren’t listed even on the Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website (though they may well be by the time you read these imperishable words)! Bestest,

COMING IN SEPTEMBER

FUNNY-ANIMAL SUPER-HEROES! They’re Not Just For Breakfast Anymore!

CAPTAIN CARROT

AND HIS AMAZING TRUE CREW! • Brand new Starro-studded cover by SCOTT SHAW! • ROY THOMAS & SCOTT SHAW! on the 1981 creation of Captain Carrot! Plus an overview by MIKE CURTIS—& rare art by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, CAROL LAY, et al.! • Golden Age DC humor-mongers LARRY & MARTIN NADLE! • DICK ROCKWELL, comic book artist (Crimebuster, Black Diamond Western, etc.) and 36-year ghost of MILT CANIFF on Steve Canyon—interviewed by JIM AMASH! • “The Great Unknowns!” JIM VADEBONCOEUR, JR., & HAMES WARE in search of artist L. BING! • Plus—FCA with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on “Kooky Crossovers” at MLJ & Quality, Part II—BILL SCHELLY on fan-editor BOB SCHOENFELD—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS DC Comics.] Crew, Starro TM & ©2007 [Captain Carrot and the Zoo

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The Classic 1971 Work On The Bell Comics Company—Reprinted In Its Entirety!

Kids had long read comic strips in newspapers and Sunday supplements, and some such strips had been reprinted in book form, but their parents read strips, too, and somehow that made a difference: strips weren’t something that kids could look upon as part of their own secret world. True “comic books,” however, were made up of longer stories, with consistent themes, and were drawn especially for the books, and kids adopted them instantly. Within a few months, American publishers were selling millions of comic books a month at home, and many thousands in Canada. The littlest kids read the funny comic books, like Disney’s, and the older kids turned with passionate involvement to the super-heroes: Superman, Batman and Robin, Captain Marvel. What days those were! And “all in color for a dime” (though, at first, most Canadian stores marked US comics up to 15¢). Canadian publishers before the Second World War were even less economically healthy—and a good deal “Each playing a big game of solitaire—each delighting in dealing themselves pat hands mites and less enthusiastic—than they are today motes in maple leaf make believe.” —after Krazy Kat. [1971]. Consequently, none had the The original dedication, by the 1971 book’s designer, Clive Smith, showcased various of Bell’s characters— faintest interest in a Canadian comic including Nelvana, Speed Savage, Captain Wonder, and Fred Kelly’s hero Mr. Monster, some years before book industry, not when so many sleek Michael T. Gilbert discovered Doc Stearne’s one-shot alter ego. Despite the “Designed and Illustrated” credit American books were packing Canada’s for Smith on the preceding page, alas, only the book's original cover and this single drawing of his could newsstands every month. But that was be utilized in this reprinting. Oh, and a special thanks to Brian K. Morris for retyping the text on pp. 4-42! all to change with the knowledge that the burden of US competition was to be removed.

Introduction

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE by Alan Walker Most of the entrepreneurs and artists who produced Canadian comic books during the Second World War had no previous experience in printing or publishing anything, let alone comic books. But when the Canadian Government banned foreign comic books, as a wartime economy measure, these men sensed an opportunity to profit by filling a void. They took risks; they worked with feverish and tireless haste; and they managed to create and sustain a praiseworthy Canadian comic art. Some also managed to make some medium-sized fortunes. But at war’s end, Canadian comics undeservedly disappeared, and much of the money they had earned disappeared with them. A remarkable era of Canadian art and economics was over—an era that contained all the elements of the comic books themselves: drama, suspense, humor—and even pathos. North American children in the late 1930s had no television to help them idle away their time, but there was still free entertainment aplenty from radio—hours and hours a week of comedy and suspense serials. Then, in 1937, in the United States, there appeared a markedly new form of entertainment for youngsters: comic books (the first was Detective, which appeared in March). [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Comic books actually debuted a decade earlier, and regularlypublished specimens with new material commenced in 1935 with National Allied Publications’ New Fun.]

On December 6, 1940, the War Exchange Conservation Act forbade the import of certain “non-essential” items into Canada from nonsterling countries, thus helping to conserve Canada’s foreign exchange credits. Its list of barred foreign material included “periodical publications, unbound or paper-bound, consisting largely of fiction or printed matter of a similar character, including detective, sex, western and alleged true confession stories, and publications, unbound or paperbound, commonly known as comics, but not including bona fide supplements used with newspapers.” Canadians, as they liked to phrase it back then, “tightened their belts.” If Father didn’t go off to war himself, at least he had to make his car last an extra couple of years, and he suffered the annoyances of gasoline rationing. Mother retailored her old dresses and hoarded meat tokens. And, for their part, the innocent children, who had undoubtedly never even heard of the War Exchange Conservation Act, discovered in the winter of 1940-41 that their neighborhood candy store no longer displayed the marvelous adventures of Batman, The Human Torch, Captain Marvel, or any other of the familiar fantastic characters. Though the kids’ wartime sacrifices were more banal than their parents’, they were no less irksome; the kids had become enthralled by comic books, and it was a depressing period for a whole generation when they discovered that something had gone wrong. If ever there was a captive audience, this was it. American publishers had done all the experimenting and test-marketing, had taken all the risks, and had managed to get Canadian kids thoroughly hooked on comic books. Now their products were barred.

The Great Canadian Comic Books

Ringing The Bells Artist E.T. Legault brought his “Whiz Wallace” and “Dart Daring” features to the Bell Brothers before the latter had gotten into a publishing mode— but, ere long, both heroes were appearing in Bell’s comics line, though Dart moved from swashbuckler to frontier adventures. The cover of Wow #5 and the entirety of this “Whiz Wallace” story from Wow #1 were printed in color in Hirsh & Loubert’s 1971 volume.

Thirty years after the event, it is difficult to assemble a precise chronicle of Canadian comic books. Though collectors, artists, and even sociologists take them seriously today, comic books were then considered trivial, and even a little embarrassing, by the men who originally produced them. Today, memories have failed and records have disappeared. Moreover, in the spirit of anxious competition that followed the announcement of Ottawa’s embargo on American comic books, no publisher was eager to tell any other just what he had in mind for earning all those Canadian dimes. The idea of exclusively Canadian comic books undoubtedly occurred to more than one person at that time and, by war’s end, several publishing companies (three in particular) had managed to profit in the field. But as far as can be determined from this point in time, it was a Toronto publisher named Cyril Vaughan Bell who invented Canadian comic books. He apparently published the first one. And from an examination of the books that survive from all presses, it is certain that he published not only the most Canadian comic books, but the best. It is, therefore, the Bell group of comic books that is the main concern of this book. Cy Bell’s first artist was a French Canadian named Edmund Legault, whose work survives as some of the very best of all Canadian comic book art. Legault had a unique, imaginative, and sensitive style, but the first time he offered his services to Bell, Bell sent him away with regrets. It was in mid-1939, when war still seemed comfortably far away, and thoughts of Canadian comic books did not exist—not even

in the head of Legault, who wanted to become a newspaper comic strip artist. Cy Bell, with his younger brother Gene, was operating Commercial Signs of Canada in Toronto, where they produced posters and placards for advertisements in streetcars. Legault sought work from Bell as a freelance ad artist, but also happened to mention his desire to draw comic strips. He showed Bell what the latter recalls as “armfuls” of strips he had already drawn. There were two major strips, and their heroes were Dart Daring, “Dare-Devil Master Swordsman,” who was a long-haired swashbuckler living in the early 18th century; and Whiz Wallace, a US Navy pilot (Canadianism in Canadian comics was yet to come) transported to the Invisible Planet. “Every artist seemed to want to do a newspaper strip in those days,” Bell says today. “But there was nothing we could do for him.” Legault left his name and address, and went home. A few months later, the Bell brothers learned of the government’s intention to bar American comic books. “We decided to buy a press which could print comic books,” Bell recalls. “We realized that US comic books were selling extremely well in Canada. When we heard that there might be an embargo on them, it occurred to us that here was a way we could make a lot of money.” Cy Bell telephoned Legault and told him to bring back his comic strips. The Bell brothers and Legault sat down and edited the strips into more consecutive form, suitable for book publication, and began

“The Last Remaining Guy On The Ship” Comics Writer AL SCHUTZER On Freelancing In The Golden Age Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

orn January 3rd, 1922, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Al Schutzer is one of the more educated writers the comic book business has known. And one of the more unknown, as well. One of the most difficult things in judging who did what in the Golden and Silver Ages of comics concerns the scripting. Writers hardly ever got a byline. and it’s tougher to discern different writing styles in comics than art styles. Luckily for us, writer David Hajdu (whose upcoming book The Ten-Cent Plague: Comic Books, Crime, Kids, and the Birth of Postwar Popular Culture will be must reading) told me about Al Schutzer’s comic book career and gave me his contact information. And here’s Al to tell you the rest. —Jim.

“[Writing] Was Something… I Could Make A Living At” AL SCHUTZER: I was always interested in writing. It was something that I was good at, I could make a living at, and I had other options. I could have got into engineering or God knows what else. But writing was always an old interest. It was always there. I got a Bachelor’s degree in English at Brooklyn College, and my Master’s at New York University. I also studied Mechanical Engineering for a while at the University of Oklahoma. JIM AMASH: Engineering? Were you torn about making writing a career? SCHUTZER: I was in a specialized training program in the Army where they sent GIs to various universities for special training. It was called the Army Specialized Training Program, and at a certain point they closed the program down. They discovered that they were losing a hell of a lot more infantrymen than they had planned on losing. The great General Marshall had miscalculated. To solve the problem, they took a full generation of college-age guys who were in the Army in the various Engineering and Language programs, and just rolled them over into the infantry.

Faraway Places With Strange-Sounding Names Al Schutzer’s been keeping busy in his retirement, as you’ll read near the end of this interview; the above photo was snapped in 2002 in Tianammon Square in Beijing, China, with the Mao Zedong Museum in the background. Since Al doesn’t recall details about precise comic book issues and stories he wrote, we’ve juxtaposed the snapshot with a splash from a series he co-created; he probably wrote this page from Magazine Enterprises’ Dogface Dooley #5 (1951), which has its own exotic locale and delights. Artist unidentified. Thanks to Rod Beck for the scan, and of course to Al for the photo. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Were you drafted, or did you volunteer? SCHUTZER: I was drafted into the service May 3, 1943, and served for three years. JA: How much about your war experiences do you want to talk about?

SCHUTZER: War experiences? I have a Purple Heart, I have a Bronze Star, and I was once Missing In Action. But I don’t know if there’s any point going into too much detail about it. It’s a long story. Ancient history. I was a staff sergeant in combat in the European Theater of Operations. I was in a rifle platoon in Company A, 410th Infantry

“One Minute Later!”

Report On An Offbeat Approach To Art Commissions by Michael Finn fter 34 years of comic book collecting here in England, I branched out into original art only a few years ago. I quickly realized I could never afford the wonderful Silver Age covers that excited my younger self decades ago—but I was amazed to discover that I could commission artists to re-create those pieces. However, I wanted the illustrators to be able to demonstrate their own originality, rather than do a line-for-line re-creation. What to do? Inspired by two great theme collectors—Chris Caira, who collects villains displaying their trophy walls, and Brian Sagar, who focuses on having Marvel Two-in-One artists re-create famous MTIO covers and scenes—I came up with the idea of a “One Minute Later” theme.

I would commission artists to draw a scene which takes place one minute after the action depicted on the original cover. My goal was to have an homage of sorts to covers I loved, but also to allow talented artists ample room to improvise. I launched my theme re-creations by focusing on a number of Invaders and Invaders-related covers. (Of course, all heroes and villains depicted in this piece are TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.). So we’ll call this first assemblage:

Part I

THE INVADERS The Avengers #71 (Dec. 1969). All right, so the original cover (bottom left) predates The Invaders by half a decade. Still, it was writer/editor Roy Thomas giving penciler Sal Buscema (with inker Sam Grainger) a chance to draw Timely/Marvel’s 1940s “Big Three” battling a trio of Avengers, and is a favorite cover of mine. For the “One Minute Later” sequel, I turned to G.I. Joe artist Josh Medors, who turned in the fantastic piece directly below. The amount of detail he put in to getting the Eiffel Tower right really makes the piece sing!

“One Minute Later!”

The Invaders #2 (Oct. 1975). This issue, whose cover (at right) was penciled by Rich Buckler (inker uncertain) featured aliens who imagined they were Teutonic gods right out of Richard Wagner’s operatic Ring Cycle! Because of his long history of drawing sword-wielding barbarians, I thought Ernie Chan would be the perfect artist to depict a battle-axe-swinging Norse god. The character placement is spot-on! Bucky is recovering nicely, but poor Toro is falling to the ground! (The art was colored by pro artist Chris Ivy.)

An Offbeat Approach To Art Commissions

Captain America #254 (Feb. 1981). Another Invaders-related cover (at right), though this time in a modern-day setting. There was no choice here: the original cover and interior art to this issue were done by John Byrne (with inks by Joe Rubinstein), and it brought the curtain down on Baron Blood. I had originally wanted Spitfire included in the “One Minute Later” version— but, continuity buff that he is, John reminded me that she was overweight and superpowerless at that time. I left the image entirely to John, as long as it featured Cap and Union Jack and Baron Blood. John chose to render one of the most powerful scenes in the entire storyline, one originally seen only in shadow. Another winner— reproduced from John’s pencils. With special thanks to Jim Warden and DOA Art (contact them at doa1@erols.com).

Oh, and Roy said to remind you that there’ll be more to come! For one thing, I’ve recently commissioned a beautiful wraparound “One Minute Later” version of the cover of Marvel Two-in-One Annual #1 (1976), starring The Thing and The Liberty Legion—and a couple more Invaders follow-ups to boot! And I’ve got a bunch of others up my (and of course the artists’) sleeve that aren’t related to The Invaders, as well! Michael Finn is also working on a charity book with the Hero Initiative organization, featuring sketches done in 3 minutes or less which he collected from greats like John Romita, George Perez, Dick Ayers, Neal Adams, and many others. All proceeds from sales of both the book and the original sketches will go to benefit the Hero Initiative, which makes monetary grants to longtime comics professionals in need. You can reach Michael at michael.f.finn@gmail.com and Hero Initiative at www.heroinitiative.org

The Porterhouse Stakes When Whiz Comics Parodied Fawcett’s Favorite Features by Raymond Miller

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

awcett Publications’ Whiz Comics had a stable line-up for its first 34 issues. The roll call of its first issue was “Captain Marvel,” “Ibis the Invincible,” “Lance O’Casey,” “Spy Smasher,” “Golden Arrow,” “Dan Dare—Private Detective,” and “Scoop Smith—Ace Reporter.” “Scoop” was soon dropped and replaced in Whiz #7 (Aug. 1940) with “Dr. Voodoo.” The career of “Dan Dare” ended with Whiz #22 (Oct. 41), but the strip was never replaced, as Fawcett simply added more pages to the “Captain Marvel” and “Ibis” stories … so from Whiz #23 on, the contents with the top five heroes and “Dr. Voodoo” had remained the same for a year. Suddenly, with Whiz #35 (Oct. 1942), “Dr. Voodoo” was replaced by a fat old blowhard by the name of “Colonel Porterhouse,” a storyteller who enjoyed reminiscing about his own alleged “real-life” adventures in vivid detail. The feature was drawn by George Storm, who, amongst many other features, had also drawn DC’s humorous Buzzy strip and straightfaced super-heroes like “The Hangman,” “The Whip,” and “The Black Owl.” But it’s apparent that Storm excelled most when illustrating the Colonel’s tall, exaggerated tales.

Only five different episodes of this feature appeared in Whiz, each satirizing a Whiz character, and all followed a similar format, beginning with a scene of two little kids reading an issue of Whiz, with the Colonel sitting nearby making it clear that the particular story the kids were reading was purely fictional. Then he’d begin to tell the children how he himself had lived the “real” story that they happened to be reading.

A Major Precursor Of The Colonel As you’ll see below, Fawcett’s short-lived Colonel Porterhouse bore a striking resemblance—both in appearance and personality—to Major Hoople, the star of the daily panel Our Boarding House, which ran in newspapers from 1923 through 1981. The feature’s creator was Gene Ahern. [©2007 NEA Service.]

(The identity of the two little kids was never revealed, nor was their relationship to the Colonel ever explained. The kids were evidently brother and sister, as the boy called the girl “Sis” on one occasion. It’s doubtful the Colonel was their father, since he looked old enough to be their grandfather. The Colonel did have a wife, who would intervene toward the end of her husband’s hooey-filled stories.) The first CP tale, “Colonel Porterhouse and the Port of the Missing Men” (Whiz #35) found the kids reading the “Lance O’Casey” story in which the sea adventurer was captured by an Amazon queen (based on the “O’Casey” story from that very same issue of Whiz!). The Colonel informs the kids: “Under similar circumstances I was one of the few men to have visited the dreaded land of Amazons and lived to tell

Maybe They Should’ve Called The Feature “Lance Boil”? Colonel Porterhouse stands in for Lance O’Casey, in Whiz Comics #35 (Oct. 2, 1942). All “Porterhouse” art accompanying this article is by George Storm (who also illustrated the teen feature “Willie Wynn” in early issues of Captain Marvel, Jr.), and is ©2007 the respective copyright holders.

The Porterhouse Stakes

The Wrong End Of The Stick The Colonel takes the baton from Ibis the Invincible in Whiz #36 (Oct. 30, 1942).

about it!” He went on to tell them that, in those days, he commanded the Brigatine Black Castle in the South Seas. CP, now in the Lance O’Casey role and on the Amazon island with his sidekick Chadwick, came across a tiger ready to pounce a warrior maid. But only a Porterhouse could lay out a tiger with one blow from a wooden club! They saved the girl but were captured by a warrior woman (who was even larger than the Colonel) who wanted to put them to death. But our hero had no fear and tried to sweet-talk her into delaying his and Chadwick’s execution till the next day. That night, the girl he had earlier saved from the tiger set them free. In a cloud of arrows the two fled the island and swam to their ship a “few miles” away. But the Colonel’s story is interrupted when his wife orders him to run the carpet sweeper over the parlor rugs. “Drat,” the Colonel says while sweeping the rugs, “I might quite as well have remained among the Amazons!” Few Golden Age comic book anthologies ever devoted all their features to one theme cover-to-cover. But that was the case with the allHalloween issue of Whiz Comics #36 (Oct. ’42). “Porterhouse the Invincible” starred in “The Phantom of Porterhouse Manor.” This time the kids were reading the “Ibis the Invincible” story from that issue of Whiz and wondered what would have happened to Ibis had he been without his powerful Ibis-stick. “Jove, what a coincidence…” as the Colonel goes into another tale: “My little Goslings—under almost identical circumstances I unmasked the Phantom of Porterhouse Towers on a Halloween some years ago.…” The Colonel and Chadwick had just reached the village at nightfall to spend the evening in the towers. The policeman had warned the Colonel about the Phantom Hag of the Heath (Ibis also fought a hag-like creature called The Black Witch in that same issue of Whiz) … but (as the reader knew!) no one with the name of Porterhouse would be afraid of an old wife’s tale! Later, at the stroke of midnight, an eerie sound brought the Colonel and Chadwick to their feet. Enter the Old Hag—and at the same time Chadwick vanished (to hide behind a curtain, but our hero didn’t know that!). Using the “Porter-wand,” the Colonel defeated the Hag, only to discover the face of a pretty young girl behind a “Hag” mask. Chadwick reappeared, and when the girl awoke the Colonel discovered she had been under a spell. Again utilizing the Porter-wand, the Colonel put her under a spell and she led him to the real culprit, who wanted to frighten Porterhouse into selling the tower for a pittance. As the tale comes to a close, the two kids ask him if he would have been scared if he hadn’t had the Porter-wand with him. “No, my child,” he replied—when suddenly he’s frightened by a large pumpkin

looking into the window. The little girl tells the Colonel (as he wipes sweat from his forehead) not to be afraid, as it was only the little boy from next door with a Jack O’ Lantern. In the next issue, Whiz Comics #37 (Nov. ’42), the “Porterhouse” story opens, as always, with the kids reading that issue of Whiz—this time, the “Captain Marvel” story, wherein the World’s Mightiest Mortal finds himself involved with trolls. While reading the tale, the little boy asks the Colonel if he was like Captain Marvel, to which Porterhouse answers: “I do not like to seem boastful, but to dent it would be paltering with the truth—no less! This amusing little fantasy seems to have been based on one of my exploits as Captain Porterhouse!” He goes on to tell the kids that, in those days, he was just a carefree college boy … an unassuming lad who knew he had the power to transform himself into the mighty Captain Porterhouse. One day tiny miners came to his room, telling him that some trolls had brought a great armored gollywog into their caves and it had been trampling down their mineshafts and ruining everything. So the Colonel went with them down to their mine to help them. There, he saw the horned gollywog, yelled his magic word (“Allah-Ka-Zip!”), and with a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder Captain Porterhouse appeared (in identical Captain Marvel costume, but with a ‘P’ in front of the lightning bolt symbol). Once he had captured the gollywog, the trolls wanted the Captain to remain, because he could keep the beast under control. Thus they staged a big feast for CP and, after slipping him a potion, he forgot who he was. But soon he remembered the magic words, and everything came back to him. The good trolls helped Porterhouse round up the bad trolls as CP chased them back into their own cavern. End of story—except for Porterhouse’s wife ordering him

Alter Ego #71