Issuu

Roy Thomas’ Mutated Comics Fanzine

DAVE COCKRUM6.95 $

82658 27763

USA 78 THE MAN WHO LOVED In theNo. June COMICS (AND MUTANTS!) 2008

PLUS:

Vol. 3, No. 78 / June 2008 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 Mike Friedrich

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions

Cover Artist Dave Cockrum

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: David E. Martin Heidi Amash Miki Annamanthadoo Kevin McConnell Doug McCratic Ger Apeldoorn Clifford Meth Manuel Auad Carrie Morash Bob Bailey Brian K. Morris Alberto Becattini P.D. Prince Glen Cadigan Gene Reed Mike Chen Roland Reedy Paty Cockrum Comics Buyer’s Guide Bob Rozakis Joe Rubinstein Teresa R. Davidson Steven Schend Michaël Dewally Howard Siegel Richard Donnelly Keif Simon Gary Dunaier Marion Sitton Ruben Espinosa Ted Skimmer Mark Evanier Marc Swayze Lance Falk Anthony Taylor Shane Foley Dann Thomas Carl Gafford Jerry Thompson Wendy Gaines Mark Trost Janet Gilbert Jennifer Hamerlinck Jim Van Dore Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Fred Hembeck Mike Vosburg Heritage Comics Alfred M. Walker Archives Stephen V. Walker Richard Howell Hames Ware Tony Isabella Geoff Wilmetts David Karlen Monte Wolverton Jay Kinney John Workman Joseph Kramar Alex Wright Henry Kujawa John Wright Ted Latner Andy Yanchus Harold LeDoux Hass Yusuf Mark Lewis Richard Lieberson

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dave Cockrum

Contents writer/editorial: Dave’s Not Here—But We Wish He Was!. . . 2 The Man Who Loved Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The life and legacy of Dave Cockrum, explored by Glen Cadigan.

“I Thoroughly Enjoyed My Days At Timely” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Golden Age artist Marion Sitton reminisces to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo about his comics career.

“I Was Always Shooting For The Stars” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Harold LeDoux talks to Jim Amash about his years in comic books & comic strips.

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.— Book One, Chapter 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 “The Bill Gaines Years,” courtesy of Bob Rozakis & Ted Skimmer.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! – Alfred J. Walker, Part 3 . . . . . 69 Steven V. Walker tells Michael T. Gilbert about his artist-father’s post-WWII career.

re: comments, correspondence, & corrections. . . . . . . . . . . 76 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #137 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamerlinck showcases Marc Swayze and the Fawcett forays of Basil Wolverton. On Our Cover: This re-creation of the powerful splash page he’d penciled for The X-Men #107 (Oct. 1977) was both penciled and inked by Dave Cockrum circa the early ’90s. Prints of it were sold at various conventions. Thanks to Glen Cadigan and Paty Cockrum. [X-Men TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: This Wildfire illo, writes Glen C., “was inked by Joe Rubinstein on blueline from a penciled piece by Dave. It comes from the collection of Roland Reedy, and I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything else like this turning up!” Glen’s comment was in response to Ye Editor’s query concerning the likelihood of finding rare, previously unpublished Cockrum “Legion of Super-Heroes” art for this issue. But—see p. 9! [Wildfire TM & ©2008 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. 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

Dave’s Not Here—But We Wish He Was!

he following is a short piece I wrote in 2007 for another publication soon after the passing of Bronze-Age-and-beyond artist Dave Cockrum. And, though I’m also pleased to be presenting in this issue interviews with Golden Age talents Marion Sitton and Harold LeDoux, as well as other features, these words will hopefully serve as an introduction to Alter Ego #78: I didn’t know Dave Cockrum well. But everything I knew, I liked. I liked his talent. He loved to draw, and he loved to tell stories… and he was great at both things. I liked his inventiveness. How many people in the comics field have created as many memorable new characters as he added to the X-Men alone? Storm… Colossus… Nightcrawler… and he seems to have used the name Wolverine before Len Wein and I did, as well. He’d already proved he was the perfect artist for DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes… and if some cosmic plague had ever wiped out its multitude of members, Dave could’ve replaced them all with characters of his own, without breaking out in a sweat. I liked his attitude. When it came to comics, Dave was the embodiment of enthusiasm. You didn’t have to jump-start Dave on something. You just made a suggestion, and got out of his way. That’s the way it was the day I told him, as Marvel’s editor-in-chief, that I wanted him to draw a revival of the X-Men comic, and that the new X-Men should be a sort of mutant version of the Blackhawks, picking up heroes from this country and that. Dave already had a quiver-full of potential stars in his briefcase… and over the next few years, we would see a number of them go into action, and they would change comics forever.

she and Dave seemed made for each other. Theirs was a marriage that flourished and endured, and which was strengthened by adversity. And about that adversity: if Dave ever let it get him down—and he wouldn’t have been human if it hadn’t, at least at times—he never let on in public. That wheelchair—those tubes jutting out of his nose—they were minor inconveniences, but he wouldn’t let them be more than that when he was meeting his fans and his friends. He cared about people who cared about his work, who cared about comics. When his drawing got a bit rougher near the end, he would apologize to the person for whom he’d done a sketch. Dave—apologize to them! As if they couldn’t see what a Herculean effort it was for him draw, at that stage of his life— and as if they weren’t grateful beyond words that he put pencil to paper at all! Dave Cockrum was a human cornucopia, creating heroes and villains and stories and machines and whole worlds… whole universes. Those creations are still with us. They will be with us for a long time. But we’d trade them all for Dave. In a New York minute.

We’re pleased to present Glen Cadigan’s study of Dave Cockrum, written especially for A/E. And we regret that, for reasons of space, additional material sent by Clifford Meth, Joseph Kramar, Andy Yanchus, Alex Wright, and others could not be included in this issue. But we hope to do another Cockrum-centered A/E within the next couple of years… unless our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue decides to exercise its Bronze Age option to publish one, instead. Best wishes,

I liked his choice in women. Paty was one of the truly great real-life characters in comics—and she was also far more than that. From the first,

COMING IN JULY

A SUPERMAN 100-PAGE GIANT! A Kandor-Size Bottleful of Features Celebrating The 70th Birthday Of The MAN OF STEEL! • Superlative cover by (and Superman-related interview with) MICHAEL GOLDEN! • Spotlight on Superman creators JERRY SIEGEL & JOE SHUSTER—including a first-ever interview with Joe’s sister JEAN SHUSTER PEAVY—“Superman & the Nazis” by DWIGHT DECKER—The Nembo Kid (Supes in Italy) by ALBERTO BECATTINI—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective—and a truly super surprise or two! (We kid you not!) • Rare Superman art by WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, AL PLASTINO, JIM MOONEY, GIL KANE, JERRY ORDWAY, JACK KIRBY, et al.! • LOU CAMERON, 1950s artist for DC, Timely/Marvel, Classics Illustrated, etc., in an in-depth interview conducted by JIM AMASH! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT on a twice-told tale by WILL EISNER—FCA with MARC SWAYZE & BASIL WOLVERTON, part 2—BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive—BOB ROZAKIS’ “Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.” looks at those 1940s-50s Green Lantern cartoons, serials, and TV series—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS Comics.] [Superman TM & ©2008 DC

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

The Man Who Loved Comics The Life And Legacy Of DAVE COCKRUM by Glen Cadigan

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dave Cockrum was a talented comic book artist and (a non-identical skill) designer from the early 1970s until his untimely passing in 2006. From both personal and published interviews, as well as from other sources, Glen Cadigan tells us about the artist who gave both The Legion of Super-Heroes and The X-Men some of their very best years… and about the man behind the art. All art and photos not otherwise credited are courtesy of Glen.

Early Years On November 11, 1943, David Emmett Cockrum was born to Emmett Ernst and Fern Council Cockrum in Pendleton, Oregon, a mid-sized town located in the northeastern part of the state. According to his brother Doug, “[Our] dad was in the Army. He was commissioned into the Field Artillery in 1935, but he was in the reserves, so he wasn’t called to active duty until the beginning of World War II. Illinois was his longtime home, which was also my mother’s home. When he was called to active duty, they were assigned to Pendleton, Oregon, for a while. They were also in Madison, Wisconsin, for a while. Anyhow, that’s how Dave came to be born in Pendleton, because of my dad’s military assignment there.”

“X” Marks The Man—And His Legion Of Fans Dave Cockrum, flanked by images from his two signature mainstream series. The cover of The Legion of Super-Heroes #275 (May 1981) is reproduced from a scan of the original art, with thanks to Hass Yusuf. The X-Men illo appeared on an ad for a personal appearance by autographers Dave and X-Men scribe Chris Claremont some years back at El Dorado Comics in Pennsauken, NJ; it was sent to us by Keif Simon. Photo courtesy of the April 2007 Comics Buyer’s Guide. [Legion page ©2008 DC Comics; X-Men TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Life And Legacy Of Dave Cockrum

Raboy, whose work inspired and thrilled me with its skillful and beautiful line work. Joe Maneely’s work on Atlas’ (later Marvel’s) Black Knight remains a vivid memory of my early comic reading. Later on, the Silver Age work of Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, and Jack Kirby gave me very strong and positive influences.”2 In 1959, the family moved to Colorado when Lt. Col. Cockrum was assigned to Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. While in high school there, Cockrum became friends with Jerry Thompson, who works as a graphic designer today. “I met him in the band, actually,” Thompson recalled. “We both played trombone, and [when we were in ‘ancient history’ class together] we started doing cartoons about history. The teacher would take the cartoons that we would make, and hang them up on the wall. He would use them [as] illustrations of pieces of ancient history. It was fun.” The two artists participated in what Thompson has labeled “cartoon wars.” “We both had a good, mutual friend… George Young, [whose] dad worked on the base. They lived right next to the base, and both Dave and I would go over to his house a lot and just fool around. That’s kinda where we started having our cartoon wars. We’d sit down for hours, just sitting there, drinking Coke, and he’d initiate some kind of a cartoon, and then I would reply to that cartoon, and we’d go back and forth. George was our audience. The three of us would just hang out together. We’d draw up a situation, usually putting one or the other in jeopardy, and then that person would have to reply to that jeopardy. And it would just develop one thing after another, and we’d sometimes incorporate, let’s say, a superhero-type situation, or something like that, but other times we would just draw each other. They would get a little more absurd as we’d keep going, and some of the cartoons toward the end were really, really strange.”

“Over Land, Over Sea, We Fight To Keep Men Free…” Dave considered Blackhawk his favorite character to draw. This beautiful, if unsigned sketch by him was supplied by Bob Bailey. [Blackhawk TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Eventually the family moved back to Illinois, where, at an early age, Cockrum’s artistic inclinations became apparent. “For as long as I can remember, he sketched and drew,” Doug Cockrum recalled, “and when he was young, my mom and dad thought that that was a good thing, and they enjoyed watching him draw. But they had different things in mind for him, in terms of making a living. I guess when we were very young, the grand plan was that Dave was supposed to go to West Point, and I was supposed to be a doctor. And as things worked out, Dave became a cartoonist and I went to the Air Force Academy. I became the professional military guy, and Dave pursued his own interests.” Comic books became a fixture in Cockrum’s life early on. In 2001, he told Jay Mckiernan, “I first started reading comics when I was seven or eight years old, back in the early ’50s. My folks were both teachers and they got me reading early. The first comic I remember was an issue of Boy Crimefighter that my dad had confiscated from one of his students. Later, my folks subscribed to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, figuring it was a useful way to encourage my reading skills. Little did they know what they were starting.”1 [NOTE: By “Boy Crimefighter,” Dave meant Boy Comics, starring “Crimebuster.” —GC.] As Cockrum grew older, his tastes also matured. “I guess Wally Wood was one of my earliest influences, and his work remains some of my favorite to this very day,” he told Mckiernan. “Dick Dillin’s work on Blackhawk stood out as well, kindling in me a lifelong love for the Black Knights. I caught the tail end of the Fawcett era, too, and loved C.C. Beck’s work on Captain Marvel (back when he was allowed to use his name as the title of his book) and Kurt Schaffenberger on Captain Marvel Jr. Much later, I searched out back issues of Junior’s book by Mac

While still in Denver, Cockrum was also a member of his father’s Air Explorer group. [NOTE: Air Explorers were an advanced branch of Scouts. —GC.] Fellow member Tom Hoffman recalled, “He designed a patch for our uniforms, and it was of an osprey... he called it ‘Oscar the Osprey.’ I think his dad had it sent to China, or Taiwan, or someplace, and had it all embroidered. So we had this beautiful color patch that we had on our left shoulder of our uniform which was completely unique. No other group around had anything like that.” Hoffman also remembered, “I used to see his sketchpad. He’d show these fantastical drawings… and I remember, when he got ready to graduate from high school, he was all distraught because he was going to be leaving the love of his life. I don’t think that she reciprocated, but that’s what he thought, anyway…. I knew that he went off to New York, but I don’t know at what age he probably ever reached New York. I just knew that that was his end goal… to go there and to illustrate.” Thompson also confirmed Cockrum’s career ambitions: “He always expressed a desire to be a comic book artist... and I thought he was crazy. And that continued when we both graduated high school. Then he went off to college, and then after about two years, he came back from college, and then he went off to the Navy in early ’64.... We both liked comic books, but he always talked about being a comic book illustrator.” Cockrum’s brother remembered, “He answered an ad—and I’m thinking this was when he was in high school—one of those ‘Draw Me’ picture ads for an art school, and he won some sort of a prize through [it], and I think that was the first time that my parents really realized that, ‘Well, maybe he really does have a future in art.’ And my dad sat him down and said, ‘Well, okay, but commercial art is the only place where you can make a decent living.’ And so he was dead set that if Dave was gonna go into art, he was gonna be a commercial artist, which, obviously, was not Dave’s interest. One of the highest compliments that he was ever paid, at least in his estimation, was when one of his commercial art instructors told him, ‘Cockrum, one day you’ll make a fantastic comic book artist.’ To him, that was high praise.” In 1963, Cockrum left college in Illinois and returned home to

The Man Who Loved Comics

Colorado. “My folks decided I should move to a school closer to home,” he wrote in an article published in 1968.3 After attending Colorado State University for a year, he enlisted in the Navy. Instead of the usual tour of duty, he signed up for six years. “Because of his [three] years of college, they offered him an advanced rate if he would enlist for six years instead of four,” explained Doug Cockrum. “So he only served one enlistment, but it was a long enlistment.”

(Dec. 1965-Jan. 1966), as noted by the artist himself in the letters page of Hawkman #13. He wrote, “I must admit, however, that another reason for my liking the Shrike is the sneaking suspicion that I was in part responsible for the creation of the character. Some months ago I sent you a sketch of a proposed Hawkman foe called the Black Shrike. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it’s fun anyway, seeing that one’s efforts inspire outstanding work like ‘The Shrike Strikes at Night!’”

His new occupation was even noted in the letters page of Fantastic Four #36 (March 1964). Over the years, Cockrum had been a prolific letter-hack to both Marvel and DC, and in response to his new address, Stan Lee wrote, “How about that! We see that Dave Cockrum, one of our most loyal fans, is in the Navy now! Tell you what, Davey boy! As soon as you’re assigned to a permanent ship or base, take a poll among all your fellow gobs as to which is their favorite Marvel title, and the guys in the bullpen will send you a complimentary subscription to that mag! (And it better not be Millie the Model, sailor!)”

Schwartz replied, “As you surmised, the Shrike was inspired by your sketch—and in appreciation, we have sent you Murphy Anderson’s original cover! The same deal applies for any other accepted cover ideas or characters contributed by our readers.” In fact, Cockrum received the original art to both covers inspired by his illustrations.

In 1965, while serving his enlistment, Cockrum was reacquainted with an old friend. “It was about mid-’65 when I got stationed at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego,” recalled Jerry Thompson, “and I knew that Dave was already stationed there, so when I first [got] there, the first thing I did was I tried to find him. I found out what squadron he was with, and what barracks he was in, so I went to his cubicle, and he wasn’t there. I found out from his friends which one was his locker, so I wrote a note on it, and I said, ‘Dave Cockrum is full of ****! Your friend, Jerry.’ And I pasted it on there. Then I saw him the next day, and he said he’d almost torn apart the whole base trying to find me! [laughter] So it was really great.”

About the same time, another seed planted via the US Mail took form. In 1968, in an article written for the fanzine The Yancy Street Gazette, Cockrum recalled, “It was shortly after I joined the Navy and had reported to Fighter Squadron 124 at Miramar, California, that I received my first of many letters from a girl, a perfect stranger called Andrea Kline, who’d read a letter of mine in FF #36; she suggested we become pen pals. We wrote for over two years. She had an interest in comics, too, and we seemed to have a lot else in common.”5 Cockrum later told Gary Groth in an interview published in Fantastic Fanzine #10 (1969), “We first met on the first of December, 1966, after a comedy of errors worthy of Laurel and Hardy. She came in on Continental Trailways, and I was waiting for her in the Greyhound Terminal. Fortunately, when she called my squadron, some of my friends were on duty there, and they’d figured I’d done what I did, so they sent her over to

The two picked up where they had left off. “I remember, one time, I just came back from a tour over in Vietnam, and he asked me if we wanted to go down to the beach, and go to a movie later on. So we went down to Laguna, and both of us fell asleep on the beach, and we burnt like toast. I mean, it was awful, so awful that neither one of us could go to the movie that night. It was bad. And then we’d just hang out. There were a few beer bars that we would frequent down in San Diego, and sometimes we’d double-date, or something like that. But mostly just hanging around.” The pair also continued drawing together. “Sometimes what I’d do is, I’d go up to his office, at the squadron office that he had... and we would sit at his desk during his free time. We both collaborated on this one cartoon, or comic book illustration, called ‘Galactic Agent.’ We would sit there, and we would dream up different kinds of super-hero characters, and one of them was Galactic Agent, like James Bond, except he would go into outer space and solve crimes. It was kinda cool, because we did a cover together, and I’ve still got it. I [mentioned] it to Dave, and at first he said that he didn’t remember it, but then I e-mailed it to him, and then he remembered it.” It was also during this period that Cockrum made his first substantial artistic contributions to the field. He had taken to submitting cover illustrations to DC editor Julie Schwartz in the hopes of selling him story ideas, and two were actually used as springboards for comic books. The first of these was Green Lantern #40 (Oct. 1965), which featured the Golden and Silver Age Green Lanterns in conflict on the cover. It followed the trail blazed by The Flash #123’s “Flash of Two Worlds!” (Sept. 1961), which Cockrum had told editor Schwartz in a personal letter, “was the best ‘Flash’ story you’ve ever put out.”4 Obviously inspired by the matchup, the artist made the logical extrapolation of drawing a sketch featuring the two Green Lanterns; and “The Secret Origins of the Guardians!,” the story based upon the cover based in turn on his sketch, would even play an important role in the plotting of Crisis on Infinite Earths twenty years later. The other cover based upon a Cockrum sketch was Hawkman #11