Alter Ego #82

Roy Thomas’ Hero-Happy Comics Fanzine

ALL THE WAY WITH

MLJ

$

6.95

In the USA

No. 82 December 2008

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PLUS:

Heroes TM & ©2008 Archie Comics Publications, Inc.

Get PEP And ZIP Into Your TOP-NOTCH Life— And You’ll Hit The BLUE-RIBBON JACKPOT! Featuring IRV NOVICK * JACK COLE * BOB FUJITANI * PAUL REINMAN HARRY SHORTEN * CHARLES BIRO * IRWIN HASEN * MORT MESKIN * GIL KANE HARRY LUCEY * JACK BINDER * BOB MONTANA * JOE EDWARDS & MORE!

Vol. 3, No. 82 / Dec. 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 Bob McLeod

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Jean Bails Bonnie Biro Frank Brunner Buzz Joe Carroll Mike Catron Bob Cherry John Coates Teresa R. Davidson Betty Dobson Michael Dunne Eda Lisa Edwards Don Ensign Shane Foley Ron Frantz Bob Fujitani Janet Gilbert Penny Gold Victor Gorelick Ron Goulart George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Daniel Herman Arvell Jones

Jay Kinney Mark Lewis Ed Love Mike Machlan Glenn MacKay Peter Meskin Matt Moring Brian K. Morris Michelle Nolan Denise Ortell Ken Quattro Ethan Roberts David Siegel Marc Svensson Marc Swayze Dan Tandarich Dann Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Gregg Whitmore Dylan Williams Ron Wilson

Contents Writer/Editorial: We’ve Got The MLJ Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 All The Way With MLJ!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ron Goulart relates the saga of the super-heroes who paved the way for Archie Andrews.

Bonus! A photo-spread on the early-1940s MLJ offices, courtesy of Mike Catron.

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948) . . . . . . . . 23 A Skeleton Key to the Golden Age of Pre-Archie, introduced by Michelle Nolan.

“The Shield Was The First Patriotic Hero”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 In comics, anyway. John Coates’ 1990s interview with Golden Age MLJ artist Irv Novick.

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Part One of an interview with the late “Archie” artist Joe Edwards, conducted by Jim Amash.

Comic Crypt: That’s Just Sick! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Michael T. Gilbert on some of the weirdest art and text that’s ever been sneaked into comics.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #141 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Ron Frantz on Jerry DeFuccio… & Marc Swayze on “this action business.”

On Our Cover: Not so very long ago, collector Michael Dunne commissioned pro comics artist Bob McLeod—who also edits our TwoMorrows sister mag Rough Stuff—to draw this exciting panorama of some of MLJ’s greatest Golden Age super-heroes… and both guys were kind enough to let us use it as our cover on this issue. Actually, Bob had drawn one more hero than we had room for—as you’ll notice when you glom the whole illo in black-&-white on p. 23. [Characters TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] Above: Scattered throughout this issue you’ll find a few modern-day drawings of MLJ stalwarts done as commissions—all created, as it turns out, for that selfsame Michael Dunne! Let’s start out with the above pencil sketch of Mr. Justice by Arvell Jones, artist in the 1970s and ’80s of such comics as The Return of the New Gods, All-Star Squadron, et al. A great, moody way to start the issue! [Mr. Justice TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] 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

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We’ve Got The MLJ Blues

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ational/DC… Timely/Marvel… Fawcett… Quality.

With this issue, we hope to begin rectifying the lack of MLJ coverage— and we’ve done so with a bang. In fact, the combination of major pieces

by Mike Nolan and Ron Goulart, added to partial-interviews with the allimportant Irv Novick and humor artist Joe Edwards, have unavoidably crowded almost everything else out of this edition. We apologize to Bill Schelly and Bob Rozakis for our being forced to postpone their latest efforts till #83—and to everyone for having to forego a letters section yet again—but, thankfully, our next issue is only 30 short days away.

Over its past 81 issues since 1999, Alter Ego has hopefully given these “big four” of Golden Age super-hero comics publishers something resembling their due, while also touching on that period’s costumed characters produced by Better/Pines/Nedor/Standard, by Hillman, and even by countries such as Canada, France, and Mexico.

One major player in the first half of the 1940s has been notably slighted, however:

So, without further delay, let’s get started with our overview of MLJ. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover….

MLJ. This occurred, for the most part, because by mid-decade or so that company had changed its emphasis, indeed even its name, to that by which it is known today: Archie Comic Publications, Inc. By 1946 only the barest handful of MLJ super-heroes could still be found between fourcolor covers, with even The Shield fading away by the turn of ’48.

Our benign neglect was compounded by the fact that so few of the artists, writers, or other creative personnel from the early MLJ were still around to be interviewed about those days… although Bob (“Fuje”) Fujitani, who drew numerous stories of “The Hangman,” one of its foremost heroes, spoke his mind to Jim Amash in A/E #23 and is still hale and hearty and even producing the occasional masterful piece of artwork.

Bestest,

P.S.: We do, however, want to correct two mistakes that made it into our previous issue, rather than wait for a relevant letters section months from now: Frank Brunner’s Man-Thing cover for #81 was colored by Tom Smith, not Tom Ziuko… and the tribute to artist Larry Woromay was written not by a “Mike Howell” but by Mike Howlett. Our apologies for the errors.

COMING IN JANUARY

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SWORD-&-SORCERY IN THE COMICS—PART 2 A Closer Look At The Early Days— And Conan The Barbarian!

• Fabulous barbarian cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM! • STAN LEE & JOE MANEELY’s Black Knight (in fact, a whole Legion of Black Knights), annotated by Tom Lammers—SAM GLANZMAN’s Charlton Hercules and WALLY WOOD’s Marvel s&s tales, by Richard J. Arndt—ROY THOMAS interviewed about Conan, Kull, Red Sonja, et al.—plus more, if we can squeeze it in!

• Rare, often unseen sword-&-sorcery art by JOHN BUSCEMA, LOU CAMERON, BOB FUJITANI, GIL KANE, RAFAEL KAYANAN, TODD McFARLANE, NESTOR REDONDO, ERNIE SCHROEDER, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, & many others!

• “Archie” artist JOE EDWARDS, part II—interview by JIM AMASH! • BOB ROZAKIS on the secret All-American life of the JSA—BILL SCHELLY (at last!) with those 1965 con photos—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the dumbest things in comics he can shoehorn into 6 pages—FCA with MARC SWAYZE & JERRY DEFUCCIO, Part II—& MORE!!

Edited by ROY THOMAS ] [Art ©2008 Arthur Suydam.

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

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All The Way With MLJ! The Saga Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

by Ron Goulart NOTE: This material was originally printed, in slightly different form, in the magazine Comics Collector, in the issues for Summer and Winter 1984. Thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.

“Give Me An ‘M,’ Give Me An…”

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arlier this year [1984], the Archie Comics folks again resurrected some of their old-time super-heroes and costumed crime fighters.

By way of their Red Circle line of comic books, you can once again follow the adventures of Steel Sterling, The Shield, The Black Hood, Mr. Justice, and several other heroic chaps who first set up shop forty and more years ago. I got a kick out of seeing some of my boyhood idols cavorting again and I wish Red Circle well. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Since these pieces were written, of course, DC Comics licensed those heroes in the early 1990s for its brief-lived Impact line, and another DC revival is currently planned.]

The only trouble is, for someone like me who grew up following these fellows in their original Golden Age incarnations, these latter-day Mighty Crusaders are too slick and sensible. I miss those old illogical, sometimes outright wacky heroes of my youth. I miss, too, the second-banana good guys—such as Mr. Satan, Ty-Gor, The Firefly, Captain Valor, etc.—who probably won’t even get revived this time around. And I miss the eclectic look of the magazines of that long ago and more innocent age.

Let me, in the following pages, show you what I mean.

When these particular heroes first came forth, Archie hadn’t even been born and the publishers called themselves MLJ Magazines, Inc. Less formal than MGM, the company took its title from the firstname initials of its proprietors. They were Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater, and they entered the fast-growing funny-book field late in 1939. The artwork and scripts for the earliest issues of the new titles were provided by the sweatshop run by Harry “A” Chesler.

While some gifted people worked for the enterprising Chesler, it doesn’t look as though he sent in his first team to produce material for Morris, Louis, and John.

MLJ, MLJ—How Many Comics Did You Sell Today?

The three founders of MLJ, in a photo taken circa 1943—plus Bob Montana’s cover for Archie Comics #1 (Winter 1942), easily MLJ’s most important publication ever. For the company’s first comic ever, Blue Ribbon #1, see p. 23.

(Left to right in the photo:) co-publishers Morris Coyne, Louis Silverkleit, and John Goldwater. The oil painting in the background is the work of Milt Luros. Photo courtesy of Archie Comics and editor Victor Gorelick; with thanks to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson; Vic is editor of the Archie line. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher for the cover scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

Blue Ribbon Comics The MLJ line got off to a rather shaky start with the launching of Blue Ribbon Comics. The first issue had a November cover date, and its star was not a super-hero but a dog. “Rang-A-Tang,” billed as “The Wonder Dog,” was right there on the cover acting courageous, and his six-page adventure started off the issue. Rin Tin Tin, who’d made his movie debut way back in the silent days of 1916, was undoubtedly the inspiration for this less-than-scintillating feature. Most of the other strips, such as “Dan Hastings,” “Buck Stacey,” and “Burk of the Briney,” weren’t much snappier.

Science-fiction hero Hastings wasn’t even brand new, having already done his stuff in Star Comics for another company as early as two years before.

About the only bright spot in the issue was “Crime on the Run,” a lively Gang Busters sort of feature turned out by a young fellow named Jack Cole, later famed for creating Plastic Man. Although he favored bigfoot gag cartooning, Cole was already developing an effective adventure style. He also, unlike most of the Chesler colleagues with whom he shared the magazine, understood that comic books were different from newspaper strips and pulp magazines. Cole’s page layouts and his staging of scenes take advantage of the format.

Blue Ribbon’s first super-hero arrived in the second issue. He wore a green costume, green cowl with wings over the ears, and a scarlet cape.

His name was “Bob Phantom.” That doesn’t seem to be too striking a

name for a chap who fancies himself “the Scourge of the Underworld.” A crime-buster with a first name is just too folksy to be formidable. You probably wouldn’t be frightened by Bill Batman or Fred Superman, either.

Actually, Bob seems to have come by his name because the Chesler shop had it left over from an earlier character. Another Bob Phantom, a mustached magician in this case, had appeared way back in the first issue of the aforementioned Star Comics (Feb. 1937), then vanished. This new Bob P., drawn by Irving Novick, stuck around for two issues and then defected to Top-Notch Comics.

Charles Biro, like Cole an artist/writer who’d leave his mark on comics (he later created Crimebuster and Airboy, and drew the original Daredevil, as well editing and often writing and drawing for the ultrapopular Crime Does Not Pay), also showed up in that second issue. His “Scoop Cody,” dealing with an ace reporter, expired after two go-rounds, but “Corporal Collins,” about a “two-fisted American in the French infantry,” fared somewhat better. In fact, for a short time the redheaded Jimmy Cagney-type soldier was the star of the faltering magazine.

The third issue was much the same as the two preceding it. But the fourth, which didn’t hit the stands until five long months later (coverdated June 1940), was a great leap forward. Coming to their senses just in time, MLJ had dumped Chesler and hired some of his better people away from him.

“Thrill to these smashing new features,” proclaimed ads in the other MLJ titles. There were three more by now: Top-Notch, Pep, and Zip. Gone were Scoop Cody, Buck Stacey, Dan Hastings, and their ilk, replaced by Hercules, The Fox, The Green Falcon, Ty-Gor, and Doc Strong. Showcased on the cover of issue #4 was the feisty Corporal Collins, blazing away with a machine-gun pistol in one hand and tossing a grenade with the other. In the midst of all this excitement, you could almost overlook the fact that Blue Ribbon still didn’t have a first-rate super-hero on the staff.

The closest thing was Hercules, written by Joe Blair and drawn by Elmer Wexler. For this one, Blair went all the way back to Greek mythology. “Hercules, strongest man in all history, earned a place on Mt. Olympus by wiping out the evils of ancient Greece. Now Zeus has ordered him back to Earth to rid the modern world of wars, gangsters and racketeers!!” The gimmick here, somewhat highbrow for a lowly comic book, was that Herc would tackle modern equivalents of the original 12 Labors of Hercules. Unfortunately, he only got as far as the fifth before he was dropped from the line-up.

“The Fox” was a costumed crime fighter, but he didn’t have a super power to his name. In everyday life, he was Paul Patton, “former allaround athlete at Penn State,” who was now working as a newspaper photographer. Written by the ubiquitous Blair, the strip was initially drawn by Irwin Hasen. Younger readers, who are familiar only with Hasen’s newspaper strip Dondi, may find it hard to believe he once turned out effective comic-book adventure stuff. He did, though, and The Fox benefited from his loose, quirky style. Like Cole, Hasen thought in terms of the comic book page, and his layouts explored possibilities overlooked by some of his stodgier contemporaries. His only problem was with The Fox’s jet-black costume. It took Hasen a couple of issues to realize a hero’s costume is a fantasy thing that doesn’t have wrinkles or baggy knees.

Despite his name, “The Green Falcon” was not a super guy but a green-clad knight who hung out in the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted and behaved in the Robin Hood manner.

Tie A Big Blue Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree Jack Cole’s “Crime on the Run” in Blue Ribbon Comics #1 gave readers an early look at the work of the artist/writer who would soon create one of the greatest super-heroes ever—Plastic Man. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“Doc Strong” was a science-fiction feature, and Doc himself was a famous scientist who went around stripped to the waist and wearing the trousers from one of his old business suits. It was set one hundred years in the future when “more than half the world has been wiped out, and cities lie in crumbling ruins and then a new menace arises, a vast barbaric

All The Way With MLJ!

5

legend has it his spirit arose from his body and strangled the men who murdered him.”

Cooper’s notions of what life in 18th century England was like are quite interesting. and he draws the prince and his murderers wearing armor and chain mail. At any rate, the historic castle where the deed was done is, in 1941, “torn down and carted away, stone by stone… loaded aboard a ship and sent on its journey to America.” We can assume Blair got his inspiration for this part of the plot from the movie The Ghost Goes West. En route to America, Haven’t I Met Your Brother, The? the castle-laden ship is torpedoed by a Nazi “Bob Phantom” splash panel from Blue Ribbon Comics #2 (Dec. 1939). The unsigned artist was a guy sub, and this somehow liberates the spirit of named Irv Novick. The comics world would soon hear more from him! Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher.

Prince James. “Free! I’m free!” he exclaims as [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] his soul soars upward from the sinking horde from some forgotten corner of Asia descends on a trembling wreckage, decked out in cape and tights. world.”

Like The Spectre, Mr. Justice has pupil-less Little-Orphan-Annie eyes The comic books of the Golden Age provided work for unemployed when he’s in his evil-combating mode. Off-duty, he assumes “the form of artists from other areas, including newspaper strips. “Ty-Gor,” about an a mortal man” and goes around as a handsome blond fellow in a business orphaned lad raised by tigers in the Malay jungles, was drawn by one suit. such. George Storm had done a successful strip, Bobby Thatcher, until During his relatively brief career, Mr. Justice, sometimes referred to as 1937 and then retired to try his hand at being a gentleman farmer in the Royal Wraith, combated such villains as Rialb (“Blair” spelled Oklahoma. By 1939, he was ready to get back into cartooning. and he backwards), a mystic who summoned up “demoniacal monsters” to do his returned to New York. We’ll have more to say about him when we get to bidding; Zarro the Zombie Master, a green-skinned voodoo man; a crazed his better-known MLJ creation, “The Hangman.” doctor who brought executed criminals back to life; a green fellow named Finally, in issue #9 (Feb. 1941), Blue Ribbon Comics signed on Ribo who possessed “the most hideous organ of sight ever seen on somebody who could pass as a super-hero. His only flaw was that, like Earth—the evil eye!!”

The Spectre over at DC, he was dead. “Mr. Justice,” created by the busy Joe Some of Mr. Justice’s antagonists were so awesome that the Royal Blair and artist Sam Cooper, was actually the spirit of Prince James, heir Wraith couldn’t quell them in a single episode and had to battle them over to the throne of England and murdered “exactly 200 years ago … but the several issues. One such was called The Dictator. He’s quite obviously

Two Strong Men And A Bushy-Tailed Canine Blue Ribbon #4 (June 1940, after a five-month hiatus for the comic) saw the debuts of “Hercules” (art by Elmer Wexler), “The Fox” (by scripter Joe Blair & artist Irwin Hasen), and “Doc Strong” (drawn by Sam Cooper). See the “Hercules” splash on p. 30. The late Elmer Wexler was interviewed in Alter Ego #36; our interview with Hasen from A/E V3#1 is still on view in the trade paperback The Collected Alter Ego, Vol. 1; see TwoMorrows ad bloc that begins on p. 92. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

Hitler, but in those months before America entered World War II, many comic book publishers were reluctant to have him appear under his real name, although it’s unlikely the Führer would have sued for defamation of character. The payoff is that The Dictator turns out to be Satan in moreor-less human form.

Hardly was this villain bested when up popped The Green Ghoul, a scaly chap with three bloodshot eyes. He’s devoted to “committing murder and atrocity as fast as his wretched mind can conceive of new plots.” Mr. Justice needed a full three months to overcome The Green Ghoul. They meet for their final showdown in “the void between the spirit world and the real world.” Out-punching his rival, Justice sends him at last into the sea “to sink to the foul depths from which he sprang.”

Sam Cooper rendered all this half-baked horror in a toothsome style that never missed an opportunity to be excessive. His ghouls and demons are all appropriately loathsome, their twisted, gaping mouths jam-packed with such a spiky array of fangs that feasting on anything but human flesh would have been out of the question. He never passed up a chance to depict his fiends slavering and drooling, and few could draw a dagger entering an innocent heart with such explosive bloodiness.

After Mr. J came “Inferno,” who made his debut in #13 (June 1941).

Maybe It’s My Breath?

“Inferno the Flame Breather” made a fiery entrance as a hero in Blue Ribbon #13 (June 1941), after first battling Steel Sterling as a villain in Zip Comics #10-13. Marvel would utilize a similar approach in developing Hawkeye and other heroes in the 1960s and beyond.

By #16, Inferno was in a costume of standard super-hero issue, as seen at right. Script by Joe Blair; art by Paul Reinman. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Also known as the Flame Breather, Inferno had first turned up as a villain over in Zip Comics. Reformed by Steel Sterling, he went straight and was rewarded with a strip of his own. His only wild talent was being able to spout flame out of his mouth.

The magazine’s last hero came along three issues later and was of the super-patriot persuasion. Tom Townsend was just another drunken playboy until an enormous eagle carried him off to its mountain lair.

Tom’s father, “wealthy inventor of the Army’s new bomb sight,” had been kidnapped and tortured by a sinister villain known only as The Black Hand. A cadaverous fellow with dead-white skin, The Black Hand dressed in a hooded purple robe. He came by his name because of his right hand: “It is black… diseased! A disease easily capable of being transmitted by penetrating the skin with my claws!” In order to make the stubborn senior Townsend talk, his son is abducted as he comes staggering out of the exclusive Crane Club. Unfortunately, The Black Hand loses his temper and strangles Tom’s father. He’s about to do the same thing to the young playboy, when an eagle smashes into the rundown mansion and carries Tom off in his talons.

While the Hand goes on a rampage of sabotage and ruthless crime, Tom stays in the mountains with the eagle and “develops the muscles he had allowed to degenerate.” One day, after the former wastrel has shaped up sufficiently, the eagle brings him an American flag. “This is a symbol of my destiny—a destiny I vow to fulfill!” He whips up a star-spangled costume, “and so Tom Townsend becomes Captain Flag!” His first target is, of course, The Black Hand. In the battle that ensues, the Hand is knocked cold and seems to perish in the fire that sweeps his hideout. “But is The Black Hand really dead? See for yourself in the next issue!”

The Hand does come back several times. In issue #22, Captain Flag captures him once again and thwarts a piracy scheme of his. “You’re going to hang, Black Hand,” Flag informs him. “Since you wanted to live as a pirate you shall die as one.” Sure enough, in the last frame we see The Hand, purple robe and all, dangling from a yardarm. “What adventures await Captain Flag now?” asks a caption. “None” is the correct answer, since this turned out to be the last issue of Blue Ribbon.

Top-Notch Comics They Call Me Mr. Justice!

Mr. Justice, MLJ’s answer to DC’s Spectre, made his eldritch entrance in Blue Ribbon #9 (Feb. 1941). Cover by Sam Cooper. With this issue, the mag’s official title was changed to Blue Ribbon Mystery Comics—shades of Timely and its Marvel Mystery Comics! Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The second MLJ title was Top-Notch Comics, launched a month after Blue Ribbon and with a cover date on its initial issue of December 1939.

Although the magazine boasted only one super-hero when it commenced, by the end of its first year, Top-Notch would house a bunch of them.

As stated before, the material in the earliest issues of the MLJ titles was produced by the pioneer sweatshop run by Harry “A” Chesler. Although he’d been in operation since 1936, turning out stuff for various publishers,

All The Way With MLJ!

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We’re Off To See The Wizard The Wizard started out in Top-Notch Comics #1 (Dec. 1939) as just another Mandrake clone, as seen on p. 26. By #7 (Aug. 1940), he’d gained a red-andblue costume à la Superman, and even teamed up with The Shield. (If you’ve got a magnifying glass, you can actually see the latter hero on the cover.)

Cover art credited to Edd Ashe. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher for the scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“With his super-brain and photographic mind, The Wizard is able to visualize far-away happenings. With these mental powers and his superstrength, he ferrets out plots against the U.S.” In his earliest battles, combating such foreign scourges as the Jatsonian invaders and the equally nasty Borentals, The Wizard used many amazing weapons of his own invention. These included Secret Formula F 22 X, the H2-VX-0 Ray, and his Dynamagno-Saw Ray Projector. The initial artist to depict the superpatriotic adventures of this dapper good guy was Edd Ashe, Jr. Al Camy took over after a few issues and, in Top-Notch #7 (Aug. 1940), designed him a new costume. It consisted of blue tunic and tights, red shorts, and cape. The red mask was retained, along with the moustache. In this episode, by the way, The Wizard teamed up with Pep Comics’ Shield to thwart the invasion plans of the Mosconians.

Apparently not satisfied with wearing an outfit very much like that of DC’s Superman, The Wizard next set out to emulate DC’s Batman. In #8 he acquired a feisty young companion. A concluding caption proclaims, “The Wizard fights alone no longer! Now side by side with the Man with

Chesler doesn’t seem to have made much of an effort to keep up with what was going on in the burgeoning comic book business. The text and artwork his outfit churned out in 1939 was very much like the product of three years earlier, for the most part lowbrow humor and illustrated pulp that indicated little comprehension of the nature of the new field and no realization of how important the coming of “Superman” in 1938 had been.

The only true super-hero cooked up for the first issue was “The Wizard,” also known as the Man with the Super Brain. Originally, he performed his deeds wearing black tie and tails, a cape, and a red domino mask. In that clean-shaven era, he was one of the few comic book mystery men who sported a moustache. The Wiz’s specialty was thwarting “plots against the government” and invasions. In civilian life he was Blane Whitney, polo-playing scion of one of America’s first families.

It’s A Grand Young Flag “Captain Flag,” who first proudly waved in Blue Ribbon #16 (Sept.

1941), was originally the product of the ubiquitous Joe Blair (writer) and Lin Streeter (artist). He was featured on that issue’s cover—and, after two more shared spots, he shoved Mr. Justice off the covers entirely. That of #16 is credited to Sam Cooper. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

the Super Brain is Roy, the Super Boy, the most astounding youth in all history! Together these two fight all evil.” All these improvements ought to have assured the Wiz of a long, fruitful career as star of the magazine. A bit further along we’ll see what happened in #9.

Most of the other features offered in Top-Notch’s premiere issue were pretty lackluster. Jack and Otto Binder, brothers who were artist and writer respectively, turned out “Scott Rand,” about a Brick Bradford type who jaunted into the past in his time car. There was “Air Patrol,” a dull aviation strip; “‘Lucky’ Coyne,” a dull detective strip; and “The West Pointer,” a dull military strip. For magic fans, there was “The Mystic,” which offered a turbaned stage magician who dabbled in detection between shows. Each of these ran five or six pages, crowded eight panels onto a page, and had layouts about as visually exciting as your maiden aunt’s wallpaper.

Charles Biro, a man destined to shake up the whole comic book business, contributed “Swift of the Secret Service.” At this point, he was still working in the drab Chesler house style. About the only bright spot was provided by Jack Cole, who wrote and drew a true-crime feature called “Man-Hunters.” Cole, who also had a full page of gag cartoons in the issue, did the crime thing in his still developing straight style. Unlike many of his sweatshop colleagues, he was already experimenting with provocative layouts and more effective ways of staging and telling his stories.

flickered in. “That’s what I’ll be,” he decided. “A firefly! Lighting up the darkness that shrouds the underworld!”

The Firefly fought crime for the next couple of years, folding his wings after #27 (May 1942).

Among the sinister villains he illuminated and overcame were Dr. Dread, The Mummy (twice), a great white shark, and a killer whose victims “were torn and ripped by the claws of some huge, unspeakable monster!” When Wood abandoned the strip, the artwork chores were assumed by Warren King.

The month after The Firefly’s debut, obviously in the grip of costumed hero fever, Top-Notch introduced yet another. He was to prove to be one of MLJ’s most successful and enduring characters. No match for Archie, of course, but pretty durable.

“The Black Hood” was another fellow who had to work long and hard to become a costumed hero.

While a uniformed cop, Kip Burland was framed by a sinister green-faced villain aptly known as The Skull. Discharged from the force in disgrace, Burland was taken for a ride by minions of the vindictive Skull. Left in the woods to die, he was found by a kindly old hermit. A self-taught scientist and philosopher, the hermit had also been wronged The Firefly Gets His Tail In Gear

by The Skull. and he decided to turn young Burland Writer Harry Shorten and artist Bob Wood into a super-crime fighter—someone who would had launched the character in Top-Notch defeat The Skull and then use his “abilities against #8 (Sept. 1940), but by #14 (April ‘41) the feature was being drawn by Warren all crime and criminals!” Burland underwent (Bob) King. Thanks to Joe Carroll. [©2008 months of rigid training, “both to rebuild his Another gifted, and still often underrated, artist Archie Comic Publications.] strength and to learn all of science and all of joined the crew in the second issue. Mort Meskin knowledge, in order to make himself the world’s contributed “Dick Storm,” about a clean-cut young greatest fighter against crime!” Donning the hood that gave him his name, fellow whose “fame as an adventurer has spread far and wide.” Meskin, along with yellow tunic, black shorts, and yellow tights, he went forth. who’d been influenced by such excellent pulp illustrators as Edd Cartier and Herbert Morton Stoops, was simply a much better artist than most of the others in those early issues. He, too, made use of inventive layouts, and the storytelling techniques he developed are better than the stories he was forced to tell.

The aforementioned Bob Phantom became part of the Top-Notch cast in issue #3, the magazine’s second super-hero. Somewhere about this time, Biro and several of his shop colleagues were wooed away from Chesler to go to work directly for MLJ. The magazines immediately began to look more like contemporary comic books and less like samplers of what was to be found in the bottom of Chesler’s trunk.

A new science-fiction feature was added in #4. “Streak Chandler” was set on Mars and drawn by Don Lynch. “Galahad,” an Arthurian adventure

by Lin Streeter, got going in #5. “The Mystic” was by this time calling himself “Kardak” and had picked up “uncanny, unexplainable powers, which are fortunately used for the suppression of evil.”

Yet another superman was added in Top-Notch #8 (Sept. 1940). “The Firefly” was the creation of writer Harry Shorten and artist Bob Wood.

His real name was Harley Hudson, and he was one of those chaps who work hard and long to become a good guy. A trained chemist and biologist, he had already devoted years to study and training when we first met him in his laboratory in the Middle West. “At last,” he exclaimed, “I’ve discovered the secret of the tremendous strength of insects!” The secret, which sounded quite a lot like what Charles Atlas was peddling on the back covers of many of the comic books of the day, involved the developing of “wonderful muscular coordination.” While HH was explaining all this to himself, the lights in his lab went out and some fireflies

The Hood finally confronted The Skull at a fashionable society masquerade ball. The scoundrel managed to attack his female victim and used a poison pellet on her that caused her skin to shrivel and turn green until “her face is a caricature of The Skull!” The Black Hood unmasked his opponent, who’d been attending the party in drag, and turned him over to the law. But The Skull, true to master criminal tradition, kept coming back. He recurred in several issues until The Black Hood succeeded in getting him sent to the hot seat.

As the Hood’s career progressed he tangled with a succession of other bizarre foes: the vicious Panther Man; Mark Honey, “famed detective by day… ruthless murderer by night”; The Mist, “who was able to dissolve his body into a gaseous mist”; Scorpio, billed as the Astrologer of Death; the Mad Killer of the Opera, etc. Al Camy was the original artist. Once The Hood came aboard, The Wizard was relegated to second-banana status. He, his super brain, and Roy were dropped after issue #27 (May 1942).

In the non-super area Top-Notch added and subtracted characters.

“Wings Johnson,” as his name implied, was an aviator. Redheaded “Fran Frazer,” drawn by Irving Novick, was a globetrotting newsperson and a champion of women’s rights. As a caption explained, she “has faced many weird adventures in foreign lands, and always she has proven that, in spite of her sex, she is a better man than any of her male rivals.” Fran held on for 17 issues. For sports fans, there was “The St. Louis Kid,” a heavyweight boxer whose path to the crown was strewn with pitfalls. On one occasion, for instance, he was forced to go several rounds with a gorilla. Lin Streeter began the feature, newspaper veteran George Storm followed, and Archie creator Bob Montana went a few rounds.

All The Way With MLJ!

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In the summer of 1943, anticipating a trend that would sweep through comic books a few years later at the end of the Second World War, the magazine converted to humor. With the bold slogan, “We Dare To Do It! A Joke Book That’s Really Funny!” issue #28 (July 1942) appeared under the new title Top-Notch Laugh. Only The Black Hood and Kardak didn’t get pink slips; all the other heroes were let go. In their places you found funny stuff. The new star of the magazine was a Li’l Abner simulacrum with the tasteful name of “Pokey Oakey.” This was the creation of Don Dean, longtime ghost on the Big Chief Wahoo newspaper strip, and the first episodes looked as though they might be recycled samples of an unsold strip of his own.

Dean, a pretty good artist, if not a subtle humorist, also contributed “Señor Siesta.” The señor was a diminutive Mexican fruit peddler who talked like a Mel Blanc Latin and got into humorous misadventures with bandits, politicians, and long-legged senoritas. Bob Montana was responsible for “Percy,” another teen-age epic. Top-Notch’s resident dumb, sexy blonde was a lady known as “Suzie.” Eventually the magazine added “Gloomy Gus,” about a homeless ghost, “Stupidman and the 3 MonkeyTeens,” which defies description, and “Dotty & Ditto.” This last starred a little blonde cowgirl, her parrot, and her little Indian boyfriend. Bill Woggon, the “Katy Keene” man, was in charge and seemed to have a good deal of fun.

With issue #30 (Nov. 1942), The Black Hood became the only straight character in the book. He probably felt like a clergyman stranded in a boarding house full of carnival performers, but he stuck to his guns until #44 (Feb. 1944). After one more issue the magazine became just plain Laugh Comics. A sturdy fellow, The Hood survived for another two years in his own quarterly. In his final days, drawn by Novick, he shed his costume to work in civvies as a hard-boiled private eye.

Pep Comics A month after launching Top Notch, MLJ introduced its third title. Pep Comics, with the liveliest name so far and a January 1940 cover date, boasted two super-heroes in its initial lineup. One was billed as a “G-Man extraordinary,” the other as “the most astonishing man on the face of the Earth.”

The magazine wouldn’t introduce its most successful character for almost another two years, a redheaded, buck-toothed lad who was destined to topple all the MLJ heroes and even cause the publishing company to change its name to his. In those fool’s-paradise years before his ominous advent, quite a few heroes, costumed and otherwise, flourished in the four-color pages of Pep Comics.

Three Cheers For The Red, White, And Blue As noted on p. 27, which depicts the cover of Pep Comics #1, “The Shield” beat Captain America Comics #1 into print by more than a year, and probably provided at least part of the inspiration for that more enduring Timely/Marvel hero; still, the MLJ character made a real impact.

Irv Novick’s cover of Pep Comics #15 (May 1941) shows how, by then, The Shield was sharing billing with “Dusty the Boy Detective.” In fact, Dusty’s name was often bigger on the covers than his mentor’s, for some reason. Oh, and that’s Madam Satan the kid’s wrestling. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The star of the new magazine was “The Shield.” The first red-whiteand-blue super-patriot in comics, he paved the way for such later starspangled heroes as Uncle Sam, Minute Man, and Captain America. Irving Novick was the artist, Harry Shorten the scriptwriter, on these adventures of the extraordinary G-Man. In everyday life, redheaded Joe Higgins worked as an FBI agent, and the only person who knew of his alternate identity was J. Edgar Hoover himself. Hoover appeared in the early episodes to send The Shield out on his spy-smashing missions.

a mini-trend among his costumed contemporaries, and soon many of them were picking up youthful sidekicks, too. The Shield got his in Pep #11 (Jan. 1941) in the person of a redheaded lad named Dusty the Boy Detective. The new team devoted their next several months to combating a master criminal and super-saboteur known as The Vulture. A cloaked, pointy-eared chap, he was especially fond of plunging daggers into his victims. Though he’d commenced his crime career with pink flesh, The Vulture showed up green in later issues. It added nothing to his charm.

Initially, we were told that Higgins’ super-powers came from his uniform. “This uniform, of his own secret construction, not only is bullet and flame-proof, but gives him power to perform extraordinary feats of physical daring and courage. Wearing his shield, he has the speed of a bullet and the strength of a Hercules. With these powerful forces, he shields the U.S. Government from all enemies. The four white stars on the field of blue signify to what he has devoted his life—truth, justice, patriotism, and courage.”

With the coming of the Second World War, the exploits of The Shield and Dusty grew bloodier and more violent. The Axis villains they started confronting were especially bloodthirsty. There was a vicious Nazi called The Strangler, an even more rotten Japanese known as The Fang, and, worst of all, The Hun.

In the spring of 1940, over in Detective Comics, Batman took on Robin the Boy Wonder to assist him in his war on crime. This precipitated

While all this was going on, Novick was also adding quite a few “Good Girl Art” touches: upthrust bosoms, bondage, stocking tops, etc. Earlier, in the midst of The Shield’s second year, the artwork had changed quite a bit. There were now more action, more odd angle shots, and improved anatomy. Most of this new flamboyance was due to the hiring of the

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

unsung Pierce Rice to pencil the strip. The Shield hung on in Pep until #65 (Jan. 1948). His later returns and reincarnations are beyond the scope of this piece.

Pep’s other pioneer super-hero was “The Comet,” written and drawn

by Jack Cole. Not one of the other new features in the magazine opened as exuberantly as his. Cole’s splash panel shows the brightly costumed hero whizzing across the night sky and nearly flying off the page. Cole was also the only one to provide his own blurb: “Smash adventures of the most astonishing man on the face of the Earth.” Even in those days, when supermen were proliferating like mushrooms in a damp cellar, The Comet was rather unusual. For one thing, he killed people, lots of them, and usually with glee. That might not seem odd in these days of splatter comics, but back then it was.

John Dickering is a young scientist who discovers “a gas that is fifty times lighter than hydrogen.” He finds that “by injecting small doses of the gas in his bloodstream, his body becomes light enough to make leaps through the air!” Never mind what may happen if a strong wind comes up. Dickering further discovers “that the gas accumulates in the eyes and throws off two powerful beams—these rays, when they cross each other, cause whatever he looks at to disintegrate completely!!!” Glass is the only thing these cross-eyed rays won’t penetrate, so young Dickering fashions a glass shield to wear and, while he’s at it, a costume as well. The outfit is red-black-and-yellow with stars and crescent moons all over the tunic, making him look something like a streamlined Merlin. “Thus is born THE COMET!” In his maiden adventure, The Comet goes after a gang who are using typhoid fever germs to run a murder-for-insurance racket. When he catches up with the underlings, he lifts his visor and announces grimly, “Prepare to face your maker!” And then, “amid screams of terror, the cruel murderers melt into nothingness!” Next, The Comet grabs the Big Boss and flies high above the gentleman’s stately suburban home. The villain pleads to be let down and The Comet says, “As you wish, doctor!

The world has too many of your kind already!!” and drops him.

Cole produced three more episodes of the Comet saga before going on to other things. In his final sequence Cole, who’d grown up in the mining country of Pennsylvania, had his vindictive hero deal with a crooked mine owner whose workers were being stricken with silicosis because of poor working conditions. The sneaky owner ended up exploding, which showed what happened if you tried to toss a stick of dynamite at The Comet. In those distant days before relevance had been invented, there were comic book heroes who dealt, albeit in vigilante style, with social issues and working-class problems. Cole drew several such. After Cole’s departure, The Comet toned down some. Bob Wood drew him for a spell, then Lin Streeter. The Comet’s violent beginnings eventually caught up with him, however, and, as we’ll see shortly, he became the first superhero to get killed in the line of duty.

The “Press Guardian” started his career as a costumed hero and then, in Pep #2, became one of those fellows, like The Spirit and Midnight, who fought crime clad in fedora, business suit, and face mask. He also changed his alter-ego name. For his first adventure, he was a reporter named Flash Calvert, who donned a winged costume and fought the enemies of the

Halley’s Comet? Bill Haley And The Comets? No—Cole’s Comet!

“The Comet” splash from Pep Comics #3 (March 1940), as written and drawn

by Jack Cole (left). The “Comet” splash from Pep #1 was seen in A/E #26, the still-available issue dedicated to Cole’s life and work; the photo originally accompanied Art Spiegelman’s article on the artist/writer in a 1991 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher for the art scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

free press as The Falcon (don’t ask why the strip was called “The Press Guardian” instead of “The Falcon”).

As of his second go-round, with the talented Mort Meskin taking over the drawing, PG was “Perry Chase, playboy son of the publisher of the Daily Express.” His early exploits involved tackling a Nazi-style bund that resented the way the Express was reporting the activities of their dictator and were out to destroy the paper. Since it was 1940 and we were not yet at war with anybody, the dictator’s name was Von Krasner and his country was Moronia. Looking back now, it’s difficult to imagine a time when publishers were unwilling to risk offending Hitler and Nazi Germany.

After defusing the bund, The Press Guardian went after graft and other forms of civic corruption.

As mentioned earlier, Meskin was an excellent artist as well as an inventive and audacious one. His pages, like those of Cole, stand out in these early issues. Despite the impressive artwork, though, the feature was not a hit, and the Guardian hung up his crimson mask, green suit, and green chapeau after issue #11. Possibly the fact that he had a name better suited to a newspaper than to a crime-fighter had something to do with it.

Pep filled the other berths in its early issues with detectives, military personnel, a prizefighter, and a Flash Gordon surrogate. “Fu Chang” was a Chinese private investigator based in San Francisco’s Chinatown. A

All The Way With MLJ!

A Real Fireball Here’s some “Fireball” art, sent by Ed Love.

The issue number and writer are unknown, but the artist is probably Paul Reinman. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

handsome, dapper young fellow, he was aided in his investigations by a set of magic chessmen. “The chessmen possess all the magic powers of Aladdin’s lamp and are responsible for Fu Chang’s spectacular solutions of great international mysteries.”

The other resident crime-solver was “Bentley of Scotland Yard.” His cases were almost as bizarre as those his Chinese counterpart handled. A quick glance at the titles of some of the inspector’s cases will give you a notion of what he had to cope with month after month: “The Hunchback Horror,” “The Tarantula Terror,” “The Congo Curse,” “The Vampire Murders,” “‘The Man-Monster of London.” Joe Blair, who wrote the stories, had obviously fallen under the spell of Ellery Queen, and he halted each gruesome yarn on the penultimate page to issue a challenge to the reader: “Bentley knows who is responsible for the sinister doings. Do you know who he is?” The names of all the suspects followed and you had to check one. Pretty intellectual stuff for a 1940 comic book.

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its second bananas and added some new ones. “The Fireball” and “Danny in Wonderland” arrived in #12 (Feb. 1941). Drawn by Harry Lucey, the blue-clad Fireball specialized in suppressing arsonists. “Ted Tyler, a city fireman, has gained the power to control fire as the result of an accident in a chemical factory. He assumes the identity of ‘The Fireball’—sworn enemy of all those who use fire for evil purposes.”

Although “Danny in Wonderland” dealt with a boy who wished his way into a magic fantasyland, it wasn’t exactly in the cute Disney vein. As noted, the MLJ comics began to grow more violent and sexy at about this time, and Danny’s adventures in the land of wonders fit in with the new trend. So you got bloodshed and bosoms along with your wizards, witches, and dragons. The dependable Lin Streeter was the first artist on the feature, followed by Bob Montana and Red Holmdale.

The most unsettling new addition came along in #16 (June 1941). Her name was “Madam Satan,” and she worked for the Devil himself. She was a sultry lady, a dark-haired version of the heartless vamp who haunted the movies in the years between the two World Wars, and she was alarmingly adept at turning innocent fellows into thorough scoundrels. An early caption explained her origin thusly: “The Devil searched far an long for a ally to wreak havoc amongst mortals … Then the black, corrupt soul of a beautiful woman, a victim of her own fiendish plan on earth, left its bodily habitation to stand before the King of Purgatory … and his search was at an end … the Devil had found himself a fitting mate.”

Using the sinister name Iola and donning a slinky satin evening gown,

“The Midshipman” was a sedate feature that dealt with Lee Sampson, a clean-cut lad who attended the US Naval Academy and typified “the American ideal of patriotism and intelligence.” MLJ seems to have had a difficult time getting artists to stick with this one; they kept jumping ship.

During his 16-issue career, The Midshipman was rendered by, among others, Edd Ashe, Bob Wood, Al Camy, and Mort Meskin.

A somewhat peppier service strip was “Sergeant Boyle,” drawn by Charles Biro and written by the magazine’s editor, Abner Sundell. The premise was simple: “Sergeant Boyle, American college student, joined the British Army to find excitement ... and he finds plenty!” This was a slambang action thing, peppered with wisecracks, and akin to the service comedy-adventure movies Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe had made in the ’20s and ’30s (What Price Glory? being the best known). It also resembled the “Corporal Collins” feature Biro was doing for Blue Ribbon Comics, except that the redheaded Collins was an American in the French Army.

“The Rocket and The Queen of Diamonds” was a poor man’s Flash Gordon, complete with blazing rayguns and roaring rocketships. The hero was a stalwart blond fellow whose working clothes consisted of crimson shorts and a swordbelt. He arrived in the Diamond Empire, which was “the hidden wonder of the world,” and eventually teamed up with the beautiful, dark-haired lady who ruled the place. Lin Streeter drew the strip for its entire 12-issue run.

For sports fans, Pep offered “Kayo Ward.” Kayo was in the Joe Palooka mold, a not overly bright guy who dropped his G’s and used “youse” in nearly every sentence. As the story unfolded from month to month, you saw him go from “obscure steel worker” to heavyweight champ. Bob Wood provided the artwork for a good part of Kayo’s ring career.

At the end of its first year in business, Pep Comics cancelled several of

Driving Around In An Old “Bentley” “Bentley of Scotland Yard” stuck around for a time, as witness this splash page from Pep Comics #31 (Sept. 1942). With thanks to Mike Catron. Both scripter Joe Blair and artist Paul Reinman signed this story. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

Satan Was A Lady Madam Satan shows off both her beautiful and skull-headed aspects in this panel from Pep #20 (Oct. 1941). She was created by writer Abner Sundell and artist Harry Lucey—and also appeared (fighting Dusty) on the cover of Pep #15, as seen on p. 9. The photo of Sundell appeared in the July 1953 issue of Newsdealer trade magazine, and a caption informed readers of his article on “Trends in the Comic Industry” that he was currently the editor of 3D Movie Magazine. That’s probably not a gig that lasted very long! [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

Madam Satan insinuated herself in various lives and set out to corrupt as many men as possible. A typical victim, Carl Jensen, was lured away from his true love and soon “completely in the toils of the creature of the netherworld, beginning a mad and expensive orgy of merrymaking.” All too soon, Carl was goaded into a life of crime. “Shower me with real gifts! Expensive ones,” Iola urged her bedazzled victim. “Steal if you must!” After beating up his own father and shooting his real love, Carl finally came to his senses. He saw Iola as she really was, her face a grinning, green skull.

Undaunted, Iola tried next to convince the people of a quiet New England town that a new bride who suffered from catalepsy was actually a vampire. This sequence, which stretched over two issues, was rich with gruesome images: Iola turning into a vampire bat, Iola sucking the blood from a golden-haired tot, one of her dupes being impaled on the stake meant for the innocent bride. Add to these the many shots of Madam S in a low-cut scarlet gown and the cataleptic newlywed in her flimsy nightdress and you had a pretty heady mixture.

Although Iola never quite succeeded in shipping an innocent soul to Hell, she did cause an awful lot of death and destruction in the six issues she was around. The strip was drawn, with obvious relish, by Harry Lucey.

Another bloody strip began in #17.

“The Hangman” was a grim fellow who became a costumed hero in order to carry on the family tradition. His name was Robert Dickering and The Comet (discussed on p. 10) was his brother.

Bob decided to take up the crimefighter trade when The Comet was killed by gangsters’ bullets. Nowadays, with comic book heroes dropping like flies, the death of one more doesn’t have much of an effect; but back in 1941 the demise of The Comet was a unique and shocking event.

For his first job, The Hangman went after those responsible for his brother’s

death. He haunted them with projected images of a gallows, engaged them in hand-to-hand combat, and finally saw that the ringleader was executed on the gallows by the state.

In the final panel, The Hangman looked directly out at the reader and, striking an Uncle-Sam-wants-you pose, warned, “The Comet has died but his spirit lives on … in The Hangman! Beware, criminals, you cannot outrun your own conscience … nor escape the gallows!”

Another unusual thing about this new feature was the choice of artist.

George Storm was in his forties and had been a professional cartoonist since before World War I. His Bobby Thatcher was one of the first adventure strips in newspapers, and from the late ‘20s to the middle ‘40s it was one of the most popular in the country. Storm abandoned his kid adventurer in 1937 to go home to Oklahoma to give farming a try. By 1939, he was back in Manhattan and working in the burgeoning comic book field. Possessor of a loose, quirky style, Storm drew like nobody else and was at his best when handling strips with some humor in them. He created “The Whip” for DC’s Flash Comics and also drew “Bugs Bunny” for the early Looney Tunes.

Although impressively versatile, Storm didn’t seem quite at home with “The Hangman.” The stranglings, impalings, and hangings weren’t what he was best suited to draw, and he left the feature after four issues. Harry Lucey, who’d warmed up his gruesome side on “Madam Satan,” took over.

Later, Bob Fujitani illustrated The Hangman’s vengeful adventures.

“Archie” slipped rather unobtrusively into the magazine in issue #22 (Dec. 1941). Yet another redhead, he had only six pages near the back of the book. Bob Montana was the creator of the feature.

Archie Meets Betty—And The World Meets Archie This story has been reprinted numerous times in recent years, but we can hardly ignore the first appearance of “Archie” in Pep Comics #22 (Dec. 1941). Art by Bob Montana, script by Victor Bloom. Reprinted from the trade paperback Archie Americana Series: Best of the Forties. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

Teenagers were coming into their own at this period, both as a target for manufacturers and as a source of inspiration for entertainment. Henry Aldrich, the well-meaning but bumbling teen who was the prime inspiration for Archie, had first appeared in 1938 in Clifford Goldsmith’s Broadway play What A

All The Way With MLJ!

On, Comet! The Hangman Cometh!

A real comic book first! In Pep #17 (July 1941), The Comet was killed in action in what was already billed, on the splash page, as the first “Hangman” story—and his brother immediately took his place as a crime-fighter, choosing the vengeful name, The Hangman.

An editorial in Pep #19 reminded readers that The Comet had, after all, committed “murder” by killing a policeman, “though unintentionally.” Which, of course, means it wasn’t murder, at all… unless The Comet had been committing a crime at the time. Art by George Storm, script by Cliff Campbell—which some feel may be a pseudonym for the omnipresent Joe Blair. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Life! Henry had jumped next to radio, then into movies. Jackie Cooper was the first screen Henry in 1939, and Jimmy Lydon, a less handsome and gawkier young fellow, took over in the early ‘40s.

Montana was obviously influenced by Henry Aldrich and the various other wacky teenagers who were proliferating in the media. His Archie Andrews leads the same sort of problem-plagued life as Henry, Hollywood’s Andy Hardy (played by young Mickey Rooney), and the rest. Like the movies, the strip had pretty girls: one sexy blonde and one sexy brunette, who were the poles of Archie’s romantic aspirations.

I first encountered Archie when he made his debut and I fell immediately under his spell. It seems likely that a good

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

from costumed crime-fighters to turbaned magicians.

“Steel Sterling” was drawn by Charles Biro and written by the magazine’s editor, Abner Sundell. Since Biro had been doing mostly cute comedy fillers until a few months earlier, he still wasn’t completely at home in the straight adventure field. His anatomy was shaky, as was his grasp of perspective. But he had a strong sense of action. His early pages, though often crudely drawn, have movement and life. Throughout his career, Biro’s ideas for grabbing attention and holding the reader would always be several steps ahead of his actual drawing ability.

Our hero had an origin that was traumatic enough to have caused the average super-hero to call it quits right then and there. An early caption explains it ably: “To avenge the death of his father, who was murdered and robbed of all his wealth by gangsters, and to avoid a similar end for himself, John Sterling devoted every minute of his youth to dangerous experiments! In one final experiment, the result of which would be success or death!—he hurled himself into a tank of molten steel and fiery chemicals! The test realized his life ambition. He emerged `Steel Sterling,’ with all the attributes of this sturdiest of metals!! As a blind to both police and underworld, Steel Sterling adopts another personality. He poses as John Sterling, four-flushing private investigator and ‘twin brother’ of the famous Steel!”

Steel This Book!

Writer/editor Abner Sundell and artist Charles Biro co-developed “Steel Sterling.” Biro is credited with drawing the cover of the first issue. With thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

part of the strip’s audience over the years has been made up of kids who haven’t yet arrived at their teens.

Montana, too, could work in both the adventure and comedy areas (in Pep he even took a crack at “Bentley of Scotland Yard”). But he was at his best as a bigfoot man, and his early “Archie” work has a charm that was lost forever when the “Archie” production line started going full speed.

As Archie’s appeal grew, Pep began dropping the more sobersided characters and replacing them with funny folks. Such strips as “Marco Loco,” “Li’l Chief Bugaboo,” “Suzie,” and “Katy Keene” nudged out poor Inspector Bentley, The Hangman, and finally, after issue #65 (Jan. 1948), The Shield himself. It was almost nothing but laughs from that day onward.

Zip Comics The MLJ folks brought out the fourth and last of their monthly titles just about as 1940 was getting under way. Over at Action Comics, Superman himself was sometimes known as the Man of Steel (as well as the Man of Tomorrow), but that didn’t daunt the upstart Zip Comics any.

In its first issue, cover-dated Feb. 1940, Zip introduced its very own Man of Steel. His name was Steel Sterling, and you could see him right there on the premier cover, red-costumed and over-muscled, ripping up enemy warplanes while bullets bounced off his manly chest. Inside the magazine you got not only Steel, but also seven other two-fisted heroes, ranging

Included in the SS stock company were Dora Cummings, pretty darkhaired daughter of a world-famous scientist; Clancy, a fat redheaded patrolman (if you were fat and named Clancy, there wasn’t much else you could do in the 1940s comics except be a cop), and Alec Looney, a skinny foul-up who assisted John Sterling in his private eye business. The most frequently met villain in early issues was a costumed rogue known as The Black Knight. For some reason (perhaps because the MLJ colorist didn’t bother to read the copy) The Black Knight’s outfit was brown and yellow.

Later exponents of evil included The Rattler, a fellow who dressed up in a snake suit and gave his victims a shot from his “double hypo of snake venom,” and Inferno, who could breathe out fire and was reformed into a super-hero after his encounter with Steel. (I guess he figured, if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.)

Biro dropped the feature in the spring of 1941 to concentrate on his new comic book ventures with publisher Lev Gleason. Carl Hubbell took over the feature, and was followed by Irving Novick. Novick’s “Steel Sterling” was much better drawn, but he lacked some of the flamboyance of Biro’s lumpier version. He had help from penciler Pierce Rice.

Zip offered two more costumed heroes, neither of whom had any super-powers. “The Scarlet Avenger” (not to be confused with “The Crimson Avenger,” doing business over in Detective Comics) wore a snappy bright-green suit and a scarlet cloak and mask. He was “the man who never smiles” and had “dedicated his life to the extermination of crime, and for the accomplishment of this purpose he has brought into play his super-scientific brain.” Most of his early troubles were caused by a sexy and extremely tall redhaired villainess named Texa. Novick drew this one. (See p. 46.)

Edd Ashe illustrated the adventures of “Mr. Satan,” a chap who did his gang busting in a cape and skin-tight costume topped with devil horns.

Although you’d have expected a hero with this many affinities to The Prince of Darkness to wear a red suit, Mr. Satan’s uniform was lavender.

There was one other masked man on the early Zip staff. See if you can guess his name. He was a cowboy hero who rode a white horse and wore a black domino mask and white Stetson. That’s right: “Nevada Jones.”

Rounding out the line-up were a jungle man, a matched pair of daredevil aviators, a soldier of fortune, and a magician. “Kalthar” was a blond jungle lord, and he had the handy knack, brought off with the aid of witch doctor magic, of growing to the height of 15 feet. “War Eagles” featured a set of twins, “two American polo players who join the RAF.”

All The Way With MLJ!

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The professor spun his crime-fighting web in various parts of the war-torn world, including the United States and Europe. He was especially fond of torture chambers, locales where you encountered “the shrill agonizing shrieks of humans in terrible suffering and the low piteous moans of those praying for death.” The Web failed to ensnare sufficient readers into his parlor, and he was retired after #38 (July 1943). Mort Leav was the original artist, with Bob Montana depicting The Web on several covers.

Looks Like Pat Dugan’s Been Promoted To Captain!

Either writer Abner Sundell or artist Mort Meskin had been reading Terry and the Pirates— probably both! The cast of characters in “Captain Valor” was virtually identical to that in Milt Caniff’s popular and influential comic strip. From Zip Comics #8. With thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“Captain Valor” was a red haired ex-Marine who did his adventuring in the trouble-filled Orient. Mort Meskin provided the excellent artwork.

The last act of the bill was “Zambini, the Miracle Man”: “The master of magic has many miraculous powers, but the greatest is his ability to compel an evil force to return like a boomerang to the place where it started. Zambini’s services are free, but he will serve only on the side of justice!”

By the time The Web had been swept out of Zip, it was a somewhat different magazine than it had been earlier.

Humor had crowded out many of the serious features, and you found stuff like “The Slaphappy Applejacks,” a hillbilly feature by Harry Sahle; “Ginger,” a strip about a red-headed teen-age girl by Harry Sahle; and “Señor Banana,” a Latino with a fat sidekick named Stencho Odora, drawn by, of all people, Harry Sahle. Zip #39 saw the arrival of Red Rube.

This starred a red-haired mock super-hero and was a godawful, heavy-handed spoof of “Captain Marvel.” Instead of “Shazam,” youthful newsboy Reuben Reuben shouted, “Hey, Rube!” Ed Robbins started this one, Bill Vigoda finished it off nine issues later. The entire magazine shut down at the same time, with its 47th issue in the summer of 1944.

[Continued on p. 21]

Mr. Satan and Kalthar got their pink slips after the ninth issue. (I’d hate to have been the one to fire a guy who was 15 feet tall!) In #10 (Jan. 1941), a somewhat violent kid fantasy by R.L. Golden was added. “Dicky in the Magic Forest” took place “in the realm of fancy at no particular place, at no particular time.” Also coming aboard that month was “Red Reagan of the Homicide Squad,” which began with these stirring words: “The Homicide Squad—a name that strikes terror into the lecherous hearts of the underworld.”

MLJ introduced its first teen-age character in Zip #18 (Sept. 1941). His name was “Wilbur,” and he got into the saddle shoe, bowtie, and high school letter-sweater business two months ahead of the better-known Archie.

“Black Jack,” a red-costumed crime fighter with an ace of spades emblazoned on his chest, made his debut in #20 (Nov. 1941).

Appropriately enough, his favorite opponent was a hooded rascal known as Poker Face. By this time, MLJ was in its bloody phase (which coincided, oddly enough, with its teenage and humor phase), and the “Black Jack” adventures were full of bloodshed and sharp weapons.

An even bloodier hero showed in #27 (July 1942) in the person of “The Web.” A red-haired fellow, he wore a green-and-yellow costume which included a cape resembling a giant spider web. In everyday life, he was a bespectacled professor of criminology named John Raymond. Perhaps his academic background accounts for the somewhat flowery way he often addressed the vicious Nazis and Japanese he frequently tangled with: “You’ve spun your own doom already … You’ve woven a trap of hate and crime you can’t escape!” or, “And so you see how a web of evil which reached its slimy skein clear across the world finally ended in death and destruction for the very men who had spun it. It will always be that way … criminals will forever meet doom enmeshed in the web of crime they themselves spin!”

When A New Hero Was In The Cards Like Captain Marvel over at Fawcett, Steel Sterling was on hand to welcome Black Jack to Zip Comics #20 (Nov. 1941). Cover by Irv Novick. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

What A Tangled Web… (Top left:) MLJ clearly had high hopes for “The Web,” as drawn originally by John Cassone for Zip #27 (July 1942), ‘cause he not only shared cover space with Steel Sterling—but his very first tale led off the issue! Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] (Above:) Hangman and The Web, whom Ron Goulart calls two of the “bloodier” heroes of the MLJ lineup, continue to fascinate artists today. This moody drawing by current comics illustrator Buzz was drawn as a commission piece for Michael Dunne; our thanks both Buzz and Bob for sending copies to us. [Hangman & The Web TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

I’m Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. DeMille!

Didja know that MLJ published “real” magazines as well as comics? Close-Up—a showcase for gag cartoons and “cheesecake” photo features—was utilized for a bit of cross-advertising, as per the blurb on the cover of the August 1941 issue that proclaims: “Comics Exposed.” [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] The following four pages spotlight the photos and text of that feature, and were provided by comics researcher Mike Catron. What’s more, Mike contacted an important personage at Archie Comics for his reaction to this long-lost piece: Michael Silberkleit, son of one of MLJ’s cofounders… who, sadly, died of cancer only a few months after he penned this note to Mike: “This is great. The publisher behind the desk is none other than my dad Louis Silberkleit, age 41…. Harry Shorten [see “p. 11”] was the first editor of the Archie [MLJ] Comics. I don’t recall when he left; it was some time in the late ‘50s. My partner Richard Goldwater, John’s son, took over as editor working under John, who was editor in chief.”

In a second e-mail, related to the guys shown writing and drawing, Michael Silberkleit wrote a bit later: “I think the artist drawing The Shield is Irv Novick and the one drawing Steel Sterling is Charlie Biro. I highly doubt the models were employees. They probably were hired for the shoot.”

Probably so, but the artist drawing Steel Sterling on “page 10” is identified as “Mr. Hubbell.”

If that’s correct, it’d be Carl Hubbell, who was drawing for MLJ at this time. The “Mr. Blair” on “p. 10” is, of course, the ubiquitous scripter, Joe Blair… while seen on “p. 11” is writer and editor Harry Shorten. And that “handsome artist” at the top of “p. 12” may well be Charlie Biro, future editor/writer/artist for Lev Gleason Publications’ Boy Comics, Daredevil, and Crime Does Not Pay. Anybody got any idea who the other artists might be? “Madam Satan” was being drawn at this time by Harry Lucey, so maybe….

Oh, and the editor of Close-Up in 1941, according to Mike Catron, was N.L. Fallon, who was later partnered for a while with artist Dick Sprang and inked one or two of his early “Batman” stories for DC Comics.

o Alter Eg Bonus!

All The Way With MLJ! The following four pages of photos and captions appeared in MLJ’s Close-Up magazine dated April 1941, and are ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Special thanks to Mike Catron.

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

All The Way With MLJ!

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The Story Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie

All The Way With MLJ!

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It Pays To Advertise MLJ sure believed in plugging its product! Pep Comics #15 (May 1941) sported full-page ads for both of its omnibus titles: Shield-Wizard Comics and Jackpot Comics. More about those two—as well as Hangman and its successor Black Hood—in the Nolan “MLJ Index” that follows! Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

[Continued from p. 15]

The MLJ Quarterlies—And The End Of The Line After starting up four monthlies, MLJ tried a few quarterlies. The first of these was Shield-Wizard Comics, which appeared in the summer of 1940. What you got was a team-up of the star of Pep with the star of TopNotch, featuring separate adventures of each, usually three of “The Shield,” two of “The Wizard.” In issues #3 and 4, Mort Meskin did an impressive, though a mite rushed, job drawing the mustached Wizard and his companion Roy the Super-Boy. The following spring Jackpot Comics hit the stands, offering a hero from each of the four monthlies in separate adventures. The basic quartet consisted of “Steel Sterling,” “The Black Hood,” “Mr. Justice,” and “Sergeant Boyle.” “Archie” was added in #4, and other humor strips arrive later, with even “Cubby the Bear” doing a turn. Jackpot got through nine issues, before expiring in the spring of 1943.

The Hangman, one of the more violent MLJ vigilantes, got his own magazine late in 1941. There were three of his gruesome cases to be found in each issue: “Cruise of the Skeletons,” “The Voice of Doom,” “Gallows and the Ghoul,” etc. He shared his magazine with “The Boy Buddies,” a dull duo made up of the

Shield’s sidekick Dusty and the Wiz’s Roy. Hangman was tossed out of his own magazine after the eighth issue (Fall 1943), and it became Black Hood. When that one closed up shop in the middle of 1946, MLJ was just about out of the hero business.

MLJ, eventually changing its name to Archie Comics, continues to this day. Noted mostly for purveying the antics of funny teenagers, it has made occasional attempts to revive some of the heroes we’ve been talking about in our modest history: The Shield, Steel Sterling, The Fox, The Comet, etc.

Thus far, all attempts have met with less than success, and one reason may be that these brash, flamboyant, and sometimes dippy super-heroes and masked avengers were much better suited to the hardboiled yet comparatively innocent decade of the ‘40s.

Ron Goulart is an acclaimed writer of fiction in the fields of mystery and science-fiction, as well as having scripted comic books (for Marvel) and comic strips (Star Hawks with Gil Kane). He has also written numerous volumes on the history of comic books and pulp magazines. This combination of Ron’s photo and a vintage comic book cover appeared in his hardcover history Comic Book Culture, published in 2000 by Collectors Press, Inc. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

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The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948) A Skeleton Key To The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

by Mike Nolan

A Hero Sandwich Nary a super-hero in sight! Above are Norman Danberg’s cover for Blue Ribbon Comics #1 (Nov. 1939), the first comic book ever published by MLJ—and Al Fagaly’s cover for the firm’s last Golden Age issue which contained a super-hero story: the then-quarterly Pep Comics #65 (Jan. 1948). Of course, by that time, MLJ had been rechristened Archie Comics after its major moneymaker, and its last super-hero standing, The Shield, hadn’t appeared on a cover since Pep #50, more than three years earlier. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher for the Blue Ribbon scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] In between those two covers, however, the company had definitely provided the makings of a very ample hero sandwich, as per veteran pro artist Bob McLeod’s commission drawing of an even dozen super-doers, done for collector Michael Dunne and generously shared with us by both gents.

(Left to right, back row:) The Firefly, The Web, The Fox, The Hangman, Steel Sterling, Captain Flag. (L. to r., front row:) The Comet, Inferno, The Shield, Dusty the Boy Detective, Black Hood, Mr. Justice. Alas, The Firefly had to be left off on Alter Ego’s own color-splashed cover, so the remaining figures could be a bit bigger. [Characters TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in issue #57, we were proud to reprint Mike Nolan’s Timely Comic Index, which had been published in 1969 as a compendium of certain key information about the Timely/Atlas/Marvel super-heroes from 1939 through 1957. This presentation not only gave us a chance to share a mass of informative and potentially entertaining data (including the names, lengths, and comic book sources of the stories), but to feature a myriad of old and even new artwork along with it. The piece was so well received that we asked permission to reprint an only-slightly-edited version of the same author’s similar treatment of the costumed stalwarts of MLJ, the company which evolved, over the period of a few years’ time, into the Archie Comic Publications, Inc., that we know today.

As explained below, no attempt was made in the Index to account for writers, artists, editors, and other creative personnel… although, this time around, we’ve preceded this Index with text by Ron Goulart which provides a bit of supplementary history and context, and we feel the two pieces complement each other admirably. In addition, of course, the captions accompanying the artwork hereafter, prepared by Ye Editor often from information (as well as with art) supplied by our evergenerous benefactors, will feature additional tidbits of knowledge.

a 14,000-mile odyssey around the United States and Canada in my beloved 1964 Chevy. As I recall, I acquired the final smidgeons of data on that trip. I’ll never forget its highlights: serving as Phil and Carole Seuling’s assistant on the 1969 New York Comic Convention—the first really large convention with a plethora of big names—and camping out along the Indian River in Florida to see the first manned takeoff for the moon at Cape Kennedy.

Collectors today might ask why I chose a relatively minor company like MLJ along with a major firm like Timely, instead of another big company like Quality or Fawcett. The answer is simple: I thought collectors would appreciate the connection with the then-recent 1960s revivals of MLJ heroes by the Archie Comic Publications folks, even though those characters had been discontinued by 1969. In addition, MLJ produced only 220 comics with super-heroes between 1939 and 1948, and so many people had liked my Nedor Index that I wanted to produce two more indexes as soon as possible.

The late Rick Durell, who built the finest Golden Age collection I have ever seen, had a wonderful MLJ selection as well as his near-complete Timely and DC runs, so he gave me a huge kick-start. Phil Seuling also provided great help from those magic boxes in the workroom at his apartment adjacent to Coney Island in Brooklyn. I remember being

But now, we’ll let Michelle Nolan tell the story in her own inimitable way:

MLJ Redux (And Re-Redux)

W

by Michelle Nolan (2008)

hen I published The MLJ Comic Index nearly four decades ago, I never could have imagined that people would seriously ask me four decades later about this piece of archaic comic book memorabilia. The MLJ Index is now older than the original Golden Age comic books it covered were when it first appeared!

Considering that Rascally Roy Thomas printed in Alter Ego #57 (March 2006) a far superior version of my original Timely Comic Index, I wasn’t shocked when he called me a couple of years later to inquire about the rights to my MLJ Index. But of course I replied: reprint to your heart’s content. Considering that I had no illustrations in the original Index other than Rudi Franke’s cover, not to mention that I typed it on my parents’ 1950s Royal portable typewriter, what you now hold in your hands in far, far superior to the primitive product I produced when I was 21 years old.

I am proud, however, that I was the first collector to print issue-by-issue indexes of 1940s comic books, which made historical artifacts out of the Timely and MLJ Indexes (1969) and my Nedor Index (1968). They are still historic, if only because they seem incredibly old today. The indexes, which originally sold for 75¢ or $1, paid for a lot of meals when I was hitting the road as a young journalist in search of adventure as well as old books, comics, and pulps in all 48 contiguous states.

I finished gathering information on the MLJ and Timely books at the end of the summer in 1969, after spending eight weeks on

Cover Story With our re-presentation of the Timely Comic Index back in A/E #57, we ran this same fine caricature of indexer Michelle Nolan, rendered by the late great Golden Age artist Creig Flessel. This time, though, she’s holding 1960s fan-artist Rudy Franke’s striking cover for the original 1969 edition of MLJ Comic Index, which depicts The Web, Hangman, and The Shield. It was the only artwork in the publication. The Flessel drawing long headed Michelle’s column on vintage comics in the magazine Comic Book Marketplace. [Heroes TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; caricature © the respective copyright holders]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

enchanted by the previously unseen heroics of The Shield, Steel Sterling, The Black Hood, Captain Flag, and all the rest.

MLJ comics must not have sold very well, because I can’t ever remember seeing a single one when I was first digging out old comics in second-hand book stores from age 8 in 1956 to age 17 in 1965. I found quite a few 1940s comics, especially those from DC, Dell, and Fiction House, but I spotted nary a single MLJ. Of course, since the vast majority of MLJ’s issues were produced during or before World War II, most of them must have been dispatched to paper drives. By the same token, early issues of Archie Comics have always been much tougher to find, too, than contemporary comics from DC and others.

So, when I received my first exposure to MLJ in the mid-1960s, those seemingly ancient characters seemed exotic indeed. In 1959, when the Archie group produced two issues of The Double Life of Private Strong, I had no idea that there had been, as the company was to put it so many years later, an “Original Shield.” Nor did the Archie folks provide any hint that Lancelot Strong (a.k.a. The Shield) was something of a knockoff, in contrast to the informative way DC Comics taught those of us who bought Showcase #4 in 1956 that there had been an earlier Flash. I loved that short-lived Private Strong series, although even at age 11 I thought The Double Life of Private Strong was just an awful title for a comic book.

That’s why, as a budding comic book historian, I was so captivated by Fly-Man #31 (May 1965), the issue that resumed that series after a hiatus of eight months. The Archie company came late to the revival party, and brought with it a high-camp approach compared to those of DC and Timely, but it was still fun, especially at only 12¢ per copy. Without those 1965-67 Archie revival issues, I probably never would have done an MLJ Index.

I suppose there is some collector out there with a complete set of all 220 MLJs, but I have no idea who it is. Even in the pre-Overstreet Price Guide days of 1969, I could not imagine anyone collecting all of them when I wrote my “Poor Man’s Guide to Collecting Expensive MLJs” at the end of the Index. Now, of course, I can only sigh when I look at sentences like: “Even this [collecting a representative sampling of 20 to 25 of the best MLJs) is likely to cost a couple hundred dollars in this day of high prices for old comics books, but it will be worth it.”

I’ve also been charmed by Roy’s story of being heartbroken when his 10-year-old self opened the mail in 1951, only to find that his subscription to All-Star Comics had been replaced by one for its new replacement, AllStar Western. I had a similar epiphany, albeit as a young adult, when I learned The Shield and his partner Dusty had been discontinued in Pep Comics when I first discovered Pep #66 (March 1948).

Pep Comics #66, ironically the issue on the stands the day I was born, did not have a “Shield and Dusty” story, but the issue did contain a message from The Shield on the inside front cover. It was headlined “Farewell!!!” (with three exclamation points), explaining how “a very

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

25

heavy schedule by the FBI” would prevent further appearances by the costumed pair. Archie continued the message with news about how the Shield G-Man Club would become the new Archie Club. I have never seen any other publisher make such an announcement, passing the baton from one iconic character to another. DC, for example, let the Justice Society depart with All-Star #57 without so much as a hint to the little Rascally One or any other reader.

That announcement in Pep #66 told me where to end my Index, since I already knew The Shield and Dusty were the last of the company’s superheroes. So, in the space of four years, I had gone from never having seen an MLJ hero to having seen all of them in every issue in which they had ever appeared. That might be why The MLJ Index is particularly nostalgic for me, symbolizing as it does the growth of a young comics historian.

Pep Comics #66 also vividly shows the transition from Golden Age to beyond. Whereas #65 had contained only one story about Archie Andrews, #66 also had stories devoted to Betty and Veronica and Jughead.

For those who missed my new introduction to The Timely Index in A/E #57 (still available from TwoMorrows), I should explain why I included no art credits—not to mention no art!—in The MLJ Index.

There were two good reasons: (1) I didn’t know nearly enough to list the art; and (2) I didn’t care. I just wanted to know what characters were in the comic books and to pass that information along for the first time. To include art, as well, would have cost me way more than I could have afforded to print the Index—and would have delayed production indefinitely. Rascally Roy, however, has more than made up for my admittedly short-sighted approach.

By the way, in recent years a few people have duplicated my Indexes and sold them on eBay. I am even told that some of these scoundrels continue to try to sell them as originals. Beware! I have never authorized such duplication and I consider it a copyright infringement. I hope none of you Alter Ego readers have been victimized by this scam.

So what more can I say than “Thanks, Roy!!!” with three more exclamation points. (If it was good enough for The Shield, it’s still good enough for me.) I hope all of you enjoy having this ancient piece of comic book fandom history available again.

Introduction and Acknowledgements (1969) This is the fourth in a series of comic book indexes which, I hope, are proving of value to comics fandom. I believe they will be useful reference tools and collector guides, and so far the reaction from the nation’s fans has been favorable.

But, as in my other index projects, no one person alone could ever compile such a work. I’ve been very fortunate to have the help of many top collectors and dealers in my research, and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to give them as much as they have given me, both in information and personal hospitality when I came knocking. While space does not permit listing everyone who has helped in my projects, I would like to pass along special thanks to the following: Rudy Franke, Raymond Miller, Phil Seuling, Rick Durell, Len Brown & Collector’s Books, Bill Thailing, John Barrett, Howard Keltner, Richard Burgess, Gene Krey, Dick Hoffman, M. C. Goodwin, Burt Blum & Cherokee Books, and Steve Edrington & Bond St. Books. My apologies to anyone overlooked—and thanks to all others who helped.

Write to: Robin Snyder, 3745 Canterbury Lane #81, Bellingham, WA 98225-1186

Since this index was compiled with the help of so many, not to mention typed by me (terrific risk there), any corrections and/or additions are welcome. An errata will be published later, if necessary, and letters of comment are also welcome. I want to make future indexes as good as possible at a reasonable cost.

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I. The Features Of MLJ – Title By Title Blue Ribbon Comics #1-22 Rang-A-Tang the Wonder Dog with Richy the Amazing Boy #1-22 Dan Hastings #1-2 Buck Stacey #1-2 Crime on the Run #1, 3 Burk of the Briny #1 Little Nemo #1 Village of the Missing Men #1 Humor Features #1 Corporal Collins, Infantryman #2-22 Bob Phantom #2-3 Scoop Cody #2-3 Devils of the Deep #2-3 Secret Assignments #2-3 The Silver Fox #2-3 Loop Logan, Air Ace #3-20 The Fox #4-22 Ty-Gor #4-20 The Green Falcon #4-15 Doc Strong #4-12 Hercules #4-8 Gypsy Johnson, #4-8 Mr. Justice #9-22 Steve Stacey, Sky Detective #9-12

Inferno #13-19 Penny Parker #13-15 Captain Flag #16-22 Tales from the Witch’s Cauldron #20-22 True Life Stories #21-22

Cover Features Rang-A-Tang #1-2, 6, 8 Corporal Collins #3-5, 16, 20 The Fox #7, 16 Richy #7, 16 Mr. Justice #9-18 Captain Flag #16-22 Inferno #16 Ty-Gor #16

Top-Notch Comics #1-45 The Wizard #1-27 Kardak, the Mystic #1-2, 4-29 Wings Johnson #1-6, 8-27 West Pointer (Keith Kornell) #1-7, 9-20, 22-27 Scott Rand #1-3 Swift of the Secret Service #1-3 Manhunters #1-3 Lucky Coyne, Undercover Man #1

Dick Storm #2-8 Stacey Knight, M.D. #2-4 Bob Phantom #3-25 Moore of the Mounted #4 Streak Chandler on Mars #4-8 Galahad #5-11 Shanghai Sheridan #5-8 The Firefly #8-27 Fran Frazer #9-25 Black Hood #9-44 St. Louis Kid #12-27 True Life Stories #26-27 Snoop McGook #26-45 The Lost Legion #28 Pokey Oakey #28-45 Senor Siesta #28-44 Suzie #28-45 3 Monkeyteers #28-43 Percy #28-36 Canvasback Corkle #28 Hall of Fame #29-32 Gloomy Gus #29-45 Dotty and Ditto #33-45 Stupidman #44, 45 Wilbur #45 Twiddles #45

Cover Features

Mr. Wizard This full-page ad for Top-Notch Comics #1 took up the inside front cover of Blue Ribbon Comics #2, which went on sale with a cover date of Dec. 1939—only one month after Blue Ribbon #1. The Wizard drawing, probably by original artist Edd Ashe, depicts the hero as the Mandrake the Magician lookalike he originally was, before he picked up a redand-blue super-hero costume—quite possibly off Clark Kent’s washline (see p. 7). Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The Wizard #1-8, 11-13, 15-22, 25 Black Hood #9-34, 41, 43 Roy #9, 14, 23-26 Pokey Oakey #28-44 Most other comical characters #28-45

Pep Comics #1-65 The Shield #1-65 Bentley of Scotland Yard #1-41 Sgt. Boyle #1-39 Kayo Ward #1-28 The Midshipman (a.k.a., Lee Sampson, Midshipman) #1-16 The Comet #1-16 The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds #1-12 Fu Chang, International Detective #1-11 The Press Guardian #1-11 Danny In Wonderland #12-39 The Fireball #12-20 Lucky Larson #13-15 Madame Satan #16-21 The Hangman #17-47 Jolly Roger and His Sky Pirates #21-27

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

27

The Web #27-35 Red Rube #40-47 Applejack #36-38 Senor Banana #36, 38-39 Ginger #36-37 Woody the Woodpecker #36-37

Shield-Wizard Comics #1-13 The Shield #1-13 The Wizard #1-13 Dusty #5-12 Roy the Super Boy #8, 10-13 Hall of Fame #9

Shield Me! Irv Novick’s cover for Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940). Happily, a number of the earliest “Shield” stories from Pep (as well as from Shield-Wizard Comics) were reprinted in the 2002 trade paperback America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero, The Shield. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher for the scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Archie #22-65 Wings Johnson #28 Captain Commando #30-52, 54, 56 Catfish Joe #40-48 Li’l Chief Bugaboo #40-47 Marco Loco #42-52 Black Hood #49-51, 59-60 Suzie #52-59 The Twiddles #53-58, 61, 63 Pokey Oakey #53, 55 Willy the Wise Guy #54-57, 59-60, 64-65 Hotfoot Hobo #57-58 Dotty and Ditto #57-58 Gloomy Gus #59, 61-65 Katy Keene #60-65 Lil Jinx #62-65

Cover Features The Shield #1-27, 29-46, 48-49 The Hangman #17-40, 42 Archie #36, 41-65

Zip Comics #1-47 Steel Sterling #1-47 Zambini, Miracle Man #1-35

War Eagles, the Devil’s Flying Twins #1-27 Captain Valor #1-26 Nevada Jones, Cattle Detective #1-25 Scarlet Avenger #1-17 Kalthar, King of the Jungle #1-9 Mr. Satan #1-9 Dicky In the Magic Forest #10-26 Red Reagan of the Homicide Squad #10-19 Wilbur #18-45 Black Jack #20-35 Black Witch #26-29, 34 The Web # 27-38 Hall of Fame #28-35, 38 Zoom O’Day #30-32 Hall of Shame #33 Ginger #35-47 Senor Banana #36-46 Applejacks #36-46 Chimpy #36-37, 39-45 Woody the Woodpecker #36-37 Red Rube #39-47 Flying Dragons #46

Cover Features Steel Sterling #1-43, 46-47 Black Jack #20-27, 31

Cover Features The Shield #1-13 The Wizard #1-13 Dusty #5-11 Roy #8

Jackpot Comics #1-9 Black Hood #1-9 Mr. Justice #1-9 Steel Sterling #1-9 Sgt. Boyle #1-8 Archie #4-9 Clancy and Looney #5-9 Hall of Fame #6 Senor Siesta #7 Cubby #8 Porkchops #9

Cover Features Steel Sterling #1-9 Black Hood #1-9 Mr. Justice #1-9

Special Comics/ Hangman/Black Hood #1-19 Hangman # 1-9 Boy Buddies #1-11 Hall of Shame # 6 Super Duck #8 Black Hood #9-19 Dusty #10 Flying Dragons #12-13 Bentley of Scotland Yard #14 Gloomy Gus #15-19

Cover Features Hangman #1-8 Boy Buddies #1-6 Black Hood 9-19

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The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

II. The MLJ Heroes And Their Stories [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is a listing of all super-heroes published by MLJ between 1939 and 1948. The characters are listed in descending order based on the number of stories about him (there were no “hers”) published during that period. That number, in parentheses, follows the hero’s name. Of course, some stories were longer than others. Following each name is a list of, so far as was ascertained, each and every vintage comic book in which that character was featured. The comics beneath each hero’s name are listed in the order in which the comic book titles were launched, not necessarily the order in which the named character debuted in them. If he appeared in more than one comics title, the magazine series in which he first appeared (as judged by cover date) is preceded by an asterisk (*). The issue in which the hero’s origin, if any, was first related is indicated by a parenthetical note. Some origin information may be taken from Dr. Jerry G. Bails’ equally monumental work Collector’s Guide to the First Heroic Age, which, by coincidence, was also published in 1969. Hero appearances in those two-page text stories the Post Office required aren’t counted. Like we said back in A/E #57, you have to draw the line someplace.]

The Shield (99)

Shield-Wizard/Black Hood/Special/Hangman # 1-9

*Pep #1-65 Shield-Wizard #1-13

The Wizard (54)

Black Hood (82)

*Top Notch #1-27 Shield-Wizard #1-13

*Top Notch #9-44 Black Hood #9-19

Zambini (35)

Jackpot #1-9

Zip #1-35

Pep #49-51, 59-60

Steel Sterling (57) *Zip #1-47 Jackpot #1-9

The Hangman (56) *Pep #17-47

The Hangman Cometh

Kardak (28) Top-Notch #1-2, 4-29

Harry Lucey’s cover for Special Comics #1 (Winter 1942), the mag that became The Hangman Comics with its second issue. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Bob Phantom (25)

Captain Commando (25)

*Blue Ribbon #2-3

Pep #30-52, 54, 56

Top-Notch #3-25

Mr. Justice (23) Blue Ribbon #9-22 Jackpot #1-9

The Firefly (20) Top-Notch #8-27

Boy Buddies (19) Shield/Black Hood/Hangman #1-9, 11

The Fox (19) Blue Ribbon #4-22

Steel Yourself!

Charles Biro’s splash panel for Zip Comics #2 (March 1940); Biro was apparently the writer as well as the artist of the early stories. The splash retold Steel Sterling’s unique origin—he’d leaped headfirst into a vat of molten steel! Somehow, we kinda suspect that wouldn’t work for most people.

Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

The Scarlet Avenger (17)

The Fireball (9)

Zip #1-17

Pep #12-20

Black Jack (16)

The Red Rube (9)

Zip #20-35

Zip #39-47

The Comet (16)

Mr. Satan (9)

Pep #1-16

Zip #1-9

The Web (12)

Captain Flag (7)

Zip #27-38

Blue Ribbon #16-22

The Press Guardian (11)

Inferno (7)

Pep #1-11

Blue Ribbon #1-19

Dusty (9)

Madame Satan (6)

*Shield-Wizard #5-12

Pep #16-21

Black Hood #10

29

Roy the Super Boy (5) Shield-Wizard #8, 10-13

III. The MLJ Comics [NOTE: Total number of stories is in parenthesis. Also, a few titles didn’t make it into the original Index, so the Grand Comics Data Base (www.comics.org) was consulted in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we thank them for their help.]

Was His Other Nickname “Rascally,” Too?

Blue Ribbon Comics

At the bottom of the super-hero heap, at least in terms of solo stories, is Roy the Super Boy (no relation to Ye Editor). However, he also costarred with The Wizard is many other stories, as well as with Dusty the Boy Detective in the long-lived “Boy Buddies” series. This splash for Shield-Wizard Comics #10 was drawn by Ed Robbins. Script credited to Harry Shorten. Thanks to an unknown benefactor for the scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#1 — Nov. 1939 Rang-A-Tang [origin] Dan Hastings Buck Stacey “A Bad Bargain” Burk of the Briny Village of the Missing Men Little Nemo Crime on the Run “The Murderous Red Keenan Gang” Several 2-page humor featurettes

6 10 5 5 6 4 7

#2 — Dec. 1939 Rang-A-Tang Dan Hastings Buck Stacey Bob Phantom “The Scourge of the Underworld” [origin] Scoop Cody Devils of the Deep Secret Assignments Silver Fox [origin] Corporal Collin

10 5 5 6 6 5 5 5 5

#3 — Jan. 1940 Rang-A-Tang

0

Stuart (“Loop”) Logan “Mystery Thriller of the Month” Silver Fox Scoop Cody “The Story of the Famous Pope Diamond Mystery” Corporal Collins Devils of the Deep Secret Assignments “The Lost Ship” Bob Phantom Crime on the Run “The Los Angeles Killers

#5 — July 1940 6 5 6 6 6 6 6 6

#4 — June 1940 Rang-A-Tang 11 Hercules “Slays the Lion of Nemea” [origin] 8 Gypsy Johnson 5 6 The Fox [origin] Corporal Collins 6 6 Ty-Gor [origin] 7 Doc Strong “The Isle of Right” [origin] Loop Logan 6 Green Falcon 6

Rang-A-Tang Hercules “Slaying the Hydra of Lema” Gypsy Johnson The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong Loop Logan Green Falcon

11 8 5 6 7 6 6 6 6

#6 — Sept. 1940 Rang-A-Tang 11 Hercules “Cleans the Stables of King Augeais” 8 Gypsy Johnson 5 The Fox 6 Corporal Collins 7 Ty-Gor 6 Doc Strong 6 Loop Logan 6 Green Falcon 6

30

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Twofers Blue Ribbon #4 actually introduced two super-heroes, at least by a loose definition of the term: Hercules, who’d been brought to modern times to duplicate his Twelve Labors of ancient times (art by Elmer Wexler), and The Fox, a Batman type written by Joe Blair and drawn by Irwin Hasen. All three creators received bylines, but the writer of “Hercules” is less certain, though the feature is generally credited to Blair. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#7 — Nov. 1940

#10 — March 1941

Rang-A-Tang 11 Hercules “Captures the Boar of Erymanthus” 8 Gypsy Johnson 5 The Fox 6 Corporal Collins 7 Ty-Gor 6 Doc Strong 6 Loop Logan 6 Green Falcon 6

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Steve Stacey Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong “And the Isle of Right” Loop Logan The Green Falcon

#8 — Jan. 1941

#11, April 1941

Rang-A-Tang Hercules “Routes the Fierce Unconquered Amazons” Gypsy Johnson The Fox “Goes to a Nightclub” Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong Loop Logan Green Falcon

11 8 5 6 7 6 6 6 6

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Steve Stacey Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong Loop Logan Green Falcon

#13 — June 1941 10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

Mr. Justice [origin] Rang-A-Tang The Fox Steve Stacey Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong Loop Logan Green Falcon

10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Steve Stacey Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Doc Strong Loop Logan Green Falcon

10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

#14 — July 1941 10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

#12 — May 1941 #9 — Feb. 1941

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Penny Parker Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno [origin] Loop Logan Green Falcon

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Penny Parker Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Loop Logan Green Falcon

10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

#15 — Aug. 1941 10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Penny Parker Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Hoop Logan Green Falcon

10 11 6 4 7 6 6 6 5

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

#16, Sept. 1941 Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Loop Logan Captain Flag [origin]

#19 — Dec. 1941 10 11 6 7 6 6 6 9

#17 — Oct.1941 Mr. Justice Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Loop Logan Captain Flag

Captain Flag Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Loop Logan Mr. Justice

#22 — March 1942 10 9 6 8 6 6 6 9

#20 — Jan. 1942 10 11 6 7 6 6 6 9

#18 — Nov. 1941 Captain Flag “Vs. The Black Hand” Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Inferno Loop Logan Mr. Justice “Vs. the Green Ghoul in the World of the Atom”

31

Captain Flag Bang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Ty-Gor Tales from the Witch’s Cauldron Loop Logan Mr. Justice

Captain Flag Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Yellow Jack [story of yellow fever] Tales From the Witch’s Cauldron Galileo [true story] Mr. Justice

9

So Why No “Mighty League Of Justice”?

By the time of Blue Ribbon #13, MLJ’s flagship title had several companion comics, all starring superheroes… as per this ad from that issue’s inside front cover. “Mr. Justice” art by Sam Cooper. [©2008 Archie Publications, Inc.]

11 9 6 8 6 6 6 9

Top-Notch Comics 10 10 6 8 6 6 6 9

#21 — Feb. 1942 9 11 6 7 6 6 6

Captain Flag Rang-A-Tang The Fox Corporal Collins Beethoven [true story] Tales from the Witch’s Cauldron Leonardo DaVinci [true story] Mr. Justice [origin retold in flashback]

10 10 6 8 6 6 6 9

#1 — Dec. 1939 The Wizard [origin] Scott Rand “In the Worlds of Time” Swift of the S.S. Air Patrol [Wings Johnson - origin] Lucky Coyne The Mystic [Kardak] West Pointer [Keith Kornell] Manhunters “Master Forgers”

11 6 6 5 5 5 6 6

#2 — Jan. 1940 The Wizard Scott Rand West Pointer The Mystic [Kardak] Manhunters Swift of the Secret Service

10 6 6 6 6 6

32

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Witch Way To Dr. Wertham’s Office?

By the 22nd and final issue of Blue Ribbon, a continuing anthology feature was in its third outing: “Tales from the Witch’s Cauldron,” which may look to some readers like a predecessor of EC’s famed “ghoulunatics.”

In point of fact, though, a popular series called The Witch’s Tale had begun on radio in 1931, with stories introduced by an old witch named Nancy who was the grandmammy of them all, pre-dating even Raymond, the eerie host of radio’s betterknown Inner Sanctum, by a full decade!

Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Air Patrol Dick Storm “In the Foreign Legion” Stacey Knight, M.D.

8 6 6

Stacey Knight, M.D. West Pointer Kardak

6 5 6

#7 — Aug. 1940 Wizard (Shield guest) Galahad Shanghai Sheridan Streak Chandler Dick Storm “In India” [Part 1] Bob Phantom Keith Kornell (The West Pointer) Kardak

13 6 6 5 6 6 5 6

#8 — Sept. 1940 The Wizard and Roy [origin of Roy] The Firefly [origin] Galahad Shanghai Sheridan Streak Chandler Wings Johnson Dick Storm “In India” [Part 2] Bob Phantom “The Mystery of the Kidnapped Policemen” Kardak

13 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

#9 — Oct. 1940 Black Hood [origin] Galahad Firefly Fran Frazer The Wizard and Roy Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Keith Kornell Kardak

13 6 8 4 8 6 6 5 6

#10 — Dec. 1940 #3 — Feb. 1940

#5 — May 1940

The Wizard “Vs. the Borentals” 11 Scott Rand “On Mars” 5 West Pointer 5 Bob Phantom “Vs. the Trigger Slum Gang” 6 Manhunters 6 Swift of the Secret Service 6 Wings Johnson “Sky Raiders of the Western Front” 8 Dick Storm “In China” 6 Stacey Knight, M.D. 6

Wizard [Shield and West Pointer guest] Galahad Shanghai Sheridan [origin] Streak Chandler Wings Johnson Dick Storm “On the Island of the Devil Devil Doctor” Bob Phantom West Pointer Kardak

#4 — April 1940

#6 — June 1940

The Wizard 11 Dick Storm “In South America” 6 Moore of the Mounted 6 Streak Chandler 6 Wings Johnson “Sky Raiders of the Western Front” 8 Bob Phantom “Immigrant Smugglers Meet With Doom When Bob Phantom Rides the Skyways” 6

The Wizard Galahad Shanghai Sheridan Streak Chandler Wings Johnson Dick Storm Bob Phantom West Pointer Kardak

11 6 6 6 8 6 6 5 6

11 6 6 6 8 6 6 5 6

Black Hood Galahad The Firefly “Enemy of Crime” Fran Frazer The Wizard and Roy Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Keith Kornell Kardak

14 6 8 4 8 6 6 5 5

#11 — Jan. 1940 Black Hood “The Case of the Infants of Death” 14 Wizard and Roy 8 Fran Frazer 5 Keith Kornell 5 The Firefly “Introducing the Mummy” 8 Galahad 6 Wings Johnson 6 Bob Phantom “Death Stalks the Prize Ring” 6 6 Kardak “In the Land of Ice” [Part 6]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

#12 — Feb. 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid [origin] Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 8 4 5 8 6 6 6 5

#13 — March 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#14 — April 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#15 — May 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy

14 10

Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

33

4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#16 — June 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#17 — July 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid “Barred From the Ring” Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#18 — Aug. 1941 Black Hood “The Return of The Skull” [title taken from cover] The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell

14 10 4 5

The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

6 6 6 6 5

#19 — Sept. 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy “Vendetta” Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#20 — Oct. 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly “The Whirling Dervish” St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#21 — Nov. 1941 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 9 6 6 6 6 5

#22 — Dec. 1941

Fighting Fire With Firefly Warren King used the name “B. King” when drawing “The Firefly” in issues of TopNotch Comics.

These dark, moody panels appeared in issue #14.

Thanks to Joe Carroll. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Black Hood “The Stars Drip Blood” The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly The St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#23 — Jan. 1942 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly “In India” St. Louis Kid

14 10 4 5 6 6

34

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Get That Through Your Thick Skull!

The Skull fought The Black Hood a number of times—but it all came to a head in Top-Notch #1, at the end of which the grotesque murderer was duly executed. Guess there was no human face under that mask!

Thanks to Joe Carroll. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Hoodwinked As per the notice at the end of the “Black Hood” story in Top Notch Comics #19, that costumed crime-fighter had become popular enough that MLJ decided to star him in a pulp magazine all its own. Alas, it lasted only three issues, even with a title change by #2. Fans of super-heroes wanted to see those colorful costumes, it seemed, not just read about them. Thanks to Matt Moring. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

6 6 5

#24 — Feb. 1942 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

#25 — March 1942 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy Fran Frazer Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid Wings Johnson Bob Phantom Kardak

14 10 4 5 6 6 6 6 5

35

The Boys N The Hood One issue (#27), The Black Hood was headlining TopNotch Comics… the next, the mag’s name had been changed to Top-Notch Laugh Comics, with the masked man reduced to pulling Pokey Oakey, a Li’l Abner type, out of a bottle. That was one genie no super-hero could put back into the bottle, and the title would eventually be changed to just Laugh Comics, an “Archie” vehicle with no room for the Hood. The cover of #28 is credited to Bob Montana… even though the latter was pretty busy with the Riverdale kid by that time. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#26 — April 1942 Black Hood 13 The Wizard and Roy “The Jingler of Death” 11 True Life Stories “Benvenuto Cellini” 6 Keith Kornell 5 The Firefly 6 St. Louis Kid 6 Wings Johnson 6 Snoop McGook 4 Kardak 6

#27 — May 1942 Black Hood The Wizard and Roy True Life Stories “The Wright Brothers” Keith Kornell The Firefly St. Louis Kid “That’s Right! It’s the Golden Gloves” Wings Johnson Snoop McGook Kardak

13 11 6 5 6 6 6 4 5

[NOTE: Title changed to Top-Notch Laugh Comics with issue #28.]

#28 — July 1942 Black Hood The Lost Legion Kardak Pokey Oakey

10 6 5 7

Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Suzie Canvas Back Corkle Percy 3 Monkeyteers

5 5 5 6 6 5

#29 — Sept. 1942 Pokey Oakey Black Hood Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus [origin] Suzie Hall of Fame Percy 3 Monkeyteers Kardak

6 10 5 6 5 5 5 5 5 5

#30 — Nov. 1942 Black Hood “Quest For Revenge” Hall of Fame Pokey Oakey Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Suzie Percy 3 Monkeyteers

10 6 9 5 6 5 6 6 6

#31 — Dec. 1942 Pokey Oakey Black Hood “Black Hood’s Last Case” Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Susie Percy 3 Monkeyteers Hall of Fame

9 10 5 6 6 6 6 6 6

#32 — Jan. 1943 Black Hood “The Doctor Who Was Twins” 10 Hall of Fame 6 Pokey Oakey 6 Senor Siesta 6 Snoop McGook 6 Gloomy Gus 6 Suzie 6 Percy 6 3 Monkeyteers 6

#33 — Feb. 1943 Pokey Oakey Black Hood Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus

6 9 6 6 6

36

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Those Were The Days…

Ah, but Top-Notch had had its moments. Here, for example, from lucky issue #13, are pulse-pounding panels from tales of “The Black Hood” (art by Al Camy, script by Harry Shorten), “The Wizard” (unsigned art may or may not be Camy), “The Firefly” (B. King), and “Bob Phantom” (art by Ramona Patenaude, script by Joe Blair). Thanks to Jim Amash. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Suzie Percy 3 Monkeyteers Dotty and Ditto

6 6 6 6

#34 — March 1943 Pokey Oakey Black Hood Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Suzie Percy 3 Monkeyteers Dotty and Ditto

6 10 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

#35 — April 1943 Black Hood “Hill of Death” Pokey Oakey Senor Siesta

10 6 6

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

37

Power And Destruction The Shield’s powers, as per the splash-page caption shown on p. 59 of this issue, were originally all in his costume, which indeed suggested a shield, and which was given to him by the FBI…while The Comet was a self-made man.

“The Shield” was by Shorten and Novick, “The Comet” was the work of Jack Cole. This art is from Pep Comics #1, whose cover was seen on p. 27. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Pokey Oakey Snoop McGook Suzie Senior Siesta 3 Monkeyteers Gloomy Gus Dotty and Ditto

6 5 6 6 6 6 6

#41 — Nov. 1943 Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Suzie 3 Monkeyteers Percy Dotty and Ditto

6 6 6 6 6 6

#36 — May 1943 Pokey Oakey Black Hood “Murder on Display” Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Suzie 3 Monkeyteers Percy Dotty and Ditto

6 10 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

#37 — July 1943 Black Hood “The Living Wish” Pokey Oakey Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Suzie

8 6 6 5 6 6

3 Monkeyteers Dotty and Ditto

6 6

#38 — Aug. 1943 Pokey Oakey Black Hood “Menu of Death” Senor Siesta Snoop McGook 3 Monkeyteers Suzie Gloomy Gus Dotty and Ditto

6 8 6 5 6 6 6 6

#39 — Sept. 1943 Pokey Oakey Black Hood Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Suzie 3 Monkeyteers Gloomy Gus Dotty and Ditto

6 9 6 5 6 5 6 6

#40 — Oct. 1943 Black Hood

8

Pokey Oakey Black Hood “Amusement Park Murders” Senor Siesta Snoop McGook Suzie 3 Monkeyteers Gloomy Gus Dotty and Ditto

6 9 6 5 6 6 6 6

#42 — Dec. 1943 Pokey Oakey Siesta Suzie Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Black Hood 3 Monkeyteers and Stupidman Dotty and Ditto

6 6 6 5 6 9 6 6

#43 — Feb. 1944 Pokey Oakey Senor Siesta Suzie Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus

6 5 6 4 6

38

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward Bentley

6 7 7 6 6 6 6

#4 — May 1940 Shield The Comet Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman The Rocket “City of the Hawkmen” Kayo Ward Bentley “The Hunchback Horror”

11 7 6 6 7 6 6 6 6

#5 — June 1940 The Buck Stops Here!

Many early super-heroes interfaced with President Franklin D. Roosevelt—as did The Shield, in Pep #6, in a tale dealing with plans to build a new inter-ocean canal across Nicaragua to aid the defense effort. Naturally, by story’s end, it was completed “in an incredibly short time.” Nicaragua, of course, had been one of the original sites considered for what became instead a Panama Canal. Art by Irv Novick. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Black Hood “Battles the Book Worm” Stupidman and the 3 Monkeyteers Dotty and Ditto

9 6 6

#44 — April 1944 Pokey Oakey Senor Siesta Suzie Snoop McGook Gloomy Gus Black Hood Stupidman Dotty and Ditto

6 5 6 4 6 9 6 6

#45 — May 1944 Snoop McGook Pokey Oakey Suzie Stupidman Gloomy Gus Dotty and Ditto Wilbur Twiddles [NOTE: This title became Laugh Comics, with a different lineup.]

5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Pep Comics

Shield The Comet Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Samspon, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward “Ten Straight Knockouts” Bentley

#1 — Jan. 1940

#6 — July 1940

Shield [origin] 10 6 The Comet [origin] 6 Sgt. Boyle [origin] The Queen of Diamonds [with The Rocket] 6 6 Fu Chang [origin] Bentley of Scotland Yard 6 Press Guardian “Klondike Café Robbed” 6 Lee Sampson, Midshipman 5 6 Kayo Ward [origin]

Shield The Comet Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt, Boyle Lee Samspon, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward Bentley “Case of the Roman God”

#2 — Feb. 1940

#7 — Aug. 1940

Shield 10 The Comet 6 The Rocket [and the Queen of Diamonds] 6 Kayo Ward 6 Set. Boyle 6 Press Guardian “Moronia Bund Threatens Editor” 6 Fu Chang 7 Lee Samspon, Midshipman 5 Bentley “The Terror of Rocky Pool” 6

Shield The Comet Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward Bentley “Case of the Congo Curse”

13 6 6 6 7 6 6 6 6

13 6 6 6 7 6 6 6 6

#8 — Sept. 1940

#3 — April 1940 Shield The Comet

11 7 6 6 7 6 6 6 6

11 7

Shield The Comet Press Guardian

13 6 6

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Vampire Murders”

6 7 6 6 6 6

The Comet The Fireball Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman Lucky Larson Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Whistling Doom”

13 6 6 6 7 6 6 6 6

#14 — April 1941

#9 — Nov. 1940 Shield The Comet Press Guardian Fu Chang Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman The Rocket Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Dancing Ghost”

#10 — Dec. 1940 Shield 13 The Comet 6 Press Guardian (a.k.a., Perry Chase, Press Guardian) 6 Fu Chang 6 Sgt. Boyle 7 Lee Sampson, Midshipman 6 The Rocket 6 Kayo Ward 6 Bentley “The Case of the Tarantula Terror” 6

Shield Danny in Wonderland The Comet The Fireball “Fire! Fire!”

Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman Lucky Larson Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Frightened Gangster”

Shield Danny in Wonderland The Comet The Fireball

Shield “Dusty, the Spectacular Boy Detective” 13 [origin of Dusty] The Comet 6 Press Guardian 6 Fu Chang 6 Sgt. Boyle 7 Lee Sampson, Midshipman 6 The Rocket 6 Kayo Ward 6 Bentley “The Riddle of the Whirring Wings” 6

#12 — Feb. 1941

#13 — March 1941 Shield Danny in Wonderland

13 7

6 5 7 6 6 6 6

13 7 6 5 6 6 6 6 6

#15 — May 1941

#11 — Jan. 1941

Shield “Death Rides the Rails” 13 Danny in Wonderland 7 The Comet 6 6 The Fireball [origin] Sgt. Boyle 7 Lee Samspon, Midshipman 6 The Rocket 6 Kayo Ward 6 Bentley “The Case of the Vanishing Ghoul” 6

39

Stop The Presses— He Wants To Get Off! The final Press Guardian appearance was Pep #11, by talented newcomer Mort Meskin. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

13 7 6 5

Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman Lucky Larson Kayo Ward Bentley

7 6 6 6 6

#16 — June 1941 Shield Danny in Wonderland The Comet The Fireball Sgt. Boyle Lee Sampson, Midshipman Madam Satan Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Pirate’s Ghost”

13 7 6 5 7 6 6 6 6

#17 — July 1941 Shield Hangman [origin of Hangman and death of The Comet] Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle The Fireball Madam Satan

13 11 7 7 7 6

40

Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Parachute Killer”

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

6 6

#18 — Aug. 1941 Shield “The Case of the Sideshow Horrors” 13 Hangman 11 Danny in Wonderland 7 Sgt. Boyle 7 The Fireball 7 Madam Satan 6 Kayo Ward 6 Bentley 6

#19 — Sept. 1941 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle The Fireball Madam Satan Kayo Ward Bentley “The Case of the Witch’s Curse”

13 11 7 7 7 7 6 6

Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Bentley “The Case of the Armless Corpses” Archie Kayo Ward Danny in Wonderland

8 6 6 6 6 7

#24 — Feb. 1942 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Archie Kayo Ward Bentley

13 11 7 8 6 6 6 6

#25 — March 1942 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Archie Kayo Ward Bentley

13 11 7 8 6 6 6 6

#26 — April 1942 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle “Japs Raid” Jolly Roger

13 12 7 8 6

#20 — Oct. 1941 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle The Fireball Madam Satan Kayo Ward Bentley

13 11 7 7 7 6 6 6

#21 — Nov. 1941 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Madame Satan Kayo Ward Bentley

13 11 7 8 6 6 6 6

#22 — Dec. 1941 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Archie [1st appearance] Kayo Ward Bentley

13 11 7 8 6 6 6 6

Hang ‘Em High!

#23 — Jan. 1942 Shield Hangman

13 11

In 2005 Bob Fujitani, who illustrated quite a few “Hangman” stories himself, drew and colored this re-creation of Irv Novick’s cover for Pep Comics #17, which introduced that grim master of the gallows. With thanks to Bob and to proud owner Marc Svensson. [Shield & Hangman TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Archie Kayo Ward Bentley

6 6 6

#27 — May 1942 Shield Hangman Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Jolly Roger Archie Kayo Ward Bentley

14 11 8 6 6 8 5 6

#28 — June 1942 Hangman “Civil War” 13 Shield 13 Danny in Wonderland 7 Sgt. Boyle 8 Wings Johnson 6 Archie 6 Kayo Ward 5 Bentley “The Case of the Haunting Bagpipes” 6

#29 — July 1942 Shield Hangman

13 14

Call Me “Der” Three hero splashes from Pep #31: Novick drawing a colorful Nazi villain to face The Shield—The Hangman goes native (artist uncertain)—and Captain Commando and The Boy Soldiers do their thing, with an Iger shop script and Alex Blum art.

Thanks to Mike Catron.

The issue’s “Inspector Bentley” splash can be seen on p. 11. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

41

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The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

#35 — Jan. 1943 Shield “The Trail of the Walking Corpse” Hangman “The Raven” Captain Commando “Man Without a Country” Bentley “The Case of Devil’s Rock” Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie

11 13 9 6 7 8 6

#36 — Feb. 1943 Shield “Souls For Sale” 12 Hangman “The Secret of the Leopard’s Curse” 13 Captain Commando “The Pyramid Pillbox” 10 Sgt. Boyle 8 Danny in Wonderland 6 Archie “The 3-11 Club” 6 Bentley “The Case of the Steeplechase Murders” 6

All About Archie The Shield and Hangman recognized the inevitable and welcomed Archie onto the cover of Pep Comics #36. Didn’t the masked heroes remember the movie All about Eve? The fact that Bob Montana drew the cover should’ve given them a clue! [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie “Archie on Vacation” Bentley Shield “Young Soldiers of America” [war message]

7 8 7 6 3

#30 — Aug. 1942 Shield Hangman “Rhymed Invitations To Death” Captain Commando [origin] Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie Bentley

12 13 9 7 8 6 6

#31 — Sept. 1942 Shield “The Strangler and Snowbird” Hangman Captain Commando Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie Bentley “The Church Steeple Murders”

13 12 10 6 8 6 6

#37 — March 1943 Shield “Polly Wants a Corpse” 12 Hangman “The Lamp That Lived” 12 Captain Commando 10 Sgt. Boyle 8 Danny in Wonderland 7 Archie 5 Bentley “The Turnberry Lighthouse Mystery” 6

#32 — Oct. 1942

#38 — April 1943

Hangman “The Bullfrog Strikes Again” 13 Shield “Battles the Hun” 12 Captain Commando “The Commandos Are Coming” 10 Danny in Wonderland 7 Sgt. Boyle 8 Archie 6 Bentley “The Head on Traitor’s Gate” 6

Shield 12 Hangman “The Crime Behind the Noose” 12 Captain Commando 10 Sgt. Boyle “The Yanks Have Come!”

8 Danny in Wonderland 7 Bentley “The Case of the Laughing Corpse” 6 Archie 6

#33 — Nov. 1942

Shield “The City of Corpses” Hangman “Murder by Appointment” Captain Commando Sgt. Boyle Danny in Wonderland Archie Bentley “Murder at the Carnival”

Shield “Black Swan Inn” Hangman “The Crusader” Captain Commando Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie Bentley “The Light That Lives”

11 13 11 7 7 6 6

#34 — Dec. 1942 Shield Hangman “Sabotage” Captain Commando Danny in Wonderland Sgt. Boyle Archie Bentley

12 13 9 7 8 6 6

#39 — May 1943 11 13 11 8 6 6 6

#40 — July 1943 Shield “Introducing Monstro, the Monster from Mars” 11 Hangman “The Case of the Singing Corpse” 10 Captain Commando “The Conga Goes to War” 9 Catfish Joe 6 Little Chief Bugaboo 6 Archie 6

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Bentley “Adventure of the Inner Temple”

5

Dusty Trail

#41 — Aug. 1943 Shield “Monstro’s Holiday” Hangman “Home Is Where The Hangman Isn’t” Captain Commando Archie Li’l Chief Bugaboo Catfish Joe Bentley

43

10 9 11 6 6 6 5

Dusty the Boy Detective, as drawn in a commission piece by 1970s-80s Marvel artist Ron Wilson. Thanks to Ron & to Michael Dunne. [Dusty TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#42 — Sept. 1943 Shield “Diamonds of Death” Hangman Li’l Chief Bugaboo Archie “Archie the Jockey” [Part 1] Catfish Joe Marco Loco [origin] Captain Commando

10 9 6 7 6 5 10

#43 — Oct. 1943 Shield “Invitation to Murder” 10 Hangman “Green Death” 9 Li’l Chief Bugaboo 6 6 Archie “Archie the Jockey” [Part 2] Marco Loco 6 Catfish Joe 6 Captain Commando [origin in flashbacks] 10

#44 — Dec. 1943 Shield “The Ghost Goes East” Hangman “The Hangman and the Snail” Captain Commando “Heroes Never Die” Li’l Chief Bugaboo Marco Loco Archie “Archie the Pug” Catfish Joe

10 9 9 6 6 6 6

#45 — Jan. 1944 Shield “Murder on Parade” 11 Captain Commando “War Correspondent” 10 Hangman “The Medusa’s Curse” 8 Catfish Joe 6 Marco Loco 4 Archie “The Painter” 7 Li’l Chief Bugaboo 6

#46 — Feb. 1944 Shield “Tale of a Safety Pin” 10 Captain Commando “The Ferryboat Admiral”8 Hangman “Dead Men’s Eyes Tell Tales” 9 Archie “Christmas Cheers” 7 Catfish Joe 6 Li’l Chief Bugaboo 6 Marco Loco 6

#47 — March 1944 Shield “In the Madman’s Castle” 10 Captain Commando “We’ll Never Be Licked” 9 Hangman “The Noose” 9 Archie 6 Catfish Joe 6 Li’l Chief Bugaboo 6 Marco Loco 6

#48 — May 1944

Black Hood “You Made Me Confess” 8 Captain Commando “Communiqué No. 16” 9 Marco Loco “Hanging To-Day” 6

#51 — Dec. 1944 Archie “The Commando” Shield “Orphans of Death” Black Hood Captain Commando Marco Loco

Shield “Curse of the Black Monkey” 10 Captain Commando “Special Communiqué No. 14” 9 Black Hood “The Corpse on the Checker Board” 9 Archie “Camera Bugs” 8 Marco Loco “The Great Genghis Khan” 6 Catfish Joe 6

#52 — March 1945

#49 — June 1944

Archie “Wrings the Belle” Shield Suzie Twiddles Pokey Oakey

Archie 10 Captain Commando “Father Scarface” 8 Black Hood “The House That Crime Built” 10 Shield “The Rajah’s Silver Idol” 10 Marco Loco 6

#50 — Sept. 1944 Archie Shield “The Man Who Played God”

10 11

Shield “The Beast That Was a Huntsman” Archie “Carnival Chuckles” Captain Commando Marco Loco Suzie

10 10 10 8 6

10 12 10 5 6

#53 — June 1945 11 11 6 5 5

#54 — Sept. 1945 Archie “This Teen-Aged Steam Age” Shield “Murder Plays A Hunch” Suzie “Monkey Madness”

8 10 6

44

Twiddles Captain Commando Willy the Wise Guy

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

5 10 3

#55 — Dec. 1945 Archie “Junk for a Junket” Shield Suzie Twiddles Pokey Oakey Willy the Wise Guy

11 11 6 6 5 3

#56 — March 1946 Archie Shield “Death Trims a Window” Suzie Willy the Wise Guy Twiddles Captain Commando

8 10 6 3 5 9

#57 — June 1946

#59 — Dec. 1946

Archie 8 Shield “The Man Who Wouldn’t Stay Dead” 10 Suzie 6 Hotfoot Hobo 5 Twiddles 6 Willy the Wise Guy 3 Dotty and Ditto 6

Archie Shield “Sweet Dreams of Murder” Suzie Gloomy Gus Willy the Wise Guy Black Hood “Blood Money”

#58 — Sept. 1946

Shield Hood Archie Katy Keene Willie the Wise Guy

Archie “Car Troubles” Shield “Murder In Act One” Suzie “Gazes Into the Future” Twiddles Hotfoot Hobo Dotty and Ditto

10 10 6 6 5 7

10 11 6 6 3 8

#60 — March 1947 10 8 10 6 3

#61 — May 1947 Archie Katy Keene

10 6

If At First You Don’t Succeed… Give Up! (Left:) This apparent tryout page of “Shield” art seems to be signed at the bottom by one “Martin Paul.” There’s no listing for such a name (or for “Paul Martin”) in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books, 1929-1999, and this page was probably never used—making it an appropriate piece of art to wind up our coverage of the super-heroes of Pep Comics. Michael Dunne picked up the original art in an auction from Heritage Comics. [Shield & Dusty TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] (Right:) The future of Pep might ultimately belong to Archie and his pals and gals… but another female star, for some years, was “Katy Keene.” Bill Woggins’ heroine was famed as much for cut-out paper dolls and fashions as for her stories, as per this splash from Pep #67, sent by Bob Cherry. Katy also had her own comic for a while, and has recently staged a comeback. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

45

Look Out, Here Comes The Spider-Man—Not! Another stunning Biro cover—even though nothing like this human spider appears in the “Steel Sterling” story inside. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications.]

#2 — March 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

12 6 6 6 8 8 6 8

#3 — April 1940 Steel Sterling 12 Scarlet Avenger “Death to The Scarlet Avenger” 6 [Part 1] Nevada Jones 6 Kalthar 6 War Eagles 8 Captain Valor 8 Mr. Satan 6 Zambini 8

#4 — May 1940

Shield Gloomy Gus Twiddles

10 6 6

#62 — July 1947 Archie “Puppy Love” Katy Keene Shield “Death Strikes the Hour” Gloomy Gus Li’l Jinx

11 6 10 6 6

#63 — Sept. 1947 Archie “The Mixup” Katy Keene Shield “Drugs For Death” Twiddles Gloomy Gus Li’l Jinx

10 7 8 6 6 6

#65 — Jan. 1948 Archie “Weeny Roast” Katy Keene Li’l Jinx Shield Willy the Wise Guy Gloomy Gus

10 6 6 9 3 6

[NOTE: Pep Comics, still being published today, last featured “The Shield” in issue #65.

Many thought that #64 was the last “Shield” adventure, but he did appear in #65. The Shield G-Men Club became the Archie Club in #66, and MLJ was officially dead, as it were, since The Shield had been MLJ’s last remaining costumed hero.]

Zip Comics #1 — Feb. 1940

#64 — Nov. 1947 Archie “Nobody’s Dummy” Katy Keene Shield “Death Takes A Holiday” Gloomy Gus Willy the Wise Guy Li’l Jinx

Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

10 7 9 6 3 6

Steel Sterling “The Man of Steel” [origin] Scarlet Avenger “Gang Buster” [origin] Nevada Jones Kalthar “King of the Jungle” [origin] War Eagles “The Devil’s Flying Twins” Captain Valor Mr. Satan [origin] Zambini

12 6 6 6 8 8 6 8

12 6 6 6 8 8 6 8

#5 — June 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

12 6 6 6 8 8 6 8

#6 — July 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

14 6 6 6 8 8 6 7

#7 — Aug. 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar

14 6 6 6

46

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Here’s Five With Some Zip! The cover of Zip Comics #1 was seen on page 14—the “Steel Sterling” splash from #2 on p. 28—and now here are a querulous quintet of panels from that second issue. (Clockwise, from top left:) Steel Sterling fighting some over-matched polar bears (art & possibly script by Charles Biro)…

“The Scarlet Avenger” (art by Irv Novick; script credited to Harry Shorten)… “Kalthar,” one of a legion of “Kings of the Jungle” (art credited to Lin Streeter, story to Shorten)… the Terry and the Piratesstyle “Captain Valor” (art by Mort Meskin; script credited to Abner Sundell)… and “Mr. Satan” (art credited to Edd Ashe, story to Shorten).

Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

8 8 6 7

#8 — Sept. 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

14 6 6 6 8 8 6 7

47

We Just Hope He’s At Least “21”!

Black Jack, after being welcomed aboard the mag on the cover by Steel Sterling himself (see p. 15), gains his costume and goes into action for the first time in Zip #20.

Art by Al Camerata. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#9 — Nov. 1940 Steel Sterling Scarlet Avenger Nevada Jones Kalthar

14 6 6 6 War Eagles Captain Valor Mr. Satan Zambini

8 8 6 7

#10 — Jan. 1941 Steel Sterling “The Murder of John (Steel) Sterling” 14 Dicky in the Magic Forest 8 Nevada Jones 6 Red Reagan 6 War Eagles 8 Captain Valor 8 Scarlet Avenger 6 Zambini 6

#11 — Feb. 1941 Steel Sterling 14 Dicky in the Magic Forest 8 Nevada Jones 6 Red Reagan “The Case of the Statues of Death” 6 War Eagles 8 Captain Valor 8 Scarlet Avenger “Tomorrow’s Murders”6 Zambini 7

Steel Yourself!

Future DC writer/editor Robert Kanigher apparently scripted the “Steel Sterling” saga in Zip #25, and printed examples of script and art in his 1943 book How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines. Read all about it—and see Irv Novick’s dynamic splash page—in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #6, still available from TwoMorrows Publishing. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#12 — March 1941 Steel Sterling “The Rattler” 14 Dicky in the Magic Forest 8

Nevada Jones Red Reagan War Eagles Captain Valor “Invader! Invader!”

Scarlet Avenger Zambini

6 6 8 8 6 7

#13 — April 1941 Steel Sterling Dicky in the Magic Forest Nevada Jones Red Reagan War Eagles Captain Valor Scarlet Avenger Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 8 6 7

#14 — May 1941 Steel Sterling Dicky in the Magic Forest Nevada Jones Red Reagan War Eagles Captain Valor Scarlet Avenger Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 8 6 7

#15 — June 1941 Steel Sterling Dicky in the Magic Forest Nevada Jones Red Reagan “The Case of the Kill-Crazy Gorilla” War Eagles Captain Valor

14 8 6 6 8 8

48

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Zip! I Was Reading MLJ Comics Last Night…

(With apologies to Rogers and Hart for the above heading.) The Web may have debuted on the Irv Novick cover of Zip #27 alongside Steel Sterling and Black Jack and even garnered the issue’s lead story—but Steel’s battle with Baron Gestapo was an equal treat. It was drawn by Irv Novick, with the script attributed to Joe Blair. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Scarlet Avenger Zambini

6 7

#16 — July 1941 Steel Sterling Dicky in the Magic Forest Nevada Jones Red Reagan War Eagles Captain Valor Scarlet Avenger Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 6 6 7

#17 — Aug. 1941 Steel Sterling Captain Valor Nevada Jones Red Reagan War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Scarlet Avenger Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 8 6 6

#18 — Sept. 1941 Steel Sterling Captain Valor Nevada Jones Red Reagan Dicky in the Magic Forest War Eagles Wilbur Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 8 6 6

#19 — Oct. 1941 Steel Sterling Captain Valor Nevada Jones Red Reagan Dicky in the Magic Forest War Eagles Wilbur Zambini

14 8 6 6 8 8 6 6

#20 — Nov. 1941 Steel Sterling

14

Black Jack [origin] Wilbur Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

11 6 7 6 6 7 5

#21 — Dec. 1941 Steel Sterling Black Jack “The Waltz of the Cemetery Citizens” Wilbur Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

8 6 6 8 6 6 7 5

#22 — Jan. 1942 Steel Sterling Black Jack Wilbur

14 11 6

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

7 6 6 7 5

#23 — Feb. 1942 Steel Sterling Black Jack Wilbur Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

14 11 6 7 6 6 7 5

#24 — March 1942 Steel Sterling “Frozen Death” Black Jack Wilbur Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

14 11 6 7 6 6 7 5

#28 — Aug. 1942 Steel Sterling “Dragons of Doom” 13 12 The Web [origin] “Coming of the Web” Black Jack “Death Trumps the Black 7” 11 Wilbur “4th of July Blues” 7 Black Witch “The Grave Gives Up Its Dead” 6 Hall of Fame “Scarsdale Jack Newkirk” 6 Zambini “All Out for Freedom” 6

#29 — Sept. 1942 Steel Sterling “The Laughing Death” 12 The Web “And the Madman of the Crooked Cross” 12 Black Jack “The House of Cards” 11 Zambini 6 Wilbur 6 Hall of Fame 5 Black Witch 6

#30 — Oct. 1942 The Web Steel Sterling

#25 — April 1942 Steel Sterling Black Jack Wilbur Captain Valor Nevada Jones War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

14 11 7 7 6 6 6 5

#26 — May 1942 Steel Sterling Black Jack “Vs. Deuces Wild” Wilbur Captain Valor Black Witch War Eagles Dicky in the Magic Forest Zambini

A Zipped Lip 13 13 6 7 6 6 6 5

#27 — July 1942 The Web “The Black Dragon of Death” Black Jack “The Stars Drip Blood” Steel Sterling “Swastika of Death” Black Witch “Vengeance from the Grave” War Eagles “Wings of Doom” Zambini “Fiddle and the Prize Fighter” Wilbur “A-Hunting We Will Go”

13 11 12 6 6 6 7

49

MLJ comics often sported illustrated black-&-white contents pages on the inside front covers. Here’s one of the best, drawn

by Paul Reinman.

“Wilbur,” an “Archie”-style feature reportedly drawn in this issue

by Bob Montana, had his own comic for several years and once looked like he might rival even the Riverdale flash in popularity.

Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

13 12

Black Jack Wilbur Zoom O’Day Hall of Fame Zambini

10 6 6 6 6

#31 — Nov. 1942 The Web “The Merchant of Hate” 13 Steel Sterling “And The ‘Creeper’” 12 Black Jack “The Clubfoot” 11 Wilbur “The Football Season” 6 Zoom O’Day 6 Zip’s Hall of Fame “Major Devereaux, the Warrior of Wake Island” 6 Zambini “Case No. 2 of People America Can Do Without” 6 [NOTE: Comics aficionado Brian K. Morris, while retyping this MLJ Index, pointed out that the Grand Comic-Book Database lists slightly different contents for Zip #31 than were found in the original publication, and we’ve duly made those corrections. —Roy.]

50

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

“Hey, Rube!”

“Red Rube,” debuting in Zip #39, was clearly inspired by the success of “Captain Marvel” over at Fawcett. A boy named Reuben Reuben—an orphan like Billy Batson—gets super-powers from his ancestors, including courage, strength, et al.

His magic phrase is “Hey, Rube!”—a wellknown term that carnival roustabouts shouted when there was trouble on the midway and help of a physical nature was needed fast.

Art by Ed Robbins; the script has been attributed to Bill Vigoda. Red Rube shared the covers with Steel Sterling (or occasionally usurped them totally) for the rest of the super-heroes’ run in Zip. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#32 — Dec. 1942 The Web Steel Sterling “The Werewolf of France” Black Jack Wilbur Zoom O’Day Hall of Fame Zambini

13 10 10 6 6 6 6

#33 — Jan. 1943 Steel Sterling “Curse of the Orient” 12 The Web “Drums of Madness” 11 Black Jack “The Full House” 11 Zip’s Hall of Shame “The Nazi Cobra Reinhardt Heydrich” 6 Zip’s Hall of Fame “Michael O’Connor” 6 Zambini “Rumor Mongers” 6 Wilbur “Commando Training” 6

#34 — Feb. 1943 Steel Sterling “The Disappearing Diamonds” 12 The Web “The Vikings” 11 Black Jack 10 Wilbur “The Costume Ball” 6 Black Witch “Black Binder” 6 Zip’s Hall of Fame “The Old Soldier” 6 Zambini “Enemies Within” 6

#35 — March 1943 Steel Sterling “Lisbon”

12

The Web “The Web and the Book” Black Jack “Dame of Faith” Zip’s Hall of Fame “Semyon Timoshenko” Zambini “The Tale of Hugh Sinclair” Wilbur “Mother-in-Law” Ginger [intro]

12 10 6 6 6 6

#36 — April 1943 Steel Sterling “Lost Boy Scout” 11 The Web “The Web and the Dream” 10 Senior Banana “Introducing Senior Banana” 6 Ginger “Cooking School” 6 Applejacks “Introducing The Applejack Family” 6 Woody the Woodpecker 6 Wilbur “The School Play” 6

#37 — May 1943 Steel Sterling “The Mirror of Death” The Web “Horror Hotel” Applejacks “Here’s an Apple, Jack” Ginger”Welcome to Hilldale” Chimpy Senor Banana Woody the Woodpecker Wilbur

11 10 6 6 6 6 6 6

#38 — July 1943 Steel Sterling “The Little Men Who Weren’t There” 11 Applejacks 6

Ginger”Andy Clive and His Jive Five” 6 Zip’s Hall of Fame “The Screwball of Malta” 6 Senor Banana “The Land of the Missing Link“6 Wilbur “Dreaming” 6 The Web “The Men Who Went Nowhere” 10

#39 — Aug. 1943 Steel Sterling “Murder Out of This World” Red Rube [origin] Wilbur “Uncle Monte” Ginger”On Vacation” Chimpy “Genie With the Blues” Senor Banana Applejacks “Doom”

11 10 6 6 6 6 6

#40 — Oct. 1943 Steel Sterling “Land of the Amazons” Red Rube Senor Banana Applejacks Chimpy “Welcome to Hades” Ginger Wilbur “I Like to Riff ”

10 8 6 6 6 6 6

#41 — Nov. 1943 Steel Sterling “The Gruesome Twosome” Red Rube Senor Banana Apple Jacks Chimpy Ginger

11 10 6 6 6 6

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

51

It’s Always Fair Weather…

This ad for Shield-Wizard Comics #1, with its Novick cover, appeared in Pep Comics #7— but, as seen in the Novick-drawn, Shorten-scripted panels above, they had previously met in passing in Pep #4. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Publications, Inc.]

Wilbur”Vines Camp”

6

#42 — Dec. 1943 Steel Sterling “The Space That Wasn’t There” 10 Red Rube 10 Senor Banana 6 Applejacks 6 Chimpy 6 Ginger 6 Wilbur 6

#43 — Jan. 1944 Steel Sterling “Living Shadows” Red Rube Senor Banana Applejacks Chimpy Ginger Wilbur

10 10 6 6 7 6 6

#44 — Feb. 1944 Steel Sterling “Murder Is An Art” Red Rube Senor Banana Applejacks Chimpy Ginger Wilbur

11 10 6 6 6 6 6

#45 — April 1944 Steel Sterling “Zombies” Red Rube Senor Banana “Ye Golden Beauty Shoppe” Applejacks Ginger Chimpy Wilbur

10 10 6 6 6 6 6

#46 — May 1944 Steel Sterling “The Wand of Weirdness” Senor Banana Applejacks “County Fair” Ginger Red Rube Flying Dragons

10 6 5 6 10 6

#47 — Summer 1944 Steel Sterling “Strange Case of the Timid Corpse” Red Rube Steel Sterling “Case of the Talking Dog” Red Rube Ginger

10 10 11 10 6

Shield-Wizard Comics #1 — Summer 1940 Shield [origin—Part 1]

12

Shield [origin—Part 2] 10 Shield 8 The Wizard “The Historical Story of Blane Whitney” 11 The Wizard “The Battle of Bunker Hill” 11 The Wizard 8

#2 — Winter 1940-41 Shield 10 Shield “Death Sets the Stage” 14 Shield “Case of the Gridiron Murders” 9 The Wizard “Introducing Tommy, the Original Superboy of History” 12 The Wizard “The Battle of Bladensburg” 13

#3 — Spring 1941 Shield 13 Shield “The Mystery of the Flying Dutchman” 13 Shield 9 The Wizard 12 The Wizard 13

#4 — Summer 1941 Shield Shield Shield The Wizard The Wizard

15 14 6 13 12

52

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Shield “Case of the Living Puppets” The Wizard The Wizard “Meet and Beat Dr. Defeat” Roy

10 7 6 9

#12 — Fall 1943 Shield “The Riverboat Racketeers” Dusty “Haunted Penthouse” Shield “The Gangster’s Dilemma” The Wizard The Wizard Roy

9 9 11 9 8 6

#13 — Spring 1944 Shield “The Invasion” Shield “Devils of the Deep” The Wizard “Merchants of Murder” Roy “The Little Bug That Wasn’t There” The Wizard

Our “Maskots” Hit The Jackpot Since the cover of Jackpot #1 appears on p. 21, and our liltin’ letters section got squeezed out this issue, we thought we’d tide you over with Shane Foley’s adaptation of Irv Novick’s cover for Jackpot #1 for our fightin’ figureheads! Thanks again, Shane! [Art ©2008 Shane Foley; Alter & Captain Ego TM & ©2008 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; Alter Ego & Rob Lindsay TM & ©2008 Roy & Dann Thomas.]

#5 — Fall 1941 Shield “The Monocled Monster” Shield “Prisoner Escaped” Dusty The Wizard The Wizard

15 11 9 15 10

#6 — Winter 1941-42 Shield Shield Dusty The Wizard The Wizard

15 10 10 13 12

#9 — Winter 1942-43 Shield “The House That Time Forgot” Shield Dusty “The Lost Day” The Wizard The Wizard “Fashions For Murder” Hall of Fame

Shield [Chapter I] 11 8 Shield [Chapter II] “Riddle of the Hun” Shield [Chapter III] “Terror from the Skies” 8 Dusty 9 The Wizard 13 The Wizard 12

#8 — Fall 1942

Shield [I] “The Curse of the Hun” Shield [II] “Roads of Destiny” Shield [III] “Doom’s Journey” Shield [IV] “The Battle of the Titans” Dusty The Wizard The Wizard Roy

Shield “The Fountain of Death” Dusty

Jackpot Comics Steel Sterling Black Hood Mr. Justice “Zarro, the Zombie Master” Sgt. Boyle

15 15 14 15

#2 — Summer 1941 13 14 7 7 12 6

7 7 7 9 8 8 8 6

#11 — Summer 1943 9 10 9

[2008 NOTE: In the original Index, Mike Nolan stated that some had claimed that a Shield-Wizard #14 existed, but that, not having been able to “locate a copy or anyone who had definite proof of its existence,” he didn’t believe a 14th issue existed. He was right. —Roy.]

#1 — Spring 1941 7 7 10 7

#10 — Spring 1943

#7 — Summer 1942

Shield “The Coming of the Hun” Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III

Dusty “The Adventure of the Man in the Cape” The Wizard “Flaming Fingers of Death” The Wizard Roy

11 9 8 7 10

9 8

Steel Sterling Black Hood Mr. Justice Sgt. Boyle [with Corporal Collins]

15 15 14 14

#3 — Fall 1941 Steel Sterling Black Hood Mr. Justice Sgt. Boyle

15 15 14 14

#4 — Winter 1941-42 Steel Sterling “Town Talk by Walt Willard” Black Hood Archie Mr. Justice Sgt. Boyle

13 14 8 10 13

#5 — Spring 1942 Steel Sterling

11

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

Clancy and Looney “Zogi the Yogi” 6 Black Hood “The Case of the Haunted Violin” 12 Archie 8 Mr. Justice 9 Sgt. Boyle 12

#6 — Summer 1942 Steel Sterling “A Man without a Country” 11 Black Hood “Battles the Son of The Skull” 10 Sgt. Boyle 10 Jackpot’s Hall of Fame “Patrol Wing No. 10 of the Navy” 6 Mr. Justice “The Spirit World Is in Revolt” 8 Clancy and Looney 6 Archie 7

#7 — Fall 1942 Steel Sterling “Propaganda!”

Black Hood Sgt. Boyle Mr. Justice Clancy and Looney Senor Siesta Archie “Archie Andrews’ Christmas Story”

11 10 10 8 6 5 8

#8 —Winter 1942-43 Steel Sterling “U.S. Troops Invade Africa” 11 Archie 6 Black Hood “The Vengeance of the Aztec” 10 Sgt. Boyle 8 Cubby the Bear 7 Mr. Justice “The Feud between Ross and Trent Still Raging” 7 Clancey and Looney 6

#9 — Summer 1943 Steel Sterling 11 Archie 6 Black Hood 10 Porkchops “What Do Porkchops and Gootch See?” 6 Mr. Justice “The Radium Corpse” 9 Clancy and Looney 6

Bonus: Archie #1 Published during the height of World War II. with the slogan “Keep ‘Em Smiling!,” “Archie” became an immediate success and foreshadowed the end of the great MLJ superhero comics. Every serious MLJ collector should have a copy of this issue—it’s a real classic!

53

NOTE: Some Golden Age comics led off an issue with a table of contents page where the individual stories were given titles.

Winter — 1942-43 Introduction “Who’s Who In Riverdale” 1 Archie “Prom Pranks” 8 Cubby the Bear * “That Old Oaken Bucket” 9 Archie “Train Trouble” 7 Bubbie the Bee-tective * “Crime Wave in “Bugland” 7 Archie “Pancakes In A Blackout” 2 Squoimy the Woim * “Roses Are Red” 5 Archie “Case of the Missing Mistletoe” 5 Judge Owl’s Fables * “Slow and Steady Wins the Race” 6 Archie * “Jughead’s Day” 6 [NOTE: Archie Comics #1 had a table of contents page that led off the issue. However, some of the titles on this page didn’t make it onto the splash page of their respective stories.

The stories denoted with an asterisk (*) take their titles from that contents page. Following a one-page introduction in the “Archie” strip (and are they different today!), the first story is a sort of “origin” of Archie—how he met his girlfriend Veronica Lodge. The last story features Jughead at his very earliest. Bob Montana drew the stories in this first issue.]

Special Comics/Hangman Comics #1 — Winter 1941-42 Hangman “Special Case No. 1” Hangman “Special Case No. 2” Hangman “Special Case No. 3” Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 1” Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 2”

Which Way To Casablanca?

If Irv Novick’s Nazismashing splash from Jackpot Comics #8 reflected the real-life invasion of North Africa in November of 1942, then it must’ve been written and drawn 15 minutes after Allied troops landed. More likely it was wishful thinking! Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

13 12 12 12 11

[NOTE: Special Comics lasted only one issue, then became Hangman Comics with issue #2.

Hangman then became Black Hood Comics, which ran until issue #19 and is listed on pp. xx-xx. The origin of The Hangman was told in flashback on the inside front cover of issue #1.]

#2 — Spring 1942 Hangman “Special Case No. 3: The Hangman Vs. Captain Swastika” 13 Hangman “Special Case No. 4: Clockmaker of Death” 13 Hangman 13 Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 3” 7 Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 4” 14

#3 — Summer 1942 Hangman “Special Case No. 5: The Executioner”

14

54

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Good Noose Travels Fast!

The noose/gallows motif sure got a workout in Special Comics #1! In the first story alone, it was featured in two additional panels—and the splash of the third “Hangman” story in the issue also displayed the shadow of a noose. Art by Harry Lucey? Thanks to Gregg Whitmore. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Hangman “Terror Strikes Twice” 13 Hangman 13 Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 5” [Chapter 1] 10 Boy Buddies “Special Case 7 No. 5” [Chapter 2]

#5 — Winter 1942-43

#4 — Fall 1942

#6 — Spring 1943

Hangman 13 Hangman “Special Case No. 11: Cruise of the Skeletons” 13 Hangman “Return of Tyrannosaurus Rex” 13 Boy Buddies “Special Case” 8 Boy Buddies “Special Case” 7 Boy Buddies “Don’t Let This Happen” 7

Hangman “Special Case No. 17: The Laughing Cavalier” 11 Hangman “Special Case No. 18: Crime Does Not Play” 13 Hangman “Special Case No. 19: Murder Wore A Suit” 11 Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 12” 8 Boy Buddies “The Sorcerers Apprentice” 8 Hangman’s Hall of Shame “Hermann Goering”6

Hood Do You Trust?

Everett Raymond Kinstler’s cover for Black Hood Comics #15. Thanks to Gregg Whitmore. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Hangman “The Voice of Doom” Hangman “Murderer on the Mississippi” Hangman Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 10” Boy Buddies “Special Case No. 11”

12 13 13 9 9

#7 — Summer 1943 Hangman “Special Case No. 20: Tiger and the Ruby” 11 Hangman “Special Case No. 21: Murder in the Guest Room” 10 Hangman “Special Case No. 22: Hangman’s Ransom” 10 Boy Buddies “Trouble Hunters” 10 Boy Buddies “Not a Ghost of a Chance” 9

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

55

All The Noose That’s Fit To Print (Right & Below:) The highly stylized but always intriguing art of Bob Fujitani graced all three “Hangman” tales in the 8th and final issue of his solo series. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

#8 — Fall 1943 Hangman “Special Case No. 25 — Gallows and the Ghoul” 9 Hangman “Special Case No. 26 —The Case of the Python’s Curse” 10 Hangman “Special Case No. 27 — Pirates Out of the Past” 10 Super Duck 4 Boy Buddies 9 Boy Buddies 6 [2008 NOTE: The original MLJ Index also lists a 4page “Super Duck” story as being featured in Hangman Comics #8, but that may be an error—at least, the Grand Comic-Book Database doesn’t list one—so we have omitted that notation here. —Roy.]

Black Hood Comics #9 — Winter 1943-44 [#1] Black Hood “Crime Goes to College” 13 Black Hood “The Case of the

Medical Murderer” Hangman “The Crime Confessors” Black Hood “The Little Crime That Wasn’t There” Boy Buddies

10 10 9 6

#10 — Spring 1944 Black Hood “Headline for Homicide” 11 Black Hood “The Riddle of Sgt. McGinty’s Voice” 9 Black Hood “New Director of Orphan Asylum” 8 Hangman “The Crime of the Centuries” 9 Dusty 6

#11 — Summer 1944 Black Hood “Tale of the Terrible Trunk” Black Hood “The Nobleman of Crime” Boy Buddies Black Hood “Pogo’s Last Trick”

11 12 9 10

#12 — Autumn 1944 Black Hood “Monkeying With Murder” Black Hood “The Great Magoo” Black Hood “Vengeance from the Grave” Flying Dragons

10 12 12 6

#13 — Winter 1944-45 Black Hood “The Case of the Curious Coin” 11 Black Hood “The Case of the Stylish Corpse”13 Flying Dragons 5

56

The Golden Age Of What Became Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Three For The Show The cover of Black Hood Comics #15, by the later famous Everett Raymond Kinstler, can be seen on p. 54—so here are the splashes of the three “Black Hood” stories in that issue. The first two may be by Irv Novick (or by his sometime ghost, Pierce Rice)—but the third is definitely by Kinstler. Thanks to Bob Cherry, who sent us scans of all three—though the latter page was also sent

by Betty Dobson, Jay Kinney, Gregg Whitmore, and Glenn MacKay, all in conjunction with last issue’s in-depth interview with Kinstler. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Black Hood “The Case of the Magic Sword” 12

#14 — Spring 1945 Black Hood “Death Counts Ten” 14 Black Hood “Death — The Crow Strikes Again” 10 Bentley 6 Black Hood 9

#15 — Summer 1945 Black Hood “The Case of the Blood-Red Rubies” 13 Black Hood “Case of the Beautiful Corpse” 10 Gloomy Gus 6 Black Hood “Case of the Friendly Murder” 12

#16 — Fall 1945 Black Hood “The Case of the Insured Corpse” 11 Black Hood “The Gourmet Strikes Again” 12 Gloomy Gus 6 Black Hood “The Case of The Book of Death” 12

The MLJ Comics Super-Hero Index (1939-1948)

57

#17 — Winter 1945-46 Black Hood “Sweet Dreams of Death” Black Hood “The Case of the Leopard’s Curse” Black Hood “Case of the Sleeping Bandit” Gloomy Gus

13 13 10 6

#18 — Spring 1946 Black Hood “The Case of the Shoes of Doom”12 Gloomy Gus 6 Black Hood “The Cop and the Kid” 14 Black Hood “The Case of the Disappearing Corpse” 11

#19 — Summer 1946 Black Hood “Vs. Needle Noodle” Gloomy Gus Black Hood “Needle Nose Strikes Back”

14 6 24

[NOTE: In the last “Black Hood” story in issue #19 and in the last few stories in Pep Comics, The Black Hood was not seen in costume. Surely there could not have been a clearer indication of his coming demise!]

The Reprints [1969 Note] Several comics appearing in the mid-1940s reprinted MLJ stories, including Black Swan, Liberty, and Roly Poly, among others. None of the stories in these magazines was original; all were reprints. Black Swan #1 reprinted a 9-page story from

The Worldwide Web Mike Machlan—veteran artist of All-Star Squadron, et al.—drew this version of a Paul Reinman Mighty Crusaders cover with The Web and Inferno. MLJ’s super-heroes continue to fascinate new generations of comics readers—and every few years, it seems, they get revived in one form or another, and not always directly by Archie Comics itself! A fullscale Alter Ego look at the Mighty Crusaders era will appear next year.

[The Web & Inferno TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Black Hood #14, while Liberty #10 was a complete reprint of Hangman #8. Roly Poly, which ran several oddly numbered issues, featured “Steel Sterling” and “Black Hood” reprints. To the best of my knowledge, all of the reprinted stories are taken from fairly late MLJ’s. They generally aren’t very attractive as collectors’ items, although Liberty #10 is worth anyone’s dollar for the fine art by Bob Fujitani.

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The 1969 Index concluded with “Poor Man’s Guide To Collecting MLJ Comics”—followed by a few paragraphs about the MLJ “revival” as The Mighty Crusaders in the mid-1960s.

These stories were not indexed, however, and because Alter Ego plans an issue centered around the “Mighty Comics Group” roughly a year from now, that short section has not been reprinted here. Oh—and a sincere and much-merited thanks to Brian K. Morris for a marathon typing assist! Brian also double-checked many of the contents by the listings on the Grand Comic-Book Database, which led to the last-minute correction of a few errors, for which we are in his debt.]

COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE LIVES AGAIN! SPY SMASHER BLACK TERROR • AVENGER PHANTOM LADY • CAT-MAN DAREDEVIL • CRIMEBUSTER CAPTAIN FLASH MR. SCARLET • MINUTE MAN SKYMAN • STUNTMAN THE OWL • BULLETMAN COMMANDO YANK PYROMAN • GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE • IBIS

Art ©2008 AC Comics.

The above is just a partial list of characters that have appeared in AC Comics’ reprint titles such as MEN OF MYSTERY, GOLDEN AGE GREATS, and AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS. Virtually all issues published to date are available at $6.95 each. To find over 100 quality Golden Age reprints, go to the AC Comics website at <accomics.com>.

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P.O. BOX 455 • RAVENNA, OH 44266 CASH IS WAITING, SO HURRY!!!!!

59

“The Shield Was The First Patriotic Hero” A 1990s Interview With The Late Great IRV NOVICK Conducted by John Coates

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: In our next-issue ad in A/E #81, we announced that this interview was “previously unpublished.” Due to our error, not that of John Coates, this was an incorrect statement; in truth, it originally saw print in Comic Book Marketplace #77 (April 2000). However, it’s a good one—and we’ve long wanted to do our part in giving Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist Irv Novick just a tiny part of his due. Thus, because this issue was already so chock-full, we have utilized here (in edited form) the portions of that piece that deal with Novick’s work for MLJ. Those who want to read the entire interview, also covering his longer career at DC Comics, are encouraged to seek out a copy of CBM #77. —Roy.

“[MLJ] Was Paying More Money Than Chesler Was” JC: How did you become interested in comic books?

NOVICK: Well, I graduated from the [National Academy of Design] in 1938 and had seen an ad in the New York Times newspaper for artists to draw comic books. Being that the industry was still in its infancy, I had never heard of a comic book, never seen one, didn’t know what it was other than it meant work. I showed them my showcard art and they hired me right away. This was with Harry Chesler’s outfit. At first, I worked in his shop but eventually moved to working freelance from my home.

Working in the office was pleasant, but I preferred working at my own pace, on my own time. I’ve always been a night person. I like to work at night when everyone else has gone to bed. I never went to bed before two o’clock.

JC: How long did you work for Harry Chesler?

NOVICK: A few years, I believe. At the time, MLJ was buying most of the work being produced from Chesler’s studio. MLJ was a publishing house founded by Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Anyway, after a while, Louis came to me and asked if I could work directly for them. They wanted me to work on a character called The Shield. They were paying more money than Chesler, so I did. I think this was around 1940.

Irv Novick Had Pep!

JC: Let’s talk about The Shield. You said MLJ wanted you to work on the character. Did they have a ready-made character when you arrived?

Irv Novick (on left in photo) at a 1999 comics convention, with fellow artists George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo (the latter on right)—and Novick’s splash page for Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), probably the first page he drew of the first patriotically garbed super-hero. Photo courtesy of David Siegel; thanks to Marc Svensson for the art scan. [Page ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

NOVICK: Well, they had an idea for a hero that was based on the patriot theme. From their initial idea, I designed the costume and created his character of being a G-man. Once I had defined and created the character, Harry Shorten was brought in to write and edit the stories. I believe The

60

“The Shield Was The First Patriotic Hero”

Heads Up! Six MLJ creative talents mentioned by Novick in this piece, with Bob Montana deferred till the Joe Edwards interview that follows. You’ll find work by these stalwarts scattered throughout this issue. (Clockwise from above left:)

Shield was the first patriotic hero. He appeared in Pep Comics.

Charles Biro, as per Sept. 1946 issue of Lev Gleason’s Boy Comics (see the whole photo, Crimebuster and all, in the Biro coverage in A/E #73), with thanks to the artist’s daughters Bonnie Biro, Penny Gold, and Denise Ortell— Mort Meskin, as seen in A/E #24; photo courtesy of Peter Meskin, provided by Dylan Williams from the website www.meskin.net— Bob Wood, in a caricature from Boy Comics #9 (April 1943)—

JC: You’re correct; he was the first patriotic hero.

Were you at all excited or surprised when it became a hit?

Jack Binder circa 1950, in a photo sent to Roy Thomas in 1963 or ‘64 by brother Otto Binder— Paul Reinman, seen in a later self-portrait; source uncertain.

Robert Kanigher, in a photo taken at Fort Dix, New Jersey, during his time in uniform in World War II; originally provided by RK himself. [art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

NOVICK: Jack was a nice guy, but some people didn’t like him. I don’t know why, because I liked him.

Since Jack was paying for the work, he

demanded quality. I had no problem with that.

NOVICK: I tell you, John, to me it was just a character and a job and that was it. I tried to do it to the best of my abilities. That’s it!

JC: What was the creative process at MLJ? NOVICK: Well, MLJ provided me with a script, and I penciled and inked it. If I wanted to change things in the story, they were always open to it.

“You Just Lose Track” JC: While at MLJ, there were other artists of note. Let me toss out a few names: Charles Biro?

NOVICK: Yes, Charlie Biro was a pretty big guy, overweight, a real heavyset type. At the time, the MLJ office was located on the 8th floor of the New York Telegraph Building on Hudson Street. I remember Charlie would always challenge me to all kinds of things when I came into the office. I never knew why. [laughs] For instance, he would bet me that if I took the elevator up and he raced the stairs, he could beat me. Well, I thought it was worth it to see him drop dead when we reached the top so I accepted! He almost did drop dead. [laughs] But you know, he did beat me!

JC: Mort Meskin?

NOVICK: Mort was a very fine person. An excellent artist, too. During my time at MLJ, Mort and I were very close. We had planned to get a studio together down in the village, but we never found the right place.

We kept in touch for quite a while, but then he up and disappeared on me.

It was quite some time before I saw him again. I believe it was the 1960s when we met again while at an advertising agency. You just lose track.

Unfortunately, he died in 1995.

JC: Bob Wood?

NOVICK: Yes, Bob was an okay guy, but I think he was sent away to prison for a while for shooting someone. I can’t remember for what exactly, but I do know he was sent to prison for awhile.

JC: I had read he shot his wife. How about Jack Binder? [NOTE: Actually, Bob Wood’s killing of a woman was quite different, as detailed in A/E #73. —Roy.]

JC: Bob Montana?

NOVICK: Bob created the character “Archie,” which is what MLJ is called today: Archie Comics. I thought Bob was a very fine person, but somehow MLJ took the rights to Archie. Bob later took them to court and won. Now I understand that there is another suit going on where John Goldwater is claiming that he created the character. That’s not true. I was in the office when Bob walked in with that character and presented it to MLJ. Goldwater did not create the character; Bob did. [NOTE: For another view on the creation of “Archie,” see the Joe Edwards interview that follows this piece. —Roy.] JC: How long did you work with MLJ? NOVICK: I continued to work with MLJ throughout the war. After being drafted in 1943, I was stationed in Mississippi for a year and half. From there, I was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky, for two more years until 1946. I never saw combat because when the army sent me to Officer’s Candidate School, they re-examined me and found I had a heart murmur.

The examining doctors said, “How did you even get in the Army in the first place?” I said, “They needed warm bodies and they said I qualified!” [laughs] I told them I had a heart murmur, but the doctor at the entrance exam ignored it. I got it as a child when I had Rheumatic fever.

Anyway, during this time, MLJ would send me work at the Army base.

Instead of playing cards like all the other guys did, I sat on my bunk and drew comic books. Sometimes the guys would stop playing cards for a minute or so, come by and look over my shoulder, ask questions, and then go back to playing cards. If any of the guys read my books, I never knew.

At the end of each month, I would get this check from MLJ. Somebody from HQ always opened my mail because you could see that it contained a check. Army pay being what it was, everybody on base was trying to borrow money from me. I was very popular, if you know what I mean.

Some did borrow money, though I never got paid back. That was the end of that! [laughs] JC: How did you come to work at DC Comics?

NOVICK: After being discharged from the Army in 1946, I met Bob Kanigher. At the time, he was a writer and editor for DC Comics. I met him at Irwin Hasen’s apartment. I had known Irwin since our days as artists at Chesler and MLJ. Anyway, years earlier, when working for MLJ,

A 1990s Interview With The Late Great Irv Novick

61

for DC Comics until—and even after—his official retirement in 1986, as well as his work on newspaper comic strips (especially Cynthia, with Harry Shorten, also formerly of MLJ) and in other fields. Again, we suggest that the reader seek out a copy of the 2000 Comic Book Marketplace #77. Following, however, are a few spare comments made later in the interview with regard to people Novick had known at MLJ. —Roy.] JC: [What do you remember about] Paul Reinman?

NOVICK: Paul was a pretty bright guy, an intellectual. We used to have long, deep discussions about art, politics, and the like.

JC: Do you keep up with the comic book market today?

NOVICK: No, but I do keep in touch with Bob Kanigher. Outside of comics, he’s written books, poetry, and plays. He is very talented. A Renaissance man! Very prolific…. Anyway, though I enjoyed the work, I would never really look at the comics themselves. Back in the 1940s, I remember every month MLJ would send me stacks of comic books, and I would just set them aside or store them in the attic. When we moved up to Westchester in 1960, into the house, my wife and I had built— JC: Wait, don’t say it—you threw them away?

Orson Welles, Eat Your Heart Out! Novick continued to draw the popular “Shield” feature for several years— although Ron Goulart suggests on p. 10 that Pierce Rice worked on some of the later stories. Marc Svensson supplied this splash page from the lead story in Pep Comics #40 (July 1943). [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Bob had called me on the phone, introduced himself, and told me he was hired to do a story for MLJ’s “Steel Sterling,” one of our books. At this point, I had never met him. But he dictated the story to me over the phone and I drew it. He was so concise, so complete in his descriptions, that I didn’t have to write it down. I simply drew it from memory. Bob remembered this when we met again in Irwin’s apartment and offered me a freelance job. I think my first work for Bob was on one of the love or war comics. Bob was a heck of a writer. He had a keen sense of telling a story. Very imaginative. We worked on a number of characters: “Johnny Cloud,” “Sgt. Rock,” “Captain Storm,” “Haunted Tank,” and a few others, and we are still firm friends.

[NOTE: At this point, the emphasis of the interview switches to Novick’s work

Batman Forever Irv Novick’s moody splash for Batman #227 (Dec. 1970), inked by Dick Giordano. Script by Denny O’Neil. Repro’d from the hardcover Crown volume Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s. The editor, of course, was Julius Schwartz, seen at left with Novick at a comicon; photo courtesy of David Siegel. [Page ©2008 DC Comics.]

62

“The Shield Was The First Patriotic Hero”

NOVICK: Yes, I threw them out: Steel Sterling, Zip Comics, Pep Comics, all of that stuff.

JC: Ouch! That hurts! [laughs] NOVICK: You’re telling me? [laughs] I didn’t know what the things were worth; they were just in the way. Who knew? I was just thinking of the house I was building. It took five years between 1955 and 1960. I always

enjoyed doing carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, and all kinds of construction work. I was fortunate to have these as hobbies, considering I was building my house! My favorite hobby now is walking. I’m a pretty fast walker, and that keeps me thinking young. Doesn’t keep me young, though!

Our thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.

IRV NOVICK Checklist [The following Checklist is primarily adapted from information that appears in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999), established by Jerry G. Bails. See the notice below to learn how to access this invaluable website. Names of features which appeared both in magazines with that title and in other magazines, as well, are generally not italicized below. Reprints are only occasionally listed. Key: (a) = full art; (w) = writer; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (S) = Sunday newspaper comic strips; (d) = daily newspaper comic strips.]

Name: Irving H. Novick (1916-2004) – artist, writer Education: National Academy of Design Member: National Cartoonists Society Print Media (Non-Comics): artist in advertising & design – Johnstone and Cushing, and Al Stenzel Studios 1951-65; magazines 1958-60s; Amazing Stories 1958; Boys’ Life 1960s; writer – US Army training manuals; Boys’ Life 1955-68; science-fiction magazines late 1950s-60s; Amazing Stories; Astounding Commercial Art & Design: International Correspondence Schools 1961-62 Comic Strip Syndication: Cynthia (d)(S)(w)(a) 1946-52 for McClure Syndicate; Vengador Escarlato (Scarlet Avenger) (a) 1946-50 Comics in Other Media: “The Bible,” “Heroes of the Faith,” “Lives of

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999) FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com No password required

Created by Jerry G. Bails

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US.

An Irv Novick “Shield” panel from an early1940s issue of Shield-Wizard Comics. Thanks to Jim Amash. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Great Men,” “Our Heritage,” “The Sioux,” & cartoon features (a) in Boys’ Life 1960s Promotional Comics: G.I. Joe Club with Andy and George (a) 1960s for G.I. Joe action dolls Comics Studio/Shop: Chesler Studio (a) 1939 COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US Publishers): Archie Comic Publications, Inc./MLJ: Avenger (a) c. 1941; Betty and Veronica (w)(a) c. 1947; Black Hood (p) 1943-46; Black Jack (a) 1941-42; Bob Phantom (a) 1940; Boy Buddies (a) 1940s; Captain Commando (a) c.

1941; Fran Frazer (a) c. 1941; Hangman (a) c. 1941; Inferno (a) c. 1941; Kalthar (a) c. 1941; Penny Parker (a) 1941; Scarlet Avenger (a) 1940; Shanghai Sheridan (a) c. 1941; The Shield (p) 1943-46; The Shield (a) 1940-42; The Shield (in Pep) (a) 1943; Steel Sterling (a) 1941-43; The Web (a) c. 1941; The Wizard (a) c. 1941 Better/Standard/Nedor/Pines: Today’s Romance (p) 1952 DC Comics: 80-Page Giant Magazine (i) 1965; All-American Men of War (p)(i) 1952-66; Atom (p) 1982; Batman and Robin (p) 1976-77; Batman (p) 1966-83, 1989; Batman (a) in Batman #204 1968; Batman and Teen Titans (p) 1969; Batman and Wildcat (p) 1970; Captain Hunter (a) 1966; Captain Storm (a) 1965; covers (p)(some i) 1952-79; Elongated Man (a) 1967; Fighting Devil Dog (a) 1965-66; Flash (Golden Age version) (p) 1990; Flash (p) 1970-79; Flash and Kid Flash (p) 1978; G.I. Combat (a) 1957-62, 1965-67; G.I. Joe (a) 1965-65; Girls’ Love Stories (p) 1954; Girls’ Romances (a) 1958; Green Arrow (p) 1983; Green Lantern Corps (p) 1982; Gunner and Sarge (a) 1962; Haunted Tank (p)(some i) 1961-68; Haunted Tank and Johnny Cloud (a) 1966; Hunter’s Hellcats (a) & illustration (i) 1975; Johnny Cloud (a) 1960-67; The Joker (p) 1976-76; Lt. Johnny Cloud (a) 1960-66; Lois Lane (p) 1968-70; Mr. and Mrs. Superman (p) 1981-82; Our Army at War (p)(i) 1952-59, 1961-65; Our Fighting Forces (p)(i) 1954-58; 1960-66; public service page (a) 1957; Robin (p) 1970-73, 1976-77, 1981; Robin Hood (p)(some i) 1956-57; Sargon the Sorcerer (a) 1942; Sea Devils (a) 1963-64; Secret Origin: Rocket Red (p) 1988-89; Secret Origin: Teen Titans (p) 1982; Sgt. Rock (p)(i) 1959, 1961; Silent Knight (a) 1955-59, 1974; Star Spangled War Stories (p)(i) 1953-58, 1961-64; Strange Sports Stories (p) 1973-74; Superman (p) 1982, 1984-85; Superman and Aquaman (p) 1982; Superman and Batman & The Outsiders (p) 1985; Superman and Batman (p) 1982; Superman and Blackhawk (p) 1984

63

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experiencee!”

JOE EDWARDS On MLJ’s Super-Heroes —And Archie Andrews Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

“The Lower East Side, Where The Immigrants Were” JIM AMASH: The hardest question will be, when and where were you born?

JOE EDWARDS: I was there! December 6th, 1921, in New York. That’s a long time ago.

JA: You’re older than the Empire State Building.

EDWARDS: Well, I’m shorter. I lived on the Lower East Side, where the immigrants were, and there was a candy store across the street. I used to glance at the Sunday comics that came in—Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon and all the top strips like Popeye. I was fascinated by the color and the stories and art. When I was about eight or nine, the owner of the candy store said that if I would collate the Sunday papers for him, I would make two or three cents a Sunday, which was very good money because Mother’s Day was coming up and I didn’t have any money, this being the

J

oe Edwards (1921-2007) was a good comic book cartoonist who brought joy to millions of readers for the better part of six decades At the time of his passing, he was the last link to Archie Comics’ pre-Archie days, and of the little-known Demby Shop which preceded that. Joe worked with artist Bob Montana on the plotting of the very first “Archie” story, and though he did all kinds of features for the company [see Checklist at end of interview— next issue], it is his creation of “Li’l Jinx” that most of us know best.

My interviewing Joe between bouts of illness was hard on him, but he wanted to tell his story. His memory for details was not always accurate, and I have endeavored to correct as much as I could while staying true to Joe’s point of view. His description of the creation of the Archie characters is at variance with other sources, and I’ll leave that for others to sort out. To me, Joe was a hard-working, humble man who was proud of his achievements. He was a good friend and devoted family man, and is missed by all who knew him. And, since “Li’l Jinx” is reprinted every month in various Archie digests, Joe ended up with the last laugh—only it’s a last laugh that all of us can enjoy.

Oh, and many thanks to Stan Goldberg for first putting me in touch with Joe! —Jim.

A Double Dose Of Morning Joe (Above left:) A photo of which cartoonist Joe Edwards wrote: “This was me working on a strip, Pinky, that has been swallowed up in the India ink of time. I was going to the Tex Hastings [a Walt Disney director] Animation School in Manhattan at the time. We didn’t realize it was the beginning of the comic book industry. I was working for Famous Funnies and other start-up companies in this golden era.” Courtesy of Eda Lisa Edwards.

(Above right:) A sketch by Joe of himself with Archie Andrews and his own creation Li’l Jinx, sent to Jim Amash in May 2005. Thanks to Jim. [Archie & Li’l Jinx TM & ©2008 Archie Publications, Inc.; self-caricature ©2008 Estate of Joe Edwards.]

64

Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

draw. They were fascinated that I could put the lines down. I found out about editors from experience. When I drew on the sidewalk, if I didn’t do a good drawing, and there were many times when I didn’t, Somebody upstairs rained on it and washed it out. [Jim laughs] So I realized then and there that I’d better be nice to the editor. When you get a sunny day, the editor is just smiling, and he leaves the drawing alone. So any time you saw a chalk drawing in my area, it meant God was with me. But when it rained, it washed all of them down the sewer. So that was a form of learning about editorship, and it was a tough guide, let me tell you.

In school, I got good marks because I would do drawings relating to the subject matter. The more you got an “A,” the more you wanted another one. So as an adult, the cartooning started to give me confidence and build my ego. I had a feeling for it, and being poor, you just don’t have the art school or anything else that’s there.

JA: Could the Bob Dunn comic have been Detective Dan, Secret Operative No. 48? He was a precursor to Dan Dunn. It was a Dick Tracy knockoff in 1933: a black-and-white one-shot, with cardboard three-color covers. If this is the book that you read, it’s one of the first comic books.

A Loaf Of Bread, A Jug Of Head…

Fellow artist Sam Schwartz, an early acquaintance of Joe’s, would go on to draw the antics of Archie’s buddy Jughead in later years. Thanks to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson for the scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

poor neighborhood. I managed to get a few pennies and buy a gift for her.

It wasn’t much, but it was a gift, and I remembered Mother’s Day. So I realized that, instead of swiping candy, it was easier to earn it the legitimate way.

I was fascinated with color and the content of the comics. I used to take my hand and cover the last panel. Then I would think, “Let me see where that story goes. How can I end it?” At the beginning, of course, I fouled up. But after a while, I started to pick up. Sometimes, my answer was better than the one that was professionally done: Popeye or Mutt and Jeff, Dick Tracy, etc.

Another thing that stirred me up was that I had been given a gift of comic books. At that time, I called it a “comic book,” but it was Bob Dunn, the F.B.I. Man. I must have read it a thousand times. I was fascinated with the fact that the panels brought out the story. I happened to prefer the funny ones, so as time when by, I was getting better and better at writing the last panel, which helped me through many a situation later on. But I didn’t realize I was learning the art of how to tell a story. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the punch line had to be something of a surprise. So that was the way I wrote after a while. But when I was in school, I used to get a piece of chalk, and draw Popeye, Mutt and Jeff, and Dick Tracy on sidewalks, which made me a celebrity.

There were gang fights there, but they treated me different. [mutual chuckling] I’m not kidding you. There were some bad fights there.

JA: Well, you were from the Lower East Side, like Jack Kirby. Jack always said it was a very rough neighborhood.

EDWARDS: It was. I never understood it, but 9th Street was fought for by 8th Street and 10th Street. [Jim chuckles] I’m not laughing.

JA: What were you fighting over?

EDWARDS: Nobody knew! [Jim laughs] All I knew is that, one day, I was walking past one of the receding storewells, and all of a sudden, one of the kids came out with a big club. He hit me and broke my arm. Fortunately, it was not my drawing arm.

It was pretty rough, but most of the kids respected me because I could

EDWARDS: It might have been. I remember being in bed and reading it panel for panel until I knew the dialogue, the drawings, and everything.

When I read it, I used to think, “Maybe it will change when I read it again.” My other influences were reading the Sunday papers, as I told you.

I gyrated towards comedy. I felt that there was something more charming to me than just somebody taking a sock at somebody.

JA: But you took Art in high school, didn’t you?

EDWARDS: Yes, in a way. We’re touching upon another area later. I came from a dysfunctional family. That means my mother and father didn’t get along. Or if they did, poverty sort-of corroded their relationship. As a result, my brother and I wound up being wards of the state and later placed in an orphanage. Later, they placed me with some wonderful people who encouraged me to make something of myself. They were very supportive.

“You’re Old Enough To Go Out And Make A Living” JA: I have listed as your education, Rome Academy, and Hastings Animation Studio. Which was first?

EDWARDS: Hastings was an animation school on Times Square, which is a very interesting story. It was where all the theatres were and everything.

I got a job in a factory.

JA: You were out of high school when you went to this place, right? How old were you?

EDWARDS: I was a ward of the state. They only keep you until 18, then you have to make your own way in the world, and that’s about when this started to break. I wanted to go to art school, but there was no money so I took a factory job. And at night, I would travel on the subway up to Times Square for a nickel. I would meet Sam Schwartz, who later drew Jughead, at the animation school. Tex Hastings was the Art Director for Disney.

[The office] was upstairs, all the way upstairs. Did you ever hear of the Gaiety Building? Well, we were upstairs, and the bathroom—if you went to the men’s bathroom upstairs, you would look out the window, you could look into the Gaiety Building where the girls were getting undressed. [chuckles] Well, I was paying I think it was $20 a week or something, and Tex would teach us animation.

JA: What kind of factory did you work in?

EDWARDS: Oh, it was just an ordinary factory, making record albums. I

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

came back home after I was 18. My mother opened up a home, and I became the man of the house, so the money had to be paid for rent and food. I think it was maybe $15 a week, and most of that went to my mother for the upkeep. And then, at that time, I worked for the WPA. JA: Was that before the animation school?

EDWARDS: Yes. The home said, “We can’t support you anymore. You’re old enough to go out and make a living.” Well, the WPA came first, and then I went into animation school in Times Square, where I stayed there until 11 o’clock, when they closed. I had been working all day at the factory, too. I was bushed, but I felt that whatever I paid them was worth it because I was learning, and Tex was a very good teacher.

I was there for about two years. Several comic book houses were starting up. I used to buy comics off the stands, look up the address, and go up with my miserable, miserable portfolio, and try to get a job. I made the rounds: Timely and Famous Funnies, who I did get some work from. I was doing animation and the idea was to come up with a character. I came up with “Victor, the Vegetarian Vulture.” Did you get that one?

JA: Yes, you wrote it and drew it. Was that your first published comic book work?

EDWARDS: I think that was pretty close to it. I did another one with a bear for Stan Lee. It was a baseball story with a bear up at the bat that Stan Lee wrote. Stan Lee used to have what they call a chorus line or a call. We used to go up one day a week with our samples, and he liked what I did, obviously, because he gave me this assignment. I figured he was quite a guy, and after that I made the rounds to the other places.

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cartoons and he was damn good. Oh, I loved that guy.

JA: Before we get into that, tell me about working for the WPA. EDWARDS: At that time, there were not many jobs. So as I approached 18, [chuckles] I used to stand on Coney Island with a shovel, but nobody really did any work. They just stood there, it was ice cold, it was the winter. We would get our lunch and we’d come back and they’d tell us, “Okay, you can go home.” That was it. [Jim laughs] Plus, we got paid. It was the Depression, and having come from a dysfunctional family, this was not one of my pleasant times.

JA: When you were at Famous Funnies, you did “Victor, the Vegetarian Vulture.” Was Steve Douglas the man who hired you?

EDWARDS: Yes. I did that job for him and at the same time, I told you I was making the rounds, trying to pick up extra work, and I was starting to become what I called a “qualified professional.” And as a result, what happened was I went up to MLJ in downtown New York, I think on Church Street. They were on the 6th Floor. I walked in. Most of the places would send out a lackey to look at the artwork. But when I went up to MLJ, editor Harry Shorten came out. He took a look at my samples and said, “Well, I could use you.” I looked at him with amazement because it was so easy. I said, “How soon do you need me?” He says, “Yesterday.”

Harry was a wonderful man.

JA: Did you and Sam start together?

EDWARDS: Yeah, we were going around together, looking for work. Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was also part of a stable of artists. That’s where I met Sam.

JA: Did you just do the one story or was it a series of stories?

EDWARDS: No, I believe it was just that one. The dialogue was very strange to me. Stan used dialogue that was a little peculiar, certain verbs that he used that I hadn’t heard before, so it would stick in my mind. The pay at that time was very meager. Hey, the main thing was to get your foot in the door, and to be able to have somebody recognize that you might have talent enough to sell the books for them. So I went around to various other places, and at one of the last stops I ran into Sam Schwartz. I met him in my neighborhood, surprisingly, in Brooklyn. He was doing

“An Agent Named Manny Demby” JA: In 1943, I have you doing “Friendly Fox” for Steve Douglas also.

EDWARDS: I might have done it. I’m telling you, it was a matter of grabbing as much of the artwork world as you could. I might have done it on the QT because I was already engrossed with Archie. But I forgot to tell you about before I went up to Archie—that’s how I met Sam—there was a stable of artists. There was an agent named Manny Demby, who

Joe Loves Joe Joe Edwards loved Joe Gallagher’s work, that is! JE’s description of JG as “tall and dark-haired” is the first visual fix we’ve ever had on him. Gallagher is best remembered for his work in the mid-1940s on “The Justice Society of America” and “The Atom” for DC/All-American, as per this pair of panels from a probably never-published Mighty Mite story. Thanks to owner Ethan Roberts. [©2008 DC Comics.]

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Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

would get the work, and then pay us. Davey Berg was up there, too. Dave, Sam, and I, and Louis Ferstadt, who was also in the WPA. Davey tipped me off on Demby and said “Why don’t you show your stuff and maybe he’ll take you on?”

JA: Did you meet Sam Schwartz in your neighborhood or at Demby’s?

EDWARDS: A combination. Actually, I met him first up at Demby’s. He and Dave Berg and I all three wound up at an art school on Schenectady Avenue. We had five or six artists working at Demby’s. He would go out to Fawcett and pick up jobs, and then come back and give them to whoever he thought was competent enough to do the job—writing, drawing, and anything [else that needed to be done]. I shouldn’t blacken his name, but [chuckles] he was an agent like all agents. They’re not reliable.

why I don’t want blacken his name. By the way, Demby later went into television, and he was going around peddling the Popeye show. Generally, he was a very sociable, nice guy. I mean he was pleasant to you except when it came to business. But he did bring me work—he brought all of us work. Unfortunately, something came up which I won’t go into. We left Demby. and that’s when Sam and I walked around with our samples.

JA: So he stiffed you with money?

EDWARDS: [chuckles uncomfortably] You touched a nerve.

JA: When he paid you, did he pay you with a check or in cash?

EDWARDS: It’s been a long time. Offhand, I would say it was a check, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

JA: He took advantage of you.

JA: Were you writing and drawing when you worked for him?

EDWARDS: Very big advantage, and we found out and we left. I don’t recall doing much work for them. We could work at home or work at his studio, it depended. If he needed it immediately for the client, we did the work at his studio. Demby’s desk was in another room. There was a big room with Louis Ferstadt and Joe Gallagher. Joe was fantastic! I loved his stuff. He made his artwork look like a real painting. But something happened to him. He got very sick.

EDWARDS: Yes, it was a combination. It’s like, whatever came in, you grabbed it.

JA: I know he worked for DC Comics in the 1940s through at least the postwar period. Then he disappeared, and nobody knows what happened to him.

EDWARDS: He got sick. I heard on the grapevine that he’d passed away.

I’m very vague about him. I’d just met him, you know, a cursory hello. He was tall, and dark-haired. I don’t know what his life was, but he was an intense person. You would sense it from the way he spoke to you. He was a true artist; each panel was a gem unto itself.

JA: Do you have any memory of what features you did there?

EDWARDS: Not really. I remember he got jobs from Fawcett, and it was a short time, two months, when Davey found out something that wasn’t quite correct. Demby was very kind to me, and he came at the right time because anybody that paid you for your scribblings has got to be good. [chuckles] At that time, comics was an infant business. Nobody knew where it was going or how big it was going to grow. We weren’t businessmen. We were all glad to get paid for whatever we put forth.

JA: Tell me about Louis Ferstadt.

There were some other people who wandered in to Demby’s. But I’ve got to tell you one story that you may appreciate. One day, Manny comes in. “Hey, fellas, how’d you like to buy an interest or buy the rights to a strip?” [chuckles] Now we’re all scrounging for the dollar, so Manny says to me, “You want to hear something? It’s about a guy who undresses in a telephone booth, and he flies through the air, and he has this shirt that says ‘S’ on it.” He says, “I’ll tell you what, if you want to buy it, these guys are willing to sell it outright for $200.” That was the figure. [Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster] thought Demby could sell it.

So we thought that was a funny, funny thing, and it shows how smart we were. If we had all chipped in a buck, we would have been millionaires.

So Demby used to say, “Take a look in the bins.”

They had these big engineering bins, and any time we got a lull in the work or something, and we wanted a laugh, we’d go in and open up the drawer and look at the samples. We’d say, “My God, he undressed in a telephone booth. He flies through the air!” So it tells you where we were. [Since Superman’s first appearance was in Action Comics #1, which came out in spring of 1938, Joe must have been at Demby’s shop earlier than he indicates.

—Jim] JA: What did Demby look like?

EDWARDS: He had blondish, very sparse hair, a smiling face. I think he might have been about 26, 27, maybe thirty at the most. I liked him, so that’s

EDWARDS: He was in the WPA, painting murals.

Manny Demby found him, or he found Manny Demby, and Manny put him in charge of the stable.

In other words, he was the ringleader for any work.

He was quiet and played everything close to his vest.

In other words, you couldn’t reach him, but he was there.

JA: Dave Berg.

EDWARDS: [laughs] He was a very big, strong influence on my life because he lived not too far from where I lived. I used to go over to his house.

His mother was very warm, a typical Molly Goldberg, and her house was open for everybody, especially for artists. Davey was clever as they made them. He came up with stuff that still to this day, I think was genius. He drew “Blackhawk.” Did you know that?

JA: He also drew “Captain Marvel,” “Uncle Sam,” and a feature called “Death Patrol.” Do you remember that?

Any Relation To Hannah?

Bob Montana, universally acknowledged as, at the very least, the co-creator of Archie Andrews, in a photo and Archie head from a vintage article on cartooning sent by Charles Biro’s daughters Penny Gold, Denise Ortell, and Bonnie Biro, via Jim Amash and Teresa R. Davidson. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

EDWARDS: Oh, God, yes. He was a terrific writer.

The Death Patrol was an entourage of flyers, and in each issue he would kill off one of them and bring another in. That was so clever at the time. Do you know anything about “Sir Butch”? That was his baby. Sir Butch was a kid with Jughead’s hat, and he would hitch a ride on the back of a trolley that ran past Davey’s house. Davey wrote a whole story about Sir Butch, a young kid who would be a Don Quixote. At that time, it was amazing to me. He wrote other stuff which really surprised me—like “The End of the Earth” with, I think, a big freeze.

The whole Earth freezes up, and he did stories like

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

that.

EDWARDS: That came later.

We were in high school together. His pencil was very vicious. He was a terrific caricaturist. He did drawings in our high school yearbook of the teachers. One of them was really offended: a big, fat woman, and he drew her really on the money. She called him down to the office. Davey always got in trouble. We worked on the yearbook together at Tilden High School in Brooklyn.

JA: What was their bullpen like?

“Who’s That Skinny Half-Starved Artist?”

JA: When you and Sam were making the rounds, you ended up at MLJ together. Did Sam get hired at the same time?

EDWARDS: Yes, as freelancers.

JA: What do you remember about those early offices at MLJ? EDWARDS: They were on the sixth floor. You walked in and there was a short three-foot fence in front with a little swinging door which you walked in to get into the main office. The secretary there was Molly or Millie. We used to go up once a week and deliver the work. We inked, we lettered, we wrote, we did everything. Working at MLJ was a good experience.

JA: What was the first thing you did for MLJ? EDWARDS: I know it was about a rabbit. At that time, I also met Bob Montana. Bob Montana was working for [Victor] Fox, and you know what he was doing? Clean-up work. So he used to pop in to MLJ and try to pick up some work. He did a fight strip, “Kayo-something.” [NOTE: Probably “Kayo Ward” in Pep Comics. —Jim.] JA: Was Harry Shorten, in this early period, the only editor?

EDWARDS: No, there was another one [Abner Sundell] who was fired for taking kickbacks. He said, “I pay the artists what they should get, not what they should give you.” When they found out what the guy was doing, they fired him and put Harry in charge.

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EDWARDS: Well, they had a big office up there with quite a lot of guys.

Jack Cole passed by. Oh, when I came in, I’m in the room and Harry’s talking to me. A burly guy sitting at one of the desks in the bullpen, I found out later, said, “Who’s that skinny half-starved artist?” pointing to me. And that was Irv Novick! Harry shrugged his shoulders, and said, “He’s a new guy on the block.”

JA: Who besides Novick was working in the office?

EDWARDS: Mort Meskin, I understand, was there but I never met him.

But they would talk about Meskin. Charlie Biro left there, and he went and did his own thing. I never met him, either.

I’m trying to think who was there because, after I got up there, I brought up Bill Vigoda. He lived near me in Brooklyn, and his wife Anita was friends with me, so she begged me, “Can you bring Bill in?” Bill was a terrific artist. “Well, I’ll try to talk to Harry, see if I can get him a position.” So Harry looked at his work and said, “Well, it’s not what I want right now.” And I said, “Gee, the guy can use the work.” When you’ve got a foot in the door, you can be stronger. Anyway, Bill was very broke and his brother was the actor Abe Vigoda, who I met once or twice. Anyway, I brought Bill up there, and they were glad to get him because the war broke out. He used to work up at the office. Bill’s other brother Hy was a writer. I never met him.

“I Was Going To Tell You [About] Eli Katz” JA: So when you came, there were two editors, right?

EDWARDS: Well, only Harry at the time, and then later he got an assistant, Victor [Gorelick]. There were two: a guy named Liebman came

JA: Was there an assistant editor?

The Katz’n’Kaner Kid (Above:) Young Eli Katz, seen during his stint in uniform during World War II with a super-hero drawing he’d done, later evolved into Gil Kane, one of the supreme stylists of the medium. This photo, courtesy of Mrs. Elaine Kane, appeared in the 2001 Hermes Press book Gil Kane: The Art of the Comics by Daniel Herman.

Special thanks to Dan for the scan.

(Right:) Part of the cover of Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #2 (1998), which sported a drawing Gil had done in the 1970s as a gift for Roy Thomas. RT was surprised that, though all the other heroes on it were DC, Marvel, or self-owned characters, the artist included The Shield in the mix…probably because Gil recalled working on that superpatriot (or at least for MLJ) as one of his first jobs. Alas, we can’t identify any particular Pep Comics art as being by Gil/Eli. [The Shield ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; Batman & Green Lantern TM & ©2008 DC Comics; Captain America TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art ©2008 Estate of Gil Kane.]

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Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

in first, and then Victor came in later. And they had some other editors which were short-lived. [NOTE: Actually Victor Gorelick started at Archie in 1958, a year after Harry Shorten left the company. —Jim.] I was going to tell you that Eli Katz was a very young novice starting out in comics. I lived about three, four blocks away from him. He found out I lived in an apartment house, and he would ring my bell to come down and chat. He was one of the most intense guys I’ve ever met. He would describe a fingernail or the way Douglas Fairbanks jumped over a parapet—that was the kind of intense observation that he did.

Finally, he used to emulate it by putting it in his drawing. I managed to get him a job up at MLJ because there was room for a stock clerk. In the stockroom, they used to get art returns and all the artists, at the end of the day, would put their artwork into this stockroom, into what they call a draft cabinet. It had very shallow drawers, but it was big so it could accommodate our large pages at that time. He got the job of policing it, and keeping it in order.

Shortening Before he was MLJ's editor, Harry Shorten scripted such series as “Scarlet Avenger.”

In Zip Comics #4 (May 1940), he shared a byline with artist Irv Novick. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

In regard to the original owners, John Goldwater and Louis Silberkleit: they treated us fine. When I say “fine,” they were giving us, well, our jobs, and it seemed to be steady, and we wanted to honor them with a dinner. Most bosses like that the help should favor them. [chuckles] Each one of us got up in the Chinese restaurant up on Manhattan, said a few words, and then they asked me to get up. I got up and made a few words and in my ignorance and stupidity, I got up and I said, “John, you’ve helped the business by hiring a lot of people and especially novices, new people who want to get into the business and who climbed the ladder in time. There’s one in particular.” I said, “It’s a really wonderful place to work for,” and I’m putting a lot of butter on it and schmearing it, “and particularly Eli Katz, who I think is a very fine talent. He’s so fine, you know what he does? On Friday, when Novick and all the cartoonists, Harry Lucey, Sam Schwartz, and myself left for the weekend, he would take our pages and wrap them around his body, and sort-of like kidnap it and take it home. He used to walk out ten pounds heavier. The reason he did that was he would take the work home and trace over it with tracing paper, which showed a love for the arts and cartooning. That’s the kind of inspiration and intensity that you have inspired in the guy.”

When I told this little story, John Goldwater said to me, “Joe, Eli Katz took all that work and brought it back Monday?” I said, “Yeah.” “Joe, do you know my insurance would go up if we lost all that artwork?” So it was a matter of insurance, but Eli had done that for a while, and later Eli Katz became Gil Kane, who was well-known and well-renowned, so I was pleased about that part. Eventually, he stayed in touch with me.

The one other thing about Gil was that, when he finally became professional, he would take work from DC, Timely, anybody. He would grab all the scripts. But when it came down to deadlines, he was always, always behind. Why? [chuckles once more] Because he had a stack of scripts he couldn’t turn in on time. Later, he wound up training under Hogarth, who was fantastic with Tarzan, and Gil was known for his horses and his action. The horses looked real and the cowboys, the shooting, everything, the whole package, looked great. He studied the movies, and that was the reason that his stuff looked so good. He eventually went out to Hollywood and worked for one of the animation studios doing stills. He wound up, unfortunately, catching cancer, which seems to be abroad. He called me about two weeks before he passed away.

He kinda was telling me that his time was up and that he wanted me to know how much he felt about my helping him in whatever way I did. To him, it was a big help, because it got him kicked off in the business and made him what he was.

JA: When you met him, his name was Eli Katz.

EDWARDS: Eli Katz, Al Stack. He changed his name like you’d change your underwear, which isn’t often. [laughs] I admired him because he loved Cary Grant, and so do I. Gil bought shirts with the collars that stuck up in the back, and he would dress up like Cary Grant. And finally, when he was maintaining a good income, he went out and straightened out his teeth, which were very bad, got a nose job, and fixed himself over. He did what they call today a makeover. And his clothes, I’m telling you, it was so beautiful to watch him. Later, he got married. One time when I was up at Archie, which was on 60th Street in Manhattan, he said, “Look, any time you’re in New York, come on up,” because I didn’t work in New York. I worked at home. So I said, “All right, the next time I’m in New York.” I called him up and I says, “I’m here, Al.” I knew him as “Al” so I said, “Al, look, I’m in New York, and maybe we can go out to lunch and I’ll come over to your studio.” There was like dead silence and I said, “Did I come at a wrong time?” He says, “Kinda.” [chuckles] It turned out he had a woman in the place, so [my visit] was vetoed at the time. These are the things I recall about him, but he was a fantastic artist, and he knew his anatomy and what-not. But he was always late with the deadlines when he was working freelance. If you gave him a script, you better make sure you sit on him because you’re not going to get it by the deadline.

JA: Other artists who worked in the bullpen—like Novick, for instance— would they spend any time trying to help him?

EDWARDS: No. I was the contact, and he stayed with me, more or less.

I’ll tell you another side story about that particular event. My wife Eda and I decided to move out further on Long Island, to Hicksville. Gil called me up one day and I said, “By the way, this phone number will be changed. I’m going to be moving.” So he asked, “Where are you moving?” very excitedly. I said, “We’re moving out to Hicksville,” and [I gave him directions]. I expected him to say, “I’ll miss you,” or something like that.

He didn’t say that, so I said, “I guess he’s glad I’m calling.” [Jim chuckles] A few days later, the phone rings and it’s Gil. He said, “Joe, we’re neighbors. He went and bought the house next door to the one I was moving to.

He called a week or two later, and I said, “Gil, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I backed out of that house.” In those days, you put $10 down and you made an investigation, and I don’t even know why I backed out, but maybe I had cold feet at the time. But he was going to be my neighbor. So he called me a few days later, “We’re no longer neighbors.” [more mutual chuckling] He got out of the deal, too.

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

“A Lot Of Great Things That Happened” JA: Did you know Jack Cole when he was at MLJ? EDWARDS: No, but I heard his name down the grapevine. We came in and out, and at the time we didn’t stay up there unless we had a correction to make. Sometimes the letters weren’t correct or they would rewrite a balloon, so you would have to do it while you were there. Only when I was working with the [newspaper] syndicate with Bob Montana [on Archie] was I able to work up there for a full day. Of course, the distractions were countless. But there was one incident that you will get a kick out of, and maybe I shouldn’t tell you. When you read that material that you write, and you see it lettered up to the page, how many times does a typo slip by?

JA: It happens, sometimes.

EDWARDS: Not sometimes. [mutual chuckling] If you’ve been in the business any length of time, it slips by. There were two incidents that were interesting. One was Christmas. Now you’ve got the picture of a cover [that] says “Christmas” on it. It was misspelled one issue. When it came off the press, they realized what had happened. Somewhere, the letterer was lettering it, the proofreader read it, and you read it as “Christmas.”

But it wasn’t. A letter was left out. Somebody asked me, ‘[Why didn’t] you save that issue?’ “ because it would have been worth a lot more money than the average. I didn’t think! I told you I wasn’t too bright. [Jim laughs] I think Gil was in the stockroom at the time. The editor was distraught.

“How can ‘Christmas’ be misspelled on the cover?” But it did get through, and they hid that particular issue in the stockroom, away from John Goldwater. Why? Because John used to get a copy on his desk of everything that came out. This issue, they didn’t put on his desk.

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credit, but he was very instrumental in selling “Archie,” despite what things are said about it. I was there and I know. Believe me, Harry Shorten deserved a much bigger credit than he got.

We were downtown when we first started, on Church Street. I think a block or two away was the Telephone Building, and in the Telephone Building they had a cafeteria. Now this motley crew, including myself, met for lunch, came to the office, and Harry said, “Hey, I’ve got a place where we can go in for practically almost half-price.” So we said, “Hey, he’s looking out for our interests.” It turns out it was in the Telephone Building, so we all marched in like we owned a telephone [mutual laughter] or we were executives, because in those days, we wore ties, and we sat and we ate, and the check came. So all of us—there were quite a number, I think about ten guys, and since Harry was the editor, we all said, “Harry, this is on me.” “No, Harry, this is on me.” And Lucey would say, “No, this one’s on me.” Sam would say, “This is on me.” Now Vigoda’d say, “That’s on me. Come on, let me—” They would make the gesture to go into their pockets and Harry would say, “No, no, no, guys. This one is on me.” “Come on, Harry.” “No, hey, I told you to come here, I’m taking you guys all out.” He was a very good editor. He made the guys feel very important. So we’re walking towards the cashier, and he turns around and he says, “Hey, guys. Can anyone lend me ten bucks?” [mutual laughter] JA: I want to ask about Maurice Coyne, because we know virtually nothing about this man. He was the “M” in MLJ. EDWARDS: He was a heavyset man, jolly, a very beautiful smile. He played the stock market. We loved him better than anybody up there

There was another one when Harry Shorten was editor. We used to use an F-6 pen to letter. It was a very thin pen and you would letter up the words that had to be done. One time, talk about unwittingly, certain things occur beyond your control. The word was “FLICK” and it closed up. Can you picture this? I loved that one. I mean it wasn’t my mistake. It came out on one of Harry Lucey’s jobs so he said, “I’m very proud of it. [mutual laughter] Only guys up here can get that into the book without getting flack.” Harry was that kind of guy. Harry was such a dear. I was fortunate to meet a lot of very intelligent, bright, talented guys. If John Goldwater ever found out, there’d have been hell to pay, and I think he would have fired the editor completely. He would have fired everybody, I think. How do you misspell “Christmas”?

Let me explain something about lettering. I think, if you do any lettering, your mind goes into another mode. The reason I say that is, you see each letter and how it fits together. So what probably happened was he was lettering it from the script in front of him, something interrupted him, and he came back, and [made a mistake because he lost his concentration]. That’s very, very easy. That’s why you have proofreaders.

Anyway, that was an era of time I look back on very fondly, with a great deal of humor. There were a lot of great things that happened. We would meet once a week up at MLJ to go out to lunch together: Harry Lucey, Sam Schwartz, Bill Vigoda, myself, and whoever else. You’ve heard of Sy Reit?

JA: Casper, the Friendly Ghost artist.

EDWARDS: Right. He showed up sometimes. There were a whole bunch of guys. We would meet up for lunch, and would go out two blocks away, even with Harry Shorten. I wish I had had your tape recorder. I swear, the humor that was flying by—natural, clear, unrehearsed. The guys were just so witty, like Milton Berle or Sid Caesar... that kind of stuff.

Archie On The Move!

Harry Shorten was a dear man who trained all the guys, including myself, in how to tell a story and how to work it. He never got much

This full-page house ad for Archie #1 appeared in Top-Notch Laugh Comics #32 (Jan. 1943). The art is signed by Joe Edwards. Thanks to Joe Carroll for the scan. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

70

Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

because he always gave us a check. [mutual chuckling] John and Louis were in one office, and Coyne had another office. They gave Coyne an assistant, and that’s the way the setup was. So if you got a check, it came out of Coyne’s office. He handled payments and all of that.

John Goldwater started the company. The three owners had once worked for a guy named Gernsback. Does that ring a bell?

JA: Yes, Hugo Gernsback. Didn’t he start the science-fiction pulps?

EDWARDS: Yes, you’re on the right track. But there was one character he became famous for: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Silberkleit, Goldwater, and Coyne worked for him, and they were young and they decided, “Hey, if he’s making all this money, why can’t we?” The three of them went into the business. They got some capital somewhere—and they put out girlie books.

They all treated me very nice. I understood that they were businessmen. John handled the comic books, Louis handled purchasing, and Maurice gave out the checks and paid the bills. Coyne was a private man. In fact—and this is not a fact that I know—I think he was a bachelor, but I wouldn’t swear to it. Louis would take care of the paper and advertising. The advertising that came in was very miniscule. It sortof paid for some of the cost of putting out a book.

John, I know, took care of the comics. We had to submit samples or items to him, and he would come out, and they were always very nice and generous with me. I never had any bad blood. [chuckles again] The only thing we ever used to laugh at, because we had a sense of humor, was the thing that always used to get us crazy—it was their mantra. When you’d go in and ask for a raise, they would say, “Well, we’re going to see what the sales are at Christmas.” Christmas came, and we’d hear, “Well, we’re going to wait for the summer sales.” And this was over and over. That’s the mantra they would use on the artists. I mean, that doesn’t bother me as long as I could make a dollar, and I got the check at the end of the week.

And they were good. They never hung your pay up. The checks came religiously, and that was a very important thing because a couple of the companies, I understand, would hang the guys up. So I must commend MLJ for that, and that was the reason I enjoyed working with them. I could always count on getting the check at the end of the week.

Sometimes, I think it was two weeks, I’m not sure. Sometimes, I think there was a period when I think it got too overwhelming, so they said, “We’ll pay you every two weeks.” But overall, the guys never complained about getting the money on time.

little chat, Harry and I, and he would say, “What if you do it this way?” or, “Let’s look at it this way.” And you would do the same thing. Harry would throw out an idea and you’d say, “Yeah, but what if I handle it that way?”

He’d say, “I like that. Go ahead and do it.” It was a creative process, and you can’t say where somebody woke up in the middle of the night and said, “Eureka! Eureka! [chuckles again] I came up with an idea.” It was a matter of discipline and creating and thinking about it, and coming up with some kind of concept.

Bob used to be a cleanup man up at Fox Publications. He was a good writer, and I don’t know if you know this about Bob, but he was one of the best men in the business because he could write and draw at the same time. Now that’s a trait that a lot of people didn’t have. Some just pencil and some just ink, and some take pleasure in saying, “I can write.” I think the writing is the most crucial part of it, because without writing... just drawing pictures don’t sell anything. I’ve always been partial to writing.

Bob was a funny man, and the reason was that his father was a banjo player in Vaudeville. He was known all over the Vaudeville circuit, and Bob Montana, as a kid, would stand in the wings, watching all the acts coming in, and many of them were comedians. So some of the stuff he used to try up at Archie came from there. That’s how he got the sense of humor, learning timing and other things. Bob had a dry sense of humor.

You didn’t know if you should take him seriously or not, but he always had a twinkle in his eye.

As far as the stuff that I can tell you that I was witness to: Harry was always on the lookout for some new character, and I came up with “Li’l Jinx.” That was mine exclusively. That came a little bit after “Archie.”

Harry said, “John wants to see you today,” so Bob and I went in. We’re standing there and talking. John was very friendly, and I guess he felt that by being nice, not acting like a boss, that we would be open, and that was a very friendly attitude up there. You could express yourself, and most of the time, all the stuff up there was jokes, kidding around and jokes, one after another. So we went into John’s office and John said very clearly, “You know, guys, the sales in the market are all about guys who fly through the air and who have big muscles. Can you come up with anything that might be something new that might also become glamorous? If you’ve got any ideas about it….”

So I looked John straight in the eye and said, “The only thing I really know is how to chase girls, and the other thing is how to get a job to pay for the dates.” That

“There’s A Lot Of Rumors That Went Around About How ‘Archie’ Was Created” JA: There are several different stories about how “Archie” was created, and I don’t know what the truth is.

EDWARDS: [laughs] Oh, God, I know, very well. What story do you want me to confirm?

JA: I want to know what you know. How was “Archie” created?

EDWARDS: Harry Shorten was up there, and Harry was a delightful editor. If you had an idea, you could bring it to him. He would examine it and he’d say, “I like it,” “I don’t like it.”

He never said, “I don’t like it.” He would say, “Well, let Jinxed! me see more material on it. Let me see if it works,” because it has to continue. “Archie” now has continued Joe Edwards and the many faces of his creation Li’l Jinx, one of the most popular so many years based on a simple fact: the original story and long-lived of the non-Archie characters in which Archie was created was done by Bob Montana. at the company that once was MLJ. With Harry liked him, and there was always creative stuff thanks to Eda Lisa Edwards. [Art ©2008 happening in the office. You can’t point to one, and say, Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] “That was it.” But what happened was we would have a

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

71

started, and Harry Shorten was very instrumental [in the development of “Archie”] and kept it afloat. Let me put it that way. Harry was a good writer. He knew how to take a story and make it into a viable product. He was a good editor, and he treated the guys very nicely. So it was a happy time for me and all the other guys.

JA: On the first “Archie” story, it says “By Bob and Vic.” “Vic” was Victor Bloom.

EDWARDS: I know that. Bob was a terrific writer. When we used to work on the Archie newspaper strip, Bob lived in New England, and I lived in Brooklyn, and we would meet one day a week. We would compare notes and kick ideas around. You know, an idea isn’t just one person’s [idea].

Sometimes I’d say something and he’d pick up one word, a phrase, or something, and go with it, and that’s the way we worked it. I’ll say this: Bob and I sensed when there was a gag. You knew that there was something here, a little bit that could be worked into a strip. His dailies and his Sunday pages were all based on that.

“Hen-ryyyy! Henry Aldrich!”

Henry Aldrich of The Aldrich Family radio series was definitely a forerunner of Archie Andrews.

But he never quite made a totally successful leap to other media. Above is a still from one of the 1940s movies (is that Jimmy Lydon as Henry?)—at right, the cover of one of the 22 Dell/Western issues of his 1950-54 comic book series—a classic case of too little, too late! Archie’s lasted a bit longer. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

was all I said. He looked at me and he looked at Bob, and he looked at me, and said, “All right, bring me some material.” And that’s how it started, one little sentence. [Bob and I] went out, and we wrote some material from our own experiences from what we knew. Of course [“Archie”] came out solid because we were just out of our teenage years and as a result, it rang true. We didn’t really know, but technically, we were touching a very important aspect of the teenage life. Up to then, not many people were doing that.

JA: How much writing did you do on the early “Archie” stories? Any?

Have you ever heard of Henry Aldrich? Well, that was part of our template. We realized that was good. We enjoyed that radio show because it was part of our life. And as a result, we put it down on paper and made a comic book out of it. [NOTE: The Aldrich Family, centered around Henry Aldrich, was a popular situation comedy about a teenager, his friends, and family, in movies and on radio. Off tape, Joe told me that the movies’ Andy Hardy character was an inspiration, too. —Jim.] We all relied on experiences in our own life with the girls, taking the girls out, and we never made Archie malicious. If anything happened, it was always because something happened that he didn’t intentionally do. He wouldn’t hurt anybody, but circumstances would work out where he was always in hot water at school.

Later on, I went to a Christmas party. Stan Lee, Frank Doyle, Harry Shorten, and a couple of other artists were in the same cab. Stan Lee asked, “What’s the secret of ‘Archie’?” We looked at each other and we said, “Secret?” Then Harry Lucey says, “If we had a secret, we wouldn’t tell it to you.” [mutual laughter] Harry was witty. Harry used to work with us on scripts in the sense that we’d come up with an idea, or we had a pretty close finished product, and as a result, “Archie” took off because it rang true.

John Goldwater treated me very nicely, and I know there’s a lot of rumors that went around about how “Archie” was created. But the truth was [what I told you about] how it

EDWARDS: Yeah, I started on the front cover of the first book. Bob and I...

Harry [Shorten] threw us together. We went out to lunch together and talked. Harry, let me put it this way, he kept our juices flowing. He got you stimulated. You started to think in that direction.

JA: So did you help with the first “Archie” story?

EDWARDS: I was doing other stuff at the time. There were no trumpets blowing, no red carpet was rolled out. The only thing I will tell you is I have a photograph of the first day that we worked on Archie, with Harry Shorten, Bob Montana, and myself. It was taken in Chinatown.

Chinatown was nearby, so we went and celebrated. You ever hear of Mike Roy? Well, he’s in the picture, too. We used to meet up there for lunch.

JA: How much of Archie’s development was Bob Montana’s? Because writers come in; you’re writing, Harry Shorten’s doing some writing, a guy named Vic Bloom did some writing….

MLJ Alumni Joe (at left) and MLJ/Archie artist Harry Lucey, who earlier drew “The Hangman,” “Fireball,” et al. Thanks to Eda Lisa Edwards.

EDWARDS: Vic Bloom, yeah—he was up there before I was, when Abner Sundell was editing.

“[Bob Montana] Was A Fantastic Comedy Man” JA: Montana also did some super-heroes before he did Archie. He did all the regulars. He drew a little bit of “Steel Sterling” and “The Black Hood.”

EDWARDS: There’s one story that was done, I wish I had kept it. Each artist was given one page to do because there was a deadline, and I think Irv Novick couldn’t get it finished in time. Each one drew it in their style. [mutual chuckling] It was a mad time. Things were going on that couldn’t possibly happen, but they did.

72

Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

“Happy Birthday, Dear Archie…”

When Jim Amash interviewed Joe for Alter Ego, the veteran artist sent him this image, and the following note: “Circa 1940. The day the Archie comic book was born was celebrated with a lunch in Chinatown, NY, with Harry Shorten Bob Montana, and yours truly… Harry picked up the tab, as usual, despite the protestations of the assembled group. The guy at the left might be Red Holmsdale… next is Mike Roy… Harry Shorten… Bob Montana… a colorist… Joe Edwards.” This was history in the making—and we’ll always be grateful to Joe for providing this photo, which was probably taken in 1941 (if Joe was referring to the first “Archie” story) or 1942 (if he meant Archie Comics #1).

JA: Montana, because he starts doing “Archie,” doesn’t do the superheroes anymore. Do you think he would have developed into a good straight artist had he continued drawing heroes?

he went to high school, which I saw. He drew people at the soda shop and all that, so when it came time, we used the material. In other words, we relied on something that was true, and we developed it.

EDWARDS: No, because he had an old-fashioned style, if you look at it.

The crosshatching was something that we always wondered about when he was designing Archie. It came from an old strip that was old-fashioned.

As he grew into the character, he started the style of the old-fashioned stuff. If you look at the [original Archie], he had a little gap in his front teeth. That was Bob’s idea.

JA: But did Bloom really write that first story?

JA: So you think the humor was really his forte, then. You would say that Montana really was a humor writer, not an adventure guy.

EDWARDS: I wouldn’t want to make a judgment on that. I know that he was a fantastic comedy man. He had a dry sense of humor. You would have to look at him to see how he meant it. Did he mean that really funny, that line? He had a straight face all the time, but he knew his humor, he knew timing, he knew what the characters were going to say, and most of the time, [we used] gags that came from Vaudeville because we took what we knew best.

JA: Is there anything else about Victor Bloom that you remember? His name is on the early “Archie” stories with Bob Montana’s.

EDWARDS: I know, but I really don’t know much about him. Bob was the catalyst who really developed these things. He had kept a scrapbook when

EDWARDS: I don’t really know. He may have, after we left. They might have called him in. He was the standard writer.

JA: Let me see if I have this straight. So you and Bob Montana worked up the first “Archie” story. You think maybe Vic Bloom was called in to write dialogue or something?

EDWARDS: I’ll tell you, when Bob and I left, we were told to bring in material. I know we brought in some material that had been suggested. I remember John saying, “Just bring in material about the teenagers.” Of course, there was no teenage strip so we were lucky and it developed. It’s hard to even—I don’t even know how you can put it—it just evolved.

JA: So Betty and Veronica and Jughead and Archie were all people whom Montana had known then, in one form or another.

EDWARDS: We used to kick ideas around. “Who do you like best? Which comedian do you like best?” I said, “Laurel and Hardy.” So when it came time for a second banana, Laurel’s name came up, we designed Jughead [after him]. Look at the comics: you’ll see Stan Laurel. And Pop Tate was Oliver Hardy. We just gave him a little bit different mustache. Look at it, you’ll see.

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

73

JA: If you ever listen to the Archie radio show or see the television cartoons, she’s got a Southern accent, but she never struck me as a Southern belle.

EDWARDS: I’m telling you, she was a rich uptown girl. As “Archie” grew, I heard so many different stories, and having lived through it, it always amuses me how people who weren’t even there, that I know of—some guy claims he was there, but he wasn’t, and one woman said she was writing material, and I know she wasn’t. But because she lived in the town where Bob grew up, she claimed that she wrote his material. And Moose was created... I’ll tell you the anecdote behind that one.

We used to have an artist named George Frese. George Frese lived in Wantagh, Long Island, and I was friendly with him. He worked at a factory as one of their display artists. He loved “Archie,” but one day Harry Shorten told me, “We’ve got a guy up here, not too bad. He’s got a little different style, but I like it and he’s funny.” So he showed it to me. I said, “Nice. Who is this guy?” “His name’s George Frese.” “He’s great,” I said. “He’s got a nice humor, a nice touch.” And before I knew it, George was working there. He would develop ideas with Harry, and he had [his own] ideas, and wrote some stories. He needed a sports character, and George Frese’s son, who was going to high school, knew a guy like Moose.

The Second Time Around Though The Shield, Dusty, and Hangman all appeared on the cover of Pep Comics #2 in 1942, the rising stars in the mag would soon be proved to be Archie and his gang, seen here in their second appearance ever.

In this issue, Jughead and Archie's long-suffering parents were added to the mix. For the teenager's first splash page, see p. 12. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

JA: I can see it now that you mention it. I never made that connection.

EDWARDS: I know. Most people don’t. There’s a gasp there, and they say what you just said: “I never realized that.” And that’s why this society was able to really realize that [Pop Tate] was a true person. It was a subliminal thing. Osmosis—you gained it, but you didn’t know why. You’ve discovered something. We did that with the girls. The girls were real, too.

JA: Who were the girls based on?

EDWARDS: Harry Lucey was going with Helen. We used to go out together, and Helen had a sister. We were looking for a name that would be common, ordinary, and they said, “You can’t get any more common than ‘Betty.’” So it stuck. Veronica was a couple of things that we put together. Veronica was a real woman that lived up near Bob’s town. The name “Putney” comes to mind here. He lived up where Bob Montana lived. Putney was wealthy, and he had a daughter who was [named] Veronica. Bob had a crush on her. She was the sexy belle of the town. All the high school kids loved her and were after her, but they couldn’t catch her. So we put that into the feature.

JA: By the way, Veronica was originally supposed to have a Southern accent.

EDWARDS: At that point, she really came from New England.

”Who’d You Expect—Homer Brown?”

George Frese’s cover for Archie’s Pal, Jughead #1, whose only cover date was “1949.” Thanks to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson. Incidentally, the heading quote above is based on Jughead’s tagline on the late-’40s radio series, in which some form of that question was used in virtually every episode as the character’s first line. Homer Brown, for the uninitiated, was Henry Aldrich’s buddy on the Aldrich Family program that influenced the creation of Archie. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

74

Joe Edwards On MLJ’s Super-Heroes—And Archie Andrews

And this guy also used to go, “Duhh.” George put him in the comics, and he caught on.

Some guy up in New England claimed that Bob Montana copied from him. Now that’s not the true story. [laughs] Unfortunately for George, he had a weak heart. He used to go out Saturday nights to celebrate with his wife.

They went into a place in Wantagh. They were dancing and his wife said, “George, knock it off. You’ve got a weak heart. Don’t fool around.” Anyway, he got back home that night and he collapsed, and he died. It was sad. You would have heard more of him had he lived.

He was talented. But to go one more step of irony, his son became a private detective, and he died. The wife died and the whole family—wiped out. It was very sad.

JA: I didn’t know that. Do you know where Big Ethel comes from?

EDWARDS: We needed a character. Ethel was taller than most, because the tall girl always felt out of place, so we needed somebody who would fill the bill. So a design went out. Sam Schwartz worked on it, and when it came to ugly, he knew how to draw ugly, [mutual laughter] so he designed Big Ethel. If you read his stuff, he really used her. Then later, one day, we got an order to knock her off, not to use her anymore because it was insulting to tall people. [Fans] were sending in letters that they felt they were being made fun of, [so we quit using her].

Hang ‘Em High!

(Above:) Golden Age great Bob Fujitani was interviewed for A/E #23, and even drew and colored an original Hangman drawing for that stellar issue. For this one, we’re fortunate to have on hand an even newer Fujitani illustration, courtesy of Bob and Michael Dunne. We dunno if The Hangman was really “gory as hell,” as Joe said…but he was definitely on the grim side for comic books in those days, even as once-dark features like “Batman” had moved toward a lighter tone. [Hangman TM & ©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; other art ©2008 Bob Fujitani.]

JA: Once in a while, she shows up in stories. I’ve done a number of them.

EDWARDS: Yeah, that might be today, what they’re doing with her. But the whole purpose of [what we were doing] was to make the high school kids look real, and give them something that they could work with, like with Moose and the others.

An Infernal Artist (Just Kidding) (Left:) Paul Reinman was the original artist of “Inferno the Fire-Breather,” beginning in Blue Ribbon Comics #13 . This splash, unsigned, is from issue #14 (July 1941). In the 1960s Reinman would return to draw virtually the entire panoply of MLJ characters during the “Mighty Crusaders” revival…while he’s also noted for drawing “Green Lantern” for DC in the mid-’40s and for inking The X-Men and other Marvel titles in the early ‘60s. Thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“Working At MLJ Was A Good Experience!”

JA: What does the “S” on Jughead’s shirt stand for?

EDWARDS: I was afraid you were going to ask that. [more mutual laughter] It’s the same thing as why is the “R” on Archie’s chest?

JA: I figured the “R” was for “Riverdale.”

EDWARDS: Right. There’s been many stories about the “S,” and any one of them may be true. I never really nailed that one down, except that we needed a letter on a shirt, and “S” was as good as anything. [even more mutual laughter] Some things just were done and they caught on. It’s part of his costume, just like Captain America and Spider-Man. JA: In the very first story, he says he doesn’t being called ‘Archie.’ Call him ‘Chick.’ Is there a story behind that?

JA: When you started at MLJ, did you start with super-heroes or with humor?

EDWARDS: I started with animated features. The only hero I did was “Captain Sprocket.” He was muscled, but it was a cartoon satire. I believe George Gladir created him. But Harry called me in and said, “Do you want to do ‘Captain Sprocket’?” I said, “All right.” We also did “Super Duck.”

JA: What else do you remember about Irv Novick?

EDWARDS: Oh, he was a giant of a man. What a sweetheart. His work showed his bigness. His stuff had power! It jumped off the page. He could take a painter’s brush, and make a thin line with it. He was an exquisite artist.

EDWARDS: No, not that I know of.

JA: Did he work in the bullpen every day?

“Novick... Was Considered The Head Man In The Hero Department”

EDWARDS: No, he lived in Terrytown. I would say he was considered the head man in the hero department.

JA: Carl Hubbell was another guy who worked in the office at least for a while.

JA: Tell me more about Abner Sundell.

EDWARDS: Yes, Abner Sundell. I came up there just once as Abner was leaving. Harry Shorten was called in by John, and Harry used to write stories for Abner. Something happened with Abner, and Harry was called in and Harry said, “Sure, I’ll take the job.” It wasn’t high-paying at the time, but later, Harry came up with a lot of good product.

75

Three For The Show Joe and Eda, in the most recent photo we have of them. Joe is, of course, holding a drawing of Archie… one of a goodly number he did during a long and vital career. Thanks to Eda Lisa Edwards.

JA: In the mid-1940s, Sundell wrote a book on how to make money writing comic books. It’s interesting that he wrote a book like that, that early. I know he was an editor at MLJ, and then he did some editing and writing for some other small companies. So Harry went from being a writer to editor.

EDWARDS: Yeah, he worked with Sundell. I remember that much. Harry was the one who came out to look at my artwork.

EDWARDS: [chuckles] Carl Hubbell used to manage a garbage scow down the Hudson River, and he would draw on the scow and bring the artwork in.

[Jim laughs] That was his day job. Life was funny that way. I didn’t know him as intimately as I knew the others.

JA: I’ve got a list of people who worked at Archie [MLJ], like Paul Reinman.

EDWARDS: Paul Reinman was European, and he had a nice accent. You know where I met him? Up at Demby’s. He worked up there like we all did. He also had a beautiful style. Mystery, detective stories was his forte.

EDWARDS: They had “The Hangman” and “The Shield,” and Irv Novick.

One day I was working on a “Li’l Jinx” story, and for the last panel, I had to show the back of my head. I said to Reinman, “Hey, Reinman. You want a good job?” [chuckles] He drew the back of my head, and as I was drawing “Li’l Jinx” on the board, he drew me. He was a delightful man and a terrific artist. He also used the brush very boldly.

JA: “The Shield” was drawn by Novick. “The Hangman” was actually drawn by two or three different people at one time or another, including Harry Lucey and Bob Fujitani.

JA: In the ‘40s, Reinman drew some “Hangman “stories, a character called “Inferno,” “Steel Sterling,” among others. Did he work in the offices back then?

EDWARDS: Yeah, he was gory as hell. They had to [tone down that feature]. Anyway, the times passed, and you look upon them very favorably.

EDWARDS: I believe he did. When I started at MLJ, we all worked, most of the time, like three days a week there. As we became more proficient, we found that it was a waste of time to travel. You would come in and they would ask you, “Hey, you want to do ‘Super Duck’?” So you’d say, “Hey, sure.” There were so many different things that we were doing. It all came together. You didn’t have to hunt for stuff. It was a beautiful time, very creative. If you had an idea, they would accept it. They’d say, “All right, give me five pages, give me three pages, give me one page.”

JA: MLJ was just starting to do super-heroes then, right?

JA: Do you remember how much you were making per page when you started?

EDWARDS: Oh, no. My parents weren’t sure that being a cartoonist or an artist was worth anything. They felt artists were up in the attic starving, and they might have to take care of them. So the first job, Sam and I brought home a first paycheck of $70. Now at that time, a married man with children only made $20. So my parents took a look at the check, and they said, “Is it good?” [Jim laughs] So I said, “Well, we’ll find out.” I made a deposit, and the check [was good]. They changed their minds about cartoonists. But that was a lifetime ago. It was delicious.

Jim Amash’s interview with Joe Edwards will be continued in the next issue of Alter Ego.

CALL FOR FAN PHOTOS! Bill Schelly, here, now working on a book called Founders of Comic Fandom, to be published by McFarland. It will consist of biographies of up to 100 of the most active participants in the early days of comicdom. I would like each entry to have a photograph of the subject, and though my Comic Fandom Archive files gave me a good start, there are still many missing photos. CAN YOU HELP??

What is needed: I’m looking for photos that are from the 1954-1970 period. Most desirable are head shots or medium shots, which clearly show the features of the individual. Also, if any of these folks haven’t had contact with me, I would like to hear from them or (if they have passed away) someone who was close to him or her. The subjects are, in alphabetical order: Edwin Aprill Jr., Michael Barrier, Jeremy Barry, John Benson, D. Bruce Berry, Bart Blum, Roy Bonario, Gary Brown, Bernie Bubnis, Bob Butts, Landon Chesney, Dave Cockrum, Shel Dorf, Rick Durell, Tom Fagan, John Fantucchio, Paul Gambaccini, Margaret Gemignani, Grass Green, Keith (Bob) Greene, Bruce Hamilton, Alan J. Hanley, Ron Haydock, Claude Held, Alan Hutchinson, Larry Ivie, Bob Jennings, Richard Kyle, G. B. Love, McGeehan, Raymond Miller, Ken Mitchell, Paul Moslander, Don Newton, Steve Perrin, Tom Reamy, Howard Rogofsky, Jim Rossow, Derrill Rothermich, Bob Schoenfeld, Fred Von Bernewitz, Mike Vosburg, Len Wein, Rick Weingroff, Ted White, Malcolm Willits and Marv Wolfman.

Also I need good 1960s photos of the following pros: Steve Ditko, Russ Manning, Jim Steranko, Wally Wood, Julius Schwartz, Stan Lee, Jules Feiffer and Gardner Fox. Important note: We can’t print from published photos. We need to work from actual photos, or scans of same. Please send good quality scans to me at: HamstrPres@aol.com. THANKS!!!

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Donald DUck & Crew ©2008 Walt Disney Productions

Donald Duck—If This Is Donald Duc k—TM & ©2008 Walt Disney Pro ductions

78

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

That’s Just Sick!

by Michael T. Gilbert

A Twisted Collection Of Comics Compiled by Dr. Strongfort S. Stearn and Prof. Michael T. Gilbert!

Good Golly, Miss Mommy!

Darling... Kiss Me Again!

Could anything be more pure than a boy’s love for his mother?

Take, for instance, this heartwarming scene from Boy Comics— please! Art by Charles Biro from Boy #3 (April 1942). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

True, some have suggested that this chaste kiss between Crimebuster and his mom in what was really the mag’s first issue might be a tad too… enthusiastic. They claim this kind of soul kiss would be more appropriate to Young Lust Comics. They say, “Get a room!”

And I say to those weirdos, that’s not funny…

THAT’S JUST SICK! That’s One Big Log, Dad! And what about the love between a father and his son? Why, just look at the satisfied grin on the Rifleman’s face as his boy holds that huge log! Pure joy!

And if you think there’s anything else going on there, pal…

THAT’S JUST SICK! [Art from The Rifleman #10 (Jan. 1962) ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Here’s another mother/son scene to warm your heart, this time featuring boxer Joe Louis as a young lad with his, er… mother? Some may think Joe’s mom looks disturbingly like singer Little Richard. Well, …

THAT’S JUST SICK! [Louis Ravielli art from “The Brown Bomber,” from Avon’s Last of the Comanches (1953) ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

That’s Just Sick!

Back When We Were Young And, Er… Happy?

Is That A Baguette In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

I Bet You Can’t Blow Hard Enough To…

Dan Tayler, Avon’s Boy Detective, always gets his man! Or is that visa versa? Ooh-la-la!

…blow out my birthday cake! But hey—what’s Jughead doing on the cover of Timely’s Gay Comics #22 (Winter 1944)?

THAT’S JUST SICK! [Everett Raymond Kinstler art from Boy Detective #3 (Feb. 1952) ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

How To Be Very, Very Popular And in Star’s Popular Teenagers #6 (Jan. 1951, with art by Norman Nodel), the teacher enjoys some innocent fun with Tony Gay (a spoof of Premium’s Toni Gayle!) and her pal, Butch Dykeman. And if you think there’s anything wrong with that, sir, all I can say is…

THAT’S JUST SICK! [Authentic “Tony Gayle” page at right from Premium’s Guns against Gangsters #1 (Sept. 1942) is ©2008 the respective copyright holders; “Toni Gay” art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

THAT’S JUST SICK! [But it’s also ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

79

80

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“Get It On!” (Above:) How can the Boy Scouts go wrong with that motto? Superman, Batman, and Robin certainly agree, in this public service page by Winslow Mortimer from, among other DC mags, Gang Busters #16 (July 1950). Nothing sick about that! [©2008 DC Comics.]

“Jerry, The New Recruit Will Soon See Action…”

(Right:) Boys Town in the future? Target Comics’ 2-R Range Riders sure look spiffy in their uniforms, don’t they? Too bad “Skipper” doesn’t have time to give young Jerry Jenkins the “regular initiation,” but the Captain’s happy to help out. Don’t worry, Jerry, you’re in good hands! And if you think there’s anything “funny” going on in these Alonzo Vincent panels from Target Comics, Vol. 2, #1 (March 1941), my friend, all I can say is…

THAT’S JUST SICK! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

That’s Just Sick!

What’s In A Name?

Some smut-minded readers have voiced concerns about Golden Age heroes with odd names like Spurt, Krisko, Tommy Tinkle, The Diddle Family, Flick, & Pud! “Spurt Hammond” by Henry G. Kiefer is from Fiction House’s Planet Comics #1 (Jan. 1940)— Novelty’s “Krisko and Jasper” by Jack Warren from Blue Bolt #31 (Dec. 1942)—”Tommy Tinkle” by Arthur Beeman from Quality’s Hit Comics #12 (June 1941)—Paul Gustavson’s “The Diddle Family” from DC’s Adventure Comics #43 (March 1940)—”Flick Falcon” by Don Rico from Fantastic Comics #3 (Feb. 1940)—Pud from a Double Bubble gum ad of the 1940s. By the way, the translation of what the guy’s saying to Pud is: “My, what a big bat you have, Pud!” [“Diddle Family” ©2008 DC Comics; Double Bubble art ©2008 Fleer or its successors in interest; other art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Nothing wrong with a colorful name, I say! On the other hand, I’m told “Flick” changed his name to “Flip” in the very next issue of Fantastic Comics.

Flip? FLIP?! Frankly, sir ...

THAT’S JUST SICK!

81

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“I Mean, Plow My Furrow. Er, That Is...”

Come on, I dare you to find some negative spin you can put on the innocent Frank Frazetta panel above, repro’d from a Western story in Magazine Enterprises’ Manhunt #11 (Aug. 1948). It simply can’t be done! But why are you even trying?

Podnuh…

THAT’S JUST SICK! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Things, Mr. Honeywell?”

Poor Margie! How sad that her father’s boss, Mr. Honeywell, is obsessed with his secretary’s … er, polka dots… in these Chic Stone panels from Charlton’s My Little Margie #5 (Jan. 1955). Polka dots?

If you want my opinion...

THAT’S JUST SICK! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Before we go, I’ll leave you with one final question related to the comic book ad above. Namely, why would you need to learn how to lick pimples—and why would you want to? Ikk!

THAT’S JUST SICK!

Till next time…

[Art ©2008 Don Ensign. Heroes TM & © 2008 the respective copyright holders.]

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85

madly around to get nowhere!”

The excessive action in the comic books could hardly be termed wasted, however … not by editors and publishers of the Golden Age. A book placed on sale at the newsstand as featuring heroic adventure … without that emphasis on action … would be very likely to remain right there … at the newsstand. I saw it as important enough to merit special attention.

By [Art & logo ©2008 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2008 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ‘42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc spoke of the virtues that are true to the “real” Captain Marvel; in this installment, comic book action in “Captain Marvel terms” is discussed … and we learn the meaning behind Cap having “concrete in his boots”. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

A

fter meeting so many new associates on that first day at Fawcett in 1941, I was introduced to … comic books. The year and a half of experience behind me had been quite similar … newspaper comics … but not the same. The major difference: the comic book action … so much of it … and so intense!

There comes to mind a comment once made by Rick Yager (Buck Rogers, 1940-58): “When there’s so much of it (action), it loses its excitement … its purpose in the story.”

He went on, referring to the subject as wasted action, “like characters rushing

Concrete Boots “I like to think of him as having concrete in his boots” was a remark made by C.C. Beck circa 1941. So, apparently, did Marc Swayze, in creating the battlefield scene above, first for Spot, a 1942 Fawcett distribution publication—then, with alterations, for a title/splash panel and cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #12 (June 1942). [©2008 DC Comics.]

The school years hadn’t provided much preparation for this hectic comic book activity. There were classes in figure drawing, but the figures were usually sprawled out on the floor, or in posed positions … dead still.

The most helpful material was found to be the sports page, where the stop-action camera had caught athletes in various stages of action moves … including facial expressions.

I was there to draw Captain Marvel … reporting dually, to the art director as a member of his department … and to the comics editor in regard to the work I would be doing. At the drawing table next to mine sat the super-hero’s co-creator, C.C. Beck. Assisting Beck was Pete Costanza. I was made aware of the company’s dissatisfaction with a previous attempt to get outside art help, and the resulting decision that thereafter all Captain Marvel art be prepared “in the house.”

This action business, when related to that character, had a special meaning. Chats with Beck and dedicated editor France E. Herron had me convinced that Captain Marvel was not the customary super-hero … he was different. It was not his way to rush headlong into every brawl. “I like to think of him as having concrete in his boots!” Beck chuckled one day, and in that brief comment I saw an ease of performance, a calm selfassurance and deliberate manner about the character that I was determined would remain an attribute as long as I was to draw and write about him.

86

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

Beck’s passing remark was fondly recalled years and years later when The Incredible Hulk TV movies were made. Scenes showing the Hulk as he went into action appeared on the screen … in slow motion. Just as though, thought I, the Hulk might have had some of Beck’s “concrete in his boots”!

I may have been bringing to the Captain Marvel feature something that had not been there before … a boyhood interest in a sports activity that had been very popular in its day … the prizefight. Recalling an interval of amateur experiences in the fight game, and scads of material read of it, I made up my mind that as I drew the hero, when he took a swing at an impolite foe, he would go about it as though he knew exactly what pugilistic blow he was delivering, and how to deliver it.

It was necessary to consider the comic book action in … “Captain Marvel terms.” You wanted your character to maintain his respectable status in the pre-purchase scramble for topmost attention at the marketplace. Yet … there was the particular reservation about his performance that needed to be acknowledged … and pictured!

It was that cool, calm manner of his … almost as though he might be expressing sympathy for the victim. When Captain Marvel busted a bad guy in the jaw, he did it with full knowledge that behind the blow was enough unused power to dislodge that part of the poor fellow’s face and land it somewhere in the Orient. In boxing circles it was referred to as “pulling the punch” … meaning, not hitting as hard as you could.

So there it was … a drawing board quandary of ’41 … a dynamic super-hero with all the mystic powers … bound to an obligation to outdo all others at the newsstand pre-purchase show … yet do it with an obvious air of … of … reticence.

Difficult? Impossible? No. And no. It was fun!

Marc Swayze will return next issue with more reminiscences of the Golden Age of Comics.

“You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry!”

Swayze thought the TV’s Hulk had some “concrete in his boots,” as well … although after Dr. Banner’s clothes-ripping transformation into the green guy, he’d always hop into action barefooted. Lou Ferrigno, star of the 197882 CBS-TV series The Incredible Hulk. [The Incredible Hulk TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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“Pulling the Punch” Captain Marvel, with his properly delivered uppercut, lightly taps the chin of his advesary … an illustration of the cool, calm manner with which he went about his feats. Swayze art from “Captain Marvel Gets the Heir!” in Captain Marvel Adventures #40 (Oct. 1944). [©2008 DC Comics.]

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87

The De Fuccio Papers —Part 1

JERRY DE FUCCIO May Have Known “More About Comic Books Than Any Man Alive”

by Ron Frantz Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: In Jules Feiffer’s landmark 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes, Jerry De Fuccio’s name led the list in the author’s acknowledgements. Mad editor William Gaines had originally gone to editor E.L. Doctorow to pitch the idea for the book, and advised him that Jerry De Fuccio (Mad assistant editor since 1956) should write it because “he knows more about comic books than any man alive.” Doctorow agreed to do the book, but instead chose Feiffer as its author because he had the bigger name.

De Fuccio assisted Feiffer along the way, with the understanding that he would write the follow-up book—which, alas, was destined never to happen. Thus, over the years, Jerry’s vast comic book knowledge remained stored up in his head, with nuggets of information occasionally veering their way into various comic-related projects, publications … and correspondences with people such as myself and Ron Frantz. While my gab-fest with Jerry the final six years of his life centralized upon our love of artist C.C. Eye Candy Beck’s work, Frantz’s letters In this 1980 specialty piece for the 10th edition of Bob Overstreet’s Comic Book Price Guide, artist C.C. Beck depicts a young exchanged with him, as revealed Jerry De Fuccio absorbed in what became his favorite lifelong activity. [Shazam characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.] in this three-part article, packed more drama, and encompassed a the late 1980s, the news of his untimely demise hit me very hard. Feeling wide variety of comic book lore and facts—from a man who, even as a the urge to trod down memory lane, I spent a quiet evening reading boy, always knew which artist worked on which comic book. —P.C. through a large file containing the bulk of our correspondence. Finding Hamerlinck.] myself overcome with mixed emotions, his letters rekindled memories both sweet and sour. However, somewhere in the process it occurred to me that some of Jerry’s letters contained information, not readily s time marches forward in carefully measured footsteps, some available, that might be historically significant. For this reason, it seemed events stand out in our respective memories. The reasons are appropriate that I should document portions of these letters for the essentially personal. As for myself: August 11, 2001, is the day benefit of those who might find them of interest. that marked the passing of Jerry De Fuccio. No doubt many of you will remember Jerry as a former associate editor of Mad magazine. In later Unlike many people who engage in lengthy correspondence, I seldom years he became a well-known comic book historian and a frequent bothered to keep copies of my own letters. For some inexplicable reason it contributor to Cartoonist PROfiles. It might be said that what Jerry didn’t did not seem important at the time. So, much of what you are about to know about comics or cartooning was probably not worth knowing. read is essentially a one-sided version of my correspondence with Jerry.

For the sake of clarity, I have taken the liberty to disclose general inforSince I had worked extensively with Jerry on my ACE Comics line in mation as it relates to the letters, along with some personal commentary.

A

88

The DeFuccio Papers—Part I

tration Strathmore. It looked like three Skymen were on the same line. I paid Whitney and hid my disappointment because Anne seemed troubled by her husband’s state. She supported the family with her private secretary job in the area of the Empire State Building.

Richard E. Hughes, editor at American Comics Group, was especially helpful to “old-timers,” as he was one himself. ACG was virtually a last port of call for fading comic book artists. Hughes gave Whitney work, though Ogden seemed absorbed in trying storyboard continuity samples to crack the advertising field. I saw him working on the special pads imprinted with rows of blank TV screens. He couldn’t qualify.

A coolness developed between us as he no longer reflected my idol of prep school days. Incidentally, Fred Guardineer, who worked with Ogden at DC and Columbia Comics Group and somehow wound up with Whitney in the same outfit in the Philippines during Word War Two, is a very fine person and a true friend.

I passed Whitney’s apartment house about seven years ago and asked the doorman: “Does Ogden Whitney still live here?” The doorman spoke in a hush, “No! His wife died and his condition became extremely irrational. He was finally evicted ... carried bodily ... from his apartment. The place was full of empty [liquor] bottles and dirty as a cage!” I hate to perpetrate this horrible and disillusioning story, Ron, but I can’t believe that you’ll find a lucid, cogent, or articulate Ogden Whitney … anywhere.

America’s National Hero When Ron Frantz was searching for Golden Age artist Ogden Whitney, Jerry De Fuccio had the unpleasurable task of informing him of the artist’s fall from grace. This Whitney page was originally published in Columbia’s Skyman #1, 1942, and was written by Gardner Fox. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The reflected point of view is, of course, my own.

The story begins on a summer day in 1979. At the time I had been diligently searching for artist Ogden Whitney, who had seemingly vanished without a trace. While spending the afternoon driving around Tulsa, Oklahoma, with Jim Steranko, visiting old book stores, I asked if he knew what had become of Whitney. Steranko, who seemed to know quite a bit about such things, thought he might have Whitney’s address on file and offered to check upon returning home. Later, after a search failed to turn up the information, Steranko suggested that I write to Jerry De Fuccio at Mad magazine. I did. Much to my delight, Jerry responded with the following letter, beginning a friendship that spanned almost a decade: 2/13/80: I had contacted Ogden Whitney about fifteen years ago.

He lived at 40 Park Avenue South at the time. I engaged him to do a Skyman original for fifty dollars: a single figure descending on the familiar “sky-hook,” with the “Wing” plane aloft.

Naturally, I gushed about Whitney’s Golden Age work when I visited his apartment. His wife, Anne, was quite lovely and refined, but Whitney wasn’t anything like the svelte characters he used to draw: fat and obviously addicted to liquor. The drawing I ordered was poorly done, with two false starts cut into the illus-

Having witnessed many unpleasant alcohol-related incidents during my childhood, I understood Jerry’s meaning all too well. Thus, my quest to locate Whitney came to an abrupt end. During the latter part of his career, Whitney produced a considerable volume of work for the long defunct American Comics Group. After the company disappeared like a whiff of smoke in 1967, l often wondered what had become of ACG and its prolific writer and editor, Richard E. Hughes. The information was not then a matter of common knowledge. Taking a gamble, I asked Jerry and he responded

as follows: 2/29/80: The American Comics Group was owned or in the control of Irwin Donenfeld, son of Harry Donenfeld. Donenfeld [&] Liebowitz were the renowned long-term bosses of DC. Irwin took over at DC after his father’s death. He was eventually bought out and succeeded (for a time) by Carmine Infantino. Bill Gaines had been friendly with both Irwin and Carmine, but hears from neither of them now.

I spoke with Richard Hughes many times by phone, always asking him about some “old-timer’s” whereabouts. I regret we never kept the luncheon invitation I half-heartedly extended. Just his address book, if it exists today, would be a key to many “lost people.”

I recognized Paul Gustavson’s disintegrating style in one of the ACG comics and Hughes put me on to Gustavson. It got to be a great friendship and I honored Paul’s memory in Cartoonist PROfiles, some issues ago. I remember a story or two by Charles M. Quinlan, former editor of Catman Comics and Captain Aero, in Hughes’ books. I’m looking for any survivors of Quinlan at this

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

very moment. Quinlan had a way of either bashing out work in a flurry of sloppy ink lines or showing some basic quality as an illustrator of the old school. He was highly imitated in Italy and Argentina, which is strange, as Milton Caniff was the idol abroad in those years. You wouldn’t have a Catman #18, would you?

Then there’s Pete Costanza, who did something for Hughes …

Magicman? Pete was my friend C.C. Beck’s old Fawcett partner. I think Pete had a massive stroke while his son was attending my alma mater.

I spoke to Fred Guardineer, who is presently doing work for me on my own enterprises’ Don Martin T-shirts. Fred said he has nothing to add. He’s the one man who was sensible with the money he earned in comics, and a rather intelligent Syracuse University graduate.

I’d say it was Irwin Donenfeld’s withdrawal from DC that

89

might be coincidental with the demise of ACG. Richard Hughes was seen around DC after Irwin’s departure.

3/31/80: I found Annabel Hughes [Richard’s widow], visited her at her present job on Wall Street. The Richard E. Hughes collection is at Fairleigh-Dickenson University in Madison, New Jersey.

As a matter of coincidence, I stumbled across a lovely copy of Catman #18 at a local comic book shop. Shaking my head in disbelief, I figured my chance of finding the issue that Jerry wanted at this exact moment in time was somewhere between slim and none. However, there it was in the showcase, glistening like a newly-minted dime. Much to my surprise, the comic wasn’t too expensive, or at least not by the value ascribed in the 1980 edition of “The Gospel According to Bob Overstreet.” So I shelled out a few of my hard-earned dollars and mailed the issue to Jerry with my compliments. To say the least, it warmed the cockles of his heart.

4/7/80: Some kind of a miracle, seeing Catman #18 again!

Thanks to you, it’s on the way to C.C. Beck for another classic re-do, in that dated Charles M. Quinlan style. I’ll certainly endeavor to reciprocate if I can come up with a “gem” you need, in the near future. Incidentally, Ron, do you remember an artist named Tom MacNamara, in the early DC and Fawcett books? He did a fragile-line thing called “Eaglebeak’s Spruder.” Phil Seuling translated this for me as Eaglebeak’s brother. Very charming filler pages, indeed.

4/21/80: You can’t tell from this crude photocopy, but C.C. Beck did an excellent job of re-creating the Catman #18 cover for me. Thanks for your fraternal response in supplying the issue after “the rest of the country” had let me down. I owe you one. Two? In a subsequent letter, I casually mentioned to Jerry that I had met artist Alex Toth at a Oklahoma City convention a couple of years earlier. Toth, as you may know, had been a fan of Ogden Whitney dating back to the early 1940s. Much to my pleasure, I discovered that Jerry and Toth were old pals. As you might expect, it made for lively discussion to discover that we shared a mutual acquaintance.

4/24/80: I was in Pre-Med when I phoned Alex Toth, Jersey City to Manhattan, just across the Hudson River. I told him I’d like to watch him draw, surmising he was many years my elder. I went to his house on Lexington and 74th St., and found a dashing Errol Flynn prototype, about four years my junior. Alex soon took a studio on Park Avenue with Joe Kubert and we have all been fast friends since. That was in the late 1940s.

Jerry De Fuccio – The Boy with the Most Comic Books in America Ron Frantz regrets that he no longer has the photocopy Jerry once sent to him of the Catman #18 cover re-creation painting he commissioned C.C. Beck to do for him. As a consolation, P.C. Hamerlinck still has the photocopy De Fuccio sent to him of Beck’s 1975 cover re-creation of Supersnipe, Vol. 2, #4 (Aug. 1944). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

My Big Shot Comics collection is spotty. I’ve been looking for the one that introduces “Raja, The Arabian Knight” by Bart Tumey. Tumey did “Private Dogtag” in Military Comics and alternated between realistic and comic assignments. He married Busy Arnold’s secretary, Virginia. I’ve never been able to track him down after his [Charles] Biro Crime Does Not Pay days.

I’d love to see Richard Hughes’ address book, knowing there must be entries on John Blummer (Hop Harrigan)

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The DeFuccio Papers—Part I

and Charles M.Quinlan (Catman), as their last known appearances were with Hughes.

C.C. Beck is magnificent; a class gentleman! He’s doing some spreads for Phil Seuling’s Comicon program. You know, “hello-and-good-luck, Phil” items. Such as the color spread in Bob Overstreet’s new Price Guide.

Speaking of Joe Kubert, a group has arrived from his art school, and I must engage in a question and answer session.

I have often thought that it is a genuine tragedy that Jerry did not write a book detailing his memories about the Golden Age of Comics. He was, without a doubt, a walking encyclopedia on the subject. I had suggested the idea to Jerry on several occasions, but unfortunately nothing ever came of it.

Somehow, my discussion with Jerry drifted to the subject of old pulp magazines. My memory is now a little vague, but I remember mailing him a copy of WE #113, a fanzine I had published a few years earlier for the WSA Program. In particular, the issue featured a splendid article by Frank Hamilton about famed Doc Savage illustrator Walter M. Baumhofer. Jerry seemed to enjoy the issue and commented freely in his next letter: 5/12/80: That’s a particularly delectable issue of WE, as I am a very big Walter M. Baumhofer fan. I recall in 1956, I had been instrumental in getting artist Bob Powell a very lucrative account with Topps Gum Cards. Things had gone sour in the comic books for him, so it was a timely rescue for him, I suppose.

Powell wanted to give me something prized and unique. He had done comics for Street & Smith, so he had acquired a Doc Savage original cover painting by W.M.B. It was a tantalizing choice between the Doc Savage cover and a lampshade on which Powell had painted his myriad comic book characters. Naturally, discretion and friendship meant I had to select the lampshade over the Doc Savage painting. And I’m not sorry.

Ed Lane’s article on comic-strip characters as heraldic symbols interests me. C.C. Beck did a painting for me, showing Captain Marvel on an insigne for an Air Station. Marvel is cocking a torpedo as though to throw a strike.

Do You Know what SAUSAGE Stands For? During happier times, Jerry commissioned C.C. Beck in 1978 to create a specialty drawing as a gift for his boss, Mad publisher William Gaines, thanking him for taking the entire Mad crew on a 1977 vacation to Vienna and Salzburg. This is Beck’s preliminary pencil sketch of the final color piece. [©2008 Estate of Jerry De Fuccio; Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

I don’t know why this area reminds me of some poorly researched uniform inclusion in comic books. The late Bob Wood told me he hired old-timer artist Jack Alderman to do a filler on a (then) modern-day hero. It involved the U.S. sailor who was first on the scene when our “light” bombers slammed into the Empire State Building. Instead of feeling honored that his rescue mission was immortalized in Gleason’s comics, the sailor filed suit against the mag. Artist Jack Alderman had depicted him in a British sailor’s uniform!

In the late summer of 1980, I had the pleasure of visiting Jerry at his Mad office. I made the trip from Oklahoma City to attend a tobacco industry trade show at the Statler-Hilton Hotel. Luckily, MAD’s office on Madison Avenue was within walking distance. One afternoon, I managed

to sneak away from sampling fine cigars and Turkish tobacco long enough to pay Jerry a visit.

When I was a youngster reading Mad in the 1960s, I somehow imagined that comic magazine publishers had offices located in a glamorous high-rise building, adorned with plush carpeting, polished marble, and a beautiful receptionist sitting behind a Florentine desk. Let me assure you that this was not the case with Mad. To my then-jaded eyes the dilapidated building looked more like a hotel for buzzards. A derelict reeking of liquor lay sleeping in the lobby. You could hear the elevator shake and rattle as it moved up and down between floors. In fact, it made so much noise that I was tempted to use the stairs. Just as I was about to step into the elevator, a small man carrying a artist portfolio stepped out of the car, tripped, and fell face-forward. The fellow looked frail, with a sickly-yellowish complexion. It was apparent to me that he was not the least bit well. I helped him to his feet and handed him the portfolio. He

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FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

said “thank you” and hurried on his way.

I had called ahead and Jerry was expecting me. I was greeted at the door by a tough-looking young man who looked as if he could have doubled as a night-club bouncer. It was probably a good thing to have a guy like that around, as Mad undoubtedly attracted its fair share of uninvited guests. When I told him that I was there to see Jerry, he escorted me to his office. My first glimpse of Jerry was seeing him sitting at his desk, banging away at a feverish pace on an old electric typewriter.

Upon noticing my arrival, Jerry walked over and said hello. While shaking my hand he said: “It’s a shame you didn’t get here a few minutes earlier.

You just missed Wally Wood.” Feeling the urge to thump my forehead like a character in one of those vegetable juice television commercials, I realized that the man I had just informally met at the elevator had been Wally Wood!

Jerry and I had a short, but pleasant visit. I noticed that his office was a little cramped and needed repainting. The dirty walls were adorned with framed paintings of Mad covers by Norman Mingo. Just inside the door next to his desk, the wall had been decorated with cartoons personally inscribed to Jerry by the various artists who freelanced for Mad. This included such notables as Don Martin, Sergio Aragonés, Antonio Prohias, and Bob Clarke. I imagine the mural is now long-gone.

We had been visiting only a few minutes when the same young man who had escorted me to Jerry’s office poked his head inside the door and yelled, “Feldstein wants a staff meeting right NOW!” Apparently Al Feldstein, the managing editor, didn’t like to be kept waiting. Looking a little sheepish, Jerry was apologetic about cutting the visit short, but I understood. Business, after all, is business. The truth be known, I probably should have been back at the tobacco trade show minding my own.

While walking me to the exit, we bumped into Feldstein in the hallway and, as a courtesy, Jerry introduced me. Feldstein didn’t strike me as the nicest guy in the world. I would describe his manner as somewhere between rude and indifferent. After being told that I was visiting from Oklahoma, Feldstein shook his head, muttered something incomprehensible, then turned and walked away. The chill in the air could have frosted a popsicle. Since I was wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase, Feldstein might have thought I was selling life insurance or something.

Who knows what rattles around in the mind of a satire magazine editor, especially one who seemed to entertain delusions of grandeur?

I had hoped to meet Mad publisher Bill Gaines, but as luck would have it he was not in the office that day. I later got the impression from Jerry that Gaines didn’t hang around the office any more than he had to. Rank does, after all, have its privilege.

About a year later, I tried to call Jerry at his Mad office to discuss a personal matter. Much to my surprise, I discovered that he had been recently discharged from employment. I dare say that it was not an amicable separation. When I had asked to speak to Jerry, the receptionist transferred the call to Feldstein. I don’t mind telling you that he was almost as charming as he had been at our previous meeting. I don’t know if he remembered me, not that it really mattered. Not mincing any words, Feldstein said: “Jerry De Fuccio doesn’t work here any more. No, I don’t know where he is working or how you can get in touch with him. Do not call here again. We have a magazine to publish and I am too busy to waste time talking to you. And while you are at it, go to hell.” Those were not Feldstein’s exact words, mind you, but that was the gist of it.

As it was later told to me, Bill Gaines had gone out of his way to circumvent Jerry from latching on with another publisher. I think the phrase “black-balled” is applicable here. Unable to find suitable employment befitting a man of his background and experience, Jerry had been reduced to working as a switchboard operator for a firm publishing gaudy men’s magazines. Bob Overstreet, publisher of the Comic Book

Price Guide and a mutual friend, was kind enough to provide me with the phone number where Jerry worked.

I gave Jerry a call. He seemed glad to hear from me, but at the same time Jerry was obviously distressed over his fall from grace with Mad. Initially, he seemed reluctant to discuss the particulars.

Understandably, he felt down on his luck. Jerry, however, remained optimistic, hoping that something better would come along.

In any event, Jerry explained how he lost his job at Mad. It began with a junior employee who somehow gained access to the storage room containing all of the original art from the EC comics published by Gaines during the 1950s.

I suppose the fellow Profile of a Cartoonist Profiler found himself overcome by temptation, and This portrait shot of De Fuccio appeared in his article in Cartoonist PROfiles #36 (Dec. 1977). managed to purloin The latter is a magazine that, as the title some of the art.

Unbelievably, he had the implies, profiles professional cartoonists; it was begun by artist Jud Hurd in the 1970s. impudence to take the [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] stolen art to a local comic book shop and offer it for sale on consignment. As you might well imagine, that stolen artwork stood out in the display window of the establishment like a sore thumb. This being the case, there is little doubt in my mind that Gaines would have been informed of its presence in a matter of days, if not hours.

After the thief had time to consider the ramifications of his nefarious deed, he developed a near-instant anxiety attack. Petrified by the almost certain prospect of loss of employment and possible incarceration, he went to Jerry asking what he might do to rectify the situation. Despite having difficulty believing that anyone could have done anything so incredibly stupid, Jerry felt sorry for the young man and suggested that he get that artwork back into storage with all possible haste. It was possible, Jerry thought, that Gaines might not seek retribution should the thief confess his sin and then plead for mercy.

Fat chance. As things worked out, Gaines already knew all the sordid details and it was too late to make amends. It came as no great surprise that the thief was fired on the spot and literally kicked out of the building.

The stolen artwork would be returned directly to Gaines. Then, when it came to his attention that Jerry had known of the theft and had not brought the information immediately to his attention, Gaines questioned Jerry’s loyalty. With little remorse, he cast Jerry aside like a proverbial baby in the bathwater. From there, Jerry’s plight went from bad to worse.

To be continued next issue.

TWOMORROWS BOOKS

by ROY THOMAS NEW FOR 2008

ALTER EGO COLLECTION, VOL. 1 Collects ALTER EGO #1-2, plus 30 pages of new material! Behind a new JLA Jam Cover by JOE KUBERT, GEORGE PÉREZ, DICK GIORDANO, GEORGE TUSKA, NICK CARDY, RAMONA FRADON, and JOE GIELLA, there’s: GIL KANE, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and GARDNER FOX on the creation of the Silver Age Atom! “The STAN LEE Roast” with SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, PETER DAVID, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JIM SHOOTER, et al.! MICHAEL T. GILBERT on WILL EISNER’s 1966 Spirit story! ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and MIKE MACHLAN on creating Infinity, Inc.! Interviews with LARRY LIEBER, IRWIN HASEN, & JACK BURNLEY! Wonder Woman rarities, with art by H.G. PETER! Plus FCA, new sections featuring scarce art by GIL KANE, WILL EISNER, CARMINE INFANTINO, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MURPHY ANDERSON, DICK DILLIN, plus all seven of our super-star cover artists!

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ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

(10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) In 1961, JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS launched ALTER EGO, the first fanzine devoted to comic books and their colorful history. This volume, first published in low distribution in 1997, collects the original 11 issues (published from 1961-78) of A/E, with the creative and artistic contributions of JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, & others—and important, illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! See where a generation first learned about the Golden Age of Comics—while the Silver Age was in full flower—with major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS & BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by the late JULIUS SCHWARTZ.

JOHN ROMITA... AND ALL THAT JAZZ! “Jazzy” JOHN ROMITA talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with such comics legends as STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more!

Plus, Roy Thomas shares memories of working with Romita in the 1960s-70s, and Jim Amash examines the awesome artistry of Ring-a-Ding Romita! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art—original classic art, and unseen masterpieces—as well as illos by some of Marvel’s and DC’s finest, this is at once a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves).

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ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 2 ROY THOMAS presents still more secrets of the Justice Society of America and ALL-STAR COMICS, from 1940 through the 1980s, featuring: A fabulous wraparound cover by CARLOS PACHECO! More amazing information and speculation on the classic ALL-STAR COMICS of 1940-1951! Never-before-seen Golden Age art by IRWIN HASEN, CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, MART NODELL, JOE KUBERT, H.G. PETER, and others! Art from an unpublished 1940s JSA story not seen in Volume 1! Rare art from the original JLA-JSA team-ups and the 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL by MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, JOE STATON, WALLY WOOD, KEITH GIFFEN, and RIC ESTRADA! Full coverage of the 1980s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and a bio of every single All-Star, plus never-seen art by JERRY ORDWAY, RICH BUCKLER, ARVELL JONES, RAFAEL KAYANAN, and special JSArelated art and features by FRANK BRUNNER, ALEX ROSS, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, MIKE MIGNOLA, and RAMONA FRADON—and more!

NEW FOR 2008

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In this third volume, comics legend Roy Thomas presents still more amazing secrets behind the 1940-51 ALL-STAR COMICS and the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA! Also, there’s an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA/JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by NEAL ADAMS, DICK AYERS, MICHAEL BAIR, JOHN BUSCEMA, SEAN CHEN, DICK DILLIN, RIC ESTRADA, CREIG FLESSEL, KEITH GIFFEN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, TOM GRINDBERG, TOM GRUMMETT, RON HARRIS, IRWIN HASEN, DON HECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JACK KIRBY, JOE KUBERT, BOB LAYTON, SHELDON MAYER, BOB McLEOD, SHELDON MOLDOFF, BRIAN MURRAY, JERRY ORDWAY, ARTHUR PEDDY, GEORGE PÉREZ, H.G. PETER, HOWARD PURCELL, PAUL REINMAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, HOWARD SIMPSON, JOE SINNOTT, JIM STARLIN, JOE STATON, RONN SUTTON, ALEX TOTH, JIM VALENTINO and many others! Featuring a new JLA/JSA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905801 • Diamond Order Code: SEP074020

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

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ALTER EGO #1

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STAN LEE gets roasted by SCHWARTZ, CLAREMONT, DAVID, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, and SHOOTER, ORDWAY and THOMAS on INFINITY, INC., IRWIN HASEN interview, unseen H.G. PETER Wonder Woman pages, the original Captain Marvel and Human Torch teamup, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, “Mr. Monster”, plus plenty of rare and unpublished art!

Featuring a never-reprinted SPIRIT story by WILL EISNER, the genesis of the SILVER AGE ATOM (with GARDNER FOX, GIL KANE, and JULIE SCHWARTZ), interviews with LARRY LIEBER and Golden Age great JACK BURNLEY, BOB KANIGHER, a new Fawcett Collectors of America section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and more!

GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

Unseen ALEX ROSS and JERRY ORDWAY Shazam! art, 1953 interview with OTTO BINDER, the SUPERMAN/CAPTAIN MARVEL LAWSUIT, GIL KANE on The Golden Age of TIMELY COMICS, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, rare art by AYERS, BERG, BURNLEY, DITKO, RICO, SCHOMBURG, MARIE SEVERIN and more! ALEX ROSS & BILL EVERETT covers!

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Interviews with KUBERT, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and HARRY LAMPERT, BOB KANIGHER, life and times of GARDNER FOX, ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, a history of Flash Comics, MOEBIUS Silver Surfer sketches, MR. MONSTER, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, and lots more! Dual color covers by JOE KUBERT!

Celebrating the JSA, with interviews with MART NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, GEORGE ROUSSOS, BILL BLACK, and GIL KANE, unpublished H.G. PETER Wonder Woman art, GARDNER FOX, an FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, WENDELL CROWLEY, and more! Wraparound cover

by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

GENE COLAN interview, 1940s books on comics by STAN LEE and ROBERT KANIGHER, AYERS, SEVERIN, and ROY THOMAS on Sgt. Fury, ROY on All-Star Squadron’s Golden Age roots, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, JOE SIMON interview, a definitive look at MAC RABOY’S work, and more! Covers by COLAN and RABOY!

Companion to ALL-STAR COMPANION book, with a JULIE SCHWARTZ interview, guide to JLA-JSA TEAMUPS, origins of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON, FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK (on his 1970s DC conflicts), DAVE BERG, BOB ROGERS, more on MAC RABOY from his son, MR. MONSTER, and more! RICH BUCKLER and C.C. BECK covers!

WALLY WOOD biography, DAN ADKINS & BILL PEARSON on Wood, TOR section with 1963 JOE KUBERT interview, ROY THOMAS on creating the ALL-STAR SQUADRON and its 1940s forebears, FCA section with SWAYZE & BECK, MR. MONSTER, JERRY ORDWAY on Shazam!, JERRY DeFUCCIO on the Golden Age, CHIC STONE remembered! ADKINS and KUBERT covers!

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

JOHN ROMITA interview by ROY THOMAS (with unseen art), Roy’s PROPOSED DREAM PROJECTS that never got published (with a host of great artists), MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING’S life after Superman, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom Panel, FCA section with GEORGE TUSKA, C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, BILL MORRISON, & more! ROMITA and GIORDANO covers!

Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ’40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ’65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

1974 panel with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, FRANK ROBBINS, and ROY THOMAS, ROY and JOHN BUSCEMA on Avengers, 1964 STAN LEE interview, tributes to DON HECK, JOHNNY CRAIG, and GRAY MORROW, Timely alums DAVID GANTZ and DANIEL KEYES, and FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and MIKE MANLEY! Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON and JOE SIMON!

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ALTER EGO #17 Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

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ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

STAN GOLDBERG interview, secrets of ’40s Timely, art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, MANEELY, EVERETT, BURGOS, and DeCARLO, spotlight on sci-fi fanzine XERO with the LUPOFFS, OTTO BINDER, DON THOMPSON, ROY THOMAS, BILL SCHELLY, and ROGER EBERT, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD ghosting Flash Gordon! KIRBY and SWAYZE covers!

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art

by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

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ALTER EGO #21 The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

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ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed

by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

X-MEN interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, ROY THOMAS, and LEN WEIN, MORT MESKIN profiled by his sons and ALEX TOTH, rare art by JERRY ROBINSON, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY on Comics Fandom! MESKIN and COCKRUM covers!

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art

by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on All-Star Squadron #1 and its ’40s roots (with art by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

JOE SINNOTT interview, IRWIN DONENFELD interview by EVANIER & SCHWARTZ, art by SHUSTER, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, and SWAN, MARK WAID analyzes the first Kryptonite story, JERRY SIEGEL and HARRY DONENFELD, JERRY IGER Shop update, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and KEN BALD! Covers by SINNOTT and WAYNE BORING!

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ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ’60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN032614

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ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed, MART NODELL on his Timely years, rare art by BURGOS, EVERETT, and SHORES, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age (with art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, and more), FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more!

Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art

by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

Quality Comics interviews with ALEX KOTZKY, AL GRENET, CHUCK CUIDERA, & DICK ARNOLD (son of BUSY ARNOLD), art by COLE, EISNER, FINE, WARD, DILLIN, and KANE, MICHELLE NOLAN on Blackhawk’s jump to DC, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on HARVEY KURTZMAN, & ALEX TOTH on REED CRANDALL! Covers by REED CRANDALL & CHARLES NICHOLAS!

Covers by JOHN ROMITA and AL JAFFEE! LEE, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, & THOMAS on the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, with rare art by ROMITA, AYERS, BURGOS, HEATH, EVERETT, LAWRENCE, & POWELL, AL JAFFEE on the 1940s Timely Bullpen (and MAD), FCA, ALEX TOTH on comic art, MR. MONSTER on unpublished 1950s covers, and more!

JOE SIMON on SIMON & KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, and LLOYD JACQUET, JOHN BELL on World War II Canadian heroes, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Canadian origins of MR. MONSTER, tributes to BOB DESCHAMPS, DON LAWRENCE, & GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and ELMER WEXLER interview! Covers by SIMON and GILBERT & RONN SUTTON!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032695

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ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

WILL MURRAY on the 1940 Superman “KMetal” story & PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR (with art by SHUSTER, SWAN, ADAMS, and BORING), FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and DON NEWTON, SY BARRY interview, art by TOTH, MESKIN, INFANTINO, and ANDERSON, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN on EC and RAY BRADBURY! Covers by C.C. BECK and WAYNE BORING!

JULIE SCHWARTZ TRIBUTE with HARLAN ELLISON, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, KUBERT, GIELLA, GIORDANO, CARDY, LEVITZ, STAN LEE, WOLFMAN, EVANIER, & ROY THOMAS, never-seen interviews with Julie, FCA with BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, NEWTON, COCKRUM, OKSNER, FRADON, SWAYZE, and JACKSON BOSTWICK! Covers by INFANTINO and IRWIN HASEN!

Full-issue spotlight on JERRY ROBINSON, with an interview on being BOB KANE’s Batman “ghost”, creating the JOKER and ROBIN, working on VIGILANTE, GREEN HORNET, and ATOMAN, plus never-seen art by Jerry, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, RAY, KIRBY, SPRANG, DITKO, and PARIS! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER on AL FELDSTEIN Part 2, and more! Two JERRY ROBINSON covers!

RUSS HEATH and GIL KANE interviews (with tons of unseen art), the JULIE SCHWARTZ Memorial Service with ELLISON, MOORE, GAIMAN, HASEN, O’NEIL, and LEVITZ, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, NOVICK, DILLIN, SEKOWSKY, KUBERT, GIELLA, ARAGONÉS, FCA, MR. MONSTER and AL FELDSTEIN Part 3, and more! Covers by GIL KANE & RUSS HEATH!

Halloween issue! BERNIE WRIGHTSON on his 1970s FRANKENSTEIN, DICK BRIEFER’S monster, the campy 1960s Frankie, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, BORING, OKSNER, TUSKA, CRANDALL, and SUTTON, FCA #100, EMILIO SQUEGLIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

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ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

A celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, and AYERS, Hillman and Ziff-Davis remembered by Heap artist ERNIE SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and ALEX TOTH! Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER!

Yuletide art by WOOD, SINNOTT, CARDY, BRUNNER, TOTH, NODELL, and others, interviews with Golden Age artists TOM GILL (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, exploring 1960s Mexican comics, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Flip covers by GEORGE TUSKA and DAVE STEVENS!

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special!

Interviews with KUBERT, HASEN, ANDERSON, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, THOMAS, 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, and INFANTINO, FCA, and MR. MONSTER’S “I Like Ike!” cartoons by BOB KANE, INFANTINO, OKSNER, and BIRO! Wraparound ORDWAY cover!

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ’40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art

by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s ALTER EGO! 1969 BILL EVERETT interview, art by BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, JERRY BAILS, and ROY THOMAS, LOU GLANZMAN interview, tributes to IRV NOVICK and CHRIS REEVE, MR. MONSTER, FCA, TOTH, and more!

Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043043

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ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ’40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ’40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB053220

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ALTER EGO #50 ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #54 ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

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MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments

by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP053301

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover

by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ’80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

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ALTER EGO #55 JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Card Art from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ’40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, and more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT053396

ALTER EGO #59 Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA and VIC CARRABOTTA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063474

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4!

FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

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ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOE KUBERT, LOU SAYRE SCHWARTZ, IRWIN HASEN, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his Golden & Silver Age work (with CARDY art), plus art

by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, tributes to ERNIE SCHROEDER and DAVE COCKRUM, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, SIMON & KIRBY, MARTIN GOODMAN’s Magazine Management, and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Shazam!, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, etc., FCA with MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

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ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom and founder of Alter Ego! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus STEVE DITKO’s notes to STAN LEE for a 1965 Dr. Strange story! And ROY reveals secrets behind Marvel’s STAR WARS comic!

PAUL NORRIS drew AQUAMAN first, in 1941—and RAMONA FRADON was the hero’s ultimate Golden Age artist. But both drew other things as well, and both are interviewed in this landmark issue—along with a pocket history of Aquaman! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus an homage to artist LILY RENÉE!

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book

by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts

by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GRAHAM INGELS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with P.C. HAMERLINCK on the many “Captains Marvel” over the years, unseen Shazam! proposal by ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK on “The Death of a Legend!”, MARC SWAYZE, interview with Golden Age artist MARV LEVY, MR. MONSTER, and more!

JOE SIMON SPECIAL! In-depth SIMON interview by JIM AMASH, with neverbefore-revealed secrets behind the creation of Captain America, Fighting American, Stuntman, Adventures of The Fly, Sick magazine and more, art by JACK KIRBY, BOB POWELL, AL WILLIAMSON, JERRY GRANDENETTI, GEORGE TUSKA, and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073947

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STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT073927

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ALTER EGO #78 ALTER EGO #77 ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008

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DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships June 2008

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover

by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective— DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus the NEMBO KID (Italian for “Superman”), art by BORING, SWAN, ADAMS, KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, and more!

New cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships August 2008

12-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $78 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($108 First Class, $123 Canada, $180 1st Class Intl., $222 Priority Intl.).

For a 6-issue sub, cut the price in half!

NEW ITEMS: Vol. 19: MIKE PLOOG

MODERN MASTERS SERIES

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US ISBN: 9781605490076 • Ships October 2008

Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks are devoted to the BEST OF TODAY’S COMICS ARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

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Vol. 20: KYLE BAKER (120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US ISBN: 9781605490083 • Ships December 2008

MORE MODERN MASTERS ARE COMING IN 2009, INCLUDING CHRIS SPROUSE!

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KIRBY FIVE-OH! LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION! Limited to 500 copies, KIRBY FIVE-OH! LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 19381987! The BEST COVERS from each decade!

The 50 BEST EXAMPLES OF UNUSED KIRBY ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre, a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER! This LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION includes a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individually-numbered extra Kirby art plate not included in the softcover edition! It’s ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, and is not sold in stores!

Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page Limited Edition Hardcover) $34.95 US • Now shipping!

Only available from TwoMorrows!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUME 7

Spotlights KIRBY OBSCURA, uncovering some of Jack’s most obscure work! Learn about such littleknown projects as an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby front cover inked by DON HECK, and back cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Ships January 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships January 2009 BRICKJOURNAL magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages.

It spotlights all aspects of the LEGO Community, showcasing events, people, and models in every issue, with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Edited by JOE MENO.

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3 VOLUME 3 compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 of the acclaimed online magazine for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages — for the first time in printed form! This FULLCOLOR book spotlights all aspects of the LEGO COMMUNITY through interviews with builders KNUD THOMSEN (builder of a LEGO city), ANTHONY SAVA (castle and dragon builder), JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO to the LEGO Group) and the duo ARVO (builders of many incredible models), plus features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, such as BRICKFEST, LEGO WORLD (the Netherlands), and 1000STEINE-LAND (Germany), reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets (the CAFE CORNER and HOBBY TRAIN), how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more! Edited by JOE MENO. (224-page trade paperback) $34.95 US ISBN: 9781605490069 Ships January 2009

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BRICKJOURNAL #3

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BRICKJOURNAL #4

FULL-COLOR issue #3 has LEGO Event Reports from BRICKWORLD (Chicago), FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL (Atlanta) and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), a spotlight on the creation of our amazing cover model built by BRYCE McGLONE, plus interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS, to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going! There’s also STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more!

FULL-COLOR issue #4 features interviews with top LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE BUILDER), Event Reports from LEGO gatherings such as BRICKFAIR (Washington, DC) and BRICKCON (Seattle, Washington), plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and editor JOE MENO shows how to build a robotic LEGO Wall-E!TM

(80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to subscribers) Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

(80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to subscribers)

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ALTER EGO focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation, featuring in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood,

by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover

by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships October 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships December 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships March 2009

ROUGH STUFF features never-seen pencil pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history, plus columns, critiques, and more! Edited by BOB MCLEOD.

WRITE NOW! features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, exclusive Nuts & Bolts tutorials, and more! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH. THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, plus rare and unpublished art. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

DRAW! #17

ROUGH STUFF #10

ROUGH STUFF #11

WRITE NOW! #20

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments.

Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork, and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships Fall 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships October 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships Winter 2009

BACK ISSUE #29

BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

BACK ISSUE #33

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work, NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot, McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants, the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series, lost Angel stories, Beast’s tenure with the Avengers, the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor, the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father, a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more!

Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors; Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery; James Bond, Jr.; and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships September 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships November 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships March 2009

NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #31

WRITE NOW! #19

ROUGH STUFF #10

DRAW! #17

BRICKJOURNAL #4

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more!

Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

DARK KNIGHT and SPIRIT executive producer MICHAEL USLAN on the writing process for films, Dennis O’Neil on adapting THE DARK KNIGHT movie to novel form, BRIAN BENDIS script and LEINIL YU pencils from Marvel’s SECRET INVASION #1, MAX ALAN COLLINS, MILLAR script and HITCH pencils from their run on FF, SLOTT script and McNIVEN pencils from BRAND NEW DAY, and more!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments.

Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping

(80-page magazine) $6.95 Now shipping

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Now shipping

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • (Digital Edition) $2.95 Ships Winter 2008

FULL-COLOR issue features top LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE), Event Reports from gatherings such as BRICKFAIR (Washington, DC) and BRICKCON (Seattle, Washington), plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and editor JOE MENO shows how to build a robotic LEGO Wall-E!TM

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE:

HAWKMAN COMPANION

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM, VOLUME 1

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue!

Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 Now shipping

COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 6 Reprints KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26 plus over 30 pieces of Kirby art never published!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Now shipping

Indispensable Edition The definitive autobiographical book on ALAN MOORE in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Includes new interviews covering his work since the original 2003 edition of the book. From SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and beyond – all are discussed by Alan. Plus, there’s RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK, and PHOTOGRAPHS, tribute comic strips by NEIL GAIMAN and other of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring the RARE MOORE STORY “The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse” (newly remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN! (240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: JAN088702 Ships December 2008

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

Behind a fabulous CLIFF CHIANG cover, this collection documents the character’s history, and contains interviews and commentary from many who have helped Hawkman soar through the ages, including JOE KUBERT, GEOFF JOHNS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, TIMOTHY TRUMAN, JUSTIN GRAY, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, RAGS MORALES, STEPHEN SADOWSKI, DON KRAMER, BEN RAAB, TONY ISABELLA, DAN JURGENS, ROY THOMAS, STEVE LIEBER, MURPHY ANDERSON and many other top comics creators. Also included is a copious image parade, profiles on the Hawks through the ages, as well as their allies and adversaries, and a timeline of Hawkman's storied existence throughout the DC Comics Universe. With insight into the character and the creators who made him what he is, the HAWKMAN COMPANION is certain to please any Hawkfan.

Written by DOUG ZAWISZA.

FULL-COLOR! Compiles the first three digital-only issues of BRICKJOURNAL, the ultimate magazine for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages! Features interviews with LEGO car builder ZACHARY SWEIGART, JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of LEGO Systems, Inc.), Mecha builders BRYCE McLONE and JEFF RANJO, paraplegic LEGO builder SCOTT WARFIELD, BOB CARNEY (LEGO castle builder extraordinaire) and RALPH SAVELSBURG (LEGO plane builder), REVEREND BRENDAN POWELL SMITH (author of the LEGO version of the Bible), NASA Astronaut Trainer KIETH JOHNSON, JAKE McKEE (Global Community Director for The LEGO Group), features on the BIONICLE universe, how to make your own custom bricks, instructions & techniques, and more!

(256-page trade paperback) $39.95 ISBN: 9781893905979 Diamond Order Code: FEB084083 Now shipping

(208-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905931 Now shipping

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Media Mail

(80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 19: MIKE PLOOG

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490076 Now shipping

VOLUME 20: KYLE BAKER

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490083 Ships December 2008 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl.

Intl.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

$64

$64

$91

$152

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$55

$63

$91

$112

DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF (4 issues)

$26

$36

$41

$60

$74

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$78

$108

$123

$180

$222

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$32

$42

$47

$66

$80

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt

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