Alter Ego #86 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Mad, Mad, Mad Comics Fanzine $

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In the USA

No.86

June 2008

WHAT HATH

KURTZMAN WROUGHT? Those Frantic Four-Color Mad Wannabes Of 1953-56

PLUS:

FRANK BOLLE & 06

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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

Vol. 3, No. 86 / June 2009 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 Artists Harvey Kurtzman, Et. Al.

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Bob Bailey Howard Bender John Benson Bill Black Frank Bolle Chris Brown Nick Caputo Michael Catron Anthony DeMaria Michaël Dewally Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Walt Grogan Jennifer Hamerlinck Mark & Stephanie Heike Jerry Hillegas Denis Kitchen Jay Kinney Adele Kurtzman

Stan & Joan Lee Jim Ludwig Brian K. Morris Ken Nadle Dave O’Dell Stephen Oswald Charles Pelto Ken Quattro Robert Rivard Herb Rogoff Dorothy Schaffenberger Ramon Schenk John Selegue Scott Shaw! Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Mark Voger Kathy Voglesong Martin Wolfson

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Harvey Kurtzman & Kurt Schaffenberger

Contents Writer/Editorial: It Was A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Whirl!. . . . . 3 What Hath Kurtzman Wrought? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ger Apeldoorn examines the color Mad wannabes of the mid-1950s.

“I’d Pick Up Anything That Came Along, Since I Was Anxious To Work” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Golden Age talent Frank Bolle talks to Jim Amash about Robotman, the Heap, and Tim Holt!

re: [correspondence, comments, and corrections] . . . . . . . 70 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! “Lost” Kurtzman: The War Years!. . 73 Michael T. Gilbert, Ger Apeldoorn, and the Mad creator’s military cartoons of the 1940s.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze and a special tribute to the great Kurt Schaffenberger. On Our Cover: We’ll admit it—we’re especially wild about this montage cover, which Ye Editor conceived and layout guru Christopher Day ably executed. After a bit of correspondence between the three of us, some months back, Ger Apeldoorn sent us scans from various of Mad’s early imitators, including the art of Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (Captain Marble from Nuts! and John Wayne from Get Lost), Carl Hubbell (Mighty Moose from Whack), Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (Comet Feldmeyer from From Here to Insanity), Carl Burgos (a werewolf from Crazy), William Overgard (Prince Scallion from Whack), Bill Everett (Drag-ula from Crazy), an unidentified artist (Marilyn Monroe and a headless Joe Dimaggio from Nuts!), and L.B. Cole (King Farouk and a mermaid, from Unsane). And, for the perfect self-caricature by the founding genius, Harvey Kurtzman, as the cover’s centerpiece, we thank Denis Kitchen and Mrs. Adelen Kurtzman. Chris put the various pieces all together—and if you like the result half as much as Roy does, you’ve already gotten your money’s worth this issue. (But don’t worry—there’s plenty more to come!) [Kurtzman art ©2009 Adele Kurtzman; other art ©2009 the respective copyright holders.] Above: Alas, as explained on the next page, we could only print the first half of Ger’s study—but that didn’t stop us from yanking a panel by Andru & Esposito (and scripter Otto Binder) out of Nuts! #5 (1954) and slapping it onto the top of this page to whet your appetite for Part II! “Captain Marble Flies Again” was the best super-hero parody to come out of any of the Mad clones of the mid-’50s (not that there were many to choose from!)—and was printed in its entirely in Alter Ego #33. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.] 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: $88 US, $140 Canada, $210 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.

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Article Title 3 Topline writer/editorial

It Was A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Whirl! W

ell, it finally happened. My first “computer crash.”

of well over 100 illustrations—and do the best I could, cutting a few corners as I went. Several much-appreciated readers helped supply a few last-minute bits of art—Chris Day performed even a bit more above-andbeyond than usual—and we eked it through.

I suppose the main reason I’d never had one before early April of this year is that, ever since Gerry Conway pushed me into buying my first PC back in the early ’80s while we were co-writing the first five drafts of the screenplay for what eventually became the movie Conan the Destroyer, I’ve generally used the things only for e-mail, documents, and a modicum of Internet research. As a result, I’d remained far too careless about such things as backup files, despite my wife’s regular admonishments. (Well, Gerry once referred to me as a “technological peasant,” and I in turn have often quoted Isaac Asimov’s statement that all he wanted from a PC was “a glorified typewriter.”)

For, also fortunately, by then I had realized I’d never be able to fit Ger’s entire study into the issue without severely limiting the number of illos— so I’d decided to cut the piece in two, following his overview and the listings for St. John’s Whack, Timely/Marvel/Atlas’ Crazy, Wild, and Riot, and Charlton’s Eh! and From Here to Insanity. Part II of the article, covering Get Lost, Flip, Nuts!, Madhouse, Bughouse, and Unsane (as well as compare-and-contrast examples from Mad and Panic) will have to be postponed till our January 2010 issue.

Still, I’m changing my ways—he muttered as he typed out this editorial on Dann’s PC, while awaiting the week-away day when a member of Best Buy’s Geek Squad would set up his new computer and he’d find out if they actually did manage to retrieve all his document files and e-addresses from the shell of his hard drive.

But at least that leaves ample room for the first part of Jim Amash’s long-scheduled interview with ace artist Frank Bolle (best known in comics circles for his Western titles done in the ’50s for Magazine Enterprises, and for Dr. Solar), as well as for some of our regular departments. Oh, and the final A/E installment of Bob Rozakis alternate history of AA Comics will appear next issue, along with a twice-delayed Comic Fandom Archive piece on an Oklahoma fandom reunion!

Fortunately, by the time of the cyberspace crash-and-burn, I had completed and sent off to layout man Chris Day the files and scans for this issue of Alter Ego… all but the text for captions accompanying the art for the lead article. Those I had to spend a day not just retyping but remembering. I’d look at the circled letters I’d scribbled in the margins of the first 39 pages of the edited version of Ger Apeldoorn’s study of Mad’s mid-1950s imitators—letters which ran from (A) through (LLLL2), a total

Bestest,

P.S.: Apologies to Samuel F.B. Morse for the title of our lead article!

COMING IN JULY

“From SHAZAM! To KIMOTA! ” From One MAGIC Word— To One ATOMIC Word! •Miraculous new Marvelman/Miracleman cover art by RICK VEITCH! •How MARVELMAN flew where CAPTAIN MARVEL dared not tread—and emerged as MIRACLEMAN! The startling saga of the 1950s-60s British super-hero, by DEREK WILSON—plus a never-before-published interview with Marvelman creator MICK ANGLO, by ROGER DICKEN! With rare art by DON LAWRENCE, ALEX ROSS, JOHN TOTLEBEN, ALAN DAVIS, & others! •FRANK BOLLE, Part II of JIM AMASH’s interview—& THE CENTAUR COMICS GROUP, Part II, with art by WILL EISNER, BILL EVERETT, CARL BURGOS, LEW GLANZMAN, MARTIN FILCHOCK, etc. •Plus FCA with MARC SWAYZE, plus Marvelman at the Rock of Eternity— “Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.” Part 8, by BOB ROZAKIS— BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on LAURA BENDER, one of DC’s Golden Age Advisory Board—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS copyright holders.] n TM & ©2009 the respective copyright holders; Marvelma [Art ©2009 the respective

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“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?” An Issue-By-Issue Look At Those Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitators by Ger Apeldoorn

UTHOR’s INTRODUCTION: It all started with Les Daniels’ 1971 book Comix: A History of Comic Books in America.

I had been reading Mad magazine since I was 14. I don’t know what attracted this Dutch boy to so American an institution, but I immediately fell in love with Mort Drucker, Don Martin, Jack Davis, and all the other satirical masters from that period. That in turn led to a lifelong fascination with American popular culture and to my virtually adopting English as my second language. An article about the early Mad in the Dutch fanzine Stripschrift got me interested in collecting and brought me to Amsterdam’s most famous comic store, Lambiek, where I picked up several books on comics, including Daniels’ excellent hardcover. Not only did Comix give me a crash course in the history of my new hobby—it also gave me my first glimpse of full stories, as it reprinted several of the best tales in the field to that date (albeit in black-&-white). There was a 1947 “Blackhawk” adventure, a Crime Does Not Pay potboiler drawn by George Tuska, and a Jack Cole “Plastic Man” exploit. I wouldn’t see any other samples of these series for more than ten years. The “Batman” and “Superman” stories were more familiar, having also been published in the Netherlands; there were likewise a couple of yarns from the Warren horror magazines and my first glimpse of underground stuff. And, of course, there was a whole section on EC. From Mad Daniels had chosen a seldom-reprinted story from one of the later color issues: the Wally Wood-drawn “Julius Caesar!” from #17 (Nov. 1954). In it, Wood and writer/editor/layout artist Harvey Kurtzman utilized the recent film version of Shakespeare’s tragedy to illustrate how a comic book

Mad About Comic Books (Clockwise from left:) The Mad Peck Studios’ cover of Les Daniels’ 1971 study Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, two decades before its author went on to do definitive histories of Marvel, DC, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—a photo of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman from TwoFisted Tales #28 (July-Aug. 1952), as reprinted in the Cochran hardcover edition—and the splash (actually p. 2) of the Kurtzman/Wood parody “Julius Caesar!” from Mad #17 (Nov. 1954), as per the Cochran Mad, Vol. 3. Oh—and unless otherwise noted, all art accompanying this article was provided either by author Ger Apeldoorn or Ye Editor, or is taken from The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books by Ernst & Mary Gerber. [Comix cover ©2009 the respective copyright holders; Kurtzman photo ©2009 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.; Mad page ©2009 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?

The Hawks Weren’t All That Were Blue! (Left & below:) Harvey Kurtzman must’ve had a copy of Military Comics #12 (Oct. 1942) at hand when he wrote and laid out “The Black and Blue Hawks!” for Mad #5 (June-July 1953). The script for the former is credited to Dick French, and it sported the first “Blackhawk” art by Reed Crandall, the series’ definitive artist, as reproduced from DC’s hardcover Blackhawk Archives, Vol. 1. The finishing artist on the Mad entry, of course, was the wonderful Wally Wood; repro’d from the Cochran hardcover reprint. [Tiers ©2009 DC Comics & E.C. Publications, Inc., respectively.]

parody should be done. In its full-page prologue (repro’d elsewhere on this page), the narrator (i.e., Kurtzman) tells the reader he’s going crazy because there are so many “lampoon type comic books” on the newsstands that it’s getting hard to find new material to lampoon—so this story will be a lampoon of lampoon comics. Each of the dozen panels on the page boasts a caption that culminates in the title (and logo) of one of Mad’s imitators. Kurtzman’s parodies were always based on the real world, and Mad itself is one of the twelve titles mentioned, so I never doubted for a moment that the others were also real titles of real magazines. Bughouse, Crazy, Eh!, Flip, Get Lost, Madhouse, Nuts!, Panic, Riot, Wild, and Whack... in my feverous brain those eleven names conjured up visions of stacks and stacks of newsstand comics in the Mad style and manner. Once I learned Mad had been a color comic book before it was a black-&-white magazine, I quickly bought up all the reprint paperbacks containing early material. Jack Davis and Will Elder were and are my favorite artists, though I now feel that Davis’ later work for Kurtzman’s own Mad “imitation” Humbug is unsurpassed. (It astonishes me to this day that back issues of some Mad imitations will cost you more than most issues of Humbug!) In this piece I won’t be covering in detail Mad, or Panic—EC’s own Mad imitator, though edited by Al Feldstein rather than Kurtzman—or Humbug, because the former two are readily available in the Russ Cochran EC reprint hardcovers, while Fantagraphics has recently reprinted the latter in a handsome two-volume set. Humbug, in any event, was a later black-&-white magazine, and only the mid’50s color comics fall within the scope of this study. The imitators mentioned in Mad #17 remained out of my reach for a long time. I could pick up most comics I wanted to collect here in Holland from other collectors, but the imitations rarely turned up. It seemed I would have to go to America or else mail-order them from ads, both quite expensive options. When eBay burst onto the scene, it turned out to be just what I was looking for. Within a year, I had acquired most of the Mad wannabes at reasonable prices. Some pleasantly surprised me, others disappointed. But in almost all cases, accounts of them I’d read in magazine articles and guides was insufficient. Artists mentioned in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as being in a particular issue might have only a one-page story there— [Continued on p. 8]

Cheaper By The Dozen? (Right:) The marvelous intro page to the “Julius Caesar!” how-toparody tale in Mad #17, by Kurtzman & Wood. Note all the potential Mad-wannabe titles on the newsstands—including Sick, which would later be a black-&-white magazine from Joe Simon. [©2009 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At Those Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitators

Before We Went Mad Lampoons That Might Have Influenced Harvey Kurtzman

(On this page:) Heads of Dick Tracy (by creator Chester Gould) and Al Capp’s parody Fearless Fosdick (by “Lester Gooch”)—and an actual 1950s Fearless Fosdick commercial ad shilling for Wildroot Cream-Oil Hair Tonic, complete with a caricature of Capp at bottom left. Fosdick, who first appeared in the Li’l Abner newspaper strip in 1947, is considered by some to have been an important influence on Kurtzman’s Mad, as witness the ineffectual bullet holes. All repro’d from the two Fearless Fosdick trade paperbacks published in 1990 and 1992 by Kitchen Sink Press. [Dick Tracy art ©2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.; Fearless Fosdick art ©2009 Capp Enterprises, Inc.] (On facing page:) The Record Comics one-shot published with a Feb. 1947 cover date, as witness its cover takeoffs on Dick Tracy, Superman, Dagwood, and Daisie Mae Yokum. The mag contained such parodies as “Supergoon,” “Terrence [and the Pirates]” by “Milton Catnip,” “Moe Bohunka” [a parody of Joe Palooka], as well as lampoons of strips Smilin’ Jack, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Tarzan (“Jocko of the Jungle”), Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Li’l Abner (“Li’l Andover,” who manages to graduate from Yale). Its dimensions were 8 7/8" by 11 5/8". [Parody art ©2009 the respective copyright holders.] The Pogo parody at page center appeared in a 1952 issue of Wampus, the humor magazine of the University of Southern California. Another issue that year contained a takeoff on Milt Caniff’s Steve Canyon. [Pogo TM & ©2009 Estate of Walt Kelly.] A short time after Mad #1 went on sale, but months before its first comic strip parody, Walt Kelly poked fun at Little Orphan Annie, including the characters’ trademark “blank glassy eye balls,” in the Sept. 11, 1952, strip printed at bottom right, and for the next week or two. And was there ever a better parodic name for Harold Gray’s brainchild than “Li’l Arf an’ Nonny”? [©2009 Estate of Walt Kelly.]

What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?

“I’d Pick Up Anything That Came Along, Since I Was Anxious To Work” Part I Of A Colorful Conversation With Golden Age Artist FRANK BOLLE Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

NTRODUCTION: One thing for sure: Frank Bolle’s work sure turned up in a lot of places—some expected, some not. A real workhorse who started off working with Leonard Starr and the Funnies, Inc. shop, where he did some “Sub-Mariner,” “Captain America,” and “Human Torch” stories, Frank’s art also appeared at Crown Comics, Camera Comics, Fawcett, DC, Feature, Timely (and Marvel), Dell, and Gold Key (where he drew Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom), among other companies. His best work may have been done for Magazine Enterprises, where he drew the Tim Holt comic and its Redmask revamp. Frank’s work in newspaper syndication ranges from

Winnie Winkle to On Stage, Gil Thorpe, Encyclopedia Brown, Debbie Deere, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, The Heart of Juliet Jones, to today’s Apartment 3-G. If that’s not enough for you, there’s his Boy’s Life series, advertising work, book illustration, and fine art, much of which you can check out at www.frankbollestudio.com. Of course, Frank’s still at the drawing board on Apartment 3-G, and continues to paint in his spare time. “Spare time”? Hard to believe you have much of that, Frank—though you did manage to fit this interview into your busy schedule, for which we all thank you. —Jim.

“I’d Find [Pencils] On The Street” JIM AMASH: I’m going to ask you my standard beginning questions, like when and where were you born, and what got you interested in art? FRANK BOLLE: I was born June 23rd, 1924, in Brooklyn. As for drawing, well, I guess it just came just from being alone so much as a kid. I was so poor, I only had one parent, and I couldn’t even afford baby fat. [Jim laughs] My mother went off to work every day, and I was left with either neighbors or friends, which meant that I was left in some pretty crummy places, and was alone most of the time. And if I found a piece of paper and pencils—since I never had toys—I would just draw things that I saw. It sort-of came naturally, and that’s what kept me busy. I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil; I guess about fourish. The good part was that my mother never had to scold me to put my toys away. I couldn’t put them in a chest because I didn’t have any. [mutual chuckling] But I felt fortunate since I always could find pencils. In my day, you didn’t have fancy ballpoint things. Pencils were always yellow, and I’d find them on the street, in the hallway, in the school. There’d always be a pencil lying around on the floor, so I always had one to draw with. The art supplies came very easily.

Holt That Pose! Frank Bolle (seen above in a 2007 photo), and his dynamic cover for Magazine Enterprises’ Tim Holt #23 (March 1952), which also sports a photo of Western film star Tim Holt—whose father, Jack Holt, was also a mostlyWestern actor. Tim’s most celebrated film roles were in Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (1944) and John Huston’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)—but his series of RKO cowboy movies in the late ’40s and early ’50s were better than the average horse operas. Thanks to Anthony DeMaria & Michaël Dewally for the photo [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“I’d Pick Up Anything That Came Along, Since I Was Anxious To Work”

In elementary school, we had one day a month where kids drew turkeys that we copied for Thanksgiving, or a pumpkin, or a Santa Claus face, or something like that. But when I got into junior high school, we would have one period a week for an art class. We didn’t do anything special there except copy things, and most of the kids weren’t really interested in art. It was more like “art appreciation.” The teacher took me aside one time and asked, “When you graduate from junior high, what high school are you going to?” I said, “Just the local school, Bushwick High, where everybody else goes.” She said, “You should go to the High School of Music and Art.” I guess she saw something in me. I didn’t even know where the school was. I’d never even heard of it. She got the application for me. Then, after I filled it out—I was what, thirteen, fourteen years old—she got someone to take me there. I took a test and was accepted. Within the first few months, I met Leonard Starr, and we wound up in the same art class. We had math and history classes together, too. We were very similar types of people. We both had a sense of humor, we were the best in the class, and we didn’t compete against each other. We’d kid around, and have lunch together in the lunchroom, and took the same train home. He got off at 14th Street and Union Square, and I just kept going to Brooklyn. We’d ride on the subway together. Some mornings Leonard and a couple of other guys would be on the platform, and they’d come in and we’d sit together, or mostly stand, because that was the busy hour. And when we were high school seniors, we double-dated. I drew comics, but only for myself. I wrote and drew science-fiction stories in a sketchbook over the weekend, and on Monday my art buddies in class would say, “What did you do this weekend?” You know, they were following the story I was making, so I’d have to hand my sketchbook around. I think I was first influenced by Milton Caniff ’s Terry and the Pirates. By accident, I saw some neighbor had the New York Journal-American, which had Flash Gordon in it. I couldn’t afford to buy the newspaper, so

they saved the funnies for me every week. I began reading Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Phantom, and Prince Valiant. After high school, I went to Pratt Institute for about six months, and was inducted into the Army Air Corps in 1943. The only flying I did was observation flying, but I didn’t fly, myself. I was a camouflage technician. I hid things. [mutual chuckling] I hid the planes, and I hid installations. I’d have to fly up with the pilot and observe whether the stuff was hidden well, or if there were objects left in places that didn’t matter, where the enemy would think there was something there and waste bombs on it. That sort of thing.

“We Went Off The Cliff” JA: Did you do any artwork in the service? BOLLE: Only for myself. For instance, we’d be on a march or something, and we’d take five and smoke if you have them. I never smoked, so I took out my little sketchpad and drew the guys. Mostly, I was camouflaging installations and things like that. The first few months after my discharge in ’46, I was recuperating because I’d been in the hospital for four months. I was in a terrible accident in Okinawa. The driver and I were on a mountain road, and he made a turn, and there was no road there. We went off the cliff. I don’t know how many hours I was unconscious, but I heard somebody moaning in pain, and that’s what woke me up. And then I realized it was me that was moaning. [mutual chuckling] JA: Did this happen at night? I know sometimes, when they were driving at night, you weren’t allowed to turn your lights on. BOLLE: No, it was in daylight, and it was right after a typhoon, so a lot of roads were in bad condition. I don’t know how long I was there, but luckily, another car came by with some guys from our outfit and they saw me down the cliff. I was all wedged between rocks, and I had a broken jaw and my whole right side was covered in blood. And one of the big guys from our outfit picked me up like a kid, [chuckles] and carried me up the hill. They took me to a MASH outfit, where they put me on a stretcher, and laid me on the floor because they had to wait for a doctor to show up. The colonel doctor looked down at me and said, “Gee, I don’t know what I can do with that.” My heart sank because I couldn’t feel anything. I thought I’d lost part of my jaw because there was no sensation. Even when I felt around with my tongue, I couldn’t feel anything. But then some doctor—I think it was a dentist—came in and looked at me. He tapped the inside of my mouth with a tongue depressor. He started making noises where I didn’t have any feelings, so then I realized I didn’t lose my whole jaw. They wired my teeth together, but without X-rays, so I never had a very straight jaw again. And the rest of the stuff, they had to—oh, they pumped me with penicillin, which was brand new in those days. My whole right side was like raw skin from going down a cliff on rocks and everything. They couldn’t really bandage it, but they kept giving me penicillin. It was so strong that it was painful; I could feel the penicillin being pumped in and could taste it in my mouth. They did that like every couple of hours, night and day. Once I started healing, they said since the war was over, they couldn’t keep me there. There was no milk—no real milk to have, which I needed because I was on a liquid diet.

No Flash In The Pan As a youth, Frank read Alex Raymond’s influential Flash Gordon comic strip. As an adult, he would draw the hero for King Features’ own line of comic books, as per this splash from King Comics’ Flash Gordon #2 (1966). Thanks to Michaël Dewally. [©2009 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

They flew me and a bunch of other guys back to the States. I was up in Utica General Hospital for about four months. When I was finally all better, I was shipped down to Fort Dix [New Jersey], where I got my discharge. For the first couple of months, I didn’t do much of anything, and then I got in touch with Leonard, who was drawing some comics.

[correspondence, comments, and corrections]

Not Exactly A Browne Nose! Howard Browne (seen in photo detail below) may have uttered a very crude toast after the 1953 funeral of William B. Ziff; but, in addition to an editor for Ziff-Davis, he was the author of what critic/historian Richard A. Lupoff has called a “rather good Tarzan pastiche” in his novel Warrior of the Dawn. Featuring the CroMagnon adventurer Tharn, it had been serialized in Ziff-Davis’ Amazing Stories magazine in 1942. The artist of the dust jacket for the 1943 book edition (seen at left) is unknown. The 1944 photo of Browne (with several friends) was printed in the science-fiction fandom history All Our Yesterdays (1969), by Harry Warner, Jr. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

During this time, Junior made tantalizing promises to me about what my future would be at the new and improved Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. About four months later, the axe fell at almost every magazine’s editorial department. I was included. Bill told me that the Fiction Group did not truly need an art director. I shouldn’t be upset, he said. He had a suggestion. In order for me to stay with the company, he told me to speak with the department heads of the other magazines about their finding a spot for me on one of their staffs. I spoke to three of them; all of them told me that my salary was too high for them to fit me into their budgets. I had to give notice. I never saw nor heard from William B. Ziff, Jr., again. A story which will have a familiar ring to more than one laborer in the comic book vineyards, Herb. Thanks for sharing your memories of these two publishers at such a major company. One and all—please send any comments, corrections, or critiques to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trial fax: (803) 826-6501 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Be here next month for Marvelman—and a couple of his ancestors and descendants—as well as more on Frank Bolle and the Centaur Comics Group!

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

In the pursuance of a career in the early comic books, it was impossible to ignore among the people involved a tendency toward specialization … where the efforts were concentrated on specific fields of action. The proficiency of the pencilers, inkers, and letterers was an example, as was the creative imagination of the writers and layout artists. Related to such capabilities was a sense of indebtedness, as though there might be something due in return for the benefits received. The idle musing was interrupted when something slipped from my fingers and dropped to the floor. The old envelope that had once made such a loud demand for attention … was at it again! This time its message was perfectly clear: “It is wrong when creativity, that special ability to originate, is not acknowledged and appreciated as a gift, with which comes a covenant … that it be administered … righteously!” The undraped spine should not have been on a page with the funnies!

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

“A Single, Simple Stroke of the Pen” Swayze’s Flyin’ Jenny panel that caused an irate Long Island mother to write a letter of protest—and for one major paper to cancel the daily strip, albeit only for a week. Marc’s account of the event describes how a few more lines in the drawing might have provided adequate cover … or coverage … for the heroine. [© respective copyright holders.]

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

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

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

The Power Of Schaffenberger! Mark Voger & Howard Bender On One Of Comics’ Most Talented Gentlemen Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [FCA EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: A year and a half before his death in 1989, Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck wrote, during one of our correspondences: “Kurt Schaffenberger is a very talented artist, and came closer than anyone else to drawing the Marvel Family in their original forms. Kurt has a great sense of humor, loves to tell dialect jokes, and was quite a musician on the ‘squeeze box’ (accordion) in the old days when we got together at each other’s houses.” Here, in the first of our double-feature on “Schaff,” Mark Voger, author of Hero Gets Girl! The Life and Art of Kurt Schaffenberger explores some of those Fawcett get-togethers with Dorothy Schaffenberger, wife of the revered comic book artist, as she takes us back to the couple’s newlywed years. In the second section, comics artist Howard Bender shares with FCA readers some of his favorite “Kurt Anecdotes” from his time as Schaffenberger’s friend/colleague/liaison. I was fortunate to meet the genial Schaffenberger on Memorial Day 1995 in Woodbridge, New Jersey, where the artist’s retorts to my usual numerous Fawcett-related questions yielded a polite “I don’t know, Paul—it was just a job!” response. While he passed away in early 2002, FCA continues to be home for the memory of the clean storytelling style and the warm, lighthearted, human approach which was that of one of comics’ finest and most devoted craftsmen: Kurt Schaffenberger. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

The Invincible Schaffenbergers (Above:) Kurt and Dorothy Schaffenberger tied the knot on March 30, 1946. Their wedding was held at St. Paul’s Chapel in Englewood, NJ. Dorothy’s matron of honor was Ione Binder, wife of prolific Marvel Family writer Otto Binder. Kurt’s old boss, Jack Binder, and fellow Binder Shop artist Ken Bald, were both part of the wedding party. [Photo courtesy of Dorothy Schaffenberger; scan courtesy of Mark Voger.] (Left:) Kurt and Dorothy (or characters greatly resembling them) team up with Ibis and Taia in the “Ibis the Invincible” story from Whiz Comics #87 (July 1947). Schaffenberger occasionally drew likenesses of his wife and himself into comic book stories for Fawcett and other companies. [Ibis the Invincible TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

Get-Togethers In Fawcett Heaven by Mark Voger

he way Dorothy Schaffenberger tells it, FCA readers could be in Fawcett Heaven by hopping a time machine to the late 1940s in northern New Jersey.

That’s when, and where, many of the movers and shakers behind Captain Marvel and company gathered for intimate little get-togethers after the work week to blow off steam—and to keep thoughts of World War II at a comfortable distance. Dorothy is the widow of the late, great Kurt Schaffenberger, who illus-