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Marvel’s Evel Knievel and Kool-Aid Man comics • CURT SWAN’s Batman JIM APARO’s Superman • DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT’s Marvel custom comics MICHAEL USLAN’s Unseen Earth-Two Stories • Early cover variants & more!

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Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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Celebrates the 40TH ANNIVERSARY of MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ’s New Teen Titans, featuring a guest editorial by WOLFMAN and a PÉREZ tribute and art gallery! Plus: The New Teen Titans’ 40 GREATEST MOMENTS, the Titans in the media, hero histories of RAVEN, STARFIRE, and the PROTECTOR, and more! With a NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED PÉREZ TITANS COVER from 1981!

SUPERHERO ROMANCE ISSUE! Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark’s many loves, Star Sapphire history, Bronze Age weddings, DeFALCO/ STERN Johnny Storm/Alicia Pro2Pro interview, Elongated Man and Wife, May-December romances, Supergirl’s Secret Marriage, and… Aunt May and Doc Ock?? Featuring MIKE W. BARR, CARY BATES, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB LAYTON, DENNY O’NEIL, and many more! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS.

HORRIFIC HEROES! With Bronze Age histories of Man-Thing, the Demon, and the Creeper, Atlas/Seaboard’s horrifying heroes, and Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) rides again! Featuring the work of CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, ERNIE COLON, MICHAEL GOLDEN, JACK KIRBY, MIKE PLOOG, JAVIER SALTARES, MARK TEXIERA, and more. Man-Thing cover by RUDY NEBRES.

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CREATOR-OWNED COMICS! Featuring in-depth histories of MATT WAGNER’s Mage and Grendel. Plus other indie sensations of the Bronze Age, including COLLEEN DORAN’s A Distant Soil, STAN SAKAI’s Usagi Yojimbo, STEVE PURCELL’s Sam & Max, JAMES DEAN SMITH’s Boris the Bear, and LARRY WELZ’s Cherry Poptart! With a fabulous Grendel cover by MATT WAGNER.

“Legacy” issue! Wally West Flash, BRANDON ROUTH Superman interview, Harry Osborn/Green Goblin, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Infinity Inc., Reign of the Supermen, JOHN ROMITA SR. and JR. “Rough Stuff,” plus CONWAY, FRACTION, JURGENS, MESSNER-LOEBS, MICHELINIE, ORDWAY, SLOTT, ROY THOMAS, MARK WAID, and more. WIERINGO/MARZAN JR. cover!

SOLDIERS ISSUE! Sgt. Rock revivals, General Thunderbolt Ross, Beetle Bailey in comics, DC’s Blitzkrieg, War is Hell’s John Kowalski, Atlas’ savage soldiers, The ’Nam, Nth the Ultimate Ninja, and CONWAY and GARCIA-LOPEZ’s Cinder and Ashe. Featuring CLAREMONT, DAVID, DIXON, GOLDEN, HAMA, KUBERT, LOEB, DON LOMAX, DOUG MURRAY, TUCCI, and more. BRIAN BOLLAND cover!

BRONZE AGE TV TIE-INS! TV-to-comic adaptations of the ’70s to ’90s, including Bionic Woman, Dark Shadows, Emergency, H. R. Pufnstuf, Hee Haw, Lost in Space (with BILL MUMY), Primus (with ROBERT BROWN), Sledge Hammer, Superboy, V, and others! Featuring BALD, BATES, CAMPITI, EVANIER, JOHN FRANCIS MOORE, SALICRUP, SAVIUK, SPARLING, STATON, WOLFMAN, and more!

TV TOON TIE-INS! Bronze Age HannaBarbera Comics, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, Battle of the Planets, and Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. Bonus: SCOTT SHAW! digs up Captain Carrot’s roots! Featuring the work of BYRNE, COLON, ENGEL, EVANIER, FIELDS, MICHAEL GALLAGHER, WIN MORTIMER, NORRIS, SEVERIN, SKEATES, STATON, TALLARICO, TOTH, and more!

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BRONZE AGE PROMOS, ADS, AND GIMMICKS! The aborted DC Super-Stars Society fan club, Hostess Comic Ads, DC 16-page Preview Comics, rare Marvel custom comics, DC Hotline, Popeye Career Comics, early variant covers, and more. Featuring BARR, HERDLING, LEVITZ, MAGUIRE, MORGAN, PACELLA, PALMIOTTI, SHAW!, TERRY STEWART, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more!

THE KIRBY LEGACY AT DC! Explores Jack Kirby’s post-Fourth World Bronze Age DC characters! Demon, Kamandi, OMAC, Sandman, and Kirby’s Odd Jobs (Atlas, Manhunter, and more). Plus: the SIMON & KIRBY Reunion That Wasn’t! Featuring BISSETTE, BYRNE, CONWAY, GIBBONS, GOLDEN, GRANT, RUCKA, SEMEIKS, THOMAS, TIMM, WAGNER, and more. Demon cover by KIRBY and MIKE ROYER!

1980s MARVEL LIMITED SERIES! CLAREMONT/MILLER’s Wolverine, Black Panther, Falcon, Punisher, Machine Man, Iceman, Magik, Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolfpack, and more! With BOGDANOVE, COWAN, DeFALCO, DeMATTEIS, GRANT, HAMA, MILGROM, NEARY, SMITH, WINDSORSMITH, and more. Cover by JOE RUBINSTEIN. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

STARMEN ISSUE, headlined by JAMES ROBINSON and TONY HARRIS’s Jack Knight Starman! Plus: The StarSpangled Kid, Starjammers, the 1980s Starman, and Starstruck! Featuring DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, ROBERT GREENBERGER, ELAINE LEE, TOM LYLE, MICHAEL Wm. KALUTA, ROGER STERN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Jack Knight Starman cover by TONY HARRIS.

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Volume 1, Number 134 April 2022 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Joe Kubert (originally produced for Ehapa’s Superman Quarterly #9, 1982; courtesy of John Wells) COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Dean Motter Mike W. Barr Luigi Novi Tom Brevoort Dan Parent Robert V. Conte Marc Patten Gerry Conway Gary Pipa DC Comics Bob Rozakis Keith Dallas Jim Salicrup Tom DeFalco Alex Saviuk Cecil Disharoon John Schwirian Kerry Gammill Bob Smith Grand Comics Dan Tandarich Database Joseph Turner Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Michael Uslan Heritage Comics Frank Verzyl Auctions Dan Wallace Ilke Hincer Delmo Walters, Jr. Tony Isabella’s John Wells Bloggy Thing Eddy Zeno Todd Klein Paul Kupperberg DEDICATED TO THE David P. Levin MEMORY OF Paul Levitz Jim Aparo Joe Lihach David Anthony Kraft Ed Lute Curt Swan

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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Superman by Jim Aparo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Editorial by Michael Eury, featuring Superman art by the acclaimed Batman artist FLASHBACK: Curt Swan and His Bat-Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Swan historian Eddy Zeno looks at Batman art by THE Superman artist THE TOY BOX: Evel Knievel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Move over, Ghost Rider! Make way for Marvel’s other Bronze Age motorcyclist! PRINCE STREET NEWS: The Lost Oddities of the Bronze Age of Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 A new cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. INTERVIEWS: Marvel Custom Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Marvel’s craziest comic books, as remembered by their creators WHAT THE--?!: Oh, Yeah! Kool-Aid Man Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Both Marvel and Archie took a taste of TV’s pitcher pitchman GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Tales from Earth-U(slan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Batman movie producer Michael Uslan’s unproduced Earth-Two stories FLASHBACK: Leaf’s DC Secret Origins Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 A sweet sampler of a candy company’s specialty comics OFF MY CHEST: Superman Ehapa Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Guest columnist Paul Kupperberg flips through Superman stories produced for the German market ONE-HIT WONDERS: Superman: This Island Bradman! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 It’s unlikely that you have this rarity in your collection FLASHBACK: And Lo, There Shall Come… A Variant Cover! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Pros and retailers recall the evolution of the enduring sales incentive BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 BACK ISSUE™ issue 134, April 2022 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage pending at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Joe Kubert. Superman © DC Comics. Other characters © their respective companies. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2022 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury except Prince Street News, © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

I don’t recall exactly where I spent my 35 cents for my copy of Batman #293 (Nov. 1977), be it a newsstand or drug store or convenience store in that pre-comic shop era, but I do remember how excited I was to spot it. Sure, it was cool seeing Lex Luthor moonlight as a Batman villain. But what made this issue of Batman special for me was its cover by the artist of my favorite comic, The Brave and the Bold—the one and only Jim Aparo. While an Aparo Batman cover was certainly nothing new, the cover’s co-star was a character not associated with the artist—Superman! I was in my late teens at the time, but I had already developed a discerning artistic eye from the few art classes I had taken as well as the “training” I received poring over comics illustrated by innovative new talent like Cockrum, Starlin, Kaluta, Simonson, and Grell, as well as my appreciation of the masters from my youth—Adams and Giordano, Swan and Anderson, Kane, Buscema, Kirby, Infantino, Cardy, and Romita, to name a few. But in 1977, for me, nobody did it better than Jim Aparo (with apologies to James Bond and Carly Simon). Aparo’s Brave and Bold, as I’ve written about many times in these pages, always jim aparo rose to the top of my reading pile. His interpretation of the Caped Crusader evoked the house style of Neal Adams’ Batman while maintaining a look all his own, and Aparo’s background in advertising and as the artist of humor, jungle, sci-fi, and Western comics gave him the versatility to fluently draw Batman’s wide-ranging co-stars. I do remember being disappointed to open Batman #293 and find inside rather tepid artwork by John Calnan and a mismatched inker, Tex Blaisdell. That made Aparo’s dynamic Superman on the cover stand out even more. This wasn’t Jim Aparo’s first time drawing Superman, although for years I thought that was the case. That instead happened early in his DC career in a Justice League flashback panel in the penultimate issue of Aquaman, #55 (Jan.–Feb. 1971), which was tying up loose ends from the Steve Skeates-scripted “Search for Mera” storyline. It was years after its publication that I discovered this comic, and truth be told Aparo’s rendition of Superman there engendered no excitement. The artist’s style was still evolving in late 1970 when he drew that issue. While he was finally freeing himself of

First Aparo Superman? Not quite… the famed artist of Batman and The Brave and the Bold had drawn the Man of Steel once before this iconic cover for Batman #293 (Nov. 1977). Do you know where? (If not, you’re about to find out.) TM & © DC Comics.

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Eury

parroting Aquaman’s preceding artist, Nick Cardy, in his rendition of the Sea King, Aparo tended to draw all of his superhero figures with the same lanky, sinewy form. What little you could see of Aparo’s Superman in that sole Aquaman #55 panel, with its loquacious voiceover caption blocking most of the hero’s form, looked more like a basketball player than a man of steel (see inset). But Aparo was at the top of his game some six years later when he finally had the opportunity to revisit Superman on the Batman #293 cover. Here, his Superman was mighty, with massive shoulders and great intensity—all in a single image that conveyed this power despite showing the hero in a ghostly, imperiled state. I imagined—as I’m sure did other DC readers—what would a Superman story drawn by Jim Aparo look like? Once Paul Levitz took over as Brave and Bold editor and began to liberate the venerable Batman team-up from its prison of familiar guest-stars, fresh faces began to appear in team-ups, affording Jim Aparo the opportunity to draw characters beyond B&B staples Green Arrow, Deadman, Sgt. Rock, Wildcat, and the Metal Men.

Shadow of the Superman (top left) Aparo’s rendition of Superman, alongside his pal and partner Batman, in original art form from Brave and Bold #150 (May 1979). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom left) Superman in flight in panels from the next page of the story. (top middle) A novel Clark-to-Superman transformation, as drawn by Aparo in B&B #192 (Nov. 1982). (top right) Detail from page 23 of Heroes Against Hunger (Aug. 1986), with Aparo inks over Sal Amendola pencils. (bottom right) Aparo’s beautifully composed Batman and the Outsiders teaser from DC Sampler #2 (Sept. 1984) shows Geo-Force fighting a silhouetted Superman. TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Curt Swan penciled something north of 18,000 panel pages, 900 covers, and 1,380 newspaper strips between the latter part of 1945 and mid-year 1996. While he is remembered first and foremost for drawing Superman, more than 1,100 of those story pages and 125 front wraps (around 6%) included Batman and his supporting cast. During comic books’ Bronze and Modern Ages, the illustrator had quite a few opportunities to picture the Dynamic Duo and their ilk. Not only on covers, pinups, and in cameos used to springboard story plots, but as apparitions and crooked impersonators, too. He was as comfortable penciling Batman, Robin, and various Bat-gadgets for a How to Draw Superheroes Golden Book as he was drawing multiple full-page ads for Hostess baked goods starring the World’s Greatest Detective, the Teen Wonder, Batgirl, Penguin, and the Joker. However, it was while fleshing out the Batman family’s exploits through characterization and extended action that Swan’s talent shone brightest.

THE WORLD’S FINEST TEAM

When it came to 1950s science fiction, artists like Dick Sprang and Sheldon Moldoff did a fine job of having the Defender of Gotham time-travel or visit other planets. It is fair to argue that those Jack Schiff-edited tales hardly seemed right for a mortal crimefighter. On the other hand, they were a change of pace and not the norm. People were dreaming of space as the new frontier when such began to flourish. The offbeat stories are more respected today than even a few years back. In 1964 Mort Weisinger assumed the editorial reins of World’s Finest Comics from Jack Schiff; he brought Curt Swan with him. (Curt had an earlier stint on that title before assignments took him elsewhere for several years.) It made more sense in World’s Finest for the Caped Crusader to visit historical epochs or skirt the cosmos than it did in his solo titles. After all, he was paired with the Man of Tomorrow. While Swan was masterful at enveloping Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent in science-fiction milieu, it was the way curt swan he forged a comradeship between them that was unparalleled. In “The Last Days of Superman!” (Superman © DC Comics. #156, Oct. 1962), penciled by Curt and inked by George Klein, the Man of Steel thought he was dying. Standout scenes included a diminished Kryptonian flying shakily to Batman’s burg to say farewell; Kal-El with his hand on Bruce’s shoulder expressed the intimacy of their friendship. Such kinship became literal when the same art team illustrated the imaginary story “Superman and Batman – Brothers!” (World’s Finest Comics #172,

One You Might Have Missed Swan’s final full-length Batman story appeared in the 1992 specialty comic, Batman: A Word to the Wise. Script by Wein, inks by Anderson. TM & © DC Comics.

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Dec. 1967). Under Mort Weisinger’s direction, kids growing up in the ’60s viewed the maudlin sentimentality as a strength rather than a weakness. By the mid-1970s, Swan was an occasional guestpenciler in World’s Finest, with Bob Haney writing and Murray Boltinoff, followed by Dennis O’Neil, as the editors. Different embellishers included Tex Blaisdell, John Calnan, Al Milgrom, and Murphy Anderson. It was interesting to see how Curt tackled stories with littleemotion, stream-of-consciousness scripts, and lightningspeed plots. Crowded panels detracted from Swan’s work, even when Anderson applied pen and brush. Though Curt penciled with flair one of Haney’s alternative tales featuring the heroes’ “Super Sons” (WF #230, May 1975), it was elsewhere that the artist would do more with the Dark Knight and his supporting characters, both in solo adventures and in team-ups of a different sort.

COMMISSIONER GORDON’S DAUGHTER

Having drawn Batgirl and Supergirl together in WF #169 (Sept. 1967), Swan was given a return engagement when he penciled “Cleopatra Queen of America” in The Superman Family #171 (June–July 1975). Elliot S. Maggin was the writer. Partly set in the nation’s capital, Elliot’s script left the second page of Chapter Three without dialogue, trusting Curt to propel events forward as Batgirl silently shed her cape and dove off a bridge into the Potomac; pulled a weakened, unconscious, and drowning Supergirl onto dry land; performed mouthto-mouth; and finally dragged her to a nearby vehicle where she placed Kara’s lips on a leaky tire valve to resuscitate her friend. Swan and Maggin had earlier joined forces in Superman #268 (Oct. 1973) as Clark Kent met Barbara Gordon for a “Wild Week-End in Washington!” Those were her pre-Oracle days when Babs was a US Congresswoman, changing to her night-garbed persona to swing via rope or ride her Bat-motorscooter into the fray. Maggin, who ran for government offices in real life, added political intrigue to each tale. Batman made brief appearances in both. Maggin and Swan’s third and final Batgirl team-up partnered Commissioner Gordon’s daughter with Dick Grayson (The Batman Family #7, Sept.–Oct. 1976). Curt was adept at highlighting Batgirl and Robin’s flips, tumbles, and other derring-do. Described by Elliot as “…the two most agile athletes in the crime-fighting business!,” a chariot race and dizzying perspective while climbing the steps of an Aztec pyramid were prerequisites to capturing the criminal couple Huntress and Sportsmaster. Swan was up to the illustrative task.

THE ROBIN AND THE SWAN

Curt’s initial opportunity to pencil Bruce Wayne’s Ward reached back to Star-Spangled Comics #72 (Sept. 1947). He would draw Robin many more times, usually in World’s Finest Comics, during ensuing decades. The New Teen Titans remained a red-hot title when Swan put graphite to Bristol board in issue #5 (Mar. 1981), filling in for regular penciler George Pérez, with inks by Romeo Tanghal. It was nice to see one of Dick Grayson’s longest-tenured artists help usher him toward manhood. Curt would have other occasions during the next several years. The Elongated Man joined Robin and Superman in DC Comics Presents #58 (June 1983). Julius Schwartz was the editor, Mike W. Barr the writer, and Dave Hunt added India ink to Swan’s pencils. Robin and Elongated Man, with their shared circus backgrounds, were performing a trapeze act under the Big Top for charity. Clark Kent covered the story in his role as a television

newsman before donning his costume when emergencies arose. Curt’s imagination was on full display, whether portraying a grand parade, a runaway elephant, or the Elongated Man in some of the most inventive poses of his career. In one scene, a contemplative Ralph sat on an animal platform with elbows resting on the ground while his forearms stretched up and up, fists supporting his chin à la The Thinker if Rodin’s sculpture turned to rubber. Dick Grayson and Ralph Dibny had the greater rapport—with a witty banter between them—though it was obvious from his comments that Robin respected Kal-El as the greatest superhero of them all. A few years after the Teen Wonder shed his childhood identity to become Nightwing, Swan drew him in street clothes in The New Teen Titans #43 (May 1988) and in costume when a spinoff emerged that continued the original title’s numbering (The New Titans #81, Dec. 1991). Grayson was featured more prominently in The New Titans Annual #6 (1990). Curt penciled the second of three chapters in the “jam issue,” incorporating two splash battle pages and innovative panel designs that were compatible with the other pencilers, Paris Cullins and Tom Grindberg. In The New Titans #86 (May 1992) Nightwing had the pivotal role. It was another jam issue, but unfortunately Swan’s two-page entry did not include Batman’s former partner. Curt’s inker on each of these visits with the Titans was Al Vey, who gave the art a polished look. Marv Wolfman was the writer.

Bat-Moments (top left) A heartbreaking farewell, from the landmark Superman #156 (Oct. 1962). (top right) The forging of the young Batman, from World’s Finest #172 (Dec. 1967). (bottom) Swooping in, from World’s Finest #230 (May 1975). TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

In 1974, as kids browsed through their local Toys “R” Us, Lionel Kiddie City, Circus World, or other local toy stores throughout the USA, they found a free bonus Marvel comic featuring Evel Knievel awaiting them. But how and why did the company that published comics featuring everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, the Amazing Spider-Man, produce a comic featuring the daredevil motorcycle rider, and why was it given away free at toy stores and not available for sale on spinner racks? BACK ISSUE takes a look at Evel Knievel, what made him special, the toy Stunt Cycle and other Ideal Evel Knievel toys, and Marvel’s one-shot promotional comic.

EVEL KNIEVEL: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND

Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel was a daredevil stuntman active during the late 1960s and 1970s. He was one of the most iconic personalities of the time. Knievel was known as much for his crashes as his successful jumps. People of all ages loved to watch him jump and/or crash, as the case might be, because you just never knew the outcome when he took off. But you did know it was going to be thrilling, no matter what! While Knievel had many jumps (or attempted jumps), several of them became iconic. His jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 31, 1967; an unsuccessful Snake River Canyon jump in Idaho on September 8, 1974; and his successful jump over 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 25, 1975 are just a few of his notable ones. While most famous for his motorcycle-riding prowess, Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump was performed on a rocket-powevel knievel ered sky-bike called the Skycycle X-1. As Knievel’s popularity continued to grow beyond Courtesy of Heritage its initial cult status, he capitalized on that fame Comics Auctions. by promoting various motorcycles from Triumph Motorcycle Company and American Eagle Motorcycles. However, he didn’t stop there and went on to make one of his most popular and lucrative endorsements, with Ideal Toys.

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THE STUNT CYCLE AND OTHER TOYS

Ideal, which had become famous during the early 1900s for its teddy bears and dolls including Betsy Wetsy, made a deal with Knievel in 1972 to produce a line of toys based on his likeness and stunt-riding skills. A memorable toy from the 1970s came out of the deal: the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. The toy, based on Knievel’s motorcycle, allowed kids to recreate Knievel’s death-defying jumps—or crash landings, if that’s what they wanted. A Knievel action figure and his Stunt Cycle would be placed upon a red launcher, the launcher was cranked until enough energy was built up, and then the rider and cycle would speed away. It was one of the bestselling toys of the decade and has a special place in the hearts and minds of many kids who had one (or those who wanted, but never got one). Ideal Toys also produced other toys in the Evel Knievel line, including the Scramble Van, the Super Jet Cycle, the Canyon Sky Cycle, and the Formula 1 Dragster, and a line of diecast miniatures [see our sister mag, RetroFan #15, for photos and details—ed.]. These toys were released in a time before all-day children’s television stations where toy commercials could be shown continuously, so in addition to TV commercials for their Knievel line, Ideal came up with another great way to market the toys to kids: contracting with Marvel Comics to publish a one-shot promotional comic. Knievel’s larger-than-life personality and showmanship fit in perfectly with the costumed crimefighters that graced the pages of Marvel. The idea was that kids would get the comic, see the products in the comic, and pester their parents or grandparents enough so that they would have to buy them one of the toys before leaving the store.

Move Over, Johnny Blaze Here comes Marvel Comics’ Evel Knievel! While some collectors have attributed the cover pencils or layouts to John Romita, Sr., the finished art is by Joe Sinnott, who may have done the layouts as well. In December 2016, Sinnott signed a limited edition of full-color 11x17 glossy prints of this cover for MEARS Auctions.

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MARVEL’S EVEL KNIEVEL PROMOTIONAL COMIC

The front cover of the Evel Knievel promotional comic featured the daredevil stunt rider giving fans the “V for victory” sign as he jumped through a ring of fire. It promised readers “An Exclusive Evel Knievel Adventure!” This 16-page tale, “The Perilous Traps of Mr. Danger,” featured Knievel using his various vehicles to help him defeat the villainous Mr. Danger, with Evel’s vehicles being part of the toy line. With the Stunt Cycle being the top seller, it played the most prominent role in the story. Throughout the pages of the comic, the generic bad guy Mr. Danger attempted to sabotage Knievel’s act. Mr. Danger wanted to kill Knievel and destroy the stadium. Of course, Evel was able to defeat him and save the day. The comic made no effort to conceal that it was promoting Ideal’s toy line. The first page even told readers: “Watch [Evel] as he rehearses an exciting new stunt on his amazing Stunt Cycle, just like the replica you can buy where you got this comic adventure!” In addition to the Stunt Cycle the comic also featured the Scramble Van, Canyon Sky Cycle, and the Stunt and Crash Car. The comic described the Scramble Van as a “fantastic vehicle, [that] features a slide-up windshield, flip-up rear door, and slide-out side panels. …It even has a mountable jump ramp for stunts.” The Canyon Sky Cycle may sound like something far-fetched dreamed up for the toy line, but its design was based

on the actual vehicle Knievel used in his unsuccessful attempt to jump Snake River Canyon! Being known as much for his crashes as for his successes, Knievel’s Stunt and Crash Car (which broke apart when it hit a wall or other object) was a good vehicle for Ideal to include. The comic’s inside front cover also offered Evel Knievel’s bicycle safety tips. Knievel warned kids that “Bicycles are for fun; not for stunts,” and reminded them of safe bike-riding rules, including hand signals for turning. The inside back cover contained an “autographed” picture of Evel Knievel in his iconic performer’s outfit. The back cover was an advertisement for the toys themselves. There were no creators’ credits listed for Marvel’s Evel Knievel, but several online resources including the Grand Comics Database (comics.org) has the dynamic cover art listed as penciled by John Romita and inked by Joe Sinnott. The always-helpful Roy Thomas tells BACK ISSUE, “I’m sorry, but although I was editor-in-chief of Marvel at that time, I remember almost nothing about it, and had virtually nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if John Romita wasn’t involved, as he was art director then.” No writer or interior artist credits could be verified. All in all, this was more than a great promotional tool to get kids to buy these outstanding toys. It was a fun Bronze Age adventure that was entertaining and enjoyable. It also helped lead the way for Marvel to produce some of their most popular licensed titles of the Bronze Age.

Name That Artist! Our guess, from (left) this interior page of Evel Knievel, is pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Mike Esposito. What do you think? (right) This ad— illustrated by Joe Sinnott—was the back cover of Marvel’s EK one-shot and appeared in many other comic books in the mid-1970s.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

by C e c i l

20 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue

Disharoon

Giveaways and PSAs (opposite page) A sampling of Marvel custom comics published between 1978 and 1990. Note that the John Romita, Sr. cover art for the Spider-Man “Christmas in Dallas” comic was repurposed by this magazine as the cover for our 2015 holiday issue, BACK ISSUE #85. TM & © Marvel. Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders © Dallas Cowboys.

In her blog Flashback: Dallas, Paula Bosse compares what pages she’s seen of the 1982 Spider-Man “Christmas in Dallas” newspaper edition, with a little disappointment, to the Dallas-rich environment of “Captain Marvel Battles the Mole Men,” published in 1944. Too bad she didn’t have Dallas Cowboys and Spider-Man on hand. It clearly depicts Reunion Tower and Texas Stadium. And as soon as I mentioned a giant statue coming to life to battle the X-Men, Anime for Humanity chairperson Meghann Files—like any Dallas native— replied, “Do you mean Big Tex?” Custom comics: They are for everyone—especially a child who’s never bought comic books. Flipping through the Sunday newspaper in the harmony of the family living room, the child discovers the floppy surprise and lies around reading, smelling the newsprint as the pages unfold. That Captain Marvel supplement is a forerunner to a line developed by both DC and Marvel: comics made for a product promotion. Motion Picture Funnies Weekly in 1939 was intended as a promotional giveaway, but was not distributed. Captain America was part of a shoe-store giveaway in 1954. Then there’s a 1966 promotion, which even saw Nick Fury and Millie the Model join in. According to the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Creators website: “The Marvel Mini-Books were released via gumball vending machines. They are the smallest ‘comics’ ever made, measuring just 5/8-in. x 7/8-in. with 50 black-and-white interior pages. Each issue was released with six different cover colors.” The much-beloved Slurpee Cups licensing campaign in 1975 led to a sequel line and a trio of free comics produced for 7-Eleven. By the 1980s, the sort of house ad PSAs so popular with readers of Superman and Batman were becoming full-blown comic books on topics such as drugs, child abuse, and dental care. Promotions associated with the cinematic universes reap staggering publicity today. In the BACK ISSUE era, the creative licensing of comic-book characters was largely a publishing venture, with custom comics and licensed properties often produced by the in-house production staffs, such as the Marvel Bullpen. Marvel Custom Solutions, its successor, is a modern cottage industry of artistic talent, devoted to the nowmassive lineup of companies eager to be shielded with some of the Captain America star power.

THE CUSTOM COMICS DIVISION STORY

Marvel Custom Comics were advertising supplements and mini-comic giveaways, corporate-advertising uses of Marvel characters to associate a brand with goodwill and provide publicity. They were colorful bonuses that reached many children who may or may not have ever become comics collectors. For readers of monthly

comics they were curiosities, rarely seen outside their cities of origin. They might be the definition of a completist’s collectible. Some promos were reprints, such as those sponsored by All Detergent (one reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #21, #94, and the Dr. Strange team-up in Annual #2; the other reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #184) and Fruit Roll-Ups. Then you have original material, drawn by Jim Mooney, Kerry Gammill, and Alan Kupperberg— all passing under the watchful eye of art director Romita. Early efforts include the America’s Best TV Comics promotion in 1967, coinciding with the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man cartoons on Saturday morning TV, and the Evel Knievel bike-safety adventure Marvel published in 1974, covered elsewhere in this issue. Good thing Papercutz editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup is our eyewitness on the scene! CECIL DISHAROON: Did the Custom Comics effort basically grow out of the same licensing approach that brought us the Hostess comic ads? [See BI #130 for the Hostess story.—ed.] I just realized, those are the original custom Marvel comics, in a way. JIM SALICRUP: Well, as you mention, the very first Marvel comic, Motion Picture Funnies, could be considered a custom comic. In the early ’60s, Marvel published the early Big Boy comics that were free giveaway comics at that chain of fast-food restaurants [see BI #39—ed.].

Let’s Talk About Sex Certainly the most non-traditional Marvel client for a custom comic was Planned Parenthood, for whom this 1976 one-shot, The Amazing Spider-Man vs. the Prodigy!, was produced. Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. TM & © Marvel.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

character from a mini-comic he made! (Of course, the Ringer first appears in Defenders #51, to steal from Richmond Enterprises and ask Nighthawk why he fights for the rich.) By that Christmas, I’d have my first comic with the star of his contemporary monthly series, The Savage She-Hulk, herself: another, earlier Marvel Team-Up, #107, in a Christmastime stash my folks bought at D&L Supply, this time written by Tom DeFalco and Denny O’Neil. But once again, I was hooked on the character for good. I never didn’t love She-Hulk. Jennifer Walters— and DAK affirmed this—seemed a WKRP Bailey Quarters-type, but armed with a law degree. I was glad Spider-Man apologized and she accepted, and then they teamed up. But I did finally get my first DAK comic that Christmas, too, and it was my favorite comic book. If the second thing DAK gave me was these terrific characters to play, then the third is something I realized, as my wife and I completed our ATM transaction, that I’m still looking for to this day. Defenders #61 teased us with Spider-Man himself crossing paths with, really, the only team where he might make sense, at that Marvel Time. We get yet another DAK creation, too, this pop lyricquoting maniac geared exactly to antagonizing a stoic like the Valkyrie: Lunatik. The character’s very-apparent secret identity— a professor on Empire Statue University Campus—I found in recent years, dates back to the very first color stories Kraft wrote, Man-Wolf, for Creatures on the Loose. I’m pretty sure my parents saw “Batman,” “Catwoman,” “the Joker,” and the Hulk all on a cover with Spider-Man and knew that would be one for me. Some of my activity and coloring books, I’d later find from talking with him? Also DAK-penned. Or Salicrup. While the recently relaxed Comics Code couldn’t catch the Lunatik, either, the rest of the comic showed glimpses of the non-team’s downtime life. That, and the strangely colored 1978 pages of the Presence, haunting the Siberian nuclear testing wastelands. The depiction of Sergei and the transformed Red Guardian was an eerie fantasy, and made Little Me wonder about nuclear power, the Cold War, and this sad being like no other. But every scene where people stopped to talk enraptured me. I loved how bright and sexy Hellcat was. I couldn’t see why Spider-Man wouldn’t ask her out, after their one web-glopped encounter led to a truce and, well, non-team work. That living room set in Richmond Riding Academy, Kyle Richmond serving tea on a platter to Val and Dollar Bill, the filmmaking enthusiast who got in the Valkyrie’s friend zone on campus, Hulk standing in for the reader demanding a show,

and Hellcat twirling ribbons of the shadow cloak she’d recently attained. The ease and banter of that scene—of every such first scene DAK did on the series, really—gave me a craving for something the other cartoons and comics never had. Besides Patsy Walker. That camaraderie—that freewheeling trip to the ESU campus, where the lead heroine admits she has no driver’s license. “Heck no, Val! I’ve got Avengers Priority!” The character whose signature “Cheese and crackers!” line and much of her dialogue were inspired by the New Yorker, and her solemn blonde friend, struck a colorful pop culture blow for the idea of picking up life and its choices if “happily ever after” just isn’t. There was something way more mature under the costumed surface than I’d seen in Saturday cartoons and fairy tales. Later, I’d discover the real Devil-Slayer in his Defenders guest role in issues #58–60 (those last two took a while longer to find!). That rock-inspired story arc opened the door, one day, to hours of imitating Buck Dharma licks on Blue Oyster Cult songs. DAK had something memorable with that group of characters. Heck, even the Hulk bailing on “Bird Nose’s” stupid plan—a lot of readers couldn’t have agreed more— is part of that wonderful scene where Dollar Bill films Patsy’s stunts with the horses. A living room with a vivacious, redheaded daredevil, a reserved but straightforward later-life college student, a financially blessed guy who wants to be in the middle of something that matters, an effusive film student, and even a big guy who gets angry in the event of unexpectedly materialized Orrt Beasts… sure, that all sounds fine. I feel my life finally taking me once more to the paths of other people outside the conventional ways. DAK’s Defenders show that it’s okay to hang out and do things together, not because you’re a family or a school or officially anything. What you pay 35 cents to see is friends who would do anything for each other. That’s one last thing DAK gave me: talks with his friends. I made peace with his passing better because we, his friends, connected a little, and remade his life in stories for an afternoon—his birthday, in fact. If you want, feel free to celebrate Dollar Bill’s Birthday Global Extravaganza every year on May 31st. Remember Ledge, too, a tip of the hat to Lobo co-creator Roger Slifer, who co-wrote that first Defenders script with DAK over a weekend, with no notes from the departed writer, Gerry Conway, and unexplained pages by Keith Giffen to script. It’s not uncommon to find, in some supporting character, a real person in DAK’s life, even, via Dollar Bill, Dave himself. So, I’m thinking of my sidebar, and as we put our withdrawal into the wallet, I saw I had two dollar bills. I thought of the fellow sitting on the sidewalk by Table Mesa Road, and today, a dollar bill could do him a little good. I continued describing the camaraderie of the “DAKfenders” to my wife Angela on the way back, pointing out the truck with “DAKUNE” emblazoned on its tailgate. I saw three young women pass the fellow sitting there with his drink as Angela and I got closer. I held out my dollar bill and said, “Hey, man, I didn’t have my wallet the other day, but I saw you… no problem, do something good for yourself with it.” Suddenly, in my peripheral view came two more dollar bills—from two of those young women, who saw me and felt resolved: it would be okay to step up and give. The man was effusive. Maybe somewhere I picked up the idea of helping those in need, and needed to see how would-be heroes are not, after all, always alone.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue

by M

ark Arnold

The Kool-Aid soft drink was created in 1927 by Edwin Perkins. He It’s Slobberin’ Time! experimented with foods in his mother’s kitchen. To create Kool-Aid, Oh, Yeah! Marvel’s tastiest tie-in comic, The Adventures Perkins discovered a way to remove liquid from a liquid concentrate known as Fruit Smack. The resulting powder was named Kool-Aid. of Kool-Aid Man! Originally, there were six flavors: cherry, grape, lemon-lime, orange, Kool-Aid © General Foods. raspberry, and strawberry. The popularity of Kool-Aid led to literally dozens of other flavors, plus made the terms “Drinking the Kool-Aid” and “The Electric DeCarlo was born on December 12, 1919. He worked for many Kool-Aid Acid Test” part of the general lexicon. years for Timely Comics and later Atlas Comics starting around 1947, Kool-Aid was independently owned until 1953, when it was on such titles as Sherry the Showgirl, Jeannie, My Friend Irma, and sold to General Foods. Shortly after, in 1954, General Foods Millie the Model. By 1951, he moved on to Archie Comics while created the Kool-Aid Man character, which was literally a still freelancing for Atlas as well as Standard. He became transparent glass pitcher filled with ice cold Kool-Aid. the star artist on most of their covers and also became His face was created by finger-drawing through the resident artist on Archie’s Girls, Betty and Veronica. the condensation on the glass. The creation of He also created Josie and a few other characters. His the character is credited to Marvin Potts, the art influence on the Archie line had a profound effect of director for General Foods, where he was originally modernizing the Archie characters and became the dubbed “Pitcher Man.” model for the company until 2015, when a more Initially, Kool-Aid Man appeared only on the powder realistic model took over. DeCarlo’s influence was not packets, but soon he was appearing in TV commercials forgotten, and in recent times longtime artists like and in print ads. He first appeared in animated form, but Dan Parent were asked to create more new stories in by the 1970s was played by a man in a costume who the classic DeCarlo-influenced Archie designs. would burst through a wall shouting, “Oh, yeah!,” The first Kool-Aid Man-related comic books were singing one of many commercials jingles created promotional tie-ins published by General Foods in EDWIN perkins over the years for the product like, “Kool-Aid’s here 1975 and called Kool-Aid Komics. At least two issues bringing you fun. Kool-Aid’s got thirst on the run!” are known to exist and feature comics, puzzles, and Eventually, Kool-Aid Man started appearing in his own promotional games with various characters including the Kool-Aid Man. The books comic books. These comics were published through Marvel Comics were 20 pages in length. or Archie Publications and used many of Archie’s artists and writers The next series was called The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man, drawn including Dan DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg. by Dan DeCarlo and written by Jim Salicrup. The series lasted for three Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

32 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue

Like pieces of kryptonite meandering through space after Krypton’s destruction, the DC Explosion/Implosion of 1978 continues to leave unpublished stories in its wake that occasionally crash-land for us to discover in the pages of BACK ISSUE. Michael Uslan, The Boy Who Loved Batman author and producer of the legendary Batman movies, wrote several stories featuring members of the Justice Society of America, as well as Congorilla, in a “Tales from Earth-Two” backup series, hereby dubbed “Tales from Earth-U(slan).”

THE BOY WHO LOVED EARTH-TWO

by D

a n Ta n d a r i c h

In 1978, DC Comics wanted to expand its titles and their stories in an era called the DC Explosion. Backup tales spotlighted characters that couldn’t hold their own titles sales-wise but continued to remain favorites among the readers. When Uslan heard that DC wanted to tell more of these kinds of stories, he offered up “Tales from Earth-Two,” which would highlight characters from that parallel world in the DC Universe and give updates. Though first on the superhero scene, the world of the Justice Society of America became retroactively known as Earth-Two, compared to the new crop of heroes now combined to form the Justice League of America on Earth-One. All-Star Comics featured the Justice Society of America, revived with #58 (Jan.–Feb. 1976). The original superhero team remained a favorite with readers, but not everyone received equal screen time. Uslan’s proposed backup series could change that. Mr. Terrific, Hourman, Sandman, Johnny Thunder, and Robin, as well as non-JSA members Congorilla and the new Seven Soldiers of Victory, could fill in the blank of the question, Whatever happened to...? Uslan reveals to BACK ISSUE how he received the assignments: “I started working at DC Comics in 1972… I was part of the DC Junior Woodchucks, the first generation of fans being groomed for professional positions at DC. I was in law school in Indiana from 1973 to 1976, in addition to working some summers at DC Comics in New York. I stayed in touch with everyone there and was writing comic books for Julie Schwartz, Denny O’Neil, etc., through their assistant editors who were my fellow Woodchucks, Bob [Rozakis], Paul [Levitz], Alan Asherman, and Jack Harris. “That’s how I knew which editors were looking for what types of backups for the pre-Implosion comic books. To the best of my recollection, I pitched the series I called ‘Tales from Earth-Two’ to Julie Schwartz as a backup feature for the pre-Implosion Justice League of America. I submitted a one-liner on each of the first six or more characters I wanted to address. He approved those one-liners. Congorilla was to be the first one.” The contracts had a date of June 30, 1978, signed by both Uslan and Levitz. According to the contract details for Congorilla, Sandman, and Mr. Terrific, the scripts named Adventure as the “Feature” slot with page counts of seven, eight, and five, respectively, although Congorilla started with eight pages and Uslan would revise it to seven. By that date, DC was well into the Implosion phase of the DC Explosion era of its history, as documented in the invaluable

The Seven (and then some) Soldiers of Uslan The Sandman by Michael Bair, Hourman by Murphy Anderson, Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt by Dave Johnson, Robin by Mike Grell, Mr. Terrific by Stephen DeStefano and Romeo Tanghal, Aquaman by Paul Norris, and Congo Bill and Congorilla by Chuck Patton and Frank Giacoia. TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

TwoMorrows Publishing book Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 by Keith Dallas and John Wells. Upon seeing specific job numbers for the Uslan assignments, Wells wrote, “In the wake of the Implosion, Paul Levitz shuffled assignments to ensure that everyone remaining received their allotted pages... or assignments period. Based on the numbers, I see that Michael also received contracts for an Unexpected [“The Curse of Ozzie and Mary,” not published until Unexpected #194, Dec. 1979] and Weird War story [“Indian War of Space,” not published until Weird War #78, Aug. 1979] at the same time.” However, unlike his Unexpected and Weird War stories, Uslan’s Earth-Two backups would never see print due to the DC Implosion where stories and comic books would get pulled from the schedule. Why did the characters from Earth-Two and specifically the JSA appeal to him so much? Uslan explains, “I was and am a Golden Age fan since Flash #123 (Sept. 1961); Justice League of America #21, 22 (Aug.–Sept. 1963); Showcase Dr. Fate and Hourman (#55 and 56,

Mar.–Apr. and May–June 1965); Brave and the Bold Starman and Black Canary (#61 and 62, Aug.–Sept. and Oct.–Nov. 1965). My goal was to take these wonderful underserved heroes of the Golden Age and early Silver Age and serve them.” Uslan did try to get a Golden Age superhero in print before his 1978 stories, however. In the mid-’60s he started a one-kid letter writing campaign to editor Julie Schwartz demanding the Spectre return to active superhero duty. After some back and forth, he received a note from the editor stating that the Ghostly Guardian would haunt the pages of Showcase along with fellow JSA-er Dr. Mid-Nite, although when godlike powers are your specialty, who needs blackout bombs? Plans to team the Ghostly Guardian with the Spectre were dropped and the appeared solo in Showcase #60 (Jan.–Feb. 1966), 61 (Mar.– Apr. 1966), and 64 (Sept.–Oct. 1966).

FROM EARTH-U TO YOU

Now, let’s shine a spotlight—a Batsignal, if you will—on these unpublished tales, the “Tales from EarthU(slan)”!

Whatever Happened to... the Sandman?

Wesley Dodds donned a suit, cape, fedora, and a gas mask, along with his gas gun, as a “weird figure of the night... a modern Robin Hoodfriend of the afflicted” in order to bring “justice in a world of injustice” (New York World’s Fair Comics, 1939). “My goal was to give DC Comics its own Shadow,” Uslan reveals to BACK ISSUE. The villains of Earth-Two would find out that “Crime does not pay” as the Sandman would have “a fearsome network of agents reporting to him,” just like The Shadow, the mysterious hero from pulp magazines and radio. “DC no longer had the rights to The Shadow,” Uslan continues. “It would be as if Denny [O’Neil] and I could continue writing Shadow comics...” (Uslan made his debut as a comic-book writer in The Shadow #9, Feb.–Mar. 1975, with O’Neil as editor.) Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Sandman would have found out!

Whatever Happened to... Hourman?

“Rex Tyler, a young chemist, discovers Miraclo, a powerful chemical that transforms him from a meek, mild scientist to the underworld’s most formidable foe... with Miraclo, he has for one hour the power of chained lightning,” as described in the pages of Adventure Comics #48 (Mar. 1940). In Uslan’s story, Rex “Tick-Tock” Tyler started to feel his physical condition deteriorating, and, still popping his Miraclo pills, had to fight the demon of addiction as he hit rock bottom. Uslan shares, “This was going to be a serious treatment of addiction, inspired by what Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams had done in the pages of Green Lantern/Green Arrow [#85, Aug.–Sept. 1971 and 86, Oct.–Nov. 1971]. Writer and JSA aficionado Roy Thomas revealed Hourman as a Miraclo addict in the pages of All-Star Squadron starting with #32 (Apr. 1984) and continuing with #34–35 (June–July 1984), where he went through withdrawal symptoms. Thomas muses in regard to Uslan’s proposed story, “Not surprised that both Mike and I came up independently with the Miraclo addiction idea...”

Whatever Happened to... Johnny Thunder?

The Sandman Knows (this page) Uslan, who wrote issue #9 (Feb.–Mar. 1975) of The Shadow, intended to make the Golden Age Sandman DC’s equivalent of the classic pulp hero. Shadow cover art by Joe Kubert. (opposite page) Sandman by Marshall Rogers. Detail from the cover of Amazing World of DC Comics #16 (Dec. 1977). TM & © DC Comics.

Golden Age journeyman Johnny Thunder didn’t have any superpowers of his own. However, his uttering the Badhnisian word “Cei-U” gave him control of a magical thunderbolt of a genie, thanks to his lucky birth date of July 7, 1917 and the group of Badhnisians who kidnapped him in Flash Comics #1 (Jan. 1940). Uslan’s story had Johnny and his magical pink thunderbolt merge into one superhero. “I felt Johnny was the weakest character of DC’s Golden Age/JSA and wanted to make him into a serious yet unique superhero for the ’70s and beyond,” according to Uslan. “By combining him with his thunderbolt, I was picturing a character somewhat more akin to the Red Tornado or the Vision. He would have been half-human/half-genie as opposed to an android or robot hybrid.” Again, great minds think alike, as both Uslan and Roy Thomas would have overlapping ideas. Thomas adds, “A couple of years later, my wife Dann and I came up with Jonni Thunder (Jonni Thunder #1, Feb. 1985), who combined human and thunderbolt in one persona...”

34 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Rarities and Oddities Issue

Whatever Happened to... Robin of Earth-Two?

Justice League of America #55 (Aug. 1967) featured the debut of the grownup Robin, the former Boy Wonder. “I want to thank the Justice Society for fulfilling my life’s ambition to be a member of such a distinguished group!” he said. “I’ll do my best to prove worthy of the honor!” Uslan’s story would have focused on the difficulties of Robin trying to become Batman’s successor as he wanted to win the respect of the Justice Society of America. “Nightwing before there was a Nightwing,” adds Uslan.

Whatever Happened to... Mr. Terrific?

Terry (Mr. Terrific) Sloane made his first appearance in Sensation Comics #1 (Jan. 1942) as... “The human dynamo who is stumped by nothing! There have been no feats in history that he has not or can not duplicate for he is master of every art and science!” This Man of a Thousand Talents specialized in “Fair Play,” as emblazoned on his costume. Uslan reveals to BACK ISSUE, “For this story, Mr. Terrific was determined to make a comeback, but he was a lot older and a bit out of shape. He basically gets the sh*t kicked out of him by the bad guys and after his first debacle, throws in the towel, and calls it quits.” Justice League of America #171 (Oct. 1979) made this mystery man’s retirement much more permanent.

Whatever Happened to... the Seven Soldiers of Victory?

The Golden Age super-team the Seven Soldiers of Victory—also known as the Law’s Legionnaires—made their debut in Leading Comics #1 (Winter 1941–1942). The original members of the team were Green Arrow and Speedy, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, the Vigilante, the Shining Knight, and the Crimson Avenger plus his sidekick, Wing. Uslan’s update of the team kept Green Arrow and Speedy and the Crimson Avenger, and added new members Starman, the original Aquaman, Congorilla, the original Robotman, and the sorceress Sargona. Just like with the original group, eight members made up the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Thinking back on the concept now, Uslan shares, “I’m surprised I didn’t throw Johnny Quick in there. I was looking to serve some underserved DC characters by making something new out of them. I would have turned Starman into a bit more of a Green Lantern-type cosmic character... maybe a bit of Adam Strange... involved in space-fantasy adventures more befitting his name.” Regarding Sargona, “I was looking for modern takes on Golden Age or Silver Age DC heroes who were removed from the spotlight, and felt we needed a female lead. I decided to go with the daughter of Sargon the Sorceror.” Uslan still has one question about the original Seven Soldiers of Victory concept. “To this day I cannot understand, from a creative point of view, why Aquaman was not part of the original team, though from a business point of view I accept that the DC plan was to use one feature from each of its non-All-American Comics Group titles.”

Whatever Happened to... Congorilla?

World-famous big game hunter Congo Bill, who had been a staple of DC Comics stories dating back to More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940), got a weird secret origin in Action Comics #248 (Jan. 1959): “...A switch of identities wherein a mighty gorilla acquires the brilliant mind of Congo Bill, and the brute brain of the gorilla enters the body of the famed jungle-adventurer! You’ll see this startling transformation when you meet... the Amazing Congorilla!” Congo Bill wore a magic ring thanks to Chief Kawolo, a ring that matches the one worn by the gorilla. Uslan explains his love of the character: “The absurdity of it! Good old DC with its fetish for gorillas! As a little kid, I loved these stories, remembering them mostly as backups in Adventure Comics. I then thought the only thing that could possibly be more absurd would be not to follow the Golden Gorilla with the brain of Congo Bill, but to follow Congo Bill with the brain of the gorilla. It even could have logically become the backup in DC Comics’ wonderfully insane title, Plop!” In Uslan’s story, Congo Bill starts his tenure as TV host of the popular weekly broadcast Jungle Kingdom. After the show, his head starts to throb and he loses consciousness. Bill awakes to find his disgruntled

boss, Dan Denkert, looking over him along with the beautiful Nancy. [Michael Uslan is married to Nancy Uslan on Earth-Prime.] The Golden Gorilla stands caged before them. Bill to Nancy, direct from Uslan’s script: “You’re the only one who could have talked me into coming back to the States, Nancy—the only one who knows about my curse and why I live in such fear!” Flashback: Bill’s last adventure resulted in the destruction of both rings, his and the gorilla’s. His mind was trapped! Imagine you’re imprisoned inside a great ape with no way out! Miraculously, the transfer did occur, but who knows what will happen next time? Publicity-mad Denkert meets with Inspector Tracy Richards to discuss what the future could hold for Congo Bill. Richards: “Y’see, Denkert, with Congo Bill’s tracking and hunting abilities, the department could use him to track down some criminals—like that one called ‘The Man-Trapper.’” Congo Bill revives enough for a TV interview; however, the proximity of the beast proves disastrous. Uslan describes the scene: “This is the standard ‘metamorphosis’ panel showing Bill’s head in pain, his eyes rolling upward, sweating, on the left. In the center should be some kind of mind explosion effect. To the right is Congorilla’s head receiving Bill’s mind.” From the script: “My mind is in the ape’s body! Must break out of here—’cause if my mind is in this body, then the ape’s mind is now in Congo Bill’s body... on live TV!” Congo Bill goes wild on set as Congorilla escapes from his captivity and knocks Bill unconscious. The onlookers don’t realize Congorilla wants to help. Sensing the confusion, the Golden Gorilla picks up his other body and makes a run for it, though, in the ensuing firestorm of bullets, Congorilla gets shot and drops the body of Congo Bill as he exits from the nearest window. Cut to a padded cell in an isolated institution: Congo Bill, exhibiting all of the characteristics of a captured gorilla, struggles against a straightjacket. Inspector Richards vows to find the beast that “attacked” Congo Bill. Uslan reveals that his take on Congorilla “was to be The Fugitive as Congorilla, relentlessly pursued while he tries to figure out how to get to Bill and pull himself together. Bill was to be comic relief in the way that the scenes in Dracu- l a often were with Renfield. But the threat was always there that if Bill injured his body or killed it, he’d be forever trapped in the gorilla body.” The splash page to this story exists, illustrated by Marc Nadel, and is shared with BACK ISSUE readers in this article. “I knew Marc was an incredible artist,” Uslan says. “His style was wacky and wonderful and unique to DC Comics. I wrote that script first and asked Marc to do one or two sample pages. And the feeling was that his style fit this particular quirky story.” DC would later add a “Whatever Happened to...?” backup series to DC Comics Presents [see BACK ISSUE #64 for the full story—ed.]. But these “Tales from Earth-U(slan)” exist in a universe all their own. Special thanks to Mike W. Barr, Keith Dallas, Paul Levitz, Bob Rozakis, Roy Thomas, John Wells, and “Mighty” Michael Uslan. DAN TANDARICH is an educator in New York City. Contact him at yellowjacket74@hotmail. com.

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Super Artists Ehapa covers by Curt Swan and Gil Kane. US readers may recall the Kane cover being used in the States for DC’s Superman Special #2 (1984). TM & © DC Comics.

and Serpe appeared in Superman Superband #30 (1987); ten pages, mostly of the protracted cross-country battle, were cut and have never seen print in any language. Superman Quarterly #19 (Job #S-4690) took an introspective Superman to “The Wall to Infinity,” where a brooding Man of Steel reflects on the true extent of his powers. Raised to always hold back lest he cause harm or damage, Superman ponders what it would be like to be able to act without inhibition, a wish that an eavesdropping Brainiac makes come true with a recreation of Krypton’s “Wanting Wall,” a mythical construct that makes wishes come true, but which also makes them come with instant regrets. Co-plotted and penciled by Keith Giffen, scripted by Robert Loren Fleming, inked by Tanghal, and lettered by Serpe, it ran in Superman Taschenbuch #72 (1985). As expected, things got wacky in “The Bride of Bizarro” in Superman Quarterly #20 (Job #S-4733), involving an alien seductress, reverse Bizarro logic, and a plan to create a deadly love triangle to achieve the revenge death of Bizarro. This big misunderstanding by Bates/Saviuk/McLaughlin/ Serpe saw print in Superman Taschenbuch #78 (1986), a story which a footnote advises takes place after Supergirl’s “untimely death” (i.e., Crisis on Infinite Earths #7). Bates, Saviuk, Hunt, Snappin, and Serpe were the creative team that brought down the curtain on Superman Quarterly with #21 (Job #S-4775), “The Parasite Curse,” in which the Parasite is revealed to be the father of two children, both of whom suffer from a mysterious, energy-depleting “para-fever.” But when the bad guy’s plan to cure them by transferring Superman’s powers to the kids goes awry, Parasite is forced to ally himself with the Man of Steel.

In June of 1987, Superman Superband #30 (1987) was among the very last of the Schwartz-edited US material to appear in an Ehapa title. What German readers saw next was Superman Handbuch (or compendium), collecting John Byrne’s six-issue Man of Steel miniseries. Of the 1,086 pages of new material created for the 21 monthly and quarterly issues, only 366, or nine stories, ever saw print in this country, leaving 720 pages still unseen. Maybe one day a shortage of “new” Superman material here in the States will get DC to turn to their archives and reprint these tales of classic Superman as “all-new” material for its American readers. PAUL KUPPERBERG, writer of more than a thousand comicbook stories featuring characters ranging from Archie Andrews (who he killed in 2014) to Zatanna (who he didn’t), including the pre-Crisis Superman, (including the syndicated newspaper strip, and Superboy and Supergirl), the Doom Patrol, Vigilante, and Green Lantern, as well as his creations Arion, Lord of Atlantis; Checkmate; and Takion. He is also a contributor to numerous anthologies and the author of dozens of books (do MadLibs count as books?) for readers of all ages, including the novels JSA: Ragnarok, The Same Old Story, and Emma’s Landing (from Crazy8Press.com), Paul Kupperberg’s Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics (Charlton Neo Press), Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in their Own Words (Buffalo Avenue Books), and I Never Write for the Money... But I Always Turn in the Manuscript for a Check (Bold Bard Publishing), all available on Amazon. You can follow Paul on Facebook and Twitter and at PaulKupperberg.com.

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by E

ddy Zeno

Super Scarce Superman #nn (1988), better known by its story title This Island Bradman!, was commissioned from DC Comics by a wealthy father for his son’s birthday—with a print run rumored to be only 200 copies. Cover art by Curt Swan and Angelo Torres, story by David Levin. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

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by R

Once there was a time when success or failure of a comicbook series was determined by a character’s popularity, the subject matter of a particular issue or story arc, and/or the creative team who worked on the title. These aspects are what made comics good for those of us who collected them throughout the Bronze Age. Sure, there were always gimmicks involved in launching new titles or reinvigorating old characters to interest new readers. Two examples include 1977’s Marvel Super Special #1 (featuring a magazinesized KISS comic book with special features, a silverstamped logo, and, reportedly, real blood from each member poured into the red ink!) and 1961’s The Flash #123 and its monumental story “Flash of Two Worlds,” teaming Silver Age speedster Barry Allen with his Golden Age predecessor, Jay Garrick, and opening parallel doors to what would ultimately become DC’s Multiverse! But today’s comics buyers who prefer traditional printed-paper over digital formats seem fueled by an entirely different mechanism creating a real-life, alternate universe for brick-and-mortar and mail-order retailers— the variant cover! Now it is common for first issues, milestone stories, and anniversary events to be marketed with myriad diverse images: disparate renderings by a multitude of artists enhanced by color-scheme changes on some and no color at all on others; enhancements with specialty inks, foil-stamping, and holograms; or the now-popular “blank sketch” cardstock cover for those who want original art drawn on their books by a vast array of illustrators. The comicbook industry is reliant on reselling the same interior content with various outer packaging—over and over again—just to keep afloat! As a lifelong comics reader and former retailer, distributor, and publisher from the late-1980s through the 2010s, I have witnessed the variant-cover phenomena from its origin to the mammoth marketing machine it is today. Let’s FlashBack to an era where, for the purposes of this article, variant covers refer to first printings of comic books published simultaneously but with different art, pricing, or special enhancements on one or more versions. Reprints and foreign comics do not apply; those are for future articles!

o b e r t V. C o n t e

PRICE AND DISTRIBUTOR VARIANTS

Although slight cover differences date back to comics’ Golden Age including 1940’s Batman #1 (“No 1” versus “No. 1,” anyone?) and mislayered color separations leading to Andy Warhol-like covers such as Fantastic Four #110 depicting the Thing in Hulk-like green instead of his true orange hue (a similar thing happened to Oscar the Grouch during Season One of television’s Sesame Street!), the earliest “price variants” of the Bronze Age appeared as early as mid-1976. Back then, most standard comic books were sold on newsstands for 25 cents. Marvel Comics Group, whose number-crunchers focused on increasing company profits, targeted several test markets throughout the country and raised prices of about 60 titles to 30 cents each. Among the most rare are Kid Colt Outlaw #208 and The Eternals #1. (The latter is sure to further escalate in value, as should its common 25-cent counterpart, from the success of the November 2021 Eternals film, recently released as of this writing.)

TM & © Marvel.

Special Negative Zone Edition? (below) Fantastic Four #110 (May 1971), with its regular and printer’s error covers. Cover art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. TM & © Marvel.

A Whitman Sampler (opposite page) A selection of some of the roughly 160 DC Comics/Whitman covers published without issue numbers. TM & © DC Comics.

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Marvel Comics and DC Comics sold multipacks of comic books (including Marvel’s licensed comics like Micronauts and Conan) to complement Western Publishing’s product line, and to reach retail outlets that normally did not carry it. Marvel characters TM & © Marvel. DC characters TM & © DC Comics. Micronauts © Takara LTD/A.G.E., Inc. Battlestar Galactica © NBCUniversal. Star Wars © LucasFilm. Tarzan © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Conan © Conan International, LLC.

Marvel’s experiment worked and its entire line of 32-page comics increased to 30 cents per copy. The publisher repeated this practice again the following year, when it increased over 50 titles from 30 cents apiece to 35-cent comics in several markets. This time, licensed titles including Godzilla, Scooby-Doo, and Tarzan were peppered the mix and later became highly sought-after by not only comics collectors, but also by general fans of those intellectual properties. One title particularly interested comic-book dealers, especially those who bought and sold the 35-cent variant cover without quite realizing what they had… In May 1977, just weeks before George Lucas’ Star Wars hit theaters and became one of the greatest film franchises in history, the first issue of Marvel’s six-issue adaptation (written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Howard Chaykin) hit the stands and sold out—again and again. Frank Verzyl, since late 1978 owner of Long Island Comics (www.licomics.com), previously The Batcave, recalls the initial craziness of Star Wars mania: “Star Wars was the first 35-cent alternate to receive any attention in the back-issue collector’s market. I recall buying stacks of that first issue, and became aware of this version when people would bring comics to my store for sale or trade. It was reprinted so many times it was unclear whether I resold those or the genuine test-market version. Copies I did have back then were bagged and priced for not much more than a few bucks. Today I understand they are worth a fortune!”

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Power Packs

TM & © Marvel.

Other notable Marvel 35-cent price variants include Iron Fist #14 (Sabretooth’s debut), Howard the Duck #13 (guest-starring the rock group KISS), and Captain America #212 for having two different 35-cent variants, the first for the obvious price increase and a second “error” version sporting a missing “Marvel Comics Group” masthead! Meanwhile, DC Comics’ longtime licensing agreement with Western Publishing including activity and coloring books, puzzles, and other products led to an interesting direction to increase its comics sales. Western owned Gold Key Comics that were published and distributed to the fully returnable newsstand marketplace. However, under its Whitman imprint, the company offered the same comics via its infamous line of poly-bagged 2-and-3-multipacks— on a non-returnable basis—through grocery, five-anddime department stores, and toy chains. Anticipating success with 1978’s Superman: The Movie, Warner Communications (DC Comics’ parent company at that time) believed a similar model would increase awareness and sales of its comic-book line by partnering with Western instead of continuing with its own “Comicpac” programs that had existed since the early 1960s. Long thought to be reprints, all DC/Whitman comics were actually published simultaneously with their newsstand counterparts with noticeably altered covers— replacing DC’s logo with its own “Whitman Comics” imprint, sans issue numbers and cover prices. They were bundled, bagged, and sold on a release schedule that coincided with Western’s other product offerings. Later, the company would package topselling superheroes in their own multi-packs, including various Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman configurations to take advantage of television syndication like Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves, and Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward; current live-action and animated series such as Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter, Hanna-Barbera’s

Distinguished Competition (top) These Dynamic Comics packages were among several multipack types sold at Lionel’s Play World, a main competitor to Toys R Us, which carried DC’s books in DC/Whitman multipacks. (bottom) Reportedly only seven comics exist where the DC Comics bullet with Whitman branding exist, as shown here on issues of Super Friends and (bottom inset) DC Comics Presents, the latter considered the scarcest and most valuable. TM & © DC Comics.

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