Back Issue #38 by TwoMorrows Publishing

BYRNE’S FF • SIMONSON AND BRIGMAN’S POWER PACK HUNTRESS • BATGIRL • ULTRON • WONDER TWINS • and MORE

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BATCAVE C O M P A N I O N NOW SHIPPING! Batman. Is he the campy Caped Crusader? Or the grim Gotham Guardian? Both, as The Batcave Companion reveals. On the brink of cancellation in 1963, Batman was rescued by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, who, abetted by several talented writers and artists, gave the hero a much-needed “New Look” which soon catapulted Batman to multimedia stardom. In the next decade, when Batman required another fresh start, Schwartz once again led a team of creators that returned the hero to his “creature of the night” roots. Writers Michael Eury (The Krypton Companion, The Justice League Companion) and Michael Kronenberg (Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy) unearth the stories behind the stories of both Batman’s “New Look” and Bronze Age (1970s) comic-book eras through incisive essays, invaluable issue-by-issue indexes, and insightful commentary from many of the visionaries responsible for and inspired by Batman’s 1960s and 1970s adventures: Neal Adams, Michael Allred, Terry Austin, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Adam Hughes, Sheldon Moldoff, Will Murray, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Rozakis, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson. Featuring 240 art- and info-packed pages, The Batcave Companion is a must-have examination of two of the most influential periods in Batman’s 70-year history.

Written by Back Issue’s

MICHAEL EURY & MICHAEL KRONENBERG ISBN 978-1-893905-78-8 $26.95 in the U.S. plus shipping Batman, Robin, and all related characters and indicia are TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

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

Volume 1, Number 38 February 2010 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

COVER ARTIST John Byrne

FLASHBACK: John Byrne’s Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Family Magazine! . .3 An in-depth examination of Byrne’s influential FF contributions, with bonus commentary from his editors and inkers BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Ultron: The Black Sheep of the Avengers Family . . . . . .23 Bad robot! Bad!! Why Henry Pym rues the day he tinkered up this tin terror!

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore

OFF MY CHEST: Marvel Marital Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 In a guest editorial, Scott E. Williams advises that it’s best to stay single in the Marvel Universe

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

PRO2PRO: The Marvel Universe from the Knees Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Louise Simonson, June Brigman, and Jon Bogdanove remember Power Pack

SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Naif al-Mutawa Roger Ash Michael Aushenker Cary Bates Jon Bogdanove June Brigman Kurt Busiek John Byrne Timothy Callahan Mike Carlin Dewey Cassell Gerry Conway Yvonne Craig Nicola Cuti Fred L. deBoom Kirk Dilbeck Steve Englehart Javier Cuevas Garcia-Hinojosa Alan Gordon Grand Comic-Book Database P.C. Hamerlinck Allan Harvey Carmine Infantino Marie Javins

Dan Johnson Thanos Kollias Paul Levitz Alan Light Andy Mangels Marvel Comics Darrell McNeil Alan Misenheimer Kevin Moorhead Dennis O’Neil Jerry Ordway Carl Potts Tom Powers John Schwirian Louise Simonson Walter Simonson Joe Sinnott Anthony Snyder Joe Staton Roy Thomas Ivan Velez, Jr. Karen Walker Scott E. Williams Marv Wolfman Zan and Jayna Tom Ziuko

PRO2PRO BONUS: The 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 A peek at the comic (and theme park!) from Kuwait that features art by June Brigman WHAT THE--?!: Heidi Saha: Warren’s Mystery in an Enigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 The puzzling parable of the perky pinup ROUGH STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 It’s back! Six sizzling pages of pencil artwork, with your host, Tom Ziuko GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD REMEMBERED: Apokolips Then: Or, Suppose They Finished a War and Nobody Came . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Gerry Conway recalls the perils of continuing Jack Kirby’s New Gods saga BACKSTAGE PASS: Purple Prose: The Perplexing Popularity of the Wonder Twins . .59 How the Donny and Marie of Saturday morning toons activated their powers on screen and in comics FLASHBACK: Growing Up Gordon: The Early Years of Batgirl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Cary Bates, Denny O’Neil, and Batgirl herself, Yvonne Craig, discuss the Dominoed Daredoll and her dad FLASHBACK: The Huntress: The Daughter of the Bat and the Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Paul Levitz and Joe Staton travel to Earth-Two to revisit their fondly remembered addition to the Bat- and JSA mythos BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Brother(s) Grimm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Spider-Woman’s wacky, wisecracking weirdo nemeses! GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Marvel Family Battles Evil Incarnate . . . . . . .84 The final showdown between C. C. Beck and DC Comics BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Reader feedback on “Monsters” issue #36

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $44 Standard US, $60 First Class US, $70 Canada, $105 Surface International, $115 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by John Byrne. The Thing and Franklin Richards TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2010 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. Family Issue

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PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

Michael Eury becoming a Marvel Comics mainstay in the late Silver Age and early Bronze Age. His most celebrated achievement was a decade-plus run on Iron Man, and he also helped make history as the original artist of comics’ first series starring an African-American headliner, Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. His other Marvel work included Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and The Avengers. (The original art page shown here, featuring one of this issue’s stars, Ultron, is from Avengers #135, May 1975. It was penciled by Tuska and inked by Frank Chiaramonte.) In the late ’70s, Tuska jumped ship to DC Comics, drawing the Justice League newspaper strip The World’s Greatest Superheroes, then in the ’80s was assigned several DC superhero features including Green Lantern. He was the subject of the TwoMorrows-published biography The Art of George Tuska, written by Dewey Cassell.

This issue, we drop in on some of the most famous families of the Bronze Age of Comics. Our cover feature—John Byrne’s Fantastic Four—is a series we’ve been itching to investigate for some time. After all, as writer Tom Powers reminds us, Byrne clearly understood, as did FF creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, that the stars of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” are not a super-team, but a super-family, and we revisit their Byrne-generated triumphs and tragedies in this in-depth study. We also welcome to our pages writer Louise Simonson, the talented wife of artist Walter Simonson (to name another famous family). Interviewer Roger Ash has paired Weezie with artist June Brigman in a “Pro2Pro” looking back at Power Pack, those super-sibling stars of one of Marvel’s most endearing 1980s titles (June’s successor, Jon Bogdanove, also joins the fun in an interview). The parent/child dynamic inspired this issue’s articles about Ultron, Batgirl, the Earth-Two Huntress, and—believe it or not— the Return of the New Gods (Darkseid and Orion are about as dysfunctional a family as you can find). We look at Marvel superhero weddings (where they usually throw punches instead of rice), plus visit the Wonder Twins, the Brothers Grimm, and the Marvel Family. There’s another family event this issue: We welcome home our first “baby” to leave the nest! “Rough Stuff”—the pencil-art showcase that debuted way back in BACK ISSUE #1 but later spun off into its own magazine—is back, after the recent cancellation of Rough Stuff magazine. Its editor, Bob McLeod, has moved on to other projects, and so we welcome Tom Ziuko—best known as one of comics’ star colorists— as the “Rough Stuff” host. Tom comes packing a trunkload of comic-art photocopies and a unique editorial spin on the feature. Please write in to let us know what you think of the return of “Rough Stuff.” There comes a time in every family when we must say goodbye to a loved one. This issue we are saddened to report the passing of two beloved members of the comics world.

George Tuska (1916–2009)

Shel Dorf (1933–2009)

George Tuska died on October 16, 2009, at the age of 93. Tuska started his career drawing comic books at the dawn of the Golden Age, but, as did many artists, temporarily stepped away from the field to serve in the US military during World War II. Post-war, he returned to the drawing board to illustrate crime comics before

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Shel Dorf died on November 3, 2009, at the age of 76. Dorf was one of the parties responsible for the largest annual gathering of comic-book “family” in the United States—the San Diego Comic-Con. While it’s difficult to imagine for anyone who attends what’s now known as Comic-Con International, which routintely boasts crowds surpassing 125,000 attendees, San Diego’s first convention, organized by Dorf in 1970, attracted just under 300 people. Through his passion for the medium and his geniality, Dorf became friends with many of the field’s top talents and helped grow a small summer show into an international media event. (The above photo of Dorf, taken in 1982, is courtesy of Alan Light.) The staff of BACK ISSUE offers our condolences to the families of George Tuska and Shel Dorf, as well as our thanks to the men themselves for their contributions to the comics community.

To m P o w e r s

If you ask any Fantastic Four fan what is his or her favorite run of the comic, the answer you receive will most likely amount to a toss-up between creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s historic 102-issue, six-Annual collaboration or John Byrne’s five-year tenure as writer/artist for the book in the 1980s. Silver Age purists, naturally, may argue that no other Fantastic Four creator can possibly come close to reaching the brilliant standard set by Lee and Kirby, but one can certainly frame a fair counterargument by pointing out that Byrne not only perfectly captured the characterization and joyful energy of the socially turbulent 1960s Lee/Kirby FF era, but also refined and reinvented it for a dynamically complex, Reagan-era 1980s comics readership. In the post-Kramer vs. Kramer reality of 1980s America, the divorce rate grew dramatically and the images of single, hardworking parents or doubleincome households and latchkey kids permeated the media. In the midst of this upheaval of the traditional, nuclear-family structure of post-1950s America, adults and children alike, as always, found escapist fare in myriad media—film, television, video games, and our favorite: comic books. Finding Byrne’s always-interesting FF covers shining forth from spinner racks and specialty shops across the nation during this era, comics fans were exposed to stories that took place in such diverse landscapes as New York City, Latveria, the Moon, and the Negative Zone. These settings, at the same time, functioned on an emotional landscape as well, as Byrne touched upon the contemporary themes of marriage, friendship, and child rearing. Byrne, more importantly, presented us with a superheroic family whose bonds reminded us that families can stick together and work through any problem, whether it is dealing with Dr. Doom’s latest attack or affirming one’s need to be recognized as a powerful woman (in Sue Richards’ case). With great pleasure, then, I present to you an in-depth analysis of the theme of family in this superb era in Fantastic Four history and share interesting comments from the FF-maestro himself!

Family Issue

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EARLY BYRNE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR Byrne initially pencils the exploits of one member of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch, in Marvel Team-Up #61 (Sept. 1977), which finds Johnny Storm allying himself with Spider-Man against the Super-Skrull, whom Byrne also illustrates in the following issue. The next member of the FF to be depicted by Byrne is the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One #43 (Sept. 1978), in which Ben joins forces with Man-Thing and Captain America to fight a Cosmic Cube-wielding Victorius. But it is the landmark Marvel Two-in-One #50 (Apr. 1979) in which Byrne, this time in the capacity as both writer and penciler, shows us what he can do with the character. Recognizing both the tragic and comedic nature of the Thing as Ben Grimm meets his younger self in this issue, Byrne nicely captures Ben in his first depiction of him and shows a shining glimpse of the later greatness to come under his direction for the FF. In terms of his feelings when it came to being given the assignment to both write and pencil Marvel Two-in-One #50, Byrne comments, “[It was] a bit intimidating, but not quite so much so as when I was handed the FF. Two-in-One was kind of like Marvel Team-Up—it allowed me to play with a ‘real’ character, but not in the ‘real’ book.” Byrne begins to draw the entire team in Fantastic Four #209 (Aug. 1979). On working as a penciler for the Fantastic Four for the first time, Byrne says he experienced “a curious combination of excitement and disappointment.” He also states, “It was the Fantastic Four, after all—but I was being called upon to produce only very loose breakdowns (Joe Sinnott was the inker, and he needed no more than that), plus the initial story was wrapping up a leftover plot from a canceled book. An important lesson I have learned: If a book was canceled, there were not a lot of people who wanted to read it!” Issue #209’s story serves as the middle part of what turns out to be a Marv Wolfman-scripted ten-issue, galaxy-spanning storyline, which begins in issue #204 (Mar. 1979) and involves plot threads continuing from the recently canceled The Man Called Nova. This saga includes the Skrulls and an epic showdown between Galactus and the Sphinx on Earth, with the Watcher serving as witness. The storyline, in addition, is notable for introducing the robot Herbie (a.k.a. H.E.R.B.I.E.), from the 1978 FF cartoon series, into the comic’s continuity with issue #209 and Terrax the Tamer, Galactus’ newest, and most dangerous, herald in issue #211 (Oct. 1979). After this storyline ends in FF #214 (Jan. 1980), issue #215 (Feb. 1980) finds the FF once more facing the

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Byrne’s First FF Stint (right) Byrne breakdowns with Joe Sinnott finishes from Fantastic Four #210 (Sept. 1979), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (below) Herbie the Robot joined the cast in issue #209. Cover by Keith Pollard and Sinnott. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Negative Zone villain Blastarr and a new foe, Randolph, a scientist whose use of his accelerator to heal himself from near-fatal injuries evolves him into a god-like being. In #216 (Mar. 1980), the evolved Randolph, teamed with Blastarr, enters the Baxter Building and uses a single thought to knock out the Invisible Girl in front of son Franklin. When Blastarr later tries to destroy the portal that leads to the Negative Zone so he can move freely between the dimensions, Franklin’s eyes glow yellow with a fearsome red beam—the result of his cosmically mutated genes—and he displaces Blastarr back to the Negative Zone. As penciler of this tale, Byrne obviously found this development in Franklin’s story interesting as he would pick up this plot thread during his second run on the book. The next issue, FF #217 (Apr. 1980), finds Byrne penciling a tale where the FF’s robotic assistant Herbie meets his heroic fate protecting his beloved human friends, while Spider-Man guest-stars in FF #218 (May 1980), as he joins forces with the FF to fight their evil counterparts, the Frightful Four. It is not until FF #220–221 (July–Aug. 1980), in which the team travels to the Arctic in order to investigate the source of a worldwide electrical blackout, that Byrne would, at last, write and draw the title. The threat itself

turns out to be benevolent alien natives of the fourth planet of the star Beta Lyrae, who were reversing the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic poles so their ship could leave Earth and return them to their home world. Reed, then, depicted by Byrne as helpful as always to all lifeforms, assists the aliens by adjusting their ship’s circuitry so they can successfully depart the planet. The most interesting aspects of these two issues, however, rest with the truth that Byrne immediately keyed into the fact that the FF are a family that practices teamwork by using their powers to complement each another. On the subject of family in the FF, Byrne tells us, “Family—and not dysfunctional family—is the central, key element to the FF. It is an absolutely vital dynamic between the characters.” When it comes to Byrne’s feelings concerning his first shot at both writing and drawing FF #220–221, he reveals, “There wasn’t much to ‘feel.’ Those issues did not begin their lives as Fantastic Four comics. Well, not as such. They began as a single, oversized promotional comic done for Coca-Cola. When the people at Coke saw the Family Issue

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Family in Trouble John Byrne’s striking FF covers were as memorable as their interior dramatic content. Covers to (left) Fantastic Four #220 (July 1980), inked by Joe Sinnott, and (right) #232 (July 1981), inked by Terry Austin. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

story they declared it ‘too violent’ and the project fell through. Later, posters were done instead. The story, except for the addition of a couple of pages to flesh out the page count and make it two issues, ran otherwise unchanged, so readers can decide for themselves if they agree with the folk at Coke. Anyway—since it wasn’t ‘really’ the FF when I did it, I had none of the fear and trepidation that came later.”

A FANTASTIC, YET CLASSIC, NEW BEGINNING! None of Byrne’s confessed feelings of fear and trepidation are apparent when he assumes the reins of writing and drawing the Fantastic Four on a permanent basis with issue #232 (July 1981). In terms of his immediate goals of developing and strengthening the theme that the FF is a family, however, Byrne says, “I saw my job as more one of restoration than expansion. It felt to me as if the FF had drifted away from the family dynamic, such that it was given only lip service—‘The FF is a family!’—but rarely a vital part of the story framework. I wanted to get back to the mix I’d found reading the Lee/Kirby issues.” FF #232 successfully realizes, as its story title declares, a “back-to-the-basics” approach as the team battles elemental opponents. For the Invisible Girl, a dirt creature is her opponent, while the Thing fights a water monster, Johnny and his girlfriend Frankie Raye are attacked by a wind elemental force, and the elastic

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Mr. Fantastic deals with a fire creature in his Baxter Building lab. To protect one another, and undo Diablo’s scheme, the four switch opponents, facing their analogues: Ben, the Earth elemental; Johnny, the fire elemental; Reed, the water elemental; and Sue, the air elemental. Linking the Fantastic Four to the elements is a brilliant move by Byrne, which reminds the fans that the team, on a raw level, represents the four forces of creation. Yet it is also the display of self-sacrifice and courage on the Fantastic Four’s part that Byrne uses to remind us that the FF not only functions as a well-oiled team, but they are willing to put their lives on the line to protect one another as well. As much as the FF work together as a team, they experience their familial differences at times, particularly for Ben and Johnny in issue #233 (Aug. 1981). Sue, escorting a priest who wants to speak with Johnny concerning an old acquaintance, David George Munson, is shocked to find the Thing on pages 4 and 5 attacking the Torch by throwing heavy machinery, and even a couch, at the antagonistic youth. The source of the Thing’s anger was a picture of Christopher Reeve Johnny pasted above Ben’s bathroom mirror with a note telling him that the photo depicts what “real super-guys are supposed to look like.” Reed is the one to finally break up this fight, warning an enraged Thing on page 7, “It will be between you and the police if you strike [Johnny], Ben. You know no mere human could survive

Good Dad, Bad Dad (far left) John Byrne proudly poses with a Fantastic Four illo. (left) Alicia Master’s fearsome father, the Puppet Master, in a Marvel Handbook rendering by Byrne. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

one of your blows.” With this simple piece of dialogue, Byrne once more returns the FF to the roots of the early ’60s Marvel Universe, in that Stan Lee and his collaborators were working hard to establish a New York, and a greater world, which could exist outside our very windows. Byrne, moreover, reminds us that the Thing and the Torch, despite their fabulous powers, are people just like us in that their hearts and bones can be broken. Reed, fortunately, as the “father” figure of the group, can mediate Ben and Johnny’s “childish” battles. In these early issues of Byrne’s second run on the FF, he indeed supplies many different depictions of other families and their dynamics. FF #233 (Aug. 1981) shows “Georgie” (David George Munson) to be a “bad boy” who received what he “deserved”—according to his mother—the death penalty. This reaction, of course, runs as a contrast, according to Georgie’s mother, to the “good son” who is Johnny Storm. In FF #234 (Sept. 1981), Byrne depicts “Skip” Collins as a hardworking family man who has a strained relationship with his lazy, “hippish” son. FF #236 (Nov. 1981) presents the Puppet Master wishing to provide a “normal” life for his stepdaughter Alicia. Byrne also reveals in FF #238 (Jan. 1982) that Frankie Raye’s adoptive father, Phineas Horton, was concerned for her living a regular life after she accidently received her powers. For those of us perceptive fans who are looking for a pattern, or familial theme, however, with these examples, we have Byrne’s honest, clever response: “A wise man once said, ‘Don’t read between the lines’—I don’t right there. Very, very rarely do I have conscious ‘themes’ in my work. I just try to tell solid, fun stories. If notions of greater import work their way in accidentally, well, that’s just gravy!” If facing the living planet Ego in issue #235 (Oct. 1981) wasn’t a challenge enough for Byrne’s revitalized FF team, he plays with their entire conception of reality as they wake up as citizens of Liddeville in FF #236, gloriously triple-sized in celebration of the comic’s twentieth anniversary. In this small-town Americana world, Reed is a college professor, while Sue is his stay-at-home wife and her brother Johnny works at a garage. Ben perhaps fares the best in this new reality, as proprietor of “Ben Grimm’s Tavern & Café” and as husband to his wife Alicia Grimm (née Masters), who somehow possesses her sight. In presenting Liddeville as perfectly halcyon as a town can be, Byrne reveals, “I was going for a kind of Twilight Zone ‘all is not what it seems’ feeling—pretty easy, since readers

JOE SINNOTT REMEMBERS JOHN BYRNE’S FF: “Just a few words to describe my association with my good friend John Byrne, particularly our work on The Fantastic Four. Issues #287, 288, and FF Annual #19 were some of the best inking I felt that I did in my career. A large part I have no doubt due to John’s beautiful, clean pencils. These issues were done on twice-up penciled pages by John and were a real joy to work on, and I’m sure John felt the same way. Another favorite story of John’s that I had the pleasure to ink was Marvel Two-in-One #50—the Thing vs. the Thing issue. “John not only told a great story, but I was always impressed with his ‘little’ things. [With] his backgrounds, especially the buildings and things mechanical, he had, in my opinion, no equal. “I’ve mentioned it before, but I can’t express it enough—John was the cleanest penciler that I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve collaborated with many great ones.” – Joe Sinnott, inker: FF #209–218, 220–221, 287–288, and Annual #19 Family Issue

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would know immediately that all was not as it seemed, and only had to wait for the FF to figure it out!” As for the mood he was trying to evoke in the reader, Byrne adds that he was basically going for a “Huh?? reaction,” stating, “Stories like that are always tricky— present the reader with a totally changed environment, and then try to guess just how long you can tease them out before the ‘reveal.’ And, of course, hope the reveal was worth the wait!” Despite knowing, from our readers’ perspective, that the FF are trapped in a make-believe town, we are still enthralled by the story, asking ourselves, “How will the Fantastic Four escape from Dr. Doom’s (and the Puppet Master’s) most ingenious plan to date?” Doom’s trap itself is so darn effective because, instead of imprisoning the FF in an unbearable setting, Doom gives them the life they may have lived were it not for one fateful trip to the stars. Doom, true to character, cannot resist partaking in Reed’s new world as Professor Vaughn, who hampers Reed’s genius intellect by denying him access to such dazzling scientific equipment as the fictitious “LaSalle-Devaney Particle Accelerator,” which Vaughn purchased for the college. Once more, it is Doom’s ego, not the FF, that serves as his own worst enemy, and thereby exists as the foursome’s key to Doom’s defeat. Luckily, and ironically, it is the “nightmarish” dreams the quartet is having of their true lives that lead Reed to discover that his mind and those of the others are trapped in artificial constructs,

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called “Synthe-Clones,” and to help them defeat Doom and the Puppet Master. In the latter’s case, as mentioned earlier, the Puppet Master is working with Doom not for personal gain, but to ensure that Alicia, with her sight restored in her new artificial body and married to a human Ben, can achieve what he believes she most desires—“a normal life.” While the Puppet Master is working with his best twisted intentions in mind for Alicia, he forgets that what attracts, and simultaneously separates, her from Ben, is that fact that he is the Thing, with twin obligations to both her and his teammates, and, in turn, humanity. At the same time, Philip Masters, like all misguided parents who have their children’s “best intentions in mind,” functions as a sympathetic villain whose example may be able to help us, particularly those of us who were children when we originally read this tale, reconsider our stances toward our own parents. This questionable comics-as-therapy view notwithstanding, we can all agree that Byrne’s memorable FF #236 is a classic tale for all ages! Recovering from their two-week “excursion” in Liddeville, the team, in FF #237 (Dec. 1981), decides to catch up on their private lives. Reed, typically, finds himself fascinated with his scientific research, particularly regarding a meteor track he has discovered. Sue, nonetheless, set on making Reed spend a regular day with her and Franklin, humorously propels Reed out of his laboratory on page 6 of this issue. Later, on page 9, while the family is enjoying a peaceful horseback ride in Central Park, Sue wisely remarks to Reed, “It’s so rarely

these days that we get a chance to forget about playing superhero and just be us.” The “us” to whom Byrne refers through Sue’s dialogue is the married couple that is Reed and her, roles which, at the core, separate them from their duties as superheroes. Again, it is the little human moments such as this one that shine in the midst of the title’s required action quotient and establish the Byrne era of the FF as a family-centric one. The issue’s main story involves Reed and Sue’s brief happiness being interrupted by their encounter with a tall, beautiful alien woman whose criminal cohorts nicknamed “Spinnerette,” due to the vertigo-inducing effect she emits from her eyes. When Franklin sees Spinnerette use her powers on his parents, however, the angry, unrestrained child reawakens his mutant mental abilities and knocks out the alien. Sue and Reed are touched, yet shocked, by this development, which would not find a resolution for several issues. Byrne continues to develop the FF as a family in FF #238 (Jan. 1982). The first tale in this issue involves Frankie Raye discovering that she possesses long-dormant fire powers similar to Johnny’s. Upon the discovery of this fact, Reed offers to train Frankie, even hinting that she will become a member of their super-team family to the extent that the group’s name will have to be changed to “the Fantastic Five!” Byrne continues the FF personal-stories theme of this issue with its second tale, as he depicts Reed’s latest failed attempt to cure Ben—a need that originates from a sense of guilt on Reed’s part since he’s partially responsible for his friend’s transformation into the Thing. Byrne, in regard to the idea that he was using this tale to tap into one of the core problems that families face, i.e., feelings of guilt and resentment, says, “Reed blames himself for Ben’s ‘condition,’ simple as that.” He also adds, “Reed and Ben have a strong Big Brother/Little Brother relationship—which, as is perhaps common with such things, shifts roles as the situation demands. Sometimes it is Reed who is the Big Brother, sometimes Ben.”

WHAT WAS OLD IS NEW AGAIN… Byrne’s tapping into the familial storytelling core of the Fantastic Four joyfully extends to the next several issues, as FF #239 (Feb. 1982) finally introduces Ben Grimm’s oft-referred-to Aunt Petunia. Longtime FF readers naturally expected Aunt Petunia to be a kindly old lady in the vein of Spider-Man’s Aunt May, but Byrne threw us a fun curveball by depicting her as a beautiful, vivacious, younger woman, who is Ben’s Uncle Jake’s second wife. When it came to making Aunt Petunia a younger woman, Byrne, in fact, says that

it was his objective to “take everybody’s expectations and turn them on their heads. Simple as that!” Coming to Aunt Petunia’s aid, the FF accompany her to her Benson, Arizona, hometown in order to help save the townspeople from an otherworldly menace threatening to frighten them to death. Special mention must be made of What If #36, also cover-dated February 1982. “What If the Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Their Powers?”— the issue’s lead tale, written and drawn by Byrne— presents us with an alternate take on the Fantastic Four’s origin story, albeit in a manner that does not grant them superpowers. As for the reasoning behind this choice, Byrne writes, “People had long been referring to the FF as ‘the Challengers of the Unknown, but with powers.’ So I thought, ‘Hmmmmm…,’ and that issue of What If? was the result.”

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The story itself shows the foursome fated to be a team as they aid each other in defeating the Mole Man, proving that the power of friendship and family is, ultimately, more important, and fantastic, than the powers that could be granted to them via cosmic-ray irradiation. The FF would next aid their old friends the Inhumans in FF #240 (Mar. 1982), since that race of superpowered beings is dying as a result of being exposed to Earth pollutants. After assisting the Inhumans relocate to their Great Refuge, Attilan, from the Himalayas to the Blue Area of the Moon, the FF are on hand to witness the birth of former FF member Crystal’s and her husband Quicksilver’s baby, whom, as the first Inhuman (yet miraculously human) child born on the Moon, the happy couple name “Luna.” After an adventure in Wakanda with their friend the Black Panther in issue #241 (Apr. 1982), the FF face the epic return of Galactus in issues #242–244 (May–July 1982). Aided by the Avengers, Dr. Strange, and Captain America, the FF manage to defeat a

gradually dying Galactus before he can consume the Earth’s energies. Reed, always the compassionate scientist, subsequently stabilizes Galactus’ condition. The World-Devourer, however, still needs to eat, or the FF must slay him, but Frankie Raye makes a third offer to him: She will become his new herald in exchange for the Earth’s safety. Thus, Galactus transforms her into the starfaring Nova [Editor’s note: not to be confused with the aforementioned Man Called Nova]. A heartbroken Johnny, as we see in Byrne’s innovative framing narrative for issue #244, then needs to be consoled by his friend Julie Angel and his teammates. For those of us wondering if Julie was being groomed by Byrne to be Johnny’s new girlfriend, Byrne reveals that she serves as an ”interesting example of how the stories do sometimes seem to ‘write themselves.’” He continues, “I created Julie to be the new love interest for Johnny (as anyone aware of the degree of backstory I came up with for her can attest!), but I found her subplots kept getting smaller and smaller and further away, until she just disappeared.” When Johnny, furthermore, laments that he believes he’s going to be alone for the rest of his life on page 17 of this issue, it is Sue, at her sisterly best, who tells her baby brother, “How can you say that? The Fantastic Four is more than just a super hero family. And you’d be part of that family even if you weren’t my brother.” Sue’s boundless love for her family, especially for her son Franklin, is further demonstrated in FF #245’s tale, “Childhood’s End” (Aug. 1982), when Franklin’s mutant powers reach their zenith by aging him into a man, albeit an amnesiac, all-powerful one. In search of his identity, the older Franklin attacks the FF in this issue, but it is Sue who finally recognizes her confused son through his sophisticated yet child-like speech patterns, which show that he is a child trapped in a man’s body. Byrne, however, when it comes to the possibility that he meant to present a metaphor to all parents that sometimes their children grow up too fast by rapidly aging Franklin in this issue, replies, “No. Generally I avoid metaphor.” Comic-book fans, nonetheless, will inevitably derive their own meanings from FF #245 and other great Byrne-FF stories. Some readers may view Byrne’s second run on the FF as a comment on stable families, while others may chose to interpret the stories according to gendered or even feminist readings. Multiple (or overly thick intellectual) readings of these stories aside, we can all undoubtedly agree that what Byrne accomplishes on an immediate level is good, old-fashioned superhero entertainment. On a deeper level, he achieves so much more when it comes to his stellar characterization of the core FF characters. For their next storyline in issues #246–247 (Sept.–Oct. 1982), the FF once more encounter Dr. Doom, whom they actually help to reclaim his

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Latverian throne since King Zorba, who deposed Doom back in FF #200 (Nov. 1978), has become a power-mad despot. FF #248 (Nov. 1982) shows the team visiting the Inhumans on their new home on the Moon and dealing with an alien threat that is not what it seems to be. The next issue, #249 (Dec. 1982), begins a two-part story featuring the Gladiator, who comes to Earth in search of Skrull criminals. Before all of the issue’s high-octane action begins, we are treated to a scene in Central Park where Ben, in his best “big brother” way to Johnny, compliments his younger teammate’s resilience in recovering from his heartache in the wake of Frankie’s departure. We also witness the Thing, ever the protector of the helpless, rescue a young girl riding a runaway horse—an act that gains the bashful Thing a reward in the form of a kiss from the girl’s grateful mother. The second part of the story, in FF #250 (Jan. 1983), an action-filled Marvel classic, featuring Byrne’s bombastic depiction of a plethora of heroes, guest-stars Spider-Man, Captain America, and several members of the Uncanny X-Men— apparently. To dryly reveal all of these tales’ outcomes, however, would be to perpetrate a grave injustice against readers who are discovering the magic of these Byrne-FF tales for the very first time!

AN ANNUAL FF TREAT! The mid-’80s FF Annuals under the creative direction of John Byrne offer us Fantastic Four tales that are both entertaining and thought-provoking. Byrne’s first FF Annual, #17 (1983), titled “Legacy,” begins with Byrne’s supporting-cast member Sharon Selleck, a potential love interest for Johnny at the time, finding her vintage yellow car broken down in upstate New York on what Byrne writes on page 1 as being a “lonely service road four miles off Interstate 90.” Seeking assistance, Selleck wanders into a small town, where she falls sick after drinking the town’s contaminated milk, which is revealed to have a connection to the Skrulls whom Reed had hypnotized into thinking they were cows back in FF #2 (Jan. 1962). Even more frightening to her are the townsfolk, who transform into mutated creatures. The Fantastic Four do not properly enter the story as Selleck’s rescuers until page 17, but we barely notice their absence thanks to Byrne’s deft storytelling and realistic characterization for Sharon. On the topic of Sharon, Byrne admits, “One of the reasons Julie [Angel] shrank to nothing was that I found Sharon a more interesting character. If I had done the Annual a few months earlier, it might have been Julie running into those pseudo-Skrulls.” FF Annual #18, from the following year, contains a Mark Gruenwald script working from a Byrne plot. On an action level, it presents the final battle of the Kree-Skrull War, as a warrior from each race fight one another with the Blue Area of the Moon serving as the backdrop for their explosive conflict. The story, on an emotional level, shows the Inhumans’ leader Black Bolt finally marrying his beloved Medusa. Old friends the Fantastic Four are on hand to both witness this joyous celebration and help decide, in high-action style, the unique resolution of the Kree-Skrull War. 1985’s FF Annual #19 depicts the apparent return of the alien Infant Terrible from FF #24 (Mar. 1964), which interrupts a romantic moment for Johnny, as he confesses on page 9 to his new love Alicia at dinner that with her he has finally found (no pun intended) the “real thing.” Ever the master of balancing the softer, dramatic moments with action in the FF, Byrne quickly shifts the setting of the narrative to outer space and eventually an asteroid power station, where a Hyper-Wave bomb is released, locking all Skrulls into whatever form they were in at the moment of the bomb’s explosion. The story, also guest-starring the Avengers, smartly crosses over with Avengers Annual #14, which presents the later part of the story from the Avengers’ POV, from a Roger Stern script with Byrne pencils and Kyle Baker inks.

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INTO THE NEGATIVE ZONE! When Byrne begins the four-part Negative Zone saga in issue #251 (Feb. 1983), the book feels as if it’s going from strength-to-strength due to Byrne’s mastery of the characters and his renewed desire to push them in new directions. At the climax to FF #251, our heroes begin their journey into the Negative Zone, but something more fearsome takes their place in our reality: Annihilus. The following “sideways” issue, #252 (Mar. 1983) presents the disconcerting imagery of Annihilus attacking a now-powerless Franklin in the Baxter Building and dragging him to join Alicia, who is unconscious upside-down. We are then left by Byrne to wonder what further atrocities Annihilus could have afflicted upon the two. Upon this daring storytelling choice, Byrne reveals, “The ‘brutalization’ is off-camera. We see the aftermath—which is often more chilling. And the ‘why’ is very simple: Superheroes are in the business of fighting bad guys. If you want to show how really bad those bad guys are, don’t have them beat up the superheroes, have them beat up innocent civilians.” Byrne adds that one theme he addresses when it comes to the subject of superheroes’ realistic lives is the idea that “these characters pretty much live on the frontlines, and it can be dangerous not only to be them, but to be around them.” Indeed, several years before oft-lauded depictions of so-called realistic superheroes were offered in such series as 1985’s Squadron Supreme and 1987’s Watchmen, Byrne was already on the cusp of this storytelling movement, offering us an

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unsettling, poignant sight in the form of the injured Franklin and Alicia. This storyline, which runs until issue #256 (July 1983), is also famous for introducing a significant costume change for the entire FF, as Byrne reverses their traditional blue-and-black costumes when they return from the Negative Zone to Earth in FF #256 into, “negative,” or more contemporary, colors: blue and white. As for why he chose blue and white as the new FF costume colors, Byrne responds from an artist’s perspective: “First of all, black and white. Blue is a traditional comic-book highlight color for shiny black. Superman, after all, does not really have blue hair! Second, spotting blacks within a panel—creating discrete areas of solid black defined as shadow or form—usually makes for a stronger image. Putting the FF into black costumes automatically spotted blacks into almost every panel.” The beginning of FF #257 (Aug. 1983) shows the shocking event of Galactus devouring the Skrull Throne-World, a storytelling choice on Byrne’s part that still resonates in the Marvel Universe today. On a personal note, however, what may be even more intriguing in this issue is Nova [Frankie] pondering on page 7 if she is in love with Galactus, since she finds her master “absolutely irresistible” because of his powers and almost “omniscient aloofness.” Byrne thus smartly applies the elements of soap opera, usually reserved for the FF and its extended family, to Galactus’ formerly untouchable, cosmic realm. In regard to Nova’s feelings, Byrne, moreover, admits,

“Nova is in love with Galactus—and that is something even she finds crazy!” As for the FF themselves, the issue shows Johnny purchasing a warehouse loft and Reed reassuring Ben that the FF is not breaking up just because they are moving out of the Baxter Building, as he comments to his teammate on page 16, “That alternative is forever denied to us. We have tried before to go our separate ways, but circumstances have always necessitated our re-joining. We will not act out this pointless charade this time.” Reed’s lucid comment rings true not only for the Thing, who is aware of the resiliency of his FF family, but for the sophisticated 1980s FF reader as well, whom Byrne realizes is tired of the predictable “the FF-break-up-to-make-up” retread storylines of the past. Placing the FF characters in jeopardy, however, never grows old in the skilled hands of a writer such as Byrne, so we are naturally intrigued when Reed is abducted at the conclusion of this issue. Issue #258 (Sept. 1983), offers a villainous treat with a Dr. Doom interlude, which sets up his latest plan for revenge in FF #259–260 (Oct.–Nov. 1983). While the issue ostensibly shows Doom at his most conniving in his dealings with the scientist Hauptmann and the alien Tyros (formerly known as Terrax the Tamer), perhaps the most fascinating storytelling element presented is the iron-masked dictator’s relationship with Kristoff, who was orphaned in FF #247. As Doom warmly embraces Kristoff on page 5 and then goes on to show the boy how he deals with flawed Doom robot duplicates and legal matters of state, we see that Doom, in a “fatherly” manner, is attempting to instruct Kristoff in how to be a “wise” ruler of men. When Kristoff, unfortunately, suggests to Doom that Magneto’s power rivals his mentor’s, Doom furiously lifts the boy off the ground, screaming, “No one rivals Doom! NO ONE!” Byrne, on the topic of what he was trying to say by having Doom compassionately make Kristoff his ward, responds, “I’m not sure Doom’s motives could really be described as ‘compassionate.’ It was really more about pride—his. As we saw when Doom turned on Kristoff when the kid says something relatively benign about Magneto, Kristoff was probably in more danger as a member of Doom’s ‘household’ than he would have been left to his own resources on the safe and crime-free streets of Doomstadt!” In the climax to issue #260, as an artificially Power Cosmic-empowered Tyros nearly destroys the team sans a missing Reed, Doom, recognizing that his revenge scheme is working only too well, except for the fact his accursed enemy Reed is not present, engages Tyros on the battlefield. On Doom’s obsessive need to destroy the FF as a unit, which is only completed by Reed’s presence, Byrne comments, “Doom has a deep-rooted need to prove his superiority to Reed Richards. This is something Doom himself takes as a given, and he is frustrated that the rest of the world can’t see something so obvious.”

CARL POTTS REMEMBERS JOHN BYRNE’S FF “I can say that it was obvious that John had a love for the FF characters and their history. He respected the Lee/Kirby roots and enjoyed playing in, and expanding, the ‘sandbox’ that Stan and Jack built. Even though I think the finished art would have been tighter/more polished with the right inking partner, John liked to ink his own pencils at that point. I recall giving John some double-tipped Japanese brush/pens that Marvel’s Japanese agent had sent to the New York office. John liked those pens a lot and used them for quite a while.” – Carl Potts, editor: FF #258 and Annual #17

Daddy’s Gone John Byrne occasionally upset the family dynamic by having one of the FF stray from the group, as Mr. Fantastic did here. Cover to Fantastic Four #261 (Dec. 1983). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Doom distracts Tyros long enough to save the FF for his own iron hand, but Tyros is able to fuse Doom into his armor, and they are both destroyed when the Silver Surfer, battling the energy-consumed Tyros, crashes into the Earth. Before the three remaining members of the FF can take a breath, they are soon whisked off to space by the Watcher in issues #261–262 (Dec. 1983–Jan. 1984) to take part in Reed’s trial for saving Galactus’ life. Fortunately, Reed is exonerated once such beings as Galactus and Eternity offer testimony on his behalf, with John Byrne himself, courtesy of the Watcher (and Marvel’s infamous “Assistant Editor’s Month”), witnessing these cosmic events! As to why he included himself in this issue, Byrne says, “I was following a tradition begun by Stan and Jack. Marvel Comics exists in the Marvel Universe. The people who write and draw the books ‘out here’ write and draw them ‘in there.’”

A more down-to-Earth tale, in fact, one involving the Thing and Johnny encountering the Mole Man once again, is next presented by Byrne in FF #263–264 (Feb.–Mar. 1984). Issue #263 also depicts Reed and Sue experiencing a normal, domestic life as the “Benjamins” in their new Belle Porte, Connecticut, residence. Reed, to maintain this suburban lifestyle for his family, even goes as far as disguising his face with his stretching abilities and taking the bus as part of his journey into “work” (i.e., the Baxter Building) each day. Of course, we had witnessed the Richards’ domestic life in the Baxter Building for years, but it is Byrne’s choice to move them to a true suburban setting that adds a refreshing change of scenery to the book. As to why exactly he moved the Richards to Belle Porte, Connecticut, Byrne responds that he made this smart decision “for the reason Reed and Sue themselves gave: to try to give Franklin some hope of a normal life.” © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Never a Moment’s Peace (opposite) Byrne’s cover art to the trade paperback The Trial of Galactus. (below) Cover to Fantastic Four #261 (Jan. 1984), from the Trial storyline, which (right) even featured John Byrne himself in a cameo! © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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SHAKING UP THE FF-STATUS QUO As for FF #265 (Apr. 1984), the first part of the issue shows the hapless Trapster attempting to infiltrate the Baxter Building, but it is the second story, titled “Home are the Heroes,” that generated a bigger buzz in fandom as Jennifer (“Jen”) Walters, a.k.a. She-Hulk, joins the team. Replacing FF members with other characters was not a new concept for the book. In the past, we witnessed Crystal and Medusa, both who hail from the Inhumans, step in for a pregnant Sue. We also saw Power Man temporarily step in as the “muscle” for the team when Ben was reverted back to his human self. (On a sidenote, we can mention Herbie replacing the Human Torch in the FF’s 1978 cartoon.) The green-skinned, confident She-Hulk, nevertheless, is the FF’s most dynamic replacement member ever. Returning from their “Secret War” on the Beyonder’s Battleworld, the Fantastic Four reappear with She-Hulk as the newest member. Regarding her addition to the team’s ranks, Byrne tells us, “She-Hulk came in for a purely mechanical reason. At the time, I was also writing The Thing, and I realized early on that a good Thing story was, almost by definition, a good FF story. So when Secret Wars presented an opportunity to temporarily absent Ben from the group I took it. And I ‘borrowed’ Jen from The Avengers for, well, obvious reasons!” Before She-Hulk can adjust to her new status as an FF member, Jen is on hand to witness Sue’s difficult pregnancy in FF #266 (May 1984), which also provides a flashback tale involving the Thing and Sue fighting an irresistible female foe calling herself Karisma. Then there is the monumental FF #267 (June 1984), which delineates Reed’s attempt to counteract the radioactivity affecting his unborn child.

She-Hulk Moves In John Byrne’s cover to Fantastic Four #261 (Apr. 1984) teases the reader as to the identity of the FF’s newest member—the sensational She-Hulk, seen on the opposite page in a Byrne-drawn Handbook illo. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

JERRY ORDWAY REMEMBERS JOHN BYRNE’S FF “My short, eight-issue stint inking John’s pencils was a lot of fun. I had been penciling for DC Comics for several years, and was somewhat burned out, so I was looking to do some inking, as a way to recharge my batteries. The first page I inked on the Fantastic Four was a splash page of Dr. Doom, which didn’t actually see print until a few issues into our run together. I don’t know if John thought it would be my audition, or he just wanted me to have work to do so I wouldn’t grab another assignment in the meantime. When I made the jump to Marvel, it was originally to ink John on Squadron Supreme. When John decided not to do that project, he quickly asked for me on FF. Things that stand out in my mind are the little textures John put into his pencils, such as the glossy sheen on a nighttime asphalt road,

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or little puddles to show an earlier rainstorm. All those are terrific devices which make the story richer, in detail, both on the actual art, as well as more information for the reader. “Another interesting tidbit was that John had been employing a few high-contrast photos of night city scenes pasted into backgrounds to add a richness to the environment. In my inking, I was able to effectively duplicate the effect with a brush in many scenes, (over John’s pencil, of course) to the degree that I heard comments from fans at comic shows who thought John was ‘pasting in too many photos and not drawing backgrounds anymore.’ I guess that was a compliment, as they didn’t realize we were drawing these things to match the one or two high-contrast photo paste-ups in an issue. I learned a few tricks from John, inking that stuff, which I was able to incorporate into my own penciling later on.” – Jerry Ordway, inker: FF #276–283

To this degree, he enlists the aid of Jen’s cousin, Dr. Bruce Banner, and the villainous Dr. Octopus, whose humane side Reed eventually reaches after a heated battle with the tentacled one. All of this effort, tragically, is to no avail, as Reed returns to the hospital with Dr. Octopus, only to hear Dr. Lansing, Sue’s delivery doctor, on page 21 informing him, “Sue is as well as can be expected, Reed, under the circumstances…” But it is the continuation of Lansing’s words on a famous single final panel framed by black on page 22 that made our collective fan mouths drop in 1984: “But I’m afraid she lost the baby a little over thirty minutes ago…” As for the reasoning behind Byrne’s decision to chronicle Sue’s second pregnancy and eventual miscarriage, he points out, “The answer that has become popular in fandom is that I did it because I was not allowed to kill Franklin. In fact, killing Franklin was never even considered. But I did want to explore something that catastrophic for the family group.” With issue #268 (July 1984), Byrne offers the somber aftermath of Sue and Reed’s loss and a battle in the Baxter Building between She-Hulk, Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and Dr. Doom’s dangerous, mysteriously awakened mask. He also addresses She-Hulk’s awkwardness at being present to console the Richards through Jen’s thought balloon on page 2: “I feel like an intruder. The FF have made me welcome, but I don’t belong. Not here. Not now.” The FF, nonetheless, graciously accept She-Hulk’s presence in this dark hour, once again proving they welcome new members into both their team and family circles. Not afraid to shrink from the lingering effects of Sue’s miscarriage, Byrne presents the Invisible Girl as quite angered on page 13 of issue #269 (Aug. 1984), when Reed tells her she has to stay

behind while the rest of the team deals with an interstellar threat. Reassuring herself that she is just as important to the FF as her teammates, Sue lashes out with her powers on page 14, destroying Reed’s laboratory. Next, and on a happier note, as Reed, She-Hulk, and Wyatt Wingfoot face Terminus in FF #270 (Sept. 1984), we see the beginning of a surprising romance between Johnny and Alicia! FF #271 (Oct. 1984) finds Reed recalling an early, pre-FF adventure where he relied on his scientific ingenuity to battle the alien Gormuu, all told in a story style reminiscent of Marvel’s 1950s sci-fi/ horror comics. In the present, at the issue’s conclusion, Reed discovers that his father, Nathanial, is missing, and so he resolves to find the man by travelling to a parallel Earth. Concerning his choice to bring back Nathanial Richards in FF #272–273 (Nov.–Dec. 1984), Byrne comments, “One of the best ways to introduce the illusion of change is to kick over the apple cart while really, again, leaving everything pretty much in place. By suggesting that Rama Tut might be a

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AL GORDON REMEMBERS JOHN BYRNE’S FF “I think John was experimenting when I was assigned to ink FF #274. John’s pencils scared me at first because it was obviously his style, but also so different. Dan Adkins, a childhood hero of mine, was supposed to ink the book, and, when I first got it, there were a few panels already inked by Dan—so it was

Adkins’ inking over Gil Kane’s pencils on Captain Marvel when I was a kid!” Gordon adds, “The Human Torch is not easy to ink, but John’s Torch is really cool, and I enjoyed inking him on some big figures in this issue, especially on page 18. The Torch has always been one of my favorites, and it was great fun to ink him, but I don’t think I really figured it out until I worked on The Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine, inking over Ron Frenz and Keith Giffen, who were channeling Jack

intimidating at first, not to mention that I was already a John Byrne fan and intimidated by that too!” On his return to inking the book with FF #284, Gordon exclaims, “The double-page spread on pages 2–3 was a blast to ink, but it probably took me two days or more. Look at all of those cool Byrne blots-and-splots and stuff that is so abstractly organic. I also love that bottom panel on page 7, with the Psycho-Man bearing down on Queen Pearla and one of her soldiers—it reminds me of

Kirby and I think just a bit of John Byrne. “I’m happy to be associated with FF #285. It’s one my favorite stories that John ever wrote—it’s a great Moral Play. By the time I worked on FF #289, I was a lot more comfortable inking John. I also got to ink John’s version of Blastaar— who seemed like a Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera cartoon. I kept hearing him in my mind with Jinx the Cat’s voice.” – Al Gordon, inker: FF #274–275, #284–285, #289–290, and 292–293

relative of Reed’s, rather than Doom’s (or Doom himself), the balance was unbalanced, yet really remained the same overall. Nathanial Richards, who would likely have never been seen again during my tenure on the book, was the way I chose to gain entrance to my story.” The “ever-lovin’, blue-eyed” Thing returns for FF #274 (Jan. 1985), although he stars in a solo tale set on the Beyonder’s planet filled with classic film horror characters such as Frankenstein and the Wolf Man. FF #275 (Feb. 1985), showcasing the She-Hulk and her new beau Wyatt Wingfoot, likewise works as a hilarious solo act as Jen fights a nefarious enemy—a smut photographer who has captured a topless photo of her while she was sunbathing. Page 12 of this issue is also worth noting as we learn that Johnny has physically consummated his relationship with Alicia! Things for the Richards begin to literally heat up in FF #276 (Mar. 1985) as Reed and Sue’s lives as suburbanites are rudely interrupted by the exorcist Elspeth Cromwell, whose mystical interference leads to all of them being cast into Mephisto’s hellish realm. The next issue, FF #277 (Apr. 1985), innovatively chronicles, on one half of each page, how the Richards escape from Mephisto’s grasp—an act realized by Franklin and his reawakened powers. On the other half of the pages, Byrne offers FF fans a plot development for which they had been clamoring—the Thing’s return to Earth. Upon seeing his old flame Alicia together with his hot-heated teammate, the Thing understandably reacts furiously, fighting Johnny. Ben, moreover, reveals to She-Hulk at the end of the issue that he is not returning to the FF. In light of the developments of this issue, some of us may have been wondering: Did the Thing fall out of love with Alicia? Did she still have feelings for him? Would Ben have been equally upset to have found her with a man

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other than Johnny? In response to these queries, Byrne mysteriously replies, “Some questions are best left answered by the readers’ imaginations!” If one wants to read into the Ben/Johnny/Alicia love triangle as well, one could argue that Byrne was trying to show that families, particularly “brothers,” in Ben and Johnny’s case, can be torn apart by the mutual love for one woman. But in terms of any overt messages in this romantic ménage à trios, Byrne comments that there are “none, really.” He also emphasizes, “What I was after there was something that seemed like a big change, but really wasn’t. The illusion of change, which is—or used to be—so important in these kinds of stories. Up close, something big seems to have happened, but at a distance the book’s dynamics remain pretty much the same.” With issues #278–279 (May–June 1985), Byrne would show the full extent of Doom’s parental “influence” upon Kristoff in issue #279, when Doom’s robot duplicates transform Kristoff into a virtual replacement for his diabolical benefactor! Believing himself to be Doom, with memories that only go up until the events of FF #6 (Sept. 1962), when the original Doom attempted to destroy the Baxter Building by raising it from its foundation and exploding it in space, Kristoff Doom once more attempts this plot—and succeeds! For FF fans wondering why Byrne was audacious enough to blow up the iconic Baxter Building, he reveals, “The FF’s HQ building had long been established as 35 stories in height. Quite impressive in 1962, but not so much in 1980, when I came to the book. It didn’t seem like I could just start referring to the building as taller than all those previous stories had made it, so I decided on something a wee bit more dramatic.” Additionally, for those of us who have been asking ourselves if “Four Freedoms Plaza,” the new FF

No Love Lost

headquarters that debuted in FF #296 (Nov.1986), after Byrne had departed the book, was his design, he explains, “No, ‘Four Freedoms Plaza’ (a name which made no sense at all, as far as I could tell) was not my design. My design I ‘recycled’ as the LexCorp tower in my Superman work. Just imagine a big ‘4’ instead of a big ‘L’.” The FF, as resourceful a team as ever, manages to survive the Kristoff-Doom’s destruction of their headquarters above the Earth after issue #279. Franklin’s comment to Sue on this event, as they are safely floating in space with his family on page 5 of FF #280 is innocently, “That was pretty scary, huh, Mommy?” On the topic of the question What is it exactly about Sue and Reed’s parenting of Franklin that gives their son such a balanced constitution?, Byrne replies, “It’s more a case of what he knows. As far as Franklin can tell, being the son of superheroes and living in a fabulous, fantastic sci-fi warren that occasionally gets attacked by supervillains— well, don’t all kids live like that?” Family Issue

(left) Byrne’s disturbing cover to Fantastic Four #280 (July 1985) evokes the work of Will Eisner. (above) Page 3 from that issue, featuring the inks of Jerry Ordway. Original art photocopy courtesy of Anthony Snyder. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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DON’T MESS WITH SUE! Feeding and intensifying humanity’s latent feelings of racism, anger, and fear, the new Hate-Monger begins his plan to destroy New York City, and soon the world, in FF #280 (July 1985), as he makes the Invisible Girl go all “Dark-Phoenixy” by transforming her into Malice, “Mistress of Hate.” Unlike Susan Storm Richards, Malice is merciless as she faces her former teammates, nearly killing Reed and Johnny in FF #281 (Aug. 1985). As for Malice’s famous spiky-hair and dominatrix gear, Byrne says he dressed her in such provocative garb “to take her as far from her usually quiet elegance as [he] could. The reader was meant to be left wondering if this was ‘Dark Sue’ unleashed, or something the Psycho-Man had done to her.” Continuing with this topic of Sue’s “malice” being directed toward Reed and Johnny, which could stem in part from long-

gestating feelings of being oppressed and marginalized by her male teammates, Byrne reminds us, “as [Sue] states herself, the Psycho-Man pulled stuff out of the deepest parts of her personality and mind that she would never have wanted to confront under normal circumstances.” Regardless of the origin of Sue’s dark feelings toward Reed and Johnny, she still is angry enough to convince her teammates to join her in a quest for revenge against the Psycho-Man, the new Hate-Monger’s creator, by traveling to the Microverse in FF #282–284 (Sept.–Nov. 1985). The conclusion of issue #284 is particularly disturbing as Sue inflicts her revenge upon the Psycho-Man by using his own emotion-controlling device against him. As for what exactly Sue does to the Psycho-Man, Byrne coyly comments that it is the “same thing Dark Phoenix does to Colossus on page 12 of Uncanny X-Men #136 (Aug. 1980)—that is, something I’m not going to tell you!” But even more shocking than Sue’s actions toward the Psycho-Man is her declaration to Reed on the last page of the issue that she has grown up and, since the Invisible Girl died when the Psycho-Man twisted her soul, she is now the Invisible Woman. Feeling like a revelation, Sue’s new superhero title demonstrates Byrne’s hard work toward having Susan assert herself as an adult, as an equal, and ultimately, as the most powerful member of the FF family, and it confidently announces that her character has, at last, come of age. In fact, regarding his reasoning behind Sue’s moniker change, Byrne succinctly acknowledges, “It was time.” After the Microverse odyssey, Byrne maintains the emotional vibe of his storytelling in issue #285 (Dec. 1985), a Secret Wars II crossover titled “Hero.” In this sad tale, we meet 13-year-old Thomas Hanson, the Human Torch’s biggest fan. Hanson, an outcast at school, emulates his FF hero to the extent that he douses himself with experimental fuel in the hope it will grant him flaming powers. As in the real world, tragically, the act only burns Thomas, leaving him dying. At the moment Thomas dies on page 14, he tells the Torch, “I only did it to be like you.” Hearing these sad words, Johnny resolves to quit being the Torch, but the Beyonder soon visits him. Byrne then undoubtedly offers us the most effective use of the humanoid, Secret Wars II version of the Beyonder, in that that this omnipotent, often confusing character relates to Johnny in a sincerely human manner. Showing Johnny Thomas Hanson’s past, where the boy happily spent his days, the Beyonder tells the Torch on page 20, “The death of the boy is not a burden for you to bear. He did not die because of you. It was through you that Thomas Hanson lived!” As for the genesis of the touching FF #285, Byrne says, “That story came about largely because my stepdaughter was the same age as Thomas (physically, the character was based on one of her school chums), and I became very aware of ‘latchkey kids’ and the kinds of lives they lead, even in well-to-do families. Again, as with the miscarriage, it became something I wanted to explore.” Comics fans and scholars, in the light of today’s more so-called “real-life” approach to the medium, often argue over what is the first realistic comic book of

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the contemporary era. FF #285, then, with its moving story of the effect of one boy’s life and death on the Human Torch, is definitely a contender for that title. The return of Jean Grey, whose body is revealed to have been preserved by the Phoenix force, is next delineated in FF #286 (Jan. 1986), while FF #287–288 (Feb.–Mar. 1986) divulge how Doom was able to participate in the “Secret Wars” when his body was obviously destroyed in FF #260. The final full story arc of the Byrne-FF era then begins in FF #289 (Apr. 1986) as the FF face Blastarr and Annihilus once more. At the conclusion of the following issue, #290 (May 1986), Reed apparently dies while fighting Annihilus. Before Sue can mourn the loss of her husband, she and her teammates, joined by Nick Fury, find themselves somehow transported to the New York City of 1936, where they have an adventure in issue #291 (June 1986), which also presents an emotional montage of images on page 14, as the upset Sue reflects on her life with Reed and the FF. This storyline culminates in Fury paying a visit to Hitler in issue #292 (July 1986), while the tale’s dénouement reveals Reed’s true fate and that of old New York. In Byrne’s final issue, FF #293 (Aug. 1986), the FF investigate the mystery behind why Central City has been enveloped by a black dome. During this issue, Byrne also manages to depict an emotional FF moment on page 5, as Sue discusses with Reed and Johnny the potential irrevocable effects their constant absences in the last several months from Franklin can have upon the boy. Later, on pages 12 and 13, Sue worries that entering the dome, which distorts time, may forever separate her from Franklin. When Reed tells her she can wait outside the dome, she reaffirms her place at his side as a fullfledged member of the FF, stating that the days of her helplessly waiting on the sidelines while the rest of the team faces death are long over. Byrne, therefore, reminds us that his vision of the Invisible Woman is a lasting one indeed, firmly placing her as a decent role model for working moms and their children in the mid-1980s. For those of us, moreover, who are wondering if Byrne was potentially heading somewhere narrativewise with Sue’s concern for Franklin in a future storyline,

MIKE CARLIN REMEMBERS JOHN BYRNE’S FF “This was a great period for me, as a new editor. John was clearly firing on all cylinders by the time I hooked up with the FF … so my job was to try and not screw the process up. And it seems to have worked, as it obviously led to a smooth transition to us working on Superman at DC Comics just after this run on FF. (And [Superman], too, was a little Fantastic Four family reunion … as it was John and me working with Jerry Ordway again—who I still think was one of the greatest collaborators to have inked John’s pencils!)” Concerning his thoughts on Byrne’s decision to blow up the Baxter Building in FF #279, Carlin comments,

“[It] seemed like a big, fun idea to me at the time (clearly this was before I actually saw a building ‘blow up’) … and it would be fodder for stories beyond the explosion. That’s been the rule of thumb: all ideas should be considered and discussed … and explored if you believe you can get more stories down the road from the inciting event. Same thinking when my office was deciding to kill Superman … and, as you saw there, the stories can oftentimes involve an ‘exit plan.’” Carlin also shares his reaction to FF’s #285’s sad, yet uplifting tale of Thomas Hanson: “I thought it was a great story … with some real conflict for Johnny … more stories should come with that much impact on the characters involved.” – Mike Carlin, editor: FF #271–293 and Annual #19

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Byrne and the FF, Reunited Byrne routinely visited the FF in his later Marvel work, including this page from X-Men: The Hidden Years #8 (July 2000), inked by Tom Palmer and Joe Sinnott. Courtesy of Heritage. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

SELECT JOHN BYRNE FF CHECKLIST: Fantastic Four #209–218 (Aug. 1979–May 1980) (penciler) (inks: Joe Sinnott) Fantastic Four #220–221 (July–Aug. 1980) (writer-penciler) (inks: Joe Sinnott) Fantastic Four #232–293 (July 1981–Aug. 1986) (writer-penciler) (inks: John Byrne, #232–273; Terry Austin, #238, 286; Al Gordon, #274–275, #284–285, #289–290, and 292–293; Jerry Ordway, #276–283; Joe Sinnott, #287–288; P. Craig Russell: #291) Fantastic Four #294 (Sept. 1986) (plotter) Fantastic Four Annual #17 (1983) (writer-artist) Fantastic Four Annual #18 (1984) (plotter) Fantastic Four Annual #19 (1985) (writer-penciler) (inks: Joe Sinnott)

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he reveals that it is “just a general comment on the state of affairs. As good parents, Reed and Sue would naturally worry about prolonged absences from their son.” At the end of the issue, perhaps it is appropriate that Byrne’s final image for the book is a page drawing of Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Wyatt encountering giant statues of the original FF standing in the heart of the futuristic Central City. The inclusion of the Thing, not the She-Hulk, in this iconic grouping may be seen by some fans as symbolically heralding the rocky one’s return to the book. Byrne then reveals, “Ben was set to return in issue #300. Jen would have gone back to the Avengers.” In terms of what family-based themes he was potentially considering to develop if he had stayed on the book, Byrne responds, “Since I let the characters ‘tell me’ what they wanted to do, I did not give much thought to developing these kinds of things. I found it worked much better if they just happened ‘naturally.’ He furthermore adds, “Like I said, I try to avoid conscious themes. When they come along of their own volition, great. But when I try to force them—well, that way lies preaching and pretentiousness!” From these comments, we can clearly see Byrne is an instinctive writer at heart who truly believes that the FF characters exist in a manner akin to us, meaning their lives are unpredictable and always in motion! By the summer of 1986, John Byrne was revitalizing Superman for DC Comics, leaving many Marvel fans in a state of disappointment for a long time after his departure from Fantastic Four, with a good number of them still holding out hope that Byrne will someday return to the book which is an ideal fit for his talents as a writer-artist. As for the potential of Lee and Kirby’s still-heir apparent returning to the FF, the man humbly answers, “I have no desire to compete with my own ‘legend.’” Despite turning down a few opportunities to once more helm the adventures of the FF, Byrne has nonetheless repeatedly expressed his affection for the characters by writing and drawing them once more in The Sensational She-Hulk, Namor, The Amazing Spider-Man, and X-Men: The Hidden Years. What Byrne leaves us with is a high water mark for the Fantastic Four, one that has reminded succeeding FF creators that Lee and Kirby had the formula right from the very beginning of the book: exciting superheroics mixed with stories of family and friendship. Yes, while we may never again see Byrne’s pitch-perfect depiction of our favorite superpowered family in this lifetime, we are left with a substantial run that renewed Fantastic Four’s promise of being “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” TOM POWERS, co-author of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Discerning Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who (McFarland 2007), is currently composing his first novel—a teen comedy-drama set in the late ’80s, which is mixed with a futuristic-fantasy narrative.

Karen Walker

The destructive robot is a staple villain of comics. Typically these rampaging machines are little more than the tools of some greater menace; as such, they themselves exhibit little personality. However, such is not the case with the Avengers villain Ultron. From his first appearance, where this “machine” rants and raves like any human villain, there was a sense that there was far more to him than his gleaming metal surface revealed. What would soon be discovered was that Ultron had connections to the Avengers that ran deep. He is, in a sense, part of the Avengers “family.” As the “son” of founding member Henry Pym, and the “father” of another senior member, the Vision, Ultron affects the team on a level other villains cannot. He evokes strong emotions whenever he faces them. As writer Steve Englehart notes, “I think the ‘killer robot’ is a good villain as a concept, but limited if that’s all he is. Fortunately, Roy [Thomas] and others had given [Ultron] lots of offbeat aspects to widen him out. I do think his (at least the lesser versions of him) obsession with Hank Pym, and through the rest of the Avengers, makes his plots against them personal, which is always fun.”

Brotherly Love Big John Buscema paid tribute to his artist sibling, Sal, by recreating his brother’s cover art to Avengers #67 (Aug. 1969, inked by Sam Grainger) in this undated illustration courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Its subject, the rampaging robot Ultron, obviously possesses none of the Buscemas’ compassion toward his family. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Throughout his history, Ultron has had two compulsions: to destroy Pym and the Avengers and after that, all of humanity. But his methods became much more personal over the years, leading to his becoming the Avengers’ most hated foe. He has been characterized by his ability to evolve, both physically and mentally. Although he despises humans, Ultron has always mimicked them— striving, it seems, to become a perfect “man”—or, at least, better than his father. Through it all, Ultron has served the key purpose of letting the reader see deeper into the emotional core of the Avengers. As writer Kurt Busiek observes, “All the best Ultron stories are about family, I think. And so much of what’s great about the Avengers is that sense of extended family, the relationships among the characters, with Hank and Jan connected to the Vision through Ultron, and the Vision connected to Wonder Man (which ties in the Grim Reaper and the Maggia) and to the Scarlet Witch (which ties in Quicksilver and Magneto) … the web of connections is full of interesting stuff, and the closer you are to the heart of it, the more you can do. Ultron’s right at the heart of it, so he’s ideal for that kind of thing.”

GROWING PAINS Although Ultron is now considered to be a major villain, this destiny was not evident immediately. Indeed, in his first appearance in Avengers #54 (July 1968), written by Roy Thomas and penciled by John Buscema, he appears to be a rather typical foe, albeit one with a striking appearance, like a mechanical jack-o’-lantern. Author Thomas describes how that look was assembled: “I’d based my idea of [Ultron] on a villain-robot called Mechano (I think that’s the spelling) in an issue of Captain Video … and he looks a lot like Ultron, so I must’ve sent a picture of him to John. Later, when Sal Buscema drew the climax of his second appearance, I sent Sal a 1950s issue of the ME comic The Avenger [see inset at left] with its robot, for the body.” First seen as the robed and hooded Crimson Cowl, Ultron concocts a plan to get Jarvis, the Avengers’ trusted butler, to betray them and provide blueprints of their headquarters. He builds a new Masters of Evil and attacks Earth’s Mightiest. In issue #55, he is revealed to be a robot, and his plans are foiled by the team, who amazingly forgive Jarvis for his treachery. Even in these early issues, Ultron comes across as highly emotional—hateful, angry, perhaps even insane. These are odd qualities for a robot. But no other information about him is given. But despite his intriguing personality, at this point, there’s little to distinguish him from the dozens of foes the Avengers have faced. However, Ultron would soon return and make a much greater impression. In Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968), Thomas would unveil a new hero, an android named the Vision (based slightly on the Golden Age Timely hero of the same name), who would soon become one of the most popular Avengers. As the story unfolds, the reader discovers that the android’s creator was none other than Ultron. He had created the Vision as an instrument of revenge against the Avengers, but the Vision would turn against his creator and instead join the group. Although the team defeats Ultron, they are still full of questions— “Who is he? And why is he so fanatical about destroying the Avengers?” asks Goliath (a.k.a. Pym). All would be revealed in the next issue, when Pym would recover a repressed memory and discover that he was Ultron’s creator! In a flashback, we learn that Pym had been working on building a humanoid robot or “synthozoid.” His experiments lead to the first, primitive Ultron. This strangely shaped mechanism immediately attacks Pym, first calling him “Da da,” but quickly progressing to “Dad” and “Father.” Pym surmises that the machine’s intellect is developing at a fantastic rate, and that “it’s like a living, mechanized Oedipus complex!” The newly born Ultron hypnotizes the scientist, making him forget about the entire incident. It was only after the Avengers had defeated the robot that Pym would realize that he was responsible for its creation. That realization would haunt him the rest of his career. Although they had seemingly destroyed Ultron, he would, of course, come back. And with each new defeat, Ultron’s obsession only seemed to grow stronger. The next major step in Ultron’s evolution came in Avengers #66–68 (July–Sept. 1969). In this trio of issues, written by Thomas and drawn by a young Barry Windsor-Smith (issues #66 and 67) and Sal Buscema (#68), the robot would gain the physical quality which elevated him to the status of major villain: He became virtually indestructible. In issue #66, Thomas introduced the unbreakable alloy adamantium. While well known to comics fans today as the metal that coats Wolverine’s bones and claws, the original bearer of this substance was Ultron. This addition gave Ultron the ability to be a true physical threat to the Avengers, and elevated his battles with

Ultron Loses His Head This last page to Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968) might have left Ultron for “dead,” but he soon returned. And returned again. Art by John Buscema and George Klein. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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them to epic levels; however, at times it has also detracted from his real role, that of bringing emotional threats to the team. As Kurt Busiek notes, “A lot of Ultron stories simply treated him as ‘indestructible robot,’ and were all about finding a way to stop the adamantium part. I think that’s kind of limiting. It reduces Ultron to a particular power—invulnerability—rather than treating him as a rich emotional character with strong dramatic relationships.”

DEVOTED FATHER Readers would see little of Ultron for several years. Although he would crash the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver in a crossover tale told between Avengers #127 and Fantastic Four #150 (both cover-dated Sept. 1974), his appearance had little impact; almost any antagonist could have been used. Ultron’s real impact was to be felt the following year, when writer Steve Englehart began to explore the origin of the Vision in Avengers #134 and 135 (Apr. and May 1975). Although Ultron had been depicted by Thomas as having created the Vision to be his lackey, Englehart had Ultron express a much more personal reason for creating the android: He wanted a son. As the writer explains, “Ultron had seen himself as a son to Hank Pym when Pym created him. It seemed more logical that sons and fathers would be Ultron’s continuing motif.” Englehart complicated the scenario, however, by showing that Ultron had not created the Vision from scratch, but had actually modified him from the body of the original android Human Torch. The idea of the Vision actually having been the Human Torch first arose during Thomas and Neal Adams’ work together on Avengers in issues #93–97. Adams included a panel in issue #93 where Ant-Man, traveling inside the comatose form of the Vision, encounters something that seems out of place. However, that vague hint was not fleshed out by the pair.

More Resilient Than the Energizer Bunny® (above left) Ultron is upgraded in Avengers #68; art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger and courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (above) Writer Steve Engelhart built upon Roy Thomas’ blueprint for Ultron in the pages of The Avengers; cover to issue #135 by Jim Starlin (figures and main image) and John Romita, Sr. (floating heads). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Englehart says, “That plot was well known in-house for years, and since Roy and Neal hadn’t had a chance to do it, I did it on my watch with Roy’s blessing. I always thought it was a great idea.” Ultron acquired the Torch’s body from the Mad Thinker and coerced the Torch’s creator, Professor Phineas Horton, into helping him create the Vision. The cackling robot insisted that the Vision’s face be red, like a flame, so that he would be reminded of the android’s true origin, which he assumed his creation would never know: “It is the most subtle of jests, Professor! Why do you not laugh?” Horton is eventually killed by Ultron and the Vision is reprogrammed with Wonder Man’s brain patterns. For years the android knew nothing of his true origins. For the Vision, the realization that he was not a pure creation of Ultron’s, but in fact had been a beloved hero in the past, drastically altered his view of himself, and how he related to others. While the Vision retained his animosity toward Ultron, it now seemed blunted. Hank Pym, however, was not so fortunate.

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The Bride of Ultron (below) The bombastic Pérez/Marcos cover to Avengers #162 doesn’t hint that Ultron’s “bride” is featured inside, but Jocasta, seen at bottom right on #170’s Pérez/Austin cover, soon became a Marvel semi-regular. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BELOVED HUSBAND Although from the beginning it was clear that Ultron hated Pym, the idea of the Oedipus complex was never really given full play until writer Jim Shooter came on board The Avengers. His “Bride of Ultron” storyline in issues #161–162 (July–Aug. 1977) and continuation in issues #170–171 (Apr.–May 1978)—all drawn by artist George Pérez—took the Oedipus complex to its logical extension and gave readers the personality that has defined the villain from that point on: that of a creature obsessed with destroying and recreating his family. In Shooter’s story, Ultron’s obsession with destroying Pym intertwines with his desire for companionship. He decides to create a wife for himself, by transferring the Wasp’s life-essence into an android body, which would kill her in the process. It’s clear that Ultron derives as much pleasure from the thought of depriving Pym of his wife as he does from the idea of having

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his own bride. Ultron thinks, “My beautiful creation has been quickened by the spirit of my father’s wife! The irony is delicious!” Although his plans were foiled initially, his bride does eventually come to life in issues #170–171. Ultron makes no bones about his goals when the team confronts him. He tells Pym, “I am your son! Do you not yet know the mind of your sole offspring? My desires are the same as ever! I want your death … I want your wife … and then … I want the world!” However, things do not work out as Ultron plans. Jocasta—his bride—is too much like the Wasp; she tells him that she loves him, but that she must resist him! Realizing that his plans have been ruined, Ultron flies into a rage: “The residual imprint of the Wasp’s persona—it has infected you with her wretched human fear and hate! Fear and hate propagated by my cursed father!” The Avengers are able to overcome Ultron, as the Scarlet Witch uses her hex-power to affect his molecular re-arranger, the device which allows his adamantium body to move. His body begins to crack and Thor uses his hammer to project Ultron’s ‘energy’ into space. Pym is relieved, believing Ultron is finally completely destroyed: “At last … the biggest, darkest blot on my career has been eradicated! Forever!” But as we would learn, Ultron has more lives than a cat. Besides being significant for bringing Ultron’s Oedipus complex to the forefront, these stories introduced Jocasta, who would go on to appear in Avengers and many other Marvel titles over the years. Much as Ultron can be seen as Pym’s failure, both the Vision and Jocasta fulfill this purpose in Ultron’s life. His “son” and “wife” both turned on him, denying him the roles he had planned for them.

Family Dysfunction Before Engelhart’s 12-issue Vision and the Scarlet Witch series of 1985 came a Bill Mantlo-penned 1982 4-issue miniseries starring the pair—and featuring Ultron in this recap of the Vision/Human Torch origin. Page 9 of issue #3 (Jan. 1983) by Rick Leonardi, Ian Akin, and Brian Garvey, and courtesy of Heritage. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

LOVING SON Shooter would bring Ultron back (specifically, Ultron-11) in the Secret Wars limited series that he wrote in 1984–1985. However, as portrayed there, this Ultron has little resemblance to previous incarnations and was lacking in character—he spent most of the time as Dr. Doom’s bodyguard. It would take Englehart to bring Ultron back to form— and then to see him evolve in a very surprising way. In 1985, Englehart was the writer on both the West Coast Avengers (WCA) and Vision and the Scarlet Witch titles. He wove a story between the two of them that involved not just Ultron but the Grim Reaper as well. Of all the other Avengers foes, the Reaper is the one most similar to Ultron in motivation. His brother is Simon Williams, Wonder Man, and throughout his career the Reaper has been driven by the belief that the Avengers killed his brother. For a time he thought that the Vision, since he possessed Wonder Man’s brain patterns, was somehow Simon. Later, when Simon was returned to life, he couldn’t accept that this was truly his brother and again sought revenge on the team. Englehart planned to have both books deal heavily with personal relationships, so using these two villains would work well. As he describes it, “My opening take on WCA and Viz/Witch was the relationships involved—I knew the 12-issue run of Viz/Witch would end with their children, the WCA was all about old relationships having to be reformed out in California, and the two books were intertwined due to those old relationships. So I needed villains who could play to that. Ultron and the Grim Reaper fit that bill— and as far as I know, they fit no other (meaning there was no other reason for them to team up).” Over the course of the first two issues of both titles, we discover that the Reaper and Ultron (now Ultron Mark 12) are working together to fulfill both their goals: the Reaper to somehow recreate his brother by integrating elements from the minds of Wonder Man and the Vision into a new body, and Ultron to destroy both the Vision and Hank Pym. Ultron follows his usual pattern here: alternately insulting and attacking Pym and the Avengers. Eventually, when his and the Reaper’s plans are demolished by the Avengers, Ultron escapes. And that’s when things really get strange—Ultron starts calling Pym on the phone! Initially these calls consisted of the usual threats; but at the end of WCA #5 (Feb. 1986), Ultron actually apologizes to Pym for all the suffering he has caused him! Father and son would meet in WCA #6, where Ultron explains, “…having progressed through twelve forms, I have finally seen what most young men see … that the struggle to assert myself at your expense is essential, but an essential phase that mature men outgrow!” Ultron, or as he prefers to be called, “Mark,” has evolved to a state where he desires a normal relationship with his parent. It is hard for Pym to accept, but he finally does. But this reconciliation was to be short-lived, for by the next issue, Ultron-11 had returned to Earth, and this Ultron still wanted to see Pym dead! Mark tries to defend his father from his counterpart, and although Ultron-11 is (again apparently) destroyed, Mark has suffered too much damage, and ceases to function. His loss truly saddens Pym. Regarding Mark, Englehart says, “It was the next logical step. Each time Ultron remade himself, he became more ‘human,’ and eventually he had to see beyond his limited father complex and desire for domination—much like any growing child.”

FAMILY MAN In the 1990s, Ultron would make a number of appearances in various titles. The most significant of these was Avengers West Coast #89–91 (Dec. 1992–Feb. 1993), where Roy Thomas introduced Ultron’s second wife, Alkhema, a.k.a. War Toy. Mockingbird’s brain patterns were used to create this second bride, and her personality is distinctly different from Jocasta’s. Of this Thomas says, “I wasn’t wild about the first [wife] … so I came up with Alkhema (from alchemy, of course)… and used the name War Toy which I’d used for a robot in a story I had Tony Isabella write for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction years ago.” This second wife agreed with her husband that human beings should be killed—but due to a sadistic streak, she preferred to kill them one at a time. The two robotic lovers found themselves quarreling, and when they would reappear in Avengers West Coast Annual #8, they would part ways. Alkhema made another interesting connection between Ultron and the Avengers, bringing Hawkeye and Mockingbird into the circle of those heroes personally affected by him. After the “Heroes Reborn” period of the 1990s, The Avengers title was re-started as The Avengers #1 (Feb. 1998). Writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Pérez brought back many mainstays of the team, and less than two years into their run, they would create an Ultron story of epic proportions. “Ultron Unlimited” ran through issues #19–22 (Aug.–Nov. 1999) and saw Ultron’s obsession with his identity progress beyond the need for just a son or wife, to the compulsion to create his own race. The robot takes over the European nation of Slorenia and slaughters all its citizens. He also kidnaps Pym, the Wasp, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and the Grim Reaper—six people who represent to him some sort of family. The remaining Avengers, along with a force of UN troops, make an assault on Slorenia, only to discover that Family Issue

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Plugged In Ultron by the Duke of Dazzling Detail, George Pérez, inked by Al Vey. Page 22 of Avengers vol. 2 #15 (Apr. 1999). Original art from the collection of Kirk Dilbeck. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Ultron has re-activated or created thousands of versions of himself! While Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, the Black Panther, and Firestar wage a desperate battle against the duplicates, Ultron reveals to his captives his plans for them. He wants a family. He plans to use their brain patterns to create one—but he will re-combine the patterns over and over, so that he can make thousands of individuals with unique personalities, who (of course) will replace mankind. Busiek describes how he came to this idea: “From the start, Ultron was presented as a character that learns and grows. He calls Hank ‘Da-da’ in his earliest incarnations, and matures into having an Oedipal complex, which is a stage of child development. He wants romance, wants companionship—he tried to build himself a wife on two different occasions. So while in some ways he seems adolescent, in others he’s maturing, in his way, trying to become a man. He says he spurns humanity and emotion, but he’s so clearly emotionally driven—and he wants to duplicate the things men have. “I see him as angry and isolated—lonely, and wanting to bond with others in the way his father, Hank, bonded with family and friends, the way his ‘son,’ the Vision, formed bonds of his own. And creating wives didn’t work. So I kind of combined the two threads of Ultron’s driving ambitions—to be more like a man, and to lash out and destroy humanity, by having him want to replace humanity, by repopulating the world with robots, robots that could be a context for him, a family, a race.” In the concluding issue, #22, as one group of Avengers battles on against an army of Ultrons, the prime Ultron creates brain patterns from his captives. As he does, a shocking revelation is made: Pym had used his own brain patterns when he created Ultron! This idea made perfect sense, when looking back over the years at both Pym’s and

Ultron Unlimited Two stunning Pérez/Vey pages (pages 13, left, and 20)— sans copy—from Avengers vol. 2 #19, the issue that launched writer Kurt Busiek’s 4-part Ultron epic. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonysnyder.com). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Ultron’s actions. Busiek says, “It just seemed like a logical step. Brain patterns had been very important to Ultron-related stories, in that Ultron used Wonder Man’s brain patterns to create the Vision, which brings up a bunch of questions: Why would Ultron do that unless it’s the way he knew to create a computer mind? If it’s the way he knows, is it the way he was created himself? And Wonder Man’s brain patterns—they were recorded by Hank Pym, before he built Ultron. If he had the technology to record brain patterns, wouldn’t he be likely to have used them when creating a computer mind? It all fit together neatly, the idea that Ultron’s mind had to be based on someone’s brain patterns. And given his father-obsession with Hank, it fit the most neatly to have it be Hank’s own patterns that were used.” Ultron’s own creator, Roy Thomas, says, “Makes sense to me.” Busiek continues, “It also makes the familial bond between Ultron and Hank more overt—Hank isn’t just Ultron’s creator, but a part of himself went into Ultron, making him that much more a father to him. It seemed logical and it kicked up the emotional stakes even higher, so it felt like a good idea.” Family Issue

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Mommy Dearest (above) In 2007, Ultron took on the form of Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, in the pages of Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho’s Mighty Avengers. Cover to issue #2 by Cho. (right) More Ultron madness from issue #3. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Vision manages to free the captive Avengers, even as the other group of Avengers has finally made it through to the real Ultron. The two teams converge on the robotic enemy, but once again, his adamantium “skin” gives him a tremendous edge. Injured Avenger Justice arrives, bringing with him two cylinders of vibranium—the anti-metal which destroys all other metals. A giant-sized Pym grabs the cylinders and savagely batters Ultron to bits. For Pym, it is a moment of great catharsis. Once again, the Avengers believe they have finally seen the last of their most hated foe … but, of course, we know that he will return. That return came a scant year and a half later, in 2001’s The Ultron Imperative, a one-shot that was an “all-star jam” issue, featuring writers Busiek, Thomas, Englehart, and longtime Avengers scribe Roger Stern, as well as a plethora of artists. The story featured Alkhema using the brain patterns from the six captives Ultron had taken in Busiek’s previous story to make a robotic race. Of course, Ultron himself eventually shows up, to try to play “daddy.” Busiek was the chief architect of this story. “As I recall, I had a rough idea for what the story would be, and talked that through with Roy,” Busiek says. “He wrote up the plot, which we tinkered with a little bit, had it drawn in chapters by a varied and talented group of artists, and then scripted by Roy, Steve Englehart,

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Roger Stern, and me. I did a final pass on everyone’s dialogue, to smooth it all together—and I felt terribly guilty doing it, since here I was revising the work of writers who’d all been very strong influences on me and I felt it presumptuous to alter their words, but the only way to do it was with a free hand, and then pull back in any areas where I’d been too intrusive.” Fellow writer Englehart says, “Those kind of things are always fun. I didn’t have anything to do with the plotting—they just said, ‘These are the pages you’re dialoguing’—so I was able to say, ‘What happens, happens. I want to get into WHY.’ I hadn’t written Alkhema before so I was able to find some aspects of her relationship with Ultron, and his with her, that I hadn’t explored before.” By the end of the tale, Ultron is reduced to nothing more than a disembodied head, tossed and jostled around by one of the robot “children,” who has decided to call herself Antigone. The end is purposely evocative of the final page of Avengers #57. This was not the last we have seen of Ultron; he has reappeared in Mighty Avengers and the Annihilation Conquest limited series. In keeping with his nature, he continues to evolve and change—in unusual ways! But regardless of his appearance, Ultron, the “son” of Henry Pym, will always be the one foe who truly hurts the Avengers in ways no other enemy can. Many thanks to Kurt Busiek, Steve Englehart, and Roy Thomas. KAREN WALKER is stuck in the ’70s and loving it. Besides BACK ISSUE, she has written articles on the Avengers for the recently published book Assembled 2, and soon-to-be-published Assembled 3, both edited by Van Plexico. She is one half of the team that proudly produces www.bronzeagebabies. blogspot.com.

Action Heroes in Trouble! Artist Thanos Kollias mixes Marvel’s malevolent metalmonster with the Charlton Comics action heroes in this commissioned homage to John Byrne’s covers to Fantastic Four #249 (inset) and Superman #8. Courtesy of Kevin Moorhead. Ultron and Fantastic Four © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Judomaster, and the Question TM & © DC Entertainment.

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As anyone with a spouse can attest, marriage is as often a game of endurance as an exercise of love. Once two people decide to share every day together, arguments will range from the mundane (“When you empty the dishwasher, put the cups in the right cabinet”) to the life-altering (“What do you mean, you don’t want another kid?”). Fortunately for those of us on this Earth, those conflicts never become like those on Marvel-Earth, where (at least in our BACK ISSUE period of the 1970s and 1980s) households are more likely to face the dangers of sentient robots than malfunctioning washing machines. On that wild world, when a wife tells her husband, “You’re just not yourself,” she might be exactly right—he might actually be her husband’s doppelganger from Counter-Earth! So, after conferring with a triumvirate of the finest minds in psychiatry (doctors Bart Hamilton, Leonard Samson, and Johann Fenhoff—who oddly insists on being called “Dr. Faustus,” even though it ended very badly for that namesake)—we have come up with a few lifestyle tips that should lead you to marital bliss in the merely magnificent Marvel manner.

WOMEN — DON’T JUDGE YOUR HUSBAND TOO HARSHLY IF HE PUTS YOUR CHILD IN A COMA — IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY, TO SAVE EARTH. Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards might have married longtime love and fellow Fantastic Four member Susan Storm in the 1960s (Fantastic Four Annual #3), but the couple’s relationship would be put to its most severe test in the early 1970s. Invisible Girl (later Woman) Susan Richards had already separated from Reed, feeling that the scientific genius was more interested in his latest gizmo than in her, but in Fantastic Four #141, Reed made a difficult choice that drove Sue into the arms of another man (well, half-man). Negative Zone villain Annihilus kidnapped Franklin Richards, Reed and Sue’s son, planning to use the toddler’s godlike powers for his own, nefarious ends. Franklin, born years earlier, was a mutant, born with awesome, reality-altering powers. The FF escaped Annihilus’ clutches, but not before the bug-faced villain increased Franklin’s powers to the point that the now-uncontrollable child was a danger to the entire planet. Father Reed Richards saw no alternative to using one of his devices to place the child into a coma (see Fantastic Four #140–141 for the whole story). Now fully cut off from her husband and team, Susan sought refuge under the sea with Prince Namor, who was planning to invade the surface (again). However, in Fantastic Four #149, we learned that Namor was only pretending to be a menace to both

Our Son’s the Bomb! (top) John Romita, Sr.’s cover to Fantastic Four #141 (Dec. 1973) shows a brouhaha in the Baxter Building. (bottom) Panels from that issue’s emotional tale, drawn by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Scott E. Williams

New Yorkers in general and the Richards’ marriage, in particular. He had staged the entire thing, to make Reed and Sue realize how much they loved each other. And they did realize it, just in time to attend a wedding (in Avengers #127 and Fantastic Four #150) that would launch a marriage so tumultuous it made their own relationship look like quiet bliss—the union of Crystal, of the Inhumans, and the mutant Avenger known as Quicksilver. Killer robot Ultron (see below) crashed the ceremony, only to be zapped into submission by the psionic powers of a revived Franklin Richards. The family was now back together, and Franklin was fine, although his powers would crop up repeatedly, each time leaving his fantastic family with some new dilemma. Fortunately, Reed Richards never again had to put Franklin’s entire psyche into Time Out.

DO NOT EVEN GET TO KNOW PETER PARKER. History has not been kind to friends of Spider-Man. The Scorpion crashed J. Jonah Jameson’s wedding to Marla Madison in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18. Supervillain Mirage crashed the wedding of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds in Amazing Spider-Man #156. The couple split briefly, with Betty trying to turn to Peter Parker for comfort, in Amazing Spider-Man #184–195. Their union ended tragically, with Ned Leeds murdered by minions of the mercenary known as the Foreigner, in Europe (Spider-Man vs. Wolverine one-shot). Poor Ned couldn’t even die with dignity; in Amazing Spider-Man #289, we learned that the Foreigner’s forces had murdered him while he was in the guise of the Hobgoblin, the mystery villain who had plagued Spider-Man since Amazing Spider-Man #238. Writer and Hobgoblin creator Roger Stern later revealed that Ned had been framed, but that would not come until the Hobgoblin Lives miniseries, in the late 1990s. Longtime Parker friends Harry Osborn and Liz Allen’s marriage ended in turmoil and insanity for Harry, who slowly dissolved into the villainous persona of the Green Goblin in the Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man comics of the late 1980s and early 1990s. But the late 1980s also gave us a ray of hope, as Peter Parker married longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Mary Jane Watson in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Surely, at least, that relationship would stand the test of time… …right?

Tangled Web of Romance (top left) Spidey lip-locks J. Jonah Jameson for laughs in this panel from 1984’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual (ASM) #18. (top) John Romita, Sr.’s original cover art to ASM #156 (May 1976), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom) The Marvel Universe might not remember the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson wedding, but we do! Variant covers to ASM Annual #21 (1987), by Romita. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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DON’T MARRY A CLONE OF YOUR EX. Jean Grey, who apparently died in Uncanny X-Men #100, returned the next issue as Phoenix, who apparently died in Uncanny X-Men #137, but not before being cloned as Madeline Pryor, who would marry Jean’s longtime love Scott “Cyclops” Summers in Uncanny X-Men #175, wherein illusion-casting villain Mastermind tried to convince people that Phoenix was back, but Jean Grey’s actual return (in Fantastic Four #286) would end up snapping poor Madeline’s mind, as she would become the Demon Queen and— Hold on. All that is one sentence? Let’s just move along, shall we? Suffice to say—clones bad. Aside from all these convolutions, it’s just kind of creepy.

WOMEN — WATCH YOUR HUSBAND FOR ERRATIC BEHAVIOR, PARTICULARLY IF HE HAS A HISTORY OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER AND APPEARS TO BE CREATING A GIANT ROBOT TO UNLEASH ON HIS OWN TEAMMATES. Over his superheroic career, Dr. Henry Pym has been known as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, and Yellowjacket. However, it was his one-issue turn as wife-beater (in Avengers #213) that gave Pym his biggest stigma. The founding Avenger ended up court-martialed out of the Avengers after his conduct (the previous issue, in a battle with a sorceress) led to a hearing to discuss his expulsion. Pym planned—and before the meeting at which his teammates decided his fate as a member—he would unleash a robot he built, a robot only he would be able to stop. When wife Janet (a.k.a. the Wasp, another founding Avenger) tried to stop him, he slapped her. Of course, when the fateful moment came, Pym’s shutdown didn’t work, and Janet had to save the day. Pym ended up losing not only his Avengers membership, but his marriage. He would even go on to spend time in prison, framed for a series of crimes by nemesis Egghead. Pym’s name would be cleared of Egghead’s crimes, and he and Janet tried several times to mend their relationship, but it was never the same.

Happily Never After (left top and bottom) Paul Smith/Bob Wiacek-drawn heartwarming and heartbreaking scenes, from Uncanny X-Men #175 (Nov. 1983). (above) Hank Pym brought himself (and others) a world of pain in Avengers # 213 (Nov. 1981). Cover by Bob Hall and Dan Green. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MEN OR WOMEN — DO NOT TURN INTO A GREEN MONSTER.

Really, this one should be kind of obvious. Of all the Marvel heroes, perhaps none is as rough on households (or any other structure he encounters)—or on relationships—as the Incredible Hulk. Scientist Bruce Banner, working for the military, ran onto a gamma-bomb testing field to save a teen named Rick Jones, who had decided the bomb range would be a cool place to hang out. Caught by the gamma-bomb’s blast, Banner became the Hulk, a super-strong monster who at times had Banner’s personality, but more often was either thuggish or a simplistic brute. From the start, Banner was in love with Betty (don’t call her Betsy) Ross, daughter of the general who supervised the gamma program. However, his life as the Hulk interfered, essentially making him a nomad who spent as much time off-world as on. Betty even married Col. Glenn Talbot, a subordinate of her father, Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, who had initially brought Talbot into Bruce and Betty’s world in part because he wanted to foil their growing relationship. Their union was doomed, however, and after Talbot returned from the dead (don’t ask—it’ll be another Jean Grey/Phoenix-type sentence), he agreed to divorce Betty after determining she loved Banner. Finally, nearly a quarter-century after their first meeting, Banner and Betty married in Incredible Hulk #319, over the objections of a gun-toting, wedding-crashing Gen. Ross. At this point, Banner had managed to expunge the Hulk from himself, manifesting the Green Goliath as a separate being. However, Banner became ill and realized he needed to unite the fractured parts of himself. Betty seemed to take that development in stride, but another revelation shook her to the core. Over the course of writer Peter David’s first issues, Incredible Hulk #331–344, Betty ran off with yet another former husband, Ramon, after learning Bruce had used a machine to transform into the Hulk, more than once, when he thought the monster’s help was needed. Being in love with a guy who suffered from an unwanted Jekylland-Hyde complex was one thing; sticking with a guy who willfully brought out his inner Hyde was another. As the 1980s came to a close, Hulk was believed dead in an explosion, although a hulkish, gray brute had started drawing attention as a bouncer in Las Vegas, and Betty had vanished to parts unknown. While Peter David made Hulk fun to read and packed with surprises, being one of his characters would not be fun. Come to think of it, I’ll take getting chewed out for not taking out the trash over turning into a half-ton monster any day of the week. SCOTT E. WILLIAMS is an award-winning journalist, an author of three books, and currently, a law student and sales clerk at Bedrock City Comic Company (www.bedrockcity.com) in Houston. In a mild coincidence, Bedrock City owner Richard Evans’ picture neighbors a handsome fellow named Eury in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide’s listing of advisers. You can reach Williams at loadedglove@yahoo.com. Scott has been reading comics faithfully since 1974, and his wife actually has a superpower—the awesome ability to tolerate the thousands of comic books that occasionally spill out of his study.

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In 1984, Marvel released a new series featuring the adventures of four superpowered siblings. What set Power Pack apart from other Marvel teams is that they ranged in age from 5 to 12—the first pre-teen team of heroes in the Marvel Universe. Receiving their powers from Aelfyre “Whitey” Whitmane, a friendly alien from Kymellia, Power Pack fought aliens as well as threats within the Marvel Universe. The series was created by writer Louise “Weezie” Simonson and artist June Brigman. For most of the first 54 issues, their adventures were chronicled by Simonson, Brigman, and, beginning with issue #22 (May 1986), artist Jon Bogdanove. It was also the first series written by Simonson and drawn by Brigman and Bogdanove. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to these three about their work on the book. While I would have liked to speak with all three at the same time, technology prevented me. What follows is a “Pro2Pro” interview with Weezie and June, and then a solo interview with Jon. Special thanks to Dan Johnson for his help during the planning stage. – Roger Ash

LOUISE SIMONSON AND JUNE BRIGMAN INTERVIEW ROGER ASH: What can you tell me about the development of Power Pack? LOUISE SIMONSON: Back when I was an editor [at Marvel Comics], Jim Shooter had been after his staff to freelance in addition to their editorial duties. As an editor, I didn’t think it was right to write a book that was already in existence, since it would have meant taking away work from some freelancer who depended on it. I thought it would be fairer if I created something new. I had this idea for little kids who were superheroes and I mentioned it to Shooter.

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Roger Ash

conducted June 8, 200 9

He said, “Yeah, okay. Maybe we can do a miniseries.” He was not enthusiastic. I put together a plot and character descriptions. I didn’t have an artist. Then June came into my office. She and Roy had come into Marvel looking for work. I didn’t have anything available as an editor, but I liked what she showed me and asked if she could draw kids. As I’m remembering it, June, you said that you had drawn kids [while] sketching at Six Flags. JUNE BRIGMAN: You’re right. Roy and I—Roy is my husband, [artist] Roy Richardson—we were in Marvel looking for work. We were just starting out. We met Weezie and she told us about this idea for a new series and she asked if I could draw children. And I said, yes, I could draw children, but I was bluffing a little bit. I wasn’t totally bluffing. I had drawn kids some. I had a clue about how to draw children, which was maybe more than most superhero artists had. SIMONSON: The moral of the story here is bluff. When someone asks if you can draw something, say you can. [laughter] BRIGMAN: Fake it until you can make it. SIMONSON: Exactly. If she couldn’t, it would have been pretty clear. The work proved that she could, so who cares if she had reams of experience drawing children? Anyhow, I gave her the plot and I said we needed character designs for these kids and if I liked what she did, I’d present the whole thing as a package. If Shooter liked it, we’d both get the job. She came back with these fabulous drawings. It was like all of the children were themselves only pushed a little bit further: Jack was cranky. He got a little crankier in the drawings. Katie, who at the time was— BRIGMAN: —a little bit of a brat— SIMONSON: —got brattier. And Alex got more oldestchildish, I guess you could say. BRIGMAN: Responsible. SIMONSON: Responsible, yes. But bossy and protective, too. And Julie was just her usual sweet self. The drawings were dead-on. I took the package in to Shooter and he said, “This is wonderful.” He was given to hyperbole. “This is the best presentation of its kind that I’ve ever seen. You have a series!” This was not a miniseries, now, this was a monthly series. I had never written a comic before. June had never drawn a comic before. The first issue was due in a couple of months. And it was a double-sized issue. BRIGMAN: It was a huge shock to me. There was no way I was ready to do this. Our poor editor, Carl Potts, was a saint. I think a lot of people would have canned me after that first issue, but he did everything in his power to help me and make it possible for me to produce a regular comic-book series. SIMONSON: It was so fortuitous. And it just turned out great. Y’know, you go back and read that stuff and it’s really not bad. BRIGMAN: It reads like a nice Andre Norton story or something. SIMONSON: That’s certainly what we were trying for. After we’d gotten the job, June, then you had to design the Kymellians and the ship, Friday. BRIGMAN: When it came to the Smartship, Carl really did a lot of that. That was more his baby. SIMONSON: He did a nice job with that ship. Friday was a very important character in the book. The Kymellians were great. Originally, they were going to be rabbits, but when I found out that you liked horses, I said, “Okay. Horses are good.”

Note: Some of these credits were done under the name Louise Jones.

Beginnings: Writer: “Dragon Slayer” in Monsters & Heroes #2 (1967) Editor: Creepy #79 (1976)

Milestones: Writer: Power Pack / X-Factor / New Mutants / Superman: The Man of Steel / Steel Editor: Creepy / Eerie / Vampirella / Uncanny X-Men / New Mutants / Battlestar Galactica / Star Wars

Work in Progress: World of Warcraft (co-written with Walter Simonson, for WildStorm)

louise simonson Photo courtesy of Louise Simonson.

Beginnings: Astron for AC Comics (1982)

Milestones: Power Pack / “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” for National Geographic World / Brenda Starr (syndicated) / The 99 (Teshkeel Comics)

Works in Progress: The 99 / Brenda Starr

Cyberspace: www.artwanted.com/juneart

june brigman Sketch by Walt Simonson.

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alex

julie

jack

katie

BRIGMAN: Well, I thought horses and then I thought, “What would look more alien?” I thought seahorses are really strange-looking critters, so that’s what they were based on. ASH: Where did the Snarks come from? BRIGMAN: I think Carl came up with the legs. I think I did the bodies and heads and he came up with those bizarre-looking legs. They were really disturbing. ASH: How did you decide to visualize the various characters’ powers? BRIGMAN: This was where my lack of comic-book knowledge was both a blessing and a curse. It was a curse because it was very hard for me to come up with these things. But it was a blessing because I was coming up with something different. Other than that, I can’t really remember. Lightspeed was the rainbow. SIMONSON: That was great. Alex was the weirdest one, wasn’t he? BRIGMAN: I think that was probably the hardest one for me to come up with, so that’s why it ended up being very strange looking. I think I just had a really hard time trying to figure out how to show a power having to do with gravity. I was trying to think of a symbol. SIMONSON: The floating-squares design representing gravity was perfect visual symbolism. BRIGMAN: I don’t know what I was thinking about. It was a pain to draw, too. All those little squares. I wasn’t thinking about drawing it over and over again. SIMONSON: Jack was simple because he just got cloud-like. BRIGMAN: Or he could get really small. SIMONSON: And Katie would absorb the energy from things she touched. BRIGMAN: She just crackled. ASH: You mentioned Friday earlier. Were you surprised by her popularity? SIMONSON: I was surprised by the popularity of the whole thing. BRIGMAN: It was very offbeat. I can’t think of anything else being done at that time, or even since, that’s been quite like it. SIMONSON: I thought it would be a kids’ book and it turned out to be a book for everybody. Even Alan Moore liked it. So did Chris Claremont. I was flabbergasted by that. ASH: What are some of the challenges of writing and drawing realistic kids? SIMONSON: I don’t think they’re any harder than writing a realistic anybody. You get into their heads and you put yourself in their places. I do that with any character I write. BRIGMAN: It was easier for me. I always liked drawing the musclebound superhero types. That was always a huge challenge for me, which is part of why I liked it. Children are very natural. Their body language is very real. I didn’t have a strong background in comics when I was first starting out, but children were

The Kids Are All Right (top) The Power children. (above left) The popular ship Friday, from the Marvel Handbook. (left) From Power Pack #1, Alex and Katie meet Whitey for the first time. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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something I knew. Children were something I could observe every day. SIMONSON: You’re right about observing children. I think that that’s one of the things that I found fun about doing the book. When I was walking through the park one day, I saw a little kid learning to roller-skate, falling down and trying again. And I realized that, when you’re a kid, there’s a lot of stuff [that] having superpowers won’t help you with. So I tried to throw real kid problems into the stories, as well as a superhero problem. There was a story where Katie lost her first tooth on the Snark ship, dropped it, and Alex, who blamed himself for the mishap, had to run around and try to find it in the midst of battle. I think it’s that kind of thing that made Power Pack feel more true. ASH: Let’s talk about their parents. They’re visually based on Weezie and Walter [Simonson, Louise’s husband]. Where did that come from? SIMONSON: [laughs] It was June. BRIGMAN: I thought it worked perfectly, visually. Walt’s got glasses and the big beard and Weezie’s always got a smile on her face. They just seemed like great parents. ASH: Someone we haven’t talked about yet who worked on the book with you is inker Bob Wiacek. What can you say about working with him? BRIGMAN: It was great. I was so fortunate to get him. I was inexperienced and he was a very experienced inker, so he was a huge help to me. I’m sure there were times he had to stay up all night to make up for me being late. The inker always gets the short end of the stick, especially with someone like me who was always late. He never complained. SIMONSON: Bob had originally come out of Continuity Studios and had a more Neal Adams-y inking style. Once he worked with Paul Smith on X-Men, he began to develop what I think was his real genius for line. He’s got a beautiful line. It was perfect over your stuff because it had that delicacy. BRIGMAN: It did, and yet he added weight, he added form. He added to the work without taking anything away. That’s all a penciler can ask for in an inker. ASH: After the initial Snark adventure, the kids got really involved with the Marvel Universe. How did you decide who you’d have them meet? SIMONSON: I think it was on a whim. With Spider-Man, you had a popular character who was a New York icon. I don’t know why I chose Dragon Man. BRIGMAN: I love Dragon Man. I love those issues [#6–8, Jan.–Mar. 1985]. I loved drawing him. SIMONSON: And their involvement with the X-folks was a natural. Who else did we do? ASH: Cloak and Dagger. SIMONSON: That was one of Carl’s other books. We would occasionally have a fill-in if June got late. The fill-ins were always Carl-related, often involving one of his hobbies. Fish. Baseball. We did that for fun. June, we didn’t even talk about us going around to photograph the Upper West Side. We took pictures of the local schools in the area, the local playgrounds, the streets.

The Powers lived in our apartment. That reference gave the Powers’ neighborhood a realistic consistency. Part of what made the book special was its stories, with their unreal events, happening in a very real place. It grounded the strange things that happened. BRIGMAN: Which makes the strange stuff seem even stranger. SIMONSON: And at the same time, more believable because it’s got a real backdrop. If you look at the books, those early issues are New York Upper West Side around 1984–’85. BRIGMAN: It was really important for me to do that, too. We had just moved from Georgia and schools in Georgia don’t look like schools in New York. A playground in Georgia looks totally different from a playground in Manhattan. ASH: Why did you decide to bring in Franklin Richards? BRIGMAN: It seemed like the natural thing to do. Another little kid who had nobody to play with. I love Franklin. Family Issue

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Enter the Dragon (Man) (left) Original art page from Power Pack #6 (Jan. 1985), featuring Dragon Man, who also appeared in the following issue (see inset below). Art by Brigman and Wiacek, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (above) Cloak and Dagger guest-starred in issue #8 (Mar. 1985). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

SIMONSON: His parents were always going off and leaving him alone with Jarvis. He needed friends his own age. And he needed a proper family that would take care of him, so we provided that. Obviously, some of us had a problem with reality. [laughter] ASH: Why did you decide to wait a while before bringing back the Snarks? SIMONSON: Power Pack had a lot going on on Earth. And it seemed better to save the space stories for special events, like the “big number” issues. Then, as we approached #25, we brought in the little Kymellian, Kofi. June’s drawings of him were beautiful. ASH: June, why did you decide to leave the book? BRIGMAN: I don’t know that it was a conscious decision. I had a hard time dealing with the deadlines when I was first starting. I couldn’t keep up with a regular series. I wish I had tried to stick it out longer because of all the things I’ve done in comics, I enjoyed [Power Pack] the most. SIMONSON: The readership wanted you back.

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BRIGMAN: They did, but that’s because readers always want the original artist. When Jon Bogdanove came along, I thought he was awesome. SIMONSON: What he was doing looked different than what you were doing, but in the most important way, it was sort of the same. The kids were real people. Eventually I left the book and Jon took over as writer. Then, after Jon left, the book went through a downward spiral. Marvel decided to do dark Power Pack. After the book was canceled, June and I were given the opportunity to put everything back together. We did a Christmas Special where the kids went to Snark World and rescued their real parents. We undid some truly bizarre continuity, everything got straightened out, and everyone went back to their original powers and costumes. That was where we left it. ASH: Anything else you’d like to say about Power Pack? BRIGMAN: I loved working on it. If the opportunity came up to do a special issue or miniseries, I would drop everything and do it in a second. SIMONSON: Me, too!

Family Reunion June Brigman made a brief return to the series in Power Pack #45 (Apr. 1989) and the preceding issue, both scripted by Jon Bogdanove. Original cover art to #45 inked by Hilary Barta and provided by Heritage. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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JON BOGDANOVE INTERVIEW

Beginnings: Alpha Flight #32 (1986)

Milestones: Fantastic Four vs. X-Men / Power Pack / Incredible Hulk / X-Terminators / X-Factor / Batman / Superman: The Man of Steel / Superman vs. Aliens 2 / Superman/Savage Dragon / Steel / “The Death of Superman”

Works in Progress: Frequent assignments for DC Licensing, producing uncredited branding artwork for style guides, packaging, theme parks, etc. / Drawing and digitally painting various previsualization illustrations for an in-development science-fiction project.

jon bogdanove Photo courtesy of Jon Bogdanove.

Franklin’s New Friends Power Pack #22 (May 1986) included this fun character moment featuring Jarvis, Franklin Richards, and the Power kids. This was the first issue drawn by Jon Bogdanove (listed as John Bogdanove in the credits). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ROGER ASH: How did you get the job on Power Pack? JON BOGDANOVE: Even before Judy and I were married, as a couple Power Pack was our favorite comic book. We discovered it when we were traveling around the country together. We fell in love with Weezie’s stories and June’s elegant, sentimental art—even as we, ourselves, were falling in love. In 1985, we were living on a houseboat in New York City. I got together a portfolio of samples, but I didn’t know much more than that about how to proceed. Judy assumed that Walter and Louise Simonson were in fact Ma and Pa Powers, and, like the Powers parents, they lived in an apartment on the West Side of Manhattan. So she looked them up in the phone book, dialed the number, and handed me the phone. [laughs] Without even realizing what was happening, I found myself on the phone with the legend himself, Walter Simonson. Walter was very helpful. I went into Larry Hama’s office at Marvel with some Conan samples. He said that John Buscema had the book tied up, but he liked my stuff, so he started trotting me around to other editors. The first was Carl Potts. And who should be in the office but Louise Simonson, talking with Carl about who they could get to replace June?! Carl was politely flipping through my portfolio. A little miracle moment happened. A year earlier I had sold a drawing at a gallery in Maine, sort of a fine-arts drawing of kids playing on the beach. The inexplicable part is somehow a preliminary sketch for that drawing found its way into my Conan samples. It floated down and settled on his desk without his noticing it. But then Weezie chirped up and said, “Oh, Carl, look! He can draw kids!” And that was it. ASH: You started off with a big story, the Snark Wars, which was closely followed by the crack storyline [#31 and 32, Aug. and Oct. 1987]. Was the variety of stories something that appealed to you about the book? BOGDANOVE: It wasn’t just the variety of stories. What it hinged on, and what I think made that book so special, was the characterizations. It was a lovable, child’s-eye view of the whole Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe from the knees up. It fed the sense of wonder I felt when I first discovered comic books. It also tied into the feelings I was having as a new parent. Whether we were doing a big space story or tying in with the larger Marvel Universe or a quiet humaninterest story, the unifying element that made it such a joy was the characterizations, which is Weezie’s and June’s speciality. ASH: How did you come to write the Master Mold story [#36, Apr. 1988]? BOGDANOVE: I’d seen Kirby pages where he had suggested dialogue to Stan in the borders of the pages. I thought this was just what you do at Marvel. I started writing dialogue in the borders. I think Weezie would roll her eyes tolerantly, and sometimes she’d use a line if it made sense. Rather than telling me to quit, she encouraged me. When the opportunity to do the Master Mold story came up, I suspect she said to Carl, “Why don’t we let Jon take this one?” Carl was very kind, because I managed to screw up my deadline trying to both write and draw it, but it was a fulfilling experience. ASH: Did that lead to you getting the writing assignment on the book? BOGDANOVE: Yes, it did. Everybody liked what I did and when Weezie left to do X-Factor, she suggested that I’d be the best person to follow her.

ASH: The storyline you started with was part of the “Inferno” crossover [#42–44, Dec. 1988–Mar. 1989]. Was it difficult stepping in at that particular moment? BOGDANOVE: It was. Power Pack was sort of a nonmutant relation of the mutant books. The “Inferno” storyline was an uncomfortable fit for Power Pack. ASH: Those issues contained the moment where Power Pack revealed their identities to their parents when they’re attacked by the Boogy Man. You got a lot of reaction to that. What did you think about that moment? BOGDANOVE: I go back and forth on that to this day. I do think it’s appropriate that the parents should learn. As a fan, I would have liked them to learn in a more constructive way. The way they learned produced a total freak-out. Sometimes I look at it and think there are a lot of kids out there whose parents freak out when they learn their children’s real identity. I’m thinking about the parents of gay kids or any child who differs in some fundamental way from their parent. Sometimes it does produce exactly that kind of hysterical freak-out. From that standpoint, I think it might have been a good idea to try and do a story about that kind of alienation, but I would have liked to do more mending afterwards. ASH: You followed that story with one of my favorites you did, “Elsewhere” [#47, July 1989], where Katie travels to a comic-strip sort of world. Where did that come from? BOGDANOVE: From being fed up with the dark stuff. With “Inferno” and the reveal, I felt like most of my stint on Power Pack was spent putting kids through terrible trauma. I wanted to have a couple of happy stories before I left. ASH: In the issues after that where you did the dolphin story [#48 and 49, Aug. and Oct. 1989], I was really struck by the art that you did when Franklin was dreaming that he was a dolphin. BOGDANOVE: The scratchboard pages. I’m fond of those. I like scratchboard. It’s fun to work with,

and it created a lovely, dreamy atmosphere for that sequence. The crisis of the oceans was a pretty popular issue in the late ’80s. The lovable quality of dolphins seemed to me to be akin to the quality of Kymellians, in that they’re both these benign, alien intelligences. Also, some of my favorite comic books growing up were the “socially relevant” comics of the early ’70s, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do one of those. ASH: Anything else you’d like to say about the book? BOGDANOVE: Power Pack was most definitely a labor of love for everybody involved. I feel very privileged to be associated with it, and incredibly lucky that my first real assignment in comics was for Louise Simonson and Carl Potts.

Franklin’s New Friends (top left) Cute Kal-El Bogdanove as Franklin Richards. Photo courtesy of daddy Bog. (above) Original Bogdanove/Bob Wiacek art from Power Pack #24 (July 1986), courtesy of Heritage.

ROGER ASH lives in Wisconsin, where he works for Westfield Comics. He wishes he had a smartship.

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During our interview, June Brigman mentioned a unique project she was recently involved with. Even though it doesn’t have anything to do with Power Pack, we wanted to share this fascinating story with you. – Roger Ash JUNE BRIGMAN: There’s a comic-book company based in Kuwait called Teshkeel that I’ve been working with for a few years now. They have a superhero comic called The 99. They opened a 99 theme park in Kuwait. The whole thing, all over the walls and banners and the rides, features artwork that my husband and I produced for this company. It’s nice to see something like that done with our artwork. I feel a little bit like a diplomat. Kids are into it and enjoying it, so it’s neat. Editor’s note: Broaden your global comics reading today by discovering The 99. Visit www.the99.org for details—and a free comics download! Special thanks to Naif Al-Mutawa, Marie Javins, and Alan Misenheimer.

(top) A mural in the theme park featuring June Brigman’s art. Photos courtesy of Marie Javins. (left) The 99 Village theme park in Jahra, Kuwait. (inset) Teshkeel Comics’ The 99: Origins (2008). Cover art by June Brigman and Roy Richardson. © 2010 Teshmeel Media Group KSC.

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[Editor’s note: This article was pitched to BACK ISSUE after production on our “Monsters” issue, which appeared two issues ago, had already begun. While it would have complemented BI #36’s Vampirella article, we feel it’s certainly at home in this, our “Family” issue, since its subject, Heidi Saha, is the daughter of a sci-fi legend.]

Jack Abramowitz

Arthur W. Saha (1923–1999) was a science-fiction author and editor, best known for such anthologies as Annual World’s Best SF and The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. President of the New York Science Fiction Society and a recipient of the First Fandom Hall of Fame award for his contributions, Saha is credited with coining the term “Trekkie” for Star Trek aficionados. But Art Saha’s most lasting contribution to the field of comics was his daughter Heidi. Heidi Saha was a familiar fixture to readers of Warren magazines and attendees of comics conventions in the early 1970s. She was well known for appearing in skimpy costumes, as Sheena and Vampirella. So popular was Heidi imagined to be that in 1973, she was given her own one-shot magazine and a poster (as Sheena). Born January 30, 1959, Heidi was 14. One is tempted to give benefit of the doubt that the 1970s were a simpler, more innocent time, but that’s very hard to do. In all likelihood, publishing the magazine was as creepy then as it is today. Rumor has it that the magazine was pulped, although some believe it merely didn’t sell very well. (Today, it is a rare collectible, much sought-after but rarely seen.) We’ll return to the Heidi magazine shortly. First, let’s address some of Heidi’s appearances in various Warren magazines. Heidi’s print debut may have been Famous Monsters of Filmland #65 (May 1970). On page 30 there appears a column entitled “Professor Gruebeard,” in which the “world’s oldest answer man … deal(s) with as many questions as he can per issue.” The question asked was whether Forrest J. Ackerman (“Mr. Science Fiction” and Famous Monsters editor) had any children. The reply included a photo of Ackerman with his arm around an 11-year-old Heidi and text explaining that “Heidi Saha of Kenilworth, New Jersey … sure knows that her ‘Uncle’ Forry likes ‘kids’!” Vampirella #29 (Nov. 1973) featured Heidi in an article entitled “Two Vampirella’s (sic) Stun 5,500 at 1973 Comic Art Convention.” The article, by Gerry Boudreau, describes the costume contest at the aforementioned convention. The panel of judges included Sergio Aragonés (MAD, Groo), Tom Fagan (of Rutland, Vermont, fame) and Jeff Jones, a renowned sci-fi and fantasy illustrator, whose work included the strip Idyl that appeared in National Lampoon. Family Issue

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“Uncle Forry” Famous Monsters of Filmland’s Forest J. Ackerman, in a photo from in 1988. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Contestants included Cheech Wizard, Elric, the Demon, and first-prize-winning Ming the Merciless, but, Boudreau reports, “it was undoubtedly the two Vampirellas who captured the hearts of the 5,500 fans.” One Vampirella was Angelique Trouvere, also known as “Destiny,” a “well-proportioned brunette actress” who was “ravishing as Vampi.” The other, of course, was Heidi, whom the article declares “everybody’s favorite fan.” The rest of the one-page article goes on to describe the other highlights of the convention, including a war comics panel and various film screenings. The article returns to the subject of Vampirella cosplay [costume roleplay] in the final paragraph, speculating on the impact that fifty Vampirellas might make at the following year’s event. There may be no definitive list of Heidi’s appearances in Warren magazines, but another significant emergence occurred in Famous Monsters #115 (Apr. 1975). There, as part of an article entitled “I Love Vampires,” is the exact same photo of Heidi as appears in Vampirella #29. (It bears mentioning that Heidi strikes the iconic Vampirella pose by José Gonzáles from the classic 1972 poster—right arm extended, with a bat on her wrist.) What makes this repeat performance noteworthy is that the same page features a picture of Charlene Brinkman as Vampirella at the 1974 West Coast Comicon. Charlene would later become known as Brinke Stevens, horror-movie scream queen and star of the comics Brinke of Eternity and Brinke of Destruction. (She was also briefly married to comics artist Dave Stevens, perhaps best known for The Rocketeer.) As for the little-seen one-shot, the exact details, including precisely what they were thinking, are shrouded in mystery. Published with a cover price of $2.00, An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha contains 32 black-and-white pages, plus covers. There are no color photos. There aren’t even any Vampirella photos! The contents are actually rather tame; it’s just that the idea of an entire magazine glorifying a 14-year-old girl is rather unsettling. The introductory page, “Heidi, Ho!,” introduces us to “the (sigh) Desired Princess of Sighin’s Fiction and Comicdom’s Cutie” (sic). The fact that the same page also refers to her as “Lilith, Lolita & Lorelei” does not appear to have concerned anyone. The next section, “A Star is Born,” starts with naked baby pictures of Heidi juxtaposed with text comparing her to a future Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. Other comparisons are bandied about, from Barbarella and Phoebe Zeit-Geist to the art of Frank Frazetta. Turn the page and you’ll find the typical family-album fare, including dance, camp, and playground photos. (The jungle gym upskirt is in questionable enough taste, but one dance photo is “cleverly” captioned, “Her first comic … strip.” She can’t be more than seven years old in that photo.)

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Next comes a section entitled “‘Heid’ & Go Chic.” This portion of the magazine features photos of Heidi in costume from various conventions. While Vampirella is conspicuous by her absence, there are copious shots of Heidi as Sheena. You’ll also find Heidi as a “Bergey girl” from the covers of Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories, plus Heidi as Shanna from the Star Trek episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (originally portrayed by Angelique Pettyjohn, whose picture is included, presumably for comparison). “Her Famous Friends” follows, featuring pictures of Heidi with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Forrest J. Ackerman (her patron), and other luminaries of the 1970s sci-fi scene. Among the names still familiar today are authors Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Anne McCaffrey. The final section is “Here’s Heidi,” which attempts to tantalize the reader with the promise that we may some day hear that introduction on “The Johnny Carson Show” (though why it would still be called that is not explained). This section includes a variety of random pictures of Heidi in street clothes, a leotard, and the obligatory bikini. The inside back cover features Heidi as Sheena, but from the rear. The text is a poem, which reads, “Misty … Vampi … Annie Fanny … admittedly are mighty. But watch her grow and we’ll be back with The Return of Heidi.” This plan, however, was not to see fruition. As offbeat as most of Heidi’s forays into comics were, perhaps her most unusual appearance— along with her father—occurs in Charlton’s E-Man #5 (Nov. 1974). In that issue, the title character is transported to another dimension, where he meets a girl named Heidi, visually based on young Miss Saha. In an interview conducted via email, E-Man writer Nicola Cuti explains how this guest appearance came about: “When I left the service in 1969 and decided on a career in comics, I began to attend comic-book conventions,” Cuti relates. “It was at one of those conventions in 1974 where I met the Sahas. They were a charming family, who seemed devoted to comics and treated me as a celebrity.” So why put Heidi in one of his comics? “I commonly use people I [meet] as characters in my stories because it keeps the characters real. There is no need to create a backstory for them because there already is one and, hopefully, the people I use in the story will be thrilled to see themselves in a comic book.” Heidi’s father Art also appeared in the issue, as one of the rulers of the tale’s unearthly city. When asked the significance of this casting, Cuti says there was none beyond the hope that the elder Saha “would enjoy seeing himself in the comic along with his daughter.” A third character prominent in the story, Peter, was not conceived to represent a particular individual, though Cuti speculates that series artist Joe Staton may have based him on someone, as Peter “seemed very realistic.” [Editor’s note: When asked by BACK ISSUE if he based Peter upon a real person, artist Staton—who illustrates our next issue’s cover!— could not recall any such inspiration.]

(As an aside, the story featuring Heidi is entitled “The City Swallower,” and the villain of the piece was a creature that Cuti said was “a combination of the unicorn-toothed Narwhal and Monstro, the whale from Pinocchio.” “When you have cities floating in space, like fish food suspended in a fish tank,” Cuti says, “it’s a natural progression to create a city swallower as their nemesis.”) Following her brush with greatness, Heidi slipped away from the public eye. She briefly surfaced in 2000 to pen a tribute to her father shortly after his passing. “Arthur Saha, My Father” credited to “Heidi Elizabeth Saha” appeared in the science-fiction journal Locus #468 (vol. 44, #1, Jan. 2000), the same issue as the elder Saha’s obituary. Every so often, pictures of Heidi will surface in some article or interview. Forrest Ackerman himself published a book in 2001 entitled Famous Forry Fotos. This collection of photographs from his personal archives includes a full-page image of Ackerman with Heidi as Vampirella at the 1973 convention. In general, Heidi’s body of work (no horrible, inappropriate pun here!) is an interesting footnote on the 1970s fandom scene. The Heidi magazine, no doubt her magnum opus, remains a unique and enigmatic item and, for many, the Holy Grail of Warren collectibles. JACK ABRAMOWITZ is a writer and educator who has been writing about comics for 18 years. This is his first contribution to BACK ISSUE.

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Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man— well, I’m a man with a wealth of tasty comic-art stats that I’ve collected over the years, and I’d love to share them with you. Tom Ziuko here—you may know my work as a colorist at DC and Marvel over the last three decades, or here as a cover colorist on various TwoMorrows books and magazines. Now I’m excited to come in from the covers to take over the “Rough Stuff” feature. I believe I can bring a unique spin to this column— before becoming a freelance colorist, I had the privilege of working on staff in the production department at DC Comics. Whenever possible, I would make stats and copies

To m Z i u k o

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of all types of art as it came through production, and I’m happy to have this forum to present them. I also plan on expanding the scope of this column beyond just pencil and layout art. Starting next issue, look for the last page of this feature to always be something special—in the spirit of rough stuff, I’ll be running never-before-printed items like model sheets, behind-the-scenes special-projects artwork, and stats of unadorned pristine cover art (before any logos, type, or lettering were added). Kirby sez: “Don’t ask, just ENJOY!” Couldn’t’ve said it better myself.

Family. According to the dictionary, one definition of the word is: “individuals related by blood.” Here we have what many readers consider to be the first family of comics—Superman and his cousin Supergirl. The Supergirl pencil art (opposite page) is by Carmine Infantino—page one from the first issue of her 1980s run. And this image is the final page from the last issue of John Byrne’s ’80s revamping of Superman, the miniseries The Man Of Steel. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Family. Sometimes you’re related and you don’t even know it. Brother and sister Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, on this unused Marvel Comics Star Wars cover by Carmine Infantino. TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd.

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Family. Sometimes you’re brought together by overwhelming outside forces. World War II made brothers out of men from across the USA and around the globe. Pencil art from The History of the DC Universe by George Pérez. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Family. Sometimes you band together and create your own. Outcasts of society, feared by the normal world, these teenagers were brought together by Professor Xavier to become the X-Men. Pinup art by Trevor Von Eeden. (opposite page) Family. Sometimes you become inducted into one whether you want to not. Here Dracula welcomes another disciple into his legion of the undead. Pinup art by Tomb of Dracula’s Gene Colan. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“Presenting with pride: the epic Ending of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Trilogy ... the ultimate confrontation between Darkseid of Apokolips and ... Orion of the New Gods.” Thus began the New Gods strip buried away on page 25 of Adventure Comics #260 (Nov.–Dec. 1978). Though it’s barely remembered today, the Fourth World saga, probably the most famous “incomplete” series in comics history, was actually granted an ending— it just wasn’t by the series’ creator. Begun in a flurry of excitement and expectation in 1970 (“Kirby is here!” screamed cover lines and house ads), the Fourth World trilogy was ultimately deemed a failure by its publisher, and its cancellation caused creator Jack Kirby a great deal of heartache. A decade later, DC Comics commissioned him to provide an ending [in the Hunger Dogs graphic novel]: It seems even DC had forgotten the saga had already finished! The finale began inauspiciously with the publication of the final issue of 1st Issue Special, DC’s none-too-successful experimental tryout book. “1st Issue Special (FIS) was a peculiar book concept,” explains Gerry Conway, “based on Carmine Infantino’s observation that first issues of titles often sold better than subsequent issues. Carmine’s brainstorm: a monthly series of nothing but first issues. It sounds like a joke, but he was dead serious.” FIS #13 (cover-dated Apr. 1976) featured the New Gods in their first major appearance since the demise of the Fourth World titles several years before. For the occasion Orion was given a new costume, a wildly inappropriate red-and-yellow number with a big, blue “O” on the chest. Set “months” after New Gods #11 (Oct.–Nov. 1972), the plot concerns Orion’s discovery that his father Darkseid is arming for a renewed war to be fought on Earth. Plotted by Gerry Conway, with finished dialogue by Denny O’Neil, and drawn by Mike Vosburg, it’s an enjoyable issue, though little more than an extended fight scene.

Kirby Isn’t Coming Readers got their first glimpse of the Fourth World without its creator, Jack Kirby, in (inset) 1st Issue Special #13 (Apr. 1977, cover by Dick Giordano), which was quickly followed by (right) New Gods #12 (July 1977, cover by Al Milgrom). TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Allan Harvey

Newton and Adkins While Kirby fans might’ve missed the King, the Return of the New Gods’ art team of Don Newton and Dan Adkins delivered some impressive work, such as (above) the splash to issue #12 and (right) page 3 of issue #14 (shown in original-art form). TM & © DC Entertainment.

The revival went no further. “I’m not sure there was ever an intention—at least at the publisher’s level—to go past a ‘first issue’ of the book,” says Conway. “When Carmine was replaced as publisher by Jenette Kahn, New Gods was an obvious candidate for revival.” Indeed, once Kahn was ensconced in the hot seat, DC began a program of expanding its line, both with new titles and new formats. Return of the New Gods #12, continuing the numbering of the first series (and, for official purposes, remaining just New Gods in the indicia), duly appeared, cover-dated July 1977, followed in September by a revival of Mister Miracle. The stars of the third book of Kirby’s original trilogy, the Forever People, were not so lucky. For whatever reason, DC has been reluctant (beyond a 1988 miniseries) to give Kirby’s “hippie” superheroes another shot at fame. “I assume no one was as passionate about them,” suggests Paul Levitz, then-editor of the revival. Gerry Conway goes further: “I’m guessing it’s because Forever People was perceived as the weakest of the original run of DC Kirby titles (Jimmy Olsen excluded).” Running for more than a year, Return of the New Gods (RotNG) was written in its entirety by Conway and drawn by Don Newton (with the exception of a Rich Buckler fill-in in RotNG #15, Dec. 1977). Artist Newton “was amazingly talented and grossly underrated,” says Conway. “I liked working with Don both on that story, and on Batman, much later.” [Editor’s note: You newcomers owe

it to yourselves to discover the art—and life—of Don Newton, who died much too young, in our coverfeature spotlight on the artist in BACK ISSUE #19.] The series tells a single story designed to lead up to the big finale of the God-War, thereby (it’s suggested in editorial comments) freeing up the characters to move on in new directions. The main thrust of the story has Darkseid discovering that the long-sought-after Anti-Life Equation resides in the subconscious of six inhabitants of planet Earth. He dispatches his forces to Earth to snatch the unfortunate six, one of whom is longtime New Gods supporting character Dave Lincoln. The New Gods, who, as written by Conway, act as a quasi-superhero team, race to protect them. It’s fairly insular, with little sense of the wider world of Kirby’s tapestry. Highfather, Orion, Metron, and Lightray are all present and correct, while fellow Kirby creations Forager and Lonar swell the ranks. Kirby had featured few female New Gods, so Conway brought in his own character: Jezebelle. Blue-skinned and sporting destructive eye beams, Jezebelle had an Family Issue

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Lonar’s Last Ride Lightweights like Lonar muscled their way into Gerry Conway’s Return of the New Gods feature. Splash page to New Gods #15 (Dec. 1977) illustrated by Rich Buckler and Bob McLeod. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Entertainment.

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origin similar to Big Barda, in that she was a resident of Apokolips that escaped and made good. One by one, the Earth folk are captured and Darkseid begins to put the Anti-Life Equation together. Eventually he succeeds in plugging all six into his “cosmic computer” and solves the equation. In doing so, the mystery of how the six came to be holding portions of the equation is revealed. In Forever People #11 (Oct.–Nov. 1972), the eponymous heroes faced the evil Devilance, but, in defeating him, were forced to exchange places with the mysterious Infinity Man. Unfortunately, during the battle that ensued, both Infinity Man and Devilance were seemingly destroyed. The Forever People were left trapped on an Eden-like planet beyond time and space. However, RotNG #19 (July–Aug. 1978) reveals that as he died the essence of Infinity Man escaped and lodged in the heads of the six humans. Pondering further, Darkseid realizes that he can use this knowledge to breach the Great Barrier and discover the secrets of the Source, Kirby’s mystical energy that provides the New Gods’ power. Darkseid and his minion Desaad then create a being of pure Anti-Life, the Antagonist, and send it to Earth to oversee the madness that the solved equation has wrought. As a caption explains: “It is an Earth transformed … human fights human, brother slays sister, lover strikes lover … and what was once humanity’s home has become Earth the battlefield.” And a hellish place it is.

Orion flees to Apokolips but finds Darkseid has gone to probe the mystery of the Source. Should he succeed, the Universe itself will come under his thrall! And there it ended. RotNG was canceled with issue #19. But with the story so close to conclusion, the decision was made to include the finale as a backup feature in the newly expanded (to Dollar Comic status) Adventure Comics. Conway: “My guess, the sales of [RotNG] weren’t strong enough to justify continuing it, but we didn’t want to leave the readership hanging. Again.” Levitz concurs: “The [DC] Implosion led to a dramatic shortening of the line, and we ran out a few series in Adventure.” The introductory statement to the New Gods tale in Adventure #459 (Sept.–Oct. 1978) leaves the reader in no doubt as to the story’s intent:

Cosmic Covers (left) New Gods #17’s (Apr. 1978) cover by Jim Starlin, who wrote and drew the characters’ demises 30 years later; and (right) Al Milgrom’s cover to #18 (June 1978). TM & © DC Entertainment.

“It began in the early seventies as Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Trilogy—New Gods, Mister Miracle and the Forever People! Then those magazines were cancelled, and the series lay dormant for years, until it was recently reborn! Now, it is our privilege to present the concluding adventures in this epic war of worlds…” Orion embarks on a mission to intercept Darkseid, and confronts him on a bleak asteroid. Darkseid offers Orion great power, but Orion refuses and is blasted. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Lightray, Metron, Forager, Jezebelle, and Metron attempt to survive an attack by

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The (Short-Lived) End(s) of the New Gods (left) New Gods #19 (July-Aug. 1978) ended the gods’ saga … until creator Jack Kirby returned in 1985 with his own series mop-up in DC Graphic Novel #4, “The Hunger Dogs”— which wasn’t the end of the New Gods, either. TM & © DC Entertainment.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

the massed ranks of the Antagonist’s army—a force composed of mindless, Anti-Life-controlled people. Adventure #460 (left) finishes things off in a brief ten pages. Given the story’s supposed importance, it is perhaps a little surprising that the finale barely merits a mention on the cover. Darkseid arrives at the Great Barrier, but finds Highfather waiting for him. Darkseid throws all he has at the aged New God, bringing him to his knees. Then Orion appears, determined to avenge Highfather’s defeat. Back on Earth, Metron enables the six humans to join with Mother Box, and it uses the Anti-Life Equation found in their minds to destroy the Antagonist and restore order. At the Barrier, Orion and Darkseid fight. Darkseid, weakened by his attack on Highfather, falls into the Barrier. The experience expands him to giant size, and he is repelled towards Apokolips. Witnessing the approach of what he believes to

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be a vast creature, Desaad fires a Uni-Cannon, utterly destroying Darkseid. As “meteors” rain down on Apokolips, the denizens of New Genesis celebrate in song. Orion, ever the hunter, broods. The end. It’s a good, solid tale, well told—albeit a bit rushed at the end. That it was later ignored is a shame. We were robbed of seeing where Conway might have taken the New Gods beyond the confines of the God-War, a war that has largely kept the characters trapped in their own little segment of the DC Universe ever after. Following Adventure #460, Darkseid was revived in JLA #183 and went from strength to strength. However, later, when Kirby returned to DC in 1984, he picked up his story where he left off in New Gods #11, and RotNG was confined to the scrapheap of forgotten continuity. “[Following Kirby was] pretty darn daunting,” admits Conway, in conclusion, “and I’m not sure I really did provide much of a finale, actually.” ALLAN HARVEY’s power is a song within him, and whosoever fears a good comic burns at his touch. He blogs regularly about the wonders of the Silver and Bronze ages at w w w. t h e f i f t h b r a n c h . c o m / gorilladaze.

John Schwirian

Take a ride with me now in the WABAC Machine, back to Saturday, September 10, 1977! Watch as an eager 13-yearold hastily scarfs down a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal and races into the living room. Still wearing his Captain America pajamas, he punches the “ON” knob on the television. Aching with anticipation as he listens to the hum of the TV set warming up—is he in time? Has it started yet? After three years of watching the same episodes over and over again, finally, new episodes of the Super Friends! And then it starts, the familiar beat of the theme song—dum, dum, dum… The narrator introducing the Super Friends—Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and … the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna? And their Space Monkey, Gleek?? What the hey? Where are Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? Unfortunately, watching the new episodes that season would never reveal the answer. In fact, the animated series, which continued to produce new episodes every year through 1986, never adequately addressed this mystery. Eventually, the Super Friends would travel to the Wonder Twins’ home planet, but the full origin of the Twins and the final fates of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog would remain unknown. According to Darrell “Big D” McNeil, who joined the Hanna-Barbara animation studios in 1976, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog had to go for two primary reasons: 1) they had no superpowers, and 2) they weren’t Donny and Marie Osmond. “When the decision was

made by ABC to renew Super Friends three years after the first series’ 1973 production,” McNeil elaborates, “ABC and Hanna-Barbara wanted to ramp up (as much as they/we could, considering the mores of the time) the series’ action content. And since we were ramping that up, that meant making all of our cast a bit more serious, and giving our five leads a bit more backup than three non-powered sidekicks. [New sidekicks] also helped emphasize the ‘New’ in All-New Super Friends.” Now, considering that it was hard enough to develop enough action to keep all five Super Friends occupied, why bother to include kid sidekicks at all? “For the same reason,” McNeil explains, “kid sidekicks (starting with Robin, Bucky, et. al) were added to comicbook heroes in the first place: audience identification. You have to remember, back then, kids’ programming meant precisely that: We were writing, producing, etc. for an audience of kids, not ’tweens or adults that happened to like watching kids’ cartoons—ages six to 14 or something like that. And the networks felt that kids watching adults doing action stuff would, through their kid sidekicks, imagine themselves helping their favorite heroes stop the crime/beat the villain/solve the mystery, etc. And that was part of the reason why the Wonder Twins had their own four-minute ‘teaching’ stories added to the All-New Super Friends when the show changed from the half-hour format we started it as to the Hour it became by the time it aired in the fall of 1977.” Family Issue

Osmond Powers, Activate! (left) One-time TV duo Donny and Marie Osmond’s popularity encouraged Hanna-Barbera to create the Super Friends’ teen members, the Wonder Twins (above). Special thanks to Andy Mangels for the photo and Darrell McNeil for the Super Friends production drawing. TM & © DC Enterainment.

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WONDER TWIN POWERS—ACTIVATE! Hopefully, we are all familiar with the Twins touching hands and taking the forms of water and animals, but according to page 235 of McNeil’s Eisner-nominated book Alex Toth: By Design!, it wasn’t always that way. An early design for the Wonder Twins had them named Dick and Jane (with Mighty Monkey), and their powers were quite different. Fortunately, Darrell McNeil remembers the development process in great detail: “The original conception of Dick, Jane, and Squeeks (another early name for Gleek) had the duo at first only use their powers when within proximity of each other, meaning that they always had to be near each other. Also, at one time in the development process, they were going to have sunlight (or lack of the same) affect their powers as well … both of which were dropped during development in favor of the now-famous ‘Wonder Twins powers—activate’ touch. Originally, when the twins touched, they had to take their gloves off when they made contact and, in the earliest [episodes], they did. Then Bill Hanna and ABC decided it’d take too much time in animation to constantly show the twins pulling their gloves off, doing the touch, then putting them back on before they changed, so we just had them keep the gloves on. “Also, power-wise, originally Dick/Zan (a play on Tarzan and Jane, natch) had powers similar to Plastic Man (he could stretch and change his shape), while Jane/Jayna could transform into anything, not just animals (e.g., from the writer’s bible, ‘…a boulder into a bean’), but Hanna-Barbera and ABC both felt that the twins were too powerful in comparison to the other Super Friends, not to mention the villains … and not to mention opportunities for comic-relief gags. So Barbera, [writer Norman] Maurer, producer Art Scott, and the network scaled their powers down to more manageable water-based and animal forms.” McNeil goes on to describe the various elements that were incorporated into the final look of the Wonder Twins and their Space Monkey: “Visually, creative producer Iwao Takamoto and design supervisor Bob Singer did the final designs of Zan, Jayna, and Gleek (whose super-long tail was, of course, his superpower). Iwao, as I remember, styled Jayna’s ‘whipped cream’ hairdo after a woman that worked as an animation checker at Hanna-Barbera […] who actually wore her hair like that, minus the ‘whip-tip.’ The pointed ears, of course, came from Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, and their costumes’ purple hues came from giving them a color scheme and colors that none of the other Super Friends had. At one time, they shared the same skin tone as the other Friends, but had purple hair! That was changed to black hair and a darker skin tone to ‘ethnic-ize’ them a bit.” While the Twins’ powers, names, and visual concepts were in development, the animators and writers also had to come up with personalities for the sidekicks. “What was in our minds (and particularly ABC’s),” McNeil chuckles, “was playing off the popularity of then-stars Donny and Marie Osmond (‘Spacey’ was our variant of a fun ‘insult’ Marie used to always call Donny). Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d almost bet money that ABC told us to ‘Make Donny and Marie alien kids and put them in the show!’” Don’t believe it? Pull out a Super Friends DVD and listen to the characterization voice actors Michael Bell and Liberty Williams gave Zan and Jayna and then try to convince yourself that they don’t sound like Donny and Marie Osmond.

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Prior to the arrival of the Wonder Twins, Super Friends episodes consisted of an hour-long (40 minutes minus commercials) tale about misguided scientists trying to improve the world, with detective work and a little morality lecture from Wendy and Marvin being essential to saving the day. However, the arrival of the All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977 really did “ramp” things up. Kids were now treated to four very different segments every episode. Take, for example, the first episode broadcast—in which the first segment featured Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin teaming up to stop the futuristic Dr. Cranium, followed by the Wonder Twins saving a pair of mischievous teens joy riding in a “borrowed” airplane. As if that weren’t enough

excitement, all five Super Friends and the Wonder Twins then have to stop the “Invasion of the Earthors” in the main segment, and then the show concluded with the debut of Black Vulcan (an African-American electrically powered hero), who joined forces with Aquaman. Wow! More action than a kid could handle! After a while, it felt like the Wonder Twins were the true stars of the show—after all, they were not only included in the full team segment, but also had their own solo segment every week. Each of the Big Five took turns doing a 30-second “good advice” segment (like Aquaman teaching a young boy to never swim alone, or Batman teaching Robin the Heimlich maneuver), but the Twins (and Gleek) had their own four-minute segment every episode where they used their superpowers to help young people in trouble. As corny as they may seem today, these little “morality” tales did stick in the memory of children and taught valuable lessons like “hitchhiking is dangerous.”

IT’S THE TROUBALERT! Over the next ten years, the Wonder Twins remained an element in the series, but their level of inclusion varied depending on the series’ format each year. In 1978, the series evolved, with 16 new half-hour episodes of the All-New Super Friends leading into a second half-hour featuring the Challenge of the SuperFriends, where the core five Super Friends plus six new members faced off against their arch-enemies, who had united as the Legion of Doom. The Wonder Twins were absent from the Challenge episodes, and understandably so! Thirteen villains is a serious threat that required the undivided attention of all 11 Super Friends, and the Wonder Twins would provide an unnecessary plot distraction. However, they remained primary characters alongside the five core Super Friends during the first hour of air-time. The Challenge of the SuperFriends proved so successful that by mid-season, it expanded to a full 90 minutes (with reruns from the previous season filling the third half-hour)! In 1979, the series changed names again to the World’s Greatest SuperFriends, a title that stuck for the next five years. The format altered frequently during this time, switching back and forth from a half-hour to an hour time slot. Although primarily running repeats, the series did include enough new animated adventures to keep the series fresh and hold its viewers. A big change came in 1984. Kenner Toys’ Super Powers action-figure line was selling well in stores, and Hanna-Barbera and ABC took notice. The series was transformed into SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and the plots developed in a manner similar to the Challenge of the SuperFriends format. Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and Samurai returned and teen sensation Firestorm was introduced to beef up the team as they would repeatedly face new challenges from Darkseid and his allies as well as Lex Luthor,

Brainiac, and other old foes. The expansion in cast and the new focus on Firestorm pushed the Wonder Twins into the background—they appeared in only three new episodes that year. Reruns of previous episodes continued to be broadcast alongside the new Super Powers series, yet ABC mysteriously failed to air any of the new episodes created for that season in the traditional format. Advertising for the SuperFriends: The Lost Episodes DVD states that Hanna-Barbera continued to produce new episodes after ABC decided to drop the series from its Saturday morning lineup. According to “Big D,” McNeil, this is a very misleading statement. “Trust me: Hanna-Barbera did nothing about the Super Friends without ABC’s approval … or money, since they financed the show. For the ’83–’84 season, as in the previous season, Hanna-Barbera produced eight new half-hours for that season with the intent of having them broadcast; the network ended up not using them. Why? Don’t know … and we didn’t care … we got paid! Two half-hours were broadcast along with the eight SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show ’84 season episodes … but, as I said, we did nothing on a network show without their approval.” When Cyborg was added to the show in 1985 for the Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, the Wonder Twins vanished altogether.

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Wonder Twins in Comics (bottom right) Writer E. Nelson Bridwell, abetted by artists Ramona Fradon and Bob Smith, transitioned from Wendy and Marvin to Zan and Jayna in DC Comics’ Super Friends #7 (Oct. 1977). (below) An interior page from the issue.

FROM EXXOR WITH LOVE The Wonder Twins were with the Super Friends for an entire decade, but no explanation was ever provided on the animated series for the origins of the Wonder Twins or the disappearance of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. However, there was one episode that took the viewers to the Wonder Twins’ home planet. In the episode “Demons of Exxor” from the 1978 season, we learn that the Twins are from the planet Exxor, located in the remote galaxy of Nova 12, millions of light years from Earth. The people of Exxor all wear purple and look like Zan and Jayna, however, they apparently do not share the Twins’ superpowers. Most of the Exxorians live in futuristic-looking cities protected by domes (like Atlantis) and travel from place to place in flying cars. The majority of the cities are located on dry, rocky terrain, but at least one city floats on a large body of water (thus giving Aquaman something to do). When the galactic conqueror Lord Darkon invades Exxor, Vol, leader of the Exxorian Senate,

TM & © DC Comics.

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summons the Wonder Twins home to defend them, hoping that Zan and Jayna had learned and mastered the skills of justice they were sent to Earth to learn from the Super Friends.

HOLY CONTRADICTIONS, BATMAN! The Super Friends comic book first appeared on the newsstands a few months before the arrival of the Wonder Twins on television. Wanting to keep pace with the television series, the comic’s writer E. Nelson Bridwell decided to drop Wendy and Marvin and add the Wonder Twins, but made sure he gave his readers a detailed explanation for the arrival of the Wonder Twins. [Editor’s note: This is not surprising, given ENB’s status as DC’s self-appointed continuity cop.] In Super Friends #7 (Oct. 1977), the Wonder Twins arrive on Earth to warn Superman that his old foe Grax has hidden multiple bombs across the Earth in order to blow up the planet. While the combined efforts of the Justice League and the Global Guardians are distracted locating Grax’s bombs, it is the junior Super Friends Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog who actually defeat the villain and save the day. Wendy and Marvin then graduate from the Super Friends and leave for college (taking Wonder Dog with them). Zan, Jayna, and Gleek are brought in to replace them and Batman sets them up with the secret identities of John and Joanna Fleming, blond-haired foreign-exchange students attending Gotham Central High. A year later, the origin of their superpowers was revealed in Super Friends #14 (Nov. 1978). According to Bridwell’s version, Exxor is a beautiful planet with golden plants and silvery seas. Ages ago, there were two races of Exxorians, normal humans and those who could change their shape. Over the years, the two races intermingled, and the recessive trait of shapeshifting slowly vanished from the population. Although virtually

Cover Appearances Among the Super Friends issues featuring the Wonder Twins on their covers were issues (left) #11 (Apr.–May 1978) and 24 (Sept. 1979), both by Fradon and Smith. TM & © DC Entertainment.

bred out, a shifter would be born once every generation or so, only to be shunned by the general population as a freak. Thus, Fonab and Rua were highly distressed when they learned that their twin children, Zan and Jayna, were shifters. However, Fonab and Rua died when they were infected by an off-world virus that created a planet-wide plague. The orphaned toddlers were adopted by businessman Dentwill who had the Twins perform in his trans-world carnival. There, they were befriended by Illik the laughmaker (an Exxorian clown) and his pet elasti-monk, Gleek. As they grew older, Zan learned how to pilot various spacecraft. Eventually, the Twins realized that they were being used as slaves, not receiving a salary like Illik, and demanded payment for their years of performing for Dentwill. Afraid of their powers, Dentwill gave them a spaceship. As they fled captivity (with Gleek in tow), the Twins ran afoul of Grax and learned of his plan to destroy Earth. Hence, they sought out the Super Friends as previously documented seven issues earlier. Eventually, In Super Friends #21 (June 1979), the heroes traveled to Exxor to battle criminal Exxorian shapeshifters Yeltu and Felga, who could alter their appearances to look like other people.

JUMPING JUPITER The Super Friends comic book was canceled in 1981, and the cartoon series last appeared on Saturday mornings in August 1987, thus banishing the Wonder Twins into syndicated rerun limbo. The old episodes would be repackaged and aired in multiple formats over the next twenty-plus years, but the glory days were over. The Wonder Twins were now has-beens, never to return. Or so we thought. It turns out, the Twins have many a hardcore fan, including comic-book writer Ivan Velez, Jr. When plotting Extreme Justice #9 (Oct 1996), he saw the perfect opportunity to revive the Twins. “I liked the Wonder Twins,” Velez laughs. “Let’s face it, comic books are all corny to some degree. I was trying

to play with the nostalgic elements of the whole Super Friends canon. I love how some people have taken the old and twisted [things] just right to come up with something new. I was going to introduce the Wonder Twins into the DC Universe, and have them be these little desperate, sad little characters … slaves forced into hard labor and desperately trying to remain free and alive.” Extreme Justice was a comic-book series that featured all the heroes cast out of the Justice League when the old core members started to return. Although this team book starred characters like Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Maxima, and Firestorm, it was nothing like the old BWAH-HA-HA humorous team they belonged to in the Justice League of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Extreme Justice started as grim and gritty drama, but Velez had other ideas, like changing the membership roster starting with Zan and Jayna. “Extreme Justice was never as grim and gritty as I wanted it to be. I wanted the Twins to be extremely likable, and a little sad … and have them become members of a strange and dysfunctional family that would include Rocket Red and his brood, Blue Beetle, Bat Lash (yes, I was going to bring in a female one), Firestorm, and a new character that would have been the female soul of an alien ship (and a girl for Blue Beetle). And, yes, I was going to trap them all on a planet of purple monkeys for a spell.” But Velez and editor Ruben Diaz had their differences of opinions, and the Wonder Twins’ debut was the writer’s last issue. In Extreme Justice #9, the Twins escape from an alien slaver and manage to seek refuge on Earth (no space monkey with them). They are angry, hurt, and confused—unable to speak the local language, and they fall into conflict with the members of Extreme Justice, who accidently send the Twins back to their captor. The plot line remained untouched until Extreme Justice #14 (Mar. 1996), where new writer Robert L. Washington III resolved the problem, TM & © DC Entertainment.

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A Big Thank-You to Big “D” One-time HannaBarbera animator— and occasional BACK ISSUE contributor— Darrell McNeil kindly drew this Wonder Twins and Gleek sketch for us. Thanks, Darrell! TM & © DC Entertainment.

freeing them from slavery and revealing that the Twins were one-fifth of the ruling council of Exxor, banished because they dared to fight back against aliens bent on enslaving the planet. The Twins stayed with the series until its cancellation with #18 (July 1996), but little more was done to develop their characters. They made one last, minor appearance at DC Comics in Young Justice #49–51 (Nov. 2002–Jan. 2003).

REAL SPACEY, ZAN! Something about the Wonder Twins must have really resonated in the minds of the kids who spent ten years’ worth of Saturday mornings watching Zan and Jayna’s adventures, as the Exxorians have been popping up every now and then in various cameos, spoofs, and references on television shows in recent years. Comedy skits using the Wonder Twins have appeared on such shows as That ’70s Show, Family Guy, Dexter’s Laboratory, Celebrity Deathmatch, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, South Park, Fairly Odd Parents, Attack of the Show, and Robot Chicken. The sitcom Scrubs has made references to the Twins in two different episodes. In an episode of Veronica Mars, two characters refer to themselves as the Wonder Twins when they find themselves working together on a mystery. The greatest Wonder Twins tribute has to be the Justice League Unlimited animated episode “Ultimatum” (airdate Saturday, December 4, 2004), in which the government creates its own super beings that just happen to resemble old Super Friends members Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Zan and Jayna! Calling themselves the Ultimen, these laboratory-produced “heroes” challenge the Justice League— consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman! 64 • BACK ISSUE • Family Issue

WONDER TWINS POWERS—REACTIVATED While Zan, Jayna, and their space monkey Gleek are not getting their own animated series, comic book, or movie soon, you can find the majority of their adventures in your local DVD store. Warner Brothers has done an excellent job of restoring the original broadcast format of the Super Friends series on the seven DVD sets released so far, but do not expect much out of the special features. Instead of commentary from people who worked on the original show or providing any historical background, the special features instead showcase today’s animators and comic-book creators, as well as a few third-tier celebrities giving their opinions and personal feelings about the show, most of which comes off as farcical— like a person should be ashamed of having watched something as cheesy as the Super Friends. Well, let them have their say. True fans know better. Today, over thirty years since the Wonder Twins made their grand debut, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog are all but forgotten, but children of all ages still pound their fists to the cry of “Wonder Twins powers—activate!” By day, JOHN SCHWIRIAN is a mild-mannered high school English/special ed teacher, but by night, he dons the role of comic-book historian. In addition to his passion for all things Teen Titans, he explores the sunken regions of the DC Universe in his selfpublished fanzine The Aquaman Chronicles.

® by

Dewey Cassell Okay, I admit it. I had a crush on Batgirl. Still do. And not just the TV version ably embodied by Yvonne Craig, but the comic-book version as well. The timing of the new Batgirl coincided perfectly with my pre-pubescent adolescence. Barbara Gordon was not, however, the first Batgirl. That honor belongs to Betty Kane, who debuted as “Bat-Girl” in issue #139 of Batman, published in 1961. The original Bat-Girl was the niece and sidekick of Batwoman, and intended to be a love interest for Robin. But when Julius Schwartz became editor of the Batman-related titles at DC Comics in 1963, he retired the original Bat-Girl. Former DC writer and editor Denny O’Neil comments on Schwartz’s intuition: “One of the remarkable things about Julie was, he was wide open to any suggestions. He had been doing it one way since the ’40s, but he was certainly willing to change with the times, and it was he who came up with the business of changing the characters to fit the times. It seems obvious now, but it wasn’t at the time he was doing it. It became one of my main concerns as an editor: Figure out what made the character unique and popular to begin with and leave that intact, and change everything else. Julie first started doing that in 1956. He operated on instinct, and his instincts were damned good.” Schwartz’s “New Look” Batman premiered in 1964 in Detective Comics #327. Three years later, the new Batgirl (hyphen removed) appeared in issue #359 of the same title, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

I’ve Got a Secret Spoiler Alert! That’s Barbara Gordon’s dad, Commissioner Jim Gordon, who already knew Batgirl’s alter ego on the Neal Adams-drawn cover to Detective Comics #422 (Apr. 1972). TM & © DC Entertainment.

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THE MILLION-DOLLAR DEBUT OF BATGIRL!

Campy Crusader (below) Two shots of Yvonne Craig as ABCTV’s Batgirl, with an inset of the actress reading “her” first adventure in Detective #359. (top right) World’s Finest Comics #169 (Sept. 1967) was written by Cary Bates, who reveals that his editor regarded Batgirl as a “female Robin.” Cover art by Curt Swan and George Klein.

The idea for a new Batgirl actually originated with William Dozier, executive producer of the Batman television series. Dozier was looking for a way to invigorate the show and attract more viewers. He approached Schwartz about adding a recurring female character to the Batman family. Schwartz recalled in his autobiography, Man of Two Worlds, “I asked what kind of girl he had in mind, and as it turned out he had already worked out a possible scenario in his head whereby Commissioner Gordon had a daughter who decides to become Batgirl.” Batgirl debuted in comics nine months before she did on the television show. The character was a hit, both in the comics and on television. Publicity stills for the TV show depicted Yvonne Craig, the actress who played Batgirl, reading a copy of Detective Comics #359. Batgirl somehow managed to juggle the challenge of being both feminine and powerful, in a way that few other female superheroes had before her, with the exception of Wonder Woman. The stories appealed to male and female readers—a feat rarely accomplished in comics. As Batgirl writer Cary Bates notes, “It’s been established that the Batman TV show had a big impact on the comics sales, at least when the series was at its peak.” Bates adds, “The TV show often reflected what was going on in the comics at the time, such as the series’ inclusion of the recently introduced Aunt Harriet character.” There were some differences between the comic-book and television versions of the heroine. Although a short promotional pilot for Batgirl depicted her wearing a mask identical to the comics, it was changed before the first episode, as Yvonne Craig explains: “The points of the mask would put pressure on my face and make marks (somewhat like sunglasses do sometimes); they were indentations on my cheeks. We would then have to wait 30–40 minutes for my face to plump back up so we could shoot again as Barbara Gordon. When they rounded the mask, that solved the problem and we could go from one shot to another with just a quick change of wardrobe.” Batgirl’s debut in Detective Comics was memorable in that it showed an attractive, strong female character

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fighting alongside Batman. Her follow-up in issue #363 was an equally strong outing. However, some of Batgirl’s subsequent guest appearances, such as those in World’s Finest Comics, were less noteworthy, featuring more camp and less credibility for the blossoming heroine. Cary Bates observes, “I tend to think Mort [Weisinger, Superman editor] didn’t see her as much more than a female Robin … or as a counterbalance to the addition of Supergirl in a number of World’s Finest stories, some of which I wrote. In the later backup series edited by Julie [Schwartz], she became more interesting as we were able to explore her Barbara Gordon persona with a bit more depth.”

BATGIRL IN THE BRONZE AGE

After her solo backup series in Detective Comics, Batgirl was occasionally seen in random DC titles. Key appearances include: (top) Superman #268 (Oct. 1973), the first of two guest-shots in that title; Batman Family #9 (Jan.–Feb. 1977), where the Robin/ Batgirl team headlined, and Batgirl’s battle with the Joker’s Daughter (a.k.a. Harlequin) dominated this cover; (bottom) DC Comics Presents #19 (Mar. 1980), another Superman team-up; and Secret Origins #20 (Nov. 1987). TM & © DC Entertainment.

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BATGIRL’S BACKUP ADVENTURES

TM & © DC Entertainment.

Dashing Donnie’s Dominoed Daredoll A 1993 Batgirl sketch by Don Heck, the artist of many of the heroine’s Detective Comics backups. Courtesy of Dewey Cassell. TM & © DC Entertainment.

With issue #384 (Feb. 1969) of Detective Comics, Batgirl settled into a fairly regular backup spot, alternating appearances with Robin until issue #404, after which she was included in every issue. Characteristic of the Batgirl stories in Detective Comics was that they were typically two-part tales of eight pages each, none of which featured the classic Batman villains. Even so, the stories were typically well paced and action-packed. Denny O’Neil notes that the use of continued stories was somewhat of an anomaly: “The conventional wisdom was that you couldn’t do continued stories. Because the newsstands and drugstores were the venue, and the distribution system was sloppy, you couldn’t be sure that if you had Batman at the drugstore this month, that the next issue would be available, so you didn’t do continued stories. But Julie did.” Frank Robbins wrote most of the Batgirl stories during this time period, spelled occasionally by Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, and Denny O’Neil. Gil Kane penciled her adventures for the first two years. Kane lent the stories his unusual perspectives and dynamic fight sequences. Kane was followed by Don Heck, whose pencils on Batgirl were looser than some of his previous work (and certainly looser than Kane’s). However, the style worked well for the character, and the Robbins/Heck team remained with Batgirl until her departure from the book. Batgirl inkers during this time period included Murphy Anderson, Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, and Dick Giordano, although Don Heck later inked his own pencils. One of the curiosities of the series was the everchanging Batgirl logo. During her run in Detective Comics, the splash pages of the Batgirl stories featured a variety of logos. As Cary Bates notes, this was not entirely unusual. “Julie [Schwartz] was fond of playing around with logos, usually for the better,” Bates says. “I still remember the cool revamped Batman and Detective Comics logos he introduced when he became the editor of the so-called ‘New Look’ Batman.”

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A highlight of the series was a story written by Denny O’Neil called “A Burial for Batgirl!” (Detective #400, June 1970), with a nod to Edgar Allen Poe. It featured the first team-up of Batgirl and Robin, and the cliffhanger ending of part one left Batgirl bound and gagged, being walled up, brick by brick, in the niche of a damp cellar. Robin comes to her rescue in part two of the story and together they capture the bad guy, providing an excellent example of a compelling, fast-paced, action-oriented story told in 16 pages (and without a costumed villain.) O’Neil points out, though, the dichotomy in motivation between Batman and Batgirl: “It was such a gap between what was built into each character. One dedicated, darkly obsessed crimefighter and a cutie who thinks it’s neat to put on a costume. Of course, Batman was not consistent in those days, and characterization was not a concern. Stuff was plot-driven. When I started in the mid-’60s, conventional wisdom was that the audience turns over completely every three years, so what’s the point of being consistent? Julie Schwartz and [DC editor] Murray Boltinoff each did Batman, and I don’t think they ever coordinated with each other, nor was there any reason to. They each did their thing and it was fine for the time.”

DADDY IN THE DARK? One of the criticisms of the Batgirl stories was the unlikelihood that Barbara Gordon’s own father would not recognize her when she donned her cape and cowl. Experience tells us, however, that we frequently see (or don’t see) exactly what we expect to. Haven’t you ever bumped into someone, outside of the normal context in which you would have seen them, and struggled to remember their name, even though you knew they looked familiar? Is it so hard to believe that the commissioner would not have recognized Batgirl because she appeared to be the antithesis of the daughter he knew? Gordon remarks to his daughter at the conclusion of her first outing, “That Batgirl sure is tops in my book! Too bad you couldn’t be a little more like her, Babs!” The further irony is that Barbara originally sewed the Batgirl costume to wear to a Policeman’s Costume Ball, with plans to unmask in front of her father. However, once bitten by the crimefighting bug, she decided to continue her alter-ego role. During her early run in Detective Comics, Barbara Gordon continued to keep her costumed identity a secret from her father, or so she thinks. Writer Frank Robbins clues the reader in along the way that the elder Gordon is not as clueless as his daughter would like to believe. At the end of issue #417 (Nov. 1971), you see the father looking in on his supposedly sleeping daughter and pondering to himself, “I wonder … when will you tell your dad that you are Batgirl?” And at the conclusion of issue #421, when Batgirl tells the commissioner not to worry about his daughter, he says, “Oddly enough, Batgirl, once I saw you, I stopped worrying about her.” But it is not until two issues later (#423, May 1972) that Barbara finally shares her “secret” with her father, only to learn that he already knew. A recurring theme of the Batgirl stories was the protective nature of the relationship between father and daughter, not unusual, perhaps, but certainly carried to a unique extreme. Commissioner Gordon in the comics—unlike his television counterpart—was often in the thick of the action, either to thwart a villain or defend Barbara. And Batgirl had to rescue her dad from danger on more than one occasion, leaving the thoughtful reader to wonder what might have happened if Barbara had never become Batgirl.

The Go-Gettin’ Gordons This title page from Detective #421 (Mar. 1972) features daughter-and-dad Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon in action, as well as one of several Batgirl logos used for this backup series. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Entertainment.

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The Candidate (above) The Frank Robbins/Don Heck team transform Barbara Gordon into a congressional candidate on this page from Detective #423 (May 1973). (top right) Batgirl is protective of her injured father on this Ross Andru/Dick Giordano cover to Detective #484 (July 1979). TM & © DC Entertainment.

Yvonne Craig enjoyed working with her on-screen father, Neil Hamilton. “He came every day to the set letter perfect in dialogue and never missed a beat— a consummate professional,” Craig remembers. “I liked the way their [Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon’s] relationship was treated by the writers. I think the show allowed her to be independent but still have a loving relationship with her father, and I think that was healthy for everyone that watched.” Sadly, the relationship did not extend beyond the end of the third season, as the television series was canceled. Issue #392 (Oct. 1969) of Detective Comics featured the first appearance of Jason Bard, a budding criminologist who became romantically involved with Barbara Gordon. On several occasions, Bard helped Batgirl solve a case, without ever realizing it was his girlfriend under the cowl. In issue #422 (Apr. 1972), Commissioner Gordon is reluctantly drafted into running for Congress, but the following issue Barbara persuades her father to let her take his place on the ballot. Barbara won her bid for Congress and Jason Bard assumed the backup role in

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Detective Comics. At the end of issue #424, as Barbara’s plane departs for Washington, the Commissioner laments the loss of his daughter and her alter ego. This was not the end of Batgirl, of course. Batgirl made several subsequent guest appearances and in the late ’70s resumed a recurring role in Batman Family and Detective Comics. Years later, Barbara Gordon would be shot and paralyzed by the Joker, becoming Oracle, leader of a covert group of heroines called Birds of Prey. Alicia Silverstone brought the character back to the screen in the 1997 motion picture Batman & Robin, in a role best left forgotten. In more recent years, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown have taken up the mantel of Batgirl in the comics, with a darker persona more similar to the Batman. But 1972 marked the end of an era for Batgirl, an era of innocence and simplicity. Growing up is hard to do. For more on Batgirl in the 1960s and 1970s, pick up the book The Batcave Companion by Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg, available now from TwoMorrows Publishing. And read Yvonne Craig’s autobiography, From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond, available on her website at www.yvonnecraig.com. Sincere thanks to Yvonne Craig for the interview (and her sister Meridel for facilitating it). Thanks also to Denny O’Neil and Cary Bates for their insight into the history of Batgirl, on television and in the comics, and to Will King for the Heck Batgirl sketch. DEWEY CASSELL is a regular contributor to BACK ISSUE magazine and author of the book The Art of George Tuska, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. He is currently working on a book about Marie Severin.

Timothy Callahan

Family Tradition

It was December of 1977, and the members of the Justice Society of Earth-Two faced an impossibly grave threat, as one of their own—former caped crusader and now police commissioner Bruce Wayne—demanded their imminent arrest. Forced to flee from the police and, ultimately, oppose more old allies, the JSA gathered its strength and prepared to uncover the mystery behind this newly hostile behavior from a commissioner they had once called a friend. Another mystery was brewing in that same issue of All-Star Comics #69 (Nov.–Dec. 1977). A shadowy figure with pointed ears hovered in the background, commenting on the JSA’s plight in enigmatic thought bubbles. Could this be Batman, come out of retirement to help out his old pals? But then why was he acting so strange as Bruce Wayne? Who was this bat-like character, and what did he want? By the final page of the issue, after Bruce Wayne was revealed to be a puppet of the mind-controlling Psycho-Pirate, readers learned the truth of the shadowy character, or at least part of it. This was no Batman, but a woman with a pointy mask and scalloped cape. And she was a character who seemed to have a plan. She wouldn’t present herself to the JSA until the next bimonthly issue of All-Star Comics, but readers of DC Super-Stars #17 (released the same month as her first mysterious appearance in All-Star #69) learned all about this new character. She was Helena Wayne, the Huntress, daughter of a most unlikely duo: Batman and Catwoman.

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The Earth-Two Huntress (left, detail from the cover of DC Super-Stars #17) was the daughter of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman (above, detail from page 1 of that same issue). Art by Joe Staton and Bob Layton. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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THE COMING OF THE HUNTRESS “Some heroic legends end in a moment of triumph … others in tragedy. But some legends never die…” begins the origin story of the Huntress in a caption juxtaposed with the marriage ceremony of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. On that same opening splash page from DC Super-Stars #17, the caped figures of Batman and Catwoman loom overhead, providing a strong visual frame for the matrimonial events as drawn by Joe Staton. The story, written by then-All-Star Comics scribe Paul Levitz, takes the reader through the whirlwind romance and marriage of the two DC icons, and tells the tale of Selina Kyle’s accidental death at the hands of a criminal. Batman was indirectly responsible for his wife’s death, kicking a criminal whose errant shot pierced Selina Kyle’s chest, and he refused to don the cape and cowl after that tragic event. “Even the grim figure of his daughter, supporting him like a crutch,” reads a caption over a rain-soaked image, “can do nothing to stop his head from sagging

forward … and his soul from wishing for the restful peace of the grave.” On the very next page of DC Super-Stars #17, the reader finds Helena Wayne, dressed in heroic garb— clearly a sartorial combination of the purple Catwoman clothing and the Batman cape and silhouette— weeping at her mother’s grave. As Levitz’s caption says, “That night, the Huntress was born!” As the text piece in the back of that issue states, it all began with All-Star Comics inker Bob Layton. “Layton started to militate for an Earth-Two Batgirl as a member of the Justice Society,” reads the back matter written by Levitz in 1977. “The old Batgirl wasn’t terribly interesting,” says the text piece, “and a revamped revival wouldn’t have had much more potential either … so the idea was discarded. Then penciler Joe Staton jumped on the bandwagon and in his quiet way insisted that we add another girl to the team. (Ever been stabbed by a super-sharp pencil?) With the whole art team against him, the reluctant writer gave in. What else could he do?”

Darknight Daughter The Huntress’ enigmatic first appearance, on the last page of the Justice Society story in All-Star Comics #69 (Nov.–Dec. 1977). Original art page signed by Joe Staton and Bob Layton. From the collection of Fred L. deBoom. (below) Huntress and the JSA vs. the Strike Force on the Staton/Dick Giordano cover to #71. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Levitz continues the text piece by adding, “She’s hardly an update of Batgirl, and as her future exploits will clearly show, she’s more than just the daughter of Batman. She’s an individual in her own right, and perhaps the deadliest woman crimefighter yet imagined.” Levitz and Staton would go on to create dozens of Huntress stories in the pages of All-Star Comics, with Helena Wayne as a pivotal member of the JSA, and in the backup stories found in Batman Family and Wonder Woman, where the Huntress’ solo adventures would show a darker side to the character while further fleshing out her fictional reality. But who designed the striking look of the Huntress, with her memorable combination of the bat and the cat? “It’s all pretty vague after all these years,” says Levitz. “I think the DC Super-Stars text is the best contemporaneous account. I recall [colorist] Anthony Tollin had something to do with the original conversation, and Joe Staton reminds me that he did an original sketch which Joe Orlando played with a bit. Joe Orlando was the editor on All-Star Comics at the time, and although he had little interest in the whole Earth-Two back-mythology, he sometimes enjoyed playing with the visuals.” Staton adds, “the Earth-Two Huntress is my design, with a bit of crucial input from Joe Orlando. After Paul had described the origin to me, I worked up sketches combining elements of Catwoman and Batman, and went in see Joe. “The short version,” continues Staton, “is that Joe and I had a fine meeting, featuring Vinnie Colleta in his role as art director snoring away at full volume on the couch in the back of the room. Joe touched up the bat-elements in my original sketch, particularly the cape, giving it the scallops, and he made the belt emblem a bit more bat-like. Joe opened up his sketchpad and used my sketch as the main element in the cover design for DC Super-Stars, and I went home to pencil the final cover. “I always loved my meetings with Joe Orlando,” recalls Staton. “We’d do what we needed to do, and we’d wind up with Joe’s stories about the old neighborhood or the war or EC Comics. “By the way, Helena’s mask owed a lot to Lee Elias’ Black Cat character,” reveals Staton, “but that’s appropriate, considering the ‘cat’ side of Helena’s lineage.” Elias’s depictions of the spy-smashing Black Cat, from the post-war Harvey comics, certainly provided a unique template for Staton’s female vigilante, though Helena Wayne was considerably less cheerful in her crimefighting than her enthusiastic, motorcycleriding precursor.

Move Over, Bat and Cat! (top) Meet the Huntress’ real “parents”: writer Paul Levitz (left) and artist Joe Staton (right). (bottom) Joe Staton reveals that the Golden Age heroine the Black Cat provided visual inspiration for the Huntress. Cover to Black Cat #26 (Nov. 1950) by Lee Elias. Black Cat © 1950 Harvey Entertainment.

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2 Heroines for the Price of One The Huntress’ backup feature made Wonder Woman a must-read for many fans who previously had ignored the Amazon Princess’ title. (left) Cover to Wonder Woman #272 (Oct. 1980) by Dave Cockrum and Dick Giordano. (right) Issue #271’s splash page by Levitz, Staton (whose name is misspelled in the credits), and Steve Mitchell. TM & © DC Entertainment.

THE HUNTRESS ON THE PROWL With Levitz and Staton at the helm (other than a single solo story by Bob Rozakis and Don Heck, Levitz and Staton were the only creators to tell Helena Wayne stories for years), the Huntress faced challenges both large and small. From sexism at Helena’s law firm to the meaty paws of Solomon Grundy or Lionmane, the Huntress was forced to react to adverse circumstances with strength and determination—just like her father and mother would have. Levitz recalls, “the clearest memory I have is the sense of wanting her to be a strong, determined woman, someone raised to be powerful, in sort of the classic Doc Savage pattern—by strong parents. “Her tragedy happened at a much later age than Batman’s or even Robin’s, so it did her less damage psychologically,” says Levitz. “She was a superhero by training and choice, not ‘curse.’ The most fun of her appearances in All-Star was the interaction with Power Girl, while the fun of the solos was building a bit of a life for her, particularly looking backwards and seeing how the unusual career choices I gave her have been somewhat echoed by my own daughter, without any contact with the material. My daughter’s pursuing a career in public advocacy. She’s done stretches at the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and Lawyers’ Alliance, and is now about to go to Columbia for her Masters of Public Health to work in reproductive rights. CRR is a Public Interest Research Group, as was Helena’s firm.

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“Nicole doesn’t have a law degree yet, though,” Levitz jokes. In her backup stories from Wonder Woman (running from 1980 through 1984), the Huntress mostly battled street-level crime, with few supervillains appearing in the first year of her career. As the stories progressed, they became more and more traditionally superheroic, with long battles with the Joker not unusual. But like the Earth-One Batman, the Huntress’ solo tales were always a bit darker and more urban than her often brightly colored, fantastic adventures with her superhuman colleagues. In the JSA stories from the Levitz and Staton All-Star Comics, the Huntress was less a grim avenger and more a costumed thrillseeker. One of her most thrilling moments came in the final scene of All-Star Comics #72 (June 1978), when she came face to face with her namesake: the original Huntress! The Golden Age villain by the same name, with her signature tiger-print ensemble, splashed onto the scene on the final page of that issue, shouting, “I’m the real Huntress—and before I kill you, you’ll admit it!” In the following issue, the two furious females duke it out, and a helpful caption tells us that Helena Wayne forgot that a villain had once called herself the Huntress, and her name was certainly no tribute to the vixen who hunted heroes for sport. The battle rages on for many pages, and Levitz and Staton cut away from it only to return again and again, but Helena Wayne gets the victory by one of the oldest hero tricks in the book:

turning the villain’s traps against her. Falling prey to her own netting, the Golden Age Huntress can only stand silent when the JSA’s Green Lantern confirms that “this establishes who has the right to the name” and gives a nod to Helena Wayne. When recalling the Huntress vs. Huntress showdown, Levitz says, “I have very fond memories of the Brave and the Bold Starman/Black Canary tales, and the Showcase Dr. Fate/Hourman ones. And I definitely pulled the Huntress name from there, then did the classic Stan Lee old version/new version bit,” he adds, in reference to the Silver Age Marvel custom of pitting two characters with the same name against one another. Staton’s fondness for the JSA stories and the solo Huntress stories remains to this day. He admits, “Helena was the perfect character for me. She had all the history of the earlier Bat stories, but she wasn’t bound by the then-current continuity. She was old, she was new. Paul and I were right at home on Earth-Two. And I really liked the team-ups with Power Girl, who was all blonde and bright compared with Helena’s cool and classy presence. I compared them to a team-up of Joey Heatherton and Katherine Ross.” The Huntress/Power Girl duo might have been flashy— and plenty of fun for creators and readers alike—but with the Huntress solo stories Staton wasn’t afraid of bringing a noir approach to the visuals, though, as Staton admits, “even in the JSA stories, there was quite a bit of black.” As he explains, “Wally Wood had set the original style for those stories, and his inking was based on using solid chunks of black to define the forms. Think of those paneled walls in the JSA headquarters or

The Batman Family Huntress interacted with other Batcharacters in her Wonder Woman backup series, including (below left) the Golden Age Joker in issue #281, (below right) the Earth-Two Robin in #285, and (left) the Earth-One Batman in The Brave and the Bold #184. Original art scans courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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the ‘Wally Wood lighting’ on faces. Those bright light areas were outlined by the darkness in the JSA, while in Helena’s own stories the darkness was allowed to move forward over the characters. And of course, Joe Orlando was always around urging me to ‘use black as a color.’ “I’m not sure I was really conscious of the darker tone of her stories at the time, but in retrospect it is certainly obvious,” Staton says. “Looking back, I think one sequence that really worked in those terms was her run-in with Solomon Grundy [from Oct. 1980’s Wonder Woman #272]. Grundy was such a dark, horror-show character he brought out the best noir sensibilities in her world. Steve Mitchell inked that sequence and Steve was always great with lush blacks and crunchy pen lines. Yep, that’s a favorite!” After all these years, Levitz has his own favorite— the origin story, about which he adds, “the graveside page still hangs in my study greeting me every day, along with a beautiful oil Joe Staton did for me as a housewarming gift, so long ago.”

DEATH AND RENEWAL The Earth-Two Bruce Wayne would die—donning the costume one last time and sacrificing his life to save Gotham City from a superpowered maniac in Adventure Comics #462 (Mar. 1979)—without ever learning that the Huntress was his own daughter. But though Helena Wayne had a good run of adventures in the years following her father’s death (and eventually joined the next generation of Earth-Two heroes in Roy Thomas’s Infinity, Inc.), she couldn’t escape the interdimensional crisis that was … well, Crisis. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s Crisis on Infinite Earths was many things— a major crossover event, the birth of a new era, the exclamation point on the DC Silver Age—but it was also the death of Earth-Two, and the death of Helena Wayne. Though her best friend and teammate Power Girl somehow survived the apocalyptic shift from “infinite Earths” to just a single one, the Huntress simply disappeared from existence. One minute she’s lying under a pile of rubble, and the next minute she’s gone. The body, as the caption in March 1986’s Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 indicates, was never found. “Still, there were graveside services,” says Wolfman’s narrator. Levitz describes Helena Wayne’s death in Crisis as “sad,” but he goes on to say, “I understood enough of the necessity that it never bothered me as much as the write-arounds I had to do to solve the Superboy problem [in Legion of SuperHeroes continuity].” Staton remembers the tragedy of Crisis with a more sorrowful heart. “I was very fond of Helena, and I still miss her,” says Staton. “She deserved better.” Within a few years, however, the Huntress returned in a new series drawn by Staton. But while it may have been the Huntress in name—and with a familiar costume—this new character was not Helena Wayne. Instead, it was Helena Bertinelli, scion of a mafia family who would begin a violent quest toward justice in Huntress #1 (Apr. 1989), written by Paul Levitz’s successor on the Helena Wayne solo stories, Joey Cavalieri. Staton was an essential part of the creative team from the beginning. “I think Paul realized that I felt my involvement with Helena had been abruptly cut short [by the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths], so I was always in line to be a part of any reworking of the character,” says Staton. “I don’t recall how Joey Cavalieri came to be the writer on the Helena Bertinelli version, but I think we did some nice work on that run. Helena Bertinelli could never have the deep resonance of Helena Wayne, because she didn’t have the whole Batman/Catwoman backstory at her command, but Joey worked her into a different mythos, that of the mob, also dark, noirish. The good

After Levitz and Staton Joey Cavalieri followed Paul Levitz as the Huntress scribe. This signed original page from Wonder Woman #321 (Nov. 1984) was contributed by Heritage and drawn by Rod Whigham and Rick Magyar. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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Fandom Favorite (above) The Huntress was no stranger to the covers of the fanzine The Comic Reader. Seen here: back cover to #159 (Aug. 1978, art by Rick Taylor), cover to #197 (Dec. 1981, art by Paul Abrams), cover to #202 (June 1982, cover by Rick Stasi), and cover to #214 (Nov. 1983, cover by Jerry Ordway and Al Gordon). (right) Crisis #11, page 13, featuring a displaced Huntress. Huntress TM & © DC Entertainment.

thing about Joey was that he was very much a New York City sort of guy and he played his Huntress against the contrasting neighborhoods and ethnicities in the city. “With Joey’s run, my relationship was more with the Huntress’ environment than with her history or personality,” Staton continues. “There are two sequences that I especially liked. One had to do with a young woman Chinese acrobat who, naively, got mixed up in a gang war and wound up paralyzed. That came about after Joey and I realized that we both detested West Side Story. One of the Chinese gangs was called the Spirit Dragons or some such, and [colorist] Janice Chiang’s mother worked out the characters for their colors. The other story I liked a lot concerned a janitor trying to protect his building from hoodlums, who took on a hero identity from Mexican wrestling. He was a good character, and interesting to draw. Andy Helfer edited the series, and I gave him problems trying to settle on this Huntress’ cape, since she couldn’t have a scalloped bat-cape. I finally worked out a three-lobed version, which seemed to suggest the wings and tail of a hawk, a predator.” Levitz takes a more holistic approach when he looks back on the various incarnations of the Huntress over the years: “The fun of comics’ ongoing serial form is we write on the rich foundations of previous folks, and so in turn are written on. Family Issue

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Post-Crisis Huntress (left) Joe Staton returned to the character when the Huntress received her own series. Page 1 from The Huntress #1 (Apr. 1989), inked by Bruce Patterson. (above) Michael Netzer’s covers to 1994’s four-issue Huntress miniseries formed this dynamic image. TM & © DC Entertainment.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

I enjoyed Joey’s solution to repositioning the Huntress by keeping the grim drive, but proving a near opposite motivation, and it’s been fun to read various writers’ takes. I had a lot of fun reading [writer] Ivory Madison’s version last year, and watching her evolve as a comics writer.” Madison’s Huntress: Year One (2008) recast the Helena Bertinelli story as a violent Godfather-esque revenge tragedy, making the character’s noir origins all the more explicit. Yet, even with Helena Bertinelli’s long tenure as the Huntress, perhaps we haven’t heard the last from Helena Wayne after all. The recent return of the DC multiverse has opened up more than the mere possibility of her reemergence, with Geoff Johns and Jerry Ordway dusting off the Earth-Two JSA in Justice Society of America Annual #1 (Sept. 2008). Helena Wayne was a featured player in that story, and though she may not be exactly the same character originally created by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton, she bears a striking resemblance.

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Whatever happens with the new version of Earth-Two and the possibly resurrected Helena Wayne, the thrill of her adventures will live on in the hearts and minds and trade-paperback collections of many comics fans. And Joe Staton recalls those early days with a twinge of nostalgia and plenty of great memories: “I guess Paul and I were both young and enthusiastic, and we also drew on this fondness for the older versions of the characters, and we both just sort of wound up in the same place and the same time, and it all meshed. “Doesn’t happen that often, but it’s nice when it does.” TIMOTHY CALLAHAN is an educator, husband, and father of two budding comic-book fans. His first book, Grant Morrison: The Early Years, premiered in 2007, and he is the editor of a collection of essays about the Legion of Super-Heroes entitled Teenagers from the Future. He blogs about comics at geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com.

Michael Aushenker

So, what do you do when you’re a hot Marvel writer and you’re assigned to script this third-rate title starring a superfluous, derivative character with unoriginal powers (flying, “venom blasts,” etc.)? Well … you have fun and you leave them howling like the Wolfman! (Marv Wolfman, to be precise.) And in Spider-Woman, the “fun” can be summed up by only one character (or is that two characters?): that ridiculous supervillain Brother Grimm.

KISS OF THE SPIDER-WOMAN With her obtuse S.H.I.E.L.D.-intrigue origin and her original oddball bald-cap look, Spider-Woman was not on the top of any writer’s wish list. So when life gave Marv Wolfman Spider-Woman, he made SpiderWomanade. He and chief Spider-Woman artist Carmine Infantino tried to make the most of this gloriously shlocky, under-the-radar series. And, for the most part, it kind of worked. Wolfman took Spider-Woman, a.k.a. the chronically unemployed Jessica Drew, and gave her a set of supporting characters that included love interest Jerry Hunt and the little old lady whose house she was a border in: Priscilla Dolly. Then Wolfman threw in an actual wolf-man—Jack Russell—as Spider-Woman’s on-again/off-again nocturnal sparring partner. The Werewolf by Night appeared in a handful of issues throughout the series. (Hey, Spider-Woman and the Werewolf were both West Coast characters, so give them a break!) Wolfman also jazzed up the book by exploring the King Arthur mythos, introducing thinly veiled Arthurian characters such as Drew’s magical Merlin-esque mentor, Charles Magnus. Perhaps the only antagonist to appear in SpiderWoman as much as Werewolf by Night, the bedizen Brother Grimm provided welcome comic relief.

Bonehead of the Class Dave Cockrum’s stylishly designed cover for Spider-Woman #3 (June 1978) may well be the sweetest eye candy of the entire series (the classic Spider-Woman #1 cover notwithstanding). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ONE FUNNY BROTHER

Here’s One Way to Wake Up Your Congressman… …but we wouldn’t recommend it. From Brother Grimm’s first appearance in SpiderWoman #3 (June 1978). Art by Infantino and DeZuniga. Special thanks to Michael Aushenker for the scan.

Originally, there was one. A character dubbed Brother Grimm first appeared in Spider-Woman #3 (June 1978). Quite frankly, he looked like a Scooby-Doo villain—the kind that mutters, “Those meddling kids!” at the end of an episode after Fred and the gang have unmasked him. Brother Grimm is a hoot. He disguises his face in a blank-expression skull mask and dresses in killer Phantom of the Opera leftover duds, looking like one of those skeletal Italian horror comics anti-heroes such as Kriminal. He spouts ridiculous insults and corny jokes. He throws out snappy parting shots before making his theatrical exit in a puff of smoke. Yes, after he drops his Grimm bomb on foes, he rides off on a cloud or giggles while on a trapeze strung down from a star. No pretentious Dr. Doom, he! Comedy abounds when Bro Grimm is in the hizzay! Early on in Spider-Woman #3, when Grimm terrorizes the theatergoers, one of the portly high-society

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women exclaims, “Oh, my God!,” to which Grimm retorts, “Oh, shush, butterball! Your god is probably Porky Pig! Now then, my God is money—you know, shekels, cash—the big green cheese!” By issue’s end, as Grimm escapes from Spider-Woman on a cloud, he taunts the crimefighter: “So let it serve as a warning, frill—get lost! Buzz off! In other words, kiddo—scramayvoo! Toodle-oo, Gorgeous!” Technically, Grimm is Spider-Woman’s second supervillain (after #2’s Excaliber) and his debut issue, #3—a black cover (courtesy of the masterful Dave Cockrum) featuring a “big Brother Grimm is watching”style composition with ol’ skull-face looming large over Spider-Woman, in a full-figure pose, trapped in his spotlight—may just be the most stark, memorable, and graphically pleasing of all Spider-Woman covers short of the famous #1. So, what was Marv Wolfman thinking? And what’s with the whole theatrical connection? (When Grimm first appears, he unleashes mayhem at a playhouse where high-society types are dressed to the nines in tuxes and gowns to see a play … based on Hansel and Gretel! Huh?!?!) “I honestly don’t remember much of what led up to his creation,” confesses Brother Grimm’s creator, Wolfman. “I don’t exactly remember why the theatrical— that was a long time ago, but the idea behind him was to have two characters who pretend to be one person in order to throw off Spider-Woman’s ability to second-guess them. The humor was to be used as part of the distraction.” Indeed, Brother Grimm’s wisecracks created nice counterbalance to the super-serious look of the Tony DeZuniga-inked Infantino artwork … not to mention Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew’s angst-y, humorless persona. Whether obsessed about her father or finding gainful employment, Drew kvetched her way through the series like Jerry Stiller with his funny bone surgically removed (“Girl Gone Goth!”). In Spider-Woman #3, poor Congressman James T. Wyatt can’t get a night’s sleep as Brother Grimm thrashes Wyatt looking for money, and SpiderWoman thrashes Wyatt looking for answers about her father Jonathan Drew … then Grimm and Spider-Woman duke it out, trashing Wyatt’s bedroom. Was this Wolfman’s genteel commentary on crooked politicians? “I’ve always had raised eyebrows about all politicians, not only crooked ones,” smiles Wolfman. Making Brother Grimm a humorous villain appeared to be Wolfman’s way of coping with what was apparently a tedious book for the storied writer/editor, who departed the series after #8. “I never felt I got Spider-Woman,” Wolfman admits. “She was what’s called a ‘me, too’ character, done in order to make sure nobody else could steal the Spider-Woman name, and all she did was what other characters already did better. I think I changed my approach on it three times in eight issues … because I couldn’t get a handle on what to do with her. “The humor was used because I love writing humor and could have fun along the way. But it was also used by the characters to provide distraction.” Wolfman may have left Spider-Woman behind for good—but not before planting some seeds that would bear fruit later in the run after writer Mark Gruenwald took over Spider-Woman with issue #9 (Dec. 1978).

TWO BONEHEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE In 1978, Marv Wolfman kicked off Spider-Woman, but left after only a handful of what he now deems to be lackluster issues. In the case of the villain Brother Grimm, what Wolfman left behind may have had more import than what he started… In the last panel of the Wolfman-written Spider-Woman #3, a shocked Spider-Woman tells Magnus, after a report of Grimm’s prison break, “What? He escaped after six, but I fought him at five o’clock?” That’s definitely some well-placed foreshadowing. For by the last page (a splash) of Spider-Woman #11 (Feb. 1979), Wolfman’s successor, the late Mark Gruenwald, pulled off a surprise that perhaps we all should have seen coming. SPOILER ALERT: Turns out that Brother Grimm has … a twin! Brought to us by the team of Gruenwald and Infantino, with Al Gordon on inks, Spider-Woman #11, interior-titled “And Dolly Makes Three,” finds Jessica coming off a fight with Jerry. Landlady Priscilla catches her when she accidentally finds a pair of Brother Grimm dolls in a drawer. Once Jessica leaves the room, Priscilla Dolly vows revenge. After nearly an issue of throwdown between Spider-Woman and the returning Grimm, ol’ Skullface defeats Spider-Woman and Jerry. When the lovebirds awaken, they find themselves kidnapped and bound by chains. The end splash shocker: Priscilla Dolly, holding the pair of Grimm puppets, is flanked by the Brothers (count ’em— two!) Grimm, and the captions make the chilling announcement of Dolly’s supervillain identity— Madame Doll! When the same creative team returns for the second half of this storyline in Spider-Woman #12, the plot quickly thickens. “The Last Tale of the Brothers Grimm” finds Jessica and Jerry pawns of Madame Doll’s Revival

Theater. Doll explains that when her husband Nathan died, “My husband’s spirit was trapped in two hand-crafted figures of now-living wood!” She tries to coerce the cleric Magnus to create a new host for Nathan’s spirit out of Jerry’s body. When Magnus refuses, a Brother Grimm replies, with a flaming finger pointed at Spider-Woman, “Sure you will, whiskers! ’Cause if you don’t, I french-fry this chick!” For no apparent reason, Jerry fantasizes, in a fever dream, about Spider-Woman re-enacting Little Miss Riding Hood (which looks about as goofy and bizarre as it sounds). In an Empire Strikes Back kind of end to his nightmare, Spider-Woman lifts the mask on adversary Dolly to find Werewolf by Night, which morphs into arch-enemy the Needle, before transmuting into Brother Grimm. Back to reality. The Brothers Grimm use their index-finger blowtorch to encircle Spider-Woman and Jerry within pentagrams and create a circle of transfer. But just as the spiritual transfer is about to go down, Spider-Woman, with one arm still chained,

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foils Madame Doll’s sinister scheme (and the she-spider gets shot in the shoulder in the process) by kicking Jerry out of his circle. Thus, in the last instant, Nathan’s soul transfers to … nowhere. A defeated, delusional Dolly—minus her sanity— tries to wake up her “sons,” who are now just lifeless, wooden dummies. “Boys, wake up!” she rants with an air of desperation. “Your father will be home soon. Boys, wake up … please?” You might say that, in the end, the Brothers faced their “Grimm Reaper” (sorry, Marv!). As in SW #3, there is no shortage of Grimm-isms in the Gruenwald issues. When Grimm returns in #11, interrupting Jessica and Jerry’s romantic evening at the eatery Pancho’s Villa, Brother Grimm blurts out, “Hello, howdy, hi there, frenzied neighbors! ’Tis I, that frito bandito himself, Brother Grimm!” Throwing exploding beans, Grimm spouts off, “A Mexican joint ought to be jumping—just like my patented beans here. Comprende?”

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As Drew escapes and Spider-Woman makes her grand entrance (in a stylish full-moon spotlight on a black solid background—Infantino uses lots of dark backgrounds here to great effect), Grimm tosses off this snappy one: “Well, pass the whey and call me Miss Muffet—along comes a spider!” Dancing with an abducted blonde, Grimm quips: “Don’t be silly! Everyone knows that it takes two to tango … or is that taco?” You get the picture, buckaroo! The comedy stylings of Brother Grimm will never make Dave Chappelle quake in his Chuck Taylors!

DRAWING DREW AND HER BONEHEAD FRIENDS Wolfman explains how Brother Grimm came about: “I usually gave the artist a concept of what I wanted and then let them have a field day with it. Carmine created brilliant designs in The Flash, so I would certainly have bowed to his expertise.” Of course, having a pioneer artist such as Carmine Infantino delineating the book sweetens the pot. But for Infantino, Spider-Woman signaled a new chapter in a storied career. He had gone from being a beloved Silver Age artist and co-creator of Elongated Man, to the DC editorial director who bagged Jack Kirby from Marvel and who helped usher in the “Filipino Invasion” in the early 1970s. Now, in the late 1970s, Infantino found himself at a career crossroads. He came to Marvel Comics to start over as an artist anew, ready to tackle a new generation of books, such as Ms. Marvel, Star Wars, and the series that got away with villains such as Brother Grimm. So seeing the professional relationship between Wolfman and Infantino evolve so dramatically by 1978, did that make for an awkward collaboration on Spider-Woman? “Frankly, although I’d been a big fan of his art when I was growing up, that didn’t affect me much when I worked with him,” says Wolfman. “On both Spider-Woman and Nova, I sent him the same kind of plots—very detailed and broken down, page by page—that I sent to all the other artists I worked with. Carmine’s art and storytelling were always good, and I had absolutely no problem working with him. We didn’t talk much and I didn’t work out the stories with him in advance. I did my job and he did his, and quite well, too.” Three issues in, enter Brother Grimm. “I enjoyed the character very much,” says Infantino, who drew all of Grimm’s Spider-Woman appearances. Ironically, the inker embellishing his pencils on #3 was none other than Infantino’s ringleader of the Filipino hires, the talented Tony DeZuniga. With DeZuniga’s boss overlays, and a cover by Cockrum, Infantino arguably created the series’ finest moment. “He’s very good,” Infantino tells BACK ISSUE regarding De Zuniga, “and the guys they had on Star Wars.” Infantino also enjoyed collaborating with the series’ writer. “Marv Wolfman did some good stories,” says Infantino, who points out that he also worked on Wolfman’s The Man Called Nova during this period. Regarding his work on #12, artist Bob McLeod offers this Grimm assessment: “I thought it was an odd cover, with the main character’s back to us.”

The New Brothers Grimm A new pair of Brothers Grimm—seen here on the cover of Iron Man #188 (Nov. 1984), drawn by Luke McDonnell and Steve Mitchell—popped up in the mid-1980s. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

NOT CRYING OVER SPILT VENOM BLASTS Wolfman had introduced the character of the peculiarly surnamed Priscilla Dolly in SW #3—the woman who runs the boarding house where Jessica lives … revealed to be the dollmaker Madame Doll in SW #11–12, who has created these Brothers Grimm doll creatures. So it would appear that Gruenwald continued from where Wolfman’s foreshadowing left off. Sadly, Wolfman cannot confirm how closely the two writers worked in finessing this connection between Brother Grimm in Spider-Woman #3 and the Brothers Grimm of SW #11–12? “I don’t know if Mark [Gruenwald] had any idea where I was going with the story and I don’t remember if we talked about it before I left the book or not,” says Wolfman. “I did not read what Mark did, nor did I read what anyone did with any part two of what I set up. But Mark was a sharp editor on his own and he might have figured it out from the clues I did set up—which, again, after all these years is lost to history. Or, as I say, we could have talked about it. God knows. “That I named the character Dolly in #3 must have been on purpose and perhaps Mark and I did speak. Aside from the fact that I think I came up with a few good villains, I’m surprised anyone even remembers I did that book. It didn’t set the world on fire and my work on it wasn’t nearly my best, although I did try hard.” Wolfman’s departure from the book seems abrupt yet unremarkable. “I don’t remember how or why Mark took over,” says Wolfman of the departed writer/editor. No matter what transpired between Wolfman and Gruenwald in the development of the Brothers Grimm, the writing was already on the wall by Spider-Woman #12. McLeod’s cover literally spells, “The Last Tale of the Brothers Grimm.” It was curtains for the twin terrors. Midway through the interview, Wolfman capitulates: “I can talk at length on many titles I’ve done, but Spider-Woman is not one of them. I must admit I have no special moments on Spider-Woman. I never thought I figured out what to do with the character. I was pleased with some issues and some elements, and Brothers Grimm was one of them, but I never had the same feelings for this book that I did with say, Nova or Dracula or Spider-Man. It’s why I got off the book pretty quickly.”

OH, BROTHER! Looking back now on Spider-Woman, have Wolfman’s feelings changed at all toward what he and his artists accomplished on that series? “I love writing strong women characters,” Wolfman says, “from Rachel Van Helsing to Black Cat to Wonder Girl and Starfire and Raven and others, but, frankly, Spider-Woman, no, not so much. “The best I can say for myself is I didn’t completely kill it, and that’s probably an accomplishment,” laughs Wolfman. “Maybe my biggest one. That and the villains I came up with. That’s about it.” So … would Wolfman ever bring Brother Grimm back? “I don’t work at Marvel, so the answer is ‘no,’” Wolfman says. “But I did use the idea again when I did Trident in [New Teen] Titans, only going one better by having three people pretend to be one person.” Unlike DC’s Wonder Woman, Marvel superheroines have never been popular enough to carry their own books. So despite the inherent lameness many attributed to the Spider-Woman character, Spider-Woman signed off with issue #50 (June 1983)— a feat that neither Elektra nor She-Hulk nor Ms. Marvel nor

(dare we say it!) Dazzler can claim. Today, she’s hotter than ever, making a strong comeback in the 21st century as an Avenger and, once again, receiving her own “Motion Comic” in the summer of 2009. Behind every great woman, there are two men … and in Jessica Drew’s case, they were also brothers—the Brothers Grimm. Can we attribute some of Spider-Woman’s success to those jocular Grim Reapers with the stand-up comedy ambitions? Not on your life, sweet pants! “Brother Grimm was one of those characters I thought was really cool and fun,” concludes Wolfman, “but he never developed into anything major.” But as this article at least attests, Grimm and his identical twin, in all of their glorious shlock-and-awe-ful, made an impression on at least two faithful Spider-Woman fans (i.e., this article’s author and this magazine’s editor) that dug what Wolfman, Infantino, and company tried to achieve … even if the creators themselves are trying to forget! Sorry, Charlie, that’s the way the cookie crumbles! Toodles, cutie! MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist. His comic books include Cartoon Flophouse, the El Gato, Crime Mangler series, and the Gumby Gang miniseries (Wildcard Ink). And he continues on his quest for the perfect brunette girlfriend who will wear a Spider-Woman costume for him (now that’s hot!) … so wish him luck! Visit cartoonflophouse.com.

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The Marvel Family died more than once for C. C. Beck. The Captain Marvel co-creator and chief artist’s economically lucid, high-spirited artwork fueled the infectious imaginations of millions of monthly readers during the 1940s—as Cap and Family’s fanciful adventures quenched their escapist desires. But by 1953, the era of enchantment was over. The wisdom of Solomon spoke to Fawcett Publications: Even with the successes of its Marvel Family, the company realized that comic books weren’t as lucrative a business as they used to be. Given that unfortunate reality—and encumbered with ceaseless litigation brought on by Superman’s publisher, National Periodical Publications (DC Comics)—the Fawcetts regretfully sealed the tomb to their comic-book department. The Marvel Family faded into oblivion. Twenty years later, DC Comics, the very company that ceaselessly campaigned to kill Captain Marvel, was exhuming him and putting him on life support for a new comic book called Shazam! Longtime Fawcett Captain Marvel Adventures illustrator C. C. Beck, after being asked by DC to submit samples (!), came on board as the artist for the revival. But it wasn’t long before Beck became dismayed at the scripts that he was being asked to illustrate. Clashing frequently with the book’s editor, Julie Schwartz, the quickly dissolving partnership came to a head when Beck refused to illustrate two tales slated for Shazam! #11 (Mar. 1974)— stories that he described as “worthless” … one involving Captain Marvel eating out-of-control gelatin, the other with Cap teaming up with Santa Claus. [For all the particulars, dig up “Can Lightning Strike Twice?” from Comic Book Artist #1 (Spring 1998).] In 1974, months after Beck had officially stopped drawing for DC, editor E. Nelson Bridwell kindly extended the artist an invitation, informing Beck that if he wanted to submit a script, and if it was approved by the DC editorial staff, they would allow him to draw it up. Beck immediately wrote up and sent to Bridwell a script starring the entire Marvel Family called “Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate.” The story opens with Captain Marvel catching some thieves at a warehouse. He turns them over to the police, saying he will appear to testify at the trial. He turns into Billy Batson and finds himself in the underground hall of statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. The wizard Shazam appears and tells Billy that though the bodies of the seven evil spirits are imprisoned in the statues, they still roam the Earth and are plotting new revenge. (A flashback sequence shows Captain Marvel fighting the seven evil spirits in

We Are Family The Marvel Family’s revival in DC Comics’ Shazam! proved frustrating for Captain Marvel’s creator. Detail from the cover to Shazam! #3 (June 1973) by C. C. Beck. TM & © DC Entertainment.

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P. C . H a m e r l i n c k

Captain Marvel’s creator C. C. Beck (1910–1989) at the October 1982 Minneapolis Comic-Con. Photo by and courtesy of Alan Light. previous stories.) As nothing new in the way of evil seems to be happening yet, Billy goes home to bed, somewhat worried. While Billy sleeps, the Evil Seven are holding a meeting and discussing ways to get rid of Captain Marvel. A witch appears and says that magic may work against him. She puts an evil spell on a picture, which is given to Billy as a present for Captain Marvel. Billy puts it on his desk and the spell starts working. As he reads the paper, he sees that the warehouse thieves have been released from jail by a criminal lawyer, who happens to be one of the Evil Seven. Billy loses his temper. He turns on the radio and hears another member of the Evil Seven saying that Captain Marvel doesn’t even exist. Billy changes into Marvel and confronts the two, who run away. He finds another of the Evil Seven threatening to foreclose on Station WHIZ, which he is helpless to prevent. Captain Marvel now begins to see how the forces of evil are working against him, and is so frustrated that he punches a hole in the wall in anger. He is starting to crack up, and gets so mad that he tears up the picture, thus removing the spell that was on him and Billy, although neither of them knew this. The Evil Seven summon up a horrible demon named Odius and send him off to destroy Captain Marvel. A tremendous fight takes place, the demon is knocked through a window, and Marvel changes to Billy. But Odius comes back and puts a curse on Billy so that he becomes evil. Billy destroys his poster of Captain Marvel and says, “Never mention his name to me! I hate, despise, and loathe him!” The Evil Seven walk into the Station WHIZ offices, each with an attendant spirit hovering over him.

They throw WHIZ president Sterling Morris out, take over the station, and demote Billy to “errand boy” and “garbage handler.” All seems lost, but Uncle Marvel sends Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. to get Billy. They have to knock him out before they bring him back, as Billy is now completely evil. Uncle revives Billy and tricks him into saying “Shazam!” The curse on Billy is broken when Captain Marvel appears, and the Marvel Family fly back toward Station WHIZ. The Evil Seven see the Marvel Family coming and try to summon Odius again, but he refuses to appear. Seeing that they are all helpless, the seven evil spirits depart from the bodies they took over and they are left to the mercy of the Marvels. At the end, Captain Marvel says to Mary and Junior, “I guess you could say that they lost their spirits when it came to a showdown.” That was Beck’s story. It had, he thought, all the old mystery and evil forces of the old stories, and showed how Captain Marvel was almost defeated when the Evil Seven spirits teamed up against him. Six months passed after Beck wrote and sent in his script to DC, with no response from them. Finally, waiting in his mailbox, was an envelope from DC. E. Nelson Bridwell had returned Beck’s script to him— severely edited with his scribbled notes and with a completely rewritten script.

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With One Heavily Edited Script… …C. C. Beck had decided he’d had enough. Script page with E. Nelson Bridwell’s edits courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

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Sketch-zam! A 1971 Captain Marvel sketch by Beck. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Entertainment.

Here now is Beck’s story after Bridwell edited and rewrote it and sent it back to the artist to draw: A dramatic splash page contains Captain Marvel facing Odius. The story doesn’t begin until page two, with Captain Marvel catching crooks and the police taking them away. Marvel changes to Billy and goes to the hall of statues. Shazam appears and tells a long story of how, as a young man six thousand years ago, he first defeated the seven evil spirits and turned them to stone with his “white magic.” Shazam gives Billy a solemn warning, then fades away. Billy yawns and goes home to “hit the sack.” The Evil Seven put a “dream inducer,” a little gadget they have “stolen from a scientist,” into the frame of a picture which they send to Billy. Nothing happens the rest of the day; Billy goes home, taking the picture with him, and again “hits the sack.” He has a nightmare and screams. Pa Potter comes in to wake him up, and Billy’s nightmare monsters come right out of his dream and attack Pa, causing him to fall out of the window. Billy, still asleep, sees this in his dream, changes to Captain Marvel, and flies to Pa’s rescue.

Marvel then tears open the picture frame, squashes the gadget, and says, “A gadget that creates nightmares could drive a person mad!” All is quiet for the next few days, until the Evil Seven summon the demon Odius and send him to fight Captain Marvel. This portion of the story is as Beck wrote it, but after the curse is put on Billy, he bawls out his boss Mr. Morris and refuses to say “Shazam!” A “crime wave” now begins, and Uncle Marvel sends Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. to stop it. Odius is still lurking around when he suddenly waves his hand, casting a “hate the Marvels” hex into the people on the streets. The crowd of people become irate and start shouting, “Boo!” A riot breaks out and the crowd begin throwing things at a bewildered Mary and Junior. Meanwhile, Uncle Marvel has gone to Station WHIZ, where he tricks Billy into saying “Shazam!” Captain Marvel appears and, with Uncle clinging to his leg, flies to help Mary and Junior. Marvel sees Odius, immediately figures out exactly what is going on, punches Odius, and everything becomes fine. The Marvel Family clean up the “crime wave” and then fly off to finish the Evil Seven, who haven’t been doing anything except just sitting in their meeting room. How the Marvel Family even knew they were alive, or where they were located, is not explained. The story ends with Billy saying to the reader: “That’s how it happened, folks! Just remember, those Seven Deadly Enemies are still around. Don’t let them warp your minds, too! Be on guard! So long, and be good!” Understandably, Beck was reluctant to draw the Bridwell-edited, rewritten story. Beck felt that it was childish and totally lacking in plot, with too many characters, holes, and loose ends. The Evil Seven barely appeared. There were unnecessary riot scenes, an unexplained crime wave, unidentified crooks, the addition of a “dream inducer,” and Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. flying around looking helpless. Beck still tried to draw the rewritten script, but when he came to illustrate a scene where Uncle Marvel is clinging onto Captain Marvel’s leg, he tore up the whole story and threw it in the garbage. Beck returned the rewritten script to DC and told them that he wanted nothing to do with it. DC’s invitations to Beck stopped and they never contacted him again. Perhaps, had there been only minimal changes made to Beck’s script, Marvel Family fans would have been treated to an exciting tale filled with archetypal storytelling, written and illustrated by one of the masters of the medium. But the old days were over. Fawcett’s formerly intrepid heroes had become quaint and out of place in the modern world, and their restoration proved ultimately to be a failure. The Marvel Family were now dim figures from far back in the mist of time. The lightning that once filled the skies had disappeared. The strident thunder that once boomed so majestically was silenced again. This article appeared in its original form in Alter Ego #3 (Winter 2001). Captain Marvel historian and C. C. Beck biographer P.C. HAMERLINCK is the editor of FCA, appearing in the pages of our sister publication, Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine.

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Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

GO, GO, GOLEM As a postscript to Michael Aushenker’s well-researched article on Marvel’s short-lived “Golem” series, at the 2001 WonderCon, author Michael Chabon was interviewed about his then-recently released Cavalier & Clay novel, which had that week received the Pulitzer Prize. He was asked about the inspiration for his use of the Golem and he said he was introduced to the character by the Marvel Comics series. He then graciously turned to me and said, “which you wrote.” It’s part of the mystery of writing that an author never knows how their work will be received by readers. “Golem” was one of my weakest works as a comics writer, yet the underlying idea was strong enough that it sparked the imagination of a young reader in an amazing way. – Mike Friedrich

TM & © DC Entertainment.

UNLUCKY THIRTEEN I probably won’t be the first but I feel I ought to add a correction to Michael Aushenker’s article on Dr. Thirteen in BACK ISSUE #36. The Ghost Breaker made at least three further appearances between House of Secrets #150 (Feb.–Mar. 1978) and his re-emergence in Tales of the Unexpected in 2007. In February, March, and April 1981 he popped up as the final feature in issues #97, 98, and 99 of Ghosts, alongside the Spectre, who puts the good doctor’s spiritual skepticism to the absolute test. The first two issues were produced by the team of writer Paul Kupperberg, penciler Michael R. Adams, and inker Tex Blaisdell. Issue #99 was inked by an overqualified Tony DeZuniga, while issue #98 offered us the bonus of Dr. Thirteen’s origin, along with a visit to the ancient family residence, Doomsbury Hall. The incarnation of the Spectre depicted in these three comics was the vengeful version as seen in Adventure Comics #431–440. As if to underline this, Kupperberg included Earl Crawford, a journalist who had made a study of the Spectre’s work and who first appeared in Adventure Comics #435. Unfortunately, the presence of the Spectre—DC’s ultimate ghost—only serves to highlight the problem of Dr. Thirteen’s character within the DC Universe. When the Spectre transforms villains into water or makes one shoot himself, Terry Thirteen dismisses these acts as parlor tricks. But we readers know the Ghostly Guardian exists in the DC Universe—we’ve seen him at work on countless occasions—so for all his bravery, Dr. Thirteen’s doggedness in the face of overwhelming evidence means that he comes across as boneheaded. The introduction of Dr. Thirteen’s ghostly father in issue #99 serves only to heap further scorn on the character. The final twist in the tale—that this encounter with the

May I add a few details to Michael Aushenker’s fine Dr. Thirteen article in BI #36? As he noted, Doc’s original series ran in Star Spangled Comics #122–130, although a tenth story subsequently appeared (sans logo) in House of Mystery #7. Terry and Marie were not yet married in any of them. Dr. Thirteen didn’t actually disappear after House of Secrets #150. Jack C. Harris briefly attempted to shake up DC’s dying horror books a few years later by adding a continuing series to each of them and Dr. Thirteen was appropriately tapped to appear in Paul Kupperberg-scripted stories in Ghosts #95–102. The highlight was another one of those stories that tended to undermine Terry: He tried to debunk the Spectre in #97–99. Luckily, Gerry Conway helped Doc regain his credibility in Batman guest-appearances that involved Man-Bat and Hugo Strange (Batman #341–342 and Detective Comics #509 and 520). Later, Kupperberg had Dr. Thirteen and the Phantom Stranger mend fences in Action Comics Weekly #631–634. There was also a rather uncomfortable Vertigo Visions: Dr. Thirteen one-shot along with cameos courtesy of Neil Gaiman (in Books of Magic #1) and Grant Morrison (in Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1 and 4). For one last oddity from the mid-1970s, check out Plop! #6 and its story about a certain Doctor Ghost-Breaker. – John Wells Simon and John, thank you for bringing these tales to our attention. That three-parter with the Spectre was graced with covers by the Ghostly Guardian’s Adventure Comics artist, Jim Aparo—which presents ye ed with an opportunity to mention that the Michael Fleisher/Aparo Spectre series is in the works for coverage in a future BI. – M.E.

BI IN COLOR? Greetings from Spain! I think a full-color BACK ISSUE could be useful to attract new readers, but if the price goes up to 8.95 or more, you might lose some fans. So it’s complicated. I would suggest doing a BI Color Special Edition and see what happens. If it works, it might become some kind of annual tradition. And in any case, at least it would help to pick the curiosity of potential new readers (and dealers!) Just an idea. – Miguel G. Saavedra Good afternoon, Michael. I was just reading the letters in BACK ISSUE #36 and noticed your question regarding print versions being in color. I certainly would be in favor of this going forward as long as the cost increase is modest. If it was $4 or less of an increase on the cover, then I would have no issue paying for it. I only recently discovered this great magazine (and TwoMorrows, for that matter), but I purchased the ultimate bundle and will be buying BACK ISSUE going forward. Would it be more help to you if I purchased a subscription or if I bought it issue by issue? Thank you and keep up the great work. I have a lot of reading ahead of me! – Rob Stuparyk

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Spectre was to test Terry’s resolve to stay true to his philosophy— makes the Ghost Breaker look ridiculous. In the final panel, the Ghostly Guardian and the ghostly Dr. Thirteen are seen heading off into the sunset together, delighted that their plan has succeeded. Faced with a character who was so hopelessly compromised, it’s hardly surprising that future DC writers left him well alone. – Simon Bullivant

Whichever method of your buying BI is okay with us—we’re happy to have you as a reader, Rob. Welcome! Regarding the color matter, it’s still under discussion at this writing in early November. We’d like to be a color magazine but, as Miguel Saavedra points out, we hesitate raising our price to do that, especially in light of the current economy. – M.E. Just discovered and bought issue #36 of BACK ISSUE from my local comics shop in Cardiff (Wales), and … wow!! What a great read it was from cover to cover. What a joy it was to discover the article on Bernie Wrightson. I’ve always recognized his distinct penwork and attention to detail in the comics I bought, but mainly those great Warren magazines of the ’60s and ’70s, namely Creepy and Eerie. Back in my teenage years, I eagerly hunted out those two magazines from local news agents, and boy, were they hard to find here in Wales! I am now avidly completing my collection via auction websites and comics fairs. I also enjoyed the article on Vampirella, another Warren stablemate which I avidly sought after and collected. To this day, I still have the Vampirella memorabillia which I bought back in the early ’70s from the “Captain Company,” namely: the Vampirella fan club membership card and pin badge (I am No. 852), the giant, 15"x21" poster jigsaw puzzle (over 500 pieces—and yes, it’s all there); the Vampirella full-color special by José Gonzáles (as pictured in your article); and the 20"x28" full-color poster of the cover of issue #23. All these items are still in mint condition and are the jewel of my collection.

Wanted to write and thank you guys at BACK ISSUE and TwoMorrows Publishing for producing what I and so many of my fellow comicbook collectors consider to be the best comic-book magazine out there, bar none. I am also a writer working on my first major comicbook project and both BACK ISSUE and Write Now! have proved invaluable in allowing me to learn from the best writers out there. I just wish your publication was more universally available here in the United Kingdom. I have tried getting back issues from Diamond Distibutors but (in my opinion) they only seem to be keen on selling Wizard (the less said about that magazine the better). I have taken advantage of your publisher’s “half-price offer” and purchased as many as I could afford before September 30th, but shipping costs to the UK only allowed me to purchase 12 issues. I will, of course, bide my time and purchase the rest to complete my collection, offers or pocketbook allowing! Once again thank you and I sincerely wish you all the best for the future. I hope to be reading new issues of BACK ISSUE ten years from now! – Yasmin Akbar That’s high praise, and we’ll strive to continue to do our best and stay at the top of your reading list, Yasmin. Regarding our availability in the UK, BACK ISSUE can’t be found in many American comics shops either. While many shops are understandably focused upon stocking the latest titles, we’re convinced that there are thousands of potential BI readers out there who simply haven’t discovered our magazine—and yours and John Pugh’s letters prove just that. So, loyal readers, ask your shops’ managers to stock at least one extra copy of BI per month, and help us grow our audience by spreading the word about us. Thank you! – M.E.

FRANK I’ve been reading over the latest BACK ISSUE (I read it in my car while waiting to pick up my son) and saw the Frankenstein timeline. In about 1993 or so, Harvey Comics’ short-lived Nemesis Comics line had a four-issue miniseries called Frank. It was written by D. G. Chichester and was a modern update of the Frankenstein Monster. I think that this and an updated Ultraman were the only things Nemesis Comics ever put out, so it’s no surprise that nobody remembers it. I just purged them from my collection a few weeks ago which is why I remember them at all. I don’t know if you’re going to do any sort of update to the timeline, but I thought that I’d share this little bit with you. Is there anywhere that you post upcoming themes? An issue focused on backup series like the “Human Target,” “Nemesis” (that’s where my idea came from), “Tales of Asgard,” “Whatever Happened to...?”, “Gyro Gearloose,” etc. might be interesting. – Jim Kosmicki

VAMPIRELLA’S IN HIS BLOOD

BUYING BACK ISSUES OF BACK ISSUE

I was saddened to hear of the passing away of José ‘‘Pepe’’ Gonzáles, who was my favorite Vampi artist. His work is truly superb. I will keep a lookout for future issues of your great magazine and if they are hard to come by, I will no doubt send for a subscription. – John Pugh Another new BACK ISSUE reader! We’re happy you discovered us, John. Please recommend the magazine to your friends. – M.E.

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Jim, your letter was the first time Frank crossed our radar. While we won’t be updating the Frankenstein in Comics timeline, thank you for giving us a chance to mention this series. Issue themes are usually concocted by me (dubbed “Master Of All Themes,” or “M.O.A.T.,” by writer Michael Aushenker) and announced to our pool of writers, opening the floor to proposals for articles. Our next two themes, however, were recommended by those within the BI family: Designer Rich Fowlks pitched #39’s “April Fools” and #40’s “Cat People” came from writer

Jonathan Miller, who penned an article about Patsy Walker, Hellcat for that very issue. Upcoming themes aren’t posted anywhere other than solicitations for the most immediate issues. Backup series is an interesting potential theme. Several backups (like the “Human Target”) have been covered in BI, but many haven’t. Thanks for the great suggestion! – M.E.

ADD “PLOOGISH” TO YOUR DICTIONARY Another great edition of BACK ISSUE! The Morbius article alone sent me trudging upstairs to the longboxes in search of his first story (the reprint in Marvel Tales, not the original; thanks a lot, Mom). The comics history of Frankenstein was nice, too. Only BACK ISSUE could use the adjective “Ploogish” to describe an art style. Do you know if the first four issues of the Marvel Frankenstein series (their novel adaptation) were ever collected, in any form? I remember the adaptation fondly and it would be nice to see it again. It was nice to see the retrospective on Swamp Thing. Sandwiched between two classic runs (Wein/Wrightson and Moore/Totleben), this period in the series is too often overlooked. It was, as your article said, rich with good, solid stories and breathtaking artwork. It is a stage in Swamp Thing’s publication that is consistently overshadowed and ignored, and it was nice to see it get some props. Monster comics, with the exception of Swamp Thing, were never high up on my list of favorite genres, but this issue still provided lots of fun information. It will be interesting to see if you can provide me with as much entertainment with your next issue, since war comics never did it for me. But then, you guys tend to surprise me a lot. – Michal Jacot

TM & © DC Entertainment.

Marvel has published an Essential Monster of Frankenstein volume containing that adaptation, Michal. And Swamp Thing issues #11–13 have recently been collected in the DC Comics Classics Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing edition. We’ll keep working hard to surprise you. Last issue’s contents, “Comics Go to War,” was broader than its theme might have led you to believe (such as Wonder Woman and Invaders). We apply the same philosophy to each of our genre-based themes (and we’ve got Westerns and jungle comics in the works), to keep our superhero readers happy each and every issue.

S U B M IS S IO N G U ID E L IN E S BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s: Unpublished artwork and covers Original artwork and covers Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc. Original sketches and/or convention sketches Original scripts Photos Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities Creators and collectors of 1970s/1980s comics artwork are invited to share your goodies with other fans! Contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive complimentary copies (and the editor’s gratitude). Submit artwork as (listed in order of preference): Scanned images: 300dpi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (emailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by emailing euryman@gmail.com or by sending a SASE to the address below. Please allow 6–8 weeks for a response to your proposals. Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to:

Next issue: April Fools! No joke, it’s a collection of humor and offbeat comics including a KEITH GIFFEN/ROBERT LOREN FLEMING Ambush Bug “Pro2Pro,” JOHN BYRNE’s She-Hulk, and interviews with FRED HEMBECK, ALAN KUPPERBERG, Flaming Carrot’s BOB BURDEN, Reid Fleming—World’s Toughest Milkman’s DAVID BOSWELL, and that indie man of heartache, DAVID CHELSEA. Plus Spider-Ham, Forbush-Man, MAD, and Marvel’s MAD knockoffs. Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham hogs the cover, penciled by the late MIKE WIERINGO in 2007 and inked in 2009 by KARL KESEL! Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty! Michael Eury, editor

Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE Concord, NC 28025

Advertise In BACK ISSUE! FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100 Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Write Now!, Back Issue, or any combination and save: TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings) These rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as camera-ready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up. Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply. Sorry, display ads not available for the Jack Kirby Collector. Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds), Visa, or Mastercard to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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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“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more! HUGHES cover!

“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, details on two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

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“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies! Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

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MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

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DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s! MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (on Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (on Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (on the Green Goblin), and more. New cover by NEAL ADAMS!

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“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, STEVE GERBER and GENE COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/ RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos!’ “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

“Comics Go Hollywood!” Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

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“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

“Men of Steel!’ BOB LAYTON and DAVID MICHELINIE on Iron Man, RICH BUCKLER on Deathlok, MIKE GRELL on Warlord, JOHN BYRNE on ROG 2000, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, Machine Man, the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip, DC’s Steel, art by KIRBY, HECK, WINDSOR-SMITH, TUSKA, LAYTON cover, and bonus “Men of Steel” art gallery! Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

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“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work, NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot, McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants, the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series, lost Angel stories, Beast’s tenure with the Avengers, the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor, the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father, a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more! Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors, Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery, James Bond Jr., and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

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BACK ISSUE #34

BACK ISSUE #35

BACK ISSUE #36

BACK ISSUE #37

BACK ISSUE #38

“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Monsters!” Frankenstein in Comics timeline and a look at BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s and Marvel’s versions, histories of Vampirella and Morbius, ISABELLA and AYERS discuss It the Living Colossus, REDONDO’s Swamp Thing, Man-Bat, monster art gallery, interview with TONY DeZUNIGA, art and commentary from ARTHUR ADAMS, COLÓN, KALUTA, NEBRES, PLOOG, SUTTON, VEITCH, and a painted cover by EARL NOREM!

“Comics Go to War!” KUBERT/KANIGHER’s Sgt. Rock, EVANIER and SPIEGLE’s Blackhawk, GEORGE PRATT’s Enemy Ace, plus Unknown Soldier, Wonder Woman’s return to WWII, the Invaders, Combat Kelly, Vietnam Journal, Sad Sack, the Joe Kubert School, art and commentary from AYERS, HEATH, KIRBY, ROBBINS, ROMITA SR., SINNOTT, and the return of GERRY TALAOC! JOE KUBERT cover!

“Family!” JOHN BYRNE’s Fantastic Four, SIMONSON, BRIGMAN, and BOGDANOVE on Power Pack, LEVITZ and STATON on the Huntress, Henry Pym’s “son” Ultron, Wonder Twins, Commissioner Gordon & Batgirl’s relationship, and Return of the New Gods. With art and commentary from BUCKLER, BUSIEK, FRADON, HECK, INFANTINO, NEWTON, and WOLFMAN, and a Norman Rockwell-inspired BYRNE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

Books by Back Issue editor MICHAEL EURY:

BATCAVE COMPANION

KRYPTON COMPANION

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION

Unlocks the secrets of Batman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, from 1960s camp to 1970s creature of the night!

Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets flew the skies!

A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA tracing the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom!

The missing link to primates in comics, spotlighting the history of a barrel of simian superstars, loaded with rare and classic artwork and interviews with artists & writers!

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: JUN068194

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

ISBN: 9781893905788 Diamond Order Code: FEB094471

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

COMICS GONE APE!

DICK GIORDANO CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! (176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in OVERSIZED TABLOID FORMAT, it showcases Kirby’s amazing art even larger!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!

KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!

KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more! Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!

Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!

KIRBY’S SUPER TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!

KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital edition) $3.95

KIRBY FIVE-OH!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

The publication that started the TwoMorrows juggernaut presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 19381987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOIDSIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 • Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby covers inked by DON HECK and PAUL SMITH!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new missing page), plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US (Digital edition) $3.95

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US (Digital edition) $3.95

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital edition) $3.95

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

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ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, and more! New cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood, by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #88

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

HARVEY COMICS’ PRE-CODE HORROR MAGS OF THE 1950s! Interviews with SID JACOBSON, WARREN KREMER, and HOWARD NOSTRAND, plus Harvey artist KEN SELIG talks to JIM AMASH! MR. MONSTER presents the wit and wisdom (and worse) of DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE, & more! SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover!

BIG MARVEL ISSUE! Salutes to legends SINNOTT and AYERS—plus STAN LEE, TUSKA, EVERETT, MARTIN GOODMAN, and others! A look at the “Marvel SuperHeroes” TV animation of 1966! 1940s Timely writer and editor LEON LAZARUS interviewed by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, the 1960s fandom creations of STEVE GERBER, and more! JACK KIRBY holiday cover!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL! Big FCA section with Golden Age artists MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO, and interviews with the FAWCETT FAMILY! Plus Part II of “The MAD Four-Color Wannabes of the 1950s,” more on DR. LAURETTA BENDER and the teenage creations of STEVE GERBER, artist JACK KATZ spills Golden Age secrets to JIM AMASH, and more! New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY, PART 3! DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw by MICHELINIE & CHAN, Hercules by GLANZMAN, Dagar by GLUT & SANTOS, Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, KANE, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al., and JACK KATZ on his classic First Kingdom! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3), and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

WRITE NOW! (edited by SpiderMan writer DANNY FINGEROTH), the magazine for writers of comics, animation, and sci-fi, puts you in the minds of today’s top writers and editors. Each issue features WRITING TIPS from pros on both sides of the desk, exclusive INTERVIEWS, SAMPLE SCRIPTS, REVIEWS, NUTS & BOLTS tutorials, and more!

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BEST OF WRITE NOW! Features highlights from the acclaimed magazine, including in-depth interviews about writing from top talents, like WAID, BENDIS, EISNER, LOEB, STAN LEE, STRACZYNSKI, JOHNS, McFARLANE, LEVITZ, ALONSO, and others! There’s also “NUTS & BOLTS” tutorials featuring scripts from landmark comics and the pencil art that was drawn from them, how-to articles by the best comics writers and editors around, telling exactly what it takes to get hired, and more great tips to help you prepare for your big break, and appreciate comics on a new level. Introduction by STAN LEE! (160-page trade paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905926 • Diamond Order Code: FEB084082

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WRITE NOW! #9

WRITE NOW! #10

NEAL ADAMS on his writing (with art and a NEW COVER), GEOFF JOHNS on writing for comics, secrets of PITCHING COMICS IDEAS, MICHAEL OEMING and BATTON LASH on writing, plus more NUTS & BOLTS how-to’s on writing and sample scripts!

Interviews and lessons by DWAYNE McDUFFIE, interviews with PETER BAGGE, GERRY CONWAY,and PAUL BENJAMIN, plus more NUTS & BOLTS how-to’s on writing and sample scripts, and a JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED cover!

(80-page magazine) $5.95

(88-page magazine) $5.95

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WRITE NOW! #11

WRITE NOW! #12

WRITE NOW! #13

WRITE NOW! #14

WRITE NOW! #15

STAN LEE, NEIL GAIMAN, MARK WAID, PETER DAVID, J.M. DeMATTEIS, TOM DeFALCO, DENNY O’NEIL, and 18 others reveal PROFESSIONAL WRITING SECRETS, plus DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on working together, JOHN OSTRANDER on creating characters, and an all-new SPIDER-GIRL cover by FRENZ and SAL BUSCEMA!

DC Comics president PAUL LEVITZ on the art, craft and business of comics writing, STEVE ENGLEHART’s thoughts on writing for today’s market, survey of TOP COMICS EDITORS on how to submit work to them, Marvel Editor ANDY SCHMIDT on how to break in, T. CAMPBELL on writing for webcomics, plus a new GEORGE PÉREZ cover!

X-MEN 3 screenwriter SIMON KINBERG interviewed, DENNIS O’NEIL on translating BATMAN BEGINS into a novel, Central Park Media’s STEPHEN PAKULA discusses manga writing, KURT BUSIEK on breaking into comics, MIKE FRIEDRICH on writers’ agents, script samples, new RON LIM /AL MILGROM cover, and more!

BRIAN BENDIS interview, STAN LEE, TODD McFARLANE, PETER DAVID and others on writing Spider-Man, pencil art and script from MARVEL CIVIL WAR #1 by MILLAR and McNIVEN, JIM STARLIN on Captain Comet and The Weird, LEE NORDLING on Comics in Hollywood, and a new ALEX MALEEV cover!

J.M. DeMATTEIS interview on Abadazad with MIKE PLOOG, DC’s 52 series scripting how-to by RUCKA/JOHNS/MORRISON/ WAID, KEITH GIFFEN breakdowns, pencil art by JOE BENNETT, JOHN OSTRANDER on writing, STAR TREK novelist BILL McCAY on dealing with editors, and more, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #4 PREVIEW!

(80-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(80-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital edition) $2.95

(80-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

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WRITE NOW! #16

WRITE NOW! #17

WRITE NOW! #18

WRITE NOW! #19

WRITE NOW! #20

Interview with Spawn’s TODD McFARLANE, Silver Surfer writers roundtable, script and pencil art from BRIAN BENDIS and FRANK CHO’s MIGHTY AVENGERS and from DAN SLOTT’s AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, an interview, script and art by DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF on his acclaimed graphic novel TESTAMENT, cover by MIKE ZECK, plus a FREE DRAW #14 PREVIEW!

HEROES ISSUE featuring series creator/ writer TIM KRING, writer JEPH LOEB, and others, interviews with DC Comics’ DAN DiDIO and Marvel’s DAN BUCKLEY, PETER DAVID on writing STEPHEN KING’S DARK TOWER COMIC, MICHAEL TEITELBAUM, C.B. CEBULSKI, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, Nuts & Bolts script and art examples, and more!

Celebration of STAN LEE’s 85th birthday, including rare examples of comics, TV, and movie scripts from the Stan Lee Archives, tributes by JOHN ROMITA, SR., JOE QUESADA, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JIM SALICRUP, TODD McFARLANE, LOUISE SIMONSON, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, and more!

MICHAEL USLAN on film writing, Dennis O’Neil on adapting THE DARK KNIGHT movie to novel form, BRIAN BENDIS script and LEINIL YU pencils from SECRET INVASION #1, MAX ALAN COLLINS discusses his career, MARK MILLAR script and BRYAN HITCH FF pencils, DAN SLOTT script and STEVE McNIVEN pencils from Spider-Man’s BRAND NEW DAY, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(80-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

Go online for ULTIMATE BUNDLES of Write Now, Draw! and Rough Stuff, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

DRAW! (edited by top comics artist MIKE MANLEY) is the professional “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS and DEMOS from top pros on all aspects of graphic storytelling. NOTE: Contains nudity for purposes of figure drawing. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS.

DRAW! #4

DRAW! #5

DRAW! #6

DRAW! #8

Features an interview and step-by-step demonstration from Savage Dragon’s ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN on drawing and inking techniques, DAVE COOPER demonstrates coloring techniques in Photoshop, BRET BLEVINS tutorial on Figure Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews of comics drawing papers, and more!

Interview and sketchbook by MIKE WIERINGO, BRIAN BENDIS and MIKE OEMING show how they create the series “Powers”, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusion of depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, must-have art books reviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more! OEMING cover!

Interview, cover, and demo with BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO interview and demo on cartooning and animation, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw the human figure in light and shadow,” a step-by-step Photo-shop tutorial by CELIA CALLE, expert inking tips by MIKE MANLEY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more!

From comics to video games: an interview, cover, and demo with MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY on character design, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” step-by-step demo by ALBERTO RUIZ, “Draping The Human Figure” by BRET BLEVINS, a new COMICS SECTION, International Spotlight on JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA, a color section and more!

(88-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95

(96-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95

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DRAW! #10

DRAW! #11

DRAW! #12

DRAW! #13

DRAW! #14

RON GARNEY interview, step-by-step demo, and cover, GRAHAM NOLAN on creating newspaper strips, TODD KLEIN and other pros discuss lettering, “Draping The Human Figure, Part Two” by BRET BLEVINS, ALBERTO RUIZ with more Adobe Illustrator tips, interview with Banana Tail creator MARK McKENNA, links, a color section and more!

STEVE RUDE demonstrates his approach to comics & drawing, ROQUE BALLESTEROS on Flash animation, political cartoonist JIM BORGMAN on his daily comic strip Zits, plus DRAW!’s regular instructors BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY on “Drawing On LIfe”, more Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ, links, a color section and more! New RUDE cover!

KYLE BAKER reveals his working methods and step-by-step processes on merging his traditional and digital art, Machine Teen’s MIKE HAWTHORNE on his work, “Making Perspective Work For You” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, Photoshop techniques with ALBERTO RUIZ, Adult Swim’s THE VENTURE BROTHERS, links, a color section and more! New BAKER cover!

Step-by-step demo of painting methods by cover artist ALEX HORLEY (Heavy Metal, Vertigo, DC, Wizards of the Coast), plus interviews and demos by Banana Sundays’ COLLEEN COOVER, behind-the-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, regular features on drawing by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, links, color section and more, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW!

Features in-depth interviews and demos with DC Comics artist DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), plus Part 3 of editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, a new MAHNKE cover, and a FREE ALTER EGO #70 PREVIEW!

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95

(112-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(96-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital edition) $2.95

(88-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

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DRAW! #15

DRAW! #16

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

DRAW! #19

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/interview with B.P.R.D.’S GUY DAVIS, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

In-depth interview and coverage of the creative process of HOWARD CHAYKIN, behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, more COMIC ART BOOTCAMP (this time focusing on HOW TO USE REFERENCE), and WORKING FROM PHOTOS by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY. Plus, reviews, resources and more!

An in-depth interview and tutorial with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS creates the fabulous work on his series. Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and demo by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

DOUG BRAITHWAITE gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column reveals the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP gets your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ROUGH STUFF celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version. So don’t miss this amazing magazine, featuring galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art, from some of your favorite series of all time, and the top pros in the industry!

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Our debut issue features galleries of UNSEEN ART by a who’s who of Modern Masters including: ALAN DAVIS, GEORGE PÉREZ, BRUCE TIMM, KEVIN NOWLAN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, ARTHUR ADAMS, JOHN BYRNE, and WALTER SIMONSON, plus a KEVIN NOWLAN interview, art critiques, and a new BRUCE TIMM COVER!

The follow-up to our smash first issue features more galleries of UNSEEN ART by top industry professionals, including: BRIAN APTHORP, FRANK BRUNNER, PAUL GULACY, JERRY ORDWAY, ALEX TOTH, and MATT WAGNER, plus a PAUL GULACY interview, a look at art of the pros BEFORE they were pros, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

(116-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

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Still more galleries of UNPUBLISHED ART by MIKE ALLRED, JOHN BUSCEMA, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and LEE WEEKS, plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the process of creating a cover (with BILL SIENKIEWICZ and JOHN ROMITA JR.), and a new ROMITA JR. COVER, plus a FREE DRAW #13 PREVIEW!

More NEVER-PUBLISHED galleries (with detailed artist commentaries) by MICHAEL KALUTA, ANDREW “Starman” ROBINSON, GENE COLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, and STEVE BISSETTE, plus interview and art by JOHN TOTLEBEN, a look at the Wonder Woman Day charity auction (with rare art), art critiques, before-&-after art comparisons, and a FREE WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED galleries (complete with extensive commentaries by the artists) by PAUL SMITH, GIL KANE, CULLY HAMNER, DALE KEOWN, and ASHLEY WOOD, plus a feature interview and art by STEVE RUDE, an examination of JOHN ALBANO and TONY DeZUNIGA’s work on Jonah Hex, new STEVE RUDE COVER, plus a FREE BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW!

Features a new interview and cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE, interview with BUTCH GUICE, extensive art galleries/commentary by IAN CHURCHILL, DAVE COCKRUM, and COLLEEN DORAN, MIKE GAGNON looks at independent comics, with art and comments by ANDREW BARR, BRANDON GRAHAM, and ASAF HANUKA! Includes a FREE ALTER EGO #73 PREVIEW!

Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

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Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments. Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

MEGO 8" SUPER-HEROES: WORLD’S GREATEST TOYS!

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

IMAGE COMICS

G-FORCE: ANIMATED

MARVEL COMICS

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An unprecedented look at the company that sold comics in the millions, and their celebrity artists!

The official BATTLE OF THE PLANETS guidebook to the Japanese animated TV program that revolutionized anime across the globe!

An issue-by-issue field guide to the pop culture phenomenon of Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others!

(256-page FULL-COLOR hardcover) $49.95

(280-page trade paperback) $34.95

(100-page COLOR trade paperback) $15.95

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

GRAILPAGES

FLASH COMPANION

Explores the world of original comic book art, and the people who collect it. Includes numerous examples of many key “grail” pages, interviews, and more!

Details the publication histories of the four heroes who have individually earned the right to be declared DC Comics' "Fastest Man Alive"!

(144-page trade paperback) $15.95

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MODERN MASTERS

AGE OF TV HEROES

20+ volumes with in-depth interviews, plus extensive galleries of rare and unseen art from the artist’s files!

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(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

A BOOK SERIES DEVOTED TO THE BEST OF TODAY’S ARTISTS

An exhaustive look at Strange Adventures, Mystery In Space, and other ’60s DC science-fiction comics! (160-page trade paperback) $19.95

IN THE 1960s

Roy Thomas has four volumes documenting the history of ALL-STAR COMICS, the JUSTICE SOCIETY, INFINITY, INC., and more! (224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE: INDISPENSABLE EDITION

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

Definitive biography of the Watchmen writer, in a new, expanded edition!

Shows step-by-step how to develop a new comic, from script and art, to printing and distribution!

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

(108-page trade paperback) $13.95

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

FOR A FREE COLOR CATALOG, CALL, WRITE, E-MAIL, OR LOG ONTO www.twomorrows.com

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

TITANIC TOMES FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #91

DRAW! #19

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

DOUG BRAITHWAITE gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a "Rough Critique" of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column gives the low-down on the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP helps you get your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, plus a new interview (and back cover inks) by Bullpenner GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping!

AGE OF TV HEROES Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-the-scene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with. Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (SpiderMan), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more! Written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: SEP084302 FINALLY SHIPPING FEBRUARY 2010! ORDER NOW!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships May 2010

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US Ships February 2010

SAL BUSCEMA: COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s

In 1968, SAL BUSCEMA joined Marvel Comics and quickly became one of their top artists, penciling such storylines as the original AVENGERS/DEFENDERS WAR and CAPTAIN AMERICA, as well as a tenyear run on THE HULK and 100 consecutive issues of SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN. This new book by Alter Ego’s JIM AMASH with Modern Masters’ ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON explores Sal’s life and career through an exhaustive interview with the artist, complete with extensive examples of his art, including a deluxe color section, and a gallery of work from Sal’s personal files! Ships Jan. 2010!

This issue-by-issue field guide presents a step-by-step look at how Marvel Comics went from being one of the least creative publishers in a generally moribund industry, to its most dynamic and original in an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, follow the company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.

(176-page paperback w/16 color pages) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490212 (192-page HARDCOVER with 32 color pages, dust jacket, and illo’d endleaves) $46.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490229 ULTRA-LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION (52-copy numbered edition with a custom pencil portrait of one of Sal’s characters) $100 US • ONLY FROM TWOMORROWS!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95-3.95! Print subscribers get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY091042 ISBN: 9781605490168 • Now shipping!

2010 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

BRICKJOURNAL #9

BrickJournal looks at LEGO® Disney sets, with features on the Disney LEGO sets of the past (Mickey and Minnie) and present (Toy Story and Prince of Persia)! We also present models built by LEGO fans, and a look at the newest Master Build model at Walt Disney World, plus articles and instructions on building and customization, and more! (80-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 US • Ships January 2010

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3

Compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 (Vol. 1) of BRICKJOURNAL for the first time in printed form! Interviews with builders and LEGO Group CEO JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP, features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets, how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more! (224-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490069 Diamond Order Code: JAN094469 • Now shipping!

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE REVISED 2nd EDITION! CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and more, including his recent return to comics shelves and the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. By MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Order Code: APR091003 Now shipping!

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MODERN MASTERS: MARK BUCKINGHAM (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: FEB094473 Ships February 2010

MODERN MASTERS: GUY DAVIS by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490236 Ships January 2010 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

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For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt

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