Back Issue #83 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

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THIS ISSUE: INTERNATIONAL HEROES!

Alpha Flight • New X-Men • Global Guardians • Captain Canuck • JLI & more! featuring an exclusive interview with cover artists Steve Fastner and Rich Larson

Volume 1, Number 83 September 2015 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Steve Fastner and Rich Larson COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Howard Bender Jonathan R. Brown Rebecca Busselle ByrneRobotics.com Dewey Cassell Chris Claremont Mike Collins J. M. DeMatteis Leopoldo Duranona Scott Edelman Raimon Fonseca Ramona Fradon Keith Giffen Steve Goble Grand Comics Database Fred Hembeck Heritage Comics Auctions Joe Hollon Terry Kavanagh Barry Kitson Andrew Leyland Jean-Marc Lofficier Franck Martini Marvel Comics Robert Menzies

Martin Pasko Carl Potts Bob Rozakis Samuel Savage Alex Saviuk Jason Shayer Craig Shutt David Smith Steve Stiles Dan Tandarich Roy Thomas Fred Van Lente Len Wein Jay Williams Keith Williams Dedicated with admiration to: Rafael López Espí

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FLASHBACK: International X-Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The global evolution of Marvel’s mighty mutants FLASHBACK: Exploding from the Pages of X-Men: Alpha Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 John Byrne’s not-quite-a team from the Great White North BACKSTAGE PASS: The Captain and the Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 How a moral panic in the UK jeopardized the 1976 launch of Captain Britain WHAT THE--?!: Spider-Man: The UK Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Even you Spidey know-it-alls may never have read these stories! BACKSTAGE PASS: Origins of Marvel UK: Not Just Your Father’s Reprints. . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Repurposing Marvel Comics classics for a new audience ART GALLERY: López Espí Marvel Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 A collection of superhero illos by the acclaimed Spanish artist OFF MY CHEST: Challenge of the Super Friends Global Guardians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Are DC’s international heroes in continuity? FLASHBACK: Captain Canuck: If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again . . . . . . . . . . 53 The trials and tribulations of Richard Comely’s Canadian crimefighter PRO2PRO: Steve Fastner and Rich Larson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 An exclusive interview with our cover artists FLASHBACK: Justice League International: An Unintentional Trip to the World Stage. . . . 65 Keith Giffen and Marc DeMatteis tell BI how the JL got global GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Shamrock and the Peregrine’s Vanishing Act from Dr. Strange #37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 What on Earth is a “Frankensurfer”? BACK IN PRINT: Hexagon Forever!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Jean-Marc Lofficier shares the latest news about the Editions Lug universe BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Steve Fastner and Rich Larson. X-Men, Alpha Flight, and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2015 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. International Heroes Issue

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International Mutants The All-New, All-Different X-Men! Detail from the cover of 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. Art by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Franck Martini

[Lee] had had up to this point. It didn’t make sense to me that heroes in general, not even mutants who were originally supposed to be related to things like the Manhattan Project, were all Americans. […] There was no special reason for an Irish mutant, except that I wanted to do a character called the Banshee (female, if Stan had let me have my way) and BEFORE THE ALL-NEW, he/she wasn’t going to be a German, ALL-DIFFERENT… right? As for the Japanese side of There had been international mutants things—well, they had been on the before the team that appeared in receiving end of the end result of the Giant-Size X-Men #1 (July 1975). Roy Manhattan Project, so I thought it Thomas was then writing the book and would be interesting and productive wanted to give it a different vibe: “I did to throw a Japanese or Japanesecreate Banshee—well, I’d say ‘co-create,’ American into the mix.” because artist Werner Roth contributed So Banshee was introduced in X-Men much of the look, from a sort of general #28 (Jan. 1967) and Sunfire made visual idea I gave him—and Sunfire a his debut between two Neal Adams roy thomas couple of years later with Don Heck, issues (X-Men #64, Jan. 1970). It is also much the same way. I felt that Marvel Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. interesting to note that thanks to the needed a few ‘foreign mutants,’ and just characters from one-month Mexico trip mentioned above, Roy Thomas other worlds in general. At that time I hadn’t been out of also introduced Mexican villains El Tigre and Kukulkan the country except for a month in Mexico, but I felt it was in X-Men #25–26 (Oct.–Nov. 1966), a rare case of South time to build on the New York-central mythos that Stan American mutants until New Mutants’ Sunspot. If the original team of X-Men was only composed of American characters, such was not the case with the All-New, All-Different X-Men team that appeared after a five-year hiatus. The team would feature an international roster, but its adventures would also take place all over our world and beyond.

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this book sell just well enough in the States to break even,” as Thomas further explained Alter Ego #24 (May 2003). Thomas shares a bit more about the roster setup with BACK ISSUE: “I thought that perhaps pre-existing characters I’d had a hand in like the Banshee, Sunfire, and Wolverine might fit in, but I don’t believe that I was pushing projected writer Mike Friedrich and artist Dave Cockrum to include any particular character. A Canadian, maybe even a Japanese, made sense in the group, given that the idea was to sell the revived X-Men in countries where our comics were fairly well distributed … but there was no special reason for an Irishman to be included A NEW CONCEPT FOR A unless they wanted him to be.” NEW TEAM Dave Cockrum, the original New After a few appearances in Avengers X-Men artist, recalled that Roy Thomas and in Marvel Team-Up, the X-Men pitched him the book as “Mutant would return, but with a different team, Blackhawks,” inspired by the internationaland would target different readers member flying aces that originated than before as per Marvel president in the Golden Age in the pages of Al Landau’s suggestion: “Al suggested dave cockrum Military Comics and Blackhawk. Marvel do a group of foreign superSo the idea stuck, but not the heroes … characters from countries in Sketch by Michael Netzer. countries as Cockrum also recalled in which Marvel sold a lot of comics,” Thomas said to Tom Alter Ego #24: “By the time we were choosing characters, DeFalco. “Stan and I liked the idea. It was my idea to do FSSHT, out the window, you know. So we have a that group with the X-Men.” Russian, we have a Kenyan, and we might’ve sold some More precisely, there was a selling strategy behind in Germany and Canada, but that whole concept just Al Landau’s idea: “He said, if we could put out a book went out the window. We just got caught up in the with characters in it from different countries we sold to, enthusiasm of what we were doing.” it’d probably help. […] It’d be great if we could also make

The next “international” X-Man would be Wolverine, appearing for the first time in the pages of the Incredible Hulk #181 (Nov. 1974)—after a cliffhanger cameo in the previous issue, that is. Once again, Roy Thomas was involved in the creation process as he explained in Tom De Falco’s Comics Creators on X-Men (Titan Books, 2006): “He was my idea. I came up with his name and basic traits. […] [Al Landau, Marvel’s then-president, Stan Lee, and I] decided that we really should have a Canadian character. […] About five or ten percent of our readers were Canadian, and yet we didn’t have a Canadian character.”

International Heroes Issue

Wail and Assail (right) Ireland’s Banshee in X-Men #76 (June 1972), which reprinted issue #28. Cover by Gil Kane and an uncredited inker. (left) Japan’s Sunfire first appeared in X-Men #64 (Jan. 1970). Cover by Sal Buscema and Tom Palmer. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Jason Shayer

Hot off his career-defining run on The Uncanny X-Men with Chris Claremont, Canadian expatriate John Byrne turned his creative efforts north of the border. It took years to convince Byrne to flesh out the rag-tag superhero team he created in The Uncanny X-Men #120–121 (Apr.–May 1979). With Alpha Flight, John Byrne challenged the convenTM tions of a team book by focusing on individual characters while running the team story as a subplot. Each of these dysfunctional characters had their own story arcs showcased in dedicated issues, while the team plot percolated in the background and brought them together only a couple of times a year. While this narrative technique seemed unorthodox, Byrne’s vision for the title came to fruition in his second year. The first year was about creating the team’s backstory and establishing new and existing characters and villains. In the second year, Byrne groomed the team’s heart and soul, Heather Hudson (modeled after his wife), to lead Alpha Flight. The only thing Heather couldn’t anticipate was her creator’s detachment. “Alpha Flight was never much fun,” Byrne admitted in an interview john byrne with Newsarama’s Michael Thomas in 2000 (comicbookresources.com/?id= Photo by Corey Bond. 151&page=article). “The characters were created merely to survive a fight with the X-Men, and I never thought about them having their own title. When Marvel finally cajoled me into doing Alpha Flight, I realized how incredibly two-dimensional they were, and spent some 28 issues trying to find ways to correct this fault. Nothing really sang for me. If I have any regrets, it would probably be that I did the book at all! It was not a good time for me.” Despite the negative perceptions of his own work, Byrne made fans on both sides of the Canadian border care about these heroes. By transforming a housewife into the team’s new leader, Byrne led readers through Heather’s emotional journey and charmed us with her spunk and determination.

CANADA’S GREATEST SUPER-TEAM In X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978), James MacDonald “Mac” Hudson, donning his armor as Weapon Alpha, led a blunt attempt by the Canadian government to reclaim their rogue asset, Wolverine. Wolverine wasn’t interested in going back, and after a skirmish with the X-Men, Weapon Alpha had to withdraw. But Weapon Alpha and Department H had piqued readers’ imagination and were eager for another appearance. Just over a year later, Weapon Alpha, now the Vindicator, returned to the pages of The Uncanny X-Men and brought along some friends.

Northern Exposure John Byrne’s Alpha Flight was previewed in the House of Ideas’ promo-zine, Marvel Age #2 (May 1983). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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of the first issue’s appearance [Uncanny X-Men #120], in which only the most tantalizing glimpses of the characters were given, letters started to roll in. Fans were already picking their favorites, wondering about their unrevealed powers, guessing which were mutants, which weren’t. By the time they actually showed themselves in #121, the reading public was primed and ready. Alpha Flight was an instant success.” In X-Men #139–140 (Nov.–Dec. 1980), Claremont and Byrne took out a few of Alpha Flight’s members for a test-drive with Wolverine and Nightcrawler. More importantly though, we were first introduced to Heather Hudson, wife of James MacDonald Hudson and executive secretary for Yukon Oil. Our first glimpse of Heather was of a young woman with her hands full of groceries and preoccupied with how to juggle the household responsibilities and her professional career. Byrne’s portrayal of Heather was rather progressive in that it had a realworld view of a superhero relationship. By the end of this team-up, the Canadian prime minister shut down Department H and Alpha Flight because of budget cuts and anti-mutant temperament. Readers were left with some hope, though: “An ending of sorts, yet also a beginning—of a new, possibly brighter chapter in the life of Alpha Flight.” Fans would have to wait almost three years to read about that new chapter.

CANADA’S OWN ALPHA FLIGHT!

Soon-to-be Vindicator James MacDonald Hudson makes the scene as Weapon Alpha in X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978). Cover by Dave Cockrum. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

“Several members of what became Alpha Flight date back to my fan days,” Byrne related on his ByrneRobotics forum in 2008. “Guardian is chief among them, being created when I was in my early 20s as the figurehead of a whole line of ‘Canadian comics’ I was hoping to produce. Snowbird, in very different form, was born around the same time. Shaman, originally called Chinook (he had only weather-controlling powers), came next. (There was also a character called Phoenix. No chance he would ever have made it into Alpha Flight!) I dropped in the renamed (and power-enhanced) Shaman and a redesigned Snowbird, and came up with Northstar and Aurora (super-speed to counter Nightcrawler’s teleportation), and Sasquatch (to balance Colossus), and off we went. In the process, I came up with real names and some backstory for each.” “It was only as the characters evolved on paper that definite personalities manifested themselves,” Byrne further explained in his “Alpha Waves” letters column from Alpha Flight #1. “A group that started as a bunch of ciphers whose sole purpose was to survive a fight with the X-MEN became a formidable force in their own right. Within days

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With these words, “You are witnessing the death of a dream…”, John Byrne launched Alpha Flight #1 (Aug. 1983). The dream belonged to team’s leader, James MacDonald Hudson. Without Department H and its government funding, could Alpha Flight survive? This clean slate gave Byrne the creative freedom he didn’t have on The Uncanny X-Men or The Fantastic Four. Byrne had a full plate in 1983: In addition to writing, penciling, and inking Alpha Flight, he wrote and drew Fantastic Four and scripted its spin-off, The Thing. That added up to 44 pages to draw and 66 pages to plot and script each month! “I have The Fantastic Four roughly plotted out for about a year in advance,” Byrne outlined in Marvel Age #14 (May 1984). “The same goes for The Thing, and I generally have Alpha Flight plotted out about six months or so in advance. I’m always kicking around the ideas in my head for how to go with the series, what directions the book will take, and what villains and new characters will appear. Before I begin writing each issue, I turn in a written plot and meet with the editor, Bob Budiansky for The Fantastic Four and The Thing, and Denny O’Neil for Alpha Flight, to help me fine tune the plot.” Byrne spoke on how he handled this monthly workload in Marvel Age #2 (May 1983): “I’m going to be eliminating a step—I’m going to be doing just breakdowns and then inking those—penciling with ink. I’ve reached a level of comfort with my own work that I don’t need to do full pencils. So I’ll be doing stick figures, layouts, and inking those. It sounds like a lot of work but it actually isn’t. Although (evil laugh) I’ll still be making just as much money because Marvel pays me for a completed page.” Alpha Flight’s popularity had grown over the years before their own ongoing series, and their numerous guest appearances had only whet that appetite. Alpha Flight was the second spin-off from The Uncanny X-Men, following The New Mutants, which was published a few months earlier. Canada’s Greatest Heroes were an uncontested success with their debut, double-sized first issue selling over 500,000 copies, an impressive feat even in 1983. Their success wasn’t simply a first-issue phenomena: Comics Feature #46 (July 1986) had Alpha Flight #9 listed as #2 in their Top 100 and Amazing Heroes #49 (June 1984) had Alpha Flight #11 ranked #3 in their Top 100.

The full circumstances surrounding the launch of Captain Britain’s comic in 1976 have never been told before. It’s the tale of the greatest publicity campaign Marvel ever had for a comic book in Britain—conducted at a time when comics were under siege. It’s an unlikely tale that has Stan Lee in cowboy boots, members of the British Parliament, a shark, and a World Cup referee!

SELLING CAPTAIN BRITAIN TO THE BRITISH The publicity for the launch of the eponymously named and ill-fated Captain Britain (CB) comic book was primarily organized by Ray Wergan. (See BACK ISSUE #29 for more on Captain Britain and BI #63 for a detailed look at British Marvel.) Employed by Marvel between 1972 and 1978, Wergan had extensive media contacts. While he unquestionably did a thorough job in arranging publicity, events elsewhere ensured that the subject of Captain Britain was discussed on primetime TV, radio, and in newspapers. In February of 1976, a new comic called Action had been released by International Publishing Corporation (IPC), one of the three biggest comic publishers at that time in the UK. Bloodthirsty and graphic, with man-eating sharks ripping off limbs, characters being decapitated by bridges, and priests being shot, Action was immediately as controversial as it was popular. By issue #2 of Action, newspapers had started to comment on it, and not favorably. One of those early articles appeared in The Sun, a tabloid newspaper with an immense circulation of 12 million (i.e., one in five of the UK population). Action continued to draw negative press over the coming months. The media were unable or unwilling to distinguish one comic company— never mind comic—from another, and so now all comic books were seen as equally culpable. With Cap’s debut 25 days away, a new strip called “Kids Rule O.K.” debuted in the September 11th issue of Action. Its portrayals of football hooliganism, then a considerable social issue, would soon bring everything to a climax. Only four days later, in the Marvel weeklies released on September 15, 1976 (dated September 22), fans had their first teasing view of the shadowy, unnamed hero. The adverts also made reference to him being “British” and “Britain’s own,” which was an intriguing surprise. Up till then, the only prominent British hero to appear in the British weeklies had been the Black Knight. (Reprints of The Invaders would not let a British audience meet the WWI hero Union Jack, or his daughter Spitfire, for some months yet.) As the publicity campaign would emphasize, Captain Britain was the first British hero created for a British audience: It’s an important distinction, one that is often overlooked. Two days passed, and then The Daily Mail—with a circulation of nearly five million, the fourth most popular daily in the UK—ran a prominent story condemning Action’s content. The press and selfappointed “moral guardians” had a new crusade.

First Look (top) Captain Britain’s first public outing gave away little. Ad from Mighty World of Marvel #208 (Sept. 22, 1976). (bottom) This first color image of Cap appeared two weeks before Captain Britain #1’s launch. All images accompanying this article are courtesy of Robert Menzies. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Robert Menzies

Andrew Leyland

The Amazing Spider-Man first appeared in The Mighty World of Marvel #1, the week ending October 7th, 1972. This was the beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics, featuring, as it did, the opening salvo of a trio of strips that would redefine the comic-book medium: Spidey, the Fantastic Four, and the Incredible Hulk. This 40-page comic, costing five pence, featured the world’s greatest superheroes in three movie-length adventures, a great mystery surprise for every reader, and a FREE greenskinned monster T-shirt transfer. What’s this? It’s not like BACK ISSUE to make such a schoolboy error. Surely everybody knows that Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, first appeared in an anthology title, that’s true—but it was Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), not Mighty World of Marvel (MWOM). And the Hulk and the FF first appeared in their own magazines. Well, yes, all of this is, of course, correct. But for an entire nation across the cold, unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, these three titans of superhero comics did not first headline their own comics, rather, they were introduced to an entire country as stable-mates in one magazine … and thus was born the Marvel Age of Comics—UK division. There had been an attempt to launch Marvel characters before in POW! and Fantastic magazines in the late ’60s, but MWOM wasn’t a licensed deal. Marvel was looking at launching a new line of comics in a new country, on their own terms. Whilst MWOM was popular in and of itself, Spider-Man was the breakout star, and when Marvel looked to expand its publishing output, Spidey was the logical choice for the second Marvel weekly, his place in MWOM being taken by Daredevil. Reprinting “Spider-Man Tackles the Torch” from Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Feb. 1964), #19 of MWOM was Spider-Man’s last as a regular feature. Spider-Man Comics Weekly debuted the week ending February 17, 1973, picking up where MWOM left off with a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #10, “The Coming of Electro” (Mar. 1964), and also introducing the startled and eager British Isles to the Mighty Thor as a backup strip. The first issue, like its elder “brother,” was 40 pages and cost five pence. It featured a free Spider-Man mask and revealed the startling secret of FOOM. No one could have believed it at the time but this comic would run for almost 13 years and a staggering 666 issues. It would be the pinnacle of UK Marvel’s output featuring pretty much every superhero character Marvel ever published at one time or another, but its end would be ignominious as Marvel UK pretty much gave up, allowing the comic to fade away rather than burn out. It would see numerous title and format

Your Friendly British Neighbourhood Spider-Man Spider-Man UK #607 (Oct. 27, 1984) cover artist Jerry Paris also drew the issue’s splash page, with then-newbies Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer following with interior art. Spidey UK scans courtesy of Andrew Leyland. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Dewey Cassell

Your Father’s FF (and Probably Yours, Too) From Captain Britain #2, Fantastic Four pinup art by Steve Stiles and Frank Giacoia. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Think you have seen all the artwork and read all the dialogue of your the story draw new splash pages, so something else had to be done. Edelman recalls, “Sometimes I’d find a panel from a previous segment favorite Marvel comics from the ’60s and ’70s? Maybe not. which could be enlarged as the basis for a splash page. Sometimes there’d In 1972, Marvel Comics launched a new imprint called Marvel UK to publish Marvel comic-book titles across the pond [see BI #63—ed.]. It was be no suitable panel to repurpose, and a new splash page would need to be drawn.” When a new splash page needed to be drawn, not the first time Marvel comics had been published in England. which was the case more often than not, the responsibility fell Alan Class and Odhams Press reprinted early Marvel comics in to artists like Steve Stiles and Howard Bender. the 1960s. But recognizing a potentially lucrative market, Bender elaborates on how the process worked: Marvel decided to take the reins. Marvel had a tremendous, “Basically, the whole thing was put together and overseen growing inventory of titles that had proved popular by Sol Brodsky and he had his connections with the in the United States, from vintage superhero comics people overseas, in Britain, who would package it— like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Fantastic an enormous amount of books every week, maybe Four, and The Incredible Hulk to more recent titles like two or three books a day—to be printed over in Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, and Planet of England. Of course, it was all printed in black and the Apes. The same comics could be reprinted in the white. They would split the stories, so they would UK for a whole new set of fans. need a new splash page and a new cover for the other However, reprinting US comics for the UK market book(s).” So, in actuality, part of the Marvel UK was not as simple as it sounds. Comics in the UK were reprint books were not reprints. traditionally published weekly with black-and-white For artists like Bender and Stiles, Marvel UK interiors printed magazine-sized. Scott Edelman, the scott edelman provided a good place to start. Stiles explains how second editor of Marvel UK after Tony Isabella, further he came to work on the Marvel UK comics: “In 1975, explains the challenge: “US comic books at the time K. Tempest Bradford/Wikipedia. generally consisted of a single story stretching through an issue. UK comic I found myself drawing up comic-book samples while living in Joe books tended to be made up of many shorter stories about different Staton’s basement in upstate New York. After three visits to the Marvel characters, with each adventure continuing in segments from issue to issue. offices, Chris Claremont took me over to see John Warner, who was In order for Marvel’s US comics to pass as UK comics, someone had to take then editor of the British line, and I was hired.” Bender had a similar a 20-page story, [and] break it into parts.” The number of pages in each path to the House of Ideas: “I always wanted to work at Marvel. I really part varied depending on the space allocated to it in the Marvel UK comic. loved the way Stan Lee would talk to the readers. After I graduated The by-product of this approach was that new splash pages and art school, I went to New York. I started working in the Bullpen doing covers were needed for the subsequent parts of the story. It was not corrections on the black-and-white magazines, and then they found a practical, or even possible in many cases, to have the original artist for spot for me in the UK Division, which was down the hall.” International Heroes Issue

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Editor’s note: A few examples of Marvel superhero art by renowned Spanish illustrator Rafael López Espí have appeared in BACK ISSUE in the past, piquing the interest of US readers. Thanks to the generosity of one of BI’s readers in Spain, Raimon Fonseca, we proudly present this gallery of López Espí images of Marvel’s mightiest—thank you, Raimon! On these pages you’ll find plates from a 2007 portfolio, most of which are

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accompanied by the 1970s covers for which the images were produced; the 1972 Spider-Man and Iron Man posters painted that were marketed in Marvel’s UK weeklies; and original art from a 1974 Marvel card set. Readers are encouraged to discover more about our spotlighted artist by visiting the illustrator’s website at www.lopezepsi.com. All characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Jack Abramowitz

WHAT EARTH ARE WE ON?

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TM & © DC Comics.

It was never quite clear whether Super Friends took place on Earth-One or in some parallel reality. (Wait—the headline says “Global Guardians”! Why are we talking about the Super Friends? Patience, please. We’ll get there!) In favor of the Earth-One theory, Super Friends often referred to the Justice League. But the regular Justice League comics never acknowledged a “Hall of Justice” or any training program for superhero wannabes. It would be easy to conclude that failure to mention these things does not constitute proof of their non-existence except that the presence of a Justice League is not the ironclad proof we’d like to think it is. After all, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man featured the Injustice Gang satellite, meaning that there’s a Justice League in that continuum, and that story certainly did not take place on Earth-One. Supporting the not-Earth-One hypothesis is the appearance of T.N.T. and Dan the Dyna-Mite in Super Friends #12. These WWII-era heroes were certainly not indigenous to Earth-One, whose first superpowered champion was established to be Superman. And yet, plenty of stories clearly set on Earth-One also broke this rule—frequently stories featuring Superman or his younger self! A sampling of such exceptions includes the Guardian appearing in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (starting in #135), Zatara in New Adventures of Superboy #14 and 49, and Air Wave in DC Comics Presents #40, among others. Yes, ten-yearolds go through these kind of mental gymnastics trying to determine where Super Friends takes place. In preparing this article, I took an informal and not-statistically significant survey of a few people in the comics industry on this subject. To a person, they did not consider Super Friends part of Earth-One continuity: Cartoonist Fred Hembeck said, “I didn’t consider ’em in continuity! Just a feeling. (I didn’t consider a lot of what went on in B&B with Batman’s costars in continuity either…)” Craig Shutt, a.k.a. “Mr. Silver Age,” replied that “I wouldn’t consider it in [regular DC] continuity, as it’s a different set of characters with somewhat different personalities. Certainly, there was never an BACK ISSUE • 45

Fast Friends Flash runs into Impala in Super Friends #7 (Oct. 1977). By E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith. Scan coutesy of John Wells. TM & © DC Comics.

indication that it was in continuity by having characters reference those adventures.” Martin Pasko, who actually worked at DC at the time, gave an insider’s perspective not only on Super Friends but on some other titles as well with his reply: “[T]here were many people at DC who considered Super Friends to be invisible. Seriously, the only person who thought of it as part of any continuity— never mind what Earth—was [E.] Nelson Bridwell. Everyone else thought of it as strictly a TV tie-in, no more a part of the DCU (which wasn’t even called that yet, back then) than Welcome Back, Kotter. This was because Hannaramona Barbera had to put in two kids and a Luigi Novi / Wikimedia. dog to get ABC to take the show (they were Scooby-Dooing everything to within an inch of its life at the time), and at first ABC wouldn’t even allow the characters to be referred to as ‘the Justice League.’

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Everyone at DC thought the show was truly awful, and felt that the scripts were not only a bastardization of the source material, but disrespectful of the entire superhero genre in general. Many people at DC (even among executive staff) didn’t really want to publish Super Friends at all, but the title was a condition of the licensing arrangement with the cartoon studio.” While not officially recognized as such, the Super Friends’ continuum is popularly known as “Earth-OneA,” an offshoot of Earth-One. (As noted, the point of all this will be made clear shortly.)

fradon

ENTER THE GLOBAL GUARDIANS

So here we have Super Friends, featuring superhero protégés of dubious canon Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. The status quo starts to change in issue #7, “The Warning of the Wondertwins,” by E. Nelson Bridwell, with art by Ramona Fradon and Bob Smith. The tale begins when a spaceship arrives on Earth carrying superpowered teens Zan and Jayna, along with their elastic-tailed pet monkey, Gleek. The trio are refugees from the planet Exor, and made their way to Earth to warn the locals about a dire plot from Superman’s old enemy, Grax. That bald-headed, blue-skinned, fourarmed space pirate planted 12 bombs around the globe, any one of which would be capable of destroying all life on the planet. Wendy and Marvin summon not just the Super Friends but the entire Justice League. “So many bombs,” Wonder Woman observes. “We’ll have to abandon our usual teamwork!” “Not necessarily!” Wendy counters. “The JLA computer had info on all Earth’s heroes! You can team with local ones near where the bombs are.” And so it begins. First up is Superman, who visits Israel, where he teams with local hero the Seraph. The Seraph is in possession of Elijah’s mantle, the staff of Moses, and King Solomon’s ring, each of which endows him with miraculous abilities. Additionally, his long hair provides him with super-strength à la Samson. The bomb is encased within a gravity field that the Man of Steel cannot breach. The Seraph enables him to access the device by using his staff to part the gravity field as Moses once did the Red Sea. One bomb down. We transition to London, where the Elongated Man is teamed with Godiva, who has prehensile hair that she can harden, turn transparent, and more. (At first glance, it would appear that Godiva is a blatant rip-off of Marvel’s Medusa. Upon further reflection, we may note that Legion of Super-Heroes reject Spider Girl—who first appeared in 1964’s Adventure Comics #323—predates either of them. DC might counter that Marvel appropriated not only Spider Girl’s power but her name as well!) In any event, bomb #2 is enclosed within a force-field that, happily, has no effect on hair, so Godiva is able to enwrap herself and the ductile detective in a tonsorial shield. From merrie olde England we travel to South Africa, where we find the Flash zooming along with local hero Impala keeping pace. (We’re informed that Impala is not as fast as the Flash, but keeping up at this speed is an impressive feat nonetheless.) The South Africa bomb hovers high over a broad plain, leaving Flash with no way to reach it. Happily, impalas are not only fast, they’re champion leapers. Impala is able to leap 19 feet in the air with the Flash on his shoulders; Impala’s “hang time” is sufficient for Flash to defuse the bomb at super-speed.

Captain Who? Unless you are a Canadian or a really hardcore comic collector, you may have never even heard of Captain Canuck. I remember when I first saw something about Captain Canuck, known as CC to his fans. In late 1979 or early 1980, I picked up copy The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom, stuffed with ads of comics for sale. Buried in all those ads was a Captain Canuck promotion from Doug Sulipa’s Comic World, a dealer in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. So, from the first time I put my hands on a copy of CC, I was hooked have since collected everything connected to the character. While this is an article about Captain Canuck, you can’t understand CC without understanding the life of his creator, Richard Comely. His is the story of how a few issues of Captain Canuck would get published, and then cease publication, and then come back for more issues, and then go away again. Only to come back again. Captain Canuck is like a cat with nine lives.

THE COMING OF CAPTAIN CANUCK

Jay Williams

In late 1971 or early 1972, Richard Comely and Ron Leishman (www.toonaday.com), a friend of Comely’s from church, were talking. Leishman said there should be a Canadian superhero and even had preliminary drawing in his cartoony style. A couple of years went by and at age 24, Comely decided to self-publish CC with money he borrowed from family plus a small bank loan. He found a publisher who would give him credit to print the comics. Before Comely could publish Captain Canuck #1, Leishman went to France for two years as a missionary. Comely modified the cartoony style of Fleishman’s drawing to more of a comic-book superhero style and defined the hero’s look as its writer/artist. In April 1975, a one-page marketing flyer richard comely known as the “Jammies” cover was created and sent out to prospective sellers of comics to promote the first issue of Captain Canuck. Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975), from Comely Comix, was a visual departure from the comics being turned out by Marvel and DC. It had a cover price of 35 cents at a time when US comic books were selling for 25 cents. Issue #1’s cover showed CC in his red-and-white outfit over a Canadian flag, superimposed over a yellow-and-orange sunrise. After much experimentation, Comely took the black-and-white inked comic pages, laid a sheet of acetate over them, and then used animator paints and colored on the acetate pages. The result was a much larger and brighter color pallet than the standard four-color comic. (Some might describe these colors as strange.) The first issue’s CC 18-page adventure was scripted, illustrated, and colored by Comely, with co-scripter Dave Abbott. It included a ten-page sword-and-sorcery backup, Jonn, co-written by Comely and Leishman, penciled by Comely, and inked by Owen McCarron. [Editor’s note: To learn more about McCarron, who was also the man behind Marvel Fun and Games Magazine, see BACK ISSUE #77.] While Captain Canuck was never submitted to the Comics Code Authority for approval to be sold in the US, Comely was committed to having a comic with no gratuitous or excessive violence or sexuality. This comes from Comely being an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). The Captain Canuck series was set in the then-future of 1993–1994. Its backstory: In the 1980s, Canada became the leading economic and world power. Canada’s equivalent of the United States’ CIA was an organization called the C.I.S.O. (Canadian International Security Organization). C.I.S.O. selected two men who are unequaled in physical and mental prowess to be trained as its “super agents”: Captain Canuck (who in real life is Tom Evans) and his partner Blue Fox.

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Our cover artists, painter Steve Fastner and penciler Rich Larson, started their collaboration back in the mid-1970s, and nearly 40 years later they’re as in-demand as ever! Many BACK ISSUE readers cherish their fascinating Marvel portfolios of the early ’80s, from which our X-Men vs. Alpha Flight cover hails, and that’s the starting point for this exclusive “Pro2Pro” chat. – Michael Eury

conducted by

Michael Eury

MICHAEL EURY: Let’s start by discussing the Alpha Flight vs. X-Men illustration we’ve repurposed as the cover of this issue, BACK ISSUE #83 … which was released, coincidentally, in 1983 in an X-Men portfolio, one of a few Marvel portfolios you did in the early ’80s. How did these portfolios come about, and who is/was SQ Publications? RICH LARSON: SQP, a.k.a. Sal Q Productions (www.sqpartbooks.com), was and is Sal Quartuccio and Bob Keenan, the hardest-working publishers in fantasy art. Our story is inextricably intertwined with theirs; they were the first to publish our work (in their prozine Hot Stuf’, in 1978), and have published most of our books since. You don’t usually find artists cozying up to their publishers, but we love those guys. They’re probably the longest-lived independent fantasy publishers still actually signing checks. STEVE FASTNER: Sal Quartuccio called me one day in 1979 and told me he was doing a series of Marvel superheroes portfolios. It was going to be various Marvel artists and inkers producing inked drawings of the superheroes. Sal wanted me to do airbrush coloring for the inked drawings using a photo-process called blue-line transfer. Blue-line makes a light blue copy of the line art on a sheet of illustration board, which I would do the airbrushing on. It also makes a copy of the black ink lines on a sheet of clear acetate. That way, when it’s printed, the black ink lines stay solid black instead of being screened, which would make them dark grey instead. I had done blue-line coloring on SQP’s The Art of John Buscema book. I told Sal that I’d prefer to do fully airbrushed paintings instead, so he made me a counteroffer. He would have the artists pencil the drawing on art board and I could do airbrush painting on top. I agreed to do them, and the first set was the X-Men. EURY: You made a reputation in those days doing painted renditions of superheroes before that became fashionable (although, of course, the pulps did that way back in the ’30s). Do you recall the reaction from editors and fans during that time when line art for superhero renderings was the norm? LARSON: I think it was moderately favorable. A few fans probably took issue with our style as a being a bit too cartoony, or not Marvelesque enough. But the portfolios were successful enough that we did four sets (two of the X-Men, Spidey, and the Hulk), and had the Fantastic Four ready to go when Marvel decided to take the portfolio format in-house.

Next Generation Steve Fastner and Rich Larson’s “Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters – Revisted” plate, from SQP’s first X-Men portfolio. X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Jonathan Rikard Brown

The year was 1987, and the crossover event Legends had just concluded. After this event and its predecessor Crisis on Infinite Earths, the DC Universe had become a very different place. Characters were becoming grittier. Heroes from parallel worlds had become full-time residents of a single DCU. In all this change it was becoming clearer and clearer that the time for a new type of Justice League was now. As this team would go forward, accompanied by unforeseen commercial success, it would evolve. The League would no longer be anchored to America. It would take a new turn and become a peacekeeping force for the world. It would become Justice League International. Before a new League could form and evolve, a new creative team had to be brought together. Andy Helfer, who had been editing Justice League of America since 1985, was the one who would chart this new route for this well-established title. [Editor’s note: See BI #3 for more about the Justice League’s rebirth.] In the wake of Legends, a new Justice League cast had emerged. It was Helfer who would bring on Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis to give the team life. DeMatteis was the first to come on to the scene. He had taken over writing Justice League of America with issue #255 (Oct. 1986). DeMatteis would continue on with the series until it ended with #261. In speaking about the transition to the j. m. dematteis new era of Justice League, DeMatteis tells BACK ISSUE, “I’d written the final story of the ‘Detroit’ League for Andy Helfer and, when Andy and Keith were putting the new League together, Keith decided he wasn’t comfortable doing the plot and the dialogue. Andy asked me to come aboard. I took one look at Keith’s first plot, which was terrific, and signed on. [Penciler] Kevin Maguire was the final piece of the puzzle—one of the most gifted, and unique, artists I’ve ever worked with.” While this one piece of the puzzle was set early on, Keith Giffen had been working with Andy Helfer, prodding him for the opportunity to work on the book. Giffen recounts the story: “I don’t remember when it started, but it was a good while before I got the Justice League or even any indication that I might get it. I was always after Andy, ‘Give me the Justice League. Give me the Justice League.’ ’Cause I saw this potential for the book that I didn’t figure was being reached.” He continues, “It was like with the Legion of Super-Heroes. What attracted me most to that was the potential the book had. Just the ability to go in there and do something really wild. I saw the same thing in Justice League. For months and months, maybe even a year before finally getting the book, I’d go to Andy and say, ‘Give me the Justice League. I can do something good with it.’ Andy would just nod, ‘Yeah yeah yeah yeah, go away, find something else to do.’”

The New Global Guardians After a mere six issues, Justice League was retitled Justice League International with issue #7 (Nov. 1987). Cover by Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon. TM & © DC Comics.

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D a n Ta n d a r i c h

Hanging Tin

peregrine

shamrock

Produced for a European reprint, López Espí’s interpretation of Silver Surfer #7’s Surffer/Frankenstein fer/ clash. Courtesy of Raimon Fonseca. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

What do you get when you assemble the international superheroes Lofficier did not receive a reason why Marvel was going with a new artist, Shamrock and the Peregrine, Dr. Strange, the Silver Sur fer, and the he did write a note to Duranona in the unpublished script. “Last timee, Frankenstein Monster? No, not a missing issue of Marvel Team-Up but the editor wasn’t wild about the breakdown that you used on page 2, a Greatest Story Never Told! This is the story behind the story of Dr. which he thought was too hard to follow.” Marvel then said that Marvell C o m i c s P r e s e n t s s h o u l d u s e m o r e c o m m e rc i a l c h a r a c t e r s s u c h a s Strange, Sorrcerer Supreme #37 (Jan. 1992). The lucky Irish heroine Shamrock and the high-flying French hero Wolverine. That was it for the Shamrock and Peregrine story. Kavanagh explains to BI that he would have used the storyy as Marvel Peregrine had only made sporadic appearances since their debut in Marvel ComiPREVIEW, cs Presents was a biweekly comic, noting that he was a fan of Super Hero Contest of Champio ons #1 (June 1982) [see BIF I #YOU 41 forENJOYED more on THIS uranona’sTHIS work from Warren magazines like Eeriiee and could not imagine k—hadTHE Contest of Champio ons—ed.]. Molly Fitzgerald—ShamrocCLICK the aLINK bility TODORDER passing FORMAT! up the opportunity to use his illustrations. In the letters page off opponeIN to alter probabilities to her advantage when battlingISSUE ntsPRINT or solviOR ng DIGITAL Marvel Comiccs Presents #15 (Mar. 1989) in response to a fan’s request for pro oblems. The Peregrine—Alain Racine—was a winged hero who specialized the Peregrine, the editor did reply that the French hero would be used: in savate (French kickboxing). It was this little-used duo who became the stars of an unpublished adventure for Marvel Comics Presents written by “Well, that’s a pretty strange request with all of the characters to choose Jean-Marc Lofficierr, who shares with BACK ISSUEE, “I chose the Peregrine from in the Marvel Universe, but we’ll try to accommodate you. Believe it el because of him being French, of course. I can’t recall why I made or not, we have a few stories in the works with Le Peregrine.” Marvel Comiccs Presents #18 (May 1989) gave hope for the character once again. Shamrock his girlfriend, although in retrospect it seems natural enough.” The real-life chronicle begins in Los Angeles where Loffficier met “If enough readers tell us they want to see more of a certain characterr Argentine artist Leopoldo Duranona at a party circa 1987. Lofficier (like, say, Le Peregrine or Annihilus, just to name two), we’ll tryy to accomremembers, “[Leo] wanted to work for Marvel and had done a generic modate them with a longer series.” And finallyy, MCP #19 (May 1989) few tryout pages in pencil which I felt, with some minimum redesigns, added, “Have you been wondering about the fates of Le Peregrine, Sabra, could be turned into a Shamrock/Peregrine story. That’s what I sent as or Shamrock?” So for now, the shelving of the project remained a mysteryy. A few years later,, Lofficier worked with Roy and Dann Thomas on a proposal to Terry Kavanagh” [then-editor of Marvel Comics Presents]. The “audition” was then rewritten by Lofficier and turned into a Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Lofficier had written “The Book of the Vishanti” backup feature which delved into the mystical corners of thee four-part story. It was during this “second phase” that Lofficier pulled d together the various threads of the sordid histor y of the Family Marvel Universe. He remembered his unpublished story and planned using it [Frankenstein histor y only] as a two-part “Book of the I.C.O.NISSUE . on#83 Frankenstein in the Mar vel Universe. It picked up on the BACK ViNew shaX-Men, nti” Global backup. In the letters column “Strange Mails” from Dr. e from thHeroes!” e canAlpha celeFlight, d the (International Criminal Organizations Nexus) storylin“International Guardians, Captain Canuck, and Justice League International, plus S t r a n g e, Sowith rc e r e r S u p r e m e # 4 2 ( J u n e 1 9 9 2 ) , e d i t o r M i k e R o c k w i t z Frankenstein n Monster (originally The Monster of FrankSpider-Man enstein n)incthe om i c b o o k UK and more. Also: exclusive interview evealeFeaturing d, “It the was only after Geof [Isher wood] had penciled all ten earcFASTNER hed anand d RICHrLARSON. that Marvel published from 1973 to 1975. After Lofcover ficieartists r resSTEVE work of JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, pagMAGUIRE, es thatandwmore! e decided instead to add the 12-page ‘Frankensur fer’ arvel toKEITH ld hGIFFEN, im KEVIN wrote the full script with Duranona in mind as the arRICHARD tist, MCOMELY, plot to surround them.” Roy was more than happy to go with the Although that the story was to be assigned to someone elseAlpha to Flight draw raw. vs. .X-Men cover by FASTNER/LARSON. (84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

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