CBA Interview
The Lonely War of Will Franz The Writer on “Willy Schultz” and Charlton Comics Conducted by Jon B. Cooke
Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson
Right inset: Cover of the first issue of Fightin’ Army—# 76—to feature Will Franz’s memorable war series, “The Lonely War of Captain Willy Schultz.” ©2000 Roger Broughton/ACG Comics.
Will Franz was a teenager when he first starting writing for Charlton Comics in 1967. By the few who “know,” Will’s Fightin’ Army series, “The Lonely War of Captain Willy Schultz,” about a German-speaking American officer masquerading as a German soldier behind enemy lines, is recalled as one of the finest war serials in comics, putting the reader in the shoes of the “enemy,” a rare occurrence in America’s usual gung-ho war comics. Working solely as a writer of war stories—mostly for Charlton but some for Joe Kubert’s “Make War No More” titles at DC—Will left the field by 1973. CBA thanks Will’s often artist-partner, Sam Glanzman, for getting us in touch with the writer. Thanks also to Fred Hembeck. This interview, conducted by phone on March 19, 2000 , was copyedited by Will.
Below: The writer Will Franz dressed up in his role as Captain(!) of the Newcastle Infantrie, the 16th century military reenactment unit, “Companie of the Shot.” Phew! For a second we though this get-up was all the rage amongst New York civil workers! Courtesy of the writer. Photo by Cynthia Farnell.
Comic Book Artist: Where are you from? Will Franz: I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I met Sam Glanzman... I think I wrote to him sometime in 1965 or ‘66. I used to collect the Combat series that he did for Dell, and I always wanted to be an artist myself, and I did my own drawings. I sent samples of my work to Sam care of Dell, and he sent me a letter back and critiqued my drawings, and wanted to meet me. So I went and met him, and one of the first things he wanted to know was, where were my swipe files, meaning my reference material. He was quite surprised to find most of my reference material was from his own work! CBA: [laughs] That’s exactly the story he just gave me! [laughter] Will: He’s a character, you know? [laughs] You heard of balls of brass? He had iron balls! [laughter] I used to make up my own stories, and he was impressed with some of what he saw, and he said Dick Giordano at Charlton was looking to start up some
92
series, and for me to write. Sam showed me how he preferred a script executed—the format—and he said, “Get these together and send ’em out to Dick Giordano.” I sent them off to Dick and he didn’t like them, and sent them back. He explained why, and that he’d like to see more. CBA: What were the strips? Will: They were short stories, like four pages each. I have them buried somewhere. Believe me, they were nothing to speak of. They were war stories. I specialized in warfare, and I put together some other thing, a horrendous little Vietnam thing called “The Sniper.” I wasn’t proud of it, but hey, I put it together, Dick loved it, and he made it the cover story on some magazine called Charlton Premiere, and that was it! From then on, he asked me to work up some series ideas, and I came up with “The Lonely War of Willy Schultz,” “The Iron Corporal,” and then a thankfully short-lived series called “The Devil’s Brigade,” about two rogue tanks in North Africa. Working with Dick Giordano was fun. CBA: Oh, so were you living in Brooklyn at the time? Will: Yeah, I was living in Brooklyn. I was 15 or 16. CBA: You were born in 1950? Will: Right. I developed Type 1 Diabetes just before my 14th birthday, and couldn’t attend regular school. I was really sick, still serious but under control now. I guess I was coping with some of the problems of diabetes by writing and drawing. CBA: What attracted you to war material? Will: I really don’t know. There are no soldiers in my family. A diabetic counselor said years ago that in a way, dealing with warfare, I was dealing with my own medical problems. I went on and became a fencing master years later, and I was very aggressive and meticulous, and again, they were saying, “This is your way of coping with the cruelties of your disease,” so to speak. CBA: Were you into other comic books, too, or was it primarily war? Will: No, I wanted to be an illustrator. To me, my skill—with the diabetes—there’d be times when I couldn’t control a pencil or pen properly. My reliability, I felt, wasn’t up to a professional level, and I didn’t COMIC BOOK ARTIST 9
August 2000