Comic Book Creator #32 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION

WORKING WITH DITKO

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the superhero serials (1941-1952) of Superman, Captain America, Spy Smasher, Captain Marvel, and others, and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE examine the independent that published KIRBY, ARAGONÉS, DITKO, ADAMS, GRELL, plus DAVE STEVENS’ Rocketeer!

JACK C. HARRIS recalls collaborating with STEVE DITKO on The Creeper, Shade, Demon, Wonder Woman, The Fly, & more, plus Ditko’s unused Batman design!

STEVE GERBER and JACK KIRBY’s five-issue Destroyer Duck series, reproduced from Kirby’s UNINKED PENCIL ART, plus Gerber’s SCRIPT PAGES, and more!

Collects JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY’s 1954-56 series BULLSEYE (the complete run), plus all the Kirby FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE stories, fully restored!

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9

(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $249.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6

(144-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

(262-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

CHARLTON COMPANION

CLIFFHANGER!

TEAM-UP COMPANION OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS (1940s-1980s)

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more!

MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

GLEN CADIGAN’s bio of the artist who redesigned the Legion of Super-Heroes and introduced X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Logan!

(272-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-107-3

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 HC: $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-113-4

REED CRANDALL

THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF

JOHN SEVERIN

History of Crandall’s life and career, from Golden Age Quality Comics, to Warren war and horror, Flash Gordon, and beyond!

ROGER HILL's biography of the WEIRD TALES cover painter and Atlas/Marvel horror comics artist!

Biography of the EC, MARVEL and MAD mainstay, co-creator of American Eagle, and 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor.

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS

Master of the Comics

Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-102-8

(129-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

Compiles the sold-out DITKO, KIRBY, and LEE issues, plus new material on each!

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-106-6

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8

Illustrator of the Comics

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SERIES

documents each decade of comics history!

8 Volumes covering the 1940s-1990s

MATT FOX

TWO-FISTED COMIC ARTIST

MAC RABOY

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Fall 2023 • The Stout/Preiss Issue • Number 32

About Our Covers Covers art and colors by WILLIAM STOUT

Ye Ed’s Rant: The long road getting this Byron Preiss tribute onto the printing press........ 2 COMICS CHATTER Up Front: Mike Deodato, Jr. Part one of Greg Biga’s three-piece profile of the Brazilianborn artist, with this portion discussing young Deo’s father, a super-hero creator in his own right, Mike’s early years in fanzines, and early pro work in the United States.......... 3 The Borth Files: The second installment of our look at the best cartoonist you never heard of on his move to Montauk and 1950s work at Treasure Chest comics................ 14 Hembeck’s Dateline: Forget the Emissaries of Evil! Here’s the Midgard Mob!............... 23 THE MAIN EVENTS

Cover art © William Stout

William Stout: Of Dinosaurs and Comic Books The great illustrator, movie poster artist, production designer, author, and environmentalist focuses on his love of comics and sequential art work for fanzines, CYCLEtoons and CARtoons, underground comix, Pacific Comics/Bruce Jones, and quite a bit more!............................................................................................................ 24 Above: William Stout, who is also artist and colorist of our Byron Preiss back cover, kindly shared his art, coloring, and cropping direction, for his Ray Bradbury Comics #1 [Feb. 1993] cover, which, when printed, cropped out the essential element of Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” short story: a squashed butterfly on the boot sole of the rifleman lying on his belly.

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Byron Preiss: The Life of the Creative Visionary Twenty years in the making, an extensive retrospection into the wondrous comicsrelated work of book packager/publisher Byron Preiss, incorporating a career-spanning interview, comments and remembrances from his wife, friends, and collaborators, and survey of his achievements, including Chandler, Dinosaurs, and Weird Heroes (and a word on the enduring cultural phenomenon he spawned: The Secret!)............ 42 BACK MATTER Creators at the Con: Kendall Whitehouse clicks a cadre of creative couples at the cons.. 78 Creator’s Creators: There may be a pop quiz learning about Mr. Biga, CBC associate ed!.. 79 Coming Attractions: Waugh! Remembering Steve Gerber and the world he made....... 79 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Tom Ziuko finds Jack Davis’ Superman!.......... 80 EDITOR’S NOTE: Alas, regular CBC features by Richard Arndt, Steven Thompson, and Darrick Patrick, as well as the letters column, are postponed due to space considerations. Right: A detail of an illustration by William Stout.

Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are available as digital downloads from twomorrows.com Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 601, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $53 US, $78 International, $19 Digital. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2023 Jon B. Cooke/ TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is a proud joint production of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows

Leader of the Pack: Byron Preiss An assessment by James Romberger on the publishing virtuoso’s comics work.......... 40

This issue is dedicated to the memories of MAURICE HORN, AL JAFFEE, STEVE SKEATES, RACHEL POLLACK, AL JAFFEE, BRUCE McCALL, ™

Get Preiss to Press JON B. COOKE

Editor & Designer

JOHN MORROW

Publisher & Consulting Editor

GREG BIGA

Associate Editor

WILLIAM STOUT

Covers Artist & Colorist

RICHARD J. ARNDT TOM ZIUKO STEVEN THOMPSON MICHAEL AUSHENKER Contributing Editors

J.D. KING

CBC Cartoonist Emeritus

TOM ZIUKO

CBC Colorist Supreme

RONN SUTTON

CBC Illustrator

KEN MEYER, JR.

CBC Color Portrait Artist

ROB SMENTEK CBC Proofreader

KENDALL WHITEHOUSE

CBC Convention Photographer

RICHARD ARNDT FRED HEMBECK DARRICK PATRICK STEVEN THOMPSON TOM ZIUKO CBC Columnists

NOTE: Some low-resolution photos herein were enhanced by image software. To contact CBC, please email jonbcooke@aol.com or snail-mail Jon B. Cooke, P.O. Box 601 West Kingston, RI 02892 2

Went to the Big Apple Con, held in I’m particularly grateful for Bill Stout’s Manhattan this past spring, and I expanded participation herein, as it was the had a great time with my younger result of a late compromise as, understandably, brother, Andy, my partner in so Ye Pub prefers to see showcased an artist, many creative projects. We spent writer, or even editor in a magazine named Saturday and half of Sunday (I cut Comic Book Creator, and agreed to a dreaded out early to get started on my three“flip-issue,” with Bill in the lead slot. The artist hour ride home) basically shootin’ kindly consented to an interview above the the sh*t, having not hung out in a one I already conducted for the Preiss essay long time. Tons of nice folks came up herein. The “Dinosaur Guy” has a varied and to chat, including Jim Salicrup (one fascinating career that goes well beyond of my fave peeps in the biz), Joe comics — and, as a seasoned pro, he has quite D’Esposito (who regaled us with so a bit of wisdom to impart on young artists — many tales of working at Continuity we kept the talk pretty much focused on his Associates), and, of course, Allan four-color sequential work. Rosenberg, who had invited us to Even as I finish up this doozy of an ish, I’m be guests at the show in the first excited to dive into the next CBC, which will place! As of late, with the help of no headline a tribute to the late, great comic book less than the great Denis Kitchen, writer, Steve Gerber, one that also includes my filmmaking sibling has been my career-spanning interview with the most working intensely on a project excellent Mary Skrenes, Steve’s oft-writing about one of the most famous — partner and longtime pal. Combined with a and controversial — cartoonists of the new Val Mayerik interview, the mag, only the 20th century. When I can share news, second CBC to focus on a writer as headliner, promises to be plenty good! I’ll keep you all posted! Also next time, with the help of his son I’ll Me? I’m juggling away, recently William Stout be finishing up the Frank Borth three-parter finishing co-writing, designing, and with Byron Preiss with a look at his latter Treasure Chest work, laying-out The Pacific Comics Comby Ronn Sutton superb science fiction digest illustrations, and panion, which was a gas. (And, natch, the wonderful art he created for his beloved home paradise of I’m also squeezing in time putting this ish together… like I Montauk, New York, and my industrious associate editor, Greg said: juggling!) Gathering the extensive Byron Preiss essay Biga, will not only continue his charming Mike Deodato, Jr., took a massive amount of time, why with all the interviewing of his acquaintances and collaborators, as well as research. But profile, but he gets ready to serve up the main course for the issue after next with our featured artist, Dan Jurgens! I’m proud to finally showcase this comics visionary and want The missus and I visited the Morrows abode in Raleigh to to acknowledge James Romberger, the fine artist, cartoontake an early June vacation, during which, while Beth and Pam ist, and fellow Kirby-head, who urged me to print my long hung out, Ye Pub and Ye Ed sneaked away and made a daytrip unpublished, career-spanning interview with Byron, which prompted me to expand it into a comprehensive retrospective. to visit the Rascally One himself on his “Wild Kingdom” down in South Carolina. Back in 1998, we were the Editors Three, so James came through with an engaging and insightful essay it was a blast getting the band back together if for only one on Byron’s accomplishments, as well, and I’m grateful for his afternoon! And Beth and I agree the Morrows were simply helping inspire this rather unique issue of CBC. I first became acquainted with Byron when he would write wonderful and gracious hosts. I’ve fallen slightly behind our “on-time” schedule for CBC, quickie emails to Comic Book Artist magazine, once adding as but the team and I are doing our best to keep on the quarterly postscript, “I hope we can talk sometime about the early days track, and the whole new routine is positively invigorating. of the graphic novel with Fiction Illustrated, The Illustrated Late-breaking news: just made it back from San Diego Harlan Ellison, and my work for National Lampoon with Ralph Comic-Con, where, alas, CBC didn’t score the “Best Comics-ReReese, Bernie Wrightson, and Howard Chaykin.” Our phone lated Periodical” Eisner Award it was nominated for, nor did interview finally occurred — I think he was so busy, it took two The Charlton Companion win for “Best Comics-Related Book,” individual sessions, many months apart, though all amountbut John Morrow, Jake Modica, and I, who all manned the ing to quite the comprehensive chat — and I found him TwoMorrows booth, had a wonderful time at the most chill completely charming, engaging, and terrifically enthusiastic, (albeit crowded) SDCC ever! with a solid grasp of comics history and his place in it. — Ye Crusading Editor jonbcooke@aol.com

cbc contributors

Philip Bentley Frank Borth Steven Borth David Campiti

Aaron Caplan Tim Hensley Andrew D. Cooke Alex Jay Mike Deodato, Jr. Denis Kitchen S. Clay Geerdes Paul Kupperberg

Manny Maris William Messner- Greg Preston Sam Maronie Loebs William Stout Ken Meyer, Jr. David Miller Glen Whitmore Sandi Mendelson Maureen Pearl Paul Williams

#32 • Fall 2023 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

GREG PRESTON

CBC Contributing Photographer

The 20-year sojourn completing this special Byron Preiss tribute

up front

SAM GROSS, JOHN ROMITA SR., and JOE GIELLA

Deodato, Son of the Flame Part one of the Mike Deodato, Jr., interview: his early years, his trials, and his women by GREG BIGA

The Flame TM & © the respective copyright holder. Photo courtesy of Mike Deodato, Jr.

[This first segment of our three-part look at the life of Deodato Taumaturgo Borges Filho — Mike Deodato, Jr., to you and me — includes commentary from David Campiti, Paul Kupperberg, and William Messner-Loebs. — G.B.] To only know Mike Deodato, Jr., through his social media posts is to see a multi-black belted Shotokan Karate master at the peak of his prowess. In these images, he remains a proudly physical specimen who takes joy in being in better shape now than he was 20 years ago. He is the bald-headed master of a fighting discipline, which makes him a genuine deadly weapon. He looks like the guy that mobsters in foreign action films employ as their hit man. However, to spend a few moments talking with Mike is to be introduced to an entirely different animal. Rather than a braggart’s voice, his is a light voice, one with a remarkably soft and soothing tone which surprisingly emits from his fanatically fit body. Deo, as friends call him, is a genuinely humble and kind individual, yet still a titan in the world of comic book artists, though he is uncommonly reflective and honest about career, relationships, and mistakes. He is a man who loves his family and his native country of Brazil. As most know, Mike uses a pen name. He was born Deodato Taumaturgo Borges Filho in Campina Grande, Paraiba. As Mike shared during the recent pandemic, he was wholeheartedly involved in the health and political ramifications of COVID in Brazil under former president Jair Bolsonaro, a leader for whom Mike had little regard and whom he spent time actively opposing. Mike explained in 2021, “Well, right now, it’s kind of embarrassing, because many Brazilians have voted for a fascist that has killed 500,000 people by not implementing the right treatment for COVID. So, I feel kind of ashamed of my being Brazilian right now. But, before that, it was okay. I was proud to be Brazilian. I think we have great, great cultural backgrounds, mixes, we have influences, and they have heritage from several races of people that came here. And the result was a great place of community for artists in general. So, I think I was actually very lucky to be born Brazilian. Even my specific work in comics, I was able to be exposed to a lot of comics that were not only super-heroes. So, I had a chance to read comics from Argentina, from France, and from several countries because they were all published in Brazil. So, I feel lucky in spite of the last few years.” COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Fall 2023 • #32

THE SAGA OF DEODATO BORGES Although Deo was very frustrated during the lockdown, he is quick to revisit his pride in his family. “My father was a journalist, mostly working for radio. My mother was a teacher. She taught German. She’s Brazilian, but she was learning the German language. “And so, my father created that first comic book in our region, in the northeast of Brazil. It was 1963. And it was based on a soap opera he created with a character called The Flame. And so, he was not only the director of the radio show, he created the soap opera and he was the actor that played the hero and he wrote it. He did everything. And so, it was like, everybody has a father-figure as a hero. Mine was actually a hero. Because I could actually hear the soap operas on the radio with him playing the hero, and he will give pictures for the fans with the mask on. So, it was a great time. I could see him while growing at home, I could read the comics of the hero, and when he would come back home after work me and my brother would ask him to draw for us to color with markers.

Inset left: In tribute to his late father, Deodato Borges, the creator of The Flame, a Brazilian super-hero created in 1963 that was inspired by Will Eisner’s The Spirit, Mike Deodato, Jr., provided this cover art of an edition reprinting some early adventures.

Below: Mike Deodato, Jr., the artist himself, in 2011, holding a statuette of The Hulk sculpted in the Brazilian-born creator’s style.

the borth files

The Treasure Chest King

Part two of CBC’s retrospective on the career of the best cartoonist you never heard of by JON B. COOKE [In our first installment, Ohio-born Frank Mellors Borth [1918– 2009] had attended the Cleveland School of Art and befriended classmate Reed Crandall, the fabled comics artist renowned for Blackhawk, EC Comics, and his Warren horror tales. Their companionship led to Frank entering comics, first at Funnies, Inc., drawing stories for True Comics and then going freelance at “Busy” Arnold’s Quality Comics, where the artist wrote and drew outstanding “Spider Widow” and “Phantom Lady” stories, a time during which he spent the Summer of ’42 with an acting troupe. Military service intervened for the near-sighted artist, who served stateside, and, when last we left him, the just-married technical sergeant had painted a massive mural for the central Pennsylvania military fort at Indiantown Gap. — Ye Ed.]

Being a newlywed and desiring to start a family, Tech Sgt. This page: Artifacts relating to Frank Borth’s comic strip, including Frank Borth was anxious to secure a civilian job before leaving the comic book one-shot and Sept. military service. As he told me, “I was living off-post at Bobbie’s 6,1947, Tampa Bay Times article. mother’s home, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is 25 miles

“It features editorials, news articles, historical stories, comics, and much the same material as a daily newspaper, with the exception that it is written in a juvenile way for the comprehension of secondary school children.” Discharged in February 1946, Frank shared in an autobiographical timeline, “Came back to New York to find work and an apartment. Found neither, but landlady offered me summer use of unheated rooms over garage of a large house she planned to rent to roomers out in Montauk.” After taking up her offer to summer cheaply in the Hamptons — and subsequently to live for all seasons for most of the remainder of his life — Frank Borth fell in love with the area. Thereafter, he would be associated with the idyllic hamlet at the easternmost tip of Long Island, where he would have his home built, raise his children, be active in civic life, and would become — from the very start — an artist passionate about the East Hampton fishing village. TREASURE HUNT Doubtless, the advertisement Frank came upon in American Artist was looking for seasoned professionals to work on Pflaum’s brand-new venture launching in March, 1946, Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, their first all-comics publication. Appearing bi-weekly between September and May/June, and distributed exclusively through in-class subscription in Catholic schools, the comic book initially included work packaged by former Funnies, Inc., heads Lloyd and Grace Jacquet, which might explain why Frank didn’t receive Treasure Chest work right away. But Pflaum #32 • Fall 2023 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Ken Stuart TM & © the respective copyright holder.

or so from Indiantown Gap. I used to drive my own car. I didn’t have to be there for reveille; I just had to be there in time for work to begin at eight o’clock. I went to an art store to get something myself, and I picked up American Artist magazine… and there was… an ad in the middle of it saying that this company was looking for artists familiar with comic-strip drawing and production, which caught my eye, because, hey, this was an ad for something that I could see if I could get, so that I’d have something for when I was discharged. So I answered the ad and sent them what I had available. And they sent me back a nice letter saying they weren’t set up yet to hire anybody, but that I might be receiving some assignments for other publications.” The outfit seeking comic book artists was, of course, the Geo. A. Pflaum Publishing Company. Based in Dayton, Ohio, Pflaum had been founded in 1885 and it produced periodicals for Catholic Schools, including The Young Catholic Messenger, which was distributed weekly through the academic year. In 1946, YCM was described by a University of Dayton alumni magazine thusly:

Borth portrait courtesy of Roger Hill. Ken Stuart TM & © the respective copyright holder.

did have need for a cartoonist to produce comic stories in Young Catholic Messenger. He told me, “I remember one of the first assignments they sent me was ‘The First WAC’ [YCM Vol. 63, #5, Oct. 11, 1946] which was Molly Pitcher, who happens to be the first female soldier in the Women’s Army Corps.” Frank did, indeed, have some of his comic-book work appear in YCM — typically two-page stories about inspirational, real-life, and usually Catholic notables — but the jobs were infrequent and, before he could score a steady assignment with the Dayton publisher, the cartoonist was on the prowl for a more reliable gig. He painted murals in East Hampton bars during summer months and produced signs for the Montauk Yacht Club, where the owner hired him —”My pay was free dinner for Bobbie and me” — to entertain members at the club’s buffet dinner every Thursday night with amusing skits and his well-rehearsed chalk talk. The latter routine not only gratified COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Fall 2023 • #32

Frank’s urge to revisit his acting work while also making use of his artistic ability — his was a witty performance he’d give time and again before the locals over the decades — it also led unexpectedly to the next full-time job for the cartoonist. When Frank decided to create his own newspaper feature, an adventure strip in the Milt Caniff mold about a two-masted Montauk schooner available for charter and its two-fisted captain, there just so happened to be an agent in the audience one Thursday night who offered to pitch it to the newspaper feature

Above: Frank Borth poses for a publicity photo in his Montauk, New York, studio, around 1948, when he was drawing the syndicated newspaper comic strip, Ken Stuart. Below: The original art to the Oct. 18, 1947, strip. Frank did it all — script, art, and lettering.

All Creatures

The William Stout Interview

comics is core to his talent and a constant source of inspiration. Still, as we’ll find out in this interview — intended to focus on his comics — Bill has done his share of great work in that department, and we’re grateful to feature this conversation, which includes talk of many legendary talents he has worked with. But do note that Ye Ed conducted a separate interview with Bill specifically about his collaborations with Byron Preiss, so discussion of that BPVP work, including The Dinosaurs, is in that section. — JBC. #32 • Fall 2023 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Bill Stout portrait © & by Greg Preston.

The good news is that, in his 50 years as a professional artist, William Gerard Stout has had a wildly successful career in many different fields, whether movie posters and storyboards, album covers and trading cards, art books and painting exhibitions, paleontology and wildlife advocation, environmental activism and book illustration, and even theme park ride design, among numerous other creative pursuits. The bad news? Not enough comic book work, dammit! And yet a passionate mastery of

Great and Small Comic Book Creator: It is April 5th. I’m talking to Bill Stout. We are talking comics, baby. Here we go. When did you first encounter comics? William Stout: Oh, gosh, it was when I was in elementary school. There was a kid named John Thomas, who invited me over to his place, and he pulled out this huge, classic, black trunk filled with mint condition Golden Age comics. He wouldn’t let me look at those because he was worried I’d bend the cover around back while I was reading it. So, he had a stack of more recent copies and I read those. And then, the kid around the block from me, Bruce Rolie, he had a whole bunch of Archies and Supermans. I liked the Archies because they were funny. But eventually, I discovered the Superman family, and I branched out from there. CBC: So you were how old when you started getting into Superman? William: Oh, probably eight or ten. CBC: Were newspaper comic strips in play, too? William: Oh, I read the Sunday funnies. I was a regular reader of Prince Valiant and, of course, I liked the funny stuff, too. My dad taught me to read when I was two, so that just opened up worlds for me. CBC: So were you reading books? William: Oh, yeah! By the time I was three, I was reading entire

books. I used the same method to teach my sons how to read when they were two. I remember my oldest son was resisting a little bit, and I said, “Andy, if you learn to read, there are books and books and books on anything you’re interested in. You will never be bored. You’ll always have something exciting to look forward to.” I practically grew up in the library. If I was missing from home, my mom or my dad knew that I was probably at the public library. CBC: What books did you gravitate to? William: We moved for one year to a little town called El Segundo, an oil town, and there I discovered Classics Illustrated. Those got the official approval from my parents because, well, as you know, they’re based on classic literature. What could be wrong with that? So, I read a lot of those and that led me to read the original novels those comics were adapted from, like The Count of Monte Cristo. I fell in love with that book. I did not want it to end. I was just enjoying the hell out of myself reading it. When I was about 14 in junior high school, I was always looking for old bookstores that might have comics, and I found one. As I was going through a box, a kid my age said, “Hey, you like comic books?” His name was Fred Romanek. He also introduced me to

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke •Transcribed by Tiara Shopman COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Fall 2023 • #32

On May 24, 2024, it will be 50 years since... Byron Cary Preiss, born in 1953 of earthly

the initial BPVP productions, with the young

New York City, and, since 2005, residing in the

man assuming his role as book packager. First

celestial cosmos, incorporated his company,

to emerge was the Weird Heroes series, a comics/

Byron Preiss Visual Publications. In the spring

pulp magazine hybrid enlisting the talents of an

of 1974, the wunderkind had just turned 21

astonishing line-up of both literary and illustrative

and he’d already, as a teen, collaborated with

storytellers.

comic book super-stars Jim Steranko and

Then came the prototypical graphic

Joe Kubert; interned for DC Comics, where

novel series, Fiction Illustrated, which included

he inspired publisher

Steranko’s masterwork,

Carmine Infantino

Chandler: Red Tide, followed

to collect comics into

by the Illustrated series and

paperback books; and

BPVP’s science fiction

worked at the Children’s

graphic novels. By the 1980s, Preiss’s

when he brainstormed

ambitions widened as he

with Marvel’s Stan Lee to

helmed projects in various

develop what became the

book categories, including

easy-to-read comic book series,

cult phenomenon The

Spidey Super Stories.

Secret, and, while he only

With his BPVP, Inc., the

sporadically delved into the

young man was determined to use

comics realm, his new ibooks imprint was poised

it to advance a new literary form, one that had,

to conquer graphic novels just before the tragic

in 1974, yet to even be given a name, but would

event of July 9, 2005.

soon find one: the graphic novel. It wasn’t long before Preiss met and deeply

Much of the following retrospective is derived from an extensive two-session phone interview

impressed Norman Goldfind, publisher of

with Byron about his life and achievements

paperback house Pyramid Books, who okayed

conducted by yours truly in 2003. — JBC.

Biographical Essay by Jon B. Cooke Portrait by Thomas Haller Buchanan 42

#32 • Fall 2023 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Television Workshop,

Byron Preiss

VISIONARY COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Fall 2023 • #32

EDITOR’S NOTE: Regarding Ye Ed’s 2003 Byron Preiss interview, thanks to Steven E. Tice and Barbara Lein-Cooper for help with the transcript, to James Romberger for a copy-edit of same, and to Judy Gitenstein for sharing her editorial expertise on this final essay. J effrey Preiss, interview [Nov. 9, 2022]. 2 Byron Preiss, interviews [June and Nov. 2003]. Unless otherwise referenced, all quotes from Byron are from Ye Ed’s two-session Q+A. 3 Jeffrey Preiss. 1

Top: Street view of 1304 Glenwood Road, in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Byron Cary Preiss grew up and the mailing address he used for his early fan efforts.

Inset right: Byron’s senior portrait taken for the 1969 Midwood High School Yearbook. Below: Byron is highlighted in this group portrait of the Midwood High School “commissioners,” presumably a student leadership group at the public institution.

THE BROOKLYN BOY Comics were a constant in the boy’s world. His cousin, Jeffrey Preiss, remembered the bedroom of the only child filled with “just stacks and stacks of comics,” likening the collection to “the Fort Knox of comics.”1 Years later, when the lad was all grown up, Byron would recall, “I loved them all. I would read whatever they printed. If it was a comic book and it wasn’t Wonder Woman, I would read it. I loved the Carmine Infantino period at Detective Comics, I loved Gil Kane’s work, I loved Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s work on anything, John Buscema’s work. I just loved all the quality work. You name it.”2 Even the presence of America’s Gemini 3 astronauts — the first pair of U.S. spacemen to enter Earth’s orbit together — didn’t distract the boy from obsessing about comics. “When I was 11 years old, my parents took me to one of the ticker-tape parades for the astronauts,” he said, “and I remember my mother [came with] me up to the DC Comics offices, which, for a time, was on Lexington Avenue. I think it was Jack Adler who gave me a tour of the DC offices. I remember there were a lot of drawing boards, and they gave me a Curt Swan Superman daily strip as a souvenir…. It had the Bottled City of Kandor in it. It was very exciting…. Carmine Infantino, I think, was there at the time. And Murphy

Anderson, if I remember correctly, was up there. And, of course, [so was] Sol Harrison and the old DC crew.” Reminiscing about the DC offices of that chilly, drizzly Manhattan day in early spring 1965, he said, “I just thought it was the coolest place in the world. I’d just seen the astronauts go down Broadway, and that didn’t impress me as much as going up and seeing those comic-book offices. I don’t know how I talked my mother into taking me up there.” It was in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn where Byron Cary Priess — a family name pronounced “price” — would start it all, on 1304 Glenwood Road. Son of attorney Edmund and homemaker Pearl (née Krasnor), he was born on April 11, 1953, one day after his father’s 41st birthday. “Byron’s father, born in Europe, was an immigrant, even though he came here with his family as a small boy and my father was born here in America,” cousin Jeffrey recalled. “Uncle Ed was sort-of a father-figure to my father. In some ways, Byron’s upbringing was more old-world than mine, which was more modern. They lived in this house in Brooklyn and we lived out in the suburbs. Their house was one of these wonderful, Brooklyn Victorian houses and [Ed] lived not too far from his sister, so there was this kind-of Brooklyn Jewish community where families stay close and it was an observant family.”3 (Though referred to as Austria in some documents, Edmund’s birthplace was most likely the Polish city of Zloczow/ Zlochov — today part of Ukraine — where he, at the age of eight, would leave to accompany his parents and travel to America in 1921, just prior to severe immigration restrictions. In 1943, almost four months before he enlisted in the U.S. Army at 31, the Jewish population of his birthplace, numbering some 10,000, was liquidated in early April by the Nazi occupiers with the aid of Ukrainian locals. According to his son, Edmund served his adopted country initially at the rank of Private and was in Europe for the Allied invasion on D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.) Despite future rumors to the contrary, “We were not a rich family,” Byron explained, “so it was pretty much just an allowance to go to the newsstand.” And young Byron scoured the borough to appease his mania. “I was frequenting the newsstands and comic shops, like every other kid in Brooklyn, which, in those days, were strictly candy stores.” Asked if he was #32 • Fall 2023 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

about Barry Windsor-Smith. Designated YGG’s Eastern seaboard representative, Byron designed his own article layouts, but stopped short of attempting any illustration. “I officially surrendered my expectations of artistry when Tom Orzechowski and I worked on a fanzine together,” Byron confessed. “I was 16 at the time, and I drew a playing card with the face of Captain America.” He added with a laugh, “That was the beginning of the end. But Tom and I had a great deal of fun, actually. He was in Detroit. He and Mike Kucharski were my pen pals. I can’t even remember how we got to know each other, though Tom might. But he was working on a fanzine and I was contributing to that, trying to submit drawings, and it was nice. It was early fandom.” Michael Kucharski recently remembered those days, when he was an aspiring comic book artist, sharing that, in addition to YGG, “Byron was also a later contributor to Arvell Jones’ Fan Informer fanzine, providing at least one cover drawn by Neal Adams of Byron and a friend holding Deadman and Adam Strange costumes.* In spring of 1969, Byron wanted to break into the comics industry as a producer — or maybe an editor — [and] he developed an

P aul Levitz, interview [Jan. 3, 2023]. 5 Jimmy Palmiotti, “My Friend’s Bookstore,” blog entry, Blast from the Past website [undated], https:// www.zestworld.com/Paperfilms/ update/blast-from-the-past-myfriend-s-bookstore. 4

Inset left: Neal Adams cover, Fan Informer #25/26 [July 1970]. Below: Ye Graphic Gazette #8 [Dec. 1969] cover and page of an article by Byron, said to have been designed by the teen himself.

Deadman, Adam Strange TM & © DC Comics. Daredevil, Black Panther, Yellow Jacket TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Star Trek TM & © Paramount Pictures Corporation.

* Guest edited by future renowned letterer Tom Orzechowski, the fanzine, Fan Informer #25/26 [July 1970], did include a cover illustration by Neal Adams of “Byron Preiss and friend.” The ish was dedicated to Byron [left], called “one hell of a guy.”

singularly a DC fan, he replied, “No, I walked [all] sides of the street — DC, Marvel, Tower/T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, MAD — pretty much anything but Archie. I even had my Harvey Comics phase when I was eight. If it had four colors and a staple, I’d read it.” “Byron and I grew up maybe a mile apart in Brooklyn,” future DC publisher Paul Levitz shared. “He was maybe four or five years older than I was, so we didn’t come and go a lot. But we went to the same used bookstore, My Friend’s Bookstore, that sold old comics. I worked behind the counter there now and then briefly when I was a kid.”4 (Discovering the establishment — also frequented by future comics pros Howard Chaykin and Dan DiDio, among others — was, for Jimmy Palmiotti, “like winning a comic book lottery.”)5 It was the youngster’s passion for the form that would propel Byron into a fascinating and innovative career as a true publishing visionary who would help usher in a new age of comics, and it was in fandom where his journey truly began. FANNISH BEGINNINGS Byron, who professed an average middle-class life-style, went to Midwood High School — “the same high school Woody Allen attended” — where, he said, “I was friendly and I had plenty of great, gregarious friends, but I was a fairly shy person, I guess.” There, as a “commissioner,” he volunteered in student governance though, during that period, “My first experience of any consequence was… I sent scripts to Julie Schwartz at DC, and he was kind enough to write me encouraging letters, which I saved in a scrapbook. He encouraged me to keep writing.” It was while in high school Byron corresponded with fellow fan and future letterer extraordinaire Tom Orzechowski, who welcomed the Brooklyn teen as a contributor to his Detroit-based fanzine, Ye Graphic Gazette, where Byron put to work his talents as burgeoning scribe. For the last issue, dated Dec. 1969, he wrote an essay on the diminishing genre of super-hero comics, “The Strange Case of the Deaths of the Superheroes,” and a piece on a British artist new to the scene at Marvel Comics, “Here Comes… Smith, Man with a Pencil,” COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Fall 2023 • #32