Comic Book Creator #35 by TwoMorrows Publishing

ALSO: Celebrating Arnold Drake at 100!

A TwoMorrows Publication

All characters TM & © DC Comics.

No. 35, Summer 2024

Cover art by Mike Sekowsky, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano

Satiate Your Sinister Side!

“Greetings, creep culturists! For my debut

All characters and properties TM & © their respective owners.

issue, I, the CRYPTOLOGIST (with the help of FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON), have exhumed the worst Horror Comics excesses of the 1950s, Killer “B” movies to die for, and the creepiest, kookiest toys that crossed your boney little fingers as a child! But wait... do you dare enter the House of Usher, or choose sides in the skirmish between the Addams Family and The Munsters?! Can you stand to gaze at Warren magazine frontispieces by this issue’s cover artist BERNIE WRIGHTSON, or spend some Hammer Time with that studio’s most frightening films? And if Atlas pre-Code covers or terrifying science-fiction are more than you can take, stay away! All this, and more, is lurching toward you in TwoMorrows Publishing’s latest, and most decrepit, magazine—just for retro horror fans, and featuring my henchmen WILL MURRAY, MARK VOGER, BARRY FORSHAW, TIM LEESE, PETE VON SHOLLY, and STEVE and MICHAEL KRONENBERG!” (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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CRYPTOLOGY #2

CRYPTOLOGY #3

CRYPTOLOGY #4

The Cryptologist and his ghastly little band have cooked up more grisly morsels, including: ROGER HILL’s conversation with our diabolical cover artist DON HECK, severed hand films, pre-Code comic book terrors, the otherworldly horrors of Hammer’s Quatermass, another Killer “B” movie classic, plus spooky old radio shows, and the horror-inspired covers of the Shadow’s own comic book. Start the ghoul-year with retro-horror done right by FORSHAW, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, RICHARD HAND, VON SHOLLY, and editor PETER NORMANTON.

This third wretched issue inflicts the dread of MARS ATTACKS upon you—the banned cards, the model kits, the despicable comics, and a few words from the film’s deranged storyboard artist PETE VON SHOLLY! The chilling poster art of REYNOLD BROWN gets brought up from the Cryptologist’s vault, along with a host of terrifying puppets from film, and more comic books they’d prefer you forget! Plus, more Hammer Time, JUSTIN MARRIOT on obscure ’70s fear-filled paperbacks, another Killer “B” film, and more to satiate your sinister side!

Our fourth putrid tome treats you to ALEX ROSS’ gory lowdown on his Universal Monsters paintings! Hammer Time brings you face-to-face with the “Brides of Dracula”, and the Cryptologist resurrects 3-D horror movies and comics of the 1950s! Learn the origins of slasher films, and chill to the pre-Code artwork of Atlas’ BILL EVERETT and ACG’s 3-D maestro HARRY LAZARUS. Plus, another Killer “B” movie and more awaits retro horror fans, by NORMANTON, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, VOGER, and VON SHOLLY!

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78 International 19 Digital Only

Summer 2024 • The Denny O’Neil Issue • Number 35

T A DENNY O’NEIL Portrait by KEN MEYER, JR.

About Our Cover Cover art by MIKE SEKOWSKY & NEAL ADAMS, Pencils DICK GIORDANO & NEAL ADAMS, Inks Cover colors by GLEN WHITMORE

Ye Ed’s Rant: Yours truly confesses to an endless ’70s comics obsession and loving it!..... 2 COMICS CHATTER Incorrect: The Tragic Saga of George Caragonne: Bob Levin investigates the sad story of the Penthouse Comix creator/editor from his humble start to spectacular end . 3 Arnold Drake at 100: The late, great author in part one of his career-spanning talk....... 12 Once Upon Long Ago: Steve Thompson on his admiration for Harvey Kurtzman............ 27 The Super Hero’s Journey: Patrick “Mutts” McDonnell on his “love letter” to comics.... 30 Tim Hensley: A conversation with the alternative cartoonist on his smart, fun comics..... 34 Mr. Butterworth: And we assumed Jack just wrote a bunch of Warren stories! Zounds!.38 Incoming: We empty our overflowing mailbag and suffer the slings and arrows............. 46 Cooke’s Column: Horrors! Jay Stephens gets terrifyingly cute with Dwellings!............... 49

Superman, associated characters TM & © DC Comics.

Comics in the Library: Richard Arndt speaks of John Law, Will Eisner’s Lawman............ 51 Ten Questions: Darrick Patrick gets the scoop from writer W. Maxwell Prince.................. 52 Hembeck’s Dateline: Zatanna is telling Fred that Magicman is full of “Yekralam!”........ 53 THE MAIN EVENT

Above: We combine penciler Mike Sekowsky and inker Dick Giordano’s Wonder Woman #191 [Dec. 1970] cover figure with Green Lantern #76 [Apr. ’70] and Justice League of America #79 [Mar. ’70], both sporting pencils and inks by Neal Adams.

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Denny O’Neil: Saving the World, One Story at a Time With a focus on his 1960s/early ’70s comic book scripts, Bob Brodsky, onetime editor of fanzine The O’Neil Observer, takes a close examination — with Ye Editor — of the ground-breaking, topical work and life of Dennis Joseph O’Neil [1939–2020], the most important writer of his time in American comics. His collaborations with Neal Adams on Green Lantern/Green Arrow injected real life into the super-hero as none before him, launching an age of relevancy into the art form. Also included are “Ten from Den,” Brodsky’s picks for the best of O’Neil’s work from that era............. 54 BACK MATTER Creators at the Con: Kendall Whitehouse clix pix at the NYCC Ghost Machine panel..... 78 Coming Attractions: Greg Biga compiles an epic tribute to the late Tom Palmer............ 79 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Tom Z. shares rarely-seen George Pérez art..... 80 EDITOR’S NOTE: We intended to include an article on "Studio Zero," the circa 1974 Berkeley studio shared by Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss, and others, but that is postponed to a future issue. Also note that some images in this issue have been enhanced with software.

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Right: There’s minor digital manipulation in this detail of Green Lantern #83 [May 1971] cover. Art by Neal Adams.

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

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 ©2024 Jon B. Cooke/ TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

This issue is dedicated to the memories of IAN GIBSON, JOHN M. BURNS, TERRY BISSON, and JOSÉ DELBO ™

My Seventies Mania JON B. COOKE

Editor & Designer

JOHN MORROW

Publisher & Consulting Editor

GREG BIGA

Associate Editor

MIKE SEKOWSKY & NEAL ADAMS Cover Pencilers

DICK GIORDANO & NEAL ADAMS Cover Inkers

GLEN WHITMORE Cover Colorist

RICHARD J. ARNDT TOM ZIUKO STEVEN THOMPSON Contributing Editors

J.D. KING

CBC Cartoonist Emeritus

TOM ZIUKO

CBC Colorist Supreme

RONN SUTTON

CBC Illustrator

KEN MEYER, JR. ROB SMENTEK CBC Proofreader

GREG PRESTON

CBC Contributing Photographer

KENDALL WHITEHOUSE

CBC Convention Photographer

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

Contact CBC: jonbcooke@aol.com J. Cooke, PO Box 601, W Kingston, RI 02892 2

Okay, okay, I admit it. I have an I go back quite a few years with Bob abiding fixation with 1970s comBrodsky, who was slated to write the O’Neil ics. And you wouldn’t be wrong to feature herein. In fact, my buddy was part of assume it’s because that was my the second issue of my first comics-related Golden Age of Comics, but it’s remagazine, Comic Book Artist, contributing ally not just navel-gazing, I swear. an interview with Steve Englehart. Bob I arrived on the comics scene as a produced a very cool fanzine, The O’Neil Obfan (as opposed to “reader,” someserver, around the same period as CBA vol. thing I was even before I could 1, entirely devoted to comics writers, most read!) starting in late 1970, when primarily the titular scribe. So BB knows of 11 going on 12. I had picked up what he writes! Alas, circumstances develJimmy Olsen #133 and Superman oped that prevented Bob from completing #233, somehow, when my mother, his assignment, but rest assured what he little brother, and I were on a yeardid scribe is the heart of our cover feature. long European visit, and suddenly One of the best projects I’ve worked on there was a tsunami of comics during COVID and days thereafter was with “stuff” for brother Andy and I. another pal, Boston area-based Marc SvensI still marvel how quickly it son, mapping out a three-part feature about all happened, this massive wave. another great comics writer. I’d venture that We returned to the U.S. in late Marc would agree that our mutual friend summer 1971, just in time to Arnold Drake was a remarkable talent and start school. The first comic book truly engaging human being. Speaking for we bought? The DC 100-Page myself, I hit it off with the legendary scribe Super Spectacular [#6] starring first by communicating through email after the “World’s Greatest Super-Hehe had made a forceful speech pushing for roes!” In less than a year, we were a Bill Finger award at the 1999 San Diego attending our first comic book conComic-Con. I asked him to paraphrase that vention, the 1972 New York Comic public declaration for improved treatment Art Convention, where I shook Jack of the industry’s writers and his suggestion Kirby’s hand, watched Neal Adams Denny O’Neil by Ronn Sutton to create an award in Finger’s honor. He draw, beheld Jim Steranko, and sat at shared in Comic Book Artist #7 [Mar. 2000]. a table with Bernie Wrightson and Michael W. Kaluta. “At an annual dinner,” he proposed, “the award would go to Amid this, there was discovering Marvel Comics, Warren someone who has contributed to the cause of creators’ rights.” Publications, underground comix, Les Daniels and The Mad Somehow, credit for the 2005 creation of the “Bill Finger Peck’s Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, All in Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing,” now an ongoing Color for a Dime, National Lampoon, The Comic Reader, the once-a-year presentation taking place at the Eisner Awards Ballantine paperback reprints of MAD comics, Barry Smith, Gil banquet, was bestowed upon Jerry Robinson. But I imagine Kane, Hogarth’s Tarzan, Kubert’s Tarzan… ! And this list doesn’t Arnold — who passed away at 83, in 2007 — shrugged off not even begin to convey how vast and ever-growing comic book being acknowledged, especially given as he was the first living culture was spreading at that time, whether in slick magazines recipient of the trophy! Still, he’d been overlooked far too and newspapers, in bookstores and even on record album many times in the past and I hoped to give him his due with a covers. It was mind-boggling and, with reprints coming from wide-ranging, comprehensive interview, which he gave to me all directions and the history of the form being put to paper, it in October of 2003. So, with Marc’s help, I’m serializing the was, in all honesty, kinda hard to catch one’s breath! conversation over this and the next two issues, as us two are A huge aspect of that time period for yours truly was the intent to do our part to celebrate the centenary of Arnold Jack injection of relevancy into mainstream comics, something I Druckman’s birth, in Manhattan, on March 1, 1924. recognized back in Europe, when I read Steve Skeates and Also, I’m very happy to finally be working with author Jim Aparo’s masterpiece in Aquaman #56 [Apr. 1971], “The Bob Levin, whose piece begins opposite, a writer I’ve long Creature That Devoured Detroit,” which featured talk show admired, whether for his long run of insightful essays in The guest “Neal Dennis,” a caricature of one Dennis Joseph O’Neil, Comics Journal or his history of the Air Pirates, The Pirates and my first hint of the then hot writer/Young Turk whose mission the Mouse. We also go back a ways and I’m delighted to say of that era was no less than to save the freakin’ planet! Bob is already working on an epic investigative piece for CBC!

cbc contributors

Jack Butterworth Arnold Drake Shaun Clancy Pamela Drake Chris Anthony Diaz Dave Elliott Luis Dominguez Jackie Estrada

Clay Geerdes Daniel Green Dan Greenfield Tim Hensley

Walt Jaschek Manny Maris Sam Maronie David Miller

— Y e Crusading Editor jonbcooke@aol.com

Karen O’Connell Arlen Schumer Cory Sedlmeier Ken Steinhoff

Jay Stephens Ronn Sutton Marc Svensson Marv Wolfman

#35 • Summer 2024 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

CBC Color Portrait Artist

On staying welcome in the reader’s abode and other stuff

Incorrect by BOB LEVIN

Photo courtesy of Dave Elliott. Penthouse Comix TM & © General Media Communications, Inc. Thor TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

[Preliminary Note: None of the four individuals to whom I wrote, emailed and/or phoned, having reasonably determined them related to my subject, George Caragonne, responded, leaving me short of details of his childhood and adolescence. Plus, by most accounts, Caragonne didn’t like to talk about himself. Perhaps he didn’t want people to know about him. Perhaps they would believe him cooler than he was. Little in the way of contemporary written accounts about Caragonne exist. Many people who worked or socialized with him as an adult did not wish to revisit those years. When people did speak to me, often at length and with great generosity, I was hearing recollections of 30-year-old memories. If two people had knowledge of an event, I was likely to hear two versions of it. If three had knowledge, I would hear three. Keep this is mind as you go through this article — and life. — B.L.] If it is true, as Shakespeare has Malcolm say of Cawdor in Macbeth, “Nothing in his life quite became him as his leaving it,” it is equally true that nothing so distorted George Caragonne’s as his exiting his. On Thursday, July 20, 1995, the 29-year-old, six-foot-four, 450-pound Texan, who had edited the X-rated, bi-monthly Penthouse Comix since its inception shortly over a year before, asked a bellhop at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, in Times Square, for its height. Forty-five stories, he was told. After being assured that it was the tallest building in the area, Caragonne entered an elevator. He was casually dressed. He carried a bag containing two stereo speakers connected to a Walkman playing themes from James Bond movies. (He, it should be noted, identified with the villains,

up front The strange, tragic, and terrible story of George Caragonne, Penthouse Comix editor

not Bond.) He got off on the top floor, where an atrium provided a direct view of a food court 500 feet below, where dozens of tourists congregated. He climbed over a railing. “Get off!” a maid called. He jumped, tumbling, striking a glass elevator shaft of his way down, his speed nearly 180 miles-per-hour when he landed. One spectator described a “thud, louder than a shotgun blast.” It seemed, another said, “The ceiling was coming down.” Glass shattered; debris flew. The staff shepherded people outside and spread blankets to block the scene from view. “He didn’t just die,” one person put it. “He exploded.” A conventioneer in town from Tucson told the Daily News, “They handled it pretty professionally. On the West Coast, everybody would have freaked out. But here, this being New York, they asked people to move along so business could continue as usual.” One person was taken to a hospital for shock. Others, including children, it has been said, were in therapy for months, if not years. The death would have been unimaginable by anyone who had only known the Caragonne of a few years before. But not those who had been around him the preceding months. Mark Evanier, a comics writer and friend of Caragonne’s for a decade, told The Comics Journal shortly after his death that he would have been more surprised if Caragonne had killed himself “in a small, quiet way… It was not unprecedented for George to do something big and immensely messy.” He speculated Caragonne may have even timed his death to make it the talk of the upcoming San Diego Comics Con.

This page: Above is George Caragonne during his time at Penthouse Comix. Inset left, the first issue [June 1994]. Below is caricature of the editor from the New York Observer. Bottom is George’s favorite comic book, Thor #126 [Mar. 1966].

George Caragonne was born September 16, 1965, in San Antonio, Texas. His father, an architect, left the family when George was young. He was disdainful of — and disrespectful toward — his son, who would grow up determined to impress him. Caragonne’s mother, a Jehovah’s Witness, was tiny — fivefeet-tall, 100-pounds — and rigidly devout. She made sure her son went to church every Sunday. He was a choirboy until he was 18. He passed out leaflets door-to-door. He neither smoked nor drank. But his behavior grew so beyond her control that, when he was 13, she set him up in his own apartment and ordered him from the house. Or so he claimed. Some believe this a representative Caragonne exaggeration, designed to increase his outlaw image. Even if it was a fantasized expulsion, it provides an instructive glimpse into his feelings about himself. His passion was comic books. This passion ran deep and unswerving. In adulthood, if asked his favorite, Caragonne would exclaim, “Thor 126,” recite all the words of “Thor vs. Hercules,” including cover copy, and act out all the action. (Or so one person recollects. Others say he would recite no more than three panels containing, perhaps, nine word balloons.) COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2024 • #35

the drake dossier

The Druckman Cometh!

Celebrating the centennial of writer Arnold Drake's birth with a three-part in-depth interview

Who is Arnold Drake?

The Manhattan native is the recipient of the very first Bill Finger Award, in 2005, and is renowned as the creator of The Doom Patrol, Deadman, and The Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as co-author of the graphic novel widely considered the first of its kind, It Rhymes with Lust [1950]. Before his passing, Arnold proofed this interview and added some commentary throughout. — JBC. This page: Below is a portrait of Arnold Drake and his creation, The Doom Patrol by artist Luis Dominguez, commissioned by Marc Svensson. (The scribe is supposed to be holding a typewriter but, well… long story!).

[Editor's Note: I've been talking with my pal Marc Svensson, fabled San Diego Comic-Con videographer, for quite some time about doing this project, as my buddy — a dear friend of the late writer Arnold Drake (who died at 83, in 2007) sent me binders filled with Drake-related material over the course of the pandemic and my Massachusetts-based chum volunteered to help present this centenary feature over the next three issues of Comic Book Creator. We both were intent on having all the portions of my 2003 career-spanning interview with the scribe appear during this 100th year since his birth, so here's part one. Marc had interviewed the man at length — check out Alter Ego Vol. 3, #17 [Sept. 2002] for his superb achievement — and he's been an enormous assist throughout, including supplying footnotes for this Q-&-A. So three cheers for Svensson! — Y.E.]

Comic Book Creator: Where are you originally from? Arnold Drake: Manhattan. Born and bred in New York City. Grew up on the West Side. CBC: When were you born? Arnold: March 1, 1924. CBC: What’s your background, ethnically? Arnold: Well, my folks were from Romania. They met here, but they were born in Romania. They came here as kids. My dad landed in New Orleans when he was about 16 and got himself a job with the New Orleans Power and Gas, or something; a very early electric generating plant. Since nobody knew anything about electricity, being a greenhorn didn’t cost him anything. By the time he was 17 or 18, he had become an amateur boxer, a semi-pro. He got $5 a fight, and proudly boasted that they never broke his nose. CBC: Was he a big guy? Arnold: Not particularly, he was about 5'8". And before he married my mother, he had been quite slim. But the winter before he married her, they were engaged. And he knew that in those days you were judged by the amount of meat on your bones. So he drank cod liver oil all that winter and put on 25 pounds so that he’d look like a proper husband. [laughs] CBC: Your mom was an immigrant to this country? Arnold: She came here at about nine- or ten-years-old. CBC: Did she have a job of her own? Arnold: I think she started working when she was about ten-years-old, sweeping out stores and that kind of thing. But she went to night school and did a lot of self-education. She wound up speaking five languages pretty well: English, Romanian, German, Yiddish, and French. As I said, with a lot of self-educating. She was something of a writer, herself. When the movie industry started in New York, out on Long Island, she wrote one or two scripts that were made into films. And my brother Milton, some 12 years older than I (and still has all of his marbles), acted in one of those when he was six or eight years old. [Since this was taped, Milton died at 94.— A.D.] CBC: Do you remember the subject matter or the title or anything? Arnold: She told me a story that she had worked on. It was about the white slave trade. It was pretty commonplace then, and is not uncommon today. Kidnapping young girls out of their countries, and throwing them into whorehouses. They offered her a contract or some kind of oral agreement, but my dad wouldn’t let her sign it, because the world would think that he couldn’t support his wife. It was a common attitude at that time toward the wife working. CBC: Did he stick with the electric company? Arnold: No. He came up to New York and joined his brother Jake (two years older), and they got into the mattress business. They bought a horse and wagon and they sold mattresses from it. And then they began manufacturing mattresses in Brooklyn. From that, they got into furniture, and they became pretty prominent in the wholesale furniture business in New York City. CBC: What was the name of their company? Arnold: Well, in the end there were four brothers, and they #35 • Summer 2024 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

The Doom Patrol TM & © DC Comics. Commission art courtesy of Marc Svensson.

Conducted by JON B. COOKE

It Rhymes with Lust TM & © the respective copyright holder. Young Arnold photo courtesy of Pamela Drake.

had four independent operations, each named for themselves. My dad was Max Druckman, the original family name. It was an old German name probably going back to the 13th century. (“Ein drucker” means a printer.) At any rate, Dad joined his brother Jacob and they were in business together for many years. And then their brother Ruben and their brother Irving came over, and they put them in the same business. They started what was then called the New York Furniture Exchange, which is now The Design Center, on Lexington and 32nd Street. CBC: Did he do well? Arnold: Right up until 1929. Famous story. Lost most of what he had in ’29, but managed to hang on through the Depression. CBC: Did you have to move? Arnold: Quite a number of times. CBC: You were five-years-old? Arnold: In ‘29, I was five, yeah. We were then living at Riverside Drive and 157th Street, in a magnificent apartment house. Then we moved downtown and were still relatively well-to-do, because, if I recall correctly, Babe Ruth lived in that building. Of course, the Babe was not making the kind of money that ball

players make today, but he was still pretty well off. CBC: Were you cognizant of the crash at the time? Arnold: Oh, yeah. I saw them pick up the remains of the father of a friend of mine who had jumped into the courtyard of a big building on 157th Street. That was somewhere around 1931 or ’32. They didn’t all jump in ’29. A lot of them hung in there for a few years and then jumped, when they decided they were worth more dead than alive. CBC: Were you read to a lot as a child? Arnold: I don’t recall. I was a pretty early reader, myself. I think my sister may have. I have two brothers and a sister, Milton, Ervin, and Beatrice. CBC: Were your parents literate? Arnold: My mom was a big reader. My dad read mostly newspapers. But Mom read fiction and non-fiction, and she was involved with the social movements of the time. She joined

the Henry George movement. I don’t know if you know anything about that. CBC: No. Arnold: It was an interesting development in the late ’20s, early ’30s, I guess. It was a single-tax system based on the notion that the only thing that had true value was land, so all the taxes were to be on land and anything built on it. And the Henry George School was founded here in New York City. It was quite prominent during the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s. While the Marxists believed that labor was the base of all value, the Henry Georgeists thought that land was. Mom believed in it largely because she just knew that there were a lot of bad things going on economically and that we needed some change. CBC: Did she come from a socially progressive family? Arnold: Her dad was a self-made man. This guy hadn’t any proper schooling, but again, he was pretty well self-taught. He wound up being a paint contractor in Bucharest and did things like painted government bridges and palaces, and stuff like that, so he did pretty well there. But he decided that the air was freer in this country, so he packed up his family and brought them here. CBC: So he came here in the 1890s or thereabout? Arnold: Yeah, roughly. CBC: Was it you who changed your last name? Arnold: My brother Milton was the first one to do it. Both of my brothers were and are songwriters, and Milton wrote one of the better-known ditties of our times, “Mairzy Doats.”*

This page: Above is It Rhymes with Lust [1950], written by Drake and Leslie Waller and drawn by Matt Baker. Below: Drake pen-&ink portrait by Dominguez. Inset left: A very young Arnold Druckman, courtesy of his daughter Pamela.

* “Mairzy Doats” was first published in 1943. Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston are credited as composers.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2024 • #35

memories of a mutts man

McDonnell’s Marvel Mania

The Mutts cartoonist’s loving tribute to the age of Lee, Kirby, and Ditko super-hero comics by JON B. COOKE

This page: Patrick McDonnell’s celebrated comic strip, Mutts, stars Mooch the cat and Earl the dog, best friends whose antics appear in 700 newspapers (and distributed by email, so sign up at mutts.com!). Inset right is the cover to Patrick’s “love letter” to ’60s Marvel, The Super Hero’s Journey [Abrams ComicArts], a book that incorporates Kirby and Ditko artwork alongside Patrick’s cartooning, as seen in page below. Inset bottom right is proof of his lifelong affection for the comics.

when I was 13 years old and I didn’t know what to say to him either. I had him sign the first issue of The New Gods and — if you can believe it — a Charlie Chan comic (and I’m probably the only person who has a copy of that signed by Jack Kirby!)” At the New York Comic Art Convention of 1972, I asked the King to sign Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #141 (“Don’t Ask! Just Buy It!”) and my favorite super-hero comic book from the House of Ideas, Sgt. Fury #13 [Dec. 1964], which I purchased at the con and it guest-starred (naturally) my fave Marvel character. Patrick could relate to my enthusiasm for that story based in war-torn Europe. “I have two brothers and we all collected comics together and, boy, when that Captain America with Sgt. Fury came out — oh, my God! — that was one of the greatest comics ever for us!” He added with a chuckle, “After that, all we did was play World War II in our backyard.” Patrick was eight when Kirby drew that issue of Sgt. Fury, but he didn’t necessarily recognize who the artist was behind the work. “I don’t think I knew his name when I was that young, but his comics were always my favorites.”

JACK To begin, we discussed our mutual love for the work of Jack Kirby and, when I shared with Patrick that I had met the man at a Phil Seuling con when I was 13 and pretty speechless, he exclaimed, “I met Kirby at the same place 30

#35 • Summer 2024 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Mutts, illustrations of Patrick McDonnell © Patrick McDonnell. All else TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Don’t tell Bill Griffith or Wayno, but the one comic strip I subscribe to is Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts, which arrives in my email in-box, without fail and to my endless delight, every morning promptly at 6:00. The charm of the newspaper comic strip, warmth of its characters, and quaint, throw-back art style has made it my favorite comic strip since Calvin and Hobbes left the scene in 1995. And I had already encountered the cartoonist’s work eight years before starting his beloved dog-&-cat daily feature, though it was as co-author of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman, a wonderful oversize art book on the arguably greatest of all comic strips, published by Abrams, in 1986. I was to later learn it was around that same time when Patrick and wife Karen were neighbors of Peter Bagge and his wife, Joanne, in Hoboken, New Jersey. And this was pertinent to me because…? Welp, Pete had been editor of Weirdo magazine between 1984–87 and I was putting together The Book of Weirdo [2019], so I called up Patrick to ask him about neighbor Bagge during that period, and I got to know the man a tad and we got along — well, it’s impossible not to get along with the gent, a truly kind and compassionate fellow. Back during the pandemic, Patrick wrote a piece for CBC #24 [Fall 2020] about his comic-book pastiches in Mutts, so it was natural for me to jump at the chance to focus on his latest endeavor, The Super Hero’s Journey, a memoir of a sort about a boy’s love of Marvel Comics in the 1960s. But there was a problem. Anything I feature in this mag has to be timed at least six months in advance, but by the time I learned of his 112page love letter to the Marvel Age of Stan, Jack, and Steve, it was September 2023 and the book was about to come out! So, with the help of Abrams ComicArts editor Charlie Kochman, Patrick and I confabbed at Baltimore Con, and he was quite happy to participate in this piece coming a half-year after the book’s release! So two weeks later, I conducted an interview and now you’re caught up, so away we go!

Photo and artifacts courtesy of Patrick McDonnell. Folder © Patrick McDonnell. X-Men, Captain America, Red Skull, Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE SUPER HERO’S JOURNEY Responding to my observation that, throughout his book, the spirit and heart of Kirby permeated every page of The Super Hero’s Journey, Patrick enthused, “He was everything! The inspiration for the book were the two quotes that start it and end it. When I first read those in The Jack Kirby Collector, I thought, especially for the final quote, that I had to do something with them. “How the book happened was that Charlie Kochman, my editor and friend, approached me one day and asked if I’d be interested [in doing a book]… Abrams Books had a deal with Marvel to use their characters… and it only took me a second to say yes to that! That was a dream come true.” It took some pondering for the cartoonist to map out precisely what he envisioned. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” he said, “but those quotes pointed me in the right direction. And I didn’t plan to have autobiographical memoir stuff in there, but in revisiting Marvel Comics, I couldn’t help but recall my childhood. So that just slipped in and the whole story starting gelling.” The book opens with: “Jack Kirby was once asked, ‘If you could have one superpower, what would it be?’ His answer: ‘Love.’” And it proceeds into a comic-book story prologue of a McDonnell family ritual in 1966: visiting Mell’s Drugs after church, drinking cherry colas, and “worship at [the] altar” of the Marvel Comics racked in the back of the store. This was where the young McDonnell brothers, “We became True Believers.” Throughout, Patrick creates a narrative that, the book’s jacket copy explains, “is the synthesis of McDonnell’s positive, inspirational sensibility and Marvel’s blockbuster brand.” By integrating story pages from 1960s issues of Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, and others, mixed with his own cartoon storytelling, Patrick finds expression to show the appeal and poignancy in his take on the Marvel Age, going light years beyond the violence and soap operatics of the typical four-color slug-fests. In the process, with tremendous charm and keen insight of a man who obviously has never lost that childlike sense of wonder, Patrick reveals that, at the core of Jack Kirby’s cosmic view, the pure essence is a simple one that is rarely mentioned when folks talk about fantastically-powered super-folk: it is love at the center of Jack’s super-hero universe.

PATRICK’S SOJOURN The cartoonist described his own background regarding funny books. “As soon as I could read, I was a newspaper comic strip fan. Peanuts was the reason I became a cartoonist. My first love was Charles Schulz’s masterpiece. “When we were young, I bought those Little Archie comics. Anything! I have an older brother and he bought our first Marvel comic, probably an early Avengers issue, and then we all just went nuts for Marvel. It’s funny, he was the one to tell my younger brother and me what we were ‘allowed’ to collect. "He gave me The X-Men, so I became a big X-Men fan. So, it’s crazy, but if you were to tell me I had a chance to work with the Marvel characters, I would have thought for sure I would do an X-Men book, but the team didn’t make it in the book except for the last page… My older brother let us read his comics, so I was aware of

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This page: Above is the cartoonist himself in a recent pic. Inset left is 10-year-old Patrick’s work folder from elementary school, circa 1966, featuring some of the characters his older brother “allowed” young Pat to collect, The X-Men! Though the review copy of The Super Hero’s Journey was in transit when Ye Ed met with Patrick at Baltimore Comic-Con, your CBC helmsman actually spent his own mullah to buy a copy and the author drew JBC’s fave hero with an inscription!

jack of all trades

The Diverse Mr. Butterworth

Ye Ed talks with horror storyteller Jack Butterworth about his eclectic comics-related careers Colgate Maroon, about Superman and Spider-Man, comparing them, and saying that it looked like Superboy might be running [We’ve been meaning to connect for, like, forever since Jack But- out of super-conversation. And then, to describe Spider-Man, terworth introduced himself at San Diego Comic-Con, in 2004. I came up with the line, “If Charlie Brown wore a skin-tight If and when a new edition of The Warren Companion would be costume and fought crime, he would be Spider-Man.” And I in the works, he agreed to talk about his days as a scripter for thought, you know, that’s a pretty good description. Well, it Creepy and Eerie. And, while Jack was always there in the dark turned out, first of all, they quoted it in an article in the New recesses of my noggin, I discovered he was far more than a writ- York Herald Tribune Sunday magazine that was devoted to er of horror stories (good as he was!). He was among the first to comics, with an eight-page “Spirit” story by Will Eisner about showcase Marvel’s appeal to college students, chronicler of the the Spirit becoming involved with the 1966 mayoral election. history of Warren in the ’70s, writer for Steve Bissette’s Taboo, CBC: Can we just back up a bit? Were you an only child? premier comic art expert and comics dealer, Classics Illustrated Jack: I was. Having not much in the way of other kids in the historian, and even a (sort-of) guest in Tomb of Dracula! — so house, usually I had a lot of free time. I just had to interview him for a forthcoming new history of CBC: Did your parents read? Warren Publications and for CBC! That chat occurred via phone Jack: Not that much. I remember my father looking at a list in 2022 and, last December, I visited his Massachusetts digs of stuff I wanted for Christmas and he said, “This is all books.” to meet in person, take some pix, and admire his amazing art He read paperback Western novels when he had to take a collection! Fair warning to everyone that I will not be including plane somewhere. They were fairly short and fairly simple, and here much talk about Warren, as I’m saving that for the book, weren’t that challenging, as far as plot twists. which will include a stunning amount of memos and related CBC: What was his job? paperwork he saved, plus Jack’s vivid account of the fabled ban- Jack: He was a shoe salesman. quet hosted by James Warren that celebrated Rich Corben, Will CBC: Did he serve in World War II? Eisner, and Archie Goodwin. That’s enough from me… — Ye Ed.] Jack: No. He was looking into getting into one of the branches of the service toward the end, but he never did. I was born Comic Book Creator: If you don’t mind, we can just go November 12, 1941. I was his draft deferment. chronologically. You were born in Boston, Jack? CBC: Did your mom have any creative bent? Jack Butterworth: Yes. I grew up in Belmont, which is Jack: My mother tried painting for a while in the 1950s. a suburb. If I can do a quick Basically, she went to a painting class and painted copies of resume: 1951, I read my first greeting card artwork, landscapes… And I still have all of those issue of Tales from the Crypt paintings. My wife, Lyssa Andersson, really had a wonderful on a newsstand, flipping relationship with my mother. She loved the paintings. They through it quickly before stayed with us. somebody yelled, “Hey, kid, CBC: So did you show a predilection to write as a youngster? this ain’t a library!” And just Jack: Yes, I did. The first story that really impressed me, got totally hooked from the although I was an EC fan — their stuff was really adult and beginning. I became an EC it was beyond my ability to comprehend — I found myself Fan-Addict. The Comics Code entranced by Stan Lee’s stories in the Atlas horror comics, and came along, comic books got there was this one story, in Strange Tales [#20, July 1953] called really bland really fast, and I “Wilbur.” It’s a story about this guy who’s trying to inherit his switched to being a science uncle’s wealth. His uncle has come back from Africa and has fiction fan in the mid-’50s. left everything to someone named Wilbur. The nephew doesn’t And then, in 1961, I got back know who this is, but he will inherit everything if Wilbur dies. to comics again because The guy has a knife and goes downstairs in the basement in the of Marvel. Stan Lee looked dark, looking for Wilbur. Then there are screams and we can’t at super-heroes and asked see what’s going on, but the last panel reveals that Wilbur is himself what I think is the a lion and the guy’s been eaten. And this really impressed me basic question for any writer: as something I could maybe recreate. So I did a story about a “What if this stuff happened kid that had a pet lion named Wilbur. A friend did four or five to real people in a real world? illustrations. We were in fifth or sixth grade. That was my first What would that be like?” And attempt at a short story. he looked at super-heroes that CBC: A total swipe! way and it was revolutionary. Jack: Absolutely. We call it “un hommage.” You know, if you In 1963, I was a total say it in French, it sounds so much nicer… Oh, that sentence Marvel fan. I wrote an article about “Charlie Brown fighting crime,” that wound up on the for my college newspaper, The back cover of the first Spider-Man story collection, published as Conducted by JON B. COOKE

Above: Jack Butterworth’s first published piece, a one-page requiem for EC Comics, appeared when he was a young teen, in the fanzine, International Youngfan #1, circa 1957. Below: This photo of a 30-something Jack appeared in the Warren Publications “Vampi’s Vault” profile, Vampirella #30 [Jan. 1974]. (See pg. 41.) The pic was taken by Jack’s first wife, Karin Wells, sometime in 1973.

#35 • Summer 2024 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Photo by Karin Wells and appears courtesy of Jack Butterworth.

a paperback by Lancer [Spider-Man Collector’s Album, 1966]. I saw this paperback on the rack. “Oh, great Spider-Man stories! I want this.” And then I looked at the back cover and there was my line! It was attributed to The Colgate Maroon because everybody had heard of Colgate, and certainly nobody had ever heard of John Butterworth. But that was really amazing, very encouraging, when I saw that. CBC: That article has got to be one of the earliest mentions outside fanzines of the Marvel super-heroes. Certainly of Spider-Man. This was even before the assassination of JFK. Jack: Yes. And it was in mass media, in the Herald Tribune. I met Eisner later on and we were laughing about having been in that same issue, because the Herald Tribune folded within a year of that appearance. And Eisner said, “Well, we killed the Herald Tribune, didn’t we?” CBC: Yeah. And you had a letter in the letter column in the earliest issue of Amazing Spider-Man that I own, #15 [Aug. ’64]. Jack: Right, the first appearance of Kraven the Hunter. I have to write to Colgate, to their alumni magazine, at some point and say that we were the first college to try to recruit Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man, or at least suggested… CBC: Did you write in school? When you wrote that short story, “Wilbur,” how old were you? Jack: I was in fifth grade, so 11, probably. CBC: Did you continue writing? Did your teachers encourage… Jack: They liked it. I wrote a tall tale that was about six paragraphs that was published in the local weekly newspaper, something that we did for a library book club group. I was listening to Suspense radio shows and watching the Alfred Hitchcock Presents program and seeing how the stories were constructed. What really surprised and scared me in a TV story was “The Gentleman from America” episode on Alfred Hitchcock

Presents, one of the first things I found that really was scary as far as a ghost story. I realized that basically what scared me was not necessarily a twist ending, the way EC twist endings would shock me, but a “twist middle,” where this twist was in the middle of the story, and then you’re trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. That kind of thing. CBC: Did you consider writing for a living at all? Jack: I thought, “Gee, I really like telling stories. I want to try to be a writer.” But my parents, of course, responded the way middle-class parents would. They said, “Well, that’s wonderful, dear, and maybe you could teach.” Have a day job, basically, is what they were concerned about. They were afraid of having me living in their basement in my 20s trying to sell stories. CBC: Did you collect ECs when you first picked one up? Jack: Well, no. The “new trend” ECs published after the Comics Code took hold, I bought some of those — Impact, Valor, and Psychoanalysis, of course, which was totally mind-bending and people are still talking about that title. They actually did a comic book about people seeing a psychiatrist… Wow!

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Above: Clipping from the college paper by Jack, The Colgate Maroon, from November 13, 1963, a very early article about the burgeoning Marvel Age. Below: Jack poses with the paper during Ye Ed.’s December 2023 visit.

DENNY O’NEIL

Saving the World, One Story at a Time

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FROM THE EDITOR: In the spirit of Comic

to the Missouri-born wordsmith, toiled on this issue’s

Book Creator’s increased focus on writers as of late,

main feature into the new year, but he became side-

plans were set in motion last summer to devote an

lined before it was due. Thus yours truly has promptly

issue to Bob Brodsky’s favorite scribe, Dennis Joseph

jumped in to complete the section, doing my best to

O’Neil [1939–2020], one of the finest talents in the

retain Bob’s rightfully — and righteously! — biased

history of American comics. Bob, whose fanzine from

opinion regarding his idol’s abilities. So offer all bou-

1999–2004, The O’Neil Observer, was mostly devoted

quets to B.B. and save any brickbats for — YE ED.

Denny O’Neil was comics’ first truly great modern writer. The scribe was passionate about his work, erudite, and articulate, and his best stories employed a journalist’s feel for telling tales in ways that enlighten as well as entertain. And while the field’s best scribes, including superb creators Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Ennis, have perhaps crafted stories and concepts beyond Denny’s scope, none of their work would have happened without his groundbreaking influence. In popular music, Bob Dylan’s songs bequeathed a new way of songwriting, breaking free from, the “moon and June” rules of the craft skillfully practiced by classic Tin Pan Alley contributors to the “Great American Songbook,” like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George and Ira Gershwin. While Dylan’s work, beginning in the early 1960s, was very different from that of great songwriters to come, e.g., Pete Townshend, Nick Cave, and Tom Waits, it was Dylan who kicked down the walls, and bushwacked the conventions, of what popular song could express and convey. Dylan gave songwriters the freedom to follow their own creative path. Townshend’s songs are nothing like Dylan’s, but he needed Bob for permission, if you will, to write them. The Dylan analogy works for Denny O’Neil and the great comic book writers to follow. “Kryptonite Nevermore,” indeed.

In an industry where the artists tend to get more recognition, Denny’s best work stands as testament to the power of great comic book writing. He broadened and deepened the parameters of what a good comic book could be. Denny’s work at DC of that period — especially on the sagas of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Green Lantern/Green Arrow — elevated comics to new, unprecedented levels of creativity, and gave his readers (with and without oft-creative partner Neal Adams’ superb artwork) some of the greatest stories in the history of comics. Denny’s best work was intelligent and well-crafted, with a tight narrative, and rich dialogue, and characterization. There is also a nth element that’s harder to pin down — an elegance, really, in the way the man writes a story. Denny’s best work taught and inspired not only Moore, Gaiman, and Ellis, but also the great young writers immediately following him in the early 1970s, such as Steve Englehart, Don McGregor, and Steve Gerber. To this day, the astonishing early 1970s work of Denny and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World stand as the twin pillars of the DC Universe (Multiverse?). While Kirby was surely comics’ most exciting, important, and influential artist, O’Neil’s work, primarily at DC during the “relevance years’” from roughly 1967 to 1973, continues to influence, impress, and inspire new generations. One goal here is to revisit those amazing late ’60s/early ’70s years when Denny’s characters and stories often meshed with the times in which they were created. Whenever possible, you will hear Denny in his own voice. Walk into any comic-book store today, and you will see evidence of O’Neil’s importance on the “new this week” racks. Though often mutated beyond original conception, Denny’s characters and concepts continue to entertain and engage 21st Century comic book fans.

Denny was the adult in the room, the professional who broke the rules, replaced them with something better, and elevated comic book writing to a more creative and expressive place. During his peak creative years of roughly 1968–73, his work influenced, awed, and inspired both his contemporaries and the creators to come.

by Bob Brodsky COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2024 • #35

with Jon B. Cooke Portrait by Ken Meyer, Jr. 55

His passing on July 11, 2020, followed by the death of his most important collaborator, Neal Adams, in the spring of 2022, was an unfathomable loss for comics and popular culture while remaining stark reminders of their impact on generations of readers. Denny was a master craftsman. His finest work stands with the greatest writers from any medium. His stories had grace, elegance, and, yes, beauty. Always a true professional, Denny approached comic book writing from an “outside looking in” perception. Unlike the next generation of great comic book writers like Englehart, who worked from an “inside looking out” vantagepoint, Denny kept a professional distance from his work. If Denny was Bob Dylan, then Steve was Neil Young. Englehart could tell you who inked one of his stories back in 1973, while Denny maintained a different perspective on his work. Partly F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a dash of Chandler and a touch of Tom Wolfe, Denny was all about respect for both his characters and his readers. He was a professional writer, who met his deadlines, understood his obligation to his readers and editors, and created amazing work within those confines.

* Affectionately abbreviated by fans as O’NO. — Y.E.

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Without Denny, there would be no return to Batman’s dark avenger roots, no Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul, Talia, Damon Wayne, Lady Shiva, Richard Dragon, “New” Wonder Woman, homicidal Joker, Leslie Hopkins, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Santa Prisca, Crime Alley, or Lazarus Planet, not to mention “Matches” Malone! At his peak, Denny’s skill as a writer was unsurpassed in the field. His gift for characterization and ability to make his characters real was beyond that of most of his contemporaries, except perhaps Stan Lee. Denny took characters drawn flat on a page and stuffed them with humanity. His captions were elegant Haiku, his dialogue could be as dramatic or conversational as needed. Denny’s best work stretched the boundaries of what a comic book story could express and convey. This quiet and private man turned bland, perennial second banana Green Arrow into a fiery orator for social justice, while bringing Batman’s conflicted and tragedy-induced personality to prominence. Denny’s best stories were always ambitious. With the eye of the journalist and the skill of a novelist, his stories and characters were truly “real” in ways rarely portrayed in comic books.

AN AGE OF RELEVANCE Denny O’Neil was, if you will, the Stan Lee of DC Comics and, while his creations were canonical, his recreations were even more important, whether the “New” Wonder Woman, his “Sandman series” in Superman, the return of The Batman, reappearance of The Joker as an insane killer, and, of course, his and Neal Adams’ magnificent Green Lantern/Green Arrow run of the early 1970s, which ushered in a new epoch. Beginning in the late 1960s, Denny reconstructed decadesold characters and made them real. In the scribe’s work, his “universe” continues to be a pivot-point for today’s comic book creators. Like Dylan going electric, Denny stood at the center of a firestorm that elevated an oft-ridiculed medium to a place where even The New York Times and Newsweek paid attention. In fact, decades later, the Times’ respective obituaries for Denny and Neal were detailed and reverential, acknowledging their contribution to popular culture beyond comics. Tagged to their time, DC’s and (to a lesser extent) Marvel’s “relevant” stories of the late ’60s and early ’70s became a genre onto itself. Of course, like all genres, the good and bad co-existed, as lesser creative hands took their shot at the trend. “Relevance” turned out to be also a fad of sorts, with quality ranging from the sublime to the not-so-hot, with most “relevant” comics falling in between. (In truth, while Denny and Neal were the main conveyors of the best of the relevance era, other creators, and creations, played a role in the movement’s development, success, and failure, and they deserve our recognition, as well.) During the late 1990s and early 2000s, I had the privilege of editing The O’Neil Observer,* a fanzine “dedicated to the storytelling of Denny O’Neil and the craft of comic book writing.” This article incorporates material from The O’Neil Observer’s five issue run [1998–2004], as well as a feature piece on Denny by Kevin Hanley and myself that was published in Comic Book Marketplace #56 [Feb. 1998]. Except when noted, all interviews were conducted by me (and a few by Ye Ed.) and, whenever possible, you will hear Denny in his own voice. In addition are a few excerpts from a 1970 group interview with Denny taped by then 15-year-old fan Walt Jaschek. Walt was a member of the Graphic Fantasy Society of St. Louis (“GARFAN”), a comic book club located in Denny’s hometown.

The writer, then somewhat new to comics, chatted with club members regarding his work at DC, and other related topics. At that time, Denny was on a creative high and his discussion with the club shows his insights, wit, and honesty.* On a personal note, getting to know a writer whose work meant so much to me since childhood and discovering what great people he and his second wife, Marifran, who passed away in 2017, are among the great joys of my life. “Relevance,” in relation to comics anyway, meant more than covering the super-charged issues of the late ’60s and early ’70s in graphic form, no matter how dramatic or important. Like all genres, relevance was a genre unto itself, as mentioned, and quality varied from book to book and story to story. In many ways, as the newspaper headlines that fueled it faded from collective memory, relevance proved to be a fad, with quality ranging from the sublime to the mundane — Hal and Ollie: meet Brother Power, the Geek. I suppose the closest comparison in Top 40 music was the “Great Pop Protest Craze of 1965.” For every great song like the Byrds’ #1 hit version of Pete Seeger’s adaptation of Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 “Turn, Turn, Turn,” there were 10 cheap knockoffs like Barry McGuire’s so bad, it’s good, “Eve of Destruction.” Denny’s work during the relevant years fused his liberal beliefs and Catholic Worker background with his experience as a writer, combining his talent for fiction, including characterization, dialogue, and plotting, with the skills of a journalist, especially his excellent diction and eye for detail. And his finest stories could also be quite cinematic. Like his peer, the great writer/editor, Archie Goodwin, he often drew thumbnail sketches on his scripts for the artist to follow. Though not an artist, Denny always remembered that comics were a visual medium. THE GOOD CATHOLIC BOY Denny grew up “a good Catholic kid” in St. Louis, Missouri. “As a kid I was a devoted comic book reader,” Denny told me during our first interview for CBM, in 1997. “A little ritual after Sunday Mass: my father would stop at the local store and he would get milk and eggs, and what we needed for breakfast, and he would usually buy me a comic book. Later, my grandfather did something similar, so I was a stone fan before there were such things. “I have very pleasant memories of being sprawled out on the front porch reading comics on a summer afternoon. I just loved the stuff. I didn’t know I loved it, but looking back I can see I was a stone comics lover. I remember Batman and Superman, but I also remember loving the Vigilante and Green Arrow. But then, as I went into high school, there were a lot of other things to claim my attention. “Also, I now know that comics just weren’t around to be bought anymore. The little stores, like the one that my father and I stopped at, went out of business after the end of the war. The stores that survived found that, if they used their space for paperback books instead of comic books, they would make a lot more money per sale.” (In a Comics Journal talk with fellow writer Matt Fraction, Denny said his was, “Not a terrible childhood — nobody beat me — but the nun did lock me in the convent basement every night in eighth grade. It was not a great environment for someone * The full conversation between Denny and the members of GARFAN, along with a copy of Denny’s script for the book-length Green Lantern adventure “This is the Way the World Ends,” #63 [Sept. 1968], and more, are collected in his one-of-a-kind book, The Denny O’Neil Tapes [WALTNOW Studios, 2023]. The book is available in hard copy as well as PDF at amazon.com. It comes highly recommended. — B.B.

with my limitations and someone with my proclivities and, dare I use the word, talent. The arts were not encouraged, even less so when I went to a Christian military high school — talk about bad casting!”) Denny graduated from St. Louis University, in 1961, with an English literature major and minors in creative writing and philosophy. He served two years in the U.S. Navy, getting “some practical handson journalistic experience, and a lot of experience mopping floors.” He also participated in the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October, 1962. “I came out of the Navy, taught school for a year and decided that I wanted to write in some way.” Denny answered

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