Snyderman © Snyder Ventures.
A Celebration of Comics 1976 to 1986
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TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com
CONTENTS 3 Introduction by Alex Ross 4 Celebrate the Spirit of 1976 6 Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. 8 The Ballad of the G.I. Joe Adventure Team 9 The Harvey Funny Books 14 The Marvel Team-Up Series 17 Sidebar: DC Comics Presents 19 ICON: John Romita 23 Sidebar: Spidey Super Stories 26 The Groovy Marvel Fireside Books 27 Forever Young—Archie Comics 29 Pryde (in the Name of Love) 30 Mutants! 32 Sidebar: Wolverine 37 SPOTLIGHT on Dave Cockrum 41 The Alternate Realites of What If…? 44 Grit: America’s Greatest Family Newspaper 47 Colorful Heroes 52 Street Ball 54 Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali 59 The Treasury Editions 61 Superman Vs. Spider-Man 66 The Hostess Cakes Comic Book Ads 68 Sidebar: Crazy for Krazy Straws! 70 Sidebar: Brain Freeze 71 Snyderman 73 Sidebar: Snyderman & Kubert 75 The Metagalactic Mind of Jim Starlin 81 The Neverending Story of… Star Wars 83 Sidebar: Dani’s Story 85 The Secret Origin of Underoos 88 The Comic That Rocked the World 90 How the KISS Comic Came to Be 94 Alice Cooper—Marvel Premiere #50 95 The Mile High Club 97 Sidebar: The Code of the Direct Market 99 Promotional and Educational Comic Books 100 Sidebar: With Our Compliments 101 Sidebar: Oh Yeah!—Kool-Aid Man 102 Dollar Sized Delight 104 Elfquest—Indie Trendsetters
114 The Kaleidoscopic World of Colorforms 116 ICON: Neal Adams 121 Sidebar: Neal Adams and Charlton 125 The Advent of the Limited Series 127 CLASSY CLASSIC: The Untold Story of the Justice Society 129 The Anniversary Issues 130 Saints & Sinners 132 The Spaceknight Rises 135 The Next Big (and Tiny) Things… (or Not) 136 The Genesis of Firestorm 137 The Human Fly 138 ICON: John Buscema 144 SPOTLIGHT on Sal Buscema 148 Los Hermanos Hernandez 151 Sidebar: Hermano Mayor 160 Forbidden Planet 163 The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 165 Sidebar: DC’s Definitive Directory 166 Spider-Man’s Secret 168 The New Teen Titans—Acting Their Age 179 Deluxe Baxter-Paper Editions 180 Daredevil—The Artists Without Fear 184 Nexus—For the Love of Comics 188 Strawberry Shortcake 190 Sidebar: Star Comics 191 Dynamite! The Greatest Kids’ Magazine 195 Eliot R. Brown: Photographer of the Superstars 197 Walt Simonson’s Odinson 201 How G.I. Joe Got His Groove Back 203 Sidebar: Masters of the Toyverse 205 ICON: José Luis García-López 211 Sshhhh… It’s a Secret Wars 215 Crisis on Infinite Earths 218 Sidebar: Crisis Controlled 223 ICON: John Byrne 229 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 239 Alan Moore—Innovator 241 CLASSY CLASSIC: Good Night, Sweet Prince 243 Epilogue: Street Cred 1
ATHE BALLAD ADVENTURE A
OF the
GIJOE TEAM
s the Vietnam War came to a close in the early ’70s, Hasbro moved its once almighty G.I. Joe line away from its military beginnings. Rebranded as the G.I. Joe Adventure Team, the 12" action toys were the first to feature their infamous (and patented) Kung-Fu Grip. To further demilitarize the line and cash in on other successful toy fads, 1975 saw Eagle Eye Joe (the figure with the creepy moveable eyes) recruit two colorful superhumans: Bulletman, the Human Bullet; and Mike Power, the Atomic Man. In the same vein of Mego’s already famous superhero dolls, Hasbro created their own champion and named him Bulletman—not to be confused with identically named (and similarly clad) Fawcett comic book hero of the 1940s. This shiny hero had a “metal” (chrome) helmet and arms, and wore a costume made out of red fabric. With a little elbow grease and imagination, kids could even make the figure “fly” by placing a thread through the metal hoops on the back of his uniform, and tying each end of the string (at an angle) to something solid. Thanks to Hasbro’s constant commercials on children’s television, the ludicrous Bulletman became an unforgettable toy. Atomic Mike was Hasbro’s apparent response to losing out on the toy license to the Six Million Dollar Man (which ended up being the top toy of 1975) to Kenner. Mike Power’s backstory was that of a man dissatisfied with being disabled, who built himself atomic body parts and an atomic eye. The toy was a Atomic Mike and Bulletman join Eagly-Eye G.I. Joe’s Adventure Team! dead ringer for the aforementioned bionic television star. He featured a transparent plastic leg and arm, G.I. Joe © Hasbro flashing eye, and an atomic hand that could rotate a propel- portions (8–8½"). These blunders proved fatal; the new ler (to achieve the illusion of flight). While not as successful Joes bore little resemblance to the popular comrades-inas the Six Million Dollar Man, Atomic Mike was a popular arms who preceded them. The killing blow was dealt by Kenner’s Star Wars line released the same year, and the toy Christmas item in 1975. In 1977, Hasbro retired the far-out Adventure Team to of choice in the boy’s market for years to come. Rightly so, make way for an ill-fated, futuristic Super Joe. In another Super Joe was a super flop and the line quietly faded away change, the 12" figures were shrunken down to Mego pro- until its 1982 revival.
8
SMILE AWAY
the H A R
N
V E Y Funny Books
o boy or girl was meant to live on superhero comics alone. There was once a time where real funny books, ones filled with laughs, roamed the spinner rack side by side with fantasy, adventure, horror, romance, western, war, drama, and superheroes titles. For many of us, the journey into comics began with beloved characters such as Casper, Richie Rich, and Hot Stuff, who delivered the good times like no one else. Founded in 1941 by impresario Albert Harvey, Harvey Comics became known for its licensed comics and horror line in its formative years. By 1952, the company began restructuring itself when it entered an arrangement with Famous Studios (Paramount Cartoon Characters) to publish a treasure trove of kids’ titles featuring characters like Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey. The New York outfit went on to produce an eyeappealing line of wholesome children’s comics. The company splendidly captured the lushness of high-quality cartoons and placed it inside a ten-cent comic. As fate would have it, humor is where Harvey found its calling. Prompted by its good fortune, the publisher acquires the rights to Casper and the rest of the Paramount Cartoon Characters stable in 1959. Afterward, Harvey stood tall as the predominant publisher of kids’ comics, thanks to their vibrant characters, guiltless humor, and everyday kindness. Just as the deal with Famous Studios went through, a young
man named Sid Jacobson began earning his editorial stripes as an assistant to Perry Antoshak at Harvey. Within a couple of years, the New York University graduate and former journalist became the company’s sole editor for the next four decades. He would help set and oversee the tone for the highly successful line, and took naturally to assuming responsibility and leadership. Right from the start, Sid worked alongside the crème de la crème in the industry, from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby on Captain 3-D, to Harvey all-stars Ernie Colón and Howard Post. Jacobson realized he had found his calling in comics, and it was a job that he loved. The father of the then-new “Harvey World” look was Steve Muffatti (1910–68), a former animator at the legendary Fleischer Studios and Paramount’s Famous Cartoon Studios. The illustrator came to the company and established an appealing artistic house style—one that magically infused an animated cartoon look into the humor books and their kid stars. The drawings looked deceptively simple, but they were highly stylized and energetic. The other Harvey artists would follow his lead. Immediately upon his arrival at company in 1952, the master animator worked his magic on Little Audrey, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Paramount Animated Comics, and, later, many of Richie Rich’s earliest stories. His influence ran full circle in the Harveytoons cartoon shows that brought these exciting characters to the rapidly growing television market. A Warren Kremer-drawn Richie Rich proudly displays Steve Muffatti’s original art for the cover of Little Audrey #29 (1953). Richie Rich, Little Audrey © Classic Media
9
A 34" x 22" 1983 promotional poster for Marvel Team-Up penciled by Ron Frenz. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.
14
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!
the MARVEL TEAM-UP series
T
rue friendship is rare. Remember how it felt discovering a new pal who liked the same things you did, or exposed you to something unfamiliar but wonderful? Someone who had your back no matter the odds stacked against you? Through good times and bad, real amigos are the ones that stick by you right to the end. As we get older and hopefully wiser, it becomes clearer just how hard it is to find friends like that, and how important it is to hold on to them. Marvel Team-Up is a comic book series all about friendships. Back in the day, Spider-Man befriended everyone in the Marvel Universe, so much so that characters were not “officially” a part of the Marvel Comics Universe until they traded quips with the friendly neighborhood web-slinger. Today’s clamoring for an interactive universe in Marvel’s movies and television shows has its roots in Marvel Team-Up’s 150 issues and seven annuals. True, heroes chumming up and combining their efforts was not exactly a new notion, but what Marvel did better than anyone was give their characters layers of personality and self-consciousness that made these partnerships much more genuine. “It was Stan Lee’s [idea], not mine. I suspect a desire to expand Spidey was the launching point… though it was also his idea—insisted upon—later, I think, to do issues without
Spidey, once it got going,” explains Roy Thomas. “Stan just asked me to write the first issue. I suppose it was a sort of template… but our other writers didn’t need one. They’d seen World’s Finest and The Brave and the Bold.” Initially, SpiderMan was to share the headlining duties of the series with other characters, like Hulk and Human Torch, but the public’s insatiable appetite for more Spidey books set a different course for the title. Assuming the reins of the series after its launch was a talented 19-year-old writer named Gerry Conway, on his way to authoring some of the greatest comics of the period. “It was a small group of people working at Marvel at that time,” recalls Conway. “I think there were less than a half-dozen writers working there, and Roy was the only editor. I think they had an assistant editor also working there, but, for the most part, it was a very small, collegial group of people, so we all knew what was going on, what was coming up, what the plans were. I don’t think Roy intended to write the book more than just the lead-off issue. I think the plan was always that I was going to work on it fairly regularly.” For kids, Marvel Team-Up was a great idea because you got two superheroes for the price of one. The magazine also was a perfect gateway into the wider world of Marvel Comics. It served as a sampler, introducing characters from other titles,
?
All Characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.
15
Romita’s cover art for Power Records’ 12" 33 1⁄₃ r.p.m. Amazing Spider-Man L.P. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.
20
The October 29, 1977, Amazing Spider-Man daily newspaper strip (above) and promotional artwork for the strip (below). Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.
Like his artistic hero Milton Caniff (of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon fame), “Jazzy” John Romita became a syndicated cartoonist with the newly christened The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip, on January 3, 1977. While the heyday of adventure strips had long passed, there still remained a prestige attached to working on an internationally syndicated feature. These strips would take SpiderMan into millions of homes on a regular basis, into places that the comic books never could when it debuted in more than 300 newspapers. Especially thrilling for New Yorkers Romita and writer Stan Lee was the sight of seeing their effort in The New York Daily News, the paper with the highest circulation carrying it. Their hometown tabloid loudly heralded Spidey’s arrival within their daily editions and as an eye-catching detail on their fleet of delivery trucks. “The only problem I had with [the strip] was, at the time I got in there were less papers every year, and I thought of it as a dead end kind of a thing. Not like in the previous decades, [when] anybody who got into syndication was guaranteed a nice, long run. All you had to do was be good. But I told Stan, the syndicated strip is perfect, except chances are it won’t last long. I told him, ‘I will do it, and I will stay on the strip until we start to lose papers.’ So, for the first four years, we were gaining papers, which was a very pleasant surprise for me. The only thing is, I was working, like, eight days a week, and I was killing myself, and I was aging in front of my own mirror. [laughs]”
For the children who hadn’t experienced the magic of comic books or were forbidden from reading them, the charming funny served its purpose as an effective introduction to Marvel’s flagship character by one of the medium’s all-time favorite creative teams. “[Stan Lee] always said it was a different audience, and that’s why we did [it]. I really plunged in there and tried to make them look like motion pictures because I wanted to appeal to the different audience that he kept telling me we were finding. So I did as good a job as physically possible, and when I needed help, I had guys like Fred Kida helping me, and other guys doing quick thumbnails for me to save time. But, whatever it was, I poured myself into that strip, at the sacrifice of some income. “It was great. I got a lot of ego-soothing stuff in the ’70s. In the late ’60s and the full ’70s, I got a great deal of satisfaction. The syndicated strip, the prognostication was that it was not going to be a success, because no adventure strips were surviving in those years. The best adventure strips were going under. The only thing that stayed on was Steve Canyon and a couple others. I didn’t have much hope for it, because I know that the newspaper business is not suited for superheroes. And the fact that it’s still running now, I take pride in that, because I put the first four years down, and we went from 200 to 450 papers at a time when everybody else was losing papers, and I remember that there was also a Superman and a Batman strip [The World’s Greatest Superheroes] around the same time. It didn’t last. The fact that we kept 21
GRIT America’s Greatest Family Newspaper
Comic Book Ad Classics Dietrick Lamade: Humble Beginnings Grit Sells One Million Copies Grit Boys (and Girls) Learn Value of a Dollar Celebrate Rural Life
44
Grit © Ogden Publications, Inc.
Grit—Going Strong from 1882 to Today The newspaper for rural Americans
B
efore smartphones, before the Internet, before television, even before radio, Grit was as a vital pipeline for stories of good news, inspiring tales of humanity, insightful advice columns, practical tips, handy recipes, earnest entertainment coverage, popular comic strips, and so much more. The Grit publication was a common sight in rural homes across the country. Generations of Americans stayed connected to the world through this national staple, which peaked with a circulation per issue exceeding one million copies in the 1970s. Founded in 1882 by young German immigrant Dietrick Lamade in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Grit was very much a family affair, remaining in the hands of the Lamade clan until 1982. Lamade designed the weekly newspaper to appeal to everyone from the youngest tot to dear nana, and it proved to be an indispensable source of merriment for the entire family. Each issue opened a window to the world, and, most importantly, it brought its readers together with a warmth and friendliness that even today’s latest advances in communications cannot touch. An integral part of Grit’s sales and national brand recognition stemmed from Lamade’s idea to build a nationwide sales force composed of young kids. This legion of devoted “Grit Boys” would soon distribute the newspaper to every corner of the United States from sea to shining sea. But to maintain this lucrative sales strategy, Lamade needed to reach kids on a constant basis. And so month in, month out, from the 1940s into the early 1980s, Grit advertisements appeared within the pages of the comic books. The familiar ads essentially served as a recruitment listing, calling out to all
A Grit Boy hard at work in front of his local grocery store. Photograph © respective owner
ambitious boys and, subsequently, girls to build their own Grit paper routes in order to earn cash and prizes for their sales efforts and hard work. The humble beginning of Grit’s distribution is a story that Bryan Welch, the former publisher of the publication, admires a great deal. He recalls, “The Lamade family owned the magazine for many, many decades, and one of the stories I always loved about Dietrick was that there was a way for him to get on the train on the morning that Grit came out, and to ride to some distant town by around midday, and then get on a different train and come by a different route back to Williamsport. And what he would do is stop at every station, get off the train, sell copies of Grit on the platform, and then get back on the train and ride to the next station. And I think that is so similar, in a way, to the way that the single copies would then be eventually sold by school kids over the decades, one copy at a time. I enjoy the way that it sort of tracks the Grit distribution tradition back to its very origin.”
Having worked in the newspaper industry since childhood, Dietrich Lamade and his family knew to never underestimate the determination and imagination of children. At its peak, Grit boasted over 30,000 Grit Boys delivering their paper to the doorsteps of folks around the USA. All good Grit Boys and Gals understood that better and friendlier customer service meant loyal subscribers, and, hopefully, enough good will and word of mouth to garner new customers, earning them more money and bigger prizes. But fiscal rewards aside, selling Grit taught these children self-worth, discipline, and the value of a dollar— invaluable lessons that would serve them well down the road of life. No matter the path destiny chooses for you, the lessons learned in childhood are the ones that stick with you. Welch elaborates, “Oh, I met newsboys all the time under every possible circumstance. I’ll tell you, one of my favorite stories about that, is I received a letter a few years ago with a twentydollar bill in it, and the letter was from 45
NO RADIO
.......
FOR THE FATE OF THE WORLD
Bodace Stadium
.......
NO HOME TV
Tues. Jan. 31, 1978
THE THRILLA IN OUTA SPACE
superman Metropolis — greatest superhero in the world
vs. Muhammad
ALI
louisville — heavyweight champion of the world 1960 Olympic Champion
the winner to face Hun’Ya of Bodace
D
uring the 1970s, there was no figure more beloved ment into professional boxing, and the Supreme Court‘s or celebrated than that of Muhammad Ali, a boxer reversal of the verdict against him. known for his refreshing honesty and sharp wit as Entering the ’70s, Ali became a larger than life figure. well as his physical prowess and graceful moves. The man His epic battles in the ring against the likes of Joe Frazier, born as Cassius Clay, a 1960 gold medal Olympian, became George Foreman, and Ken Norton, among others, was the a heavyweight champion at 22 and came fully into his own stuff of legends. Outside of the ring, the beloved fighter when he converted to Islam and soared to the stratosphere of pop adopted the name of Muhammad culture as one of the defining figAli. Always true to his beliefs and ures of the era. Everyone, chilconvictions, he refused his mandadren and adults, around the world tory Army draft selection during knew him. Becoming an industry the controversial Vietnam War in unto himself, the cultural icon and 1967. In the prime of his career Get your ticket! Promotional item for the 1978 Madison Avenue favorite entered Superman vs. Ali treasury. and convicted for draft evasion, the media ring with his own book Superman © DC Comics the champ lost his title and boxing (1975’s The Greatest: My Own license, and, sadly, was denied his livelihood (for almost four Story), movie (1977’s The Greatest), animated television years) when every state in the country categorically black- show (1977’s I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhamlisted him from obtaining another permit. Adamantly, Ali mad Ali), toy (1976’s Mego Muhammad Ali line), and fought for his case and became a key critic against the war much more. By 1978, no man or obstacle could stop him. until, ultimately, he emerged victorious with his reinstate- The Greatest had done it all—all except take on Superman,
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Neal Adam’s cover art for All New Collectors’ Edition #C-56. Superman © DC Comics
the Last Son of Krypton, who was no flesh-and-blood man but comic books’ very own greatest champion. 1978 remains a bittersweet year in the distinguished publishing history of DC Comics, for this dark period of freefalling sales known as the “DC Implosion” brought massive layoffs and cancellations. The silver lining of DC’s dismal year arrived in the form of the Superman vs. Ali treasury (#C-56 of the All New Collectors’ Edition series), an unlikely book that became the most talked about comic of the year, and one which remains popular to this day. As DC’s publisher since 1976, Jenette Kahn sought new ideas to generate media buzz and make her company look hip, so the idea of pairing Superman and Muhammad Ali, the biggest celebrity on the planet, was right in her wheelhouse. For an assignment of this magnitude, DC enlisted the best in the legendary creative team of Denny O’Neil and… Joe Kubert?!? “It sounded like an incredibly stupid project,” admits Neal Adams, “and at the same time a wonderful project. [Longtime DC editor] Julie Schwartz came up with the idea. Julie Schwartz was a very good idea person. He came up with this in spite of everybody’s laughing at him. And so they kind of put together a deal [to determine] whether
such a thing could be possible, and, in fact, it was possible. And Joe Kubert, I thought, was a great choice, except that Joe’s work is not quite as realistic and commercial as mine, and the Muhammad Ali people didn’t feel the likenesses were what they wanted to see. They were a little too crude and a little too rough, and so DC Comics then started to talk to me about doing it…. I was probably exactly the right person to do it, because I was out there in the commercial world doing commercial stuff on a regular basis, and I knew the standards. And they were not comic book standards. They were very commercial standards. So what I did was, since Joe Kubert had just done a cover at that point, I took Joe Kubert’s cover and I traced it, and I put my art over it so that it would still remain a Joe Kubert-inspired cover.” And inspired it was. While the original Kubert layout was a simple “night at the fight” scene, Neal Adams raised the stakes. As if the awesome spectacle of Superman going toe-to-toe Muhammad Ali was not enough, the artwork’s detailed background features a sea of humanity. Anyone who was anyone in 1978 is seemingly present within the audience. From the Jackson 5 and Donny and Marie Osmond, to Pelé and Joe Namath, to the incumbent President Jimmy Carter and scores of DC characters—Adams even worked in 55
HOW THE KISS COMIC CAME TO BE (THE WAY I REMEMBER IT)
I nc .
ac
te
teve Gerber was a very intelligent, witty, brilliantly imaginative and funny guy. Despite his enjoyment and acceptance of the weird and bizarre, he was straight in every connotation of the word. Black coffee and cigarettes were his only vices. The Superman television series had a profound effect on him when he was a kid. According to his brother, Michael, Steve watched the weekly show with an almost religious reverence. Steve truly believed in Truth and Justice. The American Way of Life, though, was fair game for social commentary. Steve had been a communications major in college. Marshall McLuhan was his hero and prophet. He had long tried to interest Marvel in publishing higher quality stories and longer format color books which he believed could command higher prices and be sold in book stores. He also believed they could venture into other compatible markets. Management did not believe that comics were anything but cheap advertising venues to be published as economically as possible. They didn’t want to hear about promoting the product because all they could hear was the cost of publicity. When we ran Howard the Duck for president, they didn’t even want to expend the effort to send out press releases and reap millions of dollars of free TV publicity for Marvel. It could have been on every morning show and the six o’clock news. It was disappointing to find out that Stan Lee, who had apparently revolutionized and reinvented the Marvel Universe, had no real power. He assigned ar Ch l projects but his word could be contradicted and projects Howa ve rd the D ck © Mar u canceled at the whim of management. He liked Steve but was slightly uncomfortable with the way his work was developing. In fact, many of the new writers were going into worlds where Stan could never follow, even if they were writing characters that he was supposed to have created. I always felt that Stan was kept on edge by management. At any moment everyone could be fired and he might be called in to write every single book again. He could never have done it. Gene Simmons was an enthusiastic comic book fan and he especially liked Marvel. (Paul Stanley was also a fan but to a much lesser degree.) As I recall, Kiss approached Marvel to do a Kiss superhero comic. Stan, who loved all things show business, was flattered and excited when they came to him. Gerber may or may not have been at the offices that day. Stan asked Steve what he would do with the idea. Steve was wildly enthusiastic. He had tried to talk to Stan before about Marvel doing something in the rock magazine market. He knew this was the chance to break into it and reach a whole new audience. He probably went on about it for an hour or more. He knew it could work and he convinced Stan. Stan became a believer. Stan was on board with Steve as the writer. (Of course, Stan often had his enthusiasms crushed by management. I don’t know how he survived their greed and ignorance.)
rs,
S
By Mary Skrenes
90
The creative team mingles with the band in a photo that ran in Steve Gerber’s introduction for Marvel Comics Super Special #1. photo © respective owner
THE CHOICE OF AN ARTIST Alan Weiss is an old friend of mine from college. In fact, he introduced me to Dick Giordano at Phil Seuling’s July 4th convention in 1969 and drew the first story that I sold to DC. I don’t think there was another person, let alone an artist, that could dance like Alan Weiss. I thought he could capture these rock ’n’ roll freaks dancing in platform boots. Plus, he would approach it with an open mind. He took their tapes and went on a sort of anthropological expedition into their music. He didn’t come out until he “got it” and liked it! He really got it when he and Steve went to some of the regional live concerts. He has a great story about the first time he met Gene Simmons, in costume, at the “Blood Draw.” To answer your question about who of us were into Kiss, I’ve gotta say, probably nobody. Gerber liked rock and roll. He didn’t have any of their albums at the time but he knew who they were. He liked their logo which he had seen around New York. Most of the other writers and artists, if they did know Kiss, were pretty skeptical about the whole project. No one, besides Gerber and Weiss and especially management, could see it working.
I’m not sure when Gerber met with the Kiss group but I remember him coming back from meetings with them at Aucoin’s offices. I asked him what they were like. He said they were interesting and nice and pretty normal. He spoke mostly about Gene and Paul. He felt connected with Gene right away. Perhaps it was because they were both Jewish fan boys. He was surprised and pleased that they really understood the “ordinary guy becomes superhero” shtick. They shared their ideas, and he was excited about the plot that was developing before Marvel could put too much of a stamp on it. After they sent him to see a concert in Toronto, it all really clicked into place for him. Myth and reality were merging for these guys. They were using their imaginations and talents to become their dreams. They were rock and roll superheroes! He loved it and was on fire. When Steve was excited about a project, enthusiasm and happiness gushed from every pore. He hoped to accomplish a book that would make the Kiss guys happy, him happy, and have a different kind of book to reach an untapped audience. He had a vain hope that he could somehow get beyond the ignorance and convince the publishers to do a magazine format. 91
Batman and Robin from the 1976 Super DC Calendar, and (next page) The Art of Neal Adams volume 1 (1975). All characters © their respective owners
118
radical stylized layouts, dramatic angles, and energized photo-realistic figures, the “Deadman” stories filled readers with excitement and enthusiasm, and spearheaded a shift in the nature of sequential storytelling. Neal Adams was also largely responsible for moving the Batman image away from the farcical 1966 Batman television program and restoring him as the crime-fighting badass he was always meant to be. The Adams association with Batman began in the team-up book The Brave and the Bold, where the dynamo teased late-1960s comic readers with his darker rendition of the Caped Crusader. Soon enough editorial picked up on the fans’ outcry for this intense and mature portrayal of the character. In 1970, Adams and his moody, cinematic storytelling and unique dramatic flair, was assigned to Batman and Detective Comics. Among his contributions to the Dark Knight’s mythos are the creation of the iconic characters Ra’s al Ghul (with frequent collaborator writer Dennis O’Neil) and Man-Bat (with writer Frank Robbins)—not to mention the lively revivals of the Joker and Two-Face (both written by O’Neil). As if shaking things up at DC Comics wasn’t enough, Adams made the gutsy move to work also for Marvel Comics under his own name at a time (1969) when other DC creators typically used pseudonyms in order to avoid blacklisting; soon others would follow his lead. Without reservations, Adams agreed to pencil X-Men, a title on the brink of cancellation, and produced a truly majestic run of issues full of vibrancy. Not only did he and writer Roy Thomas revitalize this second-tier title, they also went on to shape the dramatic pathos that dominates the team to this very day. Amongst his various Marvel exertions was the KreeSkrull War epic (1971–1972) in the pages of The Avengers, another impressive effort with Thomas that this time resulted in a mind-bending intergalactic treasure trove of righteousness and sensational artwork. 1970 saw Neal Adams and writer Denny O’Neil work together on the rebranded Green Lantern/Green Arrow series (formerly Green Lantern), breaking important new ground in the medium as the most socially conscious and relevant series the company had published to date. The title didn’t flinch as it handled, head-on, heavy topics like racial prejudice, drug addiction, religion, politics, and other matters previously unheard of in the pages of the funny books. Although their provocative stay was short-lived, Adams and O’Neil succeeded in beginning to elevate the perception and storytelling of comics away from kiddie fare into something so good and hip that it engaged high school students, college students, and national headlines alike. At Marvel Comics, the Kree-Skrull War saga set the mode for epic storytelling not only in the Avengers series but for the entirety of the Marvel Comics publishing line. It’s such a fundamental story that its repercussions are still felt in today’s storylines. 119
D Daredevil © Marvel Characters, Inc.
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THE ARTISTS WITHOUT FEAR
aredevil never had a chance. The title had become an afterthought, a book of last resorts if there was nothing else better at the spinner rack. It didn’t help matters that the unpopular character even resembled Hot Stuff the Little Devil. With his generic red looks, silly billy club, and run-of-the-mill stories, no one took him seriously until the artistic pairing of collaborators Frank Miller and Klaus Janson hit their stride on the series. “It was a perfect storm in that I think I was the editor Frank [Miller] needed at the time,” states Daredevil Editor Denny O’Neil. “There was eventually some conflict between him and [writer] Roger [McKenzie], and I didn’t know who was right. I just
knew that the book’s sales were going up, and it had always been like a road show Spider-Man that nobody ever got terribly interested in the character. I thought it was pretty neat to have a blind superhero. That appeals to me. But it was never a top seller. I think it was probably one of those titles for which cancellation was always a possibility. And then, after a little while, the sales went up. Now, I think insofar as there was any way for us to judge reader reaction… that got better.”
Decades later, many readers still haven’t forgotten the unbelievable experience that only comes with unearthing one of their most treasured comic book experiences. “I discovered Frank’s work on a family road trip to Florida,” recalls Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel’s popular writer. “We had stopped by the drugstore and I took whatever money I had and bought whatever comics they had. I was so desperate for comics I even bought Daredevil. [laughs] I had these comic books with me for days and hours of a road trip. One of those books was Daredevil #166, where Daredevil fights the Gladiator. “Now by most people’s standards this was just an okay issue of this magnificent run. It was still building up steam, as it were, yet sitting in the back of my mom’s car going over and over it, I was completely transformed as a writer and a reader.” Inker extraordinaire Klaus Janson had, more or less, become a staple on Daredevil since 1975; wunderkind Frank Miller entered the book’s picture as penciler on issue #158 (1979). But, in 1980, things began to coalesce when Editorin-Chief Jim Shooter recruited Denny O’Neil away from DC Comics, as part of the EIC’s initiative to acquire seasoned editors for his line. And under the watchful eye and guidance of O’Neil, the fearless creative team of Miler and
Janson turned around the negative perception of “The Man Without Fear” into the series that everyone wanted to read. “The editorial package I was given included Daredevil,” recounts O’Neil. “Frank Miller and Roger McKenzie were the relatively new team on the book, and were both unknowns. Frank was maybe 20 years old. I knew him from the volleyball games in Central Park on Sunday afternoons,
which was when 20 or so comic book guys got together and batted a ball around for an hour or two and then went and had hot dogs at Nathan’s. He was this young guy I knew nothing about… but he had very intelligent questions about my work.” By 1981, some friction had arisen between writer Roger McKenzie and Frank Miller, and Daredevil’s editor had a tough decision to make. Under McKenzie’s tenure, the hero of Hell’s Kitchen had stories that were more rooted in Marvel’s traditional superheroics. Miller wanted to take title’s protagonist elsewhere. O’Neil explains, “Roger was doing what he had been asked to do. There was a similar situation later at DC when Cary Bates was writing Superman and The Flash that he had written for years and years and done a steady, professional job, and suddenly he was told his stuff was dated. And, well, it’s not a fair universe. I hope that doesn’t shock you. So there was this hassle between Roger and Frank, and I thought, ‘Toss a coin, but probably the art is slightly more responsible for this book’s upturn than the scripts,’ so I resolved it in favor of Frank, and made Roger a lot of promises, which I tried to keep. In that kind of situation you try to make sure that the injured party does not starve, does not lack for work. In those days royalties weren’t a consideration, and it didn’t make any difference whether you were 181