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Written and designed by: Mark Voger With photos by: Kathy Voglesong Publisher: John Morrow Front cover art: Kurt Schaffenberger Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Billy Batson, Mr. Tawny, Dr. Sivana, Ibis the Invincible, Taia, Superman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto, Jor-El, Lara, Zor-El, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Lucy Lane, Lex Luthor, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Aquaman, the Spectre, Metamorpho, ‘‘Dial H for H-E-R-O,’’ Catwoman, Scarecrow, Isis, the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna TM & © DC Comics. Nemesis and Magicman TM & © Best Syndicated Features Inc. Barnabas Collins TM & © Dan Curtis Productions. The Spirit TM & © Will Eisner. Dr. Kildare and Beetle Bailey TM & © King Features. Daughters of Time TM & © Jack C. Harris. Roma TM & © John Workman. Simple Simon and the Pieman TM & © Howard D. Johnson Company. Famous Comic Book Creators © Eclipse Enterprises. Photos credited to Kathy Voglesong © Kathy Voglesong.

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Mark Voger, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Inquiries should be addressed to Mark Voger c/o: TwoMorrows Publishing.

Published by: TwoMorrows Publishing 1812 Park Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27605

Illustrator of Lois Lane and Captain Marvel

Contents

Foreword by Ken Bald ———————————————————— 4 Introduction ——————————————————————————— 6 One-of-a-Kind ————————————————————————— 8 Zella-Mehlis ——————————————————————————— 10 Connecticut —————————————————————————— 11 Pratt Institute —————————————————————————— 12 The Binder Barn ———————————————————————— 13 Dorothy ————————————————————————————— 15 The War Years ————————————————————————— 16 Wedding Bells ————————————————————————— 20 ‘‘Holy Moley!’’ —————————————————————————— 21 Ibis the Invincible Gallery —————————————————— 24 Captain Marvel Gallery ———————————————————— 25 Master Comics Cover Gallery ——————————————— 26 Captain Marvel Jr. / Marvel Family Cover Gallery ——— 28 Post-Fawcett Scramble ——————————————————— 30 Premier Cover Gallery ——————————————————— 33 ACG Cover Gallery —————————————————————— 34 Play Ball! ————————————————————————————— 36 Gridiron Greats ————————————————————————— 37 Custom Comics Gallery ——————————————————— 38 Front-Page Romance ———————————————————— 42 Faces of Lois —————————————————————————— 46 Lois Moments ————————————————————————— 48

CONTENTS

‘‘Letters to Lois’’ ———————————————————————— 49 Lois Lane Cover Gallery ——————————————————— 50 Susan Kelly ——————————————————————————— 54 Karl Schaffenberger ————————————————————— 55 Dual Tragedies ————————————————————————— 56 Christmas Cards ———————————————————————— 58 Oh, Baby ————————————————————————————— 78 Shazam! ————————————————————————————— 80 Writing a Wrong ———————————————————————— 84 Burning Question ——————————————————————— 85 Kurt’s Kameos ————————————————————————— 86 Schaffography ————————————————————————— 88 Mystery Art ——————————————————————————— 98 The Dark Age —————————————————————————— 99 ‘‘Our Stuff Was Hopeful’’ ——————————————————— 100 Ken Bald ————————————————————————————— 105 Victor Dowd ——————————————————————————— 106 Will Eisner ———————————————————————————— 107 Carmine Infantino ——————————————————————— 108 Julius Schwartz ———————————————————————— 110 Joe Kubert ———————————————————————————— 112 Murphy Anderson ——————————————————————— 113 Ramona Fradon ———————————————————————— 114 Joe Giella ———————————————————————————— 114 Jack C. Harris ————————————————————————— 115 Mort Walker ——————————————————————————— 115 Dave Hunt ———————————————————————————— 116 John Workman ————————————————————————— 118 Mike Carlin ——————————————————————————— 119 Howard Bender ———————————————————————— 120 Graham Nash ————————————————————————— 121 Alex Ross ———————————————————————————— 122 Farewell ————————————————————————————— 124 Epilogue ————————————————————————————— 125 Index ——————————————————————————————— 126 CONTENTS

ISBN 1-893905-29-2 First Printing, November 2003 Printed in Canada

For Kathy

MY HEARTFELT THANKS to a few people without whom this book would not exist: Kurt and Dorothy Schaffenberger for inviting us into their lives, telling us their story and entrusting us with their photos, original art and comic book collection; Howard Bender, the comic book medium’s biggest booster; my publisher John Morrow; and my beautiful wife and best friend, photographer Kathy Voglesong, who has navigated countless punishing field assignments with me. I thank the comic-book pros who provided materials, support and/or allowed me to pick their brains: Murphy Anderson; Ken Bald; Mike Carlin; Nat Champlin; Victor Dowd; Will Eisner; Ramona Fradon; Frankie Giella; Joe Giella; Victor Gorelick; Jack C. Harris; Dave Hunt; Carmine Infantino; Joe Kubert; Alex Ross; Julius Schwartz; Curt Swan; Mort Walker and John Workman. I also thank my wonderful family; my colleagues at the Asbury Park Press and Home News Tribune; Kaye Bald; Joni Bender; Michael Benson; Steve Breen; Peggy Burns; Gary M. Carter; Mildred Champlin; Mike and Sue Frankel; Jennifer T. Go; P.C. Hamerlinck; Bill Janocha; Ron Jordan; Larry and Susan Kelly and family; Nathan Melby; Steve Muoio; Graham Nash; Karl Schaffenberger; Art Scott and Karen Plunkett-Powell; Kathryn Leigh Scott; David Siegel; Wallace Stroby; Roy Thomas; Martha Thomases; the National Cartoonists Society; Comic Book Marketplace; the Comics Buyer’s Guide; the Comic Shop News; Comics Scene; Starlog Communications; TwoMorrows Publishing; the gang at Comics Plus in Ocean, N.J. (support your local comic shop!); The Burners; and of course, the pioneers who created “Supie,” “Cap” and company. — MV

A true, bona fide, one-of-a-kind original WHAT MAKES A COMIC BOOK ARTIST GREAT? When he makes something his own. When he does something that no one before him ever has — and no one after him ever could. Will Eisner’s The Spirit comes to mind. Or Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four. For Kurt Schaffenberger — a prolific, giant talent — that something was Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane. Yes, he drew hundreds of Captain Marvel and company pages during Fawcett’s glory days. But there was something about Kurt’s decade-long run on Lois Lane that made it a true, bona fide, one-of-a-kind original.

In Kurt Schaffenberger art from Lois Lane #39 (1963), our heroine makes no attempt to mask her emotions. [ © DC Comics]

Opposite: The artist in 1941, the year he unwittingly entered the comics field.

Kurt turned DC’s simple Superman spinoff into something romantic and operatic. He humanized Lois — gave her a discernible personality. So animated is the character in Kurt-drawn stories, that she became a comic-book version of I Love Lucy (with Lois’s penchant for getting into hot water akin to Lucy’s desire to “be in the show, Ricky!”). And Kurt, that rascal, never shied away from rendering the feminine form in all of its natural, linear beauty. Lois had one tight waist, rounded hips and pin-up perfect gams (always in heels). The artist often poked fun at his own heroine when he depicted the gamut of emotions she couldn’t mask: curiosity when on the scent of a “scoop”; jealousy when Superman paid too much attention to rival Lana Lang; anger when confronting him about said crime; elation when wrapped in the Man of Steel’s bulging arms. But Lois aside, German-born Kurt Schaffenberger truly did it all in his half-century of drawing comics. From his beginnings drawing backgrounds for Captain Marvel stories in the early ’40s, through his rise as one of that character’s leading artists, to his resurgence as a top Superman artist from the Silver Age through the ’80s, Kurt’s distinctive style has graced thousands of comic book pages. And Kurt holds a solitary place in comics history as the only artist to

A ONE-OF-A-KIND

draw Captain Marvel in the Fawcett days who went on to become a major Superman artist. It’s too late for another artist to knock Kurt from that lofty perch; it’s his and all his. Besides these high-profile tenures at big-gun publishers, “Schaff” had been around, too; the artist drew superhero, adventure, weird, crime and romance comics and covers for Classics Illustrated, American Comics Group, Premier, Atlas, Archie and others, rendering his resume allencompassing — and uniquely so. But Kurt paid dearly for it. He was a workaholic who spent much of his life hunched over that drawing table, often sequestered from his family in his own home. And his life was not without drama — a bumpy courtship, a world war, some scary career dry spells, a family tragedy and a heartbreaking decline in health. In the end, though, it is Kurt’s art that remains. His wholesome, allAmerican, instantly recognizable style is characterized by distinctive faces, flawless anatomy, uncluttered panels, clean layouts and especially, a whimsical sense of humor. But what shines through in any examination of Kurt’s body of work is that he is a great illustrator who just happens to have drawn some of the most memorable comic books in the history of the medium.

The war years “I’ll see you when I get out,’’ Kurt remembers telling his boss, Jack Binder, before entering the Army during World War II.

“I didn’t know how long it was going to be,” Kurt later told Howard Bender. “I didn’t know if I was coming back. You know, you could get killed in a war. It’s happened.” Kurt called World War II “a totally different war than any we’ve had since. The last wars we’ve had have not been exactly popular, but World War II, well, we had to make the world safe for democracy again and get rid of that sunuvabitch Hitler.” Does that mean Kurt couldn’t wait to join the service? “I could wait! Oh, I could wait!” Kurt said with mock alarm. “I was drafted.” In June of 1942 — exactly one year to the day after leaving Pratt — Kurt was drafted into the Army. “When I first got in there, they didn’t know what the hell to do with me,” he recalled. “I got infantry training crammed in a couple of months, and then I was assigned to a unit that was already scheduled to go overseas. They needed a couple more guys to make out their complement, and I became one of those guys.” By September, Kurt was in a troop ship docking in Liverpool. He spent the next three years in England, initially with the First Special Service Unit, eventually attaining the rank of master sergeant. Kurt’s unit organized entertainments, including USO shows and film programs for which Kurt drew posters. “That brought me to the attention of a Major Winter, who was organizing an art branch for the service,” he said. Kurt told me he then joined the art branch of the Adjutant General’s Office, “mostly doing artwork, posters, layouts and whathave-you for the Army.” He told Allan Asherman: “The most famous poster I did was of a soldier helping himself to more food than he really needed. Superimposed over him was the spectral form of Hitler cheering him on to waste the food.” He told a DC publicist: “You wouldn’t believe how many Class A and Class B garbage cans I lettered.” But if this period of Kurt’s Army stint sounds “cushy,” things got much more intense after Kurt learned that the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunA Schaffenberger WWII-era poster. ner of the CIA) could

THE WAR YEARS

A WWII-era self-portrait by Kurt Schaffenberger.

utilize another of his talents. Kurt told Bender: “Towards the end of the war, I heard through the grapevine that this outfit was looking for German-speaking Army personnel to drop behind German lines, infiltrate Germany, and bribe Germans into helping the Allies win the war. “(If) you drop a guy behind the lines, he needs money to ‘buy’ people with. I don’t recall exactly, but the average agent that we dropped had about $5,000 or $10,000 worth of British currency on them. And a good many of them we dropped, we never heard from again, because they just took the money and ran.” Kurt told Asherman: “They wanted men to go behind enemy lines on a voluntary basis. Of course, I said no.” Added Dorothy: “The government offered Kurt $10,000 in jewels. They wanted to drop him behind the lines in civilian clothes. He said, ‘No way. You can send me any place you want in uniform, but I’m not going without it.’ One reason was he didn’t want to do it. Another reason was that he got a shafting in the service.” (Dorothy explained that Kurt had applied to officers’ training school, but was stonewalled when he inquired about being admitted.) But even though Kurt didn’t go behind enemy lines, there was still quite an element of excitement, and even danger, to the desk job he took with the OSS. Kurt told Asherman: “I would sit and translate the information coming from our boys behind enemy lines. There were many agents trained for infiltration behind the German lines, but the most effective of the guys were those who spoke German as their native language.

Whiz Comics #95 (1948)

Whiz Comics #94 (1948)

Whiz Comics #99 (1948)

Whiz Comics #94 (1948)

Unpublished Ibis art (circa late ’40s)

Ibis #5 (1946)

Whiz Comics #99 (1948)

IBIS THE INVINCIBLE GALLERY

Whiz Comics #112 (1949)

Whiz Comics #136 (1951)

Whiz Comics #112 (1949)

Whiz Comics #131 (1951)

CAPTAIN MARVEL GALLERY

Whiz Comics #151 (1952)

Whiz Comics #130 (1951)

Whiz Comics #136 (1951)

Post-Fawcett scramble

“I was dismayed, to say the least. I would have been totally horrified had I known at the time that it would take me almost two years to re-establish myself in the art field.”

FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS FOLDED ITS CAPTAIN Marvel line in 1953, an ominous time for comics. But the following year was very nearly the nail in the coffin. Dr. Fredric Wertham is a name that lives in infamy in the comic book world. In 1954, Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a book which detailed psychological damage purported to have been inflicted on the youth of America by comic books. That same year, testimony about the negative influence of comics was given during widely reported hearings by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Comics became another victim of the social paranoia that pervaded 1950s America. Publishers began dropping left and right. “We were considered like procurers if we drew comics,” Kurt told Howard Leroy Davis and Dave Sim in 1981. “Ah, but that’s all gone by the board.” (When his interviewers commented that comics are almost respectable now, Kurt remarked: “Somewhat in the same classification as pimping.”) Kurt said of his mid’50s scramble for work: “I do know that rates went down considerably at the time and took a long time to build up again.” During this period, Kurt recalled that he “worked for just about everyone in the field.” Publishers who hired the artist included Gleason, Gilberton, Premier, Atlas and Max C. Gaines’ EC Comics. For Atlas (better known For ACG, Kurt created by its later moniker, Marvel the Silver Age superComics), Kurt reckoned he heroes Nemesis (above) inked “four or five” Captain and Magicman (right). America stories for editor [© Best Syndicated Stan Lee, and contributed art Features Inc. ] to Adventure Into Mystery, Astonishing, Journey Into Unknown Worlds, Mystical Tales and World of Fantasy. Kurt told John Coates: “Stan Lee never said it, but I always got the impression that his attitude toward me was like, ‘Well, Kurt, you’re a nice guy and all but it’s a shame you can’t draw.’” Kurt told me of Gilberton, publishers of Classics Illustrated: “I only worked for them as a last resort. I couldn’t get any other work. A very poor-paying outfit. Their pay was so bad that the artists they got were usually the dregs.” Did Kurt include himself in that category? “Well,” he laughed, “I couldn’t get any other work at the time!”

Kurt with ACG editor Richard E. Hughes in New York in 1957.

But the undeniably beautiful result, published in 1954, was a cut above many other Classics Illustrated books. Kurt adapted Richard Harding Davis’ ‘‘Soldiers of Fortune’’ to the comics medium. “I read the book after I knew I was doing the story,” he told me. “The breakdowns of the book were done in the script.” He called Premier, for whom he drew some absolutely exquisite crime and romance covers in 1955, a “small organization that I did a couple of jobs for. More or less one-shot deals.” Kurt also took on an agent (one the artist felt became a financial albatross later on) and pitched a comic strip to the syndicates. “That’s what I tried to sell years ago, back in the ’50s,” Kurt told Howard Bender. “It was a sports strip — high school baseball. The character it revolved around was the coach of the high school team. I liked baseball and I thought it would be interesting. Didn’t sell.” In 1955, Kurt finally landed steadier work. At American Comics Group, Kurt worked under Richard E. Hughes, who was to become one of his two all-time favorite editors (the other: Julius Schwartz of DC Comics). ACG began as Creston Publishing in 1943. Five years later, ACG released Adventures Into the Unknown which became, according to The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the firstever regularly published horror comic book, preceding even Entertaining Comics’ famous titles such as Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror. Among comic collectors, ACG is a publisher with a cult following. This tenacious, albeit minor, publishing house — best known for its adventure, mystery, weird and humor titles — survived the comics “witch hunt” of the ’50s and employed some notable artists during its reign: Bald, Ogden Whitney, Chic Stone, Pete Costanza, Al Williamson, John Buscema, Johnny Craig and Steve Ditko. According to Edwin Murray in his article “ACG: The Underdog” published in the 1978 fanzine The Comic World #17, Hughes wrote most of ACG’s stories after a certain point, but used pseudonyms to make it appear as if ACG was fully staffed. Hughes elaborated on the deception by writing biographies for all of his non-de-plumes.

POST-FAWCETT SCRAMBLE

Samples from a comic strip about high school baseball which Kurt proposed to syndicates in the 1950s. [© Kurt Schaffenberger]

Then he had Kurt draw caricatures of the phony writers to go with their phony biographies! “I was the top artist in Dick Hughes’ studio,” Kurt told me. “I had desk space at ACG on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’d go into the city and do my thing.” Kurt drew many covers for such ACG titles as Forbidden Worlds, Unknown Worlds, Adventures Into the Unknown and Calling John Force: Magic Agent. By the mid ’60s, when ACG hoped to cash in

POST-FAWCETT SCRAMBLE

on the superhero craze, Kurt created the super-characters Nemesis and Magicman. “I drew the originals for them,” he said, “but I never did any of the (interior) stories.” (Years later, while Kurt was freelancing simultaneously for DC Comics and ACG, DC editor Mort Weisinger objected to Kurt’s signature appearing on the cover of ACG comic books. Kurt then used the pseudonym “Lou Wahl,” the name of his maternal grandfather. His fans weren’t fooled.)

The artwork from Kurt Schaffenberger’s ‘‘tryout’’ page, which he produced in 1957 for DC editor Mort Weisinger, who was then fishing for an artist for DC’s newest comic book Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane. The figures represent the first time Kurt ever drew Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Superman. The original is owned by rock star Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fame. [Characters © DC Comics ]

Front-page romance WHILE KURT SCHAFFENBERGER EKED OUT A living in other genres, superheros were making a sudden and unexpected comeback. In 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz ignited the so-called ‘‘Silver Age’’ of comics with Showcase #4, which featured a revamped Flash in a story by Robert Kanigher and artwork by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. Little did Kurt — who cut his teeth in the superhero genre 15 years earlier — realize at the time, he would be making a comeback, too. Showcase, DC’s “tryout” title, was created in the hopes of dis-

FRONT-PAGE ROMANCE

covering new avenues of circulation. From issue to issue, Showcase could be about anything its revolving team of editors dreamed up — firefighters, frogmen, explorers, robots with human personalities, whatever. If a particular idea proved Lois’ first solo flight, in Showto be a hit with readers, it case #9 (1957). [© DC Comics ] would “spin off” into its own title. Some that made the plunge: The Flash, Green Lantern, The Atom, Metal Men and of course, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane. In fact, the latter — which debuted in Showcase #9 (1957) — became the first Showcase character to win its own series. By 1957, Kurt’s old buddy Otto Binder — undoubtedly the most prolific author of Captain Marvel stories in the Fawcett days — was writing for DC. When DC decided to spin off Lois Lane, the editing assignment naturally went to Mort Weisinger, the longtime editor on all of DC’s Superman titles: Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superboy and Adventure Comics. When Weisinger began fishing for a permanent Lois Lane artist, Binder suggested Kurt, who was then vacationing in Maine. “At Otto’s suggestion, I called Mort Weisinger,” Kurt told Howard Bender. “He asked me to draw up some samples. So when I got back from Maine, Mort had sent me a copy of Showcase #10, the second Lois Lane issue.” Kurt’s tryout page — which featured his first stabs at Lois, Clark and Superman — gave only a hint at what would follow, and actually resembled the artwork of Wayne Boring, who was DC’s top Superman artist for much of the 1950s. “At the time, I was trying to match my style to his,” Kurt told me. “But the Lois Lane that Wayne Boring did was a very Busted again in unfeminine-looking girl, so I changed it. Kurt’s cover art Boring, for instance, only had one facial expression. I tried to make her for Superman’s more human.” Girlfriend Lois Kurt told Allan Asherman: “At Lane #53 (1964). the time I was assigned to Lois [© DC Comics ]

(1942)

(1946) 58

(1947) CHRISTMAS CARDS

(1948)

(1949)

(1951) (1950) CHRISTMAS CARDS

This modern incarnation of Lois Lane, penciled in 1993 for Comics Scene Spectacular #8 (but unpublished due to an editorial shakeup), represents one of the last times Kurt Schaffenberger would draw his beloved heroine. [© DC Comics ]

The artist at his nadir: ‘‘Our stuff was hopeful’’

Above: Kurt Schaffenberger at the drawing board as usual, at the New York office of American Comics Group in 1957. Right: Kurt pencils a panel in 1989 at his new studio in the back porch of his home in Brick, New Jersey, where he moved that year. [Photo by Kathy Voglesong ]

1989 WAS A GREAT YEAR FOR THE COMICS BIZ. Thanks to a superhero resurgence triggered by Tim Burton’s movie Batman, the medium was alive and well. Comic book writers and artists were beginning to enjoy a new, widespread adulation — even old-timers like Kurt Schaffenberger. That same year, Kurt and Dorothy moved out of their River Edge “starter home” (after four decades) and headed south to Brick, a sprawling New Jersey burg on the Atlantic Ocean packed with modest homes, shopping centers, waterfront properties and cookie-cutter retirement communities. Kurt, still inking Hero Hotline, considered himself semi-retired at this point. After he and Dorothy settled in Brick (setting up Kurt with a cozy studio on the back porch), they contacted two DC colleagues who lived nearby in Ocean County: artist Howard Bender and writer-editor Jack C. Harris. Kurt was growing less and less active in the field, due in part to his health. (In recent years, the artist had suffered a heart attack, and it would not be long before he was diagnosed with diabetes). But Bender threw Kurt a little lifeline: At every invitation to a comic book show, Bender would scoop up his older friend and plop him down in front of an adoring public. The two artists appeared at shows all over the area: Bordentown, Woodbridge, Raritan, Atlantic City, Ramapo, Philadelphia. The shows ranged from grand conventions (in Atlantic City, Kurt was on a bill with Clayton “The Lone Ranger” Moore,

‘‘OUR STUFF WAS HOPEFUL’’

Adam “Batman” West and Bob “Gilligan’s Island” Denver) to small in-store appearances. One bonus: Kurt caught up with old cronies such as Julie Schwartz, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. Kurt seemed to enjoy himself — even as he was perplexed at the fact that people remembered him. “Absolutely stunned,” is how he put it to me once. Because Kurt always thought of comics as a disposable medium — that after he did his bit on the page, it was read, discarded and forgotten. “Something like a daily newspaper,” he said. “After the news is no longer applicable, you throw it out.” In 1991, Kurt illustrated what became his final full-length comic book: Daughters of Time, written by Harris. That same year, while going through a stack of old original artwork with Kurt, Bender spotted Kurt’s heretofore unpublished 1957 ‘‘tryout’’ page of Lois Lane and Superman figures. Kurt played down Bender’s discovery with characteristic nonchalance, but Bender rightly sensed that he stumbled onto something historic. The art was published for the first time — 35 years after it was drawn — accompanying an article I wrote titled ‘‘DC’s Silver Age Front Line!’’ in Comics Scene Spectacular #7 (1992). On September 30, 1992, through Bender’s efforts, Kurt’s tryout page and other originals went up for bid at Sotheby’s second-ever auction of comic book art in New York. A total of 12 of Kurt’s originals were auctioned alongside those of such artists as Jack Kirby,

Left: Kurt and Dottie ’toons from the Schaffs’ 1990 Christmas card.

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Hero Gets Girl! The Life and Art of Kurt Schaffenberger