RetroFan #21 by TwoMorrows Publishing

July 2022 No. 21 $10.95

Let’s rocket!

ASTRO BOY

n... a m o w t a C t rr-fec u p e h t t e e M

R A M W E N E I JUL

Take a Pleasant Valley Sunday spin in The Monkeemobile!

Pebbles Cereal History • The Untouchables • Search • Soviet Expo ’77 & more! 1

82658 00464

Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury Catwoman © DC Comics. Astro Boy © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. Tarzan © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, TwoMorrows’ new magazine is just for you! Editor MICHAEL EURY (author of numerous books on pop culture, former editor for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, and editor of TwoMorrows’ Eisner Award-winning BACK ISSUE magazine for comic book fans) has assembled an unbeatable roster of regular and rotating Celebrity Columnists to cover the pop culture you grew up with: • ANDY MANGELS (best-selling sci-fi author and award-winning pop culture historian) • ERNEST FARINO (Emmy Award-winning visual effects designer, animator, and director) • SCOTT SHAW! (acclaimed cartoonist, animator, Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, and historian) • WILL MURRAY (pulp adventure novelist and pop culture historian) • SCOTT SAAVEDRA (graphic designer, cartoonist, and COMIC BOOK HEAVEN creator) • MARK VOGER (renowned pop culture newspaper columnist and book author), and others!

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RETROFAN #20

Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features! Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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RETROFAN #15

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(Turn to the inside back cover for older back issues of RetroFan!)

The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With Issue #21 July 2022

Columns and Special Features

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Pebbles Cereal

3 46

Departments

Retrotorial

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Untouchables

Too Much TV Quiz

67 57

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Julie Newmar

RetroFad The Slinky

Celebrity Crushes

Retro Cartoons Astro Boy

Super Collector The Monkeemobile

Retro Television Search

RetroFanmail

ReJECTED

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Soviet Expo ’77

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Tarzan RetroFan™ issue 21, July 2022. (ISSN 2576-7224 ) is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage pending at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 Economy US, $103 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Catwoman © DC Comics. Astro Boy © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. Tarzan © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

BY MICHAEL EURY

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

CONTRIBUTORS Michael Eury Robert Greenberger Katherine Kerestman Michael Knight Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Bill Spangler Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra

SPECIAL THANKS Jim Alexander DC Comics Darren Goodhart Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions King Features Syndicate, Inc. Steve Luttrell John Rose Warner Bros. VERY SPECIAL THANKS Julie Newmar Ken Steacy

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RETROFAN

July 2022

Some recent issues of RetroFan have reached your bookstore, comic shop, or mailbox later than anticipated. Pandemic-related delays have hampered our distribution, from international shipping (we print in China) to California port processing to cross-country truck and postal deliveries. Unfortunately this matter has been out of our control, but rest assured that once the issues arrive, the content will be just as fun and informative as ever. Here’s hoping that by the time you read this in the summer of 2022, these woes will be behind us. In the meantime, thank you for your patience! Maybe the distribution network needs to take a cue from good ol’ Spark Plug. Barney Google’s horse is turning 100 (!) on July 17, 2022. In case you missed the Snuffy Smith history in RetroFan #5 (and if you did, you can rectify that by ordering a copy at www.twomorrows.com), King Features Syndicate’s long-running Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip, which bowed in 1919 with Barney as the star before being taken over by the popular but lazy hillbilly, the bodacious Snuffy Smith, hasn’t missed a beat in over 100 years now. (Spark Plug, are you up for carrying some RetroFan copies coast-to-coast?) Ye ed’s honorary “cousin,” cartoonist John Rose, will be commemorating Spark Plug’s big One-0-0 in the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip in newspapers as well as on John’s website, https://comicskingdom.com/barney-google-andsnuffy-smith. Happy Birthday, Spark Plug! Another of our cartoonist pals, Darren Goodhart, was so enchanted by columnist Andy Mangels’ feature on the Filmation Saturday morning cartoon Super 7 in RetroFan #15 that he illustrated this fantasy cover imagining a Super 7 comic book from DC Comics. We’d buy that for a dollar! Thanks for sharin’, Darren! Holy moley, I’m almost out of room and haven’t yet said a word about the 79 pages that follow! But why do I need to yammer on when you can let your fingers (and your peeps) do the walking through these retro pages? So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

PUBLISHER John Morrow

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

“BARNEY! MY BLOOD SUGAR!”

An Insider’s History of Post's Pebbles Cereal BY SCOTT SHAW!

Barney “Rip-off” Rubble filches Fred Flintstone’s Fruity Pebbles! The Flintstones © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Animated cel courtesy of Heritage.

When I was eight years old, I was a major fan of Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward cartoons. The wonderful Rocky and His Friends was Ward’s only show at the time, but H-B already had The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, and their latest, The Quick Draw McGraw Show. (Somehow, I’d missed those Loopy DeLoop theatrical cartoon shorts from H-B, although after seeing a few of them, maybe that was a good thing.) ABC was also starting to heavily promote the fact that H-B had a new weekly cartoon show coming up, one that would be aired at night and which was like The Honeymooners in a prehistoric setting and did not star funny-animal characters. And when an image of Fred Flintstone first appeared in San Diego’s newspaper—or was that TV Guide?—my first thought was, “Wow, he looks like my dad—as a caveman!” By the time The Flintstones premiered on ABC (September 30, 1960), I had turned nine. The show was everything H-B promised and more. I particularly liked its dinosaur designs because at that time, I had dual goals: to grow up to be a cartoonist or a paleontologist. And since I was a fat kid who lacked an internal editor, I really identified with Fred. When the first-aired episode “The Flintstone Flyer” was over, I clearly recall leaning forward, with my nose about six inches away from our black-and-white television, and whispering to myself:

“That’s what I’m gonna do.” So much for “paleontologist”—The Flintstones combined both of my favorite things! Of course, I wasn’t the only one who dug The Flintstones, the 1960 forerunner to 1989’s The Simpsons, and the public reaction was as similar as the two cartoon shows: both adults and kids absolutely flipped for it.

BOWLED OVER

1960’s most popular cereals included the old standards like General Mills’ Cheerios, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies, and new fare such as Kellogg’s Special K, Cocoa Krispies, Sugar Smacks, and Sugar Pops; General Mills’ Trix and Cocoa Puffs; and Post’s AlphaBits. My favorite was Cheerios—I’d dump on the sugar—but I’d really eat anything that hid a cool giveaway item inside its box. As the Sixties went on, many new cereals were introduced, with new flavors, new gimmicks, and new spokes-characters. More failed than survived, but one new product in particular, created in 1963 by a corporation and a cartoon studio, changed everything in the cereal aisle. Of course, it wasn’t just any cartoon studio, it was Jay Ward Productions. After seeing pitch art from Hollywood’s top animation RETROFAN

July 2022

The oddball world of scott shaw!

I’d drawn Fred and Barney as cast members in Mr. Henson’s cartoon series. I was really embarrassed, but that didn’t prevent me from continuing to moonlight in advertising. At first, I had very little input into my Pebbles gigs. I was expected to work from locked-down scripts, dialogue recordings, and crude presentation storyboards. My job was to interpret them as clearly and entertainingly as possible. I often made creative suggestions through the directors, but Ogilvy & Mather rarely listened. Still, I enjoyed working on these commercials, even if I was unintentionally influencing kids to eat food that’s not very healthy. Hey, I weighed over 400 pounds at one point, so what did I know about healthy food? Besides, I loved the Flintstones so much, it wouldn’t be much of a moral struggle if I had been approached to create advertising for Flintstones Yabba-Dabba-Death Nerve Gas. The early spots I worked on were a continuation of the “Barney, my Pebbles!” campaign, with breakdancing and a parody of Jane Fonda’s workout videos as well as musical themes about heavy metal and a prehistoric Bruce Springsteen named “Rock Rockstone.” But who expected Playhouse Pictures’ “The Master Rapper”—animated by Malcolm Draper—would have an influence on hip-hop music almost 40 years later? Look up online “I love my Fruity Pebbles in a major way” and you’ll see what I’m referring to! But as time went on, the agency’s creative director and art director, as well as some of the directors, were getting older and more out of touch with kids. The commercials were repetitious and unfunny, looking kinda shabby, and the concepts were often lame (“Chinese Fruit Jugglers”). Based on the cereals’ sales, the commercials weren’t performing well. I was starting to get frustrated. But then, the stars aligned… I was on staff at Film Roman storyboarding an educational cartoon show about wooly mammoths and cavemen called Cro, when I got the news that the Pebbles’ art director at Ogilvy & Mather Los Angeles was retiring. Although I had absolutely no education that prepared me for the job, I decided to apply for the position of art director in 1991. Surprisingly, I got the job and was fortunate to negotiate a deal that my day job was to create the pitches and oversee the results of the Pebbles commercials, while my production work, as well as package art, premium designs, and print ads would be executed on a separate freelance basis and billed accordingly. I was immediately assigned to art direct every Pebbles Cereal spot, as well as Alpha-Bits and Marshmallow Alpha-Bits. (Much later,

Scott Shaw!’s sketches of Bedrock’s favorite citzens (and pets). (ABOVE) Fred Flintstone. The Flintstones © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Scott Shaw!

Dino. Bamm-Bamm Rubble. 8

RETROFAN

July 2022

The oddball world of scott shaw!

Barney Rubble.

Betty Rubble.

HOW TO MAKE PEBBLES ADS, THE SCOTT SHAW! WAY While working on the Pebbles Cereal TV commercials, both as a freelancer and as their key creator, these were the goals I always tried to achieve:

Wilma Flintstone.

f Make funny and entertaining commercials. f Make unique, multi-audience, and multi-viewable commercials. f Make current, kid-relevant commercials. f Make each commercial feel like a seven-minute cartoon “short.” f Make the best Flintstones cartoons possible. The Flintstones © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Hoppy.

Pebbles Flintstone.

I created pitches for new kid-focused campaigns for Jell-O, Log Cabin Syrup, and Tang’s “Orangeutan.”) I was one busy Bedrockian. Ironically, I was also working for the same creative director that oversaw the spots since 1978, and ironically whose cartoonist father animated on the sixth season of The Flintstones. (So much for DNA.) At least now I could attempt to solve many of the issues that I felt were subverting the Pebbles campaign. But it wouldn’t be easy. I’d already dealt with studio bosses and network executroids when I was producing and directing NBC’s The Completely Mental Misadventures Ed Grimley and Camp Candy, but it was still daunting to surf a profession that I only knew from Bewitched. I never much liked Bewitched. And real advertising corporations are very much like Bewitched. And chock-full of Larry Tates. Lotsa politics, phonies, two-faces, and egos, just like Hollywood, but not nearly as interesting. (At least Bewitched had H-B titles!) I didn’t fit in and didn’t want to. I had to fight for my ideas, but it was worth it. I wrote, I drew, I had input in the voice recordings, I even faked Fred’s voice a few times, and finally got to do the Flintstones the way I thought they should look and act. I was right where I wanted to be, despite the toxicity of advertising. Before an animated commercial gets started, countless meetings, presentations, focus groups, and revisions, often with competing pitches for the client, eat up a lot of time. Therefore, RETROFAN

July 2022

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

BY WILL MURRAY

Lock up your gin joints, ya Windy City lowlifes, here come the Untouchables! (LEFT TO RIGHT) Abel Fernandez as William Youngfellow, Paul Percini as Lee Hobson, Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, and Nicholas Georgiade as Enrico Rossi. © Desilu Productions, Inc. and Langford Productions, Inc.

Desilu Productions is revered for its pioneering TV sitcom I Love Lucy and producing the enduring Star Trek original series. Between those hits, their greatest non-comedic successes were The Twilight Zone and—The Untouchables. In 1959, television trends were going in one direction––West. That was the season when all types of Westerns stampeded though primetime. One show bucked the cowboy trend. Ironically, this prodigious feat was also accomplished by reaching back to an earlier era.

The pilot—if you want to call it that—was filmed as a theatrical movie that ran on Westinghouse’s Desilu Playhouse. Starring Robert Stack, it was a semi-fictionalized story ripped from Roaring Twenties headlines, but inspired by U.S. Treasury Agent Eliot Ness’ 1956 autobiography, The Untouchables. The Untouchables were an elite squad of Prohibition agents whom the Chicago press had branded as “untouchable” because they couldn’t be corrupted by bribes. Countless criminals tried. None succeeded. RETROFAN

July 2022

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Montgomery won an Emmy for her role, and the Untouchables’ Prohibition came to an end with FDR’s election. We can’t let Ness second season was off to a powerful start. Stack had already handle criminal cases without a Prohibition angle. And Chicago garnered one for Season One. is the natural habitat of the Despite having been decishow––most of the flamboyant sively bumped off, Frank Nitti criminals of the era were returned in “The Purple Gang.” located there. We can’t adapt all It was no miracle. The episodes crimes to The Untouchables. For followed no chronological instance, we can’t take a tragic, order. How Nitti could coexist famous case like the Lindbergh with Lee Hobson, who hadn’t kidnapping and let Ness handle joined the team when he was it. The public wouldn’t accept it, crushed by a subway train, was for one thing.” never explained because it was Despite the real Untouchunexplainable. ables having operated for “I told the new producer only three years in Chicago, in I was inadvertently killed Season Two they took on a slew through spite,” chuckled Bruce of New York gangsters and the Gordon, “and he brought me Nazi Bund. back to life.” “These men had freedom After this, Nitti popped of action,” rationalized Stack. up frequently, although “They were not under the rules other recurring mobsters of Bureau police. They could Elizabeth Mongomery and Robert Stack. © Desilu Productions, Inc. clashed with Ness from time make their own rules and that and Langford Productions, Inc. to time, including Jake Guzik, helps in our stories.” Waxey Gordon, Little Charlie The parade of infamous Sebastino, Dutch Schultz, Bugs Moran, Nero Rankin, and others. Mafiosi came in for continued criticism, prompting Stack to The conflict between Capone heirs Nitti and Guzik was revisited in promise, “Next year we’re going to skirt the Mafia and look into “The Seventh Vote.” other crimes as well. We’re going to stress Rossi’s outrage at what a very small group of his own descent have done.” BAD GUYS AND BROUHAHAS Famous last words. Interviewed at the start of the second season, new executive During the second season, the cast had stabilized. Frank Wilcox producer Jerry Thorpe recounted the limitations of building a TV appeared irregularly as Federal D.A. Beecher Asbury. Robert Bice drama around actual events. played Police Captain Jim Johnson. But the Untouchables them“There are few notorious men left for us to do,” lamented selves were never developed. Often, they had few lines. Thorpe. “We can’t extend the time period into the later 1930s— “On some episodes we’re mere shadows in the story,” Nick Georgiade complained. “It suffers a little when my role as Enrico Rossi is minor.” “It’s really not important how big your part is,” Abel Fernandez commented. “I’m happy to be in the show whether I say anything to him or not.”

The Leaf Company produced Untouchables trading cards and mini-comics in the early Sixties. © Desilu Productions, Inc. and Langford Productions, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

July 2022

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Poor Steve London as lineman Jack Rossman hardly ever spoke. London’s job was to pick up dialogue slack when another actor called out sick. The focus was not even on Eliot Ness. “Everyone knows the emphasis is on the heavies,” observed Paul Picerni. “The way I see it, the hoodlums get 60% coverage and we get 40%.” Yet audiences found Stack’s restrained yet intense performance strangely compelling. “It’s a deliberate thing with me when I took the role––no mannerisms––no gimmicks––no Bat Masterson cane, no Wyatt Earp vest,” he said. “There’s this inner turmoil, but outwardly I saw Ness as a counterpoint to the flamboyant characters he was fighting. Even if a script turns out bad, the fans think Ness is wonderful.” Stories were constructed so that the stars and the heavies shot at different times, rarely interacting. Paul Picerni recalled, “The good guys and the bad guys each ‘did their own thing,’ and we usually didn’t come together ’til the shootout at the end!” Another controversial episode was the two-parter, “The Big Train.” It revolved around a scheme to free Al Capone during a rail transfer from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary to Alcatraz. It was

Dell Comics randomly published several editions of The Untouchables, featuring photo covers and (BOTTOM LEFT) interior artwork by Dan Spiegle. © Desilu Productions, Inc. and Langford Productions, Inc.

RETROFAN

July 2022

Pop Culture Books HOLLY JOLLY

Celebrating Christmas Past In Pop Culture

HOLLY JOLLY is a colorful sleigh ride through the history of Christmas, from its religious origins to its emergence as a multimedia phenomenon. It explores movies (Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life), music (White Christmas, Little St. Nick), TV (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), books (Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol), decor (1950s silver aluminum trees), comics (super-heroes meet Santa), and more! Featuring interviews with CHARLES M. SCHULZ (A Charlie Brown Christmas), ANDY WILLIAMS (TV’s “Mr. Christmas”) and others, the story behind DARLENE LOVE’s perrennial hit song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), and more holiday memories! By MARK VOGER, the profusely illustrated HOLLY JOLLY takes readers on a time-trip to Christmases past that you will cherish all year long! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 ISBN: 9781605490977 (Digital Edition) $15.99

MONSTER MASH

GROOVY

Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters infiltrated America in monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “Mars Attacks” trading cards, Eerie Publications, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with monster creators, publishers, and TV stars, with a Foreword by TV horror host Zacherley, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written and designed by MARK VOGER!

From Woodstock, “The Banana Splits,” and “Sgt. Pepper” to “H.R. Pufnstuf,” Altamont, and “The Partridge Family,” GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated hardcover book, in psychedelic color, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the Jefferson Airplane, Cream, the Doors, the Cowsills and Vanilla Fudge; and cast members of groovy TV shows like “The Monkees,” “Laugh-In” and “The Brady Bunch.” Revisit the era’s rock festivals, movies, art, comics and cartoons in this color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 ISBN: 9781605490649 (Digital Edition) $11.99

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 ISBN: 9781605490809 Digital Edition: $13.99

Get all three Mark Voger books above for just $99.95! Normally $124, save $24!

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

Since 2000, FROM THE TOMB has terrified readers worldwide. This second “Best of” collection of the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics uncovers Atomic Comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more! Edited by PETER NORMANTON. (192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490816 (Digital Edition) $10.99

HERO-A-GO-GO!

HERO-A-GO-GO! celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. RETROFAN magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 ISBN: 9781605490731 (Digital Edition) $13.99

AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS (1940s-1980s) From The Small Screen To The Printed Page

A fascinating and detailed year-by-year history of over 300 television shows and their 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades. Author PETER BOSCH has spent years researching and documenting this amazing area of comics history, tracking down the well-known series (STAR TREK, THE MUNSTERS) and the lesser-known shows (CAPTAIN GALLANT, PINKY LEE) to present the finest look ever taken at this unique genre of comic books. Included are hundreds of full-color covers and images, plus profiles of the artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and many more giants of the comic book world. If you loved watching The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, The Mod Squad, Adam-12, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Alf, Fraggle Rock, and “V”—there’s something here for fans of TV and comics alike. (192-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605491073 (Digital Edition) $15.99

THE BEST OF FROM THE TOMB This first collection compiles features from its ten years of terror, along with new material meant for the NEVER-PUBLISHED #29 • (192-page Digital Edition) $10.99

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which created the first DC cartoons with Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, ruled the song charts with The Archies, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmywinning Star Trek: The Animated Series, taught morals with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and swung into high adventure with Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, live-action shows Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Written by LOU SCHEIMER, with RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS. (288-page Digital Edition) $14.99

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VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

Stupefyin’ Julie Newmar got her claws in Batman, and her fans, as TV’s feline fatale BY MARK VOGER

Why does Batman act all weird in front of Catwoman? That was the question on our young minds as we watched Batman (Adam West) hem and haw while Catwoman (Julie Newmar) toyed with him like a… a… cat who has captured a mouse. I was seven and my little brother was four, so Newmar’s considerable allure was lost on us. All we knew was this simple formula: Batman equals good guy, Catwoman equals bad guy, er, girl. We’d previously seen Batman and his pants-less sidekick Robin (Burt Ward) vanquish the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), the Joker (Cesar Romero), and a host of others. So why didn’t he just throw the Bat-cuffs on Catwoman, who was, as little boys used to say back then, “only a girl”? (Please pardon the sexist talk. It’s an inconvenient truth that boys in the middle Sixties bought into the whole “weaker sex” thing. My brother and I have since matured into progressively-minded gentlemen. Or so we hope.) Catwoman was introduced in episodes 19 and 20 of ABC’s 1966–1968 action-comedy Batman at a time when the show was still fresh, new, and building momentum as a cultural force. (Everything was “Batman” in ’66. You had to be there.) West’s Batman usually addressed criminals with the scolding tone that a forest ranger might use on littering tourists. But in the presence of Newmar’s Catwoman—strikingly tall in her figure-hugging costume that glittered when it caught the light—he stammered. Even beneath that cowl, he seemed… sweaty. And Catwoman did a bunch of stuff to Batman that the Riddler, Penguin, and Joker never would have. She ran a fingernail—actually, a faux nail on her elbow-length glove—down the front of his

(LEFT) Meow! Sexy, statuesque actress Julie Newmar won lasting fame in the role of Catwoman in the 1966–1968 action-comedy Batman. Newmar’s portrayal paved the way for the character’s comeback in the comics after a dozen years in exile. © Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

(ABOVE) Catwoman, then known as the Cat, wore civvies in her debut story in Batman #1 (Spring 1940). Art by Bob Kane. (CENTER) Catwoman’s first cover appearance was in Detective Comics #122 (Apr. 1947). (RIGHT) The Golden Age Catwoman in a detail from the cover of Batman #42 (Aug.–Sept. 1947). Art by Jack Burnley and Charles Paris. TM & © DC Comics.

person, from his Bat-emblem to just above his utility belt. This was an outrageous liberty. One time, Batman came within millimeters of actually kissing Catwoman, but for Robin interrupting them. And they once split an ice-cream soda! (Could you picture Batman doing that with King Tut?) We urchins wondered: What power does she have over him?

ORIGIN OF THE PRINCESS OF PLUNDER

By the time Newmar became the first actress to play Catwoman, the character had already been around for 26 years, having debuted in DC’s Batman #1 in 1940. (Batman made his bow the previous year in—all together, now—Detective Comics #27.) In her premiere story, the villainess is known as the Cat, a beautiful but cunning cat burglar who wears “civvies” and plunders jewelry from the wealthy passengers of a luxury cruise. Sparks fly from the get-go between the Cat and Batman, not to mention some curious dialogue. “Quiet or Papa spank!” Batman commands the Cat when she protests after being collared by him. “I know when I’m licked,” she concedes as Batman searches her for pilfered jewelry. The Cat then proposes a romantic alliance: “You and I, the king and queen of crime!” When straight-arrow Batman balks, the Cat uses up one of her nine lives by jumping into the sea rather than face prison. Already, Batman is smitten: “Lovely girl! What eyes! Maybe I’ll bump into her again some time!” To which Robin replies warily: “Hmmm.” The story was produced by Batman’s co-creators, writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane. (Gosh, it feels good to say that out loud after 70-plus years in which Finger’s co-creator credit was unfairly denied.) This makes Catwoman one more Finger/Kane co-creation in a long line of indelible comic-book characters. Catwoman has recognizable ancestors in pop culture, from silent-era “vamp” Theda Bara, to Marya Zaleska in Dracula’s Daughter, to the Dragon Lady in Milton Caniff’s adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. Kane himself cited actresses Jean Harlow and Hedy Lamarr as direct influences. 32

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From here, the Cat’s evolution was incremental but steady. She is first called Catwoman in Batman #2 (Summer 1940); she acquires a costume in Batman #3 (Fall 1940); her costume is revised in Batman #10 (Apr.–May 1942) and #15 (Feb.–Mar. 1943); her first cover appearance is in Detective Comics #122 (Apr. 1947). Catwoman’s best-remembered “Golden Age” look has her in a purple cowl (with cat-ears, natch), costume, and heeled boots, paired with a green collar and cape. Her legs, without benefit of stockings or tights, peek out from her long purple skirt. Poor Batman didn’t stand a chance. Catwoman was not depicted in either of the Batman movie serials (of 1943 and ’49), but she continued to appear regularly in Batman comic books through Detective Comics #203 (Jan. 1954). After that edition hit the stands, she took a long catnap—12 years’ worth. Some ascribe this hiatus to the publication that year of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s comics-bashing book Seduction of the Innocent, which seemed to blame every societal ill on comic books. (Though Newmar originated the role, it should be noted that she might not have been the first to wear the costume. In a 1966 publicity photo, Kane posed with a girlfriend who was dressed as the Golden Age Catwoman. Kane, styled like a low-rent Hugh Hefner, pretends to be painting the lovely young lady. Depending on whether the photo was taken before or after Newmar’s bow as Catwoman that same year, Kane’s unnamed girlfriend might technically be the first person to have “officially” dressed as Catwoman.) The TV Batman team, led by producer William Dozier and writer Lorenzo Semple, Jr., was reviving comic-book villains that would satisfy the show’s emphasis on color-soaked visuals. When they wisely decided to revive the Catwoman, the character hadn’t been heard from in a dozen years. The team wanted Newmar in the role, and needed a quick answer. But Newmar didn’t know from Batman.

Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

HOLLYWOOD TO BROADWAY

If there’s one word that must be used in describing Julie Newmar, it is “statuesque.” She is a statue—a walking (on mile-long legs), talking (in sex-kitten breathiness) monument to enduring beauty. I interviewed the actress on four occasions, in 1995, 1998, 2002, and 2008. She was born Julia Chalene Newmeyer in 1933 in Los Angeles, where she grew up in an artistically nurturing environment. Both of her parents had obtained a measure of fame: Newmar’s father once played professional football, and her mother was a dancer and fashion designer. Family notoriety didn’t end there. “I’m related to two presidents,” Newmar once told me. “I think one is [Ulysses] Grant and the other is [Franklin D.] Roosevelt, probably by fifth cousinhood or something.” Newmar reckoned she had six careers. As she put it: “First off, I was a pianist; secondly, a dancer; third, an actress; fourth, a mother—that counts, you know—fifth was real estate; sixth was writing.” Newmar’s earliest films were often musicals: She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952), her film debut as a chorus girl; The Band Wagon (1953), starring Fred Astaire; and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). She trekked east to make her mark on Broadway in Silk Stockings (1955–1956), Li’l Abner (1956–1958), and The Marriage-Go-Round (1958– 1960), for which she won a Tony Award. Recalled the actress: “My first big career break was on the Broadway stage in Marriage-Go-Round because I was associated with such high-quality people—Claudette Colbert; Charles Boyer; Joel Anthony, the director; Leslie Stevens,

the writer. All people who’ve won Academy Awards. I was fortunate enough to win the Tony for that first acting role. In retrospect, being associated with great people, they lend their luster to a novice or someone starting out, as I was at that time.” Newmar was asked what she learned from Colbert, an Oscar winner with a long career. “I think she taught me strength,” the actress said. “This was a powerful woman who knew how to ‘right’ things, how to make things work. Everything that she had was placed in the top drawer. She had instant mental access to put whatever support she needed into her career. Top drawer. A genuine star, as her career showed from beginning to end, every decade of her life.” Newmar repeated two of her Broadway roles in movie adaptations: Stupefyin’ Jones in Melvin Frank’s Li’l Abner (1959), and Katrin in Walter Lang’s The Marriage-Go-Round (1961). Recalled the actress of shooting Li’l Abner: “I was dancing on these berms. They built little hills on the stage because that’s the way the comic strip [by Al Capp] was drawn. Dancing up and down on those skinny little heels about the size of your little finger, you know?” Did the actress, whose height was her calling card, need those skinny little heels? “Yes. I needed them because—it’s what high heels do for the legs, you see.” One can only agree. Newmar’s first regular TV role was in My Living Doll (1964–1965), a one-season wonder starring Bob Cummings. Decades before the manufacturing and marketing of so-called RealDolls, Newmar played an alluring robot in the sitcom

There was palpable sexual chemistry between Julie Newmar and Adam West. © Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

(there’s that word again) form, seductive charms, and intuitive playfulness to the character way back in 1966? We’ll never know, but things turned out purr-fectly fine.

ICON STATUS

In the intervening decades, various talk show and “photo op” reunions of the TV cast occurred with West, Ward, and other surviving players, in which Newmar happily took part, still looking fabulous and playing her little games. (For example, she laid one on TV host Maury Povich, while apologizing to his wife Connie Chung.) A testament to her icon status came in the form of a movie-title shout-out. Beeban Kidron’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) starred Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo as drag queens. “I think it’s a loving gesture to all women,” she said of the film. “American women can finally take a deep breath and say, ‘Hey, you guys, you did a good job imitating us, dressing like us, acting like us. You didn’t put us down. You didn’t make us raunchy, ugly, or something to look down upon.” Newmar was particularly impressed with Swayze. “I fell in love with him,” she said. “When I watched him up on the screen, I got goosebumps. He moved me. He cherished the person that he was playing. And, you see, that’s a double blessing. Because it was: ‘I cherish this woman I am being.’” Newmar spent three days filming her Wong Foo cameo. “Oh, it was heavenly,” the actress said. “Good heavens! I felt like a princess the entire time. I was dressed in a Thierry Mugler black-rubber lace dress. It was made in Japan. I think it cost $40,000. The dress itself has a very interesting history. It got stolen for a brief period and ended up in Watts, which sent the whole house of Mugler into a tizzy.” The most significant of Newmar’s revisits to the Batman milieu occurred in the 2003 TV movie Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt, a wavering “meta” comedy in which she, West, Ward, and Gorshin played alternate-universe versions of themselves. The film intercuts making-of flashbacks to the Sixties TV production with a latter-day lark in which West and Ward follow clues to retrieve the Batmobile, which was stolen from a charity auction benefiting orphans. Meriwether cameos as a hash-slinging waitress. Newmar and Gorshin hatch a nefarious plot as carefully styled iterations of their Batman roles. The result was hot and cold—at turns hilarious and corny, and ultimately a ratings disappointment. But seeing the veteran stars recapture the old magic just warms the heart. Considering her many and varied career achievements, does Newmar consider Catwoman a blessing or a curse? “Life’s not a curse for me,” she said. “Especially the more successful parts. I love the challenges that life brings. And I’m sure that with the Catwoman, as with any role, one offers one’s gifts. If it works, it works. If the part is wrong or the editing or whatever goes into all of our magic-making, if the other guys didn’t do their jobs, then we all 38

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suffer, you see. But I think they all did their jobs on the Batman. I give the producer the top star for that. Producers prepared the ground for me to dance on. They gave me the clothes to shine in.” Newmar’s tip for maintaining one’s appearance: “It’s the one my mother always taught me, which goes on forever and ever and ever: Stay out of the sun. That’s the biggie. No baking, no cooking, no frying in the sun.” Her tip for longevity: “You have to learn to like what’s good for you. That’ll take you further.” For me, an epiphany regarding Newmar occurred some time during my adolescence. I spotted photos of Newmar in Playboy, scenes of her swimming nude in Mackenna’s Gold. Seeing the Catwoman herself in this context was, to use understatement, an awakening. It dawned on me why Batman was so flustered. This understanding has only deepened over the years. I became aware of the possibility that, rather than throw the Bat-cuffs on Catwoman, Batman might request that she throw the Bat-cuffs on him. If you catch my drift. During one of my conversations with Newmar, I spoke about how the sexual dynamic between Catwoman and Batman zoomed over my head at the age of seven. I remarked that as a child, I Frank Gorshin, Julie couldn’t possibly have fathomed Newmar, Adam West, the double entendre and sexually and Burt Ward played charged subtext of her onscreen alternate-universe interplay with West. But Newmar versions of themselves would have none of it. in the meta TV movie “Oh, but you did,” she insisted Return to the Batcave: The over my protests. “Maybe some Misadventures of Adam of the snappier dialogue got past and Burt (2003). © 20th you, but you got the intent. You Century Fox. got the meaning and you got the sexual innuendo. Didn’t you?” Um, well, er… “Yes, you did. You absolutely did. I swear you did. I get letters from people who say, ‘Oh, I was so turned on!’ And then I started getting letters from guys that tell me they were five years old when they got the message that something was about to happen in their lives.” MARK VOGER is the author and designer of five books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Monster Mash: The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze in America 1957–1972 (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy: When Flower Power Bloomed in Pop Culture, and Holly Jolly: Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture. Voger worked in the newspaper field as an entertainment reporter and graphic artist for 40 years, and lives at the Jersey Shore. He is still afraid of the Zanti Misfits. Please visit him at MarkVoger.com.

RETRO CARTOONS

‘The Pinocchio Syndrome’

ASTRO BOY They were separated by half a planet and more than a century. But their stories were still similar. A seemingly inanimate figure is brought to life through extraordinary means. Naive and idealistic, the individual embarks on a series of amazing adventures, to try to find his place in the world, and how to be a real boy. The first individual is, of course, Pinocchio, created in the late 19th Century by Carlo Collodi. The second character, though, is an iconic Japanese character that became one of the first stars of anime to make an impact in America. He began life as Mighty Atom, but you probably know him as Astro Boy. From 1963–1966, the original Astro Boy animated series ran in syndication on TV stations across America, usually five days a week in the afternoon. Long-time science-fiction fan Steve Luttrell of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, recalls, “I remember that the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia used to run Astro Boy right before [news journalists] Huntley and Brinkley. You could go from anime to grainy 16mm footage of warfare in Vietnam within four minutes.” Ken Steacy, a Canadian writer-artist who would become associated with Astro Boy, tells RetroFan, “I recall visiting relatives in New York City in the early Sixties, and being parked in front of their black-and-white TV long enough to catch the last few minutes of an Astro Boy episode. At that point, I had yet to join the ranks of the Merry Marvel Marching Society… but was a fan of Rupert the Bear and Tintin (and remain so to this day!). Something about the simplicity of the character [Astro Boy] design and the sparse animation intrigued me, but it wasn’t until a quarter century later

BY BILL SPANGLER

that I developed a much greater Go, Astro, go! An amazing appreciation of [creator Osamu] cel of Astro Boy taking Tezuka’s character.” to the air, from Tezuka Mighty Atom was part of Productions’ 1980 Astro a large cast that populated a Boy cartoon reboot. Astro Boy manga called Ambassador Atom © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. or Captain Atom (depending on the translation). The series was created by a writer-artist named Osamu Tezuka. Eventually, Tezuka would be dubbed by many as the God of Manga, but Ambassador Atom was considered only a mild success. Tezuka’s editor recommended that he focus on Mighty Atom’s adventures. The change turned a modestly performing series into an institution. Tezuka produced Astro Boy stories for a variety of publications from 1952 to 1981. He also created Jungle Emperor Leo, better known in America as Kimba the White Lion, and more adult features such as Black Jack.

HE’S GOT FIREPOWER OUT THE…

Astro Boy was constructed by Doctor Tenma to replace his son Tobio, who had recently died in car accident. Robots were common in this world, but Astro was still something different. He could fly, and his body contained a variety of weapons, including a machine gun that extended from his butt. That’s right, his butt. In many versions of this story, Astro ends up as the property of a circus, similar to the circus in Disney’s Pinocchio. That relationship doesn’t last very long, either. Astro becomes a ward of the Ministry of Science, whose scientists create a robotic family for him to live RETROFAN

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retro cartoons

(TOP LEFT) A 2003 reprint edition of Osamu Tezuka’s 1951 first Astro Boy manga, Ambassador (Captain) Atom. (TOP RIGHT) An Astro Boy import. (BOTTOM LEFT) Gold Key Comics published Astro Boy #1 (and only) in 1965. (bottom right) NOW Comics’ The Original Astro Boy #3 (Nov. 1987), featuring a painted cover by Ken Steacy. © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd.

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retro cartoons

with. His sister Uran (short for “uranium”?) is probably the bestknown member of that family. Tezuka told an interviewer that Astro Boy was intended to be a “21st-Century reverse-Pinocchio, a nearly perfect robot who strove to become more human and emotive and to serve as an interface between man and machine.” As his career evolved, Tezuka established an animation studio. One of its initial projects was a television series featuring Astro Boy. This show proved to be a landmark, as the first animated series to run on Japanese TV and the first Japanese series to run in America. Selling the series to America required several changes. Astro’s original identity was now Astor Boynton, and Professor Ochanomizu, Astro’s mentor at the Ministry of Science, was now known as Professor Elefun, for reasons that are apparent as soon as you see his nose. In addition, the American producers added a theme song which was added to the Japanese version. This series of Astro Boy adventures consisted of 104 segments in black and white, with very limited animation. Despite these drawbacks, there are some striking visuals. Some are meant to produce jokes, such as scientists’ necks that stretch and squash as they watch temperature gauges go up and down. Other robots in the circus Astro winds up in do bizarre things (one robot is shaped like a mailbox with arms and legs, and takes letters out of a door in his body and reinserts them through his mouth). There’s a different sort of surrealism in a later episode, as Astro imagines running through a nightmarish landscape, searching for his mother. (Which brings up an interesting question: Who was Astor Boynton’s mother?) As color television became more common in the mid-Sixties, the black-and-white Astro Boy cartoons were phased out. In the early 1980s, Tezuka and his animators brought the character back, in full color. This new series kept the general outlines of Astro’s origin, and his time as a circus performer. His original last name was still Boynton, but now his first name was Toby, a variation of Tobio.

This series also introduced his arch-enemy, a robot known as Atlas. A scientist constructs Atlas based on Dr. Tenma/Boynton’s plans, which cause some people to refer to him as Astro’s half-brother. Not only do the animators import Atlas from Tezuka’s original manga, but whole stories are adapted into the new medium. A story called “The Greatest Robot on Earth” became a two-part TV episode. In this particular outing, a formidable robot controlled by a character known as the Sultan challenges other robots across the globe to see who is the most powerful. Naturally, Astro Boy is on this list. The Sultan’s robot was originally known as Pluto, but his name was changed to Bruton for the animated version. The other robots had names like Hercules and Mont Blanc. Astro eventually convinces Bruton that there are more things in life than fighting. “The Greatest Robot on Earth” stayed in a lot of readers’ memories. Eventually, Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki got permission to adapt the story back into manga form, with a more modern look. This version is called Pluto, and was published in America as a six-volume set in 2009. Although the characters here have a more contemporary and realistic look, they’re easily recognizable in most cases (Astro Boy is simply called “Atom” here). As of late 2021, the color Astro Boy was available on the streaming service Tubi. Episodes of a third animated series, which premiered in 2003, are available on YouTube.

ASTRO BOY AT NOW COMICS

Artist Ken Steacy used to watch and enjoy the French-language version of the Astro Boy color cartoon with his two boys. He became even more intimately involved with the character in 1987, when NOW Comics, one of the companies in the burgeoning independent market, approached him about doing an American version of Astro Boy. NOW’s series launched with The Original Astro Boy #1 (Sept. 1987).

The master cartoonist and creator of Mighty Atom (Astro Boy), Osamu Tezuka, in a self-caricature from the early Eighties. © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. Courtesy of Heritage.

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New from TwoMorrows!

ALTER EGO #176

BACK ISSUE #134

BACK ISSUE #135

BACK ISSUE #136

The Golden Age comics of major pulp magazine publisher STREET & SMITH (THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, RED DRAGON, SUPERSNIPE) examined in loving detail by MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Art by BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, and others, ANTHONY TOLLIN on “The Shadow/Batman Connection”, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, PETER NORMANTON, and more!

BRONZE AGE RARITIES & ODDITIES, spotlighting rare ‘80s European Superman comics! Plus: CURT SWAN’s Batman, JIM APARO’s Superman, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT’s Marvel custom comics, MICHAEL USLAN’s unseen Earth-Two stories, Leaf’s DC Secret Origins, Marvel’s Evel Knievel, cover variants, and more! With EDUARDO BARRETO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ALEX SAVIUK, and more. Cover by JOE KUBERT.

SILVER ISSUE, starring the Silver Surfer in the Bronze Age! Plus: JACK KIRBY’s Silver Star, SCOTT HAMPTON’s Silverheels, Silver Sable, Silver Banshee, and more! Featuring KURT BUSIEK, STEVEN BUTLER, TOM DeFALCO, STEVE ENGLEHART, RON FRENZ, STERLING GATES, RON MARZ, FABIAN NICIEZA, ALEX ROSS, MARSHALL ROGERS, JOE RUBINSTEIN, ROGER STERN, and cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT.

BRONZE AGE COMICS STRIPS! SpiderMan, Friday Foster, DC’s World’s Greatest Superheroes starring Superman, Howard the Duck, Richie Rich, Star Hawks, Star Trek, MIKE GRELL’s Tarzan, and more! Plus Charlton’s comic strip tie-ins and the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. With COLAN, GOODWIN, GIL KANE, KREMER, STAN LEE, ROMITA, THOMAS, TUSKA, and more.

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #83

BRICKJOURNAL #74

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #28 OUR ARTISTS AT WAR

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

FAMOUS FIRSTS! How JACK KIRBY was a pioneer in all areas of comics: Romance Comics genre, Kid Gangs, double-page spreads, Black heroes, new formats, super-hero satire, and others! With MARK EVANIER and our regular columnists, plus a gallery of Jack’s pencil art from CAPTAIN AMERICA, JIMMY OLSEN, CAPTAIN VICTORY, DESTROYER DUCK, BLACK PANTHER, and more!

Amazing LEGO® STAR WARS builds, including Lando Calrissian’s Treadable by JÜRGEN WITTNER, Starkiller Base by JHAELON EDWARDS, and more from STEVEN SMYTH and Bantha Bricks! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK (including a LEGO BB-8), and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

STEVE BISSETTE career-spanning interview, from his Joe Kubert School days, Swamp Thing stint, publisher of Taboo and Tyrant, creator rights crusader, and more. Also, Part One of our MIKE GOLD interview on his Chicago youth, start in underground comix, and arrival at DC Comics, right in time for the implosion! Plus BUD PLANT on his publishing days, comic shop owner, and start in mail order—and all the usual fun stuff!

Examines US War comics: EC COMICS (Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat), DC COMICS (Enemy Ace, All American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War, Star-Spangled War Stories), WARREN PUBLISHING (Blazing Combat), CHARLTON (Willy Schultz and the Iron Corporal) and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

Follows his career from fandom to redesigning the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and his introduction of X-MEN characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird (plus his design of Wolverine’s alter ego, Logan). Includes later work on THE FUTURIANS, unused character designs, and other rare material! Written by GLEN CADIGAN with introduction by ALEX ROSS.

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ALTER EGO #175

Spotlighting the artists of ROY THOMAS’ 1980s DC series ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Interviews with artists ARVELL JONES, RICHARD HOWELL, and JERRY ORDWAY, conducted by RICHARD ARNDT! Plus, the Squadron’s FINAL SECRETS, including previously unpublished art, & covers for issues that never existed! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and a wraparound cover by ARVELL JONES!

RETRO TELEVISION

BY ROBERT GREENBERGER In February 1972, America wasn’t yet worried about bugging offices. Instead it was emerging from a turbulent, violent period that frayed the social fabric. We still trusted our government and our major corporations, so there wasn’t much need to think about the surveillance state or the coming changes computer technology would bring to America. As a result, an NBC telefilm, Probe, seemed like a far-fetched concept. The brainchild of Leslie Stevens, the concept posited that a private firm, World Securities, protected and insured banks, national treasures, art collections, and other valuables. Their Probe Division outfitted their agents with high-tech gear, allowing a team at Probe Control to guide them on their investigations. Each agent had a surgically implanted ear jack, allowing two-way communications, along with a dental implant that allowed nonverbal signals (once for yes, twice for no, or continuous for emergency). The crown jewel, as it was, was the scanner, a tiny device that allowed Control to see and hear what was happening while studying vital signs, and the camera could perform infrared scanning, allowing for night vision. It could be worn as a ring, pendant, or cufflinks. Stevens, the mastermind behind The Outer Limits, certainly understood thinking forward as well as the paranoia that can come with too much power or the fear of the unknown. He was well paired with producer Robert H. Justman, recently coming off Star Trek, who also knew a few things about the future. Stevens brought along with him associate producer John Meredith Strong, whom he met on McCloud. According to Strong, he and Stevens conceived of a series called 1999 that featured a secret group operating in the Earthside Missile Base, solving cases involving strange phenomenon. World Securities Corporation fronted as an insurance firm. From there, the series morphed into Probe. The NBC two-hour film starred Hugh O’Brian, making his triumphant return to television after his Fifties hit, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. It was glossy, boasting a strong score from Dominic Frontiere, with guest-stars Sir John Gielgud and Elke Sommer (and future “Angel” Jaclyn Smith), and showed a lot of promise. In keeping with U.N.C.L.E. and other acronyms of the day, in the film, Hugh O’Brian’s character explains that Probe actually

(TOP) No, that’s not a Zoom meeting—it’s the cast of TV’s innovative one-season wonder, Search (1972–1973). Special thanks to RetroFan Jim Alexander for providing the Search promotional photos accompanying this article. © Warner Bros. Television. (ABOVE) Ad for Probe, the telefilm directed by Russ Mayberry, which aired on February 21, 1972. When it continued as a series, its name was changed to Search to avoid duplicating the title of PBS’s science program, Probe. © Warner Bros. Television.

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retro television

and from television series-to-television series… and you don’t find a ‘family.’ Most of these good shows had ‘families.’ Well, we had a good ‘family’ there.” A more recent critic was comics writer Don McGregor, who liked the series and reviewed the DVDs when released in 2014. He noted, “Instead the problem is in the show itself, in what might have had to be done in the early 1970s to get the show greenlit. There is a glimpse of Leslie Stevens in the general setup of Probe, with its uncomfortable combination of frivolous spy adventure with a technological, computerized control room that feeds information into the heroes’ heads. One of the most fun elements of Search is that it takes a room full of computer whizzes commanded by Burgess Meredith, playing Cam, to do what can now be done by an individual on a smartphone—possibly without having Big Brother

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July 2022

listening to every conversation you have with a possible sexual partner (except maybe for the NSA). “Leslie Stevens wrote the first three episodes. I suspect that was so he could create the three lead characters. Unlike his Stoney Burke scripts, however, none of these characters have much depth. They are what many television heroes had become as the medium went into the 1970s, and what the networks seemingly demanded in many action dramas: good looking leads that were always the same, involved only in running around through that week’s episode.” Strong explained that his job was to make the show look good, but especially make the cast look their best. In turn, they gave it their all even through injuries. During the pilot shoot, O’Brian injured himself on the third day and shot several fights from a

retro television

FAST FACTS

SEARCH f No. of seasons: One f No. of episodes: 23 f Original run: September 13, 1972–August 29, 1973 f Primary cast: Hugh O’Brian, Tony Franciosa, Doug McClure, Burgess Meredith f Network: NBC f Creator: Leslie Stevens f Theme music composer: Dominic Frontiere

wheelchair with clever choreography so no one noticed. Strong also recounted: “Tony Franciosa went out one night, went and jumped off a dock onto some pads and broke his shoulder… for one of our directors, Barry Shear. I said, ‘Barry! What the f**k are you doing?!’ Barry said, ‘He didn’t want a stuntman to do it. He wanted the audience to see his face.’” Interestingly, despite his huge television popularity, Strong said, “[McClure’s] episodes weren’t, I shouldn’t say ‘weaker,’ but weren’t as well received, ratings-wise.” Strong believed that unlike Lockwood flirting with medical tech Gloria Harding (Tompkins) or Bianco flirting with Ginny Keach (Golden), Grover didn’t have an in-house romantic interest. He did, though, romance guest-star Barbara Feldon, where he revealed that C. R. stood for Christopher Robin. It should be noted that several of the more interesting shows were the ones to feature McClure. The episode with Feldon and directed by Colasanto, “In Search of Midas,” is a rare one to go on location, in this case Las Vegas. Apparently, Warner balked at the cost, saying it would cost $75,000, and Strong said he could do it for $4,500 or less. He bet them he could use his connections and if he spent less, he’d be paid the difference. Of course, he won. There was also one rare Cameron-centric case where Grover has to find his kidnapped boss. When NBC, worried about its investment, learned Stevens was developing a project for CBS, they removed him and Justman, turning the series over to story editor Anthony Spinner. In short order, the new producer turned the lights on in Probe Control, removing most of the technicians, including Tompkins, while stories grew more somber and serious, the wise-cracking agents grew positively grim. Strong recalled, “[NBC] thought the [Search] episodes needed to be more hardedged. And Leslie thought they shouldn’t be more hard-edged. It was a more ‘romantic adventure story’ with some good hard action in it. “Bob Justman didn’t write. And the network felt that [Justman] was more of a Production Manager–type Producer, and wasn’t essential to the show’s ‘new look.’ Tony didn’t produce… he was just a writer. And [Spinner’s] skew was somewhat different from ours; you know?” In an interview later in his life, O’Brian thought the tech was an impediment to the show, making the agents too powerful, and audiences would be rooting for the bad guys. The series was cancelled after one season and 23 episodes. It received some licensing attention back then including two novelizations by Robert Waverka and a ViewMaster packet of 3-D reels. Interestingly, Gene Roddenberry’s Lincoln Enterprises picked up Search for merchandising, so fans could buy scripts and frame clips, but no replica scanners. For Warner, it was a blow as its RETROFAN

July 2022

CELEBRITY CRUSHES

My Gothic Interior In honor of Dark Shadows’ 55th Birthday, and My Crush, Quentin Collins

BY KATHERINE KERESTMAN I have always dreamed in rooms, secret rooms. On this morning, though, when I leapt from the bed, I found myself standing on a bearskin rug, complete with teeth and claws, blue mist swirling around me and jasmine perfuming the air. I felt an arm around my waist. I gasped and, turning, found myself enfolded by the arms of Quentin, whose lips were pressing my neck. For a moment, I melted in his embrace, but very soon I was wriggling out, oh so gently. “Oh, Quentin,” I spoke, even while trying to increase the space between Quentin and myself, for I knew that Quentin was quite the ladies’ man, and I did not relish joining his lengthy list of burned-out passions. Even so, I could hardly contain my excitement! And, somehow, I felt safe. “To what enchanted combination of the heavenly orbs am I indebted for the crossing of our fates and… the meeting of our lips?” purred Quentin as he strode toward me, the distance I had created between us rapidly disappearing, his outstretched hand closing over mine, even as his eyes locked my own, preventing me from glancing away. “How comes it that a beautiful maiden awaits me in my chamber, unexpected, yet exceedingly welcome—and,” he continued, “how does such loveliness know my name? Surely I could not have forgotten meeting you.” He drew me toward him once again, as if he were leading me in a waltz macabre. I tried to explain: “Well, Quentin, I don’t know exactly what spell has brought me here, but I know you very well, for I have dwelt in Collinwood in my heart every day of my life, and know its cobwebbed spaces intimately, and its inhabitants. This is the home of my soul; although you do not know me, I am come home.” Just then—I was going to say a chill, but that expression does not nearly approximate the sensation that assailed me—it was as if a rod of ice impaled me through my spine. A low, menacing laugh followed, then the swish of a gown. I spun to face the golden beauty of a malicious Angelique!

“Mon Dieu!” she breathed, “And who wants surplus beauteous damsels in Collinwood?” Her enormous blue eyes were beautiful, although they glared at me. As a result, I moved close to Quentin, who was placing himself between the sorceress and me. “A slip of the tongue, Mon Cher?” replied Quentin. “When you exclaimed, ‘Mon Dieu,’ perhaps you meant to invoke your old acquaintance Beelzebub?” Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Stretching, with closed eyes, I knocked the alarm clock over with my fumbling, and then reached from the comfortable cocoon of my fluffy comforter, and the shroud of my laceedged linen sheets, to silence the beeping. Throwing off the bedcovers, I leapt to my feet—for today was the day to leave for the Dark Shadows Festival. I donned the clothes I had laid out the night before, put on my lipstick, and pulled to the door the bags that had been packed for days. It was pitch black outside. A thin orange line on the horizon heralded the dawn. I reached for my suitcase and was surprised to find an old-fashioned valise in its place. I noticed then that my shorts and sneakers had been replaced by a calico skirt and button-up boots. I spun to face the house I had just exited. Where it had been now stood an 18th-Century frame building with a sign that read “Eagle Tavern.” Wheels crunching on gravel caused me to turn again, and I found myself face-to-face with a man driving a wagon. “I’m Ben,” he said, “and you must be the new governess.” KATHERINE KERESTMAN has won the Literary Titan Silver Book Award for Creepy Cat’s Macabre Travels: Prowling around Haunted Towers, Crumbling Castles and Ghoulish Graveyards (WordCrafts Press, 2020), a nonfiction literary- and historically oriented travel memoir that placed on the Preliminary Ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards, in the nonfiction category. Her website is www.creepycatlair.com [Editor’s note: Dark Shadows photo © Dan Curtis Productions. See RetroFan #11 for our exclusive interview with Dark Shadows’ Quentin Collins, actor David Selby.]

Hey, lovelorn, quit sobbing into your pillow and writing diary entries—instead, share your Sixties/Seventies/ Eighties Celebrity Crush with RetroFan readers! You can become famous, get three free copies of the magazine, and earn a whopping $10 as well. Submit your 600-word-maximum Celebrity Crush column to the editor for consideration at euryman@gmail.com. 56

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The

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

1977 Soviet

Pinback button from the Soviet National Exhibition. Collection of the author.

Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Convention Center.

National Exhibition BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA

The Soviet invasion of the United States depicted in the 1984 movie Red Dawn featured enemy paratroopers landing near a small-town school, killing a teacher, shooting at a classroom, and blowing up an empty school bus with a rocket launcher. I agree that educated children are one of our nation’s greatest resources, but it would have been smarter to have neutralized local law enforcement and locked down the adult power centers and other important resources before wasting ordinance on empty school buses. If they had rounded up the kids and held them as prisoners to keep the adults in check, they might not have had to fire a shot. But I’m no general. I didn’t buy the premise of the movie at all, but as fantasy it was entertaining. Besides, the Soviets had already invaded America. Not a shot was fired. No empty school buses were blown up, and, as in Red Dawn, things didn’t work out as planned for the invaders. I know, because I was there.

The exhibition ran from November 12–29 and was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in fun-in-the-sun California (as opposite from Siberia as you can get). It is still listed as a highlight for the facility to this day. Some 310,000 people attended, and my dad decided that he and some of his older kids would be among them. So off we went one fine November day to visit the invading Soviets. I didn’t know what to expect. Would the Russians (which is what we called them even though the Soviet Union was made up of multiple republics and nationalities) be utterly alien to me? Would there be spy stuff happening? Would I meet a beautiful but tragic ballet dancer who yearned for both freedom and the comforting arms of a string-bean high school student? Clearly, my idea of the Soviet Union was abundantly influenced by Western media.

ПРИВЕТ! [HELLO!]

During World War II, the Russians were our allies. And then they weren’t. From 1947 until 1989, the world’s only two superpowers, Us and Them, were in an existential face-off. However, since we were not in an active shooting conflict it was known as the Cold War (come for the popular culture, RetroFan, get a history lesson). The Cold War made people nervous because of the potential for a Hot War to blow up the world with nuclear weapons of which both sides had plenty. This tension impacted our entertainment (which is why we’re all here, right?).

In 1977, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (U.S.S.R.) was celebrating its 60th anniversary (just a year earlier, the United States had celebrated its 200th birthday). To help mark the occasion, the Soviets held a National Exhibition in Los Angeles, their first such show since the one held in New York in 1959. The event’s name was “The U.S.S.R.’s National Exposition Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution,” but was more commonly referred to as the “Soviet National Exhibition.”

РАЗВЛЕЧЕНИЯ ХОЛОДНОЙ ВОЙНЫ [COLD WAR ENTERTAINMENT]

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Serious movies like Fail Safe (1964) and the equally dark but funny Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) were both about accidental nuclear death and destruction… not such a far-fetched topic so soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, during which President Kennedy confronted the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, over the issue of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. But even silly (yet completely wonderful) movies like The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!, which told the story of a Soviet submarine (full of swell guys) running aground on the coast of a small American community (full of swell folks) in 1966, had an undercurrent of danger. Any moment, the small incident could turn into a larger and possibly deadlier one. Kids were not immune to awareness of the Soviet threat. “Duck and Cover drills” were used from the Fifties until around 1961, when I was a toddler. My introduction to the Soviet menace was likely via Rocky and Bullwinkle’s Boris and Natasha, nefarious spies with broad Russian accents from Pottsylvania, an Eastern European country very likely in the Soviet sphere of influence. I loved those characters, but clearly Boris and Natasha and their boss, Fearless Leader (and sometimes Mr. Big), were bad guys. In the Sixties, Marvel Comics’ Iron Man stories were certainly more attune to the Communist threat than, say, Superman and Batman. The first Crimson Dynamo (gosh, that’s a tip-top character name!) and Black Widow were two notable Soviet creations that encountered Iron Man (a stanch anti-Communist and wealthy ladies’ man) and were soon turned to the cause of Freedom. And Nikita Khrushchev (or an unnamed simulation) turned up in the occasional comicbook story, including appearances in Patsy Walker #99 (Feb. 1962) and Life with Archie #24 (Nov. 1963). The tense relationship between the Klingons (warmongering space bad guys) and the Federation of Planets (decent but willing-to-fight-for-space-freedom good guys) were a much-enjoyed feature of the original Star Trek television series in the Sixties. And if you missed that

relationship as a metaphor for the ideological conflict between the East and West, then the Star Trek episode “The Omega Glory” (Season 2, Episode 23), with its battle between the Red Chinese–esque Khoms (Communists) versus the fair-skinned Yangs (Yankees), would drive home the point with less subtlety. For good measure, the Constitution of the United States makes a cameo in that episode too.

ПОЗНАКОМЬТЕСЬ С СОВЕТАМИ [MEET THE SOVIETS]

The wait in the line to see the Soviet National Exhibition was about an hour or two. But once inside the large space, my eyes immediately focused on the Soyuz spacecraft hanging from the ceiling. It was quite large. At least in my memory. Seeing a photo years later, I could tell that being inside the craft was probably crushingly claustrophobic. The possibility that it could come loose and smash everything below was very present in my mind

Archie, the typical teen, beats up Nikita Krushchev and Fidel Castro. Iron Man battles Commies (note the Crimson Dynamo’s clunky Soviet hardware). And, hey, kids… comics about the dangers of Communism. © Archie Publications, Inc. © Marvel. 58

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

because worst-case scenarios often Perhaps the Soviets were expecting play in my head in unfamiliar situations. something more like, “Nice to see you, Fortunately, it would have hit a bunch of please stop by again anytime.” (They other space stuff, but I kept my distance should have known better. See the just the same. sidebar.) To be sure, not everyone wrote Two years earlier, the United States out rude comments. We’re not all jerks, and the U.S.S.R. conduced a joint space but honestly, the Soviets were just test mission with our Apollo spacecraft asking for trouble. We were not, after and the Soviet’s Soyuz. Not only was all, global pals. Steigerwald’s attempt this an unusual amount of cooperation to copy the rude comments attracted between the nations at the time, but the attention of some of the staff it would also allow the Soviet people (there were about 200, many nice, but to see a space mission as it actually a subset of whom were reputed to be happened, a first for the secretive Soviet KGB… spies!). In true Stalinist fashion, A Soyuz space program. Amazingly, the current the unsmiling staff eliminated that one spacecraft similar and final version of the Soyuz is still in troublesome guest book. to the one on operation with a capsule attached to In a more helpful vein, some of the display in Los the International Space Station as an visitors did note, via the guest books, Angeles. emergency escape craft. the lack of information about day-to-day The exhibit area was designed in a life in the Soviet Union. And, yeah, I flower shape and meant to be experienced clockwise after circling don’t recall coming away thinking I knew what it was like to live around the center to look at the space bits and bobs before moving there. In fairness, I’m not sure I could come up with a good way to to the outer sections devoted to Social Achievements, Scientific show exactly how we lived at the time. You and I may have enjoyed and Technological Progress, the Ukrainian Republic, Arts and similar TV shows, toys, and comic books, but how do you distill Crafts, etc., etc. Placed around the exhibit hall were guest books for America into a few-thousand-square-foot area? Then again, I don’t visitors to sign and maybe leave a note. know that I was truly all that concerned about how they lived. Let’s let that last one sink in a bit. The Soviet Union, wanting to Having seen the space stuff, I now just wanted to know what their make nice and show off their good side to their ideological rivals, televisions looked like. did the one thing they would never do back in the U.S.S.R.… they allowed us to freely write down our fearlessly honest comments CCCP TB [USSR TV] about the visiting communists. A former writer for the L.A. Times, Admittedly, one of my biases entering the convention center was Bill Steigerwald, shared his experiences of the Exhibition for the that American technology was superior to that of the Soviets. Television was important to me, ergo, I wanted to see their TV sets. Moscow Times in 2013, an English language newspaper. He found plenty of surly comments in the guest books like “this is almost as There were televisions on display and I distinctly recall thinking impressive as the Berlin Wall” and “Lenin needs a hair transplant.” that they seemed… out of date. I realize that’s an esthetic and not

The 1977 Raduga 706 model television. Warning: Do not leave it plugged in. (Raduga can mean rainbow or satellite in Russian.) Photo by Eckhard Etzold, retouched by Sloyment. Wikicommons. RETROFAN

July 2022

THE

CHARLTON COMPANION by JON B. COOKE

An ALL-NEW definitive history of Connecticut’s notorious all-in-one comic book company! Often disparaged as a second-rate funny-book outfit, Charlton produced a vast array of titles that span from the 1940s Golden Age to the Bronze Age of the ’70s in many genres, from Hot Rods to Haunted Love. The imprint experienced explosive bursts of creativity, most memorably the “Action Hero Line” edited by DICK GIORDANO in the 1960s, which featured the renowned talents of STEVE DITKO and a stellar team of creators, as well as the unforgettable ’70s “Bullseye” era that spawned E-Man and Doomsday +1, all helmed by veteran masters and talented newcomers—and serving as a training ground for an entire generation of comics creators thriving in an environment of complete creative freedom. From its beginnings with a handshake deal consummated in county jail, to the company’s accomplishments beyond comics, woven into this prose narrative are interviews with dozens of talented participants, including GIORDANO, DENNIS O’NEIL, ALEX TOTH, SANHO KIM, TOM SUTTON, PAT BOYETTE, NICK CUTI, JOHN BYRNE, MIKE ZECK, JOE STATON, SAM GLANZMAN, NEAL ADAMS, JOE GILL, and even some Derby residents who recall working in the sprawling company plant. Though it gave up the ghost over three decades ago, Charlton’s influence continues today with its Action Heroes serving as inspiration for ALAN MOORE’s cross-media graphic novel hit, WATCHMEN. By JON B. COOKE with MICHAEL AMBROSE & FRANK MOTLER. SHIPS OCTOBER 2022! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

THE

TEAM-UP COMPANION by MICHAEL EURY

THE TEAM-UP COMPANION examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics— DC’s THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and DC COMICS PRESENTS, Marvel’s MARVEL TEAM-UP and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, plus other team-up titles, treasuries, and treats—in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes. Go behind the scenes of your favorite team-up comic books with specially curated and all-new creator recollections from NEAL ADAMS, JIM APARO, MIKE W. BARR, ELIOT R. BROWN, NICK CARDY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, STEVE GERBER, STEVEN GRANT, BOB HANEY, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, PAUL LEVITZ, RALPH MACCHIO, DENNIS O’NEIL, MARTIN PASKO, JOE RUBINSTEIN, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other all-star writers and artists who produced the team-up tales that so captivated readers during the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s. By BACK ISSUE and RETROFAN editor MICHAEL EURY. (272-page SOFTCOVER) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7 • SHIPS AUGUST 2022!

BRITMANIA

by MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas! Written and designed by RETROFAN columnist MARK VOGER. (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • SHIPS NOVEMBER 2022!

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

TARZAN BY ANDY MANGELS

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning! Don your pith helmet and loincloth as we take a trip into the deepest jungles of Africa! Do you hear that infamous yodel ringing through the trees? Do you catch glimpses of a nearly naked man swinging through the foliage on vines? That’s Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, and he’s been a staple in film and on television since 1918. But with the live-action Tarzan an almost ubiquitous part of Saturday or Sunday viewing in the Seventies and beyond, the Ape Man has barely ever been translated into animation! Hang on tight to that vine as we swing into an examination of Tarzan’s Saturday morning heroics!

ORIGINS OF TARZAN

Tarzan’s origins date back to 1912, when the character first appeared, cover-billed, in the October issue of pulp magazine The All-Story, which promised “A Romance of the Jungle.” He was the creation of newcomer writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, who had created the John Carter of Mars/Barsoom stories only a few months prior (Feb. to July 1912) as his first published work. Tarzan of the Apes

(TOP) Promotional art for Filmation’s Tarzan animated series. (INSET) Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes first appeared in All-Story, a noted pulp magazine. Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. (ERB)

was serialized in The All-Story, and then republished as a novel in 1914. The character of Tarzan—the infant son of a British aristocrat who was orphaned in the jungle and raised by wild apes—was a tremendous hit, and Burroughs soon found himself writing further adventures. Wanting to capitalize on Tarzan’s immense popularity with the public, Burroughs decided to parlay his character into as many kinds of media as possible: films, comics, and merchandise. New books followed almost yearly, with The Return of Tarzan (1913) and The Beasts of Tarzan (1914) leading further into the jungle; by 1965, Burroughs had finished 24 Tarzan novels in total. The first film adaptations were silent, starring Elmo Lincoln in Tarzan of the Apes and The Romance of Tarzan (both 1918), but Tarzan blossomed significantly when portrayed by Olympian swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who portrayed the hero in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and 11 other films! Following four silent serials, a 1933 serial starred Buster Crabbe, and a 1935 serial, The New Adventures of Tarzan, starred Herman Brix/Bruce Bennet, bringing fans into theaters every weekend. Tarzan of the Apes came to newspapers in the United Feature Syndicate daily comic strip in January 1929, illustrated by Hal Foster, and a Sunday full-page was added in March 1931, drawn by Rex Maxon. The comic strip would survive until 2002, including such art luminaries as Burne Hogarth, Dan Barry, Russ Manning, Gil Kane, Mike Grell, and others. [Editor’s note: Check out our sister magazine, RETROFAN

July 2022

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

it eventually sold like hotcakes all over the world. It was very, very successful.” Despite the rocky start, neighbors Lou Scheimer and Danton Burroughs did eventually become very close. “Danton did all of Tarzan’s yells,” Scheimer revealed to me in his interviews. “Actually, there was only one main yell, and we just kept using it over and over. The funny part is that Danton lived down a hill and across the street from me. I could hear him doing those damn yells every morning; it used to drive me nuts sometimes because you could hear it wafting up over the hill.” Once Filmation got the rights to Tarzan, they went to the CBS director of children’s programming, Jerry Golod, and the show was an immediate sale. “Then we had to figure out what stories to tell,” laughed Scheimer. “There were 24 novels, and we developed our stories from some of them and created others that were more appropriate for our more enlightened time, or more fun for children. I’m not going to say that Edgar Rice Burroughs was not contemporary, but we tried to keep it so that there was some talk about preservation, how to treat animals, and treating the other human denizens of the jungle—or lost civilizations—with sensitivity. And we made the decision to have him speak, unlike some of the movie Tarzans. He was fully articulate and intelligent, even if he wasn’t always a perfect speaker. And we put in lots of animals because children love animals, and it was entirely appropriate for this show to have them.” Scheimer and his crew wanted the show to have a lush, illustrative feel to the art and animation, like the work of famed Tarzan comic strip artist Burne Hogarth, but we also had to be mindful of our budget. Other studios reused animation as much as we did, or sent their work overseas and cheated American animators out of work, but we felt that, if we built an excellent set of scenes as a stock system for Tarzan, it would work. We wanted the anatomy to be very realistic, and this included muscular definition and even details such as painting in the eyes completely instead of having them be just the dots used on many adventure series. “So we ended up shooting a lot of liveaction footage of a model walking, running, jumping, diving, swinging, and doing the things Tarzan did. We did close-ups of faces and hands as well. Then we rotoscoped over the live-action to create our stock, projecting the film so that artists could draw it exactly like a real body moved. Our rotoscope model was a bartender from the bar down the street from Filmation, called the Dug-Out.” In addition to footage they shot of the bodybuilder, Filmation’s artists rotoscoped portions of the film Tarzan and His Mate (1934), including a scene where Weissmuller—or his stunt double, circus aerialist Alfredo Codona—capered across tree limbs, swung on vines, and watched rear-projected footage of animals below him in the forest. Even a crawling crocodile from the film was rotoscoped! Some scenes of Buster Crabbe may also have been used. Scheimer explained that a lot of stock footage was necessary because “Tarzan did a lot of action. The guy was just a very spectac72

RETROFAN

July 2022

(TOP AND CENTER) Rotoscoped scenes of Tarzan in action were used as a budget-saving device by Filmation Studios. (BOTTOM) A model sheet of Filmation’s Tarzan. © ERB.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

ular human being, not a super-hero. He was jumping through trees, grabbing vines, and running and swimming. Superman was easy; he just flew through the air and picked up a log or a truck or a crook every now and then. But Tarzan moved all the time doing things. And on top of his physicality, he had the animals working with him! Although the show didn’t do a specific episode about the origins of Tarzan, each episode’s intro montage did recap the story:

(TOP) Character designs for the Tarzan pilot episode, “Tarzan and the City of Gold.” (CENTER) Storyboard of main title sequence. (BOTTOM) Tarzan title card. © ERB.

“The jungle: Here I was born; and here my parents died when I was but an infant. I would have soon perished, too, had I not been found by a kindly she-ape named Kala, who adopted me as her own and taught me the ways of the wild. I learned quickly, and grew stronger each day, and now I share the friendship and trust of all jungle animals. The jungle is filled with beauty, and danger; and lost cities filled with good and evil. This is my domain, and I protect those who come here; for I am Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle!” The sequence was storyboarded and laid out by Bob Kline, a fan artist who had become one of Filmation’s top designers. According to Scheimer, “It was probably the first time in animated history that opening narration talked about the death of parents, but it was important to show where Tarzan was from, and why he was raised by apes.” Later seasons shortened the intro by more than half, dispensing with the origin entirely. The pilot episode of Tarzan, written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville, was “Tarzan and the City of Gold,” which was adapted directly from a 1932 Burroughs’ book. Other book plots would make it into the series, including Tarzan and The Golden Lion (1922). The series was incredibly faithful to the original books, replacing the movie chimpanzee Cheeta with N’Kima, a spider monkey who had been Tarzan’s companion in the tomes. The intelligent great apes that were Tarzan’s “family” spoke much of the Mangani language created by Burroughs. Jane Porter got a bit of a short shrift, only appearing in one story, at the request of Danton Burroughs; they needed to resecure the rights to the Jane character, who hadn’t been used in visual media since 1959. The biggest alteration was that the time period was updated, setting it sometime post–World War II. Bombastic actor Robert Ridgely was the voice of Tarzan, and here, he was presented as conversant with English and mostly civilized, despite his jungle loincloth. “He was one of the funniest men I ever met, and was a big handsome guy,” recalled Scheimer. “He did other voices for us, and appeared in some of our live shows like Ark II.” Scheimer himself did the monkey grunts of N’Kima. He joked, “He didn’t talk so much as he just made noises. I guess I did good monkeys. Or cheap monkeys, anyway. All they had to do was feed me a couple of peanuts.” As there were no other regular cast members, the show had one of the smallest voice casts in Filmation history; guest characters were voiced by a number of Filmation’s recurring actors. The first few seasons of Tarzan were all full-length 22-minute stories, although some of the stories were cut down in later RETROFAN

July 2022