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November 2022 No. 23 $10.95

All you need is love!

YELLOW SUBMARINE

The Creature’s here to greet ya! Dive in to the Black Lagoon

He is not a number! He is a free man!

Before The X-Files there was… Shadow Chasers • M&Ms • TV’s Zoom at 50 & more! 1

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Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury

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!

RETROFAN #25

RETROFAN #24

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #21

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.

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.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! 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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TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #18

RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #16

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!

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25 The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #23 November 2022

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retrotorial

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum M&M’s

RetroFad Fiftiesmania

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties ‘Creature’ Feature

Too Much TV Quiz Top cops

RetroFanmail

ReJECTED by Scott Saavedra

Retro Toys Colorforms

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Prisoner

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Yellow Submarine

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Flash Gordon

Retro Kid-Vid Zoom at 50

Retro Television Shadow Chasers RetroFan™ issue 23, November 2022. (ISSN 2576-7224 ) is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid 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. Flash Gordon © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Yellow Submarine © Apple Corps/Subafilms, Ltd. Colorforms © Colorforms Brands, LLC. Mickey Mouse © Disney. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc. The Prisoner © ITC Entertainment, 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.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BY MICHAEL EURY

Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Michael Eury Wayne Hicks Andy Mangels Jeffrey S. Miller Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Colorforms Brands LLC Heritage Auctions ITC Entertainment Inc. Mars Incorporated Universal Studios WGBH VERY SPECIAL THANKS Kenneth Johnson

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RETROFAN

I was raised by three parents: a mother, a father… and the TV set. Little did they realize it at the time, but Mom and Dad, as well as my schoolteachers, had back-ups thanks to my “extended family.” During early childhood, it was Captain Kangaroo and Shari Lewis helping teach me the basics. As I grew older, Sheriff Andy Taylor, Mike and Carol Brady, and television’s coolest teacher, Pete Dixon, shared their wisdom. Batman and Steve McGarrett taught me to respect the law. Red Skelton and Flip Wilson made me chuckle. Nurse Julia Baker and associate producer Mary Richards taught me that women were capable professionals. The Lawrence Welk orchestra and Al Hirt taught me music appreciation. Joining these unofficial godparents was my TV “grandfather”—no, not Grandpa Walton, but CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, who each night shared stories from the real world, where problems could not be solved in a 23-minute episode with a laugh track. As I segued from adolescence to young adulthood, most of the pursuits I had developed—reading comic books, reading adventure novels, and drawing—all took place in front of the television, which was almost always on. The digest-sized TV Guide magazine was my gateway. I read its articles and combed its listings, circling my personal must-see TV. I also studied numerous books about television history, discovering the programs that predated me and learning the histories of the shows I enjoyed. By my mid-twenties, I’d often fall asleep while watching late-night television, being awakened by the playing of the National Anthem as a station signed off in the early morning’s wee hours (remember those days when stations didn’t broadcast 24/7?). With an upbringing like that, I thought I had been exposed to just about everything television had to offer in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. Then Jeffrey S. Miller proved me wrong. Jeff pitched to RetroFan an article about the short-lived Eighties TV series Shadow Chasers, a paranormal precursor to The X-Files. Even though I didn’t watch every show back in the day—occasionally I would pry myself away from the tube (I didn’t need SNL guest host William Shatner to admonish me to “get a life”)—I had either read about them or remembered the existence of most shows. Except for this one. Shadow Chasers? What the heck was Shadow Chasers? I had to do some web searching for info about the show before answering Jeff’s query… I didn’t want to expose my ignorance. Once I found out that the show’s driving force was Kenneth Johnson—who brought us the Seventies TV hits The Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk, among other fare—I was anxious to learn more about Shadow Chasers. And Jeff’s superb article—which I’m so happy I accepted for publication—educated me about this clever series that might very well have aired before its time. But that’s one of the joys of RetroFan—even for a pop-culture smarty-pants like me, a guy who can belt out a Sixties TV show or cartoon theme song at a moment’s notice. I continue to learn from each and every issue. Not just about television, but about music. And toys. And monsters. And movies. And candy. And crazes. Judging from the response I receive from our readers, most of you feel the same way. So prepare to get “educated” this issue… but school was never this much fun, not even in Room 222 (or among Mr. Kotter’s Sweathogs)! In the pages ahead, you’ll sample Scott Saavedra’s tasty history of M&M’s (yes, that’s the official spelling, not “M&Ms”) and Scott Shaw!’s flashback to the trippy eye-candy of the animated Beatles film, Yellow Submarine. Animation know-it-all (that’s a compliment!) Andy Mangels blasts off with Flash Gordon’s flashy cartoon history, while Will Murray chronicles the development and baffling denouement of the eerie television drama, The Prisoner. Our newest columnist, Mark Voger, braves the perilous Black Lagoon to offer a colorful history of a beloved Universal monster: the Creature. Returning writer Wayne Hicks—who brought us issue #19’s delightful retrospective of Topps’ Wacky Packages—shares a remembrance of Zoom (the kids’ TV show, not the Internet teleconferencing platform). And I learned so much—and had a blast doing so—while researching and writing this issue’s “RetroFad” column on Fiftiesmania, plus our “Retro Toys” history of the perennially popular art toy, Colorforms. So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

November 2022

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

M&M’s The Little Giant of Candy Favorites

pleasant taste of nostalgia combined with here and now enjoyment.

M&M’s & ME

When I think back to my earliest confectionary memories, M&M’s don’t appear very often. The strongest taste sensations I can recall are of Hershey bars (boring), Whoppers malted milk BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA balls (still love ’em), and Planters Peanuts (I eat more peanuts than candy these days). M&M’s usually only turned up during the best time of the year for a candy-loving kid: Halloween. Or, as I saw it, Candy Day (see sidebar). The main problem with being a little kid is that often you end up getting the candy an adult wants you to have M&M’s candy, the delicious chocolate treat encased in a sugary instead of your own heart’s desire. shell, has been one of America’s favorites almost since it was first Growing up and moving out on my own (with a dozen other introduced in 1941. Generally speaking, as a child my favorite candy people in a beach house during a wet off-season) gave me the was candy. I was willing to eat candy cigarettes (both the chalky opportunity to more hard ones and bubble gum variants), candy buttons on a fully explore my candy paper strip, and little wax soda options. For my 19th bottles containing a dribble birthday, my roommate, of sweet fluid. Even as a kid I a guy I had known since knew that stuff was sub-par, high school, was going to take but… candy, it had to be me out to celebrate, but went consumed. I haven’t had any of on a date instead. By way them in decades, but they are of apology, he left me a still available should you think note, a six-pack of beer, and a very large bag of I’m making this stuff up. M&M’s Peanut M&M’s. The (which I have been eating while roommate moved writing this article to, you know, out a few weeks get in the mood) more suits the later, and I never saw him adult me. again. But a beer and a bunch I don’t mean to imply Peanut M&M’s package, circa of M&M’s became my go-to that M&M’s are high class or 1960. © 2022 Mars Incorporated and its anything of the sort. Though major treat. I thank him for that affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy they do present better in a candy dish even though, honestly, I just can’t of CandyWrapperArchive.com than, say, a limp pile of Big League Chew sit down and munch on a big bag of shredded bubble gum (of course, if you like candy anymore. I don’t feel the need “ironic” displays, knock yourself out). M&M’s are a and I have nothing to prove. RETROFAN

November 2022

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Moderating input of M&M’s is a bit of a challenge since they are sort of like potato chips, in that they are so snackable (you can’t eat just one). They are designed that way. M&M’s are formulated to be not too sweet, but refreshing so that you crave more. How insidious! The story of M&M’s is one that is a little bit sweet and a little bit sour. It also involves that other great American confectionproducing company, Hershey’s. It is a story of war, betrayal, and relentless work and invention. And, of course, yummy candy.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is produced from the cocoa bean. The Olmec civilization (about 1500 BCE to around 400 BCE) had the earliest known consumers of chocolate. Chocolate was largely taken in as a drink. It was expensive and usually only enjoyed by royalty and the wealthy. Christopher Columbus introduced cocoa beans to Europe from the New World, but personally did not care for the stuff nor did he ever taste it (depending on the source). George Washington often had a warm chocolate drink for breakfast (his first recorded purchase of chocolate was in 1757). It was the invention of milk chocolate by a Swiss chocolatier in 1875 and consequent improvements that led the way for Milton Hershey’s development of the five-cent milk chocolate Hershey bar in 1900, which became an empire-building success. Others would soon follow and try to meet the country’s growing appetite for chocolate. Among those early candy successes would eventually be Franklin C. Mars.

THE MUDDLED MYSTERY OF M&M’s

ROUGH START

In 1911, Franklin Mars and his second wife Ethel began the Mars Candy Factory. It failed. They followed this up in 1920 with the Mar-O-Bar Company, named after his signature candy bar made of (cheap) chocolate, nuts, and caramel. In those days, Franklin would rise early in the morning to make that day’s batch of his special Victorian butter creams. The bar and butter creams were a regional success, but national sales were elusive for nearly all candy makers except for the Hershey juggernaut. Franklin’s son by his first wife, Forrest, had grown up away from his father with little or no contact (again, depending on the source). They reconnected in 1924 when Franklin bailed his adult son out of jail. It may not have been a crime spree exactly, but the younger Mars oversaw a billboard crew that had gotten too enthusiastic and covered over vital signage with their advertising posters. Once free, so the legend goes, 4

RETROFAN

Forrest and his father went to a soda fountain and spent some time catching up. It was here that Forrest suggested his father recreate the flavor of a chocolate malted milk in a candy bar. The result was the Milky Way, a success still popular to this day (I’m not a fan). The two started working together, but it was not a smooth partnership. In 1932, Franklin bought out his son’s interest in the company. Forrest moved to England to oversee taking the Milky Way into the European market and to create his own company, Mars, Ltd. There he bought Chappel Brothers, the British arm of an American pet food company, the first to make canned dog food (originally from horse meat, but that is not the formulation that Mars later used and one that Forrest personally tastetested—seriously). In 1934, Franklin Mars died, and notably Forrest did not go to the funeral.

November 2022

The oft-repeated tale is that Forrest Mars got the idea for M&M’s while visiting Spain during the Spanish Civil War, circa 1936–1937, where he noticed soldiers eating chocolate covered in a candy shell to prevent melting. Traveling to a war zone seems a risky way to get ideas for candy, but that is one version of the story. Another is that Forrest copied (stole) the idea from Rowntree’s & Co., a British confectioner. And yet a third version has Forrest and a family rep from Rowntree’s both going to have a look at Spanish Civil War chocolate possibilities and both noting that the candy eaten by the soldiers was worth duplicating. So they proposed a gentleman’s agreement to allow each other to make a version to sell in their respective spheres of operation: America and Europe. Rowntree’s got to market first in 1937 with Smarties Chocolate

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Beans. Before Forrest could proceed into the American market he needed two basic ingredients: milk chocolate and money. He knew where he could find both, and that was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. At the time, the top people at Hershey’s got along with and even respected the top people at Mars (and visa versa). In fact, Hershey supplied Mars with the milk chocolate to make Milky Way and Snickers (the latter named after a favorite family horse), among other candies. Later, the two companies would become fierce rivals, and part of the reason for that would be due to Forrest’s aggressive business style. But for now, Forrest needed Hershey. Forrest Mars approached the president of Hershey, William F. R. Murrie, who ran the company while the founder, Milton Hershey, both pursued other interests and mourned the loss of his beloved wife who had passed years earlier. He asked Murrie to not just have Hershey provide him with the necessary milk chocolate, but the needed capital by way of a 20% stake in his company, Mars Ltd., from Murrie’s son, Bruce. Forrest even promised to name the candy M&M’s (for Mars and Murrie). Samples he produced for the meeting helped clinch the deal. The elder Murrie thought it was a fine idea, and the younger Murrie went along with it. Hershey would also provide equipment and support.

THE ANATOMY OF AN M&M’s CANDY

M&M’s made their debut in 1941. Plain M&M’s are composed of a lentil-shaped piece of milk chocolate surrounded by a hardened sugary shell. As previously noted, Milton Hershey created the first milk chocolate bar in 1900. The outer candy shell of M&M’s is the result of hard panning, a process invented in France during the 17th Century (if you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ve probably seen Jordan almonds, Not available to the the result of early French general public during hard-panning experiments). World War II, M&M’s So why did it take so long to were included with standard rations. Modern put these two candy-making concepts together? reprint of a 1942 billboard The short answer is that it ad. © 2022 Mars Incorporated and its didn’t. The essential concept affiliates. All Rights Reserved. of a hard candy covering a

chocolate center dates to a Czech candy created in 1907. Then there were the coated sweets Forrest saw in Spain (who made them is unknown). Rowntree’s had been making a similar product called Chocolate Beans (no actual beans were involved) since the 1880s. Today they are more simply christened Smarties (no relation to the American sweets of the same name) and were sold in a round tube. In the beginning, M&Ms’s were also packaged in a round tube. Does this mean that M&M’s aren’t an original product? Well, let’s concede this: They are a successful product. It took a while for that to happen, though, because at first, M&M’s weren’t available to the general public.

M&M’s GO TO WAR

Milk chocolate has a melting point below the temperature of the human body. You’ll notice this when you bite into an M&M’s and the milk chocolate… well, it just melts in your mouth in the most pleasing way (sounds like part of a great slogan). It’s the headache and the beauty of milk chocolate. In the early days of candy-making, the product often didn’t travel well. Getting the goods to the warmer Southern states was problematic. Melted milk chocolate separates out the cocoa butter, and when re-cooled the cocoa butter creates unappealing white streaks and spots.

RETROFAN

November 2022

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

REED CRANDALL

Illustrator of the Comics

MAC RABOY

Master of the Comics

MIKE GRELL

HERO-A-GO-GO!

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

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

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

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Career-spanning tribute to the Legion of Super-Heroes & Warlord comics art legend!

Looks at comics' 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV's Batman shook a mean cape!

Presents JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s own words to examine the complicated relationship of the creators of the Marvel Universe!

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JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

MLJ COMPANION

The complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history! (288-page COLOR paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

COMIC BOOK ARTIST BULLPEN

Collects all seven issues of JON B. COOKE’s little-seen self-published zine, produced just after the original COMIC BOOK ARTIST ended its TwoMorrows run in 2003! (176-page paperback with COLOR) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $8.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-105-9

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SERIES

documents each decade of comics history!

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Documents the genesis of JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD series, his gods in THOR and other strips, how those influenced his DC epic, and affected later series like ETERNALS and CAPTAIN VICTORY!

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An anniversary behind-the-scenes retrospective with publisher JOHN MORROW, JON B. COOKE, MICHAEL EURY, ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY, and others!

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A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

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A spirited biography of the EC COMICS and MAD mainstay, co-creator of Western strip American Eagle, 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor, and Marvel Comics artist.

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

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

Creature Feature Quick! Which of the following Fifties movie monsters is different from the rest? Is it the giant spider in Tarantula… the Metaluna mutant in This Island Earth… the veiny varmints in Invasion of the Saucer Men… or the Gill-Man in Creature From the Black Lagoon? You guessed correctly. The Creature emerged from his lagoon ten or 20 years too late. He could have been a contemporary of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, et al. He was the right height, the right character design. There could have been a movie titled The Wolf Man Meets the Creature. (Plot: Larry Talbot lands in

How the poignant Gill-Man swam into our hearts BY MARK VOGER

Florida in search of a cure for lycanthropy; he belly-flops into a lagoon during a full moon; and comes face-to-face with you-know-what.) Yep, the Creature swam alone among his contemporary monsters in the Fifties. C’mon—don’t try to tell me Old Fish Breath fit in with the typical Fifties roster of radiated insects and bulbous aliens. Still, Universal-International’s three Creature movies—Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)—are staunchly Fifties films. They have the requisite broad-shouldered hero on a scientific expedition; the independently minded damsel; and the older “authority figure” who

The Gill-Man in Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). © Universal Pictures.

RETROFAN

November 2022

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Biologia Martima. The old professor (Antonio Moreno) is professoring. Researcher Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams) is attending to her duties in an enchanting ensemble with crisp white short-shorts (which provide zero protection against Amazonian insects). Kay trades tepid romantic banter with handsome scientist David Reed (Richard Carlson). Only a Velveeta-on-Wonder-Bread sandwich could make this scene any more Fifties. The professor is like a kid on Christmas with his latest discovery: the fossilized bones of a clawequipped limb found in a limestone deposit “dating back to the Devonian Age.” (Savvy monster fans recognize it as belonging to a relative of the Creature.) Pipe-smoking scientist Edwin Thompson (Whit Bissell, who had a face made for sci-fi) reckons the bones belonged to “an amphibian that spent a great deal of time in the water.” Hmmm. An expedition is organized to find a rumored living example of this genetic anomaly. For the professor, it’s in the interest of science. But for boss man Mark Williams (Richard Denning)—a slippery character whose flirting with Kay is uninvited—it’s in the interest of commerce. A regrettable trope of old monster movies set in far-away regions dictates that innocent natives are the first to be slaughtered. In the case of Creature, victims #1 and 2 are Luis (Rodd Redwing) and Tomas (Perry Lopez). We get glimpses of the Creature, and are introduced to his earworm musical theme—three notes on shrill trumpets courtesy of composer Herman Stein. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it. As the expedition sails along, Kay takes an illadvised little swim in a clingy white one-piece. (White is apparently her color.) The Creature—who is part man, after all—takes notice of this lovely female. The celebrated sequence in which Kay swims along the surface while the curious Creature does a back-stroke beneath her is a hallmark of romance in classic horror, right up there with Mary Philbin unmasking Lon Chaney, and Fay Wray wriggling in King Kong’s fist. Ginger Stanley, who regularly appeared as a mermaid at the Weeki Wachee Springs aquatic attraction in Hernando County, Florida, doubled for Adams in the swimming sequence (although Adams swims beautifully in those scenes where her face is visible). When Kay is gently brushed by the Creature, it reminds us of the opening scene in Jaws—the ill-fated young lady’s midnight swim. Steven Spielberg was paying attention. The expedition party finally spots the Creature, and just as in Kong, we root for him over the unfeeling, well-armed men who insinuate themselves into his unspoiled habitat. Damn you, human interlopers! When the Creature finally meets his end, his death is, as any self-respecting monster fan knows, imperma-

A menacing poster for Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). © Universal Pictures. 18

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nent. He’ll be back. We’ve been through this too many times with his forebears like Drac, Frankie, and Wolfie.

‘REVENGE OF THE CREATURE’

In early treatments for Creature From the Black Lagoon, the title monster was to be taken back to civilization, à la King Kong. Instead, the filmmakers squirreled that idea away for the sequel. Arnold’s Revenge of the Creature is all about how he fares as a tourist attraction in Florida. (Spoiler alert: Not well.) Filmed in part at the Marineland theme park in Florida, Revenge is the ultimate, pardon the pun, fish-out-of-water story. And it has Clint Eastwood in a brief bit as a scientist with a gravity-defying pompadour. (No matter how many Oscars they throw at old Squint, Revenge of the Creature will always be the fossil in his closet.) We first see colorful Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva, repeating his role from the first film) waxing philosophical as he steers the Rita II toward—where else?—the Black Lagoon. “This beast exists because it is stronger than the thing you call evolution,” he says in his generic Hollywood “foreign” accent. The captain’s musings are ignored by the Creature’s latest pursuers. The Gill-Man’s first appearance in the film is disturbing: He kills a sweet, unassuming exotic bird. (I can’t say for sure whether the noble bird was killed in real life, but it sure looks bad.) The Creature is eventually transplanted to Florida, where his wellbeing

(ABOVE) Posters for the two Creature sequels, Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). (BELOW) In this colorized promotional still, a quiet moment between John Agar and Lori Nelson from Revenge of the Creature. © Universal Pictures.

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like a swim fin than just a foot that flops around. That helped a lot.” In the films, Browning is seen in the Creature getup swimming underwater for long periods of time without a cutaway. He accomplished this by taking breaths from air hoses hidden off camera or among the vegetation. “It’s kind of like breathing from an aqualung, but a little more difficult,” Browning said. “I had four safety men. I would breathe from the air hose, and the cameraman would signal that he’s ready. Then I would let him know I’m ready for the scene. I’d let go of the hose, give it to the safety man, go into the scene, hold my breath, and do the scene—or do as much of the scene as I could—holding my breath. Then I would go to another safety man on the other side of the ‘frame,’ and get another air hose to breathe from. “I had a signal with all of the safety men because I was always moving. Either my hands, my legs, or some part of me was always in motion. But if I went totally limp, that was my signal to them: ‘I need air.’ And they would swim in and give me air. That’s how it worked.” Ben Chapman, who played the Creature on land in the first film, sought guidance from the director. As Chapman told me in 1998: “I asked Jack Arnold, ‘How do you want me to play him?’ He said, ‘I don’t want you to play him as a cartoon.’ In other words, not clump-clump-clump, like they do with a lot of monster movies today. There’s no basic story to it today. There’s no feeling to it.” Visibility was a problem for Chapman, who said the eyeholes were fashioned in three sizes, depending on the shot. “Otherwise, I worked with flashlights,” Chapman said. “I would keep the eyes out and rehearse while I could see everything. Then they would put me back on the mark, put the eyes back in—I couldn’t see anything—and I’d walk where they told me to, and follow the light from this flashlight.” So compromised was Chapman’s vision, he accidentally knocked Adams’ head into a faux cave while carrying her in one scene. The resulting injury required medical attention. (Chapman died in 2008.) Like Adams, Lori Nelson was less than thrilled when offered the role of the heroine in Revenge of the Creature. As Nelson told me in 1996: “I did not want to do that picture. In those days, you just didn’t do them; you didn’t like to do science fiction or ‘creature features,’ as they were called. But as it turned out, it was a big production. It turned out to be a great source of pride for me.” One aspect Nelson was proud of: “I did most of my own swimming, and a lot of the skin-diving stuff in the tank. They wanted shots, through the portholes, of me inside the tank. When they put the aqualung on me, and I went down in the tank, there were manta rays and sharks down there! But they were fed every hour,” 24

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Watery relationships: (TOP) Julie Adams and the Creature. © Universal Pictures.

(BOTTOM) Still from Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning homage to the Creature, The Shape of Water (2017). © Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Nelson added with a laugh. “I wasn’t allowed to go down until all the fish had been fed.” (Nelson died in 2020.) Like some of the classic Universal monsters that preceded him, the Creature evokes sympathy in viewers. Chapman noted that Marilyn Monroe’s character in The Seven Year Itch verbalized this sentiment. Said Chapman: “When you get to that scene where Marilyn Monroe is coming out of the movie theater with (co-star) Tom Ewell—as they turn and they’re walking towards that grate, just before it blew the dress up—if you look in the back, the marquee has huge letters that say Creature From the Black Lagoon. It has this huge picture of me, this cutout. Marilyn Monroe turns to Tom Ewell and goes, ‘Wasn’t that a sad movie?’ And she says, ‘I felt so sorry for the Creature.’ It’s a great part of the movie. “The toughest thing for an actor to do is to act without being seen. Because you can’t use any facial expressions. So I had to use body language, so as to make you feel sorry for me. It’s almost like doing mime.” “There’s a poignancy to our Creature,” agreed Adams. “I think that’s probably the secret: There’s an empathy there for the Creature. It has elements of a fairy tale about it. The sequence where I’m swimming, and he is swimming beneath me, is very poetic. “But there’s a mysterious element. There’s that mystery of the water, and what’s under the sea or what’s under this dark lagoon, that appeals to everyone. People have great affection for this film. So that adds up to affection for the Creature.” Monroe’s Seven Year Itch character sums it up in the scene cited by Chapman: “He was kind of scary-looking, but he wasn’t really all bad. I think he just craves a little affection—you know, a sense of being loved and needed and wanted.” MARK VOGER is the author and designer of five books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, and Holly Jolly. Voger worked in the newspaper field as an entertainment reporter and graphic artist for 40 years, and lives at the Jersey Shore. As a child, Voger thought Laurel and Hardy were cartoon characters, not real people. Visit him at MarkVoger.com.

RETRO TOYS

n o k c u t S e B We’ll Always

BY MICHAEL EURY Patricia and Harry Kislevitz, creators of Colorforms. People of Play. Mid-century kids’ toy boxes were as gender-segregated as their school restrooms: G.I. Joe, Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, and Hot Wheels for him; Barbie, Mystery Date, and Easy Bake Oven for her. Few toy manufacturers of the era dared cross the pink-and-blue line to create a product that would attract both sexes. One of the most successful that did debuted in the early Fifties and has, well, stuck around ever since, with over a billion (no, that’s not a typo) sets sold—Colorforms®. While Colorforms will need no definition for the majority of RetroFan’s readers, just in case you somehow missed out on one of Time magazine’s “All Time 100 Greatest Toys,” Colorforms are boxed playsets of multicolored precut vinyl pieces that stick to an illustrated playboard (or “workboard,” in Colorforms-speak), inviting children to create their own pictures—which can then be peeled off and used again and again. An art project in a box. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Colorforms concept was conceived by a pair of art students.

BATHROOM ART

Harry (1927–2009) and Patricia (1929– ) “Pat” Kislevitz were young illustrators who met in New York

A peek inside the original Colorforms kit, now reissued and available at Amazon and other retailers. © Colorforms Brand LLC.

City in the late Forties. At the time Harry was a World War II Navy veteran living on a G.I. Bill shoestring budget, and Patricia, a South Carolina native, had recently graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in art. While studying at New York City’s Art Students League, they were both smitten by the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic that so influenced postwar design, and decorated their tiny Upper West Side apartment accordingly. Harry took a fancy to the work of Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian abstract-expressionist known for using colorful geometric patterns in his paintings. A portraitist, Harry found the cost of tubes of oil paints beyond his reach. Plastics were all the rage during this Atomic Age, and Harry thought they might be employed to fill in colors for his large works of art. An alternate version of the Colorforms origin states that the Kislevitzes were instead searching for an affordable option to wall paint so they might spruce up the drab confines of their narrow, “railroad” apartment. Both versions intersect with Harry obtaining several large rolls of brightly hued, paper-thin vinyl from a manufacturer to use as an artistic medium. Soon the Kislevitzes’ claustrophobic residence on West 29th Street was crammed with intrusive rolls of vinyl. RETROFAN RETROFAN

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retro toys

Legendary graphic designer and art director Paul Rand (LEFT) created the colorful Colorforms logo in 1959—and while it’s been slightly modified in recent years, it’s still in use today! © Colorforms Brand LLC. expanding their operation and eventually settling into a River Edge home. Their muddled basement was their business and creative headquarters, although a multi-building factory in neighboring Norwood later followed for Colorforms production.

‘NO SCISSORS, NO PASTE, NO MUSS’

Patricia began to employ bright colors of vinyl that were pleasing to children, and Deluxe Colorforms sets were created in the Fifties that included kid-friendly forms such as boats and clowns. The spiral-bound original Colorforms booklet morphed into the slick-coated paper workboards, which consumers were told to “just wipe with a damp cloth from time to time” to maintain their efficacy. New kits provided educational value. Funny Animals sets were favorites of young girls and boys. Gender-skewed kits also catered to each of the sexes. Girls could play with the Dress Designer Kit—a stick-on upgrade of the classic, perennial favorite, the paper doll—which came packaged with three plastic dolls and colorform sheets of various clothing and accessories, while boys could design their own rockets and spacecraft with the Spaceforms set of 1958—which today is among the rarest of Colorforms collectibles! Most of the artwork for the earliest Colorforms sets was produced by Patricia and Harry Kislevitz themselves, or by artists the couple commissioned for projects. Harry Zelenko was one of those contracted artists, creating the first Colorforms logo that appeared on early packaging and, along with his wife, Marion Zelenko, designing the Junior Dress Designer kit. In 1957, Colorforms introduced its first original character with its Miss Cookie’s Kitchen (full title: Come Into Miss Cookie’s Kitchen) set. Girls (and possibly some boys destined to become chefs) assisted Miss Cookie in filling the fridge, stocking the cupboard, and staging the presentation of meals by using stick-on pieces. Miss Cookie’s Kitchen, a deluxe-sized set that originally sold for $1.98, got a boost from a television commercial that spoke 28

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more to moms than their daughters with its opening narration, “Here’s the way to play kitchen, and never make a mess. Listening, Mother?” (Come Into Miss Cookie’s Playroom later followed, and Cookie’s galley and pantry got an aerospace makeover with Miss Cookie’s Moon Kitchen in 1969, the year Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong took his famous “one giant leap for mankind.”) Also in 1957, Colorforms released its first “Cartoon Kit” based upon a licensed property—the longtime animated favorite Popeye the Sailor, licensed from King Features Syndicate. In addition to the Popeye box top’s standard marketing copy touting the ease of Colorforms’ use (“no paint, no paste, no scissors”), its graphics conveyed the squinty mariner’s personality by having Popeye himself (in a word balloon) tout the joy of Colorforms: “Blow me down! Even I yam a’ artisk with these magic plastic shapes!” The kit itself featured colorforms of Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, plus word balloons, in fun shades of orange, pink, green, and blue vinyl. By this time in the late Fifties, more properties with TV visibility became Colorforms sets, including Bugs Bunny in 1958. Captain Kangaroo, CBS-TV’s grandfatherly morning kid-show host, and Lariat Sam, the animated cowboy whose toons appeared on the Captain Kangaroo program, were also early licensed entries for Colorforms, as was The Mickey Mouse Club. Television commercials kept the burgeoning Colorforms product line in the public eye. In 1959, Harry and Patricia Kislevitz tapped Paul Rand, a lauded graphic designer responsible for creating corporate logos that have since become iconic (see sidebar), to put a “face” their product. Cleverly applying the simple shapes of a blue triangle (for a hat), a yellow half-circle (for a face), and a pink square (for a body), Rand

‘EVERYTHING IS DESIGN!’ Born Peretz Rosenbaum in Brooklyn, New York, art director-graphic designer Paul Rand (1914–1996) enlivened mid-century American visual arts and corporate iconography by infusing innovative European design elements into his work. Through a career spanning six decades, Rand regarded graphic design as a “universal language,” combining geometric shapes and identifiable typography into his work. In addition to his creation of the timeless Colorforms logo, Rand also designed corporate logos for ABC Television, IBM, Enron, UPS, Westinghouse, Steve Jobs’ NeXT, and other firms.

retro toys

designed a happy figure to symbolize the Colorforms brand and an accompanying logo that has withstood the test of time and is still used today. Rand also designed some Colorforms sets. In the early Sixties, the Kislevitzes sometimes printed their commissioned artists’ credits on the box tops. Credited artists/ designers from this era include Jerome Kuhl (Captain Kangaroo), James Caraway (Beany & Cecil), and Dick Martin (Huckleberry Hound, Popeye Goes Swimming). With the advent of licensed properties, the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic of primary colors and geometric shapes that dominated the original and early Colorforms slowly gave way to graphics that mirrored the looks of their host properties—although the brightly hued, simple forms that defined the initial sets continued to be visible in company-owned concepts such as the Sixties favorite, the Dinosaurs kit. Similar to the sculpted puppets and dioramas constructed for 3-D View-Master reels, with select licensed properties Colorforms featured figural photography for the workboards. Yogi Bear and two Popeye sets—Popeye the Weatherman and Popeye Goes Swimming—were produced in this manner.

OUTER SPACE MEN One of the more popular toy creations of Mel Birnkrant (1937– ) was his design of the Outer Space Men, an actionfigure line produced from 1968–1970 by Colorforms. Author James H. Gillam, in his book Space Toys of the 60’s (1999, CG Publishing, Ltd.), wrote, “These figures, as with the Major Matt Mason line of toys, were made of a pliable rubber compound molded over a wire metal skeletal framework. The wires seem to have held up well in many cases, and appear to be of better quality than the Major Matt Mason line that it attempted to emulate.” In addition to two series of Outer Space Men figures (listed below), Colorforms also produced the Birnkrantdesigned Space Warriors Colorforms Adventure Set released during 1977’s Star Wars mania, and jigsaw puzzles featuring the characters.

A PRODUCT LINE TAKES SHAPE

(TOP) Beatlemania inspired this hard-to-find 1966 Colorforms Cartoon Kit based upon the animated cartoon series, The Beatles. (BOTTOM) Batmania inspired not only a 1966 Batman Cartoon Kit but also other, non-“stick-on” Colorforms Batman products, like Print Putty. Colorforms also produced Print Putty products for the Green Hornet and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. The Beatles © Apple Corp. Batman TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

The company manufactured a variety of arts-and-crafts activity sets in the early Sixties, often exploiting popular character licenses. A child could color their favorite trio of knuckleheads with Colorforms’ Three Stooges Pencil Coloring Set or produce ink-page

OUTER SPACE MEN SERIES ONE f Alpha 7 – The Man from Mars f Electron+ – The Man from Pluto f Orbitron – The Man from Uranus f Colossus Rex – The Man from Jupiter f Astro-Nautilus – The Man from Neptune f Commander Comet – The Man from Venus f Xodiac – The Man from Saturn

OUTER SPACE MEN SERIES TWO f Cyclops – The Giant beyond the Milky Way f Gamma-X – The Man from the 4th Dimension f Gemini – The Man from the Twin Star ALGOL f Inferno – The Flame Man of Mercury f Metamorpho – The Man from Alpha Centauri f Mystron – The Man from Hollow Earth

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Pop Culture Books from TwoMorrows!

BRITMANIA

by RetroFan’s 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! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • NOW SHIPPING!

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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

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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 Emmy-winning 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

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

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

Who Created BY WILL MURRAY

In the summer of 1968, an amazing British television show was broadcast over American TV: The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan. It was an electrifying show, and despite its surreal and unsatisfactory—some say infuriating—conclusion, by popular demand, acclaim or whatever, CBS reran it the following summer. Those viewers who missed it the first time had a rare opportunity to become enamored with or outraged by it. Being an impressionable teenager at the time, I was as mesmerized as anyone. In the half-century-plus since The Prisoner first aired, innumerable articles and multiple books have been written on the subject.

The meaning of the show and the enigma of its denouement have been endlessly argued about, dissected, and rehashed. Since that cottage industry is still going strong, there’s no reason this column can’t delve into the interminable controversy all over again.

HE’S A SECRET AGENT, MAN

Television series were done differently in Great Britain than in the U.S. The seasons were shorter. Shows often followed an arc that led to a natural conclusion, and no matter how high the ratings were,

(ABOVE) Screen capture from the opening, series logo, and character montage from the cerebral, and some say confounding, one-season series, The Prisoner. © ITC Entertainment Inc. RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

that was that. No more episodes were filmed. Typically, a British series ran 13 episodes. In this case, 17 episodes of The Prisoner were produced. CBS declined to show one of them because the network thought it would be too confusing to American viewers. But a few years later, PBS reran the series and finally the U.S. audience got to see the forbidden episode, entitled “Living in Harmony.” Patrick McGoohan was a rising star in British TV in 1960 when he was cast as John Drake in the ITC series, Danger Man. In its original two-season incarnation, Drake was an agent of NATO working out of Washington, D.C. After having run its course, Danger Man left the air. Then the James Bond craze kicked in. McGoohan had been offered the part of Bond, but turned it down. Likewise he declined the role of Simon Templar in the British-produced Saint TV series [see RetroFan #14], which went to Roger Moore, later Sean Connery’s successor as Agent 007. Producer Sir Lew Grade brought back Danger Man as an hourlong show. McGoohan resumed the role, increasingly making it his own. In the second series, the concept was reformulated. Drake now worked for M9, a British Intelligence ministry. The show was syndicated worldwide, making the actor a rising international star. In America, the show was renamed Secret Agent, and Johnny Rivers’ theme song became a huge hit. One line—“They’ve given you a number and taken away your name”— would later prove ironic. Danger Man was rolling along when it went into its fourth season, the first to be a shot in color. Then its star threw a monkey wrench into the production. Even though Patrick McGoohan had made the character his own, investing John Drake with some of his own personality quirks—including his refusal to carry a gun or kiss a girl on-screen, which the actor saw as a response to the excesses of James Bond and his imitators—the actor had had enough of the role. McGoohan was the hottest star in Great Britain at the time. Sir Lew Grade didn’t want to lose him. So he did something unusual. He gave the actor carte blanche to produce his own TV series, making McGoohan executive producer.

‘THE VILLAGE’ PEOPLE

As so often happens, both McGoohan and his script editor, George Markstein, later disagreed about the genesis of the series. For years, the actor had been thinking of a project focusing on the individual versus bureaucracy. No doubt that’s true. He was a guy who nearly became a Jesuit priest before embarking upon his acting career. Markstein was rumored to have had a background in Intelligence, which he steadfastly denied. Indisputably, he knew a lot about the subject. He became aware of the existence of a secret spot in Scotland called Inverlair Lodge, a luxury prison where the British government forcibly retired Intelligence operators who knew too much to be allowed to remain at liberty. Markstein believed that in the Cold War climate of the Sixties, here was a great springboard for a TV series. McGoohan agreed. The Danger Man pilot had been filmed in a Welsh hotel village called Portmeirion Lodge, which often doubled 36

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(TOP) Was TV’s John Drake actually Number Six? What do you think? Patrick McGoohan photo cover for Gold Key Comics’ Secret Agent #1 (Nov. 1966). (BOTTOM) Patrick McGoohan as Number Six at the groupthink getaway (or is that “Go Away”?), The Village. © ITC Entertainment Inc.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

McGoohan (SITTING) as Number Six, Angelo Muscat (RIGHT) as the Butler, and Leo McKern (INSET) as Number Two. © ITC Entertainment Inc.

for a Mediterranean town due to its unusual Italianate architecture. McGoohan was so impressed by the place that six years later, Portmeirion became an Inverlair Lodge simulacrum cryptically known as “The Village.” “This was a setting that could be beautiful enough, mysterious and often confining enough, to be the place for our man… in isolation,” stated McGoohan. The premise was straightforward. A nameless British intelligence agent angrily resigns, giving his letter of resignation to an equally anonymous bureaucrat played by Markstein himself. Returning home, he packs for a vacation when a jet-spray of gas squirts in through a keyhole, knocking him out. Upon awakening, his immediate surroundings lead him to believe he’s still in his London flat. But when he looks out the window, he’s staring out at a picturesque storybook village. Exploring this new environment, he discovers that the inhabitants have numbers instead of names, and he’s been assigned Number Six, which he angrily rejects with his defiant mantra, “I am not a number, I am a free man!” Summoned to a dominant building topped by a green dome, he’s met by a seemingly mute, diminutive

butler, who escorts him into the futuristic office-chamber of the chairman of The Village, a man known only as Number Two. Two wants to know why he resigned. Number Six refuses to say. And so begins the contest of wills between Six and the outwardly benign yet sinister authoritative bureaucracy that controls The Village. Number Two wants to first break Number Six, get him to reveal his secrets, and then force him to conform to Village life. But without harming him. The Prisoner’s sole goal is to escape, which he later modifies. He also wants to return and flatten The Village, which he considers anti-individual, and therefore evil. Behind it all is the shadowy, mysterious Number One, whom the successive Number Twos fear. When they are inevitably replaced, it’s usually in punishment for their failures. Paranoia dominates the lives of both the prisoners and their warders.

WHO IS NUMBER SIX?

Number Six’s circumstances parallel McGoohan’s abrupt resignation from Danger Man at the beginning of its first color season. Naturally, one wondered if the Number Six was in reality John Drake. McGoohan always denied this, quipping, “He was never called John Drake, he just happened to look like him.” But the truth is more complicated. Other participants, such as Markstein, claimed that he was, and early scripts signified the protagonist as “Drake.” This was later changed to “P,” for Prisoner. Many have pointed out that the photograph of Patrick McGoohan which is X’d out by a typewriter in the opening sequence RETROFAN

November 2022

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

George Markstein took a harsher view. “I think that in many ways The Prisoner is a tragedy,” he insisted, “because McGoohan became a prisoner of the series, and it’s never nice to see that happen to a human being, the combination of ambition, frustration, wanting to be writer, director, actor—you name it. It was sad, it was very sad, I think. It did something to him that wasn’t very good, and it was reflected in the series. And that’s why the series ended like that, and that’s why people have said, ‘I don’t understand the end.’ Of course they don’t understand the end, because there is no end. I don’t think even McGoohan understood the end…” In one respect, the two men were in agreement. “There’s no final conclusion to it,” McGoohan admitted. “And I was very fortunate to be able to do something as audacious as that with no final conclusion to it.” George Markstein once revealed that in his imagination, The Village was originally Number Six’s idea, but he decided it was not humane. Six quit when he discovered The Village project had been put into operation without his knowledge. Markstein quipped, “Not even Patrick McGoohan realized that Drake’s expression on waking in The Village wasn’t bewilderment—it was recognition!

Patrick McGoohan as The Prisoner’s Number Six makes a cartoon cameo on an episode of The Simpsons. © 20th Century Studios. “Who is Number Six is no mystery,” he insisted. “He was a secret agent called Drake who quit.” In 2009, the year Patrick McGoohan died, The Prisoner was remade as an AMC miniseries starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen. Discarding Portmeirion, it was filmed in a barren landscape of endless desert and modest uniform cottages. I watched it to the bitter end, and it bored me to tears. Alas. Periodically, filmmakers have floated other Prisoner remakes, and none have gotten off the ground. I just wish someone would film a conclusion that fit with the unfolding story McGoohan and Markstein developed so long ago. Over a half-century later, I’m still waiting for a satisfactory conclusion to one of the greatest cult television shows of all time. WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze. com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko.

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November 2022

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Pushing the Panic Button: BY SCOTT SHAW! My first viewing of Yellow Submarine was on November 13, 1968, its American release date. Nothing could have prepared me for what I viewed that night, so blazingly unique that I returned to watch it again a few nights later. And again. And a few more hundred times. And after all of those viewings and all of the years since, I still find new aspects of Yellow Submarine to appreciate and love every time I view it, usually on Blu-ray these days. But little did I realize that this mind-blowing animated movie had an even more mind-blowing production history, one fraught with so many obstacles that it’s a showbiz miracle that the film ever got made at all, let alone made magnificently. Here are some little-known facts regarding Yellow Submarine’s “secret origin” and how we got here from back there.

AND THE BAND BEGAN TO PLAY

Producer Al Brodax—described by one of the film’s voiceover actors as having “…the Hawaiian shirt on and the big fat cigar… a caricature (of an) American”—was the head of King Features’ motion picture/television department. He had previously produced syndicated cartoon shorts starring Beetle Bailey, Popeye the Sailor [see RetroFan #12], and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, all animated adaptations of King Features comic strips. On February 10, 1964, the day after the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Brodax approached Beatles manager Brian Epstein—who Brodax once referred to as “a very difficult person,” and others described as “the unsung hero of Yellow Submarine”—for the animation rights to the Beatles. The deal was by no means a bargain —$32,000 to produce each half-hour show, with a big chunk of that going back to Brian—but the American producer was an expert at squeezing blood out of a stonehard deal, so he took production overseas to a studio called TV Cartoons of London, among others. “Eppy” promised Brodax that if his proposed The Beatles cartoon series for ABC proved successful, he’d give Brodax the approval to produce an animated Beatles feature film afterwards. The Beatles cartoon was so successful, it ran from September 25, 1965 to September 7, 1969, on Saturday mornings on ABC-TV. Its second season bore traces of the increasingly countercultural flavor of the Beatles, with some of its later episodes foreshadowing Yellow Submarine’s otherworldly vibe, but more scary than trippy. Paul McCartney says he had the inspiration for the 1966 song “Yellow Submarine” while in a “dream-like state”

The Odyssey of

Yellow

Submarine

(RIGHT) Late-Sixties filmgoers took a trip to the movies to see the animated Beatles film, Yellow Submarine. © Subafilms Ltd. Six-sheet movie poster courtesy of Heritage.

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November 2022

New from TwoMorrows!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #85

BACK ISSUE #139

BACK ISSUE #140

BACK ISSUE #141

KIRBY: ANIMATED! How JACK KIRBY and his concepts leaped from celluloid, to paper, and back again! From his 1930s start on Popeye and Betty Boop and his work being used on the 1960s Marvel Super-Heroes show, to Fantastic Four (1967 and 1978), Super Friends/Super Powers, Scooby-Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Ruby-Spears. Plus EVAN DORKIN on his abandoned Kamandi cartoon series, and more!

NOT-READY-FOR-PRIMETIME MARVEL HEROES! Mighty Marvel’s Bronze Age second bananas: Doc Samson, Jack of Hearts, Thundra, Nighthawk, Starfox, Modred the Mystic, Woodgod, the Shroud, Thunderbird and Warpath, Stingray, Wundaar, and others! Featuring the work of BUSIEK, DAVID, ENGLEHART, GERBER, GIFFEN, GRANT, MANTLO, MICHELINIE, STERN, THOMAS, and other A-list talent!

DINOSAUR COMICS! Interviews with Xenozoic®’s MARK SCHULTZ and dinoartist extraordinaire WILLIAM STOUT! Plus: Godzilla at Dark Horse, Sauron villain history, Dinosaurs Attack!, Dinosaurs for Hire, Dinosaur Rex, Dino Riders, Lord Dinosaur, and Jurassic Park! Featuring ARTHUR ADAMS, BISSETTE, CLAREMONT, COCKRUM, GERANI, STRADLEY, ROY THOMAS, and more. SCHULTZ cover.

SPIES AND P.I.s! Nick Fury from Howling Commando to Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ms. Tree’s MAX ALLAN COLLINS and TERRY BEATTY in a Pro2Pro interview, MARK EVANIER on his Crossfire series, a Hydra villain history, WILL EISNER’s John Law, Checkmate, and Tim Trench and Mike Mauser. With ENGLEHART, ERWIN, HALL, ISABELLA, KUPPERBERG, STATON, THOMAS, and cover by DAVE JOHNSON!

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ALTER EGO #178

ALTER EGO #179

ALTER EGO #180

BRICKJOURNAL #75

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #29

Golden Age great EMIL GERSHWIN, artist of Starman, Spy Smasher, and ACG horror—in a super-length special MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT by MICHAEL T. GILBERT—plus a Gershwin showcase in PETER NORMANTON’s From The Tomb— even a few tidbits about relatives GEORGE and IRA GERSHWIN to top it off! Also FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and other surprise features!

Celebrating the 61st Anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1—’cause we kinda blew right past its 60th—plus a sagacious salute to STAN LEE’s 100th birthday, with never-before-seen highlights—and to FF #1 and #2 inker GEORGE KLEIN! Spotlight on Sub-Mariner in the Bowery in FF #4—plus sensational secrets behind FF #1 and #3! Also: FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, a JACK KIRBY cover, and more!

THE YOUNG ALL-STARS—the late-1980s successor to ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Interviews with first artist BRIAN MURRAY and last artist LOU MANNA—surprising insights by writer/co-creator ROY THOMAS—plus a panorama of never-seen Young All-Stars artwork! All-new cover by BRIAN MURRAY! Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and beyond!

The fast-changing world of LEGO MECHA! Learn how to build mechs with the best mecha builders in the world: BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: AFOLs (“Adult Fans of LEGO”) by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

DON McGREGOR retrospective, from early ’70s Warren Publications scripter to his breakout work at Marvel Comics on BLACK PANTHER, KILLRAVEN, SABRE, DETECTIVES INC., RAGAMUFFINS, and others. Plus ROBERT MENZIES looks at HERB TRIMPE’s mid-’70s UK visit to work on Marvel’s British comics weeklies, MIKE GOLD Part Two, and CARtoons cartoonist SHAWN KERRIE! SANDY PLUNKETT cover!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #84

STEVE SHERMAN TRIBUTE! Kirby family members, friends, comics creators, and the entertainment industry salute Jack’s assistant (and puppeteer on Men in Black, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and others). MARK EVANIER and Steve recall assisting Kirby, Steve discusses Jack’s Speak-Out Series, Kirby memorabilia from his collection, an interview with wife DIANA MERCER, and Steve’s unseen 1974 KIRBY/ROYER cover!

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

BY ANDY MANGELS Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, and prepare to leave the safety of Earth to join the savior of the universe as he and his allies combat evil on the planet Mongo, and battle to keep our own planet safe! Or, in the words of the hero himself, from the opening of the 1979 animated series… “Blasting off on a desperate mission to save Earth from the evil plottings of the tyrannical space lord Ming the Merciless, Dr. Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden have joined me, Flash Gordon, on a fantastic journey into worlds where peril and adventure await us!” Taking a trip to both the past and the future, adventure awaits Flash Gordon. Rounding out our look at historical heroes on Saturday mornings— following explorations of Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, and Zorro in previous issues of RetroFan—in this issue, Flash Gordon gets the spotlight as we explore his unique animated superstardom!

ORIGINS OF FLASH GORDON

Buck Rogers, created by Philip Francis Nowlan and drawn by Dick Calkins for National Newspaper Service, became the most popular science-fiction adventure hero in newspaper comic strips following his January 1929 debut. Rival newspaper content providers King Features Syndicate saw the success of Buck Rogers and commissioned a new science-fiction hero in late 1933 from

writer-artist Alex Raymond (working with ghost-writer Don Moore). Flash Gordon first appeared in daily U.S. newspapers on January 7, 1934, and the fantastical adventure strip almost immediately became a huge hit, branching out to Sundays, and then expanding to multimedia. The base story for Flash Gordon followed the adventures of a handsome blond polo player named “Flash,” who was kidnapped along with the comely Dale Arden by Dr. Hans Zarkov and taken off-planet in Zarkov’s experimental rocketship. The initial intent was to stop a mysterious planet from colliding with Earth, but the trio soon discovered that the planet Mongo held more danger than a “mere” collision. Mongo and its many lands were ruled by the evil Ming the Merciless, but on the surface of the planet were realms like the forest world of Arboria, the flying city of the Hawkmen, icy Frigia, the jungle-like Tropica, and even undersea kingdoms! Flash had to gain allies—many of whom were at war with

(ABOVE) Flash Gordon comic strip detail by Alex Raymond (Aug. 14, 1938). (LEFT) Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe movie serial poster (1940). © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

November 2022

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(LEFT) Dr. Zarkov turnaround model sheet. (RIGHT) Pre-production art of Zarkov’s crashed ship. © King Features Syndicate, Inc.

of the handsome Flash Gordon. Along the way, the plot included spaceship battles, Lizard People, and more. Filmation’s artists took great care to follow the design and feel of the original Alex Raymond comic strips, updating them only slightly. The costumes for the women were sexy, and even Flash Gordon showed some skin as his clothes got progressively torn away like Doc Savage, until he changed into his familiar red-and-blue bodysuit toward the end of the story. “We shot extensive live-action footage of human actors for rotoscoping, so that the human animation would have fluidity,” said Scheimer. “One of the women we filmed was Don Christensen’s secretary, Karen, who was both very good at running in slow motion for rotoscoping, and also an excellent belly dancer. For some reason, we never had any problems getting male artists to work on footage of the Flash Gordon girls!” Indeed, Filmation put out a call for new artists in the trade papers and at comic shops and animation/art supply stores, utilizing Flash Gordon as the draw to work for the company! In a 2006 interview, the late Darrell McNeil, an animator and cartoon historian, recalled, “We had a lot of rotoscoping; it was very much a very labor-intensive process, but it looked really, really good in places. I worked with a guy named Les Christensen, who was my layout mentor on this thing, and we worked on one scene with Princess Aura, where she’s on a couch, and she kind of rotates over and looks to Flash, and does what she tends to do, and the director looked at it and kind of gave us a look, and we said, ‘What’s wrong with it?’ and he said, ‘Well, she’s not… alluring enough.’ And we kind of got the hint, and knew what to do after that.” Bob Kline, storyboard director for Flash Gordon, recalled in a 2006 interview, 58

RETROFAN

November 2022

“I can remember Don Christensen asking me at one point when I was working at Filmation what my favorite project would be to work on, and I told him at that time it was Flash Gordon. It was quite a long time before we got the rights to do it. When we did, he came to my office and told me, ‘Well, it’s finally happened, we’re going to do Flash Gordon,’ so it was almost like getting a present.” Kline credited most of the basic character designs to longtime Filmation designer Herb Hazleton. “We tried to be faithful to Alex Raymond in our designs, and evoke that feeling.” Kline himself did many preproduction drawings that papered the walls at Filmation, showcasing fantastic cities, aliens, plants, and more. He also designed characters and creatures including some dinosaurs and dragons and Ming’s robots. The effects team, headed by John Grusd and Paul Huston, developed clay models and maquettes of the characters, ships, and creatures. The models of the ships were painted white and covered in thin black lines, then filmed in live-action with a computerized multi-axis camera. The film negatives were then printed as cels, creating “positive” versions of the ships for the animators to use for exact movement and perspective… no redrawing required! Combined with early computer animation and rotoscoping, this was essentially the nascent beginning of the kind of

(INSET) Animator Darrell McNeil.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

CGI motion-capture technology now used in feature films today! “We were pioneers of the technique on Flash Gordon!” Scheimer explained. Other effects work expanded Filmation’s technical capabilities. Bob Kline told Starlog in 1981 that “We utilized bottom lighting… we used moiré patterns to achieve ray effects and the energy screen behind Ming’s throne. All those types of things were experiments that paid off.” All of the rotoscoping and creature and ship models and backgrounds could be reused for the Flash Gordon series, helping that show’s budget. “Because we had developed all this material for the film, we could transfer it to use as stock for the Saturday morning show, and thus have a show that looked fantastic,” said Scheimer. “We also made the decision to use some of the footage from the film for the first four episodes or so of the series, but that decision created problems of its own.” Due to Saturday morning censorship restrictions, out were any scenes set in World War II or with Hitler

FAST FACTS FILMATION’S THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLASH GORDON f No. of seasons: Two f No. of episodes: 32 (16 @ 22 minutes, 16 @ 8 minutes) f Original run: September 22, 1979–November 6, 1982 (NBC, Saturdays) f Studio: Filmation

PRIMARY VOICE PERFORMER CAST f Robert Ridgely: Flash Gordon, Prince Barin f Diane Pershing: Dale Arden, Queen Undina, Queen Fria, Queen Azura, Queen Desira f Alan Oppenheimer: Dr. Hans Zarkov, Gundar the Desert Hawk, Ming the Merciless f Allan Melvin: Thun the Lion Man, King Vultan f Melendy Britt: Princess Aura f Lou Scheimer: Narrator, Gremlin, additional voices or Nazis—meaning the entire set-up for the show was now missing. The series had to be introduced only in the opening credits, with Flash, Dale, and Zarkov arriving on Mongo in Episode One with little explanation! The sexy girls and shirtless Flash also got covered up. “We took a lot of the animation we had done and redid it with the costumes changed,” said Scheimer. “Princess Aura was still sexy, and there were still harem girls, but not quite as many as in the film. And Flash got into his red-and-blue jumpsuit much quicker.” Gone too were Earth guns and references to death or destruction of Mongo cities, replaced by fantasy weapons and open-ended denouements. What was going to be four of the first 16 episodes expanded slightly from the film, instead became an alternate retelling of the film, with added characters and sequences. In total, the first four episodes of Flash Gordon only used 46 minutes out of the 104-minute feature!

(TOP) John Grusd works on a ship model created to guide animators and (BELOW) the animated ship in action. © King Features Syndicate, Inc. (INSET) Storyboard director Robert Kline. The first season of Flash Gordon was mapped out and written entirely by Sam Peeples and Ted Pedersen. The story was essentially serialized, with Flash, Dale, Zarkov, Thun, Barin, and Vultan traversing the planet Mongo and interacting with—or fighting against—the various peoples, creatures, and species they met. With more time to explore Mongo, the stories introduced underwater cities and Gillmen and Mermen, Beast Men, snow dragons, giants, witches, and more. Elements from Alex Raymond’s comic strip were adapted that were mostly true to the feel and tone of the original Flash Gordon adventures, even if they had to be changed either due to budget constraints or network censorship. RETROFAN

November 2022

TwoMorrows 2022 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com

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 NOVEMBER 2022! (272-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $43.95 • (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-INONE, 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. (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7 • NOW SHIPPING!

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

by GLEN CADIGAN

From the letters pages of Silver Age comics to his 2021 induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, the career of DAVE COCKRUM started at the bottom and then rose to the top of the comic book industry. Beginning with his childhood obsession with comics and continuing through his years in the Navy, THE LIFE AND ART OF DAVE COCKRUM follows the rising star from fandom (where he was one of the “Big Three” fanzine artists) to pro-dom, where he helped revive two struggling comic book franchises: the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and the X-MEN. A prolific costume designer and character creator, his redesigns of the Legion and his introduction of X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird (plus his design of Wolverine’s alter ego, Logan) laid the foundation for both titles to become best-sellers. His later work on his own property, THE FUTURIANS, as well as childhood favorite BLACKHAWK and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, plus his five years on SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, cemented his position as an industry giant. Featuring artwork from fanzines, unused character designs, and other rare material, this is THE comprehensive biography of the legendary comic book artist, whose influence is still felt on the industry today! Written by GLEN CADIGAN (THE LEGION COMPANION, THE TITANS COMPANION Volumes 1 and 2, BEST OF THE LEGION OUTPOST) with an introduction by ALEX ROSS. (160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 • (LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-113-4 • NOW SHIPPING!

RETRO TELEVISION

Shadow Chasers The Forgotten Eighties Supernatural Show BY JEFFREY S. MILLER Pop quiz: Can you name the television series that featured a skeptic who questioned the supernatural teaming up with a believer of all things paranormal to investigate mysterious incidents at the behest of a cranky superior? If you answered The X-Files, you’re not wrong, but the description also applies to a littleknown series from the mid-Eighties that aired on the ABC network. The show was called Shadow Chasers, and its combination of horror and comedy was something new for the time. Shadow Chasers premiered on November 14, 1985, with only nine episodes airing on Thursday evenings, the last on January 16, 1986. Bootleg collections of the series do exist and are secretly sold and traded among fans. Almost all of the episodes in varying quality can be found on YouTube, while the two-hour pilot occasionally shows up as a standalone movie on cable networks (including the Mystery Channel and the SyFy Channel).

WHO ARE THE SHADOW CHASERS?

The whimsical series starred Trevor Eve as uptight anthropology professor Jonathan MacKensie, who lives in the shadow of his famous scientist father. His boss, Dr. Juliana Moorhouse (played by film veteran Nina Foch), blackmails Jonathan into heading up her newly formed Georgetown Institute Paranormal Research Unit by holding up his research grant unless he complies. Jonathan is a true skeptic and doesn’t believe in anything that is supernatural or paranormal. His first assignment is to investigate a haunted house where weird occurrences center on a teenage boy. On the case he meets author and tabloid reporter Edgar “Benny” Benedek (Dennis Dugan), an irreverent,

Before television’s Mulder and Scully, investigative journalist Edgar “Benny” Benedek (Dennis Dugan) and Professor Jonathan MacKensie (Trevor Eve) explored the unexplained—and found laughs along the way—in the short-lived television series Shadow Chasers. ABC publicity photo. © 1985 Warner Bros. Television. RETROFAN

November 2022

retro television

overly excited, and enthusiastic believer in everything from Bigfoot and flying saucers to ghosts and Egyptian curses. Although Jonathan is put off by Benny, the two work together to solve the case. Jonathan uses Benny for information and as a way to shorten his involvement in the case, while Benny uses Jonathan’s academic credentials to get into places and talk to people he normally could not access due to the notoriety of his newspaper. After solving the case, Jonathan and Benny decide to continue to work together, despite the misgivings of Dr. Moorhouse, who barely tolerates Benny. Eventually, Jonathan and Benny become close friends as well as investigative partners. As the series continues, Dr. Moorhouse gives the duo cases to investigate. From time to time they also stumble upon weird phenomena on their own. Almost always, Benny brings in one or two experts to help solve the case—these are eccentric characters that drive Jonathan crazy, including a ventriloquist medium and an aerobics-instructor exorcist. Usually, the mystery is wrapped up in the end, with science explaining away anything supernatural. Yet there are almost always one or two strange events from the case that can’t be explained. Benny takes great delight in pointing these out to Jonathan, who remains skeptical about the paranormal. A few times, the cases do not have scientific explanations and the duo simply accept the fact that the supernatural is at work (such as the episode “Let’s Make a Deal,” involving a witch). With a style that would also be seen in the feature film Ghostbusters (1984), the episodes always mixed comedy with horror and/or science-fiction themes. Looking back, Shadow Chasers was seldom scary, though there were occasional spooky moments as well as creepy sequences (especially in the pilot film). At the same time, most of the comedy came from Jonathan being annoyed with and embarrassed by Benny, as well as Dugan’s somewhat obnoxious take on the character and his often silly dialogue.

THE ‘HULK’–‘SHADOW CHASERS’ CONNECTION

The series was created by Kenneth Johnson and Brian Grazer. Johnson was a prolific television producer, director, and writer. He created the series The Bionic Woman, Cliffhangers, The Incredible Hulk, and V. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #1 for our look at The Hulk and a Lou Ferrigno interview.] After Shadow Chasers, Johnson created the TV adaptation of the popular sci-fi movie Alien Nation. His film credits include directing Short Circuit 2 (1988) and Steel (1997). He also wrote and directed such made-for-TV movies as Senior Trip (1980), 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993), and Don’t Look Under the Bed (1999). Just after Shadow Chasers, Brian Grazer formed Imagine Entertainment with director Ron Howard. A prolific producer, Grazer’s films include such titles as Parenthood (1989), Apollo 13 (1995), The Nutty Professor (1996), and Cinderella Man (2005), among many, many others. He’s been nominated for an Academy Award four times and with Ron Howard won Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (2001). He has continued to produce and create television series in addition to his film work. 70

RETROFAN

November 2022

(ABOVE) Shadow Chasers series creator Kenneth Johnson in 1985, during the filming of the pilot. Courtesy of Kenneth Johnson. (LEFT) Veteran actress Nina Foch, described in ABC press materials as a “strict academician” (the oversized glasses are a giveaway), as Dr. Julianna Moorhouse. ABC publicity photo. © 1985 Warner Bros. Television.

In a telephone interview with RetroFan, Kenneth Johnson explains how he met Grazer and came to be involved with the show: “It was a very curious situation. My attorney had met a client that he said he thought could use my help, and maybe we could help each other in different ways because he had just had a successful movie and was building quite a theatrical career for himself. He had just sold the idea of a show to ABC and needed some help in trying to figure out what it really was. So I went over to Disney and met with this crazy young guy named Brian Grazer, who had just had a huge hit with Splash (1984), so he was everybody’s golden boy in town and really energetic and highly interesting and told me that he had just had a terrific meeting with ABC where they had bought his idea to do a show about two guys who investigate unexplained phenomena. And I said, ‘Okay. So tell me about it.’ He said, ‘That’s it.’ I said, ‘Well, what did you tell them? What was the story? What were the characters?’ He said, ‘I didn’t tell them anything. I just said two guys investigating unexplained phenomena and they bought it and they want

retro television

Kenneth Johnson creating a spooky mood. Courtesy of Kenneth Johnson.

to do it and they’re looking forward to putting it on the air as a series.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ And he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Well, I think we’re starting from scratch.’ “Then he began to get a couple phone calls, so I’m sitting there thinking about it. I’m walking around his office while he had other phone calls for about ten minutes or so, and… I had remembered an idea I had used on an episode of The Bionic Woman that I wrote and directed called ‘[The] Ghosthunter.’ And it was about a young boy that was telekinetic—he could move things with his mind—but he did not know it because it only happened when he was asleep like Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet (1956). And I said, ‘Okay, you have two guys—you need some opposition going, so one guy should be probably an academic and the other guy should be one of my favorite characters which was always [investigative reporter] Jack McGee from the National Register in The Incredible Hulk pursuing David Banner through all the five years of The Incredible Hulk that we did [a character based on Inspector Javert from Les Miserables].’ And I loved the National Register as a place to jump off from—we still have a collection somewhere of real headlines like ‘Live Baby Found in Watermelon,’ all of that crazy stuff. “So I said, ‘How about [there are] two guys, one is an academic who doesn’t really believe in this, doesn’t really want to do this kind of stuff, he’s an aesthete, and the other guy is a yellow-rag journalist much more broad and in-your-face than Jack McGee was and the way Jack Colvin played Jack McGee on The Hulk. We pair them up and we have to do a pilot where they meet because they’re both searching for the same thing and they get hooked up; they get involved. And we need an overseer which became [Dr. Moorhouse] who was the woman who was in charge—she was based on Thelma Moss, who had been the head of the UCLA paranormal studies… she was the pattern for the little woman who played that role in Poltergeist (1982). And so she wants to suck in her protégé, who was the academic guy, and get him involved in this. But he hates that stuff; he doesn’t want it; he doesn’t like it and he really has great difficulty with this charlatan, Benny, who is this guy from the National Register.’ [I used] exactly the same newspaper

(ABOVE) Dr. Moorhouse (Nina Foch) seems dismissive of Prof. MacKensie (Trevor Eve) in this publicity still from Shadow Chasers’ pilot. ABC publicity photo. © 1985 Warner Bros. Television. (RIGHT) The Incredible Hulk menaces reporter for the National Register, Jack McGee (Jack Colvin). © NBCUniversal. The Incredible Hulk TM & © Marvel. RETROFAN

November 2022

RetroFan #23