Issuu

You’ll put your eye out, kid!

July/August 2023 No. 27 $10.95

OUTRAGEOUS TOYS

TV’S Captain Kangaroo,

BOB inKEESHAN, a Vintage Interview JACK KIRBY’S COMEDY COMICS

And you thought you had problems getting dates…

fu was kungy d o b y r e v E

fighting!

SEVENTIES MARTIAL ARTS MANIA

Rockford Files • Don Drysdale’s TV drop-ins • Challenge of the Super Friends • & more! 1

82658 00505

Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury Not Brand Echh and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu © Marvel. I Was a Teenage Frankenstein © American International Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

New from TwoMorrows!

ALTER EGO #183

ALTER EGO #184

BACK ISSUE #144

BACK ISSUE #145

Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist IRV NOVICK (Shield, Steel Sterling, Batman, The Flash, and DC war stories) is immortalized by JOHN COATES and DEWEY CASSELL. Interviews with Irv and family members, tributes by DENNY O’NEIL, MARK EVANIER, and PAUL LEVITZ, Irv’s involvement with painter ROY LICHTENSTEIN (who used Novick’s work in his paintings), Mr. Monster, FCA, and more!

Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!

BRONZE AGE SAVAGE LANDS, starring Ka-Zar in the 1970s! Plus: Turok—Dinosaur Hunter, DON GLUT’s Dagar and Tragg, Annihilus and the Negative Zone, Planet of Vampires, Pat Mills’s Flesh (from 2000AD), and WALTER SIMONSON and MIKE MIGNOLA’s Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. With CONWAY, GULACY, HAMA, NICIEZA, SEARS, THOMAS, and more! JOHN BUSCEMA cover!

SPIDER-ROGUES ISSUE! Villain histories of Dr. Octopus, Lizard, Kingpin, Spidey’s mob foes, the Jackal and Carrion, Tarantula, Puma, plus the rehabilitation of Sandman! Featuring the work of ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, CONWAY, DeFALCO, GIL KANE, McFARLANE, MILLER, POLLARD, JOHN ROMITA JR. & SR., STERN, THOMAS, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and more! DUSTY ABELL cover!

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BACK ISSUE #146

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #31 KIRBY COLLECTOR #88

BRICKJOURNAL #81

MEN WITHOUT FEAR, featuring Daredevil’s swinging ’70s adventures! Plus: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age, JEPH LOEB interview about his Challs and DD projects with TIM SALE, Sinestro and Mr. Fear histories, superheroes with disabilities, and... Who Is Hal Jordan? Featuring CONWAY, ENGLEHART, McKENZIE, ROZAKIS, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, & more! GENE COLAN cover!

Great Hera, it’s the 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF BACK ISSUE, featuring a tribute to the late, great GEORGE PÉREZ! Wonder Woman: The George Pérez Years, Pérez’s 20 Greatest Hits of the Bronze Age, Pérez’s fanzine days, a Pérez remembrance by MARV WOLFMAN, a Wonder Woman interview with MINDY NEWELL, and more! With a stunning Wonder Woman cover by Pérez!

THE COLLECTORS! Fans’ quest for and purchase of Jack’s original art and comics, MARV WOLFMAN shares his (and LEN WEIN’s) interactions with Jack as fans and pros, unseen Kirby memorabilia, an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER moderating the 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International, plus a deluxe wrap-around Kirby cover with foldout back cover flap, inked by MIKE ROYER!

Head to the city: Ellis City by GARETH and CATHY ELLIS, New Hasima by STEFAN FORMENTATO, and Fabuland City by STEVEN LAUGHLIN! Plus a wealth of other MOCs (”My Own Creations”) are showcased, along with: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

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An FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) special, behind a breathtaking JERRY ORDWAY cover! Features on Uncle Marvel and the Fawcett Family by P.C. HAMERLINCK, ACG artist KENNETH LANDAU (Commander Battle and The Atomic Sub), and writer LEE GOLDSMITH (Golden Age Green Lantern, Flash, and others). Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #27 July 2023

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retrotorial

Retro Interview Captain Kangaroo’s Bob Keeshan

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Teenage Monster Movies

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Challenge of the SuperFriends

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Rockford Files

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Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Danger in Happy Toyland

Too Much TV Quiz TV teachers

RetroFad Kung fu

Retro Television Don Drysdale’s TV drop-ins

RetroFanmail

ReJECTED

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Jack Kirby, Oddball Cartoonist

RetroFan™ issue 27, July 2023 (ISSN 2576-7224) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 4490344. 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: $73 Economy US, $111 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Captain Kangaroo © Creative Artists Agency. Not Brand Echh and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu © Marvel. I Was a Teenage Frankenstein © American International Pictures. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2023 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BY MICHAEL EURY

Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Michael Eury L. Wayne Hicks David Krell Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Marvel Comics Marc Tyler Nobleman VERY SPECIAL THANKS Bob Keeshan, gone but not forgotten

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RETROFAN

July 2023

RetroFan’s demographic may be Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, but the crazy, cool stuff we (of those generations) grew up with has multigenerational appeal. Since we launched back in the summer of 2018, I have received a handful of messages from readers in their teens and twenties who were raised by parents who were RetroFans. These wise moms and dads instilled in their kids a passion for the joys of their own childhoods, keeping everything from Action Jackson to Zardoz alive. But what about the folks from the Greatest Generation, whose number sadly dwindles each day? Those honored citizens survived the Great Depression, the attack on Pearl Harbor, World War II, and the polio epidemic. Plus every other hardship that followed. One might think that those hearty souls may regard The Beatles, Pet Rocks, and Slurpees as “folderol.” Think again. Shown here is loyal RetroFan reader Robert L. Rummel, my father-in-law, who—at age 95!—may be this magazine’s oldest reader. I would happily give the dad of my beloved wife free copies of the magazine, but he subscribes! He’s enjoying learning about my generation’s pop culture. Coolest father-inlaw ever! Born three-quarters of a century after Robert Rummel is Kit Frascella, one of RetroFan’s younger readers—and one of the most dedicated fans of The Monkees you’ll ever find. You may remember Kit’s byline from issue #25, where her Super Collector guest column, “Listen to the Band! Why I Love The Monkees,” appeared. Kit has met members of the band and even draws cartoons about them. And to Kit Frascella I must offer RetroFan’s sincerest apologies for a production error that appeared in her article in issue #25, on page 76. In column one/paragraph two, the first line and the beginning of the second line were missing from the print editions, with a line space appearing where there should have been text. The files we sent to the printer were accurate, but a technical glitch led to the missing copy during printing. In case you’re thumbing through your copy of #25 now, Kit’s second paragraph on page 76 should have opened with: “Music was a major staple in their [Kit’s parents’] childhoods. My mother has been a record collector since her youth and often played the sounds of her generation, most particularly artists from the Sixties era, to me when I was young.” (Page 76’s other goof, the caption’s naming of “Micksy”— rather than “Micky”—Dolenz, was ye ed’s typo, which slipped past four sets of eyes. Sigh.) Even though occasional errors and shipping delays might ruffle a few feathers, RetroFan remains a happy home for readers of any age who enjoy pop culture from the mid-Twentieth Century. I invite any of you who don’t fit our standard demo to send a photo of yourself reading a copy of RetroFan to me at euryman@gmail.com, and we’ll make you famous (among our readership, at least) by running your picture in print. But that’s the future. Let’s talk about the present—this issue—which is, as always, chock full of blasts from the past: teenage monsters, The Rockford Files, Super Friends history, kung fu, dangerous toys, Don Drysdale giving pitching pointers to Greg Brady, crazy Jack Kirby comics… what’s not to love? Ye ed is especially happy to include Wayne Hicks’ thoughtful portrait of Bob Keeshan, TV’s Captain Kangaroo, which opens this edition. Captain Kangaroo was the surrogate grandfather for so many of us growing up—what an honor it is to remember his legacy in our pages. So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

RETRO INTERVIEW

Good Morning, Captain! Bob Keeshan, Television’s Captain Kangaroo

BY L. WAYNE HICKS

Years before he died, Robert “Bob” Keeshan said he would like to be remembered this way: “Oh, just that I made children feel a little better about themselves, in general. I certainly didn’t do it with every child, but that was my intent.” There’s little doubt Keeshan made the world a better place for children. The veteran entertainer, who died in 2004 at age 76, provided a lifetime of memories during the 29 years he spent as television’s Captain Kangaroo. Upon Keeshan’s passing, the New York Times noted the “roundfaced, pleasant, mustachioed man possessed of an unshakable calm” who served as “one of the most enduring characters television ever produced.”

CLOWNING AROUND

Captain Kangaroo debuted on CBS in October 1955. Make-up and a gray wig transformed a 28-year-old Keeshan into the grandfatherly Captain. Over the next several decades, Keeshan would age into the role. For nearly 10,000 episodes, the program educated and

entertained. Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh “Lumpy” Brannum) provided running lessons about flora and fauna. The puppets Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose (both performed by Cosmo “Gus” Allegretti) served as mischievous counterpoints to the Captain. “The best teacher in the world, whether it be a kindergarten teacher or a college professor, is one who entertains, one who engages the mind of the student,” Keeshan said to me during a

(ABOVE) Children’s television host Bob Keeshan originally donned make-up to become the grandfatherly Captain Kangaroo, but over the decades matured into the role. Captain Kangaroo’s colorful cast, including Mr. Green Jeans, Dancing Bear, Mr. Moose, and Grandfather Clock, became as beloved as the Captain himself. © Creative Artists Agency. Photos courtesy of the Captain Kangaroo Facebook page.

RETROFAN

July 2023

retro interview

listening to Keeshan pitch his idea for Captain Kangaroo. “She was wonderful, of course, as she is. She said, ‘Let me understand this. You’re a captain, but not necessarily a captain of anything, and you have a bunny rabbit that actually communicates with you, and you have this moose who talks.’ She went down the characters: ‘A grandfather clock that speaks poetry.’ And she was getting herself more hysterical as she enumerated all the elements of the show, which sound ludicrous when approached from that direction, of course. But that’s probably pretty much the reception we would get today from a network executive.”

FROM COAST TO COAST

In announcing Captain Kangaroo, a CBS press release trumpeted the program would feature “beautiful music, lovely dancing, unusual games and toys, live animals, simple studies of nature and many other delights of childhood.” In those early years, ratings reports would regularly list Captain Kangaroo as the second most popular program for children, behind The Mickey Mouse Club on ABC. But the two shows, which made their debut on the same day, didn’t compete. The Disney program aired in the afternoons.

Watch out for falling ping-pong balls, Captain! © Creative Artists Agency. Courtesy of L. Wayne Hicks.

The grandfatherly Captain Kangaroo was a popular subject for children’s books. (ABOVE) Original cover artwork by Mel Crawford for Whitman’s 1959 book, Captain Kangaroo’s Picnic. Courtesy of Heritage. (INSET) Two Little Golden Books starring the morning TV host. © Creative Artists Agency.

RETROFAN

July 2023

Initially, Keeshan had to do each program twice a day, Monday through Friday. After wrapping up the 8 a.m. broadcast for the East Coast audience, Keeshan and crew had 40 seconds before 9 a.m. to reset the stage and launch into the show for Midwest viewers. The audience on the West Coast saw a kinescope of the program. The success of Captain Kangaroo prompted CBS to add a Saturday episode. Keeshan’s Captain character served as a comic foil to Bunny Rabbit, who was perpetually tricking him out of carrots; and Mr. Moose, who lived to dump ping-pong balls on his head. Initially, though, the writer who came up with the idea suggested using golf balls. Keeshan nixed that. “Mr. Moose enjoyed it so thoroughly,” Keeshan said, “as did every child and every parent at home enjoy it. They were laughing with the moose. They weren’t really laughing at me. I liked being in that position, of being outwitted by Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose, because there’s a vulnerability to us as adults. We’re not perfect, and it’s important for a child to understand a parent is not perfect. That it is possible to be smarter than a parent once in a while.” As the show evolved, new characters joined the cast. Dancing Bear was originally intended as a one-off, but attracted so much mail the character was brought back again and again. An animated segment featuring the heroic Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog was added to give the cast a chance to step off-camera and take a break. “It gave us three and a half or four minutes to regroup ourselves,” Keeshan said. “Animation, as we had envisioned it originally, would have been about a third of the program material.

retro interview

As it actually turned out, it was probably less than a tenth of the program material. But it gave us physical relief in doing the show.” Technological advancements changed the show tremendously. The advent of videotape eliminated the need to perform the same program twice each morning. Captain Kangaroo was able to be produced using taped segments, and Keeshan could get back to clowning around. He suited up as the Town Clown. “It literally was almost an hour of make-up and costume and of course that couldn’t be done on live television,” he said. “But once we started to tape the program, then we were able to take an afternoon of production and get me into make-up and costume and do maybe five or six two-, three-, four-minute sequences, which were then edited into the program.”

No longer tethered to the demands of live television, Captain Kangaroo saw an increase in its production values. “Ultimately we were doing the show more like they do motion pictures and television because we would do three minutes here and a minute and a half there, and we could always do a 20-second segue. All of this came together in the editing suite. We could mix and match shows. For example, we could do a story—a fairy tale of some kind, or our interpretation of a fairy tale—which would require large sets maybe and guests and so on, expenditures which we could never have afforded it when it was done just for the one live show. But now, because we were able to tape it and edit it and perfect it, it went into the library. That might then be amortized over 12 runs over three years or something of that sort.”

(TOP LEFT) The big stuffed pockets of Captain Kangaroo. (CENTER) Bob Keeshan on set circa 1970. (RIGHT) The Captain and Mr. Green Jeans with Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose (noted ping-pong ball dropper). (LEFT) Captain Kangaroo and an unidentified rabbit. © Creative Artists Agency.

(TOP TO BOTTOM) The Dancing Bear, Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Green Jeans.

Captain Kangaroo waiting to go live in the early days of the show. The word “yawn” is spelled out in small blocks on the shelf.

RETROFAN

July 2023

TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com

THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. SHIPS AUGUST 2023! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER

In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

CLIFFHANGER!

CINEMATIC SUPERHEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING

Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen superheroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic superhero universe. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES One recent evening, the trailer for Rebel Without a Cause (1955) came on. There was James Dean, his face scrunched into an expression of emotional anguish, bellowing at his parents, “You’re tearing me apart!” Dean looked like a human powder keg ready to blow. I thought: That’s just like Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause was a big-studio Hollywood motion picture in CinemaScope and WarnerColor. Gene Fowler, Jr.’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf (IWATW) was a non-widescreen, black-and-white cheapie that nonetheless raked in a surprising $2 million at the box office. Rebel preceded IWATW by two years. The earlier film spawned many imitators. Landon’s earnest, intense performance in IWATW is as much about teen angst as, you know, fangs ’n’ fur. The two films have significant plot parallels. Both protagonists are high school outcasts with anger issues. Both are counseled by understanding cops (Edward Platt in Rebel, Barney Phillips in IWATW). Both have ineffectual father figures (Jim Backus in Rebel, Malcolm Atterby in IWATW). And, not for nuthin’, both protagonists rocked iconic outerwear. Dean wore that cool, red nylon windbreaker which became “the” look of the middle Fifties. And Landon was the first werewolf in horror movie history to wear a letter jacket.

TEENAGE MONSTERS (ABOVE) James Dean inspired rebellion among teens ... not to mention werewolfery! © Warner Bros. Pictures.

(LEFT) Michael Landon rocks that letter jacket in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). © American International Pictures.

When horror met hepcats and hot-rodders

BY MARK VOGER

RETROFAN RETROFAN

July July 2023 2023

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

He had been a film editor. He gave our characters a little bit more than how they were written originally.” If the gymnast played by Richard seemed a bit sexy and grown up for a high school student, it may be because the actress, then 22, was a centerfold model for Playboy around that time. Not surprisingly, her image was used prominently in the movie poster and stills, despite her brief time on screen.

MORE TEENAGE MONSTERS

With a hit on their hands, AIP commissioned Cohen to produce two quickie follow-ups, both directed by Herbert L. Strock, and both with Scheer doing the make-up. One was I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), which had another important connection to its predecessor: Bissell as the monster-whisperer. This time, Bissell played Professor Frankenstein, who aims to—you’ll never guess—make a new creation out of dead body parts. In his film debut, Gary Conway wore the gloppy make-up as the titular monster. “It was a film I did when I was in college,” recalled Conway when we spoke in 2002. “It really came out of the blue for me. I was a serious art student at the time. My name was Gary Carmody. I thought, well, this is kind of an odd film—Teenage Frankenstein and so on. Maybe I’d better Gary Conway change my name, so nobody will connect it with the more serious art student in college. “But it became a huge hit. There were people around the block in Westwood. So that little plan fell apart,” he added with a laugh. “Because I became known right then and there as Gary Conway because of that film. “Actually, right after the Army, Teenage Frankenstein steered me toward getting into television and films. And there my life remains in one form or another. So I have a lot to thank it for, really, even though I tried to escape even knowing about it. All these years later, it comes back again. People still find it fun and identify with it.” Completing the Cohen trilogy was Blood of Dracula (1957). In it, weird Miss Branding (Louise Lewis), the chemistry teacher at Sherwood School for Girls, hypnotizes troubled transfer student Nancy (Sandra Harrison) with a glittery amulet, turning her into a toothy vampire with an Eddie Munster mullet. But why wasn’t it titled I Was a Teenage Dracula? And why wasn’t Bissell cast in drag as Miss Branding? When AIP brought back the teenage werewolf and the teenage Frankenstein for Strock’s “meta” backstage horror film How to 16

RETROFAN

July 2023

(TOP) The monster (Gary Conway) menaces a damsel (Angela Austin) in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. (ABOVE) Teenage Frankenstein lobby card. (LEFT) Sandra Harrison is lookin’ weird in a lobby card for Blood of Dracula (1957). (BELOW) Harrison wears the Eddie Munster mullet. © American International Pictures.

Make a Monster (1958), Landon did not reprise his role. Instead, Gary Clarke did the growling alongside returning IWATF star Conway. AIP was also behind Edward L. Cahn’s Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), in which canoodling teens on Lovers Lane vanquish veiny, bubble-brained aliens created by Paul Blaisdell.

OLD WORLD CHARM

In a plot device vaguely reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Paul Landres’ The Return of Dracula (1958) has the bloodthirsty

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

the lines. “Every morning, he’d come into make-up and he’d take my hand and he’d kiss my hand,” she said. “He had a little Minox—you know, those tiny, little cameras—which were new in those days. He must have taken 200 pictures of me. He was always shooting, no matter what. We became very, very close.” Dracula’s secret lair was hidden in the caves in Griffith Park, where many a Western, serial, and horror movie was filmed. Recalled Eberhardt: “When we were in one of those caves, they had a coffin all lined in satin. I got in it one day with a mirror, and I was combing my hair, and they took my picture. I wish I had a copy of it now. It was so funny. It’s just a funny thing to see me with all this blond hair, combing my hair in a coffin in a cave. I did it just for the fun of it, to make Francis laugh.” And what did Lederer think of Return of Dracula? Eberhardt had the scoop: “He said it was the worst movie he ever made.”

MAD DESIRES

(ABOVE) Garys Clarke and Conway stand cheek-to-cheek in How to Make a Monster (1958). (RIGHT) Veiny varmint from Invasion of the Saucer Men (1958). © American International Pictures. (BELOW) Francis Lederer menaces Norma Eberhardt in Return of Dracula (1958). (BELOW RIGHT) Eberhardt in lingerie dominates the film’s poster. © United Artists.

count (Francis Lederer) killing and stealing the identity of a Czech artist who is traveling by train to meet relatives in a small-town America. Norma Eberhardt played Rachel, a teenager who becomes infatuated with the vampiric imposter, though the actress was age 28 at the time. “I was supposed to be in high school. I know; I’ve read the critics. ‘She’s no teenager,’” Eberhardt told me with a chuckle in 2006. (The actress died in 2011.) Dashing Prague native Lederer was 30 years Eberhardt’s senior. She admitted that Lederer’s Old World charm made it easier to say

How would the grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein fare in Fifties suburbia, where teenagers are always up to sexual high jinks, and rock ’n’ roll music is played at pool parties? Richard E. Cunha’s Frankenstein’s Daughter has the answer. Frankenstein’s descendant (played by Donald Murphy in an over-the-top performance) goes by the name Oliver Frank, so as not to attract attention to the once proud, now poisonous, name of Frankenstein. As a screen villain, the arrogant, sociopathic, and, it must be said, dapper Oliver is all over the place. Every word out of his mouth is a lie. He has several mad desires: to have sex with teenage girls; to develop a serum that turns people into monsters; to create a female monster from scratch; and to restore the name of Frankenstein to its former glory. Oliver is the live-in assistant of Professor Morton (Felix Locher), who is at work on nothing less than a cure for all disease. Morton’s fetching young niece, Trudy (Sandra Knight, the first and only Mrs. Jack Nicholson), lives at her uncle’s laboratory- and swimming pool-equipped home. When not hitting on Trudy, Oliver plies her with “fruit punch” that transforms her into a bug-eyed monster. Whenever Trudy wakes up after a night of monstering, she has a bad hangover and can’t remember what she did, kind of like Otis on The Andy Griffith Show. Trudy’s boyfriend, Johnny, is played by genre superstar John Ashley, who looks like Elvis Presley’s little cousin. Morton’s elderly, limping groundskeeper, Elsu (Poland native Wolfe Barsell), is secretly assisting Oliver in his unholy mission to create a female monster. It turns out that Elsu used to work for Oliver’s father, and he remembers Oliver’s grandfather. “A female? That’s never been done!” Elsu exclaims when he lays eyes on Oliver’s new creation. (Obviously, this is a different Frankenstein Universe than the one in which the Bride of Frankenstein dwelled, if ever so briefly.) The monster make-ups for Frankenstein’s Daughter were created by Harry Thomas, who I can’t resist calling the poor man’s RETROFAN

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT) The sheriff keeps an eye on the kids in a lobby card for The Giant Gila Monster (1959). © McLendon Radio Pictures.

(BELOW) Michael Landon once again donned werewolf makeup for a 1987 episode of Highway to Heaven titled — wait for it — “I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf.” (ABOVE) The gang attends a house party in a lobby card for Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959). © American International Pictures. (RIGHT) “Cash Flagg,” a.k.a. Ray Dennis Steckler (kneeling), says his prayers in The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters (1968). © MorganSteckler Productions.

Prairie, and Highway to Heaven. But we monster nerds never forgot the werewolf in Landon’s closet. Nor did Landon. Arkoff recalled that an offhand comment he once made during a TV appearance indirectly led to Landon climbing back into his werewolf get-up. “I was on the [David] Letterman show, and Letterman was talking about this particular picture and Michael Landon,” Arkoff recalled. “He said, ‘I’ll bet you’d like Landon to do Teenage Werewolf again.’ And I said, ‘Well, in view of his age, we’d have to call it I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf,’ which got a big laugh from the audience and Letterman. “Some time later, Michael called me. He said, ‘Sam, I heard you that night.’ He was doing Highway to Heaven at that time. And for Halloween, he wanted to do an episode in which he, his TV character, was searching for a werewolf. So he wanted to use the footage of himself as a young man, to be the werewolf he was seeking. There would be no reference to the fact that it was him as a youth, although everybody would know it, of course.” Landon produced, wrote, and directed the episode, indeed titled I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf, which aired on October 18, 1987. In it, Landon’s trusty sidekick Mark (Victor French) views a TV broadcast of IWATW. Landon’s character, Jonathan, walks in as Mark watches a scene in which the 19-year-old Landon transforms into a werewolf. Says Mark: “You know, the guy in this movie reminds me a lot of you… I mean when he’s a regular guy, not when he’s got the fuzz all over his face.” Later, Landon gamely dons werewolf make-up in a scene in which Jonathan scares away two costumed bullies on Halloween 20

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©NBCUniversal.

night. “I’m not a werewolf, I’m an angel,” he assures the dumbstruck little trickor-treater he rescues. The episode ends with Landon, again in werewolf mode, addressing the camera with a wink, wishing viewers a happy Halloween. When Arkoff and I spoke in 1991, Landon had died earlier in the year. “He’d never had any kind of a role before,” Arkoff recalled of Landon’s star turn in IWATW. “He was 19 years old at the time. Poor guy is dead now. Wasn’t really a long life for him. He was a very good man, a very talented man.” The eighth of Landon’s nine children is actress Jen Landon, who cut her show-biz teeth with regular roles on the TV soaps As the World Turns, The Young and the Restless, and Days of Our Lives. Jen was seven when her father died. “My dad, he loved me tremendously,” she told me in 2004. “Even though I lost him when I was young, and in life I’ve had plenty of insecurities and dark moments and doubt, that is a gift he gave me that I’ll always have: the love that he gave me. “He was such an amazing person. Everybody wanted to be near him and around him. He passed away a long time ago, but even if it’s not cognitive or conscious, I won’t ever lose that sensation of having that father’s love for the time that I did.” And what did Jen think of I Was a Teenage Werewolf? Said the actress: “I love it.” MARK VOGER is the author and designer of six books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Britmania, Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, and Holly Jolly. Voger worked in the newspaper field for 40 years as a graphic artist and entertainment reporter, and lives at the Jersey Shore. He recently completed his collection of Marx Sixties presidential figures (although, to be honest, the stand is a replica). Please visit him at MarkVoger.com.

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

PART 2

BY ANDY MANGELS Which narration opened the third incarnation of ABC’s gathering of DC comic-book heroes, titled Challenge of the SuperFriends? Was it William Woodson announcing, “Gathered together from the cosmic reaches of the universe, here in this great Hall of Justice are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled: Superman… Batman and Robin… Wonder Woman… Aquaman… and the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, with their space monkey, Gleek. Dedicated to truth, justice, and peace for all mankind!” Or was it Stanley Jones intoning, “Banded together from remote galaxies are 13 of the most sinister villains of all-time. The Legion of Doom! Dedicated to a single objective… the conquest of the

universe! Only one group dares to challenge this intergalactic threat… the SuperFriends! The Justice League of America versus the Legion of Doom! This is the Challenge of the SuperFriends!”

(CLOCKWISE) Super Friends (or SuperFriends, in this incarnation) Superman, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and the King of the Seas, Aquaman, who has somehow gained the power of flight (maybe he just leapt like a flying fish out of the Hall of Justice’s fountain in the background…). TM & © DC Comics. RETROFAN

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(ABOVE) Joker awaits entry to an early version of the Hall of Doom. (COUNTERCLOCK-WISE FROM LEFT) Model sheets showing turnarounds of the Riddler, unused Batman villain Catwoman, and Solomon Grundy. TM & © DC Comics.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(ABOVE) An early concept illustration for the Hall of Doom interior shows an unused line-up of super-villains ncluding: (CLOCKWISE) Dr. Sivana, Sinestro, Captain Cold, Joker, Beautia Sivana, Penguin, Abra-Kadabra, Poison Ivy, Heat Wave, King Kull, Gorilla Grodd, Mr. Atom, and Cheetah. Of these 13, only four would make it into the revised Legion of Doom. (INSET) The Scarecrow looking almost like a Scooby-Doo villain. Model sheet art for (RIGHT) Black Manta, (BELOW LEFT) Giganta, and (BELOW RIGHT) Bizarro. TM & © DC Comics.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

FAST FACTS

Wonder Woman shows off underhand-thrown magic lasso technique, a surprisingly controversial topic. TM & © DC Comics.

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS f No. of seasons: One (new) f No. of episodes: 16 hours (two episodes each hour) f Original run: September 9, 1978 –September 15, 1979 f Studio: Hanna-Barbera f Network: ABC

PRIMARY VOICE PERFORMER CAST

f William Woodson: Narrator, Perry White f Stanley Jones: Narrator “Challenge,” Lex Luthor, Jonathan Kent, Jor-El f Danny Dark: Superman, Superboy, Commissioner Gordon f Olan Soule: Batman f Casey Kasem: Robin, Computer f Bill Callaway: Aquaman, the Flash, Bizarro f Shannon Farnon: Wonder Woman, Hippolyta, Lois Lane f Louise Williams: Jayna f Michael Bell: Zan, Gleek, the Riddler f Jack Angel: The Flash, Samurai, Hawkman f Buster Jones: Black Vulcan f Michael Rye: Apache Chief, Green Lantern, Solovar f Marlene Aragon: Cheetah f Ted Cassidy: Brainiac, Black Manta f Ruth Forman: Giganta f Don Messick: Scarecrow, Sinestro (later episodes) f Vic Perrin: Sinestro f Stanley Ralph Ross: Gorilla Grodd f Dick Ryal: Captain Cold, Hall of Doom Computer, Abin Sur f Jimmy Weldon: Solomon Grundy f Frank Welker: Toyman, Mister Mxyzptlk f Also featuring Lewis Bailey, Melanie Chartoff, Henry Corden, Al Fann, Bob Hastings, Bob Holt, Renny Roker

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underhanded (the bad guys were going to step into the loop). He didn’t like that I animated her throwing underhand, so I asked Bill Hanna if he minded me leaving to work on Captain Caveman with Ron Campbell, and he said that was fine. By the way, they ended up using that [underhanded lasso] scene in the main title of Challenge of the SuperFriends.”

PRODUCTION CHALLENGES

As with many of the All-New Super Friends stories, the tales for both parts of this season were often generated by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, then their outlines were given to story editor Jeffrey Scott to script. Scott would, in turn, get help from Norman Maurer or his wife Joan, brother Michael Scott, and Mark Jones. According to Jones, who scripted about a dozen stories, Hanna-Barbera paid $750 for a half-hour outline and $1,750 for a script. At Darrell McNeil’s suggestion, Jeffrey Scott took one unused episode from The All-New Super Friends Hour titled “The Energeon Creature” and rewrote it slightly to become the new show’s episode “The AntiMatter Monster.” And for a real writer’s twist, look for a meta joke in “The Rise and Fall of the Super Friends,” wherein Wonder Woman reads a page of the actual script for the show, here representing Mxyzptlk’s magical script!

Wonder Woman examines the script for the episode she’s in, “The Rise and Fall of the Super Friends.” TM & © DC Comics.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(LEFT) This promotional cel for Challenge of the SuperFriends all but promised massive conflict, a worrisome matter for the network’s Standards & Practices department. (BELOW) Storyboard art by Alex Toth showing Lex Luthor discovering Wonder Woman’s beginnings in the “Secret Origins of the Super Friends” episode. Also from the “Secret Origins” episode, screen captures that show (BOTTOM LEFT) the kindly Kents finding the baby Kal-El, who would grow up to be Superman, and (BOTTOM RIGHT) Hal Jordan finding a dying Abin Sur, who passes on the power of the Green Lantern. TM & © DC Comics.

ABC’s Standards & Practices censorial department was nervous about Challenge because it would contain actual conflict between heroes and villains. After all, even the opening credits ended with the McNeildesigned shot of the heroes and villains charging towards each other about to fight. So the stories were often softened just a bit. The villains could still have plans to conquer the world, or destroy things, but they had to be caught by the heroes for punishment. Hanna-Barbera’s team didn’t always follow that rule, and even if the villains were caught at the end of one episode—instead of escaping at the last moment—the next episode would find them back plotting villainy in their swampy Hall of Doom, with no mention of incarceration of punishment. One planned episode in particular caught Standards & Practice’s notes: “History of Doom,” the season’s final episode produced, in which the villains wanted to destroy the world. S&P wrote that “destroying the world” was an imitable act, which was bad for young viewers who might want to copy it. When HannaBarbera pushed back that nobody watching the show could actually single-handedly destroy the world, ABC relented. Several of the Challenge episodes dove deep into DC Comics lore. In “Trial of the Super Friends,” the villains stole Wonder Woman’s lasso, Green Lantern’s power ring, and Batman and Robin’s utility belts before putting the heroes on trial and making them fight robot doubles. In “Secret Origins of the Super Friends,” Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom members travel back in time to stop Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern from ever existing! Although Superman’s origin had been seen before, this was the first time for animation that either Wonder Woman or Green Lantern’s stories had been featured. Another episode, “Super Friends: Rest in Peace,” opened with the death of Batman, and continued with more shocking deaths,

including the demise of Wonder Woman and Superman! The aforementioned “History of Doom” included the origins of Lex Luthor and Giganta. All of them were remarkably true to their comic-book roots, and “Super Friends: Rest in Peace” even featured Wonder Woman doing a kind of “Wonder Spin,” which was clearly a nod to the popular ABC-then-CBS live-action Wonder Woman series starring the luminous Lynda Carter. The voice cast for Challenge remained mostly the same as the previous casts, although several new voice actors came onboard. RETROFAN

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TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com

THE

PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION

by STEPHAN FRIEDT

Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. SHIPS DECEMBER 2023!

WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS

WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! SHIPS OCTOBER 2023!

Star Glider TM & © Jack C. Harris.

Shade TM & © DC Comics.

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9

(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6

THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF

MATT FOX

by ROGER HILL

MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. SHIPS SEPT. 2023! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON In college, I had a girlfriend who one night turned on The Rockford Files starring James Garner. She was a big fan. And after watching “The No-Cut Contract,” in which private detective Jim Rockford becomes embroiled in the unscrupulous machinations of semi-pro quarterback King Sturtevant (played by Rob Reiner), I became a bigger fan. This was a third season episode, so I came in late. And while the girlfriend and I eventually parted company, I’ve been watching The Rockford Files ever since. True, the series went off the air in 1980, but it’s endlessly re-watchable. Over the decades, I managed to catch them all, most several times. It was that kind of a show. The Rockford Files came along when TV private eyes were dull, square-jawed bunch. Mannix was the top of the heap. After watching so many Rockford episodes, I started digging into the origins of the series.

‘THE JACK BENNY OF PRIVATE EYES’

Before Rockford came along, I liked a one-season wonder called The Outsider. Forgotten now, it starred Darren McGavin before starring as Carl Kolchak in The Night Stalker series. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #11 for our Night Stalker coverage.] McGavin played David Ross, an ex-con turned private eye. Perpetually down on his luck, he stumbled through a seedy Los Angeles. The show wasn’t quite satire, but McGavin portrayed a rumpled and sometimes pathetic loser of a character. He was the anti-Mannix. Sound familiar? Like a precursor to Jim Rockford? That’s because he was. Producer-writer Roy Huggins created Ross and later co-created Rockford. But not all the credit can go to him. Enter Stephen J. Cannell. He was a young TV writer, a fan of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. After catching a few episodes of The Outsider, he decided to script an episode. Cannell was impressed that the lead was not your typical hero. “That was a terrific hardboiled private eye kind of anti-hero guy,” he later said. “I wrote a spec script for The Outsider, and I could not get it to Roy Huggins. (LEFT) Screen captures I tried every connection I knew. from The Rockford Files’ I thought it was a pretty good introduction, including script. And it ended up coming glimpses of Rockford’s back to me, and I threw it in my dilapidated trailer and drawer.” Noah Beery, Jr. as his dad, Rocky. © NBCUniversal.

THE ROCKFORD FOLLIES BY WILL MURRAY

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

until executives told him point-blank not to use Angel Martin again. Then Margolin got an Emmy nomination. End of argument. Margolin based Angel on a golf hustler he knew. “In my mind, Angel is a descendent of him. He’s a hustler, a street character. Angel’s a snitch. He’s like the characters Elisha Cook played. He’s out of O’Henry and Damon Runyon.” No one sandbagged poor Rockford as much or more often than Angel. Yet he kept getting ensnared in Angel’s schemes. “Rockford is his scapegoat,” revealed Margolin. “He’s the most available guy to point the finger at. I think he trusts Rockford the most, and Rockford trusts Angel to do certain things. He knows he will sell him out. He’s consistent.” Robert Donat played Joseph “Rocky” Rockford in the pilot, but Noah Beery, Jr. took over the role for the series. He had been the original choice, but was unavailable for the pilot. Cannell modeled the crusty truck-driving character after his own father. “He could not understand why I didn’t stay in the furniture business. Rocky Rockford could not understand why Jim Rockford would risk his life as a private detective when he could get a solid job as a trucker.” Beery was nonchalant about his role. “I don’t know that I really fit into any category on the show,” he once said. “Sometimes Jim and I switch places and he takes care of his stupid father. I guess it’s more of an association. They could easily do without me, but they keep me around.” Jim Garner saw it differently. “I think Rockford’s relationship with his father is the emotional backbone of the show. Sometimes they get on each other’s nerves, but the affection is there through it all.”

Four of The Rockford Files’ supporting characters: (TOP) Noah Beery, Jr. as Rocky Rockford and Gretchen Corbett as Beth Davenport. (BOTTOM) Joe Santos as Detective Dennis Becker and Stuart Margolin as Angel Martin. © NBCUniversal.

From (LEFT) Lindsay Wagner as Sara Butler in the series pilot to (CENTER) Lauren Bacall as Princess Irene Rachevsky to (RIGHT) Isaac Hayes as “Gandy” Finch, familiar faces as guest-stars were common in The Rockford Files. So was Jim Rockford’s jazzy houndstooth sport coat. © NBCUniversal. 40

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

The chemistry between actors Joe Santos and James Garner was a crowd-pleasing aspect of the series. (INSET) Santos (LEFT) and Stuart Margolin (RIGHT) with Garner in 1994, during the era of Rockford Files reunion movies. © NBCUniversal.

‘THE ROCKFORD FILES’ KICKS OFF

When The Rockford Files debuted as a weekly series, it was with an episode called “The Kirkoff Case,” which was an unfilmed Toma idea Huggins revised. It had a classic scene when Rockford is scared off a case by two thugs, acting perfectly agreeable to dropping the matter. Just like Bret Maverick in the old days. According to Garner, “That’s the cue for an actor to do one of two things: play it straight or inject a little ‘Holy cow, I’m gonna get killed’ humor into it. That’s me, and that’s Rockford.” Despite the hasty retreat, Rockford later has to prove he’s not a coward. “But he wasn’t, of course,” said Huggins, “any more than Maverick was a coward.” What Rockford was, was his own man. Asked if there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for money, Rockford replied, “I won’t kill for it, and I won’t marry for it. Other than that, I am open to just about anything.” “Rockford is hand-tailored for Jim,” Huggins observed. “It’s designed to capture that dry sense of humor, the wryness, double-entendre, his innate sense of comedy timing.” Meta Rosenberg agreed. “It’s a rare kind of quality, this ability to convey comedy with the flick of a finger. And Jim’s got it, no question.” “I’m a reactor, which helps in that type of thing,” allowed Garner. “It helps to comment on the situation. I like to come at things from a little more oblique angle, a humorous angle.” The first-season episodes tended to be straight crime dramas populated by a sly, quirky humor that didn’t quite dispel the

seriousness of the proceedings. Every one opened with a recorded telephone message received on Jim’s now-vintage answering machine. These humorous tags were usually written by the producers and directors, but seldom by the episode’s scripter! “So it was very much a collaborative effort,” remembered producer Charles Floyd Johnson, “and we all had fun writing them.” After Season One, Roy Huggins departed and Stephen Cannell took over as showrunner. And the series veered into its trademark comedic territory. But it also hit its first snags. During the second season, The Rockford Files came under fire for excessive violence. “First year, we weren’t listed as violent,” Garner observed. “Now we’re violent, and we do less than we did the first year. ’Course, no one ever tells you who makes up those lists, who decides what’s violent.” Much to the star’s chagrin, the networks clamped down. “They refused Rockford being knocked down by a judo chop to the neck,” Garner complained. “It was okay to film the blow, but then they wanted us to cut to Rockford falling to the ground without the hit being seen.” But the network had its way. “I’ve always been conscious of violence,” Garner grudgingly admitted. “I don’t like over-violence. We’ve cut down.” In its place, wild car chases became the show’s signature action riff. “I don’t do all of my own stunt work on Rockford,” allowed Garner, “but I’m behind the wheel often enough to establish that I do drive in the chase scenes.” RETROFAN

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RETROFAD

‘Bu exp t the ert y fo tim ugh ing’ t w K K it

U h C U CO N ONNG NQG QU F F UE U U ER RS S T TH W WHE E O OR RL LD D

(ABOVE) Detail from the poster of the 1973 film Fists of Fury. © National General Pictures Corp.

BY MICHAEL EURY The kung-fu craze of the Seventies nearly cost me a toe. I was in my teens in 1973 when I thought it was a good idea to “test” my martial-arts prowess, “honed” from my fascination with the movie Billy Jack and the rattler-fast moves of its guardian of a progressive school for indigenous and with-it teens. My “opponent” was unwisely picked: my uncle Hershel, a giant of a man who was a decorated combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. As I poised to strike, I imitated my new screen hero by quoting a line the woefully outnumbered Billy Jack quipped to an antagonist: “I’m 46

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gonna take this right foot, and I’m gonna whop you on that side of your face… and you wanna know something? There’s not a damn thing you’re gonna be able to do about it.” Uncle Hershel dismissively blocked my kick with his mammoth arm. I assume his arm was as flesh and blood as mine, but it sure felt like I was kicking an anvil with my bare foot. My throbbing little piggy turned a horrid shade of purple that you’d never find in a box of Crayolas. Martial arts were certainly nothing new by the time kids like me flipped over kung fu. These ancient fighting and self-defense

sports comprise a range of East Asian cultures’ unarmed and armed competitions. Many, if not most, of us do not understand the differences between such disciplines as kung fu, aikido, budo, taekwondo, karate, kendo, and savate, tossing them all into a lingual blender and labeling the whole lot “kung fu.” RetroFan respectfully bows to those who are serious students and practitioners of the martial arts, but in the spirit of the lighthearted tone of our “RetroFad” column we are anchoring this martial-arts discussion upon the cultural contagion that occurred in the early Seventies. But first, a little history… According to journalist and blogger Terence Towles Canote, wushu (martial arts) date back to the third or second century BC, and in later centuries were chronicled in Chinese literature in a subgenre called wuxia. Other East Asian nations, including Japan and Korea, had their own forms of physical warfare and selfdefense that permeated their lore. In the early 20th Century, these disciplines began their stretch onto a larger global stage. The nascent Chinese film industry released 1919’s Robbery on a Train, which Canote suspects is the earliest kung-fu movie. Karate, judo, and jujutsu (jiu-jitsu) made their way into the U.S.A., and many American soldiers in World War II were exposed to martial arts during their Far Eastern journeys. Once a karate dojo (studio) opened in the States in 1945, more followed. Canote writes, “By the Fifties and Sixties, karate dojos were scattered across the country.” As part of this burgeoning trend, athletes and wannabes alike attempted to smash through wooden planks and bricks using barehanded karate chops. Judo even became an Olympic sport beginning in 1964. According to Canote, one of the earliest examples of a martial art appearing in an American television series was “Karate,” a Gene Roddenberry–penned episode of The Detectives originally aired on January 8, 1960; following on March 19, 1960 was “Black Belt,” an episode of Wanted Dead or Alive, the TV Western starring Steve McQueen. Then the success of the first theatrical James Bond movie, 1962’s Dr. No, triggered the spy craze (see RetroFan #6). Television and movie secret agents including 007, The Avengers’ Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, Honey West, our man Derek Flint, and the wild, wild James West fought foes using some type of martial arts—usually judo flips and karate chops. Deputy Barney Fife, the shakiest gun in Mayberry, and Jethro Bodine, as a would-be “double-naught spy,” tried their hand at it, too. Martial arts were also seen in Sixties animated cartoons. Bob Kuwahara, a native of Japan, created for America’s Terrytoons the animated character Hashimoto-San, a mouse that was a Japanese judo instructor. Joe Jitsu (Dick Tracy), Karate (Batfink), and Mr. Muto the Karate Ant (Atom Ant) were among other cartoon characters

(LEFT) This mid-Sixties release was one of several martial-arts books by Bruce Lee, who would soon rocket to international superstardom. Courtesy of Heritage. with Asian and martial-arts backgrounds; their exaggerated ethnic affectations are considered offensive to modern audiences. These flashy new (to Americans) forms of combat were tailor made for comic books. Artist Frank McLaughlin’s Judomaster was one of Charlton Comics’ “Action Heroes” line of the mid-Sixties. Marvel’s karate-chopping Karnak premiered with his allies the Inhumans in Fantastic Four #45 in 1965. At DC Comics, teenaged writer Jim Shooter introduced Karate Kid as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in 1966’s

Sixties TV icons Barney Fife (of The Andy Griffith Show) and Emma Peel (of The Avengers) practiced martial arts, as did CBS’ cartoon star HashimotoSan, who was also seen in various Gold Key comic books. The Andy Griffith Show © CBS. Emma Peel © Studiocanal S.A. Hashimoto-San and Deputy Dawg © CBS.

Adventure Comics #346. Two years later, Diana Prince, the erstwhile, now-powerless Wonder Woman, became DC’s alternative to the martial artist Emma Peel, with a blind sensei embarrassingly named I Ching as her mentor and companion. (Historically, comic books had previously flirted with martial arts, from the judo skills of Harvey Comics’ Black Cat in the Forties to the Jay-Jay Corp.’s Judo Joe comic in the Fifties.) But no one in live action, animation, or illustration could out-kick, out-block, or out-move Bruce Lee, who electrified TV audiences in his star-making turn as the living weapon Kato on The Green Hornet (1966–1967). Born in San Francisco in 1940 but reared in British Hong Kong, Lee opened martial-arts schools in the Sixties in Washington State and California, teaching his hybrid brand of self-defense called Jeet Kune Do. The handsome, likable warrior was soon guest starring on television episodes, bringing his RETROFAN

July 2023

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 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

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

You’ll Put Your Eye Out, Kid Danger in Happy Toyland

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA “We’d like to show you another one of Mr. Mainway’s products… it’s called Bag O’ Glass. Mr. Mainway, this is simply a bag of jagged, dangerous, glass bits.” – Consumer Reporter “Yeah, well, look—you know, the average kid, he picks up, you know, broken glass anywhere, you know? We’re just packaging what the kids want! I mean, it’s a creative toy, you know? If you hold this up, you know, you see colors, every color of the rainbow!” – Irwin Mainway Mr. Irwin Mainway, maker of General Tron’s Secret Police Confession Kit, Johnny Switchblade: Adventure Punk, and the above-referenced Bag O’ Glass, is not, of course, a real toymaker, but rather a character played by Dan Aykroyd. Mainway made his first appearance in an NBC’s Saturday Night skit (Season 2, Episode 10, in 1977, before it became Saturday Night Live or just SNL). Mainway returned in a few later episodes selling Halloween costumes (a plastic bag with a rubber band was a space helmet) and as a school lunch provider serving “dog’s milk” to schoolchildren (obtaining such milk was apparently “a very interesting process”). The morally outraged reporter was played by the show’s host for the week, Candice Bergen, and later by Aykroyd’s fellow Not Ready for Primetime Player, Jane Curtain. Few toymakers have been as predatory as the fictional Irwin Mainway (is what I hope). That’s not to say that there haven’t

Beloved toy favorite Mr. Potato Head was, in its early days, made with hard plastic pieces strong enough to plunge into actual fruit and vegetables. Mr. Potato Head ® Hasbro, Inc.

been poorly made or poorly thought-out playthings for kids sent into the marketplace. Absolutely, there have been. And some have been completely bonkers. But even relatively well-designed toys can have unintended consequences as anyone who has ever stepped—barefooted—on a sturdy, brilliantly designed Lego piece in the dark can confirm. Weirdly, I became worried about potential hazards of toys as a kid. At first, it was just Mr. Potato Head parts with pointy shafts made to plunge into a plastic (or real) potato that worried me. Distinctly I recall wondering why a toy company, in this case Hasbro, would make something so obviously able to inflict pain and injury. And I say this as someone who really, deeply wanted to have a Mr. Potato Head (which I did eventually get from the local Dime Store). Still, the little potato eyeballs with plastic shivs coming out the back particularly unnerved young me. If that was all we had to worry about in terms of unsafe toys during the Retro Years, then we could end the story here, but we all know that is not the case. Not then and not in the years before then. In fact, we Retronauts had it pretty safe compared to our forefathers (or actual fathers). So before we look at how dangerous our playtime could be for us, let’s take a quick look at how completely hazardous it was before many of us were born.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND BLOWGUNS

The A. C. Gilbert Company was once one of the largest toy companies in the known world. It was founded by a part-time magician RETROFAN

July 2023

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

A screen capture of the Austin Magic Pistol in extreme action thanks to a YouTube user known only as Z pushing this delightful plaything to its limits.

the Porter Chemical Company had declared bankruptcy. A. C. Gilbert was done by 1967, following the 1961 death of its founder. Interesting chemical interactions weren’t just for chemistry sets. The Austin Magic Pistol (circa late Forties), a name that surely conjures up promises of mystery and projectiles, looks like the kind of gun a robot in a Buck Rogers serial might wave around shooting electric bolts scratched into the film stock. The projectiles were basically ping-pong balls (pretty harmless) and the mystery was provided by “Magic Crystals.” The gun was described as “harmless.” Turns out, not exactly. The crystals were actually calcium carbide. To use the gun you needed to add a bit of moisture to the crystals (spit works) in a chamber the combination of which makes volatile acetylene gas that a trigger/flint device sets off with a satisfying blast that launches the ball from said gun. Add too much water (or too much spit) and a flame shoots out when you fire it (I have witnessed this via YouTube). Miners used this tech to power their lamps until the Fifties when they were finally discontinued for being too dangerous. (The Austin Magic Pistol: “The Toy Miners Won’t Use.”)

HOT TOYS

(ABOVE) Detail from the 1960 Sears Christmas Book catalog. The smaller of the two ovens is the notorious Empire Little Lady Electric Range. The selling point of the larger electric range is that the child may stand at the stove “as Mom does.” Courtesy of christmas.musetechnical.com. (BELOW) The initial versions of the Little Lady Electric Range killer, the Easy-Bake Oven came in very groovy Sixties and early Seventies colors. There were concerns about the heat from the two 100 watt light bulbs needed to cook the cookies and whatnot, but the early Easy-Bake Ovens were largely a problem-free toy. Courtesy of Bradross03/Wikipedia.

to radiation?). Skil-Craft produced a biology lab that included an actual dead frog and crayfish, among other creatures, for dissection and observation. I imagine the assembly factory for this product was quite the horror show. Legal actions and complaints helped to dumb down the chemistry sets to the point where kids simply lost interest. By 1984, 56

RETROFAN

July 2023

Some very cool toys had heating-element issues. I’m not talking about the Kenner Easy-Bake Oven, which debuted in 1963. This toy oven used a pair of common light bulbs as a heat source so that a child, usually a girl child (in the old days!), could bake goodies. It’s practically a miracle toy. No, the only problem with the Easy-Bake Oven was not enough ingredients and too small portions. However, modern, updated versions of the still-made-but-redesigned (now by Hasbro) toy have caused heating-related injuries. The Empire Little Lady Electric Range, on the other hand, was one of ten toys targeted by consumer protection groups for remedial action under emergency provisions of the then-new Toy Safety Act of 1970. They claimed that the toy stove reached temperatures of 600 degrees, which, being hotter than an actual stove, was very bad. The pre-war Little Lady Range did get fiercely hot (the thermostat turned up to 500 degrees, but some sources say it did get to 600). Modern auctions and sales for these vintage stoves often include the words “gets hot fast” and “DANGEROUS.” The post-war versions were less hot (yet hot enough to bake cookies). They were also insulated with fiberglass, a suspected carcinogen. However, due to the popularity of the Easy-Bake Oven, Little Lady Electric Ranges were essentially gone from the market by the end of the Sixties. If you really want to singe your hair, some of the earliest toy stoves were heated by… coal. The consumer groups were spot on about another toy on their Top Ten Recall list: Lawn Darts (Jarts). Some years later a child did die, and over 6,000 people ended up in emergency rooms as a result of play gone wrong. A number of the (literally) hottest cool toys around came from Mattel. The company is internationally known as the home of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels toy cars. But it came from modest beginnings in a Los Angeles garage in 1945, first selling picture frames and then dollhouse furniture. Before Barbie wowed young girls in 1959, the company had a hit with the Uke-A-Doodle, a ukulele-shaped music box. But it’s the Sixties and early

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Seventies-era Mattel toys with heating elements that are of most interest here. Vac-U-Form, a toy-making toy (the only thing better than a cookie-making toy), featured an exposed heating surface. The heat softened a thin plastic sheet that would then be placed over a mold. Then pumping action would create a vacuum that sucked the plastic down over the mold, and soon you had a small toy. This was unspeakably fantastic. And useful. The instruction booklet tells how to use modeling clay to modify existing molds, or you could use it to make all-new ones. The Famous Monsters of Filmland Monster Make-Up Handbook (1965) suggested creating bugged-out monster eyes using the Vac-U-Form despite its high $12 cost (about $115 in 2022 bucks!). Still, that exposed heating plate was a concern for parents. It sold, but its retail life was short, about a year. Decades after being discontinued (and a failed revival by ToyMax in the Nineties), used sets still in working condition are popular with hobbyists despite the potential for burned fingers. Another heating platform toy from Mattel were the Thingmaker sets. The Thingmaker used a standalone heating unit (“Caution, very warm surfaces”), metal molds, and “Plasti-Goop” to create a variety of, well, things. The Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker (1964) is probably the best remembered, but other types exist. The Fun Flowers set (1966) featured flower and leaf molds (you could get real flowers and leaves back then, right?) and was marketed to girls. Other crave-able Thingmakers were the Fighting Men set (1965), which allowed you to create stand-up soldiers (but they were

Toys that make toys! Two comic-book ads from 1966–1967: (ABOVE) the still-sought-after Vac-U-Form and (LEFT) the Fright Factory and Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker. © Mattel. weirdly soft compared to regular toy soldiers); the Fright Factory (1966), which made spooky stuff (most of which could be used as parts of a gruesome rubbery disguise); and Incredible Edibles (1967), which made ingestible things. The “edible” Gooble-Degoop was heated like the Plasti-Goop. Fortunately, it didn’t give off toxic fumes like the Plasti-Goop. It also didn’t really taste very good. A bit of the departure from the other Thingmakers was the best of the bunch, 1969’s Hot Wheels Factory. The Factory had a heat element contained within the device unlike the other Thingmakers. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t burn yourself on it. You surely could, and I did. Fans of TV’s Arrested Development may recall the family’s Cornballer, a fry device that burned everyone who got close enough to the thing… it was like that. The Hot Wheels Factory was given to me on my birthday one year (this is the kind of party gift you get when a friend’s dad is a V.P. at Mattel). Plastic pellets in different colors were dropped into the Factory gullet, melted, and extruded into a metal mold allowing you to create a small variety of plastic Hot Wheels–type cars. They worked, too. The best part about the set was that the little cars could be broken apart and re-melted to make new cars. One of my all-time favorite toys. RETROFAN

July 2023

RETRO TELEVISION

All Hail Don Drysdale! Baseball, Hollywood, and a Legendary Dodger BY DAVID KRELL Don Drysdale had a right arm that batters feared and an on-camera presence that Hollywood producers sought. On August 11, 1969, the three-time Major League Baseball strikeout leader announced what Los Angeles Dodgers fans dreaded but knew was inevitable. Retirement. His right shoulder no longer had the elasticity necessary to play at an optimum level. Plus, the risk of injuries was increasingly apparent. The Dodgers were in third place in the newly formed National League West, one game behind the Atlanta Braves and threeand-a-half games behind the Cincinnati Reds. “This team has a chance to go all the way,” said the 33-year-old Van Nuys, California, native to the San Pedro News-Pilot. “I don’t want to jeopardize their chances.” Drysdale had pitched in 62 innings across 12 games in his final season when he stepped away. His record was 5-4. Then in their 12th year in Los Angeles after moving from Brooklyn, the Dodgers had added three World Series titles to their roster of achievements—1959, 1963, and 1965—since settling in Southern California. Sandy Koufax retired after the Baltimore Orioles swept the Dodgers in the 1966 World Series. The southpaw’s phenomenal power resulted in winning three Cy Young Awards; leading Major League Baseball in strikeouts four times; and throwing four no-hitters—including a perfect game. With Drysdale now gone, the void on L.A.’s pitching staff was even starker. “I have immensely enjoyed my relationship with the Dodgers,” said the righthander to the Hollywood Citizen-News. “I owe quite a bit to baseball—just about everything. It’s been great. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Drysdale’s first major-league appearance ended with nine strikeouts in a complete game, 6-1 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium on April 23, 1956. It was the beginning of a formidable career: a 209-166 win-loss record, two-time 62

RETROFAN

July 2023

A very Brady pitching pointer! L.A. Dodger Don Drysdale and Greg Brady (Barry Williams) in a promotional still for “The Dropout,” the Season Two opener of The Brady Bunch. Original airdate: September 25, 1970. © Paramount Television. leader in innings pitched, a Cy Young Award, and nearly 2,500 strikeouts. He also led MLB four times—and the NL five times—in hitting batters with pitches. “I was called ‘intimidating,’ and I wasn’t about to dispute that,” wrote Drysdale in his 1990 autobiography (written with Bob Verdi), Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990). “I never talked about my reputation, but I was very much at peace having others talk about it. Baseball then was a game of intimidation, and if opposing batters figured you were going to throw the ball inside at 94 miles an hour on a day when you didn’t feel like you could break a pane of glass, fine. Let ’em think that way. Perfect.” Fearsomeness was a sharp arrow in Drysdale’s quiver. Endurance, another. He led both leagues in games started from 1962 to 1965. Moreover, Drysdale had dominated the opposition just one year before retiring, when he broke the record for consecutive scoreless innings. Carl Hubbell had held the National League record with 45 in 1933; Walter Johnson’s 56 in 1913 topped the majors. Drysdale blanked the opposition for 58. In the midst of Drysdale’s streak, Robert F. Kennedy won the 1968 California Democratic Presidential Primary and used his victory speech to praise the pitcher: “I want to first express my high regard to Don Drysdale, who pitched his sixth

Superstar Drysdale seen in baseball trading cards, ranging from 1957–1967, from Topps and Bazooka. © Topps. © Bazooka. Courtesy of Heritage.

straight shutout tonight, and I hope that we have as good fortune in our campaign.” Tragedy struck. Two hours after the speech at the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Kennedy and wounded five others. Drysdale’s scoreless-innings record stood until Orel Hershiser, another Dodger hurler, broke it in 1988 with 59, which is presently the record. “At least it stays in the family,” said Drysdale to Bill Plaschke in “Drysdale Takes Hershiser’s Best Pitch and Keeps Smiling,” published in the September 29, 1988 Los Angeles Times. But his impact on popular culture extended beyond the pitching mound to TV studios and eventually the broadcast booth. During his ballplaying career, Drysdale had guest roles in the shows Lawman, The Millionaire, and The Rifleman. But he’s better known among classic television buffs for playing himself on the small screen; his credits include Leave It to Beaver and Our Man Higgins. In Jack Benny’s 1968 carnival-themed special Carnival Nights, Drysdale’s cameo consists of introducing himself as he steps up to a game—throwing a baseball at a target with Benny’s head as the bull’s-eye. Benny gets paid five dollars an hour for the gig. In keeping with his onstage persona of being cheap, the Waukegan, Illinois, native Benny says, “Well, for five dollars, I’ll take a chance.”

Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson have prominent roles in the special, which features music and dance numbers, plus appearances by Ben Blue, Paul Revere & the Raiders, George Burns, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, and the Smothers Brothers. Drysdale also played himself in four episodes of The Donna Reed Show. Reed’s character, Donna Stone, is a suburban matriarch running her household with her husband, Dr. Alex Stone, and two kids—Jeff and Mary. In the 1962 episode “The Man in the Mask,” high school student Jeff is excited to meet Don Drysdale and interview him for the school paper. Drysdale misses the appointment because a meeting with sports writers lasted longer than anticipated, so he goes to the Stone house to apologize. Not knowing that his interviewee is outside talking to his father, Jeff loudly voices frustration in the kitchen. Drysdale overhears him and compares him to Leo Durocher, the Dodgers’ feisty coach. All is settled. Drysdale tells Jeff that a good fastball is like life insurance for a pitcher. He also mentions that it’s the first year for Dodger Stadium and he hopes to win the National League pennant. The Dodgers came close. They tied the Giants in 1962, forcing a three-game playoff. The Giants won the NL flag, then lost the World Series to the Yankees in seven games. When Jeff is persuaded by two competing girlfriends to umpire their softball game, Drysdale warns him against the endeavor. Disaster happens. Every call that Jeff makes is met with anger from the girls. Drysdale stops by the field, sees Jeff’s quandary, and offers wisdom. “Just go out there and act like an umpire,” instructs the veteran ballplayer. “You don’t have to get tough, just RETROFAN

July 2023

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

GROOVY also 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! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

CHARLTON COMPANION

TEAM-UP COMPANION OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS (1940s-1980s)

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more!

MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

GLEN CADIGAN’s bio of the artist who redesigned the Legion of Super-Heroes and introduced X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Logan!

(272-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-107-3

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 HC: $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-113-4

REED CRANDALL

Illustrator of the Comics

MIKE GRELL

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

JOHN SEVERIN

HERO-A-GO-GO!

Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8

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

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

Biography of the EC, MARVEL and MAD mainstay, co-creator of American Eagle, and 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor.

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

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-102-8

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-106-6

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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

‘Don’t Ask—Just BUY It!’ The Comics of Jack Kirby, Oddball Cartoonist BY SCOTT SHAW!

The first time I met Jack Kirby was when he was a special guest at the first official San Diego Comic-Con (at the time a.k.a. Golden State Comic Con) on August 1–3 in 1970, and I was so excited I could barely speak. The second time I met Jack was at his home in SoCal’s Thousand Oaks, along with my other teenage San Diego Comic-Con co-originator pals in 1971. I blurted out, “Jack Kirby!?! You’re my favorite cartoonist!” Surprisingly, Jack seemed quite pleased to be described by that simple term, usually applied to those of us who write and draw nothing but the funny stuff. After all, comics aficionados have dubbed him “King” Kirby (a title he wore with some discomfort), and have compared his work to that of Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Rockwell, among other artistic greats. I suppose that’s because Jack probably saw himself as a cartoonist, partially because he wrote the stories he drew. A few weeks later, he sent me a penciled caricature of myself getting strangled by King Kong (see inset). If you are a loyal reader of RetroFan’s non-comics-related material, it’s very

possible that you have no idea who Jack Kirby was. From the Forties into the Eighties, Jack was comics’ most prolific creator. Whether he was working with Joe Simon, Stan Lee, or by himself, Jack’s concepts and characters were exciting, unique, and popular. He worked in every comic-book genre, but is best known for co-creating such super-heroes as Captain America, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. If it wasn’t for Jack, there would be no Marvel Universe in comics or films. But Jack’s work went far beyond Marvel. Not only did he do work for almost every publisher of comics, but his style of storytelling and character designs educated the entire funnybook industry in how to make comics that people will eagerly purchase.

(ABOVE) You may know Jack Kirby for his work on Captain America, Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, and so many other super-hero series, but the King of Comics was no stranger to humor and other oddball work, such as cartooning for Charlton’s MAD knock-off From Here to Insanity #11 (Aug. 1955). Courtesy of Heritage. RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Most people tend to think of Jack Kirby in melodramatic superlatives. He’s been described as the ultimate comic-book artist, a master’s master of graphic fiction, and an incredibly talented creator of dynamic heroes, dramatic action, and cosmic conflicts. He was, without a doubt, the single most imaginative individual ever to work in the field of comic books. He was equally comfortable working in any of the familiar comic-book genres of superheroics, romance, Westerns, science fiction, and war, among other dramatic themes. But Jack Kirby was also very funny as a writer, as an artist, and as a person, and left behind a surprisingly large body of work to prove it. I first noticed his very unique sense of humor in 1965 when I received the first issue of the Merry Marvel Marching Society Messenger newsletter. In it was a short autobiography by the former Jacob Kurtzberg, in which he described a soldier he knew as “The Human Roadblock.” One of the strangest paradoxes in comics is that most “straight” comic books (in such “realistic” genres as super-heroes, Westerns, romance, war, etc.) are drawn in styles that actually bear almost no resemblance to truly realistic illustration! Yet, many fans (and even editors) of these comics turn up their noses at anything resembling the kind of humorous cartooning sometimes referred to within the business as “big-foot drawing.” In my estimation, Jack Kirby’s artwork somehow bridges this aesthetic gulf. Judging from life drawings that he had done as a young man, Jack had always possessed a natural ability to work in a much more realistic style than that with which he is now usually associated. It appears that the exaggerated and dynamic anatomy, poses, design, composition, and foreshortening that have become such a Kirby trademark may have been the result of a conscious aesthetic decision on Jack’s part. One thing is certain, however: once he began his professional career (under a variety of pen names), no matter what the character or genre, whether the subject was serious or lighthearted, Jack Kirby could only draw like Jack Kirby, and if humorous illustration could be described as an exaggeration of realistic art, then Jack Kirby’s humor work is nothing less than an even greater exaggeration of his normally exaggerated style! Therefore, this column will focus on the material that was unusual even for someone with Jack’s incredibly wide range of work in print—most really cool, some kinda ridiculous, but all somewhat amusing, obscure, and oddball.

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

In 1917, Jack Kirby was born and raised as Jacob Kurtzberg in New York City’s Lower East Side, two square miles that were, at the time, considered to be the most densely populated neighborhood on Earth. Life wasn’t easy for kids during Jack’s youth, but by banding together in block-gangs, they learned how to be tough without becoming gangsters like they knew from films and personal experience. Whether they be Jewish, Italian, African-American, Latino, or Irish, the older the kids grew, the more they realized that escaping from the ghetto was necessary if they were ever going to achieve their dreams. 68

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Jack “King” Kirby in 1993. Susan Skaar.

He yam what he yam, and he yam inspired by Popeye. Still, Kirby’s early strip Socko the Seadog, produced under the pen name of “Teddy,” is fun to behold. © The Jack Kirby Estate. Scan courtesy of Scott Shaw!

Jacob was not only interested in drawing, he also liked to read pulp magazines and watch films in movie houses. Those media educated him in how to write stories and how to portray them. That was his self-schooling, unlike the Pratt Institute art class he skipped out of after one week. While briefly working as a newspaper cartoonist’s office boy, he realized that his boss’ profession was what he wanted and soon needed. When his father lost his job, Jacob dropped out of school to earn money for his family, first as a newsboy. Soon, Jacob was hired by Fleischer Studios—run by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer [see RetroFan #25 for more Fleischer info—ed.]—as an “inbetweener” on the outfit’s Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons. (An inbetweener is an essential animation artist that creates the transitional drawings between the assistant animator’s poses.) A fast drawer, Jacob’s income amounted to enough that the Kurtzbergs could afford to relocate to Brooklyn, a slightly nicer

The oddball world of scott shaw!

Long before he’d draw talking animals in DC Comics’ Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, Kirby had fun with babbling beasts in his “Earl the Rich Rabbit” and (INSET) “Lockjaw the Alligator” features in Hillman Periodicals’ Punch and Judy Comics. © The Jack Kirby Estate. Scans courtesy of Scott Shaw!

neighborhood than the Lower East Side. But outside of helping his family, Jacob wasn’t enjoying his new job. Not only did the studio’s vibe remind him of the pressure-filled sweatshops his father had toiled in, but Jacob was expected to draw the same character over and over in the same poses all day long, which to him seemed like the opposite of creativity. Fleischer Studios was also moving to Florida, which cemented his decision to leave the studio. But it’s likely that this early animation training also had a long-range effect on Jack throughout his six-decade career. Not coincidentally, in the Eighties, Jack found himself back where he started, working in the animation field, doing character designs and concept development for HannaBarbera and Ruby-Spears Productions, including extremely cartoony designs for H-B’s Scooby-Doo cartoons. Even better, he

became a producer at R-S, with a regular salary and health insurance, perks that rarely occur in the comic-book industry. But it’s apparent that his experiences at Fleischer had some influence on young Jacob. In 1936, he found work with Lincoln Features Syndicate, which sold material to smaller market newspapers, including ones for the Jewish readership. He wrote and drew a number of different strips for Lincoln, mostly self-created and all bearing made-up signatures of fictitious cartoonists. (Eventually, he’d pick one of them for himself because it sounded the most like a real cartoonist name, “Jack Kirby.”) Jacob created his daily comics strips at home on the kitchen table. The majority were dramatic stories with quasi-realistic, Will Eisner-ish characters. But there was one exception, because one of these strips was Socko the Seadog by “Teddy,” which began as a blatant Popeye imitation, complete with swipes from cartoonist E. C. Segar. Although he would never be known for drawing funny stuff, the kid who would soon be known as Jack Kirby was merely applying what he’d learned to do at Fleischer’s. The result was, at best, repetitive slapstick. But as the strip progressed, Socko’s swipes and corny gags were replaced by funny and clever globe-spanning adventure stories depicted with Jacob’s improving skills with acting, atmosphere, and storytelling. Although there has been no evidence that it ever saw print, Jacob created a second comic strip in 1938, Abdul Jones, a fantasy with broad humor, produced using the name “Ted Grey.” It starred a teenage lad with wanderlust, accompanied by a mule that wore eyeglasses. Their exploits included a number of exotic characters including the 12-foot-tall bandit Katchaz Katchkhan, Josef Welchmore the Bagdad bookie, and RETROFAN

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RetroFan #27