Chapter 4. Steve, the World’s Finest Creeper, & The Batman

In early 1977, I was assigned the editorial duties on World’s Finest Comics, one of DC’s longest running and most popular comics. World’s Finest had begun in 1941 under the title of World’s Best Comics (for the first issue only), with a number of different features sandwiched between a Superman lead and a Batman & Robin story to finish it off. It was a larger comic, priced at 15¢ when the rest of the DC line was just a dime. Early issues sported cardboard covers. Superman and Batman & Robin shared the cover illustration, but were featured in their own, separate stories inside. This was a successful package for 13 straight years. The interior line-up would change from time to time, but Superman always held the lead, Batman & Robin ended each issue, and the trio shared the cover.

In 1954, it was decided to decrease the page count of World’s Finest Comics and charge a 10¢ cover price to match the rest of the DC lineup. The question arose as to which one of their super-stars would allow DC to hold onto the lead. A few years earlier—Superman #76 [May/June 1952]—the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader (along with Robin, the Boy Wonder) had teamed-up in their first actual dual comic book adventure after only being seen together on the covers of World’s Finest Comics. Since that Superman team-up had been such a success, it was decided, beginning with issue #71 [July/Aug. 1954], that a dual Superman and Batman (with Robin) adventure would be the lead and cover feature for World’s Finest. The continuing exploits of Green Arrow and Tomahawk would round out each issue. enamored with Vigilante. I felt his Western theme was a little old-fashioned compared to the rest of World’s Finest’s features. I wanted something different.

That’s when Mike Gold came up with a brilliant idea. At that time, Mike was DC’s publicity director, a position created by our new publisher, Jenette Kahn. Mike was on top of everything, always looking for something to bring positive attention to DC’s titles, old and new. I had been working with Ditko on Shade, The Changing Man for a few months, and Mike had been a close observer of my professional relationship with Steve. Mike popped into my office one day and sat down in the chair opposite my desk.

“Hey,” he said. “Why don’t you have Ditko do an eight-page Creeper story to fill Vigilante’s spot in World’s Finest?”

I later learned that the real reason Mike made this suggestion was that the Creeper was Mike’s favorite Ditko super-hero. “I always thought,” Mike explained, “that the Creeper was the most ‘Ditko-esque’ of all of Steve’s costumed super-heroes!”

Ditko had created the character of the Creeper for Showcase #73 [March/April 1968] and Beware the Creeper had a six-issue run in 1968 and ‘69. The character had appeared in an issue of Justice League of America [#70, March 1969] and a few issues of Detective Comics teamed with Batman, in 1975. Ditko himself had revived The Creeper in an issue of First Issue Special [#7, Oct. 1975]. After that appearance, the character had a brief three-issue run in Adventure Comics [#445–447 in 1976], written by Marty Pasko, with art by Ric Estrada and Joe Staton. I had even used the character myself in a couple of issues of another title I was editing, Secret Society of Super-Villains [#9–10 in 1977]. I recalled talking with Steve regarding the Creeper appearances when his creation had been handled by creative teams other than himself. He just shook his head and said, “They can’t leave him alone, can they?”

I completely understood Steve’s feelings. At the time, just about all comic books were created under the work-for-hire concept; publishers owned the characters and the creators were only paid for their specific writing and art for individual stories. The next time Steve came in I asked him, “How would you like to do an eight-page Creeper feature for World’s Finest Comics? It would be completely yours. You’d write it, you’d pencil it, and you’d ink it. You can do anything you want.”

He nodded and said, “Sure, when would you need it?”

So, with World’s Finest #249 [Feb./March edit his own stories. I was writing Wonder Woman in her own comic, so I couldn’t write her adventures in World’s Finest while editing it. Adventure Comics was adopting the Dollar Comics format, so that became the perfect spot for where I could script a shorter Wonder Woman feature outside of her own title.

DC felt it was important to keep their version of Captain Marvel alive, so, after the discontinuation of the regular Shazam! title, Captain Marvel, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Don Newton, found a new home in World’s Finest, replacing Wonder Woman.

I had also just finished writing a threeissue tryout run in Showcase for Hawkman. Showcase #101–103 [1978] had featured a three-part teaming up of Hawkman with Adam Strange, illustrated by Al Milgrom and Murphy Anderson. The higher-ups told me that if I wanted to keep Hawkman alive, I could have someone else do it in the pages of World’s Finest. Steve was very busy at the time, so he didn’t object when I replaced the Creeper feature with Hawkman beginning with World’s Finest Comics #256.

But that was not the end of my association with the Creeper—nor was it Steve’s final effort. A few months earlier, after I had finished my Hawkman Showcase run, the word went out for the need of additional Showcase features. I was getting some positive feedback from the World’s Finest Creeper stories, so I went to publisher Jenette Kahn and proposed a Creeper issue of Showcase. It would be an interesting occurrence, since the Creeper had originally been introduced in an issue of Showcase [#73, March/April 1968] and had a second tryout, in First Issue Special [#7, Oct. 1975]. This would be the character’s third “tryout.”

The proposal was accepted, and the Creeper was slated for Showcase #106. Eventually, there were two problems. The first one was that, while I had successfully pitched a Creeper Showcase issue, I had neglected to even ask Steve Ditko if he wanted to do it! I’ll never forget that phone call!

“Hi, Steve, this is Jack Harris.”

“Hi, Jack, what’s up?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to do a full length Creeper story for Showcase.”

“Yeah, I think I could do that. Do you need a proposal, an outline, and some sketches?”

“Uhh, no, it’s already approved. When can you have it? It’s 25 pages and a cover.”

Steve actually laughed and, in record time, I had “Enter Dr. Storme,” the first full-length solo Creeper story in three years. Then the second problem came along. Showcase became another casualty of the “DC Implosion”