$5.95In the USA

No.6AUTUMN

2000

Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

GeneColanin THE GOLDEN &

SILVER AGES!

It’s Name-Dropping TIme!

STAN LEE--ROBERT KANIGHERDICK AYERS--JOHN SEVERIN

GARY FRIEDRICH--MIKE W. BARRMICHAEL GILBERT--JOE KUBERT

AND MORE! Dr. Strange, Nightmare & Eternity ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Gene Colan �Stan Lee Section

Volume 3, No. 6Autumn 2000

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorBill Schelly

Design & LayoutJon B. CookeGREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

ProductionJanet Riley Sanderson

Consulting EditorsJohn MorrowJon B. Cooke

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Contributing EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry Bails (founder)Ronn Foss, Biljo White,Mike Friedrich

Cover ArtistsGene Colan & Tom PalmerMac Raboy

Cover ColorTom ZiukoMac Raboy

Mailing CrewRuss Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

And Special Thanks to:

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas,Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail:roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material© their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TMof P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

Dick & LindyAyers

Dave BergAl BigleyBill BlackJerry K. BoydRich BucklerGene & Adrienne

ColanJerry de FuccioJoe DesrisKeif FrommGary FriedrichJennifer T. GoDavid HamiltonMark & Steph

HeikeRoger HillRobert KanigherDavid

Anthony KraftMort Leav

Stan & Joan LeeDan MakaraGene McDonaldEric Nolen-

WeathingtonJerry OrdwayDavid RaboyEthan RobertsBob RogersArlen SchumerJohn SeverinJoe SimonRobin SnyderGlenn SouthwickKevin StawierayMarc SwayzeJoel ThingvallDann ThomasBob ThomsHank WeisingerMark Wheatley

™

ContentsWriter/Editorial: Marvels upon Marvels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The Marvel Family at Fawcett & Gene Colan at Marvel.

“So You Want a Job, Eh?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Gene Colan talks about working with Stan Lee and others.

When Those Who Can, Teach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Mike Barr on 1940s books by Stan Lee and Robert Kanigher.

“Play It Again, Stan!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Sgt. Fury in Casablanca with Friedrich, Ayers, & Severin.

More (All-) Stars Than There Are in Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron and its Golden Age roots.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Michael T. Gilbert on the Man of Steel in 1940s New Yorker and Coronet articles.

So—You Want to Collect Fanzines? (Part Two) . . . . . . . . . 47Bill Schelly says don’t pay an arm and a leg (or a claw).

Special Mac Raboy/FCA Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: This stunning Colan/Palmer illo, supplied by David Hamilton, was intended forDr. Strange #180 (May 1969), but a composite of previously-published Colan/Palmer and Ditko figures (plus a photo of the NYC skyline) was used instead. Mark Wheatley says he heard the covergot temporarily lost in the mails. And that’s the only excuse we can think of for its not being printedmore than three decades ago! [Dr. Strange, Eternity, & Nightmare ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Above: The dreams of babes: This recent sketch by Gene Colan appears in his new book, The GeneColan Annual: Painting with Pencil, edited by Tina & Matt Poslusny (the Comic Book Profiles folk),and is available at <www.GeneColan.com> or for $23.15 ppd. from As You Like It Publications, 5413Virginia Ave., Charleston, WV 25304. [Characters ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2000 Gene Colan.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Gene Colan, as artist of “Sub-Mariner,” “IronMan,” Daredevil, and other major features beginning in the mid-1960s,is one of the most-loved and best-remembered artists of Marvel’s SilverAge. Earlier this year saw the publication of The Gene Colan Annual:Painting with Pencil, a trade paperback of more than 100 pages of textand art by Gene. Having admired Gene’s work on “Sub-Mariner” in themonths before I came to work for Marvel in mid-’65, I wanted to talkwith him about this period—and of course about his even earlier work—and Gene was most obliging.—R.T.]

ROY THOMAS: Gene, I wanted to start off by mentioning thesubtitle of your annual: “Painting With Pencil.” Becausethat’s the way I and some other people always thoughtof your work. How did that title occur to you?

GENE COLAN: It was my wife Adrienne’sidea. Years ago they didn’t have a good methodof reproducing for pencil. Today, of course,with the technology they have, it can be done.

RT: I’ve tried to explain to people sometimesabout the difficulty of even a very good inkercatching everything about your work onpaper, because you would pencil so many dif-ferent shades of black and gray on the page…

COLAN: Yeah, I did that, really, just to get intoit and feel what I needed to feel to put it across. Ifigured if the inker could capture it, fine, and if hecouldn’t, well, that will have to be fine, too.

RT: One of the things I most remember about working on yourpages—since I worked with the original art in those days— is that Ialways ended up having to wash my hands several times an hour to getthe graphite off! [laughs] I’m sure you did, too, and I’m sure TomPalmer and others did.

COLAN: [laughs] Oh, yeah. I think all artists should have their workreproduced from pencils, really I do, because once the inker gets in,you’ve got two styles. It’s never interpreted the same way the artist hadmeant. But I’m slow… and so, because of that, I get a little too nervousinking it. I’m more at home with pencils.

RT: You did do some inking in the early days. But during the heyday ofMarvel, when you were doing “Sub-Mariner,” “Iron Man,” etc., kind ofthing, I don’t recall you often telling Stan, “Gee, I’d really like to inkmy own work.”

COLAN: No, I didn’t.

RT: And yet, back in the ’40s and ’50s, you inked a lot of your stories.

COLAN: I inked some of them. I inked a lot of westerns, a lot of warstories. I inked the ones that have my name on them.

RT: There was a lot of black in those stories.

COLAN: Oh, yeah.

RT: I noticed in your annual you do a lot of writing, and you have anice turn of phrase. Why didn’t you ever talk to Stan about

doing any writing years ago?

COLAN: It never occurred to me. It really neverdid. I was so steeped in the art of it, I never

thought about writing. But I enjoy writing. Asyou get older, you begin to review things inyour mind, and think you might give this ashot, and so I’ve enjoyed writing some ofthese articles in the book. They’re things thatpop up in my mind, and I have no answersfor them—[laughs]—except that I know cer-tain things. Like when someone says,

“Maybe,” that means “No.” “Maybe” is justanother way of putting you off.

RT: Quite often! [laughs] Now, to finally go backto the beginning—you were born in New York inthe Bronx, right? How did you get interested indrawing? Was it at an early stage?

COLAN: Oh, I started at three. The first thing I ever drew was a lion. Imust’ve absolutely copied it or something. But that’s what my folks tellme. And from then on, I just drew everything in sight. My grandfatherwas my favorite subject. He was very easy to do, and I loved him verymuch, so that helped a lot. But I tried my grandmother, it was too diffi-cult. My mother, who looked so much like her, was also difficult… andmy dad, I did my father once or twice, and he came across fairly well.

RT: So, at a very early stage, you were drawing from life. A lot of comicbook artists nowadays never get to that stage.

COLAN: Oh, they’ve got to get around to it. Speed is important whenyou’re drawing from life—because whoever you’re drawing, often theydon’t know you’re drawing them. If it’s somebody, say, in the park, younever know how long they’re going to sit there, so the idea is to get it in

4 “So You Want A Job, Eh?”

A rambling conversation about Timely (and others), mostly from the 1940s to the early-’70s, with “The Dean”Interview conducted & edited by Roy Thomas • Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson

“So You Want A Job,Eh?”

The Gene Colan Interview

Very recent photo of Gene and a couple of pals.[Courtesy of Gene & Adrienne Colan.]

as quickly as you can. And then rely on your memory.

RT: Did you go to the park and try to draw people without their know-ing it?

COLAN: Oh, yes. [laughs] Even on the commuter train, from when Ilived in New Rochelle, I would come in with a pad and start to drawsome of the people on the train.

RT: When you were young, I take it you liked newspaper comic strips?

COLAN: Yes, I would copy them, too. I was highly influenced by Mil-ton Caniff, including Dickie Dare, that came before Terry and thePirates. Coulton Waugh continued it. He loved ships. Many, many yearslater, when I became an adult, I saw some of Waugh’s pictures in agallery. There were paintings of ships, and he signed his name exactlylike he did on the comic strip.

RT: I understand that you went to the Art Students’ League. Could youtell us a little about what that is?

COLAN: It’s a school in which those who are into serious art can getgood, solid background training. Usually famous people run it, or hadrun it in the past. I know Norman Rockwell had a finger in it, and

Hobie Whitmore. It’s in Manhattan on 57th Street. It’s one of the oldestschools around. There’s a modeling class, with live models, and thenthey have a sculpture class. They would start out at different levels. Itwas a great experience for me, and I got in on it through the G.I. Bill.Actually, I even went to the League a little bit before I entered the ser-vice. Of course, I tried to get work at DC Comics. When I was muchyounger, I thought if I worked for DC, it was like working for MGMStudios.

RT: I think that was the feeling that a lot of people had—including DC![laughs]

COLAN: Well, it was “Batman,” and “Superman.” So I figured, “Gee,what better could I do?” They were very nice to me. I must’ve beenabout 13 or 14 when I first went up there. I met Bob Kane; he was inthe bullpen, and he was drawing. I remember what he was drawing. Hewas drawing a hand. One of his characters was holding a .45, and Iremember the beautiful way he drew it. For some reason, that stuck inmy head, because all the anatomy was there, and I didn’t know it.

RT: So you’re living proof that Bob Kane did draw, occasionally!

COLAN: Oh, yeah! I got to know him better on a personal level manyyears later, but that was the first time. I was just a kid, and I was told I’d

Gene and Adrienne personally handed this brand new, never-published drawing to Roy T. at this year’s San Diego Comicon. All he had to do was stand in line at a photocopy stall in the convention center for half an hour to get a copy made! Some guy in line kept trying to buy it from him, even though Roy

explained he only had it on loan! Daredevil versus The Jester. [Art ©2000 Gene Colan; Daredevil, The Jester ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

better go to art school. I had some abili-ty but I needed training. So, I didn’twant to do it, but I figured I had to bitethe bullet and go ahead and do it, and Idid.

RT: Rather than being drafted, I guessyou volunteered, because you went intothe Air Force.

COLAN: I enlisted. I tried to get intothe Marine Corps, but my father camedown and pulled me out because I wasunderage. [laughs] Shortly after that, Ienlisted in the Air Force. By that time Iwas 18 or 19.

RT: What did you do in the Air Force?

COLAN: Everything but fly. [laughs] Iwas going to go to gunnery school, butthey dropped the bomb on Hiroshima,and then everything was over. The Warwas over, the Boulder [Colorado] schoolshut down, and I was in the occupationforces that went over to the Philippines.

RT: When General MacArthur was theking over there.

COLAN: Yeah. We were stationed rightoutside Manila. I did some training inKesel Field, Mississippi—which is rightnear Biloxi—and boy, what a hellholethat was! [laughs] Then, let’s see… Icaught pneumonia in basic training, realbad.

RT: Did you do any drawing while youwere in there, for post papers and such?

COLAN: Oh, yeah. I did drawing whenwe started to go overseas, on the troop ship. That’s when I really start-ed. I kept a diary of drawings. There was an art contest at one station inthe Philippines, and I won it. I think it was rigged, because I became so

friendly with the Filipinos overthere, that they wanted to see mewin real bad, and they told menot to worry about it! [laughs]

RT: Hey, that may even havebeen Alfredo Alcala, and TonyDeZuniga, and all those guys,running around underfoot.They were all young guysback then. [laughs] Fans don’tusually think of you as aGolden Age artist. But,though you really came intofull flower later, you actual-

ly were an artist back in ’46, right? Whenyou went to the Art Students’ League onthe G.I. Bill after the war, the governmentsort of paid the way, right?

COLAN: Yeah, they did. I don’t knowfor how long I went. A couple of years.

RT: That was probably one of the bestthings that the country ever did, givingyoung people a chance to go to college.They deserved something for serving.

COLAN: Well, the country was a differ-ent place then, where they pulled togeth-er. That’s why we won the war, and that’swhy we lost the war in Vietnam, becausewe weren’t pulling together. Anyway, itwas a very romantic time, in the ’40s,during the War. I remember going back tothe base and sleeping in the men’s room,because there was no room on the trainanywhere else. Maybe you’ve seen pic-tures of people in wartime, sleeping inGrand Central Station… just lying ontheir duffel bags. It was a great time, agreat time, so many marriages, it was aromantic time. Not that they all clicked!

RT: [laughs] Well, they don’t now, either.You sound like an ad for Tom Brokaw’sbook, The Greatest Generation. Trying toimpose a bit of chronological order onthis conversation—I was looking at someof the things in your annual. You had thisteenage strip called “Bill and Bud.” Whendid you do that? Because it’s very pol-ished.

COLAN: I was trying to get my samplesup, and trying to make a breakthrough

somewhere. I didn’t know exactly how. I was 15, 16…

RT: That’s the time of that “Daredevil” page in there, too—the CharlieBiro “Daredevil,” the guy with the split red-and-blue costume.

COLAN: It might’ve been. Just before going into the service, I workedfor Fiction House. A very small outfit. The office was no bigger than acloset. I worked there just for the summer, and right after that I wentinto the service.

RT: And when you came out, you went to Timely. Obviously, you’dbeen hanging around DC, you’d been to Fiction House…. Why did youtry Timely first?

COLAN: I might’ve tried the other places first. I can’t remember exact-ly, but I was determined to get a job. I was living with my parents. Iworked very hard on a war story, about seven or eight pages long, and Idid all the lettering myself, I inked it myself, I even had a wash effectover it. I did everything I could do, and I brought it over to Timely.What you had to do in those days was go to the candy store, pick up acomic book, and look in the back to see where it was published. Most ofthem were published in Manhattan, they would tell you the address, andyou’d simply go down and make an appointment to go down and seethe art director. I got a job right away… Al Sulman, I don’t know if thename rings a bell….

RT: It sure does! He was part of the poker crowd [Marvel productionmanager] Sol Brodsky belonged to—and so did I, by the late ’60s. Itwas Sol, and Al, and John Romita and Mike Esposito and Stan Gold-

6 “So You Want A Job, Eh?”

A mid-’50s Colan page from War Comics #28— a Korean Wartale. Note that half of Panel 4 is black, as if to emphasize what

lies below as well as what floats on the surface. Panel 8’s “silhouette shot” is drawn from such an angle as to show, evenin stark black-&-white, everything the reader needs to know.(We wish whoever faxed us this page would’ve scribbled his

name on it somewhere— but thanks, anyway!) [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

An early Colan attempt atBatman a la Bob Kane—well, actually, more à làJerry Robinson. Not badfor a beginner, huh? [Art©2000 Gene Colan, for TheGene Colan Annual; Bat-man ©2000 DC Comics.]

16 When Those Who Can, Teach

Interviews Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson

Whoever said“Nothing succeedslike excess” wasright—though not asright as the guy whosaid it fifteen or six-teen times in a row.

While theworld may beat apath to the doorof the builder of a

better mousetrap, his-tory confirms that at least some of

those beating feet—accompanied by cash-holdinghands—will be diverted to the door of the man who figures out how tomass-produce said mousetrap.

The field of comic books is, of course, no different.

When it was proven that people (mostly kids) would pay goodAmerican money for the four-color adventures of their favorite (orsoon-to-be favorite) characters, it wasn’t long before the number ofcomic book publishers multiplied geometrically—or so it must haveseemed to a kid with a lone dime, facing a newsstand in the 1940s. Andsince comic book publishers need comics to publish, they hire writersand artists.

But where do the writers and artists come from?

In most fields,newcomers areyoung people whohave grown upperusing the prod-uct of the fieldthey wish to con-tribute to. Thefield of comics,however, was stillfairly new in theearly-to-middle1940s, when thecomics boom real-ly took off. Mostyoung writers andartists had readcomic strips mostof their lives; andwhile comic stripsand comic books

share certain similarities,in many ways they’remore different than theyare alike. Today, comicbook writers are over-whelmingly formerfans who had the “lan-guage” of comicsimprinted on theircerebral cortexes intheir formativeyears. But in theearly days of comicbooks, talent hadto be instructed inthe new tech-nique, the format of comicbooks.

Capitalism abhors a vacuum even more than nature does, soit wasn’t long before there were at least a handful of “how to” guidessurfacing on the subjects of writing and drawing comics. Fortunately, atleast some of them were by experienced hands, who could be trusted toshare what worked for them.

And two of them were by two of the best writers the medium ofcomic books has ever known: in democratic alphabetical order, RobertKanigher and Stan Lee. (And if you need to have it explained to youwho either of these guys are, back to the Beginners Slope for you!)

In 1943 Robert Kanigher wrote thebooklet How to Make Money Writ-ing for Comics Magazines, pub-lished by Cambridge House ofN.Y.

Four years later, StanLee contributed Secretsbehind the Comics, pub-lished by Famous Enter-prises, Inc., Publishers ofNew York City.

While many othercomic book writers of theperiod wrote articlesabout the subject (andwe’ve seen some of themhere in Alter Ego), How toMake Money Writ-ing for ComicsMagazines andSecrets behind theComics are two ofthe only book-

Secrets behind the Comics begins with this typicalexample of that Stan Lee understatement we would

come to known and love in the ’60s. [Georgie,Blonde Phantom, Powerhouse Pepper, CaptainAmerica & Bucky, and Millie the Model ©2000

Marvel Characters, Inc.]

When Those Who Can�Teachby Mike W. Barr

©2000 R

obert Kanigher.

©20

00 S

tan

Lee.

Can you find the Renaissance man in this picture?That’s a paint-splattered RK on the right, among

various of his abstract paintings and a wholeautumn’s worth of fallen leaves. [Photo courtesy of

& ©2000 RK.]

length con-tributions tothe field.That alonewould makea survey oftheir con-tents worth-while, andthe pedi-grees oftheirauthors intheir chosenfield defi-nitely singlethem out for further analysis.

The best place to begin is in the realm of the physical:

How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines(hereafter referred to as HTMM) is a booklet measuring 8inches by 51/2 inches. Its 96 interior pages are stapled togeth-er, with a textured tan cardboard cover glued around it, its inte-rior text typeset, with no price marked on the cover.

Secrets behind the Comics (hereafter referred to as Secrets) mea-sures 59/16 inches by 85/8 inches, also with 96 interior pages, printed intwo colors (black and red), its cover and interiors saddle-stitched (thatis, sheets folded in half and stapled in the center, like a comic book); itstext, save for a single typeset introductory page, is hand-lettered by M.(Mario) Acquaviva, a prolific comics letterer of that era. Secrets has acover price of $1.00.

Stylistically, the books also differ greatly, each reflecting the per-sonality of its author.

Kanigher comes across as sly and somewhat acerbic, as if testingthe reader to see if he’s got what it takes, the twinkle in his eye just visi-ble through a cloud of pipe smoke. Similarly, his book has a more seri-ous approach, its chapters called “Lessons,” such as “Lesson5—Important Tools of the Trade.” Each of these “Lessons” is furtherdivided into subtopics: “How to Work with the Artist,” “ActionProps,” “How to Use Props,” “Using Ingenuity,” “How to UseScenes,” “Employing the Close-shot,” “The Medium-shot,” “The Long-shot,” “The Montage-shot,” and “The Symbolic Shot.”

Lee, in contrast, seems to be who he’s always been in print—ebul-lient, avuncular, face perpetually agrin with the fun we’re having, andare about to have. His book, written in a style that gives the reader theimpression Lee is speaking to him and him alone, is divided into“Secrets,” such as “Secret #9—What Happens to a Script after It Is Writ-ten?”

These differences will become even more apparent as we progress.

Who Were These Guys, Anyway?In an introductory column opposite the title page of HTMM,

Kanigher is described as: “Radio Writer and Director; Winner ofNational Radio Contest; Playwright, Author of FAUSTUS, THYBROTHER, OUTBREAK, BLIND DATE, BORROWED LIGHT-NING, Series of Books on WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS ANDMAGAZINES, RADIO, MOVIES, STAGE, COMIC MAGAZINES,POPULAR BOOKS; Scripts and Stories in Anthology [sic], NationalMagazines.”

Secrets begins with “Secret No. 1”—and, to let Stan Lee tell it him-self, we’ve printed the top half of page 6 of his book above:

(Like, we’d doubt theword of the editor of All-True Crime!)

The Fundamental Things Apply…HTMM begins with a Preface which addresses the audience, whom

Kanigher assumes would be either professional writers or aspiring pro-fessional writers, with a discussion of the medium:

“The easiest way for a new writer to get his start is in the field ofthe comics… The experience gained by the writer in comics can beapplied very well to the movies, since the comics script resembles themovie scenario in many ways. Working in the comics medium hasproven an open door into the general writing field for many writers.

“This does not mean that the comics are merely a stepping stone toother fields. Independent of the many writing opportunities it opens,the comics is a complete profession worthy of the best efforts of anywriter.”

The Preface is followed by a one-page analysis of “THE COMICSFORMULA,” which, in those days, referred almost exclusively tosuper-hero stories:

Stan and Joan Lee on a fact-finding trip in Norway acouple of years back. [Photo courtesy of & ©2000

Stan & Joan Lee.]

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books 17

I. “Everybody Comes To Rick’s”At least, almost everybody.

Sooner rather than later, nearly everyone in America sees the classic1942 motion picture Casablanca, with its stellar cast headed byHumphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

Ever since its first release only weeks after the Allied invasion ofNorth Africa (coincidentally near that Moroccan city), this black-&-

white Warner Bros. movie has captivated audiences.

Despite stiff competition from The Maltese Falcon and The BigSleep and The African Queen and maybe one or two others, Casablancais considered by many to be the quintessential Bogart film.

In spite of its flag-waving Wartime ending—in which the hero givesup the girl out of patriotism and marches off to the tune of the (French!)national anthem—it’s generally considered one of the great romanceflicks.

PLAY IT AGAIN�

STAN!

When Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos Went To

Casablanca--And Got Detoured To Marrakesh!

A Long, Leisurely Article about a Very Singular Almost-Issue of Sgt. Furyby Roy Thomas (with the input of Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers, & John Severin)

Right: Wah-hooo! Arecent commission

drawing of Nick Fury,penciled and inked byDarlin’ Dick Ayers. [Art©2000 Dick Ayers; Sgt.

Fury ©2000 MarvelCharacters, Inc.] Far

right: Humphrey Bogartas Rick Blaine, looking

a bit less heroic, inCasablanca.

©2000 Time Warner.

And, though itsmelodrama and sentiment

betray its origins in anunproduced stage play called

Everybody Comes to Rick’s, Holly-wood pros and popcorn-munchers alike have consistently voted it oneof the best films of all time, right up there with Citizen Kane.

So what’s Casablanca got to do with the price of comic books inChinatown?

So glad you asked.

John Verpoorten was a mountain of a man, closer to seven feet tallthan six and well over 300 pounds. Stan Lee liked to refer to Marvel’sproduction manager as “Jumbo John,” but most of us preferred “BigBad John,” from the Jimmy Dean song.

Either way, when John V. said something in that quiet yet deeplyrumbling voice—you listened.

So when in late 1968 he announced to Marvel writer/assistant edi-tor Gary Friedrich, my new wife Jeanie, and me that we were all goingto see Casablanca at the Bleecker Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, itnever even crossed our minds to say no.

Gary recalls: “I’d never seen it before, but John loved it and kept

bugging me, telling me I had to see it. He damnnear had it memorized! He used to play [audio]tapes of it and listen to it while he was inkingpages at his apartment.” John considered it a sin

that the three of us had never seen the movie. (This was before videotape, DVD, cable television, etc., etc., made so much vintage cinema eas-ily accessible.)

We all loved the movie, of course. What’s not to love?

And somehow, over the next few months, an idea was born—abeautiful, wonderful idea that was destined to be transmuted into misery for almost everybody associated with it:

Gary decided to turn Casablanca into a Marvel comic.

II. “Round Up the Usual Suspects”You don’t hear a lot of nostalgia nowadays about Sgt. Fury and His

Howling Commandos.The series came about because, by late 1962, despite

the impending demise of The Incredible Hulk (whoseplace Fury would take on Marvel’s schedule), edi-

tor/writer Stan Lee was feeling his oats with the suc-cess of Fantastic Four and other titles. He boasted to

publisher Martin Goodman that he could use his newapproach to make other genres sell, not just super-heroes.

Because the war comic seemed an endangered species, it wasdecided to launch a new title set in World War II.

Thus was born Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (May1963)—a comic with such an embarrassing name that not even coversspotlighting Captain America and “The Death Ray of Dr. Zemo!” couldkeep an early Marvel maven like me from passing by an issue or two onthe newsstands. Even “Commandos” was strictly a British military term;the mag should really have been called Sgt. Fury and His HowlingRangers—which doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?

Stan hailed Fury as “The War Comic for People Who Hate WarComics”—and he had a point. As such, it was a howling success for sev-eral years.

For my part, despite all the comics I’ve written set during theWWII years (The Invaders, All-Star Squadron, Secret Origins, et al.), Ialmost never bought actual war comics—not even those drawn by JackKirby or Joe Kubert or Harvey Kurtzman and the EC gang.

So, naturally, the first full-book action series that Stan assigned meto write, on the morning after the Great New York City Blackout ofNovember 1965, was—Oh, you guessed, huh?

I scripted Sgt. Fury for a year (#29-41 plus an annual), workingwith Dick Ayers, who had inked most issues from the start and who hadpenciled all but one since #8. Dick, like Kirby a WWII veteran, did a lotof the hard work, like getting uniform and weapon details basicallyright. I’d been a Dick Ayers fan ever since Magazine Enterprises’ Ghost

Our round-up of the usual suspects: (in no particular order, from left) Smilin’ Stan Lee, Rascally Roy Thomas, Jumbo John Verpoorten, Darling Dick Ayers [all taken from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention souvenir book], Joltin’ John Severin (recent self-portrait), and Groovy Gary Friedrich [in a fuzzy pic from

the 1969 Fantastic Four King-Size Special, #7]. [Photos ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy of & ©2000 John Severin.]

28 Play It Again, Stan!

It’s Darlin’ Dick Ayers and Groovy Gary Friedrich from a funfeature in Sgt. Fury King-Size Special #4 (1968). Penciled byDick, inked by John Severin. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Rider and The Avenger and his 1954 Human Torch. Still am.

Enter Gary Friedrich.

Gary I’ve known ever since high school back in Jackson, Missouri.In Fall of ’65, firmly entrenched at Marvel, I invited him to join me inNew York, where he wrote for Dick Giordano at Charlton until a staffvacancy arose at Marvel. Around the beginning of 1967, just as Stan hadearlier handed Sgt. Fury over to me, I passed the three-striped baton toGary.

And boy, did he run with it!

By late ’68 he had scripted such acclaimed Sgt. Fury tales as “TheWar-Lover!” and “They Also Serve!” (about medics). Both these issueswere penciled and inked by John Severin, noted for his work on Kurtz-man’s EC war comics; Dick had moved on to other assignments. How-ever, John, whose bread and butter was the better-paying Crackedmagazine, soon decided he could only spare time to ink for Marvel.Dick returned to penciling Sgt. Fury, and so was born the team of Ayersand Severin, which with Gary produced some of the best-looking warcomics of the ’60s.

Then came issue #72, Nov. 1969.

III. “You Must Remember This”At this late date Gary doesn’t remember quite why or when he

decided to write an issue of Sgt. Fury which intersected with Casablan-ca.

Woody Allen’s stage version of Play It Again, Sam, which utilizedboth a Bogart ghost and dialogue from the 1942 film’s final scene,opened in February 1969. Like me, Gary was already a fan of the come-dian, so that may have been a partial catalyst.

As for Casablanca itself, Gary opines: “It was on TV all the time inNew York, so after I first saw it, I probably watched it again on TVbefore I wrote the story.”

Nor do I recall precisely when I became aware of what Gary andthe artists were up to. As associate editor, my vague duties includedoverseeing other scripters; but Marvel ran a pretty loose ship in thosedays, and once a writer had proven himself on a title, Stan (and thus I)tended to leave him alone, as almost a de facto editor, unless stormclouds developed.

They were gathering in mid-’69. We just didn’t see them yet.

Gary’s concept, I believe, was inspired, as comic books go: ThisSgt. Fury story would take place in between the scenes of Casablanca. Itwould be a separate, parallel tale which, in effect, took place off-screen,using the stars of the Warner film as supporting characters in the comic.Dick Ayers would pencil likenesses of the principal actors, and JohnSeverin—who drew movie parodies for Cracked—would be there at thefinish to give them a near-photographic look. The reader need not befamiliar with the motion picture in order to enjoy the comic. (Though ifhe/she was, so much the better!)

For the benefit of the three people in the world who don’t knowthe story of Casablanca, here’s the gist of it, with the most famousquotes plus a bit of WWII history tossed in—since 1942-43 audienceswould’ve known what “Vichy France” was, while surveys show thattoday most Americans couldn’t locate France on a world globe:

In late 1941, following its 1940 conquest by Nazi Germany, theunoccupied portion of France (known as Vichy France for its capital)and its overseas possessions remain nominally independent, but in actu-ality must cowtow to Hitler. Casablanca, in French Morocco, hasbecome a way-station on “a tortuous, roundabout refugee trail” of des-perate Europeans trying to reach safety in the Americas. While somemanage to obtain exit visas and escape by way of Lisbon (in neutral

Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) deal with theunscrupulous Ferrari (Sidney Greenstreet). [©2000 Time Warner.]

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story 29

Berlin and Vichy: Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt, l.) and Capt. Renault (Claude Rains) at Rick’s Cafe Americain.

[©2000 Time Warner.]

Ugarte (Peter Lorre).[©2000 Time Warner.]

by Roy Thomas[NOTE: All-Star Squadron, the comic book series I created and

developed in 1981 for DC, ran for 67 issues, an insert in Justice Leagueof America #193, plus three annuals, from 1981-87; it was followed by 31issues and one annual of its post-Crisis on Infinite Earths sequel series,The Young All-Stars, from 1987-89.And that’s not counting some threedozen related stories in JusticeLeague and in the Secret Originsseries I originated in 1985.

[In answer to numerousrequests over the past couple ofyears—not that I needed muchprodding—this and future issues ofA/E will feature an ongoingbehind-the-scenes history ofSquadron and its antecedents andtie-ins, from the late 1930s on up.I’ll be dealing with events mostly inchronological order—despite lastissue’s leap-frog to the “Nuclear”connection between Squadron #16and a 1950 Wonder Woman.

[Matter of fact, as you’ll seebelow, it’ll take an issue or two justto get to All-Star Squadron #1! Butthen, even thirty years ago it tooksome months to bring the concept tofruition. Hope you’ll stick aroundfor the ride. But hey, even CharlesDickens’ David Copperfield spentseveral chapters getting himselfborn!

[Oh, one more thing: Alongthe way we’ll be featuring plenty ofgood-looking, sometimes previouslyunseen art, courtesy of Rich Buckler,Jerry Ordway, and some of themost generous fans you’d find inany art form.—R.T.]

I. BackstoryIn 1980 I reluctantly decided

the time had finally come to cut theties that bound me to MarvelComics, where I’d been laboring(for the most part happily) for fif-teen years.

I quickly found that, in some ways, moving to DC was less a leave-taking than a homecoming.

After all, I had first moved to New York in 1965 to become editor-ial assistant on National/DC’s seven Superman titles. There had been nothought in my mind before July 1965 about ever working for Marvel; Ifigured Stan Lee wanted to write the entire line forever—and besides,my main correspondents while I lived in Missouri had been with DC’s

Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and(now-Superman-scripter) OttoBinder. It had only been my lack ofrapport—to put it politely—withSuperman editor Mort Weisingerwhich had led me open to Stan’stimely offer of employment, twoweeks after I arrived in the BigApple.

Still, I look on my exclusive“Marvel period” as a fortuitous cir-cumstance. I was probably able toadvance further and faster at Mar-vel, a company on the rise, than Imight have at the older company.All the same, Steve Skeates andDenny O’Neil, two writers who’dworked first for Marvel, had donevery well at DC, and I like to thinkI would have, too.

Matter of fact, even while awriter and associate editor for Mar-vel, from time to time I had let the“fan” side of me take the upperhand over the “pro.” I’d managedto have some slight back-doorinfluence on DC, unknown to mostfolks there (and, thankfully, to myrespected mentor Stan).

My ally in most of this cross-company subterfuge was GerryConway, who over the late-’60sthrough the mid-’70s had gonefrom DC to Marvel and back againa couple of times. After leavingMarvel for the second time in 1976to become a DC writer/editor,Gerry had enthusiastically con-vinced DC to let him launch a cou-ple of projects I had suggested tohim (along with several which wereentirely his own idea, natch).

One of the notions I initiatedwas the first real confrontation

between Superman and Captain Marvel, which Gerry did quite well in agiant tabloid drawn by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.

38 The All-Star Chronicles

This re-creation of the “1941 JSA” splash of JLA #193’s All-Star Squadroninsert is slightly different from the printed one. The 1981 version had The

Shining Knight behind The Atom—though Sir Justin was never a JSAer—andforgot Starman. Roy Thomas commissioned Rich Buckler (penciler) and Jerry

Ordway (inker) to do a corrected rendition, which was later printed as apinup. Repro’d from photocopy of original art, from collection of R.T.

[©2000 DC Comics.]

More All-� Stars Than There

Are In Heaven

The

Chronicles

More (All-) Stars Than There Are In Heaven 39

The other was the secondcoming, in 1977, of All-StarComics.

Although an All-Star #58-plus was initially my suggestion,after I made it I had virtuallynothing to do with the project;Gerry carried the ball quite capa-bly alone. (But, when he asked meto, I did cross company lines longenough to write a letter to beprinted in #58.) Naturally, Gerrydidn’t handle the revived comicexactly the way I would have—nor is there any reason he shouldhave. I swiftly came to terms withthe notion of a still-young Star-Spangled Kid, an adult Robin, anda newly created Kryptoniannamed Power Girl all runningaround on Earth-Two, the parallelworld to which Schwartz and Foxhad consigned the original JusticeSociety of America.

Oh, I winced a little at thename “Super-Squad,” even in itslogo form as the “All Star SuperSquad”; but it was none of mybusiness. The mag got off to abang-up start, with Wally Woodinking Rik Estrada, and a youngKeith Giffen soon taking up theslack.

My main regret was that,when Gerry later offered me achance to ghost an issue or two ofAll-Star, I felt I had to decline.Not primarily because it wouldhave been a violation of my Mar-vel contract (though it would), butbecause I was determined that, ifand when I ever wrote a JSA story,it would have my name on it, not someone else’s. Gerry understood.Those issues are probably the ones dialogued by Paul Levitz, who soonmade the 1970s All-Star his own over its remaining life.

But the time, or something, was clearly out of joint. And, after 17bimonthly issues of All-Star, a first-ever JSA origin in a DC Special, andhalf a dozen stories in the oversize Adventure Comics—

—the second JSA series died when Adventure was canceled, as of#466 (Nov.-Dec. 1979).

With my sands running out atMarvel, in some ways the timing

of this cancellation could nothave been much less propi-

tious for me.

In other ways, it could-n’t have been much better.

II. Three For The RoadSometime in 1980, my wife

Dann and I were flown to NewYork to meet with the ruling DCtriumvirate of Jenette Kahn (pub-lisher), Joe Orlando (editorialdirector), and Paul Levitz (coordi-nating editor). By then I’d signed athree-year contract with DC, tobegin the day my Marvel contractended, and we simply had to decidewhat three monthly comics Iwould write for DC.

It had been agreed, since vir-tually the day I’d phoned Paul totell him I wouldn’t be signing thenew contract Marvel had offeredme, that I would be involved insome way with The Justice Societyof America. In fact, written intomy DC contract was what amount-ed to a “right of first refusal” atscripting stories featuring all DC’sGolden Age heroes. Even thoughnot officially an editor, I was basi-cally placed in charge of “Earth-Two,” that charming parallel worldwhereon dwelt the DC stalwartsI’d grown up reading about in thelast half of the 1940s.

This made a certain amount ofsense. After all, “Earth-Two” hadworked well—very well—wheneditor Julie Schwartz had been itscombination Prime Mover andhome-plate umpire. It was onlywhen other editors, less in tunewith that alternate universe, beganto poach in it that you wound upwith weirdnesses like a teenageBruce Wayne playing tennis withhis father. Julie had moved on to

other venues, and I seemed, both to DC’s triumvirate and to myself(and, I hoped, to the venerable Julie, as well), his natural successor.

Jenette and the boys sure knew how to make a guy (and his wife) feel welcome on our first DC-related trip east. We checked intoour hotel room in Manhattan to find it festooned with multi-hewed balloons.

Sometimes there’s nothing more meaningful than a meaninglessgesture.

When I met with them the nextday, “the triple pillar of the world”quickly downsized. Jenette, whom I’dknown before moving west in ’76,excused herself after a few minutes,

Three future JSAers meet for the first time, in DC Special #29 (“The Untold Ori-gin of the Justice Society,” Sept. 1977); story by Paul Levitz. Repro’d

from photocopies of the original Joe Staton-Bob Layton art; courtesy of Jerry G. Bails. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Besides All-Star Squadron, also on Roy’s plate were Arak, Son of Thunder (pen-cils by Ernie Colón) and a very brief stint as Batman writer (art by Gene Colan

& Adrian Gonzales). By his third and final Batman (#340, Oct. 1981), an homageto Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder’s wonderful “Mole!” tale in Mad #3, Roy

relinquished the dialoguing to Gerry Conway. [©2000 DC Comics.]

42 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Introductionby Michael T. Gilbert

Superman! Faster than a delicate haiku!Superman! More powerful than a dangling participle!Superman! Able to split infinitives with a single adverb!Superman!

…in the New Yorker?Hard to believe that such a rough-and-tumble character would

ever be welcome in the rarified pages of the New Yorker magazine.More amazing, the article in question appeared on January 29, 1940,little more than a year after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s wonder-childburst into immortality in June 1938. By any account, E.J. Kahn Jr.’s

amusing “Why I Don’t Believe in Superman” has to be one of the earli-est articles devoted to the Man of Steel. It’s so early, in fact, that Kahnrefers to Superman and his Kryptonian parents as “Kal-l,” “Jor-l,” and“Lora”—not today’s vastly different “Kal-el,” “Jor-el,” and “Lara.”

Technically, the piece in question discusses the Superman newspa-per strip, not the comic book—but that’s splitting hairs. Author Kahn’sobservations about Superman the strip apply equally well to Supermanthe comic book. So why did Mr. Kahn focus on the strip? My guess isthat, while the typical New Yorker reader might accidentally glance atthe Sunday comics page, it would be highly unlikely that same readerwould pick up a kiddie comic book. Or at least unlikely they’d admit it!

But enough talk, old bean. The gauntlet is thrown. Mr. Kahnclearly doesn’t believe in Superman. And I, for one, am anxious to findout why….

When I read a while ago that a Nazi newspaper had protested against the activ-ities of Superman, holding them to be offensively pacifistic, I decided to get acquaint-ed with the fellow. After all, it isn’t every comic-strip character who is singled out forsuch personal attention. Little OrphanAnnie was once attacked by the DailyWorker, but that isn’t very eventful and shehad been around for years anyhow. Super-man, on the other hand, is a comparativenewcomer—just a year and a half old. Inthat short time he has been furiouslyactive and, I found by collecting some oldnewspapers recently and leafing throughthem, undeniably pacifistic, though not inthe ordinary, do-nothing sense of theword. If Superman disapproves of a war,he simply stops it. When, for example,Blitzen and Rutland went to war in hisstrip, he grabbed up Dictator Amork ofBlitzen and General Gotha of Rutland.Tucking one under each arm, he flew tothe trenches and there instructed them tofight it out on a man-to-man basis in fullview of their assembled and hithertoembattled forces. You know what hap-pened: they began to pull one another’shair, the softies, and the soldiers threwdown their arms in disgust, thus endingthe war instantly for lack of participants.

Superman can take wars in hisstride, or flight, because he is imperviousto attack. Bullets spin off his superskinlike raindrops off a windshield, and once,when a rascal attempted to whack himover the head with a heavy club, theweapon bounded back so fast off Super-man’s superskull that it knocked hisassailant cold.

At the start of Superman’s career itwas hinted that he could leap an eighthof a mile, hurdle a twenty-store building,and outrun an express train. It has sincedeveloped that he can also outrun a bul-

let, swim an ocean without puffing, demolish an airliner by meeting it head on inmid-air, and change the course of a forest fire by breathing heavily on it. He canknock out burly pugilists in exactly one second, divert a flood by barehandedly dig-

ging a pit a mile long in a few minutes, andwin a rather one-sided combat with a bat-tleship by pushing it close to shore andthen walking out of the water holding theship up over his head. “Nothing less than abursting shell could penetrate his skin,” hisauthors once crowed, and they have livedup to his word. Bayonets, when thrust athim, crumble into so much scrap steel, andthe Princess Tania, one of several youngladies who have crossed his impressivepath, ruined a perfectly good dagger bytrying to drive it into his hide. Supermanwas momentarily dazed after a collisionwith a loaded torpedo, but when in formhe can project himself right through theside of a ship, and destructive implementsare generally his dish. Not long ago some-body fired a cannon at him from a distanceof a few yards. He caught the cannon ballin one hand, remarking, “Nice curve onthat ball. Wanta play catch, eh?,” andthrew the ball back at the cannon, shatter-ing it to bits.

Superman has had three identities.Originally he was Kal-l, the infant son ofJor-l and Lora, a nice young couple livingon the planet of Krypton. Kal-l arrived onearth by means of a rocket ship into whichhis parents had thoughtfully inserted himjust before Krypton burst into fragmentsand disappeared. Kal-l matured intoSuperman and abandoned his given nameforever, in one frame of a single comicstrip. He decided almost immediately tobecome a newspaper reporter and, in hiswords, to dedicate himself “to helping theoppressed, and seeing that truth and right

“Why I Don’t Believe In Superman” 43

Why I Don’t Believe in Superman

As MTG relates, The New Yorker never mentions comic books, only thenewspaper comic strip—but somehow, that guy with the big “S” on hischest in the above newspaper ad (reprinted in the 1998 hardcover book

Superman: The Dailies) looks a lot like the comic book hero who was thenmaking little kids’ hearts beat a bit faster. Oh, and incidentally—none of

the following daily strips appeared with the New Yorker article, which wasun-illustrated. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Reprinted by permission; ©1940 E.J. Kahan, Jr. Originally published in The New Yorker. All rights reserved.

by BillSchelly[INTRO-

DUCTION: Lastissue, I beganbuilding a Want Listfor those who wantto collect the wonder-ful comics fanzinespublished in the 1960sand early 1970s. Sepa-rating fan publicationsinto categories for easeof discussion, Part 1 cov-ered those dedicatedmainly to general con-tents, advertisements,news, amateur comicstrips, and special interestssuch as all-Marvel. Nowlet’s finish the menu for acomplete fanzine smorgas-bord….]

VI. One-Shots and Specialty ZinesWhen pro comics like Fantastic Four and Justice League of America

began occasionally plugging fanzines in their letter columns, the Acade-my of Comic Book Arts and Sciences (a strictly fan organization,despite its lofty title) decided to produce a “catch-all” publication togive newcomers an overview of fandom: a crash course in comic bookcollecting and grading, information about the history of fandom, andhow to join the Academy. The first was Who’s Who in Comic Fandom(1964) produced by Larry Lattanzi from records provided by JerryBails. This one-shot ditto fanzine included Bails’ own mailing list ofover 1500 comics fans known at the time.

A year later, Bill Spicer (editor of Fantasy Illustrated) produced thephoto-offset The Guidebook to Comics Fandom (1965) which laid outmuch of the same material in a more professional, eye-pleasing manner.Spicer’s digest-sized publication also included ads for prominentfanzines and dealers. Probably its single most important feature was theinclusion of a comics grading system. Add both the Who’s Who and theGuidebook to your want list for their historical importance.

From an indexer’s point of view, there was no more importantpublication than The Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age (1969) by

Jerry Bails. Forthe first time,fans could lookup any GoldenAge hero by nameand find a completelist of his appear-ances by issue num-ber and date, plusextensive writer andartist credits. This wasone of the key docu-ments that made BobOverstreet’s first ComicBook Price Guide possi-ble, just a year later.While it would be nice tohave a copy of the firsttwo or three editions ofthat Guide, they sell for

hundreds of dollarsnowadays; and you mayfeel (as I do) that youwould rather spreadyour money around. Ifthat’s the case, The Col-

lector’s Guide would be a good alternative. Just look for the Rich Buck-ler cover printed on glossy green paper!

When Bill Spicer changed the title of Fantasy Illustrated to GraphicStory Magazine with #8 (1967), it heralded a format change, as well. Nolonger would it emphasize amateur comic strips. Instead, this preemi-nent fanzine became essentially a series of specials, usually with one ortwo in-depth interviews per issue. GSM #10 features the first (and per-haps the best) long interview with Alex Toth, with many visuals to com-

Comic Fandom Archive Department 47

So-You Want To Collect

Comics Fanzines?

Underground cartoonist Vaughn Bodé drew the cover of Graphic Story Magazine #10. For full-color reproductions of the covers of GSM #12, 13, & 16,

see Bill Schelly’s Eisner-nominated book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom,available from Hamster Press. [Cover ©2000 Bill Spicer.]

Rich Buckler drew this great wraparound cover for Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age just acouple of years before he broke into professional comics. [Art ©2000 Jerry Bails; Spectre & Capt.

Marvel Jr. ©2000 DC Comics; Shield ©2000 Archie Publications; Destroyer ©2000 Marvel Characters,Inc.; Skyman ©2000 Columbia Publications.]

PartTwo

plement the points under discussion; #11 is devoted entirely to WillGould’s Red Barry comic strip; #12 and #14 are Basil Wolverton spe-cials. The last issue, GSM #16(1974), offers a superb HowardNostrand interview, the only oneI have ever seen. These are allhighly recommended, dependingon your personal interest in themain attractions.

Should you encounter anyof the first twenty or thirty mail-ings of CAPA-Alpha, you wouldbe wise to snap them up becauseof their rarity. That is, if you’reinterested in informal chit-chat,news and opinions by folks likeDon and Maggie Thompson,Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas, JohnMcGeehan, and many other rabidfans of the day. This venerableapa (amateur press alliance) madeits debut in October of 1964. It’sthe only publication begun dur-ing fandom’s Golden Age to becontinuously produced right upto the present.

VII. Humor ZinesIn the early 1960s, after most of the EC fanzines had petered out,

those who loved Mad magazine (and its many imitators) published anumber of satire fanzines that were precursors to the undergroundcomix that were soon to appear on the scene. If you stumble acrosscopies of titles such as Smudge, Enclave, Jack High, Nope, or DonDohler’s Wild!—don’t let them get away from you! They’re chock fullof work by artists like Jay Lynch, Skip Williamson, Jay Kinney, artspiegelman, and other soon-to-be-luminaries. Most were produced innumbers of one hundred copies or less, and have long disappeared intopersonal collections.

The only long-running humor zine published by and for fans ofcostumed heroes was Odd, produced by the Brothers Herring, Steveand Dave. All issues featured attractive ditto art by Dave and clever

scripts by Steve, and some hadcontributions by Marv Wolf-man and Jay Kinney. The bestissue is #12 (1967), the onlyone printed photo-offset. The“Rat-Man” parody by CalvinCastine, Dave Herring, andJim Gardner is funnier than“Bats-Man” in Mad; “HowTo Get Lost In Space” byWolfman and Dave Her-ring is another highlightof the issue. It’s a shamethere weren’t more inthis format, although #8through 11 all haveexcellent offset covers

by Dave. Unfortunately, Odd fell by the wayside when its star artist wascompelled to spend the next two years in Vietnam.

I also recommend SteveGerber’s on-target send-up calledCrudzine (1965), from a termthat referred to a truly awfulfanzine of any stripe. Highschool teacher Roy Thomas con-ceived the parody one-shot andtalked high school student Ger-ber into producing it, with theaid of some talented St. Louisarea buddies. Roy’s departure forprodom in New York torpedoedhis scheduled “Interview withStan Lee’s Third Cousin,” butSteve’s lampoon of amateurstrips, “The Green Rabbit,” ishilarious.

VIII. Pro-ZinesBefore 1965, few profes-

sionals deigned to contribute tofanzines, though most fan-eds

regularly sent them copies. A notable exception was the support provid-ed to the original Alter Ego by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and laterOtto Binder. Another was art (often inked) by Steve Ditko, whichappeared not only in A/E but in The Comic Reader, Yancy Street Jour-nal, Komik Heroez of the Future, and Sense of Wonder (among others).

I believe it was the appearance of Wally Wood’s witzend (whosetitle was deliberately non-capitalized) in 1966 that changed the attitudeof many professionals. Wood had the connections to fill witzend withall-pro work by the likes of Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, ArchieGoodwin, and Roy Krenkel. Steve Ditko introduced his Mr. A in thepages of Wood’s magazine. There are eight issues in the original format,and all are excellent. I certainly recommend adding witzend #1 and 2 toyour want list. #6 was highlighted by John Benson’s seminal interviewwith Will Eisner. Most, of course, featured original work by Wood him-self, though after he handed the magazine over to Bill Pearson with #5,he contributed fewer pages.

In the wake of witzend, more and more zines offered the artworkof pro and near-pros, always printed via photo-offset. Indeed, somewere almost entirely vehi-cles for this sort of mater-ial. The so-called“pro-zines” are not espe-cially rare, since theywere produced in rela-tively large numbers.These are the maga-zines that commonlyturn up in fanzines-for-sale boxes, allwith highfalutintitles: Anomaly,Vanguard, Phase,This is Legend,Third Rail, et al.

48 Comic Fandom Archive Department

Dave Herring’s covers for Odd #9 (1965) and #10 (1967). [Art ©2000 Dave Herring.]

Left: Steve Ditko’s cover for Bill Schelly’sSense of Wonder (1968). [Art ©2000 Steve

Ditko.] Right: Wally Wood’s cover to witzend#3 (1967), the hardest issue to find, due to alimited press run. [Art ©2000 Estate of Wally Wood.]

$5.95In the USA

No.6AUTUMN

2000

Roy Thomas’Legendary Comics Fanzine

FantasticFawcett Foray!

The Incomparableartwork of

Mac RaboyEXAMINED BY ROGER HILL

PLUS:

C.C. Beck

MarcSwayze

WilliamWoolfolk

Joe Simon

ANDRABOY ASSISTANT

Bob Rogers

Plus:

Captain Marvel Jr. ©2000 DC Comics.

C o n t e n t sre: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2No time for letters—just for acknowledging screw-ups!

Lightning Strikes Twice! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Roger Hill focuses on Capt. Marvel Jr. artist Mac Raboy.

Bob Rogers in the 20th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20R.H. never quits! Now he’s found Raboy’s background artist!

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25P.C. Hamerlinck presents another fun-filled Fawcett lineup.

Fawcett-to-Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26An editorial potpourri assembled by Jennifer T. Go.

We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Marc Swayze on Fawcett and comic strips in the 1940s.

Joe Simon: The FCA Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Mr. Scarlet & that first issue of Capt. Marvel Adventures.

Looking Backward... from My Upside-Down Point of View . . 32William Woolfolk writes about writing in the Golden Age.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42C.C. Beck draws verbal statues of these mortal sins.

For Gene Colan, Stan Lee, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About our cover: In the early 1970s Lulu Raboy consigned several pieces of original artwork by herlate husband Mac to a comic art dealer in New York City—one of which was a bust portrait gouchepainting of Captain Marvel Jr. The purpose for which it was intended in the early ’40s (“photo” pre-mium, perhaps?) is not known. More about this painting in our next issue! Special thanks to KeifFromm for making this never-before-printed Raboy art available to us. [Art ©Estate of Mac Raboy;Captain Marvel Jr. ©2000 DC Comics.]

Above: An unidentified, almost-completed Mac Raboy panel of our cover subject and guest of honor,found by Bob Rogers in his files. Note the missing arm bands. [©2000 DC Comics.]

™Mac Raboy �FCA Section

Volume 3, No. 6Autumn 2000

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorBill Schelly

Design & LayoutJon B. CookeGREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

ProductionJanet Riley Sanderson

Consulting EditorsJohn MorrowJon B. Cooke

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Contributing EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry Bails (founder)Ronn Foss, Biljo White,Mike Friedrich

Cover ArtistsMac RaboyGene Colan & Tom Palmer

Cover ColorMac RaboyTom Ziuko

Mailing CrewRuss Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

And Special Thanks to:Dick & Lindy

AyersDave BergAl BigleyBill BlackJerry K. BoydRich BucklerGene & Adrienne

ColanJerry de FuccioJoe DesrisKeif FrommGary FriedrichJennifer T. GoDavid HamiltonMark & Steph

HeikeRoger HillRobert KanigherDavid

Anthony KraftMort Leav

Stan & Joan LeeDan MakaraGene McDonaldEric Nolen-

WeathingtonJerry OrdwayDavid RaboyEthan RobertsBob RogersArlen SchumerJohn SeverinJoe SimonRobin SnyderGlenn SouthwickKevin StawierayMarc SwayzeJoel ThingvallDann ThomasBob ThomsHank WeisingerMark Wheatley

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. RoyThomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803)826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respec-tive companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy& Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

[INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Mac Raboy’s artisticabilities and accomplishments in the four-color mediumhave been recognized and acknowledged in many ofthe books on comics history published over the pastforty years. Two years ago, when I decided to writean article on Raboy for an issue of the CFA-APA(Comic and Fantasy Art Amateur Press Asso-ciation), I quickly discovered that since around1970 almost nothing new had been document-ed on this amazing artist. As popular as hiswork has always been among comic art afi-cionados, it stuck me as odd that no one hadpursued further research on Mac Raboy.

[Virtually everything written on Raboy after1970 has relied primarily on Jim Steranko’searly-’70s The History of the Comics and the 1948King Features Syndicate promotional booklet titledFamous Artists & Writers. Most readers ofAlter Ego will be familiar with the twoSteranko volumes, but the King Fea-tures Syndicate booklet is some-what rare and not easily accessibleto collectors or historians. Thisbooklet is priceless, with itsnumerous biographies of writ-ers and artists, accompanied

by photographs of each. It supplies some generalinformation about Raboy up to 1948 and pre-sents the first published photo of the man everseen by the public. We will run that bio pagenext issue, along with an interview withRaboy’s son David.

[Mac Raboy will always be mostremembered for the “Captain Marvel Jr.”artwork he created for Fawcett Publicationsbetween 1941-44. While my own apprecia-tion of Raboy’s “CMJr” art has grownsteadily over the years, it was his Flash Gor-don Sunday newspaper strip that initiallycaught my eye when I was sixteen years old. Iliked Raboy’s Flash art immediately! Ithought he drew beautiful “leggy” women,muscular “handsome” men, and rocketships

that, while simple in design, were sleek andjust “pulpish” enough to travel the galaxies

with ease. The stories themselves… well, theyleft a lot to be desired. But Mac didn’t write the

stories (well, actually, he wrote at least one ofthem); he just illustrated them. His tenure on the

strip ran from August 1, 1948, until December 17, 1967,close to a thousand Sunday pages. That in itself is quite an

accomplishment.

Captain Marvel Jr., Flash Gordon,

& the Incomparable Art ofMAC RABOY!

by Roger Hill

Lightning Strikes Twice! 5

[I was determined at the outset of this project not to do a rehash ofwhat had previously been written about Mac Raboy. To add somethingnew to comics history is now my goal on everythingI write. In Raboy’s case, I knew it would be a diffi-cult and lengthy quest for new information. I want-ed to know more about him than just hisinvolvement in the comics field. His personal feelingsabout art and influences, and a clearer perception ofwhat drove him to do what he did, is the kind ofknowledge I was seeking. Who was Mac Raboy andwhat made him tick? That was the goal.

[Unfortunately, Mac Raboy died in 1967,before anyone had the chance to interview him. Notthat he probably would have agreed to be inter-viewed since, during the course of my research, I’velearned he was not exactly thrilled with the work hewas doing on Flash Gordon, and wasn’t the mostoutgoing person. In fact, Raboy was an extremelyquiet, sensitive artist, who kept to himself and justwanted to sit and draw for hours on end, withoutinterruption.

[Since Raboy was very meticulous about his art and one of the slow-est artists to work for Fawcett, deadlines on the “Captain Marvel Jr.”work were constantly a problem for him. Therefore, a number of assis-tants were used during his tenure there to help out. I knew that the onlyhope I had of truly learning something new about Mac Raboy wouldhave to come from talking with his co-workers and assistants who mightstill be around. The few of these folks who are still living are now in theirlate seventies or early eighties. These are the people I went searching for. Ialso went looking for Raboy’s family—and found them.

[Gene McDonald was the first artist and co-worker of Mac Raboy Ifound on my quest for information. Gene, originally a Midwestern gen-

tleman himself, is today 82 years old and was one of thenicest fellows I ever talked with. The information hegave me was very helpful toward completion of thisarticle. After I finished the interview with him, heasked me not to give him any credit for his work withMac Raboy, or in the comics. He didn’t feel he con-tributed much. Well, my apologies to Gene, but Icouldn’t leave him out of the picture even if I wantedto. The history is there, and he was a part of it.

[Next I tracked down Mac Raboy’s son David,who at first was not at all anxious to talk to me.

During my first phone conversation with him,David listened patiently as I explained I wanted to

write an article about his father, then told me he reallywasn’t interested in discussing him. After that shortconversation, I wrote him a letter and prevailed uponhim to help just a little bit on my research. Later, whenI called him again, he agreed to answer a few ques-tions, for which I am most grateful.

[Through a chance meeting on the Internet I made contact with BobRogers (a.k.a. Rubin Zubofsky), an 82-year-old gentleman who wasRaboy’s first assistant at Fawcett Publications, being hired there in 1942.Through Bob and his son-in-law Dan Johnson, I was able to get a betterpicture of those long-ago days when he and Raboy worked on “CaptainMarvel Jr.” The first part of our interview with Bob on his career in thecomics follows this article.

—ROGER HILL.]

I. Origins & UpbringingManuel Raboy was born in New York City on April 9, 1914, to

parents Isaac and Sarah Raboy.Isaac Raboy and two brothers hadimmigrated to the U.S. fromBessarabaka, Romania, in 1904,and settled temporarily in NewYork City. While passing throughthe receiving areas of Ellis Island,Isaac’s original last name—spelled“Raboi”—became “Anglofied” to“Raboy.”

Isaac secured a job workingin a hat factory and during hisevening hours wrote poetry andpolitical essays. He also attendedthe Jewish Agricultural School inWoodbine, New Jersey, and movedto North Dakota after graduation.On a horse ranch located just out-side Gladstone, North Dakota, hebecame a horse-handler and ferrier.He eventually wrote several books.One of these, The Jewish Cowboy,detailed some of his experiences inNorth Dakota.

At his father’s request Isaac returned to the East Coast, where hetook on the job of managing the family dairy farm in Connecticut. At

the same time he worked in New York City and continued writingbooks. After marrying, Issac and Sarah Raboy eventually moved into ahome located at 3451 Giles Place in the Bronx section of New York.This is where young Manuel Raboy grew up and developed an intensive

passion for drawing. Even as achild he would render with greatdetail just about anything he sethis mind to.

Manuel attended P.S. 44 inthe city and De Witt ClintonHigh School in the Bronx. DeWitt Clinton was an all-boysschool at that time, and studentswere mixed both ethnically andracially. It was here thatManuel—or “Mac,” as his familyand friends referred to him—firsttook an interest in making art hiscareer. Luckily he had an artteacher at De Witt who gave himsome guidance and encourage-ment in the arts. This teacher alsoconducted WPA art classes whichMac attended regularly. Through

them he became familiar withthe art of wood engraving andprint making, a slow andpainstaking form of art.

Raboy, it appears, mastered this artistic process and upon gradua-

6 Lightning Strikes Twice!

Previous page: Classic images from Flash Gordon and Master Comics flank a stark portrait of artist Mac Raboy. Author Roger Hill says a photo of Raboy “was putinto Photoshop [a computer program] and had the ‘India ink’ filter applied. It gives one the impression of a mysterious person in the shadows, without defini-tion, which is what Raboy was, before this article was written.” Above: Panel from Captain Marvel Jr. story in Master Comics #29. [CMJr ©2000 DC Comics; Flash

Gordon ©1949, 2000 King Features Syndicate.]

Above and next page: Woodcut engravings done by Raboy for the WPA duringthe mid-to-late 1930s. This one is called “Family on a Barge.”

tion went to work for President Franklin D.Roosevelt’s WPA and Federal Arts Project(FAP). At this time only people on reliefcould be recruited by the FAP for gov-ernment-sponsored work. The pro-ject at its height employed about5000 artists. Between December1935 and August 1939,Raboy turned out a totalof fourteen engravedprints for the FAP. Hedecided to make a visualinterpretation and record ofAmericana; this fell under theheading of The Index of AmericanDesign. Raboy’s prints were quite striking, witha lush, fine-line approach to the depiction of Depres-sion-Era America of the 1930s. Some of these show agricultur-al images of people at work. All were quite good.

Through this program, many artists were encouraged to do work athome rather than to concentrate on the art market in New York. Thegovernment also sponsored traveling exhibitions that would exposeAmerican artists’ work to culturally deprived areas of the country.Raboy’s prints were shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937, thenat the National Academy of Design in 1938. A few examples even foundtheir way to exhibition at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Since thedemise of the Federal Art Project in 1943, the importance of govern-mental funding of the arts has been continually disputed. Even thoughcritics say the FAP produced bad work, there can be no doubt that itsaved a generation of American artists from almost total extinction. Inthe case of Mac Raboy and many other young artists, it proved to be theencouragement they needed to fur-ther their careers. Several ofRaboy’s wood engravings from thisera reside today in the permanentcollection of the New York Metro-politan Museum of Art.

During the time he worked forthe FAP, Raboy also studied art atthe New York School of IndustrialArt, the Pratt Institute, and CooperUnion. In 1935 he married a younglady named Lulu Belle Morris. Thetwo had met while summering inupstate New York in a little towncalled Golden’s Bridge. Lulu Bellehad at one time been an accom-plished dancer with the MarthaGraham Dance Company. TheRaboys set up housekeeping in alittle apartment in the Bronx.

II. The Sidewalks—andSweatshops—of New YorkAfter leaving the WPA, Raboy decided to try his hand working in

the commercial art field. He secured a job with a small art company,where he became adept at lettering and paste-ups, among other chores.In his own words, his duties consisted of “all kinds of the usual dirtywork.” In 1940, after seeing a newspaper ad, he applied for work andwas hired at once as a staff artist with the Harry “A” Chesler comicsshop in New York City. Chesler’s outfit, located at 23rd Street, justWest of 8th Avenue, was one of the earliest “sweatshops” responsiblefor packaging comic books for publishers.

More than likely, Chesler’s foreman,Jack Binder, also had a say in

Raboy’s hiring. Binder had beenhired by Chesler in early 1937 to

take charge of a staff of artiststhat included Charlie Biro,

Jack Cole, Lou Fine, GillFox, Fred Guardineer,

Robert McCay, Jr., MortMeskin, GuspanoRicca, Charlie Sultan,George Tuska, andmany others who

would eventually moveon to greater fame in the

comic book industry.

Mac Raboy was now surrounded bya team of talented artists, inkers, and writers who,

under Binder’s supervision, would crank out completed comic art forsome of the largest comic book publishing companies of the day. Thisincluded Centaur, National/DC, Fawcett, Quality, and Timely, all ofwhom were pioneers of a budding new industry. Raboy was fascinatedby the storytelling aspects of comic books and was about to learn thebusiness working from the bottom up.

One of Mac’s first assignments was a back-up feature in PrizeComics called “The Green Lama.” This mysterious, green-hoodedcrimefighter originated deep in the wilds of Tibet. Well versed in thestrange secrets of the Oriental holy men, he devoted his life to fightingcriminals the law could not reach. “The Green Lama” was the brain-child of writer Ken Crossen and had originally debuted in the pulpmagazine Double Detective in 1940. Within two years Crossen would

go on to become an assistant editor atFawcett Publications and wouldeventually start his own comic pub-lishing company. Though Raboycouldn’t have known it at the time, hehimself would be involved inCrossen’s later ventures, and onceagain with “The Green Lama.”

III. Early Days at FawcettWhile Mac’s early efforts on var-

ious back-up features produced in theChesler shop were competent, hisstyle had a way to go yet before hewould become recognized as some-one of special talents. The Cheslershop also provided Fawcett with a lotof their early art needs. Therefore,Raboy was kept very busy workingon such notable back-ups as “Ibis theInvincible,” “Mr. Scarlet,” and “Zoro,the Mystery Man.”

Working with other Chesler shop personnel, Raboy began illustrat-ing the adventures of “Dr. Voodoo” with Whiz Comics #9, cover-datedOctober 1940. This back-of-the-book adventure series, featuring a non-costumed, swashbuckling semi-super-hero, would eventually showRaboy’s transitional growth to a higher plateau of artistic excellence.Unlike most of the other Fawcett features, the “Dr. Voodoo” storieseventually came to utilize narrative captions rather than the standardword balloons, and Raboy’s style grew more mature—and more notice-able to the men in charge at Fawcett.

By the end of 1940, Mac was drawing “Bulletman” covers for Mas-ter Comics; shortly after that, he became the chief artist of that hero’s

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy 7

“Fishing for Coins.”

“On Tenth Ave.”

[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Bob Rogers was born Rubin L.Zubofsky in Brooklyn, New York, on January 15, 1923. Raised in thatborough, he attended the High School of Music and Art, graduating in1941. His exposure to the comics field came quite by chance during theSummer of 1941, when he became the apprentice of a comic book artistwho, as will be seen below, has not yet been positively identified. In 1945Rubin changed his name to Robert (Bob) Rogers.

[Bob was the first assistant to work with Mac Raboy at Fawcett. Hedrew backgrounds for Raboy through most of 1942; and, earlier, he hadperformed the same service for the great Lou Fine. This informationcame as a complete surprise to me. While I had known that other artistshad inked Fine’s work during the early 1940s, I had never heard that abackground man had been employed to help out. Oddly enough, Bob’swages were paid by Everett M. “Busy” Arnold, publisher of QualityComics, not by Lou Fine.

[I had originally gone looking for Rubin Zubofsky two years ago,hoping to find him and include him in this issue’s article about MacRaboy. At that time I had absolutely no luck in locating him. Little did Iknow, at the time, that Rubin had changed his name. As luck wouldhave it, I ran across his son-in-law, Dan Johnson, who, as an agent forBob, was auctioning off a few comic art originals on eBay. This includeda couple of Mac Raboy & Bob Rogers “Captain Marvel Jr.” pages fromthe early 1940s. The Internet was buzzing with questions.

[At the time I remember thinking: Who in the world is BobRogers?! I asked around and found that everybody else was asking thesame question. No one had ever heard of him! After a few e-mails backand forth between Dan and me, and going back to re-read Jim Ster-anko’s History of the Comics, it became clear just who Mr. Rogers was,and how important his contribution was to the Golden Age of Comics.

[Over the course of the next few months, with Dan and Bob’s help,I was able to learn much about Bob’s career working in the comics.Luckily, Dan Johnson is as inquisitive about his father-in-law’s career asI am. We have been corresponding on a regular basis, sharing informa-tion and working to develop a clearer picture of a chronology that Bobput together a few months ago on his life and work. Hopefully, by nextissue, we can have all the holes filled in.

[During the past seven months I’ve been able to interview BobRogers about many different aspects of his long career. This is the firstpart of my interview with him. Further segments will be presented inensuing issues of Alter Ego.

—ROGER HILL.]

ROGER HILL: I can’t tell you just how surprised and happy I was tofind out that you are, or were, the original Rubin Zubofsky. I was look-ing for you two years ago at the beginning of my research on this wholeRaboy project, and couldn’t find any Zubofskys listed anywhere! Afterwhat I had read in Steranko’s History of the Comics about you, and froma letter from [Fawcett editor] Wendell Crowley [published in Alter EgoV1#8], I knew you were one of the key figures in the scheme of things.

BOB ROGERS: Rubin Zubofsky… nicknamed Ruby! That is my realname. During the War, my parents “anglosized” it. At some point mymother wrote and told me they had changed the name to Rogers, and Ithought, “Gee whiz, I’d like to go along with the family.” But I decidednot to do it until after I got out of the service or I’d screw up myrecords. So I waited until after the War.

RH: You were using the nickname “Ruby” at Fawcett, right? You know,it was originally believed that Mac Raboy had changed his name fromRabinowitz to Raboy.

ROGERS: I guess a lot of erroneous data gets thrown around out there.It’s funny how little bits and pieces have come back into my recollectionthat I had forgotten about. I only recently remembered that I had short-ened my name to “Zubof” for Fawcett! [laughs] I even went out and gotmyself a separate Social Security card which said “Rubin Zubof,” whichwas legal then.

RH: We’ve been discussing by e-mail the “mystery artist” who helpedyou get started in the comic book business as his apprentice; but so farwe haven’t been able to come up with a name, right? You seem to thinkit was someone called Myron. And your son-in-law Dan and I suggestedto you that it might have been an artist by the name of Myron Strauss.

ROGERS: I tell you, this has been the damnedest thing. My memory atthis stage is not what it used to be—and unfortunately, during thoseyears when I first started, and up until the time I came back from the ser-

20 Bob Rogers—

Bob Rogers In The

20th Century!An interview with the artist a.k.a. Rubin Zubofsky about Mac Raboy, Lou Fine, et al.Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Roger Hill

Rubin Zubofsky (later Bob Rogers) working on the last page of the CMJrstory “The Case of the Jolly Roger” for Master Comics #35 (cover-date

Feb. 1943). The photo was taken in late 1942, just before Bob left for militaryservice. [Photo courtesy of Bob Rogers; art ©2000 DC Comics.]

—In The 20th Century! 21

vice, I never kept any records. That’s because I was on salary.It wasn’t until I started freelancing that I worked up a portfolio and

actually started saving a bunch of this stuff which originally meant noth-ing to me. Matter of fact, the first thing I did after I came back from theWar was, I found this huge pile of mint comic books that I had broughthome in quantities when I worked at Fawcett—and I threw them the hellout! [laughter]

RH: Don’t feel bad, Bob. A lot of the other guys who worked in comicsback then did the same thing.

ROGERS: You know, Roger, the only thing I have that this “mysteryartist” and myself worked on is one comic. The comic was Stars andStripes #5, dated December 1941. The feature inside that we did wascalled “Liberty Scouts.”

RH: And you assisted him on this work?

ROGERS: Oh yeah. I drew the backgrounds. We also did the cover. Isaved a copy of it. Well, actually, I excerpted it. I destroyed it, and justsaved the cover and the feature we did. I saved dozens of books—not thebooks, just the work that I did. I kept them in a portfolio so I could havesamples of my work to show around.

RH: How did you actually meet this “mystery artist”?

ROGERS: Well, it’s a funny thing. I went to the High School of Musicand Art, and that’s where I graduated from. I was dating a very lovelygirl and she said a friend of hers was in the business of doing somethingcalled “comic books” and he was looking for an assistant. And I wantedto get into the field very, very badly, so I jumped at it.

RH: You wanted to get into the comic book field?

ROGERS: I wanted to get into the art field. Whatever aspect it was. Sothat opened the door for me. I became a combination background man,cleanup artist, and gofer. That was around 1941, so that date we’ve gotfor sure.

RH: And how long after your graduation do you think it was before youstarted assisting this fellow?

ROGERS: Don’t know. So now we have from January until the end of1941, and around that time I went to Fawcett. Now, what transpired herewas that this “mystery artist” got his draft notice. So he said that a friendof his also needed an assistant, and he thought I would be able to get asalary there. And that’s how I got hooked up with Lou Fine.

RH: So you began working withLou Fine on some of the QualityComics features?

ROGERS: Yes. I made the enor-mous salary of $20 a week. Iworked on a whole series ofpages and stories with Lou. Thiswas before Pearl Harbor.

RH: Was this at the time afterLou left Iger and Eisner[comics shop]?

ROGERS: Yes. He was no longer with them. He was now set up in hisown studio apartment in Tudor City, Manhattan. It’s a big complex, andthere was just the two of us. That’s why I never met any of the otherpeople. It was just a little studio room with a little kitchenette behind thedoor and a little sleeper couch. That was it.

RH: Do you remember specific comic titles that you were working onwith Lou?

ROGERS: Hit Comics!

RH: Right. And what about Crack Comics?

ROGERS: Yes. I have lots of the “Black Condor” stories that I workedon.

RH: Did you do the inking on these jobs with Lou?

ROGERS: I did the drawing for all the backgrounds. In other words,that’s where the technique I developed started. The artist would draw thefigures and then he would indicate to me with a few hen scratches whathe wanted in the background. He might indicate something like a streetscene behind this figure. Of course, the script might indicate a scene witha car coming, or Nazis coming down the road in a jeep. So he mightshow me where the jeep is supposed to be. I’d put in the jeep and he’dput in the Nazis. The main figure would be at the front of the panel, andI’d have to fill in the rest.

RH: Now, what I’m curious about is the penciling and inking stages of

If a person didn’t know better, he’d think that Lou Fine penciled and inkedthis sample page, which is actually the work of Bob Rogers, circa early 1940s.

[©2000 Bob Rogers.]

This cover on which Bob Rogersworked is signed by “MyronStrauss,” so it seems highlylikely he’s the “Myron” for

whom Bob first worked in thecomic book field. [©2000 therespective copyright holder.]

no. 65

MarcSwayzeC.C.BeckWilliamWoolfolkJoeSimon

C.C. Beck’s 1985 panel re-creations of the first Ibis the Invincible story from Whiz Comics #1 (#2) which he originally drew in 1940. Ibis ©2000 DC Comics.

26 Fawcett Collectors of America

Fawcett-To-GoJennifer T. Go

FCA is pleased toremind all and sundrythat C.C. Beck’s privatelycirculated and previouslyunpublished autobiogra-phy, “Preacher’s Son,” is

among the features in Two-Morrows’ STREETWISE, a deluxe

trade paperback compilation ofautobiographical stories

by the industry’s topartists, which was

publishedin July.

Edited by FCA’s P.C. Hamerlinck, Beck’s amazingstory is accompanied therein by over thirty illustra-tions, some of them rarely seen before. A must forBeck and Fawcett fans! If you didn’t run across Street-wise at your local shop, see the ad elsewhere in thisissue!

Also from TwoMorrows is Jon B. Cooke’s COMICBOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME ONE, compilingthe first three sold-out issues of Comic Book Artist plus fifty pagesof new material and a special color section. Of special interest toFCA readers is P.C. Hamerlinck’s article from CBA #1, “CanLightning Strike Twice?,” which revisits the return of Captain Mar-vel to comics in the 1970s and C.C. Beck’s debacle with DC thatcoincided with it. See ad elsewhere in this issue of Alter Ego!

Fans of FCA and artist Marcus D. Swayze (our featured columnistwho graces our pages each issue with his memoirs) will want toobtain a copy of MEN OF MYSTERY COMICS #21 from ACComics. This issue, dedicated to the great work of Marc Swayze,contains excellent 1940s Fawcett comics reprints of Spy Smasher,Ibis the Invincible, Mr. Scarlet, Bulletman, and a Swayze-drawnPhantom Eagle story. Marc wrote a special preface and included a

recent rendering of Mickey Malone, boy pilot. P.C.Hamerlinck’s tribute portrait of Marc is repro-

duced, and P.C. contributed a brief article onthe classic Fawcett title America’s GreatestComics. (Fawcett reprints have also appearedin past issues of Men of Mystery and in other

AC titles such as Golden Age Greats andWestern Movie Hero, reviving the old

Fawcett title Western Hero. AChas also published stories of

Nyoka, Tom Mix, DonWinslow, Rocky Lane,Minute-Man, Bob Steele,Commando Yank, LashLaRue, Captain Video,

Hopalong Cassidy, Gabby Hayes, and many more Fawcett stars.Send $1.50 for the current AC catalogue to: Paragon Publications,P.O. Box 521216, Longwood, FL 32752-1216 or visit AC’s websiteat http://members@aol.com/GAReprints/reprints.htm

Television’s Captain Marvel, actor JACKSON BOSTWICK, hasteamed up with FCA’s P.C. Hamerlinck on an exciting project—guaranteed to be treasured by all generations of Captain Marvelfans! Keep watching the pages of FCA for more information andupdates!

Comics legend WILL EISNER reports to FCA that his 1983 inter-view with C.C. Beck (originally published in Kitchen Sink’s WillEisner’s Spirit Magazine #4) will be reprinted in Mr. Eisner’supcoming book Shop Talk, to be published in 2001.

BULLETMAN & BULLETGIRL, Fawcett’s classic charactersfrom the Golden Age, are back again—on CD-ROM! Now youcan read and enjoy those difficult-to-find issues of Bulletman, nowavailable (both in PC- and Macintosh-compatible versions) on twodifferent, reasonably-priced DC-ROM volumes. EachCD contains five complete issues of Bulletman—everypage, including the covers and the ads. The high-reso-lution images are clear, crisp, and in their original fullcolor. For more information write to: ComicsOn-CDRom, P.O. Box 46454, Las Vegas, NV 89114, orvisit http://www.comicsoncdrom.com

G.B. Love, longtime comics fan and the former pub-lisher of the well-known fanzine The Rocket’s BlastComiCollector (RBCC) is selling several pieces ofartwork by the late DON NEWTON from theRBCC and other publications. Newton began as a popular fan artist who went on to illustrate TheMarvel Family for DC Comics. Serious collectorscan contact Mr. Love at GBL39013@webtv.net

Your number one source for the Marvel Family on the Internet isWALT GROGAN’S MARVEL FAMILY WEB(http://shazam.imgine.com/). Walt’s excellent site contains fun fea-tures, great information and artwork from the Golden Age totoday, plus all the latest news—such as the new CaptainMarvel/Billy Batson action-figure set, or where Captain Marvelwill appear in an upcoming DC Comics title, and links to the Marvel Family Web’s sister sites: FCA(http://shazam.imgine.com/FCA) and Jerry Ordway (www.jerry-ordway.com). (Note: Watch for the forthcoming FCA Ordwayinterview.) There are also other links to various Marvel Family-related sites, such as Mark Luebker’s Captain Marvel Gallery(http://members.tripod.com~~~mluebker/cm gallery.html).

CaptainMarvel byAlex Ross.[©2000 DCComics.]

C.C. Beck—“Preacher’s Son.”

Don Newtonsketch of the

good Captain.Courtesy of G.B.Love. [©2000 DC

Comics.]

28 Fawcett Collectors of America

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941-53 Marcus D. Swayze was anartist for Fawcett Publications, first drawing Captain Marvel and laterdesigning Mary Marvel. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have beena feature of FCA since #54. Last issue he related how, with standingassignments to draw Phantom Eagle for Fawcett and the Flyin’ Jennynewspaper strip for the Bell Syndicate in his pocket, he returned home inthe South. Immediately he began to think of ways to revise the comicbook aviator, a regular feature in the monthly Wow Comics.—PCH.]

Only after I had come to terms with illustrious plans for ThePhantom Eagle did work on the script at hand begin. It was

pretty much like when I first stepped inside the Fawcett offices someyears earlier… bursting with the “I’m gonna show ’em” attitude. I wasbound and determined to have it known what a “real” artist could dofor their number one comic book character, that big guy in the redsuit… that… that Captain Marvel feller. I had gone so far as to sketch“improvements”… new angles, dramatic lighting, fancy shading…before good old country common sense came to the rescue. And a goodthing! I might have “improved” my way back into the milk business.[ED. NOTE: Swayze was driving a milk wagon when he got his first jobin comics.]

You see, I hadn’t been employed to make improvements, but tokeep things going exactly as they had been. Now, here with The Phan-tom Eagle in 1944, once again straight thinking was struggling to over-come the tendency to overdo. I was having second thoughts about ThePhoenix Squadron, the gang of young flying pals who supported ThePhantom Eagle. The idea that they be phased out of the picture, orwiped out in a single stroke, like in a dogfight or enemy bombing, was

only my personal opinion.What about the Wow Comicsreaders who might be fond ofthe Squadron?

That was just it withthose comic books! Younever knew what the readersthought… or even if therewere any readers! With anewspaper feature, people

were quick to let the local editor know how theyfelt… and the paper was just as hasty in passing theword on to the syndicate, and thus to the creator…especially if it was something somebody didn’t like.But comic books? There may have been some pub-lishers who encouraged reader comments, but I don’tremember anything like that in the Fawcett works. Iguess the policy was: “So you bought it, you mustlike it!” No… that shouldn’t be said. Surely thepaper squeeze had something to do with it.

In trying to prepare this material as accuratelyas possible, I have turned to the records and comicbooks I kept of the period.

I wasn’t a stranger to Wow Comics, nor it tome. I had done a Mary Marvel story and cover or two back in ’42, and aone-pager featuring Mary in Wow #28.

Wow #29 I don’t have, but am reasonably certain I did the art on aMr. Scarlet story in that issue. I can’t find Wow #30, but a scribbled notehere says I drew the “Black Mace” for that issue. I am not certain ofthat.

Wow Comics #31 contains “Hills of Araby,” the lettering, with theexception of the title panel, unquestionably that of my sister. The letter-ing of the Vikings story in Wow #32 is my own, indicating that the artwas done before I left the city.

Really no big deal, is it? Apparently the editors were maintaining abacklog of production-ready art so as to shuffle the stories to maintainvariety within the books. I can see where that might have been of con-cern to a serious collector-historian, especially when the titles wereoccasionally changed after the art was completed and prior to publica-tion.

To get the show on the road I decided to shelve all thoughts ofimmediate changes to The Phantom Eagle and get some pictures on thepaper. Consequently, it was at least a year before the Cometplane wasfully redesigned… before the Squadron began to disappear.

Not so with Jerry Sloan. I thought Mickey Malone’s little plane-designer friend, who spent most of her appearances waving “goodbye”in the early panels and “welcome back” in the last, was an importantplus for the strip, and I could feature her more without upsetting anyapplecarts—or editors. So away we flew with The Phantom Eagle… forthe time being!

Toward the end of the year I received a call from Russell Keaton[creator of the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper comic strip]. He first expressedpleasure at the way I had been handling the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page;

[Art & logo ©2000 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics]

“I was bound and deter-mined to have it knownwhat a ‘real’ artist coulddo for their number one

comic book character….”Cover of Whiz Comics #37

(Nov. 1952) by MarcSwayze. [©2000 DC

Comics.]

Marc says the lettering on this Phantom Eagle story he drew for Wow Comics #32 (Jan. 1945) is his, indicating that the art was done before he

left New York for the South. It was recently reprinted in AC Comics’ Men of Mystery #21. [Phantom Eagle ©2000 DC Comics.]

By

30 Joe Simon—The FCA Interview

[ED. NOTE: Joe Simon, comic book creator, artist, businessman—and one half of the legendary comic book art team of the ’40s and ’50s,Simon & Kirby—was interviewed in early 1998 in New York City. Theinterview was conducted by New York-based writer John R. Cochran,with questions supplied by FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck.]

JOHN R. COCHRAN: The Fawcett Simon & Kirby work consistedof the interior of Captain Marvel Adventures #1, 1941, and the first Mr.Scarlet story from Wow Comics #1, 1940. Did you do any other workfor Fawcett?

JOE SIMON: No.

JC: How did your work for Fawcett come about? Did Fawcettapproach you and Kirby, or did you go to them looking for freelancework? Do you remember to whom you talked at the Fawcett offices?

SIMON: I knew John Beardsley before he became an editor at Fawcett.He was from Connecticut. We used to hang out together, and he haddone some work for me. One day he called me up at Timely Comics (Iwas doing Captain America at the time), and told me he was now aneditor at Fawcett Publications. He asked me to come down to his officeand talk to him and Al Allard about doing a book for them.

Their offices were in the Paramount Building on Broadway near42nd Street—Timely was on 42nd Street between 8th and 9thAvenues—so I just walked over there and had a meeting with them. Imet with art director Al Allard and editor Ed Herron. Allard remindedme of Beardsley, except Allard was more well-off and he had a Holly-wood haircut and Hollywood personality. Herron had just beenassigned as editor of a new book, Captain Marvel Adventures, featuringtheir successful character from Whiz Comics.

Their problem was they had one week to get the first issue of Cap-tain Marvel Adventures to the printers. Jack Kirby lived in Brooklynand I lived in Elmhurst, Queens. Jack and I got a hotel room around thecorner from where we were doing Captain America. We just stayed inthat room and worked until we finished the book—which we finishedwithin the week.

JC: Did you know Ed Herron prior to your meeting him at the Fawcettoffices?

SIMON: Yes. I started Herron in the comic business by hiring him atFox. It was later alleged that he had not paid his taxes and he had to fleethe country.

JC: Were you and Kirby already familiar with Captain Marvel and hisC.C. Beck-drawn stories from Whiz Comics before you took the jobwith Fawcett? When drawing Captain Marvel #1, what was your refer-ence material? Character model sheets, or just copies of Whiz Comics?

SIMON: Kirby and I were aware of Captain Marvel, but we weren’tthat familiar with his stories and artwork. It was different from ourwork—more of a cartoon—simplified drawing—very, very well done. Itwent off on a different track—the style was much more whimsical thanwhat Jack and I were doing. We tried to make our villains very horrific,while Beck’s style was just more whimsical. Jack and I were going in an

entirely different direction. So we just referred to copies of Whiz whendrawing Captain Marvel. I never worked with a model sheet—they justweren’t available.

JC: Did you ever meet or run into any of the Fawcett artists: C.C. Beck,Marc Swayze, Mac Raboy, Pete Costanza?

SIMON: I didn’t know Beck during his Fawcett days. I knew him lateron in the ’50s when he was out of comics after Fawcett Comics folded. Igave Beck the first “Silver Spider” story (which was originally called“Spiderman”) to pencil. It was those pages that Jack Kirby took to StanLee that became the seed for Lee’s Spider-Man.

We used to call Beck “Charlie,” since that was how he introducedhimself to us. Jack and I were doing Young Romance and Black Magicwhen he came over to do some work for us. Mac Raboy did a couple ofthings for me—I wanted to get him to do more. Otto Binder, brother ofJack Binder, wrote some stories for me—a very prolific writer. I don’tremember Swayze or Costanza.

JC: Who were your artistic influences?

SIMON: I’d name Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, and Milton Caniff asartistic influences, as well as sports cartoonists Willard Mullins and Bur-ris Kenkins, Jr.

JC: What comic book accomplishments are you most proud of?

SIMON: I’m probably most proud of Captain America. I’m also proudthat Kirby and I were the only entity in comics who had created morethan one financial hit. We had Captain America, Boy Commandos,Sandman, Manhunter, Black Magic, and, the biggest of all, the romancebooks.

JC: Any final comments, looking back at the brief Simon & Kirby Faw-cett output?

SIMON: When I look at it now, the work we did on Captain Marvelseems to be very powerful but very unpolished. It looks likesomething people our age would be proud of. On the other hand,I think the stuff they put out today is nowhere near as exciting.

Joe SimonThe FCA INTERVIEW

by John R. Cochran

Some slam-bang Simon & Kirby action from Captain Marvel Adventures #1,courtesy of The Jack Kirby Collector. Inset is a fuzzy detail of S&K’s

Mr. Scarlet from Wow Comics #1. [©2000 DC Comics]

[William Woolfolk, a multi-talented comic book writer andsuccessful novelist, reflects upon hiscareer in comics—with particularemphasis on his writing for Cap-tain Marvel and other charactersat Fawcett Comics. This specialessay, the behind-the-scenes sagaof a major writer during the Golden Age of Comic Books, waswritten exclusively for FCA inearly 2000. Special thanks toShaun Clancy for assisting me incontacting Mr. Woolfolk.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Chapter OneHere I am, setting off on a

memory voyage in a leaky boatwith no paddle, no map and noforeseeable destination. I alwayspromised myself not to revisit thepast, knowing how little futurethere is in it, but P.C. Hamerlinckinsisted.

At my age I no longer disclose my age, whichis 82. I was born in Center Moriches, Long Island,New York, and left at the age of three months. Ihad to take my family with me since they didn’ttrust me to travel alone. My family were allinvolved in show business and we often traveledaround the country.

I never wanted to be anything but a writer…not an ordinary scribbler, mind you, but someonedwelling on the heights of Parnassus in the compa-ny of other writing immortals. I sustained thisdelusion through my high school and college yearsby excelling in English, journalism, and creativewriting classes and through the esteem of variousteachers who seemed to share in my delirium. Inmy dream world, fame and fortune awaited onlythe touch of my magic pen.

Soon I met the harsh reality of the real world,where my incomparable gifts were not fully appre-ciated.

In order to make a living, I condescended to

write for the leading popular publi-cations that then ruled the news-stands. However, The SaturdayEvening Post, Colliers, Redbook, etal., didn’t understand the sacrifice ofartistic integrity I was making forthem. They rejected my manuscriptswith such dazzling consistency thatI began to suspect a giant anti-intel-lectual wrecking crew was at workto defraud the reading public of me.(Paranoia is, after all, the handmaid-en of rejected writers.)

Along the way I did manage tosell a few stories and articles to whatwere known as “secondary slicks”such as Liberty, Toronto Star Week-ly, True Confessions, and the like.These paid about ten times the one-cent-a-word most pulp magazinespaid, but still I didn’t sell enough toearn a living as a writer and felt thatI was in imminent danger of havingto get a job and earn an honest day’swages. The horror of that prospectturned me toward comics.

I was living in Brooklyn at thetime with my father, who managed the Loew’sConey Island Theater. We qualified as upper mid-dle class in income because my father earned amagnificent $100 a week. But I wasn’t pulling myweight and the shame of that haunted my wakinghours.

Seymour Reit (later the creator of Casper theFriendly Ghost) went to New York University andwe shared a few classes together. His future seemedeven more problematic than my own, for hemajored in philosophy and I majored in English(although my real majors were horse racing, gam-bling, and dissolute behavior). Out there in theworld beyond college there was scant demand forphilosophers or for people who could understandEnglish. Seymour and I made a solemn pact that ifwe didn’t start to make a living within six monthsof graduation we would both retreat to our respec-tive beds, pull the sheets up over our heads, andnever emerge again until the world ended.

32 William Woolfolk

Looking Backward...From My Upside-Down Point of View

by William WoolfolkEdited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Bill Woolfolk and his daughter Donna Woolfolk Cross, circa mid-1980s. Both have been on the bestseller lists—but in the 1940s Woolfolk also

penned scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures, sharing writing duties withOtto Binder. [Photo courtesy of Wm. Woolfolk—with special thanks to

David Anthony Kraft for giving us his blessing to reproduce it from ComicBook Interview #28 (1985); Below is C.C. Beck’s CMA #81 (Feb. 1948) cover

©2000 DC Comics.]

Graduation day came, andSeymour went to work for Fleischer Studios inFlorida and became a real person with a real income. When hereturned to New York he began to work for the Eisner and Iger studio.(Yes, that Will Eisner!) One day I saw Seymour’s work in a comic bookand instantly called him up to denounce him for having sold out his tal-ent. I then inquired how I could do the same.

Seymour suggested I send some ideas to a comic book publishernamed MLJ. I did, there was no reply, so I went down to their offices.MLJ publications were operating out of an unimpressive and nearlyunfurnished loft space in lower Manhattan. They published pulp maga-zines and also several comic books about heroes called The Shield andSteel Sterling.

Harry Shorten was the edi-tor at MLJ. He was another NYUgraduate. I found him to be arather gruff, balding Neanderthal,and after I’d introduced myself hedug out my ideas from his forget-file which he’d obviously neverintended to look at again. Thenhe explained that my ideas werenot what they were looking for.They wanted colorful new villainsto confront their super-heroes.He suggested I go home andthink of some.

Having a real live editor inmy clutches, I was in no mood toloosen my grasp. So I immediate-ly improvised an idea about a vil-lain called The Jingler, who leftmocking notes behind at thescene of his crimes. A graybeardof an idea today, but compara-tively fresh at the time.

Shorten okayed it, I wrote it,they liked what I wrote, and anew career suddenly opened upfor me. I came out from undermy bed sheets.

Chapter TwoThree weeks after I sold my

first comic book story, an equallystupendous event occurred: PearlHarbor was bombed, the United

States declared war onJapan, and World War IIbegan. I assumed a newsuper-hero would be creat-ed: “Lieutenant Woolfolk inTokyo!” I spent the majori-ty of 1943 in the militarybefore I was dischargedbecause of an old injury.

Meanwhile, I was writingabout 40 pages a week of TheShield, The Wizard, The Hang-man, and Steel Sterling adven-tures, plus a few short features,such as the Three Monkeyteers. Ihad become the leading writer atMLJ and got the choicest assign-ments. (Of course, their best comicbook by far was Archie, writtenand drawn entirely by Bob Mon-tana.)

The name of the firm MLJ was an acronym for the three owners:Morris Coyne, the quiet treasurer; the ever-hyper Louis Silberkleit; andJohn Goldwater, who had the most contact with the editorial depart-ment. I liked John, partly because he was likable and mainly because hewas a fan of my writing.

Another in the editorial department I fondly remember was ScottFeldman, a quiet editorial assistant who admired my work. He later

became a famous literary agentand novelist as Scott Meredith.Then there was Warren King, anartist who occasionally drewsome of MLJ’s main features. Heillustrated a story of mine thathad to do with a phantom violin-ist or something of the sort; forthe splash page I called for asymbolic battle between the heroand villain on a huge violin.

One afternoon in MLJ’soffice Warren King took me asideto tell me he had gone to FawcettPublications looking for workand brought along my story as asample. He said the editor unfor-tunately didn’t like his artworkbut did like my story idea, so theeditor asked Warren to informme that Fawcett would be inter-ested in having me as a writer.

Thanks to Warren King(who went on to become the edi-torial cartoonist for the NewYork Daily News), I found myway to Captain Marvel.

Looking Backward… From My Upside-Down Point of View 33

Woolfolk writes: “This is a recentphoto of the senescent Four Muske-

teers. The combined years of ourfriendship total over 200 years. Read-ing from left to right: Reginald Ross,screenwriter of Twelve Angry Menand many others, also the producer

and creator of the once-famousDefenders TV show on which I served

as story editor and chief writer;myself; Miles Cahn, owner of CoachLeather, which he sold for 20 million

dollars; and Seymour Reit, who created Casper the Friendly Ghostand wrote two bestselling novels.[Photo courtesy of Wm. Woolfolk.]

According to his 1985 interview in Dave Kraft’s Comic Book

Interview, Woolfolk originated “The Black Hood”—who

outlasted most other MLJ/Archiesuper-heroes, and even had his own radio show briefly. [©2000Archie Publications; thanks to

Michael T. Gilbert.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: FCA is proud to present another previouslyunpublished essay by C.C. Beck, the original chief artist of Captain Mar-vel. In the late 1980s, after Beck’s stint as editor of FCA (called duringBeck’s tenure FCA/SOB—Some Opinionated Bastards) and prior tobeginning his column “Crusty Curmudgeon” for The Comics Journal,Beck formed a roundtable discussion mailing group which included sever-al friends, fans, and pros. The group was called The Critical Circle, and Iwas a regular member. Beck would frequently send out essays to us onvarious subjects (usually related to comic art) and we would reply withour comments. (This was years before Internet “chat rooms.”) More ofthese essays will appear in future issues of FCA.—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Theologians of the Middle Ages setup a list of seven deadly sins… the com-mitment of which, they said, would

condemn their victims to eternal punish-ment in the hereafter. These sins were

based on the discoveries of ancientpagan philosophers who had

worked everything out hundreds orthousands of years before.

In the world of literature andart, certain rules and principles have

also been worked out over the pasthundreds and thousands of years.

While it is no sin to break one of theserules (they are not “laws”), those who

disregard them or deliberately break themwill suffer for their acts later—if not during

their lifetimes, then in future ages when peoplewill look back at their work and shudder as they

condemn its perpetrators to oblivion.

The seven deadly sins of writers and artists, especially thoseinvolved in the creation of comic books, are as follows.

Sin Number One: Not Staying within the Limits of the Medium

Comic pictures are basically line art with color added. They aresmall, framed with panel outlines, and are presented in sequence. Eachpicture should not be complete in itself but should be only a part of thewhole presentation.

Comic drawings are printed; they are more like woodcuts and etch-ings than like paintings and murals. The artists who

prepare the drawings should be aware of the lim-itations of printing. Art prepared with too

much fine detail, too many gradations of tone

and color, and with too much shading and technique will not reproduceproperly.

Comic pictures are small, only a few inches wide and high. They areviewed at a distance of a foot or so; readers will not back off to look atthem as they might have to when viewing a large painting or a mural, andthey will not examine them with a magnifying glass as they might whenlooking at a bit of jewelry or a miniature painting on a snuff box. Thedrawings should be simplified and easily understandable, as the readerwill only glance at them out of the corner of his eye while reading thestory they illustrate.

As comic pictures are each only a part of a sequence of pictures,they should be separated from each other by being enclosed in panel out-lines. Artists who use too many vignettes, too many montages, or whomake their pictures of different sizes and shapes, are straying outside thelimits of the medium and will lose their audiences (comic readers) with-out gaining other audiences (gallery goers, fine art collectors, readers ofother kinds of printed material).

Sin Number Two: Revealing Presence of the Creators

Comic stories are like plays. The actors in thepanels should face each other, fight each other,and at all times stay within their panel outlines.Artists who show people bursting out of their

42 The Seven Deadly Sins—

The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators

by C.C. Beck • Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Left: C.C. Beck—a 1980 self-caricature—juxtaposed with a different sevendeadly sins, above, from Captain Marvel Adventures #100, 1949, with artworkby Beck and Pete Costanza. [Caricature ©2000 Estate of C.C. Beck; CMA panel

©2000 DC Comics.]

Beck’s “Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were drawn in cartoon-comic style because they appeared in comic books. They were never intended to be taken seriously, and for that reason were not drawnrealistically (by me).” [Art ©2000 C.C. Beck Estate; Billy Batson and Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics.]