$5.95In the USA

$5.95In the USA

No.30November

2003

Plus Rare Art & Artifacts By:

OTTO BINDERPAUL CHADWICKREED CRANDALL

JOE CERTAWILL EISNER

MICHAEL T. GILBERTDICK GIORDANOSCOTT GOODELLWALT GROGAN

GIL KANETOM MANDRAKEMORT MESKINJOSH NEUFELD

MICHELLE NOLANGEORGE PÉREZBILL SCHELLY

MIKE SEKOWSKYROY THOMASALEX TOTH

SAL VELLUTOWALLY WOOD

& MORE!!

Plus Rare Art & Artifacts By:

OTTO BINDERPAUL CHADWICKREED CRANDALL

JOE CERTAWILL EISNER

MICHAEL T. GILBERTDICK GIORDANOSCOTT GOODELLWALT GROGAN

GIL KANETOM MANDRAKEMORT MESKINJOSH NEUFELD

MICHELLE NOLANGEORGE PÉREZBILL SCHELLY

MIKE SEKOWSKYROY THOMASALEX TOTH

SAL VELLUTOWALLY WOOD

& MORE!!

ALEX ROSSON THE

1960s-70s JLA!

DICK DILLINREDISCOVERED!

ALEX ROSSON THE

1960s-70s JLA!

DICK DILLINREDISCOVERED!

Justice League of America TM & ©2003 DC Comics

Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM ofRoy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

™

This issue is dedicated to the memory ofDick Dillin

& Warren Kremer

“Just A League Of Their Own”Section ContentsWriter/Editorial: Just a League of Their Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Liberty and Justice: The Alex Ross Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Walt Grogan interviews the acclaimed artist on his newest epic, JLA: Liberty and Justice.

Remembering Dick Dillin: “The Top Man in the Country!” . . . . 14A family remembers a husband, father, and longtime penciler of Justice League.

How Green Was My Martian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Michelle Nolan on J’onn J’onzz and other anomalies of the early-1960s JLA.

The Schwartzian Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Roy Thomas unveils a long-lost JLA-related artifact—in the 53rd century.

“What Can You Get for a Nickel, Nowadays? Nothin’!! ” . . . 31Michael T. Gilbert checks some books out of the notorious 1970s Nickel Library.

A Visit with Otto Binder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Bill Schelly excerpts his new biography of Captain Marvel’s most inventive scribe.

re: [comments & corrections on A/E #24] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43The French Connection Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: The first-ever view most folks had of the Justice League of America in late1959—the cover scene of The Brave and the Bold #28, only seen here from the P.O.V. of Starrothe Conqueror. More about artist Alex Ross’ newest tabloid-size painted graphic novel on thepages immediately following—including, on p. 5, a step-by-step study of the illo used as ourcolorful cover. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Above: In conjunction with JLA: Liberty and Justice, Alex painted the JLA as part of a newline of “collector plates.” You can see the finished image, and even the photos of the guys whoposed for the figures, on p. 11. Above, we’ve chosen to reproduce Alex’s pencils for the plate.[©2003 DC Comics.]

Vol. 3, No. 30/November 2003Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorsBill SchellyJim Amash

Design & LayoutChristopher Day

Consulting EditorJohn Morrow

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt EditorMichael T. Gilbert

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

Production AssistantEric Nolen-Weathington

Cover ArtistsAlex RossSteve Rude

Cover ColoristsAlex RossSolid! Colors

And Special Thanks to:Kim AamodtGer ApeldoornGary ArlingtonMark ArnoldDick AyersBrian H. BaileLeslie Dillin BattistaAllen BellmanBill BlackLee BoyettMike BrownR. Dewey CassellPaul ChadwickDick ColeJon B. CookeCraig DelichMrs. Dick (Estella)

DillinRichard Dillin, Jr.Shel DorfFrank DoscherTerry Dillin DoscherMartin DownhamMichael FeldmanCarl GaffordPaul GambacciniWalter GeierJanet GilbertMark GliddenScott GoodellWalt GroganMrs. Howard KeltnerBob KleinScott Koblish

David Anthony KraftJean-Marc &

Randy LofficierTom MandrakeAndy MangelsDon MarquezPeter MeskinJohn MooresJosh NeufeldMichelle NolanDavid Olsen Jake OsterLinda Rahm-CritesLarry RippeePaul RivocheDavid RoachTrina RobbinsAlex RossSteve R. RoweSteve RudeAlex RossSteve SkeatesRobin SnyderMarc SwayzeGreg TheakstonDann ThomasAlex TothJim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.Sal VellutoMurray WardLynn WoolleyEddy ZenoMike Zeno

3Just a League of Their Own part one

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan[INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: In ten short years, AlexRoss has become a bona fide comic book legend. Bursting onto thecomics scene with 1994’s Marvels (with writer Kurt Busiek), his vividpaintings retold the history of the early Marvel Universe, and hisphoto-realistic style had fans anxiously waiting for more. In 1996 Rossfollowed up his previous success with Kingdom Come, a post-moderntake on DC’s seminal heroes and their offspring. With writer MarkWaid, Ross’ story was a thinly-veiled critique of the then-currentcomic book market. The story juxtaposed the values of the traditionalheroes with that of a new breed of “heroes” they had inspired. Rosshas also had a guiding hand in a series of stories from Marvel underthe Earth X banner, as well as the Battle of the Planets series for Top

Cow. For the last five years Ross has collaborated with writer PaulDini on a series of oversized tabloid-style comics featuring thegreatest icons of the DC Universe: Superman: Peace on Earth,Batman: War on Crime, Shazam!: Power of Hope, and WonderWoman: Spirit of Truth. As a coda to that series, Ross and Dini havere-imagined the Justice League for a new generation of readers inJLA: Liberty and Justice, a 96-page tabloid due on the standsNovember 19. —Walt.]

This interview was conducted via telephone on August 5, 2003, andwas copy-edited by Alex Ross.

Alex Ross at work in his studio. (Below:) One of the recent products of his labor: a pencil drawing of the Justice League in action for his new DC bookJLA: Liberty and Justice. Photo courtesy of Alex Ross

and Walt Grogan. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

WALT GROGAN: What led youto the Liberty and Justice book?You had done the four iconbooks, and this one seems adeparture from those.

ALEX ROSS: Really, justexcitement. We [Paul Dini and I]had been having such a good timewith the books we were doingthat the idea of a book withmultiple characters in it wassomething we could really sinkour teeth into—particularly thegroup we grew up with. Thesecharacters are the center of thesuper-hero universe—the longest-running of all team books. We feltthat it would be more captivating,more exciting than anything elsewe had done. It would be apayoff for everything. We’vetaken the time to establish thissort of “Ross/Dini Corner of the DC Universe,” which to me is justre-establishing the universe that was, before DC rewrote it with Crisison Infinite Earths and everything that has followed since. I wish tocreate a pocket for fans like me who grew up with this form of enter-tainment.

WG: So that’s what led you to use this particular set of characters, the“Barry Allen” Flash and the “Hal Jordan” Green Lantern, forinstance?

ROSS: It comes from what we grew up with. To my mind, the stuff inthe ’70s was sort of finding everything in, arguably, a bit of a develop-mental paralysis. The characters who had been introduced in the mid-’50s or early ’60s pretty much stayed the same during most of that time.So it’s kind of like a “Them were the good ol’ days” kind of attitude.The characters were all in their prime. Nobody had died yet; nobodyhad lost a wife or child, and these are the purest forms of those concepts.Also, the simple origins of the classic Silver Age versions are just that—they’re simple. They are heroes that add to the cultural mythos of DCand, frankly, to the cultural mythos of the world. They have 40 yearsamong most of them. They’ve been around. They’ve been the standard.They’ve been replaced in only the last ten years, most of them, althoughit’s been a lot longer for Wally West (the current Flash). They’ve changedthe backstory with Green Lantern and Aquaman. All those changes areonly ten years old. And during those ten years, those changes have beenthe most hotly contested by fans like myself and others who have alwaysfelt like, “Why do we have these pure, unchanged classic icons (i.e.,Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) side-by-side with these guys whohave been so radically reconfigured, so that we lose the sense of thislegendary ensemble who were so timeless before?”

WG: So, given your views on using the Silver Age icons, was thereresistance to using these versions of the characters?

ROSS: I thoroughly would have expected huge resistance, and there wasnone. We had our editors, Charlie Kochman and Joey Cavalieri, bothfeeling that they were given 100% encouragement that anything wewould want to do like this would be warmly received. They also didn’tfight us at all on the fact that we still wanted it to be an over-sized book.For this final thing, it seemed a fitting send-off that we finish it with agreat giant-size “Justice League” story that’s a third longer—96 pages—than the average book that we had done. I’m painting more charactersthan I did per book before—why let it be small? I’ll probably be back tocomic-size with the next thing I do.

WG: Your body of work for DC and Marvel takes place either in thepast or the future. Do you consciously avoid working with the presentday incarnations of the characters?

ROSS: You know what it must be? I would consider myself to be a bigcomics fan, and I like a lot of things that have happened in modern

4 Alex Ross

Pencils for a Flash and Green Lantern poster done in conjunction with JLA:Liberty and Justice. The composition of the Flash figure is quite different here

from the version in the released poster. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Alex’s pencil sketch for a triptych series of covers for Wizard magazine, done to publicize the new book.[©2003 DC Comics.]

times, but I’m very selective aboutit. I’ve been fatigued by theoverwrought changes of the ’80sand ’90s that have happened to alot of these mythologies. Because Iview them as mythologies, therebyplugging my new book Mythology[an art-of-Alex Ross coffee tablebook designed by Chip Kidd withphotography by Geoff Spear,published by Pantheon Books, outin stores now!] [laughs] You canscrew up an icon if you make itunrecognizable. You may bump upthe immediate sales of a book, andI’m not saying that should neverbe tried, but it’s risky to thecharacter’s distinctiveness.

For my first time spent with theDC characters, I moved directly to the future so I could pass that entireproblem by and go to a time period where all those issues were past. Idid a revision of Superman, focusing on his classic characteristics, whilealso doing a creative blend of history with a modern graphic approach. Itwas fun to play with, but in my mind and in my heart the characters Iwanted to draw were the ones I grew up with and who also happened tolook that same way for many years beforehand. I was born in 1970. Atthe time I was reading comics, the Justice League would have beenaround for fifteen years by the time I got my first issue. And some ofthese characters had been around for 20, 30, or 40 years before I cameinto contact with them.

WG: Would the changes in mythology make it difficult to dosomething like a Justice Society book set in the 1940s?

ROSS: Let’s say I had the opportunity to do a Justice Society book. Iwould need to embrace the JSA for what they were—the 1940s DCsuper-heroes, the first super-hero group. Most of that group had notbeen affected by crazy changes made in continuity. I would never haveWonder Woman called Queen Hippolyta. That’s not correct in terms ofpublishing or history; let’s not try to retroactively rewrite whathappened to the world. In Kingdom Come, which could’ve been takennot as a story of the future but as a story of today where the characters

were as old as their legends were,there are kids who have grownup and become heroes in theirown right (i.e., Dick Grayson asan adult Robin). It allows forthis latitude as if all publishingwere real continuity. All of thathistory was worthwhile.

Sort of like the point of JohnByrne’s Generations book.

You’re not supposed to ignore the fact that these characters hadthis long history. This philosophy doesn’t make it impossible toenjoy a lot of the new things that are done. I enjoy the contem-porary JSA book—it’s something I like and read. I can enjoyMark Waid’s Superman: Birthright series because I think it’s anextension of what they’ve done on the Smallville televisionseries. Smallville makes the idea of a young Superman or a manwho is not Superman yet in our modern day and age seemattractive and viable to me as a fan. And I don’t get up in armsthat he doesn’t look enough like the classic Superman. At theend of the day, I’m much more interested in the spirit of thesethings. So I’m not completely inflexible about change.

If DC hadn’t allowed me to use the classic versions of theJustice League, I might not have done it. A lot of thesecharacters are still changing every year, and, in many cases, goingback to what they had been before. So if you check forward fiveyears into the future and you find the Justice League look likehow they were painted in this graphic novel, then my viewswould have been prescient. If that turns out to be the case, thenwe will have created a product that stands the test of time. That’ssomething that’svery importantto me. That’swhy I don’t likedrawingsomething thatcommits it to aparticular periodof time. And ifpeople look atwhat I’m doingnow assomething of the

past, that view isgenerally containedwithin the currentcomics readership.People outside ofcomics don’t know thatAquaman doesn’t looklike that anymore. As itis, DC already cut hishair, and they’ve alreadygiven him back a handof sorts.

WG: And it looks likeDC is going to givehim his orange shirtagain.

ROSS: They’re givinghim back the shirt!?

WG: Anybody elsewe’re going to see in

The birth of a page of JLA: Liberty and Justice—and incidentally of the cover ofthis issue of Alter Ego. (Left to right:) Alex starts with a super-tight thumbnail

(which is reproduced here not much smaller than subsequent versions of the art).Based on that small sketch, he then does a full-size detailed pencil rendering ofthe panel/page (center). At this point, he photographs his models for use in thelighting of his final painting. At bottom right they have been inserted into thepencil rendering, just for fun. The models are, clockwise from upper left: Cory

(Flash) Smith, Tony (Green Lantern) Vitale, Rhonda (Wonder Woman) Hampton,Chris (Aquaman) Fleming, and Alex (Martian Manhunter) Ross. Hey, maybe we

should’ve used this version as our calamitous cover! [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Liberty & Justice 5

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Ask almost any longtimecomics fan the name of the artist who drew Justice League ofAmerica and you’ll probably get Mike Sekowsky’s name in return.While certainly Sekowsky was synonymous with the JLA in its earlyyears, I consider Dick Dillin the League’s defining artist.Dillin’s run aspenciler on a singlesuper-team title hasyet to be matched—with 115 consecutiveissues to his credit(his only break beingthe pre-plannedreprint issues #67, 76,85, and 93). His JLAoutput spannedtwelve years, startingwith #64 (Aug. 1968)and ending with #183(Oct. 1980) at thetime of his death.Before George Pérezbecame known as thesuper-group artist,Dillin was the reigningking, often drawingdozens of characterspitted against oneanother in the JLA/JSAannual team-ups.

[If you grew up with Dick Dillin’s run on Justice League, you weretreated to many a fine JLA/JSA team-up and were often introducedto a number of long-forgotten super-heroes, some of whom hadn’tseen the light of day in decades. He had the uncanny ability to weavethese time-lost heroes into a modern-day story without any of themseeming out of place. He also handled the artwork on many of theJLA’s defining moments, such as: the introduction of a new RedTornado (#64, Aug. 1968)... the return of the Seven Soldiers of Victory(#100-102, Aug.-Oct. 1972)... the second coming of many QualityComics heroes (#107-108, Sept.-Dec. 1973)... Superman and the JLAmeet the Fawcett Marvel Family (#135-137, Oct.-Dec. 1976)... “NoMan Escapes the Manhunter!” and its sequel (#140-141, March-April1977)... a 1950s proto-JLA (#144, July 1977)... a JLA/JSA/Legion ofSuper-Heroes crossover (#147-148, Oct.-Nov. 1977)... an assemblageof DC heroes of yesteryear (#159-160, Oct.-Nov. 1978)... the murderof Mr. Terrific (#171-172, Oct.-Nov. 1979)... and “Crisis on NewGenesis,” the first chapter of a 3-part JLA/JLA/New Gods crossover(#183, Oct. 1980). Great moments... and we recall them all as theywere seen and depicted by Dick Dillin.

[Dick Dillin’s wife Estella, their son Richard, Jr., and theirdaughters Leslie and Terry were kind enough to participate in a jointinterview on August 17, 2003, about this remarkable artist they allloved. Special thanks to Dillin fan supreme Alex Ross for setting upthis one-of-a-kind interview. —Walt.]

WALT GROGAN: When was Dick born?

MRS. ESTELLA DILLIN: December 17, 1929, in Watertown, NY.

WG: And when did he pass away?

MRS. DILLIN: March 1, 1980.

WG: Where did he go to school?

MRS. DILLIN: Watertown High School. And he went, as a special artstudent, to Syracuse University. He went to Syracuse after his tour ofduty in the service, on the G.I. Bill.

14Just a League of Their Own part two

REMEMBERING DICK DILLIN—“The Top Man In The Country!”

The Family of DICK DILLIN Talk about Life with the Longest-ever Artist of Justice League and BlackhawkInterview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan

Dick Dillin worked at the same drawing table for his entireprofessional career, so it’s highly likely that this unique

cover art for The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March1977) was composed there, as well. Why “unique”?

Because it seems to have been reproduced (and evencolored) from a signed Dillin pencil—one of the only un-inked samples of his artwork known to exist. (Even if he

did ink it with pen, it’s still unique, because Dick virtuallynever inked his own work!) All photos and much of the artreproduced with this article were provided by Walt Grogan

and the Dillin family. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

“The Top Man In The Country!” 15

RICHARD DILLIN, JR.: When he went as a special student toSyracuse, he was a special fine arts student and all he did was studiowork.

MRS. DILLIN: And he was on the Dean’s List. Every quarter he wasthere.

RICHARD: That’s where he got so good at anatomy, and why he didn’tlike to draw animals. They didn’t bring too many animals to class.[laughs]

WG: Where was he stationed while he was in the service?

RICHARD: In Okinawa.

WG: Mrs. Dillin, when did you get married and how many childrendo you have?

MRS. DILLIN: We were married in1948 and we have three children, a sonand two daughters: Richard, Leslie, andTerry.

WG: Were you and Dick alreadymarried when he started looking forwork in comics?

MRS. DILLIN: He was working at thisair brake company in Watertown, wherethey make air brakes for trains, and hecame home one night and said to me, “Iquit and I’m going to New York to lookfor art jobs.” I said, “Good.” Then hesaid, “I didn’t really quit, I wanted to seewhat you’d say.” [laughs] The next day Iwent out and got a job, and a couple ofdays after that he left for New York. Heknew a man that had a little studio inNew York, so he helped my husband at first, when hegot a job, gave him a place to work. And about sixmonths later, the kids and I moved down.

RICHARD: He used to love the Hudson River Valley.When he first left Watertown to walk the streets ofNew York to find work, he got on the train and waslooking for a place to live and came up to Peekskill,

which is the beginning of the Hudson Highlands. All of a sudden it getsmountainous and very picturesque. That’s where I was raised and that’swhere the family was for years. It was a nice little river town back then.Nowadays, it’s quite different.

WG: Mrs. Dillin, how longhad you been marriedbefore he switched jobs?

MRS. DILLIN: Probablyabout four or five years.

WG: So you knew abouthis love of art all along.

MRS. DILLIN: [laughing]Oh, definitely. Him and acouple of his friends whowere artists.

WG: When did Dick getstarted drawing comics?

RICHARD: When he wasvery, very young. He knewwhat he wanted to be.

WG: Really? So he knewhe wanted to be a comicbook artist?

MRS. DILLIN: Yes.When he was a kid, hetried to copy Hal Fosterand some of the Sundaycomics—and always the

action ones with a lotin them.

WG: So did he havea desire to become acomic strip artist, orwas he interested inbecoming a comicbook artist?

MRS. DILLIN: Always comic books.

RICHARD: As a matter of fact, he used to copy stuff from thetime when he was a kid. He saved money from deliveringgroceries, when he was a kid, and he bought his first drawing

board. He had that drawing board his wholelife through. When the kids were home, heused to have the drawing board in the masterbedroom, and when we moved out, he finallygot his own room and I still have it in mymaster bedroom today—the very samedrawing board.

WG: What a treasure! What comic booktitles did he work on?

MRS. DILLIN: He worked on a lot of themat Quality Comics. Blackhawk was the mainone; there were a lot of little ones that younever heard of.

WG: So what happened when Qualityclosed up shop?

MRS. DILLIN: We went up to Watertown

The Dillin family members who participated in this interview. (Left to right:) Richard Dillin, Jr.... Leslie (Dillin) Battista... Estella Dillin...

and Terry (Dillin) Doscher.

Portrait of Dick Dillin, taken while he was in militaryservice—and a photo of “Dick and his best friend Delos

Barney, a great artist in his own right, back from Japan in1948. They were born side-by-side in Watertown.”

Rich Dillin (Richard Dillin, Jr.) says of thisphoto of Dick’s sister Ruth, his mother Hazel,and young Dick holding a Hal Foster PrinceValiant page he had copied: “He wanted tobe a comic book illustrator from the time hecould first look at the funny papers. He drew

constantly, copying the greats anddeveloping his own style. I always consideredhim to be among the few people in the worldwho knew their goal at a very young age andaccomplished it. I had never seen the picture

before. I think he might have been a childprodigy. He worked at home and was there

all through my childhood.”

by Michelle Nolan[EDITOR’S INTRO: While preparing this issue’s coverage of theearly Justice League of America, I—that’s A/E editor Roy Thomas—got to musing about various oddities and anomalies of the first storyor three of that all-important super-hero group:

[Why Superman and Batman were used so sparingly in early issues.(This, at least, we could almost guess at the time, and the truth has

been confirmed since. DC, or at least those two heroes’ respectiveeditors, feared that they might seem over-used.)

[As long as we were picking nits, I even pondered the fact thatAquaman’s gloves are colored yellow in the first “JLA” tale, just asthey had been for the preceding two decades—then suddenly becomegreen in both the second “JLA” tale and in solo “Aquaman” storiesfrom then on. (Coincidence? Probably. Still, one may wonder if perhapsthe “JLA” colorist didn’t make a minor error—and Aquaman’s guidingeditor didn’t decide he liked that hue better, after all.)

[Then came the biggie: Why was Green Arrow, who after all haddebuted in the very same issue of More Fun Comics in 1941 thatAquaman had, left out of the JLA for its first half dozen adventures,in favor of a minor player like J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars,who had never been a cover feature as G.A. had? Was it only becausethe Martian had super-powers while Green Arrow was basicallyBatman with a bow? And, most intriguingly of all—was it merecoincidence that, in his solo series in Detective Comics, J’onn J’onzzhad only become visible to Earthlings a very short time before TheBrave and the Bold #28 introduced the Justice League of America tothe waiting world?

[Michelle Nolan and I were kicking these and other thoughtsaround on the phone one night, and she volunteered to write anarticle about “John Jones—Manhunter from Mars”—which turns outto be a far more interesting and innovative series than I had given itcredit for. —Roy.]

Why was J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars, rather than GreenArrow, selected as the “seventh” member of the first version of theJustice League of America?

Why a six-page backup character from Detective Comics, one whodidn’t really start out as a super-hero or costumed character, at least inthe traditional sense? Why not a much longer-running, full-fledgedcostumed hero (albeit also a backup)—the non-super-powered GreenArrow, who was nearly two decades old when the JLA debuted in 1960?

And yet—why not the Martian Manhunter? As someone whowatched with considerable curiosity as that hero developed during the1955-59 period, I remember being enthused over seeing the green-skinned J’onn J’onzz (as he was almost invariably called in the early“JLA” stories, with the term “Martian Manhunter” becoming commonusage only some time later) in the original group lineup.

Of course, it didn’t take Green Arrow long to catch up, since theEmerald Archer joined the group in Justice League of America #4, the

How Green Was My Martian23Just a League of Their Own part three

(Left:) J’onn J’onzz was a far grimmer, more Spectre-like character when he first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (Nov. 1955) with his prominent

brow and stern demeanor; later he was often drawn as just a smiling greenMartian. This debut story was most recently reprinted in the 1998 ReplicaEdition of the first Secret Origins special, from 1961. Pencils by Joe Certa.

(Right:) Artist Tom Mandrake, artist of a recent long-running Spectre series,restored the grim visage in this pencil-and-ink sketch, done for collector Mike

Zeno and used by permission of both Tom and Mike. Visit Tom’s website at<www.tommandrake.com>. [Detective #225 art ©2003 DC Comics;

sketch ©2003 Tom Mandrake; Martian Manhunter TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

JLA’s seventh adventure, counting thethree tales in The Brave and the Bold#28-30.

Many collectors still don’t fullyrealize, however, that the slowly-evolving“John Jones—Manhunter from Mars”feature—as the strip was titled through its102-issue run in Detective Comics #225-326—was in reality as fresh a concept in1960 as were the Silver Age versions ofThe Flash and Green Lantern.

With the ever-increasing emphasis onscience-fictional themes in comics afterthe launching of the Soviet satelliteSputnik in 1957, soon followed by thefirst U.S. Earth orbiter in 1958, theMartian Manhunter emerged as a farmore commercially viable character thanGreen Arrow, then still just a holdoverfrom the Golden Age.

Many, if not most, of the originalreaders of Justice League of Americaprobably did not realize how radicallyJ’onn J’onzz’s presentation hadchanged—much for the better, from thestandpoint of young readers who dugseeing green-skinned Martians—in thetwo years before the JLA’s debut in TheBrave and the Bold #28 (March 1960).

Even so, it was just common sense tosee the Martian Manhunter emerge fromthe shadows of invisibility, if only toprovide more story possibilities for hisseries. He did so in Detective #273(Nov. 1959), when his Martian identitybecame known to the world in “TheUnmasking of John Jones.” He did, ofcourse, retain his secret identity as themuscular daredevil detective John Jones,who was usually portrayed as anythingbut a less-than-aggressive Clark Kent type.

J’onn J’onzz had occasionally revealed his Martian visage andphysique to Earthlings in a few previous stories, but these always endedwith folks believing the green apparition to be a hoax. In Detective#271, in fact, three crooks captured by a very visible Manhunter werederided as delusional. (A brief origin recap in that issue, incidentally, isnot totally faithful to the first story in #225.)

In Detective #273, the Martian criminal B’rett exposed J’onn to a gascompound, permanently taking away his Martian super-powers when hewas invisible (though he could still turn invisible). Until that issue, theManhunter had spent much of his time in his invisible state, whichlongtime “John Jones” artist Joe Certa strangely rendered in differentways.

Even though the Martian Manhunter was soon destined to join theJLA—less than four months after, in fact, with regard to newsstandtime—I still have my doubts that this change in his visibility was madeintentionally so that he could join the Justice League. Jack Schiff editedDetective and Joe Samachson wrote most of the “Manhunter fromMars” stories, while Justice League of America was edited by JulieSchwartz and written by Gardner Fox.

Still, one cannot but wonder aboutthis drastic change in the Manhunter. Ipurchased Brave & Bold #28 on January5, 1960—the day that issue hit the standson the West Coast. Was it just coinci-dence that J’onn J’onzz had finallybecome visible to the world in Detective#273, which was cover-dated November1959 and had gone on sale only a fewmonths earlier, in either late Septemberor early October? I wondered at thetime, and I still do.

I often wrote the date on which Ibought comics—right at the top of thefirst page—and those dates were almostalways the date each comic hit thenewsstands and comic racks. I wouldusually visit all the half dozen racks nearmy home on Tuesdays and Thursday(new-comics days in that era) to makesure I didn’t miss anything. Remember,comic book circulation was far wider butalso much more inconsistent in thosedays.

For some reason, I did not record thepurchase date for my copy of Detective#273, but I did so date Action Comics#258, which also carried a Novembercover date. I bought the latter onSeptember 29, 1959, which meansDetective #273 came out at about thesame time, probably no more than aweek earlier or later. So call it only aboutthree months ahead of the JLA’s debut.

In those days, with no comics pressand no way of knowing anything aboutwhat was coming up in comics threemonths in advance, little could I knowthat “visibility” was soon to take on anentirely new meaning for J’onn J’onzz,with the stunning creation of the JLA.But, while reading Detective #273, I was

just happy to see the intriguing Martian take such a leap forward.

For me, the Martian Manhunter was what I later came to call an“always character”—that is, he had always seemed to exist for me. WhenI had begun buying comics in April 1956, little had I known that “JohnJones—Manhunter from Mars” was such a fresh concept. Unique, infact. Nor did I understand what DC was trying to accomplish with thisodd little strip, especially in its first two years.

My first exposure to the Martian Manhunter was in DetectiveComics #233 (July 1956)—that’s right, the wonderful issue that alsointroduced Batwoman in the “Batman” lead feature. That landmark issuecontained the Manhunter’s ninth story; but, much to my consternation,his Martian self was never shown therein! To my eight-year-old mind—which thought green-skinned Martians were much more intriguing thantheir human disguise could ever be—this was every bit as frustrating asthose episodes of The Adventures of Superman on television in whichthe Man of Steel appeared in only a couple of scenes.

Nor did the Manhunter’s Martian identity appear in Detective #234or #235. It wasn’t until #236 (Oct. 1956)—in the story “The GreatEarth-Mars Mystery”—that at last I first saw the green-skinned super-

24 Martian Manhunter

How our memories play tricks on us! A/E’s editor had long recalledthe full-page house ad that heralded the upcoming JLA debut at the

end of 1959 as being topped by that oft-seen “Just Imagine!”heading, which actually appeared on ads for later issues, startingwith Justice League of America #1. He’d forgotten that Starro theConqueror got such double-billing, too! But Roy’s memory was

correct about J’onn J’onzz being colored yellow instead of green onthe ad, probably because a DC colorist accidentally confused thehero with the different-hued Martian criminal B’rett in Detective

Comics #273; the Manhunter’s garb was colored on the ad as B’rett’shad been, as well. Incidentally, Michelle Nolan took this house ad

from Batman #129 (Feb. 1960)—cover-dated one month earlier thanThe Brave and the Bold #28. [©2003 DC Comics.]

27Just a League of Their Own part four

The Schwartzian Epic[ROY’S INTRO: In 1963, for Alter Ego (Vol. 1), #6, then beingedited and published by Ronn Foss, I dashed off the following parodyof historical/archaeological scholarship. In this I had some help fromthen-ladyfriend Linda Rahm, who is fondly remembered by early-’60s fans as the photographic incarnation of original A/E symbol “JoyHoliday” in issues #5-6 (and who soon went on to a Woodrow Wilsonfellowship in the study of literature and became a universityprofessor). This “Schwartzian Epic” is somewhat half-baked, perhaps,but at the time I was reading such weighty late 19th/early 20thcentury tomes as J.G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Gilbert Murray’sThe Rise of the Greek Epic, and Jane Ellen Harrison’s Prolegomenato the Study of Greek Religion. Under their heady influence, I had

fun theorizing how scholars in a far-future era might reconstruct theworld of the mid-20th century if one of the few surviving artifacts leftfrom our day was a single issue of the Julius Schwartz-edited JusticeLeague of America, one of the most influential comic books of theperiod. Re-reading the piece after forty years, I was sorely tempted torevise and polish it—not least because not everyone will recognizesuch (now) obscure 1960s references as, for example, one to “stripedtubes” (which, in truth, held a long-gone but then-new brand oftoothpaste called Stripe). In the end, however, I opted to re-presentthe parody as itself an artifact—of the importance of the original JLAto early comics fandom. And so, without further ado or apology:]

Alter Ego is fortunate in having acquired, via a time warp, the introduction to a three-volume work of

literary criticism written in the year 5263 A.D. by Professor X.I. Brrz of the University of Texarkana. They are

written in the super-standardized language of the 53rd century, but are here presented in definitive translation

by Roy Thomas, with an assist from Linda Rahm.

Introduction to

The Rise of the Twentieth-Century Epic: New Light on Schwartz’s Justice League of America

Having withstood the ravages of time and cosmic catastrophe, a small handful of literary works remain

from the first three millennia A.D. One of these, the classic Schwartzian epic Justice League of America,

stands out head and shoulders above all the others and, as is well known, has inspired volume upon weighty

volume of comment since its rediscovery only a little over a century ago in the basement of a ruin in the center

of this continent once known as America.

These commentators and critics have been in agreement on virtually nothing about this epic except, of

course, the undeniable fact that it must be ranked with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as one of the great works

of antiquity. Those scholars who have attempted to relegate it to a position inferior to the surviving

anonymous play Hamlet have long since been conclusively shown to be lacking in critical faculty.

It is not the place of an introduction to go deeply into the subject of a three-volume work, but a few

highlights may be pointed out to the general reader who is interested in obtaining a liberal education in the

classics.

First of all, of course, there arises unavoidably in any study of our one extant nearly-complete piece of twentieth-

century literature what is known as “the Schwartzian question.” Was the “Julius Schwartz” mentioned as being

“editor” (a still confusing and untranslatable term) of the epic a real person? Is there any plausibility to the view of

Professor Urgiz1 that Schwartz is but a composite representing a large number of persons who may have kept the

epic alive and in the process of growth over a period of many years?

New light—or perhaps new darkness—has been thrown on the problem since Professor Urgiz’s early work by

the discovery in 5248 of a part of one of the missing pages, a printed one containing personal correspondence from

various parts of the planet Earth, which seems to give credence to the view that this work was

Linda Rahm and Roy Thomas,in a 1963 photo taken at BiljoWhite’s home in Columbia,

Missouri. Photo by RuthWhite. Thanks to Bill Schelly.

1 See his Prolegomena to the Study of the Schwartzian Epic, pp. 310 ff.

2003 NOTE: No longer having accessthat good ol’ 1963 time warp, we

primitives of the early 21st centurycan only guess at which issue of

Justice League of America had turnedup in the 53rd century. At left is anearly-’60s Mike Sekowsky/Bernard

Sachs group shot repro’d in TheAmazing World of DC Comics #14(March 1977). [©2003 DC Comics.]

31

[Above Wally Wood art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

32 Comic Crypt

The Nickel Library prints were all 8H" x 11", printed on stiff cardstock with 3 holes punched on the side, so they could be collected intonotebooks. When the series began in the early ’70s, the Nickel Librarywas aiming for 500 different prints. They eventually produced 58––eachselling for a nickel!

No. 28: Wally Wood experimented with an unusually detailed fine-line style in this sci-fi drawing, probably done in the ’50s.Wood generally drew more streamlined illos for science-fiction digests like If or Galaxy magazine. Check out the previous

page for an example of Wood’s more stripped-down sci-fi style (No. 8).

[Art

©20

03 E

stat

e of

Wal

ly W

ood.

]

by Bill SchellyFew comic book writers have contributed more to the medium

than Otto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), author of over half of all stripsfeaturing Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family for FawcettPublications. In the course of writing an estimated 3000 comic bookscripts between 1940 and 1970, he workedfor nearly every publishing house,including Timely, EC, Dell, Quality andWarren. Binder wrote stories for CaptainAmerica, Blackhawk, Sub-Mariner, BlackHood, Uncle Sam, and literally dozens ofother character in the Golden Age ofComics.

After Fawcett ceased publishing comicbooks in 1953, Binder moved over to DCto become the principal writer of theSuperman family of titles through the endof the 1950s, despite a stormy relationshipwith irascible editor Mort Weisinger.Binder launched both Lois Lane andJimmy Olsen in their own books, and co-created Supergirl, Krypto, The Legion ofSuper-Heroes, Brainiac, Kandor, LucyLane, the Superman Emergency Squad,and Jimmy Olsen’s signal watch. He alsowrote the first Bizarro story in comicbooks.

In 1969, largely in response to thedeath of his 14-year-old daughter Mary,Otto and his wife Ione moved from “thehouse that Captain Marvel built” in NewJersey to a considerably more modestabode in the Adirondack mountains,completely turning his back on the comicbook field. As a result, little has generallybeen known of the man in his finalyears—until now.

A year before he passed away, OttoBinder was visited by a contingent of admirers from comic fandom—not an unusual occurrence in itself, for he received visits from a fewother fans in the months before and after. But what was different inthis case was the fact that virtually the entire visit was tape-recorded… and those long-lost tapes have been found! This account,and the quotes found within it, are the result of a distillation of someof the material on those tapes, as well as interviews conductedrecently with the three participants.

On October 29, 1973, three travelers arrived at Otto Binder’s modestcolonial-style home on Friend’s Lake Road just outside Chestertown,New York. They had driven over from Rutland, Vermont, to visit the

legendary science-fiction and comic book writer. The ringleader of thegroup was Tom Fagan, the man who had brought the costumed heroesto Rutland for the annual Halloween parade. Tom was a writer too,having penned some remarkably well-written articles and fiction piecesfor Alter Ego, Batmania, and Comic Crusader. He had already metOtto, having been in the bar of the Hotel Broadway Central to listen as

Binder and Bill Finger drank cocktails andwere interviewed by a clueless reporterfrom The New Yorker magazine for anarticle (which eventually appeared a weekor two later). Otto’s appearance hadchanged since then. He now wore amustache, and his complexion was morenoticeably red. He had also grown asubstantial potbelly. All those years ofsedentary activity had had their effect. Buthis welcome was hearty, and his eyestwinkled as he shook their hands.

The second member of the fancontingent was J. Randolph Cox, known tohis friends as Randy, and nicknamed Steedby Fagan (after The Avengers televisionshow). Cox was not particularly a comicsfan; his interest was in researching thehistory of the famous publishers of TheShadow, Street and Smith. He had heardthat Otto had written for them, and hopedhe might glean some information on thatsubject. He, like Fagan, had hoped to meetwith Jack as well as Otto, for he thoughtJack might have retained records of theaccounts he had had with Street and Smithas the owner of a comic book productionshop in the early 1940s.

The third member of the group, more orless in the category of “hanger-on,” was adark-haired 16-year-old who dreamed someday of drawing comics himself. Clearly hewas hoping to learn something from the oldseasoned pro. His name was Frank Miller.

Frank (now famed as the writer/artist of The Dark Knight Returns,Daredevil, and other comics) recently recalled: “Back then, I lived infarmland, a few miles from Montpelier, Vermont, where I was raised. I’dgotten word about an annual comic book Halloween parade in Rutland,Vermont, run by Tom Fagan. Tom was very generous with his time,letting me tag along as he put the show together and managed it. I’dknown since I was six years old that I was going to make comic booksfor the rest of my life. This was my first chance to actually mix withother people who shared the passion.” The trip to Chestertown wasanother chance for Miller to pal around with Fagan, as well as meet acomics legend.

A Visit with OTTO BINDERBrilliant Writer of SF and Comic Books

An Excerpt from the Book Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder

Title 37Comic Fandom Archive

The cover of Bill Schelly’s spanking-new, just-publishedbiography Words of Wonder, featuring Bill’s cover portraitof Otto Binder, plus hero art by Jerry Ordway. [Art ©2003

the respective artists; heroes TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

The house where Otto and Ione lived was set well back from the roadin a lot among the tall pine trees of the Adirondack Mountains. AsIone’s niece put it in a recent interview, they were “about as far in theboonies as you could go.” Their nearest neighbor was a half mile away.They had chosen the house for its affordability (for they had sufferedmany financial reversals over the years), and because it was just over amile from the Jack Binder homestead, where Otto’s brother had set up ashop to make signs for the local motels and dude ranches, and decorativestatuary for both residential and commercial purposes. The childlesscouple were no longer the dewy-eyed young lovers who had fallen inlove and wed 33 years before. But, though shattered by the death oftheir daughter, the effects of Ione’s mental problems, the effects of theirdependency on alcohol, and the vicissitudes of his making a living as afreelance writer, Otto and Ione had nevertheless found a kind of peacehere in the back woods.

Otto’s voice on the tape sounds very much the same as he had whenhe had been riding high in 1965 as a guest of the New York Comicon,his first two Adam Link stories having been adapted for the OuterLimits TV show late in ’64. Friendly, sincere, genial—gentle. He wasobviously pleased that these fans had made a special effort just to seehim.

Talking to the DeadOn the drive to Chestertown, Fagan had cautioned his

compatriots, “Whatever you do, don’t ask him about tryingto communicate with the dead. It might embarrass Otto.”But Cox recalled, “Funnily enough, it was Otto whobrought the subject up. He was sort of apologetic, saying herealized we might not be too interested in thephenomenon.” Otto had become fascinated with thetheories of Dr. Konstantin Raudive, the Latvian-bornstudent of Carl Jung who wrote a book about electronicvoice phenomenon (EVP). In his book Breakthrough—AnAmazing Experiment in Electronic Communication withthe Dead (1971), Raudive published his interpretation oftens of thousands of “spirit voices” obtained by simplyturning a tape recorder on and recording “silence.” Whenplayed back, with the volume amplified, he claimed that thesounds one hears are the voices of dead people trying to

communicate with the living. For a while in the early 1970s, EVP waspopular among spiritualists and the counter-culture.

The trio of comic book fans had arrived in late afternoon. It was justOtto and his cat, no sign of his wife Ione. While it was still light, Ottotook them back to his garage to show them where he had kept hisFawcett and other Golden Age comics. “There was nothing there butnew stuff, but I guess he wanted to show us where they’d been. He saidhe was eternally grateful to Jerry Bails for helping him sell them. When Iasked why he would sell his personal collection, Binder said simply, “Ihad to eat.”

“The new comics included a lot of copies of the Fatman, the HumanFlying Saucer comic book,” Fagan said. “Frank and Randy were saying

how great they thought it was, sort of reviving the look ofCaptain Marvel. But I spoke up and said I didn’t like it,because I thought it made fun of fat people. They were a littleshocked that I would say something like that in Otto’spresence, but—though he obviously disagreed—it didn’tseem to bother him. After all, it was just my opinion.”

Next, the host produced several reels of home movies. Heset up a projector, and showed his guests several brief 8-millimeter films made in the late 1940s and early 1950s of theFawcett crew relaxing and clowning around in his old backyard in New Jersey. These three fans may be the onlymembers of comicdom to have seen these (apparently) lost

pieces of comic book history.

“Who’s hungry?” Otto asked. He was quite surprised when TomFagan insisted on footing the bill for the group to go to a restaurant. Itwas Fagan’s turn to be surprised by the Chestertown restaurant thatOtto chose.

“It was the seediest place imaginable, a real dive, with the lights downso low—it was so dark in there! I turned to Otto and asked, ‘Isn’t thereany place that’s nicer than this?’ Otto said, ‘Yes, there is one other place,but it’s quite expensive.’ I got the feeling that perhaps Otto didn’tfrequent the place where we eventually had our dinner. I wasn’t rich, butI wanted to do something for Otto, and I felt good about it.” Sometimein the course of that meal, Binder brought up his interest in paranormalphenomenon, specifically the theories of Raudive.

Fagan said, “When we got back to his place, Otto did play us a tapethat he claimed sounded like his daughter saying something like, ‘I’mhere. I’m here. Help.’ I couldn’t hear it, but I have always been curiousabout such matters so I didn’t think it was ridiculous.”

The group decided to conduct an experiment in EVP right then andthere. That’s when they began the recording that is the basis of thisaccount. The lights were turned down low, and they huddled close to the

bulky reel-to-reel recorder.

Otto was the first to speak.“We’re at the house of OttoBinder in Chestertown, NewYork. There are four of us. Thisis Otto Binder speaking, and theothers will introduce themselvesin turn.

“We would like to contact theSpirit Man, and call for MaryBinder, my daughter. This isyour Daddy.” He paused toleave space on the tape for aresponse to his request. Then: “Iwould also like to contact EarlBinder, my brother. This is

Dr. Konstantin Roudive, author of Breakthrough,which dealt with EVP (electronic voice phenomenon).

[©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The trio of 1973 Binder interviewers (plus one) in other eras:[Left to right:] Daredevil/Boy Comics/Crime Does Not Paywriter/artist/editor Charles Biro rapping with Tom Fagan

and J. Randolph Cox circa the late 1960s—plus a 1986 photoof Frank Miller.

38 Otto Binder

$5.95In the USA

$5.95In the USA

No. 30November

2003

PLUS:PLUS:

Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM ofRoy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

™

The FrenchConnection

Section

ContentsWriter/Editorial: Three Cheers for the Blue, White, and Red! . . 2Blue (Hawk), White (Archer), Red (Mask) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Jean-Marc Lofficier on the super-heroes of French popular culture, from 1857 to today.

Ghost Writers in the Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Jim Amash talks with Golden Age writers Kim Aamodt and Walter Geier—who scripted tales forSimon & Kirby!

“If It Doesn’t Tell a Story, It’s Just Wallpaper!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Alex Toth on storytelling in comics—and he should know!

Warren Kremer (1921-2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38A brief tribute by Mark Arnold.

re: [caveats, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #89 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Paul Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, and the Shazam! cartoon show.

Just A League Of Their Own Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: As detailed in Jean-Marc Lofficier’s exhaustive survey that starts on p. 3, the French-spawned Homicron started as a super-hero in 1972—was revived in 2000 with art suchas this powerful drawing by Nexus artist/co-creator Steve Rude—then metamorphosed overnightinto a super-heroine! Thanks, Steve! [Art ©2003 Steve Rude; Homicron TM & ©2003 the respectivecopyright holders.]

Above: Nope, it’s not The Fly (a.k.a. Fly-Man) from 1960s Archie Comics—or even The HumanFly, who was licensed by Marvel in the mid-1970s. It’s Mikros, the Titan Microcosmique, leaderof an insect-powered super-hero team that debuted in French Comics in 1980. And if you thinkhe’s something, wait’ll you get a load of Saltarella and Bobby Cragg! Art from Titans #63 (April1984) by Jean-Yves Mitton. [©2003 J.-Y. Mitton.]

Vol. 3, No. 30/November 2003Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorsBill SchellyJim Amash

Design & LayoutChristopher Day

Consulting EditorJohn Morrow

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt EditorMichael T. Gilbert

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

Production AssistantEric Nolen-Weathington

Cover ArtistsSteve RudeAlex Ross

Cover ColoristsSolid! ColorsAlex Ross

And Special Thanks to:

This issue is dedicated to the memory ofDick Dillin

& Warren Kremer

Kim AamodtGer ApeldoornGary ArlingtonMark ArnoldDick AyersBrian H. BaileLeslie Dillin BattistaAllen BellmanBill BlackLee BoyettMike BrownR. Dewey CassellPaul ChadwickDick ColeJon B. CookeCraig DelichMrs. Dick (Estella)

DillinRichard Dillin, Jr.Shel DorfFrank DoscherTerry Dillin DoscherMartin DownhamMichael FeldmanCarl GaffordPaul GambacciniWalter GeierJanet GilbertMark GliddenScott GoodellWalt GroganMrs. Howard KeltnerBob KleinScott Koblish

David Anthony KraftJean-Marc &

Randy LofficierTom MandrakeAndy MangelsDon MarquezPeter MeskinJohn MooresJosh NeufeldMichelle NolanDavid Olsen Jake OsterLinda Rahm-CritesLarry RippeePaul RivocheDavid RoachTrina RobbinsAlex RossSteve R. RoweSteve RudeAlex RossSteve SkeatesRobin SnyderMarc SwayzeGreg TheakstonDann ThomasAlex TothJim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.Sal VellutoMurray WardLynn WoolleyEddy ZenoMike Zeno

[Unless noted, all art accompanying thisarticle has been provided by the author.]

The amazing Rocambole. The elusiveFantômas. The Nyctalope. Mad DoctorCornelius. Judex. Fantax. Satanax.Salvator. Zembla. Wampus. Photonik.Homicron.

A new universe? A new publisher?

No, just some of the names of super-heroes that have appeared in the pages ofFrench comic books and pulp magazinessince the 1940s, following a pulp literary tradition that began in the1850s! This article will provide an historical overview of some of thebest-known or most interesting of them, as well as the publishingcontext in which they evolved.

Before the medium of comics (in French, “bandes dessinées”) wasinvented by Swiss writer-cartoonist Rodolphe Töpffer (whose firstgraphic story, Histoire de M. Vieuxboix [The Story of Mr. Vieuxbois],was published in Geneva in 1827), super-heroes were to be found, inFrance as in America, in popular literature serials published first in dailynewspapers—hence the label “roman feuilleton,” feuille (leaf) being aterm for a newspaper page—before being collected in what we wouldrecognize as “pulps.” As is the case today, there was a distinctionbetween those forms of popular entertainment and more highbrowliterary works with more respectable cultural aspirations.

In the Beginning: RocamboleThe first French super-hero

ever was Rocambole, thecreation of writer Pierre-AlexisPonson du Terrail. The saga ofRocamabole, ou Les Drames deParis [The Dramas of Paris] wasinitially serialized in chapterswhich appeared in the pages ofthe daily Parisian newspaper LeMatin, and was later collected inapproximately a dozen volumes,published between 1857 and 1870.

The last serial was, in fact, left uncompleted due to the untimely death ofits author.

Rocambole, whose origins remained shrouded in mystery, was anadventurer who did good, but was often on the wrong side of the law,like Leslie Charteris’ Saint. Foreshadowing Doc Savage, Rocambolegathered around him a group of trusted assistants, selected from variousslices of society. And, like The Shadow, Rocambole had mastered thefamed skills of the Orient and inherited the secrets of an ancient Tibetancivilization. He was more than a mere man; his ability to escape fromany kind of deadly trap led to the French coining the adjective “rocam-bolesque” to label any kind of fantastic, outrageous adventure.

Rocambole’s sometimes lover, sometimes rival, was the beautifulBaccarat, a former courtesan who was a fearless shooter, rider, andswordswoman. Baccarat is perhaps the first modern female super-hero inthe history of pulp literature. Rocambole’s arch-enemy was his formermaster, the satanic Sir Williams, who, like Doctor Doom, had a sense of

Blue (Hawk), White (Archer), Red (Mask):An Historical Overview of French Super-Heroes

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

The French Tricolor flag came to life in some of that nation’s greatestheroes and villains. L’Epervier Bleu (The Blue Hawk) battled pirates of the stratosphere—Jean-Yves Mitton’s L’Archer Blanc (The White

Archer) was a manhunter with a bow and arrow, and Masque Rouge (Red Mask) apparently conducted of his dirty work in

pre-World War I skies. [L’Epervier Bleu art ©2003 Sirius/Dupuis; other art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Blue (Hawk), Whie (Archer), Red (Mask) 3

panache and doomed grandeur abouthim. Rocambole always referred to SirWilliams as “my good Master,” and itwas clear that the two adversaries likedand respected each other. Rocamboletales were often sprinkled with fantasticelements, such as a sect of Kali-worshipping thugs, an exiled Russianprince who was always a mad scientistplotting to conquer the world, etc.

With Rocambole, Ponson du Terrailcreated and virtually defined all thearchetypes of modern heroic and super-heroic fiction.

Skipping ahead a bit chronologically:fourteen issues of a Rocambole comicbook were written and drawn by GastonNiezab and published by Armand Fleuryin 1947. Over 200 black-&-white dailycomic strips were written and drawn byAndré Galland and serialized in the dailynewspaper Le Parisien Libéré in 1949-50. Later, over 600 strips labeled The New Adventures of Rocamboleand likewise done by Galland, were serialized in Le Parisien Libéré in1954-56. Finally, 41 issues of yet another Rocambole comic book serieswere published by Aventures & Voyages between 1964 and 1967; itswriter and artist are unknown. In the latter, Rocambole was depicted as afreelance adventurer who lived in semi-retirement in a Brittany castlewith his faithful man-servant and his dog Kid; he was periodicallysummoned to London by the British Intelligence Service to undertake avariety of perilous missions.

Sâr Dubnotal—Master of PsychognosisSâr Dubnotal was created by writer Norbert Sevestre,

and was published in 1909-1910 as a series of pulp magazines,not unlike the Shadow and Doc Savage pulps in the U.S.The Sâr Dubnotal was the one of the few pulps to embrace afull range of larger-than-life super-heroics, but, perhapsbecause of this, its success was limited and it was cancelledafter only twenty issues.

The Sâr Dubnotal was the Great Psychagogue, a Master ofPsychognosis, the Conqueror of the Invisible. (“Sâr” itself issome sort of Oriental/Hindu title meaning “wise man” orsome such thing.) In spite of his stylish Oriental guise,Dubnotal, like Mandrake, Sargon, Dr. Strange, and theirvarious imitators, was a western man who had first beeneducated in the Rosicrucian tradition, before learning theancient occult secrets of the Hindu yogis, and mastering theirfantastic paranormal abilities.

Dubnotal lived in a comfortable Parisian apartmentlocated beneath his sophisticated laboratory. His regularcompanion and assistant was the beautiful, plucky Italianmedium, Gianetti Annunciata. Dubnotal was usually busy

thwarting the nefarious goals of a colorful gallery of super-villains,including Tserpchikopf the Hypnotist, who was later revealed to be Jackthe Ripper, and the Russian terrorist mastermind Azzef.

The Sâr Dubnotal series was never reprinted nor collected in bookform, and remains to this day a relatively obscure, yet ground-breakingachievement.

The Nyctalope—a Gallic Dark KnightA more popular pulp super-hero was The Nyctalope, created by

Jean de La Hire, a prolific pulp writer of the times. The Nyctalope wasthe alias of Léo Saint-Clair (or Jean de Sainclair in some novels, conti-nuity not being La Hire’sstrong point). He was asuper-powered crime-fighterwhose piercing yellow eyescould see in the dark, andwho sported an artificialheart. His name refers to aneye condition in which visionis normal in daylight butabnormally weak at night—paradoxically, the exactopposite of his powers!

Like Rocambole, TheNyctalope’s adventures werefirst serialized in the dailynewspaper Le Matin, startingin 1908 with L’Homme QuiPeut Vivre dans l’Eau [TheMan Who Could LiveUnderwater], and were latercollected in sixteen volumeswith equally lurid titles. Thelast one appeared in 1954, amere two years before LaHire’s death.

The Nyctalope had super-powers and a secret identity,and was, like Rocambole,

Cover of Sâr Dubnotal #11, probably 1910. He was the Dr. Strange of his day. Art

by Sarace. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Nyctalope—French forerunner of The BlackBat and Dr. Mid-Nite (except that the lattertwo had the added twist of being blind in

normal daylight). Cover art by R. Brantonne.[©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

A vintage illustration of Ponson du Terrail’s Rocambole. Artist unknown.[©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

4 An Historical Overview of French Super-heroes

surrounded by a devoted group of fearless assistants, including theJapanese count Gno Mitang, the mysterious Jewish wizard MathiasLumen, and the international Committee of Information and Defenseagainst Evil, which he had created. His rogues’ gallery was colorfulenough to excite envy in even Doc Savage or Batman. These included the megalomanical Baron Glo von Warteck(aptly nicknamed Lucifer), the mad monkFulbert, the devilish Oxus, Gorillard theMastodon (a brilliant mastermind), the madengineer Korridés, the “Scarlet Princess” DianaIvanovna Krosnorow (Queen of theHashishins, a.k.a. Titania), and finally, LeonidZattan, who was truly evil incarnate.

The Nyctalope’s adventures took him toevery location on Earth, underwater, into thesnowy wastes of Tibet, and even to Rhea, anunknown satellite of Earth, and to Mars, wherehe fought H.G. Wells’ Martians! In one if thenovels, he is forced to travel to the future tobattle Belzebuth, the son of Leonid Zattan andTitania.

The last “Nyctalope” story (according tointernal chronology) was written in 1944 buttook place in 1941. In it, The Nyctalopeappeared to have succumbed to the charms ofcollaboration with the Nazis, retroactivelymaking him the first super-hero to haveactually gone bad in his old age!

Fear over Paris: FantômasAs Rocambole was France’s first super-hero,

so was Fantômas the first French super-villainto star in his own series. He was the brainchildof writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre,

who created him in 1911. He appeared in 32 volumes written by the twoin only two years—then in eleven more volumes written by Allain aloneafter Souvestre’s death in 1914.

Arch-criminal Fantômas remains even today one of the most popularcharacters in French pulp literature. His adversaries were the determined

policeman Juve and the dashing youngjournalist Jerôme Fandon, who eventually fellin love with Fantômas’ daughter. Anotherrecurring character was the tragic figure ofFantômas’ lover, Lady Beltham, who wasconstantly torn between her passion for thevillain and her horror at his criminal schemes.

The first Fantômas book cover, showing acontemplative masked man dressed in a dinnerjacket and holding a dagger, boldly steppingover Paris, has become so well known that itis almost a cliché today.

Just as Sherlock Holmes became thearchetype for a host of rivals and imitations,so did Fantômas. Among his better-known,and even more horrific, literary descendantswere Arnould Galopin’s Tenebras (1911),Gaston René’s Masque Rouge [Red Mask](1912), Louis Feuillade’s gang of Vampires(1915), Fascinax (1921), Gabriel Bernard’sSatanas (1921), Arthur Bernède’s Belphégor(1927), Marcel Allain’s own Tigris (1928),Fatala (1930), Miss Teria (1931), and Ferocias(1933)—and a bevvy of Italian super-villains,such as Diabolik, Satanik, Kriminal, andothers.

Fantômas was also the subject of severalcomics adaptations, the most recent in the1990s.

(Left:) The famous Sarace illustration of Fantômas bestriding Paris, with the dagger in his right hand partly, er, cut off at the edge, appeared on a 1987hardcover English-language translation of the original novel. (Center:) This poster from the 1913 Gaumont Louis Feuillade movie serial features a fuller version of

the illo—only somebody erased the dagger! (Right:) A somewhat less debonair poster for a 1932 Fantômas movie. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

In Le Secret du Masque Rouge #38 (circa 1913-14), on our title page, the villain was airborne; on the

cover of issue #21, he operates under the sea.[©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Blue (Hawk), Whie (Archer), Red (Mask) 5

I. KIM AAMODT: “It Was Fun While I Did It!”

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Kim Aamodt’scomic book career was brief but fascinating. Hewrote for the fabled team of Joe Simon & JackKirby, as well directly for several comicscompanies. Alex Toth, known for being ashrewd judge of talent, has publicly praisedAamodt’s romance scripts on several occasions.A victim of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s crusadeagainst comic books in the 1950s, Kim tells ushow he worked his way out of the morassinto another field of work. —Jim.]

JIM AMASH: Where and when were youborn?

KIM AAMODT: I was born in North Dakota.Jack Benny, Skeezix Wallet, Hugh Downs, andI share the same birthday, February 14. I’m JackBenny’s age: 39. [laughs] I hate to say this, butI was almost named Valentine. My motherinterfered and said, “I like Dr. Kimball and I like his name, so that’swhat it’s going to be.” My full name is Kimball Ellsworth Aamodt. Idon’t like that middle name, either. I was named after two grandfathers,

Knute and Evan. That’s the waythings were in those days.

JA: What got you inter-ested in writing?

AAMODT: A teacherof mine (I don’t

remember whatgrade I was in) said,

“We’re going to studyEdgar Allan Poe next

week. Can you dobetter?” I said,“Yeah.” I wrote a

story and she said,“It’s pretty good,Kimball, but it’s notbetter than Mr. Poe.” Istarted writing stories

for pulp magazinesand got a pile ofrejection letters. Iwas eleven ortwelve years oldthen. Later, whenI got into college,

I discovered literature. I’d always been a big reader, but it’d always beensoft stuff.

JA: Where did you go to college?

AAMODT: I went to Hamlin in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a couple ofyears. Then I flew in the Navy for four years, 1942 to 1946. I was aflight instructor and that hurt, because I wanted to spill my blood, youknow. When I finally got my orders for sea duty, they were planning forthe invasion of Japan, and needed a lot of hospital ships. They sent mearound for training on various planes. I flew as a co-pilot on big fourengine planes. Then I volunteered for a new group for medical transportbecause we were told about the invasion. They didn’t tell us much, butwe knew it was coming and they needed people to transport thewounded. They stationed me in Guam, which was probably the bestthing that happened to me, because I’d have probably gotten killed if I’dgone on a big carrier. Some of my buddies did get killed.

When I got out, I finished up my schooling at New York Universityand took a graduate year. I found a great teacher in college, and afterthat, I couldn’t care less about writing for the sake of writing. I wantedto write literature. Or try.

28 Kim Aamodt

Ghost Writers In The SkyJIM AMASH Talks with KIM AAMODT and WALTER GEIER

—Two Genial Gents Who Wrote for Simon & Kirby during the Golden Age

(Above:) Believe it or not—KimAamodt’s passport photo takenMay 3, 2003! Courtesy of K.A.

(Right:) The Simon & Kirby splashfor a story in Black Magic #6

(Aug.-Sept. 1951)—which may ormay not have been one of thoseKim wrote. [©2003 the respective

copyright holders.]

Kimball (“Kim”) Aamodt as a U.S. Navy pilot duringWorld War II, “a couple of years before embarking on

the adventure of writing comics.” Courtesy of K.A.

When I got to NewYork, I did write acouple of short stories.One of them waspublished by ChickenFarming magazine,which was an organ forchicken farming inupstate New York. I hadsent that story toCollier’s magazine, andthe editor sent me a nicehandwritten rejectionslip. He said, “Any timeyou want to submit,submit to me.” I was verypleased, but I thought thatanybody could do this. Itwas just commercialwriting. I wasn’t interestedin keeping this up.

I finally went back toNorth Dakota for sixmonths in 1950 and wrotemy novel, which was neverpublished. All writers havea novel. When I finished, my buddy Walter Geier [pronounced “Guy-er”] called me up and said, “Come to New York and write comic books.The money grows on trees!” Walter was writing for Simon & Kirby atthe time. We met on campus at N.Y.U. Well, I took the next train toNew York, and I’m still waiting to find that money on the trees.

JA: I’ve never heard of Walter Geier. You know, Jack and Joe alwayssaid they wrote most of their stories, but I know they had somepeople, like Jack Oleck, writing for them.

AAMODT: Well, Simon and Kirby wrote the plots. They sat there andwrote them, and that’s what we followed. They were the only peoplewho ever gave me plots. I had to submit plot ideas to everyone else. I’dsend in a dozen and they’d say, “We’ll take six.” Then I’d go home andwrite.

JA: So you fleshed out the plots and wrote dialogue for Simon &Kirby?

AAMODT: Yeah. And sometimes Walter and I would be sitting withthem in a little anteroom that was their office. They’d be in theresmoking big cigars, facing each other. It looked like two fireflies mating.[mutual laughter] Cigar smoke covered the room and it was hilarious towatch them, because they ignited each other and developed a storybetween them. Then they’d say, “That’s the story, kids.” Jack did moreof the plotting than Joe. Jack’s face looked so energized when he wasplotting that it seemed as if sparks were flying from him.

They’d say, “Do a five-pager on this, or a six-pager on that.” If theartist was really good, I might make a small suggestion about the art. Ifthe guy was awful, I’d write more detail into the story.

JA: What did you write for them?

AAMODT: Black Magic and romance stories.

JA: Great! I’d like to be able to give you credit for what you did.

AAMODT: We never got credit for what we wrote there. In fact, we hadto sign a paper that gave Simon & Kirby all the rights. I think we got adollar each time we did that.

Anyway, it was hard for me to plot, so I spent many an indecent hourtrying to come up with a decent plot. This story was for one outfit: acomposer had run out of ideas and he sold his soul to the Devil, but

Kim says he wrote “Black Magic and romance stories” for Simon & Kirby, butso far it’s proved impossible to ascertain which tales he did of each—so hereare a couple of possibilities from that period. The Black Magic splash is from#28 (Jan-Feb. 1954)—while “Back Door Love,” from Young Romance, Vol. 3,

#3 (1949), was reprinted in the 1988 volume Real Love: The Best of the Simonand Kirby Romance Comics: 1940s—1950s, edited by Richard Howell for

Eclipse Books. [Art ©2003 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Ghost Writers In The Sky 29

As seen in The Jack Kirby Collector #25, here is the Simon & Kirby shop circa1949, a couple of years before Kim worked for the team. (L. to r., standing:)

Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: letterer Ben Oda.

didn’t know how he would be answered. One day, he was looking outhis window, and on five power lines, there were five black birds sittingthere in different positions. Suddenly, he realized he was looking at amusic staff and that the black birds were notes. So he just copied themdown and of course, after a year goes by, the man gets his comeuppance.

One night, it was about two a.m., and I had been reading. I turnedthe television on and there was my story, almost verbatim. I don’t knowif someone sold my story or if it they stole the idea. Many times, I’veseen my work come to life.

JA: So you had to sign a waiver-of-rights agreement with Simon &Kirby?

AAMODT: Yes, but I think this was common practice back then. Walterand I shared an apartment for five years, but he got out of comics beforeI did. He had started before me, but he went straight [laughs] and got areal job! He made good money.

JA: Who hired you at Simon & Kirby’s?

AAMODT: Walter recommended me and I went in with him... February1951. They sat there and gave me a plot the first day; it was veryinformal. They’d say to us, “You do this one and you do that one. Fivepages, six pages”... that’s how it worked. They paid $5 a page. I didn’thave to show them any writing samples.

JA: What was it like to work for them?

AAMODT: It was fun to go up to meet with them. Joe wouldoccasionally spring for lunch, but maybe Walter could tell you moreabout them than I could. Joe was good, but not as creative as Jack was.Joe had his own ideas, though. I always thought that Joe Simon was thebusinessman and Jack Kirby was the artist. They made for a greatcombination.

JA: Joe was an editor at Victor Fox’s, which is where he met Jack.That’s when they became a team. When Simon became an editor atTimely, he took Jack with him.

AAMODT: Well, Joe did that because he had good sense.

JA: Yeah, because how many times do you get to work with a comicsgenius?

AAMODT: There was one in my lifetime, and it was Jack. Jack drewsome of my stories, but so did others, because they had a stable of artists.Their office was in the 50s in Manhattan, and next door was one of thenew tabloidmagazines, likeConfidential.Walter and Iwould see ex-strip-teaserscome by andwe’d get aglimpse of thereal life. [laughs]Some of themwere old andthey used a lot ofmake-up, butthey had greatfigures. That’swhy we’d makeexcuses to go upand have ameeting withJoe.

I remember that Jack Kirby was very good about making up titles. Iremember giving him a lame title and Jack said, “No. We’re going to callit ‘Under the Knife.’” It was a surgical story. I was impressed that Jackcame up with titles so quickly. And Jack and Joe were quite talkative.We’d have lunch and tell jokes and have a good time. I worked for themfor nearly two years. I can’t remember specifically how long, because Iwas also working for Standard after a while.

JA: Did other people work at the offices?

AAMODT: I don’t know. All I remember was that small anteroom. Idon’t recall going into any other office there. They could have had otherpeople working there.

JA: Why did you quit working for Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: I think they got annoyed with me because I was in Maineon a little vacation and I told Walter to pick up my check when he wentto pick up his. I had never asked for one before, and I think thatannoyed Joe. I don’t know for sure, though, and I wasn’t really worriedabout it, because I had other work. In those days, comic bookcompanies were interested in new people, so it was easy to show workaround. I never had any problems and I was good at business.

JA: Was Standard the first place you got work after Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: I think so. Joe Archibald was in charge there, and I had awonderful editor named Jean Press. She really liked me and pushed me.When she moved over to a confession magazine outfit, I started writingthere.

Joe was the major domo, and he had a big reputation in the comicbook field. He was an older man with gray hair... a little heavy. He mayhave had a great big mustache, but I can’t remember for sure. He was awarm person, but I only saw him a couple of times.

Jean edited love stories and said, “You’re really good at this stuff.Have you ever been in love?” I said, “Several times. That’s why I havebitter endings.” [laughs] The hard part was coming up with plots, and asI told you, I’d have to submit them first. They chose which ones I wasto write and gave me a page length. Some places gave you certain param-eters. Some editors wanted lots of dialogue and little exposition; otherswanted the reverse.

JA: Did you ever meet Alex Toth or Mike Peppe while you werethere?

AAMODT: I met Alex a couple of times, and we used to correspond.

JA: Did any ofthe companiesgive you freecopies of yourpublishedwork?

AAMODT:They musthave, because Idon’tremember everbuying anycomics. I nevergot a by-line.

JA: Did thelack of a by-line botheryou?

30 Kim Aamodt

You pays your money and you takes your chances! Aamodt wrote for romance comics published by Standard (a.k.a.Better, Pines, and Nedor), so his stories might have appeared, for instance, in that company’s Popular Romance issues

published with early-1950 cover dates; the series had begun with #5. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

[Art

©20

03 A

lex

Toth

.]

“If It Doesn’t Tell A Story,It’s Just Wallpaper!”

ALEX TOTH on Storytelling in Comics[EDITOR’S NOTE: Alter Ego is proud to present this 1999 piece by the Golden/Silver Ageartist of Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, Bravo for Adventure, and myriad other comicsfeatures.]

When he lauds comic book storytelling, Alex knows whereof he speaks, as perthis page from All-American Comics #101 (Sept. 1948), the second-ever “Johnny

Thunder” western tale. Writer: Robert Kanigher. [©2003 DC!Comics.]

Who Cares? I Do! 37

by Mark ArnoldWarren G. Kremer was born in the Bronx, New

York, down in the Mott Haven section, lower town, onJune 26, 1921. He is best known as the prolific primaryartist behind Casper the Friendly Ghost and RichieRich for Harvey Comics, helping to design theirpresent “Harvey look.” He worked for Harvey for 35years, drawing everything from their horror mags totheir children’s titles, and virtually every coverproduced for comic books featuring Casper, Hot Stuff,Jackie Jokers, Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta,Richie Rich, Spooky, Stumbo, and Wendy.

He was born to a sign painter, raised on the likes ofAlex Raymond’s Flash Gordon and Hal Foster’s PrinceValiant, and was a huge fan of Robert E. Howard’sConan the Cimmerian. He graduated from the Schoolof Music and Art and the School of Industrial Arts, andspent over ten years working for publishing housesdoing layouts and lettering, and illustrations for pulpand aviation magazines.

A hernia kept him out of the military, so duringWorld War II Kremer kept his job at Ace Magazines as an illustrator,eventually moving into their comic book line. One of the first comicbooks he drew was Hap Hazard Comics, which began in 1944. He thenmoved on to drawing the “Ozzie and Babs” feature in Fawcett’s WowComics and its own title in 1947. (Some accounts say it was Ozzie andHarriet, but that comic was published by DC and not until 1949.) Itwas also in 1947 that Kremer married his longtime letterer Grace (whomhe met while working at Ace); and in 1948, he started freelancing forHarvey Comics. His first assignment there was drawing “Humphreyand Little Max” for Joe Palooka.

Kremer alternated easily between the cartoony and the gruesome,drawing one of the most graphic horror comic book covers of the early1950s—Tomb of Terror #15, which featured an exploding head. He wassoon offered a position as Harvey’s art director, a role he held to the endof the company’s first publication run in 1982.

The late artist Marty Taras once said of Kremer: “You know, ifWarren went into animation, we’d all have to leave our jobs!” WhatTaras may not have known is that Kremer did work in animation,providing the opening and closing storyboards for The New CasperCartoon Show and the Harveytoons logo. Kremer considered fellowHarvey artist and Famous/Paramount animator Steve Muffatti as one ofhis biggest influences and mentor.

Both Kremer and Harvey editor Sid Jacobson have laid claim tohaving created the character of Richie Rich. Kremer was also theprimary illustrator for Stumbo the Giant (which he claimed he designedduring his years at Ace), and he designed the present look for Casper(who was created by Joe Oriolo and Sy Reit).

Kremer’s take on the ongoing creation claims with regard to RichieRich was that he based Richie on the TV show The Millionaire andnamed the character after his son. He said he then approached editor Sid

Jacobson with the idea, and Jacobson had Steve Muffatti design thecharacter. However, The Millionaire did not debut until January 19,1955, whereas Richie Rich made his debut in the September 1953 issue ofLittle Dot, nor did Kremer draw Richie from 1953-1960. Alan, Russel,Adam, and Eric Harvey maintain that their father Alfred created RichieRich, and point out existing documentation, as early as the 1930s.

Kremer seems to have been one of the five most prolific cover artistsin the history of comics, the other four being (in no particular order)Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, and Dan DeCarlo. According to SidJacobson, “Kremer could pencil eight pages of interiors a day at his mostproductive!” Kremer basically drew everything for Harvey (even SadSack for Hostess cakes ads in the late ’70s), but credit should also begiven to fellow artists Howie Post (Hot Stuff, Spooky, Wendy, LittleAudrey), Marty Taras (Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Nightmare,Wendy), Ernie Colón (Richie Rich, Little Dot, Little Lotta, JackieJokers), Sid Couchey (Little Lotta, Little Dot, Richie Rich), DomSileo, Ken Selig, and Ben Brown (all Richie Rich and related titles), andGeorge Baker, Fred Rhoads, Jack O’Brien, Joe Dennett, and PaulMcCarthy (all on Sad Sack-related comics).

After the original Harvey company closed its doors in 1982, Kremerended his career at Marvel, drawing titles for their Star line, includingPlanet Terry, Royal Roy, Heathcliff, Flintstone Kids, Ewoks, Popples,Hugga Bunch, and Top Dog. “They don’t know it, but this is the bestartist who ever walked through these doors,” claimed artist MarieSeverin upon Kremer’s visit to the Marvel Comics bullpen.

His final comics work was for Count Duckula, before he suffered adebilitating stroke in the late 1980s, which left him partially paralyzedon his left side, rendering his drawing hand useless. In the early ’90s, heworked occasionally on merchandise projects for the new owners of theHarvey characters but eventually retired to his home in New Jersey.According to Sid Jacobson, “Warren wrote with his right hand, but drew

Warren Kremer(1921-2003)

Warren Kremer (left) and another comics giant, Joe Simon, at the Harvey offices in 1975.Photo courtesy of Mark Arnold.

38 Warren Kremer

No. 89Our 30th Year!1 9 7 3 - 2 0 0 3

ALL IN THEFAMILYFilmation’s

SHAZAM! Cartoonplus: MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was atop artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel charactersketches came fromMarc’s drawing table,and he illustrated herearliest adventures,including the classicMary Marvel originstory, “Captain MarvelIntroduces MaryMarvel (CMA #18,Dec. ’42); but he wasprimarily hired byFawcett to illustrateCaptain Marvel storiesand covers for WhizComics and CaptainMarvel Adventures.He also wrote manyCaptain Marvelscripts, and continuedto do so while in themilitary. After leavingthe service, Marcworked for Fawcett ona freelance basis out ofhis Louisiana home.There he produced bothart and story for “ThePhantom Eagle” in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend andmentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayzeproduced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics.After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over toCharlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s mostpopular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996.Last issue, Marc discussed his associations with comic strip creatorsRussell Keaton, Zack Mosley, and Rick Yager. This time, he revisitsthe early-1940s period when he helped to originate Captain Marvel’slittle sister, Mary Marvel. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

There were things I couldn’t understand. One: How a majorcharacter like Mary Marvel could have been conceived without therebeing a definite road set out for her to travel... some consideration as towho her readers were to be... and in her stories, some thoughts about herfriends, her adversaries, her environment. As put by the industrialworld... what were the long-range plans?

The idea had come from “upstairs.” It was pretty clear that when DadFawcett brought his four boys up, it wasn’t with the idea of a backfield...

or an infield... but a publishing business. The feeling onthe 22nd floor was that there was a lot of publishingexpertise “up there.”

But to have the new character concept funnel downwith so little to go on: “a young super-hero... er,heroine... about Billy’s age.” From the art standpoint Icould see a few handholds to grasp. But writing? Iwouldn’t have touched it with a ten-foot pole.

And yet, I did. It goes back to an early settler wholived on the banks of a Louisiana bayou. The founder ofour community named not only the bayou, but the mainstreet, in honor of the old trapper. His name was DeSiard.Now I doubt... I’d even lay a little cash on it... that thereis another community in the whole wide world with a

“DeSiard Street” as its main thoroughfare.

Years after working in comics, I was looking at an old copy ofCaptain Marvel Adventures [#19] and noticed in thedialogue a mean guy’s reference to “186 DeSiardStreet.” A few pages later Mary Marvel herselfremarked to the reader that she was on her way to...“186 DeSiard Street.” Further inspection of the storyrevealed small personal phrasings and familiar peculi-arities that convinced me it was my writing—“TheTraining of Mary Marvel”—where Captain Marveland Captain Marvel Jr. launched Mary on her owntrail of adventure. (“186,” by the way, was once theaddress of a jewelry shop operated by a musicianfriend, if my memory is correct.)

When I departed the Fawcett offices for militaryservice, I left some of my belongings for storage inthe building where I had lived on West 113th Street.I’m not certain I would ever have returned for any ofit had I not overheard Tucky, Rod Reed’s wife, sayshe was looking for a small drawing table. Just suchan item was among the things I had left for storage.

It was good to see again my old pal Marvin,elevator operator and general custodian of the

[Art & logo ©2003 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2003 DC Comics]

By

Marc Swayze 45

“The chest emblem and the cape’s floral pattern were important factors in emphasizing Mary’s relation to Captain Marvel,” says Marc. A previously-

unpublished illo by her visual creator. [Art ©2003 Marc Swayze; Mary Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

A panel from “The Training of Mary Marvel” in Captain MarvelAdventures #19 (Jan. 1, 1943) which contains an old street addressfamiliar to Swayze. It was this clue that made him realize that he

had written the story as well as drawn it. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Almost all fans of Captain Marvel are aware that the World’sMightiest Mortal appeared in a 1974-1977 live-action CBS-TV seriesproduced by Filmation. But many aficionados may have forgotten thatCap was accompanied to the small screen by the other members of theMarvel Family a few years later, for aspate of animated adventures.

As the ’80s began, Filmation pitchedthe idea of a super-powered seriesbased on The Archies to NBC’s headof programming, Fred Silverman.Unfortunately, their license to doArchie cartoons had expired, butproducers Lou Scheimer and NormPrescott had an easy solution: theywould create new high schoolcharacters that closely resembledArchie characters, but with super-powers added.

The resulting concept was HeroHigh, a series which replaced Archiewith Captain California, his rivalReggie with Rex Ruthless, Betty withGlorious Gal, Veronica with DirtyTrixie, and other corollary characters.But while NBC was positive about theshow, they were much more happywhen Filmation decided to pair HeroHigh with new animated adventures ofShazam! After all, Silverman had beenat CBS when the successful live-actionseries had aired, and since that earlierShazam! had been brought back intoreruns in 1980, a new generation ofkids would now already be acquaintedwith Captain Marvel.

Work began on a series of twelveShazam! episodes, which hewed muchmore closely to their comic bookpredecessors than had the live series. The model sheets followed thesimple style of C.C. Beck’s artwork, right down to Captain Marvel’ssquinting eyes. Brought into the fold were Mary Marvel and CaptainMarvel Jr., as well as supporting cast members Uncle Dudley/UncleMarvel, Mr. Tawny, Mr. Morris, Freckles Marvel… and a host of familiarvillains, including Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, Ibac, AuntMinerva, and Mr. Atom.

There were some changes made to the series. WHIZ-TV was nowWIZZ-TV. Tawny was never called “Tawky Tawny,” and his surnamewas spelled differently. Many of the characters never quite got fullnames, either: Mr. Morris was never Sterling Morris, and Dr. Sivanawasn’t revealed as Thaddeus Bodog Sivana. Most odd were the facts thatDudley talked like W.C. Fields—and that Freddy Freeman/CaptainMarvel Jr. was given an inappropriate, “pipsqueak”-like voice.

Despite these minor alterations, the writers and artists strove to makethe animated Shazam! faithful to the comics. One episode even featureda cameo appearance by C.C. Beck and E. Nelson Bridwell, called byname! Several comic book professionals (past and future) worked on the

series, including writer Paul Dini andlayout artists Russ Heath, DaveHoover, and Bruce Timm. Almost allthe scripts had references to CaptainMarvel as a “Big Red Cheese,” andwhen he flew, Cap took a runningleap, just as he had on the live-actionseries.

The animation was standard formost Filmation shows of the time,which is to say, quite limited. Therewere lots of stock and reused shots,and characters only moved whenabsolutely necessary. The music andsound effects were re-used, as well,from the live-action Shazam! series.But despite these shortcomings andsome ridiculous plots, the show attimes did contain some of the samecharm of the original Captain Marvelcomics.

NBC needed a concept to packagethe series together, and Filmation fellback on a tried-and-true variety hourshow. The series would feature live-action wraparounds of the Hero Highkids singing songs and telling (bad)jokes to a live-in-studio audience ofchildren, before introducing either thetwo Hero High stories per hour, orthe 18-minute Shazam! adventure.Two of the Hero High episodes hadfeatured cameos of Marvel Familymembers, and one even featured a

cameo appearance of sister TV heroine Isis.

Christened The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam!, the seriespremiered on NBC on September 12, 1981. Ratings were acceptable, butnot astonishing. One Hero High actress won the Youth in Film Awardfor Best Actress in a Daytime Series, but the series itself lost out in theBest Children’s Television Series category, even though it had beennominated. Unfortunately, after a year’s run the series was cancelled, asthe live super-hero concept didn’t attract enough attention to merit aplanned Hero High album deal and concert tour. Years later, bothShazam! and Hero High were repackaged as separate half-hour shows,and aired in syndication. Family Home Entertainment also releasedvideotapes and laserdiscs.

What follows is a complete episode guide to the Shazam! episodes,along with some trivia, examples of the wonky dialogue, and othergoodies.

All In The FamilySHAZAM! Television’s Animated Marvel Family Adventures

by Andy Mangels Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

48 All In The Family

VHS cassette cover of a Shazam! home video release. [Art ©2003 therespective copyright holders; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

The Animated SHAZAM! Episode Guide

Cast: Burr Middleton (Billy Batson/Captain Marvel)Dawn Jeffory (Mary Batson/Mary Marvel)Barry Gordon (Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr.)Alan Oppenheimer (Uncle Dudley/Mr. Tawney/Dr. Sivana)Lou Scheimer (Mr. Morris)Norm Prescott (Narrator)

Animation Directors: John Armstrong, Marija Dail, EdFriedman, Lou Kachivas, Selby Kelly, Marsh Lamare, ErnieSchmidt, Lou Zukor.

Produced by Lou Scheimer, Norm Prescott for FilmationAssociates.

Network: NBC.

Running Time: 18 minutes each.

Series originally aired September 12, 1981 to September 11, 1982.

1.“Who’s Who at the Zoo?” Story by Fred Ladd. Teleplay byDennis O’Flaherty.

Billy is interviewing Mr. Tawny at the zoo about the newgorillas that have arrived. One of the gorillas is secretly Dr. Allirog,and he uses his mind control powers to force a zookeeper to let thelions loose. Captain Marvel soon rounds up the lions, but Allirogswears vengeance. Later, Mary and Freddy are captured by gorillas,and Tawny and Uncle Dudley go to the zoo to investigate. AlthoughDudley is captured, Tawny strips out of his clothes and escapes. Allirogplans to release the animals and put humans in cages, and use his “junglemachine” to grow super-plants and turn the world into a jungle. CaptainMarvel plans to use weed killer on the giant plants, then recaptures all ofthe escaped animals from the zoo. Cap confronts Allirog, who shootshim with a ray that makes him too powerful, and Marvel shoots off intospace, then returns to Earth andis almost flattened by a steam-roller. He changes back to Billy,who now has powers almostequal to Cap’s level. Billy leapsto the zoo, ties up a snake,defeats Allirog, and frees theothers.

2.“The Incredible ShrinkingCity” Written by Paul Dini.

At the park, Billy, Mary, andFreddy meet a creepy ice creamvendor who is really Dr. Sivanain disguise. Not only that, butMr. Mind is in his cart! The twovillains use a “Mind Warper”blast to make the trio forgettheir magic word, but Freddy isunaffected. Captain Marvel Jr.soon destroys the ray, andSivana is captured. Mr. Mindgets away, though, and escapesinto the sewer to form an evilall-worm army. They plan tochew a huge sinkhole under thecity. While Uncle Dudley isshowing Mr. Morris his fantastic

new dry ice machine, buildings beginto topple. The Marvel Family mustrescue a school bus of children andright the buildings. Mr. Mind gives anultimatum that his worms will keepattacking unless he is declared “Kingof the World.” Dudley uses hisworm-finder invention to find anunderground cave where Mr. Mind isorganizing his minions at a wormconvention. Mind reminds the wormsof the evil one-way fishing tripshumans take them on. The Marvelsrealize that worms come to thesurface when it rains, but it’s been adry summer. They use Dudley’s dryice machine to fill three dumpstersand fly above the clouds to seed themand create rain. Just as the wormsstrike at the Farmer’s Market, rainbegins, and the worms come to thesurface. As birds eat the worms, Mr.Mind flees, vowing revenge.

3.“Best Seller” Written by DennisO’Flaherty.

When she comes for a visit,Freckles Marvel brings Mary an oldbook sold to her by a peddler. Shedoesn’t know that the peddler wasIbac the Accursed! That night,

humanoid lizards (who wear white tennis shorts and shirts) jump out ofthe book in a section called “The Hissmen Cometh!” and enlargethemselves to human size. They quickly capture Billy, Mary, and Freddyand shrink them down. Transporting them back into the book, thelizards deliver them to Ibac, who puts them in his “People Processor”and turns them into lizards unable to say their magic words! Escape

seems an option, until they learn they area million years in the past, and dinosaursroam the area around Ibac’s castle. Ibacputs a “time tube” up into Billy’s backyard, and plans to use it to bring humansback and change them into Hissmen sothat they can fight the cavemen and thusprevent the human race from evercoming into power! Freckles, Dudley,and Tawny are puzzling over the tubewhen Billy escapes out of it and changesto Captain Marvel. Inexplicably, Frecklesand the others immediately know Ibac’splans. Unable to enter the tube asCaptain Marvel, Billy changes back, buthe’s recaptured when he tries to rescueMary and Freddy. Luckily, Freckles,Dudley, and Tawny go through the tubeand free Billy. He changes to Cap andturns the Hissmen into people, then fliesoff to capture Ibac. Once Ibac is savedfrom a dinosaur, the Marvels return totheir own time, and throw the book intothe time tube. Captain Marvel tosses thetube into outer space.

4.“Flight 601 has Vanished” Writtenby Dennis O’Flaherty.

Dudley and Mary are headed to a

Uncle Dudley, a.k.a. Uncle Marvel, waspart of the regular cast. Freckles Marvel,who in the 1940s had been a supporting

character in many “Mary Marvel”stories, appeared in one TV episode. [Art©2003 the respective copyright holder;

Uncle Marvel & Freckles Marvel TM &©2003 DC Comics.]

Cap in a scene from the episode entitled “Best Seller.” [Art ©2003 therespective copyright holder; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Shazam! Television’s Animated Marvel Family Adventures 49